Category: My Good Life

Categories
Blu-ray / DVD Review For the Geeks

Chinese New Year TV Marathon – Seeker, Confessor, Shu Qi, Ayumi, Alice, And More

Contrary to everyone’s belief, Cynthia and I did not spend 4 days in front of our computers playing our favorite online game.  We have hardly touched that game during this holiday.  Ha!  It is for the love of Chinese tradition (hard to explain so we shall leave it there).  It is a rare opportunity to take a break from the game.  And the main reason is because Cynthia has envisaged this holiday to be a TV marathon.  She has magically transformed me into a coach potato for four full days.  Water and snacks were within an arm’s length.  We ate at our sofa every day.  And the only time we moved out of the coach was to answer the call of nature.  She hypnotized me using modern technology.  Some of what we consumed was junks, as in most things that come out from that box.  Others though are worth mentioning.

Legend of the Seeker (Season One)

To be totally honest, what initially attracted me to this TV series was the rather, erm shall I say, revealing medieval clothing that accentuates the beauty of a female body.  Some of the slow motion scenes can really pop my eyes, my heart, and what not.  How fortunate are the men in the old days.  I also find the costume and backdrop pretty authentic, especially since I am a huge fan of fantasy computer games.  When I paid better attention to the story and tried not to be distracted by the eye candies and on-screen chemistry, it is pretty faithful to the genre of fantasy.  Love, friendship, betrayal, sacrifice, good and evil, heroes and cowards, battles, sorcery, quests and more quests, difficult decisions and more love – all checked.  There are some unique hooks that I don’t often find in other fantasy titles.  Sharing more here you may find me insane, as though I am talking to myself.  So I shall leave it here.  We have consumed 5 discs worth of entertainment – the entire season one – in 4 days.  Monsters, we are!

Now, why on earth would they drop the franchise after a merely two seasons of broadcast?  Save the Seeker.  Please.

A Beautiful Life (不再讓你孤單)

At home, we have a rather good collection of DVD or Blu-ray, most are not opened.  I always have this urge to buy and collect.  But I seldom have the time to watch them.  During this holiday, I tried to look for a happy movie suitable for the occasion.  My eyes stopped at Shu Qi.  It is a Chinese movie.  Both titles – English and Chinese – sound positive.  So I jammed the disc into our player, sat back, and clicked play.  Cynthia has started crying way before the movie ended.  I would say “A Beautiful Life” is an art house type of movie, an emotional one.  During the interview, Shu Qi mentioned that making this movie was harder than a martial art one.  Some clips can last as long as 10 minutes, continuously.  Imagine having to do several retakes.  I pity the cameraman who carried that ninety pounds monster.

It is a rather beautiful movie.  A movie about love in difficult circumstances.  What some may see as handicap, in the eyes of the loved ones, they are unique.  It is a movie about finding happiness.  Quite an inspiring one I must say.  Good acting.  Two thumbs up.

Ayumi Hamasaki Countdown Live 2010-2011 A: Do It Again

After a while, I begin to lose track of how many Ayumi concerts I have watched on TV.  Each year, she releases one tour recording and one countdown recording.  I can tell each tour recording by theme.  But I am often confused by the countdown releases.  At the end of each year, Ayumi hosts a concert for the fans.  Usually the song set is pretty mellow in the start.  Then there is a buildup to the countdown and thereafter, you can almost guess what songs she is going to play.  Upbeat, rather happy.  Unlike the tour performance, the song choice for the countdown concert often gears towards her older classic – which is good because it is different from the tour recording.  But that also means that all the countdown recordings are somewhat the same – hence the confusion.  If not for the beautiful duet “Dream On”, I would not have known if I have already watched it some time in the past.  How come “Dream On” has not been released in any album?  How come there is no duet in any of Ayumi’s album?  I have no idea.  One thing for sure though.  Ayumi is single, and available again.

The stage is pretty unique for this countdown concert.  There are a few concentric pieces that rotate and elevate.  And Ayumi has put the stage right in the middle of the stadium.  I thought it is a pretty good design.

Alice: Madness Returns

“Alice” is neither a movie nor a TV series.  It glued me in front of the TV nonetheless.  I am a big fan of Alice in Wonderland.  This is a game adaptation.  A second one indeed.  I bought the PS3 version, at a discount.

Recently, I read an article on how game developers dread the review scene.  If a game is poorly reviewed, or even at lukewarm, that turns gamers away from buying it.  Thousands and millions of dollar of investment go into the drain.  Years of development go along with that.  It is a brutal scene.  This game “Alice: Madness Returns” has not been kindly reviewed.  I hesitated during its release, have forgotten about it for a long time, then I saw the rather attractive price tag a few days ago.  I have always enjoyed playing a game as a heroine.  This version of Alice wields a Vorpal sword (you have to ask Lewis Carroll what that is) and lives in a real dark and twisted world.  Despite the lukewarm review, I have decided to give it a try.  This game is not perfect.  I will probably write a more detail account of my adventure with Alice in the future.  However, from what I have experienced so far, I like it.

Categories
Diary Photography

This Is Pulau Ubin

I have always been curious about Pulau Ubin – an island off our mainland.  For more than a decade, Cynthia and I and some of our friends have been talking about visiting Pulau Ubin.  To cycle, or to observe the wildlife.  For some reasons, all that talk does not seem to go anywhere.  Earlier last year, I have joined a corporate volunteering event to weed at Pulau Ubin.  The island is charming.  Rural, unlike any place I have seen in Singapore.  During my mother’s visit, I brought there her for a day trip.  My sister also wanted to join us.  So we have five adults and a toddler, eager to explore the very last defender of Singapore’s village living.

Pulau Ubin is a 1020-hectare island.  It is not as tiny as I thought.  It does look like a mini Singapore.  The town center is on the south by the shore (just like our mainland!).  West side of the island is reserved for Outward Bound.  To the east, there is Chek Jawa Wetlands.  I laughed when we saw the posters saying that there are wild pigs in the island.  Ya right.  This is Singapore.  Lo and behold, there are wild pigs in Singapore!  They were dashing around near the Wetlands looking for, I suppose, food.  Cynthia said that the wild pigs are smelly.  To be frank, I smell nothing of that sort.  I smell only the smell of nature.

It was a nice walk from the town center to the wetlands.  Armed with the printed guide by our National Park, we could more or less figure out the landmarks and the points of attraction.  Cynthia was our de facto map reader.  I was hopelessly reading our location off my GPS phone.  Fortunately, we have Benny, our real map reader.

Would you bring a 2-year old toddler to Pulau Ubin?  To be honest, it was quite nerve wrecking to get my niece Bethany in and out of the boat.  Because in Singapore, these small boats are not secured to the pier during boarding time.  They reverse, press against the pier with the engine on, and the passengers then gingerly jump in and out of the boat.  As for the walk, majority of the roads are paved.  But there are some unpaved roads.  So, my sister has to turn back while my mother, Cynthia and I pressed on.  Do bring insect repellent.  And lots of sunblock.

Pictures speak a thousand words.  And I have prepared a photo album, just for you.

  • Click here to view the photo album.

To get to Pulau Ubin, you can take a boat from Changi Point Ferry Terminal.  Once you are in the island, you can go on foot (expect hours of walking), take a taxi, or rent a bicycle.  Next time I visit the island, I would cycle for sure.

Categories
Diary

Dinner & Lunch

Part One – Dinner

Perhaps I shall hand out a feedback form to my mother to fill in at the end of her each visit to Singapore, at the airport, before flying back to Hong Kong.  The questions, I would imagine, go something like …

  1. Have you seen enough of your son in your visit?  [ ]
  2. Have you spent enough quality time with your daughter and your granddaughter?  [ ]
  3. Is your son’s home comfortable to live in?  Do you feel at home?  [ ]
  4. Do you feel overworked with the cooking and dish cleaning?  [ ]
  5. Have you been taken out often enough for sightseeing and dinning?  Sushi perhaps?  [ ]
  6. Do you enjoy your stay in Singapore?  [ ]
  7. Will you be back in the next 6 to 12 months?  [ ]

I honestly do not know how well or badly I do.  Maybe I could have done more, a lot more.  Maybe I am not so used to having people around me all the time, besides Cynthia.

Last Saturday evening – the evening before my mother headed back the next day – Cynthia and I were scratching our heads pondering where to bring my mother for dinner.  We discussed on the way to Church, we discussed while waiting for the Mass to begin, and we discussed on the way home.  We picked up my mother and we were still deliberating.  Where to eat?  Where?  To eat?  Such a profound question.  So fundamental.

Out of nowhere, I remember a radio advertisement.  Botak Jones’s new fully air-con restaurant opened somewhere in Balestier Road.  Inside the car, we quickly took out our wireless phones raced to search for the address.  We turned on Google Map.  In no time, we located the restaurant.

We seldom visit Balestier area, except that one time when I was hunting to buy a toilet seat, in board daylight.  Cynthia said the area reminded her of Jakarta.  As for my mother, Malaysia.  Botak Jones, to my best knowledge, started as a stall inside a hawker center serving authentic American food at a price comparable to other outdoor eatery stalls.  The tagline as I have later found out is: damn good food at damn good price.  That explains the T-shirts the staffs are wearing with the big logo “Damn Good” at the back.  The food is indeed pretty decent.  For burgers, I reckon the price is pretty good as well.  Around S$10.  My mother has ordered lamb chop and I, steak.  Ours were about S$20 each.  With two portions of mushroom soup (which was really good, or we were really hungry) and chargeable warm water, the bill came up to just over S$60.  I would say, Botak Jones serves pretty good food at a OK price, albeit the rather long wait for our food to be served.

Part Two – Lunch

In my current job role, I am not so used to having people lunching with me.  Hence, I often have my lunch alone.  It was seldom the case when I was working in town.  I always called upon friends from beyond my organization.  Since the office relocation, I have grown to enjoy the serenity of man-made lake and greenery, to treasure the time of my own.  I get to read books in a quiet space.  Or drive out and visit a library nearby.  Even lunch by the beach.  Recently, one friend of mine who works a few blocks away introduced me to a mall called Changi City Point.  You cannot imagine my excitement that day.

It is hard to describe the sheer pleasure in me when I first stepped inside.  A mall about ten minutes’ walk away from my office.  A mall that I did not even know exists.  It is quite a sizable mall.  Brand new, with garden (or rather oasis) concept.  Plenty of restaurants and cafes, outlets and there is even a music school.  Perhaps I shall take some drumming lessons during my lunch hours.  The food court in the mall offers cheaper and better food compares to my office’s canteen.  Pretty good food at a OK price.  My choice is obvious.  Better still, I get to have my healthy dosage of fresh air and sun and a good amount of walking every working day.

P.S.

The maps you see in this post are generated from Streetdirectory.com.  If you are from Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, or Philippines, you may use their widget to spice up your webpage.  Right now, they are running a treasure hunt campaign.  Click here for more information.  If you do win an iPad and you – like every other people in Singapore – have already got one, please send it over.  Thanks!

Categories
For the Geeks

Are You Ready To Tank Deathwing, Version LFR?

Quite recently, Blizzard the creator of World of Warcraft has done something rather innovative to a 7 years old online game.  They put together a mechanism to automatically matchmaking 25 random players from around the world to form a raid to slay dragons and more.  This is a five times expansion of the existing 5-man party assembler.  Traditionally, large scale raiding requires solid dedication of time, effort, sacrifices, and good networking skill.  And it is handsomely rewarded within the game with a deep scene of achievement.  Late last year, first time in Blizzard’s history, this aspect of the game has been opened up to the casual players.  That includes Cynthia and I and some of our friends who now have the opportunity to see a part of the game that was used to be exclusive to only 2% of the player base.  Now, any Tonk, Hick, and Sally can raid Deathwing – the final villain of this Cataclysm expansion – in a specially tune down version that is less demanding.  OK.  Deathwing may not be that elite in this LFR (looking for raid) setting.  But it is the same not so sexy back we parachute onto (see picture above), elite or not!  I often think that asking 25 strangers who may not have worked together before and to play a 90 minutes game is quite a feat – for Blizzard and for us.

Previously, I talked about the three roles that one can choose within the game.  Similar to a football match, the melee players are like the strikers, always up close and personal with the goal.  Mid fielders are like the casters throwing spells from the back.  Both are constantly attacking.  Healers in the game are like the defenders in a football field.  Finally, goalkeeper is like a tank role in World of Warcraft.  You don’t need many.  One tank is required for a 5-man party.  Two tanks are required for a 25-man party.  Of these few roles, I enjoy tanking the most, partly due to its huge responsibility and the demand of a low margin of error.  After all, you may have a few strikers by your side to pick up the slack when you miss the kick.  When a goalkeeper misses the ball, the opposite scores.

After weeks of trying out the different roles in Dragon Soul (LFR), I have put together a tanking guide to help fellow tanks who are new to raiding.  Unless there is a popular demand, I probably would not put up a guide for the other two roles.  Because they are rather straightforward compares to tanking.

  • Click here to read more.
Categories
Diary

Speed Of Light!

My boss has been kind and understanding.  Over an early evening meeting, he said to us in all sincerity, “I know I should have asked you two to do this back in November.  But can we have a document in two days?”  Can Michelangelo paint the ceiling of Sistine Chapel in two days?  I suppose with modern technology, nothing is impossible.  I am thrilled by the occasional excitement at work, such as this.

This morning I had an early meeting to host.  I honestly cannot relate to someone living in a time zone sixteen hours behind us.  But early morning seems like a time humane enough to all the participants.  I popped out of my bed at seven, as usual.  Showered faster than usual, ironed my shirt faster than usual.  It took a titan’s will to say no to Cynthia when at a quarter to eight, she asked, “Do we have time for breakfast?”  We hit the road before eight, with empty stomachs.  In about a quarter of an hour, we arrived at Cynthia’s drop off point.  Wow.  The traffic was smooth.  Usually it takes us close to three-quarter of an hour to cover the same distance in rush hours.  Imagine the time and the highway toll we could have saved every day by not eating breakfast at home or by getting up earlier.  I know, neither of these is sustainable option for Cynthia and I.

It was a breezily cool morning, a rather unusual sight in our tropical country.  I was early, and was in a good mood.  So I grabbed a gourmet sandwich that cost S$4.20.  And I made myself a cup of Lipton tea in office.  That was my breakfast at work.

My colleague and I did not have two days to write that document.  Working in a bank, you would know that we have BAU stuffs to do (BAU = business as usual).  BAU work activities are stuffs that require someone to work on in perpetually, stuffs that ultimately justify our paychecks.  BAU are work items that when your colleague goes on leave, you have to work double hard.  So, with the BAU stuffs that we have to do, we only have half a day to write that document.  Can Michelangelo paint the ceiling of Sistine Chapel in half a day?  Fortunately, our boss is expecting a sketch, although deep inside, I feel that sketches should never leave the bedroom.  I was determined to delivery more.

So we worked in the speed of light today.  It was an exhilarating experience, as though I was motor racing with my colleague as my teammate.  Words got vomited out of our brains, spatted onto an electronic media, churned and reworked into a 15-pager.  We solidify chaos into order, vomit into a work of art.  At 5pm, we were still seated at a round table with I going all out in punching the keyboard.  She commented, “You must have a passion in writing.”  True, I said.  But I have a stronger passion to go home and have dinner with my family.

Today, I bumped into another colleague of mine.  And I shared with her that my 2-year old niece does not like to swallow her food, likes to store the food in her cheeks so much so that she looks like a hamster for hours.  What should I do?!  She laughed and told me that all babies born after 2008 do not like to eat, as though the new generation is aware of an imminent food storage due to our planet’s population explosion.  At first I thought she was joking.  But she was not.  She said her kid was the same.  So were her kid’s friends.  Time has changed.

What if, just what if, human beings are able to mutate according to the changing world?  What would trigger such mutation?

Categories
Diary

How Did You Celebrate New Year’s Eve?

This year, I am not going to over complicate my New Year’s resolution.  It would be: read more, write more, play more music, and do more sport.  Other time sinking activities will have to be scaled back accordingly.

We stayed at home on New Year’s Eve, thanks to a laborious walk at Ubin Island the day before.  I got out of the bed in the early morning with my feet feeling sore.  I went back to bed thinking if we were to cycle instead of to walk, my feet would not be that sore.  But then I recalled what happen to those who do not cycle often.  I would rather have a pair of sore feet than a sore butt.

New Year’s Eve fell on a Saturday so we did our housecleaning ritual.  After a home cooked lunch, Cynthia and I spent a few hours romancing with the dragons.  Some readers have the misconception that MMO (massively multi-player online) is similar to the traditional role playing games, whereby you defeat your foes once and once only.  Well, in the world of MMO, we do that again, again, and again.  Very much like a game of basketball.  The court and the rules stay the same.  But the players and the outcomes may not.

*     *     *     *

After our movie outing the day before, TK, Cynthia, and I have decided to celebrate New Year’s Eve at my home watching some videos.  TK brought pizza and food while Cynthia bought potato chip and drink.  As for the lucky me, I was tasked to operate the Blu-Ray player.  I suggested to watch the Luc Besson movie “Léon” staring young Natalie Portman.  Cynthia counter suggested Quentin Tarantino’s gruesome “Reservoir Dogs” thinking that it was a comedy.  TK also preferred the blood and gore, for our New Year’s Eve.  In this party of three, somehow I am often outnumbered.

Watching “Reservoir Dogs” requires intense concentration, which we did not have once we started to eat our pizza and talked.  Cynthia and my mother were happily chatting.  TK was also happily chatting and every now and then, playing with his new phone often.  When the title “Mr. White” appeared, they had no clue where the story was heading, except blood and more blood.  I had to explain this is Mr. White, that is Mr. Orange, and he is Mr. Pink, and etc.  Fortunately, the ending was pretty obvious and that did not require much thinking to go ah-ha!  I can understand why “Reservoir Dogs” has become a cult hit.  I doubt TK and Cynthia really love it.

After “Reservoir Dogs”, the night was still young.  So we moved onto our next video.

*     *     *     *

If you have not watched “Léon” before and are to watch today, you would probably say, “Hmm.  Natalie Portman acted pretty good when she was 12.”  But imagine you have not heard of this movie, you would probably be amazed and thrown out of your chair at how talented this young actress is.  When I first saw Natalie Portman on screen, I said to myself, “She is going to make it big.”  She does not disappoint me.  Her 2011 “Black Swan” has won the Oscar.  And I had my “I knew it!” moment.  It was sweet.

“Léon” was more violent than I remember.  Watching “Léon” after “Reservoir Dogs”, we had our evening filled with blood and violence.  They are both classic movies, no doubt.  That pretty much sums up what 2011 is, in a way.

*     *     *     *

Year 2011 is pretty blah for me.  I hope 2012 is more exciting, in a positive way.  This is how we spent our New Year’s Eve.  What about you?  Did you do something outrageously fun?

Categories
For the Geeks

Deathwing Must Die (And He Did, A Few Good Times)

A choir.  I shall use a choir to illustrate what raiding in an online gaming environment is like.

In any given choir, think Christmas Caroling if you may, there is usually one organist or a few guitarists who set the key and pace of the performance.  The music draws attention but it alone does not entertain.  We need the singers to sing the melody.  And we need a few dedicated singers to sing the harmony.  The audience seldom hums along with the music or sings along with the harmony.  The audience sings along with the melody.  Melody is at the forefront of the entertainment deliverance.  Having said so, all three elements must co-exist in order to give forth one spectacular performance.

” They say things look different when you are dead.  After my demise, I looked back upon my twenty odd fellow raiders, who fought alongside with the dragons on the island, who one by one got killed by the bits and pieces of Deathwing (the red blob on the right).  It was a lost battle.  Time for another attempt.”

Raiding in a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) works similarly to how a choir operates.  25 players are organized into a team to fulfill a set of objectives in accordance with the lore.  One year ago, Blizzard has released a new expansion for World of Warcraft.  A year after Cataclysm, the story has finally come to a conclusion when we have the opportunity to face the ultimate villain of this expansion – Deathwing.  We have visited the future and changed it.  We have visited the past and changed it.  Armed with the artifact that may be the key in defeating the dragon Deathwing, we have escorted Thrall – our hero – to Wyrmrest Temple ready to have one final showdown with the villain and his waves of armed forces.  It is dramatic.  It is a lengthy expedition.  And it is an epic battle that leads to an orgasmic ending.  An ending that most of us has to experience again and again till the Pandas come home.

“Kalecgos has become a new Aspect for the Blue Dragonflight.  He made a rare visit to one of our capitals, in Matrix style.”

Players in a 25-man raid setting are required to fulfill one of the three roles – tank, damage, or heal.  Tank, to me, is like an organist in a choir.  They are there to set the pace of the encounters and to hold the enemies at bay.  The music continues so long as the organist keeps on playing.  Similarly, in a raid, when the tanks die, it often means that the encounter would come to a premature end.  That is, failure.  We don’t need many to play a tank role.  Two is sufficient in a 25-man raid.  It is a role with a huge responsibility.  It is also a role that I personally enjoy.

Then we have the heal role to replenish the team and neutralize the incoming damage.  In a military context, heal is like the armed forces multiplier, the ones who refuel the planes or replenish the bombs.  Heal is a support unit, much like the harmony singers in a choir.  We need a sizable heal.  And we need six in a 25-man raid.

Obvious as it sounds, those who take the damage role are responsible to lay damage to the enemy front.  They are like the melody singers who feeds on the music and the harmony.  In a raiding environment, they delivery the offensive blow to our enemies.  We need tons of players to play this role.  Seventeen to be exact.

“25 of us looks tiny compare to Deathwing.  Are you ready?”

In the past, raids in World of Warcraft (or other MMO games I suppose) are organized manually.  You need to put in heaps of commitment, get yourselves into a local community, stick to a timetable set by the majority, and you must have this mentality that each failure is one step closer to success.  One Korean guild attempted one particular encounter 300 times that eventually earned them the World First achievement in defeating Deathwing, heroically.  Proper raiding is no easy feat.

In reality, as recently revealed, only 2% of subscribers got to see the raiding contents.  Blizzard – the creator of World of Warcraft – has done something innovative in a recent patch.  They have created a LFR (Looking for Raid) tool to automatically assemble a raid group of 25 players across the servers.  To compensate the fact that these 25 players do not know each other and have not worked with one another, the encounters (and rewards) are specially tuned down to be more causal friendly.  All of a sudden, many get to experience end game contents, including Cynthia and I.

“[I suppose] Once Deathwing is heroically defeated in a realm (or server), a piece of him is displayed within the capital city to serve as a reminder that while many may falter, the ultimate villain has to be defeated at all cost.”

The LFR tool, wonderful as it seems, is not without its share of criticism.  Elitists bundle up and attack the tool on the ground that some  game contents have to be reserved for the cream of the crop.  Some need to feel special and to serve as an inspiration for many to follow.  While this has some philosophical merits, in an environment whereby every player pays the same subscription fees, there is little incentive to nurture elitism, especially with a 7-year old game that may have passed its peak.  Another criticism is that not all these 25 random players contribute at a similar level.  Do they deserve the reward?  Do they even deserve to be there to experience the story in the first place?  This leads back to my analogy.

Cynthia, my mother, and I have attended the Midnight Mass on Christmas.  Before the Mass, the choir was singing the Christmas Carols.  I observed that not every singer sang with full bodied vocal and devotion.  Some went off key.  It was as though some were there more for participation’s sake.  If it was a caroling competition, this choir would have been out.  But it was not a competition.  Participation is rewarded instead of performance.  I shared my observation with Cynthia and she could immediately relate.  It is OK to have some under-perform in LFR.  So long as we don’t have too many party fillers that makes it impossible to raid.

PS. Join us at Draenor server today!  You can play for free, for the first 20 levels at least.  Our guild has a presence in Alliance, as well as in Horde.

Categories
Diary

“Wah” – And Two Cars Banged

Singapore is a small country.  You can drive from east to west along the highways that totaled to approximately 50km.  That is from Changi Airport to Tuas Checkpoint that leads to Malaysia.  Or you can drive from south to east, a 30km journey from our beautiful resort island Sentosa to the not too beautiful Woodlands Checkpoint, which also leads to Malaysia.  In this small country, we have an efficient road network and an electronic pricing system that many of my overseas friends envy.  What they do not know is that although our roads are efficient, some of our drivers are not too smart.  Foreigners living within Singapore often tell me how amazed they are with the number of road incidents we have in such a tiny country.  A road network that is 50km in width and 30km in height.  I too am a driver.  I have often seen traffic congestion caused by road incidents.  I have nearly got into an accident recently when three cars in front of mine suddenly jam braked and one hit another.  Fortunately, common sense told me not to tailgate a chain of cars that were tailgating a blinking ambulance.  How stupid it is to form an impenetrable chain of cars at high speed when every other car on the left want to get back to the fast lane?  Right?

In Singapore, we have road junctions that are regulated by traffic lights.  Green means go, for those who are traveling straight.  If you want to turn left, you may need to give way to the pedestrians who are crossing the road.  If you want to turn right, you may need to get into a “pocket” located in the middle of the junction and give way to the cars coming from the opposite direction (both heading straight and turning left) as well as the pedestrians crossing the road.  When unsure of safety, common sense tells us to stay on the pocket till we are sure of the situation.  As the green light expires, a green right-turn-only arrow will light up to give those who are turning right a chance to cross safely.  It is a good and efficient system so long as people follow the rule.  Or rather, understand the rationale behind the rule.

There are a few problems with this setup, apparently to the Singapore drivers who may not have good common sense.  Inside the pocket, at times the view may be blocked by, say, a large vehicle on the opposite side of the road that also wants to turn right.  So, some would inch beyond their “pocket”, try to pull their necks out and see if the road is clear to turn right.  The problem is that if one is to look at this situation from the satellite view, by getting out of the pocket, the driver is positioning his car to the fast lane of the incoming traffic that he or she is unable to see.  Some take a leap of faith and cross the road even when there is no clear vision.  Is it dangerous?  Sure it is.  Is it a smart move?  Sure it is not.

Another problem is that Singapore drivers do not like to signal when changing directions.  So, those who are turning right looking at those incoming traffic and wonder: Hey, that car seems to have slowed down.  Is he going to turn left?  If so, I can beat him to it, yes?  Well, from my observation, it is a half-half case.  Some slow down at a junction due to safety concern.  These are good drivers.  Some intend to turn left and don’t signal.  These are our regular drivers.  As I always say, when in doubt, stay inside the pocket and cross the road when you are absolutely sure of its safety.  Even if the car behind you may be honking or high beaming you, do the right things in life.

So, back to my diary.  This morning, it rained.  It is still raining as I am typing out this entry.  The road was wet and I have dropped Cynthia off at her office.  I was heading home because I am on leave today.  As always, cars shooting out from the side roads without paying attention to the main road traffic.  That is OK.  I am used to it, dodging cars the best I could.  At one junction between South Bridge Road and South Canal Road, the green light was on.  I signaled and was about to turn left.  Ahead of me, there was two cars going straight.  All of a sudden, one SUV from the opposite direction has decided to turn right.  And BAM! it collided with a sedan car.  The front bumper of the sedan was gone.  The SUV was hit at the back, lost control, did a 180 degree turn on a wet road, nearly crashed onto the pedestrians waiting at the traffic light.  It was like watching a silence movie as Japanese music was playing in my car stereo blocking any crashing sound that came from the outside.  I remember clearly that I did not scream double-u tee ef, or qué pasa in Spanish.  I screamed, “Wah!”  I think in time of emergency, we naturally switch to our mother tongue.

If there is one take home message, or one message to pass along, drive intelligently and responsibly.  Don’t test your luck.

Categories
Diary

My Niece Says the Funniest Things

My mother is in town.  All of a sudden, my humble home has turned into a family headquarter.  My sister visits my home often, with or without my presence, together with my buddy a.k.a. her husband and my niece a.k.a. Bethany.  Bethany and I converse in various modes . I often stick to my mother tongue Cantonese . I am not sure how much she can understand me.  At times I switch to English.  I don’t think she responds to me either.  But we have some friendly moments.  Like when she was dancing non-stop in my living room, in between songs, she would collapse and rest her head onto my laps for five seconds.  And then she would bounce back to her dancing mode, going round and round in circle, moving backward and forward, so totally absorbed in her own world.  Bethany would listen attentively to the first few bars of the song before launching into a unique dancing pattern choreographed specifically for that song.  For a 23 months old toddler, that is pretty amazing.

Bethany seems to enjoy listening to Roxette, Fleetwood Mac, Erasure, Tears for Fear, and Mariah Carey.  And she does not seem to like modern rock.  This saddens Cynthia a little bit.  As for me, I am happy that she likes some of my favorite records.

After a rather long dancing session, her parents were concern that Bethany getting too excited may affect her sleep later that evening.  So I switched to classical music, the same type of music that I played when she was still inside my sister’s tummy.  Bethany stopped dancing, took out her teddy bear, held it by its head, and dragged it across my living room.  If there was a level of affection between her and her teddy bear, I could not notice.  I know she has a habit of chewing it.  I now know that she likes to sweep my floor with it.  I found that amusing.  But my sister was not amused.  As my sister tried to lift the teddy bear from the ground, Bethany slammed it flat onto the floor, stepped on it with one foot, and dragged it across the room with one foot on my ceramic flooring, and another foot on the soft toy.

My sister gasped and said that classical music must have brought out Bethany’s darker side.  I laughed hard . Bethany has a unique character.  My sister tried to grab the teddy bear and Bethany took it back, slammed it onto the floor and stepped on it.  Not violently, but with passion.  The cycle repeated and my sister would mimic the teddy bear’s voice and say, “I don’t want! I don’t want!”  Bethany would stare at the teddy bear and reply in a firm, unhurried, and dominating voice, “No you want! No you want!”

I laughed so hard till my tears came out.  The first English sentence I heard from her is “No you want”.  My niece says the funniest things.  I love her.  I love her darker side just the same.

Categories
Diary

Wind Powered Decorative Door Damper (Alternative Title: A Week Moving In Jelly)

“This is my patent pending invention!”

Recently, the inanimated objects around me seem to have taken an unanimous decision to stop working.  I felt like moving inside a huge swimming pool filled with grass jelly.  Maybe I am too lazy, quietly observing the hole on my sofa growing bigger and bigger.  More holes have appeared.  What shall I do now?  And then there was this overhead light bulb in my bathroom that had turned into disco mode.  I took it out, left the socket empty like my wisdom tooth that was once there thinking that I did not have a spare one.  I actually do, inside one of the kitchen drawers.  One of my electricity wall socket is malfunction.  The switch does not stick.  I bought a replacement unit.  But I am still trying to find the courage to replace it myself.  I suppose I simply need to switch off the main power, disconnect three wires and reconnect them into the new unit.  I even visualize myself doing it with plastic slippers and plastic gloves on.  I have also bought a screwdriver that lights up if there is an electric current.

My 10 years old audio amplifier finally gave in.  For a long time, one channel would suddenly die and reappear when we temporarily pumped up the volume to a deafening level.  The symptom would appear again depending on the temperament of my old amplifier.  I would imagine our suffering – the amplifier and I – is mutual.  I was squeezing every ounce of life from it and it was testing every ounce of my patience.  One fine day, I have decided to put an end to this by forking out close to S$1,000 of hard earned cash.  The newer model looks very much like its elder sibling.  Less powerful on paper, slimmer, and is working every time we switch it on.

My watch has run out of battery.  Now, this is not news worthy, certainly.  But did you know that it is best to take your watch for a battery replacement at the agent?  I did not know.  One day, I walked into a new watch shop inside a new mall near my office that is a stone’s throw away from the airport.  The sales assistant was professional enough to inform me that I should bring my watch back to the agent so as to get the seal’s rubber changed as well.  Or I could go ahead to have the battery replaced at her shop but risk forgoing the water resistance guarantee.  There and then, I remember some of my old watches with their faces filled with water droplets from the inside whenever we entered into a raining season.  Is that so?  And so, this weekend, Cynthia and I deliberately drove to the agent shop at Raffle City only to be told that we have to visit a service center instead.  Because the service center only opens in town during office hours, I would imagine that I will have to go without a watch for quite some time.

The mother of all disasters as of last week besides Cynthia’s ear infection that I will get into shortly is the epic failure of our water heater.  My plumber and I were debating on the age of my dead heater after we took it down.  We disagreed but agreed that its age falls somewhere between 17 to 22 years of age.  My plumber was shocked that my heater could last that long.  I was shocked that a heater could not last longer.  Five years he said, is the life expectancy of an electric water storage these days.

One evening, I was extremely hungry.  So I turned on the electric oven wanting to heat up a frozen pizza.  Shortly after, the electric circuit of our home tripped.  Strange.  We had a problem with our oven a few years back and had its internal circuit changed.  I flipped the main switch back on and in a few seconds, it tripped again.  I switched off the electric appliances one by one and after some simple diagnosis, it was our water heater that failed.  Bumper.  Singapore can be quite chilly nowadays as it rains almost daily.  That night I had a rather cold shower.

The next morning, I opened up the false ceiling access area, noted down the make and capacity of the heater and determined to replace it with the same model.  On the same day, I drove down to a shop inside Singapore Red Light District, got terribly lost, and managed to procure one.  I loaded the new heater into my car and lugged it all the way home.  Day one, the plumbers arrived late and could not start work.  Day two, we dissected the dead heater out from the myriad of water pipes hidden above.  That operation resembled an open heart surgery.  I looked at the state of my dead heater, with its electric components exposed and covered in rust.  No wonder it died.  Once we took it down, horror descended upon us.  The new model was one and a half inches taller than the old model.  It could not be fitted into our false ceiling. I lugged the new heater back to Singapore Red Light District, paid extra to replace one that fits.  Day three, the plumber had hinted to come but he did not.  Day four, the plumber came and installed the water heater.  Those four days of cold shower nearly got me sick.  I hate showering with cold water at night, and ice cold water in the morning.

Round about the same time, Cynthia was suffering from an ear infection.  The problem with Cynthia is that she is not that good at articulating her pain.  I was not that worried until much later.  She saw a doctor four times and was finally referred to a specialist.  I was there to help her articulate the pain, giving her some moral support.  The consultation went well.  But it took us a long time to procure the medicine because it was nowhere to be found.  Looking at this week of moving in jelly, I was the least surprised.

Since I was working from home, I also called in someone to service our gas stove.  One burner eventually failed and for some time, we were cooking with a single burner.  It was challenging and required lots of planning.  When the technician opened up the stove, I was amazed at the beautiful network of gas and electric pipes hidden underneath the stove.  It was like a science project, some sort of experimental invention.  The technician took out a spinner, tighten one bolt and viola, the burner is working!  That cost me S$60.  As an bonus though, he cleared the pipes for all the burners.  There must have been some gas leakage during the process.  I felt a bit giddy standing next to this old man who has done this for years.  We talked.  When the servicing was completed, after I was S$60 poorer, all my burners now ignite with new found rage.

We live on a rather high floor, unblocked and our home faces the reservoir.  When the wind blows from our door and out from the windows, the wind can be strong enough to hold the door ajar.    And when the wind blows from our windows and out from the main door, the wind can be strong enough to slam the door hard.  Recently, due to a lack of imagination, we hang one tiny teddy bear at the door (as seen in the picture on top of this post).  Yesterday, I realized that when the wind blows, it moves the teddy bear dangerously towards the door gap.  And when the door slams, it slams right onto the teddy bear and produces a low thump sound instead of a loud bang.  This teddy bear turns out to be the cheapest door damper I can find in town.