Zodiac' Today's Theme

Mine Taurus


A person who is a Taurus is born between the 21^st of April and the 21^st of May. The Bull is the symbol assigned to Taurus. The ruling planet for Taurus is Venus and their element is Earth. Fridays are said to be lucky days for Taurus people. Strengths of Taurus include being compassionate, dependable, loyal, reliable, and also being strong both physically and emotionally. Stubbornness, aggressiveness, sensitivity and a dislike when faced with change are all weaknesses associated with a Taurus.

The Bull symbolizes strong and silent, and this is exactly how a Taurus is said to be. Until you really get to know a Taurus you will probably not see his or her true self. Taurus are very stubborn individuals and once their minds are made up, swaying them even a little is next to impossible. If you do not try to push, Taurus folks will come across as being laid back and reserved. Take heed though because if you anger a Taurus, it is likely that you might find a violent temper. However, Taurus tempers generally will not flare until they are pushed.

Taurus make wonderful friends, and whenever you need them they will certainly be some of the first ones there. Taurus know exactly how to brighten the day of friends in need. Don't count on a Taurus ever calling on you to return the favor. They are very in tune with their emotions and rarely display them. Taurus are loyal and will stand beside a friend until the bitter end.

Sounds about right ;-)

Credit for Yahoo!

My weekend with good book : SEAL Team Six

Sometimes the most unexpected can turn out to be most rewarding.

I often hear, and believe in the phrase. But in my forgetfulness, in times when it happens the life turns out its most pleasant surprises in little things.

Like my weekend. After spending enjoyable drink with my colleagues, the three of us chatted on a table near fantastic view at L33 on MBFC. The weather was hot and humid, and the Singapore skyline turned out its lustrous heart-meltingly beautiful lights at dusk. Always my favorite time of the day.

I woke up with a slightly swollen right eye. Unsure why and only half prepared for a ruined weekend, I while away the Saturday, reading stuff like how to use egg cartons to dampen the noise and soundproof your room . In fact when I walked away to Yakun to pack takeaway breakfast, I eyed quietly at their egg and finally emit enough courage to ask. Also arrange a contractor to come down next Saturday for an exact quote of a double-glazed soundproof window. I then travelled to Bras Basah for a trip on library and shopping trip of my arts equipment finally getting a nice-setup for my painting project.

Almost accidentally, I walked past the wall that displayed library's newest books on my way out. I spotted the book by Howard Wasdin. I have been knowing the book since I got first my kindle. I read the trial but thought the story was so far removed from my live that it would be waste to purchase it. So fate brought the book to my hands this weekend.

The book, editing and content was very good. The action, details, and the drama - as well as the valor, courage and the sheer mental toughness of the soldiers so admirable. I woke up on Sunday, today with a heavily swollen eye. surely my night cap reading half of the 308-pages book.

Now a bit worried, I travelled to check which clinic opens on Sunday. If you ever need one (non A&E), Raffles Hospital has GP practicing from 8am-10pm. I took my time to travel there, inhaling the sweet fresh air of Sunday morning. Life is beautiful. Except for a swelling tearing right eye.

I had my check-up, a bout of antibiotics (Moxiclav), Sofranex eye-drop and anti-histamin. Then travelling to the art school, in vain, then the cinema. Headed home with JCO half-dozen donuts and some groceries. Cook a pigrib soup with cordyceps and ling zhi, settledown with some painting done on my tiny canvas, and proceeded to finish off the book.

Seal Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal Sniper by Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin. Amazon rank #4,947 today.

The Painting I am trying to copy

Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne. By Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)

Men In Black 3

Last week went to watch MIB 3. I didn't watch the second installment, and I didn't crave in excitement to see this one. But I am glad I did.

The movie is fantastical, but entertaining. Normally I didn't like action movie nor Will Smith, but this movie humanizes and touches. And it's cool to see all sort of gadgets that the movie dreamed about these days, time travel, memory swipe, violent aliens, plus the nostalgia of the wonder years of 1969 where dreams are purer, air freshers, and life tho ignorant, less complicated.

I like this review from TonyMacklin.net.

Lady gaga concert in Singapore

A couple of girls and I went to concert in Singapore. 3 nights sold-out, and we went for the first day. Standing ticket - so fun!

Amazing energy and showmanship. Also great personal touch and real showcase of dancing, energy, and also controversial message. Checkout her full tour schedule across Asia. This is still followed by 2 weeks in Auckland, New Zealand and every major cities in Australia.

It's amazing that the concert started at 830+ (after one-hour of waiting and bad organizing in the Singapore venue first day), and by 1030ish the audience energy is waning. While the singer is still so energetic, so its appaling that the encore shout is weak, and some people seen left the venue already! That's the reason the concert organizer decided to run both encores consecutively to end the day.

Vinegar drink

Japanese seems to like healthy and natural food. One of which that caught my attention is the 2 vinegar mixes (Honey or Berry) served at breakfast buffet. It came with instruction that the proper way of drinking it is to mix vinegar to fresh milk with 1:4 ratio.

The resulting drink is sour and sweet, not unlike yoghurt. Enchanted I had my eyes on any of these vinegar culture on sale outside. On my last day luckily, I chanced upon Food section at Mitsukoshi at Ginza at B2. There brand is VISS 1882 launched by Japanese famous vinegar specialist, Imazuya. I was lucky too as the store was apparently the only one in Tokyo, and I found it by chance ;-)

There's interesting mixes available. The most popular one is Apple-mix, followed by Grape then Passion fruit.

De Clutter

I fell ill badly after catching cold on Monday night. Today I am on medical leave. My body lethargic but my mind is restless and distracted by the cold.

I threw away the half-progressing beautiful Lily flowers that I was trying to dry. They were turning brown from the pure white it was. What a shame. The most beautiful flowers remain to be living ones, although no body can deny the pure romanticism of getting a bunch of flowers -oh..



I read the articles about decluttering and memories. Seems like there is symptoms or trends that are against Hoarders in USA. I just watched an episode of Dr. Oz talking about the ills of it (the same episode also talks about some bugs of the household pets).The guy who couldn't throw away stuff from childhood sounds like my brother. He would be agitated if mom throws away anything - those robots, toy cars, spidey soft toy, from his childhood. How cute. He is 30 this year and has a baby girl now.

The Avengers

I went to watch the Avengers with my collegue, last nigh pre-preview 4/30. Her brother's company is having movie night. I caught cold in mid term and had to rush back home immediately after the movie finished at midnight.

What a great show. I love how the new Director creates a logical story. The acting is strong and characters very compelling. Love it.

Also how wonderful that the interactions and dynamism between relationships of these superheroes - being playfully and quite realistically displayed. The only thing that I think is lacking is the feeling of watching a Movie than just a series. But maybe that's like reading an epic from the comic book.

Normally I have very good taste on what's good movie. Rotten tomatoes has it opening in USA on the 5th 96%.

My carbonara experiment

Carbonara is one of my favorite food. From research (through internet, so limited to popular folk lore mostly), it is a common pasta dish that derive its name from "Charcoal burner". Some speculated that it started as a dish to charcoal miner who was active in Italy at 16th-18th century.

So Carbonara is a common name for pasta (mostly commonly spaghetti or fettucine, but original Italian prefers penne) with white-cream based sauce made from cream/egg yolk, white wine, Parmesan cheese, and bacon.

My first carbonara experiment is rather successful. I got hold of the freshest ingredients from Cold Storage, which is $2+ 3 slices of bacon (Italy prefers to use pancetta - which is flavored and dried), cream, Parmesan cheese, and fresh eggs. I picked fettucine which is my favorite for heavy based cream to savor more of the goodness of the richness of the sauce than the lightness of angel-haired spaghetti. I also added frozen peas for colors and attempt at veggie-ing it. Today I used back bacon which is less fatty, because I went shopping at 740pm and today Cold Storage has 2 slices left from its Danish "streaky bacon".

I used my stock white wine which is Chardonnay 2008 from Chile, Alta Mira. The receipe recommended a dry wine, so you have to be careful not to use a more sweet-based wine like Moscato, as the cream and bacon tend to overwhelm the delicate note of wine.

I love Carbonara.

Melbourne 2012 Apr 31st Birthday

the beautiful former Melbourne Museum

So bored

I am feeling am wasting my weekends - week by week. time flies...

My Saturday, I learnt that English Premiership League football is just one of the League. The club/player starts at South/North, then National, Then L2, L1, and Finally Championship Liga before heading to the Premiership League. I learnt this from online game....

Viral videos

Do you know Viral videos. They are videos that people post on YouTube or other video sharing sites (like Vimeo, Hulu, etc) that got so popular for whatever reasons. I got into this after reading Times articles today on the survivalist of YouTube under Google HQ.

There's also fascinating videos people made about kids reactions to these viral videos. Some of the viral ones:
Nyam Cat - completely repetitive strangely addictive miao.
Psycho Girl who can't sing.
Obama "All of You Know whom I am" - impressive recovery, Sir.
Double rainbow.
Don't argue with Ibex.
Chocolate rain...

Search at Youtube.

I am an Conceptualizer Director

http://www.bestfittype.com/intj.html

Tired

Long day today. I started my work at 9 with a classico and chocolate croissant - that I munched through lunch time. Had a kopi-C and a pork big pao at 4pm during tea chat.

Worked through 10pm, and stood up and realize I was the last one in the office. Well I guess my come-uppace for a nice dinner yesterday. Yes, we went to the Tastings Room at Marina Sq for the restaurant week meal. Very lovely meal - I selected truffle mushroom puree soup (the curried cauliflower soup was light and tasty), 2nd course is a default squid ink pasta with fresh calamari - with very exceptionally done al-dente pasta, as main course the Beef Cheek (so soft it melts in your mouth), and the apple Flan for dessert. Yumm.

They had a great review at hungrygowhere as well - check it out. Today my brother went for the Oktober at Dempsey.

World's Most Ethical Companies

I am proud and feel also vindicated that the company I work for made it to the list of WME.
http://ethisphere.com/wme/. I know, sometimes such a list need to be reviewed with pinch of salt. but I am proud of this one, because in more occassions that I said out loud, I am continously astounded by how ethical we are - we as in the org. In terms of the way we conduct the business, formulate the policies, how hard and strict we view each suspicion of wrongful business conduct.

I am proud of that. Of working for a company like this. Of spending my efforts, time, energy and potential to at least valuable and integrity.

The company is of course not perfect. Even day by day I wonder listlessly in terms of my long term goal. But this is a small exciting news that I want to share, and capture on this blog.

Wonderful dinner

Last week was an eventful week. One of colleague, my BG Lead in Singapore nominated me for a nice small award - for GEM (Going Extra mile). I like her, liked her passion, experience, and drive. She has two college-aged sons and a golf-loving husband. She hardly need to work and sell, really. But she continues to be motivated, to push the boundaries, and to continuously passionate about her cause and her role. I admire that spirit.

It is sad for me to know, that she became demotivated that people clawed back at her for pushing them hard. Just 2 weeks ago, we chatted in a morning at the corner of Olio. I am really saddened and want to really help her, support her. Fortunately in my role, I could play a small part.

She went to Europe holiday, and came back rather refreshed. And she recognizes support - how sweet and thoughtful.

Another thing is to hear that my BG Lead in Taiwan is promoted to lead Business Process function in BMO. She has been passionate but lonely, in her works. I met her when I was on Taiwan holiday and at that point in time, I enjoyed knowing her and her boy. I am so glad to hear that she would be moving on to something good, and be recognized for that. I now learn that although she had been underappreciated by a group of management, it doesn't, it rarely means that a talent is missed by others. So I am so happy very much so to hear the news.

Last exciting thing that happened last week is I ended my Friday with a nice dinner with a wonderful company. It took me a courage to do what I have never done before, left office and came back. I was glad I did it. I had good time and dinner and became unusually chatty. I had to be careful not to "lose myself in the moment" too much next time...

Ah, life is more meaningful on stuff that happens coincidentally, unplanned, and life becomes more interesting and valuable that way. In small moments.

Happy Chinese New Year 2012

Finally, my long awaited Dragon year comes! Year that promised to be with better luck and just better generally. My folks and I just came home from praying at famous Kwan-Im temple at Bugis. This year I decided to join my folks because it was raining heavily at chinese new year turning 12. Yes, my perverse rebellion self decided to probe my parents when they laized around coz of the rain, so I pushed.

And we are so lucky to get the first hio- on the temple. We arrived thru bus 51, walking in the rain, that gets drizzled then barely there just as we arrived. The situation was festive while people were huddled under umbrella and hawker centre. But we arrived the temple were still not so crowded. There's instruction to the securities over the makeshift speaker to "have supper while the crowd is still not here". .

While we were praying, with hio offering silent words over newly year wishes, the securities blocked the entrance and I saw throngs of people with the burning hios were waiting in the crowd. Then mom finishes last in her words of prayer, and Dad, Mom, and I capping our three hios.

I can see Mom and Dad are quite pleased with the turn of the events. I hope this year brings its bright and positive energies for us and the World.

Fave songs of the day

This song by Timbaland ft. Katy Perry - If We Ever meet again
So romantic ! Reminded me of my fave Sidney Sheldon novel.

Another one Katy Perry & Kanye West - ET
Sexy! Nice lyric youtube

In Flight movies

Movies enjoyed on sQ flight Jan2012 Taipei.

MoneyBall
Melancholy story about game-changing GM of Oakland A in American Baseball. Based on true story. Great performance by Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. Rotten tomatoes rating: 95%

Archive: 2011 Accomplishments

• Do an education course - Chinese III at NUS Extension - Checked!
• Expand social circle and get out of my shell
• Retouch with old friends
• Volunteer and social work
• New Hobby - Checked!
• 12KM Run - Checked!
• Start something meaningful
• Lombok - Checked!