Salted & Fried
Thursday, September 30, 2004
THE DAY WITH FOUR DIVES...
One day. No. More like 6 hours. If you exclude travel time. Four dives. Sites? Sisters' Island, Buran (again, to finish up yesterday's unfinished survey), Kusu Island and Pulau Hantu. But with great vis prevailing...(THREE METRES!)...I'll make the sacrifice...HAHAHA!
SISTERS' ISLAND
We did not do a survey here, but mostly helped Priscila collect her settlement tiles from her experimental rack. See HERE for more of the Marine Biology Lab's projects, albeit a tad outdated.
But from what I know, the reefs of sisters island is actually quite nice. Some parts nicer than others of course. While the deeper reef slopes of Sisters has rather nice seafans, the shallower parts has rather nice corals! Big table corals, boulder corals and rather diverse too in terms of coral species, I must say. Would love to go there for proper leisure dives...well, actually, depends on where you go. I mean, there ARE parts of the islands' reefs that are quite rubble-ized and in a very sad state. We can only hope that there is a way to rehabilitate them back to even a fraction of their original natural glory, man. Sigh. Sigh.
Here's a few photos taken by Tse-Lynn from today's dive:
Nice seafans!
Bubble coral! (Euphyllia divisa)
Filefish!
BURAN REEFS, day 4
"Oh, window to dive here only one hour."
"Should hurry up and dive now."
"Got a bit of current lah, but if you faster go, should be O.K."
These were the wise words of the boatmen. Which, as usual, is as true as the sky is blue. GAH!
Currents were EVEN STRONGER THAN YESTERDAY'S!!!!!!!!!!! Need I say more. I could not stay still long enough to take any photos. The currents were so strong, when we reeled back the transect tapes, we just FLEW and had to hang on for dear life every few metres. The currents were so strong it twisted and knotted the tapes so badly....and we had to hang on so tightly...that I just bunched up the whole 25m of tape all tangled around me up to the surface. No time to unknot and reel back properly. The current was so strong that whatever rocks I held on too, would sometimes get ripped apart or overturned if it was not heavy or firmly attached to the ground. It was at LEAST 1.5 knots. AT LEAST. I think it was probably 2 knots. Then again, I don't really know how fast it is. Judging from how fast i travelled...and the speed of the algae pieces that are flying past, that's how strong the currents were....OK so enough about Buran already. It's finally OVER. HURRAH. Although. Quite sad. It is a VERY nice place to dive with LOTS of nice stuff....
KUSU ISLAND
T'was my turn to do my work at KUSU. Kusu is probably one of my most favourite favourite favourite dive site. It's diverse coral life, even table corals! And sooooo many cute anamonefishes, nudibranchs, soft corals...etc etc and generally nice reef topography make it one of my favourtite favourite favourite dive sites. I've said that already haven't I. Oh well. IT IS my favourite favourite favourite most dive site!
My favourite favourite favourite most dive site...
False Clown anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris).
Tomato anemonefish
Hmm... do you ever notice that actually, the ANEMONES are also VERY VERY NICE. Eventhough there's no clownfish inhabiting it? The florescense...the swaying movements...HYPNOTIC!
Anemone up close!
Kusu is also home to....
Polyclad flatworm.
Corals and butterflyfish.
Hmmm. I think if anyone does anything to harm Kusu more than it has already suffered........GrrRRrrr....
PULAU HANTU
Hehe. What is there to say about Hantu but...fantastic... simply magnificent. Amone all the 4 sites, Hantu had the best vis. It was probably at least 3m. The rest of the sites had vis about 2.5 - 3m....At most. Hantu is GREAT.
The currents were again strong by the time we dived Hantu and did not manage to take any nice shots. But you can always go to the home of the Hantu Bloggers for all the photos and info you need about what you can expect when diving Pulau Hantu!!!! So go. What are you still doing here? GO GO. Shoo! See Debby's site. ALL ABOUT THE PULAU HANTU. Yeaps. All about it....
¶ 11:31 pm 0 comments
SISTERS' ISLAND
We did not do a survey here, but mostly helped Priscila collect her settlement tiles from her experimental rack. See HERE for more of the Marine Biology Lab's projects, albeit a tad outdated.
But from what I know, the reefs of sisters island is actually quite nice. Some parts nicer than others of course. While the deeper reef slopes of Sisters has rather nice seafans, the shallower parts has rather nice corals! Big table corals, boulder corals and rather diverse too in terms of coral species, I must say. Would love to go there for proper leisure dives...well, actually, depends on where you go. I mean, there ARE parts of the islands' reefs that are quite rubble-ized and in a very sad state. We can only hope that there is a way to rehabilitate them back to even a fraction of their original natural glory, man. Sigh. Sigh.
Here's a few photos taken by Tse-Lynn from today's dive:
Nice seafans!
Bubble coral! (Euphyllia divisa)
Filefish!
BURAN REEFS, day 4
"Oh, window to dive here only one hour."
"Should hurry up and dive now."
"Got a bit of current lah, but if you faster go, should be O.K."
These were the wise words of the boatmen. Which, as usual, is as true as the sky is blue. GAH!
Currents were EVEN STRONGER THAN YESTERDAY'S!!!!!!!!!!! Need I say more. I could not stay still long enough to take any photos. The currents were so strong, when we reeled back the transect tapes, we just FLEW and had to hang on for dear life every few metres. The currents were so strong it twisted and knotted the tapes so badly....and we had to hang on so tightly...that I just bunched up the whole 25m of tape all tangled around me up to the surface. No time to unknot and reel back properly. The current was so strong that whatever rocks I held on too, would sometimes get ripped apart or overturned if it was not heavy or firmly attached to the ground. It was at LEAST 1.5 knots. AT LEAST. I think it was probably 2 knots. Then again, I don't really know how fast it is. Judging from how fast i travelled...and the speed of the algae pieces that are flying past, that's how strong the currents were....OK so enough about Buran already. It's finally OVER. HURRAH. Although. Quite sad. It is a VERY nice place to dive with LOTS of nice stuff....
KUSU ISLAND
T'was my turn to do my work at KUSU. Kusu is probably one of my most favourite favourite favourite dive site. It's diverse coral life, even table corals! And sooooo many cute anamonefishes, nudibranchs, soft corals...etc etc and generally nice reef topography make it one of my favourtite favourite favourite dive sites. I've said that already haven't I. Oh well. IT IS my favourite favourite favourite most dive site!
My favourite favourite favourite most dive site...
False Clown anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris).
Tomato anemonefish
Hmm... do you ever notice that actually, the ANEMONES are also VERY VERY NICE. Eventhough there's no clownfish inhabiting it? The florescense...the swaying movements...HYPNOTIC!
Anemone up close!
Kusu is also home to....
Polyclad flatworm.
Corals and butterflyfish.
Hmmm. I think if anyone does anything to harm Kusu more than it has already suffered........GrrRRrrr....
PULAU HANTU
Hehe. What is there to say about Hantu but...fantastic... simply magnificent. Amone all the 4 sites, Hantu had the best vis. It was probably at least 3m. The rest of the sites had vis about 2.5 - 3m....At most. Hantu is GREAT.
The currents were again strong by the time we dived Hantu and did not manage to take any nice shots. But you can always go to the home of the Hantu Bloggers for all the photos and info you need about what you can expect when diving Pulau Hantu!!!! So go. What are you still doing here? GO GO. Shoo! See Debby's site. ALL ABOUT THE PULAU HANTU. Yeaps. All about it....
¶ 11:31 pm 0 comments
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
BURAN REEF, day 3 & SAINT JOHN'S REEF
........................As I was saying. There are BAD days. And today, the currents are even worse than I've ever experienced while diving in Singapore waters. Makes the "Superman Currents" two days back seem like a stroll in the park...or a swim in the baby's pool....or just plain easy. Apparently, the window for diving THIS particular site of Buran is only about an hour...$%^&@*&$
But it was exciting. Things that went through my head as I was doing the deep transect was:
At Transect 1: "Wah, the seafans and seawhips quite nice, ah."
At Transect 2: "Wow...the seafans are getting more colourful...ooohh and bigger too!"
At Transect 3: ".......I wonder why...."
At Transect 4: "BASKET BASKET BASKET BLARDI...............................HEEEeellLLLLlll...!!!"
As I let go of a rock I was hanging on for dear life, I flew...literally FLEW...back really fast....Almost banged into Tse-Lynn who also flew past me soon after.
Despite all that, we still managed to take a few photos. Hey, who could resist. We've decided at Buran is macrolife haven. Fighting against current, we bring you these photos that Tse-Lynn took:
Polyclad flatworm
Glossodoris atromarginata
Jerona funebris
And all this was taken in the midst of doing work and current...so can you imagine if you were doing a leisurely dive and had time to actually LOOK for things! HmmmMMmmm.....
The currents were so strong that we did not even manage to finish the shallow transects. Aborted dive halfway to find out that the next window to dive is at 5.45pm! Had to. Go dive. To retrieve. Back. The. Damn. Tapes. Shack-ness. I need massage...
SAINT JOHN'S REEF
Well, that was actually the more exciting half of the day...which was the second half. The morning dive at Saint John's reef was rather uneventful. Just helping Priscila do her stuff and then Tse-Lynn mucked about and took a few photos...Oh, forgot to mention that the vis was again...GREAT...about 2.5 to 3m. Slurp.
Anyway, although this part of Saint John's (near the jetty) is quite infested with Sargassum along its reef flat and reef crest, the reef slope area is rather free from it and can prove to be quite a pretty dive site. With many many nice corals and other friendly creatures!
Big big Diploastrea coral.
Bubble bubble bubble!!! Coral! BUBBLE CORAL! (Pleurogyra)
Witch's nose coral (Mycedium).
Ooohhh....Weapons UP!
Oh, and on the way to Buran Reef, we also saw THIS! A barely alive Trevally with a sizable chunk off its mouth area. Big shark. Big shark. Remember the rather larger remora the boatmen caught....Shark...Shark....Drool. Never seen one while diving in Singapore before. Mmmmmmm.......
The poor thing was barely alive...
¶ 11:17 pm 0 comments
But it was exciting. Things that went through my head as I was doing the deep transect was:
At Transect 1: "Wah, the seafans and seawhips quite nice, ah."
At Transect 2: "Wow...the seafans are getting more colourful...ooohh and bigger too!"
At Transect 3: ".......I wonder why...."
At Transect 4: "BASKET BASKET BASKET BLARDI...............................HEEEeellLLLLlll...!!!"
As I let go of a rock I was hanging on for dear life, I flew...literally FLEW...back really fast....Almost banged into Tse-Lynn who also flew past me soon after.
Despite all that, we still managed to take a few photos. Hey, who could resist. We've decided at Buran is macrolife haven. Fighting against current, we bring you these photos that Tse-Lynn took:
Polyclad flatworm
Glossodoris atromarginata
Jerona funebris
And all this was taken in the midst of doing work and current...so can you imagine if you were doing a leisurely dive and had time to actually LOOK for things! HmmmMMmmm.....
The currents were so strong that we did not even manage to finish the shallow transects. Aborted dive halfway to find out that the next window to dive is at 5.45pm! Had to. Go dive. To retrieve. Back. The. Damn. Tapes. Shack-ness. I need massage...
SAINT JOHN'S REEF
Well, that was actually the more exciting half of the day...which was the second half. The morning dive at Saint John's reef was rather uneventful. Just helping Priscila do her stuff and then Tse-Lynn mucked about and took a few photos...Oh, forgot to mention that the vis was again...GREAT...about 2.5 to 3m. Slurp.
Anyway, although this part of Saint John's (near the jetty) is quite infested with Sargassum along its reef flat and reef crest, the reef slope area is rather free from it and can prove to be quite a pretty dive site. With many many nice corals and other friendly creatures!
Big big Diploastrea coral.
Bubble bubble bubble!!! Coral! BUBBLE CORAL! (Pleurogyra)
Witch's nose coral (Mycedium).
Ooohhh....Weapons UP!
Oh, and on the way to Buran Reef, we also saw THIS! A barely alive Trevally with a sizable chunk off its mouth area. Big shark. Big shark. Remember the rather larger remora the boatmen caught....Shark...Shark....Drool. Never seen one while diving in Singapore before. Mmmmmmm.......
The poor thing was barely alive...
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
BURAN REEF, day 2.
Remember what I said yesterday (see past log)? Well, TODAY is the total opposite. I love my job. I love the sea. Not that I didn't love it yesterday, I just love it MORE, today. It almost felt like a leisure dive today if not for the fact that we WERE doing work...
Big boulder corals and overhangs, nice small pretty corals and little crevices at the reef crest. And big colourful gorgonians and sea whips at the reef slope. Great place. Georgous.
Big Platygyra coral.
And the macro life is great too! Oargh! If only could stay a litttllleee longer to just take photos of all of it. We saw.....
Phyllidae
Acropora shrimp
Polyclad flatworm.
We also saw SEAWHIP GOBIES!!! These shy gobies are found along seawhips, either camouflaged or doggedly dodging you to the OTHER side of the seawhip. Irritating, I know................But still exciting!!!!
Oh look, there's TWO of them...so cuutteeeeee...
Closer shot of the goby.
Here's some other things we saw during the dive:
A cushionstar we did not sit on.
Rather large graze marks from suspectedly rather large parrotfish...
Colourful seafan at the reef slope!
.....And BIG ones too!!
And just as we were reeling back the tapes, under a pretty overhang like this...
Pretty ain't it...
...and in a crevice under this....
Scaaarrryyyy....My face was not spared...
....I saw these 2 antennas...AND THIS!!!
My stinging sacrifice was well WORTH IT!
Too bad for the backscatter...well, WHO CARES! It's a damn lobster!!! And with that, we ended our dive feeling very satisfied indeed...
Oh, did I ever tell you that our boatmen food is FANTASTIC. Dhal and eggplant and fish in special sauce and fried chicken wing and fried ikan bilis and FRIED TOADFISH...with rice. DELICIOUS. MARVELLOUS. GLORIOUS. F.O.O.D. I shall stop this now because I am about to drool...Oops, too late. Damn.
Anyway, let me tell you more about the FRIED TOADFISH. Tender, juicy, milky, smooth meat. Oh, the taste and texture. So...so...MMmmmMMMmmm. The boatmen actually told us it was GROUPER and not the TOADFISH they caught the previuos day. Only after it's all gone and we were licking our fingers clean, then they told us. Probably 'cos they thought if we knew, we wouldn't eat any of it. Yeah right, I eat everything. Especially if it's THAT good. TOADFISH. Will never look at it the same way underwater again.......... ¶ 6:03 pm 0 comments
Big boulder corals and overhangs, nice small pretty corals and little crevices at the reef crest. And big colourful gorgonians and sea whips at the reef slope. Great place. Georgous.
Big Platygyra coral.
And the macro life is great too! Oargh! If only could stay a litttllleee longer to just take photos of all of it. We saw.....
Phyllidae
Acropora shrimp
Polyclad flatworm.
We also saw SEAWHIP GOBIES!!! These shy gobies are found along seawhips, either camouflaged or doggedly dodging you to the OTHER side of the seawhip. Irritating, I know................But still exciting!!!!
Oh look, there's TWO of them...so cuutteeeeee...
Closer shot of the goby.
Here's some other things we saw during the dive:
A cushionstar we did not sit on.
Rather large graze marks from suspectedly rather large parrotfish...
Colourful seafan at the reef slope!
.....And BIG ones too!!
And just as we were reeling back the tapes, under a pretty overhang like this...
Pretty ain't it...
...and in a crevice under this....
Scaaarrryyyy....My face was not spared...
....I saw these 2 antennas...AND THIS!!!
My stinging sacrifice was well WORTH IT!
Too bad for the backscatter...well, WHO CARES! It's a damn lobster!!! And with that, we ended our dive feeling very satisfied indeed...
Oh, did I ever tell you that our boatmen food is FANTASTIC. Dhal and eggplant and fish in special sauce and fried chicken wing and fried ikan bilis and FRIED TOADFISH...with rice. DELICIOUS. MARVELLOUS. GLORIOUS. F.O.O.D. I shall stop this now because I am about to drool...Oops, too late. Damn.
Anyway, let me tell you more about the FRIED TOADFISH. Tender, juicy, milky, smooth meat. Oh, the taste and texture. So...so...MMmmmMMMmmm. The boatmen actually told us it was GROUPER and not the TOADFISH they caught the previuos day. Only after it's all gone and we were licking our fingers clean, then they told us. Probably 'cos they thought if we knew, we wouldn't eat any of it. Yeah right, I eat everything. Especially if it's THAT good. TOADFISH. Will never look at it the same way underwater again.......... ¶ 6:03 pm 0 comments
Monday, September 27, 2004
DIVING MIDWAY & BURAN REEFS.
Hmm? What's that?? What sort of conditions do we dive in you ask? Well, to begin with, cloudy days are not suppose to stop us from doing work. Yes. I mean dark clouds like THIS:
Well, it wasn't that bad until it started RAINING:
Well, the rain didn't last THAT long. The superman currents did though. And the horrible surge. So essentially today's dives were 100m surveys at two depths and two sites, two hours long each, AGAINST superman currents and horible surge in cloudy and rainy weather. How sweet, eh? Plus I got stung by some unknown marine creature while doing horixontal rock-climbing underwater against the current. And for the first time in my dive history, I puked while doing a survey. But the vis was quite O.K. though! At least 2m!
BURAN REEF
Buran Reef is a patch reef located off Sentosa which is only visible during low tide. During high tide, the only thing you'll see is the green and yellow marker buoys indicating where the reefs should be.
Nice big Porites sp. coral.
Other than the few large boulder corals encountered, the site has mostly been rubble-ized. Rubble rubble rubble, algae algae algae. Well, at least the site we surveyed. But...oh my gawd...it's ANEMONE HEAVEN. WALLS and WALLS of anemones and large boulders just COVERED by anemone. And all that cute anemonefish!!!!
An anemone wall. No scale here. But it's big.
Would have loved to take more photos and stake out an anemonefish, but...you know. Don't make me repeat it.
Also saw nudibranchs and this giant filefish (the biggest I've ever seen ever!) which I didn't manage to take a photo off.
Anyone know the species name for this?
MIDWAY REEF
Located just off Sentosa Cove, Midway Reef is also a patch reef, in the middle of nowhere. Located near the channel where big huge gigantic cargo carrying ships, it isn't much of a reef left...at least where we dived. But the seafans at the deeper end were really quite beautiful, not to mention colourful!
What greated me when I reached the reef crest.
Sea fans!.
Loads of lizardfish and gobies too.
And the long day ended soon after. Oh, and meet one of our boatmen...hehehe...
Sharq the man!
¶ 9:15 pm 1 comments
Well, it wasn't that bad until it started RAINING:
Well, the rain didn't last THAT long. The superman currents did though. And the horrible surge. So essentially today's dives were 100m surveys at two depths and two sites, two hours long each, AGAINST superman currents and horible surge in cloudy and rainy weather. How sweet, eh? Plus I got stung by some unknown marine creature while doing horixontal rock-climbing underwater against the current. And for the first time in my dive history, I puked while doing a survey. But the vis was quite O.K. though! At least 2m!
BURAN REEF
Buran Reef is a patch reef located off Sentosa which is only visible during low tide. During high tide, the only thing you'll see is the green and yellow marker buoys indicating where the reefs should be.
Nice big Porites sp. coral.
Other than the few large boulder corals encountered, the site has mostly been rubble-ized. Rubble rubble rubble, algae algae algae. Well, at least the site we surveyed. But...oh my gawd...it's ANEMONE HEAVEN. WALLS and WALLS of anemones and large boulders just COVERED by anemone. And all that cute anemonefish!!!!
An anemone wall. No scale here. But it's big.
Would have loved to take more photos and stake out an anemonefish, but...you know. Don't make me repeat it.
Also saw nudibranchs and this giant filefish (the biggest I've ever seen ever!) which I didn't manage to take a photo off.
Anyone know the species name for this?
MIDWAY REEF
Located just off Sentosa Cove, Midway Reef is also a patch reef, in the middle of nowhere. Located near the channel where big huge gigantic cargo carrying ships, it isn't much of a reef left...at least where we dived. But the seafans at the deeper end were really quite beautiful, not to mention colourful!
What greated me when I reached the reef crest.
Sea fans!.
Loads of lizardfish and gobies too.
And the long day ended soon after. Oh, and meet one of our boatmen...hehehe...
Sharq the man!
¶ 9:15 pm 1 comments
Saturday, September 25, 2004
THE WONDERFULLY SATISFYING DAY.
I love my Powerbook (Precious is what I call him/her/it). I am in a cab, on the way home, making full use of my time by writing this. Well, as useful as writing this gets, that is. Which I think is pretty useful. Or at least satisfyingly F.U.N. Bet the taxi uncle thinks I am so hardworking and doing hard work furiously typing away at my laptop. Little does he know….Am turning into my street now. I'll be right back, after the break. Stay tuned. No, do NOT click on away from me. Stay. Good girl/boy/it.
And...welcome back to THE Salted Fried Tempeh. We will continue our segment on...My Wonderfully Satisfying Day.
Imagine the bright sunny sun rising in the horizon. Warmth creeping to replace the cold pre-dawn air...And then hacking coughing breaking the chirpy chirping of the morning birdy birds. I felt like it was going to be a loooonngggg and paaaiinnnffull day. Not to mention the...urm...the stomach problems in the morning. It did not seem good. No, not good at all.
Work was OK. Lunch came and went. Then the fun started. I shall not double blog for good reasons as you can read the events in detail HERE. Yes, H.E.R.E. (click it). Go on, don't be shy.
And then we all went for some free porn at SIF. James' talk on Coral Sex! (see past log). I shall let the pictures to the talking 'cos I don't think I can do justice to the things we did...
First, we set up our booth. It was up in MINUTES!
Second, we put up our posters. So EFFICIENTLY!
MY POSTER MY POSTER MY POSTER!!! Ain't it nicee.....
Then, we mended the booth while people arrived for the talk. So DILIGENT!
(This is Wei Song by the way, self-admited slave-on-loan from the RMBR Toddycats)
James gave his excellent talk on CORAL SEX next....
...and got Ria excited with the coral porn!...And made ABBY eat cuttlefish (see odd girl in background).
And while our audience took NOTES diligently, at the back, we...............
..........did THIS.
.........and THIS: HI GUYS, meet GILIAN, our Public Exhibitions Officer! Isn't she sweet? Aw.
And...Abygayle ****-Ng Pek Kaye (a.k.a Abby)
Oh, here's Gilian again...Aw. So shy.
And Gilian again...up close...and...urm...closer...
....................
OK. Enough with the Gilian. Besides mundane photo-taking, Abby and I also came up with a potential award-winning storyboard material for a new movie! It's called: SHARK v.s. KILLER WHALE. Or...KILLER WHALE v.s. SHARK! And it goes like this:
"Lalalala, I'm swimming in the sea...I'm a cuttlefish so delicious and yummy..."
As the little cute cuttlefish swim in the big blue ocean, 2 large predators happen to spot him/her/it.
And it looks like BOTH predators, a great white shark, and a killer whale, have decided to...err...prey on the poor little cuttlefish...
Shark: !!!
Killer whale: !!! !!! !!!
Shark: He's/she's/it's MINE!
Killer whale: NO!!! MINE!
MINE!!! NO MINE!!! MINE!!! NO!! Let go!!! OW, you got one of my tentacles!! Sharks have no tentacles?!!? NOO!! You got MY tentacle, THE CUTTLEFISH!!! LET GO!! YOU'RE MINE!! NO! You're MINE!! *&@#$%^
Shark & Killer whale together: NO!! MIINNEE!!! (slow-mo here)
The shark and the killer whale BOTH lunged at the squid at the same time and....
....as they lunged forth, they collided into one another and due to the play of forces, pressure and other unknown factors, the cuttlefish got spit out of their mouths and the shark and the killer whale, sunk their teeth into one another instead...
AND...CUT!!!! And THAT's how the CUTTLEFISH that we are selling to raise funds for the Blue Water Volunteers has only SEVEN arms instead of EIGHT. Everything that you see and read here is purely fictional and hold no facts whatsoever. Except that the CUTTLEFISH we are selling, DOES have seven tentacles instead of eight!!
The talk soon ended after great presentation of really magnificent slides of coral spawning which James never showed us before. Dionne then promptly thanked James and presented him with a token of appreciation.
Fantastic talk James! Oooh.. that's US!!
We then mingled and talked to our guests while some of us tried to sell them squeaky toys for our fund-raising. Although not successful, we hope that we've talked to quite a few people today...
Dionne, our Public Talks Officer in action.
After packing up and storing everything away at....
.....5.08 PM.....
.....we proceeded to JC Kitchen at the basement level of Park Mall where....
.....Dionne ordered this giant claypot porridge for herself...
.....Hmmm...After all that hard work coordinating the talk, I think she deserves it. The rest of us had rather nice pasta with MUSHROOMS. Delicious. And just sat there plotting evil plans on passing stonefish to people we don't like during our reef walk sessions...(which apparently my parents have SIGNED UP FOR of all other things they could be doing).
JC Kitchen has really good food for great value and so much variety and great tables for meetings and friendly staff........and the Cute Waiter Guy. According to Abby, Angeline, Dionne, Tse-Lynn and Haniman...i.e. EVERYONE ELSE...my Cute Waiter Guy is not Cute at all. Angeline gave him an OK. BUT HE IS QUITE CUTE WHAT! He bothered to actually check whether the Primavera pasta had MUSHROOMS or not for me and Tse-Lynn the first time we went there. After initially telling us that there were no mushrooms in it, he actually admited his mistake and returned to tell us otherwise! Actually I don't know why he's so cute but he just is. There's something about my Cute Waiter Guy that's Cute...I just don't know what. He's also shorter than 1.78m...which is my minumum height requirement too! What is IT about him...what what what??? Anyone??? For once I am looking forward to more meetings at SIF................Yes yes, I'm sick sick sick.
Night came and after much mooching around, we finally proceeded to...CLICK HERE for the final section of My Wonderfully Satisfying Day.
And...that was My Wonderfully Satisfying Day. Wonderful, no? Well, after being home-ridden for almost the whole week, this is VERY satisfying indeed. That's All Folks!....For now....
¶ 11:59 pm 1 comments
And...welcome back to THE Salted Fried Tempeh. We will continue our segment on...My Wonderfully Satisfying Day.
Imagine the bright sunny sun rising in the horizon. Warmth creeping to replace the cold pre-dawn air...And then hacking coughing breaking the chirpy chirping of the morning birdy birds. I felt like it was going to be a loooonngggg and paaaiinnnffull day. Not to mention the...urm...the stomach problems in the morning. It did not seem good. No, not good at all.
Work was OK. Lunch came and went. Then the fun started. I shall not double blog for good reasons as you can read the events in detail HERE. Yes, H.E.R.E. (click it). Go on, don't be shy.
And then we all went for some free porn at SIF. James' talk on Coral Sex! (see past log). I shall let the pictures to the talking 'cos I don't think I can do justice to the things we did...
First, we set up our booth. It was up in MINUTES!
Second, we put up our posters. So EFFICIENTLY!
MY POSTER MY POSTER MY POSTER!!! Ain't it nicee.....
Then, we mended the booth while people arrived for the talk. So DILIGENT!
(This is Wei Song by the way, self-admited slave-on-loan from the RMBR Toddycats)
James gave his excellent talk on CORAL SEX next....
...and got Ria excited with the coral porn!...And made ABBY eat cuttlefish (see odd girl in background).
And while our audience took NOTES diligently, at the back, we...............
..........did THIS.
.........and THIS: HI GUYS, meet GILIAN, our Public Exhibitions Officer! Isn't she sweet? Aw.
And...Abygayle ****-Ng Pek Kaye (a.k.a Abby)
Oh, here's Gilian again...Aw. So shy.
And Gilian again...up close...and...urm...closer...
....................
OK. Enough with the Gilian. Besides mundane photo-taking, Abby and I also came up with a potential award-winning storyboard material for a new movie! It's called: SHARK v.s. KILLER WHALE. Or...KILLER WHALE v.s. SHARK! And it goes like this:
"Lalalala, I'm swimming in the sea...I'm a cuttlefish so delicious and yummy..."
As the little cute cuttlefish swim in the big blue ocean, 2 large predators happen to spot him/her/it.
And it looks like BOTH predators, a great white shark, and a killer whale, have decided to...err...prey on the poor little cuttlefish...
Shark: !!!
Killer whale: !!! !!! !!!
Shark: He's/she's/it's MINE!
Killer whale: NO!!! MINE!
MINE!!! NO MINE!!! MINE!!! NO!! Let go!!! OW, you got one of my tentacles!! Sharks have no tentacles?!!? NOO!! You got MY tentacle, THE CUTTLEFISH!!! LET GO!! YOU'RE MINE!! NO! You're MINE!! *&@#$%^
Shark & Killer whale together: NO!! MIINNEE!!! (slow-mo here)
The shark and the killer whale BOTH lunged at the squid at the same time and....
....as they lunged forth, they collided into one another and due to the play of forces, pressure and other unknown factors, the cuttlefish got spit out of their mouths and the shark and the killer whale, sunk their teeth into one another instead...
AND...CUT!!!! And THAT's how the CUTTLEFISH that we are selling to raise funds for the Blue Water Volunteers has only SEVEN arms instead of EIGHT. Everything that you see and read here is purely fictional and hold no facts whatsoever. Except that the CUTTLEFISH we are selling, DOES have seven tentacles instead of eight!!
The talk soon ended after great presentation of really magnificent slides of coral spawning which James never showed us before. Dionne then promptly thanked James and presented him with a token of appreciation.
Fantastic talk James! Oooh.. that's US!!
We then mingled and talked to our guests while some of us tried to sell them squeaky toys for our fund-raising. Although not successful, we hope that we've talked to quite a few people today...
Dionne, our Public Talks Officer in action.
After packing up and storing everything away at....
.....5.08 PM.....
.....we proceeded to JC Kitchen at the basement level of Park Mall where....
.....Dionne ordered this giant claypot porridge for herself...
.....Hmmm...After all that hard work coordinating the talk, I think she deserves it. The rest of us had rather nice pasta with MUSHROOMS. Delicious. And just sat there plotting evil plans on passing stonefish to people we don't like during our reef walk sessions...(which apparently my parents have SIGNED UP FOR of all other things they could be doing).
JC Kitchen has really good food for great value and so much variety and great tables for meetings and friendly staff........and the Cute Waiter Guy. According to Abby, Angeline, Dionne, Tse-Lynn and Haniman...i.e. EVERYONE ELSE...my Cute Waiter Guy is not Cute at all. Angeline gave him an OK. BUT HE IS QUITE CUTE WHAT! He bothered to actually check whether the Primavera pasta had MUSHROOMS or not for me and Tse-Lynn the first time we went there. After initially telling us that there were no mushrooms in it, he actually admited his mistake and returned to tell us otherwise! Actually I don't know why he's so cute but he just is. There's something about my Cute Waiter Guy that's Cute...I just don't know what. He's also shorter than 1.78m...which is my minumum height requirement too! What is IT about him...what what what??? Anyone??? For once I am looking forward to more meetings at SIF................Yes yes, I'm sick sick sick.
Night came and after much mooching around, we finally proceeded to...CLICK HERE for the final section of My Wonderfully Satisfying Day.
And...that was My Wonderfully Satisfying Day. Wonderful, no? Well, after being home-ridden for almost the whole week, this is VERY satisfying indeed. That's All Folks!....For now....
¶ 11:59 pm 1 comments
