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.