Green Rage

While there were reports recently about road rage across the Causeway, I also want to alert Singaporean golfers about ‘green’ rage on the golf course. Last week, my wife and I went to a golf resort in Johor hoping to have a nice golf getaway. What happened on the green made us think twice about risking it again. At one of the holes, I had the unusual luck of driving the ball beyond my normal range and it landed about 20m from the flight in front. This flight consisted of four men in their forties. I realised it and we shouted and waved our hands at them as an apology. One of the men reciprocated by hitting my ball into the rough and armed with their clubs, they then charged at us in their buggies. They got off the buggies and a slew of vulgarities followed. With their clubs they threatened to beat us up. Naturally, my wife was terrified as this was a quiet weekday afternoon and we were in the middle of a forest where there were just the two of us besides the men. We could not reason with them. To avoid violence, we took off in our buggy but they were hot on our heels spewing more vulgarities until we reached the clubhouse. We hope fellow Singaporeans take extra precautions should they go golfing across the Causeway as there are hooligan golfers there.

Oh Lian Chye

Singapore signs contract for 12 F-15SG fighters

By Robert Karniol JDW Asia-Pacific Editor
Bangkok

 
Singapore will acquire 12 Boeing F-15SG fighters for delivery in 2008/09 under a contract concluded on 12 December, with the option to order a further eight platforms.

“The F-15SG, which has a configuration unique to Singapore, will be the most advanced variant of the F-15 and will operate as the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s (RSAF’s) next-generation multirole fighter jet,” Singapore’s Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) said while announcing the contract.

Analysts are confident that Singapore will eventually take up its option to acquire the additional eight F-15SGs, making a total acquisition of 20.

However, it is unclear whether this will be followed by any additional procurements of this aircraft.

The RSAF is thought to require another 20 advanced fighters when it replaces the F-5S Tiger II air-defence/attack aircraft around 2015.

More F-15SGs are one option but the RSAF could instead opt for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) in combination with unmanned aerial vehicles.

http://www.janes.com/defence/air_forces/news/jdw/jdw051213_1_n.shtml

Travelling

“Once you get home, nobody will be remotely interested in what you did or what you saw. Why should they be? All they’ll want to know is whether or not you ‘had a good time’, and your notion of a ‘good time’ is unlikely to be theirs. The best kind of traveller is a thief on the prowl, looking for illuminating moments. Travelling, unlike tourism, is just living more intensely, freed for a short time from the constraints of being whoever it is we’re accustomed to thinking we are. It’s being on the prowl, beholden to nobody, for the beautiful self we’d forgotten was locked up inside us.”

Robert Dessaix in “The Age” newspaper, 18.ix.04.

NT returns!

Alamak! My good old hosting company Sphereosoft pulled the plug on me. Or rather, Pacific Internet pulled the plug on them because they didn’t pay money to Pacific Internet.

So all their servers were held hostage by Pacific Internet. A no-win situation for either.
For the curious, visit
http://forums.vr-zone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=65064
http://www.sgwebhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=8476

Efforts to contact my old hosting company and emails to Pacific Internet have gone unanswered. Since I’m out of jurisdiction, I think too troublesome to sue. So I’ve shifted over to Swiftroute which is reputed to have a better track record and service standards. A little bit more expensive, but what you pay is what you get.

But money cannot compensate the fact that all the data from my previous blog is lost… ;(

This of course, doesn’t really matter, because very soon, I will be putting more information on this site.