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 :)