Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Girl Learns Driving Scantily Dressed

Does a girl dress scantily while learning driving just so that she can get into the good books of the driving instructor and subsequently the tester?

Rumors have it that a girl who dresses scantily gets scolded less by the instructor and finds it easier to pass the driving test. Are such rumors founded?


Private driving instructors are a dying breed as the government has stopped issuing licenses to such instructors. Eventually, when all private instructors have either retired or gone to meet their Maker, everyone who wants to learn driving must go to either Comfort Driving Centre (CDC)

or Singapore Safety Driving Centre (SSDC)

to do it. Anyone who wants to be a driving instructor can only work as one at either center.

I learned my driving from a private driving instructor and got my Class 3 license in October 1995 for only S$800+. I passed the driving test at my second attempt. A friend who introduced me to the same private instrutor earlier on passed his driving test at his first attempt and spent only around S$500.

There is no way anyone can learn driving and get his or her Class 3 license at either CDC or SSDC for such "small" sums of money. So if you have not gotten your Class 3 license yet and want to save some money by not going to a government driving center, seize a private instructor before they are all dead and gone.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Give Us This Day Our Daily Chicken

Papal Negotiation

After watching sales falling off for three straight months at Kentucky Fried chicken,

the Colonel

calls up the Pope

and asks for a favour.

The Pope says, "What can I do? "The Colonel says, "I need you to change the daily prayer from, 'Give us this day our daily bread' to 'Give us this day our daily chicken'. If you do it, I'll donate $10 million to the Vatican."

The Pope replies, "I am sorry. That is the Lord's Prayer and I can't change the words."

So the Colonel hangs up. After another month of dismal sales, the Colonel panics, and calls again. "Listen your Excellency. I really need your help. I'll donate $20 million if you change the words of the daily prayer from 'Give us this day our daily bread' to 'Give us this day our daily chicken.'

And the Pope responds, "It is very tempting, Colonel Sanders. The church could do a lot of good with that much money. It would help us to support many charities. But, again, I must decline. It is the Lord's Prayer, and I can't change the words." So the Colonel gives up again.

After two more months of terrible sales, the Colonel gets desperate.

"This is my final offer, your Excellency. If you change the words of the daily prayer from, 'Give us this day our daily bread' to 'Give us this day our daily chicken' I will donate $50 million to The Vatican."

The Pope replies, "Let me get back to you." So the next day, the Pope calls together all of his bishops and he says, "I have some good news and I have some bad news. The good news is that KFC is going to donate $50 million to the Vatican ."

The bishops rejoice at the news. Then one asks about the bad news.

The Pope replies, "The bad news is that we're losing the Gardenia account."

GST to be increased to 7%

Wonder if GST will get hiked up to 10% before the next General Elections in the name of doing more social work to help the poor.

It's an oxymoron. It's the poor who have the most difficulties struggling to make ends meet, pay for all the bills and expenses, with their miserably and pathetically meager wages. When GST goes up, they would be the ones to feel the impact the most.

Is it any wonder why the rich gets richer while the poor gets poorer? The rich have extra excessive money to invest in stuff and make their money and wealth grow. While the poor are stuck in their rut of struggling to make ends meet. The costs of living only move in one direction: Up. Those who succeed in breaking out of the poverty cycle just seem to be so few. And I'm not even talking about folks from poor families, who studied well in schools, go into a good university, get a scholoarship, get a good degree, and get a high-paying job either in the civil service or private sector. I'm talking about ordinary salaried workers in their 30s, 40s, 50s now. Can they break out of the poverty cycle? It's not impossible. But it sure isn't easy. Is it an easy life for scholars who are now in high-paying jobs in the civil service? They sure do look enviable.

It's only human nature to envy others who are better off than us. Every now and then, we need to snap out of our envy mode and count the blessings we have. When we don't get everything we want, we need to think about what we don't get and we don't want. Like maybe earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes and being dead broke and hopelessly jobless?

Package to help the poor is welcome. It's just that the poor find the ever increasing costs of living hard to bear. Living costs have been and always shall be going up. They just can't simply be wished away. Living costs always seem to increase more than salaries do. Can't say the same about the rich who are much less concerned about such escalating living costs. It doesn't concern them at all especially they are the super-rich. It's not a live-or-die or make-or-break kind of thing as far as they are concerned. At the most, they give up on their yacht, downgrade from bigger car to smaller one, downgrade from bigger property to smaller one.

Subaru S204

Subaru may not make the best-looking cars around. But it certainly knows how to build one that can do the century sprint in less than 5 seconds.

On the road, the S204 is sensational. Inheriting a reworked 2.0-liter, turbo, four-cylinder boxer engine from its predecessor, the S203, the car pumps out 320 hp at 6,400 rpm, while torque is up slightly to 319 pound-feet at 4,400 rpm thanks to a remapped ECU and a more efficient intake system. The 0-to-62-mph sprint is expected to take around 4.5 seconds, with a sub-13-second quarter-mile and a top speed of 155 mph.

Only 600 of the limited-edition S204 will be built. Nearly 400 have already found a home in Japan while 100 will be shipped to the U.K. to commemorate the last model of an era. Subaru's British importer caught wind that the next-generation Impreza, due out in late 2007, will change into a hatchback, and so ordered a batch of the very best Impreza sedans STI could produce.

Ah Seng from Ah Seng Aquarium may be able to afford one. But the S204 is certainly one of those things in life which even you have the money, you may not be able to buy one for yourself because it's either already sold out or not available here in Singapore at all.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Harry's Island

"Harry's Island is not a blueprint for a project that we intend to build
anywhere else in the world. There will only be one Harry's Island, and it
will belong only to Singapore." - Mark Advent, chairman of Eighth Wonder.

Is 8th Wonder trying to suck up to you-know-who?