FaceTime

August 30, 2010 Leave a comment



FaceTime – 3G Video-Calls aren’t new. Forget about the slow 3G video calls cos’ Apple’s new FaceTime provides a simpler and more user-friendly interface than Skype and other jerky video-conferencing handsets. Gone are the days when you need a PC (and many steps) to connect with the world. Video-call with your loved ones is just one button away – as easy as making a normal phone call! Thanks to the new iPhone 4 and high-speed WIFI – it is super-handy and mobile! You can walk around and chat! Plus the video quality & connection is smooth!

Often, I have to sms my sister to get her standby online (via Skype) for our weekly video-calls. If she is not around at home, I have to wait till she is back before I can chat online with my old folks. With FaceTime, I just need to dial my dad’s number and we can see and hear each other on our own screen. It is so convenient and free!

Best of all, it is (temporary) available via WIFI network at this moment – meaning my wife/boss/clients can’t FaceTime me when I am "WIFI-LESS" at the pubs or bars. Enjoy while it lasts! (My wife is getting mad about Mac…cos her hubby is becoming an Apple Salesman now!)

Filed under Cool Stuffs

Don’t Let Your Loved Ones Wait

August 29, 2010 1 Comment

Recently, Tracy’s granny passed away. All in sudden. It is never a good feeling to know the passing of your loved one when you are overseas. Tracy has always wanted to go back to Singapore to visit her granny. In fact, she has already booked her air-ticket home 2 weeks before the passing of her granny.

The passing of her granny reminded me so much of the loss of my own granny and uncles. I can understand the kind of sadness, the void, the eternal loss. The irony is we only gather when some one we loved passed away. And when he/she was well and alive, we never find that determination to meet up. Or gather as a family.

Cos’ we think there is always "time to wait" for the next gathering. Don’t we?

My late grandmother used to wait for me by the gate.
Now, my wife is always waiting for me to come home for dinner.
My boy is always waiting for me to come home to play with him.
My mother is always waiting for me to come home to video-call her.
My friends are waiting for me to come home just for a simple kopi chat.
And I am waiting for my dad to come to Hong Kong so I can bring him around.

We all love our families, our friends and our lives. Yet we failed to prioritize our time for our loved ones (till grief comes and knock on our doors?). Recently, I came back to Singapore and had a short gathering with my family and friends. All of them have aged quite a bit, especially my old folks. Perhaps it is time for me to go home and relook about my priorities. If happiness and love are the currency of my life, I am willing to trade everything in exchange for them. That is to find that perfect balance between work and love. Space and time.

I saw this print-ad in a Malacca cafe 2 years ago. Family comes first. And please don’t let your loved ones wait for you. Cos’ time is running out.

Filed under Jo's Thoughts

The Big Messy Party

August 29, 2010 Leave a comment

2 birthdays. 1 big party! Last night, the clan celebrated Sherry and Harshad birthday at Causeway Bay! It was a great party – we had the Jack Daniel Promoter Birthday Boy (Harshad), the Queen of Karaoke (Sherry), the cannot-make-it "Karaoke Girl" (Tracy), the DG Boys (Hongfei, Scott & Zeph) and the wild girl (Selina) who went around putting ice cubes down our asses. And of course, we have the good paying audience (Joe, Felicia, Elkan, Ethan and Crystal-Belle!) Enjoy the photos!

 

Filed under Life in Hong Kong

Cool Vegetarian Cafe

August 29, 2010 Leave a comment



(Photo Taken by iPhone 4: A cool American Vegetarian Cafe, Soho Hong Kong – There are a lot of these mini "boutique-style" dining concept stores in Hong Kong. Small spaces, great services. However, many of these cool outlets are hidden upstairs. Worth all the time and effort to sniff out these places at Soho.)

Filed under Life in Hong Kong

Lazy Weekend

August 22, 2010 Leave a comment

3 fat men, 3 matriarchs and 2 little monsters lazing on Shek O Beach this afternoon. The sun, the beach, the sea breeze and the sexy babes in bikinis plus our favorite snacks and cold drinks. Everything seemed perfect until our beach-goers neighbors returned with frantic looks on their faces. Their barang-barang were gone! Apparently – while the adults were relaxing on the beach chairs, the 2 little boys went around digging holes and burying other people’s belongings. In the end, poor mothers and dads had to help the poor strangers to dig out their stuffs. (Of course, looking at the boys’ expression, they have zero idea that it is a crime! In fact, Elkan did told Felicia that he has buried some "treasures" in the sand moments before. And Felicia took it as his imaginative jokes.) It was such a comical moment and I tried my best not to laugh. Okay, no more digging for our boys!

Filed under Life in Hong Kong

In Love with Singapore. Again.

August 21, 2010 Leave a comment


I have been away from home for almost 9 months. Thanks to a recent business trip to Indonesia last week, I am able to transit in Singapore for a short while to see my family and friends back home. Goodness, Singapore has changed so much in the last 9 months! And it is good enough for me to fall in love with her once more. 

The first difference I noticed is the large casino billboard on the wall at the airport arrival immigration hall. This is so different from the usual clean, good-city image that Singapore has been portraying for decades. I can feel the city is transforming.

Out at the taxi stand, there are so many types of taxi. Taxi now comes in all shapes and colours. They all look new, sparkling clean, sporty, spacious and comfortable. My cab driver was chatty throughout the trip. He actually mistook me as a Taiwanese as he said my Mandarin accent doesn’t sound local. (Haaa…wait till some one hears my son speaking Mandarin – Elkan struggled his Mandarin like an Ang Moh.)

On the way to my hotel, it was such an eye-opening journey. At the top of Singapore’s longest bridge “Benjamin Sheares Bridge”, it offers one a spectacular panoramic view of our city. You see some of our world record breakers here – the World’s largest outdoor swimming pool at the new Marina Sands Sky Park, the World’s largest Ferris Wheel – Singapore Flyer, and the World’s first double-helix bridge. I also saw the YOG Flame at the new Marina Reservoir Water Stadium (where Singapore is now hosting the 1st Youth Olympic Games). Not to mention the preparation works for our 3rd Night F1 Racing that will take place in September.

Kalinda and Meijie were my tour guide for the weekend. Without them, I will be lost for sure. Orchard has changed so much since my last visit. I feel it is finally back on the chart to re-reign its status of one of Asia Pacific’s best shopping districts! Other than the 2 infamous floods and sandbags, the quality of shopping, dining, entertainment are world class! Certainly, the pretty girls of Orchard are back too! (And there are so many Apple shops now!)

Despite the short weekend stay, I managed to revisit some of my favorite haunts – Parkway Parade, Tampines Mall and Katong. Thanks to Karen and Charlie, they brought me to Jalan Kayu (the famous roti-prata street) on my last night!

Well, it is an exciting home trip. I felt like a tourist! Maybe I should skip my Dubai or Cairo visit this year and bring the family home to Singapore for our Christmas holidays! We certainly need at least 5 good days to orientate ourselves back home!

Filed under Jo's Thoughts, Life in Singapore

Happy Happy Happy Birthday!

August 21, 2010 Leave a comment



Thanks to the birthday trio – It has been a long long time since we have such a large Wahbiang gathering! It is so good to reconnect with some of my best 2-decade longtime buddies from my old school and working days. The old boys were talking about their fat and the new gadgets (cars, iPad, iPhone), the girls were chatting about their kids and work. This is one clan of people I love so so much!

Filed under Wahbiang

Coke Walk?

August 8, 2010 Leave a comment

(Photo Taken: Causeway Bay, Hong Kong – Coke Walk at 33-degree??? Who in the right mind would suggest such a thing??? It must be darn hot inside! Poor walkers, they can’t see properly and many were swaying. What a torturing gimmick! They should put the Coke Marketing Manager inside these vending machines! There are many simpler (and cooler) ways to delight the audience. Next time, just send a troop of Coke Models in Red. With big smiles and free bottles of coke to give away! That will do just fine.)

Filed under Life in Hong Kong

Pocket Companions

August 8, 2010 Leave a comment



Since the 80s, consumers crave for these gadgets. There is something magical about them. Students, working class, celebrities and even housewives gone bananas over them! (Remember the infamous "Tamogotchi Fever", the brickgame phenomenon and now the exorbitant iPAD water-goods prices!) These icons come and go – You see them everywhere – on the MRT, in the cafe, in the schools, in the office and even in the loos. They transform human behaviors. Students vying for coolness in schools,
adults socializing through them and commuters go "zombie-ing". Big brands ballooned overnight. Think Nintendo, Sony, Bandai and now Apple. All of them have 1 thing in common – Thanks to the invention of batteries – Without it, these personal hand-held entertainment devices won’t exist today.

Filed under Jo's Thoughts

Pizza Boy

August 8, 2010 Leave a comment

It is school holidays and Elkan is attending summer classes (drawing, swimming and cooking!) Yesterday, he baked us his first pizza! Surprisingly yummy! More cooking classes, please.

Filed under Life in Hong Kong

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