Angie BBQ Birthday

Continuing on Angie's Birthday on Sunday, we decided to have an impromptu BBQ session in the evening near a beach. As we have a disposable BBQ kit, which we bought for some time, there isn't a need to book for a BBQ pit.

Hence, after having our breakfast, we went to NTUC Fairprice to grab some chicken wings and frozen satays. We also bought a cauliflower to fried as a side dish. We also thought of making some BBQ prawns as we have some extra in the fridge. Serene says she will cook some fried rice just in case some of us gets hungry. Since it is just for the fun of it, we did not buy too much food.

We went down to Pasir Ris beach beside Coastal Sands Resort around 5pm and found ourselves a nice sheltered area. Kwan Siang bought a cake as desserts. We decide to celebrate Serene's daughter, Phoebe birthday as well since it falls in the same month.

Though it is a simple session, it turns out to be quite a happy occasion. Sure beats going to some fancy restaurant for dinner. Together with the cake, we actually ate quite full. :P

From Angie BBQ Birthday

Ah Chiang’s Porridge 阿昌粥

It was Angie Birthday yesterday. Early in the morning, I brought her to Toa Payoh Central to have Ah Chiang Porridge for breakfast. Came to know about this porridge franchise from Sheylara's blog. The place served real traditional Cantonese porridge. You know those gluey, starchy type of porridge, which by the way is also Angie's favorite.

The porridge is tasty enough without little or no soy sauce. The porridge is smooth and light and prepare just right. Angie had century egg porridge while I have the sliced fish one. In addition, we ordered a place of Yu Sheng (raw fish salad) though I am the only one who ate it. Somehow Angie doesn’t fancy it as much as Japanese Sashimi.

Other than porridge stuff, the place also sells various pig organs soup. But the real draw here is still the good old fashion Canto-style congee. Will definitely go back to try the fish belly / fish head porridge after reading this.

Dual Sound For Hong Kong Serials?

We can watch French movie in French.
We can watch Korean show in Korean
We can watch Japanese serial in Japanese

So why can't we watch HK drama in Cantonese??? I don't see there are any difference between the above and Cantonese. They are all foreign language. Ok, someone points out that Cantonese is dialect. Characters in Jack Neo movies spew Hokkiens, Teochews and Singlish. Those are dialects so why can't the same rules apply for HK movies?

Many of the jokes in HK movies or dramas are better appreciated when spoken in their original language. The favor is lost when translated to Chinese. Furthermore, sometimes the dubbing is plain horrible where the Chinese dubbed voice totally mismatched the artistes looks.

If it is a must to have Chinese, can they at least make it dual sound? The serial can still be shown in Chinese but viewers can switch to the Canto language audio channel if they want to. They have been doing that for the Japanese and Koreans dramas, so why not for the HK ones as well? Is this too much to ask for?

There Are Fierce Girlfriends...

And then there are the really fierce ones. Thank god my wife is not one of them and certainly not like this.

She just likes to bite... T_T

See the public reaction here

Full Day Sat for OPC

woohooo...Finally the news came. This is one of the reason why I buy a OPC. Now I can drive on Sat full day n no more that pesky paper OPC coupons. Although I need to pay a $100 administrative fee and my road tax will increase by a bit, it is quite acceptable. Cheers for all OPC owners

Reserved Seats Sign

Took the train to town this morning. When I board the train, I notice that though most of the seats are taken, the priority reserved seats are left empty.

Maybe Singaporeans are starting to become more gracious. Maybe the PCK video helps? Or maybe it's the little reserved sign that deterred people from taking the seat. Whatever the reasons, I am not sure will it stays like this especially when the train starts to become more crowded.

Folding Plug H 264

Can't wait for this to be available in the market. Why didn't someone think of this sooner? For all the slim electronics we are seeing these days, we are still stuck with the cumbersome 3-pin plug. It is such a pain, bulging out of our bags.

Stupid Stomp Promote Heartless Society

I tell you. Singaporeans are becoming a bunch of spoilt brats who except everything to be served to them on a silver platter and totally have no empathy, courtesy and understanding for others and only know how to complain and kao bay everything through the net.

This holds true ever more since the shitty Stomp website comes on. Lately, a couple is being caught on video boarding a train with a dog in a cardboard box and posted on Stomp. What comes next is angry comments criticizing and condemning the couple.

COME ON LAH! It's not like the dog is unleash, running around and dirtying the train. The couple at least put the dog in a box. Show some empathy, did the dog disturb anyone? Furthermore, this is not the first time I seen people bring their pets to board the train. Does this mean after the drinking water issue, now we will get fined too for carrying our pets on board. What is wrong with our society? Has it become so cold and uncaring towards others?

And to the one who took the video and post on Stomp, if you are so unhappy with the actions of this couple. Rather than take the video, why not go up and talk them off or report them to the station staff? Dun have the guts? Gutless asshole, only dare to hid behind his handphone and computer.

My New Ride

1. No more spending long hours taking the train back to Jurong on weekends.
2. Less risk of getting fine for taking a sip of water on the train during my weekend train rides.
3. No more frustration in trying to get a cab in Punggol.
4. Won't be blackmail as much by the greedy transport companies.
5. And finally don't have to endure the loud techno music playing from some ah beng's handphone. YEAH!!!

New problems...
1. Blackmail by bloody sucking petrol companies. :(
2. Blackmail by ERP and parking. >:(
3. Resisting the urge to drive everywhere you wanted go, e.g. going downstairs to buy lunch on Sun. ;P

Update: Removing my car plate number after some thought. Too bad if you came in late to see this post

National Day Then and Now.

National Day is here again. Just another holiday and a break from work. Took a photo of my flat today. Below is my flat around the same time last year. From the look of it, many people feels the same way as we did.

Comparing the photos, there is one flag hanging outside this year (that's not mine). That's an improvement. Isn't it? ^_^

Shane Acker's 9

Came across the movie trailer for 9 while surfing through Apple Quicktime Movie Trailers site. This movie is based on the short animation film by Shane Acker, who got an Oscar nomination for it (How the hell did he not won is a mystery to me). The short animation though lack of any dialogue has a better storyline than most of the movies showing at the theaters today. Gosh... Shane Acker is pure genius and only another genius like Tim Burton is daring to make the short film into a full length feature one. This is a must watch for me. A pure masterclass in story telling

9 Movie Trailer

Shane Acker's original short animation

Mickey's Death Anniversary

It's been a year since the silly boy left us, but we still miss him a lot. Wonder has he reincarnated or still enjoying his time in dog heave chasing other dogs around? Still missing you, little fluffy one.

Who Send the Bus Driver to Work?

Woke up @5am in the morning the other day. As I look out the window, I notice that there are buses already on the streets. Make me wonder, we take the buses to work. For the cases of the bus driver, how do they get to work?

They definitely don't stay next to the bus interchange. Since there are no public transport during those wee hours, how did they travel to the bus depot to drive the buses out?

Take taxi? Isn't that a bit too expensive for them with the midnight charges? Take company buses? Then how did the company bus driver go TO work? Hmmmm.....

Mother Nature Flexing Her Muscle

The power of nature. For the past week, East Asian has been hit by typhoons with Taiwan experiencing the worst typhoon weather in 50 years when Typhoon Morakot slammed the island. The resulting flood is so powerful that it causes a six-storey hot springs hotel to topple in 知本 area as the ground gave way.

According to the news, there is actually a street running right in front of the hotel, but that has been totally washed away. Scary... Thankfully, everyone has evacuated from the hotel before the hotel toppled.

This is the result of the global warming effect. If we still continue with our path of destruction, more powerful typhoons will appear and more lives will be lost.

Terminator Salvation

I watch Terminator Salvation last night and contrary to my colleague's comment that it is not nice, I find the latest installment of the Terminator series quite entertaining. One reason maybe is that I am a big fan of the Terminator Series and for years, the fans like me have been told in the previous installments of how the bleak the future will be. Finally, we get to see the future now.

For starters, the film is littered with references of the previous 3 films, from the famous line by Arnold Schwarzenegger to things seen in the previous films. Even the soundtrack from T2 is not spared. Fans like me will have a field day spotting the various Easter eggs in the movie. As for the film itself, rather than ignoring the events in the previous 3 movies, it linked up the various elements so that everything makes sense.

Action sequence is exciting and the storyline is good enough to keep me glue without making me move my finger to the skip button. Only complain is that I failed to catch it when it was showing in the theatres (all thanks to my colleague comment). Overall, it's a nice movie and i will definitely be watching out for the DVD release.

P.S. Saw the news that the U.S. is setting up a new command for their nuclear forces. Rise of Skynet?

Home Is Where the Heart Is

National Day theme songs are getting from bad to worse nowadays. This is still truly THE National Day song for me. It really brings out the feeling of belonging to this country for all Singaporeans. Though I always complain about Singapore, deep down my heart, I still love this country. It's the government that I hate.

Passing The Pole

This occur opposite my office. The poles are too long to be taken into the life, so these men came out with this creative way of bring the poles up to the fourth floor.

AIA Hellline

Sign up an AIA eCare account for my mother-in-law, but till now I have not received any notification letter from them. Called up their customer hotline to speak to an operator. After waiting from a long time, someone pick up. He say he will take down my message and someone will called back. I got a call back 7 hours later. =_=

WTF! WTF! WTF!

If they can get someone to take down messages, why can't the same person handle the customers? Why bother to take down messages when the damn response time is so long? By that time, people may not need the help anymore. When I hear that it is AIA callback, I told the operator that I dun need any help anymore since it takes so long for their responses and slam the phone. This is the worse so called "hotline" I have encountered.

Why Are Our Public Toilets So Smelly?

I don’t understand. I just don’t understand why public toilets in Singapore are so damn dirty and smelly. I don’t mean your neighborhood coffee shop toilets but the ones in big shopping centers. Is it because our cleaners did not do a proper job or is it because Singaporeans are such “bobo” shooter that our urine end up everywhere except the toilet bowl itself?

The other day I went to the public toilet in Ang Mo Kio hub. Upon stepping into the toilet, I was assaulted by a variety of senses. The air is filled with smelly stinky urine odor. The floor is wet and littered with toilet. I nearly fainted from the smell and sight. And this is in a shopping mall, the toilets in our neighborhood coffee shops or hawker centers are even worse.

We keep boasting how good our country is and are No.1 in everything, yet when it comes to toilet cleanliness we are way down near the other end of the list. We kept proclaiming that we are more developed and better than our neighbors; however both Malaysia and Indonesia surprisingly have cleaner toilets than we do. There is a problem with our society. Are we are too used to having someone there to clean up our mess that we start to ignore our basic understanding of keeping the toilet clean?

I am not expecting our public toilets to be super clean and smell like a rose, but at least remain odorless and an acceptable cleanliness, is that too much to ask?

One-Day Durian Buffet cum Shopping Trip

My family went for a durian cum shopping tour around 3 weeks ago in Johore. After crossing the border, we stop by this coffee shop for breakfast.

From 1 Day Durian/Shopping

We reach our durian feasting location at around lunchtime. When we arrived, we were actually kind of disappointed. All along we thought the buffet would be held in a durian plantation with chairs and tables under a shelter. As it turns out, the durian feast is a walk off the main road in some sort of kampong area.

Each table/bus is allocated one basket of durians, where people will cut them open. It's a free for all and eat all you can session. xp The bad news is this will be our lunch! As I am feeling a bit heaty inside, I only took one seed of durian plus some rambutans and mangosteen on offer, plus two apples, which Angie brought along. :(

From 1 Day Durian/Shopping

Some rambutan trees growing next to where we had our durians. Remind me of my Puala Ubin trip ^_^

From 1 Day Durian/Shopping

Checking out the fruits stall by the side of the road. This huge Thai durian is bigger than the size of my head!

From 1 Day Durian/Shopping

After stuffing ourselves with durian and fruits, we were brought to Yoyo Native Food Shop in Yong Peng to shop for some ??.

From 1 Day Durian/Shopping

More shopping... this is another area. This place sells a lot of stuffed toys, cartoon accessories, tidbits and fruits. Check out the size of those mangoes and pineapples. My sisters and Angie unload all their Ringgits here buying cartoon theme pillows and bags. Anyone who knows about this place please let me know. Keen to go back again. hehehe

From 1 Day Durian/Shopping

Next stop is at Aeon Tebrau City. By that time, both Angie and I are tired. So we didn't explored much around this shopping mall. But still Angie managed to get herself 2 pairs of shoes *amazed+faint*

From 1 Day Durian/Shopping

Our final stop is seafood dinner in Kampong Senibong near Permas Jaya. The dinner is not very nice and the sea view is noting to write home about.

From 1 Day Durian/Shopping

We return back to Singapore by 930pm in the evening. Overall, the trip is ok. The durian buffet is disappointing. Shopping trip wise is ok.

Who Needs Taxi Vouchers?

After hurting their profit margin by their constant fare increment. The taxi companies decided to give out vouchers to woo commuters back.

Who needs taxi vouchers? Just f*$#king remove the bloody 35% surcharges and reduce the damn taxi fare! Greedy bastards.

The two biggest taxi companies here are going all out to encourage ridership during these troubling economic times.

In the first three months of this year, the average number of daily taxi trips fell to 893,674 - the lowest it has been in five years. Latest figures for May saw patronage decelerate further with numbers dropping to 836,535 compared to 923,494 at the same time last year.

Taxis have been hit hard by the recession and commuters turning to a public transport system that has improved connectivity and options.

In an effort to reverse the downward trend, ComfortDelGro is launching a four-month campaign to give away $280,000 in taxi vouchers.

From Saturday, commuters can text their names and their receipt numbers to 71222 every time they take a taxi for a chance to win the vouchers.

The vice-president of sales and marketing for the company's taxi service, Mr Edwin Yeo, said: 'We believe that with so much more up for grabs this time, commuters will be further encouraged to take cabs.'

Comfort, which is the largest taxi company here with 23,000 taxis, said it had also launched other marketing promotions.

A partnership with Nets rewards lucky passengers who use the payment system with daily cash prizes. And NTUC Linkpoints members can chalk up points if they book Comfort cabs.

SMRT, the second-largest cab company here, is currently tempting customers with its four-month long 'Book And Win' promotion. The event, which began on June 8, rewards 15 riders a month with $100 worth of taxi vouchers. In the grand draw, the top prize is $1,000 worth of vouchers.

These measures are part of a push by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to help prop up the taxi industry. LTA is providing $1 million, to be matched by the companies, to hold promotions, discounts and tie-ups with shopping centres and tourist attractions.

A Case of Trusting the Wrong CASE

The recent Brooke Commercial School has not only raised the question on the reliability of local commercial business school but on the reliability of our CASE organization as well. Brooke was awarded the CASE Trust logo. This gave the students confidence that it is a reliable educational center. since the logo means that, from the CASE Trust site, the "businesses will not unwittingly violate the law". That's why it came as a shock to many when news broke out that the school is giving fake degrees. What is even more surprising is the way CASE responds to the queries on how the school is being awarded the CASE Trust logo.

According to CASE and its executive director, Mr. Seah Seng Choon, students are responsible to do their homework in checking up on the school. So much for protecting the consumers' interest. As someone state, C A S E stands for Can't Answer Sensible Enquiries. Well Mr Seah, they did and their research will shows that the school is CASE Trust registered, meaning it should be ok. If the CASE Trust logo cannot be taken into consideration seriously, what the F*&^K is it for? It is like telling people not to trust the Safety Mark on electrical appliances.

This is very irresponsible of CASE. This is not the first time it has shun its responsibilities in protecting the consumers. According to its website, CASE "is committed towards protecting consumers' interest through information and education, and promoting an environment of fair and ethical trade practices". If it can't even fulfill this, then why the hell we still need them for? Questions should be raised to CASE on how did they qualify business for the CASE Trust logo.

It is sad that we can't even trust anyone, not even an organization created to protect our interest. But then again, nowadays we can't even trust a monk, so who can we trust?

Money Not Enough 3 - Temasek Holdings?

Is this a sign that Temasek Holding is reading running low on cash? After losing billions investing in the US banks, I wonder who will have the confidence in their investment plans. Well definitely not when a maneater is holding court...

吓到笑, Where Got Ghost Trailer

Jack Neo is at it again in promoting his latest project and to switch your mobile to silent mode when at the movies.

Here's the actual trailer. ROFL when I saw the "Ah Hui ah, Li Jia Bao Buay" scene.

Return of the Queen

She`ll only come out at night, the lean and hungry type
Nothing is new I`ve seen her here before…Watching and waiting
Ooh, she`s sitting with you but her eyes are on the door
So many have paid to see what you think you`re getting for free
The woman is wild, a she-cat tamed by the purr of a jaguar
Money`s the matter, if you`re in it for love, you ain`t gonna get too far

(Oh oh, here she comes) watch out boy, she`ll chew you up
(Oh oh, here she comes) she`s a maneater
(Oh oh, here she comes) watch out boy, she`ll chew you up
(Oh oh, here she comes) she`s a maneater

The above song by Hall & Oates is the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the news that Ho Chin will not be stepping down. The excuse they gave is that "Chip" Goodyear views are different from Temasek Holdings.

If that is the case, why did they want to hire him in the first place? Are they saying that they did not ask him his views on how he will manage the billions of Singapore funds during the interview? Or is this all a cover up as there are no good posts in Singapore for the PM's wife and she is too powerful to remain as a housewife?

So, does this mean the buying high and selling low trend is back at Temasek Holdings?

Cycling @ Pulua Ubin

Angie and I went to Puala Ubin on Sunday two weeks ago. Since this is my first visit to this island, I am filled with excitement and anticipation. We took a bus to Changi Village and have dim sum for breakfast at one of the coffee shops in Changi Village.

From 2009-06-06 Pulau Ubin

After breakfast, we proceed to take a ferry at Changi Terminal. Gosh, we are surprised at the number of people queuing for the ferry. Ferries arrivals are quite frequent so the waiting time is quite short.

From 2009-06-06 Pulau Ubin

Each ferry can take up to 12 people and cost $2.50 single trip per pax. The ferry trip itself takes around 15 - 20 mins. The weather is nice and cloudy that day with cool sea breeze blowing as the ferry move towards Puala Ubin

From 2009-06-06 Pulau Ubin

When we arrived at the island, the place is bursting with activities. The streets next to the jetty are filled with bicycle rental shops. Most of the bicycles are quite new and comes with gear change. We rented a two person bicycle ($14 whole day!) and proceed to cycle around to enjoy the nature breeze. It is a good trip to break away from the hectic Singapore life.

From 2009-06-06 Pulau Ubin

Some areas have steep slopes that even at first gear, we have problem riding up the slope. In the end, we have to dismount and push our bicycle up.

From 2009-06-06 Pulau Ubin

Since it is the rambutan season, rambutans are spotted dangling from the trees everywhere on the island. Other than rambutans, we also saw durian trees. We came to a spot where there is a huge crowd gathered. Turns out everyone there are plucking rambutans to eat. There is this uncle who is using a home made pole to reach those really bright red rembutans high up in the trees. He is also kind enough to borrow the pole to us to let us try our hands in getting the juicy fruit.

From 2009-06-06 Pulau Ubin

After getting frustrating in trying pluck the fruit down with the pole, I found a branch low enough for me to pull it down to get our hands full with a lot of rambutans. Though green in color, they taste just as sweet.

From 2009-06-06 Pulau Ubin

Fruits of Our Labour

We were caught in a light drizzle on our way back to the jetty area. We end up having our dinner at the First Stop Ubin restaurant. They serve really fresh live prawns but sadly I can't eat those.

From 2009-06-06 Pulau Ubin

After our dinner, we ride around for a while more before returning the bicycle. We just managed to board the ferry back to the mainland before a heavy downpour came. Heng ah! Well this is a relaxing outing. Both Angie and I really enjoy the fallback from the busy lifestyle. Will definitely come back again.

Robots and 80s Action Star

Managed to squeeze some time to watch some movies over the past two weeks, with the help from the fast forward button. One of them is Transformer 2: Rise of the Fallen and the other is Death Wish series by Charles Bronson. Ok, I heard people say Charles who? He is an 80's action star; I will explain more of that later.

Let talk about Transformers 2 first. After all the big explosion and fancy action sequence shown on its trailer, I find the movie itself quite disappointing. The plot seems like hastily written and many of the characters or robots in this case seems to be there for cameo purpose. In fact, there are so many robots fighting for screen space that the monstrous Devestator in the cartoon series is reduced to being a gigantic vacuum cleaner. And the two Autobots twins are damn irritating. Can some Decepticons just blast them and their creators off the show? In summary, I only like three scenes in the entire movie
1. Optimus Prime taking on three Decepticons, including Megatron. Cool!
2. Optimus Prime clean house after getting an upgrade from Jetfire. Awesome!
3. Megan Fox running in the desert sands. Woohoo!

Run Megan Run!

For Charles Bronson, he is a famous 80s action star. I grew up watching his movies. The Death wish movie series is one of his more famous works. More details of this late actor can be found here. As to why I pick up his movie, it is started by my father. Death Wish 2 is showing on cable TV but the timing overlapped his karaoke session. So he ask if I can record the movie for him, which I get my friend, Google, to find all the 5 movies in the series for me.

Watching the movies bring back the memories. The supposingly hardcore action sequence then looks funny compared to those found in the movies these days. It really shows how movies have evolved over the years. As movie audience starts to mature, demands for action sequence and scenes to be more realistic is getting higher and higher.

High Tech Cleaner

Send my faulty graphic card for repair the other day since it is still under warranty. The shop is promoting this high tech cleaning gel by showing the video below. I was bought by the commercial and bought one to try it. So far it works quite well, really able to clean those small hard to reach areas. Furthermore, it leaves a nice lemon smell. The wonder of this gel causes me to search around the house looking for difficult to clean areas and try out my newfound cleaning tool. Kekeke

Think Before You Put That In Your Mouth

The new crackdown in rules on consumption of food and drink on the MRT although is a good move, the way the rules are enforce are a bit too far. Giving people fines for drinking plain water or even eating sweats shows that the authorities have no empathy for welfare of the passengers.

Does that mean we, as paying customers can't even enjoy simple things like quenching our thirst? So we have to endure our thirst or have a sweet to overcome the smelly BO from the guy sitting beside for the entire duration of our ride? So it's ok to vomit in the train because you can't eat a sweet to curb your giddiness while taking a train?

What if a tourist is caught drinking water on the train? Will they be fined or let off since nobody inform them that such acts is probated? Then this constitute to double standards, isn't it?

If the MRT is so eager to improve the ride experience, they should, as chillycraps said, fine those pole leaner, ah bengs who play loud music on their mobile and those sitting in reserved seats as well. In the meanwhile, remember to get off the train when you want to take a sip of water, else you will be drinking an expensive drink.

Milking the Dead Man Dry

Ever since Michael Jackson sudden death, the world suddenly went into a Michael Jackson fever. Every 10 mins, his name or music will pop up somewhere, be it in the papers, on TV or the radio. Even the music in shopping centers are playing his songs. -_-"

Everyone seems to suddenly become the MJ fan. When this guy is alive, nobody even bother to find out what's going on with him. Some even ridicule his weird behavior. Suddenly, after the news of his passing, everyone starting to buy his albums or praise how great a person he is. Just look at all those comments on every MJ youtube videos. Yeah right.... I find them all hypocrite.

Look at all the media coverage on his funeral. Every minor details is being shown. Do you really think they are giving the man respect? They are just riding the MJ wave, luring the sudden converted MJ fans into getting their products along with the sounds of the cash register. KA-CHING! Did they gave the same coverage to Farrah Fawcett who passed away on the same day as the King of Pop? None. Why? The money isn't there!

Like my mum used to say for this artistes, only in death will you be recognized and where your work will become valuable. This hold so true and sad for MJ that even in death, he is still being milked with no rest in peace

Magical Number: 6352

Watch for this space.... Hehehehe ^_^