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Friday, December 31, 2004
Tsunami Video Footages
Been following the news on the tsunami. The death toll is staggering, exceeding the predicted figure of 100,000. It now stands at 119,000. The latest I've checked from the various news channels is this,
Indonesia - 79,940
Sri Lanka - 24,673
India - 12,230
Malaysia - 64
Maldives - 67
Myanmar - 36
Thailand - 1,975
East Africa - 136 Many more were still missing and feared dead. Many coastal villages were totally wiped out. Watching the aerial video images, it is hard to believe that villages actually once stood at those places. This is Nature at it ruthless best.
I found a few video clips of the tsunami disaster and took the liberty of putting them on my site. You could see from many of the footages people were just hanging around, waiting, awed by the approaching waves. They did not realise the danger they were in. Who could? No one expected it. No warning was given. This was something you see in movies, not in real life.
Phuket
Patong Beach
Penang Beach
Sri Lanka #1
Sri Lanka #2 Koh Lanta
I feel so sorry for the people who have lost their families, their homes, their hopes. I pray that the rescue aids and relief teams will reach them in time to help them through this disaster.
Labels: Ramblings
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Everything else seemed so insignificant..
after what I've seen on the news. Death toll went up by thousands each time I checked. First it was 10,000 dead, then 12,000, 16,000 and now 23,000. It was really heartbreaking watching the scenes of parents hugging and crying over their dead children. One man was painstakingly wiping dirt off the face of his dead relative, weeping silently as he was doing it. My heart aches for him and for those who are suffering.
So it makes me really mad when news reporters interviewing happily smiling families saying how lucky they were to have avoided the disaster areas. Don't you guys have any compassion at all? One family was even worried about getting their refund from the tour agency, having already paid $8000 for the trip to Phuket.
Come on! People are in pain. And all you 'lucky ones' care about is your stinking refunds?
Labels: Ramblings
Sunday, December 26, 2004
What a way to end a year...
Christmas passed quite uneventfully despite all the warnings of impending terrorists attacks. And just as I thought we are going to have a nice and relatively peaceful end to year 2004, the news of tsunami waves hitting Asia killing more than 12,000 people came in.
An earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter Scale occurred somewhere in the Indian Ocean on 26 December early morning. It sent tidal waves across the ocean to as far as Indua, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Thailand. Indonesia's northern Sumatra was the worst hit as it bore the full brunt of the quake aftermat. Coastal villages were swarmed under with more than 4000 people reported dead. Death toll is expected to rise. The aftershocks measured as high as 6.5 too.
The only reason why Singapore was spared was because we were on the other side of Indonesia. I dare not even imagine what would happen to us if a tsunami wave were to hit our island.
My prayers and thoughts are to those affected by the disaster.
Labels: Ramblings
Thursday, December 23, 2004
T'was Eve of Christmas Eve...
Tried 2 new things today. Ice-skating & golf.
Went to Fuji Ice Palace at Jurong Entertainment Centre (Opp. Jurong East MRT Station) in the afternoon. I thought with my limited experience with inline-blading, ice-skating shouldn't be that much of a problem. Boy! Was I wrong! The feeling was totally different. I had to cling onto the railing most of the time. I was afraid I might fall and like I said before, my bones would probably disintegrate on impact with the ground, or in this case, ice. (The scene in Tom & Jerry cartoon whereby Tom shattered into tiny pieces kept intruding my mind.) Bryan & Rachel didn't feel too comfortable too.
At about 7pm, my hubby and I went to Orchid Country Club's driving range to have a beginner's crash course on golf. We had about 30 minutes of basic theory stuff and 1 1/2 hours of hands-on. It was fun whacking the balls. I just imagined that the balls were the heads of those people I couldn't stand. BAM! See how they fly! hahahaha.... But seriously, I think I might take up proper golf lessons. Again, I don't know if I could find the time.
Finally completed our Christmas shopping last night. Spent a hefty sum this year and it took me 2 hours to wrap the presents just now. I ran out of wrapping paper, so will have to continue tomorrow. The presents are all under the Christmas tree. The kids are going to be real happy tomorrow night.
Oh boy... I think I'm going to suffer tomorrow. My arms are aching right now from all that golf-swinging and presents-wrapping. My waist is feeling kind of strained too. Think I better go look for my deep-heat rub.
Well people, I doubt if I have the time to post tomorrow. So here's wishing all of you
 A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! Labels: Health, Ramblings
Friday, December 17, 2004
Highhandedness of some service providers...
Quite pissed off by some of the local service providers. Names have been removed to protect the guilty.
#1 Mobile phone ... So I'm lousy at keeping my accounts. I keep missing the due dates for payment. But hey! I've always paid up everything in full plus whatever late charges they throw at me! So I was hopping mad to receive a letter from the phone company saying that my payment has not been very regular and that it "requests" for a upfront deposit of $274.00 (based on my average usage per month). The deposit will be refunded once a regular payment pattern is established. The next thing I knew I received a bill with $274.00 included in! What the fú©k! The magic word was "request". Okay. But I didn't even get a chance to say "request denied"! And because of this, it prompted me to change to other lower-priced plan for my mobile. So there! Hope you are happy now!
Monday, December 13, 2004
Over the weekend..
I woke up early last Saturday and headed down to East Coast Park for some inline-skating. Did over 1 1/2hr of blading. Good workout for me. I had to visit a construction site after that. I created a slight commotion amongst the workers when I arrived in shorts & training tops. Had to rush to the washroom a quick chance of clothes. heh heh.. My hubby was somewhere around ECP in the morning too, on his racer. Will start my cycling training soon and hopefully I'll be able to join him on the roads early next year. I definitelty can't keep up with him right now. Anyone who knows me will know that I'm definitely not a sports kind of person. So why all that interests in skating and cycling all of a sudden? Well. I've been gradually putting on weight. I had no less than 4 people telling me that. I was even asked whether I was expecting. That does it!! My hubby has lost quite a bit of weight since he started cycling, about 5~7kg, I think. His health has improved too. He hardly get sick nowadays. Bryan is following my laid-back lifestyle and is also putting on quite a bit of weight. I have to set a good example for the kids. I don't really like to exercise but I dislike taking pills too! Not to mention the risks involved with slimming pills! (Remember Andrea De Cruz's liver failure?) So I guess I don't have much of a choice. Anyway inline skating is rather fun. I went through the basic inline skating lessons with Skateline at ECP Carpark F1. No time to take up the more advance techniques. So right now I only know how to execute a heel-brake. Doesn't look too cool, man! Will see if I can get someone to show me the T-stop. Now that's the nice one! I'm currently staying off the steeper slopes. Don't wanna fall. At my age, my bones will probably disintegrate upon impact with the ground. Labels: Ramblings
Monday, December 06, 2004
Lazy Sunday Afternoon
Had a nice leisurely family cycling trip to Pasir Ris Park in the afternoon. Nice sunny, windy afternoon. Lots of people it being a weekend. As usual, not many users kept to their respective tracks. You have people walking on bicycle tracks and cyclists riding on the footpaths. We stopped at the playground for a short while. The kids like it there. It's not too bad. Lots of slides, swings, rope pyramids and whatyoumacallit.
Labels: Ramblings
Friday, December 03, 2004
Memorable Clips from Singapore Idol
The search for Singapore Idol 2004 is finally over. There's been very interesting characters at the start of the quest. So here's paying tribute to the wonderful contestants who have lightened up the screen. They are!
Btw the video clips are not for distribution. I don't want to get caught in any copyright issues whatever.. S'all right? Labels: TV/Movies
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
The First Singapore Idol
is born! Taufik Batisah! Yeah!!! He's versatile and he showed so much improvement since he began on the Singapore Idol quest. Sylvester Sim... he's cute and he has the mass-appeal. But Taufik is the better singer of the two. Well done boys! Labels: TV/Movies
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