Apple IIe

Apple IIe

The Apple IIe computer was sold in Singapore around 1983. I had the first opportunity to use IIe in school in Secondary 2 (1983). I remember there were a few computers in the computer lab with the school trying to teach a new generation of technology. The language if I recall was basic with commands such as Goto, Print etc. It could do basic mathematical calculation (+ - x / ). At that time, I did not appreciate the reason why this machine was useful as there were limited applications. I don't recall there was a mouse even though the photo above shows one with a mouse. The Apple logo has an array of colours which is not the present design. That was the first time I used an Apple product :-).

Old Airport Road Food Centre

This morning, I was at Old Airport Road Food Centre. Tried the Ru Ji Kitchen and the Lao Fu Zhi Fried Kway Teow. I shall only comment on the Ru Ji Kitchen. From the signage, it appears that the original stall is previously from Holland Drive market.

Ru Ji Kitchen had a queue form when I was there on a weekday morning. I could imagine the length of the queue when it was weekend. The Kitchen sells fishball noodle, a simple dish, but it does very well on the 3 components making it, firstly the fish balls are handmade, secondly the fish cake is the fried type and lastly the noodle was blended in a sauce comprising mainly of pork oil which makes it tasty. The fish balls are softer than ordinary. The fish cakes are fried to make the skin crispy and better taste. It was a good breakfast. It is worth the $4.00 that I paid.  

Old Airport Road Food Centre has many cooked food stalls and this is complement by the readily available carparks at the front and back of the centre.

Singapore Art Appreciation

Chen Soo Pieng Landscape

Stepped into the National Museum of Singapore this morning as I wanted to see the People's Collection which showcases some of the artefacts of post war Singapore from 50s to 80s.

But I was pleasantly surprised to see an art exhibition by local artists in one of the hall. The name of exhibition is A Changed World: Singapore Art 1950s to 1970s. It was raining heavily outside so I stayed back and listen to the exhibition by a guide, Ms Geraldine Tan. The artists include Chen Wen Xi, Chen Soo Pieng, Chua Mie Tee, Liu Kang and many others. They were Singapore pioneer artists who had been trained in the traditional chinese painting and exposed to western paintings in post war era. Today is the last day of exhibition.

The guide explained the intend of various paintings well. In western paintings from my trip to Europe many years ago, I learned that artist used paintings to hide certain message and was conveying certain narrative of the times. One must closely examine the paintings to understand and interpret the paintings.

I like Chen Soo Pieng landscape impression shown above. My interpretation is that it shows a house in an isolated place next to a tree. The colours are rather sombre which gives a rather depressed feeling. There are patches of white above the house which I interpet as smoke from the house. There is another unique significance which I notice is the portrait format of a landscape painting. I also notice that the black strokes have chinese paintings tradition. The presentation reminded me of some western style paintings. However, the name of the artist at the left bottom corner in chinese is significant evidence that it was painted by a chinese local artist. The name shows "Si (4 horizontal lines) Ping".  Soo Pieng was famous for painting balinese women with elongated arms, which are his signature features. I understand from the guide that his painting is found in $50 Singapore note (rear).

It is sometimes good to appreciate cultural art piece.

Audi A3 Sportback Price March 2014

The Audi A3 Sportback price in Singapore this month is S$149,999 (USD$118,300). The A3 Sedan price is S$153,999. A difference of S$4000 for the conventional boot. The price of CAT A COE in March is $76,999.

The A4 sedan will cost S$173,999, a difference of $24,000 as compared to A3 sportback.

After driving the A3 sportback for more than 3 months, I find that it is an efficiency car, with a petrol consumption of 13.8 km/litre with the start/stop function turns off. I always turn off the start/stop function and it is quite troublesome. There are reasons for doing it mainly because I am afraid over long term, the start/stop funciton, being a new technology, may affect the engine mount supporting the 1.4 litre motor. I feel that there is vibration once start function kicks in just like the starting of each trip and this may weaken the engine mount. In addition, the starter motor is of lesser stress if the start/stop function is disabled. The start/stop function has to be manually turned off unless programming is done to overwrite it.

To achieve petrol savings, the car also attempts to step up to its 7th gear quickly. At 100km/hr speed, the engine revolution is just about 2100 rev for a 1.4 litre car. If power is required, the driver can switch to sport mode for more sustained acceleration or manual gearshift(paddle shift).

I added a passive bass speaker within the car compartment to improve the quality of sound from the standard Audi sound system. It improves the sound greatly.

Blk 89 Circuit Road Market - Hao Ji Cantonese Porridge

Hao Ji Cantonese Porridge

There was a queue formed in front of this stall. Instinctively I went to queue. There was a variety of porridge available from fish, pork, squid, centuary egg. I ordered the centuary egg with pork porridge this morning. It was tasty and texture of the porridge was good. The serving of minced pork and centuary egg was reasonable considering the affordable cost. It costs $2.30 without addition of egg. The stall owner had a big pot of plain porridge which he was preparing. A simple but yet enjoyable breakfast. It closes on Monday.

I had also tried a mee siam at $2.00 from 123 Traditional Cusine in the same market. The mee siam gravy was of acceptable standard. It is rare nowadays to eat something of $2.00 value.

Quote of the Month

"What drives me is an awareness of the essential loneliness of man - we are alone when we're born, we're alone when we die."

~ Bruce Davidson, photographer