Sunday, July 31, 2005

Desserts Galore

If there's one more thing that guys dun understand about girls, it's our passion for desserts, any kinda desserts.. and no matter how full we are, there's always room for dessert coz we have a separate stomach for it :p hee

Had dessert over at Anderson's yesterday and jus had dessert with Jun², Xianhe, Dennis, Tian, Tong, Zhen and WW over at Bakerzin jus now.. both places are yummy yummy :)

anderson3
Chocolate Brownie (cost 7.90)
anderson6
Single Fondue (cost 8.90)

Both came with the warm chocolate sauce which tasted like nutella and it kinda hardens after awhile.. The brownie was ok, but it's the cakey kind, not the very chocolatey type of brownie which i prefer :p

The single fondue was a little disappointing, i was expecting at least a normal fondue pot or maybe even some tealite or something.. but the chocolate that u're supposed to dip the fruits in came in a saucer.. not good. In fact, i wldn even call it fondue, they shld jus call it chocolate dip. Still the service was quite good and the place is cosy to jus kick back and relax

anderson2
See how relaxed we were :p hee.. It's the new Anderson's over at Marina Square.. great place to hang out and there's discount for NTU/NUS students.. also there's no service charge :)

There seems to be a craze with chocolate fondue recently, many places are coming up with it, but so far I've only tried it at 3 places and I prefer the chocolate fondue over at Swiss Culture (Suntec Sky Garden), the chocolate served there is so much better than the one at Andersons and Coffee Club. Yet have the chance to try the chocolate fondue over at Hagan Daz and that swiss restaurant over near clarke quay (i dun even know if the restaurant is still there :p)

Next up, we had dessert tapas over at Bakerzin :) this is nice nice nice nice nice :)

dessert tapas
The three tapas I ordered (it's going @ 9.50 for 3, 12.90 for 5 and 15.50 for 7)
chocolate shot
Hot Chocolate Shot with Vanilla Ice Cream
kish jelly
Krish Jelly with Strawberry and Mint (or something like that)
raspberry
Raspberry Panna Conna (or something that sounds like that..)

I think there's a selection of more than 15 kinds of desserts, all served in small glasses.. It's really good and I had a hard time choosing 3 out of so many.. When Xuan comes back, must definitely get her and Jun to sit down over at Bakerzin and try out all the tapas!!

The first one I had was the Hot Chocolate shot.. IT WAS GOOD!! It was amazingly good.. It was oh-my-god good!! there's chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate.. and the thing is, it's not too sweet with a slight tinge of bitterness.. was so tempted to drink it like a shot but will sure get super high after that :p

It was really very good.. it's like warm mousse.. and topped with the homemade vanilla ice-cream.. It's heaven..

The guys didnt really like it though.. well guess it's a matter of mars vs venus :p

The Krish jelly was kinda disappointing, it jus looked pretty but is really jus agar agar with a strawberry inside.. hmmm.. idea.. shld buy such small glasses, put a strawberry in it and make jelly, the prefect homemade dessert :) easy yet pretty

The Raspberry thing was good too.. I've always liked the raspberry sauce over at Bakerzin.. It's not too sweet, with jus the right amount of sourness.. very very good.. The white portion is a milk pudding with loads of vanilla seeds (or is it spores?).. I jus love it when desserts are flavoured with the actual vanilla pod instead of vanilla essence. Essence jus cannot match the pod in terms of smell and taste. And this is something that not alot of pple know, vanilla actually comes from orchids.

And yah, there's this cute waiter over at Bakerzin.. hee.. me and jun were like, that guy is not bad wor, then shy shy type.. so cute.. haha.. but too young for us liao.. must ask our meis to go down there more often *winkz*

Dining experience at Andersons: 7 out of 10
Dining experience at Bakerzin: 8 out of 10

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Suntory @ Intercontiental Bugis

As promised, here's the review for kaiseiki served at Suntory Intercontiental Bugis.

The menu that i'm gonna show is just to give an idea of how the food is like over at Suntory, coz for the kaiseki menu that I had, the menu changes every month, and it's already the end of the month.. hee..

Me and Jason went over to Suntory over at around 1 yesterday. The one good thing about this place is that there's no need for reservations. I went there twice on saturday afternoon and it's not hard to get seats. Haven been there for dinner so i dunno the situation at nite. Also remember that they do not open on Sundays.

suntory2
me while waiting for my lunch to come.. look at the decor behind (i know cant really see, but it's pic from a camera phone, cant expect too much..), it's simple and classy :p that's how i wan my home to look like next time :)

Both of us ordered the Ladies' Kaiseki set which was priced at 38+++ but there's a 15% discount for UOB card members (debit and credit) and a 20% discount if u have the Priority Privilege card which i do have :p so the meal only cost 35 bucks per person :)

Oh yah, though the name is Ladies' Kaiseki, guys can enjoy it too :p they called it ladies' coz it's sorta a light version of the normal kaiseki.. but then it's more than enough to make me very full and satisfied :) *yummy* *rubs tummy*

It's a 8 course set lunch.. first up is the Appetizer
Kaiseki
The green thing on the plate is stewed eggplant, which i found, but Jason was like.. eee... eeek.. eeek.. then he said he felt dizzy.. haha.. :p but then he kept saying that it was nice, jus a matter of preference, which i agree :p then hidden by the leaves are seawood roll with something :p hee.. i cant identify all the ingredients.. on front of the seaweed roll is this fried stuff which i also have no idea what it was, jus that not much taste but nice and crispy. The prawn is stuffed with this yellow paste which tasted like pineapple. But the best must be the yellow roll on the extreme right. There's carrot and radish wrapped in it and it's stewed. So it's soft yet there's a bite to it.. very nice and juicy :) and the taste is really exquisite.

next up.. the Beancurd Soup
Kaiseki3
The roundish red thing u see is a kinda rice cake they like to use in soups. It's kinda chewy like the japanese new year rice cake, but i dunno if they're the same stuff. The big yellowish thing is beancurd skin and inside is something like the seafood beancurd we eat outside, there's all sorts of vege and seafood inside the beancurd. The soup base is simple but very savoury.

oo.. and i love the plates and bowls which they serve the food on, all very pretty. remember kaiseki is not only about how good the food taste but also how good it looks. and trust me, the food taste as good as they look.

3rd on the menu is sashimi.. but i dun like raw fish, so i requested a change and they gave me the oh-my-gosh-it's-so-damn-good Grilled Cod!! it's my favourite fish!!!
Kaiseki6
the skin is grilled to prefection, crisp and yet when u bite into it, u can taste the omega3 oils.. ok, it doesn sound good, all the oil stuff, but for those who loves cod, they would know that's the best part of the fish, plus it's super healthy :)

The fish is super fresh and the sauce is jus great with the fish. The white stuff on the right is actually pickled radish.. I dunno how they made it, but they managed to totallu marinate it whilst retaining it's crispness.. I haven had such good cod in ages.. it's really hard to find good cod and I'm definitely going back for the cod :) even if it means i have to scrimp and save for it :p

Jason had the Sashimi, which had Half-Grilled Bonito and Sea Bream..
Kaiseki9
it came on a bed of ice, which seaweed, spring onions, ginger, spicy grated radish and this little purple plant thing, that looks like alfafa, that is rather spicy . The sauce to accompany the sashimi is ponzu sauce, which is somewhat like soy sauce with an orangey scent.

The sashimi is good.. though i dun eat it.. but Jason made me try half a piece of the half-grilled bonito and it made me gag and choke :p but once again, it's a matter of preference and not the quality of the food. The sashimi is so fresh that u can see the greenish silverish shine on the meat. That is a sign of how fresh the fish is.

Up next, it's Stewed Winter Melon with Potato Ball
Kaiseki11
the sauce is great, the winter melon is stewed to such softness that it breaks apart easily with u tease it when ur chopsticks, but yet retains the bite to it. The potato ball is made up of mashed potato, water chestnut and shrimps..

My favourite Tempura is next!!
Kaiseki12
It's a mixed tempura, all all kinds of seafood and fresh corn kernels in it.. It's freshly made, very crisp with no hint of oilness :) I had extra radish for my sauce coz Jason doesn wan his :p good good, i love grated radish. Note that i said grated. One way to tell if a Japanese restaurant is good is by their grated radish.. many take the short cut and blend their radish, resulting in a mushy, watery and grainy radish. As for grated radish, the water is retained in the flesh of the radish and the texture of the radish is very very different from that of the blended radish.. But of course more work go into the making of grated radish and thus making it harder to find.

And the sauce is served pipping hot, which is jus what i like. Unlike the normal restaurants which serves the sauce cold. There's a reason for the hot sauce (wellz, at least this is what i think), and it's that the tempura is served hot, straight from the wok to ur table. If u dip the hot tempura into hot sauce, it retains it's heat and it's crispness and u can enjoy it as it's meant to be. If the sauce is cold, when u dip the hot tempura in, its temprature goes down and it loses it's cripness.

The touch of adding the corn kernels in makes this tempura from a good tempura to an excellent tempura.. sometimes tempura can get a little boring, only crispy outside and soft inside. But with the corns, not only is it crispy outside and soft inside, it adds in another kind of texture, the chewy kind. Also the corn is like salmon eggs, it bursts open with the slight pressure and the sweetness of the corn jus fills up your mouth.

After this dish, we can already feel more than half full :p and Jason actually wanted to order extra dish.. lucky i managed to stop him in time.. though i really really wanted to try the grilled wagyu and the sukiyaki wagyu, but it's priced at 48 and 68 bucks.. so out of our budget this time round..

a 高档 dish coming up, Chawamushi with Shark's Fin gravy
Kaiseki15
oooo... look at the cute cover, like a melon like that.. hee.. it's normal chawamushi below, topped with shark's fin sauce.. the sauce is ok, i find the shark's fin abit on the hard side, would be better of they stewed it longer.. And the chawamushi is good!! it's super super smooth..

second last dish is a rice dish, Unagi Rice served with pickles and Miso Soup.
Kaiseki16
The unagi is cut into small piece and mixed in the rice with the unagi sauce.. Jason's words, he gives it 8 out of 10, coz the rice is abit dry. The small pieces of unagi goes well with the rice and makes it less 腻 as unagi can be..

For me, i was quite full at this point, so never finish the dish :p

Last but not least, DESSERT!! It's Lime Sherbet and Strawberry with Milk
Kaiseki19
The sherbert was a great way to end the meal, coz it's abit sour.. and it's so unfair.. Jason's scoop had lotsa small orange bits in it whilst mine only had 1 :( (note:: Jason insisted there's 2~3 bits, but it's not ok, there was only 1)

Overall a very satisfying meal, all the stuff on the menu is great, though there are certain things that we did not like.. It's been a long time since I had such good japanese food, think i shall make it a point to go down every month like my sister and mum :)

Oh yah, did i mention that Suntory serves fresh wasabi?? not the tube or powder kind but the actual wasabi root, grated into paste form. That's how good the place is. Plus the service is good, all the staff are very helpful and polite..

Dining experience, 9 out of 10

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Friday, July 29, 2005

I love my Sketchers!!

I really really do.. they have to be the best present that I've ever got.. yeah, it's even better than the Ralph Lauren perfume :p But I haven been the best of owner and neglected them in the recent months (now that's making my sketchers sound like a pet :p).. they had been kept in the shoe cupboard, with dust and creepy crawlies as companions..

But today I've decided to don them on and my ever trusty Sketchers did not let me down.. I could walk/run/jump/climb with no problems at all..

oh yah, the shoe is the pic is obviously not my legs :p my legs are fairer hor.. and then this is not my shoe, but it looks similar.. mine have a hole at the back.. it's weird but it lets air in :p

I really really miss wearing my sketchers.. Sneakers must be invented by the smartest guy in the world.. he invented something that is so comfortable and totally protects your feet.. *praise to him*

Wrapped in my comfy sketchers, my feet felt relaxed like they had never been in months.. I hate office wear and especially the shoes that goes with them.. heels and all, hurts my feet and makes my sole all rough and hard *sad* but in my sketchers, i felt so liberated.. and i actually walked from my office (Millenia Towers) to Cityhall in less than 15 minutes!! I would be even faster if not for the damn crowd over at citilink :p

I love my Sketchers!!!

The Changing Food-scape

The food-scape in Singapore has been undergoing much change in the recent years.. the change had been subtle, gradual changes that we never ever notice, till I went over to Delifrance the other day and it hit me that it had changed from a cafe to a bistro, from selling jus sandwiches and the occasional pasta to a full bistro menu. Now u can find salads, pasta and all kinda of main course over at the new Delifrance Bistros.

What happened to the over-the-counter ordering? What happened to making the sandwich right in front of u? Now ur orders get taken at a counter near the entrance and ur food gets prepared in the kitchen and properly packed and sent to u.

That's good in a way, but I prefer the subway style, where u can see the staff making ur sandwich and u can tell them u dun wan this, u dun wan that and etc.. I'm a fussy eater :p

I haven tried out their new menu, so I cant comment on how good the food is. The pricing seems reasonable though.

Fast food chains have been changing too.. now they include more healthy meals, with yoghurt, salads, fruits and more on their menus. This is probably a response to the ongoing lawsuits in America, with obese citizens suing the fastfood chains for causing their obesity. Honestly I think it's rubbish that they're suing the fastfood chains, if u do not have enough self-discipline to stop eating, it's nobody's fault.

Anyway I like the chicken salad over at KFC, but mainly coz I like the fried chicken that they so generously placed in the salad. So I'm not a healthy eater after all :p ladiladi da.. like i care :p

These are the good things in the change of our food-scape, we get more variety of food to choose from, and we get healthier choice :p but there's a bad side to the changes too.. at least it seems so to me.

What really hit me is the lost of uniqueness and the birth of homogeneity. I dun mind seeing McDonald's everywhere, since it's a fast food chain, it's not surprising to see them all over the place, that's what they're meant to do mah..

I guess the most visible example would be that of the Katong Laksa, Chong Pang Nasi Lemak, Chai Chee Bak Chor Mee, Lao Pa Sat Pig Organ Soup.. .. I can go on and on.. Walk to most hawker centres or coffee shops, u'll see stalls selling one or the other or maybe 2~3 stalls with these "famous" names.

It's nice to be able to find ur favourite fare somewhere near ur house.. but isnt exclusivity the lure of such food.. remember the days where u have to go all the way down to Yishun to get a taste of Chong Pang Nasi Lemak.. The long car ride to get there, the anticipation, then when u reach there, u get hit with the lovely aroma of the coconut rice.. A meal is not jus a meal back then, it's a road trip filled with anticipation and ending with a satisfied palate.

Nowadays, u jus go to the coffeeshop next to ur house, and u can find the Katong Laksa, not only is it convenient, it spoils the fun of getting to the place and usually being cooked by someone other than the main chef, standards drops. No wonder the Chong Pang Nasi Lemak found at Fong Seng doesn taste as good as the one back over at Yishun.

Also with the increased popularity of the stalls comes an increase in the price, Chong Pang Nasi Lemak was famous for two things, it's food was good and the price was cheap. But nowadays, even at the main stall, standards had dropped and prices had gone up.. haiz..

In addition to the normal hawker fare, we're also seeing other shops sprouting all over the island, like BreadTalk, Gelare and TCC. I have no idea why TCC can manage to open so many shops, I really wonder what's wrong with the people who actually patronise the shop. Maybe it happened that I went to the most lousy, horrible branch of TCC, and it happened that the staff on duty that day had all been jilted by their bf/gfs. It was the most horrible experience I ever had in a cafe.

It happened 1~2 years back over at the branch at Paradise (or is that Peace Centre?). Darren and I went over for a cuppa since we always pass by but never had the chance to try it out. When we got to the shop, no one bothered to come serve us and see us to our seats, even though they had the "Please wait to be seated" sign. Getting abit fed-up with the lack of response from the staff milling around. We went ahead and got a seat for ourselves and helped ourselves to the menu. Eventually the staff noticed us and got our orders.

We ordered some coffee and dessert. Dessert was so-so, not as great as it looked in the menu picture, oh well, pictures also look better, especially when u have Photoshop. The coffee ice-blended was HORRIBLE!! We ordered two very different kinds of coffee, cant remember the names already, but they tasted exactly the same, which is just sugar water with ice. No, make that brown sugar water with ice. There's hardly any taste of the coffee, not more to say the other flavours that the coffee was supposed to have.

Worse of all, that bland, tasteless glass of coffee ice-blended cost more than 9 bucks each!! &^$#% service was lousy, food was lousy, drinks were terrible and they still cost me more than coffee beans, wtf!

From then on, I condemn TCC, there's no way I'm gonna step into that place. And I really wonder all those that went it, are they really in their right frame of mind?

The last point about the changing of the food-scape is the lack of good Japanese restaurants. It's really really sad to me coz I love Japanese food, my sis loves Japanese food, my mum loves Japanese food, my whole family loves Japanese food.. But these days, it's so hard to find good Japanese restaurants around.

You can say there's lots of Japanese restaurants around mah, but for pple who know me, I'm picky when it comes to food, the food have to be at a certain standard or I wouldn touch it. Places like Sakae is ok, but it's not the kind of dining experience I'm looking for. I like small cosy restaurants that serve good food with high service standards. I like restaurants which many Japanese patronise. And I'm not that well off, so I like something that's priced reasonably.

There were many good restaurants that closed down, Sushi Sagano over at Bugis Junction, which serves the best grill chicken bento, a restaurant in Bukit Timah, which serves the best Japanese hotpot, and it's not that for one hotpot, it's a humongous hotpot for ten :p

Luckily there's still places like Suntory and Inagiku around. But the prices are, especially for the latter, quite high.. But I'm going over to Suntory tomorrow!! *yeah* will write a review of it soon :p

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Mark X / Auston Martin / Maserati

Jus saw a Toyota Mark X this morning on my way to work (I love walking to work coz I get to see all the cool cars when I walk by Millenia Walk, even at 8 plus in the morning ^^ ), and I was wow-ed :p I wanted to take a pic of it but then the owner might be having breakfast nearby so nah.. later paiseh :p

Our Photo 2
This car is damn nice rite?? ooo.. i love cars in black these days :)
More pics..

mark x
So nice rite? so unlike the run of the mill Toyotas.. but what really caught my eyes was the exhaust.. it's so damn cool leh. it's totally integrated into the back of the car, not like normal cars which have the exhaust sticking out.. but mark x is different..

Jus look at that exhaust.. so darn nice.. think I have a thing with exhuast that's sorta integrated with the body of the vehicle.. like i really really liked vehicles with nice exhaust system :p

Jus like when Honda came out with the CBR 600 with underseat exhuast.. it's jus so darn nice, jus loved it :p ok, now i have no idea which year this CBR is, but then it looks similar to the ones I saw in the mag last time.. and it's RED in colour leh, it's RED leh, what else do you want?? RED leh.. haha.. not difficult to guess what is my fav colour rite? :p

But really, i think the bike looked good in red, looks darn fierce with the black, machiam like fire like that.. hee ;)


Then the new R1 came out.. with underseat exhaust too!!! so so nice siah.. PLUS, it's TWIN UNDERSEAT EXHUAST!! does it get any better than this?? only thing is that it's darn ex.. add on with insurance (I always believe in first party), the price is really staggering.. and again, i have no idea which year's model this pic shows :p I'm always impressed by people who can tell me which make, model, year a bike is jus by glancing at it or hearing its engine roar *impressed*

But look at the pic, tell me the RED one is not the most outstanding one, tell me that and I'll whack u over the head, of course it's the most outstanding and stunning one :p no arguements about that.

and after much thoughts, I realise i dun really like underseat exhuast, coz that's where the pillion (aka me) is sitting.. and for those who haven been on a bike, or even near one, the exhaust is damn hot after the bike has been riding for some time.. it can really burn one lor, i was burnt on my leg the first time i sat on a bike, coz I didn't really know how to get down :p it hurt, alot!! *ouch* *sayang my poor leg*

Anyway, can u imagine that amount of heat right under ur butt?? and for those girls that likes to wear short or skirts on a bike ( I would never ever do that, first coz if u wear a skirt, u will definitely zhao geng, i have no need for the whole world, or at least most of the drivers to see my thighs or even my ****; second, the amount of debris on the road is horrible, u get hit by small pebbles and stones all the time, i dun even like to wear sandals on a bike, what more to say, something that doesn cover my whole leg :p ; third, riding on a bike at nite is cold leh, these pple have elephant skin izzit? not cold meh? ; fourth, similar to the previous reason, I dun wanna get sunburnt. It's bad enough to get sunburnt on the shoulders, not my whole leg too..), their naked legs are jus right next to the exhaust, any unwise movements will cause a nasty burn on their lovely legs.. so conclusion, underseat exhaust is not good for the pillion.

Since we're talking about underseat exhaust, let me jus talk abit more :p There are pros and cons to underseat exhaust, but manufacturers are producing more and more of them. One of the pros i can think of is that if ever the bike is involved in any accident, falls, at least the exhaust is protected.. no more scratched and ugly exhaust. And it is jus not economical to change an exhaust jus coz it's scratched. But the con is that, if ever there's a problem with the exhaust, it's gonna be more expensive to fix and repair, coz it takes more skills (wellz it is built into the bike, not like the old style where it's outside) and tools..

okok, no more about exhuast :p back to cars.. I jus love my workplace, coz it's right next to Millenia Walk where lots and lots of nice, nice, nice cars are parked everyday.. I'll always see the white Maserati, yellow and orange Lamborgini, an assortment of Porsche, Ferrari, Lexus, BMW and all sorts of luxury cars..

Then that day, I saw my very first Auston Martin!!! OMG!!! It's a freaking Auston Martin DB9 lor!! OMG!! OMG!!! *tries to take deep breaths* *another try* *calming down abit* *calm down enough to continue blogging*

It's in a shade of ark metallic grey.. darn nice.. from far it looked like the usual maserati, the front part looks similar but I knew from the moment I saw it, it was not the run of the mill maserati.. I went out of my way to walk past it and omg!!!

Aston-Martin-sm
This is something like what I saw, i actually took photos of it :p but haven got time to upload :p hee.. and it's a new car oki, the car plate is darn new :p

auston-martin-back
Check out its ass, its exhaust (haha.. told u i have a thing for exhaust :Þ ), and it's tail lights.. so nice right?? the one i saw had red tail lights unlike this one, and the exhaust pipes are slightly different, this may or may not be the same model, but to an amateur like it, it's close enough :p

Omg, i still cant get over it, I saw a Auston Martin DB9 leh!! and it's not in a carshow or whatever, I found it on the streets.. meaning someone actually drives it!! ar... I'm going nuts..

Then I also saw this maserati, which is bigger than the normal maserati-s i normally see.. nice, kinda reminds me of Jaguar :p

will post the pics i took once i uploaded them :)

postnote:: went for lunch jus now and I saw this Rolls Royce!!! argh!! polish till it shines like nobody's business..

here are the pictures of the auston martin and maserati


maserati
the Maserati that is bigger than the normal ones i see, but i'm not familiar with maserati models thus dunno what this is :p

now please take a deep breathe.. presenting Auston Martin DB9!!!
auston martin
breathe.. remember to breathe..
check out it's butt
auston martin2
I'm in bliss now.. it's not everyday you see a 3 quarter of a million car on the roads.. but then this owner hor.. dunno what he did to the car, it was darn dirty.. let me help me wash lah.. I'll do it anytime andywhere :p hee *winkz*

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Thursday, July 21, 2005

Huh? u mean it's 6 months already?!

that means 4 more months then can be born liao lah.. haha.. stupid joke :p gee i'm damn lame. It's all Jason's fault, jus ask my mei :Þ

yeah, it's already 21st of July, our 6th month together.. :) so it's time for photos photos and more photos..

*warning* it's gonna be a long long boring and narcissistic post, can read if u have nothing better to do, else better spend ur time here and do remember to pray hard then u can strike that 5m today.. and and, must remember to treat me if you do strike :p else can always buy me my V902SH *winkz*

Ok, back to me and my dearie's photos, photos and photos :)

Our Photo 2 I like this neoprint alot, jus the right angle.. hee :) was taken when we just got together :) two crazy pple walking over at causeway point and decided that we like to indulge in some kiddy, sec sch kids stuff and went to get our neo prints taken :p

That's the fun part being with my 灰熊 :) (ok, i know the 灰 looks weird, but that's what Babel Fish gave me) we can jus act like kids, go do all the silly kiddy stuff and not worry that he laughs at me for being so childish.. actually he cant laugh at me coz he's so much more childish like i am, like a 大小孩

Our Photo 2This picture is 5 years old wor.. look at our chubby cheeks :p ok lah, i know only mine are chubby.. but hey, at least it shows i slim down alot oki :) hmm.. that reminds me, gotta go check how much i weigh and let xuan know if i lost any weight.. hee.. Jason u're so gonna be in trouble :p

Hmm.. the photo is kinda blur.. bopian, it's scanned, cant do much about it..

but look at the date, so so so long ago.. i was still 19 then leh, so young and innocent, so is my dear², got that gong² look.. hee.. but still so cute.. oh, did i mention he have blue eyes then.. so mesmerising.. haha..

Our Photo 2 Sleepy us on Dear²'s favourite spot in my house.. hmm.. actually i think his favourite spot in my house is anywhere i happen to be.. yeah.. i'm sure of that.. hahaha.. super bhb siah.. lali lali la *winkz*

Anyway that's the massage chair he sleeps in when he stays over at my place :p I'm not ill-treating him oki, he likes to sleep on it.. it's not ordinary chair wor, it's massage chair leh.. haha.. *excuses* *excuses* (btw, this is the murder scene of the Grizzly murder)

Our Photo 2this is taken at the same spot, can see abit of my bed :p I like sleeping on the upper bunk, sometimes my mum dun even know if i'm at home.. hee..

Did an effects shot, nice hor :p but cant really see what dearie is trying to do, which is good, else this photo will be Rated already.. hee..

And see my hair? tryin to tie a very high ponytail and act like Ma Xiaoling (I have a date with vampire), Xuan's sister once commented that i look like her oki :)

Our Photo 2 Took this on to our 3rd monthsary :) very memorable day coz first i think the pictures taken on this day looked jus great :) then went for 3 interviews that day, first one over at Bank of Tokyo, second one at Maybank and the last one over at Citibank. Got the Citibank job which was great coz I love it here (for certain reasons which u can find somewhere in my blog :Þ)

Dearie went to photoshop this photo, did some effects, added words, printed out and put it in a lovely forever friends photoframe for me :)

Our Photo 2I think I'm abit too fair.. jus look at this photo.. one black and one white :p and last sunday, Jason's cousin actually asked me if I was from China!?! Coz I am abit too fair and I speak very good chinese :) hee.. of course lah, I'm a 华校生 mah, my A1 for both O level and AO level chinese is not bluff one oki..

But our skin colour is really very different hor.. and our height is also very different :p he's 31cm taller than me leh, and that is really alot :p

Us and flower2 Here's us with the Sunflower i got for dear² on his chinese birthday :p

I like buying pple flowers, coz I think it's great to receive flowers.. And guys do really dig getting flowers, first coz they would never expect to receive flowers and second coz they would never expect to receive flowers and third, guys are really more romantic than girls, so when u do a romantic thing like giving them flowers, they go abit ga-ga, then dunno what to say or how to react, so it's darn funny too.. hee.. and must make sure to make him hold the flowers all the time wherever you go to :p really very fun.. heeUs and flower2

Here's a ah gong photo :Þ the two of us actually are blind without our glasses.. but i'm the one with the more serious case, I really totally cannot see without my glasses or contacts *thank god for the inventor of contact lens*

That's my dear² with his ah gong aka army glasses.. He never really like to wear them, and he absolutely refused to wear them when he met me with my colleague the other time. He actually took the trouble to go get contacts just so my colleague doesn see him with the glasses, damn hiao hor :p hahah..Us and flower2

This is the lunch that dear² prepared for me.. the kitty is darn cute hor.. and if u look at the upper left hand corner, that's supposed to be a duck made from sausage wor, it's really quite cute :)

Then he also made stuff chicken wings, meat patties and yong tao fu soup (never take pic of that) wor.. my dear can really cook, he's like a house-husband :p

Also he helps out alot when he's over at my place, make breakfast for us (his fav prata), wash the dishes, clear up the table, run errands, and yesterday he was helping my dad fix our vcd player :p but again i must state, i'm not ill-treating him hor, he likes to do all these stuff one, serious :p


210505-4 Here's the pic we took on our 4th monthsary :) this photo very clearly shows the difference in our height and our skin colour :p and i was wearing make-up that day, so look extra fair :p

The picture is abit blur, taken with my free camera :p really must start saving up for my V903 liao (go see my link part, it's a super super phone, this one die die i will get :p so dear² u know what to do lah )

That dress i was wearing is my fav dress (not that i have many dress to choose from), coz alot of pple told me i look good in it :) and I do think i look good in it :)

We went over to Holland V for dinner that night, went to have my fav viet beef steamboat, it's really very good, the soup is very nice and there's alot of meat meat meat :p It's a must try if u guys like beef. and the other thing is, it's not expensive, only 28++ for a 2 person set.. and there's really quite alot of stuff, very filling for both :)

I really wanna blog and post more pictures but time is running out :p Actually i did have a longer post but then IE fucked up on me again.. argh.. irritating.. must see my fav photo NOW!!!
Huggies
ar... that is so much better :) hee.. acting crazy again..

esplanade pana
see.. so crazy and boliao that we took a silly panoramic shot over at esplanade.. see the "durain" behind us :Þ

Last but not least, shall end this post with a collage (ok, i know it's an old one.. but no time to do a new one :p and this one looks good mah)

collage

Happy Happy 6th Monthsary Jason Dear²

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Grizzly Bear killed by Koala

Woodlands (Singapore) - A grizzly bear was found dead in a HDB apartment located in Woodlands yesterday afternoon. The owner of the apartment alerted the police once they discovered the body and the police later classified the death as death by un-natural causes.

Investigations are underway but preliminary autopsy results showed that the grizzly sustained severe head injuries as well as scratch marks on many parts of the body.

Koala, who is the prime suspect in the death of the Grizzly, was brought in for questioning right after the discovery of the body. But due to lack of evidence, koala was released after being detained for 24 hours.


The startling murder took the island by storm as the general crowd speculate on how a small, cute, furry koala bear could kill a big fierce grizzly bear.

Undisclosed sources believes that Koala murdered Grizzly by accident. Undisclosed source said :"Koala would never be able to kill Grizzly even if it wanted to. The grizzly is just too big for the koala to even hurt."

Sources close to Koala belives that the murder was a freak accident where Koala was getting out of her double bunk bed and fell onto grizzly who was sleeping on the massage chair right next to the bed. The many scratches were believed to be caused due to Koala's panic at falling.

The Koala is not available to shed light on what exactly had happened yesterday. Sources said that Koala is currently undergoing medical treatment for the trauma.

On another note, Grizzly's funeral was attended by many close friends who are shocked that a big bear like him can be killed by a small cute furry koala bear. But it's a tough world out there and never judge a bear by its appearance.

21 red roses and 6 sunflowers sighted at the funeral were believed to be sent by Koala.



*note:: like my news report dear? u are so dead :p haha

Have Dumbledore really died?

For those who haven read or finished the book, please go away, spoilers spoilers..

For those who had finished the book, dun u guys find Dumbledore's death abit puzzling??

check out this forum thread, now they have very interesting theories, including the Dumbledore that died is not the real thing but someone who is a metamorphagi, or someone who drank the polyjuice potion; that the person who died was Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth; that the potion that he drank is actually crucial to bring him back to life in the 7th book.

After reading through the thread, i did realise that Dumbledore did not seem normal during the last few scenes.. and the raspberry jam thing.. Dumbledore mentioned it once and that was it.. any significance, or we're jus reading too much into the story..

Seriously i have my doubts about the death of Dumbledore and the allegiance of Snape, something is jus very wrong here.. really very wrong.. gosh, i'm already hoping for the next book to come out and Rowling haven even started on it.. dang it..

So many theories, which one is right??

Harry and Ginny, i think they make a sweet couple, since Ginny had always liked Harry and Harry liked Ginny well enough as a baby sister initially.. so so so sad when they had to break up, i hate it when two people loves each other dearly and yet have to part, this is jus not right.. hmm.. another theory, Ginny would play a role in the final scene, coz Dumbledore said, Harry had something Voldemort dun, and that is love.. hhmmm.. theories theories theories..

I think i must go back and read the book again, see if there's anything i missed out :p

postnote:: wanted to post this real funny pic of Snape which i found in one of the forum
snape-loreal

Dumbledore died, it's a necessary evil..

I've jus finished reading the book yesterday and despite the warnings that the end is so so so sad, a definite tear-jerker, I find my eyes dry and my emotions a flatline..

Is it coz it's too late and I was tired? or that i'm too jaded and such scenes dun affect me anymore? or maybe the people who gave me the warnings are jus easily touched? or PMS? no wait a minute, i shld be more emotional if I'm having PMS, dunno lah..

Anyway Dumbledore's death is necessary for the flow of the story, else Harry will never be able to face Voldermort alone.. It was sad, but I jus did not really feel that sad.. I was more sad when Harry had to break up with Ginny, that was the part that got to me.. Why? how would i know?

The idea of Horcrux is interesting, splitting your soul into two parts or even more.. using an extremely evil act to take apart your soul and achieve a state of undeath, immortality.
"Immortality is not the ability to live forever but the inability to die."
Many crave immortality for they do not understand the universe, they do not understand that there is really only so much a person can do, they do not understand that everything that is happening now is only a variation of something that had happened before.. they do not know that with immortality comes boredom, boredom of having seen and done everything before. Voldemort should go read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe series, then he'll see that immortality is really something he would not desire.

It's interesting to see how the immortality theme is being used in the book, in the very first book with the elixer of life, then now with horcruxes.. used to read the vampire romance books, cant remember the author but the 3 books are called Possession, Obession and I dun remember the name of the other book. It talks about how it is to be an unwilling vampire (aka bitten against his own will) and how he fell in love and how he lost his love. Thus the quote above came up in my mind, the immortality that the vampires had was not a power, it was a prison, trapping them, cursing them for eternity..

Back to HP6, overall it's a pretty good book, the story is much tighter this time round, the pace is much faster and many questions are being answered. I definitely prefer it over the last book, which was really tedious to get through..

One question that is not answered though, Snape, is he good or bad? One moment he seems good, the next he's a death eater, then he's an undercover for Dumbledore, then he's a double double agent for Voldemort.. huh?? ok, he did kill Dumbledore, but i think there's something more going on than Snape going back to his old master. Dumbledore strongly believed in him, even till his death, so there must be something that Snape had said or done to make him act so.. So what is it?

I do not think that Dumbledore is wrong, and in some ways, i feel that he knew Snape was going to kill him.. And that mysterious person, the one that took off with the real horcrux, who is he? R.A.B? another self title like the Half Blood Prince?? He'll probably play an important role in the fight against the Dark Lord, but who else dares to stand up against the dark lord, and have enough magic to actually steal the horcrux from the dark lord?? intriguing..

But alas, Rowling is not starting to write the book proper till next year, so it's another year down the road to wait wait wait..

Friday, July 15, 2005

Funeral

was with my uncle on his final journey yesterday and the night before and it's really a new experience for me.. ..

events leading to the funeral..

my mum received a frantic call from my aunt, asking how my dad was.. turned out that there was a misunderstanding, my aunt tot my dad fell down and was in hospital but it turned out to be a case of wrong identity as my cousin has the same name as my sister.

a few more rounds of call and we got the news that my uncle passed away shortly after he was admitted to the hospital.. another person gone jus like that..

I'm not that close to this uncle of mine, but I remember him every chinese new year, where he'll call me 小美人.. and my aunt will call me 小可爱.. now her husband is gone jus like that.. he's only 55.. jus abit older than my dad :(

went down to the funeral on wed and it was so different from the ones that i've attended in the recent years.. a few years back, my dad's brother passed away (incidentally after he fell too).. we were never too close to the relatives on my father's side (bad blood coz of money, what's new?? they are evil bastards, except for my ah ma, ah gong and third aunt), so it was go and show face thing.. went for the cremation, only thing i can think of, is it over yet? then it's my mum's sister's husband's funeral.. was a buddhist funeral, had vegetarian food, monks praying.. was not emotionally involved as I really dunno this uncle of mine, hardly saw him before.. went along as my mum asked us to.. the other recent funeral i went to was Jason's friend's funeral. This funeral is a Christian funeral, first time I've attended one.. It scared me.. coz of several reasons.. first, his friend was my age.. so young.. (she also died coz of a fall) and we got to see her body and it's my first time since a long time that i saw a corpse.. she's so young.. and the whole atmosphere was very still.. no prayers, no kids running about, no bands.. jus a bunch of people sitting around tables and looking so darn sad.. I felt so relieved when we went off, the whole atmosphere was jus so suffocating..

This funeral is another buddhist funeral.. but was different from the last one as my uncle was some "Tan Zu", which is some clan thing i guess.. they have alot of weird weird customs like instead of putting plams together to pray, they have this thing called "ko shou"(two hands interlocking in a way i dunno how to describe).

It's abit bad but i had fun at the funeral with my niece and nephew.. my niece is this bubbly 5 year old girl called Gladys and my nephew is this cute 8 year old boy² called Shawn. Have another little nephew but not much chance to play with him.. these two really kept me and my mei busy, asking for this and that, wanna play with this and that, wanna go here and there.. really hyperactive, but darn cute..

Especially gladys, she'll just stick to me and yiyi-this-yiyi-that.. so so so cute!!! really make me think of how great it will be to have a little girl of my own.. I'm never really good with kids, but gladys is really making me change my mind :p hope that's a good thing :)

Cremation was over at Mandai Crematorium.. first time i was there and the place really looks great.. honest.. it feels kinda like a church.. it's a very grand-looking building with grand-looking interiors..

All along, i was abit sad as this was my uncle's funeral and I find him ok.. but when the coffin was being pushed into the furnance, emotions started coming hard and fast.. everyone was so sad, especially his immediate family.. It hit me at that moment that he is really gone and his body is going to be burnt.. I wanted to cry but i held back my tears, for whatever reason, I do not know..

the cremation ceremony affected my mood quite abit, so dear², sorry for not really bothering about you last nite.. :(

But life still goes on, what is gone is gone.. Life is harsh, we must learn to move on.. I can only pray ernestly that my uncle will rest in peace in wherever he is now.. *bows head in respect* also hope that my aunt and cousins can learn to accept life and go on with their own lives, knowing that my uncle is in a good place now.

Rest In Peace

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

《听说爱情回来过》

found this chinese blog and was so inspired to blog in chinese, but alas, my efforts were screwed by, 1. my pc in the office does not have chinese input 2. no matter how good Babel Fish is, it's still hard to get the words i wan 3. stupid ie crashed on me and lost my post which i took darn long to compose with Babel Fish.

I know, i could always blog in chinese at home mah, like my mei does (coz her chinese teacher made all of them do), i have xp at home leh.. chinese words are not a problem for me of course. but who wants to blog at home when i can blog in the office and make my boss think i'm hard at work.. wahahaha.. pls call me god :Þ

Anyway here's an abstract which i got from the website, I found this post interesting.. it talks alot of sense.. and i'm in the "what is love?" kinda mood these days..

《听说爱情回来过》
近年来,每每听到朋友要结婚,对男的,疯子总说,考虑清楚。
对女的,还是考虑清楚。
婚前婚后,大多两个样。
婚前只有一个甜!
婚后就柴米油盐酱醋茶!
当然,也有婚前连甜也没有的。

不,疯子不是对婚姻不满,绝无此意。
疯子认为爱情都不长久。
长久的爱情,都短命。
就因为短命,才会记得长,记得久。
所以马拉松长跑式的爱情常常有落幕的时候。

最近看了部《中国式离婚》。
里头的婚姻问题,很简单,四个字:沟通破裂
建议所有未婚、已婚、离婚的男男女女去看一看。
或许可以看到不少自己的影子。

沟通沟通,不沟,自然就不通。
有没有发现情侣恩爱,话题不断。
越恩爱就越多说不完的废话。
天天通电话,日日见面也不腻。

很多人说和情人久了,累了,越来越没话说。
是没话题吗?
是懒了,懒得经营,懒得努力,懒得继续。
情人尚且如此,婚后不就更加不堪了吗?

时间最无情,再浓厚香甜的冰淇淋,也会随时间从冰点融化成淡而无味的死水。
在婚姻里,很多时候,责任大于爱情。
爱情走了,回来真的不太容易。
就算找到了,也是别人身上,所以我们大家时有所闻--婚外情。
不要奢望恩爱如昔。
偶尔听说爱情回来过,那种感觉已经很不错。
很久没和情人说话,偶尔说说废话吧!
当废话也不能引她发噱的时候,不要怀疑,是时候换个人了。

Love, it's elusive, it's harsh, it's something all of us wan but only precious few can get..

Love vs Life. Life erodes love.. life, working life, makes us forget what love is; forget the sweet nothings; forget the simple joy of just being with each other; forget what it feels like to be on a swing; forget how to love.. ..

.. when love becomes routine ..
.. when love becomes responsibility ..
.. when love becomes hate ..

why is it so hard to love??

爱得好坚苦.. ..

Friday, July 08, 2005

中秋節

yaya, i know i'm early, but i'm already starting to see mooncakes around already, so this post is justified :p

Whenever I think of mooncake, i think of Taka's event square where they'll have all sorts of stalls selling all kinds of mooncakes..

This is the traditional kind, the standard lotus paste with egg yolk.. so normal, and boring.. I prefer mine with snow skin and loads and loads of melon seeds :)

on second thoughts, i think i prefer these
Hello Kitty chocolate mooncakes.. they jus look so *kawaii* and oh-so-yummy. Check out Leisure-cat for its recipe :) hmm.. shall i attempt to make some?? I have ultraman mould wor.. err... somewhere.. err.. it's in.. err.. aiyah, it's in my house somewhere lah :p

Think Jason's sisters should know how to make mooncake, so i shall save the trouble of making them on my own :p hee.. ok lah, shall not be so lazy, will go learn how to make snowskin mooncake.. time to buy all those cute cute moulds liao :)

I like mid-autumn festival :) coz when we're small, it's one of the few chances we get to play with candles candles and more candles.. with candles comes lighters and matchsticks, all the stuff that we're not supposed to play with normally.. then we'll also get to play with spraklers.. and best of all, staying up till darn late to play with all the laterns.

these paper ones (look left) are the darn boring ones that you can find everywhere for around 50 cents. or if you want, i have boxes of them at home..

now these (look right) are abit better, looks so much nicer and they come in all sorts of characters.. i think that's Doraemon on the extreme right.. but then these are battery operated, no candles to play with.. boring..

This is the kind of laterns that I like. darn pretty, all transparent and such. and coz i was born in the year of the rooster, i would always get one in the shape of a rooster. And if i'm lucky, I'll get a phoenix one coz i have the word phoenix in chinese in my name.. and also phoenix is the prettiest latern around :)

but being the careless girl, i always manage to break my latern.. the paper used are darn thin, jus a slight tug and u can tear a hole in them..

Mid-atumn festival was fun in secondary coz our school actually celebrates it with us :) being the chinese school that we are, we'll have celebration on a saturday night with freeflow of mooncake and all sorts of performance. It's really very fun to go to school late at nite and jus have fun with all my classmates :)

Another memorable Mid-atumn was during JC or yr 1 in uni.. that year me and my mei did something silly.. we actually climbed out onto the top of our car porch and started playing with candles and happily eating our mooncake :) actually was quite dangerous as there were no barriers and dun think it was meant to hold much weight :p

hmm.. this year's mid autumn festival.. plans.. hmm.. shall ask Yingzhi out and celebrate together :)

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Congratulations!!


My friend is getting married!! yeah!!! my good friend is getting married!! she's the first amongst us to get married!! I'm so so so excited!!!

did i mention that my friend is getting married?? hee :p

pardon my excitment but this is the first time someone close to me is getting hitched.. cannot count in all the aunts and cousins, coz never really bothered about them.. but Tian is different, we've known each other since Pri 5.. that's a total of 13 years of friendship wor!!

She dropped us the bombshell last weekend when she told us she and tong got a new flat in Toa Payoh. But they seem abit reluctant to tell us the actual details of when are they gonna get married and such.. but hey, they got a flat already, in singapore, only related couples (meaning parent-child; husband-wife) can own a HBD flat, else u'll have to wait till 35 to buy a flat, and that's only up to 4-room ( i think).

Talk abit about the couple.. Tian is quite a high flyer, over in this big foreign bank (?) right now, pulling in quite abit.. Tong is airforce sign-on, not pilot though, but seems to be doing well. His bond is ending in 3 years and then he's gonna go into the finance market like Tian. The two are super lovey dovey, even after being together for like 3 years (i cant really remember.. sorry..). We guessed that they would be the first to get married, but no so soon :p

So within a year or so, they would at least have to go ROM to register :) so it's time to start to think of what to wear.. hee.. and what present to get for them for their house-warming

Another reason why i'm so excited.. Tong is from airforce.. so will we get to attend a Military Wedding?? always wanted to attend one.. I like men in uniforms too.. especially all white uniform :p hee

Hereby wishing the happy couple the very very best.. and marriage is not about marrying the person that you can live with, it's about marrying the person you cannot live without.. I'm so happy that they two of them found each other :)