Nobody

Nobody loves me,
Nobody cares,
Nobody picks me peaches and pears.
Nobody offers me candy and Cokes,
Nobody listens and laughs at my jokes.
Nobody helps when I get in a fight,
Nobody does all my homework at night.
Nobody misses me,
Nobody cries,
Nobody thinks I'm a wonderful guy.
So if you ask me who's my best friend, in a whiz,
I'll stand up and tell you that Nobody is.
But yesterday night I got quite a scare,
I woke up and Nobody just wasn't there.
I called out and reached out for Nobody's hand,
In the darkness where Nobody usually stands.
Then I poked through the house, in each cranny and nook,
But I found somebody each place that I looked.
I searched till I'm tired, and now with the dawn,
There's no oubt about it -
Nobody's gone!

- Shel Silverstein

why does everybody wanna be somebody if nobody cares?

*update: blinkymummy's addition: "why does everybody want somebody when nobody cares?" true, true...*

lousy day

i woke up today to the sound of drilling and knocking next door. i looked outside my window and saw a lorry outside...one of those contractor kind with a lot of tools at the back. i think that my neighbour is doing some sort of renovation to his place. this was at 834am. pissed me off. it's a saturday for crying out loud!!! i straightaway put my spare pillow over my head and tried to sleep again.

15 minutes later or so, just as i managed to drift off...when i heard a loud bang and crackling sound...i thought that it was just the renovators again, and tried to shut it out. when it continued for some time (it was damn loud) with regular frequency, i got up and went to the window again, with the intention of shouting something vulgar. that's when i saw a flash and heard a bang right in front of my face. it was a lightning storm. great. can't really shout any vulagrities at anyone for that...without getting a bolt shot back at me at least. i hate lightning storms...apparently singapore has the most number of lightning storms in the world (per unit area)...and ntu happens to be one of the most lightning prone places in singapore (some student actually kena struck a few years ago while playing football...and now they have a sign there that warns against this kinda thing happening again...can't remember the exact words on the sign though). i couldn't sleep after that, with all the loud banging and stuff...

i was supposed to go to the saddle club today to read up on my application process for the swiss university thingy...but since it was raining in the morning, i didn't get a chance to go...but the skies decided to relent for a while, so i wanted to squeeze in a golf range session before i did some deep reading. when i finally reached the saddle club after hitting (or rather, hooking and slicing) some balls, i found out that it was already pre-booked by some kid who was having a birthday party there, preventing me from getting anything done. just great.

went to meet leehsin and jason for dinner at samy's curry restaurant. i reached there at 7pm, but the other two said that they would be late, so i informed the waiter that i wanted an outdoor table . he said that he would get me one as soon as there was one available (apparently 2 empty tables were "reserved for regulars" already). i sat there for about 30 minutes, waiting for both the table and my friends to come. when we finally sat down at a table outside, i overheard the waiter remarking "no reservations?" before leading a couple of ang mohs to the aforementioned "reserved table". i could have sworn that he gave me an extremely contented look as he was took their orders before coming to take ours. i'm guessing that since the place looked quite retro and all, he assumed that he was still living in the colonial days. wake up lah ah neh...the year of the chinaman is fast approaching...

after finishing dinner, lee hsin dragged me to her colleague's housewarming party. the guy is actually an architect who designed this place for his friend, who in turn, rented it out to him. so basically the guy designed his own place lah. not too bad i must say...very bachelor-loft-pad kinda feel that you see in movies. it's an apartment above one of those siglap shophouses (they sell car tyres downstairs). a very open concept...so much so that i find it kinda unsafe to use his stairs (which had no hand railings to it), and also, to sit at his "balcony" (which had no grilles or railings either). definitely not a place for people who drink on a regular basis. anyway, back to the party. we went at around 9 plus...then we left at around 10 plus cuz it was so boring. a lot of people were there...some of whom we knew, but mostly strangers...i have a feeling that the other people were ignoring us cuz of the 2 bottles of 100 plus that lee hsin insisted on buying from the 7-11 downstairs, as a gift for the housewarming...hmph...if only they knew that the cure for hangovers is to take an isotonic drink after the alcohol...and if only i knew it was gonna be an arty farty kinda party...you can read about leehsin's experience here.

on the way back home from the party, i got caught in a jam along the PIE. when i finally reached the place that was causing the jam, i got so angry that i nearly wanted to honk and shout at the people causing the jam. there was a preview to the national day parade this evening at the padang...in which they like to display their tanks and military whatnots...it's fine and all...even though it's kinda chinaman if you ask me (china loves to show off their military strength during these kinda occasions). but anyway, the reason for the jam was cuz the stupid police and auxiliary police people were escorting these tanks and vehicles back to the base...just as the people who attended this preview were going home. WTF lah. someone's gonna get scolded on monday. i can assure you that. the jam stretched back from jurong all the way to eunos. do the vehicles really HAVE to be back so fast? can't they just wait a few hours for the crowd to go home first before escorting them back? many many cars and people were inconvenienced like that...i reached home in almost one hour. was boiling mad...so much so that i forgot my lighter in my car, and also my camera as well...which is why there won't be any photos tonight.

i'm going to bed. hopefully i'll wake up on the right side tomorrow.

date with gin gin

friday night and i'm at home...and i've stayed at home. this hasn't happened in a long time. came back from work, had dinner alone watching woodlands wellington play some japanese team on tv...lousy commentary some more...worse than mark richmond. came upstairs, decided to blog a bit, then suddenly a brilliant idea came to mind...i'd ask the one and only pussy in the whole world who would come out with me tonight...


nervous gin gin1

my gin gin was kinda reluctant to come out with me at first, but i persuaded her with smooth talking and strokes along her neck. even so, she was a nervous wreck when i carried her out to my car. she probably thought that i was going to bring her to the "needle-infested-and-where-i-lost-my-ability-to-breed" place.

nervous gin gin 2

i kept reassuring her that everything would be ok...i was just going to bring her to the most romantic places in ntu...and finally i got her interested.


curious gin gin

you can actually see the ocean and the lights from the offshore manufacturing plants.


landscape 1

there are a few places in ntu where the scenery is pretty good...


landscape 2

i apologise if you can't access these places, cuz it's kinda for "authorised vehicles only". sorry, better luck next time. muahahaha. =)

gin gin was meowing all the time while i was driving here and there. the sad kinda meow. as if she knew that she was getting too far away from home. cats are like that. they more or less associate with their homes, rather than with their owners. we moved house once. my mom would let gin gin out to play everyday, and for a short period of time, she kept going back to our old house...nostalgia? maybe just familiarity.

dogs are very different. they don't care where they are...as long as they're with the people who love them. i love both cats and dogs. maybe that's why, for me, it's so hard to leave singapore, but at the same time, i wanna move. go figure.

kev farewell

kevin, one of my buddies, left for australia today. i went out to his farewell party thingy on wednesday after going to villa bali with lee hsin. apparently i wasn't the only one who had already drank a bit before i reached there. marco, audrey's pooch, was a bit sleepy when i finally arrived at around 10pm. i just found out that i have been made marco's official godfather. well don. haha.


marco

after a few beers (on top of the 4 red wines and 1.5 lousy house whites that i had at villa bali), i was getting a little sleepy myself...marco looked more or less like this...


blur marco

eventually he just curled up and slept like a kangaroo.


audrey and sleepy marco

kevin and i go back to the hall days. i played football and thought that i was fucking good. then kevin had to come along. enough said. anyway, we've been buddies ever since, and well...we've had our fair share of good fun on the soccer pitch and disco dancefloors...in fact, he's still enjoying his spoils of war (cough, cough)...while i'm just spoiling my liver...but at least i don't look like mr. tomatohead. muahahaha. doesn't my polo-tee match his foundation though? muahahaha.


embarrassed kev and chubby cheeks sky

the party was organised by his jc schoolmates...some of whom i also know...maria, audrey, vincent, leslie, gina, etc etc...and in order to save some people face (literally), i had to change this picture to black and white instead of red and red.


everyone

kev was drinking so fast that even my camera set on the fastest exposure time couldn't take a proper photo of him downing tequila shots.


speedy kev

after we finally finished drinking and said our farewells, i vaguely remember telling him that i'd meet him again the next night (thurs) before he left...and that i would send him off at the airport on friday morning. and then i had to go back to work. it fucking screwed up my schedule and my general mental health so badly that i completely forgot that i was supposed to meet him...and that he was leaving today. i will never forgive those stupid shitheads in the office. ARGH!!!!! sigh...sorry kev. i really wanted to send you off. don't get too australianised alright mate? catch you at germany 2006...you'll be seeing me on tv of course. =)

tharrr she blows...my job sucks

sorry guys...haven't had the time or energy to update this thing. after coming back from sumatra on wednesday, everything has been fucked up in the office. i've stayed in the office longer in the two days this week than in any other 5-day week i've worked in this year. freaking pissed me off. why is it that nothing and no one can do anything without my fucking quotation or advice??? seems like i'm the operator behind all these stupid machines sitting in the office. fuck lah. get a brain lah...if not for your own good, then at least for my sanity.

people in government agencies (actually we're already pte ltd but i still can't tell the difference) such as mine like to make sure that their backsides are all covered with bulletproof vests before they venture out into the hunting grounds. they put so much of it on that it slows them down and makes catching prey extremely difficult. and even when we do catch the occasional dumbfuck, the reward for the hunter is peanuts. i liken my position as a sales staff in my company to that of a person who works for one of those diamond mining companies in south africa, where the dimwit who digs for and finds the diamond gets about $5 for it, while the company is reaping in gross amounts of profit for their cheap labour find. it's disgusting. if you wanna reward someone, then do it. don't come out with some shitass scheme that only dangles the fucking carrot closer and closer to your nose, but further and further away from your mouth. cheebye.

sorry, i tend to get emotional, and hence, really vulgar when i'm angry. ARGH!!!!!! maybe that's why i've been drinking so much recently...haha. that's the first smile that's been on my face today. i think i need a drink...

sumatra

hey people...missed me much? i just got back...damn tired, i but couldn't keep all you mobydicksky fans waiting. =)

sumatra was quite an experience. the people, the land and the vastness of everything around you just makes singapore seem like such a small dot on this planet. the people there are generally very friendly, but they need to refresh their driving skills. we travelled around mostly on dirt roads (which became pretty muddy when it rained the first day), and had to get a 4-wheel-drive SUV. i went there with an ang moh colleague, martin. he was VERY irritatingly talkative. enough about him.

anyway, unfortunately, i can't reveal much about my trip...like which part of sumatra i went to, what i did there, or anything like that...confidential client information....ooo, sounds cool right. haha.

from the beginning.

eugene stayed over the previous night so that he could send me to the airport (i lent him my car, and in return, he helped to feed my cat once a day). the client had a private jet come and pick us up from seletar airport at 8am. maciam we damn big shot...


starting point

apparently private jets don't have / don't need doors to the cockpit...so i got my first first-hand look at a real cockpit.


cockpit

in order to make myself look busy, so that the bloody ang moh would stop talking to me, i took quite a few photos on the plane:


airborne picture 1


airborne picture 2


airborne picture 3

and then we reached the destination. after the inital formalities with the hosts, i checked in at the hotel. it was beyond my expectations, so i was pretty happy.


hotel room


makan place


swimming pool

i had one bad experience with the hotel though...i brought buster bunny (lee hsin bought him for me from europe a few weeks ago) on this trip for good luck...and once i got settled down in my room, i put him in the drawer next to my bed. day 1 goes by, and i leave for my site survey on day 2. when i came back at lunchtime, my room was all cleaned up and made already. happily, i plopped onto the bed and turned on the tv. i thought that buster bunny might wanna have some sunshine so i opened the drawer to take him out, but he wasn't inside! i panicked and literally searched the whole freaking room...from the drawers, to the bar fridge (i had a bit to drink the night before), to the lint and dust underneath my bed...he was gone! immediately i called the housecleaning people and asked them if they had seen him. they said that they'd get back to me, and since i also had to leave for my afternoon site survey, i left it at that. when i came back later in the evening, the whole thing had become such a big deal, that the minute i stepped into the hotel, the front desk guy told me that they "found" buster bunny...apparently he had crawled into my blanket without the housecleaning people noticing him. whatever. i was just happy to get him back...


buster bunny (after kidnapping)

this is probably the only picture from sumatra (outside of the airport and hotel areas) that i can put on this blog.


indon meow meow

the 2 days went by like a flash. so, this morning, i went back to the client's private airstrip (oh yeah, the client also has a private airstrip), and got on the plane.

private airstrip / airplane

oh, and they've got a private chopper too.


helicopter

the ang moh colleague stayed on in sumatra to do more site surveys, so while i was on the plane, i had the opportunity to nurse the earache that he induced during those 2 days. from sumatra back to singapore:


airborne picture 4


airborne picture 5


airborne picture 6


airborne picture 7 

eugene picked me up from seletar...told me that he couldn't find my cash card when he passed through the erp gantry the other day...the car sounds funny when i drive...no more carpark coupons either. oh well, at least gin gin is still alive...thanks anyway seow.

i'm tired. out.

swimming pool 

just before sumatra

i've never woke up this early since jc school days. i'm going off to indonesia now. don't know / don't think that there will be internet access where i'm going...i think i'll just bring a book. i'll see you guys in a few days...ciao.

photographsky - saddle club

i had one of the best days in a long time. i was bumming around at home freaking bored...and then the rain stopped. so i went back to farrer road to pack some clothes and stuff...and decided that i had enough time to go to the golf range.

at first, kean and i went to the queenstown range, but it was fully packed, so we searched the streetdirectory for another place to go. we finally decided on this place in bukit timah, which was quite nearby. as we were driving there, i noticed some signs around, giving warning of "horse crossings" and whatnot. a few minutes later, i came across this...


horse 1

i've always been a huge fan of horses. i was born in the year of the horse, and even my chinese name has the "horse" character inside. i collect a lot of horse stuff...my cupboard is filled with horse memorabilia. statues, figurines, pictures, etc etc.

so, i was more than thrilled to have found somewhere IN SINGAPORE where they have horses. if you have read my archives not too long ago, i went to this place in thailand that was across the lake from a horse farm...

anyway, after we finished hitting balls at the golf range, i insisted that we go for a drink at the horse place that we passed by.

when we reached, we saw this abang trainer walking a beautiful stallion:


horse 2

the abang trainer was nice enough to let me hold the reins and take a picture with "jack".


sky and jack

cool. =)

so we walked around the stables and saw a lot of other horses...


horse 3


horse 4


horse 5


amaretto

amaretto was a really sweet horse. he's only 11 years old, but he's a big boy. i fed him some grass...


sky and amaretto

then there was this horse that had some sort of mask / net on...apparently it's to keep the flies and mosquitoes away from their faces...


don't bug me

and then i saw thebiggesthorseihaveeverseen:


thebiggesthorseihaveeverseen

you can't really tell from the picture, but he was HUGE. his was at least 3 feet taller than me standing up. i have never seen such a monster horse. apparently his name is "charmant", which means "charming" in german. he nearly bit my finger off when i tried to feed him. charming? hmmm...

oh yeah, and there were a lot of cats there too. i think cats and horses get along well. the one on the right looks a lot like gin gin...i bet gin gin likes horses too. =)


meow meows

i saw the abang trainer again, and he had another horse this time...can't remember the name already. but it was a female this time. can tell from her reaction to me (maybe that's why i forgot the name). standard stuff. you just wait till i turn on the charmant!!! haha.


sky and playhardtogethorse

as we were walking around, we saw this girl letting her horse exercise inside the pen. the horse's name was alcatraz. he ran really fast...


alcatraz 1

so fast that he nearly headbutted me while i was taking this picture...


alcatraz 2

we talked to alcatraz's owner for a while...apparently her family owns 3 horses there...3 freaking horses!!!!!! wowsers. and she takes care of all 3 of them.

we saw some other jockeys and their steeds...


horse and rider


horse and rider 2

i really enjoyed myself there. the environment was really serene and quiet. it was so "outtasingapore" kinda feel. i hope that it stays that way there...i think i'll make it my hangout nowadays...i might even start learning how to ride horses. cool stuff. you heard it from the horse's mouth... =)