Chinese New Year 2011

The Chinese New Year this year is the best so far because I just had a promotion, hahaha

Tim Sum at Ah Yat restaurant on 15/1/2011

This morning Diana, Wai Leng and me went to Ah Yat restaurant for Tim Sum.
We ordered quite a number of things to eat but the bill was only $50 +, very cheap after the 30% discount offered by the restaurant.

Decided to come beck next week with Diana's parents and Marry for Tim Sum to celebrate my promotion.

Promoted to Production Manager in 2011

Yeah!!!!!!!!!

I have been promoted to Production Manager this year.
All the hard work and effort that I put in is worth it.
This promotion is especially sweet.
Diana is very happy for me.

It's now 9.00pm, our flight is with Asiana Airlines OZ754 at 0050hrs.

Everything was prepared and pack into 2 check in luggage with wheels to drag along and each of us will be carrying a hand luggage that contains our "LongJohn" thermal wear, winter gloves, extra long sleeve tee shirt (for Diana and Wai Leng ) and our winter jacket.
We try to minimise our clothing so that we do not need to drag along so much things.... so that we or rather Wai Leng can buy more things back from Korea. At first Diana wanted to bring one more check in luggage but I managed to convince her that that is how much clothings she can wear inside her winter jacket and by bringing more is absolutely no use. She can only put on her two long john, one sweater and then her winter jacket, that is all.

I just ask Wai Kiat whether he regrets not following us to Korea for this trip, he reply that it is only because he have to take care of the dog. Sigh...... I feels bad not bringing him along but he only feels bad that he have to take care of the dog.

It is now 9.15pm, we will leave the house at about 9.45pm latest to take a taxi to the airport. I intend to arrive a bit earlier so that we do not need to rush. I am feeling excited about this trip. Diana and I have been to Korea before but that was during our honeymoon after we got married. It have been so many years since we went to Korea, I am very excited to visit this place again to see all the changes.

Today is the day for our trip to Korea ( Sunday, 7 Dec 2008 )

Time flies, today is the day for our Korea trip. According to the tour leader of SA travel, there will be 58 people going for this trip and we will be traveling in two tour buses when in Korea. I did not expect this tour group to be so big. Hope that it is not a problem and there would not be too much delay waiting for each other.
We had pack our bags and I tried to convince both Diana and Wai Leng not to bring unnecessary things and especially clothing because we do not want to carry cloths that we will not be using. We are not carrying cloth for a fashion show and we are not going to change cloths everyday for other people to see. There is just so much space inside our winter jacket for our Thermal underwear and additional cloths before we put on the last layer of winter jacket. Bringing extra pants or knit wear serve no purposes at all because the winter jacket and thermal wear is the main cloth that will keep us warm.
I managed to convince Diana to remove a knit wear, extra sweater & pants from her cloths that she intends to bring.
Well, tonight we were be taking the 12.30am flight and we have to be at the airport before 10.30pm to check in. I am very excited about this trip and I am sure Diana and Wai Leng are too. I feels a bit sad to leave Wai Kiat at home but he just do not like to travel with us.

Diana company boss is so good to her that one of the director gave her $1,000 to spend for this trip and another director is giving her some remainder Korean Won that he have. Where can find such company boss. I really envie her and hopes that she can have a better carreer than me.

9 more days to our Korea trip

How time flies, we still have 9 more days before we start our Korea tour.
I am very excited and try to savor every moment of it before it is all over and we all come back to face the reality again.
We are fully prepared for this trip and all the things that needed to bring along have been bought but not pack yet.
I am beginning to pack this few days and hopefully we do not miss out anything important.

Wai Leng wanted to use her "Chan Brothers" red backpack that was given last time when we went for our China tours. Since Diana and I will be carrying our "SA Tour" hand carry bag to identify ourselves, I allow her to use the backpack.

Our 8 Days Korea Discovery + Jeju tour

Our Korea tour trip is coming up fast, we will be going for this trip in 12 days time.
Time pass too fast and sometime I wish time can be slower for us to enjoy it before it is all over.

We had plan and save for this trip for many years and decided to visit Korea once more before we were too old for traveling and experience snow.
I think I am still healthy for very cold weather but Diana might have a problem because she cannot tolerate cold weather. Her health is not so good and can easily catch a cold and fell sick.

This year we are bringing Wai Leng along as usual because Wai Kiat do not want to follow us.
Wai Kiat did not follow us the last time we went to Taiwan too. He had a weird character and a bit lazy and do not enjoy going out for walks.

Attended Uncle Seng's younger son's 1 year old birthday.

The whole family attended Ah Seng's son 1 year old birthday. They engage a caterer again but this year the food is not tasty at all. The only things worth eating is their fired prawns and spring rolls.

After the buffet lunch we went to Peoples Park to pay up the remaining cost of our December Korea tour of $4,000+.

Then we went to Peninsula Plaza for a walk but our main intention is to buy a pair of jeans for the girl to wear to Korea. Found a pair at Samuel & Kevin for $39.
Then we walk into a World of Sports shop and the boy wanted to look at a basket ball but he walk off after knowing that it cost $59 which is quite expensive.

We decided to buy it for him because he seldom ask for things that he likes. I think he is quite happy that we buy it for him.

2008, celebrated Diana birthday at Allson hotel.

This year Wai Leng suggested to have buffet for Diana birthday. Diana source out this hotel and found that their food is good so she book a table on Saturday 8/12/2008.
We went for the buffet and found that the food is indeed very good especially the "white chicken", soft shell crap, beef with potatoes, crackers, ice cream, steam fish was fresh and delicious, fried rice is tasty, salmon is fresh, cake is rich with chocolate and is expensive.
The only thing not fresh or good is their "oysters", they are not fresh and so they steam them first before serving.
We enjoy many rounds of food and I order a beer too to enjoy the night.

I think this is the best and most tasty buffet that we have tried, the rest only have quantity and variety but lack taste.

Had booked a tour to Korea for Diana, Wai Leng and Me on December 7th 2008.

We book a tour to Korea for 8 days in December for the three of us. Wai Kiat do not want to come with us. I think he just don't feel at ease going out with us and prefer to spend time at home sleeping or watching TV or playing computer games.
It is also good because we can save some money and at the same time he can look after the dog and tortoise.

This time our tour is during winter and our main intention is to experience snow and winter. Diana and I have been to Korea after we got married but that time we went during autum and although the weather is cold but there is no snow yet. We went in October when the temperature is around 10 degrees to 15 degrees. This time we are expecting something between minus 5 to 5 degrees celcius.

We are looking forward to this tour to relax our body and mind.

The Internet is not private after all

I have written events in my life in this blog that is very private and deleted it immediately because I realize that things that I wrote on this blog is not exactly private and the chances of it being seen by people that I don't intend to is there.
Not that I have lots of secret that I don't want other to know but somethimes it is better to keep private thing private just in case others chances upon it unintentionally.
I had just bought a notebook make by Lenovo IBM for $1699 and set up a Linksys router at home and is extremely happy with it because I no longer have to fight with the children to use the computer to go on the Internet.
I should have set this up long ago and save the trouble.

I am very disappointed with the children

The children are playing on the computer for 6 hours at a stretch like there is no tomorrow.
On a typical day, the girl will begin playing on the computer while the boy go to school for classes and when the boy comes home, he will chase away the girl and starts playing on the computer for a continuous stretch of more than 6 hours.
After dinner, the girl will continue playing on the computer as though it is her time to play because the boy had his time already.

This happen when they are on school holidays and it is understood that Diana allow them to use the computer.

After all the talks about their examinations results, it is a total waste of time because they just simply don't care. They are still not aware of the implications of their actions and just wanted to play. They have not understand why it is so important to have good results. To put it simply, their brains is not open yet. Sigh.............

Diana at the restaurant

Wai Kiat at the restaurant

Wai Leng at the restaurant

18/5/2008. Dinner at Ah Yat Restaurant.

We had a sumptuous dinner at Ah Yat restaurant because Diana's director had given her a $1,000 to spend at this restaurant as she pleases.
Diana had book a table for four today and when we arrives at the restaurant service desk and told them her name, we were immediately let to the 4th floor and into a room with a table for four.
We order a round of fruit juices for everybody and I went into the toilet to wash up because I am sweating in the heat outside.
When I came out from the toilet, Diana told me that she had already order our food and Wai Leng behave like she is so happy that they order the food without me.
I felt a bit pissed off because I am not involve in anything at all.

I check with them and found that they had ordered a dish of abalone with sharks fin but it is from the "economy" menu that is cheap.
I immediately check their menu and found another dish with premium sharks fin and change it.

This is what we ordered in the end :
Sea Garoupa $48.00
Vegetable $22.00
Prawns $20.00
Mutton stew $32.00
Braised Prime Sharks fin soup $300.00
Bird nest $112.00
Roast pork meat $8.00
Alaska crap $75.00
Fruit juice $52.00
Beer $15.00
Rice $2.00
Dessert $6.00
Bird nest egg tart $15.00

Total cost for our lavish dinner is $748.20

Lastly a photo of the whole family together

Diana with Daphane, Alice, Marry & Teck Seng

Diana and her sister Alice & Marry

Wai Leng at the restaurant

We celebrated mother's day for Diana's mother

11/5/2008, Daphane's daughter Lee Lian suggested to celebrate mother's day for Diana's mother in a restaurant in Orchard road.
She have some unused dining coupons and so take the opportunity to have a gathering.
We were most surprise that when she suggested the lunch outing at a restaurant in Orchard road to her grandmother and she agrees to it.
Most of the time when we suggest something, she will always says that she prefer to cook at home.
Anyway, everybody turn up for the event except Wai Kiat because he wanted to stay home to study for his mid year exams.

Barnes from Bikersfrenz got himself a BMW GS1200

He sold away his previous bike, the Honda STX1300 and got this bike from PML.
According to him, the STX was not stable at high speed and so he don't quite like it and also for the fact that he is planning to do a ride to Koh Sam Mui in northern Thailand later this year and he wanted to do it with a "proper" bike for the job.
Anyway, he claims to have sold his STX for $19,000 plus and bought this second hand bike from PML for $23,000.

Last night, 23/5/2008 we were at Circuit road attending "Chicken" George father's wake and we crowded around his bike to admired it.
We play around his bike and someone even tried to start his bike before the bike did it's diagnostic check. Barnes was quite protective of it and we actually had a good time meddling around with his bike. I purposely press buttons for ABS and another button just for the fun of it.

Blogger getting a income from blogging?

I never knew that blogging can bring in a monthly income for the blogger.
And I am not talking small sums here, I am talking few hundreds to few thousand dollars of steady income for almost nothing but blabbing on the internet.

Too bad I am not a pretty girl or else I can also take some photos of myself and post them on the Internet too and bring in some decent dole.

2008 CNY reunion dinner at United Square.

Yesterday 14 person turn up for this year's reunion dinner. My son did not attend because last night he sleep in our bedroom and had a fever this morning due to the air conditioner. Ah Mun and V Keen also did not turn up. My younger brother came alone without bringing his son or wife.

Younger brother changes his mind.

My younger brother changes his mind and telephone me in the morning at about 9.05am to tell me that he had recovered from diarrhoea and is able to attend this evening reunion dinner after all.
When I hear that my heart sank. Not because I don't wish him to attend but I feels a bit pissed off because he had told me last Sunday that he is unable to attend but now changes his mind.

Anyway I told him to get ready and wait for me below his flat at 5pm for me to pick him up.
I am a bit reluctant but have no choice. I think he was looking forward to the "Hong Bao" that we might give to him and the sumptuous buffet dinner that he seldom have the chance to eat.

Youngest brother decline my invitation to attend CNY reunion dinner.

Youngest brother call my hand phone in the morning on 20/1/2008 to tell me that he is not attending this year's CNY reunion dinner. When I ask him why, he tells me he is having diarrhoea and so afraid that he would have to look for toilet at the restaurant next Saturday.

I was like, huh? you got diarrhoea today but worry about next Saturday?. How long are you going to have this diarrhoea?

Anyway, I did not ask further and just says "OK" and hang up the call.

Since he is not willing to attend this reunion dinner and decided to give me a stupid excuses, I will just accept his decision. I am not going to beg him like last year because I had already done my part to invite him to our family's reunion gathering.

Transferring of petrol from bike to car


Since the price of petrol was sky high, I have been transferring petrol from my bike to my car. The price of petrol in Malaysia is RM1.92 per liter whereas in Singapore it is S$1.90 per liter. With the exchange rate at S$1 to RM2.30, I am actually paying less than half the price for petrol even after incorporating the toll charges on both sides. I save about S$80 per months on petrol.

I am using a plastic pump costing S$1.50 bought from a DIY shop and a 5 liter plastic container to transfer petrol. First I suck the petrol from my bike into the container and then I suck it into my car. This way I know how much petrol I transfer each time because the container capacity is 5 liter.

The only downside is when I am transferring the petrol, people give me a weird look as though I am stealing petrol or I am being so low class. Therefor nowadays I transfer the petrol in the afternoon on weekdays, usually on Friday after I woke up.

I have no other choice because the standard of living is so high and I have to save whenever possible. In fact our home air conditioner setting was increase from 25 degrees Celsius to 26 degree Celsius to cut down on our electricity bill.

Melvin our wine "specialist" preparing wine for us to taste.

Our wine glasses and mineral water for tasting our wine.

The conference room where the wine tasting was held

Wine tasting at Yew Tee CC last night with Diana

We were late last night because Diana over slept when she took a nap in the afternoon at 6pm. We were suppose to be there earlier because she have to help out in the preparation for the event. Anyway I woke he up at 7pm and we rush to Yew Tee CC.
However everybody was late when we arrive at 7.50pm. There are still people who are suppose to attend but haven't arrive yet. What a relief.

Wai Kiat reading his school book.

First time seeing him take out a book to read on the sofa.
But about half an hour later, he put away his book and switch on the TV to watch..... *sigh*

An hour later he went to sleep on his mattress. Mind you, that is just about four hours after he woke up in the morning....... *faint*

CNY reunion dinner preparation.

Received a call from younger brother in the morning at around 10.30am while I was asleep. Woke up and check the display and found that it was from him and pick up the call. He wanted to ask me how to solve his computer problem because had just bought a computer and wanted to watch YouTube but got a error message asking him to install Java software or something. I told him that I don't know how to solve his problem because whenever I have problem with my computer, I use to call a repair man to solve it for me unless it is very basic problem.
Then when he wanted to hang up the phone, I ask him whether he is coming to the reunion dinner that I organize on the 26/1/2008. He immediately tell me that only he is coming. I felt relief that he find this function meaningful and wanted to attend. I think he is looking forward to this dinner since he came last year because he can have a good meal and some "Hong Bao" money to spend.

Chinese New Year Reunion dinner arrangement

Officially informed all members of my family of the bookings at the restaurant on the 26 January 2008 and request all those who can make it to be present at the restaurant before 6.00pm so that our reserved table will not be taken up by others.
I did not force everyone to attend but instead request those who can make it to attend.

I also tell them that as usual I had invited our youngest brother and his family to attend this year reunion dinner and stress that I will pay for their bill if they were to attend.
This is to let them know that they do not need to bare the extra cost of his family because some of them thinks that $36.80 per person is expensive.

After sending out the invitation, 2nd sister Helen and Sister Har reply OK. Sister Har reply that she will be coming with her husband and daughter because her son is in re-service.

It is extremely difficult to organize when there are so many people involve because everyone have their own opinion and expectation. Some people wants food that are cheap and good, while some people wants places that are near to their home for convenient sake. And then there are people who are plain lazy to do anything. I almost give up organizing such gathering but if I don't come out to do something then nobody will. Just like last time when I keep quiet and say nothing then Chinese New Year come and go without any event at all. Everybody just care for themself and don't even bother to give a Ang Bao to the children of each family. Although it is very bothersome, I will still organize this event once a year to gather everyone around to meet each other. Just like what Diana says, when I passed away, then this tradition will also stop completely.

I am not sure how many will attend but hope more can make it for this once a year gathering.

2008 CNY reunion dinner booking

This year Diana suggested a buffet restaurant call VIENNA International Seafood & Teppanyaki Buffet Restaurant at United Square, Thomson road just outside "Novena" MRT.

We went to this restaurant to check it out on 29/12/2007 Saturday and found the food quite good. However the price for dinner during weekend/public holiday is more expensive at $36.80 per person. The ambience of this place is also much better than the place we held our reunion dinner last year.

I decided on 26/1/2008 Saturday and immediately send out sms messages to all family members to ask for their approval.
However only Kar Yee, Har, Karen & V Keen reply. I have to call up elder brother and 2nd sister on the phone to ask for their opinion. 2nd sister feels that the price is expensive while elder brother have no objection but just wanted to take his own sweet time doing things at his own pace. Really cannot stand his attitude.

We decided to book a table first because Chinese New Year is next month at the 7th Feb 2008 which is one month away.
I book a table for 18 person for dinner at 6.00pm at 26/1/2008 and place a deposit of $50.
I will wait till next Saturday for their reply and then inform them that I had book a table for this year reunion dinner.

Collected my new car

Collected my new car after a break of not having a car for 10 years. This car was actually ready for collection on last Friday evening but due to the car salesman negligence, I am not able to collected it in time for the weekend.
Monday morning I call up the saleman and even though it is his off day, he is willing to fetch me to the showroom to collect my car. I think he feels bad about it when I told him that it is ridiculous to take such a long time to prepare my car for collection.
He fetch me at about 5.45pm to the showroom and I collected my car after signing some documents.
The car is in very good condition with no problem at all and after sticking on the season parking coupon and did a final checking, I drive out of the car park at around 7.10pm.
Very please and happy with this car although it cost $2000 less than the price that I paid for my Yamaha FJR1300ABS motorcycle.
Diana and Wai Leng were very happy that we finally got a car and both of them went down to the car park to check it out and sat in the car for a while just to recall the time that we last had one.
They are looking forward to taking a drive in this car.

Booked my new car

After considering for many months, I finally visited the car showroom at Bukit Timah with Diana and book a small car.
This car is from Perodua, a Malaysian company, name "Kelisa" which is a 1,000cc small compact car. This is currently the cheapest car in Singapore.
I will be registering this car under "Off-Peak" use which means I will be getting a cash rebate of $17,000 from the sales price. I will be paying about S$18,900 for it on the road.
This car was considered mainly because of the little money involved and very low fuel consumption. This car features 3 inline cylinder, 12 valve, with fuel injection.
I have chosen a gold colour car and currently waiting for it to be register.

Taiwan ROC trip from 21/12/2005 to 27/12/2005

I went for this trip to Taiwan ROC with my wife and daughter, my son refused to come with us and prefer to stay over at his grandparent's house. We had a very nice time together in Taiwan and fully enjoyed the scenery and weather. It is around 12 to 20 degrees celsius and during the whole trip it did not rain. We were very fortunate to have such fine weather.

Big mistake with M1 "Auto Roaming" service

Wai Leng was back and I found out that it is me that make a blunder and not her for not being able to call or SMS back home with her handphone.

I somehow ask for a "Roam per charge" from M1 instead of the normal international "Auto Roaming". This roam per charge require the user to call a special number instead of just adding a "+65" in front of the user phone number. That is why Wai Leng was unable to send message back during her trip in Malaysia.

I was really mad with myself and ask M1 to immediately change it to "Auto Roaming" for me.

Wai Leng first time away from home alone.

On 9/12/2005, Friday, Wai Leng went with her class choir into Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur to attend a singing competition. She woke up very early a 5.30am in the morning and left the house at 6.00am. The tour bus was suppose to leave at 6.30am for Malaysia.

This is the first time our daughter travel alone all by herself although there are a few school teachers travelling with them. Wai Leng is still only in primary 5 this year. She will be coming back home on the 13/12/2005 in the evening about 6.00pm to 7.00pm.

I send her a SMS on friday night and later on Saturday night, Diana also send her a SMS but we waited till Sunday but still did not received any SMS from her. On Sunday morning I send a SMS to one of the teacher in charge to enquired about her. After a few minutes I received a reply from the teacher saying that she is fine and mention that she says that she cannot send SMS out from her handphone. I don't know what is the problem she is having with her handphone.
But anyway we were much relief after her teacher reply to us.

Silly girl still not very smart to react in such situation, she should have borrow someone handphone to reply to us or check why her handphone cannot send out SMS.

Nikon D50 DSLR camera. ( 12/11/2005 )

At last I bought my first Digital SLR camera.
Paid $1288 for it, and got a camera with kit lens, 1GB Secure Digital memory card and a nice Nikon bag.

I am very please with this purchase because I had been looking forward to buying a good quality camera for a very long time.

I will practice with it for a month before I bring it to Taiwan for our 7 days trip. Really looking forward to this trip and taking lots of photos.

Taiwan 7 day trip was confirmed.

8/11/2005.
Diana went to some tour agency to check up what they have to offer and came back with some brochures. We look at them and after discussion, decided to join the tour offer by ChanBrothers Tour & Travel that is more established and reliable.

9/11/2005.
Diana went to ChanBrothers office and paid up the deposit for the trip. Wai Kiat do not wish to follow us for this trip even after Diana and I asking him three times. I am very dissapointed that he don't wants to follow us to this trip because I wanted the whole family to enjoyed together. Without him it won't be so much fun and it feels just not right. I don't know the actual reason why he don't wants to follow to this trip, maybe we will never know because he always keep things to himself.

Planning for a holiday trip to Taiwan, ROC

Diana suggested to go for a tour to Taiwan this year's end during the children school holiday.
She says that this is the last year our daughter can travel by children fare at half price because she will be 12 years old next year and will have to pay adult fare.

I have no objection about it and also hope to have a break from work. She decided to go to Taiwan because this is a Chinese asian country that we have not been and it is a cheaper destination than Japan. We might go in mid December when the climate there is cooler at about 16 degrees celcius.

We might not bring the boy along for this trip because he seems to be not interested about it and prefers to stay at home or play in his grandparent's house. Well it depends on his wishes, we will bring him along if he wants to follow us for this trip. Diana will confirm with him later.

I plan to buy a Nikon D50 digital SLR camera to shoot as much photos as I can this time. During our previous trip to China, I did not managed to shoot enough photograph because I am using a film camera and was limited by the amount of film that I brought along. I really regret not buying a digital camera for that trip.

Replaced my bike's battery.

It's been 2 years owning this Yamaha FJR1300ABS, I have already replaced my tyres and it's time to replaced my battery because it is behaving strangely lately.
The battery cranks more times to start up the bike and the digital clock and trip meter resets by itself more often and finally the battery can't start the bike when the radiator fan is "ON".
All these symptoms indicating to me that the battery's life is at the end and needs to be replace as soon as possible.

I bought a Yamaha GS battery from Auto Machinery for $170 and installed it onto my bike on 23/10/2005. This is the only battery that is suitable for this bike due to the size and it also have a special auto bleeding valve build in. No other battery is suitable.

The Birthday cake.

This is a close-up photo of his birthday cake.
It is a nice chocolate cake selected by the children themself.

My children

My children

This is a photo of my son celebrating his birthday. His birthday falls on the 10th of October.
My boy is 13 years old and he is in secondary 1.

My daughter is 11 years old and she is a class monitor. She is very independent.

Update of my new tyres.

Silly me, I really thought someone is reading my blog and writting comments about it.
Then I realise that it is all advertisement, sigh.................

Anyway, back to my own blog.

I have been using these new tyres for about a week and it is about to be fully break in.
I like the grip of these new tyres, they seems to provide more grip than my previous tyres.
I now have more confidence when riding and don't have the fear of the tyres loosing grip in corners. I tend to bank lower and faster because I begin to thrust my tyre more.

I am lowering the front tyre's pressure to 250Kpa and rear to remain at 290Kpa. This combination provides more grip and at the sametime gives me a more comfortable ride on uneven grounds.

I will stop here because I have to go to work, will continue to write more tomorrow.

I clock up 27,000km on my motorcycle today and finally replaced my set of tyres to Metzeler Z4. The tyre had worn down to the wear marker and is high time for replacement.
Paid S$450 for both front and rear and also replaced the inflator nozzle to the angle type for easier air inflating.

One thing baffles me is that for the past month and mostly the last week I have been experiencing lost of tyre air pressure. The last few days was very extreme, I lost 8psi, 14psi and finally 20psi of air pressure.
But when we check the tyre after removing it from the bike, I am very surprise that we cannot detect any leakage at all from the tyre, tyre walls, wheel rim and inflator nozzle valve. How and where did the air gone?

Anyway I am glad that I finally find time to replace my tyres and look forward to have a good ride.

Metzeler Z4 tyres was replaced at Southern Motors in Alexandra Village, Blk. 1006.
Job done by a mechanic call "Ah Heng", an elderly man who spoke Mandarin to me. Quite friendly but tried to sell me his own version of rear "Mud Guard" made from a recycled plastic from a Givi box and also tried to ask me to "cut out" my front fairing "Air Scoop" to improve the bike's cooling. I gave an excuse that I did not have the time and need to go home to rest.
On the whole, the mechanic workmanship was acceptable but not very good. Can return for follow up service next time but their cost seems a bit high. Maybe I should have check around for the best price instead of thrusting my friend's recommendation.

Petrol top up in a neighboring country.

The past few weeks I have been topping up my petrol tank accross the border in a neighboring country.
For every 15 litres of petroleum, I save Singapore $17 that is very substancial in this difficult times when crude oil price is sky high at around US$70 a barrel.

Due to oil price increase, everything are going to increase in the coming future.
The government had already announce that our electricity charges is going to increase by a few percent ( Not sure about the exact amount but the bill is expected to increase by a few dollars ), following this I am sure other commodities such as food, water, clothings, etc; practically everything are going to go up very soon.

Most people will have to find ways to save, I am glad that I can save some money on my petrol bill this way but for how long.... sigh

I didn't expect my blog in this goggles site can attract readers. I thought what I wrote was very common personal things that is of no interest to others except myself and my family.

After being attack by some virus from a blog that I open sometime ago, I try not to open other people's blog. Maybe I am just unlucky that day to open a virus infected blog. Anyway it is nice to know that my blog was read by somebody in this world.

I just have a meet up with a group of FJR enthusiast last night at a food court. We chatted and exchange riding stories. Although most of us were strangers, we find that we can talk to each other when it comes to riding and bikes. This food court is very popular with bikers. Maybe it is because of the convenience of parking or because parking is free and the parking area is just in front of the food court so bikers can see each others bike while having a drink there.

One of our "member" took the trouble to have Tee shirts embroided with our bike logo for us. It was very nicely made and we collected it last night. I bought a white and a black Tee shirt and also two iron-on patches with the word "FJR1300 and Singapore". I haven't decided where will I place these, maybe one will be on a riding jacket while the other will be on another Tee shirt or pants.

New Mobile phone for my son.

17/9/2005, Saturday.

I bought a new mobile phone for Wai Kiat today and subscribe a new line for him.
He was using a "Top-up" card at first but I found that it is not efficient and quite costly.
He cannot send much SMS with it because charges are high and so he have to watch his usage very closely. Each message send cost 10.5 cents. He also cannot make much calls because they are expensive as well, costing 29.5 cents for the first minute.

The new cooporate line cost only $14 per month and he can send 300 SMS and also have about $20 of local calls.

This mobile phone can take photos as well as video. At last he got his private mobile phone and he was very please with it.

My third new bike.

This is my bike, it's a Yamaha FJR1300ABS that I bought two years ago in 2003.
I got this bike after I traded in my Honda CBSevenfifty that I rode for slightly more than a year. I lost $5000 for that Honda bike but I am glad that I bought this because it is much more powerful than the Honda and is a safer too because it has ABS brake.
The stopping power of this FJR is very good and it has the power to overtakes almost anything on the road.

Singapore 40th National Day

As usual I am working on this public holiday. Do you know how it feels to be working while others are enjoying their holiday?
It feels terrible, OK.
I am always working on public holidays even on New Years Day, Christmas, Labour Day, etc;
But come to think of it, having work is much better than no work right?
Sigh........ but it still sucks big time

24th June 2005

Totally forgotten about this "Blog" of mine.
Things haven't change much, I am still working in the same company, still living in the same appartment, still riding the same Yamaha FJR1300 motorcycle, except my body is not the same as last year.
After 50 years of wear and tear, all the parts were worn and deteriorating with time, sigh.......
My right ankle is hurting everytime I get up from bed and my blood pressure shoots up without informing me in advance, hahaha.......
Need to take medication every morning, "Cozaar" or what the generic name call Losartan Potassium tablet that cost a bomb.

SRMC meeting cum buffet at Gilman Beer Garden

In the evening I attended another gathering at Gillman Beer Garden to meet up with members of a motorcycle club. Arrived at around 9.00pm, sat around to chat with some of the guys and later ate some food prepared by the management committee.

Left the place at 11.30pm. I am struggling with the thought of not continuing with my club membership next year because I don't quite like some of the people there.

Mah Pte Ltd open house ( 6/11/2004 )

Attended the open house by a motorcycle shop in the morning because I am afraid that if I will to attend the evening BBQ buffet, the place should be very crowded. My motorcycle is quite huge with the side panniers and squeezing might be a problem.

Anyway I don't like huge crowd and I also wanted to get my goodie bag earlier in case they give excuses that it ran out of stock. I got it alright and hang around for a while to see whether there are anything worth buying.

I ended up empty handed because most of the things on sale are either of inferior quality or things that I don't need.

Testing my first posting.

Hi, I am testing my first posting today 2nd November 2004.
I am still not very sure what this is and had only saw some posting from another site a few weeks ago. If someone out there can view what I wrote today, please feel free to write to me.

Regards
Nemo