sun with moon @ wheelock

this dinner was set up 2 weeks ago… yes, not easy to coordinate considering that we have to accommodate the quarter-end closing for some of us and a business trip for another.

sl and ph were early, they had already finished an appetiser when i reached the restaurant at 7:30 pm. yup, they’re that hungry.

we had a booth seat furthest away from the entrance. most private and good for conversations but also meant that service was difficult to come by.

since janet had sms-ed doris to say that they’ll be late as most couples with kids tend to be, we proceeded to order appetisers first.

i ordered the sun salad and yam cake while doris ordered the agedashi dofu.

sl and ph went on to order the okonomiyaki.

the sun salad came in a bottle. the waitress gave a bubble tea “mechanical doll” shake to it after pouring in the sesame dressing. the yam cake was bland in a delicate, japanese way.

the okonomiyaki had lots of cabbage and only half an oyster in the piece that i had. :(

by the time we’re about done with our food, cayden finally arrived with his entourage of janet, jason and nora. :) hehe…

cayden was in a good mood… we passed him around the table. haha…

i ordered the salmon kamameshi which is like a metallic version of our claypot rice. not a very big portion though. if not for the appetisers and the desserts later, i don’t think i’ll be full.

had warabi matcha which is green tea ice cream with green tea jelly cubes. nice!

the bill for me came to about $37. slightly expensive but a good place to go to for the ambience and when you feel like splurging.

jail sentence

yes, singapore has scored another “first”.

the 2 guys charged under the sedition act for posting racist remarks online have been convicted.

28-year-old Benjamin Koh Seng Huat, a kennel keeper at an animal shelter, has been sentenced to one month's jail. Separately, the court sentenced 25-year-old former assistant marketing manager, Nicholas Lim Yew, to serve one day in jail and a maximum fine of $5,000.

In passing sentences, Senior District Judge Richard Magnus said the two had crossed the red line by wantonly breaching the basic ground rules. He said passing a deterrent sentence was necessary so that such offending acts are tackled early and contained.

The judge also said that young Singaporeans may have short memories that race and religion are sensitive issues.

He said callous and reckless remarks on racial or religious subjects had the potential to cause social disorder, regardless of which medium or forum they are expressed.

The judge added the right of one to propagate an opinion on the Internet is not and cannot be an unfettered right.

It is only appropriate social behaviour of every Singapore citizen and resident to respect the other races in view of Singapore's multi-racial society.

channelnewsasia.com

as much as i recognise that what they have done should not be condoned, but has the law been overly heavy handed in these 2 instances?

would not a warning and a fine suffice?

as noted by the judge, young singaporeans do not have any memories of race and religion issues because we’re “blind” to them.

we grew up in a multi-racial and multi-religious society. having to interact with people of different races and religions is part of our everyday lives. i don’t think our generation or those after us judge a person on the basis of his race or religion anymore.

neither do i feel that racial or religious hatred can be so easily propagated by a few bigots here because we do think of ourselves as singaporeans first and foremost regardless of creed and colour.

that had been evidenced by the reportedly more than 200 responses to 1 of the offender’s online posting.

as i’ve mentioned before, i’ve never heard of the sedition act prior to this episode. i agree that ignorance is not a valid defence for breaking the law. but shouldn’t the investigators looked deeper into the intentions behind the remarks of the 2 accused?

were they really made in an attempt to incite racial and religious hatred or out of hot-headedness and idiocy? shouldn’t the law distinguish the difference?

the blogging community has waited with abated breath for the judgment.

while many have argued that blogs are personal journals that are meant to be read by a selected group of people, the fact remains that these private diaries exist on the web which is accessible by practically anyone in the world.

the sentencing has clearly acknowledge that the internet is a mass medium just like your trusty newspapers and other paper publications, that means the same standards will be applied uniformly to it… at least here in singapore.

that said, maybe it’s time for the internet-savvy younger generation to be media-savvy as well.

ippt

the dreaded 4-letter word for every [unfit] nsmen...

gordon finally cleared his ippt today after 2 attempts. he had some problems with clearing the 2.4 km run under 13:00

think i better start training for my ippt soon since my ict is coming up next february… need to work on my pull-ups and running liao…

changing appetites @ marina square

ms tan and madam tan joined pl, serene and myself for dinner. :) had to queue for table since it’s friday night.

i had the teriyaki black pepper pork ribs. it came with fries and a serving of coleslaw. the food was ok. nothing to shout about.

pl had beef. jeanette had a seafood pasta while serene and marilyn had fish. pl remarked that her beef was nice and tender. the rest didn’t have any complaints with their dinner.

changing appetites feels like a copy of café cartel. even the menu and pricing are quite similar. in fact, there’s a café cartel just 2 units away.

overall, it’s just a casual place to catch up with friends over decent food if you don’t want to spend too much.

after that, we adjoined to bakerzin at millennia walk for desserts.

stuffed.

one george street

had to re-arrange my yoga schedule because poh ling can only meet for friday dinner since she’s going off to attend a colleague’s wedding at malacca on saturday.

went china square food court for a light dinner of fried fish soup. skipped the rice as i intended to do my run before the yoga class.

sat by the pool to let my fish dinner settle. cool breeze. nice view.

wouldn’t mind working out here on weekdays except it’s much further from the mrt than capital tower is. furthermore, there’s no covered walkway from the station unlike capital tower.

had a good run on the treadmill, about 5 km including warming up and cooling down. sweated buckets as usual.

why don’t the treadmills here have built-in fans like the ones at paragon? :(

did some stretching while waiting for the bodyjam class to end. noticed herlina was in the class. issey is already here, talked to him bit.

herlina was surprised to see me. told her i’m there because i can’t make it for friday’s class. she asked me about serena’s class and i told her it’s faster-paced than issey’s.

saw some members previously working out at capital tower attending the class. quite surprised to see that they’re quite flexible too… hmm… must be regulars.

typical issey’s class, not too “siong”. a good crowd considering it’s at such a late timing.

however, i wasn’t very “comfortable” with the studio as there weren’t mirrors in front for me to check/correct my postures.

but the nike mats here are thicker and had better traction because it’s the more expensive double-sided version.

aquafit

feeling kinda bored with my workout routine lately so decided to go and try out the water aerobics class at capital tower.

rodney, the instructor, tried something new today.

instead of the usual aerobics moves, we basically had body combat in the pool. too bad there weren’t any audio tracks accompaniment. that would have been swell.

jabbed, punched, hooked and kicked my way for 1 hour with nary a drop of sweat. we even did partner work!

cool.

run

went for my run again… feeling rather lethargic today… i think i need a running buddy to push myself further. sigh...

timing: 27 mins 30 secs

bali bomb blast

it happened again…

closed to 3 years after the first bombing in october 2002, suicide bombers have targeted once again the resort island of bali, a popular destination for many australians and japanese.

the tourism industry there had barely recovered from the last incident is now plunged into another period of uncertainty with cancellations for the next 2 months not helped by the reports of casualties and injuries filing in.

although smaller-scaled damages were wrought this time round, it is no less horrific with more than 20 deaths and around 100 injured. most of them tourist from media reports.

scary.