MX-5 Crash Story Hits the Straits Times Again

http://forums.hardwarezone.com/showthread.php?t=1574091&page=30&pp=15

Above is the link to a forum page discussing on this. It just feels so funny because just last week, I was chatting with Shiying whom I msn at work the most with on this. How weird that all this is brought up so soon. We only talked on this as we've both been talking about cars to each other pretty much. Ah well....... I don't wanna make statements on what's right or wrong here. My only take is that, for an accident that claimed a life of another and with the case not yet settled. I would wish that the license of the accused be suspended for as long as the verdict is still not out.

The case have dragged pretty long eh. Heard from others that Singapore's judicial system is not up to mark with too much backlog. tsk tsk tsk.... how true.

Pink Badminton Racket

For the people who don't know already, I have a NEW Ashaway badminton racket. It is a nice birthday gift from CheowSheng, Xuemei, Ching, Ling, Melissa, Mervin, Huifen and ZhengLong. Weighs just nicely when held. Need to be tested in a badminton session to get the right feel and vibes about it man. Anyway, think these dudes were all trying to be funny. They got me Neon Pink rubber wrap for grip. It's freaking bright and distinct sia....... Suspect it is silly ZhengLong's idea as it's probably what he always wanted for his clothes and couldn't get.

There was a funny incident related though. Merf upon seeing the racket bag.... asked, "Playing badminton later?" I replied, 'nope, just got it as a gift.' Then he asked, "Why got gift?"...... hahaha........ I had to say, 'You shared in it leh..... and you dunno why?' He's the man.....

P.S. shots of the racket coming right up..... as soon as I remember to get it taken. :p

Help Recommend Me Handphones

Hey all you nice people who come on and see my blog..... Please please help me check on good phones...... and tell me about it. I have basically 2 dilemmas. I want to get a new phone. I'm also considering changing my plan.

1 at a time, for the phone. A few considerations. Firstly, no integrated camera. For hassle-free use when I go for my IPPT, RT and ICT! Anyway, I don't ever use my phone camera function.... especially now that I have my own digital camera. Secondly, Bluetooth with wireless earpiece. For the convenience in usage while driving. Thirdly, guess the rest ain't that important..... COST! Yes..... cost....... help help. Give me value for money bah.....

Now for the 2nd issue. My current plan is the SunTalk 150. Consists of free incoming All Day, 500 free SMS, and 150 minutes of free outgoing talk time at per minute rate of 15.75cents. Basic plan is $24 with Caller ID $5. ie. $29++..... depends on how much I exceed the outgoing calls by. Starhub plans attract me that they bill by per second.... Meaning I can make 10 6 seconds calls charged 1 minute worth rather than the same but charged for 10 minutes worth of talk time. M1 has the benefit that Xuefeng can call me for free as I'm currently within her 3 friends and family... and I have to stay under M1 for this to continue I believe. Also, I've received a further discount of $80 off all phones from M1. SingTel currently is not really within my consideration. There is a catch though. I won't wanna change plan if I can't retain my number. So it is a must have for number retention for me to change service provider.

So all you bright people out there, especially the frequent handphone changers.... give me your kind advice please. Thank you.

Reservist ICT

Just went in for my Reservist In-Camp-Training from the 19th to 23rd of March. It was nostalgia to the max. Suddenly, when you are in the famous green, Dirt, Mud and Smell has no hold over you! This was a low-key ICT being only 5 days with the flow of things geared towards the Combat Shoot. As a Battalion HQ personnel though, I had no run-down and only needed to participate in 100m Fox-hole with support. Sadly, due to some cock-ups with the range system, a lot of men were unhappy with the shots on target not being registered properly and coming away with 70+% for the shoot. We needed 80% for marksmenship as a section of 5 and I was in 1 of the unlucky groups to score 78%! Bye bye $200!!!

Being at reservist always brings me 3 consistent good feels. The 1st being seeing my best friend Andy who just got married in the ICT. He happens to be in the same unit as me~ 451 SAR. We managed to catch up over breaks at the range as well as shopping at the E-Mart.

The 2nd as mentioned is the once a year shopping at E-Mart. I was pretty upset that I had $130+ of credits expired from my SAF E-Mart account in the year of 2006. To my delight, I still had $226 worth of credits this time round. Deciding to splurge as much as I could before anymore sad expiries...... I managed to spend 1/2 of that amount only. Embarrassing though..... I learnt that I could have spent the credits in my account via online-purchasing. duh.....

The 3rd of the good things is always being there to mix it around with the fellow officers. Although we don't meet up any other time during the year, this once a year affair always serves as good bonding time. Every officer there is friendly, helpful and dependable. I guess that came naturally as we all share the same problems with getting things to move forward in the ICTs. Therefore, no officers will Chao Keng or Siam arrows. We will just all come together to help in the workload. This initiative and comradeship is a good feeling.

Oh well..... anyway, my next ICT looks to be in Oct/Nov 2007. It will be high-key this time around. 3 things again. 1- see Andy. 2- fellow officers. 3- E-Mart shopping with my remaining $113 worth of credits. More socks.... more towels..... more shoes. hahaha

Guess

Yo, if this picture is Nightmare,













and this picture is Tapdancers,











What is this picture supposed to be?

Photos of Ariel II

Side view of driver's seat. For more comprehensive viewing.

Forward view from rear passenger view point.

In all, the car is pretty spacious. It is also very sturdy and doesn't float at high speeds. Cornering is also quite good. Takes 5 people easily too! Cruising is also easily achieved from gradual pick up. It's a pretty good car for the price and for getting from point A to point B. Value for money for those with a budget.

Photos of Ariel

1st pic taken the day (or should I say night?) that I collected the car. Brand new feeling! Shiok ah! hahaha. Should have on headlights and fog lights for you all to see. hmmm....

This one shows you the angle of the butt.... hatchback cute? Boot is clearly anonymous from seeing this pic.

Front view people. Not bad eh? Nice colour right? I like!

My Brother Just Bought Insurance

Recommended my brother to this friend of mine, Joseph. He at last bought his insurance. My brother went for PruLink Assurance Account (PAA) which is an Investment-Linked Plan (ILP) with a $100,000 Life and additional $80,000 Critical Illness at $120 per month. He has another plan, PruShield Plan B similar to medishield. That is all he bought.

As for me, I have PruShield Plan A at $92 per annum, a higher coverage plan coupled with AXA SmartCare Plan D at $298 per annum. On top of that, I also have PAA with a $50,000 Life and additional $100,000 Critical Illness at $120 per month. That too is complemented with a ManuLink with a $200,000 Life and accelerated $200,000 Critical Illness at $130 per month.

Therefore in total, I have slightly over double of whatever my brother have at double his cost. That is with the simple note that his income is nearly double that of mine..... He then posed this very basic question to me: "You have the money for your insurance, car and other expenses?" hahaha..... In truth, I am at ZERO! savings monthly and can only comfort myself with the knowledge that, I am maximising my income! bleah!

Oakley Sunglasses for Real!

Oh man...... Can't believe their generosity la! These kids ah!!! So good to me! Ashley (1984), Gordon (1987) and Ruth (1988) have transpired between them to get me such a nice gift! They brought me out shopping for a pair of Oakley sunglasses! THANK YOU THANK YOU!

haaa..... guess what's the funniest part? Ashley lor! She got me such a nice gift ah...... and then she goes on to say; "Wah! The parking here so expensive ah! $6 altogether!!!" Gordon and my reaction was exactly the same...... For a pair of Oakleys..... what's $6!?! Oh! and another Ashley funny side..... she kept on apologizing for 'forgetting' (wishing me happy birthday on day itself) my birthday, when I should be the one profusely thanking her for being sooooooo nice to get me such a precious gift. Of course, not forgetting Gordon and Ruth who has always proven to be really generous towards me all this time throughout the past 2 yrs.

P.S. Hope we really do get to go Bintan or somewhere this holiday after Ashley and Xuefeng graduate from university!

Andy & Xiaoyan are Married

On the 9th of March, 2007, Andy and Xiaoyan are officially married. They went to R.O.M. and signed their papers. Oh my oh my...... how fast status can change.... All my friends are progressively moving from the bf/gf stage into the marriage stage.... So fast... so furious!!! Because of this joyous occasion, I arranged with Andy and Andrew for a get-together.

Here's the final part of our short get-together with a photo taken through a camera on a makeshift tripod (the 2 bottles of chili & ketchup). Our final comments were; "This is a family photo lor! Andy and Xiaoyan are the parents and the other 4 of us their kids! hahaha". Andy looks all smiley hor! He's a happily married man mah.... What you expect!!!

My Past 3 Years Fitness Tests!

Fit as I may appear?!!?! Anyway, the point is, this is beginning to be all too familiar. hahaha. I've been maintaining around the same standard la. The results by the way have small flaws. 1stly, the 14min22s for 26 Feb 2005 is actually 5 rounds and not 6. ie. 2km only. 2ndly, the 12min01s for 30 Nov 2005 is actually 12min41s. Hence, it would have constituted a fail too as I needed 12min40s to qualify as a pass. The result for the run for the 2 Mar 2006 is not reflected as it's a fail and the guy who keyed in the result just didn't care about the actual timing. I went to take that test as I assumed I failed the 30 Nov 2005 attempt.

This time around, I will be taking RT seriously again lor. I believe that's the only way for slackers like me to build my fitness level. If taking a true and fair comparison, my fitness level is actually better than in 26 Feb 2005. That would be due to the fitness regime I went through back in Oct - Dec 2005 ba. Ah well.... take things as they come....

Paparazzi II

Another professional paparazzi shot into Weixiong, Mervin, Huifen and the hidden Becky. Must practise. hehehe

Paparazzi

About time I uploaded this pic of Alvan & Eliz during their wedding day, and me driving past them at my PAPARAZZI best! hahaha

Loco! ***

A very simple game that got me started into collecting games. This game has simple rules you can't go wrong with the rules ever. It goes, Play A Card, Take A Chip. That's it, that's all to the rules. 5 colours, 6 cards per colour set, 5 chips per colour set. Cards range from 0-5. Game ends when any 1 set has all 6 cards down. Points are scored on the last played card per colour. The player with the highest total wins.

Anyway, in teaching new players, it has always been easy and straightforward. From what I observed, this is a game more suited to guys who have more interest in investment. Gameplay can be linked to valuing the stocks, rise and fall of share prices, diversification and hedging. It gets as interesting as your mind goes or as boring as you see it. Good for short introductory games. Selling at $12.15 or under US$5, it is definitely affordable for starters.

SPC 95 vs SPC 92

Oh man..... my mistake.... should have checked out the difference in price earlier. Anyway, my point is that I just pumped petrol last night and decided to have a go at SPC 95. To my enormous surprise.... I was charged $51.05 before discount. This makes me recall that my latest pump of SPC 92 charged me at $50.00 exactly before discount. So I went ahead and compared the 2 receipts and as expected, I pumped 32.63 litres of SPC 92 and 32.61 litres of SPC 95 respectively! Meaning a pure difference of $1 or 2% for the 2 grades of petrol....

I furthered my pursuit and realised that SPC 92 cost $1.532 per litre and SPC 95 cost $1.564 per litre. Hmmm.... 2 % difference in price..... wonder whether distance travelled would give a better return than 2%.... Anyway, also checked that SPC 98 cost $1.637 per litre. Will stick to pumping SPC 95 for the next few tanks or more..... To see if there is any difference in fuel consumption as well as feel and control.

Note: I have diligently saved $6 worth of petrol in pumping SPC 92 over SPC 95 over the last 6 tanks.

Very Happy Birthday Spent with Dearest Xuefeng

Thanks soooooo very much for the entire day. Well, here's the blog for memories' sake. Went over to find Xuefeng at 11:35pm 4th March and spent an hour with her to start off my being 27 years of age. Too tired, couldn't stay longer..... both of us... hahaha.

Xuefeng came over at 9am to deliver breakfast. A simple porridge, our usual pork with century egg. hehe... Sent her to NUS as she has some experiments to carry out and I went back home to shower before meeting her again for lunch. Lunch at Vivo City.... have this super nice place to recommend to all you people out there. Dian Xiao Er..... available at Vivo City, Marina Sq and Hougang Mall. The food was simply excellent! They make all the simple dishes taste great. A must try for all food-lovers out there.

Adjourned to our movie, the Protege.... a very decent show at the least. Not my type entirely, but a great show nevertheless. The show to watch though for this month would be none other than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!!! Those turtles in a hard shell rocks! Well, that's part of my birthday treat too.... heh.... I like...

So, this was how Xuefeng planned it.... She made a box filled with 10 ang pows or so with directions and options. I was supposed to play this game to move along and find out what's up next on the itinerary. Ah... do I hate surprises...... hahaha...... but I do really feel happy with the amount of effort put in. She spent a bomb too..... though it could have been more. There was breakfast, cashcard for parking at Vivo, movie tix for Protege, lunch at Dian Xiao Er, Nachos combo, an offer to top up on my vouchers from Royal Sporting House, dinner from order-in Pizza and tix for TMNT. If everything in, cost can easily run up to over $150.... Well..... so to save.... we did away with dinner and topping up from RSH. See, I'm nice! hahaha

P.S. For those wondering what to get for me, there are a number of items I am looking forward to owning. Don't expect the wish-list to be completed though.
1- Good pair of sunglasses (Oakley anyone?)
2- 100 Love songs for $25 (as advertised)
3- Badminton racket
4- Shoe bag
5- Jacket

Happy Birthday to ME!

Heh.....

Thanks everyone who've messaged me on my birthday itself. A nice total of 13 people. In order of ranking;
1- Gordon Yeo
2- Wan Wei Ching
3- Wee Xuefeng
4- Emay Lo
5- Yao Weixiong
6- Melissa Wu
7- Desmond Khoo
8- Kenneth Chan
9- Joseph Lim
10- John Kho

3 odd messages though.... Miss Wan Wei Ling had the dubious honour of just sending 7 blank messages as a way of well-wishing? Andy Teo and Andrew Wan messaged to ask about our coming weekend plans with no birthday well-wishing! hahaha.

Ah well, enough of the trivia.... now for the nice people who remembered. Andrew Wan was the 1st to present a birthday gift as his gift came over a month early. Thank you thank you. Tan Cheow Sheng was nice to query silly Queen Ash through text about what gift to get for me. :p Had quite a number of people coming up to me on Sunday itself to wish me happy birthday, beginning with of all people Joy! Heh.....

Further on, Ruth got a nice small little rum and raisin flavoured cake though I couldn't really taste that flavour... hahaha.... As for dinner, there was a treat by Gordon and Ruth at Tian Tian steamboat ah... Very filling and sumptious, though not easy on the wallet. doh.... Thanks pals.

Another £153 Spent

Life is an expensive journey wor...... spend here spend there..... like I got so much $$$ liddat!!! Signed up for 3 more papers for June 07. Papers 2.3 - Business Taxation, 2.4 - Financial Management and Control, 2.5 - Financial Reporting. Heard that Biz Tax will be damn tough and considering Merf the man failed in 2 attempts at 2.3, wah..... must study hard hard liao lor. This is my goal now, start studying with all groups of people I hang out with.... hehehe. Must try to get as much done as I can so that by May, I can enjoy the Europe trip.

Look on the bright side..... I LOVE STUDYING! ya right....

Call for $581 Payment!

Just received a friendly call to make payment of $581! UOB ah..... very funny leh..... I applied for GIRO payment for my car loan spanning 4 years at $581 monthly when I 1st got the car on the 16th of Jan. Today, on the 1st of March, they called me up to tell me my loan for payment through GIRO has been approved. Between, my loan was approved when I made my 1st payment on collecting the car in Jan. Along with telling me my GIRO approval, I was told I MISSED a payment due for the 16th of Feb.

Had 2 choices.... either to make double payment through GIRO on the 16th of Mar.... including a late penalty charge, or make payment via cash or cheque. I told the lady over the phone, cash.... this Sat. She says, if paid up by Sat, the late penalty will be waived off..... phew! I like it when they provide all these without me having to ask for it. Makes my day. Wow..... am I not easily contented or what?

P.S. Speaking about contentment, for all those out there who can't think of what to get for me, drop me a tag and I'll tell you! Better for me to get what I like right? hehe....

Btw, here's a quote of the day; "This CheowSheng ah..... damn funny one leh, msg me and say have you thought of what to get for my birthday?"
Note that in text form, my was text-ed as *my's*.... some intellectual person this is to say this to me....

IPPT Incoming

It's so near it's scary! Sat morning 0730hrs..... 100% fail.... cos the last time I did any proper exercise was in Dec 2005. Now..... what's the date today? No idea how many pull-ups I can still do.... whether can still jump over 2m.... and worst of all, confirm cannot run under 13min... hahaha...... How do you maintain stamina if you NEVER run once you stop having to? JC play sports often still can.... now ah..... sigh.....

RT! Here I come! :/ 2 times a week for 1 month, then 3 times a week for another month. Great....