Trip to Sedona and Grand Canyon

Toss up between Las Vegas and Sedona...where do we go to? Sedona...i can hear you screaming "Are you out of your mind?!" Well, Dad's friend said Sedona was more worth seeing so we went with that advice. A decision we never regretted. 4.5 hours south west from NYC, we landed in Pheonix, Arizona. From there, straight into a rented Gallant. Thank god the air con in it was pretty powerful, if not we would all have baked, it was some 105 F or somewhere between 35 - 40 C! Freaking hot! Desert country, reminded me of Perth, Australia, in summer! Took a 2 hour drive to Sedona where we stayed at this hotel thing called Kokopelli. Which is really this Native American icon, symbol, scrawl on a wall..whatever u want. Sedona is just incredible, we took a drive along and into the mountains, a 80 mile route which allowed u to draw up right next to the red rock formations. Another high point was a dinner we had at Oaxana, a Mexican restaurant. Think i had enough burritos, chapitas etc to last a lifetime. It was pretty cool too, literally, with a sprinklers firing off a fine mist over the guests to cool them. Open air section of course.


RED...ROCKS! That's Sedona! 


Yup, that's me...considering that i'm scared of heights, that took a lot out of me. Even though i was nowhere nearer than 2m from the edge! Pretty impressive view, overlooks a whole range! 


One side of the view form that rock i, like an eagle, was perched on. Ok, maybe not, prolly more like an overweight goat. 


Along the drive from Sedona to GC :) 


And Grand Canyon itself....excellent view! Apparently it was formed by rivers flowing through softy rock and eroding stuff. *shrug* 


Another view of it. 


We managed to find the time to go to this Cactus Botanical Garden thing. Some of these sticks of spikes were seriously huge! Wouldn't be a good idea to walk into one of these in the dark! 
It was so hot that day, we were all in danger of suffering heat strokes...thankfully, Red Lobster, where we went to have lunch, had free flow softdrinks. 6 glasses of DIET Coke later, heat stroke was no longer a concern....but i could feel the sugar crystals forming in my blood stream. And i felt like tea pot short and stout...pee caffein! Also, i found it a little funny to find a restaurant specializing in seafood in the middle of the friggin desert.


Rawhide! It's a Country Western moofie name. imagine Tang Dynasty Village in Singas, then imagine cowboys and cowgirls instead. Just that these peeps are ortentic one hor!  


Live country music over dinner...just puts you in the mood for a HUGE, rare and juicy steak. 

Best steak i've ever tasted as to be from here! They cook the steaks over wood fires. Can't remember what wood exactly but it's supposed to be special. Anyway, this is the first and prolly last time that i liked the outside of the steak better than the inside! Add to that the live country music...too good.

All in all, a great trip! Would love to go there again and this time not sprain my knee! darn it, couldn't walk some of the trail at the Grand Canyon cos of that. There are trails that go all the way down to the valley floor and its rivers! Mule rides down too! But that would be horrible...like totally tenderising your butt i bet.

Singapore's Ministerial Pay

Was talking to a friend today about ministerial pay etc and surfed around for some numbers to get some perspective on it.

Came across an article written by/for the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). The full article is here .

Think i'll have to make several things clear before i jump into this. Firstly, i'm not a rabid/blind government backer. Secondly, i'm not completely knowledgeable about ministerial pay here or overseas. My opinions are based on what little i have seen on this. Where i'm wrong about stuff or totally blind to other issues, please point them out to me. Lastly, what i am saying here is MY OPINION. This isn't meant to force people who have contrary views to think otherwise. However, if it persuades you to, well and good. Why am i "attacking" the aforementioned article, cos i think it sounds ludicrous and is hardly persuasive.

My views in bold

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"In relative terms, less then 20% of Singaporeans here have take home salaries exceeding SGD100,000/- A YEAR.

In stark contrast, BASIC SALARY FOR A MINISTER STARTS AT SGD1,166,844 A YEAR,OR JUST UNDER SGD100,000 A MONTH.

What these ministers earns in just ONE MONTH exceeds the ANNUAL TAKE HOME
salary of 80% of Singapore's income earning population. Lets not even begin to compare annual packages which will exceed SGD1 million easily."

So what if a minister's pay is so much greater than the average? Why not start ranting about CEOs of big corps? They get paid a whole lot more don't they? Oh wait, they oversee corporations with 10s of thousands of jobs and billions in assets! Whereas our ministers are only responsible for the welfare of 3 million odd people. Pay them the minimum wage! Their job is way easy and doesn't take much skill.

If anything, i think ministerial remuneration should be commensurate with their abilities and what they can really get in the private sector. You cut their pay to peanuts and you'll have a bunch of monkeys running our country, something we all don't need.

"A 29-yr-old executive who requested to remain anonymous admitted sheepishly: "The numbers (ministerial salaries) are a national embarrassment really, because it reflects the underlying materialistic value systems of Singapore Ministers."

Righto, i say everyone is materialistic and that's the way it is. Greed is good and all that. If getting the best person for the job means paying them a whole lot, then so be it! Say you cut 50% of the current ministerial payroll amount...great you might say. But let's say because of that low pay, the 2nd, 3rd, 10th best person for the position doesn't want the job and only the 500th best person for it takes it. This results in policies that damages our economy to the tune of X billion dollars. Woohoo!! yay, we saved a few million bucks!

Or do you want them to be paid so little that they are susceptible to bribery? Or for that matter, filter huge pay cuts down to lower level civil servants who are normally under less scrutiny so they can have reason to take cash under the table?

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The SDP article make some sense though. Having people determine their own pay is just...well...strange. Hopefully some other more independent mechanism can be come up with. Though i reckon the practicalities for it will just make it plain messy.

The Straits Times should also be putting up all the information. Sure, some people might take it the wrong way: "Wah! They are paid so much!" but dealing with wrong perceptions through omission is not the way. Explain it all properly i reckon.

OK....flame away! :))

Away for a Week

off to the grand canyon for a week :)
later peeps

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly...Smells!

Don't you love smells....like farts from your obnoxious colleague/brother or like the smell of BO in the office, especially in Singapore! Of course there are good ones too, like KFC (personal preferences apply)

The smell of kfc. Over here, they deliver it right to your door, but the minimum order is $10...so i was forced to order a 6 piece meal while my parents and sister were out to watch hairy potato (no way am i putting myself through that). It always smells great when the delivery guy passes it to you, but by the end of the 3rd piece, it starts smelling a bit jerlak...by the 5th piece, it smelt horrible....couldn't bring myself to eat the 6th and final piece in my order...sighh...gluttony!

Another controversial smell is paint, some people like it (ok, maybe thinner) others hate it. Too bad i got a can of water based paint, it smells like a mix of playdough and rancid potatoes. Anyway, the reason why i have that in the house is cos some of the movers badly scratched one of the wooden doors at home. The bastards are just plain substandard. Had to bloody bring a hinge from the door to a hardware shop and get them to do a computer based colour matching thing. like maybe 100ml of paint would have been more than enough but because i had to get it computer matched, the minimum i could get was a gallon! a friggin gallon is like....heaps!! haha...used less than 1% of it, and that was after i decided to paint the WHOLE door!

Out for baddie today and first thing i smell out of the door...DOGSHIT!! I've had my rant about that before (check out the entry on Sunday, May 16, 2004) but it never ceases to amaze me why there hasn't been a bigger crackdown on irresponsible owners leaving gao sai behind. Don't believe that Kate and Leopold thing where the fat cop tells the misplaced prince to pick up the shat or risk a fine.

Anyway, finally made it to baddie without anymore drama. First smell there, deep heat! hahaha...there is this indian guy that ALWAYS puts heaps of that stuff...smells the whole hall up...i could be mean and suggest he applies that stuff to hide body odour but that wouldn't be fair. For some people, they think all Indians smell bad. Either cos of BO or that oil they put, but that isn't true i reckon.

Had a doubles game with this really cute chick...and she was wearing Davidoff Cool Water! Golly...assailed by memories! haha...i even remarked to her that i could smell the Cool Water and thought it was great. All i got was a curt nod! BITCH! hahah...think it had something to do with her bf looking on from the side of the court. *shrug* Think almost all the girls i have liked or had crushes on before have used Chanel Allure or Davidoff Coolwater. Anyway, the scent reminded me of someone whom i almost went out with, but circumstances dictated otherwise.

Back home and another smell....this one all good! Mother's cooking. Nuff said.

*cue* maggie seasoning or sara lee jingle...

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

Just love the TV here, they run the kooky shows once a while.

LOL...think that show came out while i was still doing NS and it reminded me of all the NUS bashes. And there was and probably still is this infatuation with 80s stuff. Come on, who hasn't heard and fallen in love with Forever Young and stuff like that?! (ok, cut me some slack).

Anyway, back to those NUS bashes...which were organized by different faculties...so you had engine bash, arts bash, biz ad bash...etc etc. For those who don't know what they are, it's like a disco event held at the forum area of NUS. They were really fun then but looking back now...what was i thinking?! Hot, sweaty, crowded! Then there was the bunch from some ballroom dancing society/group that actually tried doing their practiced dance moves to the strains of Mony Mony...imagine...and of course people would sing along to it especially, the part with "hey muthafucker hey what the fuck". Just rememebr everyone giving the ballroom dancing fellas a wide berth. If they have the bolas to dance like that there, they are capable of anything.

Then there was that unhealthy obsession with Ripleys and places with similar environs. You know...sweaty, gyrating people in stuffy "halls" nothing better than giant concrete bathtubs. Of course the air con was on but it was never cool enough to stop people melting and buying more drinks. Even the bouncers played their part by constantly keeping the doors shut, obstensibly to keep the air con in so the place would cool. If not for the fact that the one at ripley's was more gorilla than man, i would have given him what for!God only knows how they didn't melt themselves! But wait, i get it, they stand OUTSIDE. they may be the smartest people in the locale.

Dammit, i long for those days though...long gone of course. Don't think peeps at these events will take to well to an old uncle waving his big belly around.

School Uniforms

Like most East Asian schools, singapore's require uniforms to be worn. However, the conformity ends there. There are heaps of different ones around in singapore.

The one that has gotten the most positive comment from friends has been the ACJC (junior college or grade 11 and 12) one...yes...that white shirt with the blue inside collar...too many girls have just gone all soft upon seeing tanned acjc boys. Someone i know even wants to force her bf to go get the uniform and wear it! hehe

Then there are the secondary school ones. White top and navy blue shorts/pants is one of the more popular colour schemes and not worth too much mention...the distinguishing factor is the school badge, be it a embroidered one or metal one you pin above your shirt pocket.

Then there is the ugly. Like the one from Chinese High....haha...tiny little khaki shorts, as if there was a chronic shortage of khaki pant material (no wonder why). Their shirts are almost as bad if not worse...lots of pockets and big silvery buttons! Like those you see in american civil war uniforms! haha...*snigger*, *rolls eyes*.

On the girls side, Nanyang's has to be the worst. All white one piece sleaveless top merged with a skirt. I mean what were they thinking...sure, white is pure but but....oh well...nvm...doesn't help that they speak mandarin most if not all the time so there was really nothing for me to say to them and them to me :P Think they had some rule about having hair no longer than shoulder length (might actually be worse). So what you get is all these shinseki mushrooms walking around. haha
A giant walking by might have just pluck up the bus stop outside Coronation Plaza like you do when buying a bunch of mushies from NTUC.

SCGS's uniform is exactly like nanyangs i think, but at least theirs was light blue AND the girls were a lot cooler...or at least percieved to be.

Most striking girls' uniform has to be St Margarets! White with green polka dots top and a dark green skirt! haha...try and imagine that...shall not diss it cos my first crush was from there. Sigh...it did look a bit clownish but their school was near Nanyangs, so they didn't look quite so bad :P

Nicest girls' uniform has to be MGS's. Navy blue pinafore (the top part is white) with a white blouse. Clean and sharp looking.

Ok, i'm ready for flames and other noteworthy uniforms i left out :P

Pirated Vcds etc

Kind of tied in to Branded Goods i guess....

Most of us reading this will almost certainly have bought or watched pirated vcds, dvds, mp3s etc. Isn't it great, i mean it costs a tiny fraction of the original and might even be free if you have broadband!

Deny it for all it is worth, but it is theft no matter how you cut it! What?! Since when have i become an advocate for copyright laws?! Am i mad?! Not quite but if enough of us grab stuff for free, there will be less and less incentive for filmakers to make great shows.

Freeloaders, you're living on the goodwill and money of honest people! How would you feel if you put your blood and sweat into doing something only for someone to copy it and derive benefits from it without any moolah or credit coming to you?

Oh i don't expect people reading this to do an about turn and only buy original cds, but at least think about it the next time you buy vcds from those fly-by-night operations.

Man...this entry sucks, here i am semi advocating respect for copyright and intellectual property but yet will downlaod shareware then look for free serial numbers to "register" it. i know, i'll help you say it...H Y P O C R I T E

Anonymous Poll

The issue of branded goods has stirred up some interesting conversations on ICQ :)

Just answer in any way you want in the comments :P Leave your names if you want :P hehe

1)Would you buy a branded bag?

2)If yes, would you still buy the said bag if there were no external markings or patterns proclaiming its brand?

Branded Goods

Quote of the Day: I really wanna get that LV bag!

Even if it costs $1000! What the?! I mean, aren't there a heap of things you could better do with that money?? You could get lots of new clothes (not Armani or other branded labels of course), save it for further studies, get a nice watch, have 10 pretty darn good meals, the list is endless! Ok, some people make money by the bucket loads so there really isn't much else they can spend the money on (how about giving it away?). But for many people aspiring to LV bags or Rolex watches, the money is significant.

I'm not out against branded goods, but are they really that much better? Ok, maybe a Rolex is, but an LV bag? It is a bag for crying out loud! Does it have special properties like Mary Poppin's bag? Didn't think so. Ah, or is it so "cool" that when u clip it underarm, it pumps out air con! Or maybe the LV logos get you discounts at every shop you visit in the future! Actually, just toting that LV bag just lost you your right arm when bargaining.

Everytime i see those roadside vendors selling fake LV goods, i can imagine some real LV goods owners who parted with hard earned money cursing under their breaths. But really, they shouldn't even have given themselves reason to. I just love when two LV item owners compare goods and one of them is fake. The real owner would go to such pains trying to find flaws and discover that really, the difference is just cosmetic. And most people would neither know nor care one jot about what was real or not.

Sure, at some social events, you're priced by what you're carrying and you "must" toe the line. But consider this, why? Because you're afraid of people smirking at you for carrying an apparently nameless accessory? Or you wanna appear more successful than others by paying 100 times more than what another same functionality item would cost?

Ok, have been using LV cos my friend who inspired this piece asked me if she should get one such bag. :P Anyway, there are others that fall in that category too, Prada, Gucci, whatever....

Next time you see someone with a LV bag, try asking them if it can perform magic tricks, cos the people who sold it to her sure managed one on her!

Quizilla Thing

Heart of Stone


What is Your Heart REALLY Made of?
brought to you by Quizilla


i think this is so so true..friends beware
lol

Taxi Drivers

Quote of the Day: Where are you going?

Have been bouncing around from blog to blog recently and finally came across something interesting to write about. Credit goes to Sparkie's friend starry .

Anyway, i've taken cabs in many different places but i reckon the most scary has to be in New York. The cab drivers here are a law unto themselves. No Stopping signs don't mean a thing, neither does swerving across two lanes to grab a customer! When finally in a cab, you're subjected to this constant jerking motion as the driver tries to swerve into slightly faster lanes or avoid one of his fellow denizens of the road. You wanna know what horseriding is like, take a cab in NYC. Needless to say, the cabbie would complain about people swerving across lanes even though he'd just done so moments ago. It's amazing there aren't more accidents in the city.

I think the most entertaining cabbies are singaporean cabbies. Sure they talk a lot but most of the time it's interesting. hehe...they love to talk about a few things. 1. The government. 2. By extension, the shortage/excess in number of taxi licenses given out.

In terms of skill, i'll say japanese cab drivers are the best. Keep in mind that Tokyo city was rebuilt in a pretty darn haphazard manner after the war. This means lots of very very narrow streets. The cabbies there seem to have no problem speeding down narrow lanes that have walls no more than a few inches from their side view mirrors! And their cabs are pretty cool too, with automatic doors! haha. Don't know if it's more for courtesy or keeping people from fleeing without paying :P Both i reckon.

Variety wise, i think Quebec has the best. There didn't seem to be any restriction on what kind of car can qualify for use as a taxi. There are the usual sedans but i did see some flashy ones. Imagine a sports car with a "taxi" sign on top. hehe. The cabbie who took me from hotel to airport recently gave the most interesting convo ever in a cab. Heard all about thie hippie days where he would just go and stay in strangers houses and sleep with all kinds of girls, in his words "big tats, small tats, no tats (must have been when he was drunk)" Of course that doesn't happen now, he's 58. Also heard all about his fishing trips and how Quebec should maintain their French identity.

Hardest place to flag a cab off the road has to be Australia! If you stay there, how many cabs have you seen on the roads?! Zip, zilch, nada! Only way you can get one is by calling for it OR, walking out of the arrivals hall at the airport!

Ping Pong

Quote of the Day: Damn it!

While i was away in Quebec, dad buoght a couple of ping pong bats. You know, those kiddy type things. $10 for two bats and 3 balls.

Anyway, i never realized how fun ping pong could be! No proper ping pong table at home so we use the dinner table and 4 tissue boxes as net. The table isn't anywhere near as big so we have to play so carefully...prolly more than a surgeon doing an open heart procedure. Then when the ball is hit out and neither of us catches it in time, we find all these new corners behind cupboards and couches that we never knew existed.

As to who normally wins...my dad was a combined schools player last time! No competition...it's like me beating a 3 year old in badminton! However, i did manage to win once, when he played with his left hand straight after a tiring day of golf :)

However, it is my mom who is most fearsome! She closes her eyes and smacks the ball real hard when not sure. This means i have to watch out for eyeball popping shots!

Quebec Trip: The weather was just plain foul but this policewomen was just smiling all the time! Her job was to take down the plate numbers of tour buses stopping in that area cos they are allowed 10 minute stops! Anyway, i actually went up to her and asked her if i could take a picture of her. HAHA...she's pretty vain...her scarf was hitched up a lot higher but she lowered it so i she could do herself justice in the picture :) 

Quebec Trip: One of the nicer buildings in the city...the architecture is very colonial. Quebec city is also on the UNESCO list of heritage cities. So new buildings are very strictly regulated for architectural fit. 

Quebec Trip: This was my tour bus! Pretty cosy thing. believe it or not, with 12 people on board, there was a couple from Perth! The driver/tour guide was pretty funny too. Because the windows inside were all fogged up, he gave us his newspapers of that day to wipe the windows down. Only after giving all the sheets out did he discover he wanted the Miss Universe results page! Btw, the Aussie chick won if you don't already know. 

Quebec Trip: Also from my room...this was on the first day when the weather was good....i should have taken a walk that day to take pictures instead of waiting for the next day or two when it started raining nonstop. 

Quebec Trip: This was one of the views from my room...a really nice bunch of murals 

Quebec Day One

Quote of the Day: Come this way please.

Those of you that have been keeping up with my life will know that i am now in Quebec on holiday. But it seems that Canada and I are just not meant to be.

Grab yo pringles and start my whinging!

Plane ride was pretty good....on a small plane though.

It was only after landing that the drama began. Immigration was manned by ONE guy even though there were some 6 or 7 counters for them to use. No more than 20 people arrived on my flight anyway, so it was pretty fast except that when it got to my turn, i was deemed suspicious enough to have to go for an interview! No they did not have rubber gloves in the interview room! But i had to wait for this other guy that was being interviewed before me. And he took a full 45 minutes!

Finally it was my turn and the interviewer had no idea why the immigration officer referred me to her in the first place. Didnèt hurt that the interviewer was quite pretty! lol...how could i be thinking of something like that at a time like this. Anyway, was on my way soon enough.

Taxi ride was boring! Just when you want a talkative taxi driver, you get a surly fellow who talked on his mobile all through the trip!

By the time i had gotten to the hotel, i was a little tired and disgruntled but more was to come. Turns out that the online booking we made with my dadès credit card was only to guarantee the booking and did not actually pay for it. I still had to pay for it and while i was carrying enough cash for that, i did not want to pay for it and be left with a few cents. Luckily i brought my dadès atm card thing, or so i thought. With a map and the nearesr atm marked out, i found it with little difficulty but for some reason, it kept saying the PIN i entered was wrong! Two tries and i stopped, didnèt need top have it gobbled! Finally went back to the hotel again to tell the guy that i could not draw the money and we had to try and work something else out. All this while, my momès wonderful mobile phone was running out of battery. yes yes, i am a real worrier!

Finally my parents bailed me out, as usual i might add, by calling them and telling them that they would fax the credit card details and authorization letter over the next morning. pheewwwww...had to pay for one nightès accomodation first of course. Straight to bed till 10 something at night, woke up starving!! Luckily there is a pizza place here that opens till 2am. C$4 for a pizza and drink! pretty darn good:)

Not too bad, was told that there is a 24 hour internet cafe around the corner, which is where i am now.

Letès hope today will be better :)

Later peeps