My kampong house and swimming lessons

Image courtesy of Grps at English Wikipedia

Image courtesy of http://kampongpreah.blogspot.sg/

Whenever I see little boys learning how to swim from their coaches in the swimming pools, it will bring back memories of my swimming "lessons" when I was a kid. Back then, my friends and I learned how to swim by ourselves. Sometimes, we would quietly sneak into a farm pond and "swim". Often, the farmers would get furious and chased us away. Somehow, after many such "lessons" we were be able to swim effortlessly.
My kampong house looked like the one above but less colourful. It was owned by an Arab family. I think my grandmother paid about $30 a month for the rental of 4 such houses. She sublet the other 3 and we lived in one. My grandma charged $15 for a unit which meant she collected a total of $45 and pocketed $15 a month.
I will talk more about my late grandma when I have the time.

Been busy with work

We brought the mongrel for his medical checkup before relocating him overseas. Reason he wore a muzzle is because he may bite the vet or any dogs around him in the clinic.
The 2 cute cats were relocated to Singapore as their owners are posted to work here.
We do the above once in a while to pay our bills and be self-sufficient in our retirement.

Beef, sushi, sashimi, seafood at a Japanese supermarket

My Sunday meals

These were my meals for today. Of course,besides the above, I ate some chocolates which we bought from Japan. I am trying to lose some weight so I am eating less now. The bottom picture is the home cooked spaghetti with green mussels (good for the joints) and the topping is a generous serving of shredded cheese.

Car, pork pow and sandwiches in Japan

We took a lift in a friend's car (Mitsubishi mini 660cc) and was pleasantly surprised to find it comfortable and quiet. Although small in engine capacity, it was well powered and fuel efficient.
Our Japanese friend told us the price tag of this car was less than S$18,000.
This same car cost a whopping S$90,000 in Singapore.

The pow and sandwiches were from a convenient store. The pow tasted almost similar to the one which we could buy from our local kopitiam. As for the sandwiches, they were really very good, much better than the ones in 7-11 stores.

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.

Japanese pasta restaurant in Fukuoka

This Japanese pasta restaurant let you have 2 main course meals in a set for the price of one. An example was the last picture which showed the spaghetti carbonara (right) and ham and egg spaghetti. The Japanese cook their pasta in such a way that it's as tasty as the Italian. The set is reasonably priced at S$15 each.

A cheap and good meal in Kitakyushu

We visited Volks Restaurant which serves mainly western food in a place called Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu, Japan. I had the lunch menu which featured the 150 gm Angus Steak and eat-all-you-can salad, bread and soup.
The meal was excellent and it cost a reasonable S$24. My wife had the Japanese Hamburg Steak with free flow of salad etc for only $13. If we ever visit Yahatanishi-ku, we will definitely patronise Volks again. In fact, I understand that there are Volks Restaurants all over Japan but not all serve that all-you-can-eat menu.

We flew back from Japan today on SQ

My wife and I came home on SQ today. We spent a few days in Kyushu, Southern Japan. It was our vacation trip. The weather was beautiful with lots of sunshine. Average daily temperature was a cool 17C. Night time was a chilly 10C. Hotels are inexpensive as compared to Singapore or other major cities. The hotel we stayed in was called the Crown Palace Hotel. We paid an average of S$175 a night (for 2). Many things, including food were inexpensive.
The SQ lunch menu on the way back was either International or Japanese (pictures above)

Having sushi in Japan