More Furniture In The House

This morning, another piece of furniture was delivered to Chai Chee Avenue.

Truly, things will never be the same again... oh boy :-)

Welcome To The Kop End...

Seen at a local pub.

Funny as hell

The Weekends Have Been Different

It hasn't been about movies or restaurant hopping for a while now..

We've been shopping for different things lately.. very different indeed...

Love Birds

These two were happily romancing on the perch at my house

Enjoying the view of Chai Chee Avenue...

Right under my Renomas!

KNS!

What's Wrong With This Picture?

So who's looking more out of place now?

Miss Singapore World?

Seriously can't imagine how she could have won the title. Was the quality of the competition that bad?

She said, and I quote, that she's "not afraid of embarassment, just want to be famous." At least she's achieving her declared objectives.

Where got swee?

Paranormal? My Ass!

Almost exactly 2 years ago in Oct 2007, I wrote this post on my old Multiply blog. In that post, I recalled an incident in my childhood where I went to watch a qigong demonstration. The mental image of that demonstration stayed with me ever since and I've wondered for years, how did he do it?

One fine day, I just happened to figure it out. Confident that I have the correct answer, I wrote my conclusions in that blog post but to date, I have yet to have a chance to witness a similar event in order to prove my own hypothesis.

Recently, I chanced upon a video of an 'energy blast demonstration' (WTF, phrase also macam comic book) that is similar to the above qigong crap.

The mechanics is simple. The first 'lifting' is carried out in completely different circumstances from the second 'lifting'. Watch the video, use a bit of logic, and you'll what I mean.


Feels good; satisfying myself with debunking the bogus nonsense above. Today, I've also become more convinced that in the most part, 'practitioners' of Traditional Chinese Medicine are just full of bullcrap and we as Chinese (or even Asians in general) have for generations been misled and conned big time. I'll put in writing why a lot of the things the Chinese believe in are utter lies. Will do so when I have the energy and time.

Rest In Peace, Yasmin

And may perpetual light shine upon your soul

We will miss you!

Get Well Soon Yasmin

It's in the news that Yasmin Ahmad had a stroke and is in ICU. I pray that she has a speedy recovery. You can do it, Yasmin!

Yasmin Ahmad, whom I've only met once, directed movies like Sepet and Muallaf. We met her last year while she was in Singapore promoting Muallaf, the movie Malaysia may never get to see. Not sure if it's been screened in Malaysia yet though.

If there was one word that I'll use to describe her, it'll be COURAGE. If you're a Malaysian, and have watched some of her movies, you'll fully understand what I mean.

Her are some of her 'mini' works. (you may have seen the funeral one)

Sexy Monroe

My work requires me to stay back in office till late sometimes. And 'sometimes' can sometimes be 'most of the time'. To keep me entertained at night, I installed a nice wall mounted audio player by Philips.

Last week, my ang moh boss decided that I should have a better companion in the office. He sent Marilyn to keep me company.

For two days, I get a shock everytime I open the room door.

The Modern Middle Kingdom

I've lived in Singapore for 10 years. I never once saw it as The Modern Middle Kingdom as Mr M calls it. Makes for an interesting read, his blog post.

Having written a long commentary as part of this post, I decided not to publish it instead. Suffice to say that many others have had their say about the various issues faced by the two countries. Hence, I reserve all other comments.

Manchester United - 08/09

Been a great season. Would have been greater had we also won both the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League. But a haul of FIFA Club World Cup, Carling Cup and Premier League champions is amazing by any measure.

So we've finally sold Christiano Ronaldo. I remember being in NUS and wondering "why the heck did we pay £12.2 million for boy from Portugal who's barely 18 years old?". All that cross-overs that achieved nothing in his first season only served to compound fears of Manchester United going down the drain in those years. But the boy wonder grew into a monster of a football player and the rest is history. £80 million is good business deal for someone who wants out anyways. Looking forward to exciting new players.

I dislike the fact that next season's kit might be used for 2 years but the with the sponsor's logo changing after only one year. This authentic looking poster was supposedly leaked by Nike. Poster itself is nice, but difficult to make a judgement call on the stripe.

Especially with this photo also appearing online. Hmmm...

It's Just So Hot

The past couple of weeks have been just hot and humid. Even the nights are hot.

Hosted a game of Texas Hold'em on Friday and we were wondering what the heck is wrong with the aircon. Little did I know that outside, it was a freakin' free sauna for the whole country!

Sunset view from my bedroom window. Now, if only I had an SLR. (the size of a compact, preferably, Haha!)

Relaxing Sunday

Had afternoon tea (more like lattes and mochas actually) at Riders Cafe over the weekend.

Nice scones with butter, cream and jam.

And a killer of a cake called Death By Chocolate! It's a full sized yummilicious meal!

Food and beverage were good. So was the ambience of the cafe itself.

You basically sip your tea and eat your cake with horses trotting right outside your window.

Some just taking a walk in the carpark while others helping themselves to the grass.

Very relaxing...

A beautiful Sunday afternoon for all..

Yup, we're all having a good time, aren't we?

May Day!

It's been a tough week. Drained and fatigued. Emotionally and mentally.

Will take this few days to recharge. A token of appreciation of my hard work? Haha. Thanks anyways..

Kuching Laksa.. Adipos Style!

I've always wanted to cook a damned good Kuching Laksa. But my efforts all these years have failed miserably. I just couldn't figure out what Chong Choon (my favourite laksa place in Kuching) put into their bowl of laksa. My last effort while hosting a CNY party also ended up in utter disaster. Luckily my guests weren't familiar with the dish, else they would be scrambling for a drain to puke it all out.

But just last week, I've finally tasted success in perfecting my laksa. Now I'm constantly craving it; and as far as I'm concerned, if I'm craving my own cooking, then it has to be pretty damned good.

I remember shuddering and felt super paiseh serving a pathetic laksa during CNY this year. Now, I look forward to cooking and sharing with my friends. Only problem is, I'm completely out of laksa paste again!

Must You Leave Your Child At Home With A Maid?

I don't care if this video is real (Looks very real). The thing is, the possibility is very real.

Personally, I feel a child care centre is safer. To all my friends with children at home with the maid, please be more careful. For those of you who treats the maid like dirt, you'll never know when she'll be serving you dirt in your dinner. Or poison.

Anti Sharks' Fins Soup

Saw this on Ashley. Made me feel proud that Daisy and myself made a conscious effort not to serve sharks' fins soup at our wedding dinner.

Luckily, we did not invite that woman to our wedding!

p/s: The video is a spoof, trying to ride on the infamy of the incident where a woman went berserk at the airport in Hong Kong after she was late for her flight.

Macau Dec 08

I had 2 weeks of free time in December last year as I was in the midst of a career switch. Daisy took a couple of days off too and we headed for a short trip to Macau and Hong Kong. Always wanted to see what Macau had to offer; and I dare say, it does offer a fair bit in terms of tourism appeal. We stayed in the Venetian and that in itself is a unique experience.

We had a big room. It comes with a decent view.

And trust me, you'll love the bathroom!

You may also have heard of the nicely done false sky and canals.

Makes you think it's bright and sunny and perfect for shopping no matter what the weather is like outside. In the 4 days that we were there, we covered less than 20% of the shops at the Venetian. In fact, the only shop that we really dropped by at is the 16,000 sqft Manchester United Megastore. After Old Trafford and the Carrington training facility, this is ManUtd central for the Asia Pacific region.

Until the Cotai Strip is completed (if it ever will be), I'ld definitely wanna stay at the Venetian again. That or one of the many nice boutique hotels.

This is the first trip that we went on without any planning in terms of itenary. So we're essentially blur tourist. And like any other tourists, we did the usual touristy stuffs. Like heading straight for the Ruins of St Paul's.

It's crowded even on a weekday. Somehow I doubt it'll be so popular if was never burnt down and the original cathedral still stood on that hill. Next to the Ruins, on an higher hill stood Monte Forte; or more specifically, Fortress of Our Lady of the Mount of St. Paul. Like the cathedral, it is built and run by Catholic Jesuit monks. Here you'll find big guns the Jesuits used to protect Macau.

Trust me, if the Jesuits still had a say in running the fort, they would have blown the monstrosity that is the Grand Lisboa out of the sky.

I can't believe that I've not heard of the building before arriving at Macau. It doesn't look like a hotel cum casino at all. In fact it looked to me like a gigantic shrine to the devil where Stanley Ho and gang conduct satanic virgin sacrifices every night.

Maybe it's just me but I found the building disturbing. This is one of 3 things in Macau that disturbed me. I'll elaborate later.

Anyways, Forte Monte was a nice place to take pictures.

In face, the whole of Macau is rather picturesque.

We visited quite a number of churches and temples.

We also took long romantic walks. *shy*

We also ate a lot of 'instant noodles' and Portuguese baked rice/pasta but to prevent this blog from becoming a food blog, I shall not be posting pictures of food. That, and the fact that I'm still trying to get myself into diet mode! Haha! Oh, if you guys do visit Macau, do make your way to Lord Stow's Bakery for their version of the egg tart. Yummy! They are so good (sweet), the egg tarts brought out the dragon in me!

But my supposed bravado did not prepare me to face the statue of A-Ma. To get to the statue, you have to scale a rather steep and tall hill in the country-side island of Coloane. As you reach the peak, you emerge from a boulevard of trees and come face to face with a very imposing statue. I felt like I was caught in a scene from Jason And The Argonauts.

It strikes a certain fear in me as I looked up at it. It's a weird feeling, standing on the top of a hill only to have a gigantic statue towering over you. Standing there at the foot of the statue, I could see the entire island of Coloane as well as the island of Taipa and Macau. I just can't stop imagining Godzilla emerging out of the sea around us and start battling A-Ma.

To think that the average height of people in Macau/Hong Kong isn't all that tall. And I thought that the Japanese were supposed to be the short ones.

Yao Ming ma man, I feel ya dawg!

The 3rd thing that disturbed me was Macau Tower. It took me at least one minute before I could psyche myself up to step onto the see-through glass floor. One day, I'll go back there to do the bungee.

Oh and I met some of my regional colleeagues at giving out free almond cookies at Senado Square. I did not tell them I worked for the same company though haha! At the center of Senado Square was St Dominic's Church. On our last night in Macau, we actually queued for more than an hour to get tickets to a concert at St Dominic's by the Macau Orchestra. For a small population, they really did have a decent orchestra. So good that I fell asleep halfway through the first piece.

But hey, being a tourist can be tiring OK? Especially with having to contend with Monster Lisboa, Monster A-Ma and the floorless Macau Tower. Luckily we had a great hotel to return to and rest our weary bodies and souls.

Ahh... the bliss. Makes you never wanna leave the bath. Alas, after 4 days and 3 nights, we had to leave Macau. And guess what? The Venetian has their own fleet of high speed ferries that leave for Hong Kong every hour!

I'll write a bit about Hong Kong; when I have the time haha!

Touched Me