around the house in 8 days

First lunar new year at the new house. 'New' because we haven't been staying there, and 'new' because it's actually already more than 5 years old.

Some pictures outside of the house.

bamboo that kept on growing and growing...

and it grew and grew till it touched the sky...

lotus and probably small fishes inside there

flower

mulberries, silkworms eats mulberry leaves.. but didn't see any worms though

creepy crawlies to shade the house, but probably will overgrow and takeover the house in a few years time!

It's new year, so gotta have some new year decor.

banner to welcome the new year.. hahaa

new year plant that needs ice cubes to cool it down

these are permanent fixtures.. regardless of season, it'll be there

some colours to brighten the house

smiley fortune cat

putting up the decorations, that's my sis, brother and mom. Me? I worked behind the scenes

time for reunion dinner

Oooh, this year we didn't have steamboat for reunion dinner. Had '鱼生' but with jellyfish instead of raw fish slices. Got nice dishes like fish maw braised with prime ribs, stir fried leek with leftover roasted pork, blue tailed prawns with sauce and deep fried grouper with sweet and sour sauce.

setting up the table for reunion dinner

before cooking

cooked prawns

yummy sweet and sour fish (my fav)

leek with roasted pork (dad's fav)

fish maw and prime ribs with mushrooms

DIY yu sheng

after tossing

Hope everyone had a good time during the holidays! Happy Dragon Year everyone!

wishes

Happy Lunar New Year everyone! Year of the Dragon~
May all the good things come our way. Work hard, and play more. Enjoy!

Gong Hei Fatt Choi!

yummy

Ate something yummy recently, at Starbucks. Usually, it's just a cup of Caramel Macchiato. But yesterday, had this thing called Salted Caramel Chocolate Panna something. Hahaha, can't remember the exact name!

But here's a pic:

Salted Caramel Chocolate Panna something

The crust was crumbly and dry, the dark brown top part tasted like soft brownies bits and the not so appetising light brown sauce was the salted caramel part (which I still think it tasted like creamy toffee), and the yellow part tasted like egg tart...

Definitely sweet, but nice!

in conversation

Yesterday there was a bit of a jam on the road, so that started the conversation between the taxi uncle and myself. And for some reason, he was talking about keeping pets and that's how he 'cultivates' love. Somehow that lead to Buddhism, 5-elements and Nirvana.

Taxi uncle: When we go to sleep, we'll enter our astral body. This astral body is very 'fine' like an atom. When we die, we'll take over this astral body. There are other bodies but no one practices those...
Me: Ooh, so this astral body also must 'practice'?
Taxi uncle: No need. Automatic.
Me: Like that, what's the difference? Die also astral body, sleep also astral body..
Taxi uncle: When we sleep and become the astral body, there is no conscience. But when we die, the astral body will have conscience and we'll be able to see beyond the realm of humans...(or smthg like tht la...)

Then he talks about how the human mind is burdened by both positive and negative thoughts of our wants and needs etc and because of that, it is difficult (or almost impossible) to achieve Nirvana.

Me: So what's a Nirvana? Is it like enlightenment?
Taxi uncle: No.. enlightenment is when you understand a teaching. Nirvana is when your mind is pure. When there is no more negative thoughts that pulls you back down to earth.
Me: If like that, go and sleep can already mah.. when we sleep and we are not conscious so there will be no thoughts to bring us back to earth
Taxi uncle: (Laughs) Nirvana has many stages (5 stages), I think nobody can achieve.

Then don't know what I said, and we talked for some minutes more after I've reached my destination and paid the fare. Then I said byebye 'coz don't want to hold him up any longer.

Taxi uncle: You are deep. Seldom I talked to people like you. You seem to know something.

Hahaha! I grinned and said goodnight.

cool stuffs

This site (http://pixlr.com) is good, as per mentioned in our weekly popular mag. Don't have photo editor? Never mind, they have it! http://pixlr.com/editor/
Wanna do some cool effects? Just go right on to http://pixlr.com/o-matic/

Here is a sample of the effects:

original pic

after applying effects

Awesome right! I know! Muahahaa! Free app somemore. *grinz*


Wanna pass time and like to play "Cut the Rope?" Now, can play it online! http://www.cuttherope.ie/

bread

New bakery in Lot 1 (basement). Lots of yummy looking breads on display, so bought 2 to try.

new bakery in Lot 1

Bought the cranberry cream cheese and charcoal red bean bun. Current promotion is buy 3 breads and get 30cents off. Probably worth it if each bread is costing like $1 or less. Anyway, better than no promotion at all!

charcoal red bean bun

whole red bean

The breads were still warm after purchase. Probably just baked. The charcoal bread was consumed a day after purchased. Heated it up in toaster oven and it was still good. Probably not as fluffy as fresh, but tasted quite alright. The red bean was a tad too sweet though.

cranberry cream cheese

oozing with cream cheese, i like!

The cranberry cream cheese bun looked so huge when it was displayed in the shop. But soon after I got home, the bread has shrunken a bit. The dough for this was a tad too soft but has generous amount of cream cheese filling!

Overall, get the cream cheese cranberry for value and the charcoal red bean for novelty. Both breads are at $1.50 each.

no idea

Had two vivid dreams this morning. Reminded myself to remember it, but now, nothing emerges. The fact was, I did not even realised when was the 615am alarm switched off. By the time I was awake, it was already 640am. Hmm.

In the evening, was supposed to alight at CCK station. Still aware of surroundings when the train was at Bukit Batok, then Bukit Gombak, but somehow, ended up alighting at Yew Tee. Had no recollection of passing CCK station... None at all.

Memory lapse? Day-dreaming? Dazed? Or the beginning of something that I should take note off?

2011

Thank you for an eventful year. A year wrought with natural disasters and man-made ones. The world is getting crankier, and so am I. Too many things internalized, makes one craz(ier)y.

Still, there are many things to be thankful for. We are still alive despite the many disasters. Family and friends went through the year with minimal health issues. Travelled to Brunei, Macau, Hong Kong and Vietnam and experienced new culture, people and scenaries. Doing enjoyable stuffs with friends like eating, drinking, and discovering new places. Actively blogging. Discovering K-pop and specifically Girls' Generation (and also securing that ticket to the concert, daebak!)

To family and friends, "Thank you" for being you. Happy New Year, and may 2012 brings you joy and happiness.

food

coffee and cake, best combo

A simple meal.

korean noodles is more filling!

balanced diet

grapefruit & pomelo

Saw this in NTUC and bought 2 to try. It's a grapefruit from Israel, called Sweetie. Hahaa! With a name like that, it should be sweet, right?

grapefruit from Israel

looks like a mini pomelo, doesn't it?

This is the first time I've seen a green grapefruit. Usually, it's like pink in colour, yes? Well, this grapefruit seriously smells like pomelo, the skin texture same as pomelo and it even taste like pomelo...just that it is abit tiny to be a pomelo.

And yes, it was kinda sweet...just like how a pomelo would've been!

Apparently, grapefruit's ancestor is pomelo...so ta-dah, mystery solved! Read about grapefruit.

Merry Christmas

Have a Merry Christmas. Eat, drink and be merry.

chicken mcgrill

Had my first taste of Chicken McGrill yesterday. Since it was expensive, figured it made sense to take some pics before eating it.

still in its box

feel like biting into this?

curly fries

very curly fries

It looked pretty nice. What with juicy thigh meat and all :)~

doesn't this look yummy?

But unfortunately, I've had better ones elsewhere...
Yes, the chicken patty was juicy and tender but it was way too soggy. Huh? Meat soggy? Or, saucy? Too much sauce! Curly fries were a tad too salty as well.

But the pictures turned out well, didn't they?

snacks from Saigon

Pics of snacks bought from Vietnam trip.

embedded parsley makes a cute motif!

closer view of this yummy crispy snack

peanuts filling

i like custas very much!

yummeh!

The crispy snack with peanuts fillings was bought from Binh Tay market from an aunty who spoke Cantonese. It's VND28000 for a packet of 30 pieces. SGD1.80 only?! Hahaa, good buy! Bought the Custas from the same departmental store that has the Vinamilk yoghurt, and a box of 12 pieces for VND45000. That's about SGD2.90? Muahahaa!

it was fantastic~

Got ticket to 2011 Girls' Generation Tour in Singapore concert? Yeap, you bet!

ticket, checked

What else? Oooh, how about a lightstick?

why not get the whole package, hahaha!

Ok ok, not the foamed heart though. Super paiseh to carry it and wave it around la... *shy*
And the tshirt, only wore it when was at Singapore Indoor Stadium. =P

Was at my seat at about 715pm and the show wasn't scheduled to start till 8pm. Another girl sat next to me on my right, and she was separated from her elder sis. Hard to buy the tickets, ya? A young chap sat two seats away on my left hand side, and he was also separated from his friends. But of course, with or without friends, everyone there that night, we were one big family of fans! YAY! And behind me, was a group from Soshified. WoOOhooO!

Sones from Thailand, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia were also present that night. Parents accompanying their teenage kids were also seen, and they bought the most expensive tickets, yo!

still waiting...

At approximately 8.20pm, the stage has some hidden movement. The crowd screams! The covers on central stage was lifted and we saw this:

crowd is excited and the Girls are in there!

When the girls are finally revealed, the concert begins!

concert begins! sowoneul marhaebwa~

The energy level from the crowd was super good! Anytime any of the girls start singing, we'll scream. Camera zoom in on one member, we scream! All the fanchants, we scream! Anytime any member does an expression, we scream! 

On my right, her bias was Hyoyeon. So anytime dancing queen comes within eye sight, my neighbour screams! Behind me, Taeyeon fans, so same thing, they scream whenever Taeyeon comes into view! Sunshiners everywhere as well!

Happy to cheer for all members and they know it because we saw them smile when we were loud! Buahahaha!

Tiffany need not worry about muffled response from audience. During Lady Marmalade, when she and Taengoo pointed the mic to the audience and said, "Scream Singapore!~" We ROARED~ WOooOOO!

For the intro part, Sooyoungie sounded really good speaking in English, so does Seohyun. Hyoyeon, Taeng, Yoona can't really converse in English though. Yuri charmed the audience with her Mandarin~ Tiffany was the groups' spokeswoman for the night. ^_^

The concert format should be mostly the same throughout the tour. Seen the Japan tour concert footages before, so roughly know what to expect.

Girls dancing

YulSic did their pinky promises. So sweet. Maknae was cute and came to our section many times and waved, so did Yoona! Hyoyeon also! *cue screams* I think the crowd dieded and went to soshi heaven everytime pretty Hyo points to the audience as if she can see them, and smiled ever so brightly! Yuri did her kkab arm flapping dance (but with a straight face) when she stood near our section. Hahaha, kutes!

Taeng was super cool with "Devil's Cry". Lots of pyrotechnics during the concert as well. 


(not from SG concert, but just to show Devil's Cry)

One incident happened though. Tiffany nearly tripped because there was a pink carebear lying carelessly on the stage floor (thrown from audience) but she didn't see it till too late. Kinda dangerous! Perhaps crew can assist to remove potential hazard from the stage when necessary? But yeah, Taeyeon did pick up a Dookong. Hahaa! And Hyoyeon picked up a big toy flower. Saw one of the girls threw a rilakkuma back to the audience in mosh pit, wonder why is that?

Lots of concert filler videos; sweet ones, fantasy ones, suspense thriller ones, uplifting ones and one realistic one. The one featuring Key from Shinee was a hoot! He plays an everyday guy who's delusional and thinks that the Girls are with him everywhere. Perhaps, the Girls' had become an integral part of each SONEs life.


Happy Day 


Jessica looks like a Barbie doll during her 'Almost' segment. Kwon Yuri performed her 'If' dance stylishly, Hyo grooved to Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music", Yoona did the pole thingy, Sooyoung classy in 'Sway' and Sunny danced the disturbingly suggestive choreo (to Britney's 3) while thankfully, maknae Seohyun was innocently charming and sweet doing tap-dancing while TaeNy powerful vocals were heard in Lady Marmalade.

Very soon (almost too soon!), the concert came to an end but not without a fight. Tiffany (naughty Pani!) tried to trick us by saying that Forever is really the last song. Seriously? NoooOOOooo! But we fans knew better. We stayed. We chanted. We screamed again and again. So the Girls came back out for final encore. wOoHoOO!

They did 3 more songs for encore, and we did the epic fail of a pink Kallang wave... =_=''' Hehehe, but still thanks to the hardworking Soshified members. You guys did great!

Sunny's shocked reaction, Jessie laughs and Sooyoung pretty, Yuri's cute and the chodings behind

Girls lining up to bow and saying goodbyes~

crowd waving our goodbyes~ saranghaeo~ kamsa hamida~

The concert ended on a Fantastic note (literally, because the end song is really seriously called "Fantastic").

Overheard on my way back in the MRT, a conversation snippet between a mom and her teenage daughter.

Mom: Who was the one dancing to "Sway"?
Teenage daughter: Sooyoung, mom. Sooyoung...
Mom: Who was that one, Taegon? (imagine some mangled pronunciation of poor Taengoo's name)
Teenage daughter: It's Taeyeon, mom. TAEYEON! Hyoyeon was the one who is good in dancing, and Jessica was the one that sings very high...(daughter sounded kind of exasperated but still wanted to let her mom knows who is who in the group). And Tiffany is the one that speaks the most tonight.

Actually, not bad for parents and kids to bond over midst of spazzing over their idols. ;)

On a side note: The lightstick was pretty cool, especially when the entire stadium was waving it.

pretty, right?

missing the tip after all those vigorous waving...

Girls, we'll meet again at the next concert in Singapore! Meanwhile,

Jigeumeun So Nyuh Shi Dae! 
Appurodo So Nyuh Shi Dae! 
Yeongwonhi So Nyuh Shi Dae!

so good

vietnam yoghurt

soft like tofu, and sweet

Nice and tasty.

back from short vacation~

Back from trip since Saturday. Was fun, and yeah, managed to survive road crossing in Vietnam, yay!! Hahaha! All in all, spent less than SGD700 inclusive of air-ticket, hotel and expenses there. Hehehe.

Here are some of the charms of Ho Chi Minh city:

crossing road with scooters and car coming at you...

Saigon telecom

ca phe

pho bo

cheap local beer

Posted Day 1 too.
Here is Day 2 and Day 3.

post MAMA 2011

Best Vocal Performance (Solo): IU, Good Day


Best Vocal Performance (Group): 2NE1, Lonely


Best OST: Baek Ji Young: That Woman (Secret Garden OST)


Artist of the Year and Best Female Group: Girls Generation

and the biggest winner of the night

Album of the Year, Best Male Group, Singapore's choice for Most Favourite Korean artist: Super Junior

to use or not to use, that is the question

Article on cosmetic, suncreen chemical raises cancer risk. Read here. Use also may get cancer, don't use also may get cancer. How?

woot~

Congratulations to Girls' Generation (SNSD) for winning the Best Female Group and Artist of the Year for 2011 MAMA (MNET Asian Music Awards)!

WOooHoo!

Reminiscing: Heaven's Coin

This is one Japanese drama that was a good companion during my first year in uni. It's also known as "Die Sterntaler" (German title) or 星の金貨 (hoshi no kinka). Was hooked on this drama so much so that me and my hall mates watched it during our exams even!


Fell in love with its main actress; Noriko Sakai (as Aya who is deaf/mute), as well as its male lead; Yutaka Takenouchi (as Takumi). I don't really like the 'actual' male lead Takao Osawa (as Shuichi). Yutaka is the other half of "Beach Boys".


The trials and tribulation of Aya (nurse) reminds me of Oshin. She's so unfortunate in the drama. It even stretches to 3 seasons...but the first season was the best.


The drama was so good that it bagged its lead actress and actor (Noriko Sakai and Yutaka Takenouchi) the Best Actress (5th Japan Drama Awards) and Best New Actor award (33rd Golden Arrow) in 1995.



Heaven's Coin theme song, Aoi Usagi


Here's a link to the drama synopsis if interested.

caramel macchiato

pretty looking

From Changi Airport, Terminal 1

camera is back

The camera is now fixed. The process was quite fast, from the day it was sent to service center and the quotation was received in about 2-3 man-days and once confirmed to proceed with repair, it took just another 2 man-days.

But the service center had some issues with their application that updates customers' info. Took 2 men and some 10-15 minutes or so, before the issue is resolved.Technology sometimes, can be unpredictable.

discount?

Was at the MRT sushi shop to takeaway some sushi. Outside the shop, there was a group of youth carrying what appeared to be giant sized vouchers.

One of them approached me when I was inside, so decided to take some time to listen to his sales pitch. The gist of a long story cut short:

1. Pay $9.99 for the coupon first
2. There are about 2 pieces that entitles the user $5 discount per min. $10 purchase, then 4 pieces that allows you to buy sushi box that's below $1.60 at $1 price and capped at max. $6 discount per voucher.
3. There are probably 6 pieces of vouchers that lets you have 50% off second bento/platter/sashimi.
4. The discount vouchers for min. $10 purchase all expire this year, while vouchers for 50% off the second bento set expires early next year.
5. All vouchers are for 1 time use only.


So, assuming I paid $9.99, then in order for me to get back that amount, I need to spend another 2 x $10 (using the min. $10 purchase to get $5 discount). So in total, I will have to pay upfront $30 just to get back what I've paid for the voucher price? So only when I'm paying the next $10 ($30+$10), then the 'real' discount starts. So at $40th dollar, I can start to 'enjoy' the discount.

So assuming I save $6 (using the buy at $1 for items priced at $1.60 or below, so $10 gets me a discount of $6). Total percentage saved at this point=($6/$40) x 100=15%

But at $30th dollar, we got back the $9.99 (round up to $10). So, in this case, the discount is higher. Total percentage saved =($6/$30) x 100=20%

50% off the second item (assuming its the same value), really means you're just getting 25% discount in total.

So assuming, you're getting a discount of say $36, it will also means $108 is paid to vendor.

Did I get the vouchers at the end? Nope, because it wouldn't work for me. I would like a voucher that lets me enjoy a discount immediately upon use.

repair in progress...

Canon called today, and gave the quotation. Problem lies with the battery connector which they say is oxidized badly. Probably that's why it erroneously detected low batt because battery current can't flow through...To fix this problem need to change battery box and battery connector. These two parts total cost is quite reasonable, but the service cost is quite high. In fact, higher than the total parts put together!

Anyway, repair must proceed no matter what. Otherwise, no camera to use... *sobs*
But this will also mean that the same problem may occur again. I think the technical guy was trying to tell me how to clean it up, but by that time my mind had already shut off...due to lack of sleep...

Forgot to ask how long will the repair take though...

dancing kitties

Puss in Boots with Kitty, dancing~

Saw them at The Central, Clarke Quay.

out of service

Will be camera-less for at least 7 man-days due to camera being sent in for repair. Not sure how much it's going to cost, so need to wait for them to call. Nowadays the Canon Customer Service Center at Keppel Tower (Harbourfront) has evolved from being a one person receptionist show (way back in 2004, I think), to the current big place where there is a coffee machine for public to get a cuppa hot coffee to drink while waiting for their turn. There are 8 counters to service customers. Good eh?

Most of the people there, brought their big big DSLR and lenses, while I am still with my powershot A2000IS. Mine looks like child's play!

camera

My camera is dying soon... battery newly charged up, after a short while, the display shows battery depleting...*sobs* Here's a link for similar problem but different camera model... still powershot series though..

Today, finally realised what an extended warranty from Harvey Norman means. It means, you'll still have to send to Canon customer service, get a quotation and then confirm whether that repair work is under warranty or not. If not, then pay it yourself. May have to pay diagnostic fee as well... *sobs* If it's covered under the extended third party warranty, then still have to pay for the repair first, then make a claim back. *sobs*

Below are the two models that I'm considering for now, if still getting Canon. Ixus 230 HS is the latest model and its difference with powershot sx230 is the zoom (8x versus 14x) and GPS where people also had complained about. If GPS is turned on, it means the number of shots taken before battery is dead is just about 150 shots. That is pretty low since I've managed to do 700 shots with the old A2000IS.

powershot sx230 (@$499)

ixus 230 HS (@$399)

bread

Bought some buns from Mama Bakery. Used to be owned by a Japanese elderly lady, but I think the business is sold to someone else for quite some time already. Retained similar breads though.

lobster bun (behind) and cranberry cream cheese (front)

curry lobster

cream cheese~

The lobster bun tasted pretty weird. Not sure what they sprinkled at the top of the bread (dark brown bits), but it tasted weird! Not the typical Japanese curry bun curry... so, will not be buying this anymore.

The cranberry cream cheese was good. As good as previous owners'.