Bintan staycation on merdeka day

Brought bb took ferry. Cassia is Relaxing and comfy. Weather was good and bb seems to enjoy the place. The beach is clean and beautiful .

FSC value airline

1. Finnair - Europe ard 600 sgd
2. Cathay pacific - hkg 200 or Bkk 200
3. Qatar - 2500 for business class

Sometimes Thai or SIA could give good discount like Brisbane for SGD 470 or Ho chi Minh 170

Dental Treatment in SG

I had a bad premolar.
It has been filled multiple times and constantly infected mildly.
The infection was so bad in 2015 that it was swollen for a few days.
I finally made up my mind to "repair" my premolar in June 2017.
So 2017 pricing for root canal, S$850 and porcelain crown, S$800.

I did braces back in 2008 and removed them in 2011. It costs ~S$2,400. It probably costs ~S$3,600 today for the same treatment.
Retainer has definitely doubled the price. S$200 in 2011 and S$400 in 2017. Mine broke. sad...

It is worth to take good care of your dental health.

Before braces

After braces

Payment type

Cash n cheque

Debit card or nets

Stored value card - cash card or flashpay or ezlink

Visa pay wave, paypass

E wallet- alipay, paypal, masterpass

Fund transfer - paynow

Mobile wallet by top up - dash, Paylah, pay anyone, liquid pay

Mobile wallet via nfc - Apple pay, android pay, Samsung pay

Bkk sin kl hkg only one will emerge as champion

Sea has 2 main hub singapore and bkk. Both are trying to suck traffic from one another.

Hkg has 70 mil pax
Bkk estimated close to 90 mil pax

SG changi airport current capacity stands at 82 mil per annum after T4 opens in 2017

KLIA current capacity 70 mil per annum

As 4g becomes more common, rise of 5g is going to end telekom monopoly

Maxis digi u mobile currently offer 4g wireless broadband access. However their speed in 2017 is currently at around 10 mbps with 20gb of data. By 2022, with 5g Malaysian can finally be free from using unifi fiber if fixed wireless access is launch. 5G speed I estimate will be around 100 mbps good enough for most people.

Actually 5G only became common in Malaysia in 2023. Now besides fibre, 5g wireless broadband is a real alternative with the price drop of 5g router and 80% coverage in Malaysia. 3g services ended in 2021 and 4g speed has improved to around 40 mbps since 2022.

real world size

Hotel stay over the years

1. Bkk - mostly 3 star hotel, Doubletree, Amari, Pan Pacific
2. Hong Kong - Ibis
3. Hanoi - Pullman
4. Ho Chi minh - Metropole
5. Taiwan - Four points, local hotel group
6. Norway - Quality hotel
7. Amsterdam - Carlton hotel, Hilton, Fletcher
8. Australia & NZ - Quest, Novotel
9. Dubai, Togo - Ibis
10. Shanghai, HZ - Ibis, Ritz Carlton
11. Bali, Batam - apartment
12. Brunei - Empire hotel, Radisson
13. SG - Hilton, Aloha, D resort, Changi Cove
14. Kota Kinabalu - Sutera Harbour, Cititel, Kingston, Promenade
15. Paris - Ibis
16. Kuching- Pullman, Citadines
17. Penang - Millenium
18. Langkawi - Resort World
19. Prague - Ibis
20. London - Easy hotel
21. Tokyo - Prince hotel
22. Miri - local hotel

BB flights more than 5 hrs

BB took the long flight 5 hrs first to Perth (afternoon flight) when she was 1.5 years old. As she is now older she start to nap lesser.

Sin amsterdam and sin Melbourne was at night flight, so BB slept in the plane at nite.

Going forward those more than 5 hrs flight better take a night flight

Dinner gang BKK trip 2017 . Revisit BKK after 8 years

my first trip flying cathay pacific. Bkk is quite interesting and vibrant. Stayed at phrom phong. Next time will bring bb to kidzania bkk. Enjoyable trip with big elite group and good food.

Bb now has a seat and it's comfortable. Bb likes flying

Asean open skies have enable more 5th freedom flight that is killing budget air

Age of data roaming

I have collected many prepaid sim card since year 2003. Since 2016 mobile data roaming has become a necessities

Roam ASEAN - Hotlink RM 10 per day 1gb
Roam 12 countries (India, SK) - U mobile RM 10 per day
Digi Roam combo 13 countries - RM 15 for 1 days 2gb, RM 25 per 3 days, RM 35 for 5 days
USA , UK, AU, Macau, HK, Taiwan - M1 prepaid 15 sgd (2gb) for 10 days
NZ, AU -Singtel Readyroam 12 sgd (1gb)
China, SK, Japan, NZ -  Happy Roam
Australia - Vodafone AU 10 AUD for a week 1gb last 365 days
EU and Turkey - Vodafone NL 10 Euro per gb sim last 365 days

Roam Combo -AU, Brunei, CN, FR, HK, India, Indo, Italy, Japan, SK, Myanmar. Ph, Saudi, SG, TH, TW, UK, USA

Country	Operators under Telenor 25
Bangladesh	Grameenphone
Bulgaria	Telenor (Globul)
Denmark	Telenor DK
Hungary	Telenor
Montenegro	Telenor (Promonte)
Myanmar	Telenor (TNM)
Norway	Telenor
Pakistan	Telenor
Serbia	Telenor
Sweden	Telenor
Thailand	DTAC(TH-DTAC)/dtac TriNet

Country	Operator under Roam combo 35
Australia	Telstra
China	China Mobile (CMCC)
Hong Kong	3 (Hutchison)
Indonesia	INDOSAT OOREDOO (Indosat)
Japan	NTT(JP) Docomo
South Korea	KTF Olleh
Taiwan	Chunghwa
France	SFR
Italy	3 ITA
UK	EE UK
USA	T-Mobile
Saudi Arabia	Mobily

Frequent flyer bb

9mo Sin kl Airasia

12mo Sin kk Airasia

14mo sin Penang Airasia

16mo Sin kl kk Brunei - Airasia, Malindo, Royal Brunei, Silkair

18mo Sin Perth Scoot

19mo Sin Amsterdam Norway SIA and KLM

23mo Sin Melbourne Auckland Emirates and SIA

2y6mo KL - Airasia

got her own seat now :)

2y9mo Bangkok - Cathay

BBflew with Airasia, Royal Brunei, Silkair, SIA, KLM, Emirates, Scoot. Malindo, Cathay Pacific,

Bb now have finnair frequent flyer junior account which have no expiry until 18 years old. After which bb can earn miles from Qatar, Cathay, British airways and Qantas.

Looking forward to Hobart airport direct flight in 2018

Fly from Perth to Hobart can take up to 5 hrs

Fly from sin to Hobart direct will be possible

Malaysia 2025-2040

Rts  

West coast expressway

Ets johor - gemas 

Kvdt 2

Ecrl 

Lrt3

Csr 

Pan Borneo phase 1 Sabah 

Sslr 

Penang lrt

Mrt 3

Hsr??

Credit card rebate impossible trinity

You can only get 2 out of the 3

1. No min spend
2. Track your spending either quarterly/ via spending category
3. High interest

example

One card, maybank visa, manhattan  - quarterly any type spend, high/ tier interest but min spend

dividend card, hsbc, ocbc 365, posb everyday, uob Yolo - category spending, high interest but min spend

hsbc advance, amex cashback, sc cashback, uob unionpay - low interest, no min spend, all type spending

Future car tech

Will it be electric, diesel, hybrid , turbo ice or hcci ice?

Cvt (japan) vs dct (europe) vs auto (USA)

Visa pay wave is 10 years old

Singapore, 21 February 2013

Contactless payment cards reach critical mass with growing acceptance infrastructure paves the way for Singapore’s cashless society.

Visa today announced that Visa payWave contactless technology has reached a major milestone in Singapore with one million Visa payWave-enabled payment cards issued since their introduction into the market in 2007. With more than 11,000 acceptance points across the country, Singapore consumers are now enjoying a new way to pay through a secure, quicker and more convenient contactless “wave, pay and go” payment card transactions in greater numbers at supermarkets, dining, entertainment venues and retailers across the island.

10 million card in circulation in Singapore 2016. Each person holds around 4 cards.

One year itinerary in australia from jan -dec

Tasmania - melbourne - Perth - cairns - Brisbane - Sydney - adelaide

3g 12 gb plan finally can rest in peace

SIM only plan is offering 42 sgd with 15 gb data 4g with data jump. Why still want to hold on to the slow 3g plan?

How to improve air quality

There are a few things the govt has been legislating

Air quality target

Emission standards - testing of vehicles

Fuel standards sg moving to comply euro 5 petrol in july 2017 and euro v diesel is already in place. In singapore clean fuel with ultra low sulphur of 10 ppm by july 2017

Cars emission standard - looking forward to euro 6 cars by end 2017 from euro 4 petrol and euro v diesel currently

With all this coming end 2017, sg air quality should be greener

Currently for malaysia

Ron97 petrol is currently euro 4.diesel euro v is being launch progressively

Euro II diesel to euro v diesel by 2020
Euro 4 petrol in 2018 to euro 5 petrol by 2025

how to learn language in 6 months

The Five Principles

Lonsdale’s five principles of rapid language acquisition are the following:

1. Focus on language content that is relevant to you. Why do you want to learn to speak a second language? Look at the following:

• Do you want to learn Italian so that you can understand opera? If so, then concentrate on words and phrases that you would hear in Puccini’s operas.
• Do you want to learn to speak Mandarin so that you can communicate with your business partners in China? Then focus on learning words and phrases in Mandarin that are related to business.

2. Use the new language as a tool to communicate. Instead of simply learning the language in an academic setting, put yourself in situations which force you to use the language in order to be able to communicate with others.

3. When you first understand the message, you will unconsciously acquire the language. When you’re first trying to learn a new language, instead of trying to understand the words that someone is using to talk to you, try to understand what they’re trying to say through their gestures, body language, and facial expressions.

That is, at first you don’t derive meaning from the language, but from the interaction. This is something called comprehensional input, and it’s been well documented.

4. Learning a language is not about acquiring knowledge. Instead, in many ways it’s about physiological training.

First of all, we have filters in our brains that filter in sounds that we’re familiar with, and that filter out sounds that we’re not familiar with. And if you can’t hear it, you can’t learn it. Therefore, you have to continually listen to the sounds of the language that you’re trying to learn in order to train your brain to let in the new sounds.

In addition, talking requires using your facial muscles. You have 43 muscles in your face. You have to coordinate those muscles in a way that makes sounds that others can understand

5. Your psychological state matters. If  you’re  sad,  angry,  worried,  or upset, you’re  not  going  to  learn the new language. If  you’re  happy,  relaxed,  and  curious,  you’re  going  to  learn  the new language quickly. In addition, you need to be tolerant of ambiguity. At first when people speak to you in the language that you’re trying to learn, you’ll understand very little. But that’s OK.

The Seven Actions

Based on the five principles that were explained above, there are seven actions that you need to take in order to learn a new language quickly and efficiently. The seven actions which Lonsdale recommends are the following:

1. Listen; a lot. Lonsdale calls this brain soaking. It doesn’t matter if at first you don’t understand what you’re listening to. You’re listening to recognize patterns, words that repeat, and things that stand out. In addition, you’re listening to the rhythm of the language.

2. Focus on getting the meaning first, even before you get the words. From body language you can understand a lot of communication. You’ll be acquiring the language through comprehensional input.

3. Start mixing. If you know ten verbs, ten nouns, and ten adjectives in the new language, you can say 1000 different things. Language is a creative process. Look for ways to get your meaning across by using the words that you know.

4. Focus on the core. With every language there’s high frequency content. As an illustration, in English, one thousand words cover 85% of anything you’re going to say in daily life. Three-thousand words give you 98% coverage. All the other words in the English language are the icing on the cake.

5. Get a language parent. When you start learning a language your progress will probably look like the following:

• Week 1: Continually ask “What is this?”, “How do you say . . .”, “Can you say that again?”, “Can you repeat that?” Always ask these questions in the language that you’re trying to learn.
• Week 2 and 3:  You should be using very simple nouns, verbs, and pronouns (“you”, “me”, “that”, “hot”, “give”, and so on).
• Week 4:  You’re using glue words, such as “and”, “but”, “even though”, “therefore”, and so on. These words tie bits of language together so that you can make more complex meaning. At this point you’re talking in the new language.

This is where you want to get a language parent. That is, someone who will treat you like a parent treats their child when the child is learning to speak. This language parent can recognize what you’re saying, even when others don’t understand. They create a safe environment for you, which makes you more confident in your ability to learn the new language.

The four rules for a language parent are the following:

•  They will work hard to understand what you’re trying to say.
• They don’t correct your mistakes.
• They confirm understanding by using correct language.
• They use words that you know and also communicate with gestures and body language.

6. Copy the face.  In order to learn to make the sounds that will allow you to speak the new language, you have to watch the face of people who speak that language. How does their face move when they’re speaking? Mimic their facial movements.

7. “Direct Connect” to mental images. Most people learning to speak another language will make a list of words that they want to learn in their mother tongue, and next to each word they’ll place the equivalent in the language that they’re trying to learn. Then they just go over the list repeatedly in the hopes of memorizing the words in the new language. This is very inefficient.

Everything that you know is an image inside your mind. For example, if you talk about fire you can smell the smoke, feel the heat, hear the crackling, and see the flames. What you want to do is to focus on the image that’s currently in your head for “fire” and create a new pathway that leads from this image to the word “fire” in the language that you’re trying to learn.

HUDC

1	Gillman Heights Condominium (III) 548m, 90 top up 2007	Privatised on 1 Nov 1996 (Enbloc)
2	Pine Grove Condominium (III)	Privatised on 1 Nov 1996
3	Ivory Heights Condominium (III)(former Jurong East HUDC estate)	Privatised on 1 Jun 1998
4	Minton Rise Condominium (III)(former Hougang South HUDC estate) 209m	Privatised on 1 Feb 2001 (Enbloc)
5	Waterfront View Estate (III)(former Bedok Reservoir HUDC estate) 385m	Privatised on 1 Feb 2002 (Enbloc)
6	Tampines Court (IV) 970 m, 359 top up	Privatised on 1 Apr 2002 enbloc
7	Farrer Court (I/II) 1.34 b, 475 top up	Privatised on 15 Nov 2002 (Enbloc)
8	Amberville (I/II) 183m, 59 top up	Privatised on 16 Dec 2002 (Enbloc)
9	Lakeview (I/II)	Privatised on 1 Aug 2003
10	Chancery Court (I/II)	Privatised on 24 May 2004
11	Laguna Park (I/II)	Privatised on 16 Jul 2007
12	Bishan (Shunfu) (IV) 638 m, 217 top up	Privatised on 28 Mar 2013 (enbloc)
13	Eunosville (IV) 765 m, 194 top up	Privatised on 1 Jun 2011. Enbloc
14	Serangoon North (IV) 499m, 195 top up	Privatised on 8 May 2014. Enbloc
15	Hougang North N3 (IV) Florence regeny 629m, 288 top up	Privatised on 8 May 2014. Enbloc
16	Hougang North N7 (IV) Rio casa 575m, 208 top up	Privatised on 16 June 2014. Enbloc
17	Potong Pasir (IV) Raintree Gardens 334m, 113 top up	Privatised on 1 July 2014 (Enbloc)
18	Braddell View (I/II)	Privatised in march 2017

Others : 

Neptune court, 

Spotisswoode Park, 

Normanton Park privatised 2012  - 830m , 514 top up, 

Lagoon View

Liner alliance

2m maersk msc hyundai
Ocean alliance cma cosco evergreen oocl
The alliance nyk/KLINE/mol + hapag + yang ming