Off to Australia soon!

Quite excited about upcoming trip to Australia at the end of June - going to Cairns and Sydney. So far I've been told that Tetsuya's in Sydney is good. Recommendations welcome!

Your queue number is...

2238. Lol. Out of 700+ flats. Wheeeeee...... looks like I won't be staying in Punggol.

Tired and defeated...

AC Milan 2 - Liverpool 1
No miracles... sigh.

On a side note, apparently Macdonald's planned broadcasts were all down due to technical difficulties?!!

Missing you
is like holding my breath
underwater.
The thumping of my heart
in the silence
marking each painful second
The darkness creeping in at the edges of my sight
and my mind wondering
Can I hold out
Till breath and life returns?
My body anticipating
that rush
that sweet moment
when breath and life returns.

Now reading: The J Curve, Ian Bremmer

Jakarta 101

First time ever in Jakarta, so everything's new:

1) Motorcycles not allowed on the highways
2) Dial 110 for the police
3) 6 year old kids have cellphones
4) Rock bands in food courts
5) S-2006 security for hotels all-year-round
6) Highway built on mangrove swamp, caution, floods! In which case, passengers to airport get to go via truck.

Singnet error with blogger

Hey peeps
if you're a Singnet user and having problems with your Blogger, you can try setting your proxy to proxy.singnet.com.sg:8080 and things should work. More information here!

Cell Phones in Star Wars

Via Mr Brown, this ridiculously funny cellphone warning with Star Wars flavour...

A bit conflicted

I'm feeling just a bit conflicted - promised golf tomorrow, but I'm soooooo tired now. Lol. Not going to arrange golf after basketball anymore!

Giving money to beggars

Some of my friends know I have pretty strong feelings about giving money to beggars. Here's an article about giving to the poor, generally, and why you should give to the poor who aren't expecting a donation...

Investment and returns

So... here's an interesting discussion in the comments on how to invest - buy and hold vs active trading.

Things that caught my eye:

1) "An investor who bought the Nasdaq index in 1973 and sold in 2002 would have earned an average yearly return of 9.6 percent. But the typical investor in Nasdaq earned only 4.3 percent over this period."

Which gives me two numbers on expected returns from investment. And..

2) "Peter Lynch always said the advertised returns of his funds were always considerably better than those realized by the investors of the funds. Investors buy what has been hot recently and then sell when they under perform."

Singapore - fastest walkers!

Singaporeans top the chart in a study on walking speed! From Leonard Monasterio's blog...

SWA Restaurant

I mentioned quite some time ago that I was going to eat at the SWA Restaurant. Much delayed, but here's the pics! Separately, Qiwei informs me that this is his dad's favourite restaurant too!



This was the duck, which was really quite well done - very tasty and tender! Generally most of the dishes were done in a savoury, high-flavour, probably unhealthy but two thumbs up manner... such as the pork dish here...




Of course, some healthy greens are needed too! Cooked very well too, the firm-ness of the broccoli was just nice.




I didn't enjoy the chicken much, probably because I prefer my meat de-boned...




Here's the fish - wasn't fantastic, I normally prefer the sweet soya sauce gravy for the flavour, and this was lacking..



After the rave reviews I read earlier, the kway teow was a disappointment - tough and rubbery. I don't think it's as good as advertised!



Overall - meal was about $30 per head and food was decent. Service was normal for chinese restaurants (ie non-existent) and parking difficult.. Overall, was a little disappointed, but would not mind going for another try at a later date.


To recap, here's the contact details:
540-542 Macpherson Road, Singapore 368223 - tel number 67445009

She's gone....

Parental Guidance

Think I caught the season finale of Parental Guidance and really enjoyed it, quite surprisingly. I mean, it's a local production! But somehow enjoyed the lame humour put up by Adrian Pang and Chua Enlai, and the chemistry between Adrian and Jessica Hsuan. Hm... wonder if they'll do a rerun...

Disappointed at Marutama

Was supposed to grab lunch at Marutama Ramen today, and had actually sat down and ordered! Several friends had commented that it was really good stuff... but some really bad customer service put us off and the bunch of us walked out..

And that solo guy sitting at the table for four - I hope you choked on it...

OS X - looking good!

Key's MacBook is looking great.. lol.. makes me feel like getting a Mac for my next computer, the learning curve notwithstanding..

Interesting answers to the question

Q: What do you normally do after work?

A1: What is this thing you speak of, "after" work?

A2: Midnight supper, usually...