to put things into perspective, you can't just keep looking up.

went for friends' housewarming yesterday. the house was really warm due to the number of people attending and the food warmers :) great food, esp. the beef rendang.

today's gathering was for the 10th wedding anniversary of a couple from our church choir, held at st.mary's chapel. it was a perfect venue for the number of people attending, with the nice background and all. it was then followed by scrumptious spread at scrumptious cafe, turf city. food was great - my favorite was a dish that looks like lasagna but with vegetable filling, I think it's supposed to be called casserole.

made chocolate bread, siomay tutup and kekian this afternoon. glad that my first ever bread was successful (i.e. kaga bantet :p)..

was it something that I said
was it something that I did
or the combination of both that did me in

you know I’m hoping you’ll sing along
although it’s not your favorite song
don’t want to be there when there’s nothing left to say

you know that some of us spin again
and when you do you need a friend
don’t want to be there when there’s nothing left for me

and I hate the thought of finally being erased
but baby that’s the best of me

(best of me - daniel powter)

amazing photos taken from the air: the big picture

I've finished stephenie meyer's twilight, the first book of the series, thanks to this friend. I've heard only good comments about the series, and a film adaptation of the book is going to be released soon.

frankly speaking I don't quite get what the fuss is all about. it's mainly a love story about a human girl and a vampire, plus whatever complications that come along with that unusual combination. it's entertaining, for sure, but I still think trudi canavan's the black magician trilogy or david eddings' the malloreon and the belgariad series are much more engaging.

sunrise at punggol jetty..

it's moroccan cuisine for dinner this evening! when we arrived at deli moroccan, bussorah street, there were only a few tables occupied. but when we left a while later, it was full house, the staff even needed to bring out extra tables and chairs, and some people couldn't get available place to sit.

we ordered chicken kebab, tagine chicken with olives, pita bread and moroccan apple juice. chicken kebab was the safest bet, and it was up to my expectation. the succulent chicken was tasty. served as side dishes were fries and tomato & peas salad.

tagine chicken was actually chicken thigh served in brown onion sauce, topped with fries and raw olives. this one wasn't my favorite, although the chicken was really tender. their pita bread was normal. apple juice was more like apple milkshake.

finally gotten my notebook back today, yay!

photo of the faulty nvidia gpu which made me purchase a new motherboard:

met two girl friends for lunch today. we've been talking about trying out warung nasi pariaman for a while and finally we got the chance. this eatery opens only monday to saturday, 8am-3.30pm. we arrived there at about 1pm this afternoon, found out that there were only a few dishes left. the dishes were served in rumah makan padang's style: everything was put on small plates and served, and you pay only for the dishes you eat.

too bad there's no more ayam bakar, but we're content with the beef rendang, omelette, toufu & long beans sambal goreng, and the fish curry gravy on steamed rice. yummy!

damage was $15.20 for 3 of us.

tried burmese cuisines at inle myanmar, marina square with a girl friend. had a tough time deciding what to order, and we eventually asked for recommendations from the waiter. exchanged stories over pickled tea leave salad, fried kway teow, chicken curry, myanmar milk tea, myanmar bird nest drink and cake for dessert.

first impression, the dishes looked very similar to thai food. we decided to try their pickled tea leave salad (laphet thoke), claimed to be an all time favorite delicacy of myanmar. "the leaves are fermented, pickled and served with an assortment of crispy chickpea, roasted peanuts, fried garlic, toasted sesame, dried shrimps, fresh garlic, fresh vegetables such as tomato and cabbage and dressed with vegetable oil and lime", said the description in the menu. the taste was too salty to my liking. I started to enjoy it only after a few bites.

their fried kway teow was quite spicy. portion was just right, with 2 chunks of peeled prawns and pieces of squid. chicken curry set came with one bowl of steamed rice, sliced cucumber, chili and shrimp paste. the milk tea was really similar to teh tarik :p there's nothing special with the bird nest drink as well, just a glass of syrup plus shredded jelly. the dessert was nice, though. rice cake with pieces of raisins, and lingering taste of coconut and caramelised sugar.

Looking at me hard, he concluded: 'Meetings. That was the mistake I made with you. Instead of just sending emails, I should have shown you that I'm made of flesh and blood. Once, when I failed to get a reply from a particular politician, I went and knocked on his door, and he said to me: "If you want something, you need to look the other person in the eye." Ever since then, that's what I've done, and I've had nothing but good results. You can have at your disposal all the means of communication in the world, but nothing, absolutely nothing, can replace looking someone in the eye.'

(The Importance of Looking, Like the Flowing River - Paulo Coelho)

in search for a suitable makan place for the gathering last friday, I remembered the good old ivins peranakan restaurant that I visited some time back with this friend. since its location was a bit out of the way, we didn't have our friday's dinner there. instead, we went there this afternoon for lunch, since we're already in the vicinity.

ivins serves great peranakan dishes, although there are 2 western dishes in the menu: the chicken cutlet and fish & chips. we ordered babi pongteh, ayam goreng rempah, and bayam with garlic. portions were relatively small. their ayam goreng rempah was really tasty. for dessert we had chendol and gula melaka sago. yum! we'll be back for more :)

paid a visit to bukit batok nature park this morning after mass. it has been more than 5 years since I last came here. it hasn't changed much - not many flowers around, but they have durian trees, therefore the signs 'beware of falling durians'. this park's special feature is of course the gorge surrounded by the quiet lake complete with a creek. climbed up to the lookout points and the WW II memorial.

A friend lent me paulo coelho's eleven minutes and I liked it so much I decided to purchase my own copy.

I spent today outside a funfair. Since I can't afford to fritter my money away, I thought it best just to watch other people. I stood for a long time by the roller coaster, and I noticed that most people get on it in search of excitement, but that once it starts, they are terrified and want the cars to stop.

What do they expect? Having chosen adventure, shouldn't they be prepared to go the whole way? Or do they think that the intelligent thing to do would be to avoid the ups and downs and spend all their time on a carousel, going round and round on the spot?

At the moment, I'm far too lonely to think about love, but I have to believe that it will happen, that I will find a job and that I am here because I chose this fate. The roller coaster is my life; life is a fast, dizzying game; life is a parachute jump; it's taking chances, falling over and getting up again; it's mountaineering;' it's wanting to get to the very top of yourself and to feel angry and dissatisfied when you don't manage it.

It isn't easy being far from my family and from the language in which I can express all my feelings and emotions, but, from now on, whenever I feel depressed, I will remember that funfair. If I had fallen asleep and suddenly woken up on a roller coaster, what would I feel?

Well, I would feel trapped and sick, terrified of every bend, wanting to get off. However, if I believe that the track is my destiny and that God is in charge of the machine, then the nightmare becomes something thrilling. It becomes exactly what it is, a roller coaster, a safe, reliable toy, which will eventually stop, but, while the journey lasts, I must look at the surrounding landscape and whoop with excitement.

(Eleven Minutes - Paulo Coelho)

met up with friends for dinner at gluttons bay, esplanade. tried flava lava, the newly setup eatery selling steaks, pastas, fish & chips and some finger foods. the prices and waiting time were reasonable. the portion looked small because of the big makansutra plates, but actually they're quite filling. the loin steak tasted great, but the chicken & ham creamy pasta that I ordered was too dry. ordered the mozzarella sticks as well, but I forgot to take photos of them.

after dinner we went to cookie museum. tried their sample cookies - nasi lemak, laksa, rose, bacon & cheese, durian, and some other more 'normal' flavours. ordered tea, coffee, bailey's irish cream coffee cake and strawberry melt cake.

the tea's quite good, although it tasted a little bit like cough syrup (I can't remember its name). the bailey's cake was nice, although the bailey's was really just a small cup poured on top of the warm cake. the strawberry melt looked weird - it looked more like cake dough than cake.

the cafe's decorated in victorian style, all nice and inviting. but it's really pricey, and my view of their service standards from my last visit has dropped considerably.

went to southern ridges for the second time and managed to walk all the way from marang trail near harbourfront to science park. the weather was really nice this morning, cool, cloudy and breezy. we're a bit worried that it might rain but thankfully it didn't. this time round we walked pretty fast since I did not really take photos. pretty flowers that I saw before along the way were gone, almost all of them. the pretty purple bougenville that covered terrace garden at telok blangah hill park, the various beauties along floral walk before entrance to hortpark, even white and pink flowers at faber walk looked so miserable.

at terrace garden, we stumbled upon ferrero rocher chocolates lined neatly from the stairs all the way leading to red flower petals scattered in heart shape. there were two guys waiting anxiously, one looked more restless than the other. we guessed right away that one of them must be planning to propose to his girl. some kaypoh people like us went up for a better spot and 'accompanied' him waiting for the girl, while guessing which one could she be.

after a while a group of people arrived. the girl was accompanied by her friends. I thought she's supposed to find out the chocolates by herself, but actually there's another surprise placed near the entrance of terrace garden. it looked like a framed poem. she carried that while the guy walked down complete with flowers in hand and brought her to the chocolate trail.

I thought he placed the ring at the centre of the heart-shaped flower petals, but turned out it was in his jeans pocket. he proposed on bended knee, the girl cried a while, the girl said yes, her friends turned on the music, threw confetti and lighted up joss sticks (I wondered why joss sticks), the crowd clapped and asked if they could have some of the ferrero rocher :)