by | Sep 14, 2009 | Uncategorized
Thank you Standard Chartered! Thank you so much for shirt sponsoring LFC (Liverpool Football Club), and the biggest deal in our history too!
What does this mean? At least in the context of muslim liverpool fas in the region, they don’t have to don the beer logo on their chests while supporting their favourite club from now on. You see, it’s viewed as a taboo or blasphemous situation to be caught as a muslim donning a beer branded shirt on your chest.
But that’s all history now, as Standard Chartered quietly moved in and captured a win-win situation for all.
I have been silently impressed by Standard Chartered’s modus operandi of late, and not just in their business world but also in their customer relationship world, where they have a knack of filling in the glaring void left by other banks. For example, like not requiring a minimum sum in a corporate checking bank account, unlike almost every other banks which will go on to penalise you with a fee for failure to maintain a minimum amount
Still, secretly I do feel a little weird to have the words ‘Standard Chartered’ printed across my chest, as opposed to ‘Carlsberg’ — because as far as branding goes, Carlsberg has that cooler, hipper character to it! As in by now I think everyone knows about that commercial where a group of mountaineers were greeted with a foosball table in the middle of nowhere, or that episode where the group of travellers get checked at what looked like a tense airport situation, only to be welcomed whole heartedly with open arms.
Now, come to Standard Chartered, well it’s a different situation altogether eh?
So how much actually went into Rafa’s coffers/warchest, I’m not too sure but this is definitely a good sign for LFC and their fans — perhaps more spending power will come in January? I’d like to hope so. Exciting times beckon!
by | Sep 14, 2009 | Uncategorized
It was KBox night on Saturday with my company fellas, celebrating big boss’s birthday at the same time, where I gave him a cheapo/playful/brainless gift in the form of a Rubix cube! Aha, good luck in solving that, Mister!
Have you solved a Rubix cube before? Well considering that I’ve solved on numerous occasions before, I guess that that would count me as one of the 25,912,301 people who’ve solved the cube. Impressive eh? Yeah right~
So about the karaoke session, this time I didn’t intend to linger around as much as I used to cos it didn’t quite felt right, cos 95% of the time I could barely understood what was going on. Despite my okay-okay grasp of Mandarin, these guys spoke in Cantonese/Hokkien which to me is like a hugely foreign language still, and plus the fact that I didn’t want to have to wait 1 hour for my turn to belt/croon, so about half hour later I made my way back to West Coast RC, where I joined my usual gaming buddies for an evening of DOTA! Now, that’s entertainment!
And there was a pleasant surprise as a group of young Malay gals patronised the cyber cafe, and despite the place having plenty of regular gal gamers, what made this group of Malay gals ‘stood out from normal’ was that it was past midnight when they joined in, and they went about as if they were deliberating on a group project.
I swear that if Garena, the game usual client that we log onto to play our games, was down back then, then I’d be chatting away with ’em gals. In fact, I’d even tutor one of them to come into the world of Dota, cos she kept looking at what I was doing. Or maybe she could just be wondering what this crazy dude is doing after midnight, sometimes laughing to himself, sometimes cursing under his breath, sometimes punching the keyboard heavily, and all the while with his eyes glued onto his computer screen, transfixed onto a virtual gaming world.
Gee, if that was the case.. maybe I should stop gaming huh? Then again, maybe not.
Dota is too beautiful to be ignored lah. It’s an easy and simple game to learn, but too darn complex to master — both elegant and frustrating at the same time — a traits combination which I simply can’t resist! More Dota please~…
by | Sep 12, 2009 | Uncategorized
You’d knew immediately upon reading Plaza Pelangi that this place had a 1% chance of being located in Singapore.
It was a Johor outing with my gaming buddies, who’ve been pestering me to try this Karaoke-cum-Buffet-styled-Dinner at Plaza Pelangi ever since they went broke trying the place out a few weeks back. And we went broke again this time round!
With whatever that was left of the RM in my possession, which wasn’t much really, I handed them all to the delighted taxi driver, who on our way home shared with us stories of how his 4yr old son has an eye for $$$ already and how the little brat is demanding for toys and stuffs at such a young age already.
Hmmm, I don’t quite recall if I ever made demands for toys or gadgets when I was a kid, where at most it was for an opportunity to get a game of soccer! Yep, my childhood memories are filled with stories that are somehow related to soccer.
Okay, back to the RedBox thingy at Plaza Pelangi.
Thinking that we weren’t going to make the break fast time, the five of us were resigned to sipping on our packet drinks instead of the buffet dinner — but fate had other ideas as the Causeway jam that we thought would hinder us, was nowhere to be seen, thanks to the designated heavy vehicle lane! It was smooth riding all the way to Plaza Pelangi.
Arrgh, I’ve yet to get the pics online, because the food is quite amazing really, the spread was scrumptious and aplenty, refilled over and over again. My favourite dish was the sambal oyster and the maggi mee goreng! The sotong (cheese+milk??) dish was good too! The fried rice was a little dry, but it filled our empty stomaches nevertheless.
If just a buffet dinner in Singapore would cost you from SG$25 onwards, then the SG$25 I spent on that day was definitely worth every cents spent. Compare this: I had buffet dinner, 4hours plus of karaoke, taxi ride to and fro, and my smoking buddies smoked their lungs out within the room itself — all these for merely SG$25!!!
Oh, and not to mention, I managed to give the cabbie the tip at the end too! Out of RM, out of breathe, out of Johor and back to motherland, before work beckoned.
by | Sep 8, 2009 | Uncategorized
So have you seen my new baby from the previous posting yet? It’s cute, it’s cuddly and best of all it’s free.
On a serious note (woah! since when have I been serious??) mttbwy.com had utilised one of the available free wordpress themes with a little bit of tweakings here and there to look like what it is today. Yeah as of today I proclaim that wordpress rules in the blogosphere, thanks to themese and plugins!
Anyway.. I am heavily impressed by the theme Primepress by Ravi Varma that I think I’m going to be utlising more of his theme from now on for future projects, basically because it’s free! But also due to its simplicity, clean codes and its widget ready status. But mostly because it’s free!
But wait a minute, stop calling me a freebie hor! I know how tough it is to code a wordpress theme and I know how tough it is to come up with all the design elements so that is why, ahem, I, ahem, suffering from a sudden fit of generosity, donated an amount to the creator:
Despite actually wanting to donate SG$10, I think I missed out on the fact that paypal dealt it as US$10 instead! But, I think good people deserve a break, and in this case I think Ravi Varma could probably get a few more cups of starbucks one of these days, so I don’t feel so burned by that donation after all.
Ahh, Starbucks~ I could use one right now too!
Wait a minute, are you feeling generous? Click below to generously donate a cup of Starbucks to me, moi, I! So how much does a Grande cost? $6.80? Wokay, uber cool!
[artpal=ipnpage]
Oh please note that I’m just having fun here. Don’t need to really donate me ler~ J/k.. ; )
by | Sep 8, 2009 | Uncategorized
Off my head, I think my collection of tees are in the range of at least 25 to 35 pieces at most, or maybe even more. I know that I’ve given away a lot more already!
Why so many? Because it’s just so comfortable to wear a tee here in sunny Singapore, but even in cooler climates I’m sure that it’s a hot favourite among everyone young and old.
But did you knew that the tee was originally a military outfit, or rather infit, as it was meant to be worn on the inside of military uniforms back then, and not many would want to be seen wearing just a tee when they are outside at the church or market or anywhere else, at least not till an actor wore it purposely on set, which from then on I suppose that pop culture took off and the tee culture took on a life of its own.
These days tees can be regarded as an artform, and to some extent, to spread and promote ideas, to define an event and sometimes it’s even used as a means of political message. Whatever the idea behind a tee is, I adore them, for their simplicity and comfort.
So I love tees a lot and too bad that I share my small wardrobe with my brother, otherwise I’d have it filled up with all kinds of tees of all colours and designs. I guess that coming from an art background, I’m inclined to appreciate well designed tees, or should I say tees with really good art.
But good designs don’t necessarily make good tees as there’s the material, the ink, the printing process, and even the message behind a tee to consider and if you go deep down into its manufacturing/production blueprints, it’s a complex world indeed.
But you’re not interested in all that rite? So, thanks to this benign passion of mine, it has finally come for me to proudly and satisfyingly announce the coming out, or the manifestation of the passion as….
Singapore's Premiere Online Tee Store (Or aiming to be one!)
… Mttbwy.com!
Finally, after countless months of deliberation, planning and tweaking, and extra deliberations, more plannings and excessive tweakings, mttbwy.com (where mttbwy stands for May The Tees Be With You..) is finally at a point where I’m satisfied with the looks as well as backend operations — and in short, I feeeeeeel darn goooooood!
Thanks to help from a few close friends, I’m finally launching my baby (no, not referring to the crying kinds that come with smelly diapers and sleepless nights, but rather I’m referring to my online tee store!) into the sea, that is the internet.
By the way, in case anyone asked, I’m not aiming to make millions or a permanent income source from this, cos in fact, I’d just like to share the exclusivity and the joy in wearing a tee that is exquisitely produced and brilliantly designed to my fellow community here.
Then so why is there a price, you may ask? Well, simply because… these tees come in from all over the world with a pricetag!!! Don’t think everything is free hor!
Ahem.. okay then, do give it a quick visit and seriously, no obligations, do not buy anything just let me know what you think of the tees and it’ll make my day anytime (but if you buy one or two, then there’s no stopping you right? hehe.. ).
May the tees be with you. Cheers~
by | Sep 7, 2009 | Uncategorized
I got this email from a good friend about life in Singapore. Nothing special, just something to humor you on a humid Monday afternoon. Here goes…
LiFe in SiNgApOre …
In Singapore , the majority of us live in Highly Dangerous Buildings (HDB), and most people have already got used to Paying and Paying (PAP).
Not only do you have to pay, you Pay Until Bankrupt (PUB).
If that’s not enough, somebody still Purposely Wants to Dig (PWD)and get more from you.
So what more can you do when you are in the Money Only Environment (MOE)?
With the current Mad Accounting System (MAS), you are forced to
Pay the Sum Ahead (PSA),Which will leave some people Permanently Owing Some Banks (POSB).
And forced to live on the Loan Techniques Always (LTA) system.When you fall sick and happen to be admitted to a Money Operating Hospital (MOH),
You might be able to use your Cash Prior to Funeral (CPF) fund.
If you are out of luck, you may meet doctors who Never Use Heart (NUH) to treat you, and you will be Sure to Give up Hope (SGH).
To help ease the traffic, motorists have to pay Cash On Expressway (COE).
If that doesn’t help, they can always Eternally Raise Prices (ERP)on the roads..
If you don’t own a car, you can always make a Mad Rush to the Train (MRT), OR get squashed in a bus Side By Side (SBS ).
Lastly, under all these pressures, there are not many places we can relax, not even the good old place we used to go because it has become So Expensive and Nothing To See Actually (SENTOSA)!!!
by | Sep 6, 2009 | Uncategorized
Well not exactly ORD, cos I ord-ed years back, but something similar, cos today it was the end of (reservist) training and camp life for me.
Wait, it wasn’t quite a camp with tents and bonfires that i went through but rather an intense 36hour vigil over some covertly deemed highly important strategic location somewhere on this island, overseeing and deploying 26 grown men, at the same time ensuring that our training and planning that spanned the last 2 years came to fruition.
Sleeping hours was scarce and often interrupted by a few teams of interrogators evaluators who bug in occasionally, and whom often seem to arrive just as I’m in the middle of my rest time.
I guessed that I slept about an hour at my longest available stretch, before exercise ended, but it’s ended and I’m just so damn glad. No more ‘camp’, no more weeks of training and hours spent in the sun already.
Aahhh, I can smell the taste of my unit graduating, along with all the joy it brings. Guess what? It tastes refreshingly and satisfyingly good, cos we’re officially off training as of today!
ORD loh!
by | Sep 4, 2009 | Uncategorized
How do you say goodbye to 80 men?
Aaaaand so it was time for the journey of my camp life to end (Note, only camp life cos the meetings have yet to get started with) on a rather unexpectedly sweet note.
I completed my in-camp national service prettier than I could have imagined, where if it was a cake it’d be a blueberry cake glazed with M&Ms bits on the side, aligned with strawberry cream at the top’s edges, with a generous rain of chocolate flakes and vanilla icings for a canopy. At the center of it all, there’ll be this crispily roasted almond nut, a rather large, chunky, fulfilling almond nut that you’d probably never find anywhere else.
Like a piece of cake, I gobbled down the experience greedily, where the only regret I had, where if I had any it was to be the only one, was to have to go through the closing address for my unit. Why must there be goodbyes? As much as I know how inevitable they are, I hate goodbyes.
I have been extremely privileged to be given the honor of leading my unit and I couldn’t help but feel accomplished at the same time, after all the journey that we’ve went through and all the sweat and the hahahas that we’ve shared together. If this was a movie, this blogpost would come complete with a picture slideshow and Coldplay’s Clocks playing in the background.
Anyway, a few incidents enlightened me, where I realised where I’m placed at in their eyes and yes despite being their commander by post and rank, they’ve been rather kind to allow me the opportunity to earn that respect and giving me the trust to lead them generously. There’s really nothing more that I could have asked for than their cooperation and attention, which I’ve received in abundance, so to FK5A, thank you.
I’m glad that they’ve gotten this knack of listening intently everytime that I’m briefing and just let me tell you how worryingly — and beautiful at the same time — it can be when you have over 80 pair of eyes, intently awaiting your next words, ready to absorb the soup of letters that comes out and when you should pause for a moment, the words are going to be pulled out of you instead.
This is what I love about my unit, that they are proactive enough to ask for more information, and even debate about them. You see, I’m not the best public speaker ever and it’s certainly not easy to maintain nerves, so I dare say that they’ve made my job easier.
I could go on and on praising and commenting more occasions but I’ll probably save these thoughts and experiences of training to myself and pretend that I’m succumbing to a writer’s block.
So once again to Fk5A, thank you.
Haha, rereading this blogpost, I realise how ‘serious’ I got about my role, but it’s all good and I’m glad that I went through it.
Delectable!
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