29 June 2016
My old hard drives are dead. I had bought a device for turning internal hard drives into external hard drives, something I can just plug a hard drive into and it reads it, but no luck. They're dead, so some of the things are gone forever now, including my Nevis bungy video that I seem to have neglected to back up on cloud.
It is over.
But it just gives me another reason to do the Nevis again the next time I visit Queenstown, New Zealand. This time, both the bungy and the swing.
Ordered fourteen one-litre packets of skimmed milk so that Van and I can try to lose weight like that. This will work in tandem with the milk replacement shakes that prevents us from feeling hungry but can only be taken once a day.
The RT sessions are great and they even have MMA or other interesting stuff on every Thursday, and although I've not lost any weight, the feeling I get whenever I climb any stairs gives me a rough gauge of how fit I actually am, and I'm fitter now. Still not as fit as when I stopped my weight loss regime, due to the 15 minutes and 5 second timing of my recent 2.4km run in comparison with the 14 minutes and 35 seconds timing over a year ago, but my fitness is improving for sure.
14,000 Asia Miles are expiring next year and I still haven't got a trip worth spending on with miles on CX. The thing about this airline is that although it's trying to be a premium airline, it's rather expensive and Qatar is far better in quality while roughly in the same price range. This makes it hard for me to choose CX when QR is also available, and QR is available in most major routes from Singapore.
04 July 2015
Went to JB yesterday and bought a Lonely Planet guide on Africa and another on Russia.
Hopefully Africa will be possible in 2018, while Russia is quite probably in around August 2017.
Uganda, Morocco, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana are some of the countries I have my eyes on right now, especially the first three.
My desk has been tidied up last week and once my dresser has been removed, my room will be able to accommodate either one more desk or a longer desk to replace my current one. Progress!
7 July 2016
Just another day. Ate a lot yesterday and today so worked out hard during RT. Hopefully it helps. Just downed a meal replacement for tonight so maybe things will be better tomorrow, ie my weight goes down from 99kg.
99kg is scary.
20 July 2016
Down to below 96kg. I was 95.2kg yesterday morning, and should be below 96.5kg today. Skipped a week of RT and spent most of my days sitting around, so that should have led to at least half a kg of weight loss, if not a whole kg. Ate half a kg of beef plus some other stuff last night after the exercise session in which I tried to push myself again (the effort shows when it's practically raining where I stand), so that should help me build some muscle mass for the future.
My logic is simple - eat more in the beginning, when I have less muscle mass, especially proteins. Having more muscle mass is like getting a bigger engine, and a bigger engine means more fuel can be burnt in the same amount of time. It's worked before I skipped the week of RT, since I ate mostly rolled oats with some sugar for a couple of days without losing my fitness level for a week.
Maintaining that is the biggest problem of all.
The results are there, so hopefully the motivation will come with it. When I go below 95kg, it shall be a good day :D
21 July 2016
Having lost two other pants, the only long pants I have left that fits me is my darker Denizen jeans. So yesterday I sucked it up and bought another pair of pants from good old Jshoppers, plus another two that are one size smaller, for the near future when I can fit into those.
I love their Katsurugi stretch chinos because they're pretty stretchy, the material feels comfy and the cutting is great for the price. My 5-6 old ones are still in my wardrobe, kept in the hope that I will eventually get back to my 2013 waistline of 36".
One of the smaller ones is actually a pair of their jeans, which I kinda expect to be of similar quality due their similar prices. I didn't actually planned to get it but the addition of its price will get me free shipping, which really means that this third pair only costs me about S$20, so why not? Good chinos are hard to find, and very rarely at this price. The current trend of disposable fashion is not my thing, and it irks me.
I had recently succumbed to it and bought several pairs of shoes and a pair of pants at really low prices (S$30-65 for pants, S$17 for the pants) and they all sucked so bad. First, I started getting blisters when I've never gotten blisters before, not even in the army. Second, the pants' cutting is so bad, my balls get jammed back into my crotch and I have to stretch my shoulders back to get my hands into the tiny front pockets.
Never again. Expensive is fine if they're worth it! I will never be cheap again! I'm so sorry!
Reminds me of that one Robert Graham shirt that I own. It's a total party shirt and I'm still wearing it once in a while after at least 3 years. My only awesome shirt meant to be tucked out.
Anyway, 96.1kg after breakfast, so it's still holding. I expect to go below 96kg again tomorrow, after the RT session today, since tonight's dinner is going to be rolled oats and some skimmed milk. I have a feeling half a kg of beef is overkill, so milk will provide enough proteins.
Thursday, 21 July 2016
Thursday, 23 June 2016
Rant 1229 / Sense Is Unnecessary As Long As It Works For You.
09 June 2016
Yep. Somehow it struck a cord in me. I've always thought that this "follow your passion" thing is for the masses. It's like if you throw enough darts, some of it is bound to hit the bullseye. Same here. If everyone follows his or her passion, someone is bound to get successful. Just not everyone.
It's something leaders and role models should say to everyone under them, because ultimately, with a large group of people, this benefits them overall - you just need one superstar within your neighbourhood and everyone will get some of the pride.
But individually, it is kinda stupid when you realize what some people are probably dreaming of. I may be wrong here, but when I see what a lot of people spend their money on and their justifications for them, it just feels like there is little chance that they can be dreaming of any job that is either possible or within the reach of 99.99% of the human race.
Like people who seem to believe that being your own boss is the best thing in the world.
The fact is, whatever your job is, it is simply like modern medicine - there is no perfect cure to any problem. The painful reality is that every treatment that a doctor has in his arsenal merely exchanges your current set of problems with another, one that he feels you are better equipped to deal with.
So I agree with Mike's assessment - follow the money, bring your passion with you and perhaps, find some along the way. You can only really follow your passion if you can already support yourself. C'est la vie.
14 June 2016
The moka pot is the best manual coffee-making tool I've ever owned! Being Singaporean, our local coffee aka kopi is served seriously overbrewed, so it's very thick and can be quite acidic.
And I'm used to that thickness that cannot be found previously except in the french press, which also makes it very acidic, not to mention the sieve part is kinda hard to clean thoroughly.
With the moka pot, it's different. The filter is easy to clean since it doesn't have any tiny gaps other than the holes, unlike the french press. Moreover, it makes the thickest coffee ever created in my kitchen!
The moka pot is actually considered by some as an espresso machine due to the thickness of the coffee it produces, but it's really just thick coffee. Real espresso is almost a syrup. Having stayed in Italy for 8 days, drinking 1-3 espressos every single day, I have the creds to back up my opinions on coffee LOL
Tried the SleepPro Anti-microbial version and it was so painful on the first night. Only tried it one night so far. It made my lower front teeth feel like they were getting pulled out all at one go (which technically they kinda were) and I could barely sleep that night until I spat it out sometime in the pre-dawn morning. My lower front teeth were sore for the rest of the day too.
All the reviews mentioned the ache and soreness but apparently it goes away after several nights of usage, so I may reuse it tonight.
18 June 2016
Decided that to get used to the SleepPro, I'll need several days to get used to it due to its effect on my quality of sleep.
Not doing it for now.
I was thinking about taking all my cash out and investing most of it in index funds. Apparently, these are the ones that actually make sense. Not just yet though, because as bad as the Singapore economy is right now, it can't be at the nadir yet.
21 June 2016
I don't get why semi-automatic guns are allowed among civilians in some countries. They aren't needed for hunting and if one ever finds oneself in a situation that necessitates the use of semi-automatic rifles or shotguns, then one has to ask," What is the police doing?"
...
So they do need it for hunting, especially larger animals that may not get killed by the first round and may even attack the hunter after surviving it. It increases the chances of a quick death for these large animals and smaller ones like birds, therefore making it more humane.
This isn't about the act of hunting in the modern world, which is an entirely different story, but the use of firearms during the hunt.
23 June 2016
After pushing myself a little during the last RT session, my body aches, especially my shoulder area from the "pushups" I made myself do. I added the quotation marks because they were not real pushups - the instructor advised those who couldn't do a proper pushup to just go all the way down before pushing ourselves up from the ground.
A proper pushup, to me, means I can hit the ground with my forehead just by tilting my head forward a little. I can't do that anymore, so I just slammed into the ground and pushed myself up. He noticed it though, and told me even if I was doing that sort of pushup, I had to put in a little strength when going down, ie go down slowly.
That was way harder.
But the overall effect is that I can handle life with less sleep, ie this morning I got up at my girlfriend's first alarm (she has three in the morning) when we usually got up at the second. This is what I used to do back when I was losing weight.
This means my momentum is back!
:D
RT may be one of the better things that gets forced onto Singaporean men.
So after the last few days of using the moka pot, it became clear that the guidelines I've learnt online weren't enough.
Using the moka pot is an art, I feel. There's a standard amount of water and beans you can use, but the fineness of the grind is up to you. Sure, there's a range of values for this factor, but the specific number you want to use really depends on your personal preference.
The thing is that the finer it gets, the more it can extract due to increased surface area - but it also makes it easier for the water to go through and therefore reduces the water brings less of the goodness out. The coarser, the better the pressure within, the more coffee it can extract - but the bigger chunks might be unwilling to let everything get out. Moreover, if it's too fine, you get really thin coffee, while when it's too coarse, the coffee might explode out of the pot due to the immense pressure that built up when the chunks block the holes in the filters.
So it's kinda like using a rice cooker without reading the manual - you go by trial and error.
Right now I'm still trying to get the balance, but I tend to favour fineness over coarseness, because the coffee the moka pot makes tends to be pretty thick compared to that of other manual methods of making coffee, and I usually go for a second brew.
Speaking of coffee, apparently ants dislike coffee grounds, and I'm starting to find ants in my plants, so later today I'll be spreading today's coffee grounds on the soil.
Also, epsom salt with crushed garlic mixed in water works wonders on aphids. My plants look great now and there is only one or two aphids left. The epsom salt in the soil will make sure that lone aphid will die without reproducing.
96.8kg today. Hopefully it gets better.
Yep. Somehow it struck a cord in me. I've always thought that this "follow your passion" thing is for the masses. It's like if you throw enough darts, some of it is bound to hit the bullseye. Same here. If everyone follows his or her passion, someone is bound to get successful. Just not everyone.
It's something leaders and role models should say to everyone under them, because ultimately, with a large group of people, this benefits them overall - you just need one superstar within your neighbourhood and everyone will get some of the pride.
But individually, it is kinda stupid when you realize what some people are probably dreaming of. I may be wrong here, but when I see what a lot of people spend their money on and their justifications for them, it just feels like there is little chance that they can be dreaming of any job that is either possible or within the reach of 99.99% of the human race.
Like people who seem to believe that being your own boss is the best thing in the world.
The fact is, whatever your job is, it is simply like modern medicine - there is no perfect cure to any problem. The painful reality is that every treatment that a doctor has in his arsenal merely exchanges your current set of problems with another, one that he feels you are better equipped to deal with.
So I agree with Mike's assessment - follow the money, bring your passion with you and perhaps, find some along the way. You can only really follow your passion if you can already support yourself. C'est la vie.
14 June 2016
The moka pot is the best manual coffee-making tool I've ever owned! Being Singaporean, our local coffee aka kopi is served seriously overbrewed, so it's very thick and can be quite acidic.
And I'm used to that thickness that cannot be found previously except in the french press, which also makes it very acidic, not to mention the sieve part is kinda hard to clean thoroughly.
With the moka pot, it's different. The filter is easy to clean since it doesn't have any tiny gaps other than the holes, unlike the french press. Moreover, it makes the thickest coffee ever created in my kitchen!
The moka pot is actually considered by some as an espresso machine due to the thickness of the coffee it produces, but it's really just thick coffee. Real espresso is almost a syrup. Having stayed in Italy for 8 days, drinking 1-3 espressos every single day, I have the creds to back up my opinions on coffee LOL
Tried the SleepPro Anti-microbial version and it was so painful on the first night. Only tried it one night so far. It made my lower front teeth feel like they were getting pulled out all at one go (which technically they kinda were) and I could barely sleep that night until I spat it out sometime in the pre-dawn morning. My lower front teeth were sore for the rest of the day too.
All the reviews mentioned the ache and soreness but apparently it goes away after several nights of usage, so I may reuse it tonight.
18 June 2016
Decided that to get used to the SleepPro, I'll need several days to get used to it due to its effect on my quality of sleep.
Not doing it for now.
I was thinking about taking all my cash out and investing most of it in index funds. Apparently, these are the ones that actually make sense. Not just yet though, because as bad as the Singapore economy is right now, it can't be at the nadir yet.
21 June 2016
I don't get why semi-automatic guns are allowed among civilians in some countries. They aren't needed for hunting and if one ever finds oneself in a situation that necessitates the use of semi-automatic rifles or shotguns, then one has to ask," What is the police doing?"
...
So they do need it for hunting, especially larger animals that may not get killed by the first round and may even attack the hunter after surviving it. It increases the chances of a quick death for these large animals and smaller ones like birds, therefore making it more humane.
This isn't about the act of hunting in the modern world, which is an entirely different story, but the use of firearms during the hunt.
23 June 2016
After pushing myself a little during the last RT session, my body aches, especially my shoulder area from the "pushups" I made myself do. I added the quotation marks because they were not real pushups - the instructor advised those who couldn't do a proper pushup to just go all the way down before pushing ourselves up from the ground.
A proper pushup, to me, means I can hit the ground with my forehead just by tilting my head forward a little. I can't do that anymore, so I just slammed into the ground and pushed myself up. He noticed it though, and told me even if I was doing that sort of pushup, I had to put in a little strength when going down, ie go down slowly.
That was way harder.
But the overall effect is that I can handle life with less sleep, ie this morning I got up at my girlfriend's first alarm (she has three in the morning) when we usually got up at the second. This is what I used to do back when I was losing weight.
This means my momentum is back!
:D
RT may be one of the better things that gets forced onto Singaporean men.
So after the last few days of using the moka pot, it became clear that the guidelines I've learnt online weren't enough.
Using the moka pot is an art, I feel. There's a standard amount of water and beans you can use, but the fineness of the grind is up to you. Sure, there's a range of values for this factor, but the specific number you want to use really depends on your personal preference.
The thing is that the finer it gets, the more it can extract due to increased surface area - but it also makes it easier for the water to go through and therefore reduces the water brings less of the goodness out. The coarser, the better the pressure within, the more coffee it can extract - but the bigger chunks might be unwilling to let everything get out. Moreover, if it's too fine, you get really thin coffee, while when it's too coarse, the coffee might explode out of the pot due to the immense pressure that built up when the chunks block the holes in the filters.
So it's kinda like using a rice cooker without reading the manual - you go by trial and error.
Right now I'm still trying to get the balance, but I tend to favour fineness over coarseness, because the coffee the moka pot makes tends to be pretty thick compared to that of other manual methods of making coffee, and I usually go for a second brew.
Speaking of coffee, apparently ants dislike coffee grounds, and I'm starting to find ants in my plants, so later today I'll be spreading today's coffee grounds on the soil.
Also, epsom salt with crushed garlic mixed in water works wonders on aphids. My plants look great now and there is only one or two aphids left. The epsom salt in the soil will make sure that lone aphid will die without reproducing.
96.8kg today. Hopefully it gets better.
Monday, 6 June 2016
Rant 1228 / Something Something Something Something, So Something.
26 May 2016
So I tried to type something on the 18th and nothing came out.
Anyway OneDrive just downsized our free capacity from 15GB to 5, so now I'm uploading as much as I can to Google Drive. Everything in my iPhone was back up there and it's only 3GB full, so I'll have to manually copy the rest over. Could take a while.
After Van fell in love with Qatar Airways (I'm impressed too, btw), I started looking at the flight deals from the airline and found that it's actually quite affordable on most routes despite the relative opulence offered even in Economy class.
Now I feel like such a frog in the well for believing that Singapore Airlines sets the standards for airline comfort. No, because not only does Qatar still uses metal utensils even on Economy, they also offer free Wi-Fi. Other things included in their trans-Atlantic flights include ear plugs, toothbrush with toothpaste and eye pads. Slippers are only for Business class.
I have not been on one of their flights so I cannot say anything about the seat sizes and recline, although generally speaking, they're all the same on Economy across the board with really minute differences, like an inch in seat width.
So I'm using perfume regularly now since the two bottles I bought a year or two ago were barely getting used. Spraying my handkerchief turned out to be an extremely useful idea and I'm even more tempted now to bring a some perfume when I travel to places with warm weather.
6 June 2016
Went to the PC Show last Friday to look for a flash drive with a lightning connector for my phone in hope that bringing some videos with me will help to avoid the above incident. I know, there are ways to download videos into the iPhone, but they feel so complicated.
So there I went, and not only did I find the flash drives with lightning connectors, but also a flash drive that can connect to other devices wirelessly by creating its own tiny hotspot.
The latter was impressive! According to the salespeople, it creates a small hotspot for up to 3 devices and has a battery that lasts up to 6 hours. When I tested it at home, I could watch videos directly from it without copying it over, although copying would help save battery life in the drive. The SanDisk Connect app was also required to use the drive so that limits the number of people who can freely access it, in addition to the usual network password obstacle.
The idea that I immediately had was that when I share this device with Van, I'll plug it into a power bank and let it run. With 64GB of space, there can be a lot of videos we can store in there. Moreover, it can be an emergency storage if we somehow manage to run out of space in our phones without realizing it until we are taking more photos/videos.
Not travelling as much as I did in the last several months so it will be August before I have the opportunity to test it in a trip. Then, this will be really a necessity as the average will be about just over a trip a month, if I remember correctly. There will be several work trips this winter instead of just one or two as my business (and seriously, the economy) isn't doing so well, although tbh this is going to be fun since my gf and her best friend will be tagging along with me for my work trip to Seoul. My plan is to go wherever with them, then add a few more days for myself just for work.
Not going anywhere for the next Chinese New Year public holiday though because Van wants me to be around then, then I may go somewhere after that since it's still CNY for the first 15 days of the lunar month while only the first two days are public holidays in Singapore. It will be a long weekend as it begins on Saturday, making Monday a public holiday to compensate for Sunday, but it's not long enough to go anywhere nice, plus it will be frigging crowded.
Played mahjong with Van's family on Saturday, including her aunts, one of which was her godmother. They put me through a little interrogation during the game and, not to be arrogant, but it would be seriously surprising if they find anything to disagree with me.
Learnt a bit of Singapore mahjong but the expert, her godmother, had to leave halfway through the game and it got a little confused afterwards. The Singapore mahjong game app in my phone described several rules and advanced tile combinations that they did not mention at all, so we were playing with only the basic rules while none of the advanced ones were mentioned during the game, like winning with the last tile would get you an extra point.
So I tried to type something on the 18th and nothing came out.
Anyway OneDrive just downsized our free capacity from 15GB to 5, so now I'm uploading as much as I can to Google Drive. Everything in my iPhone was back up there and it's only 3GB full, so I'll have to manually copy the rest over. Could take a while.
After Van fell in love with Qatar Airways (I'm impressed too, btw), I started looking at the flight deals from the airline and found that it's actually quite affordable on most routes despite the relative opulence offered even in Economy class.
Now I feel like such a frog in the well for believing that Singapore Airlines sets the standards for airline comfort. No, because not only does Qatar still uses metal utensils even on Economy, they also offer free Wi-Fi. Other things included in their trans-Atlantic flights include ear plugs, toothbrush with toothpaste and eye pads. Slippers are only for Business class.
I have not been on one of their flights so I cannot say anything about the seat sizes and recline, although generally speaking, they're all the same on Economy across the board with really minute differences, like an inch in seat width.
So I'm using perfume regularly now since the two bottles I bought a year or two ago were barely getting used. Spraying my handkerchief turned out to be an extremely useful idea and I'm even more tempted now to bring a some perfume when I travel to places with warm weather.
The elevated bus that debuted in Beijing. At first it looked like THE solution to traffic jams, then it looked like it will just block all the road signs for almost every vehicle going under it.
Looks cool though.
30 May 2016
Watching the latest X-men movie got me thinking: if we know the dimensions of the school, we should be able to get a rough estimate of the speed of Quicksilver.
Turns out it's already known to be Mach 10, or about 340,000m/s, or roughly 0.1c, i.e. 10% of the speed of light.
At that speed, he should be experiencing effects predicted by Einstein including the slowing of time relative to everything else. If he wears a watch, it would get lag behind other clocks a little bit every time he gets close to that speed.
Also, he should be creating sonic booms every time he gets beyond the speed of sound, a mere 340m/s.
Another irregularity is how he makes everything feel so effortless when he does crazy stuff while moving at supersonic speeds.
I don't believe this version of him has super strength nor super strong bones, yet he can deflect bullets with his fingers and fling people around by gently pushing them.
One has to keep in mind that even when he is moving slowly in those high speed scenes, he is still doing all those things in milliseconds. To nudge an average adult male 5cm within 0.1s is still a lot of momentum and acceleration.
There are a few assumptions made here, but if you take the average resulting velocity to be 0.05m/0.1s=0.5m/s, then accelerating him from stationary to 0.5m/s in 0.1s would take an acceleration of 5m/s^2. Assuming this man weighs 70kg, the amount of force he has to apply would be 350N, or roughly like carrying a 35kg weight.
He saved everyone in that school in probably less than a second, so obviously it's a lot less time spent on each person than 0.1s, hence even more force applied than that. And everyone should have been bleeding in their ears afterwards from his sonic boom.
1st June
In Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport now at 4.30pm and there's no Wi-Fi. Technically, it's there, but according to the lady at the information counter I had approached just now, since I don't have a local SIM card, I can't get an authorization code to access it. With roughly 11 hours to go before my flight at 3.45am, this is so fucked up.
Hence I'm blogging while sipping on this indecently overpriced latte at Oak Tree. 60RMB, my readers, is a lot even in a city like Guangzhou. An extremely filling meal at an average restaurant is only less than 100RMB per pax.
This coffee is practically at the same level as Singapore cafes! And it doesn't even come with free Wi-Fi unless you had been willing to fork out a few hundred RMB for a prepaid SIM card.
And my rant isn't over yet, mainly because my flight is still 11 hours away. Not that I'm going to type for the rest of these 11 hours, but it could end up being the most interesting thing I can do here, especially with my luggage preventing me from being too adventurous, not to mention Guangzhou really is quite bland IMHO. It wasn't designed to be a tourist attraction, I feel. A food haven, no doubt, but with precious little to do in between meals after a few days.
My plan is really to sit a little while more, then get out and find the 7-11 in the arrival hall for a cheaper meal. There are lounges I have access to later when I reach airside, but without Wi-Fi, there's no way of knowing if they will still be open by then.
I'm going to miss the food here. If you're into Chinese food and not too squeamish about the hygiene issues that plague the F&B industry in China, this is frigging paradise on Earth.
It reminds me of the older Singapore in terms of availability and variety of cheap food everywhere, just a lot more Chinese and far more chaotic. Furthermore, they're good despite the prices. Brings to mind my old theory that when food ingredients are cheap, people are more willing to experiment. I know it's not exactly true; food prices don't necessarily affect innovation, but what I really do feel is that the prices aren't a direct factor - the amount of people eating out is. The prices affect the type of people eating out and therefore the type of food the chefs get creative with.
In the cheap range, look at the night markets in Taiwan. There's always something new and sometimes they even spread to other countries, like the giant fried chicken cutlets. In the expensive range, restaurants in Singapore are always pushing their chefs to come up with something new regularly. In fact, one ex-chef I talked to spoke of his ex-boss who instructed him to create a new dish for the menu every week.
With the working hours of chefs in Singapore being as long as they are, I wonder how they can still have the time to be creative.
Forced creativity?
No wonder our restaurants haven't made any new dishes that have spread to other countries. Even our breads (Bread Talk) and barbecued meat (Bee Cheng Hiang) have gone further.
Alright, it's 5pm.
So there are cheaper meals at the arrival levels. I'll go back there again later for dinner. 5.37pm now. Wanted to buy some duck wings back but they need to be chilled.
No luck with the internet still but I found some vending machines selling prepaid SIM cards for various countries. Since they were selling some for Hong Hong and Macau, that was an opportunity to use the mouldy 100RMB bills that remain in my possession.
50RMB for a SIM card that provides 7 days of unlimited data is an awesome deal even if it didn't accept the old bill, but it did, so that was even more fantastic.
Usually these days I only use the data passport from M1 that costs S$10/month and a one-time registration fee of $2 and allows me to use all the remaining data in my monthly plan in a specific country or city. 50RMB would be around that price and is perfect for my week-long trip to Hong Kong and Macau later this year. Too bad they didn't have any for South Korea or Seoul.
Now that I'm in China, the thought that Vanessa's classmates labelled one of them who grew up in the US a "banana" really brought to my mind that saying involving a pot and a kettle.
None of us in Singapore can be considered to be really Chinese anymore.
9pm now. Been playing War Tortoise and had a decent meal for 89 yuan involving braised ribs with rice, a side of boiled veg, a side of pickled radish and carrot cubes, a soft drink and a dish of steamed rice rolls with minced pork. Expensive for this city but decent.
One thing that kinda stood out for me is that there are a lot of Africans here because Ethiopian flies here. Moreover, they only seem to eat at the only shop that sells meals for a mere 25 yuan - the "Fast Food" shop selling what we call "cai png" in Singapore. They have a small selection of vegetable and meat dishes, and you choose three to have your rice with. For 25 yuan, you get to have one meat dish and two vegetable dishes. This is the cheapest full meal in the entire airport and is still more expensive than the average price one would find in Singapore outside of the CBD area. Just as expected in an airport.
And it also underlines the poverty in that continent.
11pm. Took a long walk in the airport and in the process, helped a local girl with the SIM card vending machine and an African guy with directions to the Metro.
In an hour and a half, the check in counter will finally be opened. It's possible that they won't be open but if any of them is, I'll take a shower. With the clean clothes and everything needed for a shower except a towel in my bag, I'll definitely go for one if it's available for free. Heck, if necessary, a clean T-shirt can easily be used as a towel since I'm already heading home.
Anyway, as I had initially discovered on the taxi to the hotel I had booked on the first night, there is actually a hotel right next to the airport. In fact, there are signs directing people to Pullman Hotel so it must be very close. I'm going to check out the price when I get back. Otherwise, there are hotels closer to the airport than the one I booked, far more than Expedia and Hotels.com led me to believe, so if Pullman is above S$100 a night, I'll try searching for them in Ctrip.
My hotel was decent enough though, at S$67 a night, plus about 35 yuan for cab, making the night a total of $74. Even when that's added to my airfare, it's still cheaper than those offered by other airlines.
Now the problem is finding a place to stay while coming back. This 3.45am departure requires a night at a hotel if possible. Airbnb will be difficult because not all hosts will have the proper system for handling the keys without being there till the next day, so I'll have to ask before booking next time. Or stay at Pullman. Then again, I have a feeling it's an expensive hotel, given its location. Optimistically, it could turn out to offer capsules or hourly rates.
Another thing is that it's far cheaper to fly from JB to Guangzhou than from Singapore. Yesterday, I found fares as low as S$150 for a return trip and that's about $200 lower than what I paid. For that kind of difference, I really have to find out how one can go to the airport in JB from Singapore.
Since I always go to Guangzhou with only carry-on luggage, an open-jaw trip may be possible in which I fly from JB to Guangzhou with only carry-on, then from Guangzhou to Singapore with checked luggage. Unless, of course, it's really convenient to get from the JB airport to Singapore with heavy luggage at a reasonable price.
Uber maybe?
12.23am. Apparently there's such a thing as Iraqi Airways and it flies from Guangzhou to Baghdad. Also, I'm really worried by all these signs everywhere saying that all carry-on luggage must be below 20*40*55cm and weigh less than 5kg. It looks like I may have to buy checked luggage space if it applies to all airlines departing from this airport.
It was only just now that I recalled that I could have bought a day of data for S$15 just now. Would have made the wait a lot more entertaining. Oh well.
12.56am. Queue is slow. At least they were opened on time. Brain is pretty dead. Not sure what will happen later when I have to go eat at her school.
Good thing that rule about luggage doesn't seem to be enforced. Plenty of people leave the counters with huge backpacks so I'm safe. I'll just pretend to be stupid and ask for the carry-on limit anyway.
4.34am. On the plane but can't sleep. It's definitely the space issue. I feel like I can't breathe.
6 June 2016
Went to the PC Show last Friday to look for a flash drive with a lightning connector for my phone in hope that bringing some videos with me will help to avoid the above incident. I know, there are ways to download videos into the iPhone, but they feel so complicated.
So there I went, and not only did I find the flash drives with lightning connectors, but also a flash drive that can connect to other devices wirelessly by creating its own tiny hotspot.
The latter was impressive! According to the salespeople, it creates a small hotspot for up to 3 devices and has a battery that lasts up to 6 hours. When I tested it at home, I could watch videos directly from it without copying it over, although copying would help save battery life in the drive. The SanDisk Connect app was also required to use the drive so that limits the number of people who can freely access it, in addition to the usual network password obstacle.
The idea that I immediately had was that when I share this device with Van, I'll plug it into a power bank and let it run. With 64GB of space, there can be a lot of videos we can store in there. Moreover, it can be an emergency storage if we somehow manage to run out of space in our phones without realizing it until we are taking more photos/videos.
Not travelling as much as I did in the last several months so it will be August before I have the opportunity to test it in a trip. Then, this will be really a necessity as the average will be about just over a trip a month, if I remember correctly. There will be several work trips this winter instead of just one or two as my business (and seriously, the economy) isn't doing so well, although tbh this is going to be fun since my gf and her best friend will be tagging along with me for my work trip to Seoul. My plan is to go wherever with them, then add a few more days for myself just for work.
Not going anywhere for the next Chinese New Year public holiday though because Van wants me to be around then, then I may go somewhere after that since it's still CNY for the first 15 days of the lunar month while only the first two days are public holidays in Singapore. It will be a long weekend as it begins on Saturday, making Monday a public holiday to compensate for Sunday, but it's not long enough to go anywhere nice, plus it will be frigging crowded.
Played mahjong with Van's family on Saturday, including her aunts, one of which was her godmother. They put me through a little interrogation during the game and, not to be arrogant, but it would be seriously surprising if they find anything to disagree with me.
Learnt a bit of Singapore mahjong but the expert, her godmother, had to leave halfway through the game and it got a little confused afterwards. The Singapore mahjong game app in my phone described several rules and advanced tile combinations that they did not mention at all, so we were playing with only the basic rules while none of the advanced ones were mentioned during the game, like winning with the last tile would get you an extra point.
Wednesday, 11 May 2016
Rant 1227 / Am I A Bird Yet?
03 May 2016
So nausea and dizziness are some of the possible symptoms of jet lag - and I've been having them mildly today and the day after the evening I arrived in Toronto at the beginning of my most recent trip.
Nothing when I first arrived in Toronto and then Singapore last night.
I thought it was because of the stomach flu I'd gotten on the flight to Toronto but clearly it's from the jet lag, although it was possibly from both.
Anyway, 12 hours of jet lag is worse than I remember. I absolutely do not recall the jet lag of my trip to Vancouver last year to be so bad. Maybe the difference was that I avoided coffee during my stay there.
10 May 2016
Considered posting short posts. Not sure if it's any better than long ones.
Somehow, my jet lag has been turned into something positive - I now wake up at around 6am and go to bed at around 10pm. It's awesome because it's possible to swim in the early morning at about 8-10am, thereby avoiding the crowds.
Bad thing is that this won't last. Sleeping at 10pm in Singapore is as close to impossible as a vegan tiger.
11 May 2016
Flying again. It's really not that great anymore. Last year, I was not expecting to keep this rate of flying up for multiple years, but this is the second year and I've had... let me see... started with the flight back after the Europe trip, then Seoul in late Jan, Auckland in early Feb, Penang in early March was by train so it doesn't count, Bintan in late March was ferry so doesn't count, Ho Chi Minh in mid-April which was almost immediately followed by the Canada/US trip in the same month.
Now, it's Seoul again.
How many flights does this make by the end of this month?
Oh, there were 2 flight round trips (SG-Canada, Canada-US) in the Canada/US trip.
13, or 6.5 round trips by the end of May. MAY!
It's not even been half a year yet.
Signs of travelling more than I ever expected have started to show - when I returned on my last trip, I was confused about which side of the escalator I should be standing on as I headed towards the immigration in Changi after alighting the plane.
Another sign is the mixed stack of five foreign currencies left unsorted in the locked box I keep my cash in for easy access.
Not to mention I'm starting to unlace my shoes once the seats in my side of the row have been filled, and then removing my shoes when the seatbelt sign is turned off after take-off.
I'm starting to feel at home on the planes now! There's even a small tube of moisturiser and a lip balm in my man purse that I keep in the magazine pouch throughout every flight. Other things I keep in there include a pen, wet wipes (usually from previous flights), one Panadol, one charcoal pill, a sewing kit, eye pad, glasses box, lactase pill (new addition after finding them in the US) and tissue paper.
After my last trip, I cannot understate the terrible hygiene on the plane! When I read that they absolutely NEVER clean the tables, I didn't think whatever is in the planes can hit me that badly - clearly I've been too jaded by the relatively sterile environment in my country. Air travellers come from everywhere, so the variety of bacteria on board is pretty international too!
Now, I've read more about how they clean the planes, and it seems they only spray disinfectant when leaving known hotspots like certain African countries. The usual? Vacuum the floor, clear the crumbs and remove any visible trash (excluding those buried so deep in the magazine pouches that the cleaners miss them).
And they DO clean the tables - after the flights of the day for each plane. The blankets and pillows? Depends on the airline, could be during each stop or at the end of the day.
Deep cleaning happens once a month at best, or every quarter for some airlines. This involves really cleaning the seats cushions instead of simply wiping off crumbs, cleaning the carpets instead of simple vacuum, cleaning the ceilings and walls, and probably some other stuff.
With the kind of foot traffic we expect on every plane, the insides of every plane now sounds absolutely disgusting.
In fact, you are 20% more likely to catch a cold on a flight, mainly from other passengers within two rows around you.
Although there are plenty of tips going around for what you should do to maintain personal hygiene on a plane, what I do these days is use wet wipes on my hands whenever I am about to touch food with my hands. That's it.
And I'm sorry if you get grossed out by this but I don't actually need a blanket to keep warm since I always try to bring a jacket if I'm going to anywhere cold - I use it as a giant apron during meals.
It's unusual but it happens - full service airlines can sometimes offer cheaper fares than budget airlines. I've just booked a flight to Hong Kong for mid-August with MH and it's cheaper than those offered by Scoot and Jetstar by less than S$30. For the budget flights, I opted for check-in luggage only for one person and no food at all, and yet it's still more expensive.
Despite the small price difference, MH provides meals and check-in luggage service, so the overall difference is actually quite significant.
Don't ask me why. MH can't be doing too badly if they can afford to renovate their lounges now.
So nausea and dizziness are some of the possible symptoms of jet lag - and I've been having them mildly today and the day after the evening I arrived in Toronto at the beginning of my most recent trip.
Nothing when I first arrived in Toronto and then Singapore last night.
I thought it was because of the stomach flu I'd gotten on the flight to Toronto but clearly it's from the jet lag, although it was possibly from both.
Anyway, 12 hours of jet lag is worse than I remember. I absolutely do not recall the jet lag of my trip to Vancouver last year to be so bad. Maybe the difference was that I avoided coffee during my stay there.
10 May 2016
Considered posting short posts. Not sure if it's any better than long ones.
Somehow, my jet lag has been turned into something positive - I now wake up at around 6am and go to bed at around 10pm. It's awesome because it's possible to swim in the early morning at about 8-10am, thereby avoiding the crowds.
Bad thing is that this won't last. Sleeping at 10pm in Singapore is as close to impossible as a vegan tiger.
11 May 2016
Flying again. It's really not that great anymore. Last year, I was not expecting to keep this rate of flying up for multiple years, but this is the second year and I've had... let me see... started with the flight back after the Europe trip, then Seoul in late Jan, Auckland in early Feb, Penang in early March was by train so it doesn't count, Bintan in late March was ferry so doesn't count, Ho Chi Minh in mid-April which was almost immediately followed by the Canada/US trip in the same month.
Now, it's Seoul again.
How many flights does this make by the end of this month?
Oh, there were 2 flight round trips (SG-Canada, Canada-US) in the Canada/US trip.
13, or 6.5 round trips by the end of May. MAY!
It's not even been half a year yet.
Signs of travelling more than I ever expected have started to show - when I returned on my last trip, I was confused about which side of the escalator I should be standing on as I headed towards the immigration in Changi after alighting the plane.
Another sign is the mixed stack of five foreign currencies left unsorted in the locked box I keep my cash in for easy access.
Not to mention I'm starting to unlace my shoes once the seats in my side of the row have been filled, and then removing my shoes when the seatbelt sign is turned off after take-off.
I'm starting to feel at home on the planes now! There's even a small tube of moisturiser and a lip balm in my man purse that I keep in the magazine pouch throughout every flight. Other things I keep in there include a pen, wet wipes (usually from previous flights), one Panadol, one charcoal pill, a sewing kit, eye pad, glasses box, lactase pill (new addition after finding them in the US) and tissue paper.
After my last trip, I cannot understate the terrible hygiene on the plane! When I read that they absolutely NEVER clean the tables, I didn't think whatever is in the planes can hit me that badly - clearly I've been too jaded by the relatively sterile environment in my country. Air travellers come from everywhere, so the variety of bacteria on board is pretty international too!
Now, I've read more about how they clean the planes, and it seems they only spray disinfectant when leaving known hotspots like certain African countries. The usual? Vacuum the floor, clear the crumbs and remove any visible trash (excluding those buried so deep in the magazine pouches that the cleaners miss them).
And they DO clean the tables - after the flights of the day for each plane. The blankets and pillows? Depends on the airline, could be during each stop or at the end of the day.
Deep cleaning happens once a month at best, or every quarter for some airlines. This involves really cleaning the seats cushions instead of simply wiping off crumbs, cleaning the carpets instead of simple vacuum, cleaning the ceilings and walls, and probably some other stuff.
With the kind of foot traffic we expect on every plane, the insides of every plane now sounds absolutely disgusting.
In fact, you are 20% more likely to catch a cold on a flight, mainly from other passengers within two rows around you.
Although there are plenty of tips going around for what you should do to maintain personal hygiene on a plane, what I do these days is use wet wipes on my hands whenever I am about to touch food with my hands. That's it.
And I'm sorry if you get grossed out by this but I don't actually need a blanket to keep warm since I always try to bring a jacket if I'm going to anywhere cold - I use it as a giant apron during meals.
It's unusual but it happens - full service airlines can sometimes offer cheaper fares than budget airlines. I've just booked a flight to Hong Kong for mid-August with MH and it's cheaper than those offered by Scoot and Jetstar by less than S$30. For the budget flights, I opted for check-in luggage only for one person and no food at all, and yet it's still more expensive.
Despite the small price difference, MH provides meals and check-in luggage service, so the overall difference is actually quite significant.
Don't ask me why. MH can't be doing too badly if they can afford to renovate their lounges now.
Thursday, 17 March 2016
Rant 1226 / I Am So Bad.
16 Mar 2016
So I ended up on that side of Youtube today. It had an intriguing title and 8 million views to back it up, so how can anyone resist that?
I feel sorry for the girl.
Even before watching the video, I'm fully aware that children make great mouthpieces because their perceived innocence makes anything they say so much more believable.
As for her speech, some things seemed to be omitted to raise the impact of her words. For one, why did their government start to borrow money from private banks? This question can even be broken down into two: why did the government need to borrow money and why from these banks?
I may not be an expert but for all we know, there could be mitigating factors in the answers to these questions that will better explain the situation than simply because banks are evil.
Also, why are they so fixated on how loans are money that didn't exist before their approval? As long as most of you pay your debts, the loan is as good as paid. The risk of you not paying up is covered by the interest rates and whatever the average borrower owns - that's why actuaries exist.
I think it pretty much also covers what I said before - that the economy is founded on confidence, the confidence that it will keep going. I guess in a way it's like a religion because that's saying that the whole system is runs on faith.
As for why houses are so expensive that you need a loan to buy one, it's simple - prices go according to demand. If they are way lower than what people are willing to pay for them, someone will just buy up whatever they are and sell them at the highest prices others are willing to pay. That's just a fact of life in our capitalistic world. Who would miss such a simple opportunity to make some money?
If the price of a home is really too high, it would stay empty for a very long time, but as long as a house sells, it's not too expensive. Maybe it is to you, but not to the rest of the people who want that home. To put in in simpler terms, there are people out there who are perfectly willing to pay a portion of their income for their homes for 30 years of their lives. Different people, different circumstances, different needs, different degrees of urgency.
Oh, and different perception of value.
18 Mar 2016
I don't want to hug Buddha's legs but it's a terrible habit of mine.
Aaaaaaand I forgot about my parents for Qingming. Oh no.
So I ended up on that side of Youtube today. It had an intriguing title and 8 million views to back it up, so how can anyone resist that?
I feel sorry for the girl.
Even before watching the video, I'm fully aware that children make great mouthpieces because their perceived innocence makes anything they say so much more believable.
As for her speech, some things seemed to be omitted to raise the impact of her words. For one, why did their government start to borrow money from private banks? This question can even be broken down into two: why did the government need to borrow money and why from these banks?
I may not be an expert but for all we know, there could be mitigating factors in the answers to these questions that will better explain the situation than simply because banks are evil.
Also, why are they so fixated on how loans are money that didn't exist before their approval? As long as most of you pay your debts, the loan is as good as paid. The risk of you not paying up is covered by the interest rates and whatever the average borrower owns - that's why actuaries exist.
I think it pretty much also covers what I said before - that the economy is founded on confidence, the confidence that it will keep going. I guess in a way it's like a religion because that's saying that the whole system is runs on faith.
As for why houses are so expensive that you need a loan to buy one, it's simple - prices go according to demand. If they are way lower than what people are willing to pay for them, someone will just buy up whatever they are and sell them at the highest prices others are willing to pay. That's just a fact of life in our capitalistic world. Who would miss such a simple opportunity to make some money?
If the price of a home is really too high, it would stay empty for a very long time, but as long as a house sells, it's not too expensive. Maybe it is to you, but not to the rest of the people who want that home. To put in in simpler terms, there are people out there who are perfectly willing to pay a portion of their income for their homes for 30 years of their lives. Different people, different circumstances, different needs, different degrees of urgency.
Oh, and different perception of value.
18 Mar 2016
I don't want to hug Buddha's legs but it's a terrible habit of mine.
Aaaaaaand I forgot about my parents for Qingming. Oh no.
Tuesday, 15 March 2016
Rant 1225 / Just A Quick Post.
15 Mar 2016
For some reason, Pillars of Eternity got a lot more interesting to me in recent months. It used to be kinda boring when I first received it but my taste seems to have changed since my trip to Europe. No idea why.
Now I'm in the Sun in Shadow (hopefully got that name right) and I've got no time to play it.
Tried using Remotr before realizing it was only for intranet use unless a port is forwarded, and found it hard to play PoE on. It's probably the same with Teamviewer, at this rate.
But I'll try it anyway when I go to Penang this weekend, and maybe try Arcanum too. Finally bought it for real, through GOG.
Losing weight again. But a lot of it seems to be muscle mass. My stamina is getting worse and my legs ache again in the morning when I first get out of bed. At least I've gone below 96kg now.
Trying to keep my dinner to below 400cal with either half a cup of oats in water with 2tsp of sugar, or a serving of cold soba. Both are possible when there is a good enough mobile game to distract me with to make me eat slower.
For some reason, Pillars of Eternity got a lot more interesting to me in recent months. It used to be kinda boring when I first received it but my taste seems to have changed since my trip to Europe. No idea why.
Now I'm in the Sun in Shadow (hopefully got that name right) and I've got no time to play it.
Tried using Remotr before realizing it was only for intranet use unless a port is forwarded, and found it hard to play PoE on. It's probably the same with Teamviewer, at this rate.
But I'll try it anyway when I go to Penang this weekend, and maybe try Arcanum too. Finally bought it for real, through GOG.
Losing weight again. But a lot of it seems to be muscle mass. My stamina is getting worse and my legs ache again in the morning when I first get out of bed. At least I've gone below 96kg now.
Trying to keep my dinner to below 400cal with either half a cup of oats in water with 2tsp of sugar, or a serving of cold soba. Both are possible when there is a good enough mobile game to distract me with to make me eat slower.
Monday, 14 March 2016
Rant 1224 / And Let The Sous Vide Begin!
01 Feb 2015
Looking at my mileage balances, a thought keeps running through my head - is it really worth it?
There are a few schools of thought when it comes to mileage and airline loyalty, one of the newer ones being that we should ignore all of them.
It is, in fact, the most cost-efficient to ignore all brand loyalty and sign up for the cheapest flights all the time. The amount of money we can save from that is pretty significant right now, if we compare budget flights with full-service flights. Often, we can save half the money we would have spent on a full-service flight if we book a budget flight with no food and minimal luggage.
So, is it worth it?
I'm currently sticking with CX because of the service. So far, I've been watching it in a few airports and the lowest Marco Polo tier has been grouped with other passengers only in Singapore, while in Hong Kong and Seoul, they are entitled to priority boarding with the Business and First classes.
The issue now is that CX fares are becoming increasingly expensive in comparison to other airlines flying their routes and there rarely is any serious promotions. It is pretty hard for a Green member like myself to find a reason to fly CX other than brand loyalty when airlines like EVA can fly SG-SanFran for about half the price and has a decent reputation. Priority boarding doesn't count for that much relative to that price difference.
Staying Green is easy, so I may just do that; a return trip annually on CX is not a problem.
What I'm more concerned about is where I should focus on accumulating mileage. My current theory is to forget the airlines and just think about the points in my credit card. This way, I can be very flexible in where I get my Business class flights.
05 Feb 2016
So I have taken a look again at the new CX Marco Polo that will begin soon and compared it with the old, and two changes were clear:
First, members who did not get the 100 club points needed to stay Green (the lowest tier) will have to renew their annual membership by paying the US$100 fee. That's twice as high as the original US$50 that I paid a few years back.
Second, the 100 club points are much harder to earn than the 4 club sectors that we currently need to stay Green. For example, a short flight between Singapore and Hong Kong nets me 1 sector, so two return trips on economy will get me there easily. In comparison, a similar flight will only get me 10 points in the new MPC, so a return trip of this distance is only worth 20 points, ie I will need to make FIVE trips to get it. However, a lower tier Business class flight between the two airports will get me 25 points each way, earning me 50 points in a return trip, ie it only takes two such trips to stay Green.
A return trip from SIN to HKG on Economy Core (subclass M) in late Oct and early Nov costs about S$700, or just below S$600 on Economy Special (subclass L). Both M and L gets me 10 club points per flight, except L cannot be upgraded with miles. On Business Save (subclass I), it costs about $2100.
A return trip from SIN to SFO on Economy Special (V) on those dates cost just over S$1900 and earns me 35+10 points each way. Suddenly, it's clear - the new system encourages long-haul flights! This trip costs less than thrice the price of the short trip but earns me 4.5 times the number of points!
Similarly, a return trip from SIN to YYZ (Toronto) on the same dates costs less than S$2300 but earns 100 points for the entire trip. This trip costs over thrice the price of the SIN-HKG trip but gets me FIVE TIMES the points!
You know what this means? Screw the short flights on CX! I'll go to Hong Kong on budget flights and do only the long ones on CX!
But upon checking the price of a return trip from HKG to YYZ on the same dates, I discover that there is no Economy Special; the lowest being Economy Core, raising the price to just over S$2700. Apparently, flying from Singapore is cheaper than flying from Hong Kong, even though flying from Singapore requires a transfer in Hong Kong.
Absence of logic from my angle aside, this means I'm going to have to suck it up and fly CX from SG. It's cheaper and more convenient, it seems.
24 Feb 2016
So I've decided to take upon a task that may be one of the greatest in my life.
For Van's grad trip in August 2017, I shall organize a train trip from Singapore to London.
So far, two others have expressed interest in it, one a well-heeled traveler and the other the opposite. It's only been two days since everyone agreed on this so everything is still vague and fluid. However, there's already a conflict on this trip - the route. Van likes the cold and wants us to stay North in Europe while someone wants to go South like the Italian Riviera since it will be summer.
IMHO, all countries make sense in that part of the world so my compromise is to go to both in a Z-shape route.
One path is to go from St Petersburg to Finland to Sweden to Norway to Denmark to Germany to Luxembourg and back to Germany then to Austria to Italy to France and finally to London. This is my first draft route and the plan is to come up with a few more before letting them choose.
14 Mar 2016
So it's been over two months since my last post. Here's a little something: I have a sous vide machine, the bags and the bag sealer now!
Tried it with eggs to make the shoyu eggs from ramen shops that have solid whites and thick gooey yolks. Internet recipe from Serious Eats didn't work, so I'm going to have to do my own experiment and make my own chart of time vs how cooked each egg is.
Upcoming train ride to Penang will be crazy on the 18th. 8.40am JB Sentral to 9.45pm Butterworth, plus a short one at 8am Woodlands CIQ to 8.05 JB Sentral!
Not sure what I'm going to do during the ride.
Looking at my mileage balances, a thought keeps running through my head - is it really worth it?
There are a few schools of thought when it comes to mileage and airline loyalty, one of the newer ones being that we should ignore all of them.
It is, in fact, the most cost-efficient to ignore all brand loyalty and sign up for the cheapest flights all the time. The amount of money we can save from that is pretty significant right now, if we compare budget flights with full-service flights. Often, we can save half the money we would have spent on a full-service flight if we book a budget flight with no food and minimal luggage.
So, is it worth it?
I'm currently sticking with CX because of the service. So far, I've been watching it in a few airports and the lowest Marco Polo tier has been grouped with other passengers only in Singapore, while in Hong Kong and Seoul, they are entitled to priority boarding with the Business and First classes.
The issue now is that CX fares are becoming increasingly expensive in comparison to other airlines flying their routes and there rarely is any serious promotions. It is pretty hard for a Green member like myself to find a reason to fly CX other than brand loyalty when airlines like EVA can fly SG-SanFran for about half the price and has a decent reputation. Priority boarding doesn't count for that much relative to that price difference.
Staying Green is easy, so I may just do that; a return trip annually on CX is not a problem.
What I'm more concerned about is where I should focus on accumulating mileage. My current theory is to forget the airlines and just think about the points in my credit card. This way, I can be very flexible in where I get my Business class flights.
05 Feb 2016
So I have taken a look again at the new CX Marco Polo that will begin soon and compared it with the old, and two changes were clear:
First, members who did not get the 100 club points needed to stay Green (the lowest tier) will have to renew their annual membership by paying the US$100 fee. That's twice as high as the original US$50 that I paid a few years back.
Second, the 100 club points are much harder to earn than the 4 club sectors that we currently need to stay Green. For example, a short flight between Singapore and Hong Kong nets me 1 sector, so two return trips on economy will get me there easily. In comparison, a similar flight will only get me 10 points in the new MPC, so a return trip of this distance is only worth 20 points, ie I will need to make FIVE trips to get it. However, a lower tier Business class flight between the two airports will get me 25 points each way, earning me 50 points in a return trip, ie it only takes two such trips to stay Green.
A return trip from SIN to HKG on Economy Core (subclass M) in late Oct and early Nov costs about S$700, or just below S$600 on Economy Special (subclass L). Both M and L gets me 10 club points per flight, except L cannot be upgraded with miles. On Business Save (subclass I), it costs about $2100.
A return trip from SIN to SFO on Economy Special (V) on those dates cost just over S$1900 and earns me 35+10 points each way. Suddenly, it's clear - the new system encourages long-haul flights! This trip costs less than thrice the price of the short trip but earns me 4.5 times the number of points!
Similarly, a return trip from SIN to YYZ (Toronto) on the same dates costs less than S$2300 but earns 100 points for the entire trip. This trip costs over thrice the price of the SIN-HKG trip but gets me FIVE TIMES the points!
You know what this means? Screw the short flights on CX! I'll go to Hong Kong on budget flights and do only the long ones on CX!
But upon checking the price of a return trip from HKG to YYZ on the same dates, I discover that there is no Economy Special; the lowest being Economy Core, raising the price to just over S$2700. Apparently, flying from Singapore is cheaper than flying from Hong Kong, even though flying from Singapore requires a transfer in Hong Kong.
Absence of logic from my angle aside, this means I'm going to have to suck it up and fly CX from SG. It's cheaper and more convenient, it seems.
24 Feb 2016
So I've decided to take upon a task that may be one of the greatest in my life.
For Van's grad trip in August 2017, I shall organize a train trip from Singapore to London.
So far, two others have expressed interest in it, one a well-heeled traveler and the other the opposite. It's only been two days since everyone agreed on this so everything is still vague and fluid. However, there's already a conflict on this trip - the route. Van likes the cold and wants us to stay North in Europe while someone wants to go South like the Italian Riviera since it will be summer.
IMHO, all countries make sense in that part of the world so my compromise is to go to both in a Z-shape route.
One path is to go from St Petersburg to Finland to Sweden to Norway to Denmark to Germany to Luxembourg and back to Germany then to Austria to Italy to France and finally to London. This is my first draft route and the plan is to come up with a few more before letting them choose.
14 Mar 2016
So it's been over two months since my last post. Here's a little something: I have a sous vide machine, the bags and the bag sealer now!
Tried it with eggs to make the shoyu eggs from ramen shops that have solid whites and thick gooey yolks. Internet recipe from Serious Eats didn't work, so I'm going to have to do my own experiment and make my own chart of time vs how cooked each egg is.
Upcoming train ride to Penang will be crazy on the 18th. 8.40am JB Sentral to 9.45pm Butterworth, plus a short one at 8am Woodlands CIQ to 8.05 JB Sentral!
Not sure what I'm going to do during the ride.
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