URGH.

When will people from the West ever realise that more than half the world we live in comprises people who are not Caucasians and that things are different and can’t be expected to be the same?

Domino’s Pizza – Still Ridiculously Expensive in Japan

I think it’s very important that someone inform them sometime – and make sure it gets into their heads – that out there in the grand scheme of things, they’re in the MINORITY and they simply cannot – i repeat, CANNOT – take for granted that what they’re used to is what other people are used to as well.

stop bitching that pizza is expensive in Japan. you’re only saying that because you’re ordering pizza every week more than once a week, like some of the other people I know. if you tried eating Japanese food or stopped being lazy and actually cooked for yourself using ingredients found in ordinary supermarkets rather than ordering in cos you’re hungover from heavy and irresponsible drinking the night before or even the entire weekend, you’ll find having the occasional pizza much more affordable.

i just wished that back in Osaka, there was some other born-and-bred Asian who spoke fluent English whom I could team up with and argue with all those close-minded – or ignorant, to give them the benefit of the doubt - people, to inform them that more than half the world has experiences that are NOT like theirs and they ought to change their mindset to at least acknowledge that fact.

urgh.

ST Forum letter, 21 Feb 2011

This letter comes a few days after a conversation in the office, where i discovered that single-mothers aren’t entitled to maternity leave, and that singles who adopt do not have childcare leave. I find it highly unfair to people who are already in a difficult position.

Imagine if someone my age in her mid-twenties, with a full-time, decent paying job fell pregnant. And though her boyfriend did not want to take any responsibility for the child, she decided to keep the baby. What then? Government policies that try so hard to reinforce the traditional family structure make it such that she would have to quit her full time job to give birth. Upon doing so, she has to struggle to feed herself and the baby because she has no income. With no money, she can’t send the kid to childcare, so she can only settle in part-time jobs in order to care for the baby. How then can she fully contribute to society?

Considering policies that have attempted to promote the traditional family structure of 2 married, heterosexual parents with a child/children have been largely unsuccessful or have seen little success, perhaps it’s time the government reconsidered their position on this.

Arresting the slide in fertility rate

I APPLAUD the Association of Women for Action and Research's (Aware) advocacy of paternity leave ("Give dads baby leave, says Aware"; Feb 10).

Our fertility rate of 1.16 last year should ring alarm bells in the minds of those who want to see the nation still in existence half a century from now.

Norway's fertility rate of 1.8 is one of the highest in Europe. Norway subsidises childbearing heavily and there is a one-year parental leave with full wage compensation. It has quality daycare for babies and the father's involvement with children has been promoted by reserving at least 10 weeks of parental leave for him.

In Norway, there is an imperceptible social trend to reject traditional marriage but this is counteracted by a large number of births to cohabitants. This phenomenon may be due to the fact that women are not overly afraid of single motherhood because they have their own resources and the country has supportive policies.

It is not likely that our Government will lend its support to out-of-wedlock fertility but if paternity leave is promulgated, then the slide of our fertility rate could be decelerated even if it is not reversed.

Heng Cho Choon

Singapore Flyer

The Singapore Flyer costs $29.50 for adults, but my mum had a one-for-one deal so we made our way there on Friday.

For the sake of the two older folks, we took a bus 1-stop from City Hall to just outside Millenia Walk and made our way on foot from there. I wish the experience walking to the Flyer would be improved though. I’d been there once more than 2 years ago and nothing much has changed since then – it’s still a walk along pavements with the heavy traffic zooming past, with no proper signage informing us whether we should cross the road at this crossing, or if there’ll be another one down the road.

But anyway we managed to reach there in one piece – its frankly a bit scary being a pedestrian on the pavement with cars going past non-stop on three sides, as it was at one point in time – and in time to catch the “restaurant capsule” go past:

i tried my hardest not to take non-discreet photos, but the people dining in there must have felt like animals in the zoo as more than a few camera flashes went off.

the colour changes that the Flyer goes through are nicer up close – i find it insufficiently bright from a distance:

i’ve been told that the 30 minute ride is good as just a one-time experience, with the first 10min being spent in excitement and the rest in boredom. i didn’t think it as bad as that however, as time passed by quickly enough.

perhaps taking lots of photos is the trick, like i did, with my attempts to capture the crowd that had gathered below for the Chingay Parade. See how sharp they look? There’re suspicions that the glass magnifies images:

trying to take a picture where all the lines below are lit took awhile too – i actually do quite like the large 春 that was put up to celebrate Chinese New Year:

Marina Bay Sands, of course, was the focus of many photos too. The building of the new downtown has definitely added lots of iconic structures that make the view from the Flyer more interesting.

It’s quite amazing how bright Singapore is at night – Malaysia is a lot less lit up, as is very apparent when viewed from a plane.

i wished i had a better camera, as it was difficult trying to catch Fullerton Hotel. It was either too blurry or would have looked better if i had a wider angle on my camera.

The first of 6 performance area for Chingay, with the ticketed seats on the right and the carpark on the left.

the lights from the floating platform where River Hongbao is held were a little too bright, and the Esplanade seems a lot less obvious at night.

Apparently some say that the Singapore Flyer experience is the best of its kind in the world, beating others like the London Eye or the Eiffel Tower.While I haven’t been on the former (it was way too dear at £15, back when £1 = SGD3) i really liked the latter as i could feel the wind in my air. It’s for the same reason that i love the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka.

I think Singapore’s skyline at night is different from Paris’ too. Singapore’s charm is in the juxtaposition of buildings of different heights. There’s a layered effect to the skyline and the URA has done an excellent job of lighting up the city. Paris, however, had a beautiful night view due to the sheer number of historical, architecturally buildings that are visible like a spotlight at night. The more important ones even have a long, lit boulevard that seems to radiate from the Eiffel Tower right up to it, drawing your attention to all its glory.

I’m not sure I’d say that this is nicer than Paris’ view, but it is pretty darn nice.

you just need a better camera than mine, and steadier hands..

the end.

Chingay Parade 2011

i had no idea that the Chingay Parade now occurred on two day; it's been a while since the Parade was on my radar. still, it was fun to have caught part of the Parade by accident yesterday.

we had actually gone on the Singapore Flyer, and the Parade hadn't started for long when we disembarked. the first segment was people on stilts:

and then came the Star Wars contingent led by Darth Vader. i thought this was rather cool even though i'm not a Star Wars fan - imagine if there were in the National Day Parade! they would totally kick ass.

check out the crowd - I think this new Marina Bay and Marina Barrage area is a great place to hold the Chingay Parade. It's been nearly a decade since I saw Chingay live; that was in Orchard Road and it was so hot, crowded and stuffy. This wide, open air area along the sea is so much better.

I really liked this dragon float as it spit fire:

it's cute cos it has a Singapore Flyer on its side:

unfortunately i think the Flyer looks better in miniature than in reality - my main gripe is that the Flyer isn't brightly lit enough.

this was a colourful and fun float, led by the God of Longevity:

then came the Gods of Fortune and Prosperity:

The participants were mainly middle-aged men, but they were really cheerful and kept shouting "Huat Ah!" :)

And what is Chingay without the Lion and Dragon dances? here you have men balancing heavy flag poles on their foreheads and abdomens:

and then was the longest fire-cracker dragon in the world - it's hard to take pictures at Chingay, cos there're people about who're taller than i am and with bigger cameras than i have:

this was actually my first time being so close to firecrackers. i could actually feel the heat from the crackers!

it then got really smoky, and when fire-crackers go 'pop' there's actually something physical that pops out into the space around it. some of those things went popping into the crowd; one landed on my head. i can fully understand how firecrackers can be fire hazards now..

i haven't seen a lion dance in years either. this cute one fluttered its eyelashes in my direction.. :P

and of course the multi-cultural aspect is required:

i really loved this, as it was the most colourful display and the flowers were gorgeous. there was one with really pretty sunflowers too, but i'm sure the flowers would have been awful to the touch, as fake flowers usually are..

it was a very pretty peacock float too. there was a cute little boy on it, and he kept waving and going "Hello! Hello!"

some of the girls from the ballet studio i go to are in this segment. they had complained of long long waits for rehearsals - apparently if you're told to be there at 4pm, nothing will happen till 5.30 or 6pm.

i love the guy's protruding lotus headgear.. :P

and this is the last segment i caught, which was sponsored by Resorts World Sentosa. bubbles are always pretty, and they were sending showers of water into the crowd for 'good luck'.

c***s on the road

there are drivers so disgusting on the road that i wish i could do serious damage to them and/or their cars.

i was at the traffic crossing between raffles city shopping centre and raffles hotel earlier this evening. the roads were packed, especially the right-most lane as cars were trying to turn into the Fairmont’s porch or into the parking lots.

this guy driving a silver Mercedes was just beyond the white lines of the traffic crossing, waiting for the car in front of his to move ahead. however, when that car moved forward, the lights had turned GREEN for pedestrians, YET this guy stepped on the pedals and attempted to ‘zoom’ past the crossing.

what a cunt. if the pedestrians hadn’t STOPPED for him, his car would have ran over our toes. i really wish i had my keys or some other sharp object in my hands as he went past, as i would then have drawn a line all the way from his passenger door to the rear of his car.

yes – that is how audacious he was, and i was already nearer to the far end of the traffic crossing! it would have been sweet to teach him a lesson, especially since the paint work on his Benz would cost a fair bit. best thing is, he can’t even lodge a complaint if that happened, since it’s his fault for blatantly flouting traffic rules and endangering pedestrians’ lives. it’s the rich who are the dicks. urgh.

i swear i’ll be better prepared next time.

Maybelline’s Pulse Perfection

aybellAs it’s pretty clear from here, i’m not a fan of Maybelline’s mascaras. But it so happened that a friend had received samples of this mascara which I was more than happy to try out since it was free.

I have to say that Maybelline’s Pulse Perfection is actually pretty good. The brush, according to Maybelline, vibrates 7,000 times per minute in 7 synchronized actions, which is meant to separate all the lashes and coat them evenly.

The mascara was quite successful on that count, perhaps partly due to the mascara comb which I quite like. The vibrations left a slightly itchy tingle though, but that sensation faded in a few seconds.

Pulse Perfection also claims to achieve 7 effects including curling and lengthening, while its bold black formula promises to have a striking result.

I’m not so sure on all those claims, but it did lengthen and the waterproof formula did not smudge or fade. The latter especially is one of my pet peeves with Maybelline’s (and Loreal’s) mascaras in general, and the fact that there were actually two aspects of a Maybelline mascara which i was satisfied with was success in itself.

Hence, let me take a moment before making this historical statement of (more or less) endorsement – the Maybelline Pulse Perfection will not disappoint if you’re looking for a lengthening mascara and can’t resist the temptation of trying out its vibrating wand.

Ootoya (Suntec City)

While Kansai as far as I’m aware doesn’t have Ootoya, I had the chance to try it when i visited Sendai and boy was it good and cheap. Set dishes were generally about 650 – 850yen ($10.30 – $13.20), which was extremely good value for money given the quality of the food served there.

Hence, I’d been interested in trying it out when I discovered it had opened a branch in Suntec. Unsurprisingly, prices are higher here, starting from $16 for a meat set meal (chicken, pork) to about $20 for a fish set meal.

The food was pretty good though. I ordered the Chicken Salad set ($16), which came with a soup and 2 small side dishes (all so-so). The grilled chicken was tender and tasty, and the pesto-basil dressing was unique as I’ve never had chicken paired with these flavours.

There wasn’t enough dressing to go with the salad, but I liked the egg slices and the vegetables were crisp and fresh. Word of warning to non-fans of cabbage though: this salad was uniquely Japanese in that it consisted almost entirely of shredded cabbage. This is one aspect of Japanese salads (especially those that accompany rice sets) where I’d happily forgo authenticity and have tastier vegetables!

Ootoya offers several types of grilled mackerel dishes, and D. ordered the only one available ($20) as all the rest were sold out. Thanks to my lousy camera phone I don’t have a picture of it (it’s the last pic on the Ootoya website), but it was a big serving and more worth it than my chicken.

Some might find the fish slightly too salty and oily, but I liked it cos it tasted just the way it is in Japan. The bones were a little tricky, but it was done just right and not too dry as it often turns out to be here.

The best thing is, Ootoya’s food was, as D. described it, “light on the palette”. There’s no after-taste and the food, for those prices, is the cheapest you’ll ever get for authentic Japanese food in Singapore. I’m likely to return to Ootoya, just as long as I don’t think of how little these once cost me. Haha!

SingTel woes

So yesterday I spent the entire evening fiddling with the computer, searching for troubleshooting tips, uninstalling and installing applications cos I thought there was something wrong with my MSN.

MSN kept giving me error messages and couldn't sign in; when it did manage to sign in it'd log me out again in minutes. I even did a system restore, and it was when I started having problem loading some webpages that i decided it must have been a connection problem in general.

I hoped it was a problem that would pass, but today the internet simply refuses to work. My brother cant figure out whats wrong, and I'm well inclined to blame it on SingTels unstable internet provision, cos this isn't the first time this has occurred.

I don't really understand why internet connection is so bad here. I'm sure south Korea as the most wired nation has better provision; when in Japan I had super fast fibre optic internet (get a movie in 15min? Can do!) - and promotions for first time subscribers went for half price at 2000yen (abt $30) for half a year.

I hope this fixes itself by tmr. Thank goodness for smart phones with 12GB data usage

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Way to go, Asia

Asia has had enough of excusing the west (Financial Times, 26 Jan 2011)
By Kishore Mahbubani

Most crises are known by their origin, from the Mexican peso crisis of 1994/5 to the Asian crisis of 1997/8.
Given there is no doubt who caused our world‘s latest troubles, it should adopt its logical name: the
western financial crisis. This reluctance to call a spade a spade reflects an inability to reckon with changes
the US and Europe have to make to avoid a repeat. This worries the rest of the world, and Asia in
particular – even if western leaders are shockingly unaware of how they are viewed.

Before this crisis Asian policymakers deferred towards their western counterparts. We assumed the west
knew best on finance and economics. The enormous blunders since committed by the US and Europe
mean deference has been replaced by disquiet. There is a simple reason why the west has not noticed:
Asians are too polite. Sometimes it takes a relatively rude Asian, like me, to express our continent‘s true
feelings.

Fortunately, a few others have begun to speak out. Rakesh Mohan, the ex-deputy governor of the
Reserve Bank of India, noted the ―global financial crisis has had its roots in the US‖. Andrew Sheng, chief
adviser to the China Banking Regulatory Commission, strongly criticised US banks and regulators, saying:
―When our teachers are no better than us, we really have to think for ourselves.‖ Top Chinese bank
regulator Liu Mingkang has said of US financial reform that ―after the death, the doctor came‖.

These sentiments are now shared across Asia. Indeed, if the Thais and Indonesians did not come from
inherently polite societies, they would say to the US and Europe: ―The time has come for you to
administer the same bitter medicine you prescribed to us: stop living beyond your means.

Asia‘s concern is that the world will soon come to grief if both the US and Europe fail to make fundamental
readjustments. An America that tightens its belt will cause the rest of the world pain, as US consumption
and imports diminish. But there is no painless solution: only when America gets its house in order can
Asia hope for a more sustainable future.

By contrast, an America that blunders onwards with quantitative easing in the hope of reviving its
economy creates enormous global instability. Europe, meanwhile, is not faring much better. As Harvard
economist Kenneth Rogoff has written: ―Eurozone macroeconomic policy is incoherent on so many levels,
it is hard to know where to begin.

What must be done? Domestically, the US must cut spending and raise taxes, no matter how politically
difficult. Europe must resolve its flawed monetary union – with the overhaul of its bail-out fund and the
rewriting of Germany‘s post-Maastricht ―grand bargain‖ with the periphery a necessary start.

Internationally, Asia needs the US and European Union to take a more assertive role co-ordinating
financial regulation. The failure of recent meetings of the Group of 20 leading economies shows both are
still unwilling to make sacrifices. Next time they must show they can produce regulatory reforms
sufficiently strong and internationally coherent to prevent a re-run of the global financial crisis, even if it
hurts their own interests to do so.

America and Europe can again help to shape the world. But they must not focus on scapegoats, such as
China‘s currency. Yes, it needs to be revalued, but even if it rises by 20 per cent it will not change their
fortunes. Only fundamental restructuring within their own borders can do this.

Most fundamentally, we need an end to the pretence that the US and EU are masters of the universe.
Both must learn to share power. This means specific reforms, for instance on voting rights at the
International Monetary Fund. We also need altered attitudes that accept Asians as equals. Only with such
changes will results come in the Doha round, climate change negotiations or monetary co-ordination.

What truly frightens many Asians is that western leaders are still unwilling to tell their populations the hard
truth – that the world has changed. Their nations must now experience the pain of readjustment they once
prescribed to others.

The writer is dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS, and author of The New Asian
Hemisphere.

Roxford Lodge Hotel, Dublin

If you’re looking for good quality, extremely value for money, comfortable accommodation in Dublin, I strongly recommend Roxford Lodge Hotel.

The hotel describes itself as “luxury accommodation”, and the stay there was indeed amazing. The hotel is located in Ballsbridge on Northumberland Road, in an area of large, posh-looking Victorian housing.

The neighbourhood is quiet, as it’s just outside of the city centre towards the east, but a short 10-15min walk from Trinity College. It’s a great location as its away from the bustle of the city, yet the close enough to a Tourist Centre and bus stops for the Dublin Sightseeing Bus (which i strongly recommend too) all outside Trinity College.

The service at the hotel was excellent. While we were waiting for our rooms to be ready, we were brought tea and coffee with a selection of biscuits while we waited in a cosy sitting room:

It was a nice room, and I was quite taken with being brought tea on a tray :)

There were also these three adorable gingerbread Wiseman on the mantlepiece:

If I was already impressed before seeing the rooms, I was completely and fully won over when we were led there. The photos don’t do it justice, as for once the room was even nicer than what it appeared to be on the website.

It was very spacious, with a very comfy bed, flat screen TV and nice L-shaped corridor which led to the bathroom and then the door. The bathroom was also beautifully furnished with a Jacuzzi and well laid out; we even had a sauna in the room!

Pardon my coat and our bags.. But above in the upper right corner, you can see the L-corridor which has a mirror and a closet next to it, before reaching the door. The structure near the window below is the sauna, while on the right hidden behind the door handles is actually a pull down bed.

Despite all the luxury, the rooms were actually rather cheap. We stayed 3 nights from New Year's Eve which brought up the price a bit, but here’s the breakdown for 3 days:

Date	31/12	01/01	02/01
Price (€)	93.50	69	59

The total came up to only €221.50, with rates being extremely low on weekdays. Even so, the average rate was only SGD128 per night for two, which frankly is CHEAP for all the space and comfort we got (Hotel 81’s rates, for example, start from $70/night for one, depending on location. And you certainly won’t be getting anything half as posh!)

The hotel also offers breakfast at €6 per person, which we took up. The great thing was that guests could choose between various breakfast things like french toast, regular toast, pancakes, a full Irish breakfast (which came with black and white pudding, and which i quite liked) AND could help themselves to the tea, coffee, yoghurt and fruits available too.

To top off the wonderful stay, the hotel very generously allowed us to check-out two hours later from 12pm, as my flight back home was at 3pm. No questions asked, just a “yes” to our request :) I would most happily stay there again if i went back to Dublin.

Check out more reviews of Roxford Lodge Hotel here.