Alpha's first International event

been a hectic week, in fact been a very hectic month.

it was 5 weeks ago that we decided to debut ourselves at the world cities summit (24-26 June 2008) at suntec city convention center. With v v limited budget, we approached the event with high hope but low expectations....we wants something that works but we are not willing to pay a king's ransom for it......After getting the quote form the organiser's 'designated contractor" I decided, our of the BTU attitude, to sabo my people by taking the project in house....and we got Zul to help out in getting the design and prints for the event...

after a month of madness, this is the results. tomorrow, we'll show the world what a small idea can do to change the way we look at sustainable energy!








Fatalogy : inspired by PEA

If everyday is a holiday then where is the real holiday?

Kaleebso 08

it was 1 trip where i had the hardest time trying to get going....

Firstly there was a general lack of enthuasium amongst the Clubnarc founders to come....prob because of work and family commitments. Then there was the juggling of work and organizing and marketing the trip (i had originally expect minimum effort to get the boat filled up). When i apologized to Khaylee about the no show and offer the pay him the penalty for the canceling the trip he gracefully suggest that we come anyway and just pay for the no of pax we managed to garner. In the end, we mustered 10 chaps into a small van and headed for trip....

the trip went exceptionally well, Tiger reef was fantastic! Eugene caught a Spanish Mackerel, we had a lot of fish to eat from the ujom (FAD).., every expectation about the Kaleebso was met ..... and we manage to get some people who have not dived for many years to re aquaint with the ocean again.

But somehow for me, this trip was a point of reckoning. all along the from the time we started Clubnarc, i had anticipated the day where if we would reach a point where we cannot get going anymore...and people will drift apart and finally we would have to call it a day...i think i have reached this point.

Realistically, it would be very hard to get 20 fellows to come a spend 3-4 days away from their work, kids and other commitments. The idea of spending quality time catching up with old chums would dull compare to the financial and opportunity cost it would take.

Perhaps its time to rethink about the viability of continuing the cause, to continue to use Clubnarc as the custodian to the unique relationships we shared through the years of inter-winding our friendship with the passion of exploring the oceans.

I think the best thing for me right now is to take a break from the Clubnarc and see how it's gonna evolve...personally i don;t think we should not continue to leave a presence that is nether here nor there...as it is clubnarc is nothing but a ghost on the internet blogs... which sees one pathetic hit every 2 weeks....

so i guess the resutlant of this blabbering is

1) I am exiting from Clubnarc...
2) will continue to organise trips (Bali, kaleebso) if the opportunity arises...but more on small group self drive stuff...until it is viable to do it again....(perhaps when the kids are 7-8 years old and all our friends can spend more time on this.....)

Till then

thanks for a wonderfully great time !

Over a Cup of Tea

They left on tuesday ...

We know that TS and Guan would be leaving Singapore for US for work about 4 months ago. An announce they made over a simple dinner at their new home.....since then i have been thinking of the perfect farewell gift for my dear old friend and the only thing i could think of they they could not possibly have is a super solid FATA che char meal. To idea is to put in a lot of things and techniques i have learned into simple home cooked meals like roast pork, braised duck, pig stomach soups, steam promfet

however one things keep happening we just couldn't find the perfect timing to do this. It was last sunday, where we finally found some time to meet up at the good old prata place at Jalan Kayu, Over A cup of Teh Halia and musing over a incidental caterpillar hanging over a vine we caught up with each other and over 30mins gave quick updates, advice well wishes etc.

there used to a time where the basis of meeting up is good food, great ambience, interesting activities..... but truly the one nice thing we really need in really simple. A cup of tea and a interesting conversation. I guess we'll have to postpone this makan till much later.

Good Luck, TS and GUAN....and God Speed!

We had dinner with Eugene, Pea yesterday and somehow started talking about going to ZOUK and we started to reminisce about the past. about how initially we pool money and wait for midnight madness to order the mixed drinks and then moving on to pool money for bottle drinks ......and now finally...when we can afford to order by the bottles, we all agree that we will not last past 2 standard drink and had to be sleeping by midnight..well the die is set for us to do this long forgotten ritual of Dinner- Party-Supper next wedesday. we'll see if we survive!


FATALOGY : the Joy in life lies in the Ability to Makan with your friend and loved one! Food must be good....but dun have to be too fancy....(unless you kena windfall bonus and needed to redeem some long overdued credits.....heheh)

Nice thing to do on a sunday morning

Glamour Shot

Promo Photos Taken of Me, Haiwoon and our very first and second intern Huda and Fariz taken as a promo effort for ITE......coincidentally the pics were taken by a friend of mine name Richard who runs Elan Pictures.....he is a sort of celebrity photographer already having launched his first photo exhibition recently in singapore!

The who shoot took 1 hour plus and it's really tough trying to smile "naturally" wihout looking like Dr Evil...

Good things

The month of jan 2008 was interestingly good.

1) we "unofficially" expanded our office - we took over the neighbor's premise (our opposite neighbor moved so we got a new/old bar fridge too)
2) we "unofficially" expanded out staff strength to 4 (with the inclusion of 2 NUS interns - we decided to call them "project officers")
3) We got our website revamped - check it out www.alphabiofuels.sg (thanks Karen and Samuel)
4) Skipper from Musso volunteered his friend ( 2 highly talented people to help us create a really cool car stickers and Decal as well as t-shirt designs)
5) We would be having our inaugural Alpha BD charity drive to bring some festive cheers to some old folks at Lion's home this sunday.

Well CNY is nearing....it would be our very first one as a company.... last year was fun...running a startup and all, however things should be hotting up this year and now we are looking to do something that we thought was insurmountable last year, if we get through with this project, we'll really put clean energy into singapore!

I did my first "panelist" thingy at the NLB last sat to a crowd of 200plus talking Alternative energy etc, it was nice to know the among of interest that is growing amongst the youth and the people in the fringe industries of clean energy. I did my best to be "Chief Entertainment Officer" and distribute about a box of name card....that 32 bucks!

the only thing i am not looking forward to is that of saying goodbye to a couple of very dear friend leaving for US for good (well at least 2-3 years). Planning to make a gastronomical impression on them before their departure ... possibly after thier CNY fatigue.



Happy New Year to one and all...