starships★
Nic brought me to this snazzy restaurant next the the Singapore Philatelic Museum...You probably will not be able locate it unless you already know where it is. There's only a stairway at the main road which leads up the the dining area.
The menu!
They took it away at the start of the dinner but we requested for it again due to...
Warm bread and olive oil
Amuse Bouche
Carpaccio of venison, roasted strawberry and aged blasamic.
Ok this was damn disgusting. I thought the venison was that lump on top because it looked like chicken skin so i assumed it was fried venison or something. I thought the botton red layer was some sort of sauce only to find out that it was a disgusting piece of raw venison. BLEHHH. OMG NEARLY DIED. If only we had the menu at hand earlier, i would have found out what i was getting into.
The lump on top was the strawberry.
Carpaccio of venison - texture is like very thin tuna sashimi except more chewy and kinda bloody.
But i still pose with it anyway...
Seared Canadian Scallop, Labne, Crisp Bacon, Carrot Caramel
Vine-riped Gazpacho, Spanner Crab Salad, Crisp Parmesan
My Main - Fillet of South Australian Mulloway, Potato Fondant, Tomato Fondant, Baby Leek
Nic's Main - Pithivier of Braised Turkey, Foie Gras, Cranberry Jus.
Valrhona Chocolate Log Cake, Pickled Victorian Cherries, Vanilla Anglaise
I didnt even realise it was Valrhona until typing this! DAMN SAD because i was stuffed and only ate a quarter of it. :(
making a christmas wish...we both made the same wish :)
Tea and sweet treats!
Ambience was lovely, but nic and i have decided that we dont exactly like fine dining, espcially after the venison ahha! Another date with Mortons!
My Christmas gift :) Guess what it is...quite obvious la right hahah
i feel spolit...thanks for everything dear... :p
nic's flen.
Hope you had a great xmas!Labels: christmas, Flutes at the Fort
we fall in love ★ 4:54 PM
Our second picnic at the Botanical Gardens by Swan Lake.
That place is an awesome place for a picnic if you dont like sitting on grass haha.
we hogged the gazebo.
Nobody - 원더걸스 Wonder Girls Labels: christmas, picnic
we fall in love ★ 4:40 PM
As christmas draws near, and the partying begins, here is small favour i ask from all, to please keep my mum in your prayers. Since we came back from Guangzhou, my mother has been sick. Today is the 6th day the cough and ailment has plagued her, and her 3rd night in the hospital. I dont know what the diagnosis is, only that it is an infectious virus.
Hopefully she can come out on Christmas but most importantly i hope she recovers soon. my mother gave birth to me when she was 40, she's not young anymore but i am. i need her here to nag at me, to quarrel with me and to look after me. The house is quiet when she's not around.
we fall in love ★ 12:04 AM
I am so lazy to use my digicam now. will upload some pictures from Guangzhou the next time although i dont have many. Guangzhou is physically like Singapore, just a lot of commercial buildings. Nothing much to do except SHOP SHOP SHOP. except now it's approaching winter over there and there's nothing for me to buy :(
some things have happened since we came back from GuangZhou. Was offered a place at Sun Yat Sen Uni to do an exchange program but i dont think i want to go there anymore. The Campus was pretty nice and pleasent but I dont like people over there who spit everywhere, even in the trains, and cut queues, and shout at you. they are rude and uncivilised. I think i was pretty lucky to have been able to visit the uni before i accepted the offer.
that night i discovered that if the taxi driver goes by CTE the fare is only
$11 even with midnight charge!! O M G. what have i been doing all this time.
*kicks all the drivers who go by PIE*i need to surround myself with people who bring me happiness. Happy things ~!
Labels: Party
we fall in love ★ 1:42 PM
I watched Angus, Thongs and Pefect Snogging en route to Singapore and it was a great show. (did i mention they have an awesome soundtrack!) It definitely reminded me of, me trying to grow up when i was 14 myself. Oh those pubescent years, am i glad i shook it off? Everyone trying to be cool, trying to sneak into clubs, learning foul language, rebelling against the school system, experimenting with fashion, bodily issues...boys.
oh, boys.
Most times I find myself looking back on my life, not forward. I have no concrete plans, no marked route. The future is something i am scared off even though i would like to believe that i am much stronger and braver. I think sometimes i do not know myself, or maybe i am lost under influence.
we're always trying to outdo outselves, outdo others. one day when i find contentment with my lot, it will be my happiest moment, my life's greatest milestone.
From Christine's blog entry - a speech by Adrian Tan to the graduating class of 2008 at NTU. His speech is so funny yet holds so much truth. and i read his books, Teenage Textbook AND Workbook at least 5 times over each.
I must say thank you to the faculty and staff of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information for inviting me to give your convocation address. It’s a wonderful honour and a privilege for me to speak here for ten minutes without fear of contradiction, defamation or retaliation. I say this as a Singaporean and more so as a husband.
My wife is a wonderful person and perfect in every way except one. She is the editor of a magazine. She corrects people for a living. She has honed her expert skills over a quarter of a century, mostly by practising at home during conversations between her and me.
On the other hand, I am a litigator. Essentially, I spend my day telling people how wrong they are. I make my living being disagreeable.
Nevertheless, there is perfect harmony in our matrimonial home. That is because when an editor and a litigator have an argument, the one who triumphs is always the wife.
And so I want to start by giving one piece of advice to the men: when you’ve already won her heart, you don’t need to win every argument.
Marriage is considered one milestone of life. Some of you may already be married. Some of you may never be married. Some of you will be married. Some of you will enjoy the experience so much, you will be married many, many times. Good for you.
The next big milestone in your life is today: your graduation. The end of education. You’re done learning.
You’ve probably been told the big lie that “Learning is a lifelong process” and that therefore you will continue studying and taking masters’ degrees and doctorates and professorships and so on. You know the sort of people who tell you that? Teachers. Don’t you think there is some measure of conflict of interest? They are in the business of learning, after all. Where would they be without you? They need you to be repeat customers.
The good news is that they’re wrong.
The bad news is that you don’t need further education because your entire life is over. It is gone. That may come as a shock to some of you. You’re in your teens or early twenties. People may tell you that you will live to be 70, 80, 90 years old. That is your life expectancy.
I love that term: life expectancy. We all understand the term to mean the average life span of a group of people. But I’m here to talk about a bigger idea, which is what you expect from your life.
You may be very happy to know that Singapore is currently ranked as the country with the third highest life expectancy. We are behind Andorra and Japan, and tied with San Marino. It seems quite clear why people in those countries, and ours, live so long. We share one thing in common: our football teams are all hopeless. There’s very little danger of any of our citizens having their pulses raised by watching us play in the World Cup. Spectators are more likely to be lulled into a gentle and restful nap.
Singaporeans have a life expectancy of 81.8 years. Singapore men live to an average of 79.21 years, while Singapore women live more than five years longer, probably to take into account the additional time they need to spend in the bathroom.
So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you’ll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.
Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they’re 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn’t meet their life expectancy.
I’m here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.
After all, it’s calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average.
Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family. You are told that, as graduates, you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much, where your responsibilities are so much.
That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste.
If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don’t need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average.
What you should prepare for is mess. Life’s a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree is a poor armour against fate.
Don’t expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.
What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over.
Since your life is over, you are free. Let me tell you the many wonderful things that you can do when you are free.
The most important is this: do not work.
Work is anything that you are compelled to do. By its very nature, it is undesirable.
Work kills. The Japanese have a term “Karoshi”, which means death from overwork. That’s the most dramatic form of how work can kill. But it can also kill you in more subtle ways. If you work, then day by day, bit by bit, your soul is chipped away, disintegrating until there’s nothing left. A rock has been ground into sand and dust.
There’s a common misconception that work is necessary. You will meet people working at miserable jobs. They tell you they are “making a living”. No, they’re not. They’re dying, frittering away their fast-extinguishing lives doing things which are, at best, meaningless and, at worst, harmful.
People will tell you that work ennobles you, that work lends you a certain dignity. Work makes you free. The slogan "Arbeit macht frei" was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps. Utter nonsense.
Do not waste the vast majority of your life doing something you hate so that you can spend the small remainder sliver of your life in modest comfort. You may never reach that end anyway.
Resist the temptation to get a job. Instead, play. Find something you enjoy doing. Do it. Over and over again. You will become good at it for two reasons: you like it, and you do it often. Soon, that will have value in itself.
I like arguing, and I love language. So, I became a litigator. I enjoy it and I would do it for free. If I didn’t do that, I would’ve been in some other type of work that still involved writing fiction – probably a sports journalist.
So what should you do? You will find your own niche. I don’t imagine you will need to look very hard. By this time in your life, you will have a very good idea of what you will want to do. In fact, I’ll go further and say the ideal situation would be that you will not be able to stop yourself pursuing your passions. By this time you should know what your obsessions are. If you enjoy showing off your knowledge and feeling superior, you might become a teacher.
Find that pursuit that will energise you, consume you, become an obsession. Each day, you must rise with a restless enthusiasm. If you don’t, you are working.
Most of you will end up in activities which involve communication. To those of you I have a second message: be wary of the truth. I’m not asking you to speak it, or write it, for there are times when it is dangerous or impossible to do those things. The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth. Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating. There is also great skill. Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences. It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence.
In order to be wary of the truth, you must first know it. That requires great frankness to yourself. Never fool the person in the mirror.
I have told you that your life is over, that you should not work, and that you should avoid telling the truth. I now say this to you: be hated.
It’s not as easy as it sounds. Do you know anyone who hates you? Yet every great figure who has contributed to the human race has been hated, not just by one person, but often by a great many. That hatred is so strong it has caused those great figures to be shunned, abused, murdered and in one famous instance, nailed to a cross.
One does not have to be evil to be hated. In fact, it’s often the case that one is hated precisely because one is trying to do right by one’s own convictions. It is far too easy to be liked, one merely has to be accommodating and hold no strong convictions. Then one will gravitate towards the centre and settle into the average. That cannot be your role. There are a great many bad people in the world, and if you are not offending them, you must be bad yourself. Popularity is a sure sign that you are doing something wrong.
The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.
I didn’t say “be loved”. That requires too much compromise. If one changes one’s looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone.
Rather, I exhort you to love another human being. It may seem odd for me to tell you this. You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation. That is false. Modern society is anti-love. We’ve taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings. It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work – the only kind of work that I find palatable.
Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the truth worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human. Loving is good for the soul.
Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn’t happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.
You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.
You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you.
Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don’t, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.
WAS THIS SPEECH NOT AWESOME OR WHAT. i just felt the earth move, under my feet. i think i feel a bit happier when i read it. I think i could read this speech for the rest of my life as some kind of motivator.
and very randomly, i hate it when people take such photos:
gee whiz. LEARN HOW TO USE THE MACRO FUNCTION cuz we cant make out anything in that blurry mess.
Labels: Thoughts
we fall in love ★ 12:47 PM
By this time tomorrow i wont be in Singapore.
i am sicker than ever and hatin'.
we fall in love ★ 4:17 PM
click my adverts!
yay canon.
ok i am very lazy to upload more because flickr doesnt allow me to upload anything bigger than 1mb and i'm lazy to resize all the other photos i took. i am still stuggling with the non-auto modes but my cam is almost always on the P mode. (i dont even know what it means) think i have to study the manual some more.
in other news i am sick. :( so are all my friends so i am an infectee! hope i get well sooonnn
Labels: canon 450d, random
we fall in love ★ 4:59 PM
i got my dslr the other day and can i say that it is so
AWESOME. i feel a surge of awesomeness rushing through me when i hear the strong, super
click of the shutter. it's like
PHOWAR.
POWER.Labels: canon 450d
we fall in love ★ 5:26 PM
right now my exams are over, i am about to transition into a vacuous lifestyle but i hope not. :/
Anyway, recently i received a mailer from Nuffnang to blog about Vpost to win tickets to a christmas party they are hosting. This is how it goes:
"It is super simple! All you have to do is to let us know how you feel good about vPOST online shopping and shipping services, beginning with this blog title…"
HAHAH.
very specifically, they have asked us to blog about something "GOOD". But i have nothing to good to say about them, OPPS.
we can't be politically correct all the time can we? This is an honest experience and i do want people to know that there are other alternatives.
Vpost makes me feel V(ery).... confused and broke. among other things.This was an old post, some of you may have read it before...changed a bit of the paragraphs.
VPOST:
https://www.vpost.com.sg
Recently just had a BIG screw up with a lot my parcels. I was using 2 accounts - Nic's and mine - only because the senders from USA are also very idiotic and always send it to the WRONG account.
Problem Number 1: Parcels delivered to wrong Singapore address
Both accounts had MY home address but for some really ridiculous reason, even after the change in address was verified, the parcels still got delivered to his house.
Hey the whole point of this service is to get things delivered to YOUR doorstep right?
Problem Number 2: A parcel from my Vpost account, ended up in Nic's Vpost account.
Now this is what i consider a MAJOR SCREW UP. If Nic and I didnt know each other it just means that i LOST A PACKAGE. Nic would also mysteriously end up paying extra postage for something he NEVER ORDERED.
Problem Number 3: Bill
An unexplained $0.01 increase in the bill - even after asking twice, still no reason as to why there was a 1 cent increase.
Yes, 1 cent can't get someone to scratch your ass but don't consumers have a right to know how the bill is tabulated?
4: VERY EXPENSIVE
The way they keep track of your packages - it's obviously inefficient. They don't record WHEN the package arrives.
You know what this means?
It means that if you forget to process your order, you have to pay an additional $10.19/per week if you keep your packages with them for over 2 weeks.
Which also brings me to this - what is the base charge for?????
Paying money for excellent service is ok, paying money to have your items delivered to the WRONG Singapore address and getting deposited into the WRONG vpost account is UNACCEPTABLE for professional standards.
So infuriated by it all, not emailing them to complain was out of the question.
Their first reply, to Nic:
Very miffed at why they want to know what is the relationship between Nic and myself. Is it, if Nic is my father then the problem can be solved easier? Or if Nic is my gardener then the problem cannot be solved???
HAHHA.
Since when do you go around asking clients WHAT IS THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO EACH OTHER?
So unprofessional and very rude. Intrusion of privacy. - pointed that out in the second email as well.
Their 2nd email, after our very infuriated reply:
And guess what happened after this?
I dropped it and partly because they offered 15%.
SIGH. WHAT A DAMN SINGAPOREAN I AM. At the same time, i can complain till the cows come home but are they really going to do anything about it?
I'm honestly still not satisfied with Vpost. I'm disappointed with Vpost. I think that their system is not as efficient as it could be and honestly, i think it's rather a complete mess.
Instructions are so foggy and not easily accessible and their site is definitely not user friendly. Too many emails back and forth make everything so complicated.
We have individual accounts but Vpost doesnt use our account as a personal database for reminders or messages. Everything is done through our personal email and it gets SO MESSY after a while. We have to refer to our email, then refer to our vpost account, email that address for ABC and email this address for XYZ.
It is clearly inefficient!
Am i the only one that has a grouse with the system?
This episode was a
TOTAL NIGHTMARE, so much so i have totally SWORE OFF VPOST.
Im using
Borderlinx right now (http://www.borderlinx.com/citi/sg/en/) and they are way better than Vpost imo.
What i love about Borderlinx
- they allow you to keep your packages with them for ONE MONTH! (compared to Vpost at only 2 weeks)
- Their concierge service is FREE! (you have to pay quite a bit for Vpost)
- They have live chat which is a godsend (vpost has a messy emailing system)
- They record your packages properly - includes the date received, weight, merchant, etc. (Vpost does a HAPHAZARD measuring of volumetric weight. I have had to write in to CLAIM money back for overcharging.)
- Has NO BASE CHARGE. and the more you consolidate the CHEAPER IT IS - at around $7/kg. (Even with the 20% discount code Vpost is offering now, there is NO WAY it is cheaper than Borderlinx)
- The account is linked to your Citibank credit card to payment is fuss free (Vpost requires you to key in your creditcard number everytime or do ibanking)
- They call you up if there are any problems. Great customer service. (Vpost has "human error")
- Multiple people can share ONE account which means cheaper shipping all around (Vpost will screw up if so much as 2 accounts have the same email address. is it like some system OCD?)
The bottomline is, i have enjoyed using Borderlinx.
I used Vpost for a while without any problems (except those mentioned la haha) until i found Borderlinx which i personally find a lot more organised and kinder on my purse strings.
ok that's it, going to collect my DSLR later. OMG I AM SO EXCITED.
Labels: borderlinx, nuffnang, vPost sucks
we fall in love ★ 1:50 PM
EEGARD! I am majorly procrastinating for my last exam on the 5th, of which i keep convincing myself that there is really little to study for...it's 50% true! dammmnnn, i hate these moments in limbo. I've just finished Season 1 of the
Big Bang Theory which is the FUNNIEST show EVEERRR. Please go and watch on youtube now!
Haji Lane Flea over the weekend...
When i think of Haji Lane, somehow the word "pretentious" comes to my mind. it is an agglomeration of teenage young'uns in what have you - lots of black eyeliner (cat tails optional),
emo hair, the current it' thing from vintage leather sling pouch, 80's headbands, lots of layering, tights/leggings; all very boho, if not grunge; living the
alternative lifestyle. (description may be off, but it's clear majority of the people there are trying to adhere to some kind of '
Haji Lane image' and that's what im referring to).
anyway nic and i got a dressy vest each from House of Japan for $15/each. SUPER GOOD DEAL because they look like the TopShop ones, but you can go there anytime and get a vest cuz the shop is there everyday.
I also just joined the Facebook group,
I am Singaporean and tired of service staff who can only speak Mandarin which made headlines in the newspapers a few days ago. I was complaining about it long ago
here and thankfully it's finally gotten public attention.
Honestly do you think I should feel embarrassed because my conversational chinese sucks and im a chinese? (rhetorical) I think they like to call us snobs because we've supposedly disowned our roots and gee, what kind of chinese cant speak mandarin? (sarcasm) I think of course, that that's not really the issue, people just like to use this as an excuse to make us feel bad.
And why the helll should we feel embarrassed and be compromised in our own country??
As clear as daylight, singapore is a multi-racial society and now with many expats. That some staff from China cannot mutter a word in English will become a problem for a lot of people. I have experienced much inconvenience with retail outlets who prioritise cost saving over customer service and at the end of the day, the frustration drives me so insane i would rather not buy anything than try and communicate through sign language and rabid gestures...
ok maybe i should start studying now. :(
Labels: I am Singaporean and tired of service staff who can only speak Mandarin
we fall in love ★ 4:29 PM
