'My dream MILF'

Thought I'll start this entry with my latest Ladies Drinks addition.

Tried 2 new eating places over the long weekend but didn’t take any pix so I’ll just mention them briefly. Muthu’s Curry at Suntec, Good. Rakuichi at Dempsey, Not-so-good. I luv the Indian white rice (forgot the name) that most places serve but I couldn’t tell if Muthu was serving that or just regular white rice. As for Rakuichi, the sushi and sashimi were just average to me and not really worth the ex price.

The trip to Rakuichi actually marked my 4th time to Dempsey. First was for drinks at Margarita’s, next was to PC Cafe/Barracks, then White Wabbit and now Rakuichi. I also finally managed to drop by Joe Grocer too and wow, pretty cool selection but a little too ex for me. Spotted a bottle of garlic oil (don’t think I have seen it elsewhere). Know some recipes that call for it, I have instead used chopped/diced fresh garlic. This should be ok no?

Anyway I thought of doing a kinda ‘Best of’ list of 2008 but my memory is soooo bad, still, I’ll give it a shot. Right now the 2008 hottest babe to me is still Tina Fey. My dream MILF. Tropic Thunder, Iron Man, Bond, all good shows. Indy? argh, pity, not that good.

Hmmmm, the best book, although I didn’t read that many books this year, has got to be Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box. Caught random episodes of Mad Men, liked them all but am still hooked on my usual shows. Best gadget I got this year? My ipod touch just beat my Sony DSLR camera for it.

Next, I'll have my Otaku favourites for the year.

'Cos that's how I roll'

What else I been up to… oh yah, best discovery of the week, Comedy 104 radio station on my itunes. If you like American stand-up comedy acts and you have itunes, you should check out the radio stations icon on your itunes, whole bunch of different genres to choose from. For my current fav station, it’s so cool, you got all your new and old stand-up acts like Cosby, Newhart, Seinfeld and uncensored acts from guys like Pryor, Chris Rock, Tim Allen, Dennis Miller etc. Freakin’ non-stop stand-up comedy all day long. No way am I getting any work done. Hah!

Anyway, it’s almost Christmas so I figured I’ll do a quick gift idea piece. Cheap, fast and with that little personal touch called ‘crap wrap’. Yah, I totally suck at wrapping gifts. I'm supposed to wrap it hamper-style with clear wrapping sheet, which I did later.

Been wrapping over a dozen of them. Most of the stuff are from Daiso so they are like, only S$2 each. Packs of candy from Japan, little metal or rattan baskets, wrapping paper, all from Daiso. Then throw in a mini bottle of booze and maybe a gashapon cos that’s how I roll, for the centrepiece. The mini bottles are all from Ikea, neat eh?

Oh, and when we have little bottles of liquor, we must have the newest Ladies Drink pix.

'From the head/skull region of the pig'

I have to admit, all this recession talk is making me think twice bout buying stuff and spending $$$. Even though I can afford those things, there’s a little voice telling me to think twice. I’m coming up with excuses like where am I gonna keep those books if I buy them or do I really want to spend all that on a three-figure omakase meal when I can get good and cheap sushi at Far East Plaza’s Wasabi Tei? And when I look at my budget application on my iTouch, it does kinda make me feel good to see how much I saved.

Ok, enough talk bout the recession, time for some food matters! This is IMHO the best pig organ’s stall I ever been to. It’s at the small ground floor food centre, next to Funan Centre facing the main road, facing the old fire station. What I always have is the LEAN MEAT soup, item no. 6 on the overhead menu board. I know the pix I took don’t do it justice. These slices are super tender and taste great. They are not your usual pork slices. Was told that they could be from the head/skull region of the pig so it’s real tender. Good and cheap food to beat the recession!

Did a few more Ladies Drinks shoots. Tried some new angles and stuff. Got these two bottles of Moscato at a very, very cheap dealer's price. Actually got four but passed two over to a couple of friends. Now those two remaining bottles of mine should keep me tied up for a weekend!

'What would Oprah do?'

Well, after 3 great sandwich meals, knew there had to be a bad one round the corner somewhere. That dubious honour goes to O’brien’s Irish Sandwich Bar. Gawd, the chicken and bacon triple-decker sandwich was just plain bad, very little meat and tasteless. And it was like over S$9, almost S$10 for that kinda monkey crap! That’s like, almost twice the price for a good sandwich at you-know-where! My colleague said the reason why it was so expensive was cos they had to pay the ang-moh who was serving behind the counter. Hah!

Was also at Ikea on Saturday. Is it just me or does the café coffee taste bad too? I know they used to serve Suzuki Coffee (or was it UCC?) cos I remember seeing them fill up the coffee machine with a Japanese brand a couple years ago. Think its some nameless brand now? 

Did some NTUC supermarketing too. Wanted to boil some edamame again but saw their frozen packs were from China and I figured maybe not just yet! The edamame at Cold Storage is pretty expensive, over S$6 for a 400g frozen pack but it’s from Japan. What would Oprah do?

Recruited some new models at S$25 for 4, for the latest Ladies' Drinks photo shoot. Here's one of them.

'Back from the fair'

I'm back from the fair! Our local Isetan's Japanese Kyushu Fair, that is. First thing I saw and got was the sweet potato snacks! It's exactly the same as the ones I had in Japan, the caramalized one and the baked (I think it's baked) one. This here is the really sweeeeet caramalized pack for S$5.50 and the baked one (S$6.90) is below. As of this writing, I have yet to try the baked sweet potato but I'm sure it'll be great. You guys should try. When I was in Japan, I actually bought a box of it back for my family.





After paying for my groceries, was walking past the liquor section when I saw their sake promotion. They were the really sweet fruity kind that I like. Tried a few shots and they were really good. Finally settled on the Francisco Delaware ice white wine (S$54), made from Japanese Delaware grapes. The shot below is a little over-exposed (in more ways than one, heh). Oh man, its so sweet and smooth. The bottle in my fridge is now half empty! ^;^


The other bottle I got is Iichiko Bar's Cassis Liqueux (S$22.90), that's actually blackcurrent shochu. It's pretty good too. I actually had it before at Waraku.



Well, buying those two bottles got me a lucky draw on the spot. Guess what I got ... a little 200ml bottle of shochu. Heh, not bad for an afternoon of grocery shopping. The fair ends next weekend. But I think I''l be back to get another bottle of the ice wine real soon!

Oh yah, as you can see, I'm back to trying out some more shots with the Ladies Drinks.

'Don't do exactly what I do'

I have been keeping myself busy with some photography stuff. My lightbox project went alright I guess… as in not as well as I hoped it would be. For starters, the box I got wasn’t as big as the example. And without the proper lights and a decent SLR camera, my shots still kinda lack that elusive ‘wow’ factor.

Here’s where I based my little handicraft on. If there’s anyone reading this and wanna do his own lightbox, please follow that example and don't do exactly what I do. Here's another link to an interesting piece on cheap homemade lighting. I was actually watching last week’s American Idol while cutting up the box with a pair of scissors. Use a penknife, it’s way easier on the finger!

I have since replaced the sides with a translucent material (the kind you find when you buy huge electronic products) instead of regular photocopy paper. It lets more light in. Here are the untouched, raw results. As you can tell the lighting isn't as good as it should be.

With only one light source, it's tough getting the right lighting conditions. Using the camera flash leads to overexposure and nasty shadows. Don't use the flash and the pix turns out looking dark and dim. Also the box is a little too small. There's not enough depth to it. I should have taken the A3 box instead of the A4 paper box.

So as you can see, I got my work cut out for me.

Oh, another thing. A week ago, there was a Friday when I was really free in the office and I spent almost the entire day reading up on digital SLR cameras online. Hah, I actually filled up 4 notebook pages worth of stuff on the subject. Was reading guides, forum discussions, etc. And today, I called up one of the recommended shops and they told me the price of the Sony A200 has dropped from S$1,099 to S$960. Better freebies too, instead of $100 voucher on lens, it's now an extra battery.

'It's Corks! Get it?'

Looks like it's pretty quiet out there. Been taking more shots with a couple of new figures I got. Believe it or not I had that little mini-bottle of whiskey with me for years. Hey Imp, if you are reading this, this one's for you!

As you can see, I still need to work on the lighting. I stopped using the flash like I used to do and tried to do with a white background instead. I will be building some props that I hope will enhance the pix. Now I think this is a slightly better shot than the one above.

A few more shots with some new props. Knew I kept them for a reason, from my very first post! Anyway, I'm still experimenting with the lighting and all. I might have found a solution here aka my next little pet project I like to call Project: Lantern. As for this set of pix, obviously it's Corks! Get it? Corks...

Tired it again with the flash. Not a good idea but it does give that 'caught-in-the-act' effect which I ought was rather funny.

Oh yah, a little something bout the wine. Aleatico, one of my favourite red wines. It comes in a slightly smaller 500ml bottle. Far as I know, I can only find it at our duty free airport bout S$60+ a bottle. Anyone knows where else I can find it?

'A slight buzz right now'

Feeling a slight buzz right now from downing a couple of bottles of beer after vacuuming and mopping the entire apartment by myself.

What was I gonna say? Oh yah, reading b's latest entry made me think bout my current statis. Right now in my current gig, job or whatever you call it, it's a little different from my last place, it's good and bad. What I'm doing now is essential as in it's a freakin' boring job but someone's got to do it thing. It's mundane but less stressful at times compared to my last place. So it's good cos I'm less stressed out now, got more time to do the things I really enjoy like reading, surfing, blogging, eating good food (hehe), all that kinda stuff. Bad is work has become mostly brain-dead kinda stuff. very little creativity. The folks in the other departments are the ones after the fame and fortune and they richly deserve it too. They are pretty good. I'm no longer there any more but I'm ok where I am now. I guess you can say I am contented in a way. It's like what I wrote 2 years ago bout myself and my life's soundtrack, John Lennon's Watching the Wheels. Just read/listen to the lyrics ... that's me. I am taking it easy now. The mortgage's all paid up, I don't have a car or any kids so that means no financial commitments of those kinds.

And speaking of hobbies and free time, been taking more shots of my ladies and booze series here and here. Tried something new with wine glasses and mirrors instead.

Alright, just in case anyone is wondering, I do take shots of other than just cheesecake figures too! They aren't great but I am working on them.

'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?

"Drinks in the office"

So it's a lazy Sunday. Did a little work and emailed it back to the office. Thought I'll try something new with two of my favourite subjects, toys and food like my last post. Ha, remembered taking some pix with them together here and here as well, thought it was kinda neat.




Anyway, I'm gonna try it again but this time playing some angles and lighting. Ok, a little background on the Vodka Peach. First time I tried it was in the office at our semi-usual informal Friday 5pm 'drinks in the office' session. We mixed it up with ice and cans of Sprite found in the pantry. Well, obviously I liked it a lot otherwise I wouldn't have gone and gotten my own bottle.

Backup Plan 101. I ain't gonna sit on my ass thinking bout it. Come the last weekend of July if I ain't in Japan, I'll be having a games nite at my place with the guys over.

"Gonna jinx it"

This probably one of the best discoveries of the month for me. I been drinking this coffee liquer for months now and it's always with this brand of milk called HL Milk. Then I switched to the occassional Meiji Low Fat Milk which is less sweet but it's fresh milk (a shorter shelf life) unlike HL Milk which although it claims to be one, is actually made from some kinda processed powdered milk.

Anyway one nite I decided to try it with Meiji Low Fat Milk and damn! it was heavenly! The bottle is almost empty now but I got a brand new bottle of Bailey's coming up next.

Now what I'm about to say might not be the best thing to say. What I mean is I feel like simply by mentioning it, I'm probably gonna jinx it. Thing is I might be heading out to Tokyo in a couple of weeks for a four-day photo shoot business trip. BUT there are already more than a handful of problems creeping up. Firstly is the budget, if it gets cut anymore, I ain't going. And right now it's the stormy Tokyo weather too. Hopefully that clears up by the early start of the week. I sure would like to head back to Tokyo but right now it's not looking good.