Paranoia

My housemate has this thing about the flat burning down. For me, I've got an obsession with security. And trust me, if I had the choice, I would never have gotten the flat on the ground level. I'm probably one of the few people who would pay $600+ for a 'flyscreen' door, the only difference is that the mesh is stainless steel, and you cannot lift it off the rails. I dun wanna have to close the sliding doors everytime I'm gonna take a shower.

Perhaps its also the fact that we've had someone broke into our place in Singapore previously. When the cops came and asked what was missing, we noticed that the burglar had actually taken something from upstairs. Meaning he actually came in, and ventured upstairs when we were sleeping. Frankly, I'd hate to walk into one, if I ever had to take a leak middle of the night. Anyway, Mike introduced me to a torchlight, Sure Fire. It's one used by police/tactical forces and is meant to blind assilants with its powerful rays; which I sleep with under my pillow!! (there goes my element of surprise).
I was doing the sheets this week and I noticed that the washing machine was more noisy than usual. As I started taking the sheets out, I realised that the torch was in there. When I opened it, it was bone dry inside and still works.

Any torch that has batteries with a shelf life of 10 years, can blind would be burglars, used for my camping and is able to go thru a whole washing machine cycle; thats where I'd put my money.

P.S. Its slightly smaller than the size of my palm so will fit nicely into any handbags ;)

Double Barrrel

Double barrel, triple volume, thats the claim and a pump that even Jeanie will like. For anyone pumping up tires you would know that for mountain bike, you pump it up to 40-60psi (depending on the tires), for racers (110-120psi).
Once you start getting into these ranges, you start to use your body weight to try and squeeze in that extra bit (and here's where Jeanie and even myself hate doing). That last extra bit.
For racing tubular tires, I cant even begin to imagine when we have to get it up to 220psi. Here's perhaps the key to the pump. 3 settings. Once you flick it to the 200psi setting, it somehows engages different chambers, cos its very easy and smooth. You cant get as much volume in but the needle on the guage moves. Sort of like dropping gears on a bike to climb up a hill.

P.S Mike, whats the view on Tufo's racing tubular clinchers (C3 lite, 135g)

The Splurge

With a huge mortgage over my head, the splurging has been reined in (more or less). But when the government starts giving me a 'bonus' to counter the rising cost and the CPI, I still wouldnt use it. Well, I dun think I needed anything in particular really. Unfortunately the bonus comes with a catch as you would expect. If I were to take the cash, I would have to pay taxes on it meaning I lose 30-42.5% of it (not sure of my actual tax rate).
Here comes the other catch, cos I work for a not-for-profit organisation, we get certain benefits. If I were to purchase something work related, I get it tax free. Rather than give the money back to the taxman, I decided to upgrade the home office.
Got a new laptop. Point to note, the old on the left is a 14 inch screen , right 15.4, dosent look disimilar but an inch, I realise makes a huge difference when you need to cart it around!
Got a new b/w laser printer and gosh have prices come down ($69), and a new wireless G router, which I am making full use of now. Cos I'm watching a friday night movie and blogging in front of the telly.

Blackout

During the wet/cyclone season (Nov-Feb), we're advised to be ready for power outages, but its the official start of the Dry season now where the sky is clear, humidity is at an all time low (20-40%) and it never rains for the next 6 months but now I get a blackout from a faulty power junction! Well, at least the candlesticks came in handy.