Bollywood Veggie

While making a documentary for Channel News Asia, my friend met the owner of a local farm, Ivy Singh-Lim.(http://www.bollywoodveggies.com) Her story on how she and her husband went about venturing into this was rather interesting. My friend liked the place so much that he organised a trip down to the farm on sunday for his few urban friends (3 girls, one boy & me).

The location was somewhere in Kranji, we have to wait 25 mins at Kranji mrt stn for the only bus that would take us in right to its doorstep, 925.

Although it was 10am, the sun was brutal and scorching. The girls happily paraded with their umbrellas, while I started my shutter spree.


Damn, the only things I know abt veggies are; they are green and leafy... as for their names, forget it. I was like walking around "Yah yah, I ate this before, that one too..."

Farmers hard at work.....

No idea what this is, kinda looks like chilli right?

There were many planks/pieces of wood around the farm, they were used for things like signages, walkway, stumps for sitting, etc. The owners felt that Singaporeans were throwing away too much wood, so they will often salvage whatever they can and bring it back to the farm to recycle it.

There's quite a nice lotus pond at the end of the farm, I think I also saw some koi or similar fishes in the pond. Managed to spot several kind of uncommon birds, yellow, blue.... oh what do u call a blue bird in hokkien? heh heh.....


One of my friend who arrived later, happened to lived in a big house with her grandma. Her grandma planted many similar plants including those that most of us have not heard abt. So she gave us some 'tour guiding' as we continued to walk ard. Noni fruit? Supposedly very good for your body but taste horrible!

After trotting ard for a while, we headed back to the guest house for lunch.

And passed by this beautiful maze of plants.

The lunch wasn't great, we had omelette (taste bland), chicken curry (too oily), veggie curry (too diluted), Kangkong (also bland) and spring rolls (this is yummy) with rice. But at least the dessert was good, we had banana fritters with sesame (solid yummy) and some kuehs (soft and tasty) and banana cake (moist, fluffly and tasty). Click on the following photo and check out the amount of oil in the chicken curry....

The place was crowded when we left, probably a lot of sua kus like me who wants to kaypoh and see how a farm is like. Bet most of them haven't got a clue what a Noni fruit is too. :)

Grades

Got my grade for my clinical practical and theory test this afternoon, it was a sweet A overall! I knew I did well for my practical test, guess I didn't do too shabbily for my theory test.

I have classmates who are very particular with their grades, and it will almost drive them bonkers if they ever found out that you got an A or B without studying. Even for presentations, when my group got an A, there will be those "like that also can get A?" looks displayed on some of their faces, but should we messed up, they will snigger happily like they have just won the lottery.

The fact is for this last semester, I didn't expect to get good grades. Reason is, I'm tired, tired of studying and having no time to indulge in my personal hobbies. One of my classmate commented that she would feel bad if she didn't give her all in her studies. I mean honey, if that means that you are ok with sacrificing other parts of your life in order to get an A or distinction grade, I'll say YOU GO GIRL! For me the answer is a big NO! I want to strive towards a balance of the two, if this means I will get a C, so be it. :)

My New Love

"We met just before chinese new year (CNY), a friend introduced us. We spent our first night together in my cosy room on CNY eve, it was better than what I had expected and I never felt like this before. And after CNY, our relationship took on to another new level......my new projector..... :P"

It really changed my home movie viewing experience, one word "SHIOK". Although it will never replace the experience in the cinemas with the ultra big screens, it is close enough. I have since watched many movies with it and little did I know that I will enjoy the classic My Fair Lady so much! Audrey Hepburn is simply captivating!

Still, this new relationship doesn't come cheap but trust me, it's worth every penny. I even made my own temporary screen using mahjong paper and some wooden sticks. here are some pics;

Long lost friend

I bumped into one of my secondary school classmates during work last weekend. It was kinda strange at first, as we have not met for at least 15 years! There was 3 of us who always hangout together, we used to gather to watch movies after school, etc. As we spoke, all the memories came flooding back, can't believe it was actually abt 20 years ago....

He has just started in his new job as a social worker with a non profit organisation and was in the area to gather some information. We exchange contacts and agree to get the other classmate together for dinner to catch up on our respective lifes. Oh, the other guy is now an air steward.

Imagine, a social worker, an air steward and a student nurse.... it will be definitely be an interesting dinner.

IT show

Was at the IT show just now and saw that the projector that I bought was at a special offer which is $200 cheaper that what I paid for.... :( damn heartache siah.....

But come to think of it, it helped me thru my presentations and gave me one blissful month plus of home entertainment. (boy, do i look at the glass half full!) So cannot complain liao lah, I hope my classmates appreciate it also.

But.... I'm still human, so here goes;
"*%#@!~**^&**%$#^&@*%#@!~**^&**%$#^&@*%#@!~**^&**%$#^&@*!!!!!"

Ok, much better now, ha ha. :)

Bloody blood test

For the active NS men who are 35, we'll have to go for a mandatory blood test to determine if we are fit for subsequent IPPT or something like that.

First of all, my camp is bloody far. Heard of Sungei Gedong? No? How abt Lim Chu Kang cemetery? It takes abt one and a half hour for me to get there, via train and then bus.

At the medical centre, I was then told to go to the treatment room and have my blood taken. When I went into the the room (quite a big room), I could see all of them crowding round the computer which was at the opposite corner facing the entrance, they were like totally engrossed in whatever was on the screen(the infamous NYP flick?). I have to make some noise like clearing my throat to get notice.

Sat down and two guys came over, I even have to remind them to take down my particulars. Guy A then told the other to draw my blood for HIV antibodies test, I was like huh? I question him and he said that it was routine for ORD, ORD(Run out date, for those who finish serving their 2 years National Service)? I have to remind him that I was here for glucose(sugar) and lipids(fats) test and not HIV test. Thinking back it was rather complimentary cos they thought that I had just ORD leh, which means I look really youthful, ha ha.... OK, ok not to digress...

Then came the annoying part, guy B is terrible at taking blood. He had to 'poke' me three times on both arms and the initial attempt was painful! He remarked that it was due to the collaspe of my vein,what BS! He can still machiam pretend to be very professional. Guy A took over on the third attempt and managed to get what was required, nahbeh! And in the end, I have to ask them for plasters! Even the plasters were of inferior quality, it came off and could hardly stay in place after I walked out of the camp.

Lets see what will happen during next week's follow up....