Joochiat adventure

Friday was the day for our Joochiat adventure! Although we were supposed to head there last week for one of our regular food hunts, we put it off. This week, we decided to head down for some durians and to explore some of the stuff that people have said were famous there.

Before all that, we headed down to Borders to get some stuff. I bought a copy of the PHB 2, and Stella got herself To Kill A Mockingbird. Headed to the Borders Bistro after for a drink and a snack before meeting up with Keane and Serene for dimsum dinner at Victor’s Kitchen.

Stella the happy camper:
The fateful smoothie. It was great stuff. Unfortunately the glass that we got had pieces of paper/sticker in it. I was constantly sucking out pieces of it, and finally I took it up to the manager who replaced the glass of drink for me. I suspect it was one of those brand stickers on the fruits that got into the blender. Whatever it is, that was fine – we actually got a free glass of smoothie out of it.
Tuna and cheese melt. Thought it was really value for money for about 12 bucks.
Next up, we headed down to Bugis for some shopping, before meeting up with Keane and Serene at Victor’s Kitchen at Sunshine Plaza. This was a place that Stacey’s friend recommended to us some time back, and it has sat pretty high in terms of its ‘dodgyness factor’ as well as the quality of the food.
When we left Bugis, it was around 9. We took a train down to Aljunied and the first stop were the durians. It was just a street down from the MRT station, and we had to make our choice over another stall which we first encountered. We skipped that when we observed not many people eating there. Turns out that the entire row of fruit stalls were owned by the same people. Doh. Had the Mao Shan Wang durians, for something like $18 per kg. This one was a 2kg durian, and we promptly set about demolishing it. Great stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much durian in my life before.
Stella looking very happy with her durians:
Next up, we headed down for some beancurd with youtiao (deep fried dough fritters). Frankly, I wasn’t expecting much from this because I’ve more or less tasted both before. I mean, beancurd? done that. Youtiao? done that too obviously. But man, this shit was good! Somehow or another, the combination of flavours (read: oil) were just right there. Totally hit the spot on that one.

Rochor Beancurd – the place where we had the good stuff:

Stage 2 – complete!
For the final leg of the food hunt, we walked down a little to the place they call 126, or wan tok sek. Supposedly it means something like ‘found a place to eat’ in Cantonese. We heard that the establishment was good for its dim sum, so we headed in for some. The general crowd eating outside was quite a good indicator that we had reached the right place. Sat outside for a bit before heading in – good decision since there was air conditioning inside (I wonder why non of those people outside realised that).

Had the paper wrapped chicken:
A smallish crab steamed with garlic:

Final verdict : wellll…. I didn’t think that it was that fantastic, really. It was cheap, truly, but it wasn’t something I would travel all the way to Geylang for. I think Stella feels the same about this place too. We would head back to Victor’s anytime for dimsum. The redeeming factor would probably be the fact that 126 has a pretty extensive menu, so there’s lots to try.

We then headed back home by bus. The crawlers of the night were just about to emerge, and Geylang started to unveil itself for what it was most famous for. Both of us were tired, but really happy that we managed to explore someplace new this week. We’ll be back to look for some of the other dishes that we missed out this round. We chatted and joked on the bus as we rounded off the night and the week in the best possible way – just a quiet time with the best company one can have in the whole world.

birthday week (continued)

Day before my birthday, we met up with the guys for drinks at Walas. Although The UneXpected wasn’t playing that night, we still had a good time just chilling out and listening to the replacement band for the night. They weren’t half bad. Apparently they were some 60s old men rockers, and they could really play the stuff we requested from them.

It was nice just hanging out together, and Stella and I enjoyed their company for the night.

Some pictures for the night. Had to put the 4 person one in the centre as Hong was too “broad”:

All of us:

The following day, we had a gathering at my place. Stella had previously arranged for Andy and Keane to come back on the 20th to celebrate my birthday. Was really touched that she went through all that effort to get all the gaming people in one place. Also, this was special to me because it was my first birthday party ever. I don’t think I’ve ever organised a party for my own birthday before and it was something different for a change.

Prepared some food courtesy of Stella’s mom, and had some other food that my mom prepared earlier in the day. I booked the function room downstairs and prepared for the gathering.

Us before the party:

The food:

Waiting on the couch for the guests to arrive:

Andy grabbing a bite, with Tin watching on :

Keane and Serene who flew in from Wellington:

Stella, Serene and Tin:Me with Keane, Serene, Elton and Sheena:

After eating, we brought out the boardgames. For the night, we decided to play BSG since it was a group favourite. Also, we wanted to get Keane and Serene to try it to see if they liked it.

Shang arranging the cards. Andy and Jon hanging around:

Hong and Jingyi

Sheena and Elton, Keane and Serene. Learning the game.

Me and the beloved organiser of this party :

Unfortunately, we had to evacuate the place by 11, so we headed out to cut my birthday cake.

Everyone pooled in money to buy me my very own copy of Space Hulk! Been hearing all sorts of good stuff about it but was hesitant about spending the money on it since it was a whopping 149 bucks for a single game. Stella jumped on the opportunity when she heard me mention it to her a couple of months back, and she made a pre-order for it from PI. Thanks baby! Truly a geeky present, and I really liked it very much. Thanks everyone!

The guys:

The girls:

After that, it was more BSG. We finished the game at a nearby void deck. In the end, the Cylons won, but it was a good game all in all.

Most of the people departed from there, but Keane stayed for a bit to join Elton, Sheena and Stella and myself for a game zombie killing in Last Night on Earth. Definitely one of the better zombie games out there. From there, we parted ways, and there ends my very geeky and special birthday party. I had a great night, and if not for Stella, I would never have gone out to plan something like this for myself. Thanks so much dear, for the effort you’ve put in =) And finally, thank you friends, very much for making my day.

BSG

Got to watch two episodes of Battlestar Galactica with Stella today over lunch. Enjoyed it quite a bit, especially after the six player BSG board game session with the guys and their respective partners on Saturday. It was a riot, and I must say that the board game captures the level of paranoia of the series very well. Everyone thought I was a Cylon just because I hesitated for a moment to process what Mindy said. wtf. Great stuff anyways.

Running a Dark Ages game this Saturday for Stella, Jon, Mindy and Shang. Will be good I hope.

and it all comes marching in

Had a wonderful Friday with Stella. First to the CLSA office, then a nice lunch followed by a failed trip to the Manga Kissaten which I have been wanting to go for ages but we found it shut down for good the day we decided to finally make a trip there. Watched a movie after, had dinner at Marche before meeting Cheryl and Erwin for drinks and some supper.

All in all, a great day, and it’s been some time since I’ve been so relaxed. I feel recharged to face the new week of more holidays. haha.

Vietnam day 2 – Dalat (pic heavy)

Woke up to the cool morning air of Dalat. Today, we would be having our one day tour of Dalat city. Here’s a glimpse of the beautiful view outside our hotel room.

Live long and prosper

Finally done with the CLSA to. Nice to meet up with people we know from the company, and good to know that they are getting on well. Headed to Bugis to watch Star Trek, and damn, it was good. Captured the whole Space Opera genre as I would imagine it to be. Probably one of the best shows I’ve watched this year and I can’t wait to watch the other shows that are coming soon. What a nice way to end a Friday night.

Vietnam Day 1 : HCMC -Da Lat

So here begins my recount of our 7 day Vietnam trip. Vietnam is a place that one has to go to experience for oneself, much like how Hongkong was. Because of this, we didn’t take as many pictures as we did in Korea/Taiwan. To describe it as simply as possible in a few lines, the place has a combination of the rustic charm that one would experience in 70s Singapore, combined with a certain tenacity of the people that may arguably be said to have developed out of their war-torn history. While uncomfortable and chaotic at most times, after a while you realize that there is actually some order within that chaos, and I found myself slipping into the whole flow of the life there pretty easily.

Bewerkz

Now that the deadlines are over and we have something close to two whole weeks before the first paper, we decided to head to Bewerkz for some beer and margaritas at Iguanas. It’s been a while since we last had alcohol so this was a little reward to end the semester with. Seriously, cheap beer in the afternoon is really hard to beat.

Unfortunately, Iguanas wasn’t open till 6pm, so we decided to just head for beer and some snacks at Brewerks directly.
On top of the beer, we had some Calamari and some deep fried whitebait. Nothing like some good ol’ greasebombs to go with the beer.

Met up with Gene later in the evening for dinner. Was something of a freak accident where he happened to be driving by and saw us crossing the road.
Did anyone notice the freak winds on Wednesday night? It was so strong that it blew the taxi door wide open when I stopped Stella off at her place that night. As I was heading home, huge branches from the palm trees were falling left and right. Scary. I later read that the 83kmph wind even managed to bend a construction crane.

Research 101

Met up with Lalang and Alvin on Saturday to get their judgments for Stella’s thesis. It was nice as we don’t really have many friends who drink, so we had Japanese food at Nijumaru before heading out for drinks at No.5 Emerald Hill.

Just so happens that Stella was craving some beer that afternoon, and I’m glad that we got our fix.

All in all, a wonderful way to spend the Saturday. We hardly spend the weekends together so I’m thankful for all the non school outings that we have as it’s getting harder and harder to come by.

Long weekend…ing

This week has felt especially long, considering that I’m trying to finish up Chapter 1 of my thesis draft, on top of the other stuff that I have to read/do. Woke up at 7ish today to read an article before heading down to school for class.

Met up with Kar in the evening for dinner and mainly because Stella needed to elicit some judgements from her. I think all of us were glad for the opportunity to just hang out for a little bit on a weekday night. More of this soon I hope.

Stella and I have been looking through Warhammer armies and talking about them. Frankly it’s my fault- I’ve been reading too many painting forums and I’m now really gain to paint up an army, even though I’ve no one to play with. I’m not really a gamestore groupie. I guess I’m not someone that makes gaming friends that easily, for the core reason, I suspect, that I am unable to put my heart and soul into gaming unlike the others. Feel kinda bad being the half-baked gamer over there. Whatever it is, it’s great having the girlfriend as a best friend, gaming buddy, and confidante all rolled (hah gaming pun!) into one.