Finally, the wait ended

Since clicking the payout button in October, after a month's wait, the much anticipated envelope finally came in early December. Overly enthusiastic, I didn't notice the cheque was not signed by anybody and alas! the cheque was rejected by the bank when I tried to bank the cheque in. Nuffnang got wind of this and I was promised a replacement cheque.
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After another month's wait, another envelope arrived, but, something was not right. I discovered that someone has ripped my envelope opened and empty of its content before I did!!

I so wanted to cry foul and call the police to catch that person up, but with no inking who was this inconsiderate person, I had to call Nuffnang up again to ask for another replacement cheque. (I think that the Nuffnang people must have been complaining non-stop why are they so unlucky to deal with my case.) =p So, after another month's wait, another envelope arrived again. Having double check its content and the cheque itself, everything doesn't seem amiss. Hope nothing will come out along the way to trouble me anymore~

Set-back

Sniffing H2S for almost half a day can get a person high....

Pre - CNY Class Reunion Dinner

Though not many people turn up due to last minute commitment, but, to sit together once again updating one another and remembering the past, it was still a wonderful feeling. How long has it been? A good 10 years? Time really flies since we last meet each other =)

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Venue: Noble House Restaurant (5 Shenton Way #06-13 UIC Building)

Website: http://www.noblehouse.com.sg/ The restaurant was nicely decorated with an oriental theme. If you are early, fret not, there is a guest room where you can sit down in the comfortable cushion and drowned yourself in the nice ambient.
As our stomach are growling, we quickly placed our orders and the food was served in near record time. We did not get to wait long, perhaps 10-15 minutes and all our orders are served at once! Good service indeed, not to forget that the waiter who served us was pretty polite and nice. All the food on menu was pretty nice, which in my opinion was above average standard.
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Some recommendations to must try:

1. 蒸 / 炸曼头 Steamed / Deep-fried Bun
2. 麻婆豆腐 Sautéed Beancurd in Spicy Sauce
3. 日式三文鱼刺身 Salmon Sashimi
4. 招牌麦片虾 Deep-fried Prawns with Crispy Oats
5. 虾子虾仁煎蛋 Fried Egg with Shrimps
6. Peking Duck

However, I have one dish in the restaurant that I must advised not to ever try:

1. 海鲜粒炒饭 Fried Rice with Dried Seafood

Why? This is because I find that the rice was pretty hard, pretty dry and definitely doesn't taste nice at all. After eating one mouth, I decided to give it a skip and forfeit the whole dish altogether.

For dessert, I would recommend their mango pudding. It was rich in mango taste, soft and it was serve cold!! Simply sadup! =)

Last but not least, hope that in this new year, everyone will 捞的风生水起!! Huat arh~!

Rate: 7.5/10

Singapore Budget 2009

With great anticipation, the budget was finally announced at 330pm today. The Singapore government is really looking hard at shoring up its economy as the policy announced are really drastic and quite out of my expectation. The biggest gain would probably be the companies in Singapore, though Singaporean will also manage to get some sweet deals. Here are some of the highlights:

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For households:

1. 1 additional payout for the GST offset package is announced to be paid on 1st March 2009, on top of one that are scheduled to be given out in July 2009.
2. 1 additional month of Service and Conservancy Charges (S&CC) Rebates
3. A personal income tax rebate of 20% (capped at $2,000)
4. A 40% property tax rebate

For more information, you can click here.

For the companies:

1. Employers will receive a 12% cash grant on the first $2,500 of each month’s wages for each employee on their CPF payroll.
2. The Government will be expanding recruitment. In total, 18,000 public sector jobs (including Government-supported jobs outside of the Government in areas such as childcare, tertiary education, and restructured hospitals) are expected to be available over the next two years. This includes about:
   7,500 jobs in teaching positions and teaching support staff;
   4,500 health care professionals and hospital administrative staff;
   1,400 jobs for the Home Team;
   2,000 jobs for MINDEF (including the SAF); and
   2,600 for the rest of the Public Service.

For more information, you can click here.

As for me, all these doesn't really concern me except that I will be receiving hong baos from the government in March and July!!! Hurray!! I hope that with this stimulation, Singapore will walk out of this crisis fast, as I will be graduating soon and jobs are not that easy to find...

Final timetable

Yes, this will be my final timetable for this semester. Looks very slack right? No... course the rest of the time, I will be singing FYP-ing in my lab. Greatttt..... -.-!

What a tiring week!

I feel totally drained out now.... Lets recap how I have spend my 1st week of school!

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Monday

Spent the whole day in lab preparing internal standards and blast furnace-ing my catalyst at 800C. Finally left my lab at 930pm.

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Tuesday

Went to school for lesson before meeting *mds* =)

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Wednesday

Went to St John's Island early in the morning to look at how well is my algae growing and checking on their optical density. Imagine just a week ago, I am scrupling this tank with my PHD student the whole day to clean up all the foreign algae that have been left there happily growing for 3 years?? YUCKS!!! Thursday

Going to school from 4-9pm with no breaks. Saying hi to Malay 1 at arts!

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Friday

Most likely FYP-ing again....

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Who says I am slack?? I want to faint now...

Ip Man (eep.mun)

Synopsis: Adapted from the life story of Ip Man - the grand master of the Wing Chun style of kung fu and sifu of legendary kung fu superstar Bruce Lee. This movie will be the first important record of the master's life. Ip's persistent devotion to Wing Chun is a classic example of the love and respect shown to wushu and the freedom and spirit it represents. Ip Man is a concept, a spirit, a way of thinking - and it exemplifies a new peak in Hong Kong's wushu movies. [Source: Yahoo! Singapore Movies]

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It has been such a long time since I stepped into a cinema, perhaps a month ago? Frankly speaking, I went into the cinema without any high expectation for this movie, treating it as any normal kung fu fighting show. However, I was proved totally wrong. The movie not only has a great plot, the main character emotions and thoughts was also well moulded. For the fighting scene, it was greatly entertaining and realistic. A great salute to the grand master of Wing Chun style, for his noble character to stand up to enemies and uphold righteousness without fear!

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Rate: 4/5
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After the movie, it was time for a good dinner of...

Sambal Kang Kong
Sambal Sting Ray!! Simply delicious

Wii to the dawn

Spent the New Year Eve Wii-ing to the dawn at Perry house. Now I know why Wii can be so addicting~! Just had my interim FYP presentation. Fortunately, all goes well. =)

Ting Yuan Fish Head Hotpot / CAC Outing

@ 22 Liang Seah Street

.With a healthy selection of soup base (chicken broth [this tasted like the Maggie chicken favor instant noodle, which is a no go], Sichuan hot & sour soup [in my opinion, it was not bad, with just the correct sour-ness and spicy-ness] and the Mala soup), this shop is recommended by Fabian to us for dinner. For a price of just $21, you get to select from a menu of over 20++ variety of food to go with your soup. I would be recommending their wontoon, meat ball, pig's liver and fishes (which is very big in quantity). For those prawn lovers, you can eat to your fill by ordering as much plates of prawns as possible but too bad for me, I didn't want to peel prawn that day, so I didn't eat it.

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For their drinks, it is not included in the packages and are considered additional charges. You can order by a glass which sets you back by around $2/$3, or alternatively you can ordered a jug for $6 which can typically fill around 4 glasses.

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Services and ambiance wise, I think that there are still rooms for improvement. There are only 3 people attending to the whole shop (which is not enough) and once orders start coming in, it can become quite chaotic. From my seat, I keep feeling tiny droplets of water falling on my skin throughout my dinner time in the shop, which I highly suspected came from the air-conditioning above my head. For the decoration of the shop, I think I do not need to speak further since there isn't any to talk about in the first place. However, overall, I find it quite an enjoyable experience.

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Rate: 6/10

After dinner was spent walking around searching for a good place for dessert. We finally settled in NYDC, catching up with each other and pinching one another in the process to see which one has the nicest feeling to pinch~ lol