House Hunting in Singapore

House hunting is become a big task nowdays in Singapore after the rise in the prices for rentals or buying houses. One is always on the lookout for sources to find decent houses at reasonable price. Saving money on agent fees is something everyone will be looking out for. Secondly putting an advertisement for rentals & selling houses directly could save owners from the agent fees as well.

Of course this doesn't stop the house agents from putting advertisement for the apartments they have for rental or sale. Here are two sites recommended by one of my colleagues who himself is on the lookout for rental house for himself. do check them out and incase you know of some better websites please do recommend the same.

The websites offer few good services:
One can post your ad for free here regarding one's requirement for house/rooms.

In some cases you can even contact the owner directly so that you can even avoid paying agent fees or you can post your ad with your phone no/email address stating your requirement and many people will contact you.

http://www.sg-house.com/

http://www.efair.sg/viewscat.asp?id=10006

Hope this helps many of us to find houses/rooms.

Happy house hunting.

Zee Sa Re Ga Ma

I am a religious follower for Zee Sa re Ga Ma which has over the years been getting very good talents to the Indian music industry.

I have my favorites in this program & every time I see the show I think the person is closer to clinching the title for himself. I recollect the episode broadcasted in Asiapacific on last Saturday, which had “Mauli” one of the most favorite singers of Bappi Lahiri. The episode had come to a stage where there were 7 contestants and this episode was going to be a decider for one of the participants since there was going to be an elimination to be left with final 6 participants.

Almost at the end of the show, it was time for the decision, when Sumedha & Mauli were the last two contestants called onto stage. Finally Aaditya Narayan announced that Sumdeha is through and Mauli has been eliminated. Hearing this Bappi Lahiri got very angry & walked to the stage and announced and I quote “ public is not voted correct & I donot agree to this decision and that if Mauli does not stay in the competition the TRP rating of the program will not be the same as it was in her presence.” Finally he concluded by saying if Mauli is not there he himself will also not be there & I quote what he said at last : “I am Quit”

This drama was the worst of what I have seen on Zee Sa Re Ga Ma. I could understand the emotions of Bappi Lahiri upto the point where he being a great fan of Mauli and so he hadn’t expected her to be out by the time final 6 were announced. But I felt it was a joke for a person of this experience to start muttering things about Zee or about the TRP rating. Secondly, as Himesh and Ismail Darbar always point out is that public makes or breaks the artist & it is upto them to give a decision. In this case, it was clear that public had chosen the other over Mauli for obvious reasons. There have been occasions when Bollywood stars and TV artists have come to this program and have cleared mentioned that the male singers are superior to the female singers this time round. I think this drama was unnecessary for him to do & if Zee has tried to again achieve a better TRP by doing this stunt. I think it is really poor thing to do. I guess, the good things in the program need to be thought of and projected in the best way to get people to watch the program rather than dramatize things beyond limit.

Another thing that needs to be kept in mind as the episode heads towards having the winner, there is ought to be elimination of singers & although someone might be good at earlier episodes but what will matter now is how good the person can hold his nerves as the competition heats up. So the person who can perform at his best and get all the qualities as a singer & performer based on inputs he has got from the mentors will be the ultimate winner. I hope the finish will be as good & thrilling as it has been till date.

A Rat who can Cook!!!

Ratatouille - is the name of the movie released recently by Pixar. It was an exciting time for me and my wife to take our 2 year old son for this movie.

My son is a fan of Pixar's movie "Cars" and so when the movie trailers of "Ratatouille " were out, we were on the lookout for taking him for this movie. We got a chance to take him for this movie on 2nd Sept. at Eng Wah Cinemas at Suntec city. There is this company called Berri Works Pte Ltd. who has been organising movies for families with kids as small as 1-2 years old. There are a few games organised for the kids before this show & goodie bags are provided for the families booking the tickets.

My son is still new to the animal Rat so he was not sure what is the sound a Rat makes so he tends to say "who who" pointing at the rat on the poster. He has a gleam in his eyes when he is doing this and I love to watch him like this. This movie starts with a space ship trying to pick this boy when he is asleep in an isolated house far from all the towns. This part was something which was not linked with the movie & apparently sound was too loud to scare a few kids come to see the show.

The movie starts with this Rat, Rémy who is different from all the rats in this small village near Paris, who likes to eat good food & watch TV. But he is most impressed by Gosteau - A famous chef who has a TV show where he presents his speciailities every show. The Remy developes a liking for good food & his passion for cooking also takes over all other things that Rats tend to do. Due to certain reasons, the rats end up in the water drainage system and by chance Remy ends up at the Restaurant of Gosteau, who has just recently died. He is thrilled to see this place & wants to see more & so lets himself into the Kitchen where he sees chef's busy cooking.

The story progresses with a new recruit Linguini, Alfredo Linguini who arrives with a letter of introduction from his recently deceased mother, and is hired on to do duties. Linguini spills a pot of soup and attempts to cover up his mistake by adding random ingredients. Upset, Rémy falls into the kitchen and attempts to fix the ruined soup rather than trying to escape. Linguini catches Rémy in the act, just as Skinner(the head Chef) catches Linguini. In the confusion some of the soup has been served. To everyone's surprise, the soup is a success.

Linguini, discovers that Remy is the one who can cook very well and so does the restaurant starts getting orders for recipes being prepared by Linguini. To achieve this feat of cooking without knowing cooking is worked out by Remy and Linguini, where Remy hides in Linguini's Chef hat & pulls his hair when he needs Linguini to do the cooking, so that Linguini's body moves in a way, Remy wants & it appears that Linguini is doing the things right.

Skinner plies Linguini with vintage Chateau latour in an unsuccessful attempt to discover the secret of his unexpected talents. The next morning,hung over and disheveled, Linguini nearly confides his secret to Colette. Desperately trying to stop Linguini, Rémy pulls his hair, making him fall on Colette, leading the two to kiss. They begin dating, leaving Rémy feeling abandoned. Meanwhile, Skinner learns after some sleuthing that, unknown to everyone, Linguini is in fact Gusteau's son and stands to inherit the restaurant. This would thwart Skinner's ambition to exploit Gusteau's image to market prepared frozen foods.

One night Rémy and his colony are reunited. While looking for food Rémy discovers Gusteau's will which, after a chase by Skinner, he presents to Linguini. Linguini now owns the restaurant, fires Skinner, and becomes a rising star in the culinary world. After a falling out, Linguini decides he no longer needs Rémy, and Rémy retaliates by leading a kitchen raid for his rat colony. Linguini attempts to apologize to Rémy, only to discover and kick out his whole colony. Rémy feels guilty about hurting his friend, and refuses to join them in resuming the raid.
Things come to a head the night of a planned review by well known food critic Anton Ego. Linguini, unable to cook without the rat's guidance, admits his ruse to the staff when Rémy shows up, leading them all to walk out. Colette returns after thinking through Gusteau's motto, "Anyone can cook!" Django, inspired by his son's courage, returns with the entire rat colony to cook under Rémy's direction, while Linguini, discovering his true talent, waits tables on roller skates. Colette helps Rémy prepare Ratatouille (is a traditional French Provencal stewed vegetable dish, originating in Nice. The full name of the dish is ratatouille niçoise); Rémy's new recipe produces a dish so good that, in the climax of the film, a bite of it leads Ego to relive childhood memories of his mother. Ego asks to meet the chef but Colette insists he must wait until the rest of the diners have left. At the end of the service, Rémy and the rats are revealed. A changed man, Ego writes a glowing review, declaring that the chef at Gusteau's is the greatest chef in all of France. And rest is history.

There are quite a few occassions in the movie, when there are comic scenes and make kids laugh, but more so the movie is about friendship and in this case, talks about friends who need not be both humans. I guess we all have seen friendship between a Dog and man or a horse and a man. But this I guess is one of the first attempts to depict a relationship between a Rat and a human being. The movie is worth watching & applauding for its sweet story line. Looking forward for the next Pixar release.