MBS

There's no way someone like me would cough up S$100 (~US$70) to enter a casino in Singapore, but apparently there's a viewing gallery above the MBS gambling floor that is open to public. I was quite surprised that anyone could walk in to view and take photos, and innocently took a few shots before my friend pointed out that I was actually standing right next to the "no cameras" sign.

Anyway this was only half of the entire gambling area. It's actually a pretty disturbing scene, with the sound of the machines producing a pretty loud hum at a certain frequency, the cigarette smoke wafting up from the smoking floor at the bottom to all the non-smoking floors above.

We couldn't wait to get out.

My Daily Cuppa...

Even on the weekends I can't do without my daily cuppa when I get up...


Lately *Shinta and I have been trying out Papa Palheta. Sadly their original branch at Hooper Road is no longer encouraging sit-ins. It's much closer to town and a pretty nice chilling area.


Instead, they're directing everyone over to their new outlet at Kampong Bugis (near ICA) where they've set up a proper shop.


I like the concept of a place to chill and drink good coffee, but ultimately I think Oriole still wins in terms of quality and smoothness of the espresso drinks.

Fukubukuro / 福袋 / Prosperity Bags

*Shinta saw an advert in the Straits Times that Taka Singapore was selling Fukubukuros /福袋 / Propsperity Bags, so I thought I would write a little post on our experience with them in Japan...

Usually on the second day of the New Year (ie 2nd Jan), department stores or brand stores would sell these 福袋. Basically the concept is that you pay $x for a sealed bag without knowing the conents. Usually the individual prices of the contents would add up to much more than $x, but of course its a matter of luck whether you like the items or not. Even hours in advance, there are always snaking queues at all the entrances of the departmental stores like Daimaru and Takashimaya, with hordes of shoppers dying to get in. One very popular item is the departmental store 1000 yen (S$17) bags containing a variety of items ranging from clothes to household goods. *Shinta and I unsuspectingly joined the queue on the ground floor which looked only about 20 persons long, without realising the entire of the restaurant floor at the top was packed with snaking queues of serious hard core shoppers.

Each person is allowed a max of 5 bags, and "tickets" are handed out at the queue on the ground floor to make sure there's enough. When *Shinta and I told the guy at the entrance that we only required 1 ticket each, he repeated his question again and looked at us disbelievingly... People actually come prepared with trolleys and all to carry the bags back! It was a slight mistake for us non-residents to queue for these, because we ended up queueing a good hour for it, and even though they're probably really great value for money, the contents were mostly household related stuff like soba, cooking sauces, instant coffee, chocolate powder and.... canola oil?

What I liked a lot more were the specific clothing/brand 福袋. These go by brand and size and are usually pricier depending on the brand. Most start off at 10,000 yen (about S$170) but the Nike one I had for example, had a really good coat, sweat pants, jersey and t-shirt with a total price tag of about x5. Even brands like Tommy, Theory, CK had them, and they disappear really really fast! I was sorely tempted by an Anya Hindmarch 福袋 at around 30,000 yen (about S$51). I think the most expensive 福袋 I saw was a Lewin one at 100,000 yen (S$1700)!! The food department in the basement where the confectionary, biscuits etc are also had them, but these are different because the contents of these are all the same and shops would display them upfront.

*Shinta loved this kind of shopping...! No need to try the clothes on, no need to wonder whether the colour is right or the cut makes you look fat... Just pick up the bag and go! Here's a photo of our haul...

I managed to restrain myself and only bought a few. I think while there were some really good finds, I'm not sure what to do with those pieces that don't fit me at all. Probably have to give them away... *sigh*

Break a leg...

So yes... my injured leg. I've been wearing the immobiliser for 2.5 weeks now, few more days to go before I get it checked out by the ortho and hopefully can get rid of this really uncomfortable brace. Normally one has to wear it for 4 4-6 weeks, but I had spent a week after the fall innocently walking around Japan not knowing how hurt my leg was... Ignorance is bliss but foolilsh?

Update: Got to wear it for 2 more weeks.... grrr.....

Obviously this gets a lot of attention everywhere I go. After countless queries from colleagues, I have made the following observations:

Observation 1: People's minds can be so different, but sometimes they work all in the same way. The questions I get are always the same and in the same order:

Q1) What happened??!!

- "I fell while skiing"

Q2) So what's wrong with the leg??

- Depending how much I want to play it down or play it up, my answer varies from "It's a slight fracture" to "I broke my leg". Actually a fracture is the same as a break... but somehow calling it a break makes people think its a lot more serious??

Q3) Where were you?

- "Japan"

Q4) It must have hurt a lot?

- "At first it did but it's not too bad now."

Q5) Is there good skiing there? or What color slope were you on? (mostly from other skiiers)

- This one is a bit embarrassing so I try to give a little more detail... "I was on a red slope which wasn't too difficult but I lost concentration for a moment and fell, but the ski didn't snap off so my leg was trapped in an awkward position"

Observation 2: People will always ask at least 2 questions. Even if I attempt to answer Q1 and Q2 at one go to pre-empt them, they will then move on to Q3. *Shinta says its because they're trying to be polite and they can't just end the conversation right away. So they need to ask a following question to show they they are concerned.

Observation 3: It takes about 1 stop before people give their seat up to me on the bus/mrt. I wouldn't really mind that much except for that period of time, everyone on the bus stares at me without getting up. I mean if you don't want to give up your seat, at least pretend to be asleep or something like you normally do for pregnant women and old folks!

Anyway I can't wait to be rid of it! My injured leg is noticeably thinner than the other having lost muscle mass. Am just hoping the physio etc is not too tough and that I can fully recover quickly!

Spotted #8

Seriously...

End-Hol Report Card (2010)

There's not much of an end-hol report card because:

1) I had to work (remotely thankfully) over the shut down

2) This year we managed to take a trip!

3) I'm not sure when the "end-hol" fits in because even when the shutdown ended, I'm on hospital leave for a week thanks to a fractured knee (not as bad as it sounds!)

Anyway here's the report card:

General# of calendar days not working: 11 (including 2 weekends)

# of leave days taken: 5 (reduced to 3 given 2 days off awarded)

# of minutes on blackberry: a lot =( (including having to log in and reply)

Entertainment# of days overseas: 10

# of days skiing: 1.5 (cut short thanks to the knee)

# of parties attended: 7, of which…

# of parties thrown: 4, for which…

# of roasts cooked: 5 (2 beef, 3 chicken)

Food# of good meals eaten: a lot!

Moving house...

Have decided to give Wordpress a try, so have moved my entire blog on Blogger over to Wordpress The link will be http://hungrywanderingsamurai.wordpress.com/ so please check it out there from now on!

So far Wordpress seems to be much less customisable and the posting interface is less user friendly than Blogger. Also the dashboard and the interface layout on Blogger is much more instinctive and helpful... But I decided to move because Wordpress offers better privacy controls and I can put password locks on specific posts. Also the labels vs categories makes more sense. I can't figure out what the point of having both categories and tags is though...!

Anyway I'm gonna try it out for a while and from now on all new posts will be on that site. But who knows, maybe after a while I'll give up and move it back to Blogger!