十一月三十日, 星期日, 雨

Weekend is over and November will be over very soon. Wasn't working this weekend so can say I have more time to do what I want. After a Saturday morning dip, went to Sitex, didn't manage to get my printer as Sitex HP booth didn't even have those models that I was looking for. I think I won't wait for the wireless C4580 to be listed on HP EPP, will just get my firend to buy the C4480 for me. $10 cheaper than our own HP EPP !!

Sunday was a stay home day other than meeting my friend for lunch because wanted to check out the physical size of C4480 at Best. After lunch, continued my 珠光宝气 show, finished epi 15, 65 more to go.

这两天好像完成一首歌, on and off, 不过就是没 idea. Melody 只差 here and there but was trying to fit them into chords. 最 sian 的是, 就是填不上满意的词 ..... Haiz. Hope more 灵感 comes along.

Friday Dinner@Botejyu

It says it serves really good Okonomiyaki and they rename it Okos for eateries in Singapore. The one Okonomiyaki I know in Singapore is the little stall in Takashimaya basement Food Court. It is like a quite huge fried omelette and you choose what stuff to put inside.

It takes up an small area on 2nd flr of Liang Court, open concept, mid-pricing restaurant. A few Okos you can choose from, with rice cake, noodles and different ingredients, pork, cheese, seafood, etc. There are also a few fried noodles, curry rice dishes and finger foods.

Most dishes comes in a hotplate and then will take quite long to come, which they mention in their menu. The Okos tasted quite good with the usual mayo and dark sauce. The rice cake with chopped cabbage gives a crunchy bite throughout. It can get abit 腻 if you eat too much as the sauces gets to you.

You get unlimited Katsuobushi/hanakatsuo and Aonori by the side. Hanakatsuo is the tasty, brownish like slice flakes. Aonori is like seaweed powder. The fried noodles is abit dry, maybe you need to eat it quick before it dries up.








Nothing fantastic but if you feel like having Okos, this is an option.

十一月二十四日, 星期一, 阴霾

The mahjong was just a leisure play, don't play big with this group of friends. Ended after Man U drew 0-0 with Villa, then head straight home to zzZZzzz. It was a rainy sunday, spent the whole day playing RTK 11, shag but fun !

Today went for a leisure dip and then to Courts to check out printers. My first printer since the one if don't one tell you that is a printer, you will think it could be a fridge. Was doing some research online and seems there isn't one that really fits my need within the budget. Preferably, it needs ...

to have Wi-Fi so that less one cable
compact, something like the Samsung ML-1640 or slightly bigger
scan, copy and fax will be nice to have
laser technology

Looks like it is down to Samsung ML-1640, is laser and Courts is selling at $95 but is USB. Or the Epson T40W, it has Wi-Fi but it is new and quite ex at $188. Now is Xmas season, the printer companies already out with their promotions but doesn't seem attractive enough. See if I can get better deals at Sitex this week.

And I got B&J, never tried these 2 flavours, fossil fuel and cake batter !

Saturday Dinner@Ivins Peranakan

This place is just diagonally opposite to Sembawang Hill Food Centre, along Upper Thomson Road. First time there, this should be good food before our mahjong session. Parking seems ample despite we arriving close to 7 pm, but it doesn't seem so after we left.

A look at the menu saw wide selection of food, pricing from $3 to $7, with some items like fish head over $10. It is cheap but portion are small, thus ordering alot and share seems logical. Almost every dish, comes in some kind of sauce, typical to peranakan.

Must try is the yellow coconut rice, brightly colored and taste very good. Assam fish head, fish cake lemak, pork chop in pepper sauce, sambal sontong, long bean titek, sambal kang kong, fried gho hiang, crabmeat and shrimp omelette coming right up.



The fish cake lemak served in a claypot piping hot with fish cake drenched in lemak sauce. The fish cake is very soft, abit different from the ones outside where it is more chewy, the sauce goes well without too overwhelming. The assam fish head is alright, the assam just the right balance of taste but it is the pork chop which is surprising.




The pepper sauce doesn't taste pepper at all, but full of onion taste, so is like drinking onion soup. The sambal sontong, kang kong and long bean titek are mild spicy but have enough mixture of sambal and dried shrimp.




Desserts like gula melaka sago, chendol seems a favourite with many people ordering, and at $1.20 consider cheap for such places though again it comes in real small portion. Decent enough for after meal sweet stuff. I didn't get because I saw a awfully chocolate outlet just up ahead !

Body of Lies

The story is bland and plain nothing. Though crowe and dicarprio were in this familar situation of AQ terriorzing the world and the US trying to stop them, it doesn't semm to help. There just no twist and moments that will grip your heart.

Dicarprio is CIA Ferris who based in Middleeast and speaks almost perfect arabic. Crowe is his CIA boss Hoffman who most of the shows speaks on his handsfree and acts, seems like good $$$. Their objective is to get Al-Saleem who claims responsibility of bombings in UK and Amsterdam.

But as usual, their operation and location is "don't one knows", like they have a level 99 invisible cloak around them. As their plans and leads starts to breakdown, Ferris starts to become piss off with Hoffman who runs his own sideshow. Then this key man came around, Hani from Jordan Intelligence Services, who so called also after Mr Al.

Ferris wanted to work with him but Hoffman half-heartedly. And this Hani is somehow who do not like lies though after a while, when he cools down, he seems friend friend again. Amid his "don't know when will die" job, Ferris somehow managed to find time to know a Jordanian gal, Aisha and somehow knowing of his dangerous "almost everyone want to kill him" situation, still goes after her, with some success.

That is of course needed as a threat to him, as usual in the end someone will capture her. It ends well since it is a hollywood movie with such a theme and with the help of Hani. 6/10

Friday Dinner@Khansana

I think this is the 3rd or 4th time I came here, still out of the way. Located at Science Park, this indian restaurant serves good curries and naans. Though might have been too extreme for some people, all the curries we tried really good, chicken, fish, mutton, prawns, vege, etc. They have a wide selection of menu, but mainly in good concentrated amount of sauce.

The curries comes in small tin bowls with generous portion of meat/seafood. Somehow the curries comes in extreme colors, but the taste is good. This time round, was recommended to try the garlic prawn, if you see the color of the curry and you will never know this is garlic prawn if no one tells you.


The mutton ribs doesn't lose out, small chunks of ribs mutton in the mild spicy mutton sauce. And the butter chicken which is a must order, and more important the freshly made naans that goes so well with the curries. Butter, cheese and garlic naans are nice, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.

海角七号 - 情书

I changed upon this song at a website. The movie 海角七号 is a hit in taiwan and getting numerous good reviews. I have not watch it yet and no plans to do so. But this song in the movie OST, actually it is the movie main theme song, but 填上了词.
This is the original by 范逸臣。

The below extract of the lyrics very nice

一封封 情书穿越缓慢的时空
代替我 来不及说的含情脉脉
我相信 离开终究会有始有终
有一天 我将能为你描写彩虹

And I found the score ! It seems like a C# major song ... C#,Eb,F,F#,G#,A#,C,C#.

十一月二十一日, 星期五, 晴

昨天要出门时, 在车上发现 cash card 不知放到那里. 回想一下, shit ! 好像还在 washing bay 里的 water dispenser 里面. 算了, 买张新的, top-up 它. I was heading out to spainfinity which I know from a HSBC mailer. Just open, so if you present the mailer and pay by HSBC, you get a special price of $39 for a 45 mins massage and use of their facilities.

Location wise, do forget how you get there as it contradicts with how you would relate to a spa. It is at basement of fareast shopping centre, which you need to go into a door, across a side road which leads to sc carpark.

For such promos, always be expected to pay more or be ask to buy packages. It came just 10 mins after we arrive, $15 for the optional therapy oil, since withing expectation, so was okay. The place itself was spa or resort like, locker rooms where the facilities are, a small area for food which was not open yet, a lounge area with numerous comfy seats and magazines.

The masasge itself was okay, nothing fantastic, but still find certain pressure using knuckles and elbows are abit not comfy, maybe I should lower it to mild next time. Slightly better than the kenko one which was like using 少林大力金刚指.

The facilities area was just spacious enough. Hot/Cold Pool, Sauna, Steam bath, Shower, etc. It was recommended to dip in the hot pool for 5 mins then into the cold pool for 1 min. The hot pool takes abit of use to, need a few mins for your body to get use to. The cold pool is the one that is quite hiong, the very moment you dip inside, numbness starts to come in seconds.

Toiletries are decent stuff, can't expect $39 with molten brown. Overall, a nice experience, not bad to wind down abit. We were offered a $599 package for 12 sessions, cheaper than the $75 public per session rate. Good thing is no expiry date and a single package can be share among many people.

Still thinking ... question will be how long they can stay in business.

十一月十九日, 星期三, 雨

今天一起身就 somehow 下定决心 .... 要去洗车 ! 真的好 dirty. 已经很久没有亲自动手. 花了差不多一个半钟头, though 看起来干净了, 我的车还是很多的 dirt spots. Parked 在 non-sheltered, 车子有是黑色， 有 lift upgrade ... haiz. 到了 afternoon, 又下雨了. 过了一年多, 可以说习惯了.

I finally found the score for 彩虹天堂 ! I really liked this song, the melody and lyrics.

Chorus :
找不到方向 往彩虹天堂
有你说的爱 在用幸福触摸忧伤 两个人
相守直到白发苍苍 自由的飞翔在灿烂的星光
有你在我身旁

It is a A major scale song. The chords I found on another website was G major, though can play but somehow abit not okay. I think that I need to get a printer, hope to find smething good at next week Sitex.

Finally, started to watch the 八十集的 TVB series 珠光宝气. Has been a while since such a super long show came out. Just finished epi 4, still ... normal I would say but expecting more twists to come !

天空

听着自已的心跳

没有规则的跳跃

我安静的在思考

并不想被谁打扰

我们曾紧紧拥抱

却又轻易地放掉

那种感觉很微妙 该怎么说才好

时间分割成对角

停止你对我的好

瓦解我们的依靠

在你离开之后的天空

我像风筝寻一个梦

雨后的天空

是否有放晴后的面容

我静静地望着天空

试着寻找失落的感动

只能用笑容

期待着雨过天晴的彩虹

十一月十六日, 星期六, 晴

Somehow don't feel well last few days, especially on Friday. Abit better yesterday and managed to go for a dip at Safra. First time there, though one pool only, only a few people. Can considered signing up the membership.

Then we decided to head to Chomp Chomp for late dinner. Crowded but still able to get seats. Hokkien mee, BBQ stingray, Chilli "Tua Tao", Satay and Rojak ... really really full ! The dip definitely do not co-relate to the spread ! Must mention are the hokkien mee and stingray. The stingray looked really dry on the outside as it was sauceless but bites into it was juicy and goes well with the chilli.

I am going through the recent albums. Usually no time to listen to each song, recent new ones are from 周杰伦, 林俊杰, 五月天, 苏永康, 黄靖伦 ... etc. Other than their 主打 ones, these ones also nice :)

周杰伦 - 兰亭序
林俊杰 - 最赤壁
五月天 - 如烟, 你不是真正的快乐
苏永康 - 婚诫
黄靖伦 - 缺席. 每日一句
范逸臣 - 情书
杨丞琳 - 冷战

Madagascar 2 : Escape to Africa

They are back after a successful outing in 2005. Animations on animals are usually box office guarantee but of course a good story and script is critical. Probably because in real life animals can't talk, so making them communicate is already somehow maybe by default funny. Kungfu Panda was a good example and a sequel is in the making.

This time round, they are back to Africa where Alex came from. Just to recap, Alex is the lion that famous in NY where he perform dance moves that will make judges from 舞林大道 giving him 10/10. Marty is the zebra who always talk non-stop. Melman is the giraffe that has a crush on Gloria, the hippo. Not the usual combination ... but it prompted a sequel.

So what is the problem this time ? They were heading back to NY in a plane which had to be slingshot off to take off and also where the captains and pilots are penguins. You get disasters when you see such factors. I like the part where the penguins were brain-storming what could be the blinking red light means, which was signalling low fuel, the captain requested for the manual and smashed it on the light.

They crashed landed while Gloria slept through it. Bad news was the penguins decided to rebuild the plane, it is possible in animation. Good news was that they found out that they were in Africa, where lots of their own kind lived there. Alex even reunited with his parents, his father Zuba is so called the leader of the reserve, with Makunga waiting for his chance to take over ! He saw Alex coming home as a good opportunity. He tells Zuba that Alex needs to go through the rite of passage, basically to win a fight. Problem was Alex only can dance but the biggest problem was Alex really thought it was some sort of a 舞林大道 competition.

Alex lost but Zuba couldn't banished his own son, thus he gave up his position. Makunga got what he wanted. Things got worse, Alex and Zuba quarelled. His other friends weren't any good, Melman somehow became a witch doctor but believed that he was going to die. Gloria thought she hooked on the most wanted hippo around, Moto Moto, but then he was only physically interested in her. Marty who thought he was unique, can do his acrobatic spit water trick, soon found out about 1,565,768,989,144,565 other zebras could also do so ... and got into a bad arguement with Alex

Then more problem ... water dried up one day.

But this kind movie always ends well. Alex and Marty friend friend back and went to find water. Only to find Nana, the karate chopping and kungfu fighting granny, Alex got caught. Marty went back to get help. Melman found out he won't die and found love with Gloria. Then with the new plane which was build with the help of the monkeys, off they go to save Alex. *That was after the penguins gave in the monkeys demands of maternity leave !! Hahahahhaa !! 8/10

十一月十二日, 星期三, 雨

Afternoon, 突然间乌云密布, 雷电交加 ... 下了一场到现在还在下的雨. 这几天一直想去剪一剪头发, 终於今天 cut 了 hair. I was in town, so choices are around MS and also today left on the dot. And there seem to be quite a few hair salon in MS, roaming around on 3rd floor then came across this salon, Chapter 2. Looks nice enough .... $28 for cut, wash, blow.

You pay $38 if you think you need some creativeness, because that is the price for a creative stylist. It started well, 那位 stylist 还问了满多问题的, 那是好的, at least to me. Asking overall how want it to be done, side, top, back, also guessing from my current state, how would I like it, etc. 最重要的是, 给了一些好的意见 ! Anyway, I like the end product !

Even better, Mon to Thurs ... 25% off !

After that, I got myself 2 shirts ... from Zara with some discounts from my vouchers ! :)

Saturday Dinner@SangoKushi

It is a taiwanese japanese outlet that serves taiwanese food but attracts damn alot of jap customers. The settings and ambience are simple, gives you those small eateries feel, just 2 big tables and several medium ones, the menu is quite extensive and in chinese, english and japanese.

Selection are mainly ramen based, from $13 to $15. There have a few rice dishes like fried rice, stew pork rice, etc. But there is a quite alot of selection for starters, main dishes. Prices are on the high side but portion given are generous, even the ramen. We ordered 蚵仔煎, 盐酥鸡, 锅贴, 春卷 and the individual ramen.

My Sango ramen was good. Soup was tasty, seafood was fresh, mushrooms and vege compliments the ramen. Ramen was alot, probably two can share a bowl. The 蚵仔煎 is a bed of vege and with big oysters on top of it, then a layer of starched fried omelette goes on top of it and drenched with chilli sauce. Must mention is the 盐酥鸡, the flavours explodes in your mouth once you bite into it. At $15, not cheap, but you get abotu 10 odd big pieces of chicken.




锅贴 was recommended by the waitress, it was not bad but was expecting more since it was recommended. The 春卷 was some sort of surprise, it was thick and deep fried till golden brown, it was the ingredients in it that gives you the extra punch when you bite into it.




Definitely worth coming back :)

Quantum of Solace

This is actually a sequel to the previous Bond movie, as the story unfolds with more answers provided to all the question marks. The last movie was the beginning of a new era, no more Bond flying off an aeroplane and yet his hair was still nicely gel. But more important, nowadays Bond do bleed and any moment could be dead.

The last one started off seeing Bond in a mid-air chasing scene which could put Spiderman to shame. This time round, a high speed car chase in his Aston ... which seemingly was continued from the last scene of the last movie. Bond got Mr White and brought him to see M, but it got all wrong as M's able bodyguard was actually a traitor, White got away before telling that Mi6 do not know the complexity and powerfulness of this mysterious organization. Then Bond set off in another quite nicely choreographed chasing cum fighting scene, though he couldn't catch him alive.

Mi6 int somehow linked this to a bank account in Haiti and Bond was on his way. And this led to him meeting up with "Bond" girl, Camille, a girl with her own agenda.

But also allowed Bond to found this guy, Dominic Greene, a ruthless businessman within this mysterious organization.

Thus Bond went from Austria, Italy and South America to unravel their plot and stopped them.


Greene's plan was to overthrow existing regime in Bolivia and allowed exiled General Medrano to take over, the reward will be for a piece of barren land ... Even the "KTs" know won't be that simple ? Bond found that it was not oil or diamond on this land, it was water.

With their connections, somehow Greene did get things going and bribed Bolivia's Chief of Police.
G Medrano finally found out, when Greene let him signed an agreement that he will buy water from him at double the price, which he had no choice but to sign.

It all ended at building in the desert where they were signing the papers, Bond and Camille simply crashed the party. Camille got her revenge on Medrano whom murdered her whole family. Bond got Greene and made him tell him everything, which was not reveal what was told.
So another sequel probably on the cards. 8/10

iPhone 3G - Tips and Tricks #7

How do you change the fonts of your iPhone ?
The default font used is Helvetica.ttf and HelveticaBold.ttf for most of the characters. Changing it is a breeze if you have already JB your iPhone. Question will be where to get the fonts, I found this http://blog.gauravgiri.com/, quite a number of very great looking fonts. Personally, I quite like Neo Sans Intel one.

Once you downloaded the font files,

1) Get your iPhone on your home Wifi
2) SSH into iPhone
3) Navigate to /system/library/fonts/cache
4) Rename Helvetica.ttf and HelveticaBold.ttf to something else
5) Copy over the fonts you downloaded
6) You need to rename the new font files to Helvetica.ttf and HelveticaBold.ttf

Reload Springboard to see the new fonts.

十一月六日, 星期四, 阴霾

假期时总是过得好快, then 又好像什么都没做到. 话说回来, 每天在家有那么多事做吗 ? 不会很闷 meh. Of course not ... at least for me. 喜欢就约朋友出来 lunch, 不然就打长时间的电脑游戏, 看看好多没看的 "电影", 还有美国电视剧, TVB 连续剧, 晚睡晚起, etc.

It is also nice to eat at non-peak hours at food centre. I had late lunch at Old Airport Road FC yesterday, didn't know they had a fish soup stall which claiming it is the branch of the famous Maxwell Market one, It was quite good. And the rojak still as good, the one which you need to take a number and wait ... To wait for you to order.

今天是个在家日, but also went out for lunch with some ex-colleagues. We went to Siglap for porridge, the one near to Kiliney. Then I got back some Royal pies for my parents. Also got their dark truffle cake bar and walnut cake !! First time I tried them, the pies are good, the pepper chicken one. Of course the dark truffle cake is a must mention, slight bitter taste and spongy inside with just enough chocolate.

After lunch, I started playing Romance of the three kingdoom XI, first time. My friends were playing and got interested but it would have been much better if it is in Chinese. Quite addictive, played for few hours then have to stop, probably will continue again later !

Watching "Traitor" as I write, not as exciting I would have thought. It is about an international organization that execute suicide bombing around the world, thus FBI is hot on their heels but with some twists as there is a mole. Their final plan is to find 30 sb to bomb off 30 buses.

I am catching Quantum of Solace tomorrow. Hope it will be better than the previous one.

十一月三日, 星期一, 雨

有点累 ... 星期六的 job 用了好长的时间, 出了一些出乎意外的问题. Though these surprises still within expectation, but anyway wouldn't such things to happen ! 我拿了一星期的假期, clearing my leave as my contract is ending soon, didn't took any leave since I started last Nov.

昨天 around 两点到家, 冲了凉就睡了. Woke up around 4+, though still tired but still alright. Went out for dinner with my parents and bro ... to East Coast FC. Laksa, bbq stingrays/sotongs, rojak, satay beehoon and satay .. Good Stuff !! 值得一提的是 the stingray and satay beehoon. Initially thought, the satay beehoon stall was closed but suddenly it opened for business, unless you are the first few in queue, if not, prepare to wait for 20 to 30 mins.

Satay beehoon 的酱汁非常的 ... how would I describe ? Is like eating peanut butter but without the sweetness, you can only taste the 花生的香味. The concentration is just nice and with the 猪肉片, 猪肝, 鱿鱼 and of course the beehoon ... Very good !!!

Last night, spend a few hours fixing my iPhone. The last few days, the wifi somehow not working, then I decided to upgrade to 2.1 and it did resolve the problem. But ...... after I JB it and downloaded a few basic apps, change some folders/files settings, then it went bonkers. It rebooted, stuck at the apple logo screen.

Luckily, I decide to use the restore option .. Heng, it worked :)

The day is ending ... so fast. One day gone, just finished 少年四大名捕, nothing exihilarating but still quite good. 珠光宝气 coming up !

iPhone 3G - Tips and Tricks #6

A very comprehensive guide on Apple's crown jewels. From specifications, information, cases, speakers, games and applications.

Download from below links :

http://www.iloungeserver.com/09bgpart1.pdf http://www.iloungeserver.com/09bgpart2.pdf