A Very Serious Episode Of House

That's the price index for HDB resale flats from 1994 to 2009. The 100 base mark happens in Q4 1998. In the past year, the index has hit record highs - 145 in Q3 2009.

Where is this all leading to? Apparently no one knows, not even the HDB. "Nobody, no matter how prescient, no matter how clever, would have been able to predict that this was what was going to happen," National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said in an interview with the TODAY paper (30 Dec 2009 article linked here.That's brilliant. The head didn't know where the feet are/were heading. Quite reassuring.

Funny that there are reports online about prices of housing in other city centres like Hong Kong and London actually bucking the recession trend. Yes, other cities are experiencing this mad property price boom too. The folks in Hong Kong actually protested on the streets. Ahem.

I guessed I'm a little miffed all this is happening the year I am able to get a flat. Stratospheric prices are making me evaluate my housing options, and am considering different strategies. Ambitions have a price and in this case, living closer to the city could cost an arm and a leg more than putting up in the outskirts. A friend suggested buying a home far out there and buying a car with the money not spent on the premium for living close to town. Fair point. Perhaps worth considering also is cost of petrol, time spent on roads, the agony of driving in Singapore, ERP charges and that the car will expire way before the home does.

I am also wondering what the rest of the country is thinking too, how couples who intend to get married are hoping and praying some kind of magic will send prices downwards. Another friend has been applying for a flat on the HDB website and is pissed by the $10 admin fee each time he forks out for hitting the Submit, and Now Start To Hope and Pray button. He's mouse-clicked a few times already this year, unsuccessfully.

Another point brought up in the article: 'Would they prefer a fixed-price system, whereby home-owners, when they want to sell their Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat, must return it to the authorities for the price they paid for it?' Someone commented, yes, with inflation factored in. Is that such a bad idea? I dunno. On one hand, it will help reduce the cost of living in Singapore quite dramatically. If our salaries do not grow in tandem with inflation or housing price increases, having the security of a really affordable place to live may not be a bad idea. On the other hand, the idea of an HDB as an asset diminishes. It becomes a place to live, without additional value. Profit is the issue. Should a HDB flat be used for making money?

More questions than answers. Don't think I'll sleep well tonight.

The Year In My Music

I listen to everything. It doesn't mean I buy everything. Especially the commercial stuff. Also, if you know me semi-well, you'd know I don't download.

Yes gasp. Yes I am the weirdo. Well fark you. We haven't got a system where artistes can make $ and music without record companies, not in the conventional sense anyway. So $ is important and not even the air you breathe is free.

Ok, the two cents done. I bought these albums in 2009:
1. Depeche Mode - Remixes 81-04
2. Razorlight - Razorlight
3. The Roots - Home Grown! The Beginner's Guide To Understanding The Roots, Vol. 1
4. The Finn Brothers - Everyone is Here
5. Richard Ashcroft - Keys To The World
6. Calvin Harris - I'm Not Alone (single)
7. Kings Of Leon - Only By Night
8. Pet Shop Boys - Before (single)
9. The Streets - Everything Is Borrowed
10. Global Underground - Toronto - Deep Dish
11. The Annual 2005
12. Ibiza Annual 2005
13. Global Underground - Shanghai - Nick Warren
14. Emo Love
15. Mambo Jambo, Now & Forever
16. Feel
17. +65 Indie Underground
18. Air - Everybody Hertz (single)

The singles I generally buy for the remixes but the Calvin Harris track, goodness, was seminal. It spoke to the old man in me trying to feel that 25-yr-old trance vibe once again. (Ah the memories of running back into Zouk when Gabriel & Dresden played Motorcycle's As The Rush Comes for the 4th time the same night) Simple electronics, great beat, awesome record.

Most albums I buy because they are on sale and I would like to own them. Especially the other singles and Annuals. Classic dance tracks in the Annuals I bought, Ministry of Sound publishings. The GU albums are credit to the DJs mixing the tracks. The other albums I buy full price because I know they will change the way I think.

The Finn Brothers are the blokes who were in Crowded House, that NZ band with the quirky hits. This album is equally interesting with nice harmonies and melodies, and poignant and funny lyrics.

Kings of Leon blew me away when I heard Sex On Fire on the radio, and then Use Somebody. Amazing rock from deep inside America. Sounding British like the early Killers and scoring big outside the US first. It is little wonder why they are Grammy nominated for next year. I predict a Record Of The Year win for them. Seriously.

Depeche mixes by today's best remixers in a must buy and try. It was a no brainer when I saw the cover in Gramaphone.

Emo Love, Mambo Jambo and Feel are compilations of 3 genres of music. Emo Love has today's radio ballads/love songs from bands like the Fray and Plain White T's. Mambo Jambo had 80 kitschy shit I had to own. I play the Culture Club's Time Clock Of The Heart, Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up, Womack & Womack's Teardrops and Bananarama's Love Truth and Honesty quite a bit. Feel has atmospheric, chill out works from the likes of Moby, Kings of Convenience, Royskopp and EBTG. Variety is good for you, compilations serve me well.

The album you must get is +65 Indie Underground.
It is a 3-disc compilation of local rock/pop songs. It is just great, judging from the first 45mins I've heard today to and from work. Seriously, do not underestimate the talents of Singapore bands. They are not Idol material (heaven forbid!) but they deserve more than a mere mention in local music history. Bands like Humpback Oak, Padres and Stompin Ground inspired the next wave of homegrown musicians like Electrico, Concave Scream and Plain Sunset. The album has 50 individual songs and pieces (some rocking instrumentals) and every track kicks ass or lends weight to some serious, eyebrow stretching consideration about where SG music was, is and could be. If you love your country, get this album.

The +65 Indie Underground FB page >>

The Year-end Poke And Prod Exam

I have a colleague who narrated her experience about a dentist visit. On a visit to get her teeth whitened, she was told that she should get some work done on some teeth as 'preventive measures' to not incur further aggravated problems in the future. Thinking about it rationally, yes, why not. One should always prevent future trouble, especially painful affairs with teeth. So she agreed and the dentist went to work to fix god-knows-what. In the end, it was an extraction plus a root canal. Goodness. Also, she never got her teeth whitened in the end.

I recently moved, well, some months ago to a new part of Lalaland, and bid adieu to my dentist of a few years. She actually put in the crown that now conceals my front tooth stump. The crown replaces enamel that was partially chipped and re-patched with fake, badly yellowing enamel. Yes, vanity got the better of me. Anyway, I had to find a new doctor to look at my teeth.

So as I happened to wandering around my neighbourhood mall, I spied a dentist's office on the 3rd floor corner, next to a medical clinic and a spa. I went in and made an appointment to get my teeth scaled and polished before the year came to a close (as required by the claims department). And earlier this evening, I saw the man in white, and it was a strange experience, bearing in mind my friend's story I retold in para 1. With a few quick prods in my mouth, this man told me I had two decay happening in two places among the pearlie whites. He handed me a mirror to check out the damage. I, in my esteemed professional opinion as an web marketing/content person, avid bookworm and keen conversationalist, saw nothing to concur with said dentist. I told him "No, I'll get them done later."

The guy's assistant then gave a pair of goggles, stuck the suction firmly under the right side of my tongue, and stepped back as Mr Tooth Inspector proceeded to scale and polish. The whole affair was about 15-20mins long and cost me $71.56.

I came out of the dentist feeling puzzled. I know it's his job to spot cavities and fix them. But it too soon for skeptical old me to commit to a new dentist's opinions. "Out for new customer money" I kept thinking. Am I wrong? I don't trust these guys no more. The world is a cruel place where everyone else wants their grubby little professionally-trained hands on my wallet. Cynical and skeptical is an evil combo. Like surf and turf.

I'll wait and see. With pain, I'll rush back. Without pain, I'll carry on with Colgate and floss. Not the pork, but the string to clean in between with.

Duxton, A Look Into The (Ugly) Future

I was at Keong Saik road looking for a Christmas party venue having a flat battery in my handphone (hence not being able to call anyone at the the party to ascertain its location, but that's another story). I walked up past the start/end curve of Keong Saik road and lo and behold, this amazing sight lay before my camera lens to pounce upon. Neck craningly spectacular. The 50 storey megaliths of future HDB at Duxton against the 60-plus year old low-level shophouses, the latter eclipsed by the sheer size of the new neighbourhood giant. Seeing this stark contrast, the realisation of how hideous the Duxton flats are dawned on me. Their encroachment into the skyline, casting an immense shadow both literally and figuratively, on the old, dying Chinese neighbourhoods next door seemed like a stain on Singapore's progress. I know we have to build up to ensure we house our people but seriously, this ugly, grandiose slap in the city's face looks good only from the other side. The city side where everything blends in. From Outram Park end, it's like a slab of wall smack dab in the middle of the sky. The price of progress I guess.

More pixes at my Flickr

Avatar Movie Stuns and Mocks

Just home from watching Avatar. What an awesome movie. There's no denying the quality of the CGI work rendered. Outstanding doesn't even come close. My friend said that there were moments when he couldn't tell CGI from the real thing. That's a statement in testimony to what everyone else is raving about. The storyline was good too. Man join mission to replace brother, man goes undercover to figure out the enemy, man gets 'Stockholm Syndrome' and defects to the enemy side. Well that's the simplified jist without giving too much away. Sort of like Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai. To think that this film took James Cameron 14 years to make because the technology to fulfill his vision wasn't around after the Titanic also lends weight to the quality of the visual experience one is treated to. The movie is set is 2153 where laptops and displays are way cooler, just as we imagined. Stunning lah, and in some cases, jaw dropping mind boggling.

The deeper, more interesting plot of a mission to mine an obscenely priced mineral in a faraway planet with the support of the US military simply aches for parallels drawn to what we see in the world today. Some phrases used in the film that echoed today's situation for the US military were "shock and awe" and "pre-emptive strike". I made a scoffing sound when these phrases were said out, and I am sure they struck a familiar nerve with some of the audience. The idea of oppressive colonialism for plunder is so 1800s and yet James Cameron chose to extend this theme to the next century. Perhaps he's thinking we'd never grow up as a human race and seek to replay our sins on another planetary civilization. And the US firepower to outgun and outrun simply reflects the world situation too. There was a scene with a flame thrower used in the lush forest that reminded me of movies made of the Vietnam war. The idea of corporate might and right backed up with killing machines just sickens me. But it's a good idea put on film to warn folks about the dangers to letting this madness for money get into our heads.

Good movie. People should think about what all those pretty scenes mean too.

Making Sense Of A 35yr Old Body

I had a health screening last Thursday and I chose the Male Premier package at SATA (mostly because the SATA clinic was closer to home and that there was a discount from the company). They took my poop, urine and blood in quick succession. No, the poop happened somewhere else and I had to ensure a sufficient sample was delivered encased when I went for the appointment. This upgraded package of tests included a Treadmill test. Just like the ones you see on TV where the athlete runs on a conveyor belt strapped to a mess of wires, connected to a large beeping machine that displayed numeric responses to my physical activities. I had to shave my chest for this. Else the sensors wouldn't stick on the unconcerned lady on the phone told me. Goodness. Anyway, the doctor who would observe me walk and jog was a little busy at the start of my bondage so I tried to do stuff to make my heartbeat, now numerically measured in digital precision in front me, go faster or slower. It was amazing how quickly the heart reacted to my shenanigans on the stationary mill. I also had a similar experience with my blood pressure half an hour earlier. I was looking at the meter as the device measured the diastolic and systolic readings. Apparently, I was nervous and the blood pressure reciprocated my sentiments. I hit a 138 and the lady told me to relax. She performed the test again and my high hit a 119. I wasn't looking at the display this second time around. Wow.

So back to the Treadmill test (capitalized as it deserves to be). The doctor came around and told me that the chance of a heart attack on this thing was 1 in 10000. I also had to sign a acknowledgement form recognizing the potential strain on my heart. How kanjiong these doctors make you when you are about to put yourself to the limit. The mill started slow, and I was walking. Stage 2 I was striding faster. A slow jog into stage 3 and stage 4 was a strong pace. One element of difficulty was the progressive incline added to the run. Yes, it was a smart machine designed to knock you out. Some time along Stage 4, the machine displayed 187 in bright red numbers, alerting me to slight alarm. The doctor said "You have reached your maximum and any data after this is useless to the analysis. So do you want to carry on?' I said no, because I didn't want to sweat anymore, looking not to so pretty on the way home. Then I thought, 187, that was my max?! The doctor said that was good. Hmmm. It didn't sound great.

I get the full consultation early in the new year. Let's see how the old body is shaping up given the nearly 2 years of hot yoga. Apparently, I have lost about 7kg and grew 1cm. Some friends said it was a parallax error in the height measurement. Hmpf.

On Sunday, I woke with a strange numb pain in the middle of my back. My end day, while the family was out walking about Little India looking for food, the chest was in slight pain. Nope, not near the heart. The right lung was the source. Strange. So I went to see the doctor today. He put his cold scope on my chest (I shivered a little) and listened, telling me softly to bring in and out. He concluded, like I was tending to believe, that it was a muscle sprain or something like that. Or that the ribs were stretched too much. I have Anarex to take tonight to sleep. I am wondering when the pain will go away.

Do Something About It

Change is good. I am sure you've heard that line before and mostly compartmentalize that thought to perhaps one, two facets of life. Like a job. You hear that often when someone passes a comment about being in a job for some time. Seriously, change is what made who we are as humans. Without change and bacteria figuring out how to not only live but thrive in dire, primordial circumstances, evolution would not have led us here. So in the big picture sense, change has in fact part of our existence.

However, in the 'my modern life' sense, change teaches us how to adapt, giving the brain fresh challenges to overcome, more fuel to keep the noodle running longer. Most of us tend to settle in most areas. Job, personal lives, weekend activities, what we teach our kids, what we order for Sunday breakfast, stuff like that. The consistency though comforting perhaps lulls us into a false sense of well-being in a day and age where adapting to changing situations is becoming all the more necessary.

Perhaps I am over-reacting. Perhaps the past year in finance thought us more lessons than we care to admit.

But think about adaptation this way. Having the mindset that nothing is permanent around you helps you stay on your toes. In Sikhism, and Buddhism I believe, the idea of detachment is quite key. Nothing is truly yours. Everything can be taken away at a moment's notice. Think about the families of those in the Twin Towers on 11 Sep 2001. That's one extreme, yes, and perhaps quite disheartening. On the positive, the idea of 'letting go' helps keep us real and grounded, and not take things for granted.

Back to change. One thing I learned from advertising, is that nothing will improve if one keeps sticking to the same, old ways of getting things done. Companies that keep investing in, let's say, developing 300 things and not having market share in any sector might be better off focusing on one great thing and selling that to the world. It's a hard thing to consider but it might be the right thing to do. Same thing about losing weight. If people think that pills are the way to go, they are kidding themselves. Try not taking the lift or simply add a routine of walking to the train station to start that difference.

There are folks who tell me they can't win anything on the radio or in write-in contests. I ask them if they tried calling in or sending a postcard to take part and usually the answer is no. How can one expect to win if one doesn't change the idea of losing and try something? That's an easy type of change to implement - attitude. If you're unhappy with the way trash is being collected in your neighbourhood or the way the buses are run or how property prices are skyrocketing to ridicule, call/email/write someone. Make that change happen. It feels good when you the results.

TCC Tomatoes!

Go to TCC, order the asparagus mushroom salad, and quickly pop the cherry tomatoes that come with the dish. OMG. The delightfully warm juices of the tiny red morsel simply explode in the mouth! The dainty spread of herbs and garlic add to the minor gastronomic storm happening over the tongue, blending beautifully with the delicate flavour of the tiny, ripe fruit. As quickly as it happens, the wonderful taste disappears cleanly down the palate, aching for another hit. Awesome seriously. This was the best surprise from TCC in a long time, and given its quite accidental discovery, it deserve superlative mention. We had three nuggets of goodness that accompanied the equally impressive salad but they weren't enough. We asked for a tomato-only preparation of 5 more morsels. The chefs at TCC T3 Changi acceeded to our request. Thank you.

Photo courtesy of Carolina and her iPhone.

Small Stuff Singaporeans In Trains

If you've lived here long enough, you'd come to realise Singaporeans tend to focus on the small stuff, both positive and negative. This is a rant on how we handle or not handle the small things that happen on the train journeys we take to/from the city.

A plus side example - There are well-meaning announcements asking travellers to move in to the centre of the car, we comply somewhat and assume the job is done. One piece of small stuff taken care of. Easy peasy.

Having squeezed into our tiny personal spaces, we however forget very quickly what it means to be in close proximity to other humans. Some people will attempt to read their free morning papers without really thinking about the space left to fully extend the sheets. In response, affected commuters give nasty glances and make comments under breath. More small things we do to piss each other off.

Then there's the accidental touching. Some people are very affected by the occassional accidental nudge/scrape/touch that happens between passengers on a crowded train. Cursory glances they throw about, an occassional tsk tsk thrown in for good measure. We're in a sardine packed train, for heaven's sake. Grow up.

Space is a premium on such a ride to work. So when a seat opens up, take it. It's not about being greedy or kiasu when a passengers chooses to sit down. I'm more interested in the standing room created when someone decides to take up a vacated seat, giving more room to those around and passengers entering the carriage. So please sit down and be less noble.

Somehow the moving in to the centre only happens in the heartlands. When the train passes underground we lose our good intentions. Case in point - passengers transferring from NEL to the South line towards Raffles Place face a barrier of communters in their way as they try to enter the trains. No one seems to want to move in anymore. Job done once, that's the quota? I don't geddit.

Maybe we're all just really nervous people. Small stuff makes us content. Forget the grand scheme of the universe and mankind. Relax folks. Just think about the right, perhaps even smart, thing to do. It makes us better people.

Show And Tell

I flew on Firefly, the budget subsidiary of MAS, on a trip to Ipoh for my aunt's wedding. It was a good thing that the airline flew to Ipoh, a journey of 1.5 hours, instead of the coventional 9-hr bus journey alternative. My sub 2-year old nephew was tagging along, so the convenience of a quick journey was a real plus. The plane as you can tell is a propeller plane, an ATR 72-500s. The mere mention of propeller sent some of my friends in head shakes and spasms of humour/terror. It wasn't bad. The insides were not as spacious, with a 2-seat ailse 2-seat formation, but it was clean and comfortable. The propellers were loud at take off but soon the plane settled into a usual engine hum when we were up in the air. They even served a muffin and a drink. Given that both flights to and fro were just about packed, I believe the route is proving pretty popular with Singaporeans. Overall it was a good experience on Firefly. Find out more at www.fireflyz.com.my


That's a picture of the crowd booing at a recent football at the National Stadium. It was Singapore versus Thailand in an Asian Cup qualifier. Two gripes about the whole thing. One, why is the National Stadium still around? We did the send off party some year plus ago (?) and the buildng still shapes the Nicoll Highway skyline. In fact, I think they replaced the floodlights. Are we ever gonna get a new stadium? Is the sports hub project really that badly affected by the financial crisis? Haven't we enough moolah in the gahmen bank to fund this? It's 1.2 billion? Small change for a progressive change in Singapore's status as a sporting nation of distinction. The second issue is how the Singapore football still plays so badly. It's amazing how members of the sudience know exactly who should be passing the ball to whom, and that the players don't geddit. It's also shameful that our players seem afraid to take a chance. They pass the ball quickly to anyone, including the opposing team, whenever it lands at their feet. Tamak is the Malay word for playing selfishly in football. Sometimes it's ok. Just take the damn ball and run with it. V Sundramoorthy used to do that to much acclaim and some disdain but still it was entertaining, and the effort was worthy of applause. We like to see effort, win or lose. For that match, we saw little in the 3-1 loss.


Singaporeans love their food. In a survey some time back on reasons not to migrate, food came out tops. Nevermind the friends, family and clean streets. If a political party came forward to offer food as a party promise, I am quite sure it'll get elected. It is hard to keep trim in Singapore. Superhuman effort is required to quell that craving for awesome gastronomic fare. Mostly also because there is so much to eat in Singapore. We need to be thankful for the cultural mix that gives us roti prata, chicken rice, mee soto, char kway teow, thosai, satay, dim sum, nasi padang, briyani and other local dishes together with all the lovely angmoh, Japanese, Korean, Italian, French etc. fare. Awesome. We're never out of ideas for food. Here is a picture of chilli crab from No Signboard at Geylang. It was good, and the outing was the result of a craving for crabs. Simple justification for a delicious meal. Visit nosignboardseafood.com.

Competition and Spines, How The IPhone Teaches Us A Lesson

Competition can be a wonderful thing. Just take a gander at what is happening with Singtel now that M1 and Starhub have come into the iPhone game. In a matter of hours of M1's announcement of generous data, Starhub capitulated on their initial launch plans and raised their offering to match M1, and SIngtel had to do the same the next day to appease their frustrated client base. M1 upped the ante further by giving rebates of ip to S$800 for those on current Singtel contracts and wished to jump ship to the Orange side.

Singtel had brazenly launched the iPhone to a hungry base of customers eager to get their hands on the best thing since aluminium Macs. Beggars can't be choosers and so customers lapped up and forked out whatever the Red Giant threw on the table. 1GB, 2GB and 3GB plans. What is the cost of data anyway? Why didn't Singtel played good guys and given out 10GB data plans right from the start and make the other telcos quivver in boardrooms planning meetings? Because they didn't have to. Whatever they dished out, we swallowed, without complaint.

Competition helped even out the playing field for us. M1 and Starhub stores are packed with converters and Singtel has to rustle up presents to keep their iPhone base happy. Unfortunately for Singtel, those locked up in ridiculously termed contracts are starting to fume.

But shame on us. We can't go on like this as a society that accepts. We've done this far too long with many things. We shouldn't also continue with privately owned service providers. Say no, make a statement, take a stand. It's about time to grow that backbone.

Generally Speaking

Work - Company's in a bit of reorg, just like every other. So there's a little uncertainty in the air but work carries on as usual. Lots of updates to make with deadlines looming close, especially since I was away from work for 2 whole weeks when I was back in uniform. The future still sparkly so we're keeping our heads down, chins up and hands diligently slamming the keyboard.

Year end - Well it is time to party hearty. The big boss started the ball rolling with a lunch at Petit Au Salut, a French bistro at Chip Bee Gardens. Awesome gesture. Food was fab. I went safe with a pasta dish but the rest of the folks gulped down oysters and baked snails. A long lunch well enjoyed. Apart from that, I've had beer twice this week. Not done that in a while. Sounds kinda lame but yes I am older and wiser somewhat. So too much alkie is a red flag. I had 2 Hoegaarden Magnums on Wednesday, and that reminded me of the times I had plenty of the white beer at Union Bar. Good times that. On Friday, I convinced a friend not to attend yoga class and have a beer instead. I bet my karma points were penalized. By 11ish I felt tired and nearly missed my train stop home. Is it age or was I genuinely bushed? I recall that Calvin Harris song about partying among the mature set, I'm Not Alone. Well, there are more parties to go to and I will assess the damage on Dec 17th.

Dec 17th - I've scheduled a healthcheck at SATA. Thankfully I can use my company medical to cover a health screening. I signed up for the treadmill test. My boss took it last year and he said he nearly fell off the conveyor. Yikes. Hope my uric levels are down. Last year the doc said I had a tendency for gout, but never really had a case where my feet swelled up. I hope never.

Photos - too many I have not dealt with. Some are going up on Flickr as I type away. It's the descriptions and tagging that's a hassle. But for friends and the Flickerati it begs effort.

The arts - In the space of two weeks, I have bought tickets for Muse and The Killers. That practically blows my arts quota for the year 2010 (one a year). I figure if Singaporeans did their bit to support the arts by attending and paying for one arts event a year, we'll all see a marked improvement in attendances as well as support for the young, desperate but artistic. So now I need to catch up on the relevant music to be able to sing and scream along at these concerts. I have not been to a concert in quite a while, at least my memory doesn't seem to extract the info quickly enough. A fake Abba show comes to mind. Or was it Jeremy Monteiro?

Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody

Simply awesome!



I grew up watching a lot of the Muppets. I think that's where I get my warped sense of humour.

Time In Green

Despite going back to the same place and meeting the same old faces, each in camp training has its quirks and highlights. This was my 4th ICT. Off the bat, it was a much longer distance to camp, or the equivalent of $21 taxi fare in the morning or 1 hour 15 mins by public transport and walking. Seriously too long. On my first cab ride to camp, with my gigantic, laden field pack, the taxi I was in zoomed by a familiar face by the side of the road, just metres from the Punggol Road exit to TPE (SLE). I could not react in time to stop the vehicle and split my fare in half. I later discovered the man in green was hitching a ride from another comrade in green living in the neighbourhood but complemented with vehicle. Aaah, bells aringing. It turned out that 5 guys were living close to each other. (By the end of camp, the number expanded to 7). So we shared taxis back and forth quite a few times. I also attempted the bus and train routes. It was too painful to reconsider. Hougang is somehow only great for travelling along the purple line, that's it. All else fails. Well, IKEA Tampines in nearby too.

In camp, I shared a 4-man bunk with one other guy because one of two ceiling fans groaned with each spin. He works in a quasi-gahmen company in a PR role. An interesting experience. The guys I was with in the last ICT were next door, so we hung out there for the newspapers and friendly conversation.

This ICT proved instrumental in some respects. New leadership was one aspect, our reaction to goings-on was the other. The situation with reservists is that one can't treat them like NSF and order them around. It takes some tact, some humour, some declaration of commitment. But ICT was however tricky - some participants weren't quite feeling the vibe and this made the more responsive folks upset. So what happened was that I put all the complaining down on paper, and went to talk to the leadership. From what was an approach to my PC began a sitdown with all 4 officers in charge. A little overwhelming, especially when our conversation happened in a windowless room. They listened as I ranted off points discussed with among the concerned, jotted in a notebook. They 'bars' expressed that my feedback was very useful and similarly, I am glad they took the time to take this seriously. They also shared their perspectives and problems with managing this bunch of old fogeys. It was enlightening, heartwarming and somewhat disarming. We're all just Singaporeans too, making this work, trying to make a useful difference.

I had a nasi lemak from the canteen on my last day in camp. The chilli sambal was excellent.

The day after I out-processed, I discover a skin infection under my toes. Yes, ewwww. A present from the field? I dunno. I have antibiotics to take and cream to apply.

U2 webcast

Where were you when this was happening? I was about to have lunch. Instead I didn't really work, watched the concert through lunchtime and was famished at 230pm Singapore time. I remember reading about the concert being on Sunday and completely didn't realise it was Sunday West Coast of the US time. Thank goodness for Twitter and all the buzz the folks I'm following created about the concert. I believe the folks on the Internet had the best seats in the house! The streaming was clear and relatively faultless. Youtube did a great job beaming it across live. The power of Akamai.

I know U2 is a rather politically-inclined band but the concert at the Rose Bowl too became a platform for their messages, perhaps too much of it was skewed to make concert goers (viewers) think. Are all of them like that? Mandela, Aung Sun Suu Kyi, Martin Luther King, Archbishop Tutu - all somehow made an appearance. Bono declared Stephen Gately was gone too soon. And did a line from 'You will never walk alone' that brought a smidgen of a tear to my left eye.

I had to stay late that evening for the 2 hours of semi-work that afternoon. Not a bad trade.

The Annual Swish And Woosh

Once a year, these guys apparently make their appearance on the outside. I wonder what they see on their journeys, or is everything just glare on tinted windows. I speeded up the video so that it doesn't take too much of your time and looks comical as well.

All Hail KL

This the story to tell. I found that Malaysia airlines uses Linux as it's OS on the plane's little TV. We discovered that our favourite Hainanese coffeeshop in KL, actually the only one we know, Yut Kee, sells "gwailo roast pork". It was awesome and came with, get this, white wine apple sauce. The moment the loaves of roast pork appeared from the back of the coffeeshop, all eyes were on the juicy meat. Yum. We still eat too much, all the time. I could feel my chest straining sitting down at the coffeeshop. We need to go back soon.

The Mickey perversion is the logo of our other favourite Jalan Alor makan haunt, famous for its barbequed chicken wings and hoards of Japanese tourists. Beach Hut was a crowded bar we passed bar in search of cheap thirst quenchers. Noisy with working women, and worst of all, a cover charge.

The smoggy pix is of Singapore. Only up in the air one realises how miniscule lalaland is. Last discovery pix - Rocky. In Singapore, we know this snack as Pocky. Up north, it's altered to protect the innocent and prevent embarrassment of women, we suspect.

Recent Observations

1. People in the Southbound trains don't move in at Dhoby Ghaut in the morning. It's a bit of a pain when you see dancing room in the middle of the carriage and everyone else is oblivious to the hoards trying to get in. Yes, it's my fault I live along the NEL. But it's yours for not being considerate. Move in dammmit, please. That PCK campaign did a whole lot of good.

2. I am now on Starhub broadband. Honestly, it doesn't cut muster, compared with the MIO connection I had with Singtel. Between my Mac and the router, it's 130Mbps. Sounds great but no one knows what's happening with the speed through the SCV cable. Youtube comes in drips and draps, nothing really loads progressively. It's another painful observation.

3. More on HDB. After building too many flats in around the turn of the millennium, HDB decided to seriously push the Build To Order system as a means of gauging demand and not overbuilding. The situation with BTO projects is the time lag. Usually successful applicants have to wait 2-3 years before their 'dream home' comes to fit some space in the sky. They've been building Duxton flats since 2005 and they still aren't done. So what's come of that move is that the resale market has seen spectacular attention and growth. The number of property agents around is a sure sign that it's a lucrative profession worthy of pushy, sometimes conniving, sales people who want to sell you/sell your flat for that 1% commission. At flat prices averaging let's say 300K, that 1% is $3000, nearly double the average Singapore income. If an agent transacts 5 homes in a month, that's potentially $15K. It's no wonder that resale prices are going up - to feed some greedy mouths. The other reason for not having a glut of public housing is that it keeps the private property market healthy too.

4. Stuff that shouldn't be privatised, in my opinion, includes the transport system and the job of SCV cabling. Especially the latter. Looks what's happened with the soccer screening rights tussle/fiasco. Starhub has dug up the island and put in its own cable which it doesn't want to share to deliver jacked up cable TV content to 530,000 households. Singtel on the other hand owns the telephone lines. So they got smart and start leveraging that to run bigger bandwidth services, namely MIO and MIO TV. In the middle are all us folks who have to choose or get everything to watch everything we want. It's no wonder people are downloading to get their TV fixes instead of paying. Cosciences are clear I bet. Internet, the great liberator of media and controls and payment. The powers that be should have laid the cable and leased them to whoever wants to bring in cable content. Done deal. All players in, and consumers choose what they want. Well.

Oh dear, getting into the habit of listing. Hope it doesn't put you off.

This Fortnight Or So

1. Dollah Kassim in hospital
Ever since the Singapore football team pulled out of the Malaysia Cup (after winning it), Singaporeans have hardly had a reason to come together to cheer on a local sports team. The Sunday Times carried a picture of a thousands fans showing up at Paya Lebar airport to celebrate the triumphant Singapore football team returning from winning in Malaysia. It reminded me to the double decker bus tours the European teams take through their cities when they win a title. Sadly, more people on this tiny island watch the English Premier League than support the generally pathetic S League. We're fans of clubs 10000 miles away and not the ones down the street. It will be very hard to turn that around. I'm waiting for the little sportsmen and women who represented us at the Beijing Olympics to be the ones to rally around. Dollah and his kicking kakis were the ones in the 70s, Ang Peng Siong, David Lim and Joscelin saw us splashing through the 80s. What happened in the 90s? Nothing apparently. All the best to Dollah Kassim.

2. Unsold HDB flats
Wow, 2000 flats eyed by ten times as many prospective owners. Some are in pretty nice locations. Prices are another story. There's been great debate about flat affordability with the gahmen sticking to market level pricing. That means owners seeking a cool 40 storey 5-roomer in Duxton need to commit close to $600K. Those hoping to live by Kallang River in a 4-room will need to fork out $400K. The flats next to Kallang MRT are just as insanely priced. So everyone gets into loans for the rest of their lives and hope to pay them off by the time they are too stiff to work. Well it's expensive to be ambitious eh. I fit in the category of watchers - 35 and I can't get one, unless I apply with my mom. I feel cheated.

3. Lessons in letting go
A) My boss is kinda cool in the way he deals with less-than-advantageous situations - staying level-headed. "There's no point getting ahead by putting someone else down." Don't the let the facts, no matter how obvious they may be, harden the relationships you need to move forward. I sometimes let my emotions get in the way, and need some reigning in. And it's gotta happen from within.
B) There are a few yoga instructors in the studio I go to who seek to do more than bark instruction and urge you to into a deeper stretch. They enlighten students with their words. Directed at the practice, the message also applies to real life. Tension hardly gets you anywhere. Letting go lets you be flexible in handling what life, work, family, friends throw at you.

Use Somebody - Everyone Is!

Use Somebody from the Kings of Leon is one cool song. Great hook, lingering oh-oh-ohs, emphatic lyrics.



Guess what? Many other bands and artistes think so too. So much so, there's a flurry of acoustic cover scouring Youtube. Mostly female lead voices. Good renditions with their own inflexions and guitar work. Nice.



Like the song? Go buy the CD - Kings of Leon's Only By The Night. Grammy nominated. Critically acclaimed. Despite the way they sound and their European success, they're American. Like the Killers. Maybe US music isn't all about rap and twinkle pop after all.

Stolen from Wikipedia - Awards and accolades
- Only by the Night received a nomination for Best Rock Album at the 51st Grammy Awards with the single "Sex on Fire" receiving two nominations for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best Rock Song. "Sex on Fire" was awarded with the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals on February 8.

The album was also awarded "2008 Album of the Year" by the UK's Q Magazine, as well as Rolling Stone Magazine voting it as the 20th best album out of their top 50 Best Albums of 2008. The album was also awarded Best International Album and Best International Group at the BRIT Awards. The album is featured on the online article rock (music) in the online Encyclopaedia Britannica as one of rocks "representative works".

Milking It For All Its Worth

Today I sent a number of Tweets about Ris Low. And then I Googled. Get this:
- Ris Low is mentioned 166,000 times on the web
- Zoe Tay is mentioned 32,500 times, 5 times less than the reigning Miss Singapore
- "Fsnn Wong marriage" has 11,800 mentions, more than 10 times fewer than Ris.
- She's not far behind Xiaxue which has 205,000 mentions.

It's amazing how much media attention has gone into portraying Ris first as a bimbo with bad grammar and enunciation, then as a criminal. In a month, she has managed to capture our imagination, change the way we speak, change the way we make fun of each other. Newspapers have mentioned her to varying degrees and she been on the front cover more times than any other Miss Singapore. The radio stations, from the noisy Class 95 DJs to the hilarious Radio 913 crew, have taken the piss out of the Youtube video countless times. Radio 913 is even running a 'Beat The Boomz' contest. I am just waiting for her to appear on CNA.

I feel that Miss Ris should take her fame, in whatever form it exists now, to the max. Do radio, do TV, make TV commercials, write memoirs on how bitchy the Miss Singapore competition is all about and what it took to swipe someone else's credit card. Go all the way man. It's not very often that fame like this comes around, albeit accidental and slightly negative. As long as she doesn't resort to porn, she's better than Paris. And she's almost gonna beat Xiaxue on Google, who's spent years being herself to get endorsements and popularity. Go Ris go, I say. Squeeze sloppy media sponge for every last drop.

Cows That Have Names Produce More Milk

I broke out into laughter when I read this. Year after year, the Ignoble list surprises me with new and inventive ways to spend taxpayer's money. The Ignoble Awards are given to the best and brightest who seek to prove the dumbest things. This year's list of winning projects by subject are (as stolen from the BBC site):

Veterinary medicine: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, UK, for showing that cows with names give more milk than cows that are nameless.

Peace: Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.

Biology: Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan, for demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from the faeces of giant pandas.

Medicine: Donald L Unger of Thousand Oaks, California, US, for investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers, by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand but not his right hand every day for more than 60 years.

Economics: The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa (and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy).

Physics: Katherine K Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, Daniel E Lieberman of Harvard University and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, all in the US, for analytically determining why pregnant women do not tip over.

Chemistry: Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga and Victor M Castano of Universidad Nacional Autonoma in Mexico, for creating diamonds from tequila.

Literature: Ireland's police service for writing and presenting more than 50 traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country - Prawo Jazdy - whose name in Polish means "Driving Licence".

Public Health: Elena N Bodnar, Raphael C Lee, and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, US, for inventing a bra that can be quickly converted into a pair of gas masks - one for the wearer and one to be given to a needy bystander.

Mathematics: Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, for giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers by having his bank print notes with denominations ranging from one cent to one hundred trillion dollars.

How To Resist 3 Crabs For $28?

With a letter from the doctor, that's how.

How not to? Food glorious food. The way to a man's heart is indeed through Singapore. One survey quoted the number one reason for Singaporeans not to migrate overseas was food. And like ants to Pooh Bear's lair, we descended upon Sixth Avenue in Bukit Timah to feast ourselves on crawly shellfish.

It all started when someone in my office mentioned that there was a kopitiam zhi char that sold 3 crabs for $28. Not a bad deal in Singaporean terms. So I got the number and address and set up a dinner date with 7 other people.

My first hurdle in all this was speaking Mandarin to the lady who picked up the phone. I managed to tell her I needed 12 crabs for 8 people the next day. She then asked me what ways I wanted the crabs done and I managed to mumble some gibberish about picking the choice when we got there. Phew.

At the back of our mins and the fronts of our stomach, we had the impression they weren't going to be very large. Come on, good deals aren't easy to come by. But lo and behold, they were adequately sized for us to go "Hmmm, not bad". We had 15 crabs in the end, in 3 sets of 5, done 3 ways. The waitress tried to upsell everything else on the menu but we didn't fall prey, save for a large rather salty fried rice and a vege dish.

We had butter crabs, white pepper crabs and salted egg crabs. The last two choices were good. They came impressively stacked. We came with hungry stomachs and couldn't wait to crunch and devour.

(...I fell asleep)

(the next day...)

It was over in about an hour, and 15 crabs were about right for 8 of us. It's a pretty ok deal so go and spend some money on your family at Xuan Eating House, at the start of Annamalai Avenue at Sixth Avenue (100 metres from the junction of Sixth Avenue and Bukit Timah). Call 8404 5087 to reserve your crabs, tables are not a problem.

All Hands On Deck

Misalignment can drive some OCD sufferers insane. I should let the authorities know before some psycho takes us out with petai gas and causes a delay in service.

Supermodelme.tv

An ex-colleague asked if we wanted to attend the finals of Supermodelme.tv, a local reality programme where models of all sorts came to be top dog/bitch of them all. Not a bad thing really to do on a Saturday night. I remember a promise of free booze.

Here was the interesting thing. I had trouble asking people to come with me. It took many SMS to gather a remotely interested group. Remotely I confess at this juncture to pre-empt actions later.

Organized by Refinery Studio and a bunch of other sponsors, it promised to be a little chi-chi but there was too much of a generic crowd. We got in too early - damn these fashion events. So we exchanged out coupon-denominated drinks (Tiger beer or Russian vodka) (Yes, there is a brand of vodka called Russian vodka as odd as that may be) and started checking people out.

When things got going, it happened pretty quickly. Lots of music, walking up and down and posing. The two emcees, one a very skinny supermodel Charmaine Han, and fat Malay guy in a skirt, weren't very good. Half the time we couldn't hear them.

Before the results were announced, my party decided to leave. See "remotely interested" reference earlier. I found some colleagues, accidentally for that matter, and hung out with them till the end. I saw Taufik and Benedict Goh, if those count as celebrity spots. We wound up at Wine Bar before I had to leave for Siglap to meet the welcoming committee for a San Franciscan returnee.

Howdy Hougang

I am guilty of not writing, again. I blame it on the move. We moved out of the Woodies to Hougang.

Moving is always trying and tiring. Good thing we left most of the boxes (mine by the way) in the other room and so we didn't have much packing to do. Though the packing we had to do was done painfully. We ran out of boxes and improvised with many a trash bag, pails, baskets and other things around the house. Even the large clay pot had something else in it.

The other bad bit about completing the move is unpacking. I spend a whole Saturday opening boxes and deciding where to put stuff. Guess what, I don't have enough shelving for my millions of artefacts, books and CDs. Habis. So now there are 14 boxes mostly untouched taking up space in my room. It's a large room though, so it's not so bad. Old flats were built bigger is the general concensus.

Apart from these gripes, I am so glad I got broadband back. The modem connects at 130mbps sometimes! 130! More than the speed in the office. I could finally update my Mac software. It came down at a blistering 1mb in 5 secs. Happiness is digital.

The ride to work isn't so bad. A 2 min walk to the bus stop, a few minutes wait for one of 4 buses to bring me to the train station, a 2-min bus ride to the mrt (I know I should walk but the weather ain't conducive) and a 38 min train journey across 1 interchange and 2 lines, a 2 minute stroll up to the office and I am sitting pretty. Still coming in 15 mins late each day but at least I'm consistent.

I twittered that the NEL seemed sterile, and blamed it on the underground nature of the whole line. No sunlight gets in vanquish the early morning vampires from the northeast with their pale, lifeless skin and bloodshot eyes, smart in shirts and skirts. I miss the glistening waters of Sungei Seletar reservoir that would reflect too much sun into trains that zoomed by on the red line to and from the remote north.

I think physically I am staying half the distance I was from the city barely 2 weeks ago. I've already experienced the superior connectivity of the KPE but yet to discover the hood. I need to jog around Punggol Park too.

Here's to new beginnings.

The Married Men - Buka Puasa Song

Not much of a video, but the song is funny. This was the 07-08 version. There's another one they did last night but the broadcast ain't out yet. WKRZ 913FM, go listen.

Cational Day

Unplanned, I showed with a few friends I was watching a movie with at Jason's apartment in an interesting part of town to celebrate his cat's birthday and watch the National Day Parade on TV. It's a nice cosy apartment done up to reflect Jason's creative designer status. Lots of black. The creepy bit were the windows that slid open, exposing me slightly more than waist up. It was tricky taking some of shots I took (see my Flickr). We had impressive lychee lemongrass cocktail to enjoy.

The cat is Socks and was involved in the cat toys bought for him. Then he started to sniff my armipits quite a bit. I dunno, maybe I have some chemicals I exude that pique a cat's interest. It was quite ticklish and I often had to stifle laughter.

822pm came and about 2/5 of the people there stood in front of the TV with their fist at their hearts. I had my fist there but wasn't saying anything - I can't remember what I was distracted by. Was I trying to take a picture of the loyalists?

The fireworks didn't really impress me this year, and the RSAF didn't make more than one thundering pass over the city. Tough times, costs cut?

And President Nathan didn't sing the anthem, again. Wazzup with that?

India On TV

In particular Zee TV. I have that addition to the my cable TV subscription plan for $8.56 a month. It's a Hindi channel that one new bulletin a day, a guy who does yoga, a guy who does a cooking show, some movies on the weekends, Sikh sermons on Sunday morning and the rest of the precious on air time is chock-a-block with dramas.

There is a variety of dramas to entertain viewers. Most are set in modern times but not many are in cities, lots of suburban and rural locales. There is a tragic one about a girl from a lower caste who's got to survive being married off to odd village headman's family far away. Lots of women in all the shows. There was one about five daughters-in-law. One that ended recently was about a lady who had twins and gave one away to her sister because her sis couldn't have kids and later there was drama about family fortunes and luck linked to the little girl given away. Goodness.

The reason why I am bringing all this up is so that I can make sweeping generalization about life in India and how it has come to be portrayed on TV.

1. Women are at the mercy of men. My mother that's what happens in villages. Most of the Indian women I know are vocal, no chance of getting them to keep those lips pursed when the sun is up. In a lot of these dramas, women accused of a wrongdoing often keep slient and don't stand up for themselves. Kinda dumb. They also make very good 'bad guys' in these dramas. There will be a lead evil lady and her accomplice. They will plot and plan to destroy another woman in the household.

2. Somehow all the characters in Zee TV dramas are Hindu. There was one Sikh family somewhere. There are no Muslims anywhere. I find that disturbing since TV is best form of promoting harmony. Kinds sad.

3. I don't get all the wearing of shoes into the house thing. It happens on TV, not in real life. Not when one could step into the poo of many roaming cows that swarm India.

4. Facts don't matter to a mob, only the opinion of the richest or most powerful man. What the man says, goes. Even if it's not quite right. Or is it that people get conned easily.

5. People are embarassed easily. Whether it's about the amount of food on a plate, the offerings at a temple or the size of one's car/bicycle, size-based comparisons riddle these soap operas. Also, there is great potential for misunderstandings with almost no recourse or chance to explain e.g. a lady talking to a man is accused of adultery very quickly and punished.

6. The caste system is alive and well on TV even though the Indian gahmen banned any practices related to caste in the 70s. Sad that TV perpetuates this crap.

7. When dramatic situations erupt, the TV camera manages to capture the aptly contorted faces of all the actors in a shot. It lasts 1 minute and there used to be a lot of zooming in and out. Drove me nuts. Let's not forget the music.

8. Young Indian people say 'Mom' funny.

I don't really follow these dramas. I come home from work and there they are, my mum's evening routine. Come the weekend, I'm gonna get another India channel to watch - Sony Entertainment Television. A SET for the set. I think that's more current - they have a version of Moment of Truth on that channel. Indians being probed in public, now that's a first. I'll report more.

Today's Reading List

I would go back in time and tell raffles to chope more space for us. +++ @kelhan you should scold him, embarrass him in public, sure he paiseh after tha +++ CIA abuses probed 'Agents threatened to kill a key terror suspect's children & sexually assault another's mom' We see that on TV too, no? +++ Dutch govt want to stop teen sailor from sailing ard the world by taking authority from parents http://is.gd/2xn4E Too young they say +++ The post office now sells vacuum cleaners, induction cookers and irons. Yes the stamps are still available. +++ As the Nokia Booklet 3G comes to the fore, let us pay homage to the simplest device of all, the Nokia 1202 http://is.gd/2xBAn +++ SG Snow Leopard OS available on Apple site for $48 http://is.gd/2xKq4 +++ Positivity! RT @breathofreshair : ...we still have 4 months b4 the year ends, but I can already say that 2009 is my best year so far +++ Goodness, deliverables delayed bec agency pple getting inducted. Hello, prioritize please lah. Now I gotta miss yoga. Sigh. +++ I fondly recall @mrbrown's podcast re Pangsai Ris Park RT @singapore_news: Still can't swim at Pasir Ris http://sn.im/qvfry +++ @shareenwong i'm listening to july 5 podcast abt your buying trips. Suggest you stem the references to shopping by calling it procurement +++ 'I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me to see me looking back at you.' It's some sort of love song isn't it?

What? This Is The Most Popular Pix I Have?

I don't geddit. This has 752 views on my Flickr. Pix no 2 has 20 views. What's up? Are people actively seeking out Air Asia on Flickr? Some stewardess in red fetish? Some many questions, so little beer.

All That You Can Be

I have commented or lamented many a time about the unique set of circumstances that surround our existence as kids born in the 70s and 80s here in Singapore. A few friends of mine are now revisiting this idea and evaluating their in life where satisfaction and happiness is concerned. These friends, mostly ex-colleagues, are in the late 20s and early 30s, have substantial education and won't quite qualify as financially disadvantaged (at the surface anyway). Most concerns stem from the jobs they have. Are they really happy with what they are doing, or if this is the job for them. What would they be doing in the next few years? Are they settling?

Singaporeans have to settle. It is the nature of our lives here. Boys have to do NS, kids have to study hard or get left behind, our CPF is locked up in our homes or dished out in meagre sums when we are 62 and older.

We get jobs right after school because no one is going to feed you. We keep on working and trying to make more money because in the end, money could make us happier. Our lives are caught up with work. In most cases, people marry and have kids, contributing to an increasing burden for the finances to keep up. That's the 'settling' we face now. We live to work.

Will we work all our lives? Maybe. Already we're seeing old folks cleaning up in hawker centres because they need money to live - no such thing as retirement. Maybe that's why we need kids - for them to take of parents who are penniless in their old age. These kids will be the ones who only see their parents before school and after 7pm because no one afford to be a stay-home mum or dad.

So are we enriching our lives in this existence? I don't think so. I asked some people I met for a movie if they were given a first class ticket to anywhere and a permanent residence in that country with nothing else, would they take it? All three said yes. Getting out seems like a dream come true for the younger set of the working class. Singapore not good enough anymore? Scary thought.

Is competition getting to us? Is the island too small for our ambitions? (One of the three above wanted a farm). Are there too many constraints for a happy life here? Does a happy life in Singapore come with limits? I think yes. It's easier not to ask any questions and placate our sense of claustrophobia with multiple holidays and lottery tickets. Seriously though, it's worth thinking about. You might get depressed but we can always solve that with beer. Or get back to work. Keeping busy prevents one from veering off the 'settled' path.

Recent Snappage - Ipoh

I went up to Ipoh for my aunt's funeral recently, and you wouldn't need to know me well to know I would bring my camera along. You won't find many people in these collection in Flickr given the circumstances. I did however manage to capture a good of number of stills, and some of my young cousins who know can understand some of what I say (I saw them last when they were hyperactive and spewed incessant dribble and noise). I hope you enjoy the pixes.

Status Update

Goodness, it was 3 Aug since I posted last. Not that there hasn't been anything to write about. A number of factors have got in the way:
- the lack of broadband. I'm using this M1 USB modem dongle thingy. Dongle, now that is a funny word. It's not so smooth getting online without the convenience of wirelessness all around you. My neighbours also aren't the free willy, use my broadband sort. So bummer.
- laziness. Male excuse number on. I do not go online each night. I come home, eat dinner, play with the nephew, iron perhaps, sleep. Weekends I plonk myself in front of the TV or have been busy going out. So how like that? At work, I can't be not working can I?
- work has been rather busy of late. I have much content to sift and pluck before it ends up nice and polished for all you to enjoy. Go check out Visa Go Explore if you've got a Visa card. Any Visa card.

Hmm, that's about it where non-blogging-often reasons are concerned. Well, I am on twitter and I forward those updates to FB as well, so everyone things I am hooked on the Internet umbilically.

Wait till I get my iPhone. Update galore then. Well maybe. Apparently, the mighty Singtel gods, the sound logisticians they are, ran out of iPhone. People are getting the slick device because it is the epitome of coolness. Nokians and Samsungites are dumping their noe-red telcos to lay their grubby greedy hands on the beauty that is the iPhone. SIgh. I have put myself on the waitlist. If not for the best thing in telecommunications since the brick, I would be tempted to get the Nokia 6670. It's so flat and pretty. Sigh.

On to topics in the news:
- Seagate lays off 2000 people. Well duh. No one is gonna use hardisks in 10 years time. Already state drives are taking pole position among trendy folk (aka owners of Macbook Air) and when drives get cheaper, they'll be everywhere. No more spinning problems. No more whirring. No more burnt out disks. Maybe no more Seagate. What's worse for Singapore is that there are many peripheral industries that fed Seagate. Expect more retrenchments. After Seagate, what's the new cool industry for the populace? No one knows.
- Condo-mania man. Prices are going up. AMK condo going for $1000spf. Siao. The papers seem inundated with ads that promise tall Sauron Towers surrounded by greenery and fireworks in the background. Siao. The best one was The Peak in Toa Payoh. The artist impression had the 40-storey blocks surrounded by greenery up till the horizon. Toa Payoh lah, should have been other 40-storey blocks around the damn EC.
- My N73 became hypersensitive. Started calling my contacts on its own. It was such trouble even copying all my contacts to my SIM card. I had to use a metal ruler to carefully guide the centre button to obey commands. Took me 1.5 hours. Singtel call me quick!
- Am gonna be moving for a 2nd time to the more permanent location in about 2 weeks. More work to do. Good thing we left most of the boxes as they were, sealed and marked. Haven't smelled them in 2 months.
- After National Day, my boss and I got transferred to an all new department under another bloke. There are 4 of us in total. A good small start to bigger better things. But now who do I get my staples from?
- I'm listening to more radio 91.3 than ever before. They are the funniest jokers in the morning and the evening.
- I saw UP in 3D. It's very nice the way Pixar can make a cartoon emotionally appealing. Good show for anyone of any age. That was National Day in fact when I saw it. Then instead of going home to watch the parade, I ended up at a friend's place to celebrate his cat's birthday. Ended up watching the parade on the TV there and the flypast and fireworks from the window of the 14 storey apartment at Jalan Sultan. It was a half cm gap between Conrad and Suntec Tower 4 that was the point of bright focus.
- Football started yesterday and Liverpool lost. Aiyoh.

That's about it - the general update.

To Ipoh, For The Worst Of Reasons

My aunt Jaswant (we called her Masi Gudi, masi - aunty, Gudi - a cute name every has) passed away some weeks ago. The news came as a minor shock because she wasn't old, only 47 but she in recent months has developed high blood pressure and associated complications. She was in a coma some time in May but got out of it in a few days and went back to work. She was a teacher, a dedicated one at that.

We had been wanting to go back to my mum's hometown for a while now. Things just somehow didn't fall into place. I had even bought bus tickets once. My mum didn't want to go because her grandson was ill that week. Now on a Saturday afternoon after returning from NTUC, we received this news. This was the worst reason to go back.

The dumb thing was that the direct flights to Ipoh would start on the Sunday. The next best thing was to take a flight into KLIA and then a bus to Ipoh. We did just that. Leaving home about 7pm, we reached my grandparents' home at 2am. The cremation was way over by then. So we were there, too late and sorry. My eldest aunt made me Milo - we hadn't eaten since the afternoon.

The next day, I met Gurmeet (yes, another version of my name), my deceased aunt's husband. Behind that brave face was a soul falling apart. His eyes were sunken and red from not sleeping. My aunt and Gurmeet had been married for 5 years and now he was alone again.

The thing about death is that people can't help but recall everything about the deceased. Everything. What they did on a daily basis, what they wore, what they would say, things they did recently and many years ago, things they used. Gurmeet couldn't help it as each turn he made reminded him of his wife. He kept narrating what happened and everything else my aunt did. From the way she told him not to drive fast, pointing out the place they would eat each afternoon after classes, what she listened to each morning on the way to work, to they way she would cook and clean. It was painful for him to talk about but he couldn't really stop. Misery makes you do that sometimes. Other people do the opposite and clam up. I clam up, mostly.

Consoling someone is hard. When I got the chance, I told him it was going to take a long time to get over this. It took him a long time to find someone who understood him. He even said when they met for the first time, it was like they knew each other already. My words were rough and raspy, and I couldn't look him in the eye. Well mostly because we were sitting side by side in a car. Well.

His phone would ring every 10 minutes and he had to retell the story and remind himself of his situation. Perhaps it was numbing him too. I told him to turn it off.

I went to Ipoh as manpower too. I helped move things and get stuff. There were many people to feed in that house. I helped with the cooking and the occupying of my young, unsure cousins.

On my 2nd night, my mum and I followed Gurmeet to his hometown to meet his parents. Interestingly, my youngest aunt's soon-to-be in-laws were there paying their respects. It was a noisy affair with a lot of conversation going on with tea in glasses in a kampung house in Bidor, an hour outside Ipoh. My grasp of Punjabi is limited to listening and understanding and so I kept nodding and looking interested. But I was too interested. Old folks have many things to tell and stories to share. Gurmeet's father came up to me and told me to get married quickly. In many more words that that one sentence.

That night I didn't sleep well in surroundings unfamiliar, weather warm and mosquitoes buzzing and swirling around my bloodfull ears. Sounds like the army.

The next morning we woke at 430am and got ready to head back to Ipoh for the end-of-cremation ceremony. Not easy to get through this one. My aunt's father-in-law, spritely man in his 80s, wept. Loudly and agonisingly. He had not lost a daughter-in-law. He lost a child, one who brought joy to his son.

Sikhs are cremated and the ashes are placed in flowing water - so that one's spirit can be released to all corners of the Earth. The Sikh crematorium in Ipoh is next to the Big Sikh temple (seriously, that's what it transliterates directly from in Punjabi) and is next to a river. Gurmeet got into the water to say goodbye for the last time.

On Monday, my mum and I went back to Singapore the same way we got in. The direct flight was bloody sold out again. We took Jetstar from KLIA. Damn these cheaper flights set off late at night. I slept at 2am. Full circle.

Dealing with loss is tough, always. Don't laugh but I can still remember feeling some measure of pain when my friend in primary 4 broke my ruler. In two pieces it lay, and I didn't know what to do or say. Neither did my friend. I close my eyes and I can still see the situation, frozen in time, in childhood memory. It's probably hardest for my aunts after Gurmeet. Sisters are always close. It's hormonal and biological. Thicker than blood.

I remember Masi Gudi for repeating something I said when I was nine, "deliciously delicious". She would tease me but at the same was impressed that I could string the same words together, adverb and adjective. She taught English. My aunt was quite a fun, feisty character. That got her far, not letting obstacles stand in her way. She travelled a fair bit, last to Egypt in December. These are things I will remember.

Never Gonna Give Your Teen Spirit Up

How awesome is that?! Who'd would have thought Rick Astley would actually sound quite alright doing grunge. Nirvana may not like the idea very much. Thank goodness for Youtube and the creativity of free people.

Other popular mashups you may have heard or heard of, Every Car You Chase



Lo and behold, there's a mashup chart. Awesome.

Revised iPhone Price To Value Ratios

Hello folks. I have to apologize as I got the ratios a little wrong. I had multiplied by an extra factor of 100. Here's the thing, I decided to keep the extra x100 because it made the numbers more palatable.

And I have also put the Singtel iPhone plans versus phone capacity PTV ratios neatly in Table 1.

Additionally, I put have calculated the ratios for non-iPhone plans with Broadband On Mobile additions in Table 2. These do not take into consideration the discount and are also based on 24-month subscriptions. Enjoy.

What's noteworthy that a Singtel customer on an ordinary iTwo Value plan taking on a BBOM New Platinum plan with a 16gb iPhone can better the most expensive iFlexi premium plan PTV, 0.218 vs 0.228.

To iPhone Or Not To iPhone

So the latest Apple toy has hit town. Branding my initials, the iPhone 3GS has taunted and tempted me for quite a while now. I have friends who are true Appletons and constantly are whispering words of temptations into my unbelieving ears. "Of course, it's the best" "It's not a phone, it's a computer" "See how easy it is to use" "See how cool this app is" "Blah blah"

A few days ago Singtel, the only provider of the great i in Singapore, announced prices and I quickly calculated that it'll be a minimum spend of $1334 and a maximum spend of $4920 over 2 years, adding price plans and initial cost of acquisition. I posted that on Twitter and Facebook, and lo and behold, comments poured in. I was suprised at the urgent reaction. In the end, it became more about additional cost of getting the iPhone versus what one was using and paying for now (There are more mobile phones than people in SG).


I thought about this for a little while longer after screencapping and posting the graph - how do I assess value of a mobile plan. I thought of ratios and products. If a plan had 100 free mins, 500 free SMSes and 1GB of data, then the min-SMS-data product would be a good indicator of value, 50000 in this case.

If the plan cost $10 or 1000 cents a month for 24 months with the initial cost of the purchase set at $100 or 10000 cents, the total cost would be 34000 cents. The ratio of price to value (PTV) then would be 34000/50000 = 0.68 (I decided on cents because it'll kill off more zeros in the division). So the smaller the number, the more value for $ the plan would be.

With this logic, the new Iphone plans for the 8GB model would give the following ratios:
- iFlexi Lite - 5.3360
- iFlexi Value - 1.4820
- iFlexi Plus - 0.4560
- iFlexi Premium - 0.0729

Clearly the highest end plan for a huge $205 monthly outlay has the most value but who really, who needs 1500 free mins and 1500 free SMSes? The ratios for Plus and Premium are also lower because the 8GB iPhone comes free with those plans.

My current MIO plan has no free data roped in and I pay $48.15 monthly. But if I added on a 1GB/mth Broadband on Mobile (BBOM) data plan for $19.90 (same amount of data for iFlexi Value) and got the 8GB model at $198, the PTV ratio becomes 1.5408, close to the 1.4820 for the iFlexi plan.

If one could get the iPhone at iFlexi plan and add on the 1GB BBOM plan, the PTV ratio is 2.4443 - already better value than the orginal plan.

Well if the maths doesn't get you, I know some people who are getting it because it's pretty. And now has a compass for fengshui.

Time to commit? Perhaps. My N73 is showing signs of crossing over to the mobile phone junkyard in the sky.