How To Hold A BBQ (PA Chalet – Pasir Ris)
Feb 8, 2010 Me, Myself & I
It’s my Sis’ birthday and Dad and Ma organised a chalet for her.
Nothing beats celebrating a joyous occasion, like a 21st birthday, than having a BBQ with friends and family.
So how do you hold a BBQ?
Step 1: Pick a venue.
Done, PA Chalet at Pasir Ris.
Cheap apartments, plenty of parking, but for someone who resides in the western end of the country (on bike), a half hour journey to the eastern end is pretty daunting.
Imagine having to come and go for 4 days and 3 nights straight, and transport costs (especially if you take taxi) is huge.
Step 2: Pick a pit.
Pick a pit within a nearby Pavilion, where possible, in case it rains or there’s plenty of guests around.
The roof and seats will be greatly welcomed.
Usually it’s first come first serve, but if you pick a chalet like PA Chalet at Pasir Ris, there’s a huge chance that you’ll have the Pavilion all to yourselves.
Step 3: Ensure the fire is hot.
Have you played that wooden block game, Jengga?
Setting up a BBQ fire is like playing a game of Jengga, except that it’s hollow in the middle, where you throw the firestarter in to kickstart the whole thing.
You don’t have to chant ’Jengga… Jengga’, but no one can stop you from doing it though.
So once you’ve thrown the firestarter (lighted) in, pile more charcoal until it becomes a seductive stack that’s beckoning for a gigantic flame.
Step 4: Setup The Pit.
Spread out the charcoal once the stack is engulfed in a fiery concert of flames.
Place the wire mesh or grill over it, and waste no time in preparing your feast.
And remember, thaw your food early, and not just before starting the fires, otherwise it’ll look like this:
Yep, great fire, deliciously looking bunch of satay, chicken wings and hotdogs, but unfortunately they weren’t thawed early enough for the BBQ.
Frozen satay is not nice to eat for a BBQ.
It’s quite hard to bite.
But when you gotta eat, you gotta eat.
At least now I know the next time I have a BBQ, I’ll thaw my food much earlier.
An Overly Exhaustive Weekend
Feb 16, 2009 Me, Myself & I
Exhausted, I was. Thus no updates over the weekend. Hear me rant.
Had a cracking game in the 3pm League on Saturday, and though it was a good outing, I failed to muster any decent shots on target, meaning that I’ve not scored in a game for a very long time, which also meant that it was another disappointing afternoon for me even though the team won. Very uncomfortable indeed. Uncompromising fact: I need to start scoring goals!
Straight after the game was Abg Syam’s birthday BBQ at East Coast, another scrumptious BBQ that I’ve had within a year. (The other one was my customer’s home bbq thingy, which got me crazy over crayfish!) So food was great, but it came at a tradeoff, involving me being a waterboy-for-hire. If only there was a warning sign which said ‘Water Point very far. Maybe 1-1.5km away. Are you sure you’re carrying that much water?’.
Slept like a log till the next day only to be awakened by Dad’s booming voice. Thrice — he failed in his first 2 attempts to wake me up, but its only because It was a Sunday and I don’t get up around 8.30am. Ever. Anyway, me, bro, ma and Dad were up early to assist our relatives in shifting/moving house and I’m not sure what unlucky boxers I was wearing to receive such luck of having to carry REALLY heavy stuffs on a Sunday morning. I think I sweated more than yesterday’s soccer game. But since all’s for a good cause eh I’m humbly glad to assist then.
More rants to follow. Read on.
Immediately after the house shifting thingy, about 12.45pm, I rushed to Dragonscage for my weekly dosage of street soccer, and of all the days to end the session early, it was today! I joined the guys for about 20-25 minutes and then it was a wrap! Disappointed again, but thankfully the trip to West Mall’s Pastamania was some sort of a mild redemption as I discovered that they served really delicious, spicy, thick Pasta dishes! Would definitely go again!
And being the passionate soccer freak that I am, I found it hard near impossible to resist Abg Rahman’s invitation to play at a nearby Secondary School (Hua Yi Secondary, my sis’s former secondary school). Was accompanying sis with her Cambodia trip preparations, but I dropped it all and dashed off with my trusted soccer boots. The afternoon was hot, but no matter how fatigued I was, a game of soccer never failed to ignite me. Not even when this uncle team I was playing for was down by 2 goals to nil.
Actually, the scoreline worked me up even more. Its like I get some sort of a rush in trying to overcome a deficit. I suppose the rewards of not succumbing is sweeter, but I certainly wasn’t expecting a 5 goals to Zero reply outcome. Second time ever that a team I’m in concedes so much. Sob-Sob.
Gaaaah, so much results not going my way over the weekend (let’s not get started about the streak of losses in my dota games eh?) and I suppose things’ll only get better.
Time to get new boxers?
