Ministry of Sound

Received a sms from Richard or was it Yixiang, asking if I wanted to go to the opening night of the biggest club (in terms of reputation & floor space) in Sinagpore. Made our way down in the cheap Korean taxi, & look at the queue as we drove by!!! The first picture is the famous Crazy Hourse Cabaret. Got topless women leh!!!

Minstry of Sound logo. The place looks so cool from the outside. Can't wait to get in one of these days to see the interior.

Massive queues. Snaking lines. Even those with so called "VIP invitations" had trouble getting in. These were divided into A list, B list & C list. Needless to say, commoners like us had to wait a reallllly long time. Decided to go somewhere else instead of spending time waiting. Maybe will come again when the intial craze dies down. Ja neh!!!

Lazy cat, lazy cat

How nice it would be to just laze around all day, just like this cat spotted near the NTUC in Clementi Central. She (I assumed it was female) was just lying there, in the middle of the pavement, oblivious to the people walking past her, side-stepping around her, so as to avoid stomping on the cat. Either the cat can't be bothered by her surroundings or she has an incredibly deep faith nobody will disturb her slumber. Amazing isn't it?

Kind of reminds me of Mr Grey, except he's male & a lot bigger than this cat in terms of size. I wonder what happened to Ginger & Mr grey. I miss them both so much, but not Snow-ee. Unfortunately. Snow-ee broke my heart & pissed me off too many times liao. How to forgive her?

Ja neh!!!

Mahjong fondue

Was shopping with Shan in Takashimaya (herceforth referred to as Taka) for presents she wanted to exchange with her friends, when we came across these fondue thingys. I have no idea what they're called, but you use these "forks" to pick up the food that you want to dip into the cheese / chocolate / whatever you want to use. I supposed these forks come in whatever designs that you can think of, I guess the designer must be a fan of mahjong. Cool right? It will make a good gift to a friend who likes playing mahjong & also appreciates good food like cheese / chocolate / whatever fondue.

Ja neh!!!

Remember this date

Heez... My birthday... There's nothing much I want to ask for , for my coming birthday in 2006. Only for things to go smoothly for all the people around me, & those who care for me, in the past, in the present & in the future.

Ja neh!!!

Fast food, Crystal Jade style

Located where Wisma Mac used to be. Was passing by when I saw it. Looked at the menu & the stuff there ain't cheap!!! Will want to give it a try one of these days.

Ja neh!!!

Wax, anybody???

Darence's wax for his leather shoe. It cost 15sgd!!! I hope it lasts a long time because it's expensive to maintain leather shoes properly.

Ja neh!!!

Cold cuts

Cold cuts section at Liberty Supermarket in Jurong Point. I bought 300g of chilli ham, & a loaf of bread. Yummy. It was my lunch, dinner & supper for quite a few days. Rather broke recently, so I guess it's quite a good way to cut down on spending money on meals. But it's better to just cut down on stuff like going for drinks with friends & clubbing.

Ja neh!!!

Particle size analyzer / image analysis

One of the tests I have to do in my analysis of sludge from the Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor is to find out the size distribution & mean diameter of the sludge particles / biogranules. Basically, the bigger, the better. Why is this so? Well, there are diverse schools of though in this area & there still isn't a unified theorem about how we can explain the biogranulation process. Nevertheless, research is still on-going in this field of study & the implications could be tremendous. We could have a cheap & efficient way of treating water to make it potable & millions of people around the world will have access to drinking water. It could be a way for third world countries to improve their standard of living. No amount of money can have such a big impact on the lives of so many people.

The first step is to obtain a small sample from one of the reactor which have varying Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT - 6hrs, 12hrs, 18 hrs, 24hrs) & simply just put it into a glass dish & place it under a powerful microscope. It is connected to a normal computer & using some special software, an "photograph" is taken of the sample & we define which area of the "photograph" we want to be considered as a "particle". Using statistics, a distribution graph is tabulated & the results can be recored in an excel file. It's a simple experiment, but interpreting the results will require some background knowledge on the workings of the UASB reactor & the biogranulation process which includes the parameters by which we vary operating conditions, e.g. HRT, organic loading rate, upflow velocity, etc.

Ja neh!!!

Famous hokkien mee stall in Clementi Central

Meet up with Michelle for dinner one day after her morning shift. Decided to go to Clementi central for dinner because she said she wanted to eat the famous Hokkien mee that her father brings home sometimes when he comes back from work. It's located at a hawker center, but I can't remember the exact location. Clementi ain't my home ground. Having said that, I have not been home for so long, I didn't recognise Tampines Mall & Century Square. So many things have changed in a short span of time. Anyway I placed my order & the auntie told me I had to work for around 30mins for my dinner!!! It must be really popular if I had to wait that long.

When it finally came, it was rather decent. It is of the wet variety, with some gravy & had a fair amount of prawns & sotong. I ended up eating just Hokkien mee because I'm a fussy eater & I gave all my prawns & sotong to Michelle. Not too bad, but I guess I will not be too keen to wait 30 mins for my dinner.

Ja neh!!!

Supper at Geylang's You Tian Da Wang

Picked up Michelle after work one evening & she said she have not had her dinner yet, so we made our way down to Geylang for some a light meal as it was getting kind of late & it's not very healthy to go to sleep on a full stomach (no wonder I'm fat!!!). I bet you guys didn't know what place we went to if you only saw "Yong He Eating house". I only know the place as "you tiao da wang". So if you want to confuse your friends a little, maybe you can try telling them to meet you at Yong He's. Wonder what kind of reaction you will get from them?

Michelle had the Taiwan vermicilli (did I speed it correctly? Wouldn't want the Spelling Police to some after me). I didn't like it, becuase it had a pig's spare parts in it. Wonder who came up with the term "spare parts" to describe a pig's internal organs. For drinks, we had cold soya bean milk. It was really a light meal, as the next table only had 2 persons, but enough food for 4, I guess.

Ja neh!!!

By the way people, the dates on which the entries are posted are not consistent with the actual dates the events take place. So, to find out when they really happened, just click on the pictures & you should be able to see the dates at the bottom right corner.