Devastation in Christchurch

I am saddened by the devastation and loss of lives in Christchurch – a city which is still recovering from the 7.1 magnitude earthquake on September 4, 2010.

Christchurch is a city which I lived, studied and played in during my student exchange in 2006. The city was my home away from home. So it is very heart breaking for me to learn that much of the city is devastated and in ruins.

My thoughts are with the people of Christchurch, but I am sure the Kiwis will emerge from this 6.3 magnitude earthquake stronger than before.

The ChristChurch Cathedral – July 15, 2006

The ChristChurch Cathedral – February 22, 2011

Freak Storm

At around 5pm today, heavy winds snapped branches and toppled trees along Yio Chu Kang Road and in the Serangoon North area. There were traffic jams, and property damage.

 

 

SUCK-HUB

Our family paid the $70.62 ransom to watch the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Unfortunately, we have not been getting our money’s worth! We have 3 set-top boxes in our house, but only 2 could receive the World Cup. Here’s what happened when we tried to rectify the situation:-

11 June – Discovered that one our set-top box could not receive World Cup.

12 June – Tried calling StarHub hotline but gave up after waiting for 30 mins to talk to a “customer care consultant”. My dad went to exchange the set-top box for a new one instead. After the exchange, we could not receive a single channel!

13 June – Went to exchange the set-top box again. After the exchange, we could receive all our subscribed channels. But, the set-top box was faulty, and the images were less than clear.

19 June – Went to exchange the set-top box for the third time as the image quality was deteriorating. At the StarHub shop, my dad verified that all our subscribed channels could be received. But after installing the box in our house, we could not receive a single channel again!

20 June – For some reason, all our subscribed channels could be received the day after our third exchange. Technician came down to verify. Everything seemed fine, until…

21 June – One of our World Cup channel became “unsubscribed”. Seriously, WTF. My dad had to march down to the StarHub shop again to demand some explanations.

Apparently, the fault lies with the channel activation process, which apparently wasn’t explained to my dad. He also felt that the younger staffs were impatient in listening to him. So, my dad’s pissed at StarHub, and the StarHub shop people think we are trying to create trouble for them.

Now, I am experiencing difficulties in getting my i.Mail account cancelled. Maybe I’ll write it up after (and if) I managed to get it resolved.

Singapore Airshow 2010

This year’s airshow was better than 2008 in terms of logistics. There wasn’t a vehicular jam getting to the Changi Exhibition Center. There was enough Airport Shuttle to ferry all the people into and out of the venue. Thankfully, there wasn’t a bottleneck at the security checkpoints as well.

However, the flying display wasn’t all that fantastic as the RSAF’s Black Knights and the Royal Australian Air Force’s Roulettes did not perform this year. This year’s flying display mainly featured single aircraft. The integrated performance by the RSAF’s AH-64 Apache and F-16 Falcon was the main highlight of the flying display segment.

The static display wasn’t all that exciting either. Last year, the airshow had the Airbus A380 on display. But this year, Airbus featured its A330-200F freighter plane – hardly comparable to the A380. Boeing had on display a 737-800, which I have seen enough of during the course of my work.

ST Engineering had the largest display area in the exhibition hall. Even our non-aerospace related programs were being showcased. Our Boeing 737 cockpit mockup was quite popular judging from the queue I saw on Sunday. [Insider info: The front of the plane was removed from a real Boeing aircraft.]

Wedding Bells: Seng Giap & Clara

This is the second wedding from my JC class. And it turned out to be quite a big event with MPs gracing the occasion! Congrats to the couple!