Category: Observing Life

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2010 SingTel F1 Grid Girls Crowning Party – A Media Event

What a great media event!  I mean, fast cars and pretty women should go side by side with one another.  I am an avid fan of Formula One and have been watching every single match on TV.  Singapore circuit is special.  Not only because it is a night race, an anti-clockwise circuit, but also because the race takes place in the city, along the beautiful marina.

So what do F1 grid girls do?  Good question.  I met one of my fellow bloggers at the party.  To me, grid girls are there to hold the flags before the race.  And they are there to clap and welcome the winners at the end of the race.  Beyond that, I have no idea what they do.  My buddy is the hilarious one.  He said there have been rumors that …

Anyway, the venue of the event was at Shanghai Dolly, Clarke Quay.  I seldom write about the event venue (because most are just standard).  I think Shanghai Dolly is a lovely venue.  Great decoration and the house band is simply mesmerizing.  I will be back, for sure.

12 SingTel F1 grid girls, 3 group performances followed by questions for the individual.  I am surprised that no one answered world peace.  I think one girl has a rather noble answer and she went on winning the top grid girl award.  At 10 pm, the winner of SingTel Grid Girls 2010 was announced.  Mabel Lau has won the title, got herself a S$10,000 cheque from SingTel, and will be holding our Singapore flag on the race day.  OK.  I can understand why she wins.  Probably the most photogenic of all.  Personally, I like the 2nd runner up too.  In any case, we will see them on TV during the weekend of 24th to 26th September.

Back to F1, I am being asked a lot of time on which team I support or who is my favorite F1 driver.  The thing about motor racing is that viewers have very short term memory.  The last race’s winner is always the hero – in this case, Alonso.  Webber in this season has pulled off some of the most amazing stuns (and is marginally leading the championship).  Button has won the championship last year, looks like he is still in the game.  And Hamilton, what a committed driver – when he has a competitive car.  I wish he can win this season.  Having said that, I would be delighted if any of four could win.

Where are the photos?  You must be asking.  Well, I have worked double hard and pushed out the contents within a few hours after the event.  Hot from the oven.  Just for you!

Notes:

  • I haven’t got time to narrate the photos.  But they are very much self-explanatory – I hope.
  • Those who carried flowers are the top 3 girls.
  • I wish I could devote the same amount of attention to all 12 grid girls.  But I am a man.  My attention takes direction from my …
  • The girl who doesn’t look like a grid girl won herself a gift from SingTel after some intense competition on the stage that involved … dancing.
  • The girl who was holding the mic is from the house band.  She has one amazing voice.
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Digesting The DBS and IBM Detail Findings Of 5 July Outage

I work in a bank.  Prior to that, I have spent more than a decade working as a IT and management consultant serving primarily the financial services industry.  I am also a customer of DBS.  Certainly, I have high anticipation on the detail findings on what went wrong on July 5th when DBS suffered an unprecedented systems failure which prevented its customers from using the ATM or accessing their accounts (quote from The Straits Times).  A month has passed and the report has been made public.  Before I go on happily talking about what I think, here is a disclaimer (required by the one who pays my bills).  This entry – and everything you read in this website, really – represents opinions in my own capacity.  And I am not a spokesperson for any entity.

I have gone through the detail findings a couple of times (click here to view).  I would have thought digesting the findings should be cake, given my background.  But the findings, to me, are far from detail.  Confusing to read.  As far as the story goes, one fine day, IBM had detected an instability in the communication link between DBS’s mainframe computer and its storage system.  And because of that, an engineer was sent to DBS site to replace a cable.  This happened on July 3, 11.06am.  Here is a rundown of event anointed with my thoughts.

  • July 3, 7.50 pm –  The IBM engineer, as per the instruction given by the IBM support center, replaced the cable.  The report claims that the instruction is incorrect but appeared to have solved the problem.  I deduce from the report that the correct way is to use the machine’s maintenance interface (which I can understand).  So what did the engineer do?  Did he just yank out the cable?  As a IBM certified engineer, would he have known what are the steps involved to replace a cable?  I have no idea.  The report does not say much.  I can only speculate.
  • July 4 – 2.55 pm – All of a sudden, the problem reappeared.  This time, both the cable and the associated electronic cards had gone unstable.  The IBM engineer then escalated the issue to the [IBM] data center.  I suppose that was a logical thing to do.  Because replacing the cable did not seem to fix the problem.  Something else must had gone wrong.  The report does not go as far as to say that if the cable was to be replaced correctly in the first place, the issue would have been fixed for good.
  • July 4 – 5.16 pm –  After more than two hours of, I suppose, deliberation inside the support center located outside Singapore, the instruction was to: try reseating cable (my wild guess is that reseating means unplugging and reconnecting the cable).  So the IBM engineer did just that and the problem seemed to have gone away.  So why did the problem appeared to go away in two counts?  Nobody knows.  This detail findings report does not say.  The support center might have deduced that the problem was due to a loosely connected cable.
  • July 4 – 6.14 pm – Again, all of a sudden, the problem reappeared (by the way, I have worked in the technology line before and I know very well never to celebrate too early).  This time, the support center spent more time analysing the problem and appears to insist that it was still a problem with the cable.  So the IBM engineer reseated the cable.
  • July 4 – 11.38 pm – This time, the problem did not go away.  So as per the support center’s instruction, the IBM engineer reseated the cable again.  It did not work.
  • July 5 – 2.50 am – DBS was contacted to authorize a cable replacement at a quiet hour.  Previously, the cable was changed at 7.50 pm.  So I can only imagine that there may be some batch programs running during the midnight window.
  • July 5 – 2.58 am – The IBM engineer replaced the cable the same way as before.  And unlike the last time, the storage system detected a threat to data integrity and had stopped working in order to protect its data.  The million dollar question is: Why the storage system did not cease to work when the cable was replaced using the so called incorrect steps on July 3?  Something else must have killed the system but the report does not say.  What exactly did the engineer do that was different from before?  Why did the problem seem to have gone away after the cable was replaced the first time, reseated the first time?  Why did the problem reappear?  I am not convinced that these incorrect procedures have caused the outage, as quoted from the report.
  • July 5 – 12.30 pm – The banking services were fully restored.

Half a day to bring the system back up?  Procedures aside, what happened to the disaster recovery system?  You mean, there is none?

We can only read the clues by decoding the extra steps MAS has asked DBS to take.

When I read action items, I often examine the rationales behind each item.  More often than not, gaps are identified and in order to close them, action items are derived.  I doubt if the public would ever know what has gone wrong.  Looking at each item, it seems to me that MAS is concerned on the single points of failure (exactly my thought), not happy with how DBS managed and handled the situation, and above all, not happy with IBM.

It does not come more obvious than this:

diversify and reduce its material outsourcing risks so that it does not overly rely on a single service provider or a single vendor’s products and services

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Summer Blog Episode 10 – A Piece Of Work (Final Episode II)

What is a piece of work?

My friend Barbara from Philippine did some research and noted to me that it either means “someone who, although often interesting, is difficult to get along with on an every day basis” or “a remarkable person, achievement or product”.

For some strange reasons, in my mind, when I asked that question, I was looking at “a piece of work” literally as a piece of work.  As in one unit of work.  An innocent question that stemmed from a conversation overheard, outside my office that looks more like a farm.  Maybe I shall compose an article of frequently used and abused terms in my department.

My colleague from India and I often chat.  One morning, like any other morning, she indicated to me her unhappiness towards the many work issues she has.  But these are just work items, I said.  If we have a process to take care of work items, it is a matter of having an issue dropping into this black box called “my daily job” and coming out as a handled issue, which could still be an issue, but it is handled as per the process agreed.

It is like if my daily job is a toilet cleaner, I see dirty toilets coming in and cleaned toilets going out.  Whether a cleaned toilet is indeed a 5-star clean toilet depends on many factors (some public toilets are just impossible to clean, don’t you think?).  The bottom line is, it is a cleaned toilet.  I am neither sad about the dirty toilet nor happy about the cleaned toilet.  But I am delighted about the money I take home that day.

PS. It is quite a miracle that I can write another ‘final’ episode.  I thought I would stop at 9.

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Summer Blog Episode 6 – Who Created Zipper At The Back Of A Dress?

These cannot be coincidences, the more I think about it.

If you are a man, imagine wearing or taking off a shirt with a long zipper all the way up from your waist to the back of your neck.  Or from the low side of your hip all the up to your armpit.  Whoever designed this concept and applied to the day-to-day fashion for the ladies, I wonder if practicality was something he or she had in mind.  But if that makes me, as the man of the house, feel more useful morning after morning, night after night, I am not complaining.

Opening of jars, changing of light bulbs, hooking and unhooking of bras – perhaps there is a conspiracy out there to make us men more useful.  One scene, in Gossip Girl, when Blair said the word ‘zip’ and Serena immediately sprung into action and helped out with the dressing in such fluidity, I could immediately relate.

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SingTel mioTV Gives A Black Screen? Here Is How To Hard Reset Your Setup Box

Update: SingTel called me to propose waiving one month mio Home subscription fees as a token of compensation.  I think it is reasonable and fair.  And he mentioned that I have been a loyal customer for many years, which is true.  Let’s hope that the mio service will get improved.

10 pm, it was the official kick-off 2010 World Cup.  I switched on the free-to-air Channel 5 HD channel on StarHub TV.  No problem.  The image looked beautiful.  Out of curiosity, I switched on SingTel mioTV at the same time.  Black screen, no signal.  Strange.  I have installed the box 2 days ago and it has been working fine, so far.  During half time, I played around a bit more with mioTV and realized that all the channels – live or on demand – were blacked out.  I couldn’t even select an on demand channel.  The menu said that the service was not available because I belonged to a business user group.  Business?!  I am pretty sure I am a regular consumer who wanted to watch World Cup live, free.  Even for that only one match.

To cut a long story short, if you too have experienced the same issue, you need to hard reset your mioTV setup box.  Press OK button, the down arrow, and the power button on your setup box at the same time.  You should see all three indicators (green, blue, and red) on the front panel light up.  Then release the power button and keep the other two pressed.  Once you see the flashing of the indicators, release the OK button and down arrow.  Your setup box should now be reset and it will take 30 to 40 minutes to boot up.

In another word, if you Google the answer to the problem, you would probably only miss 45 minutes of the match.  If you wait for SingTel to pick up the call (like me), you would miss an extra 45 minutes of the match.

I am quite mad at SingTel.  The helpful service consultant told me the network server was down during such an important live event.  When I enquired if SingTel is going to compensate us for not being to view the live broadcast (that is the whole point of paying for cable TV, yes?), she told me that her supervisors were busy.  They will get back to me tomorrow instead.  I am a patience man.  I am eager to hear what they have got to say.

PS. Once you hard reset your setup box, the default resolution is 564i.  You can choose your optimal resolution by pressing the menu button.  Go to settings, channel guide, screen settings, and there you go.  Good as new.

PS. For those of you who have paid close to S$100 in order to watch World Cup on mioTV, well, good luck to you.  If I have to subscribe, I would subscribe the channels on StarHub TV instead.  I am starting to worry about the F1 broadcast now that SingTel has taken over the right of ESPN.

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Asmara Lifestyle At Bishan Park – Singapore’s Best Kept Secret?! – Garden Spa, Restaurants, And More

You have no idea how surreal I felt last evening, when Cynthia and I attended a blogger event somewhere so close to our home.  We have driven up and down passed Bishan Park along AMK Ave 1 so many times a month, in the day and at night.  We had absolutely no idea that behind the rolls of trees there are restaurants, a garden spa, and more.  During the private tour organized by three cordial ladies from Asmara Lifestyle, when we got a chance to shuttle between the bar and the restaurants and the beautiful spa, for a moment, I thought I was inside our Botanic Gardens.  Such serenity and soothing scent.  That brings me to the second reason why I felt so surreal.

I often participate for a blogger event knowing more or less what I am getting myself into.  Bar and restaurants, checked.  Catching up with good friends, checked.  But the spa is a surprised for me.  Pilate?  And nails treatment?  In a way I was relieved that I brought Cynthia along.  Seeing how excited she felt.  But in a way I am a bit weary what this could mean to my credit card bill, having a resort like spa and facility so close to our home.  Then again, since a happy wife means a happy life, I am delighted to have come to know this establishment.

The overall design of this awards winning establishment follows very much to the philosophy of being immersed with the nature.  Initially I observed that some trees appear to be out of place.  Upon inquiry, I realize that the structures are built around the original landscape – trees and etc.  There is a rather huge rock in the middle of a bar, which has been there before the bar was built.  At first, it is strange to see staffs at times hopping over the stone to get in and out of the bar area.  But I suppose this adds another layer of charm to the decoration.  I heard that they may call this new bar “Middle Rock” and intend to bring in live bands for entertainment.  I also heard that they may bring in a projector TV for the broadcast of World Cup.  Immediately I said to Cynthia: You can have the car key, I will have my beauty sleep.

For those who are into garden dining and bar, there is Canopy.  Beautiful ambiance, with different dining theme from month to month.  They are open for breakfast and brunch too.  For the vegetarians, there is Green Room Café.  For both indoors and alfresco dining.  We have tried some of the dishes.  They are delicious.  A must try even if you are not a vegetarian.

OK.  I must admit I can’t write more than my first impression after spending a short albeit lovely evening at Asmara Lifestyle.  I am not a man for spa but I may try it out once and share my experience here with you.  Meanwhile, I have taken a few photos for sharing (see below).  To reach Asmara Lifestyle by bus, you can take Bus 136, 133, and 262 from AMK Bus Interchange.  Or by car, there is a public car park in front of the entrance.  If you come by CTE, exit AMK Ave 1, drive pass Bishan Road and then drive s-l-o-w-l-y.  You wouldn’t want to miss the public car park entrance on your left.  Back to the garden spa, there are 17 rooms in total open till midnight.  Some are for special treatments.  Some are couple rooms that are pretty spacious.  Stay tuned for more write-ups.  For reservation details, please click onto the links below.

The address is: 1382 Ang Mo Kio Ave 1 Bishan Park 2 Singapore 569931.

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The Story Of Yeh Chi Wei – Singapore Art Museum

At the opening ceremony of “The Story of Yeh Chi Wei”, it is heartwarming to hear the late artist’s granddaughter giving a speech on Mr. Yeh Chi Wei’s art and the effort in putting an exhibition together – works by Yeh and works by The Ten Men Group (a community led by Yeh).  It must have been a proud evening for the Yeh’s family as well as Yeh’s fellow artists to see this collection artwork displayed in one of Singapore’s museums.  There is a strong essence of Southeast Asia style in Yeh’s work as he was used to organize painting trips to different locations in the region and exhibit their works together after the trips.  Yeh taught art for 22 years in Singapore and passed away in 1981.

As an Asian, some of the themes I can quite readily relate, which is always a good start in attempting to appreciate the art.  I in particularly am drawn to the usage of powerful black color contrasted with muted colors.  That intensity.  Below are some of the photos I took during the opening event.  As for the event itself, Cynthia and I really appreciate the school kids stationed in front of the key exhibits explaining the artwork to the visitors.  They have done a great job and we love it.  Back to the exhibition, catch “The Story of Yeh Chi Wei” now at the Singapore Art Museum from May 27 to September 12, 2010.

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Don’t Miss the 20th European Union Film Festival Here In Singapore (May 6-16)!

I love to watch European films.  What a coincident that Cynthia and I were invited to a blogger event for the 20th European Union Film Festival.  We had no clue why the event was hosted at Spain Embassy Residence.  Today, I read that Spain is the current rotating Presidency of the EU.  Now I know!  Last year about this time, Cynthia was here to apply a visa for our holiday in Spain.  And since we are learning Spanish, we took the opportunity to converse with our hosts from the embassy.  If they were surprised that some of us spoke Spanish during the event, Cynthia was as surprised when one of the Spanish staffs spoke Bahasa Indonesia with her.  The power of the ability to speak in one’s native language.  The bonding is instant.

Spain Embassy is located in Suntech City.  High floor.  The night view from the embassy is breathtaking, especially when the light was switched off during the presentation of one of the featured films.  I stopped for a moment admiring the beauty of our city, the progress of our society.  While I can’t pinpoint what Singaporean culture is exactly, I think many Singaporeans have worked hard for what we have built today.  As tangible as those high-rise commercial building, as intangible as the financial infrastructure that powers our growth.  And when the film started playing, I was as though being transported away from this city of ours and into somewhere in Europe – so drastically different.  Our hosts have highlighted that European films portray a slice of Europe’s diverse and rich culture.  That sums up well on why I love to watch European films.

Tickets are selling at Golden Villiage VivoCity.  Come join me for the festival!

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“Irina Palm” is a tragicomedy film about a 50 years old widow desperately in need of money for her grandson’s medical treatment.  Stumbled upon a sex shop, she is offered a job that makes about 600 to 800 pounds a week.  Quite honestly, I have no idea how the number adds up.  It is humorous in parts when you get to watch the main actress Marianne Faithfull taking us through, shall I say, the “technical” details of the job.  In other parts, it is pretty tragic.  Such emotional acting between the characters.  The job, the realization of how one’s talent can earn a decent amount of money, the transformation from being poor and desperate to coming to term with the reality, “Irina Palm” is a heartwarming film to watch.  While the topic of this film could be a taboo in some societies, it serves as a reminder to how diverse cultures are at a global level.  If you watch this with an open mind, you would enjoy the film like Cynthia and I do.

“Irina Palm” will be filming at GV Vivocity on May 8 (Sat) at 7pm.  Check out the rest of the program too.  There are 16 films of various topics to choose from. 

External Site: EU Film Festival 2010 Website.

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Realism in Asian Art – Singapore Art Museum – Don’t Miss It

Cynthia and I love to visit museums.  There is always something to learn from these exhibitions.  Last week, we were invited for an exhibition opening at National Art Gallery, Singapore – “Realism in Asian Art”.  And we had the opportunity to hear from the experts in this field talking about the art, the process of setting up the exhibition in Singapore, and the collaboration with our Korean counterpart.

What struck me as distinctly different from most of the exhibitions we have seen overseas is this Asian theme.  As one of the Korean presenters has mentioned that in many ways, we – the Asians – are connected and what one nation has experienced can be related by people of another nation, even if we are living in different locations.  To that extend, realism – an attempt to represent things as they are in real life – is the main theme of this exhibition in walking us through our last century of rural era, worker movement, the war, nationalism, and more.

Cynthia got really excited to see some of the famous Indonesian artists, whom she has studied when she was in Indonesia, featured (see picture above).  It has been an eye opening experience for me to admire the 80 significant artworks from eight Asian countries.  Unlike Cynthia, I don’t have the knowledge of who is who.  Nevertheless, I have enjoyed the event and below are some of the photos I have taken.

If you have time, from now till July 4, do visit our Singapore Art Museum for “Realism in Asian Art”. Admission is free on Fridays, 6pm to 9pm. More details can be found in the official website here.

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So This Is Our Casino 1 Of 2? A Visit To Resorts World Sentosa Singapore

One evening, seated opposite me inside a Japanese restaurant at Wheelock Place, my sister in her supreme cuteness and child like innocence squeezed her fists hard, gesturing in annoyance and said to Cynthia who was sitting next to me, “Does he always play with his phone at the dining table?  Do you feel like grabbing his phone and throw it away?”  For a moment, I thought my little sister meant business.

I was innocence, of course.  I was planning to bring my mother from Hong Kong to visit Resorts World Sentosa tomorrow.  No, the tickets to Universal Studios Singapore were sold out, as the website on my phone said so.  Deep inside, I agree with my sister.  I have spent way too much time on my phone.  Perhaps, in the not so distant future, most of us will be road hazard to one another.  We walk with our eyes on the phone, we drive with our eyes on the phone.

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Even as a non-gambler, I am curious.  Our very first casino branded under the concept of integrated resort.  Followed the rather cheap looking sign “Casino”, we walked down the dark tunnel.  I heard a futuristic musical tune that reminds me of the game Mass Effect 2.  Strange!  Looking at the entrance of the casino (see picture above), imagine masking out the word “casino”, I thought I was inside a Cathedral.  Quite the opposite, of course.

As a Singapore Citizen (or Permanent Resident), we need to pay a S$100 levy per entry (24 hours).  Or S$2,000 for an annual pass.  What a joke that I had to stand outside waiting while sending off my mother (as a foreigner) into the casino.  I wish I could accompany her.  But spending S$100 in order to tour the casino does not worth my hard earned money.  At the entrance, I took out a S$50 note, passed it to my mother and said, “Mom, take you time inside the casino.  Try out the slot machines and win some money for me!”.  I waved to her as she went past the security checkpoint, just like what I used to do when I send her off the airport, which I will tomorrow.

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What a disappointment, which I was not surprised.  At the exit, my mother said to me, “I won S$50 by not gambling it away!”.  As it turns out, the slot machines are too high-tech for her.  What happens to the good old days of putting a coin inside the machine, pull the lever, and if you win, you hear the coins falling onto the tray underneath?  Well, mom, if you visit me this July, just when you think that you can on the television and watch F1, mioTV will need at least 5 minutes to ‘boot-up’.  That is technology for you.

Besides, the machines are in English and she can only read Chinese.  How come I am not surprised?  Not long ago, I was at the station topping up my ezLink Card.  One Chinese girl approached me and asked if I could help her to top up her card because she could not read English.  I tried to teach her on how to top up the card and I gave up halfway.  Too many steps, too many inputs.  No way she could remember what to do.  This is Singapore for you.

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Resorts World Sentosa does not look grand, I must say.  I could not find a seat to read my book while waiting for my mother to tour the casino.  There were house flies inside the toilet.  For a mere 3 hours parking, I had to pay S$10 (on top of S$6 entrance fee to Sentosa).  Peeping at the Universal Studios from the entrance, it does not seem to have the extraordinary feel of, say, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort.  Elsewhere in the world, casinos do their best to attract people to visit.  Free and frequent bus rides, free or cheap food and drink, free souvenirs, and tons of entertainment.  What does our casino 1 of 2 have?

Very beautiful cars for sure (and there is a Victoria’s Secret inside!).