Of stubborn guy, taste revival and value find

My patience is running low with the French colleague.

He is superbly stubborn, and refused to ‘take orders’ when asked. He just had to argue his way thru. What’s wrong with him? Or is it just their culture?

I really can’t be bothered with him. I just kacau him only when the ceo asked me to check things with him. And both times, he had to defend himself and not follow / grudgingly follow.

Thank god I’m not the babysitter. I might just end up smacking him too.

Oh, I forgot to mention something real amazing that happened last Friday.

I was suddenly craving for this yellow noodle soup before lunch. And this taste was only around during my primary school days where the noodle soup was 30 cents per bowl, and how it was ‘formulated’ was the chilli which gave it THAT taste and I seldom get that same thing nowadays. Just duno where to find it.

And then for lunch, we initially planned to go to NP but the canteen was closed. So we decided to go to Beauty World instead and I was thinking what to eat coz my fav prawn noodle stall is no longer there (the uncle retired, I think). Then saw this new Yong Tau Hoo stall with a queue. Cheap too – 5 pcs + noodles = $2.50. Where to find such cheap Yong Tau Hoo nowadays?

And of coz, I asked for the yellow noodle soup. I usually ask for beehoon soup but because of the sudden craving, I took yellow noodles. And guess what?

The chilli and the soup noodles – similar taste to that one more than a decade ago!

And then, now I’m craving for the same thing again….yumz.

I went to Sans Bookshop (those buy/sell bookstore) yesterday and picked up a chick flick from the 3-for-$5 shelves. And surprisingly, it was quite good. I read the first 2 chapters last nite and I was totally engaged.

The 3-for-$5 books are usually those long time ago, not famous titles, or maybe dry stories which only a minor group of people may enjoy. And from there, I only managed to find one (or maybe two) romance novels.

But because to me, I have this impression in me about read books which should be cheaper than those in the stores, but I didn’t really find the books there cheap. Those read once, might just have the value drop to $15 but it’s not really different from newly bought ones. In the end, I left only with one book though I could have picked up more. If I get one, I would not return it at all so I need to justify for the price.

The only thing that is motivating me this week is it’s a 4-day work week, and the thing to look forward to is the Malacca trip.

Games which shouldn’t be played

Reading Potato’s entry about playing the pen spirit ‘game’ reminds me the the time when I tried this myself during my secondary school time. And it was a solo attempt.

I remember it was after the exams but everyone still had to go to school for dunno-wateva-reasons. We were bored, and there was no teachers around most of the time. We brought games to school, do whatever we want, and though I can’t remember who started this game, I can still remember how it felt.

I was skeptical about trying it out initially, but after that when I realised that a lot of my classmates were playing it, and nothing happened to them as long as they follow the rules, I gave in. Anyway, there was nothing else to do and that was really bored.

Eggs and eggs

Harlow!!!!!

The only thing that is keeping me happy now is because it’s a 4-day week this week. Yay!

Tomorrow will be quite relaxed too (I think) because our base station is closed for some holiday. Then it’s us Singaporeans.

Singapore will be closed on Friday only. Malaysia will be closed on Thursday only. Indonesia will be closed on both Thursday and Friday.

Doncha wish you work in Indonesia???

Eggs. Easter eggs.

I’ve not had an Easter egg even once in my life. Do they actually give real hard boiled eggs or just empty on the insides?

I remember I used to do Easter eggs for art class in primary school. Using those empty egg shells. And it was a task to empty the eggs while making sure that the eggs do not break or get damaged. I think my mummy helped me last time, and we ended up having eggs for a few nites for dinner because some had a fatal end. Heehee.

Anyway, good to see some instructions here on how to empty eggs, beautifully:

1. Wash the egg using water warmer than the egg. Dry the egg. With a sterilized long needle or small, sharp skewer, prick a small hole in the small end of the egg. Prick a large hole in the large end. Carefully chip away bits of shell around the large hole until it’s big enough to fit the tip of a kitchen baster. Stick the needle or skewer into the yolk to break it.
2. Shake the egg large-end down over a cup or bowl until the insides come out. OR, use a baster to push out the contents. Press the bulb of the baster to push air into the egg. Let the contents fall into the cup. If the insides don’t come out easily, stick the needle in again. Move it around to be sure both the shell membranes and the yolk are broken. Rinse the empty shell under cool running water. Stand the shell on end in a drainer to dry.
3. Be careful when decorating an empty shell. It’s easy to break it. Before decorating the egg, you can cover the holes in the ends with melted wax or with tissue paper and glue like papier mache. Then, make a stand for it out of a small bottle cap, an empty film canister or a section of a cardboard tube. Or, you can run a loop of ribbon, yarn, string or wire through the holes. Tie the end to make a hanger for your decorated egg.
4. When your eggs are cooked or your eggshells are empty, you’re ready to dye or decorate them.

Source: http://www.aeb.org/kidsandfamily/eastereggs/decoratingtips.asp

Ahhh..how nice.

Anyone wanna give me an Easter egg?

Picture by =Oborochann

Star Awards 25th anniversary show

Quick bites: Have disabled the autoplay of Christmas songs. Pls scroll down all the way to hit the ‘play’ button should you want the music to accompany you while you hang around here.

Was searching thru you tube for the 25th anniversary star awards (戏剧情牵25) and found them! The dramas that kept me company for the past 2 decades…

If you’ve missed both the live and repeat telecast, thanks to MrJackyLim who uploaded them in 15 parts to youtube:

当时我们年纪小

How nice it would be if it snows in Singapore.

A friend took a picture of the scene outside his home.

Taken by Finally

Blow it up, and it looked really nice as a wallpaper.

I said it looked pretty nice, and he said that not really since it has been this cold frosty weather for some time. He wished that he can feel some warmth under the sun.

Human beings are just like this. They always feel that the other side is always better than what they are experiencing now. Just like when we were kids, we always want to grow up fast because we want to work and make money. We always want to grow up faster because only then we can do a lot of things.

Now when we are grown-ups, we think that work is shitty and wants to go back to studies. So we go full time or part time.

Now that we are grown-ups, we wished that we were younger because we do not want to look old.

Now that we are grown-ups, we wished that we were younger because kids do not face more problems than we do when we become an adult.

When we were young, we want to grow up fast so that we can get a license and drive around as and when we liked.

Now that we are grown-ups, we think of how to save money because the standard of living is going up. And we think how of fuel consumption because price of petrol is now over $2/litre.

When we were younger, we wished that the parents will disappear because they nag too much.

When we have grown up, we wished that we can spend as much time as we can with them while they grow much older with more and more white hair and more difficult to move around.

When you were younger, you wished that you can grow up fast so that you can find someone and marry them.

When you have grown up, you see beyond marriage because of the reason that marriage life may not be so easy to maintain after all.

Such is the dilemma of human beings.

Think back, and have those younger days as memories.

Rest & relax

I remember the time when I was at Concourse Starbucks, sipping my ice-blended coffee, with my Macbook and book, people-watching, surfing the net on wireless@sg, then reading my book.

I remember the time when I took half a day leave in the afternoon, met up with Icybabe, went to Dome at Paragon, had a nice serving of Caesar’s Salad with lots of ingredients thrown in because KC was still working there. Sitting there, just relaxing, people watch, and doing nothing else.

I remember the time when I went on half a day’s leave before Xmas (last year only), to just go shopping by myself, because I needed to buy some Xmas presents urgently and the holy day was within the next 96 hours. I moved swiftly within shops, trying to find all the stuff that I needed to buy.

I wished I had the time and chance to do that now…

Down the memory lane of acting

Missed the Star Awards – 25 years of Actors last evening since I was out with D. I didn’t know about it (coz I seldom watch TV too until she told me yesterday afternoon about it).

Watching some of the videos on Channel 8 website was really touching. Seeing some of the faces which we have not been seeing for so many years, and we have more or less lost touch with their lives too, was really a walk down memory lane.

Almost everyone was touched by the time when they see Bai Yan (白言) and Chen Meiguang (陈美光) on stage. These 2 veteran actor and actress were out of the acting scene many years ago, and it was rejoicing to see them still going on strong.

Still can remember others like Jazreel Low (刘琦), Tang Miaoling (汤妙玲), He Yongfang (何咏芳), Angela Ang (洪昭蓉), Carole Lin (林小佩), Li Yinzhu (李茵珠), Desmond Shen (沈金兴), Sean Say (陈建辉), Hong Guorui (洪国锐）Cassandra See（薛素珊), Ann Kok (郭舒贤)Lina Yang (杨丽娜), Yang Libing (杨丽冰) and many others.

It’s like some reunion of all the artistes who have stepped into SBC (now Mediacorp) during various times.

Some still looked the same, some beautiful as ever. But others have their age shown on their faces.

Bai Yan’s hair is already totally white.

Cai Pingkai (二姑) still look the same. Like she never aged at all.

Ye Sumei (叶素梅) looked anorexic though.

Repeat telecast would be the coming Sat in the afternoon. Wonder if I’ll be able to watch it though.

A journey down the road

When I was younger, below ten years of age I think, I used to go along this road looking interestingly at the stuff that people have to offer.

This one has a history of being one of the first that Singapore has. And maybe you can also say, the oldest coz it is still standing with a steady flow of people walking along that area.

As time passes, the type of stuff that lay on the ground changes too. Though of coz there would be things which still appear there because the older it gets, the better price it might fetch.

This one is at, what we used to know as, Sungei Road.

Eat again!

 

Picture by KelvinTheLion

Gawd.

Eating again. This time during lunch.

This morning, I asked permission from Mr CEO to buy a cake for the birthday boy and gal. Usually we would buy it during lunch but not today coz the boy had to go and meet a customer after lunch. And he took leave tomorrow on his birthday.

So no choice. Had to go out before lunch to get the cake.

After we consumed the cake, the director and Mr CEO actually asked to go out for lunch at Apollo for Indian food. As per our ‘tradition’, the birthday boy/gal has to give a lunch treat. And as it was a last minute invite, we thought it those ‘you want to go can tag along’ treat from the boss. So no one tag along since we’ve already planned to have claypot rice.

Then they called again to ask if anyone wants to go to Pan Pacific for teppanyaki. We then decide to go.

Hahaha~ like we very gian bng. But no la. Just that we felt that if they call means it’s not the ‘tag along if you want’ kind of treat. And we should not ‘play hard to get’ if that is the case since they specially called back to ask again.

Anyway, the Japanese restaurant at Pan Pacific was fully booked. So I suggested Wasabi Bistro at Oriental Hotel. A bit of wrong choice, coz Mr Director wanted to have teppanyaki. The only ‘teppanyaki’ they had is for beef. Anyway, he took that, and we took other foods.

Well, I had my fix of foie gras since they had teriyaki chicken with foie gras set lunch. The chicken was nice! Very fragrant deep fried taste though the sauce is a bit too sweet. Foie gras was soft though it still had a slight smell.

Service actually was not quite up to standard. It wasn’t full house, but they had served food quite slow. One colleague who ordered the same food as me at the same time but had his food served with the group who came later. Then they served one set for another colleague only after almost all of us had finished the food.

In the end, they did not charge us for that last set of food that came late.

One funny incident was that Mr Director wanted to da bao a set of hotplate beef back. The same which he was having. So he told one of the guys for his order, pointing to his finished meal, indicating that he wanted the same.

The guy server thought he wanted to da bao his leftover food and his eyes nearly fell out upon hearing that. The plate only got a piece of veggie garnish left lor. Haiyooo….why he so tut tut one?

But we had a really good laugh la, seeing his reaction. So funny.

Going to Oriental Hotel brings back a lot of memories, but ever since they renovated the place, all the outlets seemed to have moved place (not really la, actually) coz I couldn’t recognise them already. No longer have the ‘feel’ at the lounge and the bar where I also used to work at had disappeared, replaced by another outlet.

Just like I went back to my newly renovated secondary school. Everything had moved place and I can’t visualise what is where anymore….

Bubble blowing

Do you still remember about the chewing gum that comes in tube form a long time ago, when Singapore has still not banned gum?

I can’t remember the brand or name or what. But the gums come in fruity flavours at that time. Other than the usual wrigley’s and the powdery chewing gum with the bear on the wrapper and the other side could be tattooed on your body with a little water dabbed on it, this is one of them that I still remember.

And guess what? I got to see gum in tube form today! Called Tubbie Gum. Strawberry flavour.

Nope, they are not from Malaysia. Don’t think Malaysia sell them coz I’m not seen them anywhere.

From some Middle Eastern country. From one of our customer. Heh.

I nearly forgot how to blow bubble gum already. But all it takes is some rewinding of the memory lane and tadah! I know how to blow bubbles again!

What fun.

But of coz, I still cannot forget how icky it is to have gum on my shoes. In fact, I just had one stuck on my shoe last month. Along the roads.

Please, if you eat gum, wrap them up before you throw away. For your hygiene, for others convenience and for not messing up the place or dustbin or wherever you are throwing them.

GUM ON THE SHOE IS NOT SOMETHING FUN, OK?

It’s been a long time since…

…I’ve taken the afternoon off to just go for shopping, laze around or sit about in cafes to read and people watch and spend the time away…

I used to occasionally take leave in the afternoon just to have some me time. That was many years ago, when I had some extra leave and I was those privileged ones who can bring forward last year’s leave. Ever since I started studying part time, I no longer have such leisure activities anymore coz I have to conserve my leave for exams and revision.

And now?

I use them for my long diving trips. Heehee~

Just today while I was talking to J*****, I was reminded of the same ol’ thing.

And I was so very tempted to take leave again.

And I was also reminded of K** who is now in Kin Men. Coz he used to work at Dome in town and so if I take leave in the afternoon, I drop by where he worked and have a serving of Caesar’s Salad and a drink. That was really nice and leisurely.

I also realised that things have been quite monotonous lately.

I’ve not been clubbing, karaoke-ing, cycling, la kopi-ing, cinema watching or suntanning at Sentosa for a long time.

Not that I don’t enjoy my weekends now. In fact, I do appreciate times when I can just laze around during weekends. That is when I try to recuperate from the tiring week.

In fact, I like those quiet moments I enjoy with…

Report books

Found these in my drawer.

My CA assessment card (left 1, lost 2) in primary school, my report books from my 2 primary schools and secondary school.

It was real nostalgic to see what my teachers used to write about me.

Primary 1:

Music: Is very accurate in tune and rhythm when singing.
Physical Education: Enjoys all P.E. activities.
1st sem: Has done very well. Keep up your good work.
2nd sem: A diligent, obedient and pleasant pupil.

My position in class was 2/42.

Primary 2: My class position was STILL 2/42. The first in class is still the same guy, called Weixiong, I think.

Primary 3: I finally managed to overtake Weixiong! 1/42. I was the only one promoted to 4N1 (where the best few pupils of primary 3 get into). Position for the whole of primary 3 was 31/330.

Unfortunately, I had moved house and was transferred to another school nearer to my place.

Comic relief

When I was young, kids around me used to be reading comics like 老夫子 and 大番薯, which I have no inkling of their ‘comical antics’ till I was older. I remember that I used to want to read their comic books but was restricted by my mum. Her excuse was that I won’t be able to study if I read them, which also meant to me that if I were to read those comics, I would turn stupid.

Just like she forbade me to eat ‘phoenix’ feet’ (chicken legs, or 凤爪), saying that my hands will become shaky and that will end up my handwriting being ugly due to the trembles.

But I never did know why she forbade us to eat those feet when we were young, though I knew that they were untrue as I slowly grew older.

That kinda had an effect on me, even today. Even though I know they are not true, but those words are still etched deep and always come first thing to my mind.

In the end, the comic books that I’ve read were basically Tin Tin, Doraemon and Archie & Jughead. And not to forget the locally-born Mr Kiasu.

New gadget

…or maybe not so new.

my sis got something recently.

yes, you are right. that’s a tamagotchi…if you still remember it from last time.

sometimes my sis is just like a child. this she got from those machines that dispenses toys with a coin or two.

i told her…”give me the thing. i want to 养死它.”

muahahahahaha~

i am so sadist.

in the end i really ‘killed’ her dolphin.

it was 1 year old already. but it was unintentional. coz i pressed the wrong button that said “reset”.

so it really ‘reset’ the whole thing. and the poor dolphin died.

i chose another animal to rear. this time i got a doggie.

but it’s really very lazy. coz before it’s 9pm, it’s already like this:

lazy bum.

anyway, when you have nothing to do, it’s really fun to reminisce how it used to be the most hip thing to have a tamagotchi around. i remember it was quite expensive the last time.

now this one only costs 2 buckaroos.

of coz, they used to look much more better. this one looks like it’s made with flimsy and cheaper materials. and very light.

but you can choose to rear which animal you prefer – crab, turtle, dolphin, goat, horse, rat, fish, cat, dog, blah blah blah~

let’s see how old will 小白 (no meaning behind it, just i thought of Crayon-Shin suddenly） live till.