Sunday, October 25, 2009
The second installment of the 4-month back-lock.
Sun 4 Oct
I went to service and had cell group at Niwa Sushi. I've been buying salmon belly sashimi every time I'm at Niwa, but I think the only major dissatisfaction I have with the place is that the fridge is not cold enough. I think sashimi should be kept colder. Anyway, in the evening, I went down to Kaki Bukit to practise at the circuit. Strangely enough, I felt more apprehensive about the circuit than about driving on the road. Weirder than that, in the circuit I had more problems with normal parking than parallel parking! I think my instructor over-trained me on parallel.
Mon 5 Oct
I went to Rid's with my colleague to buy and sell some Magic the Gathering cards, and afterwards, my colleague kindly gave me a ride down to Eunos MRT station where I met my instructor for lessons. Tomorrow would be the driving test! However, he could not secure a circuit booking, so I drove around on the road. He made me practise filtering across 4 lanes near Eunos MRT station repeatedly, because I told him that stretch of road was what I was least confident of.
Tue 6 Oct
The highlight of the busy day was lunch at Old Airport Road. I didn't want to overeat, in case my stomach gave me problems during the driving test, so I had just a bowl of prawn noodles, although I did add extra noodles. The person apparently forgot, and when I queried, the cook immediately took out a bowl, cooked a new full bowl of noodles, and added soup. So I ended up with the equivalent of two bowls of noodles (but one order worth of prawns, of course).
After school ended, I rushed down to Eunos where my instructor had booked one more circuit session for me to practise. The strange thing was that I kept forgetting to stop at the stop lines. My instructor kept assuring me that I was fine, and just needed to stop being nervous. I think this had got to be the test I had least confidence of passing. Additionally, since my wife was not going to be able to drive soon because of her pregnant belly, I had the pressure of needing to pass. Now.
I was paired with a stern-faced stocky tester. He didn't say much, but just gave me instructions on what to do next. He commented that I was too far right when I parked (the normal one, not the parallel one), and he kept harping on it over and over. I thought I was a goner, but then he asked me to drive out, so I knew I had a chance. After I drove out, he directed me to the route that he was testing me with, and I was to make a left turn. There was one stupid car that stopped with hazard lights on right smack before that junction. I hesitated for a while, and my tester started berating me, and criticizing my indecision and judgment. He kept on belittling me all the way, and I just nodded and apologized away. By the time I was turning back to the driving centre, I was dead sure I failed. He motioned me to follow him to the debrief place, and then he criticized me once more.
Then he said, "Be more decisive when you are on the road" and passed me the report. And it said "passed"! I couldn't quite believe it, so thank God for that! I went to return the car to my instructor, and when I told him my result, he told me that I had nothing to worry about, although, he added, that tester I had was one of the strictest in the centre. Whew. I had not felt as much relief in clearing a test since probably the 'A' levels.
Wed 7 Oct
I managed to squeeze out enough time to go to 216 market to eat ban mian for lunch. I had to push off my colleagues' request that I drive out, and I told them that even if they dared to sit in my car, I didn't trust myself. Driving to school from home was still alright, because I was familiar with the route, and had my wife as navigator, though she behaved as a driving instructor more often than not. Haha.
Thu 8 Oct
I bought breakfast from Seng Ban Choon today, and only because sexy uncle wasn't there today. In the midst of the long day at school, my colleagues and I took a break and headed down to Old Airport Road for lunch again. In the evening, my wife and I went to White Sands for dinner. I bought some movie DVDs, and then we ate at Coffee Club, trying out their new pitas items on the special menu.
Fri 9 Oct
After a packed morning till noon, I went out with my colleague to a far away coffee shop, and ate at eBlackboard. The carbonara was still superb, and I had a full stomach before I went to pick up my wife to go to the gynae. This was the stage of pregnancy where there was no more ultrasound scan pictures to keep because baby was too big to fit the scan, so you would just see this big round patch of white that's the head and nothing else, so all the gynae did was to let you listen to the heartbeat of the baby.
Sat 10 Oct
This was a really long day. I started the day with my wife having a Superdog breakfast, which was good as usual. For lunch, I went out to Elias Mall to buy zi char back, and right after that, I laboured and cleared the storeroom, because the junk was just piling up. We needed to urgently reorganize so that when the maid comes, she could help us maintain. In the evening, I headed down to Marine Parade where we were going to have a tribe meeting, and our cell members went as well.
All of a sudden, Collin suggested mahjong, and that got Shups and Alvin interested. Collin needed to send one of his boys back, so he told us to wait for him. Alvin needed to settle some things as well, so Shups and I joined our pastor for a drink at a nearby coffeeshop. My wife drove back home first to rest, since I wasn't done yet. When Collin was on his merry way back to pick Shups and me up (all the way back from Sunset Way!) , Alvin informed us that he couldn't join us. I convinced Shups that since Collin was halfway across the country, we should still try to play, so we ended up playing 3-man mahjong at my house. Shups later regretted that decision because she lost quite a bit of money to Collin and I, with Collin being the big winner of the day. Guess the money covered his petrol costs of going from east to west, west to east, and after mahjong, east to west once more.
Sun 11 Oct
A typical Sunday. An interesting thing was the sour plum lime juice drink from the NTUC food court at Simei, which was really good. After cell group, I spent the rest of the day with Jadon at my in-laws' place.
Mon 12 Oct
It was the usual day at school, and I was at 216 market with my colleagues for lunch when I received a phone call from my mum. I thought it must be something trivial, but it was actually to inform me that my second aunt had passed away. Out of all my aunts, I was closest to her because she lived near my old place, and we went there occasionally, and there was a time when my mum was unwell and I stayed with her for a couple of months. I was quite shocked, because I didn't hear anything wrong with her except for the typical cataract and joint pains.
I drove my mum to the wake, and spent some time there. I was sad but could only shed a tear. Apparently, my cousins were prepared for it, and only later did I find out that my aunt was down with cancer, but nobody spoke of it before. I was wondering why I couldn't cry, and the only sign of my mourning was a perpetual feeling of gloom.
Tue 13 Oct
There was a short day today, and my head of science seized the chance to have a lunch treat for all of the science department, using up the remainder of some recreation funds (or something like that) reserved for such functions. We went to Tampines SAFRA to eat at Sakura restaurant. I whacked many plates of sashimi as usual, and today's Kobe beef (yeah, right) steak was done quite well that I had a couple of rounds.
I went with my mum to the wake again, knowing that I couldn't go for the cremation since it was in the morning during school time. My mum was suppressing her emotions in front of me, but at the wake, she let it loose. Who wouldn't? That's more than six decades of sisterhood.
Wed 14 Oct
It was raining, so when my colleagues were thinking of a place for lunch, I suggested somewhere nearby with sheltered parking, and we ended up at Hong Kong Street Family Restaurant. The food was still good, and it was served fast as it was still early. In the afternoon, we managed to pull off a quick game of mahjong at ZH's place, and I lost a bit there. When I play with those colleagues, I am always prepared to lose money, because I recognize that they are better players than me, with a lot more experience, especially since they always play with grossly higher stakes and need to be more strategic and careful.
Thu 15 Oct
I made several arrangements thinking that my IPT (IPPT Preparatory Training...I think only in Singapore will you find an abbreviation containing another abbreviation) was beginning today. In the end, I made a mistake, so I happily spent the rest of the evening doing grocery shopping and spending time with Jadon. He had been starting to walk, so it was tiring and fun to watch him now.
Fri 16 Oct
The highlight of the day was the grilled fish fillet at Blue Lagoon in 216 market. Superb stuff. Enough to lift my spirits as I went for consultations with my year 2 students. I think the fortunate thing for me owning a car is the fact that my workplace isn't that far from home, and my in-laws' place is near my workplace.
Sat 17 Oct
It was my mini (monthly) anniversary with my wife again. Generally we try to spend time together alone where possible on each 17th, and today was no exception. We had a simple Subway lunch, and did some shopping around. The late afternoon and evening was spent with Jadon, of course, but at night, my wife suddenly complained of hunger, and we went down to Hi Sshou at Elias Mall to have supper. Fortunately, they decided to entertain us even though the kitchen was officially closed, and we managed to have the piping hot food we wanted. The ramen was still excellent, and I had a very filling and therefore unhealthy supper.
Sun 18 Oct
I had service and cell group as usual, and subsequently I picked my mother-in-law and Jadon up and we went to visit my wife's grandma, and spent the rest of the day there. It is always a lively gathering there because on the weekends, the other aunts would pop by as well, and sometimes the cousins too.
Mon 19 Oct
Between the hours of work, my colleagues and I went out to 216 market to eat lunch. I had kway chap at Chris Kway Chap stall, and it was superb. I think this one beats the one at Old Airport Road any day, with or without the ridiculously long queue.
Tue 20 Oct
Today was a surprisingly unhealthy day, even though I was having IPT, which meant sufficient exercise by right. I had pork rib noodles for breakfast, and the yong tau fu opposite school for lunch because I was too full. Before I went for my IPT, I decided to have an early dinner at Wan Chai in White Sands, but I only shared fried rice with my wife because I didn't want to have too heavy a meal before the run. The first session was an IPPT test in order to measure the areas of weakness. I managed to clear all the static stations, but failed the running. The bad thing about the timing was that I needed to eat something light before the session to keep myself going, but if it was something light, I would be dead hungry by the time it ended and needed supper. I suspect that whatever weight I lost I probably gained in the meal after. Sigh. I went to Superdog with my wife for supper because she was feeling kind of hungry too, probably because of the pregnancy.
Wed 21 Oct
It was a long day at school. My colleagues and I made our pilgrimage to Old Airport Road, and I had the Whitley Road Prawn Mee again, to my tremendous satisfaction before returning to school and back to the work. In the evening, my wife and I headed over to Ikea Tampines to shop for some loose ends and furniture to hopefully organize some other parts of the house. We also popped by Giant to buy some groceries, and I bought a boxful of sashimi. The peculiar thing was the sashimi chef recognized me! And gave me a discount! The last time I came by to buy sashimi was at least a year ago. I thought he was just bluffing, but he could tell me that I only came twice (which was correct), and the last time I dropped by was last year. He said that he could remember most of his customers. Cool chap.
Thu 22 Oct
This was an odd day. Originally, I had meant to end the day early, and settle some personal matters together with my wife. However, at around ten, my student's mum called me. Now, I had previously helped her apply for a visa here, but there were several documents, and I agreed with her that it was certainly confusing. The visa application said that her stay here was granted, and the duration was about two months. However, the stamp on the passport implied that she could be here only for 30 days. Essentially, because she needed to extend her stay, she called ICA and only then found out that she had overstayed! This could turn out to be a major issue, so I drove her down to ICA right away, and got a queue number there, and waited for very, very long. While waiting, I made my way to Golden Mile Hawker Centre to eat my favourite char kway teow (the one with the ikan bilis), and when I returned to the ICA, it was our turn. We spent a long time talking to the grouchy guy at the counter who sounded like he was trying to shoo us away and refusing to extend the stay of my student's mum. After I talked to him nicely and politely (even though I was getting somewhat pissed off), he eventually relented, and gave her the extension that she needed. My student's mum was profusely thankful, and very embarrassed for giving me trouble, but I kept assuring her that it wasn't much trouble. It was, however, very time consuming. Haha, but hey, if I didn't help her out, she would be...an illegal immigrant??
Fri 23 Oct
I took childcare leave today to spend time with Jadon, and to settle many, many things, including buying baby's stuff, and going to Elias Mall to settle the maid letter. In any case, I had to delay our picking up of the maid even though she had reached because we hadn't cleaned up and reorganized the stuff in the spare room. Ironically, although if we did pick up the maid, she could help us clean up, the issue was that we didn't even know where to move some of the things to begin with. Anyway, the maid agency was nice enough and assured us that in the meantime, they would just send the maid to the training centre.
Sat 24 Oct
My wife and I ate at Subway for lunch, and went over to my in-laws' place thereafter. I decided to make a new pair of spectacles because the old one was quite scratched, and sometimes at night, I couldn't see too clearly if opposite headlights shone at me. Since it was crucial as I was now the official chauffeur, I blew a healthy $300 to get a new pair. It is always this beastly expensive because of my astigmatism, and the lenses alone cost me more than half the total cost.
Sun 25 Oct
My wife and I went to the full month celebration of my colleague's daughter, and we spent the early afternoon there. I think Jadon is relatively petite, because almost every newborn I have seen lately is much chubbier than he is. After that, we went to Parkway Parade for dinner at Koo Kee in the basement, and the food was still superb. We did some shopping at Mothercare, and bought many, many items for Jadon and the second one, whom we did not have a name for yet. We wanted a good name from the bible, and with God's confirmation, but there was none at the moment.
Sun 4 Oct
I went to service and had cell group at Niwa Sushi. I've been buying salmon belly sashimi every time I'm at Niwa, but I think the only major dissatisfaction I have with the place is that the fridge is not cold enough. I think sashimi should be kept colder. Anyway, in the evening, I went down to Kaki Bukit to practise at the circuit. Strangely enough, I felt more apprehensive about the circuit than about driving on the road. Weirder than that, in the circuit I had more problems with normal parking than parallel parking! I think my instructor over-trained me on parallel.
Mon 5 Oct
I went to Rid's with my colleague to buy and sell some Magic the Gathering cards, and afterwards, my colleague kindly gave me a ride down to Eunos MRT station where I met my instructor for lessons. Tomorrow would be the driving test! However, he could not secure a circuit booking, so I drove around on the road. He made me practise filtering across 4 lanes near Eunos MRT station repeatedly, because I told him that stretch of road was what I was least confident of.
Tue 6 Oct
The highlight of the busy day was lunch at Old Airport Road. I didn't want to overeat, in case my stomach gave me problems during the driving test, so I had just a bowl of prawn noodles, although I did add extra noodles. The person apparently forgot, and when I queried, the cook immediately took out a bowl, cooked a new full bowl of noodles, and added soup. So I ended up with the equivalent of two bowls of noodles (but one order worth of prawns, of course).
After school ended, I rushed down to Eunos where my instructor had booked one more circuit session for me to practise. The strange thing was that I kept forgetting to stop at the stop lines. My instructor kept assuring me that I was fine, and just needed to stop being nervous. I think this had got to be the test I had least confidence of passing. Additionally, since my wife was not going to be able to drive soon because of her pregnant belly, I had the pressure of needing to pass. Now.
I was paired with a stern-faced stocky tester. He didn't say much, but just gave me instructions on what to do next. He commented that I was too far right when I parked (the normal one, not the parallel one), and he kept harping on it over and over. I thought I was a goner, but then he asked me to drive out, so I knew I had a chance. After I drove out, he directed me to the route that he was testing me with, and I was to make a left turn. There was one stupid car that stopped with hazard lights on right smack before that junction. I hesitated for a while, and my tester started berating me, and criticizing my indecision and judgment. He kept on belittling me all the way, and I just nodded and apologized away. By the time I was turning back to the driving centre, I was dead sure I failed. He motioned me to follow him to the debrief place, and then he criticized me once more.
Then he said, "Be more decisive when you are on the road" and passed me the report. And it said "passed"! I couldn't quite believe it, so thank God for that! I went to return the car to my instructor, and when I told him my result, he told me that I had nothing to worry about, although, he added, that tester I had was one of the strictest in the centre. Whew. I had not felt as much relief in clearing a test since probably the 'A' levels.
Wed 7 Oct
I managed to squeeze out enough time to go to 216 market to eat ban mian for lunch. I had to push off my colleagues' request that I drive out, and I told them that even if they dared to sit in my car, I didn't trust myself. Driving to school from home was still alright, because I was familiar with the route, and had my wife as navigator, though she behaved as a driving instructor more often than not. Haha.
Thu 8 Oct
I bought breakfast from Seng Ban Choon today, and only because sexy uncle wasn't there today. In the midst of the long day at school, my colleagues and I took a break and headed down to Old Airport Road for lunch again. In the evening, my wife and I went to White Sands for dinner. I bought some movie DVDs, and then we ate at Coffee Club, trying out their new pitas items on the special menu.
Fri 9 Oct
After a packed morning till noon, I went out with my colleague to a far away coffee shop, and ate at eBlackboard. The carbonara was still superb, and I had a full stomach before I went to pick up my wife to go to the gynae. This was the stage of pregnancy where there was no more ultrasound scan pictures to keep because baby was too big to fit the scan, so you would just see this big round patch of white that's the head and nothing else, so all the gynae did was to let you listen to the heartbeat of the baby.
Sat 10 Oct
This was a really long day. I started the day with my wife having a Superdog breakfast, which was good as usual. For lunch, I went out to Elias Mall to buy zi char back, and right after that, I laboured and cleared the storeroom, because the junk was just piling up. We needed to urgently reorganize so that when the maid comes, she could help us maintain. In the evening, I headed down to Marine Parade where we were going to have a tribe meeting, and our cell members went as well.
All of a sudden, Collin suggested mahjong, and that got Shups and Alvin interested. Collin needed to send one of his boys back, so he told us to wait for him. Alvin needed to settle some things as well, so Shups and I joined our pastor for a drink at a nearby coffeeshop. My wife drove back home first to rest, since I wasn't done yet. When Collin was on his merry way back to pick Shups and me up (all the way back from Sunset Way!) , Alvin informed us that he couldn't join us. I convinced Shups that since Collin was halfway across the country, we should still try to play, so we ended up playing 3-man mahjong at my house. Shups later regretted that decision because she lost quite a bit of money to Collin and I, with Collin being the big winner of the day. Guess the money covered his petrol costs of going from east to west, west to east, and after mahjong, east to west once more.
Sun 11 Oct
A typical Sunday. An interesting thing was the sour plum lime juice drink from the NTUC food court at Simei, which was really good. After cell group, I spent the rest of the day with Jadon at my in-laws' place.
Mon 12 Oct
It was the usual day at school, and I was at 216 market with my colleagues for lunch when I received a phone call from my mum. I thought it must be something trivial, but it was actually to inform me that my second aunt had passed away. Out of all my aunts, I was closest to her because she lived near my old place, and we went there occasionally, and there was a time when my mum was unwell and I stayed with her for a couple of months. I was quite shocked, because I didn't hear anything wrong with her except for the typical cataract and joint pains.
I drove my mum to the wake, and spent some time there. I was sad but could only shed a tear. Apparently, my cousins were prepared for it, and only later did I find out that my aunt was down with cancer, but nobody spoke of it before. I was wondering why I couldn't cry, and the only sign of my mourning was a perpetual feeling of gloom.
Tue 13 Oct
There was a short day today, and my head of science seized the chance to have a lunch treat for all of the science department, using up the remainder of some recreation funds (or something like that) reserved for such functions. We went to Tampines SAFRA to eat at Sakura restaurant. I whacked many plates of sashimi as usual, and today's Kobe beef (yeah, right) steak was done quite well that I had a couple of rounds.
I went with my mum to the wake again, knowing that I couldn't go for the cremation since it was in the morning during school time. My mum was suppressing her emotions in front of me, but at the wake, she let it loose. Who wouldn't? That's more than six decades of sisterhood.
Wed 14 Oct
It was raining, so when my colleagues were thinking of a place for lunch, I suggested somewhere nearby with sheltered parking, and we ended up at Hong Kong Street Family Restaurant. The food was still good, and it was served fast as it was still early. In the afternoon, we managed to pull off a quick game of mahjong at ZH's place, and I lost a bit there. When I play with those colleagues, I am always prepared to lose money, because I recognize that they are better players than me, with a lot more experience, especially since they always play with grossly higher stakes and need to be more strategic and careful.
Thu 15 Oct
I made several arrangements thinking that my IPT (IPPT Preparatory Training...I think only in Singapore will you find an abbreviation containing another abbreviation) was beginning today. In the end, I made a mistake, so I happily spent the rest of the evening doing grocery shopping and spending time with Jadon. He had been starting to walk, so it was tiring and fun to watch him now.
Fri 16 Oct
The highlight of the day was the grilled fish fillet at Blue Lagoon in 216 market. Superb stuff. Enough to lift my spirits as I went for consultations with my year 2 students. I think the fortunate thing for me owning a car is the fact that my workplace isn't that far from home, and my in-laws' place is near my workplace.
Sat 17 Oct
It was my mini (monthly) anniversary with my wife again. Generally we try to spend time together alone where possible on each 17th, and today was no exception. We had a simple Subway lunch, and did some shopping around. The late afternoon and evening was spent with Jadon, of course, but at night, my wife suddenly complained of hunger, and we went down to Hi Sshou at Elias Mall to have supper. Fortunately, they decided to entertain us even though the kitchen was officially closed, and we managed to have the piping hot food we wanted. The ramen was still excellent, and I had a very filling and therefore unhealthy supper.
Sun 18 Oct
I had service and cell group as usual, and subsequently I picked my mother-in-law and Jadon up and we went to visit my wife's grandma, and spent the rest of the day there. It is always a lively gathering there because on the weekends, the other aunts would pop by as well, and sometimes the cousins too.
Mon 19 Oct
Between the hours of work, my colleagues and I went out to 216 market to eat lunch. I had kway chap at Chris Kway Chap stall, and it was superb. I think this one beats the one at Old Airport Road any day, with or without the ridiculously long queue.
Tue 20 Oct
Today was a surprisingly unhealthy day, even though I was having IPT, which meant sufficient exercise by right. I had pork rib noodles for breakfast, and the yong tau fu opposite school for lunch because I was too full. Before I went for my IPT, I decided to have an early dinner at Wan Chai in White Sands, but I only shared fried rice with my wife because I didn't want to have too heavy a meal before the run. The first session was an IPPT test in order to measure the areas of weakness. I managed to clear all the static stations, but failed the running. The bad thing about the timing was that I needed to eat something light before the session to keep myself going, but if it was something light, I would be dead hungry by the time it ended and needed supper. I suspect that whatever weight I lost I probably gained in the meal after. Sigh. I went to Superdog with my wife for supper because she was feeling kind of hungry too, probably because of the pregnancy.
Wed 21 Oct
It was a long day at school. My colleagues and I made our pilgrimage to Old Airport Road, and I had the Whitley Road Prawn Mee again, to my tremendous satisfaction before returning to school and back to the work. In the evening, my wife and I headed over to Ikea Tampines to shop for some loose ends and furniture to hopefully organize some other parts of the house. We also popped by Giant to buy some groceries, and I bought a boxful of sashimi. The peculiar thing was the sashimi chef recognized me! And gave me a discount! The last time I came by to buy sashimi was at least a year ago. I thought he was just bluffing, but he could tell me that I only came twice (which was correct), and the last time I dropped by was last year. He said that he could remember most of his customers. Cool chap.
Thu 22 Oct
This was an odd day. Originally, I had meant to end the day early, and settle some personal matters together with my wife. However, at around ten, my student's mum called me. Now, I had previously helped her apply for a visa here, but there were several documents, and I agreed with her that it was certainly confusing. The visa application said that her stay here was granted, and the duration was about two months. However, the stamp on the passport implied that she could be here only for 30 days. Essentially, because she needed to extend her stay, she called ICA and only then found out that she had overstayed! This could turn out to be a major issue, so I drove her down to ICA right away, and got a queue number there, and waited for very, very long. While waiting, I made my way to Golden Mile Hawker Centre to eat my favourite char kway teow (the one with the ikan bilis), and when I returned to the ICA, it was our turn. We spent a long time talking to the grouchy guy at the counter who sounded like he was trying to shoo us away and refusing to extend the stay of my student's mum. After I talked to him nicely and politely (even though I was getting somewhat pissed off), he eventually relented, and gave her the extension that she needed. My student's mum was profusely thankful, and very embarrassed for giving me trouble, but I kept assuring her that it wasn't much trouble. It was, however, very time consuming. Haha, but hey, if I didn't help her out, she would be...an illegal immigrant??
Fri 23 Oct
I took childcare leave today to spend time with Jadon, and to settle many, many things, including buying baby's stuff, and going to Elias Mall to settle the maid letter. In any case, I had to delay our picking up of the maid even though she had reached because we hadn't cleaned up and reorganized the stuff in the spare room. Ironically, although if we did pick up the maid, she could help us clean up, the issue was that we didn't even know where to move some of the things to begin with. Anyway, the maid agency was nice enough and assured us that in the meantime, they would just send the maid to the training centre.
Sat 24 Oct
My wife and I ate at Subway for lunch, and went over to my in-laws' place thereafter. I decided to make a new pair of spectacles because the old one was quite scratched, and sometimes at night, I couldn't see too clearly if opposite headlights shone at me. Since it was crucial as I was now the official chauffeur, I blew a healthy $300 to get a new pair. It is always this beastly expensive because of my astigmatism, and the lenses alone cost me more than half the total cost.
Sun 25 Oct
My wife and I went to the full month celebration of my colleague's daughter, and we spent the early afternoon there. I think Jadon is relatively petite, because almost every newborn I have seen lately is much chubbier than he is. After that, we went to Parkway Parade for dinner at Koo Kee in the basement, and the food was still superb. We did some shopping at Mothercare, and bought many, many items for Jadon and the second one, whom we did not have a name for yet. We wanted a good name from the bible, and with God's confirmation, but there was none at the moment.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
I was tempted to make this the longest post ever with 4 months' worth, but I decided not to, because every time I save as draft, the next time I log in, each line spacing doubles, and I have to waste time deleting. So I guess I'd pay off in monthly installments.
Fri 4 Sep
I was so overwhelmed with work that I could only eat within the school, and today's chicken rice sucked totally. The rice was hard and undercooked, and the meat was tasteless. Fortunately, the dinner compensated for it. My wife and I ate at Seafood Hut, which is in the food court area at Elias Mall. The zi char there was excellent, and we enjoyed the food. It wasn't the best I had eaten, but for the low price and accessibility, it was definitely much better than the stall in the coffee shop in front that some friends recommended.
Sat 5 Sep
Tomorrow will be Jadon's one year old birthday. We were going to have a little party, so we went grocery shopping to buy the necessary utensils, ingredients, decorations and other loose ends. We spent the afternoon blowing balloons and decorating the house in anticipation of the big milestone of the first birthday. Heh.
Sun 6 Sep
It's Jadon's one year old birthday today! We decided to make it a small family affair, and we had it at my in-laws' place. Some relatives came, and we had a good celebration for Jadon. Unfortunately, he was having some rashes due to the weather and the new clothes we bought for him so he was in a slightly foul mood. We ordered in a big smiley cake from Angie the Choice, and the cheeky face looked just like his. Haha. He was either overwhelmed by the attention, or just plain tired, but he dozed off in the afternoon in the midst of the festivities.
Mon 7 Sep
In the morning, my wife and I picked up my mother-in-law and Jadon, and made our way to Eastshore Hospital to get Jadon his injection at one year old. Jadon was brave and didn't cry; actually, the pediatrician managed to distract him with a musical toy and was done with the injection before Jadon even realized the needle went in.
After dropping Jadon off at my in-laws' place, we had lunch at Botak Jones before heading home to receive the air-con guys, who were coming to service my air-con units. When that was over and done with, we went over to White Sands to open a baby account for Jadon before dinner at Wan Chai to start saving up money for him. As it is now, I think he has more money saved up than my wife.
Tue 8 Sep
My wife and I met a friend, Alaric, at City Hall to shop at G2000. Apparently, he had a 50% off discount card, and since he didn't have that many items to purchase, he brought me along and help make use of it. In the end, I bought a shirt and two pairs of pants. We dropped by Marks and Spencer, and I spotted my favourite Cherry Liquor Chocolates. Needless to say, I bought one without hesitation. We eventually ended up at Marina Square, and we gave Alaric a treat at Ministry of Food.
Wed 9 Sep
I went for driving lessons in the morning, and on the way back decided to buy a couple of movie DVDs, namely 20th Century Boys II (which I had been waiting for, since I didn't catch it in the cinema) and Wolverine. Once home, I spent the afternoon slogging like mad cleaning the toilets. What a way to spend the holidays.
Thu 10 Sep
After careful consideration, my wife and I decided to get a maid. Primarily the maid is to relieve my mother-in-law of some chores as she takes care of Jadon, but also, we needed to be prepared for the next baby too. We figured that if we get a maid, my mother-in-law could take care of the confinement part, and the maid can help out. We went online to do our research, and after checking a bucketload of reviews online, Homekeepers at Elias Mall seemed fairly reputable and trustworthy enough. The lady who entertained us was knowledgeable, polite and didn't push for a deal there and then, which is something that both my wife and I value in customer service, so we left with some biodata forms and a good impression of the place.
Fri 11 Sep
It was the ending part of the one-week break regretfully. I had a simple lunch at the Ananas Cafe at the MRT station, and I was saving my appetite for the dinner. Today we were celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday, and we brought her to Chin Lee Restaurant, which is diagonally opposite Block 85 market. We had heard about the food from various friends, and after checking it out on the internet, we found the reviews good enough to give it a shot. We ordered coffee ribs, the fish maw soup, and some other dishes, and all turned out excellent. We were particularly impressed with the desserts, and I especially loved the pumpkin and yam paste, and the black glutinous rice with ice cream.
Sat 12 Sep
My wife was due for a detailed ultrasound scan, so upon our gynae's recommendation, we went to this x-ray centre off Aljunied MRT station. Originally, we thought we found the wrong place, because the centre looked terribly rundown. Firstly, when we walked in, the place looked so dilapidated that it looked like some underground clinic that you may see in some Hong Kong drama/movie or Japanese anime. Secondly, the place was swarmed with foreign workers. While we waited for my wife's turn at the ultrasound, I saw many Indians and PRC workers coming in to do a health checkup, eye and blood test, and injection. I think this place primarily earned from these folks. To be fair, the ultrasound facility was good, and the lady in charge was professional. But one would imagine that such high-tech facilities could be housed in better environments. Anyway, it was enough of a turn-off for my wife that we decided that if we ever had a third child, we'd just go to Thomson Medial Centre and pay more.
Sun 13 Sep
My wife and I went to service as usual, and we had cell group at Eighteen Chefs. After buying a couple of big bags of diapers, we headed down to Elias Mall to Homekeepers. There was a big discount for a maid package, and it was due today, so we went over to pay a deposit first. We like the service enough, and I guess we were fine with getting a maid from this company.
Mon 14 Sep
It was a terribly long day in school today. This was the Fish Files season, which was an inter-disciplinary project between chemistry and biology. My class was due to present today, so I had to be there during the biology periods as well for the presentation. Between the presentations and in the afternoon, I had a few consultation sessions lined up with my Year 2 students, and only managed a pathetic lunch in school for about 15 minutes. Talk about packed to the brim.
Tue 15 Sep
It was an usual day in school, and after school was over, my wife and I went over to my in-laws' place to spend time with Jadon. After dinner, we went over to the MacDonald's at Bedok Central to meet Collin to discuss some policy matters, and we took up some additional medical coverage with him.
Wed 16 Sep
It was a long day in school. I met a vendor to settle some Learning Management System setup, and it took up a few hours in a row. There was cell group today, but I had an extremely long meeting in the afternoon regarding Corporate Communications. The thing that made it feel all the more longer was that half of it wasn't even relevant to me. Anyway, I planned to meet Collin for pool but I kept postponing the time because the meeting never seemed to end. Finally, it started pouring, and I asked Collin if he could give me a ride to Marine Parade for cell group. My kind brother-in-Christ agreed and came down to pick me up.
When I went to the gate, he wasn't there. In the end, I called him and realized that he had mistakenly keyed in Tampines JC instead of Temasek, and totally relied on his GPS system, forgetting that I mentioned to him to turn right when he approached Bedok interchange. He was waiting for me outside TPJC! He took some extra time to head down to my school to pick me up, and by then, we lost all opportunity to play pool, so we settled for a quick dinner instead. Not quite the way I was expecting the day to be.
Thu 17 Sep
The highlight of the day was lunch, and my colleague drove a couple of us down to Old Town White Coffee at East Coast. Some other colleagues had gone there recently and raved about the food, so we decided to drop by and check it out ourselves. My colleague ordered some noodle thing, and I tried the nasi lemak. It was somewhat pricey, but the quality was there. I didn't quite like the chicken wing because it was the kind with batter; I like the kind fried directly without batter. Otherwise, it was quite good. The coffee was rich and fragrant, and way more superior to the coffee shop kind, of course.
Fri 18 Sep
It was an usual day in school, and I spent the rest of the day at my in-laws' place. My wife lately had a craving (of sorts) for fast food, so we had been eating at MacDonald's every now and then. Today was one such occasion. I spotted some Jap instant noodles on discount at the nearby Jap store, so I bought a udon and a ramen one to try some other time.
Sat 19 Sep
My wife and I slept in late slightly, and went to Coffee Club for lunch. There was a new menu, and I tried the Captain Crunch pasta, and my wife tried the Wild West. Both were fabulous! The Captain Crunch pasta was basically pasta with deep fried soft shell crab, and it was unbelievably good. I think for such cuisine, Coffee Club ranks extremely high for me.
In the late afternoon, we went over to my in-laws' place, and after spending some time with Jadon there, we brought him home for the weekend. He is so cute!
Sun 20 Sep
We decided to bring Jadon to church with us today. Sure, by now he was manageable, but still, he required that much attention from us that neither my wife nor I could barely absorb the sermon. I did, however, remember enough to do processing with my cell group at KFC after the service.
After cell was done, I popped by IP Zone and spotted these two nice Doraemon tees! Once I verified that I could fit, I bought them, perhaps for nostalgia's sake. Then we brought Jadon back with us to my mother-in-law's place.
Mon 21 Sep
School ended early for me today, but I merely seized that freed up time to go settle administrative matters regarding my coming maid. I went down to Elias Mall to sign the necessary documents, and there were countless forms to sign - so many that it looked scary. The last time I signed so many pieces of paper was when I was taking up some insurance thing.
Tue 22 Sep
A typical day in school, but the highlight of the day was lunch at 216 market. I had the grilled fish fillet, changing the chips to tomato-based spaghetti, and it was awesome! The fish was perfectly-grilled, with crispy edges but tender and succulent meat inside. The mushroom sauce was superb as well, and I think this has got to be one of the best fish served at a Western food stall. The day ended with an unhealthy supper at MacDonald's, complete with ice cream.
Wed 23 Sep
Today was a busy day for some of us. The Research Centre for East Zone is based in our school, and today there was a learning symposium organized. I had already helped design a powerpoint template for the keynote speaker's use, but beyond that, my task was also to present on an action research project we did this year. There was actually food catered, but my colleague, a senior teacher involved in the organizing, was so unimpressed she got us to packet something for her from 216 market.
I think our presentation was unpopular because it was in a fifth floor classroom, but in any case, we presented, and during the Q & A, I sidetracked to talk about doing action research itself, rather than our projects, because I sensed that this was the reason why the teachers signed up, and my intuition was accurate. No point sharing something irrelevant to the audience's needs, I believe.
Thu 24 Sep
It had finally begun for us. I don't know why chemistry was rostered to start so late for Prelims, but the essay paper, which was the first paper for chemistry, started today, a week after Prelims had begun. When the paper came in, no one wanted to mark seriously yet, and the whole team headed off to Changi Airport for lunch at Dian Xiao Er. Our level head's birthday fell on today, and he would be leaving for greener pastures soon, so we took the chance to give him a treat. We splurged on an eight-course lunch, with sharks' fin and all. The notable dish was the crocodile meat, which was done superbly, and the fish dish, which had a special gravy that was absolutely delicious. The meal was extremely satisfying for the taste buds, but not for my bottomless pit of a stomach that was still hungry after extra rice. In any case, it wasn't cheap. Even if we didn't factor in treating my level head, it was still about $31 per person.
Still, with good food in the belly, we could now focus on marking. As usual, I cleared about two-thirds of the classes in one sitting by evening time, refusing to bring any work home. For dinner, my wife and I went to 216 market to eat the claypot rice due to a severe lack of choice. I had been telling people that this claypot rice stall is not a claypot rice stall. It merely serves stuff in a claypot, because it tasted like something was cooked elsewhere, but placed in a claypot before serving. However, today's saving grace was the salted duck soup, also in a claypot, but it tasted excellent, except maybe a little too salty. On account of the soup, I would like to give this stall a second chance.
Fri 25 Sep
I managed to clear my essay marking by 10 am, so I had free time to clear some other adminstrative work. For lunch, my colleagues and I went to 216 market. Apparently, they had taken a liking to Blue Lagoon, which I had recommended to them. One colleague told me that the fish and chips was excellent, so I ordered one, but changed the fries and salad to spaghetti. I also chatted with the guy, and asked him if he came from a hotel or restaurant and he said neither. I told him that I found it hard to imagine that he was just a normal hawker, because he was able to prepare my medium-rare sirloin steak with precision. He finally admitted that he was a former chef on board Star Cruise. I knew it! I had not met any western food hawker that actually asked how you would want your steak done.
Anyway, when the fish came, it was a huge piece. I took a bite and I was amazed. The fish was very well-breaded, and it was deliciously crispy on the outside, and yet the flesh inside was succulent and did not crumble on cutting. It was big on portion as well, and suddenly I realized that I wouldn't want to pay $7 for Botak Jones fish and chips when this is available for just $4.50. I'm not sure if it was because I chatted with him, but he seemed to have given me a huge serving of spaghetti, which was tasty on its own as well.
After my wife was done with her lessons, we headed over to my in-laws' place. My mother-in-law didn't cook dinner today, so we were left to our own devices. We didn't feel like eating the mediocre claypot rice at 216 market, nor did we want western styled food, and we ended up eating Qiu Lian Ban Mian at the coffee shop. After getting used to the quality of the ban mian at 216 market, this meal tasted terrible. The soup was bland. The ikan bilis was not crispy. The portion of noodles was big, but the noodles also didn't taste as good. Sigh.
Sat 26 Sep
Jadon didn't sleep well last night, so neither did we. We woke up earlier than him and went to prepare stuff so that we could bring him back to my in-laws' place and I could go for my driving lesson. I had remembered the timing wrongly, so we were running late. Worse still, my instructor called to ask why I wasn't there. He said he had told me to meet him half an hour earlier than the circuit timing, but I don't remember it. Anyway, I went there and we entered the circuit a bit late, but this time it was a better experience than the previous time.
I wanted to go to the Zendikar prerelease tournament originally, but when I went to my in-laws' place, I found that there was a big quarrel between my father-in-law and the family, so I didn't feel peace of mind to leave them in turmoil. After things settled down a bit and my father-in-law had gone out, I went to have lunch with my wife at 216 market. Everything else I wanted to eat was closed, so I had an upsized bowl of laksa, which was delicious but hot enough to make me sweat a lot.
Sun 27 Sep
We went to service as usual, but we were a little late, so we bought curry puffs from Old Chang Kee and pancake with soya bean from Mr Bean. I didn't want to eat too heavy a breakfast, so I didn't buy any pancake for myself, but to my surprise, there was a Starhub promotion which gave out a free soya bean drink and a red bean pancake if the customer is a Starhub subscriber. After the brilliant sermon, we went off to Niwa Sushi for lunch. I had a bowl of udon with some sashimi, but I think the Niwa Sushi at Eunos MRT Station seemed to serve better food. I went off to get a small cake for my newest addition to the cell, Ying Jie, whose birthday falls on Children's Day.
After cell group, we headed over to my wife's grandma's place where my mother-in-law had brought Jadon to. We spent the afternoon there, and some of the aunts came by for a gathering as well. We left after having a light dinner there, but both my wife and I were hungry a short while after. We decided to go to Pizza Hut for dinner. My colleagues had raved about the pasta, and I was curious to the level of improvement. I ordered this porcini mushroom pasta, which was decent, and of course, a vast improvement over the previous menu, but I still found that it was far from fantastic, and I couldn't believe that it was as spectacular as what the commercial advertised it to be. I'll give it another chance on another occasion, and try a different pasta.
Mon 28 Sep
I had lessons with my TA 1 class, so I wasn't around to invigilate the chemistry Structured paper. When I returned from my lessons, the papers came in, so I started marking the first class, and took a break halfway to have lunch. We went to 216 market to eat, and I went for the ban mian that I failed to eat the other day. After a nice meal, I headed back to school to slog my marking, and cleared about three-quarter of my marking by 6 pm. Yeah~
Tue 29 Sep
I managed to clear my structured paper marking early in the morning once my colleagues passed me the scripts they brought home. I love being able to mark fast - it frees up so much time to do all the many other things that I have to do. For lunch, a few colleagues and I headed off to Bedok Interchange. I had my super-upsized bowl of noodles from Teo's Noodles, because the weather was so ridiculously hot that I didn't feel like going for curry noodles.
After my wife ended her lessons, we went over to Bedok central to do some grocery-shopping and spent the rest of the day with Jadon.
Wed 30 Sep
I spent the morning settling overdue administrative tasks, and for lunch, a whole bunch of us went out to Old Airport Road. I felt like having Hokkien Mee, so I went to buy. Unfortunately, they just started preparing a new batch, so I waited there for at least ten minutes, but of course, it was good enough to be worth the wait. I didn't think the noodles was enough, so I had a bowl of fish soup on top of it.
I hung around in school to finish up my work, and in the evening, I headed down to Marine Parade. I was having cell group there at night, but I met Collin earlier at about 5.30 pm to play pool. It was really nostalgic, as the last time I played pool should be a couple of years ago. I was happy to note that there wasn't as much deterioration as I thought, but of course, was still somewhat rusty. The odd thing was that the tremors hit the Parkway Builders Centre during one game, and the whole building felt like it was swaying, since we were at the tenth floor. At first, we still didn't realize there was a tremor, and Collin took very long to aim before he stood up and asked me if the floor was shaking. By then, the lights above the pool table was swinging, and even the pool balls were rocking left and right. We were hesitant as to whether to evacuate (the building was pretty old, after all), but I thought it unsafe to run off without grabbing my identity card, and irresponsible to not pay up before leaving. In any case, the tremors lasted only about 3 minutes. We decided to play on, but another wave hit us, but lasted mere moments. What a memorable pool game that was. Shups came to join us a while after, and we played a while more before grabbing dinner and going for cell group. It is interesting that after all the massive church youth network reshuffling, all my mahjong kakis from three different networks somehow ended up in the same network! Hahaha. Mahjong for cell bonding!
Thu 1 Oct
I took childcare leave today, but primarily (again) to settle household chores. I cleared whatever chores I could despite not feeling in the pink of health, and went to renew my PDL at SingPost. After that, I thought since I had time, I might as well head down to Tampines to pick up my altered pants from G2000, which was about a week overdue from the date they were supposed to call me to collect. In any case, the pants were ready, but upon seeing the latest promotion, which was to spend $150 and get a prestige membership (15% off usual, 50% off during birthday, and other special promotions), I thought, "why not?" and shopped around. I did find some nice shirts, so I easily chalked up enough for the membership.
After I was done with clothes buying, I went to Tampines Mall to check out the mooncake fair. We had no time to come down, but every year we would buy this snowskin assortment from Fairmont Swissotel Sze Chuan Court Restaurant. When I went there, the assortment one was sold out! They only had individual flavours left. The guy there was nice enough to offer me a mix of two flavours after hearing my vocalized disappointment, so I got the rum and raisins one and the baileys one. Their snowskin mooncake has really good snowskin, lotus paste, and instead of the usual egg yolk, there's a ball of chocolate with liquor in it. My wife loves it, but unfortunately, she had been pregnant both recent years and had to abstain from the alcohol heart of it. I went home to dump the purchases, and then went to spend the rest of the day with Jadon.
Fri 2 Oct
It was a fruitful morning, spent on marking and clearing administrative work. For lunch, my colleague wanted to eat at eBlackboard, which I knew had moved from the coffee shop near the school, but I wasn't sure where it had moved to. It turned out that the stall moved to a remote coffee shop almost reaching the MRT tracks. Anyway, I ordered spaghetti carbonara, which was my colleague's little daughter's favourite, and it was fabulous! I like carbonara to be served with the egg yolk sitting nicely on top, waiting for you to burst it and let it flow into the pasta sauce. The pasta sauce was thick, creamy and fragrant, and I enjoyed the meal totally. My colleague ordered pig innards soup, which looked pretty good, so if I go again, I will make sure I check that out.
In the afternoon, I helped to invigilate the biology paper, and right after I was done, I rushed off to meet my driving instructor who came down to school to pick me up, so I drove from school down to Kaki Bukit area. I think I am really falling sick, and I was struggling to keep awake from the kind of lethargy that kicks in with illness. Fortunately, it wasn't so bad to affect my driving, but I made sure I rubbed my eyes wide open at every red light before moving off.
Sat 3 Oct
After Jadon kept us waking up several times at night, he gave us a morning call at 7+ am. We got him changed, fed and ready to go, and headed down to my in-laws' place. My wife and I took turns to eat the wan ton noodles behind the carpark we usually park at, which serves excellent noodles by the way, with well-roasted char siew, crispy chunks of lard, and delicious black sauce (not the ketchup kind). No one was at home actually, so we settled Jadon down, got him to play and drink milk before the three of us all went for a nap.
My stomach was still acting weird, and I had diarrhoea several times today. I hope it really wasn't a bout of gastric flu, or even if it was, I hope I recover from it as soon as possible. My driving test is coming up, and I want to be in tip-top condition. For lunch, we visited Blue Lagoon at 216 market once more. My wife was dissatisfied with the fish I tookaway for her, so she wanted to eat it dine-in, and it turned out much better than the last. I tried the grilled fish, and it was wonderful. Succulent and yet crispy edged on the outside. It had a nice milky-buttery taste to it, so I wasn't sure what was used as marinate, but it was delicious. For dessert, we had chendol, and it was quite good too.
I spent most of the day resting as my stomach was acting up. The only good thing was that it had not shrunk my usual appetite.
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Tue 18 Aug
It was a dreadfully long day in school. Other than the usual lessons, consultation and other work, I had to man the research centre till the school closed for the students to revise there. The year 2 tutors took turns to stay behind so as to look after the place as well as provide consultation to the students there. I was dead beat by the time it was over...but was re-energized when I see Jadon coming to the door to be carried when I reached my in-laws' place!
Wed 19 Aug
Today was a sad day in school. Other than remedials, administrative work, lessons and consultations, we still had a prelim exam meeting right smack during lunch. I was starving by the time it was over. Fortunately, my wife bought lunch for me, so I took a few minutes to gobble it all down, and went on for lessons.
I stayed back in school to finish some work, then met with Collin at Bugis area. We ate at the relocated hawker centre, and I had the Hock Hai curry noodles there, but by that time of the day, the curry was so thick and concentrated it became like gravy, so I didn't quite enjoy it. I hitched a ride from Collin to Touch Community Theatre where we had a Youthnet 144 meeting.
Thu 20 Aug
My wife was feeling curious about Claypot Fun, a shop at Big Splash which she saw featured on TV yesterday, so we drove there for lunch. We had to wait 20 minutes for the food to come, but it was well worth the wait. The sausages and chicken in the claypot were so tender and delicious. The rice had just the right tinge of burnt fragrance, and the salted vegetables and duck soup was absolutely addictive. It was, of course, more pricey than usual claypot rice, but I think the quality was worth the money. And there was free parking!
We went to the neighbouring soup to have dessert, and that was delicious too. A satisfying meal to last a long day ahead.
Fri 21 Aug
Today was another long day, but I hung in there because it was my very last revision lecture that I had to stay behind for. Actually it was quite a good time to lecture at LT4 because the students were all conscientious with their preparations, and they asked many questions. I like interactions in this form.
Sat 22 Aug
My wife and I woke up earlier to do housework so as to clear the room for Jadon to come home to tonight. We drove out to Downtown East, and ate lunch at Mr Chicken Rice. I ordered a large milk tea from the Chipshop, and we headed back to finish the chores before heading down to church for service.
Sun 23 Aug
My wife and I brought Jadon out to White Sands with us, and we ate breakfast at Superdog. It was a highly interrupted breakfast as I was carrying Jadon half the time. That was extremely filling, and it was important as shortly after, we went down to a colleague's house to celebrate the full month of her child. We stayed a while there, and surprisingly Jadon was very subdued, perhaps due to unfamiliarity of surroundings. I bumped into an old schoolmate, who happened to be a church mate of my colleague, so we chatted a while before we headed to my in-laws' place. For dinner, I had intended to get something from Botak Jones, but the queue was so ridiculously long that I ordered hor fun from the vegetarian stall for my wife and myself.
Mon 24 Aug
One colleague drove out for lunch, so we went out to 216 market. I ate the ban mian as usual, and I realized that lately we had been so busy that we did not drive out for lunch so often. In fact it was specifically attributed to remedials and consultation sessions, along with prelim exam discussion meetings. In the night, my wife and I needed a desperate break, so we went to grab supper at McDonalds.
Tue 25 Aug
I had a typical day doing some administrative work, and in the afternoon, I went down to Katong Plaza to sell some Magic cards in order to acquire some new ones. Now I had found one contract and one relief teacher who play Magic as well! Looks like the future prereleases should have some company.
Wed 26 Aug
It was a normal, long day today, and we spent the rest of the afternoon and night at my in-laws' place playing with Jadon.
Thu 27 Aug
Today my wife had less things on hand to rush, so we drove out to eat at Beach Rd Prawn Mee off Katong stretch. We had, of course, prawn noodles, and ordered the excellent ngoh hiang. Halfway through our lunch, the parking attendant (is that what they are called?) came by. All the shop staff were shouting warning to their customers, many of whom scrambled off to put parking coupons. Interesting service there.
In the evening after lessons, my wife and I went down to City Hall area. My wife's filling in the tooth cracked again, so she needed urgent attention. After that was settled, we went over to Marina Square to do some shopping. I bought a couple of pieces of apparel, and also two sets of tees and shorts for Jadon, and we went to Ministry of Food for dinner. I have found a new favourite bento to order: the salmon belly teriyaki sukiyaki set! It's quite a mouthful to say, but the salmon belly in teriyaki sauce is heavenly! The salmon belly fats literally ooze out in the mouth, and its fragrance is unspeakably invigorating. Of course, the sukiyaki soup was also rich in flavour, and certainly, the unagi hot stone rice upgrade can't go wrong possibly.
Jadon was not asleep yet by the time we were done, so we popped by to show him the new clothes I bought for him. As usual, he went to play with the tags.
Fri 28 Aug
After a long day in school, we went to my in-law's place to spend time with Jadon. Today bore a stamp-buying ordeal. I needed to mail something out urgently, so I needed stamps. I walked over to Fairprice first, but the counter lady said that they no longer sold any. I decided to go over to the SAM machine at the interchange. After queueing a short while and helping the clueless guy in front of me with his transactions, I realized that the machine couldn't print stamp labels! I decided to talk over to Cheers to see if they sold, and they did not. I walked all the way back to Fairprice to the Mr Bean stall next to it, as my wife wanted a pancake. In the square in front of the stall, there were many of those toy motor and car-rides for kids. I had this sickening feeling that my feet would get run over, since I was so unlucky with the stamps, so I steered clear of all the kids. When I was queueing at the Mr Bean stall, the woman in front of me was on the step before the counter, and she suddenly lost balance, stepped down, and it was right smack on my right foot. Hmmm. My gut feelings are quite accurate apparently, just that my foot suffered a slightly different fate. In the end, I walked to the Bedok Post Office to get the labels, so it was one big detour.
Sat 29 Aug
My wife and I wanted to clean up the house so that we could bring Jadon home, so we spent the whole day at home. We only went out during lunch to White Sands to eat, and in the evening to church service. For lunch, we ate at Coffee Club, and the food was fabulous! There were some new dishes out on promotion, so we decided to try them. After all, I received a SMS that entitled me to a free dessert if I ordered two pastas/baked rice from the new items menu. I had the Snapper Delight, and my wife had the Carbonara Moderna. The snapper delight was a penne dish with pan-fried snappers, served in lobster bisque sauce. It was so delicious I actually dipped whatever food I had into the sauce to finish every bit of it. My wife's carbonara was really good too, and it stands till now, after trying about 70% of their menu, existing items or new items, that we have not eaten anything even close to average. Everything so far has been excellent, with perhaps the spaghetti carbonara ranking at above average. Coffee Club for me has become a 'cannot-go-wrong' restaurant choice.
Sun 30 Aug
After Jadon woke up, we cleaned, fed and dressed him, and took him with us to Tampines where we had lunch at Ding Tai Fung. We bumped into church friends there, and my wife's uncle and family as well. We window-shopped for a while before heading over to my in-laws' place. We decided to come home earlier to do laundry, and when I reached home, I discovered that my third hamster had passed away. Actually he already showed signs of frailty much earlier. He was quite a chubby one, but had thinned significantly last month. Suddenly he seemed to have lost control of his lower body and once in a while as he scurried around, he fell, as if he couldn't control his hind legs. Considering all this, I think his life force was strong because he really hung in there, and despite his almost handicapped status, he was struggling around the cage. Maybe this was his punishment for killing my first hamster. Hmm. Anyway, it felt odd not having any hamster around to feed and play with.
Mon 31 Aug
It was Staff Day celebrations today. After a period long bonding session with my class, which bought a chocolate cake with 'Happy Teachers' Day' on it, we went to the hall to watch a series of performances. The skit by the new teachers was quite amusing, and when it was over, my wife and I went to grab some fish noodles and spent the afternoon with Jadon. We originally wanted to bring him to the Staff Day Dinner in the evening, but he just woke up when we had to go. Good thing we didn't, because no one else brought kids along. The whole dinner was marked by many teachers singing their hearts out, and ended close to 10 pm.
Tue 1 Sep
It's Teachers' Day, but just like any other holiday, it automatically becomes Jadon day. Jadon woke us up from time to time, but he finally decided to get out of bed at around 9.30 am. After settling his feed, changing his diapers (and he gave us shit...literally), we made our way down to my wife's grandma's place where my mother-in-law had gone. We left Jadon in the hands of many relatives, and we headed down to Niwa Sushi for a good lunch. At that price, I think the food there was very good. The chawanmushi was great, and I had two servings of salmon belly on top of a hana maki. And a main beef yakiniku. Together with my wife's teriyaki chicken, the whole thing was a low $25.50. High perhaps for expenditure at this shop, but cheap enough for me to satisfy my hunger.
In the afternoon, I went to get a haircut, and brought Jadon along for his. I think he recognized the salon, and he looked panicky once we stepped in. The moment we started, he cried and cried whenever the shaver touched his head. Till now he has been very consistent. He doesn't like his head to be touched.
Wed 2 Sep
I had a long day in school, with many consultation sessions and meetings. I had so little time left at the end of the day that I took a cab at peak hour to my in-laws' place for just a brief half an hour with Jadon before making my way down to Marine Parade. I met Collin for dinner at the hawker centre, and then we went to our cell meeting. Today was special because Ps Eugene, the head of the Youthnet came down to talk to us and to answer our queries and address our concerns regarding the recent massive reshuffling of people. The whole session ended fairly late, but I think it was a productive time.
When my wife and I reached home, we couldn't find anything to watch and ended up watching The Moment of Truth. I think this should be the scariest show (for the contestant) even compared to Fear Factor! At least from my Asian perspective, the prospect of losing face could be more feared than eating worms and cockroaches. I went to check out the internet and here how it works. The contestant who comes on stage had previously answered a huge series of questions while attached to a polygraph (lie detector), and whether he or she was telling the truth was already recorded. During the game show, the contestant is asked questions from that long list, and each tier of questions become more and more personal. In today's show, as the contest was moving up beyond $100000, she had basically revealed on national TV, with her husband, parents, and siblings in front of the camera, that she had stolen money while working, thought she should have been married to her ex, and had sexual relations with someone else after marriage. The biggest punch was the question: "Are you a good person?", to which she answered yes, and the machine said it was false! I guess that meant she had always been lying to herself that she was a good person while some part of her felt otherwise.
To me, this is an interesting premise for a show, which takes reality TV to a different dimension. Reality TV to me was originally meant to be realistic and honest, but the Hawthorne effect would suggest that it was impossible to do so when you know you are being filmed. This one had to deal with absolute honesty, and the most perverse fact of the show was that the audience loves gossip. The question to ask is this: why are we possibly engrossed with the dirty linen of someone we don't know? When I say 'don't know', I don't mean acquainted with, because I think many people are engrossed with knowing tabloid trash about celebrities and all, even though we don't personally know any of them, but we know of them. In this case, we are looking at an ordinary person. The other interesting things was that the audience boo-ed each time the contestant answered honestly to a question, admitting her failings. I immediately recalled the instance in the bible when the people were about to stone a prostitute, and Jesus challenged them that the person without sin can cast the first stone, and none did. In all honesty, I'm not sure how many people I know, including myself, can put myself on stage to scrutiny, including every misdeed in the past. In some weird aspect, I think the show is almost Christian, in that it forces introspection, and brings to point that everyone is, in their own way, a sinner to begin with. The only thing missing from the show is perhaps the idea of divine forgiveness and grace.
It was a dreadfully long day in school. Other than the usual lessons, consultation and other work, I had to man the research centre till the school closed for the students to revise there. The year 2 tutors took turns to stay behind so as to look after the place as well as provide consultation to the students there. I was dead beat by the time it was over...but was re-energized when I see Jadon coming to the door to be carried when I reached my in-laws' place!
Wed 19 Aug
Today was a sad day in school. Other than remedials, administrative work, lessons and consultations, we still had a prelim exam meeting right smack during lunch. I was starving by the time it was over. Fortunately, my wife bought lunch for me, so I took a few minutes to gobble it all down, and went on for lessons.
I stayed back in school to finish some work, then met with Collin at Bugis area. We ate at the relocated hawker centre, and I had the Hock Hai curry noodles there, but by that time of the day, the curry was so thick and concentrated it became like gravy, so I didn't quite enjoy it. I hitched a ride from Collin to Touch Community Theatre where we had a Youthnet 144 meeting.
Thu 20 Aug
My wife was feeling curious about Claypot Fun, a shop at Big Splash which she saw featured on TV yesterday, so we drove there for lunch. We had to wait 20 minutes for the food to come, but it was well worth the wait. The sausages and chicken in the claypot were so tender and delicious. The rice had just the right tinge of burnt fragrance, and the salted vegetables and duck soup was absolutely addictive. It was, of course, more pricey than usual claypot rice, but I think the quality was worth the money. And there was free parking!
We went to the neighbouring soup to have dessert, and that was delicious too. A satisfying meal to last a long day ahead.
Fri 21 Aug
Today was another long day, but I hung in there because it was my very last revision lecture that I had to stay behind for. Actually it was quite a good time to lecture at LT4 because the students were all conscientious with their preparations, and they asked many questions. I like interactions in this form.
Sat 22 Aug
My wife and I woke up earlier to do housework so as to clear the room for Jadon to come home to tonight. We drove out to Downtown East, and ate lunch at Mr Chicken Rice. I ordered a large milk tea from the Chipshop, and we headed back to finish the chores before heading down to church for service.
Sun 23 Aug
My wife and I brought Jadon out to White Sands with us, and we ate breakfast at Superdog. It was a highly interrupted breakfast as I was carrying Jadon half the time. That was extremely filling, and it was important as shortly after, we went down to a colleague's house to celebrate the full month of her child. We stayed a while there, and surprisingly Jadon was very subdued, perhaps due to unfamiliarity of surroundings. I bumped into an old schoolmate, who happened to be a church mate of my colleague, so we chatted a while before we headed to my in-laws' place. For dinner, I had intended to get something from Botak Jones, but the queue was so ridiculously long that I ordered hor fun from the vegetarian stall for my wife and myself.
Mon 24 Aug
One colleague drove out for lunch, so we went out to 216 market. I ate the ban mian as usual, and I realized that lately we had been so busy that we did not drive out for lunch so often. In fact it was specifically attributed to remedials and consultation sessions, along with prelim exam discussion meetings. In the night, my wife and I needed a desperate break, so we went to grab supper at McDonalds.
Tue 25 Aug
I had a typical day doing some administrative work, and in the afternoon, I went down to Katong Plaza to sell some Magic cards in order to acquire some new ones. Now I had found one contract and one relief teacher who play Magic as well! Looks like the future prereleases should have some company.
Wed 26 Aug
It was a normal, long day today, and we spent the rest of the afternoon and night at my in-laws' place playing with Jadon.
Thu 27 Aug
Today my wife had less things on hand to rush, so we drove out to eat at Beach Rd Prawn Mee off Katong stretch. We had, of course, prawn noodles, and ordered the excellent ngoh hiang. Halfway through our lunch, the parking attendant (is that what they are called?) came by. All the shop staff were shouting warning to their customers, many of whom scrambled off to put parking coupons. Interesting service there.
In the evening after lessons, my wife and I went down to City Hall area. My wife's filling in the tooth cracked again, so she needed urgent attention. After that was settled, we went over to Marina Square to do some shopping. I bought a couple of pieces of apparel, and also two sets of tees and shorts for Jadon, and we went to Ministry of Food for dinner. I have found a new favourite bento to order: the salmon belly teriyaki sukiyaki set! It's quite a mouthful to say, but the salmon belly in teriyaki sauce is heavenly! The salmon belly fats literally ooze out in the mouth, and its fragrance is unspeakably invigorating. Of course, the sukiyaki soup was also rich in flavour, and certainly, the unagi hot stone rice upgrade can't go wrong possibly.
Jadon was not asleep yet by the time we were done, so we popped by to show him the new clothes I bought for him. As usual, he went to play with the tags.
Fri 28 Aug
After a long day in school, we went to my in-law's place to spend time with Jadon. Today bore a stamp-buying ordeal. I needed to mail something out urgently, so I needed stamps. I walked over to Fairprice first, but the counter lady said that they no longer sold any. I decided to go over to the SAM machine at the interchange. After queueing a short while and helping the clueless guy in front of me with his transactions, I realized that the machine couldn't print stamp labels! I decided to talk over to Cheers to see if they sold, and they did not. I walked all the way back to Fairprice to the Mr Bean stall next to it, as my wife wanted a pancake. In the square in front of the stall, there were many of those toy motor and car-rides for kids. I had this sickening feeling that my feet would get run over, since I was so unlucky with the stamps, so I steered clear of all the kids. When I was queueing at the Mr Bean stall, the woman in front of me was on the step before the counter, and she suddenly lost balance, stepped down, and it was right smack on my right foot. Hmmm. My gut feelings are quite accurate apparently, just that my foot suffered a slightly different fate. In the end, I walked to the Bedok Post Office to get the labels, so it was one big detour.
Sat 29 Aug
My wife and I wanted to clean up the house so that we could bring Jadon home, so we spent the whole day at home. We only went out during lunch to White Sands to eat, and in the evening to church service. For lunch, we ate at Coffee Club, and the food was fabulous! There were some new dishes out on promotion, so we decided to try them. After all, I received a SMS that entitled me to a free dessert if I ordered two pastas/baked rice from the new items menu. I had the Snapper Delight, and my wife had the Carbonara Moderna. The snapper delight was a penne dish with pan-fried snappers, served in lobster bisque sauce. It was so delicious I actually dipped whatever food I had into the sauce to finish every bit of it. My wife's carbonara was really good too, and it stands till now, after trying about 70% of their menu, existing items or new items, that we have not eaten anything even close to average. Everything so far has been excellent, with perhaps the spaghetti carbonara ranking at above average. Coffee Club for me has become a 'cannot-go-wrong' restaurant choice.
Sun 30 Aug
After Jadon woke up, we cleaned, fed and dressed him, and took him with us to Tampines where we had lunch at Ding Tai Fung. We bumped into church friends there, and my wife's uncle and family as well. We window-shopped for a while before heading over to my in-laws' place. We decided to come home earlier to do laundry, and when I reached home, I discovered that my third hamster had passed away. Actually he already showed signs of frailty much earlier. He was quite a chubby one, but had thinned significantly last month. Suddenly he seemed to have lost control of his lower body and once in a while as he scurried around, he fell, as if he couldn't control his hind legs. Considering all this, I think his life force was strong because he really hung in there, and despite his almost handicapped status, he was struggling around the cage. Maybe this was his punishment for killing my first hamster. Hmm. Anyway, it felt odd not having any hamster around to feed and play with.
Mon 31 Aug
It was Staff Day celebrations today. After a period long bonding session with my class, which bought a chocolate cake with 'Happy Teachers' Day' on it, we went to the hall to watch a series of performances. The skit by the new teachers was quite amusing, and when it was over, my wife and I went to grab some fish noodles and spent the afternoon with Jadon. We originally wanted to bring him to the Staff Day Dinner in the evening, but he just woke up when we had to go. Good thing we didn't, because no one else brought kids along. The whole dinner was marked by many teachers singing their hearts out, and ended close to 10 pm.
Tue 1 Sep
It's Teachers' Day, but just like any other holiday, it automatically becomes Jadon day. Jadon woke us up from time to time, but he finally decided to get out of bed at around 9.30 am. After settling his feed, changing his diapers (and he gave us shit...literally), we made our way down to my wife's grandma's place where my mother-in-law had gone. We left Jadon in the hands of many relatives, and we headed down to Niwa Sushi for a good lunch. At that price, I think the food there was very good. The chawanmushi was great, and I had two servings of salmon belly on top of a hana maki. And a main beef yakiniku. Together with my wife's teriyaki chicken, the whole thing was a low $25.50. High perhaps for expenditure at this shop, but cheap enough for me to satisfy my hunger.
In the afternoon, I went to get a haircut, and brought Jadon along for his. I think he recognized the salon, and he looked panicky once we stepped in. The moment we started, he cried and cried whenever the shaver touched his head. Till now he has been very consistent. He doesn't like his head to be touched.
Wed 2 Sep
I had a long day in school, with many consultation sessions and meetings. I had so little time left at the end of the day that I took a cab at peak hour to my in-laws' place for just a brief half an hour with Jadon before making my way down to Marine Parade. I met Collin for dinner at the hawker centre, and then we went to our cell meeting. Today was special because Ps Eugene, the head of the Youthnet came down to talk to us and to answer our queries and address our concerns regarding the recent massive reshuffling of people. The whole session ended fairly late, but I think it was a productive time.
When my wife and I reached home, we couldn't find anything to watch and ended up watching The Moment of Truth. I think this should be the scariest show (for the contestant) even compared to Fear Factor! At least from my Asian perspective, the prospect of losing face could be more feared than eating worms and cockroaches. I went to check out the internet and here how it works. The contestant who comes on stage had previously answered a huge series of questions while attached to a polygraph (lie detector), and whether he or she was telling the truth was already recorded. During the game show, the contestant is asked questions from that long list, and each tier of questions become more and more personal. In today's show, as the contest was moving up beyond $100000, she had basically revealed on national TV, with her husband, parents, and siblings in front of the camera, that she had stolen money while working, thought she should have been married to her ex, and had sexual relations with someone else after marriage. The biggest punch was the question: "Are you a good person?", to which she answered yes, and the machine said it was false! I guess that meant she had always been lying to herself that she was a good person while some part of her felt otherwise.
To me, this is an interesting premise for a show, which takes reality TV to a different dimension. Reality TV to me was originally meant to be realistic and honest, but the Hawthorne effect would suggest that it was impossible to do so when you know you are being filmed. This one had to deal with absolute honesty, and the most perverse fact of the show was that the audience loves gossip. The question to ask is this: why are we possibly engrossed with the dirty linen of someone we don't know? When I say 'don't know', I don't mean acquainted with, because I think many people are engrossed with knowing tabloid trash about celebrities and all, even though we don't personally know any of them, but we know of them. In this case, we are looking at an ordinary person. The other interesting things was that the audience boo-ed each time the contestant answered honestly to a question, admitting her failings. I immediately recalled the instance in the bible when the people were about to stone a prostitute, and Jesus challenged them that the person without sin can cast the first stone, and none did. In all honesty, I'm not sure how many people I know, including myself, can put myself on stage to scrutiny, including every misdeed in the past. In some weird aspect, I think the show is almost Christian, in that it forces introspection, and brings to point that everyone is, in their own way, a sinner to begin with. The only thing missing from the show is perhaps the idea of divine forgiveness and grace.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Here's the second installment. I finally caught up with my blogging once more. Life had been way too hectic for my taste.
Mon 27 Jul
This week I have no driving lesson scheduled, so I stayed in school to do work and wait for my wife. For lunch, we went out to Bedok interchange to eat, but the hawker centre was closed for washing. We popped over to the coffee shop opposite the old Princess cinema where my colleague said had good western food, but it was closed. In the end, we had lunch at the NTUC coffee shop, and the place was jam-packed, likely for the same reason why we ended there in the first place.
Tue 28 Jul
This is the week of solace. First there was no driving yesterday. Today, there was no RT scheduled! Apparently it was blocked off, and I can't remember for what reason, but I was glad that I have a day's break. Going down on two weekdays a week was really exhausting, and not just for myself, but for my wife as well, since I wouldn't be there to help chase after Jadon as he crawls all over the house.
Wed 29 Jul
It was a typical long Wednesday in school, complete with remedial, and a lot of administrative work to clear. Cell meeting was shifted to Friday, so I had an evening free to spend with Jadon. Lunch was at 216 market again, and I had the beef steak with spaghetti for 7 bucks. The option of replacing the sides for spaghetti was cheaper (at no additional cost), but without the bacon chunks (i.e. the carbonara) the cream sauce taste did not suffice.
Thu 30 Jul
Another long day in college, but I managed to clear a great deal of work. I was due to lecture for the revision lectures soon, and also the deadline for setting the prelim questions was approaching, so I spent some time to clear those out of the way. In the evening, I went for RT, and I think the instructors decided to whack us a little harder than usual since Tuesday we had a break. My arms were aching when I went back, but of course, I would always have enough strength to lift Jadon up to 'fly'.
Fri 31 Jul
After my lessons and other administrative work, I went over to my in-laws' place to play with Jadon a while. In the evening, I ate an early dinner, and then made my way down to Marine Parade. I stopped by Parkway Parade for a short while to do some window-shopping, and also grabbed an ice-cream cone from Scoops, before I headed off to cell meeting at Touch Centre Chapel.
There has been a recent major upheaval in church due to some movements of the pastors. My own network pastor had decided to move up into the Adult Network instead of remaining in the Youth Network. I wanted to follow him originally, but after he consulted his own leader who was the head of the Youth Network, I was asked to remain in Youth Network since I had kids under me, and also I was still in contact with youths (in school). Hence, after some arrangements, I was moved into Ps Lawrence's network. Fortunately, I already know some people there, so I wasn't a total stranger, but I guess it will still take some time to adapt. Ps Lawrence's youths were staging a play the next day, so we were there to have cell meeting, as well as to pray for them. This was a formal introduction of us 'refugees' who went to join his network I suppose, so that we get to know the rest of the leaders.
Anyway, my friends Steph and Weiling were there, and after the session, they wanted dinner, so I got a drink and joined them. I ate about a third of their hor fun because they couldn't finish it, and bought one packet back for my wife. Alvin came by to pick Steph and the rest of us up, and gave me a ride to my in-laws' place, and he planted the idea of mahjong on National Day in me. Anyway, my wife couldn't finish her packet of hor fun, so I helped her finish. In the end, I think I ate close to one full packet overall. Haha.
Sat 1 Aug
I spent almost the whole day at my in-laws' place. For lunch, my wife wanted pasta from Il Piccolo (I still can't get the name right...the over-artistic signboard doesn't help), which I got for her, and for myself, I decided to try the Massive Sunrise burger from Botak Jones.
It was really massive. Bigger than a Carls Jr burger for sure.
It had 2 huge beef patties, 2 pieces of cheese, 4 fried eggs, amongst the other ingredients of tomato, onions, mushrooms and etc. I think the scary thing was that I finished the whole thing, along with the sides of coleslaw and baked cheese potato. Ouch. I think this meal alone has put back whatever fat I could have lost during RT.
Sun 2 Aug
My wife and I were running late for service, so we grabbed a breakfast to go from Mr Bean and Old Chang Kee. After service, we went to NTUC food court for lunch. My wife's girls went to get my wife a birthday cake to celebrate her birthday (two days early), so we adjourned to Hans (where they bought the cake) to eat the cake and have a brief cell group. After that, my wife wanted to buy some stuff, but along the way I spotted a nice cheap shirt from IP Zone, and I bought it. Heh.
Mon 3 Aug
The Hup Lee opposite school was odd today. The man told me my breakfast costed $3.50, so I gave him $5. He returned me $2.50, which was obviously too much, so I told him. He insisted that it was $2.50, so I took the change. I bought two packets of fried bee hoon, and it included chicken wing. So odd.
In the evening, I decided to take my wife and her family out to dinner to celebrate my wife's birthday. So my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and Jadon came along with us to Sakura Restaurant at Safra Tampines. I think the food was below expectations, even though it was supposed to be Japanese season now. The only good thing was the slipper lobster that was available. Jadon was incredibly cute. He was laughing a lot when we took him out to see the Foosball table. He was very amused whenever we rolled the soccer figures. I whacked a lot of sashimi, but overall, I think I was the only one who ate enough to cover the cost of the buffet. Sigh.
Tue 4 Aug
Today was my wife's actual birthday, but I couldn't celebrate with her because of a mismatch in timetable (for this whole year actually) and we don't have a common timeslot for lunch. I went out with my colleagues to 216 market and had western food, and bought back food for my wife as usual. By the time my wife's lessons were over, we zipped over to my in-laws' place where I spent a short while with Jadon before I had to make my way to remedial training. Today's session was a bit more lax, because there was IPPT on Thursday, the very last session!
Wed 5 Aug
I had a long day as usual, and hung around for PDP time, after which my wife and I spent the rest of the day with Jadon. We had been teaching him new things, so now he could shake his head when he don't want something, and he can move his hands accordingly when we say 'gong xi'.
Thu 6 Aug
After a typical long day in school, including a short lunch in school, I headed over to take my IPPT. Just like the previous tries, I managed to clear the static stations with relative ease while most of my fellow sufferers already failed at either chin-up or standing broad jump stations. I ran according to my self-set timing for the first four rounds, and once more, my body gave up at the fifth round, and in the end, I failed the running by slightly over a minute. Sigh. I was hoping to clear this so that I don't have to come back for RT next year. Now I guess I'd have to sign up for IPPT Preparatory Training in September so that I can clear this year's window.
Fri 7 Aug
Today was an expensive day of food. There was a short day in school because of National Day celebrations, but I think this year's celebrations was somewhat lacklustre without any performances. The whole thing was more or less a big sing-along session. However, the students were extremely high, and I think it was because we gave out small Singapore flags for them to wave.
For lunch, some of us headed down to this ulu place in Hougang area to this restaurant called Yakiniku Nagomiya. It's a restaurant with this charcoal grill thing that you get to barbecue your own ordered food. We ordered a huge range of meats and mushrooms, and the most amazing thing was that the meat was extremely well-marinated, so the meat all turned out delicious after grilling. Especially the squid, which did not turn rubbery after grilling for a while. We were quite impressed with the food, and it worked out to be about $19 per person, but I wasn't full enough. After the lunch, we went to this nearby place Highland Centre (I think) to eat durian at 707. The durian was spectacularly good! But whopping expensive at $12 a kilogram. My estimation was that a single seed of durian costed about $2!
We spent the rest of the afternoon at home, doing chores and cleaning up the house. For dinner, we headed over to Elias Mall and ate at Hi Sshou, and we decided to splurge and ordered two ala carte buffets. We ate till we were bloated, and the food was still of good quality, especially the handrolls.
Hmm. One day after RT ended, and I was feasting. Ah well.
Sat 8 Aug
My wife and I went over to my in-laws' place to spend the day there with Jadon. For lunch, we went to eat at Il Piccolo, which was having a National Day promotion and the pastas were going at $4.40 for dine in. I eventually chose baked rice though because I was dead hungry.
In the evening, my wife, her sister, and I made our way down to Bukit Merah for dinner. We were attending the new English service that opened today. This was to make the whole Sunday free so that the kids could have a full day to devote to mugging. For us, we have one full day to spend with Jadon, so it was a win-win situation. I had my favourite fishball noodles for dinner, and we had cell group at the hawker centre.
Sun 9 Aug
My wife and I headed over to my in-laws' place in the morning, and had breakfast at 216 market. We spent some time there, and my mother-in-law went to see a doctor to treat her sprained hand. Yep, Jadon is that active. My mother-in-law then went to her mother's place, and we joined her there later. I went along to help take care of Jadon in the car, and when we got there, we left Jadon with my mother-in-law, and my wife and I went to grab a really late lunch at Niwa Sushi off Eunos. The bento sets were surprisingly good, and I think the food was more enjoyable than what I typically eat at Sakae Sushi...at half the price! I ordered some salmon belly sashimi, which was full of delicious fats, to go with my bento, so it was a satisfying meal.
I then made my own way back to Pasir Ris, and headed over to Alvin's place. The idea that he floated some time ago about mahjong on National Day came to fruition, so we played. Shups' luck was amazing today, and she won all of us. I managed to win enough to minimize my loss to 2 bucks only, while the other two lost about $13 and $30 respectively. I wonder if Shups was that lucky or she had improved...hmm...nah, think it is more of the former. After grabbing some pizza for dinner, I made my way back to my in-laws' place, and we picked Jadon up to come home to spend the National Day holiday. He was so excited he was playing with us all the way till about midnight before he concussed after a bottle of milk.
Mon 10 Aug
We brought Jadon out with us to walk around at White Sands, and we stopped to have breakfast at Coffee Club. My wife ordered American breakfast, and it was delicious. I had some mushroom thing which was absolutely amazing in taste. I think so far we had tried almost half of the main course menu, and even for the specials that were introduced seasonally, we had not eaten anything worse than above average, and that was just once - carbonara. Everything else was at least good.
In the afternoon, we brought Jadon back to my mother-in-law, and my wife and I went for a late lunch (after such a deliciously heavy breakfast) at the 416 coffee shop. The first few times I had the sliced fish noodles there I wasn't particularly impressed. But lately, the quality had been getting higher, and had moved into a good choice for food. However, I really couldn't stand the ventilation in that coffee shop, and it was unbearably hot in the afternoon.
Tue 11 Aug
It was back to school, and the highlight of the day was lunch at 216 market. After a weekend of heavy food, I opted for a lighter choice of just ban mian. I spent the rest of the afternoon settling SPA (Schoolbased Practical Assessment) to key in marks and countercheck the scripts.
Wed 12 Aug
Not to my surprise, I ended up having lunch at 216 market once more. Again, I did not want to eat anything too heavy, so I went for Ipoh hor fun. After a long day in school, we went over to spend time with Jadon. My mother-in-law did not cook dinner today, so my wife and I went to Pizza Hut for dinner, since my wife had a desire to eat pizza. The food today was surprisingly good, down to the Hut's Platter fried stuff. The drink we ordered (some strawberry tea thing) was pretty good too. The most important thing was that the service was good. Usually Pizza Hut was crawling with waiters and waitresses who had no initiative and were not very attentive. Today, there was only one waiter and one manager running all over, but I was dead sure they were way more efficient than the previous crew of about five persons.
Thu 13 Aug
After a dreadfully long day of lessons and administration, I went for driving lesson in the late afternoon. When I was done, I detoured over to Tampines One and did some window-shopping, but more importantly, it was to buy this water filter system called Gurgle by Hyflux to install on the taps for my place and my in-laws' place. Basically, it was for getting pure filtered water to make milk for Jadon. It didn't come cheap, but at least now there is a promotion that threw in a spare filter cartridge (that costs $40+).
Fri 14 Aug
I went to school only to conduct temperature-taking exercise for my civics class, and after that, I caught a ride from my HOD to VJC where we attended a pedagogy conference. The two speakers in the morning were really good, but I think the whole thing dragged too long before tea break, and that wore the patience of more than just myself. The second speaker was amusing, and he outright criticized the local education system and tore it to bits, in front of an audience of teachers. But the most amazing part was that his topic was on the current context that the students were graduating into, so he was talking about the economic situation now, and he analyzed the past and the present, and he managed to throw in a ton of facts, figures, charts, graphs and economic theories and theorists, and yet was engaging and made us understand. Now that was a feat in itself.
Sat 15 Aug
In the morning, my wife and I headed down to Geylang area to the clinic of my wife's gynaecologist. After waiting for nearly one and a half hours (of course, we grabbed a big breakfast from Ho Kee nearby), we finally got to our turn. My wife was supposed to do a blood test for Down's syndrome likelihood in the child, but the gynae did an ultrasound anyway. After some detailed scanning, we saw something between the legs...the second one was going to be a boy! Yay! Two sons to inherit my toys/anime/movies/comics/Xbox 360/Wii/Magic the Gathering cards. When they grow older, we can start a mahjong table on our own - my wife, myself and our two sons. I must start them young. Mahjong is intellectual enough to polish their cognitive prowess. Magic as well. Bwahaha.
After that we headed over to Tampines One to pick up the Gurgle system that I ordered on Thursday. However, along the way, my wife went in G2000 to find a loose top for herself, and I spotted the big, big sale. The short-sleeved shirts were going for $23, the long-sleeved shirts and pants for going for $29!!! And if you buy 3 items or more, there was a further 20% discount! I went berserk just like the other time at Club Marc, and after some time of trying, I ended up buying 5 short-sleeved shirts, 2 long-sleeved shirts and 1 pair of pants. I could have bought more, but my wife wanted to check out some other shops. All in all, it worked out to be an average of $20 per piece.
That is dirt cheap for working clothes. Bwahahahaha.
Sun 16 Aug
I brought my mum out with me and my wife to White Sands where we ate at Wan Chai. After that, we went around to do a bit of shopping. I blew almost a hundred bucks on clothes - but this time it was for Jadon! His one year birthday was coming up soon anyway, so that is cause for splurging. Incidentally, I also bought a t-shirt for myself, and another one for my wife.
Because we didn't bring Jadon home this weekend, I brought my mum with us to see Jadon. He was extremely excited and happy today (then again, he's happily laughing and playing every day). My mother-in-law didn't cook, so for dinner, my mum, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, my wife and I, together with Jadon in a baby chair, had dinner at Hiang Suar Restaurant nearby.
Mon 17 Aug
I had a bad start to the day when I bought breakfast from Seng Ban Choon. I had no choice because all the usual stalls were closed, so that left them as the only stall with decent bee hoon for breakfast. I asked for red chilli (sauce) and green chilli for one packet, and the guy at the stall (nicknamed 'sexy uncle' by most because of his super-short shorts) forgot the red chilli. I reminded him and he gave me this black face. Which was typical, because he was perpetually grouchy. Then after I paid him, I asked for chopsticks, and he gave me a scowl. Yep, this guy actually gets pissed off when you ask him for chopsticks or other disposable utensils when you takeaway. How else are you supposed to eat, you wonder? Nope, this natural point does not occur to this grouch. When he threw the chopsticks hard into my bag of food, he also shoved the change into my hand. At that point, I really felt like throwing the coins to his face and said that it was to pay for the chopsticks, but I thought that was giving him too much benefits.
Why do I torture myself every once in a while buying from him? I also wonder.
After a relatively short day at school, I headed down to Eunos for my driving lesson. Today I learnt parallel parking, and as usual, my instructor just sprang the surprise on me without telling me in advance what he was teaching me. In the evening, my wife and I headed down to Tampines to do some shopping. I bought a few pairs of toe socks for myself to replace my torn ones. Oh yeah, I finally thought of a plausible reason why students walk so disgustingly slow - it was to preserve their socks! I walk so darn fast that it burns and tears holes in my socks very quickly. Yeah, that must be the reason why they crawl from place to place.
My wife and I decided to have dinner at Sushi Teh. Now, I had been there before several times to eat sushi, and I already knew that their food was much better than Sakae for just a bit more in price. Today, I tried the ramen while my wife tried the udon, and the food was spectacular. I now hold it in the same high regard (almost) as Ministry of Food. The dragon roll sushi we ordered was delicious! Then we ordered yuzu sorbet and watermelon sorbet for dessert. The yuzu sorbet was so fragrant that we couldn't stop harping on how good it was all the way through.
Eventually, we ended up at Angies the Choice, which was the very reason why we went to Tampines actually, to order a birthday cake for Jadon. After looking through all the cutesy designs, we decided to go for something simple which really represents him - a cheeky smiley that formed the whole cake.
Mon 27 Jul
This week I have no driving lesson scheduled, so I stayed in school to do work and wait for my wife. For lunch, we went out to Bedok interchange to eat, but the hawker centre was closed for washing. We popped over to the coffee shop opposite the old Princess cinema where my colleague said had good western food, but it was closed. In the end, we had lunch at the NTUC coffee shop, and the place was jam-packed, likely for the same reason why we ended there in the first place.
Tue 28 Jul
This is the week of solace. First there was no driving yesterday. Today, there was no RT scheduled! Apparently it was blocked off, and I can't remember for what reason, but I was glad that I have a day's break. Going down on two weekdays a week was really exhausting, and not just for myself, but for my wife as well, since I wouldn't be there to help chase after Jadon as he crawls all over the house.
Wed 29 Jul
It was a typical long Wednesday in school, complete with remedial, and a lot of administrative work to clear. Cell meeting was shifted to Friday, so I had an evening free to spend with Jadon. Lunch was at 216 market again, and I had the beef steak with spaghetti for 7 bucks. The option of replacing the sides for spaghetti was cheaper (at no additional cost), but without the bacon chunks (i.e. the carbonara) the cream sauce taste did not suffice.
Thu 30 Jul
Another long day in college, but I managed to clear a great deal of work. I was due to lecture for the revision lectures soon, and also the deadline for setting the prelim questions was approaching, so I spent some time to clear those out of the way. In the evening, I went for RT, and I think the instructors decided to whack us a little harder than usual since Tuesday we had a break. My arms were aching when I went back, but of course, I would always have enough strength to lift Jadon up to 'fly'.
Fri 31 Jul
After my lessons and other administrative work, I went over to my in-laws' place to play with Jadon a while. In the evening, I ate an early dinner, and then made my way down to Marine Parade. I stopped by Parkway Parade for a short while to do some window-shopping, and also grabbed an ice-cream cone from Scoops, before I headed off to cell meeting at Touch Centre Chapel.
There has been a recent major upheaval in church due to some movements of the pastors. My own network pastor had decided to move up into the Adult Network instead of remaining in the Youth Network. I wanted to follow him originally, but after he consulted his own leader who was the head of the Youth Network, I was asked to remain in Youth Network since I had kids under me, and also I was still in contact with youths (in school). Hence, after some arrangements, I was moved into Ps Lawrence's network. Fortunately, I already know some people there, so I wasn't a total stranger, but I guess it will still take some time to adapt. Ps Lawrence's youths were staging a play the next day, so we were there to have cell meeting, as well as to pray for them. This was a formal introduction of us 'refugees' who went to join his network I suppose, so that we get to know the rest of the leaders.
Anyway, my friends Steph and Weiling were there, and after the session, they wanted dinner, so I got a drink and joined them. I ate about a third of their hor fun because they couldn't finish it, and bought one packet back for my wife. Alvin came by to pick Steph and the rest of us up, and gave me a ride to my in-laws' place, and he planted the idea of mahjong on National Day in me. Anyway, my wife couldn't finish her packet of hor fun, so I helped her finish. In the end, I think I ate close to one full packet overall. Haha.
Sat 1 Aug
I spent almost the whole day at my in-laws' place. For lunch, my wife wanted pasta from Il Piccolo (I still can't get the name right...the over-artistic signboard doesn't help), which I got for her, and for myself, I decided to try the Massive Sunrise burger from Botak Jones.
It was really massive. Bigger than a Carls Jr burger for sure.
It had 2 huge beef patties, 2 pieces of cheese, 4 fried eggs, amongst the other ingredients of tomato, onions, mushrooms and etc. I think the scary thing was that I finished the whole thing, along with the sides of coleslaw and baked cheese potato. Ouch. I think this meal alone has put back whatever fat I could have lost during RT.
Sun 2 Aug
My wife and I were running late for service, so we grabbed a breakfast to go from Mr Bean and Old Chang Kee. After service, we went to NTUC food court for lunch. My wife's girls went to get my wife a birthday cake to celebrate her birthday (two days early), so we adjourned to Hans (where they bought the cake) to eat the cake and have a brief cell group. After that, my wife wanted to buy some stuff, but along the way I spotted a nice cheap shirt from IP Zone, and I bought it. Heh.
Mon 3 Aug
The Hup Lee opposite school was odd today. The man told me my breakfast costed $3.50, so I gave him $5. He returned me $2.50, which was obviously too much, so I told him. He insisted that it was $2.50, so I took the change. I bought two packets of fried bee hoon, and it included chicken wing. So odd.
In the evening, I decided to take my wife and her family out to dinner to celebrate my wife's birthday. So my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and Jadon came along with us to Sakura Restaurant at Safra Tampines. I think the food was below expectations, even though it was supposed to be Japanese season now. The only good thing was the slipper lobster that was available. Jadon was incredibly cute. He was laughing a lot when we took him out to see the Foosball table. He was very amused whenever we rolled the soccer figures. I whacked a lot of sashimi, but overall, I think I was the only one who ate enough to cover the cost of the buffet. Sigh.
Tue 4 Aug
Today was my wife's actual birthday, but I couldn't celebrate with her because of a mismatch in timetable (for this whole year actually) and we don't have a common timeslot for lunch. I went out with my colleagues to 216 market and had western food, and bought back food for my wife as usual. By the time my wife's lessons were over, we zipped over to my in-laws' place where I spent a short while with Jadon before I had to make my way to remedial training. Today's session was a bit more lax, because there was IPPT on Thursday, the very last session!
Wed 5 Aug
I had a long day as usual, and hung around for PDP time, after which my wife and I spent the rest of the day with Jadon. We had been teaching him new things, so now he could shake his head when he don't want something, and he can move his hands accordingly when we say 'gong xi'.
Thu 6 Aug
After a typical long day in school, including a short lunch in school, I headed over to take my IPPT. Just like the previous tries, I managed to clear the static stations with relative ease while most of my fellow sufferers already failed at either chin-up or standing broad jump stations. I ran according to my self-set timing for the first four rounds, and once more, my body gave up at the fifth round, and in the end, I failed the running by slightly over a minute. Sigh. I was hoping to clear this so that I don't have to come back for RT next year. Now I guess I'd have to sign up for IPPT Preparatory Training in September so that I can clear this year's window.
Fri 7 Aug
Today was an expensive day of food. There was a short day in school because of National Day celebrations, but I think this year's celebrations was somewhat lacklustre without any performances. The whole thing was more or less a big sing-along session. However, the students were extremely high, and I think it was because we gave out small Singapore flags for them to wave.
For lunch, some of us headed down to this ulu place in Hougang area to this restaurant called Yakiniku Nagomiya. It's a restaurant with this charcoal grill thing that you get to barbecue your own ordered food. We ordered a huge range of meats and mushrooms, and the most amazing thing was that the meat was extremely well-marinated, so the meat all turned out delicious after grilling. Especially the squid, which did not turn rubbery after grilling for a while. We were quite impressed with the food, and it worked out to be about $19 per person, but I wasn't full enough. After the lunch, we went to this nearby place Highland Centre (I think) to eat durian at 707. The durian was spectacularly good! But whopping expensive at $12 a kilogram. My estimation was that a single seed of durian costed about $2!
We spent the rest of the afternoon at home, doing chores and cleaning up the house. For dinner, we headed over to Elias Mall and ate at Hi Sshou, and we decided to splurge and ordered two ala carte buffets. We ate till we were bloated, and the food was still of good quality, especially the handrolls.
Hmm. One day after RT ended, and I was feasting. Ah well.
Sat 8 Aug
My wife and I went over to my in-laws' place to spend the day there with Jadon. For lunch, we went to eat at Il Piccolo, which was having a National Day promotion and the pastas were going at $4.40 for dine in. I eventually chose baked rice though because I was dead hungry.
In the evening, my wife, her sister, and I made our way down to Bukit Merah for dinner. We were attending the new English service that opened today. This was to make the whole Sunday free so that the kids could have a full day to devote to mugging. For us, we have one full day to spend with Jadon, so it was a win-win situation. I had my favourite fishball noodles for dinner, and we had cell group at the hawker centre.
Sun 9 Aug
My wife and I headed over to my in-laws' place in the morning, and had breakfast at 216 market. We spent some time there, and my mother-in-law went to see a doctor to treat her sprained hand. Yep, Jadon is that active. My mother-in-law then went to her mother's place, and we joined her there later. I went along to help take care of Jadon in the car, and when we got there, we left Jadon with my mother-in-law, and my wife and I went to grab a really late lunch at Niwa Sushi off Eunos. The bento sets were surprisingly good, and I think the food was more enjoyable than what I typically eat at Sakae Sushi...at half the price! I ordered some salmon belly sashimi, which was full of delicious fats, to go with my bento, so it was a satisfying meal.
I then made my own way back to Pasir Ris, and headed over to Alvin's place. The idea that he floated some time ago about mahjong on National Day came to fruition, so we played. Shups' luck was amazing today, and she won all of us. I managed to win enough to minimize my loss to 2 bucks only, while the other two lost about $13 and $30 respectively. I wonder if Shups was that lucky or she had improved...hmm...nah, think it is more of the former. After grabbing some pizza for dinner, I made my way back to my in-laws' place, and we picked Jadon up to come home to spend the National Day holiday. He was so excited he was playing with us all the way till about midnight before he concussed after a bottle of milk.
Mon 10 Aug
We brought Jadon out with us to walk around at White Sands, and we stopped to have breakfast at Coffee Club. My wife ordered American breakfast, and it was delicious. I had some mushroom thing which was absolutely amazing in taste. I think so far we had tried almost half of the main course menu, and even for the specials that were introduced seasonally, we had not eaten anything worse than above average, and that was just once - carbonara. Everything else was at least good.
In the afternoon, we brought Jadon back to my mother-in-law, and my wife and I went for a late lunch (after such a deliciously heavy breakfast) at the 416 coffee shop. The first few times I had the sliced fish noodles there I wasn't particularly impressed. But lately, the quality had been getting higher, and had moved into a good choice for food. However, I really couldn't stand the ventilation in that coffee shop, and it was unbearably hot in the afternoon.
Tue 11 Aug
It was back to school, and the highlight of the day was lunch at 216 market. After a weekend of heavy food, I opted for a lighter choice of just ban mian. I spent the rest of the afternoon settling SPA (Schoolbased Practical Assessment) to key in marks and countercheck the scripts.
Wed 12 Aug
Not to my surprise, I ended up having lunch at 216 market once more. Again, I did not want to eat anything too heavy, so I went for Ipoh hor fun. After a long day in school, we went over to spend time with Jadon. My mother-in-law did not cook dinner today, so my wife and I went to Pizza Hut for dinner, since my wife had a desire to eat pizza. The food today was surprisingly good, down to the Hut's Platter fried stuff. The drink we ordered (some strawberry tea thing) was pretty good too. The most important thing was that the service was good. Usually Pizza Hut was crawling with waiters and waitresses who had no initiative and were not very attentive. Today, there was only one waiter and one manager running all over, but I was dead sure they were way more efficient than the previous crew of about five persons.
Thu 13 Aug
After a dreadfully long day of lessons and administration, I went for driving lesson in the late afternoon. When I was done, I detoured over to Tampines One and did some window-shopping, but more importantly, it was to buy this water filter system called Gurgle by Hyflux to install on the taps for my place and my in-laws' place. Basically, it was for getting pure filtered water to make milk for Jadon. It didn't come cheap, but at least now there is a promotion that threw in a spare filter cartridge (that costs $40+).
Fri 14 Aug
I went to school only to conduct temperature-taking exercise for my civics class, and after that, I caught a ride from my HOD to VJC where we attended a pedagogy conference. The two speakers in the morning were really good, but I think the whole thing dragged too long before tea break, and that wore the patience of more than just myself. The second speaker was amusing, and he outright criticized the local education system and tore it to bits, in front of an audience of teachers. But the most amazing part was that his topic was on the current context that the students were graduating into, so he was talking about the economic situation now, and he analyzed the past and the present, and he managed to throw in a ton of facts, figures, charts, graphs and economic theories and theorists, and yet was engaging and made us understand. Now that was a feat in itself.
Sat 15 Aug
In the morning, my wife and I headed down to Geylang area to the clinic of my wife's gynaecologist. After waiting for nearly one and a half hours (of course, we grabbed a big breakfast from Ho Kee nearby), we finally got to our turn. My wife was supposed to do a blood test for Down's syndrome likelihood in the child, but the gynae did an ultrasound anyway. After some detailed scanning, we saw something between the legs...the second one was going to be a boy! Yay! Two sons to inherit my toys/anime/movies/comics/Xbox 360/Wii/Magic the Gathering cards. When they grow older, we can start a mahjong table on our own - my wife, myself and our two sons. I must start them young. Mahjong is intellectual enough to polish their cognitive prowess. Magic as well. Bwahaha.
After that we headed over to Tampines One to pick up the Gurgle system that I ordered on Thursday. However, along the way, my wife went in G2000 to find a loose top for herself, and I spotted the big, big sale. The short-sleeved shirts were going for $23, the long-sleeved shirts and pants for going for $29!!! And if you buy 3 items or more, there was a further 20% discount! I went berserk just like the other time at Club Marc, and after some time of trying, I ended up buying 5 short-sleeved shirts, 2 long-sleeved shirts and 1 pair of pants. I could have bought more, but my wife wanted to check out some other shops. All in all, it worked out to be an average of $20 per piece.
That is dirt cheap for working clothes. Bwahahahaha.
Sun 16 Aug
I brought my mum out with me and my wife to White Sands where we ate at Wan Chai. After that, we went around to do a bit of shopping. I blew almost a hundred bucks on clothes - but this time it was for Jadon! His one year birthday was coming up soon anyway, so that is cause for splurging. Incidentally, I also bought a t-shirt for myself, and another one for my wife.
Because we didn't bring Jadon home this weekend, I brought my mum with us to see Jadon. He was extremely excited and happy today (then again, he's happily laughing and playing every day). My mother-in-law didn't cook, so for dinner, my mum, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, my wife and I, together with Jadon in a baby chair, had dinner at Hiang Suar Restaurant nearby.
Mon 17 Aug
I had a bad start to the day when I bought breakfast from Seng Ban Choon. I had no choice because all the usual stalls were closed, so that left them as the only stall with decent bee hoon for breakfast. I asked for red chilli (sauce) and green chilli for one packet, and the guy at the stall (nicknamed 'sexy uncle' by most because of his super-short shorts) forgot the red chilli. I reminded him and he gave me this black face. Which was typical, because he was perpetually grouchy. Then after I paid him, I asked for chopsticks, and he gave me a scowl. Yep, this guy actually gets pissed off when you ask him for chopsticks or other disposable utensils when you takeaway. How else are you supposed to eat, you wonder? Nope, this natural point does not occur to this grouch. When he threw the chopsticks hard into my bag of food, he also shoved the change into my hand. At that point, I really felt like throwing the coins to his face and said that it was to pay for the chopsticks, but I thought that was giving him too much benefits.
Why do I torture myself every once in a while buying from him? I also wonder.
After a relatively short day at school, I headed down to Eunos for my driving lesson. Today I learnt parallel parking, and as usual, my instructor just sprang the surprise on me without telling me in advance what he was teaching me. In the evening, my wife and I headed down to Tampines to do some shopping. I bought a few pairs of toe socks for myself to replace my torn ones. Oh yeah, I finally thought of a plausible reason why students walk so disgustingly slow - it was to preserve their socks! I walk so darn fast that it burns and tears holes in my socks very quickly. Yeah, that must be the reason why they crawl from place to place.
My wife and I decided to have dinner at Sushi Teh. Now, I had been there before several times to eat sushi, and I already knew that their food was much better than Sakae for just a bit more in price. Today, I tried the ramen while my wife tried the udon, and the food was spectacular. I now hold it in the same high regard (almost) as Ministry of Food. The dragon roll sushi we ordered was delicious! Then we ordered yuzu sorbet and watermelon sorbet for dessert. The yuzu sorbet was so fragrant that we couldn't stop harping on how good it was all the way through.
Eventually, we ended up at Angies the Choice, which was the very reason why we went to Tampines actually, to order a birthday cake for Jadon. After looking through all the cutesy designs, we decided to go for something simple which really represents him - a cheeky smiley that formed the whole cake.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Wow, it's been more than a month since I have blogged. The reason is that I have been really busy. The remedial training takes up plenty of time and exhausts my energy. Here's the first installment of the missing blog posts.
Mon 6 Jul
I went to school almost as usual today - almost, because I was dressed in army uniform. I was due to return to camp for a mobilization briefing. Fortunately, I have been moved to top up my colleague's unit, so he gave me a ride to Sungei Gedong camp. We spent a morning there, but were out by lunchtime. The same colleague gave me a ride back to Bedok where he stayed, and we had lunch there before I went home to change out of the uniform, and returned to spend time with Jadon.
In the evening, I went to takeaway some food from Kallang Barbecue at Bedok Central's hawker centre. I couldn't remember the quality of the food, because I think the last time I had eaten there should be when I was still a student of TJC. Some friends told me the food was good so I went to try the mixed grill. I didn't like it. Other than it being oily, which was to be expected, there was too much garlic in the gravy.
Tue 7 Jul
After my morning lessons, I went out with some colleagues to the Ming Kee down the road and had excellent roast pork, char siew and roasted duck for lunch. Nothing like a good meal to boost morale for work. In the afternoon, I happened to pass by Eastwood Terrace (can't quite remember the name of the small mall). I wanted to snack on a donut, and the person gave me one more donut, for free! Apparently, it was a one day promotion in celebration of the birthday of Donut Empire. I finished off with some ice cream from Ice Cream Gallery there, but I think I prefer Scoops at Parkway Parade still. Somehow I think the ice cream from Ice Cream Gallery tastes of too much milk.
Wed 8 Jul
During lunchtime, it was pouring. I suggested going somewhere where the carpark is sheltered and within the same building as wherever we were eating at. Once again, I ended up at Eastwood, but this time at the Hong Kong Street Family Restaurant. We feasted on some dishes and the staple san lo hor fun before heading back to school for our lessons.
Thu 9 Jul
It was a long day in school. In fact, I was buried in work till I had to just grab a quick lunch at the canteen. I did get a bite later from Good News Cafe so that I won't be hungry in the evening. After lessons were over and clearing some further work, I made my way down to Bedok camp for remedial training. Today's session was the first IPPT test, and a chance to end it there. I managed to clear all my static stations, but I couldn't pass the running. Somehow the fifth round is the one that I just couldn't keep the timing I set for myself. Ah well, now RT will be thrice a week. Sigh.
Fri 10 Jul
I went out with some colleagues to 216 market for lunch, and we did a delivery service for many colleagues. After my lessons were over, I made my way to my in-laws' place to spend time with Jadon. For dinner, my wife and I went to eat at Pilcolo, but didn't quite like the pasta. The taste is highly inconsistent, and most of the time it tastes mediocre for the price. The pudding dessert they had was not bad, but the taste had a peculair smell to it.
Sat 11 Jul
My wife and I woke up fairly early to clear some laundry, and we made our way to 216 market for breakfast. I didn't want to eat something too heavy, so I ordered kaya toast from one of the coffee stalls. The stall sells this Ye Ye Kaya, which had received some awards, so I had to give it a try. In all honesty, the toast is much better than Ya Kun's. The toast was very well done, and was of the right thickness. The butter was generous, but more importantly, the kaya was really, really fragrant and good.
We went to my in-laws' place to help take care of Jadon, and in the evening, we went back to 216 market again, and went to try the western food from a relatively new stall Blue Lagoon. I ordered carbonara, and my wife ordered chicken chop. When the food came, I was initially disapppointed because the carbonara looked bad. It looked like cheap spaghetti and the sauce looked like it was made from some Campbell soup stock or something. However, appearances were extremely deceiving, because the pasta tasted really good. It wasn't the most fantastic carbonara I have eaten, and I still don't like the fact that it wasn't served with a yolk on top, but for $4.50, the bacon was generously thrown in, and the taste of the sauce was good. The actual texture and taste of the spaghetti was also much better than it looked. My wif'e's chicken chop was delicious! The chicken was very well grilled. It was tender inside, and the skin was grilled to a nice crisp but not burnt at all. The fries were the wedge kind, like Mos Burger, which was what my wife liked. The salad that came with it was fresh and tasty, so this stall, despite a lack of awards, was a sleeper hit for me.
I think we ate too early, because at night when we were heading home, my wife complained of hunger. We ended up going to Elias Mall to have supper at Hi Sshou. Today, the manager was around, and he was a nice, friendly guy who came to chat with us. I had my usual char siew ramen, and I have always rated the ramen here second to Ministry of Food by virtue of creaminess. The good thing about Hi Sshou is that on weekends, it is opened till late in the night, so for me, it was a good (though a bit more expensive) supper hangout. Especially since we were the only customers at that time. Heh.
Sun 12 Jul
My wife and I had a hearty Burger King breakfast, but we didn't expect that our church kids wanted BK for lunch after service, so we went there again. After the cell group, I made my way down to Bedok Camp for remedial training once more. The only nice thing about RT is that I always manage to make friends, which seriously helps to make it less painful and torturous.
Mon 13 Jul
I had porridge for breakfast in the morning, and for lunch, I went with some colleagues to Bedok Central to eat my staple curry noodles. After lessons were over, I made my way down to Eunos for driving. I was early, so I went to buy a drink at the coffee shop and waited.
And waited.
I called my instructor but no one picked up. I waited a good 45 minutes, and made several phone calls to him, to no avail. I know the man to be punctual, but he was fairly old, and I was worried for his safety. In the end, I dropped him a message and asked about his health, and told him I left after waiting close to an hour. In the evening, he called me back, and apparently, he missed out my lesson in his records, and his student was having a driving test at the time.
So I was worried for nothing. Haha.
Tue 14 Jul
It was a typical day, only busier. My colleagues and I found time to go to 216 market to have lunch (yep, it's our favourite haunt right now), and in the evening, I went to remedial training again. In case you don't understand why I haven't been blogging, this is the scenario. On days when I have RT, I end at almost 9, sometimes a bit earlier. By the time I leave the camp, it's almost always 9 pm, and I wouldn't have had dinner yet. By the time I finish dinner and wait for bus number 14, which always takes forever (i.e. at least 15 minutes) to come, I will reach my in-laws' place around ten or later. I take a shower, and since my wife will be watching the 10 pm show on Channel U, I will watch with her till 11 pm, and help wash up the milk bottles before leaving. By the time we get home, it's around 11.30 pm at least. After resting a while and due to the physical exhaustion, I wouldn't have the energy to blog. Or watch anime or play XBox 360. Sigh. So guys, please pass your IPPT.
Wed 15 Jul
Today was a terrible day. Other than the usual lessons, my level head called for a meeting, which dragged through our lunch period. In the end, I only had ten minutes left for lunch, and even the instant noodles that I was preparing didn't have enough time to soften, so I was practically chewing rubber for lunch.
In the evening, I escorted my wife to the doctor because she was not feeling well. Although she suspected that her fever was due to an infection in the tooth or gum, the doctor gave her two days of MC anyway.
Thu 16 Jul
After having a car, it feels very different to take public transport. Speed wasn't a big factor nor was the waiting time. But at my speed of walking from place to place, I perspired a lot. It was again a long day in school. I went out with my colleagues to 216 market, and I introduced them to Blue Lagoon. I decided to try their sirloin steak, and to my surprise, the cook asked for the level of done-ness that I wanted, which was rare for a hawker stall.
The most amazing thing was that the steak was prepared to the right level of medium rare that I asked for! Even many restaurants either get it too rare or overcooked, but he got it perfect. I was wondering if the guy might have worked at some restaurant originally. Hmm.
In the evening, it was RT as usual, and nowadays I'm a patron of the hawker centre off Bedok Camp thrice a week. Sigh.
Fri 17 Jul
A typical busy day, and some of us made time to go to have lunch at 216 market. This market is our current favourite because there are many choices for good food, and it was very near to the school, so we could be there and back in under an hour usually. Our timetables have been reshuffled to the point that we no longer have such a long lunchtime that we could comfortably go to Old Airport Road as before.
Sat 18 Jul
We spent the earlier part of the day at White Sands, eating at Manhattan Fish Market, which still served pretty good food, and doing some shopping. I wanted to buy a cheap sports watch with a stopwatch function, so we saw a sale at City Chain. I bought a watch for myself and an Everlast watch for my wife since she saw something nice.
Sun 19 Jul
It was another day at church and cell group, and RT in the afternoon. Again, my wife was hungry at night, so we went out to have supper, but this time at McDonald's. Hmm...I think I'm not losing that much fat due to supper even with that much intense exercise that often.
Mon 20 Jul
I had been boycotting Seng Ban Choon stall in the hawker centre opposite school for quite a while, but today, unfortunately, all my usual breakfast stalls were closed. So once again, I went to antagonize him (and be antagonized by his black face) by asking him for chopsticks. I seriously don't understand what his problem is. Who in the world sells takeaway food without providing utensils? And gives the customers attitude when they ask for chopsticks/fork/spoon?
In the afternoon, I went to get a haircut, and spent the rest of the day with Jadon. My Mondays are suddenly more free for a while because my instructor's schedule was so packed that he couldn't fit me in for driving. I don't quite believe it, but anyway, I didn't want so many lessons either since it is, after all, an additional cost.
Tue 21 Jul
I spent the usual day in school, and stayed behind to finish a ton of work until it was time for remedial training once again. RT is getting more and more wearying. After that, I went for dinner with some RT fellow sufferers. I tried the ayam penyet at the hawker centre from the stall Saimah, and it was not bad, but wasn't as fantastic as my friend raved about. The good things out of the RT, I guess, were that I did get slimmer, and made some new friends. One guy in particular had a really peculiar background, and it was fascinating to converse with him. Other than that, I was trying to find out from them more about the current life in university and private sector job market, and what it was like in the universities so that I have a better picture, and I can provide more accurate advice to my current students on their future course and career choices.
Wed 22 Jul
I had a light breakfast in school and a light brunch from the Good News Cafe in school. However, I think the management has a problem. Now, my wife, being pregnant, has certain specific food requests. Hers is not so intense to be called a craving, but sometimes she wants certain things to eat. Good News Cafe offers baked potatoes on the menu, but the tuna baked potato doesn't come with butter while my wife wants butter with the tuna. So I asked the manager if I could add butter to the baked potato. I was turned down! The lady said that the taste does not go together. While I appreciate the good intentions, still, I would have thought it is the customer's perogative to choose. So I insisted, and said that I would pay for the butter. She still declined. I told her that my wife is pregnant, and she specifically requests for the butter. Her response was, non-verbatim, "You have butter at home what. You can eat that." And still would not add the butter! Whatever happened to 'the customer is always right'? My offer of paying 50 cents for that little dollop of butter was good profit to them, in fact. I don't know whether to call the manageress principled, or inflexible. Either way, I don't like the fact that I can't customize my order.
My wife, when she heard this, decided to boycott the establishment altogether. Her response, if she was the one talking to the manageress would have been, "I also have potato and an oven at home. Then buy from you for what?"
For lunch, we coughed up enough time to make a quick trip to Old Airport Road, and had the delicious sliced fish noodles, some dessert and a nice honey lemon drink before heading back to school.
Thu 23 Jul
We decided to have something different for breakfast today, and tried the lor mee from opposite school. It was nowhere near the quality of that at Old Airport Road, but it was decent enough. We needed some variation in the breakfast choices. My colleagues and I were all too busy to drive out to eat, so we went opposite school to grab a quick bite for lunch, and in the evening, I went for RT as usual.
Fri 24 Jul
I had school as usual, and in the afternoon, I went down to City Hall area for my dental appointment. Apparently, my dentist had broken partnership with the original establishment White on Whites, and now has downsized his clinic to half the size and calls it Chris Dental. I was having a toothache for a week because my dentist went on leave, but thankfully, despite not having visited the dentist for more than a year, I only had one cavity. And I know it is certainly not due to good dental hygiene. Heh.
After I was done with the filling, I headed off to Raffles Shopping Centre, then Citilink, then Marina Square for some window shopping. Or so I thought. When I reached Club Marc, I realized that they were still having the $15 promotion! I went in to try a lot more clothes, but in the end, only settled for a pair of three-quarts and a pair of light gray work pants. Passing by G2000, I spotted a sale, and the short-sleeved shirts were going for $23. I bought one, as well as a polo-tee. Then when I passed by Domanchi, my sharp eyes noticed this sign that says "2 for $39"! Usually Domanchi shirts do not come cheap, so I went in to check the clothes. Surprisingly there were still two nice shirts that were my size! I think the bigger sizes were sold out apparently.
Yay! Time to slowly change my wardrobe. Bwahaha!
Sat 25 Jul
I also spent money on clothes today, but not on myself. My wife wanted more maternity clothes, so we went to Suntec and Marina Square. We ended up buying stuff from Spring Maternity and Perfect Mum, and I paid for the one at Perfect Mum as a gift for my wife. In case I do not have time to go buy a gift for her birthday. I was looking for a new pair of black shoes, since the one from Club Marc has the 'tongue' from the right shoe drop off. Ah well, 15 bucks only.
I ended up buying a nice pair of shoes from Hush Puppies, but it needed seasoning because it was a little tight at the toes. We ended up in Crocs because I wanted to replace my old pair of Crocs slippers whose threading was already totally worn off at the heel. My wife spotted something nice, so I bought her a pair on top of my own.
For dinner we headed to Ministry of Food. Today's quality was good, and comparable to the Bugis branch, which we always regarded to have better quality control. The dessert was generous in portion, so dinner was delicious!
Sun 27 Jul
We decided to try something different for a change, so we headed down to Elias Mall to buy breakfast, and munched along the way to service. We had service and cell group as usual, and headed for my in-laws' place to spend time with Jadon. In the afternoon, I went for RT, but made it back in time for dinner.
Mon 6 Jul
I went to school almost as usual today - almost, because I was dressed in army uniform. I was due to return to camp for a mobilization briefing. Fortunately, I have been moved to top up my colleague's unit, so he gave me a ride to Sungei Gedong camp. We spent a morning there, but were out by lunchtime. The same colleague gave me a ride back to Bedok where he stayed, and we had lunch there before I went home to change out of the uniform, and returned to spend time with Jadon.
In the evening, I went to takeaway some food from Kallang Barbecue at Bedok Central's hawker centre. I couldn't remember the quality of the food, because I think the last time I had eaten there should be when I was still a student of TJC. Some friends told me the food was good so I went to try the mixed grill. I didn't like it. Other than it being oily, which was to be expected, there was too much garlic in the gravy.
Tue 7 Jul
After my morning lessons, I went out with some colleagues to the Ming Kee down the road and had excellent roast pork, char siew and roasted duck for lunch. Nothing like a good meal to boost morale for work. In the afternoon, I happened to pass by Eastwood Terrace (can't quite remember the name of the small mall). I wanted to snack on a donut, and the person gave me one more donut, for free! Apparently, it was a one day promotion in celebration of the birthday of Donut Empire. I finished off with some ice cream from Ice Cream Gallery there, but I think I prefer Scoops at Parkway Parade still. Somehow I think the ice cream from Ice Cream Gallery tastes of too much milk.
Wed 8 Jul
During lunchtime, it was pouring. I suggested going somewhere where the carpark is sheltered and within the same building as wherever we were eating at. Once again, I ended up at Eastwood, but this time at the Hong Kong Street Family Restaurant. We feasted on some dishes and the staple san lo hor fun before heading back to school for our lessons.
Thu 9 Jul
It was a long day in school. In fact, I was buried in work till I had to just grab a quick lunch at the canteen. I did get a bite later from Good News Cafe so that I won't be hungry in the evening. After lessons were over and clearing some further work, I made my way down to Bedok camp for remedial training. Today's session was the first IPPT test, and a chance to end it there. I managed to clear all my static stations, but I couldn't pass the running. Somehow the fifth round is the one that I just couldn't keep the timing I set for myself. Ah well, now RT will be thrice a week. Sigh.
Fri 10 Jul
I went out with some colleagues to 216 market for lunch, and we did a delivery service for many colleagues. After my lessons were over, I made my way to my in-laws' place to spend time with Jadon. For dinner, my wife and I went to eat at Pilcolo, but didn't quite like the pasta. The taste is highly inconsistent, and most of the time it tastes mediocre for the price. The pudding dessert they had was not bad, but the taste had a peculair smell to it.
Sat 11 Jul
My wife and I woke up fairly early to clear some laundry, and we made our way to 216 market for breakfast. I didn't want to eat something too heavy, so I ordered kaya toast from one of the coffee stalls. The stall sells this Ye Ye Kaya, which had received some awards, so I had to give it a try. In all honesty, the toast is much better than Ya Kun's. The toast was very well done, and was of the right thickness. The butter was generous, but more importantly, the kaya was really, really fragrant and good.
We went to my in-laws' place to help take care of Jadon, and in the evening, we went back to 216 market again, and went to try the western food from a relatively new stall Blue Lagoon. I ordered carbonara, and my wife ordered chicken chop. When the food came, I was initially disapppointed because the carbonara looked bad. It looked like cheap spaghetti and the sauce looked like it was made from some Campbell soup stock or something. However, appearances were extremely deceiving, because the pasta tasted really good. It wasn't the most fantastic carbonara I have eaten, and I still don't like the fact that it wasn't served with a yolk on top, but for $4.50, the bacon was generously thrown in, and the taste of the sauce was good. The actual texture and taste of the spaghetti was also much better than it looked. My wif'e's chicken chop was delicious! The chicken was very well grilled. It was tender inside, and the skin was grilled to a nice crisp but not burnt at all. The fries were the wedge kind, like Mos Burger, which was what my wife liked. The salad that came with it was fresh and tasty, so this stall, despite a lack of awards, was a sleeper hit for me.
I think we ate too early, because at night when we were heading home, my wife complained of hunger. We ended up going to Elias Mall to have supper at Hi Sshou. Today, the manager was around, and he was a nice, friendly guy who came to chat with us. I had my usual char siew ramen, and I have always rated the ramen here second to Ministry of Food by virtue of creaminess. The good thing about Hi Sshou is that on weekends, it is opened till late in the night, so for me, it was a good (though a bit more expensive) supper hangout. Especially since we were the only customers at that time. Heh.
Sun 12 Jul
My wife and I had a hearty Burger King breakfast, but we didn't expect that our church kids wanted BK for lunch after service, so we went there again. After the cell group, I made my way down to Bedok Camp for remedial training once more. The only nice thing about RT is that I always manage to make friends, which seriously helps to make it less painful and torturous.
Mon 13 Jul
I had porridge for breakfast in the morning, and for lunch, I went with some colleagues to Bedok Central to eat my staple curry noodles. After lessons were over, I made my way down to Eunos for driving. I was early, so I went to buy a drink at the coffee shop and waited.
And waited.
I called my instructor but no one picked up. I waited a good 45 minutes, and made several phone calls to him, to no avail. I know the man to be punctual, but he was fairly old, and I was worried for his safety. In the end, I dropped him a message and asked about his health, and told him I left after waiting close to an hour. In the evening, he called me back, and apparently, he missed out my lesson in his records, and his student was having a driving test at the time.
So I was worried for nothing. Haha.
Tue 14 Jul
It was a typical day, only busier. My colleagues and I found time to go to 216 market to have lunch (yep, it's our favourite haunt right now), and in the evening, I went to remedial training again. In case you don't understand why I haven't been blogging, this is the scenario. On days when I have RT, I end at almost 9, sometimes a bit earlier. By the time I leave the camp, it's almost always 9 pm, and I wouldn't have had dinner yet. By the time I finish dinner and wait for bus number 14, which always takes forever (i.e. at least 15 minutes) to come, I will reach my in-laws' place around ten or later. I take a shower, and since my wife will be watching the 10 pm show on Channel U, I will watch with her till 11 pm, and help wash up the milk bottles before leaving. By the time we get home, it's around 11.30 pm at least. After resting a while and due to the physical exhaustion, I wouldn't have the energy to blog. Or watch anime or play XBox 360. Sigh. So guys, please pass your IPPT.
Wed 15 Jul
Today was a terrible day. Other than the usual lessons, my level head called for a meeting, which dragged through our lunch period. In the end, I only had ten minutes left for lunch, and even the instant noodles that I was preparing didn't have enough time to soften, so I was practically chewing rubber for lunch.
In the evening, I escorted my wife to the doctor because she was not feeling well. Although she suspected that her fever was due to an infection in the tooth or gum, the doctor gave her two days of MC anyway.
Thu 16 Jul
After having a car, it feels very different to take public transport. Speed wasn't a big factor nor was the waiting time. But at my speed of walking from place to place, I perspired a lot. It was again a long day in school. I went out with my colleagues to 216 market, and I introduced them to Blue Lagoon. I decided to try their sirloin steak, and to my surprise, the cook asked for the level of done-ness that I wanted, which was rare for a hawker stall.
The most amazing thing was that the steak was prepared to the right level of medium rare that I asked for! Even many restaurants either get it too rare or overcooked, but he got it perfect. I was wondering if the guy might have worked at some restaurant originally. Hmm.
In the evening, it was RT as usual, and nowadays I'm a patron of the hawker centre off Bedok Camp thrice a week. Sigh.
Fri 17 Jul
A typical busy day, and some of us made time to go to have lunch at 216 market. This market is our current favourite because there are many choices for good food, and it was very near to the school, so we could be there and back in under an hour usually. Our timetables have been reshuffled to the point that we no longer have such a long lunchtime that we could comfortably go to Old Airport Road as before.
Sat 18 Jul
We spent the earlier part of the day at White Sands, eating at Manhattan Fish Market, which still served pretty good food, and doing some shopping. I wanted to buy a cheap sports watch with a stopwatch function, so we saw a sale at City Chain. I bought a watch for myself and an Everlast watch for my wife since she saw something nice.
Sun 19 Jul
It was another day at church and cell group, and RT in the afternoon. Again, my wife was hungry at night, so we went out to have supper, but this time at McDonald's. Hmm...I think I'm not losing that much fat due to supper even with that much intense exercise that often.
Mon 20 Jul
I had been boycotting Seng Ban Choon stall in the hawker centre opposite school for quite a while, but today, unfortunately, all my usual breakfast stalls were closed. So once again, I went to antagonize him (and be antagonized by his black face) by asking him for chopsticks. I seriously don't understand what his problem is. Who in the world sells takeaway food without providing utensils? And gives the customers attitude when they ask for chopsticks/fork/spoon?
In the afternoon, I went to get a haircut, and spent the rest of the day with Jadon. My Mondays are suddenly more free for a while because my instructor's schedule was so packed that he couldn't fit me in for driving. I don't quite believe it, but anyway, I didn't want so many lessons either since it is, after all, an additional cost.
Tue 21 Jul
I spent the usual day in school, and stayed behind to finish a ton of work until it was time for remedial training once again. RT is getting more and more wearying. After that, I went for dinner with some RT fellow sufferers. I tried the ayam penyet at the hawker centre from the stall Saimah, and it was not bad, but wasn't as fantastic as my friend raved about. The good things out of the RT, I guess, were that I did get slimmer, and made some new friends. One guy in particular had a really peculiar background, and it was fascinating to converse with him. Other than that, I was trying to find out from them more about the current life in university and private sector job market, and what it was like in the universities so that I have a better picture, and I can provide more accurate advice to my current students on their future course and career choices.
Wed 22 Jul
I had a light breakfast in school and a light brunch from the Good News Cafe in school. However, I think the management has a problem. Now, my wife, being pregnant, has certain specific food requests. Hers is not so intense to be called a craving, but sometimes she wants certain things to eat. Good News Cafe offers baked potatoes on the menu, but the tuna baked potato doesn't come with butter while my wife wants butter with the tuna. So I asked the manager if I could add butter to the baked potato. I was turned down! The lady said that the taste does not go together. While I appreciate the good intentions, still, I would have thought it is the customer's perogative to choose. So I insisted, and said that I would pay for the butter. She still declined. I told her that my wife is pregnant, and she specifically requests for the butter. Her response was, non-verbatim, "You have butter at home what. You can eat that." And still would not add the butter! Whatever happened to 'the customer is always right'? My offer of paying 50 cents for that little dollop of butter was good profit to them, in fact. I don't know whether to call the manageress principled, or inflexible. Either way, I don't like the fact that I can't customize my order.
My wife, when she heard this, decided to boycott the establishment altogether. Her response, if she was the one talking to the manageress would have been, "I also have potato and an oven at home. Then buy from you for what?"
For lunch, we coughed up enough time to make a quick trip to Old Airport Road, and had the delicious sliced fish noodles, some dessert and a nice honey lemon drink before heading back to school.
Thu 23 Jul
We decided to have something different for breakfast today, and tried the lor mee from opposite school. It was nowhere near the quality of that at Old Airport Road, but it was decent enough. We needed some variation in the breakfast choices. My colleagues and I were all too busy to drive out to eat, so we went opposite school to grab a quick bite for lunch, and in the evening, I went for RT as usual.
Fri 24 Jul
I had school as usual, and in the afternoon, I went down to City Hall area for my dental appointment. Apparently, my dentist had broken partnership with the original establishment White on Whites, and now has downsized his clinic to half the size and calls it Chris Dental. I was having a toothache for a week because my dentist went on leave, but thankfully, despite not having visited the dentist for more than a year, I only had one cavity. And I know it is certainly not due to good dental hygiene. Heh.
After I was done with the filling, I headed off to Raffles Shopping Centre, then Citilink, then Marina Square for some window shopping. Or so I thought. When I reached Club Marc, I realized that they were still having the $15 promotion! I went in to try a lot more clothes, but in the end, only settled for a pair of three-quarts and a pair of light gray work pants. Passing by G2000, I spotted a sale, and the short-sleeved shirts were going for $23. I bought one, as well as a polo-tee. Then when I passed by Domanchi, my sharp eyes noticed this sign that says "2 for $39"! Usually Domanchi shirts do not come cheap, so I went in to check the clothes. Surprisingly there were still two nice shirts that were my size! I think the bigger sizes were sold out apparently.
Yay! Time to slowly change my wardrobe. Bwahaha!
Sat 25 Jul
I also spent money on clothes today, but not on myself. My wife wanted more maternity clothes, so we went to Suntec and Marina Square. We ended up buying stuff from Spring Maternity and Perfect Mum, and I paid for the one at Perfect Mum as a gift for my wife. In case I do not have time to go buy a gift for her birthday. I was looking for a new pair of black shoes, since the one from Club Marc has the 'tongue' from the right shoe drop off. Ah well, 15 bucks only.
I ended up buying a nice pair of shoes from Hush Puppies, but it needed seasoning because it was a little tight at the toes. We ended up in Crocs because I wanted to replace my old pair of Crocs slippers whose threading was already totally worn off at the heel. My wife spotted something nice, so I bought her a pair on top of my own.
For dinner we headed to Ministry of Food. Today's quality was good, and comparable to the Bugis branch, which we always regarded to have better quality control. The dessert was generous in portion, so dinner was delicious!
Sun 27 Jul
We decided to try something different for a change, so we headed down to Elias Mall to buy breakfast, and munched along the way to service. We had service and cell group as usual, and headed for my in-laws' place to spend time with Jadon. In the afternoon, I went for RT, but made it back in time for dinner.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Mon 29 Jun
I managed to settle some work that came with the start of the term, and left relatively early for driving lessons at 3.30 pm. Today was my first time at the circuit, and I found it quite fun. Of course, it wasn't as stressful for me since I was learning auto, as my wife was quick to point out the agonizing control of gear and clutch in the S-curve and Z-curve and whatever else.
My wife and I were somewhat unhealthy today, and we ordered a late night supper from Mcdelivery. The oddest thing was that the delivery boy got the order wrong. I didn't realize it because he got the drink (iced milo) right, and that was the one in the transparent bag. The rest of the order, which was the food, was wrong. I had ordered a Fillet O-Fish upsized, added with an apple pie and cinnamon melts, and what was in the paper bag was a McChicken meal and a McSpicy meal, with two apple pies. Technically I got more than I paid for, but seriously, neither my wife nor me wanted either burger, so it was a filling but agonizing supper.
Tue 30 Jun
I was in school doing some work and preparations for next week. For lunch, a bunch of us headed down to Old Airport Rd for lunch. I had the staple Whitley Rd Prawn Noodles, and a durian goreng. I wanted dessert originally, but my favourite Blanco Court one was closed for the day. My wife and I left school in the mid-afternoon and went to spend some time with Jadon before going home to do a bucketload of chores.
Wed 1 Jul
This was one heck of a long day. I had visual screening duty in the morning, so I was in school at 6 am. I did the duty till about 7.45 am before I went back to the staff room to do some work. For lunch, we headed out to 216 market. I went with one group of colleagues, and ate a bowl of you mian and a bowl of laksa. Another group of colleagues came later, but because one of them had to rush back, I swapped places with her, and went back later with the other group.
By right I was supposed to invigilate my own Year 2 chemistry paper, but I was assigned to be on one of the panels for the interviews of next year's potential TA students. That took up my time from 2.30 (one hour for pre-discussions) till 7.30 pm! Some of my colleagues wanted dinner, so we went down to Siglap to grab some nice chicken rice with zi char dishes. The colleague who drove, my Magic the Gathering kaki, gave me a ride down to Bukit Merah, so I was able to join my pastor for cell meeting when worship was almost over, and the whole thing took till 10.30. My pastor graciously drove me back to Bedok, so I ended my day at 11 pm. I was barely awake by then, especially considering the sleep debt owed.
Thu 2 Jul
I have been supporting the Good News Cafe which newly opened on college campus by buying the ice-blended drinks, which at $2.20 were pretty decent. Lunch was a treat by some colleagues who were promoted earlier this year, and they brought in Rite Pizza, which served decent pizza (I found the ingredients too little on the pizza though), and interesting sides like samosas, prawn rolls, spring rolls and chicken wings. They also bought shepherd's pie from one shop from Sempang (is that how you spell it?) Bedok, which was delicious!
In the evening, I headed down to Bedok Camp for remedial training, and again we ran a total of 2.8 km in addition of many other exercises. I wonder if I'm losing weight through all this. Hmm.
Fri 3 Jul
It was good that I finished marking yesterday, so I spent the time sorting out some administration, and for lunch, my colleague felt like going somewhere different, so I brought them down to Downtown East to eat at Mr Chicken Rice. After that, we bought the creamy ice-tea from the basement Chipshop which was still fabulously rich, before heading back to college for invigilation of the Year 1 chemistry paper. The TA 1 chemistry papers ran concurrently, so I wanted to start marking after I was done with invigilation, but I decided to bring the scripts back to mark. In case I didn't have time to mark over the weekend, I marked the scripts till about 1 am in the morning.
Sat 4 Jul
My wife and I went over to my in-laws' place quite early to spend time with Jadon. For dinner, we went to the newly renovated Kopitiam next to Bedok library to eat at Astons Express. My wife had the grilled fish with herbs and I had a prime ribeye xtra cut. The food was good, but the drinks at the coffee shop suck. Big time. I ordered barley, which looked like murky water. It was awfully translucent to the point of almost being clear, and it tasted extremely diluted. To give the drinks stall a second chance, I ordered iced milo, and it was about two-thirds ice, and one-third not even thick milo. If I ever eat there again, I will order a canned drink and nothing else.
Sun 5 Jul
My wife was still sick, so I made my own way down to Simei. I ate my favourite fishball noodles at the NTUC foodcourt for breakfast and took the shuttle bus to church for service. After service, I rushed off with my cell, and we headed down to Bedok interchange for lunch. One of my boys, Junhui, was having a magic performance, and he asked for us to go and support him, so we did. He told me the show was at 1.30 pm, so since I thought we'd be late, I took a cab there.
When we got to the address, I was confused, because we could only find some big Malay-styled event setup at the void deck. I verified with Junhui's friend, and we were indeed at the right place. So we hung around, not knowing where we were. Someone came to us and asked us to take a seat and help ourselves to the food, but we already ate. In the end, the show started at 2.50! Inbetween it felt like racial harmony day, and we listened to the Quran scriptural reading, the traditional Malay singing (don't know how to describe it otherwise...), and a Silat performance. We felt extremely out of place. The feeling was only mitigated by the fact that there were many other Chinese people around, and it looked like they were there for the free food. Only later I found out that the event was actually a celebration of the birthday of the prophet. Anyway, after catching Junhui's performance, which had some minor glitches but otherwise went well and was well-received, I took a cab down to Bedok Camp for another round of Remedial Training.
I managed to settle some work that came with the start of the term, and left relatively early for driving lessons at 3.30 pm. Today was my first time at the circuit, and I found it quite fun. Of course, it wasn't as stressful for me since I was learning auto, as my wife was quick to point out the agonizing control of gear and clutch in the S-curve and Z-curve and whatever else.
My wife and I were somewhat unhealthy today, and we ordered a late night supper from Mcdelivery. The oddest thing was that the delivery boy got the order wrong. I didn't realize it because he got the drink (iced milo) right, and that was the one in the transparent bag. The rest of the order, which was the food, was wrong. I had ordered a Fillet O-Fish upsized, added with an apple pie and cinnamon melts, and what was in the paper bag was a McChicken meal and a McSpicy meal, with two apple pies. Technically I got more than I paid for, but seriously, neither my wife nor me wanted either burger, so it was a filling but agonizing supper.
Tue 30 Jun
I was in school doing some work and preparations for next week. For lunch, a bunch of us headed down to Old Airport Rd for lunch. I had the staple Whitley Rd Prawn Noodles, and a durian goreng. I wanted dessert originally, but my favourite Blanco Court one was closed for the day. My wife and I left school in the mid-afternoon and went to spend some time with Jadon before going home to do a bucketload of chores.
Wed 1 Jul
This was one heck of a long day. I had visual screening duty in the morning, so I was in school at 6 am. I did the duty till about 7.45 am before I went back to the staff room to do some work. For lunch, we headed out to 216 market. I went with one group of colleagues, and ate a bowl of you mian and a bowl of laksa. Another group of colleagues came later, but because one of them had to rush back, I swapped places with her, and went back later with the other group.
By right I was supposed to invigilate my own Year 2 chemistry paper, but I was assigned to be on one of the panels for the interviews of next year's potential TA students. That took up my time from 2.30 (one hour for pre-discussions) till 7.30 pm! Some of my colleagues wanted dinner, so we went down to Siglap to grab some nice chicken rice with zi char dishes. The colleague who drove, my Magic the Gathering kaki, gave me a ride down to Bukit Merah, so I was able to join my pastor for cell meeting when worship was almost over, and the whole thing took till 10.30. My pastor graciously drove me back to Bedok, so I ended my day at 11 pm. I was barely awake by then, especially considering the sleep debt owed.
Thu 2 Jul
I have been supporting the Good News Cafe which newly opened on college campus by buying the ice-blended drinks, which at $2.20 were pretty decent. Lunch was a treat by some colleagues who were promoted earlier this year, and they brought in Rite Pizza, which served decent pizza (I found the ingredients too little on the pizza though), and interesting sides like samosas, prawn rolls, spring rolls and chicken wings. They also bought shepherd's pie from one shop from Sempang (is that how you spell it?) Bedok, which was delicious!
In the evening, I headed down to Bedok Camp for remedial training, and again we ran a total of 2.8 km in addition of many other exercises. I wonder if I'm losing weight through all this. Hmm.
Fri 3 Jul
It was good that I finished marking yesterday, so I spent the time sorting out some administration, and for lunch, my colleague felt like going somewhere different, so I brought them down to Downtown East to eat at Mr Chicken Rice. After that, we bought the creamy ice-tea from the basement Chipshop which was still fabulously rich, before heading back to college for invigilation of the Year 1 chemistry paper. The TA 1 chemistry papers ran concurrently, so I wanted to start marking after I was done with invigilation, but I decided to bring the scripts back to mark. In case I didn't have time to mark over the weekend, I marked the scripts till about 1 am in the morning.
Sat 4 Jul
My wife and I went over to my in-laws' place quite early to spend time with Jadon. For dinner, we went to the newly renovated Kopitiam next to Bedok library to eat at Astons Express. My wife had the grilled fish with herbs and I had a prime ribeye xtra cut. The food was good, but the drinks at the coffee shop suck. Big time. I ordered barley, which looked like murky water. It was awfully translucent to the point of almost being clear, and it tasted extremely diluted. To give the drinks stall a second chance, I ordered iced milo, and it was about two-thirds ice, and one-third not even thick milo. If I ever eat there again, I will order a canned drink and nothing else.
Sun 5 Jul
My wife was still sick, so I made my own way down to Simei. I ate my favourite fishball noodles at the NTUC foodcourt for breakfast and took the shuttle bus to church for service. After service, I rushed off with my cell, and we headed down to Bedok interchange for lunch. One of my boys, Junhui, was having a magic performance, and he asked for us to go and support him, so we did. He told me the show was at 1.30 pm, so since I thought we'd be late, I took a cab there.
When we got to the address, I was confused, because we could only find some big Malay-styled event setup at the void deck. I verified with Junhui's friend, and we were indeed at the right place. So we hung around, not knowing where we were. Someone came to us and asked us to take a seat and help ourselves to the food, but we already ate. In the end, the show started at 2.50! Inbetween it felt like racial harmony day, and we listened to the Quran scriptural reading, the traditional Malay singing (don't know how to describe it otherwise...), and a Silat performance. We felt extremely out of place. The feeling was only mitigated by the fact that there were many other Chinese people around, and it looked like they were there for the free food. Only later I found out that the event was actually a celebration of the birthday of the prophet. Anyway, after catching Junhui's performance, which had some minor glitches but otherwise went well and was well-received, I took a cab down to Bedok Camp for another round of Remedial Training.