mrbrown's blog containing his popular and satirical musings on the dysfunctional side of Singapore life, and Home of the National Conversation since 1997.
Update: The original video was made private but I found another copy of it on Youtube and replaced it.
This song was sung by Labour Chief Lim Swee Say and directors at an NTUC event (NTUC is our pro-business and at the same time, pro-worker union, one of the 7 Wonders of the Modern World).
After extensive watching and rewatching of this epic video (I took one for the team), I think the lyrics of the NTUC song go something like this:
Upturn the Downturn
In this downturn, workers may feel sad
When its upturn, we will all be glad
Go for help and e2i
Or call union hotline
Cut costs save jobs good for Singapore
With some help from SPUR and also Jobs Credit
U Care Fund and all our SEs
For U, from U
Let us stand in pride and unity
We are pro-workers oi oi
We are pro-business oi oi
Upturn the downturn.
I loved the bit at 1:14 where Josephine Teo held her hands up for a High Ten, and er...
Our first in a series of video vignettes taking a behind-the-scenes look at Singapore's National Day Parade 2009. I got a chance to hang out with the Combined Schools' Choir.
I just love the ingenuity of the fans. We suspected sooner or later, someone would take our silly parody song and sync it to the addictive Wonder Girls music video. This time, there wasn't just one video, there were two. Both with karaoke lyrics for your singalong pleasure.
I have to say though, hearing our guy voices matched to the lovely Wonder Girls dancing was a little... disconcerting.
Now, what I really want to see is a video where YOU, gentle reader/listener DANCE your version of the Wash Your Hands Too song.
With so many of you talented dancers out there, I am sure you can come up with some cool dance moves to go with the song. Hahaha!
We rode the streets, clad in white, red and white lights blinking, to honor the cycling dead and injured. It was a overwhelming response of more than 400 cyclists on a weeknight. Here's a little video of the evening.
About 200 400 cyclists descended on Merlion Park in Singapore for Ride of Silence. Dressed in white and on all kinds of bikes, we rode to honour those who have been injured or killed while cycling on the road, and to raise awareness of bicycle safety.
I think the organisers did not expect this many riders to come down on a weekday night for this. It was a sea of helmets, white tops and red blinky lights. There were road bikes, mountain bikes, folding bikes, cruisers, fixies, downhill bikes, and even a couple of unicycles. Despite the large turnout, things went without much of a hitch, except maybe for some waiting.
It was great feeling to ride together with others, not in any kind of race, but just to be part of the traffic. For a daily commuter like me, it was nice to not be alone on the street for once but part of a group of cyclists.
I also think many have never been to Merlion Park before, judging from the photos being taken. A bit the swaku, we are. Singaporeans never see the need to visit the Merlion, I reckon. So this was probably a good opportunity as ever to see it.
The route we rode is pretty familiar to me. Fullerton Road, North Bridge Road, Cantonment Road, Tiong Bahru, Leng Kee, Holland, Napier, Orchard, Dhoby Ghaut and back to the Merlion Park. Many of these roads I ride almost weekly for some reason or other. But this is my first time riding with others. We were like a ragtag fleet of riders, like the ships of Battlestar Galactica.
I was in the last batch to move out, and I rode with some foldie riders and we were mostly in front of our pack. One mountain biker remarked to me that he never expected folding bikes with such small wheels to go so fast. While we foldies were fascinated with the fixie riders and their one-speed bikes that could go like the wind.
It was a hot and balmy night for a ride, but the camaraderie made up for it. Kudos to the folk who put this event together.
We finally finished editing the footage from our little London performance. Here it is in four parts. Shot with a Canon Legria HF S10 camcorder and Creative Vado HD pocket video camcorder.
I didn't know whether to be proud or mad at Isaac, so I took his photograph, uploaded it to Twitter, then told him, "Next time don't do that in the middle of your lunch, ok?"
Update: We have someone from Microsoft clarifying the CIBAI thing. Verdayne Nunis says:
"Ok, Ok...Now that everyone has had some fun at Microsoft's expense, here's the official explanation. CIBAI stands for “Class Invariants By Abstract Interpretation”. It's not a Microsoft app or product but the title of an academic paper by a researcher prior to joining Microsoft. Microsoft allows our researchers to post their past papers on our site, to enable the public to search across these researchers’ entire body of prior work. However, it does not represent work that has been done or is currently being done at Microsoft. It was unintentional but we will look into removing the acronym from our website shortly."
Singaporean tweeters discovered that one of the top topics on Twitter was... CIBAI.
No really, I kid you not.
It is the name of a Microsoft app, an "abstract interpretation-based static analyzer for modular analysis and verification of Java classes".
Of course, how can the Singaporean twitter community pass up the opportunity to contribute to the discussion? Here are some of our Tweets on CIBAI.
@mrbrown: Dear USA tweeters. Let Singapore teach you the real #cibai. CIBAI is actually a warm Asian greeting. Try it the next time you meet someone!
@ruiwen: Wondering if #microsoft's #cibai has support for plugins
@micketymoc: @mrbrown you're so right! last time i tried to greet someone CIBAI, he gave me a hand signal that suggested I was number one!
@lennel: Hello tech support? my copy of #cibai not working. Can you perform finger and see if you can detect it?
@mizhalle My friend just said: My CIBAI got virus!!
@Wolfgang_: I would like to mount my hard drive and then fire up #cibai on my lap...
And so on and so forth. Proving once more "that the Twittersphere has the collective maturity of a twelve-year-old". Heck, someone even UNFOLLOWED people for this cibai thing.
The missus and her friend attended a Ladies Affair tea party cum workshop at the Esplanade Mall where they learned about aromatherapy, make-up, baking truffles and pastries. It was a pleasant way for her to spend a Saturday afternoon with her girlfriend.
At first, I thought, "Great, the wife is at a ladies event, so I have the Saturday afternoon off for some gaming."
Then she asked, "Are you driving us there?"
Doh!
So I had to shelve my Team Fortress 2 plans and become her designated driver and photographer.
Ah well, at least I got to taste some nice pastries and got a free 10-minute shoulder massage, so it was ok for me too.
There are several Esplanade Mall promotions going on for ladies right now. Like if four ladies dine there, the 4th lady dines free. There is also a goodie bag worth $60 if you spend a minimum of $50 at any of the participating outlets. Details at this link.
There are also tea-time specials from 3pm to 5 pm. More info here.
There is a cycling event on the 20th of May, that will happen in many cities, including Singapore:
"The Ride of Silence (rideofsilence.org) was created in honor of those who have been injured or killed while cycling on public roadways.
The ride of Silence is also a way for us, cyclists, to raise cycling safety awareness in Singapore."
Ride of Silence Singapore
Venue: Merlion Park
Date: 20 May at 7pm
Dress in white, and wear your helmet
The ride will be 19Km, slow paced, and going through the following places: Merlion Park, City Hall, China Town, Holland Village, Orchard, Dhoby Ghaut and finish at Merlion Park. (The route is pending Police approval)
Seen online (so it must true), this is a shot of the "improvised flotation device" Mas Selamat used to escape Singapore's "long coastline" (to quote Wong Kan Seng):
Alleged device #1:
Alleged device #2:
I still think those "Selamat Datang" signs in JB were a stroke of genius on Malaysia's part.
If I were Malaysia, I'd ask for the Crooked Bridge at the Causeway in exchange for Mas. One crooked idea for a crooked man. Fair trade.
We stayed in an Etap hotel in Hounslow, near Heathrow airport, for our last day in London. It was surprisingly good value for money and allowed us to still do some shopping in the city via the Tube.
Being a bunch of bike geeks, Ryan and I got very excited when we saw the bicycle shop in Holland. We spent a good amount of time ooh-ing and ah-ing at their offerings, especially in the commuting accessories.
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