Colleagues

Irritating..thinks he knows everything but in fact anithing oso donno. Likes to nag nonstop and thinks he is entertaining everyone with his philosophy....Claims he given me a receipt but in fact din even pass it to me n yet has the cheek to tell me off..Middle aged and been here for 1 year pls get your knowledge clear before repeating your questions for 1000 times and frustrating everyone.
The other one...used to complain about MT...but now attitude changes drastically becoz of free rides and free food. Curry favour Number 1 to those who can give her these free little things.

Korean feast

Went to Jang Shou Korean Charcoal BBQ with my colleague, Noi for lunch yesterday. This korean restaurant is located at the Esplanade Mall and she is the one who introduced me to this place last year. I had BBQ the first time round thus we decided to try their beef stew. Service was good and fast. The manager was friendly and attended to our needs promptly. The stew was made of bean stock, with slices of tender beef mixed with vegetables and tofu. The soup was delicious and very 'kai wei', especially eaten with rice. It was a little spicy though but was just nice for my liking.

Beef stew

The manager recommended us their seafood pancake which was up to our expectation too. Verytasty. Coupled with all the cold dishes, me and noi were bloated but had a very satisfying lunch. We had Plum tea on the house after the meal to refresh our stomach from all that oilness and the manager gave us coffee before we left too. A very nice gesture of him.

Had a busy day in office and waited for Lionel to go to the Indoor Stadium to watch the Singapore Slingers. My boss had free tickets and gave 2 to me. As he was very busy with work, i went for a haircut somewhere near my office while waiting for him. He finished quite late and we decided to give the match a miss as we were tired and just wanted to have a nice dinner and head for home.

I think i must be mad for korean food that day as i brought him to the same korean place i went for lunch. As it was too good, i sweared i must let him try the food. We had BBQ charcoal and ordered beef and pork. It was cooked just right and the tender beef slice just melt in my mouth. There are also vegetables where you can wrap the meet, chilli and garlic and pop into your mouth.

The best authenic korean food i eaten so far and i strongly recommend to everyone. Prices are a little steep though but definitely worth for the money. There is still the cold noodles which i haven't got to try and i believe it is good too.
Had a stroll after the meal and went home shortly.
A very satisfying day!

Bake Time

Me and Lionel woke up quite early last Sunday and I suddenly had the craving to get some recipes and bake cakes! I searched online for some receipes and decided to do the simpliest of all. Brownie! Started our session with a BOMB. As my hse oven hasn't been turned on for months, we tried all ways to get it started again when the fire suddenly exploded and we got a shock of our life. Luckily no one was hurt lol..although Lionel had some of his hand's hair burnt off. We mix the flour, eggs and oil and poured the mixture into the pan and after 40 mins, TADA! Our first cake was done! Not so nice looking though. A very simple and easy dish for a start. Would try out the harder ones next time. A fun day!

Sweet Thoughts

I received a bouquet of flowers yesterday and was shocked! A dozen of roses with words 'I miss you' on each of the petals. Very touched and happy. Lionel sent it to me as he was very busy this week and could not meet me. How sweet of him! Thanks dearie.

Lately was very busy with work as we had new agents coming in and there are lots preparation for them. Our driver was sacked and I had to interview new drivers, scanning and filtering out the process for my boss. Some politics in my office as reflected especially among the young ladies. Backstabbing, badmouthing, curry favouring. As I am on the neutral side, I just listen to all sides of the stories. Very interesting indeed. Meanwhile, work is piling up and I am trying to slowly clear my work. As this is the last quarter of the year, my boss is rushing for production and naturally I am busy as well.

No matter how busy with work, i managed to catch up with my uni friends last week at Minds Cafe for games and dinner. A generally very nice gathering and we are planning for more sports activities in the future. Also met up with Junwen and Crystal today at Fish&Co, realised from JW that being a teacher is not easy, she seems very stressed! Also not forgetting, MJ as usual every week without fail.

Krabi trip next week. Looking forward to it. Sometimes just need that little bit of time to relax and recharge everything. Yay!

Neo Prints

Nice!

My mum got a new maid yesterday! Finally after all that choosing and waiting, my mum feels that she could not cope with the hsehold chores and decided to get someone to help her instead. So far so good. Now got someone to clean my toilet very good.. hee...

Lately was quite busy with work. A lot of things to settle and do as my boss is back. So after work, watch movies and laze ard with Lionel. Watched Dead Silence and Rush Hour 3 on Monday and Tuesday. I thought both were quite nice. A typical horror movie for DS and I personally enjoyed RH3 a lot. Very entertaining and amusing. Something to lighten your mood after work, enjoyable.

A lot of report to rush as it's the end of month, coupled with my boss's bad mood, it's really quite a sian week. She seems to suffer from post-trip blues and gets irritated easily. Though i did not get any scolding from her (heng), but some of my agents are not so lucky. Hope next week will be better.

Birthdays!

Celebrated a lot of birthdays this month - My dad, Lionel and My Brother. The important men in my life..hee.. So well I was rather broke this month buying presents and going out for meals.
This was Lionel's first birthday with me so I wanted to make it more happening and surprising but i was too uncreative to think of anything..Lousy me haha... Brought him to a nice little restaurant by the beach for dinner - Beach Culture@Pasir Ris Park, which resemble Cafe Del Mar at Sentosa. Had a grilled combo which consists of beef, lamb and chicken steak with a cheese sausage, coupled with a huge plate of fries. Enjoying the cool breeze of the beach, we ended off with a brownie ice-cream. Din take much photos as it was too dark and we did not have our camera with us.

The next day, his friends gave us a treat at the Manhanttan fish Market at Central. Had a filling meal and it was good company overall.

Giant Fried Seafood Platter

After stitches

Haven't been blogging for sometime as my com had crashed and was rather busy with misc things(which i also donno). A good 2 weeks i had as my boss left for Prague with many of my agents for a convention meeting, thus office was rather quiet and peaceful and I have time to slowly do my reports and those necessary things.

Meanwhile, my stitches have been removed, i still need to wash and bandage it up everyday. The whole patch looks red and I presume it will take very long before the scar gets lighter. No choice, as my body heals very slowly.

My wound

Surgery

Went for a minor surgery on Sunday to remove a lump on my thigh. It started off as a very small lump underneath my skin and the doc says it's not malignant. Subsequently it began to grow bigger to the size of a big mosquito bite after a few months and i got quite worried. I was very scared during the 15 mins 'surgery' and requested to blindfold my eyes. The doctor injected anesthesia and started the surgery. My mum was called in in the middle of it as the doctor wants her to see how deep my wound was. After stitching up the skin, the doctor bandaged the wound and showed me the cyst. It was quite big in his view (abt the size of a panadol pill) and i was really shocked. He said that i might have pierced into something externally that caused the lump but i cant seem to recall piercing into anything. Well, all is well now. He asked if i wanted to keep the cyst but i was too scared after the operation to react to anything. I should have kept it for memories man! haa.

Went back to the clinic on Monday to wash the wound and i have to wash the wound 2 times everyday and the stitches can only be removed after 1 week. For the next month or so, i had to refrain from seafood, chicken and eggs to let my wound heal. Do hope my wound will heal in time for my Krabi trip in September!

This picture was taken in office when i had to clean my wound. Looks bit digusting though.

My wound being stitched up.

Prawning

Me, Lionel, Zongyang and Daren went for a prawning night last saturday. There are quite a number of prawning farms in Singapore, we went to the one at Jurong (the previous crocodile farm) as Daren had been there before. Charges are at $13 for one hr and $25 for 3 hrs. We reached around 8 and started to prawn. From the hooking of the bait to waiting patiently for the prawns, it was a first time experience for me. One of the assistant there taught us how to place the rod and the bait and we were ready to go. After abt 15 mins, Zongyang finally got the first catch of the day! Daren helped to hook the prawn out of the hook as he is more experienced!

Our first catch

We were excited and hoped for more to come in. There were some experts opposite us who had prawns almost every 5 to 10 mins. Zongyang got another prawn after 20 mins while me, lionel and daren were still waiting to break the zero. After abt 1.5 hrs, there were still no sights of any prawns, we felt some tugs but we lost them when we were pulling the rod up. Sob, probably i did not know the technique to correctly pull the rod. As Lionel and I shared one rod, we took turns to prawn. Daren had his first success after 2 hrs and subsequently another one in a while. That brought our total catch to 4. Sadly, it remained 4 after 3 hrs. Lioenl and I were quite disappointed as we didnt catch any at all for the night! haha.. but we bu gan yuan and vowed to come back again to practise again. We took out miserly 4 prawns to the 'zhi cha' stall there and had supper there - cereal prawns, sambal kang kong and furong egg. Nice esp eating the prawns we had prawn ourselves. As the 7th month is drawing near, there is also a mini Ge tai there which blasts hokkien songs, with some happening aunties and uncles grooving to the music. They also had retro techno songs which livened the whole atmosphere. Would wanna bring my family here one day for a fun filled day of prawning and listening to those hokkien songs (my dad's favourite!).

Fantastic shows

Watched two good shows last week- Alone & Disturbia.

Alone is a typical horror show with lots parts where the ghost will suddenly appear and scare you off. It has been long since i watched a scary horror movie with a good plot. Entertaining and horrifying. Would strongly recommend for all who loves to be scared of. haa..

Next is disturbia, reason i watch is mainly Shia LaBeouf (the lead in transformers). He is defintely the up and coming star in Hollywood with many good shows coming on his way. The movie is about him who is confined to his home after he punches his Spanish teacher. After his mum shuts off his X-box and i-tunes, he begins to notice his neighbours' daily activities using his binoculars. From the hot gal who has just moved in to the crazy kids opposite his hse, he struck upon his neighbour who might be the serial killer on the loose. Humorous in the beginning and intense towards the end, the show keeps me gripped to the seat and i thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Art House

After our ACM trip, me and Lionel walked to the art house to take a look. It closes at 10pm everyday and admission is free. Went to the galleries and took some pictures.

Israel - Birth of a Nation

The Chamber



We went to Geylang to eat our all time favourite Pig organ soup after that. It's the best I ever eaten so far especially the big intestine. Very satisfied after the meal and headed for home.
A very artistic day!

Beauty in Asia - 200 BCE to Today

I was on leave yesterday to help out in my dad's claims and gst as it's the end month. He had requested for me to help him finish his paperwork as he was too busy at the site lately. Finished the work in the afternoon and accompanied my parents to my dad's office at Serangoon. Lionel was supposed to meet me there as we had wanted to go for dinner before going to the Asian Civilisation Museum. Had registered for a talk on the Taiwan Atayal facial tattoo (More is available in the previous post) at 7pm in the evening. However due to some last minute hospitalisation of his driver, Lionel had to drive a batch of workers from their factory to Paya Lebar interchange at 6pm, which would probably finish earliest at 6.30pm. Thought we might not be able to make it for the show already, he suggested that i follow him to the pickup of the passengers and we will go straight to ACM with the mini bus.

Lionel sped all the way and had a headache to where shall we park the mini bus as parking lots were limited at the area and we were running late. We turned into Empress place and incidentally saw a car moving out a lot. We couldn't believe our luck as there are only about 10 lots there. We zoomed in and made our way to the ACM, still stunned by the hengness. It was a parking heng-like-shit day as Lionel claimed. Haha. We reached around 6.50pm and had some time to walk around before the presentation began.

Nothing is beautiful or ugly in itself,
beauty lies in the beholder's eye.
The more a thing attracts, the lovelier it seems.

This exhibition bring forth the many facets of beauty across Asian cultures, time and space. It is hoped that visitors will be exposed to the different notions of what is beautiful and that the experience they encounter from visiting the gallery will help them find both the outer and inner beauty of the people and things they encounter. It's still on till the 23 Sept and more information can be found at http://www.acm.org.sg/.

We had some time to walk around the museum after the talk too and took some pictures.

Taiwanese Atayal Facial Tattoo

Registered myself and Lionel for a talk and presentation about the Taiwanese Atayal Tribe and their form of facial tattoo yesterday at the Asian Civilisation Museum(ACM). Had chanced upon this exhibition weeks ago and found that ACM organises different activities at the last Friday every month. For the month of July, the topic is the Atayal facial tattoo tradition which is now a dying artform. The speaker Tien Kuei-Shih is a truck driver who pursues his passion for photography in his free time. He combines this with his passion for his indigenous heritage and has committed himself with the task of photographing and documenting the remaining living Atayal tribal persons with facial tattoos. Within the next ten years all living record of this culture may be gone, so he has been giving speeches around the world these years to raise awareness of this culture.

His presentation documents the Atayal Facial Tattoo Culture that was once an essential part of the Atayal tribal culture. Once considered fierce headhunters, the Atayal tribal people used facial tattoos as a way to distinguish themselves from other tribes. As a child every Atayal tribal person was given a stripe tattoo on the forehead to distinguish that they were a part of the tribe. This practice prevented accidental killings of their own people. The facial tattoos were also a way of recognizing maturity among tribal members. The women were required to prove their cooking and weaving skills before receiving their v-shaped tattoo on their face and become eligible for marriage. The men were required to return with the head of an enemy to prove their manhood and earn their stripe tattoo on their chin.

Wrinkles have stealthily covered the faces of those remaining with the facial tattoos. The youngest is in their 80's and the oldest is over 106. All of the survivors have gone through the Japanese Resistance and the Japanese Occupation. One can see them as the best providers of oral narrative on Taiwanese history. As much historical and cultural importance as they represent, they cannot defend themselves against time. It is estimated that it will take no more than 10 years for all of the facially tattoed Atayal to pass away.

Having watched some videos and learning their stories, different feelings overwhelmed me. The speaker had indeed put in his heart and soul for this project in the cause of documenting this tradition. He had seen many of them passed away last few years and while he was here in Singapore, he received news that another had passed away 2 days ago. Due to time constraint, we could not finish watching the live footage he had taken in Taiwan with these survivors. I actually plucked up my courage after the presentation to ask him if i could get the videos from him as i had my thumbdrive with me but was rejected. His reply was...Come to Taiwan and I show you haha.

The evening ended with a short performance by the Atayal Heritage Ensemble. A great evening indeed!

Marina Square

A picture with the Simpsons!

Watched 'Vacancy' today as me and Lionel had nothing much to do in the evening.

This riveting thriller features Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale as a couple whose car breaks down, stranding them at a very dangerous hotel. Director Nimrod Antal carefully builds the suspense as the film gradually leads to horror when the hotel turns out to be a snuff film operation, with cameras everywhere and lots of truly horrific videos of past murders (shot in the same room) lying atop the TV set. The couple needs to think fast before they become the next victims.

I thought it was quite nice as it kept me in suspense throughout the whole show however the ending was lousy and predictable. Lionel finds it alright but would much prefer a storyline with more twists to it. Next movie to watch would be 'Alone'. I love horror and thrilling shows!

China trip

Me and my boss in China. This was taken in the VIP room before her speech. I got to see all the big shots in the insurance industry and also the mayor of Shenzhen. I must say it was quite an eye opener. However as i was the one preparing her speech for 3000 people, I felt nervous too. When she stepped into the hall, she was surrounded by so many fans that i, standing beside her, felt like a star too. haha..but with some awakward feeling. After her speech, she was quickly ushered to the car while me at the other side packing her laptop had to run behind her as the guards(6 security) had begun closing the event hall door to prevent more fans from running after her. I had to explain to them before they let me out of the hall. Can you imagine how popular my boss is? Its like seeing fans chasing for RAIN. Really! Pic says it all!

My hotel room. Was very nice, big n comfortable. A 5-star hotel in Shenzhen and service was good. First night shared a suite with my boss, next few nights got my own room as her husband and son had arrived. No complaints!

Monday Blues

My first post of the season!
Monday blues as usual as i could not wake up for every mondays..i woke up at 1.35pm on Sunday and couldnt get to sleep that night. Sundays are alwiz mahjong days for me but i had been losing for last 2 weeks..sian but it's all about the process- fun and exciting. Will jia you next time round. Had an even greater shock at night when i realised my hp bill for June was 300 plus. Couldn't believe it as i did not know that overseas call are damn expensive. Was in China for 5 days for biz trip earlier the month that explains why. Well, never thought it would be to that extent. Anyway, too much spending in June liao. Spent over 1k on shopping and now a bomb on the bill. Waiting for my payday on 28th.
haa...