Not a Merry 2008 Chrsitmas...

This year 2008.. will end with a not so merry christmas... oH.. Oh.. oH... ....

After the US financial down fall... Came the retrenchment of some companies.. Many people are putting their year end holiday aside and tightening their belts.... Recently came the Bangkok anti government protest which blocks out all the flight to/from Bangkok... that creates a massive slowdown to the economy.. and many cancellating their trip to Bangkok... (Already sales figure are doing badly and yet have to cancel somemore bookings).. To put the nail to the coffin.. came Mumbai terrorist attack... Lucky we are not promoting Mumbai yet.. The Mumbai terrorist attack now is the main headline and over shadowing the news of Bangkok's anti-government protest...

Well i guess.. i would not hope for a big bonus this year... :-(

Bangkok Political Unrest... Part 2

The PAD had taken control over Bangkok International Airport.. Any plane to land at the airport must seek permission from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD)...

Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat landed in the northern city of Chiang Mai.. Well i have already guess that he won't land in Bangkok International Airport.. Chiang Mai is actually safer place for him.. because he has more supporter there... Prime Minister Somchai should stay on to fight this unrest... If he were to resign... and again another Prime Minister was elected again from the People Power Party (PPP).. again the PAD will do the same... It will never end.. Mr Somchai should put an end to it.. by sending in the army to disperse the PAD support...

What PAD is doing now is not Democracy at all... "The solution is not the dissolution of parliament. If premier Somchai (Wongsawat) resigns, then we will talk again about whether we will negotiate," top protest leader Pibhop Dhongchai said at Suvarnabhumi airport. So are they giving the Prime Minister and choice? No they are not giving him any option... See this is not democracy way to solve too....

Bangkok Political Unrest...

Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport was closed when thousands of supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) march into the airport... Flight was forced to cancelled.. and the recent news was there is a blast happen at the airport... Now not only the transportation was clipped.. even tourist was stranded... We have received many calls from customers who wanted to cancelled their trip or postpone it...

PAD was going overboard over this.. to me they are no politicians.. they are hooligans.. who used force to kick the government out.. They even wanted the military to stage another crops.. but the general of the army refuse to used military croup to resolve.. The Prime Minister was elected by the people to run the country... and PAD the hooligans trying to take that away.. How could the Thai allow PAD to government?... They should respect the people decision...

If i am the Prime Minister of Thailand.. i will use force to drove out all these violence protest.. and capture all the leaders of PAD... Since the PAD are using violence.. no point in resolving this in peaceful manner.. The Prime Minister need to make a painful decision.. These are no long opposition politicians, they are hooligans, rebels, childish act.. etc.... Imagine if Mr Lee Kuan Yeow was not firm with iron a fist politics during the earlier of building up Singapore.. Will we be still enjoying the peaceful and harmony lives now???

PAD should form a party, work their ground, get support from the people and have a gentlemen fight during the next election.. and not resolved to such rebellion....

Now what PAD has done, not only further weaken the economy, but they have destroy their tourism gold mine... Will it be the end of Thailand?... Or the King should intervene...?

Spend during Economy Downturn....

Because of the USA economy down.. it also affect some of the Asia countries... Especially Singapore.. Now we are already starting to feel the little pinch, when big banks like Citi Bank and DBS Bank start to retrench their staffs... It sounds a bit scary..

The news of retrench was making the headline of the news paper the pass few weeks.. and on the other hand our government has been urging us to spend during this economy downtown.. so as to keep the economy going.. But with all the bad news about the economy, like pay cut, retrenchment, lower year end bonus etc.. who dare to spend? If i keep spending for the next 3 months and the economy got worst.. how? Yes no doubt the government is going to give out cash relieve this time.. but how long can this cash relieve last???

If only the few who are still well off continue to spend during this period.. it can only help to move the economy a bit.. cause out there, many people are still tightening their belt.. And i do agree that during the economy downturn is the best time to get bargains and discounts..

I was thinking of taking up a part time advance diploma in Tourism Management.. so that i won't be stuck in this same company for many many years to come.. I was thinking of moving to recreation jobs area where i get to interact with tourist... like Sentosa, Universal Studio Theme Park, Singapore Zoo or some other Singapore's well known attraction....

Mega Mac vs BK Stackers

Recently i just gave to 2 Giant Burgers - Mega Mac from Mc Donald and Stackers Burger King a try.. and here are my verdicts....

Mega Mac - Four beef patties between 3 slice of burger bread.. Taste just like Big Mac.. Very crunchy, with lots of lettuces and tomatoes slice.. The 4 beef patties is dry.. Got a bit messy after a few bites... Values for money and a more balance diet...

BK Stackers - 4 beef patties in between 2 burger bread... The beef patties are very juicy and top with crispy Bacon.. No veges.. No recommend for diet conscious people... The 4 pieces of melted cheese hold the burger together well.. so not very messy when i sink my teeth into it.. a bit expensive.. but i makes me wanting to come back for more...

After school care nanny...

My wife had brought up the idea of having a after school care nanny for my daughter.. for next year.. and my neighbour is willing to help out.. For next year, i will send my daughter to take school bus to school... then after school, the school bus will send her to the after school care centre (a few block from my place).. And we need a nanny to pick her up from the after school care centre at 645pm and cook dinner for her.. and my wife will fetch my daughter from the nanny place..

But unfortunately, for my neighbour, after sorting out her schedule.. she said her schedule could not fit in... So my wife got no choice but to fetch our child from after school care centre herself...

But the plan was back fired when my wife's company change their working week to 4.5 days.. so instead of working from 8.30am - 5.30pm.. she will have to work from 8am - 6pm (Mon - Thu) & 8am - 1pm (Fri).. with effect from Dec 08... So very desperately we need a after school care nanny... and my wife approach the mother of my child's tuition friend.. and lucky she agreed.. she only have to take care of my daughter from Tue - Thu (6.45pm till 8pm)....

The Bodhisattva Green Tara had answered my prayer.....

A few days break from our child

Last week my daughter stayed overnight at my brother's place for a few days.. from 18 Nov08 till 21 Nov08... 4 days.. of slience and "two person world".. Well the first noght my wife starts to miss our daughter.. but she did have a good rest.. and we both manage to sleep early every night.... Well i also kind of miss her after 2 days... The whole house was so quiet.. and "no live"...

And now our daughter has return.. and the whole house have come to live again.. with her laughters and chattness.... She told us that she miss playing PSP, watching cartoon on SCV.. and riding on her bicycle....

Madagascar 2 - Escape to Africa

... Since now is the beginning of school holiday.. So i want to give my girl a kick start to her year end school holiday..... So yesterday me, my wife and my child went to watch Madagascar 2 - Escape to Africa... The movie was so funny and it really tickle our funny bones.. We laugh all the way from the start till the end of the show... The character are full of nonsense...

The story begins when the 4 good friends decide to go back home to New York City Zoo.. So the board the just repaired plane pilot by the 4 penguins and crash land into Africa... Then in the wild life reserve.. Alex the lion, got united with is long lost parents... Then because he lost in a lion fight and got expelled.. then water crisis hit the wild reserve, their lake are dry up.. and Alex the lion manage to bring back the water....

A very good movie to relief stress... Always watch out the background scene.. there is always small funny thing happening in the background.. hahaha.. Enjoy...

Wife spying on husband...

This morning a Singaporean man came with a China girl to book air ticket to Beijing.. The China girl book a one way ticket and the man book a return ticket.. They booked, paid and left...

Later in the afternoon one of my colleague received a call from a lady, wanting to check on that man's flight detail.. Saying she is his wife and would like to know his flight detail so that she could send him off at the airport... Usually we do not reveal and passenger flight or tour information to anybody other then the passengers themselves... But one of my inexperience colleague accidentally gave her all the flight detail of that man... Oh dear.. Die loh.. And too late for the senior colleague to stop her.. The wife also wanted to come down and collect his husband air ticket on his behalf... and we told her, he had already collected his air ticket... (Anyway without the receipt or booking form... we do not release the air ticket to them)

Next thing that man called and wanted to change his departure date.. and we advise him to go down to the airline to make the changes himself.. Then the wife called again to ask for more info... but we shut out mouth.. and told her that all our customer's data and their booking info are all confidential... That women tried to threaten us.. and my colleague told her that, this is there family problem and she should check wz her husband for the info... Eventually she put down the phone...

This is not the first time we got such case where wife checking on her husband flight details and whereabouts... got once this women called and said her husband went missing for days.. and wanted us to give her, her husband tour details.. (like hotel, destination etc).. of course we did not reveal to her.. we advise her to make a police report if her husband is missing...

White Tiger attcked man in Zoo..(suspect sucide)

What a way to attempt suicide...? Letting Tigers have u for lunch? A Malaysian zoo cleaner did just that and he got his attacker (3 White Tiger) being send to detention... Those 3 tigers must be saying this in the detention "That stupid man got us into detention, Damn!"..... "never trust humans again. They are trouble makers"... "I thought it was a special dinner for us? Live human sashimi."....

A Malaysian zoo cleaner committed suicide by jumping into the white tiger enclave and was severely mauled by 3 tigers.. in front of a crowd of zoo visitors and tourists... Minutes before this man has passed comments like 'Goodbye, you won't see me again'.. before he did that brave act of committing suicide...

Now our Singapore Zoological Garden's White Tiger is even more famous... because of this man..

NTUC under renovation...

NTUC Supermarket Rivervale Plaza Branch is going under renovation from 3 Nov 08 till 14 Nov 08.. It is time for a good face lift..I went there with my wife on 2 Nov 08 night and this is what we saw.. The whole NTUC supermarket is empty.. all the goods is either sold out or already clear by the staffs... We were hoping to grab some clearing sales items.. but we are too late.. This is the first time i saw an empty NTUC Supermarket....

Here are some of the photo i took before the renovation...

Daughter's P1 Orientation

11 Nov08, was the CHIJ (NOL) Primary 1 Orientation. My daughter was so excited.. about it.. We woke up early and reach the school by 8.30am.. She was later introduced to her "buddy" and a group of Primary 2 and 1 students are taking care of them for the rest of the morning.. Parents are then told to proceed to the school hall for briefing.. Along the way to the school hall... i was amazed by the so many beautiful art work around the school.. Some are drawn by students and some by teachers.. The school principle was saying that if parents could contribute some art work, it would be nice...

During the briefing by the school principle, she mention that CHIJ (NOL) is unique from the rest of the 10 branches, They are more into arts.. The students love dancing.. whereas Modern Jazz is part of the PE lesson.. (My girl is going to love it).. The school is adapting to the MOE "SEED" programme whereas more creative and innovating way of teaching are being adept.. Speech & Drama are part of their learning.. and every child will have the opportunity to be a leader.. Netball is the most popular sports in school... The school principle urge all parents to work closely with the school with one big objective "To give our child a good education". Parents are the most important "partner" to the school.... Me and my wife was so glad that our girl got into this school..

My daughter enjoys herself too, during the orientation, especially the modern jazz dance performed by the students.. They are so profession with their dance steps..

Here are some of the nice art work i have taken during the orientation day... The whole school is just like a Art Gallery..

Child's kindergarden Graduation

On 08 Nov 08, was my daughter's Kindergarten Graduation Concert... Every graduation class have to perform.. The ceremony starts at 2pm.. and right after work at 2pm.. i took MRT to Kovan and walk double quick time to the ceremony venue.. Once arrived i got a hard time looking for my wife.. gave her a call and spot her just sitting right in front of me.. Haha.. I just too excited.. haha...

My daughter's class was the last 2nd group to perform.. Many parents were taking photos and video of the performance.. I got my position ready to take some clip of my child's class performance.. They perform the "Flint Stone" Dance... their costume are very cute.. stone age style.. with leopard print.. haha.. Their performance was not so neat.. everyone is dancing at their own way and own pace.. not synchronised.. anyway they are still children.. very cute to see them perform... jumping and dancing lively...

Arsenal 2 - Manchester United 1

Well Man United has lost to a team of boys.. Arsenal's youngster proved to be more hungry and enthusiastic then the men of Man United... So Wenger's youth policy is starting to pay off...

Young players fears nothing, less experience and a great desire to prove themselves.... Thus this is the firing power and energy Arsenal requires... It is a battle of unknown.. Man United might be thinking too little of Arsenal youngster because they lack of experience.. but Man United does not understand these youngster more then Wenger himself.. He believed in his young squad..

This season, Man U already lost one match to Liverpool and draw with Chelsea...

Well done Arsenal and the rest for keeping Man U at bay.....

By the way, where are the Man U jersey today??? I see non on the street, they are too ashamed to wear them... Man U fans in Singapore are all "Glory Hunters".... If Man U won a Big Match.. the next day you can see plenty of Man U jersey on the street..

Bicycle Spoil..

I brought my cheap bicycle (cost me $65) in May08 and then now Nov08 it has already spoil.. This bicycle only last me for 6 months.. and in between i had replace its rear rim once (Cost $35) and the peddle (cost $10).. So all in all this bicycle cost me a total of $110.. And spoil with 6 months... Some of its ball bearing are wearing off liao.. and the front spook is loose from the handle.. Imagine if i made a right turn.. the wheel will turn left.. or will not turn.. Damn.. Lousy bicycle... For now my Cardio Exercise to have to stick back to my own 2 legged - Jogging.. Now i do slow pace jogging, because there is no more IPPT for me so no point i strain myself.. just some light slow jog to keep myself healthy...

I'm now save up to buy a better bicycle..

SIA Charge for Emergency Door Seat...

Singapore Airline (SIA) will be charging passenger who wants to request for "Emergency Exit" seats.. which has more legroom... This is a very fair move from the airline.. And why SIA is doing this.. ? All because of demanding passengers.. too demanding... You can see people requesting for "Emergency Exit" seat at the check-in counter.. And some bang the table if they cannot get it.. Some even flash their Kris Flyers Card and demand for that preferred seat... Of course SIA tried their best to fulfill their demand... If these economy passengers wanted more comfort then they should pay more to upgrade their seat to business class...

Now SIA had enough of all these request.. and now they are charging passenger for requesting of "Emergency Exit" Seat... "Emergency Exit" seats should be for able person who are fit enough to help assist in opening the emergency door and able understand English well to receive instruction...

SIA and SilkAir revise their fuel surcharge

Singapore Airline (SIA) and SilkAir is revising their fuel surcharge according to the different class of travel, with effect from 07 Nov08.. Economy class passengers will have to pay less for their fuel surcharge whereas First class & Suite passengers will pay a higher fuel surcharge then Business class passengers.. The reason is because, First class & Suite occupy more space in the plane and more check-in baggage allowance... the followed by the business class passengers.. and the Economy class passengers...

I find that this is a very fair practise by the SIA and SilkAir.. Hope other airlines will follow suit..

Yesterday when i read the Newspaper travel ads, all the tour packages look expensive after the taxes where include into the ads fare.. All the advertise FARE does not look attractive enough, but good enough for travellers to budget their trip.. These are only based on the cheapest airfare and cheapest 3 stars hotel.... If travellers wants a better airline (better departure timing) and better Hotel... they still have to top up the difference.. And the advertising fare did not include peak season surcharge and gala dinner... But yet still got lots of enquires calling us and asked.. do we include taxes in our advertising fare?? It is across the board.. everyone must include taxes in their advertise fare from 1 Nov08... It has been announced in the newspaper and on TV also...

Hamilton youngest F1 Driver's Champion

Photo taken from channelnewsasia

The last leg of Formula 1 Grand Prix - Brazil Grand Prix at Inter Largo, saw Felipe Messa finish first but eventually the Driver's Championship was won by Lewis Hamilton who came in fifth.. Luck was really on Hamilton side as he manage to overtake Tim Glock in the very last lap to become the youngest Formula 1 Driver Champion...

Ferrari got a consolation for winning the Constructor's Champion.. Felipe Messa got no one to blame execpt for his own Ferrari team.. He did his best in every race but his team has fail him a few time.. etc.. The Pit Stop accident in Singapore Grand Prix...

I believe next yer will be a more exciting F1 Season.. with both drivers and team fighting for the Best Driver's Champion and Constructor's Champion.. Let see if Alfonso Fernando and his Renault team could come back next year to compete with Ferrari and Mc Laren?? Who knows maybe Robert Kubica.. could bring BMW Sauber back to the podium again..?? I'll be expecting a more exciting race next season... (Should i subscribe for SCV sports channel next season? But i don't have the Sunday afternoon to watch)

Who will win the F1 Championship??

Who will win the F1 Driver Championship... Issit Hamilton, Messa or a surprise fomr Kubica...
Hamilton stand a good chance to win this Championship.. even if he finish 5th position.. but then he has to pray hard that his car will not fail him.. For Messa.. he might get a chance if he wins the Brazil Grand Prix (Home ground advantage, that is what soccer fans refer to) and pray that Hamilton's car fail him.. The Formula 1 Driver Championship is still open... This Brazil Grand Prix will be a very exciting to watch..

I really hope Ferrari will not quit the F1 next season... Formula 1 without Ferrari will be a cake without icing.. Hope the standardise engine scheme does not materialise... it will be very boring without the different manufacturer... For those teams going for standardise engine.. they should have join A1 instead.. where every team will have a standardise car and engine...