A very blessed lady

Sometime I think back to my childhood and think that I have a hard life. While by no means living in poverty, we were not exactly rolling in cash and most time live from day to day. Yet so what if I had a father who turns up only when drunk, so what if I had to go to school with leftover dinner wrapped between 2 slice of bread for lunch; so what if people talks of movies and all I know was the black and white tv I tiptoe outside the neighbour house to watch.

Life in those days was tough but then compared to many others, I think I live the life of a prince. Just today, reading the newspaper report on Oh Siew May, even without reading her book, I could feel the pain, suffering she had gone through and yet the picture of her in the paper was one of a joyous person, so full of cheer that I can scare believe the type of life she have.

Born with cerebral palsy, she walks and speak with difficulty. As if that was not enough, one of her sister became mentally impaired and her father died of cancer. Not enough? Her mother suffered from a chronic skin disease, was bed ridden and had a leg amputated. More - a brother is a compulsive gambler who lost away the parents' savings. Despite these and her own physical conditions, she managed to finish up to N level and held several jobs. Even then, someone up there must have been toying with her as she was retrenched from one job, had a slipped disc and had to quit another. I think even Job didn't have it so badly. But somehow despite the odds, she has managed to climb Mt Kinabalu, had her own push cart business and now wrote a book - Scaling Wall. What have I achieved compared to her?

And despite everything, how did she described herself? 1 word - 'blessed' Why - because she is mobile and not confined to a wheel chair.

I haven't read her book yet but I can feel the hope, the blessing she brings. I will buy it and I hope friends will also support this plucky young lady by buying her book. True to her unselfish character, the proceeds is not just going to her (not that she don't need the money) but she is donating part of it to the Spastic Children Association of Singapore.

Read more about her here:

Hammy's Work
The Memory Keeper

Yong He Beancurd

Since this Saturday morning is temporarily out for running, went in search of good food. Sorry Dr Loo, the procreation thing leaves me cold.

Went to the relocated Yong He beancurd at Geylang. Have not been there since they relocated to this corner. Somehow the place seems quieter.

We ordered:
Toasted bun with you tiao, xiao long pao, carrot cake and of course the

Didn't really think the food was that fantastic. The beancurd was too sweet and the xiao long pao - there wasn't enough soup in it. What it managed to do was filled up me stomach so okay lah food passable.

Birthday

I love the month of January & February. No not because it is CNY but in each month, there is the birthday of my 2 favourite ladies. The ladies in my life and so we get to celebrate the occasions. No party just a small private party for all of us at home.Of course, there will be food and cake. Like last month, we went to Werner's Oven and yesterday we went to Shokudu at Raffles City. First time there. There was a long queue outside but it was a short wait before we managed to go it.

The place is designed like a Japanese food street (I think like something in the early days) and just like Marche, each of us were given a card and have to go to each stall to place our order. It was rather fun. The price was a little on the high side for what I called high class hawker food and taste what so so. Including 1 desert and drinks, we spent a total of $119 which comes out to $30 per head which I thought was very reasonable considering that we had lotsa food.

Back home after each dinner, we have the essential food for birthday - Cakes:

Make a guess - which cake is for which ladies?

Lor Sor

Every morning when stepped out of the house - be it to sent Alicia to school or go to work, this lor-sor old man will always asked "remember to bring phone, wallet, etc..." The little princess will roll her eyes while the M will glare at the old man and in her mind be thinking all sort of murderous thoughts.

But guess what... inevitably on those days that the uncle don't remind... sure somebody will forget something like phone, t-shirt...

So guess the lor so old man got to continue being lor sor:)

My Valentine Weekend

Whew so Valentine Day weekend is finally over. Me not the romantic sort and with the exorbitant prices the restaurant charges - certainly not going anywhere near any one of them. And at $10 or more a stalk of rose, there was no way I was going to pay for even one which kinda make somebody disappointed I think.

Started off Saturday at East Coast Park. Didn't go there to run though. Just a simple breakfast at Starbucks or was it Coffee Beans? Not very romantic but hey breakfast set is $7.90 each. Not cheap you know.

Next when over to Marina Barrage. Haven't been there before other than running through during the last AHM. Unfortunately, it was drizzling and rather hazy so the view wasn't really fantastic. Anyway, still took a few shots with my not so trusty HTC Touch.



Slept the whole afternoon before going for dinner.

Talking about dinner, it was alfresco dining with the kids at the most popular eating place in the East. A sumptous and delicious dinner at very down to earth prices. Starter was Singapura salad followed by porc haché in soup based Asian pasta. Main course was Marinated Sweet Chicken on a stick. and last but not least a Chinese Carrot Cake to round off the dinner.

Sunday there was of course the disappointing Valentine Day Run at Bedok Reservoir. And the weekend ended with a hot and stuffy dinner at Changi Village which - all in account for I think the sulky face the whole weekend.

Valentine Day

It's Valentine Day. Enjoy this 'love' song



Happy Valentine Day to all lovers out there

5 Days Work Week

According to NMP Loo Choon Yong,  the move in 2004 to move to a 5 days work week has not resulted in any improvement in fertility rate for Singapore. He is therefore is calling for a review of the 5 days works week (gasp no more Saturday running!!! die ),

I swear I didn’t know that the gahmen came up with the 5 days work week to boost the population. I thought it was for us to take time off to relax, run errands and do bonding with family and friends. 

Now I have been enlightened. So if you don’t see me running on Saturdays from now on, you know I am doing my little bit of ‘national service’ for the country. Only problem is, first I need to find a willing erh… ‘co-worker’. Any volunteersJ

25

On Facebook, there is 'tag' thing and one of them is this '25' thing. Apparently, once someone tag a person, that person is suppose to write 25 things about themselves. So here is my list. I think it will appear in my facebook. Kill 2 birds with 1 stone!

25 things I buah tahan:

1, Armpit hairs on women
2. Men (somehow they all seem to be from the PRC) scratching their foot on the MRT and thereafter sniffing their hands
3. Man and man holding hands and walking on the street
4. Panty line peeping out from a woman's trouser/skirt
5. Butt crack peeping out from a woman's trouser or worse, a man's trouser
6. People burping out loud
7. Cyclists riding on pedestrian walkway and ringing their bells incessantly
8. Runners/cyclists/motorcyclists running/cycling/riding abreast and blocking everybody else
9. People who will always complain about government's policies no matter how good it is or what it is
10. People who think they and only they are right and everybody else is wrong
11. People who are pious and religious only in their place of worship and once out of it, behave worse than ........ (what's the word to describe such person?)
12. People at supermarket who poke, open food packaging and throw fruits indiscriminately
13. People who never say thanks when you open the door/hold the lift for them
14. Motorists who drive and talk/sms on the phone at the same time
15. Motorists who sound their horns the minute the traffic light turn green
16. Drivers who cut across 3 lanes of expressway without regards for other motorists
17. Drivers who drive so slowly you want to bump them off the road
18. People who kick kittens and dogs and hit children
19. Housing agents who call in the middle of the night asking whether you want to sell your place
20. Telemarketers
21. Insurance agents who don't know how to take no for an answer
22. TV advertisements with extra loud music soundtracks
23. The automated phone system that is used by most companies especially the banks
24. The idiotic people in my block of flat who leave their rubbish in the lift landing and their nose muck inside the lift
24. My boss's boss

Char Kway Teow at Beo Crescent

While out on an errand, dropped by Beo Crescent for lunch and at this small little coffeeshop, saw many people were eating char kway teow.  Now CKT being one of my fave food, I couldn't resist even though I know it would not be enough to tahan me for the rest of the afternoon. But the temptation was too great. It's look so good that I simply must try.

Went up to the stall and ordered the $3 version, cholestrol be dammed! I don't eat CKT often nowadays and if it is good, I am willing to sacrific the calories and other unhealthy concerns. Surprisingly, despite the number of people eating it, there was no queue and I could get my CKT

almost immediately.

This version is the wet type. Not as wet as the Marine Parade one but still wet and a tad oily. The cockles were almost raw - cold in fact just the way I liked it. The CKT was good - not as good as Hill Street but certainly many time better than those combi stalls where they sell both CKT and Hokkien noodles and definitely worth the cholestrol and calories overload!  

Didn't take any photo but here one from the Food Doctor and his review:

 Photo lifted from ieatishootipost

3 Crabs

Had dinner with some running kakis at 3 Crabs at Outram Rd a place which prior to this I had not heard of before.

Their specialty - obviously crabs (with a name like that) but not any normal black pepper or chilli crab but Curry Crab. Crab cooked in curry actually it taste more like laksa and comes with optional laksa noodle. The Sri Lanka crab they used was humongous and the combination of the curry and the crab really stood out well. Definitely a cannot miss.

The other unique dish we had was the chicken rojak. It is actually just normal rojak with chicken and mango but taste great.

The or-nee was good but it was also a big disappointment because it came in such small serving. First time I seen or-nee served on a plate so u can imagine how small portion it is!

The rest of the food were so so nothing to shout about but I think for crab lovers, this place cannot be passed up.

All photos courtesy of Karen. More photos here (only if you have a Facebook Account)

Eat and Eat

2 crazy days of eating.

Thursday was a special day for somebody and unfortunately not being able to take leave due to meetings, we can only sneaked time for a lunch. With limited time, we ended up at Thanying Restaurant at Amara. I always love the food there although it's a tad too pricey for frequent dining. We ordered a tom yum soup, a fish maw soup, the boneless chicken wing, asparagus and of course had the buffet dessert. Somehow the food doesn't seem as good and the desert spread seemed to have shrunk and isn't that great anymore. The damage for the few dishes? Slightly over a hundred dollars! No photo for this. The place seems a bit too posh for me to be snapping pictures here and there.

Dinner was a bit more interesting. Running out of ideas on what to eat, in the end decided to go to Werner's Oven at Upp East Coast Rd. Been there only once for breakfast and even then it was just a piece of cake and drinks so we didn't really know what to expect. First thing we noticed when we walked in was almost every table had this big pork knuckle. So of course we ordered that as well, cholestrol be dammed. It came deep fried to a crispy golden brown and it was absolutely fabulous even better than the chinese version at the Machperson coffee shop.
As Werner's Oven is a German food outlet, the item on the menu had unpronouceable names so we humtum away and ended up with a garlic sausage, (very good)a Rinds Goulash which is actually beef served in a thick gravy and comes with cabbage and 'spätzle'. Actually it is just like beef steak only the beef comes in thick chunk and is very tender. The spatzle is actually a type of egg noodle (foreground in the photo).The reddish/purlish coloured thing is supposed to be cabbage in the menu but we think it is more like red raddish.

The other item we had was Schmorbraten which was supposed to be a pot roast that comes with the red cabbage, spatzle, and a dumpling although their idea of a dumpling(foreground) in picture really doen't conform to any type of dumplings that we have over here.The dinner plus drinks cost another sightly over a $100 which means if I had saved on this 2 meals and the flowers, I could be halfway to getting a Garmin!

But the food was good and satisfying and everybody end up happy and so I think it was money well spent.

(Photo not very well taken though since using only the camera phone)

Another round of dinner awaits the next day on Friday when we went to 3 Crabs at Toing Bahru for what else but crab! But that shall keep until the photos are ready!