Did you know that in the UK, people salute lone magpies. Because the Brits believe that misfortune will follow and fall upon you if you do not give it the respect it deserves. You'll have to  tip your hat and say,

"Good morning Mr. Magpie. How is your lady wife today?"

It is believed that spying a single magpie is considered an omen of bad fortune, and saluting it is a way of showing the proper respect in hopes that the magpie will not pass on some of the misfortune follows it.

In Scotland a single magpie near the window of a house is not just bad luck, the sign of impending death; possibly because they were believed to carry a drop of the devil's blood under the tongue. Some believe that the reason the magpie is cursed is because it was the only bird that didn't sing and comfort Jesus when he was crucified on the cross.

I was watching topgear (s16e4) and they suggested that shooting magpies and killing them is a good way to preventing road accidents. Apparently there are many Brits who are superstitious enough to  salute to Magpies, even when they are driving. And depending on the region or county you are from, your saluting ritual varies.

One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.

Cool aint it. Bet you never knew

Went to work on Saturday morning for a site meeting and everything dragged till about 1.30pm. So instead of choosing to go home for the day, I decided to go healthy living and pop in to the gym for Combat class. Had a rushed meal of a 6 piece sushi set and arrived at the gym earlier for a cup of tea.

Then happily went on ahead with combat class.

• After 4 tracks, I started scratching my arm coz there was a mosquito bite. 
• After 5 tracks, my eye started twitching like the start of a swollen eye. I know how that feels like coz i possibly got a swollen eye 3 times in my life.
• Half way through the 6th track, I accidentally took a glance at the side mirror and HORROR!
• End of 6th track I simply grabbed my towel and ran out without completing the rest of the class.

I got a shock when I went back to the changing to inspect my 'beautiful' face. I had bumps that looked like mosquito bites all over the right side of my face. It looked like I got lost in a whole hive of mosquitoes.Then it went all the way down the right side of my neck and down my right arm. It was horrible just looking at myself in the mirror. Went down to the counter to change my face towel just in case and then bumped into C who went:

 'How are you... OMG why is your face like that?'

I just got my first case of Hives that was so serious I felt embarassed to take public transport home. Usually they are around the back of the knee and albows, nothing to much to be alarmed by since they only happened twice in my life.

By the time I got back to the changing room after cooling down by downing three cups of cold water, those bumps have expanded their territory to the left side of my face. Took a photo to keep as momento but I honestly think I better not put it up here just in case you all loose the appitite to eat.

I was dressed so hip and cool with my tank top, long cargos and my sports sunglasses at the top of my head. Then with that horrendous face of mine, I had to walk back home with my hair covering the side of my face like Sadako.

Heng they cleared up by Sunday morning. Woke up on Sunday looking like me again. If this gets serious again, I better go see the doc.

Looked up online and found out that hives on face are notiably less common. They are usually caused by food or skin allergies (not that i know of, but i did have sushi) , insect bites (dont think so) , medication (not on any), and can develop from stress (nope) and excessive pesperation (real possibility) (source).

It finally arrived after one week plus of waiting from Amazon straight from the US. It's pretty hard to go around buying games for mac in Singapore coz they are usually non-existent, even in local Mac stores.

Even though there isnt a good choice of Mac games in the market (most of them are Windows and PS3 or XBox), there is still pretty decent games going around.

Next stop on my games shopping list is going to be Dragon Age 2 (8 March release) and Sims Medieval (22 March release). Dint want to buy the preorders coz they were going at something like $50 USD.

My weekend is going to be packed with game playing. Too bad my old baulders gate doesnt work with the newer macbookpros coz its an old game with no patches.

This is the bread talk plastic bag. No one would have really noticed it unless one was sitting on the train with nothing much to entertain the mind with.

Typing this from the gym at 730am since I'm here too early for the scheduled class.

There was a fitness challenge at work yesterday during our weekly sport hour. Basically you do your 2.4km like you did for napfa in school. Clock timings and get graded according to the standard napfa table by age. Best thing of all is that for this one time event, you get some sort of monetary or voucher award for completing within timings on the table

For my age group 25-35 females, you get

$50 for getting gold or A
$40 for getting silver or B
$30 for getting bronze or C
$10 for passing

I came in at 15.33. That clocks as a B. But what made me slightly irritated is that I came in 3 seconds later to another $10. Miss the mark by 3 whole seconds

It's hard to run 2.4km now years after the last time I did it. And it's not easy running with people that spend hours a day running. I think a good 1/3 of work runs faster than me on a daily basis. Some of them past 40 and still run damn fast. Some of them join marathons every year and some even for triathlons and ironman. Those who can run turned up for this event and those who think they cannot dint bother to show up.
I was the last three who came back.

My timing is almost better then my timing in Jc. And I've aged.

I even had a headache from earlier in the morning and still insisted I try out for the $50. The monetary incentive is good. Makes me want to run out harder even though I did stop to take a walk and catch my breath twice.

They should have this more often. I need some extra pocket money.

The third day in Phuket was spent away from the beach and pretty much away from the sun. We went for a massage at one of the parlors right outside our hotel. In fact the small road our hotel was on had the whole street crowded with massage places, so many that the place looks pretty randy at night when all the ladies are sitting outside and hooking ang moh men in. But in the early mornings, it was nice and not so sleazy. We were practically the first customers for the day.

Then it was a tuktuk down to the Big C to meet Richard again, we went to this place somewhere in Phuket town where they serve good chicken wings and an extra spicy tom yum pizza and Ron had his favourite padthai. The stupid pizza was so spicy I had to go for two bottles of soya milk.

The cashew nut place where Ron wanted to buy his tom yum cashew nuts were round the corner and we spend something like over a 1000 Baht on nuts. Use to visit cashew nut factories when I was younger when I went to Thailand as a kid. Now I'm back here and I still remember what I remembered as a kid.

Real cashew nuts still in the their shell.

They were talking about some otah thing that Ron wanted to dapao back to Singapore. So Richard made a small detour round to the mangroves. Deep in the heart of some ulu local country road in Phuket lies this gorgeous place where deep in the hearts of the mangroves sits a local restaurant. This is a place where no tourist would probably know about.

I love this place for the rustic-ness written all over the tress and the houses on stilts. I simply fell in love with the place the moment I got out of the car and walked the road to the toilet. If they ever converted this place into somewhat of a place to stay (hotel or hostel or homestay) I will totally come here again just to bunk in. Even still, I will love to have a proper meal here.

Each of these huts had a low table where you had to seat cross legged on the floor. And there were stairs down to the mangroves, where you could go place with the crabs.


The place is shrouded in wilderness and in that midst of wilderness, there's a place of manicured garden of herbs. Herbs were growing from pots, troughs, buckets off the floor, hanging containers. And you can even buy them.

Flaggin up the entrance.

This is what the main corridor looks like. Stone tables to the left and those tiny little houses on the right. You can choose to eat anywhere you want. See those herbs growing from the pots and floor and sides and everywhere?


The side entrances had little troughs of herbs that lined the side, then there were creepers over the top.
I think one of the pretty things about this place is that they probably cook what they have in the garden.

Walking in from the side entrances from the toilet.

Some of the bigger huts had a nice view of the pond at the back. You can totally see yourself having seafood and thai whatever food sitting there admiring the greenery. Such places will totally make nature loving people love it to the core.


We dapao-ed about 20 otah fishes. Each individually packed in their own tiny little aluminum foil. Then we took a short drive back to Rawai beach on the south to have dinner at one of what Richard calls the 'Motorcycle Restaurant'

Rawai beach in the heart of the day. Lined with casurinas.

What the hell is a 'motorcycle restaurant'?

Basically, there are restaurants with many motorbikes are parked outside. Local people on these motorbikes come over from home to eat in or dapao or order something for the day. There are many types of restaurants along the street, some have motorcycles parked outside, some have cars, and some have buses.

Those with the motorbikes are where the locals go. Cheap good food. In Singapore, we judge the goodness of food by the queue outside the store. Here in Phuket, you go by the number of motorcycles siting at the shop front.

The 'shop window' shows a whole array of bbq-ed.

BBQ saba, eels, porkneck and many other things i cant tell what they were.

The lady boss is the only person who gets to make the salads. As she was pounding away at her stone bowl, the angmoh eating at the next table was curious and went to take a look. And well... I did too, even though I knew exactly what she was making.

Boss is the fatter lady standing on the left

A whole table of fresh tomatoes and shrimps and fish sauce and chili padi and what ever you need to make fruit salad.

Pounding away to mix the sauces.

This is a plate of the finality. Its really damn yummy i tell you. Maybe its really that good, but maybe it could be because we are not in Singapore and it seems more authentic and your taste buds recognizes it.

Papaya salad for you madm?

We manged to get this open and eaten fresh. This is what you called the infamous otah that we dapao-ed earlier. Looking at it, it is a whole fish, and when you cut it up, otah inside without a single bone. Wonder how they actually manage to debone the fish and stuff everything back again?

One word of advice, make sure there is something to drink when you eat this. They probably put a whole bush of chili padi in it.




Then there was my favourite prawn cakes. I always look forward to eating prawn cakes everytime I step on Thai soil. There are many types of prawn cake. The best ones i've eaten so far was in Bangkok years back in this restaurant in the burnt down formal world trade center (thanks to the red shirts i permanently lost my favourite prawn cakes)

Breaded prawn cakes with sweet plum sauce

We made a short trip down to the small roads by the beach to see the local fish market. Even the local fsh markets have been taken over by tourist traps just opposite the roads with signs that say

'if you bring it in, we will cook it for you'

Seen Phuket from a birds eye view? Richard drove us up one of the mountain roads which he calls the mount Faber of Phuket. You can actually see his estate from up here.

Have you seen it on the news yet? New Zealand's capital has been hit hard by a 6.3 earthquake and it took everything into the hell hole with it. Most of the city is in shambles and even the prettiest cathedral that stands in the center of central Christchurch is in bits and pieces. There are already 65 people dead and probably more still stuck somewhere under a pile of rubble. Its going to be a long night for the Rescue people.

Me and Ron used to take a walk down that same city center, since our hostel was just a short way away. Now everything is in shambles and even if they manage to rebuild it, it is not the same piece of brick that remembered me and Ron walking down the front.

The cathedral was pretty, and now bits of the building is lying in the dirt somewhere 10 to 100m away from where it once stood. I loved that cathedral. Even bought my NZ magnet from the souvenir shop right outside.


It was felt all the way in Dunedin. I gave Eugene a whatsapp message to check if he was ok. Apparently they could feel it all the way down south in Dunedin (where I did my exchange) and according to the man it 'shook for at least half a minute'.

I wonder if I would have felt it if i was still staying in my little dungeon at Unicol. Dint feel a single earthquake even though there was at the time i was there.


I do feel some sort of emotion I cant describe coz I did spend some time in the country. I do know a few people from my time in Otago. Seems like after going through facebook, there was no one that was in Christchurch. They are either still in Duns or all the way in the North island. Thank God everyone is safe and alive

I have a horrible habit of surfing the sistic website, whether it is to see details of a certain production or just random surfing. As much as I love and support the arts in Singapore, even for a working adult (with a sad income), I cant afford those fancy prices on the website.

And now the just made booking tickets easier with the iphone. And I couldnt do anything but download the damn app.


As if it isnt enough me spending a few hundred dollars a year watching a long list of musicals, Broadways and theatre. Most of the time I go only for those I can afford sitting at the back of a pillar, then occasionally the front row tickets in a Broadway. I've even done it in Chinese. I think just in 2010, I have spend somewhere like $500 on sistic.

Need to control the urge to watch everything I see on the events calender. Need to protect my credit card number from the eyes of evil. I blame this all on the many years i took speech and drama in my youth, and the other additional years doing speech and drama diploma exams, and then the experience of theatre.

There are some videos popping up here and there on facebook and twitter. Its about this Japanese cooking toy called Konapun, it seems like an up level version of those playdoh burger and fries makers that we played as a kid. And this one is like a minature chemistry set. Uploaded on youtube by RRcherrypie.

There are about 20 odd cooking sets. Each costing something about $20 - 45 USD if you want to get from ebay. They are the cutest cooking things but too bad they are too small and mostly unedible. Plus its a play one time and throw away

Spent lunch at grandma's place with a whole spread of my favourite porkleg and white wine chicken. My grandma cooks that best, better than anyone I know or tasted.

Too bad the presence of certain people made me want to run away from the house asap. The house was stuffy and the company slightly unbearable. And considering that dad took the car fishing, we had to take the train to sengkang and there was no incentive to wait for a ride back.

So I escaped soon after eating down to marina for 'just go with it' with Ron. Totally recommend it, funny and I haven't watched a show so so funny for a long time.

Had the most expensive steak ever last night at Mortons steakhouse. Only cost about 95 buck per piece of rib eye. It's a pretty big piece and one of the best cooked piece of meat i have ever eaten but probably will not go back there for food any time soon, a 230 dollar bill for two person is a little crazy. But you should really visit there once in your life for that experience.

Help, there is this crazy guy living in my estate at Block 134 going 'this is not a public toilet' to every dog walker that crosses his path. I've seen it twice before (to a maid whos dog peed in the carpark and to an old man and his whitey) and today I kena while walking my dog. Just because my dog happily peed in the grass at "HIS BLOCK" (as quoted) and he happen to spot it from a good 50m away.

I think I'm a decent dog owner, I pick up my dog after she shits and make sure as best as i can that she doesnt pee on the floor, and now there is this idiot going after poor amber for peeing on the grass.

He went on to say 'dont let me catch you again' standing across the road 50m away.

I actually thought to myself that - ok fine, amber is pretty distinct coz she is the only King's Charles in the estate, and that at most ill not walk amber all the way there to 'HIS block' anymore. At most ill just carry an extra bottle of water to wash pee of the pavement.

But seriously I had the thought at the back of my mind that I'll camp out at his block's void deck and find out which unit he lives and what car he drives so that I can go scratch his car and smear dog shit all over this front door. But being the nice tolerant neighbour I am, I'm not going to do that. But seriously if I spot him picking on another dog walker again, I might just jolly well do that. Too bad i dint have my handphone with me or ill just snap a photo of him and post it somewhere.

He might have screamed at the top of his voice across the road, but i can easily tell what he looked like coz my eye sight is decent. He is definitely one of those very educated, well careered, well into his 30s men.

Seriously. Its hard to control where your dog pees. I can control where she walks but how do I control when she decides to pee. And dogs pee to mark their territory, the same way you scream to mark yours. Plus if you hate the existence of animals in your territory, go freaking by a landed property, if you cant afford it, go live in a condo where pets are not allowed, if not, stick it up your arse and tolerate the bits and pieces of communal living. It's not called PUBLIC HOUSING for nothing. You dont own the void deck, only that 120 sqf you bought, and since you dont pay estate maintenance you def dont own the grass at your void deck

Its like telling the birds not to shit on your car (which by the way, deserved to be shat on)

Spoiled my day

OMG! I got so carried away with the rest of my life over the last two weeks (thanks to CNY and then Valentines) that I totally forgotten to keep up my blogging attempts for my last Phuket trip. This is like almost 3 weeks due.

Mayb I should just keep this short because every other person would have probably been to Phi Phi Island before. And everyone has been to Phuket.

Well, we did sign up for a whole day island hopping trip for the whole of the second day. Cost around 1900B, but since we were given a free taxi ride worth 600B from the airport, it cost about 70SGD for transfer and lunch. A tiny bit expensive but its still ok considering we got a complementary taxi ride.

We had to wake up early in the morning at around 6.45 to make sure we have breakfast at the hotel to make sure we dont miss the van that came down to pick us. The van took us about 30 mins to get to the marina where the speed boats were docked.

Map of day trip that was hanging on the company's holding room.

We had to hang around to wait for the rest of the people on the boat to arrive. coffee and tea and even s flipper fitting session. Then was the debrief to teach us the typical dos and donts. Then off we go to the marina to board the boat.

The Royal Phuket Marina

The Royal Phuket Marina is damn pretty. Thanks to the blue sky and the very beautiful Thai looking roofs of the houses skirting the marina. IF i had money I dont mind a place like that.


The boat seated around 38 of us, with one driver, one english speaking guide and three boatmen to help pull the achors and whatever boatmen helpers do. The mix of people on the trip was interesting. There were the Malaysian boys who sat up next to us. Some individual travelers who wanted to take the group trip, angmoh sun lovers who sat out in the front happy to get a sunburn. Then there is Mr and Mrs china gay couple, whom one of which has a freaking hot body. Caught myself staring countless of times. Lucky I had my sunglasses on. Dint manage to get a photo of Mr 'mybodyissonice'.

Our 38 crowded speed boat. Really a diversity of people from all over the world.

Seating was a tiny bit crammed because those big angmohs just decided to hog two to a spacious center seat. So there we were all squashed up on the side seats. I even had to sit cross legged at the corner.

Me sitting at the back of the boat. squashed up next to ron.

Phi Phi island has always been very nice, especially when it is a nice sunny day to start off. The rocks off the island cliffs look so pretty in the sun with those moss looking vegetation all over. A bit bonsai-ish.

Shirt of one of the boatmen helpers. Our walking itinerary.

First stop was Maya beach. Tonnes of people where hoarding up the beaches and the swimming area was this tiny TINY bounded 50m x 50m area. And the water gets no where near my waist standing up.


There are so many tourist on the beach. What would you expect? Its like one of the most touristy places in Phuket and everyone from Phuket and Krabi flocks here like no ones business. We were trying to look out for ladies with a hot bod. None really. Just a lot of huge arses and thick tummies.



They went to some of the smaller bays to see the lagoon-thing but because it was low tide, we dint manage to get out of the boat. So it was just some photos by sticking my head out from the side.



We made a short detour to the viking cave. Remembering my first trip here 10 over years ago, I think I did remember going in to watch them harvest the birdnest deep inside the cave climbing only on bamboo poles and barefooted.

Now all you get to do is to see it from outside. Apparently too many tourist are disturbing the birds and they dint want to come back year after year to nest. So they decided to scrap and ban tourist and unnecessary visitors.

Viking Cave and that very blue waters outside.

We stopped at Phi Phi Island beach for buffet lunch catered by the company. Then ventured into the side shops to buy some icecream.

It says on the sign 'We not sale alchohol'

Spent the extra waiting time taking some photos by the beach. Since it was lunch time and everyone on the beach stops for lunch inside, there wasnt really much people tanning outside. Besides, it was scorching hot like burning coals on the surface on the sun.

That dress I'm wearing is a 3 pound dress from a thrift store in UK which I never wore coz it was too thin




Monkey beach. Funny how tourist from all over the world come to see these little fellas, and I see them every other week when I'm reporting to MacRitchie for work. There was no cuteness in hand feeding them your cut bananas. Besides, part of my job is to educate people not to feed the monkeys.

So i just stayed in the boat while the rest happily got out to see monkeys.


The guide happily took us a photo while we were sitting in the boat at Monkey beach.


We pitstop at one is Rawai island beaches. It was one single island with rough coral bits on one side and fine smooth white sand on the other half. We were here for a good 1.5 hours. Too bad the weather was on the very cloudy side and I dint manage to get the sun in my face.

We ordered icecream to celebrate my birthday. I dont mind not have cake for my birthday. Hugs and kisses would do.


Here is Mrs gay buddies sitting in the sun trying to get a tan while Mr gay buddies went to take a soak in the sea. Dont worry, Mrs gay buddy is not the pretty bodied one.






The trip practically ended with a huge downpour while we were carted back to the hotel. And reaching back, while I took my long soak in the tub, Ron was cooking up a storm in the room with the previous day's left overs of fried rice and pork neck.

I tell you, it was damn freaking delicious. Throw in two bottles of beer and the chilli sauce thingy that tasted damn good with the rice, left over crab meat and fried rice.