gLuTToN's BaY @ eSpLaNadE

Had our dinner at Glutton's Bay at Esplanade... Bao Bei had fried hokkien mee while i had char kway teow... Followed by some BBQ chicken wings... Our noodles cost $4 each, and the chicken wings at $1.20 each...

Verdict:
hokkien mee: ****
char kway teow: ****
chicken wings: **** half
price: slightly high
Atmosphere: *** (it's a nice place, but juz a little too stuffy and warm...)

Makansutra Gluttons Bay is opened from 6pm to 3am, nightly...

The row of food stalls, totaling 12...

Close up of the bbq chicken wing stall and Fei Shiong fishball noodle...

Thye Hong char kway teow

Thye Hong fried hokkien mee

Our dinner...

Crispy bbq chicken wings... *slurp*

After dinner, we to walk walk...

This is the last shot when the camera went out of battery...

**StAr iDoL**

Was at Marina Square with bao bei when we spotted this event, Star Idol... They were holding an outdoor promotion to gain awareness of their new finalists... Artistes spotted include: Hosts Zhou Chong Qing and Ng Hui, Irene Ang, hunky Ix Shen and Qi Yu Wu, babe Rui En, stars of Tong Xin Yuan -- 'Zhou Da Qiu (dunno wat's his real name), Priscillia Chan, Ruan Mian Mian (dunno wat's her real name), Xu Mei Jen, Apple Hong, Xiang Yun, Felicia Chin, Pierre Png, Terrence Cao and Adrain Pang... Wat an eye-ful... *slurp* =)

Ix and Qi Yu Wu are really 2 hunky fellas... Pierre, Adrain and Terrence looks really good in real life... Priscillia Chan and Felicia Chin were gorgeous... Felicia looked really tall... almost as tall as Pierre when she stands next to him, contrary to wat I think when i see her on tv... Hmm... it was a pleasant time meeting them... =)

The cast of Tong Xin Yuan...

Autograph session...

iF OnLy oFFiCe's pAnTrY wErE tHiS gOoD...

... then everyone would have no complains reporting to work... =)

Get Sudoku-nised... Or be a Goon-Du...

"Come, come... everybody take one each... go and do and time yourself how long you need to take to finish... I'm looking for the company's IQ 'sheng-tong' (whiz kid)" This was wat my company 2IC said on tuesday...

All of us looked at him with the blank look... *Huh??*

It's actually the Sudoku puzzle... the latest puzzle craze to hit our shores... I've seen it reported on the newspapers, and books on it at the book shop...

So wat's Sudoku??

It means 'number game' in Japanese words, where it began in Japanese puzzle magazines back in 1984 ... It's actually a puzzle made up of 81 squares, a grid line divided into nine blocks, each containing nine squares... It looks like a crossword puzzle, but with numbers in it instead... So you are supposed to fill in the grid to ensure that each of the nine blocks contains the numbers from 1 to 9 within, at the same time ensuring that each column and row contains the numbers 1 to 9 without any repetition... It's appealing to puzzle solvers because even though numbers are used, no knowledge of maths are required... the solver does not need to know the complicated mathematical calculations and formulas to encrypt it, therefore a great game for all ages... Mathematical skills are TRULY NOT required to play the game, just some patience and logic... But why logic? you may ask... It's because you need to deduce wat numbers should be, confirmed, chopped, guaranteed in the particular box, and from there see a pattern to fill in another box, or any other number that may fall in the other boxes... Sounds chim? Not really actually... Juz some nerve-wrecking thinking and hair pulling experience...

(eg: the given numbers are in red, the lighted numbers show that they are the ones to be filled in, and the numbers shown above are correct...)

As you successfully complete one puzzle, it becomes addictive... And it's addictive coz you can play it anywhere, or juz to kill time while travelling... Unlike crosswords puzzles, which you would be stuck if you can't get something, in Sudoku, if you give up, it juz means you simply didn't try hard enough...

So juz how addictive is it?? According to the article on 20th October's issue of 'Today' newspapers, a TV show and a board game are in the pipelines in Britain... when 'The Times' in Britain announces on Friday that it was publishing Sudoku puzzles in their papers the following Monday, it's rival, 'The Daily Mail' called its experts in over the weekend to come up with a puzzle by Monday too... From the two papers, the craze spread through UK and to the rest of the world... Our local shores have yet to be really hit by the storm at least... it has so far been spread through word-of-mouth, and some playing the game online... A recent visit at Popular bookstore surprised me... The popular yellow 'dummy's guide book' had a topic/book on Sudoku... And it's not 1, not 2... but 3!! it's currently at it's third volume!! Looking at the trend, it's going to hit us hard, and soon...

It is so hot that the word, Sudoku, has already been the 2005 word for Britain, where compilers of the Oxford English Dictionary said that the word 'Sudoku' has claimed its place in the English language...

So how do we tackle the game?

There's actually a systematic way to complete the Sudoku puzzle...
- Never use a trial and error method to solve the puzzle... you'll get nowhere and will almost impossibly solve the puzzle... Unless you're damn 'heng'... Sudoku is actually a test of your logic and reasoning abilities... Sudoku is not a 'flip of the coin' game... it's not about probability or luck...

- Pencil in various possibilities in the boxes as you go along, and eliminate those that clearly do not belong there... Y0u do not want to be confused further, when you already are, very confused...

- One of the easiest way to start playing is to start counting and combing the puzzle systematically... Start with the number 1, combing each row and column and a block, finding which boxes do the '1' fit into... Then work your way up from 1 to 9... Or you can try starting with the number that appears most in the puzzle... If it's '8', then start with 8 first, to closer in the boxes to be filled...

- Most Sudoku puzzles can be solved within 15 to 30 minutes... It's ok to be stumped with a particularly hard puzzle, or one that you simply 'par-jiao' and overlooked, after all the mind-boggling numbers... take a break if you need to, or look at other boxes or parts of the puzzle that you've ignored, then come back to tackle the problem area afresh...

- It's juz a game... dun be upset if someone completes the puzzle faster than you do... it doesn't really mean that he has a higher IQ than you... it may be that he has mastered all the tactics to tackle Sudoku, or that he has a sharper eye and mind to spot... Cheer up dude!!

Hope you'll have fun, Sudoku-nising!! =)

*Some of the content are from 20th October 2005 of TODAY's newspapers...

My OuTiNg WiTh BaO bEi...

Yesterday, we spend and shop like kings and queens, princes and princesses... Literally like 'Shopping king and shopping queen'

First stop: we went to heeren to walk walk... bao bei bought a blue addidas singlet for me... $29.. it's a nice colour and the cutting is nice... then, bao bei hestitated for some time before buying her skirt, from this shop called 'fresh imp...' watever... it's juz a denim skirt, but then the design is quite nice... and it's $49.90...

Then we went to Ngee Ann City to walk walk... they're having a french affair exhibition, which carries brands and products from the romantic country of France... Wat caught our eyes were the french label cars on display... Renault and Peugeot... (scroll down for pics...) went to see the cars for a while... I was surprised that the Renault Megane actually have a very spacious legroom for the rear passengers... And the price is attractively priced at $70,000... I feel that it's a good buy, considering that it's a continental car, which fetches a beter value than the normal japanese car, and also because of it's designs... I will seriously consider it if i'm looking for a car now...

Bao bei remember that 'monster-in-law' wanted to buy her Harley Davidson black polo-tee, so we went to the shop... Looked for her size... And it's amazingly at XXXL size for her!!! Didn't know that the shop's sizing is so small, as it's an american brand... and secondly, didn't know that such a size even exist... I felt a bit pai-seh to ask the sales staff to get the size for me... Coz i went: "Do you have the triple X... L size?" Sounds like triple X... (XXX) haha... And then we paid up... using my safra card to get a 10% discount... didn't know my safra card have such a good bargain... and anyway, it's the first time i'm using it... After discount is about $38...

Went to have our 'milk tea with pudding' at the 'pao pao cha shop, cool passion'... it's one of the best bubble tea shop left in Singapore now... we walked further down to the Giordano shop... I tried on the brown pants that is quite in fashion now... Not too bad, but still not really willing to buy because i dun really wan to spend now... but then i bought a mandarin collar shirt at $33, after discount... Bao bei tried on the brown pants and she looked good in it... Cost $41 after discount...

Then went to Wisma Atria for dinner at the new level 4 food court, called food republic... it's one of the best food court that i've ever gone too... the decor is nice... Designed in a 60s 70s kind of era, serving all the famous hawker food in Singapore... Eg: Thye Hong Hokkien Mee, the famous stall in Singapore that serves with the brown leaf...Chicken rice, with original recipe from the famous Chatterbox, Yu Kee duck rice, Lau Di Fang scissors-cut curry rice, famous from the Maxwell market, Fortunate Restaurant which serves good Hong Kong dim dum... The famous oldies kept playing from the background... Really brings me back to the olden days feeling, set in the modern day setting of comfortable air-con food court environment... I had ban-mian... It looks and taste good... the noodles is so ultra smooth and silky... like kuay teow... this shows that the person whom hand-made the noodles had a good skill and knead for a long time to get this texture... Bao bei was not hungry and she didn't know wat to eat... In the end, we got some dim sum... (see pics below...) *slurp*

Then we went to the Coffee Club to get bao bei's dinner... She had a prata wrap with chicken tikki, which is a little spicy... Vegetable soup and garlic bread, and also a mocha freeze... total cost: $13.40...

After dinner, we went to the Borders at Wheelock Place... Bao bei got a Hillary Duff book for debbie, at a 30% discount because of the coupon that i tore off from newspaper... After disount is about $17...

We then took bus 190 back to Choa Chu Kang... it's a fast ride of only 30 mins... but still have to take a connecting bus or train back to Yew Tee... From Choa Chu Kang, we took bus 307 and stopped near her house... I spent the night at Bao bei's house... Watched a bit of 'The Wedding Planner'... Watched the show with bao bei before at Cineleisure, but we couldn't really remember the show...

Total Expenditure:
Addidas shirt: $29
Skirt: $49
Harley Davidson polo-tee: $38
Bubble tea: $2.70
Giordano shirt: $33
Giordano pants: $41
Food Court: $8.80
Coffee Club: $13
Bordersbooks: $17
Total: $231.50!!!

Enjoy the pictures...

Peugeot 407, comes with the spacewagon edition... Price: $114,950...

The butt view... the body looks 'solid'...

Renault Megane Coupe... Price: $117,888... Did you happen to see that hot chick at the corner? =)

Food Republic... The ceiling-to-ground windows bring in natural light... Notice the 'old' wooden tables and chairs...

My ban-mian... Silky smooth noodles... Ma-ma-mi-ah...

Our dim sum... Siew mai and Har gow...

The sliced-up Har gow...

Prata wrap with chicken tikki...

Bao bei enjoying her vegetable soup with garlic bread...

Mocha freeze...

fOoDie tRiP ~ cArL's Jr

Last weekend, bao bei and i were at our loose ends... dunno where to go and wat to do... Singapore is so small that people juz keep going to the same place, day in, day out... A typical weekend itineray could be:

Saturday: Orchard Road

Sunday: Marina/Suntec City area

I thot, "this must be the most boring weekend ever..."

So i went to pick bao bei up from work at concourse, still not knowing where to go...

Then suddenly, an idea struck my mind... a la wat you see in the cartoons, having a light bulb appearing... *tink*

"How about going to Carls's Jr at Marina Square... It's nearby, juz take a cab wouldn't cost much..."

So, that's where we went for lunch... I ordered a BBQ charbroiled chicken burger set, which comes with fries and drink... we upsize it for addtional 50 cents to get a medium share, so that bao bei and i can share and cut cost... Bao bei ordered a chicken salad, coz she's not too hungry and she felt like going green and healthy... The portions for the burger and the salad were huge... should be in american size... and it comes in "american size" prices too...

BBQ charbroiled chicken burger set: $9.70

Up size meidum size: $0.50

Chicken salad: $6.80

Total: $17.00

Although the prices are a little high, but i felt it's all worth it... coz it's really hearty filling full for us, and also bao bei loves the place... Anything bao bei loves should be worth it... *wink* The other thing wonderful is that the drinks are self-serve at the drinks station... You can choose your own drinks, from fizzy drinks to lemon tea... Since it's self-serve, i think it should be free-flow, since there's no way to control it... So below are some pics to let you salivate...

*Note: i'm not advertising for Carl's Jr, no advertising/promotional fee was received... i'm juz spreading through word-of-mouth... =)

the BBQ charbroiled chicken burger set...

the HUGE burger... this is the actual size... no camera tricks were done...

bao bei's chicken salad, with thousand island dressing...

A clearer picture of bao bei's chicken salad... still fresh from the refrigerator, filled with moist on the cover...

and the chicken salad, going topless... dressed with thousand island sauce...

Yummy isn't it? Visit Carl's Jr then...

Ratings:

Food: ****

Place: ****

Price: *** half (a little tad high)

BiKiNiS gAlOrE... *sLuRp*

I went to bao bei's house during night's off last wednesday... We managed to catch our favourite reality show(other than The Apprentice), The Amazing Race--Family Edition ... It was still as exciting... The show's winning formula of exciting race that brings the teams to different parts of the world, under competing time pressure and road blocks or tasks that they have to do... Best of all, this time round with their kids tagging along, it's getting more interesting... Seeing families tickling one another off, bitching about, the race is getting more and more exciting...

Then it's time to make my way back to the god-forsaken camp of mine... Gave bao bei a goodbye kiss and bear hug, and made my way to the MRT station...

I was travelling up the escalator to the platform when i was kaypoh-ing, looking down at the newspaper/magazine kiosk, getting a birds' eye view of the wide display of magazines... Something caught my eye...

Something blue, like the colour of the blue sky...
A sexy girl, striking a sexy pose...
Something beige, like skin colour, and lots of it...
And the familiar wide sweet smile, angelic pretty face, and a dimple that will make all hearts flutter...
It's JOANNE PEH!!!
Oh my goodness!!! Joanne in bikini!!! Have to buy!!!

It's quite amazing that from that distance that i'd spotted the magazine, easily 2 or 3 storeys high up, i can still recognise my Joanne Peh on the small magazine(from that distance)...

Haha... I quickly call my bao bei to tell her about it... Bao bei noes that i like her... she said that she would get it for me the next day, but she was too busy to do so... So in the end, i got it myself... Something that's cool with bao bei is that not only does she let me look at girls, she would also join in the 'activity'... Whenever we're out on the streets and spot any pretty girls, we would nudge each other, asking each other to see too... Where to find such a girlfriend?? *wink* ; )

So i happily enjoy my magazine, filled with joanne peh in sexy bikinis that challengingly managed to cover strategic spots... I must say she looks good in the photo shoot... Sexy, comfortable, confident, and the million-dollar smile, that comes with her beautiful dimple... (I love dimples, but sadly i dun have...) Although she may not have well-endowed boobs, but she does have a simply perfectly sexy curvacious figure... *slurp*

Below are some photos that i took off the magazine... Enjoy... *burp*

My bao bei will look sexy like her too if she strikes this pose...

Isn't she sweet and sexy??

tis is the bikini that bao bei is eyeing for... wonder how much is it?? $$

You can run... but you cannot hide...

woohoo... hot chick!!

Aww... Sexy lady...

*The above pictures are taken off the 8-days magazine, issue 784, 13th October 2005. They are meant to be for viewing only.

There's been a grave misunderstanding...

Yes, that was the tagline of the movie, Corpse Bride... I brought my younger brother to Jurong Point to catch the new movie as a present for Children's Day, since I was on half day off... After paying $8 each for the tickets, and $8.50 for the popcorn combo, with comes with a large serving of popcorn, a large drink and a free handphone strap, we made our way to the theatre...

As we were early, there wasn't much crowd in the theatre yet... I walked through the row of seat first, looking for our assigned seats, L05 & L06... Since L06 is nearer to the steps of pathway, I exchanged seats with my brother... We settled down, enjoyed our popcorn combo and the advertisements showing on screen...

A few minutes later, a pair of university undergrad-looking couple (possibly form the nearby NTU) came up to our aisle... The girl was a pretty, hot chick!! She wore a pink top and brown skirt, holding a thick white sweater in one hand... They squeezed through our cramped legroom to get to their seats, L03 & L04... As she walked past me, the aromatic sweet scent of her perfume whisked past my nose... *sniff-sniff* Argh...... Shouldn't have changed seats with my brother!! (I think bao bei will be shaking her head and be fuming mad when she reads this... But hey... I'm just trying to be cheeky only kae, bao bei? =p )

So, continue on with the advertisements... They aired the Visa card advertisement, the one in the safari setting, where, they chanced upon an 'Ah Meng' lying in the middle of the road, playing dead... In the end, the toursit had to use her visa card to call for bananas to get back her luggages... That was one of my favourite advertisements...

Then came the Visa platinum card advertisement, which is also one of my favourites... This is the one where the setting is set in India... The one which my bao bei and I always laugh to, coz we would always try to imitate the little girl and the Indian accent... I particulary enjoyed this one as it's the full extended version... I've never seen the extended version before, and I thought that the one always showing on tv is the actual one... I must say that the full extended version is much nicer, and I lurrve it...

Here's a small part of it... You must say/read it with the Indian accent...

Man to Richard Gere: More birds, more luck!!
******
Girl: My brother is going away on a journey, I want to buy five birds to wish him luck.
Bird-seller: But there's only enough for 1 bird...
Girl: Okay... (With a sad, disappointed tone)

Haha... Bao bei and I would always play to it...

Corpse Bride is about this guy called Victor, whom has been arranged by his family to marry the girl, Victoria, for money... But actually, Victoria's family is also penny-less... They met for the first time to rehearse their wedding vows, and they fell in love at first sight... As Victor is too anxious and keeps forgetting his verse, the rehearsal is called off by the pastor angrily... Victor was disappointed with himself and ran off... On his way, he kept rehearsing, and finally got the right verse...

"With this hand, I'll lift your sorrow...

With this cup, I'll fill your wine...

With this ring, I'll marry you..."

And he went on to put the ring on a tweak, to rehearse, not realising that that was the finger of a corpse bride, and he's actually in a cemetry... Then Emily, the corpse bride, rose from the ground and began chasing her 'husband'... "You shall now kiss your bride..."

So the story goes on, with Emily having found her husband, and Victor, wanting to go back to marry his true love, Victora...

It's a typical Warner Brother's cartoon, where it will come to a happy ending... Along the way, it's filled with creative cartoon happenings, like the ribcage of a skeleton being a guitar, and a skeleton, dropping his jaw to the ground when some jaw-dropping thing happened... On the whole, the plot is simple, fairly interesting, and it's a short film of juz 1 hr 15 mins... Only small kids would really enjoy, I would say...

Story: ***

Creativity: ****

Graphics: *** & half

Overall: ***