this report from channel newsasia reports of the rising of the ERP rates.

With the rise in erp charges, my only erp-free route to work is congested like hell. So now i will wake up earlier and leave home earlier to try beat the erp. Sometimes i win, sometimes i pay

I thought i saw an article where our transport minister said that ERP will not go away. You can pay or be home late for dinner(not exact words, but probably close). And in the end he suggested taking public transport.

I was thinking, if just a quarter of the drivers(10000-15000??) just take the public transport tomorrow, will it make any difference to the MRT. Will i have space to even squeeze in. Will i be backside to backside with someone, smelling someone’s armpit.

anyway, we seem to be bloody paying for the mistakes, or rather the short sightedness of the plannings by the transport ministry. The public transport framework do not seem to be up to satisfactory level. And for every alternative(not much though), it seem to be a catch 22 situation.

ERP rise? take public transport.

public transport squeezy and prices are rising too. back to driving and pay erp?

the 2008 NEmation.sg III is an animation (nemation — animation. get it??) competition for students in singapore to take part.

The theme this year is…..What makes us Singaporean?

Seems to its like a survey of what people think what makes a singaporean.

Indeed, a young nation in the process to find and forge its own identity. Difficult, when old buildings are torn down. the early nation builders, if surviving, probably forgotten.

Perhaps our identity will be one of a nation of skyscrapers (with a big golden dollar sign at the top), each reaching out to the sky and trying to outdo all others at all cost.

Is this what our leaders want. Is this what we common people want?

Maybe i should try my hand at animation…..on the other hand better not.

I am falling far far behind in trying to build my skyscraper. Now only sandcastle….in the air.

Today, the early part of the afternoon has been spent window shopping.

No. Not at shopping centre for clothes or fancy tech gadgets or accessories. But looking at household goods. Yes. Refrigarator, Television, washing machine, sofa sets. All these.

I am in the process of being domesticated……

But it feels quite fun. Fun in discussing in what do you like and want to buy and place it in your home. How is your home going to be like. What are our budget going to be like.

I like……

after the proposal, i went home. I saw a letter from the HDB. Apparently its a letter from the HDB.

It was to inform me regarding the balloting for the application of a new BTO flats, the Punggol Sapphire. I am given a queue number, and its a pretty good queue number!! This gives me a good chance of choosing the unit of my choice.

Am pretty happy and excited to be able to choose a unit.

But wtf…….another problem will crop up.

Where will me and my wife stay after getting married. This punggol sapphire will be ready probably in 4 years time.

I have suggested staying at my wife’s house, with her in-law. This is because my current room is pretty small. 2 person staying there will be very squeezy. And my parents have made known to me that for whatever fengshui reason, i cannot use their master room.

AND i sense that they are very against the move of staying with my in-laws after marriage.

wtf man. I feel a little trapped here now.

This is sort of a first for me to make a trip to specially take photograph. Ohh what better ways to spend a medical leave off day……..and also to test my new lens, the Nikon 50mm f1.8.

Cheap and good lens. Just that i had to content with manual focusing all day long with lens. My camera body too new. Its so new that it can’t support lens older than itself. dumb.

Some hairy lallang on the patch of land by the sea

Future development coming soon., but not knowing when.

The ones below are taken with the use of ND filter. It was too early to take pictures with the motion of the waves. not even when stopped to f22.

It was kind of overcast that day, so no clear orangey sunset that day.

My mind was made up during lunch. Better make it a nice date and soon. if not, when? i thought. so it was going to be today.

0707.08….hmm never mind the 08

after work, rushed to a florist. bought a bouquet. rushed back home within 20mins. took the ring. rush out to the cafe down at punggol (Bliss).

made the waiter to help me keep the flowers. sat down, got a beer, and waited.

They came, we ate. ohh damn they forgot my orders. never mind small thing. I stormed up to the waiter inside, and then took the flowers out, and storm back to my seat.

I gave it to her, knelt down and took out the ring (or took out the ring and knelt down). I opened my mouth, and she got what i wanted to do.

She was embarrassed, but rather happy. so she got me up from my knees quickly, while asking to put on the ring for her.

I thought she was supposed to put it on herself!! Oh well, apparently i didn’t learn well at proposal of a friend the last time.

And that was it. My proposal. One that seem silly, goofy. Yes. My proposal to be with her all my life.

PS. Am really grateful to the staff at Bliss who willingly helped me with keeping the flowers and keeping the “secret”. Thanks!!!

as i drove home, went into the basement carpark to park the car. i spotted an empty lot. then i spotted dogshit in that lot!!

damn it!! it’s not the bloody first time dogshit were left around the basement parking lots of the apartment. i even had one piece of shit just dropped behind my car after i parked. the whole car just stank like dog shit the next day!

one inconsiderate piece of shit dog owner.

Singapore is indeed light years away from being a gracious society, when one can’t even observe basic etiquitte of keeping a pet.

just when i thought i could get some episodes of thank god you’re here from itunes podcast. the download failed!!

tgyh….i love it very much, just like a few of those aussie comedy shows like skithouse and comedy inc. and there is one more where the name of the show always slip from my mind. It shows this animated host interviewing celebrities. That was pretty good too.

well, at least i could try out hamish and andy’s podcast

yahoo has launched ymail to go with their existing email services. not only that, they have even launched rocketmail!!

very retro…

i think rocketmail was my first email address. but i have forgotten the username and subsequently whole thing was out of my mind.

i have got @rocketmail.com address!!

after about 5 days of no work days, it was a pain getting back to the grind. last tuesday and wednesday didnt help as i had orientation. yet another switch-off event, which i totally off after half day each.

labor day holiday didnt help at all. come tuesday, i had a hard time getting thru the day. thankfully work didnt come hard at me. some breathing space helps.

after weeks of boring work(data entry), coming up workload looks more interesting, more challenging.

hope its not too challenging…