Friday, November 30, 2012

SH 5002 - Fundamentals in Industrial Safety

Quite unexpectedly, this semester final paper tested more on theory than on calculations. I guess the examiner wanted to test us on our understanding of the subject than just churning out numbers and results which all engineers loved to do. The whole paper is like 60% theory and 40% calculation, which to me is just a test on my basic understanding of how the safety management system works and how to conduct an accident investigation. I do hope I can do well in this module.
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Expectation: B+ (Actual: B+)

Monday, November 26, 2012

Cold War

Synopsis: In Asia's safest city, the police have long been untouchable. However, on one fateful day approaching midnight in Hong Kong, police headquarters receives an anonymous call: a fully-loaded police van carrying the force's most advance equipment and five highly trained officers has disappeared off the grid. The hijackers appear to possess direct knowledge of police procedures so despite their tactics, the hijackers are always steps ahead. With no choice in sight, the police must meet a list of demands to ensure the hostages' release, which includes the delivery of a huge ransom. Any delay will cost lives. The clock is ticking...[Source: Yahoo! Singapore Movies]
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At least a decent Chinese movie from Hong Kong. Highly rated as Infernal Affairs the second, the movie itself at least did not disappoint. With lots of twists that seems to stretch the police to their end, it requires a clear head to outdo the bad guys to finally bring them to justice. The movie is definitely not a one off show as a sequel seems to be in sight. Highly recommended to watch!
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Rate: 8/10

Sunday, November 25, 2012

24 Nov 2012

11 floor completed, 4 more floor to the completion of block. Think the whole BTO project may be completed by end 2013. HDB to start dispensing keys in mid 2014?

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Australia Day 2 - Blue Mountains

23-Oct, 0830 - Woke up real early to catch the first bus to blue mountain so that we can explore the most of it in a day. There are various scenic stops along the way and vast tracking paths offering nice scenery. With the cool weather in the mountains, it creates a comfortable environment for people to do tracking and exercise! We bought the Blue Mountain Explorer from our hotel, which was slightly more expensive than its competitor, but it offers more stops.
 


Within a few minutes, we arrived at the Blue Mountain National Park

And here is the first breath taking view that greet us

Lone bird on a tree top

Next stop, we head off to the Katoomba Cascades

The Katoomba Cascades

Minor water falling to nowhere

Next stop, we head off to the Scenic World, which was one of the icon in Blue Mountain

Scenic Railway - Discover the thrill of a 52° incline riding the steepest passenger railway in the world

Coal mining, which was the activity in the area before it re-develops into Scenic World after the coal mine runs dry.

Scenic Walkway - Discover the tranquility of ancient rain forest – or simply tire the kids out – strolling along the 2.4 kilometre paths.

Hiding beneath a tree shade

Scenic Skyway - Suspended 270 metres above ancient ravines with 360° views, the 720 metre journey provides the best views of Katoomba Falls, the Three Sisters, and Jamison Valley stretching to the horizon

The Three Sisters from the Skyway

Vast valleys stretching for kilometers

After the Scenic World, we proceed to take on the Prince Henry Cliff Walk

I suspect the whole cliff sides are made of sandstone, so once erosion takes place, it produce these beautiful features.



The Three Sisters from Echo Point

A post Office at Leura

Once we reached Leura, it was almost 4.30pm. That basically ended our day as shops in Australia tends to close at around 5pm to 6pm. What a good life Australians has!

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Australia Day 1 - Katoomba

22-Oct, 0000 - Our Australia journey began with a midnight flight to Sydney in order to fully make use of our limited holiday time. The verdict? Never take a budget flight if the journey is more than 3 hours! With virtually nothing to do on board the plane, we tried to sleep, but ended up getting neck aches roughly 3 hours into the flight. The remaining 5 hours was spent trying to keep the neck upright in order not to feel the terrible aches in the muscles. What a great way to start the "holiday"! Haha

 
Goodbye Singapore


Once we arrived at the Sydney airport, we purchased the train passes that allowed us unlimited rides on all rails, buses and ferries in the Sydney area. That will help us save some money on transportation...

Their railway carriages doesn't look that impressive, and in fact almost all their carriages are de-faced with graffiti.

Without wasting time, we head on to our first stop, Katoomba town, where the blue mountains lies. Contrary to what the weather forecast says, it was freezing cold here, and coupled that with the wind blowing, our jacket protection just doesn't seem enough!

I just loves the clear blue sky here..

Palais Royale - the hotel where we will be spending the next 2 nights. It was recently refurbished and its interior are warmly fitted with cozy soffas. We had our lucky day as we had the whole wing of the hotel to ourselves for our entire stay!

Katoomba has beautiful sunset as well. Australia is so nice....

This sign says it all. This is roughly the whole Katoomba town center. One straight road extending from the railway station for about 800m.

We had our dinner at a cafe near the hotel where we were staying. It had an interesting old time decoration and this shop happens to be the shop with the most human activity of the lot. Now, that must tell us something...

Interior decoration of the shop

Mocha for me. The shop owners says they don't use chocolate, but something else that resembles chocolate so that it is more healthier. Well, at least the drink comes out fine...

A big heavy meat laden sandwich for me! Haha. That roughly ended the day and we rested to conquer blue mountian tomorrow!