Monthly Archive for June, 2008

Its now $2.236 per litre

Published on June 24, 2008 in Things that suck and Usual Ramblings. 15 Comments Tags: increase, petrol price, shell.

While passing by a Shell station on my way home and listening to the endless rants of the taxi uncle about how the government is screwing us with the increase in ERP, food, fuel (the list goes on) prices, I couldn’t help but noticed that the petrol pricing on Shell’s price board had changed.

Thinking that it was perhaps something I might have missed out a couple of days back, I popped over to our trusted media like the Straits Times and Channel NewsAsia to see what the heck was going on. However, after taking a quick look through, I was pretty upset to find nothing. It was until KP showed me a page from Shell about how lucky Singaporeans are considering that our petrol prices are far from being the most expensive in the world did I decide to probe further.

So still sticking around Shell’s website, I chanced upon their new pricing only to confirm that petrol prices did increase as of today. So for us drivers pumping Shell Formula 95, we will pay about $2.124 after discount… . So even with a discount, I would have to pay about $80+ to top my tank.

This is just too disappointing, I can’t go further…

No Means No!!

Published on June 24, 2008 in Usual Ramblings. 2 Comments

Don’t ask me when I’m going to stop but I am still doing my little victory dance after the Boston Celtics took home their first NBA Championship in 22 years. Keeping to the same subject, I chanced upon this tee of Paul Pierce denying Kobe Bryant’s jumpshot during the game 4 at LA with the words “No Means No”. Its basically one of Paul’s many ways of saying that they are going to take the series back to Boston before massacring them there.

Bottom line? I so freaking want this tee!! This item was a collaboration between Bodega (don’t bother visiting their site, annoying as hell) and Damaged, a follow up to their previous design “This is Boston, NOT LA“. I guess these folks were pretty pissed when UNDFTD came up with the “Boston Sucks” tee. What healthy competition.

[Source from Hypebeast.]

Wine that haunts you…in a different way

Published on June 23, 2008 in This I like and Usual Ramblings. 4 Comments Tags: cockfighter's ghost, tanglin mall, wine.

I know it is Monday and such articles are one of the last you want to read but hey, seriously, if you know me well enough, this is something I can’t pass. I was doing a little walk about at Tanglin Mall with my colleagues after lunch and we popped over to the supermarket. While getting those nasty goodies from cheese curls, chocolates and sugar peanuts (there goes my gym sessions), my colleague Sharon pointed out a bottle of wine she thought was…pretty uniquely named.

So I guess you would understand why I pulled up my phone camera and fired away while chuckling to myself endlessly at the same time.

8 million downloaders

Published on June 19, 2008 in Usual Ramblings. 2 Comments

Still following up on my previous entries on Firefox Download Day 2008 (here, here and here), the folks behind the revolutionary browser noted that they recorded over 8 million Firefox 3 downloaders in 24 hours. This is despite the fact that over 1 million people pledged to download…cool huh?

My very own cert..heheh

Playing around the browser a little, I only noted about three changes to the browser and still looking for the rest of the 15,000 other improvements the developers were bragging about. I guess KP is also scratching his head over how else the new version can serve us better as we surf around the world wide web, but hey..we still have time.

17 is a magic number

Published on June 18, 2008 in Usual Ramblings. 4 Comments

Game 6 of the NBA Finals 2008 saw a bloodbath as the Boston Celtics completely decimated the LA Lakers with a whopping 131-92 win. Congratulations Celtics, truly a dream finals resulting in a dream win. I’m sure Red Auerbach is smiling from wherever he is right now.

Can you see a banner 17? Photo taken from kmcworld

There Can Only Be One

Published on June 18, 2008 in This I like. 4 Comments

Well if you don’t already know, I caught by the NBA fever ever since watching the Boston Celtics play in the NBA Playoffs (on ESPN) a couple of months back. Granted that I may not be a true blue (or green) Boston fan and following the Celtic Pride since the early 80s but heck, its better late than never. It has been a long while since I have followed any team after Michael Jordan retired..again..leading to the near collapse of the Chicago Bulls.

As the Boston Celtics play their 6th game against the LA Lakers (BEAT LA!!) this morning, I am crossing my fingers that they will win this one and take the series. A 17th win will sure look fantastic on a team that has not seen a championship ring for a long time. Players like KG, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen (the Big Three) sure deserve one after all they have been through. But like I have said earlier, LA is not a team that will allow you to walk over them easily. I can throw stats and figures at you but I’m sure it will bore the heck out of you.

Still burning from the NBA fever, I chanced upon NBA’s microsite on making my own “There Can Be One” and figured hey…why not. So here’s my humble attempt…I really need to brush up on my photoshop skills though. Meanwhile…Goooooooooo Celtics!!

THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE…with LA’s Pau Gasol and me in my messy room

Over 6,000 pledges

Published on June 17, 2008 in Usual Ramblings. 4 Comments

In a matter of a few hours, I will be joining over 6,000 Singapore Firefox Download Day 2008 pledgers in our quest to download version 3 of their new browser…and become part of Internet history. Honestly, I am not too sure if there is nothing better for me to do or I have absolutely nothing interesting in my boring little life to blog about, but I can’t tell you enough about how excited I am with the download. Think I just became a geek…uh oh..

Taken from the Download Day 2008 website

Les Halles Cookbook for under $6

Published on June 15, 2008 in Usual Ramblings. 4 Comments Tags: anthony bourdain, borders, curtis stone, discount.

Friends familiar with me can understand how I can at times be such a sucker for great deals. Heck some might even note that I can be a real slut for massive discounts and mark downs…amongst other things. Although I don’t usually ‘buy and tell’, I think this incident truly deserve some bragging rights…at least enough to warrant a blog post… .

Lyn (my boo) and I popped over to the Borders bookstore on Friday night to take advantage of a $25 Borders card I won in my previous ministry’s year-end function. It is basically for an outstanding performance as a catus…yeah I know…long story. Looking through the endless rows of books, CDs and magazines, we both decided on purchasing something we both truly enjoy..to be specific, something food related. So off to the cook book section we skipped in search of some famous chef’s secret recipe that might be of use to our home lunch and dinner dates.

Being the not so adventurous couple we are, we could only narrow down to two chefs whom we believe have made their mark in Discovery Travel & Living, a channel we both adore watching. No prizes for correct guesses though, our options are Anthony Bourdain and Curtis Stone. Although we would want to add Nigella Lawson to our list, but we can already put a couple of pounds just by watching her cooking alone let alone trying out her to die for and sinful recipes. At the rate we cook at home, experimenting that ‘bui zhar bor’s’ (yeah…that’s what we call her) recipe could easily sky rocket our cholesterol level and lead us to a diabetic hell before Lyn turns 30 and me 35. This brings me to wondering if her kids should start watching their diet…but that is another story.

Before I digress further, we scoured around for books by the two chefs only to find Anthony’s section. Lyn who prefers good looks to great recipes wanted Curtis’ book instead. As pissed I was then (how dare she finds someone else sexy?), but having previously read two of Anthony’s books, I guess thumbing through Curtis’ culinary journey can serve as a refreshing welcome. However, a quick check at the information counter only turned us away disappointingly as Curtis’ books were out of stock for the moment, and a new shipment would arrive only four to six weeks later.

So with that, we finally decided on Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook, a recipe book where Anthony ‘reveals the hearty, delicious recipes of Les Halles and the provocative tricks of the trade that have made him a celebrated name across the globe’ (source from Powell’s Books). As the nice cashier scanned the $38.50 book, we passed her my Borders card with a big grin only to learn that cook books for this period goes for an extra 20% off…our grins got bigger as our jaw dropped. With that, our damage for that oh so lovely cook book is just $5.80. Oh happy day!! We’re thinking of making beef stew next week… .

Left: The book… | Right:…with the discount

Download Day 2008 on 17 June

Published on June 14, 2008 in This I like and Usual Ramblings. 0 Comments

Following my previous post on Firefox’s Download Day 2008, I just received word from the people behind it that the history making event will be on 17 June. So if you want to be a part of Internet history, perhaps the best ever, I suggest you pop over to the ‘ol Firefox website to pledge and start your downloading engines…

Ramly is still good…

Published on June 13, 2008 in Usual Ramblings. 6 Comments

I know those Ramly burgers we have been savouring for the last few years have pretty much losts its originality after franchising and to some skeptics, it could be overrated. But I can’t help but pick up a bun or two everytime we chance upon a pasar malam. So when we passed by one at Lyn’s (my boo) home while walking the dogs last Sunday, I guess you could understand why I headed straight to the Ramly burger.

Surrounded by Ramly stalls, I must admit that the people behind these burgers sure know how to franchise their products. Walking pass some stalls, I noticed that there are beef and chicken patties all packed nicely in an official Ramly box together with buns in Ramly plastic bags…heck…I even saw burger wrappers with the Ramly logos all over. Store selection to me was simple, just look out for the cleanest one and chances are that you could avoid that morning bowel obstruction.

Left: Stall front | Right: The official Ramly burger wrapper…not oily.

Left: The Ramly Burger | Right: The insides of the Ramly Burger

Thankfully, I was happy with my final choice as the burger was not oily, it tasted wonderful. Waiting for about a good 5 mins for the ‘Ramly Chef’ to cook up my burger, I observed that he put alot of attention in cleaning up while the patties are frying. Adding to that, he slid a piece of sliced cheese in, poured three types of sauces in before wrapping it up in an egg..sinful but nice .

I guess this experience did bring me back to the good ‘ol days when trying out Ramly for the first time. I hope the pasar malam will continue at least another week so I can truly indulge myself in this gastronomical delight once again ~cross fingers~.