ARCHer

They may be a niche player, but I don't think they are high end cards. Their vouchers are not that practical compared to the others. There is no minimum purchase for the cards, but the vouchers are just like $x off subject to a minimum purchase of $y.

I got an ABN card and they wanted to charge me the annual fee. I called to cancel and they agree to waive the fee, plus they willing to give me vouchers. Turn out that the vouchers are not useful at all (unlike say the HSBC voucher, which is like cash voucher at Isetan, the ABN vouchers are merely 'dollars off with minimum purchase' type).

Yes, this is my TV console. With a 37 inch TV, it looks quite 'balanced'. The Manhattan would probably be quite 'balanced' for a 37 inch TV, although a 42-inch would probably look better. I had a photo of my 37 inch TV mounted on my Cellini console uploaded onto Imageshack. Unfortunately, the link is now dead. Will have to reupload the console when I have the time.

Like I said, men tends to spend on big boy toys. Those small big boy toys would be gadgets like phones, MP3 players, computer/IT stuff, LCD/plasma TVs etc. Those big big boy toys would be things like cars, motorbikes etc.

Ingredients? Here's a list: o Tolerance o Communication o Empathy o Sympathy o Love o Self-sacrifice without expecting anything in return o Do not compare o Do not expect o Control your anger o Forgive and forget

It is possible. Have you seen semi-d units numbered 12A and 12B? This is probably a result of splitting an existing title deed (for Unit 12) into 2. With a land area of 5500 sq ft, if you build two semi-ds, it would mean that each semi-ds is about 2750 sq ft. If you follow the minimum required frontage (i.e. distance of wall of building to land boundary), you would probably end up with two small semi-ds. I am not sure if this big enough for a semi-d.

My wife and I spent over SGD 12k on our honeymoon. We went on a Scandanavian cruise, and even flew to Moscow when the cruise ship stopover in St Petersburg.

Are you asking if it is possible to convert 2 adjoining semi-ds into 2 detached house. The answer is yes, provided you have a big enough land area. If you look at some of the older estates that have big land, you will find that some of the 'detached' houses used to be part of a pair of adjoining sem-ds.

I doubt if a neighbourhood women's clinic is going to be substantially cheaper than a clinic located in say a hospital. You don't have to visit a clinic at the hospital; there are some hospitals that set up specialist clinics in local neighbourhood shopping centres. For example, there used to be a Eastern Specialist Clinic in Hougang Mall, which is part of the Parkway Group; there is a Raffles Clinic in Compass Point that is part of the Raffles group. I would suggest that you pay a visit to the gynae to know more. Ovulating (or rather not ovulating properly) is just one of the potential problem of infertility. Other causes could be due to blocked fallopian tubes, cyst, and even low quality sperm.

If I remember correctly, the Pap smear test involves scrapping some cells off the uterus wall lining and examining them for abnormalities. By scanning, do you mean ultrasound scanning, MRI scanning etc.? I don't think there is a replacement for Pap smear tests, and women above a certain age and who are sexually active are encouraged to go for a Pap smear test. Scanning tends to be used to detect more visual e.g. growth, cyst etc.

Errmmm.... some of the tests should be done, regardless of whether you are planning to have a baby or not.

No she did not. You see..... if Kiasi Syndrome is a hereditary illness, then chances are, she would be infected with the same syndrome. Reason? The doctor is my sister, who is a O&G specialist. She is also my wife's gynae, and she delivered my daughter.

Is it illegal for all buildings, or illegal HDB flats only?

Generally, you go for pre-marital check-up/screening only when you have a high risk of carrying genetic medical conditions, such as haemophilia. You must tell the doctor what sort of problems so that the doctor can do the appropriate tests. There are lots of hereditary conditions, so it is not possible for the doctor to test them all (hence you need to tell the doctor what to look out for). The only test in which the doctor usually performs without any pre-conditions is Thalessemia as this is generally more common. Movies (esp. chinese dramas) seem to have came up with this notion of pre-marital check-up. Before I got married, I ask the doctor about such check-ups, and she said that I must have watched too many chinese serials.

Correction. I was rich. Now I am poor.

It has been an expensive few days. I took leave on Thu and Fri to buy the parts for my new rig. Since it was the IT Show, I also ended up visiting the show not once but twice. In the end, I bought quite a lot of things, though not all from the IT Show. Here's what I bought Asus Striker Extreme Motherboard Intel Extreme QX6700 Quad core processor 2 Gb of Corsair Dominator C3FD memory (over $900!) MSI Nvidia 8800GTX video card 1 x 150 Gb WD Raptor drive (SATA) 2 x 750 Gb Seagate 7200.10 ES (SATA) Creative X-Fi Fata1ly sound card Enermax 1000w power supply Zalman CF9700 CPU cooler Lian Li 007 Black Aluminium Casing APC 1500 Uninterruptible Power Supply Windows XP Professional (OEM) Office 2003 Professional (OEM) Liteon 20x Multi format DVD writer Plus the PS3, games and accessories. Took the whole weekend to fix up the PC. Shop didn't have the QX6700 processor until Saturday, so only started the assembly on Saturday. Managed to finish the assembly on Sunday, and when I turned it on, it didn't work! Turned out that I had some connectors wrongly inserted (thank goodness for the Asus Q connector as it allowed me to connect the Power SW, Speaker, LED, HD Activity etc. cables in the right orientation). Turned on and it booted. Tried to install WinXP, but go the blue screen of death. Turned out that I need to have the right drivers. Unfortunately, I don't have a floppy, so cannot proceed with the installation. Will have to get the floppy today if I want to instal WinXP.

Yeah. Not all the things at the IT Show are cheap(er). I ended up buying my things in SLS. But I did manage to get the PS3, a few games, 1 blu-ray movie, an additional controller and a hdmi-component cable.

It should be possible to use the speakers (2.1?) with the PC. I have the Creative 5.1 speakers, and I hooked it up to my TV/DVD. For me, rather than look for the optimal placement for a sweetspot, I just put it on available spaces on TV console.

Errr... buying with parents is similar to staying with your parents. If you want your own place, and your parents already own a flat, you can't buy your own flat if you are single. If you can't get a hdb loan, you can get a bank loan. No need to have $200k in cpf to pay for the flat fully. But still, bank loan is not as attractive as HDB loan. Also, if I am not mistaken, there are other restrictions placed on one's income e.g. you are not entitled to a grant if your income is above $8k p.m.

I'm taking the next few days to build myself a new rig. Specs will (probably) be - Asus Striker Extreme - Intel QX6700 quad core - At least 2 gb of RAM (PC-8500?) - WD Raptor 150 gb (for OS) - Seagate 7200.10 750 gb x2 (hmm... RAID perhaps?) - Nvidia 8800 GTX (should i go SLI?) - Creative X-Fi Elite Pro Will take the opportunity to see if I can pick up some of the parts, as well as others such as CPU cooler (there is the TEC cooler, which looks interesting), case, DVD writer (maybe even Blu-ray). Creative X-Fi sound card seems cheaper at the exhibition ($500 versus $579). Oh... and a PS3.

Nothing beats home cooked food. You control what you put into your food. You control the quality of the ingredients. You control the manner in which the food is cooked. Only problem is you need to spend time to buy the ingredients and spend time to cook. As it is, most of us already eating lunch at hawker centre/food court/coffee shop on weekdays. Eating every meal out is not very healthy, if you ask me. We eat at restaurants only on special occasions e.g. birthdays of family members etc. Occasionally, I would bring my wife out to eat, provided we find the time.

I was on a business trip to Hong Kong. She took leave and took a budget flight to meet me there. I met her for dinner and brought her to Lan Kwai Fong. After dinner, we went for dessert. During dessert, I asked her to marry me. She thought I was joking, and said the least I could do is propose properly. While walking back to the hotel, we passed by Tiffany's. We went inside, and I asked the salesperson to show her the diamond rings. She chose one (thankfully, it wasn't the most expensive one, but it was the best looking one). Bought the ring, went back to the hotel room. Then I took the ring, went down on one knee and asked her to marry me. She said yes.

How about those of us staying in landed property? Are we destined to be grunts?

Given my age, you mean xue uncle...

So young.... 1994, I got my doctorate.... I was from the RI for 6 years. You know you are old when people didn't know that RI used to have Pre-U classes before RJC was started. I was from the last graduating batch of Pre-U students from RI before they started RJC.