Keepsake Box

When the tremors shook our soil a couple of days ago, I think it again showed up how unprepared we are.

I wasn’t in the office when it happened, but apparently most people were worried enough to get out of the building. It was only after coming back some three or four hours after - I felt the second tremor by then - that I had the building PA system come on.

*kssshht* Ladies and Gentlemen, we have just been affected by a tremor. Please do not be alarmed. *ksshht*

Huh?! Fortunately I had felt tremors worse than this before and didn’t worry too much. I also knew that our buildings are more or less build to withstand such minor shakes. 

But what about those that don’t?! I just thought that if they were to be announcing that we shouldn’t be alarmed, they should say why the hell not…

Drove past Benjamin Sheares Bridge one day and saw the one-third-complete ferris wheel loom large right next to me. It looked pretty impressive and it struck me that this was truly part of the next phase in Singapore’s growth.

So I resolved to try and take nice pictures of it and this is the result.

Waited for the light and clouds before snapping several shots. This one was edited in Photoshop and I adjusted some curves to blow out the shot some and added the grain. I thought this gave it more character.  

Removed a crane from the picture too…hee… 

PHOTO: Associated Press
 

Month-old Sumatra Tiger cubs and Orang Utans become inseparable playmates? *sigh*

If this will last, it may be the first step to heal the world. But there’s still the natural food chain to consider…dang it… 

I’m hooked on Heroes…in this modern day, there are means to download all the episodes and watch through all of em in one go. No need to wait for week after agonising week.

But I won’t and I will try my darn best not to go online and read up on it either. Has a screw gone loose? I dunno.

Anyway, some thoughts came up yesterday after watching the show.

1. If Peter is able to absorb the powers of those he is physically near to…what’s gonna happen if he stands next to Niki (Ali Larter)?
2. Hiro Nakamura is an awesome character
3. They must have managed to save the world somehow or at least survive the blast, otherwise Hiro wouldn’t have been able to teleport back in time to talk to Peter in fluent English
4. Niki’s hot…

PHOTO: Redbook 

our government works in such strange ways.

While I have no vested interest in the Genting casino, it is weird to read that they are not awarded the license to operate it yet. Yes, they are not the same things, but does this mean that Genting could technically not be given the license?

If not, then will they still build the IR on Sentosa? Or does this mean that the country will have to go to a second round of tenders again? Will the "used-snot-filled-tissue-paper" design by Gehry be awarded by default?

If for some reason the license is not given, I’m not sure how many of the big boys want to participate in the second round of biddings. They might be suffering from the "Sekali I oso liddat how" syndrome. 

I think the match we won at Nou Camp was rigged.

Otherwise how is it possible that Liverpool’s goal-scorers are the exact two that got into a brawl just last week. I mean, I didn’t even think Bellamy and Riise would make the team in the first place!

But they did, and they scored. Maybe its as Riise says, "Its our destiny…"

*cue You’ll Never Walk Alone chorus fade in*

The ang pows that we gave didn’t even get a second look (or feel) before being stashed away. But everyone, young and old, wanted to touchy feely this bag. It was just nice for a couple of mandarin oranges.

The Wife carried this while we were visiting by the way. Not me. Really!

Had a chance to talk to some design students yesterday and to take a look at their work. One of their modules revolves around doing project work for us.

Its always good to be working with fresh and open minds. To be involved (even if its a small small part) in what they learn is very satisfying for me.

So I was telling The Cabrio about this yesterday and he exclaimed, "Wah! Adjunct lecturer ah!" the immediate thought I had was "Yeah man, add junk lecturer…"

I hope the students I spoke to yesterday were able to understand what I was telling them…otherwise I’d really be adding junk to what they learn. 

For my wife…for all the trials and tribulations that we go through and the love that we share. 

After last year’s Grammy awards where Gorillaz performed with Madonna, I was looking forward to catching this year’s award show.

By and large it was rather boring though, the most impressive performance was Christina Aguilera’s powerful display of singing prowess. Smokey Robinson sang an ironic song…

So take a gooood look at my face…doesn’t it looook frozen in place…

One of my cats seemed to like James Blunt though, she was rather absorbed by his singing, her tail swishing left and right to "You’re Beautiful". I found him boring.

Visited my gramma over the weekend too. She’s such an amazing woman…poor dear is suffering from short-term memory loss and can’t remember things happening in the last 10 minutes or so. Visiting her always means repeating yourself…

GM:    What time is it dear?

ME:    Oh, its 3pm

GM:    Ah! Its time for tea! (Although she just had her tea half an hour ago)

ME:    No don’t fuss over us, we’re fine with our water and will be heading off somewhere else. Just wanted to pop by and see how you were.

GM:    Oh ok then. You know my eyesight is failing me. You need to tell me who you are when you next visit ok?

ME:    Of course! I always announce my arrival, besides you still recognise my voice. And it really doesn’t matter so much that you don’t recognise us, all your grandchildren (and great-granchildren) recognise you mah! We sure call you one!

GM:    Aiyah its different mah, I want to see who’s visiting me…

ME:    Aiyah, its ok one lah…

GM:    What time is it ah?

ME:    Oh its 3pm!

And so the logic loop repeats itself.

She’s still a spritely lady though, with twinkly eyes and a cheeky smile that wrinkles up her nice gramma face. 

Recently had dinner at Brussel Sprouts and boy was it yummy. Located at The Pier, the entire area is just mushrooming eateries left, right and centre. Will be back there again to try out other stuff.

Anyway, back to Brussel Sprouts…its main attraction are its mussels, not your typical tua tao from the neighbourhood zi char stall variety, but flown in direct from Norway! Flip through the menu and you’ll find that they have a gazillion ways to cook mussels…each sound yummy as heck. We ended up with Tarragorn Cream and Gratin mussels - definitely not for the lactose-intolerant.

Bearing in mind the mussels are succulent own their own, combined with a rich white sauce like Tarragorn Cream, the taste in the mouth as complete as can be…chewy, flavourful and full-bodied. The Gratin mussels were good as well - cheesy and chewy, but like all cheese-based dishes, must be finished while the cheese is still warm and gooey.

The best part for me, the carbo monster, is the free flow of Belgian Fries for every course of mussels ordered! Woot! How are Belgian ones different from French? Well I’m not sure what the chefs seasoned it with, but it sure tastes yummy. The barbarian in me could only say that its chicken salt, but I’m sure its something way more classy than that.

Oh and Brussel Sprouts is run by the same group that manages St. Pierre - this means the price isn’t exactly cheap. But its worth a visit every now and then to handle the cravings for tua tao… 

AsiaOne’s Review of Brussel Sprouts

PHOTO: Associated Press

What a beautiful find.

A couple locked in an eternal embrace just 25 miles south of Verona. Imagine that…whatever it was they went through in those times to get into a death embrace, they went into it knowing that they will always have had each other. They’d never have known this but they would continue to be in each other’s arms for 5,000 years to come.

Till death do us part, even in death I will hold you dear 

Maybe they should’nt have been unearthed, now that they are maybe they should be quietly buried again.

I couldn’t think of another title, but the good news is Liverpool’s finally stable now.

I don’t really care who owns the club, its the football I’m watching afterall. But I did read up on the two rich men who bought the club and it does seem like they’ll run a tight ship.

Seems like they understand the club culture of working hard and playing with spirit, that’s what I like about the club. It was never even within smelling distance (the year we lost to Arsenal notwithstanding) but at least they tried their darn best.

I’ll be smiling like a complete logcake when they win the title one day though…surely one day they will win the title… 

I took these pictures awhile ago when I was in Siem Reap. Just wanted to put these up to zap the brain a little bit, just a little bit so that I can recollect the emotions I felt when I saw these sights.

There was this article in ST Life today that talked about feeling light-headed and woozy when someone is surrounded by spectacular works of art. I’m not like that.

But while I was there, there was this couple of French/Belgian ladies (don’t ask me how I know, I just have a gut feeling about them), who were  astounded by the sight of the stupas of Angkor Wat rising up in front of them. They actually stood at the top of the stairs admiring it and broke down in tears.

Yes, it’s that amazing a place. Its beauty and splendour makes it impossible to capture a lousy shot anywhere in the compound.

I just learned another lesson in purchasing CE stuff from Sim Lim.

Never take the opening price at face value. Even after bargaining down, ASK about other costs first before whipping out the plastic.

My gawd, after buying the PSP for The Paladin I was then told that he would require a gazillion more components in order to get it to work comfortably. "Well, my pally friend just needs to make it work on his own…friendship can only go so far", I thought to myself.

What irked my the most is that there was actually a better bargain in the basement…yea…bargain basement…dang it…

Its been too long since I bought anything from Sim Lim. Must bear these lessons in mind when buying new PC from there. 

There’s this nicely battered fried sotong at Crystal Jade which is nice. Can’t remember the name but surely there isn’t something else the same there.

Most cognizant thought about it: mmm…garlicky… 

After having had The Mounty rave about Heroes, I was more than excited to catch this hot new show. But as I neared home, I realised that Singapore was still playing Thailand and I have to watch that too!

I knew I should’ve gotten the SmartTV promo from Starhub…

But anyway, these things strangely have their own way of working themselves out.  Turns out that Heroes is so riddled with commercial breaks that even the cheerleader might have problems healing herself if this happened to her. So I had lotsa time to switch between Heroes and The Football Match.

Heroes was all that I thought it would be - nice and tight storytelling. I just wish that I haven’t read up so much about it beforehand…spoiled the ending of the first episode for me…*sigh*. Nothing spoils it more when you know there’s a soft grassy ledge right under that cliffhanger.

Which brings me to the highlight of the Singapore vs Thailand match, its actually one of the most ridiculous football matches I’ve ever watched. This is probably the first time ever I’ve seen the game clock run into 100+ minutes. 

Those 55,000 people at the National Stadium sure got their money’s worth, it dragged on so long that Channel 5’s 10 pm news got delayed! Since when did news ever allowed itself to get delayed!? 

It all started when the referee made a call for a penalty against Thailand in the 83rd minute…all the Thais walked off after that…WTF?!?

I mean…only schoolboys do that! Ref makes a bad call, you can moan and groan and make all the protest you want, but…GET ON WITH IT DUDES!

So after much 15 minutes of hand-wringing and arm-flailing, group hugs and team bravado to distract the Singapore team and prevent us from scoring the second goal…they conceded the second goal. 

We’re heading to Thailand for the second round with a slim lead and I hope things don’t turn nasty there.  

 
This looks like you can capture a superb shot from far. Plus its a Leica, so you know its good.

Just that your subjects in war torn areas may not know how they are being shot and you will end up deader than a doorknob… 

Swatch designed this new watch based on air tubes you find in most bicycle pumps.

I’ve been wondering how these guys were gonna keep up with the times.

Its amazing to learn that these stone statues of Ta Phrom have silently watched the forests around them for over a thousand years…