Marcelo Bielsa sacked as Leeds United manager

Had a bit of a shock yesterday afternoon when I heard that Marcelo Bielsa had been sacked by Leeds United Football Club. Imagine this. He brings Leeds to the Premier League and last year, brought Leeds to a respectable 9th position. However, in this big, greedy world of football, he was the sacrificial lamb. After all, his departure comes after a run of five defeats in six matches that has left the club in 16th place in the Premier League, just two points above the relegation zone. I have heard that he was a gentleman and loved by the staff and players at Leeds, much like Ole was. The tweet below says it all and I respect him, despite being a Manchester United fan.

Thank you Marcelo.
Thank you for four fantastic years.
Thank you for the passion, desire & the quality of football.
Thank you for turning average championship players into accomplished international and Premier league players.
Finally, thank you for making Leeds, Leeds again. pic.twitter.com/uwY7bFRg2M

— Dazza71 (@OntheBielsaBus) February 27, 2022

Coffee Bean Ice-Blended Mocha

A couple of days back, while waiting for my Mum at the clinic near her place, I decided to patronise the nearby Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. It had been some time since I had an ice-blended mocha. The last time I had one was when I was in Johor Bahru a few years back. In any case, I ordered an ice-blended mocha and when it arrived. I sat back and prepared to savour it. My opinion? The standard had dropped. I do not know what it was. Different ingredients? Less ingredients? I could hardly taste the mocha. And also, it looked like three-quarters of the drink was just ice. And not only that…the price had increased by 50%. Looks like I am going to give The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf a miss when it comes to their ice-blended mochas. I would be better off with an ice kopi from Heap Seng Leong!

Mother-in-law hit by Covid-19 coronavirus

My mother-in-law has been hit by the Covid-19 coronavirus. Well, at the rate infections have been climbing, it was only a matter of time. She complained about having a bit of a sore throat and so she went to a clinic where she was diagnosed as having the virus. It is damn lucky she went for her vaccinations including her booster jab. She told me that she is fine with just that mild discomfort. She will isolate herself for 72 hours and see how it goes.

That virus is still out there everyone and is very contagious. Be on your guard. Always remember…social distancing, wear a mask and wash your hands periodically.

Macromedia HomeSite 5

There was a time when I used to make webpages. I did not do it for a living unfortunately though I should have. I used to make small websites for intranets for various companies I worked for. I started in HTML coding as far back as the late 1990s. I used a variety of tools, even Notepad. But for web-page design, Macromedia HomeSite was the best. I have been using this copy of Macromedia HomeSite since the mid 2000s and with great success. This HTML editor is the best as far as I am concerned. It is easy to use but you must know some aspects of HTML code so that you can create your webpages well. It is a very powerful editor and I just used it a couple of weeks back to design an Intranet site. It took me some time to use it as I had not used it for some time and my HTML knowledge was a bit rusty. But after looking at the code and re-visiting some online sites that I had designed some years back (yes, they are still in use), I took to this like a duck to water. Adobe bought over Macromedia and Homesite has been discontinued. It is a shame really. I wish that they would bring it back again.

Changed from SingTel prepaid to TPG prepaid

A couple of days back, I decided to port over the prepaid SingTel mobile line that I had for almost 20 years to TPG. I was getting sick of SingTel. I had that SingTel account since 2004. I will tell you all a brief story how I got it.

In 2004, I had bought myself a new Nokia phone. So after transferring my SIM card to the new phone, I looked at the old phone I had. I still liked that phone so I decided to to something about it and use it. At that time, SingTel had a prepaid card division named POD and I thought that a prepaid card would be great for that phone. So I went to a 7-Eleven in Clementi (I was around the area at the time) and signed up for a POD prepaid account. I remember that it was very cheap back then. I then used that POD prepaid card in my old phone. A couple of years later, there was a directive from the Government that all prepaid lines needed to be registered. I decided to register the prepaid number as I liked the number. So when I went to a SingTel shop to register the number, I was told that POD was being dissolved and now, it was called SingTel Hi-Card prepaid.

So I now had a SingTel prepaid card that I had to “charge” every few months or so or else I would lose my number. I kept that phone with the prepaid card in it, barely using it till I discovered the Superhot 128 series of top-ups in 2009. I used that Superhot 128 a lot. It had great value. For just $28 ($25 in some places via electronic top-up) you had access to $100 of local calls and $28 of local calls after each top-up. That Superhot 128 would last you for 50 days, almost a month. That translated roughly into about $13 a month with free caller ID. If you topped up within that 50 days, your balance would roll-over. I used that top-up option all the time. In the end, I made that phone with the prepaid card my business line and used it till, well, two days ago.

SingTel decided to get rid of that 50 day Superhot 128 duration. They shortened it to 30 days. Then they shortened it even further to 28 days. They tried to “sweeten” the deal by saying that they would give free incoming calls in return. I hated that “compromise”. The novelty had worn off. Here I was, paying $25 for less than a month…with no data thrown in. For $25 a month, I could have a postpaid plan WITH data! So I call up SingTel to demand an explanation and they tell me that shortening the duration was a “business decision”. Yeah right you fucking ungrateful bastards. I was your loyal customer for years and you just fob me off.

I decided to do something about it and ported over my number to TPG two days ago. I now have 100Gb of data, 300 minutes of calls and 30 SMS messages. That number, which started off as POD Prepaid, had been put in many different phones. The phones were:

1. Nokia 3310
2. Nokia 2626
3. Nokia 1200
4. Samsung C3212
5. Xiaomi 4A

That SingTel SIM has outlived several mobile phones. For some time it was in an iPhone SE 2020, which is where that new TPG card lies. No thank you SingTel you greedy bastards. 18 years with you fellas and this is what we get. Do not ever neglect your customers.

Moderna to set up subsidiary in Singapore

It was reported in the news yesterday that Moderna announced plans to establish a new subsidiary in Singapore, along with three additional ones in Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. I had all three shots of Moderna and even thought the second shot and the third booster jab made me as sick as a dog, it is comforting to know that there is at least something in my body which will prevent this terrible Covid-19 coronavirus from wrecking havoc in my body.

I am waiting for the day when we do not have to live in fear of this terrible coronavirus. It has done so much harm around the world.

Cosy off-grid van

This has to be one of the best van builds. This Ford Transit van has everything for this person that built it. It is really cosy and that 100 watt solar panel on his roof does everything for his little van build. It does not have a shower…granted…but I think that this person built it well.

Rain shower head installed in the bathroom of my new apartment

When we were renovating our new apartment, my wife requested for a rain shower head. I had used them a couple of times in the past in hotels overseas when I went for vacation. Honestly? I am not used to it. Rain shower heads won’t give as good water pressure as a standard shower head. I know because after I use it, I feel more comfortable with the also-installed regular shower head. The reason I use the shower head is because of the better pressure of the water. The benefit of a rain shower head is more water flows over the body as it has a wider area of flow.

So should you get a rain shower head? Admittedly, it does feel nice. It is like being caught in a rain shower, hence the name. Does it save water? Actually, rain shower heads don’t actually use more water than standard shower heads but the nice feeling of being under one means you use more water than normal. For me, a shower is that…a shower. But for my wife, it is the sense of luxuriating.

Cheng Shin Tyre 16 x 1 3/8 Presta valve tubes for the Brompton

My Brompton folding bike came with Schrader inner tubes and those Schrader inner tubes I swear…I have to pump them up before every ride. When I bought my 29’er (which I have since sold) it came with Presta valve tubes and those tubes always kept the air in them, unlike the Schrader tubes that came with my Brompton. Before every ride, I would have to pump them up to 100psi because they lose air. So what I did was to go online and buy 4 of these CST or Cheng Shin Tyre 16 x 1 3/8″ tubes for my wife and I. They arrived a couple of days back. It is going to take some time to disassemble the wheels but heck, what must be done must be done. Looking forward to trying them out!

Energy saving, sensor-operated corridor lights

When my wife and I moved into our flat, little did we know (I only found out later) that our block of flats was lit up with energy-efficient lighting. These lights have sensors attached to them. They only come on to full brightness when they can detect movement in the dimly-lit corridor. Also, I do not know what kind of fluorescent light this is using but it does not seem to need a started to come on. Also, while looking at my block using Google Maps, I saw arrays upon arrays of solar panels on the roof of the flat. It looks like these lights are powered by those solar arrays on the roof of the bock. I wonder what else is powered by those solar arrays. In any case, I think that these corridor lights and the sensors are a great idea. They are not on permanently like some of the older HDB flats. Great initiative!