About me

 

I will talk a bit about my interests. Starting from the first few. Cycling was one of my first interests because I could cycle quite well. : ) I started when I was very young while I still stayed in a kampung(a malay word for village). I was always cycling around and exploring the kampung with my cousin. We go around various parts of the village looking for spiders to catch and durian trees. So that we could look for durians to eat; and many others. I took a break from cycling for quite some time as my bicycle was stolen when I was secondary 1. Of course, I still cycled when I go to the beach or whenever I get the chance to.

It was only during the army days that some of my bunk-mates and me got a bike each. After that we meet quite often to go cycling together; mostly going to Bukit Timah Cycling Trail (Bukit Timah is a nature reserve here in Singapore, in there exists the only 'mountain bike trail'). There were times when we went for night cycling. I remembered once when we were caught in the rain in the wee hours of the morning (5a.m. to 6a.m.). It was so cold, my friends and I were shivering. : ) Nowadays we cannot find the time to come out together, and the frequency that we cycle is also reduced due to studies and work. I still like cycling because of the feeling of being free to go anywhere I want whenever I am on my bike. This of course is limited to my stamina and fitness, which is not that good now that I do not exercise that regularly. Still my bike is around, and I still hop on and go somewhere once in a while. Though my mileage is significantly reduced. Used to go at least 40-50 km for every trip. Now it is good if I can go 20km per trip.

Now I am married with a daughter, so cycling is quite a rare event for me. An excuse, no doubt, but each trip takes about 1.5 hrs on average, so my bike is collecting dust in the storeroom.

 

Now lets talk about basketball. I got crazy over basketball when I went into my secondary years. I literally played basketball everyday (except Sundays when I go out with my family). My classmates were equally crazy over basketball as me. We would go to a community centre near our school after school EVERYDAY. (community centre is a gathering place for the residents nearby with sports facilities, activity rooms for class or study and lots of others) We would spend the whole afternoon there playing basketball. Through my four years in secondary school, I would say my skills improved by quite a bit. Now I do not play as often due to lack of 'ka kis' (people to play with, the 2 words are in hokkien, a chinese dialect). And due to lack of basketball courts around my home and my time as a student is also limited. I have to travel quite far from my house to uni, takes 1 1/2 hours for me to reach school form home. Of course, the ultimate reason is I have gotten lazy and my fitness just does not enable me to keep up with others when I do play. Now even though I do not play as often, my skills are still there. I remembered once when I played with a few of my friends, they realized that I am actually quite accurate at getting baskets, so they kept a tight look-out on me. : )

 

Computer Games! I was addicted to computer games when I was in my secondary and junior college days. Even when there was exams coming I would still play them. I still remember that my computer then had a keyboard locking device with a key, and guess what I did? I figured out how to override the device and continued playing even when my mum locked the keyboard and kept the key. I just disconnected the device from inside the computer. Clever huh! Come to think of it, I think I am a genius (just joking), mischievious is a more apt word for me. Anyway, I played lots of games and realised that I loved strategy games the most.
Some of my favourites are Civilisation, Romance of the three kingdoms, the X-com series and some others. They are my favourite cos I am not good at the others like Doom (I nearly vomitted after playing it), soccer managers, fight simulators....etc. So far I only liked one fight simulator - the B17 bomber. That was a great game in my opinion.
Now I am still trying to complete Mechcommander. Not because I am not good, just no time and not so addicted that's all. Looking forward to the release of Mechwarrior 3. I am not really up to date with computer games anymore but that does not mean I do not love them any less. : ) 

Haha. Got hold of Mechwarrior 3 and enjoying the game.

Got to play lots of other games but generally don't play as often as before due to work.

Hardly have time for games. Last game played was Sacred. This is a Role Playing Game. I enjoyed it but too bad it takes too much time to play. Finally completed after playing it on and off after work or on saturday mornings.

Now............games is out for me.

Somebody bugged me about missing something on my webpage. Here it is, you know who you are. : ) Anyway for those who are scratching your head and wondering what I am talking about, I am talking about drama. 

I was involved in drama when I got into university. Joined the Chinese Society Drama Subgroup with my junior college friend. I was involved as part of the committee in my first year. Then as I was more exposed to drama and acting, I started to like acting. My first role was as a cabby (taxi driver). I would suppose that would be the lead role. I got lots of encouragement, especially the someone that bugged me about this. Thanks to you, Chaoyi and other seniors around, I liked the feeling of being on stage and acting.
That was the start of my "acting career". Since then, I had participated in about 5 drama performances, including 2 that were public performances. Through these performances and various other lessons, I have learnt much. The sharing of experiences by the seniors also benefitted me.

Links to the drama subgroup in NTU and also the group of drama lovers who couldn't get enough of drama in NTU and got together to form "What's Theatre" can be found in my favourite links section.

Right not, I am not involved with the drama group as before. As the activities and rehearsals take up a lot of time, I have not been able to join these drama lovers as often as before. In fact, I have not really met up with them or join in their activities for quite a few months already. I do hope to be able to act once again in the near future with these people that have been through long and tiring rehearsals with me.

 

I have always wanted to make music on my own. Looking at how easy it was for others to play music, I sort of envied them. I almost picked up guitar during my army days but I did not have the perserverance then. Not only till later did I start to pick up guitar. It was in NTU (again!) that my interest in guitar was refound. : ) I joined a christian group in NTU called the Campus Crusade for Christ. It was during my involvement with them that I started to know more about God and who Jesus is. Jesus is not just my peronal saviour, He is also my friend and my guide in life. Through the activities and God's working in my life, my perspective of life changed dramatically. I use to think that life is boring because in Singapore, we students study for about 15-17 years (depending on course of study) just to get a degree. Then after that, we get married to the one we love and have children with them. Then bring them up and then watch them grow up and get degree and then get married and then we pass away. 

Well, I did put it in a simplistic manner but that was almost about it. Then God changed my view. He opened up my eyes to the world, not just this world but His World. He allowed me to see beyond this life I have here on Earth. He let me see that I have a mission to accomplish here on Earth. Since then, my life has been turned upside down and inside out. I saw my life more clearly. I realised the faults that I never knew were there, I started to examined and reflect more. I started to have problems. Does not mean I do not have problems before this, just that I have chosen to evade them before. Now I know I have to meet them face to face. It was difficult. It was hard. It was agonizing. It was .......It was good that God allowed me to have this experience. Praise the Lord!

Through all these things, I had a lot of struggles. With my problems, with my family, with myself most of all. I knew it was not going to be an easy journey on the day I committed my life to God. I took a while (understatement) to do that. Since then, though I had my ups and downs as I struggle through, I knew I would never give up because I know God never gave up on me. I am always reminded of the story of the prodigal son told by Jesus. I am just like the son and God is the father. Thanks you, Lord for changing my life.

Oops! Sorry, seems like I have deviated a bit. Now where was I? Ah! Guitar. Yes, now I am taking a guitar course with Yamaha music school. Enjoying myself, though I must admit, I have not been practising much. Really hope to persevere on this course I have chosen. And of course, my desire to make music......

My favourite pastime now is to play with my daughter. She is 16 months (Mar '05). Getting very active and learning to speak. Most of my time at home would be with my family. Looking after her is my hobby now. :)

I am a pretty well-accomplished father, in the sense that I know almost everything of taking care of a baby, except breastfeeding one, for obvious reasons.

That's all for now.