G-rated

Down Under

Greenwood

Met up with a friend for dinner at this place call Greenwood Fish Market and Bistro. Food was fantastic and service was good. Tried the cooked oyster but still couldn't get use to the taste. Highly recommended is the mouth watering appetizer.

Mouth watering appetizer
- (scallop &) salmon belly that melts in your mouth.

My friend had the pan-seared king salmon which I tried a bit - very fresh. I had a deep sea fish for my fish and chip, wasn't too bad either.

Good ambience. Though not very convenient as its located at Greenwood Avenue (behind National Junior College). A bit pricey for the cost-conscious.

Definitely worth a second visit.

Life is full of surprises...

Just when I was contemplating leaving, a new opportunity arises.

Coincidentally, it is initiated by the very same person who dropped me a call some time back in January 2005. Hope it comes true.

Life is indeed full of surprises.

Taiwan talk show - 大話新聞

It's always entertaining to see how wild/unrestrained the Taiwan media can be. But maybe that's because the show is 大話新聞 (coincidentally 大話 in Cantonese is Tai Wah, which means lies.).

從新加坡看馬英九『效率優於民主』的價值:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PswsQOPW9SA

解析馬英九接受新加坡「聯合早報」專訪的言論:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTgTDFG1qRM

Incidentally, this is the station is renowned for being pro-DPP and recently they were caught doing a faked documentary on the 228 Incident (二二八事件) documentary. More on that here:
http://www.huaxia.com/tw/tdyh/wzf/2007/00617319.html

Eve of Mizuno run

Though I have recovered from my conjunctivitis, I started to have cough since Thursday. Still expelling greenish phlegm this morning. Should I go tomorrow?

Return of Flying Dagger Lee

小李飞刀重出江湖...

"Nan tak yat san ho poon leng..."

Download the podcast here.

(Most expensive) Marathon of the year

I finally found the mailer I was waiting for amidst my messy table.

As expected, this year the registration fee has increased yet again. Being a previous supporter of the event, I still have to pay 18% more (see last year price here) for the half marathon event. If I missed the 31 July deadline, I will have to fork out $45 (16 Jul to 12 Aug), $58 (13 Aug to 9 Sep) or $65 (10 Sep to 14 Oct)! I am pretty sure it's not just because of the 7% GST, but rising cost as well....

Anyway, was misled by a faulty link on the website and couldn't bloody register. Then I read in hardwarezone forum that some people have registered. So I went back to the website and sure enough, the link is available in Registration -> Register Now!

#$%&! The webpage designer ought to be shot.

For more details on the event, read here.

Singapore Bay Run 2007

Formerly known as Sheares Bridge Run/Army Half Marathon, this annual event organised by SAFRA National Service Association will have a different ending (literally), at the new NDP platform.

Date: 26 Aug 2007
Flagoff time: 5.30 am.

More details here.

Yet another Real Run

After the badly publicised Real Run Club Terrain Race in April, I thought that's all for the year for New Balance sponsored event, until I heard from Dave about the 15 KM Real Run at Changi Exhibition Centre...

Read more here.

Red red eyes

I am down with conjunctivitis, courtesy of my little one. It started with the right eyes on Sunday morning, but it soon spread to my left eye on Monday.

Went for second consultation today, and was given some oral medication for viral infection, another eye drop to be used alternately with the one I was given on Sunday, and 4 days MC!

I hope I can recover in time for the Mizuno run on this coming Sunday...

The Year of Jacky Cheung World Tour 07

Finally got to go for the Jacky Cheung concert (学友光年世界巡回演唱会) on Saturday; I wanted to go for his previous concert when he was here few years back, but somehow I miss it for some reason.

The indoor stadium was fully packed, with fans raising illuminating sticks and his names.

He started with 3 fast dance hits (爱火花 and 2 other songs that I wasn't familiar with) and I concluded that Aaron Kwok is indeed the better dancer :p.

In between songs, he spoke in both Cantonese and Mandarin, chat about his daughters, wife and sang his own song composition 摇摇 that he did for his first daughter and 讲你知 for his wife.

He also injected broadway style singing into the concert, with songs from Snow.Wolf.Lake (雪狼湖-爱是永恒) and another production which name I didn't catch (Updated: its call 如果·爱, adapted from 陈可辛's movie of the same title.). His band was fantastic, with the standard drummer, keyboard, guitarist and foreign talent assisting on trumpet and sax, and 4 Chinese ladies playing the violin, viola and cello (弦樂四重奏), playing to the tunes of 一千个伤心的理由,一路上有你,只想一生跟你走.

His encore was exceptionally long (an hour at least)! Audience were extremely high when he sang more of his classic love songs (吻别,每天爱你多一些, 情书, 我等到花儿也谢了etc). The night concluded with the song 祝福 (Blessing), where the entire stadium was filled with audience's echo/humming along...very nice atmosphere.

Considering that he entertained for more than 3 hours without break (except for occasional costume changes), and sang most of his classic hits, it was still value for money.

Use Case Pitfall

I was taught long ago that Use Case should not be used to describe UI (User Interface) design. One main reason is UI design changes and it is a design specification. Use Case are intended to describe behaviour - user interaction with the system -> leading to requirement.

Yet we still did it - having a set of UI Use Case. Now we face the consequence of always going back to update the Use Case whenever the design change. And sometimes the design affects or alter the requirement!

haiz....this is bad....

Singapore - A Fine City

My first traffic offence....for parking near a fire hydrant. For once, I didn't even knew there was a fire hydrant nearby....what the f***.

Update: Apparently my friend Wei Liang also kena at the same spot and he also obediently paid up.

Saucony-100 Plus Passion Run 2007 (Updated)

Read more here...

Madness

Which is more crazy?

1. Embarrassing yourself in public over a bag:

2. Buying a HDB flat at $720K (forking out few hundred grand in CASH).
3. Speed at 160 km/hr in a Toyota Vios, overtake recklessly and get yourself killed.

Food, glorious food...

I think I ate too much lately...else how to explain why my body mass is hanging around the mid-sixties...

But what to do...when you eat dinner at eight plus at night...or indulged in too much local food...

Just one of those days when my mom feel like cooking...

Just one of those occasional gastronomic dinner
with visiting colleagues from US.

One of my favorite local food - Bugis Bak Kut Teh....

Paper wrap chicken...
(now selling at $3.70 at Chai Chee, due to GST, increase in rental, supply cost etc. etc..)Nonya Curry Chicken
(Now selling at $3.80...due to increase in rental...yadah yadah yadah...)

How to loose weight like that?? :-P

seVen

I received an early morning sms from my colleague - she has just given birth not long ago. I congratulated her, then later told her that today happen to be my 7th anniversary in the company. I was congratulated in return.

7 years...looking back....it seems like yesterday....so much has changed in this company....people left, some by choices, some by 'force'.

I was energetic and enthusiastic then...with vision of striking big and rich in a start-up company...how all these has changed...

The world has changed too...dot-com bubble burst, collapse of the twin towers, SARS outbreak and H5N1 bird flu epidemic...

Suddenly recalled a quote I used many many years ago in my email signature:
"Change is the only constant"