Sunday, May 31, 2009

A little bit of pasta heaven. Inc.

reminder to self: sinful lunches might make you happy, but it also burns a huge hole in the wallet.
reminder to self v2: if it makes you happy, then the hole is worth burning.

Friday the 29th of May, last working day of the month. Frustrated as always, and having brought my swim gear home, I decided to walk out for lunch. I remembered this place, a short walking distance from my office, that I've been wanting to try for awhile but always changed my mind at the last minute. Budget lah. On this day, I decided, fuck it, I'm going in.

So I did. I was greeted by the manager Keith, and ushered inside without much fuss. Inside, there wasn't much fuss either: Nice crystal lightings, red on white curtains / table cloths, very cosy looking dining area. First impression: Hmm. Nice, but could do wiht a little renovation.

Service was really prompt and friendly. Ordered 3 course set lunch after looking through the menu (pastas on their own are between 13 - 19, + 3 dollars for soup and tiramisu... sounded too good to be true. there're also pizzas and baked rice on the menu).

Soup was served first, with a basket of sliced bread. Bread was ok; the soup was something else altogether. I've almost never had such rich tasting mushroom soup *zuchinni something, can't remember the actual name* with real, chewy mushroom bits. Flavourful. Great start to the meal.

Pasta was up next. Based on info from various foodblogs and sites, I found out that this place is reknowned for its squid ink pasta (nero di seppia), so I decided to try that. Black mess it looked like *first time trying, lah... always thought that the black stuff was a bit of a turn off*: spaghetti topped off with a couple of plump looking prawns, 1 mussel and several clams. Well, still didn't look particularly appetising.

But once you start eating, you realise something: This isn't just any black mess of spaghetti. It.was.awesome. *shall I try to say it like barney? nah....* Pasta was springy, chewy, full of zing. I think the correct term is al dente? Ah well, who cares. It was awesome. The seafood was fresh too; something we should expect, but still a nice touch. Sometimes, you feel the urge to just gobble everything down: not because the food is good, but because its just too yucky. None of that here, took quite a while to savour every last strand of spaghetti, in fact.

I nearly burped out loud, and there's still the tiramisu to come! And this, is one of the better tiramisu I've had. *ok, i've not had a lot of it, but you get my point.* Melt-in-your-mouth, rum-infused cake layer, coming together in a little plate of sinful gastronomic sin. Wow. It was good.

Good stress relief. Good food makes a happy man out of this grouchy pot bellied weirdo. I'll be back here soon enough, me thinks. And next time, I shall remember to take some peektures.

Pasta Inc. A little bit of pasta heaven. Do a search for it on hungrygowhere if you're interested =)

Saturday, May 23, 2009

I confess.

A long time ago. At East Coast Park. On a crowded, weekend afternoon. A certain someone was cycling. Well, learning how to cycle anyway, since he's pretty noob at it. This certain someone had a few problems: firstly, his sense of balance is as good as that of a walking water bed. secondly, there were alot of people, cycling, walking, running, throwing sand at each other yadda yadda... near and around the tracks he was trying to learn to cycle. A noob cyclist, a lot of screaming kids running around. Sounds like a perfect recipe for disaster? You bet, and it nearly was. While cycling at full speed *since, in his noob cyclist state, he couldn't really balance unless he was speeding*, a little kid suddenly appeared out of nowhere, across his path. Holy mother fuck!he screamed in his mind!as he panicked and tried to maneuver out of the kid's way. the irony of it all? He managed to prevent the kid's death-by-rampaging-noob-cyclist, but failed to avoid the black metal lamppost. Yes, you'd think the moving target would be harder to dodge... the poor cyclist left East Coast Park with a long gash on his shin, a severely bruised ego, and a hugely painful pump on his head. Plus the memory of a traumatising event, which goes like... *100 stares frm curious onlookers wondering what the fuck just happened, a few laughing friends at the side, and a very shell shocked kiddo who happened to walk acroos his path.*

That cyclist was me. And today, that cyclist went back to Pulau Ubin for another shot at the *Learn how to cycle or forever be a noob* challenge.

I'm back at home now, relatively unscathed. Save for very sore forearms, very tired legs.

So, this time, I won. Without falling over even once. Nearly did a couple of times, but well.. I'm proud of myself. *smirks*

Plus. Today, someone told me something very interesting. I also saw alot of interesting things happening. Yes, its gotten me interested. *laughs*

ps> I really love having the wind in my face. Whether its on a boat, soaked in sea spray, or down a dirt track on a speeding bicycle.

Friday, May 22, 2009

After a week of swimming and running...

I feel like crap. I think.. its a case of too much, too soon. Lunchtime swim, night time run. Repeat. Though its only a 10 lap leisure swim, and a short / slow jog of approx. 3km at night, + 50 push ups daily, 25 in the morning, 25 at night. My body feels wasted. I guess.. its a transition period. Body's getting used to this new excercise regime. I shall persevere, and up the tempo when I feel up for it.

On the plus side, I'm starting to see results.. so hang in there. I shall be tall, dark, handsome.. and healthy, soon enough. LOL!

Work? Nah. I shall not talk about work here. Personal work, maybe. I'll need to list out all the things I wanted to do, for a start.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

A little update on life v0.004

Uploaded kelong photos on facebook. Its long overdue, I know.

Heck, everything is long overdue. Long list of artwork that I've supposed to have done long long long long long long time ago.

Excercise routine begins. Run, swim, run, swim... lah. I'm getting my old tan back. Hopefully the belly and flabby ass will go away soon enough.

Diet, diet, diet.

Thought of buying a watch.

Might have to get spectacles sooner than I thought.

Snapped at work today: Stormed out of the office after yet another power trip. Sent out a really nasty email after that. I was childish, out of control, in need of anger management. Blahz.

Backup, reboot, reformat. beeeeeep.

I need the booze at OBS real soon. Where are my drinking buddies yo!!!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Reality. I have returned. Bye Bye Kelong.

Back frm kelong trip. 2.5 days of.. chill. Not the cold type of chill, but the relax, recharge kind of chill.

Some things I discovered over the course of this trip.

1. Fishing while dipping your feet in the water is really therapeutic. Actually, the motions involved in casting ur fishing line is, in itself, really therapeutic. First time I fished since my uncle brought me to Tuas like... 20 yrs ago? hur hur.

2. Its not the catching the fish that really matters. I "caught" 2 fish. The first one, wasn't sure if it was a catch, just felt something pulling at my line. So i reeled it in, and omg! there was a fish. Smallish little creature, threshing abt wildly. Good for it that it did, cause.. the fish, small as it was, managed to snap my hook just as i was abt to reel it out of the water. *shrugs*. The second one.. wow. Felt a very strong tug, which I thought was the current, or something getting caught in my hook. Reeled it in anyway, that was then I realised I had a catch, since the tugging continued. Seemed like it was a patterned tug. Like.. tug tug tug, pause, tug. Pause... TUG. woo, heavy heavy. I started reeling in faster (juline says i look bo chap then... LOL?), getting more excited with anticipation, till finally I could see the little punk I baited. OMG. A. PUFFER. FISH. Yellow and black spots, puffed up, and looking pretty pissed. LOL! Reeled the dude out of the water (reel actually got stuck at this point. I think I spaced out for a while and reeled the wrong direction. whichever.) while it was still doing its tug tug pause routine. When it was finally out of the water, it stopped, seemingly resigned to its fate. Man! for its size, that punk is heavy.. could feel its weight through the line. I looked at the fish, now motionless except for the puffing of its gills, when suddenly, the fella decided to go for it one last time. Violently convulsing from side to side...side to side.... PIAK. My line broke. Amidst screams of OMG!, from juline, and the I just got kicked in the nuts look frm me, the fish sped off into the murky depths, tail sweeping frm side to side as if it was doing a butt shaking taunt action. Ah well, good luck to you puffer. Next time, don't bite on anything that moves: Not everyday u'll encounter a fisher as noob and sway as me.

So it was, a grand total of 2 *so near yet so far* fish.

3. I miss canoeing. We went, though this time it was much shorter than any of my previous trips. Little less than an hour. Not enough, lah... no shiok burning sensation in my arms. You know, that kind of.. arm-shack-until-cannot-lift, finger-weak-until-cannot-open-drink-can kind of burning sensation? Yeah, you got it.

4. Fireflies are very fragile. Beautiful they are, exactly why they should be left in their natural habitats. So they can strut the butts and light their arses. Happily. With all their other happily lighting up brothers and sisters.

5. Mahjong.is.damn.cheem. Too much for my puny x486 vegetable brain.

6. Seafood makes you fat. 2 days of seafood makes you rotund. Good stingray, fresh juicy fish...fingah leeking goood, but still, it makes you rotund. Bad bad.

I feel recharged, relaxed. Good. Calm. Yes, good. Lets see how long this feel good effect lasts.

*edit, add on. Grandfather passed away last night. Not particularly close to him, but yeah...