SGD$10 Million TOTO draw 2007

It is time for the annual Chinese New Year SGD$10 million Toto draw & the long queues have already been forming around all Singapore Pools outlets since Friday which is the first day of sales for this special draw. The prize is about 10 times more than usual in celebration of the Lunar New Year, but from observation, there has been usually more than 10 winners in this draw, making each of them holding on a winning ticket a near-millionaire. Around SGD$900k each, which is still a lot of money to the average Sinagporean.

So what would you do if you were to win first prize in any Toto draw?

Here I have posted a censored copy of the ticket my entire extended family has bought, with each household contributing a share to the cost. When the results are announced, I will post the winning ticket (which is the same one on the left but without the white boxes, confirm strike first prize 1!!!) for all to view.

I feel like a millionaire right now!!!

Huat ah!!!

Bentley Continental GT

The Bentley Continental GT has a 6 Litre W12 engine with twin turbochargers which develops 552 hp at 6100 RPM and 650 Nm of torque at 1600 RPM. Never before had a 12 cylinder engine been employed on a Bentley car. Acceleration from 0-60 mph takes 4.7 seconds (0 to 100 km/h in 4.8 s), the top speed is 198 mph (312 km/h). It has all-wheel drive, the first Bentley to do so, and a six speed automatic transmission with steering wheel mounted gearshift paddles for instant override. The engine and air suspension are manufactured by Bentley, but are loosely based on owner Volkswagen's flagship car the Phaeton.

The Continental GT features the largest brake disc on any production car at 405 mm (16 inches) in front. The rear disc measures 335 mm (13 inches).

In Singapore, this car would cost around SGD$700k - SGD$800k inclusive of COE which is a really mind-numbing sum of money to be paying for a car that only has two doors. I can get 2 nos Mercedes S350 or maybe a nice Mercedes CLS 55 AMG. or maybe even 10 Hyundai Sonata in a different color each. Or maybe 5 Nissan 350Z Roadster!!!

Ja neh!!!

Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe

Building on the 100EX concept that debuted at the 2004 Geneva auto show, Rolls-Royce unveiled a convertible version of its Phantom sedan, dubbed the Phantom Drophead Coupe. Unlike the concept car, whose engine held an outlandish 16 cylinders, the Drophead uses the Phantom sedan's 6.8-liter V-12.

Features include a rear trunk gate that flips down for what Rolls-Royce calls "picnic" seating — the world's priciest tailgating party, perhaps? — and a camera mounted up front for better parking visibility.

Exterior

Iconic Rolls-Royce elements include a descending beltline (in contrast to most convertibles, whose lines typically ascend toward the tail), as well as a short front and an enormous rear overhang. The automaker says the sedan and convertible share no major exterior panels, though they look similar enough that Rolls-Royce aficionados will easily identify the tree this Drophead fell from.

Up front, the grille and hood carry a softer profile than that of the hard-nosed Phantom sedan. The front doors are hinged at the rear, which is sure to make for a show every time they're opened. Run-flat tires hug the Drophead's 20-inch wheels, and 21-inch wheels are optional.

Interior

The four-seat interior comes drenched in wood, leather and chrome. Rolls-Royce says it avoided bleaches, stains and lacquers in favor of natural surfaces. Even the convertible roof housing can be adorned with more than 30 pieces of teakwood.

A 15-speaker stereo broadcasts music through nine channels. The seats boast flat leather surfaces designed to be wiped free of moisture — though you'll want to put the top up at the first sign of rain, no doubt.

Under the Hood

The Drophead's 6.8-liter V-12 makes 453 horsepower and 531 pounds-feet of torque. Working through a six-speed automatic transmission, the drivetrain allows the Drophead to reach 60 mph in just 5.7 seconds. That's impressive; it's about as quick as an Infiniti G35 in a car that weighs as much as a Ford Expedition.

Safety

Four-wheel-disc antilock brakes and an electronic stability system are standard. A rollover protection system can automatically deploy reinforced bars from behind the backseat head restraints. Seat-mounted, side-impact airbags and active front head restraints are also included.

Ah, finally a Rolls Royce for the young at heart. Gone were the days when a Rolls Royce is a stately car, meant only for royalty & the obscenely rich (which I aim to be in the not too distant future). They finally made a car that actually looks like fun to drive, & cool to be seen it. It is a tough call, between the Bentley C. GT 7 the RR Drophead (who the hell though of putting this in the name of a car that costs a few millions?) Coupe.

Another article.

Yet another article.

Dilemma dilemma dilemma.

Ja neh!!!

Next-to-impossible task of tagging my blog entries

Now that Blogger is out of Beta, most of the bugs are gone, but there are sitll a few more features that I would like to see. I wish it could be easier to mass tag my entries as this is a new feature of Blogger & the neat freak in me is dying to get every post tagged & cross referenced. Sigh. How come my personality is like this? Oh well, the convergence of Blogger & Gmail & shared innovations across both platforms so I should be thankful that ideas are used both ways to make both experiences more effective & powerful. So please bear with me as I try to find the energy (I have lots of timie) & motivation (both of which are in low supply nowadays) to do the abovementioned.

Ja neh!!!

Just Follow Law

Another comic-filled film, Just Follow Law is Jack Neo’s latest production that casts local well-known artists like Fann Wong, Gurmit Singh, Amy Cheng, Lina Ng and Moses Lim.

The movie is set in a government statutory board called Work Allocation Singapore (WAS). Lim Teng Zui (Gurmit Singh) is the technician and his boss is a high-ranking snooty scholar - Tanya Chew (Fann Wong). Lim has low IQ but high EQ while Tanya is the exact opposite.

During an official visit to the company, the Minister suffered a fall due to Lim’s incompetence and shabby work attitude. As a result, Lim’s bonus was reduced and he had a confrontation with Tanya. In a fit of anger, both of them were involved in a car accident and exchanged souls.

With the ‘new’ Tanya performing badly at work after the accident, other Department Heads in the company began to plot against Tanya, to sabotage her Event& Promotions (E&P) department.

Through living each other’s lives, both Lim and Tanya realized what had been missing in their lives.

This film uses a satirical approach and pokes fun at the rigidity of people’s mindsets at abiding by the rules instead of being flexible and thinking out-of-the-box. It makes a joke out of office politics and uses witty Hokkien lines that will have you breaking into laughter.

With believable and engaging performances from Fann and Gurmit, Just Follow Law is a delightful and charming local film worthy of our support.

Information is from this website.

Personally I do not like to watch local productions, especially on a weekend because the movie ticket prices are higher than usual & does even less to justrify watching a movie that has a local production budget (which is paltry compared to Hollywood productions). Nevertheless, Fann Wong is acting & Cunning Devil, Cheeky & Yuri all seems game for it, so why not?

Bought tickets for the late night session (2345hrs if I remembered correctly) & proceed for dinner at Pasta Mania (I hereby ban this restaurant from my list, reasons might be discussed in a separate post).

While away the time at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (Century Square) while Yuri was busy negotiating Mario around the obstacles on the DS Lite, Cunning Devil was playing Luxor on the PSP & Cheeky wa splaying minesweeper on her lappy. Two notebook computers, 2 portable gaming consoles. We seriously need help. I was suring net on my trusty 17' PowerBook.

Back to the movie. In it I saw a side of Fann Wong I never thought she would show. I have heard rumours that she was a Bedok ah lian before she became famous, & now I am truely convinced of her humble beginnings. She walks like one, talks like one. I do not think it is acting. She is merely being her true self, & I like what I saw!!!

A girl who is not afraid of being her confortable self on the silver screen. Hmmm. Maybe I might do an entry on her too.

In short, both Fann's & Gurmit's acting are a class above the rest of the people they call Mediacrop artistes. Even though Fann Wong said she nearly had an emotional breakdown while filming for this movie, I say her effort was not in vain.

Do catch this movie ASAP. No, GV did not give me a season pass or free popcorn to sing this movie's praises.

Ja neh!!!

How much does it cost to wash a Hyundai Sonata?

The Lunar New Year is coming & a little spring cleaning is in order. That includes the car, & seeing the dark overcast skies, I was a little hesitant in going for a car wash at the Shell station directly opposite my home, let alone putting in manual labour & do it myself. A normal car wash by the good people at Shell station (the person who though of opening manual car washes at Shell stations & creating so many jobs for our Malay & Indian brothers is a genius) will cost me SGD$6 which is a decent price to pay for such backbreaking labour being done in record time. I decided since it was windy & cool, I would attempt to wash the car for less than SGD$6.

Yuri & I collected 5 nos 20 cents coins, 2 nos pails & 4 nos rag & shifted the car to BLK 105, where the coin operated tap was located. The leather seats were in great need of some TLC (tender loving care) so we started with the cleaning & polishing of the seats. The leather was cracked & hardened due to the inadequate conditioning, especially so on the driver's seat. Anybody can guess why this is so?

After polishing the seats, I deposited the first 20cent coin into the slot & poured car shampoo into the pails & waited 30 seconds for the water to stop running. With a sponge & a rag, both of us scrubed & soaped the entire car.

Another 20cents went into the slot & we started to rinse the car. Yuri suggest we give the car (maybe I should name her, any suggestions?) another rinse of clean water, so in the slot went another 20cents.

By this time, we felt little drops of rain coming down from the Heavens & thankfully the skies held for the sake of our labour, I think.

So total cost is 60 cents, which is about 10% of what it would cost to go opposite to let the professionals do the job, however it took us close to 100 mins instead of the usual 10 mins. So I guess time really is money in this case.. If you save 90% of the cost, you spend 9 times more time in completing the task.

I shall propose the Raymond Chng Car Wash Theorem. The money spent on a car wash is inversely proportional to the time needed if you were to do it with a helper. This is assuming the following:

Cost of sponge, rags, leather cleaner & car shampoo is neglected.
Glass areas are not treated with glass cleaner.
Mid size saloon car.
Helper is relatively hardworking.
Weather is cool & windy which was the weather condition during which the theorem was proposed.
Refer to postmaster if in doubt.

Ja neh!!!

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX 01

A little short write up on the background of this award winning camera, extracted from the following website.

The original FX7 was announced in July 2004 and went on to be one of the best-selling cameras of the year thanks to its winning combination of cool styling, compact dimensions, big screen and image-stabilized Leica lens. This, the fourth incarnation (the FX7 was followed in fairly rapid succession by the FX8 and FX9), is on the face of it another minor facelift, but it does offer something still pretty unique in a camera in this class - a true wideangle zoom, covering a useful 28-102mm (3.6x) zoom range. It is, in fact, the world's smallest camera with a 28mm lens. Other changes (detailed below) include a high sensitivity mode (offering sensitivities of up to 1600) and a new 16:9 widescreen movie mode. What we haven't worked out yet is why it's the FX01, not the FX10 (I suspect a typo early in the production process that was too expensive to fix).

Some of the main features of the camera include the following:

• 6.0 effective megapixel CCD
• 28-102mm equiv. (3.6x) Leica DC Vario-Elmarit optical zoom
• 4x digital zoom
• Advanced Mega Optical Image Stabilizer
• New 16:9 840x480 pixel 30fps movie mode
• 2.5-inch, 207,000 pixel LCD with high viewing angle option
• 16 scene modes
• New High sensitivity mode (ISO 800-1600)
• Venus Engine PLUS
• Color options: Silver, Black, Pink, White.

Ja neh!!!

Lazy evening @ Burger King (Singapore Expo)

Decided that I was working with too much distractions so I decided to stop by Singapore Expo to pass Yuri the 12Gb Seagate harddisk & get the rest of my work done here. Not feeling hungry so will have dinner later.

During days where there are no exhibitions, this place is like a ghost town. After 1700hrs, per entry into the carpark is an affordable SGD$2.10 but yet I counted less than 10 cars & a few lorries & motocycles. I wonder how the revenue from the peak periods, i.e. exhibition days will cover the overheads over the entire financial year. Seems like the businesses here are running at a loss for most of the year. Not to mention that there is another exhibitions venue available at a more central location, i.e. Suntec Convention Hall.

Running a bussiness here is pretty tricky. Usually they would cut losses by shortening the operating hours during non-peak periods, but I doubt that the management of Singapore Expo will lower the rental here according to the crowd. Most of the F&B outlets here are not opened at this moment with the exception of Burger King. I guess it is never easy to run a franchise here, let alone a business that is not tied to a bigger company for support.

I am alone at Burger King. There are no customers!!!

Back to work.

Long live free Wireless@SG!!!

Ja neh!!!

Three different flavours of Apples

This is the American version which most of us are familiar with.



The Japanese version of the same advertisement.



And of course we should always have a "stiff upper lip" version that is very prim & proper. I present to you, the English version. :)



Ja neh!!!

Japanese Mac advertisment

Remember the series of Mac vs PC advertisments? Apparently, they have their own series in Japanese!!! How cool is that? I have no idea what the exact conversation is, but using my extremely limited Japanese vocabulary, I am guessing the storyline is as follows.

The introduced themselves as a Mac & as a PC & the Mac asked the PC what is with all those protective gear. Of course PC proudly claims that it is used to protected himself (itself actually) from all sorts of virus & can fight them off if needed, I think. At this moment, Mac points out that a computer virus is approaching, & the PC turns into a meek lamb & hides behind the Mac who does not flinch an inch. Hey that rhymes!!!

Ja neh!!!

iPod Shuffle, now available in colours

Apple products are always evolving & it is really really hard to keep up. Since I will be busy with work, I guess it is more prudent to adopt a wait & see attitude while I try to find back the leisure time I use to enjoy.

Ja neh!!!