Malacca

I just came back from Malacca. The trip will be fantastic if not for two bad experiences. The first is in Malacca where got a begger begs us for RM$0.10 saying he wants to call his friend. When I ignored him, he said:"Don't be stingy." I replied:"I no coins!". Even if I have, I also dun want to give him. I rather throw in Malacca river.

Another disgusting event is at the Malaysia check point when we are about to drive out back to Singapore. The police stop us and insisted my friend no wear seat belt and wanted to give us RM$200 summon! Then, he said:"Ok, lah. I "helped" you and you give RM$50 can liao." We dun want any trouble so we paid up and left. Corruption! This incident also got its good points. First is to make my friends and I more appreciate Singapore. Second is to make my friend remember to put on his seat belt! Heh heh. So I decided to boycott Malaysia for the time being. I intend to go Kuala Lumpur this May but I will shelve this idea.

Any way, driving to Malacca is not hard. It is around 210km from Singapore and quite straight forward from Tuas. Just follow the sign board. Just that it is a bit harder when you in Malacca Town. Any way, still quite ok. The charges to use 2nd Link Singapore check point is $3.70. You need to pay when you enter Malaysia and another time when you enter Singapore. The total toll from Johor Bahru to Malacca is around RM$36. Also must pay both time go and come back.

The hotel we stay not bad. A 3 stars award winning Aldy hotel. Service wise I feel still not too bad. The pricing also reasonable. Two nights per room with breakfast is RM$286. It is also situated beside the police station and within walking distance to all the tourist spots. The town is quite small. I took about one morning and finished visiting all the important tourists spot.

Then, we went to the nearby Mahkota Parade shopping mall. Quite big and got many things to buy but not cheap. We bought a few local food items and headed to Chinatown. It has a street called Jonker street where after 6pm, it is closed for traffic and stalls start to set to become a night market. At that street, there are some famous food. The first one is the chicken rice ball, second is the durian chendol but I dun eat durian. My friends said very nice. Third is the nyonya and baba laksa. Yum!!!

Off

Ok, polling is near and so far my side has no news. So a bit boring. Just when I am bored, a consolation price came knocking on my email. As everyone knows that polling will be held on a saturday which is a non-working day. It will be declared as a public holiday. My company policy is to give a day leave to compensate the holiday on a weekend. Hurray!!!

COE analysis April 2nd round

Ok, I decided to start a COE analysis one day after the latest COE price is released. Yesterday, the latest results is out and CAT A is $11,901. Same price as last bidding and CAT B is $13,101. Down $301. This might seems COE price is stablising but looking deeper at the number of bids received, you can see that demand has become slower. A few dealers said market is very weak. A quick check at Toyota latest car price shows that they dropped $1k for smaller cc cars and about $2k or more for bigger cc cars. This shows how the market leader feels about the trend of next round COE. So I feel expect to dive further for the next bidding. Those who wish to buy car can wait for a while. I feel $10k COE is about to come again.

Superbowl

I just came back from bowling. This is a new found interest in our lab. We went to the nearest bowling center which is Jurong Superbowl. Maybe now exam period and a weekday, the bowling center is very empty. We played 3 games and I am in number 2 throughout the 3 games. My results are 119, 104 and 98. Quite rotten.

LCD TV

Lately I feel like buying a TV to replace the one that exploded in my room. I have been looking around and I find that Samsung LCD TV looks the sleekest. Very professional! Now LCD TV like very cheap. A lot of promotion going on recently. 32" LCD TV now I think can get around $2k. But I wun get so big one cos put in my room. So I think I will get around 20". But must be HD ready. A lot of 20" and below LCD TV not HD ready. So maybe have to wait for a while more.

Qing Ming

Today my family and I went to pay our respects to our ancestors. According to chinese custom, tomorrow will be the last day of qing ming festival. We first went to Mandai. Reached around 9.30am. Everything done at around 11am. Lucky we went early. By the time we left, long queue at the main road!

Then, we proceed to Aljunied. Also another massive jam. But we are smart to take another small road where nobody knows. Heh heh. So in the end we avoided the jam. Pray until about 12.30pm, we went for our lunch at Yishun and proceed on to our last destination which is Lim Chu Kang.

However, it rained very heavily on our way there! So we detoured home and waited until 4pm where the rain stopped and then we went to pray. Everything ended at around 6.30pm and it is home sweet home liao.

Ice Age: The Meltdown

I just came back from watching Ice Age: The Meltdown. I would say this movie is quite nice. The effects are nice but I think can be nicer. This time I find it funnier than the first Ice Age movie. Story flow wise is quite good. Got nice musical songs also. Overall, nice.

Citibank

Recently I cancelled 2 Citibank credit cards as I did not use. Today I got a call from Citibank asking me to reconsider. They provide me with alternatives to keep the card without paying the subscription fee. But I really did not use. Then the officer said she upgrade me to Platinum and waive off another year for me! Haha! Any way, I accept it since free.

Exercise

Recently I am working out at night starting from 11pm to 12am. I feel I am getting fatter and fatter leh! Working in office really can make ppl fat. Another thing is I love to eat junk food and supper. No time to work out also due to busy work. Recently I everyday worked till around 10+pm! Tiring. So try to gym a bit at night which is my only free time. Sob sob!