The last seconds of 2008 were spent in good company, though perhaps rather mindlessly staring at the idiot box for the countdown and watching the fireworks display over Marina Bay. It felt rather surreal, since school only starts for me on the 5th of January, so it didn’t actually feel like anything had changed during the transition from 2008 to 2009.

Perhaps that’s because the whole of 2008 was pretty much a time of transitions, for me. I’ve spent perhaps (give or take) 3 months in Japan, 4 in the UK, and 5 in Singapore. The final year of my undergrad degree, I should probably have been working hard to ensure a good degree class, yet at the same time the knowledge that it was almost over somehow made it so much more difficult to feel anything aside from weary and jaded about the whole studying business. This feeling seems to have been carried over to the PGDE programme, yet another transitional period between studying and working. I suspect I’ve yet to fully get used to living back together with my family, losing the freedom and independence I’ve become so used to while living abroad (though admittedly it’s nice not to have to do so many chores or cooking).

Indeed, a year of transitions.

I suppose the transition period carries on to 2009, beginning with the second half of the diploma programme and beginning teaching proper in the second half of the year. Hopefully I’ll be able to settle more permanently, to really enjoy and appreciate what I do, to do it well, and to make time for family, friends, and other pursuits in the meantime. It’s kinda vague, but I’m not really good with the whole resolution thing.

It is a little known fact that the mines ‘Rocher’ are extracted from tend to regrow the removed spheres at a constant rate. Ferrero SpA discovered this rate in the mid 1960’s and can now mine the small cholocate candy in a renewable way. Various other Rocher mines have been discovered outside Italy but have since been deemed unnecesary and hazardous to the longterm perpetuation.

Sadly, the vigilant editors of Wikipedia seem to have picked up on that paragraph and have since removed it. Still, that’s pretty darned funny!

(Incidentally, Ferrero SpA turns out to be indeed an Italian company, and is in fact responsible for Nutella, Kinder Bueno/Surprise, and even tic tacs!)

I really didn’t do very much this trip, although this time I did follow Ailin to her shougakkou (elementary/primary school) as Santa Claus. Little Japanese kids are actually really cute - especially when decked in their little chef outfits when serving kyushoku (school lunch). I had lunch with this bunch of rascals (ninensei, or second years, I think), and though I had absolutely no clue what they were saying (aside from trying to teach me the ichi-ni-sans of Japanese counting), it was relatively enjoyable. Until the whole class started swarming me for presents, anyway. That was scary. And funny. All at the same time!

While doing some browsing in the supermarkets I came across a section of gift meats for the festive season. This consisted nicely packaged meats. What a delightful concept! Imagine receiving a gift box of six chunks of beef, turkey, ham, etc. ready for roasting. I suppose maybe the giver might be hinting for you to host a dinner party. Not something you’ll find in Singapore (I think). I don’t remember ever seeing stuff like that in the UK either…

It might well be the last time I’m travelling while having that funky KrisFlyer Elite Gold status, and though it seems I’ll never be getting any free upgrades on these super-full flights between Singapore and Tokyo, I’ve been making good use of the airport lounges. I went to check out United Airlines’ lounge. It was very big, and had these super-cool automated beer machines, but all in all I liked ANA’s lounge better. We eventually relocated to ANA’s lounge, where Ailin pointed out something that I didn’t notice - the fishcake in their udon had ANA’s logo stamped onto it. Funny stuff.

I’m of the opinion that fusion food wasn’t born out of any great leaps of creativity, but instead out of necessity or convenience. Somehow I find it easy to imagine a foreigner out there with a packet of udon that was expiring pretty soon and deciding to eat it with leftover Thai red curry from the previous night’s dinner - possibly because that’s exactly what happened to me earlier today. Happily it resulted in a pretty tasty meal. I’m quite sure that curry udon’s been done before (and is probably rather common in Singapore), but I’ve never had it before and can now confirm that it’s actually quite good.

Last Sunday I followed Ailin up to Oyama (in a neighbouring prefecture) since she was doing her JLPT there, though I didn’t do very much aside from exploring some malls and checking out the eating options. I had myself some takoyaki (perhaps better known among Singaporeans as ‘Tako Pachi’, possibly the first chain to make it popular back home), which they sell in boxes of 6 or 8 - no snack-sized option of 3, which I’m more used to.

There were actually many varieties and I don’t know exactly what it was that I’d ordered, but it had octopus, okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and fish flakes, and that’s good enough for me! Funnily enough (or painfully, as it was at the time), I decided to pop one into my mouth without waiting for it to cool sufficiently - a mistake I’d committed about 7 years ago. Looks like I’m a slow learner, sometimes.

I know Japanese toilets are kinda infamous, and I’ve already seen them billions of times really, but somehow I found these tourist-friendly instructions in Narita Airport really amusing. I guess the line ‘equipment to cleansing the buttocks with warm water’ just really set me off, somehow.

Today I took a walk to Yaoko, the nearest supermarket (I think) to Ailin’s place. I recorded the route using GPS on my phone (ohwhatfun!), so you can take a look and try to figure out where exactly in Japan I am, if you were curious.

View Larger Map

I’ve been hoping to cook for myself while in Japan (since I don’t usually do it at home anymore, I actually kinda miss it), but I need to stock up on groceries first. You’d have thought that was the motivation behind the supermarket trip, but since I’m too lazy to bring home bags of groceries without a car, it was really just to get some lunch.

The supermarket tonkatsu might seem a little pricey at about S$5, but considering that the quality’s better than in some (lower-end) restaurants in Singapore, I think it’s a pretty good deal. Topped off with some home-cooked rice, an orange, and milk tea, it made a pretty satisfying (if somewhat pricey) meal.

Following the earlier post on being a seat samaritan, the natural follow-up was to comment on people rushing in when the train doors open, without allowing passengers to first alight. This was inspired particularly upon reading a fellow NIEer’s post, which I’d found rather amusing.

A “clear your table” campaign won’t do no nothing in making us a more gracious society…sometimes a more hard-handed approach is needed, and here are some helpful suggestions:

1. Create MRT doors that swing outwards. This will clear the way for outgoing train commuters.

Oh, so true! In a rational world, those waiting at the platforms would wait for the alighting passengers to get off the train first, so that there would be less obstruction when they themselves enter the train, and overall efficiency is improved. The time saving per stop might be minuscule, but it kinda adds up on long journeys, plus it’s only the polite thing to do!

In the real world, though, everybody is a selfish b@%!@#d who’s primarily concerned with securing a seat for themselves. So instead of patiently waiting for people to get out, people tend to rush onto the train as soon as physically possible, often camping in front of the doors and blocking the exit route before the train arrives. The typical view from the eyes of an alighting passenger might look something like this.

I was getting really annoyed with all this recently, since I actually like to stand at the side of the doors and attempt to be a rational human being who waits for people to get off before getting on. The problem with this strategy is that you lose out when nobody else plays by these rules (I’m sure there’s an economics lesson hiding in all this), because the only reward for stupidly waiting outside the train is the joy of witnessing your ruder fellow passengers secure a rest spot for their fannies.

So one fine day I decided to punish these evil-doers with my very own brand of vigilante justice. When I alighted at Boon Lay MRT station (a hotspot for MRT door scrums), I would do my utmost to make life difficult for these door-scrummers. I would claim my God-given (hyperbole intended) right to exit the train unobstructed, and callously push aside all who opposed me.

In other words, I would walk out those doors forcefully. Hey, I never promised a particularly awe-inspiring brand of vigilante justice.

All plans were brought to a halt, however, when the train doors opened the fateful day to reveal, right in my path, a frail-looking but decidedly sprightly elderly lady aggressively pushing her way onto the train. I was all prepared to get a little roughed up while alighting the train, but somehow that was something I was totally not prepared for. Needless to say, my scheme for vengeance never did quite take off.

I think I’ve given up on Singaporeans ever waiting to get onto the train in an orderly manner. So I’ve decided - if you can’t beat them, join them!

I was really charmed by the trailer of The Tale of Despereaux, apparently based on a novel of the same title. I definitely hope to catch it. I guess this might be a shameful thing for some, but I actually rather enjoy watching cartoons. Not all of them, to be certain, but perhaps the more adult-accessible ones like those by Pixar and Dreamworks.

So are there any proud animated film connoisseurs lurking out there? We should totally band together in the face of animation-naysayers and proudly declare our love of… cartoons. Really.

The Bank of England have reduced the Base Rate by 1.50% to 3.00%. Following this, we have changed the rate of interest you earn on your Online Saver account from 4.25% AER to 2.75% AER, 2.72% gross variable.

The interest rates that apply to your Online Bonus Saver will change as well. The interest you earn changes from 4.75% AER to 3.25% AER (3.23% gross variable, including 1.75% AER bonus interest) in any calendar month you don’t make a withdrawal. If you do make a withdrawal, you’ll still be earning standard interest of 1.50% AER, 1.49% gross variable.

The interest rate that applies to amounts over £50,000 in your account will continue to track Base Rate (3.00% AER, 2.98% gross) if no withdrawals are made and a standard rate of 1.50% AER (1.49% gross variable) if you do make a withdrawal.

These new rates are effective from 13 November 2008.

Thank you for saving with HSBC.

Sigh. Really wishing I’d brought home more of my UK funds back when the exchange rate was 2.7 (it’s gone down to about 2.3 now, almost a 20% drop in value for me). Nothing to do now but let it earn (lowered) interest while waiting for it to rise, I guess. Not like I urgently need the cash right now.

The rate should rise eventually, right?

-sees a 1.5 exchange rate next year- NOOOOOooooo!!!

I’ve been playing with the GPS function of my new phone for quite a few days now, initially just to locate myself on the Singapore map, but more recently with turn-by-turn voice navigation, albeit with simple familiar routes. That in itself was already rather entertaining - perhaps it was just the novelty of it all, but I do think voice navigation is pretty useful, especially for someone who’s really bad with directions (such as myself). After all, why bother researching how to go somewhere if you don’t go there often?

The fun factor really scaled up, however, upon discovering Nokia Sports Tracker. I was trying to figure out how to chart the path covered using GPS, which struck me as a relatively simple thing to do - the program just needed to keep a log of the calculated location as it changed. The default navigation program wasn’t able to do that, though, and I later found one that was.

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to take a test walk around my neighbourhood, making a trip to Novena Square before turning around and heading home. The data collated was easily uploaded for analysis and easy sharing (click here to see what the interface looks like). Pretty nifty! Now I really wanted to play with it a little more.

So about half an hour later I was out for a run. I wanted to replicate the route I’d used to run before NIE started, since I’ve been curious what the exact distance covered was, and to more thoroughly test the various features of the program.

Sadly, it wasn’t particularly successful. As you can see, although I was out for about 45 minutes, somehow the program stopped gathering data at about 20 minutes. The photos I’d taken along the way (all after 20 minutes) were supposed to be automatically tagged to the map, but as a consequence are all registered as being taken at the last location recorded. I suspect it’s because of the version I was using (changes for the experimental v1.82 include “Fixed a problem with GPS sometimes turning off in the middle of exercise.” - d’oh!)

Strangely enough, the location data is accurate when I examined the photos on my phone, so I assume duplicate (erroneous) copies were created for the program. I managed to upload the geotagged pictures to Picasa (and have their location automatically registered). You can take a quick look at the album (and observe the mapped locations at the right of the picture) - among other things I managed to capture somebody riding a Segway (in Singapore? Seriously?)

CJC running route

I really wish I’d had this capability back in my university days, it’d have been great to chart my running routes in the UK and Japan. Or even my holiday travels. The possibilities are not limited to sports alone - I’ve even read some online comments on people trying it on their airplane flights!

I’ll be trying to map the route of the night cycling event my GESL group has organised tonight, hopefully there’re no glitches this time and my battery somehow manages to last the night!

So I got myself the N85 after all. I wasn’t able to find someone with a spare phone upgrade (with contract extension) they weren’t planning to use, but armed with my arsenal of Tangs vouchers, I still managed to get it cheaper than the standard SingTel price (with a 6% rebate earned when using a Citibank card, too!).

I was actually debating if I should upgrade the phone the day I got it - I was actually quite contented with my previous phone (which I managed to sell for a cool $150), and I didn’t really need the mobile entertainment value the Wi-Fi connectivity offered, since I’d be in Japan for nearly a month. That last factor, however, was what pushed me to get it in the end - having read an article on using GPS in Malaysia (also applicable to Singapore), I was really keen to try out using GPS when in Japan this time round. I don’t think I’ll have voice navigation available in the region, but it’ll still be pretty fun (and useful) to be able to locate myself on a map while on the road there.

I’ve not been disappointed with the phone so far, aside from maybe the rather hard-to-press control buttons. Thankfully, the number buttons (the ones used for text messages) are much better. Wi-Fi connectivity has (thus far) turned out to be less useful than anticipated, though perhaps after installing more programs it’ll be appreciated more. Battery life has been good so far (it’s the main reason I’m avoiding the iPhone), although with all the extra functions I tend to play with it more and increase recharge frequency.

All in all, it’s been a pretty good purchase, and I’ll probably update again after having more thoroughly explored some its potential functions.