A Singapore Biker’s Life

It against the law to use the Handphone / mobile phone while driving in SG.

*To drivers… That’s why they invented Bluetooth handsfree & wired handsfree…

IMHO, I have no problem with the people who is on a call… But what they try to do… other than talking that I find alittle dangerous… e.g. SMSing, Using another hand to write down a note (Who is holding the steering wheel??)

There are many other things that are in that scope as well…. e.g. Putting on make up… eating / drinking…. smoking….

But currently… driving is banned by SG law cos someone got killed…

If I remember correctly… some joker was using his mobile whole driving… lost control of his car and slammed into a bus stop…

Sometimes I’d wished the authorties to look into the problem other than that 1 matter… Put a ban on all these things that will distract the driver… is using the mobile the only thing that does that?? I’ve seens the strangest things that people do while driving… trust me… bikes have a much higher profile… we can see things…

Anyway…. the ban did not really take effect / did not have much effect till recently… Anyway am not sure why as well…. Dun think anyone died… mean as it may sound but in SG sometimes the authorties does wait till then beofre doing something about anything…

Anyway… Whenever I see someone driving and using the mobile phone without his handsfree… I’ll just give him this signal…

Many a times… I get ignored… But when I honk… (I am using hella air horns)

That’ll get their attention and more… prob the cars around… then I will show him the sign again….

That’ll get them to stop…

So….

Vigilante or friendly reminder??
Some of my friends calls me a Vigilante….

Bought a Nokia’s N73 phone for my wife Doris’s bday present…

Turns out to one of the most problematic phones that I have ever come accross!!!

It’s so problematic… I really do not know where to start!!!
As my faith also discourages complaining but… well… I’ll try to stay to the facts… sigh…

So tempted to bash the company… "Relak… Maintain Balance…"

Anyway…
First of all… this phone hangs like @ least 2 times a day!!! OMG!!!!
The charger is so tiny and sensitive… sometimes just a slight touch will "disconnect" the charger…
TOU FU charger!!!!!

1. Let’s start from the basics… the basic function of a phone is to make or recieve calls….
But this one that my wife has… disconnected countless times when she tries to answer them!!!
AArrrrrrrrggggggggggg

2. Slightly Advance function…. Note…….. Slightly ah……….
Blue tooth……. After the initial linking, the head set works fine… anyway it’s the new Motorola H700… anyway it was mine… cool right?

Anyway, I used to use it with my 6818 and never has a problem with it…

No problems……..

But with this N73……… 1 call was all it could take… after that……. No connection………
The 2, N73 & H700 simply cannot connect… The phne still shows the bluetooth logo… but no connection… sianz…

3. Which has gotta be the worst problem of all…. When it hangs… you will never know coz it never shows… Well @ least the MS Windows shows @ least a blue screen

Thanx Mr B.

But @ least it shows a BSOD aka Blue Screen of Death…
But this *** N73 still shows as normal…

How did I find that out you may ask…
Ever step into your home before and your family members with the phone on their ears saying "I was calling you the last couple of mins… Why never ans???" this time… coz the XYZ phone did not ring…

*There was ringing from the home phone… The network status showed normal… But the XXYYZZ phone just refused to ring!!!!!
AAAAAArrrrrrrgggggggggg

The best thing of all………….
Last Sunday, after Service…. my family an I decided to walk to Wheelock Place where the Nokia Service Center was….

After 30 mins of waiting…

Guy behind the counter.
"Yes? How can I help you?"

Me
"Errmmm, yes, I juz got this phone a couple of dayz ago and this thing kept hanging on me…"

Guy behind the counter.
"Errrmmm, ok… We need to keep the phone for 3 days"

Me
"ok… But are you going to loan me a set?"

Guy behind the counter.

"No, we do not have that kind of policy to loan any sets to customers"

Me getting alittle pissed cos Motorola Service Center if I reacall does provice a loan set.

"So for the next 3 days, you expect me to go without a phone…??? I juz bought this thing… Fine… But are you going to ensure that after these 3 days it’s going to come back problem free??"

Guy behind the counter.

"Sorry Sir, no, we do not gurantee that…"

Me
"Then what are you going to do over the 3 dayz??????????????"

Guy behind the counter.

"I do not know what the engineers are going to do Sir, we are not sure if this is a hardware or software problem."

Me getting really really pissed
"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I have read forums, saying that this phone has some problems and that a firmware upgrade solved many or most of their problem…. * The people in the forums did not even have as much problems as mine… I have not even tried the functions that they have problem with yet… I juz wanna make a call & recieve calls…

Me
"So you are just gonna keep my phone there for 3 dayz and am not sure what you are gonna do with it??? Did you hear yourself?? Will you accept that if you were me?? You do not / did not even find out what the problem was and asked me to keep my brand new phone there for 3 dayz….????"

Guy behind the counter.

"Sorry Sir, let me check…."
Goes off and check with manager…

Guy behind the counter holding my phone obviously shivering.

"Sir… sorry… There is a firmware release in 2 weeks time…. can I call you then??"

This guy was asking for it…….
Conveniently he asked me to keep my phone with him for 3 dayz inconvencing me…….

I wanted strangle him, do a WWF move on him that would break like a tooth pick…

In the past a couple of years ago… I would… and trust me… big time… I was really tempted to as well…… But I tried my best to keep cool…….   

When he gave me a form to fill… I wanted to throw the paper back @ him after that… But I resisted…

I saw the frightened face & shivering hands on that guy as I left… The 2 staff that was sitting beside him gave him a pityful look… the customers they were serving smiled as if they saw something funny… Honestly, I still felt bad even though I did none of the things I would in the past… as I still got angry @ him…

If God can forgive my past… Was what that guy did even close to what I did??

And I was reminded this

21Then
Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my
brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"  22Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Anyway the problem was with the phone, not with the guy…

The thing was also, there was another fellow sister from the same Church sitting not far away from me…. Imagine what would happen if I were to react like I would in the past??

I’ve always wanted to write something about this for some time now…

In the past, this term Christian would prob be an Oxymoron.
samples… http://www.oxymoronlist.com/ Bitter Sweet
Anyway, you get what I mean…

Looking back @ my past posts… I wonder, does some of my Church buddies get "stumbled" by some of the posts that I put up?

Sometimes I worry that I may be Sunday Christian? (A Christian only on Sunday.)
or
A Christian Christian, my term for "being only a Christian when I am around Christian"

esp Like in the previous posts.. when "My life is put to danger" on the road… I do admit to being quite "Unchristianly" as well… with the "xxyyzz" etc etc… in the past…

But I believe that I have cut that down quite a fair bit since the day I cam back to Christ about 3 years ago.

Getting pissed driving on the road is common… But being in a car is different from riding a bike. For a bike, accidents without injury are very rare… And since when our lives are @ stake… it’s real easy to get really pissed.

Countless time,
- I have been "cut" in by a car who just gave way to another car who was less than 10m from me who was travelling the same speed as me.
- I have been "cut" in by cab drivers ebraking to pick up a passengers
- I have been almost hit cos the car drive did not "check" his / her blind spot.

Sometimes… How not to get angry??
Sigh…

One way… is not to listen to angry music before I ride…
Imagine this… Listening to Linkin Park’s Numb juz before riding home…
I have to admit… sometimes it makes me wanna speed…

When I get "cut" on the road…  Instead of showing what’s between the index & ring finger… I show the "thumb"… like this…

Learnt this from a guy from YouTube called Mordeth13 in Taiwan. Cool guy.

Coz, the first would prob start a fight if he catches up with me… But if I were to show him the latter… Dun think he’ll punch me for that…

Thanx for the Tip Mordeth13.

Anyway, hope to continue to try to be Christianly as much as I can… esp when riding.

It’s been quite sometime since I have posted…
Coz it hasn’t exactly been a quite month / weeks for me…

Work aside… It’s the issue with the accident I has sometime in Late April. In the last couple of post, I was told by the insurance company that they were going to settle the case with the plaintiff with an amount that was not going to increase my loading / premium.

But lo and behold…. I got another lawyer’s letter from the other party requesting me to "pop by" for a chat… in 5 dayz from the above mentioned date or they will take legal action. Best thing of all… I think the letter was sent on a Friday, and the letter reached me on something like Tue… giving me only 2 days to respond…

MEGA SIANZ!!!!!!!!!!

Had not choice, sent the mail to my insurance company and their lawyers sent me a letter and did the same thing… 5 dayz to respond… this time the way they got my attention was that if I did not respond / "pop by" I will bear the entire cost myself and not the insurance company….

I went "WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!"

Whose side is she on?? Anyway, my insurance company’s lawyer is a she… no that I have any problem with that……. duh….

Anyway… as mentioned the sum that my insurance company offered was IMHO too high for "that" kinda damage… Sometimes, I cannot help but feel that it’s "legal day light robbery done".

Will post more soon…

I thought the saga for the insurance claim is over but…. juz got another lawyer’s letter on Sat.
Anyway, I got this email from a Church’s sister and it’s a beautiful poem.

By Maya Angelou

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