'The Ladies of Asahi'

I just realized a couple of ‘disturbing’ things bout myself. I drink less water on weekends or when I’m not in the office. In the office, I have a huge water bottle that I fill up every morning with bout 1.5 litres of water which I always finish before leaving at the end of the day, that’s like 2 litres a day, that ought to be enough right? So on weekends when I’m out or just lazing at home, I usually forget to drink enough water and I think I drink bout half that amount by the end of the day.

The other thing I realized is I don’t think I’m considered a regular at any small Japanese restaurant anymore. It’s been months and months since I eaten at any counter seats with a sushi chef. My last few Japanese meals were at those big restaurants. Hah, I know it sounds kinda weird but being a regular at a quaint, intimate little place is pretty neat. You get that personal touch from the staff, maybe better sashimi cuts, a little extra dessert etc.

And continuing my ladies and booze photo shoot, here are some new shots. Introducing the Ladies of Asahi. So anyone knows anyone working in Asahi?

'One week in Sillypore 1'

Decided to try a little something different now. Now, I'm a big fan of the Dannychoo all-things-Japanese/anime website. Something he does occasionally is a 'One week in Tokyo' posts. Pictures of what his week in Tokyo was like, it's really cool and I figured I'll have a little one of my own. There's already a great 'One week in Singapore' series already, so maybe I'll call mine 'One week in Sillypore 1' that is until I can come up with a better name. ^^;

It was around the last week of the Chinese Lunar New Year when I took these shots. This is a really cool 'toy' from Japan. If you ever liked popping those air wrap bubbles, you'll luv this. It's an electronic toy that makes the sound of popping bubblewrap when you press on the plastic bubbles. About every 100 pops you make, it'll make a random sound such as a doorbell, a dog barking, "sexy voice" or the passing of gas.

A quick walk through Chinatown on my way home from work. Still with some New Year goodies on sale.

More good luck cats are on the prowl.

Home with my macbook, in front of the TV.

Sunny weekday morning in the local business district.

Lunch time at Maxwell. I was seated next to this chicken rice stall although I didn't have it. It's supposed to be pretty good, judging from the number of newspaper reviews its got pasted around it.

Here's something you don't see everyday. A cookout from the back of a catering truck, outside a Chinese clan association. This was on the last day of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

The bus ride to my aunt's place over the weekend. I figured why not take a shot, so I did.

Saturday nite dinner at Mellben Crab's Toa Payoh outlet. Having heard that the quality at their Ang Mo Kio has dropped. You'll be glad to know the that quality at Toa Payoh is still great. Probably cos the familiar main staff seems to be at Toa Payoh now.

Dessert at Icekimo. My first time there. Almost missed the place cos the entire building was under renovation. Had the blueberry cheescake and teh tarik (milk tea) flavours. Very good. Would luv to go there again cept it's pretty hard without a car.

'Should I or shouldn't I'

Was up from 3am to 5am by mozzies biting me last night, couldn't sleep at all. Now, it's 10.15pm on a Friday nite and I'm too tired to do anything else. I got 3 bottles of duty free Hoegarden beer in the fridge and I'm thinking should I or shouldn't I...



Ok, remember the book vouchers I got as a farewell gift from my old office? Here are most of the stuff I got.

Mac OS X Leopard for Dummies. It's one of those I-wouldn't-have-bought-it-with-my-own-money kinda thing. I thought I'll get it since I got a new macbook late last year. So far, I think I only used like 10% of it.

How to have creative ideas by Edward de Bono. Another great work from U2's front guy. Nah, I'm just kidding. It's 62 'mental' creative exercises, coming up with ideas and looking at things from different viewpoints. Great book for someone like me. ^^;

Net, Blogs and Rock 'n Roll. Another book that's coming in real handy for someone in the media industry. Explains how digital advertising works and the use of social networks, crowdsourcing, tagging, etc. A must-read for me.

Yotsuba&! Vol.1. Gawd, I'm in luv with her! Don't worry, there's nothing kinky here. Just go read the reviews (click my link!), pick up a copy, borrow one or even steal one and you'll know what I mean. Every weekend, I'm just waiting for the Kinokuniya sale so I can pick up the other volumes at 20% off!

"It's like a train wreck"

Recently I stumbled upon this local forum at SingaporeBrides.com and they have a sub-forum called Matters of the Heart. And to me, it's like a local online version of the Jerry Springer show (I caught a couple of episodes while in New York years ago), I mean almost every other post involves broken relationships between couples, in-laws, etc. It's like a train wreck where you know you are not supposed to stare but you can't help it!

But the thing that really gets me is how most of these posts go. Original poster goes something like, "my boyfriend cheats on me/is abusive/lies to me, etc. so should I leave him?". The next 50 posts all tell her to leave him but she goes "I don't want to leave him cos I still love him". WTF?!? Then why are you asking for advice if you already made up your mind? Do you really think that a guy who cheated on you like 5 times in the relationship would actually stop cheating on you once you marry him? I don't get it at all why can't people walk away from really bad relationships especially if both aren't married yet. Can anyone tell me?

"Some of them are pretty shifty-looking"

Happy Year of The Rat everyone! It's almost the end of the long Lunar New Year break. The first day or rather first 6 hours was spent doing the traditional visitations. After that at bout 4pm on Thursday I was pretty much 'free' to do whatever else I want. Cept that almost the entire island was closed for the next couple of days. Shops are closed, everyone's visiting. Which comes to my next little observation.

Tons of (male) foreign workers wandering the streets. Hordes of them. Some of them are pretty shifty-looking, if you know what I mean. Most of them are from China and India. I was like, where the hell they going? All the shops are closed and most of the labourers live in dorms at the work sites, so who are they visiting? Anyway, want to know how to tell the white collar ones from the the blue collar ones? The white collar ones all wear glasses! Really. Of cos, you can tell if you hear them talk, that's when you know you are right and really, the IT guys from India or the China lecturers, they all wear glasses.

Now for some food stuff which I know I haven't been doing much of lately. Passed by this new place by chance last nite, that's Saturday nite, and figured we'll give it a try. it's a new Japanese eating place at the basement of Raffles City, called Shokudo. It just opened a week ago apparently. By the way, today's Sunday papers did a rather positive review of the joint.

It's done up like the old Marche places in Singapore i.e. there are bout a dozen stalls, anything you order is recorded in a card, walk, see what you like, eat and pay when you are leaving the place. So all the stalls like are selling different kinds of Japanese food.

How was the food? Not bad but not that great either. There are way better Japanese places like Kuriya to eat at Raffles City. It's a pleasant enough experience and the whole idea of everything under one roof still works. The joint was almost full by 7.30pm. My suggestion is go there just once with some friends, if you like it then go again. If not, you ain't missing much.