::welcome to slow rock::

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Pulau Ubin was great fun! Went exploring every nook and cranny in the island. okay, maybe not EVERY.The trip took place on the friday one week ago. i think the most enjoyable part of this trip, and the part that gave me the most sense of accomplishment, was conquering the highest point on that off-shore island - bukit puaka. It stands at 75m. ehhh isnt that shorter than bukit timah hill??? haha yea indeed. Going up isnt though, neither was coming down. There werent any signs leading up to the top, coz the authorities didnt want any trouble, considering the fact that there werent any safety barriers up there. Had to take a hike through some forested area before we reached the peak. The path was narrow, had many branches and bushes sticking out in a sporadic order along a path which was "walked out by man"(direct translation from the chinese phrase here) Chiahong led us up along the same route he did with OBS. I led them down, but i must say that the path looked much different from when wee went up. I hadnt noticed the other paths joining ours when journeying up, but whowwww when i saw them on the way down, i sort of got a little confused. but a little common sense here and there got us to where our bikes were. haha... i thought chiahong was behind taking a video of the hike down. In the end, no video, coz he forgot. haiz... nvm... haha... what i wanted was to get the experience trekking up the hill, and down it. The feeling upon reaching the top was great man. unbelievable. you see the view from atop, and you look backat the route that took you up, and you cant help but smile and say quietly to yourself "yea i made it!". This accomplishment might be dwarfed upon mentioning the "bigshots" of mountaineering in the region, like mount ophir and such, but its great to walk away from this island with something to show for, and something that is one of the few places left in singapore for adventurers to seek some thrill at. that wasnt the only highlight of course, but it was the best of them all. here are some pics from the trip. cant upload some of them. server prob. so here're the other "some".

Entered by platinum at 7:33 AM

Sunday, December 16, 2007

BIG BIG Matches coming up tonight!!!!!! Woohoo! Football marathon maybe?

9.25pm
Liverpool vs Manchester United
Anfield
If I were to place bets with Singapore pools...
1x2 >>> Man U ($2.60)*
Total Goals >>> 3 ($3.60)*
1/2 Goal >>> Man U (+1.5 goals ; $1.11)*
Pick the Score >>> 1-2 ($9.00)*
*Returns for every dollar placed on bet. Odds taken from Singapore Pools website @ 1647hrs

11.55pm
Arsenal vs Chelski
Emirates
Prediction: 1-0

Hopefully the internet TV doesnt fail this time. Looking forward to both matches, and hoping real hard that i will have the strength to last the 4hrs marathon. Getting the champagnes ready now!!!

(green indicates a correct prediction)

Entered by platinum at 12:31 AM

Saturday, December 15, 2007

I know this is a little belated but i really, really wanna share this to everyone out there, esp christian friends. Closer friends would know how badly i did for my prelims compre paper. Yeah, my curse. Got a c5 or something. I was real worried at that time. What would happen to my L1R5? I didnt want some astronomical number, just because of one silly paper(okay maybe not "astronomical"). I went home, calculated the probability that my paper1 could salvage me, and concluded that a B3 would be a very good score for me at the end of the day. I prayed real hard about it: "God, give me a B3 for english and i will be very contented, but if its possible, an a2. But i am not asking for much." okay i admit i was a little greedy to ask for an a2. haha. I was fully prepared to settle for a b3, and i was hoping very hard that i could get one, coz both my cvompo and letter writing had to score high marks in order for it to come to fruition. Guess what! In the end, I got an a2! and it wasnt 70. Nor 71, or 72. I got a nice, beautiful number. 74.0. Friends around me likened it to a revival. Serious. REVIVAL. I rose up from nowhere. God blesses in abundance, and i really wanna thank Him for all that He has given, and all that He has planned. The a2 was enough to get me into my choice jc. Any lesser and i think i would have to "force" my way in. He knew right from the start what was in store. I know it wasnt my ability that brought me through. I knew i didnt write as well as i did during the myes. But the paper1 even bettered what i got for myes. Thank you, oh Lord. Now, one last hurdle.... The o levels!!! I pray that God you'll help me! Lift me up!

Entered by platinum at 6:58 PM

holidays are zzzzzooooming by. real fast. its just less than 3 weeks left till school reopens. dang. i hate to remind myself. sorry folks for bringing up this dreaded reminder. Gotta get it off my chest. Haha.

Okay, let's turn our frustrations on the current "price hike frenzy". Taxi fares are the lastest to go up. You know one thing about these price hikes in singapore? They defy the law of physics. They have rewritten it, in actual fact. Read this:

What goes up NEVER comes down

Geez... sounds scary. The sky wont be the limit at this rate. Maybe outer space would. However, the taxi fare adjustments arent as SCARY as some put it to be. the meter will NOT jump by a dollar every few seconds, nor will your current fare from tampines to tanah merah double, or treble as some absurd nincompoops would say.

Read the table below and do your maths(click on the link). The result will show that new taxi fares will not differ substantially from the current pricing, that is for the off-peak hours only. During the peak hours, and coupled with the prospect of traffic jams during those times, i think the wise ones will stay away from cabs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicabs_of_Singapore#Fares

Despite efforts by the authorities to make various parts of singapore more accesible via buses and mrts, this very fact will still remain. Taxis are indispensible. Think about it. With the imminent opening of the circle line, getting from tanah merah to sengkang by mrt will definitely take up less of your time as compared to the current EW-NEL line route. However, the hassle of buses and trains remains. You have got to make a total of 2 transfers, the first being at paya lebar mrt, and then at serangoon, in order to arrive at your destination. All the walking and waiting one has got to go through will be undoubtedly be frustrating, especially for those in a rush. But that will not be the end of your misery. If your ultimate destination is say, rivervale mall, woah, then you have got to consider more waiting, and walking, when you transfer to the LRT!!!

Boycott the taxis??? No way! Not even with the opening of the downtown line in 2018. Consider the amount of sweat and mental stress you gotta go through getting from one place to another on mrt and buses. This of course mainly applies to those "racing against the clock". Students like us, who have got all the time in the world wont mind the extra bit of walking and waiting (and maybe exploring) just to reach rivervale mall. (But why in the world would we want to go there anyway??? Even orchard's less of a hassle to get to). Moreover, its a flat fare of $0.40 we are talking about. Hopefully it stays this way. One thing i have gotta admit though, mrt has indeed made life much easier for students. Working adults? maybe. Rushing adults? errmmm, not so. Dont blame me for talking rich, but sometimes it makes more practical sense to hop onto a cab and sacrifice those pieces of paper residing in your wallet, just for that extra bit of comfort, convenience and yes, a peace of mind.

C'mon. Let's accept it. This is Singapore, a fine city of fine dining experiences, fine scenary, and of course fine prices. Without occasional hikes, where would all the "finess" go to. Of course i am one disgruntled singaporean whenever i hear of such price hikes. Haiz, but what to do? Singapore mah. Everyone need to tam jiat(earn a living). Taxi drivers need their ricebowls. Bakeries need theirs too. Office workers need theirs(of course from the bonuses when companies do well, and companies do well thanks to endless splurging by you-know-who). Its a cycle. And when everything goes up, we find that everything in Singapore evens out, and becomes more balanced. You pay more, I pay more, and in return we get paid more. I dont see much difference. Hopefully my foresight isnt wrong.

Entered by platinum at 2:26 PM