This is the overall winner, 17-year-old James Rotanson from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent).

His award winning doddle is shown below.

Frankly, I think it looks awesome! But what I feel quite sad is when I see the rest of the winners in their respectively categories.

• Age group 4-6: Pradyot Dubey, DPS International School
• Age group 7-9: Quirsten Russel Magalong Fernandez, Coral Primary School
• Age group 10-12: Christel Gan, Fernvale Primary School, Singapore
• Age group 13-16: David De Guzman, West Spring Secondary School
• Age group 17-19: James Rotanson, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)

I am not discounting them because of their birth but it is sad because it seems that true Singaporeans are still not talented yet. We still require foreign talents, in this case, foreigners who probably gotten a Singapore citizenship and then decided to stay here for good. We keep complaining about the influx of foreign talents but look at this. Even the little ones from out there are beating the crap out of true blue Singaporeans.

Pity.

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How much are they selling?

Just $1060 for a 16GB model for the wifi model and $1200 for the 32GB model. That is about USD770 for something that is selling at US$499. A premium of USD270 or about SGD370? You probably could try to find means of shipping it by Fedex/DHL by air and it is still cheaper!

What a rip off.

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Yesterday's turn out was quite good. I arrived at about 845pm and by the time I left at 1020pm to meet up with a friend, there were almost 20 cars from the club. Nice turn out!

Took this before I left. About nine cars on one side...with 4 koups here...

Another nine cars over at the other side....

I like this shot. But it is not too good IMO. My skills have worsen. I used to be able to handhold shots at around 1/8 to 1/15. Now 70% of these shots are blur and shaky.

The butt view!

The loud revving lime green koup with thailand stickers. The yellow rims look very cool on the lime green koup. And I think he operated on his exhaust. A man with few words...like me.

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Unboxing the Canon 550D! I got the body only since I am not interested in either the 18-55 or the 18-135.

The standard items in the box.

And then I got this! EFS 10-22mm. I always wanted a wide angle lens so that I can cover a better area in an enclosed environment.

And tada! The new body with my new lens.

There was hardly any good chance to use the new camera body to the max. Hopefully, I can get to take more photos soon. I think my skills are getting rusty...very rusty...

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It stars Justin Bruening as Mike Traceur, the estranged son of Michael Knight and also stars Deanna Russo as Sarah Graiman, Traceur's former girlfriend and love interest.

The show is about a next generation car with out of the world most advanced artificial intelligence who is programmed to preserve human life. This was the second project after the first failed attempt. They call the car KITT, short form for Knight Industries Three Thousand. I love the red led scanning strips that is placed on the bonnet. That's real cool!

Anyway some screenshots of the show.

KITT in Normal mode! Mustang!

KITT in Attack mode!

It's pretty good but at 17 episodes only, it is quite short. The real fun was only about to start and the season ends. It also appears that there will not be another season for Knight Rider as it was canceled. What a pity....

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Fortunately, I got my COE for my KOUP at $18899 and bought the KOUP at $62999. It was considered not a good deal since we missed out the promotional price of $60999 at the road show. Many early birds got an even better deal at $57999 for the same model and specs.

Guess the price of a similar KOUP now?

It's $81,499.

A KIA Picanto, a budget compact car costs $65,999 which is more expensive than my Koup!

With the rising prices, I guess I got to stick with my 2 door white car for quite some time before I change my car again.

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Way to go KIA!

In this type of ranking tables, you normally see Toyota high up in the top selling models. I am quite surprised that the Korean makers have clinched the top 2 spots. With both KIA models, i.e. Cerato Forte and Koup, there is a total of more than 1200 cars sold! What is more surprising is that there are about 400+ KIA Koups being sold in Q1 2010. If we combine the sales in Q4 2009, there will probably be about 1000 KIA Koups on the road now.

Hopefully, with the increased popularity of the korean makes, we will have more accessories available for that market. Singapore motor accessory shops are still only selling more items customized for Japanese cars. I can't even find a proper headrest that is "customized for Korean cars"!

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Like many others, we booked the white color plus red leather seats. The red leather seats have a real plush feeling to it. Try it to believe!

This is how it looked like when we collected it at the Pandan Gardens C&C Collection Center. Fantastic white, smooth to touch with nicely wrapped and covered leather seats.

The butt of the new KIA Koup. Too many unnecessary badges/emblems!! I love the twin exhaust. It adds to the sporty look.

This has to be the best view I love about the KOUP. The side profile with its sloping lines and perky butt is elegant and yet quite sporty. We did not opt for the free solar film package since I wanted to do darker tints for my side windows.

Lovely car key. The keyless feature of the KOUP really saves me lots of trouble! No more fiddling in my pockets to find the car keys!

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And so, cheap price and I get to own a domain using my nick which has followed me for more than a decade. Why not?

With this new domain and also the end of all my Masters exams, I hope that I can find more time to pen down my thoughts.

Nice address, new beginning and oh, the next few months are really exciting. I am actually looking forward to Sept!

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So I bought a new GPS unit. Been wanting to have one for quite some time since my previous ride. I was always using built in GPS for my previous smartphones- Dopod D810, Samsung Omnia, HTC Touch HD and when I changed to Apple iPhone, I need to get a new software. Tom Tom will cost me USD$59.99. So what the hell. Might as well spare a few more bucks to buy a standalone GPS unit will BIGGER screen!

I was quite torn below Garmin and Holux. The two leading brands imo. Garmin, a US brand attract me mainly due to its branding and also that I have been toying with its software on my previous windows mobile phones.

More interestingly, HWZ recently crowned Holux 6210T as the best GPS device. That and some more recommendations from friends convinced me to concentrate on Holux. The MSRP for 6210T is $399. A little pricey but still ok. And so, I spent some time googling around and found this.

Seems like the only difference between the model 62E and 6210T is the live traffic update. Do I need that? Nah... And 62E seemed to have the faster processor!

And so, I bought it.

Holux 62E fresh out from Challenger @ SGD$279 member price. I saved like $100+!

Simple packaging. Just the device itself, lousy printed manual, car charger, windscreen holder and USB cable.

Mounted on my windscreen. Will try to take a better photo next time. Now I am torn between putting it smack right in the center of the dashboard or towards the right near the IU unit.

Hmmmmz.

I tried playing around with the features and I kinda like what I see. 3D view is cool. Junction view is also useful for road idiots like me. I HATE reading maps.

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My new car. KIA KOUP 1.6A. And in beautiful white.

She has been running for around 1800+km and eager for more!

Overall, I think it is a nice drive!

Many friends asked me...why KIA? *shrugs*

Take a look at the car and also the features yourself. You will know why I chose it.

Three words.

VALUE FOR MONEY.

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EOS550Dbrochure.pdf Download this file

Only thing is.

WHEN?

Check out the cool product brochure!

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And so here's me saying....

I GIVE UP!!!!

No more updates on the Korean trip anymore.

Besides, all the lovely photos are in my flickr and I am a lousy narrator. So pictures tell a thousand words.

CLICK HERE FOR 300+ photos!!!

And now, but to more interesting things as of late.

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We rest our night at Seoul palace hotel.

Lobby of Seoul Palace Hotel. Looks not too bad. Wonder how the rooms will look like.

I like the TV channels selection. Quite a number of channels that are in English. I came to always tune to this Korean channel Arirang which has some programs in spoken English.

Nice bed! And good sized pillows now.

LCD TV. This is becoming the norm for TVs everywhere. Except in my parent's house where they still use CRT TVs.

Hahaha. My favorite type of toilet bowl. Butt washing. Woohoo!

Rating for Seoul Palace Hotel : 4 / 5.

Next up...YongPyong Ski Resort, Day 4.

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The original looks straight from the PI. Of course, I changed the rims to bronze color immediately after collection so as not to have its value drop too much. An old friend, Jin Hao was with me when I collected the car. I still remembered how nervous I was when I entered the expressway for the first time. I was like crawling at probably 40-50km/h? But soon, I was driving 小黑 way past the limits.

And then, I added kits. Corrmann replica kit. Costed me like $1K+. Was extremely pleased with this bodykit looks that I continued with this bodykit throughout the span of driving it.

Some photos for memories.

With that huge ass bumper, it covered my stock exhuast completely. And off I went to install a titanium tip to the stock exhuast making it look more sporty.

But I was not really satisfied. I wanted to make 小黑 more fierce! To do that, I changed the exhuast to Remus exhuast system.

Changing to this bodykit has its problems too. The front and rear bumpers were too low for comfort. I cracked it accidentally a few times too. The worst was the few accidents I got into. Luckily no one was hurt.

This must have been the worst of all the accidents I have been into. The shell was ripped apart as if it was made of paper! The pick up that I scrapped into was not damaged at all!!! AMAZING! But it all got repaired. All these happened during my first year of driving.

This last photo is quite close to how it looked like when I handed over 小黑 to C&C to get 小白 koup. The only difference was that it was a lot more dirty, not as shiny, rims have been changed and windscreen banner removed.

An excellent car, great fuel economy but it has been through too much. Time to let it rest.

This should be the first and probably last compact hatch I will ever drive. Not that I dun like them, but I think I crave for boot space and want to try new types of cars.

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Korean Ginseng Chicken soup or 삼계탕 is normally served in summer for its nutrients, which replaces those lost through excessive sweating and physical exertion. The soup is made of a whole young chicken stuffed with glutinous rice and boiled in a broth of Korean ginseng, dried seeded jujube fruits, garlic and ginger. Other herbs might be added if necessary.

The shop where we savor the Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup. It is almost nine when we reached there and the place is still packed. We had to go up to the third storey to have our fix.

The boiling hot korean ginseng chicken soup. It actually tastes quite bland but the taste got better after adding the accompanying ginseng wine, it tasted better. Forgot to take photo of the glutinous rice inside. Aiyah.

Side dishes (cabbage kimchi and radish kimchi) and ramen to put it in the soup. The ramen taste surprisingly good. Well textured. The small cups are the ginseng wine cups.

A shot of the poster/menu in the restaurant.

Having cold ice cream whilst standing out in the harsh winter at -3 degrees is very shiok!!! In fact, eating ice cream makes you feel not so cold as your body temperature is now lowered. That is my melon ice cream. ^_^

Okay. More supermarket shopping. This time drinks galore, tasting drinks that I dun see in Singapore. That biscuit over at the extreme right is good! It cost only 1000 won = about SGD 1.20. You dun taste this anywhere esle in Singapore, a biscuit mixed with sugar and nice fragnant sesame taste to it. Delicious!

That's all for Day 3.

Next up...Seoul Palace Hotel, Day 3.

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Night view of Doota.

A snapshot of their food court. Similar to Everland, the concept is order and pay at the counter and then collect at the respective stall.

Another snapshot of their food court.

I love their toilets. All exceptionally clean and quite a number of it features ass washing jets. Woohoo. With a press of the button, you can wash your butt clean.

 My arty farty photo. Fail.

Rating for Dongdaemun Market : 3.5 / 5. We got our souvenirs here, plus the much needed ear muffles, and the cookie brownie. Pity that I didnt take a photo of it.

Next up...Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup w/rice Dinner, Day 3

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Making Kimchi session. Look at the plates. They all come with one section of the cabbage and a heap of kimchi sauce. Just apply it to the cabbage will do. More importantly, look at the blue cup with the misery small amount of milk. That is the Ginseng Milk in the itinerary. Quote the itinerary "You can also have a taste of Korean Ginseng Milk". SA Tours is not wrong you know. You really did have a taste. Word for word.

The photographer did take some nice photos of us with the kimchi. Kudos to her.

Wifey with her Kimchi.

Me with Kimchi.

And the last part here. We get to dress up in Korean Traditional Costume.

So what is really here? The whole making Kimchi thing is just a cover up to get you to buy their Kimchi in bulk. You cannot just buy one. You have to get 5, free 1 = six. And they are not exactly cheap. Me no love for kimchi.

Rating for Making Kimchi : 3 / 5. At least I get to see myself in a "Korean Traditional Costume"

Next up...Dongdaemun Market, Day 3.

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And someone made a cute little snowman out in front of the hotel lobby.
.
Simple snowman but hey, that is my first snowman I have seen in flesh. They could have used stones for the eyes and mouth though. Hmmm.

Group photo! Cannot remember the names for the first couple on the left. The two ladies beside us are Yinmei and Priscilla, really nice ladies. Lots of our photos are taken by them! Thanks!

Off we go to Everland! Everland is South Korea's largest theme park and even includes a zoo and a water park. Everland is operated by Samsung Everland, a subsidiary of the Samsung Group. The scale of Everland is comparable to Disneyland, even the themes looks rather similar.

 
The only group shot of all the 30 people in my tour group. Quite a nice mix of ppl except one irritating boy that keeps talking and talking. Arggh. I need peace.

We didnt play much in Everland. We only had about four hours to spend in everland and the queues are horrible. Festive season I guess.

First thing...up the slope to the recommended snowbuster.

Wifey Hazel with our snow sledges getting ready to slide down. No kick le!

View of the snowbuster slope. Not very steep = not that much thrill!

The queue took almost 40 mins for a less than 1 min ride down the slope. And it's lunch time! This time no packaged lunch. We have to buy lunch for ourselves.

We had lunch in a "food court" kinda place. You need to place your order and pay at the counter and then collect your food at the stall.

I had seafood fried rice. Not very seafood to me. Two prawns maybe and the sauce taste kimchi-ish. And it doesnt taste fried cos the whole rice is like sloggy.

Hazel had this. Some chicken dish I think. Cannot remember, maybe later she will comment.

Rating for this meal : 2 / 5. Food to avoid being hungry and to keep ourselves warm in the heated environment.

After the meal, we rush to queue up for the safari ride. I was so happy that the queue looks so short but it actually leads all the way in. I think we probably queue almost 75mins for the ride.

Fake short queue. ARgh.

One interesting animal here. The "Liger". The liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion and a tigress. It is also the largest cat in the world.

The liger! It really looks rather huge as compared to a tiger or lion. Just look at the paws. I think the paw can cover my whole face. The lines also gets progressively darker towards the rear of the liger. A sight to behold. Too bad it was just lying down there. It would have been quite magnificent if the liger was moving around, prancing elegantly.

White tiger! Eleven of them. The white is really nice with the backdrop of the botak trees.

And dancing bears. The driver will shout commands to the bears and throw treats at them. Some of them will turn in circles on two legs, others will wave their paws, etc. The commentary was in Korean so of course, I didnt catch a single word of it.

This is the safari bus that we sat in to view the animals. Nice right.

Wifey posing in Everland. That is all we did in Everland.

Rating for Everland : 2.5 / 5. Too short time given to play enough rides. We didnt even have time to see the rides there! One whole day in Everland would have been more appropriate.

To be cont'd....Making Kimchi, Day 3

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View from the living room into the bedroom. This are two tvs in our hotel room. And the floor can be heated up for sleeping on tatamis!

Our room comes complete with a internet capable PC for surfing. We didnt really get to use much of it but it is great that it comes with internet!

Nice comfy bed with ridiculously small pillows. Koreans' heads are smaller????

Nice rain shower and a completely seperate bathtub area. BIG BIG Bathroom!

The view out of our hotel window. Peaceful and quiet. No snoring!!!

Rating of Decksan Spa Resort Hotel : 5 / 5. It has everything! More like a suite than a room! What more to ask?

Both of us did not went for either the theme park nor the spa as we were both too tired from the lousy sleep last night caused by the snoring monster. We just stayed in the hotel and rest. Anyway, it was christmas and the crowds in the spa is too much. I did not regret not going out to the spa or the water theme park. Not too keen on it also.

We waited till dinner time and went down for dinner. This is our dinner. Steamboat with different fungi and the standard side dishes. The lotus roots were quite nice, sweet to the taste. Soup was also rather delicious due to the amount of golden mushrooms. I LOVE THEM!

Rating for the meal : 3.5 / 5 since it has the mushrooms I like!

The night view of the spa resort. The best part of it? It snowed! The first time I am seeing real snow in my life and not those fake soapy foam bubbles in Sentosa or Orchard Road. The feeling is really therapeutic. The little snow flakes just flies in the air and sways whenever there is just a slight wind. A sight to behold for a guy that lives in the hot humid Singapore.

Merry Christmas....or belated Merry Christmas!

Overall Rating for Decksan : 4 / 5 because I saw snow there first time!

To be cont'd....Everland Resort, Day 3

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