Food Blog : Ku Ra

I love how Singapore is so multicultural that you can find almost any food from around the world here. Having said that, tonight's dinner was probably screaming for us not to try it. Maybe we'll go back in 6 months time...

Ku Ra, a Sapporo (Japan) Ramen little cafe, has probably been opened for a week, maybe shorter. They are part of the Ajisen chain of Japanese eats. Their official opening day is this Thursday. Menus are still soft laminated, probably waiting for the 'real' (read official) menus to arrive on Thursday. It was heartwarming to discover that the tiny cafe was full of people.

The hubs ordered the white miso which was pretty close to what we remember from the ramen we had in Hokkaido. He lapped the bowl clean!

I tried their Shoyu and was sorely disappointed. The soup was too salty, making the noodles salty too and when I asked for a bowl of warm/hot water, the waitress smiled and asked if the soup was too salty! She brought me some plain broth instead, but that wasn't enough. I had to add some of my room temperature water into the soup and in the end, I didn't even drink the soup. The Cha Su was alright though, right amount of fat and moist meat.

One interesting thing they had on the menu was fried chicken soft bone. What they've done is to roughly chop the soft bone, found where the bulk of the breast meat of a chicken is, into 1" sticks, dip in a light tempura (little too salty) flour and deep fried. What gets served is an interesting crunchy snack!

The Gyoza was nothing to tell home about, the hubs says it's too 'Chinese' tasting.

Da Moon

After a week of haze and blurred visibility, it rained really heavily over the weekend and tonight, clear skies. It's things like these that makes you appreciate the amazing skylines that Singapore has to offer.

Da Moon

Jewellery Pieces

Bvlgari makes really, really great jewellery pieces. I'm not going to compare it to the other jewellery houses, because it wouldn't be nice... every jewellery house has its own design and way of making it.

So, Bvlgari... about nine years ago, I bought my first piece of the B.zero1 range, a 3 tier ring. I still wear it from time to time, and I still love it. Actually I love all my pieces. After purchasing that ring, I was supposed to get the matching pendant for Chrissy, but never got around to it. I think it's just too huge a piece to be wearing everyday... I don't like changing my pendant all that often.

Over the years the jewel house has unveiled some new designs, they have even designed some interesting earring studs stops (check out the Griffe Diamanti range), but nothing has been more iconic to them than the B.zero1 range. To date, I have a total of three pieces from them and am lusting after another one for Chrissy *grin*

Hazy days

The haze is back in Singapore. At this time of year, almost every year, Indonesia burns their forest to clear them. With the wind and everything, it has brought the smoke over to our skies. The haze is different when compared to smog. Smog smells distinctly of burnt petrol fumes. Haze smells of faint regular burned non-biodegradable things...

As this burning happened some ways away... walking out of a building into the open, the air smells faintly burnt... like something has burned far, far away and the wind has brought the smell over. It's not suffocatingly thick, this haze, I think the atmospheric reading has been less than a hundred psi. It's amazing what our noses pick up.

I remember back in the late 90s, people had to wear masks because the haze was so thick! Schools were closing and outdoor sport activities were postponed. Luckily for us, it will rain nearly every other day, even for a little while, just to wash the air a little. Hopefully with all the weird weather that's going on around the world, the haze won't get too thick.

Here's a photo of a part of the central business district at dusk with the haze. I'll have to see if I can get a 'normal' day picture to compare.

Hazy skyline at dusk

Food Blog : Ichiban Boshi

It's been a while since we patronised this place. They are part of the Fiesta chain of Japanese food. This particular branch makes fresh soba. There's even an authentically looking Japanese dude showing everyone who walks by his skills in making the noodles.


Unfortunately, the noodles needed to be cooked a little longer. Other than that, everything else was good. The sauce wasn't too salty and after you've finished, you're supposed to mix the broth which the noodles were cooked in with the leftover sauce and drink it as a soup. Yummy!

We also ordered a side of ika tempura and this branch makes it not too salty.

The Coffee Club's Ice Blended Chocolate

There must have been something wrong with the dinner we ate tonight at Shoteppan. It was our second time at this particular cook-your-own-teppanyaki place (except we usually get them to cook it for us, it's allowed, I'm not paying money to cook my own dinner!)

Anyways, they must've lathered the MSG coz we were feeling rather thirsty about a half hour after the meal. Not only that, but the ventilation at the place didn't work too well and our clothes, hair and my lovely handbag was just permeating oiliness.

So the hubs decides to have something to wash the MSG from our mouths and chanced upon this place. I think it's the first time I've actually gotten anything from them. I'm usually the Coffee Bean or Starbucks chocolate drink kind of person.

The description of the drink had me and when the drink came...

This would be the most insanely awesome blended ice chocolate drink I've ever tasted.
Firstly it's a mixture of dark chocolate, milk chocolate and milk. The ice was so finely blended that it didn't taste like there was ice in the drink. And you know that they use real chocolate chunks to blend the drink because there were still tiny specks of it while you're drinking, like sediments. But yummy sediments *grin*

ps. It's twenty ten, twenty ten (20.10.2010) today...

Two of Three

The hubs and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary tonight. Eight years ago, we celebrated this day with a 9 course yummy dinner with our friends and relatives... all 450 of them. That's like a lot of people between the both of us, isn't it? Did we know everyone? Surprisingly, more or less *grin*

We weren't picky as to who attended our wedding dinner, as long as our friends and immediate relatives came. And came they did. I remember hiring a couple of buses to cart guests to the venue and back to a meeting point. The food was yummy (all my favourite!), company was boisterous and the hubs and I had a blast!

The best part about Chinese weddings is that you usually get money as a present. I didn't get to count the amount of money we received, but it was enough to pay for dinner after everyone left and had maybe a couple of hundred left over. That's considered a good thing *grin*

Last year, our anniversary dinner was particularly bad. I can't remember the details (you'd want to forget these kind of things) but the hubs tells me that we decided to have steamboat at home and for some reason the base wasn't heating the pot right. Which meant we were sitting at the dining table for maybe a couple of hours, slow cooking all our food. Baddd...

This year, we decided to eat out, seeing that it's a Tuesday night. We ended up at one of our favourite restaurants, No Signboard. Their dishes have never failed to fill us. We even take guests there, when they can't decide what to eat.

BUT the experience was a little of a let down today. Just as we were starting on our crab, I noticed that one of the claws looked like it had fungus growing... you know, when crabs get injured, their flesh turns bad and black... which means that that part of their body was starting to rot. We had the dish re-served, which was a bad idea coz they took another half hour to cook it. By the time the dish arrived, we were kind of full, the earlier dish of drunken prawns (I miss drinking herbal soups!) and claypot tofu had settled. But we took our time eating it and it was yummy! I don't know if the kitchen decided to give us the freshest crab, but the flesh was so sweet, even with the chili sauce which it was cooked in. AND you have to order the fried buns that go so well with the sauce, I could just eat the buns and sauce and not worry about the crab.

So, that's two out of three. We haven't decided where to go for our third one yet...

Spoilt for choice

I can't believe how spot on the saying 'spoilt for choice' is.
It's only Monday today, and I'm thinking of having the same dish for lunch for the week!
With the crazy weather we've been having, haze plus rain, it has put a dampener on my lust to explore.
So let's see what lunch delights bring... tomorrow!

Catch up weekend

I'm trying to clear the hard disk of all my recorded Korean dramas throughout the week, but am failing miserably. I should really stop typing now and go back to finishing my fox drama, which ended maybe a couple of weeks ago? Yeah... watch the telly, girl!

Corelle Ware Part 2

Now that the USD is at its all time low against the SGD, I decided to surf the internet to have a look at how much Corelle plates and bowls would cost me, if I were living in the US. Baddddd decision.

I can't believe the prices! It's like a 70% discount from what we have to pay here and they have ALL sorts of designs. Like 10 times more than what we get here. My all time favourite has been the Plum series, but all my plates and bowls are the Winter White ones. Somehow white just makes everything clean and expensive. But I have a few Plum pieces.

After browsing the World Kitchen website, my new found favourite is the Cherry Blossom. A set of 16 costs only USD50!!! Now, how long do you think it'll take for them to bring this design over to Singapore?!

Homecooking

The hubs is out at a wine party with his workmates today and I get to cook one of my favourite pasta dishes.

Prawns on a bed of Spaghetti cooked in olive oil and finely diced garlic

Sao Joao Festival

Every country, no nearly every city has their own festival. Singapore celebrates a number of festivals, mostly cultural based like the Mid Autumn Festival, Deepavali, Thaipusam and Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

Porto, a little town in Portugal, has one of the liveliest festival, the Sao Joao Festival. It's a celebration of the Saint John the Baptist. Held near the end of June, the annual party actually goes on for more than 12 hours, starting the evening before. Everyone comes from everywhere within the city and gathers at the town center to just celebrate. Massive street party! The thing that grabbed my eye about this festival is the fact that if you find someone gorgeous, hit them over the head with a plastic hammer! And here we thought walking around the neighbourhood with lanterns is weird...

Food Blog : Aoba

Aoba is known for its Hokkaido Ramen and it was one of the few Ramen places in Singapore where the bowl of soupy noodles reminded me of the Ramen I had while I was in Hokkaido.

Anyways, these days, everything's starting to taste a little too salty for me, plus I wasn't feeling like a bowl of noodles yesterday, so I ordered a bowl of Cha Su on rice instead. Didn't have much expectations but the Cha Su turned out to be extremely yummy! The Cha Su serving was generous, the pork itself moist and tender and a little salty on its own but with rice... mmm... Mind you, I also ordered a plate of squid tempura (whcih wasn't very nice), a plate of pan fried gyoza (which was yummy, served with vinegar) and a plate of yakitori asparagus wrapped with bacon.

It was too much food so we had to doggie bag some of it and I had porridge tonight. The Cha Su really, really goes well with porridge. I wonder if I'll be able to just doggie bag the pork bits, come back and have it with porridge the next time!

Cha Su Don

Hot! Hot! Hot!

The weather's been really crazy these past couple of weeks.
It's so HOT these days.
I can't even think of writing anything today because it's super hot, sitting on the couch probably sweating!

Luncheon Meat

Growing up in a Cantonese family, we've always had porridge with pan fried luncheon meat, fried dace with black beans and a minced-meat-long-beans dish. It's usually a Saturday ritual, maybe to cleanse our system from a week of oily food.

So, ever since we started eating luncheon meat, it has always been the Ma Ling brand, from China. It's infamous here in Asia, only because the meat is finely minced and it's not too salty. If you haven't tried it, you should. It's really different from the taste of the big brands of Spam (which brings back happy memories when I saw them being sold everywhere in Naha!) or Tulip.

About 3 years ago, something nasty was found in Ma Ling's luncheon meat and it was recalled, taken off the shelves and the company looked to go bust. Three years on, I'm glad they didn't. They're back and they're still as yummy! *grin*

Ten Ten Ten

It's the 10th of October 2010 today.
Did you end up doing something special?
Or was it just another ordinary day for you?
I cleaned the house.
There were too many 'clean me' spots and I had the time.
I love the feeling of a clean floor.
Could do some floor angels but I won't because the house is extremely muggy!
I'm sweating as I'm typing this... sitting directly under the fan.
The hubs ate something bad and slept the whole arvo and night away.
Dinner was a bowl of instant noodles, onion oil flavour, for me and cup-a-soup for the hubs.
I guess it was just an ordinary Sunday for us.

Cleaning the Kitchen

How do you get rid of all the oil that's stuck EVERYWHERE in the kitchen? It's not like I cook that often. Plus I don't deep fry or wok fry lots of things, although, after eating so many meals these past couple of months in hawker centers, the wok is beginning to grow on me.

Anyways, back to cleaning. Yes, how do you get rid of all that grime?

I tried cleaning a section of the kitchen today. It was fairly easy with Mr Muscle, a metal scrubber and some tissues but my fingers are paying for it. And that's only on the kitchen tops. I don't know how to get rid of the grime that's stuck to the kitchen cabinets! Maybe I just need a new kitchen *wink*

Parking lots for women drivers

I read an interesting article in the newspapers today. Since a part of the Central World Mall in Bangkok was blazed in May this year, they've managed to finish refurbishing it and is now opened to the public. Central World Mall is kinda huge in Bangkok, third largest in the world, it's a one stop shopping mall, could probably spend a whole day in there if you're really looking for something to buy.

Anyways, they've added some 200 parking lots just for women drivers! I wonder what kind of message they're trying to get across. The fact that women drivers need wider parking lots as it's difficult for them to park their tank-like vehicles or so that they won't be hassled while trying to get back to their cars. Whatever it is, I think it's a novel idea. Malls in Singapore should look into that too!

Food Blog : Fish & Co

The Fish & Co chain is one of the casual restaurants I can keep going back to, a favourite dish being the Swordfish collar. They started off serving grilled or fried seafood with french fries or rice and veggies. The only thing which I didn't like about their dishes was the pathetic broiled rough cut veggies which they serve on the side. Their menu has expanded and now they serve filo based pizza and pastas.

Recently, the outlet in Great World City has added a all-you-can-eat salad bar to their menu and have expanded their choices of side dishes to the main courses include coleslaw. Not run of the mill, full of different kinds of shredded vegetables and it tastes like it's freshly made! The vegetables are crunchy to the bite and the dressing is not overpowering. I hope all the other outlets pick up on that too.

Vacation Photographs

My younger brother is currently on a vacation for which he's not bringing along a camera.

Since the dawn of the camera, everyone has been sporting one while they're on vacation. And it's primarily used to capture pictures of places they've been to. But with this day and age, and of course Photoshop, you could use whatever photos that are published on the web, superimpose your head and body into the picture and voila, you've been to the Antarctica without having to leave your house!

So why do people still bring along cameras and are happy snappers while they're on vacation?
Habit?
It's what everyone's doing?
Don't like the angle of that particular picture on the web?

I'd like to think that it's the fact that they might not have had the time to visit all the touristy places while on their vacation or that they can't be bothered scouring the internet for pictures and superimposing their head and body onto it. Plus it's also fun to leaf through the thousand of pictures when they're back. Everyone complains about it being a chore, but it does bring a smile... pleasant memories.

Coffee Machine

I'm on the hunt for a coffee machine. It's for the hubs. I don't drink coffee. Tried it for a couple of years while in Uni, Vienna coffee with three packets of sugar was my poison and then, just like that, my body started to reject the smell and the taste. It's weird.

Meanwhile, I'm so grateful for the internet. Scouring the web for a coffee machine that suits our needs has never been easier. I haven't settled on a particular machine yet, there's no need at the moment, or maybe I'm waiting for one that'll make hot chocolate too!

Eating Guests

No, I don't actually eat my guests, I don't like human meat and they know it. In fact, some of them like the guest room so much that they keep returning.

What do you do with your guests food wise? Do you bring them to places you'd like to eat when there are more people around or do you try to get them to suggest what they'd like to eat?

Most of the time, my guests are undecided. They have no idea what they'd like to eat and I'm not sure if they're just being polite. There's a reason why they get asked, it is so that they won't have a bad image of the country they're visiting, right? Plus it's their vacation, surely they don't want to be stuck with a meal which they don't enjoy, seeing that their time in that particular place is limited. I for one, am not shy to make a suggestion *grin*

Anyways, that's not the important part, I guess... we're just gathering for a huge catch up, so it doesn't really matter if the food's nice or not, right?

Playing with Satay

We ended up at the Laguna Food Center in East Coast for dinner tonight and among the usual dishes which we 0rder (Chicken wings from Teddy Bear and dry fried bee hoon) was the Satay from Harun. 30 sticks of chicken and 10 of the mutton. I don't know what it is about their marination which makes the chicken and especially the mutton yummy. There's no taste of lamb and contrary to what everyone tells me (that they all get marinated from the same provider) Harun's satay is definitely different.

Here's what my lil brother did to his sticks after he finished. I think the cleaner person must have cursed at us come cleaning time!

Sticks of satay

R.I.P Mrs L.K.Y

Celebrate life as if it were your last day...
Life's too short to sweat the small stuff!
Don't worry too much about life because you could just keel over and die in a minute...

We all know this, so why do we still persist in making life difficult?

Right, I won't let this post get more morbid that that! Only because my thoughts are running all over the place and if I were to translate them onto this blog, the post itself will not make any sense.

The current prime minister's mom passed away peacefully at home earlier this evening. She was the wife of the first prime minister of Singapore and has been pivotal in shaping this country, although her actions are never in the spotlight. Behind every great man, there's always a woman rings so true in her case.

In keeping with the short post, I'll leave you with one of my favourite quotes which I sometimes do (especially the singing thing *grin*)

"Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt.
Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth."
-- Mark Twain

Binary Numbers - Uniting the World

Today's date can be looked at in Binary form

The American way of looking at it
100110 = 32+4+2 = 38

The rest of the English speaking world
011010 = 16+8+2 = 26

Maybe that's the reason why there are always differences between the US and the rest of the world?

Ah, but come 10th of October, the whole world will think alike!
101010 = 32+8+2 = 42

42, the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!)

Singapore Airlines

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

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

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

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

V.I.G

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

Stiletto Race

Not surprisingly, this was done in Australia.

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

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

Mocumentary-dramedy

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

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

Alonso takes the Singapore F1 Grand Prix

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

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

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

Glasses vs Contacts

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

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

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

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

Zoom zoom!

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

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

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

Hotel Blog : Toyoko-Inn Naha Asahi-bashi Ekimae

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

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

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

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

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

All-you-can-eat breakfast

Food Blog : Fried Rice

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

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

Egg Fried Rice with Prawns

Lunch decisions

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

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

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

Vacation time!

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

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

F1

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

Couch Potato

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

One of Three

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

Once a year...

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

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

Hotel Blog : Chisun Inn Asakusa, Tokyo

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

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

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

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

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

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

Web content loading

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

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

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

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

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

Food Blog : Red Bean Mooncake

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

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

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

Red Bean Moon Cake from Seasons

Short post

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

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

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

Australia

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

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

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

Food Blog : Glazed Doughnuts

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

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

Pink Glazed with Chocolate Sprinkles

Sea Green Glazed with Coloured Sprinkles

Passwords

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mooncake season part 2

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

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

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

Oh happy day...

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

Cloud Staircase

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

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

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

4 day work week

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

Mooncake season

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stuff we put on our faces

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

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

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

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

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

Moist Cakes

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

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

Did you just say mayonnaise?
Blearghhhh...

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

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

NATAS

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

Food Blog : Pho Hoa

Suntec City, one of the bigger shopping malls in Singapore which also has convention halls, has had many occupants come and go. I guess it's with all shopping malls all over the world, if you don't have something unique, you're more than likely to close shop.

While waiting for the hubs to finish work and have dinner with me, I wandered around the third floor of the mid section of the mall. It's hardly a place I frequent and somewhere I guess a lot of people don't either as it's usually parents and little kids who will wander up there. Toys 'R' Us, kid clothes, kiddy ergonomic chairs are among the shops located there. So it was to my surprise that I found a few little restaurants setting up shop.

We finally ventured into the Vietnamese restaurant and I can predict that it's not going to survive for long. The hubs tried the soupy noodles with everything (tripe, tendon, beef balls, sliced beef) but couldn't find any tendon and not a lot of tripe. The soup was common tasting, nothing special about it. I had the vermicelli with spring roll and grilled beef. The sauce was too sour, the beef tasted like satay and the spring rolls tasted Chinese. As our entree we tried their cold roll. I can probably wrap better than what we had. Not only was it not tightly wrapped it was opened at both ends. Not a place I would recommend if you wanted to get authentic Vietnamese food.

Rice Vermicelli with Grilled Beef and Spring Roll

Food Blog : Marche

Marche has been around in Singapore for as long as I've been here. The original was a franchise and they made really, really good food. Then the franchise didn't get renewed and the original owners took the name back. So these people opened another restaurant with the same concept and the same cooks under a different name. After a little while they closed too and left. Could've been the possible lawsuit that the original owners started.

The Marche concept is something akin to buying various food in a market. They hand you a charge card. Every time you want to purchase a dish, you put the charge on the card, payment is made at the end of your meal. My all time favourite is the Mushroom Soup, the Rosti and their Caesar salad.

Now that the original owners have decided to set up store here in Singapore, the dishes are almost the same as before. But I have to admit that when we first dined there, we wrote a really long complaint. They were just setting up and everything that reflected a first time restaurant owner showed, the lack of trained service staff and the bland food. Anyways, they improved and we went back. Their mushroom soup is almost the same as it has always been (read 'old' version) but the Caesar salad and rosti is different. They don't fry the rosti till it's crispy anymore and the salad has no distinct taste, too much garlic.

New dishes have been added like the amazingly expensive Rib-eye steak which doesn't come with any decoration or sides. It's just a slab of meat for S$20. And Paella, which doesn't even come close to the same thing in Spain or the way my hubs cooks it. But this hasn't stopped everyone from eating there, sometimes the queue is just amazing!

Hotel Blog : The Langham Place, Hong Kong

I thought I'd write this before things drastically change. I don't think a lot has changed in the past couple of years, right?

I had the opportunity to stay at the Langham Place which is located next to a shopping mall in the district of Mongkok on the main island of Hong Kong a couple of years ago. Purported to be a 5 star hotel, it didn't disappoint.

Plus points:
I managed to find the time to take morning swims before breakfast, a different experience I would recommend everyone to try as the pool was a roof-top one and neighbouring office buildings which are higher than the 50 something floor are able to peer down at me swim. Luckily the buildings are not right next to each other, otherwise no one would get any work done! The pool itself is rectangle in shape, 2.5m deep on one side and what I liked about it was the richly coloured small mosaic with smatterings of gold specks.

The room itself is medium in size, I'm not sure which category we got but there is a big bathtub in the bathroom which has windows that open out to the bedroom and if you're adventurous enough, you could have a bath while looking out into the city lights! All modern ingenuity has been fitted in the room, flat screen telly, including a cordless phone which you can bring up to the Spa and pool area. I didn't have the time to figure out how to use the phone... it was too computerised even for me.

Location, location, location! The suburb of Mongkok is an excellent place to stay when you're a tourist. The hotel is located a couple of minutes walk away from the Mongkok subway station, a minute walk away from the Ladies Market, Sports and the Electronics streets, surrounded by little coffee shops serving all sorts of goodies, it's an eclectic mix of Hong Kong's culture.

Cons:
Only the price... it's not for all and sundry to stay.

Glee!

I've never figured out what the draw of this several Emmy award nominated drama was. I've watched one or two episodes in the beginning and decided that it didn't do it for me. That was months and months ago.

Today, the hubs and I have decided to lock ourselves up at home, stocked the fridge with enough food to carry us over the weekend. And what would we do besides cook and eat? Well, I don't know about him, but I just become a couch potato... the best kind of weekends, I tell you!

Anyways, we have HD telly and one of the channels the telly is parked on today is Star World. Usually over the weekends the telly stations do re-runs and nothing's different about this weekend. Right! Glee... It's about a group of high school students who do not fit in. The only thing they have in common is the ability to dance and sing and they LOVE doing it! So overcoming the stigma and everything, they form a choir and the Glee club was born. The show is almost a musical. Never mind about the storyline, the songs and coordinated group dancing are just amazing! I can now understand the pull factor, if only to watch the show for the performances.

Food Blog : Market Street Nasi Lemak

There are only so many places you can go to when you're looking for a cheap lunch in the Raffles Place area. Today it took me to the Golden Shoe Food Center and I decided to try the ones located on the 2nd floor. I'm usually eating on the 3rd floor. Browsing through the 'alleys', I stopped by the Market Street Nasi Lemak stall. The fragrant rice was calling me...

As with the culture here, you can tell if a particular stall serves yummy food. It's always the one with the long, long queue and this was no different. One guy to take your order and collect the money, one guy to serve up the food, one lady to cook and another guy to prepare the raw food. Cosy little operation.

Probably the cheapest lunch you can find in this area, this Nasi Lemak which comes with a piece of drumstick (thoroughly cooked, no raw red bits) or chicken wing, a piece of deep fried fish (Ikan Kuning), a thin slice of scrambled egg (or sunny side up), some fried anchovies with peanuts and a slice of fried fish paste or otah all for only S$2.50!!! The rice itself was a little green in colour, I'm guessing from the pandan flavouring and nicely coconut-ty. The food was gone too fast for me to take a picture. To top it off, I got a soya bean drink with some grass jelly for S$0.80. A lunch at a total of S$3.30, my cheapest lunch yet!

Market Street Nasi Lemak

Money

Sometimes, finding the right title to blogs is difficult.
I had trouble with this one.
I wanted to write about money.

Money has been known to be the root of all evil.
It's true, it's not just a saying.
Too much money and you'll worry.
Too little money and you'll worry.
No one really stays in-between.
Does anyone really have enough money?

I don't want to be poor, I'm not used to that kind of lifestyle.
Neither do I want to be extremely rich.
Shopping wouldn't be fun anymore if you can afford everything.
So where are you in your money's worth?
Do you have enough?
Does anyone really have enough money?

Food Blog : Angus House

The hubs and I decided to have dinner here tonight. We've walked by so many, many times, had a look at the menu but never walked in. Reasons? I don't know why, it's not like they're overpriced, budget around $60 per person for some decent food, but I'm glad we did venture in tonight.

Located just next to the Takashimaya departmental store, this restaurant serves fusion western meals. Steaks with a Japanese twist. The setting within the restaurant is of a homely feel, dimmed lights, an electric piano playing in the background and appropriately dressed waitresses.

They offer ala carte meals and sets too. The set is pretty attractive as it comes with a starter, a soup, a small salad, the main, dessert and coffee or tea. I ended up ordering the Ribeye and hubs the Tenderloin. Both done medium and this is the verdict: the Tenderloin just melted in your mouth and the Ribeye is full of flavour. I like the fact that the steaks were served on a hot plate and not a sizzling one. We were also served one bun, and it looks like they bake it themselves. It came out warm and had a crispy outside and a soft inside.... delicious bread!

I caught sight of their grill on the way out (they have an open concept kitchen with amazing ventilation) and their grill was one I've never seen before. The plates were V in shape!

Ribeye Steak

It only takes a spark...

... to get a fire going...

Pass it on. I remember singing it in church. Such a positive song with a catchy mellow tune. I even remember harmonising and that made me all warm and fuzzy inside. Singing the song just made you happy. But I attended a fire safety talk today and nothing about sparks and fire made me warm and fuzzy.

The fire safety talk was conducted by someone who used to be a fireman, so he knows about fire, what causes it and how to put it off. So what did I learn?

1. Fire is alive when three elements are present: Fuel, Oxygen and Heat. Take away one and your fire is out.
2. Smoke always travels upwards.
3. Most people die from smoke inhalation before they get burned to death.
4. Heat from the smoke can melt contact lenses, glasses and HAIR!
5. Install a few smoke alarms in your house if you don't already have.
6. Keep a fire extinguisher in your house. Ultimately, 2 would be good, one in the general living area and another in the master bedroom. To use effectively, point at the source, usually at the base of the fire.
7. Pouring water on a fire is not always the solution, especially if you're trying to put out a fire of an electrical source.
8. Skin grafts are DNA dependent, sometimes your family members don't match and there are people who are on standby for skin donations.
9. What's the number to call a fire brigade? Reaction time is 8 minutes in Singapore, that's LONG! Everything goes up in smoke in less than 50 seconds.
10. I don't want to be a burn victim.

Blogging on the go

I had a brilliant topic for the blog today, while travelling on the train to work, but the topic eludes me now. And it was a really good topic too! What more, I'm still not used to the fact that my mobile has merged with the iPod touch and if I choose to, I could make a note about what I was supposed to blog about. Maybe tomorrow...

Anyways, the reason I didn't take my mobile out to play with was because I didn't want to be another person paying 80% of my attention to the little screen. There were 8 people within my vicinity playing various games with the iPhone and replying smses and emails. It was all too comical. It's a rare sight to see someone carry a book to read on board the train now.

Junk Food Blog : Sweet Chili & Sour Cream Chips

It's a junk food weekend, this weekend and I haven't had a junk food weekend in eons! Went by Candy Empire the other day and bought some potato chips from Australia and biscuits from Germany. I might do another blog on them biscuits as they were yummy!

Candy Empire purports to import all their confectionery, chocolate, biscuits and chips. And because they're imported, they're really, really expensive. Most of the time that I'm in there, I'm only browsing. But once in a while, they have sales and that's a good time to stock up.

Anyways, I've noticed these particular brand of chips and decided to get them, seeing that they were on sale (at S$5.95 per packet) and the only one left. I even Googled them and was glad that they were manufactured by Smiths. Smiths makes awesome potato chips!

The chips were crunchy, slightly thick and not difficult to munch on. There's a light sprinkling of chili and a hint of sour cream. All in all, a yummy snack. Gotta bring out the jugs of water or I'll be nursing a sore throat tomorrow!

Red Rock Deli's Sweet Chili & Sour Cream potato chips.

Flying Time

Where have the days gone! It's nearly the end of August, which means we've already passed three quarters of the year, which means the end of Winter in Australia, which means it's Springtime next month, which will be in 10 days time... oh, phwoah!

I can't believe how the time has flown... the work week zooms by at an alarming rate, which makes the weekend look enticingly reachable and now it's nearly dinnertime on a Saturday! The next thing you know, we'll be celebrating Chrissy!

One good thing about this is I get to look forward to my holiday. Where I'm going I do not know, I just know that I'm going somewhere... anywhere *big grin*

Uni-Gender

There are only two toilets to choose from.
One male, one female.
The one you're supposed to use is being occupied.
Will you sneak into the other one?
What a dilemma!

If you're male, the answer would most probably be yes.
But if you're female, the answer would most definitely be no.

The office's common toilets are undergoing some renovations which will take a couple of months. They have not left all 150 of us in the lurch. On our floor, we have one toilet of each gender available. We are also allowed to use the toilets located on the floor immediately above or a couple of floors above (access by elevators which take a minute to get to you) or the ones located on the ground floor (which can be used by the general public).

When you're busting for the loo, will you close both eyes and just use the one that's available, even if it's not labeled to match your gender? I wouldn't... the thought of having to use a male toilet which has been used by someone who's not remotely related to me just doesn't sit well with me...

As a result of this, I've noticed that there are more males than females on the floor *grin*

iPhone 4

So I've finally changed my mobile from the Nokia (they've served me really, really well for 16 years) to the iPhone. It came as a surprise to me too, that I actually wanted to change it. I guess I thought I looked clumsy while riding the train, listening to my music and playing Word Warp on the iPod touch and trying to answer a call, sometimes not even hearing the phone. Now I'll have no excuse, right?

iPhone 4

Junk Food Blog : Seaweed Tapioca Chips

I love tapioca chips. Growing up in Malaysia, we used to have that as an alternative to potato chips, mainly because potato chips were so expensive!

I remember at one point in time I was eating sweet chili dipped tapioca chips by the truckloads and only stopped because I developed an allergic reaction to it. During the night, and only during the night, there would be wormy looking rashes on my legs and arms. Freaked me out, them alien looking rashes... It was later deduced that I was allergic to the reaction of the sun against my Coppertone slathered skin (as it was around the time I took up playing tennis full-time), so I went back to eating the sweet chili dipped tapioca chips, but in moderation.

Anyways, while walking around the basement of the OUB Plaza in Raffles Place this evening, I chanced upon this little cart-stall selling all sorts of alternative flavoured tidbits, mostly baked fish crackers and a couple of variations of the tapioca chips. There are even samples for you to try. And it's pretty affordable, S$10 for 3 packets of approx 250gms each. I think they import these yummy stuff from Thailand.

These particular chips are slightly salted and you can't really taste the seaweed, as in, it's not drowning in seaweed flavour, which is what I like. Yummy...

Seaweed Tapioca Chips

Bubbly Ribena

I love Ribena. Who doesn't? What is it about that drink that makes it so easy to drink?

For those of you who've never heard of the drink, it's a blackcurrant flavoured cordial drink produced by GlaxoSmithKline. More of that on Wiki.

Anyways, I've always had it with plain, still water. Never known any different. Until one day, while at an Asian Barbeque, our hosts made a tub of Ribena, as there were kids to consider, and added some carbonated mineral water to the mixture. Suddenly the texture of the drink changed! It became so refreshing to drink! Barbeques in humid weather is often than not needing some form of refreshing drink, besides ice cold beers.

Thanks to her, I now make mine with San Benedetto sparkling mineral water and still water. Bottoms up!

Telly Chefs

Who's your favourite telly chef?
Don't ask me why but I like Bobby Chinn
What they're showing on the telly these days, he's gone to other parts of Asia.
He just did Japan and now he's in Hong Kong.
At least I learnt something... how to cook sweet and sour pork.
It's all in the egg marination with corn flour, and dipped into corn flour again before deep frying.

I also used to like Andrew Zimmern, the dude who eats all things bizarre.
Makes me cringe while watching his show, but I guess that makes it good to watch.
You know what not to eat!

One of my least favourite... actually one I never watch is the no reservations dude.
Can't remember his name.

The Lost Symbol

Dan Brown has a new book out "The Lost Symbol". It's probably not new-new, but I just read it, in two days. Long-winded and I think his writing has evolved. I remember loving "The DaVinci Code" and "Angels and Demons" but this one was longgggg (read draggy). Maybe I wasn't in the mood to read the genre.

The book is set entirely in Washington DC, spans about 8 hours, plays a lot with what perceptions can do, nothing is impossible, Freemasons and Christianity. I have to admit that I skimmed through a lot of the explanations, but I got the gist of it. The only exciting thing was the twist near the end. And then it got boring again.

So what is the lost symbol? That's not the twist but the way it was revealed made it really anti-climatic. You're going to have to read the book to find out what it is, or wait for the movie. I hear Tom Hanks is coming back to play Robert Langdon in 2012.

Food Blog : Fish Sausages

I know, it doesn't sound right, does it? But it's oh-so delicious!

Also known as Keropok Lekor, these fried fish sausages can be found yummiest in Malaysia. I've tried them in Singapore and it's just not the same. Hailing from Trengganu and made with fish meat and sago flour, they really look like sausages, cylindrical in shape. Putting them through the huge kuali filled with oil, they come out crispy with a slightly chewy filling.

Every time the hubs and I go back to visit his parents, we'll swing by the make shift stall by the road side about 5 minutes from their place. The stall only opens in the afternoons and many people stop by to buy some fried bananas, tapioca, sweet potato, yam and I've even seen them provide fried popiah and nasi lemak. But I beeline for the Lekors and fried bananas.

Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th has always been a be-wary day.
Hollywood even made a horror flick out of it.
Wiki tells me that there's a term for being afraid of Friday the 13th, it's called friggatriskaidekaphobia.
There's a mouthful and apparently not in the dictionary!

This year, Friday the 13th only happens once, some years it's three times!
So did anything bad happen today?
*think think think*

In all honesty, today was a brilliant day!
I had an easy day at work, no stress.
I even saw the Youth Olympics Games torch relay which ran by the central business district.
Dinner was at Popeye's, the yummiest fried chicken this side of the world.
Maybe Friday the 13th is a good day for me.

Korean dramas

I'm currently following 3 dramas. Since the hubs changed the setup box to the recordable one for our cable telly, I've been able to record the shows, by series, and watch it at my own sweet time.

So, at the moment I'm watching
1. Happiness in the Wind
2. Bread, Love and Dreams
3. I am Sam

I think the fact that there are so many actors and actresses in Korea, that they don't have to recycle them that often, is the pull factor. I've kind of given up on Hong Kong dramas as they keep recycling the cast. It's also interesting that the actors are pretty good-looking. Somehow they look a bit mixed, like a 80% Asian and 20% something else because regular Korean people don't look like them *grin*

Food Blog : Seafood Yee Meen

I miss my Kung Fu Chow Yee Meen (Cantonese fried Yee Meen) from Paramount Garden, Petaling Jaya.

Malaysian food would be one of the few things I miss while living in Singapore and because it's so close to Malaysia, I keep hoping that someone from my 'village' decided to travel down to Singapore and set up a food stall. Because of this, the search for the perfect Kung Fu Chow Yee Meen (KFCYM) has always been at the back of my mind, especially when I walk by a food stall that freshly cooks their dishes.

Sometime last week, I decided to venture into the Golden Shoe Market. It's about the cheapest place you could go to in Raffles Place for food... some shops still have $3 plates/bowls of rice/noodles. As per usual, there are the various stalls with queues, some without. The ones with the queue are usually the ones with one specialty, for example Fish Soup Noodles or Nasi Lemak. I decided to join the queue for this stall which cooks mostly Hor Fun dishes because I saw that they have the correct Yee Meen, which should not be confused with Sang Meen (egg noodles).

The dish came out yummy, for S$3.50, which is pretty good. The sauce was freshly wok fried and not fished out of a pot that's on 'keep warm'. Needs more seafood, but I can't complain for the price.

The humble Seafood Yee Meen
Poh Kee Kitchen, Noodles & Rice
Golden Shoe Market Level 3

Black Tops

Black tops and dandruff don't go together
Black tops and top loading washing machines don't go together
Black tops and dust don't go together

So why do people with dandruff and top loading washing machines that leave dust on clothes wear them?

Because...

Black tops really make you look slimmer
Black tops are easy to match
Black tops look smart

Manicures

It's been a while since I last went for a manicure. Probably close to 7 years... I remember before I got married and a few months after, when I was really into the mani and pedi stuff... also the facials. But these days, because I do housework (without gloves) there doesn't seem to be a good reason to have a paid manicure done as it's going to be ruined as soon as I get home.

Anyways, just to keep myself happy, I do my own manicures which doesn't involve a lot since I only ever paint them. None of them scrubbing and getting rid of cuticles. It just takes too long! No matter how short your nails are, having them painted does make a difference.

And because I do my own, I have a hundred and one colours! Well, I used to, after a few years (like 5) I tend to trash the old colours and buy new ones. But I'm starting to realise that the old colours might not be so bad after all.

OPI Mod Hatter

Discovery HD World

I'm currently watching Discovery HD World on the cable telly and the current episode is all about Italy. Not the usual capital cities or ones that are famous, but of the magnificent cities of Italy. Everything captured in HD makes so much of a difference! I'm sure Bari doesn't look this good on normal telly.

The previous episode was even better. The Pelagie islands. I had to stop myself from gaping and drooling. Extremely crystal clear waters, aerial shots with depths at which you can see, utterly enticing, even for a non-diver like me. What would I be doing if I were born on an island like that? No working in an office, I'm sure *grin*

I wonder if Singapore will look as enticing in a HD documentary.

A piece of World Cup 2010

Although I'm not a big fan of football/soccer (not sure what people call it these days) but I got a piece of this year's World Cup memorabilia.

Adidas Jabulani Mini Ball

Baking

After this mixer dies, I wanna buy a KitchenAid. I haven't been toying with that idea ever since I started baking which is EONS ago! But I'm not getting any younger and in this day and age, you'd want to have every modern ingenuity.

When did I start to bake? Let's see. Home Ec? Before that? When did we start Home Ec classes? At the age of 13? I'm sure I started baking before then.

I have a butter cake recipe which I thought I had down to a T. I could go through the motions of mixing the batter and baking the cake with my original recipe, but I've been playing around with the recipe through the years. Don't ask me why and I've heard the saying "If it's not broke, don't fix it" but my current recipe is really yummy, even by my standards.

The only thing that remains constant is the tablespoon of vanilla essence, 5 eggs and butter, all 250gms of it. The sugar has dropped tremendously, the flour has been tweaked with some coarse semolina and the milk has been increased to make the cake moist.

As I'm writing this, the cake is baking in the oven... yummy smells fill the house *grin*

Missing Friends

On FaceBook, there are people with a thousand friends
And there are people with less than a hundred friends
Whom do you decide to let into your circle of friends?
Do you take your friends list seriously?
I do
I know who disappears from my list after I've added them
Scary, isn't it?

Singaporean Drivers

Something you can't miss when you come to this country and find yourself in a parking complex, for cars. Everyone who learnt how to drive here reverses into a parking lot. Most of the parking lots here are 90 degree lots. Isn't it easier to drive head first? One would think... but no, almost everyone reverse parks here. It's rare that you'll find someone who'll drive head first into a lot, they would most probably be a non-Singaporean.

It's actually pretty sensible when you come to think about it, reversing into a parking lot, coz when you need to exit, it's faster than having to reverse out, right? Well, the only thing that tickles me is how people will reverse into a lot even when coming out means having to make a three/multiple point turn. It must have seemed like a good idea to reverse park when they first found the lot, eh?

Patient Teacher

I spotted an interesting want ad in the classifieds today.

"Piano for leisure by qualified, experienced, patient teacher."

Brought out a giggle and some horrific memories of when I was learning how to play the piano. I had a really impatient teacher for about 4 years. Once a week, I'd dread going to piano class, which lasted 45 minutes because I knew I was going to get shouted at. Week after week after week! Mind you, she was an excellent teacher, unmarried and in her 40s. But she had no patience with me and did most of her shouting while teaching. Maybe I was just a difficult student, plus I wasn't really into the excelling in piano playing thing. But thanks to her, I managed to get merits in all my exams while under her tutelage.

Shabuz for dinner

Easy dinner today.
Shabu-shabu again.
I love the fact that it's such an easy meal to make.
All we have to do is cut the vegies and eat as we cook.
But I think we're not going to have this for a while.
We've been testing our limit on homecooked shabuz for the past month *grin*

Inaugural Youth Olympics

Did you know that Singapore is actually hosting an Olympics?
The inaugural Youth Olympics will be hosted by Singapore in a couple of week's time.
I never knew this country had the capacity to host a world event.
A dedicated lane has been assigned on highways and give way signs have been drawn.
Private vehicles to ferry athletes have been hired and decorated.
University dorm rooms have been turned into the residential village.
Chefs have been hired and nutritious menus created.
The city has been cleaned.
And all this is going to happen a day after National Day!
August is going to be a busy, busy month.

The History Channel

I've always been bad with my History. I might have been the only person in my school to fail History in 4th Grade on multiple choice tests. I don't know how I made it through the classes. All the way to the 9th Grade, History has been the one bane in my curiculum. When I had the opportunity, I chucked History as a subject.

People tell me that History is just story telling. But the thing with me is, if I'm not interested in that particular topic, it's going to be very difficult to absorb anything, really, I'm not kidding. For me to learn something I'd have to be the one asking the questions, that's how my brain works.

Anyways, I was watching the History channel this arvo and I don't even know why I didn't change the channel when the remote was right next to me. Instead I watched the whole episode. Maybe it's because it was a morbid subject. It was about torture. For those of you who are squirmy, you're going to need to stop reading here.

On top of the usual stretching someone as a form of torture (I learnt that the pain from stretching is intense as your limbs start to come apart at the joints!), the part that I remember most vividly is an instrument which looks like a hand held lemon juicer (I'll never be able to look at a hand held lemon juicer the same way) which goes into the victim's mouth, knocking out the two front teeth. The instrument is then slowly expanded and teeth are moved, not broken. Our teeth are connected to many, many nerves and if you've worn braces before, you'll know the kind of torture having your teeth moved is, excruciating...

Of Gadgets and Games

StarCraft 2 was launch in Singapore a couple of days ago... or was it only yesterday? THRONGS of people gathered in front of Funan The Digital mall before it was opened just to be the first few people to get their hands on the game which has been 12 years in the making. The hubs plays it... it used to be BIG, 12 years ago. I'm sure he'll get a copy this weekend.

The much hyped, anticipated iPhone 4 has finally arrived in Singapore. Earlier today, at precisely midnight, the three telcos here opened their flagship stores (SingTel took out a convention centre at Marina Bay) to sell the gadget to the throngs of people eagerly waiting to get their hands on one or two units. I can't wait to check out the number of people with this new gadget on the train come Monday!

The iPad arrived last week, but not all the units were snapped up. I still see no point in getting it.

But I really have to hand it to Apple's marketing and design team. They really deserve all acknowledgments, bonuses and pay raises. What will they come up with next?!

Hatch Day

My baby brother turns thirty-something today and the strange thing about it is that his age/aging doesn't bother me anymore. For the past 10 years, it used to bother me. Not that it meant that I'm getting older (I get that reminder when it's my birthday) but just the fact that he's getting older. I mean, he's my baby brother. I still remember a lot of the times we spent growing up together. All the weird but cute things he used to do. He'll always be my baby brother.

But as we got older, we started living our separate lives, especially now when we're not even living in the same country. I think it'll start to bother me again when he starts hitting the forties.

I'm the middle child in my family. My older brother getting older didn't used to bother me, but last year, it did, only because he hit the big four-oh. All of a sudden, he's old. I mean, he's always been older than me, a lot older than me, but hitting forty is like ancient, no?