Posts

USD132994.97 Adsense Cheque!

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The cheque was dated 27 Sep 2005, so I guess this happened a long time ago and I only know about this today, haha, I'm so outdated. Fat Adsense Cheque! Based on the exchange rate for today, 1USD=1.27SGD, so 132994.97USD=168783.92SGD, wow, that's a lot of money, but I'm not sure whether it's for a month's payment or several months, I don't know, but it's still epic, that's like more than 3 years of my salary. Salute. Update: Previously the image disappeared so somehow this post gave a wrong impression that I managed to earn so much with Adsense, pardon the misunderstanding, I did not make that kind of money, the cheque was posted by the blogger at ShoeMoney .

Amazing Girl from France with a Solid Voice

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Her name is Marina Dalmas and isn't she awesome? Beautiful and she's got a really powerful voice, that's the power of youth.

Training for IPPT

Since my wife went back to Thailand, I've been working out regularly, after work, during weekends, resting only one day a week and I've improved a lot, but my weight seems to be the same even though I work out quite hard. My weekday routine 4 sets of 30 pushups. 4 sets of chinups and pullups (2 sets each), 10 on the first go, 6 for the rest. 2 sets of 15 squats. 2 sets of 10 bicep curls with a 10KG weight (including the bar). Some jumping jacks if I have some energy left. My weekend routine 2.4KM run, no timing though but I think I run quite fast because at the end of the run, I always feel shagged out. From the looks of it, I might just be able to get a silver for my IPPT, or at least an incentive pass, which is not too bad. Previously I was struggling to do 6 chinups, now I can easily do 7 or 8, if I push, I can hit 10. As for my 2.4 run, previously I was struggling to complete 1KM, now at least I can complete the whole 2.4 without stopping. And the squats a

US Will Not Deploy Ground Troops to Syria

Source Seems like US lawmakers have imposed a 90 days deadline for any military action in Syria, and also the US is not allowed to send in any ground troops, so I guess they will probably carry out airstrikes and supply the rebels with more weapons, which is good because it will be much less costly than if they go in and get stuck down there like in Iraq and Afghanistan, they already spent more than a trillion dollars in those wars, and it really hit hard on their economy, and other economies. But I'm still not very sure who started using gas attacks, was it the Syrian government or the rebels, they were pointing fingers at each other, both parties are equally suspicious, whoever found guilty will lose the civil war, reason is simple, the guilty party will definitely face the wrath of the world, even the Iran and Russian presidents who are supporters of the Syrian government says that as long as there is concrete proof that Assad ordered the gas attack, they will have no object

Maybe NTUC Income Can Do Its Part to Recognize NS Contribution

Last week when I was looking through my insurance payments, suddenly this idea came to my mind, actually NTUC Income can give discounts on premiums for those who get incentive pass and above for their IPPT, almost every NS personnel have to go through it, and usually fitter people are healthier so they should have lower chances of making a claim. Another good point is it offers another source of motivation, the idea of keeping fit for cheaper insurance doesn't sound too bad, in the end it's a choice, for people who don't wish to keep fit, fine, pay the normal rates, as for people who try to keep fit, get some discounts. Maybe they can start with this: Incentive Pass = $5 discount per month. Silver = $10 discount per month. Gold = $15 discount per month. In one year, that can add up to a significant amount, and also it can attract more people to get themselves insured since it can be cheaper. Finally, it shows that NTUC Income cares, and I think they should really l

Pale Moon VS Waterfox

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I've been using Waterfox for a while, it doesn't freeze up like Chrome and Opera, it doesn't have screen tearing problem like in Firefox, and it's certainly fast but the problem is that it's not smooth. Anyone who has used Chrome or Opera will know what smooth means, scrolling, opening new tab, loading page, maintaining multiple tabs and etc, Chrome and Opera does it very elegantly, Waterfox just have this "mini-freeze" problem, for example when opening a new tab, there will be a slight delay, and also sometimes it will show "not responding", oh another problem, flash player seems to crash quite often, and that's very annoying. All the mentioned problems forced me to look for an alternative and luckily I managed to find one, the answer is Pale Moon. I'm now using the 64-bit version and it is awesome, the smoothness can rival that of Chrome and Opera, the speed can rival that of Waterfox and the best part, I can get to customize the posi

Necessary to Print Flight Itinerary?

So everytime you book a plane ticket online, they will tell you to print out the itinerary and the purpose seems to be for checking in at the airport, but how many times did the staff at the check-in counter actually check your printed itinerary? For me, none, whenever I go to the counter, I always hand over both my passport and the itinerary and the counter staff usually take only my passport, they don't even look at the paper. For cases where they took my itinerary, they didn't really look at it, all they did was put the paper one side and check only my passport. Then what is the point of printing it out? I feel that it's a waste of paper and ink, so this time round, I decided not to print it. My wife is now in Thailand, yesterday I bought ticket for her to return to Singapore, I told her not to print out the itinerary, all I did was send her flight details to her via sms, something like this: Booking: ABCDEF Flight: FD1234 (28 Sep) Udon Thani 1240 to Don Mueang 1

Very Original and Local Music Video

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I recognize Tosh and Wei Liang from the Ah Boys to Men movies, and this video is really funny and original, must support local product.

Will The Allied Forces Attack Syria?

Seems like the leaders of US, Britain and France are very eager to punish Syria for the alleged gas attack, but also seems like their citizens have no wish for their country to intervene, I'm actually very curious why the allied powers are so eager, in fact too eager to attack Syria, how come they are so sure that the Syrian president is guilty? Why don't they wait for the findings of the UN inspectors? But one thing for sure is Britain is now officially out because their lawmakers voted against an attack. Today, I read a news that says the UN inspectors are really there to determine what kind of gas was used, it's not their job to determine who used it, so it's actually quite pointless, I think somebody should take the effort to dig out the culprit instead of hurling threats, shouldn't the big boys at least show the world some proof before they bring their country into a conflict? I really hope that the US and France would at least wait for what the UN has to s

STI Index Closed at 3000 Points

News of the likely attack on Syria by the US have dragged down the index, this really came as a surprise, last Friday I thought it was on track for a rebound, and earlier on, I saw a video of a gas attack in Syria but thought it was a prank, little did I know everybody was taking it so seriously, even Britain and Australia were backing the attack, and the attack is supposed to happen tomorrow, wow, it's like so fast so furious. But recalling the video, I felt that it looked a bit fake (that was why I thought it was a prank), there was a part where a man was foaming at the mouth, and the guy filming just continued doing it, that video-man should at least call for some medical personnel or something, isn't that weird. And the weirdest thing was, everybody was like poisoned, sitting around, lying in beds, and then there's just somebody filming non-stop, it's like this video-man was expecting something to happen hence he brought along his video-cam for night shooting. A

KFC has Become Such a Disappointment

I haven't had the original KFC for a long time and so today I decided to try out their Ultimate Zinger Box which came with a Zinger burger, a whipped potato, a piece of original chicken and a soft drink of my choice, and I chose Mountain Dew. The meal costed me S$7.30 and the Zinger was okay, but I remember it used to be much bigger, whipped potato was the way I remembered, tasted quite good, well-peppered, nothing much to say about the soft drink, but the original chicken was bland, tasted like one of my mother's failed fried chicken experiment. I remember the first time I had KFC, which was a long time ago, they didn't have the spicy version, back then their original chicken was really good, well salted, truly finger lickin' good, and what I had today was a total disappointment. Actually it was the spicy version of the chicken that killed the original recipe, when it first came out, it was immensely popular, I think everybody just switched and stuck to it, and if yo

Recontracted My Starhub Power Value 100 Mobile Line and Sold the Phone

I asked my wife whether she wants to get a new phone but she said she doesn't need it so I re-contracted and sold the mobile phone instead. I paid only S$48 for a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) Silver, and then I immediately sold it to a mobile phone shop for S$260, a S$212 profit. I think I might be able to sell higher than that to someone who wants to use it rather than to a dealer because eventually the dealer will sell it to a user, maybe for S$300 or more, but I'm too lazy to keep posting on forums and waiting for a genuine buyer, it's just so time consuming, and even if I get someone who wants to buy it, I still got to travel and meet that person, sounds really tiring. And when I was at Starhub shop, I saw an auntie with 2 Filipino guys, I heard that she was also re-contracting and I think she was going to sell her phone to those 2 guys, and what a coincidence, she was also getting a Galaxy Tab 2, same model as mine, I think she also think it's a good deal, maybe sh

Always Check Your Starhub Bills

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Last time out of nowhere they charged me for the Connecting Tones Service, now they charged me more than what I signed up for. Last month I signed up for their Surf and Watch package, it's an internet plus cable TV package and the cost per month was S$66.65 inclusive of GST, basically the internet costs S$39.90 and the cable TV costs S$26.75, and the cable TV was supposed to be HD upgraded. The salesperson also told me that the S$66.65 was before Hub Club discounts, which means the bill will be lower. But when I received my bill, I was puzzled by the cable TV charges. Cable TV Charges As you can see in the picture, if you take 45 - 11.887 = 33.113, so how is that cheaper, and that's after my Hub Club discount. So I called 1633, and they informed the billing department to call me back, and when they did, the billing department told me they need to check and will call me back, but instead of them calling, the salesperson got back to me and told me actually the HD Upsize

Coach Plunged into 150 Meters Ravine when Descending from Genting Highlands

Source When I reached home today, my father was telling me a car flew down from Genting, I was having my dinner and I looked at him in bewilderment, and he had this serious face, I was thinking why the hell would anyone do that. This kind of news really sends shivers down my spine, now I think it will really take a lot for me to go there again, the last time I went was in Apr 2012, actually before I went, there was a news report of a coach overturning, also during descent, I was quite worried that time because I was going with my parents and my wife, and when we were descending, I was praying in my mind, damn scary, luckily nothing bad happened. 150 meters, that's really high, a coach falling down that kind of height, with 49 people inside, damn, and they confirmed 32 deaths, really sad. I think if I were to go again, I would probably take the cable car, but the cable car is also damn scary.

COE Climbing Up Again

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When the government introduced the new borrowing policy, the COE price for Cat A plunged, but now it's going up again, I think the demand is there that's why dealers will bid for it, which also mean people are willing to buy it anyway. Cat A COE on Aug 13 2013 Let's look at the new borrowing policy that was introduced this year. If your car OMV (Open Market Value) is <= S$20000, you can loan up to 60%. If your car OMV is > S$20000, you can loan up to 50%. The maximum loan tenure is 5 years. So let's say you buy a S$95000 car, you have to pay S$38000 i.e. 40% in cold hard cash, as for the other S$57000, you can only loan up to a maximum of 5 years, say at 2.88% interest per annum, you will need to pay about S$1087 a month. Car Loan Calculation Top that up with season parking, ad-hoc parking, fuel, ERP, road tax, insurance, maintenance, ad-hoc maintenance, I think it can all add up to more than S$1600 a month, I can understand if people buy it a

National Day Rally 2013 - Housing

"We will always make sure that a HDB flat is always within reach -- affordable and available to Singaporeans. Don't worry. Go ahead, plan on it, get married, get your flat." - PM Lee Yet I am married and I can't afford my own home, how ironic. The 2-room BTO is a joke, we can only apply at the age of 35, factor in the waiting time, we would probably get the keys at 38 or 39, I'm not saying it's totally bad, it's good for Singaporeans at that age, but for people like me who is only 30, either we wait or try to have baby or stretch our necks and buy resale. But then again, even if they allow us to buy at 30, I don't think HDB can cope with the demand, look at the Jul BTO, there were 55 singles applying for each 2-room flat, so what happens to those who didn't manage to get it? Well, either they keep trying if they don't mind waiting, or buy resale. I can understand how difficult it is, too many people, too little housing, of course there wi

Waterfox, a Google Chrome Alternative for 64-bit Windows

I discovered this browser only today, it is a 64-bit version of Firefox and it's named Waterfox, don't they sound like siblings. Anyway the design goal for Waterfox is Speed, now that really piques my interest, I've been looking for a browser that can compete with Google Chrome, seems like I found one. But do note that it only works in 64-bit Windows, and also seems like I can't have both Firefox and Waterfox together, if I run Firefox, it will end up running Waterfox, my colleague had it the other way, when he ran Waterfox, it ended up running Firefox, so we both uninstalled Firefox, this fixed my colleague's problem. I tried Waterfox for a day, it really does feel fast, I can't really tell the difference in speed between Waterfox and Chrome, both seems equally fast, now I'm just waiting to see if Waterfox will freeze up, you know I have this problem whenever I open a link in a new tab in Chrome or Opera, and if that tab contains Flash player stuff, it wi

Blogger Comments Spam Filter

Recently I noticed a few attempts from people who tried to advertise their site by posting in the comments section, I know because whenever someone posts a comment, I will get notified via email, strange thing is when I go check out my site, I don't see the comments there. So I checked my blogger's comments section and found there is a spam section, those comments were automatically dumped there. So spammers, I don't really mind you posting but you got sniffed out by blogger, so too bad, and I'll leave it as it is because I don't wish to encourage spammers.

Interesting Documentary About the Famous Bang Kwang Prison in Bangkok

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Part 1 Part 2 Seems like most offenders are for drug trafficking, 99 year sentence, wow...

My Wife's Hospitalization Costs in Thailand

The billed amount was 15,333 Thai Baht and it was for: 8 days of hospitalization in a 6-bedded ward. 4x INR each day. 1x Echo-cardiogram. Fees for cleaning her up after her miscarriage. Medication for during stay and after discharge. For those of you wondering what INR is, it's a blood test to check whether a patient's Warfarin dosage is okay. I gave her S$1300 when she left on 01 Aug, the exchange rate then was 1 SGD to 24 THB, so we'll base her hospitalization charges on that. 15,333 / 24 = S$638.87 It's just way cheaper than in Singapore, I remember I paid S$478 just for her Echo in Singapore, really a world of difference. Anyway, next time round I will definitely send her back to Thailand once she is pregnant, and furthermore, her mom is always available to take care of her, she'll just suffer if she stays in Singapore, and I'll suffer financially. So to all Singaporeans with foreign spouse out there, if your foreign spouse is p

Seems Like My Wife is Doing Fine

She has been staying in the hospital since 06 Aug, the doctor checks her blood 3 times daily, and she is instructed to be on bed rest and no walking around, not even walking to watch the television, I think it's at another corner away from her bed. Everytime I call her, she is lying on the bed, but she sounds better now. I think her mom is really nice, she has been staying there with my wife since day 1, cleaning her, buying food for her, I asked my wife where her mom sleeps and she says on the table, must be really tough, if it was me I would have body aches, and she's been sleeping like that for almost a week. I should have sent her home when she was 4 or 5 weeks pregnant, staying in Singapore she has to do the chores and all, my mom doesn't help much, and if my wife doesn't do it, my mom will find fault with her, it's just very annoying, it's as if she's taking my wife for a maid, I tried to help out as much as I could but I can't be home all the

Thoughts After My Wife's Miscarriage

My wife had a miscarriage on 07 Aug 2013, the doctor took the baby for investigation and my wife and mother-in-law are still waiting for the findings. We don't know what went wrong, is it having sex during pregnancy or eating certain food or exhaustion due to household chores, I really don't know but for our next try, we will be very careful, and I'll have my wife stay in Thailand with her mom so she'll have someone to take care of her. And you might be wondering what will happen to the baby, the doctor offered two options, one is my wife can bring home the baby, two is we let the doctor keep the baby in a jar for exhibition, like in horror movies I think, but either way, we will need to perform a ritual for the baby so that he can go to a better place, we will need to buy clothes, milk powder and some other necessities for him, and the ritual will be done at a temple. We choose the latter, at least our baby can help the educational cause, and we can visit him anytime

Lame Phishing Attempt

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The logo is so fake that I don't even need to check the links and I know immediately it's a phishing attempt. Anyway the links are pointed to some dubious location. And then this "No authentication of email address has been performed.", what the hell does it even mean lol? Fail Phishing Attempt Be careful people, stay safe from scammers.

My Wife May Need to go for Abortion (Update)

You can read my last post here . It's pretty much confirmed now, the baby will not survive, my wife was experiencing heavy bleeding, the nurse at the hospital changed 4 blankets for her, can imagine how much blood there was, they were just waiting for the baby to be expelled naturally, then the doctor will proceed to do cleaning. Me and my wife have mostly accepted the loss, what to do, of course we feel sad, we were thinking of Chinese and Thai names for the baby, I was thinking of having the baby learn Thai, English and Mandarin, now it's all gone, we can only look forward, but still, it's so hard to accept, I'm feeling so helpless. The doctor told my wife that we can try again after 3 months, but next time round, my wife has to avoid any strenuous activity, avoid garlic and ginger, and to see the gynae as soon as my wife is pregnant. I think maybe we will try again next year, let my wife recover both physically and emotionally, we'll see how. Update: The

My Wife May Need to go for Abortion

Today my wife called and cried on the phone, she said the gynaecologist in Thailand said the baby is positioned very "down" (I have no idea what that meant, very close to the vagina?) and there will be a miscarriage eventually in a few weeks time, and even if the baby managed to survive, the baby will not be strong, and my wife should go for an abortion. I don't understand why, my wife said the ultrascan shows that the baby is doing fine, and before she left Singapore, she also did a scan and the baby was doing fine, her heart surgeon also said my wife's heart is doing fine, her INR reading is a bit low (1.78) but the doctor have adjusted her Warfarin dosage, so that should be fine too. My wife also told me she had heavy bleeding yesterday night and there was a large jelly-like substance and she is very worried about it. I really don't know what to say, I was at a loss for words. She then asked me whether we should go for the abortion, again, I was at a loss f

Rich Relatives

Sometimes I wonder if my personality will do a 180 degrees turn when I get rich, especially the way I talk to people. I heard from my mother that in Kampong days, everybody had everybody to depend on, when relative A runs out of cash at the start or end of a month, this relative would send their kids to relative B to borrow some cash, but basically, all my relatives were poor at that time. I heard from my mother that although my father used to earn S$700 after CPF, every time when a relative asked for financial help, he always tried his best. I have this fourth auntie, she used to phone my dad to borrow money, and my dad would ride his motorbike with my mom to her house with the money, even when returning the money, she would also phone my dad and he would go collect, I can guarantee you will never find this kind of service anywhere else. This fourth auntie is now doing well, her son lives in a condo, youngest daughter married a rich man, eldest daughter seems to be doing well, and

Good Dad Poor Dad

Just returned from the cremation ceremony of my second uncle; my father is the youngest of four brothers. Let's just call this second uncle "Lao Er" (meaning number two). I heard many stories about uncle Lao Er from my parents, he was both a heavy smoker and gambler, and his gamble was on 4D and TOTO. I also heard that he can spend hundreds of dollars in a week on gambling. When uncle Lao Er was still around, he was earning about 500 Singapore dollars a month, I'm not sure if his wife is working. My uncles and aunties would sometimes chip in some money for him, but I heard he would spend it on gambling almost immediately. He and his wife were living in a 2-room flat rented from the government, I heard they paid 100+ a month. He has a son and a daughter, his daughter is married and seems to be doing fine, his son is not doing so well. Let's call his son Ah Boy. Among the 4 brothers, uncle Lao Er was the most worst off, he used to own a 3 or 4-room HDB flat, I r

Insurance Premium Rates for Age Next Birthday

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My health insurance is under NTUC Income, the plan name is Enhanced IncomeShield (Advantage) and I have an Assist Rider. I signed up last year, first time I paid S$102 via CPF for the main plan, and S$100 in cash for the rider. This year they informed via post that they will deduct via GIRO S$118 for the rider, then I logged into Income and checked my main plan, it says I will need to pay S$209 for my main plan, so that's like a 51.19% increase for the main plan and 18% increase for the rider. I don't remember receiving any notice about the revision of premium rates, I checked my policy and read this clause, Non-Guaranteed Premium The agreed premium is payable to effect and keep the Rider in force. The premium rates are not guaranteed and may be reviewed and varied by us by giving you (30) days' prior written notice to your last known address. Then I emailed their customer service, and they said the revision is due to a recent MediShield change, The Ministry o

Discrepancy in Procedure for Surrendering Long-Term Visit Pass (Update)

So today a lady from ICA named Nabila called me, she explained that there could be a miscommunication, she asked me what was said to me by my wife, I told her when my wife tried to surrender her LTVP at the immigration counter, the officer asked my wife to provide a cancellation form, my wife then called me while I was on my way back home, and I had to rush back to the departure area, I think I told her almost the whole story which I wrote in my last post , except the part where I tripped and fell at the escalator LOL. After I finished with my storytelling, Nabila sounded very sorry and she apologized, she then said the officer at the counter should have clearly informed my wife on what to do. She said the procedure for surrendering LTVP is to go to the DO Counter (DO for Duty Officer), there my wife will need to fill up a cancellation form to surrender her pass, but this has not been conveyed to my wife. She also said the officer who attended to my wife is her junior and she has spo

Discrepancy in Procedure for Surrendering Long-Term Visit Pass

My wife left for Thailand today to follow-up on her pregnancy, I read a clause in the Terms and Condition for Long-Term Visit Pass that states the following, Under regulation 8(5)(f) of the Immigration Regulations, should you intend to leave Singapore and return only after the expiry of the Pass issued to you, you are required to surrender this Card to the Immigration Officer at the Checkpoint at the time of your departure . The "you" in the clause refers to the holder of the LTVP i.e. my wife. Her pass is expiring on 31 Dec 2013, and she will return after that date because her expected period of delivery is around Feb 2014, so that means she will have to surrender her pass. But when my wife tried to surrender her pass at the immigration counter, the officer told her to provide a cancellation form, my wife then called me and I rushed back to the departure area, I tripped and fell at the escalator, how clumsy of me. I was panicky because her flight was at 10.55am, by

Singles and Singaporeans with Foreign Spouse May Now Buy Direct from HDB (BTO)

Source But limited to 2-room units in non-mature estate, that's okay, but what I read next was puzzling. If you are buying a 2-room flat in non-mature estates under the Built-To-Order System (BTO) exercise under the Single Singapore Citizen Scheme, Non-Citizen Spouse Scheme and Joint Singles Scheme, you must be at least 35 years old at the time of application . This kind of regulation baffles me, why 35? Who came up with this magic number? Don't anyone realize that we have to wait for a few years before we can actually move in? Well unless they have ready-built units then fine, buy at 35 move in at 35, but even so, why 35? If you think about how married couples can buy at the age of 21, or even buy before marriage (Fiance/Fiancee Scheme), then this 35 thing is absolutely rubbish. Aren't we all Singaporeans? What do I lack as compared to them? I did what I'm supposed to do, I am married, I want to have children, the only "problem" is my wife is a foreig

Bought Ticket for My Wife to Go Back to Thailand

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She will be leaving on 01 Aug, I know it's kind of rush but no choice because she is supposed to see the Haematologist at SGH on 02 Aug for her INR test as she is now back to Warfarin. The doctor in Thailand who operated on her will only be around on Tuesdays, so I'm trying to make sure she can get back home as soon as possible so she will have enough time to settle down and go see that doctor, and I'm also looking forward to this doctor's opinion. When my wife did her valve replacement surgery in 2010, the total cost including hospitalization in a 6-bedded room (like our B2 ward) for 12 days is more than 600,000 Thai Baht before any form of subsidy, let's just put it at 700,000 since we are going to compare with today's money. Yesterday the Cardiologist told me that a valve replacement procedure may cost between 30,000 to 50,000 Singapore Dollars, let's just take 30,000, and as for hospitalization charges, let's just say we stay in a B2 ward, accord

Good News and Bad News at SGH High-Risk Clinic

The good news is, the baby is doing fine. The bad news is, we have to choose between abortion or keeping the pregnancy but both carries an amount of risk. Another problem is the massive cost because my wife is a foreigner, it's beyond my financial capability. The following letter that I have prepared for her doctor in Thailand sums it all up. Dear Srinagarind Hospital Doctor, Me and my wife have seen the cardiologist (Mdm Tan Ju Le) and gynaecologist (Mr Tan Lay Kok) in Singapore General Hospital (SGH) on 29th July 2013. We have a medical report from the cardiologist specifying her prosthetic valve condition. This memo contains additional information provided by the doctors during our meeting, and also things that we need to bring to your attention. According to the cardiologist, my wife is likely to have moderately severe to severe prosthetic valve stenosis. The main concern is whether my wife can survive her pregnancy because there will be increased strain on her he

Get Stock Quotes with Yahoo! Query Language (YQL)

Code <b>Result</b> <div id="yqlResult"></div> <script> // prepare the request var yqlUrl = "http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql"; // this query will retrieve the Name, Symbol and LastTradePriceOnly for Semb Corp, CDL HTrust and Sheng Siong var yqlQuery = encodeURIComponent("select Name, Symbol, LastTradePriceOnly from yahoo.finance.quote where symbol in ('U96.SI','J85.SI','OV8.SI')"); var format = "json"; var env = encodeURIComponent("store://datatables.org/alltableswithkeys"); var request = yqlUrl + "?q=" + yqlQuery + "&format=" + format + "&env=" + env; // initialize the XMLHttpRequest object var xmlhttp; if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // for new browsers xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequ

Regarding First-time Consultation at SGH

Today I learned something that was quite surprising, on my way to SGH with my wife, a lady from the High-Risk Clinic called and reminded us that we have an appointment on Monday and we will be seeing two doctors, a senior Gynaecologist and a senior Cardiologist. She emphasized that the total amount would be S$180+ for first-time consultation, then I was puzzled as we have seen the doctors for quite a few times so I told her that and she said to hold on while she check. After a while, she told me that for the Cardiologist, it's our first time, so repeat for Gynae and first-time for Cardio, which is 79 + 109 = 188, but that's before GST, with GST would be S$201.16. Then it all made sense when I made payment for the Haematologist today, I was charged first-time consultation as well, so I'm sure that for every new type of doctor that we see, we will need to pay the first-time fee. But one good news from the Haematologist is, my wife can go off Heparin after we see him aga

S$1.7 Million Donated to Marina Bay Sands Casino Instead of Helping the Needy

Source An assistant director and a head of department in our anti-corruption agency, he is a man tasked with fighting corruption in Singapore and yet he himself is corrupted. 1.7 Million Singapore dollars can help a lot of needy people, all these are taxpayers' money, how can he allow himself to do it, what a scum. I always complain when I pay for inflation and income tax but I know ultimately the money will come back to us in different ways so I'm okay with it, but the government should really be more careful with our money, how can one man so easily siphon money out of the agency since 2008 and was only discovered in Sep 2012, I just find it impossible to believe for 3-4 years no one noticed, what happened to their audit? Either he is versed in magic or everyone in CPIB is sleeping, one man show? We are not talking about stealing money from the petty cash box, we are talking about large figure sums, should be at least 5-figure amount for each transaction, how can he so

Be Careful with Starhub *138# Connecting Tone Service

Today I noticed an additional S$2.00 charged to my wife's mobile line and we have no idea what it is for, but I remember several months back they charged the same thing, I called them up and they waived and cancelled the charge for me. I also told them not to sign me up for it again. G Premium Services        Connecting Tones Basic      1Dwlds      $2.0000 I called Starhub customer service again and they told me it's a service whereby all callers to the number will get to listen to some music, I asked the staff why my wife's number was signed up again when she didn't do anything, the staff said maybe we re-contracted but I told him that was quite a while back (about 8 months back), but anyway he waived and cancelled the charge for me. Then I wondered why I don't get auto-subscribed since I'm also using a Starhub mobile line, so I checked up on the service and found some information here , there are actually 4 ways to subscribe to the service, How do I

Urging Singapore Government to Review Medisave Coverage

I posted this in REACH , hope it will get their attention... My wife is currently 11 weeks pregnant, she is a foreigner and she has a high-risk pregnancy. We have so far spent slightly over $2000 as pregnancy costs; consultation, ultrascan, cardiography, heparin, anti-xa assay and etc. Currently, we are only allowed to claim up to $450 for pre-delivery expenses, but as you can see, I have already spent far more than that, and this $450 can only be claimed provided the baby is delivered, quoting from MOH FAQ: Can  I claim Medisave for my pre-delivery medical expenses before i deliver? You may claim Medisave for your pre-delivery medical expenses only when claimed together with your delivery. You should retain the bills incurred for  pre-delivery medical care and present them to the hospital where the delivery takes place. The hospital will submit these bills, together with the delivery expenses, for Medisave claims under the Medisave Maternity Package. I just checked my Medis

Youths Insist Minimum S$10 Donation but Flees when Cops Arrive

STOMP - Singapore Seen - Youths insist on minimum $10 donation -- then flee when cops arrive Now that's really curious, why would they flee if they are doing it for charity? What are they afraid of? This reminds me of this tattooed guy soliciting donations at Tampines MRT station, not that I have a problem with tattooed persons but this guy is not even displaying his collection pass, he only shows a laminated card with pictures of children in need and asked people to donate. Something is really fishy about him, usually he will take a puff before going around to ask for donations, it just doesn't leave a good impression, a smoker asking people to donate to kids? Not that a smoker cannot do good, but smoking and charity don't go together, period. Anyway, I never donate to these collectors on the streets, if I really want to help, I would volunteer my time to any charity organization, blindly giving money is not helping, I really don't know where the money will end up,

GST Voucher - Cash Should be Based on Per Capita Household Income

This would extend more help to those with children because Singaporeans under the age of 21 are not eligible for the cash component, and most Singaporeans that age are usually studying or serving national service, or even if they work part-time, there's also a limit to how much they can contribute to the family. It will benefit families with kids, like my co-worker, he has 3 kids under the age of 21, I'm not sure whether his wife is working or whether she is eligible for the cash component but he for sure is not eligible because his assessable income is over the limit of S$24000. If I make a wild guess, let's say his total monthly household income is S$5000 and divided by 5 would be S$1000 per capita. As for me, my total monthly household income is S$3480 and divided by me and my wife would be S$1740, so actually I'm having an easier time than him. It's ok for me to not get the cash component since we obviously still can manage but as for him, he has a tougher t

Vietnamese Lady Entered Sham Marriage to be with Married Singaporean Man

Source SINGAPORE: A Vietnamese woman and a Singaporean man have become the first couple to be prosecuted under a new law aimed at deterring marriages of convenience. 31-year-old Vietnamese, Tran Thi Kim Phuong, met a Singaporean man in 2009 while on holiday in Singapore and they were said to have fallen in love. But the man was already married. Between 2009 and 2011, Tran travelled to Singapore to be with him. Desperate to stay in Singapore to be with the married Singaporean, Tran agreed to enter into a marriage of convenience with another man - 47-year-old Singaporean Theong Peng Nyuk. Theong was promised a sum of S$5,000 and S$300 for every successful visit pass extension he helped to sponsor. The couple subsequently "registered" their marriage on 31 January 2013. After the solemnisation, they went their separate ways. The couple would only meet up at the ICA Building when Tran needed to extend her Visit Pass. Unknown to them, Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA)

Blogger Dynamic Views Generates More Page Views

Yeah, but that doesn't mean I have more traffic, no wonder after I switched to my Simple template, I noticed a sharp drop in page views, actually it's just the way Dynamic views records page views. According to this Blogger Help post , If you enable Dynamic Views for your blog, you might notice an increase in pageviews. The reason for this is that Dynamic Views provides more specific information about actions on your blog. Specifically, every click to a post is recorded as a pageview. If a reader clicks on 10 posts, you’ll see those clicks recorded as 10 pageviews. In a traditional Blogger template, if a reader enters your blog once, they can scroll through ten blog posts in a single pageview. So while it may appear that traffic to your blog has increased, it's more likely that Blogger is simply recording more accurate data about your blog than was possible in the past. That means if a visitor clicks on 10 posts, the Dynamic view records 10 page views while in a norma

WTF Low-Key In-Camp Training Again

It was originally scheduled for 10 days but suddenly they sent a letter to inform me that it has been changed to 6 days, it really pissed me off and I immediately emailed my unit since their line is not available during weekend, but I can't wait so I called 1800-3676767 to ask them why did my unit suddenly change the schedule, and also why do they keep putting me on low-key training, the guy on the line is also an NSman so he can totally understand how I feel, and I realized that there's not much he can do because he will also need to forward my enquiry to my unit, but well, it's good that someone is following up for me. This made me check my NS Booklet and do some research on the definition of low and high key trainings, and also when I can MR (Mindef Reserve). I found two pages that cleared my doubts, but their definition of Low-Key Training doesn't seem to tally on both pages. Page 1 The duration of your call-up may be as follows: 1. Low Key (LK) Training a

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