Christmas Eve

Hey guys, once again yet another personal posts. Only read if you have the time because it's a really lengthy one.


On 24 Decemeber 2009, I had a pretty indelible Christmas Eve, at least it was one of the most hectic I have had in my life.


First, we were scheduled for an ineffable masterpiece, Avatar at 6:00pm at Vivocity.

Next, we had to rush straight to Sushi Tei after the movie because the last order is at 9:15pm !!! And the best part is that we only reached Sushi Tei at 9:05pm. A mere 10 minutes to rush out orders !!?!?!? It was insane but the food was still delicious nonetheless. So I will say that it is definitely worth it.

Andy, Kenneth, Siang Meng

Brandon, Fu Qi(He wanted this pic to be censored because of his rock style), Me, Chin Keong

Guo Neng, Chee Siong

Haha, always ever ready to act sexy! He seems to be caught in a scandal.

Brandon, Fu Qi, A part of me

Jia Yu, Sien Mei, Guo Neng, Chee Siong

Look carefully at the picture above. Sien Mei is laughing happily as she points at the pair of chopsticks which belong to me !!! That's because Guo Neng was asking everyone who put back the paper wrapper wrapping the chopsticks back into the box when the chopsticks are already taken out.

Yeah, so I was the one who took out the chopsticks and ACCIDENTALLY placed the wrapper back into the box. *Paiseh :))

Unagi Don

My Yakitori Don, not really impressive though

I don't know what's this but it looks like Fish Bee Hoon.

Tempura udon

Group Photo, I kinda like this picture. It encompasses all of us inside !

Chin Keong, Brandon

I was the one who took this picture and Brandon protested because he does not want me to take picture of his full body !!! Hahaha, if you guys know what I mean LOL. Okay I better stop pushing it.

Merry Xmas with our own rudolf

Jiayu, Sien Mei

Afterwhich, there was a debate as to whether we should head towards Marine Barrage or the Changi Airport and we settle for Changi Airport. We did tonnes of nonsense there because we were bored. The pictures will say a thousand words.

So here we are, sitting while waiting for instructions for our next shoot. Like Temporary actors.

Still waiting. Tsk tsk tsk !

Take 1 : Say Cheese !!!

Take 2: Roar!

Take 3 : Yay !

Take 4: Final shot! Pack up !!!

Believe it or not, we took these 4 shots by placing the camera on a chair that is 10 metres away from us.

Then you might be wondering, why is it still so clear? Well, the zoom-in function is extremely powerful as the camera is good, very high megapixels.

So cheers to Chin Keong for taking the uncanny pictures!

I'm looking at brandon while the 3 is so action!

2 Crazy guys fighting

 

Finally, we settled for a cooling stayover mahjong session at one of my friend's (Guo Neng) house.

We played all the way till 7am in the morning and we drove straight down the street for a simple breakfast, roti prata + teh tarik. It wasn't fantastic but it was a funny breakfast !

One of my friends said that he's not hungry so he did not eat. But here came an additional Ice Milo so we decided to push it to him rather than returning it back to the stallowner(we paid for it FYI).

5 Seconds later,

We looked to his direction and his cup was empty !!!

So much for being not hungry or thirsty !!! HE'S A LIAR !!!! HAHAHA. I swear it was extremely classic, one moment he said that he's not hungry but the next, he finished the drink in a mere 5 seconds.

All of us were laughing like mad after that, like some crazy fools.

All in all,I had a great time this Christmas Eve. Cheers !!!


Credits -reelmovienews, -coffeeshopexample, -indiegames

Challenge to America

Have anyone of you watch Challenge to America?


In it was a story told by the great Glenn W. Turner where he wrote a letter to Santa Claus every year that matched his wealthy cousins. Glenn was a poor farmer’s son who never got anything but apples and oranges, even though he asked Santa for exactly the same thing his wealthy cousins got. And every year, Glenn would go out behind the barn and cry. One year, when his cousin wanted a brand new bicycle and Glenn wanted a brand new bicycle, and as usual, the cousin got it and Glenn didn’t, he went out behind the barn and said, “Okay Santa, if that’s the way you want to play.”

He went on to complete the story by saying, “And on that day, I decided to become my own Santa Claus.” He challenged the viewer to be his or her own Santa Claus.


After reading this story, I felt that somewhat it's de facto what all of us are thinking isn't it?


We don't usually get what we wished for, i.e. good results, luxurious gifts, gambling streaks, great love life or even lasting friendships.

So instead of wishing for all these privilleges, why not we step out and start making it come alive ourselves?


Why not we start mugging now rather than vexing later about the insufficient amount of time to study.


Why not we get ourselves the luxurious gifts that we had always wanted?


Rather than being obligatory, why not we serve ourselves first? Hopefully this isn't regarded as a selfish attitude considering that I care only about my own needs now.

We have always been so busy shopping for other people's christmas gift but have we ever stopped to think how much we ourselves need one as well? Not any gift, but one that is euchred by us, deep inside.


So, deliberate no more, start by getting yourself a Christmas gift that you have always yearned for after all these years, start by serving yourself first, and hopefully you will receive a pleasant surprise as to how happy you can actually be, as your own Santa Claus.



Credits -spitzit, -deviantart, -nataliedee

Merry Christmas

Credits -hittinghammerwithametal, -everytrail, -typicalmacuser, -nocookie

Duolos

Doulos was purchased in 1977. Since then, over 21 million visitors have been welcomed on board for tours, programmes and visits to the floating book fair. With stops in over 590 ports of call, this unique ship has visited more than 100 countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and many island nations. Constructed in 1914, Doulos is recognised in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest active ocean-going passenger ship.

I happened to catch the ship Duolos at the Vivocity port today!

It was a magnificent sight!

When I first saw it, i gasped at the sight of it. It's brobdingnagian size was breath-taking.

I saw this banner that caught my eyes, it spelled "MV Duolos International Book Fair"

On board are a plethora of books laying around. It is really dirt cheap and the books are somewhat precious considering that they have been travelling around the world all this while.

So much for saying a sea of books, now I'm really seeing a myriad of books on top of the sea. Certainly amazing.

Of course, it attracted plenty of people, including the tourists on board. Everyone on board was snapping pictures and there was definitely heavy purchases on board as well. You could see the amount of attention it has managed to capture just by parking itself beside the dock.


This reminds me of the radical advertising which the Sales guru Chet Holmes suggested.


He said that we have to be audacious and advertise out of the box aligned with the core story that is held closely to the heart of the company.

Having a book fair on board a ship and travelling all over the world is definitely a lucrative and enticing story to tell.


Both kids and adults will definitely be intrigued by the experience the crew on board had as they travel all round the world. At the same time, they can tell them about the experience on how these books were collected along the way.


In that way, people will read with a different perception and they will definitely treasure the book more.


Simply spectacular. I love this idea so much that I am very inspired now.


I vow to advertise like this when I joined a company after I graduate. Stay tuned guys.


Whenever you see some whimsical advertising along the way, it will be demarcated by me!

Credits -gbaships, -polester, -flickr, -lawbod

Video sales Dissapoint

Sales of video games slipped during the month of November, a surprising decline given the launch of high-profile blockbusters such as "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" that failed to lift overall results for the sector.

Game makers have had to contend with a slumping economy, high console prices and a general lack of hits -- as well as a slowdown in previously popular genres such as music.


It's really intriguing that even during the hot festive christmas season, the video sales are not even moving at all. I thought parents will be extremely willing to spend a few hundred dollars on a Christmas gift for their kids?


Personally, I think a few reasons might be because piracy are still rampant and the burning of games into CDs are extremely prevalent as well.


Then again, all these are inevitable, just look at the music industry, it's so pathetic now. Maybe the disease will start hitting the video games industry very soon or rather it has already hit it. Now, we are just waiting for the disease to proliferate.

But, my suggestion is that they market the games to parents rather than to kids because kids nowadays know where to download the games and stuff. They have to make it cool to own a game, an authentic one, not a fake one. Build a core story, do a market research on video games and a psychology test on why people buy games and not download them then pitch the idea to the mass public again. Hopefully, this way, the producers will see light at the end of the tunnel once again.

Credits -marketwatch, -softsailor, -revjavadude

Thai Cuisine

Well well well, the long awaited personal post which everyone of you have requested for has finally come!

Enjoy this precious post.

So here goes nothing.

Okay, firstly I met up with my friends at United Square before I head to my friend's (Samuel The Chef) house.

We have decided to go early at around 3pm because he needed help because he had work in the morning. I shall not reveal the ruthless company that made him work on a Saturday here. Cheers !

Our task for the day was to whip up a delicious Thai Cuisine. But this is definitely not your quintessential Thai Cusine as quoted from our chef. It is actually a FUSION, yeah, how creative !

So our first dish was this spring roll wrapped in mushrooms, basil, pepper and cheese. The spring roll is actually made of rice paper which is extremely hard to deal with.

First, we had to place it in water to soften it up but then we realised that we left it in the water for too long and in the end we had to dry it to harden it a little again. It's pretty lame but you should have seen how we threw rice paper at each other for screwing up ! Hilarious I swear ! Haha.

Then Jaryl was tasked to deep fry the spring roll and as you can see from the picture above, he did a more than fantastic job ! I guess all the Asia Travelling shows have taught him very well.

Well Done !

Next, the above is actually mayonese sauce. I bet you guys must be thinking, what in the blue hell is that? How can that thing possibly be mayonese? Isn't mayonese supposed to be in its pristine white colour?

Contrary to popular belief, home-made mayonese is actually yellow in colour. New fact of the day! (that is if you do not know yet, please do not shout at me if you already know :( thanks)

By the way, I was the one who was tasked to make the mayonese along with my helper Wei Kuan and it sure was hard man. I had to beat it consistently and my hand was aching after the whole beating but seeing the end product puts a smile to my face.

It really tastes great! My first attempt at making the mayonese !

Oh, the mayonese is actually the dipping sauce for the spring roll !

Cool Napkin of the day !

Tasty rice that is the easiest to cook for the day. But it sure was fragrant and tasty ! It wasn't too sticky, neither was it too hard. It was just the right texture, soft and chewy.

I had to give it to the chef for this dish. It's actually known as the green curry as the Thais will call it. He was boiling this thing for the entire afternoon! I guess it took him like 4 hours to brew this thing to capture the essence of the dish.

And oh my, when I tasted the curry, I thought that I will be reaching for my jug of water as I do not like spicy food at all and I can't take chilli either.

But to my pleasant surprise, the curry was light and it was carrying a tinge of spiciness that tingers your tastebud. To a certain extent, it was rather sweet and sour which was rather intriguing for me.

Total shock I must say. In the end, I ended up pouring furiously the curry over my rice. It was too good to resist already!

Up next, it's the ribs wrapped in panda leaf. Haha I was helping out in this dish as well.

Not the intricate marinating but the tying of the pandan leaf around the ribs. It was like tying a baby up because the ribs were so soft and juicy haha. Okay, maybe baby are not juicy but they are soft !

My favourite dish of the day I must say, the ribs were soaked with the saccharine sauce that was simply heavenly. I had to reach for another one after I finish my first one.

It was a battle of life and death I must say when it comes to grabbing of the good food with me !

I am nefairous when it comes to that!

Once again, I rolled the glutinous rice.

WHAT !!!?!!?! That nice looking red ball is actually glutinous rice? Cannot believe it? Well it is, because of the colouring you see haha !

We were dipping it in sweet coconut milk and boy this dessert is one of the best I have ever tasted. It's sweet when dipped with the milk but at the same time it is also sour because of the strawberry topping.

An explosion of tastes in my mouth. BOOM!

This is the cake baked by our dear chef, Samuel.

Just looked at the golden brown colour. As expected of a future Michelin chef. It's baked to the exact right colour. Just the look of it makes me hungry already.

I'm sure by now you are already famished right?

All the good food thrown straight into your face.

Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday to Wei Kuan.

Happy Birthday to you.

Take 1 : Bad lightning

Take 2: Simply Gorgeous !

Okay, that is all for my first personal post on a dine out at my friend, Samuel's lovely house.

Stay tuned for future personal posts like this.

Ciaos !

Oil Declines

"Retail sales and the stronger dollar are the main reasons pushing down oil prices," said Phil Flynn, vice president at futures trading and research firm PFG BEST Research. "Oil supply is still ample."

Improving consumer demands have successfully raised the strength of the U.S dollar and this has resulted in the fall in the price of the oil to a low $70.


However, I will personally still hammer hard on my investment in oil because the demand in oil is going to rise for sure in the future. Experts forecasted that the growth of oil will be by 130,000 more barrels a day.

Not to forget, every single activities are compelled to use oil for their operations, ranging from infrastructure building, housing, hotels, airlines, railways, casinos, corporations. It is imperative that we use oil for our daily operations without a shadow of a doubt.


Hence, with stable and reliable demand for oil, there is no reason not to invest in oil now given that the price is low now. This long term investment will definitely pay off with fruitful profits.

Credit -marketwatch, -lugar, -istockphoto