wahlau's online hut

have you ever come across some incidents - you dream of something, and after some time, you realize that you dream actually takes place in real life? i have such Déjà vu experience before, although i have no explanation. It could be just coincidence, or perhaps i have been day dreaming :)

I think i have mentioned this before - i like boots. Since i had my first pair of Doc. Martens, i always wanted to at least have one at my rack. Reason - they are comfortable (not at the initial weeks though) and tough. one more reason now when i am living in Europe - they keep your feet warm too! So until now i appreciate them more when winter comes.

Remember the online backgammon site i reviewed not long ago? Now it even offers its software in twelve languages! For gamers of backgammon, poker, perudo and blackjack, now you might be able to also find the software in your own language. From the press release it is stated that Chinese, Portuguese, German, Arabic, French, Hebrew, Japanese, English, Greek, Turkish, Spanish and Danish are supported in the All-in-One Game Lobby. Interface language will be switched instantly when one selects his language of choice in the game lobby.

Backgammon Masters has now one one of the largest community base of players who are either playing games or interacting with friends using real-time chat. The latest offer of major languages support will surely attract more international players and make the software globally user friendly. For example, to play backgammon online you can now play with a group of Chinese and interact with each other using Chinese. No more English only interface... it is nothing against the international language... but when you and i can speak and interact with our own languages. it makes communication at least more natural and direct.

i come across this while browsing, and am impressed by it - the new Samsung phone G600. It is a superb 5 megapixel camera phone, and is really really slick and thin, as compared to other high end phones. The most impressive part is the image quality it manage to produce - to judge it yourself, take a look at the promotion they are doing together with the phone. It is a Queue Jumper clubber voting campaign, featuring 300 clubbers with their photos taken by the phone. I took a look at the gallery... and boy i think we have again another new batch of gadgets.

when we started playing games, especially those addictive ones, our parents will start to warn us from loosing ourselves. Most common words of advice would be like "aiyo, don't play else you waste too much time" or "you are just wasting your precious energy... go do something that brings money back" and etc...

If you have been following different sport events, you might also followed Olympic games. Every 4 years there will be a huge sport event, gathering the best from every country to compete for the honour and pride. And months (or weeks) before the grand event the Olympic Flame will be carreid by different people from Athen to the place of the event, then the openning ceremony of the Olympic Games of the year will be ended with this flame.

when you get your very own car, what would be one of the important thing you should be paying attention to? To my opinion, besides price, the accompanied car insurance should not be taken too lightly. why? because you would not want to have unpleasant surprise when something actually happen to your beloved vehicle, right? Imagine you had an accident, and you end up with the bills instead of being paid by the insurance company - then it would be too late to regret.

I remember how a friend actually recommended my wife life insurance... she actually bought it for her before wifey gave her the money. The reason, not because the friend is selling it, but because she felt it is so important that we should not delay. When you know this is well-meant by a friend, you know it is not just a product - it is something one can use at the times of need, and that is what insurance is for - help at times of need.

Now-a-days credit card business is competitive. I come across a site today offering all kinds of credit cards. Take a look at the Co-operative Bank, and perhaps you can find yourself a suitable credit card for yourself too. the bank has really quite a variety - no matter it is a basic card, or a corperate card, or a card to be used when you travel around. The site has pretty detailed descriptions on the various offers, and you can have a good overview if you need to make a choice.

The bank offers only to UK residents - it is a UK based bank. It is part of The Co-operative Group, the UK's largest consumer co-operative. It is important to know more about the bank you are going to get your card from. You would not want to end up with one that has not so good reputation and background, right?

I find some of the ideas in its offer pretty interesting. For example, for a clear card, when a customer spend more than 100GBP 1.25p will be used for donation. You might say 1.25p is nothing. Well, if all customers do use their cards frequently, the donation sum can be quite big. Imagine business people using it, for instance. There is also combination of travelling benefits for a few other cards. The organization where the bank belongs to has also travelling business - and customers are given discounts on all brochure priced holidays with The Co-operative Bank Travelclub.

i think with all kinds of competition, value added service will attract customers to a bank. I of course cannot tell if Co-operative Bank is going to beat its competitors, but i know they have put up good offers for their potential customers.

at the end of the day, customers win. that is a good thing (TM).

Are you a fan of jungle survival and adventure? then you would not want to miss this - the one and only Bear Grylls is back in a new series of Ultimate Survival on the Discovery Channel. He will be battling for survival in some of the most hostile and extreme locations on the planet. Following is a video where he does all kind of crazy things in the wild - crunching bugs, eating worms and tearing into zebra flesh.... boy this is crazy stuff!