Vincent's Roborovski Hamster

I can't help posting this photo of Vincent's Roborovski hamster... really cute!

By the way Roborovski is a breed of hamster... not the name of that hamster! I thought the picture was pretty well taken... well done Vincent!

My Hamster Winry

Nothing much to write about today so I guess I will intoduce my pet hamster Winry. I used to have 6 hamsters: 5 normal winterwhites (dwarf hamsters) and 1 syrain hamster. My first hamster, the syrain was given to me by vincent (thanks vincent!). I loved it the most but it passed away 2 mths back. Along the way 2 of my winterwhites were given away (1 died), 1 was loaned out but never came back and 1 died of natural causes at home. So I was left with Winry now.



Winry is named after the anime character Winry in Full Metal Alchemist. Anyway the Winry character is very cute and also very caring (guess only Guai Lan De knows since he lent me the dvds).



I just took her out from her cozy tank today and took some photos of her. Actually she was more scared than anything! Anyway she is so cute!

Music Review: Kelly Poon - Yi Shi De Mei Hao

As promised, music reviewer broken_egg bought the Kelly Poon "Yi Shi De Mei Hao" single as a show of support for the Channel U Superstar Grand Finalist. Earlier, I have gone to my second K-Lunch in 3 weeks at Lot One Shopping Mall. I quite like the price of the K-Lunch package with the lunch set costing from $5-8 with a drink included. The lunch was overall good (I had black pepper chicken with rice this week and chicken fried rice the last time) and you get to sing for 2.5 hrs. The downside of this is you have to wake up real early for a Sunday morning =(

*Yeah! Kelly Poon cd!*

Back to the topic… I bought the cd single for $7.90 over at Sembawang music store and was rather excited! I went back home and carefully unwrapped the cd wrapper and examined the offerings inside the jewel case… nope no tickets… but there is a voucher that enables you to get the tickets if you buy some expensive prepaid M-Cards or sign up a student plan with M1… and it is only limited to the first 75 people in WestMall M1Shop!! There is one more piece of flyer from VodaVoda (which you can safely throw away because it is totally useless)

Finally I popped in the cd into my PC… good news for those Ipod users… the cd is not copy-protected, which means you can rip the songs into mp3s and enjoy them on your portables!

*virgin play! =P*

There are only 2 songs in the cd single. The first is "Yi Shi De Mei Hao" by Kelly herself. The song was pretty good but not impressive… still this her first cd so better things will come. However when I compared the same song side by side with Angela Chang's version, I still feel Angela sang better. The second song was a group effort by the stars of Channel U superstars. I feel that the second song was produced very badly… it sounded like a school song! (you will not listen to the second song again after you heard it once)

So overall I paid $7.90 for one good (not excellent) song. Well… anyway I still support Kelly! Hope she wins in the grand finals!!

Channel U Superstars Men's and Women's Finals Update!

omg omg omg! The compeitition is really hot over this week! After this week, only one male and one female contestant will go on to the grand finals in the Indoor Stadium on the 1st of September. This week the two male contestants left are Junyang and Weilian (my fav yandao kia Derrick is out.. sad~). The two female contestants left are Kelly and Xinhui (both very good singers).

For the male finals, both Junyang and Weilian were quite lost form on Wedesday (I actually realised they are actually recording the show on Tuesday!). Junyang sang off-key for his first song "I love you" (by David Tao)... but I thought he still performed ok. He sang ok for the second song (Blue's "If you come back") also... with his own style… but it was pretty boring. I think because of his sore throat, JY couldn't put in his good technique in creating layers to the song. I thought Weilian sang pretty bad for his first song "Gu Dan Bei Ban Qiu"... why was he so breathless?... honestly I thought it was horrible... he was too nervous. For Welian's second song "Heaven knows" (by Rick Price)... he didn't sing too well also... his pronunciation was way too cheena (of course most of us are like that when we sing english songs =P). I just didn't feel the sadness and lost that the song should bring.

*hot fav Junyang!*

So round 1 and 2 in my opinion went to JY. For the third song song, they both sang the same song "Tong Hua" (by Guang Liang). JY sang well but he could have brought the song to a climax if he could add some high notes towards the end. Instead, he took the safe route and sang at the normal key... the performance was good but not spectacular. WL did not sing well for his 3rd song also... it was a bad night for him because he sang so well last week. Personally I thought both singers let us down a bit for this finals but I would still give my marks to JY for being the better singer for all 3 songs. (My whole family was all rooting for JY for the finals!)

For the female finals, Kelly sang "Hui Jia" (Shunza) for her first song. She couldn't quite handle her high notes well but overall it was good because I like her stage presence. For her second song ("What's up" by 4 Non Blondes), it was actually quite bad initially with her being off-tempo and having pronunciation problems, but her chorus saved her a bit. Her hand swinging was quite awkward also in my opinion. Xinhui did very well for both her songs "Ku Bu Chu Lai" (A-mei) and "Beautiful" (Christina Aguilera)… I think technically she did perfect on today and deservedly won the 1st and 2nd round (pts given by judges).

*Xinhui... perfect technique today*

For the 3rd song, they both sang "Yi Shi De Mei Hao" (Zhang Shao Han). I though Kelly has a voice more suited to the innocent style of the song but she still had some problems with her tempo initially… as usual saved a bit by her 2nd half (why can’t she sing well for the whole song??) Technically, Xinhui sang very well for the 3rd song… perfect~

*Kelly so pretty!!!*

When the results came out… I was pleasantly surprised Kelly won! I guess her overall image appeals to the audience more (I like her more and more over these weeks). I think she looks very cute when she sing/talk into the camera… her eyes seem to shine a bit more haha! I was sad for Xinhui and I would have been happy for her if she won. And shockingly, WL upset JY and won the men's finals. I didn't like this outcome but I was still in bliss over Kelly's shock win! =P Anyway, to show my support for Kelly, I shall use my meager 2 hours+ pay to buy her singles! (going to be my first paid album in 7 yrs!!! …omg I will be killed for this!)
I really hope Kelly will win this now the path is cleared for her to the Grand Finals! Kelly jia you!

Singapore Fireworks Festival 2005

With the huge interest in the Singapore Fireworks Festival 2005. Reporter broken_egg went personally to report on the event on the Sunday of 14th Aug. The fireworks displays were held in four sessions: 6 Aug, 8 Aug, 9 Aug and 14 Aug. Quoted from another site "some never-seen-before pyrotechnics will light the skies with specially choreographed displays by foreign and local teams". I was hoping for something spetacular... something that would make my jaw drop for the whole of the display.

*reporter looking c.o.o.l.l.y at the fireworks display*

Actually two friends of my friends, a couple, invited a very bored-at-home me to go see the fireworks. We reached the esplanade at about 7pm to watch the fireworks which will be set off at Marina South. Ok... my jaw did drop, but it was at the crowd at esplanade! However it was not so bad that we can't move around.

We quickly realised that the esplanade was not a very good location for the viewing because it was still too far from the fireworks. I still find the fireworks quite nice and truely saw some of the newer fireworks design. The fireworks display was quite short and it was over pretty soon... I was still waiting for my favourite one, the massive in-your-face fireworks that I saw the last time I was at NDP so I was left slightly disapponted. Overall, the fireworks was ok but we had a fun time joking around and playing with my camera. Mr Dan got a new chio chio handphone also on that day! (mo-to-ra-lo brand)

*due to my lousy skills, this is the best picture of the fireworks I got (really throw face)*

The best thing of that day was in fact our dinner later on at the Suntec Kenny Rogers! We were very very very hungry after the fireworks show and got a quarter-chicken meal each. We chose different side dishes and shared our side dishes, which is good because we can try more variety. And so we got: butter rice, garden pasta, or-qwee-tau (turtle beans), mashed potatoes (nice!) , sour cream pasta (nice!) and pasta in cheese and cream (nice!)

Kenny Rogers is definitely recommended to readers who needs advice on makan in Suntec city.... How come this fireworks report became a food review?!?!

*two friends who made this report possible. they requested that their identities be kept secret! =P ... cute couple heheh!*

Channel U Project Superstar Update!

The contest is getting hot hot hot! Even me, the hated armchair critic, have to admit that the last 4 contestants are really good! The two male contestants going into the male finals is Junyang (I have to brag that I know him through my nus singing club 'voices'! =P) and Weilian. (I heard him once ouside CCK mrt station, nice voice but not as good as JY in my opinion) The two female contestants into the finals are Sin Huey and Kelly!!! (I like her a lot!)

In my opinion... do not flame me! I think Weilian sang the best out of the guys but he is quite limited in the kind of songs he excel in (zero zero fast tempo dancing songs). JY has a better technique but always lack a bit of 'spark' with the audience (listening pleasure but no viewing pleasure). I am biased towards Derrick anyway...he lacks technique and definitely did not sing as well as the other two guys but he compensated that by connecting to the audience the best!(or maybe only me!... and my dad!)... Derrick is
1) cute
2) looks the best
3) yandao kia

so I was pretty heartbroken when he was kicked out~. Anyway I like his hairstyle and his cute little smile a lot! Think I will go cut for myself a similar hairstyle next time!

For the female semis, it was a no contest. Sin Huey was in a class of her own... the singing was superb. Kelly was still pretty good and pretty P.R.E.T.T.Y.!... oh man I like her hair! But her form has dropped quite a bit since her superb performance of the song "Gu Dan Ba Lei" (Lonely Ballet) three weeks back. Here is a clip from the official website of her singing "Pu Tong Peng You" (Ordinary Friends) ...Please Kelly... work harder! Silver was a sure going-out case and she sang with a losing mentality and lost her 'spark' (to zap the audience with her eyes+dimples combi).

Finally let's have a recap of one of Derrick's best performance in the compeition with his rendition of "Piano"! Visit the official Project Superstar website!

Egg Grades Explained

Some egg trivia to share with everyone... Egg grades are classified into 3 major grades. I guess most people do not know much about which quality refers to how good or bad the egg is. I, for one is not the one buying eggs (or any other grocery for that matter). Basically eggs are classified into class AA, A and B. So guys... next time check that the Seng Choon egg you ate for dinner is class AA! Here is the graphic representation of the egg grades:



*if we want to class according to university grades:
- grade AA = first class honors
- grade A = second class upper honors
- grade B = second class lower, third class and every other class you can think of!!!

Anyway for your info... grade B eggs taste the best! heheheheh! have a great day guys =)

We are Singapore... Singaporeans!

Just came back home from sending Yingying off at the Changi airport... she's flying to New York. Today, or rather yesterday (9th August) is actually Singapore's National Day. This is the day Singapore declared independence 40 years ago. Of course, many people do not think I am a patriotic kind of person... but I have to say that I do love my country although there will always be some complains here and there.

Didn't do much over the last two days also, I was still doing my tax job on monday. But I had a gruelling overnight session of majong on monday night... I had to sing some national day songs to keep myself awake haha... anyway with Mr Bao disturbing me... I did not feel too sleepy but.... I lost a lot of money.... (-_-"). Anyway it is always good to hang out with my Teck Whye gang friends... lots of crap talking and jokes as usual...

Tuesday I was resting for much of the day... but I had another majong session in the evening at X's house.

*mind u... this is X's humble abode!!*

Of course, the losing streak could not end (I don't think it is ever possible to win in X's house, not to say breaking a losing streak in his house!). Wendy was slightly more quiet today... but the level of crapiness is still up there... it was still pretty good despite me losing money haha! The music on X's mini-hifi was good also!






This is one pic I took before I rode my trusty old bike to X's house

Later in the evening, X, Wendy, Alvin and me went to Changi Village for our dinner before going to Changi Airport to send yingying off. The dinner was quite good, Alvin and me both ate char quay teow... X had some noodles which were recommended by makansutra... wendy only got some dessert. X treated us to a plate of bbq stingray (courtesy of money won from wendy and me!).. the stingray was good by the way... sob~

We met YY in the airport at half past ten... her mother, brother and his girlfriend came to send her off also. Didn't manage to take much photos... everyone was not too keen on it. Still I managed to get a photo with YY and a few more group photos!



Her mother was a bit sad that YY was leaving.. but overall the situation was more funny than sad... we were all smiling and joking =) Right before the departure gate, YY's mother hugged her and kissed her a few times on the cheek! YY was so paiseh about it but I think it was really a touching gesture~ really very very heartwarming~~ ... after more hugs with her brother and his girlfriend, she was on her way to USA!!! Hey girl... take care ok? We will meet in USA again! (I hope!)



I will end with the lyrics of a national day song as a celebration! Happy birthday to Singapore! And bon voyage to YY!

We Are Singapore

There was a time when people said
That Singapore won't make it
But we did
There was a time when troubles
Seemed too much for us to take
But we did
We built a nation
Strong and free
Reaching out together
For peace and harmony

This is my country
This is my flag, this is my future
This is my life, this is my family,
These are my friends,
We are Singapore, Singaporeans
Singapore, our homeland
It's here that we belong
All of us united
One people marching on
We've come so far together
Our common destiny
Singapore forever
A nation strong and free

We the citizens of Singapore,
Pledge ourselves as one united people
Regardless of race,
Language or religion
To build a democratic society
Based on justice and equality
So as to achieve happiness
Prosperity and progress
For our nation
Chorus:
We are Singapore
We are Singapore
We will stand together
Hear the lion roar

We are Singapore
We are Singapore
We're a nation
Strong and free forever more
(repeat chorus twice)
This is my country,
This is my flag, this is my future
This is my life, this is my family,
These are my friends,
We are Singapore, Singaporeans
We are Singapore, Singaporeans!!!

Pay up! Pay up your income tax!

Recently got a temporary job in IRAS... which in layman terms, called income tax. I was to be a clerk in the filing compliance department. Basically, my job is to answer stressed-out taxpayers' calls and advice them how best to avoid paying a fine for filing their returns (aka income tax form) late. I also have to perform simple clerical work like printing income tax forms etc. etc.

*this is what you get when you don't pay tax. For those who watched wrestling long long time ago, the guy in the white shirt is called 'IRS' the hated taxman. Kamala got the worst from him when he defaulted on his tax payment!*

Of course, being the nice guy I am, I almost always got to waive their fine payments. So please please... do NOT shout at me, abuse me, demand to speak to my superior! Just speak clearly in a nice pleading tone and you will almost be guaranteed of not having to pay for anything hehehe!

The work environment in IRAS is pretty good. Many of the staff here are malays... in fact I think there are more malays than chinese around here. So no... there is nothing exciting to 'see' around here... all tudongs haha! There is a food court in the building itself... and surprise surprise... it is right on my floor! There is no problem for us sneaking out for a coffee when we got too tired haha! The food is pretty good and cheap in the food court also.

I think IRAS treat their staff pretty well... I don't know much about their pay... but they have a really good recreation centre! They have a dedicated floor (lvl 5) for recreation... they have a table tennis table, two pool tables, a small cafe, a very well equipped gym, and a big lounge with many sofas around! We are getting into a habit of eating our lunch quickly and proceeding to the fifth floor for a nap! However, the downside of me working here is that my pay sucks... and I have to work a five-and-a-half days week.

Finally, I guess this is a good place for us to stay while searching for REAL jobs. For me, I am very patiently waiting for EDB to settle my overseas attachment program (not too patient honestly!). I do hope that my brother, mr joo and mr vin can leave this place soon (i.e. find a better, permanent job). But I guess I will enjoy this few weeks of working as the taxman!