ask some of the younger generations, how does a chicken looks like? you will be amazed that they will point to the plastic bag in the frozen section in a supermarket. no kidding.

Gone were the days of kids running around in kampongs. i used to lived in one. and i think i am the last generation of singaporeans who stayed in kampongs. Gone were also the days were air tickets that fetch as high as a few grands. the recent launch of TIGER AIR successfully penetrates the aviation industry; causing stirrs and talks in the region. the website is so frequently viewed till when you enter the website in the address bar. it comes out a invalid website or error. don't worry, it's not a hoax. but more like the traffic jam.

and the recent bird flu/ virus caused a stir in singapore market too in jetting up the prices of eggs where. now the price of 1 egg, 68cents is equivalent to almost 2 27cents from TIGER AIR. i am not surprised that promotions and lucky draws decided to have 2 half-boiled eggs as 1st prize, maybe they could consider egged prata from jalan kayu or fried oyster. *grin*

but i hope you guys know what you are paying.

qouted from sammyboy forum:

....TeoKongTao says: Hot off the press, literally. Just came back from drinks with some journalists and fellow agency folks from Press Club.

Major announcement in media industry that will return us to the good old days of monopoly and squeezing blood from advertisers.

Mediacorp will buy SPH Mediaworks' assets on the cheap. Channel i and u staff have been asked to prepare for worst outcome. Some of the senior staff who have positioned thmselves properly have already materialised their exit strategy. Due diligence done, three months to completion of deal.

Streats is closing down, but SPH will buy significant but not majority stake in Mediacorp Press Ltd which is the owner of Today newspaper. Today will continue to operate but with different management. Senior editors and reporters who defected from SPH to join Today at high salaries will be the first to be retrenched. Printing and distribution contracts to be cancelled by year end.....

http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2004/09/back_to_good_ol.html#more

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Another friday post of Mr Brown - A pink iPod for my frugal wife

OK, it is hypocritical of me to deprive her of a branded handbag but can it play MP3 music?


There was this trailer I saw on television about an upcoming programme that featured people who were willing to spend lots of money on branded goods. When the host asked her lady guest, as they were shopping up a storm, how it feels to be spending $1,200 on a handbag, her guest shouts: "Shiok!"

The first thought that came to my mind was, "So, how does it feel to be broke for the rest of the month?" ("Not shiok!") But then the lady may be very loaded and $1,200 to her is like buying a bowl of kway teow soup at the hawker centre. So that is why she can be "shiok" and someone like me can feel "shock".

The second thought I had was: "What a wonderful and frugal wife I have!"

This is a woman who cannot bear to spend the money to call a cab, even when she is at Orchard Road on a Friday evening and it is raining. Even though I tell her I will pay for it. That is not to say she is not fond of shopping and buying stuff. I am sure she likes a $1,200 handbag as much as the next tai tai, but she would not do it if it meant putting me into a lifetime of credit card debt.

Not long ago, I was at Comex, a PC show at Suntec and decided to get her an iPod Mini, the Apple MP3 player, as a gift.

Ok, you know what these PC shows are like. The same old Sim Lim/Funan shops, selling the same old computer thing that you do not need ("now with blinky lights!"), but at lower promotion prices (that will fall dramatically in price wars over three days of the show). But still, like moths to a flame, we Men of Tech go. Just to "look-see look-see only", we say. We won't buy anything. Yeah, right.

So, back to my little iPod adventure. I called my wife from the show on the pretext of asking her what colour she likes, you know, pink or blue or green (as the Mini comes in many colours). But I swear the woman is psychic.

Right away, she said: "Don't go and spend this kind of money lah. Are you at that PC show?"

I weakly denied I was anywhere near a PC show, while shouting into my phone over the sounds of PC show exhibitors shouting out discounts on their wares. I said I just wanted to know her colour preference. Maybe, I shouldn't have asked if she liked pink on her friend's iPod Mini. That may have given me away. Anyway, I bought the thing and fought my way out of the exhibition hall, avoiding the frenzied printer-toting, MP3-player-buying crowd.

When I got home, it was late and I put on my best "I-went-to-a-PC-show-and-bought-nothing" look. Dum-de-dum-de-dum.

She eyed me as I dum-de-dum-ed.

"So, er. You bought something for me, ah?" she asks.

"Bought? You told me not to buy anything what. So I never buy lor."

Dum-de-dum-de-dum.

"Oh," she says.

Unable to bear to see her bursting with curiosity, I whipped out the iPod Mini box and did my "Ta da!".

"Aiyah, you really go and buy it, ah? I told you not to," she says, trying to look displeased while smiling.

So, now my wife, proud owner of a pink MP3 player, has an iPod to fill. I think there is something about owning a device like this that makes you want to put lots of music in it. All at one go. Must be all those gigabytes of space, yearning for some data to fill it.

Recently, while waiting for me to knock off work, she called me to hurry up because she was at the mall nearby waiting for me. You could hear the panic in her voice as she said, "You quick lah. I already bought CDs!"

Suddenly, it was imperative that I finish up my work quickly to rescue my wife from herself. Who knows how many more CDs she would have bought had I not rushed down?

It was amusing to see my wife, who never bought more than one CD a month, holding a bag with three CDs.

The funny thing about CDs these days is that at the rate we are consuming music as MP3 digital files, we are very likely to handle the CD just once. You will buy a CD, put it into your computer and convert the songs into MP3s for your MP3 player, and then the CD goes into the shelf to collect dust — forever.

Maybe when the wife needs the lyrics from the CD case, she will touch it once but beyond that, it may as well be a beer mat.

Perhaps, it is hypocritical of me to begrudge someone her $1,200 handbag, while spending $450 on a tiny little pink MP3 player. But then my purchase can play music, while a handbag can only look expensive. Ah, the justifications of a Man of Tech.

The good thing about buying this iPod for my wife is knowing that she will not ask me for a $1,200 branded leather pouch to put it in. And as long as I get off work as fast as I can, I should be able to keep her CD buying in control.

Ok, got to go. The CD shop is calling me to ask which address to deliver my wife's shipment to.

mr brown is the accidental author of a popular website that has been documenting the dysfunctional side of Singapore life since 1997. He bought his wife her iPod Mini so that he could use it for himself too. But don't tell her. Thanks. OK, it is hypocritical of me to deprive her of a branded handbag but can it play MP3 music?