daily gripe

what has the world become....

they are selling wine in pull-tab cans!!!

posted by inspirethereal @ 3:30 PM 1 straight, not straightened

happy doggy year!

happy doggy new year to all! *woof!* have a great year of fun and joy! make lotsa moolah (honestly)!

*grin*

posted by inspirethereal @ 10:30 AM 0 straight, not straightened

the mkaeshift newton food centre makan quite the sedap!

man...been to the temporary newton like twice in a week - once on saturday with baby and colin and just now with charles and sandra.

that seems to be the ONLY place left in singapore that sell kambing soup. raimah near kembangan(choice place to go for prata/tissue prata/mee goreng supper) sold out, don't know when got mutton for soup. they don't even have mutton murtabak. the stall owner's father say his son haven't decided to order mutton. and this was pre-christmas no stock!! then simpang bedok, the big hawker area not the stand-alone opposite the street also don't have. that one got tulang, no kambing. then the tulang run out while they were making our order. so out of 6 people, only 4 got tulang.

so newton seems to be the only place that does the kambing soup with fresh spice at simmering hot temperatures. drink on a cold day shiok. drink on a warm night also can go down well. that's the idea!

got a picture of me bro enjoying his supper...this was after roasted chestnuts.

...to be fair, i shared the kambing soup. and some of the murtabak. he cleaned the plate.

posted by inspirethereal @ 12:53 AM 1 straight, not straightened

6 Tips for Wrinkle-Free Packing

Found this off Fodor's website - really decent website with lists of travel tips, destinations, hotels and all those things that you need to do to plan that long-deserved trip.

Lighten your load. Jamming your suitcases as full as a subway at rush hour will leave your clothes as exhausted as a crushed commuter. Clothes become wrinkled almost as soon as you shove that last leaden item into your bag. The easiest things to jettison? Hairdryers and clothes irons. Almost every hotel room (and hostel) in the world has these items to lend.

One word: Plastic. If you remember only one word in your packing efforts, this is the one. And here's why: friction causes wrinkling, plastic reduces friction. It's that easy. The best way to utilize this basic plastic physics is with dry-cleaner bags. All hanger items should be packed in individual bags (one outfit per dry-cleaner bag). Clothes arrive in a perfectly preserved state. Really! Another great plastic tip: zip-top baggies. Use these for dirty shoes, shampoo bottles, or anything else you want to isolate from your good clothes.

Rolling, rolling, rolling. You have two options for items that you're not hanging: folding or rolling. Rolling is a great space-saving and wrinkle-reducing choice for jeans and T-shirts. Here's how you do it: take a pair of jeans and fold them lengthwise so that the legs are stacked on top of each other. Now, starting from the cuff, roll your way up. For T-shirts, place face down, fold arms back (you should now have a long rectangle), fold lengthwise, and roll up.

Fold it. For sweaters and other non-T tops, the square fold is the way to go. Here's a quick primer: button all buttons and lay shirts face down on a bed or flat surface. Smooth away wrinkles. Fold material in at the shoulders and lay arms flat along the body so that you create a roughly two-inch overlap of material on both sides. Now fold up a third of the material from the bottom and overlap a third from the top. You should now have a tidy package worthy of any chain retailer.

Delicate situation. What to do with your undies and lingerie? Buy inexpensive mesh laundry bags; they're made of nylon and are lightweight. Stow your delicates in here. An added bonus: if your bag is inspected, no one need touch your underwear since an inspector will be able to see into the bag. Socks, by the way, should be rolled up and placed inside shoes or used to fill gaps in your bag (see below).

Pack it away. Now take all your tidily arrayed garments and put them outside your bag. Your goal is to use them to create a clothing jigsaw puzzle where no empty spaces remain and items won't shift. Lay your bag flat and put folded clothes in piles down the center. Put your toiletries kit at what will be the bottom of your bag when it's standing (this should now be the heaviest item in your bag; in this position it won't crush other items). Rolled clothes fit into the spaces around the stacked clothes. Single shoes should be tucked into remaining openings (remember, shoes aren't friends; they don't need to travel right up next to each other). Socks fill in remaining holes.

Voila! You are now a wrinkle-free savvy traveler!

*attributed to Melissa Klurman, full article can be found here.

posted by inspirethereal @ 11:51 PM 0 straight, not straightened

a phone call came for my finance manager about me...

...citibank was doing their credit checks on me regarding my credit card applications. apparently they still didn't believe that i was working for a real-life, true to scale, registered legally company. for more information, please check previous entries.

so anyways, this was somewhat how the conversation went according to my finance manager.

Citibank: can i enquire as to your company details? do you have a company registration number, your office location, number of employees etc..?

FinanceManager: yes we do have all those information.

C: how long has your company been operating? are you a local company? we have never heard of you. is your company public i.e. listed on the SGX?

FM: 20 + years. No, we are an MNC. sorry that you have never heard of us. yes we are public, we are not listed on the SGX, we are listed on the London Sotck Exchange and the NYSE.

C: oh.

FM: do you have any questions regarding our employee and his application status? or are you checking up on our company as a whole? we could refer you to our corporate finance office in san franciso or closer to home, sydney?

C: oh. no. it's fine. yes we are enquring about your employee. we will proceed to approve his credit card applications.

FM: thank you. *puts phone down*

FM to me: all settled.

me: thanks lots.

so anyways, not to belabour any further point, the cards arrived in the mail earlier today.

okok...fine, just one point. sometimes i think that we do not need to nurture more creativity for the entrepeurial class. all we need to do is inculcate common sense into the current working-pretending to be professional class.

posted by inspirethereal @ 1:48 PM 1 straight, not straightened

watched 2 movies and found my name correct in the register of electors

caught narnia the day before yesterday and still find it hard to believe in the flow of fantasy it protrayed. that a group of kids could walk up and through an army camp, take over the general's role and lead an army that would be inspired to follow them. all of these uncontested?

i don't think so. but i can see how it would appeal to kids. how it could have appealed to a pre-10 year old me.

also watched the terminal with tom hanks and catherine zeta jones. that one was really good. tom did the accents really well. really appreciated his portrayal as the victim trying to do some good. no sympathy there; no need for pity as well. just the wrong man caught in one of the worst 'cracks' in the system ever. what are the odds of your country becoming a non-entity as you are in the air?

oh yah...do go check your details on the Register of Electors at http://www.elections.gov.sg/eservices.htm. don't want them to mix up the wrong person with the vote. *grin* especially since we might actually get to vote this time around. *crosses finges*

posted by inspirethereal @ 10:15 AM 0 straight, not straightened

Sharon still improving, doctors stunned by recovery

this guy has got a mission that he hasn't finished yet. just look at his mental strength. would love to see him back at the helm. the middle east needs him.

******
Source: Channel News Asia

Sharon still improving, doctors stunned by recovery

JERUSALEM : Ariel Sharon's chief surgeon said that he was stunned by the Israeli leader's powers of recovery from a massive brain haemorrhage as the hospital reported a further upturn in his condition.

The 77-year-old prime minister, whose fate is crucial to Israel and the wider Middle East, remains in intensive care but doctors said they had been able to all but stop the drugs that had been keeping him in an artificial coma.

His chief surgeon Felix Umansky told AFP it could take months to assess the full extent of the damage Sharon has suffered, but he said his progress so far had defied all expectations, amid suggestions by some of the prime minister's allies that he could lead his new Kadima party at a March general election.

for the rest of the story, please click here.

posted by inspirethereal @ 10:21 AM 0 straight, not straightened

homely lil place called AZhang

right. so when we first stepped up to AZhang earlier this rainy evening, we were looking for a not-so-expensive place to settle ourselves down and have a nice dinner. we drifted along joo chiat road until we found parking in the public and decided to try this place called AZhang. we had read reviews about the place being intimidating and not-so-friendly.

so we walked in and asked to take a look at the menu. sparse was the word that came to mind. kebabs, curry, pilaf??!! and the prices weren't exactly that inviting either, if you get the drift. even the air-con was like 'woah...!' cold. but we looked out at the rain and decided that wandering around in our first long rain-fall period of the year wasn't the best option.

so we sat down and ordered. we had lamb, beef kebabs, beef curry with pilaf and lamb ribloins. the order took close to 30 mins to arrive. and when the portions arrived, it really didn't look filling, to be honest. the time spent waiting had better be good, i rationalised.

then we took the first mouthfulls of our individual courses. public opinion swayed then. well swayed is perhaps the wrong word. it tilted on the axis.

the lamb and beef was done just right. the curried beef melted in the mouth. and the lamb ribloins were large enough to pass off as a cutlet. the spices in the curry wasn't too hot and the pilaf was a good company to the beef. the lamb was medium done, you could still see the red and two skewers of it would be just nice. not too heavy.

the chef later came out of the kitchen to say hello and he re-introuduced the food - in words this time round. The kebabs came from the middle east and the curry from madras; the beef in the curry was from the shin so there was virtually no fat. it melts because they simmer it in pure spice. the lamb and beef were done medium as good meat shouldn't be fully cooked. the juices should marinate the taste. the chef said he didn't believe in bread. he also said that during the christmas period, customers ordered $250 turkeys to be delivered to his home. that he hosted social evenings for his mailing list to come try out different cusines. also that he entertained requests for food once you became a regular.

well the food really tasted good. didn't find $250 turkeys too far a stretch to believe in. we also signed up to be on the mailing list. not too often that you find a gem of a restaurant. true prices seem rather steep; it was like $88 for the four of us but then the Eastside is starting to unveil more and more good finds. hope that i wouldn't be the one to move out of this area.

in case you are interested, it is located along joo chiat road, opposite 'my mum's place' and nearer to the hotel 81 then the canton wok.

posted by inspirethereal @ 11:29 PM 0 straight, not straightened

another media event down the bag

here's what i have been busy with the whole first week of January 2006.

posted by inspirethereal @ 10:47 PM 0 straight, not straightened

what a way to begin the first week of 2006

beginning 2006 with late nights at work for the past week and burning the first weekend of 2006 so isn't the way to go. hopefully it doesn't set precedent for the other 51 other weekends i have left.

crappers when it seems the hours can revolve around one project the way it just did for this week. and the honest to honest truth of it all? it is so straight forward, the type you can roll over in your sleep, yawn...and the project is completed.

but no...due to external situations (read: waiting upon other idiots, lacking sense of urgency and timing), everything just accumulates, complicates and then threatens to derail the process. what a stupid way for things to potentially work out. and how disgustingly unmotivating.

posted by inspirethereal @ 12:30 PM 0 straight, not straightened

dictionary definitions

sub·side ( P ) (sb-sd)intr.v. sub·sid·ed, sub·sid·ing, sub·sides

1. To sink to a lower or normal level.
2. To sink or settle down, as into a sofa.
3. To sink to the bottom, as a sediment.
4. To become less agitated or active; abate.

(source: www.dictionary.com)

click here for more information about robert frost.

posted by inspirethereal @ 9:41 AM 1 straight, not straightened

poem from robert frost

this is very very nice - very simple & very apt for my 2006.

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost - Nothing gold can stay

posted by inspirethereal @ 10:38 AM 1 straight, not straightened

2005 teardrops, 2006 dreams?

alright, so we pass into another new year, saying and thinking more of the same, 'this year will be better and this year will see this or we will do that and yada yada yada...'. you know, all those usual excuses about what we could have done, or where we might have gone and even what others might have decided to do so that we would have done something. remember, those words are simply hot air.

let's move straight through the crappish bullshit and begin from a higher spiral then we were, in the year before.2005 was as good a year as you made it out to be, as you allowed it to become. 2006 will be even better, even more special...but only if you let it be.

so for this year, i will not make any more ridiculous demands on myself to reach this goal or use the new year as motivation to make it through the first 6 months then fake myself (somehow) to stretch through the remaining 6 months.

i will start it off simply. this year, i would like to encourage myself to be:

1. healthier by means of a balanced diet and regular exercise. (means i still get to drink my rum. in case anyone was wondering.)
2. read more books especially the biographies and the novels. (this came about thanks to Kim Stanley Robinson and his book 'The Years of Rice and Salt - after i finished it, i realised how much i missed thinking about content. those interested in alternative views of history should read his book. he works through 'what if the plague wiped out europe in the early centuries?'.)
*reminder to self: pay library fine.
3. make my liqudity work harder for me. (agents, don't bother messaging. i already have someone.)
4. travel, backpack or daytrek. (that will require further discussion; stay tuned.)
5. find a lovely place called home.

so as the days go by, and 2006 moves on, i hope that the opportunities to create or do the above happen. that is my simple dream for 2006.

posted by inspirethereal @ 10:30 PM 1 straight, not straightened

merry merry 2006!

here's wishing everyone a fantastically great 2006! have a year full of dreams reached and wished fulfilled!

posted by inspirethereal @ 4:30 PM 1 straight, not straightened