zenov is B+ Boy

Nothing to blog, so never really blog lor. Basically, been staying at home most of the time. So, what’s there to blog about home?

Nothing.

haha…

Actually, been nursing the illness I brought from ICT.

I developed a cough since the 1st day of ICT, when the whole bunk was smoking, well, in the bunk throughout the night, every night. I guess it has been ages since I’ve really immersed myself (though unwillingly) in smoke for that prolonged time, and thus the cough.

The inflammation turned out to be rather serious, cos 2 weeks since the onset, I’m still coughing, with the inflammation developing into my upper respiratory tract, ie. now it’s my nasal cavity that’s now inflamed.

arrghhhh!!!

When a person who has been rather healthy most of the time falls sick, it spells: really sick.

haiz…

The other day, I went to watch movie with xx and gg. ha… We were supposed to watch Sex and the City (although I don’t know why xx would recommend watching such a feminine show… hmmm *scratch chin* cos I never even considered watching the show), but cos it was too popular, we turned to watching ‘You Don’t Mess With the Zohan‘.

It is another Harold and Kumar show, with more explicit racial and sexual references. I can’t really say I liked it, though nowadays, I get tickled at attempts to be cheesy. Like the characters suddenly taking very morally, politically correct tones to talk about ending the hate in Israel etc. It was like watching the bloopers scene, anticipating the moment where the cast would burst out laughing after reciting such ridiculously naive/idealistic phrases.

And of cos, I laughed, even without them losing control and started giggling.

Anyways, I believe I am somewhat numb to all the Hollywood films le. I no longer get really excited at watching these shows. And I get really irritated when they attempt to be politically correct (despite being tickled by the sequence).

I was watching Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which the sub-plot went on saying that Mr Fantastic and Jessica Alba wanted to lead a simple life to rear kids, while Chris Evans’ The Human Torch overheard the conversation and got all grumpy and un-team-playingistic.

Anyways, this sub-plot ended with Chris Evans ‘learning the importance of team work’, while the lovey-dovey couple decided that saving the world is their calling and they would not leave the team, etc.

arrggghhh!!!

Stale.

The importance of mentioning the outing is not about the reviews of movies. Actually, I wanted to show off the souvenir they brought for me while on their TW trip:

A hair-styling comb!!

Basically, this comb is to replace fingers in pinching and twisting hair ends (if I still have long hair) to create that out-of-bed, Japanese style hair, without, of cos, dirtying the hands. I once saw it on Ch 54 (Nv Ren Wo Zui Da) like 2 years ago, and I never expected xx and gg to buy it for me!

haha…

This comb is ranked as the Number 1 Best Overseas Trip Souvenir I have ever received, in terms of practicality and appeal to me.

I haven’t really put it into practical use (I haven’t been going out of home, remember?), but I spent enough time figuring out how to use it.

I think it will find a useful place in my Himbo Arsenal.

Well, I did go out on Friday, though. Went to lao di fang Central Lending Library to do some real work, like sending more resumes (ok, for 4 hours, I only sent out 6 resumes) and working on ZZGY. Then, I went for dinner break, after which I shopped around at Popular at BBC. There, I bought a book:

I was split between this and another book (Ru He Ying Guo Hua Wen, or sth like that) by the same author. The one I bought is more about the rules of storytelling (verbally, though it can be extended to writing) and the latter was on the technical, language rules in writing something attractive.

I must admit it was a compulsive purchase.

After reading some of it at home, I have a conclusion, of all the self-help books out there in the market: They are never useful.

haha…

The thing about self-help books are that they beat around the bush, without real, concrete , technical examples. Anyone can say, ‘Making use of pauses will enhance the readability’, but it was never elaborated (though it was elaborated on how making use of such technics will enhance readability). It took me a while to realize by myself that the pauses referred to was more punctuations, shorter sentences etc.

It was like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, which would be good for people who knew nuts about financial management, but not good enough for people wanting more in-depth knowledge.

Therefore, I would suggest buying textbooks (that cost like $70 as opposed to these self-help books that cost $17) if one is very keen in mastering a skill or knowledge. Self-help books, I suppose, is only good for showing off on the MRT and to pass time, of which, is considered passe if we take PSP into the picture.

Well…

Enough said.

To reward people who perservered to this part of the entry, here’s a pic of the Man Himself, in his attire for Bloomberg interview, armed with a new tie. haha…

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.

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.

Long long time ago, I bought a coolant pad for my lappy. It was transparent, with blue lights!! Dunno why xy said it was beng… Some day I shall give her aesthetics lesson. haha…

And I also bought a Boynq USB port from the same guy. haha… The only thing good about it was its cute design and extendable wires. Else, it can’t support high speed USB 2.0. So transferring of big files a bit *yawnzzz* long…