The irony of life...

A rich workaholic man who works 14 hours a day and 7 days a week was on a rare vacation alone at an idyllic sea side resort. While strolling down the beach, he met a cheery local fisherman who lives by the sea and was about the same age as himself.

These two men have a chat, and the fisherman asked the rich man, "Why are you working so hard for?"

The rich man replied, "This is because when I retire, I will have a lot of money."

The fisherman asked, "Oh? And why would you need so much money when you retire?"

The rich man replied, "Ah, so that I can buy a nice house next to the sea, watch the waves come in, witness the sun rise and set, and buy a yatch so that I can go out to fish in the open seas."

The fisherman smiled and said, "My pal, isn't that what I'm doing now?"

Irony of life? I think so.

Being happy is more important than being rich. Health is always more important than wealth. Stay happy and healthy my friends!

The Bells

Not too long ago I was just telling hon that how some people I know in my Friendster account are seen in wedding gowns/suits. The other day, she told me that she saw her Secondary School friend's wedding photos on Friendster too.

Interesting thing to point out is that I don't keep in contact with more than HALF the people in my friends list and its amazing to see them all stepping into the next phase in life - a phase which requires a lifelong commitment. And all of them are of the same age or younger, both guys and girls.

Probably I'm still in denial about my age, or time passes so quickly that I forgot how old I actually am. My best pals were also upgraded to "Mr and Mrs" status earlier this month.

Me? I'm still buried in my myriad of books and notes and sitting for examinations, albeit not for long. Not that I'm afraid of commitment, but there is still a long way to go and a lot to work on; financially and emotionally before I get there. But I will definitely work hard!

Anyway, brather Ando4 gave me some great news early this morning that he passed his driving. Ha! Good for you bra, now you can officially join us in terrorising the roads in your Mini One. Muahaha...

DSG - Damn Superb Gearbox

I realised after speaking so much about my favourite VW Golf GTI, I did not really talk about the technical aspects of the car. Well, apart from being such a dynamic and understated hot hatch, what lies under the skin is definitely surpasses what's outside. Don't forget, it ain't the prettiest car on the road.

The highlight of the GTI is definitely the DSG (Direct Shift Gearbox). How does it works? Basically, it is a automated manual gearbox that employs 2 parallel boxes. One box has the even numbered gears (2,4,6) while the other has the odd numbered ones (1,3,5).

How it works? Simple - two clutches work in conjunction and when the car is in first gear, second gear has already been engaged. Thus, when the second gear is selected, all the gearbox has to do is to swap the power onto next gear. Since the clutch has already been engaged, the power swap is seamless with no loss in power unlike conventional automatic gearboxes which saps power through the torque converter. This gearbox also changes gears quicker than any human being can and allows the DSG equipped GTI to sprint to 100km/h even quicker than the 6-speed manual version (6.9 secs compared to 7.2 secs).

When you feel lazy and just want to cruise around town, it can mimick an automatic gearbox very well and there are no jerks in up and downshifts. The interface is a simple P-R-N-D-S and + -, just like any manual override equipped autobox.

Well, more about the direct injection 2 litre turbocharged engine in another post. Stay tuned!

La Kopi session...

Everyday after lunch, we have a usual routine to go through, and this routine is called the 'la kopi session'. This session enables us to chill abit, talk c*ck, laugh out loud, and then head back to the office to fight more 'wars'.

The time of the year

Well well, its the time of the year again where we proudly display our National Flag outside our houses. Was at Fullerton on Saturday and managed to catch the rehersals of the first NDP on sea. Well here are some photos.

And something unrelated...

Bad English spotted...

Socceroos in action

Last Friday, I had the wonderful opportunity of attending one of the event my Bank participated in. My team helped in the coordination of this football clinic, which were graced by the Socceroos - yes the Australian National football team.

Well, shirt and pants isn't exactly the ideal attire at the stadium, but it was a very enjoyable day and a rather successful event, and I managed to get some photo opportunities with the stars who played in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

That's Tim Cahill, don't ask me why I took a picture with an Everton player.

Mark Bresciano. Shame many people do not know him because he doesn't plays in the EPL. But he was actually one of Australia's best players in the 2006 WC.

Being dwarfed by the 1.92m tall Mark Schwarzer. Damn i feel so tiny.

Well of course I was disappointed I didn't manage to catch Harry Kewell that day. Apparently he was not in Singapore yet, and only arrived yesterday.

Green Cars

It is great to note that auto manufacturers are paying more attention to the environment in recent times by building environmental friendly cars. Toyota , and to a lesser extent, Honda have been at the forefront of ‘green cars’, with the former having a wide range of petrol electric hybrids cars which extends to its luxury marquee Lexus. It is also heartening to see that American manufacturers, who are known for manufacturing ‘gas’ guzzlers, are jumping on the bandwagon with their own hybrid vehicles.

With increasing pollution, many ecological systems are damaged at an alarming rate. The way automobile makers run their business has been cast under the spotlight as the manufacture of vehicles contributes to a large percentage of air and water pollution. Honda for instance, has taken environment initiatives; setting up the Honda TreeFund program in 2004 which ensures that for every Honda car sold, ten native trees will be planted.

As much as we love cars, we have to love the environment too. Each of us has a part to play to ensure that we protect this environment we work, play and live in, so we can continue to enjoy the thrills of our rides in a clean and healthy planet earth. The introduction of more hybrid vehicles by manufacturers other than Toyota, Lexus and Honda in Singapore would definitely be welcomed, since hybrids are more affordable now compared to a couple of years back when they were first introduced. I would like to see more hybrids on the road in the near future. Having said that, probably our respected national leaders could start the ball rolling by adopting, say, the Lexus LS600h L as their limousines of choice?

Hot property market

In a very short span of over two days, as many HDB flats in my area were sold for crazy stratospheric prices - prices that one would usually pay for a nice small condominium.

To me, this is nothing more than jokers with cash to splash from their collective en-bloc sales, spoiling the market by paying some S$200k above valuation and for the entire property in CASH.

In hokkien, we call this HAO LIAN, or a crude way would be LAU LAN.

Empty spaces???

Every morning when I take the bus to work, I wonder to myself, "Why are there so many empty spaces towards the rear of the bus? Do people have a phobia of standing near the rear bench? Do the people at the back of the bus have BO?"

Or do they see something I don't??