lunch @ peach garden

this lunch is sort of replacement for the mothers’ day dinner that we usually have since i probably be back late from malaysia on sunday.

also i had wanted to try the dianxin at peach garden.

i invited aunt phyllis and uncle teck since they’re free that afternoon. just happened that my uncle tony is off duty that morning too. so we had a table of 7 including my parents and sister.

ordered their specialty dishes like the crispy roast pork, wasabi prawns and the black pepper fried udon. also tried the roast chicken with plum sauce and several of the items of the limited dianxin menu.

only my aunt who doesn’t take wasabi gave the thumbs-down to the prawns. otherwise the dishes were far better choices, evident from the fact that most of the customers there for lunch today didn’t order the dianxin.

the steamed dianxin were below standard. the xiajiao was overcooked, with the skin soggy and separated from the prawns. what could be worse? my mum ate one with sour filling. eeks!

the deep-fried and stir-fried items fared better. the fupijuan wasn’t oily at all and the combination of carrot cake with xo sauce actually worked well.

because of the sour xiajiao, we were served complimentary custard buns. the custard filling were melted and gooey. an interesting take on the western dessert of warm chocolate cake.

we also ordered other desserts. i had the mango with pomelo which i didn’t find it to be any special. my parents were okay with the soya beancurd in almond cream. my aunt phyllis had the black glutinous rice with ice-cream served in a whole coconut which she enjoyed very much.

i think the restaurant strength lies in their specialty dishes and the small dianxin menu was just an afterthought which wasn’t well executed at all.

spring court restaurant

one of few restaurants in singapore that boast such a long history that my aunties can reminisce about how much their signature dish “buddha jump over the wall” used to cost years ago.

in case you’re wondering, the dish is now priced at close to $900 for 10 persons. reservation of 2 days in advance is required.

spring court restaurant is now situated in a quaint 4-storey shophouse across the road from chinatown point, having moved back from the east coast area since 2 years ago.

we ordered the $298 set menu which comes with a free peking duck. the cold cut platter had a rather “dated” feel to it. like one which you’ll find when you attended a wedding dinner in the 90s complete with the shark’s fins in egg omelette and salad prawns. quite “retro” i would say.

they didn’t present the peking duck properly by slicing up the skin in front of us. also, the sprigs of spring onions and pieces of cucumber looked terribly dismal in their small white plates. more effort should have gone into the presentation to do greater justice to the dish.

the shark’s fin soup was nondescript. can’t really taste much fins, lots of crabmeat though. the roast chicken was flavoursome with crispy skin. the fish was deep-fried, thai-styled with a most appetising sauce and sliced onion rings.

the “live” prawns were fresh and cooked just right while the broccoli and mushrooms were served in a traditional gravy of crabmeat and egg white.

however, the noodles were a tad too dry for my aunties’ liking and the honeydew sago with coconut milk was below average. i could hardly taste the coconut milk at all.

somehow i’m not inclined to return for another meal there unless someone is buying me the “buddha jump over the wall”. :P hehe…

edaline & sebastian

my cousin, wenxiang had agreed to pick us up for the ride to the wedding reception at shangri-la rasa sentosa. my father complained that it’s such an inconvenient place even when one is driving ’cos parking is a problem too.

drinks at the lawn made me sweat. chocolates with almond and corn flakes made by my aunty were also served.

met some of the distant relatives that i’ve not seen for ages. the rest of the evening ran like clockwork.

my cousin, april took an interesting photograph of the broccoli dish. after that she was offered some really nice chocolates from the hotel. :)

as for me, i was there to enjoy the food. the roast duck with very crispy skin. it didn’t bother me that it wasn’t chicken instead. not a single bit. ;)

the cod fillets were good too. never mind if it wasn’t served with the head and the tail. :P haha… overall, the food was okay and i don’t have any complaints.

dinner @ hong kong café

this was arranged by sally about 2 weeks back. originally planned on the 11th but since i’m going diving, sally was nice enough to accommodate me.

drove her mad when i suggested to the girls to go for the chocolate buffet at fullerton hotel instead. :) haha…

needless to say, i was the one who came up with the idea of eating there. except for serene and jeanette, the rest have not eaten there before.

this is the 1st time we had so many from the team out for a informal dinner gathering. hp, an ex-colleague from another team joined us too.

i tried the dry version of the instant noodle which eric likes a lot. while i was tossing the noodle and mixing it with the gravy, i realised that they did not give me my slice of luncheon meat!

how can they forget that?! so i sent the bowl back to the kitchen for my canned meat. :) must get what i paid for, right?

the girls and hp liked what they’ve ordered. since nobody was game enough for desserts, i also skipped mine lor. anyway, their dessert selection isn’t very extensive and there wasn’t something i was dying to have.

we chatted till about 10+ before i took the scenic route back by sbs service number 14.

topman

wanted to laze around at home today but can’t, ’cos i need to buy a jacket to wear for my cousin, edaline’s wedding dinner reception this saturday.

i had wanted to dress more formally for the dinner since i’ll be accompanying my parents at the vip table. then again, i didn’t want the “stiffness” of wearing a proper full suit. therefore, i settled on a jacket with dark jeans and sneakers combo.

managed to find a dark brown jacket at topman for $179 to go with my levi’s jean. it’s much cheaper than the ones available at zara which is $300+ at least.

i didn’t feel like spending too much money on something that’s probably going to hang in my wardrobe for a long, long time after this saturday.

hong kong café

it has been a long, long time since we’ve done supper with the gang. no prizes for guessing where we went… where else but our current favourite hong kong café even though it’s on the other side of the island.

the café was crowded even at 12-something, way before the clubbing crowd has descended, no tables were available inside and we settled for a table outdoors.

had my usual hong kong café instant noodles with soup and a iced mango pomelo. stuffed myself silly at such wee hours.

tracy wanted to have bo luo bao but was told that they had ran out of them. however, eric spotted a few at the counter which all the service staff somehow didn’t see. tracy said they seemed quite incredulous and astonished when she pointed the buns out to them.

surreal!

1 rochester

we sent off cayden and his entourage from the hotel lobby. and since it was real early for a public holiday’s eve, we decided to be adventurous and set off for rochester park – the hottest place in town to be and seen at.

we settled at 1 rochester for drinks. it has a very lush and verdant alfresco area. a better looking version of villa bali is how i would describe it.

prices of drinks were standard, around $14 each with a small selection of finger food which we didn’t try since we just had dinner.

it’s great place for conversations with friends especially for people like me without our own pads.

café swiss

doris suggested trying this new place at swissotel and since thomas can get his staff discount there, how can i refuse such a good offer, right?

cayden and his entourage were there, so were tracy and eric. diane didn’t join us ’cos johann was in bangkok on a company trip.

the bread basket was a delight with about 5 different kinds of bread. there’s an interesting coffee-flavoured one which janet pointed out. i love all of it since i’m a bread person. atkins diet be darned!

also fed cayden lots since he can’t resist bread either. :) hehe...

i ordered a smoked salmon salad wanting to share it with doris but it was puny appetiser-sized that even doris wouldn’t have any problem finishing it all by herself.

the waiter suggested that i have the cod fillet which was done simply and rather nice. couldn’t help pinching the rosti from tracy’s plate. i just want to have my carbo and eat it! it was nice and buttery although a trifle too salty.

all of us were happy with our mains. for desserts, we shared the chocolate fondue with fruits and a slice of oreo cheese cake. the chocolate fondue was rather runny, kinda disappointing.

overall, the price is on the high side at about $40 to $50 per person if you order a non-alcoholic drink, an appetiser and a main course. definitely, not for the budget-conscious.

would seriously think twice about eating there if thomas wasn’t there. :P

sakae sushi @ wheelock

wilson wanted to have dinner together before he flies off to vietnam for a working trip on monday. i’ve haven’t been here for a while and didn’t realise that they’ve renovated.

the lighting is now dimmer with lots of wood accents. nice.

missed my yoga

me and elyn stayed back to help monica with a large shipment that she had decided to export at the last minute.

got conned by the ups guy and waited for a long while for him to come and pick up the boxes.

after which, we had a hard time trying to get cab booking resulting in me missing issey’s last class before he flies off to the us.

oh well… just too bad... :(

food & hospitality asia

this is a trade-only event but serene’s brother had a few complimentary tickets so we pretended to be industry folks and visited the exhibition. :P

it was a huge affair occupying the entire 6 halls at singapore expo. the exhibitors were most generous with food and drink samples. serene, jeanette and sally spent a most fulfilling lunch time there.

i didn’t try out much food since i already had lunch at burger king earlier. the gals like it so much that they decided to return the next day for another day of feasting after learning that their passes will still be valid the following day.

duh!

fish & chick

when does it matter if fillets instead of the whole fish are served to your guests?

would your guests mind if they were served herbal chicken and not roast chicken?

apparently, it does when you talking about a wedding dinner menu. kind of unbelieveable, right? when food is not just something you put into your mouth for sustenance but carries a whole lot of significance beyond what most people of our generation can comprehend.

cod fillets sound yummy to me. but nope, according to my aunt connie, that’s no good, the fish should be served whole with the head and tail intact to symbolise a perfect and complete marriage.

herbal chicken a healthful alternative to roast chicken, right? wrong again! my uncle tony thinks that herbal dishes are served to people who are ill and not suitable for a wedding dinner.

and i thought that food-tasting session is just to suss out if the food is nice or not?

gosh!

yoga retreat

issey informed the class that he’ll be going off to the us for his annual yoga retreat for the 1st 2 weeks of may.

i wonder how does it feel to do nothing but yoga for 2 weeks… should be a period of peaceful solitude and calm repose.

previously, he had gone to india for a yoga retreat too. where he was totally immersed in the practice of yoga, meditation and chantings. removed entirely from civilisation: no newspapers, television or internet.

that’s not too bad i think, but i wonder how long can i survive on vegetarian meals... :P

ge ’06

as widely anticipated, the general elections will be held on 6 may. that’s the same day my cousin, edaline is getting married.

hmm… wonder if i’ll get a chance to vote this time round.

*** post note: i don't get to vote at this ge since no opposition party is interested to contest the holland-bukit timah grc.

back to work

i’m back to work after a 5-day break. busy, busy, busy… got 3 meetings with my vendors scheduled today. arrgghhh…

bye, dayang

by the time the boat returned to the jetty, we had already packed our gears into our dive bags marking the close of our dive trip.

had a sumptuous brunch since according to the staff, they had served the food for breakfast and lunch together. we showered and packed our bags next. then we logged our dives while waiting for the rest.

it was a tiring, yet fulfilling first-time dive trip for all of us. time well-spent picking up a new skill and bonding over our struggles to master what had been taught.

a welcomed timeout from civilisation, away from television, newspapers and all mass media without any interruptions from the office or even your friends since there isn’t any mobile network reception at all.

with a touch of weariness, we made our way to the jetty, to our boat. but i left the island with a sense of longing. a longing for the peaceful and idyllic paradise that i know exists now in this world that is pulau dayang.

dive 07

rayner’s rock, pulau dayang

our final dive for the trip, we were all relieved that we had done alright for the course so far but at the same time feeling a bit nervous about this dive although it’s a leisure dive since any major mistakes made will jeopardise our passing of the course.

it was great to forget about the drills and just focus on enjoying the underwater marine life. we saw lots of it…

4 huge [around 50 – 60cm] bumphead parrot fish swimming together. the infamous and sometimes dangerous trigger fish, not a very big one. countless other fishes and marine life that i couldn’t name. some of them actually will swim past very near my mask.

we also went past this tall wall encrusted with corals. truly awesome!

it was here that we first experienced a thermocline – a stratified layer of water with a noticeable temperature difference.

the next thing we know, the particles underwater were zooming past our masks relentlessly. now we know what’s an underwater current… we had to fin extra hard just to move ahead by a few feet. kay yaw told us later that was only about half a sea knot.

when we did our safety stop at 5 metres, we had to hang on to the coral walls to prevent ourselves being swept away. pretty exciting, right? :)

after surfacing, we had to fin real hard to return to the boat. this dive gave me a new-found respect for sea currents both underwater and surface. and also taught us the importance of good fining techniques.

pant!

theory test

the test consists of 50 mcqs to be completed within an hour. the requirement is to get at least 75% of the questions correct including the 4 dive table questions. the 4 dive questions got us slightly keyed up ’cos we weren’t sure what to expect…

eric reassured us that we’ll surely pass. nevertheless, ky immediately went back to our room to mug after dinner.

we took the test at about 10 pm as we had to wait for kay yaw to return from the night dive. we sat at 1 of the dining tables amidst others who were having dinner or drinking away and chatting about the day’s dives.

had a fruitful time discussing the answers among ourselves, paying extra attention to the dive table questions. :P hehe… in the end, we scored 92% and only got 4 questions wrong. yeah!

most of the questions were not technical so it wasn’t too difficult. just have to watch the language though. and i think if we had paid close attention to patrick’s lessons, passing the test is not a problem.

kay yaw went through the answers with us, patiently clarifying all our doubts even though he had not eaten his dinner yet. he also let on that we will all pass the course unless any of us float up unknowingly during tomorrow’s dive.

i jokingly remarked that we shall skip the dive and consider ourselves to have passed! haha…

dive 06

pulau lang

surprisingly, it didn't rain and the skies began to lighten up although the waves were choppier than before.

we had to gear up and walked to the jetty in our full gear... pant!

i started the reciprocal navigation in the navigator role while doris did the timing. headed out at 30 degrees for 2 minutes. kay yaw had to adjust the bearings for me.

managed to set out and return to the starting point without any problems although sometimes i felt that the compass needle doesn’t seem to be floating freely.

doris also completed the navigation successfully but not before almost leading me to the surface! gosh!

i was too engrossed timing and following her lead that i wasn’t conscious that we were ascending until i heard kay yaw hitting his tank to catch kl & ky’s attention.

only then did i realise we were already very close to the surface. i promptly signaled to doris to descend quickly and frantically descend as fast as i could before kay yaw realise where we were. :P hehe…

we also revised our scuba unit removal and replacement exercise while kl & ky did another round of navigation thanks to somebody’s speed fining. haha…

then while kl & ky were practicing their scuba unit r & r, doris swam around in a perfectly horizontal position displaying her fine control of neutral buoyancy. what a show-off, right? :P

kay yaw showed us a cluster of brown shark egg sacs. the egg sacs felt like some plastic material that was quite resistant to my attempt to tear it apart.

we also completed our final drill, the controlled emergency swimming ascent [cesa], not a very difficult drill since we just have to keep breathing out during ascent simulating an out-of-air situation. only need to be mindful that we do not ascend too quickly.

originally, we were supposed to do it after our rescue drill at the earlier dive but kay yaw called it off since we were not in good shape by the end of the drill.

at the end of it all, i just want to get out of the water away from the waves!

stung

the light breeze started to become strong winds whipping up the waves onto the shore. the skies darken considerably and a heavy downpour seemed imminent. we were thinking that the next dive might be cancelled due to bad weather.

doris and kl were mugging for the theory paper that we were planning to take tonight while i decided to take a short nap to reward myself for the 2 tough dives this morning.

was awoken by a small commotion, 1 of our fellow divers was stung by some creature and kay yaw had to apply hot water to her thigh to neutralise the toxin.

after this incident, we were all extra careful when we descend and where we put our hands underwater.

the beach

had a leisurely lunch, and since we’re skipping the next dive, i decided to eat a bit more. :)

ky complained that there wasn’t much food left at such a late hour but we had already asked him to eat first if he was hungry, no need to wait for us what... duh!

we decided to take a walk along the beach for a look-see and some photo-taking. ky returned to the room to sleep. so lazy hor? :P

the sand is really fine and almost white while the waters are clear. living in singapore, you wouldn’t believe such lovely beaches do exist!

doris spotted a hermit crab and “tortured” it a bit by burying it in compacted sand. poor crab! but it did struggle free only to be buried again! haha… i picked up a small piece of dead coral as a souvenir of my 1st dive trip.

we walked back to the shed to take a nap while waiting for the next dive.

dive 05

jetty, pulau dayang

went for light breakfast after the earlier dive, didn’t have much appetite and wasn’t sure if i can keep it down for the next dive.

had a briefing and demo on the rescue of unconscious diver drill at the shed. then we practised there for a while… tried very hard to remember all the steps for the drill.

the 2 key points according to kay yaw are:
1. do not endanger yourself in the rescue.
2. bring the diver to the surface.

for this drill, we did another training dive at the jetty. while waiting for kl and ky to start first, me & doris had to bob up and down with the waves while waiting on the surface. not a good situation for me to be in. also we need to swim over when they surface to help kay yaw with the weight belts.

i “rescued” doris first. everything went smoothly for the entire drill. the tough part was the simulation of towing the victim back to the jetty with no air in my bc. had to fin like mad… till i was breathless and my thighs nearly had a cramp.

after that, doris had a go at it. considering my size and hers, i think she did an admirably good job of “rescuing” me. bravo!

and when it was done, i puked again! :P

kay yaw decided to end the dive since kl said that he’s having a headache and we proceeded to do a beach exit. removed our equipment and took a break before lunch.

we decided to sit out the next dive.

dive 04

pulau pinang

the first dive of the day, supposed to meet up at the jetty at 7 am. that’s right, we’re going to dive even before we have our breakfast. that’s how fanatical divers can get in order to be the first boat to arrive at the dive site.

however, the boat crew doesn’t seem too eager to start work so early. we had to hang around till about 7:30 before they decided to bring in the boat to the jetty… took the opportunity to take a few photographs of dayang.

this is our deepest dive so far, we went down to 17.5m. fortunately, i didn’t have any equalisation problems. my stomach churned even though i didn’t have anything to throw up.

we were also reprimanded by kay yaw for not remembering what we’ve learnt yesterday ’cos a few of us couldn’t control our buoyancy well and sort of floated up to the surface, sometimes unknowingly. :P

barbeque dinner

after a long day of 3 dives, having a freshwater shower to wash off the salty tang of seawater was more than welcomed, even though there wasn’t any hot water.

by 8 pm, i was already ravenous. can’t imagine how hungry those divers who went for the night dive will be.

the dinner spread was simple but good. i gorged myself silly since technically i didn’t really have lunch. had lots of chicken wings and satay.

randy joined us and we chatted over his dinner. doris started dosing off. after that, we had a debrief by kay yaw. by then even kl started zoning out.

kay yaw showed us a reference book for all the different types of fishes, corals and other sea creatures that we’ve seen today and might see in the waters around here.

he also warned us about the territorial trigger fish that supposedly have very sharp teeth. we were instructed to swim off as a group if we see him fending off one underwater.

it was already past midnight by the time i hit the bed.

dive 03

jetty, pulau dayang

kay yaw decided that we go for a leisure dive and not do any more drills for today. we were all too glad to hear that.

can’t remember much of what i saw… my stomach churned again at depth. there weren’t anything else to vomit except for gastric acids. this time round, we went even deeper, up to about 11.5 metres and stayed for about 40 minutes.

i didn't really like the part where we were diving around the jetty structures with the propellers making a huge din underwater. in fact, it was slightly stressful even as we had to be extra mindful that we did not become too buoyant and float up to the spinning propeller blades! :P

by the end of it, we were rather tired of breathing through our mouth with the regulator. although i wasn’t drained physically, there was some level of mental fatigue. and it was with a sigh of relief that we complete the last dive for the day.

i just want to get my feet on solid ground as soon as i could.

dive 02

batu kuti, pulau pinang

this after-lunch dive was the most memorable for the obscene amount of puke that i regurgitated. threw up my entire lunch plus some gastric juices in a series of spectacular pukes. think doris witnessed a part of my underwater performance.

i survived… with a weird taste in my mouth and a contaminated regulator. fortunately, doris didn’t have to do buddy breathing using my regulator. haha… :P

we went slightly deeper to about 9.5 metres for this dive. except for kl, the 3 of us didn’t have any equalisation problems. we revise some of the earlier drills and did new ones like the regulator retrieval and alternate air source breathing.

didn’t pay much attention to the fishes and corals this time round ’cos of my stomach churning experience. just glad that i didn’t need to abandon the dive.

dive 01

telok mariam, pulau aur

our instructor kay yaw gave us a briefing on the ferry roof deck before we proceed to gear-up. gosh, the equipment is really heavy and we made our giant stride entry into the waters with much relief.

kl buddy up with ky while i buddied with doris. we covered most of the drills like mask clearing, removal & replacement, weight belt ditch & don, scuba unit removal & replacement and buoyancy control at a depth of around 7 metres.

visibility was good and we could see as far as 12 metres all around.

we spent almost an hour below and had time to explore a bit. saw clown fishes & sea anemone, magenta sea cucumber and bright orange christmas tree worms.

the abundant underwater life was awe-inspiring.

check-in @ 6 am

that’s right, you didn’t see wrongly… by the time, we reach pulau dayang and were allocated to our rooms, it was almost 6 am.

doris, ky, kl and myself shared room #2 since they’re all quad-sharing rooms. and the room can’t be more basic: 4 beds, a mirror, a ceiling fan, an air-con unit and some hooks on the wall for hanging clothes.

bathrooms? they’re communal and there isn’t hot water!

we were told to catch a nap till 8 o’clock and then have breakfast later. nothing could’ve sounded better at this time.

just to let you have an idea how "ulu" the island is, there isn't any mobile network available and there aren't any phones on the island either. we were told that to make a phone, we need to go over to another island and use a phone card!

gosh...

late night travel

reached mersing jetty at around 1+ am… the place was deserted except for the 2 minibus-load of people from mako.

everyone helped to unload the dive bags from the minibus and loaded them onto the transfer boat. the tide was too low for the ferry to berth. as doris commented, we really felt like illegal immigrants trying smuggle past the coastal guards in the dead of the night.

transferred to the ferry in the open sea and tried to find a place to sleep through the rest of the journey. surprisingly, i was still holding up… the band and the dramamine that randy, the dive master gave me must be working.

open water @ pulau dayang

will be traveling to malaysia tonight for our scuba diver training course open water dives. dunno what to expect except that i’ll probably be sea-sick. :P haha…

will be going to pulau dayang off mersing. got to endure a 4 hour road trip followed by another 4-hour ferry ride. hopefully, i’ll live to tell the tale. :)

kyo nichi @ marina square

met up with alicia, tracy and eric for dinner at this ramen restaurant recommended by sunday lifestyle a few weeks back. it’s supposed to be 1 of the top 10 ramen places in singapore.

had to look hard for the restaurant since it was situated in an isolated corner of the mall. when i reached the place, it was almost deserted with only 1 other table occupied and 1 service staff. doesn’t look very promising at all…

the place only started to fill up as the evening crept by. but it was still woefully under-staffed by 2 wait crew only.

alicia and tracy were pretty excited about having the collagen ramen. turns out that the collagen is actually “dissolved” in the soup due to the extended preparation time of the stock.

the ladies had the spicy char siew ramen while eric and i decided on the thick char siew ramen. we also get to choose a side dish worth $6 each plus a cold drink since we all ordered the $16 set meal. quite good value for money i would say.

took a while for our ramen to be served. very ordinary looking bowls of noodles with slices of char siew and an egg. even though we’ve surmised earlier that the “thick” refers to the soup stock, we couldn’t really tell by looking at it.

the ramen were springy, al dente with a good bite while the stock was a lovely milky-white broth. what about the char siew?

it’s heavenly and truly out of this world! the meat slices just melt in your mouth. i can say without any doubts that it’s the best japanese char siew i’ve ever tasted. and to top it all, it doesn’t even have any fats on the meat. yummy!

eric says that even though he’s not ramen person, he’s really liked what he had.

my recommendation?

as makansutra will rate it: die, die must try! :)

winds of change

my department manager is moving out to an asean role effective 1st april while the manager of another team will expand his role to take over our team as well since we’re all under the umbrella of integrated supply chain reporting to the same asean manager.

in management speak, it’s called integration and synergising. to me, it’s a very obvious cost-cutting measure since 1 management position has been eliminated.

so how will the new “angmoh” boss be like?

only time can tell…

ps café @ paragon

doris called to have dinner together since she’ll be in town. couldn’t get a table at sushi-tei even after waiting for half an hour so we decided to go downstairs to ps café instead.

surprised that the café was not crowded on a saturday night. a table was readily available and we even managed to get a bigger one when janet and jason joined us later. guess this is no longer the “in” branch.

the décor of the café beside the boutique really looks like a kitchen straight out of a hollywood movie or an american sitcom.

i shared a roasted vegetable salad with doris that was pretty good. the red pepper was delightful sweet while the zucchini and sweet potatoes provided contrasting textures to the greens. in my opinion, it’s good enough to be a main course if you’re looking for a vegetarian option.

thomas had the laksa pesto while doris tried the classic beef stew. i didn’t feel like having sandwiches, so i ordered the chicken tau kwa burger. the bun has been replaced by the tau kwa. found the shredded chicken a little dry though.

doris and thomas had no complaints of their mains. cayden likes the mashed potato from the beef stew. he didn’t open his mouth when i fed him, just stared at me. only when janet gave it to him then he ate.

janet ordered the chocolate cake which was served warm. quite good... a huge slice that can’t possibly be just for 1 person. then again, it has to justify its $8.90 price.

cayden still allowed us to carry him and we passed him around without any fuss. he seems to know who’s mummy ’cos he’ll turn to look at janet whenever i asked him, “where’s mummy?”. he also gets “talkative” when’s he happy or excited.

however, there’s one not-so-nice trick that he has learnt and that’s spraying his saliva all over you when he blows air out of his closed mouth with a “boo” sound. jason says he does it when he is bored. apparently, he can’t sit quietly in restaurants.

i think he's just happy to be out and about and don't really care who's carrying him. :)

1 + 1

fabulously good news!

sk was already elated when he told me that faith is expecting during our ict last month. what’s the better news then?

he’s becoming a daddy 2 times over! i’m just so happy for him.

it really cheers up my morning and brightens the day when you receive such glorious news from your friends. :)

no deal

after being in “red alert” for the last few days, there’s still no real development in the deal which had my manager all keyed up despite multiple emails and conference calls.

looks like it’s not happening for this quarter-end, i’ll be surprised if it does. there’s even a chance that when it happens next month, it might completely bypass my team.

yeah! less work, same pay! :P

ge coming

unless you’ve been holed up in a cave elsewhere, you would probably have known that the biggest event of the local political scene is very likely to happen sometime this year.

the men-in-white have been busy going around shaking hands during weekends and the party had started to introduce new faces at such events. and as much as the gahmen vehement denial that this year’s budget is an election year budget, the progress package will no doubt sweeten the ground nicely for them.

my constituency has been absorbed into a grc. commentators had speculated that the incumbent mp is probably retiring and the new face will piggy-back on the cabinet minister leading the team into the parliament.

since my eligibility to vote more than 10 years ago, i’ve only exercised my citizenship’s rights only once during the last election. prior to that, no opposition members had contested the ward.

i hope that the opposition can put up a credible team to stand against the miw, so that election day will not be a non-event for me. :)

big deal

my manager just informed me that i’ll be helping elyn with a usd10 million deal that’s in the works. we need to coordinate the logistics portion.

as usual, those projects that involve me are the ones that are ad-hoc with no standard process in place, where many parties, both internal and external over various geographical locations are involved. guess i’ll be drowning in emails and conference calls very soon.

and the stunt my department is going to pull off is worthy of a nkf gala charity show, that is to execute all this by the month-end so that the sales team can clock in the revenue for this quarter’s results.

no jog

feeling lethargic… didn’t go for my run… sigh… need some motivation to get out my couch potato rut…

peach garden @ novena garden

doris told me i have to post a review here so that those who missed the dinner can at least read about it.

i’ve read about this restaurant previously. besides the good food, the 2 lady bosses are known to be very service-oriented and will even remember their regular customers’ preferences.

something interesting about the restaurant’s service staff here, there’re a few malay staff among them so please look carefully before you start asking for things in mandarin.

it’s not that i’m racist or anything. i’m all for equal employment opportunities but it’s a non-halal chinese restaurant here that we’re talking about… i wonder what’s the business reason for such an arrangement.

reservations are a must for saturday dinners, since it’s not a very big restaurant to begin with. and if you’re johann, you’ll reserve the roast pork too.

dainty but sinfully good cubes of very crispy skin, lard and meat made even better with the mustard sauce. give this a miss if you’re on a diet or you simply can’t stomach the layer of fat. however, your fellow dinners will probably be more than happy to help you out of your “suffering”.

next was the recommended dish of wasabi prawns. fresh, succulent prawns were served coated in an unappetising pastel green wasabi sauce. not very pretty i must say but 1 bite of the crunchy prawn meat later, i don’t think you’ll mind what colour it is. it’s that good, trust me.

depending on your tolerance for the green japanese root, you might find it a trifle “hot” like diane did. or plain mild like i did.

the sea perch were lightly fried fillets dressed simply with raw onion rings and a light sauce. rather thai-influenced, the only thing missing was the chilli padi. good for those who don’t like to meddle around with fish bones.

the tofu with crabmeat may be too bland for those with more robust palates but i like it the way it is. the only complaint i have is that the crabmeat is rather tasteless but i guess the tofu is the star here.

the sweet and sour pork, a chinese restaurant standard fare was ok, no surprises there. the asparagus in oyster sauce, was just that, asparagus with oyster sauce. not very easy to botch such a simple dish i guess. and now i know janelle loves her asparagus. :)

fried udon, another recommendation by diane, was a good choice. the thick noodles were al dente and exuded black pepper fragrance and spiciness. it was cooked simply with diced shrimp meat and omelette.

dessert for me was the very “in” dessert of the moment at most Chinese restaurants now – black glutinous rice with vanilla ice-cream. the version here is served in a coconut so you can eat the coconut flesh together with the dessert. thumbs-up for the dessert.

overall, a good place for quality chinese cuisine but expect to pay for it. our bill came to about $37 per person before discount, a bit on the high side. so if you’re interested in the shark’s fin soup and beijing duck, be prepared to pay even more.

okay, i’m done with the restaurant review now… let's talk about the little ones.

janelle is still painfully shy when she first arrived at the restaurant, clinging onto johann and burying her face, refusing to see us. here, she’s pretending that we don’t exist. haha…

cayden is starting to recognise faces/people so he may start bawling if he doesn’t like you. johann took revenge for janelle by making cayden cry. just kidding! :P i think he only likes female company. hehe…

super low

saw this weird guy in serena’s yoga class this afternoon… walked into the class wrapped in a towel, topless. serena remarked to him, “not cold?” when she came into studio. :P

at first, i thought he was wearing 1 of those beach shorts with solid colour blocks near the waist and matching prints on the legs of the shorts. only when he was nearer did i realise that the solid yellow colour block and black waistband does not belong to the shorts.

it’s his underwear being exposed by his very low-slung shorts!

and the printed boxer-like shorts were barely clinging onto his butt. i think if he had jumped up and down hard enough, the shorts would definitely have fallen off. duh!

it’s amazing that none of the ladies complained about him to serena or the gym for outraging their modesties. he walked over to occupy the space behind me on the left.

could it get any worse? yeah, it did.

how? you might be wondering…

during the class, in between the left and right turns, ups and downs, i suddenly noticed a very bright patch of yellow flashing at me. guess what happened?

his shorts had split at the butt leaving a gaping hole showcasing more of his brief. wah liao! additional ventilation hole.

he didn’t stay for the final relaxation [corpse pose]. i wonder if serena had told him about his shorts. :P haha…

4.6 km slow jog

haven’t been running since my in-camp training last month, got to get back into the routine if i want to pass my ippt by this july.

started with a slow jog and maintained the same pace throughout the entire run, because i still want to walk, not limp around the office tomorrow. :P

i clocked in at about 30:00, a most refreshing run made better by the strong breeze at certain parts of the route.

pool session

a very early sunday for me today… the lesson is from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. had to get up early to eat breakfast, buy lunch and meet the rest at outram mrt before making our way to outram secondary school.

we had no problems locating the school with the help of the map provided, but we had a little trouble looking for the pool.

we started off with the tests. each of us is required to swim 200 metres in any of the standard styles followed by a 15-metre underwater swim with 1 breath and lastly, 10 minutes of flotation or tread water.

all of us did the 200 metres without any problems. doris’ breath was not deep enough for the 15-metre underwater swim. ky didn’t have the stamina to tread water for 10 minutes. maybe he’s too dense. :P hehe… i treaded water for the full 10 minutes since i couldn’t float like doris.

kiat led the training before we were split up into smaller groups. wee san took over our group of 4 and started off with the basics of the mask, snorkel, fins and weight belt.

we learnt the flutter kick for proper fining, then it’s clearing of the snorkel at the surface and clearing of the mask underwater. the ditching of the weight belt was easy even though we had to do it with just our right hand.

all of us couldn’t get the giant stride entry into the water right. somehow, our heads always went underwater. is it so difficult? don't think so but we just couldn't do it.

we had a quick lunch break then we had to don our tank and bc and proceeded to learn the use of the regulator and perform other exercises underwater such as removal and wearing of the bc, buddy out-of-air, cesa and adjustment to neutral buoyancy.

i guess we just need lots of practice to make all the drills become 2nd nature to us. it was a tiring and intensive day of pool training and we were glad when it wrapped up punctually at 4:00 pm.

overall, i felt that we all did okay today. therefore, as long as we do our own revision and keep our wits and nerves with us during the open water next month, we should do alright.

just hoping that i don’t get too seasick! :P

equipment try-out

second theory lesson today. 4-hour lesson from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm but we were told to be there earlier to try out the equipment for size for the pool session on sunday.

met doris and ky for lunch at clementi before taking a bus down to mako. a few of the students were already there before us and had started trying out their wetsuits.

it was a hot squeeze into the dry wetsuit. most of us ended up sweating. it was doubly hot for me since i had 2 to try on for size. the second suit was cut somewhat smaller even though it’s a large size.

we made payment of $560 which included the following:
· $390 for course fees [after the miw discount]
· $40 for textbook and dive table
· $50 for rental of equipment for the open water dives
· $80 for extra day of the dive trip

so there, we’re all committed to go for our open water dives on the good friday weekend next month at pulau dayang.

mako sub-aquatics

first theory lesson for my scuba diving course, don’t know quite what to expect.

amy had recommended the naui qualification saying that it places more emphasis on safety and since the rest did not have any objections, we settled on this school, which incidentally was the same one that amy had gone to.

left work earlier today. took the train to buona vista mrt station with ky to meet up with doris and kl. transferred to a bus next to go to ayer rajah industrial park. there were only 11 of us for the class starting today. doris is the only girl.

today’s 3-hour lesson consists of an introduction to the equipment and touched on some buoyancy, pressure and volume concepts relating to scuba diving.

patrick leong, the instructor spoke in a well-modulated voice, so although it wasn’t sleep-inducing, we were pretty tired after the 3 hours since all of us had a long day at work too.

hungrily we adjourned to clementi for our dinner [supper for doris] before heading home.

brokeback mountain

how befitting to watch the movie on the same day lee ang won the oscars for best director for his tale of forbidden love between 2 cowboys in the conservative rural countryside of wyoming.

the movie is adapted from a short story by annie proulx. the story unfolds in 1963 where ennis [heath ledger] and jack [jake gyllenhaal] first met to herd sheeps up on brokeback mountain thus beginning the tumultuous relationship which ends on a tragic note 20 years later.

love is a force of nature. and nature sometimes wrecks great upheavals in our lives.

they had fallen in love right from the start without quite realising it. and it was something inexplicable to both as they were swept away helplessly in their longing for each other through the years.

both of them living behind a façade of normal family life while betraying their wives as they continue to meet in the mountains several times a year. something which jack very much wanted to change but ennis was not prepared to.

they were addicted to each other and yet couldn’t quit. such was the hopelessness of their situation. a happily-ever after ending might have been possible if only ennis had the fortitude to leave with jack. but who’s to tell?

*** spoiler ahead ***

the pain that ennis suffered after the death of jack was palpable and poignantly evoked. the loss he felt was especially overwhelming when he had found out that jack had kept the shirt that he had “lost” years ago on brokeback mountain lovingly hung together with jack’s own.

sad.

nyp

didn’t know that tammy and nyp are the hottest search keywords now in singapore until i read the sunday times today. i guess there’re lots of curious netizens out there who’re interested in home-made videos, aren’t there? ;)

and there’re bloggers who admitted to have exploited this craze to drive traffic to their blogs by having all the most searched words in their posts. an inadvertent outcome of all these related posts and links that do not contain the desired clip for download is that the clip has been buried deeper under all these noise.

therefore, maybe i shall also write about my friend, john who is teaching at nanyang polytechnic. or perhaps talk about a cousin who is starting school at nyp when the new semester begins just for the fun of it. :P haha…

so will traffic to my blog shoot up because of this post?

i don’t know nor do i care.

bah!

ps: to all unintended visitors looking for the clip here, i don’t have the video and neither have i seen it. please bear in mind that sharing or possession of such obscene content is punishable by law in singapore.

camera phone not

the media have been abuzz with what's stored in kids' phones these days what with almost all phones having camera and video-camera capabilities, the discussion sparked off by a tammy from nanyang polytechnic.

her private video made with her boyfriend was uploaded to the internet and caught on like wildfire. another person seeking her 15 minutes of fame in this age of salacious blogs and reality tv programmes?

unfortunately not. she had lost her phone and the clip had been distributed without her knowledge.

i wonder what is it about the episode are people most aghast with:
* a young polytechnic student, 17, having sex at her age or
* a young polytechnic student, 17, having sex at her age and video-cammed the act or
* a young polytechnic student, 17, having sex at her age, video-cammed the act and carried the clip on her mobile phone everywhere she goes?

gosh, the things youngsters do... it's not what they do but how they have done it without realising the full consequences. that is what that never changes, isn't it?

the follies of youth i guess. something that can only be tempered by age and maturity.

so what do i have on my mobile phone?

nothing to send your pulse racing... unless you like cute puppies. :) most of my pictures are of friends and family, especially my friends' kids. goes to show that i'm old liao... haha...

anyway, my mobile had become a non-camera phone now since i've restored the data rendering my camera function inaccessible. so even if i had wanted to, i'm not technologically equipped for any hanky-panky pictures for now, that is... :P

run not

had planned to run after work today but it rained when i got home. kind of unexpected since the weather seemed so good when i left the office.

sigh… i really need to get serious about training and clearing my ippt before my birthday in july else i’ll be the butt of jokes and embarrassment to fitness first gyms. haha… :)

lunch @ waan waan

met up with meiling and amy for lunch to celebrate meiling’s birthday. was at centrestage at marina square and don’t know what to eat, so decided to try the thai restaurant there.

it took some courage on our part since the restaurant was totally deserted. not a single table was occupied while the other restaurants there were busy with their weekend lunch crowd. amy was late ’cos a bird didn’t like her very much. ;)

we ordered the staples of mango salad, green curry, crispy chicken, pineapple rice and also a stir-fried kailan. the thai items were not bad but i’ve had better pineapple rice elsewhere though. the vegetable looked like what i can prepare at home.

overall, it’s quite good value if you order just from the promotional $5.80++ menu. we didn’t have any desserts as we were quite full already.

burp.

nokia care

i had sent my phone in for servicing on friday. there was something wrong with the camera function. it just couldn’t be accessed through the menu and i suspected it’s just a software problem.

when the customer service guy returned my phone today, he informed me that they had only refreshed my software. i tried out the camera function and it worked.

then i proceeded to restore my phone settings and data from my memory card. lo and behold, the camera function can’t be accessed anymore!

i showed the staff the problem and he said that it could be my card’s data being corrupted or conflicting with the software of the phone and by doing a restore, i had “brought” back the problem.

he suggested that i re-format my memory card. i looked at him as if he’s deranged. i can’t delete all my phone book entries! no way!

he offered to re-format my phone to rectify the problem and suggested that i can save the memory card data on a pc before doing a re-format and transferring the data back to the card. guess that's the only way then.

what’s the best part?

after paying $26.25 of servicing fees, i enquired what’s the warranty period for this servicing and was told that since it’s just a software upgrade, there’s no warranty.

duh!

drinks @ nydc

gordon announced that he’s changing job next month. he has a week’s break in-between and in his typical fashion, is wondering where he shall travel to for fun.

kl mentioned he has a free jetstar ticket from citibank and should be going to Bangkok with mx next month.

ky, as usual, talked about going to kl again! guess it’s his personal “visit malaysia” year for 2006. haha… :P

dinner @ sakura

today’s my mum’s birthday so we brought her to try the sakura international buffet restaurant at the omni-theatre at jurong east.

$26 for weekend dinner is quite reasonable, it’s a steal if you can gobble up loads of sashimi. :) haha… there’s salmon, tuna, swordfish, squid, hokkigai and octopus. there’s also a selection of sushi and maki too.

for seafood, there’re raw oysters, boiled shrimps and sliced abalone. i felt that the oysters were not really fresh, kind of limp with no bite. the abalone slices were thick and overly sweet. my sis remarked that the sweetness was rather fake. but i think the abalone slices are genuine, just maybe not top-grade ones that’s all.

the grilled items included 2 types of fish and a few meats. there’re satay and otak available too. the chicken satay was good.

black chicken herbal soup and drunken prawns which are cooked ala minute in claypots. my mum gave thumbs-up for the herbal soup while the drunken prawns were good enough for me to polish off the entire pot of soup myself. :)

there’re some deep-fried stuff, a small variety of hot food, 2 soups and a dismal salad selection. didn’t try any of the stuff except for the breaded shrimps which was not bad.

the desserts section consists of fruits, konnyaku jelly, gui ling gao, cakes and a large selection of at least 10 flavours of ice-cream, i think the kids there must have felt like it was heaven. haha… i tried most of the cakes, which were cut into small squares, which i’m happy to say were all yummy-licious.

almost forgot to mention the durian puffs which my sis and dad thought were good. there’s also free-flow of a selection of hot and cold beverages including juices, tea and coffee.

overall, i can’t say that the food is super good but definitely worth a try at least.

back to office

back to real life… no more waking up at 6-something in the morning for breakfasts, no more afternoon naps after lunch, no more dinner at 5-something in the evenings and suppers at 8+.

some colleagues thought i slimmed down but i think it’s just my short hair. opinions were divided whether i look younger or older with this new hairstyle.

moral of the story?

just keep your hair how ever you want it as long as you’re happy with it because everyone is going to have their own opinions and preferences.

personally, i think longer hair complements my face shape better although short hair does convey a “fresher” look.

last day of ict

woke up real early to consume breakfast. supposed to be ready for the stand-down parade at 6:30 am.

everyone’s just glad that it’s the last day of the ict today. for some of us, it might even be the last ict ever. for myself, i might get a waiver since i’ve already completed 6 high-key ones including this. keeping my fingers crossed. :)

grabbed some food and drinks after the parade. waited around to take photographs with david and the rest of the workshop guys. it’s important ’cos this will be the evidence that i was present for this ict in the event of any dispute. :P haha…

cleared out my locker. had lunch. waited to take my ippt.

we were the first batch of nsmen to use the newly installed electronic ippt stations at the stadium. all the stations worked perfectly except for the shuttle run which doesn’t start sometimes so it's back to good old manual timing.

i was ok with all the static stations except for the chin-ups. somehow, i just felt weak and couldn’t pull anymore after 3. duh! a most unpleasant surprise for myself since i had planned to clear the test during this ict. during my last practice a few weeks ago, i had done 5 or 6 chin-ups.

anyhow, i went ahead with the 2.4 km run despite knowing that i can’t clear the test because of the chin-up score. it was a rather demoralising and tough run, made worse by the hot weather.

my throat was already parched and dry before i started the run. did the 1st 2 laps with pretty decent timing in slightly over 3 minutes. i had to “force” myself to carry on, the 3rd and 4th laps were quite the killer.

a part of me just wanted to give up and quit the run since no matter how well my timing will be, i can’t pass the test while another part rallied on, wanting to press on breathlessly so as to clock a timing for the 2.4 km even under such adverse conditions.

conditions can't get more difficult than this, right?

i stopped running. had to catch my breath…

couldn’t remember if that was the 4th or 5th lap when i stopped to walk for about 10 or 20 seconds. then it took some superhuman effort to pick up the pace again and resume running.

just ran as if my life depended on it, i reached the finish line at 11:55. yes, i did it under 12 minutes!

yeah!

congrats to faith & sk

sk told me that he had good news over the weekend. faith is expecting!

congratulations!

he also mentioned that’s he totally over the moon and can’t stop himself from nagging faith about pregnancy do’s and don’t’s. haha…

yoga by josephine

decided to try out the yoga class at george street today.

at first i couldn’t get used to josephine’s accent. i was wondering what is the quail pose… only to realise that she was referring to the wheel pose when she demonstrated the asana. :P hehe…

she’s really strong and could hold the side plank for ages!

because of the small class size, we got to do some poses using the wall which was something different and i attempted some new poses.

i would rate the level of toughness of her class’s at just below serena’s. enjoyed the class and had a good workout.

drinks @ loof

and the party is down to doris, gordon and myself… since the night is still young for us, i suggested having a drink at the roof-top place at odeon towers since we haven’t been there before.

wow, the place is actually quite crowded!

the main part of loof is open air and feels like vertigo in Bangkok except for the view/height and more importantly, the strong breeze. in fact, i already started to feel hot and sticky liao...

fortunately, we managed to get a table with comfortable couches at the air-conditioned section and chilled out with a drink.

cool!

dinner @ menotti

janet had wanted to dine at ps café but it was fully booked so we settled for menotti. gordon joined us too since he was looking for people to have dinner with.

doris commented that she couldn’t recognise me in my new hairstyle. :D

had the set dinner which consisted of 4 courses at $29.90+++. i chose the caesar salad, tagliatelle with scallop and mushrooms, diplomatica and darjeeling tea.

cayden just loved the flat biscuit-like bread that came with my salad. kept his eyes on it when i waved it in front of him. :P hehe…

janelle was still rather shy around me. i failed to tempt her with her favourite strawberry from my dessert. :(

gordon and i had the same pasta but he didn’t quite like it while i found it to be not bad. at first, i had some reservations about the pasta since it’s cream sauce-based. however, the sauce turned out to be light and not overly rich at all.

after dinner, we took a walk to the esplanade and was surprised by the crowds at the riverfront. the place was just teeming with people enjoying the breeze and chatting. quite happening i would say.

janet and family decided to leave for home shortly since it’s already bedtime for cayden.

1 shot less

this ict had been rather laidback. i had time to finish “state of fear” by michael crichton in 1 week.

the main focus of the ict this week is the combat shoot. issac, chiam, sean, alvin, boon wah and me made up the team. after aggregating the day and night shoot results, we were just 1 shot less of attaining marksmanship [80%]!

each of us had helped saf saved $200. just too bad for us…

in-camp training

today’s the 1st day of my ict, had a hard time booking for a cab in the morning. took me more than 10 minutes to secure one.

for the 1st time in my life, i thought i wouldn’t make it for my ict. not because i’m late or anything but the cab driver was falling asleep at the wheel! horrors!

i was already suspicious when the cab was cruising along pie, i thought i saw his eyes shutting but i wasn’t sure since he was driving straight, still. he wasn’t straying into the next lane so i didn’t bother about him.

the ride became more exciting after the “runway” stretch, that’s quite near my camp and there’s only 1 lane on each way. the on-coming taxi’s horn brought my attention immediately back to the traffic ahead. my cab was already 3-quarter way into the opposite lane!

my sleepy driver had to swerve back into our own lane to avoid the taxi and the on-coming traffic. gosh, reporting for ict had never been so exhilarating.

this time round, i shared the bunk at 4-8 with koh hy, vincent, daniel and lam jm. that’s 1 thing about workshop platoon, it’s so big such that every time i’m back for ict, i usually bunk in with different guys. it’s always interesting to get to know new people that way.

koh, i already knew him way back during my nsf times. the other 3 guys i’m not so familiar with. one of them is a branch manager of a foreign bank, another deals with smes at a statutory board while the last is doing sales in a pharmaceutical company.

that’s ns for you, where people of vastly different backgrounds are thrown together for better or for worse. to me, it’s a great opportunity to get to know about other people’s jobs and companies. for others, it’s a chance to network.

supper @ 406c

since there wasn’t much happening at my uncle’s place, i decided to adjourn to my colleague, michelle’s place at seng kang. it seems that she and her husband are used to hosting such late gatherings.

it was already past 10 pm when i met up with serene. i had missed the stop and had to backtrack by taking the bus in the opposite direction. gosh, her estate is rather “ulu”.

had a red wine and was forced-fed fishball soup and a spring roll. her 2 daughters were still awake and i managed to carry the younger one. :)

dinner @ 863

another chinese new year gathering...

this one’s at my 6th uncle’s place [my dad’s bro] at yishun. haven’t been there for the longest time. stuffed myself ’cos there’s too much food as usual.

new hairdo

had a haircut today. it’s a real short one for my ict starting on monday.

i had it done at ben hairdressing salon in clementi. decided to try it out since i haven’t been there before. not a bad deal at $13. dramatically different such that i’m feeling rather “light-headed” ’cos much of it were chopped off.

busy

had been real busy lately… first with chinese new year and then now clearing my work and handing over some of it since i’ll be away for my ict next monday.

so there wouldn’t be any updates for a while…

lunch @ lake view

as with previous years, my 3rd auntie [my dad's sis] will host the clan for lunch and sometimes dinner as well for one sunday. more of the same chinese new year dishes. and a very “retro” dessert – honeydew sago in coconut cream.

stayed a while after lunch to catch up with my aunties. was kind of bored so decided to go shopping in town. since i had lots of time, i also went for a foot reflexology session at centrepoint.

bliss.

more hongbaos

had a jcgang gathering at janet’s place this afternoon. i’m embarrassed to say that the gang insisted on giving me hongbaos.

usually, i’m rather gracious [or thick-skinned] about receiving them from my relatives who’re my elders. however, getting them from my peers is altogether a different feeling especially when their kids are running around and addressing you as “uncle mun yue”.

makes me feel like i’m one of the kids. :P hmm… isn’t there a traditional chinese concept that you’re not an adult until you get married? well, i shall continue to enjoy myself while the good times last. haha…

however, i heard that working adults in taiwan and hong kong are expected to give out hongbaos to the young ones. one more reason to love singapore. :)

new year lunch

surprise, surprise… my manager and the team leads brought the department out for lunch today.

lunch was at roland restaurant at marine parade central. had to take a cab there with sally and serene. food was so-so only but not cheap, i heard the 2 tables cost $900+.

don’t think it’s worth it though… :P

back to work

still in lunar new year mood… :P haha…

the office is rather quiet as quite a few people are still on leave. i decided against taking leave today since i needed to clear off my work as much as possible before the end of next week. that’s because i’ll be going for my in-camp training on 13th feb.

new year visiting

made my usual rounds of visiting over the past 3 days…

had a peek at my cousin’s new flat in bedok.

went to my 3rd auntie’s [my mum's sis] place for lunch on the 2nd day. dinner was at my eldest auntie’s [my dad’s sis] place in aljunied. had lunch today at my 5th uncle’s [my dad's bro] place at bishan. basically overdosed on abalone, sea cucumber and mushrooms. :)

visited kiat lee & min xian in the late afternoon together with gordon, kai yeow, thng soon and doris. doris brought along her hawaii and japan photos for viewing.

it snowed very heavily for a day during their trip in japan. the snowscape was breathtakingly beautiful. they had a night’s stay in a ryokan and also visited disneyland.

then we left for dinner at the west coast hawker centre. tried to contact wee kwang to see if he’s at home but it seems that he had changed his number liao… trust him to do this sort of disappearing act.

after dinner, we returned to kl & mx’s place to finish up gordon’s bottle of ice wine. must have been the highlight of the day for ky. haha… :P

happy doggy year

sort of overslept today… when i woke up, most of my uncles, aunties and cousins were already here. some of my dad’s friends had actually came and left. :P hehe…

had to wish everyone present happy new year before rushing off to wash up. what early birds they are. it is said that what you do on the 1st day of the new year will set the tone for the rest of the year. that’s why there’re so many associated dos and don’ts taboos and whatnot.

does that mean i’ll get to sleep in for the rest of the year? haha… :)

after the last guests had left, we’ll take a break in the afternoon before proceeding to my eldest auntie’s [my mum’s sis] place in bedok for dinner. and we’ll probably play a few rounds of blackjack just for fun after dinner.

my usual routine for the 1st day of the lunar new year.

reunion dinner

we only have barbeque steamboat at home once a year and today’s the special day that electrical gadget is brought out for use for our reunion dinner.

it’s a wonder that the barbeque steamboat had never failed us these last few years. previously, we were using 2 other electrical steamboats and it’s the same routine year after year. i’m sure both will still work perfectly if they’re dug out from storage.

as usual, we had yusheng to kick off our reunion dinner. i had bought the fresh salmon from cold storage at takashimaya earlier today since i wasn’t working. i also bought a variety of mushrooms so that it’s not an all-meat affair for dinner.

one of the few occasions that the whole family is eating together at the dining table ’cos we do not have the practice of waiting to have dinner together at home. and it’ll be a formidable task to do so since wilson and estee have to work late sometimes. for me, i only need to on rare occasions. hence, dinnertime for us is whatever time we reach home on normal days.

thankfully [or woefully, depending on your perspective], none of us has yet the need to juggle multiple reunion dinners yet. hehe… :P

new clothes

have you bought new clothes for chinese new year? or are you one of those who don’t bother shopping for new clothes to wear for the new year?

as for me, i make shameless use of the tradition… it’s an excuse to buy new clothes without my mum complaining that i already have too much! hehe… :)

i wonder if those of my friends who have become parents observe this tradition of new clothes for their little ones. and what colour preference do they have?

it wasn’t too long ago that some of us have to shop for new clothes to please our parents. some are given instructions to wear something red, while others are strictly prohibited to wear black on new year’s day.

fortunately for me, my parents were quite easy with the dress code and do not insist that i wear red, so i don’t suffer from any post-traumatic stress aversion to red colour now as an adult. and since i don’t fancy black tops, neither did i cause them any grief with my choice of clothes.

in fact in recent years, i even try to look for a red top just to indulge in the festive mood. :)

spring-cleaning

i ought to tidy up my room this weekend. it has been in a mess for the longest time… but since i’ve no problems locating my stuff, i just keep putting off the clean-up. hehe…

the repeated delay is not helped by how little “free” time i spend at home. oh well, maybe i should’ve made it a new year resolution to have a clean and tidy room. :)

by the way, i really need to clean out my wardrobe too. got to be ruthless to give away or sell those clothes that i hardly wear anymore to the dog and bone man. but i fail miserably each time. sigh… and so i continue to expand my wardrobe without any corresponding increase in my physical wardrobe size.

i think i have enough t-shirts to last me for 1 whole month without me having to do any laundry. impressed?

and that’s not counting the shirts, long-sleeved tees, sleeveless tees and tanks! :P

so have you done your spring-cleaning?

collection

went to pick up my phone today after work. the collection took a shorter time than expected.

the staff who returned my phone informed me that they had done a software upgrade. couldn’t really diagnose the auto shut-down problem and the dictionary cannot save the words that i spell for my phone model.

duh!

back from hk

my parents are back from hong kong… finally.

seems like they’ve enjoyed this trip very much and bought quite a few things back. visited disneyland for an entire day, taking rides and even staying back for the fireworks!

the cold weather was manageable since they brought enough warm clothing.

they made a trip to eat at sweet dynasty, shopped at the usual malls, and prayed at the temples.

my mum gushed that the range of chinese new year decorations available there is so much more extensive and prettier. and she bought some really nice hongbaos back.

ict shortened

yeah! received notification that my ict has been reduced from the original 3 weeks to about 10 days.

the best thing?

now it commences on 13 february, a more culturally-correct date after the 15th day of the lunar new year. at least we can celebrate the occasion with family and friends if we wanted to instead of rushing to book-in.

nokia care @ wheelock

sent my 6260 for servicing while it’s still under warranty. been slightly cranky for the past week.

the phone shut down by itself several times after i had entered my pin number. on another occasion, it “hung” when it was starting up. didn’t know that phones nowadays are supposed to last only 1 year. tsk, tsk, tsk…

my previous 8310 lasted me more than 3 years and was still working fine when i traded it in.

waited for more than half an hour before my number was called at the counter. the guy told me i can only collect my phone back 2 days later. very efficient, hor? my goodness! imagine if i haven’t a spare phone…

on a separate note, i heard that a colleague had recently bought the new o2 atom and it was a totally bad experience. the os seems to be slow and unstable. the problems never really went away even after he got a brand-new replacement from the manufacturer.

my, my… must have been a nightmare considering the small fortune the phone costs. and technology is supposed to make your life easier, not miserable.

guess the mobile phone has intertwined so deeply into our everyday lives to the extent that when it’s not working properly or lost, we feel disconnected and “disabled”.

hello janet [and grace]

janet called to ask if i’m interested to go hong kong café for supper last night. she said eric had sms-ed her about going there to eat. i readily agreed since i quite like the food there and there was no dinner at home anyway.

when i reached eunos mrt, i tried to withdraw some cash from the atm but the machine just refused to surrender its money. and it doesn’t seem to have run out of cash. bizarre!

got a lift from eric from the station to the café. there was a good crowd considering it's 11+ on a saturday night. thankfully, we didn’t have to try too hard for a parking lot and table.

they’ve printed new menus since the last time i visited and there’re new items added. wait a minute… the prices have increased! :(

my favourite soup noodles now costs $1 more at $7.50, a whopping increase of 15%! gosh, i wish i get that kind of pay increment. :P

again, i’m very much tempted by the pictures on the menu to over-order. hehe…

janet tried the soup noodles on my assurance that’s it good while jason ordered the fried beef hor fun. it really smells heavenly when served, so much so that the guy sitting at the next table pointed out jason’s hor fun to the waitress and said he wanted to order the same dish.

eric and tracy decided to be adventurous and order something which they have not tried. eric had the fried pork ribs hor fun and tracy had the dry wanton beef noodles. both gave thumbs up for their choices.

janet was keen to go on to the desserts since everything tasted good so far. she went for the coconut showdown and jason had the mango showhand.

eric egged me on to order more desserts to share. decided on the black glutinous rice with vailla ice-cream, bo luo bao and peanut butter french toast.

actually, the coconut showdown is the same as our black glutinous rice dessert with the addition of coconut flavoured pudding which janet commented that she could hardly discern any coconut fragrance. eric remarked that the black glutinous rice dessert is a little bland for his liking but i think it's ok for me.

the french toast was diet-busting oily and too sweet ’cos it was deep-fried and i had been too generous with the syrup. oops! :P

i prefer the version at tong shui café. so there’s at least something which they can do better than hong kong café. :) haha…

overall, we enjoyed our supper and i had over-ate again.

burp!

raise the red laterns

red latern is the theme for paragon’s chinese new year decorations this year.

not the usual big and round type of old-styled laterns with yellow tassels but a modern, streamlined hexagonal version that’s tastefully chic and yet auspicious enough for the tradition-minded folks with it’s deep red hue. something very consistent with their upmarket clientele and mall image.

nice!

dinner @ home

no dinner at home tonight ’cos my parents had left for hong kong for a 6-day trip this morning. they’ll be visiting disneyland on this trip.

didn’t tag along since they’re traveling with some retiree friends of my dad and i don’t know any of them. plus they booked the tour barely 3 weeks ago.

the weather should be great… the news on tv forecasted temperatures between 15 and 17 degree celsius. a chance to be stylishly wrapped up in cool jackets, scarves and boots. might be a bit too cold for my parents though but still they can’t wait to go.

i’m also reluctant to join them since there aren’t many sales or suitable apparel for our climate in season now. actually i’ve been to hong kong a few years back with janet, doris and thomas in january too.

that was a trip made primarily to attend jacky cheung’s concert at the coliseum. a budget trip made via priceline where the 4 of us shared a room and flew united airlines. anyway, i digress.

since i’m back from work “early” [by my standards] at around 7+ in the evening, i decided to cook dinner since i didn’t feel like eating out.

went to the ntuc supermarket to shop for my dinner, while there, called my sis to tell her that i’m cooking. picked up some salad greens, 3 different types of mushrooms [shiitake, honshimeiji & oyster] and some chicken thighs. the bill came up to about $15.

dinner menu consisted of
* garden salad with sesame dressing,
* sautéed mushrooms with oyster sauce and
* baked honey mustard chicken thighs with mixed spices.

the sesame dressing from mccormick tasted different from the japanese one that i usually use. it’s fuller flavoured and tasted almost like the sesame dip that’s provided by those sichuan hotpot restaurants.

the mushrooms were actually too much for 2 persons but both of us finished it up anyway. the chicken thighs were cooked just right and tender although the marinade turned out quite watery.

overall, my sis is happy enough to wash the dishes for the dinner that i’ve prepared. :)

hari raya haji

have not been out because of the rain these 2 days. decided to go holland village for brunch with my sis. had wanted to eat at café provence but my sis changed her mind and wanted to have noodles so my mum came along too.

went to crystal jade lamian xiaolongbao. they have a set menu promotion for 2, 3 and 4 persons where you can choose from a reduced selection of the menu.

for the 3-person set meal at $37.80++, it includes a cold dish, a hot dish, a lamian, a fried rice and 3 servings of dianxin. we chose the jelly with sesame oil, egg white with crabmeat, hot & sour soup lamian, fried rice with vegetable and prawns, xiaolongbao, guotie and shredded radish pastry.

unfortunately, my favourite hongyou chaoshou is not available for the set meal otherwise it’ll be perfect. stuff myself silly ’cos my mum didn’t eat a lot.

after the meal, we went to take a look at anthro which sells all sorts of bric-a-brac including bags from god [imported from hong kong].

next we went to lim’s at holland shopping centre to look at their range of chinese new year decorations. they stocked this range of very life-like apples, peaches, oranges, etc that looks so real. my mum was tempted to buy some but baulked at the $3.50 per piece price tag. then we went grocery shopping at cold storage.

no trip to holland village is complete without me buying some bread home from café provence. just too bad the mini chocolates are sold out. :(

very wet weather

arrghhh… it’s still raining non-stop today!

amazingly, it has been raining since the early hours of sunday till now… and it doesn’t seem to abate any time soon.

have been holed up at home reading john grisham’s the broker since yesterday.

heavy downpour

gosh… it does feel like december all over again with such heavy downpour throughout the day. just the weather to do nothing but doze at home. :)

my sympathies to the guys involved in the terrorist attacks exercise at mrt stations and bus interchange today. your sacrifice of getting out of bed so early on a sunday morning when the rest of singapore is slumbering under their warm quilts deserves a special mention.

a salute to you folks for helping to make singapore a safer place for us all.

those who decried the inconvenience of the exercise ought to be dragged out of their beds and made to stand in the rain for being so unappreciative. hehe…

great world city

met up with johann and diane at great world city… wanted to pass diane the anne geddes wall calendar that i bought for her at the sale.

their saturday routine is to have lunch there with janelle and diane’s mum, followed by kiddy rides for janelle and finishing with grocery shopping at cold storage.

today, i learnt which are janelle’s favourite shops at great world city and her favourite ride there as well. now i even know her favourite toy at her favourite shop!

although she was running all over the place and being a handful generally, she’s still refuses to let me carry her. guess i need to buy more cookies. :P haha…

new look @ capital tower

my first workout of the year and the first time i’m at the capital tower gym since the re-opening on the 3rd after the renovations.

had not been working out regularly in december… partly because i had been busy at work, shopping for presents and laziness. not to mention that capital tower was closed for about 10 days.

feels good to workout again… pushed myself a bit. oh man, think my muscles are going to ache for more than a few days. :(

the newly renovated gym now has a more consistent look with the rest of the branches and a welcomed addition of the drinks bar. yeah!

any downside? i miss my channel 5 and 8 programmes on the tv screens. :(

c-jade express @ wisma

met up with alex for dinner… since he doesn’t have a dinner place in mind, i suggested the new c-jade express.

fortunately we were able to get a table easily, but had to share the table when it got crowded later.

the café operates on the now popular mode of placing your orders and paying at the counter while the food will be served later at the table. the difference here is instead of specifying your table number as practised at café cartel, you collect some number tags similar to mos burger to display on your table.

find that this is a less efficient way of serving the food as the staff have to go round and round looking for the number tags. would have been faster if they just have to serve it to the correct table numbers.

alex ordered the barbequed meat set that comes with a choice of 2 meats, a side serving of vegetables and a small serving of soup. while i had the grilled pork chop set that comes with a choice of soft drink. frankly, i’m disappointed with the pork chop. it’s neither tender nor tasty.

i also ordered black pepper potato wedges that does not even have a hint of black pepper. the texture of the wedges tasted like they’ve been boiled in water before they were deep-fried.

what could be worse? the wedges were not even warm!

and i regretted ordering the milk tea… it was too sweet and tasted like the teh tarik i can get for free from my office vending machine! argghh…

overall, i’m rather disappointed with the items that i tried today at c-jade express. it doesn’t seem to have meet the standards that i’ve come to expect from the crystal jade group of restaurants.

happy new year

hope you folks had a great time counting down the last hours of 2005 and welcoming 2006.

i was pretty bored at home so after dinner i went to sk's place to catch up and he plied me with drinks... argh... now i'm having a hangover.

it has been such a long time since i had drunk this much. and i don't usually have hangovers... that's not to say that i'm a good drinker, i just don't usually drink enough to have one as i seldom have more than 2 or 3 drinks a night.

so have you made your resolutions for the new year?

well, for lazy me... my resolution is always to be a better person every year. it's sounds like one of the those vague but feel-good kind of new year resolution. but i truly mean it and believe that no matter who or what you're now, you can always improve on yourself.

oh well, i guess i'm an eternal optimist...

i also resolve to spend more time with my family and friends because i know that one can never take things for granted and expect them to be there for you always.

lastly, i should also resolve to workout and attend my yoga classes more diligently so that i can eat more of my favourite desserts and cakes more often. hehe...

let's toast to more good times in 2006 for one and all!

ps: to my loyal blog-readers, i'll fill in the "missing" days for the last week or so of entries when i can find the time. :)