Finally on leave…

I’m really quite thankful for the CNY that I had this year. Went to see my mum’s parents, and they were really happy to see everyone gather. I must say we’re probably one of the healthier families amongst the rest. My cousins and uncles actually went down to play basketball in our new year clothes, and it was just great fun as my uncles were quite sporting together with my younger cousins. Pretty unconventional for a CNY gathering, but I really look forward to CNY now that we’ve been doing it for 3 years straight. We even played american football on the 2nd day when we went to my aunt’s place. Caught up with my handsome looking cousin who came back from New York, its been a really long time since we caught up with each other. He also invited me to go over to New York sometime in June and show me around. I must say… I’ve always wanted to go to the US… I’d probably feel at home there since I’m the ang mo pai. This year’s CNY was one of the better ones I had. Ang pow collection was also more than usual… not to mention went to EK’s place to play Blackjack, and won $24. *grin* After all the mahjong games I lost before CNY….

Also finally met up with E again since after we went to have yong tau foo at Tanjong Katong. We went to have pomfret “steamboat” (forget the correct name) which I thought was a bit pricey at $38, but nevertheless tantalizing.

The fish was really fresh, to the point I was wondering if it was swimming seconds before it arrived on the plate. Another thing that was very obvious, was how skillfully the fish was deboned and sliced cleanly and proportionately. It was really the most proper presentation I’ve ever witnessed. E claimed that once the fish passes by a day, they will fry it and use it for the soup base instead. The soup is darn good. For a carnivorous dude like me, I was impressed at how nice fish soup can be if done really well. But my fav dish of the night was the self-made tofu braised with brocolli, mushroom and dried scallops… my eyes just lit up followed by the sensationalized expression of “its… so… damn… nice…”

This is like the definite must order dish next time I’m there. Aside from the food, E’s company was good too. At times I also forget how nice it is to spend time with her. Tried to meet up before CNY but its either too tired or too busy… but its normal being Singaporean and leading a stressful work life. Nevertheless, treasure those precious moments and don’t take them forgranted.

Bought English Cumberland sausages on Mon night after meeting RN for supper… sharing about how some customers can be stupid yet smart, and working with an over-generous head chef (makes me wanna go there…) anyway, she asked if the sausages were nice… I think not too bad. Really tastes quite “English”… whatever that means…

really have to make sure they’re properly cooked through… there was some rawness in the centre after my first try at pan frying it. I’m still stomped at how hotels have such creamy and fluffy scramble eggs… My craving for American breakfast buffet hasn’t stopped since last year. First of all because no one really wants to wake up that early on a weekend, 2) they think its expensive which is true, 3) they don’t really have the craving like I do.

While I’m on leave, I also stumbled upon some funny looking stuff online…

These are the ang mo cosplays emulating Naruto. boy do they look freakish compared to these pros below…

Kakashi looks so damn cool can………. and Sasuke looks pretty correct here too. And I went ecstatic when I stumbled upon this…

Even Optimus Prime is an Arsenal fan!!! ARSENAL FTW!!!

Despite painting such a colorful CNY… Microsoft stabbed me at the back when I installed the latest nvidia graphics drivers… Vista simply refused to boot into windows, and I didn’t have any proper restore point saved… thus Vista couldn’t repair the problem… leading me to format my entire hard disk and reinstall all the damn softwares and drivers again. Lucky G came down to help a bit. If that wasn’t troublesome enough, Vista prompted me to install new updates which in the end, didn’t shut down properly and caused me to reboot from DVD multiple times to restore it to the previous working state… Its really the disappointment of 2007. I really should’ve gotten XP 64 bit instead. Screw MS Vista… for now. My advice to everyone out there is to get XP now… I think Vista’s gonna need another few years before it really gets stabilized.

Now my Call of Duty 4 saved games all gone…. nooooo…. after all the weapon and ability upgrades…

On the bright side… I had to reinstall my Creative Fatal1ty sound card, and realized I’ve been under-utilizing it from the day I installed it. Now that I’ve reinstalled with all the stuff… the sound is just gawking, amazingly great quality. Watch the Transformers DVD and it was almost as if I was in a theatre. Crysis is also running quite smoothly now at High modes with very high sound settings. In some way, the Vista screw up was also sort of a blessing in disguise… though it bloody better not happen the 2nd time. Need to backup stuff… might need another HDD in the near future.

Still have 1 more day of leave to go… ^_^

Think you had a bad CNY? These guys were locked up during Chinese New Year.

Excerpt from TodayOnline: http://www.todayonline.com/articles/237087.asp

Posted a thread on the bar. I got damn emotional after reading the whole thing on the actual paper. That’s just me… cos freedom of rights are there for a reason and its what defines our humanity and our existence. Locking up someone and sending people meals is nothing short of treating people like animals.

Additional facts from the printed version:

… meals were seen hanging on a hook outside the gate, which the workers inside could reach through a gap…

… Under the Penal Code, wrongful confinement involves wrongfully restraining any person in such a manner as to prevent that person from proceeding beyond certain circumscribing limits.

If convicted, one could be jailed up to three years, or fined $1000, or both, depending on the length of the confinement.

Fined S$1k??? I suppose that can’t be the maximum fine… how can that be sufficient penalty? Assuming if he is guilty, $1k isn’t even a mosquito bite. And just what was the boss doing in HK? working? seriously… HK people are also having CNY celebrations. As for the father of this boss… I’m sure he felt damn stressed out while being interviewed by the press.

I admit that I am overreacting to this issue, who knows it might be another conspiracy theory. Notice that there’s no info from the boss, no expressed intention to commit the offence, and simply taking countermeasures to prevent theft. Workers backstabbing the boss? Nevertheless, let justice be served accordingly.