Happy birthday, Anna!

Anna, the birthday girl.


Early birthday celebrations for Anna at a local Japanese restauarant @ Great World City. While waiting for Fyn on our way to the restaurant, me and Margaret joked with Anna that Fyn would bring and introduce her boyfriend at the dinner. Both Smily and her were taken in by our story. She was excited, though Smily was a bit uneasy. They realised the pun when Fyn arrived all by herself.

We were happy that Anna enjoyed the food. Fyn let her try the cold noodle, probably her first. She, herself, ordered a bento set with grilled fish, chawan mushi ( steam egg), tempura, etc. Guess what's her favourite food there? Preserve Red Ginger. LOL.

PS : For those who do not know, Anna is my mother-in-law.

What's the buzz.... 29 Mar 2008

The weekend is here again. Just came back from shopping for a present for Chia's month old baby boy. I was lost in the infant's department. Luckily I had Margaret with me and she chose the baby clothings and accessories. At the same time, I had a 10% discount with her Metro Card. Great! (Btw, I am sharing this present with Leslie Lee)
Arsenal will be away to Bolton later in the evening. The last time they won a Premier League match was more than a month ago. I believe they can bounce back and start winning again, though I don't see them winning the Championship. Get up and boogie!!!!
Now for the good news..... free breakfast at my Easter Block Party cum LUP Strawpoll Announcement tomorrow morning.

Football And No Football / Chaozhou City Night Tour

I was trying to forget football for a while. I supported Liverpool last weekend and they were trounced by Manchester United. Later in that evening, my favourite Arsenal got beaten by Chelsea. SUCKZ!!! A frustrating weekend with total disappointment. Looking back, both Man U and Chelsea deserve their points for they were the better teams.
As I had nothing much to do, I watched the live telecast of the World Cup Qualifiers (Asian Zone) between Singapore and Lebanon last evening. It was a joy to watch as Singapore beat them 2 goals to nil, though the standard of play is low. Well, the Lions need to improve a lot to match up with Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan in the coming months. Good Luck!



14 March 2008 (Night)

Chaozhou City Night Tour

Here are some of the photographs.

Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Chaozhou and Shantou Pt 4

14 March 2008 (pm)
Here we are.... in Chaozhou Province. I simply love Shantou and Chaozhou for everyone speaks my dialect, Teochew. Hehe... Teochew people has a history of 2000 years. We started our tour here with a visit to Kai Yuan Temple. It is about 200 years old.




After lunch, we visited the ever popular Xiangzi Bridge at the Hanjiang River, just outside the City Wall. Once this river was infested with crocodiles and a famous hero, Han Yu drove them away. Where are they now? Thailand lah. That's where the saying goes, 'Where there are crocodiles, there are Teochews'. LOL.

Han Yu also built a bridge and named it after his nephew, Han Xiangzi - one of the Eight Immortals. After governing Chaozhou for 8 months, he left for the Capital. For all the good work he had done, the mountain (Han Shan) and river (Han Jiang) were named after his surname Han. Hanwen Shrine on Hanshan was also built in his honour.

Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Chaozhou and Shantou Pt 3

14 March 2008 (a.m.)
Shantou : After breakfast, we were fetched to Shi Pao Tai, a fortress used to defend against the combined European forces aggression a hundred years ago. Made of the same material as the Yongding Hakka house, its wall is 4.1 metre wide and 292 metre long.





There were ventilating towers on top of the fortress. Not only does it used for ventilation but for communication too. We are talking about 100 years ago where there were no walkie talkie and mobile phones. You would have noticed that the step edges (picture below) were rounded off. The guide told us that it was to facilitate the moblization of cannons.

Our next destination was the Ancient Dragon Temple, situated at the foot of a rock hill. Legend has it that Kuan Im Buddha was once sighted riding a dragon here.

Finally, we had a brief stop at Shantou University before our one hour jouney to Chaozhou. There were a few fruit stores outside the university where the fruits were cheap and fresh. We bought pipa and green plums.

Note: On our way to Shantou the day before , I am glad that we passed by my late father's Teng Hai district though not his East Lake Village.

Good Friday 2008

Today is Good Friday. The Christains believe Jesus died for us.

Poor me. I had to re-do my yesterday's blog. Some rascals sent virus to the comment column. Must be the work of Lucifer. I deleted the blog to safeguard everyone. Like what Jesus commanded, 'Satan, go away!'

Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Chaozhou and Shantou Pt 2

13 March 2008
Zhangzhou : After a Hokkien buffet breakfast, we were brought to the 'Hundred Flowers Village'. There was nothing spectacular there. It's just like those Thomson nursaries.



Our next destination was Nanshan Temple, the largest temple in Zhangzhou. It was originally the residence of Chen Yong, whom is believed to be the ancestor of many with suranme "Chen' today. It was built during the Tang Dynasy and for some political reasons at that time, this ancestral courtyard was converted to a temple.





The star attraction of the day was Yongding Hakka Clay House. It was built about 400 years ago and feature a 1 metre thick external wall. Guess what it made of? You won't believe it. Granite, gultinous rice, brown sugar and lime. Despite adverse weather and earthquakes, it still stands tall today. Each block consists of many units occupied by a single big family with grandparents, sons, grandchildren and maybe great-grandchildren too. There are no window on the external wall of the 1st and 2nd storey. Reason being fear of enemy's intrusion.