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.