Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Ah Soon Holiday Resort

Name: Caveboi, a.k.a Strength Hero, F***ing Anaconda, Tanker
Abilities: Kite Flying (increase attack speed 50%), 40mins cycling (increase movement speed 50%), LTA Powerup (attack power increases by 100%), Ultima: SUPER TANKER (tio arrows and cover up for men; Reincarnation)
Favorites: Mambo nights, Rock Climbing
Dislikes: Signing extra.. Secret Admirers.. (lol...)
Tagline: "Wah lau eh.. you call this xiong? I even more xiong than you ar.."


I was shellshocked when I knew about Ah Soon Holiday Resort. Firstly, the location didnt justify the reason why the reason was set up. I mean over the hill smack in the middle of what is left of a jungle in Singapore? Secondly, what made it so extraordinary, I mean, why did the guys go crazy over such an insignificance place such as Ah Soon? Is it because of the food? Or is it because of the accessibility to town? Anyway, I Soon came to find out the beauty of Ah Soon.

Ok, so Ah Soon is a made-up name of a holiday resort (or is it? X-D), but I have my reasons why I have to do so. It is amazing how much Ah Soon has got to offer. The 4 of us arrived late at the chalet due to some stuff we had to settle back at the other side, and we are only able to stay for a week in Ah Soon, but who cares? 1 week of enjoyment at Ah Soon Holiday Resort was enough to call it a break from all the hassles in the working world..

There wasnt much visitors this time round, probably because the rest of the residents were having a eco-tour in Brunei, but when we arrived, the rest from our tour group had already warmed up to the place. It looked like cheap accomodation, 8 people having a room, but to us, it was heavenly. With chairs and bedside lamps that looked like it came from Ikea, and shoe cabinets, springy beds and a paramonic hill view. The toilets were fantastic, with every cubicle having a toilet seat and powerful shower spray. I guess the only complain I can give would be the only 2 ceiling fans in the big room, making it a little stuffy. But hey, I can sleep in it, so I have no problem with a little hot air.

Speaking of sleeping, the guys were just great. They slept like freaking koalas. For the past 1 day, what they did was to sleep, sleep, sleep, eat, talk a bit, and then sleep sleep and sleep. It felt like they spent most of their time in their rooms hibernating. Well, in Ah Soon Holiday Resort, just like any other resorts, they provided games and activities for the bored visitors as well, such as mountain trekking, go-karting, river crossing? Does that sound too rigid? Well, that's because Ah Soon Holiday Resort provides visitors the thrill and adventure every outdoor lover wants! But alas, the guys in my group continue to sleep on, i guess there arent the sporty type.

Other than adventure sport activities, the resort provides other great features, such as a swimming pool, a running tracks with slopes and narrow courses, a playground?!?, a river for river activities, a concert hall. It had great food both inside the resort (4 restaurants, or is it 5? haven check it out yet) and on the outside (Great Yong Tau Foo and Roti Prata resturants just down the road). It had 2 gyms, but i guess it wasnt really popular, so they closed it from the public.

Ahh.. it really is THE holiday resort any guy would enjoy. The perfect getaway. The place where you dont need a Brain to think or worry about things. Sadly the days are numbered and friday awaits me... but hey, while I'm at it, I'll grab a chair, go to the balcony and enjoy the hilly breeze with a storybook in my hand...

Any idea where this place is?!? hahahahahahahaha!

Sunday, October 21, 2007
The Great Escape Part 2

Alright.. Day 2 of the Great Escape.. Woke up quite early in the morning cause I have arranged an outing with long time JC friend, Bryan Toh. He told me about these "Special Term" NUS was offering to all their fresh grads and was asking around for people to accompany him. But there were many reasons why I shouldnt have gone..
1. I do not take the same course as him, Chem Eng..
2. My time would have been used for missionaries and community work
3. I'm going to NTU!
But it has been a while since I last saw Bryan, and there is a chance for me to switch courses and uni, so why not be a little more kiasu than normal?

Well, the interesting part was that Bryan didnt really know where the talk was held at. So while we were hunting around the whole school for the location (1st we tried the office of admission, then office of maintanence, then office dept of chem eng, then...), we managed (and thankfully) stumbled upon one of Bryan's officer friends. He too was equally lost, but he had one thing Bryan didnt have. The venue. So we hurried down to Lecture Hall 27, amazingly, at the Science Faculty side of NUS..

The amount of time finding the place was about the same amount of time the lecturer took with his presentation. While 2/3 of the male students (a few girls, parents and plenty of nerds, making me one as well.. -_-) are officers in army, it was kinda embarrassing for the lecturer to settle the crowd down several times. Well, other than the redundant speech he gave, the reception outside was as appetizing as Sembawang Camp cookhouse food. So to prevent further collateral damage, we popped by NUS's famous Subway fastfood chain. Okay, its just a regular eatery, but for 20% off a NUS students, it makes a very big deal as in why young people from all over Singapore flock to this place just for their sandwiches :P We faked the staff successfully and woot, Cold Cut Trio, 2 cookies and a medium sized drink cost me $5.80..!

Had bible studies in the afternoon. Once that was over, the gals(Plin and Jess) and Pastor Alvin had to rush off for a function. The remaining group of us, which consisted of me, Zh and Eileen decided to have our own dinner. That was when Caleb called and wanted to join for dinner and any night activities after that. So the 3 guys and 1 gal had their sumptuous dinner at SinMing Area. It was a indo restaurant which served good fish-head curry. That was when the 1 gal met her brother's friend in the same restaurant. To further add to the awkwardness, another group of friends spotted the 1 gal outside of the restaurant. The group later left the place and decided to have dessert across the street which was recommended by the 1 gal. The 3 guys met the 1 gal's business friends while crossing the street. I feel for you, Eileen. And I could feel the Cheesecake Brownies, Oreo Cheesecake and truffles, awesome stuff there..! The place is called "The Baker's Story" and it certainly scores 2 thumbs up for their delicious and rich cakes they have for only $2.00.

To fruitfully spend whatever remaining time the guys had left, we decided to play pool at Orchid Country Club, Yishun. Open to the public, the pool arena is a perfect retreat with little crowds and good tables. Said to be used for the regional 9-ball tournament, perhaps for its inaccessibility, it was an ideal place to chill out and enjoy the balls dance on the table. Speaking of that, Caleb and ZH were excellent players, both complementing one another in skill. I, on the other hand, was not too skilled with sticks and balls, but the company was great, another day fulfilled and I continued to enjoy the night with the distant cheers of a rugby replay flashed on the tv in the pool room.
Orchid County Club
Rating: 4/5
Reason: A fresh aroma and dry toilet, even though it is frequently used by the public, it remains well-maintained. Lacks uniqueness though..

Saturday, October 20, 2007
The Great Escape

This weekend was very promising.. I had an array of activities planned out in front of me, and yeah, it really felt as if I have ORDed..!

It started off right at the start of the weekends. My family were planning for their own mini trip over at Pulau Ubin to celebrate the end of my brother's PSLE and my mum's last job of coaching the sons of the Yeo family in their PSLE(with the exception of the eldest cos he was more independent on his own :P). So I had to wake up earlier in the morning to send them off. It was a relief that the jetty was at Marina Country Club since it was nearer, and had more time for my later activities as well.

Marina Country Club is situated off the Punggol 21 vicinity, along a deserted stretch of narrow roads, with big private estates and a failed LRT project. The Marina Country Club was not in any good shape either, and to pay $3.21(quite a cute figure dont u think?) for a day's entry was quite ironic for the lack of customers and illegal parkings happening outside of the country club. But let us not assume that Marina Country Club is a failure. It has attracted many people who chance upon (cheaper) wave boarding and jet skiing, and the legendary Punggol seafood.

Alright, starting from this post onwards, there will be a new rating system! It is called "Smell the toilet!" Adapted from my camp buddy, Yi Shan, who views toilets as a sacred place, ought to be rated for the cleanliness, comfort, environment, uniqueness and most of all, feasibility's of doing a chocolatey business there. But in order not to be too technical with the terms used, I will just do a simple rating with a reasoning attached to it. An example would be as follows

Marina County Club
Rating: 2/5
Reason: Although it is dry and looks "presentable", there is a smell of cigarette in the air and there is a suspicious layer of water on the toilet seat. A definite no no for chocolate business..!



After dropping my family over at Marina Country Club, I headed down to nearby Seng Kang and picked Plin up. We were on our way to Esther's CONCERT AT LA-SELLE. Located in the outskirts of town, La-selle has recently shifted its campus, such that from a run down set of buildings into a gigantic ant farms with glass enclosures, a turf of green synthetic plastic known as grass and a harry potter bridge sticking out of nowhere. We had our lunch at sunshine plaza, my beloved place with printing services, comics and good food... :D Plin and I had the famous 1-ton Mee, with its mouth-watering fried dumplings and home-made chestnut drink before going over to Esther's school at 1pm.

Esther's performances was really good..! Her band which consists of a drummer, 2 guitarists, a bass, a percussionist and 2 keyboardists (including herself). Together they form "Healthy Living" It certainly was healthy as the music was soothing to the ear and was making me drowsy.. but dont get me wrong. All other songs besides pop and rock will make me drowsy as well.

We sat on the green artificial grass throughout her whole performance till just when Esther was about to finish her concert, ZH came down from camp. We spent the remaining time exploring the rest of the ant farms, spying on her practice rooms and browsing through random books in the library. It was much later before we headed back to Sunshine Plaza where this time it was ZH's turn to eat his very heavy noodles(1 ton?) Also, We had a special treat from Esther, who felt that it was right to treat us muffins. They were indeed splendid, with a hint of orange peel on one of them and a whiff of apple and raisin on e other.

Sunshine Plaza
Rating: 3/5
Reason: Perhaps it was overuse and dimly light, otherwise, it was reasonably clean.




We still had about 2 hours before the finale at pastor's house, so we decided to hang around in town. I had to get some arts materials for my brother's crazy project, Esther wanted to get some jazz books. So we decided to head down Bras Basah and get our goods, and to kill more time, to hang around at Raffles City Shopping Mall. Yes, after the failure of getting the felt Puma Shoes, which was vulnerable to wet conditions, I decided to get a new pair, this time from New Balances. Behold, the marvel New Balance has to offer.. Its Shake 320! My eyes are on the black and yellow pair (Plin says its blue, but then again, we're still debating whether if pigs are pink or beige, but thats another story altogether) So hopefully, my conscious will tell me that it's worth the monry to invest in that pair of shoes.. next month.


Before going to pastor's house, we decided to make one last stop at Ikea, Tampines to munch on a little something. We had wings, daim cake and cups of coffee. Okay, so we were a little filled but still craving for more food..! Went over to Giants shortly after that to buy ice-cream and cream puff for the feast.

Finally, we arrived at pastor's house at 7pm. Jeff(sorry pal, forgot to tell you about the change in timing..!! >.<) and Jessica were already there, and soon dinner was ready. There was meat loaf, prawns with cheese fillings, Buffalo wings, egg salad, potato jacket, cocktail apricot and a nice bottle of red wine at the end of it. The food was great as it has an American touch to it. Plus, there was a lot of tender, love and care together The company was also fantastic. We spent our time toasting to each other's success and sharing stories with one another and it drifted into deep conversations throughout the whole night.

When I got back to my car, I was fined $30 for not putting the coupons on. Silly and still, a wonderful day nevertheless. What a day indeed.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Techno Rap Crap?

Okay, I was listening to MTV innocently when I came across this MTV video done by Robyn titled Konichiwa B****es. As I was listening to it, my lunch nearly came out from the wrong way. IT WAS THE WORST CRAP I HAVE EVER LISTENED TO... Not only that, it didnt make any sense and the music video didn't do any justice to the viewers as well. I mean, a puppet monkey? A polyester sumo wrestler? A low budget attempt to make a lousy music video? Ladies and gents, normally I wont heavily criticize music. Although I listen to rock most of the time, I would still give my utter respect to the Hip-hoppers, R & B peeps and the Popish fans, but Robyn's music video just blows my mind off! It probably originated from the most twisted and carnal mind of a pre-school toddler.

Man, and never insult the Japanese! They deserve the equal amount of respect as all of us. Their ways may be peculiar but that's how their way of life is. The lyric was totally off.. lots of incoherent mambo-jambo which didnt make any sense at all. She was neither looking pretty or looking like a fool. So, what is the ultimate motive of this music video?

To get all emotional over this video, I just cant understand why people can continue commenting on how good the music video is on You-Tube. To me, it was just a waste of money, lack of ideas and totally not worth the effort. This being said, I'm not saying that Robyn is a total flop. Her other music video, With Every Heartbeat, was a whole lot better. Perhaps this music video was a promise to the fan of something very extravagant? Well, sadly.. Robyn, it just sucks..and your use of language and warped ideas will only damage any young minds watching this MTV video.

Okay, all this and no substantial evidence to back up wad i say? Okay, here's the video and you be the judge of it. WARNING: for the light hearted, there may be some disturbing content and the inappropriate use of the word "b****".



Thats all punks :| lol..

Tuesday, October 16, 2007
England Rugby ROZZOR!

England is just amazing..

Back in the early stages of the Rugby World Cup 2007, the defending champions were in a terrible state, probably due to the injuries of Johnny Wilkinson and the lack of teamwork, England started off badly after being trashed by South Africa in the qualifying rounds.. It was deemed that England was in a very bad shape and could be kicked out of the top 8 in the table.

Things started to change when Johnny Wilkinson came back as fly half, as he organised the men together. Yes, it is true that England relies heavily on Wilkinson's kicking, but it is also very important that the English defence remains tight and that there had good scrums as well. And even after Wilkinson joined the team, it was uncertain whether if England can make it to the semi-finals, as they marginally won Samoa and Tonga, unlike their quarter-finals opponent, Australia who was ranked 1st in their pooling table.

Then, on the actual day itself, England stunned the world by defeating the Wallabies with the score of 12-10. Although England won with penalty goals, it was sufficed to score higher than Australians, who were unable to break England's defense. England did the same during the semi-finals as well after defeating France, the host nation, 14-9. France were playing very well since their last defeat from the Argentinians during the pooling stages, and even defeated the disputed champions, New Zealand.( Still remember that time I made a bet of ripping my English Polo Tee if England were to win New Zealand, but since New Zealand didnt even go into the semi-finals, i was safe to keep my rugby tee intact :P) England won with a try, a 2 penalties and a drop goal, while France struggle to gain points.

Finally, England would be fighting their arch-nemesis again, South Africa? History repeating itself? I beg to differ. Now that England's confidence in their games and having most of their player's ready, they will prove to be a challenge for South Africa. Come on.. if England were the champions in 2003, and they have climb up all the way to the finals, what makes you think they cant win the World Cup again?

Sunday, October 14, 2007
Happy Birthday Eileen

We celebrated Eileen after a day's activity in church which consisted of Bible Studies and YF. Selecting on where to go was kinda tricky. We couldn't have it in town since it was a weekend, making it really crowded, and we weren't really familiar with many places around our neighborhood. It took a while before a sudden realisation of the Hari Raya public holiday happening today that made us go to Mad Jacks at Jalan Kayu.

Located at the corner of a row of shop-houses, Mad Jack had been around for about a year and has warmed the hearts of customers living near the area with their cheaper prices and homely ambience. The food was filling but at the same time not over-flowing. My first love for the place happened when my brother and I had nothing to eat at home. And with my 10% discount which Pioneer Magazine offered to me, I decided to pop by to the place with my bicycle. I ordered 2 homemade burgers. In less than a month, my family went there for the 2nd time to dine.

Now sitting at the tables arranged neatly outside of the restaurant, we ordered our meals. I had the Blue Mountain Burger (though i remembered asking for a simple beef burger) and yes, the burger has not failed me. The homemade beef patties were fabulous and there was little grease in the burger. It had pineapple, lettuces, Tomatoes, Cheese and 3 layers of beef patty, making it the 'tallest' burger in Singapore. We also had the cheesy fries and Brownies with Ice-cream for dessert.

It was a simple birthday dinner and made the most with spending the time talking to one another. Well, the girls were having their girl talks and frantic photo-taking moments while the guys were engaged with our manly talks about the future, from proper money savings, to commitments in the church, to car parts and engines. We ended the night at 9.30pm, with a satisfied belated-birthday girl with her belated-birthday gifts.

Happy Birthday Eileen:)

Saturday, October 13, 2007
30 years and Nights-outs

Kun-zzor: (Defn) A person who is feeling very sleepy... Eg. Where is Tumbi ar? He kun-zzor ar?

Sunday, October 07, 2007
ENGLAND VS AUSTRALIA : 12-10!!!! OH YEA~

Friday, October 05, 2007
Awesome Technology

Check out the new gadget Daron's bro, Bransay has created..!

Introducing the neatest device, Rock Anthem..!!!

Thursday, October 04, 2007
After Home Syndrome (a.k.a ORD-inogistis)

Sembawang Camp: (Defn) A condition when a human being's stomach becomes bigger over time due to the lack of exercise and continuous eating. Eg. Wa Lau... I'm becoming a Sembawang Camp... (touching his/her belly)