Shiroi Koibito!!

I love my parents! they just came back from hokkaido and bought me boxes of shiroi koibito! and of cos other stuff but its the shiroi koibito that i am after!! wahahaha...



the amount of wrapping is rather.. umm... excessive... there is the pretty wrapping you see in the top pic. then when u rip that open, you find a white cardboard box with simple designs.. and then in the cardboard box is an ornamental blue metal tin (which is quite nice and probably useful for putting shiny little objects) - which is shown in the middle pic; and then lastly you reach the chocolate which is in the metal tin, individually wrapped, bundled 3 together with a thin strip of clear plastic... makes one wonder if it is all part of the strategy to delay the gratification as long as possible! :)

Shiroi Koibito - This is the famous Shiroi Koibito representative of Hokkaido, born from Ishiya Seika's excellent techniques and passion for confectionary. The soft flavored white chocolate sandwiched in fragrant "langue de chat" cookies (white type) after its first production in 1976 it has been enjoyed by many customers and was awarded by the Suisse Monde Selection in 1986. - taken from the Shiroi Koibito website.

two pieces of thin but crispy cookies with a slice of white chocolate sandwiched between them.... yummmy....... :) about S$15 per box of 28... is that expensive??

Optical Illusions

Is This Possible??



Are the purple lines straight or bent?


Do you see gray areas in between the squares?


You should see a man's face and also a word...


If you take a look at the following picture, let me tell You ..... It is not animated. Your eyes are making it move. To test This, stare at one spot for a couple seconds and everything will Stop moving. Or look at the black center of each circle and it will Stop moving. But move your eyes to the next black center and the Previous will move after you take your eyes away from it Weird?

The Impact of Swine Flu...

French Bulldog

Aware EGM

the best $40 I've ever spent in my life... as Siew Kum Hong puts it: "Today, I am so proud to be Singaporean".. :) ... finally, victory for an organisation that stands for the values that I believe in: Inclusiveness, diversity, openness and transparency!

2 hours of queuing and almost 8 hours of being in the hall.. but I'm so happy now i could cry.. :,)... (see story)

queuing up.... pretty exciting...

palpable excitement in the hall....

here's two three classic moments captured on youtube by others:

Ms Constance Singam to the "new-exco" at the AWARE EGM


Dr Thio Su Mien (mother of the infamous NMP Thio Li-Ann) stating her credentials asserting why she deserves the right to be called "Feminist Mentor".. aka "I am on Page 73"


from this blog:
We couldn’t see or hear very well from where we were sitting.
A: “What book is she talking about that she’s on page 73 of?”
B: “Dunno. Maybe the Bible. She’s saying God appointed her on page 73,”
A: “Her bible maybe. Not mine.”

... hahhahaha.... actually, it was some book published by Aware in 2007 highlighting some achievements of women in Singapore..

I can't find I found (!! :)) the video where the ex-honorary secretary Sally Ang (the one in red) tells the Aware founder Margaret Thomas (the lady in blue on the floor) to "Shut up and sit down"... that was quite a moment.. am pretty sure that was one of the biggest mistakes made by the team yesterday evening.. haha.. anyway, they shot themselves so many times in the foot that i lost count.. here it is..


ok, back to marking! :p .... and for those eager to pick up souvenirs, someone is selling these!! hahaha.. click on pic for link and here for larger image


Update: Just saw newspaper report: Teachers told NOT to get involved in Aware
A teacher who declined to be named told The New Paper: 'My principal warned us not to go as we may be interviewed by the media, and there would be trouble if we were being quoted or someone took our picture' (!!!).

:O!! hahhaha... :p

anyway, pardon me for my obsession.. but this video shows how episodes like these always encourage a lot of creativity...


and oh, one last thing.. for some reason, the "husbands/fathers in their 40s and 50s" who were at the EGM "with their wives" reminded me a lot of Patrick the Starfish... hahahaha... for example, one of these guys said.. “I want to look for the woman who gave me that motherly smile. She is so motherly. She reminds me of my mother.”...hahahhaha PRICELESS!! ... other quotes from these middle age uncles included one guy who said “I am a man, I am rational and logical. Woman are emotional” another who joked that he was inspired by the meeting to 'write a book and call it Women Are From Mars And Men Are From Venus' and also one who asked the crowd not to "harass him" (even when no one was doing so despite his time-wasting antics), saying 'One woman I was sitting next to hissed at me as though she was Catwoman. I feel so harassed. Don't harass me. I am only a man.' ... ????

Chicken a la Carte



something we need to know... what can we do in our capacity to help?

maybe this?

Weekend Break - Breakfast & Bugs

took my first mental & physical break of the year till now (yay! exams over for this semester! :)) and went for a nice slow breakfast today and a long walk around botanic gardens.. forgot how much i enjoy the gardens.. one of the places i really love in Singapore... :)

here are some pics.... i'll post up more when i have time..

^ sloan court hotel breafast... singapore's best kept secret

^ bugs @ the botanic gardens

and i washed my car too :).. i love washing my car instead of sending it to the car wash.. but often, i get so busy i don't get to wash it for a while... now i discover this site that tells me what to do with all the dust that accumulates after a while.. check out The Dust Art of Scott Wade

Latest painting!

Acrylic on Canvas 24"x36"

and new toys!

and in case you're wondering.. moo-bean is handmade and not for sale! :)

“Requiem

It came to me the other day:
Were I to die, no one would say,
“Oh, what a shame! So young, so full
Of promise — depths unplumbable!”

Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes
Will greet my overdue demise;
The wide response will be, I know,
“I thought he died a while ago.”

For life’s a shabby subterfuge,
And death is real, and dark, and huge.
The shock of it will register
Nowhere but where it will occur.”

- John Updike

And the birds came to roost in jurong...


my workplace is indeed a haven for pretty little birds.. and i guess it also speaks for how "ulu" (i.e. godforsakenly- out-of-the-way) the place is... haha.. pictures taken from behind glass panel, out of my 2nd floor office window ...

Bird id: Correct me if i am wrong: left is a Yellow vented Bulbul(Pycnonotus goiavier); right is an Olive-backed Sunbird (Nectarina jugularis) Oriental White-eye (Zosterops palpebrosus).. thank you jon! but mine doesn't look as yellow as the ones i find on the Internet nor have this patch of white under its wings... and also the beak of my bird looks a little longer and not as straight...umm.... bird id is so not easy!!

Discovery of World War II Relic @ Clementi construction site

.. right next to my block! gulp... look at the ugly construction all around.. gonna be like this for the next 3 years.. sigh.. and there goes our wonderful view of the sea.... :(

Update: Experts from the Singapore Armed Forces said it was a Japanese aerial bomb (aerial!! dropped from plane??) dating from the Second World War. Usually, when a war relic is discovered, it is taken to a military live firing range to be disposed of. But bomb disposal specialists decided it was actually safer to carry out the operation at the site itself this time around. That was because the fuse had already been activated (!!!), so transporting the 50-kilogramme bomb could be risky.



... and incidentally, found that the household plant next to the balcony window was flowering.. a rare sight indeed.... so pretty...

bad english

i was surfing the net for some news on the merlion being struck by lightning and found that Xinhua News Agency had interviewed someone in Singapore who said

"Something like an explosion sound very loud, then after that some of the pieces fell off the Merlion, but no one was hurt in the incident"

can we describe that as Singlish? or a mix of Singlish and English or what??

I remember my NIE lecturer saying that he once heard a mother exclaiming to her child "Be careful! Wait lost how?" and he couldn't figure out, try as he might, what the woman was saying.. hahaha....

i can't decide which is the lesser of two evils - Singlish or Chinglish.. see below for a cutesy example of the latter:



ommmmm.....

anyway, you have to see this.. it was apparently mentioned in NYT:

The-greatest-breakup-story-ever-told (apparently, the animation is made by one woman on her PC - about the story of a marriage breakup using traditional indian characters from the ramayana)

These will move and inspire...

Lost Generation


be a positive influence

marina barrage revisited (low res handphone pics)



the water in the reservoir looks much cleaner now! managed to visit the galleries this time round - very good for primary school national education purposes.. hahaha...

btw! this is a non sequitur but for all the type A parents out there... if you haven't already known (which is not quite possible), there is this kiasuparents.com website i learnt from my dear friend today!! watch this fabulous youtube video from there!! hahahaha....hilarious!!

Birthday Celebrations

getting a bit too old for celebrations but glad there are still wonderful people around me who made me feel special on this day.... like my wonderful colleagues around me... . :) thank you for the toy galore..... by the way, this post is super delayed, my birthday was exactly a month before this day.. haha... busy lah...



and of cos my annual visit to the sea angels exhibit @ the underwater world that very weekend... the place has a lot of the old stuff nicely spruced up as well as new stuff like the Giant Pacific Octopus and Pharaoh Cuttlefish, and an impressive ray touch pool.. still one of my favourite tourist attractions in Singapore, worth every cent!

Grainy pics taken with an Olympus MJU 710:


finally managed to get a decent video recording of the sea angels after these few years of repeated visits.. enjoy!

Angela Aki - Kiss Me Good-Bye (Final Fantasy XII Theme)

Gosh!! I really love this!!!!



Angela Aki - Kiss Me Good-Bye (Final Fantasy XII Theme)

there are other versions available on youtube, e.g. this one in the Final Fantasy version..

I think i'm going out to buy ALL of Angela Aki's CDs... what a great singer/song-writer!

in case you haven't heard this one.. its fabulous too!!

Crazy Cows!


20"x30" Acrylic on Mounting Board

i'm all ready for the new year!! :)

will put up pics from the Taiwan trip I took over Dec last year, once i can get back into the swing of things.. :)

Shanghai: 1-12.12.2008 (the trip so far..)


--> The Old making way for the New


--> shanghainese cats basking (fashionably) in the sunshine

--> Mao watch from Dongtai Lu Antique Market (fake lah!)

If Everyone Cared



From underneath the trees, we watch the sky
Confusing stars for satellites
I never dreamed that you'd be mine
But here we are, we're here tonight

Singing Amen, I, I'm alive
Singing Amen, I, I'm alive

[Chorus:]
If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day when nobody died

And I'm singing

Amen I, Amen I, I'm alive
Amen I, Amen I, Amen I, I'm alive

And in the air the fireflies
Our only light in paradise
We'll show the world they were wrong
And teach them all to sing along

Singing Amen, I, I'm alive
Singing Amen, I, I'm alive
(I'm alive)

[Chorus x2]

And as we lie beneath the stars
We realize how small we are
If they could love like you and me
Imagine what the world could be

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day when nobody died
When nobody died...

[Chorus]

We'd see the day, we'd see the day
When nobody died
We'd see the day, we'd see the day
When nobody died
We'd see the day when nobody died

what have i done today to show that i care....

Good Wood Gang



Good Wood Gang by Friends with You
(Acrylic on plywood - 19"x24")