What pigs we are!! My parents returned from China this morning and the first thing they wanted to do is to gorge down a table full of local delicacy. Seems to me that China food is a no-go for them. After an unsatisfying, or so I think, combination of breakfast and lunch, Lyn (my boo) and I figured that we take them for some crab for dinner at the Crab Shack somewhere along Upper Thomson Road.
The Crab Shack is a nice little ex-coffee shop turned into a simple restaurant along a row of shop houses. Think of it as an eatery selling western delights with the ambience of a coffee shop left behind by its previous owners. Being how my dad is a great fan of crabs, the Crab Shack is one place that is just totally ideal for him.
If you are one that love Sri Lanka crabs, Chili crabs, Pepper crabs, etc, good news..this is a place you can cross out in your search for the “higher state of crab-ciousness” list. All they have are flower crabs..but oh so fresh flower crabs.
So being the pigs that we are, our orders for four were:
- Crab spaghetti,
- Baked crab rice,
- Crab croquette,
- 11 flower crabs, yeah you read right…11,
- Mushroom soup,
- Fries,
- Baked oysters, an
- three beers
Left: Before – Fully shelled crabs beckoning four hungry people to devour them | Right: After – BURP!!
The result? Absolutely fantastic. For a person who doesn’t favour crab as much as beef (oh you lovely thing you), I would rate it 4 out of 5. If you are looking for a place with great flower crabs at a really good price, go visit the Crab Shack at 227 Upper Thomson Road.
Guess I do whine alot don’t I? Since my reservist ended, the whole bunch of us have been mass emailing each other on our experiences and jokes we have shared throughout our entire two-week course. Looking back at the training we went through, the countless headaches we have been passing out to our duty instructors and a whole laundry list of naughty-naughtys we did, I thought to myself that perhaps those two weeks weren’t all that bad after all.
About a few hours back, we received an email from one of my reservist mate, Ernest (yes our ex-national swimmer), with a whole bunch of attachments..our photos. I earnestly (pund intended..yes it was one of our many jokes) opened the files and lo and behold, memories of our two-week escapade all captured in high resolution graphics…well kinda, he resized the photos.
I can’t really post all the images due to the fact that about 90% of the photos do not include me in it..which to me is deemed as extremely unimportant. But these two do mean alot to me.
*****photos removed – forgot I can’t post such photos… 
*****
Ah yes…good times. Although the most of us may be attached to the same unit for now, I understand that it could be a short term posting. I am crossing my fingers that we will all serve the rest of our reservist years together, in the same unit, at the same time. Till then, we will stick to eating and partying together. WOO HOO!!
…well kinda anyways. I was doing some surfing through Google on Sunday, Earth Day, and noticed this totally wicked banner above their search engine.
Cool eh? Being an environmental guy..or at least I think I am..short of being a tree hugging hippie, I am glad that Google is out there playing their part to spread the message on global warming. Now if only we can get more companies, goverments and people to act on it…
After two arduous weeks of clocking about 1000 minutes and 300km in a non-airconditioned three ton truck, my first ever reservist has finally come to an end. I am now an official SAF Class 3 and 4 driver. Although going through a two-week class 4 driving crash course may not be that pleasant, but the experiencing is truly priceless.
As I look back at the two intriguing weeks, I ponder on the long hours under the hot sun, the naggings of Mr Ang, our parking duty instructor, the food provided by the Singapore Food Industry (which by the way is not much different from the ones I eat at the cook house back in my national service days), the gears that would require a more muscular person to easily engage, the three painful blisters resulted from the ‘boots for reservist personnel’, and the other many incidents during my first reservist, I asked myself if there is anything I could trade for to do it all over again. ABSOULTELY NOTHING!! As I have said it in my earlier entry, the course was not fun and I didn’t want to play anymore.
However, it is the 17 friends that I have formed a brotherhood with that made the two weeks worth its while, its something that is worth cherishing. And at age 30, it isn’t often that you are able to make that many friends at one go. So there goes another milestone in my life. Looking for another good term with my reservist mates…I am hoping that we will stay in the unit that we have been posted to.
It has been a good week or so since the last time I posted an entry. Although I would like to attribute that to sheer laziness, I must explain that the real reason was that I was away on reservist for the past week and have been dead tired eversince.
When I first got my SAF100 a few months back, indicating that I am about to go for a Class 4 driving course, I said to myself “Aiya, how hard can that be? Its going to be a breeze”. Lets say I was dead wrong. Apparently, the big boys at the top figured that it was possible to compress an estimated four-week or so course into two weeks. So since the 9th of April, my daily routine includes waking up at 5:40 every morning and returning home at about 10pm every night looking forward to my lovely bed only to find out that I have about another few hours of rest before my day begins again. Yes, the past week sucked big time and ironically, I didn’t sign up for this course… 
So after a week of grueling driving lessons which includes both practical and theory, I have concluded that a 3 tonner is no fun to drive and I don’t want to play anymore. There is still a week more to go and although I am not really looking forward to it, I am already halfway through and daily pushing myself to finish this darn course so I can get back to my oh so interesting life.
Like how they say it in the Korean drama Full House…”Aza Aza Fighting”!!
Yeah, that was what my colleague, “Slave”, called me when she saw me online after returning from a judging session on Friday. Earlier this year, my organisation assigned me to be a judge for a preliminary session for the National Weather Study Project Competition 2007. Basically it is a competition organised by Senoko Power to get schools to develop “green projects” in a bid to develop greater environment conscious among the younger generation. Its a good CSR thing… 
So on Friday, I had the honour to judge about five primary schools and nine projects. What I like about accessing primary school projects are their innocence presented though it. However, though they may be simple, their efforts are really admirable and they have all truly gained my respect. I would have never been able to present to a panel of judges at their age (from Primary 3 to 6)…I would totally pee in my pants.
Left: Solar powered oven (yeah they managed to cook up a sausage..after 45 mins) | Right: An environment board game.
I did remember a conversation I had with a friend of mine on how much kids are getting smarter and smarter. Through this conversation I agreed with him adding that my niece was already conducting a simple presentation with my sister’s (her mom) help when she was studying at the montessori some three years back. Although she may not be speaking perfect english now at age 7, but from the way she speaks and thinks, you know she is a smart one…and she is not in the top of her class…yet.
Kids are getting smarter nowadays aren’t they? I seriously hope the society we live in will not pressure them too much…we really need to learn to take it easy.
Finally, after about six months of going without a subwoofer in my Chevy, I decided to pop over to Ted’s workshop shop last Saturday to install a nice 10 inch subwoofer and amplifier. The result? Pure basey orgasm. You should check it out when I spin the ol’ Paul Oakenfold and Disturbed with my head unit. Although they were not as good as the ones some friend of mine has, but its good enough for me.
Anyhoo, the Quadt Audio subwoofer and amplifier are not the ones I have in mind though, considering I was looking for a nice set of Soundstreams. However, Ted said that he will just loan me these sets first and when I am ready for a Soundstream in about under three months, I will just trade them in for one-for-one in pricing. Now THAT is service!!
Left: 10 inch Quadt Audio Subwoofer at the back of my boot | Right: 1200watts of pure energy coming from the Quadt Audio Amplifier
Ahhh yes, finally another movie of what I once used to label as the Prepubersome Non-conformist Shaolin Tortoists…aka..the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So in a bid to reminiscence my youth, Lyn (my boo) and I took to Cineleisure to catch the movie on Sunday afternoon.
This time round, TMNT is a pretty much filled with star studded casts boasting of voice overs from acclaimed stars like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kevin Smith, Zhang Zhiyi, Laurence Fishburne..the list goes on. If you are looking for a movie with a good plot, cinematography, witty conversations, excellent script writing and high end graphic rendering bursting with excellent sound effects..go catch something else. The ingredients you will ever need to enjoy the movie is just buy the ticket, leave your brain at the door and enjoy the movie.
I am giving this movie three nachos out of five with extra cheese (coz Zhang Zhiyi is in it )
TMNT Synopsis – Taken from Yahoo Movies
After the defeat of their old arch nemesis, The Shredder, the Turtles have grown apart as a family. Struggling to keep them together, their rat sensei, Master Splinter, becomes worried when strange things begin to brew in New York City. Tech-industrialist Max Winters is amassing an army of ancient monsters to apparently take over the world. And only one super-ninja fighting team can stop them-those heroes in a half shell-Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael! With the help of old allies April O’Neil and Casey Jones, the Turtles are in for the fight of their lives as they once again must face the mysterious Foot Clan, who have put their own ninja skills behind Winters’ endeavors.
Lyn (my boo) and I popped over to the “army market” yesterday afternoon to get me a pair of army boots in preparation for my reservist next week. The experience was sheer nostalgia as we walked through the different shops and recognising some stall owners who have once attended to me about a good 13 to 14 years back.
Being the usual lost guy wandering around the busy shops arrayed with equipment of all sorts and trying to figure out which shop I should approach first, I figured I might as well stop moving and check out the shop at the right.
As I approached the stall, a nice lady went up to me and asked me if there was anything in particular I was looking for. “Boots!!” I replied with an eager smile, “Army boots!!”. The lady took a quick look at me and said, “For people like you going for reservist, you can choose the cheaper one because leather ones are expensive.”
Now I was rudely taken aback with her oh so imprudent comment. What does she mean whe she said “people like me going for reservist”? Do I look that I am going for reservist? I could be going for national service for the first time you know? So I may look a tad bit older..but only a tad dammit!!
Anyhoo, I quickly calmed myself down and sat down to try on the ‘Boots for reservist people’. Very comfortable and soft. Wow, it has been a long time since I put on any military equipment that comfortable. Quite tired of checking out other stalls, we made a quick bargain before paying about $70 for three pairs of socks, three pairs of gutters and that one pair of ‘Boots for reservist people’.
Still pretty sore about the incident as we drove out of the carpark, I asked Lyn for her opinion. “Do I look like I am the type that does national service or reservist?” She gave me a weak smile and answered “Just drive” before turning her head and looking out at the window.
Sigh…the world is so cruel…
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