Ubersports Arena - Futsal @ East Coast

For all the football enthusiast, there is a new place to satisfy your goal scoring urges.

It's a newly open football arena at East Coast. The concept is pretty similiar to The Cage @ Kallang but anyone who'd played there would know how stuffy it can get.

You won't get that at Ubersports with the higher ceilings and cool breeze from the beach. The only bad thing is the place doesn't have a huge projector to screen football matches. No adrenalin pumping music in the background either.

Nevertheless, my first experience there has been great. The place is new and clean. They can even extend their closing hours if you want them to.

Rain or Shine, your game won't be affected.

Star Search

I was looking through Mediacorp website earlier and came across this. It's the pictures of all the contestant who made it so far into the Star Search contest.

Is it not obvious already who the winner might be this time round? How did I arrive at that? Simple. Looks. Pure looks.

Acting skills, presentation skills, confidence are all something you can learn. There are schools that just teach that and nothing else. But how are you going to change an otherwise ugly front.

You can't. You can only groom it. It's like zhnging your car. You can add the best modifications to it but if it is a proton saga, it will still be a proton saga.

Coming back to the contestant, I would put my money on Tracy Yap to win the women's category and a close fight between Reeve and Desmond.

NATO - No Action Talk Only

But Brossel is more circumspect, believing just because the world is watching, it does not mean the world is acting; "We are witnesses but we are witnesses of something that we cannot stop. We have been witnesses of Bosnia, Burma and Darfur but the international community is useless."

This is the ending paragraph of an article about Myanmar I read on CNN.

Should the world wait and see. Has this been the best tried-and-tested policy since time immemorial? Or could the regional neighbours start to walk the talk. Could countries with vested interest in the country stop thinking about dollars for a few minutes and just think for a sec about how many more human lives are needed to further their returns.

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Game Addict

On 25th Sep at 12pm, I made my way to Suntec City during lunch time.

I was there with my Halo 3 Pre-Order card. For the uninformed, Halo 3 is the third instalment of the Halo game series in which part 2 itself single handedly help Microsoft Xbox game console achieve phenomenal sales record.

The launch event started at 12pm sharp and occupied the entire Suntec tropics atrium. A lot of Xbox 360 stuffs hawkered around but everyone's focus is to get their hand on the game! Many, like me, bought the pre-order card so that they could be the first few to collect the game(plus a goodie bag with a bunch of useless stuffs) and play it.

The queue was so long that it snaked to an exit, all the way outside the air-conditioned building. I was queuing under the blinding sunlight for a good 10 mins before I move back in again.

Standing there was pretty awkward. In my shirt and pants, I feel really out of place between people one generation younger than me. I had even thought of my excuse if somehow there happens to be people from the press interviewing. My answer: it's for my kid.

And if my classmates are reading my blog, yes I skipped class that night so that I could come home and play the game.

Now is day 2 and I think I'm already quite close to the ending. The game didn't turn out as great as I thought. It's always like that. When you yearn and expect something for too long, you are bound to get disappointed.

Still, it is good fun. Kept the utilities company happy that's for sure.

I just hope the game is longer than I thought.

Thought-provoking

Makes you think about that bag you bought not so long ago doesn't it.

How I miss "them" now...

A first look at the picture and I was already quite sure that this is referring to the Bak Chor Mee I had every other day when I was working in Loyang a few years ago.

You just couldn't find any other stalls that also throw in a prawn and a fried wanton.

It was my staple during my year there and I just couldn't get enough of it.

And in between it, I had... their Lor Mee.. Yes, this is like the only stall that I patronize during my employment. The only other stall would be the drink stall.

I had always tell myself to go back and savour the food I so grew to love. The uncle know me so well that without me saying anything, he will make sure I have 3 spoonfuls of vinegar for my Lor Mee. That's the way I like it.

As I was on a 5-day week back then, I didn't knew that they are open on Sat from 6am - 11.30am.

If you wanna look for me around this time this Sat, you know where to find me.

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Things to blog about.

I always admired bloggers like Mr Wang, Kenny Sia and the likes. They seemed to have things to write about everyday. They must be very talkative in real life. Heehee.

For someone like me that is very unachievable. Not much of a speaker(I'm seriously trying hard to reverse that but not to the bimbo kind of standard), it's pretty hard for me to talk about my thoughts in detail.

It wasn't like that in the past when I was still studying for my degree. Writing is second nature. And I feel espcially proud that my writing skills was commended, by an Ang Moh Dr Lecturer no less.

Since my graduation, I haven't had much opportunities to brush up my writing skills. And without topics to focus on, writing with no objective in sight seemed very meaningless to me.

Which is exactly why I just signed up for this programme under Advertlets. They would have specific topics that you could pull off from their website and write about.

Oh yah, and you get paid for doing that but seriously the latter is really more of a bonus. Having a topic to focus on is really what I have always been looking for.

For a start I could only write about Adverlets. Hopefully this will be a good start and from now on, I'll have more interesting things to write about and about my opinions on them.

Facts of Singapore Life

1. Nite - Sleep with
air-con; Day - Bathe with heater on

2. Day - Cannot Wake up; Nite -
Cannot Sleep

3. Translation is needed between Singaporean Chinese and
Mainland Chinese

4. Smell Of rubbish besides letterboxes; Rubbish inside
Letterbox

5. Spore Chinese use different languages other then Chinese to
communicate.

6. Sporean never like to vote, but like to
complain

7. There are quite a number of rich/poor in spore - They have
Car, Credit Card, CPF but no Cash and is liable to lots of loans

9. There
are quite a few high-tech barbaric Singaporeans -they know how to use
state-of-the art equipment, 3g mobile phone and powerful computers but they
dunno how to use a simple dustbin or a toilet

10. Half Sporeans rushed
to buy Hello kitty, but the other half busy killing stray cats

11.
Chewing Gum - Can Chew, Cannot buy?? (Restricted to buying)

12.
Cigarettes - Convenient to buy; not convenient to smoke

13. Private Cars
- Cheaper and Cheaper to buy, harder and harder to Maintain

14. Public
Bus - Half the Crowd squeeze in front section of the Bus, Second section is for
Carrying Ghost

15. Education - Teachers teaching Less but expects
students to learn More

The fourth university... again?

I'm sure most of us are aware that Singapore would like to open the 4th university to accomodate more Singaporeans to pursue their education in Singapore.

SINGAPORE : The Government is looking into setting up a fourth university in Singapore.

During his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also said the objective is to allow 30 percent of each cohort to get into publicly-funded universities by 2015, compared to 23 percent today.

This is one way to level up society, and provide citizens with a top rate education.

More students are progressing to universities as they do better academically in schools.

15 percent of polytechnic students, for example, now go on to the local universities and many more go overseas.

In fact, estimates are that half of polytechnic students eventually gets a degree.

And Prime Minister Lee said Singapore should expand university places but must ensure that students get a good education and valuable skills.

But did any forgot....

SINGAPORE: Its arrival here was hailed as a tremendous boost for Singapore’s education hub aspirations.

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is, after all, one of Australia’s top universities.

At full capacity, the local UNSW campus would have spun off $500 million annually for the economy, Singapore authorities had said.

But, barely two months after classes began for its pioneer batch of students, the Australian university — citing bottomline concerns — is heading for a sudden exit. It will close its Singapore campus when the semester ends on June 28.

The shock announcement was made yesterday in separate meetings to staff, students and the media, and a notice was posted on the UNSW Asia website. It cited a lack of demand, leading to insufficient funds for its operations here, as reason for the closure.

The university had anticipated an initial intake of 300 students, but its current enrolment is only 148. And, based on applications for its second intake in August, the university projected that it would achieve just over half of its enrolment target of 480.

Either UNSW is not been completely honest or the government know something that they don't.

To me this is really a case of reinventing the wheel for the sake of it. The money that will go into the fourth university would surely surpass whatever more that UNSW might need back then.

On the other hand, it may just be a very expensive and elaborate plan for this purpose.

Reporting a Johor crime? Call this number +607-2212-999

For those that have read my blog in Jan, you would know that I was a victim on New Year day. Since then heading back to JB would typically take me hours to consider and end up just dropping the idea altogether.

But on top of displaying a friendly face after an event you would rather forget, maybe they could also try solving or preventing the crime in the first place.

Johor police will respond to calls from victims of crime in Johor within 15 minutes - if they call a 24-hour hotline.

The number to call is +607-2212-999.According to The Straits Times, police officers based at at Johor's Contingent Police headquarters in Jalan Tebrau, Johor Baru, are on orders to mobilise a team into action within 15 minutes of taking a genuine hotline call.

Johor State Assemblyman Tan Kok Hong was quoted as saying this after a Malaysian trade and investment roadshow led by International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz here yesterday.According to Mr Tan, this number is more immediate because officers may not always be able to respond to police station calls immediately due to work matters.

He added: "If the officer does not arrive within 15 minutes, report it to us. The Chief of Police will look into why the police officer arrived late."

A Straits Times reporter put this to the test and true enough, she was greeted by a friendly cop who spoke fluent English.

Johor police have also in the past two months increased the number of policemen, patrol cars, police posts, closed-circuit TV cameras as well as the frequency of patrols, thanks to a RM330 million (S$145 million) special allocation from the federal government.

There has been growing concern over the worrying spate of Johor carjackings, rapes and robberies.

The new measures will reinforce efforts by the Malaysian government to woo investors, including those from Singapore, to Johor's new 2,217-sq-km economic zone, the Iskandar Development Region.

Lecturing

I went back to school today and lesson of the day is Business Information System. Something that I had taken before.

The lecturer is kind of technical but you can tell he knows his stuff and he enjoys educating us about the knowledge and experience that he posssess.

Again it ignited my desire to eventually become a part-time trainer or lecturer.

I'm quite sure that I still need a few years more of working experience to be seriously considered for the role at all. But it occur to me that I should start practising.

And work might be the right place for me to begin.

It also made me realised that I had not really been very efficient AND not spending too much time and efforts in coaching and imparting my years of experience in this line to my staffs.

So taking a cue on the structure and framework that my lecturers has been providing, I will attempt to equal that level of professionalism so things like handbook, guidelines, faq will be readily available.

Coupled with comprehensive coaching to cover all operational aspects, I hope it would eventually amount to something not just to the bottom line but also something that could translate into a sense of pride and difference that the company can provide.

Ambitious I know but if one aim high, you might at least hit the half-way line.

The most expensive coffee in the world

cost $50 a cup or USD$600 per pound. It's called Kopi Luwak and is produced predominantly in Sumatra Indonesia.

It is made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet.
.
.
.
.
You read it right. Coffee berries were eaten by an animal called Civet(If you understand cantonese, you might pick up another funny here), they shit it out partially digested and we make coffee from it.

So the next time you are asked what shit you drinking when you are holding your coffee, you know these people know their facts well.

CPF Changes

So the government decided to tinkle with our CPF interest rate. So from now on we have a 
whopping 1 percentage point more!

Although most of your principle CPF money already went to paying for the sky price HDB flat that you don't get to own at all, the 1% will still apply to whever residue you have in your account!. 

The extra money will definitely help us to get a better cane or wheelchair. Can only choose one, can't afford both.

And not only will the government help to safeguard your CPF even longer, they will let you buy annuities. So you give all your CPF to the insurance company and they give you a lower monthly sum.
And this is for the REST of your life unlike CPF 20 years!

With this, I'm quite sure we would also alleviate the problems of poor and old people jumping onto MRT tracks too.

But what if you die earlier than 20 years. Then how?

I propose the insurance companies have special package for those with lower longevity risk. 
If you die within 10-20 years, you will get a queen size coffin with 20 tables. F&B, performance all included plus free shuttle to mandai in special only for coffin mercedes benz. A 5 room HDB will be burnt for you.

5 - 10 years you get upgraded to the gold package. All of the above + a getai with a singer of your choice will be included! Performance included oldies singer, pop songs singer or hip hop dancers. House is upgraded to a Condo with gym and pool facilities.

Less than 5 years you will become a VIP. Platimum class. Not only will you get to live in your dream bungalow but you will also have your private jet!

All the luxuries that you can't afford even if you could take out all your CPF!

Talkative colleagues – biggest time wasters

The next time your colleagues starts rabbling on without knowing when to stop, just show this to them.

Talkative colleagues – biggest time wasters
By Shirley Lee (humanresourcesonline.net)

Singapore – Talkative colleagues is the number one distraction in the Singapore and global workplace, according to a recent Robert Walters survey.

In the survey, 40% of Singapore respondents say pesky colleagues are the biggest distraction, followed by internet surfing and personal email. On the other hand, only 7% of respondents say they are distracted by smoke breaks and a further 7% by personal calls. The statistics do not differ much when compared to global employees.

Mark Ellwood, managing director of Robert Walters Singapore suggests, “Many of us spend our day glued to a computer screen and our professional interaction with colleagues tends to rely heavily on email communication. Not only has the need for office-chatter been reduced by technology, we may now see it as a distraction from our work.”

The Joseph Cycle

I was at Times the bookstore a few weeks ago with plenty of time to spare when I came across this book.

Never an economic person but the rather inattractive display of the cover content caught my attention. It's has a time graph with a huge title "The Joseph Cycle" written on it.

The title was inspired by Joseph, the Biblical figure, who was summoned to interpret a troubling dream of the Pharaoh. Joseph said the dream meant that Egypt would face seven good years followed by seven lean years.

Never one to bother with details, I skimmed straight to the graph to foresee when would we be facing the next peak. If this guy is right(he had been right before), we won't be waiting too long for the roller coaster to start going downhill, i.e. 2008.

It would be interesting to see how this prediction might work out in the face of the upcoming F1 Grand Prix night race and the two Casinos. These are major projects that are almost guaranteed(I'm sure about the latter) to make money.

But then again, if their intended customers (people who are rich and should own lots of stocks)  are badly hit by the financial turmoil, where could they find money to watch car racing or, worst, gamble their last penny away?

Better to start planning for your investments.

IT Sourcing is so tough!

Recently I have been googling a lot at work. I think I must have spent 3/4 of the day searching the internet.

I'm looking for a computer system that could act as the focal point for us to gather and share all our information. In our industry, it's called Applicant Tracking System(ATS). Some might call it Human Resource Management System (HRMS). The rest might call it Recruitment Management System or RMS.

And after doing this for days, I realised just how technologically backward Singapore IT company is. There isn't a single company in Singapore that actually provide a system that is decent and complete enough for a Recruitment Agency. Which also mean I can't get grant from the government as it only permits local vendor.

And to rub salt in, this industry is flourishing over at UK, Australia & North America.

So for the past few work days, I have been largely training my ears to apprehend comprehend English with huge dose of British. Years of listening to English Premier League football sure helps.

Being the first time sourcing for such a system that would eventually be so critical to the entire operations, it ain't easy. Or maybe I'm too picky. Too idealistic. Or just too plain naive.

To date I have spoken with 4 and had a good run of their demonstration. Another 4 is lined up and I just send out at least another 5 requests after learning that there are so many other providers out there. Which of them could be the ONE?

One wrong move and tons of $$ would be going down the drain.

Oh man. The weight on my shoulder is getting heavier and heavier...

I won't be free during September.

Dempsey Road

Having heard so much about this place, I feel that it is my duty as a Singaporean to experience it at the very least.

This former British army barracks and Central Manpower Base premises is now a series of warehouses selling South-East Asian furniture, carpets and exotic artifacts.



Not to mention many funky restaurants and cafes.

This place reminds me of Seletar Camp and Turf City. But you can see from the rows of expensive cars and ang mohs that their target market are very up class.

Again, you almost can't see any high-rise from the place. Giving a very countryside kind of illusion. A sense of peace and serenity



The place is starting to become commercialize as you can see from the pristine water fountain that greets visitors. But still, it has a long way to go before the entire place gets "en bloc".

A late lunch was at Dome. The rest looks a bit too expensive but a mid-month expenditure.



Not only does it has the highest ceiling of all Dome Cafe, it even has a compass in case you lost your way in their place.



Since Dome could easily be found in Singapore, I shall skip the review. I was too hungry to give an objective assessment anyway.

One interesting place you might chance upon at the back of Dempsey is House.



The place is perched at the edge of a cliff. It reminds me of Sentosa Resort. I spent quite a while trying to figure out if the place is a chalet, a restaurant, a spa or an artsy fartsy place that is waiting to close down.



It's actually not a chalet but all of the rest and more. It even house a jacuzzi area within the few weeks old complex.

Their concept is really a bit new to me. Mixing Spa + Dining + Bar.



There's even a huge football pitch. Anyone knows how could I book that?

My NDP eve

I spent a relaxing evening with my wife at Great World City yesterday. And I clocked less than 5 mins I think from my office to my destination. The cheap thrill in life.

Anyway we caught Rush Hour 3. Must be real exciting and scary that I caught her with her eyes closed.. twice.

Rush Hour 1 is still the best in this franchise. Shanghai Knights were even better. But I feel that Jackie Chan should just come back for good. The fight scenes in RH 3 is a fraction of a typical HK Jackie Chan movie. The rest goes to seeing Chris Tucker talking like a very annoying women.

For those who love the Char Kway Teow at Zion Road market, do give the lesser queue( or zero queue) stall a try. It's actually quite good.

Before the movie, we drop by this new place called Iwannagohome. Don't bother googling for it. Their website is in flash, you can't locate any link. Now I know why my web designer insist the website has certain html elements. Click here for their website.

This place is owned by the guy who founded Royal Sporting House and who once owned the distribution rights of Zara and Mango. All those were sold and his stakes are all in this furniture place. He is one good (shrewd?) businessman to achieve all these.

To find out more about the place without dropping by Great World City, just imagine a very expensive(and small) IKEA. The premium you paid of course go to the nicer design in many ways.

Like the printed toilet paper with pictures of football and other stuffs that cost $7 a roll. I rather wash my ass than use a single sheet of that.

They sell many expensiv candles shaped in fruits and things you can't possibly imagine. I wonder how much it cost to make a candle?

No bedroom stuffs. They do have one full rack of rubbish bins in black, white and orange. I guess those must be one of their better selling items given the stock levels.

One of the vase did catch my eye. And also a few mini Qin warrior kind of sculpture. But the latter would be like a thorn in my home.

The vase is just like a gigantic glass. I only need to get pass the price tag.. ($299)

Thoughts of the day...