Singapore Army recruitment might worked if they too show the truth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMSPTVApgZs

Lynn, Amber and I took a day trip to Segamat, Malaysia on 30th June 2011 so that we could take the last train into Tanjong Pagar on our return trip. I had planned for this trip a few weeks back after coming to this page in Facebook.

Besides this train ride, my only other time on a train was in 2006 during my trip to Laos. As I was sitting at the door-way (picture above) watching the scenery goes by, my passion for train journey was renewed and told myself I could do this more often. Doing this means going to a train station and get tickets to nowhere in particular like what we were doing today. I have almost no idea what we were going to do in Segamat nor any knowledge of what we could do in Segamat besides that friends tell me durians.

The other things that occurred surprising to me is that besides my family and extended family who were taking this journey with me, there seems to be no regular people around us. I mean I work as a civil servant, Lynn is a IT, my ‘in-laws’ (yes we were traveling together) are office desk-jobs and in retail sales, all very regular. Here is a summary of the people I met in our carriage:

1. Philip (tbc) of keropokman
   - a well-known blogger in Singapore
2. Melissa of Youth Against Climate Change
   - representing Singapore Youth on Climate Change
3. Caroline of blog.anothercaroline.com
   - a Central St Martins student specializing in graphic design
4. Jun Yin of desarmer.tumblr.com
   - a Bachelor of Law grad with excellent photography skills
5. Shawn of Roads Less Traveled – China
   - travel editor at Lonely Planet
6. Ren of sonotlost.com
   - theatre actor, playright and animated street star

These are but a few of the people I met on the train and the others are no less superstars in their own right. Where are all the regular people?

More photos on my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chin/sets/72157626981670517/

It was a hectic 3 weeks since the new year but manage to squeeze in a date night with Lynn sans Amber. I abhor to think that our last date night was in Oct 2010 and decided that we should do this more often; at least once a month.

I scoured the internet for the latest mentions in eating place and found Kinki; a Japanese restaurant with manga wall art that looks interesting enough for a date night and made reservations.

Kinki is located at Customs House which houses several eating places like the Oyster Bar, Sabai (Thai), Procacci (Italian) and Nueva Cuba, a favourite after work drinking place of the financial district executives. Kinki itself takes up two levels with the restaurant on the 2nd floor and a bar with DJ console on the roof terrace.

A large fish mural specially created by celebrity tattoo artist Chris Garver of Miami Ink greets you upon stepping into Kinki. Also eye-catching are two manga wall art of a sumo wrestler and a blue astro girl. All these took a back seat though to the magnificent view of the Marina waterfront with Marina Bay Sands as the backdrop.

Kinki serves traditional Japanese sashimis and sushis but their specialty is in their fusion makis and temakis. There is a hot section featuring items like the Pomegranate Miso Black Cod, Grilled Giant Prawns, Kurobuta Katsu, noodles and dons. Kinki also has an excellent drinks menu of champagne cocktails, vodka, sake martinis, and other sake-influenced cocktails.

Lynn and I tried some traditional sushis, a dragon maki, minced kurobuta katsu with apple curry sauce and seasonal vegetables as well as Kinki special seafood okonomiyaki. Being a traditional sushi type of guy, the traditional sushi here was below my expectations but the rest of the fusion food was excellent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr282SeIZHs

Although Kinki is not a place for serious Japanese food, I would recommend this place if you are looking for a night out with friends in a fun and party atmosphere, good cocktails and decent food for sharing.

More photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chin/sets/72157625917859318/

Kinki Restaurant + Bar
70 Collyer Quay
#02-02 Customs House
Singapore 049323
Tel: +65 6533 3471
http://www.kinki.com.sg

This is much better than the YOG song.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Minty-Fresh™.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 4,200 times in 2010. That’s about 10 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 27 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 59 posts.

The busiest day of the year was June 10th with 38 views. The most popular post that day was Truffs – The Chocolate Atelier.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were staff.tpjcian.net, facebook.com, amberchu.wordpress.com, linkvalidator.net, and fienchannel.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for petville, 8wire.org, petville on facebook, truffs, and how to stop live feed on facebook.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Truffs – The Chocolate Atelier June 2010

Fixing Facebook Live Feed October 2009
1 comment

Aiba Masaki’s Blood Type Experiment February 2010

PetVille December 2009

Pupsik Studio Baby Products October 2009
4 comments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6DvjKkGT6s

Find out more about the radical plug at Iconeye.

Simple food is comfort food. I had a meal of pork chops at Hougang 105 Hainanese Village Centre for my dinner. 2 slices of pork chops with crinkled cut thick fries and a side of coleslaw or baked beans. A bun was provided together with butter and everything was washed down with good ‘ole’ Sinalco.

For my birthday, I learnt it does not take much to make me a happy man. Birthdays need not be celebrated with friends partying; a simple sit down dinner with family and friends will do just fine.

Lucky for me, my birthday is followed by a public holiday and 2 days of weekends so there is still time for another good meal with Lynn; another date night perhaps.

Pork Chop Burger (Bun) - Everything just taste better with butter

Shout out to Linee, Thiam Yong and Anthony Butler who share the same birthday as me.