Last 2 weeks, we had another family trip with my sister’s family. Traveling together with them is not something new. There were so many occasions when we drove as a family to West Malaysia. Sometimes it was just for a makan or some shopping during the weekend. The last time we traveled far was 2 years ago to Perth Australia. Anyway, due to global recession this time round, we only travel as far as Bali.

Our flight was in the evening arriving in Den Pasar Bali @ 2200 hrs after some delay. It was a smooth 2 hours flight and all 9 of us enjoyed it.

After b/fast the next day, we walked to the beach for some pics taking and to the town for shopping. Kuta, the main shopping belt has seen a lot of changes since the last time I was there, 10 years ago. Today it boasts modern shopping malls with shops selling international branded goods.

Sight seeing trips to the mountain ranges and the country side was a break much needed. It was a beautiful sight to behold especially at Kintamani where we had our lunch.

Bali is also a place popular for its water sport activities and that was in our itinerary as well although I was only the observer…hehehehhe.

At the end of our 4 nights, all of us agreed that it was indeed a well planned holiday. And you know what………..I heard there’s a plan for a long haul holiday next year. Insha Allah.

Some pics to share here.





At Kintamani.










The Heroes.



Yanti and Fahmy.



The cousins on the banana boat.

Meet the SAF’s first Malay general.
Thats the headline on the Straits Times today. It carries a picture of Col Ishak with the following caption,

Quote “The promotion of Col Ishak, who moves up to the rank of Brigadier General from July 1, marks a milestone in Malays’ efforts to be fully accepted in the military. It was revealed in 1987 that the SAF was cautious about putting Malay officers in key posts”. Unquote.

Why is there such a mentality?
Are we not citizens of Singapore, pledging ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion?

On the one hand we pride ourselves as promoting equality and meritocracy but on the other hand we doubt our own citizens, who are sons of the soil and cautious about putting them in key posts.
So much about equality and meritocracy!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, congratulations to Col Ishak for his dedication and perseverance in carrying out his duty and finally acknowledged.
It marks a milestone in the community indeed.

I have been engaged with a personal project lately……building a turntable thus did'nt get to update my blog.

This is by far my ‘biggest and ambitious’ project based on my primitive technical background and a limited budget of 2k. Though I own 3 tables.....Sota Sapphire, Micro Seiki and a direct drive Luxman PD 121, its nothing like playing an LP on a self built turntable.

Week 1
Firstly, the design.....how the end product should look like. A search in the net resulted in varied designs....from weird to robotic looking machine. Anyway, my design will be based on aesthetic rather then engineering. After much thought, I decided on a double plinth table.

Week 2
I did some sketches translating my thoughts onto the drawing board. Finally, decided on an octagonal shaped double plinth that could accommodate more then one tone arm with an outboard motor unit.


Front view


Top view


Week 3 & 4
Next would be searching for supplier of the components needed. Teres and Schue had stopped selling its components for diy. Diyhifi supply is another supplier of diy components. Decided to get the motor assembly and platter from them. Unfortunately bearing is out of stock. (first problem).
Approached local machinist to re-drill the hole on the platter so that I could use bearing from other supplier. Unfortunately, no one does that locally (second problem).

The plinth……1st choice granite.
2nd choice corian
3rd choice acrylic
4th choice MDF

1st and 2nd choices are out. No one is willing to fabricate for me. Thus acrylic is the choice for my plinth. Anyway, it matches the BIX acrylic platter from diyhifi.

Week 5 & 6
Ordered the components from diyhifi and sent my plinth design to a local acrylic fabricator. Delivery was super fast…..receiving the items from diyhifi within one week of ordering. The platter is a polished acrylic 40mm thick and the motor assembly is a massive 4.5 kg thingy. The finishing of both platter and motor assembly were of high quality. Hopefully it performs as high.



Polished acrylic platter



The massive DC motor assembly. The motor is from Holland by Premotec

Week 7 (this week)
Plinth should be ready anytime this week. The plinth is 30 mm thick and the armboard is 20 mm thick.