30.4.15

Whenever I am leaving for home to JB from SG, I will always called home to check out what my kids and wifey wanted to buy from SG. Especially, the kids, they will asked from toys to snacks like chocolate, sweets or cookies. MY wifey will usually asked me to get instant noodles as some types cannot get in JB as well as it's cheaper over in SG. She also have a soft spot for the Subway sandwiches here as it is so much different from Malaysia, probably it is not halal in SG and she likes the bacon very much!

Sometimes I do get my kids toys but I cannot buy them toys weekly. Thus, I usually go for cheaper treats which they requested most of the time.

Jellybeans - My two kids favourite and my son asked for it. I got them two packs.

My wifey's favourite chocolate as well as my kids. I also love this one - it's dark chocolate and I heard cannot be get from Malaysia, not too sure but I don't see it in JB.
Oh...since I had a heavy lunch, I go for a salad dinner for the second time at Saladbox near the Bugis MRT station. I like to go there as it is quiet as well as the ladies who served us were tall and attractive too. :) I had a 'Rainbow' salad and its really a big plate and I was really full ! Now, I understand salad can also makes us filling!

My salad for dinner - with an egg
It's weekend and a long one! Have a good time :)

27.4.15

1. Not a good weekend as when I reached home, my wife looks pale and tired while my little princess having a fever. Asked my wifey what happened to her and she said she's ok but the next day, I gotta sent both of them to the clinic. Both were sick with throat infections. Luckily my sis in law was with them till I came back. Anyway, they have recovered and feeling much better now. Thus, the weekend was home-bound except I went to the church as I have ushering duties.

2. It was a joy to see my kids enjoying themselves in their enrichment classes beside their school education. My little princess just finished a year of ballet and went for an international exam, assessed by a caucasian lady. The results will be out in August, and she's enjoying her ballerina very much.

3. My son too, has attended his third badminton classes and set a goal to represent his school. I told him to set a goal so that he can aim to improve his game. Initially, he told me he wanted to beat this student and that student whom he has lost to, but I told him to aim higher. This will also motivates him for the tough training. It do looks tough to me when I saw him trained but that will only strengthened his mind and body. My wifey applies some heat rub onto his legs and shoulders every time after his training. LOL

4. Whenever I saw my kid trains for badminton, I was also tempted to join in as they have a class for adults but too bad, it is held during weekdays which I definitely cannot make it. Anyway, sports training usually starts from young, as the saying goes, 'Never teach an old dog new tricks'. hahaha.... I think I run better la.

5. And , mentioning about running, I was a bit nervy as so far, I have only completed 11KM in training and was already tired, though I tried to run slow. I am not sure how will I fared in the half-marathon in July!! I plan to run 12KM this week and gradually increased it. Of course, there are times where its our off-day like today, I even struggle to finish a 5KM run due to too much rest over the weekend. The comforting news is they allocated 4.5 hours to finish a HM which I think that's possible for me.

6. I am looking forward to this weekend as it is a long weekend, though Vesak day in SG only falls on 30 May. Nevertheless, I feel like bringing my family around as my kids will have a long break.

Again, it's been a long week since we had Japanese food and we are back to the same restaurant. I also ordered the same Sushi Udon set.

My favorite sake maki 

My kids' favorite sushi - Ebiko and Kani.

Some vegetables ordered by my wifey which comes with a set of rice and miso soup, since she's recovering from her illness.

A Teriyaki Salmon set shared by my kids

My plain Udon soup

And, my 4 pieces of assorted sushi

This will be a short working week and I am sure everybody looking forward to the weekend. Have a great week!

24.4.15

It's been a busy week and I am glad it's weekend, finally. This will be a short post where I re-visited this delicious chicken soup ramen at Crystal Jade La Mian in Bugis Junction.  It seems many years since I last had my favourite dinner (before I started on my bento and Japanese ramens) where there was a branch near my place then. It closed down and I seldom frequent the restaurant at other places , till I was at Bugis Junction with my family, who were here for a day trip.

It came with a chicken soup which I love it very much. Tasted like those chicken essence but its lighter and it came with a plain ramen. This used to be my favourite dinner many years ago!! It's nice to have it again after a long time!

Chicken soup

Plain Ramen
Oh yeah, I also ordered a Xiao Long Bao to share with my wifey and kid. I didn't took their food pixs but it was nice enough to have dinner with them in SG before going back to JB together. Had a great time shopping around !!

Xiao Long Bao
Have a good weekend!! :)

22.4.15

Time seems pass so fast especially weekends. I remember last Friday I had a conference and reached home quite early but then, suddenly I found myself leaving for Singapore on Sunday for another working week. Anyway, my weekends nowadays are usually busy with my kids' activities. Before the new weekend started,  I used to drove around to nearby towns or farther away to shopping malls like JPO and etc. However, with the new weekend, we seems to adjust it by enrolling my kids for activities like sports. Thus, it's more of fetching them around as well as going to church together. 

I also have my own personal time on Saturday night for footballs where the kids and my wife have to sleep early for Sunday school. I also managed to catch some time for a short run on Sunday evening before fetching my kid back from his sports' classes. 

And yet, we still have time to enjoy our favourite dinner. It seems a long one week that we never had Japanese food and glad we managed to get some last weekend.

I ordered an Udon Sushi set. It's just nice to keep me full.

My wife had a sushi set which she shared with us.

An Ebiko sushi for my kids

A cooked salmon sushi ordered by my son where he also had a teriyaki salmon set which he shared with his sister and doesn't allowed me to take pix. LOL
I may consider taking leave one of these weeks, likely on Monday to spend more time with my family. Anyway, glad the school holidays is one month away. :)

20.4.15

After reading SK's blog, I feel tempted to write a post on how I started long distance running which eventually leads me to training for a half-marathon. Well, there's still two months left for the Singapore Sundown and I can say I am not ready yet as the longest I ran so far is 11KM. I needed to run at least 15KM to feel confidence.  And, I didn't train last week except for some short distance runs in 5-6KM on the treadmill as I was down with a diarrhoea which makes me tired. I have recovered now and might do two 10-11KM runs this week. I wanted to gradually increase the mileage, maybe 12KM the following week.

Back to original intent of writing this post. I used to run 2KM every time I went to the gym for workouts for years. However, after getting my Polar Loop steps tracker mid last year, I started to run more,where I went for 5KM. The reason behind it was I wanted to achieve the daily physical goal set by the tracker app. And, only by running at least 5KM can help me to achieve it.

Then, I saw some of my colleagues also started running and with the standard chartered marathon around then, we decided to sign up for the 10KM run. And, its history after that. Anyway, recently, most of my colleagues' interest has fizzles out and they do not intend to spend money to run, citing that we are paying in order to get the goodie bag and medal. That can be true in terms of economical sense but in my opinion, if you like a certain sports, definitely you have to invest some money into it. Even in badminton, I bought rackets, shuttlecocks and book courts and don't mentioned how much folks spent in golf or bowling. Thus, I guess I have to run alone which can be de-motivating too. Well, I will see how it goes, hopefully can find more running kakis. Lets focus on my HM first now. hahaha..

Oh... over the weekend, I can't resist a char kway teow though it contains high calories..hahaa. Ok la..once a while is all right.


Have a blissful week and try to achieve 10,000 steps a day. :)

16.4.15

This is the first time I bought songs from iTunes store to keep me company while running. Well, with most of the CD shops closing down over the last few years, except Popular, I think I needed to get my favourite music online. I did buy some before but not via iTunes. Another reason I buy online is I don't have to keep the CD and just keep the softcopy. While searching for songs, I was glad I found some 12" 80s remix numbers and these are original singers. Well, during the mid-80s when I was still a young teen, I was amazed with how they remix the popular songs into lengthy ones with lots of techno effects. Even HK cantonese pop songs also did that. I still remembers George Lam 10 mins 12" remix.

Anyway, too bad the music I bought was not of high quality which I thought it is, since it's from iTunes. Though it AAC format, it's kinda like a mid-quality MP3 format. Ok la... still bearable but it will be great if I can get those lossless formats.

Oh.. I just had a workout tonight and glad that I ordered my favourite Salmon bento. It came with a few chunks of fried chicken, teriyaki salmon, agedashi tofu and a salad. Quite filling. :)

My favourite salmon bento
Have a good weekend !!

14.4.15

This will be a purely food post. My sis-in-law brought me to this seafood restaurant which was located at the beach of the Straits of Johor, where a clear view of Senoko and Sembawang in Singapore can be seen. It was a refreshing place to be after all those shoplots restaurants; it's nice to dine by the beach.

I love the natural and beautiful views over there and though this place has been around for ages, it seems this is the first time I been there, if I didn't remember wrongly. Ooohh... I need gingko biloba to improve my memory ... LOL


Walking along the wooden bridge to the restaurant

A view of the sea

Love the serene and calm evening

I thought I was at a fishing village... the sight was refreshing there

That's Singapore with the Sembawang Shipyard 

Crowded at 7pm
The food was halal here and since it's seafood, the menu is basically quite straight to the point. It's fish, crabs, prawns, clams...etc. Anyway, since there are only 3 adults and 2 kids, we didn't order the good food but some simple dishes to go along. After all, the my sis in law and my wifey are health conscious, so no cholesterol laden food. :(

The pixs were not well taken as the place was lit with pink neon lights and I tried my best to edit it.

The best of all - lala or crams. 

"Fan Shu Yip" ... vegetables to go along

Their crispy signature tofu

Tilapia ... the meat was very fresh and smooth. I love this one!

Their signature mee goreng.... somehow it's too spicy for me and we take away this one.

Took the kids for a stroll around and saw lots of clams here
Basically, with GST, this comes around RM120+, which I think it's quite affordable. It's a nice evening there. :)

10.4.15

Lately, I noticed the way my wife talk seems very similar to my 'patterns' and vice-versa. I used to be kinda kan-cheong (anxious) in the way I discussed about subjects or issues while my wife is very calm. However, sometimes I noticed she's becoming more and more anxious now while I become calmer, LOL ... I guess this is the power of influence especially after staying together for so long. Sometimes, her 'pattern' of talking is even like me .... the 'pattern' on how I usually talk and I also felt she has some influence on me too. Anyway, I guess thats normal when you stayed with someone for a while and with that, I will try to eradicate my bad habits and most importantly, the kids, who look up to us.

Oh.. I am back to COLLIN'S Grille.Bento in Bedok and this time, I had a black pepper lamb chop with pasta and a german sausage. It was very full and I wonder how much calories this meal contains. hahahah...

My high calories lunch
Have a nice weekend!

7.4.15

I was to blog about my thoughts on the Ching Ming festival which I just got back from KL but since I gave so many comments to SK's blog on the same topic, I decided to blog on something else. Well, maybe I should talk about my upcoming runs. All is not lost after I skipped yesterday's run due to family duties as my company sponsored me and my interested colleagues for a 10KM charity run, to be scheduled in May. That was so nice as the following Monday is a holiday too. The run was scheduled on a Saturday morning. Thus, I can take a good break after that!

Then, I was contemplating whether to take part in a half marathon in July. One of my ex-colleagues is going for it and he's also a newbie to running. In fact, he struggled for 3 hours for a HM yesterday. Seeing that the Singapore Sundown qualifying time for a medal is 4.5 hours, I think I should be able to achieve it but still I needed to train for it. Nowadays, after a 10 to 11KM run, I was really tired. Not sure if I can last the run ...perhaps walk and run for the rest of the 9KM. LOL....

OK, I was at Pastamania and ordered an Hawaiian pizza for a change. It was nice, crunchy and hot. The small 7" pizza was just nice for me though I needed to run more to burn off the calories.
My 7" Hawaiian pizza
Earlier of the day, I had a truffle chocolate cake at Hanis restaurant near the National Library. I simply love the dark chocolate but with these food, I really gotta run more.... :(

Truffle Chocolate cake
Have a great week!

2.4.15

Finally I am taking a short leave this weekend to wind down as well as accompany my wifey and kids to pay respect to my mom in law, and yeah, skip my scheduled 10 KM run. It's ok la, at least I can get to see and spend more time with them and probably go around KL or nearby places. I will be on leave on Thursday and next Monday while Friday is a holiday in Singapore in Good Friday. By the way, I am having a relaxing time now after my workout as well as finished all my routine work like ironing and laundry. I am done with all my work for the day and enjoying the cool air-cond in my room while enjoying stuffs that I like to do with the background music playing, before I sleep. In fact, this is my relaxing time of the day while I am in SG after a long day. How about you? What is your best time to relax ? (err... please don't mentioned your business in the toilet...LOL)

Oh... its been ages since I posted a Japanese ramen as well as I also didn't have much time to patronise my favourite Men-ichi Ramen in Northpoint mall in Singapore due to my late workouts lately. OK, I had a Kuro Shoyu Tonkatsu Ramen tonight, with two chashu.


 This is a soy sauce ramen with garlic added and darker compared to my favourite miso ramen. I simply love their soup and  I don't know how to explain the taste of the soup in words but it's really nice. In fact, after my workout, I rush to the restaurant and managed to get in on time for their last order... hahahha...

Have a good weekend! :)

1.4.15

I was at City Square JB last Friday after braving the massive long queues for buses at the Woodlands CIQ. I was late and hit the peak hour at the CIQ where long lines of queues were formed for several bus lines and these queues are not just a straight line but almost in a 'U' or 'W' shape. Well, if you intend to travel to JB on a Friday using the Woodlands CIQ, try to avoid 6pm-8pm else you have to be very patience with the queue and crowd, and not forgetting the stuffiness of the air since it's crowded everywhere.

Seeing that I am late for dinner with my family, my wifey asked me to eat something at City Square, which is just opposite the JB CIQ. Since I needed a quiet place to wind down and relax after all the stress, I decided to go to El Migos Mexican Pizzadillas as it was quiet.  I opted for a Cajun Chicken in tortilla wraps which contains lots of cheese. The fillings was hot! I also love the tortilla chips which are my favourites. Eat it with the small tomato cubes and it tasted so good!

My yummy Mexican dinner 
With a glass of refreshing ice-blended sour plum juice, I felt rejuvenated again and continue the trip home.

The eatery is  located at J4-20, Level 4, Johor Bahru City Square, 106-108, Jalan Wong Ah Fook, 80000 Johor Bahru.