LG KP105

Bought a phone today.

It's a cheap cheap phone from LG. Model KP105. Nothing fanciful, except the owner. ;)

Do I really need a new phone?
Not really.

I bought it for just in case purpose.
Why?

Sigh. Sometimes, suddenly got call to ask me to go down to some client's site.
Then these places can be so troublesome that cannot bring camera phone in, and if that happens, my current usual phone Sony Ericsson K618i will not be allowed entry.
And that will mean that I will be 'immobilised' until I come out of that site.

Very the ma-huan 1.

So an extra phone (no camera!) can come in handy.

Actually, my current phone is also like going to expire soon, sometimes bo-dai-bo-ji shutdown, and make me 'immobilised' without me knowing too!
Lucky got another extra phone at home which can be used.
Yet to switch to that ... ...

But phones can be too chim for me to use.
Computer is easier ...

Sashimi

Went to Parkway Parade for dinner today.

Went to this little shop at basement area, can't remember the shop name also. Think it's called "Fish Mart" or something like that.

Last weekend, we walked past there, and seems like an interesting place to try.
So there we were today.

Didn't order a lot of stuff actually. Just some sashimi, and fish belly or fish liver. I also cannot make a head or tail of it.
Here's the quarter-eaten sashimi plate:

It's actually not bad, according to Karinna of course. To me, any food that fits to be eaten, is not bad.

Then this is the little bowl of that fish belly or liver, whatever.

Pretty unique I guess. They said it's seasonal. *shrug*

We only ordered these 2, plus the japanese rice.
Ahhhh. I checked. The rice costs $3 a plate each. Damn expensive.

Total damage was about $45. Quite expensive price, especially the rice!!!

Go again? Nah, not me, at least not my wish.
Then again, I never really have craving ... ...

Rainbow

Went to pick Karinna earlier. Hmmm. Rather, went to pass the car to her, and I took MRT back home.

She went for massage, so I let her take the car, then easier for her to come home later.

It's been some time since I last took MRT service. The WARM service from SMRT.

Today, not so bad, but crowded as hell though. What to do? After-office hours.
Maybe due to the weather. It was raining quite heavily in many areas around that time.

Luckily, when I reached Tampines, no more rain, maybe just very very slight drizzle.

As I walked toward my home, I saw something beautiful in the sky. Yeah. The Rainbow.

If you look carefully, in fact, there's a second rainbow appearing quite faintly just above the bright one.

C@@L.

LTA Fine

When I received letters from LTA regarding passing through ERP Gantry without payment, I sent an email feedback to them to appeal against it.

Basically, I do have my cashcard put in properly, and definitely enough money in the cashcard on both occasions.

So my email was sent on 10 Feb 2009 morning. I only received a letter from them yesterday afternoon, saying that they have considered carefully, and decided to waive the administrative fees charged related to the case.

I was counting, from the day which I sent the email, it was already past 9 working days. Although when I sent the email, there was a notification that says not to pay the fine until we hear from them within 9 working days.

So being the good law-abiding citizen of Singapore, I dutifully paid up the first fine on 20 February night.

I was just wondering, in these days of computing IT technologies, why is it so difficult for the authorities to even send an acknowledgement reply that they are looking into my appeal.
And then to only surprise me after the target set by themselves in terms of getting reply from them.
At least with an acknowledgement reply, I can be assured that someone is taking up the case, and I can be in touch with the person when needed.

Then again, it's still a government authority, and administratively still has lots of improvement.

So I sent them another feedback yesterday afternoon, to ask how they can advise me to deal with the fine that was already paid.
Maybe I will wait for 18days this time ... ...

Prelude to Perth

I've been on-and-off searching through the net for accommodations and travelling information for the coming visit to Perth.

Due to Easter season, the search for accommodation is a big challenge during that weekend.

Ultimate, still managed to find an accommodation place that will accommodate us.

So my final overview plan is as follow:

10-13 April: Down to Albany, visiting those nature places, plus idling around.
The place we will stay is at My Place Colonial Accommodation.
13-15 April: Move towards Busselton, go Tree-Top Walk, and go to wineries in Margaret River, swim with Dolphins, and idle.
Accommodation chosen: Baudins of Busselton.
15-19 April: Stay in Perth, day trip to Pinnacles Desert, walk around Swan River and Frementle and idle.
Hasn't decided on place to stay yet. Didn't really want to stay at hotel. Still trying to see if there's some apartment that can be booked.

Here's a screenshot of the map related to our itinerary:

For travelling, was haggling between Budget Rent a Car and Thrifty. In the end chosen Thrify that was slightly cheaper. Hopefully, the car is good.
Actually, there was another rental company that is really cheap, but it's closed on the day that we arrive. It's called Bayswater Car Rental.

Therefore, we're almost all set, and I hope to find some nice place to stay in Perth for 4 nights! Ahhhh.

I can see my dollar notes flying, flying, and flying ... ... ...

$2 Breakfast

Now, I am at McDonald at Braddell Road.

Just sent my car to Nissan Service Centre at Toa Payoh, and took the free shuttle to Braddell. :P

Should be collecting my car around 10+, and since the lounge at the service centre has been moved down to ground floor, I decided to wait outside of the service centre, so took the free ride here.

Haven't eaten my breakfast, so stroll into this place, and order the TWO DOLLAR BREAKFAST.

It's not in the menu or on the board, you need to ask for it. I knew about it when I was working in a project previously, when the project teammates go McDonald for breakfast. :P

It's just a coffee, and a Sausage McMuffin, and that's it. Re-fillable coffee as per McDonald's practice too!

Try it next time when you feel like spending less for a McDonald breakfast!

王牌大賤諜

I've been watching 王牌大賤諜 for quite some time already.

I only chanced upon it previously when I browse through youtube's entries for Taiwanese variety shows.

And sometimes, it's really quite funny.
景行厅男孩, and 机关枪男孩 are born from there. :P

Of course, a lot of the things that they talked about, would have been 'rehearsed' before the actual take for the show.
Most shows are like that anyway.

This particular website has quite a lot of the dramas and variety shows, and they are pretty recent, as recent as the day before.

Even for the show like 愛就宅一起, it's available for viewing from the site too. But I don't really like to watch all these teeny weeny idol shows.
99.99% are pretty junk.

Oh well.

Easter

I think it is a very very very bad idea to go ang-mo country for holiday during Easter period.

We've book for Perth trip in April, commencing on Good Friday.

Guess what, most accommodation places only accept 3-4 nights of stay during that weekend!
ka na sai right?

So I have to change my whole itinerary just to accommodate (how ironic!) my accommodation arrangement!

So now, my itinerary is as follow.

Reach Perth, head southwards towards Albany, which is about 4hrs drive away.
Stay at Albany for 3 nights, then move towards Margaret River.
We'll be choosing to stay at Busselton for 2 nights instead, which is about an hour drive from Margaret River.
And then, we'll head straight to Perth itself for 4 nights there, before making way back home.

In a way, this schedule looks a little more relaxing. At least no need to stay 1 night here, then travel to another place to stay another night, then move on again.
Drive so much here and there for what right?

Holiday is meant to relax.

But stupid Easter period, sigh.

ERP

Last Monday, 02 Feb, as I drove past the ERP gantry along ECP on the way home, the IU unit in my car beep beep beep beep beep.
Damn noisy.

Then I think to myself, so suay right!?!? Time was 6.02pm.
So I drove carefully, and at the same time, took out my cashcard and re-inserted, and it look perfectly ok leh.

In fact, it was a new card which I have not used since I bought as a spare about 2 years ago. I only started using the card on 01 Feb, and it was working.
Ever since then, it's stuck in my IU unit. The only time taken out was on 02 Feb when it beeped at 6.02pm.

Then yesterday morning, as I drove Karinna to work, we passed by Nicole Highway gantry.
Again, the noisy IU unit beep here and there. Cha si lang, like how my Precious and Sapphire bark like that.
This time, I took out the card and re-inserted back in. Nothing happened!

So I had to revert back to my old card for usage.

Then yesterday received a letter from LTA, saying about my 'offence' on 02 Feb, blahblahblah. I not very happy ok. Not my fault, the cashcard is there, it has value in it, just that it didn't work at that time. from 03-06 Feb, the card was working well also.

So I decided to appeal to LTA, wrote an email to them via their website feedback form. Hopefully, the people are working to at least read emails.

I also went to Nets Cashcard centre at Tiong Bahru to get refund for my faulty cashcard. They changed for me, and refunded me. I asked them for some statement just in case I need to show LTA some 'proof'.

The only thing they can give me is some receipt for the refund, and some transaction statement done with the card prior to yesterday's faulty card issue.

Too blur to see right? :P

元宵节

含蓄版：
元宵时节喜迎春
街上情人诉姻婚
试问浪漫何处有
脚步跃至樟宜村

成人版：
元宵时节喜迎春
街上情人欲销魂
试问宿家何处有
一同步上自家村

Great Dane

Yesterday came home very late. Reached home around 3+am.
Went to Wee Boon's house as part of our annual CNY get together.
Economy no good, so we went to a coffeeshop to have dinner, lo-hei Yu-Sheng included. :P

The food was not great, but it's ok, not too expensive, and more importantly, the company that you're with has a greater weightage.

Well, we had some mahjong sessions before and after dinner. I didn't really play, and let the playing part for Karinna to do. I occasionally acted as "Maria", and went out to get supper for them too!

And then today after going back to see my mother, we went to Pasir Ris Pet Farm walk walk. More to buy dog food actually.

At the shop there, there's this Great Dane, super big size. Karinna told me that canine is pretty famous in the web, possibly due to customers visiting the shop, and discuss in forums here and there.

He's really a huge dog, even a golden retriever also seems to dwarf in front of him.

See, even with the golden retriever sitting on the bench, it still look petite to the great dane.

Well, at least, he's still quite a friendly dog.

峰回路转

This morning, on the way to office, was listening to Love FM97.2 as usual.

DJ was mentioning some news about a religious teacher passed away. He was 圣严法师，who also happened to have given guidance to a number of Asian stars.

Well, that was not the important thing. The thing I remembered this morning, is some saying given by 圣严法师.
山不转 路转
路不转 人转
人不转 心转

How philosophical! Does it remind you that when you were young, you probably have something like this in your farewell autograph book (Primary/Secondary School).
天下无难事
只怕有心人

To end my little entry here, here's a very apt song to share, and very meaningful too!


刘德华-峰回路转

喜欢一个人 追求心中所想
岂管别人笑我 如何痴狂
没有牵挂不能放 没有创痛不能忘
唯有豁开 才能超越沧桑

喜欢去作梦 因为梦想很美
满足了心灵 忘记了疲惫
与其整天去怨对 不如专心去面对
唯有宽怀 方能微笑入睡

坦坦荡荡月华星光
一片清辉相映入眼宜然
简简单单轻风云淡
伴我上路潇洒远走四方
近水绕远山
芳草连著天边长
人间处处尽是峰回路转

拜太岁

今年犯太岁！
Those born in the year of Ox, Dragon, Goat and Dog are in conflict with the Tai Sui!

So to appease the 太岁爷, need to 拜太岁 and hope he will be able to provide smooth year ahead for me! :)

Actually, on the 3rd day of CNY, wanted to do it, but it hadn't started yet!
This picture was taken on that day, where they had some dragon and lion dances.

Anyway, we didn't go away without doing anything that day.
我们点了长明灯！

I went on the 4th day (29 Jan) as well, but too crowded, so left without doing it.

This morning, before going office, I detoured to 韭菜芭城隍庙 and happy to see not too many people queueing to pray to the Tai Sui.

While waiting for my queue, I snapped a picture at the place. :P


It's all over in about 15-20 minutes. Pretty fast.

So it's now just waiting for around year end, and then 还太岁.

Just for the fun of it, when you reach 60 years old, you'll meet the 太岁 who was in charge when you were just born.
That's why we celebrate 六十大寿.
erh ... ... believe it or not? :P

Troubleshooting

Sigh.
See my messy table.

I've been working on the Sony Vaio (on the right in the picture), first to get the drivers work correctly for the Bluetooth and the DVD-ROM.
It's my brother-in-law's, not sure where he get it from anyway. He said from his sister-in-law, not sure give him or ask him to troubleshoot one.

Well, managed to clear these 2 problems. Device Manager does not complain with any 'exclamation mark' sign anymore.
Had to find many forums and knowledge base, and change the registry somemore!
Happy!?!

Ka na sai!

Tried inserting an empty disc, it ask to format the disc. Good huh. Proceed, and it complains "Windows cannot proceed formatting the disc", something along that line.

Then insert a music CD, wow! It can play!

Insert a data cd, duh, can't read a single thing.

Insert a DVD movie, it stays as it is without.

Worse, inserting back the music CD, no sound already.

All the CDs work well on my laptop!

@!#$@$#^%&%^*$#%$#^&$*%^)^%#$&*^()%$R#%&(*)&^#%@&^*)$#%^&(*

Can't things work simple for people to use?

Tired liow. Tomorrow then see if I can resolve it. D'uh!

Annual Mahjong

Yesterday came home pretty late. Reached home around 1.30am

Went to Francis' home. He so-called invited us to his home. Actually, every CNY he also does the same thing, that is, inviting friends to his home for a quick gathering.

As years go by, the number of people who turn up gets reduced. This time, the faces that I saw yesterday, are largely the same as last year.
Get to see a few more old friends this time, and some that appeared last year, did not appear this time round.
Anyway, Chee Kiong, You Kok, Henry, Brian and Nicolas were the other people dropped by yesterday.
At least, it is still good to catch up with old friends once in a while.
Just for my own recording purpose, Nicholas was not from our batch. He was YouKok's student when the latter was doing teaching in either JSTI or Polytechnic. He is now a close friend to him, and he was there last year as well to play mahjong.

And so, we started playing mahjong. In the end, I lost about $50. Everytime I play, I lose. heh heh heh. Damn heng or wat?

From left, Francis, Nicholas, Brian, Henry, You Kok, caught playing mahjong in public area:

Coasta Sands Resort

We went to Coasta Sands Resort at Downtown East last Friday.

I booked a chalet there for 2 nights, just came back home like an hour plus ago.

Meant for a short getaway from home, considering that being a NTUC member, I can get a room for some decent price, so it's quite ok.

Did't do a lot of things, just relax here and there, eat here and there.

Went to Wild Wild Wet for the first time. Actually, not very fun leh.
Shiok River is not very shiok.
Ular-lah was ok, not frightening.
The Waterworks was alright, the dark tunnel was a little more thrilling.
Slide Up was a little more thrilling than the rest, but need to carry the raft up yourself.

But on the whole, considering it is meant more for the kids and youngsters, it is still quite ok for the attractions, just a little too few.

Other than that, the only other place that we went is the swimming pool itself.
Swim until four limbs a little weak siah. hehehe.
If Jackpot room is to be considered, yeah, went there as well, and threw away a hundred bucks. :D

One drawback is that, have to pay car parking ourselves. It is not complimentary for chalet guests.
Think it costs me about $20+ for the parking itself. That's like 10% of my chalet booking price!

Next one, maybe try the resort at Sentosa. :P