SINGAPORE SHORT STORIES

Dear Singapore Readers, how are you feeling? Enjoyed your long weekends? For me, this long weekend is neither too long nor too short and I could said that I have spent my time very wisely, reading up, doing self improvement and discovering more about my health! Yup, yesterday, outside Sheng Siong Supermarket in Bedok, I did those free Bone Mass tests by Anlene milk company and guess what, my bones are not that strong! I was a tad worried and hence gave the Anlene promoters business as I bought a medium packet of Anlene milk powder to bone up on my bones (no pun intended). Anlene milk powder contains a wealth of calcium to promote stronger bones! Wow Anlene must be happy that I am giving them free publicity on this blog of mine! Anyway, bone problems are hardly noticed by many as the cracking and deteoriation of bones develop silently and insidiously in our bodies and when we crack our bones one day, it is often too late already! Our bones are not that solid and strong as what

The following guide is just an approximation of the monthly salaries in an ultra large MNC: Technician: $1,500 Officer: $2,500 Supervisor: $3,000 Executive: $3,500 Manager: $5,000 Senior Manager: $7,000 General Manager:$10,000 Deputy Head: $13,000 Head: $15,000 Deputy Director: $17,000 Director: $20,000 Senior Direct0r: $25,000 Director-General: $30,000 Managing Director:$35,000 Group Managing Director:$42,000 Executive Director:$60,000 Chief Executive Director:$80,000 Vice President: $100,000 President: $140,000 Group President:$200,000 Deputy CEO: $250,000 CEO: $300,000 Group CEO:$500,000 Chairman: $1,000,000

With December coming up and more visitors coming to tour Singapore, I list down the list of 5 stars hotels in Singapore for the interest of international readers. Singapore's hotels do not come cheap. If possible, international tourists to Singapore can opt for no-frill hotels or budget hotel chains for a quick stay here while touring Lion City. List of Singapore 5 star hotels Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa Ascott Raffles Place Singapore Capella Singapore Hotel Conrad Hotel Centennial Singapore Crowne Plaza Hotel Changi Airport Fairmont Hotel Singapore Goodwood Park Hotel Singapore Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel Singapore Grand Hyatt Hotel Singapore Grand Park City Hall Singapore Hilton Hotel Singapore InterContinental Hotel Singapore Mandarin Oriental Hotel Singapore Marina Mandarin Singapore Marriott Hotel Singapore Meritus Mandarin Hotel Singapore Naumi Hotel Singapore Orchard Parksuites Serviced Residences Singapore Pan Pacific Orchard H

Another great film, right on the heels of blockbuster "2012" will be blasting on screens come 18 Dec 09: Avatar. I read on the newspapers today that the director of this movie, James Cameron dismissed talks that the show cost a whopping US$500 million to produce. For me, I think the show may be good only because I do not like cartoons, haha. I watch movies once in a blue moon, only those mega blockbusters like "2012"! Anyway, the movie ticket now cost $10 each in Singapore, watching movie is an expensive affair these days!

It is that time of the year (yet again) when we will usher in a brand new year in just slightly more than a month! I must tell you that one year passes like lightning! I never have the feeling that a year passes so fast when I am in my schooldays but it seems ever since I started working, time seems to just zoom past and before we know it, the end of the year will arrive! Let us trace through how we or rather I have this rapid perception of the rapid passing of time. First when January of a new year comes, this month is reserved for most of us to get used to the new year, to the crafting of new year resolutions, to wake up from that partying mood and the lingering remnants of the year before and finally to familiarize ourselves with the writing of ‘10’ rather than ‘09’ when dating a document. And once that suite of work is done, we welcome February! What does one do when it comes to February? For most of us, February is often the month when Chinese New Year is in. There will be two hol

I was appalled by an article I read in the Sunday Times on 22 Nov 09. There was a mention of a finding that a chemical Bisphenol A present in polycarbonate, a material used to make baby waterbottle, plastic containers and electrical casings contain health risks to man in the form of erectile dysfunction and other sexual problems. These chemicals could migrate from the plastic to the fluid in the container when exposed to heat in many common scenarios: e.g. in hot milk from baby containers made of such materials. Such polycarbonate materials can be identified from the Plastic Identification Code number 7 and you can look at this website to know more about this code. I have always steered away from consuming my food using plastic utensils, plates and bowls as I always believe the hot food will cause the chemicals from these soft materials to seep into the food, causing health risks. It was indeed enlightening to me to learn that strong plastic such as polycarbonates also do contain such

The other day, I blogged about what may seem to be the tallest Christmas tree in Singapore: the Christmas tree on top of Vivocity Shopping Centre (if you miss the post, just click on the label "Singapore Christmas" to read it). I would like to clarify that when it comes to the earlier post, I have ascribe that honor on Vivocity's Christmas tree as the Christmas tree is really the tallest when you count from zero metre ground level to the tip of the Christmas tree as the tree is perched on the roof of a shopping centre of several stories height, thus which other Christmas tree could beat Vivocity's Christmas tree when it comes to such a comparison of height? Vivocity's Christmas tree could be seen from hundreds of metres away from the shopping centre too! But however, when we base soley on the height of a Christmas tree (from bottom to top of the tree), two Christmas trees stand out to contend for this position: Ngee Ann City's Christmas tree as well as Orchard

Singapore's newest shopping mall, 313@Somerset will open on Christmas, 25 Dec 2009! This is certainly a great news to Singaporeans as all of us will have an additional shopping mall to explore on a public holiday! This year, Christmas Day falls on a Friday and hence this is another great thing to celebrate! With many companies having half day off on the eve of Christmas, this translates to a super long weekend, from Thursday noon all the way to Sunday for many Singaporeans! And this super long weekend will repeat in the week after Christmas with the New Year 2010! For Singaporeans who are good in leave adminstration, they may want to contemplate adding to this 'icing of the cake' by taking additional leaves of their own so as to create a mega, ultra long weekend that befit the greatest celebration of year 2009 and the ushering of year 2010! These two months, November and December will pass really fast! Let us make enjoy to the fullest these two lovely months and savor the o

Love them or hate them, fast food restaurants the likes of McDonalds, Burger King or KFCs are here to stay in Singapore and many other countries for a long time. Maybe i should not have used the word, ‘hate’ as looking at the highly profitable nature of fast food businesses, many are readily lapping up the offerings from the myriad of fast food restaurants! Those who do not like fast food restaurants, in my opinion own this feeling due to the perception that fast food are not that healthy and the prices are on the high side too. Anyway, fast food feature highly in my life during my secondary school days. These days, I consume fast food on an occasional nature. Talking about the fast food offerings in Singapore, I must say that the fast food business scene is dominated by the big 5: Mcdonalds, KFC, Burger King, Long John Silver and Pizza Hut. Out of these big 5, I usually patronize only KFC and sometimes Burger King when these restaurants give out coupons. I seldom visit fast food resta

Finally, I watched the blockbuster "2012" with my wife today. We watched the digital format of the show as the resolution was better, as explained by the sales receptionist. This movie is really worth your dollars if you have not watched the movie hiterto. The cinemas were jammed packed with audience such that only the front few seats were available to us. The duration of the show was a strong 2.5 hours of solid action! H ere the plot of the movie went: A researcher working for the White House has discovered the fact that the world will be coming to an end in 2012 when the alignment of the sun, the earth and other planets form a straight line which will cause a mass emission of positions that causes the core of the earth to subside, resulting in devastating earthquakes, gigantic tsunamis, volcanic eruptions that will beset the world. The US government classified this information as top secret and refused to tell this truth to its citizens while preparing a secret structure wh

Aviation Run 2009 will be held tomorrow 21 Nov 09 at Changi Exhibition Centre. The run is organized by Changi Airport Group to raise funds for charity. The 10 km race will commence at 830 am while the 5 km race will commence at 835 am. GOH will be Mr Raymond Lim, Minister of Transport. It may be a late time to start a race, the sun may be up, basking the runners in the sun.

I attended the Bull Charge 2009 tonight. The Bull Charge 2009 was basically the annual Bull run, which was repackaged with a new name. It was a meaningful event which combined corporate finanical executives and top hobnobs running to raise funds for a number of charities. There were quite a couple of interesting sights to behold.....which I will describe in my blog come the next few days. For now, I am going to sleep.... night!

These nights are real cold due to the incessant rain. How nice and cosy for one to cuddle on bed on such cool nights. However, as you cuddle in your blanket and enjoy these rare cold nights in Singapore, let us not forget those Singaporeans who are homeless and are now experiencing the cold and long night.... Though Singapore prides itself as a prosperous nation with 85% of our population having a roof over their heads, there is still the other side of the coin to be seen: a proportion of the population who is the homeless, the destitute and the very poor still exist. For some months, I have been observing a number of homeless folks making their temporary homes out of void decks. I always notice this scene during night when a number of old and homeless men sleep on the same public bench or stool night after night. One old Chinese man is always sound asleep on a public chair around 9pm every night while another Malay man always sit on the same seat around 10 pm, and sometimes when I wa

I was at Bishan Junction 8 shopping centre this afternoon when I faced a temptation. That temptation was loud Korean music blasting near Bishan MRT station, my temptation led me to a mini booth when a signing ceremony was unfolding! The male lead of the popular Korean TV drama "Cruel Temptation" was signing on DVDs of the Korean drama bought by fans. This Korean drama serial will be shown on Singapore TVs soon and as such I believe the rage of this drama serial has not caught on in Singapore yet. this may account for the dismal turnout at this signing ceremony. Here this is, the Korean male actor, Byun Woo Min, 44 years of age who played a cheating husand in the drama serial. I do not watch drama serials at all, thus I believed I was an alien there in the event. I just captured two shots which you see here. It was a cruel temptation for me to be tempted to come to this event only to find that the turnout for a Korean star is so dismal.. so cruel! Thus though I did not wa

In Singapore, the closet thing that would ever come resembling snow for Christmas is, without a doubt, rain. And these past few weeks, the local weather has indeed turned a bit cooler, with a sprinkling of rain on some days. Come every Christmas, the roads of every major shopping district will be decked out in a splendid style of lights and decorations. Shopping malls here are also decked out in their finest Christmas glory, with a galore of Christmas trees, Xmas programmes and decorations. Check out photos of these Christmas trees which I have taken recently: a) Wonderland style of Christmas tree in Tampines Mall b) And the Christmas tree below at the top of Vivocity is truly impressive! Perched on the roof of Vivocity shopping mall, one can see this huge Christmas tree from hundreds of metres in the vicinity of the harborfront and the seas. That is why, I believe, the Vivocity Christmas tree is undeniably the best Christmas tree in Singapore every year which you must not afford to mi

The APEC summit is currently being held in Singapore and for the past week, photos of our leaders exchanging handshakes with their international counterparts and top delegates made daily headline news. Having read a book of body languages before, I find it interesting to note the different kinds of handshakes exchanged between the leaders as different handshakes may mean different meanings. Whether the person perpetuating a particular kind of handshake does it out of ignorance, naturally or with knowledge of the intended meaning of the handshake, it is a hazy area, but handshake signals can be an interesting sight to watch especially when top leaders pose for photos of their exchange of handshakes in front of the media.

This evening, I was in a precinct in Tampines new town, running my errands, where I passed a vendor of pirated DVDs, hawking his store on two well set up wooden tables, plying his trade. A number of heartlanders were drawn to his makeshift stall as the vendor in a solid voice, loudly promoted his DVDs, I took a quick glance and saw that there were DVDs of new movie releases, selling cheaply, for example, Jack Neo "Where got ghosts" DVD was sold at $5 each. I walked off to a shop soon after quicking a quick glance. After I have settled my errands, I passed the location where the vendor was previously, this time round, his stall has two customers he did not want, two policemen have raided his stall, preparing to handcuff him, after which they stacked the DVDs into neat piles. By this time, a large crowd of heartlanders have formed around the stall watching the fate of the vendor. I took a look at the vendor, his face showed sign of resignation to being caught as he sat on the

Every Wednesday night of this month, I have been keeping up with a travel show on local channel, Channel U where host, popular Hong Kong actor Eric Tseng ventured into the royalty residence of the Sultan of Brunei and introduced to viewers the sheer wealth of the Sultan and his family! Gold has become almost part and parcel of the royalty’s accoutrements and possession. The suits of the Sultan are made of real gold! The immense wealth depicted in each episode is really overwhelming to me! A chair used by the Sultan could easily exceed millions of dollars! The wealth of the Sultan is really astronomical to a poor chap like me! Anyway, I just hope to earn a million bucks in my lifetime, that what I ask for in Singapore which has at least 66,000 people with a net liquidity of US $1 million excluding property asset. Yesterday was the last episode of the travel show and in this last episode, it was highlighted that the wealth of Brunei is shared by the Sultan with its people. The people of

The movie,many including me are highly anticipating,"2012" will make its debut come this Thursday on Singapore screen. This will be yet another blockbuster which centres around Doomsday. 12 Dec 2012 will mark the end of the Mayan calender and this date is believed to be the end of the world. This movie has its plot centred around this date. If 12 Dec 2012 is really the end of the world, then it is just slightly more than 3 years to the end of the world! And we must really live our lives to the fullest now! Anyway, this doomsday theory does not bother me as I have always lived life to the fullest, and have always perservanced against all odds and all nonsenical people. I will catch the show "2012", looking at the trailer, Doomsday can be indeed frightening. If it were to come, it will come, do not worry about it. Just two or three months ago, 8 secondary students from a local secondary school who were firm believers in doomsday theory had struck a mass suicide pact,

Dear Readers, If you are free next Saturday, do your part for charitable causes and support Metta Shine Night, a night of performance by students of Metta Welfare Association. The students of Metta Welfare Association may not be normal children but for this night, they are spending lots of time practising, just to produce a show they will be proud of and which you will enjoy. Is it not time we do our part to encourage these children and to affirm them? Details of the event as follows: Date : Saturday, 21 November 2009 Time : 7 pm Venue : ITE College East, Auditorium, 10 Simei Ave Contact: Ms Ng Zi Hui Tel: 6580 4688 / Email: events@metta.org.sg For more details, please visit this webpage .

A small girl looking at a giant Levi's shoe, accentuating the hugeness of the shoe, at Bishan Junction 8; I caught this scene last Saturday.

These few weeks, I keep listening one song which I soon grow to love and that is the song Owl City by Fireflies . If you click the link, you would be able to hear the song, unfortunately, the embed link is not available else I would have embedded it here. I am a music lover, but equally importantly to enjoying one's song is the appreciation of the meaning of the song. And here are the lyrics of the song. As I have guessed correctly just from hearing the tune of the song, this song is about a man who would love the earth to spin a little bit slower so that his childhood days will remain longer. I can really identify with this song, and no wonder I love the song so much! I mean childhood to many is really one of the best times of one's life as one does not have too much responsibilites, one need not have to worry about earning a living and supporting one's family and there is always so much to find out about the world and there seems to be endless of fun! But when we start wo

Yet another tragedy struck in our homeland right after the incident of bridegroom Vernon Leong who was found dead mysteriously at the foot of the hotel of after his Chinese Wedding Dinner. This time round, a father of two, Ng Chee Kiang, burnt his house, killing his young children Xavier Ng Wei Yi and Cheryl Ng Shi Hui before jumping off his unit on the 12th storey of his apartment and plunged to his death! His wife was away at the time of him committing this insane act and when she came back to find her house burnt and her children were dead, the wife fainted out of shock and sadness! It was learnt that the couple was not on speaking term and were arranging for divorce. I was immensely angry at what Ng has committed! How could he kill his own defenceless young children? If he were to settle some of his personal problems, he could have just shoulder the problem himself, how could he kill his own children? He was such a merciless beast! I believe Ng's act was to cause his wife to lo

On a hot Saturday afternoon, while many Singaporeans were busy spending their time on recreation: shopping or lazing around, I caught something unusual at a void deck of a flat. What those small things on the wall? On closer look, it were two houseflies. But what were they doing? The silhoulette of these insects gave me some hints as I went forward to investigate.... Yup, I inched forward slowly, not wanting to scare the couple off. And then, I caught them! The male housefly in a missionary position and the two of them was in a still position (though there must be some 'muscular motion' not visible to the untrained human eye). It is nature, every living things, be it human, animals or insects procreate and give life! Read more for REAL tips here.  

This will be the face of Singapore's next biggest and most happening place to be: the new Marina Bay district which will comprise of the new integrated resorts, the new financial centres, residential condominiums for the ultra-wealthy, new botanic gardens, new offices and shopping districts. I was there with my wife just a week ago, and the place, as you can see from the photo is still taking shape. While year after year, a new skyscraper will loom in Singapore's landscape, one must not forget that the planning of these skyscrapers and new developments may not only take into factors the physical and practical constraints, there is also an element of Fengshui (Feng Shui) or Chinese Geomancy which comes into play. One evident example where Feng Shui or Fengshui comes into play is the Singapore Flyer, the world's largest observation wheel. The management has tweaked the direction of the spinning of the wheel from one direction to the other direction (clockwise/anticlockwise se

Having visited Hong Kong, Japan and living in Singapore, I have this thought: if Hong Kong has idyllic Lantau island for domestic sight-seeing and Japan has its lovely Hokkaido for similar purposes for its residents, what is Singapore's equivalent? It is easy to arrive at an answer and that would be none other than our very own Sentosa. As a citizen of Singapore, Sentosa used to hold many beautiful memories during my childhood days with it many first places of interests such as the Pioneers of Singapore (oops, so long ago, I don't think I get the name correct) and butterflies park, just to name a few. Sentosa was not that developed yet. Fast forward a decade later, the development plans of Sentosa did go awry, I no longer enjoy Sentosa, with some very unattractive places of interest like volcanicland, its so unexciting and come to think of it, it is so ironical right? Our neighbouring countries are having those volcano problems, here we are building a fake one and aims to

What happens to the 31 year old bride groom, Vernon Leong Jun Wei? As the news of this latest unnatural and bizzare death developed, it seemed that Vernon did not jump from the 24th storey of Hilton Hotel as was believed earlier. There were 3 video camera footages which might prove otherwises for the cause of Vernon's death. The first video footage showed Vernon at the 24th storey, making his way hurriedly into the fire escape staircase. The next video footage showed Vernon at the 2nd storey which also holds some shops and the final footage showed an unconscious Vernon motionless at the ground of the hotel. Vernon was cladded casually in a T-shirt and pants and have left his hotel room while his wife was taking a shower. It seemed that he might be escaping from something or somebody or that he might be chasing after something or somebody. What did Vernon see and experience at his last moments? The police is still investigating the case. It is really a very tragical and sad

I read of the shocking news that a bridegroom, businessman Vernon Leong Jun Wei was found dead at the bottom of Hilton hotel just two or three hours after he has hosted his Chinese wedding dinner with his wife for about 100 guests. He has fallen off the balcony of his room and it was suspected that he might have fallen under the influence of alcohol. It is indeed a very sad and tragic incident and the police is currently investigating the case.

These days, I am reading a second book related to Google, it is titled "Planet Google" by Randall Stross. This book is right on the heel of the first Google book I read "What would Google do?" by Jeff Jarvis. I have always been fascinated by Google. Like it or not, Google has revolutionised the internet world with its bold ambition to organize the world's information and knowledge. In "What would Google do?", I was taken on a ride of a brief introduction of Google's philosophy before being led into the bulk of the book which devotes many chapters on how each industry in the world would look like if Google is to rule it. In this book I am currently reading, author Randall Stross explained real in depth on how Google, founded by Sergey and Page, rose from a small startup to one of the most influential, if not the most influential company in the world. Today, I read how Microsoft and Yahoo has not thought much of Google in the past. Do you know that Y

Singapore has just received its 250,o00 doses of H1N1 vaccines, with 750,000 more coming by end of the year. Each vaccine jab costs between $26 to $30 and vaccination can be carried out at the polyclinics. Yesterday, the first day, the vaccine is available to clinics, many people have started to have themselves vaccinated against H1N1. The second wave of H1N1 may be coming soon, it is good to get ourselves prepared against H1N1. For me, I am endorsing a healthy lifestyle, preferring to build up a strong immune system through exercise and diet to warn off health threats like H1N1.

What are they doing? Oh, it was just a routine performance staged at the Esplanade. These routine performances are normally free to all audience which comprises mainly of the public. That was the scene last Saturday at the Esplanade when three members of the audience gamely joined in the Malay traditional dance. Esplanade is really a place one can feel some quiet and immerse himself into music, arts and drama. I love the place though it is getting noiser more and more.

I read of this sad story of a China Girl who became involved in the flesh trade due to some unfortunate circumstances. Now, she has done something shocking, and many other men are shocked too at what this China girl did! Read what the China Girl did here !

I carried out a mini spring cleaning in the afternoon, clearing loads of documents which are now rendered of no use to me. Most of these items merit not much of an attention. M any of them played a vital role in my life, work and studies once, but they are of no use in my life now. I could have kept them for memory purpose, but imagine if I were to keep each and every old document, I would have turned my room into a museum. I just keep the more important ones which are more memorable. One item which caught my attention was this packet of transparency sheets: I had bought this packet of transparency sheets many many years ago (so long that I could not remember)! The fact that this packet of transparency sheets resided for long untouched attests to the inevitable fact that transparency sheets like these are already obsolete! These days, everyone giving a presentation uses a Microsoft Power Point presentation, gone are the days when one inks his or her presentation using those foul-smelli