Tuesday, July 06, 2010, 11:38 pm :

Have been trying some new stuff of late. New not meaning anything adventurous or novel, meaning getting my butt out of my house and going out to do something different, other than reading, sleeping, facebooking and playing mahjong.

Some time back, I tried out one of the massage place at Thomson and it's pretty nice to have someone kneading the kinks out of your muscles. The only disadvantage is that you could fully feel your muscles protesting after that because they are so over-used!

Before our public transport system decided to charge according to distance, putting out the claim that fares will be cheaper (ya, right!), me and bf decided to randomly take the Circle Line to somewhere. So we attempted to explore the stations that we would otherwise not think twice about - Nicoll Highway and Stadium Stations.

Not fantastic though.

At Nicoll Highway Station, we were probably the only one who got off the train. I bet those people in the train were thinking what the hell were we doing there. And we realised that within the vicinity of the station, there is probably only Golden Mile that is worth taking a look. We gave up and hopped onto the next train and went to Stadium station.

When we got there, it was drizzling and we didn't want to go to Kallang Leisurepark. So we just peeked out of the station and went back downstairs to take the train elsewhere.

So we stopped trying to be funny and got off at Bras Basah. Walking around, we chanced upon the National Day Rehearsal! And we were right behind the cannons! So cool! Ok, I'm on the verge of sounding very bimbotic but I was really quite excited. We then stood around for about an hour or more and caught the firing of the cannons and the display of military vehicles. Oh, and we caught the flying segment too. All the parts that I like about the National Day Parade! Sorry to the performers but I really don't care about the second half of the Parade, other than the fireworks.

I got quite sick for a while and soon after, I'm up and running again!

Tried a few new eating places with relatively positive experiences.

Met the girls yesterday and we went to Applebee's at Triple One Somerset. They did their steak pretty well (they had to, for the price) and service was good too. The service staff were attentive to details and friendly. Xpr found something that didn't belong in her dish and she feedback to the manager, resulting in her dish being cancelled off the bill. That is what service is.

Subsequently, we went to a cafe/pub-like place Oriole Cafe and Bar at Discovery Walk at 313@Somerset (I swear I tried to find out the name of the cafe but after poring through Google sites, it seems that it is the 'cafe-that-should-not-be-named'. Can't find nuts!). Anyway, kutu and pr ordered some picollo latte which is supposedly famous and made by the Singapore's National Barista Champion, or his protege, or his head barista (at least, according to the ieatishoot blog). We were contemplating if we should force kutu to order the chili chocolate mocha, which probably sounds more interesting than it taste? Anyway, I ordered my usual cappuccino instead.

Hmm, I'm not sure that I like their coffee though. Maybe I should try something else the next time we go but the picollo latte and cappuccino, maybe not. So, the alleged famous picollo latte taste like soya sauce in my opinion!! Yes, I'm dead serious. Even after they added sugar, I could still taste that soya sauce-like taste. The coffee wasn't strong enough for me and I think the crema probably is the culprit of the soya sauce-like taste. But hey, the story of the Oriole place is pretty intriguing, as in they are fellow coffee-lovers so I'm going to give them a few more chances.

Moving on!

Went to Cafe Ti Amo along Thomson Road for dinner today. Had actually wanted to try out Cheeky Chocolates but didn't realise that it had been replaced by this new cafe place. Well, the menu wasn't extremely extensive and choices were pretty limited. However, food was not too bad. I had the mushroom soup, chicken chop with mushroom sauce, tiramisu and coffee.

The mushroom soup was surprisingly good. It was creamy enough with large chunks of mushroom floating inside. There were no chunky flour-like thing that are usually present in creamy mushroom soups. The only complaint I have for the soup is that it is a tad too salty.

The chicken chop was quite tender and the mushroom sauce also have relatively big pieces of sliced button mushrooms in it. There were a truckload of baked beans which I left untouched. And of course, fries and salad. Fries were tasting a little weird. Probably the oil. But at least it was crunchy. Oh, and the chili and tomato sauces tasted a little funky too. I am guessing that their customer flow is not enough to keep the sauces fresh. Tiramisu was brought out from a display case, explaining its dry texture and lack of creaminess. No hint of alcohol too. Coffee was normal though.

Ok, long enough post to satisfy myself. My only regret is the lack of photos. After bringing my camera for servicing, I haven't used it since. Don't know why but somehow don't feel like using it. :(

But looking on the bright side, my dad who is going Shanghai later this month says that he wants to buy a better camera to bring over. His Samsung camera is terrible because it's battery life is probably equivalent to the attention span of a baby (lack of a better analogy). And guess what, he said that he was thinking of giving me the new camera after that, and he will pay half of it! Yay!

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Friday, April 09, 2010, 2:59 pm :

We had lunch at Pizza Hut today and nearing the end of the meal, I suddenly realised the problem of service in Singapore. At least in the F & B industry.

They have not much problem with the basic service standards like smiling and getting your order right, at least most of them. But their problem is their clueless-ness.

They have probably no idea of proper dining etiquette.

They do not understand that when I place my soup spoon on the soup platter (like in the photo), it means that I'm done with the soup.

They do not understand that when I place my utensils together in the middle of the plate (like in the photo), it means that I'm done with my food and please clear my plate! Ok, to be fair, clearing of plate is quite subjective so I shall not touch on that.

But then as service staff in the F & B industry, you should at least have some basic knowledge of dining etiquette right? If not, no matter how much you smile, how much you offer your best service to the customers, something will always be missing and in this case, ignorance is not an excuse!

*Photo credits to 'Etiquette with Miss Janice'

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Monday, January 11, 2010, 11:10 am :

Yay to the new year! Yea, it's a little late for this sentiment for year 2010 is not going away anytime soon so I guess it doesn't matter much, right?

No new year resolutions again - see no point in doing it.

First, I have to spend time conjuring up all the resolutions that I know I will never get about to doing.

Secondly, it seems to be getting more and more impossible to set realistic resolutions so all my past resolutions were like trying to build castles in the air. Not good.

And I think I will be accumulating some sort of bad karma if I keep making resolutions but not keeping to them. So I shall stop.

Oh, but backtracking abit on the subject of resolutions, I think I can afford to make a small, little one. (typical female isn't it? fickle-minded)

To read more books in the year of 2010

Ok la, I know 'more' is quite subjective. It could mean 10 to people who haven't been reading much or 100 to people who reads alot but for now, I think that I am making good progress.

It's only the 11th 13th day of year 2010 and I've already read a grand total of - 3 4! (or 4 5? hmm...)

Since I've already made one, I shall now give myself the luxury of making another one! (Boy, am I in a generous mood!)

To record down all the books that I've read in year 2010

Nice leh! So now I can actually remember and keep track of the books I've read so that I don't buy repeated books or try to read them again, unknowingly. And yes, that actually happened. I'd read this particular book so long ago that I don't really remember. And one day I needed a fresh book to start on and I randomly picked THAT book. When I first started reading it, I thought hey everything looks really familiar. Reading further and I realised that I had indeed read that book before. Sigh, the drawback for having too many books.

OK, book titles are as follows:

  1. The Nostradamus Prophesies - Mario Reading (the one with the ambiguous status but am going to include it anyway.)
  2. The Vanished Man - Jeffrey Deaver
  3. The Keeper - Natasha Mostert
  4. The Stone Monkey - Jeffrey Deaver (In progress) (By the time I finish this draft, I have finished the book)
  5. Scarpetta - Patricia Cornwell (In progress)

One thing down. Very good.

This is going to be quite a long post because when I couldn't sleep last night, I was sort of inspired to blog about many things. I kept making up sentences in my head but was too lazy to get up and start up my laptop and put them all down. Of course, it doesn't help that it was already probably 3.30am and I was already supposed to sleeping soundly, not having random sentences floating around in my head!

Anyway, it's just into the thirteenth day of the year and I felt like I had done so many things!

We celebrated my grandma's birthday on 3 Jan. Subsequently, went to the David Tao's concert on 8 Jan. However, I forgot that I was supposed to attend a meeting on the same night and had to make some last minute arrangements with another colleague for her to cover me for that night. On that same day, I 'conned' my immediate boss out of 2 unopened durians and we had durians for snacks. I then had my first mahjong session of the year on Saturday and finally some rest on Sunday. Come monday, 11 Jan, I went to RELC to attend a pre-trip briefing with the sister regarding her impending education overseas. Had the Korean food along Thomson Rd that I had been talking about trying forever and was indeed worth my perpetual talk. Tuesday, which was yesterday (the REAL yesterday since I finally finished this post on 13 Jan, Wed), meet the kuku girls for xiaolongbao-steamboat buffet at Crystal Jade at Holland Village.

My goodness. I even feel so busy already as I was typing that whole chunk of stuff out. I guess this will be a fruitful year! Considering a few friends are getting engaged/married, busy busy.

Oh ya, and I totally forgot about future events. Booked tickets to Bangkok in Feb, my first time since my memory although my mum insists otherwise. And the highlight of the month - my Amei concert! I almost forgot that I had to attend the concert on 30 Jan and almost booked tickets to Bangkok on 29 Jan. Luckily we had the 'blessings' of the Procrastination Deity and when I was finally reminded of the concert, we haven't booked the tickets! See, reiterated my view that this is going to be a good year despite Fengshui or whoever else who says that this is a bad Tiger year. BOO!

In the meantime, back to work! (Yes, I actually DO work)

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Monday, December 21, 2009, 12:28 pm :

The last weekend had been a crazy and purchase-ful one.

Friday was the company dinner & dance at Marriot and there was another dinner by one of the company departments on Sunday at Carousel in Royal Plaza on Scotts. Photos from the D&D are still in my camera, which is currently in the possession of the sister therefore no photos to show here.

Thursday, the bf and I finally decided to buy the watches from Tokyoflash that I had been eyeing forever. And I really mean FOREVER. So, we finally ordered from the website 2 watches. And it comes with a free watch too! Meaning I get 3 new watches! It has been so long since I last bought a watch. The last time was when I went to Japan in August. :( But it's alright because i will have new watches for Christmas!

After a relatively late night on Fri after D&D, waking up at around 12pm on Saturday is considered early. But my dad was on his way to enjoy himself so we fetched him to Golden Mile area to take his coach to KL. Then me and my mum proceeded to bag sales! There were 2 sales on that day itself and we went to both. Aiya, too free la, need to occupy ourselves. And we had the car so we could go almost anywhere!

Well, the craze over these branded bags started with my colleague who just went crazy and bought tons of them in a short span of time. And on top of that, she told us about all of her lobangs and kept showing us the websites and the bags. Since there were no other activities on Sat, so we went down and see see look look.

The first one we went to was at Toh Yi Drive and if anyone is interested, here is their website - Branded Shopper. Bought a Coach bag for my mum although she insisted that the bag is to be shared. Not that I mind. I think its pretty cute and classy and its definitely a bag that I will use.

The second place where we went to was at Hougang. Website is HERE. Anyway, by the time I reached Hougang, the place looked quite swept up. Not exactly messy or empty but it just felt like there were many other bags earlier, just that they were all gone. Either case, I got a Kate Spade bag that I had seen on the website but just couldn't get myself to buy it online. Photos to me do not have much impact. I can hesitate for ages and even decide to forgo the purchase but when I saw the actual bag, I felt that I had to have that bag. Hah.

I can't believe that I just spent $553 on 2 bags in one day. I have bought many bags but never were they so expensive! For some strange reason, I would rather spend the money going for concerts and probably on food. On a brighter note, at least I get to bring something home with the money instead of just the experience, memories and photos from concerts. :)

Coach Legacy Stripe Tote - S$233

Kate Spade Montecito S$320
And my Tokyoflash watches! They are so attractive and intriguing and interesting and fantastic! I really can't wait for them to arrive! The irony is that I have to spend time learning how to read time as they don't function like conventional watches. But the good side is that people can't keep stealing glances at my watches to try to tell time! It will teach them to wear their own watches!
This is the one of the 2 watches that the bf ordered. It will light up neon-ly!
This is the free watch that they gift out with purchases of 2 watches. So worth it lo!

This the second watch that the bf ordered. So nice!Can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait. This is going to be a good christmas!

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 9:12 pm :

Japan Day 1 & 2

I finally managed to peel myself away from Facebook and jot down my travel itinerary before I forget all about them. 2 months have passes from my Japan trip till now and I still haven't really finished clearing my stuff, both physical and virtual. Yes, I still have stuff bought from Japan lying around my house, unpacked.

But, that's not the point here. So, the trip to Japan was quite hastily planned as the bf managed to get cheap tickets to fly straight to Tokyo, although the timing wasn't fantastic and quite some time was wasted waiting for transit at the KL Internation Airport.

Had to hype ourselves up after waiting at the airport for 3 hours for another 9 hours flight to Japan
After approximately 9 hours of flying, we finally arrived in Japan! It was a good feeling to finally get off the plane. There was nothing to do except to eat when the stewardess offered food, play Sudoku while I was eating and sleep after that. Felt like a pig. And probably looked like crap too when we finally got off. Don't think many will still look bright and chirpy after hours on a plane.


Left much of the travel planning to the bf and so we took the Narita Express from the airport to Ikebukuro, where his friend Henry was staying. Transportation there is quite expensive but tourists get some package at the airport train station where you can get one their Suica cards (like our EZ-link cards) at quite a bargain, 4000 yen I think.
Oh, and the train stations are quite confusing as many different lines are using the same tracks. You have to open your eyes big to take note of which train is coming at what time and going to which destination. Big trouble if you get on the wrong train because you gotta wait for quite some time for the next one.


Finally got onto the train. Quite empty and actually quite cosy too. While the bf was busy reading the map, I got busy too. Documenting the trip with photos!

The map that we got from the airport.
The interior of the train. Erm, looks like a typical train.
The Narita Express train.
One of the trains that arrived at the station. Apparently it wasn't as crowded as it was always depicted in dramas. Or it is probably due to the fact that it was 9pm in the evening.
Visited Harajuku on Sunday because Soo Hoon said that the cosplayers will be strutting their stuff around on Sundays. It was definitely crowded and we managed to catch this small group of cosplayers sitting around but I had expected more.
The Meiji Shrine was just opposite the Harajuku street so we decided to take a walk there before it closes at 5pm. There are plenty of shrines and temples in Japan, too many to visit in our 7 days trip there. This is a Shinto shrine with this tall structure erected at the entrance. And for your info, the actual building itself was probably a 10 minutes walk away from this structure.
Asked the bf and his friend what was this structure for, they replied that it was for the birds to stand because they had nowhere to stand. Am I supposed to believe that?

And that is henry walking behind me, swinging his arms around constantly.
Admission fee signboard for visiting the Meiji Imperial Garden. They were not open on that day anyway.
Shinto shrines not only have the tall "bird-standing" structure, they also have this water thingy near the entrance. In the past, everyone who wanted to go into the main building had to wash their hands and probably also to rinse their mouth as an act of purifying themselves before stepping into the sacred place. Nowadays, it is just another attraction that gets tourists all excited. Oh, and it helps that the water was very cooling and refreshing too.
There are really all sorts of weird people in Harajuku. This uncle just dressed himself up like Sailormoon or something, with bunny ears and pink bears and bags. It's just...weird to look at.
And he was posing for anyone who wanted to take photos of him. The guy beside him had a sign that read 'Free Hugs'. Hope that the free hugs were not given out by the rabbit-uncle. It will be most traumatising.
Entrance to the Harajuku street
And look at the amount of people. I'm not using 'number' because I'm convinced that the people at the Harajuku street can't be counted!
Harajuku Daiso! Damn huge, like 4 storeys.
The Daiso-pig
More weird people in Harajuku. Guy in female garb. The bf went up to take a photo of him and got a fierce glare from the guy-girl.
Plenty of other misspelt signs
The Harajuku Police Station. Looks glam and nice, unlike our Neighbourhood Police Post, looks so unfriendly.
When I say they have shrines and temples everywhere, I really mean it. This shrine was erected right smack in the city.
Blueberry Burberry Blue Label exclusive only to Japan. But nothing caught my eye. :(
Meals in Japan are of huge portions. It is strange how Japanese can keep their slim figures when all the meals come with the main set, another bowl of noodles or soba and soup.
This was from a tempura place we went to in Harajuku. This set came with the tempura-don, noodles by the side, pickles and soup I think.
And this was mine. Roughly the same combination. Can't finish.
One of the streets in Ikebukuro. Somehow, even the pavement looks good. Perhaps the grass is really greener on the other side.
Map of their subway. Our tracks can never be compared to theirs. They have several train operators which will go to various destinations. When I say several, I mean more than two. It looks more complicated than it actually is. Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to switch trains like a local! Quite interesting actually because the train map really looks very very engaging.


For some strange reason, it seems like Japanese doesn't really like their traditional food like sushi or sashimi. They are mostly found in rather high-end places. Their common food are usually Western style or normal Japanese fare like ramen or don or udon.
Had our lunch somewhere near Ikebukuro and it serves mainly Western style food, although there was still the Japanese element by pairing it with rice, tofu and miso soup.


Japan is actually quite a friendly country. There is no problem if you can't speak Japanese. There is also no problem if Japanese can't understand your English or Chinese. Just be sure that you visit eating places where you buy food coupons from machines and you will never have to be afraid of starving to death!

And it comes with pictures!
The Suica top-up machine. Our 'good' friend throughout the trip. Transportation is really not cheap.
The hotel that we stayed in - Hotel Ohedo. The bf managed to source this from the internet and it was one of the cheapest around the area, I think was about 7000+ yen per night or so. You may exclaim that its expensive but hey, accomodation in Japan usually goes up higher than this. And the room was pretty decent too. And the location was not too bad, not too far from the Ikebukuro station.

The Japanese should be kings of propaganda! We always have the preception that Japan has all the great and fantastic dramas and variety shows on TV but when we got there, all that was showing on TV was boring stuff like this! Doesn't live up to the expectations of all the 黄金保龄球 and 魔女的条件s.
Japan is probably obsessed with keeping things small and compact. Henry's place was only enough for one person to live in and the hotel room was just a little better. The toilet in the hotel room was this small. What you see is really what you get. I can probably do everything on the toilet bowl; do my business, brush teeth and bathe, all at the same time.
Yay, end of Day 2! Arigatou!
Let's welcome Day 3 with open arms!

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