Archive for August, 2007one. four! yup, we’re four. happy anniversary! i’ll see you later tonight hor. erm, right after my camera course at canon. and for your birthday tomorrow, have fun being on leave by yourself eh. wait i bring you to… Comex? or you want to watch… the cast of Heroes, perhaps? anything lah. as long as free, ok. wo mei yo chien. wo de broke. wo IOU next month. or december bonus time. (or when somebody buys lumixette off us!) my wife is letting go her 2 months old panasonic fx10 digital camera. very good condition. still got 10 months warranty. metallic pink in colour.
features include leica dc lens, 6.0 megapixel, mega optical image stabilizer and 2.5 inch large lcd screen. for more info on the camera click here. the camera package include
all these for the low price of $280. price is negotiable, but depend on my wife lah, if she’s generous, she might give it for free if you can rap ‘negaraku’ in chinese since its merdeka day this friday. (just kidding!) ok, as usual, email me at izadd77@gmail.com to deal. camera sold to a lovely lady. will contact you regarding the details. to the rest, thanks for your support!! i’m selling off my WHOLE xbox collection. yep, this include the console, 01 controller and lots of games to keep you entertained till hari raya!! its a mod version, so you can play lots of ‘friendly’ games! what’s in the package
I’m selling all these for a low low price of $250. very cheap rite? reason for selling? i got no time to play games, i don’t even got time to complete the season one of heroes. still got prison break season two to watch. so sad…. to deal, as usual, email me at izadd77@gmail.com , i very the sayang to let go, so anything less, i might as well keep it. and, oh btw, if you got a spare psp, i’m also willing to trade with my xbox. to the winner of the bid, please check your email. for the rest, thanks for the response!! ok, by popular demand, i present you the secret of mutton chop! (like real)
there you go! the simple mutton chop recipe. enjoy! last sunday, i had a craving for mutton chops. since beach road is such a long way from tampines and it was still early in the morning, i decided to cook it myself. to be frank, making mutton chops is surprising easy. you just need some fresh muttons, potatoes, peas, sweet soy sauce, tomato puree, eggs and chilli paste. simple eh? the tricky part is making the sauce. if you use too much chilli paste, the taste would be too hot, but use too little, it would just be very bland. i called up my advisor to confirm on the exact ingredients for the sauce. for your info, my advisor is none other than my…… brother. he seriously can make a mean dish of mutton chops, can give deen biasa a run for his money by the way, the secret to making a good chilli sauce for the dish is using the oil that was used frying the mutton. the final ingredients for the sauce are tomato sauce, tomato puree, sweet soy sauce, chilli paste and a sprinkle of sugar for taste. the marination sauce for the meat is even easier, just add the sweet soy sauce with light sauce. make sure you cut the meat thinly, if not the meat turn out tough. for the fries, don’t be lazy, cut up your own fries, don’t use the frozen version, it just doesn’t taste the same. anyway, to cut the story short, it was a hearty brunch (but the wifey says, it’s too hot and the mutton’s a bit of the tough side) oh well, at least i got my fix! hehe! < ok, looks like we are back! sorry for the downtime. the servers were down for more than 24 hours. i had a hard time contacting the hosting company. but finally looks like its ok for now. i believe the migration to another server resulted in the downtime. hopefully the migration exercise is over. anyway, thanks for your patience, hopefully you guys don’t get any withdrawal syndrome! i know this is old news, but my mind can’t stop humming this song. bloody berfeeling! i just love songs with accoustic guitar and strings. apparently, the song was inspired by a girl called delilah dicrescenzo whom tom (the lead singer) knew. they didn’t really have a relationship but tom was attracted to her beauty. he told her that he had a song for her which obviously wasn’t true at that time. he took a year to write the song, but delilah, unfortunately was in another relationship and wasn’t interested in him. oh, well… the little one was seated quietly in a corner last night at mum’s house, and we should’ve known he was up to something, and sure enough, the moment i went up to him, he looked up, burst into a scream, and the next thing i knew, there was a spurt of blood from his left thimb and the sickly smell of iron permeating my nostrils. yep, he’d cut himself on a piece of glass from a small decorative candle holder placed at the top of a shelf. mum said she’d wanted to throw away that thing for some time, but somehow never got around to doing it. well, now was a good a time as any, then! thank goodness for the other people in the house, who applied pressure and iodine on his tiny, blood-dripping thumb coz all i could do was scream “darah! darah!”, the useless blob that i am. the gash is pretty long, though i’m not sure how deep it is since i didn’t really dare to look too closely. after the bloody thumb was inexpertly mummified with some cotton wool and tape, we’d stopped him from tearing (which is very rare given his high threshold for pain, so it means it must have hurt quite a lot) with a nice cold vitagen, though it didn’t take long before he started shooting at us with his imaginary gun again, injury notwithstanding. then we traipsed down to a nearby pharmacy to get ourselves proper medical supplies. and now we have ourselves an official first-aid kit. of all things NOT to have in our house! at least at my mum’s, there’s quite a useful supply since my dad needs them pretty often. from the pharmacist, i also learnt, the first-aid idiot that i am, that i can wash wounds with our contact lens solution. orhhhh, liddat ahh…. in any case, we used up the little saline solution in the first-aid kit, poured it into a disposable eye-wash container, where he curiously wriggled and sloshed around his still-bloody thumb in it. we wrapped it up (again, inexpertly) with a betadine plaster and since it was a little too big for him, taped the edges down with surgical tape. then he scampered away to muck around in his room (and soon after, made a huge, stinking dump JUST after we changed his diaper. phooeey!~) we asked if he still wants to play with sharp things, and he nodded, “nak!”. sigh. his daddy thinks this is just one of his many, MANY “battlescars” to come. he should know coz he used to collect them when he was small! just ask him, he’ll happily recall all of them. ho boy… the cheapo parents don’t buy him toys very often, as most of his loot from his first birthday are still in a) good condition; b) relevant; and c) sufficient in sustaining his interest (plus, there’re perhaps three train/car track sets still left unopened). besides, i hate to see so much plastic go to waste, and am wary of turning the house into a ‘fisher-price’ landfill. on his collection of balls, however, we’ve been a little flexible, allowing him to acquire a variety of sizes on the occasional whim. how typical, anak melayu suka main bola! but, hmm, we did include basketball and bowling ball in the mix, and maybe next time golf balls, so… some balance there? ;p anyway, remember his fascination with cranes? only now, through his eyes, have i taken notice of our skyline, and realise that s’pore is practically littered with cranes. they’re everywhere, almost threatening to take over the land! just look up and chances are, you’ll find one towering in the horizon. the daddy recalled how he used to own a toy crane set when he was small, and he’d described it in such ‘loving’ detail that i started looking around for one, for aniq as well as him. heh. and just as i was about to give up, i entered toys r us (duh), and lo and behold – the box stared right at my face, with a very nice price of $29.90 to boot…
what a monstrosity this thing is. tsk. but do you wonder who was more excited, the daddy or the son? ;p well maybe it was me, for lugging the huge package home, to see them rip it open like christmas came early, and being pleased with myself for the find. heh. don’t count on this being a regular thing, though. i also foresee that this fascination will pass soon enough, and yet another mound of coloured plastic will join the rubble. till then, enjoy all that whirring and swivelling. (though mummy doesn’t get it, really. lol!) what’s cooler than drinking teh tarik on a hot day? eating teh tarik ice-cream! on a hot saturday afternoon, we made our way to serene centre to check out the ice-cream joint that sells local desserts, frozen style! located just opposite adam road, the cosy local joint is famous for their exotic flavours. no plain vanilla or chocolate sold here, flavours like teh tarik, pulot hitam, chendol and horlicks rule the menu. for just $2.50 a scoop or $4 for 2 scoops, it’s very easy on the pockets.
hana had the mudpie which was oozing with ice-cream and cookies all over. i tried the teh tarik and nutella, which were really awesome! the teh tarik is really good, you can practically taste the tea leaves in the ice-cream. the nutella was superb, bits of nutella chocolate were literally melting in my mouth as i savoured the ice cream… you can also sprinkle horlicks and milo powder in your ice-cream if you find them bland. (which was never the case!) the place also has its own kids’ corner, with low table and chairs plus storybooks, activity books and crayons to occupy them while parents enjoy their ice-creams in peace.
there’s a photo printer at the counter where after you snap your pictures, you can print it out and stick them on the walls, way cool!
so if you want to cool yourself down, check out island creamery, located at serene centre level 1. (the expat grocery store upstairs is also worth a visit.) more pictures here! so the wife and child were unceremoniously ‘abandoned’ by the side of the road for two evenings in a row, while the husband went on his secret rendezvous at some secluded location with his brokeback bridge shutterbuddy, hehe. ok lah, not so drama. i preferred to meet up with my fellow fireworks-loving cousins closer to the scene, so i didn’t mind lugging the little fella along. wasn’t too bad searching for them among the swell of crowd. they lined all along the bridge and basically every nook and cranny available overlooking the bay. yeah i know, are these people CRAZY of what?! just for fifteen minutes of colourful explosives?? :p
the first night was just nur & ikmal and eventually, fish soup noodle at thong seng. (see hungry toddler above, appreciating the fine art of late-night suppers at coffeeshops.) the second night was these happy kids again.
the haznshams had ‘choped’ a spot at the edge of the river for two hours, or in the twins’ layman terms, “four power rangers” (meaning four half-hour episodes lah, you all never watch power rangers, is it…). their daddy tried to con them into thinking that the show had been cancelled after waiting for “three power rangers”, but they were not to be fooled. the first night’s fireworks (by the spanish) were more impressive and had a bigger bang to it, but the husband took better shots of the second night’s fireworks (by the chinamen), methinks.
aniq? haiyah, nevermind the fireworks, he just enjoyed himself lor, full stop.
so, what do you think? i walked around 1km on foot just to reach the ‘secret’ location. hehe… i guess it was worth the journey. i had to fumble in the dark, trying to set up my tripod and i cheated on the settings a bit as i was running late. i had no time to test out the different settings, just had time to set it to the fireworks mode. after dropping my wife and son at the padang, i rushed to the ‘secret’ location that jeremy recommended. he was already waiting for me there. i had to climb up railings and cross a wooden plank before reaching the area. apparently he was way further than i was, as it was running late, i couldn’t take the risk, so i set up my equipment nearer instead.
as soon as the fireworks began, the traffic on the benjamin sheares bridge suddenly came to a stand still, the vehicles just stopped to admire the fireworks! i could hear the irritating beeping sound of the car horns as drivers on the way back were held up by the sudden jam. i didn’t really managed to get to the exact location that was recommended by my shutterbuddy, but i guess the location that i shot was quite ok, the only issue was that, there were some trees on the right side which blocked some of the view. if i were to move further out towards the mouth of the river, perhaps i could get a better angle and clearer fireworks. anyway its ok, as i might be going again tomorrow, hopefully this time around, i’m able to get the full landscape view without any trees blocking. more pictures in my flickr -> here the bub and i have been left to our own devices every monday evening as the diddy is away on his ‘covert operation’ for yet another term. usually i’d bring him out for an extra-long meandering walk home from his oma’s house, exploring the surrounding estate and stopping to say hello to the cats or run around with other kids loitering the area. this week, there was a chance to “commisserate” with another ‘single’ mother, so we packed the kids in the car and went grocery shopping in true suburban housewife fashion. i don’t imagine posh spice doing this too when becks is away for soccer practice… or does she? heh. ok lah, we’re no WAGs, but we create our own paparazzi, can? :p
and monday nights like these, which is also TV night for mummy, with no diddy around to ‘distract’ him, all the lights in the house go out early, and he complies by turning in before 2200hrs, just in time for mummy to settle in with her other friends, susan, gabrielle, lynette et al. easy peasy, i tell the husband when he gets home. (or maybe the boy, seeing diddy’s not around, gets bored and thinks, “tidur sudahlah!” :p) i wonder if it’s different if i stayed home all the time. would he be less well-behaved and less approval-seeking? or more? for those who don’t already know, there will be fireworks again tomorrow and saturday around marina bay. those who missed out on the national day fireworks last week, now you’ll get a chance to see it again on friday and saturday!! called the singapore fireworks celebration, it showcases pyrotechnics from china and spain. apparently there were tickets sold for the festival but unfortunately all were sold out! (i didn’t even know they sold it in the first place!) but it’s okay, i will be around the area with my shutterbuddy to capture the moment. i’m not really good at taking fireworks (as you can see from the pictures below) but with 3 so-called training sessions from previous months, i think i’m ready for the big one, hehe…
my “valiant” attempts at capturing the fireworks, oh well!! i was there when they held the closing ceremony for the national stadium, the fireworks barely lasted 3 minutes, and to think that we waited almost 2 hours for the “fireworks”. but its ok, at least aniq enjoyed himself. the next training session was the national day preview, i got a remote for the camera especially for the occasion. but alas, the sheer number of people having the same idea left us with very limited place to shoot the fireworks. my third training was perhaps the worst of the lot, brought my gear especially for the national day fireworks but didn’t even manage to set it up! but i managed to salvage some shots using the wifey’s g7 camera… so i really hope that this weekend, i will be able to get nice fireworks pictures. for those who are thinking of going down to marina bay with their dslr cameras to shoot the fireworks, below are the settings that i use to capture the fireworks. (thanks to jeremy and scott kelby!)
you really need to use a tripod, not handheld, unless your arms are really strong and they don’t shake for 4-5 seconds. use a cable release, so you will be able to time your shot just as the fireworks explode instead of looking into your viewfinder, which will result in a hit or miss. but if you think that the settings are really complicated, just set your camera to the firework settings. i’m pretty sure most of your cameras have a few auto settings like potrait, sports, landscape. so, all the best to those taking pictures tomorrow, hope to see you guys there! btw, jeremy and i will be heading to tanjung rhu area for an unobstructed view of the city. so if any of you like to join us, you are more than welcome to come (maybe help to babysit aniq while daddy and mummy enjoy the fireworks, kidding!!) |
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