ndp preview

thanks to doris who's forever so lucky to win the ballot for the ndp tickets, i'm here @ the padang with doris, thomas & my sis watching the preview today.

the last time i watched the parade "live" @ the padang was before i went to kindergarten. yup, it was THAT long ago.

here's a shot of the 4 of us in our ndp reds. this picture was taken @ carlton 18th floor lobby. nice?

we had gone to mx & kl's room to hang out after lunch. also checked out the pictures of the bridal & evening gowns that mx had tried out the day before.

raffles city was swarmed in a sea of red when we made our way to the padang at 4:30pm. the security measures were stringent. all bags were scanned using the same x-rays machines that are used for baggages at the airport.

the military & police were out in full force, a clear deterrent against any extremist groups hoping to gain their 15 mins of fame. but also a very visible sign of the times that we're in.

with the recent bombings in london and egypt, how could singapore afford to let our guard down?

especially since we've been previously identified as a potential target for terrorist activities.

nevertheless, the additional security measures coupled with strong military/police presence were reassuring to say the least.

the preview went on like clock-work without any glitches as is expected of all things in singapore. the fireworks were beautiful as usual.

and reciting the pledge and singing the national anthem together with 25,000 other singaporeans and friends of singapore is a truly goosebumps-inducing experience.

i'm proud to be a singaporean.

lunch @ wah lok

luckily the heavy rain became a light drizzle by the time i left my home for lunch at 1pm. such cool & rainy weather always makes me feel like it's dec. gives me a festive holiday feeling.

waited for my sis at raffles city. she's just got off work and will be joining me & my friends for lunch. kl & mx were already seated by the time we walked over to the hotel. they had checked-in for the night to celebrate their rom.

congratulated the newly-minted mrs chua.

ordered the usual dianxin staples such as shao mai, xia jiao, cha shao bao, porridge and some other dianxin items. some of the steamed dianxin arrived quite quickly. don't know how long they've been sitting in the steamer just waiting for our orders to come in.

thankfully, none of them were soggy.

find the century egg porridge sub-standard and the dianxin so-so only, nothing fantastic. i feel that man fu yuan @ intercontinental is better.

desserts were also nondescript. doris had walnut cream while mx & kl shared a mango pudding. i also shared one with my sis. doris kept wondering how the walnut cream will taste like. taste like walnut lah... duh! she was hoping that it'll taste like peanut instead of almond cream which she doesn't like. haha...

the bill came to $98 for 5 of us. average for a dianxin lunch at a chinese restaurant.

heavy downpour

woke up at 10+ in the morning... hmm... the sky is overcast. looks like it's going to rain cats & dogs soon. arrgghhhh... that's not good since i've got a lunch appointment with doris.

kl sms-ed to say mx & him can join us for lunch after collecting his new flat's keys.

the heavy downpour started at 11-something with strong, gusty winds. doris called to say it's the same at yishun too. oh no, does that mean a wet ndp preview as well? hope not...


* [read on sun times the next day, that a ship ran aground at sentosa due to the very strong winds.]

lunch tomorrow

meeting doris for dianxin lunch at wah lok @ carlton hotel tomorrow. it's quite a popular restaurant for dianxin on weekends and a reservation is an absolute must.

haven't been there before, but my parents find the food ok and my uncle especially likes the glutinous rice very much. ky, however, finds the dianxin awful and not worth a 2nd visit.

let's see how good or bad the food is...

mx & kl

my ns pal, kl from 42 sar is going to rom this friday, 29 jul.

here's wishing him & mx a lifetime of love and happiness!
and lots of bundles of joy!

hehe... the wedding dinner is scheduled on 2 dec, so got to start saving for the hongbao liao. :P

skate @ east coast

went skating with my skate gang [doris, kl & ky] today after almost 1 month. doris' husband joined us since he's not working today. while bride-to-be, mx gave the skate a miss to stay out of the sun and to avoid any mishaps.

surprisingly, the weather was fine at east coast even though it rained heavily in the north and was drizzling at my place.

our kind driver, ky picked us from clementi as usual. btw, we only skate when ky is available to ferry us to east coast because taking the bus is so inconvenient. besides, we need his car to be our mobile locker to store our barang-barang. :P

got stung by mosquitoes while gearing up. hmm... i hope it's not dengue since we've never had any problems with mosquitoes since we started skating there for over a year.

2nd time using my new skates, kinetic 10.0 after getting it last month, cost me a small fortune. not quite used to it yet 'cos i'm feeling some tightness around my arch area. anyway, i'm still not fast enough to overtake our speed skater, ky who zoomed past on his velocity.

did our usual circuit from bedok jetty to fort road and back. the track was crowded near the mcDonald's area as usual. from experience, the kids, whether they're on bikes or skates, are a menace since they've no concept of "road safety" and for the sake of my dear life i always give them a wide berth.

dinner at east coast food centre... was stumped with what to order since my favourite prawn noodle with pork ribs stall isn't open and the queue for the satay mee hoon is exceptionally long tonight.

settled on wonton noodles since thomas was ordering. ordered rojak to share. had 2 bbq chicken wings, a fruit juice and a teh tarik as well.

ahhh... i'm fulfilled & satisfied. :)

my fav bun

ta-dah!!!! check out my fav tea-break snack of the moment...

it's the yummy "bo luo cha shao bao" from ho kee @ bedok central.

it costs only s$1 each and so far, i couldn't resist buying one every time i'm there for lunch ever since i discovered it a few weeks back. i think one of the staff there already recognises me...

she stopped her colleague mid-sentence to say that i'm only there for the buns and nothing else when her colleague tried asking me if i wanted anything else.

then there's another staff that'll scream: " 2 bo" to the cashier when i make my purchase of 2 buns.

my friend's wedding dinner

received a call from an old classmate from SIM inviting me to his wedding dinner. that was a pleasant surprise since we’ve not met up for years… but unfortunately the 2 closer friends that i’ve kept in touch with were not able to make it due to various reasons.

arrgghhh… the possibility of seating with a table of strangers became very real then. being an introvert who takes time to warm up to people, i must say that it wasn’t an experience that i’ll relish. attending wedding dinner of old classmates have always been a reunion of sorts to me, where you could catch up with people whom were a big part of your life, people whom you meet almost on a daily basis previously. but how do you catch up if they’re not there at all? duh…

nkf $aga

the whole nation is now fixated with the pay & bonu$ of the ceo of nkf, and his other perk$.

for the record, he'$ paid s$25,000 a month and ha$ been rewarded with 10 to 12 month$ of bonu$ yearly for the la$t 3 year$.

exce$$ive? maybe...
well-de$erved? definitely.

i'm playing the devil'$ advocate here. imagine thi$...

you did well in your job. your manager i$ very happy with your performance and rewarded you well above the norm. how would you feel if $ome auditor$ or $enior management come$ around later to $ay that you've been paid/rewarded excessively?

i mean, come on. you were rewarded for your out$tanding performance. you didn't exactly a$k for it. it'$ like being penali$ed for a job done well.

$ounds unfair, right? doe$ working in a non-profit organi$ation change$ thing$ that much?

like it or not, the popular $aying "if you pay peanut$, you'll get monkey$" hold$ true. and you're talking about getting $omeone to run nkf, a very $ucce$$ful charitable operation lauded not just in $ingapore but around the world too.

come to think of it that'$ the $ame ju$tification given when we pay our minister$ a more than decent pay package 'co$ talent$ command a premium and $uch talent$ e$pecially valuable & mobile in our little red dot of an i$land $houldn't be expected to make too big a $acrifice when they come forth to $erve the country.

my birthday "celebration"

after the big 3 '0', my close friends from my jc decided to stop celebrating birthdays for each other. not that we're afraid of growing old and revealing our age but to avoid the hassles of buying presents for everyone.

anyway, it's not a big deal to me since it's just another day at work and age is just a number.

however, my colleague, marilyn feels otherwise... she feels that it's your own special day out of the 365 days in a year and was utterly horrified to learn that i don't have any dinner plans and have even entertained thoughts of going to the gym. therefore, she offer to "sacrifice" herself to have dinner with me. the caveat? i've to buy her dinner lor...

we had a good & rather healthful dinner at aiwo @ raffles city. the place was rather empty tonight as were the other shops at raffles city.

the reason? the ioc is convening to vote for the hosting city of the olympic 2012 summer games and the results will be announced to the world tonight. a truly momentous occasion befitting my birthday. :P

it was only after i got home that i found out that paris had lost to london, much to my surprise. my sympathies since i thought they would win.

another surprise came, when my sis brought out this cake from breadtalk to celebrate my birthday. forced to take some "silly" pictures with the cake and shared it with my parents & sis.

burp... life is good!