Ripple and js just got back from europe (ok this post was a little late, they have been back for a couple weeks already)... check it out here, here and here.. and they brought some gifts back for me!!
they even found my special request of instant risotto... now i gotta plan when to cook it... and i finally got a bottle of absolut pears... thanks guys!!!
Chongwei came back singapore for a short visit to settle his visa. he got a new job, hopefully he will like this job better, now he and me can be considered to be in the same industry, but his is more atas.. haha.. we took this chance to meet up and decided to spend a lazy afternoon having lunch at the wine company at evans road together with jiehong mingbao ting alvin bingwei and of course not forgetting little jerard.
The food was quite good. most of us took the brunch set that consist of eggs, saussage, bacon, baked beans and a basket of breads. looks more like breakfast right? but i like this variety of food, feels like having breakfast at the hotel when travelling overseas. Here's the crowd for the day.. the place was quite empty and very quiet. nice place to chat. but i wasn't very satisfied with the photos taken that day. must find another time to go there again.
Time passed so fast.... we knew one another for more than 13 yrs already!!! to recall.. i knew alv in 1988, mb and cw in 1990, ting in 1993, jh and bw in 1994 (did i get any of the years wrong?)... and it's now already 2007!!! time can really fly very fast...
I was a wonderfull weekend with terry yihan and jackson at railay bay in kriba, thailand. sorry for the lack of posts in the last few weeks, was too busy with work. lot's of unposted and unsorted photo, will try to post them all up this week, inluding those from this trip..
The trip was a very relaxing one, getting away from the usual busy life in singapore.. the place is really beautiful, although a very small place, but can be really fun.. had some adventures over there too.. ok.. back to work..will update soon!!
It has been a while since i attended a wedding.. this time round it's ruey loon's turn. couldn't make it for the dinner so i took time to go for the church ceremony. i went there and realise that i dun know a single person there, all of them weren't there, cos they are attending the dinner in the evening. and as usual, i wasn't very early so i couldn't get a good seat at the front for nice photos. was seated right at the back of the isle. oh and the bridal car looked gorgeously retro. 
This time, it's mum's birthday, and after the bad experience with chocolate cake, i decided to get a fruit cake instead, this one is definitely a better choice. at least we could finish the cake with no left over.
Mum didn't want to put too many candles on the cake so we only used 2 big ones out of the so many candles that was given to us. hahaha it was a simple celebration at the office, after having lunch at soup restaurant... Happy birthday mum!
Anather very backdated post. met up with nisban booncheng and little cyrus last sunday for lunch. haven't met them in quite a while. cyrus has grown quite a lot, in term of size an also in terms of intelligence. he actually recognises a camera. what i took my camera out, he started posing and he knows i'm taking photos of him.
After the phototaking, we started chatting and didn't really gave him much attention. and i wonder if it's because he really wanted attention that he dropped a cup full of milo on the floor causing a real big mess on himself, his mum and the floor.. of course he started crying, and insisted that the cup be picked up, really fierce... insisted that the place had to be cleaned up ... and only his dad and mum knows what he was instsing on, cos i dun really understand what he meant by pointing at the cup and the floor. the interesting thing about him crying is tat he could actually accumulate his tears in the eyes and make them fall in huge droplets.. wah .. bc then said to him "you dun have to do this, no matter how big your tear droplet is, it's useless". seems like it's not the first time he's doing this.. then the dad said: "the next thing he's going to do is to vomit". i was shocked.... but he didn't ... we were getting so much attention at the cafe that i got a little paisei.. and we decided to leave, just as we were leaving, cyrus, who's still crying started to cough and it sounded like he's choking... then... he vomitted all over himself.. wah nisban really knows his son well .. i wonder how i can ever take care of a kid like that.. i think he's really smart, using such methods for attention.. must be inherited from the dad.. very gao geng.
Leon and mb, you might wanna consider meeting up with them and see what's coming your way in the next few years.
Saw this from starsapphire's blog. watched it and i was totally amazed by the technology. you gotta see it for yourself
This seems like a super big version of the iphone(the multitouch technology). the wireless connection and interface to devices like the camera and phone is just too cool!!
Saw something quite interesting as i was about to drive away from a car park in jurong west. i was looking around and i saw this from my side mirror
On a closer look, i saw a group of teenage girls at the first storey of the flat, right below the kitchen window, and this other girl was talking to them standing at the window. i couldn't hear them but they seem to be trying to do something and not just talking. thn i saw the girl went into the flat and back with an umbrella, she brought the umbrella out of the window and hun it by the bamboo pole. and the rest of the girls were pointing at the big water pipes belos the window sill...hhmmm i really hope she wasn't trying to slip out of the house by climbing out from there!! it would be disastrous if she spil and fall. 
After watching for a while.. they decided to give up .. i think the girl didn't have the courage to climb out.. which was a good thing.. i think they were at most 14 yr olds... and the way they talk and their mannerism.. ah lians in the making!!
Haven't met cruz for quite some time, didn't know how he is recovering from the fall. jt organised a lunch session at junction 8, and thai express was chosen.
Waited quite a while for the food, but with jt around, waiting time always seems easy because he'll find lots of things to talk about.. food wasn't fantastic, according to them, there are other branches of thai express which serve better food, although the menu is the same.
I hope jt won't kill me for posting this. i quite like this impromptu photo.. totally expressionless. the original jt.. eye bags nicely hidden by the shadows.. or probably he has no eyebags that day cos he was on a super long leave and there's no stress from work at all...
Cruz felt that he does not have the right image for any photos, but i think this one is not bad too.. he haven't got the chance to get his hair cut because the salon is not bai kah friendly, he'll only get to cut his hair when he's legs are more usable (should be very soon).. and why doesn't he go to another salon? cos celebrity gets their's sponsored.
Jl reminded me not to post his photos... so i guess i shouldn't... his holiday's coming to an end soon... enjoy the rest of our hols before your lectures, assignments etc etc start pouring in!!
Watched transformers with xingzan at gv max (vivo) the screen was really big, and luckily i booked the tickets a day ahead, or else i think i'll get a headache after watching the show. even though we were sitting near the back, there are still many scenes where the movements were so fast that i couldn't really follow up on everything moving around the big screen.
Action scenes were good, but i was anticipating more of the transformation sound that i used to hear a lot in the cartoons we watched when we were young. they transform with a different sound now.. and i dun really understanmd the end of the movie.. maybe i should think so much about the story when watching an action cg movie like that.
George have been flying in and out of the country so often. i think he's not in singapore most of the time. got a chance to meet up with him and we initially wanted to go for tea at holland village, but after 15 mins of waiting in vain for an empty legal parking lot. i decided that we should go somewhere else. he was luckier, someone in front of him drove out when he was at the car park.
So we drove to holland grove and settled for secret recipe, this should be the first branch they have in singapore, i knew about this branch since quite some time ago. it was quite quiet, only a handful of customers, but i like places that are not too crowded, you do not feel presseured by customers waiting for seats when you hope to sit there a little longer just to chat.
Anyway, other than distributing health products, george has been going into organic food, they got a farm and they are cultivating their own organic food (in shanghai).. including chickens.. if i didn't hear wrongly.. so he's becoming a farmer. hahaha
Oh, and he's quite a poser, when i told him it's quite difficult to catch a natural shot of people if there's only the subject and the photographer around, he acted as if he didn't know i was trying to take a photo even though the slr is pointing at his face right in front of him.
Have been busy with many things this week. i'll be posting on quite backdated events... starting with this one.
It was my dad's birthday, and we had a simple celebration at the office. just a birthday song and we shared the cake among ourselves.
It's fairly simply to remember my dad's birthday. there was even a movie made to help us remember his birthday. the movie was called "born on the forth of july". yeah, his birthday falls on the same day as america's independent day!
Every year we got the fruit cake cos my parents dun really fancy chocolate. but this year i wanted to get something different, but the small cake shop near office has limited choices, so it was either fruit cake or chocolate. i decided that since most of the cake will not be finished by my parents, i chose the chocolate truffle cake. it turned out to be really sweet (i meant too much sugar here).
Mum: "wah, the cake is so sweet, you should have bought a fruit cake" ... sianzz... ok now i know what cake to get for my mum's birthday 2 weeks later.
Met up with terry and yihan on sunday. initially wanted to play mahjong, but yihan was against the idea. he feels that we are too serious when it comes to playing mahjong. like we are out to kill whenever we ask him to play mahjong!! so he suggested going to a cafe just to nua, and if possible, play board games.
Terry suggested tcc immediately because he just received his tcc membership card which entitles us 15% off.. not bad right? i cannot remember how much you need to spend (without discount) to be eligible for the card.
We had tea, coffee, some light snacks while we set up the table for my board game louis xiv, the game was gift and i loved it quite a lot, it's another one of the strategy games where the more you play, the more you think you can play better the next time. spent around 2 hrs on the game and of course, i emerged as the winner.. haha
We had some time left before going for our next appointment, so since we had 2 laptops and there's wireless@sg there, we decided to search around for the most suitable accom for out upcoming trip to krabi. i have totally no idea what to expect from there. never even knew this place existed before terry suggested going there. anyone been there? are there many different areas there? which is the most happenning? which area shall we stay? these still remain as questions to us even after we searh the web looking for the right place.
I hope this will be a relaxing trip and i hope we will be able to find a nice cozy accom that's not too expensive.
This must be mingbao's biggest birthday present ever. but sadly it's not a gift from others but a present he got for himself or rather him and jiehong got for themselves. it's a new hoda civic!! woo hoo.... having the same colour as all of our cars..
The car has got a cool looking exterior, looks like a 2 litre car on the outside. internal is beautiful too. look at the dashboard.
It has got a digital speedometer, with large digits right at the front. all audio controls are available on the steering wheel, no more problems with controlling the audio device when when driving alone. they must feel really excited about the new buy.. i would if i were them.
It's mingbao's birthday, bingwei suggested dinner at a mexican restaurant called margarita's at faber drive.. and we really had a wonderful dinner there. (click on the link to see more of the food). most of us happen to have our birthdays in the second half of the year, so he's one of the first few to get his 10 yrs membership to the club. moshi calls it the trio club. around the table, only his beloved wife can welcome him to the club, the rest of us are sept and oct babies.. and we have jerard joining us sept babies!!
Finally met up with this high flyer. major alvin tan.. who came back to sg only a couple weeks back from the states. he's still the same, looks the same, still as crappy... but he drives an audi now. haha. nice meet up with you sir!!
Another one whom i haven't met for a long while.. another high flyer in the finance sector.. tingting.. pia so hard for the company, must be paid very well i guess. that she worked till 8pm on a sat.
everyone seem to be soaring high in their career.. what about me!!!!
Anyway, the focus for the day is supposed to be mingbao, we got a nice chocolate banana cake from secret recipe but it was too big for 6 of us.. the staff at the restaurant actually added sparkles on the cake when they brought it out..it made the atmosphere so much better than just having 3 large candles.. haha.. i better laugh now, i only have 2 more months to laugh before i join him in the trio club..
It was a wonderful celebration and catchup session. let's hope that we can do this more often, and as usual, it was mahjong after dinner!!
It has been a while since i last been to settlers.. still remember the times when we go there like once a week.. trying to master every new game.. decided to go and have a look at the place on sat with terry, cheesing and jackson. was a little shocked with i reached there, cos i walked a little around the place trying to look for a familiar face and i realised that i do not know any of the staff!! ah, is the turnover rate that high??
Was not ready to learn new games, so we played puerto rico. if i'm not wrong, this is the first strategy board game that i learned and was so interested in it that made me want to try all the other strategy games.. the game is still as fun.. and as we are approaching the end of the game, kaejer appeared.. finally saw someone familiar .. and we can ask for a discount.. even though i have lost my vip card.
It was realy nice going back settlers.. would try to find more time to go there more often...anyone game for it?
