Steamboat!!

After one day of Lunar New Year visiting our relatives, my sister generously decided to treat my family to a steamboat dinner at Liang Seah Street (near Bugis Junction). The little eatery offers authentic Chongqing steamboat style which I may not really familiar with. Though I went to Taiwan to eat their mala steamboat there, this Chongqing style is quite different. However at first when I went there, I thought that the food was quite lousy and expensive as it has few varieties to choose from. However, I was totally wrong. There is a split pot which you can order - one side is rich chicken broth soup and the other side is the herba mala or hot spicy soup. The mala soup comes in three degrees of spicyness so be careful what you choose.

Like mentioned, there are 40 food dipping items to choose from, quite little from my opinion. However, what they lacked in quantity, they make up in quality of the food items. The prawns are very fresh and juicy. The meat fillets are finely sliced and marinated to give a good flavour of the meat. There are authentic Chongqing food like handmade wonton, dumplings and noodles.

Overall, a definitely must eat. It is quite reasonably price for the freshness of the food and its service. More-over, the place is air-conditioned so you wouldn't perspire much when you drink the hot spicy mala soup.

Chinese New Year

On Chinese New Year Eve, our family always have our spring cleaning before we have our reunion dinner. I dunno why but our family always procrastinate until the last min to clean up our house. Then we became so rushed as everything is done at the last min, we became easily frustrated and snap at each other over tiny issues...however, once everything was cleaned up and we settled down to eat our reunion dinner, every bad grudges and arguments that we had with each other simply fades as we enjoy each other's company...weird ah? Every year, our family resolves to do our spring cleaning early but we always procrastinate and do it one the eve instead...

At the stroke of midnight on Sunday morning, Chinese New Year has finally come upon us...there's chinese goodies like pineapple tarts to consume, bak Gwa to chew and most importantly, ang pows (red packets) to collect from relatives. Am I too old to collect ang pows this year since I reached my 21st b'day? Apparently, I am only who thought so. My relatives gave me ang pows like nobody's business even though I am of legal age. Guess so long as you are not married, you will receive ang pows from them. After all, what's not to like money? If people gave u money for good luck, just graciously accept and thank them...who knows? you may need it in the future...

Happy New Year!

Famous Bak Gwa from Bee Chee Hiang

New Mall

After studying for my exams in Nov, I took a long break and went to the new shopping mall called Vivocity. From there, there is a huge magnificant view of the ocean and the sea. It's a nice scenery to look at especially when you just wanna chill and relax by the bay...

Band performing @ Vivocity

As the mall is located near the harbour port, there will be small ships sailing through...

Sunset view of the bay from the mall with cable cars in the background. The big ship is actually the Star Cruise ship

The End of S’pore Idol???

Monday was the end of the season (finally!!) for the S'pore Idol which ended to Hardy Mirza getting the honour of being the second & most probably the last Idol should the producers decided to end the series. Congrats to him for beating Jonathan in the finals. The season has been too much of the lows and a huge disappointment compared to the last season. The final 12 contestants as a whole were a joke. Though there were good singers like Matilda, Hady and Gayle, contestants like Joachim were obviously proven that he can't sing to save his life. Paul Twohill started out strong during the beginning but declined so much he butchered Boyzone 'Picture of You' Somehow as he admitted, he lost his identity as a emo rocker during the spectaculars. Also, Jasmine didn't even deserved to be in the final three as she was not consistent in her performances and sang a Spice Girl song!! Which contestant would sing this song, man? She didn't really choose her songs properly. The one huge disappointment during the whole spectaculars was when Matilda got eliminated. She was clearly one of the few best singers in the competition and could really advanced further perhaps into the final three. Too bad, voters do not take up to her image and too many little girls voting for the cute guys resulting in Joachim and Paul staying.

It's a pity if S'pore Idol was to end. This is one show that Singaporeans from different races can have the opportunity to showcase their singing talents and pursue their dreams of being a singer. Some tweaks definitely should be made so that the next season can be more successful. Like the American Idol during the third season, ratings were going downhill and people were getting disinterested. However, with a few tweaks here and there, the next and fifth season proved to be a huge hit with the ratings. Similarly, there should be some tweaks made. One could be the introduction of guest singers to teach the Idols during the spectaculars and guest judges during the roadshow auditions and the finals.

I am looking forward to the next reality competition - the Dance Floor. The show looks promising and there is a wider age gap for participation which will ensure that that quality dancing esp from the older generation would be shown. I only hope that voting is free, unlike S'pore Idol so that different age groups, regardless of whether u are rich or poor, can vote w/o costing them a single cent. That way, then Singapore can truly decide.

A little update

¡Hola!

It's been two months since I last blogged. Wow, so much as happened in the world. Pluto had been demoted from the planetary system to a dwarf planet, Steve Irwin had passed away after a freak accident with a stingray (rest in peace, mate), Thaksin's government had been toppled and replaced with military rule, Katie Couric started work at CBS News, Singapore just ended hosting the IMF meeting recently...yah I get it, I got so lazy the past few weeks that I am not keeping up with the world events.

Anyway, just a little update for peeps out there, just started my undergraduate life in Nanyang. Before that, I actually had two options - Arts and Social Science in NUS or Engineering in NTU. A lot of my friends asked me why I chose NTU instead or NUS. I really dun noe the exact reason but I guess it's because I still dun wanna abandon my science background. All my life, I have studied science from sec sch to JC. To suddenly abandon it to pursue arts, I gueses it's not in my blood. Not to say, I dun like Arts subjects. I like History and Psychology. Perhaps I can take these subjects as my electives in my course at NTU.

Spanish is in my blood...heh!! Yup, I am currently learning Spanish in my school. It's fun to learn, quite easy to learn so far. Spanish has three verbs conjugations, so it's quite easy to learn compared to the other romantic languages. So next time I am in Spain or Latin America, check me conversing with the Latino and Spanish babes there in Spanish...lol

Just a little pics of to show how "civic-minded" that Singaporeans can be!! Eating curry puffs in the MRT train as if it's the right thing to do! Such a disgrace and blantly rude for ignoring the 'No eating & drinking in the train' signs...

New job

Today, I started another new job instead of working at the Starbucks. Reason? I didn't get too many shifts during the week. Every time I apply for three or more shifts per week, I always get only one. I guess it is due to low business around the area...guess the new Cathay is slowly losing its business...unless more human crowd can come to the place.

Anyway for the new job, I will be working in the office job (yah!). The job is quite easy to do, just help to fax documents, fold letters into envelope and just type some stuff on the computer. The pay is reasonable too, a bit higher than working at Starbucks. However, I will be working there for only abt 1 mth plus since I will be entering the uni soon...

I guess I have found my ideal temp job...working at the office in the air-conditioned room. Also, I get to work with the office girls there too as I am the only temp guy there...one of girls is quite chio...and one of them talks like Patricia Mok! (no offense there...)

Interview

Interview - the one many of us have to go through to get our dreams like a job or a place in the university.Since I cleared my leave in April, I have been going on the job hunt for a part-time job so that my three months before university will not be wasted. Here are some excerpts of the questions they posed to me.

"Why do you want to work at Starbucks?"

"What do you want to achieve by working here?"

"Is it ok if you are willing to work shift jobs?"

"Any job experience?"

The interview with Starbucks was the most thorough. The interviewer asked a lot of questions which I felt that very exhausted after the interview.

"Describe an experience that you received excellent customer service?" (I sort of cooked up a story - true story but just spiced it up a little)

"Are you willing to work together as a team?" (Er, can you say no?)

"Describe a time where you work together as a team and some conflicts arises. How did you mediate and resolve the conflict?" (I just jibber-jabbered about my project work experience in JC days)

"What if you and your partner had different ideas and how are you going to convince your partners to follow your idea instead of his?" (I really can't remember what I said. Perhaps I think I said that I will compromise and combine two ideas together)

In the end, I got the Starbucks job which I thought I would not be able to get it. Looking back, I think every time I go for an interview, I always have the feeling that I screwed up the interview process and will not be hired...

Then there's one interview which I went to which I didn't even know what is the job I am seeking for.

The interviewer was sitting on the chair while I sat on his sofa.

"So you are looking for a job, is it?"

"Yes. What is the job about?" (kind of stupid question to ask)

"Oh, they send you for training and they pay you around $1k."

"Oh, so what do I have to do?" I suspiciously asked.

"Don't worry. No sales involved. So why do you want to work here?"

"Erm, to get job experience and your place looks vibrant and energetic."

I am not quite sure till now what is the job scope is.

"So what am I working as?"

"Er, we are an advertising company. So we will send you for training where you will work together as a team to brainstorm and solve conflicts. You will learn leadership skills and management skills and we will pay you."

Sounds suspicious. Where on earth does a company give you money to send you for training?

To cut the long story short, I nearly got conned. Luckily my friends went for the same interview and asked him about the jobs. Turns out, they are looking for people to sell charity tickets to raise money for charity as have some commission at the same time.

Wait a minute, isn't that sales? Nope, the interviewer said. You are doing it for charity.

So then, why are we getting a commission for the charity tickets we sold?

I immediately quitted on that day. Luckily I never went for the training courses due to my problem of punctuality. I guess when they mean no sales involved, you have no idea that you might be conned. I have my friends to thank for finding the truth out.

Thank you and farewell

Singapore has just lost a great leader last week when Mr S Rejaratnam passed away last Thursday. At first when I knew about the news, I was unsure who he was. Who is this great man that Singapore had mourned for and what contributions did he make? So I went and search him up on the Internet and the newspaper. I found out that he was one of the founding members of PAP with Lee Kuan Yew and he wrote the National Pledge. Imagine that! He wrote a pledge that we Singaporeans have been reciting since our early childhood education.

I guess in this fast paced society of today, we tend to forget our roots, forefathers and pioneers who made us who we are today. We know the lastest fashion trends and the lastest celebrity gossips and news. We almost know every minor detail of our famous celebrities. However I wonder, how much do we know about our forefathers? Do we only truly cherished them only when they left the society? How much effort do we take to know our forefathers who struggled in the past to make Singapore to what she is today? In other countries like America, almost every American know who is Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. How about us as Singaporeans? I guess it's time that we take the initiative to know about our forefathers and do not take them for granted. I guess it's time that we do not take our forefathers for granted and be appreciative of their contributions to the society.

With this, I bidded my farewell to a great Singaporean man who make his mark in the Singapore history. Rest well for you have truly deserved it.

Also, it's is two months since my father has passed away. Time doesn't heal my wounds. Sometimes, I wished that he is around with me and guiding me. I missed his voice and his mannerisms. However, life has to go on and I know that he will always be with me no matter what happens.

A Tribute to my Father...

"The world is filled with good fathers. How do we recognize them? They are the ones who are missed so terribly that everything falls apart in their absence.

They are the ones who love us, long before we have even arrived.

Yes, the world is filled with good fathers. And the best are the ones who make the women in their lives feel like good mothers."

I NOT STUPID TOO - Review

I recently watched this movie during the CNY hols as my com is spoilt and can't go visiting (read above). I used to like Jack Neo's movies until one of his movie 'The Best Bet' really put me off for lousy storyline and very clumsy ending. Since then, I have avoided his subsequent movies until this one. I figured out, what's there to lose anyway?

However, this movie is quite good, surpassed my expectations which I have. I thought the storyline would be clumsy, weak and unentertaining. On the contary, the storyline was well-written out and had humourous moments at times. The acting from the young actors had definitely improved by leaps and bounds. This movie has many tearjerking moments, much like the movie, Titanic, so be prepared to bring lots of tissues. I find the tearjerking moments meaningful and well-protrayed, so much so that I was drawn into the movie, tearing my eyes away as I empathise with the protaganists.

Lovely movie to watch and spend your money worth this holiday to watch it with your friends and family...

Happy New Year...or is it?

So much as happened since the last time I had blogged here. The months of Dec and Jan have been really crazy for me. Here is the list of what happened to my life during the past two months.

Mid-December 05
I went for a little vacation at the east of Singapore. That's rite! I am too broke to go overseas for vacation, so I went to the Aloha chalet with my church friends for one week vacation. The weather was good, so we went to the beach almost everyday. I never imagined that Singapore beaches were that good. I think Singapore beaches are ok, not much of a 'wow' factor as a tourist attraction. However, the sun is been hot during the week, so my friends and I sun-tanned almost everyday. When I returned to work after that, I was so tanned that people will think I went to Phuket for vacation. LOL!!!

Christmas vacation 05
Ok, I went for a minor operation during the Christmas holidays. I know that's sucks coz it's near Christmas. I have to miss my friends Christmas party, miss Christmas Midnight mass. Our church Christmas Midnight mass has always been a yearly affair. My friends and I would buy the lastest fashion in clothes and exchange presents before mass. We would attend the Midnight mass together with our friends. It was a memorable event. Too bad I couldn't make it due to my operation. I had to have my leg operated as I had an extra bone growing. So I have to miss a lot of Christmas holidays and gift exchanges. The upside: I have one month plus of medical leave lasting till the first week of Feb. Not a bad trade-off, come to think about it.

26 December - First anniversary of the Tsunami victims
Just a moment when the world stop whatever it is doing and pay respect to the lives lost during the Tsunami in the year 2004. The Tsunami is the worst disaster in the history where so many lives were lost during the Tsunami in different Asian countries. Now, the survivors have to rebuilt their lives.

The Nightmare of the New Year's Eve and the New Year
Yup, this year New Year Eve wil be my worst time I ever had. Why? This is the day where I will always remember how my father is. My father suddenly died of an acute heart attack in the morning of New Year Eve. The night before, my father went for his New Year party with his colleagues. He got home drunk, intoxicated and a bit unconscious. My sister and I tried to help him to wash him up and clean him. Checking that he is sleeping peacefully, we went to sleep. However, as fate intervened, my father had a heart failure during the middle of the night. I didn't noticed that until the next morning on New Year's Eve at 7.30am in the morning. I woke up to check on him and felt his pulse and breathing. There was none. I quickly called my family and called for the ambulance. However, by the time the paramedics came, the paramedics had pronounced my father to be dead on the spot. It was too late to save him. He was gone. Our family hierarchy suddenly changed. I was the head of the household. I suddenly became the man of the household. My world suddenly collapsed. During the wake, I felt so overwhelmed with this new position that I felt helpless and had no one to talk to. My father was suddenly taken away from me on New Year Eve. I had not even said farewell to him. All the time, I took him for granted, thinking that he will be there tomorrow and the day after. There's so many stuff that I wanted to say to him but couldn't now. It was this moment that I realised that I have become an adult.

Now, everything has more or less settled in my life. I am still having my medical leave. My father has been gone for two weeks. The New Year had been hard on me and our family. I guess now, we couldn't celebrate New Year like we used to anymore. Life has to go on.

Adios for now.

Death Penalty

Today, two significant executions were carried out from the East and the West of the World.


RALEIGH, N.C. - A double murderer who said he didn't want to be known as a number became the 1,000th person executed in the United States since capital punishment resumed 28 years ago.

Kenneth Lee Boyd, who brazenly gunned down his estranged wife and father-in-law 17 years earlier, died at 2:15 a.m. Friday after receiving a lethal injection.

After watching Boyd die, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page said the victims should be remembered. "Tonight, justice has been served for Mr. Kenneth Boyd," Page said.

Boyd's death rallied death penalty opponents, and about 150 protesters gathered outside the prison.

"Maybe Kenneth Boyd won't have died in vain, in a way, because I believe the more people think about the death penalty and are exposed to it, the more they don't like it," said Stephen Dear, executive director of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty.

"Any attention to the death penalty is good because it's a filthy, rotten system," he said.

Boyd, 57, did not deny killing Julie Curry Boyd, 36, and her father, 57-year-old Thomas Dillard Curry. But he said he thought he should be sentenced to life in prison, and he didn't like the milestone his death would mark.

"I'd hate to be remembered as that," Boyd told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I don't like the idea of being picked as a number."

The Supreme Court in 1976 ruled that capital punishment could resume after a 10-year moratorium. The first execution took place the following year, when Gary Gilmore went before a firing squad in Utah.

In the execution chamber, Boyd smiled at daughter-in-law Kathy Smith — wife of a son from Boyd's first marriage — and a minister from his home county. He asked Smith to take care of his son and two grandchildren and she mouthed through the thick glass panes separating execution and witness rooms that her husband was waiting outside.

In his final words, Boyd said: "God bless everybody in here."

In Boyd's pleas for clemency, his attorneys said he served in Vietnam where he operated a bulldozer and was shot at by snipers daily, which contributed to his crimes.

Execution No. 1,001 was scheduled for Friday night at 6 p.m., when South Carolina planned to put Shawn Humphries to death for the 1994 murder of a store clerk.

On the other side,

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore executed an Australian drug trafficker on Friday, despite repeated pleas from Australia's government for clemency and quiet protests by thousands opposed to the death penalty.

Nguyen Tuong Van was hanged at the city-state's Changi prison just before dawn. Within minutes, a large church bell in Nguyen's home city of Melbourne tolled 25 times -- once for every year of his life.

The hanging follows weeks of campaigning by his family and civil rights groups to stop the execution. Nguyen, who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, was described by lawyers in his final hours as calm, resolute and ready to die.

Thousands of people gathered in Australia to pray for Nguyen while Singapore activists moved in pairs overnight to light candles at the prison. Public gatherings of more than four people require a police permit in the tightly controlled city-state.

"I hope the strongest message that comes out of this ... is to the young of Australia. Don't have anything to do with drugs, don't use them, don't touch them, don't carry them, don't traffic in them," Australian Prime Minister John Howard said.

Some 420 people have been hanged in Singapore since 1991, mostly for drug trafficking, an Amnesty International 2004 report said. That gives the country of 4.4 million people the highest execution rate in the world relative to population.

Opponents of the death penalty say support for capital punishment is weakening around the world. But at least 3,797 people were executed in 2004, according to Amnesty figures, which the group says is the second-highest number recorded since it started monitoring executions 25 years ago.

As Singapore and Australia absorbed news of the execution, the United States prepared to execute the 1000th prisoner since capital punishment was reinstated there nearly 30 years ago.

HELD HANDS

Diplomacy gave way to frustration this week in Australia, a staunch opponent of capital punishment, as its attorney-general branded Nguyen's impending execution a "barbaric" act.

About 70 people, including Australian politicians, gathered outside the Singapore High Commission in Canberra on Friday with a banner reading "Oh Singapore, how could you?" while protesters clutching flowers rallied in Sydney and Melbourne.

"The Singapore government had a very hard heart," said the Nguyen family's parish priest, Father Peter Norden, who led a service in Melbourne.

In a tiny concession to Australia, Singapore's prison authority allowed Nguyen to hold hands with his mother before his execution but rejected pleas to let them have a final hug.

Nguyen's twin brother Khoa and a lawyer arrived at the prison at dawn. They could not witness the execution but said they wanted to be as close as possible to him when he died. His mother Kim was in a Singapore chapel with friends, praying for her son.

"She said to me she was talking to him and able to touch his hair and face. It was a great comfort to her," Nguyen's lawyer Julian McMahon told reporters outside the prison.

Analysts said short-term relations between the countries would be strained because of the execution but said Singapore would not likely budge on its mandatory death sentence for crimes such as murder, firearms offences and drug trafficking.

"Singapore is a small, affluent society next door to one of the world's biggest suppliers of drugs -- the golden triangle. I think Singapore would have been a very different place if it was not tough on it," said political analyst Seah Chiang Nee.

Singapore is one of Australia's strongest allies in Asia and Howard has rejected calls for trade and military boycotts.

Sadly, the death penalty will continue to exist in the modern developed societies today. Why? Because it is a strong deterence, proponents said. However, we are taking a live here. Who are we to judge who live or die? Yes, the murderer killed someone and must be punished. However, must we stoop to his inhumane level and murder him just for retribution and revenge? Why is the death penalty truly there for? To act as a deterrene or act as a revenge for the victims and retribution for the culprit. Two wrongs do not make a right.