I tiny little problem with blogger. Moving to tumblr for the time being.

A little not in the mood for writing.

Check back later

Nothing Short of a $50 Meal

Did I tell you about the dinner we had duck and salmon souffle with mango and mushroom sauce and a whole pot of pumpkin seafood risotto? 

My brother can be amazing sometimes. Espcially when it come to cooking something out of nothing. Then again, I must give myself credit for giving him my collection of Top Chef seasons collection where he was inspired and decided to cook us another round of western atas food.

It really was very good. Food that needs to be cooked with pure technique. My bro even specially bought a temperature gauge to watch the temperature of cooking the duck and salmon in ziplock bags in a huge pot of boiling water.

Plus served with the best mango sauce (with salmon) impromptu-ly made with in season mango from NTUC and mushroom sauce (with duck) that goes marvelously with that half bleeding through duck breast.

I wish I could cook like that. And you know what is best? This is the first time I bro took these recipes to the kitchen and his textbook was freeking youtube. I think I need to start studying cooking on youtube.

Playing Darts

I totally love my job, my office, my colleagues. Plus I totally love today in the office. I was so super productive throughout the day, spending the whole morning out on site in the hot torrid sun talking to people and showing people around and then spend the whole afternoon clearing work in the office. And yet I could have so much fun in a simple 10 hours of the day.

Spend a good 10 minutes during an afternoon tea break playing with the office's latest toy. Ad started out with a simple cross made from post it slips on the window. Then we realized its not very good for sticking, so we drew out a bullseye on Mard's whiteboard and started target practice (Mard is not going to be very please with what we done to her board when she comes back from leave next week). We can be rather destructive.

10 for bullseye, 8 for 'you-are-quite-there', 6 for 'cough', tortoise for... well tortoise.

We had a run of turns between GX, Rid and myself and I have to stress that we only spent 10mins on this. After this was back to the computer.

I love how work has created so many crazy bantering in the office the whole afternoon, even SL is joining in the light hearted atmosphere with her comments. We had so many work issues we were throwing out in the office and everyone was contributing heartily.

I love my team.

And I stress again that I LOVE my job

Another Day Off

I love a day off in the middle of the week (well almost middle). Take the day to run some small errands and visit some cool places and do some cool things.

Morning was a planned trip down to the Pet Walk at Serangoon North. It is two whole block at Serangoon with more than 15 pet shops selling things from birdware, to aquarium stuff to small pets to random stuff, the only thing they dint sell was dogs and cats. They even have countless old men sitting at the office shop looking at birds. I dont know why I dint find out about this place earlier. Plus is relatively near home.

What was interesting was the many many bird shops along the entire 400m of void deck shops. They even sold toucans and some seriously exotic looking birds. Seriously... toucans, I barely even see toucans at the bird park and they sell captive bred ones at local bird shops. Looking on the list of birds of one of the larger bird shops, they even have hornbills and Curassows and spoonbills. Birds I never know you could keep as pets in Singapore. Would have taken a photo if i could but they said no photography.

Cool. Really make me wanna have a parrot.

Spent a good hour there transiting from shop to shop, before heading down to town to use my groupon voucher. 90 mins to aroma full body massage at a spa in town.

Registration form they asked a question 'what is your preferred pressure' and they had options 'soft, medium, firm, hard'. I immediately ticked 'hard' without giving a two cents thought into it. The reception lady actually asked if I was sure before heading off to call the masseuse, which was a little butch who packs a heavy, but damn shiok punch (what is the use of a massage that doesnt hit the spot?)

lol

Is Korean Food Healthy

I used to totally hate eating Korean food because the meat was sometimes too fat, underseasoned and sides just tastes too bland. Sometimes it just chilli powder mixed into seafood broth or chicken stock. But recently, I've been visiting a place or two to have a bowl of soup or a BBQ. Plus I realised that I really love kimchi so much, I might be interested to attend a class and learn how to make them.

The taste of kimchi can beat any other side dish on the table by a mile.

Then today, after gym, I was hit with kimchi craving again and decided to drop by for a huge bowl of spicy seafood tofu soup. Although Korean food is relatively expensive (I mean $20 for a bowl of soup), but the fact that you get at least a couple dishes of sides is good. Plus that heap of kimchi and spinach.

Sunday after gym, sitting more than an hour with a huge bowl of soup that can feed 2, a cup of buckwheat tea and left over 150 pages of my book.

Guess what is for lunch? Tauhu Goreng. More protein for the day. Think I totally overdosing tofu.

Anyway. I do wonder how healthy is Korean food exactly. I know Kimchi is healthy coz it's fermented, plus korean have plenty of side dishes from a wide variety of vegetables. But what about their ginseng chickecn or stew soup?

Traveling Jackpot

And idea crossed my mind last night while reading the latest issue of Nat Geo Traveler. If I could save $100 every month from now till I'm 35. I would have enough money to have at least a month worth of travel funds when I turn 35.

Wouldn't it be nice and super exciting if you have $10k set aside for traveling that one trip at one point of your life. Imagine this, you have $10k in a bank account and you will travel to which ever place that was featured on the front cover of the issue of Nat Geo traveler on your 35th birthday.

The moment the very issue comes out, you call your travel agent to book a one way airticket to which ever place featured on the magazine's front cover. Then pack a back pack and spend the spring/summer there living until each cent of the $10k set aside has disappeared and then buy an airticket home.

Its like a jackpot, you will never know which tourist destination would be appearing in that yellow box. It could be some landscape destination in India, historical site in South East Asia, or a cruise in the Americas, or a beach resort in the Bahamas, safari in Africa, pilgrimage route.

How I wish. I could write an article and have my experience published in Nat Geo. I guess you can only have this piece of excitement in your life when you are still single and have no kids to look after. But really wont it really be fun and exciting?

Couple of weeks ago

My random day off and the only person i could get around was Lynette.
Result in high tea at Regent Hotel.

The T-Rex Stikes Again

There has been a lunch time conversation that has totally overrun-ed the week. Last week's little pizza hut lunch had a small discussion over the T-rex, future of Singapore's transportation and ERP systems and random other stuff.

But one topic that kept coming back the whole week was the poor old T-rex and how millions of years ago, it was the laughing stock of the dinosaur world. We learnt that the poor T-rex is actually pretty poor thing, even wondered if it ever was that great predator it really was.

Plus I learnt today that the T-rex's head is way to heavy for its body to balance. The poor T-rex may have toppled head down many times a day. I think the brontosaurs or the triceratops had a better deal.

We had a mid/end Week BBQ

The week has been slow. We all agreed, but at least there was a saving grace to the week by a Thursday active hour gathering at East Coast. The recent reorg had some of the old team kena moved to other branches.

Me and Mard started the fire, and boy I have to say I was damn good at it.

Morning Halus!

Wanted to do this yesterday but I kinda woke up a little too late to beat the sun (and the rest of Singapore in measured in cars and lorries). So decided that dark and early Sunday morning at 530am I will go on my planned ride to Punggol Promenade. Carbon Free traveling on an early Sunday morning.

Total distance today = 33km
Total time (inclusive of stopping for breakfast) = 2 hour 20 minute

This app is cool. First time using and can record my ride and save it.

 

Serangoon Road was a PAIN with all those slopes and climbs. But it was damn good work out. Serangoon Road was less than 5km and it was really the hardest part of my ride today. Actually had to stop at the shell station at Koven and again on boundary road on the way back coz I couldn't take the hill climbing on my MTB.

Hit Punggol PCN by 630 in time for the sun to lighten the sky a little bit. The stretch of PCN was really nice and cool in the dawn and the lighting was enough.

 

Further down the stretch on the dirt track on the way to Punggol promenade. This is one park of Singapore that doesnt really look like Singapore. Gorgeously foggy for the morning and even my helmet was condensing through the stretch of road. 

If my friends were morning people and wouldn't mind a ride with me on a Sunday wee hours, I wouldnt mind coming here every week if I had company. Anyone game for weekend cardio?

Love morning rides. If only i had a 8kg road bike instead of my 15kg MTB. Super tempted to go shopping for a secondhand roadie. Maybe at the end of the year when I'm a little richer.

Kena overtaken by at least 6 roadies on the way back along punggol. Damn sian when a bunch of guys on roadies overtake a slow female peddling like crazy on a MTB (even if it was on a flat road)

I WANT A NICE FANCY RED/WHITE ROADIE SO THAT I CAN LOOK COOL ON THE ROAD TOO.

It's pretty rare to see girls on roadies. I wanna be the cool girl.

At least some of them said hi. I actually felt very happy when someone greeted me 'good morning', especially when I am crazily tired and slow.

Today

• Took off today
• Played approx 14+ hours of Skyrim (since 7am)
• Stopped for toilet and food, check walkthrough and to email a school to complain about smoking students
• Shoulders aching from hunching all over sofa in living room
• Upset that my highborn elf true mage character has turned into a Vampire (now I got to go suck people's blood while they are sleeping)
• Leveled up a total of 9 levels
• Calves damn tight from bodystep class yesterday (spent whole day worried that it'll cramp and cannot walk down the stairs on my way to buy some snacks)
• Two hours real steel
• An Awesome day 
• REPEAT TOMORROW

Real Steel. Fucking awesome show I tell you. I really dont know why it took me so long to watch this. D was so totally right when she say that this was an exciting show. Totally feel it man. My heart goes out to the robot.

Spent majority of the 2 hour smiling to myself.

img imdb

Random Batam

Last weekend was a short trip with some colleagues to Batam. It has been a trip scheduled a long long time ago coz we bought some Groupon deals back sometime during Christmas. The last time I came to Batam was back in April 2010.

This time around I dint really bring my camera so it was only random shots with my phone. So the following pictures are instagramed random shots of the whole trip. Not in any order coz I'm too lazy to figure out which came first.

Morning shot of out of the resort room window. We were intially given a room facing the pool, but they forgot to give us connecting rooms, so A went to counter and huhhhh-ed the service staff, and then we got promoted up to the highest floor.

After cable-ski, some of us decided to head to the pool and then to the spa's jacuzzi. Since we really were already all wet. This picture perfect moment was taken with me in the jacuzzi alone coz the rest of the girls rather be in the room.

I thought I was bad in bowling. Proven the last time I went bowling with Ron at East Coast. But lord and behold, there are people I know that are way worst then me. Like way way Worse. I actually hold the top score of 86 in our group of 6.

Someone brought kiddy socks to holiday. The same person that struck many zeros on the scoreboard.

Resort bed greated us with bright orange. Everything was orange, the toilet soap, the shampoo, the toothpaste. And I actually hate everything orange.

To keep us through the night, a deck of cards purchased from the convenience store and munchies to last most the night.

Dinner. Since there really wasnt much eating options near by, we had pizza from the dinner place at the resort delivered up to the room, and the guys managed to get some street food outside.

Damage done. There were more than this but the cans where strewed somewhere somewhere. I did 2.5 cans and one bottle through the course of the night. And those bottle things from the supermarket were good.

Local produce store, we bough enough goodies and trashfood to last.

Downtown in Batam

We stopped here to grab rubbish at the convenience store.

Welcome to Harris Resort at the Waterfront. Quite an old building, but we managed a night here, with ferry, free game of bowling and free body massage for $69.

Evening shot from the room

Family resort, nothing much to to do unless you wanna pay Singapore price for them.

Shopping stop at Nagoya Hills and ended up with me and P doing our full classic pedicure for $10 and 40 mins. Fastest pedicure ever done and we were still 5 mins late for the bus, until they announced our name on the shopping centers soundsystem.

Lunch stop for seafood.

Deal of the day, this cost me $1. or might even be less than that.

Some bird at the lunch stop.

Went cable-ski again, and it never failed to work some arm muscles until I feel my shoulders and arms aching like mad for three whole days of work. And all I did was an hour of cable-ski. I can be proud to say that I dint really forgot what I learnt the last trip. So total distance traveled in 1 hour session is more than total distance traveled the last trip in 6 hours.

So want to try until I can get up and do a full round without falling. Anyone game to join me on a weekday trip.

I hit a Flat

Yesterday was our long awaited Korean BBQ with 5 other colleagues to make up for that very long planned dinner out. We picked up a flyer on the way up and was in the end, just in time for an additional 20% ad 50% off alcohol beverages (7 to 8pm). I think after everything was ordered, with extra addons and 4 bottles of soju and rice wine. The bill only came to $32 per person. Damn WU HUA.

Thus, after the whole dinner affair. Just before I went to bed,  I decided that in the morning, I am to take a ride to work on my bike. Not my usual route from home to BP office, but a longer 10 km ride down Lornie Road down to HQ.

Woke up early, dawn my full head to toe cycling gear of pink bandana, helmet, tights, luminous shoes, long sleeves and gloves and headed full out. happily riding on the road until MacRitchie when I hit a flat.

I was hit full on with a sudden burst on my inner back wheel tubing. Damn Sian. 730 and I am stuck 1/3 way to work with a flat tire. Meeting was at 830am. And I had to push the damn bike back home. That already took up a steady 30 mins pushing a flat back wheel home.

God must be humoring me. On the day I decided to be healthy and ride back to HQ, which is a rare thing. And then now I have to try to find a good timing to head down to the bike shop near my place which opens and closes at the owners own time.

Seriously. And I really thought today would be a super healthy day for me to take 25 km of cardio workout in the morning.

A Grave Part of Singapore's History

Our little bukit brown excursion was like more than two weeks ago. Have been having too many things on and off my life and honestly I really totally forgot that I have pictures staffed out deep in my computer harddrive.

This was a trip that was so hard to arrange, from getting the ideal number of people to getting everyone interested to be free. We initially planned for a weekday evening, but office meetings and people from different departments proved hard. Think I took us a good couple of weeks to eventually organize a guide and a day where most are free.
 

The iconic main gates of the cemetery off Sime Road. Always passed the entrance when we take Sime back to HQ but never had we once stopped for a walk. Ron dropped me off at the gate, where Ei and her husband where waiting for the rest. The entire time in the car, Ron totally dint register this as Bukit Brown coz year after year he comes to see his grandfather somewhere on the hills.

Stepped out of the car in shorts and an old grey tank top with birks. Upon arrival, I immediately knew it was the worst choice of attire. Lucky I had an old smelly long sleeve button down shirt in my bag from the previous day, and Ei brought her assortment of insect repellent. I wrapped up and loaded the skin with two thick layers, hoping not to feed the mosquitoes.

HP and Dot turned up in shorts after me, so I'm not the most bare skinned.

I guess Bukit Brown has this rich diversely interesting history, each grave have a story to tell, and the owners of some of these graves have a huge-arse story under the earth. Everyone knows that there is soon going to be a road running through part of the cemetery. And in attempt to conserve his rich history, there is a team of people who gives guided walks and share a mountain load of stories to create awareness.

Bukit brown is a municipal cemetery for any Chinese back before the 1970s. Back then there was already not enough space in land scarce Singapore. You die, your family buys a plot, you get buried. A total grave count of 100,000.

There are a huge handful of people with so much family history and influence in old Singapore. Many of these names are so well known they have roads, schools and buildings named after them. Like Kay Hian, Seah Im, Gan Eng Seng, Kheam Hock, Chong Pang Nee Soon, Boon Lay, Joo Chait etc. Even Mr Lee grandparents are sitting here six feet under.

More detailed history, read here coz I really cant remember everything our guide said.

Each famous people grave is marked from the main road with red and white tape and laminated paper markers. They have put in great efforts to create a self learning trail all along the place. The whole tour was a 2.5 hours. The afternoon was humid and I already had huge armpit sweat patches within a good 1 hour of the tour, even regretted wearing my grey tank coz I totally forgotten how grey display sweat patches like a million-diamonded-crown on a queen's head.

Well, the first things I noticed about Bukit Brown was the flock of parakeets flying through, the number of forest birds were amazing. Late on a Sunday evening and the whole place came alive (literally) with calls and fluttering in the canopy. So much more happening then spending the evening in MacRitchie trials.

Bukit Brown looks and feels... just like a cemetery. With their mess of old stone armchairs, matching guarding lions, guarding Sikh guards for those who can afford it. Days before this trip we were all saying how we have to watch our mouths and what we say when we get there. And yet, just soaking in the whole atmosphere made us blabber casual comments.

I learnt alot of small grave details on how the chinese buried their dead. How colors and name crafting on the tombstone meant something. The number of photos, how graves of couples were displayed, symbolism of flowers, animals and figurines encrafted amongst the graves.

It nice to learn a small bit of my Chinese ancestry and tradition especially in modern times where many of things do not hold still. My tomb would probably be a multi-storey pigeon hole somewhere.

There were a couple of ang mohs walking their dogs and babies. Its nice how angmohs think of graveyards to differently. I still remember how beautiful the cemeteries where in Norway and UK. Pristine, quiet and manicured. In Singapore they are wild but also equally pristine and quiet.

We climbed through some wilderness into the biggest tomb in the whole of Bukit Brown. You could see the westlakes buildings from the horizon. The entire area is as big as 5 3-room flats. This dead guy (forgot name) has the whole 24 stories of filial piety (二十四孝) crafted on the side of the grave.

And we were like, we dint even know any of the stories. Randomly googled, read here.

One of the most iconic part of Bukit Brown are the Sikh guards. They are an old symbolic representation of loyal, fierce and strong guardians for graves. Those who can afford these guards have a pair standing either side. And this colored ones are the most beautiful pair in the entire cemetery.

Bukit Brown has really lot of stories to share. Do join a guided walk when you have the chance to learn about some tiny things about our local Chinese history.