Decisions, ulcers, and growing out

I have once, or twice, remarked to my cadets that "the only easy day was yesterday"; yet these supposedly easy days contain memories that keep coming back to haunt me.

-§-

I successfully rigged my notebook to send video signals to my TV yesterday, by chance. Was so happy that I did a mini celebration by lying on the floor, looking up at the star- ceiling, and heaving a great sigh of relief. The harsh truth was that the computer rookie in me did not know how to change the settings for the video card so that it sends 1080p digitised signals to the TV, so my solution was to restart into OS X and change the settings there. It took me a minute or two to do it and then, I rebooted the system back into Windows and voila! Something that took me a couple of minutes in OS X took me 15 in Windows, and still couldn't get it to work. The only blame is on me, for using Windows on a Mac, without bothering to map the keyboard too.

So... The point is, I can now fully exploit the bigger screen my TV offers, to watch videos online. And if you want to, you can drop by my house to watch 'stuff' with me. ^^ Keep the unserviceable guy company, you know.

I had the honour of having Elvis and Tommy for companionship at The Meds at Orchard Central B2 for dinner tonight. I guess the conclave was not feeling ravenous as we did not order much nor were we feeling very adventurous. Mr E chose a Turkish hot plate chicken and mushroom, with tomato rice. Mr S placed an order for a thin-crust seabream and tomato pizza, Italian style. I felt indecisive and went for duck confit from the ?French? stall. Tiramisu and creme bulee to wash it down afterwards.

The tomato rice might have been authentic Italian food, but it didn't agree with our taste-buds. There is a butter rice alternative, which might have been a safer bet. According to Mr S, the seabream (some kind of fish) on the pizza tasted like chicken. I didn't like the look of the thin crust as I was a fan of Pizza Hut's thick, cheesy Pan Pizzas. The duck came with some unnamed vegetables, cheese, and a sprinkle of peanuts that taste better when consumed together with the duck. Overall, food was average and not too costly. There is no additional 10% service charge, only GST.

I don't know what is Mediterranean cuisine, but Wikipedia tells me it should be vegetable-dominant, and Meds was certainly not vegetable-dominant (good!). Shokudo beats Meds in term of variety, but it is still a pretty good place for a gathering of friends.

Cheers!

And then you walked out of my life without telling me

Went to Haw Par Villa today; not sure if I had gone there before when I was a kid. I always thought it was a mouldy and run-down place of interest marked for tearing down but hasn't been developed into something else yet because it has no value to add to. Well, if not for the 10 courts of Hell the visit might have been cut even shorter; I was pretty interested in what I would have to go through in my afterlife. Among the ghastly affairs I have to partake in would include: Digging out my heart, cutting off my tongue and if I recall correctly sawing of body into half.

Thereafter the assemblage headed off to Red Dot Design Museum to check out what kind of award-winning products advanced technology has brought us. What wow-ed me was this mini jigsaw puzzle ring, screw-less spectacles and a high-technology toilet bowl that possesses several auto-cleansing properties and a temperature-regulated seat. [Woo, "Shit just got real"]

The original plan was to proceed to Medz at Orchard Central for lunch but everyone was hungry so we settled on a close-by market/food centre. Had wanton noodles and pudding-style soya bean curd. Noodle shop is supposedly a recommendation of "成人杂志" back in 2000. That aside, I guess they are pretty good if they can stay around for more than 10 years. The soya bean curd, on the other hand, was a bit too watery. I figure it was just normal to have different stores catering to different taste-buds in this "modern soya bean curd" industry. Also, coincidentally, U Weekly did a two-page recommendation of various stalls selling soya bean curd for this week's edition. There was "老伴" from Old Airport Road, another stall from Maxwell Food Centre (which I tried, average, lady boss quite naggy), a Selegie stall at Toa Payoh and a couple others.

More dinners next week to look forward to!

Special Forces

Yes, that is the movie title. Not the most creative nor intriguing, but I had taken a special interest in warring states and conflicts of the like very recently, so I sort of watched this in a different light, like how Pakistan being a safe haven for Taliban (Taleban?) makes it difficult for ISAF soldiers and ANA to bring about permanent peace and security to Afghanistan, especially at the borders where trigger-happy Pakistani tribesmen at their observation posts threaten the lives of soldiers as much as the insurgents themselves.

Like how the most dangerous mission can simply be moving from one point to another in the dusty and mountainous regions of these two countries, where people live under the cruel sharia law and lives are lost at the blink of the eye. The Taliban rules with an iron fist and kills mercilessly. And I walked away thinking whether it was worth it. *SPOILER* Four lives in exchange for one French journalist? It's a bit like Saving Private Ryan in this sense. Except with more deaths and tragedy.

Occasional shouts of 'Welcome to Lenas!' that rang out in the restaurant sounded like 'Welcome to Venus!' to me; the server was pretty cool and fluent, the place was neat. The assemblage ordered grilled chicken pasta, bacon and mushroom baked rice, and smoked duck baked rice. Pretty alright, nothing spectacular; maybe because I wasn't ravenous! Normal prices. Water costs 30 cents.

Met with friends whom I haven't met for quite a while, hope to see them more often. Handsome Kevin lost weight, Beautiful Tanya was her usual petite self, and Indian Sarvesh was as hairy as ever. (:

Price-less movie screening

Yeah, Special.

Free screening of Mission Impossible 4!

With free cone of sweet popcorn!

This post, however, is geared towards the meal prior to the movie; Ciyi and I decided to meet for a bite and I chose Olive Vine for its value and location (Marina Square basement as the movie was at Suntec). Mr Wong chose a local fusion dish of chicken porridge in a bread bowl (ala carte price of S$7.00), not dissimilar to the "Golden Pillow" curry chicken, or clam chowder soup-in-sourdough concept. The 'cover' of the bowl is a piece of crispy yet soft garlic bread, and the thick porridge comes with a slice of hard-boiled egg. You can probably eat the bread like how you would with a fried dough fritter in the traditional Cantonese porridge.

I chose a more conventional plate of chicken steak (ala carte price of S$8.90) over a tomato-based pasta that had the options of spicy or non-spicy and three choices of meat: Chicken, pork or fish. The chicken steak, or chop, came with salad in mayonnaise dressing (nothing new there) with accompanying dry fresh lettuce, plus two large slices of good garlic bread. You can choose among pepper, mushroom and BBQ sauces to go with your chicken.

The food came piping hot and we dined quickly because it was pretty good (and we were running late for the movie). You can add S$2.00 for a large cup of beverage: Coffee, tea, lemon tea and something else; or upgrade your meal to a deluxe set meal with S$4.00, which offers a beverage and a dessert of the day. Ciyi thought the lemon tea (which he requested to be ice-less) was sufficiently strong but the dessert of the day (slice of carrot cake) was not big. I, on the other hand, ordered a big slice of tiramisu for S$4.90, WHICH WAS SO MUCH BETTER THAN VILLA DI PARMA'S S$12.90 BULLSHIT.

We are constantly warming up to each other

And yet the sad, unfortunate reality is that we took such a long time to learn how to tolerate each other. Understanding is still a great distance away, and acceptance occurs in a parallel universe.

We also give each other the cold shoulder at times, gossip and make jokes at the expense of each other. Other times, we are keeping to ourselves, absorbed in our little pizza boxes and sharing links across the Wifi instead of conversing across the room.

Constantly making effort to fit in; to be friendly; to be included, at my own expense and inconvenience, but still to end up like an uninvolved passerby, sticking out like a sore thumb. And so I believe this is the right moment to move on.

Needed some spare fabric

Bought so many of these during BMT eMart breaks.
Now can only wear in bunk.
Don't want to wear also, so ugly.