Night at the Museum

This movie is like Jumanji 3 with Ben Stiller as the lead. As most know, ben stiller movies are always typical where he will be the most "Suay Ka" character in the movie, things just don't go his way, blah blah ... etc.


As expected, movie starts with him getting a parking fine and his car wheel clamped. Then he missed some kind of school session for his son ... and already divorced. So he gets to see his son once on weekdays and weekends, but he is losing it as he doesn't have a stable job and doesn't feel like getting one.


Not sure what he was doing all that while, guess was he is doing some kind of innovation job which very obviously isn't bringing him anywhere. But for the sake of his son, he took up the night guard job at the museum of the natural history.


The main plot of the story which is negligible but strings the scenes together ... is somehow the museum comes alive at night, every exhibit starts walking around ... has his or her own agenda depending who he/she/it was. It is like a chaotic party. All these due to a gold eygptian tablet which was brought in there around 1950s.


But the 3 existing old guards have something up their sleeves, they plan to take something from the museum which will be laying them off as it is not doing well. They want to steal the gold tablet and other stuff to sell them off ... of course then make it as if ben stiller was the one doing it.


The secondary plot is how all these re-build the relationship between ben and his son. How his son really believes what ben is capable of and starts to bond with him.


Actually, there were a couple of nights at the museum, the action get started on the first night. He freaked out, as any normal guy would ... the skeleton T-rex starts chasing him, Terry Rosevedlt horsing around and providing advice to him, Attilia the Hun chasing him, the Mayans, Cowboys and the Roman Gladiators all comes to live.


Won't the forget the wild animals of the Africa and the monkey who just make fun of him. There are numerous scenes where ben interact with all these exhibits and some are really hilarous with his kind of humour.


As he starts the learnt about the history, he gets the hang of it on the second night, but then monkey monkey who was outplayed by ben at first got back at him .... thus making his second night not any better.


The last night will be the one where it is the final showdown ... where the 3 old guards came back to steal ... and ben somehow have to lead all the exhibits and retrieve the tablet to restore the museum.


Well, Ben's movie though usually have "Suayness" revolving around him throughout but usually ends well. This one as well.


Moment of the movie :
It must be ... when one of the guard took the tablet then escape by driving away. Ben gets help from Sacagawea, suppose to be some Shoshone woman who accompany 2 guys to explore western US and the pacific ocean. She suppose to be some kind of tracking and geographical expert ... anyway ... so she helped ... they all went to the loading bay ... as she examine the evidence on the snow filled road ... she mumbled "some kind of tracks ... but crashed very near from here ... he came back ...". Ben was muffled ... was she that good ? Then he asked her ... how do you know ? Pointing to the van which crashed into the lamp post just few metres ahead :)


7/10.

Desserts@The Chocolate Factory

Drop by here for some desserts as we are still early for the "Spurs v Liverpool" game. This place was getting rave reviews since it opened. Laurent Bernard is the one who makes the pastries and chocolate.

The menu is simple, nothing fancy but you can't miss Choco Roma. Made with bitter chocolate and slightly sweetened, comes with marsmallow, a piece of chocolate and a piece of something which not sure if it is a bread or cake. Pieces of raisins soaked with rum dwelt at the bottom of the big cup. This is a must try !

I didn't order that. I tried the moroccan mint tea. I like it, it doesn't leave the after taste of normal tea.

Now comes the best part ! The pastries ...... The chocolate truffle and the crispy chocolate tart. The truffle is a chocolate that have layered of sponge cake in it. The layer of chocolate on top and in-betweens was just the right amount and goes well with the cake. It was really good !

The crispy chocolate tart !!! No wonder is one of their best seller ..... For me, this is definitely the dessert of the year ! Eating this is like eating Kit-Kat but made with much finer ingredients ... a crisp crust, hazalnut praline, crisp choco flakes and the thick glossy dark chocolate top. Eating it in small pieces was just really good .........

十二月二十九日 星期五 晴

十二月二十九日 星期五 晴

今天拿了假期, 参加了一位好朋友的新婚宣誓仪式. 在 Carlton Hotel 举行, 亲朋好友陆续到来, JP 来了. 仪式开始了, 庄严的仪式在户外举行, 没有像捆在四面墙中显得沉闷. JP blah blah blah 说了 quite standard 的话, 双方说了 "I do", 为对方带上了戒指. 仪式在欢乐的掌声中结束. Follow by a lunch buffet reception, food was okay.

今天不知怎么了, 似乎感觉到会碰到她.

After this, met up with another friend for a drink at TCC at boat quay. This was to kill some time before I go to Orchard ... Sale are sprouting out after X'mas.

Zara started its sale ( up to 30% ) on thursday ... went to Zara at Taka. It was crowded but still able to browse and try out my stuff. Bought 2 shirts and 1 T-shirt. Somehow, Zara's shirts fit me quite well, nice bodily fit and sleeves length. Quite sometime back, G2000's designer think that tall Asian men have short hands !!!! But I think now, they came up with longer overall length and sleeve length shirt but then ... still abit lacking for me.

Went to paragon after walking around Taka for a while, friend want to take a look at Celio. I ended up increasing the "SG Consumer Price Index" again, storewide 40% + additional 10% if you pay by DBS/POSB cc !!! Got a pair of jean, long sleeve T-shirt and a jacket.

Going down to Paragon's basement, 真的碰到她了 ... 一种无法形容的感觉涌上心头 ... 也没望她多几眼 ........................................

Anyway, day ended with an enjoyable lesson at replugged :)

Replugged - Lesson 11, 12, 13, 14

Somehow ... I really enjoy attending lessons at replugged. Maybe it is something which I like to do, the basic lessons of 12 sessions was extended ... As we are not advancing as smoothly as planned.

Past few lessons was learning a new song .. 吴克群's 吴克群. Quite a nice song. We learnt broken chords and slash chords. But playing a full song without stopping is still difficult !!! Maybe have not been practising more digiligently.

Today, we start to learn how to read piano score. So is like playing melody on the right hand with bass on the left hand. Identifying the note in between the lines is hard !!! Need to memorize each of them !!!

Next week, there will be a short theory test. And of course have to improve our 吴克群's 吴克群 and the 3 new short segments of piano score. They are 关怀方式, 当你孤单你会想起谁, nokia's tune. Getting the fingering right for the melody is important, if not either you have problems playing earlier notes or later notes ... or maybe somehow the fingering looks wierd.

Anyway, looking forward to the next lesson :)

满城金带黄金甲

Quite a dark movie to me. 慢性毒害, 不择手段, 淫乱私情, 乱伦, 手足相残, 满门杀害 !!! Not sure if lavish is the word to use, maybe too modest. The setup, costumes and detailed court procedures were very lavish. Except for Chow Yun Fatt and Jay Chou's beard/goatee, almost everything is in GOLDEN GOLD or bright red.

Plot is quite typical. Here it goes, Chow Yun Fatt married Gong Li because she was the princess of 梁国. He was a small official then, and was married to another woman who he had a son with.
Due to his need to climb and become emperor, he ordered this woman and her family to be killed.

So now, emperor and had 2 sons with Gong Li. And somehow, Gong Li had an illicit affair with the elder son, which is not her flesh and blood. Knowing this, Chow began slowly poisoning her. The process of getting her to drink the medicine hourly is quite annoying !

The second son, Jay Chou was sent away for training as Chow hopes he can become the new prince. Gong Li with the help of the woman, knew Chow was poisoning her, so she decided to upstage Chow on the night of 重阳. She asked Jay for help, knowing that Chow was poisoning her slowly, he agreed.

The elder prince knew about this through the daughter, 蒋蝉 of the imperial physician who he had an affair with. He was shocked and return to question Gong Li, knewing that if there was an upstage, he being the current Prince, will be the main suspect to be behind this !

This type of movie needs twists. So during 重阳's night, it all came. Chow ordered his "dark" soldiers to kill the imperial physician whole family, the "Low Kun" died, but the daughter who left early to come and look for the elder prince didn't know what was happening. So the mother, which happens to be Chow's first wife, chased her back to the court.

So, barging in, the woman question Chow of so 心狠手辣 to have all of them killed.


Gong Li who has been saving them along the way, took the chance and reveal it all. The elder prince knewing that she was his mother was shocked, asking Chow why he bluffed him !!!

But then, most important !!! The girl he was flinging with was his sister !!! The girl knewing this for the first time, went hysterical, ran out. Mother chased, time for them to die.

But then, came a little detail which we didn't really expect. The youngest son, which somehow was evesdropping daily, here and there, knew about everything. He was naive and blinded by jealously. He piecred his elder brother from the back with a swift stroke, being injured, the elder brother did nothing.

Chow and Gong Li was stunned. Chow was really mad, the "xiao gin na" attacked Chow. Chow took his hair pin and stabbed his hand, the sword dropped on the ground. He gave him a power slap, he felled on the ground. Crawling away, without any weapon, Chow release his belt. If you think being hit by a leather belt was hiong, think again.

Chow belt him with his "golden belt", told you everything is gold. But then he seems to be okay leh, Orrrrr ... he wearing a protective armour below. So bo bian lorr ... he belt him on his face repeatedly till the son died. Hai ... didn't show his face leh.

Then came the final showdown, the golden army led by Jay. Quite a scene, I must say. Chow already knew this, was prepared. Jay was no match for his army. Gong Li's plan failed. Chow offered a lifeline for Jay is he is ready to serve and ensure his mother take the medicine hourly from now onwards, he will be spared.

Of course, unwilling, he took his own life with a swift stroke to his own neck.

Moment of the movie :
Must be the scenes where the ladies of the movie, mainly Gong Li and 蒋蝉 with the awe-inspiring way of how the bosom was presented to the audience.

7/10 for this 张艺谋's flick.

Live@陶餐厅

现场收音, so way off CD quality. But these 2 songs which I like ....

听说爱情回来过


如果你还爱我

Saturday Dinner@陶餐厅

My second visit there, this time we got seats outside where guys and gals from "FM pop music" school is singing "Live". And this time I took some pictures of the food, service there is great as usual. If there are complaints, would be it is quite pricey. Around $46 a person, can't remember how much I pay last time.





The baby potato salad is a new item. Nothing fantastic about it, but quite nice for a starter. The potatoes are cooked with any seasoning, so the sauces and condiments comes in to enhance the taste.

Had my pumpkin soup again. Nice :) The "Slow Cooked Pork Back Ribs" is good, almost 入口即化. And of course the 极乐 sauce adds as a very very nice complement !!!

Poached Pear was my dessert, forgot to take it's picture. Maybe I not a fan of poached pear, but it is a very soft piece of .... ermmmm ... pear. Refreshing after the series of food items.

The ice grape mallow tea is taste just right. We get a little X'mas pressie too !!! The teapot that holds the tea, it comes in a little red 陶餐厅 box :)

Friday Night@The Clinic

Clubs and Bars have been sprouting out at the Cannery following suit MOS which is the main anchor. No queue on a friday night, inside is not really packed. Maybe consumers are spoilt with choices now, with St James Power Station already in the scene, some surviving ones at Robertson Walk, Momo and Mdm Wong at Central Mall, DXO, etc.


Plays mainly funky house and some kind of digital music. So too much of it, is like some kind of monotonous bombardment.

There are couches outside for people to laze around, to let the ears have a rest or just chill out. There are quite a number of rooms inside suppose to have unique design and themes, too dark to verify that. Got one room on the second level, so dark that I thought it was some "KTV".

A short clip on the main dance floor.


Some unknown gal *not pretty* moving to the blast. Can see she is quite into it, as she was doing that for quite long and I took this when I was about only 50 cm away from her.

When there is no parking lot ?

No available slot ? Carpark charges too high ?
HDB carpark no shelter ?


Let Mr Cefiro show you how to solve all these issues !!!


Hmmmmm ... wonder how did Mr Cefiro do that ? The design of the block must somehow allow enough space for him to cruise in !!!

Dinner@Diandin Leluk

Tucked inside a corner at Golden Mile Complex, this kopitiam style thai outlet serves some nice food. Talked about thai food, most people will think of Tum Yum soup. This spicy and sour soup filled with seafood. Not really crowded on a Saturday evening, as time pass, more people starts to trickle in.

We ordered individual tum yum soup, oven baked pineapple rice, red wine chicken, beansprouts and fried basil beef rice. My ice tea came .... as usual, thai drinks are very sweet, like those that I had in Bangkok. This one was as well, the amount of the condensed milk that was in it, you can imagine, it was definitely not in conjunction with the NKF's initiative.

Food arrived shortly, but Oops, ordered wrong ! Should have been the clear tum yum soup ! Shucks .... but then this one did not disappoint abit at all. The looks as per other tum yum, is the taste that differs it from the rest !! The punch it carries was just right for me, enough of spicy hotness and the sour level, "I can't stopped yourself" starts to hover in my mind. The amount of ingredients was good, squids, prawns and fish slices.

The 辣 gets into you while you progress into the meal, you sweat, you choked, but you still continue to drink the soup.

The pineapple rice was good as well, not like those I had which are sticky. Goes well with the tum yum soup. The red wine chicken was another must mention, chunks of chicken meat with the sauce. "The sauce" was tasty and up your appetite to the next level !!

How can we leave out the beansprouts ?!?!??!? It was much more soupy than the usual beansprouts, most probably was fried with the thai fish sauce and with the added salted fish. Every mouthful of it just give you the satisfsaction.

Most probably, the fried beef basil with rice was also done with the fish sauce, not bad as well.

Definitely worth another visit :)

*Warning. You might not want to try the tum yum if can't take hot stuff, or have a weak stomach !*

Eragon

The trailer for Eragon had been playing for quite a while before the movie hit the screens. The trailer did not really provide a catalyst to watch the movie, somehow ...

It is a typical "Lord of the Rings" kind of movie but loses in all aspect. It is a story about dragons, where the land was ruled by dragons riders, peace and harmony was in place until a Galbartorix, dragon rider who betrayed the order, overtook and ruled the land.

For years, all believe dragons became extinct till Arya who took the dragon egg and hid it away from the chasing bad guys. And of course, Eragon found it while hunting, and though it was a rock blue in colour, took it home. Days gone by, it hatched, so it was an egg. Rule was the egg will only hatched when it is in the hands of its dragon rider.

Eragon bond with his dragon, Saphire. So the King ordered, Durza to killed both. Eragon's uncle was killed by the Razac, some ugly creatures sent by Durza to get the egg. With Brom's help, an ex-dragon rider, they escaped and travel to the Varden, a hidden league that was against Gilbartorix.

Eragon dreamt about Arya along the way, which was imprisoned by Durza. Durza lured him to save her, he did in the end but Brom got killed while saving Eragon.

In the end, they got to the Varden and Durza came with the Ugal army to try to kill them all. Of course they failed and he got killed by Eragon and Saphire.

Movie ends with Gilbartorix unvealing a dragon ... The novel has a sequel too.

Since the movie is adapted from the novel, maybe the novel just do not have the aspect to match "Lord of the Rings" or maybe shouldn't be comparing anyway.

Moment of the movie :

Maybe I can find it in the sequel.

5/10 for Eragon.

Courts MEGASTORE@Tampines

Though the box bistro was a disaster and the KT design of how you can go from point to point.
In addition, very limited car park spaces at Courts, meaning you have to park at IKEA but pray it do not rain.


But this MegaStore has some + points. Firstly, the first level is where you get the mega deals items stocked, mostly electronics items. It is area where you see all the slashed price items.


Secondly, the next level is where they displayed the furnitures. You get to see much much more items get displayed due the huge area which you do not get to see at other stores.


Thirdly, the 3rd level is the electronics area. Another huge area, the thing I like about here is the section where they displayed the mobile phones, almost everyone is powered on. Therefore, you can really fiddle with it, see how is the coloured display ? buttons ? interfaces ?



In addition, the mp3 players sections, every single player is hooked up to a headphone for you to listen to the quality and check out the functions of the player.

Box Bistro@New Tampines COURTS

Went for lunch at the new Courts which opened yesterday. Expectations wasn't high but then .... not low till this kind of level !!! And I must say again ... the design of how one can reach a certain place in the mega building basically sucks big time !!!

And sure what is the main reason behind it ? to lessen bottleneck ? to force people to walked the whole of Courts ?

Back to Box Bistro, as the name implies, it is a kind informal restaurant selling fast food ... Damn fast I would say at prices between food court and restaurant.

Basically, it was not ready to open and serve. Things just get messed up. Not sure what will happen during their grand opening this coming Saturday !

Self-service is the word. You have queue up to get what you want to eat, most of the food are cooked, just serve and go. Then you get your drinks .... then pay up.

The Auntie

Can't decide what to have ... finally took the Penne with beef meat balls with don't know what sauce ... Have to tell the auntie a few times what I want ! Finally she got it ... but then ... she still points to what kind of pasta I want ... Told her "Penne" ... Quite obviously she do not know what is Penne ... After a few times, I have to point to her.

She scooped some penne and beef into the 2 baskets and dipped into hot water, Penne was up in less than 10 seconds. Then she take the beef up and mumble to herself, "Don't know cooked already or not hor ... should be cooked lah"

*Almost faint*

She put both into a box kind of container, then mumble again "Aiya forgot the beans sprout". 5 seconds ... Scoop ... Basket ... Dip ... Up ... Into container

Then she drenched with the Don't know what sauce ....

Took it ... knew it instantly I will be having a "sucked" lunch. Anyway, my beef meatballs turned up being slices of beef ... Didn't even felt like arguing.

The Cashier
This poor malay guy having problem operating the cash register, of what reason who will know !!! He need to ask me how much was my Penne !!! Win Oredi !!! Got to stroll back and check how much was it .... "Ya it is $5.50 and $2.50 for the wedges".

Gave him $10 ... Sorry ... We run out of change, "I give you $1 first, return you another $1 later"
Hmmmmm ... What can I say ? *Shake Head*

The drinks section is before the cashier, it will be the bottleneck boi. Because the coffee machine takes 45 seconds to 1 min to churn out a cup of coffee. Same place where to take your ice water.

At least, the ang moh manager who double up as another cashier knows it when my friend told him about the coffee machine. He acknowledge and say they are getting it changed.

And he has to small talk to appease the people in the queue :)

Something serious needs to be done to this Box Bistro, if not soon it will boxed up and go.
At least, the coffee offered some reprieve :) Not bad :)

时间

时间在你离开以后停了
日复一日不知怎么了
夜突然好长星星都睡了
又想念了

时间若能让心不再哭了
日思夜想不知怎么了
落下的泪虽然已停住了
又想念了

时间再也不跟我赛跑了
繁忙的脚步也慢下了
窗外的雨点让天都哭了
又想念了

时间是不是在..倒退了
但忘不了真的受伤了
快乐好像不再是选择了
又想念了

Asian Games - Doha 2006

China's dominance in the Asian Games continue, 137 gold medals counting as I am writing. Rumours that the next Asian Games will be renamed the "China Games 2010" and ironically, it will be at GuangZhou.

Qatar and Iraq will meet in the football finals on friday. Both first time finalist, won their semi-finals matches against favourites Korea and Iran. Iran who was 5 times winner and unbeaten in last 15 Asian Games matches succumbed to the home crowd.

And interestingly, there is a sports called "Kabbadi". Ermmmmm .... *Scratch Head*
Heard it from a friend, there is such a sports. Actually it is a enhanced version of "Police and Thiefs" which we ourselves have played when we were young.

Hmmmmm ... but playing at a international competitive level ? Anyway, India won their straight fifth gold medals !

If Singapore will to be able to host the Asian Games, can considered the below to be included to enhance our gold medals tally :

"5 stones"
Played with 5 little sacks of beans in which each individual level requires movements of the palm to ensure the requirements are met.

"HumTum Bola"
Players are scattered around a open area. The aim is to hit the player with a tennis ball. It can be enhanced with points system.

"Goli"
Played on a sandy patch where marbles are places in a drawn circle. The craze for this sports then can be matched by XBOX 360 and PS3 nowadays.

"Ji Ku Bak"
A sports played with 2 players where 3 different hand gesture is shouted for each turn. The player who shown the same gesture as the shouting player loses.

"String"
I still remember this one when I was young. Basically, it is played with a string, quite long. The player has to go round the string with his/her pair of hands, thus forming a pattern with it.
A basic pattern to start off, then it gets more complicated up to the player's skill and creativity.

"0 Point"
This is played with a long consecutive stringed rubber bands. This is played with at least 3 players from each team. 2 players will hold either end of the stringed rubber bands and swinging it in a circular motion, the 3rd player will jump in and starts his/her routine which can be from simple "Jumping over the stringed rubber bands" or "A 3 1/2 backflip somersault with a final one-leg standing", etc.

"Bi Bi"
The simplest of sports where no specific equipment and venue is needed. It can be played by 2 or more players. the objective is to hide within a stated time and around a specific area. The winner will be the one which finds where his opponent is hiding in the fastest time.

With added "Live" commentary in local dialects, it will be some Asian Games :)

Snakes on a Plane

Didn't catch this when it was in the cinema due to it might be too B-grade to pay to watch. Watched it after a stormy Monday afternoon, one of my back log movies. Quite a typical B-grade straight forward flick.

But I would say not bad !!!

You can all kinds of human killing beast but mostly in mutated or gigantic form. This one is about real animals, snakes of all kinds. Basically, the storyline is ignored in such movies, this one too. Baddie guy decides to kill the witness which will fly first class to L.A. using deadly snakes which somehow can be undetected brought onto the plane.

On paper, snakes do not bite unless provoked but "provoking" maybe too difficult to determine. So to unleash the deadly instinct of these snakes, pheromone was released into the air in the plane causing the snakes to go on a wild human killing game.

The thrills was brought into the movie evenly till the end, of course most people will survive. Usually, in such movies, characters are in extreme forms thus allowing them to explicitly show the different human behaviour.

A old stewardess who died saving a baby from the prancing snake.

The businessman who threw a passenger's dog to the rattlesnake who in the end got hugged to death by it. Of course, it swallowed him.

How about how the people died ?
A couple while making out in the toilet, that snake like her nipple very much. The guy got it in the neck.

A old lady was enjoying the snake smoothing up her body while sleeping but the snake went right to her eyes.

Snakes like penis too, a guy got it while peeing. A black guy got it in his ass. Another snake went into a lady's mouth.

But then how do you get rid of so many snakes ? Only the lead actor will know. Samuel L Jackson, the only known actor in the show.

The trick is to open all the windows, sit tight, brace yourself. Let it suck all the snakies out. But then plane movies usually must have one element, someone got the land the plane ! And won't be the pilot !!! Some guy who plays flight simulator on PS landed the plane.

7/10.

Sat Dinner@Soon Heng

Dinner at this place was a lucky one because wasn't planned. But definitely a very welcome surprise !!! It sells fish head curry and some tse char food. Went because friend say it was nice.

But at the door, due to the little crowd at 7+ pm, we were reserved, then ..... still decided to give it a try.

This little shop is tucked behind Mr Bean opposite Park Lane, along the shops at Prinsep. We ordered hot stuff ! On paper at least ! Large Fish Head Curry ! Black Pepper Prawns ! Sotong Assam ! Okay something normal, Panfried Kailan.

Here comes the food !!!

The fish head curry was the highlight, the sauce was just the right level of concentration. Somewhat different from other curry which are more diluted. The fish was fresh and have ample meat. It packs a tiny bit of sourness and the enough spicy "Ohm" !

The prawns was good as well !





But then ...... came .......... the .........
Sotong Assam

Something which the looks of it gave us the immediate feeling, its 极乐ness will be of utmost level. And Indeed really good ! really good ! I must say, you have to try it to enjoy the 极乐ness. You have to like assam to love it in the first place.


Paid around $64 for the meal, quite expensive but worth more visits.

Birkis

Slept at around 5 am. After coming home from work, watched the stoooopid Barcelona trying to beat Sociedad, 害我 lose money !!!! $%&^&!^%)(^&& :(

My birkis is finally here !!!! It was about 2 to 3 weeks late, this is the "price" you have to pay for enjoying the hefty discounts when buying it online. Apparently, I found 2 websites that sells birkis online which looks like german sites. The prices are 30 to 40% cheaper than in SG retail stores.

But at www.footshopping.com, you have to pay a shipping charges of S$30 if your total bill is less than S$249, Hmmmmmm .... meaning you have to buy alot.

Then found another site, www.jestelkg.com .... Prices about the same. The only + point is they offer shipping for free but this will mean longer waiting period ! No status checking ! Your buy may never arrive ! Or arrive when "Singapore win the World Cup" !



Luckily, my experience is still a not bad one :)

IKEA@Tampines

On a Wednesday afternoon, hoards of people feel like having meat balls, chicken wings, salmon and hotdogs. Of course also buy some self-installed furnitures.

Very possible due to the "Dec School Holidays", they are out in force !!!!

With the opening of Courts very soon and Giant next year, Phew, Another possible target by KTs AQ people to reduce the populations siginificantly !!!

Car park space remain a problem ...


Busstop to IKEA entrance is not sheltered ! Few hundred metres away to entrance !

Why build something from an empty plot with such a poor design hor ? Or no budget ? or LTA didn't approve ? or LTA KT ?

My e303

Got my e303 2 weeks back at Best@Vivo. Didn't test it out during the purchase, thinking possiblity of something wrong with it is really low. But when playing it most of the time, the C note ( Grand Piano Voice ), it does not produce a pure piano sound like other notes.

There is a 刺刺 sound that comes with it, abit sian !!!! How suay I thought !!!

No choice, took the chance that I was not working today to bring down to Yamaha for them to check it out !!!

It is at some wulu A-Z building at Paya Lebar, a simple office with mostly "old people". The one I saw are lorr .... Then the arrival of "THE techician" !!!!!

Is an ah pek !!!!!! Slow movement, white hair, ah pek dressing .....

Plug the power in ... On the keyboard ... then the damn 刺刺 sound is not there anymore !!!!

Omigod ... Ah pek magic touch ?!?!?!?!??!?!?

Then he tell me some possible reasons, most probably due reflection of the sounds waves with the surround objects where I place my keyboard ... blah blah blah ... He should have told me that on the phone !!!!

Hmmm ... at least I know it is not some kind of hardware fault :) Maybe I should have know that ....

Sunday Dinner@Cafe Cartel

Nothing much special about the place and the food. Except recently, they decided to add in service charge to their "OREDI INCREASED" menu prices.

Service charge in Singapore just means charge you more with no service, if you somehow get that bit of service or even service to some great length, you are lucky !!!

The so called famous pork ribs, a huge portion of it with fries and coleslaw. Worth it due to the size of the portion. For a normal person to finish, he might need to be a on 7 days 6 nights SAF excercise on Tekong Island before he can conquered it.

Usually halfway through, it became an adrous task to continue .....

When I first ate it, it was $11.90 nett ... Should be quite long ago

But now ?!?!?!?!??! $16.20++ !!! A 56% hike !!!

Anyway, I had the cheesy seafood macroroni :)

Lunch@Werner's Oven

Wanted to try out this German restaurant since long ago. Finally, had lunch there today. It is a family run restaurant at Siglap, just opposite Kiliney. German food to most of us probably will be just sausages, knuckles and beer. Nothing special on the menu, it serves just that and some other items.

The jumbo sausages main course starts from $16 onwards. They have smaller portion from $8 as well. Decided to go for a soup and smaller portion of sausages.

Clam Chowder ....

Abit disappointing .... on the part which say they uses only fresh ingredients. The clams not fresh !!!!

But ..

2 pieces of bratwurst sausages with a large portion of potato salad. Nice :)
Worth trying it out if you like sausages.

Sitex 06

It is the phenomenon of the year again at Singapore Expo. But this time round, somehow could not believe what I see. IT shows has become a part of our lives, happening 3 or 4 times a year, either at Suntec or Expo.

Every 3 or 4 months, hoards of people throng ( now much better with wider walking space ) the venue for printers, mp3 players, digital cameras, laptops, PCs, gadgets, peripherals, mobile phones, broadband offers, XBOX, PS, Disc Scratches Removal Solution and whatever !

Parking has always been a problem at the Expo if there are such events, maybe coupled with the John Little Mega Sale. This time round ...... People parked

Along Changi Business Park, surrounded the whole park
Along the taxi stand, so basically there is no taxi stand anymore
Near the traffic light, okay lah, not near, is beside the traffic light !!!
4 lanes bi-directional street became single lane
Numerous cars parked at least 1 or 2km away from the Expo

Not just seeing few cars, is like bumper to bumper parked everywhere. If Google earth is real time, it will be the biggest car show room if someone does not know what was happening.

Happy Feet

This movie was rated PG because of some dangerous scenes which was needed to added the much catalyst in it. The story is about how an outcast penguin, Mumble ( Elijah Wood ), the son of Memphis ( Hugh Jackman ) and Norman ( Nicole Kidman ), saved the lives of the emperor penguins.

The little mumble when he was born was sooooooooooooooooooo cute !!! Unfortunately, he was deem as abnormal from the rest as an emperor penguin is just not a emperor penguin if you cannot sing. Mumble's singing is like 满清十大酷刑 !!!

But he was born with a talent, his "happy feet", tap dancing to his own tune. This was like taboo to the emperor penguins. This also did not help him in liking Gloria ( Brittany Murphy ) who happens to be the best singer around.

As the emperor penguins faces the shortage of fishes and impending extinct, Mumble was deem to be the cause of it and banished by the leader of the pack. Dejected and determined to find out the cause of the loss of the fishes, Mumble left ....... :(


The spark of the movie must be Ramon ( Robin Williams ) and his "un emperor like" penguins which are a bunch of party animals. His machine gun and quicked witted talking makes the movie much much more enjoyable.


Together they journey to find out what happen to the fishes .....


And it all ends with a happy ending :)

Moment of the movie is when little Mumble break out of the egg with only his feet which is a significant part of the movie. A pair of very happy feet :)

Replugged - Lesson 10

Last friday was lesson 10 already !!! On paper suppose to be 2 more lessons to complete the basic course.

至少还有你 was the song we have to learnt. Quite a old song but very popular because of the melody which is 琅琅上口. The part of the song after the chorus has some new kind of chords but we didn't learnt it yet. So this week ( already passed liao ) was only to master the start and the chorus ....

We brushed up some theory as well on how to know the notes of all the chords using formulas. Also learnt how to know the notes of different scales from the fixed pattern of full tone and half tone.

I think got 2 more songs to go ... most probably we have to increase the number of basic lessons :)

姜汁炖鲜奶@Liang Seah Street

Visited 记得吃 at Liang Seah Street again, this time round we asked for a recommendation. She say if we do not mind the taste of ginger, we should try 姜汁炖鲜奶. Though not a fan of ginger, since it was the shop's 招牌, we gave it a shot !! And it will take around 5 mins to prepare to !!

It came and we are told not to mixed it up as this will spoiled the taste and 口感. Smell of ginger can be found, the first spoonful 入口即化, of course 入口即化 !!! Milk only mah ....

But then not really, it was like 豆花 but 500% more smooth and less solid. It was like the milk has been solidify by 10% and then immerse with ginger of "don't know what form". The ginger taste was just nice, not too strong, at least for me who do not really fancy ginger.

The downside will only be the $4 price tag they slapped on it, wonder why ? Maybe just to "keto" the consumers, Hmmmmm ....

Laksa@Kovan

This laksa from the hawker centre at kovan, just behind heartland mall, though I did not go there just to try it :) For $3, the serving is big with generous ingredients of fish cake, tau pok and "Hum" or "fish balls". The soup is orangie in colour and doesn't look oily.

The soup taste smooth and without the overdose coconut milk in some laksa. It may not be the best but it is still definitely worth a try if you are around that area and you like laksa.

And a snake like queue will form during lunch time !!!

墨攻

This movie did not really met my expectation or maybe I was hoping it could be better in some ways. The story is about the kingdom of 趙 wants to invade the kingdom of 燕 and standing in between its way geographically is the tiny kingdom of 粱.

So general 巷 of the kingdom of 趙 lead an army of 100,000 to capture the kingdom of 粱 which has only 4000. The exponential difference is essential to create how miraculously the result of successfully defended the kingdom of 粱 from the invasion.

So the king of 粱 asked help from the family of 墨 who are experts in defending kingdoms, but the family of 墨 refused. But an unknown from the family of 墨 came along, 革離, protrayed by Andy Lau, offered to help.

From the face of the king of 粱, we can see he is the kind of knn nbcb king, 無能, 昏君, 獨裁, 心胸狹窄, relish the power he is having.

趙's spearheading army came and wanted to take down the kingdom of 粱, but was cleverly "counter attack" by 革離. His slightly "tweaked" arrow almost killed the opposing general which scare them away. With this, 革離 offered to defend 粱 if he was given the command of the army. The knn nbcd king has no choice to agree.

革離 already has a set of plans on how to defend 粱 .....

Built a bulwark in 7 days
Find other source of water
Stock up food and ration them
Leave a weakness in the defence to lure the enemy

General 巷 was no push over as well but everytime it was well dealt with by 革離's tactics. Even when General 巷 had their slaves which are the "ultimate human underground excavators" to digged underground tunnels into the kingdom of 粱. 革離 knew what he will do and ambushed them.

As days goes by and kingdom of 粱 still intact, well defended. 革離 became well liked by the people and this was a threat to the knn nbcb king, who started to narrrow his already 心胸狹窄的心. And knewing that General 巷 retreated their army back to 趙 to defend their own kingdom, the knn nbcb king took steps to kill 革離 which is what he is best at.

In no time, 革離 was cornered but with the help of the prince, the knn nbcb king's son. 革離 managed to escape by helding the prince as hostage. The prince liked and admired 革離. But in the process, the prince was arrowed to death by General Moo Moo. *Moo Moo as in 牛

But then General 巷 didn't retreat all, he stayed behind with 1000 troops, preparing to deal a final attack to the kingdom of 粱. Basically, he cannot accept the defeats again and again by 革離, he need to defeat him personally.

With 革離 not in kingdom of 粱 anymore, General 巷 captured 粱 with ease. General Moo Moo was no match for him. But it was not 粱 that he wanted, he wants 革離. Therefore he threathen him to come to 粱, if not he will killed all the 老百姓.

革離 who cherishes people's lives and live by his 兼愛 非攻's principle, of course will go and meet General 巷. But 革離 was also prepared, with the help of a nigger who he saved and a team of kingdom of 粱's 弓箭手, he arrived with a plan.

General 巷 was again defeated by 革離 and this time round he accepted defeat. He prepared to stay and died but asked his troops to retreat.

The knn nbcb king retain his kingdom and throne for the time being but was overthrown by the people years later.

Moment of the movie :

It was when 革離 went to save his love, 逸悅, protrayed by 范冰冰, frantically finding her in the dungeon after kingdom was flushed with water. She could not swim and was muted by the knn nbcb king, so she could not respond to 革離's shoutings. By the time he found her, she has already drowned. *This scene was the first time he saved her, she survived that time

7/10.

The flash on my blog

Seems like the flash in my blog is not working !!! I was sure it was working after I added another song, 你很爱他 to it, but .... don't know why

Somehow I cannot get it loaded, even on my PC. Didn't have much time to get it fixed, basically the latest "cr*cked" version of the swishmax do not like my PC, it distorts the texts after I export it out to html.

Hmmmmmm ...

And previous versions of the "cr*cked" swishmax, though do not have this problem, but after exporting the swf file, it doesn't get loaded in html !!!!

Have to find time to get this fixed !!!

Replugged - Lesson 9

I am leaving for lesson 10 soon.

Last friday, basically we kept playing the 你怎么舍得我难过 as standard is quite obviously not there yet. Playing it throughout smoothly will be a miracle :) And still have to maintain the constant tempo and beat ....

But we did learn something new, the sustain pedal, it "strings" the chords together as if 4 beats are played out with a single long chord thus making it much much nicer to listen to.

I think today we will learn a new song. 至少还有你.

Casino Royale

Another midnight movie, 2.5 hours this time, but somehow managed to stay awake this time. Not because the movie was so good that it keeps me wide awake. The new bond series helm by Daniel Craig, the sixth Bond actor was not really well taken by the media, practically a unknown and do not really "look and feel" like a Bond.

Not sure it is because of him that this movie was changed from the Pierce Brosnan franchise series of Bond movies, where Bond was scripted as sleek, intelligent, utterly charming, female magnet and more important for Pierce, bleeding, injury, conned, bluffed, bullyed was not really in his dictionary.

Movie starts in Madagascar where Craig was chasing a so called terriorist, Mollaka. During the chase sequence, we thought we were watching some "jackie chan vs spiderman 3 vs ong bak vs matrix" movie !!!! The extremeness that Mollaka was trying to escape Craig in "Neo" speed nd agility, "Spiderman" like limbs to climb any architectural structure, "Jackie Chan" death defying stunts !!!

Something smells fishy with such starting sequence, would mean this time round, Bond is a different Bond, maybe as so it was scripted that he was just promoted to '00' status. In Pierce Brosnan's Bond, his hair will be perpetually intact from jumping from planes from 6000 feets or fighting off numerous baddies or emerging from a swim. He finishes off baddies with ease and almost do not get conned and of course with the help of numerous 小叮当 like gadgets.


This new Bond

1) Had a major problem trying to catch Mollaka
2) Almost got killed by another terriorist trying to blow off a plane
3) 50 seconds away from death after being poisoned
4) His DB9 flipped 3,451,417,893 times after he was trying to avoid his fellow pretty agent Vesper who was tied and lay on the road
5) He was almost "roped" to death on his balls by the baddie during captive. A innovative way of torturing though, I must say .... Hmmmmmmm
6) He was conned totally by his new found love, Vesper and almost lost the $150 milllion.

Plot wise is poor, with not much suspense and twist. Everytime Bond was bluffed or conned, a very obvious clue was left behind for him and the audience so that he can at least complete his task though being KTrize. This movie being Casino Royale, therefore gambling on the table has several scenes, nothing much to awe at also.

Last but not least, to add to the negativeness, the last part of the movie where somehow it dragged on to emphasize that how Bond and Vesper was so much in love but only in the end found out she betrayed him by giving the 150 million to the baddie. With gadgets missing from the movie, something is amiss somehow. Mobile phone plays a big part in the movie *yawn* where SMSes and robbing of the the baddies's their mobile phone serves as critical clues.

Forgot to mention the drop dead female cast in the movie as per Bond's movie's practice, but sad to say this one, Eva green as Vesper was the closest you can get.

Moment of the movie :

This is hard but I would say in the end where Vesper do not allow Bond to save her while she was drowning. Maybe too ashamed to face him as she betrayed him because her algerian boyfriend was captured by the baddies.

6/10 for Mr Bond.

Replugged - Lesson 7 and 8

Not much new stuff from the last 2 lessons except we learnt a new left hand bass, using 1-5-1 positiong. Hmmmmmm, it is abit hard to describe here.

Still mastering of playing 你怎么舍得我难过 without stopping !!!! But it is getting better and better, somehow playing the bass and chords doesn't let me feel that I can sing along with the song.

That is another problem, singing along will definitely make it more chaotic while playing with your hands on the keyboard, brains not fast enough to co-ordinate the mouth, vocal, the hands, chords, bass and fingering.

Hope today we will be learing something new. Maybe how to use the sustain step panel.

重庆麻辣火锅

There are about 5,712 火锅 shop around the Bugis/Liang Seah area. Initially was just 1 or 2, then it just increase in bulk.

Okie lah ... correction ! Not 5,712, but at least 6 to 8 within 30 m of each other. The initial famous one will be 天天火锅, then opposite it across the field is the Hainanese 火锅. Now so called 正宗重庆麻辣火锅 have duplicated into at least 4 to 5 outlets. And not forgetting the one in the middle which serves Porridge 火锅, meaning the base is no more soup rather then porridge.

Tried the 正宗重庆麻辣火锅 on Sunday, the one directly opposite Shaw Tower, with the white signboard. Full house and with people waiting in the queue but we were lucky, got seats quite fast. The selection of soup base was quite standard, so we chose 麻辣 and 排骨.

Everything was self service, including clearing the "Mt Fuji" of prawn and crab shells on your table but except for the soup, the inside area was small and crowded with bottleneck at the shop entrance as the drinks section was at the shop entrance. And somehow, the drinks dispensers are installed on a low platform, meaning people have to crouch to get their drinks, thus obstructing traffic more. And at such a low height, wonder why they do this ?

Maybe they thought customers mostly are 1.2 m tall !!!!

The food selection was normal but fresh and the prawns somehow larger. Hmmmm ... somehow !!! Replenishment was at lightning speed, though the area to take the food was small as well, but consider at the peak hour we went. The flow is still okay.

There is another very interesting sight, on the sauces table, "it" stands out exceptionally from the others, it shone, it is glaring ....

It is a bottle of "味精" !!!!! Standing tall among the others ! And somehow the position of it move a few times while we were there, meaning most probably people do use it to enhance the already very "极乐"ness of the sauces, food item or soup !

At $15 nett, fresh selection of food, free flow lime and plum juices and toilet roll ( for you to clean your hands and wipe the sweat, of course if you need to shit, should be able to bring in and use )

This stall is worth it. At least better than 天天, which will cost around $20 to $24 per pax depending whether you are camel or not, think they don't serve ice water.

And also somehow amaze at how 天天 price their 火锅, per pax is $15 i think but
but ....

but ....

If you want to add soup base, you need to at $2 per pax for choice of 2 kind of soup. Who in the right mind will eat 火锅 without soup ? How to cook ? I know there is something called sashimi, but we Singaporeans are more patience than Japanese who usually can't wait for their food to get cooked !!!

Might as well add that $2 to your pricing, 好无聊 !!! So with the +++, about $20 to $24 lorr.
Service is below par, food wise normal. So the only difference will be that extra bit of aircon.
The last time I went, they even say it will be cheaper if we choose to eat outside which is non-aircon, Hahahahhaha !!! How about eat standing without a table ? 90% discount ? Hee ....

Anyway, from the crowd during dinner and weekends, these 火锅 shops maybe staying for quite a while in that area.

品冠 - 爱到无可救药

专辑里的深情主打, 无可救药是由品冠作曲 .. 五月天阿信作词。曲风很有品式情歌的味道, 轻快, 词里抒發戀人體會到被愛是幸福的事情，戀人看著情人出了神，每次情人對著戀人笑，笑裡好像是有毒藥。當戀人愛上了情人就越來越無可救藥，愛情使戀人不能自拔.


"哄我入睡", "Darling", "我以为" 和 "下次再爱我" 都是好听的歌. 我个人很喜欢 "我以为", 抒情式的曲风, 词里描述着无奈的结果未能跟原来想象中的.






我以为我的温柔 能给你整个宇宙
我以为我能全力 填满你感情的缺口
专心陪在你左右 弥补他一切的错
也许我太过天真 以为奇迹会发生
他让你红了眼眶 你却还笑着原谅
原来你早就想好 你要留在谁的身旁
我以为我够坚强 却输的那么绝望
少给我一点希望 希望就不是奢望

Sat Dinner@UberBurger

The $101 burger !!! Ate there but of course did not eat that, the decor and ambience was normal, the menu looks like it has been flipped, touched, abused million of times. Maybe people just do not know what to order.

The main course are basically burgers with choice of sirloin, pork loin, chicken breast, vegetarian, sausage, tuna steak, lamb, prawns, beef tartare. Different choice of patty has different kind of seasoning, cooking, etc.

Beef tartare is something interesting, it is raw beef chopped and make into a patty with some seasoning, then you eat it raw. Hmmmm ....

This is what I have ...


"Chopped grain fed beef sirloin a colossal 200g, then we add only fine sea salt, milled black pepper, onion + little, very little garlic all in a bun fresh from the oven. ubersalad on the side"

$16 burger, it is basically pure meat with very little seasoning and sauce. The bread itself is quite nice, crispy and smells nice. The 200g patty is quite a big portion and maybe a challenge to finish at the end.

It comes with salad which is nothing special.


UOB CC card holders gets a 1-for-1 burger promotion, not bad, not bad. We ordered 3 burgers, so 1 is free and we get another one free, the waiter recommended the sausage one. Basically is a jumbo hot dog with salad, but the hot dog is nice :)

Dessert time !!
"your chocolate overdose begins here. after melting fine belgian chocolate, we add a few more ingredients + steambake them into big square fudge like chewy chocolate sensations. With a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream"



It looks like a huge piece of chocolate mooncake.
And sad to say, it taste like one too !!!! It is too hard with the chewy inside. The nuts filled inside makes it too nutty. It doesn't goes well with the ice cream because that piece of rock is just too hard.

It becomes very 腻 after a few bites just like mooncakes which you can't eat much. Nothing special about the ice cream also.



Wonder how long this uber can uber till ? :)

Singapore Motorshow 2006

Has never been to the motorshow because there is always an entrance fee, but went this time round. The show stretch across 10 days at suntec 4th and 6th floor. It wasn't crowded at all when we are there around 4+ pm.

Some of the continental makers are missing from this year show, mercedes, BMW, renault and audi are some well known brands.

Cars
Japanese cars steals the show with the most representation, Subaru has the biggest booth while Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Suzuki were there. With Cherry QQ already selling in Singapore, China's Geely and Lifan were there. Geely, the 1.5 sedan selling at around $38+K, touted to be the cheapest sedan around, basically sucks.

With front and rear power window consider a feature, how bad can it gets ? Optional ABS and airbags ? Everytime you open the door, the handle seems like falling out anytime. Interior finish has a plastic feeling and "extra finish" are left for you to admire !!! Poor quality !!!

Lifan, another car touted to be coming, doesn't impress as well. Closing the door gives a sound that the door is hollow !!!

Models
Car show without models is just like chicken rice without the chicken and the chicken rice.


Uploaded the pictures I took
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=j6hnfo5.2cy8m1yl&x=0&y=1j9nfs

Punctuality

Our team was given a list of daily timings which surpasses the official working hours. We are expected to give reasons on why we are late for each timing. I was surprised, shocked, awed, and almost "SaMed".

In the era where technology can help everyone produce effective and efficient work anywhere and anytime, I felt why was there such a check going around ? No wonder recently, when I was travelling to work, suddenly feel that, somehow like lesser and lesser people was walking with me to office from the bus stop.

Who in the right mind will initiate such actions with the mindset it will achieve favourable results ? 无风不起浪 ... Must be some KTs' KPIs ??!??!? Or somehow worked produced on the whole as a company wasn't up to expectation due to lateness that such measures needs to be taken ? I doubt so ....

Or could be a random on the timings lead to some "dark secrets" that a significant amount of people are coming in, say at least 30 mins late ?

Or some KTs felt by forcing people to come in by the official hours, the 10 to 20 mins will produced significant work that can cause positive impact to the company ?

From the point of arguement that, everyone is paid to work during these hours, so of course, by rule and law, we jolly well must abide to it and they can warn or punish if they felt deem right.

But then back to reality, daily coming to work by the dot requires a significant amount of effort due to "rush hours timing" at home and using public transport. Without significant amount of buffered time, it will be quite impossible to ensure that daily arrival is by the dot so of course most days will be earlier than the dot. So does that mean we can leave earlier before the dot ?
Fat hope !!!! Tan Ku Ku !!!

I read an article in the papers quite a while back. That period of time was the talk of working from home, flexible working hours, etc. One of the company who allows their employee to work from home was interviewed with a simple question,

"How do you know they are actually working ?"
"We trust them"

A simple enough reason for a simple question though encompasses bold significance in it :)

Spurs ends 16 years jinx !

It was yet another "confirm lose or at most draw" encounter last night as I though it would be. Every season every match with Chelsea, the hope was there that this time round Spurs is a better side, but every time till last night was a sad one each time.

Was trying to keep myself awake for the match.

A very entertaining first half at pulsating pace ....

2nd min
Ghaly quick turn allows him to speed away and charge down the middle, but his left foot shot was weak

3rd to 12th min
Chelsea steadied themselves and took control but Spurs defence stood still

13th min
Robben sprung offside trap but was too slow to put the good chance into action, he allows king to thread back and make a superb tackle

14th min
Corner for chelsea and Spurs failed to clear far enough. Makalele unleashed a first time volley into Robinson's right hand post.

Sian ... even Makalele can score. The jinx looks so sure to continue when chelsea piled on, Robinson made great saves from Ballack and Lampard.

But .....

24th min
Freekick for Spurs after Ferreira fouled Berbatov, Jenas swung in the free kick from the left and a magnificent deft flick by Dawson saw the ball sailed into the far corner !!!! Goal !!! Goal !!!

25th min to Half time
Spurs pile on after the equalizer, Bertatov tested Hiario with a drilled shot which he palmed away for a corner. From the corner, Hilario managed to deflect King's shot out in a messy clearance

Essien found Drogba in the penalty box, he decided to go for the spectacular with a overhead kick which just goes wide

Lennon tormenting Cole before sending in a inch perfect cross for Keane which he head over. Golden opportunity !!

Good interchanging play from Chelsea midfield creates 1 or 2 chances but Spurs defence was there in time.

Dawson glanced wide from another Jena free kick !!!

Second Half

Boulharouz came on Ferreira


52nd min
Boulharouz did not have a good time, Keane turn him inside out and outside in before sending a good cross at the far post for Lennon. He turns Cole inside before shooting pass Hilario with a left foot shot. Goal !!! Goal !!! 2-1 up !!! This send White Hart Lane into rapture !!!



Wright Philips came on for Makelele


63rd min
Keane turns Boulharouz yet again but this time round, not much end result. But the substitute was substituted few min later and he was furious. Kalou on for him


Ghaly, Ballack Terry and King was yellow carded as the game tensioned up


70th min
Terry was shown a seond yellow card !!!! Looks like finally, after 32 years, the derby going Spurs's way.


79th min
Kalou instant curler was tipped away by Robinson as Chelsea chased a equalizer


86th min
Robben's left foot curler hit the woodwork !!! Hahahahahaha


Final whistle blowed with a deserved victory for Spurs !!!!

Download

This word "download" became so useful and normal when the internet took over the world and became part of our life. And it also became a problem when almost anything can be downloaded, software, games, TV shows, HK dramas, US shows, movies, variety, MTV, concerts, MP3, it is practically you name it you can have it for free.

And this became more and more difficult to control people from downloading, especially stuff that has IP/copyrights which is so called illegal to download or share. With technology advancement nowadays, software are readily available to do downloading, everyone can do it. The recent spate of people's home getting raided for illegally downloading content was much talk of in forums.

A friend refer me to a link to a forum, where there is this poster who was too righteous on this subject and comparing people who illegal download to thieves. Some of his posts are very ... how do i say ? Arggggggggg !!!!

Anyway, this will be a never ending debate though putting the word "illegal" on the activity will ensure the IP rights holder gets the edge.

If something gets downloaded, it must be popular or nice or a need to use it. Will you buy or download a album if most of the songs are not nice ? Maybe will lah, for those hard core fans !
Track back, the CD selling business is still solid with MJ, Sembawang and Gramaphone, the major players. People are stilling buying CDs or music illegally, so downloading became another avenue for people who "knows how to download".

With imported CD from China, CDs are getting really cheap nowadays, even new ones. Around $10 or even less, but also maybe because of the popularity of the mp3 players, be it IPOD, creative, IRIVER, Samsung, Sony or some taiwan, korean or china brand.

You buy the CD, you ripped it to mp3, it is also iiiiilllleeeegaaaaalllll !!! A check on soundbuzz, its online content sucks and too slow to offer new songs.

So the purpose of the IP rights is to protect the content being obtained in a non-financial method ? So basically, is more like, say I spend 3 month did this work, if you obtain my work illegally, so I won't get paid. But somehow because of the work is commercially packaged, the piece of work can be packaged again and again and again and again with additional contents each time.

So is like Mr Popular A's album out in stores, grab it at $17.99 !!!! 3 months later, it came out with the another album, with added MTVs, and some photos, grab it at $18.99 !!! Then few months later, sales are good, now 庆功延长版 is out, with a DVD of how the MTV was shot, grab it at $18.99 !!!!

If you talk about 精选集, somehow everytime, few nice songs will be left out. Wonders why ....

Anyway, ah huat is also selling MP3 part of their collections. They are allow to stay alive now and then, maybe because 警察叔叔 also do not want to spend a few hundred bucks to upgrade to Vista !!!

It will be a miracle if somehow a win-win solution can be thought of, because of the enormous number of people downloading, if the law will to lay their hands on all of them.

Hmmmmmm ... Changi needs to be expanded.

Replugged - Lesson 6

The hard part gets harder. Playing different inversion during the 4 beats, maybe 2 root + 2 second inversion or 2 first inversion + 2 second inversion or 3 root + 1 second inversion, the combination is endless and the deal is to be able to react and change while playing which is "Mission Impossible 4" for now.

2 new "friends", the A7 and E major key, 2 difficult "friends". The damn fingering for these 2 "friends" is neither impossible nor comfy, is in the region of quite difficult + cramped fingers. Traversing between the inverse of these 2 "friends" is even more challenging !

Anyway, yet a new song to learn and somehow didn't master the old ones

你怎么舍得我难过

对你的思念 是一天又一天
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.
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最爱你的人是我
在我最需要你的时候
没有说一句话就走 ....

无题

虽花已落 意难忘
视有若无 又何必
近水楼台 虽得月
从前不在 曾拥有
人生若只 如初见
春夏秋冬 不再变
繁华如梦 总无凭
人间何处 问多情

Dinner@Ellenborough Cafe

Has been there a few times for the buffet and was there on Saturday. Not sure if they expanded their selection as they have 2 more areas where there are spread like oyster, sashimi, scallops and some main dishes.


Of course their attraction are the black bean paste crayfish and the durian pengat if you like durian. The crayfish is like the kind of "Now you see it Now you don't" but the replenishment is quite fast. The salmon sashimi also vanished in the speed of light as people took them in bulk.


How do they make the durian pengat so smooth so consistent ?
One possible version is below ... ( Parental Guidance is advised )


Durians are pry opened by whatever *Not important*

The pengat extractor *The only guy*

a) eats lots of crayfish before he starts
b) will removed each seed and placed them in a big bowl
c) brings out the big bucket
d) warms up his mouth with numerous mouth, jaw and lips excercise
e) puts the seed into this mouth, tugging the seed left right up down using every inch every part of his mouth to remove the flesh, spit out the seed and then the flesh
f) repeats step e) till all the seeds in the bowl are finished or his mouth is cramped




Anyway, was bloated at the end of the feast though seems like we ate nothing much. AMEX card gets a 15% discount, quite good considering the total amount :)

Replugged - Lesson 5

Completed lesson 5 last friday night and was time to pay up another $90 for 4 more lessons :(

Now, the trick is to play 后来 with the left hand single note bass twice during the 4 beats right hand chords. It gets messy initially, as some bass is on the 4th beat and some on the 2nd beat. In addition, the inversion chords does not come naturally, I will paused and think this second inversion of this chord is which notes ? And where are the notes ?!?!?!?!!?!?!?

Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice ... Practice .......

Waiting

I think this movie was in the cinema around July, but did not catch it as is that kind of B-grade "Dude where is my car ?" type of show. I watched it today from my backlog of movies and indeed is what it supposed to be. But quite funny and stupid in its way, I must say some scenes are really kinda of goon and slapstick.

It is a plotless movie about people working in a restaurant, mostly youngster except the manager who supposed had rot there for decades. Since it is plotless, there must be some kind of catalyst.

Firstly there are 2, a newbie who started work, Monty, the so called cool guy waiter was supposed to show him around and the ropes before he gets his hands dirty. Secondly, Dean who was waiting there for around 4 years already, now 22, was in a dilemma on whether he should continue to wait. And his mother broke a news to him that one of his old classmate just got a bachelor degree and got a good job ... blah blah. And on the same day, the manager offered him the assistant manger post !!!

But these are not important, below are the moments of the show :

They got some kind of "male frontal nudity" stupid game going in the restaurant where anyone that can make anyone look at their "genitals" anytime anywhere during work gets to kick his ass 3 times. And the newbie got introduced on the different methods he can present his "thingie".
Wah lau eh, what a script !!!

Calvin who got problem peeing after his phobic experience when someone stare at his genitals, so he gets "Good Luck" from colleagues everytime he go to pee.

And being a restaurants, they got a board in the kitchen counting how many bitches and bastard was in the restaurant !!! But why count ? Because each of their food will get "special" care from the kitchen crew !!!

This is what a bitch got herself on her steak !!!
Extra sauce on her mash potato + a warm and delicious round of "spit"
Garlic bread which got rubbed against the genitals of a crew
Fresh dandruff flakes on her medium steak
Don't mess around with people who handle your food !!!!!

Daily, they will geared up for dinner time, where the crowd piled in.
Foreigners who pretends not to know how to speak English to escape tipping
The manager who didn't know how to serve
Gay couple on the table
Table of high school girls for Monty
Old lesbian ladies on a table flirting with a waitress
Cook sneak out for a screw with the bartender
2 kitchen crew lazing in the cooler sucking whipped cream

And of course the kitchen crew will countdown and hoping nobody will come in at the last minute before they close as they cleaned up early. But those who turned up get "special" too :)
Basically, they get their orders "floored" !!!

Not a bad show for the holiday :)

How to watch free movie ?

GV@Vivo , the new super multiplex with very comfortable seats and ample leg room also allow people to watch movie for free.

The Prestige, 23rd Oct, 18:30, Cinema 7

There are 2 entrances to cinema 2 to 10, separated by only 1 stand. But at that time, only one uncle was there to check and tear away the tickets. As the toilets are inside the cinema, , so we just whisk through the other entrance with ease, either the uncle really "bo chup" or didn't notice us or twlighted us. After using the toilets, I though of going to the uncle to show him the tickets, but then on second thought, if I would have walked over and passed him the tickets, he would be shocked to see me showing him the tickets but in the opposite direction !!!!

So I dropped the idea ...

Eat like Pigs ?

The Food Republic in Vivo is similar to the one at Wisma, with "so called" famous hawker food selling their food there. The whole look and feel is 古色古香, and with everything in wooden, except the cutleries/utensils and staff. This picture was taken last night around 9+, not very packed but still crowded, with queue of 10 odd people at popular stalls. Between the 2 pillars, are stacks of used plates, bowls, cutlery and utensils, somehow no people was clearing it. But it was eventually cleared around 15 mins later. At other tables, unclear mess are also visible, maybe still understaffed or simply too slow or simply "bo chup".

There was an article weeks back in the Strait Times about a Singaporean trying to prove his foreigner friend wrong. Prove what ? Wrong ? About ? His foreigner friend says that Singaporean eat like pigs. During the days and weeks when they are out, scenes of above are evident. Not sure if he was really into proving his friend wrong but to me why is there a need to ? His friend's statement maybe abit too extreme but since this is Singapore, where people, culture, lifestyle and habits are diffrent from where he came from. I mean, if he somehow do not like the scenes he see at hawker centres and food courts, so be it, find another country.

In addition, say on a non-peak hour weekday, at a single table in a hawker centre, a person eating a bowl of noodles with a drink, how messy and dirty can it get ? He meant one will eat the noodles with his hands in public ? or eat till half the noodles are on the table ? or with his mouth smeared with sauces and noodles ?

But if this gets to a large scale, during peak hours on a weekend where many people eating lots of food on a table, it may looked messy and dirty as drinks/food spilt on the table, it get worse when clearing the mess is slow and not thorough enough.

Nonetheless, how serious is that ang moh with his comment only himself knows. And I believe most people here don't even care about what he thinks :) This is the ultimate when one doesn't care about what other thinks !