Past Two Weeks

Another month has flown by since my last blog post! 

LOL 

So much for updating regularly. 

I've been busy with the same old usual things- work, friends, hobbies, etc... Poor blogging has totally been left in the backseat.

Anyways, here are a few highlights from the past week or so.

Dinner In Chinatown

Two weeks ago, I met up with Annie and Alex for dinner at this restaurant called 东北人家 (Dong Bei Ren Jia) in Chinatown. 

Annie wanted us to try it since Alex is from Harbin (a northeastern state in China), and all the food they sell is apparently very northeastern Chinese, and delicious.

The Harbin native recommended that we have this pickled vegetable mutton soup. It's a popular dish round his part of the woods.

It has a very heavy muttony taste to it. Not for the fainthearted for sure, but I really enjoyed it. Though, I'm not sure if other people would like my breath after eating that... 

Some cold dish with veggies and... meat? I think? It tastes as tangy as it looks.

The 面卷 (mian juan) were huge! 

A great replacement for rice, they went well with the other dishes.

Fried tofu in sweet sauce.

Fried chicken in sweet sauce and vinegar. 

Guess you could also call it sweet and sour chicken. 

Alex said that this is a dish that is as typical to Harbin as the hamburger is typical to America. 

Okay, he didn't exactly say that, but you catch the drift.

Breakfast At Killiney Kopitiam

This past Monday, I met Marie Nishi, a Japanese tourist in Singapore. She was waiting for her sister at the hospital. Apparently her sis got food poisoning after having dinner in Little India the night before. 

What a shame huh? 

I took them out for breakfast the next day at Killiney Kopitiam. Wanted to show them a more "Singaporean" side of Singapore!

Le typical breakfast.

IT Show 2013 @ Marina Bay Sands

On Friday, I headed to Marina Bay Sands for the IT Show with Shirley & Alverina. 

Don't think they enjoyed the noisy crowded IT show too much, so we spent more time walking around MBS instead.

Taking photos everywhere we go.

Went up to the fourth floor so we could take more pictures on the deck.

It was sooo hot up there, and windy too.

Told them to strike a "model pose" and this is what I got.

Crazy dancing pose.

Shirley taking a photo of her own reflection.

Just like that!

We finally found Steven at the IT Show after searching around. He told us that he was at the ASUS booth, next to Philips, under Harvey Norman. 

Problem was, almost all the booths in that gigantic place were under Harvey Norman, and there were like a dozen ASUS booths scattered all over the floor. It made spotting Steven even harder than looking for Waldo in a sea of red and white.

Big ups to Shirley for her killer GPS instincts. She pinpointed the exact ASUS booth like a bloodhound on a hunt.

Friday Night Urban

As usual, Friday nights are skating nights. This past Friday a bunch of us met at Bishan MRT.

Our starting point was really at Bishan Park.

Ham giving us a little sliding pose at the gas station.

Ended the night at Tanjong Pagar.

And that's all for now! 

My eyes are dying on me.... Goodnight :)

Full Of Fun

Ahh yes blogging streak is definitely still on! 

Time for another recap of this past weekend!

Ok this wasn't exactly the weekend, but I met up with Talia last Thursday. I think she looks like a doctor or a medical student in this photo! I'm sure it's the white blazer...

It was raining really hard that night so we just walked around inside ION before heading to Coffee Club at Wheelock for dinner. 

I ordered wasabi shrimp salad. First and last time man! You can even see from this photo how unappetising it looked. 

Coffee Club just updated their menu so some food items aren't served anymore, like the smoked salmon and beef ciabatta bites. Other favourites like the chicken baked rice remain.

We shared a basket of potato wedges. Mmm!

On Friday night, a small group of us met at our regular spot.

We knew it was going to be a fast skate that night since there were only four of us.

In about 40 minutes, we made it to Marina Barrage. There were actually quite a number of people there with lanterns and even candles. Not sure if the latter is actually allowed...

Paused for a short break.

Got a beautiful view of the Marina Bay area from crossing the bridge to the east.

We ended our skate at Rochor Beancurd which was pretty crowded for a Friday night!

I packed a few home for the fam and realised halfway.... that I was sending tofu at 12am!

HAHAHA!

See video below (just till 1:27)  if you've never watched Initial D and don't know what that means:

Takumi Fujiwara is the son of a legendary mountain drift racer, and the reason why he's so good is because he's been delivering tofu for his father every single morning. Rain or shine, through all four seasons, Takumi has to deliver tofu down the same mountain pass without damaging the tofu in the back of his AE86. To help him keep the car stable, Takumi's father puts an uncovered cup of water in the cup holder. Essentially, Takumi has to drive in such a way that water doesn't ever spill out. This ensures that the easily-bruised tofu in the back stays intact.

Since Takumi drives on the same route every single morning, he unconsciously started to drive faster and faster just to get the delivery done quicker. Needless to say, his skills on the mountain pass were developed far beyond any ordinary racer of his day.

The reason why I'm spelling out this entire story is just to illustrate one point: to be an expert in something, you just have to practice daily. Talent may bring you further, but it is the boring, routine, mundane practice that helps you beat all opponents in your skill.

I know that, because I've been skating almost daily, and as a result I've improved very quickly. Last October, I wasn't able to tackle urban terrain (stairs, curbs, rough roads) on my own. Fast forward to now, I have no fear skating anywhere in Singapore, nor do I have any fear skating in the rain.

This same principle is inherent in the docu-biography Jiro Dreams Of Sushi.

Jiro is an expert in sushi, quite simply because he makes sushi everyday. Everything he does is for and about sushi, to the point where he even dreams about sushi when he sleeps at night. From dawn till dusk, Jiro and sushi are one. 

And that's why the man is so good now! After years and years of daily improving, failing, experimentation, dreaming, doing, practicing, Jiro has left all his competitors in the dust.

Alright, sorry for the diversion... It's not like I'm really intending to become a pro skater or anything, but this is just something that I'm always thinking about. 

ANYWAY.

On Saturday night, the moon rose round and bright.

A group of 50+ skaters met at Bishan Park for Skateline's Mooncake festival skate to Woodlands Waterfront.

Though the skate started out kinda slow, it ended on a rather intense note. But all in all, I had a lot of fun!

Sunday morning, I went to the 07:30 service in church and then dropped in the Chinese youth service at 10:00. Man, it's been a loooongggg time since I was last part of this service. Such a strange feeling of nostalgia swept over me as I sat there surrounded by the same group of people (now all youth leaders), singing the same songs we once sang as secondary school students. 

After youth service was over, we went to Saizeriya in Bukit Timah Plaza to meet with Ida, our ex-youth group teacher who was in Singapore for a short visit.

Found some dry humour in the menu.

It's okay if I'm the only one who's laughing.

Food was alright. The smoked salmon salad was definitely better than the wasabi shrimp salad from Coffee Club! And at almost half the price, it's a win win winner.

After church and House of Bread, Papa picked me up to go for dinner with the fam in Geylang. 

Won't be revealing the location of this restaurant because it's crowded enough lol!

Had bean paste fish head.

Veggie soup. Very very very good veggie soup! 

Minced pork and salted fish.

Stir-fried beef and veggies.

Stir-fried tofu.

After dinner we drove through Chinatown.

Then went to Gardens By The Bay to join the rest of the Mooncake Festival crowd!

It's nice to actually be here without skates for once.

The moon didn't disappoint!

After Gardens By The Bay, we went to ECP for our usual candle burning nonsense.

My dad's right. It's like we never grew up. I probably will never outgrow this.

We lit and hung up lanterns at the pavilion we were in.

Joel got creative and decided to set a palm branch on fire.

Like a 野人 (wild man) LOL!

I love that we are still playing like this as "grown" children. 

May we never grow too old to enjoy ourselves!