Yes, it’s the “time of the year” again where my mobile phone contract is over and I am thinking of getting a new mobile phone and signing up for yet another contract for 24 months. In Singapore, we don’t really have much choices in the mobile phone service, namely it’s Singtel, Starhub and M1. Of course Singtel is the biggest monster of them all and next will be Starhub. Actually, they are both government owned with heavy government influence and management, so I guess we won’t see much of any improvement anytime soon. And M1? Well, it’s just too small and weak to be really much of a challenge anyway.

Okay, before I go off topic yet again, I am thinking of getting another Nokia mobile phone. I have been using Nokia phones for all these times I am using handphones, so it’s Nokia or nothing for me. Yes, I heard all the horror stories about their service and I agree, it sucks big time. In fact, I think of all major brands in Singapore, Nokia Singapore has probably the worst support ever. And the quality of Nokia’s phone leaves a lot to be desired. My Nokia died the second day I bought it. No, I am not lying or exaggerating one bit. It really happened. And I am not surprised about bad service in Singapore anyway. It’s a fact of life but I am sure that it has turned many people away from Nokia. That’s good and good for the market as people would demand better service and these companies will have to provide these service in order for people to buy their stuff. But the thing is that I am no mobile phone freak. I don’t buy expensive phones, nor do I droll over the latest model some big manufacturer is about to launch. So, whatever I do, it’s insignificant. My current mobile phone is Nokia 3100 if you would believe it. Yes, that one that doesn’t come with any additional feature except radio. Not even a camera is included. So I doubt very much that Nokia will ever care whether I buy their phones or not.

So, being so used to Nokia, I guess I will stick to Nokia phones for this contract renewal. What I am looking for is a model which can play Mp3 files and can accept a micro SDCard for storage and I will be happy like a schoolboy in a candy store.

Yes, indeed. My local small business directory - www.sgsmallbiz.com has gained Authority Status by Google. I am pleasantly surprised myself. If you don’t know what this Authority Status means, well, it is when you do a search on let’s say “Singapore Small Business Directory” on Google, you will see that the first result is slightly different from the rest. They have additional links included in the first search result. From what I have gathered, it is meant to say that this site has something more to offer and Google has gained it more “value” and “weightage”. First of all, I am not sure whether this is true or not, but from what I know, it seems that Google does place more weight on these sites than the rest. Although the mechanics of it, we won’t know unless we are one of Google’s engineers, but look at it this way, if the site isn’t offering their viewers something extra, then why did they place the extra links there in the first place? There should be something different from the rest of the search results, in Google’s eyes.

One thing about this Singapore Small Business Directory is that I have added most of the listings myself.  About 90% of all the listings I have sourced myself. This isn’t the one of the web directories out there which waits for people to submit their site to. I did some very comprehensive searches on Google, Yahoo and other sites and resources to get those links. It took me over 2 years to get about 2500 listings in the directory. Sure, it is not as big as some of the bigshot business directories out there, but do note that this is a one-man show and I usually add the listings only in the evening. The daytime, I am stuck at work so I can’t be adding the listings. When I stated this directory, all I wanted was to have a lot of customers who would be willing to pay big bucks to get listed on my directory. But then I realized that if I do it this way, then this directory won’t get the content (in this case listings) needed to attract visitors. And without visitors, this directory is just useless. So I decided to add business listings myself and this way, this directory will slowly build up useful content for it’s visitors.

I think one of the ways Google could have noticed this business directory is that the number of visitors to this site is increasing. In the past (maybe about 6 months back), I usually get about 900 visitors to the directory per day. Now, I get about 1,400 visitors per day! And most of the visitors come from Google. This could be one of the ways Google figures out how useful a site is to their visitors. This is of course only a guess.

Well, I have finally opened up a bottle of the Skinny Man’s Brew which I had done previously. It was an all-extract brew and my first attempt without kits. And the result was as expected - a light beer. First of all, I would like to say that this beer is nothing impressive. Not much head, a little too sweet and the alcohol content is too low for it to be anything but a light beer. It had accidentally dumped 26 litres of water into a 23 litre batch. And already, the wort was too watery because I had only 2kg of Light Malt Extract and 500g of Syrup Rice Maltose. But the taste seems okay for me. As I said nothing too impressive, but still drinkable as a session beer if you are not too fussy.

So below are some of the photos I have taken.

Yes, looks a bit dark for a light beer, isn’t it. Not too sure whether it is the hops or because I boiled the light malt extract for 50 minutes. Or because I didn’t stir the wort enough and it caramelized. And there is not much head which is disappointing. I had expected a least a little head but it was not to be. My friend told me that it is because the beer was too watery and the malto-dextrin was readily dissolved into the beer and didn’t do it’s job. The carbonation was weak as well. Everyone hates a flat beer.

A closeup view of the beer. If you look carefully, you can actually see that the beer is more amber than golden. And no bubbles to speak of. Sad.

A view from the top. Some bubbles there, yes but still there isn’t much carbonation and the beer taste kind of flat. But at least the yeast stuck to the bottom of the beer and the beer is very clear with no sediment to speak of. This could be due to the fact that I had this brew in the primary fermenter for 3 weeks.

Anyway, I think this is a good experiment for me. I learned a lot from this brew and I hope that I will be able to apply them in my next brews - things like late malt extract addition method and so on. But I should be sticking to kits for the time being. Need something to boost my confidence first before I attempt another all-extract brew. I hope the Blue Mountain Lager Kit will be good. I am very keen to have a taste.

I have sure that you guys have hear of this tiny little notebook right? If not, please tell me which martian rock have you been living under all these time huh? It is a ultra-light, super portable, small sized Notebook for your girlfriends, sisters, mothers, wives and babies. Sort of like a PDA but comes with Linux as the operating system instead of Windows Mobile. It is small enough to carry around like a PDA and with just one hand! That’s so very cool. And the battery life is about 2.5 hours, which should be enough for you to use on the bus or train while you go to office or return back home. Wow, this is actually perfect for everyone! Take a look at a review on this baby.

Yes, it comes with everything you need for work and even play. Although the Linux operating system may turn some Windows users off, but seriously, the interface is as easy as it gets. It is just a desktop for you to click on the icons to start a program, just like Windows. And if you think that you cannot live without Windows, then by all means, remove the Linux OS and install the Windows OS on it. But due to the storage necessary to install Windows, you will have a smaller storage space left for other applications and programs though. You can use it to surf (via Firefox), check your email, do your words or excel documents (using the free OpenOffice application), chat, watch porn and do many things on this notebook. But you are correct, there is an limitation due to the size of the screen but I guess it is a tradeoff. If you want big screen, you will have to get a bigger notebook. Small screen, small size. There is nothing much we can do about that.

And it is cheap. In Singapore, it is retailing at S$600 for this 4GB notebook at Challenger. I believe the 8GB model is about S$760. Of course, you should be able to find cheaper prices for this notebook elsewhere.

Yes, setting up a business in Singapore is very easy. If you are a Singaporean, all you need to have is a Singpass (sort of like a ID for all government services) and an Internet access to setup a business. Well, of course, you need a credit card or a cash card and reader to pay for the business incorporation. But it’s very simple. Just login to the BizFile and start filling some information on your new business and whether it is a sole proprietor or partnership and you are done. It takes like 15 minutes and S$65. I never expected it to be so easy. In just under 15 minutes and with all the necessary information, you will have setup your brand new business. Well, Singapore is like that. They make it very easy to do business in Singapore.

However, if you are planning to setup a company like a Private Limited Company, you would very likely need the services of a Corporate Secretary unless you go and hire one yourself. Most company don’t since the services of a Corporate Secretary is very limited, thus most companies would hire the services of a professional business incoporation company. What they do is do all the paperwork for you, provide you with the Corporate Secretary service and advice you on company matters. Some even provide bookkeeping services for a fee Most of these companies do everything like auditing, consultancy, corporate secretarial services, company registration, assistance in getting employment pass, foreigner workers, lodging and many more. They do make life easier for small companies and at a very low cost. In fact, even big companies outsource these services to these companies to help them on corporate consultancy and guide them  through Singapore’s statutory obligation and compliance matters. I think for a basic package (which includes corporate secretarial services, company registration, bookkeeping, auditing and so on) it cost about S$2000 for the first year. I think it’s quite reasonable considering what it cost in other countries to setup a company.

So if you are planning to setup a company, please take a look at Singapore Business /Company Incorporation Listings. Hope that they will help you in finding a suitable corporate secretary for your company. And of course, good luck to your new business!

A few months back, I was caught up with investing. Read too much Rich Dad, Poor Dad. This is a book which is full of interesting ideas, but they are not all that rosy and dangerous. You know, people sweet talk you into parting with your hard earned money to invest in some funds which you have no idea what they are about. They show you a graph that shows that the price of the funds is rising every year and with that, you will never lose money. Well, I got conned and so I invested about 30 thousand dollars in the different funds which they recommended. For a while, it went up. I made about S$600 in just a few weeks. And that made me think that this is a very worthwhile investment! I mean, the interest rate in Singapore is very low and thus it is not really good to put your money in banks, so I took out even more money and put them in funds. I think approximately another 40 thousand dollars. Yes, I have invested about 70 thousand in funds. Again, for a while, it went up and up.

However, I am sure everyone knows what is happening in the stock market recently right? With the mortage problem in the US, plus the US economy slowing down and the problems in China and the oil prices rising like mad, the market took a nose dive. And I meant a real nose dive. My funds drop like 33% from it’s peak and currently it is in the red by about 25%. I put my funds in China, India and Asia markets. Most of which are very dependent on external factors and when things don’t go well, everyone is throwing whatever they can away. Seriously, I never expected such a big drop in my funds. I had thought that funds being a collection of stocks will have less fluctuations and less prone to speculations. I was very wrong. In fact, it could be worse because these funds are managed by “professional” fund managers who are more into speculative buying and selling.

This meant that I have lost about 18 thousand dollars in all my funds. Heart pain. Especially for someone earning very little. Those are actually my life’s savings. I am lucky I still have a job and not much commitment. Just imagine those people who due to the stock market slowdown and really needing the money, just how much will they lose if they sell those funds now? What can I say? This game is for the rich. Not for people like me. I hate to see those insurance and fund managers “market” their funds like they are easy money and even those not into stocks should join in because it is supposed to be professionally managed. Well, if these funds are “professionally” managed, I wonder how the funds which are not professionally managed are doing!

Apparently someone forgot to renew their domain name! That’s what happened to our beloved Webwobot Search Engine! I had thought that it was down or someone had crashed their servers and other nightmarish scenarios. I even thought that Google had sent spies and bots to come and destroy the little evil Webwobot! Luckily, Google had their hands full these few days with their stock take. They need every available manpower in their company to count the tons and tons of money they have locked in their Fort Gnox. I am guessing that it will still take a few weeks for the stock check to be complete. We know how rich Google is, don’t we?

Well, the sad thing is that this means Scolls, the owner of Webwobot is getting old and forgetful. Old guys like us must be excused for being forgetful. We have a lot of things on our minds, like when is the next meal and what are we planning to buy for lunch or dinner and so on. Or it could be that he is very busy with his work? The problem with being a webmaster is that we usually aren’t full-time webmasters. Hey, we need to eat too. And webmastering isn’t exactly what you would call a cash cow. I hardly make enough money to pay for my webhosting, let alone feed myself. So we have to have full time jobs. So that could take away a huge chunk of our time. Sometimes, after work, all you want to do is to rush to your bed and sleep. Sleep is bliss for people like me.

This is also a reminder for all of you to remember to renew your domain name! In fact, if you are serious about your website, renew it for 5 years! Domain name isn’t that expensive and if spending like 50 bucks is too much, then very likely you won’t be spending a lot of time concentrating on building the best website out there. You also don’t want to be facing what Webwobot had faced. A long downtime is not good for your website’s image and just imagine how many visitors you have just lost for the fews days it went offline?

Yes, yesterday was Blue Mountain Lager Brew Day for me. That means I spent about 2-3 hours cleaning, sanitizing and making my wort for the Blue Mountain Lager which I will probaby enjoy in about a month’s time. Hmmm…..just thinking of it makes me all weak in the knees. Just like when I met my first love - my PC. Anyway, before I continue, I will give you guys the recipe. Nothing special, it consists of just the Morgan’s Blue Mountain Lager Kit, Lager Malt (1kg), Cluster Hops, 50g of Malto-dextrin and Ringwood Ale Yeast. The Ringwood Ale Yeast is actually a yeast cake slurry from the owner of Homebrew Singapore which I got all my ingredients for making this batch.

Well, this is the 3rd time I am brewing kits. The first two was the Cooper’s Australian Pale Ale. The first one was a failure because I am the stupid one. I forgot to rinse my bottles after sanitizing them. The second one turned out great (at least to my friends). And I am hoping that this brew, the Blue Mountain Lager, will turn out even better than all of them! I am keeping my fingers and my toes cross.

Okay, here we go -

The picture above shows me pouring water from the tap to my brew pot. See how clean the brew pot is. I scrubbed and scrubbed like a mad man to make it so shiny and clean to make the wort, my parents think that I have gone bonkers. There is no need to sanitize the brew pot because I am going to boil it. Boiling kills any germs and bacteria that may be present in the water and if you put your hands into the boiling water, it will cook it.

Yes, after filling that brew pot, it’s time to put in on the flame in order for it to boil. This can take quite a while, so take a break by reading a book. Or you could just sit and stare at the brew pot like what I did and think deep thoughts. Do you guys know that the answer to the universe, life and everything is the number 42? Well, now you know. So go forth and enlightened the world.

Ha, it’s boiling! Finally after so long, the water starts to boil and it’s now time to switch off the flame and add our lager malt extract. Remember to switch off the flame, we won’t want the malt extract to scotch and turn the wort/beer too dark. And remember to stir continuously as you add the malt extract.

That’s me peeling of the wrapper on the Morgan’s Blue Mountain beer concentrate can. The reason why I am removing the wrapper is to ensure that even you use the can opener to open the can, the paper won’t get into the beer concentrate in the can. My first brew, I think I got a few pictures of paper in the beer wort because I didn’t remove the wrapping from the beer concentrate can.

I am heating the beer concentrate can. The reason why I am heating it is to make the beer concentrate easier to pour later. You can’t imagine how thick this stuff is. It’s really like the rice maltose you get from NTUC. Thick and extremely hard to pour out of the can. I did this heating at the same time I was boiling the water before I add the malt extract.

That’s the lager malt extract on the left and the malto-dextrin on the right. The malto-dextrin is used to get more body into the beer. This complex sugar is not fermented by the yeast and thus, it will remain in the wort. And it helps to create a very good head for your beer. We all just love a good head in our beer, don’t we? It’s also very cool to show off to your friends your creamy creamy beer.

Okay, in the photo above, I have added the 1kg of lager malt extract into the boiling water. Look at the little foam they have created. Not to worry, after boiling the wort for a while, all the foam would have disappeared.

The Cluster hops from Morgan. I am going to add the cluster hops as a flavouring hops this time. Yes, I said before that I may not be using the cluster hops because I don’t like the flavour. But after reading the forums for a while, it seems that this hop flavour is quite okay as a flavouring hops, so I said to myself, why not?

Yes, that’s the specially designed infusion brew bag aka normal tea bag. Don’t you just love marketing people? They can really make something out of nothing. I am quite impressed.

Yup, I am using my S$2.80 can opener to open up my beer concentrate. Oooiii, make in England okay? Should go well with Muntons.

Yucks, it doesn’t look that appealing right? Well, hopefully, it will turn out to be a very appealing beer. Looks doesn’t matter much when you have great beer to drink. Anyways, it smells better than the Cooper’s Australian Pale Ale beer concentrate. Cooper’s Australian Pale Ale smells very sickly sweet, the Blue Mountain one smells pretty aromatic and complex. That is probably the hops and other malts they used. Well, I guess we will have to wait and drink in order to compare both of them.

After pouring the beer concentrate into the wort, it turned much darker. It was definitely much darker than what I expected from a lager. And this was before I did another 5 minutes boil. Not sure whether the beer will turn out darkish in colour or not.

This is not your Chinese New Year goodies gone bad. This is the yeast slurry that Homebrew supplied me. It’s the Ringwood Ale Yeast. Heard that it is a high flocculation yeast with medium attenuation and it produces some very complex flavours. This is something which I would love to try.

Before we pitch the yeast, we will need to cool the wort down first. Pitching at a high temperature can either kill the yeast or make the yeast go on a crazy feast which can produce all sorts of off-flavours in your beer.

Well after that, I added the wort to the fermenter and top it up to 23litres with tap water. After that I aerate the wort for 15 minutes and then pitch the yeast. The krausen appears in just a few hours and the airlock has already started bubbling very furiously. I think I will wait for 3-4 weeks before I bottle this baby of mine.

Well, it’s been a week since I bottled my extract brew and today I just went and opened a bottle. Yes, I know, it’s too soon but I can’t help myself. I wanted to see how a 5 week old extract brew would taste like and well, it tasted great! As the previous article about the brew had stated, I had poured too much water into the fermenter. It was supposed to be about 22-23 litres but I went and dump up to 26 litres of water. This will result in a weaker and watery beer. I have to agree. The alcohol content is reduced as well. I believed that it is about 2-3% alcohol only. But it was surprisingly good. Not much carbonation or even head though. Yes, sure, it wasn’t that malty and we don’t get much of a mouthfeel in the beer, but it was refreshing, tasty and smells marvelous! Not too much bitterness too. I don’t really like bitter beer myself. I have known people who just love the bitterness, but not me. A little bitterness to combat the sweetness of the malt is okay, but excessive bitterness is always overwhelming.

One interesting thing to note is that the beer does taste a bit “sticky“. Can’t really explain it but the beer seems to stick in your mouth. After you drink the beer, you could still feel the stickness in your tongue. Could it be the rice maltose I added into the brew? Or it is because the beer is full of malt? Never tasted beer that have such a feeling before. Probably because I have only drank cheap lager beers before and they are definitely not malty at all. Or could it be the hops I used? I used the Super Alpha bittering hops as well as Cascade hops for flavouring. Don’t think either of them will add stickness to the beer. Or could it be that this is what they called body? My home brewed beer has body! Well, I guess I have no choice but to wait till my extract beer is properly carbonated and then share them with my friends and see what’s their take on this.

Well, I am going to start my Blue Mountain Lager brew tomorrow. I have prepared my bottles of boiled cold water and ice to cold down my wort. Well, I don’t have a wort chiller, so a cold sink will have to do. Wish me luck!

For the past few years, there have been a resurgence of the construction sector in Singapore. And how fast it has suddenly grown! I remembered just a few days back, this industry was down in the dumps. A lot of civil and construction companies went out of business due to the slowdown they experienced last time. In fact, even big companies are not spared and I saw a few of them winding down or switch to other industries. But that was then. Now, the scenario is very different. This could be due to the mega projects our government has started like the two Integrated Resorts, the MRT line extensions and HDB flats upgrading. The private sector too is banking in on the construction boom. Private housing, shopping malls and offices are leading the charge as well. We have seen a lot of construction going on in Singapore nowadays. Everywhere we turn, we will see a crane or some cement mixer doing some very important mixing on the street.

And that market is getting hotter. Why you may ask. Well, first of all, look at the rising population in Singapore. We are importing foreigners by the thousands every year and this means that there is a greater demand for housing. We could see nearly 5 to 6 million people living in our little island. This will certainly put a strain on our living space and thus prices and demand for construction materials and labour will increase. Plus Singapore is encouraging rich foreigners to retire in Singapore. Again, this another strain on our already very limited space. I am not sure whether Singapore will be able to handle the load. The price of housing in Singapore is already so high. How much higher will it get as it is already unaffordable for most Singaporeans? I am sure that the government is not really interested in the welfare of the people. They seem to only care if money is coming in and their coffers are bulging.

Anyway, if you have just purchased your house or if you are looking to renovate your flat, I have complied a list of Interior Designers and Contractors in Singapore. I hope this list will help you find the most suitable housing renovation contractor for your home. I am sure you have heard horror stories about some contractors, so you must always be careful when dealing with these people.