Pinnacle@Duxton Vertical Marathon

There are many ways that life is very good in Singapore. For example how we have aircon on most of our public transport, 3G/4G services at most part of our country and also lifts and escalator at most buildings and leading shopping malls. So, how often do you guys really take the initiative to take the steps instead of the escalator? 

Remember Mr.Brown and Miyagi HPB video?

"EH BROWN, ESCALATOR AH??"

To be honest, although I will spend time running and cycling but taking the steps is really something not me at all. What about you? Is it something you enjoy doing? If your answer is yes, THIS EVEN IS FOR YOU! 

Act early and get an early bird price or be a World of Sports member to get $5 off too!

See you there! nope, not this time. I doubt I can make it. JIA YOU!

Mr.Smith, up up up!

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I cycled to work this morning!

So after months of preparation and consideration, I've finally cycled to work...

Of course, that's not me. Picture from Google Image/Theconversation.com

To be honest, I'm not very good at cycling and I only learn how to cycle at the age of 12 and only started to cycle a little more thanks to my shift to Punggol.

So the very 1st thing I've to consider was safety followed by the route, shower at the office, the timing, the traffic and many more. So below are some tips to bear in mind if you are a noobist cyclist like myself.

1. Always, I mean Always have a helmet! Thank me later because this might save your life.

2. Plan your route! Make sure you know where you are going next. Best if you could do a recce be it cycle on a day you are not working or at least drive along the road you are going to cycle.

3. Make full use of Park connectors. I prefer to cycle on the PCN more than anything else. Always make full use of them, it's safer for sure.

4. Keep to your "road". In Singapore we do not have cycling lane, some areas provides cycling paths and some doesn't. If it does, good for you else stay to where you are cycling. I've seen people who cycles on the road and goes up the walk way when the traffic light turns red. Seriously, that is very dangerous!

5. If you have to cycle on the road, I know we always say "share the road" but as cyclist we really shouldn't put all the responsibility on the drivers. As much as the drivers wish to watch out for you and not knock you door, you woobly and doing sudden move is not going to help. Some cyclist have this mentality that "they don't want to get it trouble, they wouldn't knock me so I can cycle anyway I want. " As much as that is true, there are times drivers really can't react in time.

6. Use a backpack if you need to bring a bag, avoid sling bags as it will tilt your CG and it's very dangerous while doing turns.

7. Don't fucking listen to music with your earphones while cycling can? It's damn dangerous!

8. Wear proper footwear! Slippers are rather dangerous IMO.

After all these things mentioned... I see people like this cycling with me and they could have been doing this for years.

Image credit" Yawningbread.com 

Please ignore this post. :(

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Back in time...

I woke up to the voice of my brother. It sounded almost like him but a little different, a little younger than I last remember. I open my eyes slowly to see a pair of smaller arms and legs in front of me. The view around me was shocking but surprisingly close to heart.

"Wake up and change, you are going to be late for school."

"School?" I ask myself and I went What the Fuck? School? I look around the place to find myself in a bigger bed room with two beds side by side and a old study table. My brother was putting on his school uniform. That brown secondary school uniform, that's right, that's his secondary school uniform. I look down and realised I was smaller than I could remember myself to be. Did I lose some weight over night? Oh yes I did but that's not all, apparently I lost some height too. I don't know what was running through my mind but the next thing I did was to pull open my pants and look in between my legs.

"huh, no hair... that's weird"

I have no explanation other than it has to be a dream but everything seems too real, it feels more than a dream, more than just memories, I am seeing things from the past. I jump off my bed and hug my brother. Something that nobody does in the family back then. I miss him so much. His voice, his stare, the presence of him that always gives me the feeling that everything is going to be alright because he is there for me.

"What the hell is wrong? Are you okay? Did you have a bad dream about death again?"

That is me. I was or rather still am never good dealing with the thought of death and everyone in the family knows about it. I already started having fear of death at a very young age, I would ask my mum and brother about life after death. What about all my friends, my favourite toys and what about you guys? I will be in a state of nothingness and limbo? Time will stop and I will remember nothing? I will not remember any of you? You guys will not remember me? All the things we achieve, all the good things and all those things we had. This gives me a chill that runs down my spine every time I think about it in details, even today.

"Mummy, I don't want to die. I want all of us to be together forever."

Mummy will explain to me why we need to die. Because life is too torturing to stay alive for that long and also because we need to make space for younger bodies and improve earth. If nobody dies, there will be no space for anyone new. Words of wisdom for my mum like how she see it coming that 1 day Singapore will be overcrowded but I guess she didn't see it coming that it not thanks to our birth rate.

I stop being a baby for a moment and I pretty much guessed it that I have just travel back in time. So many questions were running through my pre-puberty brain.

How did I get here?
How am I suppose to go back?
What year is this?
Will any of my action cause butterfly effect?
Shit, I've no idea what was my action back then, how? I am kinda happy with my life in 2014 and I wouldn't wanna screw anything up.
Oh no, there is no internet and Google right?
NO SHIT! NO FACEBOOK AND TWITTER???

The year is 1993, I was in primary 3 and he was in Secondary 4 taking his O levels. I know how that ended, he didn't get the results he wanted, went to a school he didn't like it, feeling all depressed. Re-took his O levels and got into Temasek Polytechnic and that is where he met my Sister-in-law and had 3 lovely kids.

Can you imagine me telling him that I came back from future and these are my knowledge? What if I told him and he study harder and got into a better school and did not spend an extra year taking his O levels? He might not have met my Sister-in-law right? And there will be no lovely Nat, Abby and Jordan. This is the butterfly effect I am so terrified about.

I snap out of all these thoughts and move my body as if I was a 9 year old boy again. Things feels weird. I remember the number of talks we had talking about how nice it would be if we have a time machine but I was enjoying any moment of this at all. It feels almost like you had a level 70 character in Diablo 3 and next thing you know your account got wiped out and you are playing this level 9 character all over again.

I am short all over again, I am weaker but I still have my brain. I have to sit through the whole day of Primary 3 syllabus again and talking to other 9 years old. It's pretty interesting to see all my old friends that I've not seen for the last 20years and the bonus was they look like they did not change a single bit. They were just like how I remembered them. Despite that, nothing excites me. Everything in class was obvious to me and I took the chance to brush up my basic English and grammar. After a day at school I was pretty sure it's not a dream. It is too real to be one and even if it was, it has to be a nightmare.

I was still thinking hard about how I got here, what was the last thing I was doing before waking up this morning. Was I in a phonebooth? Strucked by lightning? In a hot tub? Driving really fast?

Nothing, I got nothing.

It dawn upon me that in '93, my grand mother was still alive. I went home, picked up the phone and called her. '93, phone number has no additional "6" and it's amazing I still remembers her number after almost 12 years of not able to call her or was that information from my 9 years old brain?

I wanted to visit her but only to realized I've no car and my mum wouldn't allow me to travel alone to visit my grandmother. Time in a day was really slow. I have no internet, I can't go out, I've no money to spend and I have no sex drive. Tv program starts only later in the night, Jack Neo still have his longer hair and nobody knows who Tay Ping Hui was.

I was bored and decided to list down a list of things I could do or probably do.

Since there is no Google, I mean I can be the guy who start Google right? Nope.

I'm only 9 and I'm pretty smart considering I am 9 and I can say things like an adult I could probably be a child prodigy right?

No wait. Butterfly effect... I am a sitting duck. There is really nothing I can go differently besides the point that I have to go through these motion. Even for balling, I thought I should go and train up and play some basketball or run a little bit so I will have better physical foundation but what if I got good and so good that I didn't go to my obese bath during army? I might not be able to meet any of the guys that I did. I might get posted to OCS because I am fitter, I might just die in the training during OCS right?

That's a lot of decisions and risk a 9 years old have to make...

I guess I will just embrace on the fact that my brother is still around, my mum is still young and healthy cooking all the food for us and there is no STOMP or Facebook to distract our lives.

I wonder if I could visit my wife and look at how silly she looks like at the age of 9 or any other of my friends that I only managed to meet later part of my life. But frankly how am I going to go about doing that?

So time traveling ain't exactly all exciting. How am I going to go back? What if I am never going back?

I guess I can only live through my days 1 at a time to get back to where I was... Living your life twice.. Who could have guessed that? But what if my life decides to rewind again when I hit 30 again? It will be like groundhog day the movie but it is 9 - 30 on a loop until I do something "right"?

Or is this just life after death for me where I will just keep looping my life? Is that why I have no memory of how I went back to age 9? Did I die?

Did I?

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Car Servicing Workshop Singapore - Carfeels Pte Ltd

It was a beautiful Friday afternoon, my wife came over and pick me up for lunch and we were happily driving down the road and suddenly the car decided to take a break since it was TGIF.

No, not really a break break like stop but it was having some problem. I've no idea what was the problem, it was "dancing" and jerking despite consistent pressure on the acceleration paddle.

Lucky we weren't too far away from my usual Car service workshop at Sin Ming - Carfeels Pte Ltd.

To be honest, I am a car noob, we bought this car 2nd hand and we hardly know what part gives better performance and we have no idea what is best for the car.

We seriously have no idea what is this about... Lucky for us is that my friend introduced Carfeels to us and ever since they will take care of everything for us. From servicing to "health check up" and more. 

I think car servicing is one of those things that everyone is very afraid to "just try" anyone shop because we've heard a lot of bad stories about certain car workshop marking sky high prices or cheating you of parts especially when you are a noob like me. So most car owners get their car fixed only at workshop that they trust. And how do they earn such trust? Via word of mouth or introduced by friends like what happened to me. 

So far Carfeels have been very honest and trustable. They even call to follow up and check if my car is alright few days after this emergency. Caring much? 

They also provide other services such as:

• Engine Repair and building
• General Maintenance
• 24Hrs Towing
• Accident and Third Party Insurance Claims
• Custom Fabrication

Because their service is so good, I've decided to support team local and give them this shout out! This is not one of those paid post to get cookie points or SEO but an authentic post I am doing. On top of that I'm also very impressed by their team and how they want to change the image of their business.

A lot of people in this business just work base on word of mouth as well as recommendation by friends and does not invest a single cent or even effort on marketing but that's not the case for Carfeels. They actually have a properly managed FB page! 

See! Professionally taken images! 

You know the ritual, head to their facebook page and like them to support local small business social media effort!!

Address: 14 #01-17 Sin Ming Industrial Sector B SIngapore 575658
Contact: 6452 8817

• 
  

Go there you quote Smith's friend, they will give you special. HAHA.

P.S: I heard the boss of this place is some ex-racing champion, they even have some trophy displayed in their workshop. Cool much!

Mr.Smith's Wife paid for this car service. This is not a paid or sponsored post. 

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Diablo 3 - Reaper's Wraps

Thanks to the new patch on 8th April, Reaper's fear is dropping pretty normally after you kill Mathael. So with that, I finally managed to craft the Reaper's Wraps. 

Before that I was equipped with this.

#NoobQuestion : so our DPS doesn't reflects things like Poison Damage or even the 15% Physical Damage. So if Damage is all I care... which is better really?

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Diablo 3 Rant.

It was one of those run and oh! look what i found - A plan!

Plan: Demon's Hide.

So I decided why not? After crafting the easier to achieve Demon's Restraint I thought, so, let's get the Armour since my armour ain't the best. So Demon's Marrow it should be.

BUT

there was a very big problem : The Flawless Royal Amethyst. 

In order to craft this,

I needed 3 Royal Amethysts

which means

I needed 9 Flawless Imperial Amethysts

which means

I needed 27 Imperial Amethysts

which means

I needed 81 Marquise Amethysts

Which means I paid

27 x 200,000 = 5,400,000

9 x 300,000 = 2,700,000

3 x 400,000 = 1,200,000

1 x 500,000 = 500,000

to get to the gem I spent 9,800,000. Almost 10 Million. And I got this.

MEHHHH...

UPDATED: 1 day after rant...

on 9th April... The patch did this to me..

REALLY?? TWO DAYS AFTER I CRAFTED IT?? REALLY!!! 

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Roosevelt's Diner & Bar - Social Media PR Yay or Nay? #NotHorsePiss

*Disclaimer: Before I start this post, I have to give you guys a headsup that Daphne Maia is my friend but that doesn't means that this post is going to be a one sided post. On another news, I've friends like Sam from Ah Sam cold drink stall as well as Cassandra (who you will see from the screen shots later) are fans of Roosevelt. The purpose of this post is not to slam or stand by anyone, it is purely a form of talking point as well as "case studies". Please read it with an open mind. (Damn, that's a very long disclaimer I have there.) 

Anyway, some days ago I was pointed to this post on the Instagram by a colleague saying "omg, social media crisis liao." And to no surprise I actually know the parties involved in this little "crisis". To be honest is it a crisis?

In case you can't see the text:

"Dear @daphnemaia, We at @rooseveltsdinerbar take our customers feedback very seriously however a#horsepiss sample is not easy to obtain so we have decided to run a week long campaign to find out how many of our customers have tasted horse piss and think our coffee is worse than horse piss!" 

So what happened before this? It was because of a post from Daphne Maia...

The Good

I will never see any crisis as a crisis when it comes to customer service, especially not when it is on Social Media. Every potential threat is always a potential opportunity if you ask me. 

I think turning a whole customer feedback into a campaign is really pretty cool, in fact it has been done so often around the world. 

I actually find it really cool that Roosevelt found real influencer as well as people to speak up for the brand. I mean companies invest millions and millions of dollars to find true brand advocate, people who will speak up and defend the brand without paying a single dollar on engagement or advertorials. 

Lazy to download and upload a video, basically he was saying if this is horse piss, he will drink it everyday. It's GOOD!

The Bad

Of course, turning a crisis into opportunity is something that requires more than just fast response and a creative mind. It also requires a certain bit of tactic I guess. So what possibly went really "wrong" for these guys? (I am not jumping into the conclusion that they are wrong but from the response from the public which you will see later will probably put them in that light. And yes, that is probably something I can't agree as well) 

The part where they did a not so subtle jab at Daphne Maia that she drank horse piss before. 

THIS

"#horsepiss sample is not easy to obtain so we have decided to run a week long campaign to find out how many of our customers have tasted horse piss"

I mean "well played" and you can probably try saying that you didn't mean it that way and everyone is just being sensitive but well I guess we are treading a very thin line here. 

And what's next? 

You didn't ask me but...

Here's what I might do, 

"Dear @daphnemaia, We at @rooseveltsdinerbar take our customers' feedback very seriously. Coffee like all food are subjective to each's preference thus we are doing a #NotHorsePiss campaign. Come down and take the challenge and have a cup of coffee. We promise nothing taste like Horse Piss here! (At least not anymore). Take a selfie with our coffee and hashtag #NotHorsePiss and get X% discount off your next coffee!"

I am not saying I have a better writing there or a better marketing person, I just cough that out 3mins ago but what I am saying here is you probably just do not want to sound too offensive on this since you are in the service line. After all, the text book "Customer is always right" might sound a little too much to digest in this modern society but to be honest, our mindset ain't too far away for most paying customers. They are after all the pay master and who we are trying to please at the end of the day. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that we should always accept every ridiculous feedback and bend over just for money, but I am saying there are times we need to lose a battle in order to win the war. We just can't win every fight and we know that. 

To play safe, I might just contact Daphne Maia 1st and let her know that in view of her comment, we are going to do a spin off campaign and hope she is fine with that. I believe many would prefer this gesture. Not like I am giving her a chance to say "No" to it but I think it's not going to hurt anyone.  

Best Comment.

Amongst all the yay and nay we have a bit of others of course, and this might be the best one and I'm gonna end the post with this. 

Not like this is really very good drama but comparing to media corp? mehhhhh. LOL. 

Like we all know, social media is a 2-edged sword so why not use both the edges to work for you?

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Most Expensive App on my phone - The Entertainer

How much do you guys normally pay for an iPhone app? 99cent USD? 2.50USD? What about an app that cost you $95? Scary? But how much value can a 99cent app gives you? 48hrs of fun? 72hrs maybe? Do you believe me when I'm telling you that this $95 app gives you a value of up to $150,000? 

Truth is, you do not need to pay a full price of $95 because I've a discount code at the end of this post. So if you are impatient, you may skip my jibble jabble article and go down on me to the end of the article and get the code. 

I might be a funny man but this is no joke. Introducing... *drumroll* THE ENTERTAINER! 

So seriously what is this app all about? Have you heard about the coupon culture in America? Where people collect coupons, save money, fight just to get better deals? If you are not sure, watch this from 2 Broke girls:

So what's my point? is "The Entertainer" some coupon app? I would say kinda but ONLY BETTER! Entertainer offers 1 for 1 at major restaurants and not just restaurant but also for services, travel, lessons for kids and even tickets for admission to places of interest like Mint Museum of Toys! 

Paper Free

Not sure about you guys but I'm one of those guys who will always have vouchers kept in my car's glove compartment for "easy" access but it will always be there until it expires. My wife and I will almost always forgotten about it and *poof* there goes. So one of the best thing about this app is that it's paper free and it's always always on my hand considering I'm such a mobile phone addict. 

#TrueStory

Hungry Go There! 

"Eh, what you wanna eat for dinner?"

"no idea"

"What's nice around this around?"

"DUNNO LAH!"

Is this one of those conversation you have very often? I hope I'm not the only one here but this is one of the thing Entertainer can help too! Because of it's location function, you can actually search what is nearby. It even tells you the distant from where you are to that place. So besides just giving you a discount of One For One food, it became a super awesome geolocation directory on your finger tip! 

I heard there's good food! Let's GO! 

Virgin Try at Extra Virgin Pizza

Where's a better place to do it for the 1st time other than a place that has the word Virgin in it's name? 

How to do it?

Since it is going to be your 1st time, sex smart blogger Smith will teach you how to do it for the 1st time, simply go to the app store and search for the entertainer

Yup, the one with the smiley face, that's the one. It's actually a download for FREE app so simply download it and try it out 1st. The UI/UX (User interface and User experience) is very intuitive which means everyone should know to use it as long as you know how to use an app. And at the end of the article, you can simply click on the "buy" button on the top left of the app to unlock all the promotions! 

Found the place you are at....

Click on the item you wish to redeem and see the pop up below. 

Click on Redeem.

Key in the password which you created earlier when creating the password, pass it to the restaurant staff which will then key in their password.. and TAR DAR~ It's done. And the restaurant staff will actually need to note this code down. 

It's that easy! 

If a 1 for 1 main course. That already saved you $30! Awesome right? And then you Yenjoy your food!

Only picture of food but no selfie because my wife I never put make up that night.

 Breaking Even

I guess that's the question most of you guys will ask before spending this "investment" like how much value can I break even. To be honest, each meal you spend at a restaurant is around 20ish? And how many dinners do you each each week? And look at those awesome food we had at another place - F n K at Clarke Quay! 

All these food can easily adds up to $150+- there about after service charge and GST? But we only paid $90 including a beer! SHIOK!

THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAN!! 

Discount Code

I know you guys have been waiting for this... So here it is.. 

Use my code @Smithankyou and get a 20% off the purchase! Now it's even more worth it! 

The unique code ends April so ACT NOW! 

Find out more...

If you guys are interested to know more, simply "like" The Entertainer's official facebook page at www.facebook.com/TheEntertainerFB. Follow their twitter  @EntertainerAsia and Instagram at @the_entertainer241.  

Mr.Smith, BBBMTL!!!

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Fabulous Shine Car Grooming at Punggol, Singapore.

Driving in Singapore is not exactly the easiest thing to do considering the ever-raising cost of ERP, petrol prices and more importantly COE cost. So it is very important to take care of our car by prolonging its working life. Just like how our gahment believes that we should retire later, same goes for our cars.

My car comes with a horse but it’s no Ferrari.

To make sure it can work as long as possible, we not only have to take care of its internal but external as well! Now, this is like how woman spend all the money on Botox, fillers and makeup. Truth is they spent money to look good and as men we feel proud to go holding them too right? Same thing applies for driving a nice shiny ride! And of course, nobody wants to bring a dirty and smelly girl car out!

Eh damn stress lah! 

Guess what? Maintaining a car is never easy especially if one buys a white car! Who the hell buys white cars anyway!! * looks around *  MEHHHHHH. With busy schedule, house work and work, there’s no way we will be able to do cleaning and grooming ourselves! And even if we have time, I doubt I can ever do it properly.  

Lucky for us for staying at Punggol we have a very good car grooming service provider just right at Marina Country Club, 600 Ponggol Seventeenth Ave. It’s just 5mins drive away.

Fabulous shine provides Professional car grooming services such as Car Spa, Paint Restoration Quick Sealant, Nano Paint Protection etc.

This is my “Xiao Bai” (Typical car name right? Xiao Bai, Xiao Hong, Xiao Hei. Like WTH.) at the workshop in the morning. You will notice it’s dull looking front.

Some obvious and stubborn dirt on the side door, side mirror and back.

I went to some car wash back then but these stains are very stubborn and they could not get it removed.

 I met Steven at the car wash and he is a very meticulous person. Not only did he clean the car but he also explains to me what is going to happen before he started working on it.

Paint Restoration Quick Sealant

So “Xiao Bai” was in for the paint restoration quick sealant service! It restores gloss on dull paintwork surfaces. Light scratches, swirls, stains and scuffs are able to vanish leaving paintwork shining and new. Suitable for all types of paintwork and colors of paint.

Recommended to apply on weathered paint, dull and lackluster paintwork to achieve a quick and shining paintwork.

The guys first wash the car with water to wash away the dirt and sand which is a very important part of car wash and also why one should never ever sign up your car for those “was at your car park”. Can you imagine them using that same cloth and same bucket of water from cars to cars without first washing it with water first? Scratches! And that is what is going to happen when the sand are not removed 1^st!

 Within the package, they will also shampoo, clay wash, glow wax, rim wash, tyre shine, glass clean, interior vacuum as well as anti-bacterial spray! So many services within a simple package, worth it or what!

Within the above services, clay wash has to be one of those that really impress me! The clay wash makes my car feel so smooth like baby skin again. Haha.

you are not required to help but im just having some fun! Haha.

And this is the magical sealant at work!

Bye bye stubborn stains!

And within 40-60mins time, you car will be sparkling clean!!

The wife is happy!

And the final step rim shine!

And an interesting conversation came upon at this point

Wife: Why need to shine the rims? Got what function?

Steven: Like why woman put makeup?

Everyone: HAHAHAHA.

It’s good to see the rims all shiny and polished right!

Overall I am very satisfied with the service! I can’t remember when we saw our car all sparkling and shiny!

Available Car Grooming Package

1)Premium Car Spa

@ $288* for Small/Medium/Large cars & $348* for Luxury/MPV/SUV cars

6  x Premium Car Spa + FREE 1st time only sealant coating and a one year membership

The Premium Car Spa services include: foam wash, surface claying, quick wax, interior vacuum and clean, antibacterial carpet clean, rim chemical wash, tyre shine, windscreen and glass clean.

2)Paint Restoration Quick Sealant: $88 - $108 (subject to car size & category)

3)Nano Paint Protection: $430 - $780 (subject to car size & category)

Benefits of being a member:

Member price: *Car wash + Vacuum @ $18,

Non-member price: *Car wash + Vacuum @ $48

*The way Fabulous Shine does the car wash is totally different from petrol kiosk. In petrol kiosks, mostly detergent shampoos are being used to wash the cars, in Fabulous Shine, the specialists only uses phosphate free shampoo, which reduces the damage to the car paintwork & the unique cleaning method also reduces scratches on the car. The combination of superior car washing shampoo & unique cleaning method render a more superior car wash than any of the petrol kiosks.

If you are interested in getting your car done up too, don’t forget to make an appointment at 8333 9979 and if you are looking for more information.

Do check out their Facebook page www.facebook.com/fabushine/

and “Like” it to keep yourself informed with any updates!

P.S: If you are wondering, there is free parking when you park your ride at the club for cleaning. So no worries about that! 

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