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?