On the Tibet situation

I’ve been reading up a fair bit on the Tibetan situation these few days, and it seems that foreign media as well as the general public sympathetic to Tibet tend to generalize the situation as China’s fault.
I’m not saying it’s not – it could be, or not – nobody really knows the real situation besides [...]

Travel stretches the mind (Day 71 in Vancouver, Part 2)

I’ve often been asked by my fellow Singaporean counterparts why I want/like to travel alone… some of them tell me they think it’s better to go in groups because it’ll be more fun, there will be people to share costs with, people to talk with, etc. Well, they aren’t wrong. I guess it’s just that [...]

Late night chats at Fairview Crescent (Day 71 in Vancouver)

My roommates and I often have late night chats about philosophical stuff over beer. Last night’s conversation hovered over the subject of satisfaction in life.
I shared my opinion that satisfaction can be attained in two ways – actually reaching one’s ideal state or lowering one’s opinion of what is considered ideal. One of my roommates [...]

More trip planning to do… (Day 68 in Vancouver)

These days I am starting to enjoy my own cooking. I’m glad that after nearly 3 months of daily practice, I am now able to whip up a rather decent meal for myself. This compares with the first few weeks when I often get sick and tired at the lousy food I was making.
In fact, [...]

Days 60 – 67 in Vancouver

I’ve been getting into the bad habit of typing my daily journals into a word document and then uploading it in batches. Gotta really get out of this habit because it’s very disorganized.
Day 60
I went for a marketing experiment today to earn a bonus 1% for one of my courses. It was a stock market [...]

Healthy to ask if government is doing enough?

Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said it is healthy for Singaporeans to be asking if the government is doing enough after each Budget debate.But he added that most do understand that it is important to first grow the economy and create jobs so that there will be resources to help those [...]

What champagne is really made of

“Here’s to champagne, the drink divine
That makes us forget all our troubles
It’s made of a dollar’s worth of wine
And thirty dollars worth of bubbles”

Healthcare costs & subsidies for low income households

Despite having the best economists around to design policies and budgets, Singapore has been slow to introduce measures to cushion low income earners from inflation and rising costs of living due to housing and GST hikes. Warnings of inflation and signs of an overheating economy have been seen since last year, but it’s only until [...]

More reading week vacation photos

Really plump bird (left) at Stanley Park…

Bird of paradise… think this was at the Vancouver Aquarium…

Dolphins performance at the Vancouver Aquarium…

Ice cream place with over 200 flavours…

$5.50 for 18pcs of sushi plus miso soup… not very good though…

Fireplace at the UBC Macdonald’s…

My stash of food… just a small portion of it… =)

View from UBC… breathtaking!

Taken [...]

Days 54 – 58 in Vancouver

Day 54
It was a terrible day for me… I slept too little and was tired the whole day, couldn’t finish writing my midterm answers because I had too much to write… and I forgot to bring my assignment that I was supposed to hand in during class today.
Right after class I went up to the [...]