Happy 22nd Birthday, Dearest...

Date: May 28th 2009 (Thursday)
Occasion: Charmaine's 22nd Birthday

It's supposed to be celebrated on May 28th, Thursday... but there was Dragonboat training @ Bedok Reservoir that evening, in preparation for the upcoming JUNE RACE. Hence, I decided not to skip training & join Charmaine & her family for a nice buffet dinner @ Oriental.

Just check out the good food especially the prawns & desserts! What a waste! What a waste!

And these two sisters (Charmaine & her sister, Pamela) are ever so evil... They purposely took video of the prawns & the desserts. Haha!

So anyway, after training @ Bedok Reservoir, I headed over to her place for the cutting of the birthday cake. Auntie Betty was also so funny, because Charmaine's Birthday falls on the same day as the Dumpling Festival, so she bought five dumplings & pretend that those were Charmaine's 'birthday cake'. We even placed the candles on the dumplings, lit them up & sang 'Happy Birthday'. So funny! Of course in the end, Auntie brought out the actual birthday cake & surprised Charmaine... and we had a round of photo-taking session with the birthday girl.

That's my Girlfriend... Forever the Drama Queen! HAHAHAHA!

Photo-taking session with the Birthday Girl~... ♥♥♥

So... that ends the night of celebration, with me eating up most of the YUMMY-LICIOUS cake! Hehe
~.~.~
End of Part 1 - 28.05.09
~.~.~

As I wasn't able to spend time with Charmaine on her actual Bday, I made it up to her by spending the following day with her instead. I brought her to Raffles City's food court - Food Place after work for dinner before bringing her to The Marina Barrage. Frankly speaking, the Food Place @ Raffles City does have some nice Japanese food, like the Japanese Omelette rice & Tempura Yong Tau Fu.

"Ebi Omelette Curry Rice & Tempura Yong Tau Fu Set Meal + Chawanmushi"

Took a train to Marina Bay, followed by a long & dusty walk through a tunnel to an out-of-place bus stop & waited for a bus that we thought would never come... Alighted at the designated bus stop & walked quite a distance before FINALLY reaching The Marina Barrage. Super inaccessible, without a car!

Beautiful Water Fountain...

Too bad, my digital camera was spoilt that night so we had to settle for Charmaine's handphone. If not, we could have taken more nice photos in the dim lights. Nevertheless, the night view of The Marina Barrage is still great... and the atmosphere just nice for dating. hehehehe

In the end, I got her a stuffed Monkey (which she named "Monty") together with a sunflower I promise to get her for every birthday... Teehee
~.~.~
End of Part 2 - 29.05.09
~.~.~

Meet Min the Huskey~!!!

"A Comical Shot of Min..."

As I attended Charmaine's Granny's wake, I met Min the Huskey that had her picture on Charmaine's Friendster photo album. I saw her picture during those days when I was still spying on Charmaine... hehe

Min belongs to Cousin Ann May (Charmaine's cousin). She is nine doggie years old - which is 63 years old in human years, so she is already quite old. A bit hard of hearing & her eyesight isn't that great either, but she is the most obedient & clever dog I've ever seen. And she has the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen...

I found this out when Charmaine & I brought her out for her walk. A trained dog will always walk on the left of its master, just like Min did. A trained dog will also walk in pace with its master, not like other dogs that are practically 'walking' their masters instead of the other way round.

Min has inspired me to train my future family dog, which I hope will be a Golden Retriever whom are said to be the smartest breed of dog around. However, Golden Retrievers are big dogs. That means I have to find a good job, earn & save enough money to buy a big house with a garden so I can keep a big dog like a Golden Retriever & have enough space for it to run about...

"Check out the colours of her eyes... so pretty"

"Me walking Min..."

"Charmaine with Min"

Last GoodByes to Charmaine's Grandmother...

Monday, 14 June '09 - Wednesday, 16 June '09
Charmaine's bed-ridden granny passed away this Monday morning... as unexpectedly as the passing of a shooting star across the night sky.

Though it can be seen as a form of release from the bonds of years of torturing illness & sickness, it is never easy for remaining loved ones to accept the harsh reality that hit as hard as waves against rocks beneath the cliffs.

Kinda reminds me of the time when my Dad & Grandma passed away... and I believe that they are now in a better place, looking down on us, blessing us with their best wishes. Same as what Charmaine's granny would be doing now...

Charmaine's granny's wake lasted for three days till Wednesday, where the body was then brought to Mandai Crematorium for cremation. If anyone who has been to such occasion, will know that this is the hardest part of the whole funeral; relatives weeping & yelling out the name of their beloved as they saw through the glass panel, the body being pushed into the burning flames. I teared at this point when I saw Charmaine's Mom & her sisters crying out for their Mummy, but Auntie Betty (Charmaine's Mom) although the youngest, was the stronger amongst the daughter. She was the one who was always comforting her eldest sister... telling her that Mummy has gone to be with Daddy. That she wouldn't leave in peace if she saw them crying like that... In all honesty, I kinda respect that.

So as the body has being cremated & everyone headed back to the house for some lunch, the tense feeling of saddness started to slowly lift off the air & people were starting to joke around, making conversation... And this is the way it should be. We must understand that as there is life; the birth of a child, there will come with it; death. So when someone dear & beloved leaves us, we should celebrate his or her last journey of life, instead of crying over his or her death.

"The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity - it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud."

Xiao Long Baos!!! Char Sao Baos!!! Come get some Baos!!!

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao @ Holland Village

Thanks to our 小王子, JinHan... We had another "batch" gathering graced with the appearance of Ashley & JiaQi @ Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao, Holland Village before our upcoming June race on the 27th & 28th of this month.

I wanna recommend this CJLMXLB to others too, for its South-Northern Steamboat Buffet which starts from 8:30pm to 1am on weekdays. Remember to make your reservations, it seems that business is quite good. There were quite a number of people also queueing up as the time approaches 8:30pm & we had to wait for quite a while to get our seats, even though we already made reservations. But then again, we had 14 people so we can't really blame them.

The place is located @ Holland Village, next to the Holland Road Shopping Centre & at the intersection of Lorong Liput & Holland Avenue.

I think I prefer this outlet much more than those in Bugis Street. The place is air-conditioned & comfortable as a place for gathering amongst friends & families. The food for the steamboat is well prepared & very hygenic. Not forgetting the free flow of drinks (like barley, water chestnut etc) & xiao long baos, char siew baos, man dous that you can stuff into your mouth. The xiao long baos & char siew baos are really good too. How do I know that? Because we can gobble down 40+ baskets of xiao long baos (5 in each basket) & 20+ baskets of big char siew baos (2 in each basket). Desserts are also served, such as the red bean pastry, clear osmanthus jelly & almond beancurd. But in my opinion, only the almond beancurd is truly YUMMY & REFRESHING~!

As for the steamboat itself, they serve 4 different soup bases for the steamboat, such as Sichuan Ma La Spicy Soup & Pork Bone with Sweet Corn Soup. You can try out the bi-combination (yuan yang) if you want two different soup bases at the same time. The ingredients for the steamboat include the usual veggies (lettuce, cabbages, spinach etc), mushrooms (oyster mushrooms, golden mushrooms etc) & sliced meat (pork, beef, chicken, lamb). They also have those beancurd, dumplings, fish balls, sotong balls, shrimp balls, crabmeat balls, salmon balls, sausages, pig's skin, pig's liver, pig's belly, cuttlefish, u-don & vermicelli etc... No seafood except for the designated 100grams of prawn each person is entitled to. But the food was really good enough in terms of quality & quantity. Not much to complain, unless you are really one of those picky people who like to "pick bones out from eggs".

We had a great time there, but I don't think the same can be said for the waiteresses & staff working there, serving two tables of 14 monsters whom are "whacking" the xiao long baos for all their worth (Nick, on the other hand, "whacking" the orange soda drink). It was a great feast cum gathering! One of those I truly enjoy... Hope this culture never ends.

Check out the glorious good food~!!!


How Good is the Food? Just ask Boon, Denny, Jonah & Nick!


Look at how high the Xiao Long Baos stack up! We can't even see Enyu behind it!





Check out the reasonable price too!
Each of us only paid $24 for all that good food!

おいしい Oishi! Ramen~

おいしい Oishi! Ramen @ NOODLE HOUSE KEN

"Us @ NOODLE HOUSE KEN"

Friday's finally arrived again. Means there's no evening training tonight. Means the weekends are just around the corner... No work the next day although there's still training the next morning, means Charmaine & I can still go dating...

Plans for the evening are simple enough...
- Meet up after her attachment @ Plaza Singapura
- Have dinner @ our favourite Japanese Noodle House
- Catch a movie @ PS Golden Village (preferably Angels & Demons)
- Walk around, do abit of window shopping
- Send her safely home

I arrived @ PS earlier to buy the tickets for the movie... Too bad, we couldn't watch "Angels & Demons" due to the time slot. The 2hours+ movie was showing at around 9pm, which means that we would have trouble sending her home after the movie ended around 11pm++... So we caught the next best movie: "Night at the Museum II"... which I thought was not too shabby. It managed to crack me up a couple of times... like those three Cupids whom I think are actually the Jonas Brothers, & the alternating cut-scenes of the miniature Roman General 'Octavius' charging through the grass in the front yard of the White House, with the strong, powerful, dramatic music playing in the background one moment & next, the silent, quiet, tranquility cast over the entire front yard in the night (You have to watch it to understand what I mean).

So having said that, we have managed to watch 2 out of 3 movies that we planned to watch. But then, more good movies keep popping up & we have to add them onto our list - "Transformers II" & "Ghost of Girlfriends Past"... There's also "Drag me to Hell" which surprisingly is what my timid girlfriend (HAHA!) said she wanted to watch! She is the one who keeps trying to convince me to watch it with her. Hahaha...

"Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen" is showing on June 24th~! JinHan's Bday!

Before we went for the movies, we went back to the Japanese Noodle House @ Orchard Plaza where I brought Charmaine to on our official first date... sure brings back memories. Two shy mouses then, have turned into a pair of strong, rowdy, crappy dragonboating couple today... haha!

So I wanna share the place with the rest of the world. The place is called "NOODLE HOUSE KEN", open on Mondays - Saturdays, 12noon to 2pm, then 6pm to 2am, close on Sundays.

Located at a "ulu" deep corner of Orchard Plaza along the side of the shopping centre, where the tailor shops are, you can find this small joint (easy to miss if you are not paying attention) with two separate seating areas. One is the kitchen with the counter right in front with perhaps one or two tables at the sides (much like those small shops seen in Japan), the other separated room is more spacious, with more tables available... However it's still not a lot, therefore seats are limited. But so far, during my visits there, I have been able to get a table on the spot.

"For those who still can't quite get where to find the place, I have even did up a map for you..."

As for the food, they serve pretty decent ramen (I like their char siew ramen & cold noodle) & rice balls at reasonable prices over there, although this time, they did forget to put the stewed boiled egg that were supposed to come with our bowls of ramen. -_- I've seen Japanese people dining there before, so the food can't be all that bad...

"The Menu"





"Char Siew Ramen & Rice Balls..."