Sentosa - A Pictorial Post

Js suggested going sentosa and since i was intending to go watch songs of the sea, we arranged a trip there. but sadly, there wasn't good responses, there were only 4 of us in the end, but it's a good thing too cos 4 is a good number to take in a car. And js ripple sr with me.. had a wonderful day at sentosa, lot's of photos, loved them 3, wonderful models! The sun was hiding behind the clouds for most of the time while we were there, so ended up taking lot's of photos instead of tanning under the sun.

This photo comes in a matching pair.. see the other one here.
At 6 plus, we went to wash up to prepare for the entry to the new attraction at sentosa, songs of the sea, which is supposed to replace the famous musical fountain that has fasinated me even when i was a little boy, even before laser was added in. then we were totally captivated by the water sprays dancing and swaying to the music. expectation for this new show was really high, moreover you gotta pay $6 to watch it now. at 7pm, ,long queues had been formed at each of the 5 entrances!! wow!.. because it's free seating, i guess there will be people who want to get the best seats and the only way is to get there early and wait.

Doors opened at 7:20 and we got quite a good seat, queueing up for 20 mins was quite worth it. stage set was beautiful, looked like a fishing village, the beach became the performance stage and the sea was the backdrop. show started on time at 7:40pmclick on the photo for a larger version.
Was rather disappointed, i felt that it could have been better, the laser, the lighting effects and the fire effects were good, but the dancing fountain has lost it's magical touch, i wasn't impressed by the non swaying water sprays at all... water that can dance to the beat of the music have became a thing of the past, only found in my memories... let's hope sentosa will improve on that part and present a better show, so i guess you can't call it the musical fountain anymore.
On the way out, we saw this..
rip: hey, aren't you guys called the j4?
jx looked at js and i guessed the same thought arised "j4..haven't heard it for a long while, is this group still around?"
I haven't been blogging with the j4 label for a long time, and i hope this is not the last. Ok.. let's not spoil the mood for the evening.. it's dinner time
Walked a while around vivo to look for a place for dinner, and when i saw that kim gary was queue-less... i just had to try it after hearing the comments from the place. so there we went. and with sr being a frequent visitor to hk around, he should know if the food is autentic tasting (i think he goes hk more frequently than i go sentosa). you can see my reviews by clicking on the "kim gary" link above.
Walked past pat's oven and got some toasted wasabi macadamia nuts.. and spent the rest of the evening laughing at js as he hiccuped his whole night away!... thanks guys for the wonderful weekend! Photos were suberb.. a good lens is nothing without you sporting people being the models..

Long Night at Vivo City

A belated birthday celebration for leng and we dicided to have dinner at vivo city cos there's plans to go cafe del mar after dinner to chill out. i was late and the 3 of them who reached at 645pm couldn't settle for a right place for dinner.When i reached at around 720pm, we were stuck between 2 buffets, meat buffet at carnivoire $38++ or jap buffer at aji $42++. and i had lunch at 330pm... the rest of them claimed that they were really hungry .. but after walk to and fro, we still decided to forgo the buffet!
And we ended up here, corduroy cafe, it doesn't look much like a dinner place, small and low tables, more like a place for coffee, so we took a look at the menu, and all the stuffs dun look worth it.. having to eat such expensive food at a place which doesn;t have a proper dinner table.. we decided to leave... haha ..
Finally settled down at dian xiao er, the food was good, click on the link for more reviews of the food. it was a good decision to have dinner at this place.. i think the buffet would have killed us.. 4 person who are not able to eat that much thinking of expensive buffets ..


And since we had to wait for ms busy regina who is hating her job that's not giving her free time for her own programmes... we went to godiva for dessert ... not the chocolate, but the ice blended. tried 2 flavours and would strongly recommend the dark chocolate decadance, the milk chocolate latte wasn't anything special, and was too sweet.Regina finally arrived, it was nearly 10 and she needed dinner .. proceeded to carl's jr and accompanied her for dinner before we can proceed to cafe del mar. had fries, chat and chat and gossiped and talked and laughed .. until we realised it's 1230am in the morning!! ... haha .. no need to go clubbing liao!! .. it's a whole night at vivo skipping from food joints to food joints.. and i recalled that this is not the first time... look here! anyway.. happy belated birthday leng!

Good Food

Met up with terry, sumi, and kian for dinner at my favourite western food place after they finish their classes, and sumi was talking about himself having to accompany terry all the way to imm to buy some trivial stuffs... and ended up being late for dinner .. etc etc etc. anyway, since we are going to have good food, everything is worth it right? moreover terry's sending him back, so cannot complain that much.. the dinner was expectedly good, those who haven't tried it, you should go try...
And dessert was at island creamery at serence centre, heard about the good ice cream there but never tried it.. verdict? ... maybe i have tried nicer ice cream elsewhere, so the ice cream there doesn't relly impress me.. probably have to try some of their special flavour next time.
They actually let us print our own photo, sign on it and stick it on their wall.. cool!! but they ran out of printing paper... hai .. and i brought such a big camera with me .. cannot print our photo, what a waste..

Spontaneous Breakfast

Following the spontaneous dinner i had last week, i suddenly have time for breakfast after meeting a customer early in the morning. so i made some phone calls.

First to Terry.
jx: are you in school?
terry: no, i'm sleeping.
jx: breakfast?
terry: i have no car leh...

ok .. then cannot liao since i dun have time to go fetch him

Next yihan.
jx: are you in school?
yh: no, i'm at home
jx: i;m 5 mins from your place, let's go for breakfast
yh: oh ok, let me go brush my teeth first.

Then we proceeded to casuarina curry for breakfast. i have not had prata for breakfast for a long time, i almost forgotten that prata can be taken for breakfast, too used to it being a supper item.
I didn't even give him enough time to tidy up his hair before digging him out of bed for breakfast.. so this is how he look 10 mins after waking upp..not bad hor? wu xim level 9 out of 10..

Breakfast was good, we had thosai, prata and puthu mayam (is it spelt this way) and the milo peng was just fantastic.. had so much that i had to skip lunch for the day..yihan was like complaining to me that there's no photos of him on my blog recently .. so to satisfy him, i've posted 2 today.. haha...

more spontaneous meetup to come.. who's next in the list?

Quick Visit to the Zoo

The last time i've been to the singapore zoo was when i was still in primary school.. wow.. but i've heard that singapore has got a really wonderful zoo. so decided to go take a look and find some new models for my camera. thanks to js who has a lobang for free visit to the zoo!! this trip was totally worth it.. $3.80 for parking.. that's it.Going to the zoo means that i need to have a zoom lens to get close up photos.. so borrowed this from leon.
A 70-200mm zoom lens! very huge and heavy, it's about a foot in length, you can compare it with my phone from the photo. carrying it around the zoo was quite embarassing, everyone looked at you with the "wow, a professional photographer" look, when i'm not. i felt weird when i walked past a group of pros carrying all sorts of equipment and were discussing about shooting techniques in hokkien. ok anyway, the photos came out quite good, my standard not that high ..haha. i guess most of the credit should go to this wonderful lens.
Here are some of the photos i took, and as you can see, i separated them into 2 groups.. the main ones below are the monkeys and their relatives.. are they called primates? cos most of them are found in this section called the primate kingdom. anyway, i think they are wonderful animals to take. their eyes, postures, expressions etc, so similar to human beings, it's as if they are trying to tell you something. you gotta click on the photos to see a larger version.Didn't have enough time to finish up the whole zoo, so i'll be going again, and hopefully i'll have better photos from the next trip.

Impromptu Saturday

Lazy sat afternoon again... after i bought the new lens. so gotta find some people to try out my lens. called bingwei.
jx: wanna go for tea?
bw: i'm meeting libing to settle some stuffs, maybe we can meet together for tea
jx: ok set..
.... in the end waited so long that tea became dinner.. but we still met up, bw suggested dinner at this supposedly famous zi char place at keong saik road.The place looks quite run down, with this small whiteboard writing what they have on it. i think the words have been there like for the longest time. if i was just walking past, i will never stop to try the food.
While waiting for the food, i gotta play with my camera and the new lens, and why miss the chance when i have such good models around. i really love the photos taken with the 50mm lens. it's sharp, nicely exposed and make me feel that my camera is different from the point and shoot ones.. oh if you are waiting to see the photos of the food, click on the link somewhere above, i wrote about the food on my food blog. Initially, my plan was to meet terry and gang at night, but it was scheduled to be at 11pm. it's going to be a long wait so i decided to get bw lb and mb for mahjong instead... and of course it's at mingbao's place
But before getting to mingbao's place, me and bw decided to check out the club 21 sale since we had to wait for lb to finish his dance class. from past experiences, club 21 has got really good bargains at their warehouse(sort of) sale. you can get armanis, cks, dknys are low low prices.
After walking a few rounds, there was really nothing that was worth getting.. maybe the good stuffs have all been snatched away. i really wonder why some people can actually buy so many things? look at how much this lady bought!!?? unbelievable... let's go mahjong..
Jiehong's in her 3rd month of pregnancy... but dun really see her putting on weight.. will try to take her photo often so that we can see the difference as time passes.
Here's a scan of the little baby.. cannot really make anything out of it.. and if you have noticed, i added the label newborn on this post, which might seem inappropriate, but i think they can be categogised together... one more label very laychey..
The 3 players wearing t shirts that blends in well with the 3 big cards... must take a photo.. what a coincidence! there's my saturday!!

New Lens for the Camera

Went to sim lim on sat to get a new lens for my camera, a lens that i have always wanted to get, the ef 50mm f/1.8.It's not an expensive lens but i love the potriat photos that's taken with this lens. some time last year, i borrowed this lens from starsapphire and took lots of wonderful photos in bintan. oh i was so excited that i have not taken a photo of the lens itself, will do that soon and post it here... here's one photo that i took with the lens right after i bought it, while we were going for dinner at keong siak road.As we can see, bingwei and libing are both natural posers! more photos to come!!

Farewell Dinner for Dawei

Went for a nice family dinner with dawei, my parents and a few closer relatives at jumbo seafood for a farewell dinner. dawei will be embarking into his next phase of his pilot training at australia for the next 8 months.For those who have yet to meet up with him, i dun think you have much chance cos he's flying off on monday, early morning flight. All the best for his traning! .. very soon i'll have pilot brother!

Spontaneous Dinner

I called frederick up for dinner.

jx: hey, where you now?
fred: at home lor?
jx: i'm near your place, shall we go for dinner?
fred: huh... aiya need to do work leh...got email to send..
jx: no need to eat?
fred: need... ok ok.. give me 15 mins i quickly send out the email then we go eat
jx: ok.. see you at the car park in 15 mins

wah! as you know, being a contractor, i have not control of my free time, sometimes customers seems a little more lor sor, sometimes my whole weekend is burnt because of work and sometimes my weekdays are very free, so it's difficult to really meet people according to schedule. so whenever i get friends for such spontaneous meet up, it will brighten up my day!
Ok.. anyway, we decided to go to bedok corner food centre .. haha yes again.. cos fred has never been there.
We had hokkien mee, bbq sting ray, carrot cake and cheng tng. noticed that carrot cake has no link, cos it sucks.. i dun think i will write a posting about it. haha

Although is wasn't a long dinner, but i had quite a good time, dinner like that is definitely better than maggi mee at home.. thanks fred...

It's Wednesday Again

The week has passed so quickly, it's wednesday again, and i'm off to yveon's loft for project again. dinner was packed from the bedok corner food centre, if you have realised we are eating the same thing as last week except that this time the food is better. the hokkien mee is famous, the mee goreng is only slightly better and the orlua without or(oyster) is quite ok to me although not fantastic.
yvon made dessert, very refreshing mixture of chin chow, fresh mango and aloe vera. wonderfull desert to mark the end of dinner and the start of tedious work in fromof the computer.
Poor kaizer had none of the above, he was so happy when we were setting the table, probably he thought some of the food will go into his stomach..

ok.. work work work ..i wonder when we will finish this project.. will i ever take up a project like that again?

Happy Birthday Risa

Risa invited a few of us to her place for dinner on sunday for her belated birthday celebration. and usually what do you expect for dinner when it's at home? some home made chicken wings, few dishes that consist of vege, or some meat.. or most of the time it's steamboat. we were shocked when we reached her place and saw the spread on the dining table.
We had this thing that i dunno for appetizer, i think it's somethink like hummers, spread on a cracker and topped with prawn roe. super huge prawns and mussels, and pork knuckle... first time i have a meal like that at a friend's place. the food was prepared by her dad.. very high class hor? everything was swept empty except for the 2 big bowls of fresh vegetable, yihan finished half a bowl himself though!!! he eats it like eatting grass, a lot of grass. Had a wonderful dinner while watching the ren ci charity show on tv. thank you risa... and happy belated birthday!

First Time at Yanping's Place

Mahjong at yanping and hanyang's place.. first time there and the place is very nicely renovated.. very cosy .. eddie went whampoa market to tabao some food, and according to them, these are famous stalls...
Was thinking of posting this on justximplyfood but i didn't know the stall name, or the location etc.. so i'll just post it here..hokkien mee was wet and nice, i never liked hokkien mee which is too dry, it has to be slurpy..haha..
Or lua... supposedly famous, but doesn't taste very good leh .. according to eddie, it's because he was served the last batch from the pan, so this batch was left on the hot pan for the longest period of time, making it a little overcooked, chao da, and quite hard... so i'll still gotta try it again one more time to really know it's really good

Here are 2 freshly shaven shih tzu that stays with yanping and hanyang, 2 cute little dogs that can actually bark quite loudly! Yanping refuses to pose for a photo.. so too bad .. no photos of people ... lost in mahjong... hai .. hopefully will have better luck next time...

Lazy Sat Afternoon at Vivo

It was a sat where i dun have to work and generally have nothing on for the whole day, really feel different, usually my weekends will be supered packed with activities. Met up with zhentao for lunch at vivo city, walked around the place for quite a while before dieiding where to eat, cos most places has got long queues and we didn't wanna wait that long for food.
As we were walking at the basement, we came across superdog, hhmmm new fast food chain, let try it! no long queues ... just nice.. so we walked in and looked at the menu to choose what we wanted to eatThe food is actually quite good, just a little expensive for fast food.. wonderful fries!! .. juicy sausages.. yum yum... didn't regret the decision of having lunch there.

Since we are at vivo, i gotta try the chocolate ice blended cos cruz and ripple was telling me that after they tried it, they never wanted to drink any other chocolate drinks anymore ...
But probably that powerful statement had got our expectation of the drink a little too high.. yes the drink was good.. but i will stil drink other chocolate drinks because they dun cost $8 a cup!! But at least i won't mind paying for this drink again, unlike their chocolates which i think is really overpriced.. won't buy it unless it's a gift for someone else.. had a good chat at the ggodiva cafe itself.. a nice peaceful place to talk..