Vesak Day, Botak, What’s the Relation?

Went to pray.

I think I am a cheapo guy.

I go by agnostic atheism, and yet whenever I was dragged to a temple, I dutifully asked everyone there, including Confucius, to guarantee me a degree. In today’s case, guarantee to graduate by June and getting my dream job.

Anyways, since we were around the area, my sis wanted to try Botak, since it was recommended by HDB Tai Tai.

oh… It failed my 1st round of criteria, since it was a kopitiam below a block of flats. The tables and chairs were dirty. haiz…

I ordered Cajun Chicken. I chose Mexican rice and fries as my sides. All for $7.50.

My recommendation is that people who ordered the chicken and/or with fries, Mexican rice is a MUST ! ! !

Before one pops a fries into his mouth, he can roll/rub it on the surface of the rice to remove all the excessively excessive plentifully redundant amount of salt. That is to say, try the rice for a few mouthfuls 1st, cos the rice is considered inedible after that.

Not to say that the rice was too good to be wasted. It was spicy, not hot spicy spicy, but spicy spicy. It was very ‘local’ to either Indian spices or Mexican spices. Since I ate neither of the cuisines in their most authentic forms, I couldn’t say if the rice was good. But it was definitely very good (and only) for removing the salt, so make full use of it.

The chicken, well, was also salty. But unlike the fries, I don’t know where the saltiness came from, making it hard to unsaltify the chicken. In addition, meat is expensive, so one must finish the chicken, tolerating its saltiness while at the same time eat as much fries as possible to make it worth the freaking $7.50. That was why, unsaltifying the fries with the rice is a necessity.

For those who thought the meal looked unhealthy, fret not. I spent half the calories I took in with the chicken chewing the chicken. So it’s ok, unless one is afraid of getting big jaws from all the tedious chewing.

That was all. I didn’t eat the salad that came with it (at the bottom), cos I was so put off by the main dish already.

But to be fair, the Clementi branch was, well, a branch. Perhaps the main branch at AMK would be better. But for now, the Clementi branch’s Botak gets a -3.0/5.0.

That is to say, if a friend recommends eating there, you can risk forgoing the friendship than agree to go with him.

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Just to comment, while on the way back, we passed by the many fields in Punggol, where, given the it was public holiday, many people were flying kites.

It is definitely a scene to be remembered.

Cos well, there are many plans to urbanise Punggol, meaning most of the fields will be removed.

I don’t know why, I read in a lot of places that there were people who preferred Punggol to be urbanized with the sports complexes, activity clusters that were promised. They complained that Punggol is not fit for living due to the lack of these amenities.

But for me, the price paid (and come on, in the past, home prices of Punggol was the lowest around, aside from Boon Lay) was good enough, and I think the ability to be near nature (or part-nature), doing stuff that majority of sg-eans could not do at within 5-min-walk from their home was priceless.

It was not just kite-flying. There were families who just picnicked out there, with their kids having a field to themselves to run around, kick balls and roll about. People with their pets, people jogging. People flying model aeroplanes. I can see all these activities from my home, can you?

Anyways, I would like to fly kite too. But considering how hard it was persuading my family to just go down to fly kite, I doubt I could persuade any friends to come up here for a weekend getaway.

After all, a 25-min train ride is too far away from city to them.

p/s: I just came to think about this: Only one who ventured away from the conventions would be able to appreciate the world.

Week 13 Intro

1st Week of… Holidays-cum-School

I am sort of busy.

I mean, I have to attend my lab sessions and project meetings for the past week. At the same time, I also slacked a lot. For most part of the week, I left home later than 10pm.

But yet, ya… I have been out of home everyday and don’t come back till 8pm.

Is this busy?

I have things to do, that it. But not busy.

oh… It’s so late at night. I don’t feel like writing more. Anyways, I can always blog.

Anyways, I privatised 2 posts, just in case you guys were wondering. The RV Diary post and another kao peh post. Too sensitive. Too dangerous to be on the net. So off they go.

ZZGY Chapter 7 edited, Commentary uploaded (Not yet updated)

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2008/05/08 孤男寡女 (SFB)

2008/05/08 The ‘Good School Stigma’ & ‘NS Myth’: Doing Dishes

2008/05/09 Countdown to Last Exam in NUS

2008/05/10 Night Walk At Blk EA

2008/05/10 Finished Mugging

2008/05/11 Graduation KTV || Korean Dinner

2008/05/12 Nightmare

2008/05/14 A Ray of Light(!)

1st Day to Myself

Finally, after the exams ended, I have a full day to myself.

Not spending time at home, with family watching TV, not at school, with group mates chatting.

Just me, doing stuff that I like to do when I’m alone.

hmmmm…

I went to good old spot, the NLB. But there were lots of people… On a weekday. Guess it’s the exams for some other people or something.

As a outine, I bought a cup of mocha from Bugis Junction Starbucks, which I would finish before reaching NLB. It has been a long long long time since I drank decent coffee. I must say NUS coffee SUCKS!! All sugar and no caffeine! Or if I bought kopi-o-kosong, it’s all water and no caffeine! :(

I wanted to do the Thursday updates from NLB, but I couldn’t log on to the net, so I ended up writing cover letters to 2 employment agencies I found on Saturday’s newspapers.

ya… There was a criteria for my ideal job which I had been putting away, like a subsidiary criteria, for dunno-what reason, when it was in fact, the 1st and most important criteria I look for in a job. Yesterday, I stopped looking at other jobs, and only focused on looking for jobs that apply to that one and only criteria.

lol

I spent 2 hours crafting the letters. ha…! I re-organized and re-wrote my cover letters, partly cos they were for employment agencies, and partly cos I was sick of the old letter. ha… One thing I can guarantee is that all my potential employers received cover letters that were at most 80% similar! Even for my resume, which I usually only change one sentence (the career objective), I changed one other sentence regarding my internship.

Anyways, after that, I went to have a mini-dinner which turned out to be not so mini.

ta ~ da ~ ~ !

I had enough reward points for another 20-pc McNuggets Feast!! Complete with the 3 nugget sauces!

I conclude that though the sweet and sour sauce tasted unique, it was not nice. Perhaps for a dip or two, but not for finishing! BBQ sauce is too salty. Curry sauce is not spicy. But at least for curry sauce, I can mix some chilli sauce to make it real currily.

I returned to NLB, where I resumed writing ZZGY.

oooh… Speaking of ZZGY, I feel so bad for neglecting my 2 auxiliary blogs. haiz… For ZZGY, I had no motivation to find time to update. For Sammi Fan Blog, I had no time to write exclusive posts. Other news like magazine posts, the guy who scanned the magazines now specifically insists on no re-posting of his pix.

I understand that he wanted to have traffic to go exclusively to his website, but as a sammi fan, I think it was a very selfish act (disregarding arguments such as ‘copyright laws’). I mean, I do scan all the album covers of sammi, and I will never object to people using the pictures I scanned (I don’t even watermark them with ‘zenovluvsammi.wordpress.com or something like that).

In my opinion, my love for sammi includes spreading words, news and pictures of her unconditionally. If people liked her pictures and re-posted them on their sites, it was all the better, since it will mean increased exposure for sammi.

Why will I ever want to restrict her exposure for the sake of traffic streaming into my sites?

Of cos, I don’t have ad-supports, so traffic is not important to me.

Sammi Fan Blog is created out of pure interest and is fueled by my desire to spread the ‘Gospel of sammi’.

Some time later, I will try to resume writing my own original posts for SFB.

Anyway, before I went to NLB, I went for a run. I think I have a 2nd-run-curse. This was my 2nd run after I stopped running after FYP prep. And I couldn’t run… I couldn’t run fast, and I couldn’t run long. In fact, at 10 minutes, I had to stop running cos I was giddy. **(o.*0)**

sianz~

But I suppose, as usual, 3rd run will be better.

Still recuperating from diarrhea. It was as if my stomach is made of magnesium, cos whenever I drink water, my stomach would growl and rumble and prepare me for the toilet. haiz… But the symptom is easing. The rumble will still come, but I need not go…

oh…

Whatever.

This blog shall focus on brighter stuff

Although I must say, for the last word, THE WEATHER IS FREAKING HOT ! ! !

Fashion Conspiracy

Out of boredom, I went to visit some long-forgotten blogs. And I got a shock when I came to one person’s blog.

He (yes, he’s a guy) went shopping with his friends, and he showed a pic of him in a changing room trying a top with horizontal stripes.

haiz…

I think it’s either he was shopping with a group of fashion nerds, or the friends are in a conspiracy to shame him.

HORIZONTAL STRIPES ARE FOR SKINNY MONKEYS~! !

Special Sem Update (Updated)

Advancing into non-blogging mood, and non-writing mood. ha… My home is just not conducive for creativity.

Anyways, been meeting up my group members for the project. ah… Not all lah… One still MIA. The other two just talks a lot! I can’t keep up the chatter all the time, so I just nod and try to keep up.

But still, I’d prefer work before talk, cos up till now, we haven’t started the project planning proper, and we have only 4 weeks left to submit the circuit board design!

haiz…

I wanted to say more, but I forgot what le. That’s the thing about long MRT rides; I forget everything that went in my head on the way… lol

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I took the liberty to sms the others to ensure they were at least up and ready to go to school, since they were like saying I should be their motivator. I take things rather literally, so that was it.

I shall sms them tomorrow at 7am.

Lunch at Cherry Garden

It was a belated Mother’s Day celebration.

The place is Cherry Garden at Mandarin Oriental.

The food was good (though may not be good enough for picky engineers, like my sis’ bf lol), but I think the price is for the service (which is supposed to be the case, ya? Anyone can produce good food, but not everyone can give good service).

The ambience felt authentic too. The attention to details was intricate.

It was a chinese restaurant, and we had its dim sum a la carte buffet. But even with that, we didn’t eat much too. I didn’t eat much, cos I had diarrhea for the past day.

Whatever.

Pictures.

the plate and the glass (at the corner) were even before we started eating.

i took a more eerie, chinese ghost scene. ha… but dis one is more PG.

it was supposed to be covered with dry ice smoke, like my sis’, but my dry ice no power… o_0

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The topic of good food vs good ambience came up again, since my sis and her bf believed in cheap and good food, while my other sis believed in good ambience.

So which is better?

While I would say to each his own, I don’t think many are tolerant to other people’s ideas and viewpoints, else there won’t be conflicts le.

Anyways, for someone like me, I don’t judge things by how good it is, but how bad it is. Normal people only go for the top 30% they prefer, while I shun the bottom 30%. Get the idea? I lead a happier life cos I have more choices in life.

But when it comes to eating, ambience of cos takes precedence, since I can accept majority of the food.

I eliminate places with bad ambience. But… hehe… my bottomline for an ambience is air-con. haha… but lately, I also list food courts at the bottom le, cos I always emerge from it smelly.

So I don’t mind paying for the ambience, which is almost a guarantee. I mean, if I throw in $50 per pax, it is less likely I will be dining with:

1) Noisy/wailing/restless kids, cos average Sg parents had to contend with family costs to indulge in such luxury.

2) Noisy/foul-mouthed ah beng and ah lian, since they had no inkling what ambience is.

3) Bad service; the price guarantees good service. If the service falls short, I am guaranteed a reasonable compensation when I feedback, since their reputation are at stake. I mean, try feedback to McDonald’s and be glad if they even replied.

4) No emerging from it smelly.

5) Can make reservations; no need to hover at someone else’s table and fight with another group also eyeing at the same table to wait for them to leave.

6) No pressure from people hovering around my back, especially when I was at my final serving.

Certain people, they view price as the only criteria, that they thought they gained all the values in the world when they get a low price, hence calling what they had ‘cheap and good’.

But there’s nothing as cheap and good, cos whatever the price has not covered is missing from the final goods.

And those ‘cheap and good’ people just deluded themselves they are happy with missing out the other values; they ended up as acting ungraciously to fight for a table in food courts, sweating and smelling like a pig after a ‘good’ meal at hawker centres.

oh man!

Life is not uni-factorial.

I prefer to pay my price, and live like a city dweller.

Moving Out of PGP

After the grad-K, and the ‘overnight’ chat, I went back to sleep only to be woken up by my sis’s call. She said she’ll reach in an hour and a half’s time, so I had to pack up!

Anyways, from the chaos I had…

I had to clear them into these.

All of which fitted into the boot of the car!!

Of cos, there were short cuts I took. Like folding the clothes… (o.0)v

There were those last moments I took of my room.

the toilet facing window…