tym says:
I want a typewriter so badly for old time's sake!
Gearing up to move house means starting to clear out things that I don't want to pay people to carry up five floors (no lift at the new place). This is all going into the recycling today, which might make any passing neighbours glance askance at me, but really, even before I made any drinks last night, the Mandrin bottle was already empty, the Ruby Red had only half a shot left and the Vanilia about one shot.
And then this morning, I overslept.
Technorati Tags: recycling, Absolut vodka, moving house
Or rather, it has been since last night. It's ignoring the domain name on some URLs and treating the subdirectory information as the full URL --- which leads to a lot of ridiculous "Server not found" error messages.
For example, I'm trying to look at my friends' status updates on Facebook, which are at this URL: http://www.facebook.com/friends/?status
Firefox tries to load http://friends/?status instead --- and spits it back as an error to me.
Alternatively, if I try to load the main Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com), I get the following error message: "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded."
Even though several minutes later, so long as the full URL is provided, the very same browser window will happily load the page without any grumbling or misfiring of URLs.
Why is this happening to some pages (so far, Facebook, The New York Times and Wired Blogs) only? Am I right in blaming Firefox? Did I break my browser without realising it?
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Technorati Tags: Firefox
For example, I'm trying to look at my friends' status updates on Facebook, which are at this URL: http://www.facebook.com/friends/?status
Firefox tries to load http://friends/?status instead --- and spits it back as an error to me.
Alternatively, if I try to load the main Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com), I get the following error message: "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded."
Even though several minutes later, so long as the full URL is provided, the very same browser window will happily load the page without any grumbling or misfiring of URLs.
Why is this happening to some pages (so far, Facebook, The New York Times and Wired Blogs) only? Am I right in blaming Firefox? Did I break my browser without realising it?
Technorati Tags: Firefox
It's a little surreal to contemplate, but in about a month I will be living somewhere else.
After a surprisingly effortless search, graced by a great deal of serendipity (my mother would say God's will), I've landed myself a nice little apartment in the very heart of the neighbourhood I was eyeing. And it only took buying two copies of The Straits Times (to peruse the classifieds; the news sections went straight into the recycling heap) and viewing exactly one apartment.
Yes, you read that right: one apartment.
But the real kicker is that the apartment turned out to be owned by someone I know professionally --- not someone I'm especially close to (wouldn't that be awkward), but someone I've worked and occasionally socialised with enough that I didn't have any qualms about saying yes to the asking rental price. Sure, I wish it were cheaper, but given how manic the local real estate market is at the moment, I'm thankful for what I have, rather than griping about the unlikely.
I don't have a fixed move-out-by date, but I figure before the Chinese New Year is a good target. Which means that most of January will be spent planning, measuring, sorting and pa(ni)cking. And working, of course.
In the meantime, I'm madly surfing Apartment Therapy and websites of its ilk, and I've ordered the very first piece of friends' artwork that will grace the apartment's walls.
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Technorati Tags: Singapore, moving house
After a surprisingly effortless search, graced by a great deal of serendipity (my mother would say God's will), I've landed myself a nice little apartment in the very heart of the neighbourhood I was eyeing. And it only took buying two copies of The Straits Times (to peruse the classifieds; the news sections went straight into the recycling heap) and viewing exactly one apartment.
Yes, you read that right: one apartment.
But the real kicker is that the apartment turned out to be owned by someone I know professionally --- not someone I'm especially close to (wouldn't that be awkward), but someone I've worked and occasionally socialised with enough that I didn't have any qualms about saying yes to the asking rental price. Sure, I wish it were cheaper, but given how manic the local real estate market is at the moment, I'm thankful for what I have, rather than griping about the unlikely.
I don't have a fixed move-out-by date, but I figure before the Chinese New Year is a good target. Which means that most of January will be spent planning, measuring, sorting and pa(ni)cking. And working, of course.
In the meantime, I'm madly surfing Apartment Therapy and websites of its ilk, and I've ordered the very first piece of friends' artwork that will grace the apartment's walls.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, moving house
Going to the Long Bar at the Raffles, because Timbre at the Arts House was packed, only to run into the friend that's only ever in town for two weeks of the year (and she leaves tomorrow).
So what I thought would be a quiet drink to round off the night, turned into several hours of bar-hopping and too many green tea vodkas, not to mention a little cute-boy stalking at Mox. The friend wanted to chiong (go all-out for the night, i.e. party till dawn), but I begged off by 1:30 am. As it was, I had a teeny hangover this morning and it took me two hours to sufficiently rehydrate.
Nothing like the holiday season to remind me that I'm getting old ...
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So what I thought would be a quiet drink to round off the night, turned into several hours of bar-hopping and too many green tea vodkas, not to mention a little cute-boy stalking at Mox. The friend wanted to chiong (go all-out for the night, i.e. party till dawn), but I begged off by 1:30 am. As it was, I had a teeny hangover this morning and it took me two hours to sufficiently rehydrate.
Nothing like the holiday season to remind me that I'm getting old ...
I saw my cousin today for the first time in what might be fourteen years. And if I hadn't had gone shopping for Abigael and Ming's birthday gifts, I wouldn't've bumped into him at all.
Impressively, he recognised me after I hailed him in the Parkway Parade post-Xmas crowds --- not bad considering that I now wear contact lenses, keep my hair short (though it's a little raggedy around the edges at the moment) and am almost half a lifetime older. He looks pretty much the same, just older and more built. Someone's got a gym membership, I bet.
Sadly, though we wanted to catch up, a quick glance at my watch confirmed that I needed to get home stat or I'd be late for my 3 pm meeting, and he leaves Singapore tomorrow. Let's hope it isn't another fourteen years before we run into each other again.
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Impressively, he recognised me after I hailed him in the Parkway Parade post-Xmas crowds --- not bad considering that I now wear contact lenses, keep my hair short (though it's a little raggedy around the edges at the moment) and am almost half a lifetime older. He looks pretty much the same, just older and more built. Someone's got a gym membership, I bet.
Sadly, though we wanted to catch up, a quick glance at my watch confirmed that I needed to get home stat or I'd be late for my 3 pm meeting, and he leaves Singapore tomorrow. Let's hope it isn't another fourteen years before we run into each other again.
Not all the time, but twice last night --- once at Hermitage, and again at Wine Connection. But we did not whine, because it's the Xmas season and we have much to be grateful for. Like pink coin purses and vacations to Australia and iPhones.
Okay, so none of those were mine. But I have new earphones and I managed to avoid being stuck with a week's worth of Xmas leftovers and I have free tickets to Maria Sharapova this Sunday. Not bad for a season I barely got warmed up for.
Technorati Tags: wine, Christmas, Xmas
Apropos of the holiday, I present to you the most festive new word in the Oxford English Dictionary's December 2007 release:
Godzone n. New Zealand.You'll have to see the release for a fuller explanation.
Merry Xmas, everybody!
Technorati Tags: wordiness, Godzone, New Zealand
I bought a purportedly catnip-laden cat toy for Ink from Ikea today, but he paid more attention to the giant plastic shopping bag instead. So much for my attempt at an Xmas gift.
Ikea's Tampines outlet was really quite civilised, despite it being Xmas Eve. I'd never been there before and the hugeness of it is very refreshing. Not to mention the inevitable Raiders of the Lost Ark vibe when one enters the self-service warehouse area.
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Related posts: Breaking the bad taste barrier, Surprises from Ikea
Technorati Tags: Singapore, Ikea, cat, Ink the cat
Ikea's Tampines outlet was really quite civilised, despite it being Xmas Eve. I'd never been there before and the hugeness of it is very refreshing. Not to mention the inevitable Raiders of the Lost Ark vibe when one enters the self-service warehouse area.
Related posts: Breaking the bad taste barrier, Surprises from Ikea
Technorati Tags: Singapore, Ikea, cat, Ink the cat
As I was wishing dolcelatte merry Xmas online last night, I was also watching the BBC, which triggered the following exchange (pardon the lack of proper punctuation):
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Technorati Tags: Singapore, YouTube, Singapore politics
ME: i am watching the queen's youtube channel on bbcActually, if such a channel were launched, it would no doubt debut with such nuggets as the MDA rap.
ME: it is surreal
dolcelatte: oh i heard about that
dolcelatte: havent checked it out yet
dolcelatte: i'll watch her christmas day speech on christmas day
dolcelatte: and it'll be like i never left blighty
ME: pretty cool, the queen :)
ME: way hipper than lee hsien loong
ME: hehe
dolcelatte: lee hsien loong is so not hip
ME: ya
dolcelatte: sigh
dolcelatte: and the queen is like 80plus
ME: i can imagine this will be a topic of conversation at the next young pap meeting
ME: "queen got youtube leh! We only had hip-hop and blog - how? how?"
dolcelatte: hahaahha
dolcelatte: but if they had youtube channel
dolcelatte: it would be political video
dolcelatte: and then, they'll have to ban themselves!
Technorati Tags: Singapore, YouTube, Singapore politics
6 minutes ago, I updated my Facebook status to: [Tym] wants to celebrate Pikkojoulu next year.
Which prompted Abigael to Google "Pikkojoulu".
Which threw up as the top English-language search result, my friend Jude's Flickr post.
Which is where I'd picked up the concept of Pikkojoulu in the first place, and left a comment to that effect.
As I said to Abigael, I'm just everywhere.
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Technorati Tags: Pikkojoulu, Google, Flickr
Which prompted Abigael to Google "Pikkojoulu".
Which threw up as the top English-language search result, my friend Jude's Flickr post.
Which is where I'd picked up the concept of Pikkojoulu in the first place, and left a comment to that effect.
As I said to Abigael, I'm just everywhere.
Technorati Tags: Pikkojoulu, Google, Flickr
Photos
tym says:
cour marly > But Facebook is fun! How else would I distract myself from work all day?
L'oiseau rebelle > That's reassuring to know. I always thought I felt the claustrophobia more in Singapore because it is, physically and population-wise, a pretty damn small place. PS: Nice to see you still online and merry Xmas!
I was talking to a friend about another friend, Jamal, and for some reason I started pronouncing the name as "Juh-MAHL" instead of "JAH-mull". To which the friend I was speaking to said, "He didn't grow up in Noo York, you know."
I have no idea where that moment of cultural disconnect came from, but I felt very contrite. I felt even more contrite when I was thinking a little harder about the name and my brain switched channels to "Malcolm-Jamal Warner" --- yes, he of The Cosby Show fame (or lack thereof). I knew watching hours and hours of that show as a kid would someday come back to haunt me.
Time to spank the inner street slangster and get my tongue back to a less affected local pronunciation.
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Technorati Tags: Jamal, pronunciation
I have no idea where that moment of cultural disconnect came from, but I felt very contrite. I felt even more contrite when I was thinking a little harder about the name and my brain switched channels to "Malcolm-Jamal Warner" --- yes, he of The Cosby Show fame (or lack thereof). I knew watching hours and hours of that show as a kid would someday come back to haunt me.
Time to spank the inner street slangster and get my tongue back to a less affected local pronunciation.
Technorati Tags: Jamal, pronunciation
tym says:
20x200 doesn't ship to Singapore! Argh!
Photos
21 Dec 2007 (c)
Tym has posted a comment:
Nice! From the thumbnail, at first I thought it was a picture of a curved ceiling.
A friend told me today about this new girl he's seeing. It being 2007, of course he had to have me check her out on Facebook. Which led to the revelation that she knows some people I know --- not surprising when two degrees of separation is par for the course in Singapore.
What was surprising is that she knows an old classmate of mine from primary school, whom I haven't spoken to since the late 1980s when we bumped into each other at Centrepoint. And that, upon peeking at his list of Facebook friends, it turns out that he knows a number of people in my existing circle: a former colleague, an old neighbour and a friend's ex, among others. Which leaves me further surprised that we haven't crossed paths more recently.
I like Facebook, but sometimes it just reminds me that Singapore is just Too. Damn. Small.
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Technorati Tags: Singapore, Facebook
What was surprising is that she knows an old classmate of mine from primary school, whom I haven't spoken to since the late 1980s when we bumped into each other at Centrepoint. And that, upon peeking at his list of Facebook friends, it turns out that he knows a number of people in my existing circle: a former colleague, an old neighbour and a friend's ex, among others. Which leaves me further surprised that we haven't crossed paths more recently.
I like Facebook, but sometimes it just reminds me that Singapore is just Too. Damn. Small.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, Facebook
I haven't been invited to any Xmas parties (yes, I confess, I'm a little distressed about that), but there's been a great deal of dinners out with friends to make up for it. Which has led to some rather delightful discoveries on the local food scene.
Bella Pizza at Riverside View is so new that Googling it will come up with nothing except blogger Ermita's review (sounds like she was there the night before I was). The pizzas are fabulous, the fettucine carbonara was the best I've ever had in Singapore, and I'm glad Olorin and I went for the Nutella banana crepe for dessert, because man, did that hit the spot.
I don't usually eat fancypants breakfast during the workweek, but I was starving when I got to TCC for a meeting on Wednesday and all they had were elaborate repasts that must've taken at least 20 minutes to assemble on the plate. No such thing as a simple bagel or muffin on their menu.
Surprisingly (because TCC is a coffee chain not exactly known for its culinary finesse), the food looked as good as it had in the menu and then tasted as good too. For a start, the "on the vine tomatoes" were really served on the vine and were nice and corpulent. I'm going to remember the combination of scrambled eggs, sliced parmesan and smoked salmon when I want to make myself a good breakfast at home.
Tonight, Casey and I went to 25 Degree Celsius, which I've been meaning to check out since w wrote about it last month. Not only was it refreshingly uncrowded (though the packed MRT trains on the way to town damn near did me in), the service was delightful and the food was great: duck confit so tender one barely needs a knife, flavourful un-fishy barramundi fillet and a rice cake whose ingredients we couldn't identify but which we loved.
Plus they sell books! Cookbooks!Books about food! Plenty to browse and salivate over. I'm definitely coming back.
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Technorati Tags: Singapore, Bella Pizza, TCC, 25 Degree Celsius
Bella Pizza at Riverside View is so new that Googling it will come up with nothing except blogger Ermita's review (sounds like she was there the night before I was). The pizzas are fabulous, the fettucine carbonara was the best I've ever had in Singapore, and I'm glad Olorin and I went for the Nutella banana crepe for dessert, because man, did that hit the spot.
I don't usually eat fancypants breakfast during the workweek, but I was starving when I got to TCC for a meeting on Wednesday and all they had were elaborate repasts that must've taken at least 20 minutes to assemble on the plate. No such thing as a simple bagel or muffin on their menu.
Surprisingly (because TCC is a coffee chain not exactly known for its culinary finesse), the food looked as good as it had in the menu and then tasted as good too. For a start, the "on the vine tomatoes" were really served on the vine and were nice and corpulent. I'm going to remember the combination of scrambled eggs, sliced parmesan and smoked salmon when I want to make myself a good breakfast at home.
Tonight, Casey and I went to 25 Degree Celsius, which I've been meaning to check out since w wrote about it last month. Not only was it refreshingly uncrowded (though the packed MRT trains on the way to town damn near did me in), the service was delightful and the food was great: duck confit so tender one barely needs a knife, flavourful un-fishy barramundi fillet and a rice cake whose ingredients we couldn't identify but which we loved.
Plus they sell books! Cookbooks!Books about food! Plenty to browse and salivate over. I'm definitely coming back.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, Bella Pizza, TCC, 25 Degree Celsius
tym says:
I wanted to buy that T-shirt too! In HCMC earlier this year.
And I, too, despite my actual Indian blood, cannot wrap my head (or tongue) around dhal at any time of the day ...
tym says:
Thom > Hadn't heard of it, but thanks for the link!
cowboycaleb > When you give me back <a href="http://www.toomanythoughts.org/blog/2007/12/where-have-all-good-books-gone.html#c4024247996650081751">my Rushdie</a>!
Thirtysomething, Singapore-born and -bred (barring five years spent in wintrier climes), and thus far resisting all forms of government propaganda exalting procreation. I watch too much American TV, eat too much local food (to which the concepts of low-fat/low-cal/low-anything except low price do not apply) and read too many blogs, most of them American or local. I'd love it if Singapore were visited by the monsoon more often and if I could wear jeans to work.
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