<3 boomyboon <3

disappear

2007-09-10T19:37:00.000+08:00

i hope to disappear into the dusty earth
visible to no one

this is so sick

stale

2007-09-08T20:43:00.000+08:00

i can hardly breath. i wish i do not need to.
i'm too nice for anyone.so they said
i wish i am a fucking bitch

Pawtobello Cafe and Pet Boutique

2007-08-26T21:21:00.000+08:00

pat brought micah & i to this really pretty cafe for pets(mainly dogs) and their owners, Pawtobello. this is by far the BEST theme cafe I had ever been to. the concept was excellent, the decor was cozy, the food was great, located at mohd sultan area.

we stepped into the cafe on the rainy sunday afternoon for lunch. the warm european setting of the cafe made me felt at home. we chose a table with big couches and micah was already wagging excitedly, can't wait to break free from the leash.

i was like micah, wanting to run around with the dogs. patting this carrying that. the dog owners that went eventually became friends, discussing about dog care and all. this is such an interactive cafe, where everyone moved, sat at other's tables, mingled around. and the dogs were just happy with their friends, sniffing each other's bum, jumping on top of one another. it was like cheonging for micah, a big party with his friends.

i've heard of pets cafe. but never been to one. this was the 1st, and was a great one.

we ordered some finger food. honey BBQ chicken wings and wedges. then tiramisu cake & apple crumble. their desserts were decently good. however the wings were too salty.

rambutan lychee snowball

he melted my heart. this little cutie golden retriever. he was looking perpetually tired as well

my dream dog! mini schnauzer! they are the dogs with attitude. very temperamental.

then comes this jumpy mini poodle, tiger. he was like a furry bouncing ball. he would jump on you and give you affectionate licks. a korean family brought him there. so irresistible!

and then the HUGE bear bear came along. a real gentle giant who wanted to run around with the rest of the little dogs but his owner stopped him, in case he knock stuff down. so micah and the rest would occasionally run to him and lick him.

this little daschund was afraid of everything. people and dogs. he was constantly running away from everything

before we left the cafe, more and more dog owners brought their doggies to the cafe. it was like a birthday party or something

2 thumbs for pawtobello! they sell pet care, accessories and books too!

Pawtobello Cafe and Pet Boutique
No. 33 Mohd Sultan Road #01-04
Singapore 238977
tel: 68874806
www.pawtobello.com

2007-08-19T21:16:00.000+08:00

hair cut

good bye sydney

2007-08-08T17:10:00.001+08:00

today marks the very last day of joey's wonderful stay in australia(sydney). i felt the unbearable sadness as though i was the one leaving. he was so blessed this 1 year +, doing a master degree that he truely enjoyed in, having great fun housemates, going for amazing holidays in and out of australia, meeting more interesting people. it's a year's worth of nice memories to keep, mostly happy.

picture stolen from joey. i'll miss this sight, that i would see every morning when i woke up in australia, where the pretty orange tree once grew.

i hope for many more happy days to come for him. he deserves it.

周杰倫 - 不能说的秘密

2007-08-06T00:59:00.000+08:00

for once, i applaude for jay chou, standing. i was aware of his popular talent in music, song writing especially. didn't quite dig his mumbling groove of singing however. was also not attracted to him like every other girls who had watched the movie "Initial D". i decided to watch 不能说的秘密 over the weekend, the 1st movie jay chou directed. and i was instantly blown away by the particular scene where he was "battling" in piano with another great pianist. that was the moment, i thought, he IS cool. those fingers, drumming rapidly and accurately on the piano, producing mesmerising melodies. i fell in love with the original "secret" piano piece that the lead actress, 桂纶镁, played. basically i wasn't really critical about the plot or whatsoever which was some what surreal. it was watchable, in fact, very nicely done by a 1st time director. i was enjoying all the parts where someone would play the piano. delivering pieces with 1 hand, 2 hands, or even 4 hands.

thumbs up movie.

this is funnie

2007-08-05T12:56:00.000+08:00

The End

2007-07-27T01:47:00.000+08:00

Do not read if you do not wanna know the details of Deathly Hallows.

i've finally finished reading the 607 pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, cover to cover.

The earlier HP books were unmistakenly for the kids(& many adults like me) with wildest imaginations, following the victorious adventures of Harry and his friends. which most of the stories were of naive funs of innocence.

i was low-profilely crazy over the merchandises and bought things like:
Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans(i wish there was ear wax flavor from the book just for fun)
the Chocolate Frogs(comes with a magical card of various HP characters)
Hedwig with a scroll(in which a secret message was written)
Harry in his Hogwarts uniform arming Hegwig
Harry in his invisibility cloak
Harry Potter Diary with stickers(unused, clement bought this like 6 years ago from australia), and a magical goblet in which water will appear and disappear.\

i suppose i was hooked to the series that i knew were very fiction which managed to relish my mind of anticipative ventures & imaginations. thumbs and toes up to JK Rowling who wrote in such alluring ways that made me felt like i was a part of the adventures and quest too.

this last book, is definitely not for kids. i think it's worse than making them watch south park & mimick kenny's swearings. it dominates your mind with fear and weakens your heart with anxiety. fear of the unknown is worse than knowing death coming. but yet, very darkly addictive. there are kids that don't know how to deal with the mixture of emotions, often let astray mentally/emotionally by the obsession of it. ruby said there was a counselling line set up in USA for the kids in who couldn't take the many deaths in the book. heh... funny somehow...

following the series for 6 years from book 1 to the last, i wouldn't say i've grown with it. that's so cliche. but it has touched me in many ways. the power of love, friendship and belonging. there were many good memories. imaginary characters were created. hermione boon was one of the silly ones that only jude still uses now. and clement named himself zol dubberke for don't know what reason.

the last book marked many deaths. of the best people and the worst. and these are worth mentioning:

Hedwig - refused to accept. imagined it will fly back to Harry later in the book, unharmed

Mad-Eye Moody - couldn't believe it, thought he would reappear later in the book, not dead

Dobby the house elf that harry freed - the 1st time i cried when someone died in the book

Fred Weasley ***WAIL*** it will never be the same without anyone of them. they're my favorite characters besides neville longbottom(mathew lewis)

Remus Lupin - the last surviving best friend of james potter died

Nymphadora Tonks - married to lupin. oh no, what happen to teddy then?

Severus Snape - sorry i mistaken you. i hated you for killing dumbledore, but u didn't really. you were the most loyal, the best spy for the order of phoenix.

and of course, lord voldemort ***ORRBEEGOOD AH!***

what to do when there's no more new book to await?
they were good read.

the kids have grown up!

deathly hallows

2007-07-24T12:18:00.001+08:00

currently mugging on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. i wasn't crazy enough to join the avid fans to queue up at Borders waiting patiently for the magical time of the book release(13 hours later). last friday i was killing time at borders, awaiting for my japanese lessons to start. my heart skipped a little when i saw the dementers hanging at the section dedicated for HP. my emotions continued to stirr as i approached the section, watching students lined law-abidingly along the red queue belt when it was only 6pm on friday. the magical time for the book realise was 7.01am the next day if i'm not wrong.

i bought the book on sunday frm popular. hassle-less. easily the most expensive book i've ever bought in my life so far. i'm 1/2 way into the book already, refraining myself from any sources (internet, radio, friends, blogs) that would ruin my journey into the darkest book of HP series. i shutted jude's trap before he attempted to destroy the suspense. the worst hint i've gotten was that there will be 2 deaths, which i've read to the part of Bad Eye Moody's passing. one more to go. i really hope it's not harry, ron or hermione.

but still, it was said to be a sad sad ending. so i'd imagine it wouldn't be the usual warm departures from Hogwarts for summer holidays till the next book. this is the last book, an end to the exciting series that made JK Rowling the richest woman in England, even richer than the Queen.

Tom Riddle. Voldermort. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. You-Know-Who.

i'm so sure to get a distinction if HP series was my literature text.

The Coffee Connoisseur (TCC)

2007-07-15T17:55:00.000+08:00

Met up with my secondary retain buddy, KS, at TCC a couple of times to "catch up". i was more like the teenage magazine's auntie agony to him. trying my best to analyse the complications of a relationship(in which i was lost at times) and giving my pinky finger worth of "advise" over good food & drinks.

this saturday we had fusion lunch at TCC. KS had Crusty Curry Chicken Pattie & i had Chef's-style Tofu Tortellini. though the portion weren't enough for our famished stomachs, they were relatively good eats.

KS had the tasty crispy chicken patties towered on a little mole of mashed potato, ganished with fresh rocket leaves and others.

i had a plate of fried tortellinis with toufu & seaweed filling + tao jior(fermented bean paste) deep. didn't notice it was not a main course, just an apetizer. i wasn't filled to my satisfaction after eating that. but it was good, especially the sauce.

my favorite TCC would be the one located beside plaza singapura. previously taken up by bakerz inn.
60B Orchard Road #01-17, Tower 2 The Atrium @ Orchard
Postal : 238891
Phone : 68849223
Fax : 68849228

********************

dessert delights:

TCC Bread Pudding.
i started liking bread pudding when one of my friends introduced it to me when we were in thailand. if it's not baked nicely, it could taste like baby's milk vomit. this one that i ate at TCC was quite perfectly done.

TCC Light Strawberry Mousseline.
didn't quite like this. maybe because i'm not really a mousseline person. but the presentation of the dessert was kinda pretty, with several kinds of berries garnishing the plate beside the glass of mousseline.

Waraku: mochi & japanese red bean paste with green tea ice cream, sandwiched between light waffer biscuits. this was rather refreshing after a hefty japanese meal. anything green tea-ish is refreshing. it can be better with MORE mochis.

HPOP

2007-07-15T02:49:00.000+08:00

i always expect too much from every HP films, including the latest Order of Phoenix.

how come the dementors are scarier than Lord Voldemort himself?

Voldemort was just about a noseless mime clown to me.

fred & george were really funny as usual.

Harry Potter and the Order Of Phoenix Movie

2007-07-04T12:11:00.000+08:00

can't wait can't wait can't wait for the new harry potter movie. over the past few years, i've always watched the HP movies with clement, my fellow HP fan mate. many years ago, we would share money to buy the HP books and read them religiously. all the charms, the spells and events were so vividly remembered. ***Wingardium Leviosa!*** was my fav, that was the 1st spell i could remember, used to move items. then there was ***Expectro Petronum!*** to be casted whilst thinking of happy thoughts, commonly used to ward off Dementers. and more!

mmy favorite HP characters are George & Fred Weasley. they're cute!

on july 12th, the movie officially opens in singapore
i'm catching the sneak preview on the 11th @ vivo city!

interesting

2007-06-28T16:21:00.000+08:00

whoever did this(if manually) is quite cool!

partners in crime

2007-06-27T11:45:00.000+08:00

miss foo is my long term(without contract) partner in crime. we've commited all sorts of crimes together since childhood, and are still commiting. haha...

originality

2007-06-24T22:56:00.000+08:00

it sucks when the ideas that you dream about, the creativity you enthused, get carbonated.
like how musicians feel when their hard work gets duplicated by pirates.
like how JK Rowling would feel if her materials get stolen and harry jotter was published instead
it irks me

Presenting the Magic Flour Chef - YEN!!!!

2007-06-20T17:07:00.000+08:00

most of the delicious pastries & cakes in my blog were baked by the magic flour chef, my cousin yen. she's definitely not one of those boring, nerdy, square-square accountants. recently her husband(teck koon) and her appeared on the news, being one of the rare couples who brought their Stridas to china and travelled about the country with them.

they transported their Stridas to china in their holiday march this year. they covered Shanghai, Hangzhou & Suzhou.
they navigated about in Hangzhou on their Stridas, covering lots of places in Xihu.
thumbs up for them!

not wisdom teeth

2007-06-19T15:58:00.001+08:00

these are not wisdom teeth. they are those "tiger" teeth that were extracted when i 1st mould my braces almost 2 years ago. maybe i should put them under my pillow so that the tooth fairy can come and grant all my wishes.

tooth fairy, tooth fairy, i wish that my braces will be taken down this year and that i'll be out of this country the next.

family gathering

2007-06-16T23:56:00.000+08:00

today we all gathered at my granny's place for our usual gossip exchange. i tell you, my 86 years old granny runs on broadband when it comes to gossiping, while we're still dialling. it's partly to celebrate father's day as well as bidding farewell to my niece(for the time being). my little niece will be going back to thailand for a while before she comes back to singapore again.

and so everyone tried to grab a chance to carry her:

i didn't really dare to carry her. it's like carrying a small sack of rice, and me being clumsy, i'd imagine the worse case of dropping her on the ground if i really did carry her.

kiat bought 2 boxes of apple pie from hans. it was pretty alright. not too sweet but the pastry was kind of heavy. he said that their apple crumble sucks, that's why he bought the pie instead.

the finale is always a great home baked cake by yen. this time round we had american cheese cake topped with fresh strawberries and sprinkled with sparkly golden chocolate dots.

the evening was filled with loud conversations thrown all across the house by mostly hainanese who can't control their speech volume. there was lots of laughter. i shared a portion of the apple pie with my granny and she asked me something in hainanese:

"you all always come to my house and eat lots of food. do you love & dote me?"

my heart warmed at that simple yet meaningful question that didn't expect a reply. i'm not good at speaking in hainanese. so i just cut up pieces of the apple pie and pushed them towards her and said: "eat. eat."

the gathering ended with all of us saying good byes to our little dream. till the next time again.

currently hooked onto 大小愛吃

2007-06-16T12:31:00.000+08:00

any show with 小S would get me glued to the screen for hours. thumbs and toes up for this witty , ultra humerous and daring host.

alvin's solemnisation

2007-06-16T11:31:00.000+08:00

alvin's one of the earliest poly mates to get married. it came as a surprise too as he never did mention about doing it before to any of us, at least not to me. according to him, they woke up one morning, and yes, decided they ought to get married and so, alvin and jennifer are married. jennifer's a really demure, nice, and lovable lady. too pretty for alvin i think. i wish them happiness, and that alvin will realise that he got himself a gem, and not be the playful self in future.

we had a 7 course luncheon at Sheraton Towers. chinese food done by the infamous Li Bai restaurant in the hotel.

1) deluxe hors d' oeure consisted of mini octupus, deep fried prawn with mayonnaise, suckling pig & seasonal jelly fish. there were 3 persons from our table that didn't turn up, and 2 others who were allergic to seafood, so the rest of us(5) feasted on the entire huge serving of cold dish. i continuously picked on the suckling pig's cripsy skin. hmmmmm!!!

2) shark's fin soup with dried scallop, sea cucumber, fish maw & shredded abalone
the title of this dish is enough to make anyone's mouth water with anticipation! the shark's fins came in huge pieces, not like those facko ones with dispersed bits swimming in the soup

3) crispy roasted chicken with five spice salt. this dish is way too common for me to take photos. just roasted chicken lor

4) sauteed scallops with sea whelk(top shell-like sea food)
this definitely a tasty dish. but i personally didn't really like the big chunks of sea whelk. the scallop was generously big as well. i kinda got a little sick of the slightly stinky sea whelk.

5) pan-fried canadian cod fish with garlic & spring onion sauce.
cod fish! my favourite! even though the best way to eat cod fish is to steam it with ginger strips dribbled with sesame oil before serving. i had 2 serving of the cod fish, all thanks to the people who were absent!! *burrrrrp*

6) i didn't take any photos of the ee-fu noodle because it really sucked to me. it was really dry and was tasteless. -_-

7) glutinous rice balls with black sesame filling in cheng-teng soup
wow! this is the best way to end a heafy lunch. the best combination chinese dessert so far. the cheng-teng went hand in hand perfectly with the glutinous black sesame rice balls.
i hate those orr-nee(yum paste) or peanut paste or boring melon-sago kind of desserts that end the feast.

the couple received lots of ang paos & gifts from their loved ones. i'm sure they made it big from this lunch!

Jurlique, Made in Australia

2007-06-13T11:10:00.000+08:00

i was left with $60 aussie dollars when i stepped into the departure hall. feeling kinda lousy leaving the wonderful country, holiday mood dying off by the seconds, i decided to roam around the duty free section for some mini retail therapy. there was this australian brand that caught my eyes. i was(still am) such a victim for body care. throw me into a store of body/face/skin care and i can stay there for hours. watsons, body shop, boots, evelyn & crabtree, sasa, whatever!

as i was saying, this australian brand called Jurlique, has a fine range of body/face care. so fine that i was having mild breathing difficulty of excitement while browsing and testing all their display products. i fell in love with the series of rose scented stuff. really refreshing. i refrained myself from buying the breath taking body lotion because i still have a bottle from body shop unfinished. but i have to buy SOMETHING! haha... so i grabbed a bottle of rose shower gel for $28 aussie. kinda costly for a shower gel, but still... ... i bought it.

i can't stop using it every single day even though i still have got the neutrogena's rainbath, the body shop's lavenda shower gel, the boot's camomile spa wash unfinished. supposed to rotate them over the days but i am currently stucked at jurlique's still. tsk tsk tsk... i think if there's such an illness for body products obsession, i think i'm in for a therapy.

i realised that only Tangs sells Jurlique products in singapore. but i kinda doubt buying any more of that soon. kinda ex leh... however, if you're also victimized by the obession of owning lotsa body products, here's a great brand to discover!!!

the best cakes in the world

2007-06-09T22:20:00.000+08:00

i've always have a sweet tooth. for desserts, pastries, cakes and all. it wouldn't be a surprise if i eventually develop diabetes one day... CHOI CHOI CHOI still...

i look forward to gathering at my granny's place because yen will always surprise us with a new recipe of bakery. i think she has done 10 or so different cakes for the family so far. the last one we had was Peach Yogurt Cake on mothers' day.

the cake was puuurrrfect! she made it not too sweet so that the older folks could enjoy them as well. i look forward to the next!!

my favoritest cake however would be finely baked strawberry short cake. i enjoy the light cream and soft sponge cake binded together with fresh strawberries pieces inside. i can eat the entire cake all by myself.

i had 4 of these strawberry short cakes from Sheraton Towers.

best scrub ever!

2007-06-08T15:09:00.000+08:00

i was in search of the perfect body scub for a long long long long time. i've bought a couple over the past few years but never ever truely enjoyed them. they were mostly left on the shelves of my bathroom to literally rust('cos the scrub salt would react to the metal part of the jug), before i decided to chuck them(when they finally expired) into the bin with an unbearable wince(most of them are costly).

the fact that i hated them was simply because the salt particles were always too big & coarse for an indulgance spa-ish bath. i would be seated on my little stool, working the salt scrub around my body like a remorseful sinner religiously scrubbing away their guilt. eventually, i dread the weekly event and soon enough, i "forgot" about my DIY Spa sessions altogether. too hurtful for a relaxed bath.

recently, i rekindled my almost perverted interest in wanting to polish away all the dreadfully dull dead skin of my body. and so, the search for the perfect body scrub began... ...

well God's always good. i chanced upon The Body Shop's Spa Wisdom Africa Spa Salt Scrub. i fell in love with the smell at first. the sales assistant stressed that it'll be a good choice as this scrub is voted the best in 2007 by Woman's Weekly magazine. hmmm.... i like that... made my choice sound so fashionable. haha...

i tell u... u'll never believe me, but truely, it's really angelic. now i look forward to every sunday, my DIY SPA day. i wouldn't wanna throw this lovely jug of scrub away for any reasons at all because some of the main ingredients of the scrub were produced by the hard work of low wage Africans. as part of community trade for The Body Shop, the Beewax is from tropical forests of North West Zambia, and the moisturizing Shea Butter is from Northern Ghana(West Africa). this will be my gesture of aid to those less fortunate ones who worked so hard to make the wonderful The Body Shop's Spa Wisdom Africa Spa Salt Scrub possible.

give it up to the Africans for this gift from God! :)

Nihon Delights!

2007-06-08T02:29:00.000+08:00

rose was convinced that she will indefinitely retire in japan soon. she got back from osaka, a holiday back to kit's home. she has not stopped bragging about the intense quality of life if she were to live in japan. not the hassle & bussle tokyo mind you, but the serene town in osaka. it sounded so much like a dream home to me. at the end of our dreaming aloud, both of us were yelling: i wanna leave singapore! i wanna leave singapore! such a "dirty" place, democratic my $%#! heh heh heh

and so, rose bought a bag of japanese goodies for me:
i've been drinking this every night before sleep. this is such a fine addiction that i find the sweeten polka/yeo's/heaven & earth's green tea kinda yucky. it came in an arty container, oriental and stylish at the same time. my dad & mum love it too!

muaaaaaaa jiiiiiii~~~ this is heavenly i tell u. so rich, so generously coated with black sesame, but yet not too sweet. *swallow sliva* really nice i tell u. apparently that's one of the famous must-eat things in kyoto.

i'm not really a snacky person. cos i dislike the extreme thirst i always experience after eating dry stuff like biscuits, chips, chocolates... etc...
this is so unique... the cutely packaged biscuit was light and crunchy cinnamon in flavour, coated lightly with green tea chocolate. best with a hot pot of tea!! :)

i will definitely visit japan one day. this country is always full of surprises. rich in culture & fashion.

basic instinct

2007-06-04T12:20:00.000+08:00

Bloody Cool!

老查某

2007-06-04T01:16:00.001+08:00

hahahahaa this is a good one!

老查某

i see your true colors

2007-05-30T23:58:00.000+08:00

true colors by Cyndi Lauper

Curry la!

2007-05-29T23:01:00.000+08:00

i went to my dentist today and happily chose a mild color for my braces because i have to attend a wedding lunch in 2 weeks. the nurse recommended lilac and i was pretty much comfortable with the soothing shade which i had never tried before. it was always pink or blue.

this evening i met up with peili and her bf for dinner at marina square. i was craving for japanese curry, so ordered a bowl of katsu curry with rice.

***crrrraaaving***

whilst trying to remove my make up at the mirror just now, i saw. i saw. i saw. i saw... ...

my lilac became LUMINOUS YELLOW! i forgotten! shit shit shit!

haha... looks like i'll be having really bright and cheery smiles at the wedding.

clarification

2007-05-24T23:31:00.000+08:00

one anonymous lady came to my blog ages ago and asked me if i knew this person *f*. i wonder why some one that i do not know would actually approach me to ask me about a person that just striked me out of her life, because of my honesty.

recently, miss anonymous came back again and left me a message, asking me to check out "Someone"'s blog. and i did. i couldn't believe that after almost 1/2 a year of striking me out of her life, she's still blogging about me. if it's so terrible for me to be in your life, please just move on, 'cos i've already did. the only times i thought about you now and then were the good times we had together. i saw the Euro fun fair near our home and thought of you. whenever i see pasa malam sprouting here and there, i thought of eating ramly burger & drink those fake bird nests drinks with you. you should know who you are, i'm not gonna elaborate as you did so blatantly in your own blog. i can't stop what you want to write, but here i am to give a perfect ending to all these sagas if you would allow me to.

i do not think i deserve all that accusations that you wrote. asking for sympathy or what? you mentioned, it is already the past, why reck it out? are you expecting a respond from me or what? or are you too free in your life now that you're recapping the past?

what are you trying to proof in this entry? if you really want to rack up the past, i would too.

I am gonna quote her here:
" aiyah, you are so far from your bf, even if he's living together with another girl u won't know also !" -- i said this when you received an email of several photos of him with another sweet girl celebrating his birthday. and he shouted at you rudely when you called to confront. so am i suppose to say that she's just a "god-sister" and that it's ok for him to get frustrated when caught red-handed?
" please loh, i do not understand what is holding you back ?...just leave him !" -- i said this when you were constantly crying out to me that he's treating you like shit. and that you want to stop calling him and to delete him from your msn. that he doesn't care for you and was rude to you when you called(long distance) him. this is exactly what you wrote about it:

click image for clearer view

"only shallow people read XX's blog" ( when i just told her i read) : -- i said this when you were telling me about wanting to upgrade yourself, to read more and to learn more. i honestly think it's a waste of time reading the fat and short blogger. did you forget to add in that i even encouraged and rather you to spend the time reading channel news asia instead? i bet you forgotten

I didn't go to your house that night simply because it was 2 or 3 am in the morning already. and i really had work to rush. and i don't want you to always be such a weakling whenever he attempted to hurt you. i didn't totally disregard you. in fact i met up with you the next day.

have you forgotten:
-when you were so down doing that worse peroid of time, i accompany you so much. brought you to newton and let you cook for us, swim at the place
-when you hated your life and your family that i brought you out to have fun at zouk, expenses free?
-me being your walking atm? whenever you called to ask me to help you pay your internet, phone bills i would do so without a question? unless i'm broke
-have you forgotten how down you were and that you have nothing to look forward to in life that i asked you to go learn japanese & yoga with me? i lend you the $. because i think it's money worth spending to upgrade ourselves. in the end i get shouted by you in japanese class because you had a tiff with your boyfriend. my fault?
-rememeber you being so bored of life(again) that i asked you if you wanna go bangkok with me? i lend you the money for the air ticket, and even $200 more for you to spend.
-remember you telling me that you have financial problem and that you wanted to do something you really love? i forked out $500 to buy all the materials for your to do your crafts to sell. in the end you blame me for not helping you to sell them.
-have you thrown all the gifts i bought for you whenever i go overseas? those things that you wanted, those things in your favourite color.
-i even sourced the cheapest way for you to make long distance calls to US. great deal right? 0.05cents per minute. even how much i hated him for the ways he treated you. helped you sign up, even paid the 1st $20 for you.

i never used to hate your bf. in fact initially when you were whining to me, i kept standing on his side. until the more you told me about him, the more i get disgusted by his personality. and you are sick of him sometimes too. i always wonder why did you still wanna continuet he misery, constantly crying to me about him. it's either he's a really bad bf, or you're just asking for too much attention.

you made your own life miserable. you told me yourself before that you know his character, always very snorbish and the way he speaks always put people down, never really treat you like a real gf...etc... if you choose your life to be with someone that you yourself can't even savour his character, don't blame me for making your life miserable. he did, and you did it to yourself. and i wish you well with him if you're still with him. not that i bother.

i have tolerate your mood swings vented on me simply because you are(were) a good friend. and then i get swept off your msn list and friendster list for being honest.
you know your own relationship well enough than anyone else. i was just being a protective friend. and i can't bring myself to side someone who had hurt my good friend so much. sorry if my honesty isn't your cup of tea. and i am sure you know me well enough as well to know if i'm a trashy friend.

we're all matured enough, old enough to understand the tear of life, that it's never gonna be easy. if you really want me out of your life. it is obvious enough. i got it. so stop whining about the past anymore.

you are right, what goes around comes around. it applies to everyone. my life now is so much peaceful than before.

DID YOU KNOW?

2007-05-24T17:32:00.000+08:00

i received an email with this really interesting fact file:

1) The muscles in your heart have the strength to shoot your blood 10 meters in the air?
2) Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump
3) The body’s strongest muscle is our tongue
4) A pig’s orgasm lasts 30 mins!!
5) Statistically, people are more afraid of spiders than they are of dying
6) All polar bears are left handed (i'm a polar bear!)
7) Crocodiles cannot stick out their tongue
8) Butterflies taste with their feet
9) A cockroach can live 9 days without it’s head. It only dies because it cannot eat.
10) Humans and Dolphins are the only animals that have sex for pleasure
11) A duck’s quack has no echoe, and nobody knows why
12) Each King on playing cards represent a King in real history:
Spades: King David.
Clubs: Alexander The Great.
Hearts: Charlemagne.
Diamonds: Julius Cesar
13) It is impossible to sneeze with your eye’s open
14) Multiplying 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
15) Starfish have no brains
16) A statue in a park with a soldier on a horse with it’s 2 feet in the air means the soldier died in combat.
If the horse has only 1 foot in the air, the soldier died of injuries from combat.
If the horse has all 4 feet on the ground, the soldier died of natural causes.
17) Mosquitoes have teeth
18) Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark.
19) The word "cemetery" comes from the Greek koimetirion which means dormitory
20) In ancient England, people could not have sex without consent from the King. When people wanted to have a child, they had to solicit a permission to the monarchy, in turn they would supply a plaque to hang on their door when they had sexual relations.
The plaque read … "Fornication Under Consent of the King" (F.U.C.K.).
This is the origin of the word.
21) When the English settlers landed in Australia, they noticed a strange animal that jumped extremely high and far. They asked the aboriginal people using body language and signs trying to ask them about this animal. They responded with ’’Kan Ghu Ru’’ the english then adopted the word kangaroo. What the aboriginal people were really trying to say was "we don’t understand you’’, ‘’ Kan Ghu Ru’’.
22) It is impossible to suck your elbow.
23) During historic civil wars, when troops returned without any casualties, a writing was put up so all can see which read "0 Killed".
From here we get the expression "O.K." which means all is good.
24) 80% of the people who read this will try to suck their elbow.Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump

UNSW Asia Closed down

2007-05-24T01:27:00.000+08:00

gosh, is this good news or bad news to me? I'm still trying hard to decipher.

the full story HERE

Walau... those people who enrolled into UNSWasia will be offered a place in the Sydney campus with scholarships to aid accomodation & travel costs!! i can't believe it. if only i signed up. i would be flying off to sydney to study with scholarship! i can take over joey's room... how nice....

ok. dream on.

next time don't happy happy open the uni then happy happy close down hor

anyway, the title of your blog speaks a lot about yourself. i'm boomyboon!

dilema

2007-05-21T13:27:00.000+08:00

somedays i drag myself to work nowadays. not that i hate the job, or that i can't get along with my partner. but it has been quite stagnant. so much so i started to think about my life more than blindly work to be alive.

i'm a a dilema of changing my current mundane predicament. there are definitely options opened for me to consider, however, they might not be fulfilled in time to come.

-study? in singapore(hate to be bound in here for another 2 years or so)? else where? money?
-quit my job, get a new one, what about?
-go part time on my job and go to school part time?
-go somewhere else?

fucking hate decisions for life. it's my life i know.

sometimes i feel lonely. that life is all about living for myself, just myself. i feel i've reached a dead end, trying hard to climb over the wall.

i wish i can take a long long nap and by the time i wake up, i'd know what to do to make me really happy.

The Bends

2007-05-17T13:52:00.000+08:00

"The Bends" - Radiohead

Where do we go from here?
The words are coming out all weird
Where are you now, when I need you
Alone on an aeroplane
Fall asleep on against the window pane
My blood will thicken

I need to wash myself again to hide all the dirt and pain
'Cause I'd be scared that there's nothing underneath
But who are my real friends?
Have they all got the bends?
Am I really sinking this low?

My baby's got the bends, oh no
We don't have any real friends, no, no, no

Just lying in the bar with my drip feed on
Talking to my girlfriend, waiting for something to happen
I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy
I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen

Where do we go from here?
The planet is a gunboat in a sea of fear
And where are you?
They brought in the CIA, the tanks and the whole marines
To blow me away, to blow me sky high

My baby's got the bends
We don't have any real friends

Just lying in the bar with my drip feed on
Talking to my girlfriend, waiting for something to happen
I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy
I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen

I wanna live, breathe
I wanna be part of the human race
I wanna live, breathe
I wanna be part of the human race, race, race, race

Where do we go from here?
The words are coming out all weird
Where are you now when I need you?

人生

2007-05-17T09:11:00.000+08:00

我已投降
岁月已不再是美丽的等待
人生是不是自私地追求着人生
我心已凝固

10 days in Sydney

2007-05-12T04:12:00.001+08:00

i boarded the qantas at 9.20 am on 27th april. the *kiasuism* in me decided that i must complete as many movies as i could in that 7 hours' journey. so i started with Dream Girls, and i was completely distracted by everything else but the movie. i eventually dozed off after taking the hefty pasta breakfast with bun, salad, chocolate bar & ice cream. then woken up by subtle waves of bad breath from the french lady beside me, 2 hours later. so i sat up and watched Little Children & The Pursuit of Happiness.

the sydney's autumn was so much hotter than i had imagined. i came here last spring, and was embraced by the much desired cool & non-humid weather, a total contrast to singapura's. this time round, i didn't really need blanket at night or jacket in the day. the sun woke up really earrrrly in the morning as well, and never failed to bake my face with it's potent solar shower. i would wake up feeling toasted, thinking it was 10am, when it was 6am actually.

this is my first hearty breakfast. english muffins(similiar to the mCdonald's breakfast) with fried bacon, egg & cheese... ... really nice but if taken too much, might feel kinda over

The Taronga Zoo

we set off to the Taronga Zoo at Mosmon by ferry(at cirqular quay) & cable car. it was nothing compared to the great zoological gardens in singapore *yawn* except for the really nice view it overlooked: Sydney cover, Harbour Bridge & Opera House. we watched the seal show & the bird show(which was pretty good) with the city & harbour bridge at the background. however it was drizzling on that day, the only day that rained in my entire trip.

the last trip i didn't get to see the koalas, kangeroos or walabis. this time round saw all in taronga, only that i didn't take those usual touristy carry-the-koala photos. the koala arena smelt of really strong eucalyptus, as if the bears were having a major split headache and needed some hong you

these are some of the animals we saw which i'm toooo lazy to name:

there was an arena where you could enter and be just next to the animals in it. there were kangeroos, walabis, emus and some little birds. this emu was at the gate, blocking the entry. and it ran idiotically away, looking really clumsy when we managed to get in. so funny...

another hearty english muffin breakfast. by this time, i wish i had some maggie mee instead. feeling a little Dio3 liao

Watsons Bay

we took a bus to watsons bay which is a nice & peaceful place perfect for long walks. a walk that takes you through rugged cliffs(a particular one is popular for suicides), secluded coves, and parkland and remnant bushland of Sydney Harbour's southeastern foreshores.

the lady bay beach allows nudity ^-^ i was walking on the track above the beach, and so took a little peep. naked leh... why not? the beach was infested with chao old gays. one with a beer belly so huge it hung over, almost covering his kukubird.

we sat at this open air F&B place drinking cold corona with lime. the place smelt of fresh BBQ seafood. i watched everyone tucking into their huge plates of seafood, my stomach was growling already. but we resisted having a dinner there, as we were gonna cook roasted dinner that night. so we sat on a bench facing the sea, where you can watch yachts & boats harbouring in a distance, slightly blinded by the setting sun. i wished i could fall asleep there for a long long time.

Bondi

having the phobia for open sea all my life, it was a challenge for me to step into one with huge waves and start to swim, especially when the waves were so much taller than a normal man. we went to bondi beach one day and joey decided to help me overcome the fear. i was like a kid, so scared of the oncoming waves, the cold mysterious sea. i managed to swim out a little, away from the sand where the waves crashes in amazing white forces. i learnt that if i jump up in the water with a wave, i would be able to stay afloat with my head above water. i was another step towards ridding the phobia

after the anti-phobia session, we went to this really posh food court at westfield, bondi junction. it faces the view of the distant city and harbour bridge. the katsu don was really nice. i had the fried korean seafood noodle. it was generously filled with fresh seafood like squids, mussels, fish slices, prawns and so on. i can't finish the entire plate which costed me $12.50 aussie

University of Sydney

i took a bus from UNSW to University of Sydney one day during lunch to meet up with joey for a little tour around the place where he had his attachment. it is the oldest university in australia, established in 1850. somehow i felt like i'm walking through Hogwarts, with the castle-like structure & pastures of big carpet grasses perfect for Quidditch practice.

there were students scattered here and there lying on the grasses reading, eating lunch, chatting, sleeping, alone or in groups. couples rolling about in their own world of sunny autumn romance.

and so.... ... let me roll a bit also leh!!!!!!!

students in australia are given REAL freedom of expression & speech. i saw notices, sale of reading materials and graffitis around the campus with anti-government slogans & write outs, strong union togetherness. when i think acts like this are such taboo here in singapura. we're told/programmed to understand that our government does what is best for us, FULL STOP. :P

Darling Harbour

i had one entire afternoon-evening to myself after meeting joey for lunch at the Hogwarts-like school. i took a bus to Darling Harbour. 1st i sat outside this old fashioned bottle shop cum bar, and enjoyed a bottle of corona with lime. something that i will never do in singapura, in the afternoon. i started scribbling about the trip on my note book. how i wish my life could be so free and easy. all the time.

i walked around the city, having absolutely no interest in shopping because the things are so expensive. so i watched people, watched weather, watched the time pass and soon it was dark at 5.30pm when i met up with Mimi for japanese dinner.

Garlo's Pie

i sat alone by the beach another day, sun bathing(more like burning 'cos i fell asleep on the cool yet sunny coogee beach) after which i treated myself my favorite aussie pie from Garlo's. i heard jester's pie is just as good, but i've never tried. i wanted to get the steak & kidney pie but it was sold out. so i settled for chunky steak pie, topped with mashy peas, tasty gravy & tomato sauce for $5.50 aussie. huge portion, more for 2. i wish singapore could have pies like that, really succulent. in singapore, we normally have the common chicken pies with the dry yet greasy puff pastries. i'd rather eat the malay sardine curry puffs lor.

Fireworks at Circular Quay

later in the night, i went to circular quay to meet up with joey for a nice dinner. and whilst waiting, low and behold... .... Another Fireworks(second time for this trip)!!!! right at my face. without the sweaty crowd we always get on national day at esplanade or something. really nice......

Lowenbrau

we took a stroll to this underground german restaurant down the road. it was kinda rowdy. there was a german uncle-uncle band playing really loud, with drunken after-work office guys dancing around the mini stage.

i had something whose name i can't remember because it was such a tongue twisting german name. basically it had lots of mushrooms & potato strips & veal. a bit too rich for me. but it was NICE. the servers in the restaurant wore really pretty maid's uniform.

The Spot, Randwick

i stayed at botany street, randwick. a really decent & safe neighbourhood. about 10 minutes away from home, there's this cool chill out place called The Spot. it has a cinema, various restaurants, cheap or expensive ones and my favorite theme cafe which serves great desserts and teas. the entire cafe was furnished cozyly with old movie/music posters. bruce lee, elvis, james dean, sid vicious, marilynn monroe and stuff.

after the fulfilling night(for my growing tummy), i removed my heels and walked home bare footed. i suppose i'm not that kinda chic gals who can withstand the bites on the feet by those 3 inches. such sacrifices for beauty. i cannot la!

Chicken Rice & Laksa @ UNSW

besides on a certain night that i cooked chinese beef stew, fried wanton, stir fried ginger chicken for dinner, i missed asian food already. so one afternoon we went to the library @ UNSW, and had a sumptous meal of hainanese chicken rice & laksa.

the stall was mended by malaysian chinese, selling Zhap Cai Peng, chicken rice with shio ba & char sao, laksa, ice kachiang and all. i tell you, the chicken rice was really really really good!! but the fragrant rice was a little too rich with lots of fats. the sio ba was too thick and fatty, not really crispy. the laksa was power lor... though a little different from our watery coconutty version. it was more curry based with the usual tao pok, fish cake, tao gay, chunks of chicken but without ham.
mai ham mai ham mai ham mai ham mai ham
(haha, did u see the remix version of lee hsien long's mai ham?)

Snorkling - Failed Attempt

we walked to Clovelly to try something that i really fear. snorkling in the sea!!!! SEA LEH!
i regret now though, that i didn't manage to get my act together and just dive in to see what's beneath. the water was really clear, and you'll be able to see different kinds of sea creatures down under. i'll try to build up my courage another time. it was so cold, so unknown, so so SEA!!!!!!! i hate myself sometimes.

see the fear in my eyes???

Dinner with Mimi

i met up with mimi for the last time before i go home on a friday at chinatown. this could be the last time we see each other for a long long while. i don't know when i'll be back to sydney, and i don't know when she'll be coming to singapore.
Mimi was my best friend in secondary 1 when we were 13. but she disappeared from school after one school holiday and no one knew where she went even the school. i was so lost then. every once a while i'd cry thinking when will i see my friend again, and whether she's still alive. because she disappeared during the time when indonesia was having the huge fight against chinese, where a lot of chinese were killed & raped.
after a long 15 years of missings, i tried my luck searching for her on friendster. i typed in "mimi siddik" and her profile appeared. i broke down at the computer, happy that she's still around, angry that she didn't contact me all this while, excited that i might be able to see her again. i wrote a long message on friendster to her, identifying myself and telling her how much i missed her. a little scared that she couldn't remember me.
she did. she remembered.
after meeting up several times on different occasions and countries, i felt the sweet sense of togetherness with her, as if we never lost contact. she would introduce me to her friends and told them i used to be her best friend. she would hold my arm when we're crossing the road. she would lie her head on my shoulder when we're engrossed in a gossip. there isn't any awkwardness or uneasyness when we met up again. it warmed my heart, knowing that God answered my prayer all these years, only a matter of time.

we went to chinatown's famous taiwanese restaurant. it wasn't exactly a big and posh restaurant. just one of those road side shops. i had the famous chicken ribs rice set. it was reallly nice. maybe because i was too hungry after waiting for 45 minutes for a seat. they sell really traditional taiwanese home cooked food too.

Last dinner @ Noodle.com, Randwick

we walked to randwick junction for a good chinese dinner on my second last night. there was this shop called Noodle.com(dunno if they really own the domain) recommended by joey's house mate, katrina. so we decided to give it a try. we had spring rolls, hainanese chicken rice(not again), curry noodle with roasted duck(damn good, i tell u). the chicken rice wasn't as tasty as the one from UNSW, but the meat was non fatty, and really smooth(quoted from joey). it's almost like kampung chicken, very similiar to my mum's version. my favorite was the curry noodle. it came in such a huge plate, you can never imagined it's for 1 person. this is one of the few things i'd miss eating. maybe i'll try cooking for myself. the yellow noodle was stirr fried so that it was coated generously with thick curry sauce. thumbs up for this cafe. such tasty food, i believe without MSG. as i didn't feel thirsty after eating.

BYE BYE SYDNEY!!!

Krispy Kreme Donuts @ Airport

besides it being overly sweet sometimes, i love the variety of flavours. i bought like 48 donuts back and joey thought i was mad. the aussie customs "threaten" to confiscate them to eat. the guy beside me on the plane said it was a good choice. the air steward asked why don't i buy even MORE. hee hee hee... ... i'm miss donut.

till the next time sydney... ... i've yet to try Simon's Wok!

i had a literal warm and humid welcome at the Changi Airport. pat & sean came to fetch me home and i gave them both a box of Krispy Kreme. they're the best!

BVLGARI Rose Essentielle Eau de Parfum

2007-05-12T03:29:00.000+08:00

my favorite scent of the time
i've been crazily in love with the smell of rose these days. dunno y... shower foam, perfume, whatever!! *snifffffff*

sweetie pie charlotte

2007-05-09T23:21:00.000+08:00

finally, i got a chance to meet up with my good old oriental colleagues. yong siew lan flew into singapore for a few days for her husband's business trip this week. venice is married to a nice chap 2 years ago and they are now permanently living in UK, 1/2 hour's train ride from London city.

we met up at heeren's sakae sushi. i was so excited to meet up with them(siewlan & haifeng), and of cos the little sweetie charlotte. once again, having soft spots for kids, i connected with little charlotte easily. i put her milk bottle on the sushi's conveyer belt so that it'll eventually ride on towards her, which indeed amused her for quite sometime. then i pretended to drink from her bottle and imagined it to be really tasty, making "hmmm.... yum yum!!" noises here and there. and her respond was: "open... no open..." and so, the 1.5 years old knew that i didn't open the bottle and wasn't really drinking all her milk away. smart la!

i bought her a little strawberry short cake lunch bag. i think i've bought too many strawberry short cake bags to kids i know. i suppose i am just trying to make up for my much deprived childhood by blessing little children now with what i wanted then.

we had loads of sushi and more sushi, sashimi and more sashimi.... fred(siewlan's husband) joined us for a moment and soon i gotta end lunch to go back to work, while siew lan push the pram and shop around the city on a weekday afternoon. how unfair??

i just HAD to carry this little cutie so that i can give her rosie cheek a bite.

UNSW

2007-04-30T14:18:00.000+08:00

i'm at University of New South Wales's library(pretending to be a student) using their quick and free internet access. i live a street away from the Uni, near a children hospital, right next to a dentist. the ground of the back garden was scattered with riped olives. and i'm gonna cook for everyone in the house beef stew & fried wanton tonight!

it's been a great 3 days so far since i've touched down in sydney.
let me just write a little about my flight here and save the rest when i come back with loads of photos.

anyway, the best part of my flight was when the plane was about to land at sydney. it was flying low beside the harbour bridge and i saw LOTS of fireworks like right beside me at the bridge.

it was really spectacular.

i was greeted once again by the end of autumn cool breeze outside, where my armpits will never be wet!!!

:)

aussie duzzie

2007-04-27T01:39:00.000+08:00

my heart pumps in a melting fashion. in just 4 hours, i'll be riding on sean's car towards Changi Airport. sean's a really great pal. he volunteered to send me to catch my flight tomorrow even though it's that early(he's reaching mine at 645am).

i've not packed.

i've not packed.

a mountain of clothes that i'll be bringing to aussie are still stacked randomly beside my bed.

lazy. lazy. lazy.

i love going overseas, but i hate packing up!

ok. in another 1/2 hour, i'll pack. i hope i do not fall asleep without packing, and wake up missing the flight.

good the byee singapura. see u in 10 days!

Krispy Kremy Kreme, here i come!

till i come back home again... this is for you:

Can't get the stink off
He's been hanging round for days
Comes like a comet
Suckered you but not your friends
One day he'll get to you
And teach you how to be a holy cow

You do it to yourself, you do
and that's what really hurts
You do it to yourself, just you
you and no-one else
You do it to yourself
You do it to yourself

Don't get my sympathy
Hanging out the 15th floor
You've changed the locks three times
He still comes reeling through the door
One day I'll get to you
And teach you how to get to purest hell

You do it to yourself, you do
and that's what really hurts
You do it to yourself, just you
you and no-one else
You do it to yourself
You do it to yourself

You do it to yourself, you do
and that's what really hurts is
You do it to yourself, just you
you and no-one else
You do it to yourself
You do it to yourself, yourself, yourself.

Hashima Snowwww

2007-04-22T23:09:00.000+08:00

Hashima served chilled in my cheap chipped bowl

mummy double boiled a pot of Hashima. this is one of my favorite desserts, along side with the Japanese mua-jis, peanut/sesame paste, beard papas...etc...

she added red dates and pandan leaves to ward off the distinctive smell from the Hashima.

i had 3 bowls of it! hot & cold!

the hashima has to be soaked for more than 6 hours in order for it to be fully puffed up. the best substitute for the expensive bird's nest with equivalent value.

:)

i'll follow you into the dark

2007-04-22T14:10:00.001+08:00

Love of mine some day you will die
But I'll be close behind
I'll follow you into the dark

No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of a spark
If heaven and hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

In Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule
I got my knuckles brusied by a lady in black
And I held my toungue as she told me
"Son fear is the heart of love"
So I never went back

If heaven and hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

You and me have seen everything to see
From Bangkok to Calgary
And the soles of your shoes are all worn down
The time for sleep is now
It's nothing to cry about
Cause we'll hold each other soon
The blackest of rooms

If heaven and hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark
Then I'll follow you into the dark

Burberry Wallet!

2007-04-20T14:53:00.000+08:00

The 1st time i saw a Burberry Blue label was 5 years ago, when i was working at The Oriental hotel. I was serving a group of japanese tourists, helping them to exchange lots of yen to sing dollars. This really elegant lady spoke little simple english and we chatted for a short moment. I saw her wallet of the classic burberry's checks, but in dark navy.

i went around singapore asking about it but to realised it's only available for the Japan market - Blue label. disappointed, i coveted for the wallet for years.... haha... sound like a bimbo but really, i'm a bags & wallets person. luckily i'm not crazily into shoes, or i'll be so poor.

rose's good friend went to japan last week and i asked her to look out for this particular wallet that i liked. she came back 2 days ago... and guess what??? She got one for me!!!!!!!

ahhhh...... i think i'm gonna be using this wallet for years and years.... i smell japannnnnn!

Angus Steak House

2007-04-17T01:21:00.000+08:00

i've not been splurging on food these days. but last saturday, eileen was having her long leave from the hectic wedding sales job, she decided that we should go for a good dinner. me being the *anything also can* person, followed her to the japanese Angus Steak House for dinner with Alvin.

the atmosphere in the restaurant was pretty retro. not the saturday night fever kind of retro, but you know, old fashioned. very english to me, with a piano at the entrance of the restaurant. we were seated by the window, facing the Paragon. the waitresses dressed in maid's uniform, with aprons and head dresses.

i had the stewed beef set, alvin had a normal 300gm steak & eileen ate the most expensive set meal that costed $90++! it's non other than the infamous *melt in your mouth* wagyu beef! the intense marbled beef was indeed really juicy and extremely tender. thumbs up!

the bun was heated perfectly to melt the butter when spreaded on

these are holy good stuff. 1/2 of the oysters were covered with cheese and baked.
the others were served with stir fried garlic sauce. this is a must try!

my choice was a bowl of richly stewed beef with puff pastry. if only i had rice to go with it... *swallow sliva*

eileen's choice: non other than the over-budget wagyu beef!!! served with really tasty sauce. alvin almost licked his plate clean. i probably tried like $20 worth of her meat. it was undeniably gooooot!

Angus Steak House
391 Orchard Road
#04-25 Ngee Ann City (Takashimaya)
Singapore 238872
Tel: 67356015 / 67356016

Recommended(according to other food blogs):
Spaghetti with Salmon Roe & Abalone
Tiramisu
Wagyu Beef Steak

Sydney here i come!

2007-04-11T23:59:00.000+08:00

16 more days to aussie.

i can't wait!

i hope it'll be good.

:)

My Sesame Street Personality

2007-04-04T12:52:00.000+08:00

You Are Cookie Monster

Misunderstood as a primal monster, you're a true hedonist with a huge sweet tooth.

You are usually feeling: Hungry. Cookies are preferred, but you'll eat anything if cookies aren't around.

You are famous for: Your slightly crazy eyes and usual way of speaking

How you life your life: In the moment. "Me want COOKIE!"

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

我怀念的

2007-03-28T17:42:00.000+08:00

我问为什么
那女孩传简讯给我
而你为什么
不解释低着头沉默
我该相信你很爱我
不愿意敷衍我
还是明白
你已不想挽回什么

想问为什么
我不再是你的快乐
可是为什么
却苦笑说我都懂了
自尊常常将人拖着
把爱都走曲折
假装了解是怕
真相太赤裸裸
狼狈比失去难受

我怀念的是无话不说
我怀念的是一起作梦
我怀念的是争吵以后
还是想要爱你的冲动

我记得那年生日
也记得那一首歌
记得那片星空
最紧的右手
最暖的胸口
谁记得
谁忘了

想问为什么
我不再是你的快乐
可是为什么
却苦笑说我都懂了
自尊常常将人拖着
把爱都走曲折
假装了解是怕
真相太赤裸裸
狼狈比失去难受

我怀念的是无话不说
我怀念的是一起作梦
我怀念的是争吵以后
还是想要爱你的冲动

我记得那年生日
也记得那一首歌
记得那片星空
最紧的右手
最暖的胸口
谁忘了

我怀念的是无言感动
我怀念的是绝对炽热
我怀念的是你很激动
求我原谅抱得我都痛

我记得你在背后
也记得我颤抖着
记得感觉汹涌
最美的烟火
最长的相拥
谁爱得太自由
谁过头太远了
谁要走我的心
谁忘了那就是承诺

谁自顾自地走
谁忘了看着我
谁让爱变沉重
谁忘了要给你温柔

我怀念的
我还有想要爱你的冲动
我记得那年生日
也记得那一首歌
记得那片星空
最紧的右手
最暖的胸口

我放手
我让座
假洒脱
谁懂我多么不舍得

太爱了
所以我
没有哭
没有说

singapura

2007-03-25T20:23:00.000+08:00

these days i get doubtful of myself, the society i live in, the condusive environment that i take for granted.
am i one of the many puppets that hang from the control of a big brother? what is in store for me in life, i have yet to really grasp. it's like sand in my hand. the tighter i try to hold on to them, the more i lose through the fingers.

am i like a kite? flying freely in the sky but only to realise that there's someone controlling the strings and directions?
i am not comfortable in this overly secured country. i feel crippled when i take things for granted as it is in singapore. i can't realise my potential. because i'm too used to be told what to do.

i am not a survivor if i'm being thrown out into the harsh world to live. but i am learning to be one.
like a school of fishes fighting for the little food that was thrown into the water. i want to be a fish that could grap a bite or two.

but then again i'm afraid i'll lose my compassionate heart and the ability to feel for people. i was once walking on the street of a really poor country. there were beggers here and there. i can't help but sympathise with them. i asked my friend should i give them all some money? he said: fion, there are so many more poorer people in the world to sympathise. u can't shelter every single one of them. you can't sympathise enough.
so true yet so cold.

i don't want to be a cold-hearted being, just about to fight a battle each day for my own stand on earth.
i want to go out and change something, using my heart. i am sure i can do something. it's just about when to begin.

2007-03-25T14:07:00.000+08:00

have u ever built a sand castle by the beach and it got washed down by an unexpected wave?
my palace got knocked down. but i will build another one futher away from the water again.

i'll not allow anything to destroy my castle.

happiness

2007-03-24T23:28:00.000+08:00

we can't measure, we can't buy happiness but we can create.
what it is to me might not be to u
i wish you happiness

Dirt

2007-03-22T00:22:00.000+08:00

joey forwarded to me one of his emails from his good friend terry. it was quite funny. i think he's the kind of ticklish humerous kinda guy that everyone would think every single sentence that he said was funny.

this is how it goes:

We are now in Peru - off to the Jungle tomorrow!

We have just spet 2 weeks on Boliva, most of the time was spent on the
toilet - here is the story -

We arrived in Santa Cruz, Boliva from Brazil via the Death Train (22 hours
of hell). It´s apparently called the death train becuase it de-railed once
and loads of people died but I cant see how people could have died. The
train was the slowest thing imaginable! Honestly it would have been quicker
to cycle.
Our carriage was next to the toilet which stunk and next to the restaurant
which smelt 10 times worse than the toilet. The train was absolutely
disgusting and the Bolvian people stink of a smell we have only smelt in
Boliva.

From Santa Cruz we went to the salt planes of Uyinui which was really cool.
There was miles and miles of Salt as far as the eye could see! Really wiered
because it looks like snow but it was all salt. There were a few hotels
there, all made out of salt (walls, tables, beds......). I told Beck its
where salted peanut trees grow and she believed me.

From Uyinui we headed to La Paz (capital of Bolivia) by taking a 12 hour
over night bus journey. The distance really isnt that far but it takes ages
to get anywhere becuase the roads are just mud tracks. Bolvia is incredibly
poor, the average wage is 50 quid a month. I thought about starpping a
Bolvian guy to each of my legs so that they could do my walking for me - its
really tiring to walk becuase of the altitude.
Becuase we didnt want to be on a Bus full of the stinking locals, we decided
to pay top dollar (5 quid each for the 12 hour bus journey on the most
luxurious bus Bolivia had).

The bus journey started well but about 1 am disaster struck. Every time I
fell asleep I almost shit myself (literally). Someting that I had eaten on
the trip to the salt planes had screwed me over. It was hell driving on the
worst, most bumpiest road ever needing to shit myself. There was absolutely
no way I was going to use the toilet on the bus! Luck shone my way around
3am when the bus pulled into a town in the middle of no where, where the bus
company had a small office and I was allowed to use their toilet. If the
toilet was dirty I wouldnt have gone but it was the cleanest toilet I had
come across in the whole journey! I tried to keep the fireworks down as the
office was tiny and there we are about 10 people standing on the other side
of the toilet door who must have heard everything. I felt great but then
disaster struck me again - the toilet wouldnt flush. Before I had time to
think, disaster struck me for a third time - there was someone banging on
the door telling me to hurry up!
I kept on trying to flush but nothing happened so I just ran out of the
toilet, past the crowds of people in the office and staright onto the bus
where I made Becky prtnd it was her that had been to the loo.

When we finally arrived in La Paz we checked into a 5 star hotel and spent 4
days on the loo. Beck was actually a lot worse than I was and we had to call
the doctor out!

When we recovered we crossed over to Peru and went to lake Titicaca where we
visited some floating islands. They were really cool. People live on these
floating islands made ot of reeds. God knows why they would want to live on
those islands - they are tiny and there is absolutely nothing to do appart
from having to find more reeds to keep the islands afloat!

Tada
Terry

2007-03-21T16:08:00.000+08:00

a beginning has an end
like happiness with sadness
hotness with coldness
sweetness with bitterness
thin with fat
good with bad
sad with sad

my brother lives beside a hill of urns

2007-03-20T22:22:00.000+08:00

my brother and sis-in-law came over for dinner tonight. and we were all sat in front of the tv watching the news. apparently, there were some what like 34,000 urns discovered at a little mole near the MRT track. my sis-in-law said: huh..... that's just beside our home! and she gave us an *i dun dare to go home* look. haha... ...

my dad said: wow... so many urns. the spirits must have taken care of the town well...
my bro said: pls lor... what take care? there were like a million accidents reported at the cross junction next to those urns lor!

i was too busy trying to get this very difficult pee sai out of my nose to comment.

anyway, i had a mini movie marathon by myself tonight. i re-watched before sunrise & before sunset again. all thanks to rachel who loaded them into my laptop before she went back to aussie. i love the surrealism in the films. really nice...

ridiculous memory

2007-03-19T15:59:00.000+08:00

i walked past taka jewelry at ang mo kio yesterday. as usual, the mini-compo radio was placed strategically at their entrance, with techno music pumping. that's their way of "attracting" business. but to the consumers, at least to me, it's just plain degrading.

a fragment of the past came to me as i silently smirked at their weak attempt to draw crowd.

2 christmases ago, i received a pleasant gift. it was a simple diamond bracelet. easily the finest accessory i've ever received from someone. i'm not the person who would accessorize myself to go out, and very often, i always forgot to wear my earrings or watch. i'm just so absent minded.

i wore the bracelet for a class because i had not figured out how to remove it. the lock was a little complicated. then someone realised the bracelet in class and this is how it went:
someone(s)
me(m)

s: hmm? must or not? wear this one for class for what?

m: i dunno how to remove. later help me remove? j gave me for Christmas one

s: i think he got the wrong present for u. u don't look like someone who'll wear this. doesn't suit u at all

m: aiya, it's the thought that counts. i can wear for special occasions mah

s: he should get you something that is useful for you.

**** after class ****

m: help me remove can?

s: k. hmm... actually quite nice. very simple

m: he got it from SK

**** a few days later ****

i received a long sms from the same person that went something like this:

s: boon, i tell you. don't let j cheat you. i saw the same exact bracelet at taka lor. i think he bought it at Taka and tell you it's from SK. taka one damn cheap lor

m: it has SK engraved on it and it came with the red SK box leh

s: i don't know la... if you trust him then good lor. i'm just trying to be concerned.

m: can u pls don't say him until like that can or not? even if it's taka's, it's the thought that counts.

**** silence ****

i have no idea why the above happened. it's just a gift, even if it's from the crazy taka.

it's a long long journey

2007-03-19T01:07:00.000+08:00

i walked and walked.

i stopped. i looked.

and walked.

this long journey i embarked, is 1/4 way through.

this route that i choose, wears me out.

i walked.

and walked.

'cos i know, i'll see you there.

www.xin.sg

2007-03-17T00:02:00.000+08:00

从广播电台和今晚的新闻中知道了一个全新的网站 - 新动网。这是一个综合性的资讯网站，网址是： www.xin.sg, 就那么简单。它与其他资讯网站的不同在于它是个多煤体网站，不只是单单文字，还含有好多交具有互动性的全面资讯网站。我想它主要是要吸引年青一代前往阅读，以渐渐地让他们对新闻与华文有一定的认识和掌握。

今天下午我到过了新动网。觉得它很新鲜，对于我这种读汉字有巨大的问题的人很有帮助。因为它也有好多图案。它的新闻所可以讨论的，吸收的，观赏的，都很广。有焦点新闻，顶尖时尚的, 娱乐动向，体育动态，通通都有。

连明星部落格也找来了久违的sharon au从日本传达新鲜气息。

我想这可能就是我又从新了解华文字的第一步。

*cross fingers* i took about 1/2 hour just to write the above... i hope there isn't much mistakes though.

Be With Me

2007-03-13T22:59:00.000+08:00

i've been home earlier these days ever since my office was moved to a more accessible location. it used to take me 1.5 hours to reach my old home office. now, it's just a sweet 45 minutes' journey. i enjoy travelling on public transport, any at all. 'cos i love people-watching & behaviour observing.

once i saw this lady dressed smartly in executive wear in the MRT train. she sat beside the doors being very engrossed in a novel. i was standing right in front of her, trying to find out the title of the book. then i noticed her picking her nose as she read... totally oblivious to the people around her. the grossest part was when she spreaded a harvest of slimey booger onto the page she was reading. i rolled my eyes in disgust.

my favorite pass time on buses/trains would be making funny faces to little kids which most often developed into a silent game between us - just making different funny faces.

recently i started watching a TCS show on channel 8 with my mum. i find that ezann lee is really good at her part! she plays a down-syndrome girl who is taken care by fann wong(a doctor) in that show.

incidentally i've watched a short film on the plane starring ezann lee too. i chose that flim also because ut was the only one that could fit into the bear 2 hours ride to Thailand, considering they always have LOADs of annoucements on weather and all when the plane takes off and when it's about to land. i hate it when the important parts of whatever I'm watching get cut off abruptly by all the annoucements.

the short film is called "Be With Me", by Eric Khoo. this is one of the better local films that i've watched in which ezann lee almost turned me into a lesbian. it was seperated artistically into 3 different parts. reminded me a little of Chungking Express by Wong Kar Wai.

Kylie's 1st Month Old

2007-03-09T01:34:00.000+08:00

it's been quite a while since a new born was added to the family. technically speaking, Mai Gui(my aunt, kylie's mum) isn't really a direct family tree relative. she's a distant relative that's close to us. a new little cutie kylie was borned last month.

i bought a sweet little white & pink top with flowers, a pair of matching shoes, another white lacey boots for kylie. kid's products are so marketable. i was literally sucked into the sea of children stuff at kiddy palace. i wanted this, that, these, those, almost everything!!!!

i bought Kristen(kylie's sis) a little carebear back pack that she could carry to the nursery.
she was ripping the wrapping paper impatiently when i allowed her to open.
she's by far the prettiest baby i've ever seen. really resembles the Precious Moment figurines!

every family took a box of sweet stuff back home. it has been a tradition that the host would distribute red hard boiled eggs, cakes to the people who came to visit.
i am impressed by how creative people are now in improvising the old-fashion cake box to this:

even a personalised greeting from the baby included too!!!

ah..... my maternal clock is ticking... .... ... ... ...

mosaic music festival

2007-03-08T23:37:00.000+08:00

i paid S$55 to watch Kings of Convenience last year at the Mosaic Music Festival. it was really nice. even though i was seated all alone, not knowing the persons on either side of me, i had fun. not crazy fun but i participated in some ways. like whistling together with the crowd, singing along to their songs & cracking myself up at the humerous Eirik. my heart almost acidised when i heard that the tickets were SOLD OUT. i was so panicky... cos i was in thailand when they started selling the tics. i almost fell down to beg, willing to pay $80 for a ticket. eventually ronnie got me one, at just S$55. couldn't thank him enough for that.

i'm keen to watch jaga jazzist at this year's mosaic, but to realise a couple of minutes ago that the only tickets left were those at S$118. damn broke lor like that... how...? to go or not to... so expensive. somemore the opening band is observatory. :(

maybe can go on monday for the free performances:

MARCHTWELVE Singapore
6:30pm (30mins)

RELAX ONE CORNER WITH NAJIP ALI Singapore
8pm (30mins)

JON CHAN OF PLAINSUNSET Singapore
9pm & 10:15pm (30mins)

anyone wanna sponsor?? i accept paypal you know... so convenient... come la... a bit only!!!

eBay CNY lunch @ Club Chinois

2007-03-06T01:30:00.000+08:00

the door gift was a cute dimsum basket with 2 mandarin oranges, 2 golden coins chocolate & an ang bao containing a lucky 4D ticket.

you can never doubt the food of a restaurant under the tung lok group. it's the most trustworthy chain i've ever been to. my bro had the most successful wedding banquet held at tung lok @ Liang Court. this CNY, eBay singapore invited us for a feast at Club Chinos, to usher in a prosperous piggie year ahead... ...

we sat at the table with pen seller, apparel seller & gems seller.
the lunch started off with the 3 tables Lou Hei-ing. it's fresh salmon lou hei, but i kept feeding myself with those crunchy crackers instead.
everyone did the traditional toss of the "fish salad", proclaiming great idioms that commonly address to our health, prosperity & well-being.
i was busy tossing with my left hand & snapping away with my right.
Lai Ah!!!! HUAT AH!!!
amongst all the well wishes, my favorite was a line that a guy said: 大家开开心心!!
happiness is something i long for the year of pig, in fact, every year at all. with that, everything else will be and is secondary.
with that, life has so much more meaning to.
with that, life is blissful & blessed

these are some of the dishes i took. basically we had a spread of dimsums, some deep fried wraps, fried noodle, fish, winter melon consome & cheng teng for dessert.

presenting my favorite, one and only working partner - rosemary!!
she got so thrilled just because they gave her free car park coupon.

Rest In Peace

2007-03-02T21:45:00.000+08:00

the weirdest thing i've seen so far on eBay, which gave me a chilling rush down my spine is:

A COFFIN

check this out

my celebrities look alike

2007-02-27T01:14:00.000+08:00

goodness me!! which angle looks like ASHTON KUTCHER!!????

indian, thai food & seducing mr. perfect

2007-02-26T14:06:00.000+08:00

we met up on the boring 3rd day of CNY at suntec for something non-chinese. alvin suggested Muthu's Curry. i love spicy stuff but my stomach can't take too much of it. since the spice-intolerate alvin suggested it, i suppose it can't be bad.
Muthu's Curry serves a mixture of Northen & Southern indian cuisine.
and so all of us had:
Mushroom Masala, Fish Head Curry, Murgh Makhni, Butter+Plain+Cheese naans, strawberry + Mango lassi for S$109. i thought that was a little overpriced for such normal indian food.

naan's my favorite indian food. i can have it with anything else like curry, butter, whatever... i can't get sick of it even when overdosed.

i was slightly disappointed with the mushroom masala. i expected fresh mushrooms but canned buttoned mushrooms were served instead, for S$9?!! not worth it.

very soon, i got really tired of too much curry-like food.

*************************

on saturday i went out with qian for a little shopping and movie.
we chanced upon this really attractive conceptual shop called made with love. it's a 1/2 DIY/Craft shop, 1/2 cafe. it sells lots of breath taking laces, paper, art&craft DIY stuff. i was so tempted to buy lotsa stuff there but the pricing was quite expensive. so i allowed myself to explore, touch, smell, feel, shake but BUY. but i may go back. maybe... ...

afterwhich we had dinner at simply thai.
the aroma in the restaurant made me miss thailand so much. i'm going back in march soon... can't wait! me being to BKK for numerous times, can't help but be critical about the food from simply thai, comparing with the authentic ones in thailand.

i'd prefer pineapple rice served in pineapple shell. stir fried with more pineapple. for the pineapple rice from simply thai, it's just seafood fried rice with cubes of unripped pineapple at the side, more like garnish.

after dinner, we caught a movie - Seducing Mr. Perfect at the new The Cathay cinema.
it was a so-so comedy-romance korean movie. i was drooling at the eye-candy Mr. Perfect though. his looks was really close to perfect. :)
i thought the female actress had too much botox injected into her lips, they looked overflowing.

CNY

2007-02-24T15:38:00.000+08:00

these are 3 of my favorite nephews. they are the sweetest things any parents can ask for. and my cousin have them all. :)

the lion dance troupe came to my ah gong's house.
can see 4 numbers or not? go buy 4D !!!

bald britney

2007-02-21T21:14:00.000+08:00

ops she did it again!

the flakey pop princess now looks like some character from lord of the rings to me:

priceless britnelisa smile

apparently she regretted immediately when she saw that her locks were shaven off by herself.

Happie Chinese New Year!!

2007-02-17T22:50:00.000+08:00

in conjuction with the festive season, i've changed my blog template to suit the 发发发 mood.

i just had a simple yet delicious reunion dinner with my family. and i made deep fried prawns with mayo-wasabi dip. hmmm..... nice la!

rachel just came back from japan and she bought me these:

the strawberry kitkat tasted somewhat like the strawberry pokey.
there was some filling in the crunchy biscuit. how come singapore don't have leh!?

rach also bought this vintage-like minnie mouse mobile chain. really cute!

HAPPIE LUNAR NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

CNY Baking with cousins

2007-02-13T01:14:00.000+08:00

i dragged myself up quite early on sunday after snoozing numerous alarm alerts from my phone. i arrived at yen's house promptly at 10am sharp only to find that i could actually sleep for another hour or so, cos lee hasn't arrived yet.

so we chatted, they ate breakfast, watched a little sunday morning t.v. & then started out baking for CNY.

the 1st item we baked was:

PEANUT COOKIES

the kneading has to be done in fast motion, just so the butter will not melt under the human's heat.

sprinkle the sesame seeds immediately after glazing the cookie with yolk before it dries up.
preheat the oven to 160 degrees. bake the cookies for about 15-20 minutes and.....

........

...

..

.
.
.
.

allow the cookies to cool down entirely before boxing them.
mission accomplished for task 1.

2nd item:

SUGI COOKIES

yen prepared the dough for making sugi cookies the night before.
it has to be kept in the fridge for at least 1 hour before use.

each and every piece of sugi cookie is carefully weighed to 10g

after rolling the doughs into mini balls, the cookies were sent for the 1st round of baking.

after the 1st round of baking, the cookies were then glazed with egg yolk for color and taste. then sent back into the oven for a final bake.

3rd item:

LEMON COOKIES

By this time, i was already quite distracted by everything else but baking and taking photos. i was eating chicken rice and watching a coverage on SCV on xu wei lun's death and funeral. i only managed this:

these cookies tasted really refreshing, with a tinge of lemon tangy-ness.

i brought home 3 tubs of CNY cookies.

:>)

Kose Seikisho Mask White

2007-02-11T23:28:00.000+08:00

introducing:

many friends of my age would give this brand a skeptical consideration. like: huh? so auntie leh...

i've not used any other products by Kose, only the Seikisho Mask White. i religiously apply it every weekend, once a week. it was introduced to me by one of my cousins. he convincingly promoted it, and managed to suck me into his belief.

it was indeed good. not a magic wand that'll turn your face immediately like the SKII's pong pong pong face, but decently improve the face's radiance. the mask is black in color. it has to be applied on face & neck. after the mask dries up and tighten, it can be removed by peeling method. you can see a harvest of impurities on the mask, even clearer when it is black in color.

*highly recommended*

Kose is available at any major departmental store with cosmetic section. the mask is S$34.

1st time to Pepper Lunch!

2007-02-11T22:44:00.000+08:00

on saturday i went to the place that i would rather not go if i had a choice-orchard road. the moment i stepped out of the mrt station control, i was hit by regrets. the swam of people, the heat, the motion, the chaos, STAMPEDE!!!!!

i dived into the crowd in search of my little friend, qian. faster la... ... and finally saw her in a distance. we headed towards far east plaza. and i intended to spend the least time there to get what i want. i was on lightning shopping mode, so i browsed, tried and purchase in superman-changing speed. i bought a mini skirt, 1 black polka dots baby doll top & a black cheong sum top(for a moment i thought it looked similiar to the chinese restaurants' uniform). but hack, i've always keen on getting a cheong sum thingie for CNY. now i got it. i'm not sure how many times i'll wear it but i don't care.

after combing almost all corners of the plaza, and spending almost 45 minutes in a hot and stuffy mobile accessories shop, we headed towards Pepper Lunch @ Lido for dinner. how ironic? dinner @ pepper lunch dinner @ pepper lunch dinner @ pepper lunch dinner @ pepper lunch
ok not funny.

ok, on our way towards pepper lunch, we were walking behind something that slightly flipped our appetite around. i've yet to figure whether it was making us hungrier or what.

we were walking behind Miss Princess-水密桃姐姐-kawaii wannabe

qian went: faster faster take photo! take photo! and we were following closely behind her, furiously snapping away for the best photo. it was tough in motion. so i only manged a decent photo above. basically she was wearing this pink lacey princess dress with thick platform patent pink shoes. 99% pink. (we almost went the wrong way following miss pinky lace)

satisfied with the takings, we decided to check out her face. soooo mysterious!

so we tackfully increased our pace and peeped at her face. goodness la..... she looks like RU HUA! damn *alamak* face lor!

i mean if she looks like the cutsy rainie yang, i would give it up to her courage to dress this way and silently applause to her successful attempt.
but, for this missy pinky, she needs to dress normal in order to blend into the crowd without additional attention, or should i say scrutiny.

ok, that's just a little side track on our way to dinner. interesting though....

PEPPER LUNCH DINNER!!!

i enjoyed playing with the sizzling food on my personal hot plate, until the food was perfectly cooked in the correct doneness. the chicken was so-so, i thought the skin was slightly too fatty. however the beef was greeeeat. i've not eaten such nicely done beef for a long while!

famished, qian & i SUP finished all the stuff we ordered. it was really yummy. i have to salute to the japanese. they create the best tasty sauces ever to go with almost everything edible! i Love the "garlie" sauce!

the only minus point about Pepper Lunch is that you will definitely smell like a grilled piece of food all over when you leave the restaurant. not a great place for 1st dates i feel. you wouldn't want the girl/guy you fancy to keep smelling food from your hair, your clothes, your breath, your everywhere.

after the satisfying dinner, we decided we HAD to purchase some japanese sauce/food from isetan's supermart. i bought wasabi, japanese mayo & miso soup base :)

Star Purchases of the Month

2007-02-08T00:08:00.000+08:00

i'm in love with the Body Shop Spa series' Blissful body cleanser.
It made me addicted to showering. it cleanses without much foam, smells heavenly exotic, with a mixture of coconut milk + bamboo + Organic beeswax. Spa-ish indeed!

my face has never been so gently yet thoroughly cleansed before. the unique powder wash formed cushiony foam after mixing with warm water, cleanses very well yet do not leave a tight and dry feeling that most facial wash would give.
it closes the pores tight after washing.

2007-02-07T18:13:00.000+08:00

the previous post was deleted to protect the identity of the innocent.
i'm glad someone (or more) else see things eye to eye as me.

it doesn't help if you wish to forget about the evil deeds you've done in the past.
the people you had hurted cannot forget.

what goes around comes around.

Nokia 7390

2007-02-04T01:43:00.000+08:00

i've always fancy the Nokia's L Amour collection. so i decided to exchange my used N73(with lots of software problems) for a brand new Nokia 7390.

i think i'm getting crazy over FANCL.

BALIthai @ Novena

2007-01-31T11:56:00.000+08:00

BALIthai is under the same organisation as Bayang
i would consider BALIthai as a fusion restaurant. not east meets west, but indonesian meets thai. The entire restaurant's layout is very open, with very little pillars, walls or partitions. if you walk by the restaurant, you'll be able to see every single patron eating. i personally prefer one that has private sections as well.
the few tables located at the entrance of the restaurant are of vintage-zen look, with repeated patterned damask wallpaper and zenish seats and tables.
and so alvin, jen, eileen & i settled down at one comfy table. the area that we sat at was more modern with an entire wall decorated with different sizes of black plates, making that part of the restaurant very stylish & arty.

Mango Salad: very appetizing starter. The strips of vegetable and unriped mango were spiced up and added with small shrimps.

Seafood Tomyam Soup - this soup is really spicy. another good starter as well. the cute claypot was filled with crabs, prawns, mussles and many other vegetables.
The mouth watering sourish taste and the tangy-ness of the mango & the spicyness of the tasty soup will surely stir up your appetite and prepare your taste buds for more food.

my favourite: Tao Hu Terlur
this is basically beancurd and eggs deep fried and topped with fresh strips of vegetable & grounded peanut. the importance of this dish is the special black peanut sauce. somewhat similiar to that of the rojak but less "smelly". very nice la!

Pineapple fried rice - this is typically like any other good pineapple fried rice. nothing extraordinarily special but was perfectly prepared.

this chicken tasted somewhat like teriyaki-satay-ish. thumbs up for this as well. must order la!

i enjoy thai milk tea a lot. it tasted nothing like the normal english breakfast milk tea at all. it has it's own unique fragrant and taste. this one is a little too sweet(too much condensed milk).

2007-01-28T23:17:00.000+08:00

Koffkoff said:
Hsu Weilun died liao
boomy said:
who's hsu wei lun huh?
boomy said:
oh i know already. i recognise her face.

i googled the name and realised she's the young and sweet taiwanese actress, 許瑋倫.
she's only 1 year older than me and passed away today after being severely hurted in a fatal accident on friday.
i wish her peace.

i-a-r

2007-01-27T01:59:00.000+08:00

there are many people out there who constantly indulge in the vicious circle of emotional hurts, falling and getting up, falling and getting up over and over again. many a times, hurt for the same reason or by the same person.

we all have heard enough of the typical drumming of love being selfless & selfish. that when one's in love, there is no logic, nor boundaries that the love couldn't extend to.

i'm talking about a relationship with someone intimate. whether or not of an opposite sex. not the i love my dog kind of love.

what makes you wanna make the grave decision of wanting to be with someone for the rest of your life? some shallow people drown themselves in the good looks of their partners, and nothing else.

i don't believe in - looks do not matter in a relationship at all, unless you're literally blind, in that case major flaws of the outer shell can easily be ignored. face it. neither will i go for the ultimate pretty boys, 'cos i'm usually insecured, low esteemed at times, and often "think too much". i personally feel that great communication, good character & personality are vital as long as he/she is pleasant looking.

i hate those kiam pa looks. how lian people. dua gay kiang ones.

what about you?

maybe you have an ideal partner in mind. but he/she will only exist when you fantasize about it. do fairy tales still exist?

happily ever after.

vanilla butter cookies, chestnut almond cake & honey cake medeleines

2007-01-25T09:15:00.000+08:00

the beginning of the lesson at Phoon Huat:
we were the only bunch of noisy & rowdy youngsters at the back of the class. reminded me so much of the secondary school days. the rest of the class were "aunties" and "ah mas". it was exciting though, like the 1st day of school. we drew lots to pair up and HENG AH, i was partner with qian. my ideal mate!

1st item: Vanilla Butter Cookies
very odd shapes though. most of everyone else's were nice and round.

they didn't turn out that bad after baking! some of them even looked like they were from Famous Amos! :P

2nd item: Honey Cake "Medeleines" (check out the perpetually eating nana)
This is my personal favorite. It is some what like cup cake but only richer. i love the honey and lemon zest combination. very refreshing.

3rd item: Chestnut Almond Cake
my goodness, i didn't thought that they would actually let us bring back one of this entire cake home. it's huge! my parents love this one, but mum said if the chestnuts was replaced by walnuts, it would be better.

Don't play play lor... got cert one leh. i'm a certified baker now!
mum and dad didn't believe that i baked all these by myself. even rose was giving me the suspicious look. nice lehhh!!!!
it was overall very fun and interesting. i might try learning more soon!

cost: $36
at: Phoon Huat & Co (Pte) Ltd - Sims Lane
3 recipes - hands on

i brought back 1 huge whole chestnut almond cake, 8 boats of those Honey Cake "Medeleines" & a lot a lot of vanilla butter cookies. HOW WORTH IT?!

: )

2007-01-24T12:30:00.000+08:00

i think i should blog in chinese regularly so that i will not lose touch with the characters and the beauty of it's written language.

It will be a challenge to express in written chinese. but i suppose it's a good way to feel my roots, and remember it.

photos of baking session will be up soon, too much to edit!

electric company & M.A.S.K.

2007-01-21T13:42:00.000+08:00

oh my God, this is another zuper duper nostalgic clip i've found on youtube. i more or less grew up watching this every afternoon after school.

presenting.... the electric company:

and M.A.S.K. i can't believe that i could remember how to sing all these songs still!

if these videos do not ring a bell to you, i'm sorry, we're from a total different era altogether.

生日快乐

2007-01-20T10:15:00.000+08:00

为什么两个恋人彼此相爱着对方却又不大声说：我爱你. 也始终没有在一起。为什么到最后只能一年说一次"生日快乐"？连情人节一起度过的机会都不能？

两个人能有缘一起, 就该打开心去爱. 无怨无悔的珍惜彼此曾度过的每一天, 珍惜对方的存在。

已太迟。

这是一布让人心酸的电影.

生日快乐。

Jeric @ Central Salon

2007-01-18T23:05:00.000+08:00

Both qian & i got to have free hair make over at this very open concepted hair salon located along Eu Tong Sen Street. it's tucked in a corner on the 2nd floor of this new building called Central. qian chose to color her hair, as advised by this F4 Zhu Xiao Tian look alike Japanese hair stylist, Yohei. he was soooo detailed in his work that qian's heart almost fell out of her mouth when he attempted to wipe the bits of hair on her face with a towel. my hair stylist was kinda bengish but spotting a punkish hair. he was good though. explaining all the hair care, dos n don'ts to me for permed hair.

933 DJs like huishi and liyi were there too. heng ah, we were not interviewed or photographed. so paisey....

after what seemed like 2 hours or so of sitting down, waiting and waiting in the salon for our hair to be done, we were soo hungry.

i must comment that the Central's layout is so weird. we went up and down escalators, walked round and round just to get to the food court.

i had stewed beef & tendon with rice. it was grrrrreat!

$5 @ Kopitiam Central

p/s: thank you joey for being there. for all the advises and encouragements. thank you.

i'm exhausted

2007-01-18T10:45:00.000+08:00

i was on the bus to work the other day and i saw this cute little girl seated in front of me. me having soft spot for kids, started playing with her. she was shy but responsive. seated beside her was her grandma. granny started talking to me and eventually, i was listening to her story about her being cheated.

she started off by saying: girl ah, next time remember don't lend your IC to other people......

she was at compasspoint paying up bills that didn't belonged to her. her god-daughter borrowed her IC previously and apparently signed up with singtel, M1 & starhub. the god daughter brought her to all the shops and signed up contracts with the above service providers for "another guy". she was assured by her god daughter that nothing will happen to her. she trusted the "god daughter".

eventually, warning letters of non-payment went to her. the total bills clogged up to about 4-5k. and she had to pay for it because she couldn't locate the "guy" that was using these lines.

me: HUH? then you gotta pay all these bills by yourself??

she agreed resignly.

granny: nevermind lor... i slowly pay... pay a little by little every month

me: how old is your god daughter?

granny: hmm... about 30 over years old.

what the fuck? knnbccb

me: no! how can like that?! you have to go to the police. when the guy gets caught, you do not need to pay all these that were not incurred by you! you can help to stop that guy from cheating other ignorant old people too!! you have to go to the police.

by this time, i was about to abandon the fact that i was on the way to work and bring her to the police station.

granny(shaking her head sadly): no.. no... i don't want trouble... i'll be in deep trouble... let other people do the report. i don't want trouble... nevermind... they(the service providers) allow me to pay back slowly. it's ok....

with this, she carried her grand daughter, bid good bye to me and alighted at hougang.

i curse this guy who goes around cheating on poor old people who do not know their facts right. i curse this "god daughter" to bring misfortune to this poor old lady.

to hell to all these people without morals.

note to all: do not lend your ic to others for any "harmless" transactions at all. not even your own friends to avoid unneccessary troubles and problems

baking lessons...

2007-01-17T14:12:00.000+08:00

wooohooo~~~ this saturday i'm going phoon huat's baking workshop with qian, susu, nana and 2 of their friends.

so exciting... we'll be learning how to bake:

CHESTNUT ALMOND CAKE

VANILLA BUTTER COOKIES

HONEY CAKES “MEDELEINES”

it'll be soooo fun! i'll take loads of photos!!!

qian & i also won the 933fm free hair make over. we're gonna perm our hair for the chinese new year! i hope it'll not be a disaster! *cross fingers & toes*

giraffe

2007-01-16T17:52:00.000+08:00

one of my favourite animals in the world....

cough

2007-01-16T00:55:00.000+08:00

i've been having persistant cough since Christmas. and since, i've been to 3 doctors on different medications. right now, i'm still coughing like there are feather dusters down my throat. no more jades though.

i wonder y.

incidentally, i have severe weight lost too. most of my pants do not fit anymore. and once, i took off my levi's in the toilet without the need to unbutton. that silently shocked me. something is amiss. i'd rather be slimming down on pills, i'd rather be lighter due to constant exercises, at least i know the root of the slimming effect. but now, i don't even know the reason of weight lost.
do i burn more fats from stressing my abdominal when i cough non-stop?

i don't think so. i think i'm going to another doctor end of the month. maybe the chinese physician. sometimes zong yi could do wonders by just feeling your pulse, poking needles and using heated bowls to suck your backs.

*****************

yes yes i've heard about it on the news... took me a while to consume the beautiful fact that such a brilliant combination was invented.

is this lush or what?

what.

button moon button moooon!

2007-01-15T00:04:00.000+08:00

oh God, these videos clip stirred up so many fond childhood memories. i actually teared a little watching the clip, they made me miss the good old years so so much. i could almost smell my old home. i would religiously watch every single episode in the evenings without fail. i was even all ready to go on a fight with my brother if he wanted to watch ultraman on malaysian tv2.

i wanna go back to the 80s please, just for a while.

dian xiao er (2) @ marina square

2007-01-14T23:28:00.000+08:00

Once again i'm here at Marina Square for Dian Xiao Er. This time round with my folks. i usually get quite turned off by the overly commercialised breadtalk's open concept. but i adore the one at DXE. i sat right in front of the window watching the chefs roast and chop numerous ducks.

this time i took slightly more of the decor and layout. my parents were happily anticipating a Big Feast! i love it!

1st dish - Shark's Fin soup + Crab Meat
The bowl came with a massive lump of sharks' fin floating on the thick soup. i was thinking: wah... really meh... so generous ah??
but to realise when i took the 1st scoop, that it was obviously fake like u know... jelllly? heng ah the crab meat is real, imagine also fake like crab sticks?! then monks also can eat liao!
*dua faint*

Dish 2: Roasted Duck soaked in ginseng herbal sauce
The restaurant specialises in duck. so it's no surprise that the set menu we ordered has a duck dish in it.
i was watching the chefs roasting duck just now. they actually stuffed ingredients and stock inside the ducks then seal up the holes before hanging them in the oven to roast. so when the duck were ready, the chef opened the holes and lots of good stuff just gushed out into the bowl. i suppose that gooodness was used to make gravy or soup base or sauces like the ginseng one we got.
so, you can imagine how nutritious this dish is.

Dish 3: Kong Ba
aiyo... this is my least favorite. too fat la! 1st bite still ok. subsequently, it gets too "gerlut".
my dad loves the fatty fatty part though.

look at the dish title? enough said. velly the good.

lastly we had ginseng Hashima for dessert. mum asked the waitress if she could buy the duck heads & necks. the waitress asked the chefs and they sold us each for $1! we bought 5.
mum said this is best to stew the neck with Mei Cai. i can't wait for that!

i've not seen my dad gobble down food like it's the end of the world tomorrow. i secretly felt glad and contented to watch my parents enjoy the food i brought them to.
it makes me wanna wear the i Love Mummy, i Love Daddy undies. haha!

rain rain go away, come again another day

2007-01-13T23:47:00.000+08:00

as i damp all my birks every single day in the rain, joey's having a great sunny summer holiday now. he just went to the hunter valley with the captain, i think to the wineries and all. i hope for more visual treats when he's back from the road trip.

seriously. my birks are gonna be so mouldy if singapore's weather continues like this. i wonder if inches of the island's edge were washed into the sea each day, and slowly but surely, we'll sink entirely if it rains non-stop here.

as it started storming yet again this evening, my mum commented something cornily:
is it because the korean rain is coming, then so much rain ah?

i rolled my eyes until they almost for stucked in my head.

i can't understand the craze of this rain guy too. i can comprehend if it's 大长今. he's not even eye candy to me. besides his "gymed" body, i don't think he's appealing in anyway at all. to add on the ?????s in me, some of his concert tickets were selling at over $800!?! sold out somemore. walau. cannot understand.

fame is such a strange thing at times.

yet another new watch

2007-01-12T20:56:00.000+08:00

this is definitely a good buy. i got this retro casio for just $18!!!! how cheap can that be? in fact, when the shop owner instructed his worker to bring a new piece out, he said: "ah ya... that one... the cheap cheap one."

i looked at qian and she looked at me... sooooo this is called the cheap cheap watch...

boliao

2007-01-11T17:44:00.000+08:00

i hope the singapore government will never forbid us to view youtube in future. it has become one of my favorite past time. watching taiwanese variety shows, overseas movie and drama not available in singapore and also, when i'm really bored, i'll search for funny commercials. today i watched a series of funny adverts. of which i thought this is quite funny:

~Bye for now~

will be back with more food photos from my uncle's famous western food stall at serangoon north!

Gui Ling Gao （龟苓膏）

2007-01-09T03:33:00.000+08:00

i was woken up early in the morning by peili on sunday for breakfast. bob drove us to this very retro dim sum place near china town. i think it's called Four Stars (四新), it's Hong Xin (红心）if i'm not wrong. The place was really crowded with families. it's located on the 7th floor of an old HDB flat, very cool... Personally, i felt that the dim sum served there isn't fantastic. However, it's the atmosphere that made it really worth the trip.

The layout of the old restaurant is as big as a ballroom which can accomodate about 80-100 tables? i reckon. the old fashion fixtures made it seems like you're stepping into an 80s 酒楼．All the waiters and waitresses are of at least 50 years old. You choose the food that are pushed around by the servers in the dim sum trolleys.

the bill came out to be a little costly($70), but for the experience, it's still affordable. i had one of the best home made Gui Ling Gao there. The after taste of eat mouthful of 龟苓膏 is herbily bitter but was almost immediately neutralised by the sweet honey syrup. i felt pretty good after a bowl of it.

牛肉面 @ Purvis Street

2007-01-07T16:07:00.000+08:00

the 1st time i had this special beef noodle was about 4 years ago with joey.
subsequently i revisited the place once a while, and even more when dreamscape was moved quite near to it last time. the shop specialises in beef kway teow or noodle only, no other kind of food will be served. i had kway teow dry with mixed beef(which included skin, stomach & intestines) dry. the bowl was topped with chopped preserved cabbage and grounded peanut. there was a container of fermented mini prawns on the table, supposed to be eaten together with the chilli sauce. i didn't like it, it smelled like sour damp smelly socks! everything else was still as good as before, only the gravy is slightly too starchy.

after dinner with qian, we had coffee at raffles city...
a chance to rip open my new toy!!!

presenting.......

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MY NEW HUMOUROUS FISH EYE LOMO CAMERA!!!!!!!

i got it from the lomography embassy at liang seah... can't wait to see the development. thanks euphe! for directing me the way to the embassy!
i added a color splash flash on it too! it comes with red, orange, yellow, green, pink, blue and normal flash! :)
this is the world's 1st humerous camera!

random

2007-01-06T00:31:00.000+08:00

i kind of like the feeling of drowsiness after a spoonful of cough mixture. it makes me sleep better and throw out lumps of jades the next morning.

your mind would start wondering off in continous strings of random thoughts, one leading to another of total different context from the original. you lie on the bed and smile at the thoughts, fragments of the past, imaginations of the future.

can you/have you/will you?

-go for a shower and wash everywhere else but your private
-gals: not shave your underarms for 2 months, then go for a swim in a bikini, weight lift at the gym after
-eat cornflakes and milk(seperately) for breakfast, lunch, dinner for 2 weeks
-not speak a single word for the entire day
-live without a mobile phone & internet for 10 days
-crash into some stranger's chalet and pretend to be a friend's friend and eat up all their food
-tell someone who has bad breath that he/she has bad breath
-laughed so hard that you pee
-fart so hard that you shit
-tell someone he/she looks fabulous without even properly looking at them(just to shoo them away)
-not sleep for 3 days
-secretly enjoy the thrill of squeezing and popping pimples behind the fact of having inperfect/flawed face

ok these are my most random thoughts currently... and i think i'll find my face on the keyboard tomorrow morning if i don't sign off now.

bye

店小二

2007-01-05T02:54:00.000+08:00

this evening i met up with peili at this interesting theme restaurant called - dian xiao er at marina square. the restaurant specialises in duck+herbs and also serves many other chinese delights. both peili and i were so hungry, we decided on the 5-course set dinner for 2. which costed $45++, excluding drinks and rice.

stir fry vegetable with salted fish

these were cruchy after deep frying. glazed with a special mongolian styled sauce

the duck's skin was nicely roasted to thin crispy layers on the juicy duck meat and soaked in the 十全 herbal soup. this is my favorite. tasted really appetizing.

the thic fish maw soup has to be taken while it's still hot. not exactly nice when it's cool, as it will turn very watery.

the dessert was a bowl of ginseng & Hasima soup. it was so nice that i ate it in anticipation and forgotten a photo of it!

after dinner i went out with micah, my favorite doggie... and pat gave me a nice wallet from shanghai!!!

good bye

2007-01-03T00:27:00.000+08:00

death is not something you want to hear about on the 2nd day of a brand new year, not any day in fact.
this morning i was woken up by several persistant calls to my home. i eventually managed to drag myself off the bed after pretending that there was no one at home to these callers. finally i picked up the next call that came in, and the person on the other end asked for my mum who was at work. he then politely asked me to inform my mum when she gets home that a friend from church had passed away.

i thought it was some elderly church friend who died of old age.

it wasn't.

auntie qing hua left. my mum's good friend who suffered from kidney failure for the past many years left us. she used to come to my old ang mo kio home very often until her kidney failed her, and she was dependant on walking stick. my mum would cook for her, bring her to the doctors and so on.

auntie qing hua withered away over the years. i remembered visiting her last year when she was hospitalised for about 1/2 a year. she was curled up in the hospital bed, all shrunken and boney. she couldn't even react to my calling: auntie qing hua.... auntie qing hua.....

she almost gave up on life in the long trying ordeal last year, but she didn't.

when she was out of the hospital, she wrote a little book about how she fought within herself to stay alive. many a times she hoped to die just so she wouldn't be a burden to her only daughter and people around her. but she couldn't even gather the strength to bring herself over the window to fall. she trusted God, her only strength left.

now she's in His comforting arms. free of sufferings and pain.

my mum came back from the wake and i asked: so how?
she fished out a crumpled envelope from her pocket and said: 一封未寄的信。(an unsent letter)
and the envelope was addressed to my mum: 彭萍姐妹 (sister phang kheng)
by this time i could not control my tears. auntie qing hua wrote a letter to my mum before she died, thanking my mum for being there for her. i didn't want to read the rest of the content, because my heart could not take such sadness.

sometimes i hope death do not stir such crushing feel to the heart.

i wish that death could be less saddening.

thanks joey for the cheering up. i was indeed "CHEERED" up. :)

good 2007

2007-01-01T18:56:00.000+08:00

i woke up at about 11am this morning, on a new day of a new year. i always believe that starting a year right is important. i refrain from bad moods, quarrels, frictions or anything negative. i left home to meet my mates at douby ghaut for lunch...

alvin had the same mentality as me toward new year. both eileen and i were really late as usual, but alvin still smiled when i wanted to take his photo, a little unwillingly though.

the shrooms bites from TCC was highly recommended by eileen. hmmm... it was realllly nice! i think there were bits of mushrooms and stuff with cheese wrapped with a light puff pastry. *thumbs up!!*

eileen & i shared a plate of oven-baked chicken pasta. this is goood too! the chicken was juicy and sweet, very healthily baked.

alvin ordered this... i thought it was lasagne. but it wasn't. it's tofu with beef baked with cheese on top. it tasted like the chinese "ma po tou fu" added with cheese. i would say this is a fusion dish

we were not satisfied with the amount of food we had and so ordered a basket of wedges. it came with cheese dipping. this is good as a snack but after a meal, it(the cheese dipping) gets quite sick. to rich!

alvin ordered this shot of espresso with a scoop of ice cream. definitely not for the weak like me. i'm allergic to caffaine. i'll get fast heart beats, break into cold sweat, and shiver if i touch caffaine.

eileen loves nail polishes but never wanted to go for manicure service. because she has dry and sentitive skin, she feels a little embarassed to visit the manicurist. so i volunteered to give her a nice french manicure for new year!

alvin drove us all to rochester road for drinks and food. we decided on One Rochester as it seemed quite popular and the interior design was really impressive. the outdoor was similiar to villa bali's with very balinese furnitures and zen-ish style. we had some soda and beer, ordered a dish of vietnamese spring rolls and a plate of ying yang dou fu.
i must be honest here. the food wasn't good at all, and were badly presented(the lighting was quite dim, so i couldn't get hold of a good photo). i suppose it isn't exactly an eating place, more for drinking and chilling. the ambience was excellent though. we hang out at One Rochester for about an hour or so and decided to go to somewhere else for desserts before heading home.

we left the place for coffee club @ orchard:

we chose the fresh fruits fondue over the famous muddy mud pie.

last post of year 2006

2006-12-31T19:29:00.000+08:00

i suppose this will be the last post for the year 2006, nothing spectacular. i'm not gonna pretend to be "happening", preparing to go for a count down party somewhere in orchard or some hip clubs like st. james or the cannery or something.

in the morning, i went to church with qian and then bought lunch for mum & dad from ang mo kio S11. it's now 7.36 pm already and i'm still at home in my pajamas, just woken up from the knock out lunch with my parents. mum's preparing sweet potato porridge and some dishes to go with it now for dinner.

i think i'm getting old... living on earth for more than 1/4 of a century. i have no zeal and energy to squeeze with the crowd just to count from 10 to 1 and welcome a new day, a new year. tomorrow or the next 365 days will be good even without a rowdy count down. i hope it will be.

anyway, lots of my friends are abroad at this moment since it's a long holiday. pat and rickson are in china now. rickson took me to peninsular plaza to purchase a camera for my work. we settled down for japanese(yes, not again) dinner. by now, i somehow realise that i eat more japanese food than anything else when i'm out. that's because japanese food are honest and simple. they seldom have fanciful cooking styles, yet they can deliver great food. you can easily tell a bad japanese food from good, stale from fresh, because they are straight forward.

rickson & i went sakae sushi after the long trying camera hunt:

both rickson and i took unagi set for dinner. :)

i was at burger king waiting for rickson who went to funan to get something... low and behold....
got pigeons in the fast food restaurant lorr!!!! they flew in, picked at food bits on the floor as if they were at a hawker centre. the BK staff didn't bother to get them out too.
maybe u find this pointless, but i find it funny to get birdies in a fast food restaurant!

p/s: joey's at a nice spot in Manly with his friends awaiting for the fireworks by the sydney harbour bridge. i can feel it's gonna be so pretty. will post some photos if he manage to capture some nice ones.

lunch @ novena hong kong cafe

2006-12-30T21:03:00.000+08:00

qian and i went to the hong kong cafe opposite novena church after the saturday church service. we were starving.....

i thought this would be very greasy but heck i was craving for cha guay so i ordered this. it wasn't oily at all. the XO sauce made it especially nice. my mouth was watering when i took this photo.

if you think this is like those common fried squid in batter, to be showered with fresh lemon juice & dipped in mayonaise sauce, YOU ARE WRONG.
the calamari was deep fried at the right temperature that the batter was soooo crispy but not greasy. the batter was obviously seasoned so that the calamari tasted like a titbit instead. some what similiar to eating twisties or chickadees.

this "Bo Luo Bao" was heavenly. the bun was nicely warmed up so that the butter melted slowly when i sank my teeth in it. hmmmm..... very yummy la!

p/s: there are many similiar "hong kong style" cafes spouting here and there on the island like the bubble tea craze. not all hong kong cafes are good. the last time i went to the one at kovan with patrick, it was really horrrrrrible.

lomography

2006-12-29T23:00:00.000+08:00

it's been quite a while since i've last touched a lomo camera. i used to be all crazy about it about 5 years ago. getting my 1st lomo Holga from marina square for $100 and ordered a LCA from russia for $200. nowadays i kind of slip into the convenience of digital camera. snap and upload, no hassle of spending money on development.

the holga almost killed me. i can't imagine the $$ i spent on buying those 120 films that costs 11 bucks for 12 exposures!! development fees on top of that! the LCA was better, i bought an external flash to mount on the horse shoe for better lighting. it uses the normal 35mm film so not too costly and the color effect's better. i've yet to try cross developing though...

but these days i've been thinking about picking it up again. in fact, i was thinking of pampering myself with yet another lomo cam. i browsed the lomo site and saw this awwwwwwwwesome cam:

the FISH HOLE LOMO CAM!!!!

i'm pretty sure of getting myself one soon..... to tempting!!!!

taiwan delights

2006-12-29T16:13:00.000+08:00

my cousin and cousin-in-law went to taiwan recently for holidays. they bought many packets of taiwanese snacks back home and almost all were eaten up. i only managed to grab hold of a pineapple pastry snack & chestnut tart.

pineapple snack. this is nothing like those pineapple tarts we eat for Chinese New Year. nothing comparable. when i opened the little package, i could instantly smell a strong buttery aroma most likely from the pastry, with a slight but noticable sweet tangy pineapple fragrant. the pastry was soft, some where between a biscuit and cake. the pineapple filling was generous but not overly sweet. overall the entire snack is not overly rich that one will find hard to finish. you can easily eat one or two. it would be great to go with tea or coffee.

this is the 1st time i've tried a tart that's chestnut flavoured. it's some what like a very mini mooncake, only the thick filling was of chestnut paste. i quite like this, it taste really original, not aritficially flavoured. if you like to eat GAO LUCK(roasted chestnut in coffee seeds), you will love this.

disconnected

2006-12-28T16:29:00.000+08:00

exactly 2 years after the tragic tsunami, another earthquake errupted in taiwan on boxing day. the earthquake estimated 7.1 magnitude, shook the ocean bed so much so it caused communication interruption in many asian countries.

singapore's internet connection was greatly affected that many of us could not log on to lots of websites or use the instant messaging programs. i was fustrated as the nature of my work is based on the internet. and when i heard from the news that the taiwan authorities will take about 3 weeks to fix the affected cables in the ocean floor, i felt so lousy. i realised i am too dependant on the internet, i felt almost handicapped without it. i used to ask many of my friends: what will happen if an internet-free day is created? everyone thought it will never happen. ..... what if?

anyway, it took me a short time to recover from the disabled-ness. i stayed at home today for work instead. i hope the internet will be up and running as before soon. but i hope even more that i will not take for granted that it will always be there, that when it really does disappear, i will not long for it.

on a lighter note, i discovered one of the best chocolate cakes from TCC. it was soft and fluffy yet tasted very rich. best heated up and topped with a scoop of ice cream. i couldn't stop eating even though i was sharing it with 4 other people. *slurrrp*

this afternoon i received a call from joey. he was at the aussie post office collecting the parcel i sent him. coincidently, i was also at the post office collecting the parcel he sent me. we were both laughing crazily with excitement. it was so funny... and in the nice shiny red box, he sent me a cute Diesel hand bag. and he was lost for words when he opened my present. he almost wanted to hang up the phone and use the computer for some reason!!!

p/s: did you know that if you take down the Christmas decorations after 12 days of Christmas, you'll be unlucky? that's the ang moh pang tang...

Boxing Day

2006-12-26T22:49:00.000+08:00

i've always wondered how did the term "boxing day" came about. is "boxing" a noun or an action? last night i decided to search for the answer on wikipedia and there were several stories about it. interesting......
Christmas to the westerners is like Lunar New Year to us Chinese. boxing day is thus similiar to the second day of CNY(Chu Er), which is also a holiday for them.

today joey went out to the sea with shannon to watch the Sydney to Hobart boat race. he took lots of very nice photos of the activity. of which my favorite has to be the pirate ship:

taken by mister toman with his 8.1 mega pixel samsung

i saw more photos on his blog on Christmas with jackie, dale & shannon. i missed australia and the company already.

it rained non-stop in singapore today. sometimes i wonder if God would do the noah's ark stunt again one day. then again He won't. the existance of rainbow is the promise He had given us. that earth will never be destroyed by water ever again.