Project68 [29/02/09]

I woke up 2 days ago weighing a happy 71.5kg. That's 3kg off the 74.5kg at the start of the year and half way to 68kg. That means Project68 by June is right on track!

This calls for a celebration!

Yesterday, I had laksa for lunch and prepared baked macaroni and cheese for dinner. Lunch today was a Japanese ala carte buffet I'm still suffering from and dinner later will be crabs at Eng Seng Coffeeshop over at Joo Chiat Place.

But the main celebration was finally opening my prized Godiva's Platinum Collection that I've torturously avoided since last December. It was a X'mas gift from Fu Onn and I've abstained from it ever since.

Ahhh.. Glorious!!

Earth Hour

In the spirit of fighting global warming (or is it climate change?), we turned off all the light in the house from 8:30pm to 9:30pm..

.. plugged in my laptop to the 50" plasma TV and watched Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

Laksa At Raffles Place

Was at AIA Tower and Prudential Tower yesterday. So I crossed over to Golden Shoe for lunch. Was pleasantly surprised to find a stall selling Kuching Laksa there. It's a branch of the one at Jurong East.


Unfortunately, the laksa I had that day was way below par. Worse than my last attempt to cook it myself. It was just bland and watery. And like the one at Jurong, it doesn't come with belacan.

However, the few times I tried the Jurong one, the broth was actually quite good. Better in some ways than the Kuching laksa at Bedok.

Sigh, disappointed with lunch.. To think they even displayed a culinary achievement certificate. Double sigh.

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.

Hong Kong Dec 08 - Part I

We arrived at Hong Kong from Macau on the afternoon of Christmas eve, and it was straight to checking in at Metropark Hotel. Now this is one hotel I would really recommend. Nothing glamourous about it, but super convenient and very practical. Check out the picture I ripped from the internet:

We've stayed here before back in 2005 and still loved it.

Rooms are spacious.. even after we messed it up.

Did I mention that the view was great?

Especially at night?

The view you see is actually Victoria Park and Victoria Harbour in the foreground; and Tsim Sha Tsui in the background. One probably cannot get a better view unless it's from the top of Victoria Peak.

From the room, if I were to point the camera downwards, we'll see Causeway Bay Sports Ground. That was where I jogged every other morning for about 4km.

Every alternate morning, I'll hit the threadmill in the gym as well as the sauna. If I did not, I really can't imagine the weight I'ld have put on in Hong Kong. After all, half the time is spent eating!

See the fatso with the double chin? Yup, that's me!

The only advantage 'feeling fat' is you probably won't be too intimidated by Bruce Lee. Honestly, I did not expect him to be so.. small. I'm sure he's quick and strong, but Hey, I'm well insulated.

Anyways, Victoria Park plays host to the annual Hong Kong Brands And Products Expo around the end of the year. We had some time between dinner and midnight mass so we went for a stroll through the fair.

It sure was one big crowded affair. Strangely, I don't only see Hong Kong products being displayed.

Amongst others, there were also instant Singapore Chilli and Black Pepper Crab paste.

And guess what? Klang Bak Kut Teh! *faint*

From Victoria Park it was a short walk to Christ The King Chapel for midnight mass. Somehow the priest that night reminded me of a Causeway Bay gu huo zhai. Priest by day; gangster by night. How cool! We were late but one kind old lady offered to share the front pew with us so we actually got a seat in front of the scene of the nativity. While we were saying our personal prayers during Communion, little children would come up to the figurines of the Holy Family and say their own little prayers.

The purity and innocence of little children in a huge metropolitan city. Very touching!

Love In The Mail

This came in the mail a few days ago. Thanks guys!

Miss you all!

Project68 [18/02/09]

I was 68kg for a number of years. Even then, I felt and looked chubby.

However, I suddenly put on another 7kg from July to August of 2008.

And guess what? 68kg did not seem too bad at all. Better than 75kg!

So it was my 2009 New Year's resolution to lose weight; all 7kg of it.

I started the year at 75kg. I was 72.5kg this morning. Happy? You betcha!

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

Woman

Excited

I've not been following tennis for a while now. Not played since secondary school actually. The only match I watched in 2008 was the Tsonga-Djokovic battle exactly one year ago. But the match starting in 15 minutes is just too mouth watering. Ever since Sampras-Agassi, there hasn't been any rivalry in tennis worth mentioning.

Roger Federer is the sublime maestro.

Rafael Nadal is arguably the most muscle bound athlete in the sport with undeniably the most awkward killer strokes. And he scratches his ass so compulsively every single point!

Whoever wins this, I'm hoping for a wonderful display of tennis.

Welcoming the Year of the Ox!

Gong Xi! Gong Xi! Was back in Kuching over the CNY period with Daisy. There's the reunion dinner, visiting and gatherings with friends and family to make the festivities all the more meaningful.

My dad prepared the dishes for the reunion dinner and this year, I ate without any complains. None of the usual "not enough gravy" etc. After all, I'm officially on a diet. Hmm..


But I did munch on some CNY goodies. Did I ever mentioned that Kuching has the absolute best Malay kuihs ever? Hands down.. :-)

But there's one other thing that we look forward to each year. And no, it's not the hong baos. I'm talking about firecrackers and fireworks something else. Redsponge's husband was supposed to help me buy the stuffs but he told me his supplier ran out of stock the morning of CNY eve. Luckily I managed to source from other places!

So we had a small little bundle of various ammunition for the night. After dinner, we watched Ip Man and Warlords as we waited for midnight to come. Come 11:30pm on 25th Jan 2009, we started preparations liao.

We gotta tie the long firecrackers and noisy ones to poles and them secure the poles high enough off the ground. Unfortunately, we did not have poles long enough so I had to drape it around the gate.





Once that is done, we played with the more 'simple' stuffs while we wait for the hour; 'spinners', 'flashers' as well as 'grenades'. Here's Daisy demonstrating a grenade. It's called "Big Boss" and it causes a deafening explosion.



It's very simple. Hold it in one hand. Hold the lighter in another. Light the fuse and throw! If you don't throw, you'll lose a few fingers. I have friends who lost fingers because they held on for too long. Seriously. I also knew people who used it to blow up public phones so that they can steal the coins. Idiots!


At midnight, the whole neighbourhood light their stuffs and the whole city is suddenly transformed into Gaza (without the suffering). The picture above shows me lighting the second firecracker and by then, my ears are ringing and I can't hear people talking to me. You can see the front porch completely engulfed in smoke.



After fireworks, it's the turn of firecrackers. This year, we used the boxed versions so easier to play with. First you light the fuse.



Then you run!



As you stand and go "Woah" at the ensuing magic, you gotta also dodge all the fiery remnants that come flying back down to earth. It was great fun. When we used up most of our own ammo, we drove out to the elevated-road (we call it the fly-over) to have a wider view of the neighbourhood. Visibility was down to 20m but you could still see fireworks exploding all around you. From the picture, you can't even see the hotel in the background.



In the morning, the city is covered by a nice looking 'red carpet' that smells of gun-powder haha!


Everyone had a lot of fun during CNY eve. Everyone except the family Pekingese, that is. Tili here was badly traumatised by the whole experience. Here you see him looking tired from lack of sleep.



Well, hope you had a great start to the year too! Once again,
Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!!