Chinese New Year Celebrations and more photos of food during outings.

Birthday Celebrations with The Changed Man and his girlfriend at JurongPoint:

Outing With Ex-Student At West Mall Swenson's Restaurant Before He Goes Into Army:
Chinese New Year Eve Dinner Preparations In The Kitchen:








Sumptuous Chinese New Year Eve Dinner:

An after-dinner glass of red wine as traditional of my family.

Chinese New Year Day One Breakfast- Fusion of Western and Eastern Goodies:

Chinese New Year Day Three Lunch:

Chinese New Year Day Eight Lunch With YuSheng:

Birthday Celebrations For 2010

Birthday Breakfast Celebrations at White Coffee Cafe at Toa Payoh:

Siew Ching invited me for a early birthday treat at a cafe that I would not have found myself in Toa Payoh Central, near Sizzler restaurant. We ordered two breakfast sets and spent the morning there eating, talking and amusing ourselves with the clumsy waiters there who would misplace our food on the wrong tables, place the bill before the meal started and confused about the billing again. Hahaha. Oh well, all those did not matter that much since I had my treat satisfied. Burp.
My Western Food set - the sausages were to my liking but the egg yolk was broken. It was filling at least since I had to make my way early down to the Toa Payoh Central whilst still yawning.
A couple of photographs taken after we had our breakfast, talking about photographs, cameras and why some pictures are worth the taking.
We parted ways around 11.45pm because Siew Ching still had another appointment while I had another family celebration in the afternoon before going to work.

Birthday Cake Celebrations in the afternoon at home:

My parents always remembered my birthday and bought a delicious chocolate cake, red eggs and juice drinks for a simple family celebration. It's a tradition that has never been broken for all my life and I loved such simple gatherings, with the cake in my mouth and the thoughts of contentment in my mind.

To show my appreciation, I bought a huge packet of cereal prawns for dinner since it's their favorite food as well as mine. My thanks to all my Facebook friends who remembered and gave their timely well-wishes on my wall too!

Enjoying Fallout 3 again on new PC, Reward Lunch at Swensen's, Conversations Between A Master and A Disciple

Enjoying Fallout 3 again on new PC:

Finally, after two weeks of deliberation, I had my new PC up and running.

Intel I 7 Quad Core
Gigabyte Motherboard
Vista Home Premium Operating System
4GB Ram
Geforce GTS 250 Graphics Card
500GB SATA HDD
2GB DDR 3
DVD Writer

It's not exactly THE best configuration around the country but according to my computer technician, it's already a very impressive setup which will power the latest games and ensure a good performance whenever I surf the Internet.


Here's a picture of the Quad Core I7 Processor which my technician whistled with approval.

Reward Lunch at Swensen's:

I have been working real hard and clocking overtime so my blogging took a back seat for these two weeks. Just a couple more days and I'll be able to enjoy some seamless rest and recreation, especially when I have a goody computer at home to play around with whenever I am not out meeting my VIP friends.

I took a nice lunch to reward myself for working so hard and ordered at Swensen's Holland Village since I was there to finish up some work. A slow lunch is also good for the mind and body and I took my time to savor it. I think I should do this more often since I've been chowing instant noodles and cornflakes with milk for a disproportionate number of my meals recently.


A picture of the main course - roasted chicken with basil herbs for lunch.

Conversations Between a Master and a Disciple:

Disciple: Master, this is so difficult - why are we working so hard? Life is so impermanent and shouldn't we be enjoying ourselves instead of slogging so hard?

Master: Life is indeed impermanent and far more unpredictable for so many of us yet we should not stop working hard because the more we do, experience and engage, the more we learn. As long as we are learning, we are doing good to the quality of our lives. Of course, we can still enjoy ourselves whilst working but we should not crave quick gratification without the genuine sweetness from hard work.

Disciple: If we are so impermanent, it really makes very little sense to even work so hard. Everything will still come to nil when our lives ran out.

Master: We may lose everything we think we possess the moment we expire but the indirect benefits that we have exerted on the lives of others may endure for many years to come. For example, a soya bean milk seller may have lived out his life but his service to have provided drink and nourishment to so many others may have yielded far greater good that he can ever imagine - those people may in turn bring benefits to further others. So we should commit ourselves to whatever we are at so we may prove to be useful, be it during or after our lifetimes.

Stay tuned. I will have more photos and blog posts coming up, now that I will soon have time to really blog about the things around us. Time for dinner! Bye! ^__^

Movie Review: Inglorious Basterds (2009), Dinner at Ion Orchard, Mid-Autumn Festival, Amazing Chimpanzee

Movie Review: Inglorious Basterds (2009) (M-18 Rating)
这其实是一部非常暴力的电影，因为它是在描述第二次世界大战时，在德国统治下的法国，有一群“杂种特工”如何以残忍的手段来杀德国兵将，并在一次重大的电影盛会上，精心部署刺杀德国的希特勒和他的部下尾将。

虽然故事属虚构，但演员们卖力的演出，确实实在在地淹没了所有的暴力残忍场面，把四部段落的故事连贯在一起，并在那场德国电影盛会上，把所有的角色全部钩挂在一起，引爆出令人意想不到的结局。

一位从死里逃生的犹太人，一位德国战争少年英雄，一位美丽动人的法国演员，一位细心如泥的德国军事侦探，一群视死如归的美国特工。他们会怎么纠缠在一起呢？

我不打算说，你们去看看吧，必定震撼无疑。五颗星？我想我会给吧！

Dinner at Ion Orchard with The Changed Man:
和Changed Man从百忙中找到了能吃个晚餐时段，便到一直都没机会去的Ion Orchard去兜一兜。好奇怪的石头，看起来像个凶恶的怪兽。应该是块风水石吧？
吃的是牛肉面，并没有想象中或传闻中的好吃，不过Ion Orchard 的食阁环境还不错，有好多美丽的人喔！哈哈！


又是个让我眼前一亮的摆设，像一匹马，可是又已经石化了，真奇怪的室内设计。

Mid-Autumn Festival 2009:
我对中秋节日已没多大的感觉，可能是因为已过了那么多的中秋节了。可是父母还是很期待，所以就提了三盒不同口味的月饼给他们享用。
至少我还是蛮喜欢灯笼，所以家里外也挂上了几盏传统灯笼，泡在中秋节的清雅气氛。




Amazing Chimpanzee:

如果我们学东西，能像这猩猩那样专注，肯定事半功倍！我们要加油喔！哈哈！

好啦，我要吃我刚买回来的薄饼了，祝大家有个愉快的一周吧！^__^

A Typical Saturday Spent For Myself

I initially did not intend to put this down on my blog but I was encouraged by all the unspoken support from all my readers who still pop in at a regular basis to see how I am doing so I'll just do a simple blog post about how I spent my last Saturday having some me-time. Recently, the glut of work has quite overwhelmed me that I have little energy to attend music-related events (there are none that caught my interest as well) so I chose to spend last Saturday enriching and resting myself at the same time.

9.30am Woke up by the sunlight from the window. I loved those mornings when I woke up naturally rather than by the alarm clock.

10.30am Hotcakes with Sausage Meal, washed down with iced milo. Slow breakfasts are a blessing, especially when I have tasted those 10 minute ones during my military assignments days.

11.30am Started my regular gym training session. I need all the strength and stamina in preparation for a possible new charity camp in the horizon. With no camp guidelines yet, I assumed I may be needed with any possible tasks or missions during the camp itself.

1.30pm Lunched at PastaMania with my favorite Carbonara and iced lemon tea. Was giving myself a treat since I tended to rush my lunches during my working days.

2.30pm Bought myself Kungfu Panda VCD to watch in the evening because I was looking high and low for it but never really found it until yesterday as I browsed through the shops leisurely. Fate at work again.

3.30pm Settled myself down at a Coffee Bean outlet to enjoy a nice slice of Tiramisu cake whilst I leisurely flipped through a voluminous novel about Crusades in The Holy Land of Jerusalem.

4.30pm Headed home for a nice afternoon nap after checking up on my Facebook's Dungeon and Dragons: Tiny Adventures. My poor Dragonborn Fighter keeps failing his quests but oh well, adventuring is like that - you win some, you lose some.

6.30pm Woke up to have dinner at home before I propped myself heavily with a dessert of glass jelly and continued working on my personal project. Some decent work was done but I still have a long way before its completion.

8.30pm Watched Kungfu Panda on my home PC and had a great time watching how Ooogui Shifu was trying to teach the philosophy of life using the peach tree.

10.30pm Joined the rest of my family watching some TV before retiring for the night.

Quite an eventful day for myself. I had received invitations to F1 race, some music showcase at Singapore Art Museum, a cruise trip to Malaysia but I turned down the former two invitations because I was too tired to drag myself to the city again. I loved the idea of the cruise but that is still so tentative until everyone else can confirm their leave schedules.

Well, that's it for this blog post. Hope to write more once new adventures in my life appears. For now, I'll have to brace myself for another week since in one hour's time, another week of hectic work begins. Time really flies.

Bar Review on Firestation Hillside Gastrobar with live performances by Kewei & Ein Ein

I got an invitation on Facebook from Kewei to go for her first return performance at Firestation Hillside Gastrobar. Thanks, Kewei! After making some work arrangements, I managed to find some time to head down to this rather secluded location along Upper Bukit Timah Road to watch her live performances (3 sets' worth) with Ein Ein. Their gig here runs every Thursday from 8pm to 11.30pm so for those who missed last night's performances, you can try any of the coming Thursdays.

I only took one photo of my dessert dish because there was not an opportunate time to take photographs since it was my first time there and there were already some raised eyebrows on an unfamiliar face by the regular patrons there - I preferred to remain inconspicuous since I am supposed to be quietly rooting for the two ladies who were the stars there. I reached the venue around 8.30pm and the two ladies were already performing there so I settled down at a table and ordered a glass of vodka lime as my starter drink. The crowd was a sizeable thirty-plus from where I could see, with one long table of middle-aged working adults celebrating a birthday. Other tables include a couple of families, a few couples and a few small cliques of friends. Some of them seemed as if they were already there since 6pm since they already had empty dinner plates on their tables. I already had my dinner before I came so I decided to try some desserts. The ordering was rather difficult because it was a good five minutes before anyone came along with a menu. The lighting at the sitting deck was not very good so I had to strain to see the menu items before settling on "assorted ice-cream" with chocolate hersleys, raspberries, strawberries and some powdery baked apple crumbs nicely-presented in front of me. The dessert was delectable and the portion was quite filling even though the open-air sitting deck was melting the ice-cream faster than I would have wanted it to. It took me a solid 20 minutes to eat through all that and I enjoyed every mouthful of it, especially so since I am both an ice-cream and a chocolate fanatic. Yum~~~ ^__^
(photo source: Firestation Hillside Gastrobar Facebook official site - indoor seating area)

The outdoor seating has quite an impressive variety - including swings, round wooden tables, wicker lounge chairs - all of them unobtrusively blending into the semi-darkness for privacy of the customers. The only thing that I could think of is a little bit extra outdoor lighting decorations to spruce out the ambience of the seating areas beyond the sitting deck. I did not venture into the first and second floor indoors seating areas but they sure looked cozy from the outside even though they have no view of the performance area (which is set at the sheltered sitting deck). Apparently, from what the waiter there had explained, the second floor is available as private rooms for group gatherings too.
(photo source: Firestation Hillside Gastrobar Facebook official site - sitting deck with performance area - this was taken by Victor Tan from another day with different performers)

Kewei and Ein Ein beautifully performed a wide variety of genres, including Bossa Nova, Mandarin contemporary pop, 70 oldies, English contemporary pop, etc, and they took in quite a few song dedications from the customers. Kewei even invited two guest performers (Zijie and Keith (I think)) to chip in and performed a number each. Throughout the two sets which I stayed through, there were still a few patrons streaming in and filling in the tables vacated by some of the early birds. I know Rao Zijie and Clarence Yifa had taken quite a number of photographs and video clips last night so I hope I can somehow grab those from the two of them on Facebook to further illustrate this bar review post.

A few things for my blog readers who wanted to visit the Firestation Hillside Gastrobar:

Parking space is sufficient for about 30 to 40 sedans but the parking area is very dimly lit and tight when nightfall comes. Get an accomplished driver or flag a cab outside along Upper Bukit Timah Road where cabs zoom past every minute.

Presentation of the food was impressive for a bar which usually features more on drinks. Even though I did not order the main dishes, I could see them coming out hot and fresh from the kitchen. Take your time to enjoy as the portions are quite something for the small appetites.

The waiters aren't as sharp as I would have liked - for a small place, it took me quite a while to grab hold of the waiters' attention to order food - they moved too fast and were not looking around enough for customers' requests. I was in a fairly prominent seat but if you are reclined elsewhere, you might have to spot them first and wave harder since they are mostly dressed in black.

The vodka lime was a good size glass portion with strong aftertaste (which I liked) but the Jack Daniel's bourdon on the rocks was a little too bland (a squirt too little bourbon for that amount of ice). Definitely room for improvement in their bourbon drinks at least. I wanted to try their martinis and cocktails but I think I would have drank too much that way. Haha.

The service was polite and respectful when the waiters were finally at the tableside. You can tell from their half-bows when they answer customers' questions and the warm smiles (not the kind of squeezed artificial ones at some mall restaurants). I deliberately held back during my orders to test their patience and they walked through every step (types of drinks, brand names, straight or on the rocks) without a hint of frustration - a major plus to service attitude.

The sound system was excellent and the volume was perfect (kudos to the performers as well) and easy on the ears - they know their audio systems well but I thought one fixed-position hard spotlight with no variation in lighting colour and patterns makes the performance area a little tad boring even though Kewei and Ein Ein were dressed up to the nines for their gigs. I noticed two of those disco-multi-lights on the roof of the sitting deck but it was a pity they did not set it up for some nice lighting effects.

I left the place after Kewei and Ein Ein finished their second set to grab a cab back. No performance review is being done on their singing last night because I was there to enjoy myself and their singing accompaniment, nothing else. I will be heading back to the place again with my friends because I like it and I am sure they will too. ^__^

P.S To Kewei & Ein Ein: "I did it my......way....." hahaha. (one of the highlights last night)