Orchard Road - from another view

Went to the top of Orchard Central to have Pho (Vietnamese noodle) with my wife the other day.  It was at a restaurant at the top of Orchard Central.

The Pho was nice but I feel that it should not be eaten in such a posh restaurant.  Sometimes the venue and the food do not match and this is one of them.  I cannot imagine eating fish ball noodle in a posh restaurant.  It is meant to be eaten along the street or at a hawker centre or food court.

What I like about the place was the view.  Perhaps the weather contributed to the good feeling too - it was a cooling evening.

My first impression was - New York Skywalk.  However this is only about 100 metres whereas the Skywalk stretches for kilometres.

The view of parts of Orchard Road was also refreshing.  It is quite a nice place to just hand out as some young ones did.

Frankfurt - 9th Dec 2013

Have not posted for a long long time.  Anyway, been busy - honing my guitar skills, reading, went to the US and Spain, writing some new songs, arranging song for guitar, etc.....  Will post some songs later.

For this post, I want to share some pictures of Frankfurt when we were there on 9th Dec 2012.  It was not a planned visit but we missed our connecting flight (flying in from Madrid) and so have to wait 24 hours for the next flight.  Many flights were cancelled on that day due to weather.  Lufthansa was kind enough to book us into a hotel in the city for one night.

So instead of waiting at the airport, we made a visit to Frankfurt - Roemer.

It was Christmas time and really enjoyed the atmosphere.  Temperature was below 10 degrees C that day but it was OK.  Beside soaking in the atmosphere, attended Mass, ate pork knuckle and drank hot wine.

Think we went to the St Bartholomew Catholic Dome.

The people were also nice.  At least they spoke English....

Frankfurt was something unplanned but it turned out to be really enjoyable.

Day after heavy snow outside our hotel.

The main railway station.

Scenes from the Christmas market.

Think this is the St Bartholomew Catholic Dome. 

Lend a helping hand

I came up with a new song titled "Lend A Helping Hand".  It has a country feel and is about lending someone a helping hand.  Hope you like it.

Musical Midi Accompaniment

Found this great piece of software in Linux that could generate accompaniment for singing.  You can read about it at http://www.mellowood.ca/mma/.

It seems that there is a graphical interface, Lemma, but I have yet to get it working.

Have a look at the accompanying documentation and that should get you started.  I used a text editor and created a the mma file in text format.  Next, use MMA to create the midi.  The I played it through Timidity or converted it to a mp3 file.

What I found useful is that it is great to practise soloing.

I have recorded 2 versions of Amazing Grace using MMA with different grooves (I just change one word to change groove).  I am not a great singer or a great guitar player.   But I had fun.

Can you imagine, in the future, bands might be obsolete if the do not play their own grooves.


Amazing Grace - 60s Rock

Amazing Grace -Shuffle Boogie

Baker and Cook

Went to Hillcrest Road to have coffee with my wife last Thursday.  Found this place called Baker and Cook (http://www.bakerandcook.biz) at the corner of the block and it is quite a refreshing place.  We were impressed by their display of bread though we shared a croissant and had a coffee each.

I like the contemporary design.  Service came with a smile and the place has a leisure feel to it and besides us, there were a couple of ladies (tai tai?) chatting away.

Visit their website for more info.

 

Birthday Dinner

Last night, had birthday celebration dinner of my 2nd son at Ma Maison Restaurant at Millenium Walk (see their FaceBook page here).

The food is good (I had burger steak) and not too expensive.  What impressed me was the ambience.  Service was good too.  You get to be greeted and sent off by the whole crew - like entering a sushi restaurant.

Definitely worth visiting.

Chinese New Year Celebration

Chinese New Year is celebrated on 23rd and 24th of Jan in 2012. It is one of the bigger holidays in Singapore as Chinese is the biggest race in Singapore (75%). This year, Chinese New Year comes early and we seem to have a wetter year with more rain. Maybe it is because this is the year of the water dragon.

During this holiday, many shops (especially those owned by Chinese) are closed. Some take this chance to take a break from work and some factories may even close for a week.

For more information about Chinese New Year and the related customs, please search the Internet.

Visiting of relatives and wishing each other well by exchanging red packets are common practices during Chinese New Year. The younger will wish the elder first and if you are married, you are obliged to give red packets (with money inside).

In Singapore, we also eat a dish called "Yu Sheng", signifying life with excess.

Here are some photos of what happen in my family.

Here we wish my mom happy new year.

Family photo and having a meal together.

Tossing Yu Sheng.

Chinese New Year cake "nian gao" which literally means "grow taller each year".  Mandarin oranges represent gold.

These are red packets which are exchanged during Chinese New Year. If you are not married, you do not have to exchange. You get to keep the red packets.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  GONG XI FA CAI!