Monday, December 25, 2006

mobile warrior

traipsed around the madness of Orchard area today lugging my iBook. searching for wireless. strangely, can't logon to wireless@sg at Plaza Singapura or Takashimaya. must be too many users since I had no problems at Tampines Mall or Century Square in the eastern side of S'pore. strangely PS and Taka not that many people as expected. there were cabs avail in the PS taxi queue at 2pm. the crowds must be outside in Orchard Rd for the X'mas street party. now blogging from Tampines Mall food court, also madness in terms of crowds.

contemplated buying a High Sierra day-pack with a laptop compartment for the iBook.

dilemma now: Burger King or Mos burger, both not available in Beijing. Robina quaffing a bowl of "ban mian", also not available in BJ despite in being a Mainland Chinese concoction sold in S'pore.

weather relatively cool with frequent showers. we are quite comfy despite the almost 30C temperature difference between BJ and S'pore.

people I bumped into so far:
2. ZXY
1. KMY

SS will be leading a landing party of Swedish Vikings from the Gotheburg to visit Pulau Ubin tomorrow morning, probably for their shore leave. denizens of Ubin have been warned...

I can't joined them since I have a medical check-up in the morning. maybe in the afternoon, can meet for kopi in Changi Village...

Sunday, December 24, 2006

back home in soggy Singapore

Robina and I are back in Singapore for a short break. the day has been relatively cool due to incessant rain. We missed the worst of the rainstorms that flooded apparently low-lying areas.

suffering from withdrawal since my Punggol apartment now don have cable and broadband. I'm now a mobile warrior with my iBook roaming wireless hotspots tapping on the free wireless@sg networks. at the moment I blogging from Delifrance in Century Square. surfing speed is quite OK.

We are trying to get out of town for a few days. hopefully to Bali if we can get tickets.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Lijiang restaurant

We tried a Lijiang restaurant at Sanlitun. They serve Yunnan food which is very similar to Northeast Thai food. For starters, we had deep-fried bee pupae and caterpillars. very yummy, they are crispy like french fries.

that's sugar cane shoots, tasted like bamboo shoots but sweeter and more tender.
one of their signature dishes, grilled fish with lemon grass. smells heavenly and the fish was not dry like most grilled dishes.
Yunnan "crossing the bridge" rice noodles in very tasty stock.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

temptations

I feel for that doggy...it's like Homer gazing at sausages...ddduuuhhh...
from Beijing News

Monday, December 11, 2006

tea and kimono


the girls attended the reception for the Japanese Emperor's birthday where their friend Yuki was presenting the tea ceremony, chanoyu. Japanese ladies were wearing beautiful kimonos and the girls took photos with some of them. there was excellent food like tempura noodles and lots of sushi!

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

fruits glorious fruits

the girls visited the Thai king's jubilee celebrations here in Beijing.
there was a picture gallery about his majesty's life story and the contribution of his royal projects to the life of poor people in rural areas
along with the excellent thai food courtesy of the many thai restaurants in Beijing, the highlight must be the glorious tropical fruits specially flown in from Thailand. we appreciate it even more since Beijing is now in the throes of winter.
the kind Thai ladies peeled the delicious juicy mangoes for us!
the jambu or rose apples were sweet and juicy!

Sunday, December 03, 2006

instant soya bean curd

We had dinner at Toufu House at Fortune Plaza. Despite the name it was not a pure vegetarian place. Some dishes have meat (chicken, fish or pork) but every dish have some form of soya or bean curd. The chef came in to prepare their signature bean curd dish right at our table.
He poured the soya bean milk and allowed it to coagulate for 3 minutes. They don use gypsum here but use an extract from grapes (probably tartaric acid). It was suppose to make it easier for our body to absorb the soya protein.
We could choose to have sweet, savoury or spicy versions. different conditions like honey, sesame, soya sauce, spring onions, vinegar or chilli oil could be added. this is the savoury version.
the girls liked the sweet version.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

reception

Pat and Winnie had their ROM reception today. They had their ROM back in Singapore and was having this party for their friends in Beijing. The venue is at a cosy cafe, le Palais, their pastries and cakes are quite good since they have a Belgian chef. The girls went down there earlier to help decorate the place and organise the reception.
Everyone had their mugshot snapped with a polaroid camera and they could add the polaroid to the guestbook that they signed. The girls also prepared water transfer tattoos for those game enough. Most of the guests are friends and colleagues who had a great time celebrating the happy occasion with the couple and catching up with each other. the kids enjoyed themselves playing with the confetti from the party poppers!
more photos here at Flickr

Name:
Alvin's spiel

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