You can only lose trust once

"People often lie not necessarily to deceive, but to protect their own ego. They’re ashamed of what they’re trying to cover up, they are afraid of the consequences, and they don’t want to have to live with your disappointment in them. When this is the case, it can be easy for them to convince themselves that they’re not really lying."

War is never easy

Finally caught Dunkirk last night.

I watched the movie with this man's words in my head the whole time.

“Tonight I cried because it’s never the end," Sturdy told Global News. "It won’t happen. We the human species are so intelligent and we do such astonishing things. We can fly to the moon, but we still do stupid things. So when I see the film tonight, I see it with a certain kind of sadness, because what happened back then in 1940, it’s not the end.”

Those were the words of war veteran Ken Sturdy who was there in Dunkirk. Read the full article here.

With crazy selfish humans running a few of the most powerful countries with access to nuclear weapons, i couldn't help imagining that the next time something like that happens, people will die faster and uglier and in larger numbers. It is scary.


 ***Contains spoiler***
In the movie there were many heroes. Every one was a hero in their own way but I was truly devastated to see at the last scene, the pilot whose fighting skills saved many lives from the air being captured in the end.
Life isn't fair. And in war, the next thing worse than dying is being captured as a prisoner of war.

To a Kim and an entrepreneur, stop provoking each other. At the end of the day, it is the common man who loses. 

I've a bone to pick with the system

It's my first rant against the Sg system, I believe. I hope you know what I mean when I say the system. It is synonymous with the G word.

I got charged peak hour charges when I used the MRT at 5.30 pm. I did not get on until the second train arrived because, as you already know it, it's peak hour.
That's 10 minutes of wait because it took 5 minutes for each train to arrive. .
Why charge me peak when train frequencies aren't running at its peak?

Next. This country would like its citizens to have babies and have bigger families. Then I find it pointless charging commuters extra for trying to leave work and get home asap. Why is the system not urging people to quickly leave, instead of mingling around waiting for peak-hour charges to drop?

Small ranting, pardon me. 

My mother-in-law looks very scary to an outsider

Today was the second time I saw my mother-in-law at her shop. She does look less than friendly when she's busy.

Anyway, during lunch, my MIL ordered 4 dishes. 

After having the first, she said it was bland. 

The second dish came, she said it wasn't spicy enough. 

The third dish came, she had no comments for it.

The fourth dish came, she said it's too sweet, sweet like dessert. She made it known to not only the boss but also the cooks. She called out cook by cook to complain. It was funny because she was like the auntie who's extremely difficult to please. 

It's actually quite funny as the people in the shop and outsiders must take pity on me a lot. They probably wonder what kinda MIL from hell do I have to endure on a daily basis. 

Disclaimer: She's very much the opposite at home. 

I would strangle him too

A pilot told me he was so mad at this crew that he really wanted to eff him.
What happened was Tiesto (!!!) was on the flight from SFO to HK.
He was in first class and he told this sad soul (ie the crew who should be fucked!) to contact a certain someone for tickets to his concert that night in HK!!! He was inviting all the crew onboard to his concert!
This sad soul is probably the type who stays in his room all the time...
And when in HK, most crew are up for a good party!

So on the evening of check-in, the crew gathered for drinks at the hotel bar (this is our norm before going to Lan Kwai Fong). This was when the sad soul revealed what Tiesto told him.
The crew got ultra excited, but then the sad soul said he didn't keep the contact number. WHADDAFUCKKKK????

The few of us who heard this story stared at the pilot with open jaws.
In fact, it's so twisted how it ended. When we heard the first part about Tiesto telling the crew about the concert we got so excited! We were like, "NO WAY...."


Years ago I had also heard Rihanna gave our crew concert access in SG. OF COURSE, the crew all went for it.

Bruno, can I please have u on my flight next May?

Homeless in Singapore

I was walking from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2 today because the sky trains within the transit area weren't working from Gates B to E while they build The Jewel.
Taking this path, I would first have to go to Basement 2 where the eateries and shops were. At 5.50 am the place was very dead.

At first I saw a man sleeping on a chair meant for wheelchair pax with a trolley of luggage. There were probably 4 small cabin-sized luggage. As I walked further, 5 others were sleeping around the fountain just beside Starbucks.
They had their belongings in bags beside them too.

Singapore's poorest, sleeping in the world's most acclaimed airport. 

It's a sad sight. But it's also by far the most comfortable place to be since it's air-conditioned 24 hours, has wifi, has clean toilets, restaurants and a food court (important for their daily coffee fix and cheap eats), safe, with many free charging points.

Sadly my regular taxi driver has also been homeless for years. To make matters worse, two years ago his driver's license was suspended so he relied on others to make some money. He helped to coordinate crew bookings and his driver-friends and earned a small commission from it. I didn't see him this morning so I don't know where is his little corner. I'm sure within the airport there are more than a handful of homeless.

The airport authorities have clearly tried to stop people from sleeping in the airport. The seats at Basement 1 near the doors where people wait for their transport used to be where the homeless slept. They'd take an entire row of about 4-5 seats for the night or even day. In the last year, these seats have had new metal arm-rests fixed, clearly to prevent people from lying across it.

It's a sad problem that Changi cannot handle alone. There has to be a way to find these homeless a place to live. Even if it's just to rent a room from the government wouldn't it be something? 

THE LAST OF THE MORNING FLIGHTS

I am so tired with the early morning departures and late arrivals.
I am sleep-deprived.
Looking forward to sleep tonight.

---------------------------------

You know how some people just wake up from sleep slowly upon hearing their alarm ring?
Markus has the funniest reactions.
He jumps up and looks shocked.
I just witnessed it when I walked into the room 5 minutes ago. It is exactly be how Mr Bean would react. 

Not enough rest

This roster is tight and I'm not getting enough rest! Incidentally so much to do. 

I went to London to catch a whale

I dreamt that I had been in London to catch a whale.
Mind you, I'm very against whaling.

In the dream, it was a long overdue matter so I was more than happy when the whale was finally caught. As the whale took its bait (haha, I don't know what is a good enough bait for a whale), it was very close to a jetty. It came up to the jetty (while being caught, wow, how convenient. No need for lugging it back to the shore) and at the same time swallowed 4 or so humans standing at the jetty.
And I was like, "ok, job done! Let's pack up and go! We will come back tomorrow to ship the carcass out."

I woke up shortly after and was disturbed. Why wasn't I even concerned the whale had just swallowed humans?! I should have slit open the whale to save the humans right?

Low fuel warning

It has been an incredible 2 days.
I touched down in Tokyo on Tuesday night and just couldn't sleep. I had already planned a long day ahead and was really hoping to sleep well that night. My plan was to sleep well and then spend the whole day out and go straight for flight (without a nap).
Who knew, I couldn't sleep a wink and shops only opened at 10. So I could only sit around and wait. I arrived in Shibuya at 10 am sharp. By then I was up for 24 hours. Despite that, I felt energized and not sleep at all.
Then I shopped and ate and shopped and just didn't feel tired. I knew I had to go back for a nap before flight now because I had no sleep the night before.
By the time I got to my room, I was already 36 hours awake and still alert!

I squeezed in a two-hour nap before having to wake up to prep for flight. Guess what? It wasn't even a good sleep. Not those where you just knock out the moment you shut your eyes. I even woke up twice in between.
Then I had to work all the way back. Right now I'm very close to being awake for 46 hours (with only two hours of nap in between)
I really don't know what I'm running on.

_______________________________________________

While I was sleepless in Tokyo I experienced two earthquakes WTF. The first was stronger than the second. My whole room shook for about 10 seconds and I could hear creaks. This is the first time, luckily, in all these years of flying that I've experienced an earthquake. Also very lucky considering that I go to Japan quite often these last few years.

_______________________________________________

Now is really time for me to sleep.