8 October 2015 Thursday

PSI in the moderate range (86) in the early morning

Our job assignment for today

While waiting for the dog to arrive, we brought our KFC breakfast to Changi beach which is near the Changi Cargo Terminal. The scenery as in the picture is quite good as the haze is not as dense as in other parts of Singapore (the beach is at the eastern end).
After breakfast, we picked the pet,clear through all the formalities and transport it home in the western side of the island ( a good 30 minutes drive).

Afternoon coffee and vitamin c tablets

It was coffee and chocolate coated croissant at Toast Box in the afternoon. Also bought a box of vitamin C tablets from Seletar Mall. It contains 60 tablets and cost $5.10c (imported from Australia). The vitamin C that I'm currently taking is triple this price (also from Australia). The pharmacy mark up so much in terms of pricing that it amounts to cutting one's throat.

Dinner @Fatboy's Burger (Serangoon Gardens)

The Whimpy Beef burger ($15) is the one on top with a fried egg and the bottom picture is the Royale with Cheese ($12). The Lemon Lime Bitter is $3.50c. The burgers are quite good but the fries are terribly salty. Frankly, we prefer the Burger King's Cheesy Beef burger with toasted turkey bacon ($9.15c meal set)

7 October 2015 Wednesday

Good morning friends
The time is 6:55 am and the PSI is 113 (lower end of unhealthy range). There was a light rainfall around 3 am and it helped to clear some of the haze. Hopefully, the air will be healthier during the day. We have over the last few weeks living under hazy and unhealthy condition. We hope and pray somehow this yearly affair will be over once and for all.

Photo taken from my apartment at 6:50am this morning

I woke up at about 5 am and it isn't unusual of me waking up so early. There were days when I wake up at 4 am. I usually go to bed around 12 midnight. I don't sleep very much. This habit may be due to my 35 years of flying as a flight attendant. I have been around the world many times flying into various time zones. One day I would be in Singapore and 14 hours later I would probably be landing in Heathrow airport which is 8 hours behind Singapore. This is just one of the examples. We,crew do this cycles hundred of times in our flying career. Therefore, it's not unusual to hear that flying crew suffers from sleep disorder,if you may call it.
Well, it's a good thing I left flying after all those years. I've retired since 2003. I lead quite a healthy life despite my years of being a cabin crew. In 2 months time, I will turn 70.

Those photos (3 of them) were taken around 11:15 am when the PSI has improved to 68 which is in the moderate range (sigh of relief). By right it should be like the bottom photo (taken at 7 am at the famous Newton hawker center) which was taken before the dreadful haze invaded Singapore.

Breakfast at ToastBox

My apology for not showing the 2 soft cooked eggs because after eating them then I realised I should have taken a shot of them. Nevertheless, the cup of coffee,2 eggs and the toasted brown bread with peanut butter spread cost $5.10c. The extra mochi-peanut butter bun was from the shop next door (Bread Talk) which is part of ToastBox chain.

Our home cooked dinner

For dinner, we had the steamed black bean salmon head, grated onion and okra, fried tofu, miso soup and rice. The dinner was cooked by my wife and the above was my portion which I think it was a little too heavy. 

Chinese Temple Anniversary Celebration this weekend

This temple is right opposite my apartment. Once a year, it will spend a lot of money celebrating its anniversary. There will be big crowd of people during this coming weekend. It has functions on other occasions too and you can imagine the noise of the drums, singing and its auction of temple stuff that could go on for a couple of nights

6 October 2015 Tuesday

Poor Chinese lady what's happened to her phone? Interesting video whatsapped to me this morning by a friend.

Had lunch with an ex-colleague

He left the company a few years before me and was glad to have met up with him for lunch. At one time when this guy was doing so well financially that many in cabin crew wanted to be his friends. He was probably the only cabin crew in the 1970s and 1980s to own an Alfa Spider and a Posche respectively.
One day, luck went against him and he lost a lot of money in his business ventures. He became broke and slowly all his so called friends in cabin crew deserted him.
To me he was a generous colleague. I have never had the chance to hitch a ride in his expensive cars like others did. We met a couple of times during our night stops and he did not hesitate to invite me out for meals. That was many years ago.
These days, I gladly return the kind favour. I will give him a treat whenever we meet. We have met many times in the last 1 year since his return from Malaysia.

5 October 2015 Monday

Jermaine Leong the winner of last night Final 1 Channel 5

Image credit:MediaCorp Channel 5
I am not a fan of Final 1 but I came across this program when I switched on the TV to watch channel 5 news last night.

STI up 39 points by 0930
SIA is up 15 cents to 10.86, Noble + 10 cents to .405, Genting + 1 cent to 73 cents, Tiger unchanged at 0.305, Wilmar + 13 cents to 2.69 etc. etc....

Haze report
The haze PSI as at 10 am is 149 which is in the mid unhealthy range. I wonder how long more we could go on with our normal daily lives. The haze is hardzous and menacing and we hope Indonesia could do something about it. Every year during the dry season it is the same story since 1997. People are getting sicker and the economy is suffering.

Jack of all trades, master of none

I am a jack of all trade so to speak but master of none. When I retired from the airlines, I went into the house moving industry. Bought myself a van and created a few blogs. In no time my partner and I was having so much business that we couldn't cope. Due to the size of the van, we could only do "room" moving. We moved items from a room to another room. We don't have space for big items.The fees was cheap,charging $40 to $60 for a trip. Our clients were mostly students from overseas,foreign workers and others.
I remember one Sunday we were able to complete 5 assignments. At the end of the day, we almost collapsed. Both of us weren't young. We were both 63 years old and you can imagine how tough it was for us to carry heavy and sometimes bulky items and moved them from one place to another.
A lady client of ours was shocked to see us appearing at her place to help her move. " Oh my god, I expect to see 2 young men but instead 2 old men. Can you both do the job?" she asked. Of course after the job was done she was so pleased that she gave us a small tip.
We took the moving job as a challenge and not so much for the money. After 2 years in the business, we closed shop.
My partner ventured into the real estate business and I started my pet business. Recently due to the poor housing market my partner closed shop. I am still at my pet business, importing and exporting pets like dogs,cats,rabbits etc for people. We call it pet relocation business.

Oh no sushi dinner again?

We do not seem to be tired of eating sushi. Tonight's dinner was sushi again. We did not snap any photos and so used the ones we took yesterday or day before. However, from the 3 receipts (over 3 times we were at Sushi Express)you may think we are sushi junkies. In fact, we are and had eaten few times before we took photos of the receipts. I've developed some rashes and skin itchiness on my legs and body. I think it may be due to the oily and deep fried food like fries,buggers, char kway teows, laksa, curries etc that I've consumed over the years. So it's pay-back time and I am trying to quit eating those unhealthy food and concentrate on food like sushi and sashimi which aren't oily.

4 October 2015 Sunday

Ex-stewardess with full haze protection

Haze clearing up but not for long

(Photo taken from my apartment)
According to the weather man, the wind has changed direction a little this morning and we are getting a temporary respite. The 3 hour PSI reading is 81 as at 10 am. Albeit the condition is just temporary but many are now out shopping,eating and having fun in the sun.
I read an article in Today's newspaper that someone suggested we pay Indonesia not to burn their forests and peat land so we would not have this haze problem. What kind of crazy idea was that! The writer justified her idea by stating that we are paying Malaysia for our water so why not pay the Indonesians too.

Sushi Express@ Seletar Mall for early dinner

Early dinner to us is the off-peak period around 4:30 pm when the place is less crowded. By the time we left at 5:40 pm there was a long queue outside Sushi Express. We ate 11 plates of sushi,sashimi and desserts each and the bill came to about $39 inclusive of 7% GST and 10% service charge.
The cheese cake and mango pudding are delicious. The sushi and sashimi are fresh and tasty and worth every cent we spent. As today is Sunday, the menu has a bigger and better spread as compared to weekdays.
Please note that the seaweed Sushi Express use to wrap the sushi is not crisp so we do not usually eat those.



The Haze is back again

The haze situation has deteriorated from a PSI reading of 81 this morning at 10 am  to 118 at 7 pm. We are now in the lower end of the unhealthy range.

I heard  FINA World Swimming Championship has cancelled some of its events due the haze situation here. It was supposed to be held over the weekend. Meanwhile, FINA is mulling over the idea of suing the companies which are responsible for starting the haze in Indonesia.

3 October 2015 Saturday

Breakfast@ nearby mall inspite of haze

We ventured out to have our breakfast at Seletar Mall which is a 5 minute walk from our home. As you can see we take the hazardous nature of the haze seriously. It is not a laughing matter as many around us have fallen sick with respiratory diseases,asthma and other health complications. We do not want to take the chance of falling ill and so we equipped ourselves with masks, head gears and sunglasses.
Along the way to the mall, we witnessed many young couples with babies and people of all ages walking around happily without masks, oblivious of the haze. Were these people gullible or just couldn't be bothered to wear the mask?
The PSI at 9 am was 177 which is in the high end of the unhealthy level. I understand that this horrendous haze may be around until end November *sigh*.

Contrast between S'pore and Fukuoka

I was in Fukuoka a few months ago. It was Yufuin to be exact, a small hot spring resort. The place was beautiful without any haze or pollution like the one we are experiencing now. 

Dinner@ home

Dinner consists of home made Fried Gyoza, BBQ sauce Spare Ribs with Daikon (radish), Grate Onion and Ocra with a small serving of rice.

2 October 2015 Friday

Flying with a minus crew situation is a serious matter.

I can't help but blog about this important cabin crew issue. This is a serious matter as more than 20 recent flights left without the sufficient number of cabin crew. What this means is that the operating crew has to work extra hard for nothing because the absentees were either on medical leave or some other reasons. There is no replacement of the absent crew. The service on board and safety of passengers (in the case of emergency) will inevitably be affected. This message was circulated to the crew by the union.

Section 18 of the industrial act means the cabin crew management has to sit down and discuss with the union as well as take remedial action to solve this problem. If the management does not want to discuss or do something positive, the matter will be referred to the Ministry of Manpower which will then decide on the next form of action.

Why adopt a pet only to abandon or put it down?

Continuing from yesterday's topic on the adoption of a dog,the above toy poodle was also adopted by us. This pet belonged to an expat family and they did not want to take her back to their original country and so let us adopt her. She is a loving pet, highly intelligent and playful.
Sometimes, we wonder why would some people want to have pets only later to abandon them (not in the case of the above toy poodle). It is cruel to abandon pets and there is a law in Singapore against it. In the case of the ex-stewardess's adopted dog, the owner wanted to put her down due to a "sickness". The sickness was actually a mild case of "heart murmur". The ex-stewardess sent the dog to the vet and fixed the problem. So really it may just be an excuse to kill the dog.

Do not disturb me while I'm eating or else....

Another boring day as far as the S'pore share market is concerned

The STI closed down 8 pts. My portfolio of shares have not been affected except for Noble which is down 0.015 cents. It's no big deal really because it will go up soon. Tiger was up again at 0.005 cents to 0.305 and SIA down 1 cent to 10.71. There will be no trading over the next 2 days because of the weekends.
The haze is as bad as yesterday in the unhealthy range. Most of the time we have to stay indoor with the air-conditioning and air purifier switched on.
Yesterday I forgot to mention that I was out for about 3 hours doing my job. There is a saying that "if you do not work,you do not eat". So, on matter what, I have to earn some income to support myself and my wife.

Our sushi late lunch@ Sushi Express

In terms of freshness and pricing ($1.50 per plate) Sushi Express is by far one of the best conveyor belt sushi in Singapore. The sushi and sashimi are even better than some selling in the upmarket restaurants along Orchard Road.

An instant noodle junkie I am

Guess what? I am now an instant noodle junkie. I know it isn't healthy eating these stuff but I can't help it. I am addicted to it and the addiction started because of the dreadful haze which prevented me from going out for my meals. The noodles comes in handy in this haze situation. It is super delicious and easy to cook. It's a good thing the addiction comes to me at a late age. Don't think it is nutritious at all, so it is not good for the kids.
Well, I had one of the above (Korean potato ramen) and it was chewy and yummy. 5 pkts in 1 box cost $6.90. The other 2 are cheaper (think it's $4 each box of 5).

1 October 2015 Thursday

Will Singapore be liveable in the future?
Can you imagine if the dense haze from Indonesia keeps blowing our way all year round, will you continue living here?
Some may just immigrate while others who choose to live in Singapore (not by choice) may be sick and eventually die. The haze in the unhealthy range could over time kill many people. It contains poisonous gases and particles.
With the El Nino effect, the haze could predictably be around us for a while. Typhoon Dujuan which is causing havoc in Taiwan also caused a low pressure situation. The low pressure inevitably cause the wind from a high pressure place like Sumatra to be sucked in. In the process,this wind-flow carries the haze from Sumatra on the way to the low pressure typhoon areas. Singapore lies in the path of the wind direction and this is one of the reasons for the haze in Singapore.

Who knows one of these days we may be like the boat people (touch wood) who are fleeing their countries due to war and poverty and desperately looking for a safe haven.  Or perhaps our compassionate and wealthy government would buy a little place in another country like Australia and resettled us.

Full haze protection

The share market: My trade today

Although the Dow was up 243 points last night and the STI was up almost 11 points, there was nothing to crow about. My shares didn't do too well. SIA was plus 2 cts closing at 10.72. Tiger was unchanged at 30 cts, Genting unchanged at 0.725 cts, Noble down .005 cts to 0.41 cts and so on and so forth. Not an exciting trading day.

I had the famous Lim's Yong Tau Foo for lunch nearby. It was really one of the best YTF in Singapore. After lunch, I stopped at McDonald's for a Chocolate Cone.

Nabe dinner@ home due to the horrendous haze

Ex stewardess adopted a pet dog

A former SQ stewardess Whatsapp me these photos of the pet dog she so kindly adopted from a dog shelter in Singapore. Good on you young lady, if not for you this pet would have been put down by her previous owner.

Dow Jones

The Dow is down by 108 points by 2300 hrs. It's annoying to watch it coming down after last night's gain of 230+ points. I am not going to watch it now but instead go and listen to some lovely music.
Will talk to you again tomorrow.