1, i understand; 2, i comprehend. but 5?

the more i look at the number of spotties we got, 

the more absurd it becomes.

this is ridiculous! hahahaha 

but godson happy, so i'm good. 

Banks kaput, banks becoming gahmen owned... & bank run.

Lehman, WAMU, AIG... i dun even wanna count how many have gone kaput over the recent months.

most have gone down the toilet. others are now gahmen owned. 

in most cases, i suppose we can point the fingers at greed. greed made us value things more than what they are really worth; greed made us assume that risks can be managed so long as we can split them into small enough units and spread over enough people. and greed made us believe, that there's such a thing as principal-protected investment products. 

i dun mean to be rude (well, actually i am) but high interest with principal protection products are nothing but figment of ones' imagination!

come on lah people, stoopid means stoopid.  you truly believe that there are such risk-free products? just think about it. it makes no common sense. 

which brings me to the second matter - myopic tunnel vision. 

couple of days ago, one of the asian banks got hit when a rumour (that it is going to collapse) was spread via sms. hundreds of clients queued to get out their funds. 

oh yes, it was on the papers and news. and i was there and i saw the customers.

i saw them nicely seated in aircon lobby. had drinks. had food.

i saw order. 

but at the same time, there was something ridiculous about the sight. 

and it was that in mist of this chaos, while these people were trying to break their FDs and get out their principal, they actually argued about the interest calculation. about how much interest shd they collect. oh, and if the "promo rates" which they have locked-in can be calculated when they break the contracts. 

hello?

come on lah! if a bank is collapsing, you think the few dollars matter? you sorry arse should be happy simply becoz you get to have your principal back. 

------------

make no mistake, we are surrounded by petty arse who have no sense of logic nor priority. they can't see the big picture. even when one faces a derelict situation where millions could be lost, greed still kicks in. 

these people will never learn. 

and when the next crisis comes, they will make the same mistakes. again.

this, i can guarantee you.

The Spotty has landed.... err, make that TWO spotties.

Finally! i got my hands on them.

which means no more sad godson. or at least, no more mother-of-my-godson telling me that my godson is sad and that i have let him down.

made me having trouble sleeping at night. 

that woman is an extortionist! muahahahaha

but no matter, coz once again, godpa has delivered.

damn i'm good. 

i'm getting very good. hahahaha 

Spotty

just who is spotty? well, it's a very very important comfort toy to my godson.

see, he has two spotties (well, one is supposed to be used as spare though it's no longer the case, but that's another story) and he likes to carry both of them around, especially when he wakes up. 

anyway, to keep a long story short, i'm tasked to find a third spotty (just in case one gets dirtied... or whatever is the god-damn reason that denies him the luxury of having 2 at a go).

initially, i thought i finally managed to nail it, but turned out that the staff reserved me some wannabe instead.

(i'll have to deal with the staff separately on this.) 

anyway, after spending half of my Saturday sieving through pages and pages of google'd links, i managed to locate another spotty. hope can get our hands on it soon... or the-mother-of-my-godson will keep namo-ing me till the cow (or in this case, the giraffe) comes home. 

Oktoberfest...

Ahh... Oktoberfest. 

imagine setting up a tent the size of a soccer field, setting up rows upon rows of benches and tables, delicious German food, beer, live band... and being served by ladies in dirndl. 

i tell you, this is an open invitation to get drunk!

and true enough, like everyone else, i got drunk. 

how i come to realize that i was really high, was when:

(a) i actually drank 5 pints of beer. (hang on, i can't remember when was the last time i ever had 5 pints)

and (b) when it was actually a good idea to stand up on benches/tables and join in to sing "YMCA".  (ok, this is like so embarrassing)

anyway, i merlion'd. 

not there in the tent, of course.

only merlion'd when i got back.

not very glam, but...  yeah. 

and the cause?

not the pork knuckles, or the beer... but the champagne. 

actually, it's the combi of the three that kills.

moral of the story?

pork knuckles + beer = good

pork knuckles + beer + champagne = bad. 

the 2 boys...

my godson and his brother fight with each other from time to time. they fight over attention... over cartoons... and toys. 

they fight over toys all the time. every single toy.

typical sibling rivalry.

but once a while, if you are patient enough, you will see some brotherly love between them. 

Awww... nice.

Lavender kiss tea... by the pot, please

went back to TWG again a couple of days back. and this time, i tried the Lavender kiss tea. it's actually pretty good, not to mention the nice looking tea pot that comes with it. 

overall, the tea quality is excellent. 

and the pastries there were decent enough, though the choice are kinda limited. 

the only complain i have, is that the seats are too close to each other. not enough space to space out (duh). 

definitely not enough for me and my friends to bitch (i mean err... discuss! yes, discuss about deals) without being afraid of being overheard.

still, maybe one of these fridays, i'll just clear half day leave, sit there, and rot.

nice. 

Geylang Serai - crowd... rain... and sinful food

i must admit, i dun get to eat much local delicacies. not that they are not around, just that i dun get to eat them.

so, in view of the Malay festive season, i had a shot in the traditional malay food. ok, maybe not that traditional, but stuff i dun get to eat/see often.

this uncle is making what is known as Ramly burger. ok, i have no idea who Ramly is, but the burger's actually quite good. sinful (splattered-with-oil-sort-of-sinful), but good.

this store was selling otah. but what's new to me, was that this was the first time i've come across otah with prawn fillings.

and what's more interesting, was that while 2 ladies were in front selling, there were 3/4 more people at the back busy making them. right there! on the spot! 

by the road!

hang on... is that even allowed? 

Hmm...

Bo liao post - laundry bags

a friend once commented that i should use laundry bags for my office shirts. "it prevents the fabric from being pulled forcefully," she said.

"just dump the shirts into the bag, and the bag into the washing machine and voila!" 

sounds like a miracle invention if you ask me, since my office shirts do not exactly come cheap. why risks it when a bag can cost as low as SGD2 from Daiso.

so i googled the word and at least 10 pages of laundry-bag-related stuff came up. (hey, this is promising)

heck, they even have online stores providing personalized laundry bags services. 

(wow... guess this product must be damn good, since a cottage industry can actually be created out of a bag that's full of holes).

but umm... i dun get it.

i mean, how will putting shirts in a bag make them clean? wouldn't the bag restrict the fabric from rubbing against each other (thereby rubbing off any dirt)? i'm no washing machine expert, but if you think about it, that should be the case, no? 

and when i looked again at the pages of links that i googled (ok, maybe just the first 3) , none of them actually state how laundry bags can effectively clean clothes. none. zilch. nada. 

most are links which sell laundry bags.

others are links which lead to other links (duh) that sell laundry bags.

which bring us to the main question - do laundry bags actually work in getting stuff clean anyway?

coz if not, what's the point of using them? why use them when they can't perform the primary function of cleaning stuff?

perhaps having such bags is not about cleaning stuff. 

perhaps it's about convenience. 

perhaps it's about not losing one's socks (or anything else that comes in pairs, come to think of it).

who knows?

but if they are not useful in helping to clean whatever-that-are-in-them, then it must be one of those bo-liao inventions that linger in our lives for the wrong reasons.

.

.

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in the mean time, i've just bought 8 laundry bags and they (each with a shirt, of course) are now happily spinning in the washing machine, while i carry on satisfying my alter ego as a weekend blogger. 

guess i now know why laundry bags are invented after all - so that people can have more time on hand to do even more bo-liao activities.

bizarre week - i win some... i lose some... and i win some again

In a nutshell...

i bought this...

... i lost this...

... and i replaced the a/m with this. 

___________

funny thing, when one loses his/her hp. i suppose most people would feel the anger.. and desperation... or even, panic. but for me, i'm actually kinda zen about the episode. i dunno why, i just didn't feel any of the above.

i just strolled into the telco store and got myself another phone (well, since i'm at it, i might as well get the best available, but that's another story). 

ok, so transferring the contacts were a chore. but by the time you read this, it's done. so i'm good.

hmm... couple of years ago, i would have been most livid about it. not now though.

i wonder why.

meditate on this, i will. 

Starwars Clone Wars - the one-word review

Avoid.