I recently received an email from an old friend from university, and as much as I was happy to hear from her, she brought about heartbreaking news of a relative of hers.

Her husband’s niece has contracted a rare cancer called neuroblastoma, and is currently in the 4th stage and fighting hard undergoing treatment at the National University Hospital (NUH). This little girl’s name is Charmaine and I hope you can find it in your heart to help.

They need to raise 500k to fund her treatment in the USA which gives her a 40-50% chance of survival.

My days left on earth are ticking, and I feel unaccomplished and dissatisfied with the contribution I’ve made to help someone in need. A little girl shouldn’t have to go through so much pain. I’ve decided to contribute to her medical expenses, and i really really hope Charmaine gets better.

Please visit her blog to find out more:
http://ourfeistyprincess.com/
http://ourfeistyprincess.blogspot.com/

Giving Back Cancer, Charmaine, Feisty princess, Help

It’s so weird, yesterday i forwarded this song to a friend to listen.

Heard his songs twice on the radio and remembered my very first casette tape i purchased on my own was the “Michael Jackson – Black & White” album.

RIP.

Snaps & Clips Michael Jackson, RIP

Filmed for the ESPN Star Sports hitsquad team.

Was just after our ride at Bukit Timah Mountain Bike trail on a Sunday. Was hot, sweaty and out of breath, GREAT for TV :/ oh dear…

Snaps & Clips, Sports & Wellbeing mountain biking, MTB, video, wayne, youtube

Can’t believe I didn’t post this… was dated LAST YEAR… that’s the problem with writing drafts, you save it and forget to revisit them.

2007 Fathers’ Day was at “My Secret Garden” before they became el crappo

Last year, we cooked Mumsy breakfast on Mothers’ Day. So Jie Jie and I decided to cook dinner for Fathers’ Day.

Nothing too fancy, just two of his favourite food – Salmon and chocolate.

If I remember correctly, we baked a dill marinated salmon with baby roast potatoes. Dessert was a dark chocolate tart from the Jamie Oliver cook book.

What shall we do this this year? What are YOU doing this year?

Food & Travel, Friends & Family Daddy, Father's Day, Food

Funny video. Serious topic.

Snaps & Clips Funny, video, youtube

While stumbling through a geek website one afternoon, I chanced upon a RSS pillow for sale. Instead of just taking 10 mins and 30 bucks to buy it online, I don’t know what posses me to actually make it from scratch!

Since I was feeling poorly over the weekend, I made use of my ‘home’ time and dusted off the singer. Surprised myself. Still remembered how to use the sewing machine!

I was initially going to sew JUST the RSS pillow, but I ended up making a twitter one as well. I sourced the images online, printed it and got to work.

Here’s the material list:
- Fabric of your choice (I used felt because I couldn’t find the right colours in jersey)
- Matching coloured thread
- Hobby fill
- Pins
- Fabric scissors
- Sewing machine if you have one

It’s actually pretty simple to make:
1. Cut out 2 pieces of fabric to the chosen size including the seam allowance
2. Cut out your logo, sew it on the front side of pillow
3. Place the 2 pieces of fabric with right sides together. Pin and stitch around the 4 corners and 3 sides, leaving an opening in the centre of the remaining side big enough to fill with hobby fill
4. Turn the cover right side out, Stuff it firmly and then hand stitch the opening closed

Although it took me ages to do, I must admit, it was extremely gratifying to see the final product.

Shall bring it to work tomorrow for my chair

*edit
Just realised i should have rotated the RSS pillow the right way round before taking the photo.

Geek & Gadgets craft, Geek, Pillow

lRULES:
1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.

Please ignore this if you hate these things, but I thought this one was fun…interesting to see what kind of music everyone has on their iPod!
Read more…

Random Meme

I want one of these if I ever get my own place in a country with a cooler climate.

Now here’s another genius invention from those ever-so-clever American johnnies that’s straight out of the why-didn’t-we-think-of-that file.

Specification
* Dimensions: Height: 233.0cm Width: 25.0cm Depth: 15.0cm
* Weight: 2.3Kg

I Likey

Lately my new food haunts are around the Robertson Walk area near Mohammed Sultan Road. A few months back, we walked passed a lively wine bar/cafe just down from DoubleO called The Wine Connection. Patrons chatted away over rich wines and aromatic cheese platters. It sounded like a perfect way to round off dinner.

So we sat ourselves down for a bottle of red and two cheeses.

The only disappointing things were the 2 unnecessary surcharges imposed at the end of the night.

For a bottle of wine (which was from the wine list by the way) we were charged a $10 corkage fee. To my knowledge, corkage fees should be charged if you bring your OWN wine, not ones that we order from the menu.

Then there was an extra $5 slapped on for a weekend surcharge.

What we ordered:
Richland Shiraz – $30.80
Candied Nuts – $2.20
Bread Basket – $3.30
Dry Fruits – $2.20
Roquefort – $10.89
Brie de Meaux – $7.26

So at the end of the night, the bill came up to $71.65. A bit pricey in my opinion. If they’d knock of the silly surcharges, I might consider going back.

Wine Connection
Address: 11 Unity Street #01-06
Robertson Walk
Singapore 237995
Tel: +65 6238 6878
Website: www.wineconnection.com.sg

Food & Travel Cheese, Food, Robertson Walk, Singapore, Wine, Wine Connection

I may not be great with the Auntie duties like the cooing and baby talk, but I sure know how to wear down the camera battery. Took close to 250 photos on Saturday of Jules and the family by the pool.

Here’s a few more favourites from the set under the cut.
Read more…

Friends & Family, Snaps & Clips Jules, Julian, Photos, Swimming

No, just boiled sweet potatoes.

Food & Travel Food, Sweet potato, turd

Resemblance?

Friends & Family, Snaps & Clips Julian

One of the must do items on our itinerary was a day trip to Shen Zhen.

Danli was telling us about the bargain shopping, cheap massages, and manicures just across the border. And at that point of time, the 45min journey to Shen Zhen didn’t sound like such a bad idea.

That day turned out to be one of the worst day of our holiday.

Here’s a summary of what went down

• Evan woke up late, so me and Danz went out first
• Miscommunication on where to meet left us both waiting at different MTR stations. I was at Mong Kok, Danli was at Wanchai.
• Plan A: Was supposed to have Dim Sum at Wanchai.
• Change of plans, Danli came to Mong Kok. We converted some currency from HKD to RMB
• Plan B: Was set on eating Dim Sum, walked for an hour and couldn’t find a place in Mong Kok
• Just as we found one, I realized I left my passport behind
• Took a cab back to Wanchai to get passport
• Danli accidently left her Ray Bans in the cab. This was preceded with 30mins of cursing and swearing on her part
• Back to Plan A, walked to original Dim Sum restaurant
• Evan finally met us, it was 2pm
• So by the time we headed to Shen Zhen, half the day was already gone.

Talking about passport, this is my little rant about visas.

If you’re a Singaporean, you don’t need a visa when you cross over to Shen Zhen. I, on the other hand, am holding an EU passport. After checking the Chinese Embassy website, I went down to process my visa.

I left enough days to process the visa in time for my trip, what the website failed to tell you was that following Monday was a public holiday in China! So, instead of the normal price, I had to pay express! It cost me SG$80 FOR A ONE TIME VISA TO VISIT SHEN ZHEN FOR ONE DAY!

*gulp*

Always give yourself enough EXTRA time to get your visa.

Here’s how we got to Shen Zhen from Hong Kong:
Take the East Rail Line MTR from East Tsim Sha Tsui station (Kowloon side) to Lo Wu.

Lo Wu is the Hong Kong/Chinese border crossing, go through border formalities and you’re in the Peoples Republic of China.

Out the door and on your right you’ll see a big modern shopping centre, the Lo Wu Commercial Center. That’s where you want to go if you’re looking for fake goods, cheap shoes, beads, tailors and manicures.

You HAVE to bargain. One third to one half of the original price is about right.
If you need some time to think about buying something, remember to ask the for their business card. Because trust me, you WILL get lost.

The first train leaves East Tsim Sha Tsui at 5:28am and from Lo Wu the last train at 12:30am. Trains from Tsim Sha Tsui East to Lo Wu run every five to eight minutes.

Price: A single ticket costs HK$36.50

Food & Travel Hong Kong, Hong Kong Diaries, Massage, Shen Zhen

Snaps & Clips video

Here’s another youtube video for today. First time I’ve ever seen this being done!

That’s just sick!

Snaps & Clips Music, youtube

Before I post another entry of Hong Kong, like to share this funny clip found on the net. Especially dedicated to cat-loving friends Melody, Germaine and Dawn.

Watch till the end, it’s worth the wait. Heh heh heh…

Here’s another one. Poor kittehhhhss

And here’s a link to Mean Kitty. Enjoy!

Snaps & Clips Cat, Randoms, video

Yup you guessed it, froyo again.

Anyone has the calorie breakdown for a Yo Mama froyo?

Food & Travel Froyo, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Diaries, Yo Mama

I find great joy in discovering new hole-in-the-wall restaurants with tasty local food. Maybe it’s because of its rustic décor and local flavours, it so satisfying finding a rare gem of an eatery amongst old shop houses hidden in small alleyways.

Our recent quest led us to a small little place in Wanchai called “Crowd Restaurant (群 众小厨)”.

Most Hong Kong eating-places like this are small and floor space is maximized by cramping as many tables and chairs as possible. More often than not, you’ll have to share your table with complete strangers.

What I love about Chinese food is that your meal is cooked when you order it, so it’s served hot and fresh out of the kitchen. Huge demerit points to restaurants that opt for the easy way out of reheating/microwaving your food. On a side note, most of the time this theory holds true: the grumpier the 老板, the tastier the food! Discuss!

Back to the restaurant. The menu was all in Chinese, so it took awhile for me to figure out what was what. Maybe it would have helped if I turned the menu the right way up. Thank goodness for the pictures of some specialty dishes on the wall, all I had to do was point to it and say “一碗”.

Dru made the safe choice of ordering the sweet and sour pork with rice. Ironic because the non-angmoh was ordering what I consider a very Western-Chinese dish.

I opted for the scallop vermicelli. At this point, it also occurred to me that the pictures of food on the wall were probably the most expensive dishes too. I fell for their marketing ploy. What a Dupe!

But all was redeemed when I was presented with this massive claypot bowl of noodles with a generous amount of scallops (some were hidden under the noodles, can’t see from the picture). And all for just something as little as HKD75 (approx SGD15) But don’t quote me on this, I didn’t keep the receipt so I can’t remember how much it was exactly. Portion size was double of what we were used to, so we had to 打包 it.

It tasted great, I’d definitely go back there for seconds.

群众小厨／群眾小廚
Address: Shop A, 14 Gresson Street, Wanchai
Tel: +852 2866 8088

Food & Travel Food, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Diaries, Restaurants, Wanchai

I love travelling on the ‘Ding Dings’!

The tram line has been carrying passengers from the East to the West of Hong Kong Island since 1904 (more specifically travelling from Kennedy Town to Shau Kei Wan).

It’s a wonderful way to explore the city, because you’re not going too fast, which allows you time to take in the sights (and smells). And the best part? All for just HK$2 which is equivalent to approximately SG$0.40!!! It was especially convenient for me because it took me about 10mins to get to Central. Sweet!

How to travel on the ding ding

1. When you’re at the tram stop, find out which direction you should be going by looking at the tram guide
2. When the tram comes to a stop, ENTRY is from the back door.
3. No payment until you EXIT the tram
4. When you’re near your stop, I’d suggest you start making your way (or more like wiggling and squeezing your way) to the front
5. There’s a coin box or Octopus card scanner next to the tram operator at the front. Pay when you exit.

If you want to know why it’s called the ‘Ding Ding’, visit the Discover Hong Kong tram guide website and the flash splash page will give you your answer.

Loved the adidas branded Ding Ding!

Food & Travel Ding Ding, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Diaries, Tram

In Singapore we have our Cold Storage, Giant, Marketplace,NTUC Fairprice. In Hong Kong they have Wellcome, Taste, Great Food Hall and ParknShop.

The other day, I went into the Great Food Hall at Pacific Place, and was surprised with the variety of food available at this supermarket.

They had a huge deli and bakery section, with freshly baked breads, plus well stocked rows of food from around the world.

I spent a good 20mins just in the vegetable section, looking at the fresh produce and finding fruits or greens I’ve never before.

Check out the size of that Artichoke!

And talking about weird produce, check out this fruit! It’s called Kiwano fruit or Horned Melon.

The horned melon (Cucumis metuliferus), also called African horned cucumber or melon, jelly melon, hedged gourd, melano, or kiwano, is an annual vine in the cucumber and melon family. It is grown for its fruit, which looks like an oval melon with horn-like spines. The fruit of this plant is edible, but it is used as often for decoration as for food. Though the horned melon is native to Africa, it is now grown in California and New Zealand as well.

Source: Wikipedia

I didn’t buy it, but this is what was said about the horned melon online:

It tastes like a sour cucumber with hints of kiwi and lemon, and the texture resembles an aloe plant’s gelatinous, gooey guts, but full of semi-rigid, pumpkin-like seeds. The seeds are hard enough that we don’t think we’re supposed to eat them, but because they’re suspended in the gelatinous goo, it would be very hard to eat around them.

Hhhmmmmm….. thank goodness I didn’t!?! Doesn’t sound very appetising to me!

Food & Travel Hong Kong, Hong Kong Diaries, Supermarket