Of Durians and Mangosteens

I'm not sure if it's the rain or something else, but last night, while driving back along Napier Road towards Holland Village, we took a detour to finally patronise a makeshift Durian stall. Placed at the edge of a never full public car park (where you might find more lorries and private buses parking), this makeshift stall has been here for the longest time. It's at least as old as I've been living in this country, and I just celebrated my 11th year!

The dude who runs this stall opens whenever it's Durian season, which these days looks to be more than 4 times a year. He guarantees that the fruit is ripe and free of worms. If you do not want the hassle of opening the fruit yourself, the owner will open and pack them into takeaway boxes and if any of the fruit is unripe or spoilt, he'll replace them.

The stall is still in its original setting. Wooden planks make up some shelves to display the fruit, a motor generator rattles in the background for light, rattan baskets filled with discarded skin on the side and tables with stools for patrons who want to eat the fruit there and then. It's such a weird concept to have tables for instant Durian consumption.

When I was young, I grew up eating the D24 variety which is literally bitter-sweet and very creamy. These days, there are all sorts of Durian variety that I don't remember it all. I think the D series itself has grown to over 50 types. Anyways, this stall sells the garden variety, D24s and (Mau Sang Wong) Cat Mountain King which are the epitome of Durians. We bought 3 fruits, had them packed in takeaway boxes and a net of mangosteens. It's been a while since I last ate mangosteens without any yellow sac within the fruit.

Singapore's Public Transport ~ MRT

The public transport in Singapore is considered quite efficient, so efficient that when something bad happens everyone and I mean EveryOne gets upset, including yours truly. It's unfortunately sad, but I have to admit it.

Yesterday, with a slight pitter-patter of rain, I thought it was a good idea to get an earlier train. Approaching the platform, I could sense that something was wrong with the current train docked as the train doors wouldn't open. For at least a couple of minutes, not to mention for the minutes the train arrived before I got onto the platform, people started to fill the platform and gather right in front of the train doors, impatiently waiting for them to open. When the doors finally opened, people rushed in only to be told to evacuate the train. Everyone on the train had to vacate it. This is not good for morning rush hour, not good at all. Can you imagine how crowded the platform was? Not to mention dangerous as there are no safety guards between the platform and the train track.

Less than a minute later, another train approaches. Everyone wanted to get back onto this train especially the ones who managed to get a seat on the vacated train. It was vicious. Some even took the train from the next station in order to get onto a train. And it's not if you stand closest to the edge of the platform that you'll gain entry onto the train. And yet there were people not standing behind the yellow line.

The upcoming trains were whistling in warning. Lovely sound, one of the rare times I hear the train whistle! Anyways, it took me three trains later to get onto a train, each at 30 seconds apart. A good service recovery in my books.

Inception

The hubs and I finally went down to the cinema to watch Inception. The reservation over the internet was done on Saturday and we were supposed to watch it yesterday, but tickets were so hot at all the possible cinemas throughout the day that we decided to book it for tonight. So many good reviews for this show, if you haven't seen it, you've got to watch it, on the big screen. Not only for the cinematography but the story makes you think. Not disappointed at all!

The story revolves around the concept of dream manipulation. It's not technically explained in the show, you'll just have to think of it as possible and that it works. Imagine someone drugging you to sleep, plug a needle in your arm which is connected to a machine that injects a serum which makes you dream on an exclusively made up platform. The people who follow you into the dream will not impose their subconsciousness, else you'll retaliate and harass them. Are you still confused?

Anyways, the point is, it makes you think. The possibility of altering the world as you see it and in such a safe environment. Unlike the Matrix, if you die in the Matrix, you die and pain is relative. But in the dreamworld, if you die, you just wake up and pain is really, really painful.

And time, of course, is different in the dreamworld. It could be 10 seconds in real life, but you've lived 50 years in the forth or fifth layer of dreamworld.

I'm sure there will be a sequel to this as the ending leaves you hanging with a HUH?! And given the opportunity, I'd watch it again, sweet dreams!

Of Fried Chicken Wings & Meat balls

Ikea is better known as a furniture mega store.
They used to carry really nice pieces of furniture, design-wise and variety, not so much these days.
These days, we go to feast on their deep fried chicken wings and meat balls with gravy and ligonberry jam.
Have you noticed that their meat balls have shrunk in size?

Wonton Noodles

I had the worst dry wonton noodle experience today. Growing up in Malaysia, more specifically Paramount Garden in Petaling Jaya saw plenty of encounters with the dry wonton noodle. With the encounters you tend to have a fixed idea of what a plate of dry wonton noodle should be. I generally do not like the way dry wonton noodle is cooked in Singapore, as they use heavily alkalined thin egg noodles. I don't like the way Hong Kong do their dry wonton noodles either, they use oyster sauce... such a no-no.

For those of you who are not familiar with the dry wonton noodle, it's a plate of thick egg noodles, cooked in boiling water, rinsed in cold water and plunged back into the boiling water for a few more seconds, dished out with dark soy sauce and sesame oil, barbequed pork and wrapped minced meat (dumplings). The noodles have to be springy, crunchy and not clumped, the thinly sliced barbeque pork well marinated, juicy with bits of fat and the dumplings must contain a hint of fresh water chestnut.

Anyways, it's been a while since we ventured to the Tiong Bahru food centre and market and spotting a wonton noodle shop with a queue, I decided to try it. People always say that where there's a queue, the food can't be all that bad. After 15 minutes of queuing, which didn't bring me closer to placing my order and the lack of enthusiasm orders were taken, I decided to find another shop. This one, specialising in Cantonese meats, had no queue, but they were just starting out. The water to cook the noodles in wasn't even boiled, so even as I was the first to place an order, I had to wait another 8 minutes. Suffice to say, I won't be heading to this food centre anytime soon, the noodles were 'lembek', the pork was dry but the wontons were alright.

Uprooted trees

Another tree got uprooted today and crushed a car containing 3 passengers. Luckily no one was hurt.
I wonder what make of car they were in.

A couple of days ago, another tree got uprooted due to the strong winds and rain which has been hitting Singapore for the past week. This was only 1.6kms away from today's incident.
Unfortunately the person in that car was crushed to death.

Now people are looking to bring class actions to the group who takes care of the trees here.
Who do you blame for acts of nature? You obviously can't sue nature... can you?

The iPad is almost here!

The iPad will finally arrive in Singapore tomorrow.
Will you get one?
Me? I still love my Macbook, so probably not.
Besides, it's not as comprehensive as a Macbook, right?
It's just a glorified/bigger version of the iPod touch or iPhone, right?

Gear Box

Recently we had to change our 7-year-old car's gear box. We have a semi-automatic transmission, which means we could drive the car manually changing the gears or let the auto transmission do it for us. Most of the time, we let the auto transmission take care of it.

The problem started when it didn't want to go into first gear in the mornings or when the car is started for the first time after a long (which is usually more than 8 hours) time. It's not cold here... but it needed some time to warm up and even then, the car would jerk forward, bringing back memories of my early manual driving days. Anyways, for those of you who are able to handle a stick shift, you'll know that if the car is stationary, there's no way it'll move if the first gear's not working. Do we treat the car badly? No, we don't think so. Singapore roads are fairly smooth and we don't go around crashing into things, neither do things come by to crash into us, nor do we run over a speed hump testing its shock absorbers.

And what's this about changing the gear box?! Brought back a memory of a 6 footer I knew in high school who owned a mini cooper, one of the original ones, reversed it over a front gate holder which was sticking out from the ground and lost the gear box. Yes, that would be a reason to change your gear box...

Maybe it was just time, but 7 years is rather a young age, isn't it? The 'new' gear box is a second hand one. Our mechanic told us that a new one would cost 3 to 4 times more. I don't want to know why the car this gear box came from didn't need it and hope that it'll last us another 3 years before we have to change the car, as do most people who live here do.

HD TV is sooooo sharp!

The hubs finally got around to 'upgrading' a component, in order for the received pictures to be viewed in High Definition (HD), on our telly. We've had this HD ready telly for a year and a half now and previously, a separate box was needed in order to convert the received images to HD. We didn't end up getting that box, it was just not necessary.

Anyways, we upgraded our cable box which included some channels in HD, the ability to record and it came with the convertible image box. OMG! Everything's really sharp! You can spot every pothole, mole, hair on someone's face! We're currently watching the Travel & Adventure channel and some scenes look almost surreal. It's like having 21/21 vision!

Evening Swim

I finally did it!
After a hiatus of more than 6 months, I'm getting back into the possibility of swimming three times a week, just to get my weekly dose of exercise and maybe be a fitter person.
Leaving work on the dot might not be ideal, but it takes me 50 minutes from door to door to get back. By the time I change and head down to the pool, the sun has set and it's a little difficult to see the end of the pool when you're short sighted.
Ah, but it was all worth it! It's true when people say that you feel great after a good workout, even if it's just swimming for a half hour.

Loving the cold

It's rare that the weekend that you're not working is pleasant like this weekend is. I wouldn't call it balmy weather, but rather refreshing. It has been raining all weekend... heavily in some areas but where we live, in the west, the rain has been mediocre. Sometimes when we get rains like this, the aftermath is pretty bad because the humidity and muckiness kicks in and you're wondering why you welcomed the rain in the first place.

But not this weekend. This weekend has been a gorgeous weekend. It rained early in the morning yesterday, causing some areas to flood, but thanking our lucky stars that our area wasn't, and the hubs and I managed to sleep through the morning (we literally woke up after noon!) We went on to attend a barbeque in the evening and didn't sweat a drop! Cool breeze was blowing through the barbeque pit from out of nowhere and coupled with the mellow catch up session and great food, all was good.

Today, I wanted to go for a swim (it has been ages since I last went... I suppose it's close to 5 or 6 months) seeing that the sun wasn't out and there was a cool breeze, but after doing the ironing, it rained. Now as I sit writing this blog, it's still raining, the soft cooling kind. I guess there will be no swimming today.

Asian Barbeques

Barbeques in Asian countries sounds a little off, only because, well, for me at least, barbeques are meant to be done when the weather is cold. On the menu easy comfort food such as sausages, mushrooms, onions, bread, salad, sweet corn, crisps and potato.

In Asia, we have barbeques with a twist. I haven't attended or hosted one with the above fare where yummy sausages are predominantly the meat. The barbeques here have the following must haves : Chicken wings, satay, sambal stingray, cocktail sausages and sweet corn. We're usually the seafood kebab providers but I don't know why we didn't think of it for the barbie that we attended tonight. Instead, we volunteered to purchase some fried kuay teow done Penang style. We're also the marshmallow providers. Where there are kids, marshmallows are always welcomed.

Anyways, the place where the kuay teow was to be cooked decided to close early on weekends, thus we became the junk food provider. For a total of about 35 people including kids, 5 packets of junk food disappeared amidst all the fried bee hoon, fried rice, pasta, salad, beef kebabs, prawn sticks, satay, whole duck, mutton curry, sushi and chicken wings. All that was left were the fruits. Trips to the toilet will be interesting tomorrow.

The iPhone...

... a one stop gadget for all your needs.

It's slowly starting to grow on me, the concept of the iPhone.

I've been a Nokia user all my mobile phone life and can't imagine using another brand as a mobile device, only because I'm so used to the operating system which Nokia has. But these days, I've been thinking of merging my mobile device with the mp3 player and my time passer gadget which is the iPod touch.

The current model that's out in the market is the iPhone 4.0. One would think that after all these years, Apple would have finally made a gadget that's complete. Yes, when the iPhone first came out, video wasn't included. When the second generation was born, video was included. The third generation came with a faster processor plus longer battery life as users were multitasking and putting the gadget through its paces. Now that it's on it's 4th generation, maybe it's time to upgrade my 2 year old mobile and 'sync' my gadgets, lightening my handbag.

Brown Carpet

I finally found a carpet for the living room, again. I've missed walking on carpet in my home. Not that I've been doing that for all my life. Come to think of it, I love the combination of having a marble tiled floor, some parquet tiled floor and some carpeted floor. That's the extent of the experiences of my feet.

Growing up in Malaysia, we used to have a carpet in our living room. It wasn't a soft carpet, come to think of it, I only remember it to be a coarse short haired carpet which could be swept with a broom. Maybe it was soft in the beginning but got coarse throughout the years from the abuse of three kids and heaps of adults trampling all over it. The rest of the house on the ground floor was marble tiled which made it cool to the feet in the hot humid weather the day brought, the kitchen was mosaic tiled and the second level was parquet tiled. My feet learnt of a new experience when we moved to Australia as most homes are carpeted.

Moving over to Singapore and setting up home with the hubs, my feet are back to the marble-parquet-mosaic tiled experience and all it was missing was the carpet in the living room. Sometimes, walking on hard floor for an extended period of time makes the balls of your feet painful, especially after being on your feet the whole day in a pair of high heels.

So off I went to find a comfortable plush carpet. Our first was from Ikea. A bright red circular carpet with strategically placed swirls. It looked great hanging on the wall, as how it was displayed in the Ikea store, and it only lasted a few years in our home as it was plush, but poorly made. Each time the carpet was vacuumed, it would shed. It was almost like having a pet in the home.

The current carpet is short haired, brown in background colour with flower motifs and was purchased from a Persian carpet shop. Made in Belgium, and on sale, it was the un-gaudy-est, soft to the touch carpet in the shop. It sports an interesting two tone view, light from one side and dark and rich from the other. I hope it lasts for the next ten years.

Engrish dot com

www.engrish.com

Do you think that English translators in foreign countries try their very best to come up with translations that people can remember? I mean, you don't see sites coming up on perfect translations, that's just expected. But the more lost in the translation it is, the more it's wanted and found especially funny. And do they realise that they've done a lost in translation?Anyways, I had a good laugh browsing through the above website and it brought back some memories, especially of the times I was traipsing through a country whose national language is not English.

Here are a couple of mine found in Singapore recently.

100703 ~ I wonder what they specialise in now

100630 ~ I wonder if they get heaps of plust toys

The Visible Panty

While I was walking to the train station this morning, I happen to be unfortunate enough to walk behind a person with visible panties and it wasn't a young one too *grin* and to make it even more obvious, the lady had on a pair of white pants.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to be reminded of this incident, but nothing else happened today, thus this topic has been included.

Anyways, the only thought that was going though my head was whether to tell her that her panties was showing. Would you want to know that? I would...

So today's lesson is... white pants and white panties don't really go well, especially if your panties happen to be a pair of 'full' ones. One should always check themselves out in a mirror before stepping out of the house.

Hmm... back to the lady. I don't want to go into too much detail as to what was so very obvious, maybe it was just her subtle incontinence pad showing... because no woman in their right mind would wear a pair of white pants when they're having their periods!

World Cup Finals ~ Part 2

I can't believe it's over... finally. Has it really been a month? There have been times when the hype wasn't there. I'm sure it picked up towards the end. All the big mess ups, teams stated to enter the finals never making it to the final 8, boys running around the field chasing a soccer ball.

Grant that I haven't watched a game this past month, I tried staying up this morning (the game was at 0230hrs) but only managed to for the first 45 minutes of the game. All I saw was boys kicking boys. It's not about the ball anymore, it's all about crashing into each other, getting yellow cards (which looks like a warning card to not do that again or you'll be kicked off the field) and making sure that the ball stays in the middle of the field. The goalies looked rather nervous, not wanting to let a ball through. Of course, if they did, their heads would be on the chopping board, similar to those of the coaches whose team didn't make it to the final 8.

Anyways, the game. It was a rather vicious but boring 45 minutes. I found out later from the hubs that the game went into a further 30 minutes after the 90 minutes as neither of the teams had scored. The final goal from Spain came 4 minutes before the end of the 30 minutes. What a longgggg game. I'm glad I didn't stay up.

World Cup Final

Will you be staying up?
I'm seriously thinking of
It will be my first world cup match this year!
What am I talking about?
It will be my first soccer match since... I don't know when!
As you can see, I'm not much of a soccer fan
Glad that tennis doesn't go on during the oddest hours!

Lazy Saturdays

I love lazy Saturdays.
Today, the hubs and I locked ourselves at home, ate home cooked meals and generally vegged out.
I love lazy Saturdays.

Food Blog : Chocolate Wassant

After all the hype has died, I decided to purchase a packet of these from a bakery called Provence. There are 10 pieces in one packet and they cost S$0.60 each. Never mind about the cost, YUMMY they are! I'm glad I didn't know of them earlier as I would have been pigging out on them.

It's a soft bread, rolled with a light chocolate spread and shaped like a croissant, hence the name chocolate wassant. I'll be sure to go back for more now *grin* They also have a custard flavoured one and a kaya flavoured one. I don't think I'll even try the others. Kaya belongs on toasted bread with a slab of butter!

Here I've taken the picture on my newly acquired Kangaroo mug saucer from Max Brenner's.

Chocolate Wassants

Paul the Octopus

What a lovely creature. I can't believe it/he can actually predict the winner of a particular soccer game! As weird as it sounds, it/he predicted that Spain would beat Germany in last night's game. The prediction came out a couple of days before the match, so Germany would've psyched themselves to not believe a silly octopus' preferred box/morsel, especially since the octopus actually belongs to the Germans. Still... a 1-0 game where the goal was scored in the 70-something minute must have crushed the Germans something chronic.

If you've not seen how it/he chooses the winner, go Google it. I'm sure 'paul the octopus' is going to be a number one hit on Google this week.

Anyways, not that the morsel in that particular box is yummier than the other, I think it/he is just attracted to the colours of the flags. It/he correctly predicted the games which Germany won in order to get to this semi-finals stage, so why not the winner. I wonder if they'll get it/him to predict the ultimate World Cup winner.

Gum Drops

When I was a child, blue was my all time favourite colour. I think I used to like all shades of blue, I don't remember having a specific shade of blue that I liked... hmm... maybe I did. I do have a vague memory of Prussian Blue from my box of water paints running out earlier than Vermilion or Ocher, I'm sure.

But when I moved to Australia, my new all time favourite colour became clear summer sky blue. I don't know the 6 alpha-digit specific of the colour, you'll just have to look up at the sky yourself. Now that I've moved to Singapore and don't get to see much blue skies, I've started to take a liking to the colour lilac. A brief stock take of my current stationery will reveal a lot of purple and lilac influences.

Naturally, the progression towards a lilac nail polish ensued. Scouring through nail polish blogs (you don't realise how many there are until you start looking...) pointed me in some direction and I've narrowed the perfect lilac colour to either OPI's Rumple's Wiggin or Revlon's Gum Drops.

Rumple's Wiggin is part of OPI's Shrek collection and the colour is almost the same as Revlon's Gum Drops. The only difference I guess is the formula and price. I have to admit that Gum Drops is an interesting name for a nail polish. Revlon is slowly trying to break into the odd colours of nail polishes. Their new formulas purport to not bubble, be easy to apply and quick to dry. This particular bottle is supposed to smell like gum drops, after it dries. Do you think people will go around smelling their manicure? Manicure sniffing... the new glue sniffing.

Anyways, for the amount of years that I've been painting my finger nails, I still can't get the application to salon perfection. Why is that? Maybe I'll have to practice once a day for a year and hope that my brain will learn... either that or my nails will fall off my fingers and I won't have to worry about manicures ever again!

The 5 million dollar home

I recently bought myself a Crumpler bag. It was great lugging the hub's one all over Tokyo when I last visited the city in April for a week. It was spacious enough to fit a DSLR, my passport, wallet and a bottle of water. I'm sure the bag was meant to carry an extra lens and flash, but this is me, being able to live with a point and shoot, why would I need another lens, let alone a monstrous flash? As you can tell, I haven't discovered the finer side to using a flash.

Anyways, I was thinking of getting something smaller than what the hubs has, but bearing in mind the things I want to put in it, I ended up getting the same model, albeit a newer design. There are a couple of differences between this and the older design. Firstly, they've managed to add an extra flap to cover some of the velcro which was actually a little painful to use when you're constantly accessing the contents of the bag. Another is the more tapered, slimmer looking design.

I love my new 5 million dollar home and can't wait to fill it! Yes... it's sitting pretty but empty at the moment, waiting for the successor of the D90 to fill it!

iPhone 4

I am surprised at the amount of flak Apple is getting for their new release, the iPhone 4.
It's not like it's a new gadget... it's the 4th generation!
And this is the funniest/craziest thing, how to hold your phone!
I mean, is there another way to holding it?
Do we really need lessons on how to hold our mobiles while having it pressed to our ear?
Are we supposed to do the Lipton thing?
Crazy!
What WILL they come up with next?!

World Cup : The final four

Is it time for another World Cup blog?
One more week.
It's showdown time now.
Uruguay, Holland, Spain and Germany.
Who are you rooting for?

Food Blog : Max Brenner

I can't believe, after all these years, there's finally a cocoa cafe in Singapore. I know they have popped up in Australia and everywhere else, but in Singapore, Max Brenner is the first.

So while waiting for dinner, the hubs and I decided to have something for tea. He ordered a cappuccino as he's not very much into the chocolate drink thing and I had a hug mug of milk chocolate.

Firstly, they have the zaniest mugs, glasses and coffee cups. The hot chocolate drinks are served in a hug mug which I found not very user friendly as there's no handle to hold the mug. You're supposed to 'hug' it with both palms, bring it to your mouth to drink the hot choc. I guess it would be ok to have these kind of mugs in cold countries when your fingers are in need of some heating up.

The mug that the cappuccino came in was more interesting. It's called a kangaroo mug and I love the design!

The Kangaroo Mug

As we were waiting for dinner, we didn't end up eating anything, but the description of the waffles was enough to whet my appetite for a return.

Steak craving

The hubs and I had dinner at Botak Jones today. It's been a while since we last come up here and I must admit that the standard of this branch has dropped a little.

Grant that it wasn't crowded, but it took me a good 10 minutes to place my order with the cashier, and I wasn't even queuing. We ordered a couple of NZ ribeye's and yes, it came as per medium doneness, but the meat wasn't tender enough and we ended up chewing a lot. At the end of the meal, the both of us had 'unsatisfied' stamped all over our faces *grin*

They've also decided to revamp their customer loyalty card and this has digression written all over it. The current system requires you to produce stamped receipts when you want to make a claim. Who carries receipts these days?

Gone are the days where I couldn't wait to have my monthly dose of steak here. I'll have to look around for a similarly priced steak place.

Flash Floods

It was a dark and gloomy day...

I walked into work this morning and the sky was very, very dark, almost as if I've stayed till past 8 in the night, which I didn't, which threw my brain off for a few minutes.

It has been raining, heavy... pelting... visibility 1 meter kind of rain for the past week, causing flash floods in some parts of the island. Most of it surrounding the Orchard area, an area which houses some expensive cars. Underground parking garages kept filling up with water, floating some Porsche's and Lexus'. Does insurance cover this?

I didn't think about it until now but I'm glad that the drainage that covers the underground subway system is the best and in working order, otherwise I'd hate to be stuck in the train, while everywhere around the outside of the train is filling up with rain water *shudder*

Halfway there...

Do you realise it's already mid year?
How time flies!

Have you accomplished anything?
I hope you're breezing through life...

What's in store for the remaining half?
Nothing shocking, please...

Should we be mulling over it?
Carpe diem!

Photo Blog : Newspaper pile

Our pile of newspaper is almost as tall as us!

I remember when I was young, there used to be a recycling person who'll come by the house to collect our old newspapers for a couple of dollars. The "karung guni" person we called them. He'd have a special horn and a loudspeaker, the truck moving at 5km/h on the narrow roads of the various housing estate. Vague memories of my growing up years in the 80s in Malaysia.

Presently, I've been noticing a few by-the-roadside-makeshift-stalls appearing in and around the neighbourhood for the purpose of recycling paper, boxes, bottles and cans. We haven't gone to use them, being just too lazy to transport them. So what the hubs does is to tie these newspapers neatly into piles of about 1 foot high and place them near the bin. The cleaner lady has a trolley and I guess she'll be earning a little extra every few months from us.

Newspaper pile

Procecutor Princess

A new Korean drama I've started watching only because there doesn't seem to be anything interesting on at the moment besides the world cup which we haven't subscribed to. I haven't been following the Hong Kong drama productions in a while. Not sure if they're still producing good dramas or not!

Anyways, will see if it is worth watching. 16 episodes long again and hopefully it will be nicely paced and not full of law jargon.

Photo Blog : Moon Eclipse

There was a partial eclipse of the moon last night, but I didn't get to see it as it was hiding behind some buildings and more importantly clouds.

This is what I saw instead, a couple of hours on. Beautiful, ain't it? Surely a manual focusing camera on a tripod would have done better justice to the picture, but I don't have one *grin*

After the eclipse of the moon

Hotel Blog : The Fullerton Hotel, Singapore

I thought I'd start this as a filler on some days where I have nothing much to write about. It would also give me a reason to reminisce.

While flipping a free newspaper on Thursday, I chanced upon an advertisement for this place. At S$288 per night, I thought it was pretty good, considering it's purported to be a 5 star property.

The Fullerton Hotel belongs to a chain of it's own. It's not part of the Hilton chain or the Raffles chain, it's in a chain of its own. The reason I'm using 'chain' is because they'll have another hotel opened next month, The Fullerton Bay Hotel, located a stone's throw away. The building used to be the general post office of Singapore, being a heritage building, a lot of the interior was kept.

Anyways, small as the room was (on the upside the bathroom was larger than the bedroom!), we kind of got upgraded to a river view room and the service and food was impeccable. I ate too much and am currently suffering for it.

It all started with their buffet breakfast this morning. Decent selection of Japanese, local, Chinese and European. I had a little bit of everything except the Japanese and went back for seconds. Probably not a good idea, but at the cost of S$45 per person for breakfast, mentally you'd want to eat more. Their nasi lemak was yummy, sambal was not extremely spicy by my standards, fresh roasted peanuts and crispy fried anchovies. Their duck congee was also pretty yummy with sesame oil, broiled peanuts, fried shallots and pork floss.

After being absolute gluttons (the hubs went back for 4ths and 5ths!) the hubs and I waddled and burped our way towards Boat Quay and got onto the river cruise, something that we've never done as residents of Singapore. The weather was perfect, not muggy or too sunny, and the boat ride took us around the Boat and Clarke Quay area. There was nothing else for us to do after the half hour cruise as we've pretty much done that area of Singapore, so we headed back for a nana nap. Probably not a great idea as I don't think it allowed the food to digest much. Lunch was a simple fare of grilled cod and some mushroom risotto.

Within the S$288, breakfast for two was included, a dining credit of S$88 was included, late check-out, complimentary parking and a half hour river cruise. After calculating everything, the room rate ended up being S$9. That's for a 5 star hotel. I hope they throw in more of these deals *grin* I'd definitely go back.

The Pool

Food Blog : Ju Shin Jung Korean BBQ

*BURRRP* is all I can say.
Plenty of free flowing side dishes and a wide selection of lettuce. The hubs and I even tried soju. With a 20% alcohol content, it's pretty potent. I couldn't down one shot glass even. I now understand why the Koreans are always clearing their throats after downing one shot, it's almost like vodka shots.

Side dishes

Meats wise, we actually found the beef yummier than the belly pork. The Wagyu was the best, as expected, the tenderloin was surprisingly tender, even when the slab of meat was so thick. We didn't enjoy the pork, maybe because the cut was too thick, the skin was a little chewy.

From the bottom of the picture : Wagyu short rib, Tenderloin, pork belly

Pity about the ventilation, you do come out of the restaurant smelling of grilled meat. Maybe that's what happens in Korea too!

Australia's first female prime minister

I haven't followed Australian politics all that closely. Actually I've never been one to follow politics. It's just a subject that I don't have any interest in.

Anyways, from what I gathered, when Kevin Rudd was elected, everyone applauded the selection. So what happened between then and now? In case you have been hiding under a rock, Australia now has her first female prime minister and everyone's applauding the decision. Let's see what she can accomplish before her fate, if it does, ends up like Kevin Rudd's.

Food Blog : Il Lido Cafeteria

Il Lido is an Italian restaurant located on Sentosa Island. I've heard pretty great things about the food served, but have never been to eat there. While walking around Suntec searching for something to have for dinner tonight, I chanced upon a "Cafeteria" version of it. Interesting concept and I think they recently opened as the young waiter taking our order had to find our orders on the menu in order to take it down. He must be really new to the job. Another hiccup was that all our food came at once. There were only three occupied tables, the chef could have waited till we finished our soup and entree before sending the mains out.

Anyways, we ordered the following:
Mushroom soup ~ A little on the watery side, but it came in a generous portion
Calamari Fritti ~ Yummy! Lightly battered and fried al dente
Spaghetti Gamberi Aglio Olio ~ A little on the oily side, but otherwise alright. Prawns were fresh
Spaghetti Vongole ~ Tasty and plenty of fresh clams

Will recommend this place. At the moment there aren't many people patronising the place, maybe it's because it's soccer season?

Time well spent with blue

For the first time since I started working, yesterday went by super quick.
And that's only because I had things to do.
I didn't even have the time to read the newspapers!
I actually hoped everyday would be like that, but I know it's short-lived.
There's something wrong with me to wish for that *grin*
Anyways, for the first time in my working life, I saw the blue screen today!
Gone is my hard drive at the office, irreparable apparently.
Hopefully the new one won't die on me too.

World Cup madness?

Where is it?
I can't feel it.

I don't know what it is, but I can't feel the vibes from this round of World Cup. No one in the office is talking about it, much anyways, all the advertisements or restaurants are quietly running their own promotions and shows.

What more, with some of the games being played at 0230hrs, it's a wonder people are staying awake to watch them!

Lost in Translation

Daiso is a Y100 shop from Japan that sells all sorts of things. Everything in the shop is priced at Y100. Over here it's S$2. They stock plates (ceramic and plastic), cups, stationery, paper, bathroom accessories, sewing, kitchen, gardening, sweets, basically anything and everything! And it's all at S$2 a piece. Some of the things are not worth S$2, as in you could find them for cheaper elsewhere. I guess this is one way for them to make money.

Anyways, most of the products are imports from Japan, so some translation is needed especially for instructions on how to use certain things. And as some translations go, they don't usually make sense.

I was looking for these protectors and in the midst of everything, the hubs found it. The picture below is what appears at the back, look at the last line! I'm not sure what seats have to do with these, but it cracks me up every time I read it!

Food Blog : Suki Ya

Couldn't resist it. The hubs and I stepped into this all-you-can-eat Shabu shabu restaurant in Marina Square last night. Only at the end did we realise that they're the same chain as Sho Teppan, Shabuya and Tajimaya! Looks like we've tried all their restaurants.

Three soup bases to choose from; a clear, a soya sauce flavoured and a spicy, but the pot is only divided by two. We ended up with the clear one for both sides, but would have settled for plain water.

Salad bar was free flow; loads of enoki and they even added a variety of fish balls, as were the meats; chicken, pork and beef. Sadly the pork and beef weren't yummy, even when done al dente, but the chicken was super yummy! Thinly sliced and we ended up having three plates of it. I'm not sure if I would go back, but it's an option for a pretty neatly priced buffet place, even if all the meats weren't of good quality. Mind you, they do charge for food wastage and it's a hefty 20% of your bill.

Food Blog : Chicken Chop

The choices of food at Raffles Place is amazing! I don't think I'll be able to finish trying every single cafe or restaurant if I'm working there for at least the next five years, only because there will be some places you'll visit more than once.

Today, I tried the chicken chop (which is basically a grilled marinated piece of deboned chicken maryland) at a Koufu food court located at one end of the Golden Shoe complex. The dish usually comes with a serve of french fries or mashed potatoes and coleslaw. What I liked about this place was that instead of coleslaw it was sliced green apple with salad dressing and a fourth of sweet corn. The meat itself was nicely marinated and comes with either pepper or mushroom sauce. All in all, yummy!

Food Blog : Ja Jiang Mien

After watching a few Korean dramas, I wanted to try a local dish called Ja Jiang mien. It's basically fried pork and onions in a black bean sauce with rice noodles. With Singapore being a super multicultural city, you would expect to be able to find a restaurant that serves it and today I found one.

There's a tiny restaurant near the office which serves Korean Chinese food and after hearing the owner speak Korean and checking that 80% of the patrons are Korean, one would surmise that the food is pretty authentic. Ja Jiang mien is quite yummy. I liked the noodles which reminded me of the green bean noodles which was served in the vietnamese restaurants in Adelaide.

I will go back again for another fix, can't do it too often as a bowl is S$12 and there's tax to add.

Oh Su Jung vs Karl

Found a new Korean drama to watch, which was aired in 2007. A drama about how a fat dude was jilted at the altar, because he failed at the third stage of his bar exam, goes over to America to become a golf pro and comes back all gorgeous and rich to effect his revenge.

The main male character is really cute, probably the only reason I'm watching it. Oh Ji Ho has amazingly cute dimples when he smiles and his crows feet don't make him look old, but extremely lovable. I hope he never goes under the knife.

Food Blog : Equinox

The hubs made a reservation for dinner here, a pleasant surprise. It was a little last minute for him as he only did it yesterday, but with today being a Tuesday, we managed to get a table by the window (at a surcharge of S$20). Not surprisingly, we weren't the only ones in the restaurant, the area where the bay windows are located were full.

The Equinox is a restaurant located on the 70th floor of the Fairmont Singapore hotel with spectacular and unobstructed views of the central business district and upcoming Marina Bay area. Today's sky was just lovely, a little cloudy, bringing out the gorgeous colours of sunset. The only gripe is because their windows are floor to ceiling (where their ceiling is 3 storeys high), the night skyline was disturbed by the reflection of the interior lights.


As for dinner, a simple menu which I'm sure they change with the season as I don't remember the same selection when we were here last (about 2 years ago). Skipping the degustation menu (as I didn't fancy half the dishes) we ended up with an entree, a main and for me a dessert, accompanied with a glass of white wine.

The crustacean bisque with coconut froth, seafood ravioli and a piece of fresh lobster meat was light, slightly on the watery side, but very flavourful. Portion wise was surprisingly just nice, didn't make me crave for more after... Freshly baked bread kept coming and I think that probably filled me up. Yummy was the mushroom ciabatta.


For my main, I had the Angus beef tenderloins, which were done medium and I only expected a piece and was pleasantly surprised with the serving of a couple! The cylindrical looking piece on top is a piece of fried marrow, which tasted a little strange to me, as in it was like eating fried fat. I didn't know that it was marrow until about halfway through the meal when I remembered the description and quickly passed the rest to the hubs!


Dessert was a plate of Hibiscus sorbet with lime cheese cake separating the sorbet and apple puree. The apple puree was a little on the sour side but the lime cheese cake and sorbet were yummy. Hibiscus done this side of the world is not that bad. Tasted a little like eating the flower, not that I have tried, but if I did, it would be what I imagine a fresh flower tasted like, but I think I still prefer the Okinawa version.


Overall, a very yummy dinner. Would be going back for special occasions, especially when the sky's gorgeous.

Food Blog : Tajimaya

At the rate we're going, this is looking to be a food blog!

We tried the shabu side of this restaurant once, and found a yummy dipping sauce, so I thought we'd give the yakiniku side a try. For those who are uninitiated with the finer side of Japanese terms, yakiniku is for grilled meats, almost the same as the Korean grilled meats. Well, at least it was served on a grill with charcoal underneath. Actually the side vinegared vegetables reminded us of eating in a Korean restaurant.

Anyways, we ordered the wagyu set as there was going to be 4 different cuts of meat plus a serve of kurobuta. The serving was really small, about 3 pieces of each type of meat per person and we had to cook the meat slowly, otherwise the meal would have been over before it even began. The ribeye and sirloin were yummy at medium done-ness. Didn't like the meats which were lightly marinated.

Overall, we probably wouldn't go back there. Unlike the Korean restaurants, there's no one to cook for us! *grin*

Food Blog : Jade at The Fullerton

Expensive food isn't always all that yummy. Some ex-workmates and I decided to try out the above's a la carte buffet teem sum brunch this morning. The surprising factor was that it was only going to cost us at most S$33 per person, which is pretty good, considering you could eat till you drop and The Fullerton is supposedly a 5 star hotel.

Glancing through the write-ups on their website made my mouth water, they must have really good writers. But the tasting of the delicacies didn't do it for us. There were over 30 dishes to try and I think we ended up tasting 25.

One of the dumplings read "Xiao Long Bao with fois gras" but we couldn't taste the fois gras. I guess it was all overcooked when the whole dumpling went into the steamer. It was also a little disappointing as the dumpling skin broke upon lifting and the soup just dripped out. Xiao Long Bao's are known to have a little thicker wrap around the meat such that when the dumpling is steamed, juices from the meat will form a wee bit of soup and you're supposed to place the dumpling onto your chinese spoon, bite into the wrap a little so that the soup flows out, drink it and only then eat the dumpling.

Their "Siew mai with abalone" was also a little disappointing. All of us were staring at the siew mai when it arrived wondering what the brown thing placed on top of the siew mai was. It looked like a 50c coin of a Chinese mushroom. I think it would have been more appetising if they stuck to placing crab/prawn eggs on top.

Their "Prawn wrapped in deep fried bean curd skin" was nothing fantastic, neither was their "Char Siew bao". For dessert, the steamed yam with ginko nuts was done the lazy man way (a tablespoon of yam in the middle of some coconut milk with sago), but their mango sago with longan was not bad.

On the yummy side, their "Prawn dumpling with crystal skin" was good. Water chestnuts within the prawn mixture was still crunchy to the bite. Their double boiled soups and prawns with leeks were good. Can't go wrong with leeks.

I guess I would bring the hubs to try it one day, but there are other places which we could go to when we need to get our teem sum fix!

World Cup 2010

The kick off was last night.
I thought people would be glued to their telly's.
What in the world are they doing out?!
The shopping malls are crowded.
The food centres are crowded.
I guess this year's world cup fever isn't catching on very well.
The cable providers are still making a loss due to the less than expected take up rate of the package.
I wonder how many people will be calling in sick from tomorrow onwards!

Reminiscing

To be able to reminisce is an activity we never thought we would ever have to do when we were young. I guess only 'older' people do that. And the older you get, the more you'll have to reminisce about.

I just came back from a dinner with a couple of friends whom I knew in high school back in Malaysia. We haven't kept in touch with each other since we left school, only because we weren't all that close to begin with and when my family moved over to Australia, I really lost touch with a lot of people... new place, new friends.

Anyways, thanks to facebook and the foresight we all had to actually use it, we have managed to stay in contact again, catching up once in a while and arranging meet-ups like tonight. And whenever we do meet up, it's always to talk about what we did in school (the teachers we used to terrorise... sounds horrible, but we weren't that bad!) and who we used to hang out with (what they're all doing now) and all the crazy things we used to get up to. Oh, to be young again!

Nine to Six

Today marks the one month anniversary of me working again. I have to admit that going back to work this time around is a little different as it wasn't by choice... not entirely anyways. The position wasn't one I applied for but I am glad it found me. The work has been easy so far, learning the new systems hasn't been as difficult as the ones I've used in the past and it doesn't require me to go for a course. Anyone with a little finance background would be able to handle it. Now, if only I can get my hands on a GDS... *grin*

Food Blog : Sho Teppan

We've always walked by this restaurant, located in the shopping mall of Ion Orchard, never even stopping to peer at their menu only because the thought of having to cook our own dinner didn't appeal to us. Now that we're running out of places to eat, we decided to give this restuarant a try and was pleasantly surprised at the yumminess of the food.

Peering into the restaurant, you'll find plenty of seats around a few cooking counters of a normal teppanyaki restaurant except that there's no cook. Everyone has an individual induction plate and the heavy bowl is placed on it. What surprised me more was the fact that they serve shabu-shabu here too.

The hubs ordered the layered pork sukiyaki and I had the wagyu beef teppanyaki. I never knew what sukiyaki was until today. It's where the cooked meat is dipped into raw egg instead of the ponzu sauce. The layered pork came out tender but the soup was a bit too sweet to begin with. The ultimate shabu-shabu is still with plain water from the start!

I have to admit that I don't have an amazingly discerning tongue that I can taste the difference between normal and wagyu beef, but with the seasoning and the way they stopped cooking once the beef was almost done made the dish super yummy. I lapped it all up (except for the spring onions)!

Layered pork

Wagyu Teppanyaki

ps. You can get them to cook the teppanyaki for you, but you'll have to shabu-shabu and sukiyaki yourself.

Photo Blog : Crowdless & Crowded

This is just one of the many, many eating places around Raffles Place.
The crowdless picture was taken after work, around 7pm.
The crowded picture was taken during lunch.
It was raining today, a factor to take in when people don't feel like walking further or don't like getting caught in the rain.

Crowdless

Crowded

There's nothing in the newspapers...

I decided to check on my other blog with the above title and realised that it's also pretty interesting reading back on the news of last year. Maybe I should start that up again!

This time I'll find a better way to taking pictures of the articles, maybe actually cutting them out and scanning them as opposed to simply taking pictures of it. We'll see...

D-Day

At some point in time, everyone must have heard the expression D-day. An ominous day by definition as it had something to do with a start of a war in 1944.

So... what kind of people do you think, who are born on this day in the later years, become?
Are they evil conniving people?
People who think of starting a war?
Timid personalities?

I'm not too sure... I only know of one person born on this day in the early 70s and he's a gentle giant. Maybe D-day was just a one off, unlike April Fool's and the expression is just used in general when you're expecting something ominous to happen.

Recouperating by Shabu-ing

After feeling a little guilty eating yummy rich food for the past week, the hubs and I (more like me...) decided that we should have shabu-shabu (Japanese steamboat), shabuz for short, for dinner this weekend. I love this Japanese version of steamboat. The more authentic ones start with plain water and by the end, the water has absorbed all the nutrients and flavours from the meats and vegetables which was cooked. I find it difficult these days to go back to eating Chinese steamboat *grin*

I'm proud to say that after many attempts, we've managed to perfect our shabuz recipe for 2 (this is only because it didn't quite work out when my brother-in-law came over for dinner a week ago). I figured that if we doubled the ingredients that we should double the water, but it didn't quite work that way. It's back to the drawing board for shabuz meals for more than 2.

Anyways, in order to perfect the shabuz, we had to purchase a new steamboat pot. The current steamboat pot which we have was too big (it's the usual pot on an induction cooker fit to feed 6 to 8 people). And just for the 2 of us, it was a little difficult to make it a shallow cooker, we'd have to keep adding water and end up diluting the soup that has already absorbed the food which we cooked. So the hunt for a smaller pot started and over the past Lunar New Year we found and bought a pot for 2. It's a cute little red pot and I love it! It's basically a bowl on top of a hot plate. Ingenious! For each meal, it takes one litre of water without any need to add more water throughout the meal. The heat setting is adjustable and at the end of the meal, the soup is reasonably thick and infused with the essence of the meats and vegetables and is lapped up by the both of us!

World Cup Fever

The world cup is coming up (I think the matches start on the 11th of June) and everyone's hoping to use it as a marketing tool. I know that the cable provider who's able to bring the games into our homes are trying to make the most of it!

Anyways, the hubs and I were at Fish & Co today for dinner and they've introduced three special dishes which they've named after some players. We tried two of it only. The seafood pasta was alright, not too creamy. The seafood platter for one has been halved from their regular platter for one. I think this portion is just nice for one person as the normal platter fills you to the brim. I wonder if I should mention that to their management.

Food Blog : Viet Express

Never having been to Vietnam, always going back to Australia to get my Vietnamese noodles fix, I was pleasantly surprised to find this hidden gem just a 10 minutes walk from the office.

Located in China Square Central near the central business district of Raffles Place, Viet Express has been bustling during lunch hours. The first time I dined there, I didn't know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised to find Vietnamese wait staff. It's always good to hire locals who know the dishes.

Today I ordered the same dish as I did the last time (couldn't get enough of it the last time, and I don't think I'll ever get enough of it) the Rice Vermicelli with pork balls and net spring rolls. This dish comes cold and dry, with plenty of vegetables (beansprouts, cucumber, lettuce, carrot and radish), upon which you'll empty a sauce bowl of sweet-ish spicy fish sauce all over it. Mix it all evenly and dig in! Couldn't lick the bowl clean today as I was eating with a couple of friends *grin*

Food Blog : Gurney Drive

We were originally going to try the Popeye's branch located in the Jubilee building in Ang Mo Kio for dinner tonight, but there were no empty seats and there didn't look like enough space for us to share tables. So we moseyed down a little further and found this coffee shop. It's not entirely a restaurant, setting wise, and it didn't have a hawker kind of atmosphere. We later discovered that they have only been opened for a month, which explained their poor customer service or lack of. Not that we were treated badly, they only managed to get us a milo when we ordered a kopi-o-kosong and totally forgot one of our mains, the Kuay Teow.

The best dish was the pork satay. Satay has usually been a muslim kebab, so I can't remember if I've ever tasted pork satay from the Chinese vendors. Needless to say, they were delicious! Especially since they didn't skim on the cube of pork fat! I think we'll order 2 serves the next time we're there. One serve only has 6 sticks. We also tried the stuffed tofu, but it's nothing to rave about. There wasn't enough stuffing and the sauce was the same as the satay sauce.

For our mains, I ordered a fried seafood vermicelli which was pretty yummy, lightly chilied and the prawns were fresh. The hubs ordered the fried kuay teow, which came after we finished everything as the chef forgot the order. It wasn't as yummy as the one we usually buy from near our place as the noodles were a little soggy to the bite and too thin. Kuay Teow noodles have to be at least an inch wide!

If you don't have anything else to eat around the area, go try it. Wouldn't recommend it if you're craving for authentic Penang Kuay Teow. Maybe next time we'll try the assam laksa.

Another gem about this place is that they stock Penang cookies from Ghee Hiang (a famous cookie shop) and I got some Hneoh Pneah *yumz*

Food Blog : Nantsuttei

It has been a while since Parco (a Japanese emporium) was closed down here in Singapore. So when I heard it opened again in Millenia Walk, I wanted to check out their household department in the hopes of finding more Japanese ceramics.

I was a little disappointed in the fact that it's not so much the same emporium as it was before, instead its current concept is "open", where a few different brands have small shop lots within the store.

Anyways, located on the third floor are a number of Japanese restaurants; Italian, ramen with shrimp base soup, japanese steaks and this ramen shop. Usually, whenever there's a queue or a number of people within a restaurant where all other restaurants next to it is empty, you'd gather that the food must be good. All the other restaurants had a couple or no customers and I was glad we ended up having dinner in Nantsuttei.

A ramen shop with what looks like authentic Japanese chefs behind the counter cooking the ramen. There are only 6 choices of ramen and they even have instructions on how to eat ramen. I guess educating foreigners or trying to get them to eat ramen the way it was meant to be eaten such that they'll enjoy the dish to the max, is great!

The soup base (primarily made with pork bones) was YUMMY! The hubs and I actually licked our bowls clean! It didn't make us bloated at the end of the meal even when the soup was thick in flavour. No floating finely diced garlic, always a good thing. The ramen itself was slurpable and still crunchy till the last bite. We also ordered a serve of gyozas, but they weren't all that interesting.

A two :thumbsup: for this place for its yummy ramen and soup and we'll definitely be back!

As an opening special (I think) they were giving out vouchers for a scoop of gelati from a gelati counter (Galta) located within the emporium on the first floor. Needless to say, I'm also glad I queued up to get my free scoop of gelati. Hazelnut in flavour and it wasn't icy, but more milky than normal gelati. Brings back great memories from my gelati eating days in Australia.

Food Blog : Nolboo Hangari Galbi

I've always walked past this restaurant in Orchard Central but never ended up walking into it. Could have been the uninviting menu (they don't have good 'try-all' sets), or the fact that I just didn't feel like eating Korean that day (we usually end up at Ajiman for ramen). But today, there was a slight need for grilled belly pork.

It's a slightly upmarket kind of Korean restaurant where the free flow of various pickled and kimchi-ed vegetables don't exist (refils at S$3 each) and they didn't serve pickled soya beansprouts. The kimchi was alright, as was the white kimchi (which we didn't finish).

We ended up ordering the fresh sirloin and belly pork as our meats and a plate of chap jae (which is Korean vermicelli with julienne vegetables). The sirloin was yummy, grilled in front of us on charcoal (which with good ventilation didn't leave us with oil smelling clothes) to a medium done-ness but the belly pork was a little of a let down. The chap jae ended up being too sweet, due to the marination, but the beef reminded me of soft beef jerky.

Overall, a place we won't be going back to in a hurry.

Sundown Marathon

Adidas ran a sundown marathon last night with a couple of my friends participating. Encouraging as it sounds, it was surprisingly badly organised. Surprising as it was not Adidas' first. A sundown event should start while the sun's setting or at dusk, which in this region is around 1900hrs, but some runners were flagged off at 2100hrs! I wonder at what time they finished as if they ran the full marathon of 84kms, it would take around 6 hours? Lucky today's Sunday, eh?

Japanese Ceramics

Singapore is considered a pretty multicultural kind of city-country. I'm sure on some consensus somewhere, it's noted that we can find one of nearly every country folk in this city-country. In order to make living here more comfortable and easily adaptable, we've imported a number of food, clothes, utensils and furniture from all over the world. I'm still looking for the ultimate Vietnamese Pho!

Anyways, about 8 or 9 years ago, I happen to purchase some Japanese ceramic bowls which I thought was pretty and unique in design. I've been meaning to update the collection but couldn't find anyone who still carries the stock. Even a browse in Tokyo didn't help. I chanced upon them today while shopping in an emporium called BHG and pounced on the chance to add to my collection. I might go back sometime this week to get more *grin*

Car-less

I should be tired. I've just come back from a 4 hour shopping trip and that's only in one shopping complex. Having the leisurely time to browse and a great pair of walking shoes has helped. The reason why we're not rushed for time is because for the first time in a long while, we don't have a car to use. It was involved in a chain collision where the car behind wasn't paying attention and bumped into it. That was on Tuesday. Seeing that it's a public holiday today, the car repair people aren't open and won't be able to get the car ready for collection. So we're out of a car for this long weekend. It's lucky that we live right outside a subway station then *grin*

Bearing that in mind, and trying not to catch taxis everywhere (not that they're expensive over here), I've been mindful to not purchase heavy things, seeing that I'll have to lug it all taking the train back. Aiming for another shopping trip tomorrow, shoes don't count as heavy, do they? Anyways, I can always ask the hubs to come out again seeing that we'll have to look for dinner *wide grin*

Vesak Day

Vesak Day (Buddha's Birthday) which falls tomorrow, marks a public holiday for us. It's nice to have a long weekend after spending three consecutive weeks at work, after being away from work 2.5 years. Maybe I've gotten used to not getting up for work, or actually doing 'work' in that sense. Whatever it is, I'm reveling in this long weekend. On top of that, the Great Singapore Sales has started (in-conjunction with the school holidays) for which I might succumb to. I have space for a few pairs of shoes seeing that I've recently cleared out 23 pairs from one cupboard *grin*

Iconic movies

This year marks the screening of a few iconic movies. Avatar, which was a huge hit and one that's been screening at the various shopping malls' big screens. The hubs and I watched it in 3D but the 2D version doesn't seem too bad.

Another one that's coming up is Sex In The City 2 which everyone is raving about. Other than the weak plot line (I would imagine the plot would be weak, what more could happen?), everyone watches the show only for the branded goods which all the ladies will be decked out in. Maybe if I were more into branded goods, I would watch it on the big screen, drool and maybe learn to match a few brands in one sitting. I can't even remember the last movie I watched... could it have been Avatar?

World of Computers

Do you think PCs were built not to last? It's rare that I hear of someone using a PC for more than 2 years. Macs on the other hand seem to last a long while *grin*

Anyways, it was no surprise when I heard that my SIL's hard drive crashed. I guess it's a good reason to buy a new computer. Recovery of data would cost a bomb, I'm sure, which is why backing up your data is always good. I wonder if the office server does back ups? For a MNC, it should, shouldn't it?

Volcanic ash news

Just a short post of an update on Iceland's volcano. Nothing happened over the weekend, flights are all on schedule. Seems people are still travelling, maybe all the nonessential trips have been cut, but otherwise, the airlines don't seem to be reporting any reduction in traveller numbers.

Chicken in a Biskit

I don't know what it is that makes Chicken in a Biskit so yummy. The excess amount of chicken salt? The way the biscuit melts in your mouth? The size of the biscuit? It's probably the excess amount of chicken salt, something that's so Australian. I LOVE chicken salt. I don't understand why no one's brought it to Singapore yet. It goes really well with thick chips. Maybe it's because shops here don't serve thick chips?

Meanwhile, I've just noticed that they have an allergen information printed on the side of the box. Nowadays, heaps of kids are allergic to soy, wheat, milk, gluten, peanuts, and the list goes on. It's always genetic, isn't it, and because of that, do you think it's because family trees are not figured out before people have children?

Food Blog : Fish Ball Noodles

The hubs and I wandered over to the Tanglin Halt Food Centre for breakkie this morning. It's been awhile since we last visited this place (the hubs used to live nearby on the other side of the highway). Between the years, there has been an upgrading to this food centre. Gone are a number of the stalls as it used to be a more-stalls-than-seats kind of eating place. Luckily a few of the hundreds-of-people-will-patiently-queue-to-buy-food-from stalls are still there like the hainanese chicken rice stall and this made with 100% fish fish ball noodle stall.

Fish balls are not one of my favourite things to eat only because I usually have no luck with them, finding small pieces of bones or scales in mine. But these ones were alright and not as springy, meaning that they didn't try to fluff up the ball with more flour. The fish slices were the yummiest, smooth and just the right amount of chewy-ness.

Fish ball noodles

Photo Blog : Blue Skies

It has been a while since I saw skies of this colour here in Singapore, especially skies with a light sprinkling of clouds. While walking around Raffles Place during lunch today, thawing, I looked up and this is what I saw. It's a concrete jungle where I work and most of the buildings are at least 50 stories high.

Blue Skies

38 Buttons

There was an interesting article in the newspaper today regarding toilets. Yes, we have to use it everyday, no doubt, at least once a day… although I hope for your health's sake, it's a few more than once!

Anyways, the article started off with warm toilet seats. I know it wouldn't really matter to dudes who have the option of using the urinals or stand… although I know of a few dudes who actually sit to take a piss, which I fully support as you're very sure piss is not going to sprinkle everywhere and anywhere. But that's to be saved for another blog entry. The article went on to talk about toilets in Japan. Amazing toilets to be precise, complete with fake water gushing sounds, extra buttons to ensure that you have a fresh bowl each time and a wash function. Ahh… brings back happy memories. If you haven't been to Japan, or come across a toilet of that caliber, you really need to!

Meanwhile, the writer has discovered the mother of all automated Japanese toilets and it has 38 buttons! I can't for the life of me start to think what one would do with the buttons and how big your toilet would have to be in order to fit this super automated toilet. One for a fresh bowl, one for the fake noise and one for the wash function… maybe two as you can choose to wash your body part that's closer to the front of the bowl or further. Other than that, I really can't think of anything else except that you'd have probably wet your pants before you even sat on it because it would look like you've walked into an alternate universe for toilets!

Delayed Impulse Buyer

I think the break from obtaining a regular income for my own personal use has done me good. I realise that I don't buy everything on impulse. There's always a nagging question of, "Do you really need another '...'?" Plus I've been avoiding walking into my favourite shops, just in case I succumb. I'm sure the hubs is happy to hear this.

Nowadays, being back to obtaining a regular income for my own personal use, I'm on the lookout for totally unique things, things I know I will regret if I don't buy them, when I'm out window shopping. Would that be considered a delayed impulse buyer?

I've just come back from a Tang's closed door sale (entry to the emporium is for card members and friends only) and I only have four Japanese bowls which cost me a total of S$16 to show for it. The queue to pay was shockingly long, even in the men's department and people have baskets full of (maybe) necessary things to purchase. Looks like the Singapore economy is doing great!

Ap-pa kohm, om-ma kohm, ae-gee kohm...

My apologies, but I have this song stuck in my head and I haven't been able to get rid of it! For those of you who're not into Korean nursery rhymes, it's a song about three bears where kohm's are bears and ap-pa, om-ma and ae-gee are daddy, mommy and baby respectively. The rhyme is catchy and goes something like this.

There once lived three bears in a house, daddy bear, mommy bear, baby bear.
Daddy bear is fat, mommy bear is slim and baby bear is cute!
Ooseuk, ooseuk, you're doing well.

Kohm seh-mari ga han jibbehissuh, ap-pa kohm, om-ma kohm, ae-gee kohm.
Ap-pa kohm-eun doong-doong eh, om-ma kohm-eun nalsshineh, ae-gee kohm-eun nomo keeuhwuh!
Ooseuk, ooseuk, chal handa.

Looks like you learnt something new today, didn't you? *grin*

Eyjafjallajokull

Iceland's volcano acted up again the weekend that just went by, causing some minor travel disruptions, mostly in the UK and Iceland. I can say minor now because everyone's on the lookout for this (and probably starting to get a little immune to the disruptions) since the first major global disruption a month ago. Scientists predict that this spewing of ash cloud thing is going to go on indefinitely. The last time it erupted, the sporadic spray of plumes of ash lasted a couple of years. I wonder how long this cycle will last.

But this hasn't put a dampener on people's need to travel to Europe, which is a good thing for airlines as flying to the various European hubs is probably their most profitable route. What more, school holidays in Asia is just a couple of weeks away and at this time of year, Europe is a popular destination as summer is just around the corner. Many families have taken up offers during the end February travel fair here in Singapore. It was a bumper travel fair, if I remember correctly, where most of the travel agencies reported great take up rates for their European destinations.

Let's see if anything happens the coming weekend or in a couple of week's time!

Personal Taste

A new Korean drama, which has phenomenally popped up on the radar like a big fat blimp! Can't wait for the final two episodes which will be showing this week. Hopes for a happy ending is high on everyone's list and most expected.

Ultimately, the success of a drama hangs on the popularity of the actors just as much as their acting. This particular drama sees a young actor by the name of Lee Min Ho who made it big a couple of years ago playing an intelligent spoilt brat who turned nice after spending some time with an upbeat girl who so happens to be poor. Ah... where would the drama be if it weren't for a match made in heaven both at the polar end of the rich/poor scale.

Anyways, Min Ho acted as a 20 year old then. In this current drama, he's an early 30-something no-nonsense architect and I think he's pulling it off pretty well. Not a lot of his character from the previous show has been brought into this one, and it looks like he's almost playing 'himself'. It will be interesting to keep an eye on him to see if he's able to portray all sorts of characters just as well.

Tea Time

As my hunt for the readily available oo long tea in Japan continues in Singapore, my tea collection is starting to increase. I'm going to have to look for more interesting tea containers. For the time being, the pewter collection by Selangor pewter is the best, but they're a little on the expensive side...

Photo Blog : Rushing Home

Time to head on home.
Mood : Everyone's head is up and not buried in a gadget or newspaper

Rushing Home

Photo Blog : Morning Rush Hour ~ 2

Raffles Place : Three escalators heading up, take the stairs if you need to walk down.
This goes on till about 9 in the morning... by then you're just late for work!
Mood : A little gloomy, distracted, head buried in a gadget or the newspaper

Morning Rush Hour ~ 2

Newspaper in 3D?

The Straits Times came with a pair of antique 3D cardboard glasses (one red cellophane sheet for the left eye, one blue for the right) today and the hubs and I had a smashingly giddy time looking at the 3D pictures in the newspapers.

It's amazing what depth of field can do to a picture, but 3D is even better! Unfortunately, since we were sharing the glasses our eyes were getting an extra workout having to focus and re-focus. I can't wait for the day where every picture would be in 3D (without having to don the glasses!). And next, it'll be like JK Rowling's imagination, where pictures in the newspaper move! Magical...

Photo Blog : Morning Rush Hour ~ 1

With an office located in the Central Business District in Singapore, this is what you should expect on a morning train. I guess I can't complain, as if you know where to stand within the train (for instance where no one else wants to, in between carriages) you'll be right. I hear it's heaps bad in Tokyo, people are actually invading your personal space... touching... *shudder*

Morning Rush Hour ~ 1

People, people everywhere!

I've forgotten how packed lunch time can get at Raffles Place.
Maybe it's because I went out at the wrong time today... 1230hrs being the peak time for lunch!
Queues of people were forming everywhere!
Even outside money changers.
I think I'll try to request for a later lunch.
I remember when I last worked in that area, my lunch time was either from 1130hrs or 1330hrs.
Yeah... that's why it was such a shock to me.
People, people everywhere!

Expressions

Do you remember the expression on your face the first time you left your house and made your way to your first job? I don't. I don't remember if I was happy or just chugging along that day. I wasn't keeping a diary then... maybe I was and just didn't think to record what my facial expression was.

I'm off to work tomorrow, a permanent position again, after taking a hiatus for the past 2.5 years. I have to admit that I was starting to get a little bored sitting at home, with little people interaction and watching the telly for most of the day, so I started to send my CV out when an interesting want ad came up (which I can count with one hand? In 2.5 years, that's not a lot, is it?). But the thought of dragging myself to work made me a little hesitant in sending out a hundred copies of my CV to various company hoping that one of them will bite. I don't really know what I want to do, work wise. I would like to think that the environment which I'm working in would have a heavier impact on whether I enjoy the work or not, right? Oh well, we'll find out tomorrow then *grin*

Mother's Day

Mother's day is tomorrow. A day where most mothers won't have to do the cooking, especially for dinner and that the whole family goes out to have dinner. We did that today instead, hoping to skip the crowd tomorrow and whatever surcharges or set meals the restaurants might impose. Don't you think everyone will think the same way? Of course! But this hasn't stopped the restaurants from milking this occasion for all it's worth. Instead of adding the surcharge or set meal on Sunday only, let's do it for a week!

Yesterday, the hubs and I wanted to have some shabu-shabu for dinner at a restaurant and all they had on their menu was a 'Mother's day' set for S$78 per person. Expensive, no? We thought it was and walked away. I wonder if they'll make any money this weekend.

Anyways, for all you mother's out there, make sure you're not the one cooking, washing up or cleaning tomorrow, it's your day! Go out and eat, join the crowd. Happy Mother's Day!

Synopsis

I don't even know how to start this post. Again, I have to be thankful that the internet exists in my lifetime. Being able to watch television shows which are currently being aired in other countries has been keeping me company and sane for the past 2.5 years.

By and by, I've progressed from watching drama serials from the US to Hong Kong to South Korea. I can understand spoken English perfectly. I can understand spoken Cantonese a little less than spoken English, enough to get the gist of what is being said, not a problem. Korean... I am slowly starting to pay attention to certain words and match them to the English subtitles. It's not all that hard, most of the shows use almost the same words as their plot doesn't vary all that much. Boy meets girl, boy and girl fight, boy and girl realise that they like each other, boy and girl live happily ever after.

Anyways, after all the catching up that I've done, I'm finally watching shows which are currently being aired. There hasn't been enough time for these shows to be viewed with English subtitles, so what little Korean that I understand is not really enough to get the gist of what everyone is really saying, especially implying.

While digging for ones with English subtitles, I came across an interesting blog by Javabeans. I've always wondered when someone who speaks great English and Korean would come up with a blog centered on insightful synopsis' of the various dramas. This blog does and I can now just read the synopsis before watching the episode without subtitles and still understand what's going on. Ain't the internet just the BEST?!

Squid Crackers ~ Part 3

At least this batch is thoroughly dried... but a little too thick still. Maybe there isn't enough baking powder for it to puff up. No... I think it's just too thick. The hubs suggested that it's time to buy a new slicer... one that's been made just to slice extremely thinly. I saw one while out shopping today. Was a little on the expensive side. The hubs mentioned that I would buy an expensive rice cooker to cook fluffy rice, why not a slicer whose sole purpose is to slice thinly? Sometimes he speaks heaps of sense!

Perspective on life

I have been fortunate enough to only remember being born in this era, an era where I haven't been through any major hardships (having to cram one year's worth of lessons into a week to sit for a final exam is probably the hardest thing I've ever done...) or disappointments.

Some people tell me that life is what you make of it. Sure I'd love to naturally have a photographic memory or be able to speak tens of languages or have enough money to carelessly spend for three generations. I'm sure that's what everyone wants too, or close enough.

I am happy with my the way my life is going at the moment. I don't go to bed every weeknight wondering what hazards are installed for me at work, wake up every weekday wondering what excuse I should give in order to not turn up for work, worry that I might be the one a near full lift rejects or that I'll have to finally hop over to a shelter for meals. I have clothes on my back, a shelter to sleep in, a loving husband and family. Life has been great to me.

Squid Crackers ~ Part 2

Uneven thickness, gotta try the slider the next time.
I got ahead of myself and decided to fry the first batch tonight.
They probably needed another day's worth of drying in the sun as they didn't puff up properly.
Maybe the oil was too hot.
Eating them was a challenge, but I'm sure the second batch will be even better!
They have to be.

Squid Crackers

I just realised that in all my wandering around supermarket and wet market aisles, no one has made squid crackers. There are prawn, lobster, crab and fish crackers, but no squid crackers. Why is that so? They're yummy, in case you haven't tried them.

Not that it's difficult to get squid, I think the price of prawns, lobsters and crabs are way more expensive as compared to squid. Is it all that difficult to make? Wouldn't it be the same process as the others? With less bones to pick out, shell to discard, it should be easier to make than the rest, right?

The process of making them will take at least 3 days, depending on the weather as you're supposed to sun dry them. We'll see how I go then!

Life waits for no one

We're back and it seems that the country didn't miss us.

While we were gone, Marina Bay Sands opened, flights to Europe and the UK are back to normal, rallies are still being held in Thailand, New York is still a highly hazardous place to live in, the newspaper people remembered not to deliver, nothing in the fridge rotted as there wasn't any blackouts or power trips and a fine layer of dust settled on our floors.

It's true when people say that life is short and to seize the day, you never know what's going to happen tomorrow.

Photo Blog : Sunset from an airplane

It's difficult to capture good photos when you're holding an automatic camera. Sometimes, even if you have the perfect composition, a blur picture just won't do. It's even more difficult to capture great photos from inside an airplane, especially when you spy a really gorgeous sunset. The camera refuses to focus further than the double glass window which so happens to be very scratched, streaky or blotchy.

But once in a while...

Sunset from an airplane