Melbourne II

Day time high: 11 degrees
Condition: wind & drizzle

Went to Little Vietnam along Victoria Street today with wifey and mom. She (mom) ordered what could possibly be the Manchurian emperor's feast worth of dim sum at a Viet-Chinese restaurant. The concept of bite-size and snacking doesn't exist in her mind.

Let me recount...

Siew Mai x3
Foo Pei Kwin (fried beancurd rolls) x3
Siew Long Bao (some steamed pork bun) x3
Foong Zhao (braised chicken feet) x3
Har Gao (prawn rolls) x3
Chee Cheong Fun stuffed with prawns x3
Char Siew Bao x3
Kai lan stir-fried with oyster sauce x1 plate
HALF a roast duck *faintz* (well, ok, it was *burp* rather than fainting but still...)

Total cost = AUD$50/-
Cost of feeling like a stuffed goose = priceless...

Remind me about what "moderation" means when I get back to 1984-ville.

Walked around Little Vietnam for a while and ended up in a one-stop provision store where mom promptly went wild.

And I found out that, Down Under, REAL men drink ABC too, not the wimpy alcoholic stout but REAL lychee juice. Potent stuff...


doing my best impression of a REAL man...

Oh, and, yeah, my CF card just corrupted itself after I got a National Geographic award winning shot of Wifey in an aunty pose, complete with retro black handbag and fur coat, damn glam but now I damn pek chek. Re-format time, grrrr....sian 1/2

Melbourne I

Day high: 15 degrees Celsius
Night low: 5 degrees Celsius
Condition: Sunny


Mom with Bro @ Swensen's Changi Airport, before the flight

Spent the first few hours sleeping off the headache and cramped feet. Will never fly QANTAS again. The econo seats seemed less spaced out compared to MAS or Emirates. Had a terrible headache for three-quarters of the flight. Good thing I packed Panadol. Swallowed 2 along the way.


Waiting for kopi at Starbucks, the sign of civilization

Shame about Bro not being able to join us onboard. Things would have been much more bearable with him. Approval for his student visa has been delayed due to a medical report running loose around the DIMAS office. Anyway, he'll be here next week, just in time for registration at RMIT. It's a city campus. Convenient.


Mom ordering food at a Chinese(!) eatery. Funny how we ran away from Singapore to eat this...

Spent the next day running around town with Wifey & Mom. She (mom) seems to be in a much lighter mood after not being able to get her way with us during the wedding. Hah! No banquet and the what-not ceremonies. Every wedding couple should take a leaf from our book...


Pretty wifey deciding on chow

Too bad daylight hours are very much shorter during winter here. Sun's going down as I write and it's barely 4.30pm. Let's hope we get up a wee bit earlier tomorrow (11 a.m doesn't feel that late, especially if the sun comes up at 9).


Chinatown along Little Bourke Street

Things are slower here. Haven't heard a single car horn anywhere in the city and outside of it. It's a much more pleasant experience driving around. Mom's moved to a much better suburb than Footscray. At least Brighton looks better kept, less grafitti etc.


Outside David Jones, Bourke Street Mall

Wifey's feeling better too. Away from her usual humdrum in Singapore and less-than-ideal work place. Seriously contemplating coming over here to live and bring up kids although it will be rather lonely, without friends around...


Home @ Brighton

of war & weddings...

you know, generals spend months planning for a war operation but have totally no control over what actually happens on the battlefield once the shooting begins.

ditto wedding plans and what really transpires over the course of the day.

like war, family politicians often try to gain extra mileage out of it, too.

I thank my wife for standing firm by me. She absolutely rocks.

Plaza Singapura...

fwah...was just reminiscing about the 80s and the old Plaza Sing when this happened, shame about blinkymummy's hairdo though...

the china language...

picked mom from the airport late last night. she's living in melbourne but came for a visit. had just pulled up at my place, parked the trusty old pickup and unloaded a crate full of luggage when we were approached by the ever-vigilant condo security guard. it was the chap's first night on duty here, having never seen him around.

this funny exchange in chapalang mandarin took place between me, mom and the said guard (singlish translation in brackets)...

guard: 你们是新来的? (new here ah?)
me: 没有啦，住这里很久了 *smilez* (no lah, live here long time oredi *smilez*)

guard: 没看过你们 leh (never seen you before leh)
mom: 没看过我们?! 应该说我没看过你! (what you mean never seen us before? should say I've not seen you before!)

obviously she's not feeling up to any *friendly* conversation, after a 3-hour delay in Sydney and crappy airline food. The guard, however, was either undaunted or too thick in the head to take the hint and back off...

guard: wah, 这么多 luggage! 中国来的? (wah so much luggage! from China izit?)
mom: 什么中国来的?! 你才是中国来的!! (what from China?! you then from China!!)

guard: 不是中国来的 meh? but 你的车是中国的 leh (not from China meh? but your car is China one leh)

at this point, I had to stop mom from throwing the Samsonite^® at him...

the english language...

Spotted on a notice on the front door of a lecture theatre in the university:

"Clean the whiteboard after use. The whiteboard gets more difficult to clean progressively with time."

So much for being 18th best in the world. And my engrish is 19482378th best in the world...

wicked humour

This is wicked but damn farnee...


Source: unknown

eh...better not comment too much about bad parenting, mum's flying from Melbourne for a visit...

reminiscence

My dream about Carmen Sandiego and the subsequent comments brought back some fond memories of the 80s, the decade of optimism, rising income and, of course, teen-hood...

Here are some memorable stuff that popped into my mind. I'm making this up as they come to me so forgive me for any errors. (Note: all photos linked from Google search)

*****

Most memorable 80s movie: Beverly Hills Cop


This movie had me laughing my head off in the cinema. The best scene must have been the one where Eddie Murphy stuffed bananas into the exhaust pipe of a car, causing it to jam. Bronson Pinchot had a role in that movie as an effeminate art gallery with an ambiguous accent, which was another hilarious scene. The electronic score (known as Axel's Theme) for this movie is memorable too, listen to it here.

*****

Most memorable 80s music: Beat It


Try as I might, I cannot erase this song from my head. Such was the infectious guitar riff that I have to suppress myself from doing an air guitar solo whenever I hear it. Well, now that the gloved-one has been acquitted, expect more of this tune to fill out airwaves. By the way, that guitar riff was done by Eddie Van Halen, whom I consider, together with Slash and Brian May, the best axeman around.

*****

Most memorable 80s TV series: The Greatest American Hero


wah lao eh...what else can I say about this series...*slap forehead*
The ultimate story about an absolute loser who was handpicked by aliens to save the earth. Given a power suit way before Edna Mode was in fashion, he promptly loses the instruction manual (yes, I'm not kidding. Not sure about the guarantee card though) and spends the whole series trying to figure out the many functions (including ability to fly, turn invisible, etc) while battling crime syndicates. The theme song "Believe It or Not" was even a hit in the charts, I think. This series was such a blast.

*****

Most memorable 80s computer game: Ultima IV, Quest of the Avatar


This was the mother of all games. Yes, we had Lode Runner, we had Wavy Navy, we had Pac Man, we even had Carmen Sandiego. But Ultima IV was the game to solve, before the days of wimpy strategy guides, a real man (well, actually a teenager) with real guts bashed his way through the dungeons, gaining eighths, getting Dupre, Julia, Shamino, Geoffrey, Katerina, Jaana, Maria & Iolo to join your party. Finally raising the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom. Wish I could resurrect my Apple IIe again...

*****

Most memorable 80s hangout: Plaza Singapura

This is the very first shopping centre that mom brought me. First escalator ride experience, games arcade in the basement (20 cents a try!), air-con food centre, strange-looking sculptures. Try as they might, the new PS doesn't have its own distinctive feel, I guess all shopping malls have that manufactured look now. Anyone with photos of the old PS, please let me know, would love to take a look again...

of rich pharmaceutical companies & cheap generics

I got this much calcium and folic acid supplements for $10.50 (incl. GST). Would've cost me almost $50 if I'd gotten them from the OBGYN or branded stuff off the shelves from pharmacies. This is a very funny situation, you can't actually find these generic supplements on the shelves. So imagine, ordinary folks wanting to get supplements would most probably buy them, paying 5 times the price of generics. I had to approach the cashier to ask and she most willingly handed them out and made a remark about how much cheaper these were...



If only more folks knew, health care would be so much cheaper for consumers. And pharmaceutical execs would have leaner wallets, I bet...

Father's Day

My dad.

Wish I could write more about him like mrbrown. All I can remember of him was sitting in his car. Well, it was more like standing on the front passenger seat, me being quite young then. Someone, his friend I think, reached in to pat my head.

That's all the memories I have of him before bad things happened to my family.

The next memory I have was standing over his grave in Choa Chu Kang, in 1995, 2 years after his passing. I didn't know that he died until 2 years later.

Wish I had the chance to celebrate Father's Day with him.

Whatever happened, I hope he knows I've not screwed up badly in life and I don't blame him for anything that happened in the past.

Happy Father's Day, dad...

Tham Chong Fai (1927 - 1993)

where in my dream is Carmen...

whoa...

just woke up to quite a dramatic dream...something about being in a covert operation to catch an international thief who had stolen laptops and digital cameras from heads-of-states all over the world...had just cornered him in a watering hole when I felt someone tugging at my arm...turned out it was wifey beside me and it's 9am in the morning...grrrrr....just when I was about to fulfil my Carmen Sandiego fantasies...


Image from Broderbund website

Looks fetching, doesn't it? Still remember the Apple IIe days with green monochrome display and beeps and boops for sound....

no synth?!

...was rummaging through some old music collection when I came across the first commercial album by Queen, which was released a few months after my birth. Goodness, time flies. Anyway, back to the topic. I noticed the small print (circled above) which read "...nobody played synthesizer."

Gosh, did that bring back memories. Even right up until the late-80s it was a sign of a band's weakness if they relied on the synth. It was considered a selling-out of sorts, heh. Much like how some folks used to rant about the "excessive" use of digital manipulation in photography. But I like my guitar-playing friend's take on technology's impact on art, "If it moves you it's art, if not, just be cool and be on your way."

I like this friend of mine. He reminds me of Samuel L. Jackson. Wherever you are now, JS, be cool!

ballsy chick...

Photo from Beautiful Boxer website

This is someone with guts and drive. Nong Toom, the transexual & former Muay Thai champion. She's now appearing in a one-woman stage show at the Esplanade.

She went through a lot, both physically and in facing the social stigma, to be a thai boxer and a woman. When asked about the risk she's taking in performing on-stage, solo and in English, a language she learnt only recently, she replied, "It was a risk stepping into the boxing ring. When you're in a ring, you're alone too."

This chick has bigger balls than some men I know...

Amateurs need not apply...

Freudian slip (n.)
1. A verbal mistake that is thought to reveal an unconscious belief.
2. Happens when a person, wanting to say one thing, says something else that reveals what he/she is really thinking about.

**************

This is an old, old piece of news from the Kiwis. Happened in 2003, but it made me choke on my drink nevertheless...


Photo from the New Zealand Herald website

Well, at least nobody can accuse him of being an amateur.

PS art

Found this on Aki's photostream on flickr...



Very cool drawings. Her blog's got more cool stuff. Plus she seems to have found a better hobby than sitting in front of the computer, as evidenced by this entry:

"Yea, my 'break' from the com worked better this time. 2 whole days away from the Net! A new record! *breaks open the Johnnie walker* And how did I do it, without severe withdrawal symptoms and chaining the computer shut?..."

Welcome to the world of Johnnie & Daniel, muahahahaha. Perrier's for wimps...

on the definition of kitsch...

Found this on tomorrow.sg :

"You can now own a piece of the demolished National Library @ Stamford by purchasing a special brick bookmark at only $10 each. Each bookmark bears a picture as well as a piece of original red brick from the historic landmark at Stamford Road..."

Aki had this to say:

"...Maybe if you actually count all the pieces of brick they're selling, you'll realise that all of them joined together would form 2 National Library buildings? Hahaha..."

Read the original offer at the Comchest website. It seems that anything can be done in the name of charity. Here's a definition of "kitsch": Sentimentality or vulgar, often pretentious bad taste...

beautiful wife...

without whom things wouldn't be good...

NGS

This one's for yl...

We are sorry for the error...

This experience by amithyst is very similar to one I had.

Flashback to the year A.D. 2002...
The MOF advertised for the post of an admin exec, job descript said something about office duties & paperwork. Applied for it and got called up for an interview. So I made my way down to the Hill Street office only to be told by the person, "Sorry, we made an error. It's actually for the position of Investment Analyst. Would you like to try for it?"

Investment Analyst my rear-end.

mess...

came across yl's notes on her efforts to tidy her room.

mine could use some help from her...



It's been more than a year since wifey and I unpacked our stuff in this room...

homage to tomorrow.sg...

heh...some doodling with PS on a rainy day and nowhere to go.



Since there's this thread on conspiracy, all tomorrow.sg readers should put on their cloaks and daggers for some spy game. As my hokkien friend puts it, "dun play play wif der gahmen, neber die b4 izit?"

on the dumbing down of civilization...

Came across an interesting post by Atypical Singaporean:

"...You want the tree-top walk to be accessible? Why not bulldoze a concrete path straight to the suspension bridge? Too much stairs to climb? Why not make level any incline, so that the road is flat ?

Why not build cafes/Mcdonalds every 100m so that they can sell you water, water that you stupidly did not bring for the trip? Why not think bigger? We can build a Glutton's Square right in the middle of the tropical forest, and sell over-priced regular hawker food..."

Read the full article


Photo from NParks website

City-living - $500,000 (or whatever value your friendly housing authority decides)
Gas-guzzling SUV - $150,000
Designer baby stroller - $400
Not having the common sense to carry a water bottle - priceless

吃风...

...was surfing around various blogs when I came across blinkymummy and her fascination with bad boys. Reminds me of this show, Eating Air, or more popularly known by its Hokkien title (pronounced Jiak Hong) by Kelvin Tong, starring two relatively unknowns, Benjamin Heng and Michelle Chong. Both went on to do some shows with the local stations. Heng didn't make it that big on the local scene while Chong is now a relatively successful TV host and she lost her Malaysian accent, which was so kinda cute for her role as the photocopy girl in that movie. For a while after the movie, I wanted a Cagiva Planet so badly, heh...


Photo from VideoEZY website

...back to the subject of bengs. No, much as some try to put a glam sheen on their lifestyle, they are not what we make them out to be. If you'd follow them through a short few weeks of their lives, you'll realise a lot of things wrong with the lower-middle class families of 1984-ville. Another thing is, no one wants to be called a beng, least of all, a true beng, who'd put a knife through you if he hears it.

1984...

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing

Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)

It's funny.

I've been calling this place I live "1984-ville" and yet not wrote anything about 1984 and why I'm so fascinated by this number. Blame my fixation on this guy.

Read the novel here. It's a fictitious world that's closer to reality than you'd think. All good fiction blur the line between reality and fantasy, I suppose, but the stuff that happens in 1984-ville comes close to Orwell's vision.

Living in 1984-ville means having Big Brother pry into every aspect of your life. Things that violate human decency are passed off as the normal way of life here. Compulsory HIV testing, intolerance of dissent, lack of property rights. Yes, you read correct on the third point. Nobody owns any land in 1984-ville except for Big Brother. Read the Land Acquisition Act (in particular section 5) and weep. However those are not the scary stuff. I can deal with them by making conscious choices of how to live, day-by-day.

The scary thing is that almost everyone in 1984-ville thinks there's nothing wrong with what Big Brother's doing. How do I even communicate ideas with friends who think the best thing to happen was 1984-ville's way of life? A case in point: I was having a chit-chat with friends some time ago about bringing up children in another country (anywhere but 1984-ville) when one of them said to me, "your children might become bums." On another day, he made another statement to me that "I'd rather be a citizen here than of another country where they treat you as 2nd class."

At first I didn't understand what he meant with all those. The realization hit me later, like a freight train gone off the tracks. This friend of mine was so entrenched in 1984-ville mentality that he couldn't envisage any other way of life.

44-hour week with no labour rights is normal. Forcing your own kids to study and becoming myopic (physically and mentally) as a consequence is normal. Companies retrenching local staff in the guise of cost-savings and immediately hiring foreigners with bigger pay and better benefits is normal. Eugenics was once considered a viable way of "upgrading" the intelligence of future generations. Societal acceptance of children with special needs is dismal. Being different is being deviant.

What bugs me? Frogs in the well, that's what.

"...and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed..."

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
July 4, 1776

Shameless begging...

Those who're feeling rich, please go see my Amazon.com wish list. You're most welcome to buy me anything on (and off) that list...



Alternatively, click on the link on the side bar that says "Buy me a gift!"

Just trying to get as much mileage out of the goodwill generated from expecting the first kid, heh

of things long forgotten...

Wifey has been off coffee for nearly a year now and was throwing away some caffeine stuff in the kitchen cabinet when I came across some creamer which mum bought during her stayover with me last year...



Amazing what cream powder does by itself when left alone long enough...



Now, I'm not a believer of evolution but this gotta be the best proof that it happened. It's even got a bottom smoother than a baby's butt...



In case you're wondering, no, the bottom has nothing wrapped over it.

Remind me to clean out the kitchen regularly.

morning commute...

River Valley Road ---> Nathan Road ---> Cable Road ---> Jervois Road ---> Tanglin Road ---> Margaret Drive ---> Queensway ---> Commonwealth Avenue ---> North Buona Vista Road ---> Dover Road ---> Lower Kent Ridge Road.

No help needed from SBS or SMRT. No COE needed.

'nuf said...

Boo!

4th scan

Well, I've outdone myself once again in...wait..what was it again?

Never mind.

Presenting...(drum roll)...Baby's photo in 4-colour format. Yes, for those of you who don't know, black and white are colours too. So who said we only had colour transmission since 1974...heh...



Some explanations here...

The "femur" is the thigh bone. The "os" is the opening of the cervix. Well, the cervix is more like a channel, meaning that it has 2 openings, one facing the outside and one facing inside, hence the term "internal" (i.e. the one facing inside lah...)

Go here for a diagram to make sense of things...

The placenta's pretty far away from the os, which is a good thing. Had been worried that it might be too close or even covering it, which is a condition known as placenta previa. Some women were known to bleed profusely, even mortally, from this. It's not something that you'd want to have, trust me...

Baby's spinal column seems to have grown quite nicely, excluding a condition that's known as spinal bifida. It happens when the baby's backbone doesn't close properly over the spinal cord during the early stages of pregnancy. For a photo of it, go here (NOTE: PICTURE MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME VIEWERS) . So to all mothers-to-be out there: never, ever skip the folic acid pills. If you do, take lots of WHOLE grain (not white rice, but BROWN rice), vegetable (especially spinach), meat (especially beef & pork liver) and dairy products...

Another blow against freedom...

This is a really interesting article. It'll really freak me out if it happens in 1984-ville. Now...where are my migration papers?

On a not-so-depressing note, do drop by for Bloggers.SG if you have the time and inclination. Free drinks provided, I think. mrbrown & gang will be there. Promises to be fun.

Never pee when half-asleep...

Nobody teaches this in school. Experiential learning epitomized...

So I had too much to drink (soup, not alcohol) over dinner, which was pretty late. Bladder started complaining at 3a.m. Went in search of the porcelain throne. Now at this point, there was a small voice telling me something was NOT going right. Why'd I say that? Well, first, I was half asleep (bad idea...); second I wasn't wearing my glasses (even badder idea...); third I didn't bother switching on the bathroom light (bad, bad, bad idea...). So never mind, bladder's complaining pretty badly now.

(10 seconds later)
hmmm...why's my left foot feeling warm and wet...hmmm...maybe it's not a good idea to pee on it...

Sigh...

So I stepped into the shower to clean my very pissed left foot. Now things would have been peaceful but...NOOO...

Happened that the shower system has a lever which you'd turn either one way or another so you'd have water coming out either from the tap below or the shower head above. The latter was NOT recommended, since I was standing directly underneath it.

Guess which way was the level at when I turned on the water...

Kids should try this some time or another. Good lesson...

Getting fit...

So I bought an incredibly light, sweat-proof backpack for the crazy idea of running home from work every evening. Sounds crazy but it's not THAT far a distance. After all, 1984-ville's small enough that everywhere's within walking distance...eventually.

Had my first trial yesterday, sort of. Ran from Lower Kent Ridge Road to Holland Drive then discovered that I had to get some grocery for wifey. Never mind, so I detoured by taking a bus (hey, it was an emergency ok!) to the nearest NTUC Fairprice with moderately fresh stuff. After making my way through the treacherous check-out lines, I figured that I was needed at home in real quick time to fix dinner for wifey. So I decided to wait for Bus 14.

20 minutes later...and still no sign of lucky 13+1. Got pretty much fed up, decided to stuff the grocery into my newly-acquired backpack (heck with the fresh-produce smell) and made off for home on foot. The ironical thing was that I touched the bus stop outside of home just as Bus 14 pulled up. So it does take longer for public transport compared to a very private form of commuting. I guess I could really say, finally, after pseudo-scientific (and literally exhaustive) testing that...

public transport fee hikes justified?...MY FOOT!

Let me know again when I can actually get home faster on the bus than on my lead-weighted foot & underpowered clogged-up lungs...

Timmy Perez again...

Quiet for the past few days, had been planning a holiday with G.
Anyway, here's something from Timmy Perez again, available on sarongpartyfrens' website. Direct link to the mp3 file here.
For her previous releases, go here.
Once again, it proves my point that the best artists are often not found in the commercial world...


Photo from mrbrown's website