KL

So we took a short family work vacation to KL in early March - 'work' for MJ who was there to attend a course, and vacation for my mum, meg and myself. Yen and I hadn't been to KL in years! We didn't have any vivid memories of it before our trip. It was Meg's first time there. There are two great things about KL. Food and Shopping. Period. I guess Singaporeans go there for these two 'activities'. We're no different. We didn't shop much but each of our meals was properly planned and well executed. Highly recommended are:
Madam Kwan's famous Nasi Lemak. Words can't describe this dish. All I can say is, if you only have one meal in KL, make sure this is it! Unfortunately, I don't have a pix of the dish, cos I dug into it as soon as it landed in front of me and didn't stop til I finished. Who could be bothered with photos?! Makan first! I actually forgot to snap a few shots.
Overseas Chinese Restaurant's (Jln Imbi branch) famous Char Siew. It's well grilled with burnt bits on some parts and its sauce is sweet and sticky. Very succulent and yummy! Must try! The food here is generally very good. We had good chicken soup as well. Just ask them to recommend the house dishes and you won't go wrong. I've read from other foodies' reviews that the fish is very pricey though, so we didn't order that.
Wendy's hamburgers. It's a real pity we don't have Wendy's here anymore. Someone please bring it back! I had my fill in the states (actually only a couple of times) and I just had to have at least one meal there in KL. There are quite a few branches and the burgers are the best! huge and juicy!
Little Penang Kafe's Char Kway Teow. Gotta wait at least 20 mins for this dish though, as stated in their menu. The food here is quite good, but not as good as the ones I've mentioned above.
Thanks to Kim Hoh for recommending all these places. I followed his tips to the T and each recommendation was superb! He is after all a KL boy!
The KLCC is a pretty awesome building, especially at night. It's lit up quite brilliantly and I didn't think it looked that great from the pictures I've seen of it. But standing at the foot of it, looking up, it does look magnificent.
My 'hiao' daughter posing with her flower taken from the hotel room. This is the food street, Jalan Alor, which my colleagues told me about. We did not eat there in the end as it was drizzling most nights when we were there, and it's a bit hard to eat roadside food with Meg.
There was a whole hoarde of what looked like construction workers taking an afternoon siesta in a small park just by the KLCC. It was quite a sight with all their hard hats strung on tree branches.
Well not everyone was sleeping.

Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve

People say that there's really nothing to do in Singapore, except eat and shop. I tend to agree, but there are gems like Sungei Buloh and Chek Jawa which I hope will be preserved for a long time to come. In fact, the Lim Chu Kang area should be left in its natural state, with as little development as possible. Already, developers have come in offering 'countryside getaways' and an 'agri-tainment centre' whatever that may be but more of these will just erode the peace and serenity of the area. Tall grass and dirt roads still exist, wild birds and dogs roam about, and there's the little seen and known site that is the BBC relay station. They have very cool antennae structures. Just take a drive along the Neo Tiew and Kranji areas and you'll know what I mean.

I'm trying to find out what fish these are. They are small and leap out of the water randomly. I've read on the net that they jump when there are predators in the water, like otters. Well, I've yet to see otters at SBWR! I'm quite happy with this picture. It's not pin sharp, but luck was with me in that the two fish leaped out at almost the same time and another had just landed on the water surface, creating that splash. Ok I wrote to the staff at SB and they've come back to say the fish are called halfbeaks. Further checks on the net say this: Oxyporhamphus micropterus, considered either a halfbeak or a flyingfish. You learn something new everyday!

The beautiful Stork-billed kingfisher. We witnessed it diving into the water in an attempt to catch its meal but 3 out of the 3 times it tried, it didn't manage to catch anything. Of course, neither did I manage to photograph its attempts!

Keen eyes trying to spot camouflaged fauna and flora.

Little egrets (actually they're not that little). These are the birds I see most often as I drive along the expressways, especially the TPE. They stand out too because of their colour.

The fiddler crab has a distinct large claw. They're pretty small but colourful! We were there at low tide and could see them in abundance on the mangrove bed, amongst other sealife like snakes, clams, mud crabs, mud creepers, leaf oysters, barnacles and lots lots more!

This huge mudskipper slip-slided along a puddle and stopped just long enough for me to snap its picture. They're actually fish, but are amphibious like frogs and can stay out of water most of the time. They can breathe through their skin and has gill chambers that trap water and act like air bags.

Indigo Girls Live at the Mosaic Festival

I attended the Indigo Girls concert last night (Monday) and it blew me away. The duo, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers brought the house down with their immaculate guitar skills and their first-rate, world class singing. This is why the concert business will never die. NOTHING can replace listening to good music and great singing LIVE. Not even the best recording on high end CDs heard on the best headphones can beat hearing the pure, crystal, rich sounds of artistes you love in the flesh, their voices reverberating in the wonderful Esplanade Concert Hall. I walked out of the concert on a high, after the duo performed like true artistes, entertaining their fans by giving their all, no holds barred.
I'm ashamed to say I did not know that many of the 15-odd songs they sang. But I love the five that I know pretty well and they performed four out of those five. I'm not a hardcore fan, but I loved the concert all the same. My all time favourite, 'Power of Two', which I first heard on the movie 'Boys on the Side' back in the 90s is still a song I love til this day. A little trivia : the Indigo Girls even made a cameo on the movie!
The crowd was a good one, though there were obviously many caucasians who attended. You've got to give it to them, they livened up the concert with their wolf whistles and enthusiastic responses to every song, which I'm quite sure spurred the duo on. I think they were quite surprised with the responsive fans in their first ever concert in Singapore. It made me regret a little that it almost always boils down to the ang mohs to let their hair down, get up and dance uninhibitedly while us locals just wiggle our butts in our seats. Well, cultural differences I suppose.
I'm so glad I managed to catch the once in a lifetime performance. MJ went with me. He's not a fan but enjoyed their guitar playing. The duo swapped guitars after every song and probably played more than 15 guitars between the both of them! Joyce and Lynda went too. We went for dinner at Gluttons Square after the concert. It was a really enjoyable evening.

A New Beginning...

For my blog, that is. We've been back home for 9 mths now, almost as long as my stay in the US. Do I miss it? You betcha...But home is here and it was great while it lasted. It's now time to look forward (I can still reminisce when things get dreary) and start anew. StephinBoston.blogspot still exists, but I won't update that anymore. This is my new blog. I was hesitant to start another one cos I know I won't be very diligent in updating it. However, I feel I must pen my thoughts every once in a while, when I have something to say, just to share, or vent. It's therapeutic. So this blog is as much for me as it is for you. I hope you find it interesting, and feel free to give me feedback. Peace....

I was looking for a suitable opening picture to use for my first blog and remembered this one I shot a few weeks back of the cross of the church of St Vincent de Paul at Yio Chu Kang Road. I try to shoot pix of crosses whenever I see one and hopefully before I die, I would've collected enough of them to make up one collage. The cross always symbolizes faith and hope, and I thought it an appropriate pix to start off with. One can never go wrong with God, right?