Cruise Vacation

Time flies and its nearing the end of the year again. To us, Singaporeans, this is the time to relax and unwind. This period also coincides with the festive season (e.g. Oktoberfest, Christmas, New Year Countdown). Because of the year end school holiday and festive season, most people would choose to go for an overseas trip since our country is so small and attractions are pretty limited and costly. For most of us, overseas trip would involve taking a plane to another country, stay for a day or two in one place and travel to another place by road, rail or even plane. Such travel plan is a norm since we want to visit as many places as possible within a limited time. With a strong currency exchange value, cost is not really an issue for long trips but rather the limited annual leaves which working professionals in Singapore can afford to take or be away from work. However, if you just looking for a short and relaxing trip to unwind, why not consider going on a cruise?

There is a local myth saying that going on a cruise trip is equivalent to going on a gambling trip. Well, if that is the case, it would also imply that staying in or visiting any of the Integrated Resorts here is for gambling purpose only. Certainly this is not true although there are some people who does that solely for the purpose of gambling only. The point I am trying to get across is that like the Integrated Resorts that we have here, cruise vessels also provide many other form of facilities and entertainments which passengers of all ages get to enjoy and best of all, at affordable prices.

The cruise vessel itself is a hotel cum transportation. It will take you to some places for visiting without the hassle of packing and moving your heavy suitcases around. Along the way when the vessel is out at the open sea or after returning from a day of land tour, you can simply relax and enjoy the facilities and entertainments provided on board. Most cruise vessel would provide the following facilities.

Food & Beverages

Food is inclusive and is usually served both in the main dining hall or cafeteria. Passengers have the option of having a three course meal in the main dining hall served by waiter/waitress or dine in a causal buffet-style manner in a cafeteria. Buffet style dining offers a wide variety of choices for Western and Asian dishes. Aside from compliment dining, passengers may choose to dine in posh restaurants which offers French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese etc cuisines. Cruise vessels operated by Americans also offers fast food and Starbucks coffee at a premium price. Regular coffee, tea and hot chocolate are usually available free-of-charge but alcoholic beverages are payable. Most vessels would provide complimentary snacks (eg. pizza, hot-dog bun, cookies etc) round the clock.


Entertainments

Most cruise vessels provide complimentary night performances by their own crew or guest performers. Performances may also include magic shows or band singing at the poolside. For passengers who prefer a quiet moment, there is library with Internet facilities available. Internet service is very costly on board. Sometimes, the crew on board would organise activities like treasure hunt, wine tasting, health talk etc to keep passengers occupied. There is also casino to cater for gambling addicts.

 
Sports & Wellness

Sports facilities like swimming pool, spas, basketball court and gymnasium are usually provided so that sports enthusiasts do not have to break their routine sports regime while on vacation. Newer cruise vessels may even have a rock climbing wall or ice-skating rink.


Shopping

Most cruise vessels have duty-free shops on board where passengers can purchase items like wines, clothing, watches, souvenirs and even tobacco. Due to the duty-free restriction, these shops can only operate when the cruise vessel is cruising in international waters. The same rule applies for the operation of casino on the vessel.


If you can afford the time, going on a longer cruise trip can be exciting as you will be waking up each morning in different locations. However, the disadvantages of cruising include longer traveling time to get to a destination and only certain destinations which are near to the sea port are accessible. In most cruise itineraries, the cruise vessel would arrive and depart from the same location within the same day which results in lesser time for passengers to spend on shore excursions, not to mention additional time spent on immigration procedures (may be necessary depending on the local immigration procedures) and in certain location where the vessel is unable to dock at the port, it is necessary for passengers to take small boats for disembarkation and embarkation. If you are planning for a short weekend getaway trip, why not consider a cruise vacation which your family members, young and old will enjoy?

Love Never Dies

Most of us know that The Phantom of the Opera musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber is so successful that it still achieves full-house ticket sales for performances anywhere in the world after more than 2 decades. However, not many people especially in Singapore are aware that there is another musical known as Love Never Dies which is a sequel to this greatest love story in the previous century. As an avid fan of musicals, I want to share with fellow fans of the Phantom musical who aren't aware about it.

 
Before I share the storyline for this Love Never Dies musical, lets recap the ending for The Phantom of the Opera musical.

Main Characters:

• Erik (the Phantom) who was known as "Angel of Music" to Christine.
• Christine Daae, the young Swedish soprano singer at the Paris Opera House whom the Phantom fell in love with.
• Raoul, Christine's childhood friend who eventually became her husband.
• Madame Giry, the mistress of the Opera House.
• Meg Giry, Madame Giry's only daughter who is also a ballet girl in the Opera House

The previous story ended with the Phantom capturing Christine and when Raoul tried to rescue Christine, he was captured too and almost killed by the Phantom. After Christine finally kissed the Phantom to declare her love for him, he was so touched and remorseful that he decided to free the two of them. The Phantom managed to escape and only his mask was found.

The story continues as Raoul and Christine eventually got married. Thereafter, they had a son called Gustave who was also a gifted soprano boy. The Phantom fled to Coney island (unfortunately not the one in Singapore!), somewhere near New York, USA in which he opened Phantasma, a palace of circus-like curiosities and entertainment. Patrons and performers knew him as "Mr Y".

The Phantom thought of Christine almost everyday and wanted her to sing for him again. In the musical, this scene was depicted by the song "Till I Hear You Sing" which is one of my favourite. It was sung by Ramin Karimloo who played the Phantom in this musical at West End (London).

The MTV version of "Till I Hear You Sing" by Ramin Karimloo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47dUc4iMAvQ

The West End Musical version of  "Till I Hear You Sing" by Ramin Karimloo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2PcUa79u8w

Madame Giry and her daughter, Meg followed the Phantom to USA as Giry hoped that Meg would be able to inherit the Phantom's fortune. However, when the Phantom anonymously invited Christine Daae to sing for him as the star attraction of the summer vacation season, Giry's hope was dashed.

Christine, Raoul and their 10 years old son, Gustave arrived in Coney island without knowing the true identity of Mr Y who invited them over. When the Phantom met Christine, he reveled himself and confessed that he still love her and wanted to be with her. The more shocking truth was that the Phantom actually had a sexual affair with Christine a night before her wedding in Paris. The desperate Phantom then challenged Raoul about Gustave's paternity and Christine's affection. He decided to end the confrontation with a bet; if Christine sings on stage, as agreed, she belongs to the Phantom; if she refuses, Raoul has won.

Once again, Christine was torn between the Phantom and Raoul and she knew her decision would determine the future for her and Gustave. As the stage awaited Christine, she appeared and sang for the Phantom. Knowing that he had lost Christine, Raoul returned to Paris without bringing Gustave along. Meg Giry, on knowing that she would lose her inheritance to Gustave, had snatched the boy and taken him to a point at the water's edge known as "Suicide Hall," where she planned to drown him. The Phantom and Christine managed to find her. During their confrontation, Meg revealed the gun which she was carrying. A stand-off occurred and ended with an accidental gunshot. The victim was Christine. At the time of dying, she shared a last kiss with the Phantom and revealed that Gustave's biological father was the Phantom. Gustave found it hard to accept the truth at first but eventually accepted the Phantom as his father.

Watch the scene of Christine singing for the Phantom till the ending of the story here. I believe this is the Australian production of the musical.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJEOQ6ecHb8

The theme song for this musical (the one that Christine sang for Phantom on stage) has the same title. I simply love the version of this song sung by Sierra Boggess (the pretty soprano who played the role of Christine in the London production of this musical) with the compose Andrew Lloyd Webber playing the piano.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_4fo5KSnQk

Unfortunately, if you are an avid fan like me who wanted to watch this musical so much, I think it would probably take 10 years before coming to Singapore. It was first shown in West End (London) theatres in 2010, followed by Melbourne and Sydney in 2011 and 2012 respectively, Copenhagen in 2012 and 2013, Vienna in 2013 and Tokyo in 2014. Like all other musicals, Singapore is always the last few countries where such new musical performances are held. In Asia, cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei and Hong Kong are ahead of Singapore for musical performances. I believe the reason is because of the small market base we have here due to our small population size and also generally people in Singapore do not appreciate western musicals as much. Even my favourite British singer, Sarah Brightman (as mentioned in one of my previous post) seems to receive more support in China and Taiwan rather than Singapore. Hence, as far as I know, Sarah never holds any concert here. By the way, Sarah Brightman once played the role of Christine Daae in the earliest production for The Phantom of the Opera.
 
What are your thoughts regarding this storyline for the sequel of the world's greatest love story? Perhaps you would like to leave some comments ...

Australian Production
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOUFflTzYnM
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwCVw1WdR5A
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzDJgQMe34g
Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJEOQ6ecHb8

Scarborough Fair

As mentioned in one of my previous post, my English name, Royston probably created my affinity with British culture. An example of such affinity is my liking for this song known as "Scarborough Fair". There are several singers who sung this song but Sarah Brightman is my favourite and best of all, she is a British too.

Most of us listen to songs and probably anyone that does it has his/her own list of favourite songs but how many of us will attempt to find out and understand the meanings of our favourite songs? After all, all songs are written to convey certain meanings or story.

In the case of "Scarborough Fair", lets first examine the song title. According to Wikipedia, Scarborough Fair is a seaside town in Yorkshire, England where merchants from nearby region would gather for an annual trading event during medieval time. However, Scarborough Fair is also a traditional ballad (folk song) of Great Britain that relates a story of a man instructing his former love to complete a series of impossible tasks before he could accept her back.

*Lyrics of the song are in Italics font.

Are you going to scarborough fair
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine

The meaning for the second line of the lyrics has also been also widely debated. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme are herbs and during those days, they are used as symbol of what someone has to say or felt about someone or something (similar to giving flowers in modern context). Parsley is for removing bitterness, sage is for cleansing, thyme is for courage and rosemary is for love.

The rest of the lyrics describe the impossible tasks.

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Without no seams nor needlework
Then she'll be a true love of mine

Tell her to find me an acre of land
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Between the salt water
And the sea strand
Then she'll be a true love of mine

Tell her to reap it
With a sickle of leather
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
And gather it all in a bunch of heather
Then she'll be a true love of mine

You may have wondered at this point, after knowing the meaning of this song, how a lady like Sarah Brightman sung this song when the story is about a man rejecting a lady. The answer is pretty straightforward. Whenever there is a "her" or "she" in the lyrics, substitute them with "him" and "he" accordingly.

You may want to listen to the song here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOvxOawslVE

I simply love Sarah Brightman's version of this song as it somehow "reflect" traditional English culture very well. Now you can imagine how much I like English culture, do you?

I am looking forward to sing this song the next time I go KTV.

Anyway, perhaps you should start finding out the meaning of your favourite songs.

Healthier Food Choices

As mentioned before in one of my previous post, Singapore is a multiracial society with people from different culture living together in harmony. Hence, people in Singapore enjoy a great variety of food which each culture has to offer. However, are we choosing the correct healthier food alternatives? The Health Promotion Board authority has been helping by allowing this symbol to be indicated on food products which are deemed as healthier food choice.

An ex-colleague of mine, like most Singaporeans believe in the myth that western food constitute everything fried and therefore unhealthy to consume often. I shall prove this myth wrong in the following dish.

This is a dish which is served in one of the famous western food chain restaurants here. It consists of tenderly grilled chicken breast meat topped with creamy, flavorful Victoria sauce, served with seasonal vegetables and fries. Perhaps replacing the fries with mashed potatoes would make this dish a more healthier choice. Certainly, this dish dispel the myth that western food constitute everything fried which most Singaporeans think so. I believe this myth exist due to the fact that most western food stalls in hawker centres or coffeeshops serve all fried items. There are in fact healthier alternatives like salads and sandwiches for western food. In fact, I think generally western food are healthier than our local food. Do you think a plate of nasi lemak, char kuay teow or roti prata is healthier than a plate of seafood or chicken pasta?

The point which I want to conclude is that regardless of the type of food, there are always the healthy and unhealthy side.

Here are some characteristics which I noticed for various type of food.

Chinese (China, Hong Kong and perhaps Taiwan) food are generally very oily and high in cholesterol as the Chinese people eat practically almost everything such as pig internal organs. When I visited Hong Kong many years ago, the Omelette which is served in restaurant contains more oil than our local fried chicken and I could feel the oil gushing into my mouth for every bite. Despite that, it wasn't oily enough that their locals need to dip their food into oil to enhance the flavour.

Japanese food seem healthy as most dishes are raw or steamed instead of fried and the ingredients are mostly healthy too, However, the monosodium glutamate level is quite high especially in the soup.

Malay and Indian food consist of mostly fried items and generally spicy. The usage of coconut in cooking thee dishes also constitute to high cholesterol. 

As far as I can remember from a health advertisement, here are some examples of choosing healthier alternatives for breakfast.

Chinese
Congee instead of Fried Carrot Cake

Western
Oats instead of American Breakfast (Ham, Egg, Sausages)

Malay
Mee Siam instead of  Nasi Lemak

Indian
Chappati instead of Roti Prata

If you aren't food conscious, perhaps you should start choosing healthier alternatives today as diet plays an important factor in your health.

Plight of Technical Workers

Technical workers form the backbone of our economy and contribute a lot to the convenience for our daily lives. Examples of technical workers which I am referring to here are technicians, engineers and programmers. Obviously, there are professionals which local Singaporeans shunt due to unpleasant work nature (eg. dirty working environment, long working hours, tedious detailed work etc) and most importantly, low wage and less glamorous prospect.

A good example to illustrate how important a technician/engineer's job is the maintenance of elevators which are essential in a city like Singapore which is dominated by tall buildings. Obviously, the breakdown of elevators causes lots of inconvenience.

Another example is the hard work by IT programmers to develop software applications to streamline our work processes and enhance productivity. Besides using these applications for official matters, applications like Facebook and Whatsapp also enhances the quality of our daily lives. In fact, if these applications were to be down for several minutes, people simply cannot perform their routine tasks smoothly. For example, a glitch in the check-in application of an airline causes flight delay or transportation workers unable to retrieve goods from the wharf when the permit processing system is down. If social media applications like Facebook and Whatsapp were to be down even for a day, it would be like the end of the world for many youngsters. We are in fact so reliant on technology that we simply cannot survive without it.

OK ... back to the topic, this post is not discussing about our reliant on technology but rather the professionals who work hard to make technology work for us. They work very hard to ensure technology stays available 24 by 7 and are also required to be on standby in case of sudden breakdown. Despite the tedious nature of the job, technical workers are still relatively lowly paid and worse of all being marginalised. For example, in a non-IT organisation, IT staff are often considered a burden or overhead as they do not bring in sales or earn revenue for the organisation. Likewise whenever there are any IT problems that occur, they get the blame very quickly. The management will generally allocate lesser budget to the IT department compared to those revenue generating ones. IT staff may probably receive lesser variable bonus compared to fellow colleagues in revenue generating departments.

Perhaps another real-life example is the maintenance of our train system. I believe that if more budget is spent on hiring more experienced engineer/technicians, purchasing more reliable spares and equipments and maybe sending the team for training to upgrade their skills would definitely result in lesser breakdowns. An incentive scheme could also be introduced to reward staff if zero or minimum breakdown is achieved.

These are only some examples which we I know of and I believe there are many other professions out there that suffers similar plight. We should learn to be more appreciative and respectful for all professions out there!

Feel free to comment on my posts as I have allowed anonymous comments as well. However, please be respectful to me, yourself and other readers when commenting. I noticed there was someone who clicked on +1 for 2 of my previous posts and I would like to thank him/her. Please drop me a message or comment as I would like to know who you are :)

Food Hygiene

We all know that Singapore is a multiracial society with people from different culture living together in harmony. Hence, people in Singapore enjoy a great variety of food which each culture has to offer and eating is considered one of our national past time. It is therefore not surprising to find makan (eating) places almost anywhere in Singapore. However, how many people here place great emphasis on food hygiene? This is an area which I feel is still lacking in Singapore.

Although the government authority, National Environment Agency (NEA) set hygiene guidelines and conduct hygiene checks on food operators, cases of rats and cockroaches appearing in makan places are still commonly reported. Lately there was a case of cockroaches being spotted at a food court within a well-known iconic Singapore tourism landmark. This was not a one-off isolated case of hygiene standard violations. Some time back, a cross-contamination of raw and cooked food in the refrigerator of a stall in a hawker centre killed one person and resulted in a few others ended up in hospital due to food poisoning. Soon after that, cases of rats appearing in several makan places were reported. There are perhaps many more such cases out there yet to be discovered. I have personally witness several cases which I am going to share here.

As my previous workplace is located in close proximity to a tertiary institution, makan places within its campus naturally became one of our favourite lunch venues due to the cheaper prices of food and the variety of cuisines. One day, I came across a new zi char (stir-fry food) stall in the canteen of a residence hall of the campus. Since the dishes appearing on the menu looked appetizing, I decided to give it a try. The stall was operated by 2 foreign men, one was cooking and the other was taking order. The guy who took my order collected money from me with his bare hands. After doing so, he opened the refrigerator to take raw ingredients, placed them on a plate and pass to the guy who was cooking. Apparently, this guy didn't have time to wash his hands after collecting money but at least he should have used gloves when taking raw ingredients.

The second case happened at the canteen in one of my customer's premises where I saw rats entering the canteen via a drain. Diners inside were totally unaware and happily enjoying their meals. After returning from my lunch, I informed my customer about this incident and they were not surprised as according to them this wasn't the first time they had seen rats appearing. I was told that rats do appear in their offices too.

Despite inspection by the authority, why are such cases still being commonly reported? Are there flaws in the inspection process or guidelines? I am in no position to answer since I have no idea about them and is neither an expert in this area. My personal observation is that our hygiene rating seem to take the cleanliness of the makan place into consideration but not the food handling process.

Origin of Your Name

From a public speaking seminar I attended recently, I learn that a good topic to discuss during ice-breaking session is to tell people the origin of your name.

As required by legislation, everyone regardless of nationality, race, religion or social status must have a name. If you are an IT programmer, you would associate a person's name to a variable name in a computer program, which is used to uniquely identify an object. In this case, its a good practice to have a meaningful name for the variable so that the codes can be read and understood easily. However, a person's name cannot uniquely identify the person and is usually given based on background or cultural belief.

Lets get to the main topic which I shall first tell you how I got my English name, Royston. This English name of mine was actually given by my godmother who is a good friend with my mum since school days. Perhaps as Singaporeans, we always use the term, Christian name when we refer to English names like "Peter, David, Mary, Jane" and so on. I feel that the correct term should be English name as having such western names doesn't equate the person as devoted to the Christian faith. My mum felt Royston was a unique name and liked it so much that she decided to register it as my official name which would subsequently appear in all official documents like identity card and educational certificates. However, my paternal grandparents disliked the idea of a Chinese having western name. As a result, only my Chinese name was registered officially.

In fact, my English name wasn't used until my uni days in Australia. Westerns always find it hard to pronounce foreign names especially Chinese ones. Hence, having an English name in a foreign or international environment would enable others to remember and called out easily without hassle.

I wonder how many people out there would attempt to find out the origin of their name, whether English or native. I am such a person who will do so. According to Wikipedia, Royston is actually the name of a town in south eastern England. From what I read, a lady by the name of Roisia erected a cross at a prominent junction in the town which gives it name. Hence, Royston is also referred to as "Royse Stone". After knowing this story, I believe that the origin of a person's name will influence his/her characteristics as my English name associates me with England and somehow determine my affinity with English cultures. This is true as I like watching English musicals, consume western food and pastries and culture.

Start finding the origin of your name today and you could be amazed by the findings!

My First Blog Post & Mobile App

Hello and a warm welcome to viewers out there, this is my very first blog entry. The first time I tried blogging was after my final semester examination in uni. At that time, several female were blogging out their love stories and I joined in the fun since there weren't anything much to do after exams. Unfortunately after returning to my home country and starting to struggle in the corporate world, there isn't much stuffs to blog about or simply no time to do it. However, since this blogging facility is bundled together with Google account, I shall make it a point to blog as and when there is any interesting stuffs to share.

OK ... here is my first blog entry.

Mobile apps (running on smartphones) are getting increasingly popular these days. Most organisations would like to create their own mobile app for sharing and collecting information. The customers or end-users on the other hand would benefit from this value-add service or rather essential service which the organisation is expected to provide. Nowadays, some youngsters even find it uncool not to have wireless 3G/4G connection, not to mention being smartphone-less. As such, being a trained and qualified programer, there is no reason for me not to try my hand at developing mobile app. Currently as far as I know, there are 2 platforms for mobile app which is Android and iOS. I chose Android platform as it is more popular and easier to find resources compared to iOS.

The first official mobile app I created is known as the "Compatibility Rating" app which is a horoscope app to determine compatibility rating among a couple. It is a simple app that reads both date of births, post them to the horoscope site (http://www.cafeastrology.com/compatibilityrating.html), retrieves the result and display it on the smartphone screen. The user has the option to click a button and select whether to share the result via email or whatsapp. I chose to follow Western horoscope over Chinese one because in my opinion, Western horoscope seem more accurate. Chinese horoscope is more abstract as the compatibility matching is based on the year of birth (animal zodiac).

I have no intention of submitting this app to Google Play store as I believe there are already many such apps available out there with more features. Moreover, there may be issue with the terms of use as the result are retrieved from a horoscope site not owned or controlled by me. Although it is very simple, at least this is the first humble mobile app which I developed myself.

Kudos to a friend of mine who installed this app on her smartphone and helped me test it out!

That's all for my first blog entry and hope the content does not disappoint you.