Friday, May 29, 2009

I Want My Baby Back Part II



Two days ago, it was Wendy's and today I find out they are opening a Chili's here. WhoooooHooo!

It will be opening at Tanglin Mall on June 3 at 11AM. I know the Singaporean's call it "Tang Ling" Mall but I call it "Tan Glin" Hehe, Only 5 more days.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

To Dye or Not To Dye Tis The Question

This morning when I came to work while I was in the elavator(lift), I looked in the mirror and saw that I had a white hair in my side burns. Happy's hair is beige and white and so I thought it was one of her and so I grabbed on it to remove it. Nope, it was attached and it was mine.

I can remember having white hair for as long as I can remember. I would have the random one or two white hair and I would just pluck it and remove it. My dad has always said that I take after him.

It was a big shock to me about 4 years ago. I was on a 2 week business trip in Hong Kong and so I didn't shave over the weekend. Again, I was in the elevator in the hotel when I noticed that I had a few whiskers on my chin that was white. For about six months I plucked those hairs thinking that they won't grow back, but they still do and so I have mostly ignored those now.

This year I am 37 and I have been noticing more white hair. I think I am still pretty lucky to be pretty much fully black at my age. When I say more, I am saying I spot a random 2 to 3 everytime I get a hair cut. I am sure if I really look, I may have 20 or so, but today seeing a white hair in my side burns surprised me a bit and it makes me think. In 5 years time when I turn more grey, would I dye my hair. We have others males in our office that do. Right now I am thinking that I would not but I don't know how I would feel in 5 years time.

Actually, if I know Simple Girl. She will probably dye my hair for me.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Wendy's Coming To Singapore



Just saw a bit of great news. Wendy's will be coming to Singapore next year. We recently got a few Carl's Jrs and now Wendy's is coming. I always thought the square burgers were pretty cool. I hope thay will have the chilli on their menu but I am not sure how Singaporeans will take to it. Wendy's also owns the Arby chain. I hope they bring that concept to Singapore also.



I love Arby and Horsee sauce. Yum.

Now if they could bring Jack in the Box and In and Out Burger.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

View From My Balcony

 


For my Sis. This is the view from the balcony from the lving room
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Monday, May 18, 2009

The Shingles!

For the past couple of days, I had what I can only describe as feeling sensitivity in my lower chest and back area. I knew something was wrong but it was one of those things when you go to the Dr. that you just can't describe and the Dr don't know what's wrong. Than about 3 days ago, it looked like I had 3 bites in my chest. I am the king of mosquito bites and so I knew it was not a mosquito bite. Maybe a spider? Could it be bed bugs? Even a Bot Fly! Oh no. I even started to press down really hard on the area to make sure I kill any maggots. I didn't give it much thought although the bites did not go away

Than yesterday morning, I had a mild headache. No big deal. I popped a Advil and it went away. Than in the afternoon while Simple Girl and I were out, it hit. The worse headache I have ever had in my life. I felt dizzy, nuisance and was sensitive to light. I just wanted to go home and take more Advil. I went home, took the meds, turned on the air conditioning and threw my head under the pillows. Than I started to get chills.

That night was a bit tough. I woke up freezing. The Air Conditioning was on. Since I didn't want to disturb her, I got a blanket and slept on the couch in the Singapore heat. My head was throbbing and I was going between extreme chills and extreme heat. It was pretty tough going.

My brother has always accused me of being a hypochondriac and maybe he's a bit right because at this time, I was convinced I had dengue fever. I went to the Internet and was barely able to look at the screen and struggled to google Dengue and my symptoms matches Dengue exactly. Think it was about 5AM and only at this time I decided that I was not going to make it to work.

I went to the DR the next day and he told me that I had The Shingles. "The What!?" I have heard of The Shingles before but never really knew what it was but anything that has a "The" in front of it must not be good. I was about to say "Give it straight to me doc, how long do I have" Well I went home and googled it and it is just a redo of the Chicken Pox. It's not that bad? I think they need a new name maybe Adult Onset Chicken Pox.

Well, I was given an subscription for a medicine that the DR didn't have in his office. He warned me that it was going to be expensive. I went to a popular pharmacy name Guardian and the lady told me that it would cost 100 sing, but luckily for me she ran out and told me to go to a pharmacy across the street called Unity. They only charged me 75

Friday, May 15, 2009

The Problem With Having Carpet In Singapore



I had a visitor in our house and was told that our house really smells like Happy.

I knew it was a long shot but I decided to go to the market and look for Carpet Fresh.

Most people don't have carpet in SIngapore and when Simple Girl was in the US and visited my sister's house, she fell in love with the carpet and so when we moved into our house, she insisted on carpet in the bed room.

We never eat or wear shoes in the bed room and so we don't have any problem with stains but I do imagine that it does smell of Happy. There is this great product in the US called Carpet Fresh. It is powder. You just spread over the carpet and vacuum. The vacuum spreads the powder in the air and the entire room smells amazing.

I went to the market today and there was nothing. Sigh

Amazing Singapore Government

You can say what you want about the Singapore Government, but you can't call them inefficient.

Yesterday I had a question on my Road Tax Renewal and so I decided to call the LTA which is equavalent to the DMV in the US. Imagine trying to call the DMV. I wouldn't even attempt, I would be on hold for 3 years. I called the LTA and somebody picked up the phone in less than 5 seconds.

Than on this past Wednesday, I was at home when I saw in the next building a maid on the ledge of the building. I thought it looked dangerous and snapped a picture and sent it to a Singapore website called Stomp. The website posted the picture yesterday and today I got a phone call from The Ministry of Man Power. She asked me for the street and I gave it to her. Just 20 minutes later I got a call from an inspector who was already down at the building and was trying to pinpoint the exact apartment. Really amazing how quickly they respond.

Here's the link to the picture that I took.

http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/singaporeseen/viewContent.jsp?id=70213

SPF 10000000000000

I saw an article today about the manufacturers coming out with SPF 85 and now SPF 100.



Really, anything past SPF 30 is of no extra benefit, it is just a marketing ploy.

Actually, I don't know why they are making such a big deal out of this and spending some much money on R&D just to increase the SPF to 100.

There are already technology that is SPF 1000 and SPF 100000000000



Going On A Walk About

I took a half day off yesterday for an appointment. After the appointment, I had a call at home but was pretty much finished with my day at 4:30 and so I decided to take a walk with Happy.

I found myself walking to Chinatown.

This tourist looking guy came up to me and said "Excuse me, can you help me out with some directions?"

I was pretty excited. In the past people had asked me for directions and since I was new, I was never able to help anybody else. So I was ready. What was he going to ask? Most likely the MRT, the People Park Complex, Orchard Road, Boat Quay? I was ready and excited and so I said "Sure!"

Than he asked, "Do you know where's there a tattoo parlor around here?"

"Ah, No"

Damn!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

View From My Bathroom




For obvious reasons, I usually have the blinds down in my bathroom. This morning, I had the blinds up and when I came home I realize that I do have a cool view. I am not sure how Singaporeans think of this since I think that they are used to all these high rises but for a California kid, this is pretty cool.

Sonny and Cher

It is funny. Last night I introduced Simple Girl to Sunny and Cher. Actually, I only know one song from them,"I Got You, Babe".

I am amuzed that she has never heard of such an iconic song, but of coarse I have no idea wheather it is just her or most of Singapore.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Reflecting On My Childhood

This weekend I was at home and a bit hungry and so I looked in the bare cubbard to see what I could whip up. I found some dry rice noodles and canned chicken broth and I made something that I have not had for a long time which is rice noodles(don phen) with chicken broth and Taiwan BBQ sauce flavoring.

It was pretty good but it made me think about my childhood. I was a growing boy with a huge appetite and I remember waking up at night maybe 12 or 1 AM and being hungry and my mom and dad would always have either rice already cooked to make egg fried rice or noodles in the fridge to make dry mix noodles. I would eat my midnight supper while they just watch me eat with pride and say what would happen if I didn't have this meal, I was already so skinny.

I think sometimes my brothers and sisters, me included, make fun of my mom and dad saying that they are both crazy but looking back I think we all had a pretty good up bringing. They were never too over bearing. They let me eat sweets anytime I want and now I don't like sweets. I never ever remember that saying, "David, you must do your homework or you must study" It was just an implied threat, "You better get good grades or else". I think a lot of things happened to my parents when I first came to the US and I think I was too young to fully understand everything that was going on, but I think they went through a lot and a lot of hardship during those years. I feel that my parents grew up and lived a life with nanny's and maids and when they first came to the US is when they really felt hardship (tse ku). They had to do everything by themselves in a foreign country while not even knowing the language. Well I think that they were the best parents and the proof? I think the four of us brothers and sisters turned out pretty good.

I make a lot of food but to this day, I still don't make egg fried rice or dried mix noodles and I wonder when I have my own children whether I will be as good as a dad as my dad was and make dried mix noodles at 1 AM for my son.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Jurong

Don't ask me why but I found myself in Jurong this Friday. A few things that I noticed.

In the past I have read statistics that Singapore is one of most densely populated countries. I had always wondered about that. Well it's true. Jurong has a lot of people

Soup at Chicken Rice Stall. I can't tell you exactly where I was at but it is somewhere close to the now closed Jurong Entertainment Complex, but I had Chicken Rice. The soup that I had with the Chicken Rice was the best Chicken Rice Soup that I have ever had. The soup actually had really chicken taste. So my question is not why this place is so good. Why are other chicken rice stall's so bad? I think they have a lot of left over chicken material that they can make the soup with but most of them are just watered down chicken bath water.

I had a hour to kill and so I was just browsing. I think every other shop was either a beauty shop, Nails place or sells Cell Phones. I think that's the only 3 kinds of shop that can make money in Singapore.

I walked by the MRT and I saw this long line snaking out. This line must have been 3 football fields long. Since I had some free time, I decided to walk to the front to see what everybody was waiting for? I was thinking, was it a new doughnut shop, was it the next Singapore Idol Audition? No. When I got to the front, it was a line for a bus to Johor Bahru. For those of you in the US, Johor is a town in Malaysia. Wow and that line was not moving at all. I think it will take them 5 hours just to get on the bus.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Things Just Don't Heal As Fast As I Am Used To.

Today I had my second 3rd Xray within one year. Not counting dental Xray's, this is the most Xrays that I have had in my life.

I am getting these injury's that normally I would even worry about. Just wait a week or two and the injury will just go away but this already occurred twice to me now. First it was my heel. It hurted for a good 6 weeks before I decided to go see the doctor and the results were negative. In all, it took about 12 weeks to heal. Than about 3 weeks ago it was my little pinkie. It is just a simple English, my dad would call it in Chinese "Eating Radish" I hurt it 3 weeks ago and still the joint is still hurting. This morning, I woke up and it was really swollen. I decided to go see the doctor to see if it's broken. I am not even sure what the doctor can do if it was, since there is nothing he can do. Well, the results was again negative and so I guess it is just because I am getting older and things are taking longer to heal. I guess I will just have to get use to it.

To my Sis, "No, I should not stop playing football"

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

My Singapore Advantage

As a Chinese American Expat in Singapore, I do have a few advantages. One of the advantages is language.

Even though, I am 100% Chinese most people here who look at me think that I am either Japanese or Korean. It just makes it worse when I open my mouth since I speak English with an American accent. On one occasion, the person that I was speaking to was so adamant that I was not Chinese to the point where I had to bring out my ID and proof that I have a Chinese last name.

So most people that meet me will just assume that I don't speak Chinese. Even though I don't read or write, conversationally, I am OK. Several times I have shocked people when I started to speak Chinese.

It happened this weekend. I had an appointment with someone who's a Singaporean(SGalf) that I causally known for about a year now. His English is pretty good and so I only spoke to him in English. Another person that was at the meeting, I could tell was a Chinese from China and so when I had a question for him, I without thinking asked him a question in Chinese and while I was asking I could see SGalf from the corner of my eyes looking at me in amazement. I knew that he was surprised by my Chinese. SGalf even made comment to me about it later.

Ironically, I think my Chinese is pretty bad but I do speak with a Taiwan accent and because a lot of Singaporeans watch Taiwan shows, they think my Chinese is "proper"

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

A Smile Will Open Doors

I always had this power. When ever I go to check-in at a hotel or airline and if the clerk is a girl, I will give my best smile. When I do this, I find that I will get a room upgrade or status upgrade more often.

Today it worked again. Part of my lunch rotation is Taiwan Oyster Me Sua. In the past I noticed that they would only fill the bowl 2/3 or the way but the last time, the lady almost gave me a full bowl. So I decided to try my smile powers today. I walked up to the counter ordered my two Me Sua and gave my smile. I could tell that it worked right away. She kind of glanced down with a shy smile. She proceed to scoop the first bowl of me sua and while she was putting on the condiments for the first bowl, a guy started to scoop my 2nd bowl. I gave the guy my money and he passed this 2nd bowl to the lady to scoop condiments and you know what the lady did? She went and topped up my 2nd bowl with more me sua.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Amazing Senses

I was conducting a phone interview with a candidate in India today and the funniest thing. I swear I smell curry.

Swine Flu, Over Reactions and Singapore

Since my last blog about the Swine Flu there has been some more updates from US and Mexico about the mortality rate. Seems like it is not 100 people that died but less than 30 also the mortality rate in the US so far is only one. It is good to know that this is not the long feared bug however somebody didn't pass a memo to Singapore.

China - They quarantined an entire plane of Mexicans. Wow, an entire plane of Mexicans in China. I know when Chinese go to the US, they hate Mexican food. I wonder what Mexicans think of Chinese food?

Egypt - They have decided to slaughter Egypt's 300,000 pigs. Since Egypt is a Muslim country, they don't eat pork anyways and so not much of an issue. However the reason they have pigs is because their is demand from a minority Christian population. They did this despite the latest report saying that the "Swine" Flu is actually a mix of Pig, Avian and Human DNA. So if they use the same logic, they should be killing all birds and humans also. Damn! Why are the Pyramids in Egypt. Otherwise, I would add Egypt to the list of countries where I don't want to visit.

Singapore - I have predicted before Singapore is very safe. This morning I came to work and they checked my temperature before they let me in. I think I may die soon because my temperature was 34c. I think the normal is 36. something. It is like me having a 90 degree F temp. I was feeling fine until after lunch. After being test 3 times today, my throat is starting to hurt.

On a side note, I also heard in the news that 8,000 Mexicans Nationals visited Singapore last year. I think I will have to dispute that. I have been in Singapore for 5 years now and I think I have seen a Mexican, hmmmm, let me see, NEVER! Besides, if a Mexican were come to Singapore where would they eat because you can take my word for it that there are no good Mexican Restaurants in Singapore.