Collin Ng's Blog

When I was a young boy, I used to sport a head full of thick hair.  It was so thick and coarse that the Indian barber I used to patronise as a boy had to exert little more pressure to comb my hair.  My late father had thick hair, my late uncle too.  Even on my maternal side, none is bald to the best of my knowledge.  Why am I bald?  Beats me, I have no answer either.  If there is any solace, my two younger brothers have also started to bald albeit at an older age. I started to notice receding hairline when I was in my mid 20s.  Did I panic?  Of course I was hell panicky.  The first thought that came to mind then was how to get a girlfriend if I am bald.  I was in the customer service industry and impression counts most too.  Svenson was the answer to my plight.  I was recommended a 10-course treatment that cost me a cool 4-figure sum and that did not include the special shampoo and condition which were charged separately. ...

As frontliner in the service line, we are likely to encounter nasty customers which is part and parcel of our job - like it or not.  Still on my good old days with KLM in the swinging 80s, such encounter was a norm to us and it remains so till today whoever that duty personnel is.  Suffice to say, our job was quite mundane but the different encounters at the check-in, arrival hall and boarding gate made our job interesting. During flight preparation for each departure, we used to assign seats requested by our passengers.  Some wanted buck-head seats for more leg space or to install bassinet for their infants, some wanted aisle, some window, some smoking and some non-smoking, so on and so forth.  In a full flight situation, it is definitely not possible to meet all requests and most passengers would understand.  It can't be helped when the first station and in our case, Jakarta took up most of the the popular seats and that left us with limited choices. ...

Note from me: This article was taken from the blog of the 4th PM of Malaysia (http://chedet.cc/?p=1210) who penned his views on multiracialism in Malaysia.  I wish to state that I am not his supporter as most of his views are draconian to say the least.   Quote 1. Malaysia is a multiracial country. It is multiracial in the true sense of the word. This is because Malaysian nationals retain their identification with their countries of origin or where their forebears came from. In no other country with a large number of citizens of foreign origin do we see this retention of previous identities. 2. Initially, during the time of negotiation between the communities for independence, there was some expectation of assimilation into a single Malayan identity. But the resistance was too strong and the leaders gave in so as to get every race to support the quest for independence. Not only should the original identity be maintained but the language, culture and media of instructi...

Group Picture at Pasir Gudang Ferry Terminal It is a unique program comprising a tapestry of a high seas cruise voyage, bike ride, interesting sightseeing tour, magic & mask changing performance, food & more food and fun & plenty of laughter for a group of outdoor adventure seekers.  There were some who were meeting us for the first time but it took just a little while of warming up before everyone started to click like old buddies. On way to Leisure World by BatamFast ferry  The 2 days and 1 night event was scheduled on 11 Jan, Saturday and 25 were confirmed including some of my regular kakis like Kevin, Dora, CK, TS and Noelle.  However, Dora who was to bring her 15-year old son along fell sick at last moment had to withdraw, much to the disappointment of her son, Marcus who was looking forward to the trip.  I told Dora I can take care of her baby (son) in her absence but she just could not convince herself to let her son go alone.  Tr...

I was a young passenger handling officer with KLM at the airport in the swinging 80s.  I was on duty to meet a special need passenger who was on wheelchair and breathing on an oxygen apparatus at the transit. He was flying in from Australia onboard Qantas and to re-board on our flight to Europe via Amsterdam. Between the incoming Qantas flight and our outbound flight, there were few hours in transit for him.  Then we have only one terminal at Changi Airport and the boarding gates between the two airlines was one end at the east wing to the other end at the west wing.   When he was pushed out from Qantas' arrival gate, I took over.  He had a big breathing apparatus on him and he was totally immoblised but can still sit instead of lying flat down.  He was not the usual wheelchair passengers that we used to handle.  Admittedly, this was my first experience handling such special need passenger and I was not even first aid trained.  I thought my job was...

It is the time of the year where I will post my last entry before the clock strikes past midnight into the new year.  In the first quarter of the year, I have decided to quit my full time job and go with my passion.  Having crossed half a century mark, it is a risk I must say and I should know better.  I have faced business failures and I won't want to be caught in a tight financial situation again.  Fear not, I told myself.  All I need is to manage my expectation and I should be fine. I like to organise outdoor events and this is my passion.  It is also my livelihood now.  With times on my side, I have had organised quite a number of cycling and hiking tours in the one year period.  Thanks to Sandy, I am pleased that I have the opportunity to collaborate with Star Cruises where we launched our first ever cruise and cycle tour which brought us to Phuket and Langkawi in October this year.  Following our successive maiden run, our second cr...

Note from me: On the eve of the New Year, this contribution is from a good friend of mine who prefers to stay anonymous and I am pleased to post it on my blog.   Quote A bespectacled old lady walked up to me and thrust a packet of dried herbs under my nose, and without waiting for any response from me, pointed at a date and said, “what’s this?” (in mandarin). In a flash, I looked at what I was wearing – a purple and pink sweater – and wondered if she could have considered me an NTUC staff. “Cannot be what,” I thought to myself. But then since the packet was still under my nose and her forefinger was still poking at “Nov” and she was still asking me, “what’s this ah?” I decided to heck it and told her (in mandarin) that it means the month of November 2014. She didn’t say a word of thanks and just shuffled away. I also walked on my way but I was surprised at my subsequent thoughts. Initially, I was irritated at such an ungrateful and rude woman. Golly, do such uncouth p...

The recent ‘Little India’ incident is a wake-up call and it shows that we can never take things for granted no matter how secure and safe our city is.  We must always be vigilant and be prepared.  Ours is a not a perfect place, definitely not but I won’t swoop this place with another place in any part of the world.  If I hope to land a perfect place, it can only appear in my dream.  I remember I was 20 and was serving NS.  We were sent to Australia for a month or so training stint.  That year was 1982.  In between training, we had one day rest & recreation (R&R) in this small town called Rockhampton.  My army buddies and I were happily roaming the town.  We walked past a pub and few white men who had a drink too much suddenly barged out.  We did not even provoke them but they started to call us “names” and even challenged us to a fight.  We were on foreign soil and we were definitely out-numbered.  We just kept q...

I should be among the disgruntled lot but when I dug deeper, I did not.  It was tough growing up in the 60s and 70s with 4 other siblings.  Our parents are illiterate and birth control was never their agenda as we popped up one or two years apart of each other.  I am the second in the family.  We were not taught values from day one as life was a struggle for us.  The neighbourhood we were in was shady where gang fights were norm.  I remember I was bullied by a teenage gangster who threw cigarette into my singlet for no rhyme or reason.  I was about ten then.  That gangster still lives around the neighbourhood but he is an old man now.  I still see him on few occasions.  One can forgive but will never forget.  The flat we were living in was one-hall type with a common corridor shared by all.  Even a fart can be heard from far.  There is no room for privacy, we slept in the hall and sometimes my brothers and I slept in the...

After our run, me on left, Catherine, Dora, Howie and CK It is the biggest marathon event in Singapore, probably in the region too.  I first ran my first Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore event (SCMS) in 2007 where I participated in the 10 km run and since then, it has been a yearly ritual for me.  It was my third half marathon run with SCMS.  My first was in 2009 where I clocked 1 hr 56 mins, second was last year where I paced Winnie and this year's run was to be my third.  I did 2 full marathons at SCMS too.  I was hoping to clock my personal best for this event and if possible, go under 1 hour 50 mins - a tall order to say the least.  To prepare for that, I had been doing more runs with my run kakis.     SCMS 2013 was scheduled on 1 Dec 2013, Sunday and as expected, participants were over 50,000 strong.  The 21 km event attracted 12,000 runners and the flag off was at the bridge that will lead us to Sentosa.  The 21 km rou...

Group picture before rolling off If I can count correctly, this was to be my 5th cycling trip to Bintan.  After our 'Ride For Rations 2013' cycling event which took us from Malacca to Singapore, our GP Riders captain, Tomas had been asking me to organise a cycling tour to Bintan for our cycling kakis.  So, the date 16 Nov, Saturday was fixed and we were to stay one night at a resort.  I had all along been staying at the idyllic Ocean Bay Resort at Trikora Beach but this time, I decided to change to another resort just for the experience.  Febry who used to work for Ocean Bay but now she is running her own travel company in Batam will be my contact person. Some of us donning "Ride For Rations 2013" jerseys on day one We aimed to get 20 cyclists for this cycling tour and this time, we also extended invitation to another cycling group, Hougang Slow Riders (HSR).  Most of the cyclists are regular and many will be bringing their road bikes.  And fo...

                                                          Group photo at the resort This capped another fun-filled weekend cycling event with a group of gregarious outdoor seekers on 9 Nov, Saturday- all 13 of us. We were to meet at Outram MRT station for our coach and prior to that, everyone had been informed to arrive by 0630 hrs.  Only Elaine will meet the rest of us at Woodlands Immigration.  I managed to arrange with my operator, Prima Sierra Holidays to rent bikes for some of us, thus saving the hassle of bringing their own bikes over from Singapore and in the end, only seven brought their own bikes.  We left for Woodlands at little over 0700 hrs. The familiar faces in the group were Kevin, Jai, Elaine, Richard, Fenny and Karyn.  It was my first time meeting up with Jen who brought her friend, Cara, Sebestian, Ve...

John (in forefront) took this picture when we were taking our lunch We were classmates at MacPherson Secondary School from 1977 to 1978.  Looking back, it has been more than 30 years and time really flies.  We are now in our early 50s.  Lucian (Tong Hai, always on the plump side and still is) and Don (Teck King aka Johnny Walker) and I used to meet up at Alan's (Mong Kwang) place on every Chinese New Year.  It has become a ritual of sorts to us for good many years after leaving school.  Alan used to live at Haig Road, moved to Bedok and finally Pasir Ris when he settled down.  We were always there on Chinese New Year until the recent years. I have lost contact with Ragu until we are connected some years ago.  Through Ragu, I managed to get re-connected with our form teacher, Mr Samuel, who unfortunately passed away last year.  John (Joo Chai), our class monitor lives near me and we have always been in touch. Then, there is Daniel (Wing ...