電腦展﹐你的名字叫 squeeze! Sitex 2008

三個月一次的 computer show - Sitex 2008 登場。This time it is held at Singapore Expo. My colleague asked me to accompany him there to buy a LCD monitor.

After traveling for a while to the East, we are wondering where to park as I expect the carpark at Singapore Expo is a killer! 果然不出我所料~ There is an extremely long cars queue waiting to get into the carpark.

Lucky I am smart enough to come up with plan B. We park at a nearby HDB carpark. Ok. It is not that near but a 15mins walk. Any way, it is free parking and is better than stuck in the queue.

The crowd is madness! It is very crowded inside. I think whole Singapore is here! After walking around and I saw many good deals!! This time round it is very obvious that the trend is moving towards laptops, notebooks and netbooks. Every booth is selling those things! Lesser booths are digital cameras, LCD monitors and printers.

I have 2 friends asked me to help them buy external hard disks. After walking two rounds, I saw a small booth selling what they wanted. But after asking they want to charge 2% more if I use NETS. As I do not want to squeeze my way out to 提款, I paid that extra 2%. But after a short while, I 後悔。Reason is I saw Harvey Norman booth selling the same thing and they accept credit cards payment with no extra charges! So the moral of the story is dun be too 衝動﹗Hard disks nowadays are so cheap! 2.5" 320GB costs less than $118. So this means 1GB now costs less than $0.40! The hard disk comes free with a hard disk pouch and a 4GB thumbdrive!

I also subscribe 2 years of FIRST magazine at a booth for about $4.05 per copy. The usual price is $4.5o if you buy at newspaper stand. They give 3 free gifts. I choose Police Sunglasses, GP travel battery charger and 3 traveling kits. I also purchase the December issue and they throw in some more gifts. So overall, still ok lah though some items 沒什麼用﹗呵呵﹗

巴厘岛 Bali 我和你有緣無份!

I still remember October 2007, my krisflyer point is expiring. So I decided to redeem an air ticket to 可愛的巴厘岛!

After carefully selected a date in September 2008, I booked the air ticket. I asked by brother if he and his wife are interested to go as they like Bali a lot. They said yes and delayed their booking until air ticket for that date is fully booked!

Then I postponed the date to today and guess what? The news of execution of the 恐怖分子 came out early this month. So my family are quite against of going there. Twice the booking and twice the 失望! I can only say 巴厘岛, 我和你有緣無份! You are so near yet so far!

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

I just came back from watching Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Usually, the first part will be nicer than the sequel. But this time round, I feel part 2 nicer. There are actually more story line and the jokes are funnier. But the old lady part I feel is rather "bo liao". Overall, it is worth a watch.

Caucasians Professors

Over the past few years, I have encountered many Caucasians Professors. I can said those from France and Germany are very difficult to handle. They always think highly of themselves. But those others especially from USA are very nice. They are easy going and less picky. That is why now I dun entertain professors from France and Germany. I let my boss handle. Haha.

Calories

Over the past 1 week, I have to entertain a few overseas professors. I need to bring them out for lunch and dinner and this make me input tonnes of calories! I am done for! Haha! Complain no use. So I hope to take out sometime to do some exercise. Ok, I have said this umpteen times. Haha. Wish me success.

Bid

Today I attended a dinner organized by some temple. They gave 3 tables to my cousin's husband. So he invited my family to attend the dinner. There is the usual bidding items that will use to fund the next year event. One of the items is a calligraphy. The word is "Buddha" (佛). It is written by some master. Guess how much did it fetch? It was sold for more $170k! So where is the economy slowdown? I dun see it. Haha.

Volunteer Work

Today I went to a hospice for a violin performance. This is part of our volunteer work that my violin teacher and a bunch of students will come together once in a while. We want to bring music to the people. After seeing the people enjoy our music, I feel so happy.

NUS

Today I went to NUS for a seminar. Guess what? The parking lots are extremely limited!! One small area can park only a few cars! Best of all, the lots are reserved. I feel it is bad for visitors. Lucky I know NUS well and found another location to park and park at the staff lots which I dun care cos there are no visitors lot! But not all are bad experience. Two guys in front of me are going for the same seminar and ask a student for direction. This lady actually bring us to the location before she left! That is nice! So far for NUS students. Keep it up!

Langkawi

I suppose to be on the plane to Langkawi today. But who knows? I got some urgent thing! So I am forced to cancel this beautiful trip. But I was compensated. Haha. Ok lah. What to do?

Overcharge

Today I receive my UOB credit bill and found that Golden Village has overcharge by 2 times. I recall that time is the staff swipe a few times cos the receipt cannot print. So in actual fact, the transaction did went thru and so I was charged additional 2 times. I called up UOB and they told me to approcahed Golden Village first. Very troublesome. So you see, even if your signature is hard to forge also no use. Cos it is useless. As long as swipe, the transaction will go thru.

Retreat Day 2

Today is the 2nd day of my retreat meeting. This time round I have to present my topic. So far quite ok and not much hiccups. The team building game today is golf. We are split into 4 teams like yesterday bowling sessions and compete. So the points in bowling plus golf are the final score. So the losing team has to pay for lobster meal. Lucky my team won. Haha! So I got a lobster meal!

Retreat Day 1

I am involved in a management retreat meeting for my company at Orchid Country Club. The meeting is quite relax and fun when discussing. The final program is a team building game which is a bowling game. This time round still not too bad. I am top 5 in my team. Haha.

Youtube

Recently, I a bit boring cos I am overwhelmed with work! So in order to take my mind off for a short while, I uploaded a video clip of my violin performance in March this year. Enjoy.

Sick

I am sick for two days. Down with flu, watery eyes, cough etc.. You name it, I have it. But I still went for work. Everyone was looking at me like:"Why are you here spreading virus?" But what to do? I have tonnes of work to clear and I also wish I could be in bed and sleeping away. That is life... Hope I can feel better soon.

The House Bunny

I just came back from watching The House Bunny. I decided to catch this after watching the trailer as I find it very interesting and I love comedy. After watching it, I find it surprising nice. Anna Faris once again acted as dumb blonde like what she did in the Scary Movie series but this time flaunting her good figure. The movie is funny and the casts gave a good performance too. This show has some Hollywood stars children in it. Look out for Bruce Willis' daughter and Tom Hanks' son. Overall, I would recommend this show. Very nice.

Maybank voucher

Today I want to use Maybank voucher that is redeem using my credit card points. It is a $10 worth of voucher. On the voucher, it said can use on certain restaurants. I went to the website and see the terms and conditions which I found none. So I happliy went to Crystal Jade and use. Who knows they told me only can buy bread. I went to Sakae Sushi and they told me eve of public holiday cannot use. I very angry cos so many hidden conditions which is not stated! Any way, in the end I bought $10 worth of breads and they all very nice. So anger subsidse a bit but I will still complain to Maybank.

Chinese Garden again

I just went to Chinese Garden again to see the lantern. This time I went with my parents. They said they wish to go but due to the high entrance fee, they insisted it is a waste of money. So when I know today is the last day and is 50% off entrance fee, I quickly bring them there. However, there is no fireworks today. Also this time round it is not as crowded as 2 weeks ago. There are still people but less crowds. Now taking pictures with the lanterns is a breeze as there is no pushing and no waiting. I took only less than 2 hours to cover the whole thing as compared to 3 hours previously. Overall. they truly enjoyed themselves as they said the trip reminds them of last time. Heh heh.. So I promise to bring them next year.

Disaster Movie

Just caught Disaster Movie over the weekend as got nothing better to do. It is something like Date Movie etc.. kind of show that suppose to have a theme. One word for this movie: Disaster. It is super lame and boring. Not funny at all. Though this kind of show usually got not much story line, this one super no story line. Just dump in and spoof every movie they can think of. Overall, bad!

My friend's Wedding

Today is my friend's wedding. I am one of his "brother". It is really very eventful. Firstly, it rains very heavily while on the way to the bride's house. Then, we met with traffic jam as due to the rain plus the fact that it is a working day. Then, my friend gave wrong direction and wasted a few more minutes. When we reached, we were actually very late. Haha. Then, we need to play a few games as usual. The best one is to eat chili! It is very hot! I really cannot take it. I rinsed my mouth and drank 3 packets of water!! After all these events, we went to the groom's house and then back to bride's house again. Finally, we went to the newly wed new house. But I just dumped them there and drove off as I need to rush back to office to host a meeting. Any way, my friend gave me a big ang bao for all these efforts. It really make me very pai say. So I need to buy something big when he organizes a house warming party next time.

PSP

Today I company a friend to Sim Lim Square to buy PSP. She wanted to get this since dunno when. So this time she finally decided to get. After comparing prices among a few shops, she finally decided on one and bought a black one. It costs $350. Looking at the product, I found it is quite interesting. But I would not buy cos I prefer conventional gaming console. Hee... This more suitable for students and people that are freer while traveling on public transport.

Bowling again

Today we went to celebrate my father's birthday at East Coast Park Tung Lok. The reason I choose there is because it is near to a bowling center. Haha. After the meal, we have some activity instead of just going home. So after the meal, we went to this nearby Bowling alley to bowl. This is the 2nd time I bowl this year which is 3 days after my company bowling event. But I am still that lousy! After two games, I dun even break 100! Lousy!

Bowling

Today I went for a bowling event organised by my company. This is an yearly event and usually is my only chance to touch bowling. Haha. Any way, my skill is getting from bad to worst! First two rounds not even has chance to go over 100! Lousy. Only the 3rd set, I managed to play slightly better with a score of 122. But still terrible. Sad. Need to play once in a while liao. Hoho..

Chinese Garden (裕华园)

Today I went to Chinese Garden to see the lanterns there. This is a once a year event. During normal day, Chinese Garden is quite quiet. Seldom people will go there as there is nothing much to see. But on Mid Autumn festival, it is quite different. The whole place will be lighted with many kinds of lanterns and bustling with activities. The entrance fee is $15 which I feel a bit steep. The queue for buying entrance tickets is quite long but moving rather fast. This year theme is mainly on Hello Kitty and Japanese animation characters but with many different themes. There are also a short fireworks about 30 sec. In order to cover the whole park, you need to plan for 3 hours.

Mid Autumn Festival (中秋节) Celebration

Today my company has a celebration on Mid Autumn festival. There are some sings session performed by our own staffs and some sing quite well! Then, they invited some people from Tea Chapters (茶渊) to give us a demo on the art of tea drinking. Also not to forget the main lead - mooncake (月饼)! They bought many kinds and one got is durian from Good Wood Park hotel which is my nemesis. Haha!

WALL.E

I just caught WALL.E. Personally, I feel it is not too bad. However, this show lacks those kind of climax point that appears in other Pixar movie such as The Incredible etc... Could it be that they targeted very small children? So cannot be too climax? Haha. The entire show has also not much dialogue cos more on non-talking robots. Any way, the drawings, special effects etc.. are quite good. Overall, this is quite a fun show but not to the extent of a fantastic movie.

Family Day

Today I went to attend my company family day event at Yishun Bottle Tree Park. It was a last minute decision I dun intend to join initially. But my boss tells me to go. Say as company staffs, we should join to form stronger bonds etc.. Ok so I went and I join in the games. I find that it is actually quite fun. Haha. But today the sun is really strong!!! After the event, my face is very red! Hope I dun get sun burnt.

Tough life

Lately I am extremely busy and have tonnes of responsibilities. I need to remember so many things and have to track other things. So finally I made a mistake in my work today. Sigh.... Though not a serious one, I feel I seriously burnt out. But well, life still goes on. Hope it will be smoother tomorrow and next week and future.

Ice Cream

Today got a new colleague got her first pay in her life. So she decided to give us a treat. So we ordered ice cream in the canteen. The ice cream costs $2.50 and it is really a big bowl! The ice cream is not the same as usual one which is one big scoop. Instead, it is slice into fine thin layers and for a while, it looks like cabbage! You can order different fruits topping an I order kiwi. It is quite value for money.

Comex 2008

Just came back from Comex 2008. Nearly no time to go. Any way, I got nothing in mind and company my friend to go. This time I think the crowd management is slightly better. I did not trapped in any human jams. There are more walking space. This time round not many things got my attention. Just saw some nice gadgets I might be buying in next show. Like BlueAnt Supertooth 3. This bluetooth handset looks good. Nothing to stick into you ears and it is voice recognition. But too bad did not ask for the price as my friend walked quite fast. But I suspect the price should be in $150 region. Walked 2 levels and finally bought a mobile TV set holder for my car. Haha.

Great service from Kinokuniya

Today I went to Orchard Kinokuniya. I usually wun frequent book stores as I feel the books there are expensive. I was browsing around and saw this nice service provided by Kinokuniya. Ok, I might a bit mountain turtle. There is this computer station which allows you to search for books that is in stock in the book stores and you can print out the map that points you to the right direction!! This is great!

Singapore Flyer

There is a guest in town lately. He is a professor from Harvard which I invite to our company for a talk. As a host, I bring him to some places of interests as this is the first time he is here. So I brought him to Singapore Flyer. This ferry wheel is currently the largest in the world surpassing London Eye and stands at 165m. It costs $29.50 and will take about 30 mins for one round. So it is average $1 per minute. After the ride, I feel it is ok only. Maybe should visit at night where it is cooler and have a beautiful view. Or wait for the casino to be ready and the view should be more spectacular.

Burn midnight oil

Today I have a huge presentation. I need to present in front of my company. The notice came quite late. Only 2 weeks. You might think 2 weeks? A lot of time what! But this time, the presentation needs to have a lot of market info and reports which are very difficult to come by. Any way, I worked till 1am every night just for the collection of info and data mine those info into useful data. Dun even have time to blog. But it is worth cos today everything went very smoothly!! Hee... Finally can sleep early tonight.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

I just came back from watching The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I feel this show is not as nice the previous two. The new wife lacks of chemistry with the lead male. The son is a bit too old to call them father and mother. Very not suitable. Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh have only a little bit of screen time. Mainly at the starting and ending. The Shanghai part also not realistic. Too modern. Looks like this era. The special effects a bit too computer for the monsters. Overall, only one word: disappointing.

The X Files: I Want To Believe

I just back from watching The X Files: I Want to Believe. I seldom watch the TV series so dunno what the whole series talk about. But roughly I know it is about Aliens. Overall, I feel that this show is ok only. This time round there are no aliens which I feel a bit sian and this movie actually got some ending. Haha. Mulder and Scully still looks good. Although many talking, I feel not boring but story not as exciting and not so mystery.

Unique seafood

My family and I went to old race course at Bukit Timah for dinner. This is to celebrate my brother's birthday. We went to Unique seafood which is quite famous. At first, I tot Unique Seafood is a restaurant. But later found out that it is just a seafood market but supply some seafood to the restaurants on the same level. So we end up in Owen Restaurant for our dinner. It is quite crowded for a weekday night. We order a 8 dish course and one Alaska crab. The 8 dishes are from the restaurant and the crab is bought from Unique. Overall, the food are quite nice and service quite good lah.

Oyster Omelette (蚝煎)

Today I am craving for Oyster Omelette (蚝煎). The reason is that yesterday I watched a show talking about oyster omelette by Kym Ng. This made me suddenly feel like eating oyster omelette. Haha. I also long time did not eat that is why I have a sudden craving for it. Finally, I have it for lunch and satisfied my desire. Ha..

霸王餐

Today I went to canteen for lunch and buy chicken rice. My friend did the ordering and I just stand one side and take some soup from the container besides the store. So after the food is ready, we left the stall. Then, the store owner keep shouting for us. Then, I ask my friend:"Have you paid?" Then he replied"Forget." Then, I went back to pay up. But guess what? The store owner said sorry to us! Haha. Weird. Any way, I feel quite malu but it is my friend fault so he more malu. Haha.

Red Cliff 1 (赤壁1)

I just came back from watching Red Cliff 1 (赤壁1). After reading reviews and strongly recommended by my friends who watch it, I raise my hope high before watching. However, after watching it, I feel it is only so so for part 1. Maybe it is because I did not read the book before. So I dun really get to enjoy. There are many talking and have a few occasional jokes. The war scenes looks nice but the fighting and killing all looks too familiar which can be found in other shows. I like Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) and Sun Shang Xiang (Zhao Wei) the best. The acting is more natural. The rest are so so and worst is Sun Quan (Zhang Zheng) . Overall, I feel the show is more on the boring side. I hope Part 2 will be better.

The Regent Hotel

Today my company has an event at the Regent Hotel. I was assigned to the help out at the reception counter. The registration went on very smoothly and finally my job is done by 8pm when the event started. So the rest of the time is to sit back and relax and enjoy my 8 course dinner. Haha!!

Woodbridge Hospital

Today I went to Woodbridge Hospital (IMH) for an event. This is the first time I went there and the place is not quite I imagine. The place is quite quiet and got a food court. In fact, it is just like any other hospital. Best of the all, the car park is free. Haha...

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

I just caught Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. I feel it is quite nice though many might disagree. This time round it has many creatures and actions. However, I feel there are still certain parts need a bit of improving. Like the angel of death, it is very obvious that it is recycled from Pan Labyrinth. Though the final showdown is not bad but I feel more it is more like kung fu fighting. Not very mystical. Ha..

Hancock

I just came back from watching Hancock. I feel not really that nice. The story plot I feel nothing much. I feel it can be better. The villains in the show is far too weak. So overall, this show does not live up to my expectation. It is not as fantastic as I tot it would be. One good thing is that Charlize Theron acts in this show and she looks good.

Reunion Dinner

Today I attended my secondary school 45th reunion dinner. It is a rather last minute decision as my brother who is also from the same school told me he got an extra ticket. So dun waste loh. This is a rather huge event as I think got more than 100 tables. Really can say it is a 1000 people dinner. The guest of honour is Minister for Finance, Tharman Shanmugaratnam. The caterer who did this dinner is quite lousy. Food not nice and service bad. Hope the next one would be better.

Lazy Susan

Lately I attended a meeting and learn a new word. Do you know what is Lazy Susan? I have asked many people and only about 20% of those I asked know what is it. Impressive. Ok, Lazy Susan is the revolving server mostly found on the table in Chinese restaurant. So did you got it correctly? If you did, good for you!