Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year 2008 to you who finds this blog. :-) May the year of 2008 brings you peace, prosperity, and good health.

Writing about good health, don't ever disturb someone's sleep again! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071231/ap_on_he_me/sleep_diabetes
A research shows that disruption of deep sleep once too many times may increase the risk of getting diabetes 2. Weird as it sounds, but be very careful. :-) Your pastime might kill someone.

On another note, more reasons for you to get your man to bring you to eat your clams.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071231/ap_on_fe_st/odd_rare_pearl
A couple found an irisdescent purple pearl inside their clams! Pity the cook who is too engrossed in preparing the food, if not they could have found it first.

O yah, I spent my new year's countdown in Changi Airport. Sadly, for an airport touted as the best in the world, not even a sentence of Happy New Year 2008 is uttered by the operator. Every person in the arrival hall seems fixed on finding their relatives/ friends/ loved ones such that none of them seems to aware that the clock has ticked past 12 midnight. I guess New Year is no more something special. People seems to take time for granted. It's eerie that people shall forget that time is no longer in their minds.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Jun's corner bukit batok

I just ate my lunch from a malay stall called Jun's Corner, in Kopitiam behind the Church of St. Mary of the Angels, Bukit Batok. I have never been given such a measly portion yet in my lunch time as what I was given by the Chinese man from the stall. I bought squid stir fry in rawon like sauce, and I was given literally 6 small pieces. My sambal goreng is a pathetic 6 small pieces with one piece of long bean. My rice + 2 such meal cost me S$2.50!

My friend's tauge and cabbage is literally gone in one scoop of rice and I understand that tauge is definitely very cheap.

I'd never buy any more lunch or dinner or whatsoever from that stall again. The portion is amazingly suited for kids with adult pricing.

IPOD Classic 80 GB

Recently, to my surprise, my company gave everyone an IPOD Classic 80 GB! Wow, I thought, what an amazing gift.

After admiring the IPOD and being overwhelmed for a while, I start to think about what to use the huge space for. At the end of the day, I can't think of anything. Even after loading my songs into the IPOD, I have only filled less than 5 GB of the space. What should I use the 75 GB for??

I bet some people are filling the IPOD with DVD file, but I don't think I'll squint my eyes just to watch any video off the IPOD screen, which is merely 2.55". Audiobooks? Nah, I don't fancy that as well. Podcast? Erm... I am not so grateful for all those podcast as well. Even with all those items, I don't think 80 GB is necessary. Why do you want to keep 10 DVDs in IPOD anyway? or 1,000 podcasts? I can't think of any reason. I'd love to learn some of the reasons though.

Hence, I personally think that unless one need 80 GB of IPOD to fill up their lives, one should just be content by having IPOD with far less space.

I wonder how many owners of 80 GB IPOD Classic can make use of the space effectively.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Singapore Airlines

After flying Singapore Airlines to Jakarta from Singapore (pp.) twice in a month, I can vouch for the uniquely Singapore Airlines' experience. The seat feels another notch higher than Lufthansa. The provision of hot towel is amazing. The feeling on hot towel on your face ebbs away a bit of your tiredness. The felt and at times practiced freedom to ask for the drink you wish for (as long as they have it on flight), the ability to choose between 2 meals, and the hard effort of the steward/ stewardess to smile are really worth the premium price! At least the meal from Singapore Airlines is decent, not like the burnt pastry I got from Valuair or pathetic Sandwich from Lufthansa.

Not a big wonder that many people around the world chooses to fly with Singapore Airlines despite having to pay higher price. The flight experience is at least 10 times better than budget airlines despite price difference of far less than 10 times. Hahahaha....

Perhaps people would argue that the flight is a mere 1.5 hour. Hence, if it's possible to save money, we should really save the money. However, on another note, the less convenient, or far less than satisfactory flight experience might really worth far more than the save money for many people.

It's a freedom to choose but perhaps noting the value instead of just staring at the price should sway the choice.

Valuair

A week ago I went back Jakarta with Valuair, thinking since it's a 1-hour flight, a little "suffering" should be okay. Furthermore, it saves me around S$60.00

Considering that Valuair touted itself as a budget carrier, despite having relatively higher costs than Airasia or Tiger Airways, I never imagine that that S$60.00 would buy me extremely better flight experience.

Valuair's seat gave me a feeling that I am seating on a car instead of a plane. The seat cover looks like some cheap leather that has not been cleaned well. Cracks lining on the seat cover appear here and there and amazingly, the flight to Indonesia was treated to a special meal, i.e. a measly pastry or a tasteless and bland looking fried rice (on my flight out of and back toi Singapore respectively).

Paying S$60.00 more would have allowed me to fly with Lufthansa with a real conventional seats found on "normal" passenger plane, same leg room, and more decent meal. The flight experience is really worth more than that S$60.00 difference! And at non peak times, I reckon the price difference should even be lesser!

If I am not really pressed for the date, I would never fly Valuair anymore, really.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Changi

I just came back from Jakarta after a few days trip. The trip makes me realize what really put Changi to the top in the realm of airport service.

Every time I step on Soekarno-Hatta, I harboured worry about the safety of my luggage or whether any lost of luggage will be compensated. The airport also does not have any drinkable tap water, not that many countries in the world has this feature. Changi airport is not expected to field a late service staff as well. In Soekarno-Hatta, some people have to stand waiting for more than 10 minutes in front of the gate since the staff of Valuair has not appeared to man the booth despite the board showing clearly "GATE OPEN" for some time prior to the queue.


On another note, taking Valuair makes me remember why people are choosing SQ. :-) I slept over the initial period of meal distribution. Upon my waking up, I asked the stewardess for my meal and she said okay. Yet my meal did not arrive such that I have to ask for it the second time with the lead steward :-) The gentleman sitting behind me was reminded by the same stewardess to fasten the child seatbelt at landing which the gentleman was never given at all. Hahahaha.. Ah well....

Monday, December 17, 2007

How to be famous and rich

This is what a writer need to write to be famous and rich in 21st centuries:
1. Write a common sense that they can change their fate by behaving differently and trusting themselves (cf. The Secret)
2. Write that a certain religion needs its basic fundamental truth questioned (cf. Da Vinci Code)
3. Write that you need to invest money rather than just save them in the bank since the bank has lower interest rate than stocks investment or sort (cf. Rich Dad Poor Dad)

This is what you need to write to be "try" to be famous in 21st centuries:
1. Write a book to debunk topics you think is a myth (cf. The Secret of The Secret, Decoding Da Vinci Code, etc.)

2. Write a book that win you a Pullitzer Prize (normally these authors are famous for a little while and then they disappear into unknown)