Project Single Speed : Part 2

I have completed my single speed build and its now displayed in the showroom.
It looks alright I guess, I will be putting the decals on it next week.

Rare Owl Sighting : 27 Nov '09

Last night while walking to a bus stop, I spotted an Owl perched on a high fence. The bird of prey was probably out hunting as there was an open field infront of the fence.

It was very dark but thanks to the backlight of some road lamps some distance away, I managed to see a silhuotte on the fence. I managed to creep below it slowly and just before it spotted me I snapped a picture of it. Its not clear at all as my mobile phone camera was practically useless at such low light. I managed to set it at night scene mode before shooting and that helped sightly. Even at such low light and the grainy cast of the picture, you can see the signature big eyes of the owl's distinct look. It was beautiful and probably the closest I ever got to an owl outside a cage. I estimate it to be about 50cm in size from where I was standing.

The last time I sghted an owl was many years back at Kallang river park, and it swooped down to catch something I did'nt noticed at all.

I am glad that such a magnificent Bird of Prey still exist in our urban landscape. If only more trees are planted and more bird santuaries are planned in little pockets of our ever "urbanising" country. 

Give nature a chance.

Project Single Speed : Part 1

Started my project to rebuild my 27" single speed to look like a fixie.
Its to be displayed in my showroom.

I selected RJ London spray paints Cerulean Blue as the basic frame colour. The rest of the parts are going to be matt black.

Just finished spraying the frame, so far so good.

Next will be the parts, so far the rust removing has been a pain in the ass!

To be continued......

Xu Jia Ying LaLa in town

Went down to bugis to see Xu Jia Ying aka LaLa perform. I hardly listen to any chinese music but she really caught my attention with her performances on the Taiwan Million Star variety show.

She writes most of her own songs and their melodies sounds so good to me 'Live'. But unfortunately her CD album did not managed to capture the sounds of her raw vocals and folk guitars she did during the 'live' shows of the contest. Most unfortunate for her. This is probably due to the producer producing her album. Many times I have attended concerts where the Artist sounds so much better 'live' than the CD. We call it over designed in my field.

Anyway it was great to be able to hear and see her 'live', such a charismatic girl, no wonder she is such a good composer.

F1 Rocks Singapore!!!!

F1 night race Sept 25-27th Sept 2009.
I love the atmosphere F1 brings to our island, its like the whole city suddenly comes alive!!

The weather was hot and hazy and by the second day I was really burnt out. High decibels, fumes, babes, $10 hot dogs, Aston Martins, Porsches, Formula BMW, what more can you ask?

Hamilton won and Alonso managed a third. Looks like Jenson Button is going to take the championship this year(Boring).

Alonso has been confirm with Ferrari for the next three years, Alright!!!!, I am not a fan of his but he is the most deserving driver from my view to take the Ferrari seat, he is the best driver out there anyday. Raikkonen should just go back to Finland and do farming. . Looks like we are going to be getting lots of win by Ferrari next year, watch out the rest!!!!

F1 Fernando Alonso in town

Fernando Alonso was in town for the F1 night race. I was invited to the STILE launching of their Alonso inspired Silestone range of products.

Fernando arrived late and sporting a bad mood, apparently he had just woken up as his body was still running Euro clock. It has been a week filled with rumours and accusations of his move to Ferrari next year and the Renault crash inccident at last years night race.

He was not very tall, I think approx. 1.65m. Quite surprised.

The place was packed with people and it was obvious that most of the people there were not invited as they were fans.

They hogged the double F1 world champion and I had to throw my cap given at the door to let him sign. It never came back. Crap!!

Before I left I saw the staff at Builder's shop carrying like 20 caps away to hide!!! WTF!!! Very disappointed with the organising and staff involved. I left feeling cheated!!

Mountain Biking Bukit Timah 19 Sept 2009

Finally, after riding most of the mountain bike tracks in Singapore for the past few weeks, we will be riding Bukit Timah Trail(BT). Its my favourite bike trail here on our island as I find it to be the best balance of fun and agonising pain.

Randy, small V, Foong & I had arranged to meet at 10:30am at BT carpark. Foong picked me up at around 9am and we had breakfast first. Upon reaching the BT carpark it started to rain heavily. It was really pouring and Randy & Small V was nowhere in sight. After a telephone conversation with Randy, we decided to "hang out" at Beauty World Plaza while waiting for Randy & Small V to arrive and wait for the rain to subside. By the time they arrived it was already noon time and the rain had just stopped. We made our way to BT quickly for fear that it might rain again.

After gearing up and some photo taking, we started the trail. From the first spin of the cranks, we know that its going to be a wet and dirty ride. I had borrowed a friends K2 bike for this ride as mine was dead. It climbed very well as it was a cross country full susser but going downhill on a wet and slippery BT was pretty hairy!! 

It was Small V's first time at BT and he was cursing at all the climbs although I know he secretly enjoyed it!! I rode behind Randy on some of the trail and I notice him struggling with his SPDs and negotiating the downhill sections. BT's more suited for platform pedals as the terrain is very unpredictable and theres zero trail maintenance.

It seems like my stamina has built up from the last few rides as we finished BT in shorter time compared to my previous ride there. We went straight home after the ride as we were dirty and tired.