of age-ing..

I need a holiday. Looking forward to a long holiday in december!!

Oh,btw. I don't equate EVERYBODY I know to something/body else. So stop asking you egotistical narcissistic fools. Later I say you remind me of ... pisai, or something more rude, then you know.

Ageing. Age-ing. Argh, whatever. What's this deal with aging (age-ing, ageing, wtfingever.)? It's all about looks, isn't it? Nothing to do with dying. Guess the term "aging (ageing, age-ing, whoeffingcares.) gracefully" doesn't mean anything anymore.

I've got crows' feet. My eyebags are like eye-saddlebags. Dark circles, panda. Whatever. I like them all. Got character, y'know. I just worry about not fitting into my clothes.

Looks. Beauty. Attractiveness. What the hell. Is it really that important (ahem to ONE of you in particular, you know who you are, oh yes, you.)??? I mean, it's one thing to be ugly, and it's another thing to simply not be pretty, or goodlooking, or whatever. Sensitive topic, but I know a number of people who are pretty average, but are insanely gorgeous character-wise. And when you look at these people, you see that character more than anything else. And that's beauty. So what's with this fixation with looking 21-till-I-die?

I'd rather just be 21-till-I-die. Inside, in my heart. But no, I'm just a grouchy old woman who grumbles at stupid young people in the street. Heh.

Posted by R

On TV!

Ok people. It has been some time we set out open assignments. So here goes.

We are looking for YOUNG BOYS and GIRLS to complete a TV Commercial.

Gender: Boys and Girls.
Age: 13 - 19 years old.
Requirement: Energetic, Sporty, Loves Fun and Sun!

Interested party, please send your profile to ONzLAH@yahoo.com.sg.
Client reserves the right for selection.

Closing Date : 30th Nov 2008

Halia Villa Restaurant

Where can one find a nice chillout place to enjoy a glass of wine while basking in the shades of the trees other than Halia Villa Restaurant located within Singapore Botanical Gardens.

The restaurant serves wonderful Western, International and European Cuisine. Be sure to try out their specialty, the Black pepper crispy softshell crab, Roasted lamb or even the Seafood Stew Halia.

Operating Hours:
Mon-Fri: 12pm - 10pm
Sat/Sun/PH: 8am - 10am, 12pm - 5pm, 6.30pm - 10pm

Halia Villa Restarant
Singapore Botanical Garden
1 Cluny Road (S) 259569 Singapore Botanical Garden

still a kid

Was browsing through some decade old photographs when all of the sudden it popped into my head, completely uninvited, a weird little moment-memory (momery?)of my eldest aunt on my father's side telling me during CNY, hai2 mei2 you3 jie2 huen1,
jiu4 shi4 xiao3 hai2 ma3(loosely translated as, if you're not married yet, you're still a (small) kid).

As my jaw dropped in indignation, my dad, perhaps knowing me a little too well (and more likely to save us all the embarassing spectacle of me attempting to foist my
21st century opinions upon my aunt in Chinese), smoothly entered the conversation, changed the topic, and told me to go off elsewhere and run some random errands.

It's funny. I think I remember writing it sometime ago. You attend more and more weddings, and you get that icky feeling that you're still a child, while all your friends have gone off, gotten themselves hitched, and (gasp) somehow managed to become adults.

I'm thinking about how I see myself, at this ripe old age, neither as a child nor an
adult (and not a teenager either). Although I do get that adult-y feeling every once in awhile whenever some kid refers to me as "auntie", or when I'm talking to someone a decade or so younger than me, and it occurs to me that they see me, for some unknown reason, as an adult.

In this moment of identity-ageist crisis, I suddenly wonder how many of my friends actually identify as adults, and how many of you don't know, and how many still think of themselves as nothing more than some big kid?

What's adulthood? Is it moving out from under my parents' roof? Is it being financially independent? Is it having a job, having a car, having a spouse, having a kid, having both parents deceased, what?

Do you think you're an adult? Those of you who are married, do you think you're an adult? Were you an adult before or after you got married? If it was before, what made you an adult? And those who aren't married but think you're an adult, what makes you an adult?

Why is adult the root word of adultery?


*Pardon for all the ranting..just a gentle reminder; I have received feedbacks that this blog kinda cluttered. Personal entries lumping with commercial postings, well, not to worry. All the "personal" entries will be transfered to another sub-section in times to come. Thank you for your kind understanding and patience. *wink*

Posted by R

FOOD GALORE! Fried Kway Teow

This was perhaps one of the last meal which the Crew of ONzLAH had before their accident. Interesting.

On 1st November, ONzLAH visited Golden Mile Food Center. Golden Mile Food Center is located 505 Beach Road.

Try out 91 Fried Kway Teow. Fried to perfection despite the amount of oil use. It is a must try when you visit the Food Center.

Afraid that you might not be able to find the stall? Look out for the brightest signboard with LCD TV Monitors displaying interviews from the local TV channels.

Of the more unfortunate...

It has been close to 3 weeks since our accident. We are almost recovered. We do know that what remains is perhaps the scars left on our physical bodies and perhaps a mental scar that reminds us of what happened on that day.

Two days after our eventful accident, another accident happened near to Tuas Causeway.

A motorcyclist and his female pillion rider was hit by a 24foot lorry. The lorry driver fled the scene after that. Both riders were left unconscious on the road. Withnesses were not able to obtain the registration number of the lorry.

The male rider suffered concussion and went into a coma. He also suffered from fractured hip and legs. We are glad that the rider have finally woken from his coma but was diagnosed with amnesia.

The female rider suffered cuts and stitches on her back, knee and face. As she is the sole bread winner, she insists to go back to work despite of her 2 weeks medical leaves and taking care of her three children with the youngest being a two year old daughter at the same time.

ONzLAH is assisting with appeal of withnesses to this traffic accident.

Date: 3rd November 2008, Monday
Time: 1650 hrs
Location: Near Tuas 2nd Link (1KM)
Involvement: 24 foot lorry hitting a Motorcycle with two riders on board.
Please call 1800 - 547 1818 Traffic Police to provide the information.

We sometimes take things for granted and complain about our woes and forgot that there are others who suffered worse fate than us. We are constantly complaining how much we suffered from our circumstances and more often than not made things seems far worse than they really are or more painful than the actual thing.

As humans perhaps, we also try to take advantage of these situations to negotiate for what we want.

From the situation of the above mentioned motorcyclist and his wife. They are not able to claim any insurance as they did not have any withnesses who can identify the Lorry Registration Plate. The wife had to support the family as well as take care of her husband while recovering from her own injuries.

Perhaps we should start thinking before we start complaining to the next person how much pain we are in as there are more people in real life that have suffered far worse situations and are still suffering in silence.

Note from Tennas

Christmas! It's just around the corner.

Christmas! It's just around the corner.
ONzLAH is helping to make an appeal.

Boys’ Brigade Sharity Gift Box appeals for gifts, sponsors
Channel NewsAsia - Wednesday, November 12

SINGAPORE: The Boys’ Brigade Sharity Gift Box returns for its 21st year, but Singapore’s longest—running charity project is facing difficulties raising enough funds for its annual operating expenses.

So far, about half of the S$211,000 needed for the project has been raised. This amount will go towards warehousing, operations, transport and administrative support.

In these hard economic times, the Sharity Gift Box hopes to collect general household items and specific gifts for 28,189 beneficiaries.

Of these, 3,000 are on the Public Assistance Scheme, and the remaining come from 171 Voluntary Welfare Organisations.

— CNA/so

of facebook.com

This will, in all probability, be yet another one of those posts you will have read about the evils of yet-another-social-networking-site. But for awhile now I've been
thinking about it - thinking about how annoying it is that I dislike these sites and yet still persist in signing up, logging on, and updating it every so often.
I mean, why?

I have an account on Friendster. I didn't have MySpace. Because having Myspace was a little bit like having GameCube (kinda cute, but universally reviled).

A year ago, I thought, nah, I don't need yet-another-social-networking-blah, but then when Emily got on it and sent me an invite, I gave in. Lost touch with her since 4 yrs ago.

And then I noticed that, hey, Facebook is actually pretty enjoyable, given that Friendster has this terribly slow, buggy interface; and totally random people
could send you gross, pervy messages that take about a week for you to receive. Facebook is private; only your direct contacts to access any of your information.

Little by little people who knew me by that particular email address started adding me; and then word gets out in the office, or in social circle(same thing) since everybody's talking about such-and-such a person's friend, and the little links start being made, and suddenly I have 90+ friends.

I didn't think I had that many friends. I'm eternally amazed by those people who have 450 friends or something.

But that isn't really the point.

What makes me uncomfortable is when people I barely know, people from years ago during a time when I was grappling with my identity and my persistently low self-esteem, people from when I was actually embarassed to be me, start showing up. And some of them "want to be [my] friend". I want to say, I'm not the person you know anymore. But I'm too polite to turn them down.

There are people I don't talk to anymore, and there's a reason why I don't talk to them anymore. Why put up a farce of an imagined relationship out there for the world to see? I want to be able to pick and choose who my "friends" are; I want to have a say in who I want to continue to have a relationship with, instead of simply gritting my teeth and clicking "approve".

So maybe I'm an anti-social bastard. I mean, it is a great way to keep in touch with people. But I have this blog. I have MSN, and ICQ, and email; I have two phone numbers, a home address, an office address. You know where I live, where I work. I wish it were enough.

This is merely a widening in the range of possible relationships we can have. Rather
than simply having an inner circle of best buds (whom we chat with on the phone), and an outer circle of random acquaintances (who leave us impersonal messages wherever), we have an amorphous cloud of particles that are sometimes stuck to the centre, and at other times floating right at the edge of our consciousness.

It's a good sort of flexibility. I'm putting myself out there for other people to pick and choose who I am to them. And I suppose I do the same in return. So maybe I'm not an anti-social bastard, but rather a crazed control-freak.

Posted by R

Zoo worker mauled to death by tigers..

Singapore Zoo visitors screamed as an apparently disturbed worker was mauled to death by three white tigers after he jumped into their enclosure, the zoo says.

The tigers pounced on the 32-year-old contract cleaner after he jumped into the moat surrounding their enclosure and then moved toward the animals, the zoo said in a statement.

The zoo, one of Singapore's most prominent tourist attractions, described the victim as "apparently disturbed and agitated".

Fellow workers reported that he "was acting a little bit erratic and odd, throwing papers around" before the incident, assistant director of zoology Biswajit Guha told Singapore's 938Live radio.

Guha said the cleaner worked at the chimpanzee area and was on his lunch break when the tragedy occurred.

"Goodbye, I won't be seeing you again," Guha quoted the victim as telling one of the zookeepers.

"And they saw him riding off on a bicycle and coming back in through the front entrance again, and then about five minutes later, the whole alert came on the walkie talkie," he said.

Horrified visitors screamed as zookeepers rushed into the tiger enclosure to try to rescue the victim.

They threw rocks to try to distract the animals, which dragged their victim toward a passageway, said Guha.

Zoo workers finally succeeded in luring the tigers away from the man and confining them to their pens, but paramedics later pronounced him dead.

The victim had injuries mainly to his head and neck, Lieutenant Colonel N Subhas, the director of public affairs with the Singapore Civil Defence Force, told AFP.

The zoo identified the dead man as Nordin Bin Montong, a zoo contract worker from Malaysia.

"At no time was any visitor or Singapore Zoo staff exposed to any danger," the zoo said.

Police said they were called to the zoo about 12.30pm and were investigating the "unnatural" death.

The zoo said the moat and other permanent safety features at the enclosure meant there was no risk to visitors or staff.

"Nonetheless, we have temporarily closed the white tiger exhibit to visitors to facilitate investigations into this unfortunate incident," it said.

In an emergency

NOBODY is allowed in the white tigers' enclosure when the big cats are in it, the Singapore Zoo said yesterday.
When their dens need cleaning, it is done only after the beasts are confined in an adjoining den. If someone is attacked, staff members raise the alarm over their walkie-talkies. Field staff head for the site with emergency equipment, including fire extinguishers, extendable poles, cymbals and clay balls to distract the animals. Licensed shooters go to the zoo's armoury to collect a double-barrelled shotgun and a .375 rifle - 'shoot-to-kill weapons in case a life is in danger', said the zoo's assistant director of zoology Biswajit Guha. Yesterday, it took five minutes to activate the shooters. By the time they arrived, the tigers were already confined in their dens, so there was no need to shoot them, said Mr Guha.



* White tigers are not a specific species themselves. They are a unique member of the bengal tiger family and are very rare.

One hundred years ago it is estimated that 100,000 tigers of all varieties existed in the wild. Today estimates are the total population may now be under 5,000. White tigers make up only a small fraction of that figure. There are only about 200 white tigers, all in zoos around the world. There are about 30 in zoos in the United States. Part of the reason they are so rare is that both the male and female parent must carry the right gene for the unique coloring to produce a white tiger cub.

How to survive a tiger attack



Posted by R

Road to recovery!

Arh. Road to recovery. Weekend has been rather eventful for us at ONzLAH. One word to summarise the whole issue... SUAY!

Many thanks to all the readers who have sent their regards and well wishes. We hear you and we sincerely hope none of this will ever happen again. *Touch Wood* Many of you readers have sent messages, emails, call and even visited us. Sincerely we thank all of you.

We are currently recovering from the physical injuries and at the same time helping each other to cope with the mental side of things. It will all take time. Meanwhile, we have realised the importance of Business Continunity. Next time we shall all travel in different form of transports to get to a place.

So how is everyone coping at the moment?

Here are the updates.

1) Ramius, our friend is still resting from all the backaces and neckpains which is causing him lots of troubles. He however has been working hard to make sure everyone gets taken care of despite of his own discomforts and making sure that everyone get represented in the claims to compensation.

2) Raymond, He is back to work. However he is also spending his time looking after Shirlyn.

3) Shirlyn. She is still recovering from the ordeal. She is currently resting at home.

4) Rachel is also resting at home. She is still trying to find ways to take off the bandaid from her wound without causing them to bleed.

5) Tennas. He is well... back to work. He is removing his 16 stiches on Saturday. He is still trying to decide which GP to go to. Nonetheless, he has been running around getting work done since the 2nd day of his medical leave.

Ok, here's all the updates so far. We will keep updating the blog as we recieve them.

Crew of ONzLAH injured in Traffic accident (UPDATE)

On 1st November 2008 Saturday at about 3 pm, four of our ONzLAH Crew with another friend were heading towards Bollywood, at 100 Neo Thiew Rd. While travelling along Jln Bahar Road, the driver of the car decided to take the drive casually. The car appraoched a bus which stopped at the busstop and the driver decided that he shall not overtake. He stopped behind the bus and waited for the bus to move off.

The driver and four other ONzLAH crew members started to chit chat while waiting for the bus to move.

Out of the sudden, there was a crash and the car which the crew of ONzLAH was in was sandwiched between a lorry and the bus.

A speeding lorry hit the saloon car which the crew of ONzLAH was in and the car in turn hit the but infront. The car lost both it's bonnet and boot.

The driver of the lorry alighted from the lorry to check the damages to his lorry and went to the rear of his lorry to make a phone call. All passengers were still trapped in the badly damaged car.

The driver of the car managed to get out of the car and tried to open the door behind the driver's seat. He pulled Shirlyn out of the car who was already in shock. Tennas climbed out of the car with his chin bleeding. He pulled Rachel out of the car and seat her at the nearby bus stand. Rachel too was in shock. Raymond got out of the car by climbing out from the driver's side.

It was chaos all over.

Our driver, quickly accessed the damage and with some help from the alighting passenges from the bus called for ambulance.

Raymond and Tennas and some of the passengers of the bus helped calmed the two injured ladies and after that Tennas did first aid for himself. (Surprisingly the SMRT bus driver did not know that he has a first aid kit on his bus.)

All these while, the lorry driver was at the back of his lorry waiting for his boss.

The ambulance arrived within five minutes and conveyed all the ONzLAH members to hospital. The following is the description of the injuries.

1) Rachel :- Cuts on her lower lip and inuries to her neck and back. She was given outpatient treatment and 3 days medical rest.

2) Shirlyn :- Shock and slight concussion. She was warded in NUH for two days and subsequently discharged on 3rd November 2008 and also 14 days of medical rest.

3) Ramius (Driver) :- Suffered burns on his hands due the airbag explosion. He also suffered injuries to his back and neck. He was given 3 days medical rest.

4) Raymond :- Suffered injuries to his neck and back. He was given 3 days medical rest.

5) Tennas :- Suffered serious cuts to his chin and injuries to his neck and back. He was given 16 stiches to his chin and was given 4 days medical rest.

To date, our driver and ONzLAH are still trying to accertain the amount of damages in terms of the equipments lost during the accident as well as to the car.

ONzLAH would like to thank all the passengers on the SMRT bus who lent a helping hand at that time of the accident and SCDF for their prompt response.

Special thanks to Dr Vivien of NUH for stitching Tennas up.

More updates will follow.

NEWS! Crew of ONzLAH injured in CAR ACCIDENT.

THE CREW OF ONZLAH met with a serious accident at Jln Bahar on 1st November 2008. The saloon car the crew was in was badly smashed with several crew badly injured.

More news will be updated.