Hotel Security

Seen one of these in your hotel rooms before? This here is my hotel fridge in Tokyo. The moment you take one of the cans out of its slot, the check-out desk would immediately know about it, even if you replace it a minute later.

So when you check out, it'll be reflected in your bill and you have spend probably a few minutes explaining that you only took it out cos you never seen one of those before. I guess it's a little harder to explain than the porn channel in your bill.

So ...er.... does this count as a food or drink entry?

Things Not To Talk About On A First Date

Ah, looks like this is a good time to geek out. Pretty damn sure I’m not going to get much comments here, if any at all. Hehe…but that’s cool.

Some really geeky stuff (aka things you DON’T want to talk about on a first date) that I’m currently overloading on…

Been back to reading Batman comic book series again. Picking it up cos its written by Grant Morrison with art by Andy Kurbert. One of the best and most surrealist comic book writers in the biz today, Morrison has taken Bats back to his roots. After the events in the Infinite Crisis storyline, the entire DC universe has been rebooted. DC’s holy trinity Bats, Superman and Wonder Woman are back in the main spotlight. Written the way they should be! The current Superman titles have already been getting rave reviews. The last Batman story arc One Year Later with the return of Gordon as everybody’s favorite Commish and Two-Face as the villain was great too. Great ending with Bruce Wayne officially/legally adopting Tim Drake (3rd Robin) as a son. Dick Grayson (1st Robin) was only his ward.

By the way, the new Wonder Woman comic book is written by Allan Heinberg, the television writer and producer, on shows like The O.C. and Grey's Anatomy. He’s also the writer on Marvel’s Young Avengers comic book and that’s already a certified sales hit.

Oh yah, there’s another Kinokuniya book sale this weekend. Will finally pick up the best-selling The Astonishing X-Men Vol.1 hardcover written by Joss Whedon, producer and writer of Buffy, Angel and Firefly TV shows.

Still on the super hero bandwagon, got back to collecting the new Marvel Heroclix figures from the latest Sinister Expansion. Although I don’t play the game, I sure as hell enjoy collecting them. They not cheap either as it’s a tikam situation to guess what figures are in each box but damn, those little critters are just so irresistibly detailed!

Ah crap, there goes my original plan to make this a food blog again….and I haven’t even gotten to yakking about me World of Warcraft character….yet.

Maid In Japan

Awww man, what a sucky day at work and it's just gonna get worse in the coming weeks. Anyway, here's a little hotel souvenir from Kyoto that I just couldn't resist. Hang it outside your bedroom, office door, etc and let the fun begin!

Speaking of maids, check out me new handphone accessory, also from Japan. Bet you won't find this being sold openly here. They got another tied up in a tight little cheongsum too!

Its like Friday morning now as I post this when I actually started writing this on …er….Tuesday? Had a little problem uploading the pix. Like I said, work is pretty crazy right now. Thank goodness for You Tube and Mystery Science Theatre! Best comedy ever! Any fans out there?

Coming up next! The latest on the Wash Pole Flag! It's Week 2 and is it still up there?

Patriotism On A Wash Pole

Holy crap! Its been like four or five days already and it's still out there! At first I figured it was hung out to dry but I'm beginning to think that it's really meant as a flag pole! Well, nothing says 'I'm a Singaporean' better than having the flag hanging on a wash pole right out of a HDB heartland window. Here's another close-up, suitable for all you patriots out there looking for a wallpaper or screensaver. Don't thank me, just doing my bit for the country.

Wash Out

Something I saw on me way to work the other day. Yup, someone took the national flag out for spin and rinse and hung it out to dry on a pole (probably right next to the undies). That's something you don't see everyday. Now, I could make some social commentary about how this country needs a cleaning up in more ways than one, but I shan't.

So What's Your Favorite Holiday Movie?

So there I was, flying to Tokyo and scanning all those free in-flight movies, lots of latest ones that I have yet to catch including King Kong and The Pink Panther. I flipped through the movie pages until I saw one of my favourite Xmas movies! It’s a popular movie set during the holiday season in Los Angeles and opens with a crisp Jingle Bell Rock soundtrack. I have watched this movie about a dozen times on TV and it never fails to bring a warm glow to my heart and smirk on my face.

I am of course referring to the hit movie Lethal Weapon starring a young Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. The other favourite Xmas movie of mine is naturally Die Hard. Who can forget that classic line “Ho Ho Ho! Now I have a machine gun!” written on a dead bad guy’s chest. Yes, not many people remember it but those two blockbuster action movies are actually Xmas movies!

Well, I watched it again and what can I say? I still loved almost every minute of it! Hey, those two movies pretty much kicked off a couple of whole new action genres. The familiar buddy cop action genre and the lone-desperate-man-vs-army-of-elite-baddies genre!

I was very tempted to watch it yet again on my return flight but I resisted and picked up Kong instead. And speaking of return flights, there are just SOME of the snacks I brought back with me. Look and drool folks!

From left: Tako ball-flavoured Pretz sticks, Royal Milk Tea (favorite drink!), Green Tea/Red Bean Kit Kats (perfect!) and black sugar candy (not sure what's the actual name).

That Time Of The Year

Now I was told that it was the season for Japanese sweet potato when I was there late last month. Is that true? I dunno but I definitely found some great sweet potato snacks at the Tokyo station on my way to Kyoto.

These sweet potatoes are really SWEEEET!!!

Got something (non-food related) to get off me chest. Grrrr....every year around this time (this year it's July 20 to 23 2006) is the annual San Diego Comic Convention. If you are as big a comic book fan as I am, you'll know that it's the biggest comic book convention of the year. It's not some geeky fan boy meeting session but a full-scale billion dollar industry where all the major and minor comic book people plus gaming and entertainment folks meet up and tons of new stuff/projects are revealed. It's serious business.

Ever since the Hollywood started making those blockbuster comic book movies, there's been a huge Hollywood pressence as well. That means lots of movie stars too. Damn, I just wish I could go there just once.

I been dreaming about attending this ever since I was a kid. Now with the Internet, every year I just surf over to look at all the good stuff they got lined up and I just feel sooooo frustrated I can't make it there (for whatever reasons, the reasons change over the years). End rant.

Sweets For My Sweet

After more than 14 hours at work, I just don't feel like talking/writing/typing much so I figured I'll just post some of my favorite food pix from my last trip to Japan. Damn, I sure as Hell need some major comfort food right now.

Dessert after my full-set dinner at the Ryoken. Anyone interested in seeing the full-set meal?

Just some of yummy pastries I bought back to my hotel room from those department stores' food basements. Yah, those are cherries! Although not as sweet as these cherries.

Chestnut and Green Tea Japanese Mont Blac cakes that are simply to die for!

And when you are on the move during lunch, there's always D-I-Y dessert. Damn, I wish Haagen-Dass brought in flavours like that to Singapore. There's actually little crewy bits in the ice-cream.

Well, I hope this entry wasn't too frightfully boring for those of you without a sweet tooth.

Fast Food

Remember how I wanted to make this a food blog when I first started…then I kinda got sidetracked and had other stuff to say, soon it got less and less about food. Well, I do have quite a lot of social commentary stuff to say like the recent mrbrown incident, media censorship etc. I mean I know the guy personally (he’s a nice family guy) and I have seen the inner workings of our local media organizations (hell, I was even on their payroll)…but…*sigh*…it’s exactly because I have seen how ‘things’ are done or ‘taken care of’ (they’ll teach you a thing or two about using every dirty trick in the book to shut you down), that I feel like, what’s the use of complaining? We are nothing more than an alleged first world country with third world internal wirings.

So I figured I’ll just yak about more personal stuff and hopefully a little more on food. I’m not out to win any popularity contest otherwise you’ll see me talking about sex half the time! Bwah-ha-ha-ha!

Anyway, back to more food talk. Looking at me ticket stubs, realized I took seven Shinkansen (bullet train) rides while in Japan recently and here are some pix of my onboard lunch which I bought before boarding. Also bought the seven-day railway pass (in Singapore) so it was unlimited number of rides across the JR lines for me.

I got most of my meals from those terrific department store basement supermarkets. They have the widest and most mouth-watering selection of food ever! It’s summer too and that means lots of cool, icy desserts at almost every corner! Man, I could spend hours just walking around and around each supermarket/food basement.

The last pix below is crab meat with rice and the drink's one of my favorite. Royal Milk Tea by Kochakaden. I wish they have here in Singapore.

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.

Why Japan Is Cool

Here's an actual newspaper headline that appeared while I was in Japan last week. And you thought these things only happened in old sci-fi movies!

Fishy Memories

Back when I was in Cannes, France on assignment, I had something called Soupe de Poisson and it became like my all-time favorite dish ever while I was there. It's a fish soup dish, not too fishy yet thick and really tasty. Almost all the restaurants along the beach served it and I had it just about every other day with my main meal.

When I finally came back to Singapore, I went looking for it everywhere (er, almost everywhere that my budget could get me to) but could never find it.

Then last week, many years later, I found it at The Marketplace supermarket at Raffles City! Well, not in a restaurant but in bottles. So did I buy any? Nope. I don't really know why not. Maybe it was the price(S$19.60 for the small bottle and S$22.70 for the larger one!) or maybe looking at the cooking instructions, I wasn't sure if I knew how to prepare it properly. Last thing I wanna do is ruin one of my favorite culinary memories! Haha. anyway, if I ever decide to try preparing it one day, at least I know where to get it now.


Meanwhile, four down and two to go!

Live Fast, Love Hard, Die With Your Mask On

You know back when we were young, we all did crazy stuff that we look back today and go, "Holy crap! Did I actually do that?!? What was I thinking?!" From getting into stupid relationships to tip-toeing over to the wrong side of the law, it's all part of growing up.

I know I pulled my fair share of crazy stunts. I had this little Four Rules to Living Life to the Fullest. Now remember, I was young, impulsive and reckless when I came up with this. Drinking, Smoking, Gambling and Fooling Around (if you know what I mean), you gotta indulge in at least one of these four vices to really enjoy life. You don't know how to enjoy life until you go all out on one of them. I know, it's a really, really stupid thing to go around saying but hell, I was young and stupid back then, I admit it but it was also a great conversation starter! Bring it up at guys-nite-out, parties, even wedding dinners and pretty soon, everyone's talking about their personal experiences, their favouite one etc.

Now, it's not like I was doing all four at the same time. I did 'do them' over various stages of my life, not intentionally fulfilling it but somehow it just happened over the years.

So why am I writing this? Some crazy attempt at bravado? I don't think so. I guess it's more like a way to remind myself of what it was like when I was younger.

Looking back, do I regret them? Absolutely not. But today, being older and ...er...wiser (I hope), I would never say those things to anyone, anymore. I mean, I would still talk about them to close friends as something a younger and dumber version of me was preaching years ago (and hopefully get a few laughs) but definitely not something to follow.

Actually there are some pretty funny stories behind them. Maybe I'll write them down one of these days.

Sign Of The Times

First I gotta say a big 'Thank you' to YouTube for keeping me company when I had to work way past midnite, like four nites in a row. Thank the stars for music videos, SNL skits and WWE!

Still having some fun with me camera and here's what I snapped on me way to work. That means more wacky signs too!

A fallen bike! Yup, where I come from, it's a dangerous trek to work.

It's amazing what you can find during the Great Singapore Sale. In the words of Marge Simpson, "Yummy and nutritious!"

I really don't what they mean by this sign. Does this mean all the shopkeepers speak Cantonese? They get really, really nasty if you just browse and don't buy anything?

Am off to look for some comfort food! Most probably Jap. Damn straight I'm gonna be needing it after working like crazy! Who wants to join me?

Me First Meme

Got tagged with me first meme, so here goes...

one: what is the phone brand?
Sony Ericsson

two: what are the last three digits of your mobile number?
697

three: what does the second message in your inbox say?
You now have 2 chances in Raffles City’s Shop & Score Draw. To get another 1 Bonus Chance: SMS BONUSDRAW to xxxxx now.

four: who's the first person who comes up under the letter m?
Madd

five: who's the last person you rang?
Mom

six: who was your last missed call from?
…dunno…already deleted…

seven: who's the second person who comes up under d?
Daphne

eight: what does the last message in your inbox say?
So you wanna lunch at chinatown?

nine: who comes up under j?
Jade

ten: go to your sent items -- what does the tenth message say?
none….i delete me sent box regularly…

eleven: who's the fourth person who comes up under s?
Sun

twelve: who's your network provider?
M1

thirteen: how many messages are currently in your inbox?
Don’t think there’s a ‘count’ feature on me phone…too many to count…heh

fourteen: what do you have as your background?
One of them fancy built-in design patterns that came with the phone.

fifteen: who's the second person who comes up under r?
Reb

sixteen: who do you have on speed dial three?
no one

seventeen: if you're on pay as you go, how much credit do you have?
Not applicable

eighteen: who's the first person who comes up under c?
Celine

nineteen: how many bars of signal do you currently have?
Five

twenty: what do you have as your main ringtone?
Bell

Cheers For Cherries

Guess what, I finally installed MSN Messenger on me office laptop. Yah, I know I'm probably the last guy on Earth to do it but well, better late than never.

It's cherry season again! I love cherries! $28 per kg. Although they kinda have this ...er...laxative effect on me, like hours later. All right, so you didn't really need to know that!

Was toying with me new camera and took some shots of the hottest mutants in town. Here's something for all you fans of Wolvie and gang, you know who you are, ladies!

Here's the gang in their Jim Lee-era comic book costumes.

This one I picked up in Japan last year. Pretty neat huh?

Revenge Of The GSS

It's that time of the year again here in Singapore where it's the Great Singapore Sale. About couple of years ago, I bought a ton of furniture for my very own new apartment and I really did save a lot. This year, two days into it and I already spent over a grand. Geez....no shit. Let's see now, the Harvey Norman at Suntec was having a moving out sale and I finally got the Nikon S5 that I was eyeing for the last few months. $529 with case and 512 memory card. Trust me, did enough research to know that's a pretty good buy. Plus a handheld vacuum cleaner and a new Philips DVD player ($139) that plays Divx Video which means I can watch downloaded shows like the latest episodes of Grey's Anatomy, 24, Lost etc. No, I don't download them but I know people who do. And a ...er...hmmm...little brown card holder.


Found more stuff at me folks' place. These are just some of the hats or caps that my uncle bought for me when he was working in the US many years ago. I used to have lots more! He got me hats such as a baseball helmet, a big feathered red indian chief headgear as well as the one with just single feather and also a Robin Hood cap. I still have a pix of me as a kid (about 5 or 6 years old) in the big red indian chief headgear with a real pipe in me mouth. Too bad I ain't got a scanner.

Wanna know what I think of the new X-Men movie? Hell, if you are a comic book fan and not familiar with The X-Men stories, then you will love it. If you are a comic fan and like The X-Men, then you probably won't like it at all.

With a little help, it's now three down and three more to go!

The Great Egg Mystery

Whew...what a week. Time to write something good and happy I guess cos work has been crap and I sure as hell, can't talk about that. Well, it's not all bad. Went out for drinks on Wednesday nite at Wala Wala (missed CSI cos of that!) and Wine Bar on Friday nite.

Here's a little mystery. Was packing all me old stuff at me folks' place and found this.

Two stone eggs which I have absolutely no idea how or where I got them. That's a real chicken egg on the right. I just placed it there for size comparison. Now the green egg is made of some kinda jade-like material. It's obviously not jade. And the brownish one has a textured surfaec with some kinda petal markings on it. They are both pretty heavy too. No one in the family knows how I got them. Me mom said they could be from me late aunt. But I don't remember a thing. I also found some really cool stuff that I thought were gone forever such as me old Playmobil and Airfix toys.

Before I forget, two down and four to go!

My Ex-Dream Job

Been waaaaay too busy last week to write anything cos of work. Yah, half the office went on long weekend leave two weeks ago and the other half last long weekend. Me? I’m saving them for later. So there I was, thinking bout all them long hours and fantasizing bout the perfect job. Thing is, I have already been in the perfect dream job many years ago. I figured maybe writing bout it now would kinda me feel better …or not. It's not like I'm trying escape back into my past but sometimes you just wanna think about the good times, know what I mean?

Now, I can’t really say what exactly I was doing (don't ask, another long story) but it was the coolest thing ever. Not even my folks knew exactly what I did, only my closest friends knew. One even said it was a “honeymoon job”. I’m pretty sure whoever is reading would probably have a hard time believing it but …hell, it was all real for me and it really happened, at least for a year.

There were about 20 of us led by six Americans. Really cool and fun guys. The only reason they shut down our department was cos of some bureaucratic big wig upstairs @$$hole pulled the plug on our funding! What we were doing was freakin’ years ahead of its time! It’s damn true cos today, there’s a very, very famous organization doing pretty much exactly what we were doing. After that one super year, I went back into the media industry. But not before a little solo trip to Hong Kong but that's another story for another day.

Anyway, we worked hard and we played just as hard …we celebrated Halloween with a party (I came as Dilbert, easiest costume with the just a flipped up tie!) and had a Fourth of July BBQ too. Well, as for work. I guess you could say there were days when we got shot at and there were also days when we shot back. And I suppose there were those days when a couple of things blew up.

At least one good thing did come out of it. One of the Americans (the only guy I knew who ever worked with the CIA) met and married one of our local colleagues. Heh. Everything happens for a reason I guess!

Okay, back to today. Mother's Day was yesterday and it kinda reminded me of what me and my best bud used to do on that day when we were teenagers. Most Sundays we would hang out at Orchard Road and on Mother's Day we would always check out the daughters that were out with their mothers. Why? Cos we were always figuring out and asking ourselves "Hmmmm. cute babe but I wonder if that's how she'll look like when she's older." Bwahaha! Give us a break! We were just kids then!

Oh yeah, decided to rustle up some pancakes over the weekend too cos of the leftover maple syrup. Thought of getting the frozen ones but decided to try 'making' them instead, for the first time actually. Turned out pretty good. Will try to get some sausages to go with it the next time.

One down, five to go!

Toasty Morning

If you guys seen me first few entries, you would know of me love-hate relationship with baking. So here's the latest attempt this morning! Woke up at 7am and decided to make meself some French Toast after coming across this simple little receipe over at Baking Sheet. It's kinda different from other French Toast receipe cos it consists of smaller pieces of bread instead of an entire slice.

Turned out pretty good but not as sweet as I expected, so I added more maple syrup while eating. Am afraid the pix didn't turn out as sharp as I hoped.

Anyway, went for drinks last Friday at this roof top joint called The Loft. No, it didn't turn out like that other Friday! Mainly cos there were no one-for-one drinks or happy hour! I only had an Irish whiskey and two beers. Most of us were there for the first time. It's kinda strange cos it's like an open-air, roof top bar but the roof is only on the 3rd floor! So it's like surrounded by all the other much taller buildings around it. Needless to say, after an hour it became pretty hot and humid. Plus the patrons there kinda gave some of us the impression that it's more like a pick-up joint for expats, instead of a friendly chill-out place. There's another open-air, roof top place called The Balcony in town. I haven't been there but some of us figured that it's gonna be just as warm cos the place is also like only a couple of floors above ground.

Oh yah, Camper at Takashimaya has finally brought in some new shoes and sandals. Woo hoo!