Coffee Prince’s First Shop

Was flipping through the TheNewPaper casually in the afternoon when I came across this article…

Yay! Based on the article above, Yoon Eun Hye’s next serial “Coffee Prince’s First Shop” will start filming at the end of the month and start its run in Korea in July. Eun Hye will cross dress for her role. With her sweet looks, I am sure the result will be highly comical. Hopefully Starhub will air it soon. Well there’s always the DVDs if Starhub is tardy.

Serving the Country. For Money?

I have been following the debate over the rationale for hiking our already well paid Singaporean politicians. While I reserve my comments to the private confines of my head, and for my wife, I was appalled to read what a journalist, from a major local paper, wrote about it today.

The article discusses the disjointed outdated public perception where the government  consist of “moral superiors making a sacrifice for the nation” versus the post-Independence generation view of a new “transactional relationship where political leaders are expected to be held to account for their performance in return for market-based pay”.

The writer pointed out that she may be over-generalising when speaking on behalf of the post-1965 generation that this group views the government through the perspective a a transactional relationship. I applaud the writer’s honesty since for me it is a definite over-generalisation. Definite is already somewhat of an understatement.

Crafting the argument in a highly attractive, logical and persuasive manner, many would have agreed with her final conclusion that we are indeed moving towards the view that governments, or the one we have in Singapore, are moving the much touted, only by the writer, transactional relationship with citizens whom they govern.

Perhaps it is my formal education in political science (I took political science in the university), or perhaps it is the history books which I read on good governance and deomocracy’s infancy in the United States that have made me more aware and thoughtful of the political scenery in sterile Singapore and highly resistant to such ideas as proposed by the writer. People say ignorance is bliss. Sometimes I find it hard to argue against that. But in I always believe we should be more aware of what’s happening around us and stop thinking everything is done for our good.

Anyway, my main concern is that if such an article can be published, then there must be people out there who, after reading the persuasive piece, actually buy into the transactional relationship proposition. Striking more fear into me is the article’s premise that such a relationship is not only inevitable, but we, the citizens, have to accept it.

If governance of a country is transactional in nature, then I would expect that, having paid the ministers pay, as a taxpayer, I should have the power, as the ‘paymaster’, to demand a certain level of service from our ministers. I give something in exchange for something else, that’s transactional.

So what did I get in return? Well, an increase of 2% to the GST, means testing for hospitals, more gantries along major roads, potentially foreigners holding our red passports while not letting go of their native country’s and being reminded that the females in my family are lucky not to become domestic maids in other countries.

All hail the new transactional government!

Oh yeah, before I end, I need to state that I am an old fart in thinking since, like the pre-65 generation, I believe that politicians are “saints” who sacrifice what they could have gotten from orivate practice to do something great for the people they govern. Guess some ideals are ageless.

Platial Map Kit

Just found out this wonderful feature in WordPress. Called Mapkit, this feature displays a map of Singapore, based on Google Earth, and allows me to place markers on places of interest. The geographer in me is totally smitten with this feature. I have yet to decide what sort of markers my map should display? Yes, we can create our very own map.

As a foodie, I would love to tag all the nice makan places on the map. The adventurer in me would want places of interest, however few in Singapore, to be tagged. The romantic in me would like to find out lovers’ haunts. Err that didn’t come out right. The shopper in me would bargains plastered all over the map.

Oh dear, I am really a asking a lot.

Well, after much thought, I have decided to allow markers for all of the above and more! I have enabled the function to allow anyone, yes, I mean, you, you, and you there in the corner, to tag any place of interest on my map. It can be places of good food, heritage sites, secluded sandy beaches, good camping sites, free carpark lots, well, any place under the sun. The only condition is that my map has no place for seedy information, say Geylang-related activities. However, tags on good food places in Geylang is always welcome.

Those eager to place their markers on the map can do so now! Just scroll down and you will find Mapkit below the widget (or section) for Flickr. My map is called Topo, after the military term for topography. You will realised that Mapkit is so friendly that it even allows tags, comments, and uploading of photos related to the place. Try it and you will know what I mean.

I have placed my first marker on Vivocity to show everyone where the Hong Kong Kim Gary Restaurant is located. Fret not if you see 2 markers on the same place. In my haste to place the marker, I created 2, and now I have trouble removing one of them.

Cocoa rich food good for the heart

Chocolate lovers rejoice! A new study has shown that consuming foodstuff containing cocoa has the effect of lowering blood pressure. The study also tested the effect of tea on blood pressure. Results showed that tea has no perceptible effect on the blood pressure readings of the test subjects.

Before you dump those boxes of tea bags and grabbing that bar of Mars, do remember that tea has a host of other excellent effects on our health. As the age-old saying goes, eat everything in moderation. A calorie laden bar of chocolate may lower the blood pressure, but the increase in one’s weight, from the higher caloric intake, is likely to negate its blood pressure lowering effect.

Yoon Eun Hye – 尹恩惠

I have a new idol!!! My last idol was Japanese actress Matsu Takako. That was some 10 years back. After watching Goong “宫” and The Man from The Vineyard “葡萄园之恋”, I have decided to declare that Yoon Eun Hye 尹恩惠 is my new idol!!!

 Here’s the reason why…

Man I sound like some old paedophile. Yeeks! But I still like her all the same hahahaha… Thankfully, my wife is also a big fan of hers. We actually ‘fought’ over the ‘copyright’ to show one of her 宫 photos. But hey being the gentleman that I am, go over to Yupgi to take a look.

野蛮文化 – Culture of Unreason

My wife’s blog – Zap The Bug - is no more. The amusing thing is that she accidentally deleted the Zap The Bug account while trying to create a new blog. That’s why I am writing this post to redirect her friends, of whom many are mine too, and fans, if any, to her new blog… 野蛮文化 a.k.a. Yupgi Blog. Do update your links!

Posted on behalf of Zap the Bug, or, The Bug that was Zapped. . .  . . . hehe

秋天的童话 – Autumn in My Heart

Just started watching 秋天的童话 – Autumn in My Heart. My wife calls it the classic Korean drama which started it all. I can see why. Beautifully filmed, it is indeed a classic tale of love.

Hong Kong Kim Gary Restaurant Part 2

I think I am in love with the food served at Kim Gary. Was at Kim Gary Vivocity once again. This time it was for lunch. Following my unforgetable experience with the huge serving of Fuyong Egg Rice, I decided to give that particular item a miss for the next 10 outings there. Being more conservative this time round, I decided on a perennial favourite dish of mine, baked rice.

Baked rice is a dish close to my heart. I like it because it is what all food should be like. Tasty, savoury, succulent and, most importantly, inevitably unhealthy. Topped with a rich layer of melted cheese, most baked come with well seasoned ‘buttered’ white rice mixed together with either mushroom or meat.

Kim Gary’s version of Hong Kong baked rice follows the classic rules above. My order of the Cheese Covered Chicken Chop Baked Rice (see photo below) came in a traditional ‘basket’ known more for serving dim sum than baked rice. The aluminium foil and the basket setup gave Kim Gary’s baked rice a nice original touch when compared to the run-of-mill white porcelain plate which most places use to serve this dish. Perhaps it was an effort to give it the authentic Hong Kong touch.

Anyway, my appetite was already whetted by its unique presentation. To my pleasant surprise, underneath the generous helping of cheese was a chicken chop almost the size the circumference of the basket. Believe me, it’s huge.

The well grilled chicken chop was tender and it blended really well with fagrant white rice, which I believed was cooked with a generous helping of butter. Each mouthful of the cheese, chicken and rice was pure enjoyment. It was so good that I was trying to scrape every single grain of rice, and burnt cheese, off the foil by the end of the meal.

I so look forward to my next visit there. Can’t wait to try the other dishes. Thumbs up to this fantastic eatery!

Feeling Liberated

Not being able to embed videos in my blog has been a real bugbear for me since switching to wordpress from blogger. Today, I, with the help of my wife, finally learnt how to embed videos here. Yay!

The trailer from 300 was my first offering as I now share moving images with you guys. Below is a short clip, accompanied by an OST track, made by a fan of the korean drama – Man from the Vineyard (too lazy to type the chinese title today). Enjoy.

300

Watched 300 yesterday. It has to be the best movie I have watched thus far this year. Just want to share the trailer with anyone who has yet to watch it. Gonna get myself the graphic novel when the next paycheck comes.