The Travel Bug: Leaving on a jet plane

On our way to the land of the rising sun, in no less than the A380! While we're unfortunately part of the herd and sitting in the back cabin, I am looking forward for the opportunity to marvel at this wonderful engineering feat up close!

You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive - Author Unknown

Driving Peeves

1. Drivers that cut into my lane and then drive slowly

2. Drivers in front of me that allow other cars to cut in front of them

3. Drivers who don't let me cut into their lane

4. Drivers who take a long time to park and block the whole road

5. Drivers who straddle 2 lanes when they drive and can't make up their mind which one they want

Each year it seems to take less time to fly across the ocean and longer to drive to work - Author Unknown

I've managed to fine tune the daily drive to work with the precision of a fastidious impatient maniac. a.k.a. a "Singapore driver".

1. Follow road out past the traffic light and turn right

2. Keep to the right-most lane for the next 3 traffic lights
- 4-lane road mergers on the left to become a 2+ 1 bus lane, so right lane is fastest
- Right-most lane will split into 2 lanes after 3rd traffic light

4. Keep to left lane (aka new 2nd-right lane) when right-most lane splits into 2
- Many cars will turn right to enter another major road and hold up traffic while waiting to turn

5. Cut back to right-most lane after exit junction and maintain for next 2 traffic lights

6. Keep to middle lane (aka new 2nd-right lane) as right-most lane splits into 3 lanes, and turn left
- Left lane will have buses stopping alone the road, Right lane will be difficult to exit roundabout correctly

7. Exit roundabout, keep left, keep left, keep left and turn left

8. Keep to 3rd-left lane for next 2 traffic lights
- Left-most lane is bus lane, 2nd-left lane has cars turning left

9. Cut to 2nd-left lane after traffic light where other cars turn left

10. Cut to left-most lane after bus stop and turn left into 2-lane road

11. If cars turning right into a carpark, cut left then cut right immediately
- Other cars are sometimes parked/ waiting in left lane

12. Turn right into destination

Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul - Unknown

For some reason, school songs have been popping into my head recently. Amongst the "official" school anthems that we had, there were also 3 "unofficial" songs that we learnt, and probably sang more frequently, especially at campfires and school occasions.

Ah... those days when we were young, innocent and undefeatable.

I think the first 2 songs were composed by our seniors. Every generation of students that passed through the hallways of our school probably know these, and they were terribly meaningful to us at the time.

Dedication

We have shared our morning days
And gone through all rainy nights
Even in the darkest of nights
Stars still light up our way
Tomorrow is a beautiful dream
A dream that will be fulfilled
Cross the bridge of rainbow
In search of the gold

For here we stand (for here we stand)
Our dearest friend (our dearest friend)
Sincerely from our hearts we wish (from our hearts we wish)
May streams of sunlight
Shine like rays of hope (shine like rays of hope)
Hand in hand, we work and strive
For the best things in life (for the best things in life)

Have to confess that I'm not totally certain that I got the lyrics of the next song right... Tried to google to confirm it, but the "other versions" I found just didn't seem right compared to what I remember from 15 years ago... So if anyone reads this and knows the song well, do let me know if there are mistakes!

Friends

Sometimes I wonder if I made a wrong step somewhere
and times don't seem as good as they had been before
It's not so hard then to want to lay down and cry
but then I hear a chorus of voices
calling from the other shore"look up look up"

These are my friends, my friends
just some people walking the same road with hands
joined as one together
cross the bridge, see the rainbow
feel the breeze, watch the flowers grow
touch the sky,
don't you know we can go higher higher higher?

And as the years pass, generations come and go,
still this flame keeps burning strong despite the rain.
It's not so wrong then, when I stumble and fall,
for now I know what love is about,
the friends who help you walk again, "Get up, get up"

These are my friends, my friends,
just some people walking the same road with hands
joined as one together
cross the bridge, see the rainbow,
feel the breeze, watch the flowers grow,
touch the sky,
don't you know, we can go higher, higher, higher...
My friends...

The last song was written by someone in our "sibling school". I think we weren't too fond it at first (you know... written by the "other people", probably not very good). Actually I think music wise it wasn't as fun to sing as Dedication or Friends hence never as popular... but still we all knew this song and the words were meaningful, so it would usually make an appearance at school events too.

As One

We were once all strangers
Roaming near and far
Lost in a world of fantasy
Don't know who we are
Then one day destined we were
To stand together here as one
We'll be together, together as one

Day by day our spirits grew
Bonding us with love
Striving, working, never rest
Striving for the best
'Tis our story, 'tis our song
Filled with joy, spirit strong as one
We'll be together, together as one

As the years pass us by
In many ways we fly
But the spirit still remains
It can never die
'Tis our story, 'tis our song
Filled with joy, spirit strong as one
We'll be together, together as one

It's amazing how sometimes songs become legends and no matter how time passes, they just stay the same and get handed down generations and generations. Think: countless (well 43 really) National Day parades, each with their own special song, but who can remember what the most recent 5 songs have been??? Instead, everyone knows the classic "mass songs" from the mid 1980's... "Count on Me Singapore", "We are Singapore", "Stand Up for Singapore", "One People, One Nation, One Singapore". All together now....

Asking the wrong questions leads to the wrong answers

I don't get it.

Why is everyone asking:

"Should XXX apologise [for spending his hard earned money and saved up leave on a meaningful holiday together with his family]"
(note: as opposed to spending it on a $1300+psf condo, BMW, branded handbag... as many Singaporeans were doing just a few months ago?)

and not:

"Should the editor of YYY apologise to the public for running insensitive articles about people spending money on leisure, given the current downturn"

Oh and YYY might as well apologise to XXX at the same time I guess.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE50C5IB20090113
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/403473/1/.html
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/297781.asp

Food Bytes: What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone? - Bertolt Brecht (Jones the Grocer's Cheese)

Been meaning to write this piece for a while now, in order to pay tribute to one of the key elements of the parties that *Shinta and I throw. We picked up the idea of serving cheese and crackers as a starter / nibbles from *Shinta's colleagues, and I've noticed that some of our other friends have started following suit too.

Ever since we discovered the cheese room at Jones the Grocer, we haven't been able to get our cheese fix anywhere else. When you enter the restaurant, make your way through the throngs of wooden tables filled with people eating breakfast and try to resist the alluring smell of the coffee, and at the back you'll find a dark-tinted chiller room filled with different types of cheeses ready for choosing.

The staff there are knowledgeable and ever ready to help recommend something to suit your tastes. Tasting some of the cheeses before purchasing is one of the delights of visiting the place. Here's a short review of some of the cheeses we have tried so far.

Caprinelle (Hard, Goat's milk, France)

Am not a big fan of goat's cheese, but we decided to get this because we had lactose intolerant friends visiting (its supposed to be even more friendly). Like all goat's cheese, its quite strong tasting, and takes some getting used to. Cos of that, it works better eating on a cracker to offset the strong flavour, rather than eating it "neat".

Jindi Triple Cream (Soft, Cow's milk, Australia)

This triple cream cheese was one of the mildest cheeses sold, and I only got it because they were running low on stock and there wasn't any other mild cheese than I hadn't already tried. Would recommend this for beginner cheese eaters, because very simply put, it tasted like butter. Normally I cut away the rind which tastes waxy, hard and with a weird flavour, but for this cheese, the rind tasts more like cheese than the cheese itself. Weird huh.

Delice D Argental (Soft, Cow's milk, France)

Also considered a mild cheese, the taste was more mature than the Jindi, and more to my liking. I thought this cheese was a pretty good cheese, and being so light, it was easy to eat. This was further confirmed when I noticed one of *Shinta's friends spreading copious amounts on a piece of hot toast. It's definately a cheese I would buy again.

Brillat Savarin Truffle (Soft, Cow's milk, France)

This cheese was so good, I wanted to cry the minute I put it in my mouth. Not only was it so soft and creamy, the flavour of the truffle shavings in the middle had spread throughout the cheese. I was immediately addicted to it! Some might find the middle part with the truffles a little too strong for their liking, but its easy to avoid that part. There's absolutely no need for a knife, just use the cracker to directly cream off the cheese and pop it into your mouth. I really regret not buying the entire cheese when I had the chance, given that it was totally sold out by the time I went back a week later.

The staff at Jones can also help you to pick out matching wines and crackers. For crackers, don't bother with the in-house Jones brand; it's light and tasteless which I suppose means that it can go with anything. To me though, it just tasted "cheap" (which is worse than being tasteless) and spoils the cheese eating experience. Better to go for the charcoal crackers, or choose another one from the wide range of types they have there.

Food Bytes: "Touch the Heart" for a great price! (Hua Ting, Orchard Cafe)

I find it quite surprising that a business hotel tucked in the rather dodgy end of Orchard Road, would have such good restaurants. Although the address gives it as being along Orchard Road, Orchard Hotel is unfortunately situated a good 15min walk from the MRT station, and behind a rather infamous shopping center. Nevertheless, don't let that stop you from trying out the eating places here.

Orchard Cafe on the ground floor, is quite well known for its buffets. It's quite a cheesy place (don't expect anything romantic for your date), but it boasts a very good selection of seafood (oysters!), western and local buffet menu for sub-$60. In addition, what I absolutely love about the place is its selection of cakes.

When I attended a 2 day conference there some time ago and ate at the cafe for lunch, they had this super embarassing introduction of their new cakes by getting their male staff to do a catwalk in with the cakes, complete with dimmed lights and cheesy music. Of course most of the business crowd ignored the poor emcee's pleas for applause, but when the staff/models went around offering a taste of the cakes to the customers, they were greeted warmly with high praise for the cakes.

Anyway, we were at Orchard Hotel ordering the CNY takeaway menu from the chinese restaurant there, and decided that we might as well sit down and enjoy a dim sum lunch. Let me start by saying that I was very very impressed. Hua Ting is known for its fantastic Cantonese cuisine, but what struck me most was that for a very good 7 course dim sum lunch for 2 pax, not only did we have enough leftovers to take away for one person's dinner, all that was for less than $40! (discounts with UOB credit card)

The restaurant is on the second floor of the hotel, and has many small private functions rooms suitable for business lunches. We spotted no less than a well known permenant secretary having lunch there too.

They served us with a dried beancurd starter, that for the first few seconds after you put it into your mouth, deceives you into thinking it is bak kwa. It was not too tough and made quite an interesting dish to snack on while waiting for your dim sum.

We decided to order the slightly different, non-traditional types of dim sum. We both loved the "Baked roasted pork belly polo bun ($4.20)", which in addition to the melt-in-your-mouth crispy top, also had 2 large pieces of roasted pork insides.

Unfortunately we were very disappointed with the "Pan fried US prime beef bun ($4.20)". I was expecting a large (or at least medium!) slab of beef, but instead there were only very very small little chopped up bits of beef and tendon hiding inside a thick pao.

I liked the fried items slightly more than *Shinta did. The "Deep fried scallop pastry with onion and garlic ($4.50)" was very unusual, with tons of garlic inside, while the "Deep fried bean skin roll with prawn ($4.80)" was very very crispy and filled with big juicy prawns. What impressed me the most was that the little strip of seaweed around the middle was very very fresh.

*Shinta liked the "Pan fried carrot cake with conpoy ($3.90)" which was much less oily than other versions sold elsewhere.

I didn't get to try the "Steamed glutinous rice with abalone ($5.20)" because *Shinta finished one of them without offering me a bite (cross!), and I was way too full to start on the other one.

I had accidentally ordered the "Steamed bun stuffed with lotus paste and salted egg yolk ($3.90)", thinking it was the oozing-custard kind. What came tasted more like a mooncake without the usual bread-like exterior. It was not too sweet and nicely ended off the meal.

Another reason why I'm pleased with the restaurant, is that they give out carpark coupons to their customers. That's probably the least of the reasons why to come back here again, but still the little things impress me!

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Hua Ting, Orchard Cafe
442 Orchard Road, Orchard Hotel Singapore, S(238879)
Tel: 67396666
Hours: 11.30am-2.30pm, 6.30pm-10.30pm
www.millenniumhotels.com.sg/orchardhotelsingapore/index.html
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Food Bytes: Who says American food has to be either fast or expensive?

Botak Jones has been around for a while, but we only got to try it when a friend bought the chicken wings over to our place for a party. Since we were quite impressed by them (even eaten cold!), we decided to head over to the AMK branch to try it out. This is market as cheap but good american food, so don't expect anything from the venue, the place sits at a neighbourhood coffeeshop at the bottom of an old HDB block.



We arrived a little early before they had properly opened, so we took our time to read the really thick menu. We both decided to have a burger & sides. I went for the Simple Botak + bacon + cheese, with the corn and cheese potatoes as sides. *Shinta went for the Double Botak+ egg + bacon, with fries and corn as sides. The menu warns you that the Double Botak is "more than you had in mind" and sure enough, *Shinta had trouble finishing the huge double patty burger which could barely balance the egg on top. The patties were the American style very thick, heavy and meaty kind; probably 1 Botak Jones patty = 4 Mcdonalds patties? The fries were nice and hot, not too oily, but not particularly fantastic either.



Finally though, we managed to eat the main thing we were waiting for... the barbequed chicken wings! These are really really really good! They came nice and hot, with the meat was soft and easily falling off the bone. Unlike the usual off-the-shelf bbq marinade that other places drown their chicken wings in, this place uses their own type which is more subtle, not too sweet with a slight hint of spiciness, giving the wings a small kick and bringing out the flavour nicely. At $1.60 for a pretty large wing (min order of 3 wings), this was a really good deal.

Marketing itself as "Damn Good Food At A Damn Good Price", I must say I quite agree! We had an insane amount of food for around $30, even *Shinta and I could barely finish what we had ordered. A simple pretty large burger is only $6, but its a little hard not to order extras on top of it, plus the fantastic chicken wings.

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Botak Jones (AMK branch)
Block 529, Ang Mo Kio Ave 10, S(560529)
Tel: 67551225
Hours: 11.30am-10pm
http://www.botakjones.com/
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Screenings #3

Recently completed:

1. Lovely Complex (girl chases after guy anime. the guy is so irritating... weak and can't make up his mind about anything!)
2. Itazaru na Kiss (again another girl chases after guy anime! again an annoying guy! *sigh*)
3. Macross Frontier (will grudgingly admit the music is nice, but still much prefer the Gundam series!)
4. Macross Plus (the OVA)

Can someone please pass me some better anime to watch? Thank you.

Food Bytes: Casual italian fare (Bistro One Zero Three)

Was looking for a good but casual dining Italian restaurant, and decided to try out Bistro One Zero Three along Pasir Panjang Road. The place got pretty good reviews online, and although its a little far away, we usually don't have a problem taking a little drive in the search of good food.

The place is just along the main road, there's a small public carpark followed by a few shophouses and eateries just before Currency House. The Bistro is right at the end of the row. although the outside looks pretty dodgy, the inside of the restaurant looks newly renovated and is a pretty friendly homely atmosphere.

We made a mistake when it came to ordering. Instead of just asking the waiter what they recommend, we followed what others online had recommended, without checking. That worked ok with the starters, but not so well with the mains.

First starter was the bruschetta. I liked the light toasted italian bread and the chopped tomatoes with onions and garlic which strangely enough, avoided being too "sharp" or "tangy" like other bruschettas are sometimes. Would have prefered the bread to be slightly warmer though. *Shinta felt that they hadn't used sweet enough tomatoes, and said that the temperature of the bread was fine... Could be that by the time I finished taking photos, the bread had cooled especially since I eat so slowly?

Next starter was the salt and pepper squid with chilli mayo. As a general rule, when it comes to eating seafood, *Shinta and I prefer lighter batter which doesn't drown the taste of the seafood with flour and oil. Unfortunately the batter used here was the heavier breaded kind (think Burger King onion rings with less oil). The squid was still not too bad, and they managed to avoid making the squid too tough.

The first main was the salmon and crab pasta. They didn't offer us a choice of pasta type, but just came with spaghetti. *Shinta described the sauce as "wet and too sweet", and the spaghetti as a little too overcooked (ie soft the way most other Singaporeans like it). I agreed that the spaghetti could afford to be a little more al dente, but felt that rather than being "wet" => watery / diluted, the sauce was adequately rich and generous. I liked the sweet taste more than the tangy / sour flavour some tomato sauces are. When we asked about the sauce, the lady explained that the chef would fry some onions in the tomato sauce, hence the sweet flavour.

Second main was the kurobuta port neck steak. The only kurobuta I've eaten before is the japanese breaded katsu, or the thinly sliced ramen, and in general I avoid large pork steaks which are too strong in flavour. After the dish had arrived, when we asked the restaurant about it, the lady explained that kurobuta is generally eaten by people who really love pork, and the neck part is particularly strong in taste! If only we had asked earlier... I couldn't eat more than one or two bites, although *Shinta managed to finish the entire dish without much problem.

The Bistro has been open for about 2 years now, and while in a not very convenient location, its likely that they have their own set of regulars from those who work / live nearby. While not very extensive, the menu changes every 2 months or so, which is a good incentive for their regulars to go back.

Despite *Shinta's and my conflicting views on some of the dishes, this is probably a restaurant we would pop by again if we're in the area. In fact, if this place were nearer where we stayed, we would probably frequent it more often, and ask for their recommendations next time. Wouldn't mind introducing it to friends too, but only those who drive!

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Bistro One Zero Three
103 Pasir Panjang Road, S(118531)
Tel: 64766373
Hours: Tue-Sun 6pm-9.30pm Tue-Fri 11.30am-3pm, Sun 10.30am-3pm
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Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly - Unknown

Been having a spate of bad luck with my car recently...

First was the "hit another car while trying to get out of difficult parking lot because blocked by another badly parked car" incident on Boxing Day. I resisted the urge to:
i) drive off and pretend nothing happened but feel guilty for rest of my life;
ii) leave a fake note with a wrong handphone number and feel even worse for the rest of my life because I actually expanded effort to cheat someone; and/or
iii) put *Shinta's number on note and hide head in sand while *Shinta deals with it.

This being my first driving scrape with another moving object, I had absolutely no idea how to deal with it, and proceeded to bomb my insurance agent's handphone inbox with a million SMS questions on how much it costs to claim insurance, would my premium go up, how about my no claim bonus....?

Luckily for me, the other party was fairly reasonable and nice. I guess the fact that I didn't do items i) and ii) above helped. We managed to come to a settlement amount and agree that both sides would not claim insurance. It's a little suspicious that the settlement amount was exactly the excess that I would have had to pay, but after consultation with others (read: people who get into more car accidents than me), figured that it should be roughly within the ballpark range and since it was my fault, there would be no point disputing it.

In the end however, I still delegated all interaction with the other party to the more experienced *Shinta to handle. As for the damage to my own car? Well the spot that was hit has already been dented, scratched and left with paint residue from 2 other incidents with stationery objects, so there's really not much point doing anything about it. It'll probably just get hit again soon!

One very annoying thing about Singapore. The regulations changed recently so that all insurance claims must be reported within 24 hours. Are people that free to go do it immediately??? Furthermore in cases where the damage is slight (as in this incident), they would need to get the repair costs estimated first before deciding whether or not to claim insurance. Luckily for me this time round, both the other party and I were on leave and relatively free to settle all the issues.

The second incident was an embarrassing "my car cannot start" in a very popular carpark. No, I did NOT leave my lights on, it was simply that the battery was not in a good condition anymore and had died. If I had left the lights on, I would have realised it was a battery problem, gotten my cables out (yes I DO have them and know how to use them), put on my most helpless look and tried to wave down another car for help. Since I didn't leave my lights on however, and the battery still appeared to work (radio etc), I thought the problem was more serious and with the engine.

After waiting a hour for the service repair to come, I still had to endure the stares from all the passing cars while my battery got changed. I bet everything was thinking that I was the useless driver who left the lights on and deserved it... *sigh*

The one saving grace was that I had reversed park and saved myself an even more embarrassing "push car out manually".

Food Bytes: Can Soon Kueh be considered vegetables? (Mei Zhen Hakka Delicacies)

I'm normally not a big fan of Soon Kueh, but those found at this Shunfu Market stall are worth a mention. The Mei Zhen Hakka Delicacies stall is located on the second floor of the 4 storey HDB market. If you arrive at the wrong time on a Sunday morning, you'll find a long queue in front of it. The queue moves pretty fast however, and there are certain lucky timings where you may find no one waiting at all.

As you can see, one key difference about this shop's Soon Kueh, is that the skin is extremely thin. Its also very sticky, making picking up one nicely and neatly quite difficult. Once you manage that though, its a joy to bite in through the thin membrane into the juicy turnip pieces. The mixture of turnip, shrimp, mushrooms etc is well balanced. It looks oilier in the photograph than it really tastes, and most of the oil probably comes from the deep fried shallots which are generously piled on top.

The stall also has other pretty good dishes which you might like to try, including the glutinous rice.

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Mei Zhen Hakka Delicacies

#02-26 Shunfu Market, Blk 320 Shunfu Road, S(570320)

Tel: 97932189

Hours: 7am-2pm

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End-Hol Report Card (2008)

General
# of calendar days not working: 12 (finally a break!)
# of leave days taken: 4 (yahoo to 2 free "off" days!)
# of minutes/day spent reading the blackberry: 5min (less actually)

Food
# of parties attended: 4, of which...
# of parties hosted: 3 (no more for a long time)
# of "good" meals eaten excluding parties: 6 (stuffed!)

Entertainment
# of episodes of anime watched: 90 (roughly 30 hours!)
# of anime movies watched: 3 (only 1 in a cinema though)
# of hours at massage/haircut: 4.5 (insufficient!)
# of hours/day sleeping: 10-12 (definately not enough)
# of hours of exercise: Nil (as expected)

Conclusion
# of kg gained: *censored* (less than expected!)

Food Bytes: Seafood on a hot afternoon (No Signboard)

Despite it being a super hot blazing day, was in the mood for seafood, so we headed to No Signboard at Geylang. It's a little strange to eat a heavy seafood meal at lunch time, but we occassionally do this when we're on leave. Plus its much much less crowded at lunch time, there were only 3 tables (all couples!) when we were there.

First up was the crispy baby sotong. Was starving so attacked this so fast and I forgot to take photos. It was warm, crispy, sweet without the honey being too overpowering. Definately something that I could snack on endlessly.


Next was butter prawns. It's usually tough to choose between ordering this (sweet and fragrant) or cereal prawns (crunchy and melt in your mouth), but here its both! Not too oily from the butter, and with hard crunchy bits that melted in our mouths. Most of the prawn shell was edible too!

Believe it or not, we ordered TWO crabs. The white pepper crab here is one of their specialities, and they manage to avoid drowning the flavour of the crab by using white instead of black pepper.










We've tried various chilli crabs at a lot of different places (Jumbo, Long Beach etc), but this is still definately the best! The chilli is not too tomato-y, not too chilli hot, sweet and absolutely delicious. The best way to eat this dish is:

1. Suck the chilli off the crab pieces
2. Pass crab piece to *insert suitable name* to deshell
3. Eat pieces of crab meat
4. Repeat until crab is finished
5. Use the hot crispy-on-outside-soft-on-inside buns to soak up curry sauce
6. Repeat until too stuffed or have run out of bun/ sauce

Was absolutely full by the time we were done. Yes, all that food was finished by 2 people, and even worse, I totally matched what *Shinta ate, except that he had 6 buns and I had 2 "only". Could barely walk once I stood up and realised how much I had eaten. Luckily the soursop jelly with lime that they provided managed to clear the palate and helped very slightly.

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No Signboard Seafood
414 Geylang, S(389392)
Tel: 68423415
Hours: 12pm-1am
Website: http://nosignboardseafood.com/
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