What talk?

When a politician tell others not to talk about politics, it must be
quite bewildering for everyone else to understand....

So what's the catch?

No idea at all....

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Keeping up

Despite the afternoon showers, still managed time & space to squeeze
in a quick jog of about 3.5 km.....

Yeah!! Keep it up...!! All for the sake of trimming the tummy!!

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Fast move...

After the mayhem at albert park, the circus move on to sepang
international circuit, where they call it home of motorsports...

I can't wait at all for the action to start.... Cos there's always a
risk of rainstorm during the race....

As always, rain = mayhem.....

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Goon

One person wrote to the papers suggesting that motor insurance be made
optional... She carried on to "suggest" that she's a safe driver cos
she kept on emphasising other groups which she thinks is unsafe (to
her)...

Pls lah go read up why motor insurance is compulsory... Dunno anything
wanna talk big...

Obviously dunno about what is third party risk & liabilities...!!!

Never was comprehensive coverage compulsory.....

Goon idea....

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one hit wonder....

during the "good" old days of high-high COE prices, stories of buyers who were "pressured" to top up where often heard...... now that the rolling good times are back, such incidents are creeping up ....

i can tell people feel let down when they knew that their dealer did not submit any bid for them for many weeks.......... well they surely did not realise that some dealers have a longggggggggg order list and they usually bid their time to secure COEs and deliver the cars .......

of cos there are dealers who are SO confident of themselves to think they can secure bids at one hit....... and when that does not happen, they tell you "so sorry" and ask the customer to top up....... SO EASY huh....

ever since day one, dealers have sold cars and COE as a package..... and many people are making good money from the "package" prices they are offering to customers.......... it's time to cut the bastard relationship.............

cars are cars.... COEs are COEs.....

at the end of the day, if we eliminate all dealers from the bidding process, the likelihood of getting sane COE prices is higher....................

Hot buttons

In this modern where new viruses & diseases are plentiful, public
amenities is the best avenue to transmit harmful particles....

Things like ATM machine buttons, lift buttons, door knobs etc are
extremely & heavily infested .... So beware!!!

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Left to Market forces?

What nonsense? Someone said: COE system left to Market forces?

My memory still serves me well & I clearly remember that many
motorcycle COEs were converted to car COEs.....

That is a clear example of interfering with market conditions......

What nonsense!!!

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puppet on the wall....

it's been far too long...

and i seriously hope they can bring down the illegitimate prime minister.......

most importantly, the hidden hands must be brought to justice ......

one puppet can be easily replaced by another....

so the key thing is to go after the hidden hands......

 

Brown bars

Brunch for today: instant coffee & chocolates from marks & spencer...
Very rich & creamy...

Water wet

Nature has a way of humbling even the greatest man....

Especially when rain is thrown onto a f1 race.....

And even the most intricate plan & strategy fall when confronted with
the will of nature...

One cannot escape from destiny....

If it's yours, it will come to you...

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Different issues...

What's the problem?

If one takes a step back & analyse it, it's obvious that there is no
shortage of carpark lots... Rather too many cars everywhere is
creating a mayhem....

Some people have been saying for years: the car population is growing
way too fast.... But LTA refused to listen... Their old formula was
too slow too cumbersome to adjust to actual trends....

Now? A drastic review will shrink the COE supply drastically & push
prices up & up...

So those households that own more than 1 car add to the problem

Those vampire cars that cannot move in daylight without a permit also
add to the problem....

Since the issue came about cos of LTA policies, maybe they should help
HDB & residents to overcome the problem...

Maybe the current carpark charges are too low? Maybe the carparks
should be physically restricted to season ticket holders after dark?
How about paying more for a reserved lot marked with your registration
number?

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More juice...

Yes yes I need hey about 30 hp... When can it get my 30 hp? Haha....

By then I may have to think of getting more grip.... That can be
solved with better rubber as the suspension has been sorted out....

Right now I have about 16,000 km on the federal 595.... Another 10,000
will be just right.....

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Value keeping

For most things, their value depreciate substantially when production
cycle ends....

When it comes to watches, it may not come true.... Some models become
more sought after when they are no longer available ....

One needs to pay attention to know which are the ones that deserve the
value appreciation...

The more one knows the better one can track the market....

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Loons

When given a chance to build from scratch, they chose a circuit design
that cannot hold a f1 race....

Loons...

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up and up....

ok lah ok lah....

everyone knows the trick....

somewhere a certain place will be closed for upgrading.....

and thereafter is open for business after several months....

then there is always no choice but to up the rental......

and of cos the store owners will increase the prices....

finally you and i will all suffer because we need to pay more and more.....

it's a never ending story....

there will be part 2 and 3 and so on......

For the ears

The first cd for tonight's listening is from 小虎队..... Which is
widely considered to be the original, influential & successful boy
band in Taiwan ....

Never felt more nostagia to listen to music that one grew up with
during school days..... Ahhhhhh...

Low or high.....

After reading about a piece on motor insurance, i think that a combo
of a 31 year-old driver in a WRX is hardly considered as low risk....

U want to drive a high performance turbo-charged car? You have to pay
a price for it....

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rising and rising....

what is worth the $42,001..????

aha this is plain ridiculous........ and that can only be the work of people who stops at nothing to get their supply of COE....

i find it laughable when dealers who were interviewed said they were "surprised" by the latest results............... they are the people who play the market and now they are "surprised".........  maybe they didnt relise that their aggressive bidding to beat the shrinking supply has hit themselves hard.......

if you follow the trends for COE bidding on a regular basis, you will notice that there will always be a furious last 10-15 mins of bidding........ and who else can that be.....??? it can remain at $1 for a lonnnnggggggg period until the very very end........ and then tada, the final figure becomes "regular".....

in the long term, fringe buyers who sit on the fence waiting for a cheap deal will be forced out ...... and by that time, even buying a off-peak car will not make any sense as the $17,000 rebate is not sufficient to offset the high prices....

so what is a fair price...???

judging from past experience, most people are comfortable with a figure which is less than $20,000................ anything more = wait out.........

fortunately i got mine at $600++ about a year ago........

shopping list

can you think of anything that you are dying to buy and own..???

a new bag? new pair of jeans? some interesting gadgets? a new TV or new pair of loudspeakers??

for the past weeks when i happened to be browsing at shopping malls, i went home empty handed...... perhaps bcos i can no longer afford the things i want.....

that is surely a big problem as the targets are getting further.....

i cant afford a car that i want now...... the type R is expensive, the golf is expensive, the evo x is more expensive, the golf R is even more expensive....... and let's not even talk about a lotus or GTR....

i cant afford the loudspeakers i want now...... the sophia 2 is not cheap while the sasha W/P must be even dearer..... maybe a pair from the usher dancer series is a more realistic acquisition..... on the other hand, i am very satisfied with the polk audio LSi-15 so i shouldnt rock the boat by buying new loudspeakers..... at the moment i am quite contented with upgrading the cables, especially acrolink cables....

i cant afford the watch i want now....... so maybe i seriously need to stop buying .... if not the next one may burst the bank account......

anyway it's good to have targets...... as to whether they are achievable or not, that is a worry for another day.......

Snore

I was resting after lunch at my usual rest area...

Halfway through I was awaken by a snore... Came from someone beside
me....

What a "good" timing!! There goes my precious nap....

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How about used...?

My first bike was a used LC125.... Not even 2nd hand

When I got my class 2a licence, I switched to a eliminator 400...
Which was used as well....

Since then I have only bought new vehicles.... Maybe I just prefer to
buy them brand new....

How about you? Are you ok with preowned cars & bikes?

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Going off...

Over at raffles hotel arcade, the exodus has begun....

Samsonite, Vertu, Swarozki have all moved out...

Very soon Louis Vuitton, Breguet and maybe JLC & Blancpain may do so...

Soon it will be a ghost town....

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Out in the open..

This afternoon when I walked past Kee Hing Hung, I saw the milgauss
GV, deepsea, submariner LV and other popular models in one of the
display windows.....

Hmm the Market must be very soft at the moment...

Maybe the latest round of price increase has hurt rolex quite abit...
Maybe the confidence to buy has yet to return...

But I am sure everything will be fine when companies start paying
generous bonuses again....

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No kick

SIHH had said goodbye & Basel has come and will be gone in days....

Many new watches have been launched and shown to the world...

Fortunately or unfortunately, I have not been moved....

End result = save money!!

Yes!!

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When is a good time?

When it was blazing hot, it's not cool to go out with streaks of
perspiration on one's face...

On a rainy day, one might get drenched...

Is there a good time to go out?

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Big fine!!

After punishing people who fed monkeys with big fines, the problem
came under control....

Nowadays pigeons are becoming another problem, so maybe the
authorities have to up the fines as well..

Too bad no one eats these birds ...

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DDD....

although i could be among the minority but still i am going to say it.

i am not a fan of 3d movies...... in fact, they are not 3d at all.....

until the technology improves, i remain sceptical of its merits..... and i find that 3d movies make me feel abit sick.......

so what's wrong with 2d...??? movies look great in 2d .... and still photography looks great in 2d.....

one fact is quite obvious: movies make more money from 3d.......

for the moment, i am just going to stick with the conventional ....

Side swipe

On the way back home, an unsecured item in the rear seat flew from the
left to the right while I was going through changi flyover.....

This reminded me of once when my friend was thrown from one side to
the other .....

Errrr forgot to put on the seat belt???

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For sale

Ok just sell whatever u wish so that one can earn a profit...

So long it's legal, no one can dictate what one can or cannot sell...

As to whether one doesn't like to walk past this or that store, that
remains a personal problem... Just because one doesn't like does not
mean a particular store can't be in a Market....

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half filled.....

The aircon drainage pipe is not doing it's job… and when water started
dripping last night, I put a plastic container to catch the droplets…

In the morning, it's almost half full....!! Ridiculous....!!

just follow who..??

what do certain people keep insisting that celebrities are role models..???

after all they are just like us, flesh and blood....... and what makes them better than you and me??

i dun expect them to stay on high moral grounds.......

and i cant be bothered.....

no good no good....

just as expected, the refuelling ban has a created a new type of racing:

procession racing........... as in just follow behind and drive for approximately 90 mins, one lap at a lap...........

no more strategy is required as it's mostly about burning away the fuel lap by lap.......

compared to previous seasons whereby teams hold their cards close to the chest, everyone at the start is fueled to the max.............. you'll need the 250 litres to last you the race distance.....

if not for the loss of power suffered by SV, there wont be any much of a drama at the head of the pack...............

from what i see, this is not a good development for the sport......

Very full

With an estimated 250 litres of high octane fuel onboard, every F1 car
on the starting grid today is almost like fuel truck…

And there is no need to second guess the fuel strategy anymore cos
every car is filled to the brim…

Will this result in better racing? Well we'll know in a few hours' time

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Still alive

When Ferrari signed FA, many people said that FM will "murdered" by
the 2-time world champion…

Well for the moment, everything is so far so good…

SV 1st
FM 2nd
FA 3rd

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Croco croco

Did u read urban this morning? Did you see the bright blue leather
tote bag from BV???

Very delicious but also very expensive @ $47,720!!!

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more trouble....

more trouble could be in the way....

if someone comes forward to report to the authorities allegations of sexual harrassment, then jack neo could be the subject of an investigation..........

OUCH!

 

going home...

on the way back home yesterday, i saw a scarlet f430 right outside CHIJ katong convent.....

and was wondering which kid is so "fortunate" to get to go home in a f430..........

some ppl are just more blessed in certain ways......

closing shop....

oohhhh....

ralliart is shutting down their business operations.....

well no more racing means no more business......

bye bye to ralliart...!!

and what will happen to outlets like the ralliart pit.??

will they be hanging around?

Switching

Jack Neo was dropped by Mitsubishi…

Now Toyota should sign him up to promote the alphard: a vehicle for
trysts in the wild… proven effective & very spacious haha

Lose something gain something …

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Not enough singtel!

After the mio TV outage, singtel is giving 72 hours of free viewing
for all its broadcast channels…

Oh come on where's the sincerity?

They should offer bill rebates! What's the point for free viewing when
not every customer can benefit…

Pui!!

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water...

finally!!! we have rain...!!

but on the other hand, many ppl are late for work bcos of the rain.......

haha...... there are always 2 sides to a situation......

Tick tock

Do u know what makes your life tick? What makes your life interesting?
What makes your life meaningful?

Occasionally I thought I knew but something will always happen to put
me in place to where I belong…

It's like lost & found oops!!

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Left or right?

Life is a storyboard… sometimes u think u might know the ending but
very often u don't

When everything is smooth going u may think u r on top of the world…
but danger could be lurking & ever ready to hit u… u could be lying
flat on your tummy: beaten

Likewise dun throw in the towel even though everything seems hopeless
as someone or something might relent and let u off the hook…

To know the ending u have to finish the book: there is no shortcut…

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tiger's roar...

singapore's version of tiger woods, jack neo, is still in the news...... and one can easily tell the difference in intensity of coverage by the chinese vs english press.........

traditionally the chinese press are more inclined to go for juicer news to satisfy their readers........ one prime example: it's headline news for the chinese tabloids!! while the straits times carried only a passing mention.....

now reading about tiger woods is one thing cos the US of A is no doubt thousands of kilometres away..... it's simply fodder for gossip but when things happen in singapore, the kaypo mentality will kick in....... suddenly everyone want a bit of the latest ........

if you happen to read the comments about jack's fling (especially those on the internet forums), you cant help it but be amused....... one particular bit: many ppl commented that the "model" was hardly of catwalk material but you can judge for yourself......

so will jack neo do a tiger woods's style of public apology........??

we'll see.......

i have a right...

i am not asking for the sky. i only wish for peace and quiet in my home......

and that's not too much to ask for .....who would wanna a dreadful home to go back to...... right?

it must have been too long and i cant remember when it started...... birds were allowed to "invade" my home in many forms and sizes ......

they scream like nobody's business for no good reasons........ they shed feathers as and when they like...... they scratch the beautiful solid rosewood furniture..... they are brought into the kitchen, dining area and living room often even when food is nearby..!!!

feathers have been found in my room! .... in the toilet...!! and in fact most corners of the house......

most important they have 1 thing in common: THEY ARE VERY NOISY AND VERY IRRITATING...!!!

i want to have breakfast and coffee in peace...

i want to have lunch in peace...

i want to have dinner in peace....

i want to read newspapers in peace....

when i cant enjoy these mundane but important moments, dun blame me for what i do cos i have been enduring ALL THIS WHILE....

there's a limit to what i can endure......

can u can we...

can "sheer ignorance" be used as a defence?

well on rare occasions it can.... as illustrated by one particular public prosecutor from a neighbouring country recently.......

while there is no dispute with the discretionary powers of public prosecutors, the general public has a right to draw its own conclusions.......

sometimes one cant help but lament the examples of selective prosecution.........

making a statement with bmw

i first saw this at autoblog.com.....

some of you might have seen it but some may not...... anyway no harm watching it again.....

pretty cool with what they did in the end.... and i think the bike though nice, still does not match a ducati in the drool factor.....

Mio mio!!

Let me remind ourselves...

Singtel needs to fulfill its promise of connecting up the island with mio tv when the new BPL season kicks off...

If not they should shove the mio tv advertisements down their throat...

sent via sony x1

patience required...

owners of the oyaide mtb-6 knows how good this little AC distributor is...... and i think most units stay with their satisfied owners for a good time.....

occasionally one might see WTB notices in internet forums seeking to buy an used oyaide mtb-6.....

well i advise these people to have patience as these are rarely available used......

meanwhile if you cant wait, you can always purchase a brand new piece from either x audio or audio basic....

so easy ....

when the authorities put in new regulations to differentiate between citizens, PR and others, what they do is quite predictable...

they usually add costs and expenses for PR and others..... but they seldom seldom ever cut the costs for citizens.....

so it's a LPPL situation......

bad match....

ah read this up... panerai and ferrari could be splitting up....

http://www.luxist.com/2010/03/04/panerai-and-ferrari-officially-break-up/

i have always maintained that these ferrari-branded watches are hopeless.......

and 5 years is indeed a long time for them to realise this folly.....

Skewed 2

Ok I found a suitable wall to check the headlights alignment...

It seems ok at 10 m... So I should leave it alone...?

sent via sony x1

skewed....

from day 1, the headlights alignment was not even... however the misalignment was mild and hardly noticeable; which is why i left it alone.....

during the first service, i requested for a headlight adjustment but i am quite sure they did nothing.... or so i thought .... but the result wasnt to my satisfaction......

maybe it was intentional for cars to have the right beam at a lower position than the left to avoid blinding on-coming vehicles..... maybe maybe

anyway i forgot to remind them at the 2nd service...... and also the 3rd service ....haha

after the recent service (4th service at 20,000 km), the alignment became more of an issue......... i am not sure what they did or did not do...... but it became worse.....

last night i tried to DIY but i realised that it wasnt a straightforward job...... even though it's easy to get the necessary information for the adjustment from the various lancer forums but in real life, it wasnt as easy as described.....

firstly, i am not sure if a philips head screwdriver is the right tool for the job....... after twisting the adjustment knob, i noticed that the screwdriver could be stripping the internal gears...... i think i might even have damaged the gears......

in addition, the rate of adjustment is pretty gradual...... i did not observe any changes at first and it took quite a few good turns before the beam dipped......

so after getting the headlights aligned at about 2 m, i noted that the alignment is very different at, let's say, 15 m...... ahhhh more adjustment is needed......

now i need more time to get it done.......

Sure or not?

Someone says higher productivity leads to higher wages...

Surely not cos I know of a good number of people who is of no & low productivity but collecting high wages...

Looks like no productivity is of good career value

sent via sony x1

from whose pocket

question: from whom do you claim against for hitting a deer..??? claim from own motoring insurance policy??

if that's the case, OUCH..!!

poor deer and poor motorist........ one lost its life and the other $$$$$$$

anyway hitting cows is quite a common occurrence in malaysia..... but wild animals on the roads in singapore are SO rare......

only dogs and cats (or big rats) become common road kill......

Block it...

To deter & stop highway kaypos who slow down intentionally to gawk at accidents & vehicle numbers, owners & responding vehicles e.g. Tow trucks, traffic police, cisco marshals, should cover up the number plates...

Then there's nothing more to look at...

sent via sony x1

Dead animal

My colleague who was late on the way to work called me...telling me he will be late... The highway was totally stuck...

Then someone said he saw a dead animal of considerable size on his way to work .....All of us laughed...


Elephant? Cow? Deer?

But it is true after all

sent via sony x1

10 grand

It surely is a big step when one decides to buy a 10 thousand dollars pair of loudspeaker... So far I have resisted the temptation very well... Maybe it's a glass ceiling or a mental block that I cannot overcome...

Even though the acrolink speaker cables were a breakthrough in terms of cost & performance for my system, I know they befit an even better pair of loudspeaker I am currently using...

So what is the magic price point I can look at? $5k? $10k? Or $20k?

sent via sony x1

Shaky grounds

Your chances of surviving an earthquakes depend very much on where u happen to be...

Haiti? Not good...
Indonesia? Not good...
Chile? Improving...
Taiwan? Not bad...
Japan? Pretty good...


why do i have a feeling that mother earth is breaking up...... and these earth-shaking moments are getting too often and too serious....

sent via sony x1