This issue focus on some basic technical skills you’ll need in our information age connected by the internet.

I’m glad cos previously, I suffered from ths:

I still do…

Well anyway, I can see the importance of knowing the basic bolts and nuts of such internet skill.

And I hope it’s not too late to pick up.

It’s akin to knowing how to change a light bulb, or replacing a broken door knob or oiling a squeaky door.

It does score me some points with my kids when they see that mommy isn’t all that useless when papa is out.

Wait till they see me coding htmls and helping out with their school IT projects.

that’ll be another feather on my cap.

What a great surprise bonus that came with this issue..

Although I have not got into using this yet, but I’m sure it’ll come in handy

Well, great value worth sharing here :

Hope you found Your key to success!

the same evening, new just announced that it’s contaminated with melamine…. shheeees and I thought that only affect products from China..

So what now?

I wondering if the day would come that  people will one day be going to buy vegetable seeds and start growing our own food crops.

Anyway… back to the butter cracker thingy..

Nope, guess I won’t be bringing back to the store for a refund..

The transport cost itself is twice the price of the cracker.

Anyway, the next food item to watch out for now are eggs..

I’m doing the smart thing now, buying my own chicken and chicken feed…
I’ll have my own nice home produced eggs in a few weeks from now. cheers

nah, just kidding.

But I do hope that those affected crackers and eggs are off the shelves by now.

I don’t use much butter for our household..

But, guess what surprises me when I was doing grocery shopping at the dairy section as my tub of 500g of butter is almost running out?

The price of butter has almost doubled! was that since just 2 months ago??

Yes, a bar of paper wrapped 250g of butter cost S$3.65 now!!!

I remember the last time that same piece of butter could be had for like just $1.80! could that be just less than 3 months ago??

and what was more absurd, a premium branded piece of the same weight is going for $5.80..
my goodness.. no wonder people in Singapore are tightening their belts… and for a good reason too.

I’ve been hearing about Singapore 2008 inflation rate forecast of like 6% to even hitting a 26 years record high of 7.5% this October…

But if the price of butter is any gauge of the near future inflation rate…
That’s surely gonna bring a buttery slide on the standard of living here.

Can anyone please confirm if the price of butter is indeed a victim of 2008 FWMD (Financial Weapon of Mass Destruction)? that Mr Butter himself is melting from the radiation of the ongoing financial meltdown brought about by the toxic sub-prime mortgage crisis?

or is it just me who’s getting a bit hot under the collar over the price of some daily fats?

If I could turn back the clock, I would have stored more of the buttery goodness in my fridge..

Guess it time for a little hypnotic retreat from these market maddness.

Wary of unsafe food from contamination…

I am keeping my eyes peeled and steered clear of dairy products from China, scanning the country of origin on food packaging, this made me realize that it may not be that possible (at least myself) after all

Corn flour, sweet potato flour, tapioca flour and etc these basic food stuff are mainly from China…

I need those various types of flour when cooking my favorite Vegetarian Oyster Omelette, tau suan dessert, sticky gravy and soup….

After much hesitation, the need for Vegetarian Oyster Omelette won…

oh, if you’re wondering how in the world did Oyster Omelette become vegetarian…

simple, just replace oyster with grass mushroom…

My 2 kids just couldn’t have enough of it…

What a week of market gloom…

Not a day goes by without some bad news stealing the papers limelight…

A glimmer of hope remains for banks in Singapore, which I’m glad to read in the papers today.

Seems like the 3 of the major banks in Singapore DBS, OUB and OCBC are strong in their credit fundamentals.. something about the CAR ratio are well above the requirement set by local authorities.

Not only that, foreign banks in Singapore also adhere to the strict requirement, if not exceeding it…

In times of market turbulence, that is really a huge relief to be able to sleep soundly knowing the relative stability of banks in Singapore.

Let’s pray for economic growth and full employment rate…

Victim and Damages:
Till date,

4 Children died, more than 6000 ill.

2007 – Melamine in China Pet Food Exported to US
Victim and Damages:
Thousands of pet fell ill and some died.

2007 – Cardboard For Dumpling Fillilngs

Victim and Damages:
Turned out to be a hoax by television reporter.
He was subsequently jailed

2006 – Cancer Causing Sudan IV Red Dye

Victim and Damages:
Unknow – As the dye was added to duck feed to make the egg yolk appear redder.
Subsequently, the same dye were found in cosmetics and chili powder.

2004 – Fake Milk Power
Victim and Damages:
Babies died of malnutrition.

After the beautiful 2008 Olympic, seems like a flood of crisis is hogging the limelight.

Lets pray for Health, Wealth and Abundance together…

images courtesy of china.org.cn, dailychina.net, china.cn

Lehmen Brother collapse is on the tip of everyone’s tongue…

The ripple is felt here in Singapore as well, but,

the most noticeable concern are the queue snaking outside AIA customers service office.

Accounts holder waiting in line to cash out their AIA policy and investments.

The statement by MAS has certainly help to reduce the panic and confusion to the AIA crisis.

For myself, I’m staying put with 4 more years to go before my AIA policy complete the terms.

Sure there are risks and I am expecting most of my small investment would be making substantial losses. But I trust the MAS on this so no panic here.

Pray Hard for the silver lining in AIA to appear.

Phew, what a memorable 2008 Olympic..

The Beijing opening spectacle of China Creativity, Big Budget and Olympic Spirit.

The end of Singapore Olympic Medal drought..

The Table tennis match without a coach at the Singapore Gao Ning side…

The swift promise of action by STTA Lee Bee Wah..

And the final apologies of “I sincerely apologise for causing any grievances, any stress.” that ended the whole week of tension in the Singapore Table Tennis Association.

Well, I personally felt that while she might have reacted a little too strongly on the lack of coach at Gao Ning match, the swift investigation does brought to light a fundamental flaw in the way things are run and managed.

And it does have some positive outcome, the way the crisis was handled was pretty impressive…

No name calling, those involved were calm and investigation was all for a constructive objective.
How to prevent such incident from happening and ways to improve our chances at 2012 London Olympics.

Read in the papers that Singapore have another chance of snagging another medal in the single women’s table tennis match.

My best bet is Feng TianWei, seeing her cool determination and resolve in the past match defeating South Korea’s Park Mi-young and putting pressure to China’s Wang Nan.

Although Li JiaWei has a better world ranking than Feng Tianwei, she mentioned something to this effect before the final match against China “We cannot possibly win China”…

Well that much for fighting spirit Jia Wei..

I believe that in such high level Olympic matches, the mindset is very important.
To concede defeat even before a match just doesn’t cut it.

Maybe Jiawei have not know about the Secret and Power of The Law of Attraction..

It’s equally or even more important in sports!…

Go Feng Tianwei Go for GOLD!

Singapore’s Women table tennis team have really done Singapore proud!

After getting in to the women’s Olympic table-tennis finals by a close shave 3-2 match with Korea, Li Jia Wei, Wang Yue Gu and Feng Tianwei (in order of world ranking) were faced with the worlds top paddler in the Olympic host country China.

Everyone can sense the tensions and pressure on China Top and 2nd ranked players as the undisputed table tennis powerhouse battle it out with the Singapore players, whom were once in the same Peking University in China.

Too bad that once the tensions were off and the world’s No1 and No2 get into the hang of things, China supremacy tore the Singapore team apart, resulting in a 3-0 match.

Well, it was a joyous occasion as I watch the Victory Ceremony and take in the moment when the silvers were planted on Li Jia Wei, Wang Yue Gu and Feng Tianwei.

My joyous tears finally rolled out when Singapore Flag was raised in the Olympic after a 48 years medal drought ended yesterday.

Well done and congratulation! to Li Jia Wei, Wang Yue Gu and Feng Tianwei.
Not only have you put Singapore on the Olympic score board, you’ve also inspired the thousands of Singapore Athletes to go for gold!

Loud Cheers!