Category: Observing Life

When I first heard that Channel [V] was going to be available in Singapore, I was ecstatic. I miss the old MTV that played music videos and not those teen programs like today. When I first heard that Channel [V] is only available with a digital cable box, I headed straight to StarHub and swapped my old analogue box with the digital one. Face it, the digital box was out for many months but I just did not bother (though it is free).

At the customer servicing center, I was staring at the not-too-customer-centric product offering menu. Ended up have to pay S$12 for Channel [V] and a bunch of others that I most probably will not watch. I looked at the sales person and asked, “You mean I have to pay for Channel [V]? I swap the box because of Channel [V] only!”. Eyes watery and all … then the sales person looked at me sympathetically and said, “Look, I can offer you a half price trial plan for 3 months” and I replied, “Deal!”.

Took me hours to get the new box to work with my arcane system (turned out that my VCR interferes with the RF output of the new box) but it was all worth it. The image is much clearer and now I have Channel [V]! And of course, Cynthia is very delighted by the new TV experience. She just loves TV.

Two weeks ago I took my mother and sister to VivoCity and just covering the walkways took us three hours. Today I took Cynthia (after her FRM exam!) to VivoCity and we went straight to my favorite Japanese restaurant …

Shin Kushiya – #02-120/1/2 – Tel: 62758766

The food is pretty good and I particularly like the varieties. It is pretty pricey though. For evening dinning, reserve a table by the window and you get to feast on the beautiful shoreline of Sentosa as well.

When I left office on Friday evening, the air was hazy. I could even smell the burning ashes that came all the way from our neighboring country Indonesia. Over the weekends, the situation has worsen and the PSI (Pollutants Standard Index) has, at one time, hit 150. Anything beyond 100 is unhealthy so you can imagine.

Ever wonder where PSI comes from? It is actually a measurement of Sulphur Dioxide, PM10, Ozone, Carbon Monoxide, and Nitrogen Dioxide. I have no clue on what is what but PM10 is mainly contributed by the Indonesia fire from what I read.

One late evening, I have received a phone call on my home number asking if I wished to participate for a survey on Australian wine. Normally I would have politely told them that I am not interested. But wine?! Booze?! Alright, I surely have lots of inputs.
Looking back, I think that the survey was just a gimmick so that some sales person can follow up with the sales work. This friendly salesman called me and congratulated me in joining a lucky draw that with rewards I cannot recall right now and wished me luck. He then politely asked me if I wish to hear more about wine investment.

Part of me wanted to put down the phone. But part of me was curious about what wine investment is about. He started talking about “Blue Chip Wine” and “Cult Wine”. At first I asked, “Huh? Club wine?”. So he explained to me that “Blue Chip Wine” are the wines that entered into the best Australian wine top 150 list. “Cult Wine” are those that are produced in small quantity and favorably reviewed by reputed wine critics. “Blue Clip Wine” has a potential to rise 10% per year while “Cult Wine” has a potential to rise to 500% in a relatively short period of time.

I stopped him and asked innocently, “Okay, wait a minute. I don’t remember seeing the wine I drink getting more expensive each year.” Well, that was when he chuckled and explained to me what “Table Wine” means.

So in my little mind of limited entrepreneurship, I thought, “Oh well, is he asking me money to invest in building wineries? Isn’t it cool to own some wineries and get to visit Australia one day and invites my friends over and said: come to my vineyard and taste my wine. How cool is that?!”

This salesman then explained to me that his company brings in “Blue Chip Wine” and “Cult Wine” from Australia and stores them in Singapore under my name. Okay, I don’t get to own a winery in the end but I get to own some bottles of wine. So I ask him if I could just drink them off. I mean, hey, those are good wine and I don’t mind having them for self-consumption. He laughed.

Well, he tried to reassure me all the process but hey, as an investor, I am more interested in how his company makes money. So I bear all the shipping charge, insurance, storage fee, and the cost of the wine of course. In the end of, say 3 years, I can opt to sell off the wine and then pay a 5% commission to his company. At present, his company has a portfolio of S$20 million.

Alright. That was a lively 45 minutes of phone conversation and I was happy to have learned something. One last question I had was how much is the wine. He said for S$10,000 I can have 100 keg or crate (really can’t quite get his English or my understanding on wine is pretty low). So I asked: erm, how many bottles would that be. 120 bottles and he reassured me that once I have tasted his wine, I would not drink any “Table Wine” no more.

Now, that would be a real bad news to me.

At times, if I am the first one at the traffic light of the first junction out of my condo, there is a slight chance that I can beat the second traffic light with my ultrasonic lightning acceleration. Last Friday, I was not the first and the visual was not clear at the second traffic light (cars do attempt to turn right in the opposite direction), so I stopped at the middle lane. Shortly after, a green Beetle stopped at the fast lane.

Usually at the traffic junction, I would take my time to check out the babes in around me. At the corner of my eyes, I caught this old man inside his green Beetle motioned fervidly to me. I thought he must be needing some direction desperately so I winded down my window, took down my shades, and gave him a friendly inquiry look. The first thing he told me was that his car is thirteen years old. Very well maintained I commented and he prided himself that his car is his second wife. Lost of words I looked at Cynthia for some inspiration for my next comment. Before I found my word, he asked if I have a second wife. I have not found one yet I replied and I saw a light bulb on his head telling me that I will need the time and most importantly money. I smiled shyly wondering what he would ask next. True enough he asked me to guess his age. The thing is I hate guessing people’s age. If I tell them that they are older than they really are, people get offended. If I guess right, there is no surprise. If I guess too young, I sound like a dumb. Anyway, I usually am nice so I told him 60. Cynthia guessed 65. He laughed and roared 78! I gasped. Truly did not expect that because he has that sort of energy and health that looked beyond 78 of age.

The light turned green, we bid each other farewell, and we drove off.

We all know how frustrated we are with the Singapore Idols judges (at least I am). Their comments are like: you are holding back, this is not you, you look great tonight … etc. I personally find that the radio DJs at 98.7FM have a better sensing on the contestants’ performance.

After seeing Cynthia cringing and crumpled her face with such an unspoken pain, I offered her an therapetic advice: write down how you feel about each contestant and be the judge yourself! And she did.

On Gayle:

C: Star quality, but not hitting certain keys.
W: Fallen in love with her at first sight … erm … I mean show. Made my heart skips. Who care how she sings?!

On Rahimah:

C: The key is too low for her, but on the same time, she doesn’t hit high keys.
W: Never liked her look, never liked her voice. Sure, the vibrato was pretty good. Just not my cup of tea.

On Mathilda:

C: Powerful voice, but seems out of breath at times.
W: She is frightening. The song itself is aweful with no melody really. Please don’t kill me.

On Hady:

C: Confident singer, need to take songs out of his comfort zone, and improvise!
W: He is the dude. Love the lively performance. Made me wanna dance!

On Jay:

C: He gives contours to his songs, giving different depths to different parts. However, the music does not do him justice. I say, so far he is the best singer of the lot.
W: Dude, how did you to that?! That was fantastic! Show me the riff again please?!

On Emilee:

C: Need to learn a lot about techniques, seems to sing in a totally different key from the music.
W: I could easy cast a vote based on those boobs. Man … but I really don’t quite like her singing. Sigh.

On Joakim:

C: Weak singing, limited vocal range. If I were a judge, he won’t make it to even the top dunno what (unless other candidates are much worse?).
W: Who? Again? (Momentarily put down my magazine) He’s done?

On Nurul:

C: What an awful song to sing!
W: Oh God, my ears …

On Norman:

C: Not enough practice, problem with high keys.
W: (Put down my magazine) … Who’s next?

On Jonathan:

C: Good vocal material, commanding presence on stage, but weak in techniques.
W: I felt bad after his performance. Jon was supposed to be the “hope” of Singapore Idol. And he just not as God-like as I thought.

On Jasmine:

C: Good karaoke singer, but no star quality. Really forgettable performance.
W: Loved her since day one. A lively performance as always.

On Paul:

C: Hitting keys, but need to work on falsetto.
W: The first sentence came out perfect and wowed me. But it all went wrong from there.

VERDICT:

C: Candidates for elimination = Emilee, Joakim, Nurul or Jasmine.
W: Don’t care who get eliminated. Just don’t let it be Gayle, Jay, or Jasmine.

The contestants are now able to blog in the Singapore Idol official site. It is sort of interesting to read each of their blogs and sort of learn their real life styles. Some are pretty childish (in a positive cute way), some are pretty angst filled and choatic, and some are very properly written. If I am to simply judge on the amount of support these contestants have based on the amount of comments posted, Mathilda will be the next one out.

Jon, Paul, and Rahimah seems to have a strong fan support. I won’t be surprised if they can go far. Now, the next coming few episodes will justify the theory of how many of those voters actually vote purely based on performance or more.

There are many reasons to watch Ghost Whisperer that is currently airing in our National TV. It is a story based on a young girl who is able to see and talk to dead people. I watched the show with open mind as I did not know what to expect (what I did know was the young girl is played by Jennifer Love Lewitt). It turned out that based on just the premier episode, I would give my five stars on filming, scripting, and acting in each separate category. In the realm of TV series – movies aside – Ghost Whisperer has an element of horror (it does make my heart skipped from time to time) and has an element of strong emotion. Cynthia cried five times during the premier episode and I felt the same way too.

Now of course, I have to shamelessly say that I have been a big fan of Jennifer Love Lewitt (who has a body to die for and a face to fall in love with … duh!). Catch the series and you got to see her in all the fashionable clothes as well as all sort of pajamas.