Gurmit The Blog

Singapore's Problems & Our MRT System

2012-02-03T10:31:00.002+08:00

Ok soon is a little late, sorry. The last post on Singapore's biggest problems required some explanation and here goes.

I was thinking about our recent SMRT technical fiascos as well as our ongoing issues with how crowded the trains were getting (this was the morning my mum made tea and banana pancakes out of the blue).

Keeping the rationalizations simple (because complicating them would confuse) the answers were:
- (track failures) someone wasn't checking for these problems or wasn't checking thoroughly or didn't care. Perhaps their bosses didn't care either.
- (overcrowding) the system was built to 1987 specs to optimal efficiency but without much room for redundancy. It's all too linear and unscalable. Scale now means building a new line. Also, with the push for new housing in certain areas plus more immigrants, it seems like the gahmen departments weren't talking to each other about the intersecting stresses on Singapore systems.

Who can we blame for all this? Ourselves.

We sort of let ourselves get carried away with the gahmen in the "They'll take care of everything, they know what they are doing" sort of way. I mean we were all kudos and applauding when the train lines opened but that's not the endgame. In fact there isn't one. It's forever, like diamonds but less sparkly. So we needed quite a bit of forward thinking in place. We knew back then we needed 5.5 or so million people to make the island work economically so why didn't we cater for that? Could we not envision the demand? We were not creative enough to figure out there wouldn't be space at Jurong East if we got more people to live in the west and northwest? Someone told me that the Japanese built Ginza station from the bottom up, meaning they dug 7 levels down first and built successive lines over that first deep-down station. What brilliant thinking. Anticipation is the hallmark of great planning. Efficiency with room to grow, that what we should have in place and aspire to.

My gripes/solutions with the train systems in Singapore:
- I can't figure why the Bukit Panjang LRT system was built when everyone was happy with the buses. If they wanted to spend $750 million on something through Bukit Panjang, how about a tunnel under the hill to link Ang Mo Kio to Choa Chu Kang with a bunch of stations across? This imaginary line from CCK to AMK could also stretch down Ang Mo Kio Ave 3 to Hougang, Defu and Ubi, roads that are still a mess at peak hours. At least then Serangoon North wouldn't get such a bad accessibility rep.
- Also, the envisioned line above could stretch westwards from CCK to NTU and Tuas, giving options to students at the university as well as workers now bound to use packed Boon Lay MRT/Interchange as their hub.
– I can't figure why the new Downtown Line being constructed from Bukit Panjang to Bugis doesn't start from Kranji or Choa Chu Kang. Wouldn't that help ease congestion into the city and ease the crowds gathering at Jurong East?
- Extra platforms and tracks were retrofitted to Jurong East MRT over the last two years to allow more parking space for trains from Woodlands and extra trains headed east. Did that help ease the human jam? I dunno but people are still complaining. Here's a thought - how about an extra pair of tracks running down from Jurong East to Buona Vista? Additional tracks to link the two major interchanges on the western line. This would give passengers spread-out options to switch lines at other stations instead of sardine-packing Jurong East. Also trains from Woodlands could continue straight on from Jurong East to Buona Vista, giving commuters headed to Harbourfront an easy switch at one stop. Alright, extend at least till Clementi so that commuters have two stops instead of one to switch at.
- Isn't Tanjong Pagar station busy enough to be an interchange? It is now and was even in 1987 when the EW line opened. Every work day hundreds of thousands of commuters have to make the one stop trip from Raffles Place to Tanjong Pagar to get to work in the city. I think that's just silly. If different lines can link across 3-4 stations in Central and Causeway Bay in Hong Kong island and in Tokyo, why could we implement this magnanimous, stress-reducing plan here? It would save commuters time and bring ease.
- We left Marina Bay station languishing for so long as a terminus. Now Harbourfront has become such a vibrant hub. Wouldn't it have be nicer to have the North South line stretch on to Harbourfront for easier connectivity. It would have been obvious to do so than to have had Marina Bay poorly utilised for a decade or so.
- The newly opened Circle Line benefits many who need to head down to the Suntec-Marina area. That's cool but the single point terminus at Dhoby Ghaut isn't. That's now a three line interchange, and consequently a people mess at peak hours and weekends. It would have been nice to extend the Circle Line crossover points further north up Orchard Road to alleviate the stress on Somerset and Orchard stations and end at Newton instead. This would allow suburbanites from the north heading to Suntec to switch earlier at Newton and not join the crowds at Dhoby Ghaut. (the future Downtown Line from Bukit Timah joins at Newton too, so these commuters would enjoy the same convenience too). There would have been the chance to add another station perhaps between Orchard and Somerset maybe behind Paragon or to extend the Circle Line towards Tanglin and Dempsey.
- You may already know how I feel about the Sengkang LRT system. If you don’t, I feel it’s dumb to centralize the connectivity just to one point at Sengkang Interchange. It would be wiser to even link up the same LRT service to Punggol, Sengkang and Hougang since most of the residents probably have shared interests in these adjacent estates.

There you go. My rant about the MRT system. They’re building more lines, of course. Nothing stops the big machine. Not sure if there’s more sense in them (I doubt). Having named a station Tan Kah Kee (like who? and where?) and allowing Farrer Park and Farrer Road stations to co-exist already has me shaking my head.

So with all these complaints, it makes our problems quite clear, no? Over-reliance on the gahmen for ideas, no one really putting forward alternative ideas, too much centralization for perceived efficiency, no creativity and when all goes wrong, no one admitting failure. Ta-dah.

Our Biggest Problems

2012-01-13T20:05:00.001+08:00

Before I forget let me jot his down. Singapore's biggest problems are:
1. Over reliance on the gahmen to "do the right thing".
2. Reluctance by the individual to step up and take control.
3. Prioritization of built-to-exactness, we-need-only-this-now integrated efficiency over operational slack/redundant capacity to cater for acceptable anomalies.
4. A lack of creativity to imagine, no, explore solutions slightly out-of-the-box that allow for lower efficiency but higher personal value.
5. A failure to admit failure.

I'll explain these soon.

Bus Home From KL Catches Fire

2011-12-19T12:43:00.001+08:00

This is one of those "You wouldn't believe what happened to me" stories.

My family and I were in Kuala Lumpur, esteemed Malaysian capital of good barbecued chicken wings, taxi touts and predictable traffic jams, over the last few days. On Saturday, we were meant to make our way back to Singapore.

The coach pick up time was 3pm so we checked out at 2pm and waited at the Swiss Garden hotel lobby (we stayed at the new Residences built behind the Hotel. Nice but has its flaws, trying to keep all of their 4 stars.)

Waiting was not easy with a hyperactive 3 year old running around the Christmas tree. I think we gave him too much coffee. Our bus came at 4pm, apparently delayed by the Bukit Bintang traffic.

Once we boarded, we sensed something was not quite right - the temperature wasn't at the typical freezing-to-lull-passengers-to-hibernation setting. In fact it was warm and progressively warming up. No one really complained till it became a tad more unbearable. I had managed to doze off even. My asthmatic mum started feeling the choke of stifled heat first and had to take several puffs of her inhalers.

About an hour into the journey out of KL, the driver pulls over at Nilai rest stop and calls it quit. Passengers stream out, hoping for a cooler respite outside the bus and a quick resolution to this crisis. It was actually comfortable at the rest stop, with a natural breeze passing through. Thank goodness it was clean. (Malaysian highway rest stops manage to maintain exceeding contrasts in service and hygiene standards.) The time now was 5pm.

So we drank and ate a little, unaware of any planned resolution to our bus outage. The driver, a soft spoken Chinese man with black rimmed glasses and a beard (He was quite bear-like), was constantly on his mobile. We kept getting whispers of 'bus coming in 20 minutes'. So we waited patiently.

Having been tested long enough, I called the bus company office in Singapore at 640pm, and gave them a harsh lecture. Once again, I got the '20 minutes' message from a nervous girl. When I asked to speak to the manager, apparently there wasn't one around. The substitute bus came at 7pm.

When everyone had boarded Bus 2, we realised there was a seat short. I took my nephew on my lap and gave up his seat to a grateful passenger. So we were on our way south once more.

At about 10pm, we stopped at Yong Peng, a traditional stop for many bus services plying the North South highway. We hobbled out of the vehicle and had a Ramly burger, two tau sar paus and a coffee my mum didn't want. At half past or so, the bus was off again towards Tuas.

At about 1045pm, my nephew on lap noticed a man in a red shirt walk hastily from the back of the bus to the front. He asked why the man was running. I turned around to see a haze developing at the back of the bus. It was like a cloud developing. There was the smell of plastic smouldering and I instinctively shouted "Fire!". The driver slammed in the brakes and pulled over. A commotion and shouts ensued, and a hasty stream of nervous, startled passengers emerged from the front door onto the dark road and drizzle. I passed my barefoot nephew to my brother-in-law who joined the exit line. My asthmatic mum was yelling something and my sis was asking everyone in the back to get out quick. Oddly enough, a few sleeping passengers were oblivious to the smoke.

We all made it out in a couple of minutes. As I left the bus I turned to look back and saw a fireball of orange at the back of the vehicle. Educated by years of television watching, one has to get as far away from the flames before the whole bloody thing explodes. So we did, a good 50-60 metres down the road. No, the bus didn't explode.

The driver managed to douse the fire with god-knows-what and pretty soon it died down to a smoking rear end. In the meantime, some of us kiasu types managed to yank out all the luggage stored in the lower coach compartment and spilled the bags on the road and grass verge. I noticed black oil mixed with the stream that ran along the road and figured the fuel tank or some pipe must have leaked.

There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing as people tried to identify their belongings while fast cars zoomed past, some slowed down in apparent surprise at seeing 20-odd persons in the cold and wet by the road side. I was afraid that some passing truck or car would not see the bus and crash right in, taking us down with the metal mess. I kept asking the passengers who strayed deeper into the road lane to stay in.

Well at least we could see the stars clearly now. Orion was practically shining down on us.

My nephew vomited in the drama. Scared people do that sometimes. My mum put a towel around his head and he looked like he had a tudung on. So cute. He remained as curious as ever, asking questions about what happened.

In an emergency, who do you call? Usually the answer is simple - police, fire brigade, medical services. When in a JB emergency who do you call? Apparently +65 999 doesn't work. My sis managed to get the Johor crime hotline and they despatched the highway vehicle emergency team. Their blue swirling lights appeared on the wrong side of the highway about half an hour into the situation. Not sure what Plus Ronda people did but eventually there was a smouldering box lying in the drain by the side of the highway.

The gods already laughing at us decide to turn up the tension by letting down more rain. Soon umbrellas were up and some passengers donned their raincoats. The bags now got even wetter. It was a fine mess. Someone came around to say we could wait in the bus. We were mostly appalled at the suggestion at first but came around to clambering up the stationary metal box because smoke inhalation seemed like a lesser evil that hypothermia. Up in the bus we went. There was a moment of relief actually when most of us were more comfortable in the dry. The passengers chatted about what got wet and even laughed about what had gone on.

At 1215, the replacement bus, the third one, arrived. Finally it seemed the drama was over and we could be on our way back home. The new driver apologised for what happened and carried on his way towards Johor Bahru. Somewhere along the way though, he announced he had no passport to enter Singapore. *Cue dramatic intro music* But there was a replacement driver with him who had his passport but didn't know the way around Singapore. *Cue dramatic rejoinder music*

I volunteered to navigate.

It seemed to take forever to get to Gelang Patah, like we were on a neverending highway with no lights and red tailights zooming past us every 10 minutes. People were just staring forward, anxious to see some semblance of hope in the form of the bright lights of immigration and customs control. A weird feeling, made worse by how tired we were. The document-less bus driver got off at the intersection that led to Johor Bahru, into a waiting car. Lucky bastard.

Eventually we crossed over the Second Link and made into Singapore. It must have been near 2am.

I took the chance to ask if the route back to the city could better accommodate the passengers. So I got the driver to make a diversion to Jurong East MRT and drop a lady off at the bus stop opposite NUH. Funnily enough, to cap the highly momentous day of travelling, I had to figure out the best way for Mr Unfamiliar to get back to JB. I navigated the simplest route - down the ECP Rochor Road ramp, stopped outside Bugis MRT and told the driver to go back up Ophir Road ramp into ECP then AYE Tuas. Ta-dah!

After a hot shower, I think it was 3am before I hit the sack. What a day.

Konsortium is the bus company. My sis went down to the office on Monday to raise hell. I think she got some money back. Hmm.

Expensive COEs And 24hr Train Services

2011-12-05T08:38:00.002+08:00

Saturday's Straits Times sort of ticked me off a little. On the front page were two article - one on high COE prices and the other mentioned that the SMRT and SBS Transit would extend train services for the marathon. So I sent emails to ST Forum expressing my thoughts. Here they are:

1. Regular extended train services, not just for marathon
While it is commendable that the SMRT and SBS Transit support the Standard Chartered marathon with overnight train services for participants to make the early morning start, it begs the question why these national transport providers cannot do the same on weekends or on the eve of all national holidays. Regular extended services would generally benefit most residents as opposed to this one-time effort for those involved in a sporting event. Perhaps the Public Transport Council can look into such an initiative.

2. Should only the rich own a car?
Saturday's Straits Times report on the expected demand for more expensive, high-end cars is a blow for the aspirations of Singapore's middle class. This consequence of fewer COEs and other factors serves to reinforce the notion that only the rich will be able to afford a car. There needs to be a fairer system of COE distribution, one not pegged to a large bank account but one based on needs. In my opinion, drivers who are parents with 2 or more children, those with extended families or aged parents themselves, or those looking after the disabled should get priority. To reduce demand further, it might be wise impose double the price of a COE for households seeking a second car, and so on. If the government is serious about reducing the car population, measures taken cannot purely be to the advantage of a select segment of society.

What do you think?

Keep Your Word To A Taxi Driver

2011-11-28T08:46:00.001+08:00

Some days ago, I posted a tweet about why people who've booked a taxi bother waiting in the taxi queue. I got a just a handful of responses - one was that taxis seemed to frequently not be able to figure out the pick up point; another was kiasuism and lastly, "To increase the odds of getting a cab quickly. Duh."

I was indeed exasperated at that someone in the queue ahead of me who had committed this fault in my eyes. I guess many would disagree that it is a fault. Probably because the cab companies dedicate a call cancel shortcut on the phone booking services. Truly Singaporean perhaps, this means of getting ahead. Or maybe getting away with it instead. Simply cancel on a call, forget whatever it meant.

Is confirming a taxi booking not a matter of keeping one's word? I, Gurmit Singh, agree to wait for cab SHA 1234 X arriving in 3 to 5 minutes with an additional fee of $3.50, and to have a nice day. So Mr Anonymous Cab Driver enters into an agreement with me - he dedicates his service to me and I pay him extra. He comes around and picks me up. That's the normal, right way things work out.

When I decide to flag down another horse and cancel aforesaid agreement, Mr Anonymous Cab does not make the extra few dollars and would very likely be frustrated. Yes I save on the money and waiting time, but unknowingly I have added to what I like to call the Fed Up Factor. Mr My Booking Got Cancelled is fed up. He thinks that perhaps all passengers are scum and doesn't give two hoots (or honks) about messing with us more - you know, the hiding in alleys till surcharges kick in, the picking and choosing of customers to get to very nearby destinations, the non-chalant driving by sweaty taxi queues with the green sign on - the stuff that infuriates us further. So we now contribute to the universal Fed Up Factor.

What's the fella waiting behind I've got a booking so-and-so supposed to think? He's got a booking but he's still in the queue. So he's too stingy to fork out $3.50 but got the balls to screw a taxi driver if he can?

Taxi companies should charge the booking fee for the call, and pass that on to taxi drivers later.

We can't be very happy living with all this frustration. It's not a oneupmanship game we should play with one another. What goes around comes around. That's why taxi drivers want to play their games - we give them a reason to.

Perhaps i'm too principled. If I make a deal with someone I try to keep it. Don't screw the other fella over. And that goes for taxi bookings too. Maybe we're just not putting ourselves into the other person's shoes or in this case behind the cabby's steering wheel. It's all me me me. Yes we all have our grouses with taxi drivers but it doesn't mean we have a natural licence to mess with them.

We're worse for it. Plain and simple. A sad state of affairs.

I should really write more

2011-11-26T10:24:00.001+08:00

Look at me, thinking of writing a post on writing. Just out of bed, in some pain somewhere, and already fiddling with the phone. Glasses not even on. Later ah.

A Problem With Sengkang

2011-10-16T16:46:00.008+08:00

I recently moved to Sengkang. It was a choice determined by proximity to my nephew (for the weekday delivery of the little monster for my mum to look after with the rotan nearby), availability of a flat within a reasonable walking distance to the MRT (I hate taking feeder buses), how broke I'd be when I sold my soul to HDB, COV, HSBC and other acroymns you read about when people talk about flats, plus other factors.

Having been here a month and a half, I made some conclusions about why Sengkang sucks, or could suck for some.

Urban planners had put on their Utopia hat on when thinking about the transportation scheme here. They imagined brainwashed heartlanders walking in file to LRT stations, pleasantly smiling and hardly distressed by small platforms and closeness with each other, all fillng up small compact metal boxes headng towards the nexus of Sengkang, the all-hallowed MRT/Bus interchange, the heart of this suburb. But all this of course, doesn't quite pan out in real life. All these peak-hour people stuff themselves into small lego-land trains and fall out at the hub to get into bigger moving boxes. Thank God that it's just the Punggolians/Punggolites/Punggolers that board the NE trains down to the city before us Sengkangers/Sengkangites/Sengkangolians enter. So yes things are a little crowded.

The LRT system itself is kinda screwy. From the hub, the trains apparently can venture off in 2 directions in 2 loops around the estate and passengers have to board this confusion at one of two platforms. So there's a 1/8 chance of picking the optimal train. I use the term "apparently" because I can't sometimes figure the signage out. I pity the tourists.

Why couldn't they split the hub role? Sengkangers/Sengkangites/Sengkangolians don't always want to end up at one place. Why put the stress of populace and sweaty bodies in one place? It would have been smarter to spread the LRT network between Buangkok (Yes, the urban planners and SBS Transit of 'white elephant' fame forgot that Buangkok has people and it's also part of Sengkang) and Sengkang. Then the madness of platforms and directions would have been solved. Residents headed to the city would end up taking LRT trains to MRT stations closer to them, splitting the human traffic and the associated craziness in two directions. (Buangkok MRT station would have opened earlier too instead of languishing in Compass Point - Sengkang hub's dust.) It would be smart to invest in this change even now, as the HDB puts up more Sengkang BTOs.

There is only one pan-Sengkang feeder bus. The rest are trunk services that connect between the interchange and some other housing estate. So everyone generally has to pay extra (I think) to get to work and school. The feeder bus also doesn't really connect all the neighbourhoods because they're thinking the LRT does that job. It does but bus stops are far more in existence than LRT stations, walks are shorter to bus stops and people are lazy or don't want to sweat.

On the bright side, there are 3 express bus services to the city in the morning. I hope they make sense for those paying $3-5 for each daily ride. I hope the CTE morning grind doesn't mess things up.

Well that's the state of Sengkang transport. I mean the nomenclature sucks already (come on, Rivervale, Compassvale, Anchorvale and Fernvale with all the usual street types at the end is more than enough to confuse drivers without GPS) so let's just improve the dynamics.

Flat Post 2 - Cash You Need To Start With

2011-10-09T23:45:00.010+08:00

Here's what you need to figure out financially when you're buying a HDB resale flat as a single buyer.

Cost of flat: $X (usually in the few hundreds of thousands). Let's use $470,000.
Cash over valuation: $Y (in the tens of thousands). Let's use $30,000.

So one can't really haggle over the valuation price. Apparently isn't been calculated by certified professionals who have no additional incentive to determine how prices fluctuate. Hard to believe but hey, I am a buyer, so I complain.

If you're keen, put down the option fee. That's $1,000. This amount goes along with signing the Option To Purchase form whereby a deposit of maximum of $5,000 inclusive of the option fee has to be paid in cash. Ultimately, the deposit goes to part of paying $X.

Do keep in mind that if you engage a property agent to handle matters, that's 1% of the valuation price that has to be paid for services rendered. Agent fees, sigh. (One can go at it alone, like I did, save the few thousand for the kick ass TV or kitchen makeover)

Now, you'll need to engage a lawyer to settle the legal backend work that has to happen when one buys a property. The lawyer, well the legal assistant more likely, will also arrange matters between the seller's lawyers, the bank (if any) and the CPF folks. Legal fees can come out of one's CPF so no upfront cash required there.

The next cash whammie that'll hit a resale buyer is the stamp duty. No one really understands what this is for but the tax guys love racking it in. At this point, I googled and found this:

"Stamp duty is a tax on executed documents relating to properties or interest in properties and shares or interest in shares. Stamp duty is payable only on documents described in the First Schedule to the Stamp Duties Act (Cap 312). These documents include a lease, sale and purchase, gift or mortgage of property. It is not a tax on transactions. If the agreement is verbal and no document is executed (signed) for that agreement, then no stamp duty is payable. Liability arises once the document is executed. Hence, even if the transaction has been aborted, stamp duty is still payable on the document." Taken from IRAS website.

For property purchases, the rate is based on steps of $180,000 - 1% on the first 180k, 2% on the next, and 3% on the balance thereafter. So if your property's sale price (that's $X + $Y folks) is let's say $500,000, the stamp duty is $5400 (for the first $360k) + $(500,000 - $360,000) x 3% = $9,600.

Technically, this amount can come out of your CPF but apparently you can't make that transaction till the CPF management approves things, and that can't happen till your lawyer puts in the paperwork for the stamp duty. A bit of a chicken-and-egg situation there. So one pays cash first, then it's reimbursed after the amount is deducted from the CPF.

Somewhere along the way, there's a HDB application processing fee that's based ridiculously on the size of the flat purchased rather than the admin work being done. I paid $60.

If a bank loan is the desired means of mortgage payments, there's probably a processing fee for that too. I can't remember what I dished out but I think it's 0.1% of the loan amount.

Alrighty, here's the mandatory cash component deal when it comes to actually paying for the flat. The almighty HDB dictates the 80-20 rule: 20% of $X upfront and 80% can come from a loan. Out of the 20% - 5% must be in cold hard cash. 15% can come from one's CPF. So with a flat that costs $470K, the cash portion is $23,500. This amount includes the deposit amount, so that's a balance of $18,500.

To sum up, the cash you need ready upfront before you can even think of getting a resale flat bought at $500,000 is :
- agent fees $5,000
- option to purchase fee and deposit $5,000
- stamp duty $9,600
- 5% of valuation price less deposit $18,500
- cash over valuation, let's say $30,000 - that's what's averaging now for 4rm and larger flats
- processing fees - variable, around $500 perhaps
--> TOTAL - $68,600

Yikes eh. Especially if you're going at it alone. And that doesn't include the cost of renovation, furniture and appliances.

Given that the COV is close to 50% in the example, I am sure many will understand my wrath at property agents for asking for the sky, sellers thinking their crap flats deserve monetary exaltation and the gahmen for letting this madness go on.

Go get hitched, at least the burden is shared. And you might qualify for housing grants to offset costs too. United in debt, ever after.

RIP Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T23:33:00.003+08:00

I first got the news of Steve Job's passing in the lift on the way up to the office. It was about 845am. From conventional media - television. There is a 10inch screen embedded above the button panel at a rather uncomfortable height and on it plays Channel News Asia all day. The red text on the fixed white bar on the bottom of the screen announced the inevitable. He was 56, younger than my mum which freaked me out a little. But many of us knew that it had to happen sooner or later, Steve was looking awfully gaunt lately. Pancreatic cancer, goodness. It was a tough battle, and Steve won and lost.

Visionary is often used to describe this man. Perhaps he was just showing us what it meant to live by one's own prinicples. Undoubtedly his standards were high, and all of Apple's successes post kaledoscopic iMacs were jaw-droppingly game-changing. Ideas that worked, devices that looked beautiful and worked even more beautifully. Iconic stuff. Exacting standards, some painful, were set in place if one was to achieve glory under his watchful eye, I guess. He created the tech divide, the PC vs Mac eternal battle. And he had his army, legions faithful to this every word, loyal to the brand. If Mac is a religion, then Steve was Jesus. Or Buddha in black turtleneck and jeans.

We're all grateful in some form or other. I am typing this post on a Macbook. I own a iPod and had an iPhone. I don't think I have as many other electronic products from the same brand. Steve Jobs did more for the design and UX frame of thinking than perhaps anyone else.

Well, life goes on. We celebrate the man and his ideas and impact, and always will. Cheers.

Flat Post 1 - Intro

2011-10-03T22:53:00.000+08:00

So I finally bought a flat.

It was a long road of searching and eventually committed to a 5 room flat in Sengkang. It's not perfect, no flat really is. This one checked a lot of boxes on my list - 3 bedrooms, 6 minutes' walk to the MRT, 5 bus stops from my nephew (My mum has to be daytime nanny, so close proximity was a consideration). All said and done it's sort of a rite of passage. Growing and getting into debt, like any other working class taxpayer. Admittedly, it still feels like a house, not yet a home. Too soon I guess, just a month since I moved in. To the day in fact.

There were quite a few ups and downs, well, one remembers the downs more, naturally. I'll give the lo-down on the how to get by without an agent and how to handle the damn finances in the next post. Now I'm coming to end of another Law & Order episode and then I intend to call it a night.

Big Bang Theory

2011-07-30T15:46:00.002+08:00

So, many people were left quite stunned after a Norwegian 32-yr old left his guns rip at the youth camp outside Oslo. This blond and blue-eyed intellectual, now monster, decided to unleash his angst on innocents in an attempt to teach Europeans about the threat of Marxism and Islam on their homeland. He planned his attack, carefully and methodically. This is the type of guy who's the unsub on Criminal Minds. Creepy shit come true.

People angry with their own people. Not uncommon, with most differences are religious - Shia and Shiites have been at for centuries, British Protestants and Catholics at each other since the time of KIng Henry's VIII. Political and ideological differences are clearly cause for trouble too. Even Greenpeace has got itself into a fair share of scuffles to get their point of view across. We are not meant to get along it seems.

What stood out from this Norway incident is that no one really expected a local to run amok and armed with the intent to kill in a country that's generally very peaceful. That's the danger - not expecting things to go wrong. We had one example in the US with the Oklahoma bombings. Timothy McVeigh was one unhappy guy, upset with his government, their actions and hypocrisy. He apparently regretted not levelling the whole Federal Building (but also would have considered changing the target if he knew there was a day care center there.) Although many people knew about McVeigh's contentious views, they didn't think he would go so far. All those incidents of gun rage in US schools too stem from the same source - disgruntlement then violent action.

Going to far - why not? In this age of bigger and better, a terrorist act is only as big as it's effects. I blame the modern media and the way we consume it. We long for the special, theatrical, mega-super-uber, even explosive. We pay attention to Lady Gaga because she's made it a point to look different each time she's on camera. There are enough talent shows out there to turn any teen into a wannabe-anything. Even the losers and talentless like William Hung and Rebecca Black make people take notice, intentionally or otherwise, because they suck. Funny isn't it. So with money to purchase materials, scientific knowledge available on the Internet to put together an explosive device and enough balls to try something new, almost anyone in modern world can let go his own big bang. Anders Behring Breivik had an agenda to boot. His tweet "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests" speak volumes about his thoughts and actions.

So what can we do about this? It could simply be asking someone if everything is ok. Talking about stuff helps. That's why the SG gahmen wants to be seen as consultative (to varying degrees of success and response) and inclusive. If everyone is treated fairly, or at least given a voice, then we'll likely not need to deal with such dramatic endings. Parents need to keep talking to their kids, friends need to be asking friends stuff, teachers need to be looking out for their students. We all need to appreciate universal good and bad, that some actions are just wrong morally. Opposing views and dissent have their avenues. We all need to keep a level head and eyes open. Please, for all our sakes.

Amy Winehouse

2011-07-24T22:31:00.001+08:00

The first time I really took notice of Amy Winehouse was when I heard 'Take The Box' on a Gilles Peterson compilation. I thought she was black, not a white 20-something from Britain of all places. It is a very interesting song, about a woman who's not afraid to tell her man to suck it and leave. And she's returning the Moschino bra in the box. There's the f-word in the song, all the more to sit up and take notice of the song, and the album, Frank, that got Mercury Prize nominated. (Mercury Prize nominations are way more important, I feel, than the Grammys or any of the other popular awards because they don't represent the mainstream, and albums are assessed on their technical arrangements and quality by industry experts and journalists.)

Take The Box

The song that really gets me from Frank is In My Bed. Wahlau, what a song. Once again, a telling-it-like-it-is number with an awesome jazzy arrangement, good beat andsmart, provocative lyrics, a woman being a player. "The only time I hold you hand is to get the angle right" Made me laugh yet knew the world was listening to someone who was ready to change the way female singers were going to be accepted.

In My Bed

She's tattoo-less in these videos, and one can truly appreciate how actually quite beautiful she was.

The next best thing came out 3 years later in 2006 - Back To Black. Most people know the album for Rehab, a sort of ironic look at her life. She then won Record and Song Of The Yeat at the Grammys and that took her stardom to a new level. (She couldn't get into the US because there were some visa issues so she performed via satelite, and I can still remeber how stunned she was when they announced the Record Of The Year award. She was frozen stiff, hands to her mouth. Her band member had to shake her out of the stasis.) Apart from Rehab, the other commercial gems there were Back To Black, You Know I'm No Good and Love Is A Losing Game. The other winner for that album's success was Mark Ronson, who managed to create a old-skool soul feel and yet copy anything that anyone else had done. He got a lot of credit for the work he put in and it set him up as one of the best young producers in the business.

You Know I'm No Good

We all heard about her drinking and drug issues. And her beehive hairdo started looking dirty. Some people blame her ex-husband for introducing her to party drugs. One of my friends commented some years ago she will die young if she keeps this up. And now at age 27, it comes true. Instead of the Internet, I read about this in the papers. The headline made my gut contract, like the tragedy was closer to home. The scant report wasn't comprehensive but it was enough, and slowly I returned to breakfast.

One can only sympathise with the loss of a great talent but probably not with the life choices she made. The funny thing about her death, and Michael Jackson's, is that people suddenly come out of the woodwork claiming to know her well and her death is a great loss to the world. Seriously, those close to her should have done something more to set her straight. No one should leave these alcoholic depressive creative types alone, ever. They need constant supervision like 2 year olds do.

Well, not much more to be said. We'll always have Amy's songs, on wondrous repeat.

Relearning Phones

2011-07-17T23:28:00.000+08:00

Some weeks ago, I managed to smash my iPhone to bits. The damage was bad enough for the repair dude to exclaim it was the worst he had seen thus far. The bill for repair would have come up to $225 and the device still wouldn't have worked properly. So I decided to fix the connector to get my data out - a $50 punishment for my silly antics. No more WhatsApp, no more Instagram, no more Scrabble, no more Angry Birds.

My first subsitute was my sister's Blackberry 9500. It was the simplest option available. I decided to take my chances. It has a touch screen and mobile Internet capabilities. I tried installing the Facebook app but it refused to work. It's wonky in the sense the brower has the Starhub logo upon startup while connecting through a Singtel SIM card. Then it started to hang and perform slower than usual. Randomly, it would refuse the data connection.

So I decided to swing the other way completely - I got the lowest end Nokia possible, the Nokia 1280 for $38 from an Ah Beng shop in Hougang. The motivation was not have a potentially wonky phone knowing full well I would not have any music or the Internet. I went forth with my reservist-friendly choice (it had no camera too) (notice the change in tense). I had to SMS with the old skool alphanumeric keypad. It couldn't read my SIM card contact beyond N and so spent a weekend night manually entering names and numbers. I chose sensible tones and updated profiles. All very basic and simple, and refreshingly fun. I later found that I could not hear callers clearly. That was the only real setback for which I was about to get the accompanying earpiece. I had learnt to let go quite effectively and adjusted to the initial technological catastrophe nicely.

A few days ago, I left my precious retro fling in the back of a taxi. It was too late to do anything when I discovered the loss.

Now, I have reverted to my sister's Blackberry in the hope it would last till my upgrade period kicks in - 10 October. What I learned from this experience is that sometimes we attach ourselves too strongly to material things that we feel we cannot live without. I know a guy who went out and got a replacement iPhone within a day when his went missing for fear for further iPhone-rejection symptoms. I was pissed when I lost the Nokia because of the sudden inconvenience and the wasted effort to key in all those numbers. Took a few hours to get over that. It was made simpler when I compared the matter to the incompetence and inefficiencies I encountered on a half visit back to the army for a reservist mobilization briefing.

Perspective - important to re-evaluate yours every now and then.

Moving For Kids' Sakes But There's More To It Wink, wink

2011-07-10T23:44:00.004+08:00

A friend mentioned she's moving to another part of Singapore in a couple of years. The family is strategically re-positioning themselves to ensure their eldest child gets into their school of choice. One half of the married couple is an alumnus and that makes it a shoe-in for the little tyke to be accepted into the 'prestigious' school. The open-inverted commas are my caveat since perceptions of success are relative. Additionally, my friend mentioned that her part of the island had undesirable influences and I assume she wouldn't want her kids mixing with these crowds (plural because she mentioned more than 1 group of residents she wasn't too fond of).

Her responses were a little startling at first but I could understand where she was coming from taking a deeper look at the hows and whys of the matter. If one has the opportunity and the financials to ensure a supposed better life for one's kids, why not? It's natural for parents to want the best for their offspring. The best sometimes means eliminating potential hazards as opposed to providing something.

I am not agreeing completely with her rationale though. In fact it is somewhat disturbing to think that Singapore society was becoming this polarised based on social class and behaviours. It might be inevitable I guess. Just look at the way well-off New Yorkers make fun of New Jersey folk, or even how some Singaporeans think they're better than Malaysians. Her demographic set probably feels the same way (graduate parents). Parents who have studied longer, hold highly-paid jobs and perhaps are more ambitious in life also want their kids to eventually achieve the same. Once again, striking when there's a chance. I know other friends who have shipped out lock, stock and barrel to new homes near to 'good' schools. Property developers blatantly list school names in their ads to draw buyers seeking the close proximity route to getting their kids into these institutions.

Makes we wonder who then sends kids to regular, neighbourhood schools. Less educated residents? Those without clout in better schools? Do better schools have special teachers and methods that give their students an advantage when every kid sits for the same examination? Maybe mixing with average kids leads to nurturing average kids. I remember my dad asking me to hang with the smart kids. Not sure if that worked out as planned.

Singapore is a small, young country but the social strata have clear splits. Problems may come when those who are better well off fail to understand the needs of those at the lower end of the success ladder. Not everyone can be successful, it's sort of a law of nature in human societies. The questions that become relevant are - is the widening gap between the haves and have-nots making for an unstable nation? Are there even locations in Singapore that the well-off avoid because undesirable folks live there, a ghetto or 'slum' perhaps? What happens when well-off folk happen to congregate in a particular neighbourhood? Do they kids all get stressed out together, competing in good schools? (There has to be a 'worst' class in these schools, right? Law of human societies, remember. I'm sure there are deviants lurking about there too. Deviants with money. Hmmm) Do they deserve a greater say in running the country because they pay more taxes? How obliged are they to better circumstances for those who are not so well-off? As usual, most of this burden falls back on the government but there are pitfalls in our policy of meritocracy that the stated law of human societies cannot solve.

Look at how polarized China has become. Rich urban east versus poor rural rest of country, In my view, it's a ticking timebomb of social unrest. I wouldn't want to see the same here but we cannot stop the innate need for something better. We need to temper it with common sense though, and perhaps with a dose of reality and heart. We can't always get what we want.

Don't Kid Your Kids

2011-07-09T00:43:00.003+08:00

It's late on Friday night and I have had too many beers and too much carbo for supper to be sleeping. So while George Michael wails away on Kissing A Fool on the radio, I attend to my much neglected blog.

Twice this evening the issue of slack parenting came up. Well perhaps not slack but more specifically inadequate discipline. I started the day with a tweet on how domestic workers (I Don't Can't Tell You Why by The Eagles is now on) end up carrying the school bags of their employers's kids as they escort the young masters and mistresses to school. A nation of softies I thought were indirectly breeding, inculcating the idea that there would always be someone else around to do the hard work.

Later in the early evening, as my colleagues and I rallied about hastily set up table at Ai Mien Bar at Capitol Tower (cheap beers, not so good service), I happened to end up discussing the way I handle or rather discipline my nephew with a colleague who also has 4 nephews and nieces to contend with. (Eyes Without A Face by Billy Idol is now playing). She expressed that kids these days have changed from running around a restaurant to being glued to a portable device at the table. She remarked that "in her time", the entire family was gathered at the dining table from 6 to 7pm for dinner and conversation. Pretty regimented but it got the meal and necessities settled. No TV, no magazines, no games on iPhones. I replied that kids these days put their energies into the instant entertainment gizmos that promised their growing, hungry brains all the zap and zing they could handled. My colleagues went on to talk about spending time scampering in longkangs and finding spiders among tall grass. (Sting now sings Fragile) Kids today didn't seek these active pursuits, and would rather not sweat while fixated with television or handheld games. What was interesting was the conclusion that parents today, having had lived through tough times and tough love when they were growing up, didn't want to put their kids through such hardship and instead enjoy the best things in life. (It's Gary Moore now, with Still Got The Blues For You) We both agreed that this was not the right thing to do.

Even later in the evening, after more beers and a KIlkenny, this topic was raised among good friends, a couple with a couple of tyrants of their own. They had decided not to over-manja their kids with toys and the like. On trips to the neighbourhood mall, the eldest daughter would bawl and go into hysterics over the many Barbie dolls she could not acquire. (Sway by Michael Buble). Mummy would go to the shop owner to agree with that the dolls in question would be 'kept for purchase later', a secret code for 'yeah, we're not buying anything but my kid is crying so you understand yah'. I went to say my nephew had 30 toys.

Children don't know the value of money. (It's a Carole King song now. One To One) It's out job to teach them. If they're given everything, they won't learn the value of an honest day's work. Or hard labour for that matter. It does them little good to know that each time they cry, they're placated with a gift or toy or ice cream. There's a Bob Dylan song that goes "You can't always get what you want. But you get what you need.". I sing that song to my nephew whenever his whims aren't satisfied. (The end of Oh Very Young by Cat Stevens) (Besame Mucho by somebody. The song has been covered to death)

Trying saying no to your kids and teach them a valuable lesson. Repeat after me "No, you cannot have that toy" "No, you cannot have an ice cream" (Oh Very Young by Cat Stevens) "No, we're not going to the playground". When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Our brains need that challenge of adversity to stay tip top. So your kids will be forced to be creative and find solutions. x Hey they may come up a creative solution to spend their time or perhaps shoplift (you'll must intervene) or give up (please intervene again). (Hello Darlin by Lynn Anderson trails off to Elvis' Ghetto). Don't do your kids a disservice by giving them all you didn't have. They'll be thankful for it later. (Housemartins with Caravan Of Love end this literary spurt)

Lunchtime Thinking - Hiring People

2011-06-09T14:07:00.001+08:00

I think somewhere along the last 2 years I was in a conversation about how hiring is done. This got rekindled today over lunch with an ex-colleague and I think it bears repeating, if not, laughing/pondering over. Applies to big bosses, not small in-between fry.

There are 2 kinds of people at work, two opposites each of intelligence and dilligence - smart, stupid, lazy and hardworking. And usually people aren't just one thing but a combination of both. So we have 4 combinations to classifiy people in the office:
- smart and hardworking
- smart and lazy
- stupid and hardworking
- stupid and lazy

Simple. Now for the diciphering of traits and ambition that will lead to your reasons to hire someone.

Smart and hardworking are great. They know what they are doing and spend time getting things done. Awesome, but because they work so hard, they're trapped in their roles. They mostly become great advisors who churn out 68 page PowerPoints. Love to be asked for their opinions. Moneymakers for their skills and effort, with some leadership potential.

Smart and lazy. Here's a special combination. These guys want the money without the work. They'll put in minimal effort for maximum results. Essentially, they wanna be on top. Late to the work, long lunches, early escapes to the pub. They are go-getters of a different sort. Never happy with paperwork. They are usurpers of power, the silent killers out to get the bosses.

Stupid and hardworking are the workhorses. They get told what to do and they get it done, eventually. There might be some scolding involved but still the end product is good. They make good "slaves". They need to be placated at some level by rewards or perceived privilege maybe once or twice a year. But generally they are happy slogging away.

Stupid and lazy people will destroy your company. Do not hire. They will wreck things and not realise it. Your firm's reputation is meaningless to them and they'll make your photocopier emit smoke and use up all the paper. Do not hire at all cost. Your IT folks might quit as a result of interacting with them.

So in conclusion, and it's a doozy - hire stupid and hardworking people. They have to listen to you, you'll enjoy the power trip/paternalistic love-punish relationship, and they'll get the work done after a few trial runs. The smart and lazy ones are the ones to avoid when hiring a no.2. He/she will be after your cushy chair and will plot your demise from day 2. We all love the smart and hardworking ones and keeping them close is great - they'll love the schmoozing and make you look good. Ta-dah.

After It's Been Said And Done

2011-05-11T20:19:00.002+08:00

Over the elections are and we have the results

60% approval rating for current gahmen, down 6% from last election
6 opposition MPs in Parliament up from 2

The good bits
I think the people have come around to the general concensus that they aren't exquisitely happy with the power that be. So the overall decline in approval is a strong sign that the PAP needs to change. I also think that the 60% figure would have been smaller if not for the fact the PM said sorry a few days before the election. Vivian B also came out to say he was sorry about the comments he made about welfare payouts back in 2007 (thank god for youtube in reminding us of this parliamentary folly). Even WKS reminded us he apologized for losing Mas Selamat. So the whole theme of "don't listen to the opposition because they're dangerous and stupid, and we're smart and know what you need" became "so sorry we hurt your feelings, perhaps we sound arrogant, please vote for us". So the gahmen has got it's proverbial "slap in the face" with the lowest approval rating in a long, long time.

The other thing to be happy about is the how involved people got about politics, especially the internet generation. What apathy? Yes, people may have been attracted to the inflammatory comments spread on various websites and blogs but hey, it takes a kick sometimes to get the engine going. People started thinking more about the political situation they've lived with for decades and now, with the chance to actually cast a vote, had to put some perspective and intelligence behind the cross (or heart-shape or star or whatever) in the box of choice.

The bad bits (and there are several)
With all but one GRC being contested, only one opposition party won its way through to Parliament. The NSP which put up the most candidates sadly didn't manage to put any member through although there were a few close calls. It would have been nice if Jeanette Chong-Aruldoss got in for Mountbatten on the merit of promoting cohesion among the races and also having a fancy name in Parliament.

The joker of the gahmen bunch is still in. MBT and his housing shenanigans have not been adequately dealt with in my books, even though his constituency gave him a low win with a 11% increase in the thumbs down. He better buck up and keep housing in check. We don't care about the half-assed spiel on asset enhancement, we care about retiring with savings.

Mr Chiam took a gamble and it didn't pay off. Well what to do. Voters in Bishan-Toa Payoh didn't give him sufficient support to oust WKS and his bunch of merry men (a few ministers there too) despite the Mas Selamat saga. Sad lah. Singaporeans perhaps have put their head first before their heart when it came to possibly kicking out a long-serving, one-time folly-prone MP. Well Mr Chiam did have a good run at it, having being the dashing, smooth-talking oppostion member in the late 80s (there are many YouTube videos to peruse). His wife who stood for Potong Pasir lost out by the most narrow of margins - 100 plus votes - in a poll where there were 200 plus spoilt votes. How tragic. Anyway, the PAP have been grinding at Potong Pasir since 1984 and now with welcome arms and large purse, its residents can look forward to overhauls galore and perhaps a merge with Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC in 5 years to quell any protesting voices.

George Yeo is out. A victim of politics and the Singapore system. After all the pent up emotion resulted in a 9% swing for the Workers' Party, Aljunites and Singaporeans alike also commiserated in the loss of a good man. In one of his maniacal ravings before Election Day, Lao Goh of Marine Parade asked what George Yeo had done to deserve a potential boot out of gahmen, unlike WKS who let Mas Selamat go and MBT who created housing and transportation related issues. This statement, a vicious sellout of his own peers, nonetheless also bring to light the realities of politics here. George Yeo and his 4 other MPs are out on their bums. No more $15k a month paycheck. Isn't George also PM Lee's best friend? What's a man to do?

So we wait to see how Low Thia Kiang and his wonder team will now take on the PAP and wow us with their opinions and proposals. Viva la democracy!

Can We Vote On The Next Arab Country To Invade Please?

2011-05-05T19:22:00.002+08:00

It's getting quite silly now. Some weeks ago, the UN led by the US and other Western allies intervened against the violence set upon civilians by Libyan forces loyal to Gaddaffi's government. To the outside world, it was apparent this set the scene for American and British revenge for the 1983 Lockerbie bombing and the farcical handover by the Scottish government of the only guy ever tried in court for the bombing back to the Libyans for compassionate reasons. The powers with the big planes came round to reassure everyone that only military targets would be, well, targeted. It hasn't been that straightforward has it? Apparently, there have been civilian causalities and sadly, this includes Gaddaffi's grandkids and his son. As a result, there's renewed anger against NATO who is leading the intervention. This reminds me of the time when NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the Serbian crisis of the late 90s, killing 3 embassy staff and ensnaring the wrath of a billion. So much for laser-guided missiles and satellite imagery. Innocents still die. And the rebel forces are no closer to victory either. (Mentioning rebel forces made me think of Star Wars) This could be a protracted engagement no one except the US and UK wanted to be part of in the first place. Now the sphere of Arab uprising has spread to Syria, another US enemy. There, things have been just as brutal as we've seen or heard of in Egypt and Libya. But what is the West with their democratic idealism going to do about it in the face of the ever-growing mess they've added on to in Libya? Attack? Put it to a UN vote?

Is Yemen next? In the same vein, why haven't they done squat about Somalia, safe haven for pirates galore? And of course nothing's been done about the most famous dictatorship in the world, North Korea. Hypocrisy, maybe. Fear, quite likely.

The right thing to do is sometimes very painful and many are asking if military might was the right course of action here. I guess we can't always do the right thing and sometimes change has to come from within. It always gets tricky when someone else helps out. How messy can it get? Will the help try to take control? What level of gratitude is considered enough when it works out fine? What if it doesn't work out fine, who's to blame?There are quite a few examples of US intervention that hasn't quite gone to plan, most famously the Iraq war. So many soldiers have died, the place is still in a shambles and no one seems to really care any more.

I'm wondering if the parents of these kids flying about in their NATO fighter aircraft worried that their precious little ones (they always are in parents' eyes) are gonna lose their lives for people who may not even care. It's possibly debilitating-ly scary for them.

Not sure if we picked the right fight here. Although I used 'we', I am not sure how the SG rep at the UN voted.

The Internet Will Change How Singaporeans Vote

2011-05-04T14:38:00.005+08:00

Ask most Singaporeans if they have had the chance to vote and you'll likely get a no. We've been somewhat numbed into the PAP election banter of 'thanks for the walkovers and we'll now deal with the small noisy eddies of faux contest'. Lulled into apathy more like it, perhaps.

As spans of 5 years went by, the Internet came along and blossomed. Nay, it burst into our lives as we welcomed broadband with open arms and mouseclicks. With the Internet came information and lots of it. Mostly entertainment and some facts. So people could read listen and learn at almost whim and fancy. The Internet also brought rapid one-to-many connectivity. One can today send a tweet or Facebook posting to oh so many people at once, a means of proliferation previously impossible or at least not available to the common man, perhaps only to the rich through TV. Login, post and you're done but more significantly thoughts have been seeded in others. The advent of smaller, more advanced mobile devices also added to this convenience. Info on-the-go, info in and info out, everyone in touch.

This is how the Internet is going to determine how the Singapore election will play out with a generation who has not known conventional politics or even dared form an opinion about the gahmen. Their source of information is quite simply going to be the Internet. We're practically the most wired country on Earth and there's more mobile phone per capita here than anywhere else. All this connectivity already changing the way we find and get information, sometimes whether we like it or not. I can't help it if my Facebook friend goes profane on a post, I see it too. On-the-fly alerts to our mobile devices let us know which friend has checked in where - information we perhaps didn't even need to know but we accept and raise an eyebrow at anyway. So everyone's going to learn and hear about SG politics and all that goes on in the same way, from our beloved instantaneous sources.

Admittedly, most of the news out there is anti-PAP. The links I click on and retweet mostly lead to information on how the PAP has screwed various aspects of Singaporeans' lives. I can't recall a pro-PAP tweet. By nature, we are drawn to bad news, that of scandal, impropriety and wrongdoings - the same way we are drawn to gossip and melodrama. So with bad news about the PAP gushing from the Internet, we are inescapably drawn into the whirlpool of anti-gahmen sentiment as slurp up the videos, posts, articles, tweets, bleats and images.

I suppose the PAP has it's own self to blame. With the policy of unequal political representation which spurred the general apathy, we didn't care and remained clueless because we didn't need to know who was in charge just as long life went on status quo. Now that the bull's been released from the stifling pen, hordes of first time, tech-savvy voters will inevitably turn to instant media to learn about their options just as they do with everything else, and get sucked into the Internet-based anti-gahmen sensationalism, truthful or otherwise.

The bubble's burst, finally, with little hope of reining in the flow. How wonderful.

#sgelections

Wanna Mess With Baked Regularity? Sure

2011-05-02T23:53:00.003+08:00

Singapore is not a country of second chances. The meritocratic system we grew up with doesn't applaud failures and wishes them the best. So unfortunately our size and miniscule population doesn't allow for avenues for experimentation, so kids aim for tertiary education at the staunch behest of their parents so that they get a great job and make big money. (The pursuit of material validation for one's successes is an inevitable result of meritocracy, else why would we go through with it? So kids get PSPs when they pass exams and adults hope for big bonuses) If one doesn't comply somewhere along the way, one's options become limited by a fairly large degree. And you get stuck and make do. In the general scheme of things, everyone seems to have their place and do so for the greater good of seeing Singapore succeed. Sticking with the plan should get you the best result, generally. If you want to step out of the conformity, you better be darn sure you have a plan or tons of money or want to endure hunger, homelessness and ridicule (well, at the extreme I guess). No second chances.

So what's wrong with voting the Opposition for the sake of having a different voice in Parliament? Ah-hah. Doesn't seem part of the plan eh? Not really sure of what such an ingredient would do to the grand, seemingly fine, concoction of a regularity we got baking these past decades? Like in cooking, you'd never know if you didn't try. I also mean you wouldn't add curry powder to an apple pie, but a dash of a curry spice like star anise could help with a complimentary sensory accent. Clever additions, not wild experimentation.

We're smart enough to judge if we're listening to crap from the Opposition. More importantly, this is also a time to realise if the incumbents have been spewing crap within the baked regularity we've been used to, and have they burned the pie? I hope we're smart to also realise that sometimes rocking the boat makes the captain run his ship with greater care for the passengers. Remember, the folks in the Opposition are mostly the product of the Singapore system too, and hope to make a valuable difference to our tiny country. Like you and me, they would like to be heard. Please listen. Then, with conviction make a choice on May 7.

Election Issues - HDB

2011-04-24T15:10:00.004+08:00

I started writing this on 24 April. Most of this has been covered extensively in the last 2 weeks in preparation for Election Day by almost anyone with an opinion. I figure I'd post these notes anyway.

On HDB flats - Firstly, I got a big problem with the gahmen and the general media saying that whatever percentage of Singaporeans own their flats. It's a 99-year lease at most, not freehold ownership. The gahmen can take over "airspace" any time, like any regular building owner can do.

Secondly, we've heard this past year or so that one's HDB flat is an asset. My problem with this thinking is that many do not have the luxury of recategorising this basic Singaporean manifestation of shelter into a money-making entity. Yes, the price of a flat undeniably increases over time but so do the prices of all other properties. If one was to liquidate this asset, finding an equivalent or better place to stay would be difficult. It might need a change of mindset and expectations, like moving out of Bishan to Yew Tee, a sacrifice of location and perhaps amenties. (I heard they are going to build flats in Tengah. Those should be cheaper) Or perhaps moving back into one's parents' flat. Or winning the lottery.

Thirdly, we put all our savings into our flat. Our CPF gets effectively wiped out and we go into debt for 25-30 years at the mercy of a bank or the gahmen. We hopefully manage to pay off the flat and are eventually broke when we want to retire. How does one manage a respectable old age when there's no income? So we will work till we die. Double M came out to say he'd work til the end if he could, instantly erasing any semblance of a dignified retirement for most Singaporeans since almost all he says is gospel. (I forget if we are a functioning democracy with thinking individuals or a paternalistic, semi-dictatorial society of robots.)

Fourthly, I'm a little tired of gahmen help for "couples buying flats for the first time". Yeah, we do want to see more people tying the knot and having babies but seriously, having a decent place to live is for everyone not a select bunch. Why not help singles who are also taking care of elderly parents? Why not take care of single parents? Why not take care of old folks who want some independence? Why not consider the needs of divorcees? So many groups to look after and the focus seems to have not changed with changing times. I got no help from the gahmen in getting my flat because I am over 35 and single. Ageism? It's something all right and I don't like it. Help everyone why not. Why have so many rules to govern home ownership? Are they necessary? What would really happen if we took away some limitations and simplified processes?

Fifth, I would like the HDB to stop blaming resale price rises on market forces and worse still, patting themselves on the back for inventing convulted schemes to resolve their mess. This is a small island and yes, unfortunately, we can't leave everything to ebbs and flows of market forces because our incomes and pay rises don't swing in tandem with what we see happening with HDB prices - 70% jump up in less than 5 years. Has your salary increased by any similar rate?

Lastly, has anyone figured out what happens when the lease runs out? Or what happens when HDB flats start to sell for a million dollars? These things will happen in many of our lifetimes but the answers are needed now.

Pre-occupied With The Buzz

2011-04-15T14:47:00.001+08:00

I've been mulling over the fact that I haven't written on my blog much this week, after the flurry of content posted daily last week. Well, work has been a little mad but that shouldn't stop me right? So mad was work that I hadn't gone to yoga this week yet, but that shouldn't stop me from putting fingers to keyboard right? I did some time in the evenings finishing an excellent little book called The Winter Queen. Set in late 19th century Russia, it's about a detective who discovers that a seemingly straightforward suicide is more than what it seems, way more planned, devious, international and conspiratorially criminal. With all the fluid poetry that is that is Russian expression throw in. A nice, juicy one.

Anyway, the other pre-occupation I had this week was electricity prices. In lalaland, these are dictated by the Energy Market Authority (EMA) which apparently sells the rights to produce electricity to companies that produce the stuff and send it to homes. Honestly, very few people I know really understand how the bloody convoluted bidding process works. All we care about is that our gizmos work, the water gets hot and the lights come on when we flip the switch. Then we pay Singapore Power the bill. That's our monthly start and end. Here's my bugbear - for the longest time the EMA has been raising electricity tariff prices whenever oil prices go up. Now that the world is in a state of mild panic because of the civil unrest in Libya, oil prices have shot past the US$110 per barrel mark and this global problem has resulted in our electricity prices going up too. Up 6.1% to be precise. The price rise would be more acceptable if not for the fact that the folks announcing this hike also say in the same breath that most of our electrical production is done with natural gas. So two distinct commodities with two sets of prices but the cost of one is used to determine the cost to you and I of the electricity made from the other. That bothers me. In fact it bothers a lot of people but we don't seem to getting any answers from the gahmen, so maintain that the relationship is correct and apt. Say what? The powers that be then bring up the u-Save benefits that the gahmen is dishing out to combat inflation. The usual "we're saving you from calamity" ruse to get us thinking we're being looked after and there's nothing more to question. Hmm. I got a friend to send me some data off Bloomberg re oil and natural gas prices to analyse their correlation to each other plus their fluctuations in relation to jumps in our electricity tariffs. It's a little tricky because the data is multi-dimensional (different types of oil and gas, spot prices vs futures) and the EMA uses a 3-month average to determine future prices. So a little thinking is necessary.

Perhaps the simplest takeaway I can offer is that I am certain that natural gas prices and oil prices do not move in tandem.

It's as simple as that, and that blows the rational of linking electricity tariffs to oil prices quite substantially out of the water. There's even an MIT paper from their school of economics that acknowledges the decoupling. So let me figure some of this stuff out before I go on further, and send letters.

An Insult To Your Intelligence By Beer

2011-04-07T23:44:00.006+08:00

See this ad? It's new from Carlsberg if you haven't figured it out. Splashed across the Staits Times and TODAY, the full pages simply make we wanna scream. I know it seems juvenile but this insult to our collective intelligence cannot go unheard. The friggin spaceman clearly has a suit on, he's on the moon and he's holding a bottle of Carlsberg. Seriously? I am upset because we all know, yes, we all know that picture can be taken but there's no bloody way he's gonna be able to sip his beer without the little problem of erm...dying! What is this, a bloody cartoon? The very audacity of whichever ad firm that proposed this bullshit and whichever Carlsberg marketing dodo approved the thing is plain sickening. Do they think we're seeing Sputnik for the first time or we're befuddled by what's beyond atmospheric range? We have watched movies you know. We have gone to school you know. Look up "effects of near zero gravity and almost no atmospheric pressure" you twits. While you're at it, try to figure what cosmic radiation would do if the thirsty traveller lifted his visor, dumbasses.

Don't throw that creative licence shit at me. This isn't creative, it's a bad idea given an art director's two cent waste of time.

Aargh, unforgivable! Not even clever. Shameless in fact.

Astronauts are usually scientists for goodness sake. In a one creative fell swoop, they have been denegrated to beer addicts lazing on the lunar surface unable to forsee their demise for the sake of an alcoholic drink. If the bugger was thirsty, he would sip from this drink pipe in his space suit. That technology exists.

Perhaps you may agree that my reaction to this advert is precisely what they asked for, a reaction. But I don't try to drink Carlsberg you see. It isn't going to win me over knowing there's a stupid astronaut on the moon holding an empty bottle (which suprisingly hasn't shattered). Nothing grabs me except the sheer crap of it all. And the $ spent on media makes me laugh. Fail, big time. I am most upset. I shall write a letter.

I MIss Old Marche

2011-04-06T09:51:00.002+08:00

A bunch of us were at Marche 313 Monday night. Generally we there for the company, ex-colleagues and some still colleagues who meet to talk, laugh and tell stories. although it might sound like the sustenance was secondary, what hit home to me was that this was not the Marche of old.

Firstly, the food was funny. Not quite in the laughing gas way although i have semi- sworn off the sausages ever since a bout of food poisoning over Christmas some years ago. The menu this time was not as varied as before and nothing really seemed to appeal. I was walking around for 15 minutes before deciding on what I thought was a safe bet - ham crepes. It came out tough and worse of all, boring, even rather tasteless. There was no more Marche thrill at the core of their offering - supposedly good food. That was it I suppose, bland food. Almost all the food that we brought to the table for sharing was quite bland. Where was the salt? Where were the spices and herbs, potted plants of which they sold at the entrance of the underground gastro lair? Couldn't the cooks have plucked out some basil and rosemary to accent the food?

And the chefs. Goodness. It was dinner and they must have been tired but some of them let it show. Not quite the same peppy Marche staff we all use to know and love. The pizza guy looked bushed and pasta guy seemed deaf. I asked for the prawn and chili pizza and guy told me the prawns ran out. A friend brought a pan of paella with large prawns to the table, and I was wondering if the pizza couldn't walk over and borrow a few to make me a pizza. Initiative people, initiative! In initial my foray around the restaurant, I passed the hot drinks section where I noticed that a beverage spiced with cardamom was sold. I commented to the guy behind the counter that the drink seemed “quite Indian” and he replied “yes, it tastes Indian”. I was like what? and moved away quickly. It was one strange night.

What's even worse, calamitous in fact - prices have gone up. Not as good value anymore our dungeon of festive fare is.

The Swiss pinot noir was good. Best thing of the night. Yeah card system was the same, though the cards became pocket-sized.

So Marche has run out of kick for me. Even a visit to MOS Burger piques my interest more. Sigh.

Fancy A 4-Litre Range Rover?

2011-04-04T09:52:00.004+08:00

I met with some old friends some weeks back, mostly because one of them was going to back in town and someone thought of doing a gathering. Sounds common enough. Out of the 20-plus classmates, 5 of us showed up at a married-couple's house (how many of your JC friends got married to each other?). The turnout rate sounds bad but seriously, my JC class had many non-Singaporeans, mostly ASEAN scholars who are now out and about in the world, doing wonders for their wallet and the world economy. That aside, the bigger surprise for me was the house. It was nice. 3 stories, end of a short cul-de-sac (posh for dead-end), wood floors, and top this - a waterfall plus a pool that goes 2 metres deep. Awesome. I am sure anyone would be impressed at the stroke of good fortune and perhaps good planning to befall this married couple. What more, there was a 4-litre Range Rover and sleek Merc parked under the car shelter. How more well done can you get?

The folks haven't changed though. They're still the same couple - he a little brash and boisterous, she funny at times but always poilte. Nice to know that money doesn't always change people for the worse.

What did bother me though was more of a general perception of the good life Singaporeans want or worse, feel they deserve. Ask anyone on the street and most would list a posh home, cushy car and perhaps some other asset-related entity of great value. The question I want to ask is what have you done to deserve this? Most would then reply they studied hard, made it with some kind of degree and worked hard, paid their taxes and other dues and now were poised to reap all the benefits. Perhaps some were entrepreneurial and this kind of success was a reflection of their achievements. (I've heard that in some churches in Singapore, the leaders have told their flock to simply take what they want, to go get 'it' because as God's followers, they deserved all these riches.). I then want to ask, really, is this what we deserve?

The bigger question is what have we taken, and secondarily, what have we given back.

Maybe I've gone all Amish, Buddhist, environmental or something, but doesn't sustainability concern anyone anymore? I've told a few people that the Earth seriously doesn't need humans, and we've done more harm than good. What sometimes strikes them is that it is a hard truth. We use up resources and we can't give them back. We generate pollution that kills other forms of life. Our greed makes us want to acquire more things, things that have to made out of trees, oil, rocks plants and animals; and we use them, we sometimes need power, electricity or light. More things we don't realise we take because all it takes is a flick of a switch or the press of a button. Things we take for granted.

Just have a short think about this. If everything you use and need had to be manufactured, what was the journey it went through to get into your hands? Take a burger. What resources were needed to make it? And what power (and where did it come from?) was used to create your item of need? Go all the way back, along every thread of packaging, product and ingredient, right to the root, the elemental level. Does paying that $3.50 for a burger now still make sense? Yes, your very life form is a pain in the Earth's ass.

So $3.50 is enuff pay back?(This happens to also be a number from an episode of South Park many years ago. I dunno why I remember this) Perhaps money is the problem/answer and, as we've all been taught, perhaps even brainwashed, more of it is better to have. It sort of justifies our outright wants and demands. You wouldn't believe how many times I've heard "throw money at the problem" in my stint in advertising. We get away with it because we have money. "I make this money and I'll damn well spend the way I want before I die" yes? No sense in being humble I guess with a fat wallet? Eddie Murphy once said that he didn't know he was poor growing up because everyone around him was the same. He probably ended in the wrong neighbourhood one day and realised nah, we gotta get ourselves some money and get outta here! Upgrade! So now we're drinking $8 pulpless juice from $20 glasses now because the dough is rolling in. Pride and greed are the sly twin friends of consumerism.

Living in a city and having just gone into debt to purchase a 123sqm flat in the boondocks I can totally understand the need for lots of money to live this life. I wish I had the $ to throw at this 30-yr problem. But how much can our fancy existence justify our need to take away from others and the Earth? It is a problem of commerce isn't it? The human need for more spurs business, commerce and spins the gears and sprockets that make the world turn. People wake up to go to work for money. This is surely not something you and I can even fathom attempting to reconcile. There's almost no way to change our collective minds. Money runs our lives and it is the root of all evil (Debate topic I had decades ago). Nonetheless, we cannot go on living this way (and worse, imply to developing economies that this is way to live). We're all just hoping that we won't know the consequences in our lifetime. Fingers crossed.

So would I get that big house and big car if I could? The more I think about, the more I wouldn't. Seriously, a 4-litre gas guzzler? In Singapore? Yikes. And that's perhaps what I want to put across in the rant. Think before you buy something. I don't mean turn caveman and start to drink from streams but just spend a little time to assess if you really need something. Be grateful, and use less. Believe me, you don't need everything you think you do. Once you realise that, you'd be happier.

Nasty Chocolate Induced Bug

2011-04-01T13:22:00.002+08:00

A colleague came around to, in her own words, "share the fat" of little chocolate pieces she bought or was given. She doesn't have much of a sweet tooth and was glad to dispense out the confections to anyone who responded to her call for snackage. She left me two tiny packets of Toblerone. I opened one up, took a picture of the three peaks of cocoa-based manufacture, and promptly popped it into my waiting mouth. Ah sweet. Hmmm, too sweet in fact.

I looked at the second lonely piece and decided to put it out of its misery. In it went and I was satisfied albeit a little guilty because it was Tuesday, yoga day, and sweets would not make it any easier to get through 90 minutes in a 40-degree high humidity environment bending and stretching. Well I would get through it.

But soon I realised the chocolate was having a different effect, a more ominous circumstance - the sore throat. My oesophagus was quickly giving into the 'heatiness' of the low quality chocolate and soon it was a raging nuclear reactor of pain. Yikes. I knew from experience I had to tackle this ailment quickly before it made a mess of my immune system. I drank lots of water but to no avail. It hurt and worse yet, I could feel that the germs and viruses had won the battle - a slight fever was coming on. I took a Panadol Flu tablet to fortify the defences. But I was slowly but surely succumbing to the infection. I put on a sweater. It felt as if the aircon had gone mad and winter was setting in (though my eyes could see sunlight. Oh dear, that was it. I knew I was a goner.

I did go for yoga and made it through. The instructor had not yanked the thermostat up for fear of scaring off the new students so class was manageable. But the night was bad. I took another panadol flu and sucked on couch drops. I drank water all night, I peed many a time too. No good. By morning, the fever was still sort of there but the throat felt better. I went to work and got a Strepsils Max pack of 6 blackcurranty drops of medical assistance. I was surprised how effective they were. The throat pain soothed out but the inevitable had happened - the flu went up to my nose and sinuses. Breathing is ok but the clog is crazy. I feel as if there's tissue stuffed under my upper cheeks.

It's the same today. At work and stubbornly not seeing a doctor. I probably need antibiotics but I want my system to fight this chocolate induced sickness. I have been taking Vit C on a more regular basis, buffered 8-hr time-release expensive Vit C.

In the meantime, my other frustrations include long-distance arrows at work to do stuff leftover from people leaving their jobs and of course, the repeated realization that the SG democracy isn't quite as fine and dandy as it is. SG elections are coming up and Twitter is all aflutter with comments, speculations and criticisms - so fun.

Good Luck Ms Tin

2011-03-30T15:03:00.002+08:00

There's been lots of talk about Tin Pei Ling, the 27 year old upstart to get into the political scene in Singapore. Heralded publicly as the gahmen's tactic to get young Singapore more politically involved, Ms Tin's foray into the limelight has inevitably raised questions about her inexperience and ability to lead.

Pre-reveal, Ms Tin has put on cute antics on YouTube videos and had a shot of herself on her Twitter profile (@tinrina), presenting not quite the straight and narrow private image to the Internet-savvy public. Ironic for someone who wishes to reach out to Singapore's youth via new media, her Twitter account is private. It is a personal account so we may be premature in lambasting her motives, but she follows politically-aligned twitterers so it may not be so personal after all. Someone also has published photos of Ms Tin with her supposed ex-boyfriend and raised silly gossipy crap about her leaving him to be with her current works-for-the-PM hubby. Finally, some tabloid worthy political nonsense out of the little red dot.

(Something that bothered me somewhat was her response to questions about her commitment to duty if she had a kid. She replied she would keep tabs on her work during her time away. Can't mums just be mums and raise their kids while on maternity? Are we so hung up on our paycheck that we can't commit 100% to raising kids right? Well, that response pricked at me for a while. It's over now)

There is little doubt that Ms Tin will get into Parliament, mostly because she happens to ride on the coat-tails of a GRC constituency where votes for a party get all the members of that team regardless of how each member performs or has performed. The true democratic process perhaps lies in the single member constituencies which simply put is each man for himself in the eyes of the voters. Ah true democracy. (An island full of SMCs would be a quite a fun ruckus wouldn't it?)

Personally, I think the gahmen is trying to present a fresh, new face to what they believe is a less-than-mature, not-so-connected public. Not quite right there. My peers are asking why they would vote for a 27 year old. Online talk the day after Ms Tin was revealed was robust, both superficial and intellectual. Amazing I'd say. And they say Singaporeans are politically apathetic. No way, we just like to hide behind the Net.

Well good luck Ms Tin. May the public be kind to you.

An Opposition Triumph

2011-03-29T13:04:00.002+08:00

Here's the letter I sent to TODAY yesterday (ironic):

-----------
Looking forward to truly universal suffrage

There has been much talk about the motives of Singapore's opposition parties and we've been reminded to think carefully about our choices for the future by our current leaders. While a realistic plan to see Singapore through uncertain times is important, I think Singaporeans would already be thankful if opposition parties are able to contest all SMCs and GRCs - so that for the first time since 1965, all eligible citizens are able to participate, and understand their responsibilities in a democratic process of electing a government. I am looking forward to truly universal suffrage for my fellow people.
-----------

Not sure if many people get how pivotal this upcoming election is going to be. If we all get to vote, we can all for once say we all voted. That simple act of democracy hasn't quite lived up to its pervasiveness as much as hoped it would have. Till now, perhaps. It also seems that has taken about one and half generations to finally get people of calibre and balls to come forward and stand up to be counted. It's awesome. We should celebrate the whole thing, a truly democratic election. Since the current powers that be haven't been able to give all its people this one simple gift, I credit the opposition for this impending success.

Digitalis Horribilis?

2011-03-28T14:22:00.002+08:00

Had an interesting discussion on the value of CDs with friends on Friday. One particular friend is of the opinion that CDs are redundant slivers of plastic and metal when all the music he needs is online. (Digital is now and the future, ahem!) He's ok to pay for music but didn't want 142 x 125 x 10 mm offensively plastic cases with unncessary rounds discs in them cluttering up his home. He would however also pay for the only other thing one receives with an actual CD purchase - the booklet. He (and his wife) cringed when I gave a Hossan Leong Show CD fo Christmas last year and responded "Where do I play this?". Apparently he has no device at home that plays a compact disc. I reminded him of his MacBook and he HMPFed at my accurate answer.

Digital, digital, digital. MP3s and AACs. All artworkless. I still buy CDs and yes, then I burn the contents into 320kbps MP3s to listen to on my iPhone. (I am thinking of getting the largest iPod to become the defacto music container for my listening pleasure.) It may sound weird that I do this but it stems for a respect for artistes and their work, and sometimes that work spills over to the artwork and designs and sometimes fragrance of the booklets in CD cases. I agree that buying MP3s does not mean one does not respect the musical talents of So and So. I just don't. I have some free MP3s I downloaded. The music is good but there's no feel lah.

After the few beers we had during this discussion, I announced that some artistes only release on vinyl even today. My friend gagged and choked or so it seemed. "Who has a vinyl player these days? You? You?" Myself and the other unfortunate participant in this intellectual oral threesome denied possession of such a device. "They say there is a warmth to the sound of vinyls. Gilles Peterson even does whole 2 hr session playing vinyls only!" I exhorted to more chagrin. Yes, vinyl are like retro cool. One has to commit and go forth and collect. Pricey they are but since artistes like Four Tet, Thom Yorke and Burial are releasing vinyl-only singles for their collab this week (UK release of Ego - it's brilliant!), collectors have heart, Your passions are not to be trundled upon by the digital music messiahs.

It's another channel lah, that's it. So chill and let it go. We enjoy the way we want to. The bigger problem I have is that suddenly a lot of people think music should be free. Napster started it all with everyone passing music around as if it was costless and copyright-less. It's not. Artistes today have had to change their expectations of the millions they may have yearned to earn, especially the pop cookie-cutter ones. That may also be why some recording artistes venture into clothes, perfumes and other collectibles for revenue. The whole package. Scam the fans while you can, eh.

Well, the Internet may be the great leveller and information provider but we should take art for granted. Music comes from talent, and some talent needs to be acknowledged and rewarded, whether one buys a CD or a digital download.

The Earth And The Moon

2011-03-14T23:41:00.000+08:00

The Japanese earthquake, awful isn't it? I first got news about it from Twitter then the BBC. And I think it's the first time someone could turn on the TV and see destruction and obliteration on such a massive scale in real time. The helicam shots of the tsunami sweeping across Sendai was mind-bending. The wave must have been traveling at hundreds of miles an hour as it simply fanned out across fields. Terrifying. Maybe we have seen too many movies about world disasters and Armageddon to fully appreciate the magnitude and power of the tsunami - that's in the first 30 seconds. Then it hits - this is real and those are cars, lorries, trees, houses and people. Terrifying.

Watching the news in bits over the weekend, I gathered the worst was yet to be revealed. Whole towns seemed to have been wiped clear off the Miyagi prefecture coast. 10,000 were missing from a town of 17,000. Then the nuclear plants started to make headlines and in the most dramatic fashion, with a steam explosion beamed across the planet. Radiation leaked and more people were moved to a safer radius away from Fukushima 1 station. 170,000 people.

The scale of this quake and its effects are enormous. 8.9 on the Richter, waves 10m high traveling at 800km/h, affecting the whole span of the Pacific with 53 territories were on alert, hundreds of aftershocks. The 2004 Christmas Sumatra quake was equally massive and would perhaps remain the most destructive in recent history but the images and news came in days after (though I remember the number of reported dead was increasing by 20-30 thousand each hour back then). The instantaneous way we got updates about Japan fuelled the news frenzy and fed the info-hungry masses. The pictures and videos are still making their way out, each more tragic and stupefying than the next.

The channel 5 news guy on the ground at Sendai said there was 'stoic calmness' among the Japanese people. There is a certain strength about Japanese people in times of adversity isn't there? I suppose it's the impact of highly localized social fabric knit over millennia. There must have been countless natural calamities that these islands faced, disasters borne by the same thread of people, a regular genetic hardening or strengthening of character. The word tsunami is Japanese anyway, perhaps an indication of their broad acceptance of a certain destiny.

There is a famous Japanese haiku by Ryokan:
The thief left it behind:
the moon
at my window.

It's about a thief stealing things from the home of a monk when all that mattered to the monk was the view of the moon from a window, something the thief could not take away. Detachment, a teaching common to Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism (at the least). A concept very hard to stick to in this age of materialism, judgement by facebook status and one's 30s of fame. Perhaps it is the Buddhist background of the Japanese that helps them through adversity and change. For come what may, they still have the moon.

May we have the strength to let this go.

Raising Singapore Kids

2011-02-23T18:37:00.002+08:00

So it got announced that our fertility rate is at an all time low and we're nowhere close to replacing ourselves. Old news from a new angle. Apparently, only the gahmen is worried while the people go on living their merry lives.

All the stats makes one wonder if we're victims of our success. A few decades it was "Stop at two" with disincentives thrown in to discourage large families. Of course that was a time of economic uncertainty. Then the country took off on a steep curve of growth, and we didn't really stop, apart from small recessionary dips. The gahmen took care of the country's success quite well. We generally got richer and better educated. Things too got pricier. So like most educated folk in pricey cities, we decided to stop with the childbearing. In human geography, we learnt that primitive societies had many kids because infant mortality was high and the farm needed tending. Today, the farm doesn't need hands but brains, a few smart people to run the show.

In cities, cost of raising kids is phenomenally higher because standards of living are higher. (Already, I spend an average of $7 for lunch at Raffles Place when I could do with $4-5 outside of town.) With kids, I've discovered that parents spend loads of cash on diapers, milk and doctors' visits. Go down to the local supermarket and check out the cost of baby products. The mind will boggle at the continual expense. You’ll feels worse when the little monster doesn’t drink up or vomits that precious vitaminised, fortified goodness. Money going down the drain.

Here’s what I figure parents today spend on a kid from age 0 to 3 on a monthly basis (basis, my nephew):
1. Milk - $80
2. Diapers and wash related - $80
3. Food - $100
4. Doctor visits and medicine - $80
5. Extras like educational material and toys - $30
6. Clothes - $30 (they grow so fast!)

That’s $400 a month already and I think I’m being conservative. It doesn’t include cost of electricity, water, furniture damage, insurance, taxi rides and the tons of towels parents need. When the little tike turns 2 or 3, education becomes a financial worry. Kindergartens are expensive and parents worry if their kid is getting into a good kindergarten or not. Some pre-school classes cost upwards of $800 a month. It’s kiasuism that drives the economy, and drives parents mad.

So money is a big, big issue. The next big issue is time. Parents don’t have any. For a comfortable life, both parents generally need to work. They don’t have the time to spend and nurture their kids like earlier generations could. We hire maids and other professionals to assist in child rearing but seriously, it’s not the same thing. The maid my sister’s home taught my nephew to say “Pantat” or backside in Malay. Goodness. Consider paternity leave - does it exist? But can one parent stay and attend to the kid/kids? Can we downsize our expectations and ambitions to make this happen? Some people would go “Then study so hard for what?”. How can we find that balance of time to ensure our kids turn out ok and yet lead a comfortable existence in a city that’s seeing prices climb, the gahmen asking us to boost productivity and the possibility of not being able to retire? It’s all a little crazy, and many it seems don't want to overcomplicate their happy existence with kids. I can understand.

But my nephew makes me want to rush and home and play with him. Yes, a kid can bring joy you cannot imagine plus fears you cannot comprehend. Awesome.

Perhaps we all need to cool it a little. Take time to evaluate what’s really important for this young nation of ours. If we keep importing our citizens, we’ll never achieve a national identity. It’ll be a flux of people, forever. Here to make $ and leave. Sad but think about how true that is.

Perhaps a little socialism will help too. If we need to pay a little more tax so that the government can fund 70% last drawn salaries to both parents to stay home to look after kids (a year for mums, 1 month for dads), why not? How about healthcare and education subsidies? Hard cash and not tax rebates. Real money, not electronic write offs.

Go have a think.

Breakfast Observations

2011-02-04T12:59:00.001+08:00

I was overseas on holiday over the weekend and on my last day at the hotel, some unfortunate work-related circumstance had me up at 730am and having breakfast in the hotel restaurant at 8am. Alone, I was given a table for two by a lady who I can only describe as a double for Gloria Arroyo (I was not in the Philippines btw). Her job was to make sure there weren't any strange intruders who could having food on the house. True, someone could walk right in and they'd be none the wiser. (I was asked the day earlier by one of the wait staff what my room number was as I was loitering about the buffet lines with a glass of juice in hand. Suspicious behaviour I guess.).

I did not sit, as usual, and went to check if the nasi lemak served the day before made a reprisal that morning too. Alas no, but there was prata and dhal. Tried it, disappointing.

I sat eating and observing. There were Americans, about 3 of them, middle aged, sitting nearby. They spoke in uncharacteristically hush tones. Then their friends came. It was time to pump up the volume. Hugs, kisses and loud greetings we're used to and find quite annoying. I think it's an announcement of 'i've got friends' thing. You gotta be loud when doing that else no one will know you're not a loser.

There were a few families from China who made their appearance at that hour. I noted that 1) they like to walk and chew their food, and 2) their kids are without sensible manners. I'll elaborate on the second point as the first is a quirk of nature. One kid, of 6-7 years, was holding his heavy ceramic plate at an angle and spilling his carbo-loading all over the place. Another kid, couldn't sit down and was wandering about touching things. He didn't ask politely when his way was blocked but simply pushed through, once even crawling over another diner's chair. Ghastly behaviour that these kids' parents were hardly giving two hoots about. Maybe this one child policy has created psychological complexes we're only going to find out about when these loners start interacting with the world outside China.

I was eyeing a slice of marble cake as my final go at breakfast but declined my instincts last minute. So that was it.

Guys And Hips

2011-01-19T22:53:00.001+08:00

I've been going to yoga for a while and like anyone who's been practicing some regular form of exercise, I have become more aware how my body works. One particular part is the hips.

Most guys have been brought up to 'walk like a man'. You know, legs apart, strutting their stuff. Guys also sit like their jewels need airing. So generally knees apart. What many guys don't realize is that after years of moving and sitting that way, the hips have had to adjust, slowly but surely, to make our 'open' position viable.

Many guys also suffer from lower back pain. Guess what? Your manly gait and wide kneed sitting position is partially to blame. When the hips adjust to make wide waking possible, the bones squeezed around the muscles and nerves around the base of the spine. Over decades and once your body shape decided to lock in, the hips sort of locked in place too, forever tightening the grip around the spine. Hence the occasional discomfort or pain.

Some weeks ago, the yoga class instructor came up to me as I was crouched in the foetal position facing up, trying to bring my knees to my chest (wind relieving pose for transverse colon) and told me to keep my knees together. So I did and quickly realized that that action allowed my lower back to relax further. Wow. I felt a release of tension. So simple and unassuming a movement with glorious repercussions. I found it easier to flatten my spine and managed to squeeze in tighter.

Try it. I'm not saying you gotta start walking funny or sitting pretty. Just try lying in bed, knees up to the chest, arms around knees squeezing them in. Then breathe, long and deep, several times. You'll feel the tension leave as the lower back relaxes. Do it a few times a week. Over time you'll realign your hips and spine.

And by "over time", I mean years. You've got the rest of your life.

Sellers Are Not Serious

2011-01-06T23:46:00.005+08:00

Got this published in the TODAY paper on Jan 5:.

"The latest cooling measures by the HDB have admittedly had some effect in curbing the COV requirements for resale flats, but still we're unlikely to see any decrease in valuations. In fact, I have come across some sellers who have had their flats re-valuated even before their current valuations have expired to lock-in a further gain. A flat owner who rejected by my offer did exactly that because he was convinced by property agents that his flat was "too cheap". In another case, a property agent was trying to convince me to buy a particular flat because the valuation price had increased by $10,000 since the last assessment two months earlier. Is this practice of multiple valuations for a HDB flat across such short period condoned? Can the value of a flat can really increase so quickly? Since valuation prices are partly based on previous assessments, frivolous seller behaviour causes unjustified increases in baseline prices. In addition to focusing on buyers, I feel that the HDB also should introduce steps to weed out non-serious sellers. Perhaps a sellers' cash deposit to the value of 1% of the valuation price is necessary."

I am sure there are strong opinions about this, and some have appeared on Mr Wang Says So blog.

Simply put, it's greed. Sellers want the best highest price and buyers want a cheap deal. So compromise is left to negotiations and market forces apparently. But like all things in the market, there are ways to manipulate the situation, and valuations is one way. It bothers me that people don't play fair. Yeah, that's naive, whimsical thinking. But being in the thick of it, it's not funny anymore. We're a tiny country and 80% of us live in tinier cubes in the sky. Any changes that happen to home prices here have massive consequences because we're so small. Resale flat prices have gone up by 50% since 2007. Many first time buyers have been priced out of the market and those who jump in headlong and commit to high prices face a lifetime of debt. We're essentially locked into our economy till we decide to call it quits or win lottery. Quality of life issues come to play. We'll have fewer kids because it'll be too expensive. So will Singapore always have a flux of immigrants? Maybe, because one generation after the next will find out how pricey things can get.

It's just bloody sad that the powers that be have failed to protect our interests and in some ways watch it all happen without seemingly little reaction till it was late. I think the HDB shouldn't even put resale flats on the open market at all - have ballotting at valuation prices just like they sell new flats. Especially since they technically own every flat and we're just leasing. Maybe devolving their responsibility to the nation to property agents is their way of leaving things to market forces.

I don't think flat prices are coming down. They'll plateau or grow at lower speed. So those who made a buck, good for you. Those who didn't, well, keep those fingers and toes crossed.

Instagram

2011-01-02T00:15:00.003+08:00

From the day I installed Instagram on my iPhone, it's been nothing but fun. Small timely snaps to capture the moment, event, place or thing, to share with friends. So simple the idea, like Facebook but with images. You see what someone else shoots and like or comment on it. The filters make things interesting too. True that the images then no longer capture exactness but sometimes that's ok. I heard some guy who left Flickr created it. Good job dude. What a waste that Yahoo and Flickr didn't snap up the idea.

The Merits Of Routine

2010-12-27T22:08:00.003+08:00

As I wrote that title, the vision of an old Indian man, wise and learned and verbose came to mind. One who would simply write advice for the sake of writing advice to pass on to others. Something that had to be done to improve lives. Goodness. I laughed a little too.

Anyway, despite me ageing rapidly and turning uncle before my time (I hope), I must exhort the benefits of routine. Seriously, a lot of our lives would be simpler and better with a fixed set of actions followed. For example, we have always heard of the need to commit to exercise. Often as we get caught up with work, we cast aside the need to sweat it out and get the heart pumping from physical activity rather than stress. If we worked out a short while everyday, just like Oprah's Dr Oz recommends 30 minutes of walking daily, we'd be better off to tackle our work related stresses and combat illness. Fine, maybe not everyday, but something 2-3 times a week is undeniably good for you. Change can only come with consistent effort, not a sudden workout followed by a week of pigging out. Consistency begets results.

Next example, cleaning the house. My sis has a 1400sqft home. She tends to clean it on Saturdays and the end of the afternoon she's bushed and complaining. Then I would say, "why don't do a little everyday?" Try half an hour of cleaning a day to make the Saturday less of a pain. I wash the loo I use often every Sunday morning. It's a habit now of sorts. It's a routine that makes sense to me.

Last example, flossing. I don't floss everyday. I did for period when I followed the Dexter series on cable TV. In the super opening sequence of each episode there are amazing closeups of stuff Dexter does in the morning made to look poignantly murderous. There's him shaving and cutting himself, blood in drops on white porcelain; bacon deftly sliced and seared; coffee beans mercilessly being ground in a slow mo spin; and he flosses. So this ardent fan flossed after breakfast too, for a while. Now I floss once a week on Sundays before bed. I think it is necessarily enough to weed out the week's filth from the teeth.

Last last example (I promise), I take a supplements. I know everyone does. Hossan Leong on the morning radio show on Gold 90FM says he takes 10 pills a day. I think that's mad. I take an Omega 3 pill each day; Glucosamine on Mondays and Thursdays; Centrum multivitamins on Tuesdays and Fridays; Brands essence of chicken, a bottle, on one of the weekend days. That's my programme. It sounds like I'm a hypochondriac, maybe a little but I am sure a little bit each day goes a long way in the end. "Sikit sikit, lama jadi bukit" goes a Malay saying and we tend to forget to apply that to more of life than we imagine. Both positive, like saving cents a day and negative, like not clearing your Inbox (I have 300 emails in that mess).

I know it sounds like nagging but think about it a little before condemning it to the trash can of the mind. There is room to breakout of routine but some things we just gotta keep in steady rhythm. There are cycles all around us - the days and nights; the convulted loop that takes us from home to work to home; the bills we have to pay at the about the same time each month. Routine keeps us sane. And applying that sanity to benefit one's health or time management is doable. Try, it works, says this old man.

The Missing Step

2010-12-21T10:04:00.002+08:00

It's funny how we take the simplest things for granted. Maybe that's why we do, because they're simple.

We could take public transport to work and school most days but still expect delays or breakdowns to happen every now and then. Same said for the elevators and even lightbulbs. We reconcile our displeasure when these things don't work by blaming other people, the weather and recognizing there are many parts to the whole device or operation.

So it's hard to come to terms with the simplest things that no longer work. Yesterday the foot pedal dustbin in my kitchen no longer connected to its foot pedal. This was the result of a fall the dustbin had, of an elevated position for drying. So the basic lever operation of step-down and lid-pops-up was dead. We were at a loss. The mishap meant we had to now, heaven forbid, bend down to lift the lid of the bin to make a dirty deposit. Bend?! Shock and horror to the body. All it took was force on the big toe, a natural adjustment of body weight, to flip the top up. Now, fingers and touching, ewwww. Germs, ewwww. All that brainwashing about transmission of bugs and viruses from Dettol and Lifebuoy ads was now rearing its ugly head.

What was one to do if both hands were occupied? How would i peel oranges now?!

I voiced my grave concern at this calamity upon discovery. "Mummy, what do we do now?" "You should have called us the moment it happened so we could buy another bin". My mum went "Aiyah, you lazy. Cannot use your hands ah?"

Yes, it is funny.

Last Desires

2010-12-13T22:41:00.007+08:00

I knew it was there, waiting for me. Resting, calm, collected in its icy prison. The frost was necessary for sustenance, my sustenance. It had been a little more than a week when it was whole and perfect. Then piece by piece, sliced up. Carved by different knives in sharp, forced strokes. It looked battered at times by uneven cuts at the persistent hands of the tempted. A sad shadow of its past beauty. These defects I smoothed out at the next opportunity to attack, goodness and all. I could not deny myself.

This evening, I remembered the last odd shape that remained. My mum had thrown away the cardboard box and placed the last few slices of chocolate cake into tupperware. Dinner and fruit over, it was time to partake upon heavenly goodness. I knew it would be dry - that's what happens to cake left in the fridge. I thought of moistening the solid mass with drops of milk in the microwave. Instead, the couch potato, uncaring-of-decorum, gonna-be-watching-TV- by-himself Joe decided to drown the block of cocoa heaven in full cream UHT .

It was a case of ebony and ivory. A deep mahogany, too dense to float, swished about like an island in a sea of white. I was master of the tupperware, a god with a big mouth and yearning tastebuds controlling the destiny of this final portion of a $40 cake. Bruhahahaha, I went as I stabbed the cake. It resisted before giving in, as gushing milk penetrated the crevices and cracks I created with my stainless steel spoon. I thought of an appropriate utensil and a fork, I rationalized, would not do as a scoop to properly deliver the slowly browning milk mixed with overly-moistened cake to my mouth. The sweet tooth had to be satisfied adequately yet impatiently. Magically.

Stab, deliver and experience. Stab, deliver and experience. The chocolate was intense. Just as I remember two Saturdays when I took the virgin bite into its richness. The baker had feared it was too much and advised it was 2 million calories to burn off if eaten whole. Forwarned I was but no sweet tooth could resist the overdose of dark sugary pleasure. The heat of the tongue would melt the outer layer of chocolate around the cake, a soft liquid that spread so gently and smoothly. The rough texture of cake followed, contrasting beautifully. It would be a sin to swallow but the entire mouth would be overexcited if I didn't. And how would I take the next bite? The chemical content would hit the brain soon. Theobromine, caffieine and phenylethylamine would produce numerous highs between the exited neurons and send forth endorphins coursing through my greedy system. Ahhh...chocolate. Food of the Mayan kings and now, my tantalizing post-dinner treat.

The time spent in the fridge however did not bode well for quality. Lightly devoid of water content, the cake was crumbly. But it withstood my jabs with the spoon at first. In fact, I was putting too much strength into the affair and milk splashed back at me. The price of gluttony is very quickly one realizes is filth, the fat comes later.

Like with all dessert before a sugar junkie, it was over too soon. How I Met Your Mother was hardly halfway done but I had prematurely gorged on one of the best chocolate cakes I had ever eaten. Well, I am biased because a friend baked it but seriously it was damn good. I lay back on the faux leather, spent, dirty about the lips, and some on my t-shirt. It had been a good week.

To Kang Or Not To Kang

2010-12-08T23:56:00.004+08:00

Hougang, Sengkang, Yio Chu Kang, Choa Chu Kang, Lim Chu Kang.

Those are the "Kangs" certain people have defined in Singapore. Out of all of them, only Hougang is the least "Sua-kang", the hokkien term for "Mountain river", a reference to a far away place. Far far away. My friends, some of them, have used this term to describe where I lived. When I knew these jokers, I lived in Yishun, already deemed a no-no among the happening types. "It's so far away that the MRT train also take so long to travel from Yio Chu Kang and Khatib.", "It was so long the gap I thought I was lost", and "There were so many trees, I didn't bring my passport." were the sort of remarks made when I announced my address.

Then I moved to Woodlands, as north as north could be on this giant island of ours. (Actually, on the map, Sembawang is more latitudinally north than Woodlands) Anyway, the very name is bad enough. It conjures up images of forest, jungle, animals and wild people roaming about, who hawk VCDs on pavements to lost tourists. In fact, Woodlands is the largest HDB estate in Singapore. All Lego-landed up with apartments to house the landless. The only is up in Singapore, so the HDB estates have had to replace the kampungs and compartmentalise the peasants into blocks of concrete. In the largest of the estates, I lived near Admiralty. I was outcast as the worst heartlander, worthy of treasonous collusion with Malaysians because of my geography. No rides home for you. "Do you know how much patrol it takes to drive up north?" I think I heard once. Being stingy, I usually took the NightRider bus service home. $3.50 got me to bed, as long as I didn't miss my bus stop, which was easy to do after dancing and drinks and being sleepy in a cold bus at 4am.

Now I live in Hougang. Praise the Lord, came the cry from these friends. He has come down to the Earth and closer to the Equator. It used to cost $23 after midnight in a taxi to get home in Woodlands. Now it's $15. Whoopee. The advantage of living closer to the city and its drinking holes. The boring bit is the ride in the KPE, Singapore's most mind-numbing underground expressway. With speeds dictated at a mere 70km/h, taxi drivers are forced to restrain their F1 passions till they exit close to Tampines Road and gun the engine for all its pent-up worth.

Of greater concern to said friends is my next abode. I am looking for a flat. They are afraid I will give in to financial pressures and surrender to the sua-kangs of the north once more. Truth be told, I wish to not be in debt for the rest of my life and living in Yew Tee (close to Choa Chu Kang if you need to ask) would save plenty of pennies. However, fingers crossed, I find a suitable location in my current neck of the woods. I wouldn't mind Sengkang either but one said friend has nightmares of treading into this black hole, having been lost in its many vale-named nooks and crannies for an hour in a car. It was all too much. She now speaks in hushed tones about Sengkang, like one would speak of a psychological trauma that required months of theraphy and bottles of pills/alcohol.

The quest continues nonetheless. Wish me luck.

Mum And I

2010-12-05T23:45:00.000+08:00

Mothers are crazy. Maybe parents in general are. The older we get our relationship with them usually can go two general ways - one of reconciliation for the anguish sustained during the growing up years, based on mutual respect and understanding, and acceptance that both parties are independent adults with their own ideas, thoughts and habits OR haywire.

I think my mum and I are the latter. I am usually driven by logic, not really a risk taker and generally see things for all they simply are. My mum is not really driven by logic, sometimes a whim and fancy person, an emotional rollercoaster (she's a Scorpio) and enjoys testing the boundaries of her imagination and vengeful psyche when things/people don't quite rub her the right way. (No mummy, not everyone is out to get you.)

(I blame Indian dramas for the latter. Those who watch this mix of bad acting, religious fervor, stereotypical behavior and exaggerated reactions in the hope for a little escapism from the mundane can unfortunately expose their cerebral receptors to dangerous seeds of theatrical concepts. When lines are blurred or worse still, when the opportunity to perform arises, the actor in every Indian comes forth to enact scenes of high drama almost subconsciously.)

What's worse, my mum is loud. I think her hearing is going - like those harder of hearing talk louder. So she may not be angry but everything sounds like she wants to pick a fight. It's worse when my logic nerve wants to have a go. So we all end up in kind of heated huff and puff, we don't converse for a while and it's over. In the mean time, my mum complains to my sister, then cooks. Her excellent cooking forestalls my temper and placates all concerned. (She's proud of her cooking. I can't even make an omelette taste like hers after umpteen attempts.)

Today, my mum is trying to convince me that property agents are playing a game to get us to raise my offer for a flat. Yes, they do want to get more money in for the buyer. That's sort of their job. But guess what, there's no one else in the transaction process to trust - the point I was trying to get across, unsuccessfully unfortunately. Sigh. See earlier statement on huff and puff.

As the newer grown up in this relationship, I tell myself to relax and calm down. Sometimes it happens. Usually I go cold shoulder. I shouldn't I know but that's how I work, internalizing the crap. Let it go, let it go, deep breaths in, deep breaths out.

Tomorrow's another day, a better day perhaps. Let's all get some sleep.

Sneaky Budget Airline Tricks

2010-12-03T00:07:00.001+08:00

We've all somehow figured out that budget airlines scrimp and save on everything to be profitable. But the worst they can do is scam the customer. I use the word 'scam' because you may never realize their devilish plots for online bookings if you simply ploughed through the booking process in a rush or without testing fare types.

Here's what I found out. I was booking a trip for myself and friends on Jet Star. For a couple of days now, I've been checking out prices for 1 person to make a preferred pair of flights. Let's just say the outbound flight cost $X. When I searched the same outbound flight for 8 people (the size of my group) the fare became $X + 10. I went Hmmmm? too. I did some testing and found that that if I booked for 7 persons, I'd be shown the $X fare but the fare for the 8th booking, when done separately, would cost $X + 10. The jump is probably triggered by some seat volume quota being passed. But the big problem is, JetStar would have charged a $X + 10 fare for all 8 passengers if I didn't bother splitting the booking. That's $70 extra dollars on a fare that's $52. That's 15% more per ticket per person! Bloody hell I went.

Then there's the credit card facilitation fee or convenience fee. Jet Star charges $12, per passenger. Say what?! Yes $12 per passenger not per transaction. I was a more than a little surprised. It didn't make any sense to penalize all traveller for the sake of making an electronic payment, especially when the ticket prices are this low. For a total ticket price of $105, a fee charge like that is bloody more than 10%. It sounds insane! So here's what I did. I picked to pay offline. You can too. Just gotta head on down to a post office and pay with cash or Nets. No extras incurred. I did that because I'm a selfish ass, didn't want everyone paying more because I used a credit card, and there's a SAM on the 2nd floor of my office building.

So think before you click because sometimes budget doesn't always cut it.

Sadly Potter

2010-11-30T00:46:00.002+08:00

Just caught the new Harry Potter film and wasn't it positively depressing? In the beginning we had quite a bit of action with the chosen one being sent into hiding and the baddies being sinister all over the place. Then the threesome we grew up with took to the trees and the doom and gloom of open, wintry countryside. It can be pretty and all that but with three teens lost in the wilderness, hormones raging, with the chance of old Voldy-smashed-nose and his henchmen set to appear from behind a leaf, the film went bloody suicidal.

You could see it Harry's face. He was probably thinking 'Fine, that about does it and points his spindly stick at himself and chants "hocus pocus, I'm a jokus out of 'ere". Even i was tearing up, commiserating with the poor boy's fate. But he didn't. Then there was way too many scenes of muted scenery, the kind that freaks kids out and sets us adults thinking there's a spooky apparition in every shadow. Gloomy dusk shots that brought so much darkness to the film. Isn't the bloody thing still for children? All the colour got drained off. It was melancholy and morose. Depressing and devolving. Stark and dark. All that forest and rock and snow, too much to bear. Brrrr, gave me the shivers. I miss the HP of yore. Fun and banter and sparks up the arse. (The 3 brothers animation was awesome by the way).

Maybe it was a metaphor for maturing teen angst. So much bottled up, all that pressure to be alive, so much legacy to honor and recapture, love and hate and love again, so many creeps with bad hair and smells around. Heinous film. All three protagonists need to see a shrink.

And that thing around the neck was so LOTR.

But I still wanna know what happens last. All because we deserve to follow through. In your grasp you got us JK Rowling, in your literary grasp. (I haven't read any of the books though and missed the last two films. Yes, yes, that explains my shock an awe at all the devilish hues and miserable faces. Anyway kids beware of not so pleasant dreams.)

Green Earth Band

2010-11-26T09:44:00.003+08:00

The office air was stale and I went around adjusting the nearby vents. One can set the speed and temperature of the flow of out each vent and that got me thinking, how they would be able to do that? Personalization of air would cost a lot and be a resource burden too. The next thought was that we couldn't work without airconditioning in the tropics. Even LKY has credited the air-conditioner as the best thing ever. He likes it as 22 degrees it was reported I think. The next thought that hit me was that mankind should not live in the tropics. As residents of this fragile planet we should congregate about the temperate regions, neat the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn or higher. Life would be literally cooler and we'd had summers and winters to satisfy our instincts for repetitive annualised change. We could let the tropics simply blossom on their own. Wild and untouched. Let the trees grow back, let the animals run free and settle themselves Darwin style. We'd have a lovely band of green around the centre of the Earth, quite vogue and verdant, and more importantly, ecologically re-balancing our carbon footprint and processing our carbon dioxide into life-giving oxygen. We might pick a few pockets to have super beaches because we all will need a tan, and of course eco-tours to get bitten by snakes and spiders while we ooh and ahh at vegetation unfamiliar. Litterbugs would be fed to tigers, Darwin style. It could work eh.

We just need to get rid of this nasty concept called countries, and passports.

Waiting For Outlook

2010-11-23T08:50:00.000+08:00

I haven't been writing much. Hmmm. Thinking too hard about my writing and not just spewing it out. That's why. The artificial rules about blogging. Some of you getting alerts about this odd paragraph going up will be peeved. No meat, just waiting-for-my-computer-to-start-up dribble. As Tracy Jordan said "Blah, blah, blah, you get the point".

Topic to cover next time - how good 30 Rock is.

Oh look, email's up.

Airplane Oxygen Mask Rule For Parenting

2010-11-05T23:14:00.001+08:00

Most people I know hardly pay attention to the safety briefings that take place before an airplane takes off. There's usually a few lines in the live demo or video that go: "if cabin pressure drops, an oxygen mask may fall from the ceiling in front of you. Strap it over your face like so. Passengers with children should attend to themselves first before helping others."

That last line should be a lesson to all parents - take care of yourself before you help your kids.

I've seen many parents who don't have a plan. The kids come and they handle it, somehow. I bet most parents from my parents era didn't have a plan and getting by was the norm. They worked hard and hoped for the best - values that work even today. Except that life has got a lot more complicated.

In Singapore, many parents are both forced to work to make ends meet or fulfill their ambitions. Both guy and girl are generally well educated and would like to pursue a career. They want to upgrade from a HDB flat to a condominium apartment. They want to trade in their Toyota for a continental car. When the kid(s) come along, these wants may not change. In most cases, parents work even harder.

Here's one problem that creeps along - they forget about their health. They grow fat and lazy, and are unable to commit any time to exercise and keeping fit. What parents forget is that their health is what enables them to take care of their kids. Once their sick, it's hard to manage the house let alone little persons.

I'm not talking about maintaining butts of steel or Greek god abs. Just weight, tone and cardio. Compromise and make the half an hour three times a week to sweat it out. Be it TV or a shorter lunch. Put in a walk on the park or run up the apartment block staircase. Think small doses for the long term, not mad frantic exercise for the short term only to attempt repetition following another new year resolution party.

Health is just one thing. There are many other things that parents need to sort out and keep in mind before they unleash their hopes and dreams on their little ones.

'Good counselor friend' told me that kids learn about how to love from the way their parents express love to each other. How right is that? There was also a promo trailer I remember for a TV show called Parenthood that mentioned that "being a parent makes me want to be a better person". That's right too. Would you want your kid to copy your bad habits or learn to be a better human being?

The questions seem hard but seriously, parenting in the 21st century is hard. Worse still, it's clear that many of the ills we see in society today stem from the way parents teach their kids. The small details affect the big picture. Everything from the value of thrift to the way we treat domestic help will be passed down to our kids. So think before you act. Your kids are watching and learning.

Paper Complaints

2010-10-20T08:40:00.001+08:00

On Saturday there was a letter in the Straits Times forum page that listed out the woes of getting a taxi just outside the CBD. Apparently it took the writer 30 mins to flag one off the streets. Article here >>

In today's paper, there's someone berating AirAsia's ticket refund policy. He could get back 40% of his ticket price but only as credits for other flights on the airline within 6 months. Article here >>

Complaints are easy. One gets mad and writes in, hopes to get published and when it does happen, one feels like he/she has changed the world. Like having dropped an A bomb on Hiroshima or discovered cornflakes. Of course there's Facebook to tell everyone that your important complaint had made the press. Ah the charms of brief publicity.

Oh please.

Firstly, Mr Taxi dude sounds like a non-Singaporean, that he's been living elsewhere for a long time. And in that long time, the rest of us have exasperated countless attempts at addressing these taxi troubles, and have given up. The situation is not new. Taxi drivers are coddled into driving for us. The big companies that profit from the madness are keeping mum and the status quo. Nothing's changed.

And the issue is just bubbling under, waiting to blow up in some transport official's face because we're all just quite upset enough. Maybe a complaint from a tourist will do.

Secondly, Mr AirAsia is the typical complaining Singaporean who wants a good deal but fails in any effort to read the fine print. That's how budget airlines work buddy. They sell cheap non-cancelable, non-changeable, non-anything fares. That's why $20 to KL is so appealing, until you can't make the flight because Fifi the cat has a boo-boo. Then it'll cost you an arm and a leg and Fifi's tail to switch flights. Read the fine print and then you'll understand the hazards of flying budget. Nothing's for free man. Same thing with Tiger's recent spate of cancellations. They can do that with nary a hint of compensation.

So seriously, suck it dear consumer. Caveat emptor.

Late Lunch

2010-09-16T15:17:00.001+08:00

So here I am at MOS Burger having a late lunch. It's 245pm. Had an Indian sweet and teh halia at 10am, well, not in one go but you get the idea. This after a 730am breakfast of a wheatbix, an Old Chang Kee curry puff, and half a Raffles Hotel champagne and truffle snowskin mooncake. And Milo. Too much? I tend to overboard on days I don't yoga. Is yoga a verb?

Wow, a cover of Bonnie Raitt's I Can't Make You Love Me. Sounds like recently jailed George Michael. Time to pause.

Bloody good song. Respect.

There's a poster for Hokkaido milk desserts at $2.95 a little canister staring back at me with wanton lust. No sweet-tooth I shall resist for you've had way too much sugar today. There's tomorrow. Damn the azuki looks good.

My eyes are feasting on walled imagery. My nose is bombarded by the scent of lemon scented floor wash being spread out in gentle swishes across the beige tiles. It goes stronger as the MOS Worker gets closer. Geddit? Burger, worker? Nevermind. Nauseating sensations threaten to erupt, my masticated fish and fries could find themselves on the counter instead of happily digesting in my tummy. Frenchman in the corner and too-much-makeup woman at the back have yet to succumb. I shall depart, gingerly over the wet surface.

Till we lunch again. There's so much to talk about.

It's Girl From Ipanema now. The last few bars...end. Go.

Hong Kong Again

2010-08-21T00:02:00.003+08:00

So I was in Hong Kong for the second time in a year. This time for work. It was also because one afternoon my boss was leaning against my cube wall and said "So you've been quite involved in this thing.." and he scooted of to the department secretary to book my flight and hotel. Funny thing is that I was to attend a 4 hour afternoon meeting followed by a dinner but the flight times made it such that I ended spending two nights in the Conrad. Not a bad deal some might say. Ahem.

The cosmic twist of fate is that when you're not at your desk at work, suddenly the whole world needs something from you. Apart from trying to get to sleep between some TV and showers, I had 2-3 hours to myself. That was it. My mum told me to try to get a toy double decker bus for my nephew but seriously, I had no time to even have a slow paced breakfast.

More pertinently, the hotel was in this posh area called Pacific Place that full of high-end boutiques up to the wazoo. So high end that I never saw a crowd anywhere. But in my roamings to find a cha chaan teng for a spot of nai cha and bo lo yao (which doesn't exist in this posh area) I ended up Starbucking (with a tinge of disgust and disappointment. HK nai cha is way better than anything Starbucks can offer me there) and finding a CD shop. It was with glee I spent 30 plus minutes looking through discs from eccentric dance artists I would hardly come across in Singapore. Reasonably priced stuff too. I ended buying 7 discs for HK600. The only thing I really spend money on is music.

Anyway, the drama goes on. I was booked on a 8am flight back home. I had to struggle with the two alarms I set for 520am, finally leave the soft soft bed at 535am, and ready myself to checkout at 6am. I managed 30ml of coffee so kindly provided by the hotel at a discreet corner for early departing guests such as moi before scooting off into a taxi to the Airport Express stop at Hong Kong station in Central. I missed the first train by 1 min. Sigh.

You can buy a round trip Airport Express ticket for HK$171, a HK$9 discount, online at the MTR website >>

All goes well though. My fear of having to run to the departure gate were unfounded as thankfully, immigration counters for visitors suddenly tripled as I was queueing up (so thoughtful the HK airport immigration is) and the gate was in the Terminal 1 building (unlike past situations where we were running after the plane having had to take the connecting subway between the main terminal and gates for budget carriers). Phew. I actually had time to buy pineapple cakes for colleagues and family.

What I learnt on this trip:
- there's still something magical about Hong Kong, on the island, not Kowloon. The density, the high rises, the even higher hills, the crazy weather (rain, sun then rain all in 4 hours), the low clouds between the peaks and all the greenery still around, the super taxis, how early the sun rises and the nai cha.
- take a taxi when the transport is covered. I braved the MTR to the hotel. Big mistake. I got lost at Pacific Place and kept a colleague waiting for dinner and beer. Taxis and receipts, taxis and receipts.
- work follows you everywhere. So get it done.
- office politics follows the job everywhere. Look out, stay sharp and shut up. Done.
- be friendly whenever, whatever. You never who you'll meet in the hotel lobby.

What A Painful Week

2010-08-12T23:39:00.000+08:00

So last weekend I went on an excursion to Jurong and it was precisely because it was far and away I agreed to accompany my sister and nephew on a long journey to the west - an adventure. Any trip outside the flat is fantastic for my nephew. Being cooped up at home with the same adults and same toys and same TV is torturous boredom for the 2 year old. For us, the greater number of adults that join in the trip, the greater the spread of responsibility over the little one. I had to pay my dues. But lo and behold at Outram Park station, I decided to swing my nephew. He loves it, cutting through the air, legs flung helplessly and at the mercy of centrifugal forces and gravity. At swing three, I felt a sharp jab in my lower back. That's it. Instantly I recalled my earlier debilitating experiences with lower back rigidity around the spine. This one was going to be epic. By the time we were in the industrial boondocks, walking was difficult. At my sister's tailor's flat I was bent over my thighs trying to stretch my spine out. To no avail my desperate efforts were. We took a taxi home which I made stop in Ang Mo Kio for me to visit Uncle Tong. Usually a performer of miracles and redeemer of orthopedic sins, his deft hands somehow failed to relieve my of pain. Usually the effects of his bone realignment regime are instantaneous but not this time. Sigh and ow.

The next day, I was hobbling about. Getting up from a seated position was agony. Try putting pants on. Ay caramba. I was popping leftover Anarex from my last doctor's visit for the similar ailment. My sis called the 7-days-a-week clinic to confirm they were open and under much pain and constant nagging, I made my way to Compass Point to said clinic. Surprisingly, many people are sick on the weekend and the one attending doctor seemed determined to try our patience. My number flashed after an hour and a half of consternation. It was worse for my mum who accompanied this stubborn mule, she has little tolerance for waiting. I walked into the doctor's office and did not sit because it would have been too hard to get up. Less than sympathetic, the doc clinically addressed the painkiller options I had. My allergy to aspirin and NSAIDs made it easy for him - Tramadol. He told me the next best thing would be morphine. Bring it on doc! He wasn't allowed to have any. Shame. He gave me a Tramadol injection above my left butt cheek and I got more capsules of the same plus Anarex pills on payment and checkout. Bloody $61 for a Sunday night visit.

Guess what, the combination didn't quite completely relieve me of pain. I was like 'what's going on?'. Has my body become, God forbid, immune to medication? Twinges and twangs of pain accompanied my National Day and the next day of MC. I was high just sometimes.

(Speaking of National Day, what was with our esteemed MPs playing with their phones on live TV, our president once again not singing the anthem, and the umbrellas some contingents were marching with? The colours on TV seemed overly saturated too.)

Going to yoga for the past two years (goodness it's been that long) I was compelled to sort mt body out naturally. I tried bending backwards standing on my knees. Ow ow ow. I kept reminding myself to breathe into it. Then bending forwards (rabbit pose). Ow ow ow. Lastly, spinal twists in both directions. Less ow here.

I went to work feeling bad. Half groggy and half aching, I dragged myself to the office, dreading the prospect of doing any kind of work. I survived day one. Today was day two. Also another bleh day. More interestingly, I decided not to take any painkillers, a test of endurance and a measure if how far i was coming along. Not very, and a colleague thought it was mad of me to forgo medicine and relief. She perhaps was right as I groaned like an old man getting up from my ergonomic office chair. I came home and repeated the yoga stunts and guess what, I got a pop during the last spinal twists. Yay! I was gonna heal quicker now. Now as I lie on bed I don't feel much agony. Hopefully it's status quo come morning.

Water, Sign Of The Times

2010-07-20T23:24:00.003+08:00

There's been a lot of rain lately here in Singapore. Lots and lots of water coming down from the heavens. So much water that in the span of a month we've had 3 times as much rain as the weathermen had normally expected to come down and bless us this time of year. And it was duly unexpected.

The first big mess happened at Orchard Rd where famously now, Liat Towers' basement floor collected a massive pool of brown water over a few hours, drowning out Starbucks, Wendy's, Massimo Dutti and, gasp, the Hermes store. Alerts went out all over the island via all forms of communication that the bags and scarves and other whatnots at Hermes were possibly in ruin or very quickly, going to be wet and on sale. Collectively, fashionistas across the drenched country sighed in relief and some in dismay to learn all was well and good among the $10,000 per item merchandise. Of course, the gahmen had to step in and find the cause of this travesty. A blocked canal was blamed for the backlog of water.

The second incident took place in other parts of the island, though a large pool did form at the Scotts-Orchard-Paterson junction. Roads were knee deep in torrential rain. Cars and produce were lost. Many were wondering why a second flood was happening merely a week after the splish splash along our shopping streets. Even some kindergarten kids had to be rescued from the deluge at their Telok Kurau school by firemen. Awww, so cute.

The third wet affair happened a few days ago when the gods unleashed a tremendous amount of rain over about 4-5 hours in the early hours of the morning. This time it was really bad. Mostly because rich people were affected. There was a stupendous shot in the papers of a car almost completely inundated in a flood of water in a condominium basement carpark in Bukit Timah. So the famous Bukit Timah-Rochor canal failed to deliver the water to its end in the sea and essentially flowed over into the premises of the rich and now furious. Awesome show of force from the Mother to all those who think their Mercedes and BMWs are safe. Insurance companies are probably seething too, along with the folks at the PUB who've been taken to task once too often this month to explain what they can't. The meteorologists said the heavy downpour was the aftermath of a hurricane that was then cutting towards Vietnam. Really? And they couldn't warn us?

We can't explain anything. It's an act of God. In that light, some have likened this to punishment for taking some famous church pastor to task over his organisation's financial habits. Silly but funny no less. Many have put the blame on the Marina Barrage. This mechanical dam was the brainchild of Mr Lee no less with the aim of creating a freshwater reserve in the city for fun and enjoyment, and to prevent low-lying areas from flooding. Well, the past month has really been a true test for the concept and failure is now easily thrust upon that which seems to be holding it all that floodwater in. Well, someone smart alec will be asked to do the math and evaluate the sums of why and what went right and wrong. So far, the public is merely preparing to swim in the next rainstorm if they fail to avoid the rising waters.

I have a odd theory to put forward about the Marina Barrage's role in our floods. Could it be holding back all our negative qi? It is at the end of the Singapore river, and we could holding all the wealth in but also we might not be siphoning out the bad flow. Hmmm.

The World Cup Is Empty, Finally

2010-07-13T23:36:00.002+08:00

So the World Cup is over. We can return to our normal lives and recall how crappy the economy is, how bad the BP oil spill is and remember that there are still people with bombs who want to wipe us off the planet so that they can get their cheese.

The final game was a little lacklustre for many. Nothing really happened in the regulation 90 minutes except for the immense number of yellow cards. The ref seems to keep all the action for himself. Someone commented that it was like an S-League game. Personally and many also will agree, the ref made some not so good decisions and seems to show a little bias. Well, it's over and the Dutch cry loser's tears.

The 3rd place playoffs between Germany and Uruguay was scintillating compared to the finals with both teams making great goals and awesome plays. Even the final shot of the match was a cracker Forlan attempt that rattled the crossbar and almost, almost sent the whole game into extra time. What a moment that would have been. And who knew he could play after his poor showing in Man U colours. Maybe it's age. His piece de resistance didn't happen, thank God, and Germany took 3rd spot.

Next, we await Euro 2012 which promises to exciting if Spain, Holland and Germany have anything to do about it.

The next World Cup is in Brazil and promises to be a mess for those in this timezone. Matches at 5am, goodness.

World Cup - The Curse Of Advertising

2010-07-05T17:31:00.001+08:00

I have a theory about the World Cup exits we have gone 'oh my god' over, those of the high flying European and South American teams. Teams with players that did TV advertising prior to the World Cup have failed. I have evidence from Pepsi and Nike commercials. Rooney, Cannavaro, Henri, Kaka, Messi, Drogba, Ribery, Lampard, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldinho - all feature in these ads. All are out. Well polished TVCs but the curse of advertising has stolen World Cup glory from the world's "best" players.

Nike Ad

Pepsi Ad

Today I saw a poster in Dhoby Ghaut MRT with David Villa's face for Adizero shoes. Uh-oh.

Germany to win the whole bloody thing!

World Cup 4 - Brazil Beaten

2010-07-03T02:13:00.002+08:00

Do not feign a look of equality as your enemy looks you in the eye. You could be no better than they are, or worse, worse than they are but don't know it. Do not assume anything except that anything could happen. Is your ability the only factor that stands between you and success? Is your opponent's ability readily dismissed as inferior? After all, you could have been champ five times and the skills are in your blood. Of course, they'll lose? But nothing is impossible and the proud fall faster than the meek. The humble try harder because the know it's going to be tough battle. They stay positive, and try and try again.

So the Netherlands beat Brazil. I am happy.

My fascination with Dutch soccer stems from the days of Marco Van Basten and Ruud Guillit. They were a pair to be reckoned with. There was an amazing "cross" from Basten, that sliced almost parallel to the goal line before curling in. It was an awesome goal. Unfortunately, the talent in the Dutch football squad never quite managed to unleash its true potential at the right time. They haven't won a thing for a long time. Poor things, till today. (I also had a thing for the colour orange. The sea of orange across a stadium section can only be described as breathtaking. The orange army the fans are called. Also because orange didn't rhyme with anything, haha)

No one messes with Brazil and all too often, fans have come to expect the Samba Kings to sashay their way to the top, their talent unmatched and untamed. Yes, sometimes that is so. But for this World Cup, Brazil almost didn't qualify. And today, their invincibility was shattered. From winning one up, they went two down, had one man sent off for a stupid stomp on an opponent's calf and couldn't produce an equaliser. Perhaps an unfamiliar territory for them but one team had to lose. The Dutch seemed hungrier but slower against the sizzling Brazilians. Nonetheless, they didn't cave in and held on. They could have made it 4-1 but luck and chance didn't quite see them through. Nerves maybe. But a win is a win at the end of 90 minutes.

Thanks for playing Brazil. Now back across the South Atlantic to think about winning at home in 2014. Don't get lazy because of the automatic qualification. Pride comes before a fall. A fall at home, now that would be something for Brazil. Unthinkable? Well, it is the year for the underdogs. Hungrier underdogs.

World Cup 3 - Summing Up The Losers

2010-06-30T16:53:00.002+08:00

Well well well. All the big talking countries are out, some defeated even before they got their game on. The biggest embarrassments have been Italy and France, both previous champions, now relegated to the bottom of their groups with seriously unimpressive group performances. Pathetic some might say, others would they had it coming, yet more will conclude they weren't hungry enough.

The latest high flying World Cup departure was England. They limped off losing spectacularly to Germany. Many expected a low-scoring outing or even penalties judging by previous encounters between the two football giants but one proved bigger than the other by more than the proverbial inch. Germany young upstarts shook the world view of boring Teutonic soccer and played like a cohesive commando unit. All together, all for it. To be fair, both teams had their chances but the Lampard curse continued to plague the Chelsea star. He was denied 3 times and worst of all, by the linesman who didn't see the crossbar deflection go into the German net past Neuer the goalie who flicked it away as it bounced out. Amazing what instant replays can do to denounce the words of a man in black by the line with a flag. The whole controversy of video replays being used to assist refs in decision making has come to the fore, with such a gargantuan loss of English spirit leading the charge for its use. Who knows what England might have pulled off if they weren't so unfairly ruled against? Who knows yeah.

My issue is why have instant repllays on TV when the teams can't be subject to the same visual evidence as us at home. Then we'll never know if the linesman got it right or wrong and no one would have a price on his head for screwing up some drug cartel tycoon's bet.

Ok, ok, I am all for video replays in the spirit of fairness in the sport of hooligans.

Japan got kicked out last night. I had a bad feeling about Kamano all night as I watched the dismal tug of war between Japan and Paraguay. It was silly at times - the loss of control, the passes to nowhere, the mistimed kicks. Perhaps embarrassing even. The defender Kamano has some chances to move up to the South American half to assist his fellow men in blue with their attempts at scoring but he didn't really do well with his passing. So that bad feeling rose up when he came to take the spot kick and subsequently hit the ball too high. Was it me and my bad feeling that caused Japan to lose? I dunno, I am not that almighty I think. So the Asian representation is no more and Paraguay also made history by entering the final 8 for the first time. They meet Spain who will trash them but who cares, history has been written.

Spain knocked Portugal out and everyone is upset with Cristiano Ronaldo for not living up to his worth. Well, what to do. Sometimes I think the choice between club and country often falls on the former as that's where the regular fame is. For country, perhaps once in 2 or 4 years to prove one's mettle is too long to wait. Young, pretty and pretty good footballers like Mr Ronaldo lap it up, with the media at their feet and girls at their beck and call. It's about the $ baby. Make as much as one can while one can.

Half the month down, let's the madness continue. Go Germany!

World Cup 2

2010-06-17T00:11:00.003+08:00

Where do I begin?

Tonight I witnessed that giants can crumble before the unlikeliest of heroes. Tonight I knew that no matter whatever one had achieved in the past, he could still crumble. Tonight the world realised that legacy was not important but what happens right now that determines our destiny.

Switzerland, the dimunitive team from the mountains, ranked 24 in the world, dismissed as nobodies in the competition that was to be stage of glory for their opponents Spain, took the Iberian bulls by the horns and then the balls to score just one decisive winning goal. That was all it took to shatter the dreams of the team ranked no.2. The Swiss even had a chance to double that margin but were denied by the frame of the goalpost. They had only 8 shots at goal with 3 on target. The Spanish had 24 shots at scoring. But all that mattered was the one goal that separated winners from losers. The watchmakers had the passion and heart to see it through. They weren't as elegant as the Spanish with the likes of Villa, Torres and Inesta making sizzling runs, deft passes and matadorish turns. They weren't as fast either. But it didn't matter because they took chances.

The best thing was the Swiss goal was conjured out of a mess in Spain penalty box. A shot, a miss, a save, a bounce off a player, the ball edges towards the goal, and Fernandes, the Swiss saviour, ran in at the the right time, to fire the salvo that broke Spanish hearts and exalted Swiss spirits beyond their wildest dreams.

I love the underdogs. This competitions has already produced the like the Japan who held off Cameroon 1-0 to take lead of their group at this stage; the mysterious North Koreans who played gallantly to a 1-2 loss to the best team in the world Brazil; New Zealand who managed to eke out a draw with Slovakia; South Korea who showed Greece who's boss with a 2-0 victory; and the USA made a mockery of the English by securing a draw. Brilliant, just brilliant.

I am glad to the watching the small fry beat the big fish. It's about time for hope, and hope which manifests in positive action for victory. If the Swiss can pull off one of the biggest, if not the biggest sporting upsets of all time, why not any other country? Why not Singapore? Keep the dream alive.

World Cup 1

2010-06-13T03:22:00.000+08:00

It's half time in the England - USA match and it's been interesting. This is my second live match having seen most of the Argentina - Nigeria match earlier. I oddly couldn't catch a nap between the matches, it being past midnight here in Singaland. I tossed and turned in bed, a myriad of thoughts running through my head. I sort of blame the food I had at the pasar malam a few hours earlier, full of god knows what chemicals and preservatives that toted with body chemistry.

Back to the World Cup. I was disappointed to know that the opening games were dull low scoring games. I remember the awesome opener in Germany in 2006 when the home side did away with Costa Rica 4-2, an amazing six goals in 90 minutes. I hope the Germans play as awesomely this year. Back to the England - USA match, I came into the game thinking te Anericans would somehow pull off a unforseen surprise over the colonial masters of yore. But somehow seeing the familiar faces of the EPL, Gerrard, Heskey, Lampard, Rooney, I somewhat wavered in my neutral position to support England. Maybe because I saw Gerrard and Liverpool not get anywhere this season and felt sorry for him. Then Gerrard scored in the 4th minute and I reaffirmed where my heartfelt loyalties lay. With the red and white flag, no blue. Yes I want England to taste glory, yes.

Ok the 2nd half is about to start.

No, I Cannot LIe

2010-06-09T23:05:00.002+08:00

Imagine that you couldn't tell a lie? What would life be like if humans couldn't lie and always told the truth? Interesting eh. I think people wouldn't be so easily upset with one another, not because we knew no one was telling a lie, but because we would innately be more trusting and perhaps kinder to one another. We would perhaps listen more because it was always truthful and hence believable. No one would use "literally" wrongly, haha.

But "how do I look?" might often with a slap or a harsh exchange of words because the truth can be ugly, haha, quite literally. (Hey, a punny use of literally). "Yes, you are fat" but a millenia of telling the truth may just mute the response.

It would make advertising tough, wouldn't it? Remember those early ads which promised the world if you bought this particular brand of soap or flew with this airline. Always the best and the greatest, till they got sued and people got smarter. Well then advertising these days is less about flash and dash and in fact has got downright factual in some cases. Recall Dove's real women campaign. Would we be less creative if we had to tell the truth all the time? Sales people might have a problem.

There would still be crime. More people would own up to their offence though. Criminals would just admit to their wrongdoings more readily when they got caught. "Yes I did it, I stole that typewiter." Okie doke, into the slammer for you. No more mind games though like those we see on TV. Oh yes, truth telling would bloody affect television. Perhaps the whole notion of entertainment would be different. OMG, can actors lie if we were all programmed to tell the truth? Hmmm. We learn a lot from TV, so lying on TV might end up being repeated in real life. The truth tellers would go mad.

There would still be practical jokes. Just that we'll always know who did it pretty quick. But then telling the truth and knowing but not telling is another story. Would surprises be affected? Maybe but then knowing but not telling doesn't mean one is lying. Ahah! Kids might mature quicker because Santa wouldn't exist and the pet goldfish that went belly up didn't go to heaven overnight but was flushed down the toilet. Truth telling makes the case for atheists stronger I think but belief is another matter too.

Not sure why I'm on this track this evening. Maybe after an hour of Frasier did me in.

2010-06-05T23:58:00.004+08:00

News this week:

1. Israel pounce on aid ship bound for Gaza. So this whole mess has taken an interesting turn for the better and worse. Better in the sense that the world has come to realise and better appreciate the plight of Gazans. Even almost all of the UN Security Council and the Sec-Gen had harsh words for Israel and their combative tactics against civilians. What made the difference was these civilians were not Palestinians. Individuals from other nationalities got hurt and their governments had to come forward to address the situation. People also protested all over the world, even in Tel Aviv.

This solidarity of support for Gazans and Palestine can only serve to grease the gears of change. It's about time these warring folks seek to find a permanent, viable solution for each other. Yes, many Arabs want Israel's anihilation but seriously, it ain't right. At the same time, Israel's heavy hand has slapped around the Palestinians way too hard and way too often. I have generally been upset that Israel has almost never given the Palestinians a chance to be a nation. So many UN resolutions, so many violations. How can we not expect the Palestinians to be angry and react with violence? It takes a strong, strong man not to lift his hand. The worse bit is that people died. It's unfortunate but not in vain. There's another boat that's been boarded, this time amicably and the Israelis are searching it for weapons. Ok, compromise. Gaza gets aid, just no arms.

2. BP oil spill gets worse. The spill's showing up in Florida and today's news suspects it might latch on to the Gulf Stream and even make it up to New York, Nova Scotia and the North Atlantic. How bad can this get? Well it seems very. The oil might meet up with the puffing Iceland volcano with the tough name, a meeting of the natural whammies. The Americans affected by this are damn pissed. All the fisherman who rely on catch from the Gulf of Mexico want compensation, and unfortunately, New Orleans is now plagued with another disaster. Here's one website that plots the spill over any Google map to give people an idea of the extent of the problem - http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com Cool and shockingly scary. Singapore is slicked out.

Should we stop looking for oil? Some smart people are lobbying for better resources for non-carbon based energy solutions. You know, wind, water, solar, geothermal and nuclear - the Fab Five of clean energy. It's a good point. The more we rely on oil, the more likely accidents like this could happen, and mess up the world around us.

I also got to thinking about why don't nations share electricity generation capabilities. Perhaps neighbouring countries could get their currents from a shared, clean energy resource. Take Asean for example. Could we set up a set of nuclear power stations or geothermal stations somewhere and split the transmissions? Does every country need its own power stations? I don't think so. We could easily share. Engineers gotta figure out to reduce transmission losses though.

3. SG won a world table tennis title. Whooppee some might go but there are many Singaporeans who can't feel any pride at this victory. Locals have a big problem with foreign talent winning sports events in Singapore's name. I generally also feel the same way. Here's why. We've never really had a local-born person in the team and with the team being totally 'imported', it's hard to feel like it's a Singaporean win. Unlike other sports like swimming and football, we have locals and foreign talents competing in the country's name and it seems like a fair representation. We're also a young country and this youth makes the contrast in 'Singaporeanness' more apparent and perhaps severely recognizable. I've never the tennis table team champions speak English. It's a problem. The local TV folks have also been criticised for not transmitting the finals against China live. If Mediacrap can't be bothered, should the population?

Someone I follow on Twitter posted this - ultra_slacker: I don't get this sg ping pong thing. I don't choose not to feel proud; I couldn't even if I wanted to. #somethingsmoneycantbuy

It sums up the sentiments of many Singaporeans. We need a change. Something to wrest this apathy from sinking in and signal the end of local sports representation. But then so many people seem to be running in marathons these days. Why haven't we groomed any local champs yet?

Ego, Eggo And Cheesecake

2010-06-02T23:39:00.004+08:00

I had a choice of a slice of cheesecake or an apple post dinner.

In an unrelated manner, I realized my ego today. Ego is that bit that you don't think about but it drives to do things for yourself, perhaps selfishly. Well mostly in self-interest. It's easy to spot people who are ego-maniacs. Usually loud ones who seems to know everything and perhaps everyone, and in some cases are ridiculously wealthy. I am not any of these things, though I do know quite a bit and bore people with my general knowledge at times. Other times, people sms me to ask how to pronounce 'Tyrwhitt'. Anyway, today I heard an acknowlegdment of my person. It sounds dumb but there it was "gurms from Singapore". And it felt good. Then it didn't anymore. Then it did again, I was smiling to myself. Goodness, I thought and realized it was my ego that made so. It was stroked. Yes, like that puppy getting scratched behind the ear, it felt good. Temporary but good. Yup, ego.

The burst of acknowlegdment made me think about long discussions on existential topics with a friend in Uni and just out of Uni. We talked about ego and how he was affected by what it made him do and what others around did to please their ego. Yes, deep I know but it helps stretch the mind a little when one talks about things that you can't see, touch or feel. The philosophical mind is a powerful one. I remember him repeating what a another friend told him "I have no ego." If you think about it, it's very egoistic for someone to say they have no ego. Go on, think about it. See, makes sense doesn't it. My friend had a habit of knocking the wind of people with his honesty, and he's still at it. Haha, ego checker.

If a person without ego or a diminished sense of personal arrogance really a better person? I dunno. There must be scientists out there who build things to fulfill some internal need for glory. "Haha, I found it! You lose suckers!" I am sure it applies to any profession where one's abilities are tested or there is merit/performance based rewards as the outcome. Does ego make progress? I know greed does. Greed is good for progress/development. But it makes us crazy. Ego plays a part too I guess. Maybe there wouldn't have been so many wars/conflicts or even exploration if early man had his ego checked. Maybe there would be more jungle, 3 billion fewer people, more trees and no Internet. Do winners have big egos? Or do they just play to be? Not to be the best but to just be. Not ego trip but ego trumped. Hmmm.

In yoga, we're asked to not think, just listen and do. It's an attempt not to pre-empt, not to let the ego anticipate. Quieten, listen and do.

Eggo is a brand of waffles I think. Saw the box in NTUC. My nephew told my mum "Let's go NTUC". So cute.

I chose the apple, saving the cheesecake, perhaps half, for breakfast. Oprah says you cna eat anything for breakfast, on a show where she had 1 croissant. One, goodness. Take 3 woman!

Stuck In North Korea

2010-05-18T13:35:00.004+08:00

I saw SDP leader Chee Soon Juan outside Clifford Center today. He, and two other persons, were trying to get the attention of passersby with utterances like 'Elections are coming. Help the opposition' and another about democracy in Singapore. Few people gave him the time of day. I sat some meters away, ate my post-lunch fruit and read my copy of TODAY while keeping an eye on this display of public exhortations.

Given he was not having much success, Chee Soon Juan sorely needed to raise his PR profile. The next thought was he should go to the Pitbull concert tonight and hang with the youth, and show them some moves. I laughed in my head but then seriously, it wouldn't do him any harm. He was entitled to attend concerts wasn't he? He should have hung out a sign that read "Singaporeans are bo chup" or "Free tissue paper" - that would have got some attention. Democracy? No way we're keen on talking about from our heads instead of our hearts and wallets.

I also realised that one reason he didn't manage to gather an audience was because Singaporeans really don't care about politics and less so, about a man highly publicised for being at the wrong end of the gahmen's favour time and time again. He's still a bankrupt, yes? I also came to conclude during that quarter of hour in public that Singaporeans are afraid. We are so afraid of even approaching a man who is the gahmen's bad books that we might be guilty or similarly treated as public enemy no.1. We are like a child who's threatened so often with a painful whack on the behind if he didn't behave that we dare not step out of line, whatever that perceived line may be. (In this case, consorting with a opposition party member). Even that painful whack on the behind is a mysterious legend, a story passed down from father to son, neighbour to neighbour, a powerful psychological deterrent handed down through the generations. Everyone who criticises the gahmen over coffeeshop talk ends of their conversations saying "Joke, joke".

This child knows about following the right path to make his parents happy. His parents take care of him with the right sustenance. He does not waiver from this path because he does not want to make his parents unhappy. He does not attempt at creativity because in case he has a bad idea or fails at succeeding, he might make his parents unhappy. He doesn't even talk to strangers. Then the painful whack on the behind. This child is afraid. What happens when the parents leave? Will the child be happy then? What is happiness for this child?

Deep questions but seriously, is that what most of us have become? Afraid? We are surrounded by creature comforts, clean and safe streets, running water at the touch of a tap and yet in our panadol-fed heads and cholesterol-laden hearts, we are perhaps no better than those stuck in North Korea.

Man Vs Nature

2010-05-10T23:27:00.002+08:00

It's funny when one takes a step back to comprehend what we humans have done to the planet. Ok, perhaps not funny but sad. But also funny because we try our darndest to control nature and make use of nature for our own end. Ok, that sounds sad but it's also easy to laugh at how hard we try to control things and then complain about it. Ok, dark dry humour there.

Let me explain. Everyone say this out loud: AY-YAH-FYAH-LAH-YOH-KUUL. That's how you pronounce the name of the Icelandic atmospheric terror that spewed this guts out into the breezy Altantic. Eyjafjallajokull is the way the volcano's name is spelt. It also suddenly put Iceland back on the web searches and newspapers. Iceland is borne from volcanic activity. It essentially is the big pimple that burst out from the crack in the skin at the bottom of the Atlantic. Instead of pus, hot magma flowed outwards and upwards and formed islands upon cooling at the surface. Over time, Iceland became the delightful rocky outcrop it is today. Story of the Earth, nature at its best and worst. (Iceland is also famous for some fishing hullaballo in the 70s, Bjork in the 90s, the financial collapse of the government last year and today, the chimney we can't pronounce.)

So back to the nature plot. So the volcano blew and sent smoke up and suddenly we were all in emotional turnout. Planes couldn't fly about and people were stranded. Yes, that's sad but seriously, we can't blame anyone or anything. It's nature acting up on its domain we are privileged to exist on. So when we can't really assign blame on something that can't argue back, we blame each other. Governments for shutting down airspace, the airlines for the lack of plannning, the hotels for not having enough rooms. With fingers pointed and crossed, we waited for the ash cloud to pass.

Imagine if it didn't. What would the hundreds of thousands of stranded do? Scream and shout for sure. Imagine travellers stuck in Changi airport for a month. What could our tourist-centric gahmen do to appease the spending now upset traveller?

Big picture folks. We're nothing compared to nature and sooner or later, we're gonna be taken over as victims of our own success. Global warming, we're still denying or confirming it. The extent of melting ice seems to be up for discussion too. We all know there's too much forest being cut but no one is seriously doing anything about it. (I once proposed that the UN be put in charge of overseeing nothing is done to the forests of the Amazon and Borneo. Overseeing with force. Overseeing for the sake of the planet.) We throw our trash into the sea and wish it away with every passing wave. Bye plastic bottle, don't end up on my shore. We extract oil like nothing and we're all sure of the scramble that's gonna happen when it really starts to run out in my lifetime. Yet we don't seem very concerned, are we? Strange. That BP oil leak in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico isn't alarming as many people as I thought it would. The matter seems were placated by the oil giant that announced quickly it would foot the bill. Try footing nature's bill.

Let's face it, we treat our planet like crap. All for economic gain and the survival of the fittest, we plunder its resources. Who are we to take everything without a care? Why aren't we concerned that our kids are going to behave in the samw way? We're selfish that's why. We are inherently selfish. Ok, that's sad but still funny in a cynical kind of way.

Always Someone Who Wants To Kill You

2010-05-03T23:30:00.002+08:00

Imagine if it did happen. One moment the normal sounds of the street in the afternoon - busy, noisy, people peddling their touristy knick knacks, people having conversations walking by shops, walking into shops, people moving through the crowds avoiding others because they're late for a play. A moment as normal as normal could be.

The next moment would have been like a scene from Die Hard. A quick flash of light followed by a giant ever-expanding ball of orange-yellow-crimson fire. Fire that suddenly engulfed everything in a 10 metre radius. There would have been no time to even blink if you were passing by close. One's eyes would be instantly blinded by the heat, mouth and nostrils seared by hot gas. Hands would move up to cover the face next, as protection but it would be meaningless as they would soon lose their first layer of skin. Burnt crisp and irrelevant. Then pain. Hair and clothes on fire, propagating the sheer terror. The brain would have had time to react properly. Reflex would have done as much as it could before the nervous system and sensory receptors connect the dots and suddenly one would realise the unimaginable.

Immediately many around the car would have died, and many more would be hurt by things blowing up, the searing heat, and flying pieces of metal and glass. The shockwave could have caused glass across the street to shard up in mere milliseconds. Sharp, painful slivers of knives. More could be hurt by stampeding crowds trying to escape in any direction. Adjacent buildings could have caught fire pretty quickly and perhaps those trapped within would have been suffocated by choking smoke. Running, screaming, tears. Drama.

That's the first few minutes of reality shattering if the Times Square bomb had gone off. It got me a little freaked. Wow, we are always at war. There's always someone who wants to kill people. Always.

People kill people. Would we be better off as animals? Settled with teeth and harems. Quick, circle of life kind of means to an end. Bloody miserable isn't it? Pop culture to blame? Are we all too desensitized to death because we see gore and blood all the times in the movies? Yet we make fun of the Amish. We are the joke sometimes - too much brain to get along with one another but with no one really laughing except for the mad men who have seen and expected it all. The failure of humanity to save itself. It's hard to think about but seriously this is what we have become. There are countless examples of our stupidity and there seems no end to our capacity for mutual destruction. What do we do? It's quite likely we'll blow ourselves to bits. Maybe that's why all the kids are partying like it's 1999.

Well, fingers crossed, prayers answered, we get to see the blue sky another day.

Foolish Football

2010-05-02T23:36:00.000+08:00

This evening I saw live football on TV because Starhub felt like rewardng everyone for not complaining too much about the channel number changes. Might as well take advantage of the temporary kindheartedness.

The football match to watch was Liverpool versus Chelsea. I am a Liverpool supporter and I dare not apply the word fan because I don't have the sufficient passion to carry on with the Liverpudlian spirit. Yes I keep abreast of the matches, wins and losses via the papers because 50% more for cable TV is too much to watch weekend soccer for. Anyway, before the match began, my brother in law asked if I was supporting Liverpool because an Anfieild win tonight would have dented Chelsea's chances to winning the league and exalted Manchester United's chances instead. THere you go, the enemy Man U would gain at the expense of Liverpool's win. How deplorable. I even found it funny, a sort of Catch-22 for the big picture situation. So in my heart of hearts I wanted Chelsea to win. I am sorry but that was the truth. I couldn't take more smug expressions from Man U fans who somehow being 10,000 miles away feel like they contributed to their club's long and way overdue run at glory.

Tonight's match was going to go my way and did. It was a sad performance from the Reds. Sad. Gerrard back pass to the keeper had Drogba's quick thinking wrapped all around it and Chelsea scored from that boo-boo. The next goal was pretty nice too, from Lampard that one. Liverpool played a little like Singapore when it came to scoring. Awkward shots from far away. Their passing in the penalty area hardly connected. Towards the end of the match the commentator said "the match was over for Liverpool a long time ago". Sigh. Later, he described Liverpool's performance as "insipid" and two other 'l' words I forget. 'Lifeless' I think was one. There was also a shot of a depressed looking Torres on the bench nursing his injuries and shame. They were also booted out of the UEFA cup earlier this week too. A truly miserable end of all. And I fear no one knows how to fix them.

So Man U now have to beat Sunderland and at half time it's one goal for them. Bastards.

Speaking of soccer-related tragedies, it looks like Singapore may not get it's World Cup. Well no one is confirming anything at this juncture, a crucial 5 weeks till it begins. It's really odd that we're one of four countries in the world not having secured any rights for broadcast, the others being Myanmar, Somalia and North Korea. It requires a good stretch of the imagination to put Singapore in that league. We have $ and it seems FIFA wants to milk it. The gahmen is leaving it to the broadcasters to settle the matter. My goodness - do our Radio and TV licence fees not count for anything. There are 800,000 households paying at least $100 a year for these fees and couldn't we porportion some of that dough to free broadcast of the World Cup for all men, women and children on this gleaming island? Imagine if it doesn't happen. Hotels, bars, pubs, cafes and coffeeshops would not be able to make their four year lift in income from beer, nuts and coffee sales. All the ad firms which would do up all the ads for these events would not make that business. There may be political consequences I fear if there is all talk and no action. Well time will tell if Singapore is embarrassed on the world stage and everyone clamours to get booster antennas for RTM1 or RCTI reception.

Space - My 1000 Square Feet

2010-04-26T23:53:00.003+08:00

No not the final frontier. I'd like to bring up living space especially since I've been pouring over the weekend classifieds looking for a suitable flat of late. I think I need a 3 bedroom 1000 square foot space. Some would say unnecessary but I'd like it. Space to not clutter the bedroom, space to lounge around in front of the TV, space to keep empty. Waste of money some would say, with the cost of housing jumping over the moon. But therein also lies the advantage. The bigger the piece of the pie you get now the more valuable it will be later. Cash in and retire in Phuket.

The other subplot in bringing up living space is the result of having visited a friend's apartment in Hong Kong in February. It was in a fantastic location - from the living room window one can see across to Hong Kong Island from Kowloon. Awesome. What I couldn't get used to was the fact it was a mere 700 square feet. There was the tiniest kitchen I ever saw plus 3 tiny bedrooms. Amazing. To think that HKers were surviving in living spaces as cramped as these for decades, it blew my mind. In Singapore, we're used to larger space, even if we had our surroundings built vertically. Our 3 room flats, the smallest HDB dwellings for quite some time before the introduction of granny flats, are about 70 square metres and that's larger than the space my friend was living in for a couple of years in Hong Kong!

This was an education for me, a study in constraints and acceptance. What does growing up in a small space do for one's psyche? Does the small space make you long for Australia's or Canada's wide open wilderness? Perhaps not if you were never exposed to mind boggling expanses. Would it limit your ability to think out of the box? Perhaps not. HKers are pretty creative when it comes to getting things done. Are they narrow minded? Maybe some. But they have the freest economy in the world adn that isn't a product of inwardness. Maybe the small space make one develop socially very quickly. There's no running away from other people, no gap to prevent interaction, no barrier to the noise and smells of the city. Everything out there in your face. I bet one grows up pretty fast in a cramped city. The fight for space is also what makes the HK island skyline so fantastic. Vertical giants popping up in the tiniest of corners and rising hundreds of meters in the air, competing for recognition and perhaps survival. The only way there is up.

I don't know if Singapore could handle the minute sizes. We are seeing tiny pigeon hole apartments popping up in the city of late. HK size abodes to cater to the single movers and shakers. It's a change we have to accept and deal with. But here I am looking for a 1000 sq feet to grow old in. Perhaps we are a young country with more vertical transformation in store. But we hold our green space dear. Trees and spaces and sky and sea. We need these things to keep sane. As the gahmen tries to bolster the population to 6.5 million to keep the economy going and Singapore going, some have come to ask if the sacrifice of space is necessary. Yes and no I guess. There a finite piece of land to make babies and miracles in. There's still room to breathe and smell the roses. But finite. Still requires some figuring out.

On Taxis, Or The Lack Thereof

2010-04-03T09:10:00.005+08:00

The other night I was working late and it was about 930pm when I was done. As I cruised along the very long escalator to the ground floor, I resolved to take a taxi home. I wanted to get home quick so I could selfishly play with my nephew before his bedtime (I had missed out on nephew-time for a few nights already).

At the taxi stand there was of course a queue. Many taxis with red 'hired' or 'on call' signs zoomed by. Every 5 minutes or so, an available taxi would come around the bend and stop at the stand. I figured that wasn't so bad for a Thursday night, at least the demand was slowly being fed. I should be so lucky.

At the head of the queue, the good flow ended. Even the available taxis were 'changing shift' to venture only to their specific destinations. Many, like myself, were frustrated and some resorted to booking a taxi. I recalled then two experiences: one, working at Shaw Towers years ago, a colleague advised then, I should work till midnight because that's when the taxis come out. And two, a present colleague based in Hong Kong was in town for a meeting, and told other visiting colleagues from Europe that she had given up on flagging down a taxi in Singapore city in the evenings or when it rained.

Sigh.

A regular person's inability to flag a taxi off the streets is a serious matter. It makes ordinary Singaporeans angry, knowing they're at the mercy of a service provider. It makes us angrier that the only feasible solution seems to forking out money to solve the problem. We feel like we're being taken for a ride, by the drivers, the taxi companies and the council that comes up with senseless rules and policies. (Yeah $3 more for being picked up in the city. Aren't there enough passengers there already?) Anger leads to hate, Yoda said, and hate leads to the Dark Side.

This matter speaks of a greedy ill manifesting in monopolies. We're already seeing how crappy things can turn with cable TV. The powers that be think that they can solve/ have solved the problem of supposedly insufficient taxi numbers by introducing more players into the market, under the guidance of some transport council. Unfortunately, they do not understand the real problem, a very human ailment, greed.

Corporations want more profit --> rents out taxis at high cost --> taxi drivers need to make more $ --> taxi drivers wait for bookings in the city from which they make at least $5 more per ride --> taxis scoot around the city waiting for passengers to give in

Sigh. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that we're mostly at the mercy of others.

So solution time. Public fury I think is one way the rulesetters can be made to listen. This is however unlikely in sensible Singapore.

If someone could set up a taxi company that broke the rules and put the paying passenger first, it would send a strong signal to the other companies to 'wake up their ideas'. We need a game changer. Here's what I would do if I ran this company:
1. No dumb charges from city pickups. Only ERP.
2. Call to book at no charge. In fact, I'd give a 10% discount like they do in Hong Kong.
3. No rubbish peak hour charges. No extra charges for airport pickups.
4. Roadside pickups at regular cost but given point 2, who'd wait by the kerb?
5. Ambush queues with instant taxis. Why wait for the competition to show up? How about a fleet of taxis showing up on a schedule? That'll help manage one's overtime, yes?
6. Starting fares at $4. That's the only perceived disadvantage but soon passengers will realise the good deal they're getting and that'll build loyalty.
7. Reward loyalty.

There's surely lots more to figure out but this is where I'd start. Disruption - I learned that from the last place I worked.

Inspiration Is Perishable

2010-04-01T09:10:00.005+08:00

Inspiration is perishable

We all have ideas. Ideas are immortal. They last forever.

What doesn't last forever is inspiration. Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: It has an expiration date.

If you want to do something, you've got to do it now. You can't put it on a shelf and wait two months to get around to it. You can't just say you'll do it later. Later, you won't be pumped up about it anymore.

If you're inspired on a Friday, swear off the weekend and dive into the project. When you're high on inspiration, you can get two weeks of work done in twenty-four hours. Inspiration is a time machine in that way.

Inspiration is a magical thing, a productivity multiplier, a motivator. But it won't wait for you. Inspiration is a now thing. If it grabs you, grab it right back and put it to work.

Excerpted from Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson © 2010 37signals, LLC. Reprinted by permission of Crown Business, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group.

Find out more about the book >>
Get the book >>

Before Midnight

2010-03-22T00:05:00.001+08:00

The funny thing is that I have no specific topic to blog about on. I have been contemplating several issues and events but somehow they got around to becoming important or massive enough to blog about. A shame really I guess because I really should just put fingers to keyboard and regardless of written length, just pen words to my blog. I have an iPhone and clearly have not utilized it adequately for this purpose, though I have restarted adding content in my other blog, The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten. Did 3 stories in 3 train journeys to work. A productive use of the time.

Let's see, how shall this go on? Randomly seems best.

The Northeast Line trains do not have hand grips above and along the rows of seats. So people don't want to move in to the centre of the car for fear falling over. It's a dumb situation easily fixed with a bit of welding. We're supposed to pack ourselves in at peak hour but some help with stability would be good, dear MRT gods. Some trains on the other SMRT lines have such rows of handgrips but the smart designers removed the handgrips in the middle. So it's sort of back to square one with that one.

Work is gonna get more intense. Greater responsibility has fallen onto these shoulders and, fingers crossed, people will listen to my ideas and there's budget and all goes well.

I've been looking at HDB flats to buy and eventually move into. Each weekend I peruse the classifieds sections of the weekend papers for promising outcomes. I sms agents and most reply with an invitation to view. I think of these as weekend excursions. I bring the family on these semi fun trips to visit other people's homes. My mum will criticise the colour schemes and ask about kitchen cabinets while I usually stare in disbelief at the asking price. Well there is one flat that's got my attention and we've seen it twice. I've also stopped at a bank to ask about loans. I have been in denial this phase of Singaporean life, the lifelong debt bit. At least the girl at the bank was nice.

Ok, midnight, time to sleep. To be continued to some degree.

A Piece Of Mutton, Or Something

2010-03-09T23:18:00.001+08:00

The night or two before the biopsy I had trouble sleeping. I thought I'd be cool about it but the subconscious had other concerns. This time there was a repeat of the tossing and turning. I am a little morbid about bad things happening. I guess thinking the worst helps me handle whatever the outcome would be. I blame television.

I got my biopsy results last Friday. Funny thing was that I forgot to get off at my intended train station to switch trains to get to the hospital. I took the path to work, before realising the literal error of my ways at Dhoby Ghaut. When I got off at Novena, I contemplated taking a bus but the SG Buses app told me the only bus I could take would arrive in 7 minutes. I would only need to take it one bus stop away. I didn't wanna sweat in our God-forsaken heat of late, ok.

I ended up walking nonetheless. They took my weight again. I couldn't understand why. The male nurse attending to me told me if I gained weight it would be a good sign. I told him it was the excesses from the Christmas - New Year - Chinese New Year season of overeating.

The doctor said there was no sign of malignancy. That was enough for me. But what was the spongy mass of benign curiosity in my right lung? A granuloma. Web definitions include "Non-cancerous lumps that can form when certain body cells surround foreign material, such as silicone. Like any lump, it should be evaluated to distinguish it from a lump that might be cancerous." "Granuloma is a medical term for a ball-like collection of immune cells which forms when the immune system attempts to wall off substances that it perceives as foreign but is unable to eliminate."

So my friends could be right - a piece of mutton.

The doctor also said it was shrinking. Double woohoos. She showed me Xray scans on her less than adequate monitors on her desk as evidence of her newly announced diagnosis.

So that concludes it. The first 2 months of medical drama for 2010.

My First Hospitalization

2010-02-27T01:15:00.002+08:00

Did I mention that there was a sizeable anomaly growing in my right lung?

It's quite a long story as to its discovery but the short version is that multiple xrays in January taken to ascertain whether I had tuberculosis instead led to the finding of a mass in my lower front of the right airbag. No I don't have TB. I sense a sigh of relief among the people I may breathe on and around. (There is a sign at the TB Clinic that read in no uncertain terms "Tuberculosis is a serious infectious airborne disease".)

I also went for a CT Scan where they lay one down on a bed at moves vertically and one direction horizontally through a giant ring. Inside the ring, something spins. It takes images in slices across the vertical plane of whatever's in the ring. That was me was weeks ago when embarassingly my dry left contact lens managed to elicit a tear of relief that promptly exited my then horizontally reclined eye, down my face. The nurse thought I was afraid. Goodness. The only other things I remember from this scanning was that the machine was made by Siemens, the spin frequency was 666Mhz (because there was a display right above where I lay, the sides of the aircon vents on the ceiling looked filthy and the attendants took an ominous pause when they came out of their room to tell me the procedure was over.

When I told some friends about this mass, it got christened "a piece of mutton" and "sponge". At home, the folks expressed their worry and lamented at what a 'suay' the start of the year had been. I was not quite as worried.

The docs were curious though. So they set me up a biopsy to extract some fleshy morsels and run various tests. That happened today, a day surgery at Tan Tock Seng.

I was decked out in hospital patient gear, a fashionable blue set of pajamas and a giant apron that went around my neck and was open at the back. Wheeled down some floors on the hospital bed, I met my good friend CT scan machine again. This time it would the doctor's guide in his quest to fish out some flesh.

And what you saw on House is true. Biopsies hurt! They administered a local anaesthetic and those injections hurt like hell already even before the big needle made its presence felt. Come on, right lung with a rib cage in the way, something's sure gotta hurt. I was of course looking up all the time, at same not-so-pleasant ceiling, with the 7 vertical slits of the CT machine's built-in speaker some 5 inches up and ahead from my face plus a yellow light that kept coming on when the guiding laser was positioned. Yes there was a laser, probably like those laser sights that produce red dots on targets for assasination in the movies. As I was slide into the ring, I read a sticker on the inner side of the ring that read "Class 2 Laser Device. Do not look into the laser directly" - a cause for concern since I was in the spinning ring of image gathering. So the doc came round, introduced himself and got on with the procedure.

He disinfected the area with at least 3 cold fluids and a spray which made my body quivver. Then came the pain relief injections that hurt so bad dispensing their wares. There were other sets of insertions and compressions to my chest and the whammy, I could feel the needle entering the deeper recesses of my chest, into the lung. It hurt. I tensed like any human would, my spine tightening and back sweating. All the while I kept tellingyself to breathe with long, controlled inhales and exhales to relax and not freak out but makes you do dumb things. And guess what? The needle didn't quite hit the spot. So there another poke. This time I knew the doc was fiddling on target because after a bout of insane pain, I could not breathe normally. Yup, he got the lung! Funny that people say you can survive with one lung that it isn't quite the slight difference you expect. With difficulty breathing and a right arm very numb from being propped over the head for eternity, it was a new level of physical agony I was brought to. Wow, I never knew it could hurt so bad. I wanted the doc to stop. I also knew it didn't matter if I did ask him to cease. This pain wasn't gonna go away in an instant.

Having got the stab right, the doc asked me to "breathe in, breathe out slowly". That screwed up my conscious attempt at relaxation and threw my mind and lungs into uncoordinated disarray. I was a little pissed. Was I not calm enough for you suck out spongy samples? At the same my brain rationalized that breathing out slowly gave the doc some control over how to manipulate the extraction. Imagine all this thinking happening as searing pain radiated in my chest.

Slightly traumatized I guess I was, even the operation was over because the pain and laboured breathing didn't end. The blood was returning to my arm as I lay outside along the corridor in the Diagnostic Radiology department staring blankly at the flourescent lighting above. Ow ow ow ow ow! My mouth was too dry to utter anything, my brain was processing my anguish. The doctor came over to ask if all was ok. I can't remember when he explained that the mass kept moving with my breathing and that made the extraction tougher. Oklah.

I was wheeled up to my shared room and progressively the pain subsided. TV provided some relief too although all channels were free-to-air. Then the relief of Milo and biscuits (I had to fast since midnight the night before and it was about 11am when chocolatey goodness was dispensed. Thank you kind nurse) and then lunch. It wasn't bad - I had chappatis (!) and mildly curried chicken and green veg.

By 2pm I was addicted to a TV3 melodrama about a bad son and his undoing/retribution. It wasn't half bad but had to whisked away for another xray to check the lung was fine. My mum filled me in on what transpired on the show when I got back.

All clear was at 430pm. We proceeded to then have a Killiney teh si and then thosais in Little India.

At home, I confirmed the dual vampire punctures from the repeated entry of the big bad biopsy needle with two distinct spots of dried blood remnants on the bandage that I need to keep on till ten the next day.

Now to rest and heal.

Side note, I ran into a friend from JC who's now a doctor (ahem!) in TTSH, and I learned that my body redirects stress to my lower back. That's probably why I suck at some yoga poses.

Google To The Rescue

2010-02-21T18:46:00.002+08:00

I went "Thank God for Google" yesterday at my ex-ex-boss' boss (complicated interdepartmental shuffling makes for equally bizarre prefixes) for Chinese New Year lunch. Having graciously accepted the kind invitation, guests were treated to twee bak bee hoon served with fiery sambal and limes, and chicken curry with bread with dried longan soup for palate cleansing. Someone brought cheesecake (an odd but interesting mix) and there was obligatory yusheng too. That's when my divine praise came forth. The host asked if anyone knew what to say as she poured out the various ingredients and condiments that made up the dish. Most of us were stuck at "nian nian you yu" and "tian tian mi mi", a miserable recollection of yusheng tosses of yore. So I whipped out the good ol iPhone and Googled the necessary: "what to say with yusheng" and voilà! The answers were on screen before us. Awesome.

Find what to say at your next fish toss here >>

Where would we be today without quick and easy aggregation of information? Would Yahoo! and Microsoft have stepped up to the plate as readily and cleanly, and perhaps so prolifically? I dunno. And having the iPhone with connectivity is no less short of a necessity for all this data to come through so competently and coherently. Industry game changers and life changers too. Information here, now and forever.

This is the future I imagined.

Recent Music

2010-02-18T13:05:00.004+08:00

I hadn't been to a rock concert in a long while. In fact, I couldn't remember the last time I was at a concert of any kind. A right-at-the-back-row viewing of Jeremy Monteiro at the Esplanade comes to mind. Since last November however, I was all set and committed to watch two bands perform at the Indoor Stadium, Muse and The Killers. The latter cancelled a few days before they were due to bang the drums on our shores. Ten of us who were going to attend as a complete row of paying fans were duly disappointed. Muse however showed up from their Big Day Out adventure in Australia and didn't decide to 'take it slow' as they flew over Alice Springs. They were awesome. Loud and true to form, Muse showed they could almost perfectly transform CD music to on-stage magnificence. The crowd was all set for the anthemic melodies of Time Is Running Out, Uprising, and the classic finale, Knights Of Cydonia, with arms in the air and vocal chords straining to sing along to Matthew Belamy's peerless exhortations. It was quite awesome. Kudos to the back section of floor ticket concert goers who probably could see little beyond the video walls, but we're equally, if not more, wild. (I could see and praise them from my lofty vantage point. )

All my Muse concert pixes, plus 1 video >>

Moving away from the live genre, let me talk about Glee. This TV show is like a combination of High School Musical, American Idol and The Hills, perfectly set into the best heartwarming comedy to grace TV sets. Here's the thing: everytime I hear their rendition of Don't Stop Believin, I tear up. I dunno why. It happened twice in one day! It's a great song though. The staid, solid renderings of Steve Perry transformed into a chirpier yet more potent, sharper sign-of-the-times anthem for the disillusioned masses. A song of hope. The Journey version was out in the early 80s when problems were a little different. This Glee cover speaks to a wider band of audience, from kids who need a pick me up to those who were kids in the 80s and now have no job or home. It's powerful. Close your eyes and feel it. And cry.

Last but not least, this post includes a description of my music purchases from HK. It was a weird, unscripted agenda during the visit to cold and grey HK but HMV was having a sale. After all the girls had scowered the mall and judged it inconsequential. I was bored and entered this heavenly realm. I bought
- Acolyte from Delphic
- Music For Men from Gossip
- Absolution from Muse
- a 3cd dance compilation from Cream
The first two bands are electro rock bands that are making the rounds in the UK and acclaimed to the next big things. Muse is of course Muse. I went to the concert without any music from them, just what I heard on radio and on YouTube. So I figured I'd pay homage. The last album was a no brainer for me because I grew up on UK flavoured dance and house. I told the girls that "this is my Miu Miu" because they spent the day before raving about their purchases of expensive baggage.

That's about the size of it.

Down Then Back Up

2010-02-10T21:18:00.001+08:00

Funny day today. When I first joined this job, my desk was with a department, let's call them Team A, on level 17. Last year in August the whole bunch of us packed our precious whatnots into a maximum 2 boxes each and headed down to level 12. We missed our lovely wood panelled cupboards and desks albeit for a short time because the we began to fall in love with our spacious cold grey metal and plastic surrounds. I was also made part of a brand new department set to shift perceptions, take control and make money. Today, after some debate among the powers that be and several PowerPoint decks and perhaps even power plays/struggles from which my boss and I were assigned another department, we moved back up to level 17. Instantaneously we felt cramped. We didn't really accumulate much new stuff so it was purely an aesthetic rejection. But soon I was liking it after putting everything in its right place, monitor connected to the lappy, pretty things on the shelf, giant calendar on general shelving, ugly cumbersome things stashed away, printer hooked up, it was all good. My boss is taking his time moving his model planes and photos up. The only gripe I have is the exposure I now have to eyes along the corridor. We couldn't decide on where to sit so I am stuck exposed to the cushioned putter patter of colleagues' feet. Well, at least the fengshui rocks.

Screen Fingers

2010-02-02T22:03:00.000+08:00

I always thought I'd be blogging more with an iPhone. It would have been instant and frequent I thought. But I've been fascinated and occupied with other things that the mobile Internet has allowed me to do. I check my emails, talk to fellow iPhoners on Whatsapp (I figured out today that the creator of the app couldn't name it Whatsup for whatever reason and decided to tweak the spelling), check the news, read feeds and catch up on my favourite bloggers, photographers and news providers on the go and last but certainly not the least time consuming, play games. Yes, the one with two left hands with computer games, is using sways and jerks to play Dark Nebula, and tiny finger flicks to play SG Mahjong.

Both of these games like many others are addictive. Dark Nebula is awesomely loaded with space, sci-fi graphics all you need to do is bring a ball to the end of an obstacle-laden course, and not plummet to life minus one. Bounce, avoid and roll. SG Mahjong is well mahjong plain and simple. The cool thing is that the thrown tiles are neatly arranged before you and the app prompts you to pong or hu when the appropriate tile appears. The bad thing is that I have throw away important tiles because my flicking finger is too big and it locked on to the wrong tile. Still it's loads of fun and there's no money to pay out. Woof.

Not that I am constantly on my iPhone. Just when there's nothing much else to do.

Keeping Eyes Open

2010-01-25T14:10:00.001+08:00

I'm at the Singapore National Eye Centre writing this. My mum's gone into the operating theatre for her second cataract operation and I have been assigned by the family to spend my afternoon here. This gives me the rare opportunity to take stock of the situation 'live' and like all duitiful Singaporeans, complain. I pay taxes what.

Number one, after we went up to level 2 and waited 5 minutes at the big sign that read 'Registration', the nice lady inside the room came told us "Operation ah? Go through the glass door and turn left." Did it look like we were tourists? Why can't they simply put up a simple sign and not waste my half-day's leave? Goodness.

Number two. My mum's got an appoinment for her surgery. So one would expect a more logical system in handling the crowd waiting to be served.

(break) A guy just came up to me to ask if this was the Heart Centre. (end break)

There is a box instead. Drop your appointment card in but we have a list of scheduled appointments, so don't expect to be called first, or something like that. If there's a list of scheduled appointments, why have a box for cards? Shouldn't there be a list of names to be called out or displayed instead? A nurse came to retrieve the cards, opened the box and failed to take my mum's card at the bottom of the translucent box. It was the only other card in the box. Goodness.

Number three. These nurses are a little too nice. In the midst of taking my mum's blood sugar reading, a 'concerned' relative of one of the waiting patients came to ask why the wait was so long. The nurse then stepped away from my mum to explain in quite an extensive degree about the appointment schedule and the doctors on staff, blah blah. What she should have done is ask "Were you here too early? That's what appointments are for. And by the way, you're too young to be taking up space while the elderly are standing around." Goodness.

And last but not least, as I sit here at the ground on a nice, hard wooden bench below the shiny staircase, I realist problem 4. No one really knows where to go. People don't get their eyes fixed regularly so most visitors here aren't quite familiar with the SNEC. 80% of the folks here are old and many don't quite speak English or read signs. But there's no one really helping. People are asking the cleaners where to go. There are also way too many counters that read 'Registration'. One old man has been walking around with too much pride to ask for directions. Couldn't they simply get student volunteers to sit here and tell people where to go? And with all these old folks, why aren't there more wheelchairs around, and people offering them to those with walking sticks? Goodness.

What's worse is that there a huge display in the foyer that showcases the technological advancements the SNEC has introduced to make work for efficient here, like a 'digital boardroom'. Oh my god, people come here to fix their vision, not apply for a job! Get over yourselves, please.

Heartbreak Warfare - John Mayer

2010-01-21T14:42:00.002+08:00

One of my current favourites. Simply awesome, smart-straight shooter lyrics. How can you beat "If you want more love, why don't you just say so?" and "How come the only way to see how high you get me is to see how far I fall?". This is good, real good.

Word

2010-01-20T22:24:00.001+08:00

Word up. One of the big things most people learn as they leap from kidhood to grownuphood is how important one's word become. By 'word' I mean promise or expression of commitment, and by grownuphood I mean how mature we become whatever age it may happen. As kids in school we make promises to get good grades, be nice and do out homework on time. We generally break all these promises without much worry. Carefree and fancyfree, we may have been (some of us still are). As we grow up, more responsibilities we take on and our promises mean a lot more. Like with school at higher levels. We get more serious about things and life. Commitments become more focused and in some cases, profound and less tangible. Like with commitments to loved ones and better halves. As we work, we are held to our simple promise of the terms of our employment, between worker and boss, between colleagues, between clients and vendors. "I'll send you the files later" means exactly that. Yet so often nothing holds true. Promise broken. We move on.

What I've come to believe at this ripe old age, is that the most important promises one can make are to oneself and to a child. Oneself because when you break a commitment to yourself, it is a regret that you bear. Rectifying it should be easy but hardly we think about how we may have let ourselves down. A simple example is the commitment to exercise, a promise that's simple to ignore. When the doc later prescribes the cholesterol meds, it'll be "damn I wished I had started running last year".

To a child because that's how they learn about keeping commitments. I told my sis if she's announced to her son, my nephew, that they're going to the beach on the weekend, they'd better go. I don't want him to miss out because some parent decides he/she is feeling lazy and takes a rain check on a commtment. Not good for the kid. I enforce the idea of a promise when I let the little tyke run around the house, if he 'promises' not to make a mess. Else it's a time out in the cradle.

A good resolution for the year is to stop feeling like crap and keep your word, to family, friends and to yourself.

iPhoned

2010-01-11T23:21:00.000+08:00

So after many months of mulling over, analyzing data, checking updates and upgrades, toying with other people's devices and contemplating switching networks, I have purchased the Apple iPhone. I was warned many a time that it's not a phone but a computer with a phone application. How true is that. I've not called anyone but have added apps, checked where I live on Maps, sorted my Contacts and adjusted settings. And the battery is down by a third already. I was warned abt that too, a bugbear among even Mac evangelists. Well, it's the beginning of a new and wonderful relationship.

Sat Night A&E

2010-01-10T02:54:00.003+08:00

I never liked going to the doctors, and less so, hospitals. Somehow the whole idea of being sick was never quite appealing. I also never was the pill-popping type, enduring headaches to the point to throb before taking white, god-sent pills of pain relief, contextually of course. Painkillers don't go to the source of the problem but numb the whole body when the whole body doesn't need the attention. So that bothers me. Tonight however the situation was different. I started having my strange chest pains on the right side once again, after a heavy meal on Friday night. The next day, the pain was still there. It sort of dulls when I just breathe, hurts way more when I laugh, get out of bed, or carry the 2-yr old monster of a nephew. By 9pm yesterday, breathing was a little laboured and apparently I looked pale. My friends at dinner commented the same after a round of Taboo on Friday night. So to quash all impressions of my stubborns and to appease the increasingly worried mother, I went to Tan Tock Seng's Accident and Emergency at 11pm.

As it was a chest related matter, I was served pretty quickly. ECG, blood pressure checks and preliminary assessments done in half hour. Then I waited to see the doc. He was a very skinny young man who looked slightly malnourished. He was very nice and I applied my jovial chat skills to good use. I learned that the everyday background radiation we experience is higher than the intensity of x-rays used for radiology. He listened to my front and back, squeezed by calves to check for Deep Vein Thrombosis (he said, just to rule it out), and made me stretch out my arms. An x-ray followed then some more waiting. There was a flat panel TV perched 2 meters in the air locked on to Channel 5. There was Star Wars earlier but I missed the scene when the Death Star was blown up, and got back to watch Privileged, a strange show with pretty Californians.

Called in some time later, the doctor told me, get this, the x-ray of my lungs was "pristine". His words, not mine. So in the end, he prescribed 40 pills of Anarex and wished me good luck, just as I had wished him when he took his strange assessment of Gurmit Singh Kullar to his senior doctor for a confirmed opinion and approach to this pain problem at hand.

That's it. Another receipt to claim on Monday and more pills to take, more fingers to cross. I was a little upset that I now am now in the hospital records. Like being tracked on the grid.

Not A Fine And Dandy Start To The New Year

2010-01-06T23:17:00.000+08:00

On the morning of January 1 I woke up with a stiff neck. I couldn't really gain full motion of my chin to my left shoulder. On January 2, I woke with a funny pain in my lower back. It was not the same old pain I had pre-yoga, that awful pinched nerve that could essentially paralyse me. This one was a lower done the pelvic bone, sort of muscular or skeletal in nature. I still made myself attend 90mins of sweaty bending that afternoon. Then I had a cider. Ah. Then I went to buy new pillows.

Today, I still can't really turn my head to the left. Worse still, some of pain has gone on an adventure to scope out other regions of my torso to take hostage. I felt a twinge on my right back near the shoulder two days ago. Today it moved to the top end of my ribcage. It hurts when I take a full breath (bikram yoga pose 1) The back pain is almost gone. It's there when I think about it.

Yoga yesterday was a surprise. I made through another hour and half of great physical strain. I have been doing the same 26 postures for the past year plus and yesterday felt like my first lesson. My legs were on the verge of buckling during the the 'powerful pose', the 'heels up' pose and the 'thighs together and bend your knees' pose. Aiyoh. Pain in my thighs like they were metal being stretched out in a furnace.

To add to the assortment of pain my body is trying to endure, I have been at work with a bunch of ill colleagues. One lady came in with a raspy throat with volumes of phelgm trying to leave her windpipe. We could all hear it. The next day she was better but her colleague who was down with a fever popped in for a full day's work not fully cured of his ailment. I think I have caught a mix of their rojak viruses and bacteria. I have a headache as I bash away at the keyboard, and I can feel my temperature rising. I took a Panadol ten minutes ago and a Vit C pill an hour earlier. The only highlight of the evening were the extra cute, extra adorable Golden Retriever puppies on Greatest American Dog.

I am off to bed now. I feel the Paracetamol kicking in.

HDB Didn't Build Enuff Flats

2010-01-06T00:03:00.003+08:00

This is the email I sent to TODAY newspaper on Sunday 3 Jan 2010 in response to reading about an article on how a HDB is an asset with an interview with Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan.

I am writing to give my opinion of the article "Asset that keeps growing" published on 30 December 2009.

From 2001-05 the HDB built over 50,000 dwelling units, an average of 10,000 units a year. However from 2006-08, only an average of 3,650 were constructed annually, a reduction of 63%.

Given that the number of marriages over the same period remained steady at about 24,000 annually, additional factors, like the influx of PRs and greater investment in property after the financial market crash, added on to the normal demand for HDB flats. It was inevitable and forseeable that the HDB's reduced flat supply from 2006 onwards has bearing on the housing market situation today. A simple case of supply and demand. In fact, the situation was obvious much earlier with price increases causing a steep uptrend in the Price Index of HDB Flats from since the start of 2007.

In addition to the BTO sales planned for 2010, perhaps the HDB should look into two current policies that frustrate some flat buyers.

Firstly, some cash-over-valuation (COV) demands for flats in the resale market have gone into ridiculous excesses. One housing agent I spoke to was asking for $90,000 over the valuation price of $460,000 for a 5-room flat. I am not sure how this expectation that buyers have lots of cash sitting around came about. This situation is putting buyers who do not prefer to wait for BTO units to be completed in 3-4 years' time under great financial pressure. The Balance of Flats sale conducted in October 2009 (where buyers do not need to fork out any COV) was 10 times oversubscribed - an indication that buyers do not wish to be subject to the whims and fancies of property agents and their sales commissions. Perhaps the HDB should introduce guidelines or even curbs to limit cash-over-valuation requirements.

Secondly, I feel that the sale of flats to singles from the age of 35 onwards is no longer relevant. If the intention behind this policy was to encourage marriage and subsequently an increase in the birth rate, it is clear that it has not worked. The number of marriages has not greatly increased and our total fertility rate remains well below replacement levels. Since most Singaporeans enter the workforce by age 25, extending the responsibilities of adulthood should include finding a financially-viable roof over their heads. It is also quite plausible that that singles with a home will pursue marriage and start a family more readily. The HDB can extend the concept of 'growing an asset', an important life lesson, to young adults here by allowing them to purchase flats perhaps after 5 years of steady contributions to their CPF.

Gurmit Singh Kullar

References
- HDB construction stats from the HDB Annual Report 2008-09 at http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10221p.nsf/0/d4a0f107613b79944825766200236310/$FILE/index.html
- Price Index of HDB Flats seen at http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10201p.nsf/WPDis/Buying%20A%20Resale%20FlatStatistics%20-%20Resale%20Price%20Index?OpenDocument
- Marriage stats from http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/themes/people/marriages.pdf
- Population growth rates calculated from data at http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/themes/people/hist/popn.html
- Fertility rates data from http://www.nps.gov.sg/files/news/Population%20in%20Brief%202009.pdf
- Workforce data from http://www.mom.gov.sg/publish/etc/medialib/mom_library/mrsd/ms.Par.95462.File.tmp/mrsd_singapore_workforce_2008.pdf (Slide 8)

A Very Serious Episode Of House

2009-12-31T00:15:00.004+08:00

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

2009-12-28T23:38:00.004+08:00

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

2009-12-28T00:31:00.000+08:00

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

2009-12-26T14:05:00.003+08:00

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

2009-12-26T04:38:00.001+08:00

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

2009-12-21T22:07:00.001+08:00

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

2009-12-20T00:38:00.000+08:00

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!

2009-12-19T02:20:00.004+08:00

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

2009-12-18T09:24:00.001+08:00

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

2009-12-13T17:41:00.005+08:00

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

2009-12-10T18:12:00.001+08:00

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

2009-12-05T22:48:00.002+08:00

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

2009-11-25T12:33:00.002+08:00

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

2009-11-23T23:22:00.003+08:00

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

2009-11-02T23:33:00.002+08:00

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

2009-10-29T13:22:00.003+08:00

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

2009-10-28T19:58:00.002+08:00

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

2009-10-27T23:33:00.002+08:00

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

2009-10-15T00:05:00.000+08:00

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!

2009-10-09T12:50:00.003+08:00

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".