Hong Kong and Shenzhen Trip

My latest trip

Hey guys, i had gone to Hong Kong and Shenzhen in these holidays. It was indeed a very good trip. When we reached Hong Kong, we checked in the hotel and then went to the bay in the night. The skyline in Singapore is no where close to the ones there. It was extremely beautiful with the lights coming from almost all buildings!!! The next morning we saw a Buddha and then we went to the gems factory. Well, it was nothing that great to me but my mother liked it a lot and bought a lot of gold. We went to Shenzhen after that. In Shenzhen, everything was duplicate. From branded clothes to branded purses, all of them there. They also had a catalog of these things!!! After a few days we came back to Hong Kong and in the night went to place called Victoria Peak. It was at the height of 482 metres! We got the complete view of the skyline of Hong Kong from the top and it was extremely cold there. The best thing was we went to the peak in a tram and an extremely steep angle!! And of course we went to Disney Land! That was quite good but it was not as big as the one in Japan so i did not exactly find it very good. The hotel at Disneyland was extremely good. That is one of the best or the best hotels i have ever lived at. So that is what we did on this trip.

Irritating Juniors!

I do not like back stabbing people or talking bad about them behind anyone's back. Unfortunately, my juniors have irritated me so much that i have to talk bad about them. We have trained with our juniors about 15 times this year already. They insult each other by calling names,fighting with each other and what not! The slightly better ones tell the lousier ones that they will not be playing in the 'c' division team and that they are very lousy. They just cannot work as a team. Just a week back, we seniors just gave them a lecture about each of their attitudes and what they can do to improve it. All of them were at the brink of tears. I personally do not think that the lecture has improved things any bit. They say that we are being extremely bossy but they are unaware of the fact that we were treated much worse than them by our seniors. We only got a chance to bat in the nets in June last year. We allowed our juniors to bat in the nets since the beginning of the year. When we began training last year, we were extremely lousy but we had the determination to do well. We worked extremely hard and that is why we are so good at this point. We took things seriously and practiced extremely hard. One example is Amrit. He has improved his bowling a lot. All his balls used to be wide last year but this year a high percentage of his ball are on target. We cannot expect anyone to be perfect. I personally hope that our juniors improve their attitudes and even cricket.

2009 Singapore Budget

www.bbc.co.uk/.../08/ friday_15_august_2008.html

The Singapore Government announced a S$20.5 billion package in order to save jobs and help Singapore companies from bankruptcy. This will result in a S$8.7 billion deficit budget. The country has never experienced such a big deficit budget before. While unveiling the budget, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratman said that the government will be withdrawing S$4.9 billion from the reserves to fund two tentative measures. They are Jobs Credit and Special Risk Sharing Initiative. Jobs Credit scheme will ensure that every employee will get a cash grant tallying to 12 percent of the first S$2500 of an employee's salary. The Special Risk Sharing Initiative scheme will provide funds to companies and will save them from bankruptcy. Hence, the number of retrenchments will be reduced.Even the corporate income tax came down to 17 percent. To give further subsistence to the Singaporean Households and Community during the economic recession, the Singapore Government has doubled the GST credits for households. "There will also be 20 percent tax rebates for those who pay tax individually." From my perspective, i think the Singapore Government has made a wrong decision by withdrawing money from the reserves. If, in the future, there is an economic crisis like this or even worse than this, what will the Singapore Government do?Will they keep withdrawing money from the reserves until there is no money in the reserves or print currency which will in turn stoke inflation. Due to inflation, the cost of living goes up and hardships of people increase. Thus, i feel that even if the Singapore Government is trying to help people, they have  made a wrong decision by withdrawing money from the reserves.

Comment on Newspaper Article- Few points taken from channelnewsasia.com on 25 January 2009.

Probably the best day of my life!!

22 November 2007 was probably the best day of my life! It was the day i received my PSLE results. For those of you do not know what PSLE stands for it is" Primary School Leaving Examination". My results were at about 12 p.m in the afternoon and my mother and i came back from India at just 10 a.m in the morning. Throughout the flight, i could not sleep and was extremely anxious. I kept thinking about my results as that would decide the Secondary School into which i would go. I came home took a bath, prayed to god and then left for school with my mother and father . After everyone sat where they were supposed to, the principal began announcing the names of those who got 250 and above. I had kept my eyes tightly closed and waited . The principal then announced that i had got 250. I was jubilant. Tears of happiness started rolling down my cheeks. I had done it!  I was extremely happy as the person whom i used to hate the most had got lesser marks than me. He had said that i would fail PSLE but in the end i got higher marks than him. I did well so i obviously got a reward from my parents! My father bought me an ipod touch 16 GB and my mother bought me a remote control car which can go up to 35 kilometers per hour!! This was probably the best day of my life if there are any more!!

"We are going to be on Hudson"

                    image downloaded from www.inquisitr.com                                                                                                                                                US Airways Flight 1549 landed in New York's Hudson river just a few minutes after take off. Apparently, the aircraft intersected a flock of birds, most probably geese which made the engines of the aircraft fail. After this,the aircraft was only a glider. Captain Sullenberger contacted the control tower. They told him to land at the nearest airport which was Teterboro Airport. They also said that they would keep all the necessary safety precautions ready such as fire engines and ambulances. Captain Sullenberger realised that it was next to impossible to reach Teterboro Airport and decided that he would land on the Hudson River. The aircraft descended in a controlled glide, then threw up a spray of water as it slid across the river on it's belly. Luckily,all the 155 passengers and crew survived the crash. It is said that this aircraft is the lucky one to survive such kind of a crash. Twelve years earlier, another aircraft landed on the sea and all the passengers including crew died. Thanks to the superior skill and thinking of Captain Sullenberger, all the passengers including crew survived this crash. From my perspective,  Captain Sullenberger made a very wise decision by landing on the Hudson river as if he had tried to reach Teterboro airport and had not reached it, he would have killed hundreds of other people on the ground and the 155 on his flight. One great attribute  about Captain Sullenberger's thinking is that he remained calm under pressure even when his own life was endangered and tried saving the lives of those on the ground.(265 words) 

Our consolidations to the victims in the Gaza Strip

Three weeks after the assaults began, more than 1000 people have been killed out of which more than 300 were children and over 4700 have been injured. Hamas militants have fired rockets for the second time into Israeli territorries from Lebanon into Northern Israel with no casualties reported. The Secretary- General of the United Nations- Ban Ki- moon is tried to make a truce between the two wartorn areas to ceasefire immediately, but was futile. Egypt has also joined the UN to propose a new ceasefire to which Hamas has agreed. We send our condolences to the families of those killed and injured in the war.

Comment on Newspaper Article. Downloaded from www.http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/6134682/Death-toll-in-Gaza-Strip-more-than-1000 on January 15 2009.

This is the worst thing that can possibly happen to you in school life according to me ! Let me warn you that this has not happened to me! Imagine taking your science exam amongst all the tension and intense atmosphere. The most naughty person of your class is sitting behind you. He throws the paper with his answers on your back and you don't realise it. The answer paper is on your back and the answers are being revealed. The teacher walks past and sees that and thinks that you are trying to reveal your answers. She holds you by the neck and throws you out of class. You try explaining but in vain. And the next day the principal scolds you in front of the whole school during assembly!!