My Guilty Meal

I had two hours to kill before an appointment tonight

i was at bedok interchange
so i decided to go to e blackboard for a ribeye steak

it was 14 bucks

it was dry, dull and unappetising

and they gave me mushroom sauce by mistake

instead of black pepper which i have ordered

it was so bad i couldn't finish it

i dun usually waste food like that

the last time i was there

i already told myself that i won't go there again

yet i went back there

so this time it is for real

i will not eat there ever again...

after dinner i was at the interchange again

and saw a beggar with only one leg

i gave him a gold coin

and thought to myself

i shouldn't have spent so much money on my dinner for nothing

a laksa might have been tastier, and of course cheaper

and i should give the money to the poor and needy

i will make a better decision next time... when i have another two hours to kill....

and i should do more for humanity...

my bad-decision

edit: i know why i craved for steak already

yesterday fifi mentioned that she took her grandpa and grandma to jack's place for steaks

and on sunday i was eyeing for delifrance and jack'splace steak too when i was at compass

point...

S$10 watch

Just now a partially blind Indian man came to ring my bell
He showed me some licensing thingy
And said that they are not allowed to ask for donations
So he wondered if I would buy a watch from him so he can make a few dollars from it
He said people like him are working for the money so hope that we could help

He said it so nicely
I felt obliged
I could not bring myself to tell him I don't need another watch
Besides, these plastic watches spoil easily
You'll 偷笑if they last for 3 days

I was having dinner half way
But this guy was going door-to-door making his 'sales'
I just couldn't turn him away

So I picked one which has a sports motif
It's 10 bucks
The man seemed happy

I cannot take a proper picture of the watch
because the face reflects light
So I cannot show it to you
the strap is sort of transparent with the design of a basketball, rugby ball, softball, golf ball, shuttlecock and football silkscreened on it


It's quite nice lah

I'm wondering if I should give it to an ex-student
I mean she is an alumnus
But I have not taught her before
She has come back to help us do some things...

She was telling me the other day about her S$6 watch
which stopped on 1May (Labour Day)
and started to function again the next day
weird pink watch she has there haha

Shall I give it to her?
Or shall I keep it just for fun?
Hmmm...

My Favourite Car

I'm not talking about the dream car aka a CLK or BM320
I'm talking about: if my employer gives me S$1000 more in salary, what would I have chosen to buy for a car.....


And it is: a Black Suzuki Swift


I don't even need the sports model
Just a normal Swift will do

I reckon it is small, therefore easy to manouvre, parking will be easy, it'll be cheaper to maintain, and it has a cool look...

But I cannot afford it now
I need to save for rainy days / old age heehee

my expensive salad =p

it's no good to have cravings too often
can make one really broke =p

let's see how much poorer i am after the trip to Cold Storage because i crave for some salad
(i tasted my colleague's heavenly salad last friday, so this is using her recipe):-

Salad (aka the vege) S$7.50
Rockets S$3.90
kyuri (japanese cucumber) S$2.99
Grapes S$3.95
Pine Nuts S$6.15
Olive Oil S$9.60
Balsamic Vinegar S$8.15
______
S$42.24
______

PLUS

2L lemonade S$3.65
Tupperware by Glad S$6.70 -
(this is 3 pcs in a set, i need this type of big tupperware to start bringing my salad to school for lunch!)
cab fare S$6
______
S$16.35
______

Total Damage S$58.59 fwah!

But of course I can make several portions of this with my bag of salad and rockets and the bottles of olive oil and balsamic vinegar can be used for months (maybe even years hahaha!) =p

bag of salad

bag of rockets

olive oil and balsamic vinegar

my new glad lunch box - it's big!

我的爱

绕着山路 走得累了
去留片刻 要如何取舍
去年捡的 美丽贝壳
心不透彻 不会懂多难得
以为 只要简单地生活
就能平息了脉搏
却忘了在逃什么

我的爱 明明还在
转身了才明白
该把幸福 找回来
而不是各自缅怀

我会在沿海地带
等着潮汐更改
送你回来

你走路姿态 微笑的神态
潜意识曾错过的真爱
莫非这是上天善意的安排
好让心更坚定
彼此更接近真爱

我的爱 明明还在
转身了才明白
该把幸福找回来
而不是各自缅怀

我会在沿海地带
等着潮汐更改
学着忍耐
不再怕伤害
不再怕期待
潜意识 那才是我真爱

我爱古董车

我曾住在那里

在阿德雷德时没有一架像样的相机

真是遗憾

今天看到和Cappuccino一模一样的车

(Suziki Swift 来的啦, 那里叫做Suzuki Cino, 我管他叫Cappuccino）

想想我竟然没有一张他的照片！

只有几张我West Beach家的照片

带不回来的卡片

和一些west beach neighbourhood 的照片

junction of west beach road and military road

家对面的big field

shops along west beach road

the neighbourhood laundromat - along weat beach road

欲望

终于吃了我的mee siam
盼了几天
也不过如此

正如想见的人一样
盼了那么久
见了面也还不是如此
接下来的又是另一场等待
等待着一个无知的未来。。。

Central

Just came back from Parkway
went shopping and had desserts at Central
i had mango sago, my sis had 姜汁蛋花， my nephew had 杏仁蛋花 (i think they are called 蛋花 if i remember correctly, they looked like dao huey but made of, i think, egg white...)

i forgot to take a pic although i did bring my new toy, FujiFilm F31fd, along

my mango sago was a bit sour
but still quite nice
because i was craving for hong kong cafe's Mango Ice!

HK Cafe's Yummy Mango Ice

Mee Siam

Wanted to buy mee siam today
but i know my mum will give me 脸色看if i did that
because i am supposed to help her eat the catered food everyday
i didn't touch the food the whole of yesterday because of symposium and seminar
if i don't eat today's food
she will sigh and haiz and keep saying we keep having lots of leftovers blah blah blah

but if we don't cater food,
she is not going to cook,
i am not going to cook
and i can't rush home everyday just to get her dinner etc.

so the only way out is to eat our catered food
that means i cannot eat what i feel like eating
have to control my cravings

there's no freedom


sian...


Saturday, if i still crave for mee siam,
i'll have that for breakfast this *Saturday!



(*no catered food delivery on weekends!)

Symposium + Seminar

Had two days worth of Symposium followed by a seminar
累坏我了。

Rested for half a day today
Now gotta prepare for tomorrow's lesson...

没时间我没时间。。。

Going to eat this now

后记：

so i've just eaten what is meant for breakfast tmr haha...

tik0k0s

tik0k0s (ie. poon cho tang) finally came into sgforums briefly today

he MIAed since 29Jan2007 grrrrr!!!

we finally got in contact and chatted over msn, so happy!!!

tik0k0s

trust u are well

wish u good health, happiness and every blessing to you in your life.

see you around eh!

these are some of the nature's banners that tik0k0s has made for his forum, cool eh?!

端午节 Dumpling Festival (tomorrow 19June)

Thanks to 屈原 (*Qu Yuan)
we have dumplings to eat!

I bought 4 from the market at the cut-throat price of S$2.50 each!

Picture showing only 3 because 1 is in my stomach!

I think normally they are only S$1.50 each
I thought I would get some for my Mum and myself since it is the festival, so the 奸商(evil merchant) got my business hehe.......



*the story about Qu Yuan and the glutinous rice

During the Warring States Period (453BC to 221BC) of the Zhou Dynasty (1134BC to 256BC) in 299BC, Ying Ji, the ruler of the State of Qin invited Xiong Huai, the ruler of the State of Chu, for a conference in Qin.

Qu Yuan advised Xiong Huainot to go, but Xiong Lan, the youngest son of Xiong Huai, encouraged his father to go. Xiong Huai listened to his son and went to Qin. As Soon as Xiong Huai entered Wu Guan he was arrested by the Qin troops. XiongHuai died of anguish in incarceration in Qin. Xiong Heng, the elder brother of Xiong Lan, became the new ruler ofChu.

Qu Yuan criticised Xiong Lan for advising his father to attend the conference. Xiong Lan was ashamed of himself, but he would not tolerate Qu Yuan's criticism. So he manipulated to have Qu Yuan dismissed from his job and bannished to his hometown which was near the river of Mi Luo.

Qu Yuan was very depressed and often wandered around the banks ofthe Mi Luo River, pouring forth his soul in verses. Qu Yuan had an elder sister by the name of Qu Xu who was marriedand lived far away. On hearing of her younger brother being dismissed bythe Chu Court Qu Xu returned home to see Qu Yuan. She was sad to see herbrother so thin and haggard. She advised Qu Yuan to forget about politics and till the land and live an ordinary life. Qu Yuan agreed with his sister and began to plant rice. The type of ricehe planted was called Yu Mi (or jade rice). Having seen her brotherhad finally settled down Qu Xu returned to her husband.

Qu Yuan was still in despair and sadness overwhelmed him. One day he tied a big rock to his body, jumped into the river and disappeared immediately. People living along the banks of Mi Luo River heard of his disappearancein the river. They rushed out to the river with their boats to try torescue him. He could not be found. Neither could his body. Fearing that the fish might devour his body, people harvested the Yu Mi from his field and used them to make them into dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and threw them into the river with the hope that the fish would devour the wrapped dumplings instead of his body. Yu Mi was later renamed as glutinous rice (Nuo Mi). Wrapped glutinous rice dumpling was later called Zong Zi. That is how people nowadays only use glutinous rice to make Zong Zi.

Qu Yuan's hometown was named Zi Gui which meant elder sister returned home, in honour of Qu Yuan's elder sister Qu Xu returning home to see him. This episode happened before the construction of the Great Wall.

(story taken from http://www.asiawind.com/pub/forum/fhakka/mhonarc/msg01591.html)


edit: fifi said qu yuan was gay worr... dunno got bluff me or not... wiki also nvr say =p

edit no.2: this is what fifi said

"read the history of chinese literature loh.......esp his ci..... quite famous...though no books or records blatantly state he is gay, but many critics and analysts had deduced so........ the gay may not be the ass-farking broken wrist gays we have nowadays, but obvious affection towards another male, which is, rumoured to be the king, that is seen in his literary works and writings....

so everytime u eat a bazhang, pls think of gays k!"

这是盐重人参公鸡~?！挖哈哈哈。。。！

is the following written by qu yuan? i forgot liao heehee, wished Dad were around!

"怒发冲冠，凭栏处，潇潇雨歇。抬望眼，仰天长啸，壮怀激烈。三十功名尘与土，八千里路云和月。莫等闲,白了少年头，空悲切。 靖康耻，犹未雪。臣子恨，何时灭？驾长车踏破贺兰山阙。壮志饥餐胡虏肉，笑谈渴饮匈奴血。待从头,收拾旧山河，朝天阙."

i just googled, wrong liao wrong liao, this is 岳飞 挖哈哈哈。。。！ >.<

My 'New' Phone : )

Guess I won't be getting the e61i anytime soon

Someone just gave me a used nokia6280

will see if i can get used to it...

Father's Day - Poh Piah

Today, my eldest sis made poh piah and invited the whole family over

Here's my roll

1. Skin from 95, joo chiat road (thanks niu da niang for the address/direction!)

Here's a tip, place the 'rough' side facing you. so that when u roll it up, the nice side is on the outside, so your poh piah will look nicer : )


2. Put lots of chilli and garlic and sweet sauce.

Another tip, drizzle your sauce on top of the vegetable, so that the skin will not be soaked through by it : )

3. Put the liao.

Also place it on top of the vegetable, same theory.


4. viola! =p

rain

would have been nice to sleep
it rained the whole day
but i have been busy doing translation for the upcoming Symposium
i have only completed 5 pages out of the 16 pages (single spacing arghhhx...) today
i have a few hours to work on it tomorrow
and then the whole of monday
to finish the whole thing before tuesday, my deadline

tomorrow we'll be having poh piah at my eldest sis' place
to celebarte father's day for our eldest brother
who is the fatherly figure at home
爸爸已经不在了
but he 永远在我们的心中 (爱是永不止息。。。）
his spirit remains
he has taught us 手足情深，血浓于水by example

i just had fish soup for dinner
need to shower and go to bed soon...

Ikoi

Ikoi
#01-01, Miramar Hotel
401, Havelock Rd
Tel: 6887 3788


just recording this here so that i won't forget
meant to go try their ala carte jipoonese buffet one day : )


edit: ok ok now fifi said i'm weird
becos she just said she prefers honjin to ikoi
and then i said i wanna go to ikoi
i guess i have to give honjin a try too

Honjin Kushiyaki Restaurant & Bar
Chow House
140 Robinson Road
Tel: 6222 2243

calbee

i love calbee chips


i'm eating this now:
calbee hot and spicy
they're fresh and crispy and nice


i also love han's peach tarts
had one today
but i didn't take a picture
they are still the same after so many years
the peach is crunchy and nice
my all time favourite : )

i can't find peach tarts like this anywhere else
and i cannot find canned peaches that are not soggy let alone crunchy like han's

i miss all the fruit in adelaide
well what i miss the most are the cherries in summer, peaches, and the vietnamese pho at central market - you must go to the one inside the foodcourt on the same side as the bubble tea stall
i used to treat myself to a bowl of pho every sunday
it was A$6.50 but it's well worth it
and i had 'blow the breeze' money (thanks so much!!!)
no pho in singapore tastes that good
they brew their power soup with bones and meat
good stuff


adelaide's sweet and crunchy dark cherries


best pho in the world

my cole's rice which gave ditzy a field day : )

i also thank God for the friends i met over there:
Kay, Anna, Tennille, Raelene...

however i do not want to live those years ever again
PhD is just too difficult for me
i only like having the title : )