X-Mas Gathering 2009 @ Cel's House

Last Saturday, we have our annual X-Mas gathering at Cel's new house, an apartment along Roysth Rd. Other than the space as compared to her old house, the new place was nice and cozy. This year we had pot-luck style and as usual we cannot finish the food. After a fulfilling meal, we kick-off our post-meal exercise with the wii that Cel had bought, it is really a total workout man especially the boxing game.








For all the photo, please visit:
X-Mas Photos

XMAS is coming........

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

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.

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!

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.

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...........

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:

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

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!

Age is catching up!!!!!

Recently, i start to have aching back after a jogging session and feel that i have no strength when playing soccer. All my muscles are tight and i can barely display full range of motion for my limbs.

When i look at myself in the mirror, i can spot strain of white hairs and fish tail wrinkles by the edges of my eyes. Guess i am one of those that cannot defy time, age is really catching up on me, gone are those days where i can go running in the morning and play a soccer game in the evening. I am really getting oldddddd..............

Haiya

Midnight Movie

Went for a midnight movie on Friday at AMK Hub, we watch Jennifer's Body which was a horror movie. It had been years since my wife and i went to catch a midnight movie or rather a movie, i can't even recall when was it. Anyway, there were actually no crowd at all, just a few couples and less than 30 audiences. The seating arrangement was well plan as such that the person in front of you will not definitely block your view.

About the movie, it was quite terrifying as there were scenes where i just jump up of my seat and my wife just cover her face with her hands leaving just a small gap for viewing. In summary, horror and sexual evolve around the movie.

4 stars for Cathay AMK Hub.

Infamous Bugis street's steamboat stall

Hasn't been to town for quite a number of years and then on last Friday, Cindy and i made a trip down to Bugis area. Our plan is to get a watch as her birthday present. We arrived at Bugis around 7 pm and straight away, we head off for dinner.

Heard from somewhere that a particular street in Bugis area has been converted to streamboat street which is near the north beach road. So we took a stroll down the street in look for some decent steamboat shops where we can tuck in for dinner. Seem to us that everywhere is packed with hungry figures feasting away on their food.

Finally, we found one decent shop that is by the corner of the road facing Shaw Tower and i went up to ask the boss if there is any seat available. The boss is from China and i was quite taken aback by his reply. Nothing against China, but i think these FT really have some attitude problems. To me, his reply is like "I got so much business, i would die without accepting yours", so what if your business is good, this is not the way to treat your customers.

So in the end, we settle in the shop beside his. The boss of that shop has much better attitude. At least, he give us a nice reply to wait here while he source for our seats.

Go fly kites, FT!

2/11/09

Damn ........

Today is my wife's 29th birthday and i actually have apply for leave to celebrate her birthday. But there is always "otherwise" in this world and i have to cancel my leave due to work commitment.

Feel so bad that that plan cannot fall in place and something pissed with life. It just like we have to work our ass out to fulfill the liabilities (home loans, bills etc) that we have created.

I am sorry, darling!

Miserable
02/11/09

Upzzzzzzzzzz

Nothing much has been happen in recent months, busy preparing for my part-time degree exams and now doing assignments but this is the last and final leg of my study journey. Finally, can take a long break and spent quality time with my wife and my little Abril.

Wife is so busy with Abril that she hardly get personal time to do her stuffs at night and what make things worse is her tons of last minutes requests from works. Feel so bad that i can't help out much, but i got to finish my assignment asap. She is always so understanding toward me and i am bless to have you by my side. All i can do is to prepare nice foods for you and make sure you don't feel hot at night by swithching on the air-con. Coz my wife is from the north pole and her motto is "A hot Cindy is an ANGRY Cindy.

Recently we went to change our wedding bands as the current one does not fit her finger anymore. It is a good idea by Lee Hwa to offer the trade-in policy for Destinee series rings. What the customer has to do is to top up the balance instead of paying for a whole new set. It is amazing how price inflation has occur in the last 2 years. Now a pair of wedding band can cost ard 1.5k let alone the diamond ring. So girls, are Diamond still your best friend now?

Cheers
14-Sept

A long weekend, Who ate the missing meatball?????

Just recovered from a long weekend, thanks to National Day! As usual, weekend is alway short and weekdays are damn long. Has been waking up early morning 6 plus to do some morning run on saturday and sunday, now my legs are like jelly.

On monday, we have steamboat+bbq for dinner at my "ex-darling"'s place. It was a sumptuous and delicious meal with tonic herbal soup base and all kind of meat except lamb and beef. Sadly never took any pictures of the steamboat. After we have finish the steamboat, i was so full and guess what there is still round 2, the dessert.

My fuel tank is just 1300cc, and it is expected to perform at 3000cc. Just a matter of time, the engine will overhaul............Anyway, before the dessert, we had the cake cutting session whereby we just finish half of the cake and give the other half to the neighbour

Continue..........

After returning empty handed and a confused state of mind, i went to search the online shop for info. There is also a limited stock of red GT-R going for auction in SG site as well as UK, well i must said that Mr. Chua sure know what to collect.

As for the EZ devastor, it is out of stock currently, will restock in Nov. So i continue to search around, pondering over which one to buy. Cindy did mention a toy shop at China Square Central called U-Toys which sell transformers. So i decided to check with them on the 2 items and found out that EZ Devastor will be re-stock in Nov while the GT-R will not be restock. However, there is one customer who consigned U-Toy to sell his GT-R and straight away, i reserved the set and closed the gift hurting session.

All i can said after this whole event is "Getting Mr. Chua's present is never easy, however it is like attending a lesson where you will learn new knowledge along the process." Good job, BAC Pte Ltd!

First Post in 2009

Hihi,

Seriously, super long time no posting. When i try to recall what have i been doing all these while, i cannot recall them. I have no answer to why has i not been blogging etc. Anyway, 2009 first post is here:

Recently, Cindy and i have been out hurting for Birthday gift for one of our best buddy, Mr Chua, and we realised that it is a big challenge getting a present for him. Either the present he wanted is out of stock or they are limited edition. Our first stop is Suntec Centre 3rd floor, at the toy shop outside the Cinema. Based on the info provided by our undercover, we started looking for the EZ 7 Piece Devastor from the Transfromer 2 movie: Revengue of the Fallen.

We look high and low and a few pieces of the Devastor model and we counted that there is only 6 pieces altogether but the info is 7 pieces. This leaves us clueless as to where is the missing piece, is the info reliable? So we left the shop empty handed with the idea of going to China Square Central as our next shop. But before that, we stopped by the Toy-Us-R to find out more and i called my undercover and found out that we are looking at the wrong version of the devastor. So with the updated info, we managed to recruit 3 pieces of the devastor @ $9.90 per piece.

Next, we headed for China Square Central. Suprisingly, it was crowded on a sunday afternoon. An ongoing FLEA market was taking place there. We came across 1 particular stall with a lady, she sell the 7 pieces devastor and i thought "Ho Say, mission accompanished" but i was wrong. The piece she quoted us was 2 fold the original and i goes like "WTF, you think i am a carrot is it?" and i left the stall without asking for more info. In my mind, i was going like "Siao ah, you daylight robbery is it, Si Zha Bo, @##$$%$^%##@". Finally, we left without any luck.

Our next stop is Sunshine Plaza Gundam shop opps Victor's Dim Sum Restaurant. I went in in hope to get a good gundam for Mr Chua since i cannot get his Transformer but my mind just got blank regardless of which gundams i am looking at. My state of mind at the moment is "Totally no confidence at all as to the most sutiable gundam".

[Ai yo, Mr Chua, y you collect so many gundams, make ppl's life difficult but cannot blame you ah.......why i itcy backside, go and get gundam for you]

At that point in time, i give up and call me undercover again and she provided me with another piece of new information. The 25th Anniversary Transformer Alternity Optimus-Prime GT-R Red Colour. Well, what can i say, getting the GT-R is not much of a problem but what make it so difficult is the RED. I found black, blue but never red. And the best part is Mr Chua has already search the whole of S'pore except Suntec for the piece and to no avail. Hello, if Mr. Chua cannot find it, how can we find it. Of coz, we left for home empty-handed.

To be continue.....