.....times of refreshing.....

First of all,  thanks for all the concerns on my knee pain in my previous post. It's much better now after applying the anti-inflammation plasters and I continued my humble workout regimes as usual. In fact, I workout more intense now than the past which even surprise my own self. In the past and younger days, I even joined an expensive gym but I didn't really utilised it well as I only went there for 2-3 times a week and mostly looking forward to the sauna and steam bath facilities. And, I only ran for less than 20 mins though I did workout and even have a personal instructor, but results are slow.

 However, as I grew older, especially for the past 2 years, I am more motivated to workout and almost exercise 5 times a week from Sunday to Thursday. I was so tired yesterday during an almost non-stop 1 and 30 mins of badminton but I guess its motivation that pushed me to workout, and it comes from a goal. I planned to reduce my so-called one pack in my abdomen so that I can be more healthy. Another reason that motivates me is the feel good feeling from an exercise. I guess the feel good hormones released in my system after a workout makes me wanted to continue again and again, like addicted to drugs... haha..

Anyway, it all boils down to goals and when I look back at my goals, I realised I have set too many for myself where I have ignored some of them. I guess its best I cut down my goals to some realistic ones. However, I read an article recently that mentioned its ok to set more goals as we can achieved more, though we may not achieved all. So, that's for a debate! In the end, I guess it's further boils down to interest and goals! For example, if you like running a marathon and willing to train for it , that's interest and goal. I remember once I am willing to take a cab to go for badminton from North to South but unwilling to attend an enrichment talk event nearby.

OK, it seems a long post. I will end it with another simple bento below from my usual haunt at Men-ichi Ramen.

My Shokado Wazen Bento

Have a good weekend, folks !

I have been running a lot lately and has covered 12km in three days, which to my standard, that's considered a feat. There were some weeks where I have covered around 15 KM in four days, and adding in a day of a 2 hour session of badminton. Thus, my knees finally give way and I felt a mild pain there, despite wearing a knee band. So, I decided to give it a rest over the last weekend but not exercising as well as getting the anti-inflammation medicated plasters, Ketotop,  over my poor knees.

The Ketotop plasters

Selling at about S$4+ at Guardian , it did help to reduce the mild pain in my knees and I do felt better after applying it day and night. I guess it should be around RM9+ in Malaysia. There was no menthol added, thus you don't feel a thing after sticking the plaster except the stretching feeling.

After a workout with weights and a short 3KM run on a rainy Monday night , I thought of Shoyu Ramen since it's a cold night. Thanks to SK's post again on his Japan travelogue last week where he mentioned the Shoyu (Soy) Ramen. I usually had the Miso Ramen , thus I was curious to find out about this ramen. It seems the Shoyu Ramen came in different varieties, including hot and spicy, but I ended up ordered the Shoyu Tonkotsu (pork bone) Ramen. The broth was darker in colour compared to other ramen.

This seems to be a quiet weekend as my kid has replacement classes last Saturday. Well, since Johor implemented the new weekend on Friday and Saturday, I realised most of our weekend short retreats and outings has been drastically reduced. We used to travel to Kluang, Legoland, Hello Kitty/Little Big club town, Desaru, Kukup, Tg Piai or even Melaka and Seremban but now left with only running errands at the malls. Thus, I have to wait for school or public holidays to go a bit farther.

It was a rainy Sunday and since my wife and little princess needed to attend a baby fullmoon tea reception later, we had a simple lunch at a nearby Lavender Bistro. This time round, I am surprise my little princess opted for her strawberry short cake where she ordered it herself by telling the waiter. LOL...

I think I am not really that adventurous in food and most of the time I will ordered back my favourite food at the same restaurant. This is my favourite Cheddar Cheese and Ham sandwich.

And my Americano.

Have a good week, folks!

Hi all! It's weekend again around the corner and I am sure everyone was feeling great today. Well , let go all the bad feelings, whether it's work, finance, family or the first game loss of Manchester United in the English Premier League last Saturday. Well, as a fan, I was disappointed like any other millions of fans worldwide but I am sure with an experience coach in Louis Van Gall, we will bounce back and let the ABU fans (Anything but United) eat their words. LOL ....   (forgive me if you are one of them ... ahem...)

Well, I posted the below cos I had it over last weekend and feel like having again. The Food and Tea restaurants have been opening many branches in JB and I especially love their egg tarts early in the morning. It was so fresh and not too sweet. The edge was crunchy too!

Freshly made egg tarts

 Then, I am sure I will be very full when I ordered the special kaya wheat bread, which seems available in Johor only. The entire bun was made of wheat and after having one piece, I can guarantee you that it's really very filling. I heard that this wheat bread was originated from Air Itam, Johor but I cannot confirmed though I visited the kopitiam there before.

My favourite wheat bread kaya toast

OK, folks ,I keep my post short.  Have a good weekend and May Man Utd win their first EPL match this Sunday evening. :)

FIsh head noodles ... look at the bones. It will took me ages to finish it thus I rather not ordered it.

Fried Fish meat noodles. I love the big chunks of meat there.

The soup was very thick and there were gingers added to it too which makes it really comforting to have something hot on a rainy day. And, it was a big bowl too!

All thanks to SK's travelogue to Japan,especially on the ramen in Sapporo last week. After finishing a workout, I can't help myself but to go for a nice bowl of a similar Tonkatsu Miso Ramen, which they stated it's from Sapporo on the menu, as well as recommended by the chef. Well, I had it in Men-ichi Ramen at Northpoint which featured many varieties of Japanese ramens. The soup was really thick and nice which I doesn't really know how to describe it while the ramen was very smooth. The cha shu, which I ordered 2 pieces, was delicious too. It was salty enough with a little bit of fat and lean meat.

Sapporo Miso Tonkatsu Ramen

Well, it's ok la... I had a tough workout thus, good to reward myself with a nice hot bowl of ramen! :)

How fast! It's back to the working week again! How was your weekend ? Mine was not so great though I planned to spend more time with my family but somehow there was some disruptions like my kids tuitions, my little princess kindy teachers' home visit (and its a pretty teacher :D ) as well as my little princess was down with a mild cough. Thus, its just resting at home and ran some errands as usual in nearby malls. I do had a good time talking to her teachers, not just because they are young and pretty, but I also got to know how she was doing in school. I was delighted to hear that she was actually quite talkative and love to ask questions in class as well as knowing who were her best friends. Well, its a neighbourhood kindy thus most of the students stayed close to each other and we know who's who they are. LOL ...

As usual, we had Japanese food almost once a week as requested by the kids. We just ordered a few simple meals on a Saturday evening before rushing home early since there was classes for my kid on Sunday.

Kani Maki for my kids

Sake and Maguro sushi to share with my wifey

Fried rice for my wifey

My favourite Shiitake mushroom , grilled with salt

Again, my favourite Salmon shioyaki set

And, a Salmon Teriyaki set for my kids

Have a good week!

Chicken chop with sausages ... ordered by my colleague.

I had a Sirloin steak with side dishes of salad and red beans.

Since Aston was celebrating their 49th anniversary, we top-up $4.90 for a ice-lemon tea and a chocolate ice-cream.

The muddy chocolate ice-cream was nice as there were walnuts inside but its too frozen till it's too hard to scoop it. It took us a while to finish it!!

1. I have been working out consistently from Sunday to Thursday lately, where I usually ran 3KM on Sundays and I workouts at the gym on Mon, Tue and Thurs. Wed was reserved for badminton and I am loving all these physical activities though my tummy is not flatten yet with 6 small parts. :P Somehow I can't sleep well if I don't exercise and I worked better the next day after sweating it out. Thought of trying out running long distance but somehow I am too lazy for it. Will have to consult Lina and her hubby for advice....hehehe...

2. My kid was having his second term exam this week, but I have already make plans for this weekend when his exam is over on Thursday. Of course no grand plans since its still school days but I really hope can bring them around this weekend. How nice if our Legoland memberships are not yet expired, at least we can have some fun there.

3. My Amway upline got me a replacement meal drink and asked me to try it but warned me not to eat after that else I will gained weight like nobody business. hahah... OK, it's called Positrim but he mixed it with Amway's Protein Powder, a fibre supplement and lecithin-E. He told me it's not really to lost weight though it helps a lot but more of giving me the nutritions for the day.

4. Since it is the 7th month, most of the folks were burning paper offerings at nights. Thus, I have to close my window all  the time in SG and on the air-cond., though it's been raining almost daily. And, there were lots of getai around where I can hear the echo of the singing though I don't know where is the location...hahaha...

5 Meanwhile, after a workout tonight and with most of the food-courts closed including my favourite Japanese restaurants, I decided to check in to Pastamania which closed very late. I ordered a Turkey bacon Aglio Olio with mushroom soup. Love the warm soup since its a cool night.

Mushroom soup

Turkey Bacon Aglio Olio

Have a great mid-week folks!

My pretty model-lookalike niece enticed me with the newly promoted burger from McDonalds, knowing that I have given up mcD for a very long time. She whatsapp me the picture of the new burger called Satay burger with a big image of 'Yummy'. She knew that I am working out to flatten my tummy and tempted me with that burger, where two weeks ago, we just had satays, in the well known Satay by The Bay at Marina Bay.

After a late workout with most of the food courts closed, I have no choice but to succumb to this temptation. Here am I .... the McDonald's Shiok shiok Satay Burger .... as they always sang it in their radio ads every morning.


The burger was not bad and it came with two options, either beef or chicken. I chose beef. It tasted exactly like satay with all those satay side ingredients inside the burger. However, I find that the gravy was not much as it was very dry at the beginning where I only feel the juiciness at the middle of the burger. Yeah, the time when I have half-bitten the burger. hahaha...

Overall, it was nice but no more McD for me. I rather go for an healthy bento and try to leave the gym earlier. :)

The weekend was quiet as the following week is an exam week for my kid. Thus, we didn't go anywhere as he has to do his revision as well as attend tuitions. I also had usher duty in my church, thus, we can't go anywhere. With that, we only ran our errands on Sunday after my kid went to school. As usual, I always look forward to a nice coffee break in the afternoon before heading to Giant or Tesco or Aeon .... and etc.

I intend to go to Just Want Coffee in Taman Molek but somehow, the cafeteria was renamed or replaced by Be Coffee. It's a different design there where it was much spacious than the former but then, there seems lesser crowd compare to the former.

The coffee makers

Chocolate cake for my princess ... it seems she has changed her preference

Happy with her cake again... it was dark chocolate. I also like it.

A cappuccino for my wifey

A club sandwich to share with my wifey

It was quite a big sandwich , with cheese, ham and scramble eggs

And, my flat white. It was smooth! Much better than those popular coffee spots.

Nothing much to update about the weekend but I guess I may take a day off this coming Friday after my kid's exam to bring the family around. Have a good week! :)

It took one week to receive the goods it came with the phone and charger, in a recyclable type of box.

Charging my phone ... overall, good enough for me to use in JB for my Malaysian line. I still love my Samsung Note 3, anyway.

Had a bento after a great workout tonight. It's really been awhile since I had a bento, probably, 5 days ago. I really miss it!!

yums...here's my bento ....

Have a good weekend!! :)

Black sesame dessert ... my kid ordered this which he shared with my wifey. It was too sweet for me and my wife , anyway.

Here's comes my fix ... durian with pomelo and mango dessert. The durian was ok but the mango was not sweet. The dessert was average only, overall.

The best of all ... I ordered a single scoop of ice cream for my little princess. To her delight , it came with a slice of strawberry and lychee.

And, she's loving it!!

Well, I will continue to search for ...err... to be exact ... Musang King durians this coming weekend. :)

I had a long meeting in the afternoon today from 2pm till 5pm. And, after the meeting, my colleague invited me for a coffee to wind down. So, we ordered two cups of kopi and started chit-chatting. Initially, I was asking him why he stopped working out since he likes to exercise and he started telling me about his ADHD kid which requires a lot of his attention after work, which makes him no time to workout. I felt sorry for him as well as feel bad as I always teased him that he's getting lazy. At the end of the conversation, a word of wisdom struck me which really makes him feels good. I told him everybody has problems, be it finance, health, work, family and etc. What you perceive a person as having a good life is not really true as he/she might have other problems that you may not know. For example, I told him he has kids but some couples may be trying hard for a baby or some rich people are facing family politics at home and poor health. So, he should be fortunate and cherished what he has, which applies to us all. :)

Btw, I reached home early last Friday in order to avoid any jam at the CIQ where last Friday morning, there was a commotion where some factory buses refused to pay the toll hikes and everyone walking across the causeway instead for 30 mins. Since I am home for dinner, my kid suggested Japanese dinner and there we go. I took the pics with another phone cam which doesn't turns out to be very sharp.

Salmon and kani maki ... I always loves salmon maki while my kid never failed to order kani maki.

My wifey bento set , which consist of salmon teriyaki , edamane , salad and some vegetables.

I can't remember what this roll is called when it's sure crispy

This is a part of my bento, braised pork. Of course, I only ate the lean meat. :P

The sashimi that comes together with my bento

This vegetables taste and looks like kangkung ...hmmm...

Agedashi tofu ... i love it!

And, my bbq shiitake mushrooms. I always likes mushrooms!

Stay cheerful always, folks and do keep in mind problems are signs we are alive!! :)

Back to my favourite Aglio Olio but for my kid.

I had a beef bolognaise pasta. Besides Aglio Olio, I love beef bolognaise!

My wifey and little princess shared a nasi lemak with fried chicken.

Both bro and sis sharing a cooling drink

My little princess again ordered an Oreo Cheesecake.... I wonder what happened to her favourite strawberry cake ??

enjoying it!

As usual, I had my kopi, a Flat White.

It's the month of August already and how time flies. I still got a couple of personal goals to achieve before year end. Add oil !!

Have a nice week!