• Bak Kwa – quite possibly the greatest pork snack ever created. Sweet, fatty and utterly delicious.
• Yu Sheng – raw salmon together with yummy veggies and topped with a sweet dressing… the right way to start your reunion dinner.

While reading the Wikipedia entry for Chinese New Year, I noticed something interesting:

Red envelopes traditionally consisted of amounts which were considered multiples. Amounts like $2 (two pieces of $1), or $20 were acceptable. Similarly “multiples” such as $1.10 and $2.20 were also acceptable. However, this is not strictly adhered to. The gift was originally a token amount but these days it is not uncommon to receive large sums in affluent families. In some families this tradition has evolved into the practice to substituting money-like instruments (stocks, bonds, unit trust) in place of large sums of cash.

Imagine getting stocks in your red packet! I can just imagine the conversation, “Gong Xi Fa Cai, here are some stock options for Google. Have fun with your windfall!”. Then again, you might receive Livedoor shares instead.

It’s interesting to check out all the SAF bases. Paya Lebar Air Base has a lot of green discreet buildings all over the place… very sneaky.

Here’s some cool stuff I found…

My home haha… the one with the weird shaped swimming pool. It’s Castle Green BTW… haven’t been home in 3 years… sigh.

Jalan Kayu prata is either just below that mass of clouds, or hidden by it. I miss prata.

The 2 schools that I could find. ACJS was hidden beneath a swarm of clouds.
EDIT: I found ACJS!!!

ACS(I), with ITE below it

ACJC, with Fairfield Methodist below it

National Stadium and Indoor Stadium

Durian balls… Esplanade

Junction of Scotts Rd and Orchard Rd, you can see Tang’s quite clearly

Turf Club

Piracy haven…. Holiday Plaza in JB haha!

This is just great, I’m here and there’s a Carl’s Jr there. Sigh. I don’t know why the Pacific Northwest has such a lack of great fast food. Gimme In-N-Out Burger and Carl’s Jr and I’m a happy camper. Maybe there’s too many tree-huggers/vegans/politically correct people here!

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A young Singaporean man has been granted a deferment from military service so he can take part in an international computer games competition, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. In the first such a case in Singapore — where military service is compulsory and lasts two years — 20-year-old Stanley Aw was allowed to postpone national service by nearly two months so he could compete in the World Cyber Games.

“In line with the Government’s support for sports, culture and the arts, the Ministry of Defense will consider granting one-time deferments for pre-enlistees who are selected to represent Singapore at prestigious international sports and cultural events,” the Straits Times quoted a spokesman as saying.

The city-state — which has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world — wants to boost its computer-games industry and has organized a host of gaming activities and courted game developers to set up shop on the island.

About 600 people will take part in the Singapore leg of the World Cyber Games competition from Thursday to Sunday. In the finals, which will be held in Singapore in November, some 800 players from 70 countries will compete.

Man this is just crazy. Why didn’t have things like this back then? Who would have thought playing games would be so productive. If you told my parents that playing Nintendo and Sega all day would earn me money and make me famous, they’d probably have a heart attack.