Really… and all within minutes. And shame on the phone coverage provided, Singtel!

I once stayed with a dude from Down Under and a Frenchman in an apartment as a university student in London. My Aussie mate decided on a random evening that he would be preparing all of us the ‘greatest tasting food in the world’ for dinner. He spent a good 15 minutes in the kitchen and came back with humble looking toasted sandwiches for me and Monsieur Frenchy.

What came after the first bite was intense horror. Vegemite sandwiches! We told Aussie Mate frankly that it was one of the worst things we’ve ever tasted. He didn’t believe us and we decided to take whatever was left on our plates (a lot) and conducted a UN referendum with the other international students living in the same building.

• The UK abstained (England and Wales in favour, the Scot violently objected, which meant a deadlock)
• NZ voted a “maybe…”
• Switzerland, China, Sweden, Greece, Italy, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Luxembourg, India, Spain, Germany, France, Nigeria, Indonesia wrinkled their noses and gave a ‘Hell No!’ in their native languages

A few years have passed, and a supermarket in Singapore has finally got the right approach to selling Marmite and Vegemite. This monstrosity belongs in the pharmacy area. Like medical products, they may be good for the body (purportedly nutritious?), but it doesn’t taste remotely good (to most people).

Marmite on a Pharmacy rack

My simple mind tells me it is pronounced as "Cook The Asses"

Oh those marketing people from Japanese confectioners… How I love their sense of humour. More please!

P/S: I know this is kinda inappropriate but I have to be objective here – these D’asses biscuits are quite tasty. 

A traditional steamboat party

Ah, Chinese New Year. What’s a good CNY celebration without a good old fashioned steamboat dinner with a large group of friends and family?

There were lots of eating, laughing, and gossips, but something happened along the way. The time-in-memorial tradition of having a traditional steamboat evolve from the above scene…to this…

6 bottles which made it, and 9 unruly people shunning my camera

What happened soon after was 6 empty bottles of wine that came from different parts of the world. It was a crazy night that lasted all the way through 5am.

It wasn’t fatigue that ended the party. It was the thought of having enough sleep to act normal again the next day that did.

A great house dinner party none the less!

"I laugh at you, pitiful human....Ha! Ha! Ha!"

A sniggering camel in Dubai….Not a pretty sight. Hilarious though.

Dubai World Biggest Ring

I stumbled upon this peculiar item in a gold shop at Dubai’s gold souq. The gold shop was so shiny, I had to wear sunglasses when window shopping (note to self:  patent gold-glasses that also function as 3D glasses). Look what I found – the world’s largest ring!

What do I think about it? Well, I think it’s cheating really. The ring’s as wide as a car tire and no one can really wear this golden accessory on any part of the body! A gold hula hoop perhaps?

Nevertheless, it’s an amazing object. And amazingly, there’s relatively scarce security measures to protect this massive chunk of gold.

KL Petronas Twin Towers POWER UP!

For the Command and Conquer fans – The towers look like two Tesla Coils built next to each other huh?

Mmmmm.....Chow time

Let me discuss in particular about blood and gore in video games. Like many other teenagers of my time, I love the messy kills in video games even with the vividness of the SNES (16 bit pride! ). Now that I’m in my twenties, I wasn’t keen on firing up my PS3 to survive the horror on Dead Space 2 with my HDTV after 11pm. I’m reckoned that scaring the living wits out of myself so close to bedtime would disrupt my sleep pattern. Actually the truth is, and as much as I hate to admit it, I think I’ve grown a little timid. *shameful and frowny face* (there’s no emoticon for this)

And so, I chose the delightful activity of drinking a glass of milk and reading a travel guide on Istanbul instead in my bed. I’m heading to Turkey in two weeks’ time to engage in some outdoor adventure sports! I think I should still have courage for those things.

Update: Some grown ups, non-gamers presumably, are just outright sad about such games. Like these Moms’. Watch their reactions on the exact same game I was a little scared to play in the middle of the night.