Category: My Good Life

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Diary

Tasty Fish Soup and Wonderful Cables

I have this sudden urge to get some new cables for my home studio and so I text one of Cynthia’s colleague Alex for help. He recommended one of the shops at Sim Lim Tower. And what better way to spend my lunch time at a fish soup store nearby that is so famous that you can easily find 20 to 30 people queuing wanting the S$5 or S$7 fish soup? When my taxi drive told me that that store charges extra for chili sauce, I didn’t believe. And yes, they do charge for extra chili sauce, extra vegetable and what not. Of course, no takeaway is allowed.

And by the way, it took me a while to direct my taxi driver to reach this hawker center. It is right next to the New World Centre.

I ordered a S$7 white fish soup instead of S$5 and gosh, I wish I have order the S$5 one instead. It was a lot! The fish meat tasted very fresh and the chili source is very spicy. So please be mindful if you are not a big fan of chili source.

While I am still puzzled over if the fish soup is really better than the one at Amoy Street (very debatable), I managed to get those cables as recommended by Alex. And gosh, those cables are good. My guitar sounds with greater clarity and much lesser noise. My two cables cost me S$54 and I am sure they worth every cent!

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Diary

Motor Show Singapore 2006

Every time when there is a motor show in Singapore, you know for sure that Robert and I will be there. Armed with our cameras (this time round I have my own), we took pictures of the cars that were worth photographing and models who are stunning. I have to admit that initially it was a bit uncomfortable to point my camera at the models (upon which the models would strike a pose). Towards the end, it was like a second nature. I don’t know how these models can sustain that sort of posture and photogenic smile throughout the show. It is a talent I suppose.

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Diary

Gosh … This Is Gonna Take Long

Ideas are dangerous. Not long ago, my band-mate Jason suggested that I shall start recording all the songs that I have written since 95 and make it a historical compilation. If I am to spend just 1 hour to record each song, that would be a 150 man-hours little project of mine. Truth been told, last night took me about 4 hours to record the first 3 songs. It is actually quite a lot of work. I need to readjust the key, drop the parts that I don’t like, rewrite the chorus, rewrite some of the lyrics so that I can, believe it or not, breath in between the sentences, and on top of that, I have to record each song in a state that at least it is pleasing to the ears.

I joked to Jason that if I am to produce songs faster than I record my own songs in this “historical compilation”, I may never get to finish this project in my lifetime.

PS. Photo taken in one of the restaurants in Orchard … a lovely picture as the wallpaper for mobile phones.

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Travel Blog

Road Trip to Cameron Highland

The Smokehouse

I thought I was taking my mom and sister to Fraser Hill, Malaysia but Cynthia has booked us into Cameron Highland for a night instead. Sticking to the speed limit took us nine hours to reach the hotel. Heavy rain and road work slowed us down a bit. Just imagine, a mere 10% increased in traveling speed can easily shave off close to an hour of traveling time. It is mind boggling to imagine if I was to go another 10% …

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Diary

My PC Exploded On Me

Avid readers of this site (and my close friends) know that despite the fact that I graduated with a Computer Science and Engineering degree, my computer at home just hates me. In the latest twist of episode, it just exploded on me tripping the fuse box of my very home – two counts. As I disseminated this unfortunate yet scary events to my friends, the common reactions from the guys were to discuss the “why” question (Mark messaged me with a question: Did you take a photo?). Girls were more empathetic. It was after all a scary event especially when I was home alone.

I sent my PC for repair the very next day and spent S$200 (S$30 for service fee) to replace my defunct Power Supply Unit with a top of line component. Fortunately, the expensive stuffs inside the PC are all safe and sound. The technician did warn me about what may happen … that stuffs inside may be fried.

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Diary

Confusion … Frustration

These couple of days increasingly I have become more restless. I sense another transition in my life. As I was trying to articulate to my buddy AT, I seemed to have gained some clarity. I thought I was trying to wait for some memorable events to happen to my life. But in fact, I am waiting for some signs to prompt me for some action to “create” these memorable events.

I know it sounds complex but I am in this constant frustration, lost, and confusion trying to anticipate for something that I can’t even see nor feel. It is affecting my daily life. No kidding.

Strange huh?

PS. My new car reached the mileage of exactly 10,000 km when I reached home. Hmmm …

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My Favorite Silly Me

Oh God, I Am So Late!

“Oh God, I am so late!” was the first statement that came to my mind when I finally digested what the digital numbers on my air-con remote control meant.
I wanted to sleep early. I really did. Then I chanced upon a video of “World of South Park Warcraft” at YouTube. World of Warcraft is properly one of the world’s most popular online game at present and I love South Park too. South Park has made an episode out of the new cult of online gamers and I knew that if I didn’t watch it last night, that video would have been banned by YouTube once the hit-rate of that video skyrocketed (due to copyright issue). The entire video was closed to 25 minutes and it was pure hilarious. Of course if you don’t play WoW at all, you probably won’t be able to make much sense out of it.

By the time I was in bed, I only had like 5 hours to sleep. Cynthia needed to get up at 4.45am to catch her 6am flight to KL. I have no idea why she spent so much time going through her wardrobe high and low. I must say by the time I tried to get back to sleep, the sky was starting to brighten up (read: 7am).

I needed to get up at 7.30am for the full day retreat at a military camp. When my alarm clock rang, I went straight back to sleep and had this very vivid dream of a retreat … but this time round, it was two buses full of people at some remote area. And what’s up with the girls wrapped in towels outside the hotel rooms?! (Oh well, that is another story.)

Anyway, in my dream, I “realised” that it was not the reality. The reality was that I needed to be at the military camp.

I sprang out of bed, starred at the time on my air-con remote control and it said 8:05am. I was like … hmmm … that was not too bad as the meeting started at 8.45am. And then I thought, hmmm I needed to meet my colleagues at the guard house at … OH MY GOD 8.15am! I still could not register the gravity of the situation. My mind was working backward. The camp is just 15 minutes drive from my house … I usually take about 45 minutes to get ready and … CRAP I AM LATE!

At 8.45am, I appeared at the Mess, where the retreat was located, feeling breathless after four flights of stairs. Don’t ask how I made it but I did make it.

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Diary

One Raffles Quay

When I first took up the housing loan from ABN Amro, the branch was at a landmark location just opposite Stanchart Bank at the CBD area. Since then, ABN Amro has moved into one of the floors at that building opposite Golden Shoe car-park to recently I found out, One Raffles Quay (ORD). ORD is resided in the area that the government has earmarked as the new extension of the CBD. ORD is also where my new office will be come this December.

I entered ORD via a brand new underpass. The new building is pretty impressive. I have to exchange my IC for an electronic pass in order to get through the gates placed just outside the elevators. ABN Amro has a special counter just to help customers to change passes (which is sort of inconvenience if you were to ask me).

I chatted with some of the staffs from ABN Amro and I realised that they don’t really like the new building. I wonder why. Perhaps it is further away from the food outlets and the MRT station?

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Diary My Favorite

Oh Dear … I Need to Come Up With a Warm-up Fast!

Towards the end of the first day’s Facilitation class, our trainer divided us into 4 groups and asked each group to prepare a warm-up / energizer for the next day. Our group rolled the highest score so we would go first and do the warm-up first thing in the next morning. When the day ended, the lady who rolled the dice for us got up and said to me, “I have got a tender to do now so …”. I was like … and then another lady got up and said, “I have never done energizer in my life before so …”. And I was like … Need not to say, my 3rd lady member also got up and said, “Well, you and I run retreats all the time but we always get help from our associates. So I have no clue on what to do.” All 3 ladies walked out on me and I was like, “Huh? I am supposed to do this?!”
On my way to my car, I thought about it briefly. During dinner, I forgot to think about it. I was supposed to research from the Internet but I did not bother with it. Before going to bed, I did not even want to think about it.

In the morning, I started to panic about it. When I started the car, I started to think about it. At the first junction, I turned to Cynthia and told her that, “Look love, I need some help.” I explained what I needed to do in less than 60 minute’s time and we were like … starring at the traffic just thinking … or the lack of it.

At the second junction, I suddenly screamed, “A quiz!”. “A what?!” Cynthia asked. “Do a quiz as warm-up!”. I was so excited that I asked if she has paper with her. No, she answered. I tried to search through my wallet (while driving) and before I found a nice piece of paper, Cynthia dug up 2 pieces of petrol receipts from nowhere. I passed her the pen and we went … blank.

“Hey, you read a lot of Life section right?!” I inquired (Life section is the entertainment section of a local newspaper).

She: “Err … ya but …”
Me: “Can’t you think of something?!”
She: “Err … no …”
Me: “…..”
She: “…..”

Well, it was actually quite a fun thing for us to do and I have even forgotten to monitor my speed when I went pass the speed camera. Anyway, we have come up with 15 cool questions in the category of current affairs, sport, entertainment, movies, and books for the groups and they were (see how many questions you can answer!) as follows.

  1. How many years of independence does Singapore have?
  2. Husband of Britney Spears?
  3. What nationality is tennis player Roger Foderer?
  4. The Unbearable Lightness of Being is written by?
  5. Name the 2nd and 4th runner-ups of World Cup 2006.
  6. Who is the main actress in the TV series Ghost Whisperer?
  7. Name the Singapore Idol judge who was previously a radio DJ.
  8. Name the President of Indonesia.
  9. Who is the female Malaysian singer who just got married?
  10. Name the 2 main actresses in The Devil Wears Prada.
  11. Dave Grohl is the vocalist of which band?
  12. Name the latest album from Justin Timberlake.
  13. Name the new baby boy of Britney Spears.
  14. JK Rowling is the author of which series?
  15. Name the Asia actress in Miami Vice.
  16. Who are the 2 finalists left in Singapore Idol.

Footnote: The quiz went well. I think everyone was thoroughly entertained as we have lots of laughters. I immediately texted Cynthia, “The quiz was a blast, thank you”.

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Diary

So We Became Paul Twohill Fans?

Yesterday, in the middle of the day, Cynthia screamed, “Look, it’s snowing!”. I was playing computer game when suddenly I heard the howling of wind through the gaps of my door. The raindrops were so heavy that they did look like ice. Coupled with the strong wind, seeing the granularity of the rain swirled downwards was quite a scene. I took some pictures using my phone.

… and a close up …

Back to the main story. Cynthia and I traveled to Jurong (West of Singapore) to attend the birthday lunch of my Godmother. And over there, we have met the aunt of one of the Singapore Idol’s contestant Paul Twohill. This aunt of Paul is really a super-aunt-fan-club-leader and she passionately shared with us the details of Singapore Idol.

(Cynthia in red dress and Paul’s aunt in white jacket … she really does look a bit like Paul, ya?)

Anyway, talking about Singapore Idol, some friends of mine knew that I have got all the prediction of the results correct from Rahimah onwards (that is 6 correct guesses so far as I usually announce my guess on Wednesday). Between Hady and Jon, it is a hard choice and have to see the performance of the final. According to Paul’s aunt, Jon was handpicked by some of the judges (or organizers?) to participate the competition and Hady’s boss (a rich guy who own this big club) is going to pump in S$100,000 to buy the votes. Quite some kind of conspiracy theories.

Oh, Cynthia and I am invited to Paul Twohill’s private party in November (school holiday supposingly) and Paul will sing during the party. Well, it is as though over lunch, Cynthia and I became a new fan of Paul. Reality is that I did vote for Paul during the very first round while Cynthia did vote for him the episode before Paul was eliminated. That was all the “support” we gave.