Donut

Was at Novena Square and saw that there is a new Donut Factory outlet there. Which reminded me that on Sunday at the Suntec City outlet, I did not had to queue to buy the donuts.

With donut outlets sprouting all over; last count Donut Factory has 3; Summer House has 2; Missy 2 + 2 more opening soon; Munchy has the most with kiosks and counters in shopping mall and supermarkets I think the donut craze will very soon go the way of the cinnamon bun; Portuguese egg tarts; apple strudel; bubble tea and coffee bun.

May the best donut roll over all the others!

Er just for fun - do the poll on the right - in your opinion, who has the best donut?

Sinma Live Frog Porridge

Went with a few colleagues to Geylang. As some wanted to eat frog porridge and some wanted seafood, decided to compromise and went to this place that I have passed a few times but never went in before - Sinma Live Frog Porridge Seafood.

At 7pm, the place was not quite packed but there were a stream of people coming in. Crossed our fingers the food will be satisfactory and reasonably priced.

We ordered 3 frogs which comes with 2 free frogs + 1 porridge (for 3 persons). Cost $22.00. We also ordered the bamboo clam at $10 each; chilli crab after agonising over which version we wanted to try. Cost was $77.00 for 2 medium size Sri Lankan Crab. The waitress recommended the Prawn in bean paste sauce (7 for $48.00), their signature dish. We also have the Tiger Ribs which tasted real good. And no, it's not Tiger Rib but pork rib cooked with Tiger beer!

So cost of the meal shared among the 7 of us including 1 veg, mantou, rice, extra porridge and drinks was just around $36.00 per head which was very reasonable considering that the portion was pretty generous.

Price aside, all of us agreed the food was well done. Not too saltish and most of it uniquely cooked, I especially like the prawn which was big, tender, fresh and delicious. The Tiger Rib was interesting - a bit smoky and tender with a dash of spiciness. The Chilli Crab was so so - although the crabs which was supposed to be small was actually quite big. The sambal kangkong was hot and spicy - just right for all of us chilli lovers. The frog legs was quite normal and not very remarkable certainly not as good as the other one down the street but at 5 frogs for $22.00, it was certainly value for money.

Overall, couldn't mind going back again - especially for the prawn.

Anti-Christianity Movies

Got an email from a friend who had forwarded an email advocating/cajoling people (read Christian) not to watch the movie - The Golden Compass. The zealots are up in arms against it because it supposingly promotes atheism. Now I wondered how they got to this conclusion when the movie has not even premiere yet? They became expert just because they read the book or somebody said so?

This is not the first movie that got 'hit'. I remembered when the movie A1 first came out in 2001, a good friend was writing left/right/centre to every Christians she knows not to watch the show because it implies that robots can become human (or something like that) and therefore it steps on the Christian's belief that only God is the creator of human.

Then of course there is the famous Harry Potter. That time round when the first book came out, a number of churches got into the act and openly advise their congregation not to read the book or watch the movie - why because it promotes witchcraft! I found this out from my niece when she complained her mother refused to let her read the book or watch the movie.

More recently, we have the Da Vinci Code with its supposingly shocking and some say heretical view on the origin of Christ and His descendants.

Anyway, I have read the books and/or saw the movies (except for the Golden Compass) and am not persuaded by the arguments that these people have that there is anything prejudice against Christianity. At the end of the day, I think movie makers and authors are out to make money and the best way to make money is to court controversy. I doubt they have any hidden agenda other than that. The more the people protest, the more interest in the subject is generated and sales increases. So to all those who are making noise and passing judgement, lighten up and look at everything and take everything with a pinch of salt. May be this could also be a good time to test whether your faith can withstand this sort of propaganda (if there really is one in the first place).

To end, I let the reply from my friend who forwarded me the email on the Golden Compass says it all:

Quote:

"anyway, all these hype will only certainly do one thing, create awareness or attention (necessary or unnecessary is another story).....

i strongly believe what said in Romans 8:28.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[a] who[b] have been called according to his purpose.

Can be a good conversation piece to start sharing the good news!" unquote

That's the spirit!

Growing Up

Alvin starts work today (albeit temporary work). So fast.. it was like not so long ago that we see him going to Primary 1 and then Sec 1. Now he has completed his 'O' levels. Time really flies.

is premlim results are so so - his chances of going into a JC in the East side is pretty slim. Somehow, all the better JCs are cluster in town and in the East. He is just 1 point off his L1R5 for Tampines JC (which seems to be the lousiest JC in the East). He can make it to others like Yishun, Jurong etc but those are so far away. Ultimately, I think better for him to go straight to poly. That way, he don't have to go through Chinese. Like father like son. Same weakness. Ha ha.

This morning was joking with M that in a blink of an eye, next things we know, he will be getting married and she will become a young grandma. Another 10 years or less?

I Spy ~ Mucus Flying

Place: City Hall - MRT escalator going downward.

Character: A man in his sixties.

Scene:

He blew his nose. The snot and mucus flew out. Good for him - he covered his nose with his hand - Bare hand.

He tried to flick whatever in his hand into the dustbin next to the escalator. Did he succeed?

Then he placed his hand (yes the same hand) on the handguard of the escalator.

And no - he didn't wipe his hand before that.

I never ever going to hold another escalator's handguard forever!

Asia Civilisation Museum

Managed to find some time to go down to the Asia Civilisation Museum at Empress Place over the weekend with the family. There is an exhibition on Buddhism. The exhibition traces the journey of the monks, Faxian, Xuanzang, Yijing as they travel from China to India via the Silk Road. It features the Buddhist sights that they might have seen along the way. Also the various different Buddhist artifacts of the different regions and countries from China, South Asia and South East Asia.

Unfortunately, for security reasons (or so it say outside the main exhibition hall), no photography allowed and we had to hand over the camera and even handphones so couldn't take any photos inside. Not sure what they paranoid about? Understand the no photography rule cos flash can be very distracting but 'security'? What do they think visitors will do to the antiques with their cameras?

Anyway, still managed to take some photographs in the other halls where photography is allowed.

There a Sucker born every minute

Today newspapers' had some interesting reports.

First one was a lady who got conned in one of those lucky draw scam that is so common nowadays. Now if it is some illiterate old folk, I might understand but this one is a teacher! I don't understand how she got conned putting sum after sum of money in the hope of getting the lottery windfall. She claimed she is not greedy but just trusting - so trusting that she dumped a total of $60,000.00! She also claimed she has not heard about this scam. Come on - where has she been all this while? If this is the calibre of teacher we are turning out - I fear for our kids! But I think her competency is not in question here - I think at the end of the day, although she denied it, she was just plain greedy - like thousand of others who got suckered daily in to one of the many quick rich schemes.

Than there was the report of people paying for a Malaysian physiotherapist to cane them. I guess when it comes to one health, any thing for a quick cure. There is the magnetic bed, magic bracelet and the list goes on. Which is also why people have been conned into paying big bucks for noni juice, wheatgrass and now mangosteen juice. Surely it is much cheaper to just buy the fruit and juice it instead of paying like $80.00 for a bottle of juice!

Finally, a report about a man who slipped into bed with his best friend's wife and the lady claimed she didn't realised it was not her husband and ended up having sex with him. A similar case was also reported in a Malaysia's paper recently. I think if a lady doesn't even know how her hubby looks or feel like in the dark and in bed - something must be wrong some where with their relationship. Most likely, she was just pure frisky!

I can never understand how people get conned so easily. I think where it comes to money and health, people will do anything to get them. I guess this people will never learn that there's no short cut to wealth or health and if they conned - they certainly deserve it!

Oh by the way, I charged only $10.00 for those who want me to cane them. Free cane to bring home after the canning. Any takers?

Botak Jones

Since we were in Toa Payoh, decided to go to the new Botak Jones outlet there for dinner. Had a little bit of difficulty locating the place. Eventually found it inside a JTC industrial factory next to SPH.
There were a few other stalls but unlike other factory canteen with the usual local food stalls, other than the Botak Jones outlet, there was a pizza stall, a Thai, a Japanese, and a cake stall as well as a beer garden. It seems like they has taken over the whole factory canteen.

The food took almost an hour to come. And the portion was big. We ordered 1 barbecue chicken, 1 cajun chicken, 1 tenderloin steak and 1 fish and chip & a salmon steak. All the food came with a huge heap of spicy French Fries and an extremely big portion of coleslaws.

The advertisement promised good food at cheap price but except for the fish and chip and the chicken, the rest were will not exactly cheap. They cancelled the tenderloin and replaced it with the ribeye subsequently and that 200gm piece of meat cost $34.00 comparable to normal steak house. The meat was rather tender and soft though. The fish was good - in fact very good. But overall, didn't think it was worth the long wait.
Cajun Chicken
Ribeye Steak
Fish & Chips
Salmon Steak
Barbecue Chicken
The pizza at the next stall looks good though. Might just go back there to try that.

Cat Killer

This mad guy arrested and jailed twice for abusing or should I say torturing cats have been arrested a third time - again for torturing another kitten. The newspaper reported that a neighbour who had set up a group to watch over him had initially stopped him from bringing the kitten home but was dissuaded by well meaning neighbours who wanted to give him a "chance". And who was going to give that poor little kitty a chance!

As for this guy, notwithstanding that he may be a mental case - for the protection of the cats and dogs out there and maybe even children (if he moves on to bigger things to abuse!) a jail term is not going to help. Jailing him is not going to cure him of his 'affliction'.

A better solution is to put him in IMH for long term treatment.... hmm but then again a far far better solution might be to put him in a room filled with a lot of cats...and I not talking about little kitties here but big cats.. lion, tiger, leopard, puma, cheetah... and let him have a taste of his own medicine! That would probably cure him of his problem once and for all!

About Gays

So the gahmen has as expected refused to make any changes to Section 377A. "Whew" I can hear the sigh of relief from all the conservatives and religious groups. "What the %#*^#!" This is probably the words coming out of every gays here and all over the world who are following the scene being played out here.

While I claim to be liberal and prefer to live and let live, I am getting very uncomfortable with the stance and the noise coming from the pro camp. I have no quarrel with people who choose to live their lifestyle differently. I also understand why they are pushing for society to accept them but what I don't understand is why are the non-gays fighting so aggressively for them? It is one thing for people to want to lead alternative lifestyle but to enlist the help of others in society to help them with their cause?

Just yesterday there was this news about a group of SMU students who are doing a booklet on gays. All the students claimed to be 'normal'. Then there are the numerous artistes and people in the circle who have been actively speaking out (and very loudly too) for their gay friends. Even a NMP has stepped in to speak up for them. It will be a sad day if the voices of the vocal minority become so loud that their voices and opinion becomes 'public opinion' and their position are accepted openly into society. God forbids that we were ever to sink so low as to have gays bars, gay only clubs or worse have gay marriages!

They choose their life and they should not expect other people to openly embrace them. For those fighting for them, I think there are better and more better causes to root for - like say the environment, poverty, child prostitution.