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OPC Calculations 26 November, 2009

Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, Dollars & Cents, Internet & Blog, Vroom Vroom.
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Ok, I’m in a mathematical mood today so I’m going to test out the \LaTeX functions in wordpress and present some of my calculations and observations on our Off Peak Car (OPC).

Let C be the COE of the car, O be the OMV of the car, and P be the PARF of the car.

Let us consider the PARF of a normal plated car at each year within the lifespan of the COE of 10 years. For simplicity, we will consider integer number of years t.

P_{normal}(t)=\left\{\begin{array}{l l}C\times\frac{10-t}{10}+O\times0.75&\quad\mbox{if }0<t<5\\C\times\frac{10-t}{10}+O\times\frac{100-(t\times5)}{100}&\quad\mbox{if }5<t<10\end{array}\right.

For an OPC, the 17000 rebate is deducted first from the COE, then from the OMV. Let us assume that C\leq17000 and C+O>17000. Then, the COE will be completely deducted and the PARF of an OPC at each year is defined as follows.

P_{OPC}(t)=\left\{\begin{array}{l l}(C+O-17000)\times0.75&\quad\mbox{if }0<t<5\\ (C+O-17000)\times\frac{100-(t\times5)}{100}&\quad\mbox{if }5<t<10\end{array}\right.

Next, we substitute P_{normal}(10)=0.5O into P_{OPC}(10).

\begin{array}{rcl}P_{OPC}(10)&=&(C+O-17000)\times\frac{100-(10\times5)}{100}\\&=&0.5C+0.5O-8500\\&=&P_{normal}(10)+0.5C-8500\end{array}

This equation shows us that if C=0 then OPC owners receive 8500 less in PARF compared to normal car owners at the end of 10 years. That is, OPC owners received 17000 rebate when they bought the car but recovers 8500 lesser when they scrap the car, meaning the net rebate enjoyed is only (17000-8500=) 8500. If, however, C\geq17000 then OPC owners will receive the same amount in PARF as normal car owners at the end of 10 years, and they enjoy the full 17000 rebate.

This means that OPC owners who got their COE at prices lower than 17000 do not enjoy the full 17000 rebate by virtue of the fact that they will receive a lesser amount when their car is scrapped. In the worse case scenario, the OPC owner will receive only 8500 in rebate if their COE is zero or near zero (i.e. $2 COE in Nov 08).

Of course, there are other factors to be considered such as the actual sale price of the car, the interest rate, amount of loan to take, length of loan, etc. This is only a very simplified calculation to find out the maximum and minimum rebates an OPC owner can get. Yes, in times of high COE, you get the maximum savings, but you might also end up paying more in absolute terms becos of the higher cost of the car and interest payable on loan amount. It’s like buying a brand-less backpack at full price of $20 or a designer brand backpack at 70% off the usual price of $1000. Sure, you saved $700 but you also just spent an extra (300-20=) $280 more than just getting the brand-less one.

Lastly, typing \LaTeX equations are fun! <-geek!

-Dear1

Self-repaired my DS 24 November, 2009

Posted by dear1dear2 in Consumer Electronics, Dear1, Leisure & Games.
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If you remember, I received my DS as a birthday present from Dear2 in 2007. It was really fantastic. I’ve always always wanted one of those handheld games since I can’t remember how young I was. As such, I have treasured this gift very much both because it was something that I really wanted and because it was a gift from Dear2.

For the past nearly 2 years, my DS seldom left my backpack as I carried my backpack to school everyday. I’ll always play it while travelling on the bus or train. Sometimes, Dear2 and I would challenge each other to a game of Mario Kart or Tetris when we’re travelling together. I can get pretty exciting. At home, we also play Animal Crossing with each other, visiting each other’s town and bring new furniture. We really had fun with our DS.

But unfortunately, my DS was dropped twice. I can vividly remember both times. Once at night, I left my DS on the bedside table, and I unknowingly threw my arm around while asleep and swept the DS onto the floor. Sad. That was the last time I left my DS on the bedside table. Nowadays, it goes under the bed if I was playing DS just before bedtime. The other time, I left it under my pillow, and in a similar fashion, I swung my arm under my pillow to cuddle up into a cosy sleeping position and swept the DS from under the pillow onto the floor. Sigh. Under the bed is the safest place for a DS to be.

I think it was during one of those drops that the lower screen started spoiling. The screen produced a yellow tint and discoloured everything. Soon, the resolution started reducing and I would see missing horizontal lines and vertical lines. I would say the resolution reduced to about 1/4 the max. There were no dead pixels however. Some time after that, the screen started flickering up and down, but it would stabilize after some ‘warming up’ so I was still able to play my games. Things took a turn for the worse and the lower screen gave up completely and wouldn’t even light up. I would turn to playing GBA games becos they only used 1 screen and my top screen is still working perfectly. This whole deterioration process spanned over about 6 months or so. But it was clear, I needed to get my DS repaired.

I brought my DS to a repair shop and asked for a quotation. It was going to cost about $30 or more for parts and labour and I would need to leave my DS there overnight. Hmm… I certainly do not want to leave my precious DS with some stranger overnight. So I began looking for new alternatives. I turned to my favourite DS accessories website – Dealextreme.

I also looked up some DS repair videos on Youtube to get an understanding of how DS works and how do I go about disassembling it. Surprisingly, I found this video of a young girl, probably about 10 years old, give a demonstration of how to replace the lower screen for the DS. So I thought, if she can do it, so can I. I ordered all the parts that I needed from Dealextreme – a replacement lower screen, a trigram screwdriver, a replacement touchscreen (just for good measure although my touchscreen isn’t spoilt), and a set of screen protector (because my lower screen protector was already badly scratched). The total cost was about $20, and since Dealextreme owed me $7 from a previous transaction, I paid only $13 for this shipment.

The actual instructional video that I followed to repair my DS.

The parts arrived last week after some delay and I sat down to repair my DS right away. Following the instructional video found on Youtube, I disassembled my DS and replaced the lower screen as well as the touch screen. All this took about 1 hour to complete for a complete first timer like me (don’t understand why the repair shops require the whole night to do it). At this stage, I suddenly became a bit skeptical. Maybe it wasn’t the screen that was spoilt. Maybe it was one of the video processors in charge of rendering the lower screen that was faulty. Then I would have wasted money buying all these replacement parts. Too late, I just have to turn on the power to find out.

Yes! It works! It was indeed a faulty lower screen. Haha.

I quickly applied on the new screen protector and began playing my DS again. I miss those DS games, GBA games can be a bit stale. My lower screen hasn’t looked this gorgeous for so long. I realized how much rubbish resolution and eye strain I’ve been putting up with for the past how many months. Getting replacement parts is this cheap and self-repairing is this easy. I should have done it a long time ago. Damn procrastination. #@*%!

Hopefully with this repair, my DS would last me another few years. Playing DS together with Dear2 is really fun. Although Dear2 always beats me at the Tetris Push challenge but I just enjoy playing together with Dear2. :D

-Dear1

Taime Warehouse Sale 22 November, 2009

Posted by dear1dear2 in Baby, Dear1, Shop till you drop.
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Our loot from the Taime Warehouse Sale – The biggest buy is the Capella stroller at the back, still in box. :D

Taime Pte Ltd held a warehouse sale just a few days ago, 19-21 Nov 09. It was a Thursday to Saturday, and it was in Bedok. So the best time for us to visit the sale was on Saturday, and that’s exactly what we did.

We took our OPC car out promptly at 3pm on Saturday and drove all the way to Bedok. We stopped by Baby Kingdom first to check out the prices to keep ourselves current with prices. We have been eyeing this particular stroller for some time now and had already more or less decided on the Capella S705 2009 model with the 5-point harness. Baby Kingdom quoted us $350 at best from the usual price of $369. After looking around a bit more, we left for Taime which is just a stone’s throw away across the PIE.

Wow. Taime warehouse sale was great! The major brands there were Capella, Chicco and Lucky Baby. There was at least a 20% discount for most items, 30% and 40% for some other. Some items were nett price which also featured substantial savings.

Our total bill at Taime, what a steal! We should have bought more…

We went directly to the Capella section and found the stroller going at 20% discount! That’s definitely the cheapest price in town, we bought it without a second thought. We also bought some other baby items that were on sale, including some foam play mats, a rubber cot sheet, nail clippers for baby, swaddleme, and a stroller clip fan. The final total price was less than $369, which made us felt as if we bought the Capella S705 at normal price and got everything else for free. Haha…

We left Taime warehouse and got lost in the private residential area. Hahaha… Luckily, we managed to find our way out after about 10 minutes of roaming. We went over to Blk 704 nearby to try out the Xiong-ge chicken rice that was featured on Buzzing Cashier 2. We went there before the last time we visited Baby Kingdom but the long queue turned us away. Luckily, this time there was no queue and we got our chicken rice immediately. Not bad, the chicken rice is quite tasty. But is it worth 1 hour queuing time, probably not.

Next, we set off to the United Square Baby Fair organised by Motherhood magazine. We arrived at 6.50pm, just before the start of the baby bottles giveaway event. We quickly joined the queue to get our free bottle, and also get our free sample copy of Motherhood magazine. The bottle was quite cute looking with 2 cute giraffes printed on it. But the quality of the material used to make the bottle was quite dubious looking that made us decided that we’ll not use it for baby but will instead put it in our display cabinet. Dear2 also didn’t like the idea that both the top and the bottom of the bottle can be unscrewed.

We shopped around United Square further and found this shop Mums & Babes that is having this bottle exchange program. Trade in any old baby bottle and get to buy a new 5oz Medela bottle for $6.90 (UP $10.90). We knew that the 3 5oz Medela bottle set costs $31.50 (before 15% off) at Baby Kingdom, which meant that each bottle would cost (31.50×0.85/3=) $8.925. $6.90 sounds good enough. Now, where can we find an old baby bottle to trade in at a time like this? Hmm… Oh wait, we did have a bottle in our possession. Hehehe… And so, we traded in our free gift bottle we collected just earlier and bought the Medela bottle at the discounted price. Yeah.

So that’s it for our eventful shopping Saturday. We’re glad that we’re finally buying all the baby stuffs (and all at fantastic offers too!) and getting ready for our baby’s arrival. Dear2 has been somewhat stressed lately about our ill-prepared-ness. I suppose Dear2’s mummy instinct is starting to kick in. Gee… Hope that this shopping spree of ours did calm Dear2 down a little.

Also, our car really did improve our lives and brought us much convenience. I couldn’t imagine us going to so many places if we didn’t have a car. Not to mention carrying so much shopping loot home. The stroller alone took up most of our boot space, can’t imagine us taking public transport with it. Dear2 is also having some hip pains which made long bus and MRT rides a difficult thing for her. Glad that we bought our car in time for Dear2’s pregnancy.

There’s still much more shopping to be done, hopefully we can get everything at good prices. Today, we’re going to Mothercare to get some toys at 15% discount, and going to OG to take a look at their 20% storewide sale, and going to visit Aussino 50% discount Baby Fair again, and probably drop by Metro to see if we can earn the 6% rebates worth of linkpoints. You see, we can use our Passion Card to earn 9 linkpoints for every $1 spent, and 150 linkpoints can be exchanged for $1 at NTUC for grocery shopping, so that’s 6%. :D

Hooray to year end festive shopping season!

-Dear1

Pampering Each Other 19 November, 2009

Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, For Him For Her.
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Just last weekend, we went shopping at IMM. We strolled past the Levi Strauss shop and they were having this $39.90 each for a min purchase of 2 jeans promotion plus an additional 5% discount for Citibank credit cards. Sounds like a good deal! But Dear1 current has about 5 pairs of jeans, 2 of which were recently bought (iirc, it was Nov 08). Yes, 1 year old jeans is considered new to me. So despite a number of my jeans shrinking in size due to a recent change in washing powder brands (read: Dear1 is getting fatter), I didn’t even consider the promotion for a moment. After all, why buy new jeans when I still have 5 (barely) wearable pairs? Save money.

That’s the way with Dear1. Dear1 is an engineer by training and by personality. Dear1 doesn’t see the need to spend money on clothes or keeping up with fashion. Dear1 gets his tops and polo-ts from event gifts. Dear1 gets a new pair of running shoes only when the current pair begins to let water seep in from the soles. Dear1 is just extremely stingy when it comes to spending on clothings.

(On a side note, Dear1 likes to spend on new handphone, new camera, new LEGO, new board games… U get the idea.)

So frequently, Dear2 needs to step in and renew Dear1’s wardrobe. Dear2 needs to convince Dear1 that he needs new pairs of jean cos he can’t fit into the current ones anymore. Dear2 needs to convince Dear1 that he doesn’t have enough pairs of socks and that some of them already have holes in them. Dear2 needs to convince Dear1 that superglue can no longer hold his only pair of sandals together so it’s time to get a new pair. Dear2 needs to convince Dear1 that a good pair of sandals cannot be bought for less than $10.

Dear2 has a lot of convincing to do. And it doesn’t help that Dear1 gets pretty defensive when it comes to the topic of buying new apparels.

But Dear1 isn’t stingy of all apparels in general. Dear1 just doesn’t like to buy clothes for himself. Dear1 enjoys spending on nice clothes for Dear2 and for baby. Dear1 is absolutely delighted to see Dear2 dressed prettily everyday. Dear1 very much want to buy a designer winter coat for Dear2 so that she would look trendy in our overseas photos.

The same can be said about food as well. Dear1 likes to eat 3 vege + rice = $1.60 for lunch at the school canteen. But Dear1 also likes to bring Dear2 to dine at Ichiban Sushi, Swensens or maybe just Mos Burger. And more often than not, it is Dear2 who thinks that dining out at restaurants is too expensive.

The point is, that at least for Dear1 and Dear2, we like to pamper each other. We like to spend a bit of time, money and effort to make the lifestyles of each other better. And in doing so, sometimes we don’t pamper ourselves. But that’s only becos its much more gratifying to pamper each other.

So, let’s pamper each other more, dear. I’ll let you buy new clothes for me, and you let me treat you to better dinners. After all, allowing our significant other to pamper ourselves is also a way of pampering them.

We bought the jeans. :D

-Dear1

One and a Half more Months to end of 2009 18 November, 2009

Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Slice of Life.
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It’s mid November already, when stores are starting to put up their Christmas decorations and shoppers are coming out onto the streets of Orchard Road to view the Christmas lightings or just to get into the festive mood (we can all do with some nice mood now, don’t we, after the past year’s of economic downturn and grimy employment conditions).

But hey, this also means that you have only 1.5 more months till the end of the year to accomplish those goals that you have set out to achieve earlier this year!  Remember those things called New Year Resolutions!?

Dear1 and Dear2 reviewed our 2009 New Year Resolutions during the Penang trip, aka, our ‘retreat’, and discovered that there are still some things not done yet.  Of course, the whole point about making new year resolutions does not mean that you have to ‘die die’ stick to them, because circumstance do change along the course of the year.  Rather, these goals, if still applicable till now, are not yet done, or worse still, had long been  forgotten already, remind yourself that you have something that you want to achieve, so, BETTER GET YOUR BUTT MOVING AND WORK ON IT NOW.

Working hard for something does not only begin on 1 January and ends when the clock strike 12 on 31 December, so even until the last day or 2009, don’t give up on your dreams and goals, but continue to work hard and reach for them.  As this Chinese saying goes, 人因梦想而伟大, so 加油, 加油, 加油!!

- Dear2

Nuggets of Week 25 17 November, 2009

Posted by dear1dear2 in Baby, Dear2.
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- The running nose that started from last week continued into week 25, making every work day a dread. Despite that lethargy-ness, Dear2 still manage to survive a 5 day work week, kudos!  Haha…

- Since Dear2 feels faint most mornings, especially if the weather is hot, we decided to try taking a cab to the MRT station instead of taking the feeder bus.  Oh gosh, our place to Chinese Garden MRT costs about $5 to $6.50, depending on traffic light conditions.  That’ll be about $30 per week, $130 per month!!  Let’s monitor the situation and see how it goes….

- Is the bump getting big now?  Dear2 can’t seem to get a good sitting position on our sofa.  The next best posture will be to put the 2 sofa throws at a V behind the back.  Even with that, Dear2 usually needs Dear1 to pull her up from the sitting position.

- Baby kicks are more frequent now.  Baby was constantly kicking during mummy’s msn chat throughout the afternoon, keke..

- This week marks the 8th last week of 2009.  Counting this week in, it’ll be 2 full work weeks, 2 long weekends, 2 full work weeks and 2 long weekends for Dear2 before 2009 comes to a close.  Just gotto grit your teeth, hang in there….

- After the APEC summit this weekend, I believe that the Christmas sale season will begin!!  Aussino was already starting a Baby & Bath Fair, and very soon it’ll be time for us to start sale-shopping for baby stuff!!  Yeah!!  Hmm… Gotto clear out more space to store all these baby’s stuff though.  Haha…

- Dear2

Waking up Early on a Sunday Morning 16 November, 2009

Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Slice of Life.
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Dear1 and Dear2 were up early again this Sunday morning.  Dear1 and Dear2 were up early on the previous Saturday morning as well, but as the NEA’s weather forecast spelt that it was gonna be a rainy morning in Bukit Batok, we decided to go wake up and just go for breakfast at the market.  On this Sunday morning, though the weather forecast still predicted a rainy morning, we again went out for breakfast after taking a 1 round walk in the park before heading to the market since the sky didn’t looked that bad after all.

Eat, went market to buy $4 worth of vege, went NTUC to get our milk supply, and we were back home before 9.30am.  It was still early in the morning….  Thinking back just a couple of weeks ago, Dear2 was feeling such so lazy and lethargic.  5 days work days are already depriving me of my beauty sleep, so all the more I need to sleep in during weekends.  And, as the pregnant mummy gets especially hungry after a night of sleep, it was Dear1 who had to so poor-thingly go dabao breakfast for Dear2.  After breakfast, Dear2 will doze off to sleep again, and it’ll be until noon time when she wakes up for lunch, again, Dear1 who had to go dabao for her….

Was it because of the expansion of more energy needed to fuel baby’s growth, or was that just a reflection of Dear2’s xian-ness towards work, I don’t know.  But that was really a disgusting kind of feeling to feel so lobo and worthless…

On this Sunday, Dear2 woke up to a new morning with a fresh start again, just like the earlier weekend.  7.30s are usually the time on weekdays when Dear2 bargains another 5 more minute of sleep from Dear1, but on this Sunday morning, we were already having a nice stroll in the park at 7.30am.

It’s all about what we want.   I want to cook a nutritious pot of vegetable soup for daddy and mummy and baby today so I was able to drag myself out of the cosy morning bed.  Conversely, there’s nothing that I want on weekdays when it’s all dread and gloom in the office, so it’s ‘another 3 more minutes, another 5 more minutes..’

Is there anybody who is truly happy doing what they do for a living?  Probably just a handful, I guess, and lucky are these people.  As for the rest of us, people who dread work for whatever reasons there may be, it’s time to get ourselves wanting something out of it.  Want to be a jawe – I am just a wage earner, or want to make the best out of this wretched situation.  Maybe if I can identify clearly what I want, waking up early on weekdays mornings will be just like waking up fresh on a Sunday morning….

- Dear2

Aussino Baby & Bath Fair!! 15 November, 2009

Posted by dear1dear2 in Baby, Dear2, Shop till you drop.
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Our loot from Aussino.

Aussino is having a Baby & Bath Fair now, with up to 50% off selected items!!

Dear1 and Dear2 are starting to buy baby essential stuff now, so Dear2 make it a point to get a copy of Thur and Fri’s Today during her lunch break, to spot any departmental store or warehouse weekend sale for that week.  But alas, the Fri’s Today was not there, either there was late delivery or that it was already all given out, so no choice, Dear2 had to make do with a MyPaper instead.  Flip flip flip, articles are not as nice, and there seems to be very few advertisements except for mostly furniture sales….  Hmm…. Oh, Aussino is having a Baby & Bath Fair with up to 50% discount, until 29 Nov.  Gotto let Dear1 know fast, haha!!

On the same evening, we headed into the Aussino branch at Westmall, and bought the following items, all at 50% off:

  • Baby Comforter set (comes with fitted sheet, pillow case with fill, bolster case with fill, bumper, comforter), UP $79.90.  Free: Matching Bib, UP $5.90
  • Cuddle Bath with Face Washer Set, UP $14.90
  • 6 piece Baby Face Washer Set, UP $11.90
  • 2 Deluxe Bath Towels, each UP $19.90

Total Damage: $73.25

Expensive!  But considering the number of items (2 bagfuls!), and that everything were at half price, it was a steal for mummy and daddy and baby, haha!

So, pop by your nearest Aussino branch now, and grab your baby and bath essentials while stocks last, haha!

- Dear2

Back from Penang and Sick, Week 24 14 November, 2009

Posted by dear1dear2 in Baby, Dear2.
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Dear1 and Dear2 returned from our Penang trip earlier in the week.  It was a relaxing and yummy trip.  Towards the end of the trip, Dear2 was just basically looking forward to meal times when the stalls open for business.  There were lots of walking done during the trip as taxis are too expensive in the island, the rarity of public transport was not an option for us, and anyway we had all the makan places nearby to Tune Hotel within Georgetown itself.  Dear2 concluded that the distance that she walked in that 4 days was much more than the total that she’d walked during the 5 months of her pregnancy (since discovering baby).

Dunno is it that work is just so xian, Dear2 fell sick almost immediately after coming back to Singapore.  We even had to bring forward the scheduled gynae’s appointment 1 day earlier as Dear2 was just feeling too unwell and faint with the running nose and sorethroat.  Though reluctant, gynae decided to prescribe Dear2 with iron pills, once every 2 or 3 days only as Thalassemic Dear2 cannot store iron very well anyway.

Dear1 and Dear2 were very happy to see baby in the scan again too.  Baby is now about 735g, slightly larger for a 24 weeks baby.  Previously, the scan always shows baby’s full view, now, gynae has to snap a few positions just to reveal the whole of baby.  My, baby is growing so rapidly now!!  Keke…  (And yes…. mummy is growing rapidly as well.  Dear2 has now officially crossed the 60kg mark, now at 60.4kg.  Huhuhu…)

Amidst the lethargyness from the running nose (or back to work?) this week, Dear2 was busy arranging collection of the spree loots.  Yeah, the breast pump, Papillo shoes, and Gymboree orders were shipped in and ready for collection, so definitely have to get my hands on the goods, after 3 weeks of excitement.  So far so good, all the purchases were suitable.  Dear2 was initially still apprehensive of ordering stuff online.  What if it’s the wrong size or an unsuitable product?  Luckily everything were good so far, so can be spared from Dear1’s scoldings, keke!  Hmm…. What else can I buy next? Hahahahaha…

- Dear2

Penang Trip Trivia 11 November, 2009

Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, Travel & Discovery.
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Things you might not know about our Penang Trip. :D

  1. We decided and put together the trip in 2 weeks.
  2. We initially wanted to go on the Royal Caribbean Cruise departing 17 Nov 09, which would have called at Penang, but the cruise had a policy that didn’t allow pregnant women beyond 24 weeks. Dear2 would be 26 weeks by then.
  3. We initially wanted a 4D3N trip to Penang and check with the Krisflyer redemption system. There were seats on a Friday departure and Monday arrival, perfect! We decided to get our company leaves approved first before booking. The next day, our leaves were approved and we logged in to Krisflyer again only to discover that the Monday flight was fully booked, so we had to settle for the Tuesday flight instead and needed to apply 1 more day of leave.
  4. We had to postpone our gynae appointment from Tuesday to Thursday becos of the flight change.
  5. Krisflyer redemption got us free tickets only, we still had to pay for the taxes. The taxes alone were more expensive than if we had travelled entirely on budget airlines. But we wanted to clear off our Miles before they expire.
  6. We also checked Tune Hotel’s availability on the night before we applied for leave. The next night, it was about RM20 more expensive, we quickly made our bookings.
  7. Dear2 did all the transportation research. ‘Standard’ taxi fares, ferry fares, CAT shuttle buses, etc.
  8. Penang roadsides are not luggage friendly, too many ups and downs.
  9. We bought 24 hrs of aircon credit at Tune Hotel.
  10. We used the aircon timer function to limit ourselves to 8 hrs of aircon per night.
  11. We cancelled 2 attractions visits during our trip due to renovations (Komtar Observation Deck and Penang Hill).
  12. Penang Hill Tram was opened in 1923, and had a number of breakdowns in recent years.
  13. We walked through Lorong Selamat 7 times.
  14. Char Koay Teow chilli smoke is very irritating on the eyes.
  15. We have a yearly end of the year ‘retreat’ where we would review our performance and set our goals for the coming year. 2007 was in Bintan, 2008 was in Ho Chi Minh City and 2009 was in Penang.
  16. Dear1 had a new catchphrase – Tee Nya Kueh!
  17. Some bottled water were filled with Reverse Osmosis Water or Treated Pipe Water. Take note!
  18. We caught 2 mosquitoes that flew in through our hotel room window.
  19. We bought a packet of joss sticks to pray at the Goddess of Mercy Temple. It was the first time we ever prayed together at a chinese temple.
  20. We hopped on the CAT buses 3 times.
  21. A number of toilets in Penang’s shopping malls require a 20 sens entrance fee. Some require 30 sens. The ones are Penang Times Square and Gurney Plaza were free to use.
  22. We requested for cold milk on our flight.
  23. The tourism counter at Penang airport had no maps. We only got our Penang travel map at the Komtar information counter.
  24. We walked through Jalan Rangoon 4 times.
  25. Traffic lights in Penang give pedestrians exactly 12 seconds to cross the road.
  26. We ate 16 Tan Boon Biah (half a box) before leaving Penang.
  27. We went to St George’s Church to take a rest and visit the toilet on 2 occasions. Both times there were events being held there and the participants gave us some curious looks.
  28. Ordering drinks is almost compulsory at every eating place we visited.
  29. Old Town White Coffee is the in thing right now, even the taxi driver said so. A glass of Classic White Coffee costs only RM3.80 before taxes.
  30. It rained twice while we were there.
  31. There are a lot of one-way roads in Penang which made travelling in taxi very confusing.
  32. We spent a total of RM157 on taxi.
  33. Food portions are about 2/3 the size of those in Singapore.
  34. We make an effort to avoid raw/half-cooked food and ice from roadside stalls to reduce the chances of food poisoning.
  35. We didn’t have any diarrhea despite eating at lots of roadside stalls.
  36. We only had 2 pillows so we hugged our spare clothes to sleep.
  37. When we first caught a glimpse of the Penang Bridge, Dear1 told Dear2 that the Penang bridge was 3km long. Later, Dear2 read in a brochure that Penang bridge is in fact 13.5km. So paiseh…
  38. There were Halloween celebrations everywhere becos it was Halloween weekend.
  39. We actually understood Penang Hokkien.
  40. Piping hot Tan Boon Biah straight from the oven is actually crispy! Yummy!
  41. We ate a total of 57 plates/bowls/packets of Penang food.
  42. At the airport, every tourist departing from Penang carried a bag of Tan Boon Biah to bring home.

-Dear1