Summer love

Braving the heat of summer.

Top notch risotto

This is by far the best mushroom risotto I've ever eaten. Apart from tasting well as a dish, the ingredients, namely the carnaroli rice and shrooms, were really flavourful on their own. This dish has different kinds of shrooms too, unlike most which only contain the button variety.

Damn damn good. And it's only slightly more expensive than most places. Yet the quality is significantly better.

For the record, I did not pull a dine&dash/chew&screw this time. haha
-Kenough

Sex party

Advertising material for the state election. Hahaha.

Spreading the yuletide cheer from Kem(bang)an

Toothbrush

If you look closely, you will see a sticker on each toothbrush that
says not for use. Why do they have to put this there?!? Has someone
actually tried to brush their teeth with a display toothbrush in the
middle of a department store???

All massage techniques

This is one havoc style brochure.. All massage techniques including 4
hand massage and "non surgical facial" hahaha.

More Christmas

Pics of decorations around my apartment building.. I'm coming home soon..

Sad case

Poor ferrari

Poster

Thought this poster is quite funny somehow..

Tap

This is one big time tap that Singapore airlines has installed on their A380s.

Christmas, Christmas time is near.

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Rural

Finished. 84%. Time to fuck off from here.

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Lol

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Another blast from the past

Rural style.

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There's gonna be a new flight route from Singapore to Sao Paolo (kaka's first club) via Barcelona from next March onwards!

Fields of Gold

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Pictures from rural

Got some pics for you guys.. In order they are..

A VCR at the hostel.. Closeup of table at hostel.. Hotel I ended up staying at...

Shocking that VCRs still exist..

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Formula 1

Earphones

Yesterday while I was at the gym, something cock up happened. The small rubber earpiece of my earphone got unattached and I couldn't find it.. I went searching for replacements today but it seems like no electronics store in melbourne thinks that it's a good idea to sell such a thing.. I ended up having to buy a cheap pair of earphones just to take the rubber earpieces for my current pair.. Anyway here's some pics to remind you guys that Christmas is coming.. I bought one of these boxes last year I think.. Maybe will get one soon..

Why does the rate of brain development decrease after our formative years? Is there a way to counter that? Or is it too late?
-Kenough

Rural Posting

Some good news, guys.. I have gotten one of the nearest rural postings possible, meaning that I will be able to go home everyday.. Only a 90 minute drive. If you want to read up on where I am going, you can check this out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour,_Victoria

Toblerone

Like.

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Root canal

=(

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IMG00140-20100908-1841.jpg

If I had a fucking pair of scissors to cut cable ties, I would not have needed to buy this pair.
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Toffee

Does no one like toffee anymore? I can't remember the last time I saw any in a supermarket shelf in either Singapore or Australia.. I wanttttt...

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Lost but not found

I left my black tie in a cab yesterday. Not that I have many, but it was definitely my favourite one. Now, apart from having to buy a new tie, I'd probably have to settle for a less aesthetically pleasing replacement. What to do man.
-Kenough

TheAmigos OST (Online Scrabble Tournament)

Hola Amigos, shall we have a game of scrabble sometime soon? Please indicate your interest, if any, on the tagboard and state when it would be the most appropriate (gmt +8, not central european time) to play.

Apart from having a free for all royal rumble style battle, we may alternatively have a hell in a cell tag team match. In the event that the teams are too imbalanced, for instance if 2 powerpacked players happen to be on the same side, handicap, in terms of points, may be allocated to the weaker duo.

Most importantly, no limit betting is permitted - anything, tangible or not, may be wagered and since the nature of each bet is unrestricted, everyone is encouraged to bet creatively. Furthermore, I intend to incorporate gaming aspects such as handicap and insurance into this betting system to add an interesting slant to this tournament. So, at the end of the day, the champion may not necessarily be the last man standing but the winner who takes it all when it comes to betting!
-Kenough

Derivations from an Affogato

Whenever one uses the term 'bittersweet', he is probably describing a pleasant encounter which has been tainted by sadness or perhaps something bad. This figurative meaning, I venture, has been derived from culinary experiences by people of the past. I believe that most people are inclined to agree that bitter is bad and sweet is good, notwithstanding that some may choose to differ. As such, this oxymoron presupposes 'bitter' and 'sweet' to be diametrically opposed notions, in a positive and negative sense.

Yet, the aforementioned assumption may not be necessarily true. Indulging in an affogato for the first time ever made me perceive this term in an entirely new light.

When deconstructed, this Italiano creation is a juxtaposition of bitter espresso to sweet vanilla ice cream, straddling a middle ground between a dessert and an after meal hot drink. To start, I tasted them individually in their separate cups and concluded that these were flavourful and enjoyable in their own right. Thereafter, I doused the ice cream with espresso and waited for the former to dissolve into the latter. The concoction turned out to be perfecto in a unique style way - each distinctive ingredient mystically complemented the other in terms of taste, texture and temperature.

From my observations above, I have made these deductions:

1) Since I am capable of enjoying both the bitter and sweet ingredients individually, it does not necessarily imply that these have a mutually exclusive relationship in terms of being positive and negative.

2) Even when these ingredients were combined, it led to the creation of an enhanced product.

These deductions go to show that even though something may contain bitter and sweet tasting elements, it does not necessarily have to be partly bad as the term bittersweet implies. On the contrary, my experience has shown that it can be totally positive one. Therefore, if I am correct in suggesting that the figurative meaning of this oxymoron is derived from the literal interpretations of 'bitter' and 'sweet', then the term 'bittersweet' cannot be logically consistent as a metaphor since it fails to cover all valid scenarios.
-Kenough

The Blacker the Berry the Sweeter the Juice

Earlier today, I decided to attend my legal drafting class without any reading material, notepad and a pen. Instead, I took all notes with my blackberry which is mightier than the pen and by extension the sword. I, with the benefit of hindsight now, should have typed this using my blackberry during class to emphasize how useful this mobile device is compared to the insipid and redundant lesson I was forced to endure.
-Kenough

Super Freakonomics

Hey guys! Hope this doesn't surprise you. I'm gonna pen one entry here before anticipating Ken's slamming and perhaps a share of that from Malf (think Malik & Gandalf.. minus the mouse-keyboard-slamming). :)

Before I actually begin, make sure you have some good 5 minutes to read on.

Well, I've been reading lots of books on the train to work cus the train gets ridiculously crowded from Admiralty all the f*cking way to Raffles Place in the morning... Yes.. it's all the f*cking way and it's not funny. If I am feeling more positive about the situation I'd probably try to imagine it as clubbing without music.. but -10 times the joy derived from clubbing.

So yeah I've read books like the Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson and he writes it really well to provide noobs like me a very good idea of the evolution of money; the undercover economist by Tim Harford explains very well some principles of economics and now.. I'm on my third book, Super Freakonomics which well, just uses econs to explain other things which are quite interesting.

By now, I'm pretty sure you have already heard of these books (or at least 1 of them) or have chanced upon them while exiting the bookstores. Currently I'm on this chapter about prostitution and why prostitutes don't really earn as much as in the past. They reason it with the rising trend in premarital sex. So people become less likely to pay for sex in that sense. Well, so far it has caught my attention and I bit the bait to continue with the reading. I really would like to take this opportunity to share this book with you guys, knowing that you guys are probably the only few friends I have who appreciate books.

In case you're wondering what the f*ck i'm doing now, I've started my job (which ain't no kick at

the moment) at PwC. I'm filing expatriate taxes for those mother-f*ckers in banking and finance and other industries who earn insane amounts and their annual taxes actually triple what I can earn 5 years. It's just their TAXES. So one colleague of mine just told me not think of it as just numbers.

There are 2 very stark observations I made in the office.. 1) The office is severely gender imbalanced and 2) f*ckloads of foreigners.

Let's touch on point 1 (and yes.. this is the beginning of my ranting).. why the f*ck does HR hire so many girls? There are currently like 8 asian males in my office and 3 Brits. The total headcount is slightly above 50. Seriously WHAT THE F*CK is going on...

Point 2: f*ckloads of foreigners... since now you know that there are 8 asian males.. out of this 8, 3 are Singaporeans and out of this 3.. 1 indian and 2 chinese. The rest of the asian males.. are from Malaysia and 1 from Sri Lanka.

The next thing to know is that there are f*ckloads of Malaysians and Indonesians.. it's really crazy.. it got me thinking.. where have all the Singaporeans gone? Are we that rare today?

So anyways.. before I end this entry.. just wanted to let you guys know that I've submitted my resume to a French bank by the name of Credit Agricole.. it's not big in Singapore, but it is quite popular in France. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

-El from Hell and not even Hell wants you Ken.

Pakistan flood

What up guys.. When I was buying something on ebay, I was asked at checkout whether I wanted to make a donation to the Pakistan flood victims. I read up a bit about it and it seems that the amount of aid the people have received is very low compared to what is normally received for such disasters and what is needed.

Maybe it's because people think it is a nation breeding terrorists and hungry for nuclear power etc etc. I don't think it matters at all. The people dying aren't the ones making the nuclear bombs.

Anyway if you guys wanna donate, they accept paypal and credit cards, the link is here http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/pakistan-flood/

I'm sure even $1 can help someone. Ken and I were discussing that Christmas is coming. It's not too early to get in a good deed or two. Maybe it will lead to some big time presents =)

Last day of winter

Finally.

Practical Law Course Update

Like todays negotiation class, I found advocacy last Saturday to be a rather unnatural and awkward experience. Dealing with a mock case generally inhibited me from making inspired and havoc lines. However, I decided to make a change on the spur of the moment while making my arguments to the court. This situation would be elaborated below.

I had to show to the Court that the husband in question exerted undue influence on his wife to sign a guarantee. Given that we were not provided with any evidence on that issue nor could we cross examine anyone, most people were unable to convincingly persuade the Court to believe their story. So when it came to my turn, I suddenly got inspired, abandoned my script halfway and told the Judge that "it is not uncommon for a husband in any marriage to have an emotional hold on his wife.. and therefore I urge your honour to consider the possibility that unfair pressure could have been applied". The mock judge seemed receptive and laughed quietly in amusement as opposed to mocking cynicism. I was contemporaneously intrigued at how one sentence alone could have affected his opinion or demeanour at least.

Although such thrills are trivial in the grand scheme of things, these provide me, in part, with the sustenance to develop and advance my litigation career. I truly look forward to being a litigator because unlike most jobs, it is adversarial and there are so many real time challenges which I must overcome. Plus, these challenges are dynamic - I would have to constantly deal with different facts and people. Just ruminating about it makes me genuinely enthralled. While adapting to these challenges (which is far from easy) is a major aspect of practice, I also hope to be a vehicle of change and one day contribute to the evolution of litigation and the law. Influencing and conquering the hearts and minds of those in the legal domain would provide me with the ultimate career satisfaction. This is because I am not prepared to die without leaving my footprints on society in general or at the minimum, this strata of society which I will soon be intimately involved in. This coincides with my ideal that our generation should create history by being the hallmark of progress and have its unique defining traits.

Having defined my idea of success, I shall start studying for my Bar exams which is a proximate checkpoint in my lifelong project. I really want to do something useful in/with my life as there're few things that I have attempted to do properly. Failure, in the short and long term, cannot be an option at all.
-Kenough

Home visit

Blog has been suffering from some underactivity lately.. You all should stop being such lazy bastards... Especially the mailman who makes the fewest entries by far. Anyway I thought I would just share an experience I had today with you all...

I had a lesson today which involved me going to a patient's house with a social worker to observe how their home and personal ability/disability was assessed for future action by other government subsidized social services. An example would be if an old person was falling down in the bathroom often, rails along the bathroom walls might be offered to reduce the chance of severe injury..

The main thing I took away from this experience though was that it can be quite shocking how people live. As I entered the house, I was immediately greeted with spiderwebs on the walls that looked like they could have accumulated over months to years. There was an able bodied 50 plus year old living in the house with his two parents whom he cared for.. The house was an absolute mess. For some reason there were at least 6-8 full loaves of bread on the kitchen counter. The furniture was all really old and dirty with unidentifiable bits of grime scattered about. In general the entire house was extremely messy and dirty. Boxes of medication were everywhere. A piece of paper was taped to the wall with green tape to write phone numbers on.

In short, it felt really fucked up being in there and I just wanted to get out. It is surprising that people can tolerate being in a place like that 24/7.

Woke up early

Woke up early, showered early, changed early, took tram in opposite direction, reached late.
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A day in the life of Kenough (idea of title stolen from el bulli)

I did 3 new things today. They were not contrived and instead spontaneous.

1) Ate Nasi Padang. I had it with chicken and fried egg. It was extremely good.

2) Cooked a snack as opposed to a proper meal to eat. I stir fried penne with chopped spinach and garlic in olive oil. Afterward, I baked the penne while they were spread on a baking tray. A healthy substitute for most snacks such as potato chips and it did indeed make me happy.

3) Ran from botanic gardens to siglap for dinner. Although I brought no emergency cab money with me, I had faith that I would somehow get there and true enough I made it. The journey involved running without being 100% confident of directions. From botanics, I just aimed for and ran on benjamin sheares bridge. Subsequently, I blasted in the general direction of the east. I got abit lost for a while as I have never been to, let alone negotiate through the Tanjong Rhu area before. Furthermore, I had to run on some off road grassy terrain for a while. The plan however was back on track swiftly. After more running, I felt compelled to take a pit stop by illegally entering SSC which was along the way. It wasn't that difficult to behave as though one was a club member seeking to re-enter the premise haha. To push things, I decided to ask a bartender for a glass of ice cold water which I promptly downed. From then on, directions were simple and I made a beeline to my intended destination where we had a 5kg fish (malik note this, it was a garoupa) among other dishes.

The end.
-kenough

Guys, just a quick update on the China situation...

It's been a rather interesting experience so far, and I must say that I've encountered new situations and challenges.
1. My appallingly lousy chinese has made daily communication with people a challenging task, be it PRC colleagues, the agent of my apartment, waiters, sales people, etc.
2. I've been feeling rather repressed when those situations arise cos I can't express myself proeprly, so to those ppl, I probably appear rather dull. Sometimes, to avoid ppl thinking I'm mildly retarded, I qualify by saying that I'm not local.
3. Office work has been very challenging. Although it's an international firm that I'm working for, there're often correspondences that involve chinese parties. So, I've been compelled to do some translation work which, unsurprisingly, I really suck at. Imagine translating legal documents and technical legal and shipping jargon when I can't even read my fucking secondary school textbooks properly.
4. The lack of family and friends for company has resulted in me having about half my meals alone, and spending idle/chill time alone mostly. I've been getting used to it, and although it can really suck eating alone, I tend to have more time and space to think, appreciate the present, its activities and its surrounding occurrences, as well as do whatever I feel like doing without considering the accomodation of others. There is a certain valuable freedom in this that I particulary enjoy, when most situations are situations that involve just myself and inanimate objects - it's man vs wild where you don't have to give a flying fuck about other things. But of course, that privilege can only satisfy me this far - the company of others, doing things together, shared experiences, and the relationships enjoyed still can't be trumped. But for now, all's kool.

From Shanghai with love.

For Juston

Hahaha you are not mad after all..
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Exams

Just finished one of the most stressful exams ever.. No idea how it went but I'm glad it's over. Time to fuck off from here.
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Haha

Sounds like a fun overtime shift.

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Fasting

My medicine timetable has made me damn good at fasting.. Closest thing that I have had to a meal today is a coffee. There is a big time traffic jam between me and my dinner. Rocking it Big M style.
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Phuket 2010

Hola amigos! Here are some pics from Phuket, as promised... It was a very pleasant trip that was splashed with great seafood as usual (cf. fruit platters), hearty buffet american breakfasts featuring crispy bacon, ham omelettes and pork sausages (cf. continental breakfasts), slacking off the afternoon at the beach with my ipod and a book (cf. stuck on a nauseating trip to Phi Phi island and Kai aka Kockcroach island), watching the sunset with Jo and a beer in hand (cf. missing the sunset after a nauseating trip to Phi Phi island and Kai aka Kockcroach island). We also did some swimming in our 25m pool (shirts off for me, of course) and ran along the beach to burn the calories. The massages were great and we went for one every other day. In the late evenings, we hung out at Coyote and Starbucks watching the Filipino band playing at The Port just next door - the music was actually good, being embellished by the brass band that played alongside the main band (good thing our hotel was a stone's throw away, so no need to take the last tuktuk back). Of course, it wasn't the same without you guys - bridge nights where Ken lay his mines in futile attempts to obliterate his opponents, Malec bargaining for his sewage-style Raybans, Luke sustaining that near-fatal gash on his leg, and us rocking our asses off at Rock City (with Malec and Ken continuing the routine with each other back in the room while I slept).


Hang in there Amigo Luqman, Singapore awaits you in 3 weeks.

Would you steal a car?

I get really annoyed by those anti piracy ads that ask you whether you would steal a car or a handbag etc. They should ask whether you would take a clone of it that is identical to the original. Of course, they won't because know the answer to that hahaha.
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Malec and Gaytime

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Restaurant Review: The 10 Dollar Coffee Shop

I've been to Cova 3 times in my life.

On the first occasion, I went there out of no choice. It was during the Christmas season and everywhere else was hell packed. Furthermore, I was weary after much Christmas shopping (even though most of my time was spent hunting as opposed to buying). What to do? I ended up paying for some coffee with the main purpose of taking a seat. I forgot how the coffee tasted like, not that it was bad.

The second time I went to Cova was after whacking the gym upstairs. After descending to the ground floor, I experienced the insane combination of exhaustion and hunger. I felt like going home to crash and devour a bear all at once. In this intense moment of decision making, I leaned towards getting some food. Fortunately, Cova presented itself as the most viable option at level 1 - Canele was at a different level that required additional walking.

Apart from the convenience that Cova afforded me, it did not let me down food wise. I ordered the crayfish pasta with saffron cream sauce, which had an uncanny resemblance to the unique style pasta I had at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna, Austria. Ironically, Cova also serves the Sachertorte which made me question whether they stole the menu from the real thang.

Before I digress too much, let me wax some lyrical on my main dish, as most food bloggers/reviewers/critics have a penchant for doing. Bathed in a chrome yellow sauce which was well 'infused' with saffron and yet not 'cloyingly rich', the pasta was 'cooked to perfection'. While being imprisoned in bliss, I savoured every 'morsel' of these yellow ribbons which were 'al dente'. It was served warm, like how baby bear (in goldilocks) would have liked his porridge. The downside however, lay in the chunks of crayfish which lacked the 'freshness', 'intense burst of flavour' and 'crunch'. I hope I don't get sued for plagiarism.

After breaking my duck in my previous visit, going to Cova did not subsequently pose as a difficult decision. This time I polished a plate of mushroom risotto. No description is necessary. It was just good.

Finally, based on what I've read online, Cova appears to be associated with the 'chi chi' (yet another term I learnt from various reviewers) crowd. Although being 'chi chi' is not necessarily a bad thing, there are some who do not feel comfortable being in the presence people like that. I hope that this alone does not deter you (if applicable) from hanging out there because of the vast array of food (savoury and non-savoury) and privacy (if you sit inside) Cova offers.

Disaster

I am always annoyed when I see a news article regarding a disaster wherein the journalist reports the number of casualties from his country of citizenship. While one might argue that it puts a local spin on the issue, I think it also trivializes the casualties from other nations and suggests that the reader cares more about casualties who share his own citizenship than others. Especially in the case of when there are no such casualties, i.e. the article reads : No Singaporean Casualties from Whatever Disaster. It sounds as if there is some sort of relief to be had from this fact. Indeed when almost everyone has cellphones, I am want to believe that a distressed relative's first source of information would be the journalist's article, meaning the article has practically no purpose, other than for the writer to churn out another story on the same issue. Even if the journalist was attempting to allay the fear of the Singaporeans who had the possibility of having someone they know involved in the disaster and somehow, no means of contacting them, the journalist must be working on the supposition that Singaporeans only have Singaporean friends and family and that there is therefore no need to account for the other nationalities.

-Luke

Pictures

Hey these are some pictures I have been meaning to upload for a while..

This is where I take my exams..

And these are just some photos of my car here I thought I would put up so you guys know what it looks like.. Sorry no exterior photos.. I took these while I was in a traffic jam..

-Luke