Goodness, I didn't realize that time has passed so quickly. It's now 13th March, and I've been busy with work and neglecting this blog (not that there's much to boast about).

But never mind that, I want to tell you about my dad's car, the 2006 Toyota Altis.

The Toyata Altis is the 9th generation Corolla in this world, and it is the best selling car with over 37 million cars sold worldwide in 143 countries. Presently, the 10th model is out and with the current COE prices, a staggering, mind-blowing 113,000 Singapore dollars! And the worst thing, the new model isn't worth eighty thousand dollars, let alone a hundred.

The car I drive on a daily basis was the first model to be made in Thailand, and that's where the sloppiness of the *ahem*... locals show. The interior is made of plastic. Everywhere your fingernails "accidentally" scratch, there's this irritating plastic sound - the kind of sound that you hear when you tap your nails on your keyboard, or your remote controller... horrors! Even the porta-potty!!

To drive the car, you need to be backward looking - by that I mean you need to make sure the drivers behind won't be sounding their horns at you while you decide that an overtaking manuver is due. For some reason, the power of the car kicks in at about 4000 rpm to about 5000, and when you're in third gear or so. No one in their right mind in Singapore will rev to that kind of limit, with petrol going at 2.15 per litre!

Basically, it sports (I should find a better term for that cause it ain't no sporty.. how about mounts? Giddy-yups?) a 1.6litre DOHC VVT-i engine, with retractable side mirrors! Apparently cars of that that year (2006) that's competiting in the subcompact car market doesn't have retractable side mirrors! Even my girlfriend's 2006 Sonata's side mirrors need to be manually retracted. How terrible troublesome. Imagine that your the only person and you drove off. When you exit the expressway at 110kmph you look left, only to see yourself staring at well, yourself! HORRORS!

I'm not entirely sure of the specs, but I believe the engine churns out 110 bhp, and 150 nm worth of torque. (ahh, this explains the powerband of 4000-5000rpm). When you drive it, you feel like you're in a racing simulator, when you turn left, your body leans left. That tells you alot about the chassis.

Ride comfort I must say is something. If you can sleep all the way to KL and back, it's good. However, the sound proofing leaves something to be desire - better sound proofing. Probably like the Lexus, so muchso that you won't hear the dying screams of a man being run over by your car whilst you drive. That my friends, is good sound proofing.

Good thing is though, it is a car made to last. Toyota knows how to make cars last, even though when you see them you want to gourge your eyes out. That's probably how Toyota became the most popular car maker in the world, it found itself a niche. When everyone around you breaks down and start dropping like flies, know for certain my friends, a Toyota will bring you to the moon and back in one piece. Just try not to crash. 

Happy Chinese New Year!

Hope you had a good CNY collecting red packets, visiting relatives and swiping their delicious ba kwa.

For my next post I will talk about losing weight, without exercising... much.

Till then, cheers!

Of shaky hands and facial hair

Do you get cuts the size of Singapore when you shave?

If you do, either you're doing it wrongly, or... you have the facial features of the planet Mars.

Interestingly, there's not such thing as a right or wrong shave. Against the grain, upstrokes, downstrokes, it really depends on you!

This is how I do it -

It always begins by prepping your skin. I'd use a facial wash, the Biotherm Hydra Detox blah blah, which cleanses and removes all impurities and oil from the face. Wash it off with warm water. If however you have the facial features of an orangutan... I'm sorry, you need something more than a wash, probably a automatic car wash.

Always always use a good shaver. Invest in one that makes you look like Roger Federer, not Karl Marx. I'm using the Gillette Fusion razor, and I think it's fantastic.

Use shaving cream, I cannot stress how important this is! I use a Nivea shaving gel with ultra glide technology. The purpose of the cream helps to prep the skin, soften the hair and to create a microscopic layer on your skin to make sure you don't cut yourself, unless you are going through puberty and have pimples the size of tennis balls all over your face. By right, you should use a proper badger brush to apply the shaving cream, and rinse it with warm water in a tub, BUT, being a typical Singaporean your hand suffice. Just remember to apply it against the grain, in a circular motion.

Shaving. Always wet shave. That means leaving your face/moustache/beard/mutton chops wet! Of course, if you have a beard/moustache you might want to use a pair of bolt cutters.

Start with the 'chops'. Shave down to the edge of your chin.
Cheeks. Follow the grain down to your chin.
For your neck, shave against the grain for a very close shave.
Always rinse after a stroke!
For the chin and upper lip area, use a light downward stroke as these are sensitive areas. Followup with upward strokes for a closer shave.

Rinse with cold water, and use a proper aftershave too! I use the Ahava aftershave moisturizer.

And there you have it. A proper shave without nicks and cuts.

Since I don't post pictures, I've a link to Gillette that shows you their way of doing it.

http://www.gillette.com/en/us/mens-style/how-to-shave.aspx

You now don't have to worry about bleeding to death from razor blades anymore!

BMW M5 is coming... to town

News this week.

COE prices down. Finally, the tax on owning a car drops. Parents everywhere in Singapore, rejoice!

Bajaj RE60 is the "World cheapest car". BAH! With a 200cc engine, it's only going to be sick everywhere you go. Even the Hyundai Getz or Cherry QQ at 1.1cc struggles to bring me up a mild incline slope. I doubt I can even get out of my basement carpark.

More importantly, the BMW M5 is coming to Singapore. I'm so excited I shaking! Imagine a 4.4 litre V8 twin turbo engine,  7 speed automatic coming at you. I'll be very very afraid. So bad that I'd want to wet my pants, and yet get hot and bothered by this super cool car. Zero to 100 in 4.4 seconds. If I do get my hands on one, or see one on the road, I'll tell you how dumb I look in my Toyota.

The car which made James Bond look good

A gentle tap on the pedal and you feel the back swerve just a little bit. The Pirelli tyres fight for grip and off you go. Barely 4 and a half seconds later, you've already past the 100kmph mark. Keep your foot down on the accelerator and you'll reach a top speed of over 300kmph.

If you see one on the streets, you'll gush over it, and would even trade in your wife for one.

The car - the Aston Martin DBS V12.

The Aston Martin DBS V12, a car made of, lets face it, expensive plastic, but nonetheless, plastic. It produces 510 brake horsepower, 570NM and carbon ceramic disc brakes. It does 6km to the litre, and with a tank of 78 litres, you can go up and down the PIE 11 times! Of course, that's not including the traffic conditions, and with a light foot. With a heavy foot and a jam at every exit, I'm guessing you'll probably need to pull out at Stevens Road exit for the petrol station. Even so, you might need to push the last 100 metres.

A coupe version, manual of course, will set you back 875,000 Singapore Dollars!! And that's before COE! For a piece of plastic and a hungry petrol drinking V12 monster, whose growls terrifies the ghosts of Pulau Tekong.

I've only been on it once, and of course, it wasn't mine. But it was love at first sight.

I'd love to tell you about the handling, but I can't. All I can remember was that the gear changes were jerky and a slightly cramped interior. That was probably because I'm kinda fat.

Now, if someone were to loan me one, I'd write about it with greater detail; how the interior tastes like, how cold the air-conditioning is etc.

As life would have it, I can only hide in my room with my hands in my pants staring at the DBS V12 on my computer screen, behind closed doors. 3 tissues of tissues, 1 dollar. Want to buy?