26 March 2006 - Blood Drive

Today woke up at about 8am even though yesterday slept at about 4am. I don't normally sleep very long hours so usually wake up at 9am. But my wife is still sleeping, guess she tired out during the D&D.

At about 10.30am, we reached Woodlands CC for the blood drive. Supposed to reach at 8.45am but I already told our friend, T that we would be late since my wife's D&D ended late. Saw him n some familar faces n my wife joined in n helped out voluntarily. She is part of the commitee group n I am not. Both of us cannot join the same commitee if not no one will be taking care of our girl.

At about 12pm, I left the place n went to settle some unfinished matters of yesterday n went to Sim Lim Square to buy a 1GB SD card for my wife new camera. It costs $54 for 1GB n $30+ for a 512MB. Last time, I bought a 128MB SD card at $20+, now it's so cheap so I just had to get the 1GB for future proof. Bought the Transcend which has only 1 year warranty n tested it on the spot. Photo taking is ok, then when I tested the video recording mode, something was wrong when playback. So I went back to ask n the salesperson took a Kingston SD card for me to test, it's working perfectly. Both costs the same but Kingston has lifetime warranty. You might ask, why not get Kingston in the first place since both costs the same n Kingston has lifetime warranty?
The reason is, Kingston although is a reputable brand for RAMs, but it does not mean it's good in flash memory n users are complaining Kingston SD or MMC are giving them problems. So I tried to avoid buying it n chose Transcend. By the way, lifetime warranty does not mean while the company is still alive, you are exchange for a new SD card whenever it's spoilt. Lifetime warranty means as long as this product is still in production, it's still under warranty but once it's end of production, no more warranty for it.

Finishes everything n reached back at Woodlands CC at about 3.15pm. Saw my wife sitting down by the stage n was told that she has a stomachache. So we requested to leave early n borrowed T's car to fetch my girl at Ang Mo Kio where my in-laws stay. Although his is an old car, it still feels good driving it. Any car is better than my Yamaha RX-Z.

Returned the car after using n wanted to give him $15 for the petrol I used. He refused to accept.

Then received first call from manager asking me to go onboard a barge called Premium, she is in Singapore bunkering. Then within 5 mins, he called again asking me to go PTP instead because another colleague of mine got no car this week (he traded in his Nissan Sunny for Nissan Latio). The time that I must reach there is about midnight but I have never go in in the night because I requested not to as it's dangerous riding bike where a stretch of road has got no lights at all. But I never deny orders, only obey them. Was thinking whether to borrow car from my colleague, Nick. But after discussing with him, realised it's too troublesome so gave up the idea. Told myself, just be extra careful, then nothing should happen.

Indeed everything was quite smooth except when I returned to Singapore, something happened...

I was stopped by a plain clothes police in Singapore custom n was told to dismount my bike. Then followed him to a place where I have to urinate for them to do testing. They wanted to test whether I was on drugs. After about 15 mins, I was cleared n freed to go. This has never happened to me n I wondered if it happened to my colleagues before.

Reached home at 3am n went to sleep...