AiyaiyaiPhone!

I have made contact with an iPhone. The device belongs to Mr Chew. He got it just recently and inadvertently became the coolest guy in the group at dinner. (He would like that since he's a geek. But a cool one at that. He's in the reflection below.)

Yes the iPhone is as wonderful as it has been made out to be. Swipe to unlock, fingers tapping at the onscreen keyboard (my fingers are too big though), beautiful images, music on an Ipod like interface and oh the scroll! The fingers swish up and down and the display follows.

It is difficult not to like the iPhone. At first glance, it's large screen, black on silver good looks, singular buttonless glass surface just shouts to the post-bubble tea Internet generation for attention. OS X is just amazing. The Mac interface is just nice to look at. And nice will sell. Then Mac sales will go up because once PC-kind is taken in by their indispensable mobile device, this is a quick hop, skip and jump to the white side. Just you wait and see. Get Mac shares if you can. They'll be next stock market Google.

Arab Street

On the sidelines of dinner and coffee, I/we took a walk through the Arab Street area. It was a time to whip out the Ixus and snap away. The light rain made the streets wet and the skies mysterious. Hari Raya twinkle lights and old shophouses made for an interesting juxtapose. Colours are splash of orange and yellow with lots of white fluorescent. I should go back in the day time to catch some real, more lively R, G and B. The cheapest teh tarik is brewed there too.

Intentional Transit

Kim came back from Dubai to spend a week or so with her family and friends she left behind in Singapore. Not exactly fresh off the plane, Kim had spent the past week eating as much Singaporean food as she could, catching up with the nephews who just got their PSLE prelim results and nieces who can't define mothers and grandmothers, and friends who make nasty, bad-ass jokes at every opportunity. There was Krispy Kreme donuts from Dubai. I missed out on them :(

We met up at Ichiban Boshi for a good ol' Japanesy time. I had the the special - fried chicken and cod. Not very Asian eh. But it was good. They forgot the chawan mushi so we reminded the wait staff twice. Forgivably, it was a busy Wednesday aka Mambo night. The conversation covered all topics - from cats, the food, people in the restaurant and of course, airplane escapades from the mouth of the inflight attendant.

The stories were many and varied. We discussed at length the nuances of head movements of members of the Indian subcontinent. Did a shake mean yes or no to "Chicken or fish, sir?" ? At this time, no one really knows. There was also talk over dietary requirements in the Ramadan season. Did you know that passengers on the flights to Mecca would change into required traditional outfits on the plane at the reminder of the pilot? I hear you going "Really?". Yes, really. Haunted beds and noisy housekeepers in hotels were also conversed about.

It was quite a meeting of the minds and stomachs. I have been promised donuts at the next return.

Lights In The Sky

I was asked to dinner and I took a walk to Chinatown to the bus stop. The sky was blue and the lanterns were lit, dangling in the gentle breeze a few metres above the slow moving passerbys. Of course I had to unveil my camera and start shooting.

Up One To 33

Ok, ok, the date has passed. I am now 33 and 2 days old today.

Thanks for the well wishes, pre, on time and post. On the night of the 21st, I was taken to Artery at Red Dot to be royally sloshed. I first was filled with pizza at Spizza, cold slices from a dinner that started an odd hour earlier. Delicious. We walked to the place of alcoholic consumption, a long walk that helped settled dinner. After my pint of Heiny, the madness started at the stroke of midnight. First was chocolate cake from Bakerzin. Damn it was good. It added colour to the oral discharge later.

Then I was ambushed. "We can't buy you a car ah, so we buy you a Flaming Lamborghini!", laughed Jorida, the lead punisher. "Oh dear", I muttered under my breath. That was done quickly, with much fanfare. I also had a realisation that my friends here were out for blood, their credit card would not stop the slip-slide across the payment machine until this Punjabi was put to inebriate rest. Then there was the Sex On The Beach, Kamikaze, Macallan, some horrible punch-coloured concoction. There was a Long Island Tea which I managed to avoid (Sorry MH).

There was more I think. I can't remember. All I know is that I managed to 'relieve' the strain more than once at the loo. The last time was the beginning of the end of the night. I challenged Jorida to a shot of Macallan's just before and then I blabbered on and on about friendship etc etc. I already talk too much when sober. With alkie, I am like JBJ on steroids. Goodness.

I couldn't remember how I got home. Apparently, I slept in Ronnie's car all the way up north (but how did I get into the car?) and I think Carolina molested me in the car. I think but I have no proof. Only she knows, the Punggolian (or is it Punggolite?). I somehow unlocked the gate and staggered into the flat. Next thing I know I am on the bathroom floor, cold and a little wet and my mother is outside asking if I was ok. It's 630am. I shower, drink lots of water with one Panadol Extra and go sleep.

There was a second cake, Blackforest (yum!), at about 230pm with the family. My mother told everyone about my bathroom escapades. Sigh. That's starting 33 for you.

Thanks to Ronnie for the pixes, congratulations to the Chews on their 1st anniversary. Thanks all, it is one to remember fondly :)

Angry Box Man

Haha, I had to take a picture when I saw this. It's a sticker of a angry box stuck at the bottom of a bus stop sign. I laughed in public and promptly whipped out the camera. Someone creative must have been frustrated with the state of public transport. The name on the side reads Phook. Hmmm. The bus stop in question is along North Bridge Road outside St Andrews Catherdral. Go see and laugh too.

I hope it lasts, given be awarded national heritage status as an artistic icon of the times.

Kucing Kompani

Eh Kucing. Nama dia Calico. Comel dia.



This is Calico, the resident cat at work (but there is also Taylor). This kitty likes to run his/her way around (goodness I dunno its gender!). Armed with a bell around its pretty collar and cutesy meows, he/she gets the attention it demands (like women). This time he/she was looking for a warm place to hide while getting caught out in the rain. I tissue-dried the cat, gave milk and Twisties and promptly booted the thing off the 3rd floor (I had to, I was leaving).

And the furry feline wouldn't hold still for a photo!

Complain! Like A True Singaporean

I must complain!

1. I am picking a fight with the LTA. They don't wanna build a permanent downriding escalator at the Peck Seah exit at Tanjong Pagar MRT because "We would like to let you know that LTA generally provides ascending and descending escalators at certain exits of stations, where the commuter traffic are much higher." Apparently, not enough people use that exit. Interesting. I replied that I didn't agree. Let's see what happens.

2. Last Thursday night I was on a taxi home. At 1030pm on the CTE the jam started at the Moulmein Road area. I was curious to know what would be the stroke of unfortunate luck that would be slowing my taxi down from a nice 80km/h to a pathetic 40km/h. I couldn't tell, yet. We struggled past the PIE, start stop start stop. As we came down the Braddell flyover, I could see nothing for two kilometres but a sea of red rear lights flashing at me, mocking me. Still I could not figure out what was holding my taxi back. Then it came to view. The shock, the horror. A police car parked on the chevrons at the Ang Mo Kio Ave 1 exit with its blue-red woo-woo lights turning CTE Exit 11 into a mobile disco. Goodness, do the police not realise the psychological power they possess over the SG driver?! Everyone was simply slowing down because some police car was parked at the side of the road! Aaargh.

I am turning into a bitter old man too soon.

One Beer Would Have Done It

The plan was to get Gerald pissed drunk. It started off nicely. We had Mexican food which is great for puking, all colourful and noxiously odorous. I got the pink shots of Sex Of The Beach all ordered and ready. He picked a number - 5 - and consumed about that number (we stopped counting after a while). Soon he was saying things like "I cannot drink one", "I really can't drink one" yada yada. Gerald, ex-Air Force, not able to down a few sissy shots? No way Jose. Well we could have been wrong because our friend made it to the nearby drain and began coughing and spitting. Nope, that didn't get our approval. So Jorida ordered the most interesting drinks on the Wala menu - a Slippery Nipple, a Silver Bullet and a Quickf**k. Ok, we sort of spiced things up. He hesitantly downed each shot and proceeded to make more noises at the long gap in the ground. Still no spillage.

This went on for a while. His poor gf was standing by him with a glass of water. We got bored and sat down to entertain ourselves. Some time later, Gerald made it to the table and leaned back in unconsciousness. Sleep. Yawn for the rest of us.



I keep thinking he faked it. Hmmm. Should have started off with a brewski to tip the tummy off the edge. Lesson learned.

Anyway, congratulations on the big move man.

6 Years On

So what were you doing when the Twin Towers fell?

I was on my way home I think. I was back at my editor job at Times Publishing. Else I was at work, overtime. I went home and saw it the confusion on Channel News Asia. They had a feed from FOX TV. It was far from the towers and wasn't very clear. I went on to listen to the BBC. Unless you were in New York, I guess not many people really knew what happened till about a few hours later. I was in awe at the scale of the act. The balls of these guys to carry out something this big. I was thinking of two friends I knew were in New York at the time. With all communication lines busy to the point of bursting, I was only able to confirm their safety later that week. The morning papers had the images of the towers on fire and collapsing. It was scary. I remember Denise on Power 98 FM's morning show crying on air, with no one really knowing what to say. Words of comfort fell flat in comparison to the scale of the catastrophe. We were all hooked to the Internet and BBC on the radio, eager for the latest news.

Ever since, the world has not been the same place. Security issues are now primary concerns. We are reminded each day as we take the MRT to look out for "suspicious articles" in 4 languages while we watch a video of an Ah Beng leaving a big, black bag under his seat on train schedule LCD TVs. Some folks got arrested in Singapore for being up to no good. The video of Yishun station really hit home - terrorists are here in our island, they are upset people willing to blow up public facilities to get back at our government's stance on terrorism. Also, the cost of air travel has gone up because of additional security measures, while we can't bring in liquids beyond a certain small volume these days. People now play 'who's the air marshall?' games on their flights.

Of course, Afghanistan and Iraq, George Bush and Osama, Bali and JI. And so many lives lost.

In all of this, we should remember why there are some people in the world who want to blow us up. If you think our current terrorist threats occur because some people are nuts or belong to a religion that advocates violence, you are WRONG. Go think about it. Leave a comment if you need help.

iChat Lah!

Reason to get a Mac - so you can do this. iChat, the next best thing to having your friends with you. Madness, and fun. Haha.

Seeing Liz Again

Liz came back from the UK some weeks ago, and Sunday was a reunion of sorts with the folks from Job 1. We took a while deciding on a date and a place for food. In the end it was back to the Prata Place at Evans Road (eh deja vu) (Maybe I will move to somewhere nearby..hmmm). On the way to feast, I passed through old NIE and caught a lightning storm brewing in spectacular fashion over the MacRitchie area. Old birds Ariel, Puay and Liz showed up with newbies Chris and Shu Qiang. In typical fashion, Puay and Liz are late, the latter more so. I had the garlic and butter naans. Yummers.



Then we ended up at Island Creamery at Serene Centre. You know something - I had never been to Serene Centre in my life till Sunday past. "Are you Singaporean?", I was accused. I lived in the West and North and passed by Bukit Timah many times. Perhaps I was intimidated by the St Maggie girls and Chinese High boys.

Island Creamery is a gem. With flavours like Teh Tarik and Tiger Sorbet, it is truly an amazing place to satisfy the sweet tooth. Go try. And they let you print your digital images for free. The walls are literally plastered with images of folks who are in love with the ice cream, themselves and others. It's a museum of sorts and excellent marketing in my book. Well done.

My Flickr Is Banned In Dubai

Aiyaiyai Dubai. And I link my blog images to Flickr. Relaklah my brudders.

It's Happened! - Bugroff - Antisocial Networking

It's happened man.

Just when you thought the world could do with more interconnectedness, someone does a clever ploy at getting back at all the six degrees crap. I opened my email to see an invite to Bugroff - The Antisocial Networking Site. On load, it just knocked me off my chair from laughing so hard.

Indeed it is a smart marketing page for Clever Little Pod, a podcast comedy download site. But the idea has come at the right time eh. "I have enuff friends damnit!" (Please read Facebook article below).

Beaujolais Friday

Focus On The Big HDB Picture

"So do you think the waterway is a good concept?"

Turns out I was a "practical man" at the focus group I attended at the HDB. That's right HDB. I am on the mailing list for opportunities to get out of Woodlands i.e. flats available for purchase (I siphon out Woodlands and Sembawang on my own). I got an email requesting my presence at a focus group to discuss the new housing initiatives announced by PM Lee at the NDP rally. These new ideas include damming up 2 rivers in the Northeast and carving out a river through Punggol; and new garden-centric housing in Dawson. Find out more at www.hdb.gov.sg. Yes, yes, yes, I wanna go!

I showed up on time and there was dinner. It was not bad, especially cream puffs. We were ushered into a room and shown a video about the new initiatives and a nice lady told us what was required of us. "We" and "us" refers to about 30 people who showed up. I counted that there were about 6 Indians. (Ronnie commented it must have been a long night. Hmmm). Perhaps ethnic group representation wasn't much of a key priority as actual physical attendance.

It was fun. Probably because I have an opinion on everything. And I wasn't the only one. The folks in my group were great - preceptive, smart and had goldmine opinions spiced with a sense of humour. We, HDB facilitators included, laughed a lot and enjoyed the complaints and compliments.

"I live next to a canal. It is not very nice. It smells. When people come downstairs, it is noisy. And mosquitoes." "I live with 4 generations in my flat. It's not easy." "Barbecue pits on the roof, that's what I want."

In the end, we felt like we made a difference. There may be things that are different about what was initially announced at the rally (Sorry, PM) and we'd be the ones who instigated that change. Woohoo. The $50 NTUC voucher was nice too.

Breko, Good Food At OK Prices

I've been to Breko for beers and small stuff like pizzas and the fried mushrooms before a formal dinner do last week. And hey it was nice though service was a tad slow. After perusing the menu for the longest time (many, many options). I had the salmon caesar salad, my small attempt at light dinners and eventual weight loss. It was pretty and tasty. The rest of the dinner company had a humungous beef burger and the Singapore favourite when all else is confusing, fish and chips. There were sides of mushroom and chicken wings.

Points for attention to presentation. Warning - loads of carbo. Generally positives on the food, not raves. Have the beer - 2 bottles for $10. They get s star in my book for that, and the mushroom-cheese-garlic pizza. Go try. The fruit and coffee blends are enticing too.

Everyone Is On Facebook

Of late, my Hotmail has been clogged with email from one source - Facebook. Each day 60-90% of the personal email I receive is from this social networking phenom of a website. You gotta hand it to them - they have come up with the next big thing after Friendster. They allow people to do fundamentally simple things we like to do with our friends like make comments, ask questions and post pictures. But here's the icing on the cake - Facebook lets you know when your friends respond, add friends, add applications, send virtual beer, join causes or superpoke someone - stuff, at the onset, that sounds like crap and not worth two hoots. But the prompt telling me that my contact person A is associating with stranger B makes me think a little deeper, provoking the urge to kaypoh. This urge is what builds the interconnectedness. Six degrees into millions of nodes and links between people. It's huge, baby. Imagine the stats alone. Tasty data.

The other interesting that happens is a matter of social science and psychology. Ponder on this - We join groups on Facebook, networks of mutual interest. Invitations by administrators are sent to those they see fit joining this clique. This leads to questions about basis of invites, agendas and why some people an invitee may assume as fellow groupies are left out. It's just like teenagers in high school who want to be cool. What happens when someone quits a group? Simple dislike, ennui or something deeper?

There's also the anti-Facebook vibe surfacing among many who are tired of all the information and interconnectedness. "Leave me alone, I know who my friends are already!", they cry. I have met folks in the office who have expressed this sentiment. There are others who have asked "What is going on in Facebook? I get 2 milions emails and I am poked, prodded and bitten every other hour. What have I got into?".

Someone is probably doing a thesis on virtual social networks right now. And someone other guy is probably calculating the amount of approved spam Facebook is sending out each second.

iScrybe

These guys are so gonna get bought out man! Ronnie put this up on his site and it seemed interesting (geekness showing). So i went to check out the demo video on YouTube.

This thing rocks big time man. There are so many cool things that iScrybe can do that, the like alludes to, the big boys haven't done. Apart from the technology, a good deal of thought has gone into the interface design and life-centric usability - how we can see things out of focus, how we need to relate to and keep in mind of more than one thing at a time and how we love simple, cool, fluid animation. This is it man, iScrybe. Buy shares if you can.

iScrybe Site, Video 1, Video 2

I Don't Have Fungal Itch

gurms
PM 12:19
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061105053713AAiVmSZ

ronnie
PM 12:21
and WHY shld i read thi
this

gurms
PM 12:22
its funny

ronnie
PM 12:22
lol
pple will get weird ideas if they catch u readin that

gurms
PM 12:24
i wanted a link for daktarin
that was waht i got from google

ronnie
PM 12:25
wat does daktarin do?

gurms
PM 12:25
its for fungal itch

ronnie
PM 12:25
lol cannot get at pharmacy

gurms
PM 12:26
can

ronnie
PM 12:26
then?

gurms
PM 12:34
i think we are off track

ronnie
PM 12:35
?

gurms
PM 12:35
i brought up the bears, the bears rub trees, pple might think they rub trees bec they are itchy, fungus causes itch, hence fungal itch, to cure fungal itch use daktarin, daktarin can be bought at guardian
does that clear things up?

ronnie
PM 12:37
lol
-----
I reiterate, I do not have a fungal itch. Scratch, scratch.

Rubadubdub, Dun Play Play For Bears

So the scientists have cracked it. Why do bears rub against trees? Using satelites, digital photography and infrared sensors, they hid out in the woods to spy on the big, brown, fuzzy ones to figure out this mystery that has dogged mankind for ages. Turns out this is anti-social networking for the grizzly kind. One male rubs a tree to protect himself. Not the fungal itch you were thinking about. Read more on BBC News.

If you have a fungal itch, go to Guardian and ask for Daktarin. If the pharmacy guy/gal wants to see your infection, gladly show him/her. Haha. If you need to laugh about fungal itch some more, click here.

Bending The Light

Exposure baby. It's all open now.

I managed to get some illuminating shots from my Canon IXUS 40 by playing with the exposure and aperture settings. I call this one Sine Curve, haha. All I did was keep the exposure long and aperture open while moving my hand in a curvy, swervy way at the beach facing the pretty lights from ships off the East Coast. There are more pixes, at my Flickr.

ECP BBQ

I can't remember the last time I was at East Coast Park for a barbeque, especially on a weeknight. Last Friday I was asked by the interactive folks at my office to join them in an evening of conversation, charcoal and chicken. One of the chiefs at the helm was Regina, pictured here in here cutesy-Japanesey, mood-lighted, Hi-hi Puffy Amiyumi pose. (She likes pink by the way).

We took a bus to ECP, such was the extent of planning, down to the 4 wheels. The contingent took photos and chit-chatted like a truckload of tourists on their visit to the zoo. We braved peak hour traffic to arrive at Carpark D at about 7pm. I was the sea. Blue, serene, dotted with light-stars from ships anchored in the straits. Wow. (Which reminds me I need to live near the sea).

So my trudged off to Pit44 to begin the evening's proceedings. The wind howled like it was werewolf in heat (ok, bad simile). That made it hard to get the fire started and human shields were required. Once the flames were calm and ambers glowing hot, we threw on the meat and kicked into munch mode. Satay, hot dogs, chicken breasts, mushrooms, cheesy mushrooms, meat mushroom balls, chicken bacon, squid, sambal stingray and other things.



Chips, crackers, beers and Absolut. Goodness. And apparently, the meat and necessary accessories came in boxes, ordered from a store. But we ran out of margarine quickly. There was a great deal of aluminium foil though. And we had to get the late arrivals to bring stuff, like mesh and ice. Well and hmmm.

So we talked and gawked, and went to the beach. The night ended with us spooking ourselves to bits by telling real-life supernatural experiences, as is required at any Singaporean barbeque. Must have been the full moon.

Mustajab - Good Food Going Going...

The name's been around in Tras Street for a long long time. I was introduced to Mustajab in my second job, when I worked in Tanjong Pagar. It's simply a place for good Malay food. Many people flock there for the morning coffee and curry puff or mee rebus. Lunch time means Nasi Padang, the best in the area. With something like 20 vegetables, curries and meats, the eyes go mad at the selection, the tongue goes wild in anticipation, and tummies rumble for the gastronomic quench.

Whenever I have Nasi Padang, I go for the simple stuff - no big meats and curries. I do sambal goreng, the fried ikan bilis, omelette, nenas achar, tofu taugeh chive mix, topped with a generous dash of lemak or assam pedas gravy and a daub of sambal tumis. Sedap. Perhaps a begedel too. Now that the saliva is running, here's the bad news. They are closing. Rent's too high. What a shame man.

But I suspect they'll be back somewhere else. Such good food cannot be denied consumption. It's one of Newton's laws.