Most of the pictures posted in my blog were taken using my Sony WX5, Nokia n73 and 7610 handphone.
If you have any comments pls leave on my cbox.
29 June 2010
Car Insuarance Travel Insurance
Yay got my results today. Passed! Now i can extend my services even further to reach out to more people. Two popular new services that I can do now are Car Insurance and Travel Insurance. Luckily my 2 months of studying paid off. I haven't been touching any online games since i started studying for these exams. Every night i would flip a few pages, even on weekends after a rigorous outdoor sports, i would study when i reached home. Kind of a double life; day time play, night time study. Freaking hard on my mind initially i must agree. Now that i am on studying mood, what's next to study?
I want to modify my slogan: I am always seeking for new challenges and never afraid to try out new things, BOTH athletically and academically.
Woot i watch the movie: Ip Man The Legend Is Born, and they give away free Ip Man 武林秘籍! Faster go and grab! I watched at Bugis Iluma and purchased my tickets via internet booking. :)
Home economics time! Today i am gonna try something new. So guys listen carefully to how this meal is done. Its going to be total different from my past recipes. Our meal of the day is Fry Chicken Breast with Shanghai green and ginger. Yes we are going to try our first frying. OK lets start!
Preparation. - Cut and wash Shanghai green. Soak them in a bowl to remove excess dirt. - Cut and wash Chicken Breast. This time we DO NOT need to marinade. - Wash and cut a few slices of ginger. Then chop them into shreds.
Cooking. 1) As we do not marinade, so there is no waiting time. We can start frying once all our ingredients were prepared. Take out our wok! Start fire! Make sure any water in the wok is dried. If not when we add oil, the oil will spatter out!
2) Once wok is dried and heated, we add a bit of oil. Looks scary right, the oil jumping! Luckily the wok got no water, so our oil is under control. Now we fry our ginger shreds. Fry about 1 min for the ginger smell to come out.
3) Once you can smell ginger, add chicken breast. Dip the chicken breast directly in the oil. DO NOT try to add the chicken breast on the sides and then try to push it into the oil. This is because there is no oil on the side of the wok, and the chicken breast will get stuck onto the dry sides.
4) Stir fry for the chicken breast to immerse into the oil and ginger. Then we put on the lid. This is so that our chicken can cook faster.
5) Just lid on for 2 min, we are not done yet. Still got Shanghai green remember? :) Now open the lid and add Shanghai green. Same thing, add the vegges directly into the center of the wok, like a real man. Stir fry and close the lid again.
6) Wait for 3 minutes and open the lid for our new meal! Fry Chicken Breast with Shanghai green and ginger. Even though the looks seems similar to water boiled, but the taste vastly differs. This meal has a stronger taste from my previous water boiled meals. I can taste the oil in my chicken, and the fragrance of the fried ginger is the reason why i frying this meal. :) Bon appetit!
Waa $20 to enter the SkyPark! Zzz. Finally Marina Bay Sands's top banana look alike SkyPark officially opens to public, tomorrow 23rd June 2010! But the entry fee really dampers my spirits. There is an interesting 150-meter infinity swimming pool, the world’s largest outdoor pool at that height. But, this facility is available to hotel guests only. Zzz. The SkyPark opens from 10am to 10pm. That means you can't enjoy a midnight chill out over there. Zzz. Lastly, there are specific time slots for ticketholders to go up to SkyPark, not all ticketholders can go up at the same time. All tickets are scheduled and allocated a specific time-frame to ensure all our visitors are able to enjoy the spectacular views from this unique vantage point. Wtf. Zzz.
Heres a video of the view from SkyPark.
Pictures taken from Marina Bay Sands.
Want to swim in me? Be my guest!
Tickets to Observation Deck are priced at:
S$20 for adults S$14 for children (aged between 2 – 12 years) S$17 for senior citizens (aged 55 years and above) From June 25 onwards, the public can purchase the tickets to the Public Observation Deck from the box office located at Marina Bay Sands Hotel Lobby, Tower 3.
Bulking up for a hard-gainer like me is not easy at all, i did not see my weight scale go up yet. To enhance my progress, i decided to eat even more. I added wholemeal bread with peanut spread into my daily meals. See this picture? This is my 5th slice today. Peanut put "gaogao"(alot). I can finish a bottle of Peanut butter in a week. Power?! My dad also complained at the rate i consumed his peanut butter. I used to eat subway for my after lunch high tea, but it was fairly expensive if i eat everyday. So now i make my peanut bread everyday and bring out to eat after lunch. :)
Yay today we finally play basketball for our first time. Joe0 and Chris were talking about playing basketball on and off for some time. Talk talk talk but never realise it. As a man of action, i managed to convince them to play today. They very supportive hehe. Also because i never really touch on basketball on my younger days, so i'm eager to try out. You know me, always on for new things. :)
We decided to play at Kampong Ubi Community Center's basketball court. Chris and Prata recommended this place as not much people play here. True enough, when we started playing around 3.30pm, we had half the court for ourself. I only played for a while then i began to feel short of breath. Wow its even more breathless than normal running or skating! Basketball i really need more practice, especially play with ITE school team Joe0 and Sec school team Chris. And guess what? A group of young girls came to challenge us! They were like less than 15years old, daring enough to offer a challenge to us adults! So the PK is on! 6 very young girls vs us 5 (Joe1 didn't come). Dun play play, they show no shyness when scoring.
Later on our basketball session ended when Chris puncture a hole in our basketball. This is really cursed. This is the 2nd time we bought a ball to play, and the ball got lost or damaged on the same day. We went home with blisters and aching on our legs.
Recently one of my guy friend starts shedding his weight, quite successfully he lost a quantitative figure through the most common fat lost method; skipping meals. Then he told me that he is going to start some training, like push ups, to convert his remaining fats into muscle. Today we will not be discussing about the bad effects of skipping-meals-fat-lost program, rather, lets touch on the next topic: Converting fats into muscle.
This must be the biggest myth that people still believe up to today. Nowadays people are getting more and more health conscious, they started eating healthy and exercise. And the next thing they would want is toning up their physique. Good, of cos, who doesn't want to look better? :) And... i can hear people discussing on the grapevine their fabulous plan on how they are going to convert their current size (fats) into sexy looking muscles. Well look below:
Do you see any magazines or books that say: "convert fats into muscle"? At least not the direct conversion. Fat cannot turn into muscle. And muscle cannot turn into fat. period. Yes, check out the books, magazines or the internet, fats and muscles are totally different things altogether. They can never convert into the other, not with training or exercising.
Lets take a good example. If say you have a tummy right now, and if you would to try doing static exercises like 200 sit ups or crunches all day all night for a month, would you get 6 packs? Answer is obviously no. You may feel the tightness on your abdominal, but you can't see your 6 packs because they are covered with a layer of fat that pre-existed and still exists on your tummy. Those sit ups and crunches doesn't convert the tummy into 6 pack muscles after all. Many gym rats on the streets have big arms big chest, but next time, look closely at their tummy. Are their tummy as big as their arms? These are people who have bad diets, with high fats and some muscle to look huge. But to look like Mr Olympia, then you will have to lose those fats and build real muscles.
To make things simple, fats are fats; muscles are muscles. You don't eat a lot of fatty foods to train for muscle, neither should you fear that muscles will turn into fats when you stop training. And that's why all the magazines and books titled "Burn fats. Build muscle".
P.S: I consolidated all my fitness articles into the Gym and Fitness column for easy reference.
What do you do when facing with adversity? When you come across an obstacle, do not avoid nor get stuck by it. Overcome it! Yes, even if we have to jump over it! Every adversity or obstacle that we overcome only makes us stronger. The more obstacles we met in life, makes us a tougher man.
Don't ever let someone tell you, you can't do something. Not even me.
Finally we saw the man in action LIVE! Long have we heard of Prata's can play BMX. But how good can he play? Or is he just another braggart who talks no show? No picture no talk! Exclusively on this blog, we bring you Prata's BMX stunts! Before the show starts, remember kids: "DO NOT TRY THIS ON YOUR OWN. UNCLE GOT TRAIN FOR A LONG TIME ONE".
Today audience include Crispy and Joe0 too. Joe1 asked why she no chance to see, just happened that she not free. Too bad. Today Joe0 and i continue to try our parallel slide, got some more feels. Need to keep on trying.
This is my first time adding music to videos, i tried different genre of music. Which music do you feel is the most compatible? I like the classics first combo video hehe.
Always remember the first thing to do is always to wash, cut and marinade the chicken breast first, cause marination takes time for the chicken to absorb the taste. (view marinade process here) After which, we prepare the celery. Celery is very simple and easy to wash and cut, as you can see it is usually clean and smooth stem, unlike green vegetables. Fried shrimps just wash lightly and leave it.
The preparation process should take less than 10 mins. After which we can start cooking!
1) Water boil our nicely marinaded chicken breast for 3 mins. 2) After 3mins add in celery and shrimps together. vegetables should not be cook for too long, to retain its nutrition and natural crunchy taste! 3) Cook for another 2 mins and it is ready!
Simple and easy healthy meal. Doesn't even take an hour to make right?!
Personally i prefer dry meals. If you like a soupy meal, you can add some of the nutritious bland water we used to cook just now. Hehe.
I hadn't been hardworking to make my chicken breast meals for the past few months, ever since i started my new job and there's a chicken rice stall which i partonise almost everyday. For the past three months, i had chicken rice for early lunch, and afternoon normally i will be out having high tea or movie with Prata. Hence, no time to make my chicken breast meal. But recent chalet photos make me realised that i am still very skinny (not to mentioned that Jelly got say before too), i really need to bulk up. My cardio training have helped me flatten my bulging tummy, but like a double edged blade, it had also slim me down wholly. Actually i only took 2 months to flatten my tummy and lost 2 inches waist. (I will share about how i eat 6 meals a day and still lose my tummy secret later on. Skipping meals to slim down is never the right way ^^) But i still persist in cardio activities in pursuit for a more define abs. My target now is gaining more mass while losing more fats on my abs, tricky huh. :) So now i am back with my chicken breast meals. Now the fire in me is hot, i bought chicken breast from NTUC Fairprice everyday and add it into my dinner. Hopefully i can gain some flesh, my targeted 60kg weight is still waiting for me.
Very skinny right?! zzz.
Remember this tummy? Fat until cannot zip properly. Now not so big lor! Lazy to take a more recent tummy picture. (Extracted from My goal 2009 (one of my many goals))
Tonight i had an incredible run. I was never a good runner, but tonight i exceeded my limits and ran 14km, roughly. Thanks to joe1 and her friend, Feng, i made a new record for myself tonight. We took around 2hours to finish the run. Started from East Coast Park Bowling alley to NSRCC. I can't remember the exact building name, but there's a water cooler in the middle of the road. I observed how they run; steady, brisk small steps. So i mimic. The feeling was totally different, i don't feel tired nor breathless, only felt the stress on my quads (thigh). No knee pain either. Basically its just endurance on my thigh. I kept my upper torso upright and stable, the only movement was my calves, without the running and hoping posture. This i think, minimised my energy usage haha. (Please do not follow my style, i am no running professional.) The road to NSRCC was extremely remote and dark, not recommended for lone runners though. Let's hope tomorrow i won't feel DOMS (Delayed onset muscle soreness) on my legs.
Yay uploaded Chris singing performance at East Coast Park Chalet to Youtube. Also updated more chalet pictures grabbed from Prata and Joe0. Not to be missed! :) Revisit our chalet post here.
Lol anyone seen yesterday night Xin Ming newspaper (新明日报)? Got people complained about Goldkist Chalet @ East Coast Park haha. I think i must be really lucky when i stayed at my chalet there and the condition was acceptable.
Extracted from STOMP. The man was distraughted by the cockroaches in his chalet room, that he spent 2hours to change to a better room.
STOMPer Wong said what could have been a great experience at a chalet was ruined when he found that the one he was in was infested with cockroaches. Said the STOMPer: "This place was infested with cockroaches! Badly infested! You count by 10's. "Also, please note their charges for a badly maintained place! "Averagely $200 per night! For a place in this state? Can we have relevant authorities to visit them, for TV programme to film them! "And they may be forced to do a major clean up and ensure that they have regular pest control. "And please, this is East Coast, our very little beach on this small island where family, teenagers would like to have BBQs, parties and have fun!"
Heres another complaint that happened on the 29th may 2010, the same day of my chalet haha. Complaint about poor air conditioning and bbq disputes. Lucky my air-con was fine too. Haha.
STOMPer Lim is annoyed with the service standard and the way he was treated at Goldkist chalet. On top of that, the chalet he was given was below standard and was gross even though it has been renovated he says. In an email, Lim wrote: "The condition of the chalet is totally below standard. "Today (May 29), I booked a chalet at Goldkist for $188. At the reception, we were the only ones to check in and the rest there was complaining about spoiled air-conditioning. "Some of the guests even said ‘without air-conditioning, I’m dying. I have been waiting for one hour for the repairman already!' Meanwhile, the rest of the guests were complaining about screwed up bookings. "In the rooms there were spoiled doorknobs some even had no doorknob. The place was really gross even though they claimed that it has been renovated. "On top of that, at night, a security came to tell us off that we could not use our own barbeque pit! "We brought our own because their pits are really expensive as it cost $30 for one. That’s three times the price of a pit from Costa Sands. "This is totally ridiculous. Their attitudes were really bad as well. They even used bright torchlight as if we were criminals. "I will never visit in this resort again. Costa sands is still the best."
Call me a spendthrift or a scrooge, if you must. I just took my sewing kit and repaired my Nike bag again. This was the 2nd time i repaired my Nike bag, still unwilling to give it up. The first repair i did it was on 8th july 2009. Now the cancerous peeling had spread almost every part of the white skin, making my bag looks ugly.
Just nice today i went to Textile Center with Prata. I bought a zip from YKK shop, only cost 60cents. Back at home i began to start my repair work on my Nike Bag, yes needle and thread. With some verbal tips from mom, sewing on the zip was done in no time. (I sew it on all by myself!) Now my Nike bag is fully black when zipped, you can't see the white skin anymore.
I want to be a guy who is both outdoor and indoor. Indoor domestic work should be treated as equally important as outdoor. I am a guy who play outdoor sports intensively and at the same time whom which can cook, cut hair, sewing and still learning for more.
P/S: Thanks to Prata for inspiring me to start sewing with his own hand-sew sling bag.
