Back again

Yup, my dearest and favorite brother (okie, I'm kidding its just that he's my only brother) has come back from the US. He's supposed to reach at around 6.30am this morning, so my dad told me to check the flight at around 6. So when he woke me up this morning and I went online to check (now that T3 is open, we gotta check online for certain flights, which terminal the flight he'll be landing at), and to my horror his plane had already landed 45 mins ago. So I quickly woke my mum up and we hurriedly rush downstairs to meet my dad, who will be driving us there.

Although I didn't get to stay in T3 for long, but the glimpse of it left quite a good impression. It really does look pretty good, I really have to go there one day to 'explore' the terminal. Right now the place is still a little confusing, not knowing where to go and where is everything, but I think after a few times there, all these will be sorted out easily. Well anyway, my brother was already at the airport, luckily Huiling arrived a little earlier than us, so she was accompanying him. Oh yah, when we reached the arrival/pick up section my dad was told by some SIA staff that we cannot wait there (imagine that, we cannot wait for 5 mins at a pick up counter), which I thought was quite crappy. It totally defeats the purpose of having a pick up counter. I mean if I was there, I'll probably have tried to get a reason out from the bugger. I mean a pick up counter is meant for people like us to pick up our loved ones and then leave right, but sometimes when they are sitting in the terminal, it may take a few mins to walk out. So it only makes sense to allow for short waitings right, its not like we are going to park there for a day or something, crap. Anyway after that we went for breakfast at Changi V, simple breakfast... but now I'm too full to continue sleeping (damn, was thinking that I could catch a nap). Now he's unpacking his stuff, Huiling's helping him so I guess lets just leave him at that....

First Crash

Well, its gotta happen at some point in my life... only didn't expect it to happen so soon. I got into my first accident. Yup, but luckily it was only a minor one. That was 2 days ago, it happened at the Ikea carpark. I was there in the morning to meet Imran, he wanted to get some stuff for his room, so needed my help to drive the stuff back. So as Imran was waiting for me at the porch, I went over to the car to get ready, I did the usual of playing my Ipod first, then after everything was settled down I started the car and got ready to leave the lot. But there was this SUV that was parked beside me, and the best part was that the dumb driver had to park his huge-backside-SUV head in, so his big bottom was like blocking my view of whoever was coming. So I started inching my way out, trying my best to grab a view of my right side, to make sure that no one was coming over. And as I went out a little further, suddenly this dumb car appeared out of no where, he was going so fast he didn't see my car coming out, and by the time I was him our cars had already made contact. I stopped tmy car immediately but that stupid driver continued to move, scratching his own car and damaging my car plate at the same time.

So I got out of my car and of course the first thing I said was," uncle, why you dive so fast". From anyone's point of view and by theory of the book, I'm in the wrong, because I'm coming out of the lot, so I'm considered the small lane and he is the main lane. And also because it is my car that hit his car. So of course that uncle argued that it was all my fault and why I didn't check before leaving the lot. And the thing that pissed me off the most was that he tried to accuse me of using my phone. I was damn fucking pissed then, so I raised my voiced a bit and made it clear to him that I wasn't using my phone. Think he might have got the idea and stopped his wild imagination.

So after that we both took photos of each other's cars and got each other's contacts. So after discussing with my dad about it we came to 2 solutions, one is to pay his a some of $$ or to ask him to send his car to our mechanic and we pay for the service. So when I told the dumb driver that, he say he don't want to send to my mechanic, and insist on using his mechanic, which is of course I don't agree. He told me that he already got a quotation from his mechanic and it is like $700. That figure is like ridiculous, for $700 you can paint the whole car, does he really think that I'm born last week. So I asked him to send his quotation to me and we try to work something out. But a little later, he called me up and told me," Hi Tay, I discussed with my wife and she advised me to do my claim. After thinking about it, I think this is also logical since I have been paying for the premium insurance and all that, might as well I do my claim." I don't know whether he was trying to get me to up my offer or was he trying to get me to show some form of worry or was he just purely dumb to listen to his wife (well after the whole episode I think its the latter). Well, not only did I not up my offer, all I said was," ok, I'll send in my documents tomorrow". For something as small as this that dumb driver actually wanted to listen to his even dumber wife to do a claim. He must have thought that he had a sure win case on hand, but after thinking through all that happened, really I'm not trying to defend myself or something, but the fault of the whole episode is not entirely mine. This case is in fact a 50-50 one. No.1: He was definately driving too fast, in an enclosed carpark the speed limit should have been at 15-20 km/h, he was going at around 40-50 km/h. No 2: There was a huge SUV blocking my view, and the SUV even had tinted glass. So from my angle I could not have seen anything at all. Already I was inching my way out and if he had complied to the speed limit, at 20 km/h, he would definately have seen my car. Of course back to theory, I would have been wrong. But logically thinking about it, there was no way I could have avoided colliding with him, but on the other hand he had the ability to prevent this collision. Damn that fucker. So my agent told me that if he wanted to do a claim, then I also go do a claim against him, then we let the jury decide who is correct.

So the next day I went to look for Ah Chuan, a mechanic that my agent recommended who is experienced in dealing with these claims and all. After I met him, I told him my story and he told me that it won't work. If I go by my story, I will definately lose, so he told me to twist my story a little so that it works to my advantage. After finalising the story, we went over to idac to do a report and to give my statement. And just as I was about to submit the report, that bastard called me to say he doesn't want to claim anymore. And that he would bring his car to my mechanic to access and I pay him the amount that my mechanic advise, and he will take his car to his own mechanic to fix. I quickly went over to discuss with Ah Chuan, and he helped me tell the guys to hold onto the report and not submit. The funny part was he told them," the other party has just called to say that they are willing to pay us, so don't submit first."

So I arranged to meet that bastard at Ah Chuan's workshop. And that bastard made me wait for so long before he arrived. When he came, Ah Chuan looked at the scratch and told him $250. And he was so lo so... for a guy he was damn naggy, think he's at the market bargining for food. Took out all his quotations for us to see. His $700 quote and another from Borneo Motor $1660. He was so kind to tell me that even he thought that $700 is too high, so he called the workshop to tell them and they gave him a 20% discount, wah so kind of him. So I was there with him and Ah Chuan for an hour, can you imagine I had to endure an hour of his nag. He keep saying this part not align, that part gap too big, and that he is doing QA so he knows this more that others, and like showed us how much he knows his car by showing us every one of his scratch on his car. After looking at the workshop, he decided to do his car at our workshop, because its a registered company and looks safe. What a bastard right. Anyway I can't be bothered with him, just want to settle this quick. And I want to stress something, Although I agree to pay him, that does not mean that I'm saying I'm wrong and its all my fault. Its just that I'm willing to pay some $$ to settle an issue (of course if the amount is not too great), and that IN THEORY I was wrong.

Haiz, hopefully the year of the rat will be better for me, the pig year really hasn't been the best year for me. So many things happened, and it seems that there are more bad stuff than good stuff. Well good luck to me for the coming year, will really need it.

Free, free, free....

This semester is too relaxed. So much so that everyday I wake up having to decide if I want to go school. I do not have the urge to be in school to listen to the lectures and go for lessons. Well mainly because I'm only taking 3 modules this semester, so my timetable is like literally a 1 day week (I only have 1 lecture a day on wed, thur and fri, tues is officially off)... So you see I only have monday to be in school. I can't help but feel that I'm damn slack. Haven't been doing a lot of FYP lately either, did type a few pages the other day, but its not enough, my pace is getting a little too slow. Gotta buck up SL.

Well CNY is coming, my bro is coming back next week... so many things are gonna happen in the next 2 weeks. Dennis is getting married soon. Will be attending his ROM next month, here's wishing them a blessed marriage.

Also a bit sadz, my Wii cannot modify. It seems that my model is too new, so there are still some problem with the current chips, that make modification a little unstable. I went to Sim Lim the other day, and of course, the vendors there just anyhow quote prices (thinking that I'm a new born). The highest quote I got for modification that day was a whopping $290 for modification. The other more managable one is $160 (which I still think is quite a lot). But really if the 160 offer can settle the modification, I might just pay for it. Anyway an original game cost about $80, so its only the price of 2 games, and after that I can buy a lot of other games to play. So in the long run, I still more or less 'wins'. But of course that price is still out of my budget lah, I was thinking of under $100. Haiz, hope to settle this soon.

Back with a New Post for the New Year

Hey hey, I'm back in Singapore now. After missing in action for a while (because we didn't have any connection in Boston), I'm now back to my home country.

Yup, it has been a tiring but exciting 2 weeks. And yes, I finally went skiing in the States, it was awesome. The speed and trill is indescribable, love it. Bought a lot of stuff back, was just sorting out the stuff to give to friends and of course the stuff that I get to keep.

Well, just earlier, we were sort of stuck in Shanghai for a while. The fog there was pretty bad, and alot of flights were canceled and delayed. And yes, our flight wasn't spared either. It was delayed. So we had to spend an extra hour in the airport before our flight could take off. The whole scene there was super haphazard, people were scolding and raising their voices everywhere because of the delays. For us, we just kept our cool. The flight back was pretty cosy though, the plane was the smallest I've ever taken (even smaller than the chun qiu planes I took in China). But the seats were bigger and a little more comfy. And how can I not mention the flight from New York to Shanghai. There was this German couple who requested for an extra seat so that their son could sleep through the flight and not cry (reasonable enough if there are enough seats), and so the mum ended up seating in a seat that belongs to this chinese gal (she seems to have been staying in US for a while already). So this gal made a big who ha about her not seating in her right place, about touching her bag without her consent and what not. Well of course all this has got nothing to do with me, until she had to continue her argument for another 30 mins to an hour. I could not take it, it was like killing me. To think that it was just the beginning of our 15 hr flight, and she is definitely not going to spoil my whole (already very uncomfortable) journey. And of course my mum typically ask me to mind my own business, but I just couldn't. Already the German had given in to her by giving up the extra seat, the hostress even offered to change a seat for her, but nothing seems to satisfy her. As she was rattling on and on and on and on (with her super broken english, which she seems very proud of) I just turn back and said (in chinese), "Have you had enough of your nonsense, I need some rest". Finally everything stopped, peace at last. Well, I've already been pretty kind to her, wanted to say more nasty stuff to her, but I guess the angelic side of me got the best of me, haha.

Also brought back my Wii. But the most irritating thing happened. When I plugged the adaptor into the socket, the adaptor fused. Fuck man, now that I have everything, I still can't play. Have a lot to do tomorrow (of course school is not included, although has started), so time to get pass the jet lag and get some sleep. Got a lot more to blog, but I'll save for next time!

Philadelphia

Yup, I'm in Philadelphia now. This morning we took the Greyhound from Atlantic City to Philly. Atlantic City was nice, I like the idea of walking by the beach on the wooden walkway, along the broadwalk with seagulls flying around you. It was really relaxing, the pace was also much slower than in New York. The casino was pretty disappointing though, we went over to Trump's Taj Mahal. Majority of the casino were slot machines, they didn't have the big and small games that I like. So I had to settle with playing a little jackpot. Wasn't really that exciting, in the end it was no win no lose. It was one cents a line, so after an hour of jackpot I lost 20 cents. When I went to cash out the money, the lady gave me back the 20 cents, so there wasn't any loss, hahaha.

Philly was alright, not much to do here. When we reached, I took the parents to check in at the hotel while my bro went over to get the tickets to the congress hall. After we checked in, we went to meet my bro at the hall, but we were a little late, so I had to get another 5 tickets for us, haha. So we decided to go see the Liberty Bell first before going over to the hall (they were just next to each other). After all that we went over to grab the famous Philly Cheezesticks, but the queue there was really long, so we changed our minds and settled for cheezesticks at another joint instead (I believe they all taste about the same). Then we headed over to Chinatown and to the reading market before going back to rest at the hotel. The hotel here is really good, very comfortable, but the beds are a little small though. Then I had to do a little planning for the next half of our trip. Considering the weather, I will probably have to make a slight detour in our route and delay the Niagara Falls by a day. Well now I'm still thinking about where we should stop so as to make the whole trip more enjoyable for everyone. It is the first time I'm making so many planning decisions for so many people, so this trip is really quite a learning process for me. I've learnt so much about accommodation and making adjustments to everyones' needs. Generally its all about give and take and putting everyone's limitations into consideration. I just hope that everyone will enjoy this trip.

Although we didn't do too much in Philly but I think this rest will do everyone good. Its really nice to see everyone more relaxed and energized. Now I'm actually on the look out for a walking stick for my dad. I think that will help him in our travel and walk. I'm not saying that he'll need it for the rest of his life, but I just feel that it will help him because we are walking quite a bit now. What I don't want is for him to become over dependent on it. So if I do find one, I will try to make sure that he only uses it during this trip, after the trip I will keep it aside until our next outing. Well now I can only hope for the best for the rest of the trip. Good luck to us!!!

Day 3 NYC

Today is museum day... We went over to the Museum of National History. It was used to film this Ben Stellar film - A night in the museum. Yup, the museum was great. It was super big, and it had almost everything inside. Everything was catergorised clearly, ranging from dinosaurs to artifacts to religon to native american history. It was quite an eye opener. We took almost half a day there, we had initially underestimated the time required. We had planned to go to another art museum and the UN headquaters, but didn't have time for that. Anyway, at the museum, we went for this space show (paid another 12 bucks for it). The show was pretty good, something like a Omimax show, about stars and creation of the moon and galaxy. The 1/2 hour show was pretty spectacular.

After the museum thingy, dad went back to rest at the hotel while we went to Time square for another round of shopping... Wahahaha. Of course we went back to Planet Hollywood to use up the $40 that we had. And also went to M&M world to grab some choc. I bought a packet of coloured M&Ms and 3 boxes of M&M for Alvin n Dennis. Then, we head over to Macy's for more shopping. We split up so that we could explore the mall. Went to checkout the wallets and bags with mum while Da gu went to checkout the coach stuff. While mum was looking through some bags, I saw this coin wallet form Fossil that was really quite nice....I so wanted to buy it, it was only $14 and I have another 11% discount. But of course I had to remind myself that I have too many wallets back home and that I should not buy it... But I really like it, at least I have not seen Fossil wallets in SG. Da gu had a great time at Coach. She picked up a bag for Er Gu, and then her weakness for wallets overcame her again.... hahaha, she got another 4 more wallets and small bags for herself. Spending a cool $300. Hahaha. But as always, I would say if you are buying things that you like, its worth it. As long as it makes you happy.

Then back at the hotel, it was check results time... quite worried about it. But I got through... wahahaha. Got 2 Cs for fluids and nano. An A for E&S, and Bs for the rest. its not a fabulous result but I would probably consider it reasonable, at least I got through. Really happy now... So its more shopping and more playing and more fun...... hahahaha. More to come!

Day 2 in NYC

We went to visit Liberty and Ellis island today. It was great! Finally saw the main representation of US, the pride of the whole nation. But it was a little chilly though. We were like super excited and awed by the statue, but was also struggling with the cold. Took a lot of photos, can't wait to upload them here. Ellis island was interesting, it was the immigration checkpoint of the past. Can you imagine that at one time there was more than 3000 people on the island, waiting to see if they could enter the states. Those that do not pass would be sent back to their country. Its pretty sad because some of them came with their family only to be separated at the island. But the funny part was a little girl, who was watching the video, fall alseep. And she was snoring away, very loudly, haha. And the parents don't seem to feel anything about it. Everyone was watching her, and the parents just let her be.

Anyway after that we went to Walls street to touch the bull and see the World Trade Center site. Mum and Dad bought shoes at Century 21. The place was pretty good, branded shoes were going at discounted prices. Well the main reason for the buy was of course their feet hurt, and so needed better shoes.

After that we headed down to Chinatown and Little Italy. Had dinner at Chinatown, which was super nice (actually it was just okie, but its been some time since we had some real food, other than bread, so we thought it was great). And after dinner we went to walk around the area. Then my aunt suggested that she bring my parents back to the hotel to rest, and I can shop around on my own. I was alright with the idea (although I would really like to have them shopping with me), because I know that they are tired from the 2 days of walking, and they really need to recharge to last the next 10 days. So I decided that for the next few days, there will be less walking, and more rest. I really want everyone to enjoy themselves and not to tire themselves out from this holiday, I want them to relax too. So we will take things slowly from now and just see whatever we can with our time. Even if we miss a few stuff, its ok.

So back to the shopping. Man, I love New York, the shopping was terrific. I went into Banana Republic and there was like discounts everywhere. I fell in love with this red cardigan, but its too expensive, even with discount it cost like USD$140. So I settled for a maroon shirt that cost me $40. Love that shirt. Then I went into Levis, of course thinking that I won't get anything there, but there was sale..... 50% off. Hahaha. So I grabbed a jeans for only USD$20. It is super cheap. I so wanted to get a jeans jacket, but had to control myself, keep reminding myself that I won;t have a chance to wear it back home. Then I wanted to get another jeans because it was so cheap, but of course I kept controlling myself because I know that I have a lot of jeans at home. Then I walked over to Times Square (a very long walk, its like 40 streets away, and the best part is it was raining), I wanted to go to Planet Hollywood to use that $40 voucher that come with the NY pass. So I brave the rain and walked to 44th Street and got a Tee at PH, a key chain and 2 golfballs (I needed to get at least 4 items to use the full $40). So I needed to topup another $4 for the purchase, but I thought it was worth it. Then I went to M&M world to check it out, didn't buy anything there, but it was super nice. It was like M&M everywhere, I wanted to get something there, but didn't know who for, so I thought that if I wanted I'll comeback again later. And after that I went over to Hershey's World, there I bought some chocs for my guys back home. There was an offer of 4 pac of choc for $12, so I took 4 pac, it is quite a lot of choc but I thought I can share them with my mum (she'll need some for her colleagues as well).

After my shopping spree, I went to take the subway back to the hotel. The 1st line I went to was close, and I was thinking oh shit, what am I gonna do. So I continued walking down the street and lucky me, there was another entrance to the subway. Went to the counter to ask the lady if the subway goes in the direction of my hotel but her instruction were so unclear, I tried to clarify but my coins fell on the floor, and she rolled her eyes and gave me that look on her face, what a bitch. So I just bought the tickets and took the subway. On the train I was feeling a little scared, probably because of all the stuff that my uncle told me. So half way through the journey someone like shouted to everyone on the train that he is poor and all that, and I was a little worried already, luckily nothing happened. Still managed to get back to the hotel safely, was a little late though, hopefully I didn't get my parents too worried about me.

Okie that all for today. More interesting stories to come, stay tuned!