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Cracks us up

2006-09-02T13:05:00.000+08:00

Frank Burns: (angrily) You... you, you!

Hawkeye: Now, who're you calling a You You?!

We've been watching too much M*A*S*H. heh heh

Macintoshed

2006-08-31T23:37:00.000+08:00

It's official. Tomorrow marks the day we really move on to the "other" side.

Tomorrow, we pick up our 20-inch 2GHz Intel Core Duo iMac. We could've, today. But we didn't have time to wait for the guy to fix it up.

With YellowSub's Powerbook, my iBook and our two iPods, the newest addition makes 5. Heck, even my parents jumped onto the Mac bandwagon a couple years back when my dad carted home an eMac from the PC fair. YellowSub's sis has one too, and my sis might just make her Macbook purchase in a few days time since her IBM's konked out.

Now brings us to the next question -- what should we do with our desktop PC?

Happy National Day

2006-08-08T22:04:00.000+08:00

9 August is here again. And this year, we have tickets to the Parade - the last time it's ever going to be in the National Stadium before it's finally torn down.

Finally.

2 years ago, "they" said that it would be the last parade in the stadium then. Now "they" are really saying it's the last one.

Sunday Itinerary

2006-08-07T08:06:00.000+08:00

0730 Mat mops floor / Yellow Sub goes cycling
0945 Breakfast @ Ghim Moh
1130 Mass
1245 Crumpler boutique @ Wheelock Place
1315 Borders
1430 Cathay Photo @ Marina Square
1700 Istana
1900 Dinner @ YS mom & dad's
2100 Badminton
2200 Home

Rise & Shine
Housework and exercise.

No chwee kueh today (sung to the tune of Herman's Hermits' No Milk Today)
Despite living so nearby for over 20 years, I don't think I'd ever been to Ghim Moh on a Sunday morning. So this weekend was an eyeopener for me. It kinda felt like a mini Chinatown with shopkeepers setting up tables and selling their wares along the passageway and across the hawker centre for more visibility, with loudhailers and music blasting for attention. The chwee kueh stall was closed, so we had mee pok, nasi lemak and dim sum. Never knew Ghim Moh could be so alive with activity.

Mass
We actually reached Church pretty early at 11.10am! Usually, we'd be rushing in after parking our vehicle before the opening hymn starts. heh heh.

Bags, bags and more bags
We simply love Crumpler. Between the two of us, we have 3 Crumplers - a camera sling bag, a laptop haversack and a little camera case. Alas, the camera haversack YellowSub was looking for was not too suitable, so we don't have a 4th.

Books
YellowSub had been hunting for this particular CD he had read about in Life! It's a Sergey Prokofiev box set that had been reviewed and he wanted to take a listen. But HMV had sold its last copy and That CD Shop in Tanglin Mall didn't have it either. Well, neither did Borders.

Incidentally, call me suaku but Borders has now this very cool music testing system where you just pick almost any CD, scan in the barcode, and voila! Sample tracks come on. So you no longer have to depend on what CDs they display for testing. The only problem arises when they don't stick the barcode low enough so that you can have it scanned.

Photography
YellowSub bought a new D200 last week (yippee for me, because i've inherited his D70) and needed a camera backpack because the current slingbag puts a strain on the shoulders when more lenses are added. So we went to trusty old Cathay Photo. The Peninsula outlet is closed on Sundays so we had to head to the Marina Square outlet, which is manned by Peninsula staff on Sundays (??!??!). Anyhoos, we spent 2 hours there. In the first hour, we met YellowSub's friends E & CS who came in to shop. In the second hour, we met another friend, D. Who, too, came in to shop. It's weird that of all places, you meet 3 friends in one little shop.

At the end of our 2 hours, we walked out of the shop with a Lowepro haversack, a tripod and a tripod head. It's amazing how tripods can cost so much. And the head -- just as much!

The Gardens
We had meant to go to the Botanic Gardens to play around with our cameras when it occurred to me while heading towards Dhoby Ghaut that the Istana had an open house. So we decided to stop there instead. I was last there more than 20 years ago when I was just a kid. YellowSub was just there this year for a work-related function. We walked through the gate, and there was I thinking -- hey, this is simple enough. What I didn't expect was when I turned round the corner, I saw a whole marquee with x-rays and many, many armed guards.

Ok, keep cool. I don't have any guns.

Into the gardens, well, golf course... very nice grass. There was an art exhibition of painted Bata shoes. It was a really pretty sight, and somewhat touching to see the artworks of our kids displayed for National Day. We started taking photos of the colourful shoes when I saw a few buggies come by.

"Hey, Istana buggies!" I said

Then YellowSub replied, "The President is in it."

*tada*

True enough, the buggy stopped and out came President SR Nathan and his wife, along with their entourage to view the artwork. And like bees swarming to honey, citizens started going towards them. It's tough being a public figure, difficult walking around without any obstacles and not getting upset. heheh. We were pretty lucky because they viewed the exhibit right across us, unblocked. So I think I managed to get a good shot. He smiled at the visitors and shook some of their hands, hopped on to the buggy and to their next stop.

What do you think the president's reaction would be if you called him "Your majesty"? Would he be stunned for a while? lol.

We continued on our tour of the Istana with impeccably well-kept greens, and it was an amazingly long walk. I shoulda worn my Papillios' but I was afraid I'd be turned away at the gate for being inappropriately dressed, so I wore my work shoes instead. Turned out to be a big mistake. :p

Add this to our Wishlist

2006-05-31T01:43:00.000+08:00

OFE, Yogyakarta

2006-05-28T03:34:00.000+08:00

Ohh, they just announced it.

It's 3am. Just saw YellowSub off on the cab, and he's on his way now to the airbase for his flight in. How long is this going to take? A few days, a few weeks? We have no idea! We'll be "playing by ear".

Jogja

2006-05-27T21:27:00.000+08:00

Yet another disaster strikes Indonesia, in the island of Java.

Adrian's been deployed and will be leaving for Jogja at 6am tomorrow.

So where the bloody hell are you?

2006-05-08T23:30:00.000+08:00

Loved their previous ad campaign. This, too:

So where the bloody hell are you?

We did it!

2006-01-13T23:49:00.000+08:00

Highest peak in Africa, originally uploaded by matreshka.

4 January 2006. 6.05am East African time.

After 6 days of trekking and some scrambling, we managed to summit the highest peak of the African continent, Mt Kilimanjaro.

At 11.30pm on 3 Jan, we started off from our campsite on our journey to the summit. It was a slow uphill climb and with the altitude, it was necessary that we didn't go too fast. But our consistent pace ensured that we arrived to the summit on time to see the sunrise atop the peak, surrounded by beautiful glaciers.

Earth from the Air

2005-11-05T10:39:00.000+08:00

Aerial Photo
Originally uploaded by matreshka.

This photo was taken in London when we were there in July and is a photo by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, a French photographer who's been going around the world taking aerial shots of the environment.

This particular shot was of the French rescue helicopter at the aftermath of the Tsunami at Meulaboh, Aceh, Indonesia.

The display of his photographs themed Earth From The Air is ongoing now in Orchard Road (from Forum Galleria to Wheelock) till Jan 17. Some thought-provoking shots included, and if you have the chance, you should watch the documentary that's in one of the red tents, where he explains his works and some of his photos.

Next! The ring of fire!!!

2005-10-27T22:25:00.000+08:00

Socks' newest trick :)

蔡琴【銀色月光下】新加坡演唱會2005

2005-10-23T16:38:00.000+08:00

Cai Qin "Silver Moonlight" Singapore Concert 2005

Last night, we attended our first paid Chinese gig. It was at the Singpaore Indoor Stadium, and even though we arrived early, the traffic towards the stadium was long enough to make anybody late. Thankfully even though we parked a distance away, we were still on time.

My first statement to Adrian when we got out of the vehicle was, "Err. I really think we're one of the youngest ones here."

We kinda expected that, just that reality struck us that we're not exactly attending a youngish pop concert. Cai Qin started her career in showbiz when we were just two. And to this date, she has cut 43 albums. Can you imagine that?

I discovered Cai Qin's music by accident. There was a season when I was into Chinese oldies and was hunting for the song 夜來香 (ye lai xiang) when I stumbled upon her version of it. And although I didn't know half the things she sang, I loved the way she sounded - and how she made the songs sound.

Inside the Indoor Stadium, the audience kept streaming in. It was a centrestage performance with 4 round platform levels, inspired by the moon. At 8.30pm, the concert started... it was dramatic, with the poetic introduction of her latest album to the theme and she appeared onto the stage with her first song. While I always thought her voice in her albums was fantastic, I was even more amazed with the real thing. Her deep voice was impressive and she was a true performer.

And a true-blue entertainer at that. She was humorous and knew how to talk to her audience. Her jokes were self-deprecating at times, but she largely knew how to make people laugh and pay attention. She wasn't full of comedic antics, but she was glamorously flambouyant. Her outfits were simple - and she was right - it takes only a confident woman to wear a simple dress.

On top of her usual Mandarin songs, she sang two Hokkien songs and actually made them sound classy. And two English tracks - one of which was Leaving on a Jetplane. She even had a fabulous band who accompanied her. It was also the first time I've heard the harmonica sound so good.

And this was also the first time ever in a concert that I've heard the performer do a personal credit mention of all the sponsors. Strange. I don't know about other Chinese concerts.. the only other one I've been to was Wu Bai & China Blue in 2000, and I don't think they thanked the sponsors.

Cai Qin is in a class of her own. And we'll definitely want to attend her next concert in Singapore, hopefully, next year.

Oh no Ennio

2005-10-22T09:17:00.000+08:00

Received an email yesterday to say that the tour for Ennio Marchetto scheduled for next week has been cancelled. Ennio injured his hand at a Hong Kong performance, and has been ordered by the doctor to cancel the rest of his tour in HK and SG.

My purchased tickets will be refunded through the credit card. But still a bit dissappointed. Ennio's been to Singapore at least once before. He performed at Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel many years back in the late 90s. I can't even remember if it's because I got free tickets or because I decided to buy the tickets at a whim to watch his performance. But it wasn't a mistake. This comedian/impersonator in cardboard outfits was hilarious.

Ah pity. Will look forward to his rescheduled tour. I hope we'll be able to go for the next one.

On the bright side, we're gonna catch Cai Qin at the Indoor Stadium tonight. I've become one of her brand new fans - even though I probably wouldn't quite understand half the words of the songs!

Is this cool, or is this cool?

2005-10-11T14:00:00.000+08:00

Check out THIS VIDEO - it's a Boys Brigade Sharity Run video by the Landrover Owners Singapore. Definitely look forward to being part of the action if there's one this year :)

Auditioning for Cirque du Soleil

2005-09-12T18:14:00.000+08:00

Achievement
Originally uploaded by matreshka.

Do I qualify? heh heh heh

Click on photo to read about my climbing experience. And see, in contrast, how easily Adrian climbs.

Driving Miss Daisy

2005-09-04T14:57:00.000+08:00

Miss Daisy
Originally uploaded by matreshka.

Say HELLO to Miss Daisy, our brand new addition to the family.

Collected it on Friday morning from Regent Motors and it's been Adrian's newest and (if I may so boldly say) favouritest toy to date. ;)

Fun fun fun fun fun.

Defender 90. Our Yellow Submarine. :D

Happy National Day!

2005-08-10T08:58:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was an eventful day with waking up late, visiting the parents with the granddogs, checking out a Land Rover gathering and having a mini NDP party at home.

McDonald's Delivery ... or what they call McDelivery has gone 24/7 and it being the National Day holiday and what with the frequent television commercials, the hotline was so jammed yesterday I couldn't get through. And when I finally got through, I had to wait about 10 minutes before I could speak to the order-taking-person.

Wow.

I take it as happy problem for McD's. Aside from the early hiccup of over-demand, I would say...

No minimum order, flat delivery charge of $2.
The food came fresh and warm... and on time as promised. The delivery person was polite as well.

Rating for McDelivery service: Good!

Call 6777 3777

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

2005-08-06T13:56:00.000+08:00

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Originally uploaded by matreshka.

Here's a pic of the cinema screening Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the day of its premiere in London. They apparently had quite a big do there because Leceister Square was dressed up like Willy Wonka Land.

...

Well, we managed to catch it yesterday at GV Grand and I must say that it's good and largely entertaining! Johnny Depp's such a convincing Willy Wonka, both of us found it a little freaky. MUST-GO-WATCH!

http://www.wonka.com/

Tour de France

2005-08-03T20:29:00.000+08:00

Tour de France
Originally uploaded by matreshka.

Can you spot Lance Armstrong?

2005-08-03T19:46:00.000+08:00

7 July. London gets bombed.
10 July. We fly off from Changi Airport.
11 July. We land in London Heathrow.

Took the Underground from Heathrow in the city - Liverpool St Station (one of the bombed locations). From one platform to another, we walked by a cordoned off entrance with the police tape. Was a little eerie. Cldn't imagine what was inside.

From there, with our backpacks and adrian's suitcase in tow, we bought our tickets for the train to Great Yarmouth (North of London?) where adrian was to take his exam. It was quite a stressful first week actually. On Monday, we walked to James Paget Hospital where Adrian was scheduled for his exam on Thursday... only to be told that the exam was cancelled! We were flabbergasted (wah! chance to use this word). Spending $1.5K per person on airtickets to London and making our way to who-knows-where Yarmouth was no joke. Apparently, they said, they couldn't get hold of enough examiners. Wot logic is that?

After a nailbiting two days... (as if taking the exam wasn't stressful enough. But not even knowing if you could take the exam after flying all the way there was worse) ... Adrian was told that he was scheduled for a place on Friday. Phew! We were supposed to have left for London on Friday, but the exam was more impt!

So Adrian passes!

I passed!
Originally uploaded by matreshka.

Holidayeh!

2005-07-01T10:41:00.000+08:00

We are going to London! And Paris! Yippee! The last time we were there... 10 years ago, we went separately (of course).

Am looking forward to the trip. But the thought of the currency exchange there scares me. A S$1,000 pocket money will only give me £300! How to survive? Tell me... tell me.

Our trip also means that the doggies will go on vacation. To the Holiday Resort where they're allowed to jump onto the couch and zzzzzzz... and be pampered like crazy. heh heh heh heh. They *might* even be joined by another doggy - Socks' biological, but estranged, sister. But that can only be confirmed later.

2005-07-01T10:33:00.000+08:00

Boo

Hey!

2005-04-20T20:49:00.000+08:00

Adrian went away without me ... again!

First Rockhampton
Then Meulaboh
Now India
Next Edinburgh

*hmph*

:p

Happy Post-Valentine's Day!

2005-02-15T16:04:00.000+08:00

It's a day late. But what the heck.

It was also the first anniversaryNelle's arrival. So as a treat for Nelle, we bought him loads of stuff from Daiso @ IMM. Socks benefited from our generosity too ;)

A leopard-printed bone-shaped pillow, blue and red tug rope, a scarf for each of them.

No food unfortunately! But they went crazy with the tug rope.

新年快乐，万事如意！

2005-02-11T12:18:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year everyone! It's 初三 today and we've been having hearty meals for the past week! Chinese Star is pretty cool, isn't it? ;)

Be back later!

A month later...

2005-02-08T09:31:00.000+08:00

We're back! Oops, never realised that we haven't updated the blog for a month.

One of us is older today... ha. This brings us closer to the 'late twenties' bandwidth'. In another two years, we'd be in our 'early thirties'. Ahhhhhhhh......

Anyhows, we went down to Morton's at the Oriental yesterday. This was to be my most expensive dinner ever - courtesy of Adrian. Had my first real lesson on steaks yesterday. But wow... the food was even great and the service probably made it taste even better. We shared an appetiser - half dozen oysters and they were so fresh, there wasn't that strange taste at all. I had Filet Mignon and Adrian had a Porterhouse steak. It was absolutely delicious. And they're right when they say the Filet Mignon is tender. We also shared an Idaho Baked Potato that was done so well. I wonder how they baked it so soft. We ended off with a cup of coffee but our stomachs could not afford space for dessert. Despite its price, i think it's well worth the money for the food and experience. Plus, I think practically every table there was celebrating a birthday! haha.

Happy Chinese New Year btw! Gong1 Xi3 Fa1 Cai2. Wan4 Shi4 Ru2 Yi4. Nian2 Nian2 You3 Yu2. Bu4 Bu4 Gao1 Sheng1. Feng1 He2 Re4 Li4... (?!?!?!)

The Gathering

2005-01-10T22:57:00.000+08:00

The girls (and two guys) came over last night. It's their first trip to our place in fact. Lots of food - sushi, sashimi, soft shell crabs, roast chicken, chicken pie from Don's, 2 pizzas, cake from Delifrance, grapes, chips, etc.

Of course, we couldn't finish them.

Elaine brought Song Joon along and they were first to arrive. Interestingly, he brought along a box of Attack washing detergent as a gift. Apparently it is Korean tradition to give washing detergent when you go to a new home -- because the bubbles formed from it signify overflowing, abundant prosperity. Interesting.....

I'd post a picture but i'm still new at this blog thing ... so it'll take me a little while to figure out how.

Phonecalls and Emails

2005-01-09T21:29:00.000+08:00

The papers say that Meulaboh is 80% devastated. From the visuals on CNA and CNN, everything looks flat.

Adrian's called a couple of times from the satellite phone... albeit rationed tremendously. He sleeps at about 1 or 2 am and has to wake up by 5am everyday. I think he's happy doing this though... being able to help those in need. Even more fulfilling than the hospital -- where patients can possibly be very demanding and 'smart'. Well, you know what I mean.

He can actually email too! But also once in a while because that's also rationed. At least now i can send him stuff and he can read it if he's able to. :)

He called me on Friday though, to tell me that he was switching ships to the RSS Persistence, and there might be even less access to communication (phone and email). So this time, I might not even get to hear from him. But well, no news is good news! I still have Juan as a back-up.

Not sure how long this mission will take. Everyone asks me - when will Adrian be back? But i don't know... my standard answer is, "Supposed to be two weeks, but could stretch to four?"

Whatever it is, I hope he gets back in time for Layfang + Fred and Jeremy + Zhen Zhen's weddings.

Meulaboh

2005-01-09T17:46:00.001+08:00

It's been 9 days since Adrian left for Meulaboh. 14 days since the disaster.

It was boxing day when we first saw the news of the earthquake in Sumatra. At that point in time, the magnitude of it all didn't strike us. It wasn't until the day after, that we realised how serious it had become - like a domino-rally that had disasters coming one after another.

So I asked Adrian if he was going to be activated... and he said that he wasn't sure.

28 Dec Tue, 4pm: Adrian called that he was activated and scheduled to go to Aceh, possibly on Thursday. He told me that he would be going to HQMC to attend a briefing.

29 Dec Wed: Adrian went to hospital in the morning to settle all the paperwork and handover whatever was necessary at work. Then he spent the day at HQMC for preparation. Departure the next day.

30 Dec Thu: We sent Adrian off to Nee Soon camp in the morning. The ship was supposed to set sail for Aceh at 5pm. But there was some problem with the ship, and it was postponed to the next day. That evening, we managed to head out to Chinatown and bought a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife... claypot rice for dinner at the hawker centre, and I bought a couple of party poppers, party whistles, spray streamers and an airhorn for Adrian's trip on the ship. His boss had asked him to prepare a little New Year countdown party as a motivational thingy for the guys... since they would be on board on NYE.

31 Dec Fri: We woke up at 4.30am... it was raining very heavily then. Adrian was supposed to reach camp before 6am so by 5am, we booked a cab. I sent him there, said 'bye' and watched him go into camp. He was off... this time, for real. Destination: West Aceh - Meulaboh.

After i got home, i went to rest a while before waking up to continue baking cookies to pitch into SH's bake sale/car wash drive to raise funds for the Tsunami victims. I suppose as Adrian was actually going there to help the people this was the least i could do. I baked over $200 worth (selling price) of chocolate chip cookies. I'm not sure if they were all sold, but they managed to raise about $10K in donations. Good effort!

At 2pm, Adrian called... he was about to set sail. We weren't sure if this was going to be our last phone call for the rest of his mission. The journey was going to take 40 hours from Tuas. RSS Endurance.

12 midnight: This has been my quietest New Year's Eve ever.

Happy birthday Nelle!

2004-12-12T15:32:00.000+08:00

Nelle turned one on Friday. No, he didn't have a cake and Adrian was on call then. So we sang Happy Birthday to him 3 times on Saturday. Nelle got birthday hugs. Socks joined in the bandwagon.

We went for dinner at Tony Roma's @ Suntec yesterday. Adrian was afraid that they wouldn't let him in because he was in flip flops since we met straight after his level 2 climbing course. Lo and behold! There was a queue outside ... and everyone else was in sandals! So i told him, "you're safe!".

Dinner was good... very very filling. I had a Southwestern Chicken which i couldn't finish. Adrian had a FULL slab of ribs. Amazing that he could finish the whole thing considering we had half an onion loaf (well, we had half of half an onion loaf really) and two bowls of soup between the two of us. Not forgetting the french loaf they had. Yum.

Then after we got home, we fed the doggies and played the Xbox. Atari on plasma is a blast... the ol' school icons ... are a laugh as well. And then we played Dead Or Alive: Ultimate. LOL. The graphics are excellent... and the girls are... well, droolable. *boing boing boing* if you know what i mean.

Our first

2004-08-25T21:44:00.000+08:00

Adrian's on call now. He must be in the OT cutting or sewing somebody up. Nelle, our schnauzer, is busy chewing his doggie tennis ball. Quite comfy that l'il one.