Update: budget and list of items bought

GSS, pre-GSS, getting previous models at clearance prices.

Here's the lowdown on our budget:

LG mini-bar fridge GR-051SSF $179

Tempur Deluxe 17cm Queen-sized $2499 +$50

Panasonic Plasma Full-HD 42" THP-42S10S c/w $400 Choice vouchers $1799 +$30

LG Fridge GRM482YSQ (388litre nett capacity) $845 (with option to top up $27 to White colour, depending on kitchen interior design)

Electrolux EWF1495 8kg 1400rpm c/w $30 voucher $999 + $30

Toilet bowls / basins / bathroom / sinks accessories etc $2700 ($2500 paid)

Blanco sink c/w tap $482

Reno budget: As per Plan A $34,920 (deposit $10,000 paid)

What's being carried over:
Piano
Standing Fan
Vacuum cleaner
Microwave
Small 21" LCD TV
Mini-Compo
PCs / Mac
DVD Player (?)


Paid so far: $19303

CASHFLOW PLANNING:

Balance to be paid = $200 + $24,920 = $25,120

Items yet to be purchased :

Sofa
Dining Table
Chest of Drawers
Oven
Automatic Laundry Extender
Air Con
Curtains
Ceiling Fans
Lighting

Housewarming gifts ahoy! Hehheh, Haha

Fans size

Fans

Spare room - 42" (with light?)
Study - 36"-42" (with light?)
Masterbedroom - 42" (no light needed)
Living Room - full is 30sqm, so 48 -52"
If at light points, then 36" / 36"

Training update

Training log - 22 Jun
Distance:3.41km
Time: 17min 22 sec
Pace: 11.78km/h

Don't know why this calculator makes me seem slower... maybe it doesn't take into account gradients? :)

Weekend

Fri.

Had an office run at West Coast.

1.82km
9min 19sec
11.75km/h

Then frisbee lessons. Reminded myself that I have poor motor and coordination skills. Hah.

Drove back to Eunos with Roberto (in his ah-pek white "swan" brand singlet) in tow through after-work peak-hour traffic on AYE/ECP.

Back home, I noticed some 'upgrades' to the Eunos common areas. There was a fresh new green dustbin at the ground floor lift lobby to replace the one that had been missing for months! And, I saw people wearing lanyards scrambling to replace the trashbag of a dustbin in the neighbouring block! What was going on? Anti-H1N1 measures?

Oh, turns out the MP is visiting the residents in the area :)

On the way down to the car for dinner, Mom spotted a small plastic bag near the car which seemed to be moving and kicked it. A little rat scurried out! "Rats! Rats!" Heh.

Sat.

Congrats ning! :)

Went with Jas to see the contractor after driving round-and-round looking for parking in the Arab St area, then went shopping for yellow picard wallet and dinner.

Aircon research - what's the deal with COP, 4-ticks (is equivalent to 1 lice?) and all those numbers?

Been delving into some technical statistics and specs about different aircons and calculating their COP (rated) as well as their minimal consumption. This applies only to Inverter system aircons.

I have 3 rooms to cool - Master bedroom (about 2.75kW needed), Study (2.2kW needed) and Spare room along corridor (2.2kW needed), for a total capacity of about 7.15kW needed

This is the expected usage pattern: Masterbedroom will be on for sleeping at night when needed, and perhaps up to 4 times a week during the daytime afternoons. Study aircon will be used much less often, and Spare is not foreseen to be used for the next 3 years. In any case, the scenario of max capacity being used is very unlikely, given the Study will never be used together with Masterbedroom. Thus, expected usage will top out at about 5kW max.

I did some analysis of quoted power consumption and capacity figures from brochures and PDFs I managed to get hold of:

So how do I read this $%^#$ thing? :)

Well, we can conclude the Starmex is good for high capacity cooling. The starmex is the highest-rated capacity model of all, and is good for rapid cooling and for higher capacity requirements. However, its base COP of 3.11 makes it inefficient at maintaining set temperatures (which is probably the aircon's operation functional for 4-5hours out of 7 hours of sleeping at night). This is due to its minimum power drawn being 0.45kW, much higher than the 0.3kW-0.34kW quoted by other brands, for a similar min capacity of 1.4kW-1.5kW of cooling. Conclusion: The Starmex is a good aircon system, but not the best at everything, just very well-advertised :)

So, from the chart, which is the Aircon System-3 to get? The Hitachi. Turns out it has the highest rated COP AND Min. COP. It's COP for cooling 2 rooms is decent too - 3.81, and on-par with the Starmex. Just don't ever switch on all three units at overdrive rapid-cool full blast with this combi :) it drops quite badly compared to the other models, not that 2.73 is really bad, but, given its unlikely this scenario will occur, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

So the important thing when getting an aircon system is - know your usage patterns, and capacity required.

Passed IPPT

hoot! 5 points for everything except 11min 16sec for 2.4km run... and 212cm for SBJ!!! arghh!! no additional $200...

Maju Camp is interesting... you run the 2.4km in the multi-storey vehicle park.

IPPT TEST:
2.4km
Time: 11min 16sec
Pace: 12.78km/h

And I must say, the tag thing is quite efficient... instant updates no need to crowd round instructors sniffing for results.

And about 2 weeks shy of window closing. Heh. Thank God!

Disharmony

Casefile -

"Seditious tract couple deserve jail, says DPP"

Quoting DPP - "...the tracts contained derogatory comments about other faiths, and that any reasonable person would agree that the highly-charged language and illustrations in them would definitely cause outrage to most non-Christian recipients of the tracts and had the potential to cause enmity, ill-will and hostility between Christians and non-Christians..."

Let's see what the verdict is going to be.

I can think of many things openly marketed and blasted all over TV screens, billboards etc that make "derogatory comments about other faiths" and that they contain "highly-charged language and illustrations in them that would definitely cause outrange to...." other religions.

I don't think it would be wise for the judge to sentence based on the content of the materials, because it would open up a can of worms and many popular publications, movies, etc could likewise be labelled 'seditious' and their publishers jailed.

And the underlying logic is problematic, if something is ruled as seditious because it may perpetuate violent reactions (since DPP keep quoting the Dutch riots over the cartoons) then offensive materials about other religions are allowed because the offended people don't threaten to riot?.... bah!....

On the second point, of distributing them to Muslims in a bid to cause disharmony, so far from the facts it seems that the two Muslims who complained were just two in a huge mailing list that the couple had... if the couple were out to cause disharmony etc I think it would have to be proven that they had a huge list of Muslims and mosques they were mailing these tracts to.

On that note, they could at most be punished for neglecting to realise that distributing them to Muslims would be offensive to them as individuals (personally I think that's a sad state of affairs but it would be a face-saving judgement and yet maintain Singapore's stand on religious harmony)

Good morning Singapore

"Zao An Ni Hao" - that irritating morning show which likes to feature n-d-p types ra-ra programmes once in a while.

I should style myself the Mr. Greeeeen show instead. I read a recent case of a loanshark runner whose case was heard in court. Here is an artistic rendition of what transpired before the Bench.

Judge Dread: "It says here you went to spash paint on the door of the neighbour of the man who owed your ah-long the money. What's that for?"

Ah-long runner: "Well, you see, when I got to the house of the person who O$P$, the person's house door was open, so how to splash? So I splash the neighbour's door lorh, since it was closed."

***

On a serious note, I must say the cleaning uncle of my block is very efficient. The O$P$ scribblings in the lift get cleaned up really quickly, starting with the floor and unit number of the hapless victim. Sometimes, I wonder if ah-longs do any credit assessment... or are they prepared to take a higher default rate because of their high interest rates charged?

But thank God! My headache is gone, and I've had two nights of proper rest. Thank God for the cool weather that helped too. Better not start running again until I've fully recovered, though I'm cutting it quite close for my I-P-P-T. Just under a month left to take and pass it. Any1 going for I-P-P-T soon?