Singapore Trip ~ 3/07/08 Day01

This is by far one of the most out-of-the-blue trip for me. Already resigned to the prospect of having to live through a dreadfully uneventful & boring due to no plan due to lack of kang tao long weekend from 5 ~ 9th due to the 3-day facility shutdown at my workplace; Then on one fine day recently, one of our major equipment vendor, Nikon called & invited us over to attend their 3rd annual seminar in Singapore. Not being any of the two short listed candidate to participate, i jumped at the chance when one of them bailed out & got it! ~ suddenly i've got a biz-trip-cum-vacation in hand, so that i won't have to die of boredom during the long break ~ lucky me =)
Now the best part of it all is ~ they're (Nikon) generous enough to put us at the prestigious Fullerton Hotel for one night! Dun pray-pray ar, not only is the 6-star hotel one of the landmark of Singapore having once served as its General Post Office, it's also ranked among 100 of the best hotels in the world. *bear with me, being a little ecstatically sakai here ~ never stay in soo-many star hotel before mah, chui meh??*
The seminar despite being scheduled on the 2nd half on the 4th only, we had to fly-in a day earlier due to flight constraints.

One of the first interesting sight that caught my eye on the way to our hotel from Changi Airport: The Singapore Flyer ~ First up came the impressive Eye of London, then our not-so-impressive Eye of Malaysia, & then ho, Singapore oso duwan to lose... at 42 storeys high this is the world's largest observation wheel. Period. Maybe Dubai will come up with an even bigger one...

Finally arriving & greeted by a colossal colonially-influenced structure of atypical hotel.


Breathtaking views of the atrium that exudes the word GRANDEUR in every sense



At this point, i'm still going ga-ga-ga in awe to start snapping any sensible photos; & i haven't even been to my room yet...

big, spacious & comfy

everything accessible with just a touch of a button or the flick of a switch...

even the bathroom is 1.5 times of my room back home!...

42" flat screen. Drooling yet? =p


It's even got the whole arsenal to throw a decent mini-cocktail party!

To blend in with the environment & crowd as to not feel paiseh sticking out like a sore thumb in sloppy tees & jeans, anything less than a business suit will NOT do. After all, it's located right smack in the heart of the banking district.

The service is undoubtedly top notch ~ when the all the staffs seem to acknowledge & respectfully address you by your name & you never have to lug your luggage more than 5 steps before someone offers to carry them for you, be it the bellboy or even the ang moh chef who just happens to pass by ~ you know you're in a 6-star hotel =D

The next big thing coming to town:

F1 night race!

Just be prepared to fork out a cool 2 grand ++ if you plan to watch it from here.
*heck, even at normal rate, I'll barely afford even a night with my meager monthly wage xp*

~ to be continued~

12 hours, 32 minutes, 48 seconds & counting down... i'm coming!

splendid photo by trainer62 on Flickr

Auto-pilot mode on mundane working-weekdays...


us lethargic creatures come to life on weekends when we find all the reason in the world to party like crazee & yell "Hey, pea butt there!"

Starting with Friday nite bash at Soho ~

pre-celebration for Ms Sawadeeka; *sorry, no updated photos yet, due to photographer still have yet to recover from hangover that night*; hey, today's your actual day, so Heppi Butt-day again! =p

Followed by Saturday nite bash at Mojo~
Hepi Bird-day Chas! =p

taken using Sony Sober-Shot

mrtoilet peek-a-boo ~ showing symptoms severe of alcohol deprivation *hey, stop bulbing around already!*


we got off to quite a slow start...

A bottle of Jack Daniels *courtesy of b'day gal*, a couple of Tequila shots & a Flaming Lambhorgini later,was when the party really STARTED

yea, babeh! mr sexylips doing his thang ~ we've got 3some on the table! hoho...

~ a total blast of a jolly good time. Now that's what i call a productive weekend =D
*77.78% of the photos you see in this post are stolen from either cherrysa.blog.com or jenbebe.blogspot.com*

Project Civic ~ the continuation *where's the review??*

i've had my ride back for over a month now, but have been lacking the inspiration to do a write-up on the driving impression; not in terms of on how she performs at the limit just yet, coz i simply haven't been driving her hard enough to fully exploit & appreciate her newfound potentials from the 'intrinsic-makeover' she had recently... all thanks to this fella~

Project Civic Stage I ~ despite being performance oriented, is not too extreme in nature; thankfully so, coz now is not the right time to build a high performance fuel guzzler; especially if she's going to be a daily driver.
This is a season when people will likely be bragging about how many miles to the gallon their rides can achieve rather than how much horses they have under the hood. So how many kms to the liter?
After the major overhaul, on the 1st full tank fill-up right before the 40% price hike ~ roughly 37.4 liters of premium unleaded petrol gave me a good 409+ kilometers before the tank empty light starts to activate; under good-boy city driving condition which, translates to about 10.93km/liter. That's a new milestone for for my 130,000km-year old B16A; quite a decent figure, but nothing much to shout about by today's super fuel efficient car standard. Looking at the bright side, having a free-revving motor with 170-plus flywheel horses at my disposal ~ to out-run & out-corner most run-of-the-mill cars at will, does makes the trade off easier for me to live with =P

To recap Project Civic Stage I ~
Engine: B16A engine rebuild (70% new), CTR high-comp pistons, engine block guide, valve spring upgrade (intake side ~ inlet valve springs from H22A), oil pump upgrade, head port & polish, JASMA B16A aftermarket extractor, open pod intake, Power Enterprise Kevlar timing belt & lightened flywheel (6.5kg)
Suspension: CST Zero-1 adjustable coilovers
Damage: AN ARM & A LEG equivalent of 2&1/2 Phuket vacations!!
Downtime (SDT): More than a month spent in the workshop
Driving Impression: 1) A more responsive rev-happy engine ~ ever ready & eager for the GO; watch as the rpm needles sweeps across the dial to the redline faster than you can say w-a-a-h-l-a-a-o-o-o-e-h! when floored *a little bit of exaggeration, but it does climb to the redline in a more liberated manner compared to before*, 2) Power delivery ~ has noticeably more pull at the low-to-mid range of the rpm band; almost feels like having larger displacement than its 1595cc *can be attributed to the hi-comp CTR pistons* 3) VTEC region ~ pedal to the metal, it activates with vengeance past the 5,800rpm mark & hits on at full song well into 8,000rpm before i come into my senses, ease off on the accelerator & decide to go for an upshift. It feels as though the power band has been shifted upwards, peak power comes much later & there's useable power left to be exploited the upper redline region between 7,800 ~ 9,000rpm. * to do this reliably w/o blowing up your motor, sufficient hardware upgrade required ~ valve train upgrade i.e. stiffer springs, higher-rated timing belt & of course, a healthy motor.*
Loose-ends *to clean up*:
1) Rattling sound at the rear when under constant hard acceleration & at speeds over 140km/h ~ be it exhaust piping/muffler scraping against the undercarriage or loose part on the undercarriage; the next trip to the workshop will be yet another 'rat-hunting expedition'. *ada bunyi tikus di bawah kereta*
2) Sorting out the constipation problem ~ a matching cat-back exhaust system. Bigger piping & big bore fart cannon to liberate more horses? Well, i'll think about that when i enough $ to spare *am broke*
3) With balding AD07 tires & an intermittently slipping clutch, what's next is inevitable: semi-slick tires for the front & a racing clutch.... well that too, i'll forget about that until i save enough $ to spare *am brokeX2*
4) A new paint job! *my now kurap car is in dire need of one!* & a new clean stock JDM look *i'm done with ricer kits*... yup, again i'll be daydreaming about this until i have enough $$ to spare *am brokeX3 (will be) coz i've got my mind set on a new toy a dSLR!! & my out-of-the-blue Singapore trip is just less than 48 hours away, now*

That wraps up Stage I... =p

Sakura blossom...

you may call me sakai but this is my 1st time in my 27 years of existence, seeing one up close & personal in all its glory at full bloom... quite an awesome sight & rightfully proven so, by its traffic stopping capability. So i'm not the only sakai kuchingnite after all =p

The Larry O'Brien Trophy finally returns to Boston for the 1st time in 22 years

Way to go Celtics!!
Photo sourced from www.nba.com

my feel good song... ;-)

240508: Kayak Version 2.0
























=)

I'm listening to ~

soaking up in my melancholy self as of late. Okay, i'm guilty of abandoning my blog for the past month... or perhaps, have been just too plain uninspired lately... hoping for a change in life that may not even come? Someone please come rescue me from the trappings of my mundane life & lethargic self!! Okay, i admit i'm being a bit too EMO here.
Btw, this is a very nice song that i could not get enough of... ;)