Intolerant

It's befitting that this be an end-of-year post. Life in Singapore this year has had its many, many ups and downs.

Recently, news of worldwide economies struggling to stay afloat till the end of the year have been making their rounds and people are generally holding on till the end of the year... I'll fix it in the new year... Procrastination is rampant. Even then, it looks like there's little impact of that here, people are still chugging along with their daily life, lost in their own little world.

Meanwhile, a minor disruption such as the 20-year old subway train tracks recently give out at a certain part of the track have had residents dissing the provider like the intolerant people that they are... *sigh* Someone commented in the newspapers that the locals have been so supremely pampered that an offered alternative transport provided is just not good enough. How would they survive out in the 'real' world? London's subway is constantly unreliable but Londoners and visitors accept that. No one really grumbles.

After living here for so many years, I'm still unable to call this place my home. Like staying in a bad job with great workmates, I fear that I will not be able to tolerate the locals' degenerating attitude for another 20 years...

If we die, it is our Maths teacher's fault

People say kids these days have it easy what with iPhones, iPads, computers and air-conditioning while attending school. But worrying reports coming out of China tells us otherwise. Kids have been committing suicide because they are unable to finish their homework!!! I don't know if I would've used this excuse when I was younger and in school, primary school at that!

Kids who take more time to understand a concept (especially in Maths) should be cut some slack. Teachers should be responsible for their actions, because looking at the reports, the kids are afraid of getting scolded and probably humiliated in front of their peers so badly, for not completing their homework, that they have to resort to suicide.

F1 : Abu Dhabi

Last race of the season and here's to hoping that Vettel wins. I can't believe how supportive I am of him. He's such a kid when he's not in the car, but once he gets behind the wheel of that Red Bull, everything changes. He's focused, drives without any huge mistakes or impatience and everyone in his camp hopes that no one gets into his path. It's the same with driving on the roads. I always hope that the other drivers stay within their lane and not interrupt my driving.

With Abu Dhabi being behind here by 4 hours, and this being an evening race, it's going to finish late so I'll post this first and sincerely wish Sebby a safe and pleasant race!

The Flu

I've always hated being sick... bludging school, work and getting pampered are pros but the massive con... is that I can't swallow tablets for nuts!

Anyways, I've somehow managed to catch the flu virus this weekend. Sucks being sick when there's no work or school, right? It's a strange virus for me, starts with a sore throat, moves to a cough and then a runny nose. No fever... I think.

And since I hate taking medicine and coughing, I've discovered that Manuka honey sweets help to fight the onset. The sore throat lasted a day, missed the cough and I'm now in the runny nose stage and I haven't found anything to stop it. But since there's no pain (just the inconvenience of your nose leaking without control and having to blow it ever so often) I'll just let it run its course... have to give the virus a win or the next attack will be worse, right?

Binary

In binary terms, today (11.11.11) works out to be 1+2+4+8+16+32=63, a totally random number.

And yet, plenty of weddings all over the world, as it's a pretty easily memorable date.
And some even find the numbers lucky, for what reason, I don't want to find out.
Here's a quick post to mark the occasion!

Food Blog : The Manhattan Fish Market

Bad, horrible, never-come-back-again place!

Oh... why did we decide to walk in?
But this place is always packed, always has a queue out the front...
Doesn't mean it's yummy!
It's supposed to be similar to that other place...
I.don't.think.so!!

The Plaza Singapura branch recently re-opened, not sure if they just went through massive renovations to the place or that the owners changed. Something about the fact that the servers weren't all that experienced (like first time service crews) should've rang some alarm bells in my head, but no... we decided to sit, order, eat and pay.

We started with a bowl of seafood chowder which came in a tiny soup bowl, was watered down and had a hint of seafood taste to it. Then came the fried whitebait on a bed of coleslaw with raisins. Whitebait is supposed to be somewhat fleshy, but these were severely under nourished ones that reminded me of asian anchovies. The vegetables in the coleslaw wasn't fresh nor crunchy and again, not enough dressing.

I had the flame grilled prawns as my main which just meant that the prawns were grilled in the kitchen, covered in a cheese sauce that's lightly flamed with a hand held butane torch in front of you before being served. The sauce was weird to say the least, I couldn't put my finger on the distinct taste and the dish came with fries that looked like they've been re-fried.

The hubs had a fried whole burramundi which was pretty good, surprisingly... the rice which came with it was a little weird, garlic flavoured rice it was.

The plates looked old, porcelain side plates have been stained with the metal scour, plastic drinking glasses cracked but not leaking, serving plates are thin metal bordering on plates found in hawker centers and remember not to use the outer sides of the napkins as one of the servers used it to wipe the side plates dry on a table of four and placed it on the last side plate!

F1 : New Delhi

I can't believe we just stayed back in the hotel room to watch the inaugural Indian F1 with Italian commentary! Talk about die-hard fans!

The commentary sounded pretty good, if only we could understand it.
The race itself was exciting, some crashes with Schummy, Massa and Kobbie being knocked out and Sebby winning! I love the way he races... it's so accurate, it's amazing. Hammie was being his slightly good self this round, maybe he's really on the mend after the last race.

Nexta stoppa... Abu Dhabi and we've gotta go out and enjoy this city!

Vacation time!

I can't believe I'm on holiday again in a couple of day's time and I'm not excited.
It's weird...

We've been planning this holiday for a long while now, usually our holiday plans are pretty last minute but I think we have had this planned for nearly a couple of months now. Maybe that's the reason I'm not excited about it anymore.

This time we're going to be parking ourselves in one city for a whole week! Yes, it's called a lazy holiday. Venice the destination and everyone looks at me a little crazily when I tell them that I'll be there for a week.

There's nothing to do there for a whole week!
Hmm... we'll see about that :)

The thing is, we don't want to do that four cities in a week thing again, it was exhausting and we vaguely remember everything that we saw, if not for the camera. So from now on, we're just going to park ourselves in one city for our holidays and explore the place like it's our home.

Twirl

Do chocolates that have been siting in the fridge for close to eleven years expire? Yes, that's double one, 11, years! I just took out a packet of 3 twirls and they taste absolutely yummy! *grin* I guess we'll find out tomorrow if chocolates do expire!

Cook Curry Day

I have to log this down. The subject was so ridiculous to everyone in more ways than one except the families involved.

A little background on the subject matter. A family from mainland China came over to Singapore and has decided to rent out a government housing board apartment. They live next door to a family who has curry for their meals. Unable to stand the smell of curry, they decided to proceed to an arbitrator to work something out. The outcome was that the family could only cook curry if the China family were not at home. I hear both families agreed to that.

The decision was published in the newspapers, as it was the first of its kind and has riled many, many people. Would the family have to knock on the China family's door, making sure that they were not in, in order to cook curry? For anyone who's eaten yummy curry, you'd know that it takes hours of blending and cooking for the flavours to infuse into the meats before having it as a meal.

My other question is, if the China family was never out at meal times, does that mean the family has to look for alternate dishes to eat? Doesn't it sound like asking a vegetarian to eat meat because there's no more vegetables and tofu?!!!

A facebook page was born and everyone has decided that today would be a cook curry day.

Sleep swaying

I saw the funniest thing on the train back home today... Someone sleep swaying! It was hilarious!!!

If you've ever played the balancing game on a large moving vehicle, you'll know that you have to sway in the opposite direction of the moving vehicle in order to compensate and not tip over.

This guy had it pegged! He was doing it while sleeping!! With one hand holding the pole, every so often he looked like his legs were going to give way. But no, he would automatically straighten himself and life just goes on! Hilarious!!! :D

Channel 124

Having finished all the possible DVDs of Korean dramas in my stash and watching them a few times over... I decided to turn the telly on to check out what's showing. Nothing interesting on the regular channel 115 but, so I surfed and found this channel called 'One'.

'One' is a channel that only shows Korean dramas subtitled in Malay and some of them even have the audio dubbed in Malay! Aren't I glad I speak the language?! *grin* albeit not fluently but enough to realise that the subtitles are pretty close to what's actually being said. My Korean has improved a lot!

Prasarana

New Malay word for today : Prasarana
Which means infrastructure

I would have thought that infrastructure would be infrastruksi or something to that effect, but there's actually a proper Malay word for it. I can't believe how bad my vocabulary has gotten. But then again, I don't remember hearing this word while I was studying in Malaysia.

Anyways, I decided to try to translate an article, which was written in Indonesian (which is quite close to Malay) today and it took me ages, because on top of the fact that I cannot literally translate it, I had to look up certain words to get the actual meaning. Just skimming through the article, you kind of get the gist of what it's trying to say, but to actually translate it, it's plenty of hard work!

Food Blog : Brotzeit

Wanted to have some sausages... ended up ordering a schnitzel! Talk about vast difference *grin* but I'm glad I did. On top of the veal schnitzel which they usually serve, they have decided to have pork ones too. I think in this country, the pork schnitzel is one better than the veal, not as dry.

Maybe it helped, but this particular schnitzel had bacon, mushroom, cheese, onions and parsley stuffed between the meat pieces... *yummo* This place serves yummy french fries too, coated with their secret spices. I can imagine sitting with a few pints of German beers, munching on them...

Bauern Cordon Schnitzel

So behind!

I'm so behind on my posts and I've just realised that I'm almost two months behind! I have titles written with no content, half written blogs with no titles and on some days, I don't even know what I was supposed to write about!

My only excuse... Korean drama... no, make that, addictive Korean drama! Now that I've finished one, I'll try to update as many posts as I can before my brain starts to itch for another one *grin*

Air-condition

Our air-condition is starting to break down. The one in the lounge is no longer useable, it has been sitting there unused for the longest time... since someone complained of the racket it was making and management told us to get someone in to have a look at it. The one in the master bedroom especially, has required more looking into whenever the servicing people are around, twice the gas had to be topped up, which is not a good thing. Once I even caught a glimpse of the wiring above the false ceiling... the insulation has been rotting off and condensation has been dripping onto the false ceiling.

Oh, well, it has served us well, I think. The life span of an air-condition these days is around five years, right? Gone were the days where air-con units stuck out the hole in a wall of the house, those lasts for eons! These days, they don't make them like they used to! But then again, maybe we should really get it regularly serviced... as it is, we only get it serviced twice a year, if we remember, or when the ceiling starts to leak :P

Food Blog : Fish & Co Clementi Mall

Utterly disappointed with today's meal at Fish & Co. After having to clean up the veins from the last meal, I can't believe we actually stepped into this place.

The Clementi Mall was recently opened, another hub with heaps of people streaming through as the mall links to the MRT and bus stations. Nothing else looked appetising and the food court didn't have enough seats to cater for the amount of people milling through it, the hubs and I decided to have dinner here.

Pros
Got our table changed quickly because the air-conditioning was leaking
The hubs ordered the swordfish collar and knowing that it takes a long time to cook, we asked for the chips to come out first

Cons
The air-conditioning was leaking above us
16 sticks of chips came out with one looking rather sorry
Service crew looked like they were new to the business
The person who's wiping tables shouldn't be the one handling new cutlery and napkins
Both our glasses of water weren't properly washed and the hub's one had what looked like a piece of charcoal on the side
Lemon wedges are no longer served with calamari or fish (since when?!)

Looks like we won't be visiting them anytime soon!

16 sticks of chips

A day in MBS

Has it been more than a year? Let me just check that... yes, it's been more than a year since the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) area was opened and the hubs and I just managed to spend a day there. It really has heaps to offer, now that the whole area is up and running. I remember when it first opened, there were hiccups (as a new place would have) and since we weren't interested in going into the casino, we've been putting visiting this place off for the longest time. Well, having taken a weekday off from work, it was the best possible day to visit, sans the casino even!

The MBS area is made up of a three over 50 storey high tower hotel with over 2000 rooms, large convention centers, a sky park on the 57th floor, theater, a casino, a shopping mall and outside, an art science museum and the Helix pedestrian bridge.

Taken from the Art Science Museum looking back at the MBS and shopping mall

Art Science Museum
What's unique about this museum is that it is shaped like a lotus. Circular and not very big, it spans over 3 levels of exhibition space. Dali is being shown currently and I must say that I was impressed with the exhibition.The last time I went to a proper Dali exhibition was back in the year 2000 while visiting London, the tiny one in Brugge recently doesn't count. Two other exhibitions are on at this time, Van Gogh and Shipwreck. I felt it was quite pricey at S$30 per person, but if you purchase a combination ticket with entrance to the Sky Garden, there's a S$5 discount.

Entrance to the Art Science Museum with Dali's Melted Clock

The Lotus of the Art Science Museum

A night view of the Art Science Museum

Theater
The Lion King is showing at the moment. The original season was supposed to finish at the end of May, but seeing that the response has been great, they've extended this season for another two months. Again, not expecting much as it's not in the same class of musicals as The Phantom and Les Miserables, I was pleasantly entertained throughout the show. The storyline and music were all taken from the movie, so anyone who had watched it would know what to expect. A small stage, which made the scenes more focused and the live band, hidden from everyone's view was superb. The characters would come onto the stage from behind, running down the aisles and the props! They were the most eye-catching of all, especially the head gear of Scar and Mufasa.

Shopping mall
In a country as small as Singapore, most of the international brand shops were only located on Orchard Road, the shopping belt of this country, but with the opening of the MBS, they now have a branch here. The layout is almost like Ion where big brands are located on levels one and two and local/smaller brands are located on basements one and two. There's a man-made canal running through a small part of the mall, maybe only 100m long where they provide 'sampan' rides for a fee. I guess they wanted to remind people that the Venetian is also a part of the Sands group.

Sampan rides

Dining
There are a couple of popular restaurants located where the general public can access, and a few within the casino area where guests with entry to the casino can access. There is also a food court, an upmarket one, or one that tries to be upmarket, called Rasapura Masters. It didn't hit me in the beginning that the name was all wrong for a food place that serves food from around the Asian region. Only until I ate my first mouthful of a dish that was supposed to be from KL, did it hit me that they were truly rasapura masters. 'Rasa' means taste and 'pura' means fake in the Malay language, so putting them all together, it's maters of fake taste! And sadly enough they were so spot on for that.

The Helix Bridge
After walking the bridge, I'm still not in awe of it. It's supposed to be constructed ingeniously with the shape of the double helix holding the bridge together, but I still don't see it.

The Helix Bridge

Sky Park
Located up on the 57th floor with an entrance fee of S$20 per person, it really gives a great bird's eye view of the central business district and surroundings. With the purchase of the Art Science Museum ticket, there's a discount of S$5. Lucky for us, it was a clear day. Managed to see far, far into the horizon and there weren't many people blocking access to the edge.

An eastern view from the Sky Park

Food Blog : Fish balls

I'm not a big fan of fish balls. I almost never order them when I'm out, unless I'm recovering from a bout of diarrhea, but look at this!?! Wasn't particularly hungry today, so I ordered a bowl of only fish balls from the Food Opera at Ion. I can't believe I ate 8 of these balls... had to get the hubs to have the rest... just couldn't stomach it. Not that they were yucky, they were actually better than the ones we had at the Singapore Food Trail last week, but it was just one too many fish balls for me!

Fish balls

F1 : Canada

AWESOME!!! I can't believe this Formula 1 race in Canada. What started out to be a boring race has turned into a wet, slippery, incident and accident-full race! Luckily I didn't stay up to watch it last night (this morning), caught the highlights instead. There was a 2 hour wait-out for the rain to stop, visibility was near zero on the race track according to Vettel who was in the lead, what more everyone behind him receiving the spray from his tires!

With the track being wet initially, a couple of cars got smashed and it was with joy that I watched Hamilton crash out. Sadist? No, I just don't like the way he raced. The winner, Button, was driving a good race, coming up from last to win the race has to be saying something, right?! It was Vettel who caved under pressure at the last lap, swerved too wide and Button took the opportunity to overtake and the rest... is history! I wonder what's instore for us in the next race!

Vein-y Prawns

I don't know why I keep doing this to myself, but I do. The hubs and I ended up at the Jurong Point Fish & Co for lunch today and it was a really bad batch of prawns. The chef didn't clean the veins out, so when it came all grilled to me, the veins were sticking out thick and black. Used my warm water to wash the last few... that's how bad it was. Luckily the waiter asked me to fill in a survey... now I wonder if they do read their surveys as this is not the first time I'm complaining about the vein-y prawns!

Food Blog : The Ship

There's a new shopping complex opened called The Nex. It's located in the Serangoon area and above a MRT station. I don't know how we did it, but the hubs and I managed to spend 6 hours here. Could be because I was looking for a cover for my phone, having dropped it the other day and cracked the old cover. I managed to find one, leather, hopefully it will last longer than the 10 months the previous one did *grin*.

Anyways, the shopping complex... huge! There are four floors above ground and two under, but not a lot of different shops as compared to the other dozen of shopping malls littered all over Singapore, but there was a shop called King & King Wong. Catchy, huh? They sell household items in its two storey shop within the mall. Didn't get to walk through the whole shop as I wasn't looking for household items. If you're looking for out of the ordinary glass decorative cupcake stands, interesting jars, vases, glass plates, cutlery or curtains, this would be the place to go.

Right, this is a blog about food. The Ship. I can't believe the restaurant chain is still around. When I was little and living in Malaysia, my family used to go to this restaurant to celebrate our birthdays. It was a treat! And I remember that I always ordered the chicken maryland. It was called that on the menu and it's still called that on the menu! Although there's no bow of a ship sticking out from where the restaurant is, they try their best with the interior, the hubs mentioned that it smelled like a boat... probably dipped the ropes in kerosine or something...

So halfway through the meal, I start to think... was it ever this many things on the plate? There's a bit of bacon, some corn, grilled potatoes, broiled carrots, a corn pancake and the breaded chicken itself! That's a lot to eat for a kid, isn't it? Maybe my parents took a lot of the other stuff from our plates... hmm... Anyways, the chicken was nicely done, good portion and I managed to finish the plate up. Was actually wondering what happened to the bread sticks, which weren't served here... I vaguely remember chomping on the bread sticks while waiting for our main meal to come.

Chicken Maryland

Food Blog : Singapore Food Trail

If it weren't for an IRC gathering, I don't think the hubs and I would even know this place existed. Recently opened (late Feb 2011) the Singapore Food Trail was established to revitalise a dying market of olden day reminiscing. That's the thing that hit me while I walked through the place.

Can't say much about the food as I didn't get to try a lot of it... thinking that the East Coast Laguna food center serves better food... but this, Green Spot! It has been EONS since I last had one. It was so long ago that I didn't realise that it's actually a non-aerated drink! Startling sweet and served here in an old aluminum cup. I think the last time I had one was when I was a teenager! For those of you who have no idea what this is, it's similar to F&Ns Orange crush without the gas.

Green Spot!

Food Blog : db Bistro Moderne

A couple of days ago, I went to db Bistro at Marina Bay Sands for lunch and had a yummy time. Tried the French Burger which was loaded with a medium done beef patty, bacon, onions, and a sundried tomato sauce, I think. I asked to change the burger bun to a normal one as I wasn't sure the Black Pepper bun would be a little too spicy for me. All in all, the combination was yummy. For dessert, I tried the Strawberry Pistachio mousse tart, yum o yum! Apologies, no pictures as the company I was with didn't allow for pictures, maybe the next time I'm there.

Food Blog : Shokudo Raffles City

Usually on the weekends, our food timings are all screwed up because we wake up late, have breakfast, wait 5 hours before lunch, which is usually around 2 or 3 and then wait another 6 hours before dinner. Anyways, today was one of those days. We were out shopping around the city hall area and didn't want to go back before having dinner coz we know we'll not want to come out and end up having instant noodles. So we ended up at this Japanese market-concept-dining place.

The concept is similar to Marche, where we're given a card upon entry, you go around ordering what you want to eat and the people taking the orders will fill your card up with your order. At the end of the meal, you present your card to the cashier and pay.

I wasn't feeling particularly hungry, as it was only 4 hours after our last meal... so I decided to have dessert, waffles with banana and chocolate syrup. Can't say that it wasn't yummy, it was just too much fluffy batter but the banana was freshly peeled and sliced. Marche used to have waffles, and theirs were yummier. Can't compare to the ones in Belgium, of course, but we're not in that neck of woods, so I'll have to live with what I can find here.

Waffle with Banana and Chocolate syrup

Four bars in one night

Last night, we had a little going away drinks for a workmate who has decided to move on to greener pastures. Mind you, this was the first of my 'going away drinks' do and boy was I in for a treat! These dudes' idea of drinks is hopping from one bar to another, checking out the crowd at the same time and moving quickly when nothing's happening. It was a Thursday night, so the crowd was alright, people do come out to party on a Thursday night over here in Singapore.

I realised when I came back in the wee hours of this morning that four bars in one night is all I can take. It wasn't like in Australia where you'd hop from one bar to another and these bars being next to each other or down the road. Here, the bars that we went to were all in different areas about a 5 to 10 minute drive away. Luckily with Singapore being so small and the bars all located around certain areas, it was pretty easy hopping from bar to bar. As I was checking out the none too fantastic crowd, I kept wondering if these people actually have work to do, or if they would be able to function properly having had 3-4 hours of sleep. Maybe it has something to do with age... and I won't even go there *grin*

Food Blog : Island Cafe - Tangs

It has been many, many years since I last came up to the 4th floor of the Tangs shopping complex in Orchard. They've renovated it somewhat from how I remember it to be and the hubs and I decided to have tonight's dinner in the Island Cafe. It's a cosy cafe with a little Malaysian nostalgic atmosphere. The cafe serves mostly Malaysian dishes such as Chicken Rice, Curry Laksa and Kuay Teow.

We ordered the Kuay Teow and Black Pepper Soft Shell Crab Tung Fun. Yummy the dishes were, not too bad for pricey plates of hawker fare. The Kuay Teow was extremely oily towards the end, but they've added the right amount of black sweet sauce, so as to not drown the taste, and there's a little of the burnt wok taste to the noodles. Fresh seafood, always a good thing and some slices of chinese sausage.

Kuay Teow

Black Pepper Soft Shell Crab Tung Fun

Whatsapp

Whatsapp was finally available to download for free today and downloaded it I did!

Talk about cheapo, but I haven't paid for any of the applications that I have on my phone *grin* I guess good things do come to those who wait?

Food Blog : Newton Food Center

A few nights ago, the hubs and I finally ventured to the Newton Food Center. For those of you who are not aware, the Newton Food Center is a haven for tourist. Prices of local dishes are hefty but it's located in an easily accessible area which would explain the high prices.

The place was bustling for a Saturday night, as it would be, and we totally ordered from the wrong places thus didn't enjoy the food. Think whatever we ate gave us a slight tummy ache. We will have to go back some other day and give it another try, this time ordering food from the right stalls!

We Doodle

Ever since the iPhone came out, developers have been given a new lease in life and I really thank them for coming up with the kind of games that they do, and working around the trademarks/proprietary issues. Just one big one was Scrabble and how after all the hooha, Words with Friends was born.

Anyways, I was hoping that something similar to Pictionary would come out and it is finally here! We Doodle it's called and it's so addictively cute! I'm so addicted to this game, which was introduced to me by my ex-workmates, that I've been playing it non-stop since yesterday! Now I just have to get me a stylus and maybe a bigger screen! *wide grin*

F1 : Monaco

Excitement is in the air! A couple of crashes, some interesting maneuvers/overtaking and all against the amazing backdrop of Monaco. One day... I will visit this place, walk the streets of the race route!

The best part of this race is how after the 5th or 6th position, Vettel, who was leading from start to finish, was lapping everyone!!! Excellent car? Amazing driver? I don't know, but it was an exciting race!

Lamb, Snag, Ham Jam!

Spotted in Cold Storage. What are they selling these days?! I'm sure it's ok to put this jam-my thing onto your meat, but wouldn't it stuff up the marination? Plus the fact that they're not cheap, imported from Australia at S$17.50 per bottle

Anyways, when I first saw it, I thought the worst! Literally Jam made out of Lamb or Snag!!! Eu... which would explain the above paragraph. But have no fear, it's actually Apply Mint for Lamb, Smoked Tomato for Snags and Cherry for Ham.

Food Blog : Yakiyakibo

With a name like that (read yucky, yucky bo) you'd think the food wouldn't be great, which would explain why we never stepped into this place, but I was proven wrong today. Yakiyakibo is a teppanyaki place in Jurong Point under the same management as the Ichiban chain.

The chef was a part-timer, but boy was he an excellent cook! The seafood was fresh, the garlic rice was interesting and all food were served on a piece of bread to soak up the oil! The best part of it all is that all the dishes had different taste and were not all drowned with the same sauce.

Unfortunately, no photos to show, as we were too busy eating!

Movie : Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides

Totally recommended!
An hour and a bit of Johnny Depp perving, who could ask for more?!
He's still the best Captain Jack Sparrow ever!
I'm sure the storyline was interesting but for the life of me, I can't remember now... *wide grin*

F1 : Spain Catalunya

Is it really something that's so easy to do?
How can Vettel be lapping the car in 5th position?!?!?!
Are the Red Bull cars really flying through the air?
That has to be on everyone's mind today as they all watched Vettel go from pole to finish, lapping the 5th position!
So, what's the story with Webber then?
Isn't he in a Red Bull too?!
Meanwhile, Schummy has been maintaining his position within the top 10, having not hit the top 5 barrier yet

Photo Blog : Rays of Sun

This was an impromptu shot, taken with the iPhone from inside the car over Buona Vista MRT station

Rays of Sun

Off to Korea!

I can't believe the hubs and I are actually going off to Korea! I'm quite excited about this trip, somewhat like Japan, but more exciting because I've been watching too many K-dramas and hope to see that all in this trip, knowing that majority of the filming is done on the streets of Seoul.

Gotta go sleep now, bon voyage to me!

Food Blog : The Queen and Mangosteen

There should never be places to run out of for us to eat here in Singapore. The hubs and I finally tried the above and were not sorely disappointed.

It's more of a mellow beer drinking place with tidbits rather than a restaurant, but they didn't disappoint in their main dishes. The lamb was yummy and so was the rib-eye. Now they'll only need to work on their sides (chicken salt fries!) and sauce and all will be good.

Rib-eye steak

Elections - Part 2

Speaking of elections... I don't remember such intense sessions as is currently happening.
This morning, there was a group of electoral people greeting and shaking people's hands at the train station.
Is this going to be a regular occurrence up until the elections?
And after?
There won't be anyone greeting and shaking your hand, will there?
Nope, not until the next elections
And it would be pretty difficult to see them, I would think

Long weekend

Hurray for long weekends!
We have one coming up... the first of many
It's Good Friday in a couple of day's time
Only one more day of work and it'll be three days of drama!
*massive grin*

New Toy

Last weekend, I ended up getting a new toy, a D7K. I've been thinking of getting a DSLR camera for a long, long time now because I was getting irritated with the automatic cameras which wouldn't allow me to quickly choose what I want to focus on, especially when we're talking about depth of field and bokeh. The only thing that was stopping me was the size of these cameras. Not something you can fit in your handbag and carry around everyday.

Anyways, I ended up getting this model as it is mid-sized and has most of the latest digital functions. I've only read the manual one third of the way... which is pretty sad. I think I'll have to read up on the hub's photography magazines to get more out of the type of photos which I would like to take and hopefully be able to use this camera to its fullest ability... and mine.

Piano with the 50mm lens

Sick leave

When you're sick, it's best that you don't go to work and spread the germs. I believe in that. I don't like it when sick people come to work because they have to come to work and end up spreading their germs all over the office. Coughing openly while walking all over the office, touching the printers, doors, switches with their germ infested fingers... it's just impolite! Besides, it's not going to help your body fight the virus.

Ergo, I'm at home today, nursing the last bits of my massive sore throat and fever. I think the best part about this job is the fact that I can work from home, if need be. Love web based applications and remote access!

F1 : Shanghai

I can't believe I fell asleep halfway through this exciting race. Will just have to put it down to the poor health I've been experiencing this weekend.

Just for the record, Vettel didn't win this race, surprise, surprise... This year's races are going to be very, very interesting, what with the new tires, 107% qualifying speed, the KERs system and that rear flap thingie! Maybe they should be changing the rules every year... then the skills of the driver will be constantly put to task plus the makers of the cars have to be on their toes, constantly coming up with new ideas on how to win.

One other thing to note in this race would be Webber. I'm not really a big fan of him, but he has proven himself in this particular race. Starting off at 18th and finishing 3rd, plus doing the fastest lap! This is what racing is all about!! I guess he hasn't given up on racing yet, has he?

Elections

The newspapers have been filled with news on the upcoming elections these days. Once in every 4 years? I need to read up on these things, even if they don't really affect me.

The introduction of new candidates into the ruling party was inevitable but have caused great debate among the people of this country, filling up newspapers and opening new opportunities for people to dig up everything they can about these candidates, naughty and nice.

The elections itself should be upon us soon. There are only so many days and amount of resources you can spend to rally up to election day.

Genetically Modified Eggplants

Just yesterday I was reading about fake eggs in China. Today, there are genetically modified eggplants in India! What happened to normal food? Why must food products be changed?? What is normal food these days anyways???

I'm sure a whole heap of experiments were conducted in the process of coming up with it, and that it would have been proven safe for consumption before releasing it to the general public, but why? If pests are attacking crops, shouldn't they think of ways to eradicate the pests instead of harming the product?

I've also read that the cost of growing these genetically modified crops are not cheap and wonder if it's protected from pests even. I mean, if pests don't even want to eat it, it must be awful for humans too, right?

Fake Eggs

How would you know if you're cracking a fake egg (chicken)? Why would anyone come up with one? Are they so much more cost effective to come up with than chicken eggs? It seems to be the current topic in China.

Here's a country that hasn't ceased to amaze me. With a population of over a billion people, they have maintained rule and kept up with the times from the internet to branded goods to fake eggs. What will they come up with next?!

The Man Almighty

Time to start another drama. This time I'm switching to modern. Think I'm up to my ears in royal/formal speak. Not entirely a recommendation, I picked this up because of the lead actor, Song Il Gook, my current perv.

But I'm starting this show with a bit of apprehension as he has decided to lose a lot of weight for this part. I think I read somewhere it's close to 15kgs! So you can imagine from his Jumong days to now... he's looking a little gaunt because the sharp features on his face doesn't suit him and is showing his age. Oh well, hope the storyline is not too weak and the action scenes befits his new physique.

Vacation planning

Is it time to start planning for another vacation?!?!?!
Yes, I believe so.
Where are we going this year?
Do we have to pick something out of a hat again?

I'd really love to go to Japan again
It's a country I could keep going back to
But with everything that's happened, it might not be a wise decision
Maybe next year...

So... Europe? Asia? The States?
Hmm... how come the world is so big but still not big enough?
Or are we just being picky?
Looks like I can't just spin the globe for this vacation

Bed Bugs

I'm almost afraid to buy that super duper vacuum cleaner that would suck up all the bed bugs that I'm sure live in our mattress... and among the other furniture...

Maybe it's not a bad thing that we live together? Maybe it's a good thing that they are there? Maybe our bodies need to be bitten once in a while in order to increase resistance?

On a separate note, there was an article in the newspaper today about a person whose bed bugs problem is very evident in and around his house. Scary pictures surfaced and it reminded me of the scare which New York hotels faced not too long ago. Surely bed bugs were put on Earth for a reason, right? We don't have to get rid of them, right?

Hot, hot, hot!

I can't believe how hot this weekend has been! What's happening with the weather these days? There's no wind coming through the windows although my place is not blocked by buildings, there's just no wind blowing... sweltering while watching the telly is no fun, even if it's watching someone good looking enough to perv on. Looks like it's time for another cold shower!

Food Blog : Penang Place

I.AM.SO.FULL.

Why did I eat so much?
Was the food really all that yummy?
YES!!!

It's been many, many years since the hubs brought me to this place. It's remotely located in the International Business Park in Jurong East. I can't believe it's still around! What more, the food is still yummy. Kuay Teow, Nasi Lemak, Prawn Noodles, Rojak, Ice Kacang, Chendol, not to forget the many, many side dishes of pork, chicken and beef! I tried a little of everything, as you would when you're at a buffet. Still, I didn't get to eat the Nyonya desserts, fruits and was about to throw up at the thought of going for a third bowl of Chendol!

They'll be moving over to the Fusionopolis site in a few month's time... hopefully the food will still be delicious!

Clusterfluff

A few days ago Ben & Jerry's came up with a new flavour of ice-cream.
It's peanut butter ice-cream with swirls of peanut butter, crunchy caramel pieces and marshmallow.
Do you think it'll be yummy?
I think it'll be extremely sweet!
Never mind about the taste, couldn't they think of another name?
Clusterfluff???

Location tags

I've been using the FourSquare application quite a bit, always keeping in mind not to check-in at home or anywhere near home. As such, I've only used it to check into restaurants or while visiting a friend. Recently, Facebook's Places was finally made available to users here and everyone has been checking in in earnest.

So, what's with this concept of checking in to the places you are at? It'll be fun for a little while, letting all your friends know that you're "going places", and then what? Even you'll get tired of being a narcissist unless these kind of things don't affect you. Anyways, to get around all that, I've decided to make it a little of a recommendation to places I've eaten at. The best thing about Singapore is the abundance of restaurants, and if we were to try each and everyone of them, it'll take us a long, long while to complete... if ever.

Bubble Tea

Ever since working in the Raffles Place area again, I've been frequenting this particular bubble tea shop called Eskimo located at the Market Street Carpark. I've tried all the other brands... mostly, except the one called Gong Cha which seems to have gazillions of people queued up to place their orders.

Anyways, I like this one. I'm usually having the Grass Jelly Milk tea with super bubbles *yum*. I think they make their own Grass Jelly as it's a little sweet to the taste and they definitely have their bubbles texture right, chewy and cooked through. The tea in the milk is not too overpowering and all in all it makes a pretty yummy after lunch drink. The only thing about this franchise is that not every branch has the same taste. I've tried one other one located in the City Hall Xchange and it was awful.

Food Blog : Chendol

When you have nothing else to write about, write about food. Writing about food is always good *grin*

While in search for a good bowl of Chendol here in Singapore, I stumbled upon Grandma's. It's a new restaurant opened in the newly renovated basement of Raffles City. They serve Ipoh, Penang and generally Malaysian cuisine, all with an expensive price tag. I wouldn't mind paying a little extra, if the food is yummy. One day, we're going to have to try their main dishes.

For now, we had tea and ordered the fried chicken wings (which were surprisingly delicious and well cooked and marinated) and Chendol. Another recommendation from me!

Chendol

I LOVE the pot of thick Gula Melaka which they served on the side for you to decide how sweet you want the dish to be. The green bits were ok, a little too green and hard, and the red beans were the kind that I like, not the big beans. The only thing is, what's with the atap seeds? I don't remember it being served in Malaysia, right?

Food Blog : Brotzeit

Another food blog already?!

It was my fault this time. I wanted to have some sausages... think I'll have to go back to Frankfurt to have real sausages at some point in time! Their street sausages were extremely yummy! Or even Adelaide! Miss the street sausages...

I'm still not into sauerkraut, so I can't say if this is authentic or not, but this particular place does really, really yummy french fries. It's the chicken salt, I tell you.

Pork rib platter and a side dish of pork sausages

Food Blog : Hippopotamus

A few nights ago the hubs and I decided to try out this new restaurant, Hippopotamus, located at Marina Square. Think it took over another restaurant, which we haven't tried, called Changing Appetites. Interesting deco, especially with the huge neon Hippo outline.

As weird as the name, Hippopotamus is, the dishes were really yummy. It's a steak joint and they make their own thick potato chips as an entree. We were too hungry to take pictures of what we ordered, plus the lighting at the place wasn't good for the phone camera. But it's a place I would recommend going back to. If you're going with friends, try their 1kg rack of meat!!!

Perving Sessions

Days filled with watching drama... is that a waste? I guess not when there are things to learn *grin*

These days, I've been trying to watch Jumong as quickly as I can but every minute is full of drama that there's no way to fast forward and watch it like an old Charlie Chaplin show.

Besides, I think I've found a new actor to perv on, Song Il Gook! He acts like an amazing archer really, really well and I'm loving the up close shots of him pulling and releasing arrows. What a way to spend the weekend!

On a separate note, what did all those ladies of leisure do during the olden times when their husbands were out fighting wars and there weren't any drama to watch nor internet to play with?

Sauna Train

Oh wow!!! I think the weather's going to go a bit wonky from now on.

This morning, I was on a sauna train to work. What in the world is a sauna train, you ask? Well, it's one that's jam packed with hundreds of people, with no air-conditioning!!! The minimum reprieve would be when the doors open every 2 minutes or so to let people off and more on... hoping that some hot air from within the train would escape and fresh air would replace it.

I didn't even realise that I was sweating profusely until I decided to get a piece of tissue from my bag. There were so many beads of sweat on my forearms. And this is just from standing for about 15 minutes. Erkkk... Couldn't stand the heat anymore and decided to get off. Double erkkk... After feeling the breezy cool air for a couple of minutes, more beads of sweat from my back started to drip down. Triple erkkk... are you still reading this? *grin*

Suffice to say, I'll always test out the airflow within a train before I get on it. With the amount of people travelling to work in the mornings, it's not easy to get off a train within a few stops once you're on one and have moved to the center of the train.

Ultra-scan

Remember I was talking about this new doctor I visited about a month back for diarrhea? Well, after a brief stomach examination, he decided that there was something that needed further scanning and advised me to take an ultrasound scan. As this is all covered by my company's benefits, I thought, why not, no harm done and it would be about time for me to see if anything's wrong. Besides, there's so much fat in my abdomen area that it should be nothing, right?

So... one month later, I went for the scan... interesting as the experience was, slightly uncomfortable and that gel is not cold but warm, the results came back today and it's all good. Easy money for that doctor!

Myanmar's 6.8

Five days ago, a shallow earthquake hit Myanmar
No tsunamis as it was a shallow one and inland
Thailand, Laos and China felt this too
I can't remember the details, but everyone is still focused on Japan

Jumong

I've started to watch this period epic Korean drama.
My third in so many weeks!
The first few episodes were really draggy, but it's starting to get interesting now.
How am I going to sit through 81 episodes?!

F1 : Australia

The first of the season...

An interesting race to watch (what more in HD!) now that we've actually applied for access to the sports channel. Lots of disappointments and strange timings. Like with every year now, new rules are added. I don't know if it's because of them and this being the first race but I've never seen a race where there were so many cars who were at least one lap behind the winner!

It started with Vettel leading the pack and no one ever got the better of him! In the end, 22 seconds separated him and Hamilton... it was a no brainer kind of race *grin*

Gifts for the dearly departed

The Chinese have an interesting ritual around this time of the year... it's called Ching Ming. Relatives will visit the tombs of the dearly departed, clean around the tomb, talk to them, burn some joss sticks, paper and offer some food, fruits and wine. As I haven't been exposed to this custom since young, it has been a fascinating visit for me each time. There's a certain ritual to follow and I've only learnt about it after following the hubs on his yearly rounds to visit his grandparents and mom.

The most interesting part of this, for me, is the offerings that are burnt. It started with hell money and gold and silver ingots. The Chinese believe that everyone goes to hell when they die. I remember my maternal grandmother doing this... folding many, many gold ingots out of paper. As the years go by people start to wonder if they could burn clothes, shoes, bungalows, mansions, cars with drivers, mobile phones, desktop computers, laptops and branded handbags made out of paper. Every year, I walk by the makeshift stall that's beside the columbarium and scan their wares. It's interesting to see what's new every year. A couple of years ago when the iPhone came out, it was there... this year they are even selling iPads. The thing is, I don't know that the person who's receiving these modern gadgets know how to use them?

Home alone

The hubs is having a wine party tonight which means I have the house to myself!

Managed to finish watching The Great Queen Seondeok, and I have to say that I'm a little disappointed with the whole show. It's 80 episodes long and it was a little draggy in the start, more draggy in the middle and at the end there were too many pause-for-facial-expression kind of scenes. Kind of reminded me of the original Star Trek series.

Anyways, the one thing that the show did give me was heaps of splurting blood! Fierce battle scenes and superb swordsmanship!

Ye old guard

Had a quick catch up with some ex-workmates over lunch today
I'm glad we still keep in touch
There's nothing like finding out what's still happening in your old workplace
Everything's changed
Nothing stays the same
Everyone knows that
But it's still great to reminisce

Divorcing the President

There was an interesting bit of news I read today... the First Lady of Guatemala needs to divorce her husband, the current President, in order to run for Presidency! Rules of that land states that family members and any relatives of the President is unable to run for Presidency. The current President is not able to run for re-election.

So if she becomes President, will she get married to the ex-President again?

Weekend Air Traffic

I was updating my list of flight schedules at work today... seeing that I've always had a GDS system in my previous jobs, having to arrange the travel for the team proved a little disorientating as I didn't have flight details on my fingertips, so a list was born.

Anyways, I noticed that flights on the weekends take a little longer than on weekdays. Do you think it's due to the kind of plane they use? I don't think so, weekend traffic in the skies must be like weekend traffic on the roads... full of vehicles with weekend drivers behind the wheel!

Senator Palpatine

Well, it looks like he can play the piano too! I'm talking about Wilhelm Kempff who looks like Senator Palpatine in the newer Star Wars movies (according to my younger brother, and I agree!). Anyways, Wilhelm died in 1991 and was considered one of the greatest pianist of our time.

He has a YouTube video playing the 3rd movement of the Moonlight Sonata. I've only managed to play the first movement (the slow one which everyone can too!) I love his facial expressions and that he's not a perfectionist.

Useless doors

This morning, the hubs and I decided to have breakkie at our usual place, the Ghim Moh Market and Food Center. They offer quite a few of the yummiest dishes like Chee Cheong Fun, Pontian Wonton Noodles, Duck Rice, Fried Kuay Teow, Chwee Kuey, Big Bao and fried carrot cake to name a few.

Anyways, we usually end up parking at this housing board car park and today we noticed something hilarious which someone has pasted on the door leading out of the car park to towards the Market in both English and Chinese.

"This unnecessary door is similar to drop pants to fart"

Weekend Dinners

The hubs and I have been pretty lazy these past few weeks. We've been ordering KFC for our dinners during the weekend. While clearing the dining table today, I found one too many KFC delivery receipts! I think it started when the hubs was not around and I couldn't decide what to have for dinner, tired of cooking and too lazy to go out. The first batch which came was so delicious that I had to keep having it!

Anyways, after all the meals that got delivered, I discovered that only one shop delivers to my home (because there was one night where they had to stop taking orders and no other shop could be assigned to fulfill my order) and so far they've been really good with my parts demands [thighs and drums :)] and the fact that their chicken is cooked through, no red bits. I haven't found out which branch this is... so that I can eat it fresh. Maybe part of its pull is that I can only have yummy chicken parts when I order in.

World Sleep Day

Today... is world sleep day. Does that mean that everyone went to sleep the whole of today? I can't even begin to imagine the whole world asleep at the same time. That doesn't happen, does it? Yeah, if it does, the world is probably dead. Maybe that's why the world is round and the sun only shines on half of it at a time, making sleep times different for everyone.

I didn't even know it was world sleep day until I read the newspapers! By then, it was too late to go back to sleep as I was in the middle of a work day :P

Anyways, sleep well, sweet dreams, all!

Houjicha

After my trips to Japan and having tasted the various teas that were offered especially in little coffee shops before meals, I tried finding the perfect cheapo tea here in Singapore. My larder is full of variations of Japanese teas (not to mention Chinese and Korean too).

I didn't think I would find the perfect (albeit expensive) houjicha tea from TWG. One kiwi scoop full brewed for 8 minutes in a little pot that will serve 4 teacups.

I've always walked into the shop and sniffed the tea canisters which are on display and prettily packaged. But today, I was introduced to the tea connoisseur and he allowed me to take a sniff of the various teas from the big pots behind the counter. I'd like to say from sniffing their secret stash one is able to tell a good quality tea from another, but I really don't have the nose for it. Besides, I was also told that what I smell might end up different after brewing. But I am amused with the floor to ceiling spinning cylindrical shelf that's used to display the canisters of teas!

Did you know that they carry over 800 teas?!?! But I think there are only over 300 in the shop. Still... 300 different kinds of teas are bit many, no? How would you be able to taste it all? How would a connoisseur know which one is which? They don't call them connoisseurs for nothing, eh?

Pigs fly?

Can you believe that 17% of the Brits think that pigs have wings? It's true, I'm not kidding you! It came out in the newspapers!! Pig wings are a readily available portion of meat at the butchery.

I wonder what they'll come up with next! *giggles*

One child policy

I think of the best things for this blog when I'm at work... is it because I'm reading the newspapers then?

Today's article was about compensation. China has a one child policy because there are too many people residing in the country. Each family is only allowed to have one child.

When Christchurch was hit with an earthquake which killed at least 60 over people, some of the dead were part of China's one child policy. Their parents are now demanding for compensation...

How do you compensate for a lost child?
Where would you start to seek compensation when the earthquake was an act of nature?
Do people have access to the compensation department of nature?

How much would you ask for? That's the thing I'm confused about. Claims are for future income because these kids under the one child policy are their parent's only hope in taking care of them when they are old. What about when these kids get married and start their own family? Don't they now have new responsibilities up until their own kid is old enough to take care of them? Vicious cycle... I wonder if they'll win the suit...

Moving Earth

The Earth has shifted on its axis!!!
Can you believe that an earthquake would be able to do that?!
I guess if you seriously think about it, it would, wouldn't it?

With the earthquake, the land mass has shifted and now Japan is a little closer to the US.
This has started me thinking of the fact that land masses don't move all the time.
Aren't all islands floating islands?
The giant oceans don't have the power to move countries.
I don't believe the islands are stuck to the center of the Earth, right?
If you dive into the sea, at some point in time, you'll be able to hit the end of the island, right?
So why is it that land masses move only when earthquakes happen?

Not only that, this particular earthquake has shortened time.
How interesting is that?!
I wonder if the same thing happened during the Boxing Day earthquake in 2004.
Nothing was mentioned about Sumatra moving from its position or shortening time...

Staying away

Day two of watching episode after episode.
I should really get an exercise bike or a treadmill.
It's better than being a couch potato for 10 hours, isn't it?

The Great Queen Seondeok

Weekends are great for watching drama serials. I've bought a couple of Korean period ones and haven't gotten around to watching them. After watching Dong Yi, I think the period dramas have more substance. This weekend, I'll start with The Great Queen Seondeok. It's 80 episodes long but each episode is only about 45 minutes. Shorter than their normal one hour per episode.

The first few episodes look promising with me liking the evilest person, Mi-shil, a female. Her facial expressions are just classic, bordering on going insane. She's very sweet looking and I read that she's a very experienced actress and it really shows. Everyone else are just amateurs.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking that I should watch the first ten, the middle ten and the last ten episodes. 80 to 30! I'm sure all the actors, actresses, producers, director, cameramen, stunt people and everyone else who was involved in the making of this epic will curse me if I do *grin*

Japan's 8.9

Number 3 or 4?! Just a day after China?!

Where were you when the earthquake hit some 200kms off the coast of Japan's main island of Honshu? I was at work, watching everyone with eyes peeled to the breaking news on the telly unable to stop my goosebumps.

Seeing that Japan is located along the ring of fire and that earthquakes happen more often than not, this particular quake was taken likely at first. But images kept coming and it was soon declared a national disaster. What more the threat of a tsunami was fast approaching! A magnitude of 8.9 was confirmed, just 0.2 points shy of the 2004 quake which hit off the coast of Sumatra causing a massive tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people from around the world.

Today's earthquake brought on a 10 meters high tsunami crashing into the town of Sendai, closest to the epicenter of the quake. Mud, debris, overturned cars, boats, ships, damaged houses, buildings and people. More pictures will be available in the days to come and this won't be the end of it. Where next? :(

China's 5.8

Is this number 2 or 3? Will it ever stop?
Truth be known, I didn't know that China was in the ring of fire until the Sichuan one happened in 2008

Brotzeit

Running out of things to eat, the hubs and I ended up at this German bar in Vivo City. We've eaten here once before... actually twice before. The first time was after our Germany vacation and we were looking for some yummy sausages and more importantly for me, wien schnitzel. The place didn't disappoint then... but tonight it did. Sausages were still yummy the second time we ate here... I guess by and by they've decided to focus more on their beer than food.

On a separate note, I need to go to Wien to try their schnitzel... I wonder if it's the same as in Germany *grin*

Dong Yi - Part 2

I don't believe this, but I'm still in the middle of watching this drama serial!
The reason why I finish a drama really quickly is because I sometimes fast forward certain parts of the drama.
I haven't been able to do that here because every part is important!
It's going to take me longer than usual to finish this drama which is a good thing, as I won't have to look for another one to watch after this *grin*

Computer Fairs

There's going to be an IT fair this weekend... actually starting on Thursday. Every time the hubs tries to venture into the hall, he turns right around and walks out... we don't really need that new printer, computer, hard drive, camera or shopping trolley!

Throngs of people venture into the exhibition halls all the four days and almost everyone walks out with something. After all, they've been shoved around, shoved around many, many people and queued for hours... they can't leave empty handed.

Joyous is the sound of the ringing tills for the exhibitors *chuckle* but since we don't have tills anymore, the laser or dot matrix printing sound of the credit card machines will have to do!

Radio tunes

It's the 90s weekend on the radio this weekend and it's bringing back heaps of memories.
The kind of music my friends and I used to dance to while frequenting night clubs during our uni years.
Good times, good times!

Grow faster hair!

I've been keeping this a-bit-shorter-than-shoulder length hair for slightly more than a year now and I'm already tired of it. There are only so many styles you can do with short hair, can't even tie it properly, so I've decided to grow it again. Long, long, long...

Going to have to wait awhile as I think my hair takes a long while to grow. It's now at the irritable length of just at my shoulder, which means that on some days, it'll not curl the way that I want it to.

Chile's 6.8

About a month ago, an earthquake struck off the coast of Chile. Is this the start of some series of earthquakes around the world? You don't expect the Earth's plates to move and not cause a chain reaction, right? Let's just hope that if anything were to happen, it will be on a smaller scale and not the other way. I don't want to have to think about the fact that the Earth is breaking up...

English

Is the English language really all that difficult to master? As the years go by, I am finding it so, especially when you're multilingual. I've noticed that people tend to spell the way words are pronounced. But the English language is not about that, which makes me a little envious of them little spelling bees who find it so easy to spell words they might not know the meaning of, while under pressure.

Take the word 'than' for instance. I've seen it being spelt 'then' when people really mean 'than' or the word 'this' when they mean 'these' or 'of' when they mean 'off' or 'to' when they mean 'too'.

As everyone relies on the spell check and don't pay attention to the word itself, these kind of slips happen. I used to have a good giggle at lost-in-translation websites, but I've come to realise that I get a giggle out of these kind of mis-spells too.

Gibberish

Sometimes I wonder what nonsense I'm penning. Some entries are great to read, especially when they have significant meaning or a world event. But some... I'm so close to rewriting them! But I guess I won't, it'll just remind me that sometimes, my mind is not in sync with my fingers and out comes the gibberish :)

Old medicine vs new medicine

Well, as predicted the diarrhea has started. Tried to subdue it with some dhamotil and smecta but it didn't seem to work this time around. So I went to see a new doctor today and he's decided that I needed to have some modern medicine to cleanse my system. I don't think it's working because it hasn't helped. Thought it would be pretty instant as it was the only medicine he gave... my usual doctor provides me with 3 different kinds!

I have a feeling that my body's allergic to it even! Guess I'm not taking it anymore...

Diarrhea and solid food

When you have diarrhea, everyone tells you to stock up on liquids, eat soupy dishes or congee. Yes, after having to run to the toilet every 3-4 hours or so, you get pretty dehydrated, so plenty of liquids it is.

Water, water is liquid, right? If you're stocking up on water, shouldn't you be eating solid stuff? I hate extreme diarrhea, the fact that nothing gets processed properly in my body and comes out as liquid. Well, it looks like this week's going to be a week of delicate eating.

Chendol

Why is it so difficult to find yummy Chendol here? Do I really have to make it myself?!

Chendol is a Malaysian dessert made primarily of ice. Toppings include green coloured rice flour which look like short rats tails, red beans, a good dollop of coconut milk and the most important ingredient of all, melted palm sugar. I could eat any dessert with palm sugar... it has just the oddest yummy taste!

Anyways, I had that last night for dessert and I'm so looking forward to the diarrhea which I can predict would come, if not today, tomorrow... such is the weakness of my tummy and my greediness for yummy roadside desserts in Malaysia.

Sudoku

I know I've written a short post on this about a week back, but I can't get over how great this game is. I play it on the train while on my way to work, while waiting in queue for my lunch... it's such a waiting-time filler!

Ever since the hubs got his android phone, he has introduced me to this game called Daily Sudoku which is also available on the iPhone. Amazing, amazing and highly entertaining game which allows me to wile the hours away. Do I sound nerdy?

Anyways, with some practice, I should be able to narrow the nightmare level to less than 10 minutes? At the moment, spending more than a half hour on one game is just not on! :D

Meanwhile, I don't think I'll be able to play the game with a pen on paper anymore. I need the colours, highlights, the ease of placing pencil marks quickly and having the program take care of everything for me.

JPEG

It's used all the time for compressed picture files. But have you ever wondered what jpeg actually means? No? Not interested? Well, I chanced upon it, ergo I'm having it etched here :P

In the computer world, all files have a three letter extension, a dot something. Everyone knows that .doc is for word documents, .xls is for excel files and .exe files are sometimes very, very dangerous. Yes, you need them to run some scripts, but like all scripts, it's very easy to hide a devious script that will create havoc on your computer.

.jpg or short for a JPEG file means Joint Photographic Experts Group
Hmm... now that I know what jpeg means, it doesn't really make sense, or does it? Saving a picture file as a jpeg file will compress the file at the same time. If you're talking about compressed files, bitmaps and gif files can't even compare to how amazing a jpeg file is.

Dong Yi

I've started watching this Korean drama and it's really gripping! Set in the olden day era where Kings still have concubines, and it's riddled with heaps of funny scenes and plots, some elaborate, some not so elaborate.

Dong Yi, an extremely clever and observant girl, blessed throughout her life. Even after having lost her father and brother at a young age, to a trap set by the baddies, she manages to overcome everything that's thrown at her with a smile plastered on her face and become the love of the King's life. That's just the gist of it! The drama is 60 episodes long and each episode is an hour long. These are the kind of dramas you want to watch when you can't sleep on a plane that's flying halfway around the world *grin*

Mighty Mouse

"Here I come to save the dayyyyy..."

I can't believe they don't show those kind of cartoons anymore. They were the best! Although it showed slightly violent themes if you think about it, but it wasn't all that violent because they were cartoons! Even Ultraman and Thundercats weren't all that violent. These days, they don't call them cartoons anymore but animation. It's a whole different world which we live in now... kids watching them animation tend to follow, especially the action figures.

Anyways, this entry is not about cartoons... it's about the current mouse which the Macintosh computers use. Have you tried it out yet? It's an amazing piece of equipment. It has track pad features on the top which allow users to scroll, zoom, pinch... all this and it's still a mouse! Aren't the people at Apple just the best?!

New Zealand's 6.3

Christchurch was hit by an earthquake today, magnitude of 6.3
Looks like it's the start of a chain of events...
Didn't something similar happen around this time last year?
What is the world coming to?
Why now?
Does extinction need to happen in order for things to be set right again?

Printers

Slow day at work today...

I read somewhere that it takes 22 seconds to print one page, that seems a bit long, doesn't it? If we're not talking about laser printers, it's apparently pretty quick, for a bubble jet. But 22 seconds is still a bit long, no?

Do we take the printer for granted? I know I have. Been living with laser printers at work, and my prints come out in a jiffy.

Have you ever stood by a printer and waited for your prints to come out? How long does it take? If there's nothing that needs doing, you might have the time to stand by the printer and wait for your prints to come out. But most people don't have the time to do so, which brings me to my question, 22 seconds for one page? Not acceptable!

Wiling the hours away

There's a game
In the iPhone
That has me hooked
It's called Sudoku Daily

There are only 16 levels a day
Not that I know all the rules
I'm still learning
But still...
What now?

Home

This weekend is the first weekend since the Lunar New Year that I've had to myself.
Waking up late, not eating on time and generally just lazing around.
The laundry is finally up to date and I guess I should really get to the ironing.
But it's my first weekend to myself!
The ironing can always wait, it's only two baskets full *grin*
On another note... do we really have two baskets full of clothes?!
That's a tiny bit of one too many pieces of clothing for two people, isn't it?

Whole Milk

Reading today's newspaper (The Straits Times) brought the following picture. It's part of a double page advertisement for No Frills, a house brand stocked in Cold Storage, a supermarket here in Singapore.

Whole Milk

I just don't know what to say about the kind of milk this is. I mean, it's the first time I've seen something like this. Sure it's cow's milk... right? What I'm curious about is, will you buy it? Or will you just not notice the wordings? Or will the wordings just not bother you?

I'm just trying to think... the milk which I used to drink (which was incidentally super yummy) was a Home Brand from Woolies. Did it say whole milk too?

Photo Blog : Chap Goh Mei

One of the things to note on this final day of the Lunar New Year is the full moon.

Here's a pic taken by the hubs on the 105mm. My hands are just not steady enough *grin*

Chap Goh Mei Moon

Internet Friends

Tonight's meet up with some friends I met over the internet back in '96 was amazing. Not only did the years not age them, everyone's character is still the same! It was a really, really great catch up, especially over some sausages and beer at a German waterhole. We should do this more often... like once every 5 years, yeah?

Am Idol 10

The american idol is back on again! Preliminary eliminations... but it looks like for this round, there are quite a few great singers! How do you eliminate the good?

Photo Blog : Raw Fish Dish

The infamous Raw Fish Salad dish... every Lunar New Year, it's a must have dish... at least once! Of course, people tend to have it as many times as there are days, and then some! It's all in the good name of prosperity.

So this is what the hubs and I ended up having on Valentine's Day *grin*

Raw fish salad from Putien

Laundry, Oh Laundry

I don't know what happened but I'm wayyyyy behind on my laundry again!

Not to mention the ironing... yes, don't even mention the ironing, the basket containing clothes that need to be ironed is overflowing!

*sigh* I guess I should get to it now and not be writing this, huh?

Criminal Minds

The hubs and I were watching Criminal Minds this afternoon and it was awesomely gruesome. This series delves into the mind of a criminal. The team profiles criminals with the evidence that they have and somehow in the last 5-10 minutes of the show manages to catch the serial killer.

Today's episode was especially gruesome. It was about a pair of brothers, one brilliant and paralyzed from the neck down and his brother, a person who's mentally challenged, living on a pig farm. The brother has the amazing ability to kidnap people, usually homeless junkies, paralyze them by breaking something at the back of their neck with a hammer, collecting some spinal fluid and while they're still aware, cut into them with a knife and saw off their limbs and body parts to feed to their pigs. Gruuuuuesommmmme!

Pigs eat everything, bones and all, so when the police finally came, they only found shoes, all 87 pairs. Nothing was left by the pigs. I'm guessing that they had a really good life while they were being fed fresh meat *shudder*

Smelling Unique

I've picked up another new scent and hopefully I won't have to change it for a while. I remember getting my first bottle of Bvlgari and using it for close to fifteen years. Not the one bottle... I think one lasts me a year and a half. I'm not a massive sprayer of perfume. The scent was just comfortable to the nose, not too overpowering, my skin didn't turn it into another smell and lasted the whole day. I think I still have a couple of half bottles sitting in my cupboard somewhere.

Then in July 09, I found something from Hermes which was also easy on the nose, not too overpowering, although it didn't last as long as the Bvlgari.

While wondering around a mall today, I found one by Annick Goutal. It's a new name for us here in Asia, we usually stock the bigger more famous brands and not the cottage industry ones. But I'm glad I came across this one. It's going to be my new scent for the next 15 years!

Paternity Leave

There should be a law in this country that grants more than 2 days of paternity leave... or was it 5 days? I'm not too sure, but I'm sure it's a whole lot less than maternity leave. The current maternity leave is 16 weeks. Sounds like a lot but I'm still envious of the Western countries where working mothers are allowed to take a whole year off without having to worry that they will lose their jobs.

And here we are trying to increase paternity leave...

Dream High

I'm currently following the above k-drama. It's about a group of high school kids, each with their own amazing musical talent. They get to study in a prestigious music school which helps gifted kids debut sooner. Such is the aim of most kids in Korea?

The show kind of reminds me of Glee... the singing, dancing, not so much of fighting between the kids... except that it won't stretch as long as Glee will... the kids can't stay in high school forever and this will end at episode 16. After which, I'll want more. The show casts real singers and dancers making most of the singing and dancing executed amazingly well. But they have tight schedules to follow... so there will be no extending of the drama. Maybe they'll do a season 2, eh?

Gold

I read an interesting article about gold today. There is, apparently, a lot of it sitting idly in a warehouse. I thought gold was kept in safe deposit boxes. Aren't they?

With the world economy spinning out of control with the help of some natural disasters and some brought on by humans, gold is slowly coming back as a medium to have. How come I'm the only person without a warehouse, hmm?

Photo Blog : 35mm

Piano's make great subjects
Playing with the 35mm
I can't believe how with the digital era, we're going back to the basics. Film cameras without zoom used to have 35mms lenses only

My Piano

Damnyouautocorrect!

Whenever you need to laugh, really laugh out loud... this is the one website you've gotta go to. It's amazing what the auto correct within the iPhone can do! What more, this is only in English, for those of us who speak other languages, it's a whole new world of, "Damn you auto correct!"

Home Sweet Home

There's really nothing like home. We're back in Singapore after a few days of celebration and I'm thinking that the watching-what-I-eat thing should start today. Yeah, after a few days of good food, I'm ready to settle for mediocre food!

Grand-pere

We're usually at grandfather's house (on my hubby's side) on the second day of the Lunar new year for some catch up time with cousins, aunties, uncles and their kids. It's the only day I distribute ang pows in Malaysia... I think.

I never knew my grandfathers, one passed away 4 years before I was born and another a whole lot longer than that. But this particular grandfather is old... yeah, I hear you saying aren't all grandfather's old? But he's really, really old. I think he's turning 90 this year. And I've known him for more than 10 years.

I don't think he remembers who I am, we only meet once a year on the second day of the Lunar new year when his house is open for family gatherings, and the odd gathering when there's a funeral for someone in the family. His siblings are all not getting any younger, and as a part of life, funerals do happen.

So, Grand-pere lives alone in a pretty large house... strategically placed, I think the house has 8 bedrooms. Could be more, as grand-pere has 8 kids. Everyone has gotten married and moved out, save for one daughter, who's not married, but has decided to live away from her childhood home. I can just imagine how 'festive' it would be when everyone comes back to celebrate; kids with their extended families.