decided to do a blog entry as a parody to Sharon's one here.
the dish i'm cooking is an italian classic with a slight asian twist: Portobello & fresh scallop linguini ala aglio olio
fresh, whole portobello mushrooms, washed, stems removed and sliced extra virgin olive oil the other ingredients: Linguini pasta, chopped garlic, portobello mushroom, red chillies (optional), fresh scallops, olive oil, and chicken seasoning powder firstly, boil the pasta in water with a pinch of salt till al-dante strain, and add olive oil so that the pasta dosent stick add olive oil to a hot pan, and add garlic. fry till white in colour, then add mushrooms fry mushrooms till about 3/4 cooked before adding the scallops fry everything till cooked, then add in abit of water and chicken stock sautee and allow the water to reduce. add pasta, and toss till pasta is covered in the gravy
voila! take off heat, and season with grated cheese and chilli flakes. eat from the pan
Read this on Dickson's blog and really brought back fond memories of primary school life and growing up.. its really sad to realise that such times are no more.. the fun times spent with our primary school buddies whom we no longer contact.. heck.. if i saw them, i dont think i'll even recognise them anyway..
so goodbye good old primary school days goodbye Samuel Tan. The days we spent doing stupid things together with Nelson will always be remembered. i hope you're doing fine in heaven
1. You grew up watching He-man, Transformers, Silverhawk, Ultraman, Super Friends, Woody WoodPecker, Tom & Jerry, Care Bears, My Little Pony, Smurfs and Mickey Mouse. Not to forget, maybe Ninja turtles too.
2. You grew up brushing your teeth with a mug in primary school during recess time. You would squat by a drain with all your classmates beside you, and brush your teeth with a colored mug. The teachers said you must brush each side ten times. Not forgetting the silly red tablet which you know not the purpose for.
3. You know what SBC stands for.
4. You know in school, you could subscribe to get the milk which would come before you go back home. Some days you would get chocolate milk, other days strawberry. The old Magnolia fresh milk came in a triangular packet.
5. You were there when the first Chinese serial, The Awakening was shown on TV.
6. Everyone in class would tremble in fear when someone with a gauze stuck in the mouth came to your class and called out a name to go visit the school dentist.
7. You find your friends with pagers and handphone cool in secondary school.
8. SBS buses used to be non-airconditioned. The bus seats were made of wood and the cushion was red. The big red bell gave a loud BEEEP when pressed. There were colorful tickets for CSS buses. The conductor would check tickets using a machine that punched a hole in each ticket. All SBS buses used to be manually operated, with a gigantic gearstick to the left of the driver.
9. Your favorite actor and actress were Huang Wenyong and Xiang Yun. Next were Li Nanxing and Zoe Tay and the Aiyoyo woman (Chen Liping).
10. You’ve probably read Young Generation magazine. You know who’s Vinny the Little Vampire and Constable Acai. For some, cikgu will always ask to buy the “Dewan Bahasa” magazine.
11. You were there when they first introduced MRT here (Yio Chu Kang to Toa Payoh). You went for the first ride with your parents and you would kneel on the seat to see the scenery.
12. Movie tickets used to cost only $3.50. Tickets were scrawled across using big red pencils. Ushers brought you into the cinemas using big metallic torchlights.
13. Gals were fascinated by Strawberry Short Cake and Barbie Dolls. You also collected sticker books of Street Fighter, The Semi-Pro Soccer League (for boys) and care bears (for girls) by Panini, trying to complete the impossible task of filling up each sticker book.
14. You remember some taxis were green in color. Taxis had gearsticks behind the steering wheel, with a transparent knob and little colorful flowers inside the knobs.
15. You longed to buy tidbits called Kaka (20 cents per pack), and Ding Dang (50 cents per box), that had a toy in it and it changes every week. Not forgetting the 15-cent animal crackers and the ringpop, where the lollipop is the diamond on the ring. There were such things like the 20-cent dinosaur eggs, the 10-cent satay, Choki Choki Chocolate Sticks and the all favorite 10-cent “Air batu” that broke into two parts to be shared amongst friends.
16. You watched TV2 (also known as Channel 10) cartoons because Channel 5 never had enough cartoons for you.
17. All that you know about Cantonese is from the Hong Kong serials you watched on TV2. You probably would remember George Lam as the moustached man whose line was “Are you OK?” in the Guiness Stout Advertisement.
18. You grew up reading ladybird books. Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators, Famous Five and Secret Seven were probably the thickest story books you ever thought you had. Even Sweet Valley High and Malory Towers. You also love Enid Blyton’s Enchanted Wood, Magic Faraway tree… and the 5-dollar Bookworm book you bought when there was a book fair in school.
19. The only food you bought from McDonalds was the fish fillet burger and French fries as it wasn’t halal back then and your parents didn’t allow you to buy other stuff.
20. KFC used to be a high class place that let you use metal forks and knives.
21. The most vulgar thing you said was “asshole” and “idiot”… you just couldn’t bring yourself to say the Hokkien relative.
22. Catching was the “in” thing (a.k.a. Police and Thief) and twist or “choap” was the magic word. For those who always frequented the void decks, there was the “rumah dayak”, Octopus and “Goli Duit”.
23. Your English workbook was made of some poor quality paper that was smooth and yellow. And the textbooks were striped in different colors for different levels.
24. Some part of your school was ALWAYS haunted, like the toilet or clock tower or a certain block. You walk fast to avoid them.
25. The only computer lessons in school involved funny pixel characters in 16 colors walking about trying to teach you math. You printed with noisy dot matrix printers and used computer paper with two rows of holes at the sides. Mouse? What’s that?
26. Waterbottles, with your favorite cartoon character on it, were slung around your neck and a must everywhere you go.
27. Boys loved to play soccer with small tennis balls in the basketball court.
28. Hopscotch, five stones, chapteh and zero point were all the rage with the girls and boys too…
29. Science was fun with the balsam and the angsana being the most important plants of our lives. Remember the “Young Scientist” badge you got when you completed the set of tasks in written on the blue booklet for “Young Ecologist”, “Young Botanist”, etc? The first excursion to the Science Centre was the best day of your life.
30. Who could forget Ahmad, Bala, Gopal, Sumei, Peihua and John, eternalised in the textbooks. Even Mr. Wolly, Mr. Yakki.
31. You did stupid exercises like seal crawl and frog jumps.
32. Every Children’s Day and National Day you either get pencils or pens printed with “Happy Children’s Day 1983″ or dumb files printed with “Happy National Day 1984″.
33. In Primary Six you had to play buddy for the younger kids like big sister and brother.
34. There was an ACES day where you would get this stupid hat and do the Great Singapore Workout.
35. The Scouts used to wear shorts, and the NCC uniform was a plain green color without camouflage.
36. The worksheets were made of rough brown paper of poor quality. During art and craft classes, you had to make your own art folio using a vanguard sheet.
37. You went to school in slippers and a raincoat when it rained, and you find a dry spot in the school to sit and wipe yourself dry. Then you wear your dry and warm socks and shoes.
38. During National Day, you would have to do and decorate your own shakers, usually using a cassette tape container, or an empty aluminium can with green beans inside all taped up and decorated with white and red paper. Who can forget the all-time favorite recorder you played during music lessons?
39. After exams, you brought Game & Watch to school, and played card games like “Snap”, “Donkey” and “Old Maid”. You also played pick-up sticks and Snakes & Ladders and the aeroplane board game. Those erasers with the flags were also a popular game. Either that or you would play those cards comparing aeroplanes, warships, or tanks - who had more firepower or speed or weight, etc.
40. You remember your uncles, big brothers and father screaming and shouting in front of the TV when the Singapore soccer team (always in blue jerseys) played against the Malaysians.
41. Your friends considered you lucky and rich if your parents gave you $3 or more for pocket money everyday.
42. During class gatherings, parents always tag along in case someone gets lost at Orchard Road
43. You freak out when the teacher tells you to line up according to height and hold hands with the corresponding boy or girl.
44. Handkerchieves were a must for both genders
45. Collecting notebooks, erasers and all kinds of stationery was a popular thing. The bookshop was a favorite place to go to get all those stuff during recess.
46. Autograph books were loaded with “Best Wishes”, “Forget Me Not”, and little poems like “Birds fly high, hard to catch. Friends like you, hard to forget”.
47. Class monitors and prefects loved to say “You talk somemore, I write your name ah!”
48. You remember songs sung by a huge group of people, like 4U2C, Feminin, Nico (Malay) and the English “We Are The World”. In secondary school, you listened to Bananarama, Jason Donavan, Kylie Minogue, New Kids on the Block, ABBA, and Tommy Page (Remember “A Shoulder to Cry On“?)
49. Large, colorful schoolbags were carried. And fanciful pencil cases with lots of small tiny drawers, trays, sharpener or thermometer that pop out at the push of a button were the “in” thing.
50. You brought every single book to school, even though there was one thing called the timetable, written on the inside cover of your little blue notebook.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Another month has passed, but amazingly, I've done NOTHING at all to my bike.. well.. except change my rear tube, which has, again, PUNCTURED.. this time i thought i'd get the more expensive one ($10 instead of $5), and spend another $10 re-truing the whole wheelset.. so its no longer warped!
lots of shit happened.. the chalet.. the chilling out with the guys when we realised that school was about to be upon us again.. etc etc..
oh, yeah! and i bought the YZ-35 about a month ago already.. haha.. cant stop riding it.. learnt some stuff like double-jacks, zap-taps, endos etc.. still working on the wheelie and the manual..
chalet was awesome.. cousin came and chilled with the peeps.. hope everyone had a good time.. my birthday cake caught fire and Suan who was holding it panicked.. hilarious stuff..
this entry is super messy, but its an update.. now get off my back everyone!
cousin, you owe me and Shalyn dinner!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
i want a:
DaBomb Tora-Bora Dirt
or a:
Scott Voltage YZ-35 i want a:
i've set my mind on either the new '09 model of the Scott Voltage YZ-35 , or the '08 Da Bomb Tora-Bora..
yesterday, went to Ubin with Noel and Suan.. it rained while on the way there, and we had to stop at a few bus stops for shelter.. the final stretch to changi village, we braved the rain with our minds tuned to the promise of good nasi lemak once we reach.. but when we did, the damn hawker center was closed.. DAMMIT! subway-ed instead..
once at ubin, went around and took pics of all the spots that we needed.. we then headed to Ketam again.. this time, Suan was wise enough not to attempt the teeter-toter.. haha! we went to 'Pupin' instead.. the pump track.. we loved it so much that we went round it 5 times.. haha!
today, FOOD HUNT with Dick and Suan.. me and Dick cycled to ECP to meet Suan who was at macs.. we then cycled down to bugis for wanton noodles.. after the noodles, we went to the bencoolen for ice monster.. we then cycled down to chinatown with the intention of eating sausages.. but the place was jam packed and we skipped it and went to maxwell instead.. the chicken rice was closed :-( so had the famous 'hum chee peng' and 'yuan yang'.. cycled down to the esplanade to cruse around.. but it turns out that the mid autumn festivities were everywhere.. coupled together with the F1 circuit testing, we couldent really go anywhere.. so we decided to go home.. haha!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
failed emaths2 and mobcomp
'nuff said
results out soon.. omg gonna faint.. i swear im gonna fail emaths again.. pls pls pls pls PLS let me pass it!! dont wanna take supp paper again.. not fun..
decided to change direction in cycling from XC to urban/street.. well.. not really.. i'm still addicted to the thrill of surviving a run through the trails, but im beginning to like urban more.. so i think that i'll get a DJ bike soon.. really drooling over the DMR on ToGo..
getting really pissed with people who dont answer phone calls..
when they get new phones they will come up to you saying.. look at my new phone! so stylo.. can do this this this and that that that.. WHATS THE DAMN POINT!?
you spent so much money on all that functions, but you neglect the most basic one which is to COMMUNICATE!!
God gave us phones, people.. its time we used them
3. Your five impressions of him/her a) Has long hair b) Random c) Really bad at chinese d) Comes in small, really explosive packages e) Once shot a duck named Gerald
4. The most memorable thing he/she had done for you:
Rammed my rear wheel with his bike
5. The most memorable thing he/she had said to you:
"puppets"
6. If he/she becomes your lover, you will:
Cut my left leg off and beat myself to death with it
7. If he/she become your lover, thing he/she has to improve on will be:
Become hetro
8. If he/she become your enemy, you will:
Make a porcelain teacup
9. If he/she become your enemy, the reason will be:
I could not help him locate his lost amphibian just now
10. The most desired thing you want to do for him/her now is:
get a new bike ;)
11. Your overall impression of him/her is:
Hyper
12. How you think people around you will feel about you?:
Boring
13. The characters you love of yourself are:
Tall?
14. On the contrary, the characters you hate yourself are:
Myself
15. The most ideal person you want to be is
Hmmmmmmm~ The son of someone really really wealthy XD
16. For people who cares and likes you, say something to them:
And so the Lord says onto John: Come forth, and receive eternal life. But John came in fifth, and went home with a toaster.
17. Pass this quiz to 10 persons that you wish to know how they feel about you: #1. Shu Xian #2. Kai Wen #3. Suan #4. Dickson #5. Josias #6. YaWen #7. Alfred #8. Delia #9. Cousin Adeline? #10. My pet dog Lucky
18. Who is no.6 having relationship with?
UniCef MARK!
19. Is no.9 a male or female?
Female
20. If no.7 and 10 are together, will it be a good thing?
Riiiiiiight..
22. What is no.2 studying about?
MicroElectronixx
23. When was the last time you had a chat with no.3?
Probably last week
24. What kind of music band does no.8 like?
Some jap band or something
25. Does no.1 have any siblings?
An older bro
26. Will you woo no.3?
no.. Suan exists as himself and not anywhere else but our imagination
27. How about no.7?
If i turned gay, i'll go for him!! right Alfred darling? wahahahaha! (Sorry Delia)
28. Is no.4 single?
Yeah.. poor guy
29. What is the surname of no.5?
My fellow Zhang xian sheng!
30. What’s the hobby of no.4?
Cycling, Photography, Climbing, Playing the guitar.. probably lots more..
after 1 and a half years, i finally decided to get a new bowling ball for myself, amidst of all the wants for photography and biking.. haha! after much persuasion from uncle James from eastern pro shop at NSRCC, i decided to get track's latest high performance: the Uprising..
this spherical object is one of the most forgiving balls i've ever thrown.. the first roll delivered a strike.. haha! this will replace my long-overdue-for-replacement Ebonite Total NV..
a short video taken by my brother.. i lobbed the ball slightly as the oiling in the front part of the lane was very bad..
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
seldom posting these few days.. haha! becoming lazy to maintain this blog.. might consider stopping it entirely.. or maybe just update once in awhile..
anyway, since im taking a break from mugging..
woke up at 10 today.. went to school at 11, and was supposed to be meeting my mobcomp groupmates to finish up the project and to present to teacher.. in the end, waited till 11.30 when i got a call from teacher.. he opened the lab for me, and i went in to wait for my groupmates..
waited for 2 freaking hours and non of them came.. the lights keep going off, and i had to stand up and wave my hands around to turn them on again and again.. in the end, at 1.30, teacher had to go for a meeting.. so i presented the whole thing by myself.. i did the whole thing anyway.. haha! went back to cc after that and slacked.. sent baby home at 3+ and went back home.. cycled down to school after that to meet Suan YaWen and Alvin.. went to bedok reservoir with them as Suan and Alvin jogged 5km in preparation for their Nike 10km run.. cycled alongside them..
raced Suan and YaWen in Suan's civic to the main entrance, and i won =P
my macbook got stolen today.. no, seriously.. guess by what specific race? i wont mention that god forsaken race here, but im guessing that you guys already know which particular race it is as it has a knack of producing ill mannered, poorly brought up, useless, primitive.. etc etc.. creatures that we share our humble island with, and are probably caused by years of inbreeding and sick perversion that they are known for
so anyway, i left my macbook at cc for what was to be 5 mins while i went to the bookshop and back.. during that time, one of the more inbreed male from said racial group decided that my macbook is pretty.. so instead of just admiring it and maybe taking a picture or two, decided to tuck it under his blue shirt and run out of cc.. luckily for me, PH saw it, and gave chase.. said chase was claimed to be epic with the mongrel running for dear apple goodness towards bedok reservoir.. PH recruited some help, which included the like of a foreign student on a bicycle. said student then gave chase, and when said unintelligent creature realised that it was a failure in life, decided to give up and throw my macbook + charger into the grass before taking flight.. sadly, the nasty piece of excrement was not caught and given a proper decapitation, but my macbook was safe..
back at cc, we reviewed the cctv, which the shit-for-brains didnt realise existed, and saw how he had scouted the area, and only entered when both PH and Dom was not at the counter.. the cctv just managed to catch a glimpse of his trollish, primitive face, but it is unclear if it would be of any use to us.. it showed how he touched lots and lots of things in cc with his clumsy, sausage-like fingers, thus leaving numerous fingerprints for the police to work with..
seeing how a mac is an advanced piece of technology, i must ponder about how a laid-back, unintelligent ape like himself could have comprehended the complexities of it, and thus had to conclude that he would sell it, and buy more bright blond hair dye, cigarettes, trucker caps, piercings and skinny jeans for himself to make him look like our average everyday (racial group) hooligan..
well, thus ends the epic tale of my macbook, and know that on this day (18/08/08), the civilised triumphed over the lower classed, incomprehensibly stupid.
P.S. I have NOT and WILL NOT reveal the aforementioned ethnic group in my blog. if you have a dying need to know which one it is, approach me directly.
P.P.S then again, you would have already guessed which low-lifed scum i am talking about
woke up at 8 on friday and cycled down to school.. put my bike at cc, then went for class.. after class, went back to cc and waited for Suan and Colin to arrive on their bikes.. after a short rest, we set off for the tampines bike trail.. didnt fall at all this time, but Colin fell like 5-6 times.. after the tough mountain section, me and Suan waited for him at the end point and we were quite worried because he was nowhere to be seen from where we were.. we finally saw him appear at the top of the hill, and we were quite relieved.. but all of a sudden, he fell.. we were like.. OMG! are you ok? he signaled that he was alright, and continued down, and fell again.. hahaha.. i had lots of cuts and abrasions on his hands and knees..
the second segment, the forest, was much better.. no one fell.. we decided to let Colin lead, but we overtook him a few times.. haha.. i FINALLY managed to clear the damn berm by following Suan's line.. had to bail out on the north shore log part because i lost my momentum.. but landed safely on my legs.. haha!
went back to school after that, and discussed the proposal and got it done with.. only left with the pictures.. went opposite with Noel, YaWen, Dickson and Suan so they could have dinner.. after dinner, Suan suggested that since he was already in the east with his bike, why not go to ECP? so Suan followed me home and pumped up his tires with my compressor, while i did my own stuff, and then we cycled to Dickson's place at pasir ris to meet him.. we was like.. cross the flyover, and go straight.. and straight was a huge hill.. turns out, his 'go straight' was turn left, then go straight.. riiiight..
after a fun filled journey which included the superb tarmac of the siglap park connector, we reached kembangan MRT and our rendezvous point with Noel.. cycled down to ECP after that, and headed for the food center, where we had some more food and drinks.. we then cycled down to bedok jetty where we counted down to Noel's birthday.. saw lots of people fishing there as well.. haha!
the rest went back home while my mum fetched me back.. cycled a total of 40+ clicks according to my cyclocomp.. EPIC!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
nothing interesting to report.. didnt have school yesterday.. but still cycled down at 9 with the intention of meeting Dickson to discuss the ubin trip.. but he didnt arrive till 12+ -.-" late as usual.. should have expected it..
about half completed the proposal.. going to finish it with Suan and Dickson later today over dinner at simpang.. cycled my hardtail down today for Suan to use.. the 3 of us and others are going to head down to simpang after school for the long overdue chiwawa wraps and milkshakes..
now at CC waiting for pubspeaking to start..
Monday, August 11, 2008
nothing much over the weekend.. worked on my bike frame.. sanded it down, sprayed the pre-coat primer, and the matte black coat on.. the bike looks so much better now.. also bought a dull finish clear coat to protect the paintwork, but it wont be on till i can get my vinyls on.. still sourcing for places to make them!!
been bowling quite alot lately.. got the feel back again.. haha! anyway, today, had our final lab test for ewebapps.. i didnt study one bit at all.. and i felt super guilty last night for not studying.. but luckily, it was open booked.. and lucky me, breezed through the test.. 80/100.. Wilson was super shocked lah.. haha! i was super elated..
asp and maths went pass like that, and i was home again..
Friday, August 8, 2008
nothing much these few days.. went to school as usual.. shot abit of the iLive event outside lib.. the iTahan was damn cool.. the winner actually stood there for 1hr 14mins! OMG man.. so free.. haha! baby won 1st place in the sudoku challenge.. so she won a free movie ticket and $50 adidas voucher! haha
yesterday night, went to sin ming to buy a new bike frame for myself for 100 bucks together with a wheelset, seatpost and saddle.. but the frame was quite heavy and the 'custom paint job' was actually spray paint.. so im planning to sand it down and respray it myself.. thinking of matte black or white.. hope to get discs asap!
it was back to school as usual on monday.. made it past the day, and met some VC members at mushroom, and then took a cab down to T1 to send Jojo off on his OSIP to Brisbane Australia.. reached there at about 6+, and hung around till more people came before going to popeye's for dinner.. first time eating there.. haha! so sua ku..
sent Jo into transit, but not before all the guys present gave him a huge hug.. the girls didnt want to.. haha! sent baby home, and then went back home myself..
today, went to school as usual, and did up my lost mobcomp project.. hung around CC, and went for maths.. failed my maths test as expected.. went back home after school, then to NSRCC.. bowled abit, and got another blister.. it burst halfway through my last game.. oh well!
tomorrows the submission for ASP.Net.. hope my partners done with the whole thing..
i could not really decide upon a name for this series.. i was sitting on "Hidden Street: Tampines" or "The World After Humans".. the maplestory induced one sounded better
i never thought that such a place existed in tampines, let alone singapore.. this was truly how roads would look like after years of negligence.. nature over man.. a great place for model shoots
the entrance.. note that it is a regular tarmac road covered in dead leaves the corner.. more dead leaves, and a metal rail high-saturation: looking out into civilisation my bike, after the corner the road that ended.. the tarmac was just overrun by grass and creeper plants that it was impossible to continue without a machete to clear the path ever wondered how it looked like to cycle my bike? haha
on a side note, i tried installing some programs today, and my computer just wouldnt let me run them.. no idea why, and i thought that it was because i was running on Windows XP Service Pack 1.. so i upgraded my whole system to SP3, and that didnt solve the problem.. in fact, it created new ones.. to quote Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear, "Babies come out of the womb faster than that"
extra virgin olive oil
the other ingredients: Linguini pasta, chopped garlic, portobello mushroom, red chillies (optional), fresh scallops, olive oil, and chicken seasoning powder
firstly, boil the pasta in water with a pinch of salt till al-dante
strain, and add olive oil so that the pasta dosent stick
add olive oil to a hot pan, and add garlic. fry till white in colour, then add mushrooms
fry mushrooms till about 3/4 cooked before adding the scallops
fry everything till cooked, then add in abit of water and chicken stock
sautee and allow the water to reduce. add pasta, and toss till pasta is covered in the gravy
