Cavalock and The Gaming Paradigm

Tonkichi at Takashimaya has a Christmas Kurobuta Set out. Had it for lunch instead of my usual, and I kinda liked although some might find it a little too oily.

Remember to grind your sesame seeds, pour the sauce on your pork cutlets before dipping them into the seeds.

Got another day off on Friday and that meant a very, very long overdue as well as overnite, weekend gaming session with the guys. Last time we had one of these big sessions was like, four or five years ago. And a big gaming session to us is a gathering of at least 10 guys and that means it's gonna be too big to have it at any of our apartments.

If anyone is interested, the game below is Endeavor. Great new game (cos first time playing it and I won!) bout world exploration and empire building. You represent a European empire colonizing the Mediterranean and shipping stuff around the world.

Anyway, finding a suitable place for gaming the school holidays is also tough cos it's the school holidays but one of us managed to book a chalet waaaaaaaay out in the east. So there we were on a Friday afternoon, dragging more than a dozen heavy boardgames through the light rain and into a little room in the middle of nowhere.

It's not easy to get 10 guys to agree on a suitable weekend of 3 days and 2 nites of gaming. We are all working and half of us are married with little kids.

At any one time we had at least two boardgames up and running in the room. The game above is our ever popular Citadels and the one below is one of the current best-sellers, Small World.

Here's something we found out. Never ever play the Battlestar Galatica Boardgame with people who have never watched the show. It's no fun at all! "...er...what's a Cylon?"

We had over 20 boardgames, three notebooks (yay for free WiFi!) and the plan was to game from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. Well, I stayed till after Saturday breakfast. No one slept on Friday nite, we gamed right through the nite.

Cavalock and The Takashimaya Saturation

Well, it's that time of the year again. With sales at Takashimaya and Kinokuniya, yours truly went on a much needed shopping spree. Ooooo ... what's in the bag will be revealed at the end of this post. <^;^>

Other stuff bought are more Nespresso capsules since I started drinking them daily instead of weekend-ly. This can't end well.

The famous cookies from The Cookie Museum has a little booth/stall at Basement 2. Got the strawberry cookies at $36 instead of $40, thanks to the Takashimaya card. Was it as addictive as I was told it would be? Nope. It was good but not something I can't live without.

The Kinoshimaya loot included the latest two chapters to the best-selling Oishinbo manga series, Vegetables and The Joy of Rice. I wrote bout this series before. If you like Japanese food and a good light-hearted story, give it a try.

Heh, here's what's in the Taka shopping bag, Kenwood handheld blender and mixer. :P

Cavalock and The Thanksgiving Effect

I know Thanksgiving would probably be over by now but I was looking back and I thought there are a bunch of stuff or events that I wrote about that right now, I should be thankful for.

Now I said before that I only write bout stuff that makes me happy, the not-so-happy stuff I don't really feel like writing them down. So, in no particular order, since I started this whole blog thing back in '06, here are just 10 of the things that I blogged about and that I'll really thankful for (there are of course more but I'll just keep it to 10).

1. Picked up my itouch, best handheld device ever. And that's a lot coming for a guy who owned two Palms before.

2. My trusty Macbook. An impulse buy that saved my ass during my course.

3. A kickass working trip to Tokyo. Great weather, good food and lots of fun even though it was work. Got my favourite watch there too and saw some noodles in a hot dog bun at the same time.

4. Gen Con Oz in '08. Just four guys on a 'road trip' to Brisbane, to a 4-day gaming convention. It just doesn't get any better than that. Oh wait it did, we kicked some Aussie ass and won a couple of championships.

5. Super cool trip to the U.K. this year with super cool people.

6. Discovered the joys of cooking and baking, thanks to every food blogger out there (you know who you are). <^;^>

7. Grateful for being part of the OTACOOL book.

8. Taking a big leap outta my comfort zone. Had no idea where I'll land and then ending up here six months later.

9. Passing the course that I took after quitting my job. OK, I didn't really blogged much bout that but it was a very grueling course with tons of coursework but met some really fantastic people while on the course.

10. Am especially thankful for everyone who's reading this, thank you for dropping by!

Hang on, still a short post and a couple of pix here. First time lighting a scented candle here in the living room. It's a big one from Crabtree And Evelyn and it ain't cheap either.

Nice scent of eucalyptus. The three gashapon figures you see are the only things I got from the Anime Festival Asia last weekend, only $4 each, from my current favourite anime series Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. See, I am able to control my spending. Hah!

Cavalock and The Pasta Experiment

Was my day off today and figured I'll cook up a pasta dinner I saw on the Asian Food Channel. Recipe's all based on what I can remember. Yah, I think this would be the first time I'm whipping something up based entirely on what I can remember watching on TV a couple of nites ago. No written notes, measurements or going online to look for recipes, I mean I could but hey ... I wanna see how good or bad I am.

Well, the fact that I'm writing bout it means it's ok. Oh, almost forgot ... what I made was linguine with clams in white wine. <^;^>

Started with a half-hour trek on foot (WTF, that's the nearest wet market!) to Tekka Market for fresh mussels. Mussels sold at supermarkets are either frozen half-shelled ones or are already opened and shrink-wrapped. Yes, the original plan was linguine with mussels in white wine sauce. Well, there were no fresh mussels today, was told there'll be fresh ones tomorrow. And hell, if I'm gonna walk all the way back empty-handed! Settled for these clams instead.

So bout six hours later based on what I can remember as well as gut feeling, got some garlic, grapeseed oil and bacon.

Sauteed the bacon. Be generous with the grapeseed oil and watch out for the sizzling oil!

Got ready the white wine and the pasta. There goes the last bottle of white wine in the house.

Once the bacon looked done. Toss in the clams, followed by two glasses of white wine. That's what I remembered watching on TV. Got two pots cooking at the same time. Forgot to buy parsley while getting the bacon in the afternoon at Raffles City.

Ok, so it was edible, not bad but definitely room for improvement. First off, I forgot the bacon was already salty enough on its own, didn't ready need to add any more salt. The sauce was a little too salty. Next, needs more garlic too.

Now here's something I saw at Anime Festival Asia over the weekend. The new set of MOS Burger phone straps! Resisted getting them but you should be able to get them at the nearest gashapon machines.

Cavalock and The Anime Indeterminacy

First up, food food food! A well-deserved dinner at Ma Maison at Bugis Junction. Been there more than a couple of times, and had my usual yummy garlic buttered escargots again.

Next up was something new, cheese fritters! Never had that before. Very, very nice. Wonder how they did it ... I mean, how do you deep fry cheese anyway? And that little bowl of sweet sauce was just what the doctor ordered too.

Then a sizzling (Japanese style) hamburger steak main course to finish the meal. Yup, no dessert for me tonite. Two starters can do that to you. ヽ(｀○´)/

OK, here's the part of the post where I tell everyone who is not into anime ... that you might be bored by the rest of the post. It's gonna be bout the Anime Festival Asia (AFA) which started this Saturday morning. I know I been real lucky or blessed even to be in a job/organisation that lets me kinda stick one foot in the US entertainment industry and dip the tip of the other in the Japanese anime industry.

The Anime Festival Asia at Suntec had its usual hordes of fanboys and cosplayers. Now I'm sure there be gazallions of AFA pix all over the Internet. I thought I'll post a different set of AFA pix. It was the nite before the exhibition and ...

... some maids are going through these steps and it doesn't look like there's any cleaning involved.

Everyone's getting ready, bring in stuff and setting them up.

And the next morning, just an hour before the doors open. Danny putting the final touches to his exhibit...

The media and other industry folks got in for a sneak preview before the common folks.

Hey, there's that book again! I wonder why it keeps showing up. ㋖㋟ヾ（>▽<）ﾉ〰！！

This Gundam armor took a couple of hours to suit up. But it looked great when it was done, complete with blinking, flashing lights.

Mere minutes before 10am and seconds before this guard lost his cool. Hah!

Cavalock Likes Melon Breads & Women in Sleeveless Tops Too

Looks like I still got a little box of unopened goodie from London. White choc and honey, two of my favorite things. Now I wonder why I got that Japanese book there....<^;^>

Anyway, always get a kick outta these Japanese surveys from What Japan Thinks. This first one here is bout Japanese snacks. Here are what the Japanese think are the most attractive-looking snack, the one that they feel LOOKS really good on the outside.

Q: What foods do you choose from the outside appearance more than from the stuff inside? (Sample size=1,156)

Rank		Score
1	Melon bread	100
2	Tai-yaki	88.2
3	Tempura (batter-fried bite-sized fish and vegetables)	78.1
4	Choux cream (cream puff)	72.0
5	Waffle	63.6
6=	Pie	55.9
6=	Fried chicken	55.9
8	Chinese steamed bun	55.1
9	Dora-yaki	47.4
10	Crepe	45.8
11	Imagawa-yaki, Oban-yaki	45.1
12	Tart	42.0
13	Gyoza	41.0
14	Daifuku	39.1
15	Spring roll	36.6
16	Curry-filled roll	33.1
17=	Fried fish	31.1
17=	Hamburger	31.1
19	Manju	28.6
20	Monaka	26.3

Now here's a survey that really spurred my imagination, I mean after reading this, I couldn't stop imagining how women look in different outfits. Although I don't really between some of them. Like what is the difference between a 'hot pants' and a 'short pants'? What exactly is a 'fluffy girly one-piece'? (´･ω･`;)

Q: What clothes make you think you ought to make a move at dating parties? (Sample size=418, men)

Rank		Score
1	Sleeveless top	100
2	Denim mini-skirt	76.6
3	Hot pants	70.2
4	Wide-necked top that shows collar bone	66.0
5	Loose v-necked top	63.8
6	See-through white blouse	48.9
7=	Fluffy girly one-piece	46.8
7=	Short pants	46.8
7=	Fishnet tights	46.8
10	Short, tight T-shirt	42.6
11	Low-rider jeans	38.3
12	Loose-fitting ethnic one-piece	21.3
13=	Tight dress with front slit	19.1
13=	Tube top	19.1
15=	Legging that show ankle	12.8
15=	Skinny jeans	12.8
17	Snug-fitting turtle-neck	10.6
18	Slim trouser-suit	12.8
19	Off-the-shoulder number	6.4
20	Puffy-sleeved dress	4.3

Cavalock Needs A New Cable TV Box

So as I'm typing this, I'm rushing though a cable TV marathon as I zip though as many recorded cable shows as possible before I reset my cable box hard drive. Cos it can't record any shows, I mean the recent recordings have no audio and then finally last nite, no video either. Game over, dudes.

Right now Sunday morning, I'm watching some recorded History Channel documentaries like the 2-hour God vs Satan. Then I got a dozen CSI: New York episodes later. Fortunately I had one of these earlier.

Well anyway, yesterday Saturday was pretty good in the food department. Started the morning with a decent enough salmon scrambled eggs at Coffee Bean.

Dinner was definitely a winner. Was recommended Canton-i at the Ion and that's where Saturday's dinner was. Their signature wan ton noodle was good, springy tasty noodles after a day of shopping is always good. Not a very big portion but that meant room for the rest of the stuff on the menu.

Didn't really had much of their XO carrot cake but I heard it was good. Another dish that was equally delectable was the roast pork, just enough fats and crispy skin.

They ran out of their daily soup special so we ordered this instead. Pork knuckle, winter melon with scallops soup. Like how they slipped the porky rib in the little winter melon hole. Hah!

Always luved a glass of lemongrass drink whenever or wherever I find one. No complaints that nite. <^;^>

Oh, and since we are on the topic of the Ion shopping mall, I just wanna say that PROLOGUE book shop is a major rip-off joint!!! The books (and I bet just about everything else) there are waaaaaay over-priced. Bought something there last week and found it like almost 10 bucks cheaper at Kinokuniya. Never ever again will I step in there. STAY AWAY FROM THAT PLACE!!! PROLOGUE SUCKS!!!

Cavalock and Ten New Facts

Some new and interesting facts that I found out over the week...

1. There's a Japanese restaurant along Mohd Sultan Road that serves whale's sperm (or is that semen?), and from the photo it looks like tofu .

2. The office has a Nespresso machine upstairs.

3. You can find Martha Stewart Crafts stuff here in Singapore, at this new place in Raffles City, PaperMarket.

4. Letterman's latest Top Ten with Michael Buble is one of the funniest this year.

5. Rio Bravo is a damn good western.

6. There's gonna be a free sports cable channel with WWE wrestling next year.

7. While he was here in Singapore, Gene Simmons wasn't adventurous with his food at all. Was seen throwing up a small piece of durian cake and he couldn't stand the sight of fish head curry.

8. You don't need Microsoft Office when OpenOffice.org is free.

9. It's that time of the year again, rainy and windy.

10. There are three different alternate endings to the movie Paranormal Activity.

OK, time for some food stuff. Yah, I know, been a couple of posts since I put up any new food pix.

A couple of tarts I picked up at Fruit Paradise, Fruit Tart Shop from Japan. I believe they are new here at Raffles City basement, and they have outlets at Tampines Central and Orchard Central.

Got the banana caramel and strawberry mont blanc tarts. They are pretty big. Was alright but not that sweet or memorable if you know what I mean, just not my kinda dessert.

Cavalock Is Neil Gaiman's Oldest Caffeine Crazed Fan

When I first bought my Nespresso coffee machine, I told myself I'll limit myself to using only on weekends, for breakfast and the occasional affogato. But since getting the aeroccino in London (its sooo much cheaper there), I been using it every morning! Fortunately, bought like a dozen tubes of Nespresso capsules too. Arrrgh .... indulgance?

Some other goodies from the Nespresso shop in London. Have asked the local one at our Takashimaya why they don't stock them, was told it could be the our hot weather....er, yah rite, doesn't seem to bother Royce!....

Anyway, writer Neil Gaiman was in town but I couldn't attend any of his talks/appearances cos you needed tickets for them and I was outta town when they were giving them out. Anyway, met him a few years ago when he was here. Was at Orchard Cineleisure that time and Q-ed for like, an hour to chat with him.

Notice how his signature has kinda changed over the years. Wanna know why Neil says I'm his oldest fan in Singapore (covered my name there, heh). Noooooo, he doesn't how old I am. Check out the ORIGINAL COPY of Sandman #9 and you'll know why. (๑￫‿ฺ￩๑)