Sanity… is for the Weak

Tested a new soup recipe today. Yum.

Green Pea Soup with Garlic
1 Garlic Clove
4 Cups Frozen Peas
2.5 Cups Chicken Stock
1 Tbsp Butter
Salt & Gound Pepper

1) Heat Butter in a pot and add the Garlic. Fry gently for 2~3 mins, until fragrant and add peas. Cook for 1~2 mins more and add stock.

2) Bring to boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until peas are tender (approx 5~6 mins). Cool slightly then transfer to blender and process until peas are liquid.

3) Return to pot and heat. Season w/ Salt & Pepper.

Serves 2. Goes great with bread!

I think this can be modified to be creamier by reducing the chicken stock and replacing with milk…

Another alternative is to make a vegetarian version by replacing butter with olive oil and chicken stock with vegetable broth (basically vegemite+water).

And I dimly recall having something like this when I was in Sweden a few years ago too, but it was in a large shallow dish and a veal sausage.

Enjoy!

… was Honey Roasted Baby Pork Ribs, with a Salad tossed with olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar and Cherry tomatoes, all from Carrefour since we went grocery shopping today.

On a more serious note, it’s been 10 months since we’ve started trying for a baby and we’re upset that it’s taking so long and without any sign of success. At least I understand now what they mean by “The Baby *IS* the bonus”.

~Sigh~

Or should I say, we’re having dinner over at my In-Laws, because they wanted to see the doggies…

I swear my mum-in-law absolutely adores our dogs. Proof of theory: First thing she says when we get off the car was “Where are the 2?”

Anyway, I don’t care, we’re having Pork Knuckles for dinner (probably because the doggies will get the bones later…). Yummy.

How wierd am I?

You Are 50% Weird

Normal enough to know that you’re weird… But too damn weird to do anything about it!

That’s funny. I thought I was wierder than just 50%.

Caught Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire yesterday. A very, very fast paced movie, it literally races from chapter to chapter just to get to the showdown between Harry and Voldermort. However, the feeling that we got coming away from the movie was more of a “coming-of-age” movie due to the prom night references and all the teenage angst associated with it.

Now all I have to do is to get my grubby hands on the latest book, and I’ll be set for next year’s show

Visual:Slave
In the DVD:
+Initial D: 4th Stage
+Excel Saga
+Mai HiME
+Appleseed 2004
+Steamboy
Movies to Catch:
+Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
+Sky High
+Initial D: The Movie
+Fantastic 4
+Sin City
+Corpse Bride
+Transporter 2
+Doom
+Lord of War
+The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
+V for Vendetta
+Aeon Flux
+Herbie: Fully Loaded Damn. We missd this one.
+The Legend of Zorro Looks like we missed this one.
+Night Watch Looks like we missed this one too.

Tech Rant
The XBox 360 was launched this week, to great fan fare and not a few incidents of violence. However, I’ll still be betting my money on the Play Station 3. Why? 3 words ~ Metal Gear Solid:

Anyway, if you’re still not convinced, there seems to be problems plaguing the new system with crashes being the most reported. Finally there’s a “10 Reasons to Wait for PS3” by the editors at IGN.

Went for a bowling event organised by wifey’s CPA welfare committee. Arm still aching now, not to mention the lower back and butt. I guess different sports uses different muscles eh?

Afternoon was yet another shopping spree, this time at C.K. Tangs, where we bought pretty much everything in advance for Chinese New Year. It kind of a spur of the moment thing, as Wifey left her credit card behind when we were out shopping for jackets the night before… Anyway, she got a purple top and bottom ensemble, while I got a nice white cuff-link shirt… I like cuff-links, probably because it’s one of the few things guys can use to accessorise our outfits.

Highlight of the day was tea at Sun with Moon Japanese Dining & Cafe, located at Wheelock, above borders:

We do so love Japanese food, and this was a refreshing change from the usual sushi/soba/agedashi combo that we like to have. The powdered ground Green Tea was very bitter, but very refreshing and made the sweets all the more savoury in contrast. Highly recommended!

Sun with Moon
Japanese Dining & Cafe
501 Orchard Road, #03-15/16/17
Wheelock Place Singapore 238880
Tel: 6733-6636

Wifey had a CPA presentation thingy at Swissotel Stanford (formerly Westin) today. So we met up for lunch after she was done at Out of the Pan, the eatery at the basement of the mall. She had a sauteed wild mushrooms and cheese wrap, while I had a miso beef and garden vegatables wrap. Delicious!

Since we got free parking coupons due to the presentation thingy, we decided to roam around for a bit… which was a fortunate thing as we discovered the new Ben & Jerry’s outlet at Suntec City! Ended up sharing a waffle cup with wifey, to the flavours of Chunky Monkey, Pish Food and Dublin Mudslide.

Jackets!

Went to town for further shopping, and ended up buying these 2 jackets for her. Not that I mind, because they were really gorgeous. Hope she gets a chance to wear them soon!

No jokes today folks. Only a little quizz thingy.

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Cult Classic

Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy - your life appeals to a select few. But if someone’s obsessed with you, look out! Your fans are downright freaky. Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski

Funny thing is, I’ve never watched any of those movies!

Rainy and chilly this evening. Started to rain just about when I left office, so thought of making something warm and filling, thus:

Kinda underestimated the time required to cook this, so wifey fell asleep on the sofa, but I think it was worth the wait… we were so hungry, I forgot to take a picture of the final product, just went straight to eating it.

We caught Doom yesterday. Heh.

High on shocks and low on suspense, it felt more like a bad Aliens movie than the video game it was based on. But still, I loved the FPS section towards the end of the movie, and surprise, surprise, wifey remembers it too from her Uni days playing it as well. I’ll give this a 2 out of 5.

Visual:Slave
In the DVD:
+Initial D: 4th Stage
+Mai HiME
+Appleseed 2004
+Steamboy
Movies to Catch:
+Sky High
+Initial D: The Movie
+Fantastic 4
+Sin City
+Corpse Bride
+Transporter 2
+Doom
+The Legend of Zorro
+Lord of War
+The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
+V for Vendetta
+Aeon Flux
+Herbie: Fully Loaded Damn. We missd this one.
+Night Watch Looks like we missed this one too.

And now, some really wierd shit:
Remember the mobile phone attachment that worked as a vibrator, and giving a whole new meaning to the word “Phone Sex”? Well, get ready for the iBuzz, the iPod controlled vibrator. I’m sure the Mac-heads are gonna love this.

:Link:

Was wonderful. And very filling. And very expensive.

In case you didn’t drop by the website to check out the prices, the steaks start at $70++ and the sides cost extra. It’s not inconceiveable for 2 people who go there for starter, main and dessert to chock up a bill of $200. Each.

The portions are really huge, in the typical American fashion. We actually shared the main (on the staff’s recommendation!) so as to make room for dessert, the “famous” Morton’s Chocolate Cake. Most unusual was the “sales” pitch by the wait staff before taking your order - they’ll wheel out a side table with the raw cuts and live lobster(!) and introduce to you the selections available, from the meat to the sea food to the veggies for your side dishes. Makes for a very lively and noisy atmosphere, not quite for those looking for a quiet, romantic night out. On a side note, the whole waitstaff came out and sang me “Happy Birthday” when the Chocolate Cake came…

Dinner was:
1) Starter: Grilled Scallops wrapped with Bacon, with Apricot Chutney
2) Main: Fillet Oskar (Fillet Minion, the leanest… and smallest cut we could find, beautifully aged for 3~4 weeks)
3) Dessert: Warm Chocolate Cake

Anyway, it was an enjoyable and very filling meal, even after sharing the main. The dessert however, was a let-down: we prefered the one at Critine Chocolate (unfortunately now closed), followed by the one at Au Jardin.

We’re going to try St Julien’s for our wedding anniversary next month. w00t!

Other Food:
And now, for something really yummy. Jello Shots. I’ve always heard about this, but never tried it.

I salute the guy, for mixing alcohol and science for a good cause ~ to find out how much is too much when making Jello Vodlka shots. Check it out!

>… and I’m 33. I think I’ll concentrate on stuff that’ll cheer me up today: Food

Lunch today was Cha Soba or cold Japanese Noodles with a side of Teriyaki Chicken Chunks wrapped with Nori or dried seaweed. Simple, delicious and easy to make. You can buy all the stuff from the local supermarkets these days.

1) Just boil the noodles in water till soft and then drain and rinse with cold water. Laying it on a plate with ice is a nice touch, and is wonderful on a hot sunny day.
2) Make the dipping sauce by diluting the the ready made stuff that comes in bottles with equal parts cold water. Chopped Spring Onions optional.
3) The chicken was optional, but it only takes 10 minutes of pan frying, so what the heck. It makes a nice complement.

When done, just add Wasabi to the dip and enjoy!

Dearie will be taking me out to Morton’s of Chicago for dinner. Yum. Happy Boy

Hi folks, I’m back from KL, and pictures have been posted up on Flickr. Do go and check them out.

First up, shopping, shopping and more shopping; KL is a bargain hunter’s paradise, with mega-malls in the form of Sungei Wang, Berjaya Times Square and Lot 10 and many, many more others, it’s literally “shop till you drop”. Fortunately, I’m a focused guy, so I went straight for the Anime shops and spent about Rm300 on DVDs:

+Vandread - 2nd Stage
+Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig
+Mai-Hime
+Full Metal Alchemist

Besides shopping, KL is also a food-lovers’ heaven, with fine dining sharing space with roadside vendors, the choice is bewildering, not to mention dangerous to the waistline. I’d love to eat at the road-side food-stalls, but the sewer reek that seems to permeate the city just puts the temptation off. But no matter, because even eating in the restaurants in air-conditioned comfort is afforadable due to the exchange rate!

Except to let you know that I’ll be out of town tomorrow and Thursday, for a working trip to up to KL.

Oh, and I’m not really looking forward to my Birthday this weekend.

Thirty-Three.

33.

Crap.

Your Birthdate: November 13

You’re dominant and powerful. You always need to be in charge. While others respect your competence, you can be a bit of a dictator. Hard working and serious, you never let yourself down. You are exact and accurate - and you expect others to be the same way. Your strength: You always get the job done Your weakness: You’re a perfectionist to a fault Your power color: Gray Your power symbol: Checkmark Your power month: April

Almost forgot. We were at the SKC Dog Show yesterday, and what a fruitfull day it was!

Lots of dog food was picked up as goodies, and the two furry babies had such a wonderful time they were totally tired out and slept on the car ride home. Strangely, we also found out that dogs snore… well, at least Stanley does. Wifey and I were driving home with the doggies in the back seat, when we both heard a snoring sound… after looking at each other and checking to confirm that the other was not snoring(!) we naturally turned around and saw Stanley happily snoozing away… I think nothing else will surprise me anymore.

Food!

One thing about cooking at home, is that one tends to get tired of the amount of work involved in it sometimes. The need to come up with something creative or fresh to prepare, the actual prep-work of washing, cutting etc, the cooking process and of course the washing up after it’s all eaten.

To simplify the process (and save yourself some time), always, ALWAYS have some canned stuff available at all times, as well as some long keeping food in the fridge.

My standard stand-bys are:
1) Canned Mushrooms - you can boil them, fry them, make soup and hundred other stuff with these.
2) Canned Curry - You can buy these at the NTUC, just heat, pour over rice and that’s a meal. We prefer the foil-packed Japanese curry. All you gotta do is to heat it up in boiling water, and it has a light and tasty flavour.
3) SPAM - don’t laugh, but this can be a life saver. Open, slice and fry. Or make an omelet!
4) Chunky Soup - I recommend Campbell’s Baked Potato with Cheddar and Bacon bits. It makes a wonderful Pasta sauce…

In addition I’d usually have some large onions, potatoes and eggs in the fridge as well. These are versatile basic foodstuff that don’t require a lot of time to prepare and can be used for lots of dishes, plus they usually keep quite well in the fridge.

We caught Sky High last week, and found it a pretty decent show despite the predictable plot. In the classic face-off between the Geeks and the Jocks, albeit super-powered ones.

The pleasant surprise was that Lynda Carter still looks good after all these years. Fave line from the movies was:

“What did you expect me to do? I’m not Wonder Woman, you know?” XD XD XD

Visual:Slave
In the PSP:
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
In the DVD:
+Appleseed 2004
+Steamboy
+Initial D: 4th Stage
Movies to Catch:
+Sky High
+Initial D: The Movie
+Fantastic 4
+Sin City
+Corpse Bride
+Night Watch Looks like we missed this one too.
+The Legend of Zorro
+Lord of War
+Herbie: Fully Loaded Damn. We missd this one.
+The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
+Transporter 2
+Doom
+V for Vendetta
+Aeon Flux

And these are the toys I want. Heh.

First up, a TASER

Taser X26C stun gun for the rest of us
Just the thing for getting idiotic morons out of my way, this baby delivers 50,000 volts from two tethered darts up to 15-feet away. It includes six dart cartridges and a battery good for 150 shots with the gun. Also included for your $1000 are a holster, paper target with outlined “kill zones,” instructional DVD, and a certificate for free one-on-one training from a certified instructor.

Sweeeeeet.

And of course, if the moron is too stupid to realise that he’s been Tasered, there’s always the Death Ray option:

Handheld Laser Gun available for purchase
This $1750 handheld shooter comes fully assembled, runs on standard AA batteries, and packs enough focused energy to blast a hole in the “hardest of metals.” A set of Alkalines loads about a hundred-fifty 6,000 Watt shots with a 20 to 30 second recharge lag between blasts.

w00t! Gimme!

Selemat Hari Raya Aidilfitri folks, and holiday greetings to all muslim friends out there! Taking this holiday to go out and visit my mom as I haven’t seen her for a while, but first, something of a verbal diarrhea:

I love Sony products and especially their toys, but something’s come up recently to unsettle me.

Sony music CDs apparently install a rootkit on your windows PC with their copy protection, and it looks like the rootkit can be used to hide other bits of malware since it cloaks *all* files with a $sys$ extension, in addition to being generally a memory hog.

Apparently there isn’t any easy way for the regular user to remove the stuff, without causing damage to your system, and the shitty thing is, to get it off your PC, apparently you’re directed to install even more crap.

Wankers. If this won’t turn more people to illegal music downloads, I don’t know what will.

Kiddies, you have been warned.

Other Links:
The Real Danger Of Sony’s Rootkit: It Lets Others Piggyback
Sony Rootkit - Worst.DRM.Ever

It’s Deepavali! The Hindu Festival of Lights, so here’s a very warm holiday greetings to all Hindu friends out there.

This being a public holiday (as well as a rather warm and sunny day, at that), we decided to hit the beach at KM8, Sentosa with the doggies.

This time, it looks like Tess really likes to swim. She was happy to paddle for all she was worth when ever we got into the water, and even followed us to the deeper part of the water. Stanley, on the other hand, didn’t want to go any where near the water, preferring to laze in front of the ladies… the grubby boy!

Note to self #4532 ~ Do not bring Tess swimming on the same day after trimming her nails. They’re sharp and cause (very) deep scratches when she’s paddling, and she’s liable to try to clamber onto you while swimming… *ouch*

And now, a little something for the Aspiring Evil Overlord

For all your secret lair needs, this little underground nuclear shelter Code-named Burlington is now available for a mere £5m. Covering an area of 240 acres and has 60 miles of roads and its own railway station as well as it’s own pub, all 120ft underground.

I want. Gimme!

Fun stuff, these:

Wired pattern game thingy… and strangely addictive

Giant Monster Battle, but I must warn you that I’m a “Giant Lizard that has Crablike Pincers and Black-and-White Stripes”.

Strength: 8
Agility: 4
Intelligence: 2

Random Haiku Generator… and here’s a gem

Snazzy presentment,
motivate implication,
cozen slaughterhouse.
Thiamine orphic,
spurious atom wheelbase,
provenly jassid.

Cymogene unaligned,
chemotherapy underfur,
Longobard horseback.

Boxthorn prosoma,
conditioned gunnery tolyl,
reorder goblin.

Uncloak supinate,
sterilize gaga hairbrush,
Tebet imprudent.

And now something utterly useless

But I think that even for the “parents” who have pets instead of kids this is a little over the top…

I mean, it’s an animal ferchrissake! Let it walk man!