Alvin's 24th - 3rd Jan

Alvin’s 24th Birthday.

It’s more like my birthday again!
Had a difficult time choosing where to do dinner.

Chawanmushi topped with SALMON ROE! My allll time favourite.
Hahaha


And a chocolate cake to round up the day!

Christmas Dinner - 28th Dec

Christmas dinner once again!


Fin (by Blue Lobster) Seafood Cafe @ Marina Square, don't ever ever go there!
SERVICE'S Fking Fking !@#$%^&*!!!

The waitress knocked over a glass of water onto Candice and walked off without apologising!
Fking Atrocious!! I thought she was going to get a towel!
I was so mad, I called fer a waiter to clear the mess and told him it was their staff who created the mess. All he did was to put the glass aside and called her over to clear up.
Why couldn't he help with the clearing too?
The f.up bitch came back with a glum kiam pa face.


The rest were cool about it. Madness..
How not to be angry at such 'service'?

Felt so indignant cause the very least the bitch owed my friend was an apology.
Wanted to not pay the 10% GST, which I felt they don't deserve to even smell it but the rest say it's OK(do you think it's OK?? Seriously, I don' understand them.), don't kick up a ruckus.
Fine, but if I were with some others especially my mum.. whoooooo..I can't imagine the scene ahead.
And sad to say, I can't demand the cancellation at the end of dinner cause I kept laughing at jokes and simply couldn't put on a straight face anymore. Sobs


By the way, iced water was served in OILY plastic cups which tasted odd too.
Plus the food were oily nongsense.
(Based on online reviews, people were swearing off to go back there again)


Thankfully, the evening still mananged to end off well with a nice cuppa and exchange of presents at Coffee Club!

Sea Monkey Christmas

This was what I've got Alvin fer Christmas cause he simply have no luck with keep fishes in his house.

So Thank God these brine shrimps are thriving well with many more babies appearing this week!
His success rate with these lil creatures surpassed mine when I reared them 7 years back.


At present, there's even a female sporting an egg sac!
I named her Sally and Alvin named her partner, Gary.


Stumbled upon this hilarious nongsensical Q&A about Seamonkeys..
A lil' lengthy, but it's worth the read!



Q: My sea monkey is becoming quite aggresive in nature and I am afraid for my safety. I have made the difficult decision to geld him. His world is about to change drastically. He is very sexually active. I would really appreciate your advise on how to handle the after surgery care and character changes that I am expecting. Will he become more docile? He is now 15 years old and I am afraid he is too mature to handle the change gracefully. What advise can you give me.?


A: I understand that you want to calm your Sea Monkey down but have you actually done anything to make him feel calmer. For one, you could name him. Perhaps his frustration is coming from being dehumanized - or debrineshrimpized as the case may be - and naming him could help him find his identity.
Secondly, he is an adolescent and we know what teens can be like. He is attempting to stretch the boundaries of acceptable societal behaviour and, perhaps, he has received the message that being violent will scare and repel others. This could be his form of rebellion. Unfortunately, he has chosen to couple his aggression with inappropriate sexual behaviour. This is a difficult problem but could be solved with going as far as physical castration. Before you attempt to neuter him try the following:

1. Give him a name and, thus, an identity. Help him explore his identity through conversation and discussions about his place on this wonderful earth!

2. Provide him with information on appropriate behaviour in society and warn him of the impact of his behaviour on others and on his future. Who will hire a Sea Monkey with a record for assault? I know that I wouldn't.

3. Offer him some Depo-Provera® which has been used to calm down sexually aggressive individuals.If none of this works, then you could try to neuter him but be prepared for some serious ramifications! He could be angry with you because he will lose his dreams of being a father and he might be very aggressive. If you do choose to neuter him and he continues to threaten your safety you might wish to flush him. I hate making this suggestion but he could just be a pathological little Sea Monkey and you would be best to keep away from him. I hope that this all helps in some small way...

Happy New Year!

2008 marked the Blessings of Deuteronomy 28,
2009's is the Acceptable Year of the Lord! - Luke 4:17-22


ACCEPTANCE
in Greek - Dektos > The most blessed time when salvation and the free favours of God profusely abound
in Hebrew - Radzon > delight, favour, acceptance


I've already started receiving it!
*Free professional badminton coaching
*Free AutoCAD crash course lesson!

Whee!


Image By: Alvin DarLin

On the eve of Christmas, my ol' NUSSU Bizcom mates gathered together to spread some festive cheer to the lil' ones at a Children's Home!

Fel organised it and we have to say, though there were some minor hiccups from the magicians, the party went well!

There was a wide spread of pizza, 15 to be exact, 60 drumlets and so on sponsored by the rest of Fel's colleagues.. The rest of us contributed a gift to each of the 60 kids there.


Really love tis' time of the season!

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Hanoi & HCMC, Vietnam 14th - 23rd Dec

My new group mates fer the next semester:
L-R: Mun Chun, Duong, Co Seng, Me, Trang, Yang Han and Adeline embarked on a 9 day study-trip to Vietnam!


Here's a peek at a few of the many reasons why our 9 day trip to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh was fabulous!


No.1:

The swanky shophouse Blue Paradise Hotel we stayed in!
Fer one, my room fer 3 girls had the following:
* 2 Queen-sized and a Super-single bed
* Desktop
* Balcony
* 2 Sofas
* Free Wifi

The only boon: Climbing up 5 storeys every single day.....


No.1.1:

Breakfast at hotel's lobby!
Pho Ga (like Sg's Kway Teow) and ommelette with bread!


No.2:

THE FOOD OF COURSE..
Value fer Money.
Almost every type of food has to be dipped into fish sauce which enhances the taste..

Top of my list is Saigon Spring rolls and Duong's mom cooked superyummilicious ones! (O yes, we stayed over at his house fer 3 nights at HCMC!)


No. 3:

It was 5 meals every single day!
Breakfast, TEA, lunch, TEA and dinner..

The most mememorable?
The first photo where we sat on newspapers at an open space ordering drinks from illegal VENdors (pun intended) who ran away when the traffic police came.


No.4:

Their quaint architecture and culture.
This one here's Hanoi's famed Water Puppet Show.


No.5:

The trip to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum to visit his embalmed body in a glass case.



On the last night, Richard treated us to seafood dinner again.




Last but not least, as the Visa ad goes, 'Traffic is (indeed!) a Killer'!
Stress levels rose exceptionally high while walking along the streets of Hanoi.

With a close shaved accident once and food poisoning striking my group mates down one by one, I felt so blessed to have enjoyed the trip and lived to tell the tale..



With this, I salute to you, Till We Meet Again Comrades!


P.S: Photo inset was instructed by tutor! Mock Horror. -.-

Sydney Day 5

Fer our last breakfast, we ate like a King!

Fresh Lobster and prawns at the Fish Market!
Yummiest, but we overordered. Haha

Before that, the women went into Star City's Casino, which was um.. boring..



With more last minute shopping, we finally hopped onto an A380 back to Singapore!

P.S: As you can see, there's absolutely nothing special about overly hyped largest airbus.

Sydney Day 4

A day to ourselves, which we planned just the night before.. Haha


Walked to Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Wildlife Park from our hotel!



First stop was to the Aquarium.



Had to walk a couple of ramps down to the under water Open Ocean Oceanarium to explore Australia's aquatic life.



Shark Attack!
The shark's menacing eyes reflected the flash!




Ah, who could ferget the fairy penguins, the only specie that breeds in Aussie.
The 3 seemed to appear straight out from Madagascar hatching the next plot though.




Moving on to the Wildlife Park next door!



Haha! I didn't know Ah Kong was at the back of me!



A wierd but diverse mix of wildlife here I must say..



Geraldine took the cutest photo - the Kookaburra!



And the main reason fer this visit was to let Geraldine and Ah Kong experience a Koala bear upfront!
Fer the rest of us, we had even cuddled it before but the park here doesn't allow it.




Souvenirs anyone?!



I love afternoon teas!
Babycinno - That's what Din ordered! Baby+Cappuccino

Lunch at this Japanese Teppanyakki restaurant was great too, (the best out of all the buffet lunches we had with the tour group) with entertainment from the chefs throwing rice bowls and eggs to guests.



After that it was shopping and a tour round Sydney city on a 24hour tram.!

Sydney Day 3

Port Stephens dolphin-watch cruise!
We were hoping to see dolphins frolicking in the sea like what we saw in documentaries.



It turned out to be just Fin Spotting!!
Spot the FIN!
This is the only precious picture we have, taken by the eagle-eye me. Heh




The back of the boat is a playground haven fer kids and adults alike!




4WD Sand Tobogganing at the massive sand dunes next.
The thrill lasted a few seconds, but the climb back up was simply torturous!
Could have played a couple more times if it wasn’t so tiring to lug the board up the sand hill.



The beach nearby the sand dunes.. Water’s icy cool!
Extremely refreshing fer my aching feet.



A Winery at Port Stephens'.


I got a bottle of ice wine fer Alvin’s birthday and my parents asked him to get the ice wine from me (they didn't know it was fer his birthday) when he came over..ARGH
Spoiler.

However, there's still the no.1 ultimate spoiler-
I fergot to bring it on his birthday itself! Hurhurhur *coughs*



Very funny eh..
PAPA was the FIRST to get into the barrel!



The beer garden?
Haha, it's the garden where they produce the main source of wine.

And yes, we love these purple flowers..
They seen everywhere in Sydney.
Since they blossom during summer, it should be possible to have it here in Singapore isn't it?!

Sydney Day 2

Stopped over at the Fish Market this morning!
GLORIOUS GLORIOUS SEAFOOD!
SEAFOOD GALORE!



To the fruit shop fer some really fresh fruits and juice!



Fruit and Vege Antics No 1.



Fruit and Vege Antics No 2.




ANZ Stadium where the 2000 Summer Olympics was held.
Don't even bother going there..

There's nothing much except a Forest of Poles?
I found the best pole of course, Ian Thorpe.


We're so bored that I took the opportunity to feast on my sashimi.. HURHURHUR



Sashimi Going Going GONE!!
As you can see, it started with the 3 of us eating only..
Then came our tour group mates..


Headed on to the Blue Mountains next.
The bus encountered a tyre problem while at the petrol kiosk. Boo.
Nevertheless, we gained extra shopping time at a suburban megamall!
Bought 3 bags and 2 tops in 30mins! Now, that’s what I call SPREE!

If we hadn’t stuck to the timing of 30 mins (the time which the bus driver said to be back), we’d had bought more.



Here we are at Blue Mountains at last!

The air was exceptionally cool tas the rain just stopped not long after we reached.
Had a Journey to the Center of the Earth theme ride which lasted fer a mere 15secs or so.

At the back of the 3 sisters are 3 rocks which represent the legend of the 3 sisters..




Having fun mining coals!



Trekked a small route to experience the nature.

This tree here was strucked by lightning, resulting in a scar which consists of coal!



Shrouded in mist everywhere, perfect picture opportunity.



Nature Study.
Upon closer look, Jasmine let out a scream, the trees were FILLED WITH BLUISH-GREEN INSECTS.
At first, we thought the insects were the fruits of the trees as they were clumped together. Blearrrggghhh.. (1st pic)



Had dinner at Darling Harbour that evening and I managed to lead the way back to our hotel!