Home, At Last.

The day following Bobbie's departure was particularly difficult. Everything seemed to have come to a standstill and no one in the household was talking much or for that matter doing much. The day passed so gradually and particularly quiet; no more jingling of the collar bell worn on Bobbie's neck. Both Lisa and I painfully began packing away Bobbie's stuffed toys, pillows, towels and blanket; no words were spoken and no eye contact - we simply knew what each had to do and done it on our very own thoughts.

Bobbie's cremation was scheduled on the weekend and yesterday, we finally brought our boy home to his final resting place. We managed to identify a cool and quiet spot in a corner of the dining room, a place where Bobbie used to lay down and hibernate at times. There's where we decided would be ideal to place Bobbie's urn with his ash in it so that friends and relatives who were acquainted with our little boy could see him and if they like, could also light a candle for the little one.

I shall now began searching for a nice pedestal, hopefully large and sturdy enough to accomodate the urn, a crystal candle holder and a picture frame.

In Remembrance of Bobbie

Bobbie came into my life when I began courting my wife in late 2002. He was very hostile to me the first time I met him as I saw my then girlfriend home after a late night outing. It was very natural of him to behave that way as he wanted to protect his young mistress from a total stranger he had never met before. Ah....., that was our initial greeting.

When Lisa and I got married, Bobbie moved in with us into our new house. He liked the new place and did not take very long to get accustomed to the new environment and identifying his favourite resting spot, which was the entrance to the kitchen. During the day, he would lay at his spot with his pillow, blanket and stuffed toys, waiting patiently for us to come home from work. When he heard us at the door step, Bobbie would frantically jumped and barked to express his excitement in greeting us. On many occasions when I came home after a long business trip, he would jump on me in joy when I stepped into the house. I knew he missed me - we had a special bond.

About a week ago, Bobbie was passing out stools containing blood. Shortly, he began vomiting food which also contained traces of bloods. Worried about his condition, he was immediately admitted to the animal hospital. We learned from the veterinarian that Bobbie's immune system had began systematically attacking both his red and white blood cells and his platelets level was low. Bobbie was administered some pretty strong medication to raise his platelets level and he began to show signs of improvement. The vet discharged Bobbie on Wednesday when he was seen lively and active, platelets level restored to normal and stopped vomiting; much to our delight.

Things took a sudden turn when Bobbie began vomiting food and suffering from diarrhoea yesterday. The vomiting stopped and he was up and active again until late into midnight, his vomiting and diarrhoea became frequent, to a point where there was hardly any solid food to discharge. He was breathing heavily and felt weak; one could tell he was in some kind of a pain. He was admitted to the hospital first thing in the morning when it was opened and the vet decided to keep him in the hospital for observation. Initial assessment suspected that he could be reacting to the strong medication to stop the immune system from attacking good cells, but the stomach was experiencing gastric complication. Both Lisa and I last saw Bobbie when he was taken away from the consultation room to his cage. By lunch time, we got a call from the hospital that Bobbie collasped in his cage and could not be resuscitated after several attempts. Though the cause of his death is still unknown, a post-mortem procedure would have to be carried out to find the answer. But to Lisa and I, it did not matter any longer as God had decided to take Bobbie away from his suffering to be with him. We are sad but thankful that we need not decide on the best choice to end his pain, like putting him to sleep.

From a total stranger to being a part of my small family set up, Bobbie is a son that I have never had. As I am trying to finish the last paragragh of this posting, the sight of Bobbies' toys and pillow bring about droplets of tears for a loss I did not expect. Tonight, the house is unusually quiet as both Lisa and I grief silently on our own. Bobbie will always remain in my heart forever for as long as I live and I shall miss him from today onwards. To Bobbie, my son, may you find peace and comfort in God's embrace. I love you always, my son.

Lexus IS 250

Three years ago I ditched my BMW 318 and bought myself a Lexus IS 250. One may ask why I got rid of a prestigous German piece of technology for a 'Toyata' made car? Well..., my reason was a simple one; I didn't think I should be paying for something which I thought the Germans should be doing it right. Take for example, the left and right rain channels of my Beemer were replaced one after another when water entered the cabin interior during a car wash. Upon questioning the service consultant, I was given the reply that each rain channel was made of plastic and came in two pieces joined three quarter down the length. Frequent opening and closure of the door replicated a pounding force on the channel that caused the two-piece channel to split and break at the joint. The service consultant even recommended that I should go for a chrome rain channel if I desired a permanent solution as it was made in a single piece. I thought to myself, 'What a loaf of craps! The Germans knew that problem and the consumer had to pay for something to fix it permanently?' Of course there were a host of other mechanical problems like changing the radiator water pipe, 3 times duration the 3 years I possessed the car and many other issues. The Beemer problems were simply too expensive for me to feel that I had made the right choice.

The Lexus IS250 is really a joy drive as a daily car. In the 3 years that I have been driving it, I have never sent the car into the workshop for repair or parts replacement except for regular maintenance. Come to think of it, I made only 5 trips to the workshop for maintenance so far. Being a frequent traveller who makes regular business trips on a monthly basis, my Lexus IS 250 never fail to ignite its engine after leaving it in the car park for a forthnight! The cabin interior finishing is really refine and the Mark Levinson audio system is superb! Quietness is what Lexus does best and when I speed through the highway, you could hardly hear the noise generated by wind turbulence (so hold your quiet fart too if you don't want other passengers to know) .

Lexus is indeed legendary in making reliable cars. The Lexus IS 250 made me a proud owner and this is really one good decision worth noting.

Caught A Snatch Thief

I was strolling home after packing away my dinner from Kou Fu foodcourt when I saw two girls running towards my direction, one after another, under the covered walkway. On first impression I thought the two girls were playing 'catching' with each other, having the first girl passing me swiftly. Two seconds later, the second girl (the victim) paused momentarily at my position and screaming her life away for my help and at the same time mumbling the key words "snatch thief" and "she stole my wallet".

My basic instinct came into play and I took off without hesitation and gave chase. I shouted for the suspect to stop (of course she won't stop, it's only natural for her to run and escape!) and was soon joined by an Indian national along the chase path. We turned a corner at Block 157 and soon caught up with the suspect and subdued her.

The suspect pleaded for mercy and offered to return the stolen wallet to the victim. She went on to explain that she was in a desperate situation as she had a baby to feed at home. She pleaded with the victim and sought for her forgiveness, and turned to me asking me to let the matter rest. The victim broke down in tears and was terrified by the entire episode; she appeared to soften her stand against the suspect and was on the brim to give the suspect some money in return as charity. On the other hand, I told everyone that I had to call the police as it was a criminal case, even if I had to believe what the suspect had said about her ironical circumstances.

With the talking was still on-going, the suspect took the opportunity to run off again. The Indian naitonal shouted to give chase and once again we took off after the suspect. In less than a 10 m distance chase, we caught her once more and I took no chance with the suspect; I called the police immediately for help.

While waiting for the police to arrive, I scolded the suspect for causing the victim to be so terrified and breaking down uncontrollably in tears. I ticked her off for being a snatch thief when she is phyically perfect and fit to work. She tried to defend her position by saying that she had already returned the wallet to the victim and again she was very poor and needed money to feed her baby. I asked everyone whereabout each was staying and learnt that the victim lived in the condominium behind my flat, the Indian national was putting at the church under construction at the corner of the road and the suspect was living at Block 148; all of us within close proximity of one another. I chided the suspect for stealing within the neighbourhood as we were a small community and would bump into another.

The wait for police to arrive seemed like ages as I was experiencing difficulty in retaining the suspect through harsh reprimandings and my offers to help her. It didn't take the suspect too long to realise that both the Indian national and I had a weakness in our enclosure when surrounding her and she took off toward the main road for the last time. Good thing both men were swift in our counter response and overcame her at the pedestrain pavement before she could dash across the road. The suspect, though small and petite, put up a strong struggle and caused my right thumb to get twisted a little while inflicting some kind of a hand injury to the Indian national. At that point in time, I had two worries on my mind:

1. Would the suspect accuse us to molesting her?


2. If she broke loose from us, we gave chase, she dashed across the main road and got hit by on-coming vehicles, I would have caused her harm indirectly?

Damned, the police sure took a long time to show up. I was telling myself that I would have to stop the chasing if the suspect break away because my twisted thumb was hurting a lot. At that instant, someone shouted "the police has arrived" and I could feel the suspect giving up her struggle and surrender herself to the police officers.

The suspect was handcuffed and led away by a policewoman. The victim, the Indian national and I had to have our statements recorded by individual investigating officer. I learnt that the victim was called Alice (an Indonesian student studying locally) when I said my goodbye to her after having my statement noted down and signed off.

I feel sad about the entire episode; I did not feel good at all being someone who had apprehended a snatch thief. Though I am not able to verify the truth on what the suspect had said about her desperate situation, I have a soft spot in my heart that the suspect would not have resorted to stealing if she is not desperate at all. I know that I have done the right thing by handling the suspect to the police and I would have felt totally guity if I have not responded to the victim's cries for help. I feel obligated to help the suspect by directing her to the right authority so that she could turn over into a new leaf and perhaps having the social welfare department helping her to sort out whatever financial problem she has. This is really one event that should never have happened. There is no victory for everyone involved.

New EZ-Link Cards

I have not been blogging for a long, l-o-n-g, L-O-N-G time. My busy work schedule took away much of my personal time and the frequent overseas trips also robbed me of the much needed energy to bring myself to sit in front of my computer to start typing away my thoughts.

I have not been travelling on the public transport for a while now, particularly the MRT and today I finally have the chance to take the train to go attend a meeting which is just a train station away from my home. It also came to my mind that I have to replace mine and my cousins' EZ-link cards as they would be expiring in September 2009.

I read in the newspaper months ago informing the public not to go and rush to replace the EZ-link cards for fear of holding up long queues. For that, I had the impression that the process of replacement was time consuming and tedious. I held back my urge for the rush till today I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't take more than 3 minutes to replace one single card - I timed it using my own card as a trial at the Newton MRT station. I got a new blue card.

After my meeting, I saw the long queue at the ticketing office and decided to return to Toa Payoh MRT station in hope of a shorter line. I was wrong, the line was equally long, but I had the Post Office to turn to as an alternative site. So I took the escalator up to the Post Office which is just above the train station. The line was much shorter and I managed to replace another 3 of my cousins' cards. Unfortunately, I left 2 other cards at home and probably have to wait for the next available oppotunity when I get to take the MRT train or post a letter again.

For now, the cards seem to come in only 2 standard colours. I'm sure over time more designs would appear on the EZ-link cards.

VISA Application

My job as a Biological Safety Consultant requires me to travel overseas rather frequently and in the process, I am required to apply for entry VISA on many occasions. Singapore, despite being a friendly nation globally, does not have many VISA-free entry programmes with many countries, particularly those developing nations in the region. Visiting foreign embassies and applying for an entry VISA can be quite a challenge and traumatising for some if you are ill-prepared.

Three months ago I went to the Royal Thai Embassy (RTE) to apply for a business VISA and I was caught with a change of ruling in the application process. The RTE required a confirmed air ticket slip or E-ticket to be presented along with the application form before allowing any acceptance of the application. That was a strange ruling which I could not comprehend; what if your VISA application is not approved and you suffered a monetary loss in the cancellation of your flight? Who will bear the cost of the cancellation fee?

For my first entry VISA application at the RTE, I filled up the application form which was downloaded from the website of the Thailand Foreign Ministry, but was later rejected as I had to used the photocopied version of the form available at the RTE premises. Right, so I figured that the downloaded version was the incorrect one and had to used the 'official' photocopied version (I wondered how official that form can be?); but why permit the incorrect version to be made available to the public online? Hmmm.......

I am planning a business trip to Myanmar next week and decided to look up the internet to find out the requirements for entry VISA. Stated on the foreign ministry website, I would require three passport size photographs, fill up three sheets of an application form and bring along an invitation letter from the Myanmar company who is requesting my visit. Again, the application forms are made downloadable from the website, but I decided not to make the same mistake twice. I filled up the downloaded form, but I also asked for the original official form when I got to the embassy this morning just in case the two versions are the same. True enough, the original form was different from the downloaded version in terms of paper size and quality (thinner sheets of printed paper instead of the normal A4 size paper). Just when I thought I out-smarted the process that round, I was told that I needed my own company letter to accompany the submission, which was nowhere mentioned on the website or posted on any notice on the embassy premises. Henceforth, I had to rush back to my office to prepare a company letter and returned a second time in the same morning to complete my application!

It seems apparent to me that most embassies' personnel enjoy seeing people making a come back each time they failed to follow the correct procedure or the lack of documentation. The entire situation is not made any better where there's no official notice put up on the embassy premises or the relevant foreign ministry website to advise the public on the proper procedure and correct documentation requirements for a successful submission - which I personally thought would enhance the efficiency of VISA application, shorter queuing time and less frustration from the applicants. Even foreign ministries' websites do not seem to be properly updated with the correct application forms and procedure requirements.

Guess one can never be fully prepared when making a trip to any embassy to submit an entry VISA application form; you have to expect that a second trip is needed to complete the entire cycle. Oh yes..., bring along your own stationeries, you won't want to miss out on the glue, correction fluid or paper clips if you are attempting to make ONLY 1 successful trip!!! I truly applaud the Australian government for granting its VISA approval via the online ETA system; we are afterall living in the internet era now!

Another Mrs Yuen in the making........

Early this month, I attended my cousin's wedding in Perth - congratulation to both Anthony and Carley! A new Mr and Mrs Yuen was made in May 2008; but are we seeing another Mr and Mrs Yuen in the near future? Well...., perhaps it may as well become a reality if everything goes smoothly!

My younger brother and his fiancee returned to Singapore over the long weekend for work purpose, but managed to find time to get together with the family for an official family dinner on Sunday night. It was over dinner that I sensed a new "Mr and Mrs Yuen" could potentially become a reality if (keeping my fingers crossed) everything goes as planned. It would be tough to be exactly sure if the wedding bells would ring; my future sister-in-law, being a performer, would find it difficult to pinpoint the exact until later half of the year when her work schedule is more certain. Nonetheless, the entire family is pleased to feel something is possibly happening in the last few months of this year. Yay.........!!!!!