Couldn't sleep much due to the jet lag. I slept at 2am (5am EST Australian) and woke up at 8am. I continued to lie on the bed for about another hour later and enough is enough!

Had a quick shower and just headed to the coffee shop across the road for some local breakfast.

The fried bee hoon was so yummy! Even more beautiful when washed down with Ice Horlicks.

Eliss chose otah, fried chicken wings and cabbage for me.

Bon appétit! I find this even more satisfying that having a picnic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge where they closed it for a few hours to launch the month long Crave Sydney festival.

Eliss ordered bar chor mee, but substituted the starch for kway teow (rice noodles).

Why don't they have this in Sydney? I say abolish all the pseudo Singaporean noodles and replace with this stuff here. It's not that hard to cook this!

All you need is super awesome sambal chili, boil the ingredients and mix them all up.

We went to visit Eliss's mum at her you char kway (dough fritters) stall before we took the mrt to the city.

After hearing news that my current EZ Link card cannot be in used as it has passed the deadline to exchange it for a new format, I was quite concerned about the hassle to swop it over.

To my surprise, the counter person was kind enough to do it for me as we told her we just came back from overseas.

Phew!

This was the place where my dad used to bring me to buy second hand DC comics. They all come in boxes, and we need to sort through to find the goodies.

I still have some of them till today. Old school stuff, man.

This area housed many craft shops frequent by art students, so I guess shouldn't be too surprised to see eccentric characters here.

One of Eliss's good friend works at an Optometrist here, so I always get my eyes checked and buy new glasses if I have to.

I got my Oakley Gasket from her last year, so just come here to get it cleaned up professionally.

We walked down to Bugis Junction to escape from the heat. Feeling hungry again, we headed to the foodcourt and realised it was no longer there, and was replaced by food stalls with no places for us to sit.

I have to say Fei Siong fish cakes are super awesome. Coupled with their to die for chilli sauce, it is the perfect snack.

I try to abstain from drinking ang mo beverages and go all out local. Eliss bought ginseng tea and red sugar cane drink for me.

Casey and Dorothy joined us in a bit and took us to a famous chicken rice place near Raffles Hotel. It had got an old world charm, and it's like we are back in the 70's.

They serve their boiled chicken the traditional Hainanese way, sans the gravy as served by their Cantonese counterpart.

This combination stir fry is a made up of roughly cut meat and vegetables. No presentation, just simply no frills, down to earth good tasting food.

We headed for service on the MRT after that.

One thing I notice here, as compared to Taiwan for instance that people ignore priority sitting area. Despite the posters, different coloured chairs, people generally do not really pay attention to this or just sleep on the obvious.

After being squeezed in a tin all the way to Singapore Expo, we arrived at CHC.

It's great to be back in this great church and the sermon was really powerful about being a true worshipper. Pst Tan is awesome delivering the message in such a concise and humourous way.

Derek and Noni, our friends from Sydney came in to join us as well.

We met so many friends after service, you can almost say we were ambushed from all directions.

Good to see that everyone is doing well, and look forward to catch up with all of you!

With some time to spare before supper at Geylang, we went there earlier to explore.

This area is particularly dodgy as it's also the red light district. I don't why some of the best restaurants are in area like this. Think Juju at Kings Cross.

There are people peddling contraband cigarettes off plastic bags on the ground, street walkers standing on the pavement soliciting for business, as lewd old men and sweaty foreign workers size them up.

I wouldn't live here for sure.

This is the famous crab place that we are meeting up for supper. So glad to find a table at their air conditioned VIP area.

Noni was petrified that we actually eat venison here. We had to keep telling her that it's just pork. It was hilarious!

No bull, this is actually on their menu! I know people always get drunk on a Saturday night, I didn't know frogs were the same.

Well, at least the guys won't end up on a plate in a restaurant.

The piece de resistance, Singapore Chilli Crab! Live mud crab simmered in chilli gravy with eggs.

The guys got their hands on the biggest pincers.

Jess and Mark soaking up all the gravy, leaving nothing to waste.

Do I need to further explain how good the food was?

I've been getting mixed reactions, well, usually negative reactions about my customised Havianas.

"Why did you choose this colour?!"

"Looks quite gay, leh."

"You have a... unique taste..."

Anyway, I picked the colour and I like it! If it's customised, it better look out of this world. What's the point of getting something that looks off the shelf?

4 more days to the BIG holiday. Can't wait!

Been reading up on my school, St Andrew's. I spent 10 years there to complete my primary and secondary school education.

It's been a long time, and I still have feelings for that place. Maybe that's why they say once a Saint, forever a Saint.

I'm going to pay St Andrew's Village a visit, now they they have brought SAJC in as well. I see that some of the teachers that thought me are still there.

Wow, can't imagine they have been teaching there for more than 15 years, so even longer.

I doubt they remember me, but I won't forget some of them.

Wohoo! Not bad for staying back late today!

Samsung came to my company to launch their new phone system earlier in the evening. After that, they conducted a draw with the business cards that we dropped in the bowl.

There were 3 prizes. A mini home theatre, which I doubt is anywhere close to my Bose system.

A point and shoot digital camera, which I doubt has a 2.0 lens like the Lumix Lx3 which Eliss wants to buy for me.

And there is the video cam, which was something that I wanted to get for a while. I was praying silently that they will call my name.

And voila, praise the Lord! Perfect timing for the Tokyo trip!

The SMX-C14 has a 25 degree active angle lens that promotes a healthy hand position that eliminates wrist pain and fatigue. Clever.

It has a 160 minute battery life, shoot up to 6hrs video and store everything in its 16GB built in memory.

I just need to buy additional SD cards for more storage.

No more tapes! I hate when it they run out and you have to scramble to reload them. And you have to bring so many of them if you are out the whole day.

I came home and had a quick check on the market value of my new toy. $450, man!

It was definitely worth staying back for an hour for this.

I'm glad this week is coming to an end. It's been mad, so many customer issues to resolve.

Counting down for 6 more days of work and 3 weeks of holiday!

I don't usually talk about work here, but I'm really excited to be presented 4 awards this morning during the sales meeting.

I have achieved more than $100,000 each month back to back for the last 2 months, got the Manager Award and also Most Improved Award for Q1 09.

This has been a milestone for me as this job didn't come easy. For those who are closer to me, you know the story. To arrive to this stage has been a miracle through and through.

And I really thank God for all these.

Well, I'm counting down to the big holiday next Friday going back to Singapore for 3 weeks.

I didn't miss really miss Singapore until about now. I still don't miss the heat, but I do like to check out all the new things.

The last time I went back in October, it was too short as I only have a week there as the other week was spent in Taipei.

I'll be home for 2 weeks this time round, and 1 week in Tokyo. So I hope this time round will have more opportunities to visit new places.

If you like to meet up for a drink or catch up, send me a message of FB me. I'll be back from the 23/10 to 13/11.

Well, I've heard many good things about ION Orchard and other developments along the shopping belt. Will definitely spend a day at the Orchard area.

Being a diehard foodie, I will always go on a holy grail with the help of the ieat blog. So much to eat and so little time!

Feel free to suggest other places that I should visit.

Who says only a girl has a big shopping list?

Panton chair to rest my tired legs while I surf the web on the MacBook Pro.

Lumix LX3 to take good indoor pictures and HD video on the upcoming Tokyo trip.

Solar powered G-Shock to keep up with the times.

Golf GTI for the occasional weekend road trips.

Time flies.

My parents and sister will be here this coming Friday evening.

Looks like the weather is going to be perfect to head up to the Blue Mountains.

The last time my mum came to Sydney was way back when I was a kid. I remembered that I was into LA Gear and all that. That's how long ago it was.

Main difference this time is that my dad and younger sister will be here too.



Looks like it not just us trying to lose some weight for the summer, the new PS3 Slim will 33%, 36%, and comes with a 120GB hard drive.

What remains is the streamlined model's pricing of US$299.

And it is going to be launched come September/ October.

This could be a good time to get into Blu-ray.



I was just doing some last minute research on the Macbook Pro when I came across this new yummy looking netbook.

Is it another Asus, HP, Acer, Dell or Sony? Nope, it's a Nokia. Yes, from the same guys that brought you the N97.

Based on the Intel Atom processor, the 1.25kg Booklet 3G comes with a 10" display and built-in HSDPA wireless connectivity. Furthermore, it also integrate A-GPS for satellite navigation. The chassis is made of aluminum and apparently measures just over 2cm thick.

Battery life is said to be around 12hrs. Very impressive indeed.

Spot the difference?

Microsoft was caught for altering a photo on its website to change the race of one of the people shown in the picture.

A photo on the US website shows two men, one Asian and one black, and a white woman seated at a conference room table. But on the Polish one, the black man's head has been replaced with that of a white man.

The color of his hand remains unchanged. What the?!

I still prefer Apple ads.



Has anyone went to Tokyo on free and easy?

The last time I went was with some friends back in the Shatec days. We went to Tokyo and Osaka with SA UIC Tours.

Not very impressed with their service.

Anyway, I'm doing some research at the moment and quite a few people advised that if we are going to other prefecture, we must get the JR Rail Pass.



If not, a Suica card will be enough. This is definitely the cuter version of ezlink card.

Sim Lim is probably modeled after Akihabara, which is famous for electronic, computer and anime related stuff.

I wonder if the Lumix is cheaper there.



How many know this is a place for otaku goods as well? I thought you can only find cosplay at the Harajuku area.

Thanks to a friend, we got to play tennis in the middle of the city. And what a rare warm weather we had in this winter season.



I haven't played for ages and it shows. The grip of the racket is too big for me and I'm getting blisters.

Feel like getting a brand new Wilson, white and red one will be pretty good.













You know what, I had a even greater time capturing the action shots of all the other players. Haha! Blame my lousy stamina and crap tennis skills.



Have you seen clouds like this?

They are called Morning Glory clouds and, says NASA, no-one is quite sure what causes them.

Morning Glory clouds roll for 1000km at altitudes up to 2km high over Burketown in Queensland every spring.



Just as I thought that the Lumix LX3 was the most lust worthy compact in the market, here comes the Canon PowerShot S90.

I'm looking for a camera small enough but powerful enough

It features a 28-105mm F2.0-4.9 stabilized lens with a control ring built around it that enables control of camera settings such as exposure compensation.

Like the new G11, it includes the high sensitivity 10MP sensor and Digic 4 noise reduction to make up a 'Dual Anti-Noise System.'

In keeping with the photographers' camera brief, the S90 includes manual control and RAW shooting.

Nice. Could be the perfect weapon for upcoming trip to Tokyo. Pity it doesn't have HD video recording at the LX3.



Woohoo! Looks like I can plan to get the new Macbook Pro a little earlier than expected!

I was waiting for the new of the new OS to launch as they are going to charge $29 to upgrade from Leopard.

I love Fridays, just like all people who work 5 days work week.

My boss is really happy and in an extremely good mood as we've hit our team target, with one more week to go to the end of the month.



The Thais have done it again. Well done to P&G for engaging this ad agency to reinforce the slogan for Pantene.

I'm really excited that my parents and younger sister are coming for a 2 week visit in a couple of weeks time. The other one couldn't make it as she will be planning to go for her honeymoon really soon.

Where should I bring them?

After an hour of Skype on the iPhone, I got a better picture.

The voice quality is pretty good, and it's just like making a regular phone call as you are not talking to the laptop. I definitely recommend you to download the app on your iPod Touch as well and use a earphone cum mike.

It's really nice to catch up after all this while and know that they are all doing well.

Yestarday, we ventured to Darlinghurst/Surry Hills for our property search.

We didn't get the one we liked at Ultimo because we couldn't agree to the price. Well, this is going to be the most expensive purchase in our life, so we have to make sure we are getting a good deal.

It can get really tiring to be able to find a place that connects to you. If you've bought one before, you'll know what I mean. When you step into that place, you just like it. It makes you feel really comfortable, and you can really see yourself living in it.



The perfect way to start the weekend is to relax at a cafe, surfing the internet using the free wifi provided.

I miss spending reading the papers, people watch and just sipping that warm cup of latte. The whole world seems to slow down suddenly, and you really get to cast away all the stress from the week.



I ordered the traditional aussie big breakfast.



Eliss ordered what tasted like chili con carne, without the kidney beans.



Three cheese toasts came with the set. I could taste Gruyere, but couldn't make up the rest.



Say cheese!

After that, we just went for a couple of inspection and just strolled along Oxford St.

I like this suburb, although it can get crowded at night. And jam packed during Mardi Gras. There is a very artistic vibe to it. Maybe because of the eccentric shops, and COFA is just around the corner.



Today afternoon, after a sumptous lunch at Newtown Thai, we went for a second round of yummues at Clem's Chicken.

Located at Cnr King & Brown Sts, this chicken shop serve the most awesome fried chicken. Better than KFC, I reckon.

The skin is flavourful, and not too salty. And the best thing is you can request all the pieces to be of the thigh. If you try this at KFC, you'll probably end up with wings and ribs.



We also introduce this findings to Sidney and Chloe. Ollie at the back was the one who told us about this place.



I'm deliberating if I should get rid of the 2 cars, and get a new one.

I want a small car this time, something that isn't thirsty and looks decently stylish.

The new Honda Jazz certainly looks quite appealing.



And with a bit of money and imagination, the cute car can be turned into a Mugen showpiece.