For hunn =P

Reading Hunn's blog made me realise how badly I express myself...

1) Coolness of Ipods. I think pple think its cool, which is why they buy it. you think pple think its a good player with good software. i disagree with you there. itunes isn't good software, its chains that bind you to apple. Honestly I've considered getting an ipod, but thinking that i HAVE to use itunes put me off at once. of course not all pple think like me, just my personal opinion.

There are much better players out there, sony, creative, iriver, samsung etc, with longer battery life, larger memory, less restrictions, more functionality (like voice recording, more format playback etc)... yet ipods have the lion's share of the market. they command a higher price with less value. and if it isn't the coolness factor, then why is it that every product that tries to be cool has an "i" attached to the front of it?

2) ah, by "easy" i didn't mean the opposite of difficult. I really meant "unoffending", or to put it another way, "palatable". its easy in the sense that it puts you at ease. you can't find fault with what the other party is saying. it fills in the awkward silences.

3) ah that question was because i was thinking of buying a colleague some breath fresheners...

4) ...

5) Well, you shouldn't reject a colleagues' offer to go for coffee right? ESPECIALLY when she's chio, not to mention there are TWO of them.

hey i'm just joking aight?

6) whatever works for you dude..

Cambridge

I decided to do something more constructive during the weekend, instead of rotting at home watching serials like I did the last weekend. So I went up to cambridge and paid an old friend a visit.

The weather was great. Well actually, the weather looked great, but didn't really feel great. It was sunny, BUT windy and cold. Took a few pictures here and there just to show that "hey, i'm in cambridge again!" but they weren't spectacular.

Walked around the city center with no particular aim in mind. finally after i was like 25 pounds poorer, I decided it was too cold, so I suggested going back to his place and chill (not literally of course, I was cool enough).

he showed me a couple of videos, most notably the euro cup last year where liverpool won the trophy. they were 3-0 down and managed to come back up, miraculously, and won thru a hairs breadth with the penalty shootout. man they were lucky, no wonder SC's so superstitious.

it was nice just hanging out, and recalling all those fond memories of the past. and the best memory, it seems, was the rotterdam cycling trip, where everyone had some sort of accident/near accident that is just hilarious.

and now, picture time:

The back of SC's cute little home


SC's cute little car


We felt like eating stir fried beef hor fun after briefly looking at Hunn's blog. So we decided to get the closest thing to that we could find -> Gyu something Udon (beef stir fried udon).



I had this instead. Looks like, and tastes like beef chow mein.

and finished off with a pint of Asahi beer. pretty nice beer i must say.

pity i didn't take pictures of lunch. it was good too.. mm hmm..

Random thoughts

1. Today on the tube I spotted three people with ipods, because of the characteristic earphones. I wonder, why is it still cool to have ipods when everyone's using it?

2. Its easy to spot couples on their first date. they hardly know each other, so the talk (if any) is very easy (in other words, lame).

3. Will you be upset if someone offers you chewing gum / breath fresheners?

4. I got checked again for my age when I bought a bottle of wine. I told him that I don't have ID. He hesitated a while then said, fine, ok. You look like you're 21. I said, "hey, isn't the legal age for drinking 18?" He shrugged and said I look young. I told him I was 26 but he probably didn't believe me.

5. In the morning at the office I got asked by two quite pretty girls who walked over to my desk, "hey wanna grab a cup of coffee?". I immediately said,



"nah, I'm fine. Thanks" and turned back to my work. I only realised my mistake a few hours later. they'll probably never ask me to join them for coffee again. ah well, good news for my gf.

6. on that note, i'm going to visit her in just about three weeks! *grin*

Respectable occupations

Doctors are probably one of the most respectable jobs out there eh? After all, they save lives... but just a thought: how about ambulance drivers? or firemen? or bomb disposal squads?

That said, if I had a daughter and she gets a boyfriend, I'll probably be most pleased if he's a doctor. It won't be because his occupation involves saving lives, its because doctors are generally smart and caring, and also more pragmatically, he'll earn enough to ensure a comfortable living, he won't get exposed to dangers like fire or bombs, and his bread can never be taken away, since pple will always need doctors.

but i digress...

what makes a respectable job? is it the saving lives part, the contributing to society part? is it the money? is it the security? is it the exclusivity?

i'm trying to justify my job aight?

i'm not saving lives, and I can't really say i'm contributing to society.

maybe i'm just a mercenary...

tagged?

I think the blog community behaves in mysterious ways... I don't usually buy into this chain mail thing, but hey, i guess I'm a blogger too...
Anyway I got "tagged" by AKK so here goes...

4 jobs you've had in your life
- cheap labour for the SAF
- part-time labour for a bar/pub
- full time labour for a bank
- ahh.. caring boyfriend to my girl? eh.. pple only have 3 proper jobs la, bf considered occupation can or not?

4 movies you could watch over and over
- not applicable. haven't had a movie that i can watch over and over.. the max number of times i watched a movie is about 6? and I don't remember the title of the movie.... ah you know, my parents might be reading this.. =P

4 TV shows you love(d) to watch
- The Last Hero. The show with the zhi3 luo2 cha4 (purple claws??)? there, the one where got this sissy with super long purple nails? and a hero that's hairy like a monkey? damn funny la that show.
- CSI.
- CSI Miami. (eh don't call me a copycat)
- 24

4 places you've lived in
- Pasir Ris
- Paya Lebar
- London
- California

4 places you've been on vacation to
- Italy
- Germany
- Switzerland
- Austria

4 places you would rather be
- in the US with my gf
- in Singapore with my mum
- at any nice beach suntanning with a cool alcoholic cocktail nearby
- in the red sea looking at fishes

4 of your favourite foods
- Beef
- Salmon
- Chicken
- Pork
(in various forms)

4 websites you visit daily
- google.co.uk
- news.bbc.co.uk
- gizmodo.com
- inaccuraterecord.blogspot.com - yah la i ego la, problem with that?

4 tagged
- not applicable. I'm a bad boy, this "tag" ends here.

6 minute dinner

Preparation: Go to any supermarket, buy a pack of salad, some baby potatoes and some cooked chicken.



Step 1: Place potatoes in a microwavable bowl and cook at high for 4 minutes. Meanwhile, put salad leaves into another bowl and pour desired dressing


Step 2: Place chicken in oven and heat for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, mix potatoes with olive oil and dried herbs.

Step 3: Put together into a bowl (can possibly reuse one of the above two bowls - save 1 minute on washing)


Voila!

I usually have this, or a variation of this for dinner. Easy peasy, yummy tasty, cheap, nutritious and healthy - relatively.

Amsterdam Trip

Finally, after 5 months of slogging for my company, I got to go overseas on official business. Not exactly official business, since I didn't do any business - I just met a few people, sat down with them and learnt a bit of stuff from them.

But its good anyway, the trip. I had a cab booked from my place to Heathrow airport, paid for of course. I was also booked in business class, though the actual flight time is only about 40mins. And for the first time in a quarter century, enjoyed the airline lounge.

It was weird going into the lounge because it was my first time. I looked for somewhere quiet and sat down and took out my magazine to read. Then my eyes explored a bit and I noticed a counter of tea/coffee/soft drinks/beer/alcohol unattended. Thinking that nothing is free, I assumed the worst and observed for a while. After sufficient circumstantial evidence has been gathered, I concluded that it IS free and helped myself to the tea... and then to the potato chips. haha, and basked in the glory of business class... while reading my magazine.

At Amsterdam, I took a cab to the hotel. The cab cost 35 euros, but heck, i'll claim from my company. When I saw my room, hee, another smile across my face =)



The trip was just for three days, unfortunately. While at the office, I am practically imprisoned, since the visitor pass, which I could only get once a day and in the presence of my host/supervisor there, works like a return ticket -> in and out. ONCE. so breakfast and lunches I had it at the office.

But dinner... heh heh heh...

Dinner can be anything within a budget of 30quid. heh heh heh.

remember the steak I told you about a few entries ago, and told you how I wished I could dine there again?

On the first night, I was hungry and miserable. It was late, and cold, and dark. I thought it was 9pm, which is already quite late, but actually it was 10pm - since Netherlands is 1 hr ahead. I stepped into the first restaurant I found (an italian one), but the waiter told me clinically, "we're closed". I crossed the road, walked down a little further, and came across a chinese restaurant. NAH.

And then, as fate would have it, just next to the chinese restaurant, stood GAUCHO GRILL. my god, i never expected that they had franchises even in holland! it had to be fate. I stepped in and ordered the smallest (225g) medium ribeye steak. mmm hmm..

The second night I wanted something different. searched around online for nice restaurants when the person next to me suggested "Palma", an italian restaurant. sounds good, i'd love pasta. and she said something about "chillis" and spicy and stuff like that. *GROWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWL*

Wasn't so lucky this time. When I got there they were packed and the waitress told me, a little more politely than the waiter at the other restaurant yesterday, "we're full. you'd have to wait half an hour at least".

So I walked down further the road and got into another nice restaurant/bar with a very rustic feel. and I had veal with tuna cream sauce for starters and salmon tagliette for my main. satisfying dude..

The third night, need I think? GAUCHO again, what else. This time I ordered the medium (300g) fillet steak (Bife de Lomo). And asparagus with aioli as sides. *wolf-whistle* the steak was awesome man! sublime... it was thick, juicy, tender and oh-so-D-E-LI-CIOUS. (when I got the bill I realised they gave me a 400g steak instead. hahaha, no wonder why I enjoyed it so much. ah well, company pays for it anyway)


(pardon the picture, I was too much of a hurry to enjoy my steak. I had already eaten like a quarter of it before I realised I should share my joy with you. It's dark and I didn't turn on the flash hence the dark picture. Notice the juice floating around the steak. It all flowed out from the steak man.. )

Tonight, since I had a plane to catch, I had dinner at the airport. Looked around for a nice place to eat, but half of the "eateries" where little stalls that sells sandwiches and orange juice. I decided to get ramen at the noodle shop (very imaginatively called "noodle shop"). it was 14 euros but i only had like 20g of pork. sigh... i'm missing my steak already...

The flight back was atrocious. I had to queue for a long time at the check-in, even though it was supposedly "business class". I guess everyone's business class bah. The queue to board the plane was even longer. I thought since the queue was so long, i'll just sit down and wait till the queue got shorter.. and once past the security checks into the boarding area, there was another queue to scan the boarding pass and actually board the plane. so i sat down again and read my book. i think it was about 45 mins later since i arrived at the gate when the air stewardess called to me and asked if I was boarding the plane.

I got up and walked to her and she said "Mr Wong?"

I then knew I was probably the last person to board, so I panicked a little.

And once she scanned my boarding pass and all was fine and dandy and I was walking up to the bridge, I saw that the bridge, all 150m worth of it, was full of people packed like sardines.

took another 15 minutes before i finally boarded the plane.

and guess what, the plane was so full the cabin compartments were also overflowing. there weren't any space left and i had to sit with my trolley tucked under the seat in front of me. damn, business class? i don't see any difference.

The flights also had no music no tv no games no extras no nothing. well, newspapers and a snack.

the flight back ruined my evening. thankfully the cab from the airport, a nice leather-interior mercedes and a polite old gentlemanly cab driver cheered me up a little.

and i realised my room is still more comfortable than the hotel room.

Last days

Well, not exactly last days la, that sounds really bad...

Jan 7th
I forgot what we did. I think we finally had ramen at the Japanese shop opposite my flat, and caught Narnia the movie at the theatre nearby.

Jan 8th
Dim Sum at Royal China. This was especially fun because one of our friends, Ms Piggy, just got her bonus, which was very substantial. So we poked fun at her and u know, pressurised her into paying for all of us. And she finally gave in. Ah, and I had my Baked Seafood Rice in Portugese sauce, and also the lei sha tang yuan. Should have ordered the lobster fried rice.. haha.

Jan 9th
tis a sad day. I took leave to send her off to heathrow. We travelled by tube to Paddington and then got onto the Heathrow Express. We took a few pictures here and there on the way to the airport.

Went back home after she gone thru the gates, and proceeded to do lots of household chores that I put off, like washing clothes, changing light bulb, unclogging the bathroom sink, buy some groceries etc...

Yup, and thats the end of my superb winter holiday!

I'm Singaporean lahh

I was on the tube back home when I heard that short but oh-so-familiar phrase, from a guy a couple of seats in front of me (the tube was stationary and there weren't many pple, hence my "super-hearing").

His friend, in front of him, laughed and nodded as though she heard that before too. and then she started asking, "so, what's lahh"

I think he gave the standard answer, that its just a matter of expression, that its part of Singlish, a wildly mutilated version of the Queen's Engrish.

But I beg to differ. its a Sentence Ending Particle.

I learnt this in Cantonese about a year ago, while in Stanford. I was given this handout listing all the different sentence ending particles in Cantonese. About 5 of them were the same letter "a" (ah), pronounced differently, another 3/4 were "la" and there were a couple more that I can't recall now. They came with several descriptions of what they were meant for, like "a" with a rising tone meant a question, "lor" with a falling tone meant something like "already" and so on.

I remember the "Ang Mohs" (literally redheads, or whites) would have so much difficulty with that. Why would anyone want to end a sentence with a sentence ending particle? But, ahh, it came all so naturally to me. Once, for an assignment, we had to record a 3 minute speech in Cantonese. For my speech, I was commended by my Canto teacher for the use of the sentence ending particles, even though I used them unconsciously. It wasn't difficult for me, after all, we use that in Singlish.

Because I realised that these sentence ending particles ARE part of Cantonese, I dare say that all the "lahs" and "hor" and other sentence ending particles in Singlish are derivatives of the Chinese dialects spoken in Singapore. They have the same status of verbs, nouns, adjectives etc. hor.

I won't go through the details of all the different sentence ending particles in Singlish - there are enough websites about it already. For more information, please refer to the talkingcock.com - it even contains a comprehensive "Singapore Coxford Dictionary".

But I digress again...

***********

Jan 6th - Tower of London

L met up with her old long-lost primary school friend in London. She so happened to be touring London, and will be leaving soon, so they had to meet. She wanted to go around London, and L and I haven't been to Tower of London yet, so we decided to go there.

We spent about 4 hours there. For the first hour we joined a tour (free, or more like its included in the price of the ticket) and the tour guide gave us a pretty comprehensive coverage about the history of the Tower of London. Its really quite interesting. And then after the tour we went to look at the various exhibits. I think we spent the most time in the armory, looking at all the kings' armour and weapons. We were also quite fascinated with torture equipment, though I must say, it isn't the largest collection I've seen (there were like only 4/5 different apparatus, not very imaginative, I would think).

There was also this "Crown Jewels" exhibition. Its absolutely fantastic, seeing those HUGE diamonds, sapphires, rubys etc stuck to the different crowns. man, they were HUGE... like the biggest I've ever seen.

Finally we got too hungry (didn't have lunch) and decided to leave for dim sum at Chinatown. So happened that the restaurant we wanted to go to had a happy hour (cheaper dimsum) after 2.30, and we arrived close to 3. So we had a lot of dimsum for only 7 quid a person. Cheap already larh... usually expect to spend 15 per head. It was all pretty nice, except for the xiao long bao (small dragon dumpling) which didn't have a drop of soup in it. Disappointing. That was also when I wanted the "lei sha tang yuan" but didn't know what it was called. I couldn't find it on the menu, and it'll probably be too much of a hassle to describe it as "glutinous rice flour dumpling with sesame seed filling coated with sweetened peanut powder".

After that we headed to spitalfields market. I popped into office because there was apparently some urgent request, while the girls went shopping. and then I met them an hour later and they continued shopping.

Some time later, L's friend had to meet her friend for dinner/play, so we walked her to the tube station and I showed her around Liverpool st station - not like there's much to see..... and then we had dinner at this asian fusion noodle restaurant - but we shared a bowl of noodles cus we were still very full from the late lunch.

*** till the next day ***

Meet the friends day

Jan 5th

This day was packed with meetings with various friends. 1 for breakfast/coffee, 1 for tea/coffee, and 1 for dinner. Also managed to get some time to visit IC. L went to look for her FYP prof (and I went with her), and after that I also went to look for my FYP supervisor (and she came with me). Its nice you know, meeting up with people you'll hardly ever see...

But anyway, the highlight of the day was probably dinner. MUAHAHA.. we had dinner at Belgos, a famous belgian restaurant. Its a very large restaurant, but its always packed, even on weekdays. The food is very good, at very reasonable prices, so i guess thats why its so popular.

I had this pork knuckle thingy with mashed potatoes and some vege. L had half a chicken with some mustard sauce and fries. Look at the picture la, it describes it very well. Our friend had the same thing as me. won't reveal who she is in case she doesn't want to be known... haha, i respect pples privacy wan...



oh the beer was very nice too. how can i forget. they serve like 30 different beers, from light beers to dark beers, from unflavoured to fruity... and there're also beers with 12% alcohol content! I had something called pauwel kwek (don't ask me, i don't have a clue, i chose it only because it had 8% alcohol and is a dark beer) that's served in a very cute container.. almost like some science laboratory apparatus.



yup, and that concludes the day.

Departure of the lightbulb

Jan 4th

Guess who's the lightbulb?

L's bro lor...

Hey I'm joking aight? Honestly, he didn't intentionally try to be "bright", and he's also quite "automatic" if you know what i mean.

but yeah, he had to catch a flight from stansted airport at 4pm or so... initially he wanted to travel down to liverpool st to get the coach from there (since he already bought a return coach ticket), but after some repeated suggestions:

"sure? sure you wanna go down to liverpool st?"

(5 sec later)

"sure? with all these luggage?"

(5 sec later)

"sure? you can just catch a coach outside my flat you know..."

He finally gave in.

Anyway, after he left, hmm.. I can't remember what happened. And I don't have any pictures for the 4th of Jan to jerk my memory... I'm sure we went somewhere for dinner...

AH! I remember, we went to Gaucho Grill. Recommended by friends and also online, it seemed to be the perfect place for steaks.

I was expecting something like Jack's place or Sizzlers kind of standard, but when I stepped into the restaurant, it kinda felt like... a very high class restaurant.

and heh heh heh... the steak was superb.. no, AWESOME.

The waitress came by with a platter of meat. raw meat. then she explained the different cuts of meat: sirloin - which has a little fat on the edge, but very tender; the rump - which is THICK and has very little fat, will be tough if overcooked but tastes great rare/medium; and several others which I forgot. But I didn't really have a problem choosing, I went for the rump, medium rare. mmm mmmmm. L got the sirloin, medium.

There are like 3 sizes to choose from, 225g, 300g and 400g. I got 300g and L got 225g. But the steaks were HUGE still. I remember grinning away while eating my steak. Haha, it was damn good.

sigh... i wanna go back...

Here's a picture of a steak to whet your appetite. Note: the picture is not the actual thing - i got it off the net. i dont know how that steak in the picture tastes like, but the steak i had was marvellous.

Woman in Black

Jan 3

I went to work on Tuesday. I should have just taken leave on that day also la, but I was worried my boss might not be very happy to let me go. Anyway, I didn't do much at work, because it was just after a long break, plus I will be going off the next day.

Left work early at about 6pm and met L and her bro and her bro's friend to watch the play Woman in Black.

There were two things that surprised me:
1. The theatre was really small. Wasn't expecting something so small for a play that's quite popular.

2. There are only 2 actors in the play. That's it! This is the really amazing part, because all the other musicals/shows I've been to has like a whole cast of actors, (well, arguably 2 is a cast too hor - but i mean like there are at least 10 actors/actresses), not including the sound fx guys / band, the conductor, the helpers to clear the stage etc...

This play hor, besides the 2 actors, there was a woman (in black) who did nothing except to appear at the appropriate moment. There's probably one sound fx guy. and probably one guy to close the curtains at the interval. thats it! the whole set is already on the stage - and though the story progresses through different time periods at different places, the set can be reused again and again. damn amazing.

the actors were very good too. Just between the two of them, they played like 6-8 different characters. damn amazing.

I was also impressed that they managed to make the play scary. I mean, how scary can a play get right? obviously the woman in black is just an actress on the stage... but clever lighting and sound, good timing and most importantly the actor's emotions immerses you into the story such that you do feel scared. well, maybe i'm exaggerating a little, but its quite an impressive performance.

***

Ok, its time for my dinner.. just to end off the story, after the play we went to a restaurant at chinatown called "1997" and had "juk" or "zhou" or porridge/congee (whats the difference?) NICE.

ok gtg..

Hunt for Ramen

Jan 2

Over the past few days, we have been thinking of eating ramen, but haven't gotten a chance to have any. So this time we decided to look for the bestest ramen in London.

How to look?

1. Go google and type "ramen london" lor. Obviously that isn't the best way to look for the best ramen.. but then you go and type "best ramen london" and see what it returns.

2. Go londoneating.com and type "ramen". Unfortunately it only returns the name of the restaurants that start with ramen.

3. Look under jap cuisine. Doesn't work to well either, since it can be anything from teppenyaki to sushi belts to proper jap restaurants.

Finally, we decided on Ramen Seto, since there were plenty of reviews on the net and most of them seem pretty good.

It was a small shop, with maybe enough seats for 20. There were a couple of japs in there, so the assumption was that it can't be too bad. It was like a budget ramen restaurant la, don't have fancy deco or music or whatever.

We got the ramen of course. I had chasiew (how do they spell it?) ramen and L had miso ramen. I was still recovering from my food poisoning at that time, and though I did have some appetite at the start, I couldn't finish the ramen. I thought it tasted quite nice - maybe a bit on the salty side and the noodles were a little overdone. L though, once she tasted it, declared that the Ichi Ramen in California was nicer. hmm.. can't really comment since I just recovered.

** and a side story **

Two japanese guys came in about 15 minutes after us and sat right next to us. One of them had a guide book - probably recommended them to come here for jap ramen - or maybe they were just shopping and then chanced onto the restaurant.

They ordered in Japanese, since the waitresses there do look japanese. Unfortunately, the waitress that served them wasn't japanese. The conversation went like this

"a** ..... miso ramen d*** ka?"

"ah, miso ramen, hai.."

"(more japanese)"

"... (silence, incomprehension)"

"whats meat is there?"

"meet? what meet?"

anyway, they finally ordered their food and they probably weren't having high expectations after that. when the food arrived and they tasted it, their response was

"mm.. yokata"

dunno if that yokata means "good" or "i'm relieved", but in any case, they did enjoy the food, judging by their expression and body language.

But it still doesn't compare to Ichi Ramen... I need to find a better ramen restaurant.

Food poisoning

Dec 30th

Again, went to work, and left early.

And I went to Kulu Kulu with L this time. Had lots of sushi and salmon sashimi. I'm glad she likes sashimi as much as me. I remember a few years ago when we used to go Kulu Kulu maybe once a month (or less frequently) we used to have only one plate of sashimi, and always get more plates of the cheaper kinds of sushi. Now we're not so frugal anymore, can afford TWO plates of sashimi. haha, it wasn't more because we couldn't have so much sashimi anyway. I also had a raw rock oyster...

Went home and watched a movie on my computer, then had an early night.

Dec 31st - New Year's Eve

Woke up late, lazed around, had spaghetti - chinese style, L's specialty and favourite, served with Tiger Chilli sauce - which i bought in singapore and is only found in NTUC apparently. Watched Bleach throughout the day.

Felt a little tired. Went to bed very early, at 1030pm or something. missed the new year celebrations altogether.

Jan 1st - New Year

Couldn't sleep at night. Felt cold, then hot. Sweated a bit even though its cold. I got up in the middle of the night to wear a sweater and track pants on top of my shorts.

Felt bloated, wanted to burb. Got out of bed at about 3am to try to clear my bowels.. . Spent 15 minutes sitting on the toilet boil, but no effect. Burped a few times, felt slightly better. went back to bed.

Woke up again at 7/8am. Went to toilet again. but nothing felt like coming out the normal route. instead, i felt nauseous. gave in to it after a brief fight, and threw up all my stomach contents into the toilet. ah.. 100x better.

Had a glass of milk since I thought it would do well to neutralise the toxins. apparently, according to L and her mom its not such a good idea. don't really know why, but now I know.

I was weak and tired the whole day. Caught a few hours of sleep here and there. L went to Sainsbury to get some medication for me, and she came back with a thermometer, panadol, diarrhea pills and oatmeal. so touched *sigh*.

L wanted to cook porridge for me but I refused. So she cooked spagetti with ikan bilis soup. but i couldn't even finish the little bit that she cooked. she kept it in the fridge for the next day.

Soon after, while I was still sick, we went to M's place for a new year celebration/gathering. M's our friend from IC, and she also invited a few other mutual friends that we know very well. while i was still feeling tired and sick, I pulled myself there as this is a rare chance for L to meet up with them.

L's bro, H also went along. He introduced them to a few drinking games and they had loads of fun. I didn't play of course. I couldn't even take a bite of anything solid - and even water I had problem swallowing because I still felt bloated.

It was fun meeting with them nonetheless. After I got back, I promptly got into bed and fell asleep almost immediately. This time, I didn't wake up until 10am the next day, feeling fresh and well. Sometimes, it really takes illness to make you appreciate good health.

I blame my food poisoning on the oyster.

my doc friends: what kind of bug did I get, given the symptoms?

Dinner for two

Dec 29th

I had to work on that day. The office was again very quiet, and I left early. I would be having a nice dinner with L today. She apparently told her bro "Kor, I'll be having dinner with W tomorrow, so what're your plans?" just yesterday.

Initially the plan was to bring her to Kulu Kulu (brewer st, picadilly circus) - since we found the sushi there to be cheap and good. But then the plan changed because she didn't feel like travelling, so then I thought of bringing L to the Japanese restaurant just outside my flat - she always has a craving for Ramen.

unfortunately the jap restaurant wasn't open, so we had italian instead. mm, the pasta was good. well, she ordered the pasta, i ordered the calzone - but the serving was pretty large and she couldn't finish it, so i had a pretty large portion of the pasta too. plus we had calamari too..




good food eh? i'm suffering from withdrawal symptoms now..

Fulham vs Aston Villa

Dec 28

I worked on this day.

Why didn't I take leave? A lot of people asked me that.. Well, there are a couple of reasons...
1 - L's bro still around ma. I can save my leave for other occasions
2 - The office will be awfully quiet. This is both a good thing and a bad thing, depending on how you look at it. I think its a good thing.
3 - My boss isn't around. Again, this can be a bad thing, but if my boss isn't around, I can leave at 5, and nobody cares.

So, on the 28th, I strolled in to work at 8.30am (usually I arrive at 7.30). Spent some of the time studying for something new that i'm supposed to be doing, half the time talking to my collegues, and the rest of the time doing personal stuff - like surfing porn. yah right, I was just testing if you're reading. i'll probably get fired if i get caught surfing porn on an office pc.

I left work at 5.40pm (again, I usually leave at 7.30). Met L and her bro at Hammersmith tube station and then travelled to Craven Cottage, Fulham Stadium, where we watched a football (soccer) match between Fulham and Aston Villa.

It was freezing.. I think the temp was like 0-2 degrees, and I wasn't properly attired for the cold - since I came from the office and I forgot it would get cold. But anyway...

It was a great match. There were six goals scored in total, Fulham 3 - Aston Villa 3. Fulham took the lead 3 times and Aston Villa equalised 3 times...



- Actually I'm pretty sleepy right now, I think I'll go back to sleep. and just to end this post...

We headed home after the match. We decided to take a bus to the tube station, which wasn't really a good idea, because the bus came late and the hoards of cars leaving the area caused a severe traffic jam. So the usual 10min journey took 40min. But anyhow, we got home anyway...

Grabbed a few packets of instant noodles from a nearby shop and we had that for supper.

I slept soon after as I had to work the next day...

Shopping at Oxford st

Dec 27

We met with Mel and CA for dim sum at Royal China Restaurant. I love Royal China, the dim sum is really superb, and the prices are not all that exorbitant. Really! I especially love the dessert, which was "glutinous rice flour dumpling with black sesame seed filling coated with sweetened ground peanut powder". Its just 4 words in chinese: "lei sha tang yuan" or in cantonese "lei sa tong yun". Damn shiok i tell you. if any of you going to london be sure to try that ok?

Then we went off to Oxford St to shop. Not because we have to buy anything, but rather because we're so close to the shopping street and since its the post-christmas sale, we decided to go and see what's on offer.

L saw this nice pair of pants on offer at GAP... and she didn't really hesitate. haha so unlike her since she'll usually think about it not twice not thrice but rather.. i dunno. haha..

We took some really nice pictures of the lights at Oxford St. (quite funny I tell you.. after dim sum we went to FCUK.. after we came out it was dark already!) Here's one sample pic:


It snowed a little.. really really little, like specks of white falling down for a minute, and then no more.. it got quite cold and because we wanted to save money, we looked around for a newspaper stand to buy "bus savers tickets". unfortunately none were open on the 27th, so in the end L bought a ticket at the bus stop instead. my fingers were frozen by then.

When we got home I whipped up my famous (ok, not really famous, its just that its one of the easier to cook dishes that taste nice) pan-fried salmon ang moh style. She loved it a lot (at least thats what she said) and we watched more naruto through the night...

"I'll go to the gym at least three times a week"

You know, today I realised how many people made that new year resolution - there was like 100% more people in the gym today than on the same day of the week at the same time just one month ago. Nothing explains this phenomenen, except that people probably made a resolution to go the the gym more often.

but i digress...

26 Dec - Boxing Day
On this day, the tube is operating with reduced services, and the famous boxing day sale starts. people started queuing outside Selfridges at like 4am, 4 hours before the store opened.

But we chose to avoid the crowd. L and I together with her bro walked up to Hampstead Heath (a huge park) to walk walk and breathe fresh air and freeze in the cold.

And then we walked to Hampstead and had some famous Hampstead Crepes... Had to queue for like 30 mins ok. Too bad I didn't take a picture of the crepes.

Then we went to the nearby shopping center and bought tickets to see King Kong. The show was damn long la (like 3 hours, what's wrong with peter jackson?) and I found some parts too draggy. but overall it was pretty entertaining.

After that we (its still 3 of us) had dinner at Nando's. Its this chain of restaurants that serve South American grilled/barbequeued chicken, with lots and lots of "peri-peri" sauce. The sauce is mainly made of hot chilli peppers, which give a nice spicy taste. mmm.. love the chicken. we had half a chicken each. mmm salivating already.

when we got home, we caught a few more episodes of Naruto/Bleach before retiring for the night.

My sunshine has left...

Been wondering about my absence? Sorry. See, I've been busy living my life with my gf. She's been here for 15 days - and though it may seem like a long time, its really too short. way too short.

but I really shouldn't complain. its been a terrific 15 days.

Over the last 15 days, I worked only 4 days. And other than those 4 days of work (8 hours on average), I've spent all my other free time with her.

I've gotten addicted to this good life. And now, I need to start getting used again to working hard. Sigh...

Meanwhile, I'll try to recap these past days (though not all at once) to re-live a really memorable winter holiday 2005/6.

25th Dec - Arrival, on Christmas Day

I paced around the house before her arrival, as I didn't know what else I should be doing. The tube doesn't run on Christmas, so I couldn't pick her up from the airport. I had to hire a cab to do that for me. Finally, I got her call (she used the cab driver's phone cus he was lost).

***

She unpacked her stuff and gave me several presents:

• Polo Ralph sweater


• Polo Ralph vest


• Milo


• and several other clothes items I left in the States

We stayed at home the whole day because there was absolutely no public transport that day.

I cooked some simple dishes (soya sauce chicken, sweet peas with baby corn) for the whole household (altogether 5 of us) and we had that while catching up on previous episodes of Naruto.

Hunn (my gf's bro) gave us some party crackers and we "cracked" them open. I got a very nice and practical gift - a shoehorn. She got a toy - it provided some fun for like 30 seconds, after which we got back to Naruto. =)

We had an early night because she was a little jet-lagged. I slept with a smile on my face.

Changed my profile...

It once read "working as a no-lifer". I've changed that because I realise I do have a life, in fact, and even though I work 12hr weekdays - 60hrs a week, I have 2 full days off.

And compared to a housemate of mine, who works like 15-18 hours a day - and sometimes on weekends, I am very lucky indeed.

And I'm liking my job more and more...

And my gf's coming over.. what "no-lifer"... so loser... :D