Sunday 31 May 2009

a wish for the blues....



by far one of the easily neglected brands locally, i have little confidence that CFB can overcome their lacklustre sales in a short time....and by presenting its latest models in nothing but blue, this is surely a move that is at best lateral in strategy..... 

perhaps if one likes the busy dials, they might be tempted to take a second look...... right now there are too many tempting brands and models in the market which are fighting for the limited dollars.....

it's a TOUGH world ...... especially for watch manufactures right now......

so excited....

north korea is so happy that almost everyone is getting excited over its nuclear test and missile launches....

so why play its game...???

if no one pays any attention, they will run out of steam very soon.......

anyway, it's all about the same old story......... YAWN.....


Saturday 30 May 2009

rolex submariner 116618 and 116619 list prices

since white gold is more expensive than yellow gold, the still-quite-new rolex submariner in white gold also retails for a higher price than its yellow gold brother....

116619 rolex submariner in white gold.. S$40,840


116618 rolex submariner in yellow gold (blue/black bezel).. S$37,318




happy shopping..!!

some list prices... rolex day-date II

ok for the sake of those who are interested.... here are the list prices for the rolex day-date II watches....

218235 rolex day-date II in rose gold... S$41,362


218238 rolex day-date II in yellow gold.. S$37,840


218206 rolex day-date II in platinum.. S$69,937



happy shopping..!

save more weight.....



in case you feel there is a need to cut more weight even after missing lunch and dinner, you can put this compact and light-weight battery for the car...

isnt it CUTE.???

just remember not to run your HIGH octane stereo systems with this little battery haha...

brakes to kill for....



brakes for formula 1 cars are great to look at but they are no way designed for road cars.....

simply bcos they dun work too well at LOW temperatures ......

they need to be hot and toasty to be effective.........

Friday 29 May 2009

elongated........

till now i have only seen the mini clubman in print pictures....... 

and as i walked past a carpark this evening, i saw it for the first time......

errr........ even if you have the cash, would you buy a mini clubman..????

either you buy the mini..... or you buy a stationwagon/estate to do the job...

the mini clubman is really a weird car.....


10 hours...

gosh it all feels so different when one gets the chance to put in 10 hours of sleep.......... non-interrupted and peaceful......

and like a flat-battery charged to the full, i feel so refreshed and contented.........

alas, this cant happen every day cos one needs to work to earn a living....haha..... unless i go to bed right after dinner... but what kind of life would that be.....

just plain miserable when it's about work and sleep......

Thursday 28 May 2009

needing sleep

why is there a big difference between waking up at 0600 and 0700...???

whenever i wake up at 0600, i always feel so tired....... and if the day was busy, i would miss my lunch break/rest.......... and ended up even more tired.......

sigh..... 

Wednesday 27 May 2009

more bad news....

well well due to some unfortunate events, i need to go much earlier than usual tomorrow.....

AHHHHHHHHHH............!!

the winning choice... button and jaeger

just saw these pics from watchprosite.com..... and surely must share the good stuff with you guys......

ahh..... good taste huh??


jenson button's choice is JLC..... the extreme LAB............

Credit pic: Stefan Ciejka for " La Revue Des Montres ".

excellent pics of an marvellous timepiece.....!

damn the FLU

the woman that gave singapore the wonderful present of h1n1 has out of a sudden given thousands of people here alot of work TO DO..!!!

and ended up i was caught in the HUGE traffic jam....

damn!

tired, hungry and very FED UP..!

Tuesday 26 May 2009

checking things up...

in all it was a reasonable day at work.......... still have a lot to do but no matter how one try, there is no way to finish all of it...... so why not take one step at a time ...

instead of going home to slack, after work i went over to sin ming industrial estate to check out D2 coilovers.... 

it didnt take me long to find blk 14..... from the quality of the printed advertisements, i'd expected to see a cleaner and more professional-looking place but well, this is singapore haha..... as in workshops are seldom neat and tidy......

in the flesh (or metal), the D2 stuff looks pretty good......... with all the aluminium parts finished in purple...... the collars are well made and seem tough and durable....

so just to make things short, they have 3 versions available:

metallic pillow mount 
rubber mount
rubber coated pillow mount

according to the ppl there, D2 coilovers can be easily serviced and parts replaced....... that's surely a good thing....

well even if you add a pair of rear camber arms, it will come to less than S$2000.........

ok... just KIV for the moment..... i keep telling myself i shall not rush into any purchase now.... haha

Monday 25 May 2009

burning again...

oh my oh my what's up with the weather...???

i can feel the heat even in the aircon room...!! even at night!!.....

there seems to be no escape from the heat..... and it's driving me nuts.......

and in the evening the car feels SO HOT......... the walls feel so HOT...... ouch.. !

oh no oh no i am having a headache .......

can we have a little bit of rain please..??



a new standard?


the taiwanese are really getting very ATAS with their stuff .... look at the new products from STD....!



dun they look impressive...??? one can easily tell that the finishing is refined and polished.....

from the company URL, there wasnt a hint of its origin ..... but of cos with google and internet, it was confirmed that STD is taiwanese.......

Sunday 24 May 2009

burning...

yes! it was SO burning HOT this afternoon that after i came back from work, i took a shower and did nothing after that..........

i didnt feel like going out at all cos that means getting sweaty, sticky and stinky...... hiding at home is the best deal right now in the afternoon.....

and what i had to do was to wait till 2000 hrs for the monaco grand prix to be shown to tv...... 

the result? as widely expected, it was the jenson and brawn show haha.....

thumbs up to jenson button.......... he was flawless, simply flawless every inch of the race............ fast and smooth = sublime......

right now he is on TOP FORM....

Saturday 23 May 2009

becoming the usual

there was a time when ppl said formula 1 was boring ....... cause michael schumacher was winning and winning.....

and so begun a wave of rule changes to level the sport........ 

haha now we see history repeating itself..... 

so is jenson going to win and win and win....??

looking at the way it is developing, the season might be over very very soon...... the rest can fight for second place haha

great singapore sale....



ok... good news perhaps...

cortina is having a watch sale.......... from 29 May to 26 July 2009.....

so go on and grab something for yourself haha......

budget cap...

so the FIA wants to implement a budget cap.......... 

do you think this will work?? maybe......

i wonder what if FIFA puts a budget cap (excluding salaries etc) on football teams...... haha, that will really be something.....

then all the expensive transfer fees will disappear....? 

how many is enough....

what? another bridge to link singapore to malaysia....???

how many of these do we need....... and who's going to pay? no one else but you and me..!! and where do you think the government gets their money from? no one else but you and me!!

and i cannot imagine how much will the toll charges be...... OUCH!

instead of having another bridge, let's reclaim land to join singapore and malaysia.... so YOU and ME can just walk across.....

and why not have cable car and tunnels too...............???

new release...



did anyone go to volkswagen singapore to witness the launch of the scirocco...??

i do hope they bring the R version in..... 265 hp is a NICEEEEEEEE thing to have haha..... since the regular version starts from close to S$90,000, the R version probably will be close to S$130,000??

Thursday 21 May 2009

noooooo please...

there is one reason that has always stopped me from buying expensive alloy wheels.....

one important reason.... which is...

when others might drive your car... and then bestow kerb rash on the wheels.........!!

so if that happens, what can you do? nothing but curse and swear.......

you are not going to bash that person up right??

so... stick to cheaper options.... so that when that happens, it hurts LESS......

OUCH~ it still hurts.....

scrap it..!



nice to look at but...

if you put this on, you will simply be collecting scratches on the front lip and side skirts.....

for very steep inclines, you may even be collecting pieces of your body kit hahahahaha....

so dun waste time....... and money.......

singapore is no place for body-kitted cars with low ride height.....

buy high sell low

for the entire week, the buzzword of the week is buy high sell low... but why are they singing this aloud ...??

cos some smart ppl are teaching the ppl of singapore their shrewdest investment strategy.....haha...

losing billions of dollars is ok if WE takes a LONGGGG term view.....

ah hem.......

when i lose 10 dollars, i feel a tiny pinch....

if i lose billions of dollars, i am sure someone will KILL me....... or maybe i will KILL myself...

this is no laughing matter..... it's about BILLIONS ... not hundreds...

just waiting to happen...

when the authorities allow foreign workers to drive on the roads, what can we expect..???

should we expect basic competency? HAA..... wait till you see one in action.....

seriously i have no idea how some of these foreign workers obtain a valid driving licence..... when they do not observe lane discipline, they speed indiscriminately in their overloaded lorries/trucks and so on....

bad things are just waiting to happen........

if one is driving on the left lane, how can you hit anything on the road shoulder..???

unless the driver fell asleep, was distracted, did not observe lane discipline........... i have no idea what happened......

Wednesday 20 May 2009

more bad news..??

yeah looks like what should not be happening is still happening.... which happens to be

higher fuel prices 

and 

more WORK...! haha.....

OUCH..!

-----------------

at the moment, i am still searching for the best deals in mobile polishing......... which are the people that come to your place to clean/spruce up/groom your car.....

prices can range from S$25 to S$100.............. 

and seems like there's alot of good feedback about the S$25 service............ which is pretty amazing deal right?

Tuesday 19 May 2009

mille mille

if you visit here often, you'd know that i am a BIG richard mille fan......... and i always try to share the goodies with you guys.....

quite some time ago, i was at my regular AD and had the chance to try on a couple of classic pieces.....

one....... a richard mille rm010 in rose gold..........

for rm watches, rose gold is a good choice cos there's a alluring visual effect .... unlike titanium and white gold, rose gold is very obvious..... and has a warm tone that's very soothing..... 

i had a hard time trying to guess which piece was in titanium .... or white gold.... in the end, i got it all WRONG haha....


two........ a richard mille rm011 le mans LE in titanium.......



alas, trying is one thing......... able to afford is another............ 

pls pardon the blurry pics cos the camera-phone wasnt really that GOOD.....

starting out...

well well it's only tuesday and this is also a full working week........... gosh i feel so tired and heavy-footed.....

the only consolation? tomorrow is midweek but this is going to be a longggggggg week bcos of work......

after dinner i did my channel surfing and alas, there was nothing interesting on tv and cable......... what a boring evening haha..........

i need a break..... YESS! i need a break ..... EERRR, to monte carlo this week haha.........

Monday 18 May 2009

a dream trip...

this weekend the world of racing descents upon monaco......... one of the smallest but yet very rich places of the world.....

hmmm how i wish i have the means to make a trip there to catch the race......... it would be a dream come true..... "watching formula1 in the principality..."

thanks to malaysia and now singapore, i can get formula1 close to or at home.... but monaco is just different...... 

push or turn.....

which is better...??

to push a button or to turn the key? ... as in how to start a car.....

buttons are almost a standard feature on motorcycles but were rarely found in cars until recently......

levers are ALMOST rare on motorcycles on the other hand.....

nowadays start buttons are touted as "SPORTY" when found in cars.......... i wonder why.... perhaps most race cars come with buttons......

but if there is a start button, why is there no OFF button? ...........

weird huh haha.....

woo haa...

next to lee bee wah, i think siew kum hong is also in the running for the most unpopular figures in the local net scene.......

both are making news for the wrong reasons haha.........

anyway maybe lee bee wah should play a table tennis match with liu guodong (the former national coach)..... the loser shall eat humble pie and apologise... how about that? haha

as for siew kum hong, he's just a nobody...... seriously who nominated him as a NMP? sigh cant be bothered ....

maybe someone should nominate the feminist mentor into parliament......... that should be interesting haha

troublesome...

oh come on, it's such a headache when a product goes bad..... and the service centre is only available on weekdays during office hours...

this means that the customer has to take at least a half day vacation leave to send the item down..... and then another half day to collect.....

what a chore huh....???

a service centre should function to service customers' requirements........... not as an OFFICE....

how would you feel if the police station is open from 9 to 5 on weekdays only???

Sunday 17 May 2009

didnt turn out that way

ah i was supposed to stay home over the weekend to do some work....

well, i did stay home on sunday.... but as for work, haha i have yet to do anything....

that's very bad of me...

but it's so difficult to work at home ........ cos i am always tempted to take a nap or just idle... sometimes i just love doing nothing.....

rose gold offshore

yesterday i had the chance to try on the AP royal oak offshore in rose gold.......

bad news = the new retail price is now S$68,000..... an increase of S$4,000!! OUCH! OUCH OUCH!!

good news = still available........

feeling? well, very heavy and substantial on the wrist ...

look? classy and sporty....

but if you dun need to buy your watch from an AD, there's one at visiotime selling at S$44,900 (after discount.....)

Saturday 16 May 2009

yo man FORCE FED....!



192 hp from 1.6-litre is an amazing achievement for a road-going car.......

forget about the mini cooper s.... cos you pay so much more for less power...... 

this one is a killer, especially when it comes with a 6-speed manual gearbox...... 

but why didnt they throw in a twin-clutch semi-auto box? that will kill everything in its class...... even the uglier-than-this peugeot 207 Gti...... which is almost the same car dressed otherwise.... haha

do beware u need at least S$90 thousand for the OPC....... exciting yes and expensive too..... there's a price to pay for performance...... right?

darn missed it..!

haha ok the car service was done.... 

and guess what, i really forgot about the headlights haha.....

so after that, i went over to paya ubi to see see and look look............. and who did i meet?

our favourite ah neh friend lah........ what a coincidence cos he brought his car down for servicing 

had a good chat with him..... and seemed like he's also into the golf GTi......

good choice..!

he also asked about CSS and of cos ah mole lah....... haha....

Friday 15 May 2009

beyond 5000....

yes... time to send in the car for service and the day is SATURDAY...!!

better not to forget to inform them to align the headlights as well...... but usually i can be quite forgetful, especially nowadays.......

on the other hand, driving during peak hours during the weekdays is such a torture.... both on the way to and back from work SIGH.....

even if i have a GTR, it wouldnt make a difference when caught in a CB jam.............. SIGH SIGH...

quick sale...

pic from visiotime.com

wow visiotime just sold one of these monsters royal oak offshore survivor chronograph.............. hee..... and their last posted price was about S$67,700.....

but even i have the money, i dun think it will fit......... cos the watch is TOO big for my puny wrist... it's a case of mis-match for an interested owner and timepiece haha

no matter what, this is still VERY MASSIVE and AWE-INSPIRING...... however, between this and the carbon-cased team alinghi, which will you choose???

Thursday 14 May 2009

sleek in black



someone posted this in a car forum.... and i was thinking, well it's pretty cool...... sleek and mysterious, as black always is......

anyway matt and semi-matt finishing are in....... and i dun really gloss and chrome.....

bored and crap...........

ah when one doesnt feel like doing anything, it gets worse when more things are simply coming your way...... especially when they are not yours in the first place....

OUCH..!!

Wednesday 13 May 2009

dun whine...

well the fact was jenson button was as fast as rubens during the middle stint of the race....... if only barrichello was able to maintain the pace he was in his first stint, a 3-stop strategy can win the race.....

he can blame only himself...... who else..... right?

what a first.....



a world's first.... and why didnt anyone make one like this............ which is a automatic mechanical watch with automatic alarm winding..!!?? 

in the past, we have automatic alarm watches but owners still had to wind the alarm manually....... and we seemed resigned to the fact it couldnt be done? 

someone must have thought of it..... and someone must have tried .... but until now, there was none.......

so with a new automatic twin-barrel mechanical movement, vulcain has given us a world's first....... automatic winding for both time and alarm.........

isnt it wonderful.......????

it simply means that owners can wear the watch on their wrist.......... and the wrist movements will power both the watch and alarm...

BRAVO..!

Tuesday 12 May 2009

rose gold and abit of red....



there isnt much difference between a "normal" rm011 in rose gold and the americas version...... one will be hard-pressed to spot the changes......

except for the red surround on the winding crown and also the red luminova on the hands, i think you could have missed it.......

it's still a VERY attractive automatic chronograph and if you have seen a rose gold rm011 in the flesh, you will be impresssed cos it's such a monster of a watch....... SO thick and SO muscular.....

well, the "normal" version retails for S$130,465.... and are in the stores now....

alas.... not today...

alas! by the time i reached the ERP gantry, it was 1802 hrs...... and there goes my 50 cents.... haha....

was hurt by 2 factors...

one, my colleague was late to take over me..... and so i left the office at 1842 hrs....

second, the traffic was exceedingly bad......... no idea why though.....

too bad.... i should have taken the PIE route......

even this morning i found it weird..... cos the traffic was so heavy even though i left home at 0705 hrs..... 

HUMPH.!

Monday 11 May 2009

worth the salt..... and dollars.... tudor chronograph


photo by visiotime.com

ok.... the list price is S$3578 and after discounting to S$2820, this must be a great steel, oops steal i mean, for an automatic chronograph watch made in swizterland.......

for less than 3 thousand dollars, you get ALMOST rolex quality (well, tudor is owned by rolex after all) and i have to admit, the new range of tudor watches are looking pretty good.... 

if you are not that AVANT GARDE type of consumers, then maybe tudor will appeal to your tastes and senses.....

whew.....

on the way back home, i was 3 mins from the ERP gantry..... distance was approximately 500 metres.... and out of a sudden, the traffic slowed to a crawl....

oh no i thought, an accident? and so near the gantry??????

as i approached, i saw something on the fast lane and like everyone else, i switched lanes........ 

fortunately i managed to cross the gantry with 2 mins to spare.... WHEW....

however there was another accident on benjamin sheares bridge........ but i went past in no time cause the jam has yet to form up......

WHEW WHEW...!

Sunday 10 May 2009

love cartier



wow if you can scoop S$1030 for this cartier love bracelet this year then please do so..... especially when 10% of sale proceeds go to charity.....

not only that, you get to own this beautiful piece ...... i just hope the white silk cord stays clean..... or i hope it should be easily cleaned......

will be on sale on 11 june 09 at cartier boutiques only......

a 100k question....

a mazda 6 2.o r sedan sells for S$100,988.............. are they crazy or what...???

cos for the same money, you can buy a 

honda civic type R (parallel import)...!.... 225 over 149 hp....!!....

or

renault clio f1 team r27 ........ 200 hp....

or

volkswagen golf gti (parallel import)............ 200 hp...

so will you still choose a mazda 6?

a joke joke

seems like ferrari is fast becoming the laughing stock of formula1.....

from misjudging the time sheets (drivers missing out the next qualifying session) to bad tactical decisions (remember raikkonen putting on rain tires even before the showers arrived?) to wrong fuel level?

and not to forget last year's bad calls and boo-boos.....

what else can they do......? 

well we have many more races to find out..... i hope they learned their lessons....

go go come on..!

in a very short while we will get to know if ferrari is indeed back.....

with a new aerodynamic package and more improvements for the F60, both scarlet cars did look so much better during qualifying yesterday.... pity that raikkonen was kept in the garage and thus out did not even manage to get to Q2 ......

the brawns and red bulls are still pretty fast but if massa can stay out longer during the first stint, there's a good chance for a podium finish....

nowadays there is less guesswork involved as the FIA release the car weights after each qualifying session...... we can all try to be a race engineer during the weekend...... haha....

go massa go!......

safe choice...


i think this will sell pretty well for tag...... the design is safe and if the price is reasonable, surely it will appeal to tag fans......

an interesting choice is to have the date/cyclops at 9 o'clock.......... maybe they just wanna be different that's all......

Saturday 9 May 2009

stones galore!


can someone tell me that these cannot be true..?????



just too many diamonds ........ TOO MANY TOO MANY.......

if only more...

if volkswagen can squeeze 280 to 300 hp from its 2-litre engine, that will really be a wake-up call for the japanese......

right now both the evo x and the sti make 300 hp..... and the latest golf gti makes 211 bhp..... between 211 and 300, there is still a significant gap...... 

although the interim golf v50 makes close to 250 hp, the premium is perhaps too much for customers to come queueing for it....

moreover, the golf is still FWD....... and at the very limits of traction, AWD/4WD is still very much a strength.......

but i do understand the DSG is a potent weapon....... and coupled with auto-blip throttle and spanking new adaptive electronic damping, never never under-estimate the golf ......

ordinary...



this is seriously plain and ordinary....... 

especially for the japanese movement cased within....

reflection

sometimes i take the opportunity to ask......

for what purpose am i in this world for..???

life i think is mostly suffering and pain......

and most of times, are these self-inflicted or caused by other people or events........?

i have no answers at all.....

Wednesday 6 May 2009

weird body...



somehow i just find the rear lip weird............

damn

damn that white nissan sylphy .... 

the one on PIE towards changi airport at about 1810 to 1830 hrs ....... from old police academy all the way till eunos.....

damn the road hogger............

if you need 10 car lengths between you and the car ahead, just take public transport.....

damn....

back

i was away for a few days..... 

and was having a good break from work and blogging....

and for the past few days, the world has been pretty much peaceful and quiet.....

save for that cat fight which fortunately is history....

what a bore...... 

Saturday 2 May 2009

lose out..!

yes the htc diamond 2 is out today.....

and after comparing the offers from the 3 telcos, the verdict is to go for singtel....

cos they are giving out a 8gb card and a 4gb thumbdrive with the smartphone.... while the rest are offering a 2gb card............ again m1 is the miser here.....


beware.... or aware or beware the aware....

today is the date for the biggest catfight in singapore history.....

the women vs the women....

haha..... during this time when we face financial ruins and the world might catch a FLU, these women can still find time to catfight....

bravo!

Friday 1 May 2009

finally to cut the weight

finally i did what i'd always wanted to do.... that is i removed the spare tire from the car....

damn that's really a heavy piece of item.... which is something we take for granted.... of cos till we need it...

to mitigate the risks of removal, i bought a 12v air compressor..... and will be getting a tire repair kit....

hopefully i will not need all this......

you can do this to cut weight from your car too......

new ross watches.....

over at timezone.com, there's a new bell & ross forum....

and there are photos of more than a couple of nice watches being posted....

these 2 are the more special ones.....

firstly the bathroom weighing scale....


and the BR-01 heritage...... isnt that vintage looking strap cool..???

more editions from audemars LAVA offshore....

ok just go to know there's going to be another limited edition of 100 pieces of AP ROO watches....

LAVA is the name..... and will be specially made for local retailer The Hour Glass...... total = 100 pieces no more and no less.....

sneak news are:

PVD black case
white gold screws

and about S$38,800............. time to book yours today!!!

before stocks run out.....

fever?

just for the sake of monitoring... i decided to take my own temperature with a braun ear thermometer...

ok right ear is 36.4 and left right 36.5 degree C....

yes! i am fever-free for now.....

too complicated.....

everything is getting too complicated for their own good when you observe what is happening with formula1....

you'd got KERS, no KERS, double-deck diffusors, new budget cap for next year, increase in minimum weight...... and all these changes.....

so every year the rules change..... that is bad...... 

imagine in a country the law changes every year.... or in football the rules change every season???

that can only mean one thing = CHAOS...!

rules must be transparent and be given time to phase in............ it cannot be change that quickly just to institute a revolution.......

may day....

things are a little slow on the 1st day of may....

perhaps the risk of facing a pandemic is like a grey cloud looming over the horizon.... but no matter what, life goes on..... 

when one gotta go, you gotta go.... other than that, one lives on right? there are still cars to admire and new watches to buy.....

many a times, you'd heard of the saying "let the watch comes to you".... rather than have you chasing after a sought-after piece...... so when the opportunity strikes, you'd better grab it.....

and i did..... thanks for a ex-classmate of mine back from secondary school......

although there is an alert orange out there in singapore, let's not stay home and rot.....

go out and have fun.....