the maid

a colleague’s Filipino maid ran away leaving her 2 young children home alone and accused her husband of attempting to rape her. horrors! :o

because of the maid’s accusations, they’ll probably have to lodge a police report for investigations. meanwhile, they were told that they’ve to pay for the maid’s return ticket to the philippines and settle her outstanding loan.

furthermore, with the pending investigation, she’ll not be able to employ a maid for the time being. gosh! this is so much trouble…

yhingthai palace @ purvis street

it’s my dad’s birthday today and my brother suggested having dinner at yhingthai palace. haven’t tried the food before... in recent years, the street has become a veritable foodie destination due to the many restaurants that have sprung up on both sides of the street.

wilson placed the orders. we had the requisite green mango salad and seafood salad for appetisers. the pineapple rice and olive rice were well fried and fragrant. my aunties were full of praise for the olive rice.

i had the prawn tom yum soup which was clear but hot and spicy nevertheless. those who prefer non-spicy soups can try the fish maw soup.

the stuffed chicken wings, their specialty, were outstanding. fried till golden brown and crispy on the outside while the mushrooms and asparagus filling is still juicy. the rich green chicken curry simply begs for more rice to be smothered in. the thai seafood otak came in it’s unique clay serving plate.

there were some misses however, a nondescript minced chicken dish that was neither here nor there and pales in comparison with the rest of the dishes. yhingthai palace’s version of the phad thai is sweet rather than savoury. i’m not a connoisseur of thai food but i’ve never tasted such a sweet rendition of the traditional thai fried kway teow.

the limited dessert selection was nothing fantastic. i shared the water chestnut with jackfruit ice with my sis. the tapioca with coconut cream was good and not overly sweet. would have love to order the mango with glutinous rice but was too stuffed by then. :)

burp!

christmas day dinner

primary purpose of today’s dinner is to go and visit mx & kl’s love nest and to view their new zealand honeymoon photos. of course also to present them our “house warming” gift.

it’s just what they needed. yeah! :)

i must claim extra credit because it’s not just my idea to get them a bodum tea set but i had made the special effort to make a trip to town yesterday amidst the christmas eve shopping frenzy to buy the present and waited in line for the gift-wrapping.

bought them the whole works: teapot, mugs, warmer, the new double-walled glasses and a pack of strawberry-lemon tea. the only thing missing is the tea-lights.

for dinner, kl had suggested the claypot rice at block 328. that’s the famous one which cooks the rice from scratch in the claypot with charcoal fire. the waiting time is at least 45 minutes usually. therefore, most people will call up to pre-order.

it’s the first time for thomas and gordon. ky couldn’t make it tonight ’cos there’s more booze at another party. :P haha…

after dinner, we walked over to their flat at block 429. mx & kl’s place is quite simply decorated with clean lines and soothing colours. the only surprise was the fire-engine red cabinets in the kitchen. and the unconventional wash basin outside the master bedroom’s toilet.

we had the log cake [my second in 2 days] together with the ice wine. i quite like the chocolate hazelnut log from emi cakes.

the ice wine was pretty sweet but obviously not sweet enough for gordon ’cos he was alternating sips of the wine with gulps of the yeo’s chrysanthemum tea. duh…

i guess some people are just natural-born teetotalers.

christmas eve dinner

this must be one of the more “drama” christmas eve dinner… john sms-ed the gang at around 1:00 pm to say that he can’t host the dinner as his father was hospitalised for an eye emergency.

after some frantic calls and furious sms-es, the venue was changed to janet & jason’s place at punggol. one of the more exciting prelude to a gathering except maybe for the time when jason cancelled on us ’cos janet went into labour. :P

i had prepared my smoked salmon salad at the special request of janet. i got the biggest tupperware bowl from my mum’s collection to contain all the greens. the preparation took longer than expected and i wasn’t able to meet doris at punggol interchange at 6:30 pm as agreed earlier.

thankfully, only johann and family was there. so i quickly enlisted help to make the finishing touches and dress my salad. 3 of jason’s friends joined us too.

food were takeaways from a nearby coffeeshop stall and the ham ordered by johann. and we had a log cake from some hotel for dessert.

the kids behaved well… janelle was running around with joshua while cayden was in a good mood fascinated by all the sights and sounds except for jerrell who seemed less than happy to see us probably due to his interrupted slumber. he only settled down when he saw his favourite activity play thingy which janet had bought for cayden recently.

we didn’t count down to christmas together ’cos janet and jason were rushing off to catch narnia at great world city.

dinner @ 378

serene and her friend, poh ling wanted to try out the food at hong kong café since i had mentioned to them that the food is better than central or tong shui café.

since my regular yoga class had been re-scheduled due to the year-end festive season, i decided to join them. jeanette came along too.

from street directory web site, i found out that the best way from my office is to take a train to kembangan station and transfer to sbs service 32.

the café was surprisingly not very crowded, we even had one of the semi-booth seats. i guess everyone’s doing last-minute shopping in town.

i ordered the instant noodle with soup as usual. while the girls ordered the dry version. we also shared 2 bo luo bao, salt & pepper deep fried squid, tofu and a bowl of Sichuan hot & sour soup. i had a iced honey lemon drink which was nothing special.

this time round, we had room for desserts. i tried the golden fantasy while the gals had mango showhand. for my dessert, the pomelo pulp is a refreshing contrast to the mango puree and is not overly sweet. mango showhand as the name suggests is an exercise in mango overdose. the only complaint that we had was that the desserts were not cold enough.

overall, the gals enjoyed their dinner very much. in fact, serene actually ordered takeaways for her parents!

free dinner @ 5759

doris asked me join her for the audit of the in-room dining at thomas’ workplace. and i asked janet to come along.

the questionnaire that we were required to fill out is quite comprehensive, starting from how the call was handled, the grooming and friendliness of the serving staff, ending with the quality and presentation of the food.

service standards are very stringent since it’s a 5-star establishment. the staff are expected to greet the guests by name, have good knowledge of the menu and also be able to accommodate simple off-menu requests.

i pretended to be alan teo and ordered a smoked chicken salad, steak, fish & chips and seafood "hor fun" to share between the 3 of us. the salad was nice and the main courses were ok but not as hot as we would have liked.

the only "failure" were the missing lemon slices from the iced water that we’ve requested. the other minor quibble that we had was only 2 glasses were provided even though 3 main courses were ordered. otherwise, we had an enjoyable dinner, chatting and watching tv.

free lunch

pat sent out a full technicolour email invitation for today's lunch. he and deric will be buying us lunch at swensen’s at the airport.

quite unexpected since we usually order takeaways or have food delivered to the office for a simple christmas lunch. i would say it’s unthinkable 2 years ago ’cos it’s just not his style.

swensen’s was running a full house today and we had to wait for our table of 9. had a great lunch of teriyaki chicken pasta.

as usual, the trio of deric, alann and darren provided the most laughs during lunch with lots of teasing of the gals… especially for elyn and monica who bore the brunt of it since they had the bravado of sitting across from deric. :P

i managed to take a bobbing heads video starring deric, alann and darren which is really funny. they should have just let me take a photo. :P haha...

god's debris

had a bit of time to surf the web since i was holed up at home... 'cos i was too afraid to venture out to town since the malls are expected to be jam-packed with christmas shoppers.

was reading scott's blog again... check out this blog entry that he wrote about his book "god's debris" which he published in 2001. i didn't know about this book.

i had just downloaded it for free, he's conducting a marketing experiment by the side. just read the introduction, rather intriguing i would say.

this book in 2 words: thought experiment

the target audience: people who enjoy having their brains spun around inside their skulls

not recommended for: people under the age of 14 as he feels that the ideas expressed by the characters are not appropriate for young minds

download it here if you're interested.

intelligent design

read this on scott's blog... pretty interesting arguments that he put forward about god and his existence. one of the rare occasions when he writes seriously.

can check it out here yourself.

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nope, that's not the sole winning ticket of last night's toto prize of $2.8 million.

that ticket was bought at metro woodlands while mine was from ntuc at simei although both were system 7 bets, that's where the similarity sadly ends. :(

ever wonder what you'll do with a $2.8 million windfall?

would i be able to sleep? yeah, i guess so since i always need more sleep. my mum probably can't. :) hehe...

will i take urgent leave the next day just to go and collect the prize money? probably will do since everything will be so surreal until i hold the cheque in my hands.

think i'll leave $2 million in the bank until i can figure out how to put it to good use while i spend the $800k on family, friends and fun!

just daydreaming...

dinner @ dome

met amy & meiling for dinner to celebrate amy's birthday belatedly.

couldn't meet her before 'cos she was in the philippines cheering for team singapore at the sea games. as usual, she gets to choose her present while me & meiling got free dinner. :)

it has been a while since we caught up with each other... amy updated us with her interesting work trip chaperoning our supporters to the games and the behind-the-scenes titbits that can't be written about here while meiling let on that she'll be looking for a new job.

of course there're also additional updates about who has given birth and who else will be delivering in a few months' time...

i asked amy if she feels any different turning a year older and she revealed that she needs more sleep now that she's 30. oops... ;) hehe... what the heck?

it just a number... it's more important to be young at heart and not look your age, right?

anyway, amy, happy belated birthday!!!

bread missing

starting from last week, i noticed that somebody is eating my gardenia fruit and nut loaf that i've bought for my tea breaks in the office.

the situation has deteriorated... i had bought a new loaf on monday. ate 2 slices of it on the same day. and when i returned to the office this morning, only half a loaf was left!

this is totally bizarre!

i mean i don't mind sharing my loaf but it's basic courtesy for the person to inform me that he's taken my bread, right?

usually colleagues will let me know if they've taken something from my desk but so far, even with the help of jeanette's enquiries, nobody has owned up to the clandestine bread-eating. it's not as if i'll scream bloody bread burglar what...

that's leaves one conclusion: that person is not from my team!

gosh! i can't imagine that happening in my office... however, the secretaries have attested that their foodstuff have gone missing before, notably the mooncakes a few months ago.

somebody had jested that i should report the incident to security and request for extra surveillance around my workstation. i would imagine they'll think that i had gone bonkers if i actually did that. :P

the obvious solution will be to lock up my loaf at the end of the day but this seems so ridiculous. it's just a $3+ loaf of bread for goodness' sake!

will i ever find out who is the mysterious bread-pincher?

15%

went down to queensway shopping centre with my sis ’cos she wanted to buy a pair of nike shoes. she spotted a pair of shox 2:40 zoom air at the regular shop which we patronise.

the salesperson gave a 15% off the rrp. hmm… my eyebrows were raised… ’cos by that time i had also tried on a pair of running shoes and was seriously considering buying it.

usually the discount given was about 25%, sometimes as much as 30%. the guy explained that nike had dictated the discount allowed to be given by authorised dealers and all the shops in queensway can only give the same discount.

he added further that this policy only started about 2 months ago. tough luck!

as much as i covet the new shoes, i don’t really need it now since i already have existing 2 pairs. shall wait for the post-christmas/year-end sales.

yeah! 1 point for self-discipline. :)

cold turkey

yeah… suffering from caffeine withdrawal symptoms.

had not have my "teh peng" or any tea for that matter since my visit to the dentist for my regular scaling and polishing last friday. want to keep my teeth stain-free for just a while more.

maybe that explains my lethargy for the entire week.

my teeth stains horribly, if you haven’t noticed. it really shows after just 2, 3 months from my dental visit. but i don’t want to have more regular appointments since that might wear down my teeth too. and it's not cheap. at least $50 per visit.

another reason is that the market which we frequent for lunch is closed for washing. so my regular caffeine fix is not available. and my favourite sliced fish soup too!

arrgghhh…

not happy. :(

hello ky

was reviewing my old posts and realised that ky had snucked in to leave some comments on my old posts. so sly of him to not have told me... tsk, tsk, tsk...

work permit

saw a programme on channel u earlier… it’s a docu about a guy who married a former filipino maid.

the wife is now banned from entering singapore forever. the reason?

she broke the law according to ministry of manpower [mom] ’cos all existing and previous work permit holders need to seek approval from mom before they can get married to a singaporean or pr.

looks like she wouldn’t be re-united with her husband anytime soon as appeals through her husband's mp has so far been unsuccessful. this guy had tried for the last 5 years and his wife had waited equally long.

when the wife was asked how long she’ll wait for him, she said she’ll continue until she dies.

sometimes, it’s such individual cases that reveal and highlight the high-handedness of certain laws that were ostensibly for the well-being of our own society.

the official stand of mom is that the severe penalty is to prevent the 600,000 foreign workers from growing roots in singapore. something which our small country may not be able to sustain.

how would you feel if it happened to you?

for me, definitely outrage and indignant.

i mean if i’ve worked in australia, for example, for a few years and found someone whom I want to settle down with. then i’m told i can’t ’cos i’ll be banned from entering the country ever again since i’m supposed to be busy working and not looking for a spouse there. what the heck?

that’s so discriminating, right? haven’t i just contributed to the economy?

perhaps she’s deemed not "talent" enough for us. :P

it seems that several mps have brought this apparent disparity in treatment of these [ex-] permit holders vs those vietnamese brides that are practically bought [no spelling mistake here] into singapore for discussion.

isn’t it strange to "penalise" those who had contributed to our economy while welcoming with open arms those who may not be even be able to adapt to our way of life here?

run

just couldn’t get my body going today… somehow, i feel so out of breath during the run.

decided to just run one way and do interval training on the way back.

i wonder if it’s because i was too busy to have my usual afternoon snack that caused the lethargy. think i need a running buddy to keep up the routine. :(

tongshui café @ 54 zion road

janet suggested having dinner there and it so happened that doris is also meeting annie and wendy there for dinner as well.

was there early so i got a table first... waited for prince cayden and his entourage which consists of janet, jason and his maid-in-waiting, nora. eric, tracy, doris, annie and wendy made up the rest of the party.

the place was decorated like shanghai tang as grace had described. bold colours with mini chandeliers. tables and chairs were chinese-styled so it wasn't so comfy. the menu has a impressively wide selection of food found in a typical traditional hong kong café and more.

i ordered the iced-8 treasures tea and the instant noodles with pork chop. would have preferred that the tea to be slightly sweetened 'cos it tasted quite bland without sugar. the noodles were cooked ok, the pork chop was average with a hint of porkiness. nothing to shout about. i think the pork chop at hong kong café is tastier.

eric's verdict of his dry noodles order was he had already been doing that since he was 7, 8 years old. it was just some mixture of ketchup and chilli sauce unlike the version he had at hong kong café.

the zhu chang fen that tracy and janet ordered were "what you can get at the downstairs kopitiam" in eric's words. but the accompanying pieces of fried you tiao were rather enigmatic. we couldn't decide if it had any fillings or not. the inside texture is different and seems to be more "doughy" in the middle but not in a negative way.

the desserts were too sweet! too much "tong" as grace put it.

i had the sesame paste. it was rather sweet but not to the extent where i needed to add water which tracy and jason had to for their dumplings in ginger soup. and still they couldn't stomach the soup. it was that sweet! and the waitress even had the cheek to tell tracy that they charge for water when she asked for a glass!

so unless you need a sugar overdose, skip the 2 desserts we tried. wonder if the cold desserts are any better. the pictures look good though.

i also ordered the toast with peanut butter and condensed milk. came in a thick slice of thick toast with melted peanut butter and swirls of condensed milk. yummy if you love peanut butter like me.

otherwise, the general consensus is that the food is not as good as hong kong café. maybe we should have paid more attention to the green stickers and try the chef's recommendations instead. ;) haha...

jason even said we could do the instant noodle thing for christmas eve dinner since it's so easy. :P

best wishes to mx & kl

today’s the special day for mx & kl. here’s wishing them everlasting bliss and happiness.

first time i see kl in a suit. mx looks so different in her make-up and gown.

the wedding dinner is at furama city centre. met up with a few ns friends which i’ve not seen for a very long time. hor hee guan, cheng wei siong, yeow wei chuan and tan meng kim. gordon, wee kwang and thng soon were there too.

with the exception of wee kwang who is the same age, the rest of the guys are younger than me. doris didn’t quite believe me. :P hehe…

meng kim looked especially prosperous, befitting the image of a central banker. haha… :) he sat beside me so i had a good chat with him. his baby boy is 5 month-old already.

hee guan is looking tanned and seems to be slimmer than he was during ns. wei siong looks different without his glasses after undergoing lasik last year.

the usual wedding dinner routine proceeded with almost clockwork precision: 1st entrance, cut the wedding cake, 2nd entrance, pop the champagne, rowdy yam seng toast, go round the tables for photo-taking, and finally sending off of guests after dinner.

some of us went up to the wedding suite to take a look and have a chat. the room number is 2108. think i shall place a little 4d bet on it tomorrow. :P

wondering why there’re no photos here?

nope, i didn’t forget to bring my digital camera lah...

just that my card reader is down so can’t transfer the files over to the pc. and i can’t be bothered to install the camera software to do it. shall update this post with the pictures later.

chanting

witnessed something bizarre during my run today…

saw this couple chanting in the direction of the canal, complete with the wooden block [mu yu] and a metal contraption that produces a “thing” sound. after a while, they changed direction and chanted at the trees and shrubs.

thought it’s quite eerie hearing chantings along the darkened track at around 9:00 pm at night. fortunately, i had my mp3 player with me. :P

when they were done, the man and his son brought out 2 air-filled bags. i presumed it’s fishes since i couldn’t make out what they were in the semi-darkness. then they walked to the water edge quite a distance away… and resumed chanting.

this time round, the chanting seems to be more prolonged. i was done with my run and cooling down stretches before they came back.

what a weird experience!