Home: Orchard Rd Xmas Lightup

Since I went to the "Winter" Wonderland at Tangling Mall, I miight as well checkout the xmas decoration at Orchard Rd since it's just around the corner. And oh my, this year was certainly the Year of Lights!!!


Rallying to run me flat as roti prata (indian pancake)? Fortunately, the (traffic) lights are in my favor now hehehe ...


"EARTH FROM ABOVE" Photo Exhibition by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. SIMPLY STUNNING!


Interesting revolving Christmas Tree outside Ngee Ann City. Even more interesting events are the nightly carolling that going to start from 16 ~ 24 Dec 2005. These features songs & dances from different countries tribal & aboriginal including Thailand Karen & Lahu, China Yunan Dai & Miao, Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Japan International Choral Group etc etc ...

Definitely not to be missed!!! Unfortunately, I will be leaving for vacation from 16 Dec 2005 onwards :(


My favourite Christmas Tree got to be from Paragon. Lots of people posing shots with this Paragon Christmas Tree.


Christmas Tree from Wisma isn't too bad as well.



Arabian nights Theme for Tangs Plaza. Stunning lights creating 3d-ish visual delights.


My evergreens, Starscape from Wheelock Place.


And lastly, Season Greetings & Best Wishes.

This will be my last post for 2005. As I head to vacation-land, counting sheeps & rolling hills, attempting to refresh & rejuvenate. Hopefully this break will help me concoct new creative ideas as well as setting new goals & direction in life.

Frankly, it have been pretty hectic & tiring period creating this blog. Due to work schedule, most of my blogs updates were usually done very late at night. At the same time, I'm always constantly amazed by the work I'm able to achieve within such a short span of time.

Nevertheless, I'm not sure if that's the kind of life I want to lead, but since I have set my one year goal from Oct 2005, I guess I should continue and decides when the time comes.

Till then ... See ya in 2006
!!! P E A C E !!!

Home: "Winter" Wonderland @ Tanglin Mall

So, finally I did went down to Tanglin Mall for the annual fake snow festival.

*** OYSTERS leh!!?? ***
Oops! This fake snow is more fun! Besides, I'm searching for more information on Australia Oysters so that I can put up a better article =). Hence, sorry to say that the Oysters thingy it will have wait next year ...

Back to annual snowy affair, this have been a regular feature at Tanglin Mall that's very popular with kids as well as photographers for photographic opportunities, of course. If I remembered correctly, snow maker machine was initially brought in for making snow, however due to cost as well as issues of controlling the melting snow, they have use non-toxic soapy foam as subsitute.

While the soapy foam certainly doesn't feels or even look like snow (closeup), the fun factor is certainly still there. Just look at all the smiling faces :)


Getting pretty chaotic!


Look! ma! So many "snow"


Throwing "snow" ball


Hit & Run!!!


The Channel-U (TV media) came down to report as well. Do not know who is this pretty lady, obviously I have been not using the TV for far too long.


Aftermath, you see the maintenance people on the right spraying liquid that dissolves the soapy foam quickly


Still reluctant to part with her "snow" hehehe ...

For those who are interested, "Winter" wonderland will ends on 2nd Jan 2006.
Fun times starts at 7pm & 8pm (30mins each start with "Avalanche" & then "snow" simulation). Washup area is provided nearby, do bring a towel to clean yourself up.

Have Fun!

Food: Nibbles here & there @ Australia, Sydney

Just posting the rest of nibbles I photographed while I was in sydney.

First thing I have when I step out of the Sydney Airport, Krispy Kreme Doughnut.


Plain Krispy Kreme


Krispy Kreme with Raspberry fillings.
While nice, personally I find it a bit too sweet to my liking.


Pho Bo at Pho Pasteur (near chinatown). It was good when I tried few years back. But it turn out disappointing this time. The "fresh" basket of herbs weren't fresh. Soup was on salty side. I beginning to miss Pho24 in Vietnam now :(


I wanted the Fresh Spring rolls (Summer Rolls) but they ran out. So I decide on seafood spring roll which was not too bad. Crispy, prawns crunchy albeit a little oily.


Fugu anyone? :D Well, not actually my nibble but decide to include just for interest. Not too sure if this the same edible kind. This was fished out by 2 Korean families who were spenting their leisurely weekend break at Macquarie Point.

Their kids were so adorable, here one of them waving at me. Unfortunately, I forgot their email address. If by chance anybody knows them, please let them know I'm trying to email them their photos. Thanks!


Split Roast at Milsons Point. Serves lovely roast meats. Their kebabs that spiced with middle-east blend of spices was great as well.


Will love to try all, unfortunately I have only one stomach :(


Somewhere near North Sydney. Interesting twist to Vietnamese Cui Guon. Instead of prawns, they have raw/smoked salmon slices with chilli dipping sauce.


Again, North Sydney. This place have far more excellent choices of homey italian pasta & middle-east meals than City itself. This quick grab lunch is good turkish bread with Australia Brie, Turkey slices with plenty of fresh veggies in-between.

Going to try "serve" the Oysters before I go for my vacation.
Slurp! =)

Ramblings: Let's live again!

Throttling through the throng, dodging past "professional" flyer distributors, I pass from shop to shop, collecting related price lists, headed Apple Center to "salivating" for a while at the MAC Mini before off to basement food court for a cuppa. hehehe ... nah, not about to made the switch yet. Been considering to add-on later.

Pouring through the price lists, I'm simply overwhelm by the choices available. From past single page pricelist to present 3 pages of doubleside pricelist!!! Even the printed font were very much reduced.

I was looking for SFF (Small Form Factor) barebone system which is basically consists of chassis, motherboard & Power supply. You just have to add your choice of CPU, Memories & other peripherals. While I'm prepared to pay a little more, it is unfortunate that better designed barebone are built with more costly configuration. Much more then I willing to pay.

I wanted something smaller then ATX (doesn't mind if it's bigger the SFF) with neat & simple design. So I threw away all the pricelist and start to wander mindless again from shop to shop. Thankfully, I found what I wanted. =)


As you can see from my hand-drawn illustrations. It's neat, cute, simple and it's BLACK!!!. Oops!!! perhaps my illustrations were a bit messy (just like my blog). So here the textual description.
Hidden behind those covers are
Top-Left : floppy
Top : DVD writer (add-on myself).
Middle :7-in-1 card reader, clock & radio display (yes, it comes with built-in radio although I doubt I will be using it much)
Bottom : Mic & radio, 2 X USB, 2 X 1394 (aka firewire)

There are more at the back. But I don't think it's nice to show the "backside", so just the textual description here hehehe ...
- 4 X USB
- Serial X 1 (Yes, I need for my GPS)
- Parallel X 1
- Gigabit LAN
- Mic + Speaker + Line-in
- VGA Port
- Game/MIDI Port


I think this is a better perspective with regards to its size. And oh, can't see all the ports as I forgot to turn on the flash, my apologises :P So I'm all ready to start posting more food photos now =)

On other stuffs, Glad that my Orchids are getting prettier & prettier each day ....

Ramblings: R.I.P

Yup~ PC finally RIP. But at least I'm quite certain to have narrow down to faulty motherboard. It's nearly 5 years old and I suppose its high time to upgrade anyway. Come weekend, and I will be heading to Sim Lim Square, Singapore one-stop shopping for your all DIY computer needs.

I certainly hope to reuse back some working parts like 512M RAM, 40G harddrive, Matrox G550 display card, DVD burner. Yes, its old but still working fine. I don't play games hence do not require the latest & greatest graphic card, bleeding with cutting edge 3D rendering & co-processing capabilities.

So probably I need to just DIY the small platform chassis, motherboard c/w CPU. btw, Pricelist can be found conveniently online at Hardwarezone SG

*sighz* I foresee another ULTRA HECTIC weekend, not to mention the regular work that I'm trying to complete before my vacation starts. I guess it is times like this that I have learn how shift my gear down and smell the flowers along the way. Got a couple of shots from my Malaysia, Cameron Highlands trip 2002. Folks at GREEN CULTURE have been kind to provide me with some leads. I'm hoping to locate a more precise ID (i.e Common & Latin botanical names) of these plants. Please HELP ME if you can ID them, otherwise, please just enjoy those beautiful plants.

btw, the last photo is my Orchid that just bloom. Been trying to ID this as well :P

Food: Spanish Portuguese Affair @ Australia, Sydney

I love evening walks in Sydney, the lovely shades of blue skies never fails to leaves me in awe. Of late, life is full of surprises. My mindless walking lead me to quiet cross junction of Pyrmont St & Union St. And there, I spotted a lovely quaint building away from the buzzing touristy streets of sydney. I found Talentino Restaurant that serves Portuguese Country Style Cuisine.

Their cosy atmosphere evokes feeling of romance and style. I felt completely at ease once I got seated at the table. Service is excellent & attentive. The food is full of rich robust flavour. They are served freshly cooked, even if you arrive to the resturant half an hour prior to their closing. I'm wondering why there were so little reviews found about this excellent restaurant with value meals.

WHERE?
Talentino Cafe . Restaurant
Portuguese Country Style Cuisine
9 Union Street Prymont NSW 2006
Tel 9518 8000

btw, I made a little boo-boo about the title, I got to know Paella from Spanish cuisine and only realise, after looking at their business card, its Portuguese that they are serving. Nevertheless, they all belongs to Iberian Penisular region, and cuisine bears a close resemblance to each other. For example, they are fond of adding Piri-piri to their dishes.

Piri-piri means "pepper-pepper" in Swahili, an pan-Afrian language. They member Capsicum genus that originate from Africa. Being relating to capsicum / chilli, they adds a lovely spicy note to dishes. There a couple of interesing reads about how it get to Portugal or iberian region. I shall not elaborate and left to reader for furthur exploration, if they wish.

SOURCES
Fiery Foods
Leite's Culinaria

Without much delay, I shall let the photos do the rest of talking :)
BOM APETITE! BUEN APETITO!


Cosy & Relaxing


Sangria (blend of wine & fruits juice) with juicy bits of fruits


Bread with Portuguese Olive Oil


Baby Barbeque Octopus served with salad and lemon olive sauce



Sapaghetti Marinara - Fresh mixed seafood, garlic, piripiri, parsley, white wine and spicy iberian sauce



Paella - Traditional spanish rice dish, cooked with chicken and variety of seafood


Freshly made Hot Chocolate


Chocolate Mousse

Hope you enjoyed those photos! :)

Banner: Dec 2005

Another new month, another new banner. And December being XXXtra merry month, rightfully, I should put up some XXXtra merry banner. Perhaps night scene of Orchard Road glittering décor or even the annual artificial “snow” event at Tanglin Mall that draws huge crowds every night.

But noooooooooooo …… simply because I’m XXXtra lazy and have no wish to be sandwiched between those XXXtra joyous crowds.

But you may ask, what’s up with all the XXX? Ahhhh...
Xtra merry one : Because Christmas Holiday coming
Xtra merry two : Because New Year Holiday is next
Xtra merry three : Because most of the people will be heading off for longer holidays soon. Meaning, work slowing down soon =)

Hence it’s XXXtra pleasurable for me to kick off my shoes, turn down the lights and simply indulge over a smoothing cuppa of warm, aromatic & foamy Teh Tarik.

TEH TARIK(or Tea Pulling literally) is a popular street style Indian Milk Tea in Singapore & Malaysia. Strong Ceylonese (I think sometimes Assam are used as well) black tea are used to brew thick flavorful tea. Condensed Milk are added to tea. With 2 mugs / large cups, The Teh Tarik master will “pull” the tea to & fro the mugs to create a smooth, rich & foamy milk tea as you see in the banner.

So whatever pleasures you desires, wish you have a XXXrta happy & XXXciting holidays ahead.

p.s: I'll be XXXtra curious how many XXX google searches will hit my blog as well :D