Protected: Trash Valentine’s Day (Singles’ Party) – Exclusive by Invites Only
The weather in Singapore has been pretty erratic this month; being very hot in the morning and heavy downpours in the afternoon. I was just complaining about the heat in the morning. Who knows? After lunch, suddenly heavy raiN!! 
So instead of walking back to SMU after lunch, I had to take MRT instead.
The fastest way from Bugis back to Bras Basah is to take a train from Bugis to Cityhall, then walk to Esplanade station and change to circle line. While I was walking along the under-path link to Esplanade, guess what… It appeared that the heavy downpour has caused the basement of Raffles City to be really WETTTT!
Some shops had to close and staff members taking pictures of the scene…
Mall maintenance team fighting to keep the water at bay…
Ewww… SO disgusting…
This is not wet floor already… It’s very very wet….
Aunty… You win liao lor… This one not foot reflexology leh… Later kena cut by the sharp metal, you sue people never put sign to “WANG” you that it is dangerous, like how that old women sue mac-donald for the hot coffee scalding her and never put cautious hot on the cup (read more on the mac-donald case)
Oh no!!! Even the circle line ceiling is leaking… Will it collapse? OMG!!!
This morning was a super rushed one for me as I had a few deadlines that were due by noon and had about 30+ pages of readings to complete before 7pm! Adding on to this I had a 8.30am meeting with two new team members for a business process project; Arthur and Penelope (yes, her name is damn unique).
Miraculously I somehow managed to finnish 3 deadlines + 1 meeting + 1 long phone conference call by 1145 am! What an achievement right? To reward myself, Arthur and Penelope was very nice to accompany me to Clark Quay to savor this Bak Kut Teh (map) opposite Central Mall (map).
Introducing Arthur and Penelope…
All these photos are taken and editing using my iPhone, so it’s abit cui… Sorry…
I’m really excited, because this is the first time I am drinking Chinese tea at a Bak Kut Teh place… I know very sua ku, but…. It was damn fun…. I think this is called “ya pian” or duno what pian.
Oh my… Look at these small cups… Must drink how many cups then can quench my thirst? I NEED TO ATTEND TEA APPRECIATION CLASS!
Woops… It’s called 香片 (xiang pian), not ya pian… Just remembered ya pian is some drug.. hahaa…
Arthur’s steady hands…
This is the “first round tea”, which technically is not good for drinking. Arthur said the first round must pour away, after that then can drink, so not so bitter.
OOoh… Look at my deliciously yummy Bak Kut Teh… Yummy… The soup can refill for free.. Free的！
Notice? It does not come with 油条 (you tiao). So if you want, please order it as a side-order. I have to say this play is quite decently priced (SGD 10 each) for the location and quality of food. I highly recommend this place and founder’s bak kut teh if you want to host your foreign friends to a local feast.
After that, I went back to office to collect my Gmarket delivery… Yay! Finally after 6 weeks… Guess what? To make up for the late delivery, they gave me two small bottles of perfume which I gave to my nicest group mates. 
*I have simply no idea why I wrote this, seriously, I was bored on MRT. If no comments after 48 hrs, I’d remove it*.
My original intention of this article was a tweet, but after battling to keep it within 140 characters (which quickly became a challenge), I decided to have it as a blog post instead.
I personally think that national holidays are created with the only purpose of letting us catch-up: catchup with homework if you’re a student, catchup with work if you are working, catchup on sleep, catch up with friends and the list goes on.
For me, public holidays were only really festive when I was a kid; holidays added another dimension to fun, adding new playmates (cousins) to the equation, and of course it’s the day that I was “licensed to play“.
As I gradually gee up, it became to catching up on rest (secondary school, and NS days), to catching up on projects (poly & uni), to catching up with friends and work.
Therefore, this leads me to come to a conclusion that holidays are just excuses we give to others so that everyone thinks we are having fun, but we are secretly working to catchup on the side.
As societies get more developed, we get more holidays as well as more work to justify our higher pay to survive in this society where prices are just inflated at a crazy rate. Who knows, we might even have a satay day, chicken rice day? But maybe these are just added excuses for us to do these additional work, helping us look more efficient?
But….. Economists and government will always say…. To justify higher pay, please be more productive. I’m already more productive because I can blog and still finnish my homework? Oh ya… And I can spend time (time that does not generate returns) on Twitter, Facebook, and all that other social time spending apps. Or… Maybe RELAC ONE CORNER LA BRO. Woops….
Ok… I know you are getting confused… So Darren… What the.f. is your stand?
Why not you tell me yours in the comment section first? =)
Taiwan as a whole is a very beautiful country with awesome food, people, geography and night life! I have been to Taiwan several times in the past two years alone and I’ve to say that this island-state has attracted me so much that I will probably move there in the coming years to settle down.
Knowing my passion for Taiwan, friends will always come to me for help to plan their free-and-easy itinerary before they travel; especially when it comes to where to go for good food and awesome night life! After much encouragement to start writing about Taiwan’s night life on my blog, I thought to myself, why not?
I’VE THUS DECIDED TO BLOG ABOUT TAIWAN CLUBBING ON A WEEKLY BASIS. STAY TUNED! 
The truth: Taiwan is not as messy as what they say on TV or what your mom tells you. Even the gangsters are quite friendly (I’ve met with and even went out to dinner with a few that I met at one of the clubs), as long as you don’t get into a fight with them. Golden rule, always remain friendly and nothing will happen to you.
Yes, I know that many of you will have heard of LUXY, but I will not be talking about it in this first entry. The club that I will like to introduce this week is Club Lava of Taipei.
This place is equivalent to Zouk’s Phuture / Butter-Factory here, with crowd ranging from barely 18 years old to 30 years old; with some occasional exception of older men. The music they spin here is mostly RnB by DJ Daniel. I have spoke to him a few times personally, but he often refuses to take photo with me! 
Yes, he comes to party at ZoukOut too! By the way, drinks here is free flow! Read the bottom to get more details! =)
I know all of you are waiting for this to see how it is like in the Club… I’ve added this video to let you see what I meant by Taiwan night life is Awesome! 
What is interesting about Lava is that they usually have shows, sometimes by hired models first to get everyone high, then they will invite girls and guys on the dance-floor to participate.
Participation from the dance floor generally comes in two-flavor:
- Girls Only: Girls who take part will dance on the stage to compete who has the best dance. The winner will get between NT 1000 and NT 5000 (depending on the sponsor for the night). In most cases, the last two standing will end up in just bikini top when they battle it out for the top spot, it’s not uncommon to see them going topless (but with their boobs covered with their hands of course). Nose bleed already? haha!
- Girls & Guys: Couples who take part will have to dance as a couple passionately to win, and the prize money is similar to that of the Girls only one. There are cases where the girls and guys end up topless, BUT, not in Lava; will introduce that club and show you a video on that in a later post. Do note that the couples might not even know each other, where the girls will be asked to go up the stage first, then the DJ will pick a guy for each of them from the dance-floor.
Enough said, I know you really want to go there, but first, let’s take a look at this club’s happenings and themes for the different days of the week. They are opened from Wednesday (ladies night) to Sunday night, but do note that Sunday night is not gay/lesbian night.
Moving on in the future, I will be posting the monthly happenings posters with some updated videos and pictures when I get my hands on them (from clubbing friends in Taiwan).
Now the question is HOW THE HELL DO I GET THERE?
MRT: Taipei City Hall Station 台北市政府站. Bannan (Blue) Line 板南線.
Address: B1樓, No. 22號, Sōngshòu Road, Sinyi District, Taipei City, Taiwan 110
Telephone: 02-8780-8868
Cost: 300 NT (Ladies), 600 NT (Guys). The price varies if there is guest DJ or event.
Ladies Night: Wednesday
Drinks: Free-flow of house pour and mixers as long as you keep your cup to exchange for the next (Excluding events nights)
Girls to Guy Ratio: 4:5
Directions: Drop at Taipei City Hall Station, and walk in the direction of Xin Guang San Yue. Lookout for this building that says Neo19. If you are taking cab, tell the driver to bring you to Taipei Vie Show Cinema (台北市信義區的華納威秀影城大樓). It’s just across the road.
Good morning world! Yay!!! It’s monday. I have no idea why I’m so excited about this week, maybe it’s because next week I can start collecting ANG-BAO!
The theme for this post will be Japan, because I wanted to share with you this very very very innovative BaoZi!
I really like this type of old-day architecture…
The Japanese are always so creative… They actually have these baozi made in the shape of Hello Kitties!!!
Will they have a bao (what is?) that follows the shape of my face? 
PS: This hello-kitty bao photo was shamelessly lifted from Joanne’s FB post. 
ok… off to morning lessons… *yawns*
I’ve to admit that I’ve been pretty slack in the past month, and this blog post is actually meant to be up two weeks ago.. But since it’s the festive period, I have an excuse I guess?
This December has been a pretty busy one for me, and I’ve been working almost every day: teaching for the first three weeks and working in a desk-bound position at IDA for the following three. (Ps: It actually started during the last week of November 2011 and ended at the first week of Jan 2012.)
Lucky me, when I went back to IDA, it’s the time of Christmas and New Year, and it shamelessly gave me the opportunity to join in at the Christmas cum New Year feast!
This is Raymond, the head of games team… He is a lot friendlier than he looks and he sure is a damn brilliant guy. Before entering IDA, I used to think that government only hire scholars who can think, but only in a bubble, but my stint at IDA proved to me that the government sector actually attracts smarter folks than I’ve seen in the private sector; or maybe it’s just IDA’s industry development group.
This is our awesome view of the ocean from our office…
This is the place where we will be having our end of the year departmental dinner. L,
Laisha – our new colleague who’s taking care of the digital advertising sector – with Raymond.
Raymond vs. Chef… *fight fight fight*
they were just discussing the menu. Blah!
As we reached a little earlier than the rest, we decided to sit at the “square” at China Square to blow wind. We not so relax all the time, just this occasional event.
Look how many presents Laikuen has? All that present is hers alone from colleagues!!!
Spotted this pretty nice bar opposite Hinoki, which I thought is a very nice place to chill…
Ain’t it weird to see people walking their dog in the middle of town? yes, this cute and friendly girl was walking her dog. She was a little shy to pose for a photo, but she allowed me to snap anyways.
The luscious spot that we sat to relax while waiting for boss to come…
While waiting, Laisha brought me to this place whose bread had won high accolades from her
I prefer the fruits actually. Hahaha…
Doesn’t this look very “good old days”? Actually I prefer this to the new and complex architecture we see today.
Decided to buy some bak-kwa to munch while waiting for the rest… yes, I know cny is around the corner!
Our ultra long table… That’s Raymond, Laikuen and Joyce.
I thought I was the only camera crazy dude, only to learn that actually almost everyone brought their camera.
Our cute little bottles of flavored Sake
Robert (the boss) and victor examining their cameras
Joyce and Laikuen…
Everyone’s here, yay! We can start eating. Woops… Oh yeah, I forgot to say which department I’m from. We’re actually from the consumer Infocomm department where we have three separate teams, one focusing on games, media ICT (that’s my team) and startups.
Eww. Doesn’t it look like…. You dirty minded folks know what I am talking about. But this is actually the peach Sake.
And lime sake…
Dried scallops as starters
Some flat fish, and the dark brown one is actually puffer fish. The puffer fish is really nice…
Look at this Sashimi.. *drools*
The scallops is really nice…
This is the homemade wasabi. It really tastes different from the ones I am used to eating at other joints, it just melts with the soy sauce…
See…. even the fish glows.. You can tell how fresh fit is!
Grilled with head with truffles sauce.
Omg…. Look at this Chawamushi…. So rich, but yummy!
This is the thing to die for…. Heard that many Japanese come here just to eat this!
Prawn head soup, Japanese style. Omg! It’s just so yummy!! Got refill? NO! 
By this dish, everyone was already very stuffed. But the sushi is just too good to resist. The only sushi that I didn’t like was the salmon-egg one. Just too salty for my liking.
Cinamon deserts after main dishes to clean our taste buds ahead of the deserts…
The earlier sake is just a starter, this is the real thing… See so big!!!
Hinoki has this really pretty Sake flask to serve the Sake bit-by-bit to keep it cool..
Our Sake actually has gold-flakes in it… OMG!!!
My cup had only one small flake… =(
Look at how many gold flakes Laisha’s cup has???
We had this secret Santa gift exchange and big-man Victor is explaining the rules of the game.
Pick a number dude!
See, all the presents? The most beautifully wrapped is mine! Guess which one.. Hahaha…
Chef Gary dropping by to say Hi to us after he is done with his other commitments
Just in case you want to contact him. I’m sure he will not blame me for posting his namecard here.
The first serving of Sorbet.
Chef Gary is very nice to offer us more… On the house. This is the mocha with Red-beans. It is damn nice…
Joyce’s grape ice-cream. The damage for the night for each of us is SGD 100+. But I’ve to say it’s worth every bit of it!
I believe many of us will have seen the one-dollar tissue paper song aunty at one point or other if we’ve been to Tampines Interchange (MAP). It’s been a long time since I seen her and decided to just randomly search for her on Google one day (yes, deep inside I’m still a geek! 
) and I happened to chance upon this youtube, learning about the story behind this simple song.
After watching this video, all I can say is that I really applaud her courage and her positivity in life. It is truly inspiring!
Friday was a short day at work with a post-christmas ‘cum’ pre-new year lunch at work for our division, with our Senior Director and CEO joining in the games too. 
It was very nice knowing many new colleagues from other departments, as I would otherwise have little interaction with them.
Went to Jeric Salon @ Ion to re-setyle my hair after work before meeting with Candace for a catch-up which was supposed to happen at the beginning of december. Candace looked even thinner than before..
Wanted to go to Menya Shinchan Japanese Noodle Restaurant for dinner (the second time in december) only to find out that this time round, it has closed down. We settled for this Mexican place along Clark Quay instead.
We had Fried Jalapenos with Cheese for the starters… Caught Candace in this shot by surprise.
She requested I retake one with her posing properly. I still thinking the natural one is prettier.
Awww… Look at that Cheese…
Looks are really deceiving….
The last time I had this at East Coast, it was smaller and less-spicy. The ones here is simply too spicy; Candace and I gave up trying after braving two pieces.
my burrito chicken topped with Melted Cheese
Candace’s dinner. Can’t remember what it is called.. Candace, if you are reading this, please post in comments…
The mexican meal was really filling, and after 1+ hour, we still can’t seem to finnish the entire meal.We went for coffee after dinner at this HK place at Liang court after that. Have to say that the food is quite dissapointing, but credits to them for the brilliant location picking skills and bright furnishing which led me in.
I decided to club alone that night, thus went to Zirca after sending Candace to the cab.
When I looked at this (China Dolly) from across the road, I thought there was police checks, only to see the “full house” sign when I walked closer.
Don’t know why this place is always so popular;shall go there the next time to have a look…
Zirca all prepared for New Year’s Eve party the next day…
As usual, NS boys always stand-out with their beanies and botak-heads… Seems that the NSFs who come to ZIRCA are more polite than those who always end up picking fights at Zouk.
Ang-mo dancers whom I think were paid to dance that night to lead the crowd to a high that night…
Surprising I stayed all the way till 4.30am…
I’ve been clubbing for so long that even when I club alone, I will somehow bump into friends… -_-
I’ve to say that the music for the night was really great!!!
Oh my.. I still haven’t post photos from last tuesday’s awesome dinner.. Keep a lookout!
sending...