Car Servicing

Sent my ‘wife’ for servicing today. I’ve been doing normal engine oil and oil filter change with my current workshop ever since the car reached 20K. As the 40K major servicing was missed, the boss, Vincent, suggested that I might as well do the 80K servicing since the car has reached its 70k mileage. To cut the story short, basically all fluids and filters will be replaced in the car. It's like a major fluid transplant. The entire operation will take about 4-5 hours the least.

Imagine to my surprise when my mechanic quoted me $312 for replacement of all fluids and filters for the car! I expected it to be expensive but not this much!!!

Well, at least I got a free car wash and vacuum from them. This is the first time I’m using the new workshop at the recommendation of a Toyota Wish forum member. The service is good and very personal. Vincent walked me thru the package while the mechanic takes his time to explain to me what he will be doing and show me the parts to be changed throughout the servicing. Vincent also test drove the car to make sure that everyting is in order before passing the key to me. Most likely will be going back to him and using them as my regular workshop. It would be nicer if it’s nearer to home. (Rivervale Workshop is at Autopoint 4th floor, Ang Mo Kio Ave 5)

 

Church of St. Teresa

I had a little time before meeting up a friend for dinner. It was a bright sunny (and hot) day after the whole day of rain on Sunday. So I decided to drive down to to the Church of St. Teresa. I've been driving past the church many times and had wanted to visit there for a long time but did not find the right opportunity to go. These were taken at about 4.30pm that day. I put on a polarizer on the lens to darken the sky.
Don't have much information on the Church of St. Teresa but here's a link about the church services.
http://www.veritas.org.sg/cdir.php?action=disp_chu&value=9

2nd Visit to zoo

Visited the zoo on Sunday again but this time with dad. He loves the zoo and tries to go there every year. Did not take much pictures that day as the sky started pouring shortly after we arrived. We were at the elephant show when it started to rain. The show was cancelled halfway due to bad weather and the entire crowd got stuck there for about 2 hours before the rain lightens. Dad and I bought ponchos to walk thru the rain to get to the tram (waited for another half hour) and to our car. Btw, the first picture is the zoo mascot, Ah Meng, the orang utan.



 

Castle Beach @ East Coast

Do you know there's a part of East Coast beach called "Castle Beach"? I just found out about this place last Saturday when I drove over there after lunch. The workers were there building sand castles. I was wondering how often do they have to rebuild them since it has been raining pretty frequent in Singapore. Saturday was a very hot day. The guys at work are practically in the sun building the sand castle the whole day! But come to think about it... this type of job where to find? Can be at the beach, near the sea, getting a suntan, do what kids love to do when they are at the beach and at the end of the day, get paid for doing it... Not a bad profession at all! :-)


 

Visit to the Singapore Zoo

A fellow colleague asked me if I'm interested to go to the zoo to take pictures. I've not gone to the zoo in ages. When I was there, I decided to sign up the “Friends of the zoo” membership. The membership costs $60 for an individual. I was thinking that I can go anytime to take pictures of the animals. The membership comes with free carpark and tram rides (as of June 2006). It makes perfect sense when a normal ticket costs $15 person, a tram ride another $5 and carpark costs $3.80. I can go 3 times in a year and I got back what I spent on the membership.

I think the pictures taken that day were so-so. Didn’t quite know how to take pictures of the animals. I feel like I’m doing fashion portrait shots of them. Feels very weird about it. Anyway, give me your comments about how you feel about the pictures! :-)




 

Sec Schoolmates' Barbecue

My secondary schoolmates and I did a barbecue gathering on a Saturday. It's been a long while since we had a gathering. Almost the entire gang of friends were there (with the exception of the couple who went to Cannes for the film festival...) This time round, we up the quality of food rather than the quantity of food. We had beef steak, pork chops, chicken winglets, satay, chipolata sausages, salad. Kid were given their very own 'special meal' of rice and fish ball vegetable soup (courtesy of Siew Yen). Everyone was happy and filled.
The 'birthday ladies' and 'birthday kids (wannabe)'...
Our gang's 4 babies! (with 2 more on the way).

Night walk behind Grand Copthorne Hotel

Took these pictures while taking a walk behind Grand Copthorne Hotel this evening. Those of you who know where Zouk is will probably know where these pictures are taken. I just find the bridge pretty unique. As I did not have a tripod with me, I set the camera to ISO 1000 in order to take these hand held.

Chinatown Smith Street

I was at Smith Street at Chinatown last night. Didn't know there are stalls there. Thought they are only there during the Chinese New Year. We walked about there after we had dinner. Didn't eat anything apart from from the drink stall. We ordered aloe vera drink and bittergourd drink. The bittergourd tasted horrible (I didn't like the taste) while the aloe vera was rather bland. The 4th pictures is a stall selling fried stuff. Didn't really think that the food are of high fibre...
The Indo Sumatera stall sells Indonesian food like Kueh, and other cakes covered in coconut shavings. There's also a stall selling the traditional Kueh Tu-tu (5pcs for $2).

Steamboat @ Jade Room, Hotel Royal

Some of the trainees from my school and I went out for dinner on Wednesday night. I suggested that we have steamboat at Jade Room, Hotel Royal. I've been there a couple of times and I like it alot. We started at 7pm and finished at about 10.20pm. I'm a very steamboat person. I like friends and families gathered around the hotpot where we can chat and eat at the same time. The steamboat restaurant serves very good and fresh ingredients. They are all served without any marinate on them. I particularly love their sliced mutton, beijing meatballs, and prawns. The chicken wings at the cooked food section is to die for! I can go to the restaurant and just eat the chicken wings!!! On days where the restaurant is crowded, Peking Duck is served too (2 servings per patron). Service as usual is very good. You pay for what you get. I hated the steamboat places at Marina South. They are hot, dirty, and the service sucks! You never know whether the food they serve are fresh with the amount of marinate they use for each type of meat.

The picture below was taken at the end of the meal. We cleared almost everything and made a mess there. That's why I never believe in eating steamboat at home. Too much of everything to clean and wash up.

Staff Canteen @ Changi Airport T2

Went with a couple of friends to look for food. Was thinking of the staff canteen at Changi Airport and I was wondering if it is still there. The last time I went there was when I was still in Polytechnic studying for my final year exams!
Glad to say that it is still there. We were there at about 2.30pm. There wasn't really a crowd at that time. I remembered the Indian Rojak was very good and decided to order some. Another friend bought Fried Prawn Noodles. We also bought lots of fruits to bring home as there was a fruits stall setup by the staff welfare commitee that day. Lots of cheap oranges, grapes, pears, mangoes and dragon fruits. (The Rojak was good. So tasty that I forgot to take a picture of it)
If you wish to go there, it's on level 3M of carpark B @ T2 (right hand side of T2).

 

GESL Exhibition, Part 2

The picture I took of a friend completing the form. We are supposed to submit a form at the end of our GESL experience during the exhibition. No one was informed about this until on that day when a NIE staff handed to those who are there an envelope containing these forms. I guess they are a way for them to take attendance too.

Whoever came up with that form probably had not given more thought or had not brainstormed for better way of structuring the questions listed. (Thought we were taught in NIE to think creatively and to reflect all the time?) Most of us were not pleased with the way the questions were written. Imagine that we need GESL to realize that we finally have a sense of purpose or direction in life. Or that we have developed a set of values after the GESL experience. -_-lll
A friend said "Look! If I'd live until so old then I learn something about values, I might as well go and die!!!"

GESL Exhibition

We had a GESL exhibition on Monday. These are pictures taken on that day. Annabel (Group Leader) quickly went to print out some pictures for pasting onto the noticeboard. The rest of us helped to put up the pictures. A very big thank you to those who are there! You know who you are...

For those who do not know what is GESL. GESL stands for Group Endeavour Service Learning where all trainees form groups and plan out an activity or event to help people in need. It can be an outing for underpriviledged children, painting in an old folks home, a visit to the orphanage. My group chose to bring underpriviledged primary school children for kayaking for a day. It was held in Bedok Reservoir back in December. These are pictures taken on that day. Annabel (Group Leader) quickly went to print out some pictures for pasting onto the noticeboard. The rest of us helped to put up the pictures. A very big thank you to those who are there! You know who you are...

Animals (Pets and non pets)

Some shots of animals taken @ Botanical Gardens