Catch of the Day!

The lone surviving koi has died after sticking it out alone for oh so many months. Poor fish. Bad enough that we had to relegate it to a tank, but the pleco was forever chasing it. Somehow I am amazed it survived more than a year when all its other fishy cousins has gone to that great big ocean long ago.

Anyway, with its demise, this free up the tank for the long overdue conversion to a shoreline theme tank. The plan is to have some crabs, lobsters and maybe mudskipper and archer fish. So this evening, went down to Lower Pierce to begin the first phase of the conversion - catch some lobster. Why buy when you can get em free? As usual, Alicia managed to catch some prawns, a small lobster and what looked like a goby. Good enough to start.

  The mud lobster and prawns 

Is this a goby? 

But before going further - anybody need a common pleco?


And this is the other tank that I have with the number of fish shrinking by the day:(

Old Friend

Bumped into an old friend from Jubilee Church at RL on Thu eve. When I said old, I really mean long ago. That was when I was just a teen in JC and she was a wisp of a girl in a sec sch. Haven't seen her since I left Jubilee more than 18 years ago.

The surprising thing was she recognised me while I was totally lost as to who she was when she called out to me.

So that means I haven't change a lot or haven't grow old enough yet lol.

Panda Porn (sorry no porn here)

Zoo keepers in China have started training panda to do 'sexercise' in a bid to boost the sex life of the panda. This comes on top of earlier attempt to make panda mate by making them watch panda 'porn'.

On top of poaching, habitat destruction, it seems panda are contributing to their own extinction by being unable to have sex.

Me think what they need is not porn or sexercise but a jab of rabbit gene. After all, rabbit are well known for their constant er... 'follicking'. That should solve all the problem:)

Check this out!

My daughter showed me a site for the bored, the lonely at heart and the kapo.

Really cool site but don't go if you are busy. Have a look when you are really free and bored and seriously got nothing to do. It's quite irritating (hence the name) but fun though..may be not everybody idea of fun.

Seriously, don't visit this site if you are busy and have no time to spare. You can't stop. It's very how should I said it? addictive; irresistible? no I think not very apt description.

Here it is: irritatingblogger.blogspot.com

You been warned...oops is it too late?

Happy Person

Singapore is looking for a happy person. Mr Philip Merry(trust a person with that name to start such a contest) of Global Leadership Academy is looking for the happiest person in Singapore.

Is there such a thing, sorry I mean person who is happy all the time? For the life of me, I can't think of anybody I know who fits the bill and can be nominated. Probably the only person who can be happy all the time is what is typically referred to in the old days as the 'village idiot' - somebody who does not worry about money, health, war, and everything else cos simply too goondu to understand anything about it.

Anyway, if any one know anyone who qualifies to be the happiest person in this little red dot, nominate the fella here. Who knows, if he/she wins, he/she might just bring you along for the 3D2N stays at the Marriott's Phuket Beach Club.

Me, I go start practicing my smiling now:)

Wah Kee Prawn Noodle

After 1 failed attempt previously, finally managed to go to Pek Kio for the prawn noodle at the food centre there. It has been highly recommended by ieatishootipost and friends so went there with high expectation.

Unfortunately, they got my order wrong and I ended up with dry instead of soup.
The soup was the thick rich type not the usual brownish clear soup. I didn't really like the chilli mix and find it overall a bit too salty. Even the prawn felt very tasty!

So after all the hype, it was a bit disappointment. I much rather prefer the Beach Rd prawn noodle or the Adam Rd's but anyway, one man's meat is another poison so to each his own!

With this, I think I have tasted all the so called famous (as in got press and tv coverage) prawn noodles but the verdict is still out on which is the best.

Old Town

The first time I went to an Old Town's outlet was in Penang last year and I enjoyed the sticky rice with kaya and coffee so was happy when it finally opened an outlet here. After 2 failed attempts (first time not yet opened, 2nd time too crowded) so today after run, walked in and lucky enough to spot an empty table.

But it was a bitter sweet experience. The place was too crowded and close to mayhem! They had what I thought was a simple ordering system – queue up to order – somebody will key in the order, wait for the food to be delivered and finally pay at the cashier. Seem pretty straight forward but unfortunately somebody forget to computerise the kitchen and serving staff and the food delivery was totally screwed up!

M's coffee came after 10 minutes, my coffee came another 10 minutes later and our toasts came a further 10 minutes later! At least we were lucky our food came – some people didn't get their order or it was mixed up! The tables were not cleared! and there were black faces everywhere. During our time there, we counted countless complains, spotted a few people who left in a huff and at least 1 walked out without waiting for the food to come. Also, the cashier was often missing from the cashier counter cos she was busy helping with the serving so not surprise if many pissed off customers walked off within paying. It could have been much easier if they had just go with a simple order system like Ya Kun or Killiney.

And the food? At 10.30 am, they were sold out of soft boiled eggs on toast, polo bun, sticky rice (which was what I came for)! The coffee despite being 'kosong' was still too sweet and the french toast too oily! The 4 to 5 young kids in the kitchen seem totally unable to cope with the crowd. Me think they were too ambitious and had too many items on their menu. From the usual beverages, toasts to noodles, they had everything! It might have been better if they had breakfast items, lunch items etc but than again what do I know? I am just a customer!

Food Yucky Food!

Read about the hawkers mixing melted plastic into cooking oil to get crispy fried food. In fact, a colleague told me about this a month ago but then the story was it was happening in China, which is believable but in Malaysia!

He also said wax is added to instant noodles to keep it crunchy for long period and also so that it will not turn soggy too fast. Real or not?

Another colleague told of how many many years ago in the days when policeman wore shorts, at a beach side stall in Changi, his hawker friend actually used salt water direct from the sea as the hot water base for boiling the noodle!

An article I read reported on how a food vendor in the floating market in Thailand dunks the noodle in the river before serving it to the buyer.

Then of course everybody would have heard of how street vendors in China use recycled engine oil to cook their food!

Last but not least, anybody knows how smelly tofu is prepared? Apparently the process is supposed to be for the tofu to ferment but hawkers where got time to wait. So they do the next best time saving thing. Soak the tofu in the dirty rotting drain water and viola instead smelly tofu!

What else will they think of next? Make one really want to swear off street-side food for ever!

To keep or not to keep

In the past, I used to remove the cash card whenever I parked my car and somehow will remember to insert it in when I drive off. Then somebody gave me a cash card cover and since than I just leave the cashcard in the IU under the cash card cover. This was fine until some SOB went on a rampage and broke several windscreens to get the cash card inside the car. Luckily for me, I was not one of those hit but spooked by the incident and with the public urging of the traffic police, decided to remove the cash card again whenever I parked.

And guess what - of course I forgot to put the darned thing back and cross under one of those newly installed gantry on the ECP!

Another unnecessary contribution to the gahmen's kitty:(

Nikon D60

Finally after months of procrastination and taking the opportunity offered by the IT show, got the latest Nikon D60 - improved version of the D40X. This one come with VR, self cleaning blah blah blah...Came with these freebies - a camera bag, Nikon tripod, screen protector, pen brush, cleaning cloth, 2gb SD card and a card reader.

Also decided to add on a 55 - 200mm lens and 2 UV filters to complete the first one.

Took a first shot. Compared with the Canon A510's.















The skill still sucks though. So I guess it's not the tool but the man wielding it that matters:(

Singapore Most Wanted

Picture from Simply Jean
This is like 10 days since the most feared and most wanted man in Singapore went on a super long toilet break. It must be one long super L.S cos after 10 days he still haven't gone back to what he was supposed to do before going to the toilet.

So be careful when going to the toilet, you never know who you will bump into there.

Anyway, to to do my little bit as a good faithful citizen of this wonderful red dot, here is the latest 'released' photos of Singapore Most Wanted Man.

Do your little bit as a good citizen and call the mata if you see any body resembling any of the below:

Photo courtesy of Talking Cock

And no talking bull or cock about how he escaped; why no rewards being offered or where he is hiding now. It will only make the mata job more difficult and they are so blur and lost now they don't need anymore to add to the confusion.

Finalmente Gastromomia

Stucked for a place to eat. The kids suggested pizza again! but didn't want to go for the so boring Pizza Hut or the ex California Pizza. Referred to good old trusty ieatishootipost and managed to fish out a place in Macpherson - Finalmente.

The place was quite empty considering that it was peak hour on a Saturday evening. A bit doubtful about the quality of the food but all doubts were vanished when the 2 pizza arrived.

We had a folded pizza which resembled an oversize curry puff. It was stuffed with ham, mozarella cheese, mushroom and all sort of gooey stuff and was absolutely delicious. Best of all, it cost only $17.00

We had a normal round pizza. It was more or less the same but with a thin slice and rocket salad on top. The crust was so well done that it tasted good even by itself!

We wanted to order some pasta but the friendly owner, a bald headed Italian (I presumed) asked us to eat first before we order some more and it was certainly good advice as between the 3 of us, we nearly couldn't finish both pizza!

We also had a piece of chocolate cake and ordered another pizza to take away. The total damage + water came up to only $67.00 certainly good value for money and worth many more visits.