Simple meal = weight loss

Due to eating of CNY treats and heavy meals, I put on almost a kilo in my weight. However, after slowing down on the heavy intake and having a simple meal yesterday like the one above, I lost all the weight that I picked up. Now it is back to 72.6 kg for me.

Good and cheap,relatively speaking

My friend in Sydney bought this Australian made Holden 1.6 for S$16,000. It was a demo car,6 month old and clocked 1,000 km. A brand new one cost S$19,000. It was sold at a discount of $3,000. In Singapore, a similar Japanese car would have cost $120,000 which includes a coe of about $60,000. Ridiculous is the word. Cars,houses and apartments are so costly here that one have to work a life time to pay for these 2 necessities.

CNY greetings

CNY Eve's dinner on video

Chinese New Year Eve Reunion Dinner with Family

Lunch with ex- schoolmates and teacher

Had a meal with my former schoolmates and our ex-teacher. He is seated second on the left next to me (standing). He is now 85 years old and is our role model even now as we aged. His recipe for a healthy and long life is "eat whatever you like and keep busy meeting friends". He was RI's discipline master in the 1960s. Currently, he lives in Canada with his wife. We will be lunching again after the Chinese New Year season.

Din Tai Fung...to me it's average

We had our dinner at Din Tai Fung. None of the 4 dishes we ordered really satisfied us. We prefer the food at Crystal Jade which features Cantonese style of cooking. Din on the other hand is mainly Taiwanese cooking.

"The Grass Is Blue" written and sung by Dolly Parton

Above is the video of Dolly Parton performing "live" in London in 2009 at the age of 63. 

In 1999, Dolly Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. She has composed over 3,000 songs, notably "I Will Always Love You" (a two-time U.S. country chart-topper for Parton, as well as an international pop hit for Whitney Houston), "Jolene", "Coat of Many Colors", and "9 to 5". She is also one of the few to have received at least one nomination from the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, Tony Awards, and Emmy Awards. As an actress, she starred in films such as 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Rhinestone, and Steel Magnolias.

Below is the lyrics for this touching and lovely song, "The Grass is Blue".


I've had to think up a way to survive
Since you said it's over
Told me good-bye
I just can't make it one day without you
Unless i pretend that the opposite's true
Rivers flow backwards
Valleys are high
Mountains are level
Truth is a lie
I'm perfectly fine
And i don't miss you
The sky is green
And the grass is blue

How much can a heart and a troubled mind take
Where is that fine line before it all breaks
Can one end their sorrow
Just cross over it
And into that realm of insanitive bliss

There's snow in the tropics
There's ice on the sun
It's hot in the arctic
And crying is fun
And i'm happy now
And i'm glad we're through
And the sky is green
And the grass is blue

And the rivers flow backwards
And my tears are dry
Swans hate the water
And eagles can't fly
But i'm alright now
Now that i'm over you
And the sky is green
And the grass is blue
And i don't love you
And the grass is blue

We had bak chor mee  and some of the veggies and fried eggs which was brought from home for lunch. We thought since we wanted to eat out, we should supplement our meals with some fibre food.
The bak chor mee near our place is undoubtedly one of the best we had tasted. It's inexpensive ($3.50) and worth the money spent.

Lunch@ Crystal Jade, Zhongshan Mall

If you love dim sum, you must visit Crystal Jade because their dim sum is one of the best in Singapore. All the 5 dishes we ordered were delicious and the bill came up to a reasonable $30.
The parking is free for the first 2 hours at Zhongshan Mall, Balestier. The place was not even full when we were there this afternoon.

PayPal's service is deteriorating

I've been using PayPal to receive payment from my clients since 2009. It used to be efficient and would notify me within minutes when payment is made. Lately, it has somewhat stopped notifying me of payment made. Without the notification, I would not have a clue as to when,what and who is paying for my goods and services. This has caused inconveniences and delay in responding to my buyers.
There are many PayPal competitors in the market providing the same kind of services. I understand that PayPal being the best in the service and now declining, others may be the same as PayPal,if not worst.
Therefore, I have used my own initiative and create my own payment system. In this way, I could respond to my clients promptly and efficiently. Besides, I could save on commissions ( between 3% and 4%)....thanks to PayPal!

Lunch and Dinner

Dinner @ Sushi Express

We had our lunch at home. It was spaghetti with minced beef and green mussels. Accompanying the pasta was a plate of broccoli and okra (ladies' fingers).
As for dinner, we went for sushi at Sushi Express. Both were good and satisfying meals.

My meal, shopping and the weather

Had this fish soup with rice at Long Xing Fish Soup, 409 AMK Ave 10. Must be patient as the queue is always long and may take you 15 to 20 minutes to get your food. One thing for sure is that the fish (batang fish) is fresh and tasty. The smallest bowl like the one I ordered above is $4.50 including rice.
I had it for breakfast.

There is a market and many shops around Block 409 (Teck Ghee) AMK Ave 10 selling meat, fish, poultry, fruits, clothing etc. I bought the above vegetables and fruits from the market.
This place is not as crowded as Chong Pang market but has all the stuff I wanted. Besides, it is half the distance from my place as compared to Chong Pang.

Sudden change of weather

One moment the weather was fine with lots of sunshine and next, a thunderstorm followed by a heavy downpour at about 4 pm today.

Cheap & nice Yong Tau Fu for lunch ($4)

Too many taxis, no drivers ?

Sushi Tei @ Tampines 1

There were 3 of us at Sushi Tei (Tampines 1) for lunch. We ordered a bowl of Ramen, Salmon+rice, Ungani + rice, a salad and 2 plates of 4 pieces salmon sushi. The food was well below our expectation and costly too. They charged for the wet paper towel (20c) as well $1.20 for a cup of Japanese tea.
Since the food wasn't good and pricey, we promised never to visit any Sushi Tei anymore.

18 Chefs@ NEX Mall (lunch)

As promised, we went to 18 Chef @ Nex Mall at Serangoon for our lunch. This time I took a couple of photos of our meals. We chose the $13+ beef with pasta and the Japanese beef curry rice ($14.80) lunch set. Both set came with a big bottle of ice-lemon tea and chicken cream soup. We also ordered an extra bowl of double chilli cheese fries ($7).
18 Chefs does not impose the 10% charge but only the 7% GST.
Overall, we spent about $37 which is definitely inexpensive, The food is good and would give the other western food restaurants like Buddy and Hot Tomato a run for their money.

Lunch@18 Chefs, Downtown East

My friend and I had our lunch at 18 Chefs. Being a Sunday, the place was packed but am quite sure it is busy as usual on any weekdays.
The food was good and priced reasonably. The service was also as good.
Many diners were young people and I think I was the oldest customer at that time.
I regret not taking photos of the food we had and the restaurant. However, I will definitely visit it again and this time I won't forget to snap some photos.

Since we were passing by Old Airport Road on our way home, we stopped by the Hawker Center and tried the Whitley Road Prawn Mee's noodle. There was around 6 people in the queue ahead of me. It took almost 30 minutes for me to get our prawn mee. There is nothing to rave about this stall's prawn mee. We ordered the $5 a bowl type which came with little noodles and 2 medium size prawns.
When we came home we felt very thirsty and drank plenty of water. The hawkers must have added lots of msg in the soup.
Will not recommend anyone to eat this mee.

Malaysia My Second Home

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Is the tree in your garden?

Thursday, January 12, 2017
Blogger Boh Tong said...
Wish I had a garden :-(

Thursday, January 12, 2017
Anonymous Malaysia Boleh said...
Come to MY where you can afford a big garden to grow your papaya and other fruits.
Land and houses are darn cheap not like in SG.

Thursday, January 12, 2017
Anonymous Malaysia sure can said...
Agree with the previous poster.Uncle BT should move to Malaysia. Bigger space,lower pace of life and lower cost of living.

Some readers posted the above comments inviting me to live in Malaysia where houses,land, cost of living is low. I agree with and would like to thank them.
I am considering moving over to Malaysia and retire there permanently. I am studying the program called "Malaysia my second home" whereby you place a sum of MYR 150,000 (S$ 50,000) in a Malaysian bank as fixed deposit and get a 10 year visa to live in any part of a Malaysia.
I think it make sense to spend retirement in MY. A car that cost S$150,000 can be bought for S$30,000 or MYR 90,000. House??.... a landed property say in Malacca cost about S$300,000 (same one cost at least S$3 million !
I will give myself another year or so and may move to MY.

Today's meals

Hong Kong tolong (please) return our terrexes

Meeting ex colleagues

I almost bumped into Eve an ex stewardess yesterday at a shopping complex. Somehow because of my busy schedule and was in a great hurry, I avoided Eve. We haven't met for many years and although Eve was still slim she didn't look healthy and has aged so much.
When I was about to pay for my stuff at the cashier counter, someone called out my name. Wow it was my ex manager, Jim. He looked old and haggard (I supposed me too huh), probably about 80 years of age. We chatted for a while and must admit that although I have never like Jim, he was nice and warm towards me. Jim offered to buy me a coffee at a nearby Toast Box but I declined.
We parted ways and I headed for the car park while he proceeded to have his coffee.

One month before you get a heart attack

Who is making all the money?

The hawkers, coffee shop operators, the provision shop owners and now a medical doctor who is also a clinic owner told me they are not making money from their businesses. How can that be? Who is making all the money then?
I may be wrong but I think the landlords are the people who are making the money. I am not talking about the small timers but big ones like the HDB, URA etc. The business people I spoke to told me the rental of their places kept going up.
Not far from where I am staying, a huge foodcourt has closed down just last month. Business has been poor I was told.
The other issue I was told was the shortage of labour. Getting workers from overseas is expensive. The government would impose heavy levies if one were to import these workers. Plus, not all foreigners could come here and work. The types of businesses I am talking about require unskilled and semi-skilled workers eg: cleaners, cooks, receptionists and clerks etc. Singaporeans are choosy and would not want to be employed in positions that I've mentioned above.

Extra weight due to fruit intake

Eating lots of fruits made me put on weight. Think it is the sugar contents that's to blame. As from today, I am going to eat a normal breakfast instead of just fruits.

So here I am, back to my cheese toasts with home made green vegetable paste (parsley, broccoli & long beans). Kopi is still top of the item for my breaky.