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.