Guitar Hero Ahoy!! Popped over to Serene Centre and picked up Guitar Hero World Tour (aka Guitar Hero 4) to accompany my newly acquired Playstation 3 on New Year’s eve. To cut the long story short, I have been thinking of getting this game for a few weeks and am glad I finally got it over and done with. However, instead of committing to an entire rock band set which includes a guitar, a drum set and a microphone, I just stuck with the guitar for economical reasons. Well, that and the fact that Lyn (my boo) will totally freak out if she discovers an entire set taking up our precious room space. I was initally skeptical about how I may fair given that my hand-eye coordination is not exactly something to shout about, but I decided to give the ‘ol easy option a shot. As the option suggest, easy was really a breeze and I was in no time jamming to popular tunes including Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer, Blondie’s One Way or Another and Obstacle 1 by Interpol. Guitar Hero World Tour also introduces a new slider function on the guitar’s fret that allows you to do some tapping instead of using the touchpads  while strumming (haven’t really figure that part out yet). As a GH (Guitar Hero) noob, it is going to take me a while before I can start hammering 5 touchpads with confidence. But hey, every single moment is  extremely enjoyable and I am really looking forward to hitting the expert level some day. Until then, I am slowly going to upgrade myself and unlock more songs. Rock on!! … Left: The GH box | Right: My axe…well..kinda… Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite A year of change I’m not much of a wisher but to all my friends and family, a very Happy New Year and may 2009 be a totally excellent year for you (despite the current economic climate). While partying with some friends yesterday night, WB asked me about my new plans for this year. To be honest, I was initially dumbfounded given that I don’t really make resolutions. However, I replied to him on my efforts to give up certain vices, save more for that “big day”, exercise more regularly and put in a lot more focus in my relationship and work. These are some things I have been thinking about doing for a long time but never go around doing it, so I quietly thought to myself, “Why not now?”. Once again, Happy New Year everyone. May your resolutions be successful. We build the Eiffel We had a division team building about a good two weeks back. Of the many highlights and interesting yet funny moments, we were tasked to build an Eiffel Tower from the ground up to the ceiling…with satay sticks and masking tapes. Initially skeptical, we wondered if such a feat is possible given that none of us have experience in such a unqiue construction. What fueled us skeptics even more was the fact that we were given about an hour or so to complete the construction and the ceiling was really high. Yeap, as the photo suggest, we did manage to pull it off and in good time too. If there is one takeaway from this team building experience, it would be that anything is possible, well pretty much anything… Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite A Merc scratched my Chevy Popped over to People’s Park Complex this afternoon for the usual lunch, toiletries shopping and foot reflexology. What we thought was going to be a nice Saturday afternoon turned out to be an extremely inconvenient one, when a Mercedes reversed into my poor little Chevy, which resulted in a nasty scratch and dent. And to top it off, I wasn’t even moving at all. As much as I would like to blame the claustrophobic design of the car park, I question the driver’s decision to back into my car while he was waiting for an available lot. Ouch ouch ouch!! So with that, I will be heading to Idac after my basketball game in a few hours time and then settle some insurance issues thereafter. The Mercedes driver is still arguing his innocence despite the fact that he was the one who choreographed the entire scratching incident. Needless to say, I threw out his defence which included “You were too close to me” (So you felt we should get closer by reversing? Dude I don’t swing that way!!), “I reversed to make space for you to go through” (Seems that his car only allows him to reverse, not go forward. Interesting transmission he has there.) and the winning entry “I couldn’t see you” (Woah wait a minute, you knew that I was behind you all along didn’t you? And when do you plan to use your big side mirror?). To be honest, my pet peeve wasn’t so much of the incident, but how he tried to skirt the issue with really weak statements. For a person who drives that type of car, I would expect him to be ‘man’ about it and admit his mistake (like I said, I was stationary all the time). But then again, you wouldn’t have expected more from these people would you? . Okay, enough whining… Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Turkey Time My family had a wonderful dinner gathering on Christmas day. I didn’t really take a lot of photos given that Lyn (my boo) and I were late and that I don’t normally take pictures when my mouth is full. Thanks to Lyn for the food though. She spent the whole Christmas afternoon preparing the turkey, chicken, prawn and avocado salad and sauces…yeah!! The only photo I took during Christmas dinner..~burp!!~ Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Some Christmas lovin’ This is me trying to get into the Christmas mood, a time for giving and receiving. Needless to say I prefer the receiving part. Thanks to my colleagues for the Christmas love . And the good news (for me), the presents are still coming in…yeah baby!! Left: Receiving… | Right: …and giving Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Krispy Kreme goes bye bye in Hong Kong Okay okay, I know this is really an outdated news but to be honest, if it wasn’t my colleague Sharon who alerted me about this, I would have been kept in the dark for the longest time. It seems that the Hong Kong’s Krispy Kreme in late October have went into liquidation, another victim of the financial crisis plaguing us right now. There are two of its seven outlets standing in Hong Kong back in October and I wonder how long they can last before they become extinct. As a person who still hasn’t had his fair share of the Krispy goodness despite making a point to have loads when I travel or bugging my colleagues popping overseas to get me a box (or two), the news of their closure has kind of affected me. I mean hey, these babies are really good and there were so many memories and experiences that accompanied these doughnuts. From my trip to Sydney back in 2006, the tearful stories of how my friends had to carefully lug them back from as far as Australia, to the number of beer/coffee/water sessions with friends and the doughnuts,  they were all good. Heck, I even wrote an entry about it when I was in Hong Kong last year. Corny as it may sound but I guess all good things must come to an end, well in this case Kispy Kreme in Hong Kong. Left and right: My Krispy Kreme experience in Hong Kong HK’s Krispy Kreme goes bust - Taken from Asiaone HONG KONG - THE Hong Kong franchisee of American chain Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is going into liquidation, as it becomes the latest company in the city to close amid the global financial crisis. Of its seven stores in Hong Kong, five will be closed immediately. The two outlets at the Hong Kong International Airport will continue to trade until further notice, said Briscoe & Wong, which has been appointed as independent financial advisers to help the franchisee find liquidators. A creditors’ meeting would be held on Nov 12 to seek liquidators to deal with the assets of Krispy Kreme Hong Kong and the claims of its employees and creditors, Briscoe & Wong said in a statement yesterday. ‘The directors are very disappointed that they have had to take this action,’ it said. Earlier this month, the United States sweet-treats chain said it agreed with KKD Lotte Holdings to open 35 Krispy Kreme retail locations over the next four to five years in China’s major cities, including Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin. Lotte is Krispy Kreme’s franchisee in South Korea and Japan. Krispy Kreme has struggled in recent years with restatements, investigations into its past accounting records and a decline in doughnut sales that sent some of its franchisees into bankruptcy. Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Singapore Slingers vs Darwin Airport Resort All-Stars (Live) The Singapore Slingers will take on the Darwin Airport Resort All-Stars at the Singapore Indoor Stadium this evening at 7.40pm. Unfortunately, I have a prior engagement and will miss some good ‘ol basketball action. Now here comes the interesting part. The nice digital folks from the home team have developed a neat little application that allows you to view the game live. I am not too sure if placing the application on my blog will work but hey…there is no harm trying. For those who can’t make it for the game but would love to catch it online, they can do it right here. Do let me know if it works for you yah? I’m really dying to find out… Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Rocking with AVA Its not everyday I feel like a young boy rocking to the tunes from my favourite band at a concert with a bunch of like minded people. But I’m glad I did just that at the Angels & Airwaves concert at the NUS University Cultural Centre on Sunday. Standing amongst fans who are about 10 years younger (if not more) than I, we sang to our favourite tunes including The Adventure, Secret Crowds and Everything’s Magic. There were even some memorable moments like how some of us shook our heads in overwhelming expression when the music for The Gift started, a crowd favourite. Left: Lead singer Tom Delonge | Right: Matt Wachter on Bass Just a little background here, my passion for their music dates just a little while back when they launched their first album “We Don’t Need To Whisper” in mid-2006. All thanks to a channel surfing moment one lazy Saturday morning, I came across one of their songs on MTV and caught a familiar voice which took me some time to figure out. Turned out the lead singer was Tom DeLonge from Blink 182, a band I used to listen. Let’s say the rest was history. Left: Guitarist David Kennedy | Right: Offspring drummer Atom Willard And what better way to enjoy your favourite band perfoming than standing up close with them all thanks to the really expensive tickets purchased on day one of sale. Although Lyn (my boo) who accompanied me fell ill that night and had to leave after the opening act (poor dear, no fun blowing chunks in a concert), I rocked enough for the both of us and it was money well spent. Of course being the ‘ol PR guy I try to be, I made friends before the concert and we blended with the crowd. Left: One of the fans who temporaily got a little closer to Tom, she was ordered by security to get down | Right: Tom announcing during the encore that David is gay (no he’s not!) As usual, I did a really stupid thing again and left my memory card at home and took along a fully charged camera. That was the same week that I cracked my Nokia N95’s LCD (with a 5mp camera), which was not ready that night. Hence, I was stuck with my old but trusty spare phone, the Sony Ericsson K750i (with a 2mp camera). Taking photos that night was really challenging but I managed to take a few nice ones. Thankfully, Ah Jie (my dear sister Fel’s sister but not exactly my sister…yeah I know..long story) got me a nice autograph of the band and Tom even did had a Vincent van Gogh moment. Its a real keeper. Priceless!! Unless Angels & Airwaves come to town again, I seriously doubt I will be heading to any rock concert soon. I feel old, I can’t sing as loud as the fans there and when they start jumping to the rythm, I start to panic. I can’t imagine what I’d do if a mosh pit develops. But then again, it is always too soon to say anything. Until then, I will be waiting for their third album which they will start recording early next year… More photos in my Flickr album here. Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Slingers shot down Satria Muda In what is called a complete blowout, the Singapore Slingers dominated Indonesian champions, Satria Muda Britama yesterday 75-46. The teams’ first meet up was during late November in Jakarta where the Slingers, similar to yesterday’s game, overwhelmed Satria Muda 73-52. Thanks to Nic for the passes again, Len, Sharon (his boo), two of his photographer friends and a number of bloggers popped over to the Indoor stadium to catch the Slingers’ eight match under the Singapore Challenge Series. Of course with the media passes, the bunch of us mounted ourselves at the courtside firing away mercilessly at both teams. It is clear what size can do during a basketball match and if the opposing team can’t use their skills including speed, court vision and other team attributes, you are pretty much (for the lack  of a better word) screwed. Our visiting Indonesian team was just that.  The Slingers’ big men Sam Harris and bad boy Eric Sandrin were able to capitalise on their size getting second chance rebounds and easy layups. Unfortunately, everything went against Satria Muda’s favour and they had difficulty getting their shots going, giving the Slingers an early lead with 10-0. The Slingers had led throughout the game and never looked back. Slingers leading 10-0 Top scorers of the night went to Eric Sandrin with 14 points, Shane McDonald with 13 points and Darren “The Doctor” Ng with 12 points. Out muscling Satria Muda below the rim in every way, the Eric and Sam had not much problems with post ups and follow-throughs. They even added some nice dunks and layup to boot. However, I need to salute the Satria Muda players though. Despite their size disadvantage, they did not throw any cheap shots (I think) and just stuck to plain old defence. Great sportsmanship there guys. Left and right: Eric and Sam showing what size can do Left: Hook from Eric: Right: Sam flushes in a rebound Darren, who seemed modest with this offence last night, continues to be a scoring threat. I can’t begin to tell you how sick I think his shots are. Not many players can consistently take a step back behind the arc and drain a three-pointer with two defenders sticking their faces at him. It takes a whole lot of confidence and Darren is the perfect man for that kind of play. Shane was speedy that night, outrunning a number of Satria Muda defenders for a couple of nice lay ups. If there was a MVP for the game, he probably earned it. His statistics are commendable with a field goal percentage of 80%, 100% from beyond the arc and five assists. Left: Darren attempts a trey… | Right: …and contested lay up. Left: Shane fires a trey… | Right: …and goes to the hoop With everything going the Slingers’ way, the Satria Muda did not stop fighting until the very end. They even attempted a number of lay ups even in the presence of the Slingers’ big men. Adding to that, they outscored and out rebounded the Slingers during the second quarter which trimmed the lead to 24-31 at half time. However, they were unable to keep up with the Slingers offensive prowess and tight defence. Hats off to our visiting team. They truly did put up a good fight. Left: Fires a nice open J | Right: One heck of an acrobatic shot..and he got it in!! Left: Tries to shake Shane off | Right: Going to the hole (check out Darren’s jump) Our local boys did us proud with Pathman, Steven Khoo and Tan Ching Hong contributing a total of 10 points. Pathman has become much more aggressive and confident compared to the previous season scoring 3 of 4 from under the rim and grabbing two rebounds. Khoo added two more rebounds for the team, not too shabby for a guard. Well done boys!! Looking forward to see you guys getting more play time, especially Khoo. Left and right: All Pathman!! Left: Tan tries to earn a tough lay up | Right: Khoo enters a heavily guarded paint for a lay up At the end of the day, the Slingers took the game by 29 points. You can read more of the game in their media release here. They will face the Darwin Airport Resorts All-Stars on Tuesday, 16 Dec 2008 at 7.40pm. Tickets are available at Sistic. More photos in my Flickr album here. Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Cracked my N95 LCD This is one of those “extra” and really irritating moments in my life. I bumped into the edge of a table at eM by the River at Gallery Hotel yesterday and the impact must have cracked my N95’s LCD screen. Ooooh..the pain… With the current reputation at the Nokia Care Cantre (or rather the lack of it) here, I guess you can understand why I am prepared to receive a lackadaisical attitude and really really bad service from them. While trying to do a little online research on the pricing of an LCD replacement, I chanced upon a great number of complains from fellow Nokia users about the Care Centre. Its basically the same thing, very bad service, long waiting time and no guarantee that you phone will be repaired properly. The price you pay for buying a Nokia, its a package thing I guess. Will let u know how my experince turn out ~cross fingers~ . Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite AVA in four days I am not exactly a huge fan but enough to know that if they are here, I am definitely going. Angels & Airwaves (AVA) will be making their first appearance in Singapore this Sunday at the University Cultural Centre Hall at NUS. I doubt that there will be a huge crowd there given that AVA’s following here seemed to be pretty small (I think). Heck, I am perhaps the only one among my friends to listen to it almost on a weekly basis. To be honest, I really really really want to be proven wrong (please tell me I’m wrong). But whatever it is, they are coming, I got my tickets from Sistic and I want to rock!! Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Talk ‘N Text drowns San Miguel Beermen - Double Header 2/2 Prior to the Singapore Slingers - Smart Pampanga Buddies match up, Singapore held its first Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) game between the San Miguel Beermen and Talk ‘N Text (man I love these team names). Although not well versed in PBA games, I gather from previous matches during the Singapore Challenge Series that these players play hard, rough, dishes body checks, stick defence in your face (literally) amongst some interesting attributes. To date, I have yet to see a PBA team play without aggression which mostly lead to a number of player standoffs. Its really a man’s man game there, although I do question the league’s sportsmanship. Mounting myself just outside the court, I took some photos for just two quarters while ‘networking’ during the other two (the beer was good, too bad it wasn’t San Miguel though). I can’t go into details given that I didn’t really pay attention to the game and was not present half the time, but here are a few noteworthy moments of the game. Here I come to save the day!! Deadly player of the game goes to Talk ‘N Text’s Jimmy Alapag, a 5′11″ guard from Los Angeles. Nicknamed Might Mouse (similar to Damon Stoudamire, an NBA free agent), Alapag is pretty much an all-around player. He plays point, rebounds frequently, drives fearlessly to the hoop amid his size, dishes great passes and has one of those irritating yet effective sticky defences, a coach’s dream. Heck, even Len, Kelvin and I were extremely impressed with his balling repertoire. Left: Defender? What defender? I’m still going through.. | Right: Alapag fights his way in Left: Another contested lay up by Alapag | Right: Alapag up close Castro Choked To be honest, I was really looking forward to my name sake, Jason Castro to show some big moves. Castro who once signed with the Singapore Slingers earlier this year before defaulting his contract and headed for Talk ‘N Text, didn’t seemed to perform that night, scoring only one point. This pretty much contrasted with the show he put on when the Slingers played an exhibition match against each other in August. Unlike that exhibition match, his passes were wild, loses his attacker often, can’t seem to lay up effectively and was unable bang any of his jumpers. Woah wait, don’t get me wrong. I’m not being bellyaching here. I know this guy can play, its just that he didn’t seem to do very well that night. Left: Castro calling for a play | Right: Loses his guy The Pennisi Confrontation What good will a PBA match be without hostilities? Let’s say San Miguel Beermen’s Mike Pennisi didn’t let us down. He got a really hard foul from a Talk ‘N Text player while trying to grab a rebound which led to some shoving and exchange of words. It got so intense that the rest of the players took to the court to either sort things out or make it worse, I can’t really tell. The referees had to call for an official’s time out and gave Talk ‘N Text a technical foul. It was well deserving considering that Pennisi took a number of cheap shots earlier and the referees just stood there. Left: The staring began as the referee calls a technical | Right: Look at the two take on each other San Miguel Beermen 80 - Talk ‘N Text 85 Talk ‘N Text emerged winners that night making it 3-0 in their overseas games. You can read more about the game at PBA’s media release here. Meanwhile, here are more action shots. More photos in my Flickr album here. Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite The busy Sitex Popped over to Sitex with KP and Kun on Saturday to pick up some unnecessary stuffs including a nice Western Digital hard drive. After parking my car a good 1km away from the Singapore Expo and taking that nice slow walk, we were greeted by hordes of bargain hunters looking out for the best deals from computers to laptops and game consoles. Yeah I know..crappy focusing. Its the camera I tell you..honest!! With that in mind, I was wondering if we know that there is a recession going on. However, another school of thought could be that this is the best time to get electronic items at a better price. Although I am still spending within my limits, its time I become even MORE PRUDENT when spending. Who knows what the future has in stall for us. Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Slingers beat Pampanga Buddies - Double Header 1/2 Thanks to Nic again, Len and I together with other bloggers popped over to the Indoor Stadium to catch a double header featuring three Philippine basketball teams. Since there are quite a number of photos and write ups to share, allow me to first focus on the second match (i.e. the Singapore Challenge Series) between the Singapore Slingers and Smart Pampanga Buddies. I’ll write about the the San Miguel Beermen and Talk ‘N Text game later. Tipping off later than usual at about 6pm, the 8,500 strong crowd saw a 28-point massacre by the Slingers, leaving the Pampanga Buddies returning home without the $10,000 bounty. Top scorers for today include Darren ‘The Doctor’ Ng with 25 points (PS: When are you getting that PS3 so we can hook up online and play NBA?), bad boy Eric Sandrin, who finally returned after staying six weeks on the injury list with 18 points, and Armein Krikland who quietly poured in 12 points. Left: Eric going to the hole… | Right: …and skies for a rebound Left: Darren drawing a foul on this layup… | Right: …and hitting an extremely contested three pointer Both Pampanga Buddies and Slingers traded shots pretty evenly giving the latter an eight point lead at the end of the half. Although outsized, the Pampanga Buddies managed to fight back with a number of rebounds, layups and contested shots leaving the Slingers baffled at their defending prowess. Their strong defence had also given the home team a hard time finding their men. Left: Eric got double teamed | Right: Three blue shirts ensuring Kirkland will not get through Left and right: Pampanga Buddies’ offense The Slingers however returned a different team during the second half with defence in their mind. The onslaught began as they tried to outgun at one end and out rebound at both. Rough plays from the Pampanga Buddies also saw three ejections, giving Alwin Espiritu, Celedon Camaso and Francis Mercado a early trip to the shower room. With a number of intimidating blocks and rim-rearranging dunks from big man Sam Harris and Eric Sandrin, together with Darren’s really really nasty three-pointers, the Slingers quickly put the game to bed at the end of the third quarter. Left: Eric soars… | Right: …for the flush Left and right: Sam thinks he can better Eric’s move.. . Heads up to our local boys Pathman Matialakan (6-pts), Desmond Oh (5-pts) and Tan Chin Hong for their efforts especially during the fourth quarter. Pathman in particular had quite a number of rebounds and I am looking forward to seeing the score sheets on that. One of them (can’t remember which guy) also put his body on the line and took a painful charge (too bad I was not there to see it) resulting in a Pampanga Buddies’ turnover. Well done guys!! Left: Pathman ignores the defence | Right: Fires an off-balanced shot Right: Oh powers to the rim | Left: Tan’s deadly no look pass for an easy two The Slingers will next take on Satria Muda Britama Indonesia next week at the Indoor Stadium. Tickets are available at Sistic. More photos in my Flickr album here. Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Today’s double header In the next few hours, I will be heading to the National Stadium to witness the Singapore Slingers’ biggest event ever, a double header with three teams hailing from the Philippines. The momentous event will also showcase Singapore’s first ever Philippines Basketball Association (PBA) game as Talk ‘N Text take on the San Miguel Beermen. This means we get to see Jason Castro, who had earlier signed with the Slingers before changing his mind for Talk ‘N Text in action vs Following the PBA game, the visiting Smart Telecom National Selection will take on the Singapore Slingers under the Singapore Challenge Series. From the way I see it, the Slingers although at home will feel like they are playing away, given that most of the spectators are from the Philippines. Having missed the last game early this month due to work commitments, I am extremely determined to milk every single atmosphere I can get. With about 8,000 tickets already sold, spectators will expect loads of cheers and jeers and a tad bit of rowdiness, an atmosphere I secretly enjoy… . Getting my camera gear ready, I am not about to commit the same mistake as I did during the Beijing Aoshen game last month. Kinda embarassing bringing an old but nice DSLR with telephoto and wide angle lenses only to find out that I forgot to bring my compact flash card. Not this time though, with a double header of such magnitude I am ready to take hundreds and hundreds of photos. Sadly took this shot from the stands during the Beijing Aoshen game. See that “- E -” sign on my camera? That means I’m an idiot!! Tickets are on sale at Sistic. So hurry, we don’t have many good seats left. Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Singapore Challenge Series’ T-shirt ready to go… Popped over to the Singapore Slinger’s t-shirt site a couple of days ago in a bid to design a nice top to wear during this tomorrow’s double header. Initially doubting that the design process will be a breeze, I skeptically surfed around the site and design engine only to learn that the tools available are so easy, even our both pet Maltese can do it. In a matter of minutes, my shirt was ready and all I need to do is just purchase it and pick it up on Sunday. My design Sure I may need loads of design creativity to come up with something like that but hey..to me, less is more and I like my shirts simple. Adding to the sweetness, a t-shirt cost just $19.90, much cheaper than the ones you purchase at sports shops and it is unique given that you designed. So pop over to the site and make your own t-shirt. You can design as many as you want and purchase the ones you like best. No frills and no hard sell from the site, just good ‘ol fun. Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Spirits a goner? Popped over to JR, On Fire this afternoon via Darren’s site and noticed an interesting article noting that the Sydney Spirits may be put into administration due to dire straits. Early last month, the Spirits met the Singapore Slingers during the Singapore Challenge Cup and broke the latter’s 3-0 winning streak with a 9-point victory (article here). What was once the West Sydney Razorbacks, the Sydney Spirit could be the latest team from Australia’s National Basketball League to pull out of the Hummer Championship. Photo shamelessly taken from NBL’s website A quick check in NBL’s website (here and here) showed that the story is bona fide and the league could see their number of teams reduced to nine. Not too sure about the Spirits but I am sure glad the Slingers had earlier decided on focusing on a bigger Asian market (Darren has an excellent article on it here). With the number of teams including the Sydney Kings (yes another Sydney team) and Brisbane Bullets pulling out of the league, the NBL’s future remains a little uncertain. Now that the Spirits’ coaches and players are left in a limbo, I was wondering if the Slingers are interested in at least recruiting Luke Martin. I have seen him play on many occasions here and am impressed with his wicked moves and deadly baby hooks… . Luke Martin in last month’s game Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite More stuffs you see at the HDB estates Continuing with my previous article on stuffs you see at the HDB void decks, I was walking the dogs with Lyn (my boo) at her area and came across this. I may not be very familiar with her estate but from what I gather, there is only one supermarket nearby and it is a good 20mins walk. So I reckon whoever that werido is, he/she conveniently rolled his/her groceries all the way here and just left it. Inconsiderate yes..interesting…oh yeah!! Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite It’s Brazillian and its a Bush Talk about witty advertising. I was passing by Strip, a Brazillian waxing shop at the Wheelock on Friday and saw this at their shop front. One thing I know for sure, these folks are up to date with their current affairs . Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Wanted to get an Xbox 360 but got this instead… My reason was pretty simple…I did the math. A 40GB Xbox 360 ($499 with two free games I don’t intend to play) together with a wireless networking adapter ($129) will set me back about $628. An 80GB Playstation 3 (PS3) with in-built Wifi and Bluetooth on the other hand is just $599. So apart from saving about $30 and getting twice the hard disk capacity as well as other benefits, I get be a proud owner of  a Bluray player too. Yeah it’s a sweet deal. Thanks to Len, a fellow PS3 owner for accompanying me. You can check out why Sony is making a loss despite its huge PS3 uptake in his entry here. Oh by the way, here is an irony for you. I am not an avid gamer. So I guess you can understand why I foresee Lyn (my boo) nagging at me in the near future for spending so much money on something I don’t think I will be using often…uh oh . Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Barclays Singapore Open here I come!! Thanks to my colleague and golf buddy Lawrence, I scored a pass to the Barclays Singapore Open this weekend and honestly, I am so looking forward to it. Its not about rooting for Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els, but rather a fellow Singaporean who goes by the name of Lam Chih Bing. As of yesterday, Lam stood at number 3 with a score of -4. Not too sure if he is going to win but heck, I’m proud of Lam and I’m on his side. Sharon’s toys celebrating with me as I picked up my pass Meanwhile, I am hoping the skys will clear for tomorrow’s final. Gonna be pretty sucky standing in the middle of the course with the rain pouring down…pretty much like the HSBC Women’s Open in March this year. Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite About 25kg ago.. This is probably one of my most embarrassing entry apart from declaring my dream of dressing up as a Care Bear for Halloween some day (an attempt failed yearly so don’t ask). About a few days back, my sister Fel tagged me in Facebook photo which I have not seen a long long time. Adding to that, the photo linked to a group in Facebook labelled “KCPSS”. To cut the long story short, the photo was taken when I was just 17 years old as a secondary five student and KCPSS stood for Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School, an education institute I spent a significant part of my youth screwing it up. Suddenly filled with loads of memories, I surfed around the club and was pleasantly surprised to discover that a number of my old schoolmates were members. I quickly added them as friends hoping to catch up with them some day. Yeah, I know…Facebook can be pretty amazing and don’t we all know it. Good times I say..good times… I was the cheeky one… Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Meeting up with Shrek and Princess Fiona Ask me why am I still feeling okay with my job? Well, part of its perks apart from some (just some) booze is occasionally meeting up with a few local and international celebrities on an official capacity. Trying not to be that cam whoring starstruck wannabe groupie, I must admit that it is not that easy keeping my composure especially knowing how disgustingly shameless I can be. But when I met Shrek and Princess Fiona at the ITB Asia at Suntec Convention Centre a couple of weeks back, I couldn’t help it. Yeap, they are the cutest thing around Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Russell Peters rocked the house I was introduced to Russell Peters by an old colleague of mine about a few years ago. Back then not knowing what he was like and with the availability of YouTube, I guess it is safe to say that finding his shows were pretty much a breeze. With that, I immediately became a fan. Missing his act a couple of months after discovery, I pretty much made up my mind not to let history repeat itself. Yesterday afternoon, my current colleague told me of his three-day show beginning last Sunday but only to break the news that it was totally sold out. My last minute attempts at the secondary market (aka black market, aka eBay) were beyond what I could afford with the cost of the most expensive ticket sky rocketing from $122 to more than $500. Feeling pretty much defeated, I closed the case and thought to myself that lady luck wasn’t on my side this time round. A couple of hours later KP called and wondered if I was free that night and if I would be interested in watching a Canadian Indian who does nothing but crack racist jokes mercilessly to the delight of others. That man is Russell Peters and KP had an extra ticket. Let’s say the rest is history….I laughed so hard that the amount of tears flowed could have very well dehydrated me. Adding to the already sweet deal I got, I met my sister Fel at the show and learnt that my favourite band Angels and Airwaves will be making their way to Singapore this December. It just gets better… . Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Boston Celtics’ ring and banner ceremony Was supposed to write about this event about three days ago during the NBA 2008-2009 opening day. This was when Boston Celtics celebrated their championship last season with a ring and banner ceremony. And to cap it off, they even took down the Cleveland Cavaliers 90-85 in a pretty much teeth gritting and nail biting opening game. Once again, I don’t normally embed YouTube videos in my blog but heck, this is the Boston Celtics’ Ring Ceremony, an experience they have missed for over two decades. So you can see what I am so eager to share it. On another note, the Indiana Pacers managed to clip the Celtics’ wings in a 95-79 victory yesterday. Not exactly a championship team in form I say, but there are more than 80 games to go so I am holding on to my seat. This is going to be one heck of a wild ride as the Celtics attempt fight their way to a repeat…~cross fingers~ The Simpson Donut Snooping around my colleague’s cubicle last week, I chanced upon a nice little package from Star Movies promoting the Simpsons Movie which will be telecasted from this Sunday onwards. Sitting in a nice Simpsons designed happy meal shaped box accompanied by a Star Movies balloon were two nice little donuts. Being the shameless person I am, I twisted my colleague’s arm and got away with a donut that looks pretty much like the donut used for the movie’s publicity. With that, I tried to pull off my own version of Homer holding the donut which came out with very poor results. Hey, at least I tried. Donut was good by the way . Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Dinner with giants Nic organised a little dinner session at Newton Hawker Centre with some bloggers and the Singapore Slingers’ Sam Harris,Eric Sandrin and girlfriend (sorry I forgot her name) on Monday night. Having stayed in Singapore for about four months, of which over two months were in preparation for 21 games, both Sam and Eric are still acclimatising to our little city state. So when it comes to finding really good food, I guess they are still trying to figure it out. Not too accustomed to Singapore food, Sam and Eric were opened to what we ordered and we came up with a number of ethnic delicacies including sting ray, fried Hokkien mee, satay, cockle and a bunch of other stuffs I can’t remember. Describing its ingredients and the style of eating at hawker centres, the bunch of us including Mo, Nic, Hillary, Daphne, Molemole, KuKuNehNeh and Kris (got the roll call from Kris’ site) ate into the night to fill our hunger pangs. Left: Eric goofing off with a plate of satay | Right: Sam and his really really small plate of Hokkien mee Left and right: Sam and Eric giving ice kachang a shot Standing at over two metres tall, it was not surprising that the two players received a number of stares from all directions at Newton. As we headed out of the hawker centre, we had that final cam whoring moment (well…more for me actually) and compared heights. News flash: I can’t touch the top of Sam’s head. Yup…he is that tall. Unfortunately, I had to buy dinner for Lyn (my boo) and headed home while the rest of them goofed off elsewhere in the south. You can read more about it at Kris and Molemole’s blog. With more games coming up spanning a few months, we are looking forward to more of such makan sessions. Until then, the Slingers will face off with the Malaysian All-Stars on 5 Nov at 7.40pm. Tickets are available at Sistic. A few more photos in my Flickr album here. Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Find the Singapore Slinger I popped over to a stationary shop at Tanglin Mall this afternoon and chanced upon this. Nice one on the PR efforts Slingers . Its not easy to get on the front page of a magazine. Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite A memorable Beer Festival Thanks to my colleague, I scored two tickets to last Friday’s Singapore Beer Festival 2008 at Fort Canning Park. With the tickets, 20 F&B coupons and the fact that Friday is Ladies Night, Lyn (my boo), Justin, Junn (his boo) and I popped over to the venue for a night of beer, food and loads of fun. Drinking beer from around the world including France, Australia and Ireland (just to name a few), we partied into the night until our stomachs are full and our coupons ran dry. I won’t go into detail since the photos can speak for themselves. So here we go… Left: Lyn and Junn with the samplers | Right: Justin and me doing God knows what.. Left: Our buddy Lawrence who came down all the way from Brewerkz Indoor Stadium | Right: Our night begins Left and right: Food glorious food… Left and right:…and more food Left: Scene from the inside.. | Right: …and outside Left: People I know and love | Right: People I don’t know but love their helmets So yeah as you can see, we had a blast. More photos in my Flickr album here. Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite