"It was under the pork"

Here's an interesting gift I got from Hong Kong recently. Charcoal cotton buds, well, I don't think they are exactly cotton anymore. They are pretty solid as in the er, cotton or whatever doesn't come off. And if your ears are really dirty, you can see it against the black! But wait, you are saying 'but won't my ears be black from shoving charcoal into them?' I dunno, I can't see into my own ears.

I Had my first visit to The Marmalade Pantry last nite. Yah, really. Anyway, had the roast pork loin with caramelised sweet potato. Not bad except for the fact that the piece of meat was incredibly thick. Thickest piece of pork I ever had in my life. The sweet potato was great. And there was also a small serving of cabbage that came with it (it was under the pork) and it was done just the way I remembered in the army! Cookhouse flshback! And that's not a bad thing really. It was a little soft and soggy but still quite tasty.

"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.

"Freaky obese fatboy"

Here’s one of those toxin remover patches that the drug stores here are selling. You stick a patch at the bottom your feet just before you go to sleep and in the morning, it would have gone black by absorbing the toxins from your body. Apparently, it’s a science and it really does remove certain harmful toxins. Now these are pretty expensive, about S$80 for 20 patches I think. I managed to find this at a S$2 budget shop in Vivo City. A pack of 2 patches for only S$2. As you can see, it did turn black the morning after so I guess it did work. I mean, evil black stuff was removed and that ought to be good right? Ah, the wacky stuff a guy does when he’s alone in bed! I might buy more the next time I’m there.

Recently I been thinking a bit about good and evil, order and chaos etc.. Now I’m a big fan of fiction so I have read gazillion stories on good vs. evil. The consequences of one’s dark evil acts as well as the hazards of time traveling but I digress. But seriously, I’m just thinking why didn’t I turn out ‘bad’ while growing up? Why was I a ‘Child of Order’ during my teenage years?

Truth be told, I was a pretty ‘spoilt’ kid. I mean, as the only child in a ‘financially comfortable’ family. Almost anything I wanted I knew I could get (expect that damn chemistry set!) and as a teenager I could have gotten away with a lot of stuff. I could have stayed up all nite every weekend but I didn’t. I grew up along Orchard Road the shopping and party areas, people usedto tell me that if they lived there, they’ll be partying every nite. Er, I don't think so. Then what kept me in check? Why didn’t I go overboard? Till today, I still don’t know. I know there was a very small part of me that really wished to party and all but I didn’t. Well, someone has a theory and I think it’s the closest I heard. ‘Fear’ of disappointing my family cos I really love them and I know it’ll hurt them a lot if I did those stuff. As for my ‘Servant of Chaos’ days when I started working, that’s a story for another day. ;)

Oh yah, thank the stars I wasn’t so into food back then. I think I would have balloned into some freaky obese fatboy! Hah!

"Rest of what's inside the pig"

Its been a while since I wrote anything about food so it's a good thing I brought my camera out this afternoon. Had Bak Kut Teh (pork ribs soup) for lunch at the junction of Worchester and Owen Road. I believe it's a pretty famous stall but this is only my second time there. It's great, the meat is tender and the soup isn't the peppery kind. It's actually a little sweet. As you can see, we didn't forget about the rest of what's inside the pig. There's the liver, stomach and intestines in the other bowls too.

Here you got the main Bak Kut Teh bowl with lots of garlic, just the way I like it.

Followed by the rest of the pig.

And here's my 'complete' meal.

"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!

"So where are you from"

There's been some expat traffic coming through the office these last couple of week. Obviously these guys skipped a lesson or two during geography. Some overheard conversations ...


White boy: So you are Chinese, you are from China?

Local: No. I'm Singaporean.

White boy: So your parents are from China?

Local: No, they are from Singapore.

White boy: So where are you from?


White boy: I love oriental food. I'm going to have Indian food tonight.


White boy: I can't tell who's Chinese or Malay. (pointing to Malay girl) Is she Chinese?

Caught Ocean's 13 yesterday, waaaay better than the Spidey and Pirates. Damn, I miss pulling cons. Good times.

"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!

"I'm cheap in the morning"

I just realized that when it comes to comfort food. I like the hawker, street stall types the best. My current favourite is the chee chiong fan with the red sauce and lots of sesame seeds (folks in the office would sometimes point out that I have some seeds in my teeth, very unglam!), followed by 2 soft-boiled eggs and cup of tea, all for S$3.80. While my comfort food for dinner is usually a pricy Japanese meal or a nice juicy steak (which I still can't find one near where I work). Yah, I guess you could say I'm cheap in the morning.

All right, time to put on my geek cap. Took some pix of my latest comic-book related acquisitions. Good time to try out the micro feature of this camera. Found these figures a couple of weeks ago in a little comic book shop and blew almost S$100 on all five of them. There are like over 60 figures in the collection and still growing. From the UK, yhey are lead figures, about 5 inches tall, heavy as hell and hand painted. Beautifully sculpted and oh-so detailed!

I was lucky enough to find all 5 figures of Marvel Comics' biggest and baddest villains! You got Doctor Doom, Magneto, Green Goblin, Red Skull and Loki.

Hey, guess where my next stop is gonna be! Hopefully end August...

"Not as fresh as my knuckle sandwich, would you like one?"

Had Sunday brunch at the much talked-about Pierside Kitchen and Bar. I must say, it's as good as everyone said it would be. Better than the Sunday Brunch I had at Glaze. Ordered the Minute Steak and the French Toast with ice-cream and honey dessert. Pix ain't that clear, it doesn't do justice to it, sorry bout that. The steak was ok, but what made it really great was the red wine sauce that came after I already ate a quarter of it. Hah. It wasn't as crowded as I expected it to be, considering the things I heard about the place. Anyway, good food and good service. Will try the other items on the menu, maybe with more friends.

Now speaking of food, here's an incident I really gotta tell. Was having my comfort food dinner alone on Friday nite (after a hellish week ar work, even had to work on Vesak Day!) at a small but rather well-known Japanese place at a famous landmark hotel. I was seated at the bar eating my sashimi by myself when my big CCO (or is it CEO?) boss came in with his local wife. I don't mean to bitch but almost everyone in the office hates him, for reasons I won't go into here. And his wife asks really loud, "Is your fish fresh?"

WTF?!? You don't go to a top Japanese restaurant and ask if the fish is fresh! Man, if I were the sushi chef, I would have said, "Yes, but not as fresh as my knuckle sandwich, would you like one?"

"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!

"Damn it"

Damn it. My Blogger is still giving me problems. I still can't link anything to my posts. I can post photos but can't link any sites. It says it's a server problem and an engineer has been notified. Yah right, it's been over a week already.

Its been awhile but I finally had another one of those big epic dreams like I used to have like, almost every week, years ago. I call them my 'big budget action adventure' dreams cos they usually span a few years in dreamland but actually just one 'real' nite. One of my favourites had me as an Allied soldier disguised as an SS Nazi officer during WWII. If I could, I would link this post with my other dream posts under 'Weirdness'.

Well, this latest dream I had a few nites ago had the entire Earth being invaded by aliens. It's kinda like War of the Worlds cos I never saw the aliens. Only huge ships blanketing the skies. They just kept bombing the surface. It was a pretty depressing dream cos everyone was just so helpless.

Anyway, back to food. Managed to at last have a bowl of ramen at the popular (direct-from-Japan) Ramen Marutama at The Central on Friday nite. That's the side orders Dashimaki Tamago (egg rolls) on the left and Yaki Char Siew (pork) below.

My main order was the house speciality Aka Char Siew Ramen. Yah I know, I need to remember to hit the Flash the next time I take my food pix. So was it worth standing 20 minutes in the Q? Yah, it was pretty good. not too salty too. My colleagues who had the spicy ramen said it wasn't as spicy as they thought it would be. Generous servings too. Almost S$20 for my main bowl of ramen. If I remember correctly, it'll cost a little less if I was having it in Japan.

"Back to the ice box"

Back to the blog and back to the ice box. Look what I got from the supermarket again. Just like old times, more new ice-cream flavours. just this out, Royal Milk Tea flavour! There appears to be some problems with Blogger on my side here. The Dashboard has gone all weird so I can't link anything to it. That's why I didn't post anything for the last couple of days. But I'm still having the same problem.

The IT guys at the office finally took my ancient PC notebook away and passed me an ibook to work on. Its been like almost 3 years since I worked on a Mac. The new platform is gonna take some getting used to.

"Four-leaved clover of tea leaves"

Besides my luv for royal milk tea, there's another kinda tea I'm nuts about and that's Irish Malt Tea. Unfortunately, the only place I know that has it is at the Rose Veranda at Shangri-La Hotel. Ithink Hyatt has it too when I was there a few years ago.


I always order a pot when I'm there. Yah, was on leave and had lunch/tea there on Monday just before May Day. It has the "aroma of Irish whiskey" and "a hint of cocoa and malty Assam tea". It's really great!

The bad thing is I can't find it anywhere else in the tea shops, other cafes, no one here sells them. Been looking for them for year. It's like the four-leaved clover of tea leaves for me! So if anyone knows where to get them here in Singapore, let me know. Thanks a million!

"Six-legged Hotel California"

It’s been absolutely insane last couple of weeks. In and out of the office. Working till 3am in the morning in an office with no air-con is not a joke.

Anyway here I am at my 100th post and fer-the-luv-of-gawd I don’t have any thing special to write bout. Well, I did manage to finally do that labels thing after entry, to categorize each post. Look below each post! * Whew * that actually took a while to go back all 100 entries.

Need to catch up with the gaming buddies, some of them actually bought the new WOW TCG expansion set released last week. I thought they gave up on that. I bought a box and a whole bunch of boosters too. But the guys already finished their trading without me so hopefully I’ll be looking for other groups to trade my cards with. OK, at this point, I’m willing to bet my entire comic book collection that no one here knows what I’m talking about. Haha!

Check this out. Saw it at Toys R US and the line just blew me away! It’s called the Modern Insect Hotel, where little boys (now I know it might sound sexist but come on, let’s not kid ourselves) catch and throw bugs in there to (let’s be honest again) torture them. It’s like the freakin’ Bates Motel for bugs or six-legged Hotel California! Are the insects that check-in ever meant to check-out alive in the first place?! Calling it a ‘Modern Hotel’ is hilarious. I wish I had this when I was growing up. All I had as a kid was the freezer where I would freeze the bugs and then unfreeze them later to see if they live.

Damn, now I feel like getting one for my office desk…

"Toilet Bowl Muffins or the Tool Shed Brownies"

Happy Easter Sunday everyone! I was on a roll and the plan was to do more baking this weekend. But I had to bring some work back from the office and had a couple of other errands to run so I couldn't. Now why is it whenever I bring work back, there's gotta be something cool to watch on TV that nite? Just as I was about to start cracking on some copy on Saturday nite, I noticed that the MGM cable channel was showing that classic 70s murder mystery Dressed to Kill. I heard and read bout it but never saw it until last nite.

Anyway I wanted to try baking Martha Stewart's Kitchen Sink Cookies. Not to confused with her other recipes, the equally famous Toilet Bowl Muffins or the Tool Shed Brownies. Nah, I'm just kidding. So why pick this receipe? Cos a colleague passed me a Martha Stewart baking DVD and it looked sooooo easy when Martha Stewart was doing it.

Few of the cooking and baking books on my shelves but sure wish i have more time to actually try some of them out. Hey, it's my 99th post and I still dunno if I should do anything for my 100th.

"Kinda like Trump's hair(piece) on a cupcake"

Woo hoo! I'm back to blogging bout food! Remember the cupcake mix gift I got from Boston? Well, finally found some time and help baking them just now. Was reading the tube and apparently it's from some famous cupcake bakery from Beverly Hills. Simple enough instructions were found inside the container. There you see the mix from the tube, and it's enough for a dozen cupcakes. And right here you have the new digital weighing machine, first time in action.

Anyway, popped them in the oven while doing the frosting. All right, while topping the frosting, I realised that I totally suck at it! They had this nice photo of a cupcake on the container and it really looked nice and smooth. I used a butter spread and mine all looked like it had some weird comb over or something. Slapped across and pasted on them. Kinda like Trump's hair(piece) on a cupcake.

The chocolate frosting tasted great! The cupcake was a tiny little bit too flaky for me but the whole cupcake was pretty decent. Not sure if it's anything like the original in Beverly Hills but I'm fine with it.

Oh, check out this cool cupcake stand I saw while I was buying my baking tray. I believe it can hold 38 mutherloving cupcakes!

"The all-booze, liquid diet version"

Was at the news stand the other day and noticed something funny. You know how the cover of women's magazines are always promising articles on how to achieve the perfect physical image. Bigger boobs, silkier hair, firmer butts, then you got the whole smoother, whiter skin package etc.. But when you look at guys' magazines, it's all about attaining only one main physical attribute. Now get your mind out of the gutter. I'm talking bout the 6-pack, abs of steel here.

That's right, folks. Guys' magazines only make one common promise on their covers, that the only thing guys need to look good is a washboard stomach and we got a gazillion ways to show you how to get them. Apparently you can bend, stretch, run, swim, dance, sing or (I'm waiting for this one) sleep your way to them in a week. There's probably some liquid, carbo, candy or (another on my wish list) alcohol diet in the works too. Yup, I'm just holding out for the all-booze, liquid diet version.

Just realized that I’m only a coupla more entries to my first 100th post. Kinda reminds of how comic books and TV shows always have something big planned for either their 100th issue or 100th episode.

So what do I have planned? I really don’t know. How bout some big revelation like an updated or clearer photo shot of me? Yah, like anyone would be interested in that. Maybe some deep dark kinky secret? Ought to have some lying around here somewhere. Or finally that long-lost secret origin story. Hmmmmm...

"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.

"Thighs of Steel"

By now some of you might have heard about or even experienced the two tremors this afternoon. It's something I sure as hell won't forget anytime soon.

I was in the office when the first one hit close to noon. My colleague turned to me and said "FUCK!". I went "Huh? What happened?". Then I immediately felt it. No, not the building shaking but a wave of nausea. Giddy-like. Followed by a slight tremor, the room moving just a little. We immediately stepped out of the room and we saw everyone else, out of their rooms or cubicles, all anxious and worried. You know, I never knew the first thing to hit me would be the nausea, apparently everyone felt the same way, always thought it would be like the room or floor shaking or something. So we were all going, "Did you felt that?" "The building was shaking." "Leave the building now." "Take the stairs."

Oh yes we did, all 32 floors of it...

Once outside the building, I called my folks who turned on the TV and updated me on what happened. Earthquake in Sumatra, lots of other buildings here felt it. I think the official number is about 200 buildings here.

Well, we had lunch and about 1.30pm, most of us were already making our way back into the building. I was back at about a quarter to 2. Then it happened again.

I turned to a different colleague. I looked at her and she went "What?". I kept quiet cos I thought it night had been my imagination. Then came a stronger tremor. "Shit, not again!"

But this time we were all too tired to walk the stairs. The lift opened, some other colleagues were about to step out. We pushed them back it. And down we went.

All the sideway cafes, coffee shops around the area were filled with people from all the neighbouring office blocks. When I heard my other colleague had walked all the way down twice, I looked at him and said, "thighs of steel. man".

We all returned about 3pm cos the boss sent an SMS telling us to head back or else! Word came later that both quakes, about 2 hours apart were each 6.6 on the Richter Scale.

By the way, taking a page out of my current fav sitcom Two and a Half Men, decided to name each entry using a line from each post, kinda like how each episode of the show comes with a really weird title taken from the script (when it's read out of context), know what I mean?

Hide And Seek

Gosh, its been awhile since I posted anything. Work has been so crappy lately that I just didn’t wanna do any more writing once I head home. Now that’s another thing. When you live alone right now like me, the last thing you wanna do is not have anything to do when you step into an empty apartment.

That’s why I always try to do something or plan something or have something to look forward to when I come home. Otherwise I know I’ll just go nuts slowly but surely. And that’s why I was kinda glad I had World of Warcraft online, that kept me busy after work and was most additive, for awhile at least. Fun while it lasted. These days I try to sleep early, used to sleep pretty late after midnight.

These nights, I might slip in a card game at a game shop after work on Tuesday nights, Wednesday and Thursday nights are usually TV and reading. Would catch up on my reading while watching CSI or Two and A Half Men. Fridays, if no one has plans for drinks, are for laundry and vacuuming and mopping the entire apartment. I always think I’m freaking out the neighbors with all that vacuuming in the middle of the night.

Now, here's one of me favourite bit of my Batcave, Fortress of Solitude, Avengers Mansion or whatever. My hidden (book and display) shelves in the living room!

And ta-tah! Open them and ...well, it is kinda messy I know, that's why I took the pix from a distance!

Again With The Comfort Food

Gezz, has V-Day just passed me by? Well, to be honest, was just too busy with work to make a big deal out of it. I did managed to catch the latest episode of Two and A Half Men on YouTube that day so it was a pretty good day for me. I thought of writing something about past loves for V-Day but how do I talk about my past 'social life' without sounding like a cad? I don't for now. Maybe one day I will.

Anyway, the last weekend till today was just one long cleaning up and getting ready for the Lunar New Year. Got my pussywillow the other day after work. I figured it's kinda like our local version of the Christmas tree, only a little more naked. You buy it during the holiday season, dress it up a little and ...er...ok, there are no presents under this plant...so I guess that's about all the similarities to the Christmas tree.

Work has been hell and it's gonna get a lot worse before it gets any better. So off I go for my comfort food session namely getting the best Japanese food my money can buy. Finally managed to hit somewhere that I have been eyeing for awhile now, Kaisan, a pretty expensive little place at our famous Raffles Hotel. Here's a very good review of the place by Skinny Epicurean. Every word is true. I was there alone on Thursday nite. Got myself a counter seat. Ordered some sashimi and cha soba, my usual at most Japanese joints until I find out more about the place. I'll definitely make a return trip one of these days, probably end of the month or early March. So if you see a guy in t-shirt and jeans, alone having dinner at the counter, that's me!

Me, Two Men And A Kid

Hardly watch TV these days but Two and A Half Men…damn, that’s a good show. Probably the most memorable line for me was when Charlie Sheen’s playboy character was asked. “Women: Disposable pleasures or worthwhile pursuits?” and he had to pause to think of the answer. Truth is, that’s pretty much how I would have reacted years ago. Servant of Chaos, remember?

Then there was the episode where he told guest star Teri Hatcher the mental image of them having sex years ago was "lighter fluid when I'm barbecuing alone."

Cable's showing the first season and I'm checking out some episodes (Xmas episode, best opening ever!) of the current season four on You Tube.


Speaking of guys, here's how a guy eats his fruits. No need for plates, just cut it up and eat it on the cutting board, over the kitcken sink! The kiwis were really soft and sweet. Slice it in half and you use a spoon to scoop it up. Think the last time I had fruits in a (proper) bowl was at my mom's place.

I guess when you are on your own, you kinda wanna do things your own fast-and-easy way. I eat more stuff outta their original containers!

The Not-So-Big Chill

We’d been having some pretty weird weather lately. It’s exceptionally windy last couple of weeks. Icy, chilly winds in the evening when I'm back from work till morning when I leave. The flash storms have stopped but almost every evening till late at nite, the winds (can they be plural?) have been howling like a buncha banshees. Windows blown shut (and open), things flying around the house, just like in them ghost movies. Actually I’m used to the wind howling, reminds me of my old place when I was like 10 years old, the wind was making all kinds a noises in my folks’ first apartment.

Wonder if anyone else in the country is experiencing it? Some say when it's this 'cold' or windy in January, it's gonna be exceptionally hot later around April.



Anyway, finally gonna open this little beauty up. Got it at duty-free coming back from Hong Kong last year. I couldn't resist it when I read the line ... "A unique blend of premium French Vodka and Gourmet Coffee with a hint of vanilla and creme." Ohhh ... I can see this going into my morning coffee and after dinner ice-cream dessert.

Q Daze

Damn, they better be worth it. And they are....sort of. Not great but I still kinda enjoyed them. Yah, I waited in line at Raffles City for three hours for them. Didn't really planned it that way. The line wasn't that long so I got in the Q. It hardly moved cos the kitchen was small and folks ahead of me were buying boxes and boxes of them. Well, The last time I had a donut 'meal' was in New York seven years ago.

Here's something else I stood in Q for that day. That's an opened case of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. Me and the guys PLUS the other guys from my online guild were at the launch 'party' (I use the term loosely) and altogether, we collected at least 60 boxes for everyone. It was fun standing in this Q cos the rest of the guys were there and we all talking crap together.

In other good news, the national library has FINALLY stocked up on new comic books! After a year of no new stuff, we got quite a lot over the last week.

Alright, remember I talked bout the reshuffling in the office? Well, as I expected, things aren't off to a great start. It ain't easy when your 'superior' can't seem to make up his or her mind and it sure as hell ain't helping me when he or she admits in my face, "I'm sorry but I know I'm really anal."

Bought A Buff

Weather's been pretty cool lately. Not bad, good excuse to wear all those sweaters and loong sleeved shirts for once. Actually bought this. Thought it was neat, not cos the weather or anything. Well, my hair's pretty long now, not cutting it yet. Waiting till it's closer to Chinese New Year, that's late February. Saw it and just ... wanted it, I guess. I can now look like a pirate! Yar!

My life in the last few days has been all bout work and some WOW card playing (which I lost mostly but made some new friends so not much to talk/brag about there). Anyway, Niki did this great list. so I figured why not.

Countdown
Ten Things About You
1: Am only child.
2: Carry a money clip but not a wallet
3: Hates tissue paper
4: Prays every nite before bed
5: Enjoys all kinds of game
6: Had my own newspaper comic strip years ago
7: Am told that I'm tone deaf
8: Fan of WWE wrestling
9: Wears glasses only at the movies
10: Will instinctively wake up at 7am no matter where I am or how late I slept

Nine Things You Love
1: Family
2: Japanese food
3: Internet
4: Writing
5: Fooling around (if you know what I mean)
6: Comic books
7: Long rides
8: Traveling
9: Constance

Eight Songs You Love
1: Born to run (Bruce Springsteen)
2: Those magic changes (Grease soundtrack)
3: Summer of 69 (Bryan Adams)
4: Johnnie b goode (Chuck Berry)
5: Miami (Will Smith)
6: Stayin Alive (Bee Gees)
7: Tonight is what it means to be young (Fire Inc.)
8: Burning Love (Elvis)

Seven Things You Wear Daily
1: Either one of two G-Shock watches
2: Boxers
3: Ring
4: Jeans
5: T-shirt
6: iPod nano
7: Smile

Six Things That Make You Smile
1: Winning a game
2: Reading a good book
3: Memories of fencing
4: Comfort food
5: Old photos
6: Comments left at my blog ;)

Five Things You're Looking Forward To
1: Tokyo
2: A drink
3: Weekends
4: Favourite websites' updates
5: Meeting my friends

Four Things You're Scared Of
1: Heights
2: Losing my $enses
3: Being alone in the world
4: Zombies (don't ask)

Three Things That Annoy You
1: Waiting for public transport
2: Telemarketing
3: Whimpy songs from the 70s

Two Of Your Favorite Books
1: The Dunwich Horror
2: The Hobbit

One Thing You Can't Live Without
1: Oxygen

Back At Work

By now most of us are probably back at work after the holidays, same here folks. But I still feel like I'm on holiday season mode. Can't wait for the Chinese New Year break again.

Official word is they are gonna split us all into dedicated (smaller?) strike teams. Yup, it’s a reshuffle. There’s gonna be a big meeting this coming Monday to explain how all that’s gonna work out. Well, we’ll see. It’ll mean I’ll be moving out of my room and into cubiclepolis. Anyway, that’ll be later, at least a couple of more months.

So with my Warcraft Internet connection moving slower than a dead turtle, I spent my last few nites downloading (or is it uploading?) a bunch of CDs onto the nano. I managed to get thin clear plastic protectors for the back, wheel and screen for the nano on Monday at that Apple shop at Cineleisure, they were even nice enough to paste it for me.

Anyway, here's me playing with the 'Food' mode of my new camera.

Duck from a famous duck rice stall from People's Park Complex in Chinatown. Yah, I always thought it sounds like some kinda commie HQ building or something. Bought it for dinner over the weekend. Looks like the Chinese New Year decorations are already coming up all over Chinatown. So what do you guys think of this 'Food' mode? Does the food look yummier?

Happy New 2007

Two long nites of gaming can really wear out a guy. Had the gang over for board games (Beowolf, Railroad Tycoon, etc.) on Saturday nite, till like 3am. Slept at 4am. On New Year's eve the next nite, another group showed up and played till about 3am too.

Yah, its been a pretty gaming holiday for me ... (must remember only the good things!) ... well, would have played more if the damn Internet connection my World of Warcraft wasn't lagging all the time, and kept disconnecting me for like, 3 days in a row now.

Coming up next, The Burning Crusade. Mark my words, come Jan 16, men (and some women I guess) from all over the world will vanish from the streets, social committments will not be met, dates will be broken, well, you get the idea ...

But seriously, its been quite past year of gadgets for me. First came the conventional microwave oven. then followed by a new Nikon camera, handheld vacuum cleaner and Philips DVD player (with Divx Video) all during the Great Singapore Sale.

And then it was happy birthday to me with this. Ended the year with a couple of good grabs during the office party and someone else's party gift.

The Spoils Of War Or How I Finally Got An iPod

Talk about your six degrees of separation. I finally bought a new 4GB ipod nano (2nd gen) for only S$250, about US$168 (retailing at S$348, about US$227).

The crazy part is how I got it. My gaming buddy’s wife got it from her ad agency’s creative director as a Xmas gift. She’s the agency’s client (BIG telco account). But since the couple already has a video ipod, my friend decided to sell it to me. I didn’t know the background behind it yet but I noticed the nano came preloaded with a ton of really obscure old songs (over 400 oldies!), I asked him if I could delete them. He said sure and told me about its ‘history’. So I deleted all the songs ‘cept for the Seinfeld album.

Now I knew folks who knew folks from the ad agency. Well, did some nosing around. Agencies giving ipods to clients? Wow, haven’t heard that one in a long while. So, to cut a long story short and to leave out the nasty details cos as this story clearly shows, you can never tell who knows who, the nano wasn’t exactly given out in the spirit of goodwill.

Ho Ho Ho! Now I have an ipod nano (see the first Die Hard movie to get this inside joke)

Well, since almost everyone in me office is a Mac/Apple fan. It wasn’t that hard for me to …er… ‘get’ a whole bunch of free songs from their playlists as our network kinda links our desktops/notebooks. Now to get one of those external speakers for me new nano.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Had a early Xmas dinner with friends on Saturday nite. Everyone prepared something so we had lots of food and later, leftovers. Anyway, we ordered one of those pre-cooked turkeys this year. Some of the things overheard before dinner was served...

"Are you sure it's cooked?"

"Are you sure you can fit it in the mircowave?"

"Remove the foil!"
"You don't need to remove the foil if you set it to 'conventional oven'!!!"

"This isn't rocket science."

"It's cooked but it's still cold on the inside. Put your finger inside the bird and feel it."

"Maybe it's supposed to be cold on the inside."

"Eeeewww. Why did you have to put your middle finger in it?"
"Cos it's my longest finger!"

"Why did you give me a dessert knife to cut the bird with?"

Well, I'm sure there were a couple others that I forgot. Anyway, I had leftover turkey sandwiches for breakfast 2 days in a row already.

Merry Christmas guys! Thanks for dropping by!



A little present I got that nite. A giant jar of mashmallows!

Christmas Reading

Should I be saying this? I guess most people kinda blog bout almost everything, like good times and bad. Me? I like to blog bout happier stuff, the little things that I get a kick out of. Yah, of cos not-so-good stuff do happen to me but I just rather not blog bout it.

Anyway here's my Xmas gift to myself. Been eyeing this since I saw it in an online catalog months ago. Remember reading all those old pulp fictions as a kid. I just love those written during the 1920s to 30s.

For more than 70 years, fantasy fans have followed the exploits of Conan through novels, comic books, and movies. This book, the first-ever illustrated guide to Robert E. Howard’s most beloved character, is a genuine treasure chest of Conan lore, following Conan through the ages, through his different careers, as he meets friends and foes and travels across the Hyborian continent. Written by none other than Roy Thomas of Marvel Comics fame, expect nothing less than an exciting tale, with art from some of the foremost Conan portrayers ever: Frank Frazetta, Mark Schultz, Gary Gianni, John Buscema, Cary Nord, and more. Created in full cooperation with Conan C and T 2006 Conan Properties International, LLC Foreword by Todd McFarlane. Features character profiles, maps, art from original paperbacks, comic books, and video games.

Finally found it at Kinokuniya a couple of weeks ago. Reading it was like stepping into a freakin’ time machine! All the original stories (in summarized form) were there in chronological order. I was going “I remember that!” Damn, it was sooo cool.

Speaking of books and comic books, here’s something new I found. Never was a big Archie fan, more of a DC and Marvel fan but if there are any women reading this who were Archie fans….this is for you. Archie and gang finally get a face-life after 60 years! Doesn't Veronica look like that Eva gal from Desperate Housewives?

The Aftermath

Saw all of the pix taken that nite. The innocent ones and the not-so innocent ones. Fortunately I wasn't in any of the more 'notorious' ones. Some with me arm around a couple of very attractive women although I must have been quite stoned by the time they were taken cos I don’t remember any of it at all. Really.

Ah. Here’s what I got from the nite’s lucky draw. Heh.

Office *hic* Party

Well, this year's party was definitely a lot better than last year's. Although I had to leave in the middle of last year's party cos of a family emergency. Everyone was saying that the one we had the previous year 2004 was crazier, wilder, cooler etc. And we had a handful of pretty scandalous pix to back it up too. You get the idea, us media folks for better or worse have a reputation when it came to parties, in and out of the office. Yours truly had the honor that year for throwing up and almost passing out at the steps of our grand ol' City Hall.

Along came this year's party at a tiny little bar, let's see now....what I do remember is...

At least 5 Scotch on the rocks
At least 4 shooters
1 bottle of beer

Now the last major drinking session was here. Looks like I got back (at least) one to my four original vices that nite.

Best part, we have all-new scandalous pix. The official photographer left after 10pm when folks were still pretty sober. Later, our 'unofficial' photographer made the rounds and rest is history. More than a few had to be censored before we could put them up on the public server.


The ol' mushroom cloud AKA what me head felt like the next morning.