Author: Wilfrid

Categories
Diary

In the Spirit of Black

Cynthia and I must have spent three to four hours hanging around the Honda Showroom. It was flooded with people. Most people were asking if cars can be delivered before Chinese New Year, which is like in a couple of days time. The new Civic draws lots of attention too. After hours of idling (and going through the decision tree one zillion billion times), the saleperson was kind of surprised that I can decided on the colour as well. So, a black 2 litre Honda Civic it will be.

And in the spirit of black, and since my new car does come with an iPod integration, I am going to get a black iPod to match with the car. Since I am going to get an iPod, there is no point in waiting for the N91 Nokia MP3 phone to come out (in restrospect, it is fortunate that Nokia takes forever to lauch its 4GB MP3 phone). Hence, I am going to get the black Nokia swing phone – the one I love.

Categories
Diary

What Makes Me Happy?

CL called me yesterday as he was arranging for a reunion lunch with my clients from StanChart back in 1999. I gladly accepted the invitation and how I missed them. One of them has to travel from Plaza from the Park and another one from Suntech. Looking at them, I registered the familarity but yet so much has changed. In that year 1999, it was like a juncture that we all met and from then, we all headed different ways. Yes, I am happy to have caught up with them and gosh, for one I am the youngest in the group – by a good margin!

During lunch, thoughts were triggled as in what really makes me happy today. Yes, friends have been telling me that I need progression (and no, I will not leave Singapore for the time being). And yes, my career life has been stagnant. No, I am not thinking of changing to a job that excites me and no, I am not going to give up my balanced lifestyle as yet.

Next to my office’s unit is a law firm. One of the lawyer inside has a band and has played in Esplanade. She is the bassist and vocalist. Although I am not exactly a big fan of their music, I feel happy that their band has released an album that can be bought in HMV Singapore (http://www.Lunarin.com). She is indeed my inspiration. If she can do it, so can I!

Categories
Diary

Why I Wish to Upgrade My Car

Last year February I have written a blog on “Why I Don’t Upgrade My Car”. Then couples of days ago, TK told me that if I am to deregister my car after the 5-years mark, I will get a “penalty”. He asked me to check out http://www.OneMotoring.com.sg and so I did.

The results? If I am to deregister my car on May 7 instead of May 6, for that one day, I will lose S$8. If I am to deregister my car on May 8 instead of May 7, I will lose S$1,826.

Besides, I found out that I will get back close to S$40,000 if I deregister my car on May 7. I bought my car at S$90,000 and that is quite a “linear” depreciation. Besides, car price has dropped so much. My COE was S$34,000. Today, it is less than S$10,000. The tax structure has changed too. So it is about time.

Categories
Diary

Jacob’s Place

(That’s what I think the restaurant’s name is.)

After I have reached home from work, I have decided to rework on the new song I have written – replacing the entire bridge, shortening the chorus, and added some memorable ending pieces. Just when I was about to record the vocal track, my friend TK sms’ed me for dinner. “No movie?” I sms’ed him back. Turned out that the movie scene is still very pathetic. “So where?” I sms’ed and “Changi Village”, he replied. Contemplating between having a quick bite nearby, get back to recording as well as online gaming – and having a nice dinner with my friend, it was a no brainer decision. Besides, ever since wife not in town, it would be great to have a dinning partner.

Picked TK up and had a chance to showcase my brand new jamming recording (2 days in the making by the way). TK gave me some good comments and he was comparing to the recording I have done with months ago. Man, he has a good memory!

Jacob’s Place is a Western restaurant that serves very affordable food. I have ordered a Steak and Kidney Pie (rare in Singapore). For a price of S$18 (with salad), I would say the pie is so-so. The best is still from UK.

Facing where I sat were quite a number of blackboards. One of them displayed the follows:

Roman 8:28 – We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.

And TK was sharing me a touching story of one of his friends who has just passed away due to cancer. His friend has stopped the medication for one and a half years because the doctor told him it is no longer effective. His friend didn’t mention that to anyone and his wife married him knowing that he was fighting against the disease. Love is strong. Staring the passage from Bible, hearing the story made me reflect upon my own life.

Life is indeed very fragile.

Categories
Songwriting

Whirlpool of Love and Hate

God knows why, an inspiration hit me yesterday and I care less about messing the whole place up (as wife not in town), wires were everywhere. Worst still I have decided to use my Sequencer to give me an usual drum beat temp of 115 (my songs are usually 72-ish and 148-ish).

It is not at all easy to do 115. To me, it is not that slow and not that fast. Even the strumming pattern is different. “Whirlpool of Love and Hate” is my first song in the year 2006. Spent tonight re-recordiing the song and the demo mp3 was sent to my wife (out-of-town), sister, and brother-in-law for comments. Since I am not ready to upload the song yet (the next round of comments will come from my band after my family ok it), here are the lyrics towards the ending of the song:

This whirlpool of love and hate, these lies that we have made
These wishes of a tainted fate, this life that I was used to live
This whirlpool of love and hate, it is love that I can’t live without
It is hope that I can’t live without, it is you whom I can’t live without

Categories
Diary

I Love Canon

Received a text message from Canon Service Center that my Canon S1 IS is ready for collection. This digital camera refused to function when I reached Hong Kong – black screen with no picture – and it has passed the warranty period. Despite the heavy rain, I have decided to pay a visit to Keppel Bay Tower near Harbourfront. Texted my friend VY if the tower is anywhere near her workplace and if she was interested in joining me for lunch. Surprise, surprise, she works in the same building.

Thanks to the heavy rain, the service center was empty. No queue! I got my camera back from a very pretty assistance and guess what? The servicing was free! I am once again a satisfied Canon customer. On top of that, I have received a free lens cleaning clothes. Canon really knows how to keep their loyal customers.

Categories
For the Geeks

Total War Rome

A computer game that was launched more than one year ago and it was sold out in Singapore. So I bought it in Hong Kong.

Today I have finally got the time to try out the game. Boy, the reviewers are right. This game is for the hardcore strategy gamers. Actually I wanted to play this game because recently I was following the HBO series Rome. And I wanted a piece of action. The game turned out to be really tough and it is not at all easy to command legions of Roman.

Categories
Jamming Session

Fun Jamming Session

Despite the fact that Singapore rained non-stop since last night, our jamming session went on as planned. The rain was heavy and we had some difficulties transporting Lester’s drumset and Jason’s guitar to my home studio.

This was our first jamming session of this year and this was also our first jamming session showcasing our brand new equipments: Cynthia’s new bass (Warwick), Jason’s new guitar (Ricken Backer), and my new guitar (Gibson Les Paul). All our new toys are priced in the region of S$2,000.

Instead of going for quantity (number of songs), we went for quality. Through iteration, we were finding new ways of playing the songs. The funnest moment of the session was when Lester finally got one part of the song right after many attempts (in the middle of the song), he raised his hands in air, and was too excited to continue the song. We all bursted into laughter.

Lester left his drumset in my home and we will have another session this Tuesday (public holiday).

Categories
Animation Movie Reviews

Wallace and Gromit

Kicked start my new year movie journey with TK and watched Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Probably because I went in with a high expectation (my wife said because we went in with an empty stomach), the show was good but not as good as I thought. The artwork is beautiful. However, the storyline is a bit simplistic and most of the time you are listening to Wallace talking to his dog Gromit that communicates only by facial expression. Also, a number of key incidents of the show is a bit illogical.

Another main reason is that I kept on comparing this movie with Corpse Bride.

Categories
Book Reviews Non-Fiction

A Prison Diary – A Must Read

Verdict: 9/10
Pros: Written in such a compassion that makes you smile and wipe with the author. Wonderful insights in other aspects of life and they are as real as they can be.
Cons: Can’t think of much except that if you are not into memoires kind of writing, you may not enjoy it. Even so, it is worth a try as the book is indeed a page turner. Another reason why this book could be a put off is that it contains more than a million words (as quoted by the author).

I have picked up a signed copy from a bookstore inside Singapore airport and the image shown is the exact signature of Jeffery Archer. It turned out that I have enjoyed this book tremendously. A rare gem I would say.

This entire work is divided into three volumns. The first of all is Belmarsh: Hell. It was written when Archer was first sentenced for four years due to perjury and Belmarsh was where he ended up: jailed together with drug dealers and murderers. Inside Belmarsh as he unveiled the politics inside the prison community, how your life could be made better by mixing with the right people, stories from the lifers, and stories that are so wierd that are even better than novels. Archer also revealed the flaw of the so-called rehabitation system.

When he finally moved to a less restrictive prison (quite a fair bit of interesting plots), that was when he penned the second volume – Wayland: Purgatory. His zest of inquisition never ended. He interviewed the prisoners as well as the prison officers and all gave a deep insight into the prison system as the serious drug problem that UK faced. Not to forget to mention the stories that make you laugh as you read along.

Moving to an open prison prompted him to write the third volume – North Sea Camp – Heaven. By then he was so expert in the prison system and worked hard to gain his enchanced state that provided him with privilages. Here was when he revealed the sad reality that many prisoners who have been model prisoners and been locked up in many years – simply cannot survive in the real world. The so-called stupid things they do just to get them back to jail again because they feel safe inside the four walls.

There is a final twist to this book but I am not going to reveal here. I am really glad that Archer – a politician as well as a writter – continued to write given the circumstances. This book is a must-read.