Monthly Archives: August 2010

Incredible Ethan

August 28, 2010 – 1:09 pm

Ethan went for his 4 years old check up and I was surprised with what I saw. While I do take time out to read to Ethan and play some iPhone games with him, but I’ve never really tested him before. First, he went through the lazy eye test where he need to find a circle in the midst of a complicated square and triangle pattern thingy. Luckily, he pass the test, so no lazy eyes for him.

Next, he did his eye sight test. The nurse has said that for now, he has got no problem with his eyes but we got to continue to look after it, for example, not going to near to watch the TV etc.

The most amazing part of the check up was when the nurse got Ethan to draw what was on his mind. So Ethan drew a sun and himself. He said he chose to draw himself bigger than the sun cause he thought he was bigger than the sun (well, the creative thoughts of a kid). He spelt his name, though one letter was wrong, but it was still pretty good, cause he did it without anyone telling him how to spell it. Then he was asked to draw square and lines.

To this point, I’ve not or never regretted to send Ethan to school when he was 20 months. I was faced with strong objections from lots of people around me, but I believe that its good to expose him early when he is young and really happy to see him progressing well.

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It’s Italiano

August 25, 2010 – 11:56 pm

I’m never interested in Italian culture nor am I an avid Italian food lover. But when given the opportunity to try authentic Italian food with an Italian, its definitely a chance not to be missed. The location, La Forketta Gastronomia Italiana at Dempsey Hill.

The starter was clam soup. The servings was huge (personally I thought it is) and there were bonus in it, baby crabs. Just look at the presentation, I thought it was really well done. The bread was crunchy and you will definitely want to have more.

Next was Carbonara. Did you know that its called carbonara not because of the sauce but because its related to the coal miners in Italy. So the must do thing when eating the Carbonara is to eat it with black pepper. That’s how the Italians eat. The serving was just right, not too much, not too little and the sauce was great. Of course, it was even better after having some pepper on it.

After the main course, I’ve tried the Tiramisu. I’m really sorry cause the Tiramisu was so good that I only realised I’ve forgotten to take a picture after finishing it.

What’s the damage like? $30 per person for a 3 course set lunch. With the fantastic ambience, great service, I thought its worth every cent of it. Interested to try, then visit them at Blk 9 Dempsey Rd, #01-09 Dempsey Hill.

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Alcohol for lunch

August 24, 2010 – 11:31 pm

I’ve never thought I would be so blur. What I saw was just pear juice, but after 2 sips, I realised that I was drinking alcohol. Then I saw on the can, 4.5% of Alcohol. I’m not a good drinker and 4.5% might be alittle too much for me. So luckily, I’ve got a free drink.

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1000 fans and Punggol Fanpage continues to grow…

August 23, 2010 – 10:40 pm

I started Punggol 21 Fanpage on 2nd March thinking that it will be a faster way to keep residents updated on what’s happeneing in Punggol. It was meant to complement what was found in the forum, after all, there are so many information in the forum which people might miss.

Just after 6 months, Punggol 21 Fanpage has grow and now we’ve got more than 1000 fans, did 2 LIVE events and kept many residents updated on information that they need. I was asked before, how did I manage to get so many people to join since there isn’t any publicity and the answer I gave was “I don’t know”. While I have many friends who are part of this fanpage, I guess not many of them knew who the creator was. For those who have followed me through and supported me all this while, Thank You!

Well I just hope that everyone enjoy what they see, enjoy the information they get and appreciate the efforts put in. For people of Punggol, if you have not join yet, what are you waiting for? Join now.

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Unveiling the new header photos

August 22, 2010 – 11:23 pm

As I approach the 2nd Anniversary in blogsphere, I’ve decided to do some minor changes to this blog to commemorate it and after all, the children have all grown up and its time for an update. Well, I’ve not decided exactly whether I want to change the blog template cause seriously, I’ve been contemplating to change it, but seriously, I can’t find any template that I like.

Back to the topic, so after seeing the new header photos, I thought WOW, how much the children have grown. In case you have forgotten what the previous header photo was like, tata, here it is for you to see it once more!

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THE Opening Ceremony

August 21, 2010 – 1:19 pm

I always had a fear that I will not be able to attend the opening ceremony but luckily, I was able to. Personally, I thought it was once in a life time experience because you never know when the Olympic flag will be flying in Singapore again.

From the start of the ceremony, you know how much efforts were spent to make this a memorable event. Just look at the amazing lightings that complemented the entire show and how beautiful our city skyline is.

It was a proud moment when we saw the Singapore flag. At that moment, I was wondering if its really true that we are hosting the sporting event.

This is one of my favourite pictures of the fireworks display that I’ve taken. The fireworks display were fantastic.

But I guess, the most important part of ceremony was the arrival of the flame from the Merlion and the lighting up of the cauldron.

Tags Singapore 2010, SYOG | Comments (4)

Ethan with the iPad

August 17, 2010 – 1:07 am

There was night after watching the SYOG rehearsal, I brought Ethan to Kallang McDonald for a meal. While we were enjoying our food, of course he was enjoying too, we kept him occupied with the iPad. I’ve downloaded quite a number of educational apps for Ethan like iWriteWords and Fun Deluxe for him to learn writing and spelling and a very interactive Toy Story story book. There are also games like Cooking Mama to keep him occupied as well.

Watch this video to see how he entertained himself.

Tags Cooking Mama, FW Deluxe, iPad, iWriteWords | Comment (0)

When the use of social media becomes a disaster…

August 17, 2010 – 12:53 am

Facebook and Twitter are powerful tools. Its so powerful that if you manage it well, it will be able to help you to communicate with your intended crowd, but if you doesn’t it will become a disaster. And I really mean disaster. I’m a fan of several fanpages like Resorts World @ Sentosa, Starhub and many others. I will like to particularly 1 observation on how social media has really changed how things works for Starhub.

It started off really well for Starhub. Whenever there was a query on Twitter or Facebook, they would have someone answering to it. I could even remember when I mentioned on my Twitter that I won tickets to a Starhub event that they congratulated me and when my Starhub Hub-Id was down, how they managed to reset my password even when I did not provide my personal information.

When iPhone 3GS was released the last time, even when there were miscommunications between the online (Twitter and Facebook) team and their Customer Service Officers (CSO), they were well able to quickly do damage control by highlighting some of the wrong information to their CSO. As time pass, there was a constant problem faced by Starhub customers, long waiting time when calling their hotline. It became a constant complain but yet, Starhub was not able to resolve it. Then they introduced Starhub Cares where customers will leave their name and particulars and problems that they encountered. Again, some customers complained that they didn’t get any reply at all.

Things turn for the worst when iPhone 4 was released. They were practically flooded with queries and complains from confused customers. People tried calling their hotline but were not able to get through, people ask questions via Facebook but with no answers and then, more and more people started to complain how the company manages the entire iPhone 4 launch. I still remember 1 or 2 days before the launch of iPhone, there were so many negative posts that Starhub decided to make a decision. The decision was to show ONLY posts made by Starhub as the default view. You will have to select another option to view posts by others. That, I supposed was one way of trying to maintain the positive image for the company, but I thought, it might not be the right move.

While I do appreciate the use of social media to engage customers, but seriously, sometimes, companies should think of the consequences cause if it isn’t use in the right way, it might actually have an adverse impact on the company.

Tags Resorts World @ Sentosa, Starhub | Comment (0)

Honeysuckle, it sucks!

August 10, 2010 – 10:59 pm

I attended a community function on Monday and for the function, they gave out a can of honeysuckle drink to everyone. After taking a sip, I can only say that it sucks!

But after doing a mini research on Wikipedia, Honeysuckle is actually a drink which is full of nutrients. It is a type of herbs which can be used to cure cough. So if you can “tahan” weird taste, then you should just try it. A word of caution, never take the drink as the first drink of the day like me, cause it might possibly spoil your day.

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The Unexpected SYOG Rehearsal

August 9, 2010 – 12:32 am

With just less than a week to go, Singapore will be hosting the inaugural Youth Olympics Games. As a Singaporean, I’m really proud of the country hosting this sports events, since we can’t have the actual Olympics Games, having the youth edition is equally great as well.

Reading my tweets on a Saturday morning, I saw a tweet by the friendly guys from @singapore2010 and responded my interest for tickets to the rehearsals. I received their notification that they will be giving me the 2 tickets around 2pm and suddenly my plan for the evening change. I was pretty excited about the rehearsal since it will be a great opportunity for Ethan to see what an opening ceremony of a sporting event will be like.

We met the guys at around 6pm at Marina Bay Sands to collect the tickets. The guys were fantastic, instead of the 2 tickets they originally planned to give, they gave me 3 instead so that wifey was able to attend as well. They gave us 3 collar pins too!

It was a distance from Marina Bay Sands to the Double Helix Bridge as we still need to cross the bridge to The Float @ Marina Bay. But hey, along the way, Ethan saw this cute standee and took a picture with it.

For this rehearsal, I was totally unprepared but before I went, I’ve already heard that no cameras were allowed so that others will be surprised of what it has to offer on the actual ceremony itself. Since they have given me the tickets, I thought it will only be fair for me not to share much details of the show. The only thing that I will share is that I was WOW by the Singapore City Skyline. For a moment, I thought I was at Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, but when I saw UOB Building, I’m pretty sure I was in Singapore.

In case you are wondering, this was the only picture that I took during the entire show. Are you already getting excited to watch the opening ceremony?