Rants and raves about stuff happening in and around my life in Singapore

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Something Fishy at Resort World Sentosa

At Resort World Sentosa not only can you lose all your money gambling but it now seems you can lose just as much by eating. A dinner who took his four friends to Feng Shui Inn restaurant on June 12 had a jaw dropping encounter of the fishy kind.

He had initially asked for marble goby, better known locally as “soon hock”, but was told there was no stock for the fish....


..... A waiter then recommended the white sultan fish instead. The group agreed, without enquiring about the cost of the dish. But when the bill arrived, the five diners were shocked to find that the single sultan fish, weighing 1.8kg, set them back by a staggering S$1,224.

In response to the incident, an RWS spokesman claims that the practice of not disclosing menu prices is common in upscale restaurants. “It is not always appropriate to state menu prices to high-end customers who have come to expect a certain discretion when they entertain high-level guests, ” he explains. And I'm sure that's true in certain situations but a quick comparison with Capital Restaurant, which has been selling sultan fish for 36 years, reveals that the dish can go for as low as S$6 per 100g. This is less than a tenth of Fengshui Inn’s price tag on the fish.

The incident has been compared to one that occurred in March last year, where six American tourists were charged S$239 for a mere eight tiger prawns at Newton hawker centre. In that case the stall involved had its licence suspended for three months by the National Environment Agency (NEA) for breaching licencing conditions.

Of course it would be nice to see the NEA swing into action with the same enthusiasm but many doubt anything will happen at all. As one person commented on the Yahoo story (link below) "Restaurant is high class. Newton hawker is low class. Low class got low class treatment. High class got high class treatment."

On the plus side at least I know one Restaurant that I certainly WONT be going to.

Read it at Yahoo


Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Noose

I don't know if many of you have watched The Noose, a Singapore comedy (cough) TV series which is a parody of local news programs such as News 5 Tonight with fictional news reports and a presentation mimicking that of the real news. It aired in Singapore for two seasons in 2007 and 2008 with a third season being aired in 2010 thankfully .....


..... we were spared this load of crap in 2009. At the beginning of every episode, there is a candid disclaimer telling the viewer that the stories are not true (cough) because no doubt some bright spark thinks its viewers are so stupid as to confuse this load of rubbish for real news.

I mean just watching it is enough to lower your IQ. It's soooooooo bad. It's not even funny. It's just incredibly bad television that assumes its viewers are as dumb as the presenters come across (no doubt on purpose because anything else is too scary to contemplate). How its survived 3 seasons is beyond my understanding because I only watched it by mistake. I mean I can't imagine people actually tuning in on purpose or God forbid rushing home to watch it. I mean seriously its just embarrassing!

Programs like this shouldn't leave the cutting room floor. And if it has won or ever wins an award (yeah, so not doing any background checking on that one) its solely on the basis that shit floats.

Bring back Phua Chu Kang (and I never thought I'd say that).

Update 23rd June 2010

After i'd posted this i realised that there was a whole center spread on the show in the new paper, a Singapore daily tabloid. Here's some snipets from the (cough) stars involved and the article in question.

The snipets that gave me a chuckle
The Noose is suppose to reflect our society to a certain extent
has faith in Singaporeans whom he said "are good at laughing at ourselves"
It shows maturity in society
I don't think the first season was mainstream popular
Suffice it to say, impresonations aren't easy

The snipet that caused a gag reflex
It's a constant challange to try to be different from the tons of characters we play

and my personal favorite
There's also fears of being lame and not funny


Thursday, June 03, 2010

The Stats on Internet Porn

Everyone "knows" how big internet porn is, when compared to industries like TV, movies and everything else. But how big is it really? Online MBA compiled some statistics and placed them in one handy image.

The Stats on Internet Pornography

Research and image credit Online MBA.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Sex in the City 2

Having followed the series and the first movie it was only natural that I was going to go to watch Sex in the City 2. After all any time there's an opportunity to catch up with Samatha's antics it just has to be taken. And the movie was even better than I had thought it could be. With many stand out moments .....


..... and a whole load of laughs even if you've never followed the series its a movie that you will definitely enjoy.

For me however the stand out moment that had me open mouthed with jaw clashing to the floor was the performance by Liza Minelli of Single Ladies. It was absolutely amazing and one of the reasons that I'll be buying the blue-ray version of this movie as soon as its released. Maybe I'm showing my age and I really don't care. Liza is and always will be a Gay icon of epic proportions the heights of which others (such as Madonna and Beyonce) can only ever dream of.

Liza, if by some strange quirk of faith you read this (laughs insanely at such a preposterous idea) you are totally awesome and should you ever visit Singapore lets go out and paint the town red together!

Ok, back to reality .....


Friday, May 21, 2010

You are the one Singapore

It's been some time since I posted on my blog mostly because I haven't had the time. But I had to quickly write up something on the fantastic new ditty for the Singapore Youth Olympics 2010 called "You are the one Singapore".

Seriously ....



..... what the hell are people thinking about when they let this one out of the basket. This "Cheer" as the Singapore Sports pages describe it will be seen by millions of people world wide. Is this the best Singapore can do?. I mean when I first heard it I actually swallowed vomit.

The Singapore Sports webpage has this to say about it .....

It is our CHEER. Composed and performed by Singapore’s own JJ Lin, it is one of the 3 numbers specially written for “Cheer Singapore”. Sing it. Shake it. And move with it..

I read that and wondered if JJ had gone underground. I mean having your name tagged to a piece of work like that has to be embarrassing as hell. There's already one spoof of the song up on YouTube for those that want to watch it. It speaks volumes when the spoof has had more views than the original.

And what about the panel who agreed to approve it. I'd suggest they are in desperate need of a lobotomy but it looks like I'm too late on that score. And there's still 2 more "Cheers" to come.

Something to look forward to I'm sure and while we wait well we could always learn the dance moves for "You are the one Singapore".

Oh crap, I just vomited in my mouth again .... oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, hey!


Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Resorts World at Sentosa

I'm not sure if I should praise or thrash Resort World at Sentosa. It's great to see something happen on Sentosa, lets face it the place needed a major face lift if it was to compete with other tourist destinations. And despite the many new attractions I've no doubt that the biggest will be the new Casino. Great news for tourist, but it sucks to be a local ....


.... or a Permanent Resident (PR) for that mater since both will have to pay a $100 levy to gain entrance. Of course its called a "levy" not a "We want to prevent Singaporeans from gambling away their money tax" which is basically its intent of course. The Singapore Government is no doubt concerned for its people and has deemed this the best way to deter them from gambling. Yes, lets let all the tourists lose their money instead, not that anyone in Singapore will benefit from that move. And if its not enough, you can always pass on relatives details and have them totally banned from entering (or so the rumor has it).

Of course the levy (small chuckle on my part) lasts for only 24 hours, so if you are in mid-game when it runs out you will have to leave and re-enter to pay the levy again, its in the regulations. I wonder if we'll see jobs advertised for levy runners in the papers soon?

Speaking of jobs, the Resort World went to great pains to mention that approximately 70% of the work force are Singaporeans. I'm not sure why they are boasting of that since I remember seeing the adds in the papers with statements like only Singaporeans need apply. So I'm not sure boasting about an openly discriminatory policy is a good thing.

Still, I guess its nice to see Sentosa have a facelift, although if you do drop into the Casino for a flutter take care. You don't only have to worry about the levy (another chuckle from me) but you'll also have to battle with the Feng Shui which is most definitely not going to be in your favor.

Hmmmmmmm ....... I wonder if pre-paid levies will become the new birthday gift, mines the 24th September just in case.

Friday, January 29, 2010

iPad a spoilt apple?

The world has long speculated on the release of a Mac tablet PC and has been holding its collective breath as rumors were hurled around cyberspace on what Apple was up to. Low and behold only a few days ago we all found out as Apple released upon the world the iPad. Has it lived up to expectations? Well in my opinion the only answer to that is ..... Hell No!. Apple dropped the ball on this one big time and here's why ....

.... For all the iPad could have been, a hybrid between the stunningly magnificent Mac OS (back in your box windows vista users) and the awesome iPhone 3GS, all we get for our hard earned cash is an enlarged iTouch almost iPhone kind of thing.

It may have a 1GHz Apple Chip, so speed won't be an issue. But that's about were the good news stops. No camera of any description so no video conferencing which could have been a key selling point. No multi tasking so only a single application at a time. Maximum of 64GB flash drive which wouldn't even be installed on a laptop of PC these days. But then I forget myself the iPad is neither of those, it's basically an enlarged iTouch with pretty much the same features and the same set of limitations (i.e. no flash support).

Of course with a bigger screen you can read a book on it. Yeah folks that's about the only reason for getting one (I can hear the gasps of excitement from here).

This could have been awesome, instead its the biggest disappointment from Apple EVER. Whoever thought this was the tablet PC that the public has been waiting for from Apple for the last 5 years needs to have a labotomy. And that also applies to every single Exec in Apple who nodded their approving head at this release.

It is in short more of an iphhhuuuuttttt than an iPad, a spoilt apple.

Totally useless.