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.