Pork Knuckles @ Choa Chu Kang

Tucked away in a quiet corner of Singapore is Farmart Centre. Amidst the few Seafood and Tze Char stalls found there is a small little Cafe and Wine place known simply as AustWine. My brother had arranged a small family birthday gathering and he specifically chose this place because of the Pork Knuckles ... and BTW, he lives in Pasir Ris!

With this place just 5 minutes drive away from my home, I had to go check it out.

Although not fancy, it is a nice setup, very quiet and cosy. No crowd even on a Friday evening, good for chatting with old friends or couples. Service was prompt and the food was cheap! Check out their main course menu. Menus for other dishes are available on their home page above. For those who are into wines, their wine order form is also available online.

We had the Pork Knuckes (large of course) as well as Emmentalar Cheese Sausages, Grilled Chicken with Mushroom / Back Pepper Sauces, Fried Rice and Salmon Fillet (not on their online menu). Overall very satisfying, highly recommended. I got the VIP card which cost S$10 and was instantly given a 10% discount. As the total bill was about S$84+, the VIP card was virtually free. Food_

Foodie Compilation

Have collected quite a number of foodie photos over the past few weeks to share here.

Home made Chinese Pig's Tail Soup with Peanuts and a medley of Beans
Entirely home made by father-in-law. Simple recipe with slow cooker, pig's tail, peanuts, black beans and black eyed peas. (Don't phunk with my heart baby!)



Chap Chai Stall Sweet and Sour Pork and Vegetables
"Off the shelf" Chap Chai Peng dishes (from Choa Chu Kang North 6) which complimented the Pig's Tail Soup perfectly!



San Remo's Macaroni and Cheese with Pan Fried Crispy Sutchi Fillet
Simple weekend dish for two. Simple and nice to eat. Cheese and Fish seem to go very well together!



Favourite Teochew Porridge stall opposite Bukit Timah Shopping Centre
The duck and the "hei bi hiam" are excellent with the plain porridge! Others swear by the salted egg but unfortunately that's not my cup of tea.

Food_

KooshLog: Pentax K10D

Found a video on the K10D HERE.

More Elmo!

Was searching through YouTube and found more funny Elmo clips! General_

Elmo Live
Elmo Dance
Elmo XXX! Wahahaa!!

And the man behind Elmo, Kevin Clash.

Its finally over!

The last in camp "training" (a.k.a. ICT) is finally over! We had our unit Stand Down Parade and Dinner last night. Some were jubilant as their names were read out from the M.R. list while others were disappointed as they are not eligible for M.R. because they still owed some ICTs.

It was a strange feeling during our out processing today as we will most likely be seeing each other for the last time. Many name cards were exchanged. Anyway, it was a good feeling to be finally free from our ICT liability even though the official M.R. date is in April 2007.

For those who have completed 10 years of NS and a minimum of 7 high key ICTs, we got our "thank you" gift, which consisted of a 10 year service medal + collar pin and a Hamilton watch (with SAF logo and Rank/Name engraved). Also, we received a letter of appreciation for our service. The actual letter from MINDEF will be served later as our M.R. date draws nearer.

To see a picture of the Support Company in the Best NS Unit this year (so far ... heh heh!) click HERE!

Tickle Me Elmo Extreme TMX

The newest and latest Tickle Me Elmo Extreme TMX! General_



Cactus, you should seriously consider getting one of these for Flo, or yourself for that matter!

Alfa Romeo Brera

The Alfa Romeo Brera. One of the best looking production cars available in Singapore today. General_

Click on the picture above for the promotional video. The video of the Singapore Launch is also available HERE.

Old Photographs

Decided to put all my photos onto Flickr for backup and sharing. This includes those old photos taken many many years ago. Was considering getting a second hand film/negative scanner from eBay but could not find any nice and cheap one with good quality. Furthermore, some of the photos I do not have the negative. So decided to do it the old fashioned way, scan them!

So far I've done about 20%. Pretty tedious as each scan takes about 20 seconds ...

Multiply.com

Had to post a comment on a friend's blog so I just created an account in Multiply. Tried out this new site and also enabled the blog cross posting. The importing feature from Multiply to import blogger entries seems to be working. However, some entries with pictures doesn't seem to import properly. Think this has to do with the "FLOAT" tag for image alignment which is used quite frequently by Blogger. General_

Anyway, I am posting this in Blogger. Let's see if it gets cross posted in Multiply.

Hmm ... apparently not. Only postings in Multiply will be cross posted to Blogger.

Pentax K10D

Its finally out! I'm glad I held off purchasing the K100D as the specifications for the new K10D are so much better. By the time it is available in Singapore, it should be near the end of the year or early next year. Something to look forward to at bonus time! Photography_

PENTAX K10D(shown here with optional battery grip)

Key features include:

• 10 Megapixel Sensor
• 11 Point Auto Focus
• Shake Reduction
• Weather proof body
• CCD Dust Removal
• Pentaprism (not mirror)
• New PRIME image processor
• Compatible with K-Mount lenses

A hands on preview is available HERE.

Off Day #2

Just recovered from my 24 hour shift duty. Dunno what to do yet today, most likely some light housework and excercise. General_

The next shift will be busy. No, not from the actual duties but from visits from "VIPs" and ECAs like getting interviewed / videofilming by our own unit as well as people from Power 98 FM. All these are really disruptive to our duties but I guess its part and parcel as our deployment area is a quite a "hotspot".

Off Day #1

Today is my first off day, after working my first 24 hour shift duty. I feels good to be able to rest and not go to work, worry about working stuff or any such kinds of stress. I could get used to this. General_

Anyway, lunchtime was with colleagues near our office at the usual Teochew Porridge place. (Porridge Culture). It was a special lunch for one of our HK colleague which came over for a presentation.



Late afternoon was shopping time with wifey as she ended the day early. Managed to cover only 2 places, Wisma Atria and Takashimaya. There wasn't much crowd but I saw 2 policemen with automatic weapons on duty between these 2 shopping centres. Haha, looks familiar!

Total haul: 2 shirts, one blue and the other purple. There were some pretty nice and good quality dark coloured patterned shirts at Zara going for SGD89 to SGD99 per piece, guess I will have to wait for their sale.

Dinner was at Food Republic. Wifey queued for about 15 mins for the popular Hokkien Prawn Noodles while I bought soup and Fried Beef Kuay Teow. I think the Hokkien Prawn Noodles were overrated. Anyway, here are some of the foodie pictures:

Move Out!

We had a super early start today. Amazingly, my biological clock was spot on, waking me up at about 20 seconds before both my alarms (mobile phone and watch) rang at 0400 hrs! 30 minutes was all it took to get ready to MOVE OUT. General_

Its been a long while since I have seen Singapore so early in the morning. The early morning air was fresh. Along the way, both sides of the PIE were peaceful and quiet HDB estates and industrial parks.

The smartly folded uniform, beret and sound of the Land Rover's diesel engine brought back memories of the past 16 years of National Service when we had to move out early for Exercises. Yes, it has been THAT long! Having said that, it feels different now, somehow, maybe because this time it is NOT an exercise. Maybe also this is probably the LAST time that I will be experiencing life as an active NSman. This time its not ROD nor ORD. For us we will be looking forward to going into MR!

As the Land Rover chugged along at snail's pace towards our deployment area, I feel proud to be playing a part in preserving this wonderful and peaceful environment.

Book Out liow!

2.5 years or national service and more than 10 years as a Reservist (aka NSMan). When it comes to booking out, the feeling of freedom is still si beh SHIOK-enaden even after all these years!

Anyway, today (a Saturday) is a full working day for us NSMen. This time round, there is only a Sunday off. Also, we will be starting our duties next week. General_

Tomorrow will be a another busy day. Housework, fish tank maintenance, essay proofreading, swimming and mahjong at a colleagues home (not necessarily in that order).

Will try to post more stuff when I am in between duties next week.

Nights Off

This is my second nights off these 2 days. Yesterday's was spent at my cousin's place to say farewell to Phui and Kevin who has already left today. General_

Today is currently being spent replying comments and adding entries to this bloggie.

BTW, I bought 2 size L No. 4 pants to replace my size Ms. Apparently, there is a small size gap between these 2 and now the L is loose (even with the side buttons on) while the M is tight. Wore the L today and feels comfortable though they seem to be sliding off.

Anyway, the time to report back to camp is 2330. It is now 2130, 2 more hours to go. I hate countdowns.

Call of Duty

Its past midnight and I'm supposed to report to Camp tomorrow morning at 0730 hrs. Being kiasu as I think parking may be limited, I might just go there at 0700 hrs. General_

Anyway, its going to be a good 3 weeks away from work to serve the country, and at the same time, give a good impression to our foreign visitors here for the IMF meetings.

Hopefully will get recharged (and slimmer *yeah right*) after these few weeks. Gonna miss the office lunches though.

Better go sleep now. Lights Out!!

To learn or not to learn?

I was asked to attend a presentation to some VIPs at the main office today in case any of them asked any technical questions or need more info on some of the demos/systems we have deployed. As usual, these VIPs are mostly non-technical and no technical questions were asked. Our bosses just want to make sure all bases our covered ... General_

Anyway, to most people would consider this an utterly waste of time. I used to as well. However, the meeting today was hosted by none other than our parent group President (SMM). I think a lot can be learnt from just sitting there listening to his conversation with the VIPs. Hmm, "high level" marketing has its own set of techniques as well. Also learnt plenty about other stuff done by the other business units.

I guess every event is itself a learning opportunity. Its just a matter of whether we want to switch-on or put on our learning hats ...