Regardless, the big thing you would’ve wanted to read about/see is the resulting stories and images from my frankly epic trip up to USA and Canada. For those of you who are my friends on Facebook, the albums are coming up one day at a time so you’ll get to (hopefully) enjoy that.

It’s mostly a large dump of all the shots that were taken with my 50D (I switched cams with Cabe from time to time so some of them are his even though they’re all watermarked with my signature), so take a look at my Eastern USA/Canada Flickr set here to get a prime pick of my favourite shots.

Anyway I’ve been beating around the bush haven’t I? For the last 2 weeks I’ve covered the 3rd annual Singapore International Water Week (SIWW 2010) for PUB (See our Youth webpage here) – 26 June to 2 July – and starting this week, I’m working at xinmsn doing news and sports. Now that that’s done, more about the trip.

The 26-hour travel time from Singapore to New York’s JFK airport was really pretty ghastly. Despite the nice planes (B777-300s, my favourite) with simply excellent IFE systems, the extended stopover in Colombo was the worst I’d ever experienced. For some reason the plane couldn’t hook up to the electricity in the gangway and so there was absolutely no air conditioning the whole time. And we were in Sri Lanka.

Dubai International Airport

In comparison, the transit in Dubai was absolutely stunning. The terminal was beautiful and I found myself wishing we could stay longer (transit was only 2 hours). Ironically, the 6 hour layover on the way back was far too long.

Several bag searches, a pat down and a 14-hour flight later, we landed in JFK International Airport’s Terminal 4  happily but a bit late, so we couldn’t find our agent. In the end we did find him and got on the coach to the hotel but it was admittedly a bad start.

The next bad thing to happen was when we met our tour guide and companions for the next 8 days, we realised that they were mostly China Chinese or Cantonese people. Call me atas or what have you, but I just wanted English in an English-dominated environment. Didn’t help that we found out later: most of them were American or Canadian citizens. Integration clearly isn’t on any of their minds.

On the other hand though, this allowed us to do quite a number of things on our own since we didn’t really want to stick so close to them and get angry stares from Westerners. That did make for a better trip.

Truthfully though, the trip’s highlights came largely from Canada, which is often seen as the relatively less developed half-brother to the North of America. There was nothing less stunning or captivating about the sceneries and cities though, and I have to say Canada is more beautiful than America. Or at least the part of America we saw. The picture at the top of this post is of Canada, and was taken from across the border from the American side of the Niagara river. I think you’ll agree it’s quite stunning.

All in all it was a very relaxing and enjoyable trip. Certainly the hard part wasn’t coming back to Singapore, but having to leave New York, especially as overseas my phone couldn’t roam, there weren’t very many free Wi-Fi hotspots and I was genuinely uncontactable. Nice to be off the grid.

For now, it’s back to work. Next time I go it’ll almost certainly be on my own money. Hopefully I’ll be able to enjoy myself just as much then. Sans the Chinese- or Cantonese-only people of course.

Yesterday I got home from my big trip of the decade to Eastern USA/Canada and I’m really pretty jetlagged right now, which is why I’ve been awake since 4am because my body wouldn’t sleep past then.

Today I start work with PUB’s Singapore International Water Week so I’ll be busy until next Friday but in the meantime, here’s a teaser image of my trip to the Land of the Free and more will come soon as I find the time to post process the pictures.

If you notice my site is different, it’s because I updated the old theme and it really messed up so I changed it. This is going to take more getting used to, but I also used this theme for my Sports Journ assignment site so hopefully it all works out.

Stay tuned for more content soon!

Of course I hope the army doesn’t screw things up for me by giving me a last minute enlistment letter. That would be truly bastardised.

In other news, today I went for my first round of medical tests to determine why I have hypertension and I guess decide how to treat it. The meds I’m currently taking (half a tiny blue pill every morning) seem to be working great so hopefully I get more of that.

It was blood and urine test today and I damn near screwed myself over. After failing to register at the polyclinic counter and falling asleep for about an hour, I woke up to a feeling that something was wrong so I went back to the queue number issuing place to ask. I then registered and soon enough realised they hadn’t even gotten to my queue number yet so it was all good.

Minutes later, 2 vials of my deoxygenated blood were drawn from my left arm and I was sent off to fill a little plastic can with fluids. Can’t begin to express what an interesting experience peeing into a bottle is.

So I’m due back in a week’s time for an ECG and to see the doctor regarding the test results. Until then, I’m hitting the gym so I don’t get fat, going for debate training so my brains don’t turn to mush, and renewing my passport so I don’t get trapped at customs while my family fly off to New York.

‘Cos that would be the definition of hugely screwed.

Yesterday I went to another of my workshops for the elderly staying at AWWA’s Ang Mo Kio home and we took them out to a nearby park called Ang Mo Kio Garden West (which was nice except I was in a polo tee and jeans, not perfect) to let them put their new skills to practical use.

Bob, not being able to walk very far or very fast, stayed closer to the road while the rest went further into the garden to take pictures of flowers, butterflies, each other and whatnot. I followed for a while but then chose to stay closer to him so he wouldn’t feel left out.

I suppose he didn’t really need me around, but it was nice to be away from the bigger group, many of whom were fighting for my attention so I could look at their photos. Anyway there was someone else with the rest.

We didn’t talk much, and whenever I asked if he would like to sit down he always insisted he was fine. I didn’t argue with him or probe too much. I could feel an underlying pride in him, a pride that prevents one from asking for help where it isn’t necessary, and a pride from a place where he was in a much better position than he is in now. Since I myself can be like that, I could definitely identify. We ended up taking a taxi back to the home while the rest walked.

I can’t express more how much I don’t like to see elderly people in that position, and whenever I see an old person on the bus or train and nobody wants to give up a seat to them (I usually stand), I tell myself that I must do everything I can to make sure my parents never have no choice but to take the bus or train. Not that there’s anything bad about public transport (okay maybe a little bit), it’s just terribly impersonal and insensitive to an individual’s needs, especially senior citizens. But for something as utilitarian as public transport, I guess you can’t right?

Oh in case you haven’t found out yet, I’ve been offered a place in NUS’ Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and will start school on 6 August 2012. They even have the dates for the acad year already. First time I’ve met and exceeded all my expectations so I’m really pleased overall.

Anyway there really isn’t much else to do here except show you the pictures I’ve just uploaded onto Flickr. They’re gonna be thumbnails so click through yourself.

Friday saw me getting a spoilt set of speakers from Challenger, which I thankfully got swapped out on Saturday in a jiffy. That was really great and they work brilliantly now, but something else from that trip to and from Funan got me thinking.

A day earlier I had lugged the whole box onto the bus and it was a terrible experience to say the least. Naturally then, I took a cab this time to make my life just that much easier.

The trip there was fine, but it was the ride home that made me a strange mix of amused and annoyed. See picture below.

That’s right ladies and gents, a $12.20 cab fare for a 12-minute ride from Funan to Balestier. Bear in mind this is about how much I pay for an off-peak cab to school. Which is in Clementi. That’s a dollar a minute! At that rate a cabbie driving for 8 hours straight would earn $480 a day. If only it were true.

Granted this might not cover the cost of fuel and taxi drivers don’t necessarily pick up people from the CBD all the time (even though every trip bringing in this amount is justification enough for a cabbie to just camp in the city zone), but boy is it painful on the wallet. But I shouldn’t complain considering people are paying $30 to get to town from where they live.

The week gone by also saw me revert to my old ways in the realm of facial hair. If you’ve met me lately you should’ve noticed that I was leaving my facial hair all mangly and unshaven. Yeah, that got annoying. So I shaved. And now you get to see pictures!

So now that I’m a new, clean-shaven man with a booming new 2.1 speaker system, and we’re on the brink of a new week, I think the next 7 days should be exciting!

Later today (because it is already Monday) I will be heading down to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve for the first time in about 15 years. The last time I was there I remember it was a torrid experience of ants up my pants (literally) so it could be a bit scary going there again but it will be a good time.

Then on Thursday and Friday I will be heading to AWWA Family Services and Elderly Services respectively to conduct photography workshops for the people there. Should be another eye opener! Which reminds me, I really ought to start preparing my materials.

There will also be an AWWA event on Saturday (for which I’m sacrificing debating at NTU Dorothy Cheung’s) and other currently unconfirmed events happening somewhere in between.

On another related but not connected note (ala MASINA), today (March 22, 2010) is a special day. So here’s wishing a very happy 20th birthday to my favourite bouncer, Alicia Chan!

Don’t get me wrong, I love my phone. I really do. But imagine being on MSN for 4 days with only that tiny keyboard to type on. Plus I have fat thumbs. And the iPhone doesn’t multi-task. And its battery lasts only about 2 to 3 hours if you’re constantly on 3G. Hello problems!

Today though, I am truly enlightened. My Katie is back good as new (new keyboard, trackpad) and I got mum to sponsor me a new battery. Right now I’m at McDonald’s with 39% battery and I’m good for another 1 hour and 36 mins. Genius!

I also laid my hands on a new PC speaker system so I don’t have to use the dreadful MacBook speakers at home. They’re the Sonic Gear Enzo 600 2.1 speakers and I’m really quite excited! Will do a review soon to share what I think. I kinda bumbled around at Challenger for a while before somebody came over to help me and the fella did recommend this for my rock music so fingers crossed!

Also, today I am very officially graduated. The last semester’s results were released this morning and I’m happy to say that I’ve done reasonably well, at least enough to enhance (instead of diminish) my chances of getting into a local university. Hopefully it all goes well.

So yes! This has been a quick update on what’s been happening the past week. Stay tuned for the speaker review coming up soon.

The second annual Malaysia Debate Open has officially ended and I don’t fancy Malaysia much to be honest, but it was my first overseas tournament and I really quite enjoyed it. Even if we did markedly worse than we usually do.

Got to know the SP debaters better as we were out together most of the time eating, drinking, and generally making a nuisance of ourselves. MAGIC KONG!

The shot on the left was taken back here in Singapore from my bedroom window. Damn near went blind trying to capture this while staring directly into the evening sun. Don’t try this at home kids! Click for a bigger view.

In other news, I’ve gotten my first job of the holidays! I will be shooting SMU Social Science’s Cohesion Day event tomorrow evening at Sculpture Square. Should be an interesting one. Hope the money’s good.

Next up as well, NTU Dorothy Cheung’s! Time to get back to form and break for the first time this year. Add this to about a billion things I should be doing (including clearing my room, but I’m doing that progressively already anyway) and this break is shaping up into something epic.

Okay so that was a rather disjointed update. Perhaps I do need to work on my structure a bit.

(L-R): Me, Zhengkun, JT, Hareni, Reuben, Viha, Sarah, Laura, Dennis, John
PHOTO BY: Timothy Martin de Souza

Anyway this wasn’t meant to be an emotional post or anything. Just doing a bit of publicity here, because I’ve updated my about, photo arsenal and wishlist pages.

On a side note, I’m thrilled to watch my voice recorder charge. I’ve christened it Perry R.

Two posts in one night! Wow that’s so BOOMZ. (Couldn’t get away without using it at least once now could I?)