Xmas is round the corner and while some are enjoy their year-end holiday, there are some like Cindy and i who are made to rush for project closure. It has been a really tiring week with a daily knock-off time after 10 pm, but once i reach home and see my wife and my little Abril esp. when she is awake, i feel rejuvenated again. Slowly i seem to understand the true meaning of family.
Anyway, for the past week Cindy and i have been cracking our head on what to get for the annual x-mas party at Cel's place. As much as it is a joyous occasion for all of us, it is also a war-zone for Cel and i. She never failed to place her eye on my exchange present, in fact she is much more happy to get the present from my hand if she get the joker. My yearly tactic alway seem to fail me, and without exception for this year, i have come out with my tactic which is to "wear red undergarmet" and hope that i can get the joker. Watch out Cel, Lady luck might be smiling at me this year, hehehe!
There is one more thing that i never failed to do during X-Mas which is to get chocolate present and i will alway visit Royce so my friends "Stay tuned".
Yippy Yaya
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
My new 50D
After 2 years of NATO, i finally got myself a DSLR, Canon 50D. Went to Sitex 2009 with Mr. Chua on the last day to grab it. Upon reaching Expo, the CO party headed for their John Little warehouse sale when we went to Sitex.
Upon reaching the Canon booth, Mr. Chua start to spot some decent sale guy whom we can negotiate with. And after doing round and round of patroling, we found our target. As a talented bargainer, Mr. Chua started to stress the guy until he performed a "Show Hand" of the best deal possible.
And thanks to Mr. Chua, i got my 50D Kit III package at a really good deal.
Upon reaching the Canon booth, Mr. Chua start to spot some decent sale guy whom we can negotiate with. And after doing round and round of patroling, we found our target. As a talented bargainer, Mr. Chua started to stress the guy until he performed a "Show Hand" of the best deal possible.
And thanks to Mr. Chua, i got my 50D Kit III package at a really good deal.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Bangkok Trip Day2
Day 2 was Cindy's show as mine was over yesterday. We have our buffet style bf at around 8 plus at the hotel's cafe and then we headed out straight for shopping.
First destination is MBK where Cindy went to hunt for her lingerie and after 1 hr plus of shopping and choosing, she finally settled with 6 sets and then we set off for more shopping. Here is a look on the amount of load that we have initially:
Without failure, we will always offering our prayer to the 4-Face Buddha near Siam Paragon and along the way, we spotted something interesting.
"Who's the cat?"
Next, we drop by Central's Naraya outlet to search for the missing orders and manged to get most of them. After that, we get to taste the famous iced milk tea of Thailand. For those who like sweet, it is a must-try!
First destination is MBK where Cindy went to hunt for her lingerie and after 1 hr plus of shopping and choosing, she finally settled with 6 sets and then we set off for more shopping. Here is a look on the amount of load that we have initially:
Without failure, we will always offering our prayer to the 4-Face Buddha near Siam Paragon and along the way, we spotted something interesting.
"Who's the cat?"
Finally, we reached the final destination "The Patunam Mall". It is a six-storey mall with 200 over outlet at each storey. We had our lunch at the mall and then we started Cindy's shopping fiesta. There are lot of variety to choose from and the amount of shops can match Taiwan's Wu Fen Pu. We only managed to complete walking 2 levels and we ran out of $$$ and we have to call it a day. End of the day, I ended up like this-
At night, we visited a roadside stall that we patronized every visit to Bangkok for Dinner. Here are the dishes that we had:
With this, we summary up our Bangkok trip.
At night, we visited a roadside stall that we patronized every visit to Bangkok for Dinner. Here are the dishes that we had:
With this, we summary up our Bangkok trip.
Mad Rush after long break
Previously i mentioned about going for a long break but a long break doesn't always end in a good way especially when you are in the IT industry working under a bank domain. Well, year end is always the period where people clear their leaves and recharge themselves and i was always one among the group. However, thing doesn't not go smoothly this year though.
Firstly, my director gave me a call during the 2nd week of my holiday and this is the first telltale sight that i will be in deep s... when i return to work. It is not just plainly 1 call, a few sms tagged along with it. Just as i was enjoying my last 2 day, my team lead called me to return to work on the last day of my break. That's not all, once i return, it seems like i was caught in a perfect storm, you know 2 thunder storms meet. On 1 side, management is pressing the application to go on live when the production system has not been set up. On the other side, the application has not gone through proper testing.
Since i returned to work, every knock-off time is not earlier than 10pm. And i know there is more storms ahead. Well folks, i guess next time i will adopt Auntie Cel's tactic "Change job and then go on a break", at least she never ended up in a perfect storm.........
Bad Break...........
Firstly, my director gave me a call during the 2nd week of my holiday and this is the first telltale sight that i will be in deep s... when i return to work. It is not just plainly 1 call, a few sms tagged along with it. Just as i was enjoying my last 2 day, my team lead called me to return to work on the last day of my break. That's not all, once i return, it seems like i was caught in a perfect storm, you know 2 thunder storms meet. On 1 side, management is pressing the application to go on live when the production system has not been set up. On the other side, the application has not gone through proper testing.
Since i returned to work, every knock-off time is not earlier than 10pm. And i know there is more storms ahead. Well folks, i guess next time i will adopt Auntie Cel's tactic "Change job and then go on a break", at least she never ended up in a perfect storm.........
Bad Break...........
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Bangkok Trip Day1.
We have just returned from Bangkok yesterday evening and thanks to the ride from Mr. and Mrs. Chua, we returned home quickly after a tiring and clumpy flight journey.
So let's start from the day we departed from Terminal 1. After checking in at the Jet Star counter, we headed for breakfast, we got milk tea from toastbox and a Japanese fried noodle which consisted of only noodle and cabbage and guess what it costs a ridiculous S$7.
The noodle
We proceed to the boarding gate and found out that the plane will be delay by 30 mins. So we waited and waited and finally we boarded the plane and headed for Bangkok. After clearing the custom at Bangkok, we took a cab and headed for our hotel. As usual, the Bangkok traffic never fails to jam and the journey from airport to the hotel took about 30 mins and costs 300 baht.
At the hotel, we were greet by friendly smiles from the hotel staffs and the check-in process took around 5 mins. Our room was at the 29th floor and it had a decent bathroom, a kitchen, a small living room, a balcony and a bedroom, really value for $$$.
Once, we place our stuffs in the room, we headed for lunch at a nearby noodle stall. After performing some chicken and duck talk with the stall lady, we place our order. Take a look at our order and trust me, its delicious:
After our satisfying lunch, we headed for the nearest BTS and headed for the first shopping location, Adidas Factory outlet at Ari Station where i got some clothing for myself. Next, we headed for On Nut station where i wanted to find my Levi shop but by the time we arrived, it was closed. It was closed to dinner time and we headed for dinner at the infamous Seafood Market Restaurant off Sukuvimit Soi 24. Got off at Phrom Phang Station and took a 10 min walks before we arrived at the restaurant.
The restaurant was very big, around the size of a primary school field and there were around 20 chefs standing in the open air kitchen. We will greet by more than 30 waiters and waitresses dressing in red and blue vests. There was a wide variety of fresh seafood display to choose from as we stroll down the walkway accompany by one of the waitress. Our orders are: King prawns, oysters to be fry in omelet, squids, clam, founder, mushroom and beansprout.
Stir Fried Clam & Tom Yam Soup
BBQ King Tiger Prawn & Deep Fried Founder in Thai Chili Sauce
Oyster Omelet & Stir-Fired beansprouts with mushroom
What can we said about the dinner, check out our expression.............
Next, we headed for Naraya which is at the junction of the street to get the numerous bag orders which Cindy has taken. The shop was packed with locals as well as foreigners. The shop assistant was helpful and it took us a while and we got most of the bags on the list. Check out the shopping cart:
So let's start from the day we departed from Terminal 1. After checking in at the Jet Star counter, we headed for breakfast, we got milk tea from toastbox and a Japanese fried noodle which consisted of only noodle and cabbage and guess what it costs a ridiculous S$7.
The noodleWe proceed to the boarding gate and found out that the plane will be delay by 30 mins. So we waited and waited and finally we boarded the plane and headed for Bangkok. After clearing the custom at Bangkok, we took a cab and headed for our hotel. As usual, the Bangkok traffic never fails to jam and the journey from airport to the hotel took about 30 mins and costs 300 baht.
At the hotel, we were greet by friendly smiles from the hotel staffs and the check-in process took around 5 mins. Our room was at the 29th floor and it had a decent bathroom, a kitchen, a small living room, a balcony and a bedroom, really value for $$$.
Once, we place our stuffs in the room, we headed for lunch at a nearby noodle stall. After performing some chicken and duck talk with the stall lady, we place our order. Take a look at our order and trust me, its delicious:
After our satisfying lunch, we headed for the nearest BTS and headed for the first shopping location, Adidas Factory outlet at Ari Station where i got some clothing for myself. Next, we headed for On Nut station where i wanted to find my Levi shop but by the time we arrived, it was closed. It was closed to dinner time and we headed for dinner at the infamous Seafood Market Restaurant off Sukuvimit Soi 24. Got off at Phrom Phang Station and took a 10 min walks before we arrived at the restaurant.The restaurant was very big, around the size of a primary school field and there were around 20 chefs standing in the open air kitchen. We will greet by more than 30 waiters and waitresses dressing in red and blue vests. There was a wide variety of fresh seafood display to choose from as we stroll down the walkway accompany by one of the waitress. Our orders are: King prawns, oysters to be fry in omelet, squids, clam, founder, mushroom and beansprout.
Stir Fried Clam & Tom Yam Soup
BBQ King Tiger Prawn & Deep Fried Founder in Thai Chili Sauce
Oyster Omelet & Stir-Fired beansprouts with mushroom
What can we said about the dinner, check out our expression.............
Next, we headed for Naraya which is at the junction of the street to get the numerous bag orders which Cindy has taken. The shop was packed with locals as well as foreigners. The shop assistant was helpful and it took us a while and we got most of the bags on the list. Check out the shopping cart:
Collie at work....................
End of day 1, to be continue..........................
Vocation Task: Curry Puff Making
One of the todo item for my break vocation is curry puff making. I downloaded a curry puff recipe for dummy from the net and get cracking:
Step 1: Making the dough
Step 2: Ingredients (Potato, Chicken, Red onion, spices)
After frying the ingredients, it become like that:
Step 3: When Ingredients and Dough Combines
Step 4: The Puffs
After frying for 15 mins at 180 degree celsius.
And then it is time for tasting session by my one and only guinea pig (Wifey). Well, the feedback was quite positive but i feel that i have to improved on the taste of the filling to make it less sweet and more salty. Hence, until i have QA my next batch then i will include Mr. and Mrs. Chua in my guinea pig list.
17-Nov-09
Step 1: Making the dough
Step 2: Ingredients (Potato, Chicken, Red onion, spices)
After frying the ingredients, it become like that:
Step 3: When Ingredients and Dough Combines
Step 4: The Puffs
After frying for 15 mins at 180 degree celsius.
And then it is time for tasting session by my one and only guinea pig (Wifey). Well, the feedback was quite positive but i feel that i have to improved on the taste of the filling to make it less sweet and more salty. Hence, until i have QA my next batch then i will include Mr. and Mrs. Chua in my guinea pig list.
17-Nov-09
Sunday, November 15, 2009
A Long-For Break
Finally, the long awaited break from work is here. I finally got to rest at home for a good 2 weeks starting tomorrow. I have some to-do items during this 2 weeks:
1. To repaint the brown wall of my house
2. Change the sink tap in the kitchen
3. Make some curry puffs
4. Go for swimming at Sengkang Sport complex
5. Rescape my fish tank
6. Spent quality with my family
Hurray!
1. To repaint the brown wall of my house
2. Change the sink tap in the kitchen
3. Make some curry puffs
4. Go for swimming at Sengkang Sport complex
5. Rescape my fish tank
6. Spent quality with my family
Hurray!
