Looking Back Looking Ahead

It was like not so long ago that the whole earth was awash in a frenzy panic attack over the year 2000. Now 10 years have passed and the Millennium bug is gone. The earth is still around. I am still around. But I don’t know for how much longer. The earth I mean and I guess me along with it. The crazy weather; the crazier people destroying it bit by bit and the even crazier people with their nuclear weapon who might just nuke the world on a stupid ego trip.  Will the next 10 years see the end of the world as we know it today?

Okay let’s not look so far. Just look forward to the new year 2011. But first a small reflection on the year just passed. And by golly, I managed not to break any resolution. How about it! But then hor, I didn’t make any in the first place. Ha ha lame right?

2010 started with a bang before it fizzled out. A commitment to move to a new place but which somehow only materialized 9 months later. Like having a baby! And then I abandon my glasses after close to 40 years of wearing. So these are 2 big and good decisions that were made during the year. But other than that, there wasn’t much excitement. Maybe 2011 will be more interesting.

Now what can I do to make 2011 more interesting? Maybe a new Mistress? 

Wishing all my friends, readers and fellow bloggers a Blessed Prosperous and Healthy 2011.

Pierre Herme Chocolate

I love chocolate but I also stingy old man. Only eat Kit Kat, M&M and Kinder Buenos. Once in a blue moon, maybe Royce or some nice one from Sins or one of those little outlets in the mall. Definitely no Godiva or anything fancy. And then somebody gave me this.

A whole box of Pierre Herme chocolate. Specially flown in from France. How does it taste? Like chocolate lah!

What it is

 Okay those who post on Facebook, majority got it right. But partially though. It is a bottle opener and more. Though I don't understand why there is a need for this type of bottle opener. What if the cap is a different size? Carry multiple pieces of this opener?

Then what about the other part of the gadget. Is it just a handle? Does it serve any purpose?

Can you believe? It is a drink can tab opener!

Now why does anybody need something like this? What happen to the good old fingers?

What is this?

Trust the Japs to come up with all sort of weird gadgets.

Guess what is this use for?

Is it a

a) Drawing aid
b) Bubble Blowing Wand
c) Condom Wearing Device
d) None of the above?

Hong Kong 2010

Hongkong, Hongkong. What a place. After 3 visits, the Mrs is still not sick of the place. This time round we stayed in Tsim Tsai Chui, a slightly more high class area and the agenda  was shop, shop and shop.

So first day, walked along Nathan Rd to MongKok where Kelly managed to get a pair of trail shoes and some other stuff which left her in bliss. Food was dessert, noodle and dessert again!

Mongkok

Dessert after desserts

  2^nd day was Citigate where we bought shirts and more shirts before we went to Times Square where we hit jackpot and ended up with shoes and more shoes. We also had a very sumptuous lunch and discovered that not only is our Ms Kelly a big eater of egg tart, she was also a big eater of Chee Cheong Fun and we had 4 different type of Cheong Fun in addition to the usual dim sum! And that of course was followed by more shopping in the evening where the ladies bought more clothes and more shoes!

Times Square

3^rd day was when we decided to do the politically correct thing and visit a local tourist attraction and so we  went to Ocean Park. Yes no Disneyland for us. The highlight was the Panda of course. And we also discovered that Ms Kelly is a daredevil as she went for all the rides while the 3 of us cowardly stayed far far away!

 And of course we got to get our fixed of Hong Kong food like smelly tofu, the popular siew mai and fish ball and fried chee cheong fun.

4^th and final day and before we left for home, we went searching for the Avenue of Stars and discovered it was actually just a 10 minutes walk from our hotel. And we get to walk through the rather high end Canton Rd before we dragged ourselves back to hotel and our flight back to SG but of course not before buying more stuff for the folks back home.

Macau

Off for a short holiday in the sin city of Asia – Macau – the most profitable gambling city in the world. But that does not concern us since we were there not to gamble but to run. Yes we were there to participate in the Macau Galaxy International Marathon.

St Paul Wall

After a night of sleep and brekkie, we walked to the Olympic Stadium which was like 5 minutes from our hotel to collect our race pack. We were actually on Taipa, which was like a rural part of Macau and there was fresh air, very few people and traffic. But of course, being Singaporean, we had to go where the people are and after the collection, we took a cab over to the main Macau island itself for food and shopping. And notwithstanding that we were going to do a race the next day, we walked and shopped from 11am till 9 pm!

Giordano - all of 3 storey high

Church Wedding

Macau island is actually not very big. The main area of activity seems to be the bustling Sedano Square where all the shops are and where all the historical sites seem to be a short walk away. We visited the die die must visit St Paul’s Church, or what’s left of it plus 2 other churches and in the process gate crashed a wedding! There aren’t that many shops just the same old names found in Singapore and Hongkong, places like Giordano, Bossini, Starbucks, McDonalds but the differences is that these outlets are huge affairs here.

Portuguese Egg Tarts

Egg flour pancake

There were plenty of street food and we found out our traveling mate, was a glutton when it comes to Portuguese egg tarts. She practically bought one from each outlet that sell them! Then there was this long queue for some sort of pancake which turns out to be simply flour and cake and was a big disappointment.

The day ended with a desperate search for Portuguese food but we failed in the end being too lazy to travel further and ended up at a miserable joint eating such rather nice rice set but at the same time enduring the smoke from the other diners inside the café. 

We then managed to walk to the Casinos area but actually we were looking for a cab to take us back and somehow ended in the casino district. But we only managed to see 2 hotels before a cab came along and end of sight seeing.

Next day, after the race, took the ferry to Hongkong and thus ended our trip to Sin City without us stepping foot into any casino. What a bummer!

Cats and Dogs

2 more pile of shit at exactly the same spot and on consecutive days. Now I understand why HDB ban cats.

Maybe I should complain to the HDB about the cats the floor below. But then do HDB take away the cats and cull them or just give the owner a warning? I certainly do not want to cause the death of the cats. And do I want to make an enemy of the folks downstair and get into all sort of problems with them thereafter?

[Sighed] If only Toby is a more ferocious dog. Then he can bark and chase away the cat. But the little coward only dare to bark at other animals on the telly. See a real animal and he goes and hide. [shake head].

Put up a trap for the cat and thereafter..... hmmmmmmmmmm

Chocolate Overload!

What more can a chocolate craving mad guy ask for? Imagine a full fudge chocolate cake with Kit Kat around its side and M&M as toppings. It's enough to make a grown man weep!

And I gonna weep cos it was in my house and I didn't even get to touch it:(. The Princess made this absolutely beautiful looking cake for a friend's birthday and I got no share in it! What the *^$$)))&%. Excuse me while I go comfort myself with my Kinder Buenos.

Life and Death

2 recent posts on 2 blogs that I followed caught my attention.

The first one was a speech to a group of graduates about living.
The other was an article by a doctor reflecting on death.

One living one death but reading the 2 posts, both of them were essentially talking about the same thing just that the former from the standpoint of somebody exhorting the young with many years to go in their life to live life the way it should be live without regret and the latter - from the dying talking about the regrets in their life for not living life the way it should be. Confused?

Read the 2 posts here:

Adrian Tan's speech to undergraduates 
Five Regrets of Dying by Bronnie Ware

Gangster and Triads

Over the weekend, the Mrs and the Kid went to separate functions at Downtown East. Before they went, I reminded them not to bring any parang or knife just in case kena spot check and scully later kena get invited to eat black bean rice. Mum got a fit when she found out later they had gone there and I was at home. “How can they go there? Don’t you know it’s a dangerous place? All the gangsters!” Yah I knew it was a dangerous place, that’s why only they went and I was safe at home watching boring reruns.

Actually this gangster thingy has always been around since mata wear shorts. I guess it needs a death or two and nothing else interesting in the rest of the civilisation to write about in the papers for the reporters and journalists to go to town with all the big bold headlines. That is after all what sells – blood sex and gore. Except this one got no sex. But then now got this Jonathan guy so I guess the papers going to have another field day with all the pedophile thingy.

Anyway I digress. Back to the pie-kia. A long time ago when I was a skinny little kid, we stayed close to areas that were well known for gangsterism and by that, I don’t mean silly teenagers who hacked each other over a stare but real live gangster or to use the more refined term, secret society member! Old fogeys like me will know to avoid turfs like Rumah Tinggi, Bukit Ho Swee, Redhill and the likes. Those days settlement got class – not anyhow just humtum but first go coffeeshop sit down drink tea machiam like Chinese scholars and then whack each other after the tea is finish. Come to think of it, today also not much different – go MacDonald, drink Coke and then whack each other.

Seriously, I think the kids of today are too free and watch too many Hongkong, Japanese and Korean triad movies. In these movies, the hero will get whacked left right centre, with crowbar, metal bar, parangs whatever and it will be one against many and he will survive with barely a scratch. And if he does get any injuries, there will be a girlfriend to kiss him and make love to him and and volia, the next morning all the injuries and wounds are gone!

So maybe our kids are trying to emulate the hero in these movies and they are so stupid that they think like the hero, they will not get injured or killed. Maybe the gahmen should just ban all these sort of movies. After all, the gahmen did ban dialect shows so what is one more ban? 

My Grandfather's Funeral

One day back just back from school, we were dragged down to Chinatown. It turned out my paternal grandfather had passed away!

 

The first thing we saw when we reached my grandfather’s place was a street barber outside the premises. All of us males in the household had to have our hair cut there and then because apparently we were not supposed to cut our hairs for the next 100 days!

Ladies mourner in traditional sack cloth.
Photo from the National Archive

Next was the terrifying sight of my deceased grandfather lying in the shopfront on a canopy bed feet pointing towards the main door. He was dressed in traditional Chinese attire (the skull cap and Chinese robe). Then the ladies in the houses had to perform a “feeding the dead” by placing some rice using a chop stick in his mouth. To us young kids, it was most scary!

The funeral lasted 7 days or so and much of what goes on is still practiced nowadays although some practices has been modified like nowadays very few wear sack clothes but back then, everybody had to put on itchy sack cloth over the very rough vanilla mourning clothes. The ladies had a head piece covering the hair while the guys had a comical sort of hat. 

Unlike the coffin of today, the coffin of the past was a gigantic monstrous size thing. Passing by it gives all of us the jeepers but it was worse for the ladies as all of them had to sit beside the coffin and burn paper money. They were not allowed to leave except to go to the toilet or to sleep. No such things as wandering around attending to the many guests. Talking about guests, whenever one person turns up to pay his respect, the males had to kneel by the side and bow whilst the ladies had to let out the loudest wail possible. And loud it was as my grandfather had 6 daughters and 3 daughters in law and they certainly know how to make a good wail. No need to engage professional wailers. Yes apparently in those days, rich people could engage professional wailers to ‘cry’ as they believe the louder the wail, the better the standing of the deceased.

The towing of the hearse.
Photo from the National Archives

Funeral those days was more grand. On the day of the funeral, there was a huge procession. The hearse would be towed by many people for up to 2 km and then there will be a group photo before everybody gets into the transport to the cemetery.

A group photo at a funeral procession.
Photo from the National Archives

Lowering of the Coffin.
Photo from forum.geomancy.net 

At the cemetery, the coffin was carefully lowered by many many people. The weight of the coffin coupled with the uneven ground around the plot makes it a very dangerous undertaking. I remembered I helped out once during the lowering of the coffin at a classmate’s grandfather’s funeral and unable to take the weight of the coffin, I let go and the guys behind cursed and swear at me no end.

Anyway, after the coffin was lowered, each one of us had to take a small lump of soil and throw it down on the coffin before the undertaker covers up the hole. And then the guys had to strip! Yah right in the broad day light, we had to change into coloured shirt from the mourning shirt and the guys just stood there and strip to their brief. I was so uncomfortable doing that but no choice, the covered tent was for the ladies and I couldn’t jolly well go there.

Unfortunately, that’s all that I can remember of the funeral. I think I was around 10 years old then. I do wish there were real photos but there isn’t. Those featured here are the closest to the real happening at my grandfather’s funeral.

Pullman Bakery

Cream Curry Bread (photo from Pullman Bakery's FB)

Another 'Japanese' bakery has hit our shore. Sick of Barcook, Provence or Oishii? Try the original Japanese bakery all the way from Hokkaido, Japan.

The famous Pullman bakery has opened an outlet at Millenia Walk though I wonder why there of all places. But then again because it is there, there wasn't such a long queue as compared to say Barcook with its perpetual queue.

Mini Croissant (photo from Pullman Bakery's FB)

So what is nice? Like all Japanese bakery, it has the cream cheese bun but it specialty is the Curry Bread. So I bought that and the red bean bun which looks good too. How did they taste? Not too bad. But what I like best was the mini croissant. At $0.40 a pop, it wasn't really cheap but damn, it went in damn well.

Red Kiwifruit

Following in the foot step of the peaches and plum, the kiwifruit grower in New Zealand has come up with a new variant to the green kiwifruit - the red kiwifruit.

The trend of fruit growers to mix and grow is growing intensity. There was the yellow dragon fruit, (a cross between the lemon and dragon fruit I think), the pluot (a cross between plum apricot), and something that I have yet to see here a grapple which is supposed to look like an apple and taste like a grape.

So anyway was at the supermarket and saw this red kiwifruit for sale and had absolutely had to try it.

Cut it open and it was such a big letdown. No red flesh just some reddish hue around the seed. What about the taste? This one was soft to the touch so it should have been ripe but it tasted too tangy and was a bit too hard for my liking. Not like the soft sweet juicy gold kiwi. So I guess this mutant fails.

But what else will they come up with next? A banana & strawberry? Or how about a watermelon with a pineapple?

Kua Si Mi?

I loves to stare. I stared at heaving bosoms; the food at the next table; the couple tonguing each other at the park; the old lady crossing the road; the hawker cutting up slabs of meat; the gamblers at void deck; the young adults hogging the children playground; the driver picking his nose in the next car and so on and on. I also stares at people who makes a nuisance of themselves in public - people who shout loudly on the street, in the train; people who smoke and drinks at HDB void decks or public parks.

I guess it is normal for old people to stare. But my kids will always tell me not to stare. Staring can be quite deadly here in Singapore. As this poor kid found out too late. So maybe it is a good thing that I am into running. All the better to run away when the subjects of my staring chase after me with parangs and choppers.

And by the way, for my foreign readers, the header means  'see what? (said in a menacing manner)' in Hokkien, a local dialect.

My Grandfather's House

In those days in the 1960s, my paternal grandparents were considered one of the slightly better off folks in Singapore. They stayed in Chinatown. Unfortunately, the place where the house once stood is now the Hong Lim Complex/Fook Hai Building. There are no pictures of the place available and so before my memories failed me, let me pen down what I can remember during the short and infrequent visits that I spent there during my early years.

In those days, Chinatown was informally divided into different zones or rather streets. Each street houses a special trade or people from certain part of China e.g. Sago Lane where all the death houses were or Teochew Street where all the Teochew stayed. My grandfather's house was in Pickering Street (if my memory served me correctly). This street was devoted to small business and was rather orderly unlike the next street where there were street hawkers.

The house looks something like this

The house itself was a 3 storey shop house. Unlike many of the other houses in Chinatown, the whole house ie all 3 floors were occupied by my grandfather's family.

The next street with the stalls was something like this

My grandfather runs a wholesale medical shop. The ground floor was the main shop where there was a typical counter with samples of herbs and ginseng displayed in wooden/glass counter. At the back of the shop was a small office and right at the back was an air-condition storeroom. And I guess that was what set my grandfather's apart from the other business in the area. They were one of the few business that actually had air conditioned! The most interesting thing about the ground floor was that to get from the front of the shop to the back or to upstair, one need to use a short corridor just next to the office. And guess what else is located in this corridor? Can't guess? It was a urinal! And there was no door to the urinal. Just a swinging half door (like those in the cowboy movie) and anybody walking by can see the back of the person inside doing his thing! What a weird place to have an urinal but all the guys use the urinal because it was much better and more convenient than using the 'toilet'. But more about the toilet later.

Mooshi Bakes

Went by this bakery at East Coast, thought the place looks interesting and went back after lunch for a look see look see. Turned out it belongs to the people from Awfully Chocolate and was actually a 3 in one outlet comprising the Awfully Chocolate which had relocated from Katong Mall; JooJoo (what an unimaginative name!) which sells yakitori and finally the bakery which attracted my attention, Mooshi Bakes.

Was awed into silence when I saw their cream puff was priced at $3.90! Now what type of cream puff is worth that price? Of course, curiosity sufficiently piqued, went back after work and bought 1 cream puff plus an assortment of other breads to try.

The cream puff was fairly big and filled with lots and lots of errr very creamy cream. Ha ha I know it sounds kind of crappy but that was really the only way to describe it. In fact, I asked for it to be taken away and eaten there and then but the staff insisted on putting it inside a beautiful white box claiming the cream will squirt all over. In the end not daring to having cream on my shirt, I took it home to share it with the family. Their unanimous verdict? Yummy! So how come half of it is still in the fridge? While it is nice, I think it is a tad too big and creamy and would have been nicer if it was half its size.

The other pastry that impressed my colleagues the previous day was the Mooshi Mooshi - a bun like version of the raisin cream cheese bun made famous by Barcook Bakery. Yes this one was good. Not too creamy and with just a wee bit of raisin.

The other one that I liked was the Gooey, a cheesed topped cinnamon bun. It looks a bit yucky but I am a big sucker for cinnamon so yummy. Trouble is, it cost $1.90 each which sounds like a hell lot to pay for a bun.

This picture from http://life-bite.blogspot.com/

With so many so called 'Japanese' specialty bakery sprouting all over, I seriously wonder how long this outlet with its much higher price buns will survive. But I really hope I will be proven wrong though.

Marina Bay

I run along Marina Bay very often and every time I am captivated by the lights and I always vowed to go down one evening to take pictures. And finally after almost 3 years? I did it. But sadly even with a DSLR and a tripod, the images came out bad. Lesson to learn is a steady hand and a tripod is not good enough to avoid camera shake. But anyway, these are a few I managed to salvage.

The Singapore Skyline

Another view of the original Singapore Skylight. The sky had turned somewhat ''chocolatish''

The Helix Bridge with the Marina Bay Sands in the background

A panorama view of the Marina Promenade from 1 Fullerton Hotel to Pan Pacific Hotel 

MacDonald

Everybody loves a big Mac. And the french fries. But just exactly what do they add in it?

A lady has kept a hamburger since 1996 and apparently to date the hamburger has not decomposed.

Now another lady in the Big Apple has kept a happy meal since April and although it has turned hard as rock, it has not decompose. Check out the series of photos here.

Hmmm it's almost enough to make me go out and buy a big mac and do my own little experiment.

Cocktail Event

Attended one of those super boring cocktail event where everyone walk around with a drink in hand making small talk and looking bored to death. What I don't understand about such events is... the organiser spent lotsa money on it yet the very basic thing they forget or ignore is how do they expect the guests to eat?

Like this one. There was this mini performance so there was a program booklet given out. After the performance , there was a door gift. This was an oblong shape thingy. So there I was program, gift in hand and the first meal counter they had there was serving mee siam in a bowl! So now I had to carry program, gift, a bowl, chopstick (I had already decided no way I could manage a spoon as well) in my 2 hands and trying to slurp at the mee siam at the same time. Looked around for some tables. All the round mini size cocktail tables of which there were only a few were already occupied. So I had to slurp up the mee siam with the program and gift tucked under the arm, and the same hand holding the bowl and trying to ensure the mee siam don't slip away. Naturally, most of the gravy ended up on the shirt. Gave up after 3 mouthfuls and several stains on the shirt.

The other dryer food was not so bad. But how do you balance a plate, fork and spoon and 2 other items in your hands and eat, exchange name cards and make small talks and look cool - all at the same time? Or are we not suppose to in the first place?

The Bark Cafe

I have stayed in the East for more than 20 years. And I consider myself quite adept at sniffing out good food and yet I didn’t know of this place until a relative brought us there for dinner. I have even passed by(drive/ran) this place many times. What a mountain tortoise!

 I am referring to this little place, The Bark Café, next to the Changi Chapel and Museum. Located so far away from the bustle of the city light to be a prime candidate for ‘ulu’ restaurant of the year, it is a pub cum restaurant serving local fares. While we were there, it was never fully packed, but there was a good healthy flow of customers as the crowd kept streaming in. According to my relatives, the place hots up even more as the night progresses.

Apart from that, actually, the food is not that fantastic. At $14.90 for a plate of crayfish horfun, it is definitely not cheap. The final tab for the 16 of us that evening came to slightly over $400.00 and what we had were mainly local food like noodles, fried nice, local style ‘western food’ such as fish and chips plus drinks. But the fingers food are really finger licking good and I understand their sour plum drink is like out of this world although we didn’t tried it that night.

But I love the ambience. The breeze from the ceiling fans. The sound of the insects. And the dark surrounding! I can imagine myself there with a ‘gf’ having a drink and listening to the soft rock music they play in the background. So ulu what are the chances of being caught?  Or catching one of the EPL games with my buddies. Seriously, a good place to relax and wind down from the day. 

Bus

I don't take the bus much. Most times it is the train or car. Bus? No thanks and there is a perfectly good reason for it.

On Monday, I had an appointment at 3.30 pm at Beach Rd. Rather than take the train, decided to take the bus. From my office in the heart of the business district, it should be a mere 10 mins bus ride. But still kiasu kiasee uncle decides to leave at 3pm with some allowances for waiting time. Reached the bus stop - checked that the bus I was going to take will stop at the bus stop and not be affected by the road closure for the F1. Checked and done and sat down to wait. And wait. And wait. Then a bus came. hope leaps, alas service no 97 - not the bus I want. Immediately behind is another - and yes its **#^#% 97 again! Wait again and again and after 10 minutes another 2 buses came. This time no 75. Yes both 75! What the hell! By now it was 3.30pm, appointment time. What the shit! Where are the buses? Come to think of it, so far only seen 97 and 75. Where are the rest of the services? Went back to check the small little service disruption notice they had there and alamak! All the buses had been diverted away from Robinson Rd? What? This isn't part of the F1 circuit you know!

Sighed...no choice switched to a cab and $8.80 and 30 minutes of traffic jam later, finally reached my destination. 1 hour 10 minutes to reach a place I could have ran to in 20 minutes!
Unbelievably, I decided to give our bus services a second chance. Reached home last evening and decided to take the feeder bus instead of walking. Nowadays, the bus interchange like airport - got electronic board with departure times for each flight, I mean trip. Checked - 7.30pm next departure. Time on my watch - 7.28pm. Goody. And gullible me happily walked to the bus bay to wait. And wait. And wait. WTF, didn't the darned board said 7.30? 7.35 came and gone and finally the bus rolled in at 7.40pm. 10 minutes behind schedule. And guess what, not 1 but 2 of them together!

Seriously, I think our bus service provider got to get their act in order. If they can't even start their journey on time from the interchange, how can they manage with the different road conditions. And what is the point of having bigger and better buses when what most of us want is just a nice comfortable short and sharp ride to our destination and not have to wait hours for a bus to turn up.

It is bad experience like this that makes me avoid buses like the plague. Me think I think I stick to my MRT and car.

It's a small world

You know that cliche` thing that we always said about our little red dot, that its a small world.

There was these 2 strangers who board the same bus to work every morning and has been doing so for quite some time. One day, one of them (let's call her lady A) decided to strike up a conversation with the other lady (lady B). So the conversation goes something like this...

Lady A: You stay around here?
Lady B: Yes you too?
Lady A: No further up the road.
Lady A: Do you know where is Blk XXX? Is is near some school?
Lady B: Yes. It's just somewhere down the road from here.
Lady A: I got a friend staying there
Lady B: Me too. I got a friend staying there as well.
Lady A: My friend just moved from Simei to here.
Lady B: My friend too. He also just moved from Simei to here.
Lady A & Lady B: ????? together: What is your friend's name?

Needless to say, the friend is of course, Uncle me here. Is it a small world or what? When 2 strangers striking up a conversation on a bus can ends up with a mutual friend. Now if these 2 ladies were a man and a lady, this would have been a perfect setting for a romantic story  but alas they are not unless they are..........

Parting the Red Sea

Another Biblical legend proven true? Like the elusive Noah's Ark, scientists, archeologist and all sort of treasure hunters have been trying to prove and find evidence of many of the landmarks and items that were described in the Bible. 

Now researchers and scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado at Boulder have managed to simulate the parting of the Red Sea. Read more here

So will we see the day when all the miracles of the Bible and other historical tomes are replicated?

Or will it be another controversial thingy like the Noah's Ark which has supposedly been uncovered all over the world?

Or like the Turin's Shroud which is still mired in controversy centuries after it was found.

Me think people should not take away the mystery of miracles. After all, nothing hurts more than the truth and what if the truth is...........

Shit

Seem to be running into shit recently! And I do not mean shitty things or shitheads but literally shit, yes, faeces, the crap that comes out after all the muck that people or animal eats every day!

On Saturday, somewhere between the carpark and the house, I stepped on a pile of shit! And I didn't even realise it. So I got home and after a while, could smell the odour but couldn't find where it was coming from. And poor Toby of course got the blame. It wasn't until M decided to keep my slippers that she saw the pile of shit underneath!

Then yesterday morning, on the way out, the Princess managed to get a whiff of 'smelly tofu' or so she thought! At 6.30am in the morning? And then she opened the door and was greeted by a pile of shit on her slipper! Two bratwurst looking roll of shit! What the shit!

First thought was it must be from the cat downstair but can cat poop so big time? Dogs? but so far no dogs other than Toby on the floor. Er human? Worse, what if it was the work of Ah Long? Did the previous owner owns Ah Long's money?

Poor M - both case she got to clean up the shit (pun intended). But on the bright side, somebody said shit symbolise good fortune so must go buy 4-D! Wish me luck!

Over React?

Me think our gahmen has been overreacting recently.

First the handcuffing of the photographer. Granted the photographer was in the way. But was there really a necessity to handcuff him for his own 'safety'?. Now I don't know what safety issue we are talking about here? Was there a monster in the floodwater and they had to protect him from it?

Then there was that chap who blogged about the arrest and because he was a police NSF, he was arrested and charged! Again that was uncalled for. As a private citizen, he should be able to comment freely about such matter and his status as an ex-cop should not matter. What was the police so paranoid about in this case? Some skeletons in the water that they don't want anybody to dig out?

Then the sudden rush to implement a slew of housing policy to cool the property market. Was the market heading so sky high that such draconian measures are required. As I recall, prices have not even reach the peak of 1996. And what did they do when properties in prime areas were being snapped up at astronomical prices 2 years ago? Why the need to come up with measures that totally smack of last minute decisions and have not been carefully thought through?

And last but not least, the ban on the bus to the IR? Come on, don't tell me they were not aware of the bus services which has been running for the past few months. One lousy complain and slam bang there goes the buses. Surely they could have taken some time to assess it and maybe get the operators to make some changes to the routes/timing instead of stopping the services totally?

What are they going to do next?

Memories

It's been 5 days since we moved. Do I miss the old home?

I don't know. On the one hand, I am moving into a bigger premise, on the other hand, I miss the lack of facilities like the gym and the pool and the covered carpark. I especially miss the trash chute. At Pasir Ris, what they have is a common chute at one end of the block which means we got to organise the the trash throwing so that we don't have to walk unnecessarily.

Then again it is nice not to have to hear the constant roar of traffic along Simei Ave. But I guess Toby misses the view of the road since there is no bay window here at Pasir Ris. He's been mopping around (literally) and very cringing wanting to be carried for the past few days. I guess like all of us, he has to get use to the place.

On the bright side of things, we get to save $$$ once we manage to sell the old place. Any takers?

Goodbye Adieu

Very soon in a few hours time, it will be adieu Simei, hello Pasir Ris.

It had been wonderful staying here but the place is getting old, things are starting to fall apart and beside we have outgrew the place. Time to move on. But some Kodak moments to remember of this place we called home for the past 10 years.

Our bedroom which is always very cool (for some reasons) we don't really know why

The very used Living Room where things continue to accumulate yearly

The Living Room (from the other direction)

The original Kitchen

The new kitchen which was only done up last year

The swimming pool where I finally managed to get the hang of front crawl swimming

The pool from the other direction

The jacuzzi pool which we hardly use nowadays