Random thoughts for the day

Well i had my last 3 school shows (Chicky) today.... It was all really quick, considering it started exactly one week ago! 10 shows gone. Now waiting for more shows to happen... man i suddenly felt as though i lost my self worth.

Anyway i decided to do more cooking today again! Yeap the chef at work... by force! My mum just hurled to me the responsibility of making some food for the family. geeeez. Well i went for the easy option: Fried rice, boiled vegetables and some char siew and siew bak my mum bought earlier in the morning. Oh and i made oyakadon for myself! check it out!


























YEap that's my oyakodon with my complete meal. hahah It tasted really good actually. got the omelette topping for $2 from Daiso. they sell really good stuff. hope to be heading down there again soon though.

Was watching this cheesy HK movie... where this heoric guy walked into a burning building, rescued a dog, WALKED along the burning corridor in slow motion... and as he approaches the camera, flames explode from behind him... but still he remains un-frazzled. HAhaha SO CHEESY. reminds me of other cheesy scenes like how the evil guy measures up his victim, walks eerily and slowly towards her, talking about how he's going to kill her or why she deserves to die or how no one would hear her even if she screams... and the bloody guy just takes his damn sweet time to pull the damn trigger... and before he could do so, the hero of the show makes an explosive entry and saves the day. these kinda scenes happen sooooo often! but notice how we're just suckers for them??


Well i guess my 'holidays' have officially begun. time to meet up with some of my friends... esp those who are about to fly off for exchange. And also set aside time to bake!! woohoo!

My Birthday Celebrations part 3

Following the trend of trilogies, here's my 3rd celebration... this time, with my family! We were supposed to be gorging down siew mais, har kaus and paper-wrapped chicken at Crystal Jade, but unfortunately the queue was just wasn't budging. So we decided to head down to this restaurant called Tonkishi... famous for its katsu (cutlets). Here's how it went:

As you can see, there was a copious amount of food... Lots and lots of deep-fried stuff. hehe i like. For the katsus ranged from pork to fish, sweet potato, egg plant, loin, prawn etc... and we had sides like jap curry, potato salad (yummy), miso soup, edamame and fried tofu (damn friggin good). On top of that the restaurant offered free flow of rice and cabbage! something we didn't have stomach for, actually.

Seems like Justin was looking to steal some food from Sheryl, while Ivan was just bracing himself for the feast ahead. Notice: both my bros have the same way of holding their chopstick while choosing a 'target' item on the table.

My parents were rather satisfied with the meal, i think. While as for me... you could tell from that pic how i felt about it. hahha. Yummy.

Believe it or not, this is the picture of when we were done with the food. Seems like there's some food left here and there, but our tummies forbade us from consuming anymore. haha.

I wanna thank Ivan and Yuki for the watch they got for me! It's an orange "Smash" watch. Hope the brand name doesn't suggest what will happen to the watch in the future. Hehe

And Thanks to Justin and Sheryl for the very nice blue Nike shirt!

I would also like to thank a few of my dear friends for their well-wishes! Thanks Janet, Liling, Tzi Hon, Ning Xia, Louis, Sherm's parents, Brigette, Grace, Nabs, Joycelyn and others...

And a happy birthday to Jeremy Soh too! yeah man 29th July Rocks!! woohoooo

My Birthday Celebrations part 2

And it's the 28th of July! one day till my actual birthday! I arranged with my gf to go watch Genevieve's play "Happy Endings: Asian Boys Volume 3"... It's the 2nd last day of her performance and i really wanted to catch it. And i didn't regret it at all!! IT's such a nice play! Even though it's about gays and their love life, i thought it was tastefully done! as in, it didn't scare straight people like me. It was actually a rather touching story. I must say, the scriptwriter's brilliant. The cast was very strong too!

And of cos dear Gen was brilliant!! hehe well done, girl! So so proud of you... hope you liked the pretty (and rather expensive) sunflower!! U better not throw it away too quickly!! hahaha.
Oh and galvin belongs to theatre man. he was excellent too.

And so my gf brought me to the 'surprise' place for my birthday dinner... it was at Graze, in rochester park... very nice place too bad i didn't take a lot of pictures of the place itself though.. but u can check it out online. hehe

While we waited for our food, we had some water and a phallic-looking bread. haha. So you can roughly see the restaurant settings in the background... pretty much al-fresco, and very nice choice of furniture and lighting.

Looking at the menu, I was wondering what "barramundi" was... Sherms said it was a fish. I told her she was thinking of "baracuda". We were laughing over it for awhile until the waiter told us it IS a fish. hahah well steal my slippers and call me susie! who would have known?? haha anyway the top left pic's the barramundi (not fantastic, but fresh nonetheless) and sherm's totally delectable wild mushroom risotto. She enjoyed it of course... i mean, she loves risotto and wild mushrooms individually...so when u combine them, u get a very happy shermeen. hahaha

We also shared a plate of BBQ sausages... not too bad~

My 'dessert' is at the other end of the table. Muahaha...

Typical fine-dining: Huge plate, with small portions of food.

Okay here was the actual dessert... SO SINFUL i tell you.. It's called pimms poached pear... basically a pear with white chocolate mousse inside, and with sweet walnuts, a slab of pure cream and biscuits by the side. The pear tasted really nice though.

And here's the 'dish' that really took the prize. ahahaha. The one that i'll be having for the rest of my life. hahah thank you so much darling for the wonderful dinner. Yummy!

My Birthday Celebrations part 1

It was the 27th of July, when i spent the evening with my good friends (who else? charlene, zhichao and malik) at Sakura Restaurant at Orchard Shopping Centre. For those of you who have no idea where that is (which i admittedly didn't before before malik told me), it's the run-down building just next to california fitness @ orchard, with the 7-eleven and guardian at the 1st level. But who would have known that beneath the ratty exterior, there lies a haven of absolute gastronomical pleasures!












Round after round, we attacked the glorious variety of food they had there. Our motto: What they would cook, we would eat!

The lamb was exceptionally good though.

In case ure wondering the price for this buffet, it's $22 per pax. But the other costs that come with it like extra pounds gained, guilt from eating more than you should and discomfort from a bloated stomach varies with the person.





The 3 stooges!








As you can see, we came in as warriors: Ready to take on the food in battle. But alas, we met our match. We were utterly defeated. Underestimate the power of the food, we shall never again.














These were the presents from Malik and Chao. haha these bloody prankers gave me a Happy Fathers' Day card lah! and they also returned me my PSP game in disguise as a present! haha but they gave me my real present, which was a baking book! Awesome!! just what i needed! Think very soon i'll be picking up my spatula again. hahaa.

And of cos my dear sis got me something from Australia too! A nice (but slightly over-sized) cardigan! haha she always thinks i'm bigger than i actually am. But thanks babe! i'll wear it!











Charlene was complaining that she looked fat in the 1st picture (top left), so i told the guys to make themselves seem fatter so as to make charlene look thin in comparison. Thus, the 2nd picture. Hehehe their faces damn cartoon lah!




The 4 of us who couldn't resist the tempation of taking a group shot on the way to the bus-stop.
















We made our way to Bukit Timah to play some pool... and we decided to pass time by playing some "dai dee" on the bus! it was something new i must say. haha only SMRT buses with the inward facing chairs could allow us to do this. hahah.














This isn't a very good example, but there were times that Charlene struck a "killbill" pose... very intimidating, but embarrassingly to no effect. She still couldn't pot the ball. At least she made it look good. ehehe.













Yeap so that was the end of the 1st day of my Birthday celebrations!! it was a REALLy fun day. thanks so much guys!!

If you want the pics, try this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3245&l=95b83&id=514938240

Tag number 007... PASS.

YAHOOOOO.... like i said before, i'll celebrate every small victory each day. Today i had another one: I passed my IPPT!!

Countless weeks of training paid off today as i took my IPPT at khatib camp. I found myself much fitter than usual, and FINALLY i passed my pull-ups. That station really got me nervous. I have big probs with pull-ups cos of my heavy lower body... and yeah my weak arms didn't help either. But thru hard training, i managed to scrape through that station.

That mini-victory for me in that station put my mind at rest, which motivated me for my last station: 2.4km run. For once in my life, i actually looked forward to the run.. and ENJOYED myself while running. hahaha must be all those frequent jogs i've been taking.

One funny incident happened though... towards the end of my run, i sprinted for the finish line... Stride by stride, i felt like a plane ready to take off... My legs were pounding the track, taking me faster... then with great triumph, i smiled when i crossed the finish line.

That's when i heard the marshall bellow "SIR! you're on the wrong lane!! u have to go thru the sensors!!"

The 'chariots of fire' song in my mind came to an abrupt stop... i jammed my brakes, made a u-turn and went thru the sensors to record my timing. Phew. luckily, my timing was still good. The anti-climax DID take away a chunk of the gratification though. it was embarrasing, really.

Anyway, for those of you who are thinking of starting an exercise regime, I support you. It works wonders for your self-confidence and inner-peace. haha. One advice: Don't drink cold water after straneous workout. According to the chinese physician i went to today, she said that drinking cold water after exercise is probably the WORST thing u could do to ur lungs.

Well from this pass, i have earned myself $100 from SAF, and intend use it to treat myself to a nice meal this weekend. Muahahahha

Lame moment.

I just remembered this recent incident that proved to me i was born to be lame... Here's a snippet of a conversation between me and my gf...

Shermeen: "There's a pain on my left side..."

Me:"You know what that means?"

Shermeen: "What?"

Me: "Something's not right..."


HhahahahHahha

The End, and The Beginning...

Today's a special day for me. It's the end of something that has been stressing me the past few weeks: My Summer module. Just completed the wiki and left it for grading by prof. Hope it goes well... Woohoooo freedom tastes so damn sweet!! And me with the sweet-tooth! what ecstacy! I feel so good, like i just inherited super powers or something... I think i'll name myself... Jonny Jubilant... with the power to be-happy-and-not-give-a-damn-that-I-crapped-in-my-pants !! Sounds like a superhero to ya? yeah baby... yeah...

With an end comes a new beginning: After 2 months on a break, i have officially resumed acting in primary school shows again. It's for KFC Chicky Club! One of my favourite shows actually... albeit it's a bit tiring with the dancing and all... But hell, i enjoyed myself plenty! It's just refreshing to resume something that i love. And in between the 2 shows today, i had a good time joking away with Mervyn and Leelian over breakfast... Ahhh that's what i really missed, actually. The talk-cock sessions. And believe me, with Merv, Gen, Jessie and myself around, the topics discussed can be totally off-tangent and absolutely outrageous. Speaking of Gen, we miss you babe! Hope your stint with Asian Boys is going well so far!! One more week to go!!

Oh it's my first time going to casuarina's prata place today. They have good prata! not the best i've tasted maybe, but still VERY good. And apparently they JUST renovated into an air-conditioned cafe! so for those of you who haven't been there lately, go check it out! But don't forget to ask me along too!! Muahaha

I think casuarina should have a mascot to help them out in their brading. How about... Captain Casuarina?? Then just like harry potter, they can publish and distribute several issues of books, which are actually menus in disguise! They would have harry potter-like titles such as... er... *Captain Casuarina and the Tormentor of Teh Tarik*!! or *Captain Casuarina and the Plaster of the Prata*... something like that.

Another incident today that left me laughing my socks, shoes and every other piece of clothing off was this post on Mr Brown's blog. It's about this online feud between celebrity bloggers XiaXue and Steven Lim. It's this video where Steven Lim is lashing back at XX for her insults against Steven. PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO. hahah it's hilarious! http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2007/07/xiaxue-vs-steve.html Steven called Xiaxue a "BIG CHICKEN PIE!" Hhahahahaa... sorry no offence man. But it's just funny the way he phrased it. "I mean, cmon. You're a big chicken pie, lor." Hahahhaha... now if you're still left in the dark about all this, check out Xiaxue's blog: http://www.xiaxue.blogspot.com/ Get a clearer picture of everything. Man, XX really knows how to stir shit.



Today's Irony: Home-Fix D.I.Y shop in Lot 1 had lighting failure.



Anyway like i said, today's a SPLENDID DAY!! Big hug to all my friends!!

Lame Riddle #5

Hey sorry guys for not posting for some time. Anyway it's time for another riddle that'll leave you in Or-guess-sm... muahaha

Qn: Why do Policemen like to do the Gardening??

Answer: Cos they wanted to maintain Lawn and Order. Muahahaha

Grace's Birthday party...

Just last saturday (14th July), the old JC council mates met up to celebrate Grace's Bday!



What time?: 9pm
Where?: Villa Bali, near the old SAJC (currently river valley high)
Who: Carissa, Clara, Zheng, Raymond, Timothy, Malik, Grace (duh~) and myself.






(Grace at one of her un-glammest moments. How dis-Grace-ful. hhaha kidding babe.)

Before that day, i had NO idea where or what Villa Bali was. But now that i've been there, i think i'm going down again soon with sherms. hahah it's a nice, serene, romantic (and vegetated) Al-fresco cafe bar... (If any of you have been to One Rochester, you'd know what i mean). Apparently they just introduced their main courses so they had like pork chops and steak on their menu. coolness.

There were some finger food going round, but as i had a cough that day, i did not have the luxury to try the fried food. I only got to eat the garlic bread. haha. DARN YOU, THROAT!!


Anyways back to the birthday girl. Grace was having some lychee-martinis i think... if i'm not mistaken, she was feeling a little high. Hahaha reminds me of one of her bday parties before where she got so drunk that she had to go lie down... while the rest of us left. haha.





As usual, we had the usual trick of 2 of the girls excusing themselves to go 'to the toilet' when in actual fact they went preparing for cake surprise!





We had a great time, talking nonsense and asking one another IQ riddles (which ended up being linked to neo-prints, thanks to me of cos... hehe). It was really great seeing everyone that day. It's been some time since i've actually caught up with them. Too bad i had to leave slightly earlier...


Grace dear, i really hope you enjoyed yourself. I know this is late already... but i just wanna wish you HAPPY BIRTHDAY again... you've always been such a wonderful friend to me. I treasure our friendship a lot... and for that, i pray that all your birthday wishes come true, and may you be happy always! (and i know that in the previous bdays i usually would specially make something for you.. sorry this year i was kinda in a rush so all i could get you was the dress. Pls forgive me... hehe i'll make it up to you next year!)













Anyway here's where you view all the pics!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3078&l=acea2&id=514938240

A chef is born... Jonny Oliver in da house~

I decided to be a nice boy and cook for my family... since i have a cough and all, i was deliberating what to cook for dinner. Can't be deep fried fried stuff. Nor heaty stuff. No chicken... Man, the restrictions i had to work with!! But then, with sheer effort, i managed to dig up an idea from my brain (surprise surprise!)... and decided to make... SOBA!!












So yeah these were some of the dishes... The Soba (in case my food are cooked beyond recognition, it's the top left picture) took quite some time to make cos after boiling it, you had to drain it with cold water, then layer it with ice... (ice ice baby...)

The pork was marinaded with teriyaki sauce, and i pan fried them with salt and ground pepper.

And the spinach was just... you know... boiled. no biggie there. But i lurve spinach! Popeye-inspired, maybe. Always wanted to have a cocked-up face like his.

Other (rather unimportant) stuff i made: scrambled eggs and dumplings (those u get frozen).











So my customers (my dad & mum. too bad justin couldn't enjoy this as well) sat at the table and tried the food... and they expressed their satisfaction!! Woohooo! They actually liked it! they said the pork was good, although they kept mistaking it for chicken...



Ahhhh... the gratification of it all... As you can probably tell from my expression there. haha I felt very good after the meal... not only cos it wasn't a disaster... But mostly cos i managed to do something good. Not just for myself, but for my family too. My mum especially. Now i know how bloody hard it is to prepare a meal... and my mum does it so often!
Love you, mum.

But i tell you, sometimes my Dad pisses me off. He was SOOO lazy to clear up the dishes and wash them. When i finally got him to clear up, he was so haphazard that he even threw away a porcelain spoon by accident! Ughh.

I think i learn a lot from cooking. It teaches me patience (try waiting for pork chops to be evenly done, and u'll know what i mean). It teaches me to be alert (a second too late, and fried eggs can taste like the wok) and more than anything, it teaches me humility.

You know, we could all learn to celebrate every small victory... it makes us appreciate things more, and also makes you feel happier as a person.

Hopefully this won't be the last of my culinary experiments!