A small eatery

I found a good chill out place. The ambience is nice, quiet and peaceful.

And no one really goes there.

It was by chance that GQ and me was invited to a presentation ceremony in NUS, and i found the small eatery, located at the NUS Cultural Center.

Just look at the ice cream desserts!!! The pictures are enough to make one's mouth water non-stop.

And GQ and me order these....

Mango fruit juice...

No choice... there's a buffet waiting for us. So, we have to keep our stomachs empty a little.

But i promised to revisit that place to try their yummy looking ice cream desserts!!! Anyone wanna join me for something cold?

Oh yah, they close early.... :(

TGIF

Time always passes slowly on Fridays....

When can i knock off???

The end

Oh shit!!!

Good Gawd!!!!

Dammit!!!

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Next year's Chingay festival to hold first all-night party
By Jessica Yeo, Channel NewsAsia Posted: 19 September 2007 1757 hrs

SINGAPORE: The annual Chingay festival next year will have a new entertainment element – an all-night party of music and dance.

The party, to be held at City Hall from 11am on February 16 till four o'clock the next morning, will be the culmination of the Chingay Parade of Dreams 2008.

The parade will also take a new route next year, from City Hall to Raffles Avenue.

People's Association Youth Movement, the event organiser, is tying up with St James Power Station on the party, which will be open to those aged 16 and above. But alcoholic drinks will only be available to those who are 18 and above.
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All night party...

Alcoholic drinks...

Seow liao....

Some interesting stuffs

Some interesting things (not confirmed as facts) that i see going around the internet. It's direct copy and paste onto this blog.

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1) New York City has 11 letters

2) Afghanistan has 11 letters.

3) Ramsin Yuseb (The terrorist who threatened to destroy the Twin Towersin 1993) has 11 letters.

4) George W Bush has 11 letters.

5) The two twin towers make an "11"

This could be amore coincidence, but this gets more interesting:

1) New York is the 11th state.

2) The first plane crashing against the Twin Towers was flight number 11.

3) Flight 11 was carrying 92 passengers.
9 + 2 = 11

4) Flight 77 which also hit Twin Towers, was carrying 65 passengers.
6+5 = 11

5) The tragedy was on September 11, or 9/11as it is now known.
9 + 1+ 1 = 11

6) The date is equal to the US emergency services telephone number 911.
9 + 1 +1 = 11.

Sheer coincidence..?! Read on and make up your own mind:

1) The total number of victims inside all the hi-jacked planes was
254. 2 + 5 + 4 = 11.

2) September 11 is day number 254 of the calendar year.
Again 2 + 5 + 4 =11.

3) The Madrid bombing took place on 3/11/2004.
3 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 4 = 11.

4) The tragedy of Madrid happened 911 days after the Twin Towers incident.

Sheer coincidence..?! Read on and make up your own mind:

Still unconvinced about all of this..?! Try this and see how you feel afterwards, it made my hair stand on end:

Open Microsoft Word and do the following (TRY THIS FOR REAL)

1. Typein capitals Q33 NY. This is the fligh tnumber of the first plane to hit one of the Twin Towers.

2. Highlight the Q33 NY

3. Change the font size to 48.

4. Change the actual font to the WINGDINGS 1
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Familiar storyline

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Short talk:

My colleague has the habit of peeping into the office when he's passing by, and it involves him to stretch his head.
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I don't know why, but how come this sounds so familiar?


Does it to you?

NSman arm's theft

I read the article, NSman’s arms theft due to human error and poor building design, with interest.

So far, i had refained from writing posts about this incident, but from forums, friends, a lot of ppl did scold CPL Teo stupid, but seeing some similiar cases in my camp during my NS days, i did try to understand why he did that.

Hell, during my NS days, there were missing rounds from the guard room, (i was doing guard duty at that time... worst), there were ppl who forge the Duty Officer's signature and went AWOL, there were some ppl who set fire to a store, to get even with the CSM, we got ppl who smuggle rounds from ranges, and where were even some men wacky enough to pick up a brick to try to wack a CSM up.

Hell. We even got a raid by the CNB and the Military Police, coz they received tip-off about drugs abusers in our camp at about 3am in the morning! We have to squat outside our bunks, hands over our heads like a goddamm criminal.

And we even had a suicide case, where a soldier shot himself in the head with a M-16 rifle.

And i believe others who had went through NS, had saw more than i did.

So, a guy smuggled a rifle and live rounds out of camp did not really surprise me at all.

I am more interested in the aftermath, the results of the investigations of this incident.

I don't know about now, but during my NS days, it's goddamm easy to smuggle rounds out. Not from guard duty, but from live firing trainings. (In case the SIB, MP, or the ISD read this blog, i did not smuggle any rounds out. I am not dumb to do it).

There's just too much rounds lying around. In ranges, in the live firing areas. Even in Tekong. There's a case in Tekong, whereby during the Clean and Green day, the recuits are supposed to go around Tekong to pick up rubbish, i came across buried live rounds there.

In my view, there's more the SAF can do to prevent such cases. But this also needs the co-operation of the soldiers who must have the social responsibilities not to smuggled any rounds out of camp or live firing areas. So what if you got live rounds in your procession? What are you going to do with it?

Talking about prompt reporting of missing arms and ammunition to Army's General Staff Operations Center within 30 minutes.

Imagine you are the DO. The guard room calls you up, telling you that's there's an missing ammunition. A single 5.56 round.

What would you do?

Report immediately up to the Army's General Staff Operations Center? Create a big hoo haa before doing anything?

Of course, the sensible thing is to do is order an search for the missing round. Check and double check the books, the guard room, the resting room for the guards. The prowler routes, the sentry post, the turnout area, in an attempt to find the missing round before reporting up, coz once you report up, you are "in deep shit".

That's my NS days.

But no matter what, prevention is still better than cure.

Day of ups and downs

Okie, besides the RTA i had encountered yesterday, i had a great time at concourse pizza hut.

Worked the whole morning, till around 3pm, and with hunger, i finished work. (Canteen is not open on saturdays)...

Initially wanted to to Suntec to meet AF and to have my bunch (Breakfast cum lunch), but ended up in HQ. There's a duty going on later, but because of my appointment with AM and his donuts, i did not go for the duty.

Wanted to have a pizza for my bunch, i walked over to concourse, and met these fellows...

My first response was "Oh shit.... there goes my peaceful meal"... hahaha...

Well, at least that brunch of ppl can brighten up my day. It's miserable enough to work on a saturday on an empty stomach and miss the duty with the siaos...

It's fun time at the pizza hut...

Oh, they are very nice... Once i went in, sit down, and they serve me food...

Yes, you heard me... They served me food...

Pizza and garlic bread tower!!! Sprinkled with cheese...

Oh man!!!

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After the RTA, and resting at home, feeling sian 1/2 (sian zi pua, hokkien for feeling down), i turned on the TV and watch a "senseless" movie on channel 8.

It talked about 3 couples who went on a vacation, and started to have quarrels, and how a tour guide settle their quarrels.

And when the 3 unhappy men met up for a drink in a pub, their conversation inevitably went to discuss about women.

See the picture below, and concentrate on their expressions and the subtitles.

Hahahaha... no comments...

No punk intended...

RTA with a twist

There's an RTA (Road Traffic Accidents) yesterday at PIE, as i was travelling on my way back after picking up AM from Changi Airport. But this RTA comes with a sharp twist.

I am involved in it.

Ahhh, yes, finally, it happened... after all those encounters with RTAs, which i would stop and help when there are injuries, now i am involved in an RTA.

Apprently, a taxi likes my vehicle's butt so much that it decided to kiss it. "MUCK!"

So, how's my damages?

My van had been reduced from a 5 door to a 4 door vehicle. The rear door is struck.

Hahaha... i blacken my licence plate so that my readers will have no numbers to buy 4D!!

And later, AM says it's his fault, coz i make a trip to pick him up... If i never pick him up, then there's no RTA.

And as we joked about it more, we finally lay the blame of the RTA to this....

Coz i had asked AM to buy some donuts back, and he needed transport for it.

Arhhh.. my greed for donuts...

Gender Roles - Male and Female

Someone introduced (i shall not mention names here) me to this you tube thingy, which i find interesting.

Very interesting.

Here you are, enjoy.



Whahaha

Nice food and coffee

It's been donkey years since i last stepped into a small and cozy eatery for my meals, and even more donkey years since i stepped into the Starbucks at Shaw Tower. Even much more donkey years since i stepped into Starbucks at Shaw Tower with one of my long time coffee kakis.

Wow... it must been a old donkey indeed.

In the event you happened to be around bugis area, and hungry, wanting a nice meal at a cozy place, let me recommand the place just for you.

Located at Liang Seah Street, a place where you can find pubs, small restaurants, of course, the famous steamboat restaurants and a 7 - 11, tucked away in a small area is this shop.

PIVDOFR. ( pronounced as pre - door, i think, but sometimes, i spoke too much and it became piss-off), a restaurant that serves western cuisine.

Alright. What's so special about that restaurant?

First, the restaurant gives you a very cozy feeling. It's not that large, but then, it's not that small. The deco inside is interesting. There's a frame with absoluting lots coins inside. The deco, in a way, west meets east. Nevermind about the chairs, which is not so comfortable.

Next is the food.

They serve the absoluting, mouth-watering, fabulous, heavenly best tasting escargot i had ever eaten. Baked in butter, garlic, and other ingredients, the smell is heaven, and when you had your first bite of it, you are going to heaven, and when you taste the gravy of it, you ARE in heaven.

If possible, after this dish, buy beg steal borrow some bread, yes, some white bread, to dip into the sauce and eat it. It's a must after finishing all the escargot. And yes, you must finish all the gravy. Never mind it's fattening or what. You can always diet later.

Bread never tastes so nice.

The set meals (sorry, no photographs for it) are nice. So are their chicken wings. If they have the roast pork or the mixed grill special, arh... that's my recommandations.

Next is the dessert.

No need me to say much. The photos tells you everything.

Yummy....

And after our meal, we trooped over to Shaw Tower Starbucks for a after-meal drink.

Me and my long lost coffee kaki, my advisior, my good friend, CH.

The group that was relaxing at Starbucks...

Arhhh... been a long long time since i relax till like this. That's what i call, life.

Natural disasters

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Short talk:

I was staying late in office on Wednesday night, when AP suddenly asked me if i can feel any earthquake.... She mentions that her house is shaking.

I asked her if she's drunk... (okie, this part is added on later by me...)

AM is in indonesia, and he's alright. Thank god.
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This world is getting more ridiculous... More extensive incidents are happening.

I arrived at this conclusion after a couple of incidents that i had read about.

Firstly is the Indonesian Earthquake, what had a total of 4 earthquakes in 24 hours. The tremors could be felt in Singapore, Malaysia and even Thailand!!! And the highest magitude of all is 8.4.....

Another is the "instant hurricane" in US...
Humberto sneaks up on U.S. Gulf Coast

"HIGH ISLAND, Texas - Call it the instant hurricane. Humberto, which grew faster than any storm on record from tropical depression to full-scale hurricane landfall, surprised the Texas-Louisiana coast early Thursday with 85-mph winds and heavy rain that knocked out power to more than 100,000 and left at least one person dead.

Meteorologists were at a loss to explain the rapid, 16-hour genesis of the first hurricane to hit the U.S. since 2005."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070914/ap_on_re_us/hurricane_humberto

Wow... it strikes without warning...

Are these signs from Mother Earth that she is seriously sick? Are all these the "reaction" from the actions of man?

Remember Newton's law?

What are we going to do about it?

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Short talk 2

Hmmm... Russia tested the "father of all bombs" and Indonesia got an earthquake a day later....

Do i smell any links??
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"Interesting" news

2 international news which caught my interest...

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Price may not deter smoking

"NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Raising the price of cigarettes does not appear to deter current smokers from lighting up, research suggests.

Franks and colleagues analyzed cigarette prices and smoking prevalence in the United States among people with incomes below the 25th percentile (lower) and at or above the 25th percentile (higher).

They looked at a 20-year period that included 14 years before and 6 years after tobacco companies agreed to change how they marketed tobacco products and began financing anti-smoking campaigns.

But despite the price increases, smoking rates among the lower income population increased from 27.7 percent during the pre-agreement period to 28.6 percent during the post-agreement period. By contrast, smoking rates decreased from 23.9 to 21.6 percent during the same periods in the higher income population."

From http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070911/hl_nm/price_deter_smoking_dc

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Russia tests powerful 'dad of all bombs'

"MOSCOW - The Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world's most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia's state television reported Tuesday.

Channel One television said the new weapon, nicknamed the "dad of all bombs" is four times more powerful than the U.S. "mother of all bombs."

Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment, he added."

From http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070911/ap_on_re_eu/russia_bomb_test

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Bull shit... it does not hurt the enviroment... As long as it's intended to kill, it hurts the enviroment.

One day, we are gonna kill ourselves all, with all these kinds of research into weapons of destructions...

Trend bubbles

There's always a trend in your life. And the trend will come and go.

Don't you realise it?

A couple of years ago, i was always hanging out with my neighbourhood friends over dinner/supper, at a neighbourhood coffeeshop, eating, drinking ice lemon tea, talking cock. It was a daily night routine.

In the beginning, that group got bigger and bigger. Until we need to combined 3 tables at the coffeeshop. We would joke about another gathering of uncles and aunties at another table, commenting that how we would look like them in 30 years time.

And slowly, that whole group splits. Everyone is getting more busy, with studies, enlisted into NS, work, till there's only a few of us that remains.

The trend (bubble) had burst.

And i started to hangout with my kite flying kakis. Flying almost everynight, staying at void deck, drinking ice-lemon tea, playing chess / aeroplane chess during the raining seasons which grounded our kite.

And now, we are busy with our own work, and kite flying stopped. (seldomly fly), though we still meet up each other, only thing is less often.

That trend had burst also.

I used to hangout at starbucks at BPP. And now, the staff (new) could not recognise me. The old timers had grew tired of asking my friends (who still goes there) where am i.

"Proof", there goes the bubble.

That's to show that nothing can last forever. So, enjoy what you are doing now for enjoyment, and lets keep all the sweet memories deep into our memory.

Nothing last forever. NOTHING.

Too free in office

Ever wondered how human red blood cells looked like?

This is what red bloods cells look like when viewed under 400x magnification using a normal Lab microscope.

You wanna see a larger magnification of it? The picture belows is the 1,000x magnification of the red blood cells.

Looks neat. Wondering why you cannot find the white blood cells?? Simple.... there's no staining done.

And here's what happen when the blood cells "accidentially" got mixed with the immersion oil (for the microscope).

They undergo lysis.

Trip to Malaysia, KL (Part II)

Here are some interesting snippets from my last trip to KL, Malaysia...

An add on to my previous post.

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I don't know about the general population in Malaysia, but all i know (from what i had observed on my trip) is that Malaysians are generally more superstitious than Singaporeans.

Before you all start cursing and swearing at me, take a look at the picture below...

Where's the thirteenth (13th) floor?

Our guide mentioned that its common not to find the 13th floor in commerical buildings in Malaysia, especially in KL. Instead, they put 12A floor.

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Stopped by a small shopping center besides the N-S highway in Melaka for dinner on our way back to Singapore.

There's 2 fast food restaurants there. One of them is KFC, My boss was asking if we want to go and eat KFC.

I stared at him... horrified...

"Oh no... No KFC please" I thought.

I turn my head to the left. The fast food restaurant there looks better. So i lead the way into that restaurant, before my boss reach out to open the door to KFC.

We had this for dinner...

A&W!!! It's been a long long long long long long time since i had a A&W meal!! (There's no more A&W in Singapore liao).

Yummy!!! Oh, the root beer float was heaven!!!

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Growth of Technology

Technology has grew by leaps and bounces.

In fact, i realised one thing yesterday. Technology has overtook me. I am now classified as behind the times, behind the technology, especially mobile phones technology.

I still remember the first mobile phone that i see. It belonged to my brother. It was the heavy, bulky "waterbottle" phone that can use as a weapon to smash other people's head with, and yet it's workable after you used it to wack people's head.

And god bless the people whose head got wacked by those phones.

The first "lightweight" phone i see belongs to one of my cadet during my NPCC days. It's a call zone phone. You need to be within 10 meters from any call zone area to make a phone call. Otherwise, the phone in your hand is just usless. And yes, you cannot use it to wack your enemy's head. The phone will break instead of the head.

And the first mobile phone i got (a Motorola Flare), that uses a PCN network rather than the GSM network. It did not last long. And after which i got a Motorola Master (basically, both are the same). That was my poly days.

The phone can only make calls and SMS. That time, i did not use the SMS function at all. I only used it to make and receive calls.

And now, looking at the mobile phones, i was ashamed. I did not even know some of the functions on the mobile phones, there's simply too much functions and services that one can have (and seldom used).

Things like, SMS, MMS, 3G, GPRS, E mail, bluetooth, infared, FM radio, MP3, camera (dual some more) Video calls, video camera, WiFi, GPS, alarm clock, etc etc, all comes into the phone.

And there's a PDA phones, that is more powerful than my first computer (a 286).

Frankly speaking, there's so much functions on my mobile phone i am currently carrying, that i seldom or never use some of the functions at all.

Before my NS days, i went to work part time in Singtel, dealing with corporate mobile phones. I prided on myself as having the frontline knowledge on the most advance mobile phones on market. We tested the newest phones before it went to the shelves. That was the era of the Ericsson 888 / 868 model.

And i even bought a 868 model for myself. (888 and 868 model are the first to be able to surf the internet wirelessly when connected to a computer)

Others WOW at me. Stared in envy with my new mobile phone.

Times had changed. I WOW at others. People talk about WiFi, and i can only think of HiFi. People talk about GPS, and i think about the GPS that we used during my NS days. People talk about bluetooth (when it was just launched) and i stare at their teeth, wondering if they are colour blind, or i look at my own teeth in the mirror.

I am behind the times. I still do not know what the hell WiFi is... Another version of HiFi??

A stroll in the city

What a busy sat. We had a zone event, City Quest 2007, and basically me and DT went out to have fun and to camwhore.



The event photos are out at SJAB Zone 3 blog, while my blog show the other pictures.

DT trying to push the statue down with 1 finger,

While i was trying to impersonate Sir Raffles. Somehow, the size does not fit.

A commerical building. That's so high!!!

Basically, we camwhore at the Cavenagh Bridge, the "center" of all the checkpoints for the participants of City Quest.

NO!!! Don't do stupid things!!! Don't jump off the bridge!!

Having a super relaxing time at the bridge...

Bored...

Basically, both of us are just having fun, and bored, till both of us waved at the tourists sitting inside the bumboat.

Welcome to Singapore!!!

And we managed to capture some members in the process of acting cute...

What's YJ trying to do??

And members who are just basically cute.


It seems that our fingers are busy on the "trigger" of our cameras... Shooting and poseing non-stop...

SO and DT, always here for you....

And i caught DT hiding behind a pillor. What's he doing there?? Taking pictures secretly??

No, he's helping a tourist to take a picture of him and the 3 cats.
Meow, Meow, Meow...

We started to walk around to look for more background to camwhore...

We came across someone with an opened book, and curiosty got over us... We wanted to see the contents of that book.

There's nothing on it... (roll eyes)

And not far away, there's another statue with pointing fingers... Curiosty came over me again... What's he pointing at?? So, i went over to take a look.

And guess what i saw??

DT!!! Couldn't be... he was beside me just now!!! I blinked and looked again...

DT: KUA SIMI!!!

And so we carried on walking... and we came across a poor soul... One who is dressed in tattered cloths, looks darn pitiful.
And we realised why is he so pitiful....

HIS RIGHT ARM IS AMPUTATED!!!!

Poor fellow.... Feels so sad...

And we continued our session.

DT tried to follow my pose, but then, as i was about to snap the trigger of my camera, a strong gust of wind came and caught DT off balance.

Opps...

This is not the first gust of wind... Eariler, there's another gust of wind that almost tipped me into the Singapore River...
Luckily, i did not get wet.

And so we slowly back and saw a sign that stirred up our rebellious nature...

The sign says "DO NOT OBSTRUCT"

Who gives a shit???

Wahahaha!!!

And we saw 2 statues of the old chinese officials, and we did this.

And there's an inner voice, telling me to pay respect to the military senior officer. In the past, people don't salute to high ranking generals.

They kneel down...

Awaiting your orders, GENERAL!!!

There's no orders for me from the general.

And so, we continue our late sat morning stroll, and came across to a chinese war hero memorial, Mr Lim Boon Seng memorial. He's been totured to death by the Japanese Secret Police during WWII and never compromise a single name.

I paid my respect to him. Who can undergo toture and still keep his mouth shut??

With that, it concludes our camwhore session.

And its back to HQ for the prize presentation. You can find the pictures in SJAB Zone 3 Blog.

Super tiring sat.