Monthly Archives: September 2010

Visit to Batam after XX Years

September 30, 2010 – 12:29 am

I cannot remember when I visited Batam but I just remembered that I used to board the ferry from Finger Pier Building (which is gone), there was no air con and it was really crowded. Last Saturday, I boarded the ferry from Harbourfront and it was a good one hour journey. This time round, my trip to Batam was with my wonderful group of neighbours.

Our first stop after our arrival was to purchase keropok (its prawn crackers). After that, we were supposed to go for Go Karting but due to the rain, we just have to delay that till the evening and so, it was more shopping. Personally, I thought stuff in Batam ain’t that cheap so I did not buy much too. Our lunch was Sudanese food and it was really good. The sambal was so hot that I got to drink a few cups of water. Surprisingly, the restaurant had a group photo of Singaporeans who visited them previously.

Traffic in Batam is horrendous. Its so horrible that I prefer not to take the window seat. Motorcycles were traveling in opposite directions while traffic lights actually has lights that are not working! The guide brought us to this shopping mall called Nagoya Shopping Mall to shop. The scariest thing I found about this shopping mall was a deep crack at the basement of one of the shop that we visited.

The shopping mall didn’t have anything interesting EXCEPT A&W! We were like a bunch of country pumpkins when we saw A&W. We were so excited and quickly found a spot to enjoy their root beer float.

Other than shopping, we went for a massage which I didn’t really enjoy very much. I still prefer my usual foot reflexology I go at Eastpoint Mall. After massage it was go karting, flying fox and then dinner at a seafood restaurant. Though it was a seafood restaurant, the prawns that we got were like adult shrimps. So you know how big the prawns are.

Though it was a long and tiring day, but I enjoy myself very much since its the first time I’m traveling so far with my neighbours and my 2nd overseas trip in 2 weeks. Well, I’ll be flying again soon and there will be more updates coming. Stay tuned.

Photo Credit: Jacqueline S and Charlie P

Tags Batam, HarbourFront | Comment (0)

iAppView: iChangi

September 28, 2010 – 2:19 am

Our very own Singapore Changi International Airport finally launches their iPhone App and I will say its definitely worth the wait. First, it allows you to search for the flight that you are waiting for and provides status such as “CONFIRMED” or “LANDED”. If you are lazy to search for the flight each time you log in, you have the option of saving the flight and monitor it through another section called My Flight where they will send you messages whenever there are any updates.

Wondering where to shop and dine at the airport? This app provides a directory of the shops and restaurants at all terminals (including Budget Terminal). You can search by terminal, shop or category. You can also find out what’s happening at the airport by selecting Highlights.

Personally, I find this app really useful and interactive and it helps me alot. For example, it provide almost LIVE update of status of flight details and I knew very quickly that the plane I was waiting for had landed. The best thing of all is that it is totally free. If you have not download this App, you should just do it now.

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My Girl, Ezanne @ 19 months

September 27, 2010 – 12:29 am

Ezanne turns 19 months and this time round, I personally felt that she has grown and matured quite a bit. She knows what she wants, she knows who she wants and when she wants it, it means she wants it. These days, she will quarrel with her brother and fight for her rights, well, sort of. For example, when she sees that her brother has a Thomas The Train, she will snatch it from him and if he snatches it back, she will start to shout at him.

I’m not sure if girls really closer with their Dad, but with Ezanne, I could definitely feel so. I still remember one day when I came home, open the door and heard Ezanne shout, “Dad Dad!” My heart melt…

So Ethan vomited three times overnight and we had to send him to A&E to stop the vomiting. We reached home at about 9am and that’s when I went to sleep. At 11am, Ezanne came looking for me. She tried ways to wake me up to accompany her. First she called me, seeing no response, she decided to hit me and then she scratched me. Still seeing no response, she was making all sorts of noises. She didn’t want mummy, but just daddy. I’m really heartened to see that.

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We meet again after 8 years

September 26, 2010 – 1:47 pm

After 8 years, I’ve finally met the people whom I spent 6 months with. There were 35 of us actually, but over time, guess, this is what we have left. It was nice catching up with them, getting to know what everyone were up to, though, we stayed connected through Facebook but didn’t really talk much. Its not easy to get all 35 together, but at least, some of us made it to the gathering.

Some of us stayed on, while some left for the greener pasture. Some of us were married, while some were still single or dating. Some of us were still the same in terms of size, while some grew. Nevertheless, I guess, these were the group of people who gave me one of the best memories in my life and I will cherish the friendship with them.

Photos Credit: Serene S

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Who? What? Where? Why? When? How?

September 24, 2010 – 12:40 am

These days, other than going for family outings, the only time that I meet up with my long time no see friends will be at the wedding dinner. When we meet each other, we simply have too many questions on our mind to find out how our friends are… We will still gossip about our friends and people we know, but then again our topic is mostly on children and houses.

The questions are like…

HOW many children you intend to have?
WHEN are you getting married?
WHERE will you be staying?
WHO else did you meet up with?
WHAT are you doing these days?
WHY did you want to buy your flat at Area X?

As we grow older, the topics for discussion with friends change. Our mindset change. Our thinking change. Well, that’s life, isn’t it?

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Our Mid-Autumn Festival

September 22, 2010 – 10:57 pm

It was a great opportunity to bond with the children and what better way to bring them out to the garden with their lanterns on this special occassion, Mid-Autumn Festival.

Luckily, we’ve got quite a number of lanterns for the children which were given by relatives and friends. As for the ones that I’ve bought for them, one was split into 2 while the other had no light on this special occasion. Ethan was alittle tired today and asked to go back home early and for Ezanne, she was really excited about it and wanted more. It is after all the first Mid-Autumn Festival that Ezanne walks in the garden with a lantern.

After this, I’ll be looking forward to our next Mid-Autumn Festival as we will be having Evan celebrating it with us.

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Wharney Guang Dong Hotel, I’m not going anymore…

September 22, 2010 – 9:14 pm

You might be wondering where I stayed when I was in Hong Kong recently, hmm, I stayed at Wharney Guang Dong Hotel at Wan Chai. The first reaction that I got from my friends (Singaporean and Hong Kongers) when they knew I was staying at this hotel was, “Huh? Where’s that?”

The hotel is located in the heart of the clubbing district and there are quite a number of nightclubs. When night falls, the area is pack with activities and the music gets really loud. How do I know? I was staying at Level 15 and I could still hear music at 3am every night. There were limited channels in the room (there were ABC, Fox News, Sky News and a number of local channels). The bed was pretty hard and best of all, there isn’t any free internet. I paid SGD $55 for my internet connection.

I was glad that the hotel was located between Admiralty and Wan Chai MTR Stations. For me, I chose to go to Admiralty since I felt safer walking pass the Hong Kong Police Headquarters rather than going to Wan Chai MTR where I will need to pass by the night clubs.

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Happy 2nd Birthday to my blog…

September 19, 2010 – 4:37 am

Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to my blog, Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday

This blog has turn 2 years old. This blog has had quite a significant change over the past 1 year. First, the domain name has been changed to my name (YES, I finally got it after 2 years), I’ve incorporated social media in this blog (ie; sharing of Facebook and Twitter updates) and lastly, if you’ve realised, the blog has gotten a new design (I hope you like it).

One thing I know for sure, I’m gonna see you again with the same Happy Birthday picture when it turns 3 next year.

ps: The same picture was used last year and I intend to use the same one every year.

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Integrated Social Media Solution?

September 17, 2010 – 2:38 pm

I started working on a Punggol Forum in 2006. The reason – There were too many negativities about Punggol Town and I thought there should be somewhere online to update everyone on the developments and happenings in the Town, afterall, its a young town and everyone should be quite tech savvy. The forum was then supported by a website which was designed in a news format similar to those news website.

4 years on, the internet world has changed drastically. With Facebook and Twitter, I reckon the forum cannot remain at where it was like yesterday. Today, Punggol has a website (which is not very updated anymore), forum, Facebook and Twitter for Punggol. My observation is that people who are on Facebook might not necessarily be joining the forum or neither are they following on Twitter as well. In order to capture the attention of most Punggol residents, I thought I should do an integrated social media solution.

How it works? Basically, I will sieve out important and noteworthy discussions from the forum and share it with everyone via Facebook and Twitter. By being proactive in sharing information, many others are starting to share too – it happened on Twitter and Facebook! What I’m really proud of is there isn’t any aggressive publicity on the availability of the social media but yet, we’ve got quite a good response.

Meantime, I’m taking the opportunity to announce that Punggol.org will no longer be moving towards a news site format, I will be changing it to a blog mode. This means that we will re-start from scratch with all the information and no longer be presented in the stiff and serious format. How it will look like, stay tuned. But if you’ve got any ideas or suggestions, please send it to me.

In case you are wondering how to locate these Punggol social media sites, they are here..
Punggol.org Forum – http://forum.punggol.org
Punggol 21 Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/punggol21
Punggol Latest – http://twitter.com/punggollatest

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Hong Kong = Singapore?

September 16, 2010 – 11:26 pm

The day ended earlier for me yesterday so I decided to take a train to Tsim Sha Tsui for a walk. I took a walk down Nathan Road and Canton Road to the Star Ferry Terminal. The first thing when I saw the night scene of Hong Kong, I thought, Singapore and Hong Kong is just so similar especially when Singapore hosted the 1st Youth Olympics Games. Just compare the 2 photos.

Since my last visit 3 years ago, nothing much has changed in Hong Kong. Its not like in Singapore when we see the developments of the 2 IRs. I felt so at home when I first arrived at the airport and because there isn’t much change, I took up the challenge of traveling alone (my wifey is not with me) and I feel pretty much like I’m back home. So far, I’m still find traveling isn’t much a problem.

If I’m ever coming back for the 3rd time, I guess, I will just take a train from the airport to my hotel.

I will be taking sometime to further explore Hong Kong and see if there are anymore changes. If I observe that there isn’t, I will be updating it via my twitter account with the hash tag #hknochange.