Asian Tiger

Christmas and New Year holidays are just around the corner. This festive season coincides with the school holidays. All these mean that there will be more visitors, holidaymakers and/or party crashers coming to your home. While they are at your home, chances will be that they will be visiting your bathroom. Time for a makeover.

One of the easiest way liven up your bathroom is to simply change your shower curtains and ensure that they are drawn even when not in use. Get one of those funky shower curtains that brightens up your bathroom and at the same time, you must ensure that the colours match. To get the inspiration of what kind of shower curtains to buy, you can make a quick check for shower curtains online. I use Vitafutura’s site to give me some ideas of what I’m looking for.

The other method to liven up your bathroom is by adopting a more expensive approach is by changing your bathroom accessories such as mirrors, taps, toilet paper holders, tissue dispenser or soap dish. I wouldn’t recommend this as this approach can cause you a little dent in your wallet and disastrous results if the matching is not proper. Give a relatively cheap try at the shower curtains for a start.

Just some shopping assistance when choosing your shower curtain materials:

1. Fabric - ensure that you purchase 100% water repellent and yet washable and color retaining
2. Plastic - partial transparent shower curtain can have lovely effects on brightness
3. Vinyl - make sure that the colors are durable over time

I have always been fascinated with aeroplanes - they way they are able to lift off the ground despite carrying that enormous weight on them. Malaysia’s national carrier is called Malaysia Airlines and I have been flying around using them and occasionally Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific. I still prefer Malaysia Airlines even though the Singapore Girls have pretty smiles. Malaysia Airlines have won many awards for their onboard services by Skytrax and I would testify that it is indeed true. If you have not flown on Malaysia Airlines, I suggest you give it a try - at least once - and judge your own. Splurge a little more to upgrade yourself to business class and you will really enjoy the service.

Anyway, I thought the following list of airplanes in Malaysia Airlines may be of interest to others:

Boeing B747-400P
13 aircrafts
Passenger Seating: 386
Pratt & Whitney PW4056 Engines
Length: 70.70m (231ft 10in)
Wing Span: 64.90m (212ft 11in)
Height: 19.41m (63ft 8in)
Range: 12,964km (7,000 nautical miles)
Fuel Capacity: 57,485 US Gallons
Cruising Speed: Mach 0.86 (918km/hr)

Boeing B747-400F
2 aircrafts
Passenger Seating: None. This is a cargo airplane.
Pratt & Whitney PW4062 Engines
Length: 68.63m (225ft 2in)
Wing Span: 59.64m (195ft 8in)
Height: 19.51m (64ft)
Range: 4,500 nautical miles
Fuel Capacity: 53,985 US Gallons
Cruising Speed: Mach 0.86 (918km/hr)

Boeing B747-200F
4 aircrafts
Passenger Seating: None. This is a cargo airplane.
Rolls Royce Barnoldswick RB211-524D4 Engines
Length: 68.63m (225ft 2in)
Wing Span: 59.64m (195ft 8in)
Height: 19.58m (64ft 3in)
Range: 3,700 nautical miles
Fuel Capacity: 53,985 US Gallons
Cruising Speed: Mach 0.84 (897km/hr)

Boeing B777-200
17 aircrafts
Passenger Seating: 278/289
Rolls Royce Trent 892 Engines
Length: 63.73m (209ft 1in)
Wing Span: 60.93m (199ft 11in)
Height: 18.76m (61ft 6in)
Range: 12,779km (6,900 nautical miles)
Fuel Capacity: 47,380 US Gallons
Cruising Speed: Mach 0.84 (897km/hr)

Airbus A330-300
11 aircrafts
Passenger Seating: 294
Pratt & Whitney PW4168 Engines
Length: 62.88m (206ft 4in)
Wing Span: 60.30m (197ft 10in)
Height: 16.83m (55ft 3in)
Range: 7,964km (4,300 nautical miles)
Fuel Capacity: 25,861 US Gallons
Cruising Speed: Mach 0.82 (875km/hr)

Airbus A330-200
5 aircrafts
Passenger Seating: 229
Pratt & Whitney 4168A Engines
Length: 58.38m (191ft 6in)
Wing Span: 60.30m (197ft 10in)
Height: 17.90m (58ft 8in)
Range: 12,224km (6,600 nautical miles)
Fuel Capacity: 36,748 US Gallons
Cruising Speed: Mach 0.84 (897km/hr)

Boeing B737-400
39 aircrafts
Passenger Seating: 144
CFM56-3C1 Engines
Length: 36.40m (119ft 5in)
Wing Span: 28.90m (94ft 10in)
Height: 11.07m (36ft 6in)
Range: 2,963km (1,600 nautical miles)
Fuel Capacity: 6,200 US Gallons
Cruising Speed: Mach 0.74 (797km/hr)

Fokker 50
10 aircrafts
Passenger Seating: 50
Pratt & Whitney PW125B Engines
Length: 25.25m (82ft 10in)
Wing Span: 29.00m (95ft 2in)
Height: 8.32m (27ft 3in)
Range: 2,778km (1,500 nautical miles)
Fuel Capacity: 1,412 US Gallons
Cruising Speed: 580km/hr

DHC-6 Twin Otter
5 aircrafts
Passenger Seating: 19
Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6-27 Engines
Length: 15.00m (49ft 3in)
Wing Span: 19.80m (65ft 0in)
Height: 6.35m (20ft 10in)
Range: 740km (400 nautical miles)
Fuel Capacity: 2,450lbs
Cruising Speed: 269km/hr

Haven’t we all been waiting for this day? Haven’t we all wondered if we can really serenade over the mobile phone in the rain. Haven’t we all been worried about our mobile phones dropping into water?

Well, worry no more as last Wednesday at the 2007 CES Consumer Electronics Show, in New York City, the show unveiled Verizon’s Wireless G’zOne Type-V mobile phone that can work underwater. The G’zOne Type-V mobile phone comes with a 2 megapixel camera which allows you to take underwater photos (don’t let your imagination run wild — I know what you are thinking).

This phone will be made available in the US for USD299.99 which is approximately RM1,090.62 if we use an exchange rate of RM3.635 to a USD1.00. Looking at the build of this mobile phone, I would say that this is probably not what a normal corporate person will carry along. If you are into extreme sports that has to do with much body of water (wake-boarding, snorkelling, canoing or logrolling), then this mobile phone is to be seriously considered. You just might need to make that phone call when you are in the wilderness.

For more images of the G’zOne Type-V mobile phone, check out reviews on Amazon, CNet’s review and MobileTechReview on the various tests conducted on this phone. Don’t underestimate this mobile phone, it has been rated as military grade.