World Cup Fever (11 June to 11 July 2010)

World Cup is here again...Every 4 years, it would give me panda eyes, other than the one held in South Korea & Japan in 2002.  South Africa is 6 hours ahead of us, and therefore the matches in Singapore time are 1930Hr, 2200Hr, and 0230Hr.  And after the Round 16 stage, the matches are mostly 2200Hr and 0230Hr.

World Cup 2010 is quite a joke for Singapore.  In 1998, our PM then said that it is Singapore dream for Singapore's football team to qualify for the World Cup in 2010.  Now that we are in 2010, not only that we did not qualify, we almost did not get to watch the World Cup!!  Then we will be one of the rare few countries in the world, along with a few 3rd world countries in the world that cannot watch World Cup..

Having said that, still thankful that we got to watch it.  And i have a Vuvuzela to support the teams, flew all the way from South Africa.  Now i need to practice it!

Coming matches:  Brazil vs Netherlands; Argentina vs Germany.
Hope to see a Brazil vs Argentina, a mouth watering final :-)

What is Love?

I read an interesting article on papers few days ago, written by Lee Wei Ling, the daughter of Singapore's Senior Mentor, Mr Lee Kwan Yew (LKY).  She shared with us the love story of her parents.

She said that "Love at first sight is romantic but may not hold a candle to love that lasts a lifetime & is for better or for worse".  For better or for worse, something that we hear commonly in wedding woes, but how many really live up to it?  Heard & read so many cases whereby the man or the woman abandon their spouse during crisis.  There was also an interesting research done in US last year.  Results show that men are more likely to leave spouse who has cancer.  Researcher found that the rate was nearly 21 percent when women were the patients compared with about 3 percent when men got the life-threatening diagnosis.  This could be contributed to many factors, such as men are naturally not good care taker by nature etc..

So when I read the article of LKY, immediately i respect this man.  Other than he is a great man that has built the nation, his love for his wife is so touching.  His daughter described the love as unconditional love.
One of the example that she wrote:
"After my mother's second stroke in 2008, she became bed-bound and could no longer accompany my

father on his travels overseas or to social functions here. Every night after returning home from work, my father now spends about two hours telling my mother about his day and reading aloud her favourite poems to her.
The poetry books are rather thick and heavy, so he uses a heavy-duty music stand to place the books. One night, he was so sleepy, he fell asleep while reading to my mother, slumped forward and hit his face against the music stand. Since the music stand was made of metal, he suffered abrasions on his face. He cursed himself for his carelessness but still carries on reading aloud to my mother every night."

What made it more valuable is the status of LKY.  Given his busy schedule, he still devote a lot of time to take care of his wife, especialy when he is the first born son of a Peranakan family, whereby men are treated like kings, and of higher status compare to women.

One of my friend said that this is the true mark of a man, to love his wife and win the respect of the children.
To me, what LKY portrayed is True Love.  Not something that you feel good at that moment, not something like big bang or something spectular, but unconditional giving & loving.  What is love to you?

Relish Burger and Island Creamery

I always like burgers.  They are comfort food, among which, my all time comfort food is McDonald Hamburger.  I always thought that that is the best thing that S$1 can buy (Well, it is more than $1 now).

In recent years, there were many new burger joints in Singapore, from Aston selling burgers to Burger Shack to Bergs.  So we decided to check out one of them, Relish, located at Cluny Court, level 2. 

The place was pretty quiet on a weekday evening, only a few tables occupied, and we had the luxury of choosing a window seat (to get more lights for taking photo haha)  A piece of good news for the smokers, there was a littler balcony for you to take your fresh air :-P

We ordered 3 burgers so that we can share and try 3 different burgers from their big selection of burgers.  We had the classic Wild Rocket Burger recommended by the waiter, the Seafood burger and the Blue Cheese and Pear Burger.  One of them was a Happy Happy Meal, where it came with a burger (180g) and a Belgium Beer.  You can also choose either salad or fries to go with the burgers.

The burgers came a bit smaller than what i have anticipated.  Among which, the Wild Rocket burger was the best; The beef patty was grilled nicely, tender and juicy, a little pinkish in the center as we asked for medium, yet not too bloody.  The blue cheese & pear was similar in the patty, but I felt that the blue cheese was too overwhelming, covering the taste of the patty.

The Seafood burger was interesting with the lemon mayo, but not enough sauce.  I wonder if they would allow us to add sauce?!? 

Wild Rocket Burger with Fries. 

Blue cheese & pear with salad

Total damages was $81, and I picked up the bill as it was one of the Mich's birthday.  (Yes, I had dinner with 2 Michssssss) After dinner, we walked to Island Creamery to have ice cream to complete the meal :-) This time, the tab was on Mich..

Brownie with Nutella ice cream.  They ran out of waflfe.  The brownie was soft and warm, perfect complement to the Nutella icecream.  But my all time fav of Island Creamery was still their Teh Terik Ice cream.  Island Creamery's ice cream is much reasonable priced compared to Haagen Dazs, at $4.50 for 2 scoops of ice cream, you need not worry about burning a hole in your pocket after indulgence.

Teh Terik with chocolate Ice Cream (cannot remember the fanciful name that start with "R")

Relish

501 Bukit Timah Road

#02-01 Cluny Court

Tel: +65 6763 1547

Island Creamery
10 Jalan Serene

#01-03 Serene Centre
Tel: +65 6468 8859

Hong Kong 27 -30 May 2010 (Day 4)

Day 4

Our last day in HK.  Time is the esscence.

We went for our last Cha Can Ting breakfast right after check out, and the criteria was that the tea must not be in a plastic cup!  We finally found one near few blocks from our hotel, nearer to Sogo.   The tea was good, but the food was not as good as the other one that used plastic cups.

After brunch, the girls went to continue their shopping, and also to look for the Chris Patten egg tarts in Central.  Somehow YY & I still prefer the soft pastry type of egg tart, so the Chris Patten type of egg tart in Tai Cheong bakery is not our cup of tea.  We ended the trip with more food in the airport.  As usual, SH who said that she was very full to ate 2 portion, Wanton Noodles and Century Eggs porridge.

Some recap of the trip:

1.  Most satisfying meal:  Actually is a tie.  Both the Dong Bao Xiao Guan Dinner & Tim Ho wan Dim Sum Lunch are satisfying.

2.  Most disappointing meal:  Yung Kee.  The roast goose was fat & oily, the rest of the dishes such as vegetables were ordinary and expensive.

3.  Funniest moment:  YY answered a call in the room, and the conversation went "Yes" "Our luggage are here"" You want to speak to SH?"  Only after 1 minute then we realised that the call was from SH's HK colleague, who has offered to take us to dinner.

4.  Most tiring moment:  The first day after Lei Garden lunch, could not even open my eyes!

5.  Most touching moment:  The girls accompanied me to the Peak, at 2230Hr!  No one complained about going to the Peak at that hour.  Though they complained that I was taking too long to take photo.

6.  Most suffering moment:  No water served on the JetStar flight to HK, and i was so thirsty for 3Hrs+

7.  Happiest Moment:  To find Honolulu eggtarts!

Hong Kong 27 -30 May 2010 (Day 3)

Day 3
The original plan was to go to Cheung Chau to cycle. However, there ave been some violent objection from one person from the start of the trip, and after Day 2, 2 peoples were objecting the idea. So the third person, due to fatigue from the MayDay concert, has decided against going too, and to take a easy day in HK Island.

We went for our Dim Sum brunch at Maxim Palace in City Hall, one of the few Dim Sum places whereby they kept the traditional of pushing the Dim Sim on a push cart. In this trip, we were very blessed. For a few times, when we reached the place, there was no crowd. The crowd only came when we were there! Same thing happened for this brunch. When we arrived at CityHall, the restaurant was rather empty at 1130Hr. So we had the luxury of choosing our table and we chose to sit next to a table with a local auntie. Through the lunch, this auntie has been complaining and grumbling to herself, and on the phone scolding someone. She finally broke into smile when 2 gentlemen with a baby arrived (We assumed they were her husband and son, with her grandson)

Without fail, we ordered a lot of food! However, we have concluded that Tim Ho Wan was still better, and the egg tarts in Maxim were disappointing. This has helped us to decide on the after lunch activity, which was to find the Honolulu eggtarts in Wan Chai.

Shark Fins Dumplings

Chicken Feet

BeanCurd Roll

Lotus Leaf Rice

Zhen Zhu Chicken

Chee Cheong Fun

Char Siew Paus

The famous and yummy tarts from Honolulu

How to share an egg tart

We made a pitstop at Xu Liu Shan for some dessert. The girls continued their shopping at Island Beverly, a shopping center with local designers shop while I hanged around in Sogo area for the camera bags before heading back to hotel to rest and to meet the girls at 1830Hr.

1830Hr- There came 2 happy and satisfied shoppers with hands full of shopping bag. One of them were jumping up and down, too thrilled from the purchase. And of course, I was happy too, since I had my power nap. We packed and proceeded to Yung Kee for dinner, and planned to go to the Peak to take photo, though the weather did not look quite promising.

Yung Kee was disappointing. The roast goose was fat & oily. The vegetables were not tasty. And it was expensive. Total damage of HKD588!

Grilled Pigeon

Look at the amount of fats on the thigh!

100 years old egg!  haha, I can never understand why it is commonly use in Fear Factor.  It is so tasty

Ordinary stir fried hairy gourd.  I think my mum did a better job.

We finally made up to the Peak at 2300HR, after waiting for the rain to stop. It was very quiet as most of the shops were closed. Well, who would go up to the peak at this time?!? And the lights were not as spectacular, though the sky was clearer after the rain. We took the mini bus down, only to realize that SH would get car sick when on vehicle on winding road :-(

Hong Kong 27 -30 May 2010 (Day 2)

Day 2 in Hong Kong

Of course, first thing we did after the rise and shine was - Breakfast!!! At a local Cha Can Teng.  We decided to go to the one nearest to the hotel, just few shops away.  The food were quite good, but according to YY, the milk tea did not meer her standard, because a) It was served in a plastic cup! b) It was not thick enough.  But the most important factor was because it was in a plastic cup! haha

The tea in plastic cup

YY was very nice.  She poured the honey twice so that I could take photo.  What a friend!

Instant Noodles with Chicken Chop.  Nice!

After breakfast, we set off to one of the highlights for today.  There are 2 highlights for today.  The first one was to go and queue up for the Michellin 1 Star Dim Sum place, Tim Ho Wan at Mong Kok.  The second was to watch MayDay Concert.  At first Sin Hwei wanted to me to go and queue up for THW first thing in the morning, which i refused, because a hungry yeehwee will be an angry yeehwee.  We reached THW at 11am, only to find it packed with people outside

Can you guess what is this?  This is the record book, to note down the people who took the Q Number.  Our number is 159, and according to the lady in charge of the book, it will take about 2 hours.  So we went to Mong Kok area to shop and kill time, and to wait for Hsiang Ying, who has took half leave.  We finally got into the restuarant at 1330Hr as we need to wait for HY to be present, before we can be seated!

Someone was not too happy..

We were finally seated, but looked how crammed we were!!

Here comes the star- the food.  We ordered almost everything on the menu, and it was quite embarassing because the waitress kept saying "table 18", "18"

Prawn Dumpling

These are their signature dish, Char Siew Can Bao!

Chee Cheong Fun with Char Siew. Can you see & feel how smooth they are?

A very satisfying lunch! Definitely worth the one star, and the total damage was HKD222 (Before we added few more dishes, so total was abotu HKD290), less than half of what we spent on Lei Garden, and 10 times better.  Highly recommended.  Be prepare to wait, but definitely worth the wait.

After the lunch, we went for coffee, then the girls shopped, while I went back to the hotel for a nap, so that I would have the energy for the MayDay Concert.  We had a quick dinner before the concert.  Quick did not mean take away, just meant that we did not eat that much! Haha

My Dinner:  Pork Chop Bun

Before the concert, look at HY's hubby stylo pose.

Before the concert starts

After the concert starts

Though I am not a MayDay fans, I have to admit that the concert was quite entertaining, a lot of effects, and most important of all, there is mood, because the fans were very high.  Lots of screaming, lots of shouting. I had to stand throughout the concert, because they stood the whole concert, and if i did not stand, I culd only see their butts! They sang from 2030Hr to 0015Hr!!! What an amazing day.