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.