Watch out for your head!

Seen at Central, outside one of their toilets, much to my amusement. I can be so very childish.

Welcome to Avenue Q!

Or maybe "Welcome, Avenue Q"! is a better title.

Avenue Q will be showing in Singapore (at the Esplanade) for 2 weeks starting from October 31. I'm such a big fan, I'm planning on watching it for sure.

(Besides, I'm pretty curious how having a Pinoy cast affects it)

Tickets go on sale May 16, anyone wants to catch it with me? =P

Japan the Third

Again, too lazy to actually blog about the trip in detail, so here're the (partially annotated) photos. Didn't do too much travelling this time, actually, but strangely enough the photos still piled up.

Junk foods of Japan

I didn't really eat out that much while I was in Japan this time, but I did try some of the weird stuff they sell in the supermarkets (and the local McDonald's).


The only reason McDonald's made it to the list is that this burger, the Teriyaki McBurger, tastes exactly like (my memory of) the Samurai burger, a limited-time item that was available sometime in the early 90s (I think. Maybe the late 80s?) and once again in the late 90s. (again, I think. It's not like I keep a record of these limited-time burgers!)

Basically, it's just a simple burger with a beef patty (Japan uses a sausage patty I think), some lettuce, and teriyaki sauce - and I'm lovin' it!


I've recently become a fan of corn chips, and here in Japan they must of course have wasabi-flavoured Doritos chips. Sadly, it wasn't particularly good, but it was interesting. As were those Pizza-la (a local pizza chain) tie-up ones I'd tried - yes, they are branded under both Pizza-la and Doritos!


Now this is just weird. They had some special edition (I think) black sesame cereal thingy and I thought I should try something Japanese for my breakfast cereal needs (yes, traditionally Japanese I know) as opposed to sticking to Crunchy Nut. Again, pretty interesting, but not something I'll eat on a regular basis =P

Maybe I should do a better junk food catalogue when I'm next in Japan! Then again, it's not really something I'd want to deliberately set out doing... Having proper food seems a lot more enticing, somehow.

The great queue for BJ

So it's 29 April and everyone's queueing up in the hopes of getting a free lick or two.

That's right, it's Ben & Jerry's free cone day today! (Sorry, couldn't resist joining the thousands of people on the net who've probably inserted some innuendo into blog posts about the event. Who's betting that occurrence of 'free', 'BJ' and 'lick' in one post will increase hits from Google?)



Anyway, today I hopped down to United Square in the hopes of grabbing a free cone or two with my sister, only to find a crazy-ass queue already there. By crazy-ass I do not exaggerate. It covered most of the second storey, and even looped once. Kinda like a Disneyland queue, except those loop a zillion times. But yeah, figured it wasn't worth the wait and went to McDonald's for a sundae instead.

As I left the building I'd thought to myself - I'll come at 12pm (when the offer starts) next year, those school kids shouldn't have shown up yet, at that time. Then I realised that I'll probably be in school too (NIE) this time next year, and in school (teaching) the years after, too. So much for free cone day for me...

Impulse buy

So I went down to Sim Lim Square today to get myself an ink cartridge (stupid mistake - it might be cheaper, but with so many goodies on display, I usually end up spending more anyway).



So I am now the proud owner of a Cooler Master NotePal Infinite. I'd decided to get a notebook cooling pad because I've noticed my laptop keeps slowing down when playing games, even after upgrading to 2GB RAM (from 1GB), so I figured it was probably overheating. So while looking for a colour ink cartridge today I chanced upon this product and was entranced. It also allows for comfortable (literal) lap-top usage, which is another reason why I got it without much thinking.

So after coming home and checking out some positive reviews, I'm pretty happy with the purchase - except that I'd probably overpaid for it. Sigh. But it's a pretty good investment all in all, hopefully that's the end of slowdowns while playing games! =P

Spongmonkeys 2

I vaguely recall talking to someone about the Spongmonkeys recently (I'd actually blogged about them before, but didn't really remember their name or the specifics of it all) and I find myself still amused by them, somehow.

Even more amusing to me, however, is this Star Wars version I found on YouTube.

Humid doughnuts

I suppose Singapore's as hot and humid now as it's always been, but having left the UK while it was still cold (don't believe the people who tell you that winter's ended, they lie!), I'm actually quite happy to be in this perpetual sauna.

What's more, the high humidity allows me to survive without applying moisturiser, as I used to during the first 21 years of my life. TAKE THAT, NIVEA! YOU'RE NOT GETTING ANY MORE MONEY FROM ME!

Cough.
--



Things have been changing even in the shops near my house - Donut Factory, of superlongqueue-at-cityhall fame, has opened a branch at Novena Square. Having never tried it before, and seeing that the queues at this branch were a lot shorter (wonder how long it'll last), I decided to give it a try - it's pretty good! Perhaps not as good as Krispy Kreme, this one emphasises the fillings more I think, but still pretty tasty. If somewhat overwhelming.

I've decided that I really like my current neighbourhood, and would really love to live around here in the future... Unfortunately, looking at housing prices these days, I doubt I'll be able to afford a place nearby anytime soon. Plus the prospective housemate doesn't seem that charmed by it, hmmph.

Oh well. Still quite some time to go before I'll be able to start thinking seriously about my own housing, I think.

MWBS wiki guide (in beta)

MWBS Wiki

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It's the first week of my Easter break now, and although I'm no longer as enchanted by Mobile Weapon: Battle Stations! as I used to be (I suspect it's got something to do with having completed the last examinations of my undergraduate degree), I'd already started on this project so I figured I might as well just bring it to completion. Besides, there're some other people who'd started helping out with content generation, so I've kinda become obliged to ensure it's launched sometime.

So here it is, the MWBS Wiki guide that I've been working on (still in the works, but at a stage decent enough for private exhibition I think). I spent a couple of hours tweaking the layout, really happy with the way it went. Well, much of the prettiness comes from the title graphic, and that consisted mainly of pasting and smoothing different pictures together, but the end product's still nice enough to satisfy me.

I've also decided to put the ads at the bottom of the page even though they probably won't get many (any?) clicks, because I decided it was really too ugly when I'd put it at the top. And after working for so long on the aesthetics of the site, I guess design > money, at this stage.

Besides, I've only earned 71 cents from Adsense so far, somehow I doubt it's about to become a cash cow for me any time soon, heh.

Singaporean breakfast

I'm home!

And just to make those of you still overseas envious, here's my breakfast for this morning. =D

Ecumenism in Singapore

I went for a Cassoc (York's Catholic society) meeting today - my first in awhile, I think. The topic was about ecumenical chaplaincy, which is something I've quite some interest in, and even though it turned out to be of a more personal (and probably more accessible to frequent Cassoc goers) nature than expected, it did get me thinking about ecumenism in Singapore.

It's an issue quite close to my heart because, well, I have a lot of Protestant (used here to refer to non-Catholic Christians, although some people might argue about its appropriateness) friends, and I've been going to bible study with them, and it's really interesting meeting with different people from different backgrounds to discuss their interpretations of the bible - some of which I totally disagree with of course, but it's definitely an educational experience just discussing things anyway.

The thing is, back home in Singapore I don't think you see such ecumenical activities often, especially between Catholics and Protestants. Each denomination (or church, even) tends to keep activities within its boundaries, and I think there is just so much misunderstanding and wasted opportunity because of that.

The take-home message for today - it is really up to the parishioners to initiate such activities. I don't know when or how exactly, but I do hope to someday contribute to inter-denominational relations in my own way.

I love Vista!

So like this guy, I lost all my files in one folder accidentally. It was a stupid mistake - I was trying to back up my music files onto my home desktop, so I wanted to delete all the files on the desktop and copy the whole folder from my laptop, but I accidentally ended up deleting the laptop music folder instead.

Usually this would just involve a quick trip to the Recycle Bin to remedy, but my recycle bin is set to 8GB and I happen to have more music than that - so effectively quite a few of the files were lost. I was despairing for a moment when I recalled Windows Vista's shadow copy function, through which I managed to restore my music folder to what it was like yesterday.



This is the first time I'm actually thankful for having upgraded. =P

Satay Bee Hoon

This, my friends, is satay bee hoon.



I've found that somehow, among the Singaporean (Malaysian? Not too sure if it's available across the causeway as well) dishes, this seems to be one of the least familiar. A lot of my friends haven't ever eaten it, for some reason, though I think it's pretty good.

It's not very elaborate - simply boiled bee hoon (thin rice noodles) with cuttlefish, tau pok (some beancurdy thing), pork and some other stuff, drenched in satay sauce (the peanut sauce usually served the skewered barbecued meat), from which it presumably derives its name.



Yesterday I was at Lagoon Food Centre (the hawker centre at East Coast Park) and queued up for more than half an hour for the satay bee hoon there.

Frankly it's not something I would do frequently, since I seldom have the patience and usually reason that the food, though good, is probably not worth the wait, but I have a special fondness for this particular stall because my parents used to bring us here back when I was a kid, probably more than 15 years ago, probably 2 (or more) renovations ago for the food centre. It was kinda the weekend meal - satay bee hoon, some sticks of satay, and some fresh coconuts. After which the kids would be deposited at the beach to play with sand while the adults went to take a walk or something.

It's nice to see that even in ever-developing Singapore, there are some things which don't simply disappear.

Sumimasen!

Having lived amongst non-English-speakers for almost a month, I find my brain wired with certain reflexes... such as the inexplicable urge to say 'sumimasen!' instead of 'excuse me' or 'thank you'.

Gah.

And away we go!

I'll be off to Japan tomorrow to join Ailin (and kill the remainder of my summer holidays), with a brief two-day stopover at Bangkok first (since I'm flying by Thai Airways, the stopover was practically free).

I haven't really planned what to do in Japan (Ailin has done more homework than me, for that), but here's some stuff I'm hoping to do in Bangkok.

-Watch a Muay Thai match
-Get a Thai massage
-Ride a tuk-tuk
-Take a canal boat
-See, uh, Thai stuff
-Visit (and shop) at Chatuchak weekend market
-Take a peek at the red-light district
-Slack

Quite happening lah huh? Hopefully I've changed enough money for everything. I'm hoping to live like a king for the next 2 days =P

My place, from space

I've used streetdirectory.com to navigate around Singapore for quite a few years now, and usually refer people there when asked how to get to my place, but for some reason not many seem to be making use of this excellent site.

Maybe next time I'll link them here instead. It's actually pretty fun (if time-wasting) locating your home on satellite imagery - I had to look for prominent landmarks around and work my way towards it. Amazingly, the windows on my attic are actually visible (which is how I identified my house from the others).

Anyone else would like to show their homes on satellite imagery? =P

Accidental effect

I took two pictures of the Bao Today signboard (check out the menu! It's hilarious!). I'll probably use the other one for my picture of the day, but somehow I rather like this one too! Taken on my handphone while walking with unsteady hands, the blur effect somehow ended up rather prettily, I think =P

Evolution of Louis

(Warning: Narcissistic post to follow, in case the post title hasn't already tipped you off.)

I was seeing Ben off at the airport recently (he's headed to Copenhagen for exchange) when his parents remarked that I have not (physically) changed since I was 15.

Now since that is more or less what Ms Florence Lee (my sec 1/2 English teacher) remarked to me at TSPC, along with the highly reassuring "you'll look the same as your students - how're you going to get them to listen to you?", that's given me some cause for worry and reflection. I guess it's not a big issue if I'm teaching primary school kids, but I might still go for secondary school in the end, and I'll definitely prefer to handle secondary kids for Catechism.

So today I had a bit of extra time and proceeded to investigate how my appearance has changed over the years, mostly using class photographs I had lying around nearby.

I'm trying to do this post with the aid of Picasa, so just use the embedded gadget to browse my Wall of Me album. =P




Summary Sheet

Ok fine so I have not changed that much over the years. But I don't look the same either what! It's not my fault I look youthful! Perhaps I am the human incarnation of the fountain of youth! Beauty product companies should pay me good money to examine my genes or something.

Maybe I need to get myself some plastic wrinkles.

Catechism

So I've signed up to be a Catechist.

For those who don't know (which might well be the average reader here), Catechism is kinda like the Catholic version of Sunday school. The backstory being, two or three weeks ago there was a little speech made by a current Catechist as part of their recruitment drive, and during his little speech he'd listed some of the other Catechists and surprise - Audrey, who'd taken my class back in 1998-1999 (in preparation for Confirmation), was still there - about 8 years down the road!

That would have been it, but somehow last week thoughts of becoming a catechist started rising up in my head. I guess it's because I'm going into my last year of study already - kinda making plans for when I come back. At the same time, I was wondering how Audrey was doing now, so I thought I should get in touch with her and ask about joining the Catechists, so I sent my church secretariat an email (asking for Audrey's contact), to get the following reply.

What a pleasant surprise? How have you been. I have been thinking of you and wanting to touch base but don't have your contact details. So with your email to Ester - I am glad that I am now in touch with you.

Now I'm not too sure how much of it is being polite and how much is factual, but it's quite a nice email to get lah huh? So, long story short, I met up with Audrey earlier, observed one of her lessons, had a short chat, and filled up an application form.

Coincidentally enough, I also found out that my ex-neighbour (who moved out just last year) is currently heading the Catechists!

I don't often fill my blog with religiousy stuff, and I don't really consider myself a psycho fundamentalist whackjob (not that any of my more religiously-inclined friends are =P), but all this just feels... amazingly fortuitous. I have a strangely remarkable sense of ease about everything, and though I still don't believe that God actually takes the time/effort to plan every single detail of my life for me (I believe there are better things to do, even for an omnipotent being), I'm not opposed to believing that this might be one thing he's done for (to?) me.

The Last Kampong

Kampong Buangkok, (mainland) Singapore's last kampong.

I hope it can be conserved, but at the same time, I almost know it won't.

Anyone else wants to check this place out, while it still stands? =P