SINGAPORE SHORT STORIES

I watched yesterday's live telecast of the table tennis match featuring Singapore's top Olympic player Feng Tian Wei play against Germany. Though Feng eventually won the game, I could see that Feng is actually playing hard. In terms of physique, I am not sure whether our female table tennis team is really in the best form compared to other players.

Howard Shaw was jailed for 12 weeks for having paid sex with an underage lady, with the verdict out today. Personally, I find this jail sentence fair for this category of crime.

Howard Shaw will be sentenced today for his involvement of sex with an underage girl in the same case which implicated 51 men so far.

After Dennis Ng's passing on , I was very surprised to still see his photo in an advertisement of his seminar on TODAY newspapers. However I think this ad was still published as it was already paid and scheduled.

The latest case of Darrine Ko Wen Hui's sex -for-grades cases has jolted Singapore! Never in Singaporeans' mind will we think the most unthinkable sex-for-grade case can occur in squeaky clean National University of Singapore!

Darinne Ko Wen Hui photos are finally unveiled officially! Check out Darinne Ko Wen Hui photos . See related story of Darrine Ko Wen Hui .

If you have suggestions on Singapore's population policies, please visit http://population.sg/  and give your comments.

In the latest news , Darinne Ko Wen Hui is said to be the lady who had sex with her Professor Tey Tsun Hang in the latest case of "sex for grade" incident which shocked Singapore.

I was shocked to learn that Dennis Ng has passed away from a heart attack after a financial seminar. Just a week ago or so, I saw him with his wife at a gift shop at the newly-opened Gardens By the Bay. Dennis Ng is the founder of HousingLoansg.com and has appeared in many TV interviews. Though I have not attended any of his financial seminars, I have read one of the books he authored titled “What your school never teach you about money” which I have shared in a post here .

I was thinking what to blog today when I opened up the envelope from IRAS. As expected, it is taxation time! I was shocked to see that despite earning slightly more than last year, my income tax shot up by 28%!

I watched an interesting documentary last night which detailed that cockroaches hold medicinal value. I do a "google" on this theme and I am quite surprised: there are some research pointing to evidence that cockroaches' body can be used to battle some of the most dangerous bacteria in the world.

Jackie Chan was very lucky. Earlier on, Jackie has been invited to the Batman movie premiere at Colorado where the Joker carried out the unthinkable. Jackie Chan turned down the invitation due to work committments.

Some days ago, I caught a golden oldie "Love in the First Degree" on radio. This nice song sent me all the way back, many years back to be exact, to my primary school days when I would be hearing this song played in my school bus.

Today, I am coughing real hard, just like many in the MRT train and in the office. I blame it on the weather which is sunny one moment and cool the next moment. Such swings in the weather pattern definitely causes people to feel unwell. Weather is hence a sensitive thing.

Yesterday night, I did a thing many people will not do. Reading this blog post title, you would have know what I did: yeah, washing my handphone with running water!

For the second time in recent days, I read of reports that highlight how an inactive lifestyle is harmful to health and can be the triggers of possible diseases and illnesses.

Stephen R Covey passed on today after he sustained cycling-related injuries some time back. I believe many readers should be quite familiar with this US motivational speaker who authored best sellers like “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and “The 8 th Habit”.

My family and I went to Malaysian Food Street this cool Monday afternoon. Being a Monday, Malaysian Food Street, located just outside Resort World Sentosa was just like 30% packed.

Park Byung Joon has written a good opinion piece in yesterday's The Straits Times titled: "Making Public Transport Accountable". In light of the spate of MRT breakdowns and disruptions affecting thousands of commuters every month, many Singaporeans, including myself have called for the nationalisation of the MRT system as this will shift the profit-oriented focus of the MRT operator into a more public-service oriented mode.

I read on yesterday's Straits Times that our Singapore atheletes have headed off to London for the Olympic games with no interviews granted to the media, in accordance with a Media blackout imposed on the team. I wonder why is there a need for such a media blackout? I believe it might have to do with the fact that our Olympic team may not want to raise expectations of Singaporeans on the team so as to give the team less pressure so as to perform well.

The portion of hawker food is getting smaller. At the old airport food centre today, I was quite surprised to see a bun of cream that accompanies the western meal which I had being half the original size now! Also sometime ago, a famous lor mee which I have at the newly renovated Eunos Food Centre now cost $3 instead of $2.50.

Love At First Light is the title of Singapore National Day 2012 theme song. More about Love at First Light song.

How time flies. National Day 2012 will be here soon. NDP Theme song for this year is "Love At First Light" by Olivia Ong. Again, another song which is not easily sing along by Singaporeans. NDP Song 2012: "Love at First Light" I attached the NDP theme songs since 1998 as follows, enjoy!

As usual another working day. As usual, accompanied by the hundreds of Singaporeans heading towards the MRT station, I took the free dailies: TODAY and MyPaper. And as usual, I stepped on the congested escalators up to the train platform.

Changi Airport has successfully transformed itself into a recreational and shopping hub for Singaporeans, evidenced by the large number of shoppers who pack the airport, especially terminal 3 on weekends.

Watermelons are especially welcoming in this hot and humid weather Singaporeans experience. These days, the weather is really funny: rain and then it is hot; and the cycle continues. I bought a Watermelon this afternoon for $4.50 from NTUC fairprice, cut the fruit into half and sent one half into a blender. My wife and I then experience 4 big glasses of watermelon juices (100% juices with just 4 small ice cubes). We were immensely satiated by the watermelon juices as it hydrates, invigorates and nutures our bodies!

It rained once again during midnight yesterday. Singapore Weather is really quite funny these 2 weeks: the weather is very hot and then it rains suddenly. As at this time of writing, the weather is 24 to 31 degree celsius with cold winds. I feel as if I am in  Europe or Hokkaido with this low temprature.

I am a man who values time. With just 24 hours a day, I do not like to waste time. Today, however Bus 222 simply wastes my time! Around 1pm today, my wife and I waited for Bus 222 at a bus stop in a housing estate for close to 40 minutes! Seeing no sight of bus and that the bus stop is also full of equally frustrated passengers waiting for the bus, my wife and I decided to walk to our destination instead- though it was 4 bus stops away.

DNSChanger Clean DNS Servers Will Be Shut Down On 9 July 2012. For more details .

Today is another tired day at work. I always believe that life is not about work, it is more than that. Life is about one's aspirations towards improvement.

Yesterday, I opened up a new brand of insecticide and sprayed around my kitchen to ward off insects. To my surprise, before these creatures are overcome, I find myself succumbing to the smell of the insecticide.

I received an email from Mr Winston Chong from Mediacorp Feedback Unit regarding my "Mediacorp should broadcast Eurocup 2012 Semi- Finals and Finals" , his reply is as follows: "MediaCorp embarked on discussions with the UEFA Euro 2012 rights owner but unfortunately, we were unable to conclude the deal on commercial grounds. As such, we were not able to carry any matches relating to UEFA Euro 2012. Similarly for news coverage, the video clips rights were not available to free-to-air broadcasters like MediaCorp. Hence we can only reply on still photos."

Spain has really cemented its position as the world's No 1 football nation with the winning of 3 international football titles! Yesterday's Italy performance against Spain is really disappointing. 4-0 for Spain! I am sure if Singapore, currently ranked 157th in the world for football were to play against Spain, it would have scored a better scoreline, say at the most 3-0 by doing defending all the time.

Eurocup Finals 2012 is over. Spain thrashed Italy 4-0 !

By half-time, Spain has already scored 2 goals against Italy! I am very disappointed in Italy as I think they played a poor game in the first half. I just hope Italy's Super Mario can deliver another 2 goals in the next half for a equalizer but that possiblity is so remote.

At this time of writing, I am all prepped up to watch the final of the Euro 2012 between Spain and Italy. I believe Italy will be the winner.

The newly-opened Gardens By the Bay cost $1 billon to build. Esplanade, another attraction in Marina Bay cost $690 million to build. Together these two attractions will give green lungs and artistic feel to our city.

SAF introduced a new rank called the Chief Warrant Officer with effect from today. This new rank will allow SAF's promising Senior Warrant Officers to advance to the next rank and assume higher responsibilities.

If you are looking to install or replace an air-conditioner and would like to know what the size of air-conditioner you need, you can follow the following steps: 1) Obtain the dimensions of your room in feet- i.e. length and width 2) Calculate the area of the room in square feet-i.e. by multiplying length and width you have calculated in 1).