Shrimp Paste Pork Belly on Beancurd

I found this recipe on Youtube and tweaked it slightly. This dish was easy to prepare and not time consuming. 

Ingredients:

Pork belly 150g

Beancurd 1 pack (300g)

Ginger, cut into thin strips

Seasoning:

Sesame oil 1 tsp

Shrimp paste 1 tbsp

Light soy sauce 1/2 tsp

Wine 1 tsp

Sugar 1 tsp

Water 1 tsp

Steps:

1. I used the frozen pork belly bought from NTUC which were meant for Shabu Shabu. As they were already thinly sliced, I only need to cut it into slightely shorter/smaller pieces. After cutting, I put the pork belly in a bowl.

2. I used beancurd that was meant for steaming. I cut the beancurd into smaller pieces and placed it onto a plate that had some depth.

3. I added the ginger strips, sesame oil, shrimp paste, light soy sauce, wine, sugar and water to the pork belly and mixed them.

4. Next, I poured the marinated pork belly onto the beancurd.

5. Then, I placed the dish in my Tefal electric steamer and steamed for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, the dish was ready to be consumed. 

This dish was tasty and very appetizing :). 

《祖先保佑II》("Blessings 2")

Recently，I got to know that 《祖先保佑II》("Blessings 2") would be airing on MediaCorp channel 8, starting on 1 Oct 2018, 9 pm.

I had enjoyed watching 《祖先保佑I》("Blessings 1") which was shown on MediaCorp channel 8 in 2014. 《祖先保佑I》("Blessings 1") is currently airing on MediaCorp channel 8, at 5.30 pm. According to the trailer of 《祖先保佑II》("Blessings 2"), it would be Lian Daxi (starring Chen Hanwei) travelling back in time to help his ancestor (starring Sean Chen) to get married and establish his career.

Hope this sequel will be as good as, if not, better than part 1.

Related posts:

Episode 1 to 13 of 《祖先保佑》("Blessings")
Episode 14 to Episode 20 (Last Episode) of 《祖先保佑》("Blessings")

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Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing everyone a very Joyous and Wonderful Christmas!

Display Case for Small figurines/Toys

I have this drawer organizer which did not really fit well into any of my drawers. So, as I was reorganizing Sera's toys, I used it as a display case to showcase some of her "My Little Pony" figurines and "Disney Princess Magiclip" dolls.

《女汉子真爱公式》“The Rise of a Tomboy 2016"

Ardon and I watched 《女汉子真爱公式》“The Rise of a Tomboy 2016" on Youtube recently. This, being a romantic comedy, was hilarious at times and we enjoyed watching this movie. 

He Xiuwu (starring Zhao Liying) , a Masters degree student, believed that everything can be explained by Mathematics. Her Masters thesis was about finding the right mathematical formula for true love. She hoped that everyone could find true love during the prime of their years via the most accurate mathematical method. She believed in helping the most compatible people find the best love possible. 

Her dissertation was not approved by her professor, Maria. Maria asked Xiuwu to change the topic of her dissertation because Maria did not think that true love could be proved with a formula. Xiuwu refused to do so. Xiuwu was confident that her formula worked because she had experimented it on her roommate, Lily. 

However, when she found that things did not work out well for Lily and her boyfriend, Xiuwu decided to do the experiment on herself.

She did some calculations and found that she would find true love on 23 September, in Beijing, China.

So, she went back to Beijing. She met Liu Siyi (a man whom she had mistaken to be Lily's ex-boyfriend) in the airport. She took his luggage by mistake and subsequently ended up staying in his house. 

Xiuwu's friend recommended Xiuwu to work in a company to develop her "True Love Formula" into a smartphone app. Coincidentally, the manager of the company was Ge Yang. He was the boyfriend of Sun Qiao Qiao (the girl whom Liu Siyi was infatuated with). 

Things took a turn later and Ge Yang later broke off with Sun Qiao Qiao and started wooing Xiuwu. 

In the meantime, Siyi realized that he had fallen for Xiuwu. Xiuwu also realized that she had fallen for Siyi and was in a dilemma because the face of her true love that appeared from her True Love formula app was Ge Yang.

She chose Ge Yang as she wanted to stick to her principle of being rational in love. They seemed compatible as they both believed in the True Love formula. However, she was not truly happy and always felt uncomfortable whenever he professed his love for her.

She realized that Ge Yang was not the one for her and her formula might be wrong too. She decided to follow her heart and looked for Siyi. It turned out that Siyi was the son of her professor and they finally got together.

So did she really miscalculate? 

While I think love could not be calculated, I do think that one should still be rational to consider some important factors before taking the plunge.

Last Episode of "The Truth Seekers"

Last night was the last episode of "The Truth Seekers" .

There were quite a number of surprises that were slowly unraveled throughout the last few episodes.

As it turned out, neither Huang Deliang nor Bai Qingxiong was Huang Yuyang's biological father. Wang Kunxing was also not her father. So who was Yuyang's biological father? Drum roll...

It was Ye Rongtao (starring Guo Liang).

How did that happen in the first place?

Yuyang's maternal grandmother worked in a hotel owned by Rongtao's father. Rongtao fancied Xiulian in their younger days and he tried to date Xiulian but was rejected by her.

Huang Deliang, also an employee in the same hotel, promised to help him. He organized a party for all of them and got both Rongtao and Xiulian drunk. Rongtao ended up having a one night stand with Xiulian. Rongtao's father was subsequently blackmailed by Deliang constantly.

Anyway, Xiulian got pregnant and married Huang Deliang as she thought that the child was his. She only knew about the trap set up by Deliang and his friends when Yuyang was 12 years old. She tried to commit suicide but was saved by Wang Kunxing. From then on, Wang Kunxing helped her plan her revenge on Huang Deliang and his accomplice.

Wang Kunxing was resentful towards Xiulian and Qingxiong when Xiulian refused to accept his love after she met Qingxiong recently. He wanted to kill Xiulian and opened fire but Qingxiong shielded her from the bullet. The rest of the CCI members arrived to help Qingxiong and the police came in time to save them.

Related post :

Quote from Episode 13 of《真探》"The Truth Seekers"

Quote from Episode 13 of《真探》"The Truth Seekers"

《真探》"The Truth Seekers" is currently airing on MediaCorp channel 8, Mondays to Fridays, at 9 pm.

Cold Case Investigators (CCI) was a private investigation agency set up by Bai Qingxiong (starring Chen Hanwei) with the main aim of cracking unsolved cases. Huang Yuyang (starring Rebecca Lim) and Hong Junyan (starring Desmond Tan) were CCI's team members. 

In the first few episodes, Lan Haifeng (starring Yusuke Fukuchi) engaged the services of CCI to find out who murdered his ex-girlfriend. Subsequently, he joined CCI as an investor and team member. 

It was interesting to watch how CCI used new technology to solve those cases. Even Sera enjoyed watching this TV drama serial.

I liked these lines from episode 13 of 《真探》"The Truth Seekers"

“人生烦恼就十二个字

放不下 想不开 看不透 忘不了

但是它们不会找上我

因为我早已放下 想开 看透 忘了”

which was translated as:

"We are troubled only because we are unable to put what happened behind us and move on, but not me. 

I have long put it behind me and move on."

You could go to toggle website to watch the catch up of this TV drama serial.

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《富贵平安》"Peace and Prosperity"

《富贵平安》"Peace and Prosperity"  is a 170 episode TV drama that is currently airing on MediaCorp Channel 8, Mondays to Fridays, at 7.30pm.

The story revolved around the people working in Prosperity Hall (富贵堂，a 50-year-old Chinese medical hall) and its immediate neighbourhood. Besides the big cast, there was always something to learn in each episode about Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Some of the characters would mention that some foods would clash with other foods and, thus, would cause allergic reactions such as diarrhea, etc. They would also educate us, the audience, on the benefits of certain herbs. 

On top of that, the pace of the story was just right. The relationship between the characters and how they would develop was also interesting enough to keep watching.

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Our Leaflet and Flyer Box

I was looking for the right material to make a leaflet and flyer box for our flat. It so happened that Lynn bought a box of Lego and the size of the box was just right for this.

I cut the sides of the box and punched two holes behind as shown in the picture below.

I typed some words,  printed it landscape on a piece of A4 sized paper and pasted it on the front to the sides of the box.

Then, I used 2 fasteners bought from Daiso and tied the box to the gate of our flat. This type of fastener can be removed and re-fastened or re-adjusted.

This helped to reduce the mess created from pieces of leaflets and flyers that dropped to the floor. This also made it easier to open the main door as sometimes, those people placed the flyers/leaflets in weird positions that made it hard for us to open the door without first removing the leaflets. This was a problem when our hands were full of things.

Most of the flyer distributors were quite cooperative and put them inside this box. There were some who still placed the flyers and leaflets elsewhere, but those were in the minority. So now, we can take the leaflets out when our hands were free.

Episode 9 of 《隐藏的歌手》“The Hidden Singer" - Leon Lai 黎明

Episode 9 of 《隐藏的歌手》"The Hidden Singer" was telecast on MediaCorp Channel U last night. This is a variety show where a real singer and 5 impersonators would sing behind 6 closed doors for the audience to guess where the real singer is. 

I don't usually watch this show. However, I watched episode 9 《隐藏的歌手》"The Hidden Singer" as Leon Lai (黎明) was the real singer in this episode. It was quite funny how this episode started with the TV host 黄子佼 coming up to the stage singing one of Leon Lai's songs, 《甜蜜蜜》。Most people of my generation or earlier would probably know that this song was originally sung by Teresa Teng (邓丽君)。《甜蜜蜜》was also the theme song of a Chinese movie of the same name. When I first heard Leon Lai's version of the song 《甜蜜蜜》, I thought it sounded a bit weird (probably too used to Teresa Teng's version). However, as I listened a few more times, I found that Leon's version was just as nice. It had a flavour of its own (别有一番风味).

In this episode, Leon Lai and his impersonators sang a few Cantonese songs. However, one of the Cantonese songs sung by Leon, which was one of my favourites, was not performed on last night's show. It was 《如果这是情》。It was one of the songs in the Hong Kong TV drama 《人在边缘》"The challenge of Life".

There is also a Chinese version of this song named 《今生相爱 来生再相聚》。However, I could not find it on Youtube.

“Our Humble Lodge” recipes - Salted Egg Chicken Wings - Toggle

This recipe looked easy to prepare and appetizing.

“Our Humble Lodge” recipes - Salted Egg Chicken Wings - Toggle: From the kitchens of 'Life - Fear Not'

Monkey Soft Toys

We saw these while shopping at Nex's NTUC Xtra a few weeks ago.

8 Feb 2016 would be the start of the Year of the Monkey. It was no wonder that NTUC Xtra had started selling these. These soft toys had a suction cap attached to each of them so one could hang these on windows or glass panels. 

It had become a "tradition" for our kids to get the "soft toy of the year" ever since the year of the snake (2013).  So we bought 2 different designs for them.

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Last 4 Episodes of 《志在四方II》"The Dream Makers II"

It turned out that Chen Guang was not the one who exposed Zihuai's evil plan. Zhong Yiming had engage the service of a private investigator (PI) and the PI had secretly filmed the conversation between Chen Guang and Zihuai.

Yiming then tried to persuade Zihuai to surrender to the police. Zihuai refused to do so. Yiming then instructed someone to send the video clip to all the newspaper publishing houses. With Zihuai's plot exposed in all the newspapers, the police came to her for further investigation. 

Jason made a short video clip with encouraging words from Tonglin's fellow colleagues to root for her so that she could return to her normal cheerful self. She was touched and decided to try and accept her new appearance. VBS's chairman, Zheng Shouyi, also gave her the opportunity to be a DJ.

Meanwhile Fei'er went missing. 

Zihuai was later touched by her father's love and was then truly repentant. She helped Yiming to look for Fei'er. Yiming's mum even went to the extent of offering a US$100k reward for anyone who came forward with a lead to Zhao Fei'er's whereabouts.

Zihuai managed to find Fei'er but was injured by Fei'er while trying to stop Fei'er from cutting herself (Fei'er). 

Fei'er went for treatment/therapy for her depression in the hospital with Zhong Yiming by her side, giving her moral support. Jason and Tonglin came to visit Fei'er . They sought her forgiveness for not believing in her and helping her when she had depression. Fei'er accepted their apologies and forgave them.

At the end of the show, Zheng Shouyi found his long lost family and got their forgiveness. Chen Guang and Guan Xie'en became good friends. Lin Tao and Zhou Weiyun became a couple. Chen Guang and Zihuai got together too.

Related posts:

Quotes from 《志在四方》("The Dream Makers")

Quotes from episode 12 of 《志在四方》 ("The Dream Makers")

《志在四方》 - To vote for Our Preferred Ending

Final Episode of 《志在四方》 ("The Dream Makers") and Jason's choice

Alternate Ending of 《志在四方》 ("The Dream Makers") on Toggle - Jason's Choice

《志在四方II》"The Dream Makers II"

《志在四方II》"The Dream Makers II"

《志在四方II》"The Dream Makers II" began airing on MediaCorp Channel 8 on 4 December 2015, from Monday to Friday, at 9 pm. 

In 《志在四方II》"The Dream Makers II" , there were many new characters including Guan Xie'en (portrayed by Huang Biren), Zhong Yiming (portrayed by Romeo Tan, Chen Guang (portrayed by Zhang Zhenhuan, Lin Tao (portrayed by Li Nanxing) Dong Zihuai (portrayed by Julie Tan) and Zheng Shouyi (portrayed by Damian Lau)

Zhao Fei'er (portrayed by Jeanette Aw) was caught by surprise that she actually had a younger sister who is none other than Dong Zihuai. Her father, Zhao De, was equally surprised. It turned out that Zihuai's mother was raped by Zhao De (after they had divorced) when she came back to look for Fei'er. Zihuai's stepfather ill-treated her since childhood and she also felt that her mum did not love her. She blamed this on Zhao De and came back to take revenge on Fei'er and Zhao De.

Zihuai is the main villain in this series. She plotted to cause misunderstandings between Fei'er, Tonglin (portrayed by Rui'en) and Jason (portrayed by Qi Yuwu). This eventually lead Fei'er to suffer from depression. 

Zhao Fei'er was portrayed as an even more pitiful character in part II of "The Dream Makers" as compared to part I of "The Dream Makers".

In episode 28, Zihuai pushed Fei'er (holding a big teddy bear) forward towards Tonglin, causing Tonglin to be stabbed by a knife that Zihuai had hidden inside the teddy bear. Tonglin was hurt and she accidentally knocked onto something. This triggered some mechanisms and caused her to be swung around in the air. Subsequently, she fell on the floor and her face came into contact with acid that came out from a broken bottle. It seemed that this caught Zihuai by surprise though. One of the staff saw Fei'er holding the knife and Fei'er was arrested by the police. 

Zhao De overheard what Zihuai said to Fei'er and finally believed Fei'er that Zihuai is out to harm her.

Tonglin was disfigured and lose the vision of her right eye.

In the next episode, it seemed that Chen Guang decided to help Fei'er to expose Zihuai's evil plans or deeds. We shall see how Zhong Yiming is going to help Fei'er too. When all these are exposed, the misunderstandings between Fei'er and Tonglin should be resolved.

The next thing to watch out would be how Tonglin would survive the ordeal. 

Related posts:

Quotes from 《志在四方》("The Dream Makers")
Quotes from episode 12 of 《志在四方》 ("The Dream Makers")
《志在四方》 - To vote for Our Preferred Ending
Final Episode of 《志在四方》 ("The Dream Makers") and Jason's choice

Alternate Ending of 《志在四方》 ("The Dream Makers") on Toggle - Jason's Choice

Alive Museum Singapore

Alive Museum was a new attraction that opened in Singapore on 12 June 2014 at Suntec City Mall. We had wanted to go for quite some time.

Recently, we visited it on one of the weekdays as part of Sera's birthday celebration.

Sera and Lynn loved to use their penguin soft toys to pose with these 3D art pieces.

Soft toy penguin taking a shower using water from our iconic Merlion, lol!

The kids decided that both Ardon and I should pose with the art pieces as shown below :).

Quotes from Episode 26 of 《起飞》（“Crescendo")

I liked these lines from episode 26 of 《起飞》(“Crescendo") spoken by Yafang (played by Cynthia Koh).

幸福不需要你咬紧牙根争取。

不管你经历多少挫折，

它都在你随手可得的地方等着你， 

只要你愿意接受。

which was translated as :

There's no need to grit your teeth to gain happiness. No matter how many obstacles you face, 

it will always be waiting somewhere within reach，

as long as you're willing to receive it.

《起飞》“Crescendo"

《起飞》“Crescendo" is a drama production by WaWa Pictures and is currently airing on MediaCorp channel 8 from Monday to Friday, at 9 pm.

So far, I enjoyed all the Xinyao songs in 《起飞》“Crescendo". 

I had suspected that Irene (played by Jacelyn Tay), the ex-wife of Jiang Chufan (played by Zheng Binhui) had hidden a agenda when she volunteered to to use her company's funds to invest in the music company called Crescendo - which was initially jointly owned by Yang Yiwei (played by Christopher Lee), Luo Dawei (played by Darren Lim) and Jiang Chufan. Through her careful plotting, she finally got rid of Yiwei as the CEO of Crescendo. Luo Dawei and Chufan were not interested to be the CEO of Crescendo, so naturally she got to be the next CEO of Crescendo.  I wonder how the story would go on from there. Would she make a better CEO in terms of improving the bottom line of Crescendo? 

I am also looking forward to watching the Crescendo concert on the last episode which would be edited from the real life concert that was held on 14 Nov 2015. 

Folders for SG50 Commemorative Notes

We collected the two complimentary SG50 notes folders meant for each Singaporean household from our Community Club last Friday. There was no queue in the afternoon so the collection process was very fast and hassle free. All we needed to do was to present the collection card (sent to each Singaporean household via mail) and the counter staff (in charge of the distribution of the folders) would then gave us the two complimentary folders.

Very nice folders! Our children loved them too. 

Thank you MAS!

Quotes from Episode 241 of "118"

I like these lines from last night's episode (episode 241) of "118".

人生本无事，庸人自扰之。
...
今天有今天的烦恼，明天有明天的烦恼。
人活着就有没完没了的烦恼,
最好的办法就是不要为烦恼而烦恼...

These were translated as:

Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you.
...
We have worries today and tomorrow will bring its own worries.
Life isn't worry free,
but don't worry unnecessarily or excessively...

Related Post:

Episode 53 of "118"

General Election 2015

Yesterday was the polling day for Singapore's General Election 2015. Ardon and I were glad that the haze condition was not too bad then. 

This was the first time Sample Counts were released to the public (around 9.30 pm to about 11.30 pm) before the actual results of the General Election were officially announced. The Sample Count was performed at the start of the counting process for each electoral division to get an early indication of the possible electoral outcome. This was released once for each electoral division. 

It was meant to help prevent speculation and misinformation from unofficial sources while counting was underway, before counting was completed and the election results were announced. A Sample Count also helped election officials check against the election result for each electoral division. 

The official election results of Sengkang West was the first to be announced at about 11.30 pm. All the results were announced by 2.30 am with the exception of Aljunied GRC. There was a request to recount the votes because the difference in percentages of the votes was less than 2 percent. I was too tired to wait for the results and went to sleep at about 3 am. This morning, I checked the news and realized that the result for Aljunied GRC was announced at 3.15 am. The Workers' Party won by a 1.9% margin.

We found the Sample Count was quite accurate. It was stated that it had a confidence of 95% with an error of plus or minus 4%. Based on the Sample Count, PAP was likely to win in all constituencies except Hougang SMCs and Aljunied GRCs. This tallied with the final results of the General Election. There was only a slight difference in the percentages of votes cast in favour of each parties. 

Today, the haze is back again with a 3 hour PSI of more than 100. There was a burnt smell in the air :(. Looks like yesterday was indeed a good day for holding the General Election - less haze and no rain :).

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Bird's Nest Soup

I had always thought we needed about 2 to 3 hours to cook bird's nest soup. This seemed to be confirmed from what I had seen from some blogs and websites. Some bird's nest even required cleaning/plucking of feathers, which was time consuming and tedious. 

Recently, I saw from Hock Hua Tonic E-Store that they were having a promotion on some of their bird's nest. Some of the instructions there stated that the bird's nest only needed to be soaked for 1 hour and then cooked for 45 minutes to 1 hours. 

Bird's nest was usually sold by weight. Since it was my first time trying to cook bird's nest, I chose the cheapest bird's nest available at that time as there was not much difference in terms of efficacy. I bought the 特选沙巴洞燕片 Super FS SABAH BCN-White (AA) at a Hock Hua Tonic retail store, which was sold at a special price of $50.00 for every 37.5 g (一两).  I bought about 42 grams, which cost $56. I also further confirmed with the staff on how to prepare the bird's nest. The staff advised me to soak the bird's nest for 1 hour, remove the water that was used to soak the bird's nest and double boil for 45 minutes. 

Their staff usually tell us to cook 1 to 2 piece of bird's nest for 1 person's consumption. This seemed to be a lot in my opinion and would be very thick in consistency. Maybe some people loved to eat bird's nest this way. 

I had previously researched on the optimal quantity of bird's nest to consume every day and found that it should be between 1 to 5 g. Below 1 g, it is ineffective. If we consume more than 5 g, the human body cannot absorb that much and, hence, it would be wasted. I bought six pieces, which weighed 42 g, so one piece was about 7 g. There are four of us in our family, so 7 g divided by 4 persons would be about 1.75 g per person. I think this was good enough for us.

Now that we have the Tefal Electric Steamer, it was very convenient for me to double boil bird's nest. After soaking the bird's nest for 1 hour, I removed the soaking water and put about 1 small bowl of water  to the bird's nest and steamed for 45 minutes.

Dried bird's nest

Cooked bird's nest

After 45 minutes, I added rock sugar to the bird's nest soup and it was ready for consumption. We were satisfied with the consistency. 

Last week, we saw that there was a stall at Causeway Point mall selling freshly double boiled bird's nest. Coincidentally, they also used the Tefal Electric steamer to double boil their bird's nest. :)

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《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" Finals and Toggle Awards

The finals of《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" was telecast on Channel 8 on 16 August 2015. By now, most people would know who the winners were. 黄振隆 (Desmond Ng) was the champion, 陈建彬 (Marcus Chin) was the first runner-up, 皓皓 (Hao Hao) was the second runner-up and 朱莉莉 (Zhu Li Li) was in the fourth place.

I couldn't get enough of the show so I watched it again last Saturday night. I especially loved Hao Hao's performance of the song 《菊花台》with his lady friend.《菊花台》was originally sung by Jay Chou. I find this song was even better when it was performed as a duet by a man and a woman. I also noticed that the prelude/starting music of this version of the song, performed by a Chinese orchestra, was different from the original version. It was a combination of the tunes from some other songs. I only know one of the tunes was from the song 《梁祝》("The Butterfly Lovers"). There were also some dancers dancing before Hao Hao and his friend started singing. It seemed more like watching a musical play than a competition. A hearty Thumbs Up for the performance! 

For the second part of the final competition, Hao Hao performed the song "Para Para Sakura", originally sung by Aaron Kwok in a movie with the same title which was released in 2001. Wow, it had been a long time since I last heard this song. He also got the audience involved in dancing along with the him and his performers during the second part of the song. This really made everyone perk up! I really liked the songs he chose and the way he presented/performed the songs. 

Hao Hao got the Best Costume Award (最炫服装奖) and Most Popular Award (最高人气奖) whereas Desmond Ng got the Best Interaction Award (最佳互动奖) organized by Toggle. These three awards were given based entirely on results of online voting.

Related posts:
《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" (Episode 9)
《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" (Episode 10)

《信约：我们的家园》 "The Journey: Our Homeland" - The Love Triangle between Zhang Jia, Meixue and Yisheng

Yisheng (played by Zhang Zhenhuan) was the boyfriend of Meixue before he left for China. China was having the Cultural Revolution at that time and he was uncontactable for a long period of time. In episode 11, Meixue and Yisheng's parents thought Yisheng had already died in China following receipt of Yisheng's belongings. 

A few years later, Meixue had since resigned from the hospital and worked in Zhang Jia's company. By then, Meixue already developed feelings for Zhang Jia. Just when Zhang Jia was about to confess his love for Meixue, Yisheng returned from China and went over to look for Meixue. Meixue was shocked to find Yisheng alive and crippled in one leg. 

Yisheng encountered many traumatic experiences in China and seemed eccentric at times. However, he was not willing to talk about it to his parents and Meixue. Meixue felt that they had been separated for a long time (12 years) and needed some time to understand each other. Yisheng, on the other hand, was pushy and wanted to marry her as soon as possible. This led Meixue to break up with him.

Around the same time, Zhang Jia wanted to shift his business to Hong Kong. He  gave Meixue an envelope which contained the compensation package. On the day when Zhang Jia was leaving for Hong Kong, Meixue's mum found an air ticket to Hong Kong and a letter from Zhang Jia in the envelope. As Meixue read Zhang Jia's love confession, she was moved to tears. Meixue and her mum realized that the air ticket was for that day. Just when they were going to pack to go to the airport, Yisheng's mum came knocking on their door claiming that Yisheng was attempting suicide. When Meixue reached where Yisheng was, Yisheng said he had nothing to live for and wanted to commit suicide by jumping off the building. Meixue had no choice but to agree to marry him, else Yisheng would jump off the building. 

About 5 years later,  Meixue learnt from her mother that her father was still alive. Her father was a Japanese and went back to Japan after the second world war. He could not bring Meixue's mum and herself to Japan then as his parents did not approve of him marrying a Chinese girl. Meixue's father had sent them 2 air tickets to Japan now. Meixue could not go to Japan with her mum as she was pregnant and her pregnancy was unstable.

At this time, Zhang Jia came back to Singapore to comfort and help Hong Kuan who had lost his close colleagues in an industrial accident. Zhang Jia met Meixue at the hospital. Meixue had gone back to working as a nurse. Yisheng saw them talking. Yisheng was getting suspicious of them especially when Meixue hid the fact that she knew Zhang Jia had returned to Singapore from him. In episode 21, Zhang Jia met Meixue at the airport. Zhang Jia knew Meixue's pregnancy was unstable and as she did not look well that day, he insisted on sending her home. 

Yisheng was enraged again upon seeing that Zhang Jia and Meixue coming back together. Zhang Jia then left them alone. Yisheng had an argument with Meixue and left Meixue behind without realizing that Meixue was in pain. In the end, she had a miscarriage. Even then, Yisheng did not visit her inside her ward. Instead he went to Zhang Jia and wanted to punch Zhang Jia. He blamed Zhan Jia for causing Meixue's miscarriage. He was not able to fight Zhang Jia (Zhang Jia was a good fighter) and Zhang Jia subdued him. Zhang Jia said Yisheng did not take good care of Meixue and he was being irresponsible by trying to shift the blame to him (Zhang Jia).

Meixue was very upset over the loss of her baby and lost hope in her relationship with Yisheng. She decided to go back to her mum's flat after discharge from the hospital. Zhang Jia was worried about her and followed her secretly. When Meixue asked him to show himself, he came out and Yisheng came out too. Yisheng then accused them of having an affair again. He then asked her to choose one of them. Meixue said she would choose neither of them and closed the door angrily. 

Subsequently, Meixue went back to Yisheng's house to get back her passport and sought the forgiveness of her parents-in-law. Her mother-in-law asked her to tell Yisheng herself that she wanted to leave him. Meixue went into Yisheng's room. Yisheng asked her about the air ticket to Hong Kong and the love letter from Zhang Jia that she kept. He believed Meixue had not forgotten Zhang Jia after all these years. He refused to let her leave and strangled her. Meixue shouted for help and his parents came in to drag Yisheng away. Alas, Yisheng had gone mad after all those years of mental torture.

Meixue met up with Zhang Jia and told him she would be leaving for Japan the next day. She wished Zhang Jia could find his own happiness.

While Meixue was in Japan, she asked her mum why she was willing to forgive her father and even came to look after him. Her mum told her it was out of love for her father Life is short and that there was no point holding on to unhappy thoughts. Cherish what you have and you will be truly happy. Meixue's mum said she hoped that Meixue could find true happiness. If she found someone she loved, cherish him and don't let him go.

At that point, Zhang Jia appeared before Meixue. The next scene, they were in a restaurant. Zhang Jia then told her that all those years while they were working together, he did not confess his love for her. It was because he believed he was a jinxed person; any women who got together with him would suffer a terrible fate. He did not want that to happen to Meixue. However, his sister told him that it was unfair to Meixue if he should give her up just like that. She said Meixue had the right to make the choice herself. He also told Meixue that he had brought a ring along ready to propose to her on that day when they were supposed to meet at the cafe (which she did not turn up). Similarly, he also brought a ring today and propose to Meixue. Meixue stretched out her fingers for Zhang Jia to put on the ring for her :) . This is what I call “苦尽甘来” (happiness comes after periods of hardships/sufferings) and “有情人终成眷属” (two person in love finally got married).

Yisheng was a pitiful character from the moment he returned to Singapore. His mental illness stemmed mainly from his guilt of causing his friend, Zhiqiang to be beaten to death and Peishuang to lose an eye. He refused to seek treatment. He was not willing to confide in anyone too. His friend, Peishuang came to look for him once but he refused to acknowledge him. Actually, if he had spoken to Peishuang, he would have realized that Peishuang did not blame him at all. He kept having hallucination of people speaking ill of him and was overly suspicious of Meixue and Zhang Jia. If he had treated Meixue better after their marriage, they would probably not lose their baby and Meixue would not leave him. All these were due to his own ego problem that finally resulted in his total mental breakdown in episode 22.

According to Channel 8's facebook page. episode 22 was the last time Rui'en would appear in 《信约：我们的家园》 "The Journey: Our Homeland". Subsequently, the focus would be on the younger generation.

Related posts:

Episodes 1 to 10 of 《信约：我们的家园》 "The Journey: Our Homeland"
Cast of 《信约：我们的家园》 "The Journey: Our Homeland"
Episodes 29 and 30 of 《信约：动荡的年代》"The Journey : Tumultuous Times" (Last Two Episodes)
《信约：动荡的年代》"The Journey : Tumultuous Times"
Cast of 《信约：动荡的年代》"The Journey : Tumultuous Times"
Last Episode of 《信约：唐山到南洋》"The Journey: A Voyage"
Episode 30 of 《信约：唐山到南洋》"The Journey: A Voyage"
Quotes from Episode 18 of 《信约：唐山到南洋》"The Journey: A Voyage"

Gardens by the Bay

Singapore celebrated its 50th birthday on 9th Aug 2015. We had a long weekend from 7 Aug to 10 Aug 2015. Many places of interest had SG50 promotions and events held during the Jubilee Weekend. Some events were even free to attend.

We planned to visit one of those places on 7 Aug 2015. However, on 7 Aug 2015, it was raining till about mid afternoon. It would not be a good idea to visit places that were too far from our house, that were outdoors and required paid admission since half the day was gone. 

By the time we got ready to go out, it was already 5 pm. We decided to go to Gardens by the Bay since we had never been there ever since it opened. 

In celebration of the Jubilee Weekend, all Singapore Citizens and Singapore Permanent Residents would enjoy 50% off admission tickets to Flower Dome and Cloud Forest from 7-10 August. All Singapore Citizens and Singapore Permanent Residents aged 60 years and above would also enjoy free entry to both Conservatories.

There was also a special edition of the Garden Rhapsody (SG50 Special) held from 6 - 10 Aug 2015 at 7:45 pm, 8:30 pm, 9:15 pm and 10:00 pm  to celebrate Singapore’s 50th birthday. This edition of the Garden Rhapsody presented nostalgic favourites from yesteryear sung by prominent local vocalists.

By the time we reached there, Sera was hungry so we had our dinner at MacDonald's.

Sera was happy to be able to purchase this SG50 edition of Hello Kitty from MacDonald's. 

After dinner, we went to the ticketing counters and found that the queue was very long with a waiting time of about 40 minutes. We reckoned that after buying the tickets, there would not be much time left to walk around the conservatories as both of them closed at 9 pm. Thus we just walked around the area and went for the Garden Rhapsody (SG50 Special) held at the Supertree Grove at around 7.45 pm. 

After the show, we caught glimpses of a fireworks display and we walked up a bridge towards the direction where the fireworks was seen but the fireworks stopped. It lasted less than 5 minutes :(. Since we were already up on the bridge, we stayed there for the next Garden Rhapsody. Below is a combined video of the Garden Rhapsody (SG50 Special) which was taken at the 7.45 and 8.30 pm show and taken from different angles. Enjoy!

National Day 2015 (Golden Jubilee)

《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" (Episode 10)

In Episode 10 of 《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge", 朱莉莉，罗翊绮, 黄振隆 and 谢伟娜 competed with each other for the chance to return to the semi-finals of 《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" . 

谢伟娜 was known for her powerful vocals and the tonal range that she was able to reach. She sang the song 《如果云知道》, originally sung by Valen Hsu, for this episode. She said that because this song was basically "very quiet", in an attempt to make a difference by singing one part slightly higher than normal, her voice cracked at one point. 

In the end, she only managed to get 79.3 marks, which was 0.7 mark short of the passing mark set by the judges to proceed to the semi finals. The other contestants managed to get above 80 marks.

One of the judges, Lin Qiyu, felt that it was a pity that she would be out of the competition. He requested for other judges to give her 1 more mark so that she could return to the semi finals. He previously mentioned that 谢伟娜 has the type of voice that could sing many different types of songs. As a music record producer, if he were to sign on one of the contestants as a singer, he would choose her. He also said that even very well known and good singers would sometimes experience voice crack when singing very high notes. 

With the support of the audience, and concurrence from the production team, 谢伟娜 was able to proceed to the semi finals.

Related posts:

《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" (Episode 9)
《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" Finals and Toggle Awards

Episodes 1 to 10 of 《信约：我们的家园》 "The Journey: Our Homeland"

《信约：我们的家园》 "The Journey: Our Homeland" debuted on MediaCorp channel 8 on 16 Jul 2015, 9 pm. This is the finale of the trilogy “The Journey”. 

Hong Minghui (played by Jeanette Aw) passed away after giving birth to a son, named Zhang Junteng. Zhang Min (played by Felicia Chin) and Hong Dangyong (played by Andie Chen) helped to look after Junteng while Zhang Jia was grieving over the death of Minghui.

Meixue (played by Rui'en), Minghui's colleague and good friend, helped Zhang Jia to find a nanny for his son after Junteng developed rashes because he was allergic to formula milk. She also helped to take care of Junteng from time to time. 

Zhang Yan (played by Romeo Tan) had escaped from prison and came back to Singapore to seek revenge. However, he was upset to find that Minghui had already passed away and blamed Zhang Jia for not taking good care of Minghui.

In last night's episode (Episode 10), Hong Dangyong was killed by Zhang Yan. Zhang Min was devastated and attempted to kill Zhang Yan. Zhang Yan was crushed by metal racks and lamps and eventually died from electric shock in the warehouse. Hong Kuan already knew of his true parentage by then and asked Zhang Min if he could pay respect to his biological father. Zhang Min told him if he dared to do so, she would disown him. Hong Kuan still went ahead because he knew his biological father loved him too. Zhang Min was so angry and threw him out of the house.

Tonight, we shall see whether Hong Kuan really leaves Zhang Min and how he survives outside.

Related posts:

《信约：我们的家园》 "The Journey: Our Homeland" - The Love Triangle between Zhang Jia, Meixue and Yisheng
Cast of 《信约：我们的家园》 "The Journey: Our Homeland"

Episodes 29 and 30 of 《信约：动荡的年代》"The Journey : Tumultuous Times" (Last Two Episodes)

《信约：动荡的年代》"The Journey : Tumultuous Times"

Cast of 《信约：动荡的年代》"The Journey : Tumultuous Times"

Last Episode of 《信约：唐山到南洋》"The Journey: A Voyage"

Episode 30 of 《信约：唐山到南洋》"The Journey: A Voyage"

Quotes from Episode 18 of 《信约：唐山到南洋》"The Journey: A Voyage"