december

i just realized i haven been blogging this whole dec. things are pretty alright for me. who don't like school holidays right? every day is a good day expect for result day which has been real shitty.

things i done this holiday
genting, cameron highlands, KL trip with family
probably wont return there again till at least 5 years later expect for KL which is a wonderful shopping place.

going for trainings...
real sick of them somethings. although they have been reduced this year, i still felt quite tired and worn out by them.

result day
getting shitter each sem. gonna pull up my socks. WAKE UP!

xmas day!
the party with my arts friends was good. thanks hong hui for giving me MANKANSUTRA as a gift n i shall not give a photoframe anymore for an exchange gift.. haha..

the first sign of a different xmas this season

i just read  an article titled, Parents' desperate plea: No more ads for toys from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27969265/

i really think this will be a different christmas for the middle class americans who have struggling been this whole period of time. i don't know why but i always think the americans families won't care so much about their kids. probably it was cause of misperception of that americans kids are more independent.

anyway, it is quite sad to hear that parents are worried that they can no longer afford the toys for the kids. some are like even going to the desperate ways such as prostituting to get the money for the toys. perhaps it is a good time to let the kids know what they are going through right now especially this whole economic situation is just gonna be different for a period of time. giving in to them all the time is probably gonna make them a spoilt brat.. i will think people grow faster in dire situation. anw.. i do think spending time as a family will be a good way to get through this special xmas.

i wonder whether this will be happening in singapore. i know it won't happen cos of xmas.. but how about stuff like parents slogging their lives to get to prestigious schools and to ensure that their kids don't get left out among their classmates. sometimes as a kid, we could hardly understand what parents are going through to get us to what we have today.

this article just serves as another reminder for us to get home and hug ur parents and say I LOVE U to them. it is never too late to appreciate what they have been doing for u.

mugging

these thoughts just cross my mind when i was on my mind walking back to biz library to resume studying...

for the past 2 weekends, people have been flocking to the various study hotspots all over NUS to study for the finals. at least hundreds and i am sure of that number. the only thing one their is to mug. pinning their hope that through mugging, it will bring the best out of their academic result. however, i don't believe studying and results are proved to be positively related for sure somehow. if you study 100 hours and the another guy who did 20 hours, you might not necessarily outscore him. it doesn't work that way and we all know it. a stroke of luck and genius on the actual day play a greater role for sure.

if you really study hard, then the more you sure get a good CAP score to reflect it. no one will know how much effort you put in if your result doesn't qualify you for the honors. that's the cold hard  practical fact of the society. the only way for people to recognize your effort that you have put in throughout the uni is to show it in your CAP score.

no one gives a damn if u can't do well academically. so what if you excel in your sports, the head of some 20 man committee or what so ever, no result now will mean no dreams for the future.

as i continue to watch people mug their life out, i wonder who will the stepping stone for others to their greater future. there's bound to be losers and winners. no one hates losing but someone gonna lose. it is just the cold fact..

sometimes, i wish that everyone is a winner... no losers in this world.

youtube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=casUr9UsabY

catch this video... kinda funny

customer services

Northern Optics.

one of the reasons why i keep heading back to northern optics for continuous supply of contact lens is their good customer services. the moment i stepped into the store last week to order my new pairs of contact lens, the optician immediately recognized me and called out my name. the last time i saw her was probably 7 months ago and yet she remembered my name. the check up and purchase were done in less than 10 mins. i then returned on the weekend wanting to purchase some daily lens as the ordered pair is still yet to be delivered. the optician then gave me 2 pairs of daily lens with astigmatism for FREE. i wanted to pay but he just said it is okay and i can have it for free. probably he felt bad for making me need to wait so long for my new pairs of lens but by giving me the free lens is a good of making it up.

chapter 2
the moment i stepped into the bugis branch on monday, i was almost stunned. all the hairstylist were ah beng and ah lians. what happened to chapter 2? anw, if the front is to be kept long and i said i want short for behind, it is quite obvious that that's wasn't a need to be too short. that ah lian hairstylist got everything wrong. there is no point in asking whether i am fine with the length of the hair when it was cut too short. it was a disaster hair cut. no wonder the ah lian then give me her name card after everything was done.

the sleep b4 the storm

i can't believe how long i have slept. i slept till 1030 am in hall and then i drove home. i started sleeping at 1230 till 4 pm. woke up for late lunch and watch tv. continue to sleep after dinner from 9 till 12 midnight. so a total of 12 hrs~!!!

my goosh.. i am turning into a pig. but seriously, i m feeling much more energetic right now that any of the past few days.

i am thinking about my final terms. seriously, it seems like an uphill battle. my mid terms are pretty average except for one screwed up stats module which did real badly. and because of that particular module, i have to get an A somewhere to pull it to average of 4.0 or else it won't have any effects on the overall score. and this sem could turn up to be as bad as previous...

u see how screw this whole system of scoring is.. one damn module can do the sufficient damage that will condemn ur result.

i better hit the books b4 i got hit by the books.

say sheares

this year night cycling was really a different one. for the past few night cycling that i went to, rain never cross the mind and i got a good bike finally !  

everything was fine, kinda enjoyable. from sheares to harbor front to lao pa sat, the journey was good. the rain came at four when we were leaving the stadium and from then on, the cycling journey became a different story.

the rain came and went a few times, we were cold and some were shivering. really a different experience. the rain forced us to seek shelter at various places and i guess the hot drinks were the only warmth we could get at that point.

as time was running out, we really had to cycle in the rain back to ECP in the end. i put on the helmet and water started dripping down. somehow this reminds me of my army days when i had to RTU during rain. the mind was switched off for a moment and i was thinking what the hell am i doing all these.. haha exactly same thoughts as the army days when things were really screwed up. i just followed the person in front and hope for the journey to end soon.

the rain may have spoilt the night but it could just add on to the memorable hall one could get. nevertheless, with me around, the night is never accident free. haha.. thanks andee for crashing into me at the corner and sorry yifeng for crashing into you at the top of the speed.

hall and hall fees

anyone who talks to me enough will know that i have grumbled about this issue more than enough ever since the fees are raised. i thought i had convinced myself to accept the cold hard fact that 1.8 k is the money that i have to pay if i wanna stay hall this sem n next sem...

today i pulled out my drawer n i saw the receipt and the grumbling just started again...

i remember clearly that raise in the fees were during the inflation period when the economy is doing well. prices rise and maintenance fees rise as well. so the fees rise..

now that the economy is in depression as declared by the prime minister, will the fees be adjusted? as an econ student, prices don't adjust quickly to market changes.  so i understand that point. but i thought perhaps the student body will push for it to be adjusted soon. or at least ask for an explanation.

i m not that particular abt the rise. i mean if it is worth the money, i will pay for it. the problem is the way the school runs is exactly like a business. u can't raise the fees just because demand exceed supply and the price isn't at equilibrium point yet. u r handling school matters. u r dealing with students. students are people who have yet to work and earn their pennies. so why should charge so much till u got an annual turnover?

ok.. if u use my money and turn it into some ways that benefit us again.. then it is alright. but so far, i didn't see any major improvements in hall or the welfare of the students. they always working within LIMITED or lacking in funds. i have not heard that any hall communities got any excess funds or budget.  students like us have to end up paying for welfare funds. 

so on top of that.. all the blah blah funds which i will pay no matter what.. will actually push the cost of staying in hall till close to 2k.

well that s i m grumbling. hall experience is wonderful but it shouldn't come at the expense of having me to pay thousands for it.

buaya week

buaya week is finally over. my buaya this year is real good. will upload the pic to show u all what she did soon...

anw i am damn tired.. all thanks to buaya wk.. assignments and exams.. life is getting a bit too monotone.. 

i need colors! i need excitement!

i miss taiwan

on a boring sunday afternoon, i actually thought of .. TAIWAN..

yea.. the island up there. i somehow miss the place. probably the mid terms are here and i can't feel so sian to study for it, that's why i thought of that place that's relaxing.

i particularly miss the secret garden restaurant located at the yang ming shan. it is really out of no where. the place is so serene. i felt so peaceful and relax to dine there. 

not sure is just the place.. or the whole holiday.

ok.. i shall get back to my studies. ( trying my best still)

freaking pissed

my neighbors were talking about getting your palm read by the master at NUS bazaar a couple of days ago. they saying how accurate the master is and blah blah.. and so i got pretty interested in it and decided to get mine read the next day when me and my friends dropped by at the bazaar.

and i didn't know this is the start of me getting freaking pissed. i am not pissed by what the master said to me but i am pissed by what my friend said after that.

you see.. i am getting my palms read. so whatever the master said to me is actually quite private. i had my 3 friends standing around and i don't mind them listening cos i expect them to keep it to themselves. but, one idiot surprised me. i shall named as X. X basically broadcast the details to the rest of the clique who isn't present at the palm reading session.

well, first of all, i am not a celebrity. so why should i become your pre-dinner conversation topic!?! freaking hell. by asking you not to go away when i was getting my palm read shows that i respect you as a friend and certainly don't expect you to talk about the details!

 

you can comment on me.. like saying on how stupid or naive to spend my 20 bucks on getting my palms read and stuff like that. well, that isn't nice but it is BETTER than u telling people about the details! if i want the rest to know, i will say it! not you! who are you to represent me! u r not even my girlfriend!

before, you think i am petty. well i am not! petty means (of behavior) characterized by an undue concern for trivial matters, esp. in a small-minded or spiteful way.  note the word 'trivial', to me this isn't trivial matter cos it is my private matter. who take private matter as trivial?!? who like people telling the others about your details. can you imagine one day you tell me only about your weight and i go tell the whole clique about ur damn weight! will you be freaking pissed by me? if you won't, then tell me your weight and ur vital measurements... see what i will do lei.

anyway if you are in my shoes and you don't mind me telling people about everything, then it is still your freaking matter. i MIND people like you telling others about my details. the moment you called me to join u guys in the conservation, i should have smell something fishy. but well, cos i trust u not to do anything that is foolish. 

sometimes i just wonder why u can't keep bloody mouth shut! and use freaking brain to think before you say. i won't mind you commenting about me in front of others but i mind you reporting me in front of others. and i don't care what u freakingly usually do or what other frens practice. cos this is my stuff and it is about me!

and you seem so 'proud' to have done it. and you freaking pissed me further cos of what you said to me

" so what you told everyone about it?" i asked

" no. everyone expect *****." you smiled as if you have achieved a world record of spreading the news in the fastest time.

i don't know what u r damn stupid or damn innocent.

one step at a time

i keep telling myself.. 

one step at a time

dont think too far

dont think too much

one step at a time

and soon you will reach ur destination.

substance against popularity

this scenario struck my mind last weekend.

it is the scenario of a popular person against one who is not so popular but believes to have more qualities than the other

can popularity really win the votes? if a person is popular but lacking in the substance that is required to take up the leadership position, then is he still qualified to do so? people who probably don't understand the situation will naturally assume that he can do the job. people who do understand the situation will probably think qualities triumph over popularity.

apparently, people tends to look at popularity and ignore the fact about substance. popularity can get you the human relationship that one wants but may not get the job done in the end. 

looking at it from the econ pt of view, i believe the marginal benefit of choosing popularity over substance is lesser than that of choosing substance.

but well, it is hard to stop a popular person from getting what he wants. probably in today's world popularity plays a larger factor than having substance.

the power of love

how much will u give up for the one that u really love? ur joy and the meaning of self existence?

how long are you willing to wait for that person? even if you know it will pointless wait?

if there really ever lasting love? or does that only occurs when you are madly in love?

what is love exactly?

is it really about joy and tears?

is it really about sacrificing? 

love, it is so powerful and yet so frightening.

thoughts

i know what i want and they are within my reach. impossible is really nothing. i believe in myself and my strengths. if i can't get what i want now, then it will be a matter of time that i can get it. 

and i don't play second fiddle to anyone.

back to writing

i finally decided to write again. recently too many things had happened in my life and i really needed the time to think. i know what i want already.

the route again is tough. i gonna change to see to the challenges ahead. changes are the only constant thing in my life now. i need to be stronger or else i will be a forgotten man...

hall life

hall life is good right now. it is better than last year. i enjoy staying in my handball corner on my level. today as i prepared for tomorrow inter block games, i heard that there is a new freshie already who is playing my position. he has got the handling and shooting right and the potential to go far. i have not seen him in action but he is surely a threat right now. i am kinda sad that i will not be able to start tmr game due to the IHG caps.. i am just looking forward to start a match. hope the day will come soon.

food eating competition

i saw 2 remarks on a large scale food eating competition in the papers a couple of days ago. Singapore is going to host a large scale food eating competition. cool isn't it ? however the two remarks that i had read called this competition a tasteless stunt.

"at a time when the world is being stalked by the twin spectres of obesity on one hand and food riots on the other, i was absolutely appalled to learn that SG is to play host to a competitive eating contest." William Laws as written in his entry in Life! he was even calling the authorities to BAN it immediately

o.. come on, yet another writer kicking a big fuss again. i can't believe he used the words 'appalled' and 'ban' . can u sense his shocking feelings upon knowing the competition. 

it is just a food eating competition. how much food will we waste just for the novelty value of this competition. i doubt by banning it, we will actually encourage pple not to waste food. drop by at steam boat buffet restaurant on a wkend, see how much food have we wasted. i think those wastage can be enough for a eating competition. i think Mr Laws should spend more effort on educating his kids, nephews, frens' kids... blah blah not to waste food rather than pinning his hope that the authorities will ban it.  

ok.. there is another writer who said that 'let's not encourage undesirable habits particularly at a time when money is hard to come by and food is scarce'. haha.. i can't imagine there is a person whom after watching the competition will go to the hawker centre and order  20 bowls of noodles and try to finish them with 20 mins..

since both wanna care much for the Earth and Singapore, i suggest that they look at the F1 race that we gonna hold in the coming month. how much resources are we going to waste? at a time when the world is stalked by high petrol prices due to shortage, are we gonna to waste more by using them on 20 race cars to go round and round the city for the thrill and entertainment purposes?

are we going to say that cos the F1 going to bring in millions and worldwide coverage for the nation, so all the wastage of resources are worth it? hmm... and cos food eating competition doesn't bring in much money for us and will 'waste food', so we shld ban it ?

come on, i rarely see a domestic eating competition or a race in singapore. despite of the depleting resources that we have left in the world, i think Singapore shld hold them

inefficient TIMES

i can't believe how inefficient the TIMES is...

i worked for them from 30th may to 8 june and they just said they will only bank in the cheque on 15 july! it takes exactly more 1 month to give me my pay ? other pple have alr taken their cheque and spent it and i still gonna wait...

sigh

inefficient TIMES

nineteen minutes

i was done with nineteen minutes, a book by jodi picoult a few days ago. i knew i took far too much time to read a book ( i took 5 months for this book) but what to do ... i m a slow reader. i need to stop and think through what i have read every now and then.

anyway, i got touched by what jodi wrote once again. she touched on the existing social issues that at times seem to be well hidden from the eyes of the society. in 19 mins, she talked about bullying which occurred in school and about how one doesn't fit into the popular group of people and eventually got outcasted.. perhaps, sometimes we may experience this in our own lives. i believe anyone who read this book will probably feel the message that she wanna convey to the readers.

i kinda pity peter in the story. peter was the boy involved in the school shooting. as the story slowly revealed about his background story, i begin to pity him and just wanna curse those bullies as well. but peter was far too rash. he shouldn't carried out his plan, but if he didn't. i guess if his life will be as bad as what it was after he had done it. 

one of the things that peter said leave me thinking... 

he said " if u dont share my secrets, i wont share your."

i know the above quote sounds quite simple. but hear the story out first. 

that was what he said to josie, his child hood playmate and the girl he like, when he was trying to cover her crime (she killed someone while he gunning down the people in the school). FYI, she played a small factor that led him to the shooting incident. josie used to protect him when he was a young kid.. and right now at the critical moment, he actually stand up and be like a real man and protect her from a crime that she shouldn't have committed. 

so was it the power of love or the power of friendship that leads him to refusing to tell the truth even when he was on the death gallows?

i always thought that was the power of love...

so what can u do in 19 mins?

face book

face book is really good. beside the games application, it really serves as a good reminder for frens birthday.. for the first time, i managed to wish fiona a happy birthday on her actual day. =)

arts camp 2008

i finally made up my mind. i am not going to join arts camp this year. i think i no longer have the energy or motivations to go back to lead and bond the freshies together... probably will drop by a day or 2 to check things out...

to those who are joining, all the best.. hope u guys enjoy urself.

working at the book fair

i spent my last 2 weeks working at the world book fair for a local publisher. i was promoting this new educational software which is like an e-textbook. as i was kinda involved in direct sales, i managed to come to interact with the customers very often. really widen my insight of the singapore customers... 

some of the more memorable encounters with experience...

the foreigners

as the software was based on the local textbooks, the target market was more for the local students. so i was very surprised that i managed to sell to the foreigners. foreign customers always leave me with a deep impression as i see them as very direct customers. if they wanna buy, they will just buy and won't ask u for discounts or hesitated.

i remember this ah mong from some non-english speaking native country (i know it cos i heard her speaking some other language to her son) who wanted to buy the software and textbook for me. after trying to tell her that there was no translation for chinese to english for most characters ( & trying to hint that it is not suitable for her), she still insisted on buying. she came on thursday and almost wanted to buy but her son was throwing a tantrum. she then said that she would come back some other days to buy it. when customers said this to me at times, i would always take it as a 'no, i don't want ur product'. but surprisingly, she came back on the last day and bought one from me without hesitation. she even tried to help me promote the software.. lol.. such a nice customer and one of those who will really come back to buy after saying so. 

the 'suggestive' locals

there is group of customers who i will labelled as the 'helpful' people. they will come to me and ask me to demonstrate the product. after demonstrating, they will then suggest ideas to make the product better or improve the sales. there was this lady whom i demonstrated 2 times and spent close to 1/2 hour to explain the product. in the end, she suggested that we should sell the microphone along with the software to attract more customers. (my software required a microphone) and of course she gave other suggestions for the display of the stall which is none of my business. most importantly, she didn't buy any at all.

following are some suggestions given by customers that i think the publisher won't work on them: 

• we should sell textbook at the book fair along with the software. ( customer also commented that we r stupid and don't know to do business)

i will say the customer is even more stupid. we publish the textbook and distribute to school book shop and book stores to sell and thus we can't sell it on our own. or else which retailers wanna get from us!?!

• regarding the microphone 

we r a book publisher and this is a book fair. so u expect us to get mikes from Creative and sell? don't be lazy lei.. just go to a neighborhood shopping centre and buy one urself

bad attitude customers

i got to agree that sales pple are in svcs lines and got to be polite and stuff like that. however customers also got to mind their attitudes as well. no point being so rude to us. in the end, we won't want to tell u more abt the products and surely not abt the hidden promotions that we have.

children-parents alike

i notice how a child behave reflect hows the parents teach/behave. i come across this girl who is very polite and will say 'thank you' and is very well mannered. her mum is surprisingly well mannered as well. then there is particular child that i remember cos he spoilt my head phones. he cracked it into 2 pieces. he didn't apologize and almost wanted to cry. the mum then came and took him away without apologizing as well. violent kid.. rude kid.. rude parent.

child-care centre

alot of pple took my stall as a child care centre. simply cos of i had the computers and the kids are naturally attracted and glued to it, didn't mean that the irresponsible parents could just deposit their kids at the stall and occupied all the space till i could talk to any potential customers. the worst is that the parents ain't interested in our products and just simply used us as a child care centre. what if the kids wandered off or spoilt the com? who is suppose to be responsible? the sales pple or the irresponsible parents?

it was no doubt a wonderful working experience. the next time when i read a report about services, i will think twice about the contents and question whether the writer is a bad customer anot. 

animal cruelty

i am not an exactly big fan of animals welfare but i do still have a heart for those animals out there.

recently i heard that Figo, an inter milan soccer played deliberately knocked over a black cat which had been wandering in front of the stadium. he believed that the black cat had brought them black luck which resulted in the lost of a 11 point lead in the Italian soccer league. ( they still won the title in the end last weekend) this caused an uproar and protests from those animal welfare groups. this lead to have some thoughts about it. 

while i do condemn Figo actions and see it as inappropriate, i begin to realize that there was another sports which has been an act of animal cruelty. heard of equestrian and horse racing ?

equestrian is a form of sports in which the rider will make the horse jump over several obstacles. it is like a form of art and performance. those lovers of these 2 sports, equestrian and horse racing, are mostly likely to believe that these horses are born to run and jump. i will say ... this is nonsense! as nonsense as what Figo is thinking...

the forms of animal cruelty often take place behind the scenes. when a horse suffers from a major injury such as a broken leg which will affect the running or jumping, it will be put to sleep. on a positive note, u can think that they are ending their pain. but i am not on that frequency of thinking.  it does not matter whether the horse is a champion horse in last week race or a young horse which has years ahead to live. to the owners, it is a matter of money. as long as they can't win a race anymore, they are dealt as useless and should be put aside. mind you.. there isn't any medical treatments to these horses and they ain't suffering from a life threatening injury... they are being slaughtered to save the costs of rearing them...

i believe most will remember the whip that's often used in the racing. can u image urself being whipped as u run a race? the pain inflicted on the horse to make them run faster is unacceptable to me. 

during training, these horses may be given drugs to enhance their performance or be immune to pain. i believe those sportsman out there who been through competitive sports and training will know how painful and hard those periods are. can u imagine that ur coaches have total control over and don't give a damn to ur feelings ?

those poor horses out there... they have to endure these pains and sufferings to put up a show/race for us. beneath their glamorous facade, these 2 sports are ruthless industry motivated by financial gain and prestige. Cruelty? u can bet on it...

P.S u dont have to love a dog to be caring for animals. there are many other ways.

chelsea - man utd

managed to catch the match last night. a pretty exciting match and i was glad that my precious 2 hrs didn't go to a waste. it was one of the rare time that i was supporting chelsea. actually, i didn't really want any of these 2 teams to win the title... but no choice.. liverpool had internal conflicts to be distracted with... arsenal had their injury woes and all these allow these 2 teams left to battle it out

avram grant wasn't a manager that deserve the title and i simply don't like the wily old fox at man utd. anyway, for the first time, i thought avram grant got his tactics. he made good use of the subs at the critical moments... i couldn't disagree with his choice of subs in any ways..

the best moment

it got to be that the moment which saw the 30 million signing shevchenko, who has yet to make any significant contribution to the team, clearing the ball off the line in the dying minutes of the game. lol.. after he cleared, he was celebrating with his team mates... bet he was saying ' u see that mate, that's is why i am worth 30 million!'

running out of luck

i believe man utd is clearing running out of luck. a missed penalty against barca and a unfortunate penalty awarded in the late minutes against chelsea are perhaps the keys signs that they are running out of luck in the late season. who knows next week could be their worst week of the season when they got knocked out of the champs league and dropped points again in the EPL. on the other hand, chelsea got lady luck smiling at them lately. a late own goal for them ( and of all, liverpool) and then another penalty... hope chelsea runs out of luck against liverpool nx wk.

prediction

anyway, i still believe man utd still can go on and win the title. i can't see any reason why they will fail... and i also predicting that rio ferdinard won't be the captain for england. look at him.. he was so irrational during the game yesterday... i think england needs a calm and steady captain.  gerrad is the man..And i m not saying this cos i m a liverpool fan.

tmr - the saturday

tmr will kick start my exams which last ard 2 wks. the first paper will be microecon... after screwing up its mid-term, tmr will be redemption day. do or die... sian

tmr is also the day to play against smu handball team. how i wish i can go down and play. if only tmr has no exams...

i cant wait for exams to end but on the other hand, i don't want it to start either.

i miss doing my favourite thing ... playing my xbox.. playing PC.. playing soccer.. playing handball.. going out.. slacking.. 

urgh... for now, i got to face the reality and hit the books again...

bad things

Nobody wants to admit to this, but bad things will keep on happening Maybe that's because it's all a chain and a long time ago, somebody did the first bad thing, and that led someone else to do another bad thing, and so on. You know, like that game where you whisper a sentence into someone's ear, and that person whispers it to someone else, and it all comes out wrong in the end.

But then again, maybe bad things happen because it's the only way we can keep remembering what good is supposed to look like.

Taken from Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

sakae teppanyaki

that day, hy had a strong craving for teppanyaki and we were at bugis junction. i didn't really know of any teppanyaki place nearby. the last time i had teppanyaki was at the bugis junction's food court. it was pretty nice but it closed down and the food court was relocated.

anyway we came across sakae teppanyaki restaurant which is located at the basement near soup spoon. the menu looks good and we decided to give it a try. hy took the chicken menu which has chicken, salmon, oyster, tofu steak, stir fried mushrooms, miso soup, rice and salad. i had the beef set which has beef fillet, cuttlefish, foie gras, chawanmushi, tir fried mushrooms, miso soup, rice and salad. it sounded quite sumptuous isn't it ? anyway i realized that the menu at bugis junction seems to be different from other branches as reflected on their website.. http://www.sakaesushi.com.sg/menuteppan.html

      

the salad

salad was served promptly after we had ordered. nothing spectacular about the salad. it was just greenies. it was not japanese in any other ways. initially i thought the orange sauce on the salad was tobiko, in the end, it turned up to be just some sour sauce.

then next come our main course. the chef performed his culinary skills in front of us. i think this is the main point of teppanyaki, having a chef doing the cooking in front of u and then served u immediately. the food was good. the tofu steak was good.. haha.. cos we previously had a bad one at essential brews. 

food to highlight :

the oysters that hy tasted were quite unique. the oyster was split into two and had some creamy sauce over it. it tasted different from the raw ones that we usually have.. ( duh! .. but it is really the case mah). i tried their foie gras for the first time. it came with a nice  brown sauce. i tried chewing it the first time. the taste just spread in ur mouth instantly. next i tried breaking it down using my tongue and it just dissolved. nice! their  chawanmushi was special. beside having a delicate presentation (it was served in an onion bowl), it was yummy. the last dish served for the stir fried mushrooms. it wasn't very good. it had a few kinds of mushrooms and one of them was golden mushroom. it just didn't taste good and we didn't finish it.

from left clockwise: tofu steak, oyster, salmon

foie gras with the cuttlefish. nice!

the delicate chawanmushi

stir fried mushrooms

we had a good meal in the end. the portion was just nice, food was good and the service wasn't bad . price was around 20-25 per pax. i thought it wasn't that bad given the variety of food in one sert menu if u go for the lobster set, it will cost more.

food : 7.5/10

ambience : 7/10

service : 7.5/10

price : 7/10

essential brew

we had dinner at essential brew today. the tea concept restaurant, which uses tea as one of their ingredients in most of their dishes, is located at holland village. the place is dimly lit to create a relaxing and soothing ambience. diners can choose to sit on the ground like the japanese way or at the tables- the normal way. for the second level, the diners have to take off their shoes before they can step onto the platform. 

it was surprising packed for a weekday dinner. almost all of the seats on the second level were taken. thus, there were actually quite limited space for each table and at times, i accidentally knocked into the lady beside me. 

after browsing through the menu for quite a while, we finally decided to have corn soup and tofu steak for our starters and grilled salmon and lemongrass chicken for our main course. lingering angel was our choice of drink. 

the corn soup was served promptly after we ordered. each scoop of soup was filled with the corn. it had quite a strong taste of corn, much better than the campbell's or some other western places. it was good. however, our starter took a little longer than we had expected. the steak tofu was served only mid way through our meal and so it became our side dish instead. the steak tofu was topped with mushrooms. it looked pretty and delicious. however, it was kinda true not to judge a dish too much by its presentation. it was not exactly that kind of soft tofu that we had expected. it was dau gua. the sauce and the mushroom that go with the tofu were awfully salty! so beside looking pretty, there wasn't anything good about this starter.

i ordered lemongrass chicken. it was fried and served with jasmine flavoured rice ball and salad. basically, i would just say that if it was a cutlet, it would be good. but as a lemongrass chicken, then it would be just average. i could barely taste the lemongrass in it. one consolation was that the plum sauce that went with it was quite good. the cutlet itself was quite big but 30% of it was fats. i won't recommend this dish to those going for a healthier meal. the jasmine rice wasn't that bad. i could taste and smell the jasmine. i believe the sauce that was on the salad was jasmine as well. thumb up for the sides.

huiying had grilled salmon. the presentation was good. the pepper ( i think) was sprinkled lightly across the salmon. the salmon tasted good. the skin was crispy. what was missing was the jasmine flavour which was supposed to be present in this dish. i agreed with hy that the strong salmon taste probably overwhelmed it. the sauce that was served with the dish was actually butter topped with pickles. it was my first time seeing butter going with salmon. in my opinion, it was not really a good choice.

the lemongrass chicken aka chicken cutlet

the grilled salmon

Lingering angel was the name of our drink. it was jasmine tea with citrus flavour. it was a nice combination. it was good in fact. better than what i had expected. =)

essential brew is quite a good place for friends to come and chill. beside the main courses, they offer finger food. they allow customers to play poker while waiting. the service is not bad. the price is a little above the average given the standard of the food. the bill came at 40 plus for us.  i guess i will pay them another visit but not in the near future. 

food : 6.5/10

ambience : 7.5/10

service : 7/10

price : 6/10

PSP for sale

i am currently helping a friend to sell his pink PSP slim. brand new.

he is just selling the console at $250. anyone interested just leave me a msg k ?

it is PINK PSP slim.

Mas Selamat stole the limelight from Edison

A 1.58m tall Malay who can't walk properly stole the limelight from Edison Chan this week~!! it is none other than Mas Selamat. For the whole of this week, he has been dominating the headline of every single local paper and channel. Probably Mas Selamat attracted more attention than Edison did earlier on. The world is probably still on high alert.

Before the details of his escape came out, I was thinking how did he escape ? Is it like what Huiying said, climb out of the toilet window ? Another guy said perhaps he had been sharpening his utensils daily and they become sharp enough to dig a tunnel out. haha... I stick with my view that there was undercover for the JI in the police force something like the Infernal Affairs. haha... 

Anyway I discover both of Edison and Mas actually have quite a few similarities in terms of their news coverage.

1. Shook the nation : When the news appeared on the TV and the papers, the whole nation couldn't really believe it. Did this really happen ?
2. Police were activated : In Hong Kong, when edison appeared, police forces come out in numbers to protect Edison from harm while in Singapore, the police and army forces are searching high and low for this dude.
3. Set the people questioning the authorities : In Hong Kong, the people were questioning the police for abusing their power and wasting the taxpayer's money. In SG, the people were left wondering whether our defence forces are still capable and wondering what they are doing at the point of time.
4. Flee : When the news hit the headlines, Edison flee back to Canada to escape from the media while Mas Selemat is still fleeing and hiding some corners of the island...
5. Good coverage : Biography of both were on the papers. Close friends of both gave comments to the media. Basically, they become like our family members whom we know every bit of their history.
6. Both were bad boys : Edison is well known for his bad boy image while Mas Selamat is the head of the terrorist group which make him a real bad boy.

Enough of the jokes, here come the serious stuff. 

Indeed, the escape of Mas is a shock for me as well. I am really wondering whether the detention centre has the security facilities that could prevent one from entering and leaving easily. I have not seen it with my eyes yet. But with the escape, I doubt they can be anywhere near good. I am like any other Singaporeans hoping that he can be captured soon. However, deep down inside, I have this feeling that he won't be caught and probably he is already out of the country. 

The destruction that he could do Singapore or the world is beyond imagination. Thus, I hope for now, every morning when I wake up, I can get to hear that he was captured and locked up in some secured detention centre.

For now, I pray for world peace

incident at NUS co-op

i just had quite a bad experience at the NUS co-op this afternoon. we were buying textbooks and some stationary there. as my friends HY and YX didn't bring enough cash to pay for the books, i volunteered to pay for them using my NETS card.

so i proceeded on with the payment and flashed the NUS Co-op member card. everything was fine till YT who was behind me wanna buy another textbook and she wanna pay herself. i passed her the NUS co-op card at the counter and the cashier immediately went a little crazy.

" no sharing of the member card ! " she exclaimed. 

ok. some places don't allow such things so i stepped in and volunteer to pay for her and still use my card and had all under my bill.

" no. cannot. ur bill is already settled. no sharing of member card. she is a student of NUS and she can enjoy 5 % off." cashier continued to uphold her stand

" but members are entitled to 10 %" i argued.

"it wont make a difference" she uphold her stand.

i was thinking since it didn't make a difference, y not let us proceed with using the card?  YT didn't really wanna argue further and decided to make her payment. it turned out that she could have saved her 2 more bucks at least.

as her bill was processed, i passed her the nets machine so that she keyed in her PIN. 

then the cashier said, " don't pull too far"

when did nets machine become so fragile ? the distance i pulled was the most the width of a laptop. 

to conclude, the services were really bad, like shit. so what she is serving the students only... ? not a single word of thank you or sorry throughout the whole argument. she is just a cashier and not the owner. it is not as if even she would get a 5 dollars pay rise for helping the company save 2 dollars. moreover, the uniform that she was wearing made her seem like a senior staff at the store.

a thumb up for her for upholding company policies and a big zero for her lousy service.

bike quest

gloomy weather throughout the whole day almost denied me of my chance of cycling for the ninth time last night. it was also my third time hitting the road. still considering myself as a novice for this sort of activity, i was still really looking forward to it and hoping that i could improve on controlling of the bike. embarking on this trip with me were hong hui, leonard and hui ying. the cool and wet weather dampened our spirits a little at the start. 

last night trip started off at east coast park at around 930 pm. the early timing posed some problems for us eventually. in the end, we ended up cycling for up to like 8 hours which was rather physically demanding especially for me as i was not having enough rest for the past few days. beside the physical challenge, the early timing also implied that we would be facing the traffic problem. this forced us to move onto the pavement and at times they could be longer and narrower.

this time round, the route that we took were rather from the past few times which i had. this is good for me at least so that i could get to see new things. anyway, this time round we travelled to zouk, botantic garden, bukit timah, newton food centre, orchard, boat quay and then lau pa sa. 

we did photo whore a little at start. but towards in the end, i think everyone got tired and just could n't wait for it to end. we managed to get our supper at newton food centre. the food wasn't bad. i was too full and starting to feel jaded. really lazy to move my bum and moved off to our next station then. we also had our fair share of fun at boat quay when we posed with those bronze statues. at lau pa sa, we decided to take a short a nap. this really showed how tired we were already. by six, we managed to get back to ecp. by then we kinda drained out. for me, i just couldn't wait to get home to wash up and sleep.

in the end, it was really a good night out. =)

sheares handball guys lost..

The result from yesterday match wasn't something what we had expected or wanted at all. Despite being the favorites to win, TH managed to produce an upset and steal the victory. They took the game to us right from the start. TH ,who was more desperate for the victory in order to keep their hope of qualifying for next round ,was much more aggressive right from the start. Sheares somehow lost their concentration and composure in the early moments as they were trailing by 4 goals right from the start. During the second half, we managed to produce some fine performance and tighten up the defense.

although we did fight back and both sides exchanged leads a couple of times, TH was lucky to steal the victory from us in the dying minutes. it was a heart breaking night for the whole team and those who came down to support us. Perhaps this match served as a wake up call to the team and now it is really the time for us to perform to our potential in the next match. 

after months of training with them, i believe we are the strongest and hope everyone who is donning the orange on the court will strive their best and produce an outstanding performance to overcome KR.

Jia you guys. 

mac problem solved

it was just yesterday when i finally decided to go down to IT Care to solve my printing problem. i thought it was just a simple problem somewhere and it  was just on my side that i couldn't detect it. however, the problem was more complicated than i thought.

two IT Care staff attended to my problem and tried solving it. however, they couldn't really find the solution. luckily, there was this passerby who offered me the advice to go to the mac forum to seek help... and so finally, i managed to find the solution to my problem there

the solution :

as leopard is relatively new, there are quite a handful of printers that are incompatible with it and the official website of the respective printers have yet to offer the new patch for it. anyway, a dummy printer settings which is compatible for leopard is set up. so the print preview can be seen correctly and accurately according to what i want. from there, i save the settings to PDF format. With the PDF format, i will then able to open it with the reader and print out using my printer.

it may seem troublesome but what to do.. it still beats buying a new printer. haha.. mac is too gd for the printer i guess.

hope this will help other mac users who are facing similar problems.

problem with mac and printer

when u guys first saw the title, i bet those non-mac users must be thinking that my mac book is finally giving me problems right? haha.. it isn't exactly that picture that u guys have painted in your mind.

yes.. there is a little problem with my mac. i was using the powerpoint by micro soft that day and i found that i couldn't print the slides. there was some problems with the setting i think. however, i couldn't really play around with the printer setting since i didn't have options to do that. previously before i upgrade to leopard, everything was working fine. strangely, the print settings has no trouble with MS word.

i had gone down to IT care for advices and they suggested to me to re install my printer. i did that and the problem still persists. sigh.. it could be like what some of my mac friends say, it wasn't MAC fault.. it is just the microsoft product. haha..

anyone out there kind enough to offer me some advice ?

sheares basketball girls

after cruising through the first round with easy victories over KR and King Edward and staging a well deserved fight back in the semi against the eusoff in the semi, the sheares basketball girls finally came down against TH in the final.

it was a heart breaking moment at the final whistle as they fought really hard in the final. being their TM for the past few months, i do feel for them through the competition. they trained really hard during the hols and last week. they transformed from a team of no bodies to a team that was filled with fighting spirit and able to go to the finals and give TH a good fight.

i think the girls deserved more than 3 cheers.

anyway i was really honored to be the TM for this team. really appreciated Alison for giving me this chance to be the TM even through she didn't really know me at the start. hope i didn't let her down throughout the last semester. initially i was really bored whenever i had to watch them train. however, as time passed and i got to know the team better, training was n't that boring anymore. it was quite a joy actually to see them improving over time. it is like watching a infant slowly learning how to walk.

hope this defeat will be a good lesson for the young team and may this team stay together and strive even harder next year... gd work girls.

stepping into 2008

counting down to a new year together with the sec 4 class has almost become a tradition since it has been happening for 2 years in a row. this year's  counting down 'party' was no exception as i chose to celebrate with them again.

however, this year's programmes were rather screwed up. there was no dinner unlike past years.. no counting down in town... keith and dave wont be available till after midnight, yc was busy with gf and eugene had his own programmes. so in the end, only jian hao was free b4 midnight and he almost didn't make it to my house on time. he reached 5 mins b4 12. i couldn't believe i spend the last moment of 2007 with him. for a moment, i thought i should have joined hy for her countdown.

when dave finally arrived, we played some xbox games and ate some chips. keith came n fetched us at ard 3 in the morning to go his house. initially we wanna watch some dvds but ended up plaing Wii. it was fun and entertaining. in the end, we did what we always do in the past years, laid dead everywhere in his room.

i guess the programmes didn't really matter. it was the people u spend the moments with that matter. however, if the attendance continues to worsen for the next count down, i think the tradition may have to be broken =(

anyway, it is nice to spend the last moments of the year and first moments of the new year with u guys...=)