I see $$$...

Looking at the NT dollars and my countdown timer on this blog, I know my taipei trip is nearing.. This is the first time I see the NT2,000 note although I go to Taiwan quite often. In fact, the NT2,000 notes are in limited circulation. So, 15 more days to go and I am looking forward to my Taipei/Kaoshiung trip!

Speaking of which, my dear sister is just back from her Europe trip and she bought me this T-shirt from Paul Smith. Thanks for the choice of colour,at least it's not pink this time.. Hhaaaa..

I can faint looking at the items she bought this round- Rolex, Chanel, TODS, Hermes, Bally,VC watch.. I am definitely in the wrong line.. :(

The Grammy Awards 2010

These are the 3 Grammy Awards 2010 perfomances that I absolutely like. It's weird seeing Sir Elton John been paired up with Lady Gaga. I think everyone wants to be seen together with Gaga, including Paris Hilton etc..

Lady Gaga and Sir Elton John Performing here;

I really like Pink's performance at the Grammy Awards here;

Beyonce performing here, Diva to the max;

An Eventful Friday

On this morning, I am not in the usual TGIF mood! We see the fourth retrenchment exercise happening within 2 years. While the business is stable, people have to be let go due to another round of business restructuring. Somehow, I was hoping to be offered a package to pack my bag but I know I am still valuable to the company. Thought of the day here: Regardless of the length of service, dedication and commitment to the company, the day when your job function cannot value-add, becomes a high overhead and your skillset is no longer a "premium" hotskill. You must be prepared! This is the new world..

Lunch was in a "happy" mood today. I had "Luo Hei" session with my department and HOD. Smiling all the way here..

The "fusion style" Luo Hei dish

The Luo Hei on my plate

I had the Wagyu Beef fried rice for lunch
Can't even see the Wagyu beef right? So pathethic that I need to take a closer shot

Present from Boss who just returned from the Canada's Olympic Games

One more present from Boss

In the evening, I joined Mr J and his friends- Don & Kenneth for an unexpected dinner over at this restaurant at Bukit Pasoh called- ei8ht (eight). Bumped into an old friend there too.. hhaaa.. It's a small world after all!

That wasn't all! We went to Tantric and Play before calling it a day.. er.., maybe the night! Good night!

We are the World for HAITI

Entertainers and Celebrities all over the world are not just idols for some people but they are also people who make it to the list of the world's most influential- like in Time Magazine. It's sad and happy (both at the same time) to note that it takes a massive disaster to unite people together; no matter how great our differences are when it comes to a common cause. Yet we are glad when we witness such humane act. We need no more devastating and terrifying typhoons, earthquakes, tsunami, H1N1 and anything else that God forbids, to remind us of our basic human fabric. This recording of the " We are the World" for Haiti inspire me and I hope it will inspire others too...

To and for the World Peace and harmony!

http://wearetheworldfoundation.org/

No Goodies this Year!

Upfront, there is no cash hand-outs for the ordinary men on the street. Reading through the Singapore Budget 2010, the work "Productivity" caught my interest. I wonder that when the high cost for factors of production does not yield 10x higher (ok, maybe 100x more) returns or when it churned out negative returns, do we then land ourselves into an "Unproductive" state? It's difficult to comprehend here. One can only hope to bet that the Integrated Resorts will turn out to be productive because it does seems to be an IR budget!

On the other hand, we need to control the number of foreigners. Yet we should move away from a quota-based system to a higher levy system where applicable? If one has 10 foreign workers and ended up paying more in levy now, one can hope to use 7 foreign workers to do the same amount of work (Productivity?) with the same levy paid previously. How realistic is that and sounds like Pay to hire here..

So, no goodies for this year but here's a little something to sweeten the deal;

Vanilla & Mocha Sand Cake

by Arinco King

@ Ion .

I am looking for Alice in Wonderland

I watched Valentine's day on last sat and thought it's quite similar to another movie- Love Actually. Besides the mega stars who appeared in Valentine's day, there isn't any story line but just some silly jokes. Well.. no problem with that since weekends are meant to be simple, relaxing and having an enjoyable fun time with love ones..

Another movie that I am looking forward to is this - Alice in Wonderland

I like the Cheshire Cat

Makes me want to watch it in 3D and here is the trailer:

Chingay Parade 2010 & Floats

I was watching the news about the taiwan's night sky been filled with hundreds of flying laterns as they celebrate on the 15th of the first month of the lunar new year. It's a beautiful sight especially if you could release a prayer lantern together with your love ones. Singapore is a quiet place and we don't have any firecrackers. But we do have the Chingay floats....

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Knowing a Man

They say you will never fully know a man until you see him;

At Work

At Play

Er.. when he opens his mouth ( to speak..)

and finally At Home

Now, Do we have a perfect understanding?

Singapore's Pastor Rony Tan singing "Öops I did it again!"

This is the photograph of the pastor, Rony Tan who first offended and upset the buddhists in Singapore with his mockery remarks on their chanting, reincarnation and way of workship etc during a church session. For this, he was let off by the police with a stern warning after his public apology. I am not putting up his video links here since I do not want to spread the propaganda and anyway, the links will be removed in a matter of time. He engaged an ex-monk for his topic then.

Now, Rony made the headline again this time with his comment on gays and lesbians, making relation to beastality. I had a quick glance at myself before typing this in front of the computer and I certainly don't look like a monkey, donkey or a dog. I believe we are smarter than that. In this session, he engaged an ex-lesbian on the stage during his church session which makes me wonder what he is really trying to prove with an ex-monk and an ex-lesbian? Is it a better way of embracing life with his religion that he's offering the public or is he telling us that you can convert buddhists, gays and lesbians with his religion? I think regardless which is which, we need to begin with a basic principle, that is; behaving like a socially responsible person regardless of sexuality, religion, gender and race. Speeches like Rony Tan can only stirred up the negative emotions of the minority vocal gays and act like poision into the minds of his followers who will start condemning people simply because they are gays and lesbians. The consequence and impact is very severe here!

So, until I start to see our Rony Tan thinking and speaking like any other socially responsible individual, I am going to look at his photo above, thinking that he is singing yet again- Oops! I did it again...

And I wasn't even looking for it...

I happened to be at the Apple store when this caught my attention- a leather slip case for the Iphone by Alexander McQueen. This piece is endorsed by an organization which supports global causes to alleviate poverty, work on environmental conservation and protection of children. Quite an interesting introduction and despite a background voice from Mr B telling me to stay away from it.. I bought it.. :P

Read more about this piece of Alexander McQueen's work and other designers here ;http://www.whateverittakes.org/celebrity.aspx?celeb_id=206 as well as information about the orgnisation: http://www.whateverittakes.org/default.aspx




Front / Back

The Straits Times Entry

Glad to see that you have made it yet again..

The Lovey Dovey Entry..

I wonder if 14 February 2010 is a double auspicious day since Day 1 of the CNY and Valentine's day fall on the same day this year? It should be a meaningful brand new start and definitely an unforgettable day. I mean how can anyone ever forget their anniversary day, right? Having just gone through the preparation for my sister's wedding, i know it's not an easy feat on the planning and logistics side of things to have the most perfect wedding. At the end of the day, I think the photographer (or rather the art of photography) plays an important role to summarise the "story-telling", a.k.a sequence of events and capture those "priceless" moments. (Just like we have the U.S official photographer at the white house who captures those presidential moments) I stumbled upon this interesting wedding photographer's website;

http://shermanho.livejournal.com/

One more MV entry here- this one is by Elva.

CNY- Day Three

This is my Valentine's day present from dear. Just in time to replace my old one which has decided to go "on strike" on me permanently! Arigato dear..

And back to deciding which movies to watch? We went to GV Vivocity and each of us picked one movie - "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" and "14 Blades". If you like Harry Potter, chances are you will also like Percy Jackson. 14 blades is a little too violent for CNY. After the movie marathon, we settled down for our meal at Carl's Junior and sink our teeth into those juicy beefy burgers.

CNY- Day Two

Lets see if I get to watch one of these movies during the CNY? Haaa..

1) Valentine's Day




2) Percy Jackson & the Olympians




3) 14 Blades

CNY- The Year of the Tiger and Happy Valentines Day 2010

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

First Day of the Chinese Lunar New Year,
May the Year of the Tiger brings us good health, happiness, wisdom and more $$$$$....

Not forgetting that it's also Valentines Day and I had originally planned for a CD player cum Ipod deck for dear, i decided to get not one but two for both of us! Heee... surprise surprise..

The following is mine, sitting nicely on my desk;

Here's what dear got, a iLuv set which has the same funtionality. Special delivery by KKS with love!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY DEAR!!!

Prayers to my Grandpa and Grandma

Went to the temple to pay our respect to my late grandpa and grandma. I missed them especially my grandma.. I hope they are well and on better terms now in their after life..

This is the resident dog at the temple. See! sometime a dog's life is better than human beings... It's well fed, in good care and enjoying his nap.

Alexander McQueen found dead

The British Fashion Designer- Alexander McQueen himself


I was quite surprised that even Ben knows who he is. I first heard of Alexander McQueen several years ago when my former boss (a trained lawyer in his 50s) put on his flaming RED spectacle in office which caused quite a stir back then. From then on, his provocative designs moved on to Puma etc. As I was reading the Straits Times, it's not surprising that Singaporeans too are snapping up his remaining McQueen pieces. RIP!

Iron Man 2

Am waiting patiently to watch "The Iron Man 2" in theatre this May 2010. For now, the trailer looks exciting! Well.. speaking of that, something less exciting happened when I was downloading the new OS update for my Iphone, I lost all my apps after that! Oh... Gee.. :(

Tohoshinki

One of my favourite boy bands- Tohoshinki from Korea. Just love the way they dance on the stage and their Music videos.

大嘴巴-Rock It MV

Da Mouth from Taiwan is currently the brand embassador for - PUMA. I think they dress more tastefully than Lady GaGa! The latter just seems weird to me! well.. her MVs are stylish but i simply like Da Mouth's Jap style outfits..

Shopping- New Balance

When it comes to sneakers, I like Puma and Adidas! New Balance also have some designs available in limited edition and I got this for myself on impluse..

The Saturday before the Chinese New Year (CNY)

One more week to CNY, I woke up slightly earlier than usual and made a special delivery to Havelock Road.. After working out the little "surprise" for BB, what follows that is equally exciting, that is; shopping for new clothings for CNY. This is a tradition closely observed for good luck and prosperity! Finally, this is what I got for myself (though I had wished for a short sleeve shirt but nothing caught my fancy;

Reunion Dinner & Review on Seafood Paradise @ Defu

It seems that the economy is really picking up judging by the number of tables taken up by corporate booking. We were one of the only 2 tables on personal booking when we got there at 7:30pm. By 8:15pm, it was already full house and noisy. So we decided to finish up the very nice dishes and have dessert elsewhere to avoid waiting. Nothing beats the family coming together for a meal and catching up..

Next stop: Bishan where the largest CNY bazzar is supposed to be. Yup! It's the largest by size and also the least interesting place. Very limited stalls and variety of goods to buy for CNY!

Review on Seafood Paradise @ Defu:

Location: Industrial Estate at after hour, quiet and parking is easier compared to it's esplanade outlet. Spacious!
Food: Very nice, famous for its creamy cheese crabs (fattening too!!) . All their seafood dishes are very fresh and well seasoned.
Price: Value for money (compared to Jumbo Seafood where we had our reunion dinner in Year 2009)


I only took the photograph of the crabs since we were busy eating and in case my family is wondering why am i busy snapping away.. hhheee..

Dinner at the Mushroom Pot @ Stadium

King Kong Snoopy's Food Rating on Mushroom Pot

Location: Quiet and nice
Service: Good
Food & Variety: Steamboat style and Average (Unless you really love mushrooms)
Price: about $40/person