Birthday 07 cum 1st anniversary

This blog was created by sis as my 06' birthday gift. Time flies and i'm now celebrating my 07' birthday cum blog first anniversary.
Had a "blow cake" session with my colleagues today (9 Nov) as an advance celebration. This was my 3rd in the office, even though its short and sweet, but gonna be memorable to me.
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10th Nov is the day! celebrated with sis and bil @ swensen and we only realised they offer special treat for birthday: complementary main course for any 3 main courses ordered + fire house ice cream. 3 of us shared the 4 main courses... really a big feast this year!

what time is it?

How do you ask the time in Japanese? i ma nan ji des ka? - what's the time now?
How do you answer?
"ji" = o'clock
1:00 i chi ji
2:00 ni ji
3:00 san ji
4:00 yo ji
5:00 goh ji
6:00 ro ku ji
7:00 shi chi ji
8:00 ha chi ji
9:00 ko ji
10:00 ju ji
11:00 ju i chi ji
12:00 jiu ni ji
:05 goh hun
:15 jiu go hun
:25 ni jiu go hun
:35 san jiu go hun
:45 yong jiu go hun
:55 goh jiu goh hun
:10 jiu pun
:20 ni jiu pun
:30 san jiu pun
:40 yong jiu pun
:50 goh jiu pun
Answer eg. "i ma (now) san ji go hun (3:05)des"

10 dollars cut

10-minute haircut is shrooming everywhere in town, EC (ExpressCut),QB (QuickBeauty) The idea was originated from Japan, which you can have a 10mins hairdo for 10 bucks. At first i was a lil reluctant to try...but in the end i decided "why not?", if didn't look nice, just wash a few more times and it will grow.
The first cut was quite good, and satisfied, not much of styling basically just cut and trim. Was impressed by their speed and neat-clean concept, no nonsense services. Thereafter, i started to visit them on regular basis, once every 6 weeks. My hair is short, not much to style. most importantly i saved up a lot, used to pay 25-30 bucks per cut. Amount that i save 52/6 x (25-10)= 130bucks per year! (by no mean of calculative):P

New Skin

It is not the season molting; I lost my skin couple of days ago, the whole site was not loaded properly, turned into html format.
Hope the new skin is fine, back to simplicity.

Touch

The sense of touch is wonderful. My heart leaps everytime i touched, it gave a sense of excitement and curiousity when it slips away from me.
Guess what that makes me feel the pleasure?? Its the fish in the water that i touched today. I have never experienced this before. Had a good trip at Sentosa Island - Underwater world. I felt myself so close to the nature!

HK+SZ trip - Aug 07

Day 1 - 16 Aug 07,
We were told to be at the airport at 4:45 AM! Gosh, our flight is 6:45 am, do we need to be there so early? Obediently, i reached there on time and checked in luggage. Wandering around the airport till the time to board. Everyone was so excited on the plane, as the plane was moving towards the the runway, the captain announced "We are returning to the gate for checkup due to unidentified smell in the air-conditioning" 30 mins later, announcement came again "We have detected and fixed the failure, ready for take off". I was not scared or worried, but astonished cz never had such encounter in my life.
We touched down at noon, and checked-in to the hotel. My first meal in hk is wanton mee with milk tea at 茶餐厅. We walked around Mongkok later on. So happen that dad was travelling in hk also, had dinner with him that night, seafood feast at gold coast.
Day 2 - 17 Aug 07,
Morning call at 6am, we had dimsum at restaurant, then half day tour in hk. Went to few places like repulse bay, golden bauhinia square, madame tussauds etc. We had teochew lunch at noon, then transfer to shenzhen by train. Second half of the days was spent in shenzhen, 东门老街. Thats the heaven for my fellow buddies, because they shopped for loads of shoes, bags and clothes.
Day 3 - 18 Aug 07,
Shenzhen one day tour, as usual, they brought us to see jewellery and TCM - bored, then window of the world, 小人国 and cultural village, which we have to walk under the sun (temperature was 35 degrees) i melted and tanned! We had 2 shows at cultural village, first being china costume show, it was great. However, the second was unforgettable, 15 mins after the show, sepat typhoon arrived. The performance was abandoned and we were trapped in the rain.
Day 4 - 19 Aug 07,
Back to HK, it was free and easy, and i decided to tour around admiralty and causeway bay before meeting Flora (my hk fren) at the food fair. The exhibition was huge and crowded, but i enjoyed so much, cz have tried lots of food there. Flora brought me around, went to avenue of stars, 庙街, and had lots of nice streets food(smelly beancurd, curry fishball, fried oyster cake etc)
Day 5 - 20 Aug 07,
Slightly exhausted after a few days, but my stomach still hyperactive, and craving for good food. We had dimsum, tried hk mooncake, egg tart, etc. Spent another half day in HK before travelling back to SG.

The King And I

The King and I musical is in town! Have seen this on movie twice, different version, first is "The King and I" by Yul Brynner, and the second "Anna and the King" by Chow Yun Fatt. This is the third, which i caught on Stage of esplanade!

Quite like the storyline which tells about the story of a school teacher, Anna who was hired by the King Mongkut of Siam to teach his wives and children, although it was claimed to be historically inaccurate.

I was fully indulged in the songs, "Getting to know you" and "Shall we dance" being the favourite, funny play of the King, with his famous utter - et cetera, et cetera, et cetera... hehe..
Good play!

My crave

Hey sis, when are we making popiah again? has been a month plus since we last made.

I'm craving for this lately, is one of my fav food - i call it "the oriental sushi" cz i use seaweed instead of "spring roll skin" (any special term?)

The 'secret' recipe of my style of popiah is:

Ingredients: eggs, beansprout, beancurd, long bean, mince pork+onion, bang guang, seaweed paper
Prepare all ingredients as shown in picture, then put a bit of each dishes on the lower end of seaweed paper. Slowly fold in and roll~~

Advice: must not be greedy, too much filling will burst the seaweed paper.

Try it out!

KL trip - Jul 07

Yay! Home again, almost 2 months since my last trip in KL. Its a short one this time (Sun - Wed) cz mainly for work, not taking any leave.
Day 1, took the early coach this morning, and travelled a long journey (300+ km, ~6 hours inclusive of 30 mins break at ayerhitam). Never got a chance to sleep in the bus, cz they showed movies thoughout the journey - The Marine and Mr Bean with high speaker volume, can hear clearly even with my mp3 on...sigh.
Reached home around 2 pm, exhausted with hunger.... and forgotten to let sis know that i have reached safely... till she called me at 5pm....paiseh, me always like that.
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Day 2, worked from KL office. Have been there a few times, quite familar with the people also. Oh yeah, i also visited Malaysia Pesticide Board, its an old building, located at jln parliament, not much to see, typical gov office. After lunch, had discussion with colleagues to clear some backlogs... yeah, my day work at KL, pleasant and fruitful.
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Day 3, full day seminar at Subang Sheraton, which is about the registration of veterinary products. I have paid full attention throughout the presentation, cz its something i'm gonna work on for the next few months. Also, met some frens at the event, nice catching up with them, cz have not seen for some time.... a tired day.

Had a photo snapping session with bro at night, end products:

shooting skill....me vs bro

new celebrity

Who is this small eyes starring into the microscope? A potential RAIN to be huh :P
Picture snapped from an edu.my website.

2007 - Second 1/2

Welcome to the second half of 2007... gosh, time is sneaking away, as it always does, silently.
Was reviewing my first half year, and noticed that.... hey not much have been accomplished.
1. wanted to convert my driving license in Jan, but have been perpetually postponed.
2. planned to take some courses, oh have been delaying
3. exericise more, to hit my "ideal" weight...but still my input always > than output.
Guess i have laze enough.. better buck up a lil in the coming 6 months...and to make some wonders.

My new toy

yoohoo~~ bought a new handphone last weekend, sony ericsson K800i... decision made in 30 minutes, expedited within an hour. Have been eyeing on nice cool phone lately, knowing that my contract is going to end in July, should i get Nokia or Sony? 3G or walkman phone?

Finally the phone is in hand, it looks gorgeous, silvery mated cover with much wider display and a lot more of its astonishing features. This 3 day old toy of mine, is yet to be explored!

Was this the phone used by James Bond in Casino Royalo? :P

KL trip - May 07

Have not been home for 2 months. Went back with sis for a relaxing and enjoyable weekend stay in KL. Throughout the 5 days, i din shop, no gallivant... but had 100% of my time with family, celebrated dad's birthday and attended hong's convo.
Wish i could have a longer stay at home, really look forward to my next "balik kampung".

Dad: see, how striking i am.... blue shirt and red tie... my perfect match....

Mom: come, lets take another picture here...

Sis: my "hairband + side parting" look....

Hong: can you help me snap?

Me: lets take a nice pic for my blog.... say "cheese"

My Pencil

Something i have read recently, by Paulo Coelho - the story of the pencil...from ....Like the Flowing River
Have you ever thought of the 5 qualities of a pencil? I find it interesting cz it reflects so brilliantly in my life... and i want to be a good pencil.
~First Quality~ as a pencil, can be very capable of great things, but shall never forget that a pencil should always be guided by a well hand on the moves, which would be my believes.
~Second Quality~ now and then, when i'm blunt, i have to stop writing and use a sharpener. It will make me feel a lil suffer but after that i will become a much sharper pencil. A bit of sorrows that i experience in life, will make me a stronger and better person.
~Third Quality~ pencil always allows ppl to correct its mistake with an eraser to rub. Being corrected is not necessarily a bad thing cz this will lead me to a brighter path.
~Fourth Quality~ the appearance of wooden exterior that covers the pencil doesn't really matter cz is the graphite inside that counts the quality.
~Fifth Quality~ pencil always leaves a mark. I must always be mindful cz whatever i have done in my life will leave a mark.
I like Coelho's work, its really inspiring and powerful.

The Phantom of the Opera

I have read the phantom literature, watched the phantom movie, sung the phantom tune and now i have seen the phantom in real! Its amazing, and i was fully indulged in the masterpiece.

The story begins at the Paris Opera House. It tells a ghostly + romance storyline. Christine being the singer at the opera house was trained by a mysterious teacher - The Angel of Music, she met Raoul, her childhood mate and was in love with him. One day after Christine's performance, the mysterious teacher revealed himself as the Phantom. She was brought to his underground lair and horrified by his terrifying look under the mask. He was indeed strongly devoted to her. At the last confrontation, Christine expressed her loves for Raoul and left phantom at his labyrinth.

I like all the songs, especially "All I Ask of You", sang by Raoul and Chistine at the roof of the opera house with all the Paris surrounding. Gosh! simply too amorous!!

Musical Fountain - Sentosa

Nice fountain? Ya, that's the Musical Fountain @ Sentosa Island. Went there on saturday evening with sis and bil to catch the magical fountain show. Gosh, time flies... remembered my last show there was 14 years back during my P6 Singapore visit.
We waited for an hour plus and finally the show started at 7:40. The opening was interesting and caught my attention, but found it too much of animations and laser shooting in the middle part, a bit draggy also. But the ending was fascinating. So sorry for those sitting in the front 2 rows, cz splashed by water.
Was a great experince.. maybe will catch it again in 10 years time, with my kids around... haha.. 等久久.... :P

Oishi in SG

I was introduced to this “little Tokyo area” in SG, located at cuppage plaza/orchard point buildings. There are quite a number of nice jap restaurants, something different from the common conveyor belt sushi places. Really tempted to explore it!
Just to share some of the “must go” places in lil Tokyo:
1. KAZU @ cuppage plaza 4th floor, comparatively affordable sumiyaki restaurant that serves Japanese style satay stick.
2. OSHO NO GYOZA @ cuppage plaza ground floor, the right place for gyoza and chashyu ramen.
3. NIJUMARU @ cuppage plaza 2nd floor, good try for general jap food.
4. WARAKU @ any outlets (marina square, katong, orchard etc). Tested and proven to be the real oishi jap food restaurant by ME :P

Back in position

Hi I'm back to my long dieded blog. have not posted for a while, because of the chinese new year celebration...what a lame excuse... but really i slacked through the whole feb, its really an enjoyable month.
Right now, everything is back in position and i really feel the ohm of working again.
Ops, just posted a short one, but i'm sure there will be more to come soon :)

BKK trip - Jan 07 (Part II)

Khun Fon, my thai frenSiam Paragon, largest shopping mall in asia
Japanese food testing with brother

Street food testing

Chinatown

Books exhibition

yummy thai delicacies :P

MBK shopping mall

Skytrain station

Thai spices

JJ market, Chatuchak

Survanabumi Airport Departure hall Thai tit-bits, its made of grean bean

BKK trip - Jan 07 (Part I)

Sawadee kaa...

Yeah i'm back! have spent a long holiday in BKK with my family and we have tonnes of joy there.

DAY 1 - 26 Jan 2007, Friday
Departed from LCC Terminal Kuala lumpur. Its a budget terminal not too far from KLIA airport. At 7:30pm, we touched down at Survanabumi Airport - Bangkok and went to the hotel, woraburi at sukhumvit.

DAY 2 - 27 Jan 2007, Saturday
Early in the morning, we had a tut-tut ride in town. It was fun riding on the vehicle cz its going very fast. But the driver was wee bit cunning, he didn't bring us to the destination as promised. so we decided to route back to hotel. At noon, due to unsatisfactory conditions (mosquitoes, bad service etc) in woraburi, we shifted to another hotel - Dynasty Inn Grande (strongly recommended to anyone who wants a stay in sukhumvit). The transfer was fast, we settled everything in 2 hours time and went to pratunam after that. Dinner was at MBK food court.

DAY 3 - 28 Jan 2007, Sunday
We went to chatuchak market, this is really a gigantic bazaar, which i almost lost the way in the market. There are different sections in the market: clothings, food, books, gadgets, etc. Its definitely a MUST GO place in BKK.
The second half day was spent in Chinatown. As usual, heavy traffic even on sunday evening. Mums had lots of fun as she talked to her teochew buddies in Chinatown.

DAY 4 - 29 Jan 2007, Monday
Second last day in BKK, we were slightly exhausted and tired of exploring new places, so decided to have some light shopping and photo shooting. We took a cab to Paragon (asia largest shopping mall), walked across Siam Discovery and finally to MBK.

Day 5 - 30 Jan 2007, Tuesday

Morning flight, 9:35am back to KL.

My all time favourite

My fren created this picture of me eating muffin - thanks seeyin.

2 Movies

I have watched 2 movies lately "once last dance" and "borat". This is not a movie review, but just some of my personal thoughts.
"once last dance" - the film is like a jigsaw puzzle, every piece tells a different story and it requires a lot thinking... There is nothing to do with DANCE, but everything is related to KILL..The most terrifying part is they used different violent methods of killing which i never expected. such as glass poking eyes, cellophane wraping face... yucks! The only thing i like about this film is the actor has a funny name - Ah Cha. Can you imagine, Francis Ng, such a handsome, well-formed guy call himself "Ah Cha".

"borat" - this film is STRONGLY recommended by one of my fren. But, after watching it, i STRONGLY NOT recommend anyone to watch it! The movie documented how a kazakhstanis explore his world in the states and hunting for her dream gal. mainly old lame tricks. just wonder why those sitting next to me were laughing maniacly.

No more gloomy days!

I received a postcard from a fren today, never expected that and it really made my day! Thanks pal :)I

Have great fun after work, joined my badminton kaki at woodlands sport centre. It was nice, we played very hard in every games.
Congrats to Hong (my dearest bro), he passed his sem 5 exams! This is the picture of brother and i, 20 years ago and now. Haha... he changed so much..

My weekend

I have a terrible weekend! Hope its all over now and will have a good week ahead!! Have been blur and ill luck for the past few days, what had happenned to me?
Incident 1:
Went to an AXS machine (great invention for paying bills, fine etc) to settle my phone bill on Saturday. Normally sis will be with me everytime i pay the bills at this machine. But i decided to do it myself that day. After queing for 15mins, its my turn to use that machine. Shuut... how to pay!Couldn't find the login sign. I starred at the screen for a few second, touched a few buttons, couldn't figure whats the steps that sis used to do for me. The queue at the back was long. Not supposed to give anymore tries, so i walked away with a bashful look. And started to queue again...As i waited on the queue, i peeked on the front ppl's screen (knowing that i'm not supposed to do so) and called my sis also.... Finally i succeed on the second attempt.. my bill was settled.
Incident 2:
I was shopping alone on Saturday afternoon. Remembered that i have to buy shampoo, so i went to the shop and picked a bottle. When i reached home, alamak!! i bought a conditioner instead of shampoo. Sigh, i have 2 bottles of conditioner and no shampoo now. What will happen to my hair if i use conditioner to wash?
Incident 3:
During my shopping spree on saturday, i bought 2 tubs of jelly from a shop in AMK. To the shock of my life, both tubs have moulded. At first i tot it was only bubbles but as i looked closer, they are actually fungus. The printed expiry date on the container was 19 January, which is 5 days later. I went back to the shop and showed them the "mushroom". They open a few other tubs in the shop and found fungus also. OMG... how can this happen?
Incident 4:
Decided to catch a movie with sis and bil on saturday night. This was the first time i booked the movie ticket online. Carefully i logged on to the website, selected the right show and timing then made payment to confirm the booking. The story never end yet. After dinner we went to vivo city which we thought we have booked the ticket. The cinema was very crowded, even the ticket collection counter was queued very long. Patiently i waited to collect my ticket. It was 15 minutes before the movie starts, the ticket person told me that the my booking was actually another cinema, should be the Great World City instead of vivo. I startled for a second... and asked "Do you mean there is no other way except rushing to Great World now?" He replied: YES. We rushed to another cinema, even though we were slightly late, but still able to catch the movie.... phew...
4 incidents in 2 days. thats enough for me!!!

Translation

Have you ever tried translating a sentense using internet translate machine i.e. babel fish, applied language etc. It can be very funny at times. I have been doing a lot of translating job lately, mostly english to chinese. Lets see what are the funny clauses i have seen:
1. Once opened, use the contents within 3 months. Close tightly after use.
1. 一旦开始，使用内容在3个月内。 紧紧结束使用后。
2. May cause sensitization by skin contact.
2. 5月起因促进感受性由皮肤接触。
3. guinea pigs - 实验品
4. nose discharge - 鼻放电
My conclusion: these online translators are not 100% reliable. They maybe useful for single word or short phrases. So, human language still the best.

KL trip

2007 is the year of tourism for Malaysia, being a good citizen, i went back to KL twice in a month. I spent 5 days over the new year holiday plus another 2 days the following week.
Travelling up and down was tiring and have spent almost 15 hours in the vehicle. Sigh, why there is no budget airline from SG to KL? AA or TA please do something!
Have not done much during my KL stay, mostly shopping (Jusco + Tesco + Carrefour) and eating (Jln Peel). Parents kept feeding me hourly, and i perpetually eating.
Met up with Cheryl, had a great time as she always pampered me.... Something to highlight: visited one of my frens pharmacy - Superdrug, in old klang road. It is a newly open, about 3 months++, the shop is nice, everything is well displayed. wonder when i will have my own pharmacy.

New Year...New Skin

My blog skin has molted, no longer orangy. I was told that my previous blog skin was too small and difficult to view. So, i decided to change it even though i like the orange skin very much.
Is this new skin nice? Must say YES!!
Thanks to my sis, shes really a blogger and sort out all my problems!