decadence

last evening, Sel invite us to her place for a sumptious dinner gathering. the food was delicious! too busy stuffing myself with dry mee siam, okra with chinchalok and braised duck to take pics! dessert was chocolate cake from Lana Cake Shop and agar agar. the chocolate cake was sinful and so shiok!

later when we reached home, I discovered that my sis had bought durians. can't resist...

apa boobies?

got this strange request via iChat at 1am on New Year's Eve. it's was too difficult to resist slipping in a barb about Allo, Allo...

it's this sort of boobies, lah! actually, Joelle was asking me to ID the boobies (a kind of sea bird) and frigate birds she saw on her New Caledonia expedition with the frogs, oops... French.

my bird ID was rusty to say the least. not much birding in China. but a quick google search turned up enuff bird photos to help. most of the birdies were brown booby (Sula leucogaster) and blue-footed booby.

bak kut teh

my MIL and FIL brought Robina and myself to try the bak kut teh from this stall in Aliwal St, Sin Thor Bak Kut Teh (67452632). They serve the teochew style bak kut teh with clear, peppery soup, unlike the hokkien style which is dark colour and has a stronger chinese herbal aroma and taste. their pork ribs was lean but a tad dry. altho it went well with the soup, yew char kuay and salted vege.

the piece de resistance was the stewed pork trotters. the meat and skin was very tender, melt in your mouth texture.

the steamed pomfret (teochew style) was simple but satisfying!

there's two middle-eastern F&B establishment across the street, Cafe el Sheik and Amirah's Grill. apparently, u can smoke sheesha at the cafe. I checked out the menu at Amirah's. It offered lebanese hummus and turkish kebabs. might pop over to try one of these days. Robina and I had tried an Egyptian grill in Beijing which was quite good!

KMY's bachelor's pad

went to visit KMY's brand new hide-out at Savannah condo in Simei. along with the "jungle" theme the place was decorated with statues of hippos, rhinos, oryx and panther. due to the shower's interesting design, KMY would be "mooning" motorists along PIE. if there's a pile-up on that slip road, we will know why!

Ladybug whipped up a quick and delicious lunch of pineapple rice, chicken and eggplant green curry and fried chicken!
after makan and ladybug going for a few laps in the pools, we went down to the club house to try the two-lane bowling alley. here's a jubilant ladybug!

before u know it, it was dinner time. we headed down to nearby Tampines for a spot of Malay food at Afghanistan kopi-tiam, my old neighbourhood! Ladybug tried the kachang pul, but later complained that it was not warm enuff.

Robina had the nasi lemak (her fav dish from this kopi tiam)

I had nasi bryani since I was desperate for bismatic rice. they ran out of mutton so I had to take the chicken (still delicious and spicy!).

putuh piring with gula melaka was excellent! couldn't resist this even tho we were stuffed silly by this time.

back home

flew back last nite. will be back in S'pore for three weeks. just barely enuff to run errands, show face to parents and meet frens. We probably have to scrap our previous plan of skipping to Phuket for a few days.

even the shower felt luxurious, since Beijing water is too hard and difficult to lather. downside is of course, Singapore's humidity. feels like swimming in wet concrete, considering Beijing's around 10-15% in winter.

had bak kut teh for lunch, the light-colour peppery teochew version! yummy!

signboard shock!

was in the car on my way home. pass by Dongzhimen Wai Da Jie, near Sanlitun. had a double-take when I saw the red neon sign board of the Beijing Heli Hospital. from a distance and due to the font, "Heli" looks very much like "Hell"!

I thot I saw "Beijing Hell Hospital". I know the health care system might be bad, but didn't expect them to be so upfront about it...

maybe they should spit into "He Li" instead.

must come by again to snap a pic, plus that "Anus" Hospital as well.

a Singapore wedding shoot in Taiwan

tired of the usual wedding photo locales in S'pore like Botanic Gardens or Fullerton, just fly down to Taipei! our friend Hui Yuh did just that with her hubby. We recommended them Linli Studio where we did our wedding shoot.

apparently Hui Yuh went down on a Saturday, discuss pricing, decided on the photographer and chose her gowns and went on her photo shoot the next day! chop chop very efficient! other wedding couples would very envious compared to their extended hassle.
Her album, aptly named "Very Taiwan", was very nicely done and showcased prominent landmarks like Taipei 101 (tallest building in Asia, for now) and their istana. Taipei's tourism board should sponsor Hui Yuh for their "free" promotion. I liked the golden beach and lomantic sunset, very nice!

Like Hui Yuh, we like our outdoor shots in Taiwan especially our pics on the beach. Our wedding album is still in S'pore. must lug to Beijing after this trip back home (it weighs a ton!).

Nokia event

Robina and Sherry was at a Nokia event launchin a new line of phones.
thanks to Sherry, Robina got to enjoy VIP treatment, seated in front row, snapped by their "official" photographers. they were reportedly filmed and appeared on Beijing TV.
only gripe, guy models not cute enuff...

Taipei trip

delicious Taiwanese sausages! with various toppings!

Robina and I headed over to Taipei for a few days' short break. We revisited some of our favourite makan places and visited friends. I bought some books and visited a hot spring. meant to put up the photos but blogger has been down for some time. here are the pics at last.

we did not realise we missed Taipei so much until we came by again. Everything was so convenient; including shopping and taxis. Things we took for granted and experienced differently in Beijing.
Like easily accessible yummy food like beef noodles (above).
Robina appreciated the good services and shopping centres!
We missed the pet friendly environment in Taipei. Robina used to drag Sally all over town and even up on the MRT (when Sally was much smaller!).

X'mas gifts

CIMG0616
Originally uploaded by Alvin Spiel.

the girls met up at Sui Grill (a swanky yakitori joint) for their gift exchange. see who ended up with what?

SOGO freebie

wandering along Chung Hsiao East Rd (Taipei's Orchard Rd), Robina and I saw a crowd gathered in from of SOGO. thinking that it might be some Taiwanese star appearing, we went closer to take a look. it was a promotion for cosmetics and they had roped in ladies for the "before" and "after" effect. the compere asked the crowd to join in for games to win free skin care products. as the line was forming, I "urged" Robina to join in for fun n laughter.

before long it was her turn. Robina was supposed to toss two hoops at the products arranged on stage. first try was totally off, the compere even quipped that Robina should have tried harder. second try just missed by a little. didn't win anything but it was fun!

first snow 2005

just brought Sally down for her walk. it was snowing! just a light dusting. must have just started snowing since there was no visible snow accumulated on the garden grass lawn. brought Sally out front to watch the snow drifting down illuminated by the street lamps and X'mas lighting. hope there will be a thick layer by morning. not bad for the first snow of winter 2005!

this was the first snow from last year.