mini day trip to JB

met up with meimei after sunday morning's bt timah trek with the guys...

we went city square to jalan and visited the secret recipe over there...we ordered 3 slices of cake and a small pot of earl grey tea...i guess we were too greedy wanting to try 3 flavors at 1 go...ended up not being to finish the cakes...hehe

mango delight...best out of the three

chocolate chip walnut...2nd best

banana chocolate...least favorite out of the three

one thing about secret recipe cakes is that they got alot of cream...those that make u full in no time one...in any case the lesson learnt here is that order cake cannot be too greedy...

made our way to this place for dinner under the evening rain
plan was to try their famous roast duck (a huge roast duck display adorns their shop front)...unfortunately it was sold out le...so we ended up just ordering 2 of their signature dishes...

our wheat grass drink

herbal chicken...very nice but 1 whole chicken is too much or 2 people to finish...i've never wasted so much good meat before wo...lol

what's left of the claypot egg tofu dish...

we left the shop with full stomachs and learnt another lesson...we should actually order dishes that are actually meant for 2 people...hehe

wedding dinners

its only 2 weeks into 2008 and i've attended 2 of my army friend's wedding dinners...last friday was Youwen's and ChinSin's was on tuesday...incidentally both were held at the the Furama Riverfront and at the same ballroom...

fortunately the menu weren't the same...hehe

anyways it was fun feasting with my army friends...the yum seng portion was very spirited...i can confidently say that we, the "army friends" section of tables were the most vocal...lol

will post pictures when i get them...hopefully can get though...

and guess what i got from meimei to top-up my mr snowman tin today...pineapple biscuits! they taste almost like those cny pineapple tarts...yummy

1st post of 2008

nothing interesting happened over the christmas/new year period...meimei wasnt around and i kept myself busy with training and my akatsuki gundam kit...

anyways...meimei is back =)...2008 is here...another 12 more months to go...hee

went to fisherman's wharf for dinner before going to ark cafe as the cafe no longer served any meals...they serving only chips+drinks...for more info...visit http://www.theark.com.sg/ArkCafe/ArkCafeFrameSet.htm

it wasnt extremely packed that day...which was good...lighting could have been made dimmer to make the ambience even more cosier...we were entitled to a drink each...we ordered a green apple + choc/coffee frappucino which were pretty yummy

there were 4 singers that day...2 guys and 2 gals...the performance started at 8pm all the way till 11pm...they were nice enough to extend till 11.15 though...sthg like those encore we see at concerts...

backed up with only a piano, the 4 singers sang a host of songs...the majority being dedications made from the floor...4 songs from our table's dedication made it to the playlist (蒲公英的约定 by jay chou, 味道 by 辛晓琪, 我真的受伤了 by 张学友 and 小情歌 by sodagreen)

last sunday went to bt timah trek with the guys and a few activity ideas were being discussed...like going malacca makan...biking from changi village to ecp using the new park connector...go ipoh for whitewater rafting+caving/abseiling...visiting the other music cafe at marina square (http://www.musicdreamer.com/index.html)

together with the bangkok trip and the kk trip...1st half of 2008 seems like very eventful already...lol

TreeTop walk

went for the TreeTop walk last thursday with Koon Heng, Yeeling, Mak, Koh, Sharry, Angie, Chiew Buay+Lee and their baby girl Jieying, and the IA student from tool engineering...i think his name is Mervin...

the rain delayed and cut short our trek which was supposed to start at around 9-10am from bishan park. we ended up driving straight to the venus carpark at the TreeTop walk area and started the trek at 1130.

anyways, here are some of the photos courtesy of Mak

transformers animated

pics of toys from the upcoming transformers animated series...looks pretty good considering that they managed to maintain the animated look and not compromise on the alternate modes/poseability...

slated for a late june release next year...should be in my "to get" list for toys next year =)

i miss her already...

my very first xmas gift exchange with meimei yesterday...and our "last" meetup before she flies off for her china trip...12 days wo...

we went to cathay to catch "the heartbreak kid"...the usual ben stiller funny stuff which is always entertaining...

went to tao's restaurant after the show for dinner...

meimei's atlantic flounder with cheese

my slow cooked pork back ribs

pumpkin soup...nice and sweet

tried the peppermint tea with grass jelly...so-so only...
rose tea with apple...much better

creme brulee...

green tea ice cream

meimei's lin didi which i got for her...

my presents which meimei got for me!



and look what's inside...bite size loacker wafers! meimei say its for my hunger pangs in the middle of the night =)

meimei also gave me this...if you havent tried it before, you really should...frigging excellent

of all the presents i received yesterday...the best one has got to be the 1.55m, sometimes 1.52m one...hehe...

santa claus is coming to town...

sthg i found at dannychoo's blog...heh

in other news...my ancient pair of converse sandals decided to call it a day...

me and boss kevin were walking back to his car after lunch today when the sandal cover came loose rendering it un-wearable...i had to walk barefoot for my right leg...my first time walking on the street in public without shoes wo...hurhur...

from sec sch till now wo...amazing that i've had this pair for so long...hehe

qian hu fish farm+essential brew+bambai food catering

the day started off with a field trip with meimei to qian hu fish farm at cck...i brought along dad's terrapin too...the idea was to bring him/her there to determine his/her sex and get him/her a partner...lol...

the little bugger kept scrambling around his tank during the trip...like chuah sai liddat...and thus he/she was named chuah sai for the time being...

as for the determination of the sex of terrapins, we learnt that if they have a depression at their belly area, they are supposed to be males. no depression=females.

the guy at the fish farm said chuah sai is a male...but it will not be easy to find a female in their tray of "for-sale terrapins" cus females are supposedly filtered out already...so in the end after touching a number of small terrapins (the guy said smaller ones got higher chance of being a female) in search of one with a flat belly, we decided to get xiao qing...
xiao qing on meimei's hand...we are still not 100% convinced for sure that xiao qing is a male/female though...hurhur...his/her belly like have/dont have depression liddat leh...

anyways we also learnt that terappins can only mate when they are bigger...so if chuah sai and xiao qing are indeed male and female respectively, they might be able to produce mini versions of themselves in the future. if xiao qing really turns out to be a male...hurhur...oh well...at least there is some good brotherly love for chuah sai...lol

lunch was at Essential Brew at holland V. a very nice cosy setting whereby there was an area for customers to sit on beanbags on the floor to makan...

we ordered honey mustard chicken which was splendid...sweet and juicy...yumyum...soup of the day was some vege soup which had some slices of carrots and celery...the berry flavored tea we had wasnt that amazing though...abit siap siap and sourish one...hurhur...the smell very very berry-ish though...but the taste didnt do it any justice unfortunately...

our dessert---apple crumble with green tea ice-cream...yum

as the sky kept pouring and pouring...we ended up spending our next 3hrs+ or so at the eating place...thank goodness we got the best floor seats...can lean back one...hehe

apart from the mini horoscope books, we completed meimei's first robot "model kit" too!
and we did a photoshoot for the 2 little green buddies

chuah sai and xiao qing in their tank...their water got dirty really fast for some reason...

chuah sai and xiao qing out of tank

xiao qing measuring at about 3.25cm as of 10/12/07

chuah sai measuring at about 4.5cm as of 10/12/07

walked around holland V (for my very first time) before making our way to tanjong pagar railway station for dinner...and guess where? Bambai food catering!! and no need to guess what i was craving for...

the ever so-delectable RAMLY burger...mmmmmmmmm...yum

and roti-john...fyi...it tastes just as wonderful as it looks...
dinner was completed with teh tarik and those 3 for $1.20 malay snacks which included goreng pisang and something flour-ish lapped with some excellent chilli sauce

a very very fun and memorable day indeed...

oh ya...i even got to try the fatty cheong char siew rice at abc market (sthg which i've been wanting to go eat for the longest time) with boss kevin on saturday...then sunday got to satisfy my RAMLY craving...hohoho...woohoo!

happy

today is a happy day...i've not felt so happy in a very very very long time =)

standard chartered marathon 2007

it's good to know what you are getting yourself into...last year's virgin marathon was a very very painful experience....
so with last year's pain in mind, i thought this year i should be better prepared...

i brought along a pack of powergel to fight the hunger that would arrive once nearing the ecp...and i rubbed loads of deep heat before leaving home...

during the run, i rubbed loads of deep heat once i saw pple handing out deep heat and kept myself hydrated...

so for the 1st 21km, i did pretty well...abt 1hr 42min...personal best 21km timing i think...

but once again...the dreaded ecp portion slowed down my pace by alot...could not maintain my less than 5min per km speed...all i wanted to do was to get the hell out of the park...and by the time i left the park...i was 2km behind my planned speed...sianz

bumped into familiar faces in ecp..for some reason i just looked at the right place at the right time...i saw tricia and waved...i saw thomas and waved...its nice to see familiar faces during races =)

another nice thing to mention is all the nice people cheering you on along the way...all the people whom you don't even know...but there they are smiling and clapping their hands...saying words of encouragement...

in the end i got back in 4hrs 1min thereabouts...slower by 1min compared to last year...argh...really thought i could improve at least by a little...but alas...could only hit my target of maintaining the 4hrs...technically i didn't also...exceeded by 1min wor...

but the best part of whole event (apart from actually finishing all that 42.195km of running) was after the collection of the medal and finisher T...i saw a familiar face waiting for me at the exit there...

nothing beats a familiar face flashing a warm smile at you after a 4hr run=)

dad's mini birthday party

ordered a cake from Panaderia to celebrate dad's birthday today...a mango tropicana...

the cake box

mango tropicana cake...darn good...not too sweet...very mango-ish

dad bought some satay too...peng-ed it using the oven toaster...

i'm soooooooooooo tempted to try the choc flavored cakes from Panaderia...mmmmm

emotional heimlich

emotional heimlich...that's a term for "a hug" i learnt from the dramedy "pushing daisies"

that particular dialogue in which the term appeared was pretty interesting too...

chuck: i cant even hug you? what if you need a hug?a hug can turn your day around.
ned: i'm not a fan of the hug
chuck: well then you haven't been hugged properly. it's like an emotional heimlich...someone puts their arms around you and squeeze. all your fears and anxiety comes shooting out of your mouth and then you can breathe again

episode 1 was pretty attention catching...interesting enough to make you want to continue to watch episode 2...heh

anyways, for more plot synopsis, visit http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0925266/

free hugs anyone?