Dinner With 2 Bloggers

lim peh ka li kong

On 24 June, 2007 a very hot Sunday, me and my cha-bo-lang met up with 2 fine bloggers for a short dinner - Carcar and Whiskoffee.

We had our dinner at a restaurant called Different Taste near Carcar's house and I was more than happy cos the restaurant is also very near to my house since Carcar and I are just neighbours. (tell you softly hor, actually lim peh was the one who suggested the venue, ha ha ha).

The common rules applied to our meeting too. My nephew, myself and Whiskoffee were the first to be at the restaurant and the 2 ladies, Carcar and my cha-bo-lang came later. (Girls = late comers).

At 6:30 pm sharp, all were well seated down and the food was served within minutes. The food was delicious as we ordered Prawn Rolls, Pork Ribs, Thai Chicken Cutlets, Sambal Kangkong and Hot Plate Tofu, just nice for the 5 of us. (lim peh was busy eating until forget to take photo, scared the 2 young ones finished up all the food while I take the photos).

Me find the food in this restaurant very nice and both Whiskoffee and my Nephew had 2nd helpings of rice.

Although lim peh is an old uncle (as compared to Carcar and Whiskoffee), me managed to talk on almost everything with them under the sun. (No generation gap).

From our conversation, me learned the following interesting phrases: -

"老牛想吃嫩草"

"The difference between a Cat person and a Dog person"

"People who are born in December are very smart people."

"......."

After eating and talking for about 1 and a half hours, we went our separate ways.

If you are wondering, the answer is "yes", we talked about the other bloggers whom we know. Who did we gossip? Bloggers we know, Blogs we read and Bloggers we would like to meet. So which Bloggers? Ha ha, for us to know and for you to find out, come join us the next round.

I must say the following to Carcar and Whiskoffee who had spent their time with me:

The food is good but the company is BETTER!

lim peh kong wan liao

You can also read the event from Carcar' blog here and Whiskoffee´s blog here.

CNY 鱼生捞-ing At Hiao Aunty's Place

lim peh ka li kong

Miss Hiao Aunty invited some of us to her house for a CNY “捞鱼生”, got free makan Old Beng me how can reject one?

According to her, there were supposed to be 8 of us (auspicious numbers) but then hor in the end only a handful can make it leh.

The 5 are the Hiao Aunty, Old Beng and Cha-bo-lang, Elydia and her Ah Dar.

According to the Hostess, she has just shifted there in January. The place is cosy and clean, very comfortable and airy. (Eh... actually only see the hall, she quickly closed her Bedroom door before any of us can peek into it.)

When me and cha-bo-lang reached her house at 2.05pm (5 minutes late because Old Beng me had to groom a little bit thus took a little bit longer time), Elydia and her Ah Dar were already there.

After wishing Hiao Aunty a Happy New Year with 2 Mandarin Oranges, me stepped into her hall and met Elydia and partner.

"Hello, Happy New Year," me extended my hand to Ah Dar,"You must be Mr Ah Dar." Me very smart one cos me got read Elydia's blog and know his name is Ah Dar.

"No la, his name is Peter." Elydia told me.

"Ah Phwee, Ah Dar is the nick only Elydia calls her partner la." Cha-bo-lang whispered into my ear.

"????" Me very confused leh. Me thought his name is Ah Dar as Elydia always addressed him so in her blog.

"Hi, you must be Old Beng." Peter shook my hand.

Wow!!! How come he know I am Old Beng? Me famous already la, me quickly take out my pen in case he wants my autograph, me heard Hiao Aunty asking him,"Peter, how do you know he is Old Beng?"

"Oh, it's very simple, see his super-duper long ear-lobe can tell liao."

Wa-piang, like that also can?

After chit-chating for a while, we started our 鱼生捞-ing, we are the New Generation (eh.. ok la, not me, me know me old fashioned), the young ones are the New Generation and we used forks instead of chopsticks to 捞 the 鱼生.

The 鱼生 very nice right? Thanks to Hiao Aunty for her kind contributions


5 persons, 5 forks, ready to 捞 the 鱼生.

* From left to right: Hiao Aunty, Cha-bo-lang, Old Beng, Ah Dar and Elydia.

On top of the 鱼生, we also had some "finger-food". I loved the "finger-food" as they were very tasty. ^^""" (Must say tasty if not dangerous sia).

Even though there were only 5 of us, me really enjoyed the 鱼生捞-ing gathering.

After eating, drinking, chit-chating and laughing, we finally had to say good-bye.

On our way out, we saw a cat sleeping outside Hiao Aunty's unit and Old Beng me started to communicate with it, using the cat language la.

"Meow...Meow.... Meow..." Old Beng trying very hard to converse with the cat but the cat just open its eyes, looked at me and went back to its nap.

Everybody was looking at me cos earlier during our chit-chating session, me was telling them about the meaning of the cats' language but apparantly, this cat just bo-chap me totally.

"Eh... eh... this one sure a boy boy cat so never want to talk to me, if the one is a girl girl cat, huh, she sure talk to me one." Old Beng me trying very hard to cover my malu-ness.

Everybody was trying very hard to suppress their smiles on their faces knowing that my cow-skin blow until picah already.

Me quickly grab-hold of my cha-bo-lang's hand and went into the lift, away from the malu site.

lim peh kong wan liao

High Tea Session With Bloggers

lim peh ka li kong

It has been a while since me last met up with some of my blogger friends and we had a bloggers makan seesion on the 30th September, 2006 . We met at Hotel Phoenix Garden Cafe for the weekend high-tea.

Faces appeared for the makan session were Old Beng, Cha-Bo-Lang, Xorpheus, Hiao Aunty, Elydia, Cockroach888 and Kurakat. 7 different and unique characters meeting up for a makan session. Yeah yeah, unique me say one la, my blog me say anything also can :p

The High Tea session was from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm.

When me and my cha-bo-lang reached the Cafe at 3:30 pm, Xorpheus, Elydia and Cockroach888 were already there.

This was the first time me met Cockroach888, a subdued but friendly guy. He is very different from Old Beng cos me very the noisy type, whole day yak yak yak and Cockroach888 is a man of few words. His knowledge on cars is really "No Horse Run" and I know who to ask for opinion the next time me want to buy a car.

A short while later, Kurakat came. A fine young man with a bright smile. Don't know why leh, me saw him only, me started to tease him and boy, did he not blush at my teasing. Hope he still dares to join our next bloggers meeting session. One thing eh, Kurakat speaks very fast, and although he is very young, there seems to be no generation gap with us.... eh... I mean with me.

While we were all indulged happily in our food, Hiao Aunty finally came. Although most of us had not met Hiao Aunty before, we managed to click very well and chat happily with laughters roared loudly.

We talked about many issues : from bloggers to MRT rides (Xorpheus thanks to your sharing of you experience); Bikes and Cars; Working and Students life; Guessing of ages and jobs; Those interesting topics just came out of our mouths non-stop. Actually I believe it´s the interesting people we have who are able to share interesting topics.

There was a whole table of women next to us but unfortunately me was sitting back facing them, thus no chance to really see those girl girl. Next time must choose a better seat with a better view.

Before we knew it, the time was already 5:40 pm.

As me and my cha-bo-lang had to go to another place, we left Hotel Phoenix after the sumptuous high tea. As I think of the food I had that day, Herbal chicken soup, Shark-fin dumplings, delicious cakes, Mee Siam, Satay, Prata, Chicken wings etc etc my saliva starts to fill up in my mouth again.

Before we go our separate ways, we manage to take 2 photographs. (Don´t @~€%@ me ok, 50% wanted their faces to be blanco-ed. As me always say, want to see us, come join us in our next session).

Standing : Kurakat, Old Beng

Sitting : Hiao Aunty, Cockroach888, Elydia, Xorpheus

While taking the photo, me was thinking why is Old Beng (the elderly) standing and the youngsters all sitting down? Probably they all sensed my displease-ness, immediately after the first photo taken, we swapped places.

Standing : Cockroach888, Hiao Aunty, Xorpheus, Elydia
Sitting : Kurakat, Old Beng

You can see from Kurakat´s face that he must be thinking "Why am I stucked with Uncle Old Beng and not having a chance to stand beside the pretty girl girl?" Ha ha Kurakat, next time be smarter and chope a better place beside the pretty girl girl before uncle grabs you beside him.

Eh, excuse me, where is cha-bo-lang????? Ai-yo, she was the camera-woman la, forgot to capture her in the photo.

Now that I think back, the food was not bad but the companionship was excellence. Me enjoyed the company of the bloggers very much.

Thanks to all who had made the event a happy one though it was quite a short session, I must say. Next round, we shall have a longer session and more photos to be taken (with my face blanco-ed, of course).

You can also read the event from Xorpheus' blog here , Elydia's blog here , Kurakat´s blog here and Hiao Aunty´s blog here

lim peh kong wan liao.

A Dinner With Bloggers

lim peh ka li kong

Yesterday after work, 01st June 2006, me and my cha-bo-lang headed for IMM Hoshi Japanese Restaurant for dinner.

We were a bit excited cos we would be meeting some freinds and a new face - Dandan.

Yeah, some of the bloggers we know were meeting there for a makan session together. People attended the session were Old Beng and Cha-bo-lang, Dandan, Xorpheus and Elydia.

Me and cha-bo-lang were on time and we managed to get a private room for our buffet dinner despite the Restaurant was having a full-house. (Heng ah, me suggested this Restaurant but did not bother to do a booking and turned out to be a full house BUT luck was with us). Sorry folks, we almost had no dinner last night.

A short while later, Dandan, Elydia and Xorpheus arrived.

We placed our order of sashimi and sushi and udon and grilled fish and tofu and salad and prawns and chawamushi and chicken and most of all, few rounds of salmon cos we have a salmon queen with us.

All 5 of us talked and ate and talked and ate until all 5 stomachs (at least mine) bloated up with all the food we ordered.

It was really fun to hang out once in a while with friends and had a good meal but to me, the best part was not the food but the companion of friends.

Forget about our work stress, forget about our personal problems, forget about our endless bills to settle for that 2 - 3 hours and indulged ourselves in laughters.

Though me and cha-bo-lang only met Dandan for the first time, we were able to click and talk like long-time friends as she is a very friendly lady.

Jokes, Facts about cups, Chinese gesture when someone pours you tea, dogs, bloggers world, Age (me the oldest, sob sob) and many more issues were spoken among us. This minute we were talking about serious issues on relationship and the next minute jokes were cracked and laughters from us could be heard even from the entrance of the Restaurant.

Good time really passes very fast and the Restaurant closes at 10 pm everyday so we called for the bill.

There were about 6-7 pieces of sashimi untouched and we were told by one of the waitresses that if we did not finish them, there will be a penalty for the left over so each one of us finished one piece each.

The bad point of having buffet is that kiasu people like me will tend to order more than what me can consume and therefore overeating which is rather unhealthy.

Credit must be given to Dandan for arranging for this makan session and taking the high risk of not be able to eat after seeing my face.

Attached photos to share with you. Only 4 faces cos my cha-bo-lang was the camera woman.

Ah yes, don´t @#€%$¿ me cos me was the only one with my trademark, ha ha.

lim peh kong wan liao

Xorpheus, Elydia, Dandan, Old Beng

Old Beng, Elydia, Dandan, Xorpheus

A Day To Remember

lim peh ka li kong

16 December is a memorable date for me and my cha-bo-lang. I can still remember it was this day many years ago that I made my marriage vow and was solemnised in front of our family members and relatives.

So what did we do this year on our anniversary?

As it was a Friday, both of us went to work as usual la, no work where got money? Anyway, after work 2 of us went to watch "King Kong" and comparing the one I saw in 1977, this one is better in terms of special effects and the show lasted 3 hrs and 5 minutes.

We didn't have time to eat our dinner as we reached the cinema at 7 pm sharp which was the starting time.

After the show, we headed for Lavender Food Square to meet up with some of the bloggers we know and had supper together.

Apart from the few we had met before - Qin Shi Huang, Xorpheus, Monkichi and Xishi, there was 1 new face whom we have not met in person : the four leaf lady - Elydia.

We had a wonderful night again and talked on different topics. Think we covered almost everything and anything under the sun. From fire-crackers to spiders; from clogs to blogs; from the good old days to our current life of techno-ways; from ghosts and black magic to bloggers we would like to meet; etc etc etc ...

Alas, good time flies faster than anything. Before we even knew it, it was already 1 am and Old Beng me and my cha-bo-lang had to bid farewell to the other bloggers as my cha-bo-lang had to work the next day.

Special thanks had to be credited to the following friends:-

Qin Shi Huang - His good choice of location.

Xorpheus - His jovial attitude and funny jokes.

Monkichi - Her kind sharing of good items with us.

Xishi - Her errie stories that sent the creeps down our spines.

Elydia - A sweet and pleasant young girl, her presence brought us joy.

lim peh kong wan liao

* Just a note:

1) Nobody took any photographs for this gathering at all, Huh why like that?

2) Me was expecting more new faces but ...

Bloggers' Night Karaoke KTV Session

lim peh ka li kong

Last night, we had our bloggers' night karaoke KTV organised by Qin Shi Huang at the Toa Payoh SAFRA Club from 7 pm to 2 am.

The 5 confirmed showing their faces were Qin Shi Huang, Ipromise, Xorpheus, Monkichi and Old Beng me but 2 other persons also turn up - Xishi and my cha-bo-lang which made a total of 7 persons singing all night long.

Monkichi; Qin Shi Huang; Xorpheus; Xishi; Old Beng; Cha-bo-lang (left to right)

Monkichi; Qin Shi Huang; Ipromise; Xishi; Old Beng; Cha-bo-lang (left to right)

The ealiest bird was Ipromise followed by Old Beng and cha-bo-lang. As usual emperor was late (Piang, organisor also late BUT I already got used to it) Anyway the first half an hour was all to the 3 of us.

All of us showed our singing skills and of course there were some very good ones, wa-piang like listening to CD, especially Xishi, no horse run. If Xishi were the Karaoke Queen, then the title of Karaoke King that night was none other then Ipromise.

The worst singer was * ... drum-roll... * Old Beng me. Ha ha! Actually quite pity the others to have to endure my torturing of my singing. Think I can be part-time torturing terrorists with my singing at their ears.

My singing condition was bad due to the following reasons:-

1) My coughing still persist and my throat was really not suitable to sing; (But you know, everybody had to pay so if no sing, then lugi one so bo-bian must sing at least a few songs la)

2) The last time me and my cha-bo-lang went for Karaoke session was 3 years ago thus without practice our singing skills, if any, already rusty. (Horrible singing plus coughing halfway also don't care la, anyway they were the ones being tortured, not me :p)

3) A bit too shy to sing in front of the Karaoke Queen and King;

There were a few climaxes during our session which I must share with you:-

1) A mini-concert was performed by Monkichi with her tribute to Teresa Teng 邓丽君. Monkichi really sang like Teresa Teng.

2) Old Beng sang but forgot to bring his ladder cos he couldn't reach the high note without the ladder and eventually his voice broke and sang out of tune and 走音 until reached JB.

3) Xorpheus and Qin did some songs on BeeGees and man, really good until Old Beng me started to join in to sing "Tragedy". It was really a tragedy to all until Xishi the queen could not take it anymore and puke. To protest, she showed us her "No Eyes See" posture.

4) Old Beng and cha-bo-lang also did a few Duets and me sang badly but luckily my cha-bo-lang sang well and think probably the others knew that if they were to criticise my singing, I will show them my tiger and eagle so nobody dared to even show their slightest discontentment when we sang. Happy couples cos nobody dared not to applause.

5) Ipromise and my cha-bo-lang sang "Endless Love" and my oh my, they duet better than me leh. (No photo cos they scared I see already angry, but no la me where got angry just because of 1 LOVE song?) Actually while they were singing, me took the opportunity to go and sit between 2 pretty girl girl - Monkichi and Xishi. 6) Old Beng, think I was a bit drunk, started to dance when a few fast number songs were sung and how do I fare? Think my dancing was better than my singing and my blogging. (No photo was taken cos everyone was laughing so badly and could not possibly take photo with shaking hands)

Last but not least, here are some of the great photos.

The Four heavenly kings 四大天王 (Xorpheus, Ipromise, Qin Shi Huang and Old Beng)
The Charlie's Angels or Power Puff Girls? (Monkichi, Xishi and Cha-bo-lang) Sorry, no photo for this one.

Beauty and the beast (Old Beng and Xishi)
Old man and Young man (Old Beng and Xorpheus)

Karaoke Queen (Xishi)
Karaoke King (Ipromise)
Xorpheus singing
Emperor choosing songs (Qin Shi Huang)
Monkichi and Xishi - the best Duets in Town.
Following credits must be given to the following persons:-

Qin Shi Huang : For his great effort for organising the Karaoke night. We really enjoyed ourselves, kam siah brother.

Xishi : Melodious voice and good singing entertainment from her with the different types of songs she sang (Faye Wong 王菲，Jay Chou 周杰伦，Duet with Monkichi singing the male's portion)

Ipromise : Good manly voice and sang a variety of English, Mandarin , Cantonese songs. Credit definitely must go to his last song "Tonight will you come - 今夜你会不会来" which he dedicated to each and everyone.

Xorpheus : Jovial guy who sang nice songs and dared to duet with Old Beng me. And most importantly, he was our camera man.

Monkichi : English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien songs all sang by her. A real talented Karaoke singer.

Cha-bo-lang : Duet with Old Beng me and brought back the good old memories which we had.

After our Karaoke session last night, Xorpheus announced to arrange for the next Bloggers' gathering and no, don't worry, all are spared from my singing and we have decided without any objection to go for bowling instead. Good choice cos you will not be tortured by Old Beng's singing again.

lim peh kong wan liao

Meeting Up

lim peh ka li kong

I always admire people who can make friends easily especially in our fast moving society nowadays. Just ask yourself, how many closed friends do you have and how often do you meet up?

I have always been quite proud of myself as I considered myself a quite easy-going person and can "click" with all types of people, from blue-collared workers (like Old Beng) to the white-collared workers (Executives and managers).

Then I met this person whom I think he is more sociable than Old Beng me and he is also very knowledgeable - Qin Shi Huang.

Those who know me will know that me started to write Old Beng's tales in Yahoo Messenger Board and from there me got to know many cyber friends. Through our correspondences we know one another better and then I met them - Qin Shi Huang and ipromisethiswonthurt.

They say by a person's written articles, one is able to tell and judge a person's characters and personality. I think in this cyber world we are having now, this is not true at all.

Last Saturday, I met up with both Qin Shi Huang and Ipromise for a late breakfast at a coffeeshop near my place. As one of them is staying in the extreme West and the other in the extreme East so we agreed to meet in the middle. The meeting was fixed last minute thus not able to get more people to join us although we knew many more were also interested to meet up with us. We will arrange for another meeting again and hope that by then there will be more cyber friends joining us.

I was rather happy that in spite of my very late notice, both Qin and Ipromise were able to squeeze their time and agreed to meet up at my place.

While I was waiting for them to come, I heard a knock on my door and when I opened the door I saw a man with 2 big bags of things and from the first sight I knew he was a door to door salesman.

Before that salesman could say anything, Old Beng me immediately said, "No, my house got everything and anything so me don't need anything from you so thank you and goodbye and have a nice day." After I finished, me closed the door.

"Knock, knock." The salesman outside still wanted to try his luck on me? So Old Beng me went to open the door again and this time the sales man spoke up first," Er... are you Old Beng?"

Yuh? How he knew me is Old Beng? "Yes? I am Old Beng."

"Old Beng! I am Ipromise la."

Alamak!! He was Ipromise not a door to door salesman. Wa-piang-er, why he carried so many barang barang?

"Sorry hor, I don't know it's you sorry and please come in." Me quickly opened the door for Ipromise to come in.

"Old Beng, these 2 bags of toys are for your children to play." Ipromise passed his 2 bags full of toys to me.

"Ai-yo, ipromise, no need to waste money one la but thank you hor." Me then called my 12 children out to greet uncle Ipromise and after that they vanished into their rooms and played with their new toys.

Then, Qin Shi Huang came although he was late as usual but emperor late very common la and furthermore, emperor leh, who dare to tell him off? As my house was a little bit small, so we decided to go down to the coffee shop near my house and to have some prata there.

Only when we sat down did I have the chance to look at both of them.

Ipromise - Very manly look and very built, a little look like the actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and because he is an avid tennis player, his right arm is very muscular.

Qin - very emperor look and everytime he walked past me, I can feel the wind.

Old Beng - Old uncle and because of the stress he faces everyday, he looks older than his age.

3 of us had a good late breakfast and talked on many issues and finally around 1230 pm we went our separate ways.

To be honest, I was quite surprised that the cyber friends I made via YMB or my Blog are actually willing to meet up and have a chat. We know that sometimes, all the cyber characters are all just made-to-believe only and a cyber person with a male name may turn up to be a girl and vice versa.

It is, however, very interesting when you meet up and then you realised that what you visualise all the while and seeing the actual person is 2 complete different things and that, to me, is a beauty.

Yeah, probably when my cyber friends see me they will XYZ me maybe because in actual life, Old Beng isn't that Beng after all, but as I said before, Old Beng is just a character I used for my story lines, so don't mix it all up.

lim peh kong wan liao