23 December 2005

Last Minute Christmas Meme

Have to rush this one meme before Christmas thanks to Beer Brat and also just in case someone out there reads this post and decides to play Santa Claus (psst … there’s chocolate milk in the fridge and some left over log cake in the fridge…).

1) State who tagged you;
Beer Brat

2) List who you want your Santa Claus to be (the bearer of the gift);
Santa
Beer Brat (he he … coz I’ll know he’ll be reading this)

3) State the gift you wish to get;
A kick-ass 8.2 Megapixel
Canon EOS 20D

(Hey Santa, don’t forget to include accessories like 18-55mm lens, 55-200mm lens and the speedlite 580EX flash. If you are too busy to walk down to the nearest electrical shop, you can order it online at amazon.com )

Here's a pic of the beauty so you'll recognise it...

Canon 20D

BTW, I don’t’ mind a second hand one month old iPod Video either (wink!)


4) Then invite a few friends to join the tag, and inform them by dropping a comment in their blog.
Since it’s running too close to Christmas, will not tag anybody this time round.

*********

Will be heading back to Muar tonight for Christmas. HO HO HO ! Merry Christmas Everyone !!!

21 December 2005

Pa&Josh

The song 'The Cat's in the cradle' was mentioned in Monday's edition of 'Today'. Indeed a timely reminder to all of us to cherish our loved ones this Christmas time.

THE CAT'S IN THE CRADLE

The child was born the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
There were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk when I was away
And he was talking before I knew it, and as he grew
He said, I'm gonna be like you, Dad, I'm going to be like you

The cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man in the moon
When you're coming home, Dad? - I don't know when
But we'll get together then, Son, we'll have a good time then

My son turned ten the other day
He said, Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on, let's play
Will you teach me to throw? I said, Not today
I've got a lot to do. He said, That's O. K.
As he walked away his smile never dimmed; he said
I'm gonna be like him, I'm going to be like him

Then he came from college the other day
So much like a man that I had to say
Son, I'm proud of you, will you sit for a while?
He shook his head and he said with a smile
What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys
See you later, can I have them please?

The cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man in the moon
When you're coming home, Son? - I don't know when
But we'll get together then, Dad, we'll have a good time then"

Now I've retired, my son's moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, I'd like to see you if you don't mind
He said, I'd love to, Dad, if I could find the time
See, my new job's a hassle, the kids had the flu
But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad
Sure nice talking to you

As I hung up the phone it occurred to me
My boy was just like me
He'd grown up just like me

Words & music Harry Chapin

Ho hum. The songs speaks for itself. Never leave it too late to spend time with people that matters. Peace. And have a great Christmas.

19 December 2005

An Unexpected Find

mirrormask

Booya! (Borrowing a phrase from insanesquirrel)

While flipping through the pile of ‘screen-to-tape’ (will just call it that) VCDs last Friday, among the Chicken Littles, Zathuras and Narnias, I found an arthouse flick that didn’t seem quite to make it to our shores.

MirrorMask. This was the joint collaboration of Director Dave McKean and Writer Neil Gaiman, and as IMDB calls it a Alice in Wonderland meets Wizard of Oz movie performed by Cirque de Soleil. The movie read like a Gaiman novel. Eccentric characters that jumped right out of comic books, a human protagonist, helpful strangers turned sidekick, mythical creatures, a dire quest, and a seamless blend of reality and fantasy, all trademarks of Mr.Gaiman. And at the end of the movie, it felt as though I had just finished reading another Gaiman book.

(P.S : Thank goodness they copied the movie from one of the distributor tapes and not another hand held recording from a dark movie theatre.)

Deck the Malls … a weekend in KL

Twin towers

Was up in KL last weekend with Vicky to experience the Christmas shopping and revelry in Malaysia’s capital city. The trip began on Friday morning with a delayed bus ride and two bus changes. The frustrating bus arrangements by Grassland (hey, famous bus company also like this ah ??!!!) left many frayed passengers, especially a group of Chinese aunties who aired their protest and complaints to the helpless bus driver.

We arrived at Pudu about half past four. A short LRT ride took us to PWTC station, where it was a short walk to our hotel.

After a short rest, we took off for the busy shopping belt of Bukit Bintang.

Lot 10 was having a quiet Christmas …

Lot 10

Sungei Wang’s variety and cheap deals drawing the crowd …

Sg Wang 1

The bloke was in town too ...
Andy Lau Concert

The next morning, we decided to pay a visit to the grand old dame of KL Malls, who else but the once popular … The Mall. I still remember the days (almost 15 years back) when visiting KL was not complete without paying a visit to ‘The Mall’, the place to be then, with its indoor rides, colourful wares along Medan Hang Tuah, and rows of wonderful shops. Now it is just a collection of printing shops, the obligatory Watsons, the Parkson flagship and a few vacant lots.

The Mall ...
The Mall 1

Found Dasher in a part time role at Starlight Express ...

Reindeer

Lunch was at the quaint old Coliseum restaurant along Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman. We had the roast chicken with sambal rice, oxtail soup, and fish in black pepper sauce. The old waiters in their smart uniforms was a throwback to the old colonial style restaurants. Reminds me of the Shashlik restaurant in Singapore, famous for its smartly attired Hainanese waiters and flamboyant Russian fare.

Sambal Chicken at Coliseum ...

Sambal Roast Chicken


After lunch we paid a visit to KLCC. While Vicky was enthralled with the goods in the Gucci boutique, I was busy browsing the book shelves in Kinokuniya.

The decorated KLCC atrium ...

KLCC atrium

Kino ...

Kino

That night, we went down to Petaling Street to check out the wares on sale. For dinner, we dined on the famous Hokkien Mee at the stall outside Hong Leong Bank. Somehow the noodles here did not measure up to its name. Had tasted better at a stall in PJ.


The famous Petaling Street Hokkien Mee ...

Hokkien Mee Plate

The next day, after checking out of the hotel, we headed to Puduraya for lunch. We decided to check out Nandos and its famous peri-peri chicken.

The Peri-Peri Meal ...

Peri peri meal

Saying our final farewell to KL, we left by bus back to Singapore.

All in all we had a good time exploring the city and enjoying the Christmas decorations. Shopping was not much different from what you can find in Singapore, only you don’t get blatant pedaling of pirated goods on the open streets. Maybe next time we will try somewhere different like Subang or Sunway, or head up to Bangkok for more MBK shopping (heard that it is cool there in Dec).

07 December 2005

O Tannenbaum !

Nothing brings the Christmas cheer into homes like old Christmas Carols playing on the radio, a brightly decorated fir tree sitting in the corner while the warm fire wards off the cold.

Ok. Back to reality. Minus the fireplace, I do have a 4 feet tall artificial Christmas Tree and a bunch of complementing ornaments to go with it. So last Saturday, I set about to put up the tree in the living room. Thinking that the tree-dressing process wouldn’t take long since I had done it once last year, everything went smoothly until I started to unravel the Christmas lights. It ended up taking almost 3 hours.

Anyway here are some pics from the Christmas Tree-Dressing process.

Deco
1. Getting all the stuff ready

Naked Tree
2. Setting up the naked tree

Lighted tree 2
3. Hanging up all the ornaments

Lighted Tree
4. Finally stringing the lights and hitting the switch

******
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
du kannst mir sehr gefallen.
Wie oft hat nicht zur Weihnachtszeit
Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
du kannst mir sehr gefallen.


Star Deco Cage Ball deco View from below Gift Deco

05 December 2005

Muar food in the news.

Saturday’s Strait Times’ Life! Section was featuring the new food guide ‘life!eats’ by Wong Ah Yoke and Thng Lay Teen, and among the eateries highlighted was Long Poh Seafood from Muar. Here is the excerpt:

MUAR
Long Poh SeafoodTS
26, Jalan Junid
This Thai eatery is worth traveling all the way to Muar for. Check out its perfectly steamed fish, kangkong in batter paired with a special Thai fresh-milk dip, bite-sized (think samosa) crispy popiah and Thai salads.

I shouldn’t be surprise to see it on a food guide featuring food from JB, Muar, Melaka and KL. It is certainly popular among Muarians and even attracts food lovers from neighbouring states. But better go early if you don’t want to wait for your table, there’s always a crowd during weekends.

Other eateries highlighted in the column were …

JOHOR BAHRU – Kim Long, 74, Jalan Wong Ah Fook (best fish head curry in Johor)

MALACCA – Teo Soon Loong Restaurant, 55, Jalan hang Kasturi (best Teochew eatery in Malacca)

KUALA LUMPUR – Farmland Steamboat & Seafood Restaurant, 362-266 Jalan Pudu (good porridge steamboat)

02 December 2005

December

Christmas1

We’re here again in December, in the final pages of 2005. The month that’s a whirlpool of activities and like a whirlpool it sucks you in and, before you know it, spits you out naked and unprepared into a brand new year. Cruel, but every year you’ll unfailingly yearn for the month to come as you hope to taste again the magic and ecstasy that only December can bring.

Can’t put a finger to it? Look no further than the back-to-back celebrations (Christmas and New Year), the global dressing-up with ornamented pine trees and loads of flashing coloured lights, the cold wet nights and equally cool mornings, the sudden compulsion to hand out presents (only matched by the expectations of brightly-wrapped presents of your own), the year-end seasonal sales and exuberant shoppers that throng the malls, choirs belting out songs after songs about White Christmases under occasional tropical showers, the massive street parties to usher in the first day of a new calendar and the quiet reflection on the past year followed by a determined endeavour (crossing fingers) to achieve those daunting resolutions.

It’s the time of the year again and I’m not complaining.

28 November 2005

60 minutes with Josh

This is a slightly belated post.

Got to spend 60 minutes with Josh (short for Joshua) two Sundays ago. In this short span of time, this nephew of mine, obligingly (or instinctively) demonstrated all his newly acquired abilities and tricks.


Newly Acquired Ability #01: Crawling
Still a wee bit clumsy and slow, but still gets him from point A to B.

Josh Crawl


Newly Acquired Ability #02: Eating
Learning that there is more to live than just milk.

Josh_Feeding Time 2


Newly Acquired Ability #03: Spitting
Totally self-taught. Helps him to reject foreign food-stuff from his mouth and keeps mummy busy.

Josh_Feeding Time 1

Some of his other abilities …

Object Identification.
The ability to identify objects is still at its infancy. For now it involves putting object into mouth.

Josh biting toy 1

Modeling.
The ability to pose in the presence of a camera is among one of his oldest abilities.

Josh with Vicky 1

Good for another 10 years

Finally got my re-entry permit extended for a further 10 years. Got myself over to the ICA (Immigration and Checkpoints Authority) on Saturday to submit my application. The process took only 45 minutes and I paid $100 for the extension. Ten bucks a year, that’s not too bad considering ten more years of hassle-free entry into Singapore.

The re-entry permit, as the name suggest, allows the PR(Permanent Resident) holder to re-enter Singapore as long as the permit is valid. That means if the PR holder never steps out of S’pore (ie. no overseas holiday, no balik kampung) he/she can do without the permit, but what are the chances of that?

I also dropped by the access card counter to extend by access card. This card allows me to bypass the queues at the passport lanes at the Singapore checkpoint. Just hate the queues especially on Friday and Sunday evenings.

A few more things that will my make the border crossing more enjoyable/tolerable :

1) MRT right up to Woodlands checkpoint.

2) A covered travellator (like the ones in airports) spanning the causeway. (no walking required!)

3) Good bus services from Johor checkpoint to various destinations including Larkin Bus Station.

(Note : This will do away with those cross-border bus services)

Well these are just some of my personal opinions. If you are one of those who gets to fly out of Singapore or takes the express coach from Golden Mile, then these suggestions won’t help you one bit.


28 more days to Christmas !

20 November 2005

Ode to Roy

KEANO

An age comes to an end,
As Roy leaves Old Trafford grounds,
Twelve years he laboured,
To bring glory and trophies abound.

Fearless leader, tireless soldier,
As a captain he was without a peer,
As we forge a future without Roy
,
None ready to fill his boots we fear.



THERE WILL ONLY BE ONE KEANO

Evening Canal Run

Thursday was my running day. So was Tuesday and Wednesday, but I overslept on one and it rained on the other. No more excuses. So leaving the house about 7pm, I jogged towards my starting point – the road junction in front of my block. The skies were already a shade of dark blue. The Green Man lit up and I kicked off.

It is only less than a km to the Ulu Pandan Canal, so I will usually start my run from home. The route I run takes me along the busy Clementi Road into the quiet and scenic Ulu Pandan Canal jogging track. You get to see all kinds of people here. There are the casual joggers like me, pet lovers who takes time out to bring Doggy for a stroll, one particular woman who pushes her two furry canines in her pram, a group of inline skaters who zips up and down the stretch, old couples out for after-dinner walks, and an old man who easily out-paces me with a Jack Russell in tow (yeah the dog can sure run too).

Running is not exactly a sport that I use to enjoy. It used to be a boring and joyless exercise that lacked any sense of competitiveness that other sports brought with them. I would have rather played some foreign unknown sport than to impose my body to this sport that relies on repetitive leg motion and a good lung capacity.

But as all working people soon realize, that gathering a group of old friends to loyally meet-up every week for a game of hard-court soccer or badminton is no easy task. Other priorities and petty excuses soon rob us of finding a common time to play the game we love. So that was how I turned to the sport that I used to avoid for my weekly dose of exercise.

I still find it hard sometimes to find the motivation to go running after work. But as soon as my feet start pounding on the cemented pathway, I feel a sense of escape as my sub-conscious mind takes over. That‘s why I like running in the evening after twilight. The dark surroundings allow my mind to wander freely and not to focus on personal problems or on the tiredness of the body. By not focusing on the struggle between the will (spirit) and body (physical), I can now slowly improve my running distance too.

11 November 2005

Babes of the 70’s – The Best of TV

You’ve probably read the e-mail about a post reminiscing about the unique memories that people(Malaysians) born in the 70’s share, aptly titled ‘For those 70’s babies’. It talks about TV shows, primary school days, projek susu segar, games we played and even lament about the how spoiled the kids are nowadays (our parents must have thought the same about us). Anyway that got me thinking and I decided to go on my own walk down memory lane, to reminisce about those good old TV shows we used to watch on our limited TV channels then.

Growing up we had only RTM (and later on TV3) to rely on for entertainment. There were the weekday afternoon cartoons, evenings’ Cantonese Drama Serials, after-dinners’ comedy belt, night time’s American TV Series, and weekend morning cartoons and Disney’s wholesome family movies. Well here are some of my favourites.

Cartoons - the daily staple of growing kids and my motivation to complete my homework (or no Cartoon of the day. Arrggghhh!!!). I grew up with classics like Rubik the Amazing Cube, Fat Albert and Friends, Smurfs, Jem!, Care Bears, Paw Paw Bears, and Muppet Babies.


rubik
Rubik - alien who got his head stuck in an ordinary Rubic Cube

And cult favourites like Thundercats, Silverhawks, Visionaries, Transformers, Masks, He-Man, Ultraman(not cartoon but have to squeeze it in somehow) , Voltron, Gummi Bears and G.I.Joe. Yeah, in those days you did not have to think hard to differentiate the good guys from the bad. And the good will always triumph before the half hour is up, unless there is a Part 2.

Thundercats
Lion-O and gang


centurions
Centurions. Power Extreme!

How about those afternoon shows like Electric Company, Sesame Street, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Bionic Woman, and Little House in the Prairie.


Lindsay Wagner
The Beautiful and Bionic Lindsay Wagner

And who can forget those memorable TV series like MacGyver, The A-Team, Blue Thunder, Airwolf, Knight Rider, The Greatest American Hero, B.J and the Bear, The Love Boat and CHIPs.


A Team
Faceman, Howling Mad Murdock, B.A Baracus and Hannibal. One of the best shows ever!

bluethun2
Why don't our police get one of this Blue Thunders ?


greatest_american_hero
The Greatest American Hero? But certainly one of the best superhero series.

The daily laughs would come from comedy sitcoms like Three’s Company, Family Ties, Growing Pains, I Dream of Jeanie, Cosby Show, The Jeffersons, Charles in charge, Cheers and Happy Days.


charles in charge photo
Charles in charge of our days and our nights ...

Brings back old memories huh?

Here’s one of the best theme songs ever from the Greatest American Hero. It makes the small child in us believe we could just take off and fly (and crash land !).


Look at what’s happened to me,
I can’t believe it myself.
Suddenly I’m up on top of the world,
It should’ve been somebody else.

Believe it or not, I’m walking on air.
I never thought I could feel so free.
Flying away on a wing and a prayer.
Who could it be?
Believe it or not it’s just me.

It’s like a light of a new day,
It came from out of the blue.
Breaking me out of the spell I was in,
Making all of my wishes come true.

Believe it or not, I’m walking on air.
I never thought I could feel so free.
Flying away on a wing and a prayer.
Who could it be? Believe it or not it’s just me.

08 November 2005

Biking around Changi

The Holiday
The Deeparaya hols last week gave me the chance to catch some sun and fun in the outdoors. After giving it a little thought, Wee Loong and I decided to go for the bikes. It has been more than a year since we had gone biking together. Then it was a night cycling trip from East Coast Park to Orchard (with supper at Geylang and many other pit-stops along the way for some night photo-taking) and back. This time though, we decided to take the Changi Airport Loop - a 23km route which passes Changi Airport, loops around Changi Village and ends at S’pore Expo.

On Deepavali morning, we struggled to wake up (for goodness sake, it’s a holiday after all!) after having late night ‘Mamak’ supper the night before. But Ching Poh drove us down to ECP and that saved us lots of traveling time. At ECP, finding a parking lot proved difficult as it looked like the rest of the Singaporeans who were not on a week-long vacation overseas or at home celebrating the festival of light had decided to spend the day at this popular stretch of beach. Fortunately (and surprisingly), we found lots of vacant parking lots at the Marine Parade HDB multi-storey car park located just a stone throws away. And it also came free.

The Ride to Changi
After settling our breakfast, we got our bikes from one of the bike rental shops at ECP and headed off to our starting point. The route to S’pore Expo was scenic with landed residential homes and apartments lining both sides of the road. The lack of high-rise HDB blocks and offices was a welcome sight.

Cycling along the long stretch of Changi Coast Road, which runs adjacent to one of the Changi Airport Runways, we caught a few planes taking off. It was also a good spot to stop and take a few shots.



MAS Plane
Malaysian Airlines taking to the friendly skies

Changi Coast Road
The long and lonely Changi Coast Road

Keep Clear
Keep Clear. Planes flying overhead.

Once past the runway, it was a short ride before we reached Changi Beach where many campers and families had decided to spend the day. Lunch was just across the bridge at Changi Village – famous for its Nasi Lemak, a tad over-rated, but that was what we had for lunch.



Changi Nasi Lemak
Nasi Lemak for hungry souls

Changi Village
Changi Village in sepia

The Long Road Home
As it turned out, the road leading home wasn’t exactly flat and even all the way. A full stomach and aching thighs didn’t helped either. We found out that Loyang Way and Upper Changi Rd North was not particularly kind to wanna-be cyclists, on the contrary it was probably built as an obstacle training course for real road bikers. The uphill climbs were real torture, and the downhill slope only acts as temporary rest stops for sore limbs as gravity leads you down, often too fast and too soon, as the next uphill slope looms ahead and peddle power is called on again.

So it was a great relieve when we hit the flat plains of Upper Changi Rd East and then made a pit stop at Bedok Food Court for thirst-quenching coconut drinks. Another short ride and we finally arrived back at ECP.

In a nutshell
All in all, it was a good ride (thanks to the great weather) and hopefully I had burnt off some calories on the way. Just hope the next biking trip is not too far off in the future. While Lance Armstrong’s vacated biking throne is still up for grabs, this ride has put me in my place and made it clear that ‘King of the Mountain’ should stay out of my biking vocabulary.

You just hate it when ...

... some inconsiderate delinquent decided to cause some childish mischief by pressing the lift buttons on all floors (all 18 floors to be ezact) of the high-rise HDB .

Well this happened to me this morning when I was leaving for work from my unit on the 19th floor. Imagine the 4 of us in the lift having to endure the long ride down, stopping at every floor to welcome the invisible passenger while my thumb was busy stabbing at the 'Close Door' button. I bet that if you could read our thoughts (like thought bubbles in comics) in there, you would probably see a collective outpouring of curses, un-publishable expletives or just rows of punctuation marks and symbols (depending on your personal content filter). Anyway just thankful that I was in time to catch the bus to work.

28 October 2005

Balik Kampung Quandary

I am sitting in my room typing this post when I should have been on the bus heading towards Muar. It's a long story, or a short one if you read fast enough . Well here goes...

The following events took place between 6:05pm and 9:05pm tonight.

No Way Out

The Balik Kampung fever created by the proximity of the two festive holidays next week brought the causeway to a standstill today. Vicky and I, holding 7:45pm bus tickets to Muar, were left trapped at the Kranji MRT Station as the non-availability of busses left us helplessly stranded.

Arriving at he Kranji Station at 6:05pm, we thought we had time on our hands as we quickly took our place at the head of the 170 bus queue. But after standing at the same spot for 45 long minutes, we realized that our ride out of Singapore had played us out. Soon the reason became obvious; a massive jam had built up along the road towards the checkpoing.nt. The jam could even be seen from the MRT station, some 2km away from the checkpoint. We then made the decision to abort out trip tonight and make another attempt early tomorrow morning.


Post Mortem : The jam at the Woodlands Checkpoint today was a disaster waiting to happen. The final stretch of road leading towards the checkpoint was divided to 'car lane' on the left, 'bus lane' on the right and a lane for trucks in the center. Having those lumbering behemoths queuing up in the middle of the road provides an uphill challenge for cars and busses to get into their rightful lanes. So throw in a poorly located junction and a broken down truck, and ‘wah lah’ you’re served with an almost impossible traffic puzzle to figure out.

******************

Christmas comes early.

No, this is not about James Bond and a certain Dr C.Jones.

Well, after we decided to postpone our trip back to Muar, our hungry stomachs led us to West Mall in Bukit Batok. And behold, standing tall in the atrium of West Mall was a Christmas Tree in the making. It’s not even November and we haven’t even had a bite of those tasty Thosai and fragrant Ketupats (with peanut sauce!), but yet this giant effigy of commercialism-plagued Christmas has already been dusted and set-up in this holy temple of money-swindling deities.

West Mall Christmas Tree

Dressing up for Christmas in West Mall


Retailers just can’t wait for the next big money spending season – Christmas Sales. Hari Raya and Deepavali just don’t spell ‘splurge’ in Singapore, so they're easily forgotten in the many commercial hubs. You don’t get those sentimental ‘Petronas’ commercials here on TV, the big malls don’t blare loud ‘Selamat Hari Raya’ songs on their sound system and you don’t have those large Ramadhan markets in the heartlands. The only places that seem to celebrate these two important festivals are Geylang Serai and Little India. What happened to nationwide celebrations ? One things for sure, the main thing on most people’s mind right now is how to spend the holiday break next week.

Anyway, leaving you with a quote from our favourite British spy.


“If you can't trust a Swiss banker, then what's the world coming to?”
James Bond


27 October 2005

The Day of the Angry Red Zit

We all have our bad hair days or days which we dread being the unwilling center of attraction for some abnormal physical trait.

Today was that day for me. An angry red zit was sitting right smack in the center of my forehead. So as expected, stares were inevitable, so too were stupid comments and dumb questions.

Witty Colleague : “Oh, did you get hit by somebody ? Heh heh, must be your girlfriend.”

Colleague acting thoughtful : “Hmmm … must be stress or it could just be the heaty food.”

Well, can’t blame them, colleagues are among the most perceptive people around. Any boring work day certainly deserves a talking point to break the monotony. So nothing really escapes their eyes and news spread faster than one can recite the National Pledge.

Among the things that attract attention :

1) Wearing the same attire to work for girls. For guys, office fashion means rotating among a few coloured shirts, so they are usually overlooked.

2) New haircut, new hairstyle or new hair colour. You’ll get either gushing compliments or polite smiles.

3) An injured body part, an outbreak of skin rashes, or anything else that will make people feel glad they aren’t in your shoes.

Anyway here’s a lame zit joke to end this post.


Q: What do you call a zit on a blonde's ass?
A: A brain tumor.

19 October 2005

The Cult of Jin Yong

Blogging is taking a back seat at the moment. I’m on a VCD-watching marathon and the series I’m watching is Jin Yong’s She4 Diao1 Ying1 Xiong2 Zhuan4 (The Legend of the Condor Heroes). This 2005 version of this famous story is currently showing on Channel U on Saturday night.

I must admit that I have a weakness for Jin Yong’s stories. Since I can’t read Chinese Novels, the next best thing to do is to watch it acted out on screen, preferably with English Subtitles. Anyway as there is no guarantee that I’m able to stay home come every Saturday night, I have started my own mini-collection of VCD series. Other series owned include ‘The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber’ and ‘The Demi God and Semi Devils’ (weird translation of Tian1 Long2 Ba4 Bu4).

Now back to the TV Screen where Guo Jing is practicing his Dragon Subduing Palms (Xiang Long Shi Ba Zan) …


legend_of_the_condor_heroes_new

11 October 2005

Childhood Memories. It’s all about FOOD.

Crawling

Thanks to funky cookies for keeping me busy with this meme assignment. Had to dig deep into my food archives, so here it goes …

Ice Cream

No Haagen Daz or Ben & Jerries back then but we were fortunate to have other forms of ice-cream available. We had the ice cream on sticks (ice-cream stick collection was popular then), ice cream on cones (sold by the roving ice cream vendors on carts), ice-cream in cups, ice-cream in tubs and even home made ice cream (rare attempts on ice cream making by my folks).

The most popular and affordable back then was the ice cream (more like ice stick without cream) made of frozen sweet syrup in a plastic tube. You can suck on it, bite on it or wait for it to melt and then drink the syrup down. My favourite was the orange-flavoured stick with a piece of ‘seng mueh’ (asam seed) at the bottom. For just 10 to 20 sen, this was a popular treat during hot sunny afternoons.

Pork cooked with chili and dried shrimp

This has to be my favourite home-cooked dish. The pork has to have both fat and lean parts, and then cooked in chili and dried shrimp. It becomes this juicy-spicy-sweet-salty-tasty meat dish. I used to slowly pick at this dish after finishing my rice, selecting only the juicy fat chunks out to eat. This dish taste good with rice, as sandwich filling or just by itself.

Canteen Food

In primary school, I had the privilege of avoiding all the oily unhygienic canteen food. You see, my parents took the trouble each day to prepare or buy food for me. So during recess time, while the rest of the kids queued up at the canteen to buy their daily fare of mee goreng, tauhu sumbat and syrup water, I will find a spot to munch on my kaya bread or on some other days a peanut butter sandwich.

Then came the compulsory Chinese Language classes which were held after school in higher primary. Suddenly I had to buy my own lunch and from where else but the canteen. But not just any canteen, the secondary school canteen which was way ahead in food variety and standard was open to us primary school kids after school. Finally ‘wholesome’ canteen food ! Had many happy afternoons gorging on the MSG-laden noodles, curry rice, Kickapoo bottled drinks and Keropok.



kickapoo-can

Dumpling Fest

I know the poet guy jumped into the river, but if not for his suicidal act, they wouldn’t have come out with this delicious tasting ‘fish food’. The dumpling festival comes once a year, but the wait is sure worth it (though nowadays dumplings are sold whole year long). My favourite since childhood would be the ‘Nyonya Zhang’ , followed closely by the ‘Bak Zhang’ and the ‘Kee Zhang’ (dipped in Kaya spread). I still remember how my neighbour used to wake up at unearthly hours to make dumplings outside my window. She made the most tasty ‘Nyonya Zhangs’ around and my parents used to buy some from her every year.


Breakfast Memories

Breakfast was always a blur on those cold school mornings. It was a standard breakfast serving every morning. A cup of hot morning tonic (3 scoops of powdered milk and one tablespoon of milo powder) and one half boiled egg. My sister and I was not too fond of the egg and I would always pour it down my throat as quick as possible. My sister’s approach would be slightly different. She would remonstrate, eye the egg suspiciously, put on a horrified face before finally drinking down the slimy liquid as if it was burning ale.

Now I can add my name into the list of people who has completed this meme. (just list 5 names including yours)



1) Oswego Tea
2) Masak-Masak
3) Insane Babe in the City KL
4) Funky Cookies
5) Teh Tarik Satu


And to pass the baton on to three lucky fellows, hmmm … the more the merrier, so here are the five that I hope will work on this meme assignment.


1) Beer Brat
2) Self Refresh
3) Insane Squirrel
4) Charles
5) Hot Choc


Update : Sorry, I left out the Rules of the meme -
1) List down 5 childhood memories of food.
2)
And in the tradition of this meme, list the 4 previous taggers before yourself and then your own name at no.5.
3) Tag 3 (or more) other bloggers to continue this meme.
All the best !

09 October 2005

3:59.4

Roger Bannister 1

‘Blink and you miss a sprint. The 10,000 metres is a lap after lap of waiting. Theatrically, the mile is just the right length – beginning, middle, end, a story unfolding.’

Sebastien Coe


To be truthful I’m not much into running. As I was growing up, the only times I went running was when it was required for during Pendidikan Jasmani(P.E class) and Sukantara (Mass Participation Pre-Sports Day Event) . In secondary school, the furthest I had to run was 1500m, 5 laps around the school field, which first appeared to be quite a gargantuan task for someone who never gone beyond a lap in primary school. For this annual physical test, my whole class would start off at the same time. The faster boys will set the pace, followed by the casual joggers and finally the stragglers who will then fight for the honour of not finishing last. Only much later did I discover the joys of jogging, but that’s another story.


When I recently heard the brief story of the 4 Minute Mile, I was intrigued. It was about a quest for the impossible, to break 4 minutes in running the Mile. Searching the story on the web did not yield much result. Fortunately recently while browsing through the sports section in the local Library, I found the book that had all the answers and much more. The book was aptly titled ‘3:59.4’.


For centuries, men had romanced the Mile, at times flirting near the 4 minute mark, but none had succeeded in conquering the Holy Grail of running. Great runners like Paavo Nurmi, Jack Lovelock, Sydney Wooderson, Gunder Haegg and Arne Andersson had set many records in the 4 Mile Race but their records always fell short of the elusive 4 minutes.


Then on a wet and windy day on
Thursday, 6 May, 1954, on the cinder-tracks of Oxford’s Iffley Road, three men made an attempt to carve their names on the annals of sport’s history. Their names were Chris Brasher, Chris Chataway and Roger Banister. As planned, the two pace makers pushed Roger through the 4-lap race, before he let out his typical late burst of speed to hit the tape ahead of the field. Then the loudspeaker crackled and the crowd went silent…

“Ladies and Gentlemen, here is the result of event 9, the one mile race. First, number 41, R.G.Banister of the Amatuer Atheletic Association and formerly of Exeter and Merton Colleges, with a time which is a new meeting and track record, and which, subject to ratification, will be a new English Native, British National, British-Allcomers, European, British Empire and World Record. The time is three …”


Pandemonium drowned the rest of the announcement. The long quest for the four-minute mile was over. Time had stopped for Roger Bannister at 3:59.4.


Since that fateful day, in just a short spate of 50 years after the first sub-four minute mile, countless athletes have ran the Mile under 4 minutes. The current world record of 3:43.13 is held by Hicham El Gerrouj. Roger just had paved the way, to make the impossible possible.

*****************

The mile race has always held a special place in the hearts of atheletes and spectators in the English-speaking world. There is magic in the unit of one, in the simple measure of distance rooted deep in Britain’s history. In the age of metrication, the mile run is now the only non-metric distance still officially recognized for world records.

Excerpt from John Byrant’s ‘3:59.4’

05 October 2005

Wednesday's Child

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child must work for a living,
But the child that's born on the Sabbath day,
Is fair and wise and good and gay.


Had to terminate someone at work today. Never easy each time. I ask myself, is the reason or crime so great to warrant a termination ? Is he worth another chance ? Is reform beyond the reach of all imperfect humans ? or am I too soft to even have such thoughts ?

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Anyway here's an appeal to all dear readers to support Malaysia SPCA's online petition for ammendments to the law to protecting animals in Malaysia.

SPCA is appealing that the Animal Ordinance 1953 is amended to first of all increase the fine to a realistic fee (after all a pedigree puppy costs about RM1000 – 2000 today) and imposes a BAN on KEEPING ANIMALS following prosecution for CRUELTY.

Please don't let indifference or ignorance lead to further cruelty towards innocent animals. Put a stop to it now by clicking on my home-made banner below.



kitty

03 October 2005

Sunday by the Bay

It was another wedding this weekend. A marriage ceremony(ROM) cum luncheon for two close friends, Julian and Tsumain. The private affair was held way up in the sky, at the 37th flr of Pan Pacific Hotel to be exact, at a restaurant called Hai Tien Lo which had this wonderful panoramic view of Marina bay.



Marriage Cert
By the power invested in me, I hereby ...


Short Flashback : I have known Julian and Tsumain ever since we were first initiated together into the
Singapore school system in May 1994. We were part of this group of 14 eighteen year-olds who were assigned to stay in Balestier Students’ hostel. Banding together on a staple of bridge sessions, pranks, midnight gatherings and daily hostel fare(also known as buffet dinners!), we managed to survive the first common test and later on the A-levels.



Pan Pac
Hai Tien Lo - at the top of Pan Pac

ACM
Journey of Faith. Entrance to ACM

After lunch, Vicky and I went over to the Asian Civilisation Museum for the ‘Journey of Faith’ exhibition. It was a neat collection of art and artifacts from the Vatican displayed in a dark sombre atmosphere(with accompanying spotlights of course). If you are expecting ‘Da Vinci Code’ type of exhibits, you’ll be disappointed. No Mona Lisa painting or Last Supper Chalice exhibited here. And you won’t find albino ‘Opus Dei’ Monks running around the place either. But you’ll find a number of art pieces with significant historical value and a wonderful model of St.Peter’s Basilica displayed there. One more week before the exhibition ends, so hurry down if you want to have a look at the sacred collection.



Singapore River 2
Singapore River

Esplanade
The 'Durian' amidst blue and green