My aunty and cousin are vegetarian so when we go out to eat, it’s no surprise we’d end up coming to this place.

I’ve been to this little restaurant along Victoria Rd. about 2 times prior because mum has some vegetarian friends. It’s one of those vegetarian restaurants that also have “fake” meat dishes (yes I know some people disagree with this).

Anyway just thought I’d introduce it a bit..

Kickin' it off with Peking Duck.

I personally don’t mind vegetarian meals sometimes – I feel that they’re less “bloaty”. I’m not really a vegetarian myself but I do see their benefits .

But yeah, no problems if I ever get invited etc !

Second dish was..

Stir Fry Noodles~

So you can see that they have like the fake-ham etc in there too. Really not too bad.

Umm not sure what's the word for this.. steamed? Hmm..

Had tofu so that’s always a plus

Fried "Pork"

This one was probably my favourite – the sauce was very good!!

I think this was suppose to be "fish" - not too sure!

That reminds me, the menu is quite interestingly “sectioned” into “meats” haha. They also do Yum Cha for lunch so needless to say they have dumplings and dim sims too.

Spring Rolls!

These were quite lovely too, actually maybe not so much spring rolls because they weren’t like a combination of ingredients inside.

Pork Belly!

It’s amazing how they even emulated the “fat” layer texture.

So for the final dish..

Roasted "duck"

The bottom layer is a small layer of taro – great finishing dish.

I never really had a good look at the menu but from what I’ve heard from mum it seems like the prices are quite decent if not, “fairly cheap”.

Definitely an option to consider if you’re having a vegetarian lunch / dinner for whatever reason!

You can find Tian Ci Vegetarian Restaurant at:

1006 Victoria Rd
West Ryde, NSW 2114
(02) 9874 9197

Park on the street next to it (or in McDonald’s – lol irony)

Bear with me because I’m not a food blogger and I’m not planning to be! Just sharing

Last year when a few of us finished University / started working we wondered how we could keep in touch. Then came the day that I moved away from Cherrybrook so we had to start thinking a bit more seriously (well at least I did!).

One week Hans and Chumpy told me about this new (at the time) cafe which opened in Eastwood. So after going we decided to try keep it weekly if nothing else is on.

We also tried to keep a “photo book”, this reminded me of the How I Met Your Mother episode where Marshall would make a video montage of every event they had haha:

*Yes, it’s flipped – due to copyright I think

Anyway, just thought I’d introduce the place a bit since we spent a few of our Saturday nights there last year! Staff probably got to know us a bit well too.

Bom Caffe - 15 Railway Parade, Eastwood NSW 2122

The decor is actually quite interesting – feels kind of clustered but it seems to suit the place well. Something you should know about the place is that almost you see displayed in the shop is pretty much for sale. They have a variety of homewares from “Welcome” / “Toilet” signs to photo frames, paintings, and clocks.

I believe no two tables are the same (wonder if they’re for sale).

Some examples of the products they sell.

They’re open quite late too I believe and the staff are quite friendly. Usually quite good atmosphere to just order something to drink and chat.

With regards to orders.. we normally get:

Coffee + Waffle combo

Mocha!

Green Tea Latte

Churros

The yogurt + fruit smoothie / crushes are also quite nice — don’t have a good photo but =X. Depending on the weather I may get that over a cup of coffee .

They also serve meals though I’ve never really tried (we usually go after dinner). But I’ve heard their handmade dumplings are quite good, large servings too.

I suppose if you’re ever around the area it’s definitely worth dropping by! Then again, Eastwood’s “Korean side” really only has like 2 cafes .

Two days ago I was having a really hard time sleeping because I think the temperature suddenly rose rapidly during the night. I woke up a few times and found it really hard to fall back asleep.

Apparently your most lucid / vivid dreams are those you get when you wake up and go back to sleep again (i.e. the ones that cause you to oversleep).

Well I had one of those (yes it felt very real too) about a mysterious train station (might be because of the poor train services the last couple of days — ahem, CityRail).

So let’s see how much I can remember (yes I dream in colour, sound and apparently ‘feel’ — at least I think so LOL).

Michigan Central Station

image source: here

Dream was pretty much set around a train station, not sure if it modelled any ones I’ve seen before in real life.. All I really remember was that it was an underground station, perhaps underground-metro style like what you see in Operation Metro (from Battlefield 3) or Max Payne.

Kind of like this - without the guns / soldiers

Well that cold-tile feel anyway.

I don’t think there was anyone from real life that I knew who were also featured in the dream, apart from myself har har.

With all the randoms there, there was however, one girl who would be another “main” of the dream I suppose (bear with me, I’m trying to make it sound not too tacky).

*–

From what I can remember.. we were running, straight from the beginning the two of us were running.

We started outside, in a city square surrounded by a bunch of tall lamps. The lighting from these lamps bounced off the ground giving it a glossy look.

I remember there being some colourful flower beds which helped in decorating the city square, which seemed to have provided it with some “life”.

That was the thing but.. it just seemed so lively outside. This lively night.

But there was only so much I remember because the two us were running. We passed by a few familiar faces who I think greeted us. Why did they know us? They sure didn’t look familiar to me.

I wasn’t even sure what we were running from. I remember turning back and there was definitely no one chasing us. Then what? Then why?

At some point, one of us decided to go through an “emergency-only” looking door. I don’t believe that we knew it was there, I still don’t even remember why we walked through it.

We were still running..

After going through the door we were immediately faced with a corridor with lit by an irritating flickering light. The door shut and locked behind us. The stark differences from this place and the city square were almost exactly the opposite.

It was cold. Dead cold.

It was then that we realised that there was no way to open the door that had been closed behind us. What was eerie was the fact that we felt hallows of chilly winds coming from the other end of the corridor.

Eerie, yet guided by our curiosity (and apparent need to keep running) we continued down the flickering corridor.

I don’t remember much of the corridor itself, perhaps we were too busy running?

At the other end of the tunnel the lighting improved slightly, but the main difference was that it was definitely much colder.

The two of us exited the corridor and looked around, we realised where we were – on a train station platform.

This underground train station seemed to be abandoned, cracked tiles and broken benches. The platform itself was empty, there was no train in sight. But it now became obvious where the chilly winds were coming from.

This left us with an apparent problem. Where do we run now? I remember our hearts dropping realising the situation we’re now in.

I remember the two of us running back through the eerie corridor, hearts beating fast and short of breath only to be greeted by the heavy “emergency” door.

I remember the two of us slamming our fists on the door hoping someone in the city square will open it from the other end.

I think that’s when the fear kicked in. The fear that we had to go through the corridor again, continue running from whatever it was we were running from – not even sure now if we could be able to ultimately get away.

There we were, back at the platform. Left or right? Both ends of the tunnel seemed identical. How do we choose?

Now that I think about it, there seemed to be a gap – I don’t even remember which side we chose to walk through. It’s probably not even important anymore..

After traversing down one side of the tunnel we finally came across an old derailed train. But that was the end of the line, for some reason there was no more path in front of this fallen train.

The two of us, exhausted from all the running finally caved. Spirits and hopes shattered.

We climbed into one of the train carriages which was not completely tipped over on its side.

We walked down the train aisle, for some reason it felt that the lighting in the carriage was better than what it was outside, the cold however, was no different.

The seats felt cold, they also had a thick  layer of dust.

The two of us found ourselves a seat and sat down. We huddled close in order to stay warm knowing we didn’t have much time left as we’re unable to get away.

I remember her lips trembling and her voice stuttering as she muttered.. “It shouldn’t be like this.. not like this.. “

I remember I tried to stay strong for us, but deep inside I knew she was right.. somewhere we lost our way, where? when? how? 

.. not like this.

It’s been a very fast year, I’ll probably start saying this every year but it’s just how it felt – is it a sign of getting older too?

But do you know what the greatest thing about the new year is?

To me it’s about leaving the year behind and starting a new year. We often use the saying at certain points in our lives, “starting a new chapter” but to me starting a new year is like starting a new book. Think about it, for those who still use paper organisers you will be starting a new one – I definitely will be!

Starting fresh!

So how did my 2011 fair up then? Well..

~I reckon that if I was to look back in a few years time and recall what the key events in 2011 were, I’d probably say:

• Graduation

Thank you mum

•  Starting Work

"Get in the photo Ben! You know you're going to end up joining us."

•  Moving Houses

I'm sorry Lydia.. forgive me

~But like every year, it’s always a chance to start / try new things!

• Snowboarding!

After tumbling to a halt.

• Tuesday Night Basketball & Thursday Basketball – no photos unfortunately But a huge thanks to all the ballers who show up! Especially to those that show up week after week.
  • On that note I’d just like to say I’ve gotten to meet so many new people in 2011 which I am always grateful for.

• Bom’s Cafe on Saturdays (well I tried! Yes, it’s still on when we can!)

Cup holders

• City2Surf (I will definitely challenge this again next year)

Chaffing.. will definitely keep that in mind.

~I never really state out my resolutions for the new year, in fact I don’t think I ever explicitly do them.. but I reckon I always subtly have a few things I want to do – becoming a better person & improving yourself should be a continuous journey right? Having said that, promises met for this year:

• Join a gym / regular exercise
• Start reading the books I buy
• Make a conscious effort to keep in contact with friends
• Be more independent

~And with that, I will always have things I need to work on (newly realised or existing):

• Attention to detail
• Asking the right question(s)!
• Becoming completely independent
• Get (and stay) fit
• Stop impulse buying .__________.
• Worry less, live more.

OK, fun stuff time.

~Top Games for me in 2011 (most time/effort spent):

• StarCraft II
• Battlefield 3
• NBA2K12

~Top Books for me in 2011 (most enjoyed — Yes I still have a tonne to finish!):

• Norwegian Wood
• The Aquariums of Pyongyang
• The Kite Runner

~Song that got the most “Repeats”:

(This should really be a no-brainer, hint – banner)

So with 2 days to go until the new year.. how am I feeling hmm.. well first of all, I can’t wait for Google to make another “year in review” video. But all and all I’m quite excited. I honestly don’t feel that it’ll be any sudden changes but at the back of my mind I know I’ll be one year older (and hopefully more mature!!) and be making bigger decisions in life.. but I think I’ve learnt to cross that bridge when I get there.

~So with that I leave a couple of rough notes on what I want to do in 2012:

• Visit my good friend Hans Hadiardja in South Korea
  • Congratulations again mate, I’m sure you’ll LOVE it there. So much so that I’m also sure you’ll find a lovely wife. Just remember that you were once Indo-Chinese living in Sydney, Australia. Yes, I really believe you’ll love it that much
• Visit Japan
• Read more books
• Finish (keyword) more games
• Take more road trips
  • Probably Tamworth (congratulations Angela ) and perhaps Canberra (congratulations Fred, going to miss you on the court!)
• Take more photos
  • Told you I’ll get back to this
• Go snowboarding again (and get a snowboard maybe)

Of course the list will grow.. but nothing wrong with laying a little foundation!

So until next year my friends! (Ps. the trollin’ will not stop).

Have a great New Year’s and keep it safe

I spent my boxing day (Christmas in America) up at 4am watching all the NBA matches for opening day (woohoo NBA is BACK!!). Did you know what League Pass International is having a free preview till the 8th of January? Check it out! http://ilp.nba.com/.

Loved what I saw too, maybe I’m just excited that it’s all back now anyway.

So having said that, going to throw down some very, very early (perhaps pre-mature) predictions for the seasion.

Indeed they are!

Haha just found an awesome ad:

Alright so here we go, high-level predictions for which teams I think will make the play-offs (no particular order, I’ll italic ones I’m not too sure about):

Western Conference

• LA Lakers (hard to see play-offs without them, might be low seed but)
• LA Clippers (hopping on the bandwagon, maybe 1st / 2nd round at best)
• Portland Trailblazers (despite losing Brandon Roy to retirement because of his health & still having no Greg Oden.. their roster is really looking like they have a lot of depth!)
• Denver Nuggets (I was a bit worried about Denver because of having 3 of their main players stuck in China due to contracts, but they’ve convinced me otherwise so far)
• Oklahoma City Thunder (no doubters here surely, I reckon they could take it to AT LEAST the Western Conference Finals)
• Golden State Warriors (might need Stephen Curry to stay healthy, but they’re looking very strong especially with a new coach)
• Sacramento Kings (if the team stays consistent they can be deadly – hopefully Cousins has matured up a bit too)
• San Antonio Spurs (hmm.. if age was no factor they wouldn’t be italic’d but I reckon they could still get there, hopefully Manu Ginobili won’t destroy his shooting arm again, plus they gotta be wanting more since getting knocked out by Memphis)
  • Wildcard – Memphis Grizzlies (I’ll admit I don’t follow them too closely but they really came out of no-where to me in the play-offs last year WITHOUT Rudy Gay)

Eastern Conference

• Chicago Bulls (bit of bias here , but surely you can’t deny!)
• Miami Heat (they will be very hungry for it, if Erik Spolstra wants to have a coaching job next season he’ll need to make sure they win anyway)
• New York Knicks (roster is looking good, Point Guard depth needs a bit of work, but if Toney Douglas can pick up from Baron Davis / Mike Bibby should be sweet)
• Boston Celtics (last run, I’ll give them this one)
• Atlanta Hawks (roster is looking good, their play today was also quite impressive)
• Indiana Pacers (let’s see if David West can help them for a chance)
• Milwaukee Bucks (Andrew Bogut’s arm is feeling better than ever? And they’re starting to get their shots in?! [they were the lowest FG% last season], good chance)
• Charlotte Bobcats (the rebuilt roster seems strong, but really not too sure)
  • Wildcard – Orlando Magic (If they can KEEP Dwight Howard, not likely though I reckon)

At the same time I’m feeling happy for Sen who got 3rd at NASL again, but sad at the same time (damn you Day[9]!! ).

Alright, so, a few packages arrived today which was some super positives , within these packages I’ve been most looking forward to trying on the AdiPure Trainers.

AdiPure Trainers (Red)

As I’ve started taking running a bit more seriously this year — gym / City2Surf etc.. I’ve wanted to get myself a pair of barefoot runners. I’ve had a look at the Vibram FiveFingers and I was going to get them too. But then I saw the announcement on these from Adidas.

For those who don’t know, I like Adidas basketball shoes and I’m quite comfortable with their shoes. I don’t like to change brands a lot because of I feel that there’s generally a consistency with brands. E.g. my last last pair of runners was ASICS and so were my last brand ^^”.

Anyway.. first, some quick common questions (that I asked too):

1. Socks? No.
2. Ankle support? No – more on this later.
3. Waterproof? Same as normal runners.
4. Padding? Some – the bottom is hardened.

I did some research when I was looking into the FiveFingers with regards to barefoot running. I mean, common questions of course would be like, “Does it hurt?” etc.. through my searching I found out that it’s actually a more natural way to run (we didn’t always have shoes right??). In fact, it seems that more often than not, wearing runners sometimes makes people run by having the heel hit the ground first (i.e. heel striking). I’ve personally never had that habit but you can imagine that if you ran like that with no shoes.. that would definitely hurt.

So the natural stride is suppose to be hitting the ground with the balls of your feet first. It also works different muscles (lower legs).

So, how did they fair? Good timing since my knee is allowing me to run again!

Despite all the ridicule I got from my lovely friends on Facebook:

(Asses )

Anyway, so it’s important to remember / know that the bottom of the feet contain a lot of pressure / acupuncture points so the running session will feel different. I read some reviews that said some people can’t run for more than an hour at a time wearing them because their head starts to hurt. I personally didn’t experience that today (ran for about an hour).

But I did notice that I sweated more, like it was the same amount of effort and I could get through the hour with little problems (short breaks to ease up on the knee).

But they felt good, running in them didn’t feel too different compared to running in normal runners. They will definitely become my dedicated runners from now on. I will just need to find time to test them outside at a park or something .

Oh, the other thing is that it takes a bit of time when first wearing them, because your toes tend to stay together – they need to be separated. I’ve read that our toes were naturally suppose to be separated, but because of the shoes we wear they tend to get use to being together :O.. Interesting. But yeah, got over that obviously, otherwise it would’ve been like running in bound feet.

That’s my take, if you’re into running, why not give them a try? Fix up the runner stride and protect those precious knees!!

Thought I’d share a little something special

See the bookends?

Now?

:D ! So many possibilities..

Alright, that’ll do! Have a great rest of the week!

Christmas soon!

I will still remember in Year 11 Multimedia when I was shown this:

Not only was it mind blowing, it was friggin’ distracting too! Mesmerising.

There’s always something nice about seeing the lights go up – I’m too lazy to invest the effort though ^^”. Do you / does your family put up lights? Anything crazy?

Anyway I digress, I’ve been thinking lately that I’ve been neglecting this blog for awhile now. It’s true, the number of posts in 2011 vs 2010 is dramatically less. But then again.. here I was, sitting here, spinning in my chair and listening to old Chinese pop (梁山伯与茱丽叶 — good song btw ), and thinking about what to write about.

Pretty futile, so I ended Googling a topic generator — yes they exist! ref. http://www.blogtap.net/blogtopicgenerator/

So the original topic given was “Spending too much time getting ready in the morning”, I thought to myself.. I normally only take 10 minutes to get ready in the morning (I don’t usually shower in the morning – prefer after work) so maybe I’ll just talk about routine. But before that.. obligatory clip:

First of all, there’s probably a few factors to keep in mind about me, 1) I’m quite a routine person. 2) I can be a morning person (I say this loosely because it still comes down to how late I sleep! For example.. it’s 1:31AM at the moment).

So on a normal workday my sleeping patterns are probably a range of something like.. 12AM -> 7AM / 7:15AM (snoooooze), sometimes 1AM -> 7AM.

Do you have a morning routine?

I don’t really have a special one like “jump out of bed and do 20 star jumps”, but thinking about it, I realise that I do seem to have one, subtly but. Usually the morning is split into 2 starting scenarios:

Event A -> I wake up before the alarm (bad dream / bad sleep)

Event B -> I wake up on the alarm

Maybe I’ll just list everything down, hopefully it won’t end up too messy:

• Start A -> Wake up before alarm:
• Go back to sleep and wait for alarm
• Alarm goes off, switch off & get up
• Switch off back up alarm & get ready (dressed, brush teeth, wash face etc etc — oh and fix up bed hair ¬_¬) <- END
• Alarm goes off, switch off & wait for back up alarm (+15mins)
• Switch off back up alarm & get ready (same as other scenario except maybe with a bit more urgency ^^”) <- END
• Switch off alarm and get out of bed
• Switch off alarms, check phone / emails & get ready (same as above) <- END
• Start B -> Wake up on the alarm:
• Pretty much similar scenarios as above – either get up straight away or wait for back up

I don’t really trust myself in the mornings; it’s probably also the most easiest time to persuade me. But there are a few things I do to make sure I don’t slip up too bad.

1. Keep all my pocket items in 1 area (wallet, keys, work ID, earphones, book(s))
2. Always back my bag the night before (I did this throughout Highschool & University too) — especially if the next day is Basketball day / night!
3. Have my work clothes selected the night before
4. Keep the alarm far away so I need to actually get out of bed to turn it off (for critical mornings only)

Oh and FYI:

• Alarm 1 @ 7AM is: Norazo’s Superman
• Alarm 2 @ 7:15AM is: RADWIMP’s Sakebe 「叫べ」 (the MV starts with an alarm ringing, gasp!)

Generally this seems to work out fine for me, at least 2011 has been fine.

I remember in 2010 since I was working part time and studying on the days I wasn’t working there wasn’t really a fixed schedule for mornings / nights. Sometimes I’d have to stay up late and sometimes I’d have to get up very early (was definitely not good for driving!). I realised that I could hammer out Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday OK with early wake ups like 5:45AM / 6AM, but because of this.. no matter how hard I tried, I would crash on either Thursday / Friday – it’s like my ears just block out the alarms.

Haven’t really had that this year so maybe it was just the whole study + working combo.

Having said that.. I’m going to go to bed or I’ll keep watching YouTube videos.

Ps. Sad for Leenock

The NBA site looks even more boring than it was during lockout.. Never mind, it’s back to its former glory

Get that weak stuff outta here.

I’m not sure about you, but I for one remain hopeful.

Having said that, there have also been some pretty interesting trade talks! There are a few things I love about the NBA, these are probably:

1. The Chicago Bulls
2. The Denver Nuggets (more on this later)
3. Trades (and trade rumours / talks)

Why the 3rd? Well, to me it’s like this period of chaos, but controlled chaos — it’s a whole bunch of “What If’s”, some far-fetched ideas could suddenly twist and become a reality. Some may catch you by surprise (*cough* Perkins to OKC), leave you with mixed feelings (Melo to New York), and make you a whole city mad (Lebron to Miami). I’ll go into this a bit later, actually, the rest of this post will be about this .

So I made a little note on the Denver Nuggets, few things:

1. Why do I go for them?
2. Why do I still go for them?
3. OMGWTF?

One at a time, 1: I only started following the NBA in mid-2010. Why? Because Rowan brought over NBA2k10 and hooked up 7 controllers to it, hella fun. Afterwards I went out and bought it for myself, when selecting teams I was trying to remember which team MrChiCity3 used. Took awhile to remember because I watched this video back in 2008, at first I thought it was Detroit Pistons, but after re-watching the video, I remember him calling out “Melo!” so I later figured out he was using the Denver Nuggets.

For that year I mainly followed the Nuggets and they had a pretty good run in the 2009-2010 season despite losing to the Utah Jazz (grr!).

Needless to say Carmelo Anthony, Chauncy Billups and JR Smith were among my favourite players.

But mid-season in 2010-2011 Melo was traded to the New York Knicks along with Billups — I can’t believe I’m in New York City; my dream came true.

I’ll give him props for 1] not pulling a Lebron 2] Being able to play for his home town. Well look, Knicks were a pretty good team to watch the later half of the season.

But 2: Why still? Because despite becoming a major “under dog” the Nuggets didn’t slow down. Despite losing their starting point guard and small forward, other players like Afflalo, Lawson, Smith, Nene etc.. picked up the slack and kept the momentum going. Even though they didn’t get out of the first round, at least they still made the play offs.

However now.. 3: I’m not sure how I feel about the situation the Nuggets are in for the 2011-2012 season. JR Smith and Kenyon Martin both have to finish their contracts in China, so that’s 2 of the 5 starters out. Nene apparently wants to get out of Denver too, 3/5 starters out. Felton, the back up point guard was traded for an older Andre Miller. Afflalo is also a free agent too, Denver is trying to hold onto him too, but might come down to loyalties. Sad , time to rebuild?!

OK. Main chunk of the post should be here..

What I hope to see / think will happen  in the 2011-2012 Season (Assuming there is one ¬_¬)

1. Chris Paul to New York
2. Dwight Howard to stay in Orlando
3. Nene to stay (but I don’t think he will)
4. Jimmer Fredette to make it RAIN from beyond the arc
5. Rondo will be traded
6. Celtics will not be as much of a threat
7. OKC will have a great season
8. Wizards’ new uniform will grow on me
9. Lakers will not get to the finals (sorry Rowan)
10. Heat should get to the conference finals again
11. Bulls to be the 2011-2012 champions (and Rose to be the post-season MVP )

Go Bulls

And damn, it’s December already! What a year it’s been. How has the year been for you?

Ps. Leenock is so taking this GSL.

I suppose if you want to be more specific it also touches on the fact that privacy is almost non-existent too.

But anyway, what I found interesting the way they showed this:

Kind of looks like a sandwich board.

Something came to mind after I finished this episode; an idea (not claiming that it’s original because it’s probably not) if you will. I’ve recently discovered that for smartphones there are now Augmented Reality apps, e.g. Layar, readily available and in some case free. I think that some of these apps are also user contributed, you can see the benefits and uses though, e.g. users could use it to find certain shops.

But yeah, the screen grab I posted pretty much made me realise that.. someone could easily just combined augmented reality with some internet feeds / social network feeds and facial recognition (you can’t hide from it, it’s coming.. only a matter of time). A user could just wave their smartphone camera over a stranger and within a few seconds (or never if you’re with Vodafone) and voila! His/Her details will just appear above/over them.

I remember one of my friends on Twitter re-tweeted some comment about it’s most likely possible to use augmented reality on the phone to help pin-point the person you’re looking for – think Sims (the green crystal above your Sims’ head). And you thought Google Latitude was stalker-ish .

The green pointer!

But I think it’s pretty common knowledge not to put stupid stuff about yourself on the Internet nowadays anyway; once it’s up there it’s up there forever after all.

Soooo.. who is going to make this app a reality – see what I did there?