Melvin's secret hiding place....

It's Queenie's birthday today, and we kept the celebrations very simple.

Both of us have been really, really busy this past couple of weeks,

and we have agreed on having a simple celebration at home,

just the 3 of us, no friends. (Me, Queenie and Teddy )

It was a really relaxing night, no hassle, no friends, just a birthday wish.

I bought her an ANNA SUI perfume, which she really adored.

The birthday cake was really delicious, a fully chocolate mousse cake

from THE REGENT HOTEL.

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my love!

Many more birthdays to look forward to together! Love you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                              

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                       

 

 

Queenie's TOEFL exam is just round the corner (end of this month),

and she has been studying really hard.

She hasn't stepped out of the house for God knows how long,

and I told her that she needed a well deserved break.

So, I decided to go to one of our favourite restaurants

to reward her for her hardwork.

The restaurant's name actually isn't TEMPLE RESTAURANT,

I named it that because of 2 reasons.

Firstly, it's near a temple called YongHeGong.

Secondly, I don't know how to read the chinese name of the restaurant! Haha!

 

 

 

                                 

              Very nice traditional restaurant, serving all kinds of Chinese cuisines.

 

 

               

 

 

 

 

               

 

 

                

 

 

 

 

                  

                 Ordered soup for Queenie, because she needed the nourishment.

 

 

 

This is to my love, Queenie:

I know you can do it! 加油!!!!!!!!

 

I have 2 beauty queens living in my apartment, please let me know who is prettier!

 

                        

 축하!!

 

I just came back from a traditional Korean Wedding dinner.

The bride was Queenie's hairstylist.

It was a really joyous occasion, lots of food and beer.

But too bad, I am allergic to alcohol! Damn!

We got to meet up with one of our old friend, David.

He had a new haircut, Army style! Looks quite cool on him!

The restaurant was quite cool as well, very traditional.

All the guests had to sit cross-legged on the floor,

just like what they do in Korea. The food was excellent,

because they served my favourite Korean dish, KIMCHI!!

The Bride's wedding gown was really fantastic!

This is my first time actually seeing a Korean wedding

gown, was really an eye opener for me!

Anyway, the dinner finished quite early.

Below are the photos taken just now, enjoy!

 

          

  

 

 

 

 

 

               

               

 

 

              

 

PS: The Korean words at the beginning of this blog entry means CONGRATULATIONS!

 

I was really happy yesterday, because I got to meet up

with an old friend of mine, Wang Hui.

Let me tell you a bit about this guy.

His hometown is in LIAO NING, a very northern part of China.

We got to know each other through another friend

when he was studying in Singapore.

He studied Hotel Management at SHATEC,

for 4 years. (3 years academic, and 1 year attachment.)

During his last year attachment, I got posted to Guangdong, China.

During that that time, we somehow lost contact.

Before I went to Guangdong, he did tell me that he was not sure where

to go after he graduated. Maybe continue working in Singapore,

So, I worked in Guangdong for almost 3 years,

and then decided to come to Beijing.

And guess what? I met him in Beijing!!!! Of all places!

That is why, readers, remember this phrase:

Anyway, to cut a long story short, he helped me get a job at

THE REGENT BEIJING, a 5 star hotel.

Suddenly, I feel my blog's like a dating site! Haha!

Maybe I should rename my space as:

Hahahaha! Just kidding!

Anyway, we met up last night, at a new shopping complex

called JOY CITY.

We had dinner at a newly opened Thai restaurant.

We wanted to try this restaurant for so long,

so, when's a better time to try it than last night.

The food was scrumptious! Below are some photos

at the restaurant..........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

So ,after dinner, we decided to have dessert somewhere else. There was an

ice-cream store, just next to the Thai restaurant. This place was called:

 

 

They serve really, really fantastic ice cream, and it's also one of our

favourite places for food!

They have a really unique way of preparing the ice cream.

They would "stir-fry" the ice cream on this

big, tepanyaki-style frying table. You would think that it's so strange to

fry ice-cream! But the frying table is actually cold!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we took our Teddy for a walk along DESHENGMEN Tower.

It's a tower just below our estate.

It's an ancient tower, built in the Ming Dynasty.

It's really beautiful, as the government has renovated the tower with modern lights.

 

 

 

 

 

Just to update you readers about my puppy, Teddy.

He is a really fun, lovable  and very active dog!

Always wagging his tail whenever I come home, jumping up and down!

Recently, we decided to have his coat trimmed to the likes of a very typical poodle.

Queenie objected at first, saying that it's too "sissy".

But in the end, we decided to go for it,

thinking that even if it turns out awful, it can always grow back, no problem.

After the haircut, I was REALLY not used to it! Haha!

But after the initial shock has worn off,I think it looks pretty nice!

And now, we think that we will always keep this hairstyle for Teddy!

I think he looks so much better

with this style! Can really see his handsome face!

Before his cut, his face was just a mess of hair!

After eating or drinking, his moustache will be so damn dirty!

Anyway, I think it's a good move! What do you readers think?

Long Live Teddy!

 

Before his locks were chopped off...... 

  

     

                       

 

 

 

            

In all my relationships with people, I have never met a person who has treated me so well.

I am talking about my love, Queenie.

She has the kindest heart. She never bear any grudges,

never have any hatred in her heart.

She is always there for me, always picking me up when I am down.

She always encourages me. She sees the good inside me,

something which others failed to do.

I think God has made me go through all those bad relationships,

so that I will appreciate what I have now with her.

I will never find another person like her in my life.

She has done things for me, no other girl has ever done.

It’s all these little deeds and gestures that has

touched my heart deeply.

 

 

 

For example, for my Valentine's Day present, she got this bag for me......  

   

       Original photo

 

Isn't it lovely? I really love this bag! She is always asking me to use it,

but I rather preserve it forever!

 

 

And for my 35th birthday, she got me this collector's set.......

(she knows I love model cars!)  

  

                                 

 

 

 

and the special part of this present was on the lighter, it was really so sweet of her!  

 

Can you see the laser etching of the both of us?

I really love this lighter so much!

 

 

 

 

And she baked me a cake, which no one has EVER done for me...  

 

                

                                                 

Thank you so much, my love. I will treasure you forever...........

Hello everyone! Haven't been writing for a very long time, so, decided to update my blog with photos of my vacation back in Singpaore during the Spring Festival.

It was a really joyous occasion, meeting up with all my relatives. This trip was really wonderful for me, as I got to meet up with my sister! We haven't met each other for like....AGES! Her two kids were simply adorable!

 

 

 At East Lagoon, having dinner                    At our favourite shopping centre,

 

 Gong Xi Fa Cai, Daniel style! Haha!                 At my sister's place

 

I had so much food during this festival, my stomach looked like it was 9 months pregnant! Anyway, below are photos that I want to share with you readers. Hope that you will enjoy them!

 

 With my brother, sister, warren                    That's my brother!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 1st term of my english teaching in The Regent Beijing has just recently ended.

I've gained alot of experience from this course, becoming more matured as a human being, and more experienced in teaching.

My students loved me, and vice versa. I'm going to miss them alot. They made my job so much more enjoyable!

I think that if it were other students instead of them, my job wouldn't be as interesting, or as enjoyable.

 

 

 

Queenie and I just bought a christmas tree, getting ready for Christmas.

And you know what the great thing was? The sales assistant at CARREFOUR gave us all the decorations for the tree............FREE OF CHARGE!

Queenie was in charge of arranging the decor and lightings for the tree.

As for me, I was in charge of..................well, admiring it, heehee!

 

I really don't like decorating trees, so, it was to my great surprise that Queenie LOVES doing it!

I really hope that it will be snowing when Christmas arrives.

I really want a white christmas..............

 

 

I was taking the subway just the other day. It was a long, boring and monotonous journey (lasted almost 40 minutes).

I was just about to doze off into a deep sleep when suddenly, something caught my attention.

Sitting right in front of me, was a baby infant, fully wrapped up in winter clothings, but with his genitals fully exposed!

 

     

 

It was really a sight to behold! I really cannot comprehend the logic that is going through the parents' minds!

I mean, what is the point of wrapping up a baby, to the point of suffocating him from all the winter clothings (purpose is to keep him warm, right??),

but exposing his genitals to the harsh winter wind?? Isn't the genitals THE MOST important organ?? To a guy, at least!

I don't think that there is another country quite like this. I've been to quite a few foreign countries and I have not seen any infants' gentials being exposed in all its full glory to the public.

 

 

      

  

 

Maybe the rest of the world should learn a thing or two from China. This method of hygiene for infants definitely saves money on DIAPERS!

 

 

              Doesn't it look delicious???                               Orange flavoured

                            

                                                 Lemon flavoured

 

 

 

 

 HAZARD WARNING!

 

 

 

Dear readers, I would like some feedback on this particular issue, regarding Beijing's heating system in residential homes.

The government's policy for heating in residential homes during winter is that it will provide free heating, starting from the middle of every November.

But dear friends, it's F#@*ING cold already! In fact, it started to get freezing cold starting from the middle of October!

I can never fathom the decision of the Beijing Government as to why this free heating only comes on so late into November.

By right, the free heating should already be up and running! Maybe this is the unorthodox way to curb the ever rising population in China;

As for me, I've protected myself against the malicious government, by buying the World's Best Invention (2nd comes the handphone): THE HEATER!

Not so easy to kill me off! Long Live Melvin!

 

                 

                  "Come here feet...."            "Good boy, feet......"

 

              

                 

                 

 

My sister told me the other day that she was watching a movie with my brother, a chinese show entitled "BROTHERS".

Eason Chen, the Hong Kong actor was in it. What prompted me to write this blog was that she told me she and my brother couldn't concentrate on the show. This was because both of them kept thinking how much I look like him! Over the years, many people have told me that I bear an uncanny resemblance to Eason. I, in particular, don't really take this as a compliment, as I don't think he's handsome! Haha! Well, here are some photos for you to compare. Enjoy!

 

      

              

         

 

 

          

                  Our living room, very comfortable, right?

 

 

             

                 The TV is not working very well, no colour!

                 That is why we watch movies on my laptop,

                 we will place the laptop on the coffee table,

                 and that is why you can see the speakers

                 on the table, our very own cinema!

 

 

             

                    Corridor leading to our room.............

 

 

            

                                        My table

 

 

There is an old saying “You’ll never be a complete Chinese if you haven’t walked The Great Wall at least once….”

Well, I can proudly say that I am a complete Chinese now, as I’ve been to The Great Wall on the 14^th of October 2007.

We prepared some food the night before, buying bread at BREADTALK (Yes, they do have BREADTALK over here in Beijing!)

We set out at 11.30am on the said day, taking about 1 hour to reach our destination by taxi.

You know, weather forecasts from ANY source, are never, ever accurate! I checked the internet for it,

and got some information from our friends as well. All said that it will be freezing cold up there in the mountains.

But alas, it was burning hot! I had to take off 2 of my shirts that I’ve worn before hand!

Thank God there were only the 2 of us in the cable car!

I wouldn’t want Queenie to get jealous when other people are ogling at my fantastically toned body (I wish!)

It was a great experience, walking the Great Wall. Beautiful sceneries, full of history and culture.

We are planning on going again during the winter, as the scenery will be even more spectacular when the pathways are lined with snow.

It was a really exhausting trip, as the pathways of The Great Wall are quite steep.

But it wasn’t as bad as when I was in HUANGSHAN. That was really tiring! The stairs were almost vertical! You practically had to climb with all fours up the stairs! And to make matters worse, they were never ending!

The Great Wall was a breeze, compared to Huangshan.

After The Great Wall, we went to have our dinner at one of the famous “HOME COOKED FARM RESTAURANTS”.

The food there was simply scrumptious! The chicken was bred by the owners of the restaurant.

The meat was really juicy, as the chickens were allowed to run freely in the forest.

I particularly liked the deep fried fish skin, something which I have never had before.

We invited our driver for dinner as well. He’s a really nice person, joined the Army before, like me.

We had so much in common to talk about. The only difference was that he actually killed people before.

Just joking! Haha! Both of us would never hurt a fly!

Anyway, it was a fantastic day for us, looking forward to climbing The Great Wall again during Winter!

 

Please check out my photo album entitled : THE GREAT WALL

 

It was to our lovely surprise that Queenie got 2 free tickets to an amusement park, a place that we had been planning to go for a very long time. (But we were planning on going to a better amusement park, but what the heck, the tickets were FREE!)

We set off in the morning on the 30^th of September 2007, a day before the long National Day holidays. The weather was perfect, not too hot, and not too cold. I was really looking forward to what the day had in store for us.

When we arrived at our destination, we didn’t have time for lunch, so, we skipped it, and decided to have it after our rides. (Bad mistake! Read on!)

We rushed to our all time favourite, The Carousel.

As a kid, I was enchanted by this ride.

Kids the same age and gender as me, always rushed for the more exciting rides:

HELL’S BEND ROLLAR COASTER,

EVIL OCTOPUS’S EIGHT-LEGGED FURY,

DEATH DEFYING DROP AT FIRE’S GATE etc.

But my favourite ride, was The Carousel (a secret which I’ve just revealed to the World).

Soft, enchanting background music, coupled with the hypnotic swaying movement of the horse that I was sitting on (even though my horse was a little rusty, jerking me till I was getting a little groggy. But the weather was perfect and nothing was going to hamper my near perfect mood, or so I thought……)

And then, it had to happen.

Queenie suggested we try the most exciting ride in the park, the name of the ride was:

7 BLADES OF THUNDER

At that moment, images of victims churning out their breakfast after the ride,

People getting out from the ride, staggering like drunken giraffes, came flooding into my mind.

Oh boy, not being too enthusiastic for this ride was really an understatement!

But, not wanting to disappoint my love, I mustered up as much as I could an expression of excitement and anticipation, and let her drag me to Hell’s Gate.

When we finally reached 7 BLADES OF THUNDER, I just stood aghast at the sight of the horrific mechanical concoction of metal, gears and pulleys.

It was like a nightmare:

everything became slow motioned. The horror that was in front of me, my legs glued to the floor, not wanting to move another step.

But my love, pulling me, her head turned towards me, smiling, urging me to try the horror ride. And I could see her face contorting, the sweet smile becoming a sinister grin,

Blood was drooling out from her mouth……….

WAKE UP! It’s just a ride!

To cut a long story short, I was sick after the ride. Maybe it was because I didn’t have anything to eat before going to the amusement park. My head was spinning like a washing machine for the rest of the day. I was still staggering like a drunken giraffe long after we left the park. But all in all, it was a really lovely day, because I spent it with my love. She rewarded me by treating me to a fantastic Korean BBQ later that night.

She suggested that we go to the better amusement park somewhere in the near future.

She gave me that sweet smile again.

But suddenly, her sweet smile became a sinister grin,

And blood started to trickle down the side her mouth……….

 

PLEASE CHECK OUT MY ALBUM ENTITLED: AMUSEMENT PARK

 

Used to be a time when a moon cake was just simple......a moon cake.

Brown, round and with tradtional sweet bean paste fillings, in other words: BORING.

Now, moon cakes comes in a large assortment of shapes and sizes.

Green tea flavoured, Jasmine tea flavoured, Mango flavoured, Apple flavoured, Beef fillings,

Ice cream mooncakes, vegetarian, the list is endless!

Personally, I don't really understand the tradition, or the significance of this festival, (we don't really celebrate it in Singapore),

but on this said day, I enjoyed the festival nonetheless.

We invited a few of our close friends to our house, ordered take aways,

I dished out my famous LU ROU (pork stew), everyone loved it so much!

As you can see from the photos, we had all kinds of mooncakes, it was simply delicious!

It was a joyous occassion, as we sat down, ate, drank and chit-chatted till almost midnight.

We wanted to look at the full moon, but alas, due to the very bad weather of Beijing (too dusty),

we couldn't see the moon.

Maybe next year.........

 

We tried the famous street-side BBQ, which in my honest opinion,  didn't really

 

 

 

18th of September 2007 (Tuesday)

 

Met up with Queenie at her school for lunch today.

She told me she wanted to let me try something totally different.

We went to a store just opposite her university.

This place sells authentic Beijing cusine, and the store's signature dish was eel, served Hotpot style.

So, in we went, sat down, ordered a big bottle of Pepsi, and the store's famous dish.

The owner brought out a live eel, fresh out of the water, for us to examine.

We were quite satisfied with it's size, and told the owner we would settle for that catch.

Moments later, the owner came out with the eel, but this time, it was chopped up into bite sized pieces.

We were supposed to cook the raw pieces of the eel in a pot, filled with gravy, by ourselves.

Queenie explained to me that the eel was totally dead, and it's just residual spasm and reflexes of the muscles.

Seeing that I was so hungry, I just expected her explaination and tucked into the eel.

Delicious! Images of the dead, chopped up eel, quickly vanished into oblivion.....

 

Night time arrived and along with it, came dinner time as well.

We had dinner at our favourite Pizza Hut restaurant, which is also just opposite Queenie's University.

Tried our hands at making our own salad dish.

Queenie was good, her salad was really neat and appetizing.

Our 2 favourite dishes in Pizza Hut are: ESCARGOTS (Yummy!) and MEATBALLS

If we carry on like this, I think by Chinese New Year,