Boxing Day

It's the day after Christmas today, boxing day.

In the morning, I went to Raffles City with my family to shop for clothes. They'll be worn during Chinese New Year, thus saving us the hassle of having to squeeze together with the crowd to shop for clothes during CNY.

Later on, we went to the M1Shop at Paragon to get my handphone changed. I find the speaker volume of my SE k500i too soft and since its already 1 year into the 2-year contract, I've the option of changing my phone for $100. The Motorola Razr V3 was on offer today, and I had to pay $198 for the phone. The phone is sleek, slim and light.

I initially wanted to get the Panasonic VS series phone, but it seemed very bulky. However, the phone doesnt come with a earpiece and data cable. Fortunately I have a spare data cable from my MP3 player, but had to spend a few hours searching for the Motorola handphone software through the net. I just got it up and working a while ago.

I later went to Toa Payoh to play pool with my Sec sch classmates. The charges were high though, at $7.60/hr as it is a public holiday today. We played for almost 4 hours. It's really exhausting to play pool for so many hours, but it was really great meeting my ex-classmates again and catching up with them. :)

Eve of Christmas eve

Tomorrow is Christmas eve and I've several programs lined up. I'll spend the morning preparing for my sortie in the late morning, and then later meet up with my friend for pool. In the evening, I'll be having dinner with my uncle and his family from Malaysia who will be in Singapore on a holiday. These programs will definitely keep me busy for the entire day tomorrow.

I've been pondering what to buy for Christmas too. We usually celebrate Christmas at one of my aunt's place, and we'll buy ourselves a present. Till now, I've not figured what to buy for Christmas. It's always easier and more fun buying presents for others, but not yourselves. =\ Many of my cousins are all younger than 10 years old, and they will almost certainly buy toys for every Christmas. I used to buy toys like RC Cars, the latest cartoon character figurines etc when I was young. Now, it's all narrowed down to stuffs like clothes, bags, computer games etc. Thus, I've been thinking for almost 3 days what computer game to buy as I already have sufficient clothes and bags. I'd really like to have games like Half-Life2:Aftermath and Stalker, but they're released only next year... So well, I'll have to quickly decide on something before Sunday.

I also have been trying to organise a class outing on Christmas eve. But only a handful of people are interested. I've sent out like 20 SMSes to everyone, and only 4 people replied. How sad is that! Several people from another group of friends went to HongKong on a college band performance trip. Thus, I can't go out with them on Christmas eve too.

My flight on Thursday was also cancelled due to rain. With the spare time left, my instructor spoke to me about my flying course. I'd definitely not be able to progress to the pilot license phase due to time constraint as I'm taking the A Levels next year. It's really a pity though, my chance to learn flying for free is gone just like that because of time constraint. A similar course in a private flying school would cost me more than $30,000. It makes me feel all the more regretful for applying for the flying course late. But well, whats done is done. I'll apply for Air Force during NS and see how it goes.



Merry Christmas everyone! :)

Trip to Malaysia

Day 1
I've just returned from a 4-day trip to Malaysia. Together with my relatives and family, we drove up to Kuala Lumpur last Saturday morning. We set out at around 6am hopefully to bypass the traffic jam, but the customs were already jammed up when we reached there. The drive to KL was about 4 hours long with a couple of breaks in between. We stayed in KL for the first night in Renaissance Hotel. The room there was very spacious and the facilities were superb! The gym was large, and they had a big swimming pool with spa and sauna facilities.
However, my father and aunt got into an argument with the duty manager. He refused to give us complimentary parking, saying that parking is charged separately at RM8 per car per day. We have gotten complimentary parking in all the hotels we have stayed at last time, like Corus Hotel, Ritz Carlton, Dorsett etc. But this hotel "stood out", haha. After 5 mins of debate, the manager still refused to give it to us. My aunt who worked in the service industry for several years, quoted many examples and reasons, and then demanded to see the director of room (DOR or so they call it). In the end, we got what we wanted. Why does a hotel which charges over RM240 per night for a room stand to gain for making guests unhappy over RM8 parking fees...
Later on, we went shopping and then had dinner at a restaurant. I just love the food in Malaysia. You don't need any "Yummy King" advertisements to differentiate the better stalls, cause all the food stalls cook great food!

Day 2
We took a taxi up to Genting Highlands, the most popular theme park and casino centre in Malaysia. We played the arcade, went bowling, played pool and shopped around. Too bad I'm still underage for the casino though.

Day 3
We went to the outdoor theme park today. I tried out 2 of only 3 roller coaster rides there. I also tried the SpaceShot ride. It's really thrilling. It brings you up about 5 storeys high, and then just freefalls downwards. The feeling of the freefall is just so cool!!! :) I didn't try out the Cockscrew twister rollercoaster ride as the queue was really long and I had to meet for dinner already. The only thrilling rides in the small Genting theme park are the SpaceShot and Cockscrew rollercoaster. The others are just a waste of time... The theme park really needs to be overhauled to attract teenagers like me. Else, it's only good for 10-year-old kids taken care by their maids, with their parents enjoying themselves in the casino which drains their wallets every second.

Day 4
We took a taxi down from Genting to KL. We then had lunch at a coffeeshop nearby. There was also a popular stall selling Siew Pao (pork puffs) and egg tarts. My aunts bought almost 100 siew paos and egg tarts, haha. A man wanted to buy a few siew pao but the stallholder told him they were sold out, lol. Later on, we drove right back to Singapore. The customs were jammed up again. We were stuck in the queue for almost 1 hour. The total customs clearance process took us about 1.5hours including the queueing up, thats really great efficiency. It'd be great if Singapore and Malaysia open up their airspace for budget airlines to operate the SG-KL route. You probably just need to pay $20 for a flight to KL from Changi Airport directly. All the tour bus companies would probably shut down, haha.

This trip to Malaysia was a really short one. We didn't have time to visit relatives in KL, a routine which we'd do if we had stayed in KL for 3 or 4 nights. But well, we'll definitely be going to KL during the next school holiday period, most probably in March.

Sortie 13, and badminton

I had my 13th sortie today. I performed much better than my previous sortie as I was much clearer about the procedures and call-outs. I did a proper go-around procedure and the instructor was happy. :D I still need a lot of work on my final approach and landings though. I'm unable to judge the proper approach path and adjust the speed as required. Once I polish that up, I think I'm good for my first solo already. :D I have 5 more flights to go, I definitely need all the practice I can get. :)

After my flight, I went to play badminton at Hougang Sports Hall with my classmates. So far for all the group gatherings, we have been having sports activities like basketball, soccer or badminton. Even if we're having a meal together, we seldom talk. I think we lack a person who can create topics to talk about out of nowhere, and get the group lively. But well, it's still fun playing sports together.

Radio Lucky Draw

I was playing computer games at around 6pm when my handphone started ringing. The callerid showed "Withheld", so I thought it'd be someone calling from a paidphone or something. The next thing I knew, it was the DJ from 95.8FM calling. She informed me that I was picked by lucky draw for a short radio game show. I can choose whether to answer the question or not. I'll win $150 if I answer correctly, and none if I do not. I'd still win $20 if I choose not to answer. As I have never tuned in to this station before, I didn't know what kind of question she was going to ask. I was hesitant about choosing whether to take the gamble. In the end, I chose to take the $20 instead. But well, it was the easiest $20 I've ever earned. I wonder how they got my number, but I'm so lucky to get picked among so many other people. :D I don't think any of my friends would have tuned into the station that time (or maybe they don't even know it existed! =S), else they would have given me a call, haha.

Anyway, I've been scheduled for a first wave flight tomorrow, yet again. It's already my forth time. I totally messed up my previous sortie, I'll definitely want to get back into form again tomorrow. :)

Sortie 12

I woke up at 6.30am, got myself ready and took a bus to the flying club. On the way there, rain started to fall. I kept thinking to myself whether or not the flight would be cancelled again like the last one did. After reaching the club, I entered the Ops room to sign in, and I saw that the Lightning Warning was till 8.50am. My flight was scheduled to be 9am. I then had a pre-flight brief with my instructor. We were only allowed to go to the aircraft at around 9.30am.

On the first take-off, I forgotten the after take-off checks and was thus scolded by the instructor. My lining up on final approach still needs lots of improvement, and my landing round-off needs work too. I also kind off switched off during the flight. I kept on forgetting to do stuffs like look-outs and checks. I've decided to spend at least 0.5hours to practice flying using the Flight Simulator software.

Anyway, I found some interesting quotes about flying from here:
--Takeoffs are optional. Landings are mandatory.
--If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger, if you pull the stick back they get smaller. (Unless you keep pulling the stick back - then they get bigger again)
--It's better to be down here wishing you were up there, than up there wishing you were down here.
--Flying is the 2nd greatest thrill known to man, Landing is the 1st! (This is so true!!!)
--Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself. (LOL!!)

Basketball and soccer

I played basketball and soccer with my friends in college today.
We met up at 11am to play basketball. The sun was scorching but we still played for about an hour or so. The heat drained lots of energy from us. We then went to Junction 8 for lunch. Initially we wanted to have pasta for lunch, but changed our minds after looking at PastaMania's menu. We settled for lunch at the food court then. Later, we went to a street soccer court nearby to play soccer for a while. The sun was still so hot. We left at around 5pm, and my forearms are slightly tanned already. :D

For the third time, I've been scheduled for a 1st wave sortie again tomorrow. I'll have to wake up at 6am in order to get there on time. I used to think that it is better to fly in the morning because it is cooler. But at around 9am, the morning sun makes it warm... Hope I can do well tomorrow. :)

Dull day

The day started with my flight being cancelled due to bad weather. I woke up especially early today to make it for the first wave of flights, and the weather dampened everything. I left the flying club shortly after the flight cancellation was confirmed. I then went to the doctor as I had a sore throat and flu. At the doctor, I had to wait for almost an hour before it was my turn. I hate getting sick and seeing the doctor because of the long queues that I have to endure before getting consultation.

I felt tired for the rest of the day because I'm ill. I slept throughout the whole afternoon and then went out with my family for dinner. I'm trying everything to surpress the sore throat by drinking lots of water, taking the medication and avoiding spicy and fried food. I hope I'll get well soon, Christmas is coming! :) And I'm going to Malaysia for holiday next week, being sick during the holiday will not help at all.

Sports in school

I played basketball and soccer with my classmates in college today. It was really fun. My Maths teacher who's in-charge of the college's basketball team, joined us for the basketball game too. I scored several hoops but my reverse layup still sucks. We then took a rest and switched to soccer. We played in the basketball court using the basketball ring support posts as goal posts. It was really tough to score as the goal post was narrow and there was the keeper standing between it. You put a tall and fat guy as keeper, the opponent can never score. Haha

We then went to Compasspoint at Sengkang for lunch. We had Burger King and then went to the library as we had nowhere else to go. But we were all worn out already, so we couldn't have gone anywhere to have more activites too. Our legs and bodies were tired and we decided to go home. I slept for about 2 hours when I reached home. It was really great workout and very fun!

I've got the whole day free tomorrow, I'm probably going to take day's rest. I'll probably be scheduled to fly on Wednesday, so tomorrow's all study and no play. :)

A long train ride and a broken bus...

I went to Wilson's house at Choa Chu Kang today where they organised a TRP gathering. Only 6 of us turned up as the rest could not make it. I took a bus from my place to Ang Mo Kio and then changed to the North-South Line and took it all the way to Choa Chu Kang. The entire journey took up about 50 mins of my time. I always wondered if there's a shorter route on Singapore's world-class transport system to get from one end of the island to the other. To my disappointment, there're currently no such methods. I used the "route planner" feature on SBSTransit's website and see what they can do about it. The planner suggested an even longer route that takes 97 mins. Woah! I suppose when the circle line is ready, that is 5 years from now, I'll be able to get myself from Hougang to Boon Lay in under 30 mins (hopefully!). Now, I'll have to stick with the long train ride...

When I reached Wilson's place, they were watching my favourite comedy series, Friends!! :D And wow, his house had a projector that flashed the image on the wall. It's probably 50" large or so. We laughed our heads off. Later, they switched to watching Spirited Away. I didn't really enjoy it as I don't like watching animes (or animated movies). I've never watched a single episode of Naruto or Slam Dunk before. We played mahjong and watched the anime at the same time. We could have bowling but Wilson said the bowling alley at his condo was fully booked... So well, we stayed in the house the whole time. It was quite enjoyable though with everyone joking and chit-chatting. We left at around 6pm and I took a train back to Ang Mo Kio and switched to a bus.

I boarded the bus, owned by Singapore's world-class cum monopoly (or duopoly if you want to consider TransIsland) transport company SBS Transit. I tapped my eZ-link card on the multi-million dollar electronic ticketing system and sat down. The next thing I knew, the bus engine failed. The driver restarted it and continued its journey. Everytime the bus slowed down or stopped at a bus-stop, the engine failed. This happened for the next 7 bus-stops when I finally alighted at my stop. This bus still has a very long journey to travel before it terminates at Changi. The driver will have to keep restarting the engine and the passengers wasting precious seconds which adds up to minutes each time the engine fails. I have noticed that many SBS Transit buses are run-down. I only occasionally see the new models of buses on the road, but thats really rare. I hope SBS will upgrade all the buses with the millions of dollars of profits they have. I'm sure with the fare hikes and the annual profit growth, SBS can do better than what they are offering now. Blerh~

Saw 2

I went to watch Saw 2 at Cineleisure with Wilson, Jiamin and JingHang yesterday. I found the movie alright with only a few parts that really made me want to cover my own eyes. I think American horror films are not as scary as Chinese or Korean ones because there're no supernatural and ghostly themes used. Saw 2 involved just normal human beings and lots of blood and gore.

Anyway, I've changed the blog template to a neater one. The previous one was in a mess. I've also removed the tag-board since it is seldom used... Just send me comments or chat with me via MSN or email at hyperx70@hotmail.com.

Here's a funny picture to share with you guys (click for a larger image):