That’s the statistic of the latest Merlion NG 1.70. And Merlion NG v 1.80 should be out soon.

On 11th May, Tuesday morning, dad suffered a stroke and he was in a daze sitting on the floor, presumably fell after the stroke took place. We called the ambulance, rushed him to the nearest hospital, and after hours of resuscitation and observations, he was finally put into the acute stroke unit ward for further treatment & observation. He went through a couple of scans, and doctors confirmed that he had a large stroke, damaging his front left hemisphere of his brain. Consequently, the ischemic stroke  had affected the mobility of his right body, and his speech ability.

Welcome to Universal Studio Singapore

Having been to the Universal Studio in Los Angeles  10 years ago, I was very excited when I heard that Universal Studio will be opening one in Singapore. For me, it’s the theme park for adults (although I’m sure the kids especially the teenages will like it) and would prefer Universal Studio over DisneyWorld anytime. So naturally I went with alot of high expectations and anticipations.

The park is made up of 7 themes (or zones). They are Far Far Away Land, Ancient Egypt, The Lost World, Madagascar, Sci-fi City, Hollywood, New York, in the order of fun and entertainment factor, in my opinion of course.  Madagascar and Sci-fi City, would be more interesting if not for the closed or in-construction rides. The Madagascar dance was very entertaining though. The closure of  Battlestar Galatica is a big bummer, especially when there’s nothing left in Sci-fi City except for a lame “Accelerator” ride, which is nothing more than just spinning and spinning in a cup.

One of the streets in New York

Between Hollywood and New York, I would prefer New York, but not by miles. The Lights! Camera! Action! in New York zone showcase some of the special effects made in Steven Spielberg’s movies, in a filming stage. Otherwise, there is really very little action in these two zones, mainly just merchandise and food & beverages shops.

Experience the fun and excitement in Jurassic Park

So really, the action and fun-filled activities are really contained around the remaining 3 zones, at least until the rides in Madagascar and Sci-fit City become available or re-open again. Among the three, I would say The Lost World has the most (number of) fun-packed activities. The Canopy Flier is one breathtaking ride, that’s if one imagine himself riding over the “real” Jurassic Park The gliding coaster does make one feel like flying across the jungle over the tree top.  The disappointment bit is the short ride time. I didn’t time it, but it felt like a few second ride! It didn’t help that we have to queue for more than 40 minutes just to get the ride, and I reckon it will be even longer when the theme park fully opens in future.

Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure is literally the most wet ride in the park. That said, other than the last section of the ride where the raft actually plunges down from a height, I am really not impressed by the ride. A word of warning though, be prepared to get very wet, if you do not intend to wear a poncho while taking the ride. I had my head, body and feet totally soaked with water. Disposable ponchos are available for $1.50 each, but many had opted not to buy, only to end up buying T-shirt at the Jurassic merchandise shop, which is located just beside the ride station exit. Brilliant business strategy I think.

My overall average impression of the The Lost World park may be swayed (somewhat negatively) by the fact that I have watched the same show Water World before, while I was at Universal Studio LA.Or at least that was what I thought. For first timer, he/she might be impressed. There are just too many similarity between the two shows in term of the stage, the story line, the scenes, the props, etc. I think the only thing that’s different, are the weather and the actors/actresses involved in the show!

The door to Revenge of The Mummy

I have a mixed bag of feelings when it comes to the next zone Ancient Egypt. It has the most lame ride in the park (although Accelerator in Sci-Fi City can easily be the other candidate for this “honorable” award) in Treasure Hunter. I am not sure if anybody would appreciate the ride, although this might be the only ride that senior visitors could take in the park .

The other end of the excitement  spectrum, at least until Battlestar Galatica is available, can be found in this zone. Revenge of the Mummy is a high speed thrill ride with sharp turns and fast reverse, all while in the total darkness. The queue to the ride was also elaborately designed with interactive artifacts to blend in with the theme of the ride. The entire atmosphere really captures that found in the movie, dark and mysterious. The ride itself,  starts with an excursion of the tomb which establishes the ride’s plot. Once the action (and I mean real action) begins, expect high speed launches, startling drops, sudden reverses. Or should I say expect the unexpected, since all these happens while in the dark, and that creates the feel that  the whole ride is “out of control”!  While I didn’t experience any weightless, g-force drop type of roll as one would expect in those roller coaster ride like Battlestar Galatica, and according to Universal Studio, Revenge of Mummy is supposed to be a family ride, with tame top speed of 45mph, it offers a different type of thrills that would easily matches the latter in terms of fear and excitement factors.

Donkey in action

Far Far Away Land is a zone where I experienced the most unexpected, good or not so good. Upon entering the Shrek 4D theatre, I had expected to watch a breathtaking 4-dimension show. It is essentially a 3D movie with the 4th dimension where one physically feels the effect of the actions. The 3D effect was not the best I have seen, and the 4th dimension (with the spray of water, streaming of cold air and moving seat, etc) did not wow me, especially when I had experienced something similiar elsewhere. It does bring out a whole new experience for movie watching though;  Just imagine a stream of water sprayed on your face when Donkey sneezed at you.

Anyway, as we walked over to the next attraction point, Donkey Musical, I had somewhat expected nothing more than just a musical show, by Donkey of course. Perhaps Shrek 4D had reset my expectation, because I was blown away by what I have experienced in the Donkey Musical. It is a simple musical show, but a very interactive one, where Donkey will actually interact with the audience, and I assume there’s somebody at the backstage controlling the animated Donkey, be it the voice or action responses during the interaction. I am pretty sure there are some technologies involved behind the simple show, but in the end, what impresses me is how much of engagement the show has with the audience. It would be even better if the audience is less shy, but then again, it is not uncommon in Singapore. Lastly, the enchanted airway is just a smaller scaled, teenage version of the roller coaster. Very suitable for kids or adults who are afraid to try out weightless g-force roll type of roller coaster rides.

One of the rides that were not opened

By the time we finished the rides, and ready to leave the park, it was close to 5.30pm. Considering the size of the park (as compared to other parks in other parts of the world), I was quite surprised to see that we actually spent almost a full day in the theme park. For a park that’s still in its soft opening period, I must say that the experience was very positive. I hope with the addition of the new rides like Battlestar Galatica and A Crate Adventure that would complete the experience. Will I return and visit the theme park again? Definitely a resounding yes, at least to check out these unavailable rides!

I always thought twitter is just another facebook, or as a micro-blogging tool, I never knew the significance of it until I started twitting recently.

The power of twitter, is its simplicity. SMS is a simple yet powerful communication. And twitter is just an internet version of SMS.

I never know why would anybody follow a twitt. Even more so I could not comprehend why somebody would ever follow my twitt. But now I know why, and have got quite a few since I ‘officially’ twitt a month ago.

Tweet Tweet.

If you like my iconset, please consider . Thank you!

However, there’s one area of topics I like to blog moving forward, is a chronological recount of the car maintenance activities I have carried out on my Saab 93 Sports Sedan. I thought with the blog, I could build a knowledge base out of it, for future reference purposes, be it on my current or future ride.

And we shall start with what had happened over the weekend, as I was driving in a hot afternoon (my scangauge told me that the ambient temperature was somewhere between 36-37 °C)

A very familiar warning beep chimed off . The car SID (Saab Information Display) displayed a intimidating  “A/C off due to high engine temperature” message.  My instant reaction was to look at the water temperature gauge on the car’s electronic instrument cluster. The gauge needle was already at the 3/4 mark, close to the ‘Red’ danger mark. I glanced through my scangauge, the exact reading of the water temperature was 125°C, and then subsequently hovered between 126°C to 128°C.

My first thought was that the cooling fan must have given way, as I had experienced similar anomaly in my previous car. I thought I could at least keep the temperature down by cruising on the highway as the result of the onrushing air, which worked the previous incident. This time however, it didn’t work at all and I was starting to sweat over the thoughts of driving the car under this condition.

After some experimenting, the problem not only did not go away, and I got a new SID message “Hot engine. Make a safe stop. Run engine on idle“. If the previous warning message did not get into me, this one surely had. I had no choice but to call a tow truck, and had it towed to a SAAB workshop.

When we were at the workshop, the mechanics was able to quickly confirmed that the radiator fan at the driver side (i.e. right fan) had malfunctioned.  I was advised to have the fan relay replaced as well, so eventually we had both items (fan and relay) changed. It was a relatively quick job for the mechanics. And as I thought we had the problem fixed, I shortly found out it was not as I drove the car out for a spin. The water temperate escalated from 60°C to 120°C within minutes, and I had to drive the car back to the workshop again to have the problem reassessed.

The mechanics instantly determined that we should take alook at the coolant thermostat, just as they were giving me a heads up as I drove the car for a test drive. Sure enough, when they took out the thermostat, the solenoid was closed, which means that the coolant had never flow through the radiator system to cool the engine down. And this explains the reason for the escalating temperature, even with a functional radiator fan. You see, the coolant fluid is the one that actually conducts the heat away from the engine, so no prize for guessing what happen when the coolant fluid does not flow through the radiator system!

So a new thermostat was replaced, along with the radiator pressure cap, which got brittle by the extreme heat. To be doubly sure, the mechanics put the car on stress test by turning on the heater, and constantly depressed the accelerator pedal for 5 minutes to keep the engine running at 3000rpm. The temperature rose as expected, but stabilized at 85°C, so it was promising.  So it was a job finally well done, and the problem finally got resolved.

Finally, the damage for the parts

1. Radiator Fan – $699
2. Radiator Fan control/relay – $299
3. Coolant Thermostat – $90
4. Radiator Cap – $20

Whoever says that competition is good is really just tweaking the words to his world of advantage. This is a competition but definitely not in the interest of consumers. When it comes to competing for exclusivity, how can exclusivity be good for consumers? Exclusivity = Monopoly. It’s worst when exclusivity is obtained via money instead of through its product innovation. Utter crap !