Oh Yes, by the way, Merf is Married

Spot how his leg is comfortably placeed. We could be out here all day.

Kneeling and singing. Very undesirable task.

Rushing out for the door already? A very impatient Merf I must say.

The end.

So much for weddings...... So fast..... so furious. hahaha.....

With Famous People

The sisters unaware of Spidey behind them

Happily clinging on the Becks and Posh....

Yibao trying to give advice to Tiger Woods.....

Not knowing that the club should not be left hanging in mid air! hahaha

Don't you think these ladies are trying too hard to give you a pirate feel?

Jack Sparrow wouldn't mix with these people! hahaha

Shots taken at Madame Tussauds. According to them, the wax figures look more real in live than taken through photos. Am I the only one that thinks Xuefeng is super photogenic?!?!! :D

Xuefeng in London

Xuefeng and her Dear Sponsor, I mean Sister!
The Sponsor and her Beau..... hahaha
Is this the London Bridge? From what little I know, the answer is negative.

The above are just some shots of Xuefeng in London..... during her 20 days visit to Xueyan. Of course Yibao was also around, and of course their DuaYee was a fellow companion in this trip. Her graduation trip was as good as fully sponsored.... even the little she spent, was from ang pows generously given to her to enjoy the trip. My take is that she must have been such a nice girl that she gets so many sponsors for such an exciting trip.

Oh, between, Xuefeng so pretty hor? Xueyan comes in a very very close 2nd! hahaha. :p

Parking Fine Waived

Woohooo!!! I've managed to smoke a waiver! Saved $50! Now I'm officially $50 richer. Yay!!!


Dear MengYang Liw

Parking Offence Notice: G5972404V SGQ3611U 13June2007




We refer to your e-mail dated 20 June 2007.

We wish to inform you that car park BM28 at Block 161 Bukit Merah Central, motorists are only allowed to park their vehicles in the hourly (white) parking lots during the car park operational hours from 7.00 am to 7.00 pm. From 7.00 pm onwards, the entire car park is reserved for residents with valid season parking tickets. For Sundays and Public Holidays the car park is reserved whole day for season parking. Signboards indicating the coupon operation hours are placed at the main entrance and inside of the car park for motorist’s information and compliance.

We have considered your explanation, we will exercise leniency in this instance and waive the above offence notice. HDB will not waive future repeated offence.

In your next visit to the area, you can park your vehicle at the nearby Multi-Storey Car Park BM31 at Block 119 Bukit Merah Central with day/night parking facility, to avoid the inconvenience of any enforcement action.

Yours sincerely



SINGARAM SUPPIAH
for HEAD BUKIT MERAH BRANCH OFFICE
HOUSING ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

Japanese TV Tetris Game

Check this out! I chio ga peng!

ACCA Exams Over

My June papers are finally over. 1 thing for sure though.... this time round the results will be horrifying. Well, I was warned though. The papers are super tough. In fact, probably the toughest of this professional certification. It's a sure-die cause I completed like 50 marks out of 100 worth of questions for 2 of my 3 papers. Slow...... too slow...... and what are the chances I'll ace the paper scoring full marks for the parts I've attempted? Bleah! :/

Ah...... my resolution is that I will take 4 papers in December. Time to start studying for December exams already. GOGOGO!!!

Badminton Record

Heh...... just for good measure. A mini-announcement to make.

I, Liw Meng Yang, defeated Andrew Wan Wei Chung in a short game of badminton 11-9 on Sunday 10th June 2007.

This breaks a 13 year-old record when my last victory against Andrew in badminton singles came in sec. 2. Muahahaaa....

Grooming for Ariel

Woot........ for the sake of Mervin's wedding, decided to help make Ariel kilat kilat. Made an appointment to have Ariel go through a full grooming to clay, wax then polish. Tyre shine, leather shine and even dashboard also shine. All this for just a fair payment of $88, or so I thought. Turned out, I was an unhappy customer. Ariel wasn't as shiny as I thought she could be. The leather polish just makes the interior have an oily feeling. The roof just kept producing a crackling sound the whole afternoon under the sun baking. Guess the wax was just too fresh. Must do 2 days before instead of the day before. Lesson learnt.

Dissatisfied and determined never to do full grooming ever again..... unless Ariel is the bridal car. hahaha...... :(

Shrek 3!

Besides watching Spiderman 3, have also caught Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Next up would of course be Shrek 3. Boooo...... but Xuefeng suddenly decides to accept catching Shrek 3 with her sec sch frenz. bleah. Now, people, please make an appointment to catch Shrek 3 together with me! hahaha.....

On Pirates 3, At World's End. The part of "welcome to Singapore" doesn't carry much effect. A pretty weak statement...... Alas, I still enjoyed the show. My keenest interest was on the part of the 9 pirate lords. They were all so cool. Just think the whole notion of sailing all over the World on those type of ships was such a challenge. My favourite scene had to be the Black Pearl 'sailing underwater'. A really nice sight. The crabs moving the Black Pearl came a close 2nd.

That's it. Shrek 3 Shrek 3 Shrek 3!

Remedial Training

Have attended 5 RT sessions so far...... starting from 19th May. So tiring...... my body is aching all over these few weeks.... very very fierce. Now now, where is my ipod shuffle when I'm exercising? hahahaaaaa........ aiyah..... cannot sia..... shuffle will get scratched with the siong-ness of my workout. Such a dread each time I'm there..... heh....... but by the end of RT, I would be healthier. It's all worth it.

Side note, Sebby is quite nice man. Offered to split for my summon on Sunday. $30 down the drain..... duh......

Change of Desks

Sadly, my blogger lifestyle will have to slow down. That is due to the changing of desks which have a massive impact to how much I surf net in a day. Used to be at a corner where no one can see my screens while now, everyone can see my screen even when they are seated.

Just for mervin who understands. I'm in Corrine's seat that was beside HungChiu and Simon Yee and opposite Francis. Clear enough?

Lesser action from now?

Xuefeng is Back in Town

Hi you people. Yes, Xuefeng is back. How nice. For those who still dunno, Xuefeng took a trip to Europe courtesy of her sis Xueyan. The trip there made her realise how much she is used to the pampering of people around her and the comfort of her home as and when she likes. hahaha...... no la, i meant that she is such a homely person. Anyway, though the trip was a great exposure in which she managed not only to have a snowball fight with Xueyan, she also got to roll on the snow.... The greatest joke though was that Yibao tried to act like a soldier and charge up the snowy mountain slopes ending up feverish with a bleeding nose. :/

Coming back, Xuefeng didn't miss Europe but can't wait to get home. The only worthy mention was that she would miss her dear sister, Xueyan. hehehe..... Xueyan actually teared on seeing Xuefeng and Dua Yee leave..... so cute! Xueyan showing her emotions? Aye.... only for her dear sister k!

To welcome Xuefeng back, I flirted with the idea of getting her flowers even before she left. That would have been simple as she likes flowers. But, guess who has got to spoil the plan! Mr Mervin Phay! You did it! Tag about 99 roses eh...... well well, no surprise means no flowers! ahahaha..... All your fault. Xuefeng, go make a claim against Mervin for the flowers, he should compensate for your loss.

Here's the other thing, I recently purchased an ipod shuffle online with engraving. Would take a photo soon, once I get my hands back on the camera! My nice camera is still with Xuefeng who brought it up with her to Europe. She was amazed at the quality of the photos, especially after digital zoom, everything still turned out so clearly. Even Yibao who uses an SLR to shoot endorsed saying that it was a good camera. Glad that this investment turned out right. As to why get Xuefeng a shuffle, there are quite a couple of considerations.

1stly, to welcome her back with a nice surprise.
2ndly, went shopping with Ashley for her birthday present.... hence the idea of ipod.
3rdly, Xuefeng starting work soon, so a shuffle for her to remove her boredom while travelling.
4thly, always wanted an ipod (to share) hehehe.
5thly, shuffle is nice and small with a clip, can use for jogging too! exercise exercise...

With all the above reasons, I couldn't refuse her a nice gift as such! She claimed I bought this for myself, especially with the choosing of the colour as lime green instead of orange, pink, blue or white. Heh..... well, if not lime green, would have been orange, which she surely wouldn't like. See, I took her into considerations. Anyway, she chose Ariel's colour to her preference.... so I get to choose shuffle to my preference! hehe.... Finally, yes, I would love to share in the shuffle! It really is super cool especially if you ain't interested in choosing any particular song to hear. For now though, it is firmly in Xuefeng's hands as she claims to love the gift, which is a good thing. As long as she likes it and uses it, the investment gets its worth. Just like her pink L'Armor handphone. As for me, no shuffle lor...... other than the days I go out with her, then I get to be cool for those days. ahahahaaa...... grass is always greener on the other side.

Midsummer Night's Dream on Kenneth's Birthday

Yoyoyo!!! For those who don't know, Kenneth is Gordon's gay buddy la! Anyway, this guy's real nice leh..... He treated a group of 6 of us to Midsummer Night's Dream, the play at Fort Canning Hill. This is a classic Shakespearean play with fantasy background to a love story. As I've watched a previous movie on this play before, I could distinctly remember its full plot. This is very important as then, I could make out the entire play without much problems and hence catch all the story in full. Helena's acting was fabulous closely followed by that of Hermia, Demetrius and Pyremis. It was cool as the play even added in Singaporean flavour of ping pong cheh! hahaha.

We followed up the night with pool which sad to say, I was pwn-ed by Kenneth and Ruth! Ah, moving on, I send them back and this is the moment!!! People, I nearly killed someone! Yupzzzz..... sigh...... After dropping Ruth off, was exiting the carpark. I was a good driver who stopped at the stop-line. Before initiating a right turn, I checked right, then checked left, both clear! Hence I released the brake on my auto car and the car was moving off slowly....

Kenneth gasped.... as I caught a FASTTTTT moving vehicle coming from the right! Stunned!!! I quickly slammed the brakes and hoped for the best....... Ariel moved less than 2 metres off from its stationary position. It was too late.... the motorbike was gonna crash into Ariel's front.... and I could do nothing more... as reversing was out of the question...... NO MORE TIME!!! To our relief, the bike swerved to the right and avoided a collision..... was sure that the rider would fly on impact. Oh well, all's well save a scare..... a scare big enough with the ringing effect that someone could have died from this incident.

Anyway, here's the thing, many always fear my driving..... but to be honest, yes there is much room for improvement, but fatal accidents was not a consideration. I was relieved both the rider and his pillion was unhurt.... but Kenneth thinks there was no pillion rider! What!!! 2 of us both with perfect eye-sight saw different number of riders on the bike! Gordon was just as stunned as Kenneth and myself. For the 1st time, neither passengers commented that I was at fault here. Kenneth added in that he checked right as well earlier and it was clear too! Conclusion, this bike is FASTTTTT and the rider does not value his life.

P.S. Usually in near fatal accidents, the rider would contend with the car as his life was threatened. In this case, the bike though had to swerve to avoid an accident, never came after me. Either he doesn't care or he thinks he is at fault...... sweat sweat....

Work Starts Earlier Ends Earlier

Heh.... my work will change from 9-6 to 8.30-5.30. For the simple reason that I have to attend RT at 6pm in Maju Camp. Talked to my manager and asked to leave early. To make things easier for him, which I know he would surely accept with glee, I offered to start work earlier so as to leave earlier. Mervin will understand fully why he accepted. hehe..... Anyway, I also prefer this arrangement personally. What pleased me is that this arrangement isn't only for Wednesdays when I have RT but for all days for a period of 2 months by which my RT will end. I don't wanna pass!!! Love ending earlier! hahaha.....

Side note, was struggling with rushing to pick Xuefeng up at the airport as she would touch down at 5.55pm. Clearing the customs versus me travelling from West to East........ challenging. Now, I get to save a 1/2 day leave which Xuefeng would wished that I take so that I'm there the moment she arrives since I end at 5.30pm! Cool eh....... Timely intervention I must say. hahaha. I'm contented. =)

I've Opened 2 Accounts

Having a bigger commitment to savings, I've decided to start to manage my bank account with better positioning and care. In other words, I've looked for the banks with various interest rates and done a comparison.

Here's the general outlay, most banks give an initial interest of 0.25% p.a. from the 1st dollar. A higher interest of 0.3% is given when monthly average is excess of $3,000. An example of these banks are DBS-POSB, UOB and OCBC. Above rates are referring primarily to savings accounts. These usually comes with a passbook for your banking records with an ATM card and usually Debit cards if you want.

Now for the sides..... internet and phone banking is optional and some banks charge for this for savings accounts to link to current accounts. Current accounts either cost you $2 per month or have a 0% interest rate for your money inside. Had to search for free internet banking with savings interest. Another thing to note was the monthly minimum and charges, which is the $2 charge for average monthly deposits falling under $500 for the basic savings accounts.

Found 3 banks that have the things I wanted. NTUC FairPrice Plus under OCBC, Stanchart e-$avers account and Maybank i-SAVvy savings account. Here are the deals.

FairPrice is offering 1% interest rate. NO monthly minimum sum charge. NO monthly service charge. Access to internet and phone banking. Access to over 770 OCBC and UOB ATMs with the Debit card that also gives Linkpoints for NTUC.

Stanchart is offering 1.5% interest rate. NO monthly minimum sum charge. NO monthly service charge. Access to internet and phone banking. NO ATM card either.

Maybank is offering 1.68% interest rate for deposits exceeding of $5,000. NO monthly service charge. Access to internet and phone banking. ATM card provided. $30 penalty for early account closure with $2 monthly charge for average daily balance under $500.

Hence I've proceeded to opened the 2 accounts of NTUC Fairprice Plus under OCBC and the Stanchart e-$avers account. This is as my POSB has no free internet banking service.... and I'll need that service to transfer cash over to my Stanchart e-$avers. Afterall, POSB/DBS and UOB/OCBC are 2 accounts good to have for access to our island-wide ATMs available. As Stanchart and Maybank have competitive interest rates, maybe will get a Maybank account to save up for the long term. However, I still like the Stanchart account for it has no minimum sum required unlike Maybank needing 5%. No minimum sum works with me as I rather use the cash for investments. Maybe Xuefeng should get the Maybank account instead since she is non-investment inclined, ie. risk-adverse. hehehe

We are Thomson-Reuters Now

hahaha...... for those not updated with news, my company has merged with Thomson! An excerpt from a mail I received from the company CEO:

"You might not be as familiar with Thomson’s leading businesses that create and distribute content to the legal, tax & accounting, healthcare and scientific communities. By combining these strong businesses together with Reuters we will start to deliver a broader and stronger service for customers around the world. Just imagine what our Core Plus initiative in high-value primary research can do with Thomson’s extensive healthcare data."

So is there any big difference? I don't know....... don't think there is any impact to my position being so junior and insignificant...... haizzzzz........

Worth So Little?

Your Life Is Worth...

$886,000

How Much Is Your Life Worth?

My Birthday Wishlist is Complete

Had 5 items on my wishlist.

1) Sunglasses (oakley) - bronze wrap around by Gordon & Ashley with support from Ruth at Sunglasses Hut Millienia Walk
2) 100 Love songs for $25 (as advertised) - by myself at Popular Jurong East
3) Badminton racket - Ashaway with pink grip by ZhenLong, Xuemei, CheowSheng, Ching, Ling, Melissa, Mervin, Huifen
4) Shoe bag - grey Nike by Emay
5) Jacket - beige Greg Norman at Royal Sporting House by my vouchers

Thanks to everyone! hehehe..... Love all of you nice caring people.

P.S. and the small matter of celebrating Ashley's birthday and sharing with Gordon to get her an iPod Nano 4GB limegreen with lunch and dinner paid for is done.

Yixiang and Emay are Engaged!

Heh..... this report must be given. Big news! Yixiang brought Emay out on Sat the 5th on a tour of their past romantic spots giving tasks like the Amazing Race. The final task was to say "Yes" to Yixiang's proposal. Not a bad one...... The "One" was also pretty cool at a staggering 0.5 carat if I gathered my information correctly. Now, that's just a nice size for a piece of stone. So everyone, no time to lose to fly your congratulations in to Emay and Yixiang.

According to Yixiang...... I'm the last of the couples to have yet to propose. That makes me special! hahaha..... Ah well, that's what happen when you are a young couple. I am still only a boy. So have to wait. My heart is always young! hehehe...... I fully expect CheowSheng and Jiayan to get married before me as well! :p

TeamChevy Singapore

Hey people. I joined a forum that is meant for Chevrolet car drivers to gather. Joined so that I could learn more about my car and always have a bunch of people to go to for advice on car stuff. Realised through them that I overpaid for my leather seats and sports rims..... $1,000!!! What a waste..... Could get better leather seats at $400-$600 and better rims at $300-$400. If same quality, I should be able to get leather seats at $300 and rims at $200....... kenna big time.... sian.....

Anyway, TeamChevy just had their anniversary celebration on the 5th of May and I decided to just join them. Paid $28 for the dinner and games..... Good stuff! Won $30 worth of petrol vouchers which more than paid for everything. On top of that, won a lucky draw with the prize being an automatic kettle. Now now, what am I gonna do with the kettle? Mother's Day gift? Mum says we already have one..... so no. Wedding gift to Mervin/Huifen? They bought too, so no. How about for Andrew/Joy or Weixiong/Becky? Surely they haven't bought theirs yet..... ;)

P.S. The petrol vouchers was for winning in beach soccer, and I'm just a great goalie. Impressed with over 20 saves, with more than 10 1-on-1s. :D