In a blink of an eye

The last month has been really interesting. A lot of things happened but of them 2 events stood out. First, my brother got married. Bam! Out of the blue I heard about it from my sister Kim. Since ,about now almost everybody in the world knows it, I might as well publish it officially. I don't have a picture yet so I can't post it.

From what I heard or felt, it happened really quick. One week he wasn't married nor dating, the next he was married.I was shocked for a couple days but happy for him. It's about time he got married. He's old enough to know what he wants in life. It's about time I got married to but lady love has not been as happy with me as my brother. I'm not sure how's the other family members reacting to it but I'm sure we'll all be very supportive.

The other event was that mom's shop got robbed. Cleaned out by 5 robbers - 2 with guns. This also happened really quick. 5 minutes. It took the robbers only 5 minutes to clean up the whole store from what dad said. They took a lesser time cleaning the shop than I would have taken cleaning my room. Gosh, might be even faster than my shower. Luckily no one was hurt. In times like these, money does not seem like such a big deal after all. It would have gone really bad if someone was shot.

In a blink of an eye, these 2 event happened and will likely impact my family and my life for a quite a while.

Lava Wall

Legaspi, Philippines - My travelling doll amidst the lava wall at Mayon volcano.

Got to see lava

If it is any consolation to myself, I finally manage to see lava. I thought I was about to waste my only decent holiday of the year being trapped in a dinky town with nothing to do but sit in my room watching tv. I finally decided I would just suck up my pride and call the taxi that fetched me from the airport to take me to see the volcano. Yup, I had a strong feeling I was over charged for the ride and it was quite a waste renting a 10-seater van all by myself. So he came and drove me to some of the sites that had great views of the Mayon volcano. Much to my delight, the volcano had some activity during the night I was there. In the night, you could see streams of lava flowing down the Mayon. It was a majestic sight. I couldn't get any pictures because it was too dark and I found it impossible to hold my camera still for more than 3 seconds.

The next morning, I got the driver to find me some willing villagers to walk me to the nearest lava site. This was rather difficult because the military had imposed a 6 km radius evacuation plan. The villagers had to take me through the routes where the military guards could not spot us. Fortunately, there were plenty of volunteers. Initially I had a guide, who then brought along the uncle who then brought along another uncle by the road side. I wasn't upset about the party but everyone they bring along means Pesos coming out of my pocket. We had a 30 odd minutes 'brisk' walk to the destination. They brought me to a point where the lava had formed into a huge wall and many coconut trees were brought down by the lava. The wall was still smoking so I did not want to risk my hands getting burned to climb it. The sulfur smell was still very strong so I just took a few snaps, had a short rest and started my journey back. Not 'Discovery channel' close but close enough for a tourist. A good experience for me and a profitable morning for my guides and driver. A win-win situation, I guess.

What am I doing here?

Immediately upon reaching Legaspi, I find myself regretting it because it was raining quite heavily and I have no idea what I am doing in some dinky little town in Philippines. I initially came to Legaspi and skipped the more touristy part of Philippines because I thought the volcano here was about to blow. Upon reaching here I find that for everyone life is as normal. People are still busy running around doing their usual thing, all the news you read is a little exaggerated. I have no idea how to get to the volcano and it seems the only tourists here are visiting relatives or some volcano specialists. I on the other hand am a tourist who knows next to nothing about a volcano except that my mobile phone theme is volcano.

I am going to stuck here for 2 more days without the trusty lonely planet because I decided to be adventurous and not let the lonely planet ruin my holiday. Now I scouring the local bookshops trying to find out where the hell is Legaspi, Philippines. Well I get what I asked for. Or I need to find the local bar and chat up with some locals who are willing to be my tour guide. Anyone would do but I wouldn't be complaining if it turns out to be a hot local Filipina.

My 4% fund

From the few places that I have stayed for a little while - Malaysia, US and currently Singapore, Singapore's deposit interest rate has been the most dismal. Currently, the rates for a savings deposit is about 0.25%. That means if you have 10,000 Sing dollar in a savings account in the beginning of the year, you will get only $25 at the end of the year. Yes 25 stinking dollars. If you have breakfast at Starbucks and then take a taxi to the bank to collect your one-year $10,000 interest, the breakfast and taxi fee would have almost wiped out all your interest. Moreover, $10,000 savings to a salary earning adult like me is ultra difficult to save (of course, with my lifestyle I almost spend it all).

Well, my colleagues and I have been scouring the banks for a better deal and quite recently there has been a few 'limited time only' 2.8% fix deposit rates if you put 20,000 and above. Good rates compared to 0.25% but $20,000. Somehow, I think I can do better than 2.8%. I have always boasted to the colleagues that I can top the 2.8% offer. I told them if they put money with me I will give them a 4% fix rate. Surprisingly, none has taken me up on the offer. I don't know why not!! Do they think I would run away with their money?

Lately, a bank has called me up and said they would give me a 5% loan for six months. 5% is not too far from what I am offering my friends. I have been thinking of taking it up to see if I can get back more money with it. Very tempting. I will let you know if I take up the offer. The chances of me taking up the loan is very high. Very high indeed.

Mad interns

(This was written 13 April 2006)

Today is the last day for our intern who came in from one of the local colleges. Almost from day one, we constantly had to keep her entertained by conjuring up menial tasks for her to do. Correction, maybe from day four onwards – after her id was created and she found out that she had no internet access. It really isn’t because my colleagues were mean or anything but whenever we give her quality jobs, jobs that required learning and understanding the business, she would complain or come up with a half completed jobs that took us more time to clean up. So for the past six weeks we have just been trying to keep her entertained, filling envelopes, filing, excel charts, no brainer SQL queries, crossword puzzles, sudoku, etc. If we don’t keep her entertained, she would come over to our desk and pester us. Her enthusiasm on non work related things when she is not napping on the job is really incredible.

She was the topic of many of our office gossips for the past few weeks. Some of the ladies couldn’t stand her and she could somehow sense it, so she ended up disturbing me and the other guy who could take her ‘rubbish’ most of the time. I even wrote in her report book 10 things she should learn from this internship. For example, thou should not sleep on your desk during the job, thou should learn to do your job with enthusiasm, etc. This was a reaction to her constantly posting posters of scantily clad women on my cubicle.

However, sometimes we adults or professionals who think we know better might benefit from learning about life from those who are more innocent. She was annoying but there was an innocence around her that was lacking in all of us. When she was happy, she smiled. When she was bored, she let us know about it. She bawled her eyes out when she left. I wish I could cry and feel more like her and not feel that my heart is becoming more and more calloused gradually.

Derms and All

Thanks for all your concern. The previous post was my sighing and my attempt to score some pity points. I have pretty much learned to live with what’s happening with my skin and am grateful that it doesn’t bother me as much as it can. Of course, I still wish it to go away as it is still embarrassing but it has improved quite a lot.

Yes, I grown rather tired of dermatologist because they tend to recommend the same treatment for a great majority of skin diseases. Corticosteroids. Now this class of medication has helped me a lot but I sometimes wonder if they worsen the underlying problem – which often goes undiagnosed. Of course I am not trying to undermine the work of dermatologists whom have spent a great deal of time learning their trade rather I see there are some underlying flaws in their approach of always treating the symptoms and not the cause. Just in case you are wondering, I think the better treatments are cyclosporine and Narrow-band UVB treatment. As with all medication, these treatment have their side-effects as well.

Skin deep

It's 12 something and I know I shouldn't be writing. Sleep, it does your body good. However, I am still up so I just thought I'd come up here and do some complaining. For the last few years, I have been struggling on and off with a skin problem. At first it was diagnosed as an adverse reaction to insect bites, now it is discoid eczema. Living with a skin problem is no fun. There were times when my skin was so itchy I wake up with blood on my sheets because I have scratching my skin in my sleep.

Fortunately, lately the condition is rather manageable. Also, most of the spots are covered by my usual long sleeve shirt and long pants. I shouldn't be complaining because I have seen pictures and heard stories of people who had to go through so much more. It is a terrible condition to live with and western medicine doesn't seem to have a cure for the condition only temporary solutions. Even going to the gym, I am always in a track pants. Hopefully, things go better in the upcoming months. Enough complaining already. Good night.

Don't delete this Blog

At long last, this is an update of my blog. I am updating this blog because I have told many people that I was going to update my blog weeks ago. I haven't updated this blog so long, I fear Blogger would delete this from their disk space. Fortunately, they don't have this policy because I think thousands of blogs will be deleted daily.

Anyway, my boss just had a talk with me today about my confirmation and I was really at a lost of words about what I want to learn in the future when it comes to my job. I usually can talk about most topics under the sun but when it comes to my future, I am stumped. My prophetic capabilities stop there. She wasn't asking about my predictions on the Singapore stock market (in which case I would likely say up) nor was she asking about who the next prime minister of Malaysia would be, she just asked about my aspirations in my current job. And my mind turned blank. There was nothing I could say that didn't sound like a lie. Sad to say but I wouldn't wish for any of you to be in my situation today. Just in case my colleagues stumble on this blog, I absolutely adore them and I am not in the mood for lying today.

I do miss my days as a temporary worker. Ah, carefree and unhindered. Roaming around collecting stories and experiences. Too bad I don't have an endless supply of money. If I did, I would be a total bum. Maybe, that is why I don't have an endless supply of money. God is trying to teach me character and hard work. An idle mind is the devil's playground. Fortunately, that statement is not in the Bible.