Collin Ng's Blog

I have less than 2 hours to post my final summary of the year before the clock strikes @ 12 midnight to usher into the new year. In my 47 years, soon...48 in less than 2 months from now and 2009 has brought much surprises and along, happiness to me that I cannot recall when was the last time I experienced such euphoria of sorts or did I? Beginning of the year 2009, I set my goal to complete my first full marathon run by year end and to my much delight, I did in better than expected time. Never did I expect, I won the draw to run the marathon in France in September 2010, courtesy of AirFrance and France Tourism Singapore. The run was made even more meaningful when I decided to raise fund for the cancer cause. Increditably, doing good deed does reap benefits when one least expected it. In January, I become the proud owner of a brand new SUV vehicle which is my first ever vehicle owned by me. COE and car prices were at rock bottom, this buy was so timely for me and some six months l

This is probably the most blatant rebuttal from Dr M to his critics, an outright challenge to the Malaysia government to form a royal commission to check on his 22 years reign as PM. The following article is taken from the blog of the man himself, for those, fans or not who are keen to follow his news. Read on... Quote Written by: Dr M Tilted: FORM ROYAL PROBE ON DR M'S SQUANDERING 1. I welcome Lim Kit Siang's proposal for Najib to set up a royal commission on whether I burned RM100 billion on grandiose projects and corruption during my 22-year reign. 2. Such a commission should not be made up of Government nominees but should have as members impeccable people including foreigners and members of Transparency International. 3. The commission should not confine to one Prime Minister only but to Tun Abdullah Badawi's regime. 4. It should include how RM270 billion of Petronas money paid during Abdullah's five-year term was spent; what projects were financed by this huge

Quote The corruption of Mahathir: by George Soros - published by Bangkok Post George Soros is not only one of the best investors in the world but very well informed too. He has spelt out clearly what Malaysians have known all the while. Malaysia with all the riches in raw materials should have a stronger currency but what started one for one equivalent with S'pore 30 yrs ago now has lost out to S'pore currency by 2.3 times. Now Malaysians know why........Soros has explained in very great detail.....Of course one cannot get to read this in the main media in Malaysia . Subject: The corruption of Mahathir: published by Bangkok Post Taxpayers and voters were made to pay for his visionionary expenses enriching selected vendors along the way all paid by taxpayer or rakyat's money. The corruption of Mahathir: SOROS' REPLY TO MAHATHIR - Adapted from Bangkok Post (Not published locally) I have always said Dr Mahathir is a menace to his own people. Now only you can see th

This article posted by Dr M, former PM of Malaysia did impress me somewhat (still not his fan though) and I decided to post his article on my blog for people to make own judgment of him. Quote 1. I would like to thank everyone for their comments on the above. I appreciate very much the positive comments and I accept the negative ones also. I am not perfect. I make mistakes. But some of the wrongdoings attributed to me are just not true or correct. 2. We see what we want to see. Everyone is like that. So do I. But I try my best to be factual. 3. My greatest mistake is in the choice of people. I seem to be picking the wrong people all the time. They not only did not live up to my expectations but they went all out to do all the wrong things, including abusing me. 4. I accept the blame for making wrong choices. But they were all so good before they were chosen. 5. Anwar was pious and holy almost. Before I admitted him into Umno no one told me of his peculiar inclinations. 6. The other o

Last year this time, Winnie participated in GE 2008 5km run for the first time and in this year's event, she ran the competitive 10 km. This year is GE 4th consecutive time and for Winnie, her second. Got up this morning at about 0530 hrs, picked up Winnie at about 0600 hrs and we arrived at the start point near Esplanade at about 0630 hrs. Admittedly, I was quite concerned Winnie may not last the gruelling 10 km run as she had not been training quite regularly for a while. The last 10 km run she did was in May, the PAssion Run where I did 15 km and since then, she had intermittent training. Did the usual routine as last year, she had to go to the toilet at Esplanade en-route (there are many mobile toilets near the Padang but she still chose the toilet at Esplanade for obvious reason) before heading to the start point. Flagged-off at 0700 hrs by Her Excellency, the Ambassador from the Philippines, there were some 14,000 female runners as announced by the gregarious MC on the air

The run to Bukit Timah Summit on last Sunday (27 Sep) was my first attempt and for Chua, his third or fourth I think. Got up at about 6.15am and arrived at Chua's place before 7am, he was already warming up at the carpark. Chua is staying at Bukit Panjang, fairly near to Bukit Timah. We used to have three musketeers, missing was Eddie. From Chua's place, we ran to the forested pipeline heading to Rifle Range. The terrain was quite undulating, tougher than running on a normal tarred road which took us under half an hour to reach the fringe of Rifle Range where Eddie lives. We then made an u-turn to the mid-point, one of the routes up Bukit Timah summit. Chua led the way, I followed behind. Unlike Mt Faber, the steps were uneven and not cemented. We had to watch out for the protuding roots, a mis-step could spell trouble. It was a long run up the improvised steps, as if never ending. I had to stop to catch a breather or two while Chua continued his ascend. We huffed a

I wonder, has food anything to do with politics where Malaysia current sorry state-of-affair is concerned?, just wonder aloud! The honourable Tourism Minister, YB Dr Ng Yen Yen, who launched the Malaysia International Gourmet Festival recently complained some countries 'hijacked' some of so-called Malaysia local food as their own, which include Bak Kut Teh, Laksa, Hainanese Chicken Rice, Nasi Lemak and Chilli Crab...what craps! As a learned and seasoned politician, she should not have not known Singapore and Malaysia were intertwined historically & culturally (or she chose not to know for obvious reasons) and at the same time, inherited some old political baggage (sigh!) after Singapore gained her independence on 9 August 1965. If she had intended to shore up much needed public support after a big lashing by Indonesia for the boo-boo in featuring Bali penyet dance as Malaysia's own, her undiplomatic comment certainly did not gain her friends in Singapore too. Using

If the recent incident in Malaysia involving a Muslim lady caught drinking and sentenced to be whipped though the case is still pending has not caused much hue-and-cry, this one that happened in Sudan is even more absurd. See the story below by Guillaume Lavallee. KHARTOUM (AFP) – Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmed Hussein who spent a day in jail for refusing to pay a fine for wearing "indecent trousers" vowed on her release on Tuesday to keep up the battle against the law. "We will continue the fight to change this law, the public order police, the public order tribunals," she told AFP at the offices of Ajras Al-Hurriya (Bells of Freedom) newspaper where noisy supporters celebrated her release. Hussein was imprisoned on Monday after she refused to pay the fine imposed earlier the same day by a Khartoum court for wearing trousers deemed indecent. She could have faced one month in jail. "She came out of prison. We paid the 500-pound (200-dollar) fine," explai

Tun Dr Mahathir, the 4th PM of Malaysia posted this article below, titled 'Sound Bites (Water for Singapore) on his blog, http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog/2009/08/sound-bites-water-for-singapor.html and this was in reply to current Malaysia Dy PM, Tan Sri Muhyiddin, who recently publicly mentioned to the press that MM Lee did threaten to go to war with Malaysia if water supply could not be resolved then when he was the MB of Johor. The following text was quoted by Dr M himself: Quote 1. Tan Sri Muhyiddin spoke the truth about my persuading him to supply water to Singapore (read here). But Lee Kuan Yew did not threaten to go to war if we did not supply water. If he had done that, I think I would have stopped any further supply. 2. We were at that time trying to be friendly with Singapore in order to solve several problems. Although raw water would be supplied at 3 cent per 1000 gallons, the understanding was that in future only treated water would be supplied when our treatment pl

My preparation for this year's Stanchart 42km full marathon in Dec is going according to schedule so far - it's a first in my lifetime to attempt the full marathon which is a pledge made last year. In April this year, I did the 10km Singapore PAssion run with Winnie in Sengkang which was her first 10km of her life and boy, she surprised even herself to clock creditable time. She is now making preparation for Stanchart 21km half marathon and with sheer determination, she can complete the race at own pace - 加油, Winnie! On 24 May, I did the 15km Saucony 100Plus PAssion Run with Chua while Winnie participated in the 10km event. It was a hot morning at East Coast and flagged-off was slightly delayed @ 0800 hrs. I huffed and puffed, finally hit the tape @ 1 hr 28 mins plus and Chua, always a stronger & fitter runner than me finished well ahead of me. It was a good run for me but I did hope the weather would have been more forgiving. The Singapore Bay Run & Army Half Ma

Thanks to Eddie, Chua and I had the privilege to join some 300 corporate leaders and government officials in this Semakau Run 2009 which is into its 3rd year running. The uniqueness of Semakau Landfill is that it is an island, just 8 kms south of Singapore is created entirely from the sea space filled with trash. It is an initiative of National Environment Agency started way back in 1995 , a first in the world too. Semakau Run 2009 is only a short 5 km route, along the stretch of road in the landfill and its breezy surrounding simply blew you away. We took the ferry at Pasir Panjang Ferry Terminal, just a short 20 mins ride away. At about 5.30 pm, the guest-of-honour, Minister Yaacob Ibrahim flagged us off. We did not intend to compete for fast times, instead chose to do a leisure jog around. After the run, there was a sumptous dinner waiting for us before heading back to Singapore. We enjoyed the trip and the run and we certainly look forward to another one next year.

A frank discourse by a bumiputra of Malaysia. LEE KUAN YEW : AT 85 , THE FIRE STILL BURNS Written By *AHMAD MUSTAPHA *The writer is a nephew of Dr Mahathir. Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, who was Singapore's founding father, has always been very direct in his comments. This was the man who outsmarted the communists in Singapore (with the innocent help of Malaya then and the willing help of the British) and who later outwitted the British and outpaced Malaysia in all spheres. Singapore practices corrupt-free meritocracy and Malaysia affirmative action. The former attracted all the best brains and the latter chased out all the brains. The Singapore cabinet consists of dedicated and intelligent technocrats whereas Malaysia has one of the most unwieldy cabinets. Not only that, brain wise it was below par not even good for the kampong. With that kind of composition, one that is very brainy, naturally Singapore, with no natural resources could outstrip Malays

He has conquered Arctic, attempted the Antartic and perhaps the toughest of all, covered 7 gruelling marathons in seven continents in 27 days - created a world record in the process. And he did all these on his wheelchair. Despite being paralysed waist down due to polio at aged two, he is one special breed of human being, a Singaporean we can be proud of, who has persevered, trained much harder than the physically able-bodied ones to win accolade, one after another. A doctor by profession, he has been giving inspirational talks around the world, sharing his insights on turning adversity into opportunity. I am truly inspired by him and so too for many, no doubt about it. He may be down with leukaemia but he is not felled for good. He has now issued another challenge, perhaps his biggest by far to overcome this illness and he will fight on, no question about it. Despite his present condition, he still has another mission and this time around, he hopes to raise at least S$70,000 for

Dr Mahatir's latest posting on his blog, (http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog/2009/07/the-modern-middle-kingdom-ii.html), cynically referring to Singapore as the modern middle kingdom (not again, sigh). It seems he has indicated no intention to relent anytime now, instead have worked hard to fire up sentiments on both sides using water as his attacking tool. Evidently, he enjoys creating difficulty to the present administration under PM Najib while the last Pak Lah administration was already destroyed by him almost 'single-handedly'. The long outstanding matters between the two nations were painstakingly discussed but under his tenure-ship as PM, nothing could progress further due more to his stubbornness and personal pride perhaps. As a retired celebrated politician now, he will stop at nothing to derail any good intention for the two present governments to make progess to satisfy his personal vendatta against our dear MM Lee. Notwithstanding, it is heartening to no

He will be missed by fans all over the globe, no question about it, for in my opinion and many others too, he was the best pop idol second to none. An immensely talented kid entertainer and was one good looking black, his biggest mistake I feel was to try to look caucasian. All those plastic surgeries he had undergone would have taken a toll on him in his middle age years, perhaps. Well, who are we, as outsiders to jump to conclusion on the cause of his sudden demise and I shall say no more. He is gone, that's a fact and even the real cause is later established, he won't be revived either. Michael, you'll be remembered and may you rest in peace.

Following MM Lee trip to Malaysia, Dr M in his usual fiery style, posted this article on his blog (refer to http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog/2009/06/the-modern-middle-kingdom.html) giving his die-hard supporters and not quite his supporter, me a short lesson on Middle Kingdom of ancient China then and the new Middle Kingdom of the modern era. In his short article, he was obviously taking a swipe at our shiny red dot, Singapore for as long as his nemesis, our dear MM Lee is still in government. As if he had not gibbered enough, he went on to hit the 5th PM of Malaysia, Pak Lah for acceding too much to Singapore during his tenure. He could have addressed the 5th PM by his name, instead chose to call him the 5th PM. This is certainly uncalled for. Tit-for-tat and with due respect to this 4th PM of Malaysia who by any measure, was a great PM Malaysia could have asked for, notwithstanding I cannot be faulted for returning the same 'swipe' to him by addressing him the 4th PM inste

Written by Robert Kiyosaki The other day a friend of mine approached me excitedly, saying, "I found the house of my dreams. It's in foreclosure and the bank will sell it to me for a great price." "How good is the price?" I asked. "Just before the real estate market crashed, the seller was asking $780,000 for the property. Today, I can buy it from the bank for $215,000. What do you think?" she asked. "How would I know?" I replied. "All you've given me is the price." "Yes!" she squealed. "Now my husband and I can afford it." "Only cheap people buy on price," I replied. "Just because something is cheap doesn't mean it's worth the cost." I then explained to her one of my most basic money principles: I buy value. I will pay more for value. If I don't like the price, I simply pass. If the seller wants to sell, he will come back with a better price. I let him tell me what he will acc

I do know Marcus personally, though not close. We used to engage him to perform gigs onboard our vessel and resort for quite a while and whatever recent 'perceived bad publicity' of him covered by the press, it will never cross our mind not to engage him for future gigs with us solely based on moral ground, if at all. Without a doubt, he is an almost complete artiste, can sing well, a good actor and a versatile host. He may not have attained the level of a superstar despite been in show business for umpteen years, he is nonetheless, a celebrity which, unfortunately is subjected to public scrutiny. Celebrity is still a human being just like anyone of us, he or she still needs to make a living the way he or she knows well. They may be married, divorced or single and for those who are married, they may have extra marital affair but what's the big fuss, really. The latest saga on Marcus, a married man being involved with his manager, a young lady in her 20s has been so

出生一张纸,开始一辈子; 毕业一张纸,奋斗一辈子; 婚姻一张纸,折磨一辈子; 做官一张纸,斗争一辈子; 金钱一张纸,辛苦一辈子; 荣誉一张纸,虚名一辈子; 看病一张纸,痛苦一辈子; 悼词一张纸,了结一辈子; 淡化这些纸,明白一辈子; 忘了这些纸,快乐一辈子! 这周是世界好友周, 当大部分人都在关注你飞得高不高时,只有少部分人关心你飞得累不累,这就是友情。 再忙,也要照顾好自己。 朋友虽不常联系,却一直惦念。 保重! 祝世界好友周快乐!!!

Organised by PASSION Card, this run was scheduled on 24 May, Sunday @ East Coast. Both Chua and I registered for the 15 km while Winnie took on the 10 km, her second 10 km run for this year so far. By far, this was the longest run for me this year which was a litmus test of sorts before the two main events, the Army 21 km half-marathon in August and the mother of marathons, Standard Chartered 42 km marathon. In our usual practise, at least twice weekly with Chua and Eddie, we are averaging some 10 km per run but admittedly, I was somewhat concerned for Winnie who did not have regular run since her last 10 km in March which she clocked creditable time. Had arranged with Winnie to pick her up on the morning of 24 May at Fort Road where she parked her car at her sister's place while Chua made his own way to East Coast. After some miscue, I managed to find the carpark near the seafood centre where Chua was already waiting for us. A minute later, all the lots would be gone. Near

Granted, the ex table tennis coach of Singapore, Liu Guodong was not well-liked by his team or so claimed by STTA's President, Lee Bee Wah. Granted, he was not present nor did he assign another coach for one of our male competitors during the last Olympics who eventually lost to someone ranked much lower than him. Had a coach assigned to him then, he could have won that round...or was it the case to be? Blame game then erupted and finally, Liu decided to leave our shore for Indonesia. Lee then immediately hit back at the coach, obviously fuming hot for the loss of our male competitor in the competition. Rightly so, she should have held back her cool during the competition proper, instead of rattling off to the media. Her own handling of this fracas was equally bad. Hey, this man has helped Singapore secured the elusive silver medal for the women's table tennis team. Admittedly, I did not feel a sense of pride as Singaporean, given the entire women's team hailed not

One wonders, "Does a movie star has it to be a good politician if he does harbour one or is it fame has gotten the better of him of late?" This one, of course refers to the famed movie action star, Jackie Chan who seems to have stepped out of his own boundary; something he has worked so hard and have done so well for so long but to venture beyond, it is certainly not his cup of tea. His recent remarks suggesting the Chinese in Hongkong and Taiwan need to be controlled may have pleased the leaders in mainland China but certainly, have not gone down well in Hongkong and Taiwan. He has probably done his own simple calulation, even a 3-year old can add up...making 1.3 billion people in China happy is worth everything for adding up Hongkong and Taiwan population is less than 2% of the entire population. Well, his next movie will be another big hit in China but for sure, a big flop outside. I will boycott all his movies from now on, till he apologises...sigh. To top it off, he

This story was taken from a source I received recently, I am not the author of the story but merely, posted here for public viewing. Quote I remember Arthur Anderson doing the job evaluation in MINDEF - surprised that they are now doing micro-management in restaurant work processes, just hope they don't forget the importance of hygience grading... Advice : DO NOT drop your spoon next time when you are in a restaurant !! The spoon: A lesson on how consultants can make a difference in an organization. Last week, we took some friends to a new restaurant, 'Steve's Place,' and noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket. It seemed a little strange. When the busboy brought our water and utensils, I observed that he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Then I looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets. When the waiter came back to serve our soup I inquired, 'Why the spoon?' 'Well, 'he explained, &#

This is one fiesty lady from China is one we better stay clear in any argument. Enjoy this short video clip and you'll know what I meant.

Once again, I happened to be the only thorn (sigh...) among the roses. On the far left, it's Irene and next to her, Winnie. To my left, there is Amanda, next to her is Connie and Jean on the extreme right. This gathering on last Friday (20 Mar) was infact, long overdue and all thanks to Winnie, yes Winnie, my running mate who initiated the get-together of old comrades. And ya, one more thorn was supposed to join us but he (Vincent Kong) had a more important appointment with turf club, being an all important Friday for punters. Between horses and roses, he felt the former was more important for him. Thanks to him though, we had a good dinner at Bellini and much laughter too. It has been ages since I last met Jean and Amanda, really I cannot remember when was that last time. Boy, both ladies still look gorgeous but no chance for me now for both of them are happily married with kids in tow. Err...friends forever! I enjoyed the get-together albeit feeling bad that Winnie's

By Robert Scheer There must be a criminal investigation of the AIG debacle, and it looks as if New York’s top lawman is on the case. The collusion to save this toxic company in order to salvage the rogue financiers who conspired to enrich themselves by impoverishing millions is being revealed as the greatest financial scandal in U.S. history. Instead of taking bonuses, the culprits should be taking perp walks. I’m not just referring to the swindlers in the Financial Products Subsidiary of AIG who devised and sold those insurance policies on derivatives that brought the world economy to its knees. They do seem deserving of a special place in hell, and presumably the same divine power that according to Scripture labeled usury a high moral crime and threw the money-changers out of the temple will consider that outcome. However, the enablers are the AIG leaders who, as New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo revealed Tuesday, signed those bonus contracts a year ago to reward the very peopl

This run in Sengkang is only a teaser to the big race at year end, just 5km to test the ground. To our pleasant surprise, this event attracted quite a sizeable turnout and evidently, there are many fitness conscious Singaporeans, PRs and working expatriates out there where economic crisis is simply non-existent. Missed taking Winnie's picture at the race venue for memento, took this one at Old Airport Road carpark where we headed for breakfast after the race. The morning sun was quite fiery though we were flagged off @ 8 am and we didn't do enough warm-up due to long queue line for the toilet prior to the race. 5 km, yes but it was not an easy one owing to the weather. We ran the usual pace and finished around 32 mins (1 min of so to be taken off due to crowding in the front when flagged off). At the finish point, we were given a nice medal (not some cheaply produced certificates at the last race, no name of the organisers mentioned) coupled with a stylish cap. On whole,

By Robert Scheer This is crazy! Forget the bleating of Rush Limbaugh; the problem is not with the quite reasonable and, if anything, underfunded stimulus package, which in any case will be debated long and hard in Congress. The problem is with what is not being debated: the far more expensive Wall Street bailout that is being pushed through—as in the case of the latest AIG rescue—in secret, hurried deal-making primarily by the unelected secretary of the treasury and the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Six months ago, we taxpayers began bailing out AIG with more than $140 billion, and then it went and lost $61.7 billion in the fourth quarter, more than any other company in history had ever lost in one quarter. So Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke huddled late into the night last weekend and decided to reward AIG for its startling failure with 30 billion more of our dollars. Plus, they sweetened the deal by letting AIG off the hook for interest it had been obligated to pay on the money

Ran this 10km race with my regular running partner, Winnie on 1 Mar, Sunday. For Winnie, it was her first attempt at 10km and prior to the race day, she was not sure whether she could finish the race not walking at some stage. We have had some training at East Coast in the evening after work, the two last covering near 6 km only - the longest run by far. Quietly, I knew she could deliver around 1 hr 10 min or better but she felt too much pressure had been asserted on her if a target was set for her. She would prefer to run her own pace and to complete it only, relieving her of any pressure for best time. I left it at that but I remained confidence that 1 hr 10 min is not too far-fetched. The race venue was at Sengkang, near Farmway LRT. We arrived before the flagged off at 0745 hrs, did our warm-up and joined all the runners in the men's and women's veteran category at the start-off. Finally, we were flagged off by Defence Minister Teo. Trying to retire to bed early the