The Coffee Nation

It has been a while since I had an entry in my blog, so I just want to share with you people a place I recently "discovered" while waiting for a friend who wanted to meet up for coffee. For the record, the owners did not offer to compensate me for the publicity (or lack of it).

A review of the place.

Located along Bali Lane, which can be equally inaccessible whether you drive or not. Not many bus services serve this area & it is not located inside a shopping center that is located above a MRT station. Parking is totally limited too.

What I like about this place is that a few graduates came together & wanted to have a place to hang out. Not too commercial like Coffee Bean & Tea leaf or Starbucks. It is homely yet suitable to meet people to discuss serious stuff.

It is quiet. Sometimes too quiet that you worry if the place is making enough money to stay afloat. You know the feeling when you find a really decent place to hang out & it closes down because it is not making enough money?

There is a nice corner with really comfortable sofas. At the other end of the 2nd storey near the stairs & toilet, there is another corner where you can sit on the floor & sip your coffee placed on a low coffee table. Light snacks like fries & wedges are available if the hunger pangs get to you.

The highlight of this place would be the free Wifi that is available as well as numerous power points to juice up your lappy if the need arises. A lot of though has been put into planning what the owners really want & also keeping up with modern times where people work away from their desks & laptop computers become more common place.

Prices are reasonable & service & prompt & polite. Prompt & attentive but never to intrusive.

This might be my new hangout as it is located near my workplace & it doesn't cost anywhere near an arm or leg to spend the hours if you have time to spare.

Last but not least, here is the official website of this really nice place.

Ja neh!!!

Yummy Mee Hoon Goreng

Yummy Food.. Mee Hoon Goreng.. My all time favourite hahhaa.. miss the one at bedok which i alway went with junkie when watching soccer.. long time since we last went there. are you hungry?

Was walking around Vivocity when I passed by the really BIG Candy Empire stall. It must be every kid's fantasy to own a store like this. It is my destiny to have a really big house in the near future & have a section of my kitchen just like Candy Empire, with all sorts of candies & chocolates & snacks like the ones sold here. I also wan a bar as well stocked as any bar you find in our watering holes but that wil come in another post.

What I like about this place is they import varieties of familiar brands that are not sold here. For example. the Chunky Kit Kat. We used to have only peanut better (even they have stopped importing this, I wonder why), caramel & something else which I can't recall. Cookies & Cream Chunky Kit Kat is not something you find even in our high end supermarkets but the people at Candy Empire did so.

Walked around the chocolate section & have to limit myself to 3 bars of chocolate as shown in the picture. OMG!!! The average price is about SGD$3 per bar so thats SGD$10 of chocolate sitting in my tiny plastic bag. So SO SOOOOOOO expensive.

I guess I should give myself a treat once in a while, even though I am in shape. Round is a shape.

Ja neh!!!

The House Bunny

Can you believe it??? I actually watched two movies in a day with Yuri a.k.a. R.D.D. You might want to ask her that those initials mean.



On a sidenote, something seems to be wrong with Blogspot. Can't seem to get the test to wrap around the pictures. Wonder what is going on. Anybody knows the answer?

Find out more about the movie from the official website which doesn't seem to be very interesting.

Here are Yuri's comments about the movie.

Ja neh!!!

Connected

It seems like there is not much activity going on here but I can assure you guys that I am pretty much alive, unlike the impression given by the number of posts, which are few & far in between. Watched a couple of movies lately courtesy of HSBC's Golden Village prepaid card promotions. SGD$75 for a card which entitles you to 10 tickets during all days & all sessions. It is most worthwhile to use it during the weekends & public holidays when tickets cost SGD$10 each. If I want to watch a movie, I would do so on Tuesday when they cost GV Club members SGD$6.50.



Anyway more on the movie. It is an adaption of another movie Cellular which was released in 2004. I though only Singapore TV program people (what exactly do you call them???) have no creativity or are bounded by so much red tape & censorship B.S. that we have no choice but to copy what other people have already successfully done. It turns out that our Hong Kong movie directors & scriptwriters are following the same trend too. They copied this movie & just used mostly Asian actors 7 the dialogue was mostly in mandarin. Okie, to be fair, the Ang Mohs have done the same thing too with Shuttle (there are Thai & English versions of the movie).

I found the action a little too slow for my liking & it was not really worth watching on a weekend. Maybe on a Tueday perhaps, when ticket prices are among the cheapest available. Maybe I would let Yuri explain more about the movie as she did not agree with the good reviews given by her PDFs (pig / dog friends).

Yuri's post about the movie.

Ja neh!!!

My deepest condolences 06 & 07

It has been a difficult time for all of us. Mothers of one of my closest friends in NTU & my ex-colleague / ex-mentor passed away in the space of three months. Every wake that I attend is a painful reminder of how fragile life can be. Both passed away to cancer, arguably the top killer in affluent S'pore.

Lifestyle changes must be in order. Stress must be managed, diet must be revamped, physical exercise is now on the cards, procrastination must be reined in & not allow to ran rampant. 

Se7en, may you find closure tomorrow & live strong. If you need anything, my mobile is on 27/4.

Ja neh!!!

Nelly Furtado - Say it Right

Not the original singer but she's hot & she has a good voice. Since she is not lip-syncing (is it how it is spelt?), I decided to put her in my entry. Maybe you can compare her to the original singer as heard in the video below. I have a soft spot for girls who can sing well. If the girl can dance well, I'm sold.



The original singer.

In the day
In the night
Say it right
Say it all
You either got it
Or you don't
You either stand or you fall
When your will is broken
When it slips from your hand
When there's no time for joking
There's a hole in the plan

Oh you don't mean nothing at all to me
No you don't mean nothing at all to me
But you got what it takes to set me free
Oh you could mean everything to me

I can't say that I'm not lost and at fault
I can't say that I don't love the light and the dark
I can't say that I don't know that I am alive
And all of what I feel I could show
You tonight you tonight

Oh you don't mean nothing at all to me
No you don't mean nothing at all to me
But you got what it takes to set me free
Oh you could mean everything to me

From my hands I could give you
Something that I made
From my mouth I could sing you another brick that I laid
From my body I could show you a place God knows
You should know the space is holy
Do you really want to go?


Ja neh!!!

Siloso Beach Resort

Siloso Beach Resort

Pastel Blue Lamborghini Murcielago LP 640

U2 - With Or Without You

Feeling emo again. Damn!!! Another classic I want to hear on the radio-station-that-shall-not-be-named doing that-thing-I-love -to-do-at-night.

This is dedicated to the noble Bright Star. Guide the Mighty Protector in his greatest hour of need.

Lyrics here.



For the others, enjoy!

Ja neh!!!

Human League - Human

Feeling overwhelmingly "emo" or short for emotional as I woke up on a Sun morning. Waves & waves of emotions came crashing over me, I woke up at around 0830hrs. Pretty early considering I slept around 0300hrs the previous night. My biological clock must be fried. 

Suddenly though of this song & realized I have never posted a video of it to share it with you people, so here goes. Lyrics were taken from here & if you are not too bored, find out more about the history of the band.

This is definitely one of THE songs I want to hear on the radio (usually Class 95) when i'm cruising down the expressway at night in my convertible supercar / supercar. With a beautiful girl by my side, just like in a certain advertisement for a certain jewellery company.

Ja neh!!!

Congraulations Bervin & Joey

Finally, the first of our group of 3 "brothers" got married & I was asked to be one of the "brothers" for this happy occassion. First time having such heavy responsibilities for a wedding & naturally there was butterflies in my stomach. Will the "sisters" give us an impossbile hard time or would it be a stroll in the park? the only way to find out is to go through it & find out first hand. Had to wake really early the next moring so the groom invited us over to his new flat to spend the night & also to spruce up our dirty cars. After hours of washing & polishing, everything was done & we went for our bachelor's night. Eating economy bee hoon & drinking coffee at a nearby coffeeshop!!! The actual ROM was held a few months back so I guess it is a bit too late for a wild of wild fun with strippers & booze. Sigh. Hahaha.

The nevue of the wedding dinner. There were 60 tables!!! OMG!!! When I get married & if I do host a wedding dinner, it will be a very grand but extremely private event with just 5 tables. 1 for the groom's family, 1 for the bride's family, 1 for relatives, 1 for friends & 1 spare table. Just 5 will be nice. We can entertain our guest s properly & it will not be a turn-up-just-to-show-face event. I like personal touches where every guest will be addressed by name. Luckily the evening passed with incident & we can all rest easy.

Ja neh!!!

Double O @ Mohamed Sultan Road

It has been quite a while since I last went clubbing (most of the time was spent drinking at Thai Disco 2 in Golden Mile Complex. The previous band has fulfilled their contract (Black Fire) & somehow the present band (D2) can't really fill the very larges shoes left behind. Not to mention an excellent group of colleages that you definitely want to spend time with even after working hours. So off to Double O, where they serve some of the cheapest (if not tHE cheapest) drinks in town. SGD$ 12 for housepour jugs & SGD$3 for tequila shots. Extremely affordable for everybody I must say.

Nothing much to sohur about the music there, but when you are high on alcohol, almost everything can get to tapping your feet to the beat or letting your body loose on the dancefloor. The smoking room nearest to the dancefloor is very cramped & there is almost zero ventilation. In contract, the smoking room nearest to the live band area & pool tables is spacious & you can actually feel the air-conditioning. The live band, consistsing a male bass guitaristt, a male guitarist & a female singer whp also plays the tamborine. Drinks here are more expensive. Juggies going for double the rpice (SGD$12) while a frozen peach margarita costs SGD$14. Still affordable to the average blue collar worker like me. I told the gand we should get high on cheap drinks before coming out for some chilling in the live band area.

Seems like we are addicted to this place, something to look forward to at the end of the week. It is a form of closure for some of us, a way for us to sit back, look back at the events of the week, chit chat & find time to bond. Starting a relationshio can be hard work, but it is nothing compared to maintaining it. Social obligations can be a really heavy burden if you burn yourself at both ends of the candle.

Ja neh!!!

Potato - รักแท้ดูแลไม่ได้

Thanx to Clark for introducing me to this Thai love song. Really love it & the name of the band is the same as one of my favourite food too. What are the odds? Anyway, was at TD2 when the D2 band played this song as a special request. Bought back so many bittersweet memories when I was with my two thai S.O.s.

Anyway here is a link to the lyrics translated into English.

Ja neh!!!

The Ritz carlton (S'pore) & Maserati GranTurismo

It was a Friday evening & me & a few colleagues were trying to catch a cab to Mohn Sultan so we can have out end-of-week drinks in Dbl O. Before that, we have 2 games of bowling at Marina Square. I did not play as I was really trying my best to fight off the ever-powerful Zee Monster & I wasn't really in the mood to hurl a heavy ball down an oily lane so I can knock down ten whitish thingys.

Seems like there are no cab drivers who are willing to stop for us by the road. I wonder if it is because they are just complying with the rules of having to pick up passenger sonly at taxi stands in the city area or they were just waiting for us to call a cab so they can earn an extra few dollars. Or it could simply be that those taxi drivers are blind.

An alternative was to walk to the hotel lobby next door where there would be a taxi stand for guests of the hotel as well as desperate people like us. In my mind, I was hoping there will not be too many hotel guests as they are given priority & there would not be too many people in the queue overall.

The driveway to the hotel lobby was long, curved & impressive. So this is what the driveway of a self-declared 6-star luxury hotel look like. Nevertheless, it created the feeing of being exclusive & private, yet grand & inviting, provide you can afford to stay there or have a meal in their restaurants.

At the top of the stort climb, this was the sight that greeted me. I was blown away, slightly overwhelmed by the aura. I wanted to come here often. Drive up in my sports car, accompanied by a very attractive partner (could be physical attractiveness, could be because she has a great character that makes everybody like her, etc) to stay for the weekend or just to have a meal. People would know me on a first name basis & I would feel comfortable in such settings which could be intidimating to the man in the street.

I booked a room during the following week for my birthday. Will have some pictures of the place posted soon after, if not I will provide a link to a short write up of the place & the stay in general. Hope the hospitality is legendary.

Ja neh!!!

P.S. have not been writing for quite a while so the words just did not come out easily. Do forgive the substandard post.

Arnott's Shapes (cheese & bacon)

It is not everyday you see this on the shelves, since the most common supermarket near you would be NTUC Fairprice as they are the largest supermarket chain in Singapore. Wen tto the branch located at the void deck of my block but they do not have it. So did the much much larger branch in Tampines Mall.

Finally found it in Cold Storage. Don't you just love those things that are not commonly found elsewhere?

The taste is heavenly! Salty, unhealthy & savoury. the closest competitor might be Chicken in a Biscuit. Only tried the cheese & bacon flavour but not the barbecue & pizza flavour. Might try the pizza flavour soon.

Arnott's Shapes. Slurp!!!

Ja neh!!!

Chocolate strawberry Kit Kat

Was walking around Candy Empire when came I across this variation of Kit Kat. Really every child's dream to own a shop like this. All sorts of chocolates & snacks like potato chips that are not found in Singapore. Prices are on the steep side as most of these are not found in your everyday NTUC or mama shop.

Anyway do your bid to support awareness for breast cancer. It is more prevalent than you would like it to be & it affects the people we care about.

it is said that once a woman loses her breasts, she does not feel complete as a woman. Same goes for her womb as she is not able to bear children.

Ja neh!!!

What does Yuri stand for?

Raymond equal mighty protector? hmmm.. how abt Yuri? hahaha.. im sure my christian name cant be found in the baby book one becos my name is self created. hahaha.. i will determine what my own name mean. hehehe.. btw, yuri is not my christian name hor hahaha..

What does Raymond mean?

Raymond - Mighty Protector

Do you think this is true?

What does your name mean?

Ja neh!!!

MacBook Air

The official advertisment of the MacBook Air posted on YouTube. Currently on sale at the 2008 IT show (Suntect Convention Centre) but no promotions for this particular model. Sigh. You are unable to bring home this baby anytime soon as only pre-orders are available. Torn between the MBA (MacBook Air) & the MBP (MacBook Pro) 15" model. Relatively small price difference between the two but vastly different features serving slightly different functions.

Nevertheless, going to wait until the next revision of the MBA before making decision. In the meantime, PB G4 still working fine, so can't bear to sell it off or send it to lappy heaven so soon.

Murphy's Law at work. When you want something to die real soon so you can get another model, it works just fine & you get sentimental about throwing it away, giving it away or selling it. When you really need something, it dies on you.

It is time to disregard Murphy's Law & focus on the Law of Attraction instead. At lease it is more optimistic.

Ja neh!!!

Definition for Junkie

J	Joyous
U	Unagreeable
N	Natural
K	Kitnish
I	Insured
E	Exhausting

Created by Crazyprofile.com

Since Junkie's blog is inactive now, i will help this boy to inject something into his dormant blog.. :)

新年快樂- 2008!

Happy Chinese New Year my dear bear!!! Gong Xi Fai Da Cai!

Waruku @ Marina Square

My maiden trip to Waraku. Heard many favourable from Yuri so decided to make a trip down after work one day to find out what the fuss was all about. The facade of the restaurant. Can facade be used in this context? Hmmm. The usually refer to the front of a building.

Yuri is a fan of this steam egg dish called chawamushi (spelled correctly?).

My dinner for the evening. I normally have the katsu don when I go to a japanese restaurant. Not really an adventurous person & normally stick to the tested-&-proven stuff. It was delicious. It came with some purple radish thingy & a bowl of miso soup with a piece of naruto floating on it. Not too salty, just the way I like it.

Yuri's dinner. Some na-be (sounds like some rude Hokkien phrase we use oh-so-often but it actually means something like mini paper steamboat in Japanese) Of course na-be is the shortened version of the word kaminabe.

Our common side dish. Some cheese & potato croquette. Not too cheesy. Something different.

Ja neh!!!

Tomton @ The Central

Met up with the ex-roomie for a little get-together session. isn't it sad that we are not able to spend as much time with our friends in the past once we have started working? Long working hours, fatigue, other social obligations & geographical distance keeps us away from catching up.

Meeting place was The Central above Clark Quay MRT station. Relatively nice shopping with a good number of japanese restaurants. Probably to cater to the expatriate population that frequent the area. Roomie (a.k.a musashiken) suggested trying out the famous black pig cutlet at Tomton.

A little write-up on the famed black pigs (they are really black in colour, not the nice pink we all know. Why are they black? Too much rolling in the mud? Neva bathe like some girls I know? Apparently the reason why they taste so nice is also because they leave a relaxing life & are fed good food. Like some of us. Muahahaha!!!

Forgot what musashiken had but he was given this really cool grinding bowl to grind his sesame seeds into a fine power before mixing with some dark brown sauce. It is amazing how efficient the design is. A few rounds & the sesame seeds became really fine.

Musashiken's set meal & my black pig cutlet rice.

The service was attentive but never intrusive. Great place to bring your date, especially if she is a ni-hon-jin.

Ja neh!!!

Return to Kallang McDonald's

Finally could find some time to bring out the Mac PowerBook for a little outdoor exercise. Drove to Kallang Mac (kmac, for short) vie the KPE but realised no matter which exit I took (ECP City or ECP Changi Aiport), I am unable to get to the Fort Road exit without having to make a detour of some sort. Looks like I have to stick to the ECP if I am coming here from Tampines. Nevertheless, I reach here in good time as traffic was relatively light & without event.

Lots of good memories where made here. From preparing for my examinations in the final semester to meeting a long lost friend I knew since junior college days. How time flies. It has been over a year since I have graduate but yet I do not see myself as having a significant change in myself. Nevertheless, when things have hit rock bottom, there is only one way to go. Up.

Many people here at this dinner hour. Many people also eyeing the electrical power sockets which are oh-so-important to juicing up my lappy. Didn't manage to get a prime area seat but have to settle for the fringes for now, constantly eyeing the area to see if there is any seats being vacated so I can swoop in & claim my terrority. Not much juice left. Stewpig me bought a 17 inch model when I should have just bough the smallest model with the longest battery life. Now that the MacBook Air has been launched with a reported life of 5 hours of wireless productivity (which I assume as meaning the notebook can be used surfing the net for 5 hours), it means more time on the move than being connected by an umbilical cord to the wall.

At around $3000 for the basic model & $5000++ for the model with the faster processor & a Solid State Drive, it is a hefty price to pay for exceptional form & factor.

Ja neh!!!

Maserati Gran Turismo

One of the nicer GT cars that I set my sights on. Costing roughly $410,000 with COE, it is a huge investment & it shall remain in my fantasies for now. With a 10% downpayment & taking up a 10-year loan, it would cost about $4100 / month excluding petrol, parking charges, ERP charges, traffic offence summons, insurance & road tax.

Assuming parking costs $90 / month for multi-story carparks (normally people who can afford such cards do not stay in HBD areas though) as well as around $50 for occassions where you use parking coupons or park in shopping centers, that adds up to around $140 / month just for parking.

ERP charges can go up to $50 depending on where you go & what time, but let us take an average & also considering how our government erect these gantries on a whim, I mean, after deliberated studies & valuable feedback from traffic indicators & the general public.

As it is a 4.2 litre V8 engine, it is really thirsty. With petrol frequently crossing the $2/litre mark, I guess petrol cost should cost anywhere from $500 onwards. If you have a lead foot, probably around $800 onwards. I am not really a speed demon, so I'll take my estimate as $600 as I like to drive to wherewver I go.


I'm 28 this year & it being a supercar with only 2 doors, insurance should be around $3500 / year? I'm only guessing because I never did any research on this.

Road tax for a car with this engine capacity should be around $5000 / year? For the 2-litre car, it is around $1400 / year but it jumps exponentially as you cross the 3 litre mark.

So what is the total cost of maintaining this beauty? Probably around $$6000 / month. I do not even earn $6000 / month. So I guess it is out of reach until I take home around $8000 / month. Which is ridiculous because I spend more on the car than pampering myself. Hahaha.

The high cost of car ownership in S'pore. Sigh.

Ja neh!!!

True love is

Never say I Love You
If you don't really care

Never talk of feelings
If they aren't really there

Never hold my hand
If you mean to break my heart

Never say forever
If you ever plan to part

Never look into my eyes
If you are telling me a lie

Never say hello
If you think you'll say goodbye

Never say that I'm THE one
If you dream of more than me

Never lock up my heart
If you don't have the key