Monday July 05, 2004 
MCWong
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MCWong
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Monday July 05, 2004 After Blackout ... Smallville gets a re-run After the Great Singapore Blackout ('ala Great Singapore Sale), the local free-to-air TV actually decided to re-run the last episode of Smallville. Why am I not particularly excited (I thought I should)? Must be the boring ending that I managed to catch as my area was the first to get electricity back. (2004-07-05 01:23:45.0) Permalink
Tuesday June 29, 2004 Something's really rare in modern Singapore. I've probably seen less than 3 blackouts in the last 10 years (at where I stay). Authority was quick to announce that it was a gas supply disruption that tripped the generators. These days, people are quick to jump to suspicion of another terrorist act. The blackout hit my place at 10:15pm SGT right when Smallville was on and was soon restored at 10:30pm, just long enough for me to miss the part on how Clark got himself strapped down and dunked into a pool of Kryptonite liquid which jolted his first memory of being put into the craft that brought him to earth.... ... Oh the blackout ... yeah, there was a blackout. At first I thought my main breaker tripped again as it did a few times. The amount of juice my appliances and gadgets draw must have been way too much, openning the envelope of my electricity bill every month is like watching a horror movie, less the entertaining value. First thought was to open the main door to let the lights from the corridor in, but it's dark outside too. Then when I look across Bishan Park seeing it's pitch dark, it struck me this one's the real deal. Having lived in a place like Manila for many years, "brownout" as it's called in Philippines, is a way of life. I rate myself much more prepared than average Singaporean, and it was quite true. Being the last person to go to sleep in the house every night, it wasn't a problem finding my way in the dark to get to a flashlight, and I know exactly where it was just for situations like this. Then it's the candles... which is not at all an essential item in a Singapore home as people don't expect blackouts, whether man or natural causes since there is no typhoon neither. Soon enough, my next door neighbor was calling out for help as she stand in pitch dark inside her unit, no flashlight, no candles, no clue! It took a while for me to dig up the bag of tea-light (the kind that's used for aroma therapy), and an old disposable lighter, lid up a few and handed a whole bunch to my next door neighbor. She was thanking us profusely and couldn't be more grateful. (2004-06-29 21:21:21.0) Permalink
Saturday June 19, 2004 A panoramic lost of direction ... What was I thinking... that was the EASTERN end of Bishan Park. Panic: brain not responding (2004-06-19 09:59:59.0) Permalink
... from my home! One of the successes of Singapore, clean and green. This is Bishan Park, stretches about 2 kilometres long, this is the western end [eastern end actually] of the park. A second success, this is the view from a public housing apartment! Generally refered to as "HDB flat", or Housing Development Board .. flat (?a very British apartment unit?). Whooopi! My shift is over and going back to my comfy flat... Boohoo... I'll be baaaaack ... again tomorrow. (2004-06-19 00:10:20.0) Permalink Comments [2]
Tuesday June 15, 2004
(2004-06-15 20:20:20.0) Permalink Comments [2]
Thursday June 10, 2004 Slingy Singapore? I prefer Kopi-C. It should be obvious enough that I'm in Singapore... duh! I have a Singapore category up there! Do you know here's Sun Asia Pacific's headquarters? Ok, big deal. Geography 101... Pull out a world map, let's start with some landmarks... Australia should be easy to find, just go "down under". Move up, the bunch of big and small islands is Indonesia. Go left and up, you find Malaysia and then Thailand. Great, you just missed Singapore... :( It's that dot somewhere there. So what's up with Singapore Sling? It's not the national drink for sure, but pubs and hotels make tons of money out of tourists who are generally told, it's a "must try". [sneaky] Singaporean drinks Tiger Beer and Kopi-O, or Coffee-black. That brought up an interesting topic, "Kopi". A mutant of transliteration of transliteration (yes twice) and somehow it is generally the only way to order the strong, dark and sometimes lethal wake-me-up from your local "Kopi-tiam" (coffee shop). "Kopi" obviously sounds like "coffee", and it is, but Singapore actually writes "Kopi" on menus. There is no word in Chinese for "coffee". So when coffee was introduced to China, the words are simply transliteration of "coffee". When a Chinese "hookien" pronounce "coffee", it became "kopi", due to dialectic accent. Good proportion of Singapore Chinese are hookien, and of course Chinese is not written in latin characters, but Singapore is English speaking, so born "Kopi". [???] Logical? So Kopi-Tiams serves Kopi, but Delifrance, StarBucks and Spinellis serves "coffee". "O" as you have guess by now, is hookien for "black". Here's a run down on the variations in case you happen to drop by one of these days: Kopi, the default configuration is coffee with condensed milk (or sweeteners), no sugar added, or needed. Kopi-O, is Kopi with sugar, no milk, no creamer. Kopi-Gau, is Kopi thick, although less water, but same volume at no extra cost. You wonder what's the catch? No catch, as long as you can drink that stuff! Kopi-C, is Kopi "silky" (I think), which means Kopi with evaporated milk and sugar. Kopi-Bing, is Kopi-on-ice, no skates or costumes. :)
Now the advanced version:
Kopi-O-Gau, you can translate this by now.
And as always, there's the exception to the rule: Kopi-Gosong, as in Kopi "plain", no sugar, no milk. The real Coffee - Blank! Ok, black; and "gosong" is Malay word for plain. How's that for a mutant menu. (2004-06-10 08:07:06.0) Permalink Comments [1] |
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This picture was taken with an old digital camera that I had for 4 years now; and what a pleasant surprise! It actually looked really good! I was on my way back from lunch and figure that it would be nice to post a picture of Sun Chai Chee office. It was a hot day (as always in Singapore), but it turned out to be a perfect day for photography.
This building used to be the Central Post Office! Yep, all mails came here! Being previously factories, the inside had unusually high ceilings for a cubicle laden office. That turn out to be REALLY nice, because the whole place look bright despite the cubicle dividers. No claustrophobia.
You are warned!
Ah! Home sweet home.
