Garmin Nuvi 255W GPS

^This is my little saviour that guided me in JB this afternoon.. Without it I think I might ended up going in circles just to find the right route.. After using it a couple of times, I do find it quite useful to own a GPS...

^When searching for our destinations, once we select Point Of Interest icon,  it will lead us to this page..

^ When I clicked the food icon, I will be brought to a selection of the different cuisine in Singapore, Not all, but a few of them.. even my favourite Lao Zhong Zhong Eating house at Tai Thong Crescent can be found in the data..

Some other features which I like:

• It is user-friendly.
• When I am approaching an ERP gantry, it will prompt me that I am approaching one, and informed me about the timing and asked me to make sure that I have sufficient amount in my cashcard.
• When approaching speed camera, it will also prompt me that I am approaching one soon, and what is the speed limit of the road.
• When coming to a spilt junction along expressways, there will be a spilt screen to show somehow the actual scene that I am at, and show me which lane to take..
• Includes the addresses of some of the popular food places, there was once when we were at Katong area and wanted to eat Fei Fei Wanton Mee, but not sure which route to take ..so we tried the food search and it brought us to the shop..

Some things which I dont like:

• Some times when its saying some street names, I dont really understand what its saying until I see the road name on the screen... 
• It comes with 3 selections, fastest time, shorter distance and off-road.. most of the time, it will direct us to the nearest expressway if we choose the fastest time.. but some times it will also lead us to taking a longer route.

Overall, I find Garmin Nuvi 255W GPS quite a useful device, especially in situations when I do not know my way or totally lost my way. I think there should be other expensive GPS with better features, but Garmin 255W works pretty well in guiding me from point A to point B.

Singapore's Anti-Drink Drive Campaign 2009 .. Don't Drive To Drink

( Click on image to enlarge)

Credit: Channel NewAsia, 21 Dec 2009

Christmas and New Year are just around the corners.. and with the launch of this year anti-drink drive campaign, please beware that roadblocks will be everywhere.. ( but sometimes I wonder why the roadblocks are only at the few areas which people know, maybe they should set up roadblocks at areas where people do not know.. or best still, set up roadblocks directly infront of Zouk and St James.. Confirm no one would dare to drive when they see the police, then they will have no choice but to opt for the in-house valet services... Mission accomplished!)

Of course drinking with friends on these special occassions will be so much fun ..but dont drive to drink ... Take a taxi if possible.. dont let hours of fun/drinks end up with years of regret.. Dont let your hard earned licenses go down the drain.. And also think of the amount that you need to spend to re-take all your licenses..

Have tons of fun partying these festive seasons.. give your cars a break, and take public transport if you know you are going to drink...

Cheers to all! ('',)

Duragloss Clay Bar + Touch Up Paint

I read from a forum that this green clay works to remove debris or dust from the car surfaces so I went ahead to buy the small one to try.. But so co-incidental that I happened to meet the seller before, and even went to a short Batam trip with her.. such a small world..

This clay is really small, about half a name card size.. and it cost $16.20.. Actually it cost $18, if not for the fact that there is a 10% promotion for the month of December. I cut out a bit to try on a small portion, but it did not seem to work.. according to the forum, they said cannot really see the difference when the clay is used, but it should be after polish + sealant is used than can notice the difference... ( ok, I think I will try again) ..

I was also given a sample of the Duragloss shampoo which really smell nice, like cherry ... its shampoo is pink in color .. heard that Duragloss products all smell nice nice... too bad I have already bought a few Autoglym products.. Maybe after I finished Autoglym, I will try out more Duragloss products.

I ordered a piece of touch up paint from Autobacs a few days ago, and I was surprised that they actually gave me a call yesterday to go pick up the product.. The staff had told me that it would take roughly a week to two as they need to order from Japan.. but it just took them 3-4 days.. I guess their branch at Bukit Batok should have the stock so they just transfer over.. Don't think the shipment from Japan will be so fast.. Oh well, when I examined the outer case, it seem to me that the product is either from China or Korea.. definitely not from Japan.

DIY Car Polishing With Autoglym Products..Can I Make It?

These few days I had been surfing the internet for car grooming products.. and realise that a lot of patience and time go into making cars shiny, in showroom condition. Bling Bling... and there are even car grooming services available for those to prefer to leave the job to the professional by paying more, a simple car spa including polishing, waxing, interior cleaning and vacuuming start from $50, and if a polishing machine is used in the process, the job would easily start from $80... Of course, the bigger the car, the more expensive will be the Car spa session...

Surfing through the internet, I come to know 2 popular brands.. Meguiar's and Autoglym . quite a number of car grooming companies use these 2 brands when they are working on their clients' rides... Each of this brand carry a wide variety of products... from glass cleaner, car shampoo, polishing clothes, wax, gloss, wheel cleaner to tyre shine products.

I made a trip down to Autobacs Ubi which is something like a supermarket which carry almost all the products related to cars.. like sports rims, tyres, in car entertainment, horns, car accessories, even a long stretch of car perfumes, whatever you can think of for the car, it will carry...

There was a full page advertisement on Autobacs promotion on Straits Times Life section on 27th Nov 09.. and the Autoglym promotion caught my attention..

In the end I spent $73.90 on Autoglym products.. ( Actually I had wanted to buy only the 2 essential product for polishing which are the Super Resin Polish and Extra Gloss Protection..but in the end I bought the clean wheels and the shampoo as well)

Autoglym also carries a few types of accessories to go along with their wide range of products like Aqua dry, perfect polishing cloth, Hi Tech interior microfibre, Hi tech cleaning hand pad, Hi-tech finishing cloth etc.. but they cost more than $20+ each so I did not buy.. and got a similar polishing cloth by TripleWax which cost $3+ and a Mr Clean Quik & Dry Synthetic Car Chamois which cost $5.50..

I know nothing about polishing and dont even know how to use these type of polishes and sealant.. this will be my first time trying it out.. I dont expect professional result, but hopefully I can see some result before and after polishing work or else it would mean waste money, time and effort affair..

I have to depend on these few videos to guide me how to use the product correctly..

Step 1 : Autoglym bodywork shampoo conditioner

Step 2: Autoglym Clean Wheels

Step 3: Autoglym Super Resin Polish

( Apply in circular motion and finish in straight lines, before using polishing cloth to wipe away)

Step 4: Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection

( Apply in overlapping straight lines and have to wait for about an hour for it to "cure" before polishing off again!)

Think in that 1 hour, I can clean the dashboard, vacuum the interior, drink water, and have some rest..

Seem like a tedious process.. I guess expected time to finish the task may take up to 5hours . But the problem is will I see a difference before and after polishing?? Maybe in the end, pay $80 to professional car grooming to clean + polish will be a wiser choice ... ('',) because now I already spent around $80 to buy these products + cloth...