Recently read an inspiring story from Sunday Times about a gal joining a marathon. She is planning to finish it by walking. One year ago she was involved in an accident when she was cycling. She was in coma for a few months and had a number of fractures in different parts of her body. It is a terrible setback for her as she is a very sporty person. She used to cry but was inspired when she read books about people who have overcome such similar incidents and regain top spots in the various sports events. Thus she worked on regaining her physical and mental strength. This time, 1 year after her accident, she is ready to challenge a marathon again.
I am encouraged by her. My injury is of course nothing compared to her, but having to deal with pain with every step is nevertheless daunting. Especially after recovering for 4 weeks and be able to wear normal shoe again and yet unexpectedly hurt it again yesterday putting me back to the stage weeks ago when every step is painful. I guess I just have to start all over in the recovery process. Hmmm... really need to be careful and not walk much until it fully heals.
This will certainly pass and I am looking forward to engaging in active sports again. Wait for me whatever exciting activities are awaiting out there! :)
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Spectacles Appeal
I have recently launched a old spectacles private appeal to send to Bhutan and Thailand. The target is 100 spectacles by June 2012. The response has been quite encouraging, I have about 40 spectacles committed after 3 weeks. Grateful that there are some friends that send my appeal to their friends which have helped in getting more spectacles. Thank you! :)
My appeal:
I am doing a private appeal to collect spectacles for the poorer communities in places like Chiang Mai,Thailand and Bhutan. If you have any spectacles (ie. with frame and lenses) that are in good condition which you do not need, please put them to better use by donating them. If you know the degrees of your spectacles, please indicate on them as well for my easy sorting.
The spectacles will be sent to organizations working with communities that cannot afford them. For organizations that cannot get volunteer optometrists to check the eyesight of the short-sighted people, spectacles with varying degrees are usually put on a tray for the beneficiaries to try and choose themselves.
Sometimes the organizations may charge a nominal fee (eg.10 baht) for each pair of spectacles just to prevent abuse of the system but usually such fees can hardly cover any administration cost.
I am hoping to collect about 100 pairs of spectacles before 30 June 2012 in the first phase.
Thank you for reading this and please send this only to your personal friends as this is not an official mass appeal. Just doing this as an individual and putting up this private appeal.
My appeal:
I am doing a private appeal to collect spectacles for the poorer communities in places like Chiang Mai,Thailand and Bhutan. If you have any spectacles (ie. with frame and lenses) that are in good condition which you do not need, please put them to better use by donating them. If you know the degrees of your spectacles, please indicate on them as well for my easy sorting.
The spectacles will be sent to organizations working with communities that cannot afford them. For organizations that cannot get volunteer optometrists to check the eyesight of the short-sighted people, spectacles with varying degrees are usually put on a tray for the beneficiaries to try and choose themselves.
Sometimes the organizations may charge a nominal fee (eg.10 baht) for each pair of spectacles just to prevent abuse of the system but usually such fees can hardly cover any administration cost.
I am hoping to collect about 100 pairs of spectacles before 30 June 2012 in the first phase.
Thank you for reading this and please send this only to your personal friends as this is not an official mass appeal. Just doing this as an individual and putting up this private appeal.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Walking
Walking has been tiring indeed with big foot. Sometimes I have tried hopping on the good foot when no one is around so that I can move faster but hopping is as tiring. Now my good foot is also sore due to its heavy responsibility.
Being able to walk normally is such a blessing. I will hopefully be able to walk properly soon. I know being able to walk properly will be never be the same to me again. Please let me remember this experience and with gratitude, I will make good use of my feet and explore the world with them. :)
Because of big foot, my supposedly overseas volunteer stint that have taken many months to plan and my visa that I finally obtained after many obstacles with the help of many people gone up in smoke. I hope there will be a next time.
Fortunately I have other things to occupy myself from home. Now helping another organization to work on a paper on Mongolia. Skype is such a useful tool, allowing us to interview the local experts at a fraction of the cost. With the discovery of skype, I have been able to call people all over the world at a fraction of the cost.
Being able to walk normally is such a blessing. I will hopefully be able to walk properly soon. I know being able to walk properly will be never be the same to me again. Please let me remember this experience and with gratitude, I will make good use of my feet and explore the world with them. :)
Because of big foot, my supposedly overseas volunteer stint that have taken many months to plan and my visa that I finally obtained after many obstacles with the help of many people gone up in smoke. I hope there will be a next time.
Fortunately I have other things to occupy myself from home. Now helping another organization to work on a paper on Mongolia. Skype is such a useful tool, allowing us to interview the local experts at a fraction of the cost. With the discovery of skype, I have been able to call people all over the world at a fraction of the cost.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Big Foot
This is my nickname for the past weeks. My eldest nephew came out with it and now the rest of the children are calling me this nickname. A pretty apt name and all due to my walker aircast.
I have a fractured foot and the the walker is to provide a conducive environment for my broken bone to heal itself. It has really been an experience these past 2 weeks. From thinking that it is a sprain, to X-ray showing a fracture after swelling did not subsize and bruises spreading.
With the walker, I see the world zoom past me. City folks are really busy people as they zipped around in such fast pace that I can no longer keep up. I can only watch the dust as they walk past.
Any walking now (only if necessary) is slow, heavy and measured. I am now very attuned to distance, road conditions, stairs and weather conditions. Planning is paramont as walking distance should be optimized, even a trip to the kitchen or lavatory involves lots of consideration. Traffic light is viewed with much trepidation. Crossing my first traffic light is an achievement I remember. Pain, my friend also come visiting more often than is welcomed.
Life indeed suddenly becomes simple as it revolves around the foot. All other plans no matter how long or how much effort have been put in are sidelined for it. It will get the prima donna treatment till it gets well again.
On the bright side, I can now personally feel the struggles of those who have difficulty walking. I am able to find things to keep myself occupied at home. I am a receiver of kind words from strangers. Most of these strangers are usually aunties and uncles that are middle aged. Lastly I can now smell the roses with things being in slower motion.
Ya truly this is an experience that allows me to gain another perspective in life which is not that bad after all. :)
I have a fractured foot and the the walker is to provide a conducive environment for my broken bone to heal itself. It has really been an experience these past 2 weeks. From thinking that it is a sprain, to X-ray showing a fracture after swelling did not subsize and bruises spreading.
With the walker, I see the world zoom past me. City folks are really busy people as they zipped around in such fast pace that I can no longer keep up. I can only watch the dust as they walk past.
Any walking now (only if necessary) is slow, heavy and measured. I am now very attuned to distance, road conditions, stairs and weather conditions. Planning is paramont as walking distance should be optimized, even a trip to the kitchen or lavatory involves lots of consideration. Traffic light is viewed with much trepidation. Crossing my first traffic light is an achievement I remember. Pain, my friend also come visiting more often than is welcomed.
Life indeed suddenly becomes simple as it revolves around the foot. All other plans no matter how long or how much effort have been put in are sidelined for it. It will get the prima donna treatment till it gets well again.
On the bright side, I can now personally feel the struggles of those who have difficulty walking. I am able to find things to keep myself occupied at home. I am a receiver of kind words from strangers. Most of these strangers are usually aunties and uncles that are middle aged. Lastly I can now smell the roses with things being in slower motion.
Ya truly this is an experience that allows me to gain another perspective in life which is not that bad after all. :)
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
MayDay Concert
Went to Mayday concert over the weekend! It was great, truly enjoyed the concert except for the sound system that I think was not working very well.
I did not know I will be able to go until the day before the actual event. Had a budget of $100 from my friend which was also what I was willing to pay. I started searching online for the tickets a week before the concert. As Mayday is a popular band and the concert was a full house, some people were trying to sell the tickets for higher values than its ticketed value. And the original ticketed prices were already not cheap eg 108, 148, 188, 208.
Only during the last few days, price started to drop. I made a few bids even though I knew I would not get them. Thought better to try than do nothing. Thus was bidding $240 for a pair of $188 tickets (worth $376). They were rejected as the people were asking for $300 or more. Then try a few others to no avail even when I offered $200 cash + $50 vouchers. I had a few different kinds of vouchers. I reckoned to use them now to sweeten my deal than to spend more money buying things with the pretext of using the vouchers.
Thought I would not be able to get the tickets anymore on the last day until I saw a posting at about 5pm. The seller could not go to the concert at the last minute. A pair of tickets worth $376 and she wanted to sell it for $300. I contacted her with my offer ($200 plus $50 vouchers) and she accepted it. It was probably a bit too late for her to find buyers and meet them to pass the tickets which was why she accepted my offer. Under such win win situation I got my tickets.
Was quite happy with the deal! And was glad to have gone for the concert. I like Mayday for their songs. Some of their songs are quite inspiring, imploring people to go for their dreams and to love and believe in themselves.
Many of the audience were their diehard fans. Even though we had seats, we were standing more than half of our time as the fans in front of us rose up from their seats to sway with the songs. We all have to stand too in order to see the band.
There was no dancing etc, just singing. And their songs were infectious! Especially like the part where everyone was literally jumping/swaying and singing along with them! Cool! :)
I did not know I will be able to go until the day before the actual event. Had a budget of $100 from my friend which was also what I was willing to pay. I started searching online for the tickets a week before the concert. As Mayday is a popular band and the concert was a full house, some people were trying to sell the tickets for higher values than its ticketed value. And the original ticketed prices were already not cheap eg 108, 148, 188, 208.
Only during the last few days, price started to drop. I made a few bids even though I knew I would not get them. Thought better to try than do nothing. Thus was bidding $240 for a pair of $188 tickets (worth $376). They were rejected as the people were asking for $300 or more. Then try a few others to no avail even when I offered $200 cash + $50 vouchers. I had a few different kinds of vouchers. I reckoned to use them now to sweeten my deal than to spend more money buying things with the pretext of using the vouchers.
Thought I would not be able to get the tickets anymore on the last day until I saw a posting at about 5pm. The seller could not go to the concert at the last minute. A pair of tickets worth $376 and she wanted to sell it for $300. I contacted her with my offer ($200 plus $50 vouchers) and she accepted it. It was probably a bit too late for her to find buyers and meet them to pass the tickets which was why she accepted my offer. Under such win win situation I got my tickets.
Was quite happy with the deal! And was glad to have gone for the concert. I like Mayday for their songs. Some of their songs are quite inspiring, imploring people to go for their dreams and to love and believe in themselves.
Many of the audience were their diehard fans. Even though we had seats, we were standing more than half of our time as the fans in front of us rose up from their seats to sway with the songs. We all have to stand too in order to see the band.
There was no dancing etc, just singing. And their songs were infectious! Especially like the part where everyone was literally jumping/swaying and singing along with them! Cool! :)
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Gender Ratio
One of my foreigner colleagues was asking me on the demographics of the people in the company. The topic naturally progressed to the gender ratio of Singapore. He mentioned that he thought there are more working females in Singapore which I concurred based casually on the fact that I seemed to often see more female passengers in the office lifts.
He thought the female ratio is higher as the males may have left Singapore to skip NS as some of his friends in Australia does. This may be true but I was not so sure it is the main reason as I believe there are not many such "escape" cases. I was wondering whether it could be due to work mobility as in males may be more willing to relocate for work.
Digging further, I went to look for the official statistics as pasted below.
As we can see, at least during the productive working years, there are many more females than males in Singapore.
Under natural birth rate, the ratio of males to female should be higher though with increase in ages, the ratio will creep lower as female has higher life expectancy. Looking at the statistics, during birth, there are more males to female. However the gender ratio turned somewhat dramatically for population between 25-39. I am guessing that it may be due to differences in work mobility for the genders. This is interesting, maybe such numbers are/can be looked if we need to draft some action plans for social issues.
He thought the female ratio is higher as the males may have left Singapore to skip NS as some of his friends in Australia does. This may be true but I was not so sure it is the main reason as I believe there are not many such "escape" cases. I was wondering whether it could be due to work mobility as in males may be more willing to relocate for work.
Digging further, I went to look for the official statistics as pasted below.
As we can see, at least during the productive working years, there are many more females than males in Singapore.
Under natural birth rate, the ratio of males to female should be higher though with increase in ages, the ratio will creep lower as female has higher life expectancy. Looking at the statistics, during birth, there are more males to female. However the gender ratio turned somewhat dramatically for population between 25-39. I am guessing that it may be due to differences in work mobility for the genders. This is interesting, maybe such numbers are/can be looked if we need to draft some action plans for social issues.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Photos....
Was searching for my photos over the past few days only to realize they are all missing. They must have disappeared when my computer crashed last year.
Very much like to scold myself.... How can I not have any backup to these photos... especially since I do not have many to backup in the first place....
For someone who take few photos, each photo is relatively precious. I am afraid memories will fail me someday and the photos can at least remind myself of the experiences.
Further proof that I cannot take anything for granted. Remember to backup your photos, friends.
Very much like to scold myself.... How can I not have any backup to these photos... especially since I do not have many to backup in the first place....
For someone who take few photos, each photo is relatively precious. I am afraid memories will fail me someday and the photos can at least remind myself of the experiences.
Further proof that I cannot take anything for granted. Remember to backup your photos, friends.
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