35th BTACC Annual CNY Gathering '08

2nd 35th BTACC Annual CNY Gathering '08

It's here again!!! Yes! The much anticipated 35th Basic Target Acquisition Commander Course (a specialised Artillery Commander Course) Annual Chinese New Year Gathering.

Hey Guys! I've uploaded the photos of our event on Facebook. For those who have a Facebook account already, go to:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19879&id=590478201&ref=mf

For those who DO NOT, please crawl down from the mountain/crawl out of the well/ or crawl out of whatever hole you've been hiding in.. ok?

We gathered at Eugene Fu's place as usual. But this year.. it was much different... we had Barbeque (BBQ aka 'Barbie'). There were chicken wings, shrimps etc.. and HOT DOGS (in Joel's hand)..

Joel with his Hot friend, Zach.Hmm.. is my name Zack or Zach?
Hehe.. ensuring Zach/Zack has his water parade.

As usual, I waited for the food to be ready as I'm almost hopeless at BBQs.. save for EATING and drinking.

After satisfying our hunger, we had some time for male + animal bonding:

Clockwise: Daxuan (in blue), Joel, Galvin, Eugene Fu, Samuel (with dog), Collin and Wee Hian.

Not shown: Captain Ong Wan Keong and Wife, who also graced the event.

Finally, my dear BUDDY, LTA Ray Tay has arrived... in Style!

Chef Weehian, with the help of Charlene prepares the traditional CNY 'Yu Sheng'.

Just look at the different ingredients in our Yu Sheng.

Guess we're bound to 'HUAT' (fa, or get lucky) this year.

Before the 'Lou Hei' (traditional tossing of the Yu Sheng)

*click* LOU HEI VIDEO *click*

The Aftermath of Lou Hei:

Everyone was in high spirits...

Check out the Instant Reminescence Function of the modern video cam:

After the excitement, we went up to Eugene's place:

C'mon boy'..

"Play Laid"

And it was time for soccer.. Man U vs Arsenal... In which Man U won by 4-0.

After that, we played Indian Poker and finished an Absolut Vodka Bottle. No no footage/photograph available due to nature of the activity and graphic content which may be deemed offensive to certain people.

Cant wait to return to Singapore next CNY for our Gathering again. Till then guys!

Singaporean Optometric Gathering (8,9,10th Grad Batch) - THE HIDDEN FOODIE ISSUE!

Ying Thai 2
110 Lygon St
Carlton 3053 VIC
Phone: (03) 9639 1697

This is one of the very rare occasions where we get to meet up like that. Lenny, my senior (Jasmine's batch: 2004 Graduation Batch, 8th Optometry Batch) Singapore Poly Optometry Course, happened to be in town that day (flew down from Queensland) , so we decided to have a mini gathering! Dion (same batch as Jasmine and Lenny) planned everything so we simply tagged along lah..

Instead of harping on the nitty gritty of our gathering, I shall skip straight to what matters.. The FOOD!

This place has been highly recommended by Aussie locals (thanks mates!) and I know why.. As the name suggests.. It serves delicious thai cuisine in a strangely nursery like setting..

The Main Entrance:

They offer Al-fresco style dining too:

So colouful! :

Kids in background playing Singapore Kampong games?

Hao Na and Rachel.

Hao Na and Cutie-Cutie.

HaoNa, Rachel and Carolyn.

(Kids playing Gasing (Gah-Seng) in background!)

Handsome fella in middle is Dion.

I admit, I don't exactly look my best here.

Did I mention he was an Air Force Officer?

Notice the warm and cosy home-like setting..

From Left: Jasmine, Dion, Lenny

They even have authentic Chang (Elephant, in Thai) Plates.

Alright that's all folks. This is not a true foodie issue.. simply because I forgot to take pics of what we ate.. But the Green Curry was absolutely FANTASTIC! I have no idea where they got the ingredients from, it tastes really good, by Australia standards.

Further down the street..

Il Dolce Freddo

Ph: (03) 9639 3344; 116 Lygon St, CARLTON 3053

Gelati Time!! It has always been standard practice amongst foodies to have lunch at Ying Thai2 followed by ice-cream at Il Dolce Freddo..

Look at the winter crowd..

Business is brisk here! They even offer *gasps* DURIAN ICE CREAM!!!

I had the Ferrero Roche Ice cream, it was very awesome. The sell ice-cream exactly the same was as Tom's Palette (Shaw Towers, Singapore), choose a cup size, cone or waffle. And any 2 ice-cream.

'La Fruita Passione'

Farewell Dinner (NS) 060707

Guess I'm not the only one leaving.. My friend, weatherman Eugene Fu from my battalion is also going to Australia to study as well. He's headed for UNSW in Sydney - Yes, THE uni which Asia Campus in Singapore was shut down due to poor enrolment and colossal losses. But that does NOT mean that UNSW is not a good educational institute !

What you see on top is Eugene and I, shamelessly flaunting our 'Farewell Gifts'. Well, its actually a picture of our 35th BTACC Commissioning batch. I'm nt authorised to tell you what BTACC stands for, if I tell you, I'll have to kill you... with cheese. Just know that we are all Army Lieutenants who had recently just become 'operationally ready' together.

Dinner was at Swissotel *wow* Merchant Court *chey* but it was pretty good! Ellenborough Market (where's that?) is the name of the buffet restaurant. It's an International buffet (hardly though), focussing mostly on local food, mainly chinese food. However, they do provide fresh sashimi, raw oysters, scallops and cooked octopus. One thing I really loved about this place is their DESSERTS section. They feature their speciality Durian Pengkat (Durian mousse) and lots of local delights. They also had a 5-tiered chocolate fondue fountain which was really sinful. Not a bad place to bring your ang-moh (caucasian) friends to sample the local flavour.

The whole dinner event was a very successful one. Many thanks out to Kuah Weehian for organising the event, and the rest for both the farewell gift and simply 'being present'. It's just too bad that my NS buddy, LTA Ray Tay (the only one who *gasp* *signed-on) could not make it as he was overseas.. As usual, we left out one person.. you know who you are.. Mike. Oops, did I think that out aloud.. with cheese?

*sign on - these 2 words when used together in Singapore, means to voluntarily enter the regular force of a given Uniformed group, usually the Singapore Armed Forces. E.g. Hey, so how? Have you found a job yet? Not yet? Then you better sign on man!
After dinner, most of them left.. the only 'stayers' are Collin (pink..as usual), Joel(black), Weehian(red). Xiaoping joined us after dinner. From Clarke Quay, we headed down to Prinsep St. to Mind Cafe. A really niche cafe whereby board and card game lovers frequently gather and frolic happily while sitting in a circle.
Game of the day: I'm the Boss!
Rules are simple. Find investors, seal the deal and make money. Player with most money at the end of the game wins. We stayed there till.. nearly 2am, before we finally could bear to part..(mainly because we got the 2 hr package so we couldnt leave until our time was up).

We had a really great time. At the end of the day.. I was feeling.. suprisingly sad. It was like, I didnt realise that after this 1.5 yrs together, the bond I've forged with these guys have become so strong! Not one who is good at farewells, I simply shook their hands and bid them a quiet good bye. See you guys in June 08!