http://play.blogger.com/

Try this. This is a live slide-show of photos that have been uploaded by various bloggers onto their various websites. So you see asians, africans, caucasians from all over the world and doing all sorts of things, for example, weddings, parties, meetings, classes. A good way to pass your time and see the world. All just on your screen.

Prima Revolving Restaurant

Had the opportunity to dine at Prima Revolving Restaurant last night to celebrate the birthday of 2 friends. Although this place has been around for a fairly long time, it was my first visit.

My first arrival was met by some valet parking attendants at the front door as I drove in. They waved to me but I thought I would just park by myself and signalled to them that I did not need their service. One of them walked quickly towards me and then told me that all parking must be done by valet as the area is "restricted". I look around and saw a lot of 20 and 40 footers containers parking around, and true enough, there were no proper parking lots at one glance. I got off the car and took a receipt from them.

The place can seen to be a little old with the musky smell along the carpeted lobby as you walked up to the restaurant. But it was very well lit, thus offset the feel a bit. Being called a revolving restaurant, the place we dine must of course, revolve. A few of us can feel the movement and if you look at the railings which see the obvious revolution of the dining platform for more than a minute, you actually feel a little giddy. I feel that the motorised system that move the restaurant in circles needs to be to greased as I can sensed that it slows down and speeds up a little due to "jams" or "humps" along the way, in short I feel the small jerks as I downed the food.

Food wise, nothing to say but GOOD. Awards from Fine Wine & Dine filled up a part of their wall. We had a good ala carte 8 course which cost about $330 for 10 persons. The best part of the dinner was the desert; banana deep fried in sugar coating. A bowl of water with ice was first placed on the table and when the deep fried bananas came, they were immediately put into the ice water and served. My friend told me that this was to hardened the melted sugar coating on the bananas when it was cold.

Another good impression was the valet parking attendants, my friend offered a tip but they refused. All in all, I find this place to serve good food and good service. A bit of oiling on the motor would be nice though.

Muthu's Curry

Had dinner with NTU friends at Muthu's Curry at its Race Course road main branch. Expecting a typical shophouse setup, I was surprised to see a glass pannelled modern looking restaurant occupying the equivalent of 3 to 4 shophouse space. Muthu's curry is known for its fish head curry. Although the fish head was fresh and fleshy, the curry is nothing to shout about. It is OK but not special. The masala chicken was good though, and we used the curry as a dip for the freshly baked roti and naan. Dessert was interesting. We each had a gelato. Each gelato came in the fruit of the flavour. For example, the peach gelato came in a peach, and the coconut gelato came in half a coconut shell. For a crowd of seven, the total damage was $203. Would I go back again. I guess not in the near future.

Weird things people do

Heard this over the radio this morning on the way to work. Listeners were asked to call in to share the weird things they or people they know do.

1) This listener had a friend who ironed all his money, the paper notes. He likes to see his money nice and pretty.

2) This listener said he never shit at home. When asked why, he said because he can only do it in the squatting position but both toilets in his flat were sitting type.

3) On the same point on toilet business, one of the younger DJ said that when he was serving his NS, he has a platoon mate who had to do his business with the toilet floor wet. Once he was in a cubicle next to his friend. His friend asked if there was a tap in the DJ's cubicle and could he please spray some water over on the floor so he can start his business. Strange.....

4) This is the coup de grace. This auntie called in and said matter-of-factly that when she shower, she will use her worn underwear as a sponge to soap and clean herself. Because of the soaping and washing, she deemed that the underwear was well washed after the shower, there was no need to wash the underwear again and the garment goes straight to air to dry. Wah piang!

My First Trip to Gold Coast , Part 1

My first group of Singaporean friends that I knew when I was in Australia. They were the ones who brought me to Gold Coast.



Guess how much the shade that I was wearing..... till today I am still having it with me.... I dunno about you, to me, surprisingly it looks pretty cool to me..... and to some of my friends as well.. :)

One of my mates took the pic of me there and then. When I looked at it, made me felt like a beach boyz..... hahahah... may not have the hunky body... some aussies there are worse than me... but there are nice babes there.... and guess what was I watching?


Australia time GMT+1000

You will never understand how I feel when I was standing there. I stand in awe by the creation of God. Just the ocean alone made me feel that there are so much to see and to experience. Perhaps that was how a "mountain turtle" like me felt

Aussie Pomp Pomp Gals

It so happened that when I was in the city, there is a bunch of gals who was doing their pomp pomp performance. Actually nothing unusual to me but I just take for the fun of it and to add colors in to my collection.

More pictures at Brisbane City Hall

Do look more like a student or a tourist?

Australia Days...

Brisbane City - City Hall

this is when I just touched base to Australia and it is taken in Brisbane City. Weather was too good to be true when I was there. Believe it or not, just before I turned 30, that was my 1st time going to Australia and to think that I was there for more than 1 year.

Yesterday Once More (Up close & personal)

In our bunks early in the morning when we got up with a good feeling... ORD ... time to brush our teeth, change into a new set of uniforms for taking photos!

This is the clearer format of the photo below... you can actually see our IPPT badges and of cos, my Marksmanship badge.... hee hee...

A story

There was a man, let's call him A, that I had a run-in with two ICTs ago. Even from far, you know he was a potential problem. He had an air of unhappiness, and despite obviously knowing, he came to ICT with dyed hair. We had problems with his attendance and OC had to ask him to leave and forgo that particular ICT.

This year, he joined our flight again for ICT. For some reason, he was excused from field deployment. However, I was plesantly surprised to see A fully committing his energies drawing stores with the rest of the men. For example, when we were drawing GS benches from ST Log, he carried two benches at one go. When returning our bunks at the end of the ICT, for a moment, two pillows could not be located in his bunk. A volunteered immediately to pay from his own pockets to sign the 1206.

I had a chance to talk to him. I told him he looked happier during this ICT. He looked at me, eyes bright and said "我想通了!" .

ORD Trip to Phuket

We went Phuket for our R&R trip shortly after we completed serving our country. It was fun... and dangerous (cos I drove w/o a license back then). I think, the only licensed driver was Giin Bo. I managed to dig out this photo among piles of other stuffs... hahaha... hey, its fun digging up old memories once a while.

Yesterday Once More

I know this is a lousy quality photo cos I do not have a scanner at home so I took a photo of the photo. This was Weiyang and me some 11 years ago. For the record, we ORDed in 1996!

SBAB Family Day 2007

It was with the greatest coincidence that our 3-week ICT included a Family Day; CO said that it was not intentionally planned for us. The best part was, besides being able to book in in civis, there was a whole range of activities and we get to bring cameras into the base. Check out Weiyang and me posing next to the Apache.

I am happy to see the Air Force becoming more family-oriented and that it is changing with the times. Hopefully, with our feedback to our commanders, our squadron can also change and improve progressively to enhance the learning and value of our men's time in ICT.

Cambodia, Nov 2006

(We were walking around Phnom Penh and chanced upon the Singapore Crest. It was our embassy in Cambodia. Here we are lining up in front of the embassy for a photo shoot. We asked but were not allowed to enter. Haha. So much for patriotism.)

Six of us went on a trip together to Cambodia in Nov 2006. Our aim was primarily to visit Angkor Wat, cradle of ancient civilisation. We had a lot of fun and some frustration as well, particularly the time at Siem Reap where we have a quarrel with the tuk tuk drivers who wanted to rip us off. Kelvin managed to outwit those fellows! Unfortunately for Kelvin as well, he fell sick and endured much of the journey in suffering. Soon Heng mentioned our next trip will be to Vietnam so Soon Heng, we are waiting for your Ops Order. Main street in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia.

After buying a pirated Lonely Planet book for US$5.

A typical sight at the local wet markets.

We don't see this anymore in Singapore.

I miss the beef stew for breakfast at our hotel in Phnom Penh.

Six of us (plus the driver) squeezed into this old and battered Toyota Camry for the transfer from the hotel to the jetty. Thankfully, the journey lasted less than 10 mins.

Enduring a 5-hour boat ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. The return trip was in a coach and it was much much worse.

We woke up early to catch the dawn at Angkor Wat. Here's Kelvin taking the perfect shot.

Here's the dawn which we woke up early to catch.

Notice the eyes. They tell you everything.

Meals were always exciting times, wondering what the dishes would taste like.

I think this temple is called Ta Prohm.

Trying to be funny.

Looks steep? It is steep. See the next photo.

It is so steep that a hand-rail in the form of a steel bar was installed for visitors to hold on to when descending from the temple. Even our 84mm commander and Pl 1 Sect Comd had to use the hand-rail!

On the advice of my colleagues, I brought some pencils and erasers over. They were put to good use here.

Dinner time (last night in Siem Reap).

Buying coach tickets from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. Like I mentioned earlier, the coach ride was horrendous.

End of ICT Dinner

This was our fifth In-Camp as a Flight. For the past few In-Camps, we always had a dinner to celebrate the end of three weeks of toil, sweat and brotherhood. For 2007, we orginally wanted to go to a buffet at a reputable hotel. I was naive enough to suggest to everyone that the dinner would cost $30++ until Kenny reminded me that $30++ will not get anyone anywhere nowadays. As it turned out, we had dinner at Yan Palace at Hong Lim Complex. Dinner was in a private VIP room, two tables at $368++ each. Eventually, the bill came to $52 per head! But the food was good and the banter was lively; remember the you-know-what Platoon 1 and 2 saw at their deployment ground and the fellow who used precious water to wash his boots in the field? Guess you guys had more stories to share which I hope you do.

Btw, Edmund and Thomas (Pl 2 sect comd) are very good singers.

What for?

Feeling a little down since the end of ICT (surprised?). Even Weiyang said on the Sunday after ICT ended, he woke up at 5am to check on his men. Personally, I missed having breakfast of either teochew porridge, prata or Mac with Weiyang at 7am every morning before booking in. So I decided to start a blog to keep this group of ICT friends connected somewhat, and also other groups of friends, for example, from NTUBS.