随笔（2）- 木头人之歌

近来有机会与一木头人接触。 既是木头，面目本来没有什么表情，造物主就将一个微笑的面具挂在了他的面上， 让他永远看起来都是笑呵呵的，永远重复的都是一样的笑容，哀，怒，乐，都是木头人不能表达的感情。 爱，那是不能说的秘密，那是一种只能永远藏在木头人心中的情感。

木头人渴望别人的关心，渴望别人的注意，渴望别人的爱，而木头人却总是与自己的意愿背道而驰，说伤人的话，做伤人的事。  为什么呢？ 他要维护他的面具，他的尊严，无谓的所谓的尊严。 所谓的尊严的背后，是一颗怕受伤的心， 脆弱的心。

木头人啊，  木头人， 敞开你的心扉吧。 你可能会遇到冷嘲热讽，不过更多的会是关怀与关爱, 枯木也会逢春。

随笔（1）

岁月无声，悄悄地光阴就晃过去了三十多年。 当年也就因为懵懂少年怕冬天里没有热水洗澡，而那个时代的中国大学都没有热水这么简单的原因，懵懂少年就下南洋，到了永远都不用担心没热水的天堂。 可能这就是所谓的心想事成吧？



学生时代常读古人的教训，孔夫子的逝者如斯夫，岳武穆的白了少年头，空悲切，天天提醒自己要珍惜时间，但偏偏一个又一个的十年从眼前晃过去。 十年前事几番新，周围的人有的已回归自然的怀抱，更多的已成社会的中流砥柱，人中豪杰，用自己的双手谱写未来的历史。懵懂少年却只知道刘德华的一首《笨小孩》，人将近中年，却保持着一颗童心，用好奇的眼光看这个他看不懂的世界。



学生时代喜爱语文课，它带你去领略中华五千年的灿烂文化，很有一种站在巨人肩膀上的感觉；教人真理的政治课也不错，人类历史斗争吵吵闹闹好不精彩；英文课让人在那能讲几句洋文就似乎高人一等的年代可以自以为是一下。 数，理，化，生，真的是好闷好闷，公式背得然人的脑袋发晕。懵懂了一番之后，却发现所谓真理其实在那无聊的 数，理，化，生之中，精彩的，轰轰烈烈的，反而多了许多的修饰，许多的美化，太虚无，太飘渺，如佛经所说，如梦幻泡影，如露亦如电。

Sinma Live Seafood Restaurant@Geylang

Sinma Live Seafood Restaurant is a popular seafood haunt for the locals, tucked in a small corner in Geylang Lorong 3.

It is called a 'restaurant', but actually is more of a coffee shop Chi Char type of food haunt.  The business seems to have grown over the years, now it occupies two corner shops on both sides of the road on ground floor, plus a air-con dining area on the 2nd floor.  Looking around, you find most of the patrons are local Singaporeans, or people who live nearby.  They come here for the restaurant's famous dishes, including crab & their frog-leg porridge.

We ordered quite a number of dishes, including of course their signature dishes chilli crab, frog-leg porridge plus deep-fried Soon Hock fish, plus some vegies.

Here is the Soon Hock fish.  The guys started eating before I managed a photo, so that's the minus side of eating with all guys :(   The fish is quite fresh, and although it is deep fried, the meat remains flesh and tender.  It is not dry, but the out shell is very crispy.  The down-side is the fish is not very big in size, so it is finished in a much shorter time than I had expected.

Their vegies dishes are quite standard, cooked with lots of oil, so if you are health conscious, you may not like it too much, however, in terms of taste, their vegie dishes can get at least a pass.

The chilli crab came as a surprise to us.  Two giant crabs came to our table.  They use Sri Lanka crabs, so the shell is thick and hard.  But, their chilli crab is not really spicy, more toward the sweet side, rather than spicy hot side.  Freshness of the crabs are ok, at least better standard than No Sign Board Seafood.

The disappointment is actually the frog-leg porridge.  For non-Singaporeans, when someone mentions frog-leg porridge, they may think the frog leg and the porridge is together, but it is not, not in Singapore.  The frog legs and the porridge are cooked separately, and you only mix them together in your own bowl.

Now, let's talk about the porridge first.  The porridge has not much taste, and it is not the well-done type of porridge, how do I know?  I just know it, or my taste buds just know it.  Then the frog legs are too spicy.  The chilli crab is not spicy, but the frog-leg is.  The dry chilli they use is so strong that I choked a couple of times.  After finish eating the frog legs, my lips were still hot!  The frog legs somehow lacks in tenderness and sweetness.

In terms of service, it is a coffee shop, manned by mostly mainland Chinese workers, so don't expect outstanding services.  They didn't give up the cracking tool for eating crabs, and it took them a long time for them to bring one when asked.  They will only change your plates upon request, so if you are choosy about service standards, then don't go there, it is not that kind of place.

My rating: 3.5/5 (by coffee shop standard)

Mastering Trading Stress - Strategies for Maximizing Performance

Title: Mastering Trading Stress - Strategies for Maximizing Performance
Author: Ari Kiev
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc

It is a book on the psychology size of trading.  The author examines the different aspects of trading stress, the common mistakes traders make.

Although it is a rare book on trading psychology, the author spends too big a portion of the book on case studies, and the case studies are mostly conversations between the author and the trader in question.

In the last two chapters of the book, the author introduces some practical tips that you can apply to manage your stress.

Tang Shifu@Bukit Indah Jusco

Last time at Tebrau Jusco (see my previous blog about Tang Shifu here), I didn't have the opportunity to try out Tang Shifu's set meals, so this time I grapped the opportunity to give it a try.

I ordered the Zhuang Yao Tang (壮腰汤) set meal.  It includes a Du-Zhong (杜仲) soup, a small bowl of brown rice and two small little side dishes of pork & black bean.

Black bean is good for blood, brown rice is good for your digestion system, the Du-Zhong soup is good for your kidney.  It is specially good for people who lead a sedentary life, with little or no exercises at all.

In terms of taste, it is not bad.  The soup is thick in taste and smell of Du-Zhong.  The pork tastes a bit like Bak Kut Teh, melts in your mouth.  Black bean, unfortunately is always hard, no matter how you cook it.

At RM 18.80, it is value for money.  You can't expect to have immediate effects on your body, making you a strong man/woman instantly, but it does help those busy people who have no time to cook some nutritious soup to nourish their body get a quick fix.

The service is just so-so, although they still charge you a 10% service charge.

My rating: 3/5

Kinsahiya Japanese Restaurant@Bukit Indah Jusco, JB

We had lunch at Kinsahya Japanese Restaurant at Bukit Indah Jusco.  The restaurant has some funny deco, can't really tell what kind of style it is.

I don't know why they want to use such big ropes as deco, to warn customers if they don't pay up, they will be tied up :P  Just joking.

I ordered the Yakitori, which is grilled chicken in a stick.  The chicken is way too dry and hard, not juicy at all. To compensate for the lack of juice, they put a lot of sauce on the chicken.  The sauce is not too bad, I must say.

Price: RM 7.90

Another dish I ordered is Shisamo, which is grilled fish.  I can't really tell what kind of fish it is, but the taste is not bad.  There is a lot of fish roe, and meat is good.  If they can serve the fish really too, right off the grill, I think it would be better.  Anyway, it is already not too bad.

RM 11.90

My main is Zaru soba, which is cold Japanese wheat noodle.  The main came after much delay.  According to the waiter, their first attempt was not successful, and they had to do it again.  Ok, never mind.

RM 13.00

When the soba came, I was a bit surprised.  The soba they use is smaller in size comparing with the normal Japanese wheat noodle I am used to.  The soy sauce they provide is more healthy (read 'less salty').

Oh, I forgot about the appetizer.  The appetizer is egga wasbi mayo.  It is a mixture of egg white and some vegies.

RM 5.00

Overall, I will give them a 3.5/5.  It is not too bad for that kind of price.  It is top class, but quite acceptable.  The environment is good too, especially for a few friends to gather together for some chit-chat.

Kinsahiya Japanese Restaurant
Lot F09, Aeon Bukit Indah
Email: kinsahi@tm.net.my
Tel: 07-234 8087

Jusco@Bukit Indah, JB

Went over to JB again today, but this time we took a different route.  Normally we would go by the causeway at  Woodlands, which is infamous for long long queues and traffic jams.  This time, we took bus CW3 from Jurong East bus interchange.  The bus goes to JB via 2nd link, which is at the western end of Singapore island.  2nd link, although it has been there for many years, the usage remains low due to its high costs.  For example, to go to Bukit Indah in JB via 2nd link costs S$4.00!  But the advantage is that you have almost no traffic jam (under normal situations), no queue at all the immigration, so everything goes like a breeze.

After the bus gets into Malaysia, it has a number of stops.  Bukit Indah is one of the major stops, and you will not miss it with its giant Jusco sign.

The Jusco building is actually a 3-story shopping mall, with Jusco as its anchor tenant.  There are many restaurants and various shops available in the mall too.  Nearby, you have Tesco and Giant hypermarts.  The bad thing is that there is no cinema in Jusco, too bad.  You can't have all your entertainment here under one roof.

The mall is not crowded at all.  You can wander around at your own pace.  When you are tired, you can sit down for a hearty meal, or just sip a cup of coffee while letting your tired feet have some rest.

The return bus fair from Bukit Indah to Jurong East is RM5.00, a 50% discount.  So overall transportation cost is not that bad.

However, be warned there isn't much around Bukit Indah Jusco, so if you find yourself can't really kill your time there, you can only choose to go to downtown JB, or take the CW3 bus home.

Anyway, it is good to know another place we can hang around :)

Tiger Airways Cancels Flights Again

It is the second day it came out in the news that Singapore-based budget airline - Tiger Airways has cancelled flights due to technical faults with two of its 19 A320 Airbus aircraft.  As usual, passengers are not informed, and the solution Tiger offered is less than satisfactory.  Passengers were given two options, one is to get a refund, two is to go on another (Tiger) flight.  Well, at least now is not any major holiday period, imagine if we buy a Tiger Airways ticket to go home for Chinese New Year, and they tell you the flight has been cancelled when you arrive at the airport, at some obscene time of the day, how would you feel?  Worse, you may not get an air ticket to get home to spend the new year with your family without burning a big hole in your wallet.

The purpose of getting a budget airline ticket is to save on the cost of traveling.  The budget airline's duty is to fetch passengers from point A to point B on time, although without all the 'good' services provided by normal airlines.  Now, budget airlines are getting more expensive, and the service is getting more unreliable, then what is the point?

It is also worrying news came out that after Tiger Airways' IPO, a key personnel in the Tiger management team sold off a significant amount of Tiger shares.  It should really get you thinking what is really behind such actions.

I am wondering when we will see an anti-Tiger Airways facebook group would surface... Sooner or later, it will, if there is no improvement.  Or, consumers will vote with their money.