Cavalock and The Maiden Spotify Download

The rain stopped just as we finished our hotpot dinner at Raffles Place and the Baker-at-Home suggested we take a little brisk stroll through Marina Bay, the floating platform before reaching Millenia Walk. Check out how the occupied rooms at Marina Bay Sands! Anyway, this here is actually part of her evening jogging route. There were the random dating couples and joggers along the way, but other than that it was a pretty quiet stretch to our destination. No nasty crowds like the ones in Orchard. I like it like that. Phase 3 be damn!

Yah, I know we need the Christmas shoppers to keep the economy going. Speaking of Christmas, it seems like I have finally got on the Spotify bandwagon after my list of Christmas songs got wiped outta my phone. No idea how that happened but I just spent the last half hour looking for Christmas songs on Spotify, including my fav politically-incorrect Christmas song Dean Martin's Baby, It's Cold Outside. Hah!

Almost forgot! Last month ended on a scrumptious note as we finally got to visit Lucky House Cantonese Private Dining again post Lockdown. Been over a year since I was here. Most memorable dish of the night has got to be the glutinous rice wrapped in crispy pork and I'm glad to see my favourite duck is still on the menu. 

Cavalock and The Earth, Wind & Fire September Birthday Post

I was gonna do a collage of my dinner at Esora but reducing all them food pix into tiny little pix just ain't gonna do them justice. The Baker-at-Home and me got in at the tail-end of their Summer menu season, just a week before they switched to their Autumn menu. The last time I was there was back in June of last year. This is another amazing three-hour dinning experience that we both missed immensely  for over a year. We actually made reservations for early this year but the Lockdown started and, well, you know the rest.

That evening we decided to forgo the sake and wine tasting menu and went for a full bottle of sake instead. I'm not kidding when I say the Baker-at-Home has become sort of an amateur sake connoisseur. When we were at Mustard Seed a couple weeks ago, she went for the sake tasting menu while I nursed a cold Japanese beer instead. Anyway, with social distancing at Esora, that meant less patrons but looking at how busy the staff already were that night, it's hard to imagine how much busier they would be with more folks to serve. It's an 8-course meal sprinkled with insightful conversation nuggets with the talented staff, and that's all coming from the Baker-at-Home. I'm the introvert one in the relationship. Hah! 

Grilled Hamaguri - Chiba kujo negi, hanaho

Kue - Nagasaki eggplant, wasabina

Omi Wagyu - Okaki Farm akazu, manganji pepper

Akamutsu Donabe - Fukuoka watercress

Wasanbon Caramel ice-cream, honey truffle, sweet potato

Now no matter what folks are saying bout how beneficial it is to be working out at home, it just can't beat the gym. Yah, I'm back at the gym for bout a month now and after my first gym session, my limbs were aching and sore once again even though I have been climbing 28 floors every other day before that, lifting teeny weeny dumbbells and stretching in my tiny little apartment. All them news articles on how easy it is to be working out at home? Yah sure, it's definitely better than nothing but I think I just can't do without the equipment in the gym. Is that a bad thing? I dunno. I know it's bad for me wallet.

Yes, of cos I'm listening to this classic while I'm blogging this here article. My birthday month ain't without playing this little MTV gem.

Cavalock and The 9% Alcohol Goodness

Always a blast whenever I get to discover a new kind of booze from Japan at our local Don Don Donki. Seems like they are bringing in the pretty strong stuff, I mean we looking at 9% alcohol here. Decided to go for the Suntory Highball instead of the Kirin Sour cos ....er... highball. Have yet to crack it open but definitely will do so this month cos it's me birthday month!

So the Baker-at-Home is out for dinner with her friends and it's one of those rare moments when I'm home alone, left to my own devices and all that. Naturally it's time for a blast from the past with playlist from the 80s, or rather some rock ballads from the 80s to be exact. Watching the music videos, I'm like thinking just how old all the gorgeous big-hair supermodels in the videos are today? When I first saw the videos, I was a kid and they were like the hottest living creatures on the planet. Remember, no Internet back then. I'm sure not all of them have OD-ed ...cos... you know, coke was big during the 80s. Gawd, I'm so politically incorrect today. Hah! No, I'm not drunk yet. And No, I'm not gonna name the videos below cos where would the fun be in that?

Heheh... a little friend dropped by for a home visit in me coffee cup this afternoon. 

Cavalock and The Desperate Dinner Dash

There are a few ways I like to end an exhausting day of running errands with. One's boardgaming and another's enjoying a good hearty meal. And since Im not with the guys last week, dinner plans were made. First stop was The Daily Cut at Raffles Place. Excellent piece of ribeye steak with a good selection of sides at a rather reasonable price and if you don't mind jostling with the CBD office crowd, this is a really neat place for a meaty meal at a speedy fast food pace.

For dessert, it was just a one train station stop away to Tuk Tuk Cha at Suntec City. Nice hot Thai tea with their signature toast and tea kaya dip. Enjoyed the thai tea way more than the toast cos I thought it was kinda bland until you had to dip it in kaya, then it became wee bit too sweet. Anyway it was still a pretty cool way to close the day with a mini-food dash.

Well, Christmas is almost here and that usually means a couple of constants. One is the baker-in-the-house goes into full baking overdrive mode, churning out her famous rum-soaked fruitcake orders. The other is me digging into my annual Christmas songs playlist. Now that I got me a new big ass iPhone 6S Plus, I have been busy downloading more holiday songs. Now all I need is a bluetooth speaker but in the meantime I'll be blasting Mr. Dean Martin on my little iPhone speaker.

Cavalock and The Senors Rios Parapraxis

"Senors Rios?" "What? Are they a mariachi band?" Yah, that was the first thing that ran through my mind when I heard bout folks here heading to a Sigur Ros concert. Well, after reading the tweets I think I know who they are, they are a hipster band from Mexico! Hah, the night after that I was out watching The Jersey Boys and the scary part is I know almost all the songs in it. I just thought it was pretty strange or ironic that years ago I used to cover the music beat for a local rag, even though I wasn't totally into the scene I was familiar with the gigs and who's on the charts and all that. My taste in music is kinda stuck in the 50s and 60s then I sort of skipped past most of the pre-Sat Night Fever 70s (I can thank my family for all that), before falling heads over heels into the 80s scene.

Alright, back to food! Finally had a 'proper' Vietnamese meal here in this country. Reason I said 'proper' is cos the only other time I ever stepped into a Vietnamese joint here was to have a cup of their coffee. But I have had full meals in Vietnamese restaurants before, just not in this country.

Nam Nam's Viet iced coffee tasted like regular ice coffee

Checked out the Nam Nam restaurant in the basement of Raffles City this week. Been there twice and ordered the same pho with beef slices, and pork and prawn spring rolls. Reason I had it again was cos I liked them, lotsa tender beef slices and them rolls were tasty too. Unfortunately everything else wasn't that good. Service was real fast during my first visit. But they misplaced my order during the second visit and I waited for like 20 minutes. First time I ordered the spring rolls, there were 3 in a serving. Second time, there were 4 spring rolls. Here's hoping for 5 the next time.

So I guess the one word to describe the experience at Nam Nam is "inconsistent". Plus the fact that I kept pronouncing 'Pho' as 'Fool' was pretty embarrassing too. :P

"Skinny monkey was on a leash"

Can you believe it, the fruit stall near the office upped their prices by at least 10 cents last month. Its cos of the recent local 7% goods and services tax increase (from 5%). My usual afternoon fresh slice of papaya and a banana is no longer a dollar but S$1.20. A 10 cents jump from 50 cents to 60 cents for a slice of fruit is not equal to 2%.

Yah, I know prices of fresh fruits around the world is a lot more than here, that’s what my expat colleagues tell me. Well, at least the price of a cup of fruit juice is still the same S$2. Kinda strange huh?

Oh yah, another leftover tale from my recent Japan trip. I saw a guy walking his pet monkey down a street in Harajuku at nite! The skinny monkey was on a leash and the guy was walking it nonchalantly like a dog. Oh well, I thought that was pretty cool.

Also managed to finally catch Blades of Glory for the in-flight movie. I also, also was lucky enough to stumble upon the best of album by Japanese R&B duo Chemistry, All The Best, while searching through the in-flight entertainment menu. I didn’t even know it was out. So I plugged in, and it sounds good.

Anyway, I was introduced to their music by an ex-colleague a few years ago. I liked their easy R&B style but Japanese CDs here were very, very expensive back then. So after I touched down, I headed to a local CD shop Gramophone and found the set at 20% discount! A double CD plus a concert DVD set! That’s like from S$38 reduced to about S$32.

"Really nice butts"

This is too good to pass up. Continuing the last post on conversations with expats. Here's a gem that I had recently.

White boy: I can't believe the Asian women here have really great asses. Asian women in New York have no butts. But the women here have really nice butts.

Me: Er ... ok, I'm more of a 'face' person actually.

Sorry folks, no photos to go with that one.

So what else did I do today? Well, I played this freakin' music video at least 20 times on YouTube. No shit. The unofficial music video to the latest Die Hard movie. I'm a huge action movie fan especially Die Hard, Bond, Lethal Weapon and Indy. Yah, I did mention it before.
Just listen to the lyrics, the chorus, geez, if you got a husband, boyfriend, brother or anyone who loves the Die Hard movies, just show him the video, it'll sure to be a grin on his face.

Best motherfuckin' music video for the month! Yippee-ki-yay die hard mother fuckers!

"Was as vanilla as can be"

Hey guys, check this out! Got this slide show running and figured I'll throw it the Marvel villain collection I mentioned in my last post. Pretty neat, eh?

Now I was tagged by Imp's meme some time ago. So musical flashback coming up. So what the hell was I listening to back when I was 18? I gotta admit, I was at the mercy of the local Top 40 music stations. I remembered listening to my little radio walkman on long bus rides during my army daze. A discman was way too big and heavy so I got me a small radio thingy from Aiwa. Like I said, music wise I was mainstream all way, I was as vanilla as can be. It was mostly late 80s and early 90s’ US Top 40 stuff with a little Brit Top of the Pops thrown in. Nah, you guys don’t need me to write the song titles down, pretty sure you are not that young too. Hah!

"Hey, it's a catchy song!"

In the words of Homer J. Simpson "Hmmmm.....donuts." Finally Dunkin Donuts is back in Singapore BUT its an online delivery service, for now I guess. If you read their delivery plans, it is kind of a hussle. They only deliver on Wednesdays and Sundays at train stations?! I guess they'll probably change all that if business picks up.


Not your usual Friday afternoon view. Click on it for a bigger view. The little watersprout that made the evening news and the Saturday morning papers. It's actually the second time in my life I seen in real life. The first was years ago when I was on an overseas assignment in Sarawak. Speaking of assignments, I just volunteered for an 'undercover' assignment. Nah, it's nothing as exciting or dangerous as it sounds. In fact, it's more of an observer role, lots of note-taking. Now I'm supposed to get my photo taken on Monday morning, for the fake ID that the agency will be giving me. If I can, I might write a little something bout it when it's all over. Which reminds me, I need to wear a shirt on Monday instead of the usual t-shirt and jeans.

I know its been awhile since I blogged. Here's a meme that b tagged me about a month ago (sorry, b!), I'm finally doing it!

It's called 7 songs.

Meme: List seven songs you’re into right now ... no matter what they are. BUT they must be songs you’re presently enjoying. Most but not all are in my ipod nano, some are from my co-workers' itunes that I listen to via office network. In no particular order, here we go.

1. Where did our love go? Diana Ross and the Supremes. I always enjoyed her early songs before she went solo.

2. Baba O'Riley by The Who. Believe it or not, I become a fan of The Who only after hearing them on all three C.S.I shows.

3. Shape of my heart by The Backstreet Boys. Found this guy's ipod playlist on the office network and he has got this whole bunch of Backstreet Boys' hits. Hey, it's a catchy song!

4. James Bond theme. The remix dance version by Moby. It's already a fast-paced piece made even faster by Moby. I put this on a loop while I'm writing.

5. The Rock soundtrack. Had tons of writing to do and deadlines to meet last couple of weeks. So I been listening to a lot of instrumental pieces. This the 'usual' high-octane action movie soundtrack by the one and only Hans Zimmer. I'm trying to get his soundtrack to the second Pirates movie but I can't find it in the shops here.

6. One wild night by Bon Jovi. Always a good piece to wake me up.

7. Tonight is what it means to be young by Fire Inc.. OK, I bet not many people know this number. It's from an old movie called Streets of Fire. It's an underrated 80s action rock and roll musical starring a young Willem Dafoe as the bad guy, Michael Pare as the good guy and a very hot Diane Lane. I remember watching it as a kid. Damn the opening number Nowhere Fast and this closing number were the best! Here's the video or rather the final scene. Picture this: hero saves the girl, she goes on to perform in her rock concert, he knows they belong to different worlds, leaves in the middle of her song. Check out the part where he finally walks out the door and the look on Diane Lane's face. You could almost feel her heart break!

"Driven at least one co-worker insane"

Hah, saw this list of 6 weird stuff at Queen's site. Well, why not I guess.

1. Loop-de-loop
When listening to any favorite song, I'll usually put it on loop whether it's on my desktop itunes, old discman or latest nano. I can listen to the very same song looping for hours and hours. Have known to have driven at least one co-worker insane. Here's what I was listening to at work today and this too.

2. Too hot to handle
Despite my origins, I don't do chilli or spicy stuff. End of discussion.

3. Have we met?
I'm very bad with names. Most of my first meetings, the name just goes out my other ear even before I have stopped shaking the other person's hand.

4. Zzzzzzzzz
I'm gifted with the ability to fall almost instantly alseep on just about any sort of public transport.

5. Bullseye
Even though I'm right-handed, I aim with my left eye. That means when discharging any firearm (since army daze) or using a bow (which I used to do), I'll have to use my left hand. It's unusual cos most right-handed people aim with their right eye.

6. Royal pain in the butt
Apparently I have at least one foreign relative (my mom is half-chinese) who is married into royalty, that country's royal family. I'm not close to them at all, well, I am close to only one cousin, so I can't really say how accurate this little factoid is. But I have seen pix of this cousin's wedding and it does feature quite a stellar guest list. No, he's not the one who is supposed to be married into the royal family.

So there you go. Six little kooky facts about me. Now who's next?

"The one with Moses in it"

So I was mopping the apartment the other nite and watching the movie soundtrack channel at the same time. Yah, I was doing the whole mop-is-my-microphone gig too. Then came the instrumental piece from The Planet of the Apes, the Tim Burton's remake.

It was a heavy piece and had the apes running, leaping about, hunting down the humans. The make-up and SFX were fantastic, I know they were nominated but can't remember if they won an Oscar. Looking at them, I'm immediately reminded of the original version, the one with Moses in it. I saw that on TV when I was like about 10 years old, I think. And I was completely and majorly freaked out by the apes! Those mean talking apes, beating up the humans really spooked me as a kid. For a kid my age, they look waaaay too real for comfort! And I'm a huge sci-fi, fantasy movie fan. I mean, I'm used to watching ghosts, aliens and monsters on TV and in the movies, I love them but ... geez ... those damn apes were in a class of their own.

The other soundtrack video that came on a little later was this. "Old habits die hard" by Mick Jagger and Dave Stewart from the movie 'Alfie'. I love that song. Now this is the song that I did the microphone/mop routine! I could really relate to the lyrics and all. No, I sure as hell don't look anything like Jude Law at all, but there was a time when I would find myself going through one relationship after another ... er ... I may have said too much already.

Anyway, some pretty neat additions to the household. Gifts from halfway across the world.

Weekend Dallies

What I'm watching on DVD:
Battlestar Galactica Season 1

What I'm playing on my Nintendo DS:
Clubhouse Games

What I'm listening to (and watching over and over again):
Take from 2003 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony. Gawd, it just doesn't get any cooler than this. Well, this one is pretty good too. The Boss and Chuck Berry. Aw hell, you can't talk about the Boss' best team-ups without this. Well, since we got on the topic of Roy Orbison, here's another of me favourite team-ups.

What I'm reading:
Bats goes hardcore this week in Justice #8.

Life's Soundtrack

I love this song. Back when I was starting out and doing my own thing. Watching the Wheels by the late, great John Lennon was like my theme song of my early life. The lyrics fitted me exactly and I could totally relate to it.

Watching The Wheels
by John Lennon

People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing,
Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin,
When I say that I'm o.k. they look at me kind of strange,
Surely your not happy now you no longer play the game,
People say I'm lazy dreaming my life away,
Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me,
When I tell that I'm doing fine watching shadows on the wall,
Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball?
I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round, really love to watch them roll,
No longer riding on the merry-go-round,
I just had to let it go,
People asking questions lost in confusion,
Well I tell them there's no problem,
Only solutions,
Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I've lost my mind,
tell them there's no hurry...
I'm just sitting here doing time,
I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round,
really love to watch them roll,
No longer riding on the merry-go-round,
I just had to let it go.

My Working Soundtrack

Well, a little late but Happy Easter everybody. It's Sunday nite and the work that I brought back to do on Thursday, it's not a lot and I just finished it a minute ago.

Now whenever I'm writing, I gotta have some music with me. One of my all-time favourites has gotta be the soundtrack from Grease. I remember when I was still living with my folks. It's late at nite and I would be in my study/computer room writing with the Grease soundtrack on really loud and I'll be singing to it. It doesn't disturb my folks cos their bedroom is way at the other end of the apartment. I just love Those Magic Changes.

In the office when I got a ton of serious writing to do, it's usually the soundtrack from the action movie The Rock. Strictly instrumental but with a real heavy action beat. Of cos, there are lots of other stuff I listen to, especially with my office's itunes network, I been listening to all kinds of stuff from my colleagues' music collections! I still love the oldies probably cos I grew up in a house filled with uncles and aunts who were music fans. Me mom's a big Elvis fan and my uncles and aunts are into country, rock n' roll and classical (I only like Strauss).

The last CD I bought was by Gwen Stefani. It's nice, plugged-in to some tracks while I was writing in the office. Hey, guess what! I got an excuse to put another of my favourite Tokyo pix cos it's like in her song, Harajuku Girls. Well, here's the real deal that I snapped!