What a bunch of ingrates!

I am still reeling about the news of the sacking of Chris Hughton.  I don't mean to bore non-footballing fans.  But I just have to write about this, and you should see my point, even if you have not been following the 'beautiful game'.

I cannot say that I'm an ardent fan of the team.  Not when I have never been to the much touted St. James' Park and met a Geordie (that's what they call people native to Newcastle).  Not when I have cancelled Football Channel on SCV due to economic sense (I'm the only person watching the channel in the family and it should be the first to go to cut costs).  Not when I refused to subscribe to SingTel's Mio for the same reason.  And surely not when I am unable to follow them on the Internet even with free 'live' screening due to fatigue.

But surely I am free to pour my heart out about how unfair it is to have dismissed someone who has brought them back to the premier league on the first try?  Chris must be insane for keeping his cool.  It is absolutely unfair for such an experienced man who have lived and breathed football for so many years, to be sent to the door, for no good reason!

He has, in the previous season, pulled the team together to play sensibly.  The men were downcast for having brought the club to a lower division and he guided everyone in the same direction.  He was to produce results within the shoestring budget he has had.  He could not have attracted huge signings for the club, not on his credibility nor the club's position the last year.  What happens?  The man is fired before he has a chance to prove what he can do.  This is how you reward the man??

It is absurd!  What reason do we have?  Chris is relieved of his duties because he guided the club up?  Because he managed to get the careers of the crazy Joey Barton and Sol 'Over-the-Hill' Campbell back on track?  Because he managed to produce winning results of 6-0 (vs Aston Villa), 5-1 (vs Sunderlanf), 1-0 against Arsenal in a match I feared decapitation of the club and holding Chelsea (last season's champions)to a 1-1 draw?

Sure, we lost 1-5 against Bolton recently and lost games against Blackpool and Stoke.  But we are not even at the halfway point of the season.  Surely a mid-table finish isn't too bad?  It must be acceptable, given our past years finishes at the end of the campaigns.

Whoever in control of the club's affairs must have gone bonkers, I tell you.  They bought the equally ungrateful Michael Owen, who earned a crazy sum of money sitting out most times at the sidelines, only to let him go for free to Manchester United (of all clubs!), for nothing.

The reason they gave (a big fat lie!  It's a baseless excuse!) was that Chris is inexperienced and they want to bring someone more experienced in.  Shouldn't they have done that in the first place?  When we were fighting to avoid the drop two seasons ago?  They brought in Alan Shearer, a man with no qualification to manage!  And they appointed Chris when no one wanted to take the helm of the sunken ship!  Now they let him go when they think they have turned the tide?  They even had the cheek to let the late Sir Bobby Robson and Kevin Keegan, people men with the fans, go!

Chris is one of the more well-liked and well-received men in football nowadays.  Experienced coach, humble footballer with no bad press, even at this moment - no bitching!  The players at the club are working for him!

I cannot bear to look on.  Who will they bring in now?  Martin Jol - the man who failed at Tottenham?  Gasp.  I think I will quit watching footie soon.  Maybe American Football has more logical beings.

Maximise your leave in 2011!

I have seen a couple of articles like this one before published.  You have twenty-over days of leave to take next year and your are in need of a good rest in blocks.  When do you apply if you need to forecast it early?  Let us work in a scenario that you want at least a four-day break each time, supposing you work on a five-day work-week.

New Year's Day (1 January) already falls on a Saturday.  If where you work grants the following Monday as an off-in-lieu for New Year's Day, you can try applying for leave on 4 January, Tuesday (1 day applied).  Lunar New Year falls on 3 and 4 February (Thu and Fri).  That represents a block of four days off on its own!

March sees no break and we will have to wait for 22 April for Good Friday.  You will have to take leave on 21 or 25 to get your four days' rest.  May Day or Labour Day falls on a Sunday and you should get 2 May (Monday) off.  Apply for leave on 29 April (Friday) or e May (Tuesday) to get your four-day break!  (2 days applied)

This is a must: Vesak Day (17 May) falls on a Tuesday.  Take leave on the previous day and take a rest!  (3 days applied)  Enjoy these breaks as the next few months spell doom and gloom - no holidays!  This is time to get some serious work done as you cannot leave the office.

The next holidays are National Day and Hari Raya Puasa (30 August) on Tuesdays.  Again, get Mondays on leave (5 days applied).  There is no public holiday in September and we will have to wait until late October to get some respite.  Deepavali (26 October) is on a Wednesday and I reckon it is a well-deserved time to take two days' leave here, either before (on 24 and 25) or after (on 27 and 28) to get a long five-day break (7 days applied).  Or if you are badly in need of a break to coach your children in their final year examinations just around the corner that time, take all four days' leave and you have a good eight days' time (9 days applied)!

Hari Raya Haji (6 November) falls on a Sunday and the following Monday is a public holiday.  Thus, take leave on 4 (Friday) or 8 November to get your rest (10 days applied).  Finally, Christmas Day falls on a Sunday and you can be adventurous to take a trip during the year end - take leave on 26 to 30 Dec (Monday to Friday) and you can sail into 2012 recharged (15 days applied)!

There, and you have a few days' leave left, in case you have any ad-hoc or urgent events along the year to attend to!

Who is your hero?

"Who is my hero?  I don't have a hero," Jojo frowned.  Jojo?  Yes, the clown.  You see, I was just watching Playhouse Disney with my three precious darlings.  It was "Jojo's Circus" and it happened to ask the students to present in class the next day who their favourite hero was.  "What is a hero?" Felix asked aloud, adoring eyes blinked in amazement.  Oh, who is MY hero?

First, what is a hero?  What does he / she do?  A hero can be a person from the past or present.  He / she is probably a person who attains an achievement of some sort, benefitting self and/or public.  It could be in the arena of the battlefield, sports, politics, etc.  I can rattle off many names: Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang, Troy, Napoleon, Michael Jordan, Pele, Maradona, Beckham, Rooney, Washington, Gandhi, MM Lee, etc., just to name a few.

Who is my hero?  Who has achieved so much in his / her time that has left his / her mark in society?  Whose influence has been so great?  Sure, there have been so many sporting heroes who have influenced my younger days then, when I was a very active teenager who spent much of my time in the field or the courts, whom I had imitated their plays and styles in my games and moves.  Some many whom I had dreamt about how good it was to follow their footsteps to be in bright lights...

Or perhaps it is someone who persevered against all odds.  Or someone who touched many lives.  Or...  It need not be someone famous, right?

Too many different types of heroes!  Who is my hero?  Or who is YOUR hero?

Show appreciation today!

"If it ain't broken, don't fix it," some people used to tell me when I meddle in things, trying to better situations.  Why not constantly improve?  Why not better ourselves of things around us?

A former colleague's shout-out of thanks and appreciation for his wife on their wedding anniversary today reminded me this.  I have always maintained that we should show gratitude to people around us constantly.  It need not be on our lips all the time.  It may sound insincere, or worthless, if it goes on for too much, too long.  We should thank people for helping us along our ways.

Forget the grouses you have over petty issues with your close ones.  Haven't the many things they have done for you outweighed the tiny misunderstandings?  Throw the grudges you have lain in your heart so deeply out of the window.  Rebuild ties.  Mend relationships.

Don't you wish you have not lost friends over little disagreements long ago?  Disagreements that do not mean anything to you now?  Isn't it a waste to lose an ally you can count on for assistance, than to have one more enemy who may leave you in the lurch when you are in dire straits?  Apologise.  Say thanks.  Do it today.

Today?  It's not a special day...  Yes, you've heard me right.  Today.  Shower your loved ones and friends with these and you make their day special.  Give them pleasant surprises.  Do not wait until tomorrow.  It may be too late; there may not be a tomorrow.  I know I'm going to contact my younger brother now for his long overdue bout of appreciation...  =)

Top 3 things you frown upon at your neighbourhood park / footpath

Walking along the path at my estate, I shake my head.  And again.  And again.  The reason(s)?  There are just so many things that may be deemed 'wrong', that disturbs the peace and serenity of the neighbourhood.  Or they are just plain unsightly.  Like a group of youths leaving a bench placed in public, leaving empty boxes of crushed cigarettes, dried marks of spilled drinks.  Even better - they take extreme measures to 'hide' their rubbish (this one is a mineral water bottle hidden in some plants - see if you can find it).  They find this easier to do than to walk to the dustbin just a few steps away to dispose it.

Or like a congregation of people blocking the entire walkway, laughing as shrilly as hyenas and louder than the aeroplanes that fly past our block on an almost daily basis.  They make me sigh.

Have you ever seen things like that?  Let's take a vote.  I'll provide you a list of a few things.  We all pick the most dreaded three from the list, lining them up in order of the most hatred to the least of the three using the 'comment' function here.  Leave your name in it too.  Or feel free to also add your own, giving it the next number.  I'll run this vote for a week and we'll sum it up.  Ready?  Here it goes!

Top things that you hate to see / hear at your neighbourhood park / footpath
1.  The incessant ringing from cyclists.  'Ring... ring... ring...'  You hear the ringing of bells from a bicycle approaching you from behind miles away.  So do the other pedestrians along the path.  Everyone moves to the side of the path.  But the ringing does not stop.  Turns head back to show the cyclist that you're aware of his presence.  The ringing goes on.  And it continues even after the bicycle has passed you, all the way for as long as you can hear it...  Irritating.

2.  Little dog on a leash with its owner following behind, reading from a magazine.  Dog stops by a tree beside the path, lifts one of its hind legs to do its business.  Big business sometimes.  Owner nonchalantly walks away behind its dog after that, no bag on hand to pick up after its pet.  Not sure if he even had the intention to...

3.  You are taking a leisurely morning walk at the neighbourhood estate.  You see a group of middle-age people gathered in front of you.  They talk like they are all hard of hearing.  Suddenly, someone blows his nose by pressing his thumb of his right hand at the ground in front of him.  No handkerchief.  The woman beside him stops and clears her throat, then spits phlegm at her side.  Yet another few from the group starts lighting their cigarettes.

4.  You are in a rush and are walking fast.  You suddenly stop.  The path is blocked.  A group of people are leisurely talking, taking up the whole path in front of you.  Short of them holding hands.  You ask for their forgiveness to let you through.  It falls on deaf ears.  There is no passable way as it has just rained and the grass beside the path is flooded / muddy.

5.  'Don't wash dirty linen in the public' they say.  They did not mention not to dry it.  "You know, the sun is brighter / stronger than in my flat..."

6.  This is similar to s/no. 4.  Only this time, the 'pet' is not a pet.  Mother / grandmother chats in estate with neighbours.  The poor child is left to play alone.  Minutes later, child approaches adult as he needed to answer 'nature's call'.  Adult is in the midst of an interesting discussion and does not want to leave it and bring child home.  What's the next best option?  Pull off boy's shorts, holds boy to the grass at the side of the path to ease himself.  Surely we have better sanitary facilities here in Singapore?

7.  Poom!  Poom!  The football is smashed onto the sides of the void deck and multi-purpose halls, leaving dirty ball prints on the once clean walls.  Children giggle on the sight.  Notices sign to indicate no playing of ball games where they are.  Takes aim at the sign.  Bull's eye!  Giggles turn to laughter.  People walk past them.  They do not stop, not caring if the ball were to injure an innocent passer-by.  Cyclists / skateboarders ignoring the signs not to cycle and skate in the park.  Some young cyclists pedal at such breakneck speeds that you dread to think of the consequences if they were to 'run into' a pregnant lady.

There you have it.  More?  Add on as s/no. 8 and beyond.  Let's run this until next Monday.  Which will emerge as the most hated thing seen / heard?

Feeling like a foreigner in...

"...  I said, 'Here I am, here I am, here I am...'  but why do I feel like an invisible man..." sang Joshua Kadison in his song.  Okay, not exactly my sentiments.  However, I do feel like a foreigner every time I step in Chinatown.  Huh?

Don't get me wrong.  I am born and bred in Singapore (though there is a trace of foreign blood in me from my Malaysian born parents).  But being a true blue Singaporean, you will not believe me when I tell you that I have not been to Chinatown for many times in my years.  "What?"  Yes, you've heard me right.  I seldom set foot in our busiest settlement, especially during the Lunar New Year period.

My parents had not brought me there when I was younger.  Along with my penchant for less crowded areas, Chinatown is an area I avoid like a plague.  I hate getting my toes trampled on and bumping into sweaty bodies. Not to mention the fear of getting my pocket picked.  Oh, that too - I like getting what I need and zipping out of the shopping areas (after paying, of course!).

I remember watching Lunar New Year celebration shows broadcasting 'live' from Chinatown and seeing the crowd in the background.  I do not envy the people there one bit.  All these have tallied up all my 'reasons' for not visiting Chinatown these years of my life.  During this block of leave my wife had recently, I suggested gamely to 'explore' the streets there.

We found a number of antique shops - no, not the kind selling vases; the kinds that sold old games, record-players, etc.  If you were looking for stuff used during the seventies or eighties, look no further.  You might just find what you are looking for in shops like those in Chinatown.  Looking for chinese herbs?  A seldom found type of Chinese medicine?  Medical halls are aplenty in Chinatown.

Need a History lesson?  Go to Chinatown.  There, we can find old shophouses, clothes, art forms...  You should even be able to find people who have lived past the second World War if you need to conduct interviews for projects!

I left Chinatown with my wife that day, thankful that we had made that trip.  There was so much colour, vibrance,  so many common sights that we take for granted - all found there.  I now know where my children can go if they need to work on a project on 'the early days of Singapura' later.

A note to all my former students

The dust has settled and the results are out.  You cannot change them.  They are cast in stone.  Sure, in every game and every experience in life, some people will be happy with their 'victories'; some will be disappointed and /or sad with their perceived failure.  Others will be lost as they have no inking on the implication the results will have on their life.  Sadly, that's the case.  Things are decided by us for the future, even before we know what it really means.  Regret is often too little, too late later.

Regret was what I told myself not to feel when I received my PSLE results many years ago when I was a primary six student.  You see, I had done well enough in school without needing to study in the past and my teachers had thought of me highly enough.  You can imagine the shock I had when I received my results.  Numbness was what I felt.  My classmates mostly scored twenty or thirty more marks than me and went on to prestigious schools like The Chinese High School and River Valley High School.

Nobody was on hand to advise me on my choice of schools.  I had no relatives near my age and I was ashamed to talk to my friends.  I did not know how important the six choices I had meant.  I foolishly wasted my first three choices, without doing research about cut-off points.  I went to my fourth choice - Commonwealth Secondary School.

It was perhaps lucky of me for fate to deal me such a kind hand.  It was not the best of places for me to study but I got to know some great people there in my time and bettered my sports skills (or I would not have become your PE teacher!).  Though I wasted my first three years of my secondary school life, wallowing in self-pity and turning my attention into a host of other activities (studies was definitely not one of them), I 'woke' from my 'slumber' in the final year of my secondary school days and studied whatever I should have imprinted in my brain only in the fourth year.

The result?  A lucky pass in 'O' levels and was fortunate enough to be accepted into the polytechnic.  The rest, as they say, is history.  The four salient points of my lesson published.  Take notes now.

1.  Distance is a deciding factor.  Not 'THE' factor.  Friends from old school? Not a factor; you'll make new ones anyway.  What is important is that you go to one that you will not say, "I regret coming..."  The choice now is YOURS (okay, it may be your parents').  Whatever you choose, you are going to LIVE WITH IT for years to come later.  'Regret' is a waste of time.  Make use of the time you will have in the next four or five years.

2.  Don't live in your shadows.  Don't look back and ask yourself what it could have been.  Don't waste time with these.  Work for the future.  Think far.  Think big.  What do you want to be / work as later?  It is NOT very far away, you know.  Work towards it.  An honest job is not degrading.  Nobody can look down on you but yourself.

3.  Express or normal?  I normally tell people, "Whatever you feel comfortable."  Really?  No!  Go to 'normal' first, and work hard in the first year?  You would have missed out the extra things being taught in 'express'.  By the time you switch to 'express' in year two, you will have a steeper learning curve.  Take the plunge.  Go for 'express'.  If you find that it's not your cup of tea later, switching to the other stream then is not going to be too late.

4.  Most important lesson - STOP WASTING YOUR TIME PLAYING!  STUDY!  This is the ONLY time that matters - to make it to a junior college, or not.  To ensure yourself a 'smoother' journey to the university later.  Lose these years and you might find yourself like me - at a stage of my life lamenting how lowly paid I am as a civil servant, just because I do not have a degree.  Do not rely on others.  Do not turn left and right now.  YOU HOLD THE KEY TO YOUR SUCCESS IN LIFE.

Do not ask me which secondary school you should go to now.  You will not, if you have understood me well.  Going to a 'good' school just gives you a better environment to pave your way to success.  All the best for your future and feel free to keep in touch.