Life in the makin

You left us when we did not expect you to go.
You had your haircut on Tuesday n had a joke on Saturday.
Your condition was at its best during the last 3 years.

Suddenly, You had a difficulty in your breathing and gone after 1 hour on
Sunday.
Yes, you left the way you always want it to be.
Sleeps soundly at home and clean from all treatments.

No more pain.
Here comes freedom which you lost 3 years ago due to a stroke
You have been free

I can vividly see you sitting on your chair smiling and shaking your leg.
You have been a great man, husband, father and grandpa for everyone.
Rest in peace, Grandpa.

With Love,

Your family

The French Stall

T: +65 6299 3544 / F: +65 6448 8647

Nearest MRT Station: Farrer Park

Monday, 2^nd October 2006. I, Wongso, Audrey and Calyn went to this French restaurant in Little India neighborhood. This restaurant is very different with any French restaurant that you can find in Singapore as it is much localized in term of design and its location. It was my fourth visits and I am still very much satisfied with their food. The price for a dinner, a starter with main dish plus dessert, is around SG$20, which is quite affordable for a French meal in here. Before my trip to  Paris in 2004, I do
not fancy any French food as I thought it will be like any western food
with no much originality in taste like Thai or Japanese food. I was
wrong. In contrast, French food has its own unique taste and simply
marvelous, especially their authentic andouillette.
Andouillette is a French sausage made from the colon and stomach of
pig. It has a bit of smell and, thus, not all people like it. I would
say it can be compared to Hong Kong Smelly Tofu, in the sense of nice
but smelly. How I miss this dish as it can only be found in France.

The French Stall serves few famous cuisines, such as Beef Fondue, Steak Au Poivre and many others. For first timer, you can always ask their recommendation for a start. Last Monday, we ordered a normal set dinner with I and Wongso having Pork Steak and Chicken Legs for the ladies. I still like the Pork Steak, but I do not feel for their chicken legs. My favorite is still their dessert. We ordered different kind of desserts and all of them are nice to my liking although my dessert, profiterole, portion was a bit too big for me. However, it sure did not disappoint me in its taste.

I will always give this place a priority whenever I crave for an authentic French cuisine. The key point to me is affordable authentic French Cuisine. Salute!

PS: They serve variety of wines too.

August has always been my favorite month of a year, whereas December is easily my second favorite month with Christmas and New Year Eve in it. In August, I was brought to this world by my parent 31 years ago. Althougth my birthday in the first half of my 31 years was not celebrated due to me being so naughty, I still received presents from time to time. Having a birthday cake for my own birthday was a very rare occasion. However, last August was a special one. I had 3 chocolate cakes on the same day! By end of that day, I was so sick with cakes or any sweet stuffs. It did really make up for the past I guess … hahaha.

Beside of my birthday, many countries independent days are also falling in August, for example Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. As a result, I always believe good things are bounds to happen within this month.This year August, I took a long leave from my work and went back to Jakarta for less than 2 weeks. It was one of the trip that I am glad that I took. Besides having Ben Ben, my youngest nephew, started knowing me and looking for me, coming back from this trip, I have a new gal in my heart. Her name is Pin Pin Mariana, a fine lady from my neighbourhood. She, by nature, is a confident and friendly girl. In short, I am happy having her in my life now.

One week after coming back from Jakarta, I and my mates in Singapore went to Krabi and stayed in a great bungalow near Ao Nang beach. We fully utilized our 4 days and 3 nites in Krabi with activities like scooter riding, Island hoping, Canoing and Elephant riding. One of the famous place in Krabi is Maya Bay, a place where Leonardo Di Caprio filming THE BEACH. We went there during our island hopping activity. The beach is nice but the place is not as clean as the one in the movie. At the end, the whole trip was purely ectassy, a great place with great companions.

In September, I could call this month as a reunion month as I met my high school mates whom I have not seen them since 1994 in 2 different places. They are Rudyanto aka Udang, Maya, Conny, Sonny White and Charles. Dino, my high school mate lives in Sg, has a regular contact with them I guess. Because of him, I can meet all those people above. Udang and Charles, currently, stay in Singapore, Conny and Sony White are living in Jakarta, and Maya is in New Zealand. All of them are succesfull in what they are doing. It is always great to meet old classmates.

In the future, I will try to write food reviews in my blog by me and my Monday’s kakis (Wongso, Audrey and Calyn). Monday Nite gathering was started with an idea to enjoy a great hangout without having a crowd. By doing it on Monday, firstly, we can visit any places without being affraid of full-house or long waiting time. Secondly, some food or drink is cheaper as the happy hour is longer than weekend. Finally, it also helps those who has a monday-blue sickness. We have started it for months with varieties of activities. Only lately, we decided to go around and try out nice places for drinks or foods within our budget. So, no more blue monday and here comes the Monday Makan Sutra, our very own version of Makan Sutra

Bianca Ryan nailed it! She just won herself a hefty 1 Million US Dollars from show called "Americas Got Talent".  I enjoy this competition show very much as they did present a lot of great talents. However, Bianca was already way above the rest since the first time we saw her on a stage. Great voice and it is just purely talented kid! Below is her finale performance which won her early retirement at the age of 12:

In addition to her, I also love this group called "At Last". They could win the show if Bianca did not enter the same competition. Therefore, I think they deserve to be known too. Here you go "At Last" with their final performance:

I never ever thought that there is a place in Malaysia with a weather like Sydney during winter time. Last week, I went to Cameron Highland with 5 of my friends. Before the trip, I have heard people mention to me that Cameron Highland weather will be like Genting. "Oh … only like Genting har. No problemo lar." I said. Moreover, I told Thomas why he did not bring any shorts as it will be hot like a hell on day time. Luckily, he did not follow my advice or else he will scold me upside down.

Cameron Highland is a very cold place for Malaysia standard. During nite and morning times, the temperature could easily drop around 10-12 celcius, whereas on the day time the temperature is still around 20-22 celcius. Perhaps, it was not their summer season in July. Anyway, I love the weather except the wet one a.k.a raining. In overall, I really enjoy this place as it is a perfect place for just hanging loose. The scenary was not fantastic, but it sure showed a lot of traditional kampung lifestyles. The most memorable moment from this trip was, when I, Wongso and Thomas went up to see a sunrise in the early morning. At the end, we did not manage to see any sunrise. We only saw two colours on that morning: Black and White. It was total darkness when we reached that place and after that it was raining. Therefore, we were hiding inside the car. When the rain was stop, our vision was very limited due to a reasonable thickness of fog. Beside that, we also went to see Tea Plantation, Cactus Garden, Butterfly and other nature discovery activities.

Thomas is an Australian who was born in China and came to Singapore for a visit. He is one of my university mate in Macquarie University. From him, I got to know more true friends like Adrian Tsang, Kenneth Tao, etc. Those days were certainly great when we spent our times in Computer Lab as most of us were nite owls and last batch to leave Computer Lab. E6B will always remain as one of my memorable places to be.

Sometimes I feel I am kinda lucky to stay in Singapore and have a group of outgoing mates in Singapore. With them, we have been to many parts of Malaysia. A country that I did not know so much about when I was not in Singapore. In other way, it makes me think that maybe my own country could be as beautiful as Malaysia. Afterall, Bali and Lombok, the only two places that I have been too in the last 10 years beside Jakarta, are very nice places to be. I hope in the next couple of years I could visit other places in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia. Let’s make it happen!

There will be a new show in town … I hope so.

In USA, there is a new talentshow called America’s Got Talent. I saw few previews and it does show more talent than American Idol.

Let me share those with you from YouTube.

The first one: Real Life Godzilla - Unbelieveable technique. I was really stunned with this one guys. See whether you can do that.

The second one: Bianca Ryan - You will hear her name for sure from now on. This gal CAN sing. I have a goosebump for this one. Check it out.

Hope you enjoy it.

I never ask about life cycle before and totally accept that one day
I will grow old and die. Maybe there were times when I wonder what will
happen when your love ones times have come. The feeling of losing them
FOREVER would surface slowly and I do not think I am ready for that to
happen even up to this moment. Then, I think maybe most people will
feel the same way too. Maybe those people who are facing with death are
actually affraid of losing the people that they love rather than death
itself. Maybe we are all affraid of the same thing.

Last few days ago, I went back to Jakarta and visited my grandpa who
is 79 y.o. this year. His kidney is almost not working and he has
suffered so much due to his illness and yet he still shows so much
determination to fight on. To see him at this stage is a very
heartbreaking moment for us. He was a very healthy man 3 years ago
before stroke has brought him down to the stage he is in right now.
Just like most of eldery, you will suffer from any illness when you are
old. When you are old, your body is at the weakness moment of your life
and yet you have to suffer from all those serious illness. Only endless
family supports and your own will can help you to survive. During my 4
days in Jakarta, my grandpa condition was at his best in the last few
weeks. He ate a lot and moved a lot. Moreover, he kept trying to chat
and smile at all time. On the day when I, my sister and my bro-in-law
were about to go to the airport, we could see tears in his eyes. I
think he was affraid that he might not be able to see us again. I kept
telling him that I will be back in Jakarta in August with a hope to
give him another reason to fight on. I am not ready to lose the only
grandpa that I have (The other grandpa of mine was passed away long
time ago) and I believe he has not ready to leave his love ones too. On
top of all that, I just  hope that he won’t suffer more from what he
had few weeks ago. Beside the feeling of losing your love ones,
accepting that your body has given up on you is also very tough to
swallow, leave alone all the additional pain from his illness and his
treatment.

Grandpa, I pray for you so you will have more and more happy days
for the rest of your life. Remember, many happy moments are waiting to
be shared with you from all your grandchildren as many of them have not
married yet, including me.

Last week was my sister wedding. It was a great event as many family members attended her wedding. It could be even better if both my grands could make it. However, my grandpa was hospitalised and he is still in the hospital as I am typing this post right now. His kidney has stopped functioning so he needs to do a hemodialysis every 2 days. Right now, he is in a good condition as I heard he can start laughing on my bro-in-law jokes. Hangin’ there Grandpa!

Now, let me come back on my elder sister wedding event. Her wedding was on 01 June 2006. Since most of my uncles and aunties, from both of my mum and dad sides, were in Singapore, we had many dinner and lunch gatherings during that week. I could say that last week could easily top of my makan week chart as we had at least 4 dinners at Soup Restaurant, Jade Palace,  Si Chuan Dou Hua (Lunch and Dinner) and Peach Garden. For once, I forgot how hungry feels like. On D-Day, the groom, Kee Joo, came to our place very early to pick up his bride, my elder sis. After that, we headed to Grand Park Royal Hotel for Tea Ceremony at around 11AM. After lunch, we went back to our hotel rooms and took some rest as my family n Kee Joo’s family need to go to Registry of Marriage by 4PM.  I and my younger sister went out for a quick shopping to get new shoes for me  as my old one was spoilt.  By 4PM, a whole family gathered at the Registry of Marriage and we all witnessed Kee Joo and my elder sister exchanging  their marriage vows.

Few hours later, we were gathered at the Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurant for their wedding banquet, a small banquet for families and relatives in Singapore. Everybody was happy and in a gread mood for party. Even my dad allowed me to drink more alcohol that day.

During that week, my place in Bishan were full of people, especially during the last few days before D-Day. There were my dad, my mum, elder sis, younger sis, I , Andrew, 4 of my aunties and  my uncle. They sure enjoy their stay in Singapore as they could hang around again together as a big family. Just a week … only 1 week … Now I am staying alone in this 4-room HDB as all of them went back to Jakarta and my elder sis is staying with her hubby now.

Sis and Kee Joo, Wish two of you many happy days to come !!
and … bring me nephews or nieces ya? cute cute one, like Du-du and Ben-ben.

Almost forget to show one of our family prince photo liao:

"Wanna go cycling in JB?"  -  I was like "What?!?!?!" I have not cycled for ages. The last time I had a long hours cycling during my 7 years in Singapore was in 2004 and my butt was in pain for the next 2 days after that.

"We will have seafood in there" - BINGO!!! I am listening now … :P.  There will be seafood for our lunch and dinner, going to the beach and  cycling most of the time. It is indeed a get-away trip from our hectic daily life. In short, it was a short  and economical trip and yet healthy activity. I AM IN!

The day has arrived and we were gathered at Changi Village before heading to Pengerang by bumboats. Due to the large size of our group, we need to split our 23 people into 2 bumboats. As a result, we started our cycling at around 11-12 at noon. The heat on that day was definitely everyone’s public enemy no. 1. If no one has invented sun block, we were going to be fried and crispy! Luckily, the distance between Jetty and city central is not very far (maybe around 12 KM) and all of us have a very good stamina.

As you can see below, It was me cycling under the heat of a sun and I was running out of water …

After ONLY 2 small stop-over, we reached to our destination without any sweat!! … only perspired a lot. :D. Pengerang, which is known as a fishing town, is a very small town at south western coast
of Johor
State. There is nothing much you can find in this town, excepts one Big
Taxi Stand,

a numerous of Seafood Restaurants and unique "rubbish bins".

As all of us are very civilized people, the organizer hardly has a
tough time to get all of us checkin  into air-cond rooms and gather for
nice seafood lunch (Try that on a bunch of over-heated and hungry
people, for sure they will become very obedient with all those air-cond
and food thingy). Below are the photos of our hotel and first restaurant that we went to.

The food is, indeed, very cheap here. Our lunch, consist of drinks, Steamed Fish, Wild Boar, Vege, Fried Noodle, Prawn and Hot Plate Tofu, is only around S$4 per person.

After lunch, most of us were cycling our way to Ramunia Beach, a nice small beach nearby. In there, some of us were just simply sitting around by the beach listening to the pounding sound from the wave and the others were exploring the beach. At one corner of the beach, you can find many big and reddish rocks. It was a very nice spot with a good scenery and peaceful ambience. We took some pictures before heading back to our hotel.

During our dinner time, we pampered ourselves with more and better seafood. Crabs, lobsters and fishes were our menu for the day. This restaurant has many photos of famous people who have been there for their food. Apparently, it is the most famous seafood restaurant in this town and also Singapore. Why Singapore? You can see many Singapore’s cars nearby and this restaurant was recommended by Yummy King, Singapore TV Programmed.

Note: Apart from lobsters above, tofu and crispy chicken, the rest are just simply ordinary.

The next morning, I just walked around from one end of the street to the other one. Along the way, I ate whatever food that my friends recommended. From Bah Kut Teh, Ching Chong Fan, Chicken BBQ bun to Egg Tarts. Most of them are so-so, except ching chong fan. The chilly sauce is just very nice and it completes the ching chong fan in every single bites. Finally, we bid ourselves goodbye to this town by taking some group photos before heading back to Pengerang Jetty and had a boat ride to Singapore.

Redang Island was first introduced worldwidely by Hong Kong movie called "Summer Holiday". It is recognised as one of the clearest blue water sea in Malaysia. I and my friends were planning for this trip since very long time ago and, finally, we made it happen in April 2006. We purposely choose to go there in April as it is the best time of the year to visit any beach resorts in Malaysia. During this period, you can always find sun and stars on the day time and on the night time, respectively. On 7th April 2006, the day that we are all waiting for is finally arrived. We took Berjaya Air and flied from Seletar Airport, Singapore to Redang Island directly by a 48-seater DeHavilland Dash 7 aircraft. The flight was last about 1.5 hours and it was a half-empty flight with 2 stewardesses (Maybe the only 2 stewardesses that this flight has as we met them again on our flight back to Singapore). After passing the Redang’s Immigration, I, wongso and Audrey took a small look-like-caddy car to our Berjaya Resort as the main bus has gone. Nice ride to start our holiday in this paradise island. This was the beginning of our 4 days 3 nites holiday in Redang.

The first nite has gone without any special activity other than swimming, hanging out and finding more about this island and what activities we can have for the next few days. Most of us were pretty tired and felt asleep very early that day, except Hooi Yee. Luckily, we did enjoy our remaining days in that island. In overall, I can call this trip as a snorkeling trip. Why? Simply because of the number of snorkeling places that we went to. We went to 6 different places for snorkeling. There are few places that worth to be mentioned. They are:

1. Paku Island - Best place and one of the most shallow one among all 6 places that we went. In here, I managed to see NEMO and many nice lively corals.
2. Turtle Island - I was bitten by an ugly face fish. That fish mistook my hairy leg as his lunch.
3. Pasir Panjang Beach - The water is clear as a swimming pool water. In here, I tried snorkeling near Wongso, self claimed beach boy, as he said that he spotted a baby shark. At least, if the big shark decided to appear, I can get help from the beach boy.
4. Somewhere no where when our boat got problem with its engine. Basically, I just jumped into the water and it was a deep water and has a very scary scene for me with all the fishes seems not to be afraid of me. Instead of running away from me, they were actually swum toward my direction. Maybe my body did look like a fish food on that day.
5. Marine Park. It is definitely the worst place to be. Firstly, you have to pay to get into this place. Then, you can see more human bodies rather than type of fish in this area. Lastly, jelly fish, jelly fish and more jelly fish.

Apart from all the activities, I should mention about the food in Berjaya Resort. They are just simply SUPERB, especially the dinner. We were spoilt by the varieties of food during our stay and I did gain a lot of weight after this trip, despite of all the snorkeling and swimming activities. In overall, it was a very relaxing holiday to see sun, stars and beaches everyday. Considering the amount that we paid for this trip (The most expensive beach resort so far for me), Berjaya Resort was the most exclusive resort that I have ever been. The resort environment and level of services from the staffs are excellent. However, I think this place is more suitable for couple or family rather than for young and adventurous people like us. Hahahaha.

What do I gain from this trip? Hmmm … visiting one of famous beach resort, fulfilling one of my 2006 resolution, making up all the time that I miss in water activities, experiencing many first time moments in my life, hanging out with cool people and relaxing n "nua-ing" without worried about work. Looks like this trip is really worth every penny that I paid for. Lastly for not least, thank you to Calyn, Hooi Yee, Wongso and Audrey for arranging it and all the great time during this trip. Despite all the effort from all of you, I still cant trap water even in the pool. Maybe next time!