Monthly Archive for June, 2007

Two-day Tioman

Published on June 30, 2007 in This I like and Usual Ramblings. 10 Comments

The six of us took a weekend trip to Tioman for a little R&R last weekend in a bid to get away from the urban life in Singapore. Lyn (my boo) and I have never been to Tioman before, so I guess the itinerary was pretty much planned out by the regulars, namely Justin, his boo Junn, Kwong (aka Jerome) and his boo Jasmine.

The trip there was pretty long and tiring comprising of a three-hour bus ride, a one-hour wait and a two-hour ferry. But upon setting foot on the Tioman Paya Beach jetty and making a quick scan around, we knew our relaxing part of the trip is about to begin.


Ah..lovely lovely Tioman

As weekend trips go, and especially with long journeys, we knew we needed to keep our plans short. This would mean a half-hour lunch (oh I so love Ramly Burgers), a two-hour dip at a rockfall and snorkeling all the way till the sun sets. Our evening plan includes food food food, beer beer beer and celebrating Kwong’s 27th birthday with about eight cup cakes.


Happy birthday brudder…

Short it may be, but relaxing it is. No hustle and bustle from the urban jungle back home, no messages, no phones, no internet connection…just chill. And that is something we really need. So yeah, our enjoyment may be short-lived considering that we planned to hang around there for only the weekend. But Lyn and I did vow that we will return for an even longer R&R…someday. I am just crossing my fingers that it will be real soon… ;) More pics can be found here.


Did I mention beer beer beer?

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The truth about alcohol..

Published on June 29, 2007 in Usual Ramblings. 5 Comments

Pulled this off from a website I can’t seem to recall. Think KP may agree with this one :P

If government is going to put health warning labels on beer, wine and liquor, let’s at least have a little truthfulness about the matter!

WARNING: Consumption of alcohol may cause you to wake up with breath that could knock a buzzard off a shit truck at 100 yards.

WARNING: Consumption of alcohol is a major factor in dancing like an idiot.

WARNING: Consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell the same boring story over and over again until your friends want to smash your head in.

WARNING: Consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell the boss what you REALLY THINK while photocopying your butt at the office Christmas party.

WARNING: Consumption of alcohol may leave you wondering what the hell ever happened to your pants (panties) anyway.

WARNING: Consumption of alcohol may cause you to roll over in the morning and see something really scary (whose species and/or name you can’t remember).

WARNING: Consumption of alcohol may create the illusion that you are tougher, handsomer, and smarter than some really, really huge biker guy named “Big Al”.

Think KP and KC may have more to add yeah? ;)

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My name on Honda’s F1 car!!

Published on June 29, 2007 in This I like and Usual Ramblings. 5 Comments

About three months ago, I visited myearthdream.com and pledged to reduce my air conditioning temperature by 1 degC in a bid to support Honda’s green commitment. It is an initiative designed to help raise awareness of the environmental issues facing the planet leveraging on the F1’s huge global reach.

So just yesterday, I got an email from them indicating that my name will be on the earth cars in this weekend’s Grand Prix race in France. Whoopie!! But there are a few little bits of details you might want to know:

  • My name will be in 4pt size, meaning that you can’t see it on TV or even from the track,
  • I am probably one of the millions out there who will have their names carved on the car…but still…my name is on the car… :P

So yeah, there you have it. It probably ain’t such a big deal but hey!!..I am glad Honda is still following through with their commitment… :) Anyhoo, check out their email to me…

YOUR NAME IS ON THE CAR!

Dear myearthdreamer

We have exciting news! Your name will be on the Earth Cars at this weekend’s Grand Prix in France.

Your name will be in 4pt so it’s clearly visible with the naked eye close up, but our clever designers have applied them in such a way that our beautiful artwork still looks the same from a distance.

We have put all the names in columns and like to call it our ‘Roll Call of Environmental Honour’.

In the last few weeks we have made some changes to myearthdream. The biggest change is that we have decided to make donations to the myearthdream Trust optional. The main aim of this is to allow children to make pledges and be part of the project without having to use a credit card, but it also allows us to run competitions all over the world to get more people involved in saving CO2 and saving the planet.

All of the money we have collected to date, as well as all future optional donations, will still go to great environmental causes, but if you donated to the myearthdream Trust in return for your name on the car and feel that this change is unfair, please email us at enquiries@myearthdream.com.

All of your generous donations will be distributed at the end of the season and we will update you with news of the environmental projects and organisations that benefit as soon as details are available.

We’ll also be launching a brand new website later in the season that will have many more exciting interactive features and regularly updated news about myearthdream.

We want to take this opportunity to thank you for your enthusiasm for the myearthdream project. We have been overwhelmed by the response and are grateful for all your letters and emails of support, but mostly we’re grateful for the collective difference we’re making to the planet.

That’s all for now. We hope that you’re as excited as we are to know that your names will be racing in the rest of the 2007 season Grands Prix with Jenson and Rubens.

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Sentosa Sunday

Published on June 25, 2007 in Usual Ramblings. 17 Comments

Lyn (my boo) and I brought the brats (my nieces – Althea and Anne) to Sentosa for a play day about three Sundays back. Being non parents, I guess you can say we were treated to an introduction on parenting.

I mean kids these days are pretty hard to handle. You can’t tell them to keep quiet, you can’t tell them not to stick things in their ears/mouth/nose/the list goes on, you can’t tell them to sit still, you can’t tell them to keep the cone of melting ice cream away from their legs (coz it keeps dripping)….etc. Wait wait…do allow me to correct myself, you can tell them not to do all these, its just that they won’t do it. Well I guess you are getting the point.

But hey, it ain’t that bad after all, the tag team combination of Lyn and I did pretty well after a full day…I think. Not only did we managed to fulfill our plans for the day without much casualties, we did return home early and threw the brats back to their parents. And to me, that was already victory enough. So yeah..to cut the long story short we all survived the trip to the Butterfly Park, Underwater World and Dolphin Lagoon.


We have Althea on the left and Anne on the right

Much thanks to Lyn for planning this whole thing out including drafting an admin programme (Civil Servants will understand what I am talking about). I am feeling lots of love.com right here. Oh oh, and thanks to my sister Serene for loaning me her compact camera. Photos can be found here.


Photo opportunity before the show begins at the Dolphin Lagoon

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What? Me slacker?

Published on June 22, 2007 in Usual Ramblings. 5 Comments

Okay okay, I admit, I have been lazy and not been posting anything for about a week now. And just in case ya’ll think that I was either convicted of something I did (or didn’t do) some years back and landed in prison (“I didn’t do it!! Honest!!”) or got hit by dengue and died…or both…well…I am still doing fine, alive and kicking. Yeah…I am so not giving you guys that benefit (ya’ll know who you are).

Things have been going slow these few days I guess. I was either busy with work, going out a little more often or playing with my new toy amongst other excuses. But I am honoured that some of you peeps still do check in despite no updates…I am feeling the love here…thanks!! :) So dear jBlog, don’t worry, daddy didn’t forget you, daddy just neglected you temporarily..but thats all.. ;)

Anyhoo time to get cracking on jBlogging. There are more craps out there to write and bitch about…

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Church Pews Bunker

Published on June 14, 2007 in Usual Ramblings. 0 Comments

Nah its not one of those nice benches you find in your everyday church. This entry is more on golf (as usual). As U.S Open tees off today at Oakmont Country in Oakmont, Pa. I figured its high time I go check out what the heck the much talked about Church Pews Bunkers are all about.

So surfing around the trusty About.com, I chanced upon an FAQ on that particular bunker and their explanation couldn’t have been any better or clearer. According to the FAQ, a Church Pews Bunker:

  • is a name of a large bunker at Oakmont Country Club;
  • is notably, one of the more famous golf course hazards in the world of golf;
  • sits between the third and fourth fairways at Oakmont and comes into play on both holes.

“It is so-called because of its notable configuration. A very large bunker, the Church Pews’ sandy expanse is broken up by a series of ridges – rows of grassy berms running straight across. It looks like outdoor seating. Or another way of putting it: like rows of church pews.” – About.com: Golf

So yeah, we sort of got an idea of it. But being the visual man that I am, I want to see pictures. And all thanks to Golf.com and the ‘ol trusty Google Image Search, my request was quickly fufilled.


Illustrated course map of Oakmont Country Club – Third Hole


Illustrated course map of Oakmont Country Club – Fourth Hole


Dear golfers, time to say your prayers

To me, the Church Pew Bunker is a real beauty (considering that I will not be playing there) but so deadly as it sits smack in the middle of the fairway (well…at least on the third hole).

These are the type of courses I would totally avoid playing in during tournaments (not that I am that good anyway) or bets. But I really salute the pros out there who despite the number of hazards golf architects throw at them, are able to conquer it without fear. That is a reason why golf is their bread and butter and as for me…well, need to get myself a handicap first. ;)

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Mini and cheap

Published on June 13, 2007 in This I like. 14 Comments

I did remember a while back when KP got his first 1Gb Lexar compact flash card. During those days, it was more of a luxury to us. I mean..woah..1Gb..can you imagine how many photos you can shoot with your DSLR? Forget about chimping your photos, we can do all the QC we want at home. Sure it may cost KP an arm and a leg (or about $170), but I sure don’t remember him backing up his photos every half hour or so.


KP during the good ‘ol days when it was all about photography.

Then there was also a time Lennie and I got a Memory Stick (MS) Pro Duo for about $150 to $170 a piece for our Playstation Portable (PSP) and Sony Ericsson phone. It may not be enough to put all the ‘good stuffs’ in the PSP but the number of photos and videos you can store on your phone is totally amazing. You just don’t run out of space. Yeah, they were pretty costly, but we were contented…well..kinda…

Anyhoo, moving on, after discovering that my new glofiish can’t really hold much data, programs and multimedia files, I figured I might as well go pick up a nice Mini SD and store as much as I want to. So I asked the guy at the counter how much a 1Gb and 2Gb mini SD would set me back by and he replied $28 and $45 respectively. “Woah, wait a minute”, I said to myself and thought its best that I clarify to avoid embarrassment. “You mean $128 and $145?” “Nope, $28 and $45″, he replied.

Now this is one of those moments you are not too sure if it is a good time to laugh or cry. I mean here I am about to purchase the cheapest memory card in my life that can hold twice as many stuff compared to my previous MS Pro Duo (which I got for more than $100 back then). And at the same time, I am looking back at all the money I invested in those with smaller capacity. But I did remember three words tho…”WTF!!”

True I may have mentioned that technology has flourished massively all these years but wow $45 for a 2gb card which is about the size of my pinkie’s fingernail?!! I am loving this already.


Told you it was small

So yeah, I can’t tell you how much I think this totally rawks. I am so digging this technology going cheaper and smaller bit. Now let me go find out what other techy stuffs cost cheaper these days.

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Oh sweet sweet technology

Published on June 11, 2007 in This I like. 24 Comments

Okay, I am pretty much of an early adopter when it comes to selected types of technology. I am someone who indulges one’s appetite for gadgets and gizmos (which probably explains how broke I can be at times). Not much for the sake of showing them off to others but knowing that yes…I have owned them before.

My lust for technology goes way back yonder during the days of the Palm IIIc, probably the first handheld with colour (or at least I think). I guess I must have been bitten by the technology bug when I first held that gadget back then, coz as time goes by, I see myself purchasing more and more intricate ones…and sigh…expensive too.

Yeah I must admit I am honoured to be one of those who witness how much technology has flourished through these years. And now as we live in the era where we see the partnership between handhelds and mobile phones evolving further, I said to myself, I just gotta go get me another one.

So after searching and researching online for the past few months, comparing prices against features and branding, I have decided to stop (searching and researching) and settled for an E-ten glofiish M700:

Boasting to be the first sliding keyboard Pocket PC phone to offer both Wi-Fi and GPS, this handheld has all the bells and whistles a geek would want on a handheld. From your bluetooth to your 2mp camera with flash, this gadget is a real keeper…well…for at least another year or so..ahem ahem.

And just to sweeten the pot a little, a recent E-ten press release announced that it will upgrading their glofiish X500 and M700 devices to Windows Mobile 6, surpassing big brands like O2, Dopod and HP. Now that is music to my ears.

So now the unfortunate part…spending more money and buying good softwares to compliment the glofiish. Did I ever mention that I am really broke? ;)

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Ikea @ Tampines

Published on June 4, 2007 in Usual Ramblings. 12 Comments

“Wah lau!! The place is not small man!!” – My first few words upon arrival at Ikea Tampines’ ground floor.


Left and right: Really really not small…

Yes, although I may have been to big warehouse type shopping centres in Oklahoma, Chicago, New York, etc…but this is the first time I have seen such similar ones in Singapore (or at least in my recent momories).

On an even lighter note, we made off with a nice Billy Bookcase, 10 Barney VCDs (for my niece) and a Jay Chou CD. Yeah…shopping rawks!!

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aMUSEd with the National MUSEum

Published on June 4, 2007 in This I like and Usual Ramblings. 2 Comments

When Eva told Lyn (my boo) and I to meet her and our friends in a pub at the newly renovated Singapore Museum on Saturday, I thought that she was out to “cheat our feelings”. “A pub at THE National Museum? Nice try lady!! Now tell me where the heck are we meeting!!”

However, after some clarifications, I learnt that she was telling the truth. So I must tell you how extremely pleasantly surprised I was to discover MUSE, a quiet chill out pub tucked just right beside the main entrance of the building.


Left: Outdoor area of MUSE | Right: Our bottle of Belvedere Vodka. Nice Belvedere bucket yeah?

Yes, I have always thought that the museum is really cool, though I have not been there in years, but wow…a chill out pub there as well. I am at a lost for words. Well done NHB…well done. Now all I need is to at least visit the National Museum once for educational purposes… ;)


Totally wicked cool ceiling design at the MUSE.

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