Fishing is my life...

2009-07-28T02:45:00.001-07:00

Ring ring...

Me: Hello
Caller: Mr Tan, I'm calling from 3 mobile. I understand you have reported your sim card and modem missing..
Me: Err.... (my sister is using it and she reported it), yes.
Caller: We can replace your sim card for free and your modem at £19.99 if you wish.
Me: Yea why not... can I get the modem at a discount?
Caller: let me check with my manager... (went for a while)... Mr Tan, we would certainly be able to give you a discount on the modem as well. What is most important is we get you back online. We can probably knock off another £10.
Me: (thinking to myself: stupid Ruth but ah, lets get this sorted out since I'm on the phone with them now) ok thanks please get it done.
Caller: Let me transfer you to the relevant department.

Transferring - wait 5 minutes

Caller: (Indian accent) Hello, customer services.
Me: I was transferred to you to get my replacement sim card and modem at a discount.
Caller: Name?
Me: Mark Tan
Caller: Huh?
Me: Mark Tan - T for Tango, A for Alpha, N for November.
Caller: Date of birth?
Me: 17 May 1978
Caller: Don't have you on the system.
Me: Errr... try my address?
Caller: Address?
Me: 32 Folgate Street, E1 6UJ
Caller: Huh?
Me: F-O-L-G-A-T-E Street, E1 6UJ, E for Echo, 1, 6, U for Uraguay, J for Japan.
Caller: Hold on.... (5 mins later).... We finally found you on the system... How can I help you today?
Me: As I said, I was transferred to get my replacement sim card and modem.
Caller: Let me transfer you to the relevant department...
Me: Huh? I was transferred to the relevant department... you're the relevant department.
Caller: No - let me transfer you.

Transferring - wait 5 minutes

Caller: (Indian accent) Hello, broadband services.
Me: I was transferred to you to get my replacement sim card and modem at a discount
Caller: Name?
Me: Mark Tan- T for Tango, A for Alpha, N for November.
Caller: Date of birth?
Me: 17 May 1978
Caller: Address?
Me: 32 Folgate Street, E1 6UJ
Caller: Hold on.... (5 mins later).... How can I help you today?
Me: I was transferred to get my replacement sim card and modem.
Caller: OK - its £5 for the sim card and £20 for the modem
Me: I was told the sim card would be free and that the modem would be £19.99 with an additional discount..
Caller: No - definitely not, its £25.
Me: Erm - I was just told that over the phone by your colleague.
Caller: This is standard, £20 is already a discount.
Me: Well, check your phone record if you wish...
Caller: No.
Me: Well in that case, cancel the service please.
Caller: Hold on, let me speak to my manager... (5 mins later)... Well, ONLY, and let me stress, ONLY because we believe you, we will waive the £5 sim card cost. The modem is £20.
Me: Huh? (getting weary now) whatever... ok (this stupid Ruth).
Caller: There's a £5 pound delivery charge...
Me: What??!!! (now my patience is wearing thin) Send it via royal mail, it doesn't cost £5.
Caller: OK, its £1.91 then.
Me: (sheesh) OK whatever...
Caller: Let me transfer you....
Me: WHAT???!!!

Transferring... (disconnected)

(Altogether 30 minutes of time wasted this morning)

Moral of the story? 3 mobile sux... simple as that...

Green shoots...

2009-07-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I've written and life has slowly but surely been turning around and getting better. Workload has increased significantly over the past few months and YL and I are kept so busy with work that most other things fade into the background.

The weather has also changed for the better, the nice and long sunny days followed by cool evenings often puts a smile on our faces. My sister has also graduated and will become a doctor which is a load of the minds of everyone in the family. Events have took place that has led us in a new direction in our lives (I will explain this later), both YL and I have had fantastic appraisals by our respective bosses, the sterling is strengthening...

so yes... things are certainly getting better.

Oh guess what??!! YL and I went to Take That's concert over the weekend... hahaha.... it was really quite good. The crowd, especially the women, were mostly in the wrong part of their thirties but it was so fun when everyone got into it, clapping and waving etc. And the supporting act Lady Gaga was also quite entertaining as well (but she's really a strange one though). We also went to see Graham Norton's show over the weekend which was very interesting and fun.

It just does not let up...

2009-04-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

Things have been relentlessly bad for me these few weeks... very tough choices to be made, being misunderstood by friends, and general argumentiveness abound.

But I thank the Lord for his grace, for everything that has happened and mostly for an understanding wife...

Psalms 121: 1-2: I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

I'm tired...

2009-03-19T11:27:00.000-07:00

Had a really rough week, its still going, is today Wednesday? or Thursday?... geez I don't even know....

[A quick click on the calendar] - its Thursday.... sigh this is one of the worse weeks in London.

London covered in snow...

2009-02-10T07:23:00.000-08:00

I guess its old news that London was covered in a blanket of snow last week. It was really fun though for us, since we need not take any public transport to work. However, what normally would be a 5 minute walk to work became more like 15 minutes, in part because we were trying to tread carefully cos the snow was slippery, but also because we were so busy admiring the place filled covered with snow and taking photos as we walked to work! It was a blessing that we need not travel cos I heard the horror stories of people taking up to 3 hours to travel to office. It was also a convenient excuse for many people to "work from home" though.

Anyway, last week passed relatively quickly cos no one came to the office on Monday and few came on Tuesday. On Thursday, I had my wisdom tooth extracted and while I would normally be moaning and whingeing about it, it was actually a relatively painless experience. Of course, the fact that I had dental sedation where the dentist injected me with a cocktail of sedatives and codine had no part in the process... heh, who am I kidding. I think the dentist must be thinking, I've never seen someone so scared of needles before. But seriously, anyone who has dentist-phobia should undergo dental sedation for their dental surgeries. I doubt I'd go for one without being sedated.

The weekend was relatively uneventful. We went for our usual Cafe Japan treat on Saturday afternoon. Realised that the master chef has sold the place but after he has passed down his skills to the current chef. I must say that while the food quality took a dip in the last few weeks, it has improved again to a standard almost as high as before. We then went to watch the movie "The Wrestler" in the evening after doing the week's grocery shopping. Next day was Church, dim sum lunch, "Revolutionary Road" movie, then dinner and Settlers of Catan and Adrian and Sharon. A fun but uneventful weekend...

Here are some pics of the snow outside our place..

My little lionheart...

2009-01-28T10:29:00.000-08:00

Deuteronomy 31:6 "Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you."

Last evening YL screamed at a guy who attempted to rob her at gunpoint. Facing adversity, the little lionheart in her stood up to the perpetrator who subsequently fled. Some may call this stupid, some may call it misplaced courage. I think that in that moment, our Lord is with her and she knew it, he was helping her to assess the situation and he gave her the courage to stand up to the robber. I am proud of her. I've been speaking to police detectives, the management company, resident's association, security company etc. about this matter but no matter what I do, no matter how much I can protect her, I know I can't be there all the time. I thank the Lord for being with her even though I could not (I was supposed to walk back with her but I had a seminar in the evening).

My enemies...

2009-01-22T04:21:00.000-08:00

This weekend, I had to face my enemies once again, those horrible and evil contraptions - my ski boots. Once or twice (twice last year) a year, my feet would have to face their enemies for a few days to a week. During this time, they would be bound like bak chang and made to endure below freezing temperatures while I attempt to ski (or snow plough) down the slopes. This weekend was one of those times.

We went to Cervinia (the italian side of the famous Matterhorn) for 5 days. We stayed with in this family run Italian hotel which was fantastic. The food was to die for and the hotel had a really nice chalet feel and charm. No fake smiles or forced small talk, just some good (sometimes gruff) warm Italian frankness. We met and chatted with 2 couples during the trip, one from Sweden and another British, both quite nice and friendly. The Swedish guy was really quite animated and he was telling us about how he visited Singapore in 1974 and 1989 and his experiences in Bugis Street etc. On his excellent recommendation, we visited a mountain restaurant, called Chalet Etoile which served amazing seafood (unbelievable right? seafood on the slopes of Cervinia) - the food was so good that at some point, I actually forgot that I had my enemies on. The ski runs were fantastic, so YL and I had the opportunity to work on our carving.

Anyway, we returned to London yesterday, well fed, well rested and satisfied. I was very glad that I could get to watch British TV again. Watching "X factor" or "Who wants to be a millionaire" in Italian was really testing. All in all the holiday was great, my feet were the only casualties but they're now recovering fine. YL and I are going to a jap restaurant Soseki www.soseki.co.uk tonight to celebrate her belated birthday (it was yesterday) and we're both looking forward to eating something other than Italian for a change.

Next skiing trip will be in March, at Obergurgl in Austria. I heard the food and the atmostphere there is nice but its going to be tough (at least food wise) to beat the Italians.

Here comes 2009!

2009-01-02T05:17:00.000-08:00

It is seconds after the clock turned 12 and we're now officially in 2009. We're in Church for the watch night service. Everyone turns to each other and wished each other well for the coming year. What does mummy do? She turns to YL and I and cheekily suggests that our new year resolution should be to provide her with a "sun zhi"! Wah raos!

Random 2008 pics

2008-12-30T10:01:00.000-08:00

Food I've learnt to cook in 2008!

Pandan cake

Bak Kwa(!)

Cha Siew

Siu Yok

Views from our new home

Wales 08 photos

2008-12-30T09:33:00.000-08:00

See ya 2008...

2008-12-30T05:53:00.000-08:00

Christmas has come and gone… sigh! We spent it in the mountain range of Snowdonia, North of Wales in a quaint little cottage which I later realised was about 400 years old (!) and was a grade II listed building (whatever that means) which made me feel like I was staying in somewhere of significance. Anyway, it was really different staying with a family of 5 (parents, Ruth, YL and I) as opposed to just YL and I that I'm so used to. Food seemed to finish up exponentially faster! Haha…

We had our splendid Turkey dinner on Christmas day – this was made magnificently by YL (who I feel has become quite a good cook in the kitchen!), the turkey meat was juicy and moist with a hint of orange and spice flavour. Needless to say, we walloped the whole bird in less than ½ hour. Mum ensured that we did not forget Singaporean fare and so prepared her usual suite of excellent yummies throughout the week, we had bua kuluat, chicken curry, pork chop, dumplings etc. Mahjong was the order for most days, sometimes extending into the wee hours of the morning. When we weren't playing Mahjong, it was cheesy movies, settlers of catan, billards, and just chatting. We were also very blessed with good weather, which is unusual for the time of the year so we made the most of it by roaming the countryside and putting my "fake" 4x4 to good use. Anyway, its all good and we arrived back in London without any hiccups (albeit all slightly heavier) after a week of fun and relaxation. Mum and Dad will be returning to Singapore in the next couple of weeks and Ruth will be going back in the end of the month.

Next up – more holidays have been planned, one ski trip in 3 weeks time followed by another with Adrian and Sharon in the 2nd week of March, a 2 week cruise to Turky, Egypt and Israel in early May, and hopefully (fingers crossed) our dear friends CW and LPs from Singapore will finally come up and meet us in London in March/April. So – an eventful 1st half of next year is planned and I can't wait. 2008 has gone so quickly but it will be etched in our memories as a splendid and eventful year living and working in London, wouldn't give it up for anything. See ya 2008…

Christmas is approaching...

2008-12-10T06:32:00.000-08:00

So, much has happened since I last wrote, sad events really, especially the Mumbai terrorist attacks and the Bangkok protests. As the news unfolded, I really felt sad and sorry for the victims in Mumbai who lost their lives so innocently and tragically. I just hope that what's happened has brought more people together to treasure their loved ones and not take anything for granted...

Anyway on a different subject, Christmas is approaching (!) and everyone is in a Christmassy mood lately. Mum and dad are both coming over to London and I've booked a cottage in the countryside (together with a traditional fire place and all) so the whole family can all spend a quiet and peaceful Christmas week together, who knows Santa might actually visit (since for the first time in my life he has fireplace access on Christmas eve)... hahaha. YL is excited about roasting a nice turkey for Christmas lunch and mum is all ready to cook up a storm for those 7 days. I've got the monopoly board, mahjong and other board games ready, and ruth is tasked with researching the sights to visit while we're there.... The only thing between now and then is this transaction I'm currently on which is going full steam ahead...

Oh well, 1 step at a time, 1 day at a time, soon it'll be Christmas and the New Year, then I'll have my leave entitlement reset - and it'll be skiing, diving, cruising, etc. all over again! 4 months since the last holiday is 4 months too long :)

Doctor doctor...

2008-11-17T07:41:00.000-08:00

Man I hate being ill.

Had the flu today so I went to the doctor, and all he did (besides prodding and poking) was to tell me I would get better. Had a prescription which I'm not supposed to use unless I get worse in the next 72 hrs and thats it.

"You'll get better???" - thats it??? no nothing to alleviate my symptoms? I know I'll get better, but I really feel like crap now so can you either (1) make me better faster or (2) make me feel better while I get better... I had no energy to argue with him so I just grunted and left.

How about "Gordon"?

2008-11-03T13:12:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, Yen Ling and I went to the live casting of Gordon Ramsay's latest show "Gordon Ramsay's Cookalong Live" :) http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/cookalong-live/ We managed to get tickets through a ballot system and were really looking forward to it. I must say, Ramsay was like a energizer battery, jumping up and down the whole time. But the highlight of the night was when he even spoke to me!! (well, it was speaking not in the sense of like having a conversation but rather, he said to me "Hope you enjoy the show") I was grinning from ear to ear and could only muster a nod with a "thanks!", nothing more... like a stupid starstruck teenager like that...

It was really so interesting watching how he cooked, explained and then served the meals. And when it was advertisement time, all the crew scurried to change the utensils, ingredients etc. James Caan and Peter Jones from 'Dragons Den' were also there... Johnny Vegas was the comedian that accompanied Ramsay while he was cooking. It was really quite a fun night. It was too bad though the energizer Ramsay disappeared too quickly after the show so we didn't manage to get any autographs.

If anyone wants to see the replay, I think its on Channel 4's website. It should be available with "4 on demand", YL and I were standing behind Gordon.

Anyway, apart from the exciting Friday evening, we had a very fun weekend as well, on Sat we had a cook-in with the Songs and Phee and on Sun we went to watch JB's Quantum of Solace and after that took a nice stroll along Canary Wharf after a meal at Slug and Lettuce again with the Songs and Phee...

Cha cha moon...

2008-10-28T03:45:00.000-07:00

I think we might have found our first "food court" in London! With all the bad news in the financial market at the moment, it's no wonder that more and more people and going to cheap and cheerful no frills restaurants instead of the mouth-watering but wallet-busting types.
This Sunday, we did just that… we went to cheap and cheerful cha cha moon with Adrian, Sharon, Lynette and gang. Cha cha moon is Alan Yau's latest venture; Yau is the guy who opened Wagamama, Busaba, Hakkasan and Yauatcha. Hakkasan is the only (I think) Chinese restaurant in London with a michelin star. Anyway, cha cha moon is the Chinese cuisine equivalent of Wagamama. All food cost £3.50 flat, portions are fairly small but its ok – we just got two portions!! heh heh… The most important thing though is that the food was GOOD. The tyrant and I were so impressed that we went again yesterday and we shared a plate of hokkien mee, cha kway teow, wanton mee and spring onion pancake… And the bill came up to £15! One funny thing that happened though was when the order was taken, I had the misfortune of being "corrected" by the waitress when I asked for Wanton Mian. She (ang mo huh) repeated after one or two tries: oh you want the "One Ton Mee-And", ok… I was thinking to myself, "err… right… but trust me lor, its not pronounced like that", anyway whatever… the Mee-And came and we gobbled it up in minutes. Apart from the food court price, there was also the food court/hawker centre style service, waiting (we had to queue for like 20 minutes) and atmosphere (everyone was taking so loudly, sharing benches and food was prepared in an open concept kitchen). All in all, it was an excellent find… and it looks like we'll be back.

http://eatlikeagirl.com/2008/05/13/cha-cha-moon/ I found this site while googling for cha cha moon...

Apart from cha cha moon, our weekend was also spent eating… heh heh… we went to our favourite Cafe Japan on Saturday afternoon and spent Saturday evening at Sharon's place where we watched X Factor while we had a nice home cooked meal. It was a bit odd though the combination of the food: we had buah kuluat, kong bak pau, grilled peppers with aubergine, cheesecake, scones with clotted cream and cheese… very cha palang right? Quite like us really… chinese origin, but with with a bit of ang mo influence

I want to buy a Blu-ray DVD player...

2008-10-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

But my wife says NO!! Hymph!

Credit crunch....

The Tyrant...

Fishing "Must Dos"

2008-10-21T02:52:00.001-07:00

Back to the topic of fishing... I've been thinking of what I "must do" in terms of fishing recently and here's a list... Non fishos will not understand...

1) Lizard Island, Australia - to catch a grander (more than 1000 pound) black marlin

2) Florida Keys, US - to catch the giant tarpon http://www.tarponsnook.com/Izzo9.1.jpg

3) Lake Nasser, Egypt - to catch the giant nile perch http://www.fishinginternational.com/location/africegypt.htm

4) Lake Ebro, Spain - to catch the giant catfish

5) Madeira, Portugal - to catch a giant blue marlin

6) Gloucester US - to catch a giant bluefin tuna

7) Alaska - to catch a halibut

8) Dun care where - to catch a salmon

9) New Zealand - to catch a broadbill swordfish

10) Cauvery river, India - to catch a mahseer

I think we've pretty much settled the name..

2008-10-09T03:34:00.000-07:00

Last night I thought I'd try to pull a fast one on YL to change her mind and name our son Bartholomew instead....

Here was how to conversation went:

Me: Hey - do you know that Matthew was a tax collector before he became a disciple of Jesus?
YL: (pauses for a moment) Yah but tax collector GOOD what...
(End of topic of conversation)

hmmm.....

Woo hoo!

2008-10-05T13:58:00.001-07:00

I've successfully mastered cooking sui yuk!! Woo hoo!!! This is after a number of not so happening tries... Now that I can cook both chicken rice and sui yuk, if all else fails on the law front, I can always be a chicken rice seller.... woo hoo!!! Little Matthew/Faith/Charity (in future) won't starve for sure...

Here's my resume pictures...
Siu Yuk

Chicken wings
Kidney soup

Some photos taken over the past 2 weeks...

2008-09-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

Just to set the record straight - YL is NOT pregnant... We've been talking about names but thats about it, talk only... We're not that keen on dramatically altering our lifestyle just yet.

Anyway, here are some photos taken over the past 2 weeks.

Our wedding anniversary celebrations along the River Thames. Its quite interesting actually... having lived in London for almost 5 years but getting a different perspective of all the buildings for the first time in my life. It was a fantastic meal, nice jazz band next to us, nice window view... it was a good change to the nice quiet dinners we had before.

2 weekends ago, we went picking our own fruits and vegetables... Credit crunch la... gotta save ££. It went from shopping at M&S/Waitrose to Tesco/Sainsbury then to Asda/Morrisons and finally to have to pick your own produce. If it gets any worse, we would have to plant our own fruits - tsk tsk tsk...

Hat Trick!

2008-09-17T03:13:00.001-07:00

So Today's the day! Actually, its today and tomorrow since we got married over 2 days… so I'll always have an excuse if I forgot ("Isn't it tomorrow dear? Oh you mean the church wedding, I was thinking about the wedding banquet!" tsk tsk tsk – I'm sure I'm going to need this in future)

Oh well, I can still remember 3 years ago, trying frantically to steal my bride from the experienced (and international cast) of jie meis (there were Singaporeans, a Malaysian, a Hong Konger, a BBC and an ah lian)… I doubt Das reads me blog so I think I'm safe… heh heh…

Anyway, as the clock struck midnight last night, I turned to YL, gave her a kiss, wished her happy anniversary and told her that I loved her. She was (as usual) sleeping so she grunted her usual "mmm, I love you too" back… and then she buried her head in her pillow… and I continued to watch my discovery channel. A year ago, we celebrated our 2nd anniversary in Chicago and 2 years ago, we celebrated it in Singapore… I wonder where we will be celebrating it next year…. Dubai?!

Thanks CY! I hope you are well in NY.

Pammy, we have settled the names already: Boy – Matthew, Girl – Charity/Faith. So hard to find a good name without re-using! I think "Sarah" will be nice as well. I heard from mum (in fact many many times) that you're expecting again (congrats by the way!) but hiyah, the pressure… Every time I speak with mum, we'll have this topic in the conversation (she even got Ruth to convey the message to me):

Mum: Son, happy anniversary!
Me: Thanks mum!
……
Mum: eh, did I tell you? Pammy is pregnant again
Me: Yes, you told me yesterday… (feeling of dread)
Mum: Yes, she's pregnant again… with her second child… her second child!!
Me: Yes yes… I know (now waiting for the inevitable)
Mum: When's YL's turn?
Me: I told you before, when we come back to Singapore la… 3 years time.
Mum: (pretend not to have heard what I said) You know ah, Pammy is pregnant again, I'm waiting for my grandchild also leh…..
Me: Yes yes, 3 years from now…
Mum: I can take care of your child for you, I can take care of YL, I can come to London, I can…….
Me: Yes yes yes, 3 years from now…
Mum: Pammy is pregnant again…
Me: Yes yes yes…
Mum: When's YL's turn…
Me: 3 years… yes yes….

So you see la… stupid Pammy… now kena pressure again…

Tomorrow is our 3 years wedding anniversary!

2008-09-16T04:15:00.001-07:00

Sianz… every morning there's some bad news around the world – Flyzoom, Oasis, XL.com, Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac, now Lehman Bros… sigh… What's worse, the sterling is dropping like a stone.

I think we should all go for a holiday… hehehe…

Anyway, tomorrow is our 3rd wedding anniversary! How time flies when you're having fun! These 3 years have been the best years of my life! We did say that we'll have a child 3 years after we are married, but I think that it has been a moving target (much to mum's exasperation) cos the plan now is still to have a child 3 years later. Heh heh… children can always have later, now must earn money so that my child can have a head start in life right?! Heh heh heh… actually (don't tell mum), the real reason is that we still wanna roam the world and go on holidays…

Anyway, yes – 3 years have passed so quickly. Since then, so many things have taken place, we have both changed firms, relocated to London, picked up diving, I've changed my specialty from competition law to corporate M&A and funds, and YL is now practising in debt capital markets, many of our friends have gotten married etc. I was kaypoing Steph's and Chay Ying's blog this morning to see if they wrote about their accounts of our wedding day 3 years ago… hahaha… and they did! (http://pigginginsydney.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_archive.html http://stephie81.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_archive.html) . Steph have since had a son, Josh and is now expecting another child! Congrats Steph! and if you're reading this, I know it's belated, but pai seh about the food portions…. we did tell the hotel to stuff our guests till they're bursting.... hahaha. tell HC we shall go for a big nice dinner the next time we return to Singapore! CY on the other hand has moved to NY after her round the world travels... we'll visit you next year CY... hahah I didn't know you were so kan choing and that it was so draining during the wedding! hahaha…. it was quite fun though heh? I wouldn't wanna do it again though!

This is what the jie meis did to "torture" my brothers and I 3 years ago!

Anyway, the plan for tomorrow is to go have a Thames river cruise dinner (told you we like cruising! Hahaha). It should be nice if the weather holds up so fingers crossed...

Nothern ireland photos

2008-09-03T13:36:00.001-07:00

Chicken rice ginger sauce!!

2008-08-27T08:28:00.000-07:00

Bank holiday weekend went by so quickly – it always does especially when you are having fun. I don't think a bank holiday weekend will go by quickly if I'm stuck in the office!

Anyway, as I mentioned before, we were in Northern Ireland for the bank holiday – it was a quick and cheap holiday! Flights were less than £100, car rental was £60 and accommodation was less than £200. It's kinda like the Brit version of our quick getaway to Genting. Anyway, the scenery was awesome! We could see similarities with Norway although the vegetation was definitely more luscious (I guess due to the high amount of rain it gets).We visited the Giant's causeway (which is a UNESCO world heritage site) and some other random tourist sites like the ropebridge and duclace castle. What I really liked were the scenic routes and driving next to the sea (apparently, the costal road is the 5th best costal drive in the world – whatever that is supposed to mean to me). Belfast was quite a grim place. The whole city looked like East London and it was pretty dreadful. Fortunately, we were in a car so we did it quite quickly by driving around. It also allowed us to have dinner at this happening restaurant situated in Belfast Castle which was quite nice. We couldn't bring ourselves to eat any of the Irish fare (such as stews etc.) so we just went for typical British. The history of Northern Ireland is pretty upsetting actually, with graffiti on the walls that depict the troubled times between the republicans and unionists. There were more union jacks flown around the city than I remember seeing in London (and even along the roads leading to Buckingham palace). Anyway, it was a good holiday and being part of the UK, there was absolutely no hassle in terms of customs, we landed at 10.05pm and were home by 11.30pm (which in the UK, especially for an airport almost 40 miles from home, is quite a feat).

Oh by the way!!! I "learned" to make chicken rice ginger sauce recently. The idea was planted by Sally during the cruise when I told her that I really missed the "Wee Nam Kee" or "Soup restaurant" ginger sauce. She said the most commonsense thing – "make it la! – pound the ginger and add some chicken essence sauce". So that's exactly what I did, but with some modifications. So here's the recipe – (1) use a spoon to scrape the outer skin of the ginger, cut the ginger into small pieces, (2) blend the ginger (with sesame oil) but not too much such that it becomes pureed (just chopped and grinded will do), (3) add some chopped spring onions to the blend, (4) boil your chicken for chicken rice – for the chicken essence, (5) heat a wok, fry some chopped garlic with sesame oil, add the blended ginger, a dash of pepper, soya sauce, salt, a little bit of sugar and fry the mixture, then add some chicken essence (3 tablespoon to a bowl of the ginger blend) and fry till it is dry. The result is yummy ginger sauce (now I can get unlimited wee nam kee replica sauce in London!!) If I'm in Singapore though, I'd just head to wee nam kee, pay $20 and eat there and save the trouble.

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance...

2008-08-22T02:36:00.000-07:00

Came across this while I was reading an article today… and how true it is. Proper prior planning prevents (or at least minimises or prepares you for) all sorts of eventualities that may occur. So be it work, or holiday or family gatherings, weddings, or even buying a home, planning is the key. When you plan, you research, you prepare and you pre-empt. So many times have I noticed things get messy at work (or like some people say, we spend the day fighting "fires") because someone somewhere in the work chain (usually ahem, the bankers la) doesn't know how to plan properly. Now, I'm not saying that we have to go crazy and have plan b's and plan c's and d's and whatever (in fact I read the other day about the Munich Olympics massacre and they said that the events were similar to a prediction in one of the (get this!) 26 different case scenarios that the experts made for the planners of the Olympics – fei hua la, you have 26 scenarios of course there will be one that is similar, I bet if they continued, there will be a prediction of an alien invasion or something in scenario 49 or something), but not planning may lead to being turned away at restaurants (cos there's no reservation) or missing flight departures (cos no taxi was booked and none available when you needed it last minute)… Anyway – you get my drift.

So on a separate but ahem *related* point on planning, lets talk about holidays!! – since our last holiday now seems like a distant memory (no more King crabs or Lobster – just plan ole fish and chips for lunch!), I decided to do some "planning" for our next trip… as I mentioned before, we booked ourselves on a Azamara cruise next October to Israel, Egypt, Turkey etc. but while "planning", I decided this week that next October is a bit toooooooooooo far away. It's 14+ months away so by the time I actually get on board, I might be paralysed with excitement – so we (YL and I decided together ok, after much cajoling from me) decided to cut it short!!! YEAH!!! Now we're going on a May sailing instead. 1 May 2009 to be exact! So its now 8 months to go. In fact, this itinerary is slightly different (and better) from the previous one in that we will be going to Istanbul and Ephesus (I think this is where the book of Ephesians was named) instead of south Turkey and Sicily, plus – the port days and sea days are nicely spread out so we get a break every few days of excursions to just chill out in the ship. The only sianz part is that the disembarkation will be a day before my birthday so that will be quite a depressing birthday, plus come October next year we'll be wishing we didn't change the dates!

Oh well back to the present and reality - this weekend is Bank Holiday weekend – so it's a long weekend!! YEAH! YL and I have planned some time ago a short trip to Northern Ireland to visit Belfast and the countryside up north. Apparently there's this world heritage site called the "Giant's causeway" which is quite spectacular. Hopefully the weather will be good though, as last weekend there were flash floods around Belfast (the worse in many years). It would be a shame if we have to avoid parts of Belfast because of any flooding. Argh – after this trip there'll be a holiday drought for 4 months till Christmas, but I'm not thinking of that yet :)

What it takes to get a nice photograph!

2008-08-13T12:07:00.001-07:00

We took about 1000 photos on this trip... its quite a bit so thank goodness its digital. I have to show you these 4 photos taken in Molde though. It gives an illustration of the frustration of trying to get the best shot. As we took these photos from a tripod, they have to be on timer release... and it took 4 photos to get a proper shot. We got a photo with every type of vehicle in town! And trust me - they don't have many!

first shot - blocked by a van...

second shot - a car...

third shot - a bus!!!

Finally a proper shot. And if you notice carefully, we only missed the vehicles narrowly. And come to think of it, its not even that nice a photo...

Photos

2008-08-11T12:42:00.001-07:00

The best vacation of my life!

2008-08-11T08:06:00.001-07:00

So we're back from our fantastic holiday. This must have been the best holiday we've ever taken, and certainly the best cruise. I think everyone should take a cruise at some point in their lives, but it'll be better if its sooner rather than later. I'll narrate 2 typical days onboard the Celebrity Century as a snapshot of what we experienced in the past 2 weeks.

Day 6 – Honningsvag

Today, we have an activity filled port day at the northernmost tip of Europe, the North Cape (or NordKapp in Norwegian). At 8.15am, the telephone rang…

Me: Hello
Paul: Good morning sir, its Paul your butler. Breakfast is ready. Shall I bring it to you now?
Me: Its morning already? Gosh, Yes please bring it. Thanks.
2 minutes later, there was a knock on the door and Paul was there with a trolley with our sumptuous spread of eggs Benedict, waffles, smoked salmon, sausages, bagels etc.
Paul: Good morning sir. Do you want to eat your breakfast in your balcony?
Me: Neh, it's a bit chilly today. We'll have it in the room. Thanks.
Paul then proceeded to set up the table in the room and before leaving wished us a wonderful day ahead.

North Cape
After breakfast, we proceeded downstairs to the meeting place for our first tour, which was a journey to the North Cape itself. The weather wasn't particularly good but that didn't dampen our spirits. Along the way, we saw many wild reindeers wondering around and the scenery was beautiful. It was amazing that it was so different from just 2 days ago, at Geraingerfjord. Unlike Gerainger, the landscape at North Cape was barren, there was no lush greenery but instead, it was rocky and wild. It impressed upon us the vastness of this little inhabited part of the world and I can only imagine how harsh the weather must be in winter. At the top of the North Cape, we did the usual touristy things like taking pictures of the monuments, sending postcards to ourselves (so that we can have the postmark – "NordKapp") etc. The weather cleared up a bit when we walked to the tip of the Cape and we managed to see out into the open ocean which leads to the North Pole. I said a short prayer to thank the Lord for giving us the opportunity to visit the top of the world and to be able to enjoy his magnificent creation. After slightly less than 2 hours at the North Cape, we made our way back to Honningsvag and to the ship for lunch.

King Crab Safari
After lunch, we took a leisurely walk up the pier again to meet up for our second excursion of the day – the King Crab Safari. YL and I regularly watched "deadliest catch" on the Discovery Channel and wanted very much to see a king crab for ourselves. We met two other "deadliest catch" addicts, Mike and Carol as well and soon enough, were talking about the documentary and discussion about our favourite vessels (which happens to be the Northwestern for Carol and I). I know, we have dull lives! After everyone had arrived, we were kitted up with our "deadliest catch" life suits and were soon on our way to pull up the crab pots. 2 crab pots were hauled up and we were fortunate that there were quite a few crabs of varying sizes in the pots. The largest king crab was approximately 4-5 kgs. After a flurry of activity, we settled down and took some pictures with the crabs and were sent to a nearby island to savour the crabs. There, the guides gutted the crab and cooked the crab legs for all of us in a traditional sami tent. After gutting the crab, he offered the crab roe to us to try. Initially, no one dared to eat the crab roe as it was raw, but after another adventurous German passenger and I started trying it and exclaiming how good it tasted, everyone took the plunge and soon it disappeared.

Once back in the ship, we went back to our cabin where Paul was there to greet us. He also reminded me that we had made reservations at Murano (a specialty restaurant at 8pm that night). YL and I decided in the meantime to take a rest and then head for the Jacuzzi. The weather was cold but we were kept nice and warm in the Jacuzzi enjoying the scenery as the ship departed Honningsvag through the fjords to its next port of call.

After soaking for about ½ hr, we showered and went downstairs for dinner. Dinner was in one word, excellent. We've been to a number of very good restaurants in London and Singapore (and some michelin starred ones) but in terms of service, the Murano certainly tops it all. Cemal, the Maitre D introduced himself and made sure we were very comfortable. Unlike the main dining room, Murano was a small restaurant so the waiters had the time to pay special attention to us. At no point of time did I have to ask for a refill of water or to wait for the attention of a waiter, and anything you wanted could be catered for. We had foie gras, lobster, scallops, cheese scoffle, a fantastic cheese plate, some excellent wine and I even asked the Maitre D to cook his specialty dessert by the tableside. The chef also came out to greet us and discuss about the food later in the evening.

After dinner, we decided to have a cocktail at the Cova Cafe and enjoy the music from the classical quartet before retiring back to our suite for the night.

Day 8 – cruising down the Arctic Circle

Today is a relaxing at sea day. The ship would cruise past the Arctic Circle, visit Svartisen glacier and the Arctic Circle monument.

At 10.30am, our wake up call rang. We decided not to have breakfast in the room today as we wanted to sleep in. The captain announced the night before that we would be visiting the glacier at around 12 noon and the Arctic Circle monument at around 2pm so we thought 10.30am would be a good time to wake up. After about an hour of lazing and watching TV, we took our morning showers and gaveour friends, Alfred and Sally a call and decided to have lunch and enjoy the glacier from our balcony. We went downstairs to the buffet to get some of our favourite foods up and asked Paul to chill our wine and to arrange the balcony furniture to accommodate 4 persons. The glacier was beautiful, it wasn't like Hubbard glacier in Alaska which periodically had blocks of ice crashing into the ocean but was still breathtaking nonetheless. The 4 of us had a good time eating, drinking and chatting about everything and anything that came to mind, stopping only occasionally to take some pictures of the scenery. True to his word, the Captain "set the stage" for us by spinning the ship around so everyone onboard could enjoy the glacier from their balconies. Soon after, we left the glacier and sailed past the Arctic Circle monument. The Captain slowed down the ship so everyone could get a good look and take pictures. This was certainly one of the highlights of the trip.

At about 2.15pm, once we had sailed past the Arctic Circle monument, Alfred and I and both our wives decided to head downstairs to the dining room to participate in the wine tasting presentation. There were 12 wines on display and they ranged from old world reds to new world dessert wines. After about approximately 4-5 glasses of wine, I started to get a bit tipsy and according to Alfred, started talking really loudly. After the wine tasting, we adjourned to the cards room and started a round of mahjong before going back to our room to rest. Paul then brought up an assorted sashimi platter for YL and I which we ate before we took a nap. I have to admit though, the details after the wine tasting session were rather hazy…

In the evening, it was formal night so everyone was out with their best attire. During dinner, I had a nice piece of fillet mignon and the assistant maitre d brought me my favourite creme brulee for dessert. After asking for it the night before, the assistant maitre d ensured that the chef prepared for YL her rum and raisin ice-cream so that she could have it every evening. After dinner, we went to the Casino to try our luck at the blackjack tables and jackpot machines. After a few rounds, we decided to go back to bed as we will be having a busy port day tomorrow at Molde.

Other days

So there it is, a snapshot 2 days of the 12 we had onboard the Celebrity Century. The other things in which we did during the trip included hiking up Mount Varden at Molde (this was a 4 hour hike up and down and it really took some effort!), hiking to Briksdalen glacier at Olden (this is a shorter hike to the face of the glacier), taking a bicycle ride around Olden, walking down from the top of Bergen, taking a funicular up some mountain at Tromso, a visit to the UNESCO rock carvings site, visiting a huskies trainer and his huskies, a road trip to and cruise down Geraingerfjord.

As for the cruise experience, well, everyone onboard was very nice and friendly, the staff was as usual, very warm and service-oriented. The "can-do" attitude for all the staff was really commendable. For example, if we went to a lounge and the seats are all taken up, the waitress would take the initiative to bring in more chairs so that we need not go somewhere else. The entertainment that we watched on board was of quite high quality (though we didn't watch much since most of the time we were taking in the scenery of the fjords). The food at the Grand dining room (the main dining room) was the only disappointment. It was not bad, but really rather mediocre though that didn't really bother us as we were either dining in our suite or at the Murano. I think that a positive attitude makes a real difference to the entire experience. Although refurbished, the Century is one of Celebrity's older ships and I'm sure that there will be those who would be able to find small faults and nit pick on various unimportant matters (like that the ship had a bit of wear, there was a nick in the carpet, the service was not as attentive, etc.) but I think it is that negative attitude which would ultimately ruin their vacation. While we are not easily impressed (we're Singaporeans!), we chose to dwell on the positives and enjoy the pampering on the cruise. We didn't give a toss on whether there was some extra watermark on the mirror or rust along the doorframes (though we noticed it). We just wanted to enjoy our vacation and I guess this was what made the holiday even more enjoyable and fun.

Beating this cruise experience will be difficult but we'll try. We have already booked our next cruise while onboard and I've started to look forward to it. It'll be next year October for 14 nights at the Mediterranean and its called "The Holyland". There we will be onboard Celebrity's sister ship, the Azamara Journey and we will visit Rome, Santorini Italy, Turkey, Egypt (to visit the Valley of the Kings and pyramids), Israel (to visit Galilee and Bethlehem, where Jesus' ministry began and where he was born, and the Wailing Wall), Sicily, Cyprus and Greece (Athens, Rhodes, Mykonos and Chios). Can't wait!

Sianz!

2008-08-09T00:03:00.000-07:00

We're back in Amsterdam - sianz! Tomorrow we'll be back in London.

I'm off!

2008-07-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

So… after many months of slogging at work, the time has come to take a break. Perfect timing actually, since most of the clients are also having their holidays (although the mad rush to finish things up before I leave still takes place – sigh!). Anyway, come tomorrow, we will be free of the stress and madness of work. For 2 weeks, we can behave like we were while we were students (during holidays)… carefree...and blissful - the only worry is when the next meal is :)

Oh and the best (and worse actually) thing is - we will have no blackberry access! I think we might both suffer from withdrawal symptoms but well, we'll cope. Apparently, once we sail past the arctic circle, the ship can't get statellite signal anymore and so no more CNN or BBC etc. Not only will we have no bb access, we'll lose contact with the world.... sounds fun. I'm sure YL and I will continue our conversation on our future kid's names - this time it'll be girls!

Anyway, I'm signing off for the next 2 weeks. Take care y'all. I'll take lotsa pictures.

No fish!

2008-07-23T05:24:00.001-07:00

So, another weekend has passed and now its already mid-week. Last weekend was pretty fun (except for certain bits of it). First, we went outlet shopping at Bicester Village. Shopping at Bicester Village has really changed recently. In the past, it was a nice a chill out little shopping area that had good bargains. Sales people were nice and patient and the whole atmostphere was relaxed. Nowadays, it seems that tour coaches regularly bring tourists (mostly Chinese nationals) and it's like the hordes have descended. It's crowded and bargains are snapped up almost immediately, sales people seem overworked and are grumpy. It hasn't gotten to pushing and shoving yet but it's no more fun shopping there. We bought a couple of items (YL got a windbreaker for the cruise this weekend) and that's about it. After that, we decided to scoot off to our favourite part of the country, the Cotswolds! This time we hit jackpot and found ourselves a nice bed and breakfast near Burford (www.caswell-house.co.uk). It was a quiet farmhouse manor that is recently refurbished. There's a moat around the manor (which to my disappointment, was not teeming with trouts as the Alistair Sawday guidebook described – apparently, they lost a few dozen of trouts in the floods last year). We had dinner at this place called the boot inn – had a nice yummy dinner. I had grilled goats cheese and belly pork while YL had squid ink spaghetti and roasted chicken breast.

The next day was fishing day – this is where the weekend took a turn for the worse. All was well until we realised that it was darn difficult to row the boat against the wind (and amazingly current) in the lake. We kept drifting to places that we didn't want to go. Anyway, in the process of trying to get to where we wanted, YL and I almost (and I really mean almost) capsized the stupid boat in the middle of the lake!!! We didn't get our balance right and the boat tipped over its side and water gushed into it. Its not that either of us don't know how to swim (ahem – I was a school swimmer ok, in the relay team somemore… but erm, long long time ago la), but all out things, blackberry, handphone, rod, books, etc. would have been wet! Fortunately, we managed to tip the boat back and our things were in bags (so they only got a bit wet). The only thing was our shoes and clothing were all drenched – completely drenched cos of the water. Oh – and on top of this, we dropped our oars in the commotion so we couldn't row back to the bank. We just drifted. Once we drifted back to the bank, we had to clean up etc. Anyway, we didn't catch any fish that day. I was casting for 8 ½ hours all over the lake and I didn't even get a single bite! Oh well, that's fishing – you win some you lose some.

This coming weekend will be swell – it'll be the start of our 12 night cruise. We're going with Alfred and Sally and we managed to get our rooms next to each other! YL is also thinking of getting spa treatments onboard!

Fine fine... No Elton.

2008-07-17T02:51:00.000-07:00

I didn't think there will be such quick opposition to my ingenious idea of naming my son "Elton" – nice what… heh heh… actually the first person to oppose was YL. This was the conversation we had one our drive back from the concert:

Me: Phwoah, such a good concert. EJ is d*mn good at his singing and he's really talented la…
YL: Yah.
Me: I think I'm going to call my future son "Elton".
YL: Seow ah! NO.
Me: Well, no way is he going to be called "Christian" lor…
YL: I like "Christian". Isn't that a Christian name? "Christian"?
Me: No just because its called "Christian", it doesn't mean its a Christian name. I don't think anyone's name is "Christian" in the bible. Anyway Malcolm Chua is using "Christian" for his son's name…
YL: See, its nice… Anyway Mal is having a son? (she then veered off topic for a while).
Me: OK, why not we call our son "John" instead?
YL: Eeeee – NO.
Me: Hey! Jesus loved John very much ok!
YL: NO. I used to tease people with the name John. Sounds so ang mo.
Me: Well, its gotta be one of the 4 gospels and it doesn't help that you can only use 3 only (cannot use "Mark"). Haha… how about "Luke"?
YL: Huh – dun want Luke la.
Me: What's wrong with Luke?
YL: Sounds so old! What about "Matthew"?
Me: "Matthew" is nice. Matthew Tan… hmmm Ok "Matthew".
YL: Ok.
Me: Or how about "Paul"??
YL: NO…..
Me: "Bartholomew"?
YL: NO…
and the conversation goes on…

So that's where we got on our future son's name. Notice especially to my close relatives (especially those most likely to have another kid, ahem – Pammy) hahaha… dun steal "Matthew" huh. You can use "Christian" if you want!!! And quickly...

I think I'll name my future son Elton...

2008-07-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was pretty fun. We started it on Friday by watching Dirty Dancing – which was fantastic. Its not a typical "musical" as the leads didn't do the singing but it was immensely entertaining (especially at the end). This ranks easily as one of the best musicals I've watched. On Saturday, we wanted to go out to the Cotswolds for a weekend away again but alas, all the b&bs were full. We were gutted but still made the most of it by going to our usual Cafe Japan for lunch and for a movie after that. Sunday though, was the highlight of the weekend – going to watch Elton John and band in an outdoor concert. We had fab front block seats, the weather was great and he's singing was excellent… there's nothing more to ask for really. Oh except for someone to smack that stupid idiot ang mo woman security guard who stopped me from brining in my camera because they looked too "professional". IDIOT – I was so excited to take some nice close up shots of EJ (I even told YL that with my zoom lens, I could even take pictures of his blackheads or pimples) Anyway, because we didn't bring our normal "non-professional" camera, we couldn't take any pictures at all!! Stupid rule really, made worse by everyone snapping away with their "non-professional" cameras while I just sat and watched. I could have gotten into an argument that the Nikon D80 was a amateur or at best "semi-professional" camera, but I thought it'll be pointless (tui niu dan qin). So unfortunately, no pics to post on this. There's was this period during the concert when the sun was setting when he sang the song "don't let the sun go down"… which was quite nice but the sun didn't really listen though… haha. Other hit songs he sang were "your song", "yellowbrick road", "honkey tonk man", "rocketman", "candle in the wind", "crocodile rock", "Daniel"…

So that's that… another quick weekend past. Next weekend will be great as it will be the buildup to our annual vacation. This time it'll be 2 weeks up the Artic Circle to the North Cape at the land of the midnight sun… I can't wait!!! (though I'm trying to block out of my mind the fact that there will be a closing taking place next week).

Elton John tickets...

2008-07-11T05:48:00.000-07:00

Smashing! I've managed to get 2 fantastic Elton John tickets this weekend!!!

I wasted my evening so I wanna rant...

2008-07-10T03:48:00.000-07:00

Gosh, I believe that last night I watched the worst movie (by a mile!!) of my entire life – The Forbidden Kingdom. I'm going to tell the story, but don't worry, its so bad that it won't spoil anything if you decide to go watch it. Basically, its about this Ang Mo boy who's fascinated with Kung Fu. While falling off the roof of a building, he was teleported to thousands of years before in an ancient mystical Chinese kingdom (where people could fly). In this mystical kingdom, the Jade Warlord has imprisoned the Monkey God in a jade statute and it is up to this ANG MO boy to bring him his magical staff to save him(why did the Director, out of everything in the world, choose an ang mo loser kid to save the monkey god??). Anyway, the knockout bit was that the Chinese ppl from ancient times could speak ENGLISH!!! And bad English at best… can you imagine Jackie Chan and Jet Li fighting Kung Fu going "Wow, mantis style, but can that fight against Tiger style??!!" – OK I admit, this show was targeted at the American market to bluff the stupid ang mos, but I really doubt they would find Chinese Kung Fu masters speaking English during ancient times authentic! Oh, and there's another character, xiao yan zhi (she calls herself "sparrow" in the movie) who speaks like Yoda… imagine a Chinese Kung Fu girl speaking english like Yoda! Oh, and at some bits, the director decided they can speak mandarin afterall, though most of them spoke English… Its like all these Chinese people were bilingual… I realised the bits where they spoke English were when the Ang Mo boy was around – so he could understand. Why in the world do they want to "force" his out-of-place character in the movie really baffles me.

Anyway, in the words of the Jade Warlord of the movie, this show was certainly "ex-cellent-teh". OK – rant over.

Weekend is coming soon. Tomorrow we are going to watch the musical – Dirty Dancing.... Oh and I've just confirmed our holiday cottage for Christmas! http://www.rhos-cottages.co.uk/betwsbach.htm

Eat and sleep and eat...

2008-07-07T08:54:00.001-07:00

This weekend was boring… NO FISHING cos it kept raining. On Saturday, we went to the happening fish restaurant again (we are such creatures of habit) http://www.onemansfish.com/ and had a splendid meal. Yen-Ling and I had tuna steak tartar with oyster, mackerel with strange condiments, lamb and rabbit saddle and black pudding… yum. After that, we went to watch Chronicles of Narnia using our unlimited movies card. The show was really good and I liked the part when Aslan roared…. It reminded me of Kung Fu Hustle's "lion roar"… though I know they're not quite the same. Narnia was really much better than the first episode though I understood that it didn't quite follow the book (I never read it before so I don't really care.)

After the movie, we came home and YL whipped up a nice dinner. Before that however, both YL and I went a bit crazy with cleaning the flat. After a good hour or so, YL cooked teow chew porridge with let me see, fried long beans, luncheon meat omelette and black pepper beef. BTW, YL's cooking is very yummy.

On Sunday, we had lunch with Ruth at our favourite haunt, Cafe Japan. As usual, it never fails to live up to expectations. We were all so full from lunch that YL slept on the way back home (and for most of the afternoon). So there, we pretty much had an eat and sleep boring weekend. Oh, and the topic of having kids was raised again, but quickly swept under the carpet… still wanna play.

Sunflowers...

2008-07-05T04:14:00.000-07:00

Shortly after Easter, Yen-Ling came home from work with a "grow your own sunflower" kit she bought from M&S. I think it was meant for kids (as there were stickers for you to stick on the flowerpot!). Anyway, she dutifully planted the sunflower seeds (and stuck the stickers on the flowerpot) and watered the plant everyday(!). 3 months later, they actually bloomed!!! I was really doubtful in the beginning but I must say her paitience has paid off... here are her sunflowers..

SPAIN - germany 1-0!!!!!!

2008-07-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

This comes a little bit late but I have got to say it….. Hurray for SPAIN!!! It was a well deserved and sweet 1-0 victory against the irritating Germans. No, my £32.50 winnings had nothing to do with my glee, I've disliked the German football team (note, only the football team, I think German car-makers are great) since I was 12 years old when they won England in the semis and Argentina in the finals of the World Cup. Why do I support Argentina? Dunno… I liked Diego Maradona. Since then, I cheered for every team against Germany.

Last weekend was pretty eventful, we went to watch a musical called Wicked on Saturday. It was pretty entertaining, except that there were so many solo scenes and the songs weren't that catchy. We really enjoyed ourselves especially since we'd planned this like 4 months ago. Before the musical, YL and I went to this place called one-o-one for lunch. It was a fish restaurant and we had Norwegian king crab for our starter and Salmon for our main, both were washed down with a nice white. This was the most fantastic meal we had in a while and I think that it is gonna be a regular for us. We spent the next day with Adrian, Sharon and Lynette having dim sum in some unknown place (we walked from Church all the way to Chinatown and were starving by the time we got there! Adrian, who led the way, brought us through the sleazy part of Soho so he could "see how his businesses were doing" - geez). We had KFC for dinner (together with wine - strange combi right?) while watching the Euro 2008. I'm glad this weekend is approaching soon… we might make another trip to the countryside again but it depends on the weather – maybe we'll find another happening restaurant to go to again!

I think this is cute... (esp the A+ at the end)

2008-06-24T15:26:00.001-07:00

2008-06-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

Fishing weekend!!

2008-06-22T13:45:00.001-07:00

This weekend I went fishing again... Yen-Ling and I went to Chalk Springs down south near a place called Arundale on Sat. In this lake, its possible to "stalk" trouts... Its super clear so we can see the fish in the water. The only thing is that the fish can also see us so we have to sneak up on it. I caught 2 rainbows at around 2lbs 7 oz each using this "stalking" method. Both on a gold headed bloodworm fly. The biggies weren't interested.. and probably more experienced. After fishing, we decided to stay in a bed and breakfast since it was getting late. Stayed in this nice cottage with this very friendly couple called Jane and David. Had a nice dinner at a local pub and everything was really nice and relaxing before my obnoxious client started emailing asking us to "sort things out"... My bb ran out of juice so I really couldn't do anything but worry.

The next day (today), we took our first "English countryside walk"!!! been wanting to do that for ages but the weather didn't cooperate everytime. This time we had beautiful weather... nice and sunny and we were walking at the Southdowns. We must have walked for miles (maybe 4-5 though YL might say its much less). We happily walked through a sheep's pen (YL was so excited... until we realised that the pen was literally filled with sheep poo). After the walk, we took a drive along the country (blasting my bob marley...) back to London.

Now we're back in London... went back to the office for a couple of hours to "sort things out"... can't believe how much we did today...

Pics to follow...

Some shots over the weekend...

2008-06-15T13:51:00.000-07:00

My new camera!

2008-06-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I bought my DSLR... A Nikon D80 and a 18-200mm lens. Since we'll be going on a scenic cruise in Norway in less than 2 months time, I thought I should get a more sophisticated camera and at least figure out how it works.

So I've been messing about with my new camera this whole weekend, dragging Yen-Ling with me everywhere to take photos... One thing I need to seriously consider quickly is to get a discrete camera bag; its been kind of awkward walking around London with a big camera, everyone looks at me like I'm a tourist...

2008-06-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

ireallylovefishing.blogspot.com

2008-06-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

Today I start my own blog... I intend to get a new digital SLR camera and I thought what better way to share my pictures than to post it on my own personal blog... and as I've loved fishing so much, I thought it was appropriate that my blog be called http://ilovefishing.blogspot.com/ (only that its already taken by some bloke called Nicholas in 2005), so instead my blog will be called http://ireallylovefishing.blogspot.com/.

So there, this is the beginning of my own photo blog, which will contain both photos and fishing, and fishing photos, http://ireallylovefishing.com/