I haven't learned how to drive yet because my family doesn't own a car. Some people find that surprising, but if you're familiar with our circumstances, then you'd understand. Anyway, Singapore's public transport is quite sound in itself and anyway you calculate it, it's actually cheaper to just take a cab all the time.
With no car, I found no incentive to get a license. I mean, if it doesn't look like I'm getting a car soon, then why bother getting a license? What if I get a license, but because I don't have a car to drive, I lose the practical skills that comes along with the license, rendering it useless?
But anyway, recently, my dad has been strongly hinting at getting a car. And he doesn't have and doesn't intend to get a license...so that means that the car would be for me and my second brother. Excellent news! Talk about incentive.
What I did first was to read up on as much as I could about learning driving in Singapore. I went to ComfortDelGro Driving Centre's website (http://www.cdc.com.sg/users/homepage/index.asp) and it provided plenty of useful information. I asked my friends who have or are in the process of getting their licenses too for tips.
Basically, in Singapore, you have to do your BTT (Basic Theory Test) first. After your BTT, you get your PDL (Probational Driving License) and you can start taking practical lessons already. To finally get your license, you have to take your FTT (Final Theory Test) followed by Traffic Practical (TP).
The waiting time between booking your BTT and actually sitting for it is about two months! I booked mine today and will only be taking the test on May 6th. The same applies for FTT and your TP, I think.
So I headed over to the nearest Driving Centre (at Ubi) to register for BTT, which is to be done in person. It's near Eunos MRT apparently, but I took a bus there. It looks like a building from the 1980s. Like, seriously. You have to see it for yourself. Okay, found this image on GIS. Look at that! It's 2011 and it looks the same!
There are two ways you can take BTT: as a "student" of the school, or as a private candidate. I haven't thought about this point when I went, so I had to make a quick decision on the spot. Doing "school" or "private" have their own pros and cons.
I don't really want to dive into the details because there's too much, and they're actually beyond me. Essentially though, school is pricier but more structured as opposed to private which is more free and easy.
One thing you should take note is that once you pick "private" you have to stick with it all the way through. When you register for BTT, you register as a private candidate or as a student of the school. If you register as a student, you also enroll. Of course, it's more expensive.
I chose the private route because I think I'm good enough to do most things without the school's help and because I'm a cheapskate at heart. But to each his own! If money was no object, I would have taken school, I think.
The staff at CDDC were quite friendly, and they answered all my queries quite well, despite the fact that they probably get asked the same questions every single day. When you get there, you have to take a queue number. School and private take different queue numbers, take note!
The whole process is quite fast. About 30 minutes and you're done, I think. Bring along your IC, and NETs card. The fee is about...$17? $10 to open an account, about $7 to book the test itself.
And with that, your (and my) BTT is booked!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
How To Reduce Pre-marital Sex Amongst Teens
A few days ago, The New Paper published an article on the seemingly alarming percentage of teens who have already had done the deed, popped the cherry, milked the cow, spanked the monkey, kissed the bucket, ridden the bull, so on and so forth. Apparently, it's increased significantly over the past few years. I can't remember the figures of the top of my head, but if it's found it's way to the front page of our nation's most prominent tabloid, then it has to be something.
Okay, to me, pre-marital sex is all fine and dandy...provided you know what you're doing. Knowing what you're doing entails being aware of the consequences, the precautions you have to take, the emotions, the logistics, the positions and all that. So long as you know what you're getting into, I think it's fine. Sex is so often confused with love...but it's not necessarily the same thing.
But I'm not here to preach about the pros and cons of sex (although I can go on on the subject forever). I'm here to tackle the problem highlighted by our dear New Paper.
Two words: Justin Bieber.
He's a pretty damn influential young man. Just have him tell all the girls not to have sex, and how sex is special, and should be saved for until you're married, and boom, problem solved. I'm not kidding. Have him sing a song like..."Don't have a baby, baby, baby ohhhh," Catchy and meaningful.
Also, he can mobilize his twitter account. He can probably get #neversayneverunlessitssex trending!
Admittedly, he's already doing his part in keeping teenage girls from losing their v-ginity. Most teenage girls idolize him so much that they won't get a boyfriend unless that guy measures up in some form to Bieber. He has his own album, his own movie, is featured in commercials, donates to charity, is pals with Kanye West...
This scenario has probably played out in reality one too many times:
Guy: I like you, will you go out with me?
Girl: YOU'RE NOT JUSTIN.
Guy: :'( & 3
See, reducing PMS amongst teens isn't so hard. Provided you're Justin Bieber.
Okay, to me, pre-marital sex is all fine and dandy...provided you know what you're doing. Knowing what you're doing entails being aware of the consequences, the precautions you have to take, the emotions, the logistics, the positions and all that. So long as you know what you're getting into, I think it's fine. Sex is so often confused with love...but it's not necessarily the same thing.
But I'm not here to preach about the pros and cons of sex (although I can go on on the subject forever). I'm here to tackle the problem highlighted by our dear New Paper.
Two words: Justin Bieber.
He's a pretty damn influential young man. Just have him tell all the girls not to have sex, and how sex is special, and should be saved for until you're married, and boom, problem solved. I'm not kidding. Have him sing a song like..."Don't have a baby, baby, baby ohhhh," Catchy and meaningful.
Also, he can mobilize his twitter account. He can probably get #neversayneverunlessitssex trending!
Admittedly, he's already doing his part in keeping teenage girls from losing their v-ginity. Most teenage girls idolize him so much that they won't get a boyfriend unless that guy measures up in some form to Bieber. He has his own album, his own movie, is featured in commercials, donates to charity, is pals with Kanye West...
This scenario has probably played out in reality one too many times:
Guy: I like you, will you go out with me?
Girl: YOU'RE NOT JUSTIN.
Guy: :'( & 3
See, reducing PMS amongst teens isn't so hard. Provided you're Justin Bieber.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
How To Have A Picnic at the Botanic Gardens
So yesterday afternoon, me and some of my JC classmates went to the Botanic Gardens for a picnic!
The Botanic Gardens is really big forest/garden/nature reserve thing in the middle of Singapore. It's huge in that it's borders stretch from the edge of town, to the edge of Bukit Timah. Transport-wise, there are several buses that will get you there, and you can get there from several entrances because it's that huge.
We met at Tanglin Mall which is a short ten minute walk from Orchard Road. The thing about a picnic is that you got to have food! So we arranged for some people to bring food, but that's not very reliable, so we went grocery shopping at the Marketplace at the basement of Tanglin Mall. We bought two bottle of drinks, chips with amazing salsa dip and bread, sliced cheese and ham. It sounds like a lot, but it only adds up to less than $5 per person.
It's like a cheap lunch!
We walked over to Tanglin Mall. One of us, Jonathan (follow him on Twitter @TheJohnnyBoy) works at the Botanic Garden so we had a sort of tour guide person for our convenience. Awesome shit, because he dropped fact bombs like....
1) The gate at the Botanic Gardens has been there since the 1800s!
2) There are over 20000 varieties of orchids there, and if you're famous enough, they'll name an orchid after you. I pity the nameless orchids though...Orchid 2341134?
3) One of the really big trees is featured in the $5 bill.
4) You can't fly kites, and you can't play ball games in the Botanic Gardens!
Even without a guide, you'll do okay though, because there's maps and all to guide you around.
We brought two picnic mats, so that we can lay it on the grass and chill around. If you don't have picnic mats, you can use newspaper. But that's unglam. Slightly less unglam would be to ask your guy friends who just finished NS to bring their groundsheets.
We settled in nicely at a huge grass patch (at what point does a grass patch become a field?) but the weather was unpredictable. It was sunny, then drizzly, then rainy. In the end, we walked to a shelter and just settled in there. The Botanic Gardens has plenty of gazebos, and shelters, so you won't really run out of space. Also, if you have enough people, you can make so much noise that you drive off other people around you.
Other than the food, we had cards to play with, a guitar to strum and a camera to camwhore with. Not that we have anything to show for it...our camera man accidentally deleted the pictures!
Make sure you bring umbrellas with you. At least one umbrella for every two people. It started pouring at the end, so we had two people squeeze into one umbrella and then splattered all the way to the bus stop. There is no shelter, sadly. Oh, there is a taxi stand at the main entrance thingy, so if you have the money to spare, that's a viable option.
That's about it for me. Take only photographs, leave no litter.
Clockwise, from that girl in white: Jolene, Glenn, Thandar, Rebecca, Han Lin, Me! Not in the picture is TGX (I don't know where he is!), Moses (late) and Zhuying who took the picture.
The Botanic Gardens is really big forest/garden/nature reserve thing in the middle of Singapore. It's huge in that it's borders stretch from the edge of town, to the edge of Bukit Timah. Transport-wise, there are several buses that will get you there, and you can get there from several entrances because it's that huge.
We met at Tanglin Mall which is a short ten minute walk from Orchard Road. The thing about a picnic is that you got to have food! So we arranged for some people to bring food, but that's not very reliable, so we went grocery shopping at the Marketplace at the basement of Tanglin Mall. We bought two bottle of drinks, chips with amazing salsa dip and bread, sliced cheese and ham. It sounds like a lot, but it only adds up to less than $5 per person.
It's like a cheap lunch!
We walked over to Tanglin Mall. One of us, Jonathan (follow him on Twitter @TheJohnnyBoy) works at the Botanic Garden so we had a sort of tour guide person for our convenience. Awesome shit, because he dropped fact bombs like....
1) The gate at the Botanic Gardens has been there since the 1800s!
2) There are over 20000 varieties of orchids there, and if you're famous enough, they'll name an orchid after you. I pity the nameless orchids though...Orchid 2341134?
3) One of the really big trees is featured in the $5 bill.
4) You can't fly kites, and you can't play ball games in the Botanic Gardens!
Even without a guide, you'll do okay though, because there's maps and all to guide you around.
We brought two picnic mats, so that we can lay it on the grass and chill around. If you don't have picnic mats, you can use newspaper. But that's unglam. Slightly less unglam would be to ask your guy friends who just finished NS to bring their groundsheets.
We settled in nicely at a huge grass patch (at what point does a grass patch become a field?) but the weather was unpredictable. It was sunny, then drizzly, then rainy. In the end, we walked to a shelter and just settled in there. The Botanic Gardens has plenty of gazebos, and shelters, so you won't really run out of space. Also, if you have enough people, you can make so much noise that you drive off other people around you.
Other than the food, we had cards to play with, a guitar to strum and a camera to camwhore with. Not that we have anything to show for it...our camera man accidentally deleted the pictures!
Make sure you bring umbrellas with you. At least one umbrella for every two people. It started pouring at the end, so we had two people squeeze into one umbrella and then splattered all the way to the bus stop. There is no shelter, sadly. Oh, there is a taxi stand at the main entrance thingy, so if you have the money to spare, that's a viable option.
That's about it for me. Take only photographs, leave no litter.
Clockwise, from that girl in white: Jolene, Glenn, Thandar, Rebecca, Han Lin, Me! Not in the picture is TGX (I don't know where he is!), Moses (late) and Zhuying who took the picture.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
How To Raymond
This is my umpteenth try at starting up a blog, I know. I used to have one, way back when I was sixteen or so, and it was quite a hit. I sorta stopped and ever since then I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to recreate a former splendor.
What makes this attempt so different? Well, this time around, I have a focus. As you can see from the url, this is called how-to-raymond, and that's what I, the Raymond of how-to-raymond, will be teaching you: How To Raymond.
What does it mean to Raymond? Well, it's a broad term. To be awesome, to live life to it's fullest, to make the best out of every fucking moment. Hmm, I'm not too sure myself, but it's an ideal I've imposed upon me to make me maximize LIFE.
I thought about death a few days ago, and I don't want to be on my deathbed and have thoughts like..."I'm dying, but I feel like I haven't lived." That'll be sad. Death takes us all, you know, and it takes us when we least expect it, so live every single moment brother, and sister.
I sound like a preacher sometimes. But that's what I'm gonna do in this blog. I'm gonna preach, and share, and teach. This blog will be a instructional blog, as well as a personal blog, at least that's what I'm hoping.
So with my fingers crossed, here I am again, at you, my reader's mercy. Let's turn this into one super blog.
What makes this attempt so different? Well, this time around, I have a focus. As you can see from the url, this is called how-to-raymond, and that's what I, the Raymond of how-to-raymond, will be teaching you: How To Raymond.
What does it mean to Raymond? Well, it's a broad term. To be awesome, to live life to it's fullest, to make the best out of every fucking moment. Hmm, I'm not too sure myself, but it's an ideal I've imposed upon me to make me maximize LIFE.
I thought about death a few days ago, and I don't want to be on my deathbed and have thoughts like..."I'm dying, but I feel like I haven't lived." That'll be sad. Death takes us all, you know, and it takes us when we least expect it, so live every single moment brother, and sister.
I sound like a preacher sometimes. But that's what I'm gonna do in this blog. I'm gonna preach, and share, and teach. This blog will be a instructional blog, as well as a personal blog, at least that's what I'm hoping.
So with my fingers crossed, here I am again, at you, my reader's mercy. Let's turn this into one super blog.
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