Living for Fridays, barely..

FM at last, and I don't mean Frequency Modulation!

2010-12-10T21:56:00.016+08:00

5 Dec 2010 - Singapore Marathon 2010

Wow.. it has been exactly one year since I last wrote here. My last post was about my first half marathon where I challenged myself to complete a Full Marathon in 2010, and I'm glad to report that I now have a finisher tee!!!!

Not in a million years would I have ever imagined myself completing a Full Marathon (yup! FM in runner’s lingo)! I am more of a computer and movie geek rather than a sportswoman. Then one day on a crazy whim, Mag and I decided to buy our first pair of serious running shoes and join our very first mass run! We started modestly with just the 5km SHAPE Run 2007. I think it must have been the free Nike running tee again - right, Mag? Back then the goodie bag had good stuff, including 5 bottles of Vitagen!

After progressively increasing our distance - GE Women 10K, then 21K (I did 3 in all I think), a 30K NEWTON Run, even a MacRitchie trail run and then... fast forward 3 years and 3 pairs of shoes later... FINALLY the BIG Whopper -> Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2010 FULL Marathon!

Seasoned runners shared their experiences about cramped up muscles at around 30-35km, so I was really worried that it would happen to me. And being a regular morning pooper, I was also worried that I had to use the toilet in the middle of the run!

I went through all sorts of ups and downs with training - knee pains, tight muscles and just plain laziness! With the schedules I needed to keep at work, I had to force myself to leave the house (sometimes as late as 9:30pm) to run at least 12km around the river and back for a late dinner. Gotta get those legs used to the pain we're gonna put them through! I watched videos about Chi Running and practised forefoot/midfoot running. I was determined to complete in one piece, with minimal suffering! The Newton 30K was a good indication of the pain level I had to endure(OUCH)!

The days leading to the marathon had some sort of weird quietness - we were thinking about what to eat, what to wear, what to bring, when to meet, where to meet and where to park (for Mag). After the logistics were settled, it was a matter of just waiting for the day to arrive... Instead of the usual "Pain is temporary", I went local and wrote "DON'T STOP TO LIM KOPI" and pinned it on my back and sure enough, a few runners were amused by it. "Lim Kopi" means drink coffee and Singaporeans and Malaysians will get it.

Guess what? It rained the whole of Saturday too, just like it did last year!!!

So on a beautiful Sunday, the 5th of Dec 2010 at 5am, while some of my more athletic friends did their Phuket Ironman 70.3 and Ironman Western Australia Busselton, I did my first ever Full Marathon at 44 years of age, with Mag, Calvin Boo, Sandy and Fang Jie around me. My colleagues Derek Scully (first timer) and Chongwah (seasoned marathoner) were somewhere too. Donna and Derek were running 21K from Sentosa (how exciting)!

Flag off was in front of ION and we ran under the twinkling Christmas lights that lined the entire stretch of Orchard Road - quite magical. I remembered Chongwah's words to start slow if we don't want to cramp up later. The route was familiar as I ran it with Mag a couple of weeks ago (even though we got lost later. Haha..).

I can't really remember the start of the race because it was basically quite uneventful. By the time we got to East Coast Park, the pain started. I distracted myself by looking out for the fast runners on the opposite side, trying to spot Chongwah and FangJie. CCW spotted me first and FJ was not far behind!! Wow.. they're fast! This stretch reminded me of the Newton 30K - not a good memory.. Boring and neverending... I lost Mag and caught up with Sandy. We finally reached the U-turn and headed back to Fort Road. I was amused by a supporter's sign that said "GO STRANGERS, RUN!" <-- quite apt because we were truly strangers and they were cheering for us! It so happened that one of them actually snapped 2 rather nice pictures of me jogging!

People started walking and I felt like walking too. It doesn't help that it was just open space and NO SHADE at all! Headed towards the golf club & Marina Barage in the scorching sun! 9:30am and the sun was unforgiving! Harsh and hot! I had to walk at some point because it got so demoralising watching other people walking! I could feel the tiny bones on my feet and ankle aching with every pounding step... and I felt like walking... PAIN!! The sun ate into my skin...

I decided to tell myself to jog as long as there is sun - then at least it will reduce the time spent in the sun! I walked a bit when there was shade. Someone had an ice lolly - me jealous! Told Mag we should join Safra Jurong running club - haha!!

The route after Marina South was slow and torturous. We were tested by the slopes of Benjamin Sheares bridge and had to watch the finishers walk to the F1 building for their bags. It was funny to see the 10K runners walking or sitting at the side, while the marathoners were just trying to jog around the strollers. I had to keep telling myself not to stop, even if my jog was as slow as someone else's brisk walk. I felt numb and blocked out the pain and finally the last 100m approached. It was so crowded at the end that I didn't even get a good photo! But it's ok, because it felt great to cross the finish line, and even GREATER to have the Finisher Tee! Oh and the medal looks great too!

Official chip time: 5hr 26mins 10secs

P.S. I made Mag sign up for Sundown Marathon 2011 even before we completed the above! The carrot was the ADIDAS Finisher Tee!! HAHAHA!!!

My First Half Marathon

2009-12-09T21:57:00.012+08:00

6 Dec 2009 - Singapore Marathon 2009

My bib number is not exactly the most auspicious - too many 4's for my liking. But I suppose if you say it with the zero and one, it does sound ok, like die die sure first! LOL..

I ran my first 21.1k Half Marathon last Sunday, and Mag did the 10K ... we trained together on 2 weekends at East Coast Park although she didn't really complete the whole course with me on the jogging path (up and down East Coast is around 20K).

At the end of her race last Sunday, Mag proclaimed the 10k not shiok anymore!! SO NEXT YEAR, we will go for the FULL marathon because we REALLY want the Finisher's tee !! So jealous of people who have it.. haha...

We were given a blank sheet to write encouraging words to pin on our backs for other runners. I thought that the most inspiring and appropriate phrase is from the man himself, Lance Armstrong - "PAIN IS TEMPORARY. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever."

I pinned this on the back of my t-shirt and I burned this phrase in my own brain. So many times I wanted to stop and walk but I remembered these words and somehow managed to muster enough strength to continue jogging. I wonder if anyone read my back and felt inspired...

The start time for Full marathon was 5:30am. For my Half marathon, it was 6:45am. I had to start alone because Mag's start time for 10K was 8:30am (so late!! and so hot!! )

I woke up at 4:30am (actually, I woke up many times before that, too excited I guess... even got called by office as I was on support roster) and tried to do my "morning BUSINESS" but cannot do!! DIE LAH... I thought I sure kena do big business along the way! I did a bit the night before lah. Ate my usual breakfast of cereal and milk and dressed in my bright pink t-shirt (sure cannot miss me in photos!) - I asked Dina to take a photo of me with Chewie (in her sleepy state) - something we always do before we go out for our early morning runs like Shape Run, Nike Run or GE Women's 10K. Sort of like a "pre-race" photo.

Downstairs, 5:35am, the air was cool and it was peaceful. Walked down Bencoolen Street and a girl popped out from Bencoolen Hotel dressed in the SCSM outfit with cap and shorts. Ah ha... booked into a hotel nearby and walk to venue - quite smart! Or maybe she's Malaysian or from overseas. Good choice of hotel - a bit sleazy but much cheaper than the Oriental, Marina or Fairmont.

More and more runners appeared as I walked towards the War Memorial Park (that's where the baggage deposit is). It was so dark my phone camera could not really capture much. The ground was muddy and soggy from a full day's rain the night (and day) before!! Maybe somebody 'prayed' for rain the previous day so that we can have cool weather :-)

After depositing my bag, I made my way towards the start point on Esplanade Bridge, near Fullerton Hotel. Some people were giving out Dr Joint Pain - so funny, one auntie even shouted, "come! Dr Joint Pain! Apply on your legs now! Win Number One!!" Haha... I took some - got a very generous squirt and applied the pain suppressing cream around my knees and the muscles around the calves. I think this is what helped me along the way too. Mind you, this cream isn't cheap! A small tube sets you back by more than S$15 !! So free cream must take lah! Haha...

I was so thirsty by the time I got to the Esplanade... luckily they already had the FIRST of MANY MANY water points!! OMG!! The floor was littered with mountains of empty Ice Mountain cups!!! (see picture) Sigh.... what to do ? It's such a dilemma - Runners have to be hydrated - so how to be environmentally friendly at the same time??? I took my one cup and threw it on one of the piles :-( No choice lor... maybe next time they will make runners carry their own water. Might not be a bad idea actually.

I got as near to the starting point as I could, and snapped pictures to while away the time. Nobody around my section paid much attention to the DJ, so when they started to do the little marathon dance, no one around me bothered. Everyone was just too psyched and eager to push off!! I met a fellow JoyRider, Bubble Sharon Khoo, and we chatted about our timing and how fast or slow we were going to be. She's a tri-athlete, fit and young (in the 25-29 yrs category), so I expected her to do much better than me.

The 42K runners were trooping pass us on the other side of the Esplanade Bridge, sweaty and some already walking!!!!! Aiyoh... all the more I think we must do the FULL marathon next year !! FINALLY, the horn sounded and we were flagged off !! Wooot !! The pace was pretty fast in the beginning. I even had trouble keeping up with the 2:30hrs pacers. But later as people tapered off, the pace slowed down. Many people passed me and I also passed a few. At certain vantage points, I could see a herd of people ahead of me!!! Why were they faster? sigh.... nevermind lah... I plodded on and on... argh... felt pretty cool and good. I kept reminding myself that I need to keep hydrated. Even though it slowed me down, I stopped at all the water and isotonic points and even the one banana station ! More trash and more mountains.. sigh... plodded on... at some point, I felt numbness in my legs but it passed. Wow... it's not 2 x 10K, it's actually 2 x 10K + 1.1k !! Grrraghhhh.... When back on the Esplanade Bridge and on the way to the FINISH LINE, the feeling cannot be described.. Just so elated and also relieved that it's going to be over soon!! and FINALLY I MADE IT to the Finish line and DID NOT HAVE A PHOTO TAKEN OF ME!!!! Haha.. Too crowded I guess... sigh..

OHHHHHH the pain after that was just UNBELIEVABLE !!!! I can't imagine how badly the 42K runners must feel if I'm already feeling this bad !! PAIN x 2 x 3 ?? Everything ached, including my shoulders and my collar bone muscles!! Very hard to walk. but glad I was still quite ok.. Heard that someone collapsed and some people had cramps etc. And here's the reward :

Met Mag at the 10K finish line and we were too tired to explore the grounds - and anyway, it was too disgustingly squishy and muddy!!

That's all for the story I guess.... will you join me next year? It's now Tuesday and I still cannot go down stairs properly... I just applied Dr Joint Pain on my aching thighs. Not helping much. The worse pain is from sitting and getting up from the .... WC !!!! HAHAHA.. I hope you know what "WC" stands for! Look it up on wiki please!

Official chip time: 2hr 23mins 57secs

Joyriders Newbies Route Ride 2

2009-01-10T10:28:00.003+08:00

I went for my second cycling trip with the Joyriders this morning. It's getting easier to get up in the morning. After a breakfast of cereal and milk, I left as quietly as you can walk with cleated shoes, with Chewie looking at me dolefully..

I invited LH to join me this morning. She is the only person I know who would actually say yes to such a invitation as she is constantly training for triathlons, marathons and such.

I think I did slightly better than last week. Managed to draft a little in the beginning. Must try harder. On the way back to Longhouse along the downslope coming from Lornie towards Upper Thomson, a car forced his way in front of me, trying to make a quick left turn just up ahead. Then he suddenly decided it was the wrong turn and stopped! Mannnn, I was going at 40km/h (downslope lah...) and had to jam brake right behind him! I shouted at him but what could I do? After that he cruised slowly a little, decided that the next lane is also the wrong lane, and then proceeded to turned RIGHT(!) towards Marymount! Some drivers are so inconsiderate! At the traffic lights, his passengers gestured apologies. Ok lor... I hope he will not repeat this act again!

Link to Earth Trail for today's route. Click on the "play" button to see some action!

Still feeling those strange pins and needles in my thumb and first 2 fingers on my left hand. Not sure why I get it cos I consciously try to move my hands to various positions throughout the ride. I need a massage!

Until next time...

Viewing GPS tracks on Google Maps

2009-01-03T09:50:00.003+08:00

How I uploaded my GPS tracks onto Everytrail : Create new trip on Everytrail

Another website that uploads your trails is GPS Visualizer

Joyriders Newbie Maiden Ride

2009-01-03T09:22:00.010+08:00

I did my first ever ride with the Joyriders this morning. What a blast I had!

Distance : 34km
Duration : 1 hr 39 mins
Ave HR : 148
Max HR : 170
Calories burnt : 761

The worse part was getting up at 4:20am (OMG!) ... once that was achieved, the rest was oh... it was not a walk in the park either!!!

After quick intros, the newbies were shooed off so that we get some sort of a 'head start'. Very soon, I found out why... there are lots of upslopes along the route and I started to fall back. Joyce was urging me along calling out to me every now and then, "PEDAL FASTER!!! LOWER YOUR GEAR AND SPIN SPIN SPIN !!!!!!!!!!" Arrrrggghhh... I'm trying..... Looks like Friday spin classes with Martin did NOT help!! I need to build up my stamina.

What a relief when I finally arrived at the Longhouse again, I was looking forward to sitting down on a CHAIR and kopi-C... the newbies sat together and had a long chat. Joyce took MORE photos and took off on part 2 of their ride to dunno where... Mount Faber or somewhere far far away.....

Now if only I could make this thing display in metric ONLY!! You have to click "metric" to see distance in km.

Have a look :
Joyriders Newbie Maiden Ride 1

Banana Pancakes and Migraines

2008-12-20T21:22:00.017+08:00

Breakfast at PS. Cafe
Felt like having pancakes for breakfast (blame it on Survivor Gabon - they were making pancakes! .. and you thought they were starving... well, most of the time.) so Mag suggested PS. Cafe at Palais Renaissance. Unfortunately, I woke up today with a splitting migraine that made me nauseous. Still, I braved it because of the company!
The weather was great so we chose to sit outside. In any case, there was a fan blowing to keep the air circulated.

The cafe is relaxing and quiet - good place to escape from the hustle and bustle of Orchard Road. I was not feeling too good so no aircon for me anyway...

I ordered Banana Pancakes (what else!?) - four layers of pancake separated by caramalised banana. Ok.. my yearning for pancakes were definitely satiated! They were fluffy and warm and generously drizzled with yummy honey.

I look like I was falling asleep while contemplating my pancakes ... hmmm... where should I make the first cut? zzzzzzzzz......

Mag ordered an Egg-white Omelette filled with feta, mushrooms and herbs. I'm sure if I was feeling better it would taste great!

Ok.. I didn't finish my breakfast but I felt better after taking my meds. No regrets though, enjoyed every minute of the $63 breakfast! ;-)

Oomphatico's

2008-08-26T01:02:00.011+08:00

163 Tanglin Road, #01-03 & #01-35/36 Tanglin Mall, Singapore 247933, Tel 67339088 http://www.oomphaticos.com

Mag suggested dinner at a funky new place at Tanglin Mall called Oomphatico's. Cute name. Creative menu. Check out the cat plates and the OTT decor...

Mag points at the huge Pomelo salad called "Passionate Pomelo"

Tomato & Beef broth served in a cup - I hate it that they do that these days. I wish they'd just serve soup in a bowl and charge more.

Green with Curry - spicy - was it?? LOL.. Found it too sweet.

Be careful you don't leave through these doors... haha..

Left door says, "Behind these doors, MAGIC POTIONS BREWING!"
Right door says, "ENTER. Only if you have a strong urge to wash our dirty plates"

Wish we could order more... their desserts and drinks look interesting too but we didn't have room to try anything else. Maybe next time...

Olympic Fever

2008-08-16T16:49:00.004+08:00

Ooooooh!!!!! Singapore has a chance at GOLD for Table Tennis!! But little did you know... some of our friends have been practicing their Olympic routine in secret!!! And they are no foreign talent!!

I managed to catch them in action finally! What marks would you give them?

Enjoy their Solid Gold performance!

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And you can tell who's not afraid of heights...

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Don't you love the jump shots at the end of the vids?? LOL..

Last but not least, someone shows off her newly acquired Costa Rican muscles!!!

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Ahem...! And one more for good measure, to bring back those disco hop days...

... presenting.... our disco dancing couple!!! (err.. I use the word 'couple' losely of course.. not implying anything ah!!)

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Chewie Takes a Star Turn

2008-08-14T21:39:00.004+08:00

Heyyyyy! Chewie was asked to 'act' in a commercial just last month!

Here are a couple of shots taken in Hair & Make-up... although she needed neither! She's a natural beauty!! LOL.. spoken like a true 'xing ma', right?

AND..... this is the result - her < 1 second of fame! HAHAHA...

THIS I KNOW... BUT NOW THIS YOU KNOW!!!!

Relish this

2008-02-28T17:03:00.008+08:00

#02-01 Cluny Court (next to Serene Centre)
501 Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 259760
Tel: 67631547

On a particularly mucky Saturday afternoon, after geocaching (what else?) at the nearby Botanic Gardens, we ended up at Relish. Pretty entrance eh?

Remember Wild Rocket @ Mt Emily that everybody loves, and remember the Wild Rocket Burger that is a must-have for Sunday Brunch? Well now there's a burger place with ALL the burgers that you can eat (well, eat in moderation ah... cos watch that burger belly...).

The menu is creative and exciting - with selections like BBQ Char Siew Burger, Malaysian Ramlee Burger, Curry Chicken Burger, Lamb Pita Burger, etc etc... who wouldn't want to come back for more??

The menu recommends beers with your burgers too but we didn't bother cos we're such beer guzzlers... we tried an easy to drink cherry beer that was tasty and made us red even though we shared! haha..

AND NOW..... the Ram-Lee burger with the beef wrapped in omelette and topped generously with mayo and chilli sauce - oh dear, enjoy first, to the gym tomorrow la! We even contemplated asking them to remove the yolk before they scramble the egg! LOL...

A different style of 'burger' - lamb patty served with pita bread and mint hummus. hmmm... it was good, something different but I enjoyed the juicy ramlee burger more.

* BURP * All that MEAT, YEAH ! But they also serve salads, soup, portobello tofu burger and seafood burger - chopped octopus, fish, shrimp, crabmeat crispy DEEP FRIED!!!

Next time we are definitely going to order the BBQ CHAR SIEW BURGER because it looked SO GOOD when it was served to the next table!!!

Happy Belated CNY!

2008-02-18T22:31:00.022+08:00

I just love Chewie in her new outfit which I brought back all the way from Guangzhou! If not for limited luggage space, I would've bought more stuff for her! But s'ok lah, I'm sure all she wants is to have me home. Don't you just love dogs, they demand so little and give us so much! <3

First day of CNY, Ruth's dog Tuesday also came to visit!!! The doggies get along so well..

Strange thing about Chinese New Year - the first and second days are always the hottest! ALL I can remember about visiting relatives is feeling icky and sweaty all day long and this year was no different!

Here's a rare family shot with BOTH doggies :)

On the 2nd day of CNY, I organised the almost-traditional choir gathering at my place with the usual suspects.

Before choir friends arrived, Mag took a quick picture of me and the pack of cards that we found while geocaching because the stripes on the cards matched with my dress almost perfectly!

I had almost a FULL HOUSE this year except for CK (*sob*). Can't really consider the children as kids anymore because they have all grown up and take up much more space! Believe it or not, Wei Jee (who made a rare appearance this year) is taller than most of us now!

Sorry CK, this is the only picture I can find of the pumpkin cake! By the way, most of these pictures were taken by Mag and Beng.

The ladies huddle up in preparation for the great Yu Sheng toss up!

Doesn't Andy's daughter remind you of BOO from Monsters Inc.???? She's sooo cute!

We had a special Guest of Honour this year - Nelson - whom we had not seen for probably 15+ years! He looks great but is still as cheeky as ever!

Thanks to Steph's insistence, we managed to squeeze everyone into my tiny living room for a group photo! Not a mean feat I might add!

Here's Mag standing on the chair for the shot!

You can see Mag's final product in her blog but here's a picture taken by Beng.

After dinner, some of us played Polish as usual! I think after the last few years' lessons, most of us were quite wary of 'polishing' when the pot grew and grew! You could almost hear the hearts pounding and the spouses yanking the reins from behind!

I have added some bubbles that will probably be quite funny to those who were playing! Congrats to the winners (Shin and the Shings I think! Should I change my name to something that begins with "shin"? ha..) and to the non-winners - I forgot to present Brian Wong's and Patricia Mok's autographed photos to the one who lost the most as a consolation prize! haha...

THIRD day of CNY, I decided to see what the fuss with Pen Cai was about and ordered a set from Man Fu Yuen restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel. The set costs about $238 and consists of the pot of expensive goodies, a plate of salmon yu sheng and glutinous rice.

Poster outside the restaurant advertising their "Treasures of the Sea Pot set".

Here's what the real thing looks like. There's a huge meaty pork trotter underneath, roast duck and stewed goose web on top of a layer of white radish and chinese cabbage.

I still don't get what the fuss is about! Ok.. there's all that good stuff inside but they all taste the same (same sauce). Where's the thrill? My family couldn't finish the pot and had it for lunch AND dinner the next day (tastes better actually)!

Need lots of punishment at the gym after all this feasting! Haha..

Sbey Sbey and Creperie des Arts

2008-01-28T00:51:00.000+08:00

Well.. since I've been home on MC for the past week, what better time to try out the eateries that are so close yet so far because we spend all our time at work (our second home), right?!

At our doorstep, we found a small humble Thai restaurant called Sbey Sbey (doesn't sound very nice in hokkien.. hehe...). It isn't a 5-star poshy place but you can tell it's authentic by the Thai people who serve and cook here.

The first time we ate here, Mag's hand was still bandaged and she had to struggle to eat with her left hand.

The second time we came, I was on MC but luckily I still had the use of both hands!

The Dou Miao fried with garlic was fresh and not overdone. Green and crisp, the way I like it!

We had the Beef Green Curry which was very thick and creamy (yummm....)

The Chicken Tom Yam soup was super sour (no photo) and I believe it was the cause of my slightly upset tummy the next day!

On our second visit, we decided to order different dishes, all yummy of course. The best part about this restaurant is that they serve you ice cold water without you asking!

Chicken stew with dried curry gravy and coconut milk.

The Mango Salad came with raw long beans and cabbage. A bit odd for us but it went well with the salad.

Pad Thai - so delicious that we classified it in the same category as Char Kway Teow and decided that we shouldn't eat it too often!

The bill for each visit did not exceed $20 for both of us. VERY reasonable! Everyone must try!! :D

Another gem of a find is Crêperie des Arts at Prinsep Place which serves savoury and dessert crepes.

We ordered a Spinach and mushroom crepe which wasn't too creamy thankfully! The buckwheat crepe was slightly crispy around the sides and very light.

The Beef, onions and fresh tomato sauce filling on buckwheat crepe was so yummy I wish I could order another one! Mag had to hold me back of course!

Don't forget to order a cup (or a bottle) of traditional French apple cider! Sipping the sweet 2% alcohol cup of cider, we could almost imagine ourselves sitting in a cafe in Paris as we glanced at the wrought iron railings and looked up into the cool night sky. LOL..

Too bad we only had space for one dessert crepe.
Banana with Grand Marnier and chocolate sauce, chocolate ice cream and orange.. heaven....!!

The bill - over $70 for 2 of us. Gulp! But I'll be back!

Little Chinatown

2008-01-25T12:27:00.000+08:00

GONG XI FA CAI! Chinese New Year is around the corner again and everyone is busy shopping for CNY goodies and decoration for this important festival!

We took a little walk around the Bencoolen/Rochor/Bugis area known as "Si Bei Lor" or Forth Street. This place is always buzzing with activities during this period! There's an interesting mix of local and touristy fare. It's not as big as Chinatown but it's equally colourful.

and.. GREAT bargains to be had!!

Click photo to see what the arrow is pointing at :

It's auspicious to deck the house up in RED dingly danglies!!!

The coming year is the Year of the Rat and look at all the cute decorations!

Does Disney know about this??

WHOA!!! This us my kind of store!! You're never too big or too small!!

SMILE like a tourist, Mag!! :)

Rainbow connection - interesting alley somewhere at the back of Bugis..

Big buns everywhere!

Watch it now... You better enjoy with your eyes and not with your mouth!

A Simple Meal

2008-01-24T12:36:00.000+08:00

.. can be so satisfying!

I'm home recovering from a minor surgery and today I had the most yummy lunch of mee-sua with fresh sliced fish, minced lean meat and broccoli. Add a dash of cognac and it's PERFECT!

Chinese New Year Buzz

2008-01-23T21:21:00.000+08:00

Watch the hustle and bustle at Takashimaya!!!! Crowds of people shopping for Chinese New Year goodies... although I think the best bargains are to be found near Bugis! But shhh.... don't tell them :P

(this is an animated gif that may take a while to load...)

Tis the time of year!

2007-12-19T09:04:00.000+08:00

REACH for the stars!!

The streets are all decked up in pretty lights this year. Feel like I'm in a fairy tale... hey, the theme this year is based on the Nutcracker Suite.

It's getting more and more frustrating to walk and drive along Orchard Road!! It's perpetually JAM PACKED!! Thank goodness my Christmas shopping is done and I can avoid going there now!! *phew*

Trying to blend in with the Mannequins (even Chewie in all her white glory). LOL..

An early greeting to all my friends and family -
Merry Christmas and a VERY Happy New Year!

Christmas in Singapore 2007 with CHEWIE !!

Who Let The Dogs Out !!!

2007-11-14T10:17:00.000+08:00

Chewie and I went to a spiffy human/doggie restaurant on Deepavali called Pawtobello at Mohd Sultan Road.

We'd signed up for this Paw Wow event organised by a radio station (93.8 Live). The event was supposed to include a talk on aromatherapy for our furry friends. Not to be too critical, we found the speaker a little too pretentious and not at all informative. She was fudging over subjects and did not answer questions to the point. I'm still not sure how aromatherapy can help Chewie.

Anyway, it was still a fun day for Chewie because she got to meet so many dogs!! There was a super friendly Rottweiler (who was posing as a Golden Retriever that day. shhh...) and some hyper spaniels. Some dogs were barky and some dogs were shy. Others liked to snap and smell. But one thing's for sure - they were all spoilt pooches!

CHOW TIME!!!!

Enjoy the video :)

Great Eastern Women 10K

2007-11-03T21:43:00.000+08:00

Sunday, 21 Oct 2007
GE Women 10K website

This is the second run we did this year - the GE Women 10K. Perhaps I've forgotten the pain, but I'm kind of looking forward to next year's event. Haha...

The goody bag is nice and the Adidas running shirt fits better than the Shape Run one. And it could all be collected in advance which reduced the queuing time on the actual event day.

Once again, it was 5am wakey time for us. Poor Chewie still had her sleepy eyes but she never let me out of her sight (my sweetie pie) until we left the house. We took turns to give her hugs.

These are all the photos I took (other than the medal one right below). The rest of the pix are courtesy of Mag and her trusty little Cybershot handphone.

Here I am pretending to be jogging.

Spot Mag !! We were right behind the competitive runners at the starting line but we came in in twice their time. hehe...

I must say that this event was more fun and better organised than the "September event". There were free bananas, sample cereal & milk, lots of ice cream and drinks and even a free 10 min massage!

Little bowls of cereal

Here's Chewie trying on the medal for size :)

I'm quite happy with my results. It isn't under an hour but it's exactly double my 5K Shape run :

Gun time - 01:04:11.11
Chip time - 01:04:05.05
Open Category placing - 743
Masters Category (for women > 35 yrs old) placing - 338

Click here to read Mag's blog

Noro Harmony

2007-10-31T12:48:00.000+08:00

Believe or not, I won the first prize in Epson's COMEX 2007 Lucky Draw!

First time I ever won any first prize so I thought it was a hoax when I got the call. And I only bought a simple Stylus C90 inkjet printer. A colleague said statistics show that a person would win a lucky draw 3 times in a lifetime, so this must be my first! Haha..

Finally took a test drive on the chair today. It's rather nice, not too bulky and got the usual functions. The controls do not stick out awkwardly but are neatly flushed against the arm rest. There's even a cup holder on the right side.

It's free! What more can you ask for?

My dad's Pumpkin Kway recipe

2007-10-23T23:33:00.000+08:00

This is one 'kway' (cake) that we must have every Chinese New Year. It goes so well with the sticky sweet kway that is also served during this important festive season for the Chinese. The texture of this kway is like yam cake but it is auspicious for Chinese New Year because pumpkin is orange and looks like gold. The Chinese name for pumpkin also has the word gold in it, even more auspicious.

Occasionally, Dina will make this delicious cake because we just love it so much! Last weekend, we gave some to Mag and her mom liked it so much she requested for the recipe! So here it is but here's a warning first - like most Chinese cooking, many things are agak-agak or estimated, so you must use your best judgement. The portions here will yield one big pumpkin cake and you will need a big round baking tin with rather high sides.

INGREDIENTS
1 nice and plump pumpkin (see photo for approximate size)
6 dried shitake mushrooms (soaked in cold water until soft and then sliced thinly)
sliced shallots

1 packet of ERAWAN BRAND Finest Rice Floor (600g)

Pork - sliced and seasoned with light soya sauce and pepper. DO NOT ADD THE CORN FLOUR until the very last minute, just before you fry the meat.

Dried prawns (hei-bee) - soaked in cold water

PREPARATION

1. Cut the pumpkin into palm size and carefully remove the seeds completely.

2. Holding it by the skin, shred the flesh of the pumpkin into a big bowl - careful not to cut your fingers.

Prepare the steamer at this time - fill up the steamer with water and bring it to boil.

3. PORK - Sprinkle a little corn flour into the sliced pork and mix. Heat a little oil and fry shallots until fragrant, and add meat, then add soaked hei-bee. When cooked, remove into bowl.

4. Mushrooms - Heat a little oil and fry shallots until fragrant. Add in mushroom and fry until cooked. Remove into bowl.

Each step is to fry and remove each ingredient separately. In the foreground, fried pork and hei-bee (dried prawns) and fried mushrooms.

5. Heat a little oil and fry shallots until fragrant. Add in the shredded pumpkin and keep turning until cooked. It will turn soft, mushy and creamy.

6. Pour the entire packet of flour into a big mixing bowl. Slowly fold in the soft and cooked pumpkin.

7. When it is evenly and completely mixed, add in the meat and mushrooms. Mix until everything is evenly mixed.

8. The final mixture is a light orange coloured concoction which you then pour carefully into the baking tin. Smoothen the top of the cake.

9. Place the cake in a steamer and steam for 1 hour and 20 mins. During this time, DO NOT OPEN the cover!

10. After steaming, remove and let it cool completely. This would take a while.

11. After it is completely cooled, insert a knife between the tin and cake to separate the sides of the cake from the baking tin. Holding the top of the cake with one palm, slowly tip it over, and tap to remove. Slice and store in air-tight containers. Keep refridgerated until served.

12. To serve, fry until crispy on the outside.

Enjoy!

Mellben Seafood @Toa Payoh

2007-10-14T23:39:00.000+08:00

ATTENTION!!! For all y'all crab lovers out there - Mellben Seafood (of the AMK crab bee hoon fame) has opened a new branch in good 'ol TOA PAYOH!!

Sunday, 14 Oct 2007 - I was hoping it wouldn't be as crowded as the AMK branch but the place was BUZZING with satisfied diners! We had to join a queue. sigh... At least an hour's wait, we were told. What to do? We were committed and took our seat and just gawked at the food that sped past.

The service staff were fast and efficient, sometimes even running with the food to the waiting tables!

At exactly 55 mins (wow.. 5 mins early) from the time we ordered, our Guiness Ribs and Fried small kailan arrived! Not sure if it was because we were starving by then but both dishes tasted fantastic! Why can't we get kailan to taste that way at home? It's the wok-hei, my dad proclaimed!

We attacked the ribs and vege with ferver and finished them in no time... the minutes ticked by as we waited again, this time for the main event.....

CRAB BEE HOON!! Yummmmsss!! Heck the cholesterol, tonight I'm going to swallow all the roe and buttery layer of oil! LOL... Yup! It's good but I kind of remember the AMK one tasting a tad better.. different brand of butter perhaps?? Time to head back there for a comparison!

** B * U * R * P ** :)

Shape Run 2007

2007-09-11T00:39:00.000+08:00

09 Sept 2007
Well, we did it! (Shape Run website)

After weeks of training, plotting our routes on mapmyrun.com, trial runs at East Coast Park and Shenton Way, 9 Sept 2007 finally dawned upon us!! Yup, I had to wake up at 5am on a SUNDAY! Geez...

We got to the Esplanade really early before 6:30am and the organisers were still setting up the stage and stuff. We noticed that the more seasoned runners did not turn up until much later, after 7am. But we were noobies at this; our virgin run! ;)

We mingled amongst the sea of 4D numbers. Of course my dad could not resist buying my number that Sunday but of course he didn't strike lah.. What did you expect? Oh yeah, as Mag said in her blog, I kept spotting my old car numbers - 6941, 2257, 7494.

ANYWAY... the weeks of training paid off (sorta). We didn't win the $500 first prize money but we managed to complete the 5km without breaking any bones.

For a $20 registration fee, we got a free Nike tee, which is quite nice. And also a bag full of sample vitamins, lotions, shampoo and all sorts of coupons which I would never use! The one I would never try is a UV protection/sunscreen which is taken orally. They claim that it's all worth a total of $1000...... really?

It was all in all a fun day, even though waking up at 4:30am/5am kinda messed up our systems...

Now go to Mag's blog to read more about it !!

Note to self: Need to gear it up for the Great Eastern 10km run!! gawd.... >.<

My timing : 00:32:34.63 (placed 168th)

TestTube

2007-08-19T21:29:00.000+08:00

Check out this new embedded youTube feature. Click on the PLAY button and hover your mouse around ;)

Happy Birthday, Singapore!

2007-08-09T21:41:00.000+08:00

HAPPY NATIONAL DAY, SINGAPOREANS!!

We were so patriotic today! We wore red and white, like many other people we met on the streets, smiled at everybody who passed by... Someone gave out red and white caps and little Singapore flags and we wore them. Drank red watermelon juice, ate white kway-teow soup, even had a strawberry donut. How's that for patriotism? HAHAHA.... Mag even wore a T-shirt that said "I LOVE SINGAPORE!" Woo hooo....!!

I didn't want to fight the crowds and sweat in the heat so I stayed home with my dad and watched the National Day Parade on TV. Other than watching TV, we still managed to catch the F16 fly pass, and 2 of the Red Lions freefalling(parachuters) - could spot them above the roof! Every time the helicopters or the planes fly pass, Chewie would bark at them! Silly goose...

I know... my photos are pathetic... gotta scour the net later with the hope that people with better cameras post their pictures online!

The parade was quite nice actually. The only slow part was the last bit just before the fireworks started where they dragged that song for such a long time!! How many times can you sing "Will you swim the current? Will you scale new heights? Will you make it happen,
Will you let your dreams take flight? And... Will you make the difference? Will you seize the day? Will you live each moment, Will you dare to find new ways?
Dare to find, dare to find, dare to find new ways! "

..... The fireworks would've been fantastic from up front!

We had our version of a "TV dinner" at home - with a hokkien rice dish cooked with 'gwah-chai' - some green mustard leaves like cabbage, pork, mushrooms and hei-bee - dried prawns. And also peanut/pork rib soup. Yummmms :P

Would this qualify as one of Ed's spoon creations? hehe.. probably not!

Here's a vid I found which is pretty close to what it was but it's from the NDP rehearsal performance:

NDP 2007

2007-08-05T22:41:00.000+08:00

National Day fever is back! Everything is decked up in red and white and everyone seems to be wearing red and white every weekend!

This year's National Day parade won't be at the National Stadium anymore. Like all old things in Singapore, the grounds have been slated for re-development. This year's National Day Parade will be held at the new 'stadium' at Marina Bay. We can see the yellow/red/blue/green chairs from my office window. Maybe I'll go back to work on August 9th just to catch the fireworks!

Here's a short video I made using some clips and photos we took yesterday while strolling along the Esplanade. Didn't take enough, so I included pictures from previous years' NDP as well.. hehe..

Is he my Daemon?

2007-08-05T17:18:00.000+08:00

I finally tried this Daemon thing from CK's blog. Tried it 3 times and 2 different daemons emerged. So here is the one that came our twice. Do you agree?

Waraku @ The Central

2007-07-29T00:49:00.000+08:00

Ever since The Central opened I've wanted to bring dad there. Plus, I also wanted to try the Waraku branch. That place, like all the other popular Jap restaurants at Central, fills up quickly with long queues, so we made our way there early. REALLY early - 5:30pm early! Even so, the restaurant was already 90% filled!

The view from the restaurant is lovely - it overlooks the river and Clarke Quay on the opposite side. If you can, try and get a table by the window.

I love the Beef Houba Yaki - you cook your own beef which is sitting on a bed of miso spread over a big leaf. Don't be surprised... the leaf won't burn!! We also had the Cod Fish (Gindara Houba Yaki) which was also a hit, and Gindara Kaminabe - my dad had a whale of a time with the name. He's so evil, he even wanted to ask the waitress what that dish is just to hear her say it! :|

We also had Ebi Tempura which dad insisted on having because it looked so good when it was served to a nearby table. And yes, it was good. The HUGE prawns were so wonderfully crispy! (and sinful.. but so worth the sin!!)

Other sides dishes we ordered were Agadeshi Tofu, Waraku Maki, Soft shell crab, Tofu salad, and a small plate of salmon sashimi for me! No one else dared to eat raw fish.

There weren't too many varieties of desserts, which was good as we were already quite stuffed. We ordered the Raspberry Ice Cream Cake and Shiratama Macha Monaka Ice Cream and wiped the plates clean anyway!!

After dinner we walked out and was greeted by hoards of people waiting outside the restaurant. There were queues at Ma Maison and Ramen Marutama as well.

goflykite!

2007-07-21T00:34:00.000+08:00

I've been meaning to post this forever(!) but too lazy to edit it. Here it is finally, 2 months late! This was in May 2007, one Saturday night at Riverside Point. We managed to catch these experts in action. Mag took the videos with her Canon Ixus and I edited them together for her.
Music by Bond... not James though..

Introducing Tuesday!

2007-07-09T22:48:00.000+08:00

Tuesday is a dog, in case you were wondering ;) my brother's dog.

So, my brother's family finally decided to adopt a dog and guess what? This little cutie 1½ yr old Shih Tzu was from SPCA! We could only speculate as to why his previous owner put him there because SPCA was not allowed to divulge that information.

After a couple days of viewing and interviewing all the family members, they finally brought the dog home on 3 July 2007, a TUESDAY! No prizes for guessing why he's named that. hehe..

My brother and my niece Ruth fell in love with him at first sight and he is such a lovable dog! I went to meet Tuesday on Thursday and on Sunday, Chewie's Botanic Gardens day, we asked if Tuesday could join us! Confusing... LOL..

I spend a full 15 mins scratching Tue's back and he just lay still on my lap the whole time! Amazing!! I think he just enjoys being scratched and pampered.

On Sunday, I brought Chewie upstairs and immediately the 2 dogs started chasing each other around the house - each trying to dominate the other. This can get pretty violent, especially when they knock into furniture. After a while, I brought them out and once distracted by the smells outside, they managed to ignore / tolerate each other for a bit.

I held Tues' leash while Mag held Chewie's but Chewie kept trying to heel next to me (the good girl) and Tuesday kept trying to run across my path, getting us all entangled.. LOL.. We really need to get used to this.

But still... it was lots of fun walking 2 dogs!! Mag took some lovely photos with her Canon EOS 400D.

In this next gif, you can see Tuesday trying to sniff at Chewie again, and Chewie finally getting up to get away from him! Hahaha..

Next Sunday, we go bring Tuesday out again :-)

Running Gear

2007-07-07T00:22:00.000+08:00

By signing up for the Great Eastern Woman's 10K run, we could get a 20% discount off running shoes and apparel from Adidas Suntec or Cathay Building!

Personally, I prefer Adidas shoes over the 'other' famous brand because of the reasonable pricing and the quality. They last longer, feel better, provide better support and are value for money!

Since us gym rats rarely use running shoes, I wondered over to the Adidas store at Cathay Building with the hopes of buying something comfortable for my flat feet.

I met Jason and told him what I wanted. He immediately set me up for an analysis of my feet. I was required to run towards a "landing pad" from about 8 paces away, landing onto the pad first with my right foot, then my left. Several readings were taken for accuracy.

The final result was that I had severe over pronation on both feet and I rotate my feet inwards as I take off. The scan also shows an angle of travel as the foot lifts off, meaning too much stress is put on my knees and joints.

Straightaway, I was shown some Motion Control shoes that will give me the stability required to prevent the inward motion. I decided on Adistar Control 4 W which had everything I needed to correct over pronation - Ground Control System heel, de-coupled heels, Formotion, Flexgrooves, Forefoot propulsion, Shock absorption.

And now... this is MY Adistar Control!
Look out for the flexible de-coupled heel that gives you maximum shock absorption.

I can't wait to try it!

Queuing for Waffles and Donuts

2007-07-01T18:21:00.000+08:00

01 July 2007 : GST hike to 7%

The latest fads these days - Holey and ang-moh desserts.

Some time ago, ST ran a feature on 'ang-mo' food in local hawker centres. Alas the Belgian Waffles stall at Golden Mile Food Centre is no longer a secret!!

We parked across the road at Golden Mile Complex (Singapore's very own little Thailand) and walked across to the food centre only to be greeted by a long queue! But the wait was worth it and the Belgian dark chocolate is definitely worth the sin!

The prices are very reasonable - a simple waffle and chocolate dip set costs $2.50 while 2 waffles and dip cost $4.20. They also serve a very popular claypot fondue set for $14.80. We looked longingly at some claypots that were returned to the stall still half full, because we virtually licked our little bowl clean! We have tried their homemade SUPER-LEMON and Banana ice creams and both were very good.

How long will the queues last? Only time will tell.. Their neighbours must be green with envy of their good business and long queues. While you're there, don't forget to try the famous Ah-Balling (glutinous rice balls) and peanut soup and also the claypot rice. The Thai stall next door is also pretty good.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

An even longer queue was the one at Donut Factory (Raffles City basement). We gawked at the number of people who were actually waiting patiently in line for these little things with holes in the middle (or some with cream/filling). The queue breaks at the 'intersection' and started again on the other side of the corridor. They've even put up signs on how to queue and how not to call up for advance orders as those would be futile! Amazing...

Mag wanted to buy some donuts for her colleagues so we went to an alternative donut place called Summer House Donut at Burlington Square, Bencoolen Street. There were no queues there today. I couldn't resist having a dark chocolate one ;-) It wasn't too bad either!

Here's a comparison of various Donut places in Singapore. Interesting.. This reminds me of the time when I gave Mag my very own comparison of various brands of potato chips... 20 years ago!! Gulp!!

Stiff Chilli

2007-06-28T00:59:00.001+08:00

279 Jalan Besar

I'd wanted to post this earlier but doing the photos for Stiff Chilli gave me a stiff elbow...

Friday, 22 June - Mag and I checked out this Italian place along Jalan Besar - a unlikely place but the rent is good, so says the proprietor. The decor is basic but we found the lampshades, made from plastic food covers we use to keep out houseflies - cute.

The tomato bruschetta was yummy! Each slice was topped with a WHOLE grilled garlic! Away, you vampires!!

They also served their house bread with balsamico reduction, olive oil and super-hot cut chilli.

This is the place to go if you want simple homestyle Italian food. Although filled to the brim, we found some space for their "Voodoo" espresso and Love Chocolate ice cream - which had a surprising after-taste! Try it for yourself!!

Xray of an elbow

2007-06-27T23:14:00.000+08:00

Ever seen one? They're not great pictures. I could only try and hold still while I hold the x-rays against my ceiling light. But you get the picture.

I went to see the THIRD doctor on Monday (after my fall 11 days ago on 16 June) and this one FINALLY sent me for an x-ray. The first 2 doctors (one from Gleneagles A&E) sent me home with anti-inflammatory meds and muscle relaxant. After so many days, I still could not bend or straighten my arm! Had trouble doing simple things like washing my face, combing, putting in my contact lenses. It's more and more painful to move it.

There's an arrow showing the part where the bone might be fractured. The radiologist's report says "There is a strong suggestion of a fracture at the neck of the radius in the AP view. Advise oblique views for confirmation. The rest of the elbow is clear".

Will be seeing a specialist tomorrow to see what should be done. Sigh... And Mag & I signed up for not one but TWO(!) ladies' runs just the last few days!! One is the Shape Run that will happen on 9 Sept 2007 and the other is the Great Eastern Women 10K run on 21 Oct 2007. Let's hope that I will recover in time for them! As usual, I'm optimistic! :-)

More Owwws

2007-06-22T02:27:00.000+08:00

Today I went back to the Chinese sinseh for review. He took off my bandages and said he'll give me a steam treatment for my elbow. My wrist is totally healed but my elbow isn't so good.

A boiling pot of medicinal herbs was prepared. 2 blocks of wood with a hole in the middle was used to channel the steam up. I was asked to place my elbow above the hole so that the steam can regulate and increase circulation.

After half an hour, it was back to the 'torture chamber' where my elbow was treated to another session of re-adjustment and massage, with me yelping for mercy! This time a lady did it for me and she gave me acupuncture as well as suction cup treatments!! More owww's for these but they weren't as painful as the bone alignment.

Elbow is back in bandages and I can see caked blood inside.. sigh.. Hope things are going to improve from here on..

With my semi-crippled arm, I find it so hard to tie up my hair! So I FINALLY went to cut it today! Goodbye long hair, hello short again! Much neater and cooler.

Beng, no lah.. I didn't go to the gym. How can I with these bandages? I don't want them soaking in sweat.

The smell of today's medicine is even more nauseating... yuck...!!

Owww

2007-06-19T22:15:00.000+08:00

Yup! Slipped and fell on Saturday while walking on a muddy pavement near some HDB flats in Bedok!! (went there to eat bak chor mee.. sigh.... )

Landed incorrectly on my right arm, inner part. Wow!! Excruciating pain for about 10 mins right after the fall. I could still move my fingers but I knew it wasn't good. GUESS WHAT !!! I was wearing my Timberlands trekking boots when I fell!! And I'd bought them because of the Vibram soles that were supposed to have great grip for hiking! That's a hoot, isn't it?! It was just fated I guess that the ground was muddy and it was raining and I had to go step on a slippery bit of muddy cement... sigh... My jeans and shirt were totally covered in mud and I had to sit on newspaper in my car (with the beige seats).

I went to see 2 doctors (one on Sat and one on Mon) and both said I didn't need to have an xray and just gave anti-inflammatory meds.. silly buggers.... They didn't THINK my arm was dislocated, although it hurts like crazy in the mornings and it looks swollen/puffy. So today, I went to see a Chinese sinseh in Paya Lebar - one recommended by my colleague - better than the ang-mo doctors who only prescribe painkillers!! This was the first time I was going to a TCM for a serious sprain and I heard that it was going to be painful ..... little did I know .... that THAT was an understatement....

Anyway, he knew my wrist and elbow were hurt and he re-aligned my wrist bones!! I could hear the "clicks" when he pulled/yanked/pressed it back!! Owww... AND then came the PAINFUL part !! My elbow. It's so badly swollen and the ligaments around there were stiff and hard, so even though he asked me to relax, I just could not !! He had to ask an assistant to come hold me down while he used practically his whole weight to put my elbow straight again !! You should've heard me yelling in pain !! LMAO... I didn't think I had it in me to yell in pain so loudly. HAHA.... Afterwards, he asked me "Did you hear the click?", and I said, "NO!! ALL I heard was my screaming!!!" He put some black gooey stuff on my wrist and elbow and bandaged them up. S$56 for that - non-claimable.

ANYWAY, that was this morning, and my arm feels so much better now that the bones are back where they're supposed to be ! I still have problems rotating my wrist though... and still can't wear my bra (the usual way) ;-)

Here's a photo taken by Mag this afternoon. We were having coffee and toast near my office. I look weird cos she insisted on taking the picture and I probably had bread in my mouth!! Hahaha...

The smell of the medicine (inside the bandage) is beginning to get to me... Feel nauseous everytime I get a wiff of it. Ugh...

Avenue Q

2007-06-18T22:42:00.000+08:00

This hugely funny video was played on the big screens during the interval of Avenue Q in London, but not anymore. Love the bit towards the end when the lyrics came on!! Hilarious! LMAO...

Central@Clarke Quay

2007-06-17T22:45:00.000+08:00

A new place has sprung up! What could it be??? 1 guess - a mall? LOL...

It's called Central@Clarke Quay. Plenty of Japanese restaurants here, but on a Friday night, also long queues! We put our names down for Sun with Moon and also queued at Marutama Ra-Men. As we slowly inched forward, putting our noses on the glass windows looking at other people's food and menus, Sun with Moon called! Next time we'll try Marutama (but the queuing puts us off).

Anyway, quickie post cos being Sunday night, Chewie has to be bathed!!

We had a verandah table that looks across to Clarke Quay - nice but sometimes smokey when some annoying patron lights up! We were also entertained by the screams from the G-Max Reverse Bungy at Clarke Quay. Haha...

I just had to order the Tofu Cheese Cake because of the presentation - it's served in a little bird cage!

You guys will have to explore the place yourself - there are just too many restaurants there!! But I just can't leave this place out... hehe... Our favourite Japanese dessert - Green Tea Soft Ice Cream!! Reminds us of our quest to find the best green tea ice cream at Narita airport!

It was fun watching the guys pile up the ice cream high on the cone. Takes skill!

Candle on the Water

2007-06-17T19:28:00.000+08:00

Sung by Helen Reddy (from Pete's Dragon)

Found this little gem the other day and I just had to post it because this is one of those songs that is so pleasant on the ears and it brings back good memories from NUS Choir days where we used to harmonise so nicely... ;)

AA Heritage Drive 2007 Results

2007-06-10T09:17:00.000+08:00

Well... we got the 8th prize!!

Breakfast was provided but it was MacDonald's!! Mag & I have not had that for yonks! But no choice lah, so hungry... ugh.. so salty and oily...

We had to answer questions on Singapore, on road safety and driving rules, about HSBC Insurance and their policies. All could be found around the area we were at or by surfing the internet. Mag had wifi access and we also had LC's husband's help at home!

The scanvenger hunt was challenging because they asked for a 1907 calendar!! In the end, we called LC's husband to print a page for us from the internet and detoured on our way back to collect it from him, together with a newspaper cutting.

I had to drive this little toy remote control car around a tiny cirle twice. When they told us R/C car racing circuit, I thought it would be a long circuit using a cool Remote-controlled car with a motor like this link!! Even checked out tips on how to manouver the cars faster. Sigh.. but it was not to be...

The parallel parking challenge was simple for me. But the jigsaw puzzle was the MOST challenging! Firstly, we all had to queue for the longest time (a real WASTE of precious time!) and we only had 40 - 90 seconds to finish a small jigsaw! *phew* Watching others do the task and performing it yourself is completedly different!! We took 75 seconds and managed to get only 4 marks (out of 10)! Sigh...

After returning to the Old Police Academy, we dallied around the carnival for about 2 hours before they announced the winners! I guess they had a hard time totalling the scores. We came in 8th and won a GPS unit. But since none of us were keen to keep it, we decided to auction it off on yahoo. Anyone interested??

Here's a really funny one we took at the police carnival! Fierce or not! Don't play play ah.... !!

Most of the photos are in the video clip below, so check that out.

AA Heritage Drive 2007

2007-06-08T23:31:00.000+08:00

Decided to join the AA Heritage Drive again this year! So I put out the invites and Mag, Sarah and LC (my ex-colleague) gamely decided to join up! After the briefing on Wed, I came back with a huge bag of "goodies" (depends on your idea of goodies) and car decals.

Then yesterday, Sarah said she's on standby at work and had to pull out!! SO sad... :-( Hope you can join us next time then!

There are 3 Pit Stop challenges which include the following :
- Parallel Parking ( *** Gulp *** ) (Max. 10 points) <--stresssssss!!!
- Circuit Racing with Radio-controlled cars (Max. 10 points) <--so exciting!!!
- Jigsaw Puzzle (Max. 10 points)

Anyway, my car is all decked up and ready to go!! Gotta wake up at 5:30am tomorrow morning!! Wish us luck!!

Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!

Zinfandel's, Zagreb

2007-06-06T17:17:00.000+08:00

Touted as "Zagreb's finest and most expensive dining experience, with dishes which are complicated but perfectly executed", Zinfandel's at The Regent Esplanade Hotel truly does not disappoint!

The weather was really nice and many people were milling about the hotel grounds taking photographs.

When we finally walked into the hotel, the dining room was quite empty but it filled up quickly through the night. Our waiter was a fairly senior fatherly-looking man who reminded us of the waiters you might find at Shashlik but not as grouchy. hehe..

We were shown to a very nice table with a pretty picture window overlooking the lovely fountain square.

After ordering, we were served a refreshing amuse bouche of marinated tuna and pineapples (which tasted like mango). They had a very nice selection of breads too but our fave was onion ciabatta and the paprika cornbread. The dips (Black tapenade, green tapenade, Cheese and Paprika) were interesting. My fave was the paprika (which we've been enjoying throughout our trip in Croatia).

For starters, I ordered a Spiral of Pasta with seared foie gras, crispy filo and crushed peas (see picture above). I had difficulty finishing the starchy pasta which was like a roll of cellophane tape. Mag ordered Tuna Tartar with candied lemon, capers, olives and rucola (see picture below). Can't go wrong with tuna, right?

The mood in the restaurant was formal but fun. There was a big group there celebrating some kind of graduation. We even heard some Japanese ladies singing Sakura while the pianist gamely accompanied them!

For mains, I had the Sea Bass stuffed with 'piperade' and squid ink. We asked our waiter what "piperade" was and he had to go into the kitchen to ask.. oh hoho... Turned out to be capsicum. Mag ordered a very tender and meaty Shoulder of Lamb with rosemary jus.

I asked one of the waiters what "Bon Appetit" is in Croatian and he said "Dobar Tek!" with an exclamation mark!

Throughout the meal, the service was attentive but not intrusive and our bread plate was never empty. The food was good but I would say I've tasted better back home. Still, it was a great experience and not to be missed if you are in Zagreb.

We were so stuffed after the meal and saaaadly too full for deserts but we ordered coffee and it came with the nicest petit fours served that I've ever seen!!

Too full or not, we tried them all! LOL... but what a sweet way to end our Croatian holiday.

Vražji Prolaz Deep Cave Cache

2007-06-02T21:23:00.000+08:00

We started off bright and early, eager to start our adventures! I got the car ready while Mag asked directions from some mermaids, which was pretty futile because we got lost anyway! Well not really lost, we were just too impatient and thought we were lost when we were actually on the right track!

We finally made our way to the little town of Skrad.

Vražji Prolaz Geocache - We've been watching this cache with anticipation for a long time before our trip. A cache in a deep cave sounds like a cool challenge for the IndianaJanes duo! LOL...

We were super excited as we made our way towards the cave in the freezing cold!! Brrrr...

..but our spirits were lifted by the clean air and the trickling spring that flowed next to the path.

It was beautiful...!

At some point in this picturesque gorge, we had to walk on these steel walkways and steps. Some parts looked quite worn out but luckily for us, nothing gave way!

After a long climb and some huffing and puffing and thanking our gym workouts that gave us stamina, we finally got to the HUGE cave! The orange line shows the path we took to enter it.

And from the inside-out.

This cave was DARK!!!! Glad we brought our extra-bright headlamps. The ground was slimey and slippery and we slowly made our way inside looking around for the cache.

We found a little pond and I even made my way around it to look into some crevice on the other side. Who knows what lived in that water...

After some searching and banging our heads on the low roof, we managed to find the cache to our great relief!! Our first cache in Croatia!

Actually, the cave is much deeper and we could've explored more if we wanted to but being the dainty (wusses) ladies that we are, we decided to leave that to the professional cavers.

What an exhilarating find!! We made our way happily out of the canyon and on to the next cache..

Here's a short video I took with my little Canon Ixus camera:

FOOTNOTE:
I wonder if we would've been so eager to try this if we knew what Vražji Prolaz means! Did a little googling and found that it means Devil's Passage or Devil's Pass!! Glad I only found out now... cos looking at the pictures again with this new knowledge makes the cave seem quite erie. Who knows what could have been lurking around the DARK DARK corner within the DEEEEEEEEP CAVE.... !!!!!

FURTHER FOOTNOTE:
Reading CK's comment to this entry reminded me that I didn't include this picture of OTHER PEOPLE!!!! CK, see...!! We were not alone... (maybe in all sense of the word)

We're in CROATIA!

2007-05-15T23:02:00.000+08:00

I don't like long flights. Somehow I can never sleep properly - the engine is too noisy, my body aches & stiffens up and I get dehydrated. But luckily for us, Air France has a little self-service counter with drinks, snacks and even ice-cream to tide us through the dreadful flight. After 13 long hours to CDG (horrible) airport, we got on a tiny little plane to Zagreb, Croatia.

Beautiful snow-capped mountains below..

Well.. after picking up our rented Seat Ibiza (it's not a very nice car to drive by the way), we drove a short distance to Karlovac. You already know from Mag's post that it's a small deserted town. It must be because it was a Saturday, we think. This is the town that a man and his dog were overcome by powerful gases while walking beside a stream near the Heineken plant here. This happened just last month, in March 2007. Scary... but we survived *phew* cos we're home now...

You can see the chimney of the factory below.

Actually, Karlovac is quite a pretty town.

It's got character from the wounds that it endured during the war. Some parts reminded me of Terezin in Czech Republic. I'm sure in the years to come, the town will repair itself and it will look completely different.

After a long but futile search for opened restaurants (caffe's don't serve food!!), we finally ended up near our hotel (sigh...) and ate at a small bistro. The menu was in Croatian so based on the waiter's recommendations, we ordered some grilled meats and a salad that reminded us of Czech Republic again! LOL... Anyway, this was our first real meal in Croatia... it wasn't too bad but EVERYTHING (and I mean everything) had a generous sprinkling of salt on top!! bleaghhh...!!! >,<

Chewie and Chirpie

2007-05-12T01:01:00.000+08:00

When I got back from Croatia, dad told me that Chewie has a new friend - a bird, a Common Myna that flies to our balcony almost daily! It stays there for a while, just out of reach of Chewie of course. And according to my dad, Chewie and the myna Chirpie have a conversation. Chewie would bark and wag her tail (but then that could be seen as apprehension), and the myna would chirp back. When Chewie isn't at the balcony, Chirpie would even call her. Cute!

Here's a video taken by Dina who thought she was taking photographs! LOL...

Click the photo to view the video on youTube :

Favourite moments in Croatia

2007-05-08T02:01:00.000+08:00

My favourite dog picture :
Bobby - the ONLY Dalmatian we saw on Dalmatia. How weird is THAT?!

My favourite B&B :
Matiki House - Mag is with Sonja, the modern grandmother who runs the farm! Notice puppy Parco chomping off Mag's left hand? LMAO... He's a feisty little thing!

My favourite little town :
Trogir - it's small and pretty!

My favourite National Park :
Plitvice Lakes National Park - the water is so turquoise blue!! You have to be there to experience it. Photos do no justice - I even have to cut and paste 2 photos together because my camera couldn't handle the magnitude of the place!

My favourite ice cream :
Vincek Slastičarnica - a famous ice cream store in Zagreb that also serves an endless variety of cakes and puffs! Resistence is futile!!

My favourite rental car :
Mag doing a car model pose with our cool little Fiat Punto cabrio which we rented for 4 hours on the island of Mljet.

My favourite group picture :
Taken in Dubrovnik with their signature roofs - put my Canon Ixus on timer; thing is, I had to run down some steps and a little distance and just barely made it before the shutter went off! That's why we are laughing in the photo. LOL...

Twilight in Croatia

2007-05-05T22:10:00.000+08:00

During our trip, we took LOTS of sunset pictures. We couldn't help ourselves; it was just too spectacular!

The guide books say when in Istria, one of the must-do's is to watch the sunset at Rovinj by the harbour. Rovinj is a cute little town on the West coast of Istria, Croatia and view is magnificent because the sun drops right into the horizon. And it's true... the sunset here is by far one of the most beautiful I've ever seen...

The next day, still in Istria, we travelled South to Pula to see the smaller but almost intact Roman colosseum. We were lucky to arrive late in the evening and saw it bathed in the beautiful golden rays of the setting sun.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do; when in Zadar, sit on the Roman ruins. LOL.. We watched (almost in horror) as kids clamoured over pillars and kicked footballs around empty sarcophaguses. Take them home if you like! (just kidding)

We were treated to a great sunset again.

Our main attraction for coming to Zadar was to see and listen to the Sea Organ. The array of tubes under the marble steps produce a haunting melody while the waves sweep in and out. I suppose one would hear different tones depending on the tidal conditions. Listen to the sound in my short video here.

The busiest old town with the most tourists, the fewest local residents and the most cut-throat prices must be Dubrovnik! Again, we were lucky to catch some sunset shots, but no more sun-dropping-into-the-horizon type of shots...

After a light rain, we freezed our asses off to catch this sunset at a little caffe with the longest name. It's called "Cold Drinks and the Most Beautiful View". More about that in another post (if I remember...)

Flew back to the capitol of Croatia - Zagreb. We seem to always arrive around late evening. The setting sun cast a romantic glow on the otherwise busy city and the Cathedral was glittering like it was actually made of gold!

Click here to check out Mag's Croatia posts

Where in the world is Croatia?

2007-05-02T02:36:00.002+08:00

If you are wondering where Croatia is, here's a map to help you find it.

Croatia is Hrvatska in Croatian and it's currency is the kuna (not Euro yet). It shares the Adriatic Sea with Italy and with it's beautiful clear blue/turquoise water, the Dalmatian Coast and old city of Dubrovnik are favourite vacation destinations for many Germans, Italians, French and even Americans.

Would you believe it was even named the "Destination of the Year 2006" by National Geographic Adventure Magazine!

Remember the handsome Croatian Doctor in the TV series ER, Dr. Luka Kovač? The actor Goran Višnjić was born in Šibenik.

Old Town of Dubrovnik from a distance:

Plitvice Lakes National Park and Krka National Park - two of the most beautiful national parks that we have visited!

It is slowly but surely rebuilding itself from the recent war with the Serbs (from 1991 - 1995 ... yes, this recent!) with many monuments and buildings still displaying the wounds of bullets and missile attacks.

What's missing?

Let's explore Croatia together!! But first, how about some strong kava (espresso) at one of the many little caffe bars?

This entry looks like a Tourism Croatia advertisement! Haha..

Click here to check out Mag's Croatia posts

Almost trapped in Paris

2007-04-30T23:59:00.000+08:00

Sorry to be MIA for 2 weeks and a few days. Just back from Croatia about 7 hours ago and I'm still busy trying to clear my Inbox. Don't look forward to my office inbox when I start work on Wed. Luckily tomorrow is Labour Day and a public holiday!

We had an 8-hour transit in Paris and CDG is such a drabby unexciting airport we decided to take the RER train to Paris for a little sightseeing and dinner. It took us only 30 minutes to get to Paris. Lots of time for us to get back in time for our flight back to SG. Boarding time was 10:20pm.

One can never tire of the magnificent Notre Dame!

We climbed up the steps of the suffocatingly warm Metro and breathed in the crisp cool air of Paris. Crowds and crowds of people here there and everywhere, taking pictures, having fun all around the Notre Dame.

We had the MOST WONDERFUL Berthillon Ice Cream at Rue St. Louis (near Notre Dame). It's nothing like the ice cream in Croatia which is too creamy and not as tasty and even Italy's gelato doesn't quite match up. This french one is PURE taste and pure heaven almost. The chocolate is dark dark dark! The lime really tastes like the fruit. For €4, we wished that the scoops weren't quite so small.

The weather wasn't so great. It rained a bit. While we were having dinner in a little Indochine restaurant, it pitter-pattered outside! And it was a hailstorm!! A light one with little round specks of ice falling from the sky!! Boy were we glad to be in a warm restaurant.

We left Paris for the airport at 8:30pm giving lots of allowance for our boarding time of 10:20pm.

BUT as Murphy's Law would have it, the RER train we were in STOPPED at some godforsaken station god knows where!! And the announcements were in FRENCH! SIGH.... It didn't move on and many passengers got off !!! We were very puzzled and asked around. The other passengers said they didn't explain what was wrong, just that the delay was caused by the rain and they didn't know when it would be fixed. ARRRGGHHHH!!!! *&#$(*&@#$(*%

After waiting in the train for about 30 mins, we were getting really anxious and the nightmare of us missing our plane became more and more real!! Finally decided to heck it - we hopped off the train, ran off in the rain, and into a little deserted pub (it was the only shop on that dark street). The pub owner and his wife were the only people there... I was glad to see a little doggie too (I have a theory that dog owners are basically nice people). But the whole scene was like those horror movies where at some point, we get kidnapped or killed in a little deserted house....

Anyway, he called us a cab and in smatterings of French, he asked us for 50 euro cents back in exchange of the phone call !! geez.... ok.... LOL... Oh well, it's not like we had a choice. In the midst of the phone call, the train MOVED OFF!!! They reassured us that it would move off a bit and reverse. But we wondered... sigh...

The cab came after 5 mins and suddenly another guy appeared at the little pub!! It really started to feel like those Alfred Hitchcock movies where one person after another appears from the rain, late in the night, looking for refuge....

Anyway, in REAL LIFE, he did share the cab with us to the airport. LOL... He's a French guy, also on his way to Singapore on business and on the same flight as us! Must buy 4-D!! So many coincidences!!!!

When we got to the airport, the cab meter showed €32.60, but the cab driver wanted double the amount, JUST because the guy wasn't supposed to be in the cab in the first place when the cab was booked!! Geez... !!!! In the end, he accepted €45. We paid 20 and the guy paid 25 but we think he can claim from his company anyway...

And he (being French) said that it is the culture there... oh well.... We were lucky that he was there to parlez vous with the driver. For us, we felt that it was a complete rip off !! He used the same amount of petrol for one trip. It can't be that much more for the weight of an additional passenger.

We were relieved to get to the airport with 15mins to spare, and promptly got lost in the very disorganised Charles de Gaulle airport again!! The signage SUCKS big time and from one place to the next was a huge hike! Some counters were unmanned but they don't tell you until you get there. We were sooo tired by the time we got to the boarding gate.

More irritating stuff happened at the gate but it's boring compared to earlier part of the day..... Basically, boarding time became 10:30pm and what was printed on the boarding pass as the gate (C91) became the gate for business class and cattle class was changed to C90. But of course they don't tell anyone until the VERY LAST MINUTE! So everyone who gathered at C91 (I say gathered because there is no order whatsoever) had to amble to C90 and sort of form a queue (I say 'sort of' because there is NO SPACE to queue and no directions)! It's all very hap-hazard and mismanaged!

I suppose on hindsight, we can say that it was exciting and that it's good to experience things like that during a holiday. They make the holiday more memorable... but sometimes I'm glad to be back in Singapore! ... Mag said, with anal retentive people cleaning the streets and repairing trains and lines... Hahaha...

More on Croatia itself later! Thousands of pictures to sieve through!

Best Ice Cream of our trip:

Click here to check out Mag's Croatia posts

Ristorante Da Valentino

2007-04-07T23:47:00.000+08:00

11 Jalan Bingka (along Rifle Range Road)

We FINALLY FINALLY managed to book a table at this (by now) infamous restaurant, known for its hospitality and good food, and that's tucked away somewhere in Bukit Timah! Wish we stayed near the area because whenever we had the time, the place was always fully booked. We invited Beng to come along (so that we could order more dishes!) thinking that we were doing her a favour with our table reservation, and who would've guessed that she'd already been here TWO other times for dinner!!! Oh well, we shouldn't be too surprised because there's nothing that prevents us serious food lovers from looking for the best and the yummiest.

You may now gawk at the pictures for a while...

We had 2 starters, meatballs and tomino cow cheese wrapped in parma ham and fried. The meatballs were too salty but still very flavourful, mostly because I love anything that is slathered in tomato-based sauce.

The cheese was amazing! The parma ham tasted good (for once). There's a Chinese phrase to describe good food that is translated (literally) as "eat already, mouth can move". As opposed to, not willing to move the mouth when the food isn't nice. Does it make sense?? LOL...

We had insider information that this lamb was cooked by mamma Valentino herself!! Immediately, without hesitation, we ordered it! How could we not??

We also ordered the Osso Bucco - sooooo gooooood. The meat just fell off the bone and again, I enjoyed the tomato-based sauce.

Beng wanted to try the lobster pasta and I must confess I was more than a little glad that she suggested this. And we were not disappointed at all!! The alien looking critter was HUUUUUGE!! The flesh was firm and sweet, the pasta coated in creamy pink sauce was not too 'jelat'.

I guess this is the best compliment that a diner can offer the cook - a plate that is scraped clean, just short of being licked clean!

I guess that was quite a lot already for the 3 of us, don't you think? hehe...

Nooo... there's always room for desserts!!! We had tiramisu and a tatufo flambé with sambuca, an anise-flavoured liqueur. Enjoyed the former more but the latter was more entertaining.

Here are 2 little videos of the flaming tatufo!

Looks deceptively like a muffin but it's chocolate tatufo, which is essentially just ice cream.

This one was taken by Beng:

In the end, we didn't order that lovely ruccola & parmesan pizza that some of the other tables had. It's HUGE, at least 16 inches I think. Oh well,... next time then...

Oh yes!! Possible geocaching oppotunities near this restaurant are...
ESCAPE From The Jungle (GCTDXV) - nearest
End of the Woods (GCRBCK)
Safety Inside (GCZAYN)

There are actually many others, but I don't want to give you the ones that will make you really stinky and sweaty because you still want to look presentable for your meal... hehe... ;-)

Buon appetito!

Takarazuka

2007-04-01T21:47:00.000+08:00

Just found out about this recently - Takarazuka Revue - an all-women theatre troupe as opposed to Kabuki which is all-male. youTube has loads of video clips with snippets of the various shows put up over the last 10 years.

They perform musicals in Operatic style, like Elisabeth, Phantom of the Opera (but not the Andrew Lloyd Webber one), Figaro, Wuthering Heights, to name a few.

The Takarazuka Revue was founded in 1913 by Kobayashi Ichizo as a means for drawing in more tourism dollars for the city. They trained a cast of young, chaste women to perform western-style musicals.

Kind of reminds me of Hula Girls and how they brought in tourists with their hip swaying ways. hehe... Fun movie by the way... but I digress...

Takarazuka Kagekidan (officially translated as the “Takarazuka Revue Company”) is divided into 5 troupes: “Flower,” “Moon,” “Snow”, “Star” and "Cosmos", each with their top "actors" and actresses.

Thousands of girls between 15 - 18 apply for entrance into the music school yearly but only 40-50 are accepted and trained, taking gruelling lessons in dance and acting and all sorts of enrichment classes. After the 1st year, each student will be chosen to play either the male role (otokoyaku - most coveted) or female role (musumeyaku). A famous Otokoyaku was Yōka Wao who stands at 172cm!!

Once chosen, they have to learn how to move, speak, and sing like the selected gender. The otokoyaku students learn techniques to deepen their voices, and masculinise their gestures and speech patterns. The musumeyaku are trained to be ultra-feminine, in order to better emphasize the masculinity of the otokoyaku.

Kids have been known to commit suicide because they were not chosen to become otokoyaku! This is serious business!

Click to read more about the Takarazuka Revue.

Here's a little clip from Elisabeth - judging from the comments, their fans have their preferences and they can get a little crazy about the stars.

If you have watched some anime, it sort of reminds me of them but with real actors. Long flowing colourful hair, elaborate costumes, music and special effects. LOL... Here's a comparison.

Enjoy...

Here's another one. See how skinny and tall they are :
Ernest in Love(Flower) -- Mr. Bunbury

Hot Dog!

2007-03-26T22:38:00.000+08:00

We had to check up on a geocache (Trickle Trickle Splash Splash) we hid here and DecoyDog (Chewie) went along with us!

While we were distracted with trying to look 'cool' and act 'natural', Chewie decided to take a cool dip yesterday and wondered RIGHT INTO THE LITTLE STREAM!!

She just flopped onto her tummy right there in the algae-covered rock!! LOL..

By the time we noticed, she had her little belly all wet and was enjoying the cool stream ;-) haha... Isn't she cute???

OH .. btw, Olivia Newton John is coming to Singapore!??!! I hope she doesn't sprain her hips while jivin' on stage to Xanadu!!

A Lazy Saturday Morning

2007-03-18T23:09:00.000+08:00

... what do we do? where do we go? what's for breakfast?
[theme song plays in the background]

New and interesting cache spotted in Bukit Timah! Once again, IndianaJanes and guest geocacher, rambutangirl, pick up their geo-backpacks and zoomed off in their geomobile for another adventure! This time, it was ROCK CLIMBING in Bukit Timah!

Hope you enjoyed that ;-) Oh and btw, TFTC stands for "Thanks for the Cache". It's what geocachers write to thank the cache owner.

The same evening, we caught a great movie, 300

I was prepared for the gore and expected the movie to be overly animated but I found that the computer graphics, although used extensively, did not distract nor bother me too much.

Gerard Butler was powerful as King Leonidas and we got to see quite a lot of Lena Headey too. It's rated R in the states but only M(18) here so I'm sure they still cut stuff out.

There was a surprising amount of dialogue too.. LOL.. and thankfully nothing too corny. I guess for one-on-one fighting in a battlefield, there has to be lots of pep talk! What do we modern day people know anyway...?

Don't you just love the abs though... Check out the "300" official website and watch how they trained for the movie.

Definitely one movie to watch on the big screen and not on your little PC thingie! ;-) Now, off we go to the gym to do more crunches!!

Ipod Shuffle 2nd Gen

2007-03-14T23:13:00.000+08:00

Just when I felt like blogging, I get this error from blogger "This server is currently experiencing a problem. An engineer has been notified and will investigate." Ghaa..... I think I wasn't meant to blog lah..

ANYWAY....

I gotta tell ya.. I love my Ipod Shuffle (2nd generation). It's tiny and light, and I'll say it again, TINY!! Got it free from HSBC by joining some Credit Card spending contest.. hehe...

I can get 225 songs into this wee thing and it syncs automatically and selects new songs for you (if you set it up that way).

No more rummaging into bags to control volume or forwarding songs or getting the wires entangled with your barang-barang. This one conveniently clips to your clothes and doesn't get in the way because it is light (not heavy and bulky).

Now what am I going to do with my (heavy) 4th generation 20GB Ipod? Is that why they made it white?? ;-)

Oh dear.. look at that, Croatia Lonely Planet in the background.. better continue reading before my travel companion nags me again...
:S

Saturday Dining

2007-03-07T23:25:00.000+08:00

We had a really bizarre experience at Hong Kong Kim Gary restaurant at Vivocity - spent a long time deciding what to eat! The menu consisted of things like baked rice with cheese, pasta with cheese, party sausages, maggie noodles with assortment of toppings, and other weird food that you would probably throw together at home if you didn't know how to cook a meal from scratch! We finally settled for some noodle soup - Mag ordered szechuan vege & pork while I ordered wanton. Both came generously topped with fried onions! Might look appetizing for some but how unappetizing for us! :S

The drinks menu was more interesting. We ordered Ying-yeung (milk tea and coffee) and boiled coke with ginger. Never had warm coke before but it was a nice change.

Gag!

Thankfully our dinner was much better - at Sushi Tei.

This is a Salmon Wasabillar Roll.

心想事成！恭喜发财！

2007-02-20T22:06:00.000+08:00

For our non-Chinese speaking friends, that means "Hope you receive whatever you wish for; Happiness and Prosperity!"

It is sort of an 'exsingers' tradition to gather during the Chinese New Year period. We must be getting lazy as we age because while we used to visit 4 to 5 households many years ago, it slowly became just the 1 house this year. And I'm glad it was mine! My dad loves to have people around and to have lots of noise and gaiety around the house during Chinese New Year! And at this time, friends from overseas are usually also around, so the gathering is really a reunion of sorts.

Here are some shots I took. Mag and Beng took more pictures - can't wait to see them! I think there are some incriminating shots of me in their cameras! Gasp!! Haha...

This year instead of serving different dishes, my dad's "brilliant" idea was to do a poh piah party instead. He said it's easier as it is just one dish. One dish! Easier!?! Ha!! Ha!!

I think we overdid it - there's a whole bucketful of cabbages left over!

What a great way to start off the Pig year!! LOL...
and see u'all next year!!!

:-)

Happy Chinese New Year!

2007-02-18T20:12:00.000+08:00

Today is the FIRST DAY of Chinese New Year!!

Let me wish one and all a new year filled with abundance - of wealth, of health, of luck and of food!! It's the year of the Pig afterall!!! Oink oink!

Every year, I create a CNY greeting for all my friends by making Chewie pose for me. Well, for this year's creation - I made Chewie sit & "stay", surrounded by new year goodies. One of the boxes fell and gave her a shock of her life! And it was pretty hard to make her come back to her position again... Poor thing, I'm always forcing her to do stuff :P hee hee...

And CNY is also the time for pineapple tarts. I don't quite trust the ones on sale. Besides, the price is always quite exorbitant. So I always make my own...

This year, we had lots of preparation to do, so it's only one batch with 3 pineapples.

Here's the recipe in case anyone wants to try it.

Pastry Ingredients
1 cup plain floor
1 cup self raising floor
150g butter (SCS is best)
1 egg (beaten)
2 tbsp (or more) Cold water (must be COLD!!)
a little salt

Pineapple Jam Ingredients
2 cups grated pineapple
1½ cups granulated sugar
4 cloves

Put the pineapple jam ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil over a slow fire. Stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved and the jam is thick. (This is the most troublesome part as you need to keep stirring and stirring so that the pineapple does not stick to the saucepan.) Stop before it becomes too dark. Remove from heat and allow to cool. I usually allow it to cool overnight and refridgerate it.

The dough is best done in a cool room with cool fingers.

Sift the floor and salt into a mixing bowl. Rub in butter lightly with fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Make a well in the centre of the mixture. Pour in the beaten egg and cold water. Bind the ingredients together gently. Do not knead too much. Be sure to use fingertips.

Sprinkle a little flour over the pastry board and roll out the pastry thinly. Cut pastry with a pineapple cutter.

Place pineapple in the centre and decorate with leftover pastry. Brush the top of each tart with beaten egg.

Preheat the oven to 160°C and bake for about 20 mins. Cool on a wire rack and store in air-tight container.

Our messy table...

And you can see Chewie posing above with the final product!

Help! Hot Hands!!

2007-02-16T18:40:00.000+08:00

My hands are HOT HOT HOT!!!!! Left hand more than my right. I was cutting chillies to make chilli sauce - the large ones and the small tiny super hot chilli padi.

HELP!! Can somebody tell me what's the secret to relief my hot hot hands?? I know there's a remedy out there.... !!!

Actually my helper already made a bottle but I said we need MORRRRRE because I know my friends are such Chilli Kings & Queens. So I decided to do the cutting myself since Dina complained of her hot hands when she did the first batch!

Easy what, riiight?? And I even wore plastic transparent gloves! Snip snip snip... No problem!!! NOooooooo... not when I got to the HOT ONES!! And then thin plastic just didn't cut it and couldn't protect my fingers. I suspect I must've even cut through and made some holes.

Anyway, I managed to finish the task and tried to wash off the heat from my hands with a little basil water but now my hands are still getting hotter and hotter as I type... Why...!!??!! Strange...!!!!

To those of you coming on Monday and if you eat THIS bottle of chilli, I hope you guys appreciate it!!! hehehe....

The product of my pain and suffering... arrrrgghhhh...... LOL...
Chilli ground with ginger and onions.

Geofeasting

2007-02-15T23:47:00.000+08:00

These photos were taken some time ago on 3 Feb 2007.

That Saturday, Beng joined us IndianaJanes for a long day of geocaching in the jungle. We did 2 multi-caches with 2 other geocachers whom we happened to meet. We broke for a very late lunch at 3:30pm at Galbiati Gourmet Deli and had a late dinner at 8:30pm at Auntie Kim's Korean Restaurant.

GALBIATI GOURMET DELI
The Rail Mall, 400 Upper Bukit Timah Road
We spent quite a long time searching for this particular cache and it was 3pm before we finally couldn't stand our growling stomachs anymore. We marched into Galbiati in our muddy shoes for a late lunch. The deli was as usual almost empty but enough regulars came in to buy takeaways. We were introduced to this deli by a fellow geocacher who enclosed a $10 voucher of the place for the "First-to-Find".

Here's Mag looking quite exhausted. LOL...

We had a light lunch of Portobello mushrooms, grilled vegetables, stuffed chicken, tomatoes & cheese. Beng enjoyed 2 glasses of wine with cheeese and we resisted dessert!

Side note : so glad I managed to retrieve Mag's yellow umbrella I left behind the last time we visited the restaurant...

Re-energised, we proceeded to complete the caches for the day! Yay!!
Our log on Choo Choo Cache. Click it to see Beng's fancy green kids georgie Crocs!

Auntie Kim's Korean Restaurant
265 Upper Thomson Road, 6452-2112

After cleaning up and resting a little at Beng's place, we adjourned to Auntie Kim's Korean Restaurant for some hearty Korean food!

It was hell trying to find parking there! But after a couple of rounds, I managed to snag a lot very near the restaurant.

The restaurant is small and cosy, with private rooms for small groups. Nice decor. I felt bad stepping in with my mud-caked shoes...

Mag brought some nice letter paper & envelopes and we passed the paper around and wrote to LH. For reasons only known to us, we're glad the letter would never make it to her..!

So, any takers for our next IndianaJanes geocaching adventure? Lots of geofeasting would follow...!!!! ;-)

More on Kurt Wenner

2007-02-15T11:44:00.000+08:00

Before I forget, I just want to share more photos of Kurt Wenner which I found deep within my computer INBOX folder! Still amazing...

Check out Kurtwenner.com for more of his work.

Best in Show 2007

2007-02-14T23:13:00.000+08:00

It's the time of year again... No, I don't mean just Valentine's Day!! It's time for the Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show!! The most prestigious title you can ever get - Best In Show - that is if you're a show dog.

Introducing Ch Felicity's Diamond Jim - WKC Best in Show 2007!

Wow.. what a grand animal. I searched for videos on youTube. Here's one of them. I think it might be too soon as the competition was just over. There are a few videos that show the preparation the owners do before the show. Really interesting. The official Judging videos are on the Westminster Kennel Club website.

It is certainly NO EASY task preparing for one of these shows! This reminded me of training with Chewie 4 years ago in 2003. But that wasn't for this kind of "beauty contest" show; it was for the "smarties" - Dog Obedience Trials. And boy was it tough! We had group training every Sunday and when the competition drew nearer, training was increased to twice a week and then to 3 times a week! That was excluding the nightly training on my own with Chewie.

We had to run through the basic set of commands - heel, stop & sit, stop & down, stop & stand, stay, come, finish, slow heel and running heel. Everything had to be perfect - the angle she sits, the distance she heels from you, the speed that she responds. It's all important.

In our category, which was Pre-Novice, the easiest class of the obedience dogs, Chewie did pretty well and PASSED!! A third of the participants were disqualified for serious mistakes, but Chewie made it!!!

My dog is naturally frisky and it was amazing that she managed to behave for those few minutes in the rink! For the recall (I call her to 'come' from about 6 meters away), she ran to me so fast and so happily that she could not brake in time!! Plus the floor at the Singapore Expo was quite slippery, so she slammed into my shin before sitting! LOL... the audience laughed too. I probably lost points for that but she was so cute!! I was so happy and so proud!! Still am :-)

SKC Obedience Trails Dec 2003

What happened after 2003 you might ask...? Well, work got in the way and I was too busy to keep up the training. Plus Chewie is spoilt silly by my dad at home, and he gives her all sorts of contradicting commands - I train her while he 'untrains' her. So Chewie had to give up the life of a 'show dog' and became a 'lap dog'. Oh,.. more like a "don't touch me, I'm the Queen" dog.

Coolest Ride Ever!

2007-02-07T23:30:00.000+08:00

Today in my usual early morning stupour, I half-heartedly flagged down an SBS Bus no. 162 with half-closed eyes but when I stepped up the bus, my eyes almost popped out of their sockets! Luckily I had contact lenses to stop them from actually rolling out onto the bus floor. The seats in this bus were not the usual kind. Take a look for yourselves... (do excuse the blur pictures... hard to hold still in a moving bus lah..)

Nokia Bus :

Cool, righttttt!?! A Lychee Martini, please!! No one to take orders? Awww.... I felt like I was sitting in a lounge and I didn't want to get off when I arrived at my stop. The music was hip and I had fun snapping pictures with my Nokia N80, nope, I don't have the Nokia 5300 but it sure looks like a fun phone!

Check out the Nokia Musicmobile page. Apparently the buses have free downloads of music videos, wallpaper and ringtones via Bluetooth any time of the day! Shucks.. Now I'll have to stand and wait for bus no. 162 everyday from now on until 16 Feb... haha...

IndianaJanes in Action!

2007-02-06T08:31:00.000+08:00

A filmlet dedicated to all the brave Singapore geocachers who dare to trek where no sane Singaporean has trekked before... :-)

Camera, Lights, Action!!

Chinese New Year Lanterns

2007-02-01T17:21:00.000+08:00

As you can see, I'm taking some time out from editing my Vietnam photos. (*whispers* I still have Shanghai sitting on my HDD's dusty shelves.. hehe...)

My colleagues and I have been busy folding Chinese New Year lanterns. Every year our department does this for the old folks at Henderson.

We give them 2 lanterns each and a bag filled with mandarin oranges, bak-gua, bak-hu, lapcheong, wolfberries, chinese herbs and other goodies. Funds raised from selling specially designed lanterns go into buying these CNY stuff. We also hold a dinner party for them with the usual CNY games, karaoke (they love this) and a visit from the "fortune god" (chai shen ye) who will give out ang-pows to them.

This Chinese New Year, don't forget to spread joy and happiness especially to the less fortunate around you!

Your Favourite Kopitiam

2007-01-31T00:59:00.000+08:00

Local coffeeshops have come a long way. We used to just wonder down to any ol' HDB hawker centre for lunch and kopi was just an incidental order.

These days, the 'kopitiam' business is almost like a sure-winner! Some of the old timers have really made a name for themselves and have even gone into franchising (which is sometimes not a good thing becos u tend to get a watered down version of the real thing).

Yakun kaya Toast - yummy..

Recently, we were at a new Killiney kopitiam at Golden Shoe and was surprised to be told that kaya toast was not available during lunch time! And they call these "ALL TIME" favourites? NOT!!!!!

This got us running back to our favourite after lunch haunt - Coffee & Toast - a relatively new kid on the block. It's indoors so we don't have to sweat it out in the heat and the coffee is fragrant and strong. Although... sometimes if your order is made by one of the newer and younger kopi-uncles, the coffee doesn't taste as good... experience counts, eh? The kaya at Coffee & Toast is the best! Creamy, thick, lemak, not too sweet and tasty. Better than all the other places for sure! Pity they don't bottle it for sale :-(

Took this picture from one of my old folders - picture of a jeep (geocaching item) taken at Coffee & Toast. Pity I don't have a better picture...

IndianaJanes and the Saigon Saga

2007-01-25T00:07:00.000+08:00

Reliable information from the grapevine tells us that FOUR geocaches were sitting pretty in Sassy Saigon! No time to waste!

Fade in... Saigon

Hot dusty day, the traffic is relentless, dense groups of motorbikes rush past. Intense heat creates a shimmering mirage in the distance.

SAIGON
January 2007

The infamous IndianaJanes of Singapore geocaching fame (bwahaha..!) stand by the street staring helplessly at the endless traffic.

IJ2(gulps): We cannot cross this road.

IJ1: Now, IJ2, we don't want to be discouraged by every little thing.

Together, IJ1 and IJ2 steps bravely off the curb and into the oncoming traffic and lo & behold, a path magically opens up (like in the Wizard of Oz)! They tread slowly but surely across the road.

Woof!! Woof!! Is that DecoyDog over there or an imposter? Nah.. must be one of the native doggles.

IndianaJanes, now masters of road-crossing, weaved through the crowds easily, invisible to the masses yet with clear objectives in mind.

First stop - Saigon's First Micro.

Dodging health conscious Vietnamese muggles playing games and doing their evening stretching exercises in pajamas, IndianaJanes arrived at the location in no time.

IJ2: Oooops! I dropped a coin...!
IJ1: No worries, I'll pick it up for you. (groan,.. bend,.. voila!.. Cache at hand!!)

Brimming with confidence from their first success, IndianaJanes run in full stride to their next stop - ICE CREAM at Kem Bach Dang and a nice hot shower. Tomorrow will be another long day of geocaching and adventures!! Along the way, pink piggies wished them Good Luck! They're gonna need it...

Fade out...

Fade in - dense forests far far away in Cu Chi, a place rumoured to be a city above ground as well as UNDERground!! The challenge here is to find a virtual cache. At ground zero, there would be an object of significance.

Dangerous booby traps were scattered along pathways, faraway gun shots echo in the air, muggles in green uniforms stare with daggers in their eyes at IndianaJanes but our heroes march on bravely.

Scowling men with guns did not scare IndianaJanes. In fact, IJ1 flashed him back with one of her most hedious smiles!

After squeezing through A4 sized holes in the ground that we can barely fit through, crawling on all-fours like the Vietcongs in narrow tunnels underground and fighting tigers with AK47's, the IJ's, covered with dust and sweat, finally arrived at GZ (ground zero) and scored another winner!

Fade out...

Fade in - Fade in...!?! - oh..there's some problem with the fade in tonight.. See photo. Dark streets of Saigon was a good cover for young courting couples along the mekong river and in a little park in the middle of the road where our 3rd virtual cache stand - tall and still, 10 metres above the ground, finger pointing forwards.

Camera shutters were not doing their jobs tonight and refused to focus properly in the dim light so we left soon after taking down the name of the hero.

Finally, the forth and final cache in Saigon - another easy virtual, sitting just outside a hotel. One of those taxi in, taxi out geocaches. We had to find the name of the person who laid the foundation stone of the building and we were surprised to learn who it was!

The date has been photoshopped out so you can't cheat, if you're a geocacher hoping to find the answer here!

Saigon - another city conquered by IndianaJanes - fearless geocachers, tourists in disguise! We march off to find another nice coffee place for a well deserved cuppa and club sandwich, and to ponder about the exciting Saigon Saga and plan the next expedition! Where to next???

Fade out..

Eating in Saigon

2007-01-24T00:52:00.000+08:00

Ice cream always tastes extra delicious when you are on holiday. Maybe the creamy indulgence just feels better without the pressures of work and home. Kem Bach Dang's specialty was the ice cream served in a coconut and topped with candied fruits. Yummmikins! It tastes as good as it looks! We also ordered a "Luo Han Guo" drink which was quite nice with a twist of Thai lime. This is also where I shot my Saigon Traffic video - from the 2nd floor of the restaurant overlooking Le Loi Street.

Our first dinner in Saigon - we walked out to find a little restaurant along Ly Tu Trong Street called Huong Lai Vietnamese Restaurant. The map in LP positioned the little dot wrongly so we wondered around along the dim street for a bit before finally locating the restaurant. A security guard at a nearby building must be used to seeing lost tourists because he pointed out the restaurant to us.

It was worth the trouble though. The restaurant supposedly trains and employs homeless street kids. The upstairs dining area is airy and had some nice brick and timber finishing. We ordered fresh vietnamese rice paper rolls, grilled pork ribs, tofu with minced meat and vegetable soup.

The highlight of the dinner was when a HUGE RAT ran around the dining room!! One lady wanted to climb up on her chair and a few people were a little (not overly) excited. I just hoped that the rat came from downstairs and not from the kitchen!

Kakatua has written about our day trip out to Cu Chi Tunnels. We stocked up the night before at Parkson Supermarket with mini kumquats (the kind you eat with the skin), really sweet pomelo, ham and bread. We didn't know that they were going to drop us at a restaurant for a sit-down lunch. Oh well.. it's just more pho and fried stuff. We didn't feel so bad ordering just Saigon beer and coffee because some of the other people didn't order anything at all.

After a tiring day riding in the bus to & from Cu Chi Tunnels, we wanted to try Lemongrass because it was raved about in Lonely Planet to have the best Vietnamese food and that you can hardly find anything on the menu that isn't good. Alas, it was a Saturday night and the tourists were out in full force and we were not fortunate enough to get a table.

The other restaurant recommendations in LP didn't sound too exciting and some places we tried to find had already closed down! Finally we settled for a restaurant in LP that had just a bland introduction, Tàn Nam Vietnamese Restaurant. Sadly, the dishes were bland as well and the portions were too big. We ended up over-ordering and stuffing ourselves silly. Well, not quite lah... as it was definitely not worth the sin!

Didn't feel inspired to take pictures of the food, so there're only 2 shots of food here.

Saigon - cà phê culture

2007-01-19T02:24:00.000+08:00

Before I go into coffee, here's where we stayed at - Oscar Saigon. Cute ad on the wall of the building. Notice the Christmas greetings? It's funny how many of them didn't bother taking down the Christmas and New Year decorations. I guess they're too busy cruising around on their motorbikes or sipping coffee at the street stalls. LOL..

A coffee song just for you. Play it as you read my post :

Coffee culture in Vietnam is alive 'n' kickin'! Coffee shops line the streets and almost everyone serves Vietnamese coffee. It would be hard for Starbucks or Spinelli's to establish themselves here with such "strong" competition.

One of the most expensive and sought-after coffees comes from Vietnam, especially the 'Cà Phê cut chon' or 'fox dung coffee', made from coffee beans that have been eaten and 'passed through' the civet cat (which looks like a fox). This process enhances the taste of the beans and makes them highly desirable to coffee connoisseurs worldwide. Fortunately, modern methods are employed these days so we can spare the civet cat from being force-fed with coffee beans!

We went to Trung Nguyen to have a drink and also buy their freshly ground Cà Phê cut chon. The shop was at a corner of a busy bus interchange and looked like it was frequented by locals. 23,000VND/100gm is about S$2.20. For espresso quality coffee, that is REALLY cheap!

Once you get over the thought of where the fox dung coffee comes from, you will most definitely enjoy your (tiny) cup of caramelly & chocolatey, slow-dripped coffee. It's hardly acidic, very fragrant and the after-taste is exquisite.

We each bought 2 stainless steel filter pots from An Dong Plaza for 35,000 VND (S$3.40 - a steal, really) hoping to recreate the wonderful taste of Vietnam back home. Sad to say, we failed miserably! Fortunately Mag found a website detailing the process. We'd been doing it wrong! No wonder my coffee was tasteless. This is how you make cà phê nóng (black) :

The Vietnamese filter consists of 4 essential parts
- a saucer with holes which you place on top of your cup
- a small pot in which you place your coffee and water
- a inner screen filter which you would use to cover your coffee powder
- a cover to keep the heat in

It is important to unscrew and remove the inner screen filter.

Put about 3 to 3½ teaspoons of coffee into the small pot. Shake the pot a little to level it up.

Place the top screen filter back into the pot, sandwiching the coffee.

Screw tight, firmly but gently, and when it is tight, losen it by half a turn.

It should hold the coffee in place and allow the water to seep evenly and slowly through the coffee powder, drawing every ounce of taste & goodness out from the 'black gold'.

To test the correct snugness, pour some hot water into the small pot until it is about ¼ full.

Wait for 20 seconds... If all the water flows out in 20 secs, tighten up some more.

If you're happy with the snugness, top up the small pot with more hot water and cover it up.

Now all you have to do is wait.......

The water should drip ever so slowly through and should not be flowing.

Good things come to those who are patient, so be patient and you will be rewarded with a fragrant cup of coffee, thick with taste and bite.

This makes me wanna go make a cuppa for myself NOW! I'm gone...
:-)

Faces of Saigon

2007-01-17T23:09:00.000+08:00

Can you tell I missed my dog? I keep seeing Chewie everywhere!! And my searches on the web for the Vietnamese word for dog (Chó - the way the lady at a Ao Dai shop said it, it sounded like "Choarr") came up with various horrifying links and pictures of Vietnamese eating Dog Meat! Couldn't bear to look at them.

Cute doggies, but not so clean - I guess if the owners don't bathe, why bother bathing the dogs? They get dirty so fast anyway...

There was a guy selling dogs on the street. He had a cage with at least 5 dogs inside, not counting the 2 little puppies he was carrying and 1 big one sitting on top. Quite pitiful. He shouted at me for taking pictures, so we scurried away.

Touts and street peddlers were everywhere and they don't give up easily. I was offered the waffles to 'try please' but I respectfully declined. Apparently, if you buy from one, all of them will herd after you!

Whatever you want, you name it, they'll have it. Their stalls are portable and movable. Food stalls have tables and chairs that are not of the normal height - didn't take a picture unfortunately. They're low and you kinda sit/squat on the low stools.

The most popular item in Saigon must be the face mask - almost all the motorcyclists wear them. They come in all sizes and patterns, suitable for kids from 1 to 92, some covering down to the neck, attached with velcro at the back of the head. The whole dusty city seems to be a gigantic construction site - nothing seems to be finished. It's like somebody forgot about the work in progress and just packed up and left. Having said that, it's quite amazing that at the end of the day, your nose-shit is not black in colour, like it would be if you were in Hongkong!

Street scenes in Saigon :

Saigon Love it or Hate it

2007-01-17T02:05:00.000+08:00

After the crazy rush of Christmas and New Year holidays, what better way to start a new year than a break from the hustle and bustle of work?! Little did we know what we were in for...

We decided to try Tiger Airways which departed from the Budget Terminal (BT) in Changi. It was very convenient by MRT and the free shuttle bus from T2 - if only it wasn't raining! (see my umbrella in Kakatua's post) The airport is nice and clean and frankly it's in a much better condition than some of the other airports we've been to! Not too shoddy at all for a BT.

When we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon as the locals like to call it), we changed some USD to VND (Vietnamese Dong). Outside, we had to weave our way through the many touts all the way to a legit taxi stand.

After checking in, the first thing on the agenda was FOOD!! It was close to 3pm and with no food on board (didn't feel like buying their dry sandwiches or instant noodles), we headed for the first Pho restaurant we came across - Pho 24. It wasn't too bad but the beef had lots of fat and the soup was a tad too oily. Wonder if Pho 2000 is any better - the one that Bill Clinton went to.

With the nice warm soup in our bellies, we felt re-energized and began our tour by wondering down Nguyen Hui and Le Loi streets, getting our first taste of the Saigon traffic and dust!! It's no wonder the motorcyclists wore this sanitary-pad-like thingies over their faces. We took the advise of many travel books and just stepped out into the traffic and walked slowly and steadily. Even when it looked like there was no way in hell you could make it across, somehow a path would open up!

Check out the little traffic video I made, edited with photos and a short movie clip. It's called "The amazing drivers in Saigon, Vietnam"...

Vietnam, here we come!

2007-01-11T23:01:00.000+08:00

We're off to a short holiday in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC for short). So did you expect us to go without checking out the geocaches there? Haha... Here's a Google map of Saigon's 3 (out of 4) caches.

Ok.. Change of subject.. so Beng SMS'd me this weird message that goes something like this: "Haha I just saw u nearly stumble through the signing of your bank's name"

I was like, WTH ?!?! What is she yakking about!?! And then I nearly jumped out of my skin when she told me what it was. I had buried this horrible experience right at the back of my mind that I'd forgotten all about it! It was a stupid interview I did with Arts Central for the Sign Language volunteers programme. I signed a sentence and totally botched up the signing of 4 simple letters - H S B C ! AAARrrrrggghhh...! Had to do the take THREE times! Of course, it was ridiculous of me to hope that they had lost the clip and would not select it for use in the final product... So, ...if you want to laugh at me and watch me make a fool of myself, click the play button! After that, please go and have a drink of water - to wash the bitter taste out of your mouth!!! ugh... Super embarassing...

(The video has been edited so you don't see other people's perfect interviews. Took it off the TV, so it flickers badly.)

* off to hide under the blanket... *

Oh ! I'm off to Vietnam for 3 nights! Back on Monday...

First Weekend of the Year

2007-01-07T22:33:00.000+08:00

Today's song is Loreena McKennitt's Tango to Evora - very haunting, beautiful tune which I'm sure you will find familiar. I wonder where I heard that tune before...

What a great weekend it was! Sunny, bright and filled with activities outdoors and indoors. Mag has the photos, so let's hope she has time to put them up soon.

Watched the movie, BORAT on Friday night. OMG! It was .... dare I say it was hilarious? I'm sure if I was one of the 'victims', I wouldn't find it so funny.

AND also the Queen on Saturday. Loved the movie. Helen Mirren is sooo good in it. At certain angles, she even looked like the real Queen! Charles, ugh.. he's such a pushover... So Blair saved the Queen..?

After gym on Saturday, we went to check out Mag's latest desire - the Sony Vaio VGN-C13G in lime GREEN! It's so cute!

Then on Sunday, we went for Body Pump and Body Combat at Vivocity with Sue POWER! LOL... She's a funny and entertaining instructor. Mag said her buns were like 2 Cavaillon melons... LMAO... I'm sure she was talking about the SHAPE of the melons rather than the taste! LOL...

The best ending to the weekend was kite flying at Marina South! This seems to be a regular get-together for the kite enthusiasts. There were families and groups of elderly men who came fully equiped with small foldable chairs, AND masking tape wrapped around all their fingers - to prevent rope burn - we would find out more about this later..

It was FUN!! With Chewie in tow, it was a little bit mah-fan (troublesome) but still, we had lots of fun. The 2 kites which I bought in Wuxi flew effortlessly and they bucked impatiently as we held them with our hands, like they were dying to rise into the heavens! Well, after they reached their highest point, there wasn't much else to do except stand there and stare at our kites! LOL.. And nurse our slightly cut fingers - ouch!

There was a group of friends nearby who tried to launch their kite and never really managed to. At one point, one of them said, in Mandarin, that they will NOT go for dinner if they don't fly the kite. At 7pm, they STILL have not got the kite flying! LOL... poor things.. The girls insisted that they'd had enough and they left soon after...

On the way home, we stopped along the road to snap this beautiful sunset picture with the CBD in the foreground. Another car did the same. This is Singapore, you know!

(Photos at Marina South taken by Kakatua. Check out her entry)

Searching for Something?

2007-01-06T02:47:00.000+08:00

Check this out - she's cute, she's entertaining, she moves, she talks to you, she interacts with you... what more do you want me to say??? Click me right NOWWWWWW!!!!

Errr... oh yeah, your PC has to be loaded with Macromedia Flash Player!

hehe... According to wikipedia:- Ms. Dewey is a viral marketing campaign by Microsoft. It also refers to the character of the same name, who is the campaign's main subject. The Ms. Dewey website is an Adobe Flash-based experimental interface for Windows Live Search. The interface features a modern-looking cityscape as a backdrop with the character on the left side, while the search results appear on the right. Developed by MRM and EVB, Ms. Dewey appears to be an interactive search assistant who audibly comments on searched keywords in her own style and makes random actions when idle, including taking props from behind her desk. The responses actually consist of about 600 video clips recorded over a period of three days.

Microsoft is not overtly marketing the website, and appears to be relying on media coverage to draw users in. Janina Gavankar plays the role of the Ms. Dewey character.

Start searching to see her responses. LOL...

Countdown Fireworks 2007

2007-01-06T00:47:00.000+08:00

To catch the countdown fireworks WITH music, go to this youTube video. It's not mine, so not so nice to show it here directly. Go to youTube for viewing. Too bad they didn't play the music where we were... We should demand our money back! Haha..

Holiday Mood

2007-01-02T21:04:00.000+08:00

Thank goodness today is a public holiday! I'm not quite ready for work yet. Just read in the papers that some people don't even take leave... I can't believe it! I think I'll burn out if I don't take a break from my mundane office life.

Anyway, back to the NY's Eve dinner at Pierside Kitchen & Bar...

Our dinner reservation was at 8pm and we had four hours before the countdown and the fireworks! Dinner commenced at 8:30pm with a cute little starter :

Tartare of vine ripened tomatoes with fine frisee & kenya beans, winter truffle emulsion. This has got to be the most elaborate description for such a small mouthful of tomatoes ..umm... I'm sure the chef would be upset if I called it a salsa.. LOL.. Just take 1 spoonful!! The other one isn't yours!! *slap*

On with the fun, laughter, cleavage and LOTS & LOTS of champagne...

Rougie duck liver a la trios faison
Terrine of duck liver with sauteed dry fruits, pan roasted with celeriac shavings & fine yellow frisee, warm sauterne jelly,
chawanmushi of duck liver with edamamme emulsion

Maine lobster nage with petite legumes, sauteed wild mushroom,
pea sprouts & cous cous

Braised wagyu beef cheeks with hickory smoked artichoke,
chanterelle mushroom & potato layonnaise, pinot noir reduction

White chocolate mousse with pistachio baklava,
rosemary infused chocolate sauce

After a few champers, our real selves emerged even though we have been hiding them so well... Let's hope the neighbouring tables didn't notice our superpowers!!

New Year New Post

2007-01-01T20:26:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year, everyone :-)

I must say I had the best New Year celebration this year. Started with pre dinner drinks at the Post Bar at Fullerton Hotel. Wanted to make sure we get parking so we arrived at 6:15pm, way before the road closure at 8pm.

Martini's (not sure if they were shaken or stirred) and Mojito's later, we tripped over to One Fullerton for our dinner.

Mag & I were convinced to take the free flow of Moët et Chandon rather than the one-glass. Beng brought this lovely Wild Hibiscus syrup to add into our free flow of champagne. Made our champagne pink. The flowers were sweet and yummy. Throughout the night, our glasses were filled and refilled and our faces maintained a (un)healthy red colour... tee hee...

We had more than FOUR hours to kill, so we had a very very slow and leisurely dinner. Plus a lot of fun with Beng's Cleavage :

Goodbye 2006!

2006-12-31T17:19:00.000+08:00

Tonight I'll be joining a few friends at Pierside Kitchen & Bar for New Year's Eve dinner and hopefully be catching the Marina fireworks from a vantage point!

More about this later, if I manage to recover from either 1 glass or freeflow of Moët & Chandon. But thank goodness Tuesday is a public holiday too!

Happy New Year, everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

(I just finished bathing Chewie cos I want her to smell nice & clean for 2007!)

Cai Qin

2006-12-31T02:22:00.000+08:00

I was about to edit my Hangzhou video that my cousin's friend took when I got caught up with Cai Qin and her songs! It put me in such a melancholic mood that I had no mood to edit anymore.

Here's a nice song from Infernal Affairs - it was played when Tony Leung and Andy Lau stopped to listen to an old song in a CD shop - 被遗忘的时光

One of my favourites - 恰似你的温柔 :

I love her mellow voice - maybe it's because I was an alto.. haha.. Also, maybe it also reminded me of the music my mom used to play and sing many years ago - Chinese oldies, they are known as today. Even though I never really appreciated them as a little girl, somehow the melodies were deeply ingrained in my mind that I never forgot them. When I listen to them today, I just go "ahhhh....."

Wish I'd caught Cai Qin's concert back in 2005 when she came to Singapore but she was not feeling well and the concert was postponed. In the end, my dad and my sister went for the concert as the new date clashed with my Spain holidays.

Anyway, you better be glad I'm editing that HZ vid cos it's one of those long and tedious home vids that pauses forever at a scene and then pans and pauses again... I don't know how long it's going to take me to finish! To convert the DVD format to .avi took my computer TWO WHOLE DAYS!! It's about 14 mins 18 sec but it has some scenes of the boat ride we did in HZ which I really want to share with you... Deep Breath... 慢慢的等吧! (Wait patiently lah..)

What Classic Bombshell Are YOU!?

2006-12-29T22:47:00.000+08:00

Ok ok... so I'm hardly like the description above. Can I just imagine I'm Elizabeth Taylor for a bit? LOL... Yup, this is another one of those lame online tests. Try it for yourself.

Now for the REAL test!! Go try this one! I swear I don't understand some of the stuff there .... Have fun!!

Christmas With Friends

2006-12-27T02:09:00.000+08:00

December 25, 2006 - Christmas Day

Thanks to our hostess (and her home-made specially roasted turkey), it has become almost an exsingers tradition to gather for a Peranakan meal and gift exchange on Christmas Day.

We all contributed, in our little (very little) way, to the feast.

Wai Kuen brought her sister's brandy-irrigated fruit cake all the way from Ipoh! After 2 bites, I felt a little 'happier' ;-)

Su/Boon brought "Sweet Maltese Wine of Superior Quality". Notice the cute label of photostated quality.. LOL.. Being a sweet wine, Ed and I loved it.

I brought 2 trays of low-fat, low-sodium beef shephard's pie but I think the low-x didn't score high points.. sigh..

I also prepared little tequilla-cointreau jello-shots (with strawberries) which were pretty potent I was told. The kiddy jello-shots (no tequilla, with kiwi) did not harden because (according to Karilyn) kiwi fruit prevents them from hardening! What do you know.... Gotta remember that!

Steph, who is also Peranakan, brought her mom's ever popular kuei pie-tee. Something about the hei-bee in the bang kuang (or maybe it was the chilli) made it so yummy!

Ed dazzled us with his tiramisu (FINALLY got to taste it again after SO many years)!! Creamy, sinful but this is truly how tiramisu should taste like!!

Mag's mom prepared all the traditional favourites - Curry Chicken, Beef Rendang, Ayam Buah Keluak (my favourite!), Nonya Chap-Chye, Ayam Pongteh and Bakwan Kepiting (soup). ALLLL yummmikinsss!! The Beef Rendang was specially prepared by Mag's mom upon the Beng's request - who UNFORTUNATELY could not make it because she was down with the flu!! What perfect timing! Shin Joo had to collect her prezzies for her and she reported later that Beng looked terrible.. Poor thing..

Finally, the freshly roasted honey-glazed turkey. This year's stuffing was a special Quinoa Stuffing that Mag invented. I loved it but I wish my tummy had more space to eat 2nd and 3rd helpings!!

*zoned out from all the eating and the jello shots*

To see more faces (cos I seem to have mostly food pics here. hehe..), go to kakatua's entry.

Kurt Wenner - google eye extraordinaire

2006-12-24T23:33:00.000+08:00

Merry Christmas, one and all!!

Today (24 Dec), I somehow got to a blog which brought me to another blog.. well, that's how it is with surfing - one thing led to another and I got wind that Kurt Wenner was here at our National Museum! Slaps my forehead for missing this - duh!

YOU KNOW HIM!!! He's the guy who sketches on the floor. Actually, there are many artistes who do this but this guy is exceptional.

Heck it that today was Christmas eve and all, I had to go and collect the log cake anyway, so perfect opportunity for me to pop by the museum for a peep! Found free parking (yay!) behind The Substation by the way!

The new museum looks sparse with its high ceiling and cold metal fittings.

I got in the way of some kids playing a life-size Snakes & Ladders game, and also saw this kid whose mother had "pinned" him onto a metal wall with magnetic strips! LOL.. Cute installations but I wanted Kurt Wenner!!

I was praying that these VIOLENTLY swaying chandeliers would not fall on my head as I crossed the bridge! haha...

Finally!!! I caught a first glimpse of his work! My jaws almost hit the floor and damaged his art-work! It looks like nothing at first, just a very well drawn street art. But when you look through a fish-eye lens, you will see the WHOLE portrait rise up three-dimensionally and realistically!

When you look through the fish-eye lens - the picture suddenly makes sense and each character pops to life miraculously. You can even see the little details like the town and people's reflection on the pond. The rocks around the edge look deceptively real, just like his other works.
For this installation, Kurt has drawn a depiction of the life of Iskandar, the last King of Singapore. You can see how huge it is by size of the people standing next to it.

This is how it looks like flat on the ground.

Kurt has this amazing ability to see things in another perspective and is somehow able to translate it into something flat. I decided to find out just how much distortion he has to deal with. Using Photoshop Elements, I skewed and transformed two small details of the painting. Click to see enlarged photos and be amazed.

This guy's been attacked by a head shrinker from Beetlejuice! LOL..

While viewing Kurt's website, I couldn't help but notice that the floor art featured in the website are not cordoned off or barricaded by these red straps. Why, you wonder.. read on...

There was a kid that almost ran onto the art-work but was pulled back just in time by his mother. Later on, I heard another mother (pushing a pram) telling a guard that they should put up higher barricades so as to prevents kids from running in! That's so typical! Blaming authorities for their kids' misbehaviour!! These people should look at themselves first before blaming others for their failures! Their kids become total BRATS because parents let them. If the cannot behave in a museum, they shouldn't be allowed in! I will not compromise my enjoyment of art for brats!

Still can't get enough of the art-work? here're more photos :

To see his work-in-progress when he was still here in Singapore, you can go to Sparklette's blog. She's got some pretty awesome pictures there too.

Va Va Voom

2006-12-24T00:20:00.000+08:00

36 Seah Street
This is our third visit to this little Vietnamese restaurant and this time I remembered to take out my camera.

We like this restaurant because it serves simple but tasty Vietnamese food and it's not overflowing with crowds like most places in town! Finding parking around the Seah St/Purvis St area was HELL(!!) and we resorted to paying a hefty $5.25 for parking at Raffles Hotel. By the time we got here, it was past 8pm.

We would always order the sour plum (S'ng-buei) drink with soda because it's so refreshing. For appetiser, we had Morning Glory salad with Chicken, which we initially thought would be kang-kong. It turned out to be this shredded greens which looked like spring onions but didn't taste as pungent. It went well with the fried onions, chillies, peanut and plum sauce. Yummmms...

Here's Mag looking like she's enjoying squeezing the lime into the beef soup!

Oh! The Authentic Grilled Pork Noodles was good! The grilled pork had a light charred taste which we love. Mag's complaint for this dish was - there are too many tau-geh's (bean sprouts)!! No matter - they went into MY tummy!

What's Vietnamese food without Beef Noodles, right? The wholesome hot beefy soup can make anyone warm up and feel right at home! I didn't really like the beef balls though - too 'beefy'! LOL... Next time we shall order pure beef slices.

We paid a very reasonable $23 for our dinner and hey(!), there was still time for shopping!! We walked through Raffles Hotel, smelling the REAL pine tree on the way and chanced upon a choir Christmas carolling! They were not bad at all. Tenors were right up there and sounded very pleasant. Can't say the same for the girls though - they could do with more anchoring and support.

Found out that it was the VJC choir (that would explain the high standards of the boys, hehehe...) and it almost made us wish we were singing in a choir again! We quickly shook that thought from our heads and hurried on towards Raffles City.

Is the theme of this year's Christmas decoration "o-biang Christmas Trees"?? Yesterday I saw a pink tree. Today, it's this weird green tree with strange fuchsia coloured flowers. Bizarre..

And the "late-night shopping" was a farce! What late-night? All the shops started to turn off their lights and close by 10pm!

TWO more days to Christmas!!!!

Majestic revisited

2006-12-22T19:22:00.000+08:00

For the longest time, I've wanted to take my dad to Majectic Restaurant at the New Majestic Hotel. Today was the perfect day as I was on leave (clearing my outstanding leave for 2006!).

Made a reservation for 12:30pm but the restaurant was not even half-filled today. The special lunch menu was a steal at $40 (which I ordered) or $50 (which dad ordered) compared to the $85 degustation menu which they still serve.

The appetiser was presented in a long glass plate with 3 little niches for the food, which consisted of a Siew Mai, Fried prawn coated with wasabi (yummm..) and a perfectly crispy (& sinful) cube of Sio-bak (roasted pork belly) & jellyfish.

Dad's set included a decent pot of shark's fin soup which made his set so much more worth it. But it was a good thing I ordered the other lunch menu because he didn't like his cod fish. I gave him my fried tao-hu with crab meat and egg swirls instead.

My soup was a strange bean soup with some very fibrous root vegetable and one tiny abalone. My punishment for choosing the cheaper set! haha...

My carbo was mee-kia (thin noodles) topped with prawn Wantons and goose meat and dad's was a kway-teow soup with shredded chicken and kai-lan. Both were equally tasty.

It was nice that they allowed us to choose our own desserts - not that it was necessary because we both ordered the same one! Fried durian ice-cream. Don't worry, dad didn't finish his.

Not wanting to waste my day (and my leave) sleeping, I went for a spot of shopping at the new wing of Centrepoint. Not really impressed but there's a restaurant called "Doc Green Gourmet Salad" that I would like to try...

Stay tuned ! ;-)

While walking home, laden with my heavy shopping (not really lah), I passed by Cathay Cineleisure and saw their Pink Christmas tree! A favourite colour at Cathay? Not really Christmasy but cute colour.

It's so PINK!!!

Picture taken by Nokia N80:

Shopping and walking around aided my digestion and I couldn't resist buying a cake from BreadTalk. Ya, pink too ;-)

Merry Christmas Woof!

2006-12-17T11:34:00.000+08:00

This morning I tried to get the dogs dressed up in their reindeer and santa outfits but you know lah, these 2 rascals, they just won't stay still! Teddy isn't used to staying still and Chewie just looks sulky and sad.

Finally managed to snap a few shots (actually, a LOT but most are not usable) but none that I was really totally pleased with.

So here's a montage of the dogs wishing one and all

A Very Merry Christmas!!!

As I am typing this, Teddy is now lying at my feet (my contstant shadow and leg warmer) and Chewie is snoozing at the door. LOL...

Two Sweet Rascals

2006-12-16T23:45:00.000+08:00

Today is Teddy's last day staying with me! *sob* So I thought I should grab the 2 rascals and make them pose for pictures. Don't be misled by their doleful eyes and calm disposition... they get very violent when they are fighting for my attention!

Yawnnnnn.....!! Posing is such hard work for a model!

A Visitor In The House!

2006-12-13T00:10:00.000+08:00

I'm dog-sitting my god-dog Teddy this week!!!! :-) Picked him up from my friend's place on Saturday morning and together with Mag and Chewie, we went for a walk at Botanic Gardens first. I was hoping that going out to a neutral place would make the dogs like each other more. I can only hope...

The last time Teddy stayed over, Chewie wasn't too pleased and they kept going at each other the whole night, each trying to dominate the other by "climbing on top". Needless to say, none of us got any sleep!

This time, after the exercise they both got at Botac, I reckon they didn't have the energy to fight anymore! Haha..

After coming home and settling down a bit, I decided to cut Teddy's hair around his nose (so he can see better) and around his arse (because unmentionables were getting stuck there)!

Then I shaved & cut all the hair off from around his paws cos he was slipping and sliding all over our marble floor. LOL... Poor Teddy... he has to put up with ME! hahaha...

Chewie, on the other hand, was not too happy to have someone fighting for mummy's attention! Any chance she gets, she would try to 'hump' him (yes, she does... it's a sign of dominance) but of course he would not let her, which makes her all the more angrier and she would bark and growl at him!

Teddy is one super manja dog and he loves to be patted!! He looks at you like this :

With a look like that, who can resist patting him? Once you do that, he goes all SOFT and melts onto the floor, all four paws in the air, begging for more tummy rubs... LOL..

My dad and Dina have only praises for Teddy - that he's very 'kwai' (good) and no trouble at all. When I come home at night, I now have TWO noisy dogs greeting me at the door!! :D

Their pee places - separated by a chair so that they do not step on each other's trays.

Teddy sleeps next to my bed, Chewie on my bed.

The last time Teddy stayed over at my place was about 6 years ago (pre-Chewie days), when we were still staying in Bukit Gombak! Here's an old picture from back then. Gosh, we both look so much younger!!

Hangzhou contd..

2006-12-10T01:25:00.000+08:00

After lunch, we had time for some sightseeing before nightfall. Took a cab to Leifeng Pagoda

Leifeng Pagoda is a modern steel building built on top of the old one which collapsed in 1924. It towers above the rest of West Lake and the roof glitters like gold (it's actually copper) in the evening sun.

Some of the old foundations are still preserved for viewing in the basement and for some reason, people throw coins in. I should set up an ancient looking thing and maybe people would throw coins in as well! LOL...

The story in the Chinese opera about the White Snake Princess is somehow intertwined with this pagoda.

Thank god for modern technology! My dad appreciated the escalators and lifts that took us all the way to the top!

The views are spectacular! I'm beginning to suspect that it's hazy all the time on Xihu (West Lake) but the sunset added a mystical aura to the beautiful lake.

We gawked at the richly guilded gold coloured copper interior as we toured the pagoda.

By the time we were done, it was dark again but it was only 6pm!!

Time for dinner!

Everyone must have the same idea because it took us a very long time before we finally flagged an empty cab.

Like many other restaurants over here, the lowest floor is the cheapest but it's self-service, noisy and crowded. The 2nd level is slightly more civilised and the 3rd level is full-service and the most civilised. However, civilised or not, smoking is allowed EVERYWHERE! pffftttt!!

My colleague recommended this soup called 莼菜汤. It's a 'cheng-cheng' and simple looking soup with leaves that look like tea leaves. The weird part was, the leaves had a clear slimey coating (like mucus) on the surface! Takes a bit of getting used to but it wasn't too unpleasant though. My dad didn't take a fancy to it - why am I not surprised. ;-)

This dish is called 松鼠鱼, literally translated as "Squirrel Fish" named as such because of the way the fish is prepared. It looks pretty, doesn't it? Not too healthy because it's deep-fried but what the heck, we're on holiday!!

:-)

Hangzhou

2006-12-07T23:10:00.000+08:00

Isn't this cute????? First thing I saw at the Hangzhou train station while waiting for a cab.

Nov 09, 2006 After a 2 hour train ride, we arrived in Hangzhou at 11:30am. Another 1½ hrs later, we checked into our beautiful hotel by the West Lake - 金溪山庄 Jinxi Hotel. What's great about travelling with dad and his "personal travel guide" (my cousin) is that I get to eat well, there's no rushing about and I don't have to decide where to go! We had a nice leisurely lunch at the hotel restaurant which served pretty decent food.

I had made out a list of special dishes of the Hangzhou/Wuxi area that I wanted to try and my cousin was kind enough to make sure that I checked off each item. These were some of them:

The superbly sinful but delicious Dong Bo Rou which is actually just a cube of perfectly stewed 3-layer pork! The taste was not like your ordinary everyday "dao yew bak" though.

Hangzhou Vinegar Fish and the amazing translucent crystal prawns that were so crunchy and bouncy, almost crispy! Yummy!!

Drooling yet? LOL... Mop it up!

More drool-worthy is Hangzhou's West Lake and its lovely view all around. It was only 4:30pm but it was sunset already! Aaaah... see how romantic it looks?

Fisher The Band

2006-12-05T09:46:00.000+08:00

Fisher the Band has some great Christmas tracks on their website for free downloading. Very nice music for a quiet Christmas in front of the fireplace. Err.. oh yeah, we don't have fireplaces in Singapore - Christmas in the Tropics, right. Oh well... ;)

Read their Biography. It's great that they let people download their music for free. If people like their music, they would naturally just buy the CD. Their song "Beautiful Life" is used in a Toyota ad. One of my faves is Dirty Girl - it's got a catchy tune and beat.

Enjoy!

My Nokia N80 Mobilephone

2006-12-04T21:11:00.000+08:00

All photos in this post were taken with my Nokia N80 Handphone.

On a little street in Singapore... Actually, our roads are rather pretty, when you're in the right frame of mind - you just have to slow down and forget the troubles at work, close your eyes and imagine cool weather and pretend that you're on holiday..
Doesn't this look like the Winter Sonata picture? Just add snow and the pretty boy Bae Yong Jun and there you have it! Haha..
This photo was taken in a moving car along Changi Coast Road, on our way to Pulau Ubin.

Finally managed to send photos from my N80 to my PC via Bluetooth (蓝牙). When I started to do this a week ago, the bluetooth dongle did something to my PC and it froze(!) and I had to restore some previous backup. Thankfully nothing was lost!

The pictures look fine on the phone because of the small screen but then when they are transferred onto the PC, they look a little too blur for my liking and too pixelated. So I had to use Photoshop to reduce the size and sometimes sharpen them. So much for the 3 megapixel lens.

The first photo I took with my N80 was this cute one with legs sticking out from a trash bin. Saw this funny sight during lunch near Banquet at Clifford Centre. The message was clear - upgrade yourself or you get trashed!

The Vivo traffic police posed for me when he saw me aiming my handphone at him! And nearby... Instant New Pron? ;)

I wanna buy this for Chewieeee!! But then it would be too warm here..

Taken using Night mode without flash, hence lagi not sharp!

A few of my colleagues and I attended HSBC's CSR night (Corporate Social Responsibility) at the Ritz Carlton the other night. It was a nice sit-down dinner with award presentation for outstanding volunteers and performance by Janani. I was even interviewed by TV12 (again! SIGH...) which was quite embarassing because I wanted to sign a sentence and I had 2 NG's before I could spell "HSBC" correctly with my pathetic sign language skill!! (what skill???)

At Bugis Junction, we saw them setting up the Soo Kee Diamond/Crystal Christmas tree. The star on top has >20,000 diamonds and worth $1.55million! Top that! If you're thinking about swiping something, think again! There will be security guards and surveillance cameras, so unless you think you're Mr Freeze or some diamond thief, I suggest you just look and don't touch! But you could win a diamond necklace, worth $298 though! Just guess the number of diamonds on the star. For more details, visit the Soo Kee Website.

Rise and Shine!

2006-12-02T01:47:00.000+08:00

Nov 09, 2006 *** Yawn & streeeetch !!! *** I can't complain about the bed. Yup, rise and shine to a lovely oily Chinese breakfast! :P Not really my kind of thing but I had to make do. Luckily they had toast, (bad) coffee and some boiled tea-eggs. Dad usually ate the porriadge with Chinese tea.

On the road again... this time we were whisked to the train station to catch the 9:30am train bound for Hangzhou. We weaved in and out, got on and off the highway (which they call Elevated Roads), saw a huge Ferris Wheel the Shanghai Star, which is supposed to be larger than the London Eye and only ready in 2008 - in preparation for Beijing 2008 Olympics I suppose.

Notice how they cross the road? (see arrow)

Inner Elevated Ring Road (内环高架路):

The Shanghai Star rising above the city.

The 'soft seat' class had a nicer waiting room but then there was still some pushing and shoving and frowns when it came the time for boarding.

All aboard....!! Huge double-decker trains. Next stop, Hangzhou.