THINGS I NEED TO BRING BACK FOR CHINESE NEW YEAR





One of the things I need to bring back for Chinese New Year is the surprising Lexotan Bromazepam tablets! I have no idea what it is but with a ‘Zepam’ at the back, I know these tablets are related to reducing tension and anxiety. Thus, it is anxiolytic. According to a pharmacy friend years ago, it is a powerful psychotropic agent. Sixthseal.com should have a far more extensive information on this drug compare to me. There are like 100 tablets here and I am sure a friend will be happy if I give him the whole box! Haha! Then again, I heard bromazepam is not that powerful anyway compared to any of the related ‘Zepam’ family so probably he will give it a pass.







Next on the list is a bottle of Sprite Lemon Storm. Singapore is always crazy about creating funny new drinks and this adds up as another new entry to the market. I have tried it once during their promotional campaign in Orchard Road about a week ago. The lemon taste is very strong and you will be fooled like me as well to think that the liquid is yellow since the bottle colour is in yellow. Hehe! It is abit too strong to be qualified as a thirst quencher. It is better not be drank when you finish some sporting activities and are eager for a nice cold drink after a tiring game. This is probably your typical Chinese New Year house visit drink or probably something you order in a kopitiam for a meal. Hehe! The drink is still in white like your normal Sprite. Now, this is a contrast to Pepsi Fire and Ice. In a lemon flavoured drink, you expect them to colour it yellow, but they don’t. While Pepsi literally colour their drinks red and blue to simulate fire and ice. Still, an interesting flavour of lemon worth drinking. Try it out if you have a chance!



Aussino bedlinen, another thing I need to bring back for grandma. It is a king bed fitted sheet set with standard 2 pillow cases, 1 fitted sheet and 1 bolstercase. I know Sibu has a boutique at the top of Wisma Sanyan. I have no idea how good quality their products are. So, no comments on this one.



Then, of course thanks to my room mate for the nonya kueh baulu he is giving me. He said his mom recommended it. I was looking through the local cake shop called Bengawan Solo for a few days already for their famous cheese cookie. I tried it when my room mate brought some of their sample cookies a few days back. FYI, Bengawan Solo was founded in 1979 by Tjendri Anastasia, originally from Indonesia.





Well, not really their famous stuff but I guess I love it much. The only problem is that it is out of stock. I checked from Clementi to Orchard Road and failed to find any. I asked my friend to check throughout his neighbourhood in the east and somehow it seems that the whole island is out of stock. If I can’t get any before I go home, I guess this nonya kueh baulu will be the only food I bring back from Singapore for Chinese New Year. I heard their kueh lapis and pineapple tarts are famous, but I guess kueh lapis and pineapple tarts are not things so special that we in Sibu have never tasted.





Finally, the League magazine. I was too busy to even browse through it but it is a locally made football magazine I think. They have the Shevchenko poster attached with this issue. I guess Ah Hung will be thrilled with this issue. If he is interested, probably I will bring back and give him! Shevy was injured during the defeat of Milan to Bologna last night. I hope the extend of his injury is not a serious one, if not, Milan will have a hard time catching Juventus now and Inter are chasing furiously from the back!

THE DA VINCI CODE : DAN BROWN



Not since the days in secondary school have I picked up a book to read. That was during English period where we have free reading time. The teacher actually forced us to go to the school library to borrow books and record our reading progress. We also need to submit book reports for all the books read. It was a tiring process to me as I never enjoy reading books until I discovered that there are many sexual stories always depicted in the novels. Probably to make the readers awake and not sleep throughout the boring plot. Well, I started to like Sherlock Holmes because of the whole forcing process to read, which is a good thing I guess.

From then onwards until now, the only book I finished reading are The Republic of Plato and The Analects of Confucius. Both are very interesting books about philosophy of the west and east. Now, the new book that has been gathering storm for its top ranking as bestseller for a long time last year was Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. This book was first introduced to me by an Indian friend on an exchange program to my university. I remember his name is kinda cool, if I get the spellings right, it was Ashwin. By the way, he was giving some spoilers and hints of anticipation of what the book will be about.

I did not expect such extensive readings related to architecture and arts until I started picking up the book to read. The Louvre with a pyramidal glass entrance by American Chinese architect I.M.Pei was one of the main sites of the story and with references with many cathedrals around Europe as well as some other structures. Then, we go into paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and discovering secrets we yet to know. There are also some explanation about The Fibonacci numbers, Divine Proportion, PHI to Christianity. Learning about the story from the other side is always my interest. The stories of the Priory of Sion, Opus Dei and the Holy Grail have opened up new facts and knowledge I have not known and turned up pretty astonishing and shocking to me.

The research done by the Harvard Symbologist, Robert Langdon is very interesting. The puzzles, riddles, symbols, codes and ciphers discussed in the book are the ingredients that made it so interesting. The Symbology of Secret Sects, The Art of the Illuminati and The Lost Language of Ideograms are some books written by him. There are many facts of history, mathematics and science that are intriguing as well. The whole story plot is interesting, fast paced to race against the opponents to get the goal of the whole story. What is the Holy Grail? The fun and fast ride will make you stuck with the whole progress until the end of the journey. It is probably one of the best mysteries I had read and uncover many things that made me think twice of the knowledge I have now on certain issues. Overall, a very addictive book to me!

Grab that book, read it and you will be very surprised by a lot of things and your reading time will be very fulfilling. If someone like me who hardly carry a book to read and require a year to finish a novel can finish this book in 3 days, there must be something interesting about this book that is worth your reading time. Enjoy!

FOOTBALL: COULD THIS BE THE BEGINNING?

The Three Musketeers of chelsea are the reasons to me for their beautiful flow of football this season. early morning's victory in old trafford brings chelsea into the final of the league cup, their first major booking into a final in all 4 competitions. could this be the beginning?







the three musketeers are now looking far more convincing than the three galaticos of beckham, figo and zidane. yes, these three musketeers as i will call them are the reason for chelsea's form this season. duff and robben are probably the best wide-men in the whole league and perhaps, dare i put it, europe. lampard's command in central midfield is also the best we have seen this season. i already gave an early warning early in the season last year when i watched all 3 of them performing. i predicted that money can buy success just by looking at their performances.

i could be wrong, it is still early to determine the winners of all 4 competitions, but the form and injury free of all their players suggest so for now. the matches between chelsea and barcelona will convince me the statement. i am looking forward to both legs. barcelona did reinforce their squad with maxi and albertini. i have yet to witness their ability, but very soon anytime this weekend.

for the premier league however, a little bit of history will be interesting. if chelsea can manage to win the crown this season, it will be nice because they are celebrating their 100 years anniversary since the club was formed in 1905. they won their only previous league title, the old first division championship in 1954-55, exactly 50 years after their formation. now here they are, a further 50 years on, homing in on their second – which would also be their first premiership crown. interesting right?

although chelsea did not win anything last season under ranieri, their second place in the epl and being semi-finalist in the champions league is a good enough indication that they are not performing too badly under abramovich's first season there. before ranieri, we should not forget about vialli, who helped chelsea win the league cup and the cup winners' cup in 1998, the super cup in 1999 and the fa cup with the charity shield in 2000. far more earlier than vialli, we remember ruud gullit, but he only gave the club the fa cup in 1997. those period of time we see zola as the trademark of chelsea. far more earlier than gullit was hoddle who left to become england manager in 1996. i don't think he brought any honours to chelsea.

of course, history is far more than that for a club that is formed since 1905. the only question that we all want an answer is:

could football be all BLUE this season?

FOOTBALL: WHAT'S UP, BELLAMY?



it has been a few days and the saga of bellamy is still rocking the epl. what on earth really happened? now, bellamy is on the exit of the toon army and looks like liverpool is interested in him. aston villa too. liverpool are desperate since florent sinama-pongolle is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines after damaging his knee against watford last night. seems like his outburst for being played out of his position got him a 2 weeks fine. not going to apologize to souness because he said he had done nothing wrong. i guess bellamy had always been in trouble in the past for his bad temper, but this time it has gone too far. we as the public has no idea what really happened but can only guess through the reports in the papers. when patrick kluivert is coming to newcastle, i already have this doubt of the starting line up. shearer is the raul of newcastle, the untouchable captain. whoever put him on the bench will be sacked the next day. bellamy is a bad temper dude who never shy away from giving you a piece of him. so how? this is the outcome eventually.

oh well, newcastle are buying a lot of people lately. boumsong (unfortunately injured), babayaro and then amdy faye from portsmouth. the transfer of man city’s sylvain distin didn’t go through. of coz there are speculations of bernard to be sold. seems like newcastle are going to change the entire defence which has been very weak this season. no, I don’t think the departure of jonathan woodgate was the main reason since well, he has not even make his debut for real madrid. whether the investment in defence by souness will bear fruit is still early to be predicted.

second to be as active in the transfer market this january is probably barcelona. maxi lopez and demetrio albertini are the 2 going there. i have no idea of their capabilities and abilities to contribute to barcelona but we shall see the rewards as the season progress. they still lead the galaticos by 7 points.

the galaticos is having a more settled and balanced formation now with a midfield diamond with gravesen at the back. it was said that this give more freedom for beckham, figo and zidane to attack in front. i don't know how effective this new formation will be. only time can tell, but if they can start winning matches, that will be great. the news of adriano linked with them is definitely an exciting one but the economic power of chelsea with mourinho's interest will make things complicated. yet, surely inter won't want a repeat of the ronaldo transfer. also the news of parma striker gilardino linked with the galaticos. i have no idea of his ability too.

interested to know the edu story. will he actually move out this january transfer period? seems like valencia is in no hurry to capture him. so is pandiani to have settled with almost the identical problem facing bellamy. interestingly, tristan played and scored. long time have I not heard from him.

right now the biggest match tomorrow is not your favourite champions league match, but a league cup match! hope it will be exciting!

MAN. UTD. VS. CHELSEA

go LAMPARD!!! by the way, congratulations to stephen gerrard for bringing Liverpool into the FA Cup final. it is the best chance for liverpool to win a trophy this season. of course, they have to go through against man utd or chelsea. any of the encounters won’t be easy unless they are forced to play a weekened side for the sake of champions league or premier league challenge!

FOOTBALL: BIG GUNS WIN BUT MILAN & VALENCIA

munich, juventus, chelsea, arsenal, man utd, barca & real had all won their matches but milan and valencia. what about inter? they just LOVE to draw, they had already drawn their 14th match! incredible! i had checked all the major leagues in europe, from england, spain, holland, france, germany and scotland. nobody can draw more than inter! the interesting match will be the norwich vs. middlesbrough match which ended 4-4.

i want to focus on villarreal now on this particular player called juan riquelme. remember he is the dude that sinked his own club, barca just recently and this week killed valencia with a hattrick.



his recent achievements against the big guns had arose interest in me to know about him more. he came from the land where maradona was from & many had labelled him as the successor of that great player, of coz not his naughty side. he is to me a player under-rated. low in profile hidden in his loan team villarreal which he took to the uefa cup final last season. he even asked for a transfer back to boca juniors, where he belonged since barca never really shown much interest to his ability since ronaldinho and deco was signed.

to me, he together with saviola are two of the best argentinians around right now and yet barca loaned both out of their place. they even favour larsson over saviola which i have no idea why despite larsson's age. riquelme is definitely among the best midfielders south america has to offer now, he is creative and overall skill is outstanding. this includes his ability to detect his surrounding team mates and the overall flow of game itself.

his great assists and accurate vital passes are his trademark too. he is like a zidane to me, where he controls the midfield engine and the whole team will have him as a centre to bring out the best of him. he is not good at defending as well so he doesn't track back that often. his attacking ability is really that damn good that it will compensate for his lack of speed. but like zidane in his prime days, riquelme makes fast and wise decisions to detect the flow of the game well and bring the advantage to his team. who says david beckham produce great passes? i can easily say mcmanamann produces more effective ones during his prime days. now, riquelme will be there at the top of my list to be among the best passers of the game.

could it be because that when he was in barca, there are too many superstars so his involvement in the game was minimized? that his role and positioning has already been overtaken by ronaldinho or deco? whatever it is, he is surely to me a world class talent. i am very interested to see how far he can bring villarreal this season and big guns in europe should take notice of this under-rated superstar. to me, he is a true talent that don't come by everyday of your footballing history. he is undoubtedly among the best players the world has to offer now.

NOOCH



it is a local food chain established probably 1-2 years ago. they are famous for their gigantic bowls. so whenever you pass by their outlet, you will be jealous of the people enjoying their meal of giant bowls of noodle. siew ing drops by singapore for the weekend and we went out to dine at one of the nooch's outlets at the basement of paragon, orchard road.



it was packed as usual for the dining time in orchard road.



i oredered a bowl of chicken ramen while my friend siew ing ordered some thai rice dish.





his bro ordered a bowl of beef ramen.



the only complaint we have of nooch is the cheating bowl. haha! eventhough they have among the biggest bowls ever served, it is filled with soup. the chicken serving in mine was so small that i was surprised that's the end of it. i tried to scoop for more in the soup but that's about it. you just get filled till you are full with the soup serving, which is alot. the taste was fine. just the small serving is abit turn off judging by the price of S$11-13 a bowl.



we had a walk to the mrt station and i took some shots of the decorations outside lucky plaza.



c.k.tang with a tree growing ang pau packets! wow!





the underpass to wisma atria has this latest pepsi fire and ice drink ad which i don't like at all! u know the one starring vanness wu and tata young. i mean the drinks, the design is ok.



wisma atria had been renovated last year and now has this cool staircase with light design that will catch your attention anywhere visible from as far as possible! nice!

ORANGE DAYS & GOKUSEN

japanese dramas.....i'm always a big fan. i don't really have a fav. artist/s to follow all the way since I believe everyone of those who can make it big are good. In other words, there are many talented ones around. I am following these two dramas now. As you have guessed, there must be sexy or beautiful babes in the dramas to catch my attention. Unless the actor has great charisma & that damn good to be worth watching.



orange days is about life in the stage of senior life in university in the transition towards working life for kai yuuki and his two best friends. he is finding it tough to get a job offer. one day, he meets a girl who is playing violin in the campus, sae hagio. the same actress starring in good luck! in marked contrast to her beautiful tone and attractive looks, her personality is somewhat impertinent and she communicates through very vulgar sign language. those who knows her will know that she is always acting so cool and hardly smile for you. ice queen indeed!

4 years ago, she lost her hearing. as a result, sae closed off her inner self from the outside world. sae is a name that rings a bell in my ears. reminds me of fatal frame 2. shiver me timbers! kai finds himself on a date with sae, in place of his best friend although he has a girlfriend at that time. this opportunity gives him the contact with sae's private side. the story goes on when kai's girlfriend found out and got jealous. those kinda love story plot......



it's your typical glittering youth drama. just watched halfway so i have no idea how good it is. so far so good, but i kinda get tired of these kinda doramas. reminds me of beautiful life. although these kinda doramas are very touching and relates to the life of the disabled, but too much suffering and sadness of struggle focus for a whole dorama is too much for me.



gokusen is very similar with gto. both stories if i am not mistaken are also created from mangas. reproduced again to be a dorama. newly graduated kumiko yamaguchi wants to make her mark on the Japanese educational system as a teacher. all well and good until she finds out that the school she'll be teaching at has its fair share of troublemakers and rabble-rousers. the problem students in the class she is teaching at the school don't frighten her though for she has a secret of her own-she's a fourth generation crime syndicate member and next in line to head it up.



she's gone straight and wants to be a teacher though, but she's one person in whose class you don't want to be caught fooling around! she tries to be so friendly and it was really funny. in order to protect her identity which only the principal knows for the sake of the image of the school. she is also trying very much in love with a police officer and trying all she can to get his heart. but she has rivals in the school nurse and another teacher who is a superbabe. with two competitors who are always tough, she always end up with the handsome police officer's partner, who is quite irritating.

the style is very much gto, with each episode focusing on a student or teacher and trying to get them to learn a lesson. but she is so damn funny i don't mind a teacher like her! bring back the good old secondary school days. nostalgic....

VIA MAR @ ESPLANADES - THEATRE BY THE BAY



i tried to pluck his nose. it feels too shallow...



some installation art they displayed at the lobby





finally, the spanish restaurant that is awaiting me & my bro





aperture is the only way to go.....



we ordered a glass of white & red wine each (buy 1 get 1 free) @S$12





oysters, 3 types, 1 with salsa saue, 1 with spinach, 1 with cheese....whole plate @S$13







chicken? nope, roasted pork @ S$32 with 2 plates of rice





my bro seems to be enjoying it while i thought it was abit too much serving for two.



me with statues of chinamen eating their meal with chopsticks.



after meal, we had a rest at the esplanade viewing the night CBD skyline.