F1 Singapore 26-27 Sept 2009

Jensen Button's Brawn car ; taken using the Canon EOS 500

The world's most watched human circus came to Singapore last weekend,25th - 27th September. The F1 is the brainchild of Bernie Eccelstone and the various teams from mainly European car makers, spend hundreds of millions of EUROs to participate in it. Red Bull, Braun (formerly Honda), Philips,Force India are the non car manufacturing teams while the traditional top names are Maclaren Mercedes, Ferrari, BMW Sauber, Renault (they are going to be banned for 2 years for Crashgate last year) and Toyota are the more established car marques. The recent financial crisis led to Honda pulling out of the F1 this year and some famous names in the banking world like AIG and RBS are also pulling out for various reasons.

AIG pulled out of Renault because of the Crashgate incident last year when Nelson Piquet Jr., purposely crashed under no pressure in Singapore, enabling his team-mate Fernando Alonso to win the GP. After 1 year of investigation, they found that Nelson was acting under instructions from the team boss, Flavio Briatore and Manager Pat Symonds. Both were subsequentlly barred,Flavio for life in the sport and Symonds for 2 years. RBS pulled out mainly due to the Financial Crisis which engulfed most Western banks with toxic assets.

The F1 is typically the pinnacle in car performance and the drivers have to be subjected to many Gs (acceleration due to gravity) - similar to what fighter pilots experience - in their quest to finish on the podium or top 3. I am not a fan, but I am slowly developing an interest what with the many scandals, in and out of the circuit,with their twists and turns, crashes and clashes of egos, make the most thrilling bestseller novel seem like a boring textbook.


Friends from Germany, Meike and Florian came specially for the races

My friends from Germany, Meike Pucher and her boyfriend, Florian flew all the way to Asia to watch the F1 and after the race, managed to watch a live performance by the Backstreet Boys. The F1 Singapore management, I must add, did a tremendous job in arranging ample seating and viewing for the 80,000 foriegn fans and probably 200,000 local fans. The international acts came from top headliners like Black Eyed Peas, No Doubt, Jacky Cheung, Pussycat Dolls, Damage, Backstreet Boys, among many others.


Lewis Hamilton's Maclaren Mercedes racing to Pole Position

To get a taste of the sound, imagine a fighter jet flying about 100 feet about you.It is a high pithced whining sound which, if without earplugs, can cause serious auditory damage to your hearing. That is how loud the sound is ! I booked 4 tickets at the Singapore Cricket Club on Saturday 26th Sept. and they had a very nice corner where the cars all sped past, and it was great for photo taking. The band at the Bar was in full flight when we got there, and belting out rock and roll numbers loud enough to drown out the cars. As a new member of the Cricket Club, I was quite taken by the fact that the expatriates really know how to enjoy the races and have a jolly time with alcohol acting as a barrier breaking salve for the stressed executives and expatriates working here. By the 3rd glass of beer, most of us at the bar were watching the proceedings from the large screen with the close -ups shots at every turn, driver's helmet and of course the crashes.


Red Bull in Full Flight

So, as the only night race for the moment, Singapore is attracting the world's sports fans for the next 2 years. We will be hosting the inaugaral Youth Olympics in 2010, so we might see the next Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt in Singapore soon. I look forward to that opportunity.

Parasites - We can do without them

The Predator Hunter

In the animal kingdom there are the predators, the prey and the producers. Let me elaborate, the producers are the naturally occuring tress, plants, grasses and ferns in our ecosystem which produce the basic food from the Sun, carbon dioxide and water. The very act of photosynthesis to produce oxygen for all other living things survival is already a tremendous miracle in itself. The Sun provides the basic building blocks of energy - heat and the trees and plants take it from there on. So they produce food for themselves, flowers and fruits for reproduction and invertedly also food other insects and animals.

So the food chain begins, insects take the nectar or birds and other animals eat the fruit or the leaves. Larger animals eat the smaller insects and animals until at the top of the food chain is the predator, normally a carnivore like the lion, tiger or eagle.So Man has been very successful in tapping on the basic food chain and making themselves the kings ot the food chain.

Then there are the unwanted creatues, for some reason, still around after many milleniums, the scavengers and the parasites. I can think of the use of the scavengers when the rotting carcass of the dead animal is left in the African savanna, many many vultures and hyenas attack it for their source of food. And the unseen microorganisms of flesh eating bacteria which ultimately make the dead carcass into nothing more than some dried bones.

The worst are the parasites, they pretend to be symbiotic on the larger animals bodies like the leech, the flatworm and the hookworm draining the host human of essential food and nutrients and ultimately drawing so much nutrient that the human either takes painful medicine to kill the parasite or dies from the parasite although that would be bad for the parasite as it would lose its hosts nutrients and ultimately need to find another host or die a natural death.

So it is with our human relationships with our family, friends and acquantences. Do you know who you are in the socio-economic food chain. Are you a producer, predator, prey, scavenger or worst of all parasite ?? Some elaboration :

a) Predator - Similar to the hunter, where the person hunts and seeks out business or money from either ventures or companies, equities, assets,properties and from these, will be able to make a living, sometimes very good living out of his predatory skills.


The ever dependable Tree or Producer

b) Producer - Similar to a farmer, whereby he or she is working in a company, or is managing a family fulltime, such as a homemaker. He or she works in improving his career,buys long term security like insurance and is viewed as an asset to his or her company for his work experience and skillsets and views.

c) Prey - These are the customers of predators, they can be small business owners, on the one hand either selling out their businesses, or making profits for the predators. They can feed on smaller prey ie. buying or merging with similar or smaller sized companies and developing into a larger entity.

The prey can also feed on the producers so the prey-producer is the typical small business man and housewife
combination where the prey brings back the small money (catches from his business deals) and the producer grows that throught long term assets purchase and for the next generation. Periodically the prey will rely on the producer for food, ie. when his business is near failure or needing cashflow to fund it.


Hyenas and Vultures - Scavengers

d) Scavenger - These troll around looking for gems in the garbage, so they make off after the predator has made his meal, ie. when the big business deal has been sealed and there are many small deals which need tying up. A subcontractor comes to mind. Sometimes small business owners fall into that category.


Bloody Leeches - Parasites !

e) Parasite - These are the worst kind. These people feed on the kindness of the producer, prey, predator and practically anything. They are called the 'hangers on' who ask for free meals and think that the cushy jobs are owed to them. They have a deluded sense of self-worth and end up a) making the most noise without producing anything worthwhile or b) stay quiet and suck the goodwill and money out of the kind host.

The world would be a better place without the parasites, but they seem to be a resilient lot.

Reflect a little today, which ones are you ?

Patrick Swayze - Farewell

One of the action and romance actors of the 80s and early 90s, Patrick Swayze passed away on Monday 14th September. He was 57, an age where most people are beginning to enjoy the fruits of their labour and retire and hopefully live for another 25 to 30 years. Given modern day healthcare advancement and life expectancy,living till over 80 and even 90 years of age is possible and probable if one takes care of one's health,eating right and exercising regularly. Unfortunately for diseases like pancreatic cancer and leukaemia, the survival rate beyond 5 years upon late stage detection is still quite low.


Point Break

According to newspaper reports,Patrick had discovered that he had late stage pancreatic cancer in January 2008 and sought aggressive treatment to counter in. He once commented that even drinking water had a feeling of 'acid dropping into your gullet' to describe the pain and discomfort.

The one film which defined the genre of action films in my mind was Point Break where he played the bad guy Bodhi. Bodhi and his gang of surfer dudes lived by the beach and enjoyed a debaucherous lifestyle of parties, sex and alcohol. There was no need for drugs because they always got an adrenalin 'high' from surfing and skydiving - and robbing banks during the off season when there were no strong winds, normally in autumn.

To supplement their income, they robbed banks, using masks form the past American Presidents, Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Ford. Their motto early in the film was to steal just enough to finance their surfing lifestyle and when the winter came, they would all take a break and work day jobs.So they timed their heists to under 60 seconds, taking only what was at the tellers' booths and not bothering to break into the vault where the big money was as it would compromise their getaway.

In comes Johnny Utah, the top rookie from FBI put on the case to catch these part-time bank robbers and played by Keanu Reeves, it was a case of one-upmanship against each, Johnny the new guy tried to infiltrate the gang and in the process win the heart of Bodhi's girl and then finally join in the gang for their robberies. So their are skydiving antics, surfing competitions, beach football - all Brokeback mountain stuff where male bonding and macho ideals are displayed.

Bodhi found out Johnny was an FBI agent and the kidnapped his girl and forced Johnny to join in on one of their heists, it went horribly wrong from there. They had 2 gang members killed in the heist and during the getaway, Johnny's police mate was killed. Bodhi managed to escape into the desert.

The ending of this film was a classic in my opinion, where, Johnny chased him all the way to Indonesia - 2 years later where Bodhi was waiting for the 'once in 50 years wave'.It was a massive typhoon and everyone was running away from the beach to safety, for their lives. Only 1 guy - Bodhi - was going in the opposite direction. Johnny followed him.



Too Wong Foo

They fought on the beach, and Johnny Utah handcuffed Bodhi. Bodhi finally convinced Utah to let him go to attempt the Ultimate Wave, a 200 foot monster. He told Johnny "thanks" and surfed into the wave. He did not want to die in an enclosed place like the prison where he would get 20 years at least, preferring to kill himself attempting the ultimate challenge and adrenalin rush.

" Get him when he comes back " Another cop told Johnny
"He ain't coming back" - Johnny Utah.

Bodhi swam towards the Big One and killed himself with the wave.

What a way to go.

Thats how I will remember Bodhi aka Patrick Swaze.

My New Ride

My New Ride

As requested by Kannan, here is my new 'ride' (don't really know all these American slangs,I guess it means my car). So tounge-in-cheek, here it is. I bought it 2nd hand from this Michael Shoe something. He claims he was injured during motorcycling and was heartbroken when he couldn't drive it at 300kmh here - the speed limit in Singapore is 90km, well sometimes you can cheat and do 110 km but after than "No panchan". The cops or Uncle Sam will give you and ticket and a greeting "Have a Nice Day !".

The car comes with it the entire crew of Italians from Felari and I cannot leave my house until they change the tyres, and the Lollipop Man raises his er, Lollipop. Apparently he was on vacation last year at Singapore's F1 and Felari had a whole bunch of problems.


As Requested by Kannan

The KERS is a pain in the butt, I don't know about all these gizmos. The steering wheel you must disconnect - I live in a bad neighbourhood so must keep it in the house and fix it in only when I use it. Oh, its a tight squeeze in the driver's compartment and I am still figuring out how to send the wife to work. The Boys love it and you should see the looks I get when I drive it to the supermarket !

My visit to Molineux (20 years ago)

Me outside Wolves home ground Molineux

In June 1987 I went on a tour to Europe, I was considered lucky because at that time, who had any money to spend without having worked a day in his / her life ? Thanks to my supportive parents,they paid the then princely sum of S$ 2,500 for an all expenses paid trip of 28 days in Europe on a Tracks tour group. To cut a long story short, the visit to England was the last leg of it and by that time - 28 days into the tour, I had made many firm friends, who are all lawyers by the way.

My group of 5, 4 guys and a girl, extended our visit for another 1 week in England, and I suggested that we visit Molineux as well as Old Trafford and Everton (yes Kannan, I went to Merseyside too). The visits to the grounds on a typical Saturday were a complete eye-opener and changed my perception of English football forever.

Molineux, the stadium of Wolverhampton Wanderers is located in the city center of Wolverhampton. The city is in my opinion, one of the greyest and ugliest I had seen in my life what with the poverty and poor town planning. The factories and commerce which had been the bedrock of English industry in the Midlands had left maybe in the 70s and what was left was a grey and crumbling city. There were plenty of migrant people of Indian, Sikh, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin and one would not be faulted if he or she thought that they had stepped into an Indian city.

This is in the 80s ; before even more migration from the former colonies set in. I cannot imagine how it is like 22 years later.


Ki Keong says, "come on support Wolves !"

However, Molineux was new then and we went in by the side entrance and managed to get ourselves onto the pitch. We had a great time pretending to be players and running around and kicking and basically having a great time. It was a pity Wolves were playing 'away' that week else I might have had a chance to watch them.


Clockwise top left, Peter Chow, Chong Ki Keong, Simon Tan and Me

A booming voice shouted " Hey ! what the hell are you doing ?" It turned out that we were intruding into private property and no one was allowed on the pitch. The groundsman had a shock when he saw 5 Asian students and he then changed his tune and let us continue taking our pictures and that was the end of my visit to Wolves home ground 20 years ago.

Wolves - My Boyhood Team

Wolverhampton Wanderers

I'll let in on a secret, I used to support Wolverhampton Wanderers during my childhood days in the 70s and up till the 80s. They were then a Division 1 team (before Premiership and the BPL,EPL stuff) and the apart from the nice name and gold coloured shirts which they wore, I had no other reasons for supporting them. They had several illustrious players in their team, notably John Richards (striker in 70s), Willie Carr (Scottish midfielder in 70s),Andy Gray (scored the winner in the 1980 League final against Aston Villa) and Steve Bull (England striker in 80s and 90s).

I had written a post earlier that too many people follow mindlessly sports on TV with out a given purpose in their lives - football is the opiate (opium) of the masses for the English public ; their very lives are so full of drudgery and repetitiveness that the only thing to look forward in their lives to is their Saturday afternoon visit to the pub to get drunk, watch their hometown heroes play, sometimes squabble over the moves and scoring and go home either elated,indifferent or sad.

Furthermore many of these players earn 100 to 1000 times more than the average fan so, the great injustice is that the people who make it happen for the clubs - by watching the games week in and week out - end up with so little to show for it ; in terms of the silverware which 80% of the other clubs win, apart from the Big 4 ; it is once in a blue moon that a Tottenham or Everton win say the FA Cup ; almost never the Championship.

Anyway, now that the Wolves are in the top flight, I check their results every Sunday morning ; its a habit I have been doing since my boyhood days. I am not a crazy fan or even a decent fan but its a romantic notion of keeping to things or practices one has been doing since young.

I will have in another post the days I went to visit Molineux, the home of the Wolves in Wolverhampton, midlands of England.

Tiger Zoo in Sriracha - a Revisit in June 2009

Feeding the baby Tiger Milk - See the Sharp Claws


Me and 2 Cold Blooded Poikilotherms

Roughly 2 years since I last visited the Tiger Zoo in Sriracha Thailand, I decided to drop in to visit the Zoo once again in June, together with my Thailand Sales Manager, Tawatchai.Located approximately 150 km from Bangkok near the city of Sriracha, the Tiger Zoo is an amazing place where animal social experiments are taking place. They have glass enclosures where the female tiger is suckling baby pigs dressed up in tiger coats to camoflouge their true forms.There is also an enclosure where a young tiger is taking a nap with a fully grown dog and the dog is quite irritated by the tiger's playful bites.

Other interesting exhibits are the Scorpion enclosure where the famous Scorpion Lady is wearing a blouse with over 100 scorpions all over !


Crocodile Show

There is the ubiquitous Crocodile Show where the artiste kisses the crocodiles plus put his head into the open snout of the crocodile. There are also Tiger and Elephant shows and the piglet races.


Entrance to Tiger Zoo in Sriracha Thailand

Possibly the highlght of the zoo is the feeding by bottle of baby tigers and one can get up close and personal with the baby carnivores and see the sharp claws they have even at barely 6 months old !

Thanks to Tawatchai for arranging this trip. Its 2nd time but twice as good.

Farewell my Lovely

SDT 298 E you will be missed and not forgotten

Today, 4th September, I sold my car off and got a newer car to replace it. My Harrier is already 7 years and 2 months old and I decided it was time to upgrade to a newer car. Not wanting to spend too much on cars as they are depreciating items, I did my sums and spent about a week checking newspapers and also websites. I chanced upon what appeared to be a reasonable deal in one of the websites for Singapore resale cars called sgcartmart.com on a Saturday and indicated my interest. The owner had put up the ad just 2 days before and we made contact to meet the following day,Sunday. The appointed time was in the morning and I was just browsing. As luck would have it, it was raining cats and dogs and I postponed the viewing to the Sunday evening and everything just 'clicked in place'. The new car was in excellent condition and the owner had only driven 22,000 km which was very little for 2 years of ownership. He admitted that this was his second car (his first is a BMW 3 series) and used this only for his commute to the office in Shenton Way.

He was very sincere in his dealings with me and showed me every single service he put in for the car, even where every small scratch made (at the back where he used to put his golf bags). I was taken by his car's excellent condition and although it was the first car I viewed, I wanted it as I was very comfortable with the Harrier having been driving mine (SDT 298E) for over 4 and a 1/2 years without incident and only 1 major servicing in June to replace the fan belt and spark plugs.

After some negotiation, we settled on the price and it was then up to me to settle the sale of my car and the subsequent transfer. I went back to my old car dealer who sold me the Harrier and the General Manager, a Mr. Kenneth Tan, handled the deal himself. Doing due diligence, getting my income statements, loan application, settlement of outstanding loan with my bank (Maybank thank you) as well as making me a decent offer for my car was all part and parcel of his commissions.

In the end it all boiled down to numbers, so in essence, I will be paying no cash upfront, and stretching my loan to 8 years, will be paying 10% lesser than what I am paying now for my SDT 298 E. So the kicker is that I will need to pay for another 8 years for a newer car. That means I will be 54 when I finish paying for it UNLESS I sell it away before then.

However given the major depreciation absorbed by the first owner (almost S$ 30,000), it worked out than this new car will depreciate only S$ 8,500 per year for the next 7 and 1/2 years as I would stand to get about S$ 20,000 in scrap value then.
So in essence, it is depreciating very little per year and I can get a decent price when I decide to sell it, say less than the 8
years left on the COE paper.


Toyota Harrier converted to Lexus RX 300

My Harrier is one car which is big on space and although not that fuel economical, it is powerful (2.4L enginer V6) and could transport my elder Boy Noel and his friends to school (as a car pool) without any problems. It is a workhorse and required very little servicing. It has a very spacious boot area for storing of bulky items and best of all, it is not too long in length whereby it can fit into my car porch area without any major problems. I recall sending it for service once every 4 months and nothing major as far as repairs or parts failure were required. Kudos to the Toyota Marque !

I am a Harrier fan and that is why I got a newer car as proof of my enjoyment in driving it. The car which I call my Lovely, will be remebered with fondness.

SAFRA Half Marathon 16 August 2009

Please see the Link List (if interested) on the analysis of my recent 21km run.