I had an excellent lunch !

It was fantastic and best of all I needn’t need to pay single cents. If I have to fork out my own money, I bet the food wouldn’t taste so nice.

A company which my office deals with had invited our operation dept for lunch.

We went to Long Bench Seafood at East Coast after some hands shaking session and we took our seat. A total of seven people were at the table.

Now all this is irrelevant what significant was the food itself.

There a saying the chopstick is mightier than the sword.
Believe me; I am standing by my chopstick at all times.

First dish was Scotland Bamboo Clam with Minced Garlic & Sambal.




That meat in the heart of the clam along with some bee hoon.

Also they add this



I’m not sure what that was but I highly suspect it is links to the bamboo clam. This is the second time I having this dish and I remember I had those the last time too.

Now the next dish I NEVER had before. I always wanted to try but it was too expensive.

Picture this, seven of us and we share just 1 crab. Yes, just one crab!!! Even Sri Lanka crab has to make way for this crab.

It is the Alaskan king crab!
No idea what it was? Click here.

Initially I have no idea why they gave us scissor instead of pair of nutcrackers. The scissor was long and thin.


This is my Alaskan king crab legs.

Then I realized the shell of the Alaskan king crab legs can bend like plastic. No matter how you bend it, it won’t break but it is easy cut open with a scissor. How weird.

Dun be fool by the just the legs, the meats portion almost just a much as the Sri Lanka crab claw itself! The taste is fabulous…yum yum

Still is the Alaskan king crab but they cook it another way. Imagine just one crab.



I found one of the claws but it was small and meats not much.

Next on the menu they serve us Tyhoon Abalone with oyster sauce.



Nothing out of the ordinary for this dish.

We had fish but instead of steam or fry, they boiled it.



Eating one of these your eyes must constantly on the lookout for fishbone.

After this we had noodle and fruits.
As I write this, I can’t help thinking of the Alaskan crab……

Anyway, before I leave I took these pics.



What on earth was that! Look very alien to me.
Geoduck? Nevermind, next time when I try I will field a report.

I am soooo busy!

I left my house to a work on Friday at 11.30pm and returned on Saturday at 1:00pm.
Then out again for work at 4:00pm and returned at 7:00pm.
Again left my house for a job on Sunday 3:30am and returned home at 6:00am.

Now the time is 9:30am and I am at Goldhill Plaza.
Oh God have mercy on me!

But this time I’m attending a survey introduced by Chong aka “Old veg”. The survey is about beers, my fav subject other than women. Haha

Saw old veg in the coffeeshop besides Goldhill Plaza and he was eating roti prata. First thing that greeted me or rather got my attention was his shiny head.
I could see his hairs were getter lesser and lesser. The sun shone brightly on his forehead and it was so bright my eyes almost hurt.

This is my first time and he was a veteran of doing survey. We are going to the same survey and he led the way like a army commander.



Somehow I could sense his enthusiasm and I couldn’t say the same about myself.

To demonstrate something I said earlier, I took this picture.



If you were standing there looking at old veg’s left forehead, I swear you need a sunglasses.

So we went upstairs and we were assigned to an interviewer each. They took us to separate tables to ask us questions regarding beers. The easy one was to answer multiple choices. The hard part was I was given three glasses of beer to taste. After tasting each beer (brand unknown) I was asked the comment about the product; Pro and cons of the beer and what needs to improve.

To answer that part, my brain cells died by the millions.

45 minutes later the survey was over and I was given an envelope containing $50/-.

That it! I’m quitting my job and take up full time survey job. (Joking)
That was easy money, isn’t it?

After old veg came out we went to a coffeeshop for small talk.

Look at him.

Drink a few beers and he looks like he’s on drugs.

Oh, before I forget Melvin and Stephanie for calling me after reading my dairy about my breakup with Rachel.

Thank for your concern guys!!!

The inevitable had finally happen.

I’m sure both of us felt a huge weight roll off our shoulders.

Rachel & me broke off last night.



We both realized & agreed this is the best solution after we had a talk. Of course both of us were sad things turned out this way, which are not exactly the direction we wanted.

Loving a person is to let go at times.

But I guess it is OK to be sad right after a break-up. After all, we probably really cared about and miss the person who was important in our life are now gone.

But life still goes on…….the world will not stop revolving.

I am an optimistic person. I see the glass as half full of water instead half empty.

I’m very sure Rachel too will get over it just as well.

Well, in the first place I guess both of us have different in character and almost other thing. Actually it had been quite a feat for us to stay together until now.

Knowing her is one of the best things ever happened to me, I must confess. And I must thank her for all the wonderful things she did for me.
-------------------------------------

I thank her for those little cards (hand-made) she gave me.

I thank her for those heart shape note she folded for me.

I thank her for reminding me not to smoke too much.

I thank her for forcing me to save.

I thank her for giving me lots of good memories.

I thank her for giving in to me.

I thank her for being such a great girlfriend!

-------------------------------------

Really, I think it my loss not her for not being together. I promise her happiness but I brought her tear. Haizzz

But one thing which I am very glad is both of us reached an amicable understanding. We are still friends. No hard feeling whatsoever.

When couple broke off they became as friends. They actually became closer & communicate more. It a strange formula but it do work.

Here I wish Rachel good luck in her career and future endeavour. Also I know she will find a better man in her life.

Shit!

I have sprained my upper back and any movement it cause enormous pain. It causes so much pain even when I shit I can’t even exert any pressure.

Talk about pathetic.

It all started when I went for a swim this afternoon as I was having my off day. First thing when I jump into the swimming pool, I did a freestyle 50m and breast stroke 50m.

No warm up whatsoever and I guess I paid the price.

The rest of the afternoon, I could only lie on the bench.



On the bright side, I can find an excuse to go for some massage. Hehehe

Reading some home news and understand Government is passing new law in downloading mp3 and illegal software. What the penalty for home user?
Jail term and fines!

That's right! Can you freaking believe this?

I mean for every problem they face, their solutions are jail term and fines.

I listed out the most recently.

Downloading mp3/software - Fines/jail term.

Delay in paying TV license – Fines/jail term.

Delay in paying car park summon ($6) - Fines/jail term.

Falling window (even you are not at home) - Fines/jail term.

Delaying top up CPF medisave for self employed – Fines/jail term.

Kick a cat or a dog - Fines/jail term.

---------------------------------------
Talk about downloading songs.

What for I need broadband if I can’t do massive download?
A 56k is sufficient for me to check mail or moderate surfing.

Pretty soon, I reckon at least half of our populations will do their time in jail once in their lifetime.

Sunday is workday for me.

I have to attend 3 ships altogether.

First coming today at 11:30am, second at 11:59pm and the last one on Monday at 10:00am. Between the 2nd and the last ship, probably I get 3 hours of sleep only.
Tough!

Anyway, I finished my first vessel and met up with my family at Marche, the Heeren.
We are celebrating my niece’s birthday.

Actually her birthday is still 2 weeks away but my younger brother will be overseas then.

It seemed almost every year we came here to celebrate my niece’s birthday.




Marche has been our family regular hangout place.
Nothing beat having dinner with family.
Really, I’m so blessed in this department.

My niece!



The foods is quite nice and most importantly we have a great time.
Unfortunately, after dinner I went back straight home to have a quick nap before the 2nd ship.

Nevermind, I will spend more time with my lovely niece someday.

Since my younger brother already have 2 kids, so I wonder how it going to be like taking to them?

Well, click

here

if you want to know. (On your speakers to hear)

I went to Woodland again

The place began to look a familiar site to me as I have been going to JB quite often nowsadays.

But this time l'm meeting Rachel as she has an appointment over there.

Went to Paragon, Orchard to have our dinner.
We always wanted to try this place called ‘Soup restaurant’

When we passed by the place, it always has a long queue. We reckoned the foods must by mighty good. Today we found out there that luck was on our side.

When you step into the restaurant, the waitress will shouted in Mandarin “Welcome”.

If you like attention, this is the place for you.
If you don’t like attention, cover your head with a paper bag.

We were led our table/chair where it similar to these olden Chinese teahouse.


Concept is cool but can’t say much about the stool. With not much flesh on my butt, you try sitting on one of those seats.

Menu was a simple.
Smaller than A4 size and they’re everything including price.

So just scribble whatever you wanted on the menu itself.
Guess who is calling the shot?


Never mind, like I always said Cantonese eat almost anything. I'm so understanding (self praise)

Look yummy?



Look at the spread! Woof!
Yes, it was good especially the soup.

How good it was?
I nearly do the French gestures.

That is in order to express how delicious something is, stretch out your fingers & thumb, touch them all together, noisily kiss your fingertips.

Damage: $54/- (Very reasonable)

After dinner, I have absolutely nothing to blog about.

It was one of those nights where it was so boring that if you recollect back, it would bore me once over again instantly.

I am so busy today in the office!

Reached office at 9:00am worked non-stop except for lunch and left at 6pm+. Yes, it is quite rare for me to be so busy.

I have 2 ships coming on Sunday & 1 on Monday morning.
We were assigned to each vessel accordingly to my A/Manager.

One of my vessels the owner is London based. So when I sent them an email I have to wait till the next day before I can get any reply (8 hrs difference). Most often, their information is inadequate. So I have to send again……..and they reply the next day only.

Due to the time difference and slow correspondent I am jam up with my work.

Then I got another Vietnam ship where Owner is Vietnam Company. Oh my goodness, they gave me such headache I dun even want to mention it.

By the way today is Rachel’s birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RACHEL!

I took leave today as there is no ship for the weekdays.
But this weekend there are 5 ships coming in.
Don’t you just hate it?

Saturday & Sunday are supposed to be fun day and not workday.

Bear arranged to met at Woodland interchange at 1:00pm for a trip to JB. 2 of his ex-colleagues (female) are coming with us with Bear as tour leader.

Maybe someone should suggest to him to bring along a flag for easy recognition as our guide.

Alas, one of Bear’s colleagues was late so by the time we reached JB is 2:30pm.

I didn’t have any cigarettes with me and first thing upon setting foot I brought a pack of cigarette.
Damage: RM6.50/- (SGD1.00 = RM2.25)

After changing to local currency, we went to this old coffee shop just a stone throw away from Malaysia checkpoint.

It was hot, the sun shows no mercy.

The coffee shop’s specialty is curry fish head and the shop was so old that if it is in Singapore the shop would surely be demolished.

I noticed the fish head seemed to be smaller & not as spicy than in Singapore but nevertheless, it the tastes that count.

If not for the fact Bear’s colleagues around, I would even lick the pot till it last drop. My gentlemen posture has to remain.
Damage: RM42.00/- including 4 cans of coke.

Lunchtime over and we took a cab to Holiday Plaza as Bear wanted to cut & highlight his hair and 2 ladies wanted to ‘housekeeping’ on their hair as well.
Damage: RM6.00 (cab fare)

They went to this saloon called,

They are specializing in Japanese haircut.

Time: 3:20pm

Makeover had just begun.

As for me, I strolled quietly and there were about almost 40 hair saloons in this building.

A lot of shops are selling pirate games/software/movie.
Some even sells replica LV/Chanel/Gucci bags. They costs around RM200.00 above and my guess was it should be better quality than those sells in flea market.

I stumbled upon this hair saloon that provides massage.
Just what I needed, I thought.

Without hesitation, I went for the full body massage.
I was led to this small cubicle and was given a towel.

The room is both dim & small, with a stand up single size bed.

I took a pic but it was too dark.
(Try to make out of it)

Anyway, I stripped down to my underwear I wrapped my towel and lie on the bed.
Ah, my male masseur came in and started my massage using olives oil.

The only thing I disliked was during the massage when I was required to be in a sitting position, he was behind me pulling both of my arms with his leg/knee at my back. I could feel his hairy leg and that gave me a gross feeling.

My body had made contact with legs before, but NEVER a guy and it had a hairy leg some more.
Eeeeeee!

Apart for this, I have no complaint and he did an absolutely wonderful job.
Damage: RM50.00/- for 1 whole hour.
Highly recommended! That is freaking cheap, I tell you.

Yes, he massage for ladies too.
(Downside, I had to use towel to wipe off the oil, no bathroom)

After my massage to end my wonderful experience, I did a hair wash/massage by the salon lady.
Damage: RM15.00/-

Time 6:30pm:

Finally 3 hours later it was done and Bear emerged looking conceited of his new found hairstyle/color.

To be quite honest, between JB kids and him, there is no difference. I have no heart to tell him this.
Damage: RM135/-

We took a cab to a place called ‘Sentosa’ and Bear told me there a stall, which sells duck and was the best in JB and some even say in Batam.

Three of them apparently were excited about indulgence the renowned duck they dashed across the road without waiting for me.

Obviously the stall name is quite remarkable.

Duck King!

Well if you aren’t impressed, surely their stall logo would change your mind. It was hanging outside the shop.

A giant duck hanging. I think this is to ensure patrons don’t miss the stall.

So Bear brought 1 whole duck and the 2 ladies brought half each for Singapore bound later.
Damage: RM33.00 per duck

We walked further down to have out dinner.
This place is called ‘Taman Sri Tebrau hawker center’

The sights, the foods and even the smells were similar to our local hawker.


I came across this bizarre looking food.

It was called ‘Beggar chicken’
It appeared like an over size bread…I wonder how it taste like?

We ordered bbc string ray, crayfish (8 each), veg, dear meat and bear contribution half of the duck he brought for everybody to consume.


Foods wouldn’t taste nice without my trusty beer to go along.
Damage: RM91.00/- (Drink not included)

After dinner, we booked a private car from there and the driver took everybody to Singapore and right to our individual house.

Damage: SG$40.00/- (Everybody paid 10 buck)
Is that cheap or what!

Every year, we are celebrating my mum‘s birthday and this year is no exception.

Even though her birthday falls on the 13th Oct but we took this opportunity to celebrate in advance because of Sunday.

My elder brother booked a table for 11 persons at

Self-cook eating style.

Last year my younger brother paid for everybody at East Ocean Restaurant and this year my sister offer to pay. So naturally she got authority in deciding where to eat. However my elder brother says Coca is good.

Talk about last year, my younger brother purposely ordered a rare spotted grouper fish and it costed him more than $500 for this fish alone. Ouch!

Actually my sis suggested several places like Rice Table and all sound to me a better choice than Coca. I ate at Coca Restaurant once few years back and I found it was average in fact I thought it was overrated.

I do love going for a steamboat but one thing I don't particularly like about this culinary experience is that, more often than not, your clothes end up stinking.
OK, this is all part of the fun of eating steamboat however I'm not too keen on a facial of chicken or veg broth steam.

Time: 6:00pm

Everybody is at Takashimaya, Coca entrance waiting for my elder brother and my sister arrival. They are always the last one to arrival.

So 1 person talk everybody turned.

There is my mum flanked by my sister in law (younger) on her left and Rachel on her right.

Rachel told me my sis in law is carrying a LV bag costing
SGD2, 000/-. Women really know how to spend.

My nephew wanted to sit beside me.

Bad news for me as I will have no peace in eating.

So everybody taken their seats and what are we waiting?

Yes, we are still waiting for my elder brother & his wife.

From left is Rachel/brother-in-law/sis/mum/maid/nephew.


My niece/younger brother & wife/elder brother & wife.

So we embarked upon an evening of thoroughly enjoyable gluttony. The meal included crab, prawn, fish head, fish balls, house fish glue squid, soaked cuttlefish, beef fillet, chicken fillet, dumplings, green noodles, spinach, long beans, mushrooms and stuffed baby corn.

Somehow we managed to get through the whole lot.

Look at me….

I don’t feel guilty for eating so much as I’m not fat.
For Rachel, it a sin.

It 8:00pm+ when we decided our tummy could take no more. But still dessert is a must to complete our meals.
A little surprise was my younger brother again foots the bill.

At the end of the day, whether is the place or the foods are nice or not......it’s not really important.

What’s more important are the family ties that cause real ambiance.

Also I like to thank Rachel for everything she did for me.

Woof!
I finished attending a vessel at 2:00pm and I’m not going back office. Wonderful and further enhance my ecstasy, it Friday.

As usual I parked my van at the Esplanade because for the parking fees it really cheap.

Normally right at the Esplanade entrance, they have this different displayed of theme or rather art if you called it. On average, I would not steal a look but today it hot so I took my time enjoyed to air-con before proceeding to the car park.

I saw this theme and it looked surprising refreshing, perhaps I like plants.


I saw the sign and this theme/art were called “The Angel’s Garden”.

Although I liked flowers/plants but why do I needed to took this pics?
Well, I saw something very interesting, if not shocking and this I will disclose later.

Anyway, as I explored the arts pieces I stumble upon this!

This is the main story, folks.

On first glance, it nothing more than a mere a pot of plant surrounded by little figures. Like transformer, it's more than meets the eye.

So I peeped at the figures hoping to give myself an insight of what is arts all about. Learning is always my game.

But I shall post only few pics.

There is this figure made up of cotton and some wires.

I find it somewhat to be similar to a scarecrow, possibly the movie Wizard of Oz.

To be honest with you, I don’t know what is this creature?

A dinosaur faces with a fat tummy. That’s arts? O blind me.

A sharp nose creature riding on a plane?

I see this as junk in my book though and I don’t know about you guys.

OK…..the main topic is about to begin.

People, could you tell me what is this?

A ball attached to a rope? Nope, I don’t think so.
A tadpole?
Nothing related to the other figures, isn’t it?

I assume it is a sperm, really
The artists are really artistic.

If you think that all, think again.
You have seen nothing yet.

Could somebody tell me what is this?

Oh, yes it was displayed as art in the Esplanade.

Still unsure?
I am unsure too so I inspected closely with a 360 degree turn and I took another pics.

You have a better inspiration now?

Still dunno or too shy?

I believed it a male organ. What else could it be?
Don't you disagree with me now.
We are truly uniquely Singaporean. I'm so proud.

I saw lot of kids around and what if they asked their parents what it was.
Possibly the scenario is like this.

Kid: Mum, what that?
Mum: Asked your dad he knows best.
Dad: Two chestnuts with a plant growing out from it.

Ladies & gentlemen, I rest my case.

Finally my pc in office was installed Win 95(OS) today.
No more Win NT.

My colleagues were tormenting me by saying something like ‘wow’
Are they trying to be sarcastic to me?
Oh my goodness, I have been using XP (OS) for the 3 years now(home). I mean it is OK to revisit the past. Just don't set up permanent residence.

Damn, I hate using dinosaur stuff.

Women in my office always have the prior to have better stuffs like update hardware of pc. Whereas males in the office often treated like slaves taking over something they discarded.

If this era were the Qing dynasty, the women are like queen and men are the eunuchs.
Actually I felt as if I’m like a eunuch serving Empress Dowager, except I got to keep my dick.

Women nowadays stand equal as men. They enjoyed same privilege like guys if not better and they command same status as the males’ counterparts. They demanded to be treated on par as guys.

So why do they looked for me when they needed to change the water dispenser bottle?

Get the drift?

I was reading Cleo mag, the one I brought when I went to JB.

It has several interesting articles.
In fact it was the best mag I ever came across.
Far better than some men’s mag like FHM, Maxium or Newmen which I always buy.

One of the articles were about 10 incorrect assumptions about men.
One of the incorrect assumptions is…….

[Well, although men do tend to talk a whole lot than women, they don’t necessarily say much more. Women still offer much more detail about an incident or their day at work than men, which is an odd contradiction when you stop to think about it.

Although men can give more detailed explanations, they often choose not to, preferring to be efficient in their communication rather than exhaustive.

Women, on the hand, give all the details anyway whether you want to hear or not.]

Then there was this articles about 11 routine lies boyfriends tell.

One of it was “nothing’s wrong, I’m fine”, It says
[Although men are basically selfish, they can also be surprise kind and none more so than when sorting out their problems alone.

If ever a man answers you, “Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine,” it means there is plenty wrong by that he’d rather not bother you. He knows he’ll have the solution soon enough.]

Aren’t men sweet? No wonder gays is one the rises. Haha

Then there was these articles about 17 things women do that drive men crazy.
At no.6 it stated about, saying yes (but meaning no).
Why: Because men lose either way.

[Contrary to anything you might have heard on radio or TV, men cannot ready your mind. They’ll always take what you say at face value- No means No; yes means Yes]

What more can I say?
It was indeed my mag of understanding women or men rather.

In my opinion, I think, it was precise women behave this way that why men go gaga over them.

4 new sets of desktop pc (dell) came into my office today.
Nope, they are not meant for me, unfortunately.

You never could guess what my pc office spec was.

I’m using a Pentium 2, 64 ram, hard disk space 2GB.
No cd-rom, no nothing whatsoever. Simply, pathetic!
Did I mention it was running a window NT as well?

To add to crime, office server still using dinosaur age 56k modem for the internet.
Oh man, it was just too much for me to digest.

For eg, when I surfing the net and I needed to download some software like acrobat reader or just update OS but I can’t as it will prompt me for administration’s approval.
Because it is running on NT OS! Damn!

By the way, out of 15 sets of pc in my office only 2 is still using Win NT as OS. Just for the records, some of my colleagues are using win 98 and some using win XP.

So someone told me I’ll be installing new OS this coming Monday. Guess what?
Its window 95, another dinosaur OS.

It is like this, because the licensing allow numbers of PCs to install number of OS, so it when this person taking over the new pc (XP) and I could install the OS. (Copyright infringement)

Well, better my previous operating system.
The good news is, next month our office will convert to use broadband.