Dance like no one's watching

I posted on Facebook the other day that the iron was left switched on at maximum for 3 day and it was a huge waste of electricity. A friend commented lucky didn’t catch fire, which i totally agree. There were also jokes made about how this is not the way to become Ironman, which i thought was pretty funny.

Then a friend suddenly “liked” my original post and i was like huh??! Are you trying to tell me that you liked the fact that electricity was wasted? Or that my flat could’ve burned down?

I think people should be careful and think about the significance of “liking” things on Facebook.

Tried out Two Blur Guys for lunch yesterday.  The restaurant itself is rather small – think it seats only 15 people or so.  The 2 waitresses holding the fort were relatively efficiently I guess. 

I had the smoked salmon & avocado blurger.  Prety good!  The blurger comes with salad with balsamic vinegar dressing (very good, not too sour) and a really delicious potato salad (it’s just a tiny blob of potato salad – hidden by my blurger in the pic).  Wouldn’t mind going back there again.

I guess everyone’s really excited (or not) about Jia Jia & Kai Kai coming to Singapore to breed for 10 years. Foreign talent, they say.

Anyway, I had lunch with clients at Sichuan Douhua (UOB Plaza) on Fri and guess what the restaurant gave for complimentary dessert?  Yeap, you guessed it – little pandas! 

There was a PRC in our group & I think he was the only one who didn’t eagerly tuck into the cute little red bean panda.  Someone joked if it’s cos it’s a national treasure so he’s not eating it.  Hehe.

The table (for 12 pax) had this really huge tea cup too filled with tea.  Couldn’t resist taking a pic (well, we were early so my boss & I took pictures before the others arrived.  Haha).

Pinky is absolutely adorable.  When he’s searching for food to eat, he really makes sure he sniffs every spot on the table.  Yeap.  No denying him any pellets man!!

Can’t believe it took me till 3Q 2012 to go HK!  So glad I went.  Love the food & the shopping!  Realised Esprit’s pricing in Singapore is really expensive.  If you see the price tag, it lists the item’s price in HKD & SGD (among other currencies).  The thing is, even though the exchange rate is now about HKD6.2 to SGD1, the price tag still uses a rate of HKD5 to SGD1!  I guess Esprit didn’t bother to update their Asian pricing policy since it’s in their favour anyway.

Apart from eating & shopping, I also did a bit more touristy stuff like visiting the Avenue of the Stars & watching the HK Harbour Light Show.  The last time I went for this was in 2007 but it’s been a long time since I saw the harbour without haze (think the last I had a clear view was in 1998!)  It rained on & off while I was at the light show but it’s ok.  Had some rather decent photos anyway. 

Here’re some selected pics from my trip!

Love the fresh & tender kai lan and springy wanton noodles from Mak’s Noodle:

The zha jiang mian from Mak’s Noodles is good too. The gravy’s slightly sweet but with a spicy aftertaste:

Never saw such huge Po Chai Pills before!

The Maxim Bakery & eatery at Kimberley Road is not bad too.

Food from some random cha chan teng around Tsim Sha Tsui area – not comparable to my favourite Kam Moon Court, which has closed since 2011.

Agnes B Cafe @ K11 (Hanoi Rd):

The curry fishballs from 7-11 are actually better than the ones at Granville Rd!

Mango dessert from Hui Lau Shan!

Almond flavoured egg pudding from Australia Dairy Milk Company. This is reeeeeally good!

Tsui Wah’s famous fish ball & fish puff noodles. Pretty yummy.

The iced yuanyang (in the background) is the best ever! The toast… was so-so.

Pork & preserved veg noodles. Looks plain but tastes good.

Tsui Wah is famous for its curry, a recipe left behind by some Malaysian chef. Gotta say the curry was pretty good & mildly spicy. Slurp!

Dimsum from my favourite Che’s Restaurant.

Chicken wings in Swiss sauce, beef horfun & roasted pigeon (my fave) from Tai Ping Koon:

Statue of Bruce Lee along Avenue of the Stars

Night shots of the harbour taken from Avenue of the Stars.

All pics were taken by my trusty Nokia 808 Pureview.  Love the phone man!

I’ve turned into a handphone camera snob but can you blame me?  How do you deny the quality of photos take with the Nokia 808?

The above pic of the Marina Bay Sands was taken at Level 33, MBFC using the Creative Mode, superfine picture quality, 8MP, +3 exposure setting.

Cropped in on this 2nd pic so that the edge of the building I’m in isn’t so prominent.  Still looks good.

I think a good handphone camera is really important cos the best camera you’ll ever have, is the one on you!

I almost always write about the National Day song for the year.  Not today though.  I must say I don’t really like this year’s song at all – find the melody boring & the lyrics.. gosh.  It would’ve been better as an instrumental.

Having said that, I truly enjoyed the parade on TV today.  Was sorely disappointed that the crappy TV director/ producer decided to show the faces of the audience instead of what I believe must have been the usual fantastic aerial display by our air force.  I missed the usual display of our tanks & other armour vehicles too (they didn’t make an appearance this year), but the fantastic performances definitely made up for it.  I thought the ending when everyone was singing Majulah Singapura and the fireworks went off – was simply spectacular!  No words can describe that scene.

I think it’s a great idea to have NDP at the Marina Bay floating platform.  Really love how the navy & the dragon boaters’ performance on water was incorporated into the programme.  Not sure who the artistic director was this year but good job!!

The most heartwarming moment for me though, was when Mr Lee Kuan Yew made his appearance.  When the cabinet ministers first came out, there was polite applause for them.  And when Mr LKY appeared…  Wow!  I saw people jumping up as they cheered & applauded.  For a nation that is extremely inexpressive (ask anyone who hold a concert in Singapore), that says a lot.  The spontaneity really touched me. 

To the assholes who spread rumours of his death, I hope you develop a conscience soon.

There’re different forms of authority that we need to learn to submit to. When we volunteer for a project, we have to respect the instructions & guidelines set by the project organisers.

Sure, nobody’s paying you to do volunteer work. You may even feel that you have a better way of doing things; but if everyone ran off & did it their own way, the only result is chaos. Then instead of doing good, you’re really just getting in the way of others.

If you strongly believe that you have a better way of doing things, then approach the organisers & discuss about implementing your method. If it’s decided that it’s not feasible, then listen to them for they are the temporary authority in place.

Contrary to popular belief, I don’t enjoy scolding kids.  In fact, I feel somewhat bad towards their parents when I tell kids off because they don’t belong to me. 

The issue I have, however, is that I cannot tolerate destructive behaviour.  Kids throwing toys on the floor, scribbling/ doodling on property that don’t belong to them, that’s a big no-no to me.  I also cannot stand it when kids behave inconsiderately, e.g. littering, dirtying the place, flinging things around (as it may hit others) & walking indoors or stepping on furniture with their shoes on.

Sometimes their parents may not be around and thus there’s no one to stop them.  Sometimes the parents may be lenient and think “it’s ok”.  Some people even tell me that kids nowadays are different.  They cannot be scolded & disciplined the way our parents disciplined us last time.  But why are the standards different now?  Aren’t we the cause of it?  By tolerating such behaviour, we are the ones who’re fostering bad habits & lowering the standard for the next generation.

Having spent 2 weekends surrounded by kids, I’ve decided that if they deserve to be scolded, then they deserve to be scolded.  If their parents feel heart pain, I’m sorry.  But if your kids do something wrong by my standards, then they will learn to deal with the consequences.

Sorry in advance for any distress caused (to parents).

Read with disappointment that Nokia has kicked out some developers from their Nokia Developer Champion programme just because they (so far) only developed for Symbian.

I wonder if Nokia realise that some of these developers never needed to develop for other platforms because the earnings from the Symbian apps they wrote were enough for their monthly income (even till today) To me, this clearly shows that the apps they have developed are popular ones. It only makes sense to want these apps to be developed for WP too.

With Nokia’s latest move, the message sent to these developers is that Nokia doesn’t reward loyalty. Is there any point in them supporting WP then? I think not. If i were one of these developers, i would jump ship to Android or iOS now.

Stupid move, Nokia. Stupid move.