Singapore Airlines

What it must feel like to be on top of the world. Singapore Airlines has always been known around the world as the best airline and they've worked hard to maintain that image.

Everyone wants to fly Singapore Airlines. They have the widest seats, most legroom, best in-flight entertainment, most pleasant looking service crew, newest planes and widest range of meal requests.

The service standard is totally different (as compared to all the other airlines) and it's true that how much you pay for the ticket depicts the level of service. If you place all the service crew in a lineup in plain clothes, you'll be able to tell the Singapore Airlines ones from the others.

Anyways, during the financial downturn and the rise in fear of flying, various airlines reduced their fares and people who weren't afraid of travelling and had to travel took advantage of that. Those were the good old times. Now they're looking to increase their fares starting tomorrow, hoping to reinstate the level of their fares back to the pre-financial downturn era. It's going to be a huge shocking jump for everyone.

V.I.G

No time to think about blogging today... cleaning the house, or trying to make it look remotely presentable as my lil brother (the V.I.G) is coming to stay for the week. I wonder what he's going to occupy his time with while he's here...

Stiletto Race

Not surprisingly, this was done in Australia.

A group of women decided to make their mark in the Guinness World record, by running the 100m relay race in Circular Quay, Sydney, in a minute and four seconds, in stilettos!

Anything for a good cause, I guess, money was raised for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. I can't even imagine running in running shoes, but to do it in 3" stilettos, they must be crazy!

Mocumentary-dramedy

I know I'm a little behind on my news but here's a new word in relation to the television I learnt today: Mocumentary-dramedy

It's like a mouthful, isn't it? I can't even think of what that might be just by reading it. Is it a mocking-documentary-drama-comedy? How can one television show consist of all that?

Alonso takes the Singapore F1 Grand Prix

I don't know if it was predicted, but Alonso of Ferrari won the Singapore leg of the F1 Grand Prix.

After getting free walkabout tickets to last year's race, the hubs and I decided that we'd stay at home and watch it in High Definition on the telly and I'm glad we did. Not only did we get to follow all the cars all over the track (if you're physically there, you're only watching the race from one point) but we saw every bump, touch, crash and fire! Loved it! Pity it didn't rain, that would've made for a more exciting, slippery and slower race.

Highlights:
Hamilton throwing his steering wheel away in frustration - hilarious!
Kubica showing how an overtaking was supposed to be done - in your face, Hamilton!
A Lotus car catching on fire one lap away from finishing - left me gasping!
Massa's catchup from last to finish 9th! - amazing driver!
Singapore's night skyline!

Glasses vs Contacts

I come from a family of shortsightedness. My parents and both my brothers sport glasses. So I've been known as 'four eyes' since I was ten, which was a long, long time ago.

I can still remember my first pair of glasses; they were plastic, red on the top half, clear on the bottom and it covered half my face. As I got older, the glasses got trendier (read metal frames) but they still covered half my face until I got to Uni. My current pair is by far the lightest, smallest, nearly frameless (yeah, the lens is being held together by the bridge and the sticks which go behind the ear.

When I was preparing for my wedding, I was advised that glasses don't do well in wedding photos. So after much cajoling I tried on contacts. I don't even remember the last time I didn't have to push my glasses up my nose! Not to mention the weirdest feeling, poking your eye when all it wants to do is close at the impending entry of a foreign object and taking it out was another adventure! After much practice for the next 2 months, I didn't have to spend a half hour in front of the mirror trying to put them on... just 20 minutes. As the years go by, the optometrist tells me that I have slight astigmatism in my eyes. I can't believe the contact lenses people haven't come up with daily moist contacts with astig.

These days, I only wear them once in a blue moon, I still love my glasses.

Zoom zoom!

I can't believe I didn't get free tickets to the F1 Grand Prix this year. Not that I get them every year, but after getting one last year, for which I was pleasantly surprised as I don't remember entering my name for the competition, it doesn't feel good to fork out over S$200 per person just to watch it, right?

Anyways, one of the free channels was showing tonight's practice run live. The road was drying from the rain earlier today and it looked pretty bumpy too. It's supposed to be smoother this year, being the 3rd year Singapore is hosting this.

The best part about watching it on the telly was the aerial and cockpit views. Singapore's gorgeous skyline... this country was meant to host the night race!

Hotel Blog : Toyoko-Inn Naha Asahi-bashi Ekimae

Sometime at the end of April, the hubs and I went off to Okinawa for a short vacation. The island itself wasn't too difficult to get to, the shortest way from Singapore being via Taiwan. I did another blog on the flight which we took, so I won't go into that.

Okinawa Island. Not such a small island. Could be nearly twice the size of Singapore. There is only one monorail that connects the airport to the city and about 10 minutes beyond. The public bus service is extensive as they do not have a subway system but not very frequent. Probably a good idea to rent your own car as some taxis don't even venture to the remote areas. Only con is that I nor the hubs read Japanese.

Right! This blog is about the hotel which we stayed in. Ever since a couple of my hub's friends recommended the chain of Toyoko-Inn, we've been staying at their various properties every time we go to Japan. Clean rooms, excellent locations and yummy breakfast is always included. This particular property is located a 3 minute walk from a monorail station and central bus station. Perfect place for visitors who want to make use of the extensive bus services for touring purposes.

Rooms are typically japanese sized and there's an option to pay more for a deluxe (slightly bigger), but we figured we're only there to sleep and shower, don't need a bigger room and it was clean. No pet moss in the bathroom and all mechanisms were in working order. Well maintained.

The best part of the hotel is the breakfast. The spread was a little different from the ones in Tokyo, Osaka and Hokkaido Island in that it serves a little western style too (cereal, bread, salad and sausages) on top of the regular japanese (white and mixed rice, miso soup and a local cooked dish). And we weren't expecting the mixed brown rice as the other branches usually serve a selection of onigiri (rice triangles). I would definitely go back, if only to have the yummy breakfast.

All-you-can-eat breakfast

Food Blog : Fried Rice

I almost typed 'Flied Lice' because for some odd reason, I keep thinking of it that way. And it's not even from living here in Singapore. I think I got it from the pronunciation of Chinese women selling fried rice in Australia.

The Market Street Food Center, located above at the Golden Shoe car park at Raffles Place still holds many secret gems. Take this particular stall for instance. One dude. One dude to cook, collect money and take orders. Amazing profit I hear you say. Well, yes, I'm curious as to the rental charges of a unit in that hawker center. So fried rice. Easy to cook, isn't it? And from watching him cook, you would think so too, but how come I'm not able to recreate the same dish at home? It's soooo simple. First, messily fry the beaten egg. Then add rice and voila, egg fried rice. You can choose to add prawns, anchovies or barbeque pork and you can also choose to have it with sambal. The dude is generous with his rice too! It's probably one and a half rice bowls a plate at $3.50. An additional 50c for a sunny side up egg.

Egg Fried Rice with Prawns

Lunch decisions

Running out of things to eat near where I work. Sometimes the reason I don't venture into some of the places is the bad, bad ventilation. No matter what you do, the oily smell just clings onto you and if you can smell it, you betcha everyone you walk near to will be able to smell it.

I should really wander out towards Lau Pa Sat for lunch. It's another affordable food center with many, many variety of stalls. There's even a Wendy's. Hmm... there used to be an A&W, but I'm not sure if it's still there, maybe Wendy's took over, eh?

Sometimes it's a good thing to not have choices. Like at my previous work place, we were stuck in a corner of Orchard Road which didn't have a lot of choices when it came to affordable food. We can't be having $20 lunches everyday, can we?

Vacation time!

I want to go on a holiday
Soon
Very, very soon
Now would be good

I do realise that I get these thoughts whenever I'm working
I was fine while I was not working
But now...
It's only been what... four months?
That's four whole months without a holiday
A break
People would start pulling out their hair, right?
Especially when I was so used to taking a break from the office every so often

F1

The F1 is coming to Singapore!
Lights are up
We've been driving in broad daylight at night!
Roads are going to be closed from Wednesday this week
Zoom Zoom!

Couch Potato

Ok. I've decided not to follow the new Korean Drama which will start on Monday because the reviews weren't good, even the drama synopsis wasn't remotely enticing. Which leaves me with one less show to follow. I'm going to have to catch up on some of my drama this weekend, you know... to clear up the space in the recorder's hard drive. One down, three to go.

One of Three

As if one wedding anniversary is not enough, the hubs and I have three.
First, the day we signed a piece of paper in Singapore, making us legally married.
Second, the day we invited our friends and family from Singapore and Malaysia to attend a 40 over table dinner in Malaysia.
Third, the day we signed another piece of paper after mass under the watchful eye of a priest in Australia.
Happy one of three anniversary hubs! *grin*

Once a year...

... I fall sick.
Yesterday was the day.

Went to bed with a fever and luckily it broke in the morning after my shower.
Didn't end up visiting the doctor as I don't even end up taking the medicine.
The nose is still running a little, the office's air conditioning didn't help.
I have a feeling that the slight cough will come tomorrow, but hopefully with the dequalinium lozenges I've been taking, it won't be a full blown flu thing.

Hotel Blog : Chisun Inn Asakusa, Tokyo

For my single week long trip to Tokyo in April this year, I decided to give the Toyoko-Inn chain of hotels a miss and stayed at this place down the road from the Toyoko-Inn which the hubs and I stayed in the last time we were in Tokyo. One of the reasons for me picking this place was the price. I had to watch the budget as I rather be spending on food than an extremely comfortable hotel room. As long as the toilet/bathroom has no pet moss and the bed is clean, I'm ok with the hotel. There was an offer on at that time (buy 2 nights, get the 3rd night free) which worked the per room night to be S$77. That's pretty cheap for a hotel in Tokyo during sakura season.

Pros:
Located in the suburb of Asakusa on a main road. I love this suburb of Tokyo.

It's within a 10 minute walking distance to the Asakusa Sensoji Temple and a 2 minute walk from the metro on the Toei Asakusa line. I realise that most of the stops for the Toei line are more interesting as compared to the Tokyo Metro lines. Anyways, this location is only a 4 minute walk from the Tokyo Metro Asakusa or Kuramae station, so you have three subway stations to choose from.

Free internet. Let's face it. Most of the hotels, even the budget ones, throw in free internet. Japan is amazing in that way.

24 hour convenient stores located on the walk back from all three subway stations. Yummy hot food and a selection of Japanese takeaway. Great place for meals if you're on a budget.

Cons:
No free breakfast included in the price (Toyoko-Inns include daily all-you-can-eat breakfast) but it wasn't difficult to find breakfast with the convenient stores located nearby.

Web content loading

Being the sister of a mildly brilliant younger brother who could program the pointer in a computer to do interesting things has it advantages. I was always delightfully amused when he showed me something new that the pointer could do like leave a trail of pointers while moving or making it do interesting things while a web page was being loaded.

Anyways, that was EONS ago, as in possibly 15 years ago. These days, nothing amuses me anymore. Yes, it might be awfully difficult to program (I'm guessing that it is as I don't know how to do it, and everything that I don't know how to do, is difficult) and no one's come up with anything new that the pointer can do.

So, it was with a warm chuckle that I happen to come across a site today that amused me with its web content loading icon. Instead of making the hourglass turn round and round or lights blink in circular movement it showed a list of things you should have done before you die and ticked them off.

Among the list:
Mistakenly used a bidet
Bathe in spicy tomato
Churn for mermaids in the Baltic
Split your Ledenhosen
Forget to wear clothes
Use apres ski in a sentence

You'll just have to try it out for yourself at www.raileurope.com. Make sure it goes to the Europe site.

Food Blog : Red Bean Mooncake

I've already purchased my mooncake this year, but wasn't too happy with it. Maybe it was just too sweet, after having about half of it in one sitting. So while walking around Vivo City waiting for the hubs to have dinner, I decided to give the Tang's-sponsored-mooncake-selling-area a walk around. Every year, they invite bakeries and hotels to take up a booth and sell their mooncakes for a discount.

I wasn't looking for the lotus paste ones again, since I already have that, and neither was I into the snow skin ones. These days the snow skinned ones come with Chempedak, Durian and Yam flavours. Eurghhh... Anyways, I went around trying anyone who baked a red bean filled one. While growing up in Malaysia, we seem to always buy that for this lantern festival and not so much the lotus paste. Maybe because it wasn't as sweet. And I think for me, it was probably because there's no egg yolk in it.

After a few tiny bite sized pieces, I finally settled on this one stall. All the others were either too sweet or the biscuit part was too dry or the colour was not right (it has to be black and not actually reddish). And surprise, surprise, the stall that I bought from is actually a bakery from Malaysia. It's not the ultimate best out there, but here in Singapore, it is.

Red Bean Moon Cake from Seasons

Short post

The long weekend of Hari Raya Aidilfitri is coming to an end. Work tomorrow.

Had to leave the house today for lunch, the hubs didn't want instant noodles. But dinner was an amazing shabuz again! I don't know what it is this time, but the soup was yummy! *burppp*

Back to the telly! Catching up on my Korean drama serials for the week.

Australia

Channel flipping on a Saturday night, found this on Star Movies. It was huge when it came out, a couple of years ago and I've been meaning to watch it, if only to perv on Hugh Jackman. He is such a hottie *drool*, even when he's not playing Wolverine. Speaking of which, that's going to be shown next!

Right, the movie. I'm in the middle of it at the moment and it's okay. Maybe because I only started watching it half an hour into the show. From what I can gather, the show's about two people, one an Australian cattle driver and another a lady, from the UK most probably, and the subplot how the aboriginals were treated badly. The scene, outback Australia in the 40s. I don't know much about the history of things, but apparently the Japanese attacked and there's always one mean-o, Fletcher (who's pretty ugly looking too!) who died too easily towards the end.

Did I like the show? I don't know. I probably won't be watching it over and over again, too little scenes with a clean cut Hugh Jackman and I'm still undecided as to whether I like Nicole Kidman as an actress.

Food Blog : Glazed Doughnuts

While I was working at my previous job, there was only one shopping mall with a food court located within a 5 minute walking distance from the office. Because of this, our choices in food for lunch was pretty limited. We would venture further out, but sometimes our strict one hour lunch time would hinder us. Within this shopping mall are cafes, restaurants, a supermarket and a Boulangerie (Bakery). Sometimes I love the French language, only because they come up with sexy words like boulangerie and lingerie *grin*

This is my all time favourite doughnut. It's simply glazed (that hardens when dry), sprinkled with either chocolate or coloured sprinkles or diced nuts and they make it on site, fresh. Unlike all the other doughnut chains that have opened shop (Krispy Kreme, Mister Donut, Dunkin' Donuts and J. Co) here in Singapore, La Tanglin Boulangerie Cafe's doughnuts are fluffy but not floury. It is also value for money as the size of the doughnut is slightly bigger than all the other franchises and cheaper at that. It has been a while since I last ate them, so I bought TWO!

Pink Glazed with Chocolate Sprinkles

Sea Green Glazed with Coloured Sprinkles

Passwords

How safe is your password? Most probably not that safe.

How old is your password? You're most probably using the same password which you started the particular account with.

At the place I'm working at the moment, there are plenty of login codes and each login requires a different password. It's not compulsory to have different passwords, but you'll see why later. Not only that, one login might be known by two or three different names.

You might not get your logins at the same time thus making the creation of the passwords at different times. For example, if you get one login now, you've attached password 1. Two months down the track, you receive another login and you're thinking you should assign the same password, but password 1 will expire in 1 month and you're out of sync already. That's just dealing with 2 logins.

Anyways, to make matters more complicated than they already are, the most interesting password instructions which I've come across is the following. It's supposed to be extremely secure (I'm sure it is, because you might not remember it either!).

1. Your password must be between 8 to 12 characters long (That's actually a good thing. My insane hubby does 16-20 characters with the same rules! OMG, I hear you scream? You'll have to forgive him, he's a little insane.)

2. Your password must contain at least one capital letter (People usually capitalise the first letter)

3. Your password must contain at least one number (People usually make the last character a number)

4. Your password must contain at least one symbol (WHAT??? Symbols? But it won't make sense if I put a symbol in my password seeing that passwords are usually a word or two, unlike my insane hubby who showed me his list of passwords once and it was just lines of gibberish! Imagine trying to remember U3&j%Dne%6%Ff4y9*i as a password!)

5. Your password will expire every 90 days (Goodness gracious me!!! I'll have to come up with another one after 90 days... have no fear, I'll just change one character)

6. You are not allowed to reuse the last 16 passwords (FOR REAL?!?!?!)

7. More than half the characters in your new password must be different from your previous ones (WHAT????? I need to write this down...)

So, you've either created a page in your notebook filled with logins and passwords or a password protected excel or word doc. The only thing with the excel and word doc, although the password doesn't expire, once you don't remember it, you'll never be able to open it!!!

*sigh* Life before computers was so much simpler, wasn't it?

Mooncake season part 2

I actually succumbed to purchasing mooncake this year. I don't think I did last year. I usually buy my mooncakes from the Raffles Hotel. Somehow their lotus paste is not overly sweet and the crust is not overly oily nor dry.

Every year, new variations of the original mooncake appear and I guess it's a way for the various hotels and bakeries to ring up their till. This year, as last year, 'snow skin' mooncakes are the popular choice. These modern mooncakes have to be kept in a cool, cool place or the skin will melt and have the weirdest combination of tastes within it; Durian, champagne truffle, chocolate to name a few. Google snow skin mooncakes and you'll find more.

Anyways, I bought the traditional ones, lotus paste with pumpkin seeds, except that this year, they decided to add pine and macadamia nuts. I thought it wouldn't be so bad but after having half of it, I think it's going to take me a while to finish it.

Oh happy day...

There are days... and then there are DAYS!
Today was not supposed to be any different from any other normal day, but I've been feeling a little depressed with some things that are going to happen whether I want it to or not.
And it's pretty bad, getting depressed because I just spend money, usually on things or a thing that will definitely perk me.
Well, let's just say that today's purchase should last me till Chrissy!
It's an odd shade of blue and utterly soft!! Love it!!!
Gosh! There was a reason why I wasn't supposed to go back to work...

Cloud Staircase

With a title like that, you'd think the Korean drama would be a flop. I thought so too in the beginning, but I find myself strangely following the series.

It's about this dude who lost his parents and kind of got lost himself. A kind elderly doctor from a remote island took him in and taught him everything about being a doctor. One day, the daughter of a well known hospital in Seoul drops by and suffers appendicitis. No one is around to operate on her because there's a brewing storm (the elderly doctor went to Seoul for something and her doctor boyfriend can't get to her) and so the dude operated on her and saved her life. During the course of healing, the girl so happens to fall in love with him and he too finds himself liking the girl (no biggie there). So he moves to Seoul and decides to work in the hospital pretending to be a certified doctor. Everyone's impressed with him in the beginning, and the girl breaks off her engagement to her long time beau to start dating him, but bits and pieces of his life start to crack and soon everyone will know that he's a fraud.

I haven't finished watching the show... not sure how it will end, but I'm sure the writers have decided to give it a happy ending.

4 day work week

It's a four day work week this week. We've got Hari Raya Puasa this Friday, a public holiday for Singapore. I love 4 day work weeks! Well, if it's a three day or two day work week, it would be even better, but beggars can't be choosers!

Mooncake season

It's mooncake season again and Change Alley in Raffles Place, among other places, have started allowing the various hotels to display their mooncakes for all to taste and buy. The mooncake festival is the Chinese Lantern Festival which happens at the end of the Hungry Ghost Month.

I remember when we were young and growing up in Malaysia, us kids used to have our lantern made out of colourful cellophane and wire wound into shapes of either a fish or a rooster. I think I always ended up with the fish. We'd light one candle on a highly unstable wire holder and walk aimlessly around the gardens. Such simple pleasures. If we're not careful and trip or bump into each other, or if the wick of that particular candle is more stubborn than the wax, our lantern will catch on fire and we'll have to buy another one next year. I think I remember recycling mine, patching up the torn cellophane with cellophane tape.

These days, kids have the option of a battery operated bulb on plastic lanterns in a myriad of shapes and sizes. Some even come with music when lighted. I've seen Ultra man ones, Hello Kitty ones and all other Sanrio characters. I'd love to experience this festival in China one day, just to see what the locals do. Intricately designed lanterns... oh, I'm such a sucker for some things traditional.

Mooncakes used to come in three varieties : Lotus paste with and without egg, Lotus paste with nuts and red bean with pumpkin seeds. The crust is pastry like and I usually have the red bean one as it's not as sweet. The way mooncakes were baked made them more of a savoury snack than a dessert.

Modern mooncakes are another thing. We have snow skin these days instead of the traditional crust pastry and the filling just gets more and more bizarre; Champagne Truffle, Durian and even Ice-cream filled. I've tasted a few and found them to be more of a dessert than a savoury snack.

I wonder if the Chinese Garden here in Singapore will put up a themed decoration this year...

Stuff we put on our faces

I've been wanting to write this for a while now. I don't know about everyone else, but I have a myriad of products which I use. Although, I don't get up a few hours earlier than I have to to spend a couple of hours everyday primping my face. No... one can tell that I don't do that *grin*

Anyways, I've noticed that I do use a few brands, and here they are:
1. Cleanser ~ Clarins' Gentle Foaming Cleanser with Cottonseed
2. Moisturiser ~ Shiseido's Pureness Moisturiser (one with SPF when I'm on vacation)
3. Eye primer ~ Benefit
4. Eyeshadow & Liner ~ Chanel
5. Pressed Powder ~ Shiseido
6. Lip Balm ~ Burt's Bee
7. Lipstick ~ Benefit

My, my, that looks like a long list, but it takes me less than 5 minutes to put on my make-up in the mornings, and that's even when I bother to. As you can tell, I'm not really into the make-up thing, and hopefully, this will defy all and my wrinkles won't show up till I'm in my 70s.

And before I go to bed
8. Facial Oil ~ Clarins (love the smell of this!)
9. Eye gel ~ Chanel

I'm allergic to everything else, which includes Toner. I've never really understood what that's for. So what is your daily facial regime?

Moist Cakes

So I had some time at work today and I decided to Google 'moist cakes'. I don't know what has happened to my cakes these days (not that I bake all that often) but being in Singapore means that cakes should be a little more moist than say if you were baking in Australia or the North Pole, right? I get frustrated trying to handle puff pastry here because it just melts! I've been thinking of wrapping curry puffs in the fridge.

Anyways, this post is about moist cakes. So thanks to Google, I've learnt that people add MAYONNAISE to their cakes to make them moist.

Did you just say mayonnaise?
Blearghhhh...

Did you just cringe? Dry retched? Vowed never to eat any of my cakes ever again? Your lost! *grin*

But I have to admit that my initial reaction was just that, blearghhh... but everyone swears by it! Mayonnaise is essentially oil and egg, which so happens to be a couple of the cake's ingredients. Let's face it, the reason why cakes are dry is because you either over-bake them or you didn't add enough liquid. But if you don't bake them enough, it will be too soggy and if you add too much liquid in a cake, you will have to bake it longer. Catch 22, huh? Mayonnaise is your answer. Try it and let me know if it works! *giggle*

NATAS

NATAS (a travel fair) came and went... one of the few times that it hasn't affected me since I started working in the travel sector. The news reports that it's apparently the largest spending of customers, a record of S$85mil. That's A LOT of money, isn't it? This is the time that people buy holidays for December, a major school holiday season the world over. Coupled with the fact that the prices are jacked up for that season, people are still willing to part with their money... what's a little money for their sanity?