Cavalock and The Budget Polarization

Ever since I gone back to religiously keeping a budget again, I have been really taking note of how much I spend on my daily meals. Started years ago on my pen and paper filofax, now it's my iPhone expenses app. Anyway, despite what some might think, I kinda like counting every meal's $. When I'm within my budget, it kinda feels good and when it's almost end of the month, and I have overshot my budget, it used to feel bad but these days, it doesn't really.

Now I usually only overspend on my food part of the budget, it's a often a single trip to a fancy joint that kills it. On those months when there's a Kinokuniya sale, that's when my 'Publication' budget goes crazy.

I also have a little section for 'Wardrobe' and it's only $25 a month! Really, I hardly spend a cent on clothes here so it snowballs every month till .... I dunno maybe till my next trip outta the country? Hah!

Wish I got some cool pix to put up this week but I been pretty busy at work. Check out my Twitter to see what I'm up to. <^;^> It's fun to a point I guess. Am also helping to maintain my office's Facebook fan page. Maybe more on that in another post.

Cavalock and The New Year Deficiency

Gosh, I wish I have great food reviews or been to some new joint but .... nah ..., it's just the same old places.

Chinese New Year has been a quiet affair for me compared to other people I know. A small family means keeping things fast and simple, no unexpected guests dropping in and all that messy CNY stuff. Hah! So with the shops closed and all, I been catching up with the shows I recorded during the free cable period. Finally saw Kung Fu Panda, Doctor Who (I am the only Doctor Who in this country, really) and a bunch of wrestling shows.

And there's some weird weather this year too. Don't remember it being this windy in the past but the last couple of weeks, the wind during the day was just plain crazy. I got doors slamming and windows opening by themselves.

So anyway, with most of the food centers closed for long holidays, it's time to cook my own dinner again. Not feeling very adventurous so stuck to an old recipe again.

A little different this time with adding the carrots instead of just potatoes. One big difference between baking and cooking is you don't need to follow the exact measurements once you are familiar with the cooking recipe. I mean for baking you usually gotta follow everything exactly.

This is like my third or forth time doing it so I just estimated all the stuff except for the oven temp. <^;^>

As you can see, for some reason the potatoes turned out a baked-like. They still had a little of that skin on them although I peeled them all.

Cavalock and Lunar Valentine Paradox

Happy Lunar New Year to everybody and Valentine's Day too!

This here's a Lunar New Year cake from The Patissier. It's actually pretty big and thick too. Packed with raisins and walnuts kinda like a Xmas fruit cake I guess, but without the booze.

Now what did I do on this special day? Planting myself on the sofa and making the most of the free cable channels. Hope your special day was as productive as mine. <^;^>

So the big news around here is the casino opening and for a spilt second, I actually thought of breaking my piggy bank and blow it all there. There's definitely more than S$100 in there. Hah, but no thanks. No way am I gonna pay to go see or do something that I can do for free elsewhere. That S$100 entrance fee for locals is something else. BTW, the cute little dog bank in that link is already on sale here, saw it in the shops last week.

Same reason why I didn't go see the Egyptian exhibition here. Hey anyone who knows me, knows I'm an ancient history (and WWII history) buff but hell, if I'm gonna pay to go see it when I already got to see it all for FREE in London.

Cavalock and The Hokkaido Fair Redux

Now take a real good look at that bowl of ramen cos you ain't gonna see one in real life in Singapore anything soon. That's right, you are looking at the very last bowl of seafood miso ramen served during Isetan's Hokkaido Fair. They only served 50 bowls a day during the fair and that was the last bowl on the last day.

Worth every S$17 of it. Crab, giant scallops, roe, prawns and the all the other usual ramen stuff. And to top it off, I got a kick outta hearing them tell everyone who came after me that that was the last bowl. Yah, I'm a nasty little bastard when it comes to food. <^;^>

Stayed away from the beer garden this year. Tried some sake instead. Left with two big bottles that had quite a kick to them. Not too dry and had a little fruity taste to it.

The two bottles came with these little freebies. Almost broke out laughing when the promoter auntie said to me, "Don't drink from them, there are not cups! They are for toothpicks!" ...Er... yes, I know they were not sake cups. What they were exactly, I'll admit I couldn't tell at first glance but I was pretty sure I wasn't planning to sip sake outta them.

And that's why I just can't wait for the fair to return.

Cavalock and The Calpis Reunion

Now I blogged bout my luv for this Japanese drink a couple of years ago and was lucky enough to find it on sale at Meidi-Ya on Friday nite. I mean, I seen it on the shelves all the time at Japanese supermarkets but on this rare occasion, it's on offer!

A small 300ml bottle only for S$1.25 while a big 1.5 litre bottle goes for almost S$10. You do the math.

Anyway, lots of stuff happening on the work front, so not much to blog. Gonna keep it short with just a bunch of random thoughts.

A bunch of amusing things happened over the past week. Met up with some folks from L.A. and had dinner with them. Now, I have met and worked with more than a few Americans and I noticed how most (not all) of them are really turned off by a mere fish head. Ordered a whole steamed fish like the kind you see at Chinese wedding dinners, usually a grouper. They took one look at the fish still with its head and said, "It's staring at me, I can't eat this thing." Same thing happened during a fish head curry meal a few years ago with another group of Americans. I just think it's just so damn funny that a simple fish head can turn someone off.

Speaking of fish, looks like one of our local member of parliament said it's OK to eat shark's fin cos "not all shark populations were endangered." Quote's from the papers.

Why can't people understand that when you need to take a loan to purchase something, that's the Big Guy's way of telling you that you can't afford it so don't get it! Buy a smaller apartment, take public transport and don't have kids if you can't afford them. If you take out loans or have kids and then complain about the rising cost of living, you only got yourself to blame.

Hot damn, I knew watching all them WWII documentaries on cable would come in handy at work.

And finally some pix from last Saturday's trip to the florist.