Compilation of random sub-posts.

Primary School Class Reunion

@ my place in Bishan on 29th Dec.

It's an amazing realisation how much we've grown since Primary 6. Most of us here have known each other since we were 9 years old. Now we're 23.

Watched a couple of movies at my place, had some catered food, and had a hell of a good time reminiscing the past, reviving age-old jokes, poking fun at childhood crushes, it was a fantastic gathering. And I'm glad I organised this, it wasn't easy coordinating the whole thing, but turned out to be worth the trouble.


Lobster Sushi

A pic of one of our favourite sushi dishes. Lobster Sushi from Soba so Good, a Jap cuisine outlet by the Suntec fountain. At 10 bucks for this plate, it's worth every cent. Lobster meat sushi wrapped around with sushi rice and avocado strips.



Fantastic pampering of the taste-buds. Not to mention, I really like the presentation as quite a bit of effort went into it, as we saw the chef prepare it right in front of us.


City View

5th Jan 08

Well last Saturday was the opening of the City View @ Boon Keng showflats along with the opening of applications. Why were we there?

Multiple reasons.

1. We are paying rent for the place we're staying at right now; if we purchased a cheap flat, we could be paying exactly the same amount, but owning a piece of property in future.

2. I'm damn friggin picky about flats. As usual, I would either pick the best of the best, or pick the best value for $$. So, two locations which are available now, Punggol and Yishun, are not in my shortlist of potential locations as the transport costs are high despite cheap flats in those areas.

3. The group of flats consist of 3 40-storey triangular blocks, with one of the sides overlooking the marina area, and another of the sides overlooking Orchard area. And the remaining side overlooks Toa Payoh/Bishan area.

Well the main point is 40-storey. After taking Urban Planning classes in uni, I know that building height of every single plot of land is restricted by Urban Redevelopment Authority. And around Boon Keng region, it is surrounded by many conservation areas, so it is rare that there's a plot with 40-storey limit. And consequently, the views are not likely to be blocked in the near future, unless places like arab street conservation area and little india get the boot. Which is very very unlikely.

Except for the Bishan/Toa Payoh side, which is likely to get blocked in the near future as Boon Keng housing district right beside it is getting more attention than ever after City View came up.

Artist's impression from the developers' website, hoihup.com

The ridiculous crowd on Saturday.

We were silly not to expect any crowd, especially when it's one of the most sought after properties in sg in a long while, coupled with the opening day falls on a weekend. And so, we were in e q for about an hour before we got to see the showflats.

And we couldn't take any pix of the showflats due to the nightmare crowd. Suffice to say, it was damn nice. So, we went back home and registered online. Statistics say that on the first day of release, there were already 1,100 applicants for the 720 units available for sale. Expected to have more than 10k applicants by the closing date, 16th Jan.

We haven't even come to the difficult part. Money. If we happen to get a good que number, we have to think of how to come up with the moolah to pay for the place. Which... is quite an immense problem. The only possible help we might get is from my brother, and neither my parents nor my grandparents who have no vision.

They'll just be thinking, this place costs 3 times as much as a comparable flat in Yishun or Punggol, and think I'm splurging, etc.etc. Whatever. I don't want any of their moolah anyway. I'm hardly their child other than the blood ties which I am still not heartless enough to sever.

Of course, this is just the first choice. Second choice is TPY, another set of 40-storey blocks just beside Jon's place. It's prob gonna be good value for money. But well. Since drawing lots is a compulsory part we have to go thru (except for condos which we seriously can't afford), we just have to wait until we get a good que number.


Dessert!


Amongst all my work on Monday, I actually found time in between appointments to have dinner with Clarisse! ^___^

So she treated me to some dim sum at Asian Kitchen, and following that, I dragged her along to Raffles City, not spoiling the surprise for her.

And we arrived at Aerin's by the fountain in the basement of Raffles City, and of course we got a seat by the fountain.

It was our first time there (it was recommended by a friend), and so after viewing their dessert menu, we decided to go for the Chef's Recommendation, which takes 15 minutes to prepare.

And so, we had a good 15 minutes to just enjoy the romantic ambience by the fountainside, aided by the dim lighting and the lit candle on the table.

And 15 minutes later, it was served.

The Chef's Apple Pie.

Looks good eh?

A scoop of Macadamia ice-cream (I could tell it's from Haagen Dazs) on top of a baked pie crust, with warm apple pie filling beneath it. Take a mouthful of all 3 together, and it was fantastic.

We didn't take anything else, and the bill came up to 14 bucks, which is still very cheap for the quality and quantity of the Apple Pie. Recommended!!

~end~

Well, like I said, nothing much has happened to me in the new year. I'm doing what I've always been doing, breaking into new markets in biz, spending time with Clarisse, working my ass off towards my dreams, enjoying everything that life has to offer.

And... one current project which I've been working on for the past few weeks is to build a "hackintosh". It's a online slang for a normal PC installed with Mac OS X, also called OSx86. Efforts have not been very successful as yet, failing on more than 10 attempts on different configs for my dell lappie. Well, of course, I'm learning new stuff with each failure and I'm never gonna give up. ^___^


To all my friends, have a great year ahead.