Friday, September 30, 2005

5 girls

my boss & his wife together with their 5 little ones are featured in the straits times today. yes, they have 5 daughters altogether.

what’s the big deal you ask?

big families although uncommon in singapore nowadays is not unusual. just that the 5 girls are born on the same day [october 19] last year.

a pair of twins and a set of triplets.

blessed.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

glamour mums in 8days

the fold-out cover of this week’s 8days featured the “in-thing” for celebrities on caldecott hill this year, that is, become a celeb mum!

and to lose weight and regain their [sometimes even better than before] figures in double-quick time. makes you wonder if they had been pregnant in the first place.

zoe, ivy, vivian, evelyn and a few others in their glamour best while the little ones are togged out in cute kiddy branded wear.

adorable.

quarter-end

the taboo word in the office that strikes fear in my colleagues because they have to work late for the closing.

i’m not really affected but there’s still an increase load at work during this period. therefore leading to less time for other things such as critical thoughts and blogging. :P

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

hello mei ling

mei ling “discovered” my blog today. she told me she’s busy going through the archives right now since she’s on leave at home.

since i started blogging in june this year, i didn’t tell my close friends about it outright. i just added the link to my email signature. she’s the first person to realise that the link is not some advertisement. :)

i’m not sure if there’re other friends out there reading my blogs without telling me so.

Monday, September 26, 2005

mp3 player conking out

went for a run again along the canal at sunset way. did 27 minutes for the 4.6 km route.

a slight improvement from the beginning of the month when i was averaging 28 minutes. i wonder if it’s due to the change in my breathing technique during the run or just a normal improvement from the regular practices.

sigh... my ancient creative 32mb flash memory mp3 player can only output sound to the right ear phone. the housing is kind of loose, if you apply pressure to it, both ear phones will have output.

arrgghhh… this music in 1 ear situation is dragging me down mentally and i can’t bring my zen to run since it’s a harddisk-based device! can’t afford to damage my zen or risk my 2gb+ music collection. :(

i need a flash memory player soon.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

drinks @ km8

how did we ended up here?

well, ky is driving and doris don’t feel like going home earlier so we decided to check out the beach pubs @ sentosa.

by the time, we reached sentosa, it was already past midnight. a party was on-going at siloso beach near coastes that was organised by fashion tv for some bikini babe competition. but km8 was nowhere in sight.

so we decided to go over to tanjong beach… and lo & behold, km8 is there! :)

quite happening for such a out-of-the-way location at almost 1:00 am.

most of the folks were casually dressed for a beach party in tees/bermudas or tank tops/beach shorts and slippers. those at the dip pool were in swim wear even. wonder if they’ll catch a chill in the cool midnight air.

ky commented that there’re quite a number of caucasians.

i also don’t know what do you call the type of music that’s played there. but it’s danceable with no vocals. not house definitely. i’m so out of touch with the clubbing scene. old liao!

gordon was spacing out while ky didn’t drink because he’s driving. since nobody in our group danced that night, we didn’t stay too long.

when we adjoined to fong seng for supper, gordon made his escape. hehe…

Saturday, September 24, 2005

dinner @ sakae

had intended to eat at sun with moon @ wheelock but because we didn’t have a reservation, kl & mx went to queue for a table at sakae instead.

in the end, the whole lot of us made it for dinner. ky, gordon and thomas too.

sakae is celebrating their 8th anniversary. so there’s a 2 red plates for $8 promotion plus privilege card members get a generous 18% off the bill. very good value, right?

and then we went to sun with moon for desserts again. :)

this time round, i had the matcha bararoa and a orange vitamin cocktail.

nice!

dinner plans

doris sms-ed in the afternoon to ask if i’m meeting the guys for dinner. when i told her there’re no plans for dinner, she asked me to organise!

duh!

was happily lazing around at home and this has to happen!

i’m such a slug! :) hehe…

so i helped doris to ask the guys via sms and told them to revert to her directly. but they insisted on replying to me instead! *&%$#@

after that, i rushed for my regular saturday yoga class by serena at paragon. was slightly late... boy, was the class packed!

managed to squeeze a mat in the left front corner right in front of the mirror. thankfully, the kind caucasian lady moved her mat to give me some space.

as usual, serena tried to murder the whole lot of us in class. :P

Friday, September 23, 2005

ivar: completed

it took the collective effort of my mum & dad, my sis and myself to finish assembling the entire unit at 1:00 am in the morning. a miracle considering there weren’t any unintended incidents like bruised fingers or injured toes. :) haha…

my sis had on her own fixed up the other cabinet and 2 drawers before we chipped in to help. she had a bit of trouble with a drawer because 1 of the boards was not aligned properly. had to get my dad to drill a new hole so that the screw doesn’t protrude out of the board.

fixing the 2 cabinets onto the frame took quite a bit of effort from the 4 of us, lifting and aligning. surprising, the shelves were a stroll in the park. no screws were needed. the designers are geniuses!

moral of the story?
$30+ is peanuts to pay for the assembly, especially if you have cabinets and drawers.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

ivar

my sis ivar unit bought from ikea on sunday was delivered yesterday.

she paid $700+ for the entire shelving and didn't think it makes sense to pay an additional 5% of the price for them to fix it up for her. duh! as if she's an expert on such diy stuff!

in the end, she spent 1.5 hour to fix up just 1 cabinet with my instructions. made complicated by 1 board that was not entirely flat and hence couldn't align properly to the wooden peg.

there're another cabinet, 2 drawers, 6 shelves to be fixed onto the frame. and i'm expected to help!

wah liao... should have warned me and i would have gladly offered to pay for the assembly costs.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

bored @ work

my friend, tony says he's getting bored in his job.

he's wondering if he should hunt for a new job since his current contract will only end sometime next year. that means, should he quit now, he'll lose his 13th month and variable.

told him in any case, if he wants to leave, better make sure he gets a job first. the economy feels kind of wobbly to me. seems capable of swinging either way in 6 months' time in spite of more upbeat forecast of recruitment in the 4th quarter as reported in the papers.

headache: no more

surprisingly, my "in the background" headache faded off throughout the morning. yeah!

is that call working off the headache or more of "that which does not kill you, makes you stronger"?

anyway, just real glad it's gone.

urgent leave: no more

double arrgghhh... still got my headache when i woke up this morning! &^%$#@

had to drag myself to work. not very nice to go away for 2 days unplanned with no real valid reasons.

will see how it goes, worse comes to worst then go and see a doctor later if i can't take it anymore.

Monday, September 19, 2005

urgent leave

arrgghh... woke up with a headache this morning...

damned... and it's raining heavily too...

decided to call in for urgent leave rather then drag myself to the doctor. slept almost the entire day except to go out for dinner at west coast.

kinda wasteful use of my annual leave. :P

Sunday, September 18, 2005

from bach to madness

went for a performance by tang quartet @ esplanade concert hall. my first time at the concert hall.

why must the concert start at 7:30 pm?

it’s too early to have a proper dinner and make it in time for the concert!

can’t they start at 8 pm instead?!

because of the timing, decided to grab a bite before the concert instead of having a proper dinner. had boston clam chowder @ soup spoon @ raffles city. satisfying.

met kl & mx having dinner at out of the pan. actually more like wave at them when i was going up the escalator from the basement. haha…

the performance was not sold out. i’m not musically-trained or anything so i just go to enjoy the music. know nuts about movements, interpretations, and what not. so can’t give a proper review.

preferred the faster pieces. the final part with the pianist, albert tiu [whose picture looks uncannily like singapore idol judge, ken lim] was interesting.

the audience was truly in love with the quartet, getting them to come back for 2 encores with rapturous applause.

by the time the concert finished, it was too late to have dinner as most restaurants close at 10 pm. duh!

in the end, we settled for burgers @ carl jr @ marina square. had the santa fe chicken. not bad. the fries were freshly-made but oily and salty and the drinks are free flow.

a bit expensive since it's just glorified fast food.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

dinner @ punggol 183

it has been such a long time since jcgang had a gathering. the last one scheduled on 25 jun was cancelled on the day itself due to the unexpected arrival of cayden chua.

the first thing that i noticed when i stepped into the flat?

jason’s new aquarium which occupies the entire wall. nice.

this time round, all were present even the kids except for tracy who is in Taiwan enjoying herself and thomas who is busy with work.

janine, janelle, joshua, jerrell and cayden from the oldest to the youngest. the oldest, janine is turning 3 this november while cayden is only 12 weeks old today.

cayden is totally fascinated with the musical mobile hung over his cot. janet says he can stare at it for hours. i think so too ’cos he was oblivious of me when i called him. don’t think he even realizes who’s beside his cot nor does he care i suspect.

the kids created quite a din never before experienced at janet & jason’s place.

janine and joshua will allow me to carry them if i swing them into the air. janelle although very much wanted to be swung but still refuses to let me carry her to do it.

jerrell wouldn’t let me carry him either but will not mind me holding his hands when he walks… if he doesn’t realise it’s me. haha… :) otherwise, his face will change and cry for his daddy/mummy. :P

cayden is still in the “ignorant” stage, so as long as he’s comfortable, he doesn’t mind who is carrying him. he likes meat though… kept nibbling on doris’ arm. haha… :)

somehow, the kids are still not playing/interacting with each other much. maybe they’re still too young. the toys brought by siew leng helped to entertain them while her biscuit stars proved to be a winner.

the families left at around 11 pm while eric, doris and myself hanged around waiting because janet had to make sure her place was vacuumed and mopped up before she can join us for prata supper @ jalan kayu.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

traditional chinese festivals

saw a programme on channel u about how chinese singaporeans [do not] celebrate our traditional festivals such as mid-autumn festival.

who’s guilty of it? probably me. :P

while me and my family do not really observe/celebrate mid-autumn festival with a dinner or a special gathering, we do however, buy mooncakes for prayers and consumption.

the reason that it’s not a special occasion here in singapore is because it’s not a public holiday to begin with unlike in hong kong which i heard it’s celebrated in a much bigger way, perhaps due to its pre-dominantly chinese populace.

in fact, this year, in addition to the traditional lantern festival at the chinese gardens, chinatown is also lighted up with a bazaar set up specially for the festival.

but do i feel the festive mood in the air? nope, i think it’s because my family do not have the tradition of celebrating the day. in fact, i’ll be catching a string quartet performance at the esplanade with my sis this sunday. :P

nevertheless, i still partake in mooncakes in copious amounts during this period. love them since young. not helped by suppliers who send them to the company. i know it’s loaded with sugar and oil but who can resist a once-a-year indulgence?

i prefer the traditional baked white lotus seed paste version, without yolk if i can help it. this year, adelyn is not around to mop up the pieces of yolk that i scrape off.

i think it’s ridiculous to charge more for yolks since there’s a corresponding reduction in the lotus seed paste. does the yolks cost that much more than lotus seed paste?

however, i’m also open to new flavours. this year i bought something new from szechuan court, mini snowskin with a dark chocolate centre with almond slivers. yummy!

the best part? got a good discount since i asked thomas to buy for me. hehe... :)

Monday, September 12, 2005

sedition act

wow… have to be careful what i write here… didn’t know that i could be charged under the sedition act.

i’ve got no idea what that is until i read it in the papers. even had to check out the meaning of 'sedition' online at merriam webster.

sedition [n]: incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority

i’ve not read any of the blogs but i think the authorities is rather heavy-handed in this instance, seems that they’ve over-reacted.

for the record, yes i think it’s irresponsible and insensitive to write anything that goes against the multi-cultural/racial/religious nature of our society in singapore.

but why the difference in treatment between these 2 guys & the scholar who were asked to apologise and retract his racist statements previously?

shall see what's the outcome of the case in 2 weeks' time.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

ipod nano

saw the latest ipod from apple @ wheelock.

one word: cool!

it’s unbelievably thin for a 4gb player. and it’s totally seductive and screaming to be bought. the best part? it uses flash memory and that means i can go jogging with it.

arrgghh… wish i have $438 to burn…

Saturday, September 10, 2005

boys’ night out

it has been quite a while since just the 4 of us meet up for dinner. usually doris or mx will be around but tonight both were not free.

was an unintentional boys’ night out since doris has to attend a wedding dinner and mx is attending her company’s dinner & dance.

kl updated us on his wedding planning and his home renovations. it really does cost a bomb or at least an arm and a leg for a wedding. what with the salon bridal package & photography, not to mention the wedding dinner. and then there’s the house & renovations.

scary, isn’t it?

perhaps it’s time for the government to start giving marriage bonuses to encourage singles to tie the knot so that they can do national service of producing babies. :P haha…

it always boil down to dollars & cents for singaporeans, doesn’t it? or is that the easiest way out?

seems to be of the mentality that if money can solve the problem, then it’s not a problem. :)

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

hiatus

oh no… xia xue & kenny sia are both going to take a hiatus from blogging…

what am i going to do when i get bored at work? :P

Sunday, September 04, 2005

lunch @ kuishin bo

actually kuishin bo wasn't our first choice for ky's birthday treat since we've already tried it before but i couldn't get saturday dinner reservations at the other 3 that were written on in the straits times a few weeks back.

for sun lunch, it is $25.80+ for a spread that includes sashimi, sushi, prawn tempura, cold crabs and of course the signature kaminabe [paper pot]. quite good value i would say. gordon says it's better than a more expensive japanese buffet that he had in kl.

the sashimi spread consists of sake, maguro and ika only. there's a selection of sushi and maki. you can also order your preferred temaki. besides these, there're a couple of rice dishes and meats for teppanyaki.

another section consists of the cooked/fried items like shishamo, soft-shelled crab and grilled salmon. my favourite potato salad is available too. desserts are morsels of cheesecakes, cakes and konyakku. there's soft-serve green tea ice-cream and fruits too.

too bad kl couldn't make it 'cos he has to decide on his floor tiles for his home renovation starting on tuesday.

stuffed myself silly with sashimi and drank too much green tea. didn't have space for the kaminabe or the teppanyaki, think i getting old liao... :)

burp.

Friday, September 02, 2005

kelvin's the winner

yup, kelvin won the battle of sexes last night at the project superstar finals @ the indoor stadium... even though he didn't perform as well as kelly.

actually, i was hoping that kelly would win.

oh well, it's the voting by the audience that counts for this contest. and i sat on the fence enjoying myself at home since i know that regardless of the results, both will get a recording contract. just different company that's all.

before the show last night, i thought kelly would have a fighting chance. but as the show progressed, i could see that the support for kelvin was quite overwhelming as he led in the votes.

perhaps the appeal of supporting the underdog is just too great. must admit that i'm like that too, sometimes.

my colleague, jeanette, voted for kelvin 'cos she felt 1 of the judges, roy loi, was unfair in composing a difficult tune for kelvin. but that's the whole point of the song, right? it's supposed to be the "judges' killer song" to expose the weaknesses of the contestants what... duh!

just because li weisong didn't do likewise doesn't imply that roy loi was mean, he just did what he was supposed to do mah... while li weisong couldn't follow instructions lor. :P hehe...

let's see how their records will turn out and if their sales will be as good as taufik's and sylvester's.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

faint

a colleague actually fainted at work today. very drama, right?

i was at my workstation when i heard a commotion behind me. the next thing i know, he was lying down on the floor looking disoriented and too dizzy and weak to stand up. a great shock to us all since you don’t expect somebody who looks perfectly alright in the morning to collapse just like that.

he was brought to the clinic across the road and subsequently sent to the hospital in an ambulance. thankfully, it was just an ear infection and exhaustion and not something serious.

you must be wondering what kind of slave-driving company i work for or what kind of back-breaking job my colleague is doing?

in fact, i work in a company that belongs to the top 10 in singapore lauded for its hr policies. and my colleague’s job is desk-bound in an air-conditioned, brightly-lit office. definitely not a sweat shop by any standards.

so what happened?

complacency i guess… we’re not machines after all. you just can’t take your body & health for granted.

just because you’ve been able to survive on 3 hours of sleep each day previously doesn’t mean that you can do it all the time and think that you can get away with it without doing any harm to your health. something will give way someday. and don’t forget, age does catch up with you, slowly but surely.

like what i like to say, imagine 10 years down the road… if your health is in ruins because of work, would your company turn around and thank you in appreciation for all your efforts? and promise to take care of you for the rest of your life? nah, i doubt so.

your body is a temple, even if you don’t worship it, at least treat it with due respect ’cos it’s the only 1 that you’ve got.

project superstar

tonight, kelly and kelvin will battle it out for the title of the #1 superstar in singapore at the indoor stadium.

they will be watched by a "live" audience of 8,000 while thousands more will be glued to their tv screens for the results.

the euphoria that has erupted from the show and the throngs of adoring fans of the contestants attests to the success of the programme and the popularity of the genre.

how not to get involved with the contestants when you have a say as to whether they can proceed to the next round by your voting? fans have been known to spend a fortune on supporting their favourites contestants. and cry in sadness when they're eliminated.

some had commented that it's a contest of popularity since those given lower scores by the judges were not booted out. this was most evident during the guys and gals finals. it's also a case study in attracting the right demographics with the financial ability and inclination to vote for you.

frankly speaking, i think the show tonight would have been more interesting if jun yang had won. there is a limit to what kelvin can do on stage.

so will kelly steal the limelight from him?

i think lots of singaporeans will be rushing home after work today to find out the answer. :)