Saturday, August 29, 2009

EZPZ



If I were still living in Singapore, I would be gleefully joyful to discover this company that provides a service to help you ship mail ordered stuff from the States to Singapore at reasonable rates.

I'd order from here (my favorite store to shop at in the US!).

And here.

And maybe here if I needed to buy in bulk.

And I just KNOW that my guys would be ecstatic that they could shop from here.

Monday, August 24, 2009

McAllen, Texas and the high cost of health care: newyorker.com

McAllen, Texas and the high cost of health care: newyorker.com

Shared via AddThis

This is an insightful commentary on the state of health care in the United States.

Dr Gawande's suggestions on how to cut costs certainly make sense. Problem is: how receptive would doctors be to improving quality instead of quantity (i.e. making less money).

I see parallels happening (or already happening) in the state of health care in Singapore. I wonder which direction our doctors will follow? Towards quantity where the money lies? Or towards quality?

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Different Faces of New York

My attempt at capturing the different aspects of New York with my amateur camera lens...

Grand Central Station


The New York Times building, I assume?


Memorial at St Paul's Chapel near Ground Zero


....supposedly the best hot dogs in town!


3 storeys of candy & ice cream!


...maybe about 10,000 calories total?





42nd Street


This is made of jelly beans



Rockefeller Plaza from the bottom


Rockefeller Plaza from the top


from the top of the Rock...


...and again...


...and again.


where I was touching distance from Constantine Marulies' shoes!


The not-so-pretty side of the Big Apple


We saw 2 film crews working on location on 2 separate occasions...looks like a popular venue of filming dark alley scenes!


Thought that interconnecting bridge at the top was cool.


Brooklyn Bridge in the background, man-made beach in the foreground


South Street Seaport


New York Subway


Chinatown


And some pictures from West Point in upstate New York










Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Travelog - New England : a pictorial journey

Mystic, Connecticutt



A pretty seaside town with wonderfully fresh seafood. Had a deee-licious lunch of lobster bisque followed by a baked dish aptly named Seafood Ambrosia comprising crab, scallop, cod and shrimp baked in a butter sauce topped with a seafood stuffing gratin at a restaurant called S & P Oyster Company. Mmmmm....
This is the restaurant where we had this...


New England Clam Chowder! And...

Lobster Bisque!





Newport, Rhode Island

The Breakers - a mansion owned by the Vanderbilts

The Breakers' "Backyard"


Another view of the Breakers


A Newport sunset - view from Newport Bridge


Brown University - Providence, Rhode Island


Lovely architecture typical of the buildings in this Ivy League university founded in the 18th century

The Van Wickel Gates - only opened twice a year: once when a new class arrives and once when the seniors leave upon graduation


Cape Cod, Massachusetts (where I pretty much had Clam Chowder every day - I shudder to think what my cholesterol levels are right now)

Salt Marsh Lake - along the eastern coast of Cape Cod

The following pictures were all taken at Marconi Beach, Cape Cod

Kind of reminds you of "Finding Nemo", doesn't it?



That black blob in the water is actually a seal. A group(a herd? or is it a pod?) of them were frolicking in the water just about 30 feet from the beach!


Couldn't resist capturing this picture of the cloud that reminded me of a face


Sand dune

Lovely beach- but the water was freezing!


Boston, Massachusetts


We found this car decal in the Harvard store (where prices of Harvard paraphernalia were ridiculously exorbitant)


Harvard (IMHO, Princeton is much prettier)



Inside MIT - was not impressed by the long corridors. Looked much better in Good Will Hunting.


MIT


The Boston cityscape as seen from across the Charles River

Impressions from China: Back & Blocked

Back in the land of the Great fireWall and am extremely frustrated with the blocks imposed by Chinese authorities on many internet sites.

I have to use a proxy to access blogsites, Facebook, Twitter etc. After being in the Land of the Free for the last month & a half, I feel the restrictions deeply...woe is me...:(

Will try to upload pictures in the coming days....hopefully it will work through proxies. If not, they'll just have to wait till the Chinese government decide to lift the blocks.