Breakfast and Dinner

Visited Chong Pang hawker center this morning for century egg and meat porridge. The hawkers served the porridge with a piece of yu-cha-kueh or you tiao (Chinese cruller). A bowl cost $2.80c and if you want an egg to go with it you would've to add another 50c. The porridge is appetising and is suitable as a breakfast meal.


Dinner@ Fu Chan cafe

The topmost picture is the Fried Thai Pork with sweet sauce. Second picture is the Papa Chicken. Then there is the Spinach Soup with century egg, anchovies, fried garlic etc...
The dinner for two is $32 which is rather reasonable. Food is mouthwatering and yummy.

Breakfast and Lunch

It's Toast Box again this morning. The place wasn't crowded around 10am and so had a quiet time. There is free wi-fi at the mall too.
The Nanyang coffee has a nice aroma and that's why I frequent Toast Box. Back in the 1960s and 70s, most ordinary coffee shops served similar type of coffee or kopi as we called it. Today, the coffee served in the coffee shops are of lower grade and quality.
Dinner was mutton nasi briyani with some potato salad. Good stuff but a bit oily.

Karaoke-ing

Some of my friends go karaoke-ing on Friday evening. One of them is a member of a country club which has karaoke facilities. I joined them once. Although I enjoy karaoke singing but their schedule does not suit me well. First, I can't sleep well after the session as it ends at around 12am and by the time I arrived home it would be about 1 am. I prefer to sleep early and so I suggested having the karaoke on weekdays during the afternoon. However, my suggestion was shot down. The reason was that some of the kakis are working and so could only have the sessions on Friday nights. Weekends are out because they want to spend time with their families.
I may form a group that may want to karaoke with me on weekdays afternoon. Besides, the country club's session is quite expensive. We each has to pay about $50 for the rental, food and drinks.
The one I am thinking of is inexpensive. A group of say 4 to 6 people could rent a place ranging from $18 to $20 for a 3 hour afternoon session. There is no alcoholic drinks on sale but a soft drink cost only $1.
After the singing we could adjourned for our dinner nearby. The total expenses won't be more than $20 each person.
I will now seek the views of my other friends who may be interested.

Our oddball schoolmate

Bai and I used to be schoolmates. We have not met since leaving school many years ago. It was in 2014 that we met each other at a function.
From that year onward we made it a point to meet with each other and other schoolmates once a month.
Bai as usual was a bubbly and talkative man. He was the live wire of the group.
One day, Bai stopped attending our monthly gatherings. Some of us called him but he simply refused to meet us. We detected something was wrong with Bai. Even over the phone, he would not talk much.
Then suddenly out of the blue,a year later, Bai appeared at our monthly meeting. He was his usual self again, chatty and cheerful.
We found out from Bai that the reason for his absence from our meetings was due to depression. He, for no apparent reason, fell into depression. He told us the thought of suicide was in his mind. But now he has recovered and is enjoying life again.
Just the other day we were shocked to learn that Bai had left Singapore 3 months ago for a tour of Europe and had been reported missing. There was no word from him. His family members failed in their efforts to get in touch with him. His phone line was no longer in use. We are keeping our fingers crossed and hope nothing bad has happened to Bai.
But then who knows, he may appear, out of the blue at our meeting again.

Ice cream and cup noodles for dinner

These last 2 days we've been craving for junk food. First, there was the curry puff followed by Toast Box's kaya toast set with kopi O. Then it was the bar chor mee. Second, in the evening we had the Ben & Jerry ice cream and Nissin cup noodles(transferred into a bowl as shown). Come tomorrow, we will going back to our healthy food menu. No more junk food for the next few months, we hope.

Cup Noodles for breakfast

Haha, my wife and I decided not to have our breakfast outside as it was raining heavily. Then the idea of eating cup noodles dawn on us. I went downstairs where there is a 7-11 store and looked for cup noodles. Found many varieties and brands. I bought 1 cup of  the famous Nissin Tom Yam  and 1 cup of the 7-11 brand.
It took 3 minutes to cook the noodles. It was convenient and easy to cook. We didn't add any extra things like veggies and eggs but the noodles tasted good especially the Nissin Tom Yam. I must admit that the noodles were springy and soup very tasty.
However, I've heard that cup or instant noodles are bad for health. It seems that 1 cup contains 1000 mg of sodium, 300 claories etc etc....
But we console ourselves as we only eat the cup or instant noodles once in a while.

More about cup noodles click here

Noodles for breakfast and more noodles for dinner

Poor but had a happy childhood

One of my childhood "playgrounds" was some 8 km away. I lived in Geylang and the "playground" was the Alkaff Lake Gardens, near Macpherson Road. I used to walked barefooted with my friends from our kampong to Alkaff and back almost everyday.
We would swim, play and fished at Alkaff the whole afternoon after school. Now the lake has been filled with sands and a school, Cedar Girls' Secondary was built on it. I wish the lake was still there because it will bring back many wonderful childhood memories.

In between Geylang and Alkaff Gardens at Kampong Aljunied or Pak Buyong we used to build "camps" made of bushes and tree branches in the thick bushes where we would take a break and rest if we were tired.

If we were thirsty, we would stop by the "mama" shop and buy a drink called "Sarsi". Sometimes we would buy ice-balls and had it cut into quarters or 4 pieces so that we could share among ourselves.

As kids, we were happy and playful. They only thing that we wish we could have was more money from our parents. Most of us (about age 10 to 14) were given pocket money of about 10 cents.
Life was simple and easy going. We did not have TVs, computer or smart phones etc but we played games with marbles, footballs, unwanted tennis balls.. etc
Suicide? No, never once occurred to us. Even if we did, there was no tall bulidings or HDB flats whereby we could jump down like the recent cases of two young boys who committed suicide by jumping down from their flats.

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.

Breakfast @ Yakun Kaya

The food at Yakun Kaya (Seletar Mall) isn't as good as expected but we patronised the place because they served kopi and the seats are more comfortable than the ones at Toast Box. The place is also not as crammed as Toast Box.

Dinner @ Home

Soft French @ Toast Box

Yesterday, we had breakfast at Greenwich V. It does not have the "soft French toast set" and so we settled for the "kaya toast set".
This morning we visited the Toast Box at Seletar Mall and it serves the " soft French set" which is a little more expensive but satisfying ($5.50c)

Afternoon tea

Home-made sandwiches and a cup of grass jelly milk tea from Koi..good stuff!

Home prepared dinner

Potato salad, fried Kimchi beef, sambal kangkong and a bowl of Japanese rice....yummy is the word!

Breakfast @ Toast Box and satay/porridge lunch @ Chong Pang Market

Stunning pictures from Alaska

A friend of mine sent these awesome pictures. He was at the Eskimo Village,Alaska.

Jesus created eyes for a girl

Billy Paul Branham gave a testimony of the many things his dad,William Branham did as a servant of God. Besides, raising the dead and healing the crippled, the sick etc, Billy witnessed the creation of 2 beautiful blue eyes for a little girl who was born without eyes. This is a short video clip but to listen to all of Billy's testimonies go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FwbntebH1s  

Breakfast (cheese toasts) & Dinner (kway chup)

Fear no evil

Just as I expected whenever I testify the goodness of God, the enemy will somehow come and try to scare me.
Last night, for the first time I had chest pain. Something told me I was going to have a heart attack. I am not one who is easily cowed by such threat and so ignored it.
I told the enemy that I was willing to go if need be as I would be very happy to meet my Saviour. Then the pain left me and I went off to sleep.

Psalms 23:4 .....

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” 

God is the great Healer

We live in a world of many uncertainties,miseries, worries, ill health etc but if we have faith in God we can overcome them. Only believe all things all possible. God will heal our sicknesses, solve our problems and what have you if you only have faith to believe He can and will do it for you.
My eczema?  no, no not an issue for God. I know when all treatments and medications failed, He will be victorious in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember the following verse in Isaiah:

"But He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed" (Is. 53:5).

I now declare to the world that my Lord Jesus Christ has healed me. 

Before

After

Lesser questions from cabin crew wannabes

At long last there are only few questions posed by cabin crew wannabes. The load is off my shoulders now.
The last one I did answer was an email from Nepal. This guy desperately wanted to be a steward with Singapore Airlines and asked me whether he could attend the cabin crew interviews in India. He email me twice with the same questions and so I reluctantly told him that SIA is not hiring Nepalese and besides the interviews in India are for female Indian citizens only.
See, to answer this type of question is a waste of time. It is obvious that the ads in India stated very clearly the position is for female Indian Nationals.

Toast Box seating arrangement sucks but kopi good

Had breakfast at Toast Box. It gives a 10% discount if you use the Visa card and is valid for this month only.
Toast Box Nanyang coffee is about the best and one cup of kopi O is $1.70c to $1.80c, depending on the outlet. Now the heartlanders' kopi shop kopi O is $1.00 to $1.10. Kopi shop kopi is nowhere compared to Toast Box's .
Toast Box's wooden stools are hard and space is cramped whereas the kopi shop ones are more comfortable and spacious. Main reason for the uncomfortable seating arrangement at Toast Box is because it does not want the customers to hang around too long.
I hate the seats but visit it because of its kopi O. If another company were to serve kopi as good as Toast Box and offer comfortable seats I will patronised it even if it cost me more for their F & B.
No need to talk about Ya kun Kaya, Wang's, Killiney Kopitiam etc as their kopi is of inferior quality compared to Toast Box.

Kimchiguk or Kimchi soup dish for lunch