We are back !

Yap, happily back from Singapore, safe and sound !
We were so tired that we slept instantly after arriving home. Boy, I am pretty sure I won't be able to sleep tonight, due to jetlag.

Apologise for the MIA - was practically cheong-ing (rushing) catching up with friends, families and eating.

Stay tuned, we will update with photos in a short while.

Home Sweet Home

Oops, I forgot to post this.

Yes we are back in Singapore for our chinese new year despite some minor glitches like the plane was delayed (for 3 hrs) during our transit in Narita Airport. We didn't get to sleep at all on the first day of arrival. As a result we hit the bed early at 9pm (very rare) and wake up at 5am. Yes, jetlag is taking place.

As expected, we have been rushing to meet our friends and eating non-stop. Even though we have been away for only 5months, but we do notice some changes that has happened in our neighborhood, and some parts of the city, like the IR (integrated resort).

Honestly its so good to be back, the nostagic feeling of walking on the streets I used to take, the feeling that I am safe even when alone, the familiar crowd that are always there. And we truly missed our families and friends, and vice versa. After all its not so possible to meet face-to-face as and when we like to.

Hur, a flock of geese ?

A US airline jet heading for North Carolina went down shortly after take-off. Miraculously, the pilot managed to land safely, with the plane half submerged in the river.

The crash seemed to be caused by a flock of geese that slammed into the plane's two engines.

Before this incident happened, I didn't know birds could cause such a headache to planes. I thought they could "sense" the plane and avoid it.

The probability is about one strike in 10,000 flights. I guess the most lucky thing is everyone survived on board, thanks to the pilot.

More details can be found here.

Dreams

This reminds me of a dream song sang by the Carpenters, couldn't remember the title.

I have been having a lot of dreams lately, which is pretty unusual.

A couple of weeks ago, I dreamt I was in my previous company attending our weekly meeting with my colleagues and my boss. Of course, the atmosphere was very tense as usual, everyone trying to avoid talking much, fearful of getting "suan" (sarcastic remark) for saying the wrong things, by ... you know.

Then a few days back, I dreamt I was in SG and going back to US soon. That woke me up (in cold sweat).

And last night, I dreamt my cousin came to my house all the way from California by herself. The funny thing is she asked for a glass of water, and I ended up in the kitchen trying to look for water. I eventually woke up without providing any.

"This is spooky" Adam Sandler said that in the movie "Bedtime Stories".

Could it be caused by my excitement for my upcoming home trip ? I wonder.

Is this going to stop ? I hate dreams. Since we believe by saying out loud it won't happen - so let's see if this continuous occurrence will go away, now that I have blog about it.

My iPhone Upgrade

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am usually very busy *Ahem* And I have just completed my iphone upgrade over the weekend. Being a forgetful person, I would like to share my experience here, in case I need to do it again *touch wood* in the future, and I forgot the steps (and pain) of this upgrade.

This is going to be technical, so skip if you are not interested. :)

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Wireless Technology

So I finally succeeded! What a tough job. I have emerged with a ring above my head, enlightened and a step closer getting to know this little gadget of mine. Its days of being a paperweight is gone (though it has done a good job), I can now install all the exciting and good applications I wasn't able to do so before. :)

My iphone has reborn !

Entertainment ... too much ?

A recent survey was conducted that "ranks markets according to the ownership and usage levels of 11 entertainment devices, including television sets, CD players and high-definition Blu-ray players".

Singapore came in 2nd, after Ireland. You can read the details here.

I am not surprised - I myself have several gadgets like macbook, iphone, mp3 player, nintendo ds, gps, etc, etc. Even though I am at home most of the time, I am seldom free. So if you find I haven't been updating my blog as I should be, I should be busy playing with one of these items.

This week, I was deeply engrossed with my iphone firmware upgrade. Before I plunge further, I looked to my best friend Google to learn more about how things work. So I spent my time improving my knowledge on iphone too. Maybe I am slave to all these, but without them, life seem so boooooring *yawn*

To make things more exciting, we recently got a HDTV and we are still figuring out how it works. We just discovered that we don't need the cable set-top box anymore. Its like you could watch ESPN on Starhub cable without plugging your TV to the Motorola box at home. And we also learnt that HD channels are not the same as digital channels. HD shows are screened in 1080p (pixels) which means sharper image whereas, digital is just referring to the way TV signals transmit.

And US is upgrading all national TV channels to digital tranmission on Feb 17 2009. So to tune in to one of these, we press 5.1 on our TV remote controller (Yes, there is a button with "." on it). Till now I can't find the official channel listing used in HDTV, so we have to keep pressing "channel +/-" to get to the right one.

Grandpa Sun (太阳公公)

Nowadays, we don't get to see the sun often.
Most of us probably take the sun for granted when there's plenty of it back home. (Maybe too much?)

We have become more appreciative of grandpa sun - we usually notice him when he comes out for a tan.

"Look, the sun is out !" one of us will exclaim.

And when it appears at this time of the year, its a bonus. We feel more genki and motivated. As a colleague puts it, "sun for me is fundamental - I believe I still do some photosynthesis".

Today happens to be the bonus day.

Can you remember the song about the sun we used to sing when we were kids ?

Ginger beer is no ale

Made a special trip to a supermarket downtown to get this.

I was ready to show the cashier my photo ID on checkout, but he didn't ask for it.
Strange, isn't it compulsory for any liquor purchase ? We were baffled.

Took a sip, and it dawned on us this is not beer at all. Yes its ginger beer, but no alcohol. Just like root beer without beer. We had a good laugh over it.

And this stuff is sooooooooooo nice ! It has become our favourite drink of the year.