Greetings from the SARs!

Yo everyone. Here's saying Hi! from the Far East. We had a great time exploring the very charming Macau.

Now, we're at Hong Kong to usher in 2009. Missing the parties going on back in Singapore. Save some for us k! We're coming back soon!

As they say it here;

Sing Dan Fai Lok!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Here's wishing everyone in advanced Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I gotta be at the airport in 2 hours. Will be spending our Christmas and New Year in Macau and Hong Kong. Woohoo!



Yesterday we had a nice dinner plus Texas Hold'em at my place. We also had fun going down memory lane watching a very old video of ourselves as freshmen of Raffles Hall. Thanks everyone who turned up, hope you guys had fun.


Before I leave the house, gotta open up the presents under the Christmas Tree. Yup, the Chai Chee people actually bought presents for each other. Exciting! I wonder what I'll get!

See you guys next year!

Bellini Grande

Fu Onn the gay boy being back in Singapore usually means there will be a lot of clubbing. At the suggestion of Chen Peng, we checked out the not-that-new anymore Bellini Grande at Clarke Quay. It occupies the premise vacated by Crazy Horse.

Definitely feels more atas than the usual drinking joint. It's like someone (Dennis Foo) took the old Bellini Room at St. James, up the sitting capacity, up the decor and give the whole thing a touch of class.

The band is now a symphony and boy the song and dance routines are good!

We've also got quite a cool crowd there.

More cool people!

Being an old building, we even found ourselves some ghosts!

Old Buddy Back In Town

The gay boy is back! Yup, Fu Onn is in town for the Christmas season. We wasted no time rekindling our romance catching up; having supper at MissUCafe and Bedok 85 hawker center.
We also had beers at Paulaner Brauhaus with Chen Peng and Helena. Well, actually, we had beers but Chen Peng had soda (baned from alcohol) while Helena had white wine.

Simple Farewell

A group of my colleagues dropped by this evening for dinner. Dawn even came early to help me prepare dinner for everyone. Thanks so much Dawn!



They even brought some gifts. This here is a multi-function scanner-printer-copier-etc. Obviously the brainchild of Jason.

Andrea also brought a long a fine bottle. Not that I'm any connosiour but you'll know a good bottle when you see one.

Thanks guys. I'm gonna miss you all!

JB Road Trip

Had a relaxing yet tiring day catching up with some friends whom I've not seen much of lately. We somehow decided to drive up to Johor Bahru to makan. Since I've been to JB a couple of times, I played tour guide for this road trip.

We agreed to gather at Catholic Junior College at 10am before starting off the convoy of 3 cars to JB. Beautiful morning, but only 2 cars appeared on time. This is a nice picture of those who are punctual. I quite like this picture actually.


While waiting for those who are late, we ate breakfast and played frisbee at CJC's carpark. Now, guess who's late. Who else but Sam?!? Never fails to be late this boy. As punishment, we'll use Sam as a model for one of the activities we did. Massage!



Other than massage, we also shopped quite a fair bit. In fact, we covered TheStore, Carrefour as well as Tesco! Of course, the main purpose of the trip is to makan but I was enjoying the food so much, I forgot to take any pictures.


Before we set off for Singapore again, we managed to take a group photo. Another nice one too!

Sporty In Appearance

Who am I kidding? I'm freaking unfit.

Did I turn up for StanChart Singapore Marathon 2008? Yes, barely.
Will I sign up for the marathon next year? Most definitely, not.


By the way, this year's race route took us through the F1 race track and as we passed by the Pit Building, there were a whole line of Ferraris on display. From antique models to the latest Modena. The Enzo was nowhere to be seen though.


We also dropped by the Mediacorp Celebrity Car Boot Flea Market at the PlayGround @ BigSplash. It was to support Janice at her People's Association booth. And to grab some freebies from the PA obviously.


Sporty water bottles to keep up the sporty appearance you know :-)

8 Women And A Man

Attended the wedding of one of Daisy's colleagues last night.

It's good to be the only thorn amongst the roses. Oh yeah baby!

p/s: This shows that while there is still food, this is not a food blog haha!

Chut Chut Yum Yum

There's this place near my block that sells a decent mee rebus (kinda like mee jawa for those in Kuching). It's actually a stall in a HDB-ground-level-kopitiam run by a Malay lady. Recently, I took a look at their selection of Singapore style Nasi Padang dishes. The one dish that caught my eyes was Chut-Chut! The Malay community here calls it Siput Sedut (or Siput Sedut Sedut sometimes)

The one near my block is really quite good. I ordered a rice-bowl portion for $1.50 to go with my nasi lemak.


The first time I had the chut-chut, it was served as masak lemak. I was there again today, and this time the Malay lady prepared it as Masak Lada Merah. This time, I had a bowl to go with my kaya-butter-toast. Hmmm, a bit weird but.. whatever! Either way she cooks it; very spicy. Shiok ah!


The photos were taken using my Nokia 6500 Slider. Low tech, low rest, no macro-shot but at least can see something. Oh and don't bother to google the little fellas. They are known as cerithidea obtusa and they look like aliens!

Dog's Day Afternoon

Daisy's parents were in Hong Kong so being the good son-in-law that I am, I agreed to bring the family shih tzu go kai kai. Yup, that shih tzu is none other than Bambam. Remember her?



We decided to bring Bambam see a good 'friend' of mine. Bambam was super happy lah; got car ride and jalan jalan.


My friend stays at Pasir Ris Farmway 1 and suddenly Bambam was getting panicky seeing all the other dogs having their fun in the sun. It is after all, a pet farm.



Suddenly, my 'friend' appeared out of nowhere and started to sniff-sniff at Bambam and, oh well.. poor Bambam was simply terrified to say the least.


In the end, we had to place her in her 'safe place' aka 'limo' and send her safely home.


I doubt Bambam will look forward to a Sunday afternoon out with me again anytime soon.

The Film Malaysia May Never Get To See

What a day! Early in the morning, we (me, Daisy and Sanball) went for a session of badminton with some friends. We ended early, showered and set off to the Picturehouse to catch the 1.15pm screening of Muallaf.

By the time we got there, it was already 12.50pm and we were hungry; not to mention thirsty. So we chop chop grabbed something to makan at the basement. I've checked with the lady at the ticketing counter and the actual screening would begin at 1.20pm but by the time we entered the theater, it was already 1.25pm. The tiny theater was already full and as with all late comers, we had to almost climb over those sitting at the aisles to get to our seats. I remember saying sorry to a bunch of Malay girls in the darkness.

I've never done a movie review on my blog before and I won't start. But sufice to say, we enjoyed the show. It had a good story, was well paced, had slapstick scenes so crappy they you can't help laughing out loud and then there were scenes that were impactful, powerful and compelling. Being a Yasmin Ahmad movie, it obviously deals with relationships in a multi-racial, multi-religious, differing-socio-economical-political, mumbojumbo kinda setting. In a nutshell, a movie you'ld wanna watch, but Malaysia won't let you see.

Have I mentioned that I like Yeo Yann Yann? Well, she had what seemed like 5 to 6 minutes worth of screen time in a cameo appearance. Sigh. Oh and she did not appear for the screening as I had hoped.

Cos' by the time the credits rolled and the downlights came on, I looked around but did not see Yann Yann anywhere in the 'crowd' of 30 or so people in the theater. But when I looked to my right, I saw that the bunch of Malay girls we almost trampled over to get to our seats, were the stars of the show! Me, Daisy and Sanball just gasped and shared that startled look. As we looked around the room, there was Brian the lead guy at one corner at the back, and that was Brother Anthony over there.. and isn't that Yasmin Ahmad? We were really like.. Wow! The last time I went for a festival film screening, only the director showed up and nobody really bothered with him cos' the movie sucked big time. Heck, I can't even remember the title of that Japanese film.

So we adjourned to a lounge room and had a proper Q&A session with the people who made the movie.

People had so many questions for Yasmin, and she patiently answered all of the questions with eager excitedness. She even answered a few of my own questions but kinda siamed when I asked her about the prevailing theme of the inconvenient MalayMuslimGirl-NonMuslimChineseBoy love affair in her movies. Anyways, based on this one encounter with her, my impression of her is that she's this super widely read, watched and listened-to siao zharbo who has a great passion of telling stories and opinions that are close to her heart and in her mind. An amazing person.

Yasmin Ahmad

We even had the chance to take pictures with Brian Yap and Sharifah Aleysha. If I had stepped on her feet at the aisles, then she must have forgiven me cos' she was flashing her shy angelic smile the whole time.

Brian Yap and Sharifah Aleysha

Yup, even Sharifah Amani aka Rohani aka Orked was there. She looked like a little kid! It's been years since Sepet and she looked even younger than she did back then. Honestly, she's 25 but doesn't look a year older than her sister Sharifah Aleysha who is 15.

When I asked Orked, "Where's Jason?" She said "Oh, Jason* dah lama hilang la, dah kahwin dah. Now I'm with Brian. Oops!"

Sharifah Amani

Now that we've met Orked in real life, it's time to pop that Sepet DVD in the player and watched it again.


*Jason is the love interest of Orked in Sepet and I think the 'Jason' guy designed that poster for Muallaf

Muallaf

Most of us would have been familiar with the Malaysian movie Sepet by now.

If you're living in this part of the world and haven't seen it, please do yourself a favour and get acquainted with the moving story and memorable characters that define the movie.

Sepet, as well as its sequels Gubra and Mukshin, is written and directed by Yasmin Ahmad. Both sequels are movies I've yet to get the chance to watch.

But the good news is, the latest Yasmin Ahmad movie opens today at the PictureHouse. And guess what? It stars Yeo Yann Yann, one of my fav actress. Too bad she's gay. Sigh.. at least that's what I read somewhere..

Here's a trailer on Youtube. Now, see you at the movies!

Our First Christmas Tree!

It's exactly one month to Christmas! Can you feel the X'massy Atmosphere in the air yet? Not really? Well, neither can I haha! But it ain't stopping us making this Christmas a memorable one!

So I did not chop down any of the trees lining the block. The last guy who anyhow chopped one of NParks' trees got fined $70,000 lor!

But we did go shopping for one.. Heehee!

Ok.. The 'materials'..

This is the corner where the tree will go..

Now, how many engineers does it take to set up a Xmas Tree? Ans: 5, including me! Gosh..

And finally, we got ourselves a nice Xmas Tree!

Woohoo.. it's my very first Xmas Tree and I'm trilled!

Christmas Is Coming

... and obviously, I need to get a X'mas tree. So off I went to Tekka Centre to shop for a tree. And boy, there were so many many many beautifully decorated tree. But guess what? They cost about $700 bucks a tree (with ornaments and lights)

Sigh. But then again, there is a whole row of fir-looking-trees lining up the carpark below the block. And I do have a saw...

Hmmm... Should I?

I'm Going On A Diet!

Yup... I've decided to do something about my uncomfortable looking/feeling belly. Save for milk (to go with breakfast cereals) and coffee, i'll only drink Plain Water from now till Christmas! Yup, no more sugared drinks for me.

I'm counting on you, Novita!

What Was Cooking..

Ok Ok.. The answer is:

Hot Plate Beef and Fried Kai Lan In Oyster Sauce!

Now let's see;

• Rohana - mana ada prawns? Aduh...


• Puisan - wrong my dear.. no invites for you la la la..


• Peter - Peter says you all should update your links to my blogspot (and I'm guessing he means Mr Wong Fu Onn)


• -J - Of course familliar lah.. beef, kailan, ginger, shallots... everything you've seen before mah. Unless you have a cheemer meaning.. hmm...

So What's Cooking?

Guess what's for dinner! Go ahead.. Guess! Guess! Guess!

Get it right and I'll prepare for you a sumptious meal :-)

*Non halal certified tho.. oh, and I still owe Audrey a cuppa.. darn!

Naughty Naughty (Not Me)

I'm sure by now, it's no secret that countless photos/sex videos of Malaysian and Singaporean girls have been appearing all over cyberspace. In the case of the Malaysians, it appears that most are personal photos/videos 'leaked out' and posted online. In the case of some Singaporeans, it's just blatant bare-it-all for everyone to... see?

By the way, I'm not crazy and I don't spend my days googling "Malaysia+Singapore+nude" k! All of these cases have been published on news sites like AsiaOne.

Initially, when I come across the first few cases, I would think to myself "woah.. happening man!"

Today, I was checking up on the performance of a certain gaming company in Malaysia (the one building an intergrated-resort aka casino in Singapore). Neh, Uncle Lim's company lah, the one on top of the hill, surrounded by the clouds. If still dunno, I also cannot help you liao.

And I really almost went "FWAH SIAO LIAO!". Apparently, numerous nude photos supposedly of Uncle Lim's granddaughter can be found online. The pictures show a pretty Chinese looking girl posing nude at a casino.

Real or fake, I wouldn't know. I do know that while the photos may send some temperatures rising, G3ntng nt3rnational's share prices continue to drop. Also siao liao..

Quantum of Solace

My advice is to reacquaint yourself with Casino Royale before going to the theaters for Quantum. If you can watch Casino again, cool. Else, do wiki it and read the plot.

I watch Casino in the cinema back in 2006 and I'll admit I did not fully understand the story. Casino had enough twists and if you miss some of the dialougue, you'll miss the plot. Fast forward two years and all I could remember was a spiderman-like chase involving a black guy, poker playing at a resort island, Daniel Craig appearing out of the sea with his ab muscles 'protuding' and a painful ball whacking torture scene.

That is why I could not fully appreciate the 'story' of Quantum. So, do your homework before watching and you'll enjoy it better :-)

Huang Li Chao Fan

Q: What's the good thing about cooking your own Pinapple Fried Rice?

A: You get to decide how much Pork Floss* you wanna toss on top of it!

Juz whack arr!!!

*Chicken Floss in Rohana's case

Fantasy Fergie?

Haven't been blogging for a while. Couldn't really be bothered when ManUtd drew Everton. But they got wallopped by Arsenal, boy was that sianz! Gary Neville really should take a break and Fergie should really let Wes Brown take over. At least let Rafael handle that right back position. A solid right back might even stabilise Rio who has been fumbling lately.

So what if Liverpool got trashed in the League Cup? So what if Chelsea also lost. It's the Premier League we want.

United used to have a solid first team, plus very reliable reserves. Now, we rotate the team kinda like how Rafa rotates Liverpool. If that's the case, and since Liverpool has Fantasy Rafa, someone please come up with Fantasy Fergie. Please... I'll play, I promise.

Yummy Lobsters!

To celebrate Totenham beating Liverpool -Woohoo! (Yeah right)- over the weekend, we headed to Penggerang for a Sunday seafood lunch.

Reached Changi Point Ferry Terminal at about 11am and set off in a bumboat soon after.

After getting off at Tanjung Pengelih Jetty, it was a short taxi ride to Jade Garden Seafood Corner. No, it's nothing like the Crystal Jade restaurants in Singapore; more like a seafood eating place in JB actually.

If Jade Garden is famous for any one thing, it has to be this:

I mean these...

Lobsters!

We had bamboo clams..

Baby squids..

Ostridge tendons..

Vege..

and obviously, lobsters!

and more lobsters!

The first lobster dish is their signature 'shang tang' lobster. The second one is 'jin sha' lobster.

As though we did not have enough of lobsters for one day, we even bought lobster keropok. Cheap, not oily and as good as keropok comes.

All in all, a very enjoyable mini-excursion cum lunch. At an affordable price I must add. By the time we set foot again on Singaporean soil, it was time to rush off to officially welcome Poh Min's baby Wan Ru into the world!