boo-n-bouquet

boo-n-bouquet

This site documents both the good and bad experience of consumers when they interact with service providers such as airlines, banks, F&B outlets, etc in Singapore.

There is a case of missing the fine print in refinancing a mortgage after a cold call and incurring additional charges from both banks.

It praises Coffee Bean for its flexibility in handling a customer request to waive the order lead time and thereby secured her gratitude and order.

FlickrPoet - Building Stories from Flickr Images

FlickrPoet

Enter a line of words and this application will select pictures from Flickr to tell the story. Hit the Show Story button again and it will select different images.

Password Strength Checker

Password Strength Checker
This site helps you check whether your password is up to scratch. Passwords should be at least 8 characters long and consist of mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.

After entering your trial password, the site will give you a numeric score and classify its complexity. You can then adjust your password to improve it.

Walking Checklist

Checklist of items to bring while walking in Singapore keeping in mind the hot, humid and occasional heavy downpour.

• Water - essential when away from urban areas
• Umbrella - protect against sun and rain
• Camera
• Cap
• Sunglasses
• Sunblock
• Towel
• Tissues
• Antiseptic cream
• Insect repellent or bring a friend who attracts those creatures
• Plastic bags - to take away rubbish
• Muesli bars
• Torch
• Knife
• T shirt to change due to heavy sweating or rain
• Slipper in case of shoes getting thoroughly soaked
• Walking stick for use in the forest trails

Or use this to create your own list

Durian Picking at Pulau Ubin

Our experience on 2 July was most enriching. We spoke with a young guy who was with a group that included his mum. Turned out he was a regular and most knowledgeable in durian lores. They had collected a few durians and waiting by a tree for more to drop. His mum was resting by the track.

He revealed that on one occasion they collected 500 fruits! That is a lot - 11 baskets full. He led us to a junction near where were a number of durian trees. There were people busy eating or hoarding the fruits they picked. He pointed out to us which tree was productive and produced fruits with red flesh, which tree was not good and so on. We noted that the popular trees had lots of empty cans nearby, evidence that gatherers were willing to spend the night waiting - this was the best time too.

We were also taught how to recognize trees that were ready to drop their fruits, which fruits were prematurely dropped due to rain, etc.

We continued our walk and came upon a tree where we managed to find some fruits. We also decided to wait for more to drop. However we were caught in a heavy downpour but the promise of finding more fruits kept us going. After an hour of enduring the rain, we sloshed through the flood water on the road to return to the area recommended to us to look for dropped durians. We observed that there were a couple of locals going on their rounds to check for the fruits to gather. By luck we observed one dropping in front of us.

We were lucky to find a few and we did not waste time opening up the fruits. One of our guys was skillful in this task and we were happily enjoying the fruits. We decided to come back in 2 weeks. It was a really enjoyable experience - not to be missed despite the heavy rain.

Orchard Road Flood

Orchard was transformed into the Rochor Canal on 16 June. The typical Singaporeans came out with their guns blazing. It's the fault of the leaders, the PUB, etc, etc. We are quick to condemn and slow (or never) to praise. Apparently we hate to admit when people do a good job.

But they failed to note or failed to comment that:

1. the flooding subsided very fast after the rain stopped - this implies we have good drainage!
2. the MRT was not flooded whereas Lucky Plaza (LP) was - we know how to prevent it!

Did they ask why? Why didn't LP take preventive actions - although they were not required by law, why didn't they think of their tenants?

QuickScrib -- Online notetaking

QuickScrib -- Online note taking

Ever feel the urge to note some idea down. QuickScrib allows us to write a note and post it on the web for all to view.

You can use it to share an idea, a joke, a recipe or a lyric. Just type in the title, then a minimum of 100 characters of content and you are ready to publish!

Second Shot - Recording Snippets of Singapore

Second Shot - Recording Snippets of Singapore

This blog aims to record little snippets of local life and background through words and photos. The author uncovers our past and finds obscure heritage sites related to events and personalities.

One example is explaining the meaning of names of certain places such as Simei and Ang Mo Kio. Simei means four beauties.

FORA.tv - Emma Shulman: Maximizing Your Memory

Emma Shulman: Maximizing Your Memory

In this video Emma Shulman states that our brains need exercise also.

She suggests some of the ways we can do so, such as:

• learn a language - conversational
• remember important things - focus, repetition and visualize
• try something new - new way to supermarket, use different hand
• read a para then summarize it
• look at grocery list after shopping
• remember names - keep repeating, use mnemonic
• finding keys - provide a hook
• forget why you go to kitchen - keep repeating why you are going there
• tel no - repeat
• finally write it down if its important