four

one.
two.
three.

four!

yup, we’re four.

happy anniversary!

i’ll see you later tonight hor.

erm, right after my camera course at canon.

and for your birthday tomorrow, have fun being on leave by yourself eh.

wait i bring you to… Comex?

or you want to watch… the cast of Heroes, perhaps?

anything lah. as long as free, ok.

wo mei yo chien. wo de broke. wo IOU next month. or december bonus time. (or when somebody buys lumixette off us!)

pre comex sale part 2 (SOLD!!)

my wife is letting go her 2 months old panasonic fx10 digital camera. very good condition. still got 10 months warranty. metallic pink in colour.

features include leica dc lens, 6.0 megapixel, mega optical image stabilizer and 2.5 inch large lcd screen. for more info on the camera click here.

the camera package include

• the camera itself with manuals and cds
• 03 batteries (2 original, 1 third party)
• 2GB SD card
• leather case

all these for the low price of $280. price is negotiable, but depend on my wife lah, if she’s generous, she might give it for free if you can rap ‘negaraku’ in chinese since its merdeka day this friday. (just kidding!)

ok, as usual, email me at izadd77@gmail.com to deal.

camera sold to a lovely lady. will contact you regarding the details. to the rest, thanks for your support!!

pre comex sale part 1 (SOLD!!)

i’m selling off my WHOLE xbox collection. yep, this include the console, 01 controller and lots of games to keep you entertained till hari raya!! its a mod version, so you can play lots of ‘friendly’ games!

what’s in the package

• the xbox console (1st generation, no more warranty but i give you 7 days personal warranty)
• 01 controller
• dvd remote control
• 4 original games (halo, tecmo classic games, crimson skies and conkers)
• all the ‘friendly’ games in my collection which is more than 30 games (as seen in the picture below)

I’m selling all these for a low low price of $250. very cheap rite? reason for selling? i got no time to play games, i don’t even got time to complete the season one of heroes. still got prison break season two to watch. so sad….

to deal, as usual, email me at izadd77@gmail.com , sorry price is fixed, if there is more than 1 interested party, then i will have to auction it off, highest bidder wins. anyway, i hope to sell it off by this weekend. so those interested, don’t fikir lama-lama, nanti lama-lama, xbox diambil orang

i very the sayang to let go, so anything less, i might as well keep it.

and, oh btw, if you got a spare psp, i’m also willing to trade with my xbox.

to the winner of the bid, please check your email. for the rest, thanks for the response!!

mutton chop, the recipe!

ok, by popular demand, i present you the secret of mutton chop! (like real)

• fresh mutton, cut to small pieces (depend if you eat a lot, if for family of 3-4, half kg more than enough)
• chilli paste aka chilli boh
• potatoes
• tomato puree (can version)
• tomato ketchup
• ketumba jintan powder (coriander seeds/cumin seeds, i think)
• eggs (chicken eggs, but if you can find telur penyu better, just kidding!!)
• peas (maling brand)
• sweet soya sauce (cap kipas udang, red colour)
• light soya sauce
• sugar
• lettuce and fresh tomatoes for salad

1. first, you just mix a bit of light soya sauce with the sweet soya sauce to the mutton. mix well. let it marinate for around 30mins or so.
2. heat up the oil, once ok, fry the mutton, careful! the oil will definitely spill on the floor or even you! so take precautions.
3. fry until cooked, leave a bit of oil leftover from the mutton for the sauce.
4. mix chilli paste, tomato puree, tomato ketchup, sweet soya sauce and sugar together into the saucepan
5. the amount, you just need to estimate yourself, you want it hot, add more chilli, more sweet, add sugar and soya sauce. just do it.
6. after the sauce have simmer down, add a dab of ketumba jintan powder.
7. then, the rest is rather simple, fry your eggs and potatoes.
8. serve to family, take picture and send picture to me to drool on… (haha!)

there you go! the simple mutton chop recipe. enjoy!

muttons in the morning

last sunday, i had a craving for mutton chops. since beach road is such a long way from tampines and it was still early in the morning, i decided to cook it myself. to be frank, making mutton chops is surprising easy. you just need some fresh muttons, potatoes, peas, sweet soy sauce, tomato puree, eggs and chilli paste. simple eh?

the tricky part is making the sauce. if you use too much chilli paste, the taste would be too hot, but use too little, it would just be very bland. i called up my advisor to confirm on the exact ingredients for the sauce. for your info, my advisor is none other than my…… brother. he seriously can make a mean dish of mutton chops, can give deen biasa a run for his money

by the way, the secret to making a good chilli sauce for the dish is using the oil that was used frying the mutton. the final ingredients for the sauce are tomato sauce, tomato puree, sweet soy sauce, chilli paste and a sprinkle of sugar for taste.

the marination sauce for the meat is even easier, just add the sweet soy sauce with light sauce. make sure you cut the meat thinly, if not the meat turn out tough. for the fries, don’t be lazy, cut up your own fries, don’t use the frozen version, it just doesn’t taste the same.

anyway, to cut the story short, it was a hearty brunch (but the wifey says, it’s too hot and the mutton’s a bit of the tough side) oh well, at least i got my fix! hehe!

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oh, what you do to me…

i know this is old news, but my mind can’t stop humming this song. bloody berfeeling! i just love songs with accoustic guitar and strings.

apparently, the song was inspired by a girl called delilah dicrescenzo whom tom (the lead singer) knew. they didn’t really have a relationship but tom was attracted to her beauty. he told her that he had a song for her which obviously wasn’t true at that time. he took a year to write the song, but delilah, unfortunately was in another relationship and wasn’t interested in him.

oh, well…

battlescars

the little one was seated quietly in a corner last night at mum’s house, and we should’ve known he was up to something, and sure enough, the moment i went up to him, he looked up, burst into a scream, and the next thing i knew, there was a spurt of blood from his left thimb and the sickly smell of iron permeating my nostrils.

yep, he’d cut himself on a piece of glass from a small decorative candle holder placed at the top of a shelf. mum said she’d wanted to throw away that thing for some time, but somehow never got around to doing it. well, now was a good a time as any, then!

thank goodness for the other people in the house, who applied pressure and iodine on his tiny, blood-dripping thumb coz all i could do was scream “darah! darah!”, the useless blob that i am.

the gash is pretty long, though i’m not sure how deep it is since i didn’t really dare to look too closely. after the bloody thumb was inexpertly mummified with some cotton wool and tape, we’d stopped him from tearing (which is very rare given his high threshold for pain, so it means it must have hurt quite a lot) with a nice cold vitagen, though it didn’t take long before he started shooting at us with his imaginary gun again, injury notwithstanding.

then we traipsed down to a nearby pharmacy to get ourselves proper medical supplies.

and now we have ourselves an official first-aid kit. of all things NOT to have in our house! at least at my mum’s, there’s quite a useful supply since my dad needs them pretty often.

from the pharmacist, i also learnt, the first-aid idiot that i am, that i can wash wounds with our contact lens solution.

orhhhh, liddat ahh….

in any case, we used up the little saline solution in the first-aid kit, poured it into a disposable eye-wash container, where he curiously wriggled and sloshed around his still-bloody thumb in it. we wrapped it up (again, inexpertly) with a betadine plaster and since it was a little too big for him, taped the edges down with surgical tape. then he scampered away to muck around in his room (and soon after, made a huge, stinking dump JUST after we changed his diaper. phooeey!~)

we asked if he still wants to play with sharp things, and he nodded, “nak!”.

sigh.

his daddy thinks this is just one of his many, MANY “battlescars” to come.

he should know coz he used to collect them when he was small! just ask him, he’ll happily recall all of them.

ho boy…

they’ll need a crane

the cheapo parents don’t buy him toys very often, as most of his loot from his first birthday are still in a) good condition; b) relevant; and c) sufficient in sustaining his interest (plus, there’re perhaps three train/car track sets still left unopened).

besides, i hate to see so much plastic go to waste, and am wary of turning the house into a ‘fisher-price’ landfill. on his collection of balls, however, we’ve been a little flexible, allowing him to acquire a variety of sizes on the occasional whim. how typical, anak melayu suka main bola! but, hmm, we did include basketball and bowling ball in the mix, and maybe next time golf balls, so… some balance there? ;p

anyway, remember his fascination with cranes? only now, through his eyes, have i taken notice of our skyline, and realise that s’pore is practically littered with cranes. they’re everywhere, almost threatening to take over the land! just look up and chances are, you’ll find one towering in the horizon.

the daddy recalled how he used to own a toy crane set when he was small, and he’d described it in such ‘loving’ detail that i started looking around for one, for aniq as well as him. heh.

and just as i was about to give up, i entered toys r us (duh), and lo and behold – the box stared right at my face, with a very nice price of $29.90 to boot…

aniq the builder

batteries required

phua chu aniq says: got remote control, donch play play!

what a monstrosity this thing is. tsk.

but do you wonder who was more excited, the daddy or the son? ;p

well maybe it was me, for lugging the huge package home, to see them rip it open like christmas came early, and being pleased with myself for the find. heh.

don’t count on this being a regular thing, though.

i also foresee that this fascination will pass soon enough, and yet another mound of coloured plastic will join the rubble.

till then, enjoy all that whirring and swivelling.

(though mummy doesn’t get it, really. lol!)

island (creamery) in the sun

what’s cooler than drinking teh tarik on a hot day? eating teh tarik ice-cream!

on a hot saturday afternoon, we made our way to serene centre to check out the ice-cream joint that sells local desserts, frozen style!

located just opposite adam road, the cosy local joint is famous for their exotic flavours. no plain vanilla or chocolate sold here, flavours like teh tarik, pulot hitam, chendol and horlicks rule the menu. for just $2.50 a scoop or $4 for 2 scoops, it’s very easy on the pockets.

hana had the mudpie which was oozing with ice-cream and cookies all over. i tried the teh tarik and nutella, which were really awesome! the teh tarik is really good, you can practically taste the tea leaves in the ice-cream. the nutella was superb, bits of nutella chocolate were literally melting in my mouth as i savoured the ice cream…

you can also sprinkle horlicks and milo powder in your ice-cream if you find them bland. (which was never the case!) the place also has its own kids’ corner, with low table and chairs plus storybooks, activity books and crayons to occupy them while parents enjoy their ice-creams in peace.

there’s a photo printer at the counter where after you snap your pictures, you can print it out and stick them on the walls, way cool!

so if you want to cool yourself down, check out island creamery, located at serene centre level 1. (the expat grocery store upstairs is also worth a visit.)

more pictures here!

fizzles and sizzles

so the wife and child were unceremoniously ‘abandoned’ by the side of the road for two evenings in a row, while the husband went on his secret rendezvous at some secluded location with his brokeback bridge shutterbuddy, hehe.

ok lah, not so drama. i preferred to meet up with my fellow fireworks-loving cousins closer to the scene, so i didn’t mind lugging the little fella along. wasn’t too bad searching for them among the swell of crowd. they lined all along the bridge and basically every nook and cranny available overlooking the bay.

yeah i know, are these people CRAZY of what?! just for fifteen minutes of colourful explosives?? :p

the first night was just nur & ikmal and eventually, fish soup noodle at thong seng. (see hungry toddler above, appreciating the fine art of late-night suppers at coffeeshops.)

the second night was these happy kids again.

the haznshams had ‘choped’ a spot at the edge of the river for two hours, or in the twins’ layman terms, “four power rangers” (meaning four half-hour episodes lah, you all never watch power rangers, is it…). their daddy tried to con them into thinking that the show had been cancelled after waiting for “three power rangers”, but they were not to be fooled.

the first night’s fireworks (by the spanish) were more impressive and had a bigger bang to it, but the husband took better shots of the second night’s fireworks (by the chinamen), methinks.

aniq? haiyah, nevermind the fireworks, he just enjoyed himself lor, full stop.