Yong Tau Foo, Prata and Durain

The yong tau foo from Lim's is good and cheap. I had it for my lunch. 6 pieces plus a choice of noodles, beehoon or rice is at $4. You can either have it "dry" or with soup. I opted for "dry" so I can add the chili and red sweet sauce freely.
Last night, besides porridge I also had the roti prata (in Malaysia it is known as roti canai). 2 pieces (kosong) without egg is $2.
After dinner, I bought durian at $10 for 4 packets. The texture and quality is average but then one can't expect it to be excellent for $10. A reasonably good durian may cost about $18 for 3 boxes.

Busy schedule so ate out

We were busy with work that my wife does not have the time to cook. Besides, shopping at the supermarket for veggies and groceries today (Saturday) is quite challenging. We ended up eating Yong Tau Fu for breakfast and Nasi Lemak for dinner.

My favourite curry yong tau foo

Curry yong tau fu for brunch

I am fortunate that the famous Lim's Yong Tau Fu has a stall near my home. The Q is usually long and the waiting time is about 20 minutes during meal hours. I would usually be there before or long after lunch period so the Q is shorter. The YTF is good and this morning I had the curry YTF for a change. Six pieces and a bowl of rice or bee hoon or noodle etc cost $4. Add $1 more if you like to have the curry gravy or the Thai tom yam soup.

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

Too many taxis, no drivers ?

Cheese/egg toast,Yong Tau Foo for lunch and spaghetti for dinner

Afternoon snacks from Japan

Home cooked spaghetti dinner

This is the sliced pork spaghetti with shredded Japanese seaweed and grated Parmesan cheese.

Yong Tau Foo lunch/ suicide by boys

Breakfast was a cup of kopi O and 2 slices of cheese toasts and in the late afternoon, we ate Yong Tau Foo at Foodfare, Seletar Mall. The name of this stall is Lim's Yong Tau Foo and it has a few outlets in Singapore. It is one of the best YTF in Singapore and if you are a YTF lover, you should try it.

Two young boys committed suicide
In January this year, a 14 year old boy committed suicide by jumping off his 14th floor flat. Before his death,he was interviewed by the police for 3 hours regarding a molest case of a 11 year old girl.

There was also another case of suicide by a 11 year old boy last week. He jumped from his 17th floor flat. His father was seen kneeling by his corpse and heard to have apologized profusely. Neighbours said that prior to the boy's death, they heard the parents quarrelling.

I was wondering how come these 2 young boys would resort to suicide? When I was their age, I never once thought of killing myself even though I was beaten quite often by my mother for the smallest thing. At that age, my main concern was to go out and play with my friends everyday.  I was cheerful and happy throughout most of my childhood years.
Perhaps, today the kids are under lots of pressure to excel in their studies. Perhaps, they are playing too much of the computer games which incite hatred and violence. I don't really have all the answers but things have changed since I was a kid.

10 October 2015 Saturday

It's a Saturday and the shopping malls, hawker centres, wet markets etc will be packed with people. Most schools and offices are closed on weekends. If you drive, you will find difficulty in getting a car park at the above mentioned places.. The public transport will be crowded with people too.
Singapore's land area is 718.3 sq km. It is crammed with 5.5 million residents, 38% of which are PRs and foreign nationals. Compare this with Auckland City (NZ) which has an area of 1086 sq km and only half a million people. It is considered the most populous city in New Zealand.

The pictures below were taken at about 7 am this morning from my apartment. They showed a Chinese temple which is going to celebrate its anniversary this evening and the plots land which are going to have more flats built on them.

The haze PSI is 83 as at 7 am which is on the high end of the moderate range. At least, we can breathe a bit easier compared to last few weeks where the daily average was 180 (high end of unhealthy range).

Breakfast@ a coffee shop

Ba Chor Kway Teow Mee $3.50

Ba Chor Mee Pok $3.50

8:30 am & crowd building up

Lim's Yong Tau Foo

Lim's Yong Tau Foo is about the best in Singapore. Six pieces plus a serving of bee hoon or noodles or rice cost $4 which is cheap and good. It is one of my favourite hawker dishes. I had it for dinner.

1 October 2015 Thursday

Will Singapore be liveable in the future?
Can you imagine if the dense haze from Indonesia keeps blowing our way all year round, will you continue living here?
Some may just immigrate while others who choose to live in Singapore (not by choice) may be sick and eventually die. The haze in the unhealthy range could over time kill many people. It contains poisonous gases and particles.
With the El Nino effect, the haze could predictably be around us for a while. Typhoon Dujuan which is causing havoc in Taiwan also caused a low pressure situation. The low pressure inevitably cause the wind from a high pressure place like Sumatra to be sucked in. In the process,this wind-flow carries the haze from Sumatra on the way to the low pressure typhoon areas. Singapore lies in the path of the wind direction and this is one of the reasons for the haze in Singapore.

Who knows one of these days we may be like the boat people (touch wood) who are fleeing their countries due to war and poverty and desperately looking for a safe haven.  Or perhaps our compassionate and wealthy government would buy a little place in another country like Australia and resettled us.

Full haze protection

The share market: My trade today

Although the Dow was up 243 points last night and the STI was up almost 11 points, there was nothing to crow about. My shares didn't do too well. SIA was plus 2 cts closing at 10.72. Tiger was unchanged at 30 cts, Genting unchanged at 0.725 cts, Noble down .005 cts to 0.41 cts and so on and so forth. Not an exciting trading day.

I had the famous Lim's Yong Tau Foo for lunch nearby. It was really one of the best YTF in Singapore. After lunch, I stopped at McDonald's for a Chocolate Cone.

Nabe dinner@ home due to the horrendous haze

Ex stewardess adopted a pet dog

A former SQ stewardess Whatsapp me these photos of the pet dog she so kindly adopted from a dog shelter in Singapore. Good on you young lady, if not for you this pet would have been put down by her previous owner.

Dow Jones

The Dow is down by 108 points by 2300 hrs. It's annoying to watch it coming down after last night's gain of 230+ points. I am not going to watch it now but instead go and listen to some lovely music.
Will talk to you again tomorrow.