I'm off to Phuket today for a holiday!!! :):):)

Today's a public holiday. While most people are snoozing at home or going out to play, I stayed home the entire day to work. I have several reports to do and I had to finish them by Friday so I decided to do it today.

7 reports in all and I completed the last one by 9pm! :) Very proud of myself and I thank God for the strength He gave me. I started at 10plus in the morning! It was an uphill task for 1 of the reports because I got somewhat confused by the format and figures. And it isn't just putting in words but I had to analyse and think through before I typed certain sections.

Yet I am now very happy that all is done. Just need to print out tomorrow and organise the reports nicely before submission.

Of course tomorrow will still be a busy day with many things to do.

I have been very busy since last week because new students have come last Thursday and I was out with them for orientation last Friday and Sunday. Before their arrival, I was busy with lots of coordination and preparations for the events. My Nov and Dec schedule is extremely packed like anything! I must stay healthy and prep myself for a laborious month ahead!

I went on a 2-hour cruise with colleagues and students on board the Imperial Cheng Ho vessel last evening.

This is a work-related function and it was also the second round of cruise that we had. The first round took place in September (as below) 

The next pic shows the vessel we boarded yesterday. The only difference would be the gloomy skies, heavy downpour and monsoon season choppy waves.

The first round, I became seasick. I thought I wouldn't have it but I just felt very unwell the moment I sat down and started to eat. After 2-3 mouthfuls of food, I had to stop :(

My colleagues commented that my face was pale. I felt like puking but tried my best to suppress it. The bobbing up and down of the vessel made my stomach churn internally. Didn't take any motion sickness pills before that too. Had to stand outside and face the sea and look far ahead.

When the cruise came to an end, I recovered instantly the moment I got on land. To avoid the same incident yesterday, I bought Travel Calm Ginger pills (non-drowsy) and took 3 pills half an hour before boarding. My AD also bought preserved ginger slices for me and a colleague in case we get seasick.

Who knows, I still got seasick yesterday!!! The same thing happened during dinner time. It was slightly better in the sense that I could eat 4-5 mouthfuls of food but I was suppressing the stomach churning and nausea until I broke out in cold sweat. Finally, I could take it no longer and stopped eating. My colleague looked at me and said my face was getting pale again. They said I am 脸青唇白。 I was already eating the ginger slices but I guess my system is just not cut out for cruise on choppy waters. Another colleague also got seasick so the 2 of us went out to face the sea again. For some reason, I felt more unwell than the first round (no vomitting, thank God). The vessel stopped temporarily opposite Sentosa for the fireworks display but I was in no mood to appreciate the fireworks. I closed my eyes, it didn't help either. So I just took deep breaths, prayed and tried not to think about the seasick feeling.

After some time, the vessel started moving off again and I felt better when it was in motion. Looking at the far surroundings was good. My colleagues were very helpful; they packed the food in a styrofoam box for me so that I could eat after the cruise. They also brought chairs out for me and the other colleague who was seasick so that we could sit while looking at the sea.

Then this was where something unexpected and scary happened. One colleague was standing next to me talking when seawater suddenly gushed up onto the deck (via the opening at the lower corner of the ship) and completely drenched our feet from ankle-down!! It looked as if water was rushing into the vessel from the sea! My shoes were all wet and I was more shocked than bothered by the wet feel. Immediately I jumped up and went inside where the session was ongoing. I am not a swimmer and I certainly didn't want to be swept away by water (I don't think that will happen but it seemed rather dangerous to be outside). Thank God for protection cos the sea was kind of rough yesterday and it was drizzling.

When the cruise came to an ended, I started recovering. But the dizziness lingered until about 11pm even after I reached home. I later realised that it must have been partially due to hunger because I skipped dinner. After a shower, I started eating but felt extremely dizzy and tired.

Just then, Maki (my cell group member who's a Japanese) called me. I spent some time chatting with her and I actually felt ok the moment I started talking to her. After our conversation, I was fully well and could eat while I watched a Leslie Cheung DVD 'The Phantom Lover'.

Just glad that I survived!

Today I had lunch with Morien at Suntec City's Astons. The prices of the food are really comparable to those at the Bedok coffeeshop! Morien's Grilled Fish with Herb was $7.80 while my Hickory BBQ Chicken is only $6.90! :)

I also finally used the movie gift vouchers given out by MOE to redeem 2 movie tickets from Eng Wah.

 We watched the love comedy "You Again" which touched on forgiveness, reconciliation, closure and family relationships.

I was surprised to find that the entire cinema for this show's timeslot was fully available when I made the redemption. The hall wasn't packed and I think there were less than 12 people in all.

After the movie, Morien was thirsty so we went to Carfourre. I bought sushi! See the Hello Kitty fishcake sushi on the top right corner?

The kitty looks as though it were gagged!

I met up with Nan Yen on Wednesday at Suntec City. It's been ages since we last went out together. The previous meal we had was with Isabel at Paragon 5 months ago so I'm glad I could finally meet her :)

She suggested eating pizza and brought me to this outlet called "Skinny Pizza". All the pizzas come in one size only and one pizza on its own is very big. The crust is uniquely thin, like the equivalent of papadum and many interesting flavours are available. We went for Truffle Mushroom Pizza, topped with mozerella cheese, onions and leafy greens.

The truffle mushroom smelt weird when the pizza came... in fact, I thought there was a strange odour... but when I tasted the mushroom, it wasn't that bad after all.

We ordered soup too. Too bad some of the soups we wanted were sold out, so I settled for Butternut Pumpkin soup which was quite sweet and had a fair bit of curry flavour

 Nan Yen took Broccoli & Parsley soup

We continued cosy fellowship over coffee and hot chocolate at TCC

At MOS Burger today with Zhihui and Morien

Zhihui showed us the various cool apps on her iPhone, especially the photo-taking functions. Spot the Fish Eye pic she took of me and Morien!

After the photo fun, Morien and I went to catch Donnie Yen's Legend of the Fist. Cinema was still bright when we entered so I snapped a shot of us (I forgot to switch off the Flash mode so was a bit paiseh when a flash of light came forth. Good thing no one complained!)

Between Legend of the Fist and Ip Man, I still prefer Ip Man. But Donnie Yen was very suave and cool in his role as Chen Zhen, especially when he wore a white suit during the final fighting scene! He could fight and defeat more than 50 men at the same time with just himself and a Nunchaku! He's very muscular and well-built too when he took off his shirt to rain punches on the Jap general! Now I understand what Xiangcen meant hahaha....

Another thing that made the film exciting was the extent of violence used in the killing methods which triggered Chen Zhen to pull himself together and defeat the enemy.

I am full of admiration for Donnie Yen!

Today is a Fishy day. Morien felt like eating fish from Fish & Co so we (Morien, Zhihui and I) went to the one at Tampines Mall after service today.

We took a long time to decide on the type of fish we wanted because we wanted to share the fish

Finally... Morien chose Whole Fried Fish

This fish is worth eating because it is very big, we get the entire fish and it is fried till golden brown

Is Morien talking to the fish?

Dissection by Dr. Zhihui

Morien is ready to start on the fish

I chose a Baked Pollock with mashed potatoes and rice

Swiss Fish & Chips makes the 3rd dish

Zhihui tries to 自拍 but too much of her left arm was captured on the screen (I have cropped the pic here)

The 2nd shot is just nice

Morien tries it out too

A surprise celebration for Yifang on Thursday!

Zealyn bought this chocolate mousse from Emicakes

Happy birthday, Yifang!

As a number of members weren't able to make it this week, we will do another round of celebration next week

We also had a new friend who joined us. She's none other than Ewei (standing on Yifang's right). Her first time at cg and she came to know the Lord 2 weeks ago! :)

In 1992, I rented the videotape of a movie which my most favourite celebrities (Leslie Cheung and Vivian Chow) acted in. The film title is Arrest The Restless or 蓝江传之反飞组风云.

The movie left a very deep impression on me and I had never forgotten it ever since. I had never caught the show on TV before. Perhaps I missed it when it was broadcasted? I had also never seen the show on sale in stores before. I have been searching for the VCD/DVD for the longest time ever. More so in the last 2 months when I began hunting for Leslie's shows (those which I came across in the past but didn't buy them). As the search went on, I found and bought many of his shows/song performances/MVs but Arrest The Restless was just not in any of the stores I went to. I have been to many places ranging from Tiong Bahru, to Causeway Point, Tampines and City Link's HMV. Knowing that the chances are quite slim, I still harboured hopes of finding it nevertheless. A few days ago, I was even contemplating to purchase it online via some websites that sell the DVD.

Then yesterday, after a function at a hostel in Boon Lay, I decided to meet my ex-colleague for dinner. I wanted to meet in City Hall or Bugis but my ex-colleague suggested going to Jurong Point. At first, I felt a bit reluctant because of the long distance home. After pondering over some time, I decided to just meet at Jurong Point and we had a good time catching up over dinner at Ichiban Sushi.

Before leaving the mall, I already had the thought of going to take a look at the VCD/DVD shops first, as per my usual practice. We saw there were 3 shops and we entered the first shop, TS.

As my eyes ran across all the movie titles, I saw the same titles that I always see in other shops previously. Nothing new, I thought. But I told myself to focus and look carefully just in case I miss it due to carelessness or laziness. I did see Leslie's shows but I already owned those which were on the racks. Then I looked at the VCDs on display below the racks. They were neatly laid out in rows and again, I saw nothing new.

Just as I was about to finish glancing at the entire row, I found myself coming face to face with a VCD with a sweet, pink background and an image of Leslie and Vivian together! I looked again and saw the title Arrest The Restless! I can't believe it! I actually found it at last!!! After 18 years!!! This is even more miraculous than searching for a needle in a haystack! I was so excited I quickly called my ex-colleague over and told her I've found what I've been looking for! I also called Purlynn to tell her the good news!!

This is the movie that I'm referring to

Last night after reaching home, though I was very tired, I unwrapped the VCD and watched the show. The story is about the tussle for justice between righteous and corrupted police inspectors and the implications of corruption in the police force (backed by rich and powerful individuals) upon youths in triads who were led astray in a moment of folly (such youth in the 1960s and 1970s were known as "teddies", equivalent to the modern ah-bengs). Of course the story also dwelt on the love relationship between Leslie and Vivian's characters which was sweet and tender. Leslie is so dashing and cool in the movie and Vivian is equally cute and innocent.

I'm very happy that my dream of finding this movie has finally come true.

Today I woke up at 9.30am and cooked a bowl of Spicy Mushroom instant noodles for myself. Ate it with a half-roasted chicken that my father grilled last night.

While I ate, I watched Leslie Cheung's 1990 farewell concert VCD (karaoke version). I'm especially excited about this VCD because I bought it only yesterday. I chanced upon a shop called 'Y-Vision' in Tanjong Pagar selling a vast range of movies, concerts and music albums, from very old ones to the latest ones. Two elderly uncles were manning the shop and no one else was inside except for a customer who was browsing. I already have this concert VCD in non-karaoke format. The difference is that the K-version had a few more songs included in the concert but did not have some of the song medley which are in the non-K disc. The sequence of 1-2 performances were also not in the correct order. Nevertheless, I was still happy because I never thought I would find it again. If I had the time, I would want to browse for a longer time and see if they have the non-K version from the original distributor.

I also bought another of Leslie's DVD from the shop -- his MTV collection from Rock Records, Cantonese albums and from the movies he starred in. Examples are 金枝玉叶, Bride with White Hair, Viva Erotica, 阿飞正传 and 夜半歌声. With all these, I don't actually have to go karaoke anymore because these are exactly the same as what the KTV outlets have! :) But I'll still go and sing for the fun of it.

In the afternoon, I ate lunch with my parents. All of us had sliced fish soup with rice/bee hoon. The weather is horrendously hot to the extent that I was perspiring just by sitting at the hawker centre before the food came.

Dinner was a simple one at home - steamed egg, fried cabbage with fishballs and corn soup with carrots & pork. After dinner, I went for a 45-minute workout at the nearby fitness park. Saw a group of youths lighting sparklers and, and saw families lighting lanterns in celebration of 中秋节.

There are some urgent stuff to settle in office tomorrow morning. I pray everything turns out fine.

My cg's new favourite place for chilling out seems to be the Hong Kong Kim Gary Restaurant in Tampines One! We went there just now for dinner!

Me and Maki

Xiangcen and Isabel

Morien

Seaweed fries (there are many other types of flavours too)

Fish Wrapped with Egg in Chinese Mushroom Rice (a good choice)

Honey Roasted Spare Rib Rice is also great

Supreme Curry Baked Chicken/Fish Fillet respectively

After cell group on Fri, 2 men sat down to have a game of chess

John: Wah.... sweat... dunno can win not...

Benson: Mmmm... I must strategise...

John: Hey....I have an idea!

John: Nothing is impossible....

Benson: Aiyo... how to 'eat'???

Strong opponents indeed. Who shall emerge the winner?

That remains to be seen... Round 2 shall continue next week...

Ta-da! Specially flavoured mooncakes from Raffles Hotel!

They came to my workplace 2 weeks ago to promote their mooncakes. Staff are entitled to 25% discount. The mooncakes came in so many flavours - some alcoholic, some non-alcoholic.

After sampling many, I chose THIS!

Snow-skin Mooncake with Dark Chocolate Crunchy Pearl

The filling inside is lotus seed paste with crisp, dark chocolate pearls (as its name suggests). Just nice for kids too!

I like both traditional baked mooncakes and snow-skin mooncakes. Green snow-skin ones especially, because of the colour, the feel of popping a slice into your mouth and the egg yolk/lotus seed paste. The more egg yolk, the better :) 

I haven't touched a single chocolatey mooncake yet. I'd better start on it tomorrow because they only have a shelf life of 5 days.

On Tuesday, I went to Purlynn's house after work. Just to have dinner with her and fellowship over our meal-cum-Leslie Cheung DVD! We are struck with the "Leslie craze"!!!

I brought a DVD collection of movies that Leslie starred in from the 1970s to 2000 and one of the teenage movies he acted in. Lent them to Purlynn for her leisure viewing. Then I brought another DVD which I just bought last Sunday. It is a compilation of Leslie's live performances at awards ceremonies and other functions. As Lawrence was busy rushing an assignment in the room, Purlynn and I just sat on the floor and ate as we watched.

At times, we were simply mesmerised by Leslie's charisma and voice that we just watched and stopped munching

Pau and siew mai! But we didn't eat them... just to capture a shot to show that they were there!

Purlynn likes to watch concerts so I lent her 2 more DVD collections after cg tongight - Leslie's retirement concert in 1990 and his post-retirement concert in 1997 when he made a comeback. I can replay and replay without getting sick of it!

One Wednesday night, Evelyn and I went to Kim San Leng coffeeshop for fellowship over a budget meal

Cai fan actually tastes very good. I will never go without curry chicken.

Evelyn's hor fun

I ordered carrot cake to share

The girl whom I had dinner with!

I'll be flying to Penang tomorrow afternoon! On an official work-related trip. This is a very short trip and I'll be back on Wednesday morning.

Today I didn't go out at all. Snoozed till 12pm, cooked a bowl of instant noodles with 2 hotdogs and 5 pieces of crispy seaweed chicken for lunch, did internet check-in for my flight, read up for the trip, packed my luggage and watched 爱 at 7pm.

Now I'm feeling sleepy again!

Recently I discovered a very cute, interesting and yet unusual way of taking pictures.

One example would be a photo I took of Morien at Hong Kong Kim Gary Restaurant. I was trying to take a photo of my drink and she was sitting opposite me. Somehow, the angle from which I took the photo was able to capture Morien's head above the cup, making it look like Morien's head and the cup are one body!

Then I took a photo of my colleague, Grace, "in" a cup of root beer

Next was Whai Lin sitting in a cup of mushroom soup

Yesterday, I was at T2's Simply Wang Cafe with Xiangcen and Isabel. Decided to try out the cup effect on them. This didn't look too real cos I was taking a photo of them with their own cup of water but they still looked funny

Then I took a photo of my own cup with their heads. Effect became more real!

Xiangcen looks super funny here behind that mountain of iced kacang!!! She looks like she wants to slurp it all up!!!

This is my birthday gift from Xiangcen

The gift bag is very lovely. Red & silver & shiny. So many hearts too. Just like a Valentine's Day gift hahaha!!!

Look inside and see

There's a card

There's also lamp with pretty floral designs & 2 light bulbs

This is the first time I received "light" for my birthday. Xiangcen says it symbolises the gift of our friendship. Let our LIGHT shine even brighter! :)

Xiangcen asked me out for a date on Tuesday night! She planned to find some place that serves Indian cuisine because she knows I'm into Indian stuff. But as she was having a sore throat while I was also having a cough, it would be wiser to go for something less potent so I suggested Kenny Rogers! And she told me she also thought of that! She says that was the place where we had our "first date" or 初恋！

Hahahahahaha... gosh, how mushy can we get! Actually she just meant that this was the place where we first had dinner together and got to know each other more. That was also the place where she planned a surprise birthday celebration for me last year by getting the cg members to appear out of nowhere.

We had a quarter chicken each - both thighs!

I always choose the same sides - corn nibblets and potato salad

Cen Cen likes the coleslaw there but can't take too much of the creamy, milky stuff so she would scoop out the coleslaw and put it in a separate bowl. The first time we were there, she poured plain water into the bowl of coleslaw just to dilute it!

Forgot to take a photo of her long beans... and she ordered the warm, cheesy pasta too

 What's that!!?? A second chicken thigh!!??

Yes!! Xiangcen didn't know why but she was very VERY hungry and could go for a second quarter chicken. I went along too so we were EXTREMELY FULL after that.

Corn muffin! We do have a different sequence of eating it. I prefer to eat the muffin first before savoury items but Xiangcen would leave the muffin to the end because salty and sweet stuff don't seem to go together.

Dinner was a birthday treat from her (谢谢 Cen Cen!)

While she was making payment at the cashier, I went into my 自拍 mode for a few minutes!

Back together!

This isn't a birthday gift but something that she saw and bought cos she felt I would like it. I did cos the moment I saw it I loved the shiny turquoise

亮晶晶！

On Sunday night, I ate zi char with Daddy and Mummy at the coffeeshop downstairs to celebrate my birthday

Mumm'y's treat... sambal kangkong

Sweet and sour spare ribs

Hot plate chilli sotong (all that smoke and sizzle!)

Smoke has gone away

Assam fish

Oatmeal prawns

Plain rice

Refreshing iced lemon tea

Daddy bought me a small cake after that

We spent quite some time to take photos because I kept on Q-Cing the shots! But I like this photo taken with my dad

With Mummy

We managed to take a family photo using the camera's timer mode by placing one of the high chairs-cum-bins on the dining table and tried it. It works!!

Happpy birthday to me!