妈妈的家传菜

妈妈从我一出世，就是家庭煮妇。所以煮菜是她的专长。这是她的家传菜：

1. 五香
2. 咖哩鸡
3. 梅菜扣肉
4. 过年煮的斋菜
5. 笋
6. 番“谢”炒野菜花和虾

Majong Session @ Ah Goh's place

As in previous years, we (Kp Tan, Bird, Pang family & William) went to Goh's place for our yearly majong session. Goh's wife cooked fried bee hoon, fried rice, chicken curry, chicken wings, fried sotong balls and desert for us. A simple but very delicious lunch.

Bird is the only one who is unmarried and he "forced" us to give him ang pows which we did. Unfortunately for him, he lost all his 5 ang pows money. I won the most, $53.60 is more than enough to cover the 6 ang pows that I gave out :D

25km Passion Run - 22 May 2010

After my full marathon run in Dec 09, I have been doing very little running. I need some competitive events to movitate me to run regularly again hopefully 2 to 3 times a week. So I decided to participate in the Passion Run 2010 to be conducted on 22 May 2010. I just registered for the 25km. People would laugh at me if I chose the 10 km run ;-)

有希望是幸福的！

I learnt this interesting phrase “有希望是幸福的” from the movie “锦衣卫” that I watched with my family on the 2nd day of chinese new year. I had the opportunity to use it yesterday and today!

Yesterday, I went for a 6km run with my army friends, KP Tan & William, at Chinese Gardens. After the run, we chit chat and talked about the 10 millions Toto to be drawn on next Friday. We decided to joinly buy a package numbers. William said “有买有希望”, I replied “有希望是幸福的!”.

Two hours ago, I went to Hougang Point's food court to buy a cup of coffee. My conversation with the coffee auntie went as follows:

Auntie ：新年快乐！
Me : 新年快乐！有发财吗？

Auntie : 有啊！你呢？

Me : 还没有。

Auntie : 没关系，快了，这个礼拜，有买有希望！

Me : 有希望是幸福的！（Auntie 听了有一点 blur blur!)

Met my Army Encik today

Encik Tan Tiong Tee was my superior when I was in 7th Singapore Infantry Brigade from 1988 to 1990. He is someone that we (Victor, Cheah & I) love to hate. He is "guei lan" most of the time but, occasionally, he can be nice to us too. He retired at the age of 50 in 1990 and I have not seen him for about 20 years. Sometime when I had a gathering with Victor and Cheah, we would talk about him and we wonder whether he is still alive. So, it was a pleasant surprise to meet him at Hougang food court today. He aged only a little and I have no problem recognising him. We had a simple chat and I am glad that he is healthy (should be 70 by now) and enjoying his retirement life. I got his contact number but it is unlikely that I would call him to meet up ;-)

DVD 1/2010 - 十月围城 (Bodyguards and Assassins)

I watched the most movies during my army days and "拍拖" time but I have seen very few in recent years. Price for movie ticket has increased quite substantially while it is getting cheaper to buy DVD. Also, with bigger and better quality LCD TV, it makes sense to watch DVD instead. I enjoyed watching DVD with my family members. I watched only 2 movies but more than 10 DVDs last year.

I watched 十月围城 last night, the first DVD movie in 2010. It received very good reviews when the movie was shown in the cinema in Dec 09. Most reviewers gave at least a 4-stars rating. It is also nominated for 19 awards for 第29届香港金像奖 to be held on 18 Apr 2010. It must be very good right? Not really! The movie has not lived up to the hype, in my opinion. It is, at best, an above average show. I would give a 3.5 star in term of entertainment value. But hey! 3.5 star is already a very good rating from me considering the fact there are hardly any good chinese movies nowadays! The best chinese movie that I have seen last year was 保持连络 (Stay Connected), a highly entertaining show which deserves a 4-star rating.

PS:- 十月围城 has a simple story line whereby 8 original people come together, each with their own reaons, to protect Dr Sun Yet Sen from assassins while he visits Hong Kong.

How I deal with small unhappiness?

When I bought my very first car (Mitshubishi Lancer) on 6 Jun 2001, I washed it once a week consistently at least for the next 2 to 3 years. But when I bought my 2nd car (Toyata Altis) in Apr last year, I don't wash it so often any more sometimes longer than 3 months. Am I lazier now? Certainly yes! Anyway, my car had not been washed for more than 2 months now, and with CNY approaching, I decided to wash it today.

While washing, I noticed that there are a few scratches, one of which is quite deep, at the rear bumper. As it is still considered a new car, I felt 心痛。It was quite obvious that it was purposely done by a mischievious idiot. I cursed that person for his or her misdeed!

On the road, I may get angry when someone drive rectlessly and I hate those who tailgate me. I would usually scold that person inside the car "you stupid idiot dumb-dumb!" and I felt better.

I was unhappy with the priest who made insensitive comments on Buddhism and Taoism recently. He got the punishment that he deserved and I am not angry with him now. Let's move on.

This is my simple way of dealing with small unhappiness. You may think that this is stupid or naive but it works for me. I am not unhappy with the person who scatched my car now ;-)