Hot in the City

Miss Mo's Engaged!

2008-02-05T22:06:00.000+08:00

Yeah, Miss Mo's engaged! Yes, Big popped the question over dessert!

It all happened last Saturday, Feb 2, at La Cantina at Changi Village Hotel. It's a lovely little restaurant on top of the hotel and it overlooks the waters of Changi. Big had chosen a table al fresco but it rained earlier that day so we had a corner table indoors instead, which had the same view.

We ordered lots of Italian cuisine; my favorite Caprese, a pizza with Parma ham for me and a seafood pasta for him. You can see how nervous he was during dinner. After we finished our dinner, he slipped out saying he had to go to the toilet. He went to the car to pick up the flowers and the ring secretly.

Here he's holding everything, including a card he did himself. He said he was so relieved when I said 'Yes'! How sweet!

Well, the ring's on my finger so I'll show you next time. Stay tuned to hear more about the wedding.

Food Glorious Food!

2008-02-03T22:26:00.001+08:00

Yeah, it's been a while since I last wrote about food. I think the last nice restaurant I went was Marmalade Pantry at Holland Village. I really like this one because it's very laidback and they serve my favorite Eggs Benedict. I told Big that he has to master the art of cooking Eggs Benedict.

I went to have Turtle Soup at Macpherson the other day. It's oh so delicious. I know it may sound cruel but it's really really tasty. Try it one of these days.

Just last Friday, I went with my good St Nicks' classmate, Buttercups, to Les Bouchons. It's a French Bistro on Ann Siang Hill. I passed by it once and it looked really frenchy and told myself I had to try it one of these days.

The restaurant's decoration reminded me of a little french restaurant. The steak and frites they served was not too shabby either. This is one of the restaurants I'd definitely return.

Yeah, it's bubble tea! I had this one at Toa Payoh central from Koi Bubble Tea. It was delicious. Now, I have a reason to go to Toa Payoh Central. Kekekeke!

David Gan of Chinatown

2008-01-23T22:30:00.000+08:00

Saw this barber at one of the back alleys in Chinatown. A rare sight nowadays.

Happy Year of the Rat!

2008-01-20T22:12:00.000+08:00

I love celebrating Chinese Lunar New Year! This year is extra special because it's Year of the Rat, my year! Yeah, I'm only 24. LOL!

The other day, Big and I went down to Chinatown to soak in the CNY atmosphere. I really enjoyed walking through the streets of Chinatown, looking at the display of new year goodies and decorations. It's all so ching-chong. After being away for so long and not able to celebrate it, I always appreciate the chance to celebrate it here. Happy Year of the Rat!

Till we meet again

2008-01-15T22:22:00.000+08:00

My good friend, Musa will be embarking on her journey to the West, land of the Terminator, ie California, particulary, the Silicon Valley. Cooking Diva and I gave a treat at Crystal Jade Vivocity as a farewell lunch. She sure will miss some decent Chinese meal. I'll miss playing tennis with her. Enjoy the US!

Miss Mo takes on Kyushu, Japan

2007-12-18T21:57:00.000+08:00

Didn't I tell you that December was super busy for me? Well, immediately after my Sentosa chalet, I had to leave the next day to Kyushu, Japan for my week-long vacation with 3 other girlfriends. The reason why I chose this destination is because Jocelyn invited me after my failed South Africa trip. Morever, I wanted to see the Atomic bomb museum in Nagasaki and of course, who can resist the hot springs.

We first went to Huis Ten Bosch, a dutch theme park. It looked even more dutch than Netherlands!

Another highlight of the trip was going to Beppu, a region well-known for its hot springs. You can see from the picture that this hot spring is too hot to be soaked in. We could only watch as the steam evaporated. Alas, our hotel had its own tiny outdoor hot springs. However, I was too sick then to do much. I ate this big pot of stew that was fit for a Sumo Wrestler and fell sick and threw up after that.

I was still pretty sick at Hello Kitty Land. All these pictures were taken by the other girls. Even my favorite Batz Maru didn't make me feel better.

Getaway at Sentosa

2007-12-08T22:19:00.000+08:00

OK, peeps. When was the last time you were at a chalet?!? Can you even recall? Well, I was at one in December, at Sentosa NTUC chalet. They don't call it chalets now, it's called the Costa Sands Resort.

Well, I guess Big is quite a sentimental guy when he suggested going to a chalet. I exclaimed to say who would go to a chalet nowadays. Alas, I gave in on the condition that I decide the destination of our next trip. It'd probably be a weekend getaway on Bintan Island.

The resort wasn't that bad. It's situated along Siloso Beach, right next to the new Sentosa Beach Resort. The rooms have a/c, TV, fridge and hot water.

After spending 2 days on Sentosa, we concluded that it's basically quite boring, expensive and had lousy food there, unless we stay at the Beaufort and dine at the Cliff. Moreover, it rained on the first day we were there. However, we enjoyed ourselves tremendously, exploring the island. We visited Fort Siloso, hiked a little on the Dragon trail and walked a lot. But we were so ready to leave the island on the third day. I guess it'd be 10 years later before we stay at Sentosa again. Maybe not since the casino is opening soon.

Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 07

2007-12-03T22:16:00.000+08:00

Hey, I'm back after a few months' hiatus. December was a very busy month for me. First, there was the marathon on Dec 2 that both Big and I decided to participate in the 10K run.

Since the men's and women's runs started at different times, in order for us to run together, he had to join me in the women's run. He felt strange running with all the ladies. The 10K route wasn't as interesting compared to the GE women 10K run. Moreover, it started half hour later so the heat from the sun really got on to us. However, we both managed to finish the run together hand-in-hand. It was something personal to us to finish the run together but Marathon Geek caught us in the act at the finishing line. Oops!

An evening at Tiong Bahru

2007-10-15T21:38:00.000+08:00

Miss Mo knows she really likes Mr Big because instead of insisting on going to the town's hottest hangouts like Clark Quay, Robertson Quay or Dempsey Road, she agreed to go to Tiong Bahru with Mr Big on a Friday evening. Ha!

There were ample parking when we arrived around 8pm. We walked around to see whether there were other better options besides the hawker center. Besides the busy corner coffee shops and bigger cook-fry restaurants, amazingly, there were other options like a Thai Restaurant and a Shanghainese restaurant.

We decided to have our dinner at the market itself. Afterall, that was what attracted us to this area for dinner. We circled the whole market and came upon this Cantonese cook-fry stall, which seemed pretty busy. We ordered my favorite sliced-fish over crispy noodles and smooth egg over shrimp and tofu. OK, you should translate these dishes to Cantonese and you'd know what I mean. Ha! We also had some delicious chee cheong fun. Not bad at all.

After dinner, we took a stroll in the neighborhood to digest our sumptious dinner.

Along the way, we found interesting stuff like this old provision shop. Look closely and you'd see that it still has those glass cabinets, glass counters and that old clock.

There was this corner seafood restaurant that was selling these giant crabs. They look mutant.

Then we went to explore this Link Hotel, which is converted from this block of old flats. It's like a boutique hotel, maybe like Fragrant Hotel or Hotel 81 but much nicer.

At last, we took refuge at Wine Wise, a wine bar. This place sells relatively cheap wine by Singapore standard and the layout is nice such that there are wine barrels and the furniture are all made from the barrels.

It was really nice to sit outside with our wine, looking at the hustle and bustle of Tiong Bahru as the night went by.

2007-10-07T14:41:00.000+08:00

It has been a while since I was last at Robertson Quay so I thought I'd bring Big with me this time. Erm..believe it or not, Big hadn't been to the revamped Robertson Quay. Well, thanks to me, he gets to visit such places again. Ha!

I remembered there was this tiny Italian restaurant which I passed by the last time I was there. It was one of those obscure, non-pretentious trattoria-ish place, that is rare in Singapore. I told myself I got to visit it next time.

Da Mario Pizzeria is the place. The restaurant only has about 7 tables inside and 3 tables outside. We had the mozzarella with tomatoes and basil in olive oil and vinegar. Hmm...it's been a while since I had that. Delicious!!! Next, we shared a pizza Rustica with Italian ham, mushrooms and sausages. It was good but the next time, I want to try the spicy salami. Hmmm...We finished it off with a tiramisu.

Another place we recently went was Tong Shui Cafe along Upp Thomson Road. Whenever I pass by this restaurant when I take the bus home, it is always packed so I had to check out this cafe. To be honest, numerous Hong Kong cafes have opened in the recent months and most are not as good as they seem. I was hoping that this one would not disappoint me.

I ordered a beef brisket noodles. It is one of my favorite dishes and it is not a common dish so whenever I see it on the menu, I'd order it. Alas, it wasn't that bad but for the price I was paying, I was expecting something better. Big ordered a pepper chicken chop with rice. He said it was ok but nothing fantastic. Even their yuen-yang drink wasn't something to rave about too. Oh well, at least I know I won't be going back there any sooner.

Miss Mo's Mid-Autumn Festival

2007-09-30T14:38:00.000+08:00

This year's Mid-Autumn festival fell on Sep 25. The Singapore Adventurers' Club organized a night hike from Clementi to Kent Ridge Park then to Telok Blangah Hill Park.

We set off at around 6.30pm on a Saturday and walked through the NUS campus. To be honest, it was my first real visit in the NUS campus. Somehow, we then walked to Science Park I or II, I don't know, which connected us to Kent Ridge park. We lit our lanterns on the hilltop and had our mooncakes too. It was lovely and the rest was well-deserved.

After filling our stomaches and admiring the moon, we then proceeded towards our destination. We walked through some forest, past the Alexandra offices, then past Bali Villa, past some long road filled with nice houses, through this dark forest and emerged at Telok Blangah park. Don't ask me how we got there but it was nice to finally reach the destination.

We agreed that the hike was quite tiring even though it seemed fairly easy. We both enjoyed ourselves tremendously!

Anniversary at the Academy Bistro

2007-09-22T14:37:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, Big and I celebrated our 3 month's anniversary. Haha! I know it's short. Both of us have different dates of how we first met. He says we met on June 3 at an event whereas I say we met on the 24th when he first asked me out. So yesterday was my anniversary.

It was another excuse for me to have some good food. Of course, I recommended one of my favorite restarants, the Academy Bistro.

For starters, Big had smoked salmon with aloe vera and tomatoes. Excellent. I had tuna which was yummy too. For the main, Big had the lamb roast and I had the veal. Both were delicious and nicely-cooked. As for desserts, he had the apple pie with vanilla ice-cream and I had the tiramisu. Amazing! The food has never disappointed me. The good or the bad thing is it is only opened for dinner on Friday evenings and not many people know of this place. I shall try to keep this a secret.

Without each of our knowledge, we bought each other little gifts. How nice!

SuperStar is back!

2007-09-18T14:56:00.000+08:00

hi folks, sorry to have gone MIA for such a loooong while thanks to the loads of projects that needed my attention. Yes i have a bagful of stories to share, will be backdating them so just check them out below.

Meanwhile Miss Mo and I signed up for the Great Eastern 10K run to better our times last year, heh heh... guess what it's middle of September and i have not even run an inch. When we met last weekend with the 4 Faith girls (note i am not from their class but i got invited), this Miss D's physique sort of inspired me...she has 6 packs and rippling with muscle, i am not that ambitious, as long as i can hide my one pack i am happy. kekeke ~

St Nicks' Reunion lunch

2007-09-16T17:02:00.000+08:00

It has been a while since we last met each other, so I organized a lunch with my Secondary school classmates yesterday. It was my excuse to have dimsum too at Lei Garden. I was so pleased because all turned up except one. It is rare nowadays to get everyone together.

It's been nearly 20 (!!!) years since we last went to school together. But it's amazing that none of our personalities have changed much.

Except for JW on the left in the first picture, can you spot each of the 3 girls from the first picture in the 2nd picture? Kekekeke!

Little Paris in Little India

2007-09-11T23:04:00.001+08:00

Big wanted to try some French food so I suggested we check out the French Stall since I've heard so much about it.

The restaurant itself is like a French cafe. If you don't look out onto the road, you'd think you're in Paris. We had the onion soup, the chicken pate (delicious!). Big loved his pork chop and I had the braised duck (heavenly!). We both shared the profiterole. Oohh la la. I'd definitely go back there again!

An evening with the tai-tais

2007-09-07T22:56:00.000+08:00

Cooking Diva's birthday is approaching. Musa decided that we go wine-tasting for a change, instead of the usual fine dining. LOL! We chose to go to Wine Network at Dempsey Road.

I think it was probably my second time there. I go to Wine Company more often. The Wine Network was actually quite a cozy place. We ordered a bottle of white from South Africa and a red from NZ and a couple of platter dishes. It was divine, sitting on the verandah, sipping wine with cheese and gossiping. Kekeke!

Safra Bay Run 2007

2007-08-27T22:25:00.000+08:00

I took part in the 6K fun at the Safra Bay Run and Half Marathon this year. My last run was in Oct last year so I was a little apprehensive about running the 6K.

SK couldn't join me as planned because he had an important family commitment that day. I was ok with that since I had planned to run anyway. The weather was lovely that day and the sky was clear. The run started on the Esplanade bridge. It was so refreshing to run on Shenton Way. We then proceeded onto the ECP, then a little of the Sheares bridge, before turning into Suntec and then lastly to the floating stadium. It was shorter than I've expected. I took about 40 minutes to complete the run. Now, I have more confidence to prepare for the 10K run come October, which is a day after my trip to South Africa. Yikes!

Miss Mo goes to Buckaroos!

2007-08-26T22:49:00.000+08:00

One of the setbacks of dating is eating out more and getting fatter inevitably. I'm trying hard not to be part of that trend. It's tough though.

Just the other day, Big and I had planned to just have a simple dinner but we ended up at Buckaroos at Sembawang. We have both heard about this BBQ restaurant and we felt like having some ribs and it was near Sembawang beach so off we went.

The restaurant is really one of its kind in Singapore. It's quite laidback, very nice. We ordered a bread-bowl of mushroom soup. It was creamy and delicious. Then we ordered a full rack of ribs. It was huge! We couldn't finish it. However, the texture was mediocre. I thought Cafe Cartel had better and cheaper ribs!

But it's a great place to hang out and have some wings and ice cold beer.

To cum or not to cum, that is the question...

2007-08-24T15:45:00.000+08:00

Today in between my SMSes with my old pals from school who were planning a gathering at one of the girls' place, I got this SMS:
" M & S cannot cum, how about you? "

...erm...not sure about you, but i seriously didn't know what to reply...i guess the word "cum" just...erm was a bit raw for me esp in this SMS...and i understand most singaporeans like to use it mostly in the context below:

Cum [preposition]
with; combined with; along with (usually used in combination): My garage-cum-workshop is well equipped.

I guess after being in the United States for so long, I am used to how it's been used in the US (and Europe too...actually in many countries!!)...just can't help it...

Cum [noun]
Slang: Vulgar, sexual pornographic context...

In my opinion, I thought this context is quite globally understood, perhaps people should take care when using this word, you know what i mean...much embarrassment could be avoided. How should i present my case to my friend, who, in my terms, is still very sheltered from such vocabulary.

H E L P!!

NTUC Flair Price

2007-08-21T23:21:00.000+08:00

Read in the papers about the upscale NTUC joint in Bukit Timah and we were craving for some yummy procuitto and mozzarrella, so decided to drive out to get our hard-to-find ingredients.

Young Master says i am mad, when in New York i cook Asian food, and when we are back i want to cook Italian and those ang-mo food which ingredients are hard to find here. He says i should be making food that has ingredients easy to find in the locale we live in. Oh well...whatever...

Anyways, so hopefully NTUC the Posh version will not disappoint us...the place is still brand new. Staff are dressed in brown and orange-collared uniforms, quite pleasing looking. The place is not over-crowded like the usual NTUC joints...since everything is supposed to be higher-end, there's evident effort that NTUC has put in arranging and presenting the products. I kept seeing the cubical watermelons...maybe that's the only special item in the house? uhm...

In any case, we got our procuitto and cheeses but still think the selection isn't all that great. I guess our search is still on, for ingredients and YM's cheeses. Nonetheless, we had a terrific dinner, check it out:

BURP

How May I Helptch You

2007-08-19T19:17:00.000+08:00

SuperStar & Young Master were checking out East Coast Park this morning. I think it must be at least 15 years since i last went to East Coast. WOWZA~~! there's this huge establishment called Marine Cove that housed all the eateries and supposedly cool hang outs. We had brunch at this place called C_Nai Hong Kong Cafe -- food was whatever but there was this huge crowd...uhmmm. Anyways, there were many tents out there on the beach, seems that it's a trend to camp out in East Coast nowadays? Even just for the day? Reminds us of the Latino folks BBQing out in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, kekeke, quite funny.

Later we headed to Parkway Parade to complete our tour of duty. I needed some sports bra so this girl was helping me at one of the name-brand store. She was very helpful in her lian-ish Engrish. i was very happy with her service so I decided to take note of her name...uhm...and noticed her name tag says "Kinky Lian"...uhmmm...erm...do people ever check up the meaning of words before they christened themselves?? In this case, i thought was hilarious but had to pretend to look normal as i paid for my stuff. As usual, i SMS Miss Mo immediately of my funny experience...

My first Singapore concert in a long time!

2007-08-15T21:21:00.000+08:00

Miss Mo went to the first concert since her return to Singapore with Superstar, Musa and Mr Musa. It was the Gwen Stefani concert. I like her songs but don't know too many except for those popular ones. Nevertheless, I thought she would be fun during the concert.

The dancers at her concert looked as if they performed at those TCS variety shows. The dance moves seemed so dated, very last century. The female dancers were quite bad actually. Apparently, they were from Japan.

Gwen sang most of her songs from her solo albums. She seemed to be full of energy. She even went down the stage and to the audience. The highlight was she came so close to where we sat. It was worth the $150 we paid for each ticket.

Fine Dining at Labrador Park

2007-08-11T20:29:00.000+08:00

I had my first fine dining experience with Big at the Olive Ristorante at Labrador Park. The restaurant is al fresco and situated on the hillside. It's quite a romantic spot. We both ordered pasta dishes. My spaghetti carbonara was pretty good too. Yummy!

After dinner, we then toured the place around and discovered there was a spa and resort on top of the hill. The spot was lovely. We would check it out the next time.

City of Possibilities

2007-08-10T23:08:00.000+08:00

Yeah, that's the motto for this year's National Day Parade. Singapore is the City of Possibilities. I find it amusing.

Anyway, I got tickets to the National Day parade this year. This is the first time it's held at the floating stage by the Marina Bay. The military show was spectecular but the performances by those cultural groups or schools were kind of boring. Big and I had a good time nonetheless!

Survivor in Singapore

2007-08-02T23:00:00.000+08:00

Two thursday ago, I went out to reconnect with US past by having some drinks with these 2 American Californian dudes. The funny thing was they are not the typical Americans. Rene's Latino and Mike is Jewish. We decided to meet at Dempsey Hut.

I've not heard of Dempsey Hut even though Dempsey Road, aka Tanglin Village is now the hottest hangout area in Singapore. From the reviews on the internet, Dempsey Hut seems like a laid back chillout bar.

I arrived late and was surprised to see that we had a bigger party. There were these 3 big fat Americans (it's been some time I've seen big-sized people). Apparently, they all work at the US Embassy. The first thing that came across my mind was that they maybe the nasty consulates that I've heard so much about.

They are actually a bunch of friendly Americans and they were funny too, you know the usual American humor. I had lots of fun laughing at them and they had lots of fun making fun of Singaporeans too.

I would definitely go back to Dempsey Hut again. It's a very laidback relaxing outdoors bar, totally different from those pretentious trendy bars found further up the hill.

Saw this at Breadtalk

2007-07-23T22:45:00.000+08:00

I saw this at Breaktalk the other day and thought this was quite funny.

Hello Tweety!

2007-07-23T15:57:00.000+08:00

Hey, do you guys still remember the Jurong Bird Park? I guess most of us may have forgotten about it. I was there on Sunday and my trip there turned out to be pretty fun and interesting!

I went with SK (not II, just SK). We have been seeing each other for the past month and thought since we haven't been to the bird park since we were in primary school, we thought it'd be fun to pay a visit. You know the drill. At the beginning of the relationship, one would always do such activities like bird park, zoo, parks, etc. LOL!

The bird park is quite fun, even though there were only birds and just birds. But of all the birds, my favorites are still the owls (love them!), the eagles (bad @ss ones), penguins and the pelicans.

The admission fee was quite hefty though. For adults, it was $22, including the monorail ride. That's a lot of money just to see birds. Surprisingly, we spent about 5 hours in the park.

Pictures I Took with my Phone

2007-07-22T23:02:00.000+08:00

I saw this mural on a wall on one of the shophouses near Far East Square.

I bought this round sheep in Korea. Funny-looking, huh?

Strange people I saw on the MRT

More strange people I saw on the MRT. The one on the left looked like techno-coolie and the one on the right looked fat. Ooops!

Pop@ central = Popular bookstore. lol!

Food Library

2007-07-21T23:13:00.000+08:00

Check out the Food Republic at Suntec City. I was there for some dumpling noodles. Look, unlike other Food Republics, this one is designed like a library. The noodles I had was pretty good too and for $4, it is one of the cheapest dishes there.

Ember - A Year Later

2007-07-20T23:14:00.000+08:00

It has been a year since I last went to Ember restaurant at Hotel 1929. I have always liked the food and service there so I thought it was time that I should pay the restaurant a second visit. This time I went with Jean.

The experience was equally good this time. The food was excellent.

We both shared some scallops for the appetizer. Jean had the seabass for the main.

I had the oxtail for the main. It was simply delicious! I loved it. For the desserts, we had the apple tart with vanilla ice-cream (yummy!) and the chocolate cake with lavender ice-cream. The lavender flavor was a bit too strong for us.

But overall, we had a great dining experience. I'll definitely be back.

Clark Quay and Olivia

2007-07-18T23:15:00.000+08:00

Olivia is back for a 3-week vacation from DC. I took a day off to spend some time with her.

Here are some pictures I took from the foodcourt at The Central mall. It faces Clark Quay.

Olivia in front of a nice-looking Mesarati.

Le Papillon - still one of my favs

2007-07-14T15:25:00.000+08:00

It's been more than a year (maybe) since I was last at Le Papillon. I thought I should pay Mr Anderson a visit.

The red dot building has a couple of bars which were so crowded then. We were the first to be there. Just like before, the service staff were professional. The lady who served us the last time was gone. This time, it was a burly man but he had pretty good service too.

I ordered the Degustation menu, which was $60+++. I thought it was a pretty good deal too. The other 3 shared the cesar salad and the Hokkaido scallaps. For the main, Pee Pee had the Rigatoni pasta and the other 2 had the lamb. They all loved their food. I was so pleased.

They change the menu every quarter so I hope to go back there again someday. We enjoyed ourselves so much that I forgot the pictures!

2007-07-10T21:12:00.001+08:00

I saw this on Monday at the Vivocity theaters. So cute! Too bad, there wasn't someone who could take a picture of me sitting next to Homer!

I saw this the other day at the bus-stop near my house too.

Miss Mo goes Glam

2007-07-10T21:08:00.001+08:00

Last Saturday, Superstar and I went to Arab Street. Our intention is to check out the surrounding streets, the stores there and of course, Blu Jazz Cafe.

We really liked what we saw. The architecture in that area is really so colorful. We had dinner at this restaurant on Bussoroh Street. The service was really slow but luckily we had all the time to kill.

After that we proceeded to Blu Jazz Cafe. We both heard so much about it and it didn't disappoint us yet. The upstairs is kind of a funky bar, with a friendly Burmese waiter. He took a long time to make us 2 mojitos. It was kind of quiet for an early Saturday evening.

We then proceeded downstairs to its restaurant which had a stage for its jazz performances. The band was supposed to come on at 9.30pm but we waited and waited. We were then informed by yet another Burmese waiter that one of the members met with an accident and the performance was cancelled that evening. Oh well, just not our evening for jazz.

We really liked this area and will definitely return.

Back at Duxton Hill again

2007-07-10T21:04:00.000+08:00

Last Friday, Miss Mo, Cooking Diva and Musa went out for some fine dining at The universal .

The Universal is located on Duxton Hill, right across from Broth, the restaurant which I also recommend. That stretch of Duxton Hill is traffic-free and is quiet too. Picture Emerald hill sans people.

The first floor of the restaurant is actually a wine bar. Since Musa and I had to wait for Cooking Diva, we had a drink downstairs. We then proceeded upstairs to the dining area. At the front, there are 4 tables and we discovered a few more tables at the back of the building.

I ordered the set dinner ($65+++), which is not a bad deal. My soup was the cauliflower/mushroom cream soup. Delicious! My entree was braised veal cheek and my dessert was a chocolate fondant. Maybe my description of the dishes are not too accurate but the idea is there. LOL! Cooking Diva had the cod as the entree and a very successful souffle. Musa had her usual beef tenderloin.

The bread was homemade too and Musa had at least 4 pieces of them. Awesome bread. I had a NZ Chardonnay, which was pretty decent too.

It's a bit quiet on that stretch but it's a good place to chill with some friends.

Winter Sonata

2007-06-13T20:48:00.000+08:00

Hello! It's been a while since you see Miss Mo on this blog. Now, I'm back!

You see I was away early last month. I was with the Mo Seniors in Korea. We went all over Korea. The east and west coast, the middle of Korea and finally to the capital of Korea, Seoul. The tour brought us to places where popular Korean dramas were filmed, e.g. Winter Sonata.

We weren't too impressed with the food except for the bbq pork lunch we had on one of the days.

Doubt I'd go back there in the near future but I had fun!

French Open Fashion Round Up

2007-06-11T12:08:00.000+08:00

This year's French Open did not have too much of a fashion show to rave about. Rafa is still wearing his capri, Federer same bandana and Justine is still wearing her boring classic Adidas gear...here's just a few i thought worth sharing:

Best of Show: The Lacoste outfit donned by Alize Cornet is my favorite. Alas, Lacoste tennis outfits are hard to find outside Europe, which just reminded me of my lOoOong quest for Tatiana Golovin's Lacoste hot pants.

New Kid on the Block: A cute one worn by Ana Ivanovic, the Adidas ClimaCool® dress, it's a killer! I went and put one in the shopping cart at TennisWarehouse during the Finals but went back to watch, and right after the game ~~ wowza! all sold out!!! Man~ it was only going for $35!! DAMN~~~

Shirt Worth Mentioning: The Lacoste stripe shirt (but really so Paul Smith) that enchanted us throughout the match of Fabrice Santoro, it's hard not to like it, even though Santoro plays with wacky double forehand. Lacoste has once again done a fab job!

NO-NOs & FreakShow Awards.
Second Runner-up: Sharapova in her little black/blue lingerie

Runner-up: Serena, the gentle giant, personally-designed pink dress with bra showing (?!?!)

Grand Champion: I think it's because of her freaky serve and her fatness...the black band from the top just amplifies her belly...

Vastly Needs Improvement: For a good-looking dude like Tommy Robredo, could you stop wearing that outdated ugly gradated orange outfit by Sergio Taccky, it's seriously 80s tacky!

And he's not the only one wearing it. God, save my eyes!

Superstar's New Tennis Idol

2007-06-10T00:08:00.000+08:00

The French Open fever is raging ~ Miss Mo, Superstar and Young Master had been diligently following the matches everyday. Mostly inspiring to get us on to the courts to hit the ball like our idols. As usual, Young master aspiring to be Federer while i thought Miss Mo's style sort of resembles Serena Williams now. For me, i am still doing my single-backhand like Justine. kekeke ~

One of my latest spot is Novak Djokovic, the 20 year old talented Serbian youngster, whose funny antics caught my attention. You can't miss his animated expressions on the courts, and his smiley face damper on his racket. Before the Semi against Nadal, he wrote Vamos Novak on his shoes (since Nadal has his Vamos Rafa), cracks me up!! I think this guy has a lot of positive (and funny) energy going on. And there is this comedy sketch karaoke that he did for the 2007 French Open's "un jour à Roland"...sort of hilarious. OMG He is such a Joker-vic!~

Though he didn't beat fat-ass Nadal in the semis (ARGGH~!), he is certainly a shiny star!

I also like this one by Hewitt - Miss Mo and I were supporting Hewitt against Nadal.

And Federer, erm...who's Simply NOT the Best when it comes to singing, watch this:

For more clips to catch Justine, Serene's booty, Tommy Robredo, Nadal, see here. some of them are quite hilarious but you had better brush up your French ~ kekeke ~

LKY vs FLG

2007-06-04T21:10:00.000+08:00

I saw this demonstrator at the Dhoby Ghaut station the other day. It says 'LKY stops Fa Lun Gong, blah blah blah'. The first protestor I see in Singapore.

Miss Mo, Milkshake and Muse

2007-05-31T21:06:00.000+08:00

Hey there! I finally found a strawberry malt in Singapore. Muy Caliente and I went to Billy Bombers because I was craving for a burger and milkshake. I was so happy when they had my favorite strawberry milkshake. Yippee!
After dinner, we then proceeded to Muse Bar, this bar at the National Museum. It's quite a cool bar with cool seats. It was pretty quiet that evening. The service and the drinks they mixed were good too.

Next to it was Novus, a restaurant that has one of those long bars. I shall check it out next time. The menu looks expensive though.

Miss Mo Makans

2007-05-22T22:35:00.000+08:00

I had some delicious food recently.

Rambutans! My mom has never bought rambutans because she has always assumed that I don't like rambutans until a recent conversation that I told her that I've always loved rambutans but never have a chance to eat them because she never buys them. Kekekeke!

Whenever I ask her why she doesn't cook certain dishes, she always claims it is because I don't eat them. But if she doesn't cook them, how would she know that I don't eat them? Hmm...

I went to Toast last weekend. It is located at Ngee Ann City. I had the Chicken Masala wrap, which had chicken, mint leaves and mango. It was good but a little on the dry side. I had a big cuppa of joe, which they call 'Long White'. They only had nutella cupcakes left so I didn't get any.

I also went to Toast Box, which is the BreadTalk's version of Ya Kun Kaya Toast. It was my first time there. I ordered their Otah Toast, which is like Kaya Toast but with Otah and their bread is like the Challah bread, thick and not too soft. It was delicious; even the lady sitting next to me kept asking me whether it was good. Yummy!

Miss Mo's Book Club

2007-05-22T17:47:00.000+08:00

I've always loved reading but it has been sporadic. Sometimes, I am pretty diligent to read but sometimes when there are good TV programs, I'd tend to watch more than read.

I recently returned to book reading after realizing that reading Today on the MRT was totally a waste of my time. I like the library @ Esplanade because it is close to work. However, it only has books that are related to movies but I think I've exhausted all the movie books I want to read. That day, I happened to be at Takashimaya so I stopped by the Library @ Orchard.

I'm in love with this library now. It has so many books I would love to read and most are new. It's too bad that I can only borrow 4 at a time and I guess that is the max. I can read in 3 weeks without incurring a fine.

Here are the 4 books I borrowed -
The Debutante Divorcee by Plum Sykes. It's about newly divorced ladies in New York. This book is fun to read. I have previously read Sykes' Bergdorf Blondes and thought it was hilarious.

Similar to this book, I also recently read 2 bimbo books by Emily Griffin - Something Borrowed and Something Blue. It's also about relationships in New York and London. Very bimbo but fun to read. I got these 2 books from Miss Wolf and I have since lent it to my girlfriends and they all love them.

Hardboiled and Hard Luck by Banana Yoshimoto. I have previously read books by this Japanese lady and find her writing very simple and direct.

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. It's about a 30-something Brit guy falling out of love. Sounds like fun reading!

The Waiting Years by Fumiko Enchi. Another Japanese author. I was struck by the cover of the book which featured a Japanese lady in a traditional kimono. It is a book about a women tortured by her husband in the olden times and the book was donated by the Japan Institute so I guess it intrigued me.

My MRT rides aren't that mundane after all.

Eating Nem in Nam

2007-05-15T14:21:00.000+08:00

It was the day after Miss Mo's birthday and Superstar and her were off to Nam. After watching so many Vietnam war movies, I was really looking forward to finally visit this country.

Our Silkair flight was very pleasant because it was half empty. We both gorged down the curry rice and had some fine wine. The plane touched down at the Danang Airpok, a 70s-looking building. We were the only plane on the tarmac. The immigration took forever to make clearance. It took a very very long time.zzz...

After haggling with the taxi drivers for a good price to get to our hotel at Hoi An (so annoying!), we were finally on route to Hoi An via Danang. Danang doesn't have much appealing stuff to offer except that it has these cool South Beach art-deco-looking buildings. So trendy, so un-Vietnam!

Our hotel for the first night in Hoi An was basic although the service weren't too trusting and the breakfast needed lots of room for improvement. We had to go to its sister hotel next door for breakfast.

Hoi An is a lovely old town. It is somewhat like Malacca but only in Vietnam. It has a stinky river with nice little restaurants and cool bars. Several stores sell beautiful lanterns and some are art galleries. There are also assembly halls of different dialects and wet market and the famous Japanese bridge.

Our highlight of visiting Hoi An was staying at Ha An Hotel on our last night of our Vietnam trip. I chose to stay here after reading good reviews on the internet. I would say the reviews were very accurate. The hotel is like a sanctuary amidst the hustle and bustle of Hoi An town and it wasn't dusty! That was such a relief for us! The room was so inviting and the courtyard provided a place to relax. The breakfast spread was amazing and we absolutely had no complaints about this hotel. In fact, we highly recommend this place the next time you visit Hoi An.

On our second day in Vietnam, we took a 3 hour bus ride to Hue, the former capital of Vietnam. On the way to Hue, we stopped by 2 tourist spots - Marble Mountains, which is a range of 5 mountains made of marble and Lang Co beach resort, which was absolutely the most miserable beach resort I've ever seen. We also passed by the famous Hai Van pass, except now there is a new tunnel, which was so long and stinky too. Our main purpose to visit Hue was to visit the Citadel, the imperial palace of the fallen empire. I guess Hui was somewhat like the rest of Vietnam, full of traffic, dust, hustlers, etc. It was a drastic change from the serenity of Hoi An as the old town doesn't allow cars.

Something strange happened when our bus arrived at Hue. I didn't inform the hotel where and when our bus was arriving but somehow, someone from the hotel was there to pick us up. We were so grateful to see the guy because there were lots of scooter-taxis trying to offer us a ride for probably a lot of money.

It took us a while walk from our hotel, cross the Perfume river (it certainly didn't smell of perfume at all) to reach the Citadel after encountering a few Cyclos people. So annoying! The old palace didn't look nice from outside the walls. It looked dirty and not maintained. The worst was the entrance fee was 55,000 dong, which was kind of a lot in Vietnam standard. We contemplated for half hour outside the gate on whether we should spend that money but it was only 2pm and we didn't know what else to do. Alas, we decided to take the risk. Surprisingly, even though the palace was, as expected, not as majestic as the Forbidden City, the ruins turned out to be pretty nice on our pics! Kekeke!

The highlight of our trip was of course the meals that we had. We mainly patronized tourist restaurants because the hawkers did not have gas to heat their food so that was kind of scary. We savored Hoi An's unique dishes like Cao Lau and White Rose. I can't remember the other one. We also had various types of spring rolls (Nem), pho, fried rice, dishes wrapped in banana leaves, etc. We also tried their crepes and of course, the good old Vietnamese coffee. I think we spent an average of 60,000 dong per meal.

Hoi An has some cool bars. I can't think of anywhere else in Singapore that was like those bars. It's like some colonial bar, maybe like Long Bar at Raffles Hotel. It was a refuge for us to escape from the scorching afternoon sun in Hoi An. The drinks were so cheap too. Wine by the glass cost US$2.50 and beer was about 8000 dong. Cheap!

Besides the tourist attractions, the uniqueness of Hoi An's street scenes enabled Superstar to take millions of pics. Here are only a handful of them, some of them showing vendors taking naps in the middle of the day. Most of them are vendors counting money.

Overall, it was a good trip, albeit the heat and dust. I was pretty disciplined in my shopping too. I bought a lacquer painting of Hoi An town from this Korean-looking lady who pronounced 8 like the Aussies do. In fact, all of them pronounce 8 that way. We also bought napping Buddhas, which I haggled from US$17 to US$7. Kekekeke! We also spent too much time at the lantern shop, buying various sorts of lanterns. They were irresistible! Superstar even bought a shopping bag for Supermom too! Yeah!

Happy Birthday, Miss Mo!

2007-05-08T09:05:00.000+08:00

Nice Blue Sky!

2007-05-06T20:50:00.000+08:00

I took these picture on my way to brunch. Not bad, huh? Taken with the world's oldest digital camera.

Meet Joe Schmoe!

2007-05-06T19:51:00.000+08:00

Today, after having brunch with Cooking Diva and Musa, I rushed to meet Joe Schmoe. This was our first meeting. Joe is someone who contacted me online. He speaks English, not Singlish, loves EPL, runs and I think that's about it. LOL! He's a walking wikipedia on EPL!

I chose to meet at Wiener Kaffeehaus since I have heard of this place and have always wanted to check it out. It was indeed nice and cosy. It reminded me of those coffee houses in Manhattan, except it's newer and has less cobwebs.

I ordered the Melange, a Viennese cappucino and Joe ordered a 'Wake me up' coffee. His coffee really looked dark and strong! I guess he probably would be staying up late tonight! He also had an apple strudel, which looked delicious. Kaffehaus also serves food. Guess I'd drop by here for some goulash next time.

Joe had pretty good table manners. I've seen worse. Oh, did I tell you that Triplet once used a straw to pick his teeth because there wasn't any toothpick. He did it right in front of me at the table. He could have at least gone to the bathroom, right? Urrgh!

I won't tell you much about Joe Schmoe because it is still premature. If you read about him in my future blogs, you'd know the answer.

Hey Shorty! It's My Birthday!

2007-05-06T19:43:00.000+08:00

Yeah! My birthday is finally approaching. Hey, since I can't help growing a year older (none the wiser), I should celebrate being wiser, right?

My lovely coworkers organized a birthday lunch for me on Friday, when all the big bosses were out. I chose to go to Shin Kushiya, a Japanese grill restaurant at Vivocity. A couple of us ordered the set lunch, which consisted of sticks of meatballs, mushrooms, asparagus, chicken teriyaki, miso soup and rice. All for less than $20, which was pretty decent. I was so happy that they wanted to celebrate my birthday. The best thing was they even bought me a surprise birthday lychee cake! Yippee! Happy!

In the evening, I went to AllyMc to check out this restaurant Pier Eleven, which is situated at the Marina South Pier. It serves European food (I think) but the good thing about the restaurant is it has a romantic atmosphere of facing the waters and watching the boats dock. These boats go to the southern islands. I would check out these islands one of these days.

Saturday, I met up with my twin for high tea at Melt Cafe, one of the newer buffet places at the newly renovated Mandarin Oriental hotel at Marina Bay. The spread was mainly desserts and sweets with a small section of hot food. We still prefer the good old buffet with lots of hot food so doubt we'd return to Melt for high tea.

In the evening, I proceeded to Holland Village to meet up with the ex-quitters of Singapore. It happened to be May 5 so we chose to celebrate at Cha Cha Cha, a Mexican restaurant. It was not a fancy restaurant but the service was pretty slow. I guess they were shorthanded. Anyway, we ordered margaritas and cheers to me being forever beautiful!

The food was so-so but I always like Mexican food; the cheese, the meat, the tacos, the beans and the rice. Delicious! Thanks to the ex-quitters! Hurray!

Sunday, another round of birthday celebrations. This time, I met up with Cooking Diva and Musa for brunch at Pierside Restaurant and Bar at One Fullerton. It just started serving brunch last month so I was so eager to try their Eggs Benedict. True to my expectations, they serve pretty decent eggs benedict. Musa ordered her wagyu beef burger with foie gras and truffle creme. Delicoius! Cooking Diva ordered a crayfish omelette. We all had our mimosas, martinis, mojitos and caprinhas. It was a great dining experience. It was really nice just to hang out on a Sunday afternoon. By the time we left around 3pm, we were the only ones left in the restaurant!

I really enjoyed my birthday weekend! Thanks to all my friends and coworkers. Getting fat was worth it. Another dinner tomorrow and more to come in Vietnam!

Lazy Labor Day

2007-05-01T20:45:00.000+08:00

An ice cold beer...

at the most crowded mall on earth...

that's how Miss Mo and Superstar spent their Labor Day!

Sporty weekend!

2007-04-29T21:16:00.000+08:00

I didn't do much this weekend. I wanted to take it easy after that long rafting weekend in Ipoh last weekend.

I went to Bayshore Park for tennis on Saturday night. I've heard so much about this place called Bayshore but have never really stepped into it. Apparently, there are 2 condos. The older one is called Bayshore Park, where I played tennis and the legendary one is The Bayshore which is next to it.

Anyway, Bayshore Park is massive by itself. The apartment buildings have names like Emerald, Jade, Ruby, Aquamarine, etc. The buildings are like 50 storeys tall. Massive!

This evening, I went running again at Bedok Reservoir. I think this was my second time to Bedok in my whole life. I drove and was a little lost but managed to find my way there. I would say that place is really nice to run. There's a gravel and also tarmac path. The whole path is around 4.8km long. Maybe I'll try the Bishan park this weekend!

Bintan Jalan Jalan

2007-04-25T23:51:00.000+08:00

This is the trip that Miss Mo decided to give a miss and went up to Ipoh instead. Young Master and myself were about to drop this trip as well, due to an imminent last minute project deadline. Nonetheless, we decided we really needed the break and so lugged along our PowerBooks.

The Ferry ride was pretty smooth and it was a pleasant surprise when we reached Mayang Sari, the resort we were staying at. It's been a long time since we last saw beaches! Seriously!!

Within the first hour we arrived, we fell fast asleep on a hammock along the beach for over an hour! That was how exhausted and burnt-out we were!

In any case, it was really nice to dip into the waters, as it was not very deep and seemingly clean and uncrowded. Our chalet was right by so it was really awesome as it was as if the beach was our private beach!

We kept to the waters and beach most of the time though the scorching heat and grilling rays were relentless. Half the time we were in our room banging out work due on the looming deadline. Yep, we paid for the wireless service for both days at a rate of $35/day. At least there was internet, if not, i think we will be doomed! Gosh!

Food was so-so, and since it was all in Singapore Dollars, I think it wasn't that worth-while at all for the quality of food that was available.

One thing that i noticed was all the Ralph Lauren Polo outlets with authenticity i was kinda dubious about. Finally i realised they were the real deal made in the Indonesian factories, prices are not cheap either. Comparatively, i got better deals on eBay or Hong Kong.

Oh i must say that the sky at night was always full of stars, a rarity in New York, with all the pollution, even in Singapore i don't think we see much of these. Our last night was spent at the cafe by the beach under the starry night (and scores of mosquitoes!). Though we didn't see many people around, most of the better tables were reserved!

I must say this was a pretty good trip even though we had to work. It was great to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and be doing (almost) nothing except soaking in the sun and sea water!

Check out more pictures on my Flickr.

Ipoh Hor FUN!

2007-04-24T00:31:00.000+08:00

I have always wanted to go to Ipoh, Perak to try out the rafting there. But the long bus ride has always deterred me. Last weekend, I finally took the courage to endure the long bus ride to Ipoh.

The bus departed from New Park Hotel on Kitchener Road. It's in the heart of Little India. I never knew such a hotel existed and it's a pretty big building too. Oh, I happened to see lots of their guests were Indian. Kekeke! The coach I was taking was a Super VIP bus but the seats didn't come with individual TV screens but each of us had a blanket and a bottle of water.

Eight hours later, we finally arrived at the sleepy town of Ipoh. It was only 5am. AFter washing up at the hotel, we proceeded to the nearby dim sum restaurant for breakfast.

Here's the view from my hotel room. Ipoh's landscape looks like Singapore but 20 years ago. That's our dim sum restaurant. It opens at 6am and there were many tables filled already. Amazing! Not very appetizing dim sum though.

We went to the town of Gopeng for our rafting. Here're our guides. They look so tiny. The surrounding was so serene. The rapids were Class III but I have had worse so it was fun but not too challenging. This annoying guy kept telling me how to row. It seemed that he kayaks so he 'knows'. It was his first time rafting. Blah!

AFter a delicious Malay lunch, we proceeded to Gua Tempurung. It is the largest limestone cave in SEA (I think). From the outside, it looked like any ordinary hill. However, once we were inside, it was a big hollow cave. We took a guided tour that took up up and down the steps in the cave. The guide pointed out the stones that looked like objects. zzzz...I nearly feel asleep because it was kind of boring. But we weren't prepared for the second part of the tour. The guide then guided us beyond the railing into the crevices and that started out River Adventure tour in the cave. We went through narrow gaps, crawled under low-lying rocks on all fours in the water, all the while holding a tiny flashlight! We also had to slide down steep slopes. It was like in an Indiana Jones movie! It was so much fun. My legs and knees were so sore from crawling in the cave!

In the evening, we returned to Ipoh. For dinner, we had Ipoh Hor fun at a local restaurant, which was packed! It cost me about 7RM. So cheap! I had a drink which was barley with corn. It was so delicious!

The next morning, we went to the hot springs at Sg. Klah, near the border of Perak and Selangor. I love hot springs but somehow, it seemed strange when the weather was already so hot. But it was still enjoyable to soak in it for a while.

We had some free time in the afternoon before heading back to Singapore. So we went to watch a Malay horror movie, Jangan Pandang Belakang. We checked that it had English subtitles before purchasing the 8RM tickets. So cheap! It was those pontanak kind of horror movie. Quite exciting. It was reportedly one of the popular movies in recent Malay movie history.

So it was a fun and relaxing trip. My legs are still sore but it was a good trip and the 8-hour bus ride didn't seem that long after all. But doubt I would go back to Ipoh again in the near future.

My busy yet normal Sunday

2007-04-15T23:59:00.000+08:00

I didn't really do anything special today but just did some touristy things and revisited some places I haven't been for the longest time.

I played tennis for a couple of hours this morning. It was a good rally with a couple of guys. Then I cooled down, took a shower and rushed down to Hard Rock Cafe to meet up with Muy Caliente.

I have been craving for Pulled Pork sandwich and he told me that they had it at HRC. He was craving for a Reuben sandwich and I found out that Seah Street Deli has it. So our plan was to share each sandwich at these 2 places.

Oh my, I can't believe the last time I was at HRC, it was probably 15 years ago. I would say the decor is still the same. However, I was surprised indeed. The place was packed on a Sunday afternoon. It was filled with mostly tourists and family with little children. Our dish came and oh my, it was heavenly. Now, I'm satisfied.

We went to Tanglin Shopping Centre to check out this other deli Steeple's, that served Reuben. Alas it was closed on Sunday. So we decided to go to Raffles Hotel in the end. We met up with Travis, Muy Caliente's friend who's here in town for business.

We went to the Long Bar for a drink. It was packed with tourists and I think I was the only local in the bar. LOL! They both ordered, what else but, the Singapore sling. I ordered a mojito. We talked for a while before I had to rush off for my run at Bedok Reservoir. The Reuben just got to wait.

I managed to find my way to the Reservoir without getting lost and I was on time. Yes! The group was about 8 of us. It took me about 27 minutes to finish running the perimeter, which was about 4.3km. I slowed down a little at the end but I didn't stop, which was good.

So, here I am, writing this but ready to call it a day. I'm totally pooped.

Sat at East Coast

2007-04-15T00:16:00.000+08:00

This morning, I went with Buttercups to the ECP for biking. We arrived and had some McCafe coffe, which was cheap and delicious! It took us about 40 mins to bike to the end of the path. It was nice and breezy and we caught up with each other along the way.

We then proceeded to Parkway Parage for lunch. Here, I finally checked out CAffebar. This is a coffee place with a big bar. We had the set lunch. I had ciabatta bread, mushroom souch, and a spaghetti carbonara. Buttercups had the spaghetti aglio and olio. For the price, I thought the food was great. The coffee was so aromatic. If I'm in the vicinity, I'd definitely go back to Caffe Bar again.

People with 2 first names

2007-04-14T23:54:00.000+08:00

Friday night, I went with my girlfriend C to The Central. We wanted to check out the new Tom Ton restaurant, which serves black pig tonkatsu. Alas, all reservations were full for that evening.

So we proceeded with our Plan B. We decided to check out Reif + James, this new restaurant at Robertson Quay. It just opened a couple of months ago. I've walked past it once and thought it looked nice from outside.

This Indian manager welcomed us to our table. He was wearing a dark shirt and a silver suit without a tie. I thought it was inappropriate because it's not very professional looking, and it's like showing off his chest hair. I kept imagining his chest hair would fall into my soup. Yikes! I thought he should put on a tie and look as professional as the waiters in the restaurant.

Speaking of which, the waiters were very attentive and professional. Not those teenager waiters at other restaurants. They really knew the job. We really had good service.

They first served us delicious bread. Then we had extras of sweet potato/tapioca chips, which was home-made. Then they gave us cauliflower cream topped with caviar with shrimp and avocado. Delicious! We both had a glass of wine which was excellent . We shared the the appetizer - Grilled octopus with lychee and home-made chilli. There was some salad that came with it. Our mains were same. It was crab meat cooked in linguine with spicy sauce. It was heavenly! We were too full for desserts. However, they gave us some chocolate syrup and a piece of heart-shaped chocolate too!

Oh, when we were leaving, the Indian manager told us that he was the James in the Reif+James. His business card put James Charles. I have something about people with 2 first names. It's kind of strange, don't you think? Apart from that, the dining experience was very good. I highly recommend it.

Ministers' Pay hike

2007-04-09T21:55:00.000+08:00

Recently, the papers kept talking about the imminent payrise of the ministers'. Even the President get a payrise too.

In defence of the goverment, here was what MM Lee said.
"The cure to all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government," Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew told the Straits Times on Thursday, adding that it is "absurd" for Singaporeans to quarrel about ministerial pay and warning that Singapore would suffer it the government could not pay competitive salaries.

"Your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people's countries," he said.

Hmm...guess, if we don't pay the ministers, I'd probably end up as a maid in another country.

I also read this comment from the many who voiced their opinios on the payrise of Singapore ministers. This is quite funny.

Pay rise for me, HR said they can find cheaper and better candidate elsewhere!
I did one of the most difficult job in a pharmaceutical company that no one can do. I commented that I was not paid enough for this kind of high level work that demands lots of time, knowledge, and of course, right talent. The HR laughed and told me to please find another company. They can find a cheaper candidate from anywhere. My boss said he has a budget to stick to. The company is rated number 1 in profits.

I came also from the civil service, and feel that the people stay there because they are mostly afraid to find work outside once they are comfortable with the power and pay. I chose to leave it because I cannot grow to be a talent in it unless I am a scholar. Now, two do the same job, but the scholar will be rewarded more in promotion, and pay rise.

I cannot remember having such a high pay rise without any form of sacrifice?

In the private world, I have to endure risk of retrenchment, up against empty headed 'foreign talents', going back to be ridiculed by the army as reservists on weekends and at career and family time, high cost of living standards, and maintaining a poorly design less than 60 years lease left HDB resale flat.

Fish Food and then an extended running route!

2007-04-08T22:34:00.000+08:00

This morning, I did a little sport with the Fort Lees. Well, one can't really say bowling is a sport but I guess it's under the category of sporting skills, eg golf, archery, etc.

Star Bowl is situated on the 8th floor of Textile Centre on Jalan Sultan. I know it sounds a bit dodgy. I doubt I've ever stepped into that building in my whole life prior to today! The stores in that building were all closed today. It was dark and quiet. Alas, Star Bowl looked spanking new and clean. It wasn't even musky or smoky at all. Each game was only $2. The shoes were $1.20. We couldn't believe it. It was dirt cheap!

Four games later, we ended up at Toa Payoh Lorong 2. Mrs Fort Lee read that there's a coffee shop that sells imported codfish. The dishes were so-so but I ate too much, as always.

So this evening, I did an extended run. It was sort of to prepare me for the Real Run Terrain Race at Bedok reservoir. I'm still thinking of whether I should take part in it. Still thinking...

Ramen overload

2007-04-08T00:01:00.000+08:00

After having ramen at Tampopo last night, I was still thinking of that Marutama ramen restaurant at The Central. So I decided to go check out the place.

Wow! There was a line outside the restaurant. Thankfully, there were seats at the bar so I quickly grabbed it. I was too hungry to want to stand in line. I guess it's pretty popular place since on my left, there was a Japanese family of 5 and on my right, there was a Japanese chap. We all waited patiently for our ramen.

I ordered the spicy broth with char siu. After waiting for probably 15 mins, it finally arrived. I was so hungry. The broth was delicious! The Char Siu was so tender and the ramen was very springy! I would say, it was better than the ramen I had at Tampopo. However, I still want to try the Kyushu pork soup ramen at Tampopo.

Overall it was a satisfying bowl of ramen. However, I'm not a ramen connoisseur. I've yet to try Ken Ramen. It seems like everytime I go, it's always closed! There are a few Japanese restaurants near Marutama. I can't wait to check them out!

Easter in Desaru

2007-04-07T18:00:00.000+08:00

It was Good Friday and Muy Caliente wanted to check out Desaru so he asked me along. It was only going to be a daytrip, just to check out the place.

We took the ferry at the Changi Ferry Terminal. This isn't the same terminal at Changi Village. In fact, it's at some ulu place along Changi Coast Road, beyong Tanah Merah terminal.

We took the noon ferry and arrived at Tg Bekungloh terminal just before 1pm. Because we didn't join any resort package, we were left stranded at the terminal with no transportation. I only changed 100 ringgit and Muy Caliente only had nine dollars with him. We were offered taxi service at 50 ringgit 1 way. We were laughing because it was a nightmare come true! I had only 100 ringgit; that would mean taxi for 2 way! LOL! We had to eat at a hotel, else risk not able to get back to Singapore.

Desaru was kind of far from the terminal. We were dropped off at Golden Sand resort and we quickly found our spot on the beach. The sea was choppy. Apparently, according to the locals, the earthquake off Solomon Islands was the cause of it. It turned out to be nice because the waves made it more fun to swim in the sea. There were surfers too. However, jetskis weren't allowed since the water wasn't calm enough.

We had seafood lunch at the restaurant. The seabass was so fresh and the spicy sauce made it more appetizing. After hanging out on the beach, we went to the hotel pool and had pina coladas. I love the feeling of sipping pinas by the beach. It reminded me of my trip in Bali with Leon Lai.

We took a taxi service back to the terminal, just in time for the 7pm ferry back to Singapore. We were hungry then so we went to have Paella. Delicious!

Doubt I would go back to Desaru in the near future. The place, like most places in Malaysia, is run-down and not well-maintained. But i guess it's cheaper than the resorts in Bintan so it still may be a good place just to relax for the weekend!

Bitching about dates

2007-04-07T17:30:00.000+08:00

I'm kind of in a foul nasty mood today. Maybe I haven't had food so that's why I'm a little cranky.

Anyway, on Thurday evening, I went out with Ah Bui. Remember Ah Bui? He's the SAF security clearance guy. I wanted to eat Ramen and he proposed to meet at Clark Quay MRT to bring me to a secret place that have good Ramen. I was expecting the Miharu ramen at Gallery Hotel so I asked him. He said no, it wasn't. I figured he hasn't been there.

I was running late and when I reached the station at 6.30pm, he wasn't there. @#$@#$! I called and he said he was on his way. He was the one who suggested meeting earlier. Not a good start to the evening.

He suggested taking a tour of this new mall, Central. I thought the Ramen shop was in the mall. I saw this Marutama Ramen restaurant but he said this wasn't the restaurant we were going. But he refused to say where it was at first until I persisted. It was Tampopo restaurant at the basement of Liang Court lah. Aiyah, say so lah! So we took a tour of the mall and we came upon a branch of Sun and Moon Japanese restaurant. He said it was new and I said it's not new, I've tried the one at Wheelock Place and also the one at Chjimes. He was shocked that I actually have been to these places and not him. LOL! As we were walking along the riverbank, I commented that Central mall has many Japanese restaurants. He said that yeah, look, even the mall looks like the Japanese harujuku. Later, I found out that he hasn't even been to Japan. Hmm...

So we proceeded to Tampopo restaurant at Liang Court. It wasn't a restaurant that sold just Ramen. I had the spicy ramen and it wasn't too bad. Apparently, the restaurant is famous for the Kyushu pork soup ramen. The broth is boiled over 2 days and the restaurant only sells 20 bowls a day. After dinner, he suggested we tour the Meideya supermarket because he wants to look at the sushi and sashimi. Hmm...strange. I told him that there's an ice-cream place that sells delicious green-tea ice-cream by the supermarket. He said he didn't see it the last time he was there. Duh! If he didn't see it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. To show him that it does exit, I bought him a scoop of ice-cream from that place.

We walked to Robertson Quay since I told him I prefer it to Clark Quay. He agreed and also decided to 'show' me the area. To his surprise, I was pointing out the restaurants I've been to in that area and it seems that he hasn't been to any. Then why would he want to 'show' me around? He even wanted to introduce me to the Gallery Hotel but he led the wrong way and I had to show me the right way and was showing him the different restaurants at the hotel!

He asked me what I wanted to drink. I said probably wine but I've been trying out whiskey lately. He said 'oh, I know this place that you should go'. I said whether it was Highlander. I told him I've been there. LOL! I even commented and asked whether he thought I don't go out at all. LOL! In the end, I opted to have a Chimay Rouge at Brussels Sprout restaurant. The place is quite pretentious. We sat at the bar and the bartenders were pretty friendly and nice, unlike feedback from Travelnutz that the service was bad.

I feel that I had to keep quiet or act dumb in front of Ah Bui whilst he goes about 'showing' me what he thinks he knows. Else, I would be so annoyed! Ah Bui's is not a show-off person by nature but what he thinks he knows is very little compared to what is out there. Perhaps he probably thinks I don't go out much. It seems the way the guys in Singapore are. They think they have a certain knowledge, eg current affairs, general knowledge but actually I know more than them and the fact that they don't recognize this fact has been a little annoying for me.

Do you agree with that?

OK, so I was supposed to go out with Triplet tonight and he bailed out on me! That is because he was waiting to hear from his mahjong kaki to see whether there would be a mahjong session in the evening. I told him tactfully that he should have told me earlier and not make plans with me. He said he didn't know it was confirmed that we were meeting on Saturday. WTF! I think I'm going to dump him. Do you think I'm too rash. First, this is not the first time that mahjong takes priority over dating. Second, it's mahjong! That's so old people game. At least poker sounds better. Third, that's gambling so it's red flag for me. I know I've been picky in the past for not trying the relationship but do you think this time I should do it? Guess what! Triplet just text messaged me to say he just finished his mahjong session! He's still clueless!

It's Hossan Leong's Wedding

2007-04-01T00:18:00.000+08:00

It was Hossan Leong's wedding on Sunday. Not! Gotcha! Ha! Techno-coolie does look like Hossan Leong. Yeah, he and Jess were solemnized by this scary Justice of Peace on Sunday at a lunch reception. The way she sounded made me fear getting married. I doubt I would hire her. Shivers!

Oh, it was Superstar's birthday too!

Not much to say, the pictures speak for themselves!

A day with the Desperate Housewives

2007-03-31T21:13:00.000+08:00

Saturday, I had an extremely busy schedule, most of which was spent with desperate housewives. Ha! Literally!

I played tennis in the morning. Then I went home for a light lunch and a shower and off I went to PS Cafe at Paragon to meet 2 desperate housewives, Cooking Diva and Marathon Mom. LOL!

It was my first time at PS Cafe and it was surprisingly good. The decor and the people reminded me a lot of cafes in Manhattan, especially those in downtown. I had the Laksa Pesto pasta. It was delicious. It was sort of east meet west but very appetizing. It went well with my Chardonnay. Cooking Diva had a cesar salad and Marathon Mom had a beef sandwich, not sure whether it was pastrami. Anywho, we were really satisfied with the food and service. We have heard bad things about the service at the one on Dempsey Road.

We were walking towards the MRT station when 2 Temasek polytechnic girls stopped me. They were holding cameras and wanted to take pictures of how I reacted after one of them uttered a comment. So I waited and one of them said "I think you're very beautiful!" I wanted to show the 'Yeah-I-knew-that-already-face' but changed my mind instead and showed them a surprised yet happy face. How fake but I just took it as the truth and it made my day. LOL!

Then Marathon Mom and I rushed to Raffles city for the River Island fashion show. It was held in conjunction with the Singapore Fashion Festival, which I think came and went away without much mayhem. The models were flown in from the UK. The clothes were very brit. I would say British high street fashion is forever the same! Ha! The show lasted for about 20 mins, which was just nice because I was getting bored.

Next, I rushed to Costa Rhu for a Desperate Housewives' bbq. The food were yummy! Wings, shrimps, beef, portebello mushrooms, fish fingers. I'm hungry already! It was to celebrate Superstar's postbox project and also her birthday too. Hurray!

Cheers to all desperate housewives!

Cool chicks reunion

2007-03-26T21:05:00.000+08:00

My cousin Iris came back to Singapore for a short visit from Sydney. We arranged to meet at Highlander for a whiskey drink, together with her twin sister Brenda. They are like sisters to me and I was so happy that we could get together. You see, Iris lives in Australia now. Brenda just had a baby so she's busy with her schedule too. It's kind of fortunate now that Brenda and I are in Singapore. It used to be when Brenda was in Singapore, Iris was in Australi and I still back in the US. So, that's why I took this picture. I also had 2 glasses of Laphraoig 10 year which was $30 per glass! Yikes!

Back to PU

2007-03-24T20:46:00.000+08:00

It's been maybe a year since I last was at Pulau Ubin. I really enjoyed riding the bike there the last time. I have been having difficulty finding company to go there. So I was so happy when Muy Caliente agreed to go there with me!

PU is so rustic and the island is big enough that it is not crowded. It's only a five minute boat ride from Changi Village, which itself is nice too. I hope to check out the Cantina restaurant at the Changi Village Hotel (formerly known as Le Meridien).

We arrived on the island around 1pm. We rented our bikes and then started our bike journey round the island. Muy Caliente has spent a couple of years in West Africa planting trees so he was very familiar with the plants surrounding us. We took uncharted routes, which always led us to the sea. We also went into the prohibited state land and found a group of fishermen, quietly fishing in the pond. Finally, at 5pm, after too much biking, we had dinner at the restaurant by the jetty. It was a luxury to be sitting there having an ice cold beer and just looking out to the waters. Very soothing too as we watched the sky turned red as the sun set.

After dinner, we rode a little more before we returned out bikes. We took the bumboat back to the mainland. A tiring Saturday, no doubt but a fulfilling one.

Dining next to the Tarmac

2007-03-18T20:41:00.000+08:00

I was at Sunset Grill on Sunday. I was kind of craving for a burger so I decided to take a road trip there with Muy Caliente. It was early evening and was crowded as usual. The funny thing was there was a big @ss plane just next to the restaurant. It was surreal!

Il Postino

2007-03-12T11:11:00.000+08:00

Superstar have become a Singapore star! In the recent Design your postbox competition, organized by the Singapore Post, her design was one of the top 40. So she got to have her design painted on a postbox. Yesterday, we all went down to support her at Orchard Road.

Look at all the paint that was prepared for that day. There were altogether 14 (?) colours to be painted on the postbox.

Look! Even the couple newly in love came to support Superstar too. They could have spent their time by themselves but they chose to come join in the fun!

Notice the butt cracks in the pictures. Hey, they were hard at work so what cared about being exposed.

Little Ashley was an active participant in painting the postbox. She was such a helper!

We all had fun. I can't wait to see the final postbox!

Check out SuperStar's Site

Miss Mo gets back to dating

2007-03-03T21:40:00.000+08:00

Now that the Kacang Puteh NY chapter are safely back in NY, Miss Mo resumes her dating quest. According to fortune-teller, in the year of the Pig, Miss Mo would have lots of plum flower luck. Let's hope she would find some good plum flower.

This weekend, Miss Mo has a different date on Friday, Saturday and Sunday!

First, there is Muy Caliente. MC is a US hispanic guy that I met online. Friday was our first date. MC decided to meet at Vivo since it was near where I work. We had dinner at Brotzeit, a German restaurant. It was packed. The crowd wasn't hip, just people after work. The waiters were all skinny Malays. Strange! We decided to share the dishes after looking at the large portions that people were having. We had chicken sausages. The portion was small but the 4 tiny chicken sausages were scrumptious. We also ordered the veal goulash. The portion was again small but it was delicious! MC was taking lots of it! We had some chocolate dessert which was ok. Did I mention that the beer was yummy too! There after, we went over to St James Peppermint Park for drinks. Peppermint Park is this outdoors bar area which has nice looking sets of seats. We chose to sit on a bed-like seat. Out of courtesy, I bought him a drink. It was a good date but who knows whether there would be a second date.

Saturday, I had a second date with Ah Bui. Ah Bui is another match guy. Ah Bui works in SAF as a security clearance guy. Ah Bui loves to eat so he was delighted when I said that I love checking out various restaurants. Since I had tennis in the morning so by the time we met, it was late afternoon. The bad thing in Singapore is most restaurants close for lunch by 2pm but Ah Bui managed to find a restaurant in the Bt timah area that serves meals all day long.

We met at 6th avenue. There are quite a few coffee shops there, I'm amazed. We then took a cab to Ban Guan Park on Greenleaf Road. It's some road deep inside the 6th avenue area. Ahh, alas, we found Cantina.The restaurant looks really simple and laidback. We had carpaccio for appetizer. I had my usual linguine carbonara, which was cooked pretty well. Ah Bui had porcini risotto and we finished our meal sharing the tiramisu, which was not bad either. The house white was a pinot grigio. We even toured their wine cellar and saw the red wine Montalcino, which I visited in 2005!

Besides Cantina, there is another restaurant across called La Braceria, which I read, has good pizzas! mmmm....Funny enough, there's a 70s-looking hair salon in the vicinity. The aunties that came out of the all curtained salon had big beehive hairdos. Hmm...But a good date nonetheless. I think Ah Bui is enchanted by me. Kekekeke! Army guys...

Tomorrow, I'm going to the movies with Olsen. It'd be my 2nd date with Olsen. I met Olsen at some sdu event. Olsen is the typical engineer guy that we all know. He's quiet, more chinese-speaking, wears polo-shirts. I can deal with people like Olsen pretty well. I just have to speak their language. But one thing Olsen is unique is he's a triplet! Now do you geddit? Olsen! Twins! Triplets! It's a first for me dating a triplet! The funny thing is Olsen has twin sisters too! Who knows, maybe Olsen's brother may pretend to be my date tomorrow. Since I don't want to pay to watch Protege, so I ask Olsen to pay. Kekeke!

Hakka Delights

2007-02-22T12:48:00.000+08:00

I have never really tasted hakka food in Singapore except the hawker center's Yong Tau Foo. Coincidentally, thanks to Young Master's dad who's also a Hakka person, we decided to celebrate his birthday at this Moi Kang Hakka Restaurant on Trust Street in Tanjong Pagar.

The place was certainly crowded and we nearly couldn't get a reservation! Since it was also Chinese New Year, we ordered the 算盤子 because Young Master's mom said we have to be counting a lot of money this year! The 釀豆腐 (Yong Tau Foo which is stuffed tofu-cube) was so delicious! ...oh my...and the 扣肉 (Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard) , oh my god, so good especially with the bun. My only thing is i don't eat the fats and the skin, the skin was a little too hard anyways. Sorry about my manners but i was like wolfing down the food and not paying attention to any conversation. Notice the Fish Maw with Chinese spinach in the picture? WOAH~ you know my favorite is Fish Maw, and their fish maw, is CRISPY! I still couldn't figure out how it was made, soft yet crispy as you bite into it.

I am going there again this weekend for my mom's birthday dinner. kekeke.

Meanwile, if you are not familiar with Hakka cuisine, check this out.

CNY with Kacang Puteh Club

2007-02-21T22:42:00.000+08:00

Members of the Kacang Puteh Club were back in Singapore to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The Singapore chapter were given the tasks of organizing dinners and after-dinner activities prior to their return. It was kind of tough to coordinate all their busy schedules.

The Kacang Puteh Club celebrated the CNY at Hua Ting restaurant. TTT, Springlily and Ms See were all present from the NY chapter. The Astorians and Miss Mo represented the Singapore Chapter.

Here were some of the dishes we had. Of course, we had the yu-sheng. I lou to have good plum flower luck, good health, good career, etc. We also had abalone, sharks fins, roast duck, steamed garouper (?). This was amidst Springlily trying to seek the others' opinions on altering her suits!

Besides Hua Ting, the Kacang Puteh Club also ventured a few other places too, eg the Cannery. The people at the Clinic really should have some re-training. First, they sell half-filled martinis for $18! Then they asked whether the drink would be 'on the rocks' or 'with ice'. Then they charge $50 for some IV-drip-looking cocktail. Ridiculous!
We also checked out Cafe Del Mar, which was full of teenagers, spgs in bikinis and fat ang-mohs in swimming trunks. They had bad cocktails too.
We also went to Oosh (still think they are so popular), Que Pasa and St James Power Station!

Quierantango (?) came back in the later part of CNY. We had dinner at House of Peranakan, together with Mrs Fort Lee. We then joined Miss See at the Hyatt bar, which looked nice but smelled of cigar though.

Valentine's at an Izakaya

2007-02-16T11:18:00.000+08:00

Young Master and Superst*r were bored out of their wits and were missing the Tokyo night scene so much so we decided to check out the Izakayas rumored to be existing in Cuppage Plaza. The car park was a little confusing when we got to into the building it reminded us of Lucky Plaza (which has all the Indonesian and Filipinos eateries). We sort of ran up and down the entire building to suss out the place a little. Very much as said by our Nihongo sinsei and Yamato-san the bartender at Coffee K, this place IS our Little Tokyo.

So it's Valentine's and so some sake or shoju or even beer with a little of those small appetizers would be perfect. We decided to try out this huge place on the 2nd floor called Nijumaru. Looks busy enough. The wait staff there are mostly Chinese and local aunties whom I overheard could speak a little Nihongo to the cook crew! *Surprised* Apparently some of the chefs are Japanese - uhm, delightful :)...but let's see...

We ordered the Tomato with mayo, Yaki-Shio Saba (Grilled Mackerel with Salt), Tori no Kara-age (Fried Chicken Nuggets) and a Curry Rice, and we had to drown them down with Ebisu beer. The mackerel was huge - singaporean breed? Overall, it turned out...not too shabby!

After a few burps, we went around to explore the rumored best sushi and best izakaya in town, as recommended by our Japanese friends. Turned out they are at the building next to Cuppage...we will be hanging out there pretty soon and telling everyone about here.

Meanwhile また明日〜〜

Sleep dreprivation

2007-02-15T17:21:00.000+08:00

I'm having sleep deprivation. I haven't been home at a decent hour since last week.

Last Tues - After my pilates class in the evening, I met Miss See for wine on Evans Road
Last Thurs - I had company dinner at No Signboard and then drinks with FEP after that
Last Fri - I had dinner with St Nicholas girls JW and DF and then to Oosh (finally) for drinks
Last Sat - Went to St James Power station for my friend's Will's birthday
Last Sun - Went to Sunset Grill with the Astorians
Monday - Went to chinatown for dinner and Union Bar on Club Street for drinks with JW
Tuesday - Went to my evening Pilates class and then to Clinic for drinks with Springlily and former Fort Lee
Last night - Valentine's Day of course

I am really going to go to bed at a decent time this evening after my Italian survival class. Then it starts all over again on Friday.

How did you spend your Valentine's Day?

2007-02-15T16:12:00.000+08:00

It was Feb 14 yesterday. I rushed for my facial appointment after work. The streets were filled with couples holding bouquets with tiny flowers (fake, I think), ballons, stalks of roses, etc. I didn't feel jealous at all. Strange.

Anyway, after my face was thoroughly cleansed for the upcoming Chinese New Year, I met up with my date, New England Patriot (NEP). We met online and he used to be in NE. We've only gone out for a couple of times so I hardly know him but since he asked me out, I obliged. Btw, I was also invited to 2 other places but had to turn them down.

NEP brought me to Tanjong Beach on Sentosa beach. I didn't expect much since I thought we were just going to have drinks near my facial place so I was pleasantly surprised. I'm so easily conned. Sigh!

It was my first time to Tanjong Beach. We drove past this Dolphin place. Apparently, one could touch some dolphins there. I didn't know such a place existed on Sentosa.

When we arrived, I saw this beach bar. It has some deck chairs with umbrellas and I immediately thought it was the new Cafe Del Mar. I was so excited. I thought we were going there. However, NEP led me to the beach, by the edge of the water. Oh well, guess no bar tonight.

Along the way, we saw lots of couples in the dark. It was as if they were sunbathing in the dark! Wow! There was this couple who even had a table under this rest area and they were having candlelight dinner! Of course the girl must be thinking it's so romantic but the guy's the smarter one since he didn't have to fork out $300 to dine in a restaurant. Kekekeke!

I know this sound so cliche and I can't believe I'm writing this. But we found a spot under a coconut tree. NEP spread out a towel for us to sit. We enjoyed a bottle of red wine and some chocolates and it was quite lovely under the sky that was full of stars last night. We could also see the musical fountain from that spot. Meanwhile, I was observing this couple nearby (in the dark). They were both lying down hugging. I couldn't see them clearly because it was dark but I could imagine what the guy was up to.

I had to go to the bathroom so I went to the beach bar. Then I realized that the bar was not Cafe Del Mar but it was KM8. LOL! Thanks goodness! Anyway, I had a good time, good company, wine and outdoors in the evening.

Sunset at the airbase

2007-02-11T22:49:00.000+08:00

Miss Mo has known about Sunset Grill at the Seletar airbase and heard that it was very difficult to locate. Therefore, on Saturday, after tennis and some ice-cold milo and kopi-C, Miss Mo and Superstar decided to check out the location of this restaurant.

It was a short drive from Jalan Kayu. After we passed the gate, we went to West Camp, which was the Seletar airport. We saw a canteen but thought it didn't look like a place you would watch the sun set. Finally, we decided to ask some guy at the airport for directions. Wow, the directions given were detailed and we wouldn't have been able to locate the place because it was on the other side of the runway!

We reached the destination after following the given directions. However, when we arrived, we sill couldn't locate it. We saw a group of golfers and one of them pointed to a shack and said the nearest one would be that shack. We were like 'that one'? Hmm.. We walked a little close and indeed, it was the elusive Sunset Grill.

We came back this evening. Superstar even lost her way the 2nd time! The atmosphere there was really laidback. We even talked to Jerry, the owner of the grill. I had a juicy burger and a couple of beers and the Astorians just had drinks.

We had a good time and would defnitely return.

The Melbourne Moment

2007-02-07T23:51:00.000+08:00

Melbourne is considered the first ang-moh city I visited since my return from the US.
After spending such a long period of time in a western country, my desire to visit a ang-moh country wasn't that great. Nevertheless, since it was a business trip, I had no complaints.

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza for our work trip. It is near the Crown Casino, which is like one of those casinos in Vegas but on a smaller scale. The whole complex is located on the south side of the Yarra River, which is a picturesque cute little river. It's typical of most rivers you see in most western cities. There are upscale stores and restaurants at Crown Casino. For work, we had dinner at Number 8 restaurant. It was a really nice restaurant situated along the river. The steak I had was juicy and the wines they served were really good NZ wines. One highlight of our dinner was at top of the hour, the torches along the river would be lit up with fire, huge hot fire!

My work hours in Melbourne ended at around 4pm on a Friday afternoon. I had to rush to tour the downtown before it became dark. That was the only time I had because I was going to be out of the city for the weekend. I was hopping 3 hours would be enough for a quick tour.

Melbourne reminded me of Boston, a small university city with a river, old British feel, somewhat artsy, with trams. There were a few famous streets and I sort of finish walking within 2 hours! There wasn't much to shop either. I went to Myer department store but the shoes they were selling were for my mom's! I had dinner at the Dome cafe at Block Arcade. That was quite nice. I took the free city tram for a tour of the city and went back to my hotel, exhausted.

I signed up for a winery tour on Saturday. The driver-guide was Jamie and he was kind enough to offer me the front seat at the bus, next to him. It was cool since I had the best view! Jamie said he used to be a sommelier at Number 8 but I wondered why he's a guide now. Hmm...He took us to 4 wineries. First, we went to a boutique winer, Yuering Farms. Then we proceed to Rochford winery for more wine tasting and lunch. Then we went to Yuering Station for more wine tasting. By then, I was at my limit for wine. Any wine would have tasted the same to me. Finally, we went to Domaine Chandon, the maker of sparkling wine. It was really tasty with cheese and bread. The vineyards were really lovely too under the great weather. It was a great tour.

The next day, I joined the GoWest tour company for a Great Ocean Road tour. The Great Ocean road is the Australian version of the Pacific Coast Highway in CA. I really missed the open space in the US so I thought this tour was help relive some of my memories. Unlike the winery tour which was full of non-Asians, this tour was full of Asians. I found that odd. Anyway, being alone in tours can be nerve-wrecking but it turned out to be ok because I met lots of interesting people. I met this Japanese 23 y/o boy in this tour, who's a waiter. Due to his limited amount of English language, it was tough yet funny to communicate with him. The views on the drive were magnificent. The finale of the tour was visiting the 12 Apostles. It was made even more thrilling when we took the helicoptor ride atop to view the rock formations. It was my maiden ride but it was so cool.

I thought my trip was pretty fulfilling. I visited lots of places and even took the tram to the beach to have fish and chips! doubt I would go back to Melbourne though, it's too small.

Miss Mo checks out Raku on Greenwood

2007-01-28T19:43:00.000+08:00

Today, Miss Mo and her 2 college friends, A and J, had lunch at Raku, a Japanese restaurant on Greenwood Avenue.

We had the $59 buffet, which we could order anything on a specified menu. The sashimi was very fresh and the other dishes were very good too. However, the waitress who served us was really black-faced. She had an attitude that we shouldn't be ordering too much if we couldn't finish. Hmm...

But I'd go back there again for the food but that would be before a trip to Hanabi which A claimed is equally good too and with better service.

Miss Mo had a perm!

2007-01-28T19:29:00.000+08:00

OK, I finally did it. I permed my hair. It is called Japanese perm, according to my hairdress. Right now, it's still curly but eventually, it is supposed to look like that (that's not me). I'm still not used to looking at myself with curls but I've had praises so far.

Can you hear the Kallang Roar?

2007-01-28T18:40:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday, Miss Mo and Swedish Meatballs went to the Asean Cup semi-finals at the National Stadium. Since it was going to be the last game to be played at the stadium and there has been so much rivalry between Singapore and Malaysia teams, Miss Mo didn't want to miss this golden opportunity to watch a live game. She asked around but only Swedish Meatballs could make it.

I had known about it happening on Saturday but procrastinated, thinking that it'd be pretty easy to get tickets. However, by Thursday, when I finally decided to go irregardless, the grandstand tickets were all sold out and the gallery tickets were selling like hot cakes. On Friday, I quickly summoned my dad to go all the way to Jalan Besar stadium to get 2 tickets. Kekeke! Sure enough, it was reported on the radio early afternoon that all tickets were all sold out prior to the game. Phew!

The traffic to the stadium was really bad. I was late for 10 minutes but it was alright. The atmosphere was great. The stadium was filled up with sea of red! We managed to find 2 seats behind one side of the field. The spectators were mainly families so the mood was really good. When the players were playing badly, the spectators scolded them. We even did the kallang waves and roars. It was really nice!

Malaysia scored first in the 2nd half but at the near end of the match, Singapore came back with an equalizer. Even during extra time, Singapore failed to score. Alas, the Singapore goalie blocked the final penalty during the penalty shootout and Singapore finally won the semi-final! The whole stadium was electrified! It was so good to be there.

To avoid the traffic getting out of the stadium area, we decided to stop for a drink before leaving. We came upon Cosy Bay, which Swedish Meatball said his friend claimed to be romantic. No lah, it wasn't romantic at all. It was just a very laid back bar with pool tables and it served beer and finger food. We (or rather he) had a jug of beer with soccer on the tv screens. It was quite nice there since it was on the water. Nice apartments there too. We then decided to go to George's tavern at Siglap since it was near his place. It was a also very laid back bar, like those neighborhood bars. We talked some more.

It was past 2am and we both agreed that it didn't feel like it. It felt like it was still before midnight. LOL!

Miss Mo on Duxton Hill

2007-01-28T18:05:00.000+08:00

Last Friday, Miss Mo finally had the chance to check out the Broth restaurant on Duxton Hill with her lawyer dudette, J.

The last time, I was at Duxton Road was with Superstar. We strolled along Duxton Road and was quite put off by the sleazy-looking bars which had neon lights. However, the Broth restaurant was situated on Duxton Hill, a short stretch of shophouses that is closed to traffic.

We had a table along the corridor of the restaurant. The weather was cool so it was nice to sit outside, except we were kind of close to this group of 20-something pretentious people who were pretty loud.

I ordered a glass of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. The bread served was fresh and crispy. The starter we ordered was white pepper snails baked with spinach and mushrooms. It was delicious! For entrees, J had the NZ monk fish and I had the lamb loin cooked medium. However, when I tasted it, the lamb was so tough that it was like chewing rubber. I never did it before but I had to reject the dish this time and fortunately, they were nice enough to give me another similar dish, now cooked to my requirement. For dessert, we had the supernova pavlova with fruits. It was indeed superly huge. Too much for a dessert.

Overall, I would recommend Broth restaurant. there is even a vegetarian menu for vegetarians. How thoughtful.

Ghetto Fabulous!

2007-01-26T11:56:00.000+08:00

My girlfriend sent me this link. For those getting married, please don't be caught in this fashion!

http://tinyurl.com/yq5ony

One Night in Beijing

2007-01-23T22:23:00.000+08:00

Today was Miss Mo's first day back at work after a short business-CUM-leisure trip to Beijing, China's capital. It's been more than 10 years since my last visit. Beijing has changed so much in my eyes, too much!

I stayed at the Grand Hyatt, which was very grand by standard. It's connected to the Oriental Plaza, this posh mall that has all the elite brands, which some of which are are not evey found in Singapore. I was highly impressed. The second floor are all the Chanels and Guccis. The first floor are the Mangos and Zaras. They even have Mudd! It's a must-visit mall for future visitors. It also have a food street that has Starbucks, Breadtalk, other restaurants and this foodcourt which I thought has a very appropriate name.

The hotel is just right next to Wangfujing. I took a stroll in the evening in the cold. It wasn't that cold actually. There wasn't much happening on this street. I thought the mega mall was much more interesting.

Alas, I came to this brightly-lit side street and the vendors were selling the strangest things on skewer sticks. Yikes! People actually ate those!
I also visited the Tiananmen. Not the square; it was too big and I was too lazy and it was cold. Tiananmen still looked as majestic. Like my pictures?

I then proceeded to the Forbidden City. It hasn't changed much since my last trip more than 10 years ago. Alas, the famous Starbucks was no longer there. Apparently, the governement decided that it was conflicting to have Corporate American in a Chinese monument. I found the Forbidden City boring this time. It took me about 2 hours to complete the tour. I decided that it was time to head to Silk Street shopping mall!

Shopping's really great at these fakey-cheapy places. The bargaining made it even more fun and gave me a sense of achievement when I got the price I haggled for. I got a 'Prada' bag from 600 rmb to 150 rmb. I finally got my Tokidoki bags too for 30rmb. Cheap!

Here are some funny pictures to share with you guys.

Saturday Night...Fever

2007-01-21T12:48:00.000+08:00

SupaStar & Young Master got invited to a pool side party at this Mandarin-speaking Belgian, Pommes Frites' house-warming on saturday night in the east part of the island. We arrived pretty late around 10ish and i guess some people had already left. Funny thing is no one was really in bikinis given the fact that it was a poolside party!

Anyways, we saw familiar faces like the Mandarin-speaking French guy, French Fries and the girl we met at the Xmas party J, and it was her birthday party as well. We found out that French Fries also speaks Nihongo and so we can't wait to start practising our Nihongo with him, and ok, he also does habla Espanõl too! Oh KimChi girl was there too! No sign of the Swedish Meatball. There was also this black dude B from NJ, ok Miss Mo should have been here to chat NJ with him. He's one of those people from the US that you won't expect to see in Asia, those in the 'burbs and indulging in Booty-Calls. Also met this bald Brit and this Chinese girl C whom Pommes Frites likes to chat with in perfect Beijing Mandarin. Some other group of girls who think they are like super model type, forgot all their names except one, were just puffing away "in style" and "posy". There is this cute Vietnamese guy V who was born in Paris, he reminded me of the gay Asian guys in NYC...but Young Master insisted he is not gay.

Shortly after the "supermodels" and V left, the rest of us went upstairs to Pommes Frites' new abode. It was funny since the apartment was kind of bare and reminded of how we lived in the US when we were students.

J suggested we play a game since everyone was sitting around in circle. I think we started to cringe a bit..erm..games? The game, turned out to be quite silly, each of us had to make a statement and those who are not in agreement of or have not done it, had to drink up. And B and J, who were acting intimate all these times, said it has to be something risqué. GULP, i heard Pommes Frites sitting next to me asking " Does it always have to involve sex in the topic?" So yep, the entire night was filled with such statements which sometimes led to discussions. One funny one was, someone talked about Oral sex, Pommes Frites had to raise his question again. "Can someone define that? If one part is used or both parts used, which counts?" LOL

We also observed the Brit was really kind of ham-sup, he was like ogling at KimChi girl who again was in super mini shorts. He said he would want to learn the Thai and Korean languages, when he said Korean he was like looking at KimChi from head to toe then from toe to head *yikes*, we think he's the kind who goes to Thailand for "fun".

The game got tiring as time went by and all the alcohol was gone. Pommes Frites fell asleep in his sofa and we thought we should go, it was 3am.

Miss Mo visits the Singapore countryside!

2007-01-14T20:57:00.000+08:00

Sigh! It's been pouring for the past couple of days. Despite the rain, Miss Mo decided to check out Bollywood Veggies. I wouldn't know that this place exist if it's not from my friend's MK's recommendation. M stumbled up this place while he was riding in the area some time ago. He just got a new GPS system so he wanted to use the new toy to get to Bollywood Veggies!

This was actually my second time to Kranji. I went to Sungei Buloh a few months ago and I really liked Kranji a lot because it is like the kampung. We went by the Lim Chu Kang way and we saw lots of cemeteries along the way. If it wasn't for MK and his GPS kick-@ss toy, I wouldn't have located Bollywood Veggies.

We had lunch at Poison Ivy Bistro. This restaurant cooks everything organic and the vegatables are all natural, from the gardens at Bollywood Veggies. I dont' know why but we didn't try the vegetables! We had curry chicken (no coconut) and prata! The curry chicken was really not bad even though there wasn't any coconut milk. The prata was so-so. We had lime juice (delicious!) and coffee.

It was a really laidback place and I'm not allowed to tell anyone where this place is. So if you guys want to go, please let me know as I'd have to seek MK's approval. After all, he was the one who discovered this place so I should give him some credit.

Miss Mo explores Hillview

2007-01-14T20:51:00.000+08:00

Has anyone been to Hillview before? Until yesterday, I have not! I had a bbq at Hillview Greens on Hume Avenue. Where the hell was that??!

I managed to find my way pretty easily to Hume Ave. It's a pretty wide hilly road that have condos lined along both sides of the road. Hume Park I, Hume Park II, etc.

Hillview Greens was at the end of the avenue and the complex was huge! There were many blocks and it had the usual facilities eg the big pool, bbq pits (many), tennis courts, gym, etc. I didn't really like it because it reminded me of living in a hdb estate. Isn't it the same, just that it's gated and there are facilities but the people are the same?

Anyway, I didn't like Hillview Greens. I know it's supposed to be more posh living in a condo but I didn't feel like that.

Miss Mo goes to St James

2007-01-14T20:39:00.000+08:00

Last Friday, after a long wait, Miss Mo finally had the opportunity to check out the new (not so new now) St James Power Station.

We first went to Dragonfly, the Canto/Mandarin Pop club. This place has bands that play Cantonese and Mandarin songs and the famous (and old) William Scorpion sings there too. We were there a little before 9pm and the place was nearly packed! I guess it was because there was no cover and drinks (except champagne!) were 1-for-1. The band was not bad. But the most interesting part were the people there. They are very old bengs and lians and they are not very good looking. There were even senior citizens! I would go back there again to people watch. Upstairs from Dragonfly is Mono, which is a posh-cheena KTV bar with rooms. Very nightclubbish with towkays singing. Interesting too.

Then we went to other clubs at St James like Powerhouse, which was oh not so happening. We went to Boiler room there, which was a pub with these 2 middle-aged ladies singing. One of the singers twitches her face whenever she sings long notes. So funny! My guy friend, CC, said his favorite was the Boiler room because of the girly band but the ladies were bad. We passed by this outdoor swing area, that would look nice on a nice day but it was pouring that night. We went to Movida at the end and that was the best, I would say. They had a band from Paraguay playing. The costumes they wore looked 70s and there were a few people doing salsa on the dance floor, obviously showing off their moves from their lessons. I think I'd go back to Movida again for the music.

I wouldn't purposely go back to St James again but it's so near my workplace so who knows, I may drop by there for a drink one of these days again.

Miss Mo meets fellow Hobo!

2007-01-14T20:26:00.000+08:00

After recovering the 'lameness' of being stood up by FU (formerly known as Christian Slater), Miss Mo survived and was out and about last Saturday evening.

It was Miss Mo's grandpapa's 90+ birthday. I don't really know how old is he but I know he's 90+ and very old. I wonder how it feels to be 90+, you know. We went to Peach Garden at Novena for dinner. There was a mini celebrity spotted. He was the grouchy judge from Singapore Idol, Ken something. Guess who spotted him? It was the Indonesian maid. She watches Singapore Idol and even CNN! Not bad, eh?

After dinner, I headed down to Emerald Hill to meet Joel, this Swede I got to know from watching EPL. Wait, I guess he has been introduced in a previous blog. I expected meeting the same people whom I met at his party but no, it was a completely new crowd, except for this old SPG called Julie. Julie was at the party but I didn't remember seeing her there.

Anyway, besides Julie and Joel, there were another Julie and Nish, from the US, Krause from Germany, John from Finland, Carlos from Spain. It was a change from hanging out with Singaporeans, not that the Singapore company is bad. It turned out that Nish used to live in Hoboken and just a block from me. How coincidental! I thought it was also interesting that there's a Finnish guy in Singapore. Maybe he works for Nokia!

We went to Clark Quay next since some of them wanted to check out the new place called Cannery. We stayed a little at Bungee Bar and Nish said that we should all go to an amusement park. I was like 'hmmm.....I don't think there's a six flags anywhere near there.' Joel and I just hung out at Bungee Bar watching a little soccer. Apparently, Joel claimed that he was pretty serious into hip hop when he was younger. Hmm...White blonde guy doing hip hop!

Seoul-searching Night @ Dempsey

2007-01-08T16:31:00.000+08:00

Hurrah, it's another great friday! Whoever invented fridays is a genius -- it is the most awaited day of the week! Likewise we continue to design another program for this evening, with the intention of (a)getting to know more hip places in Singapore so not just regular places; (b)enjoying ourselves during the course; (c)hangin'and chillin' out with the peeps that we love.

The lovely evening kicked off at Chang Korean BBQ. Christian Slater decided to abandon ship just under 5 mins of wait, kinda dampened the spirits of Miss Mo a little. I thought it was sort of lame too. We decided to call him FU and that kinda helped uplifted Miss Mo a bit.

The signature Korean BBQ aroma was lingering around the compound, though i thought the interior was sort of bare like as if they were trying to look modern but didn't know what to do with the space. Whatevers, so we went into our room and very aptly YDD & her koibito made their grand appearance. So Miss Mo's guess was spot on! koibito = TK Tan!

Ok, back to ordering food....I tried to order bulgogi, kimchee chigae, kimchee jaeyook bokkeum which is stir fry pork with kimchi, but the manager said they cook the bulgogi inside the kitchen (ok fair enough) but they didn't have the rest - WTF! We were choked with shock. Never heard of a korean restaurant that does not have the basic stuff...i guess having lived in NYC (or SF for TechnoCoolie) for a fair bit, we do have certain kind of expectation and standard for ethnic foods like that.

Anyways so we ordered the Ginseng-marinated beef, a Wagyu beef and a bacon for BBQ, shared a seafood soon doboo and a vegetarian bibimbap for our vegetarian soon-to-be Mrs TechnoCoolie. Our verdict: Not good lah! The beef all tasted the same -- tasteless!! and too small a cut; the bacon was far too thick i insisted, the soon doboo was quite thin too there was no kick. Even Mrs TechnoCoolie said her bibimbap suck! We started reminiscing how we used to wolf down the kimchi soon doboo & BBQ Kalbi at the Fort Lee korean joint in NJ. WA~~~i really miss NYC now....WA~~~

Despite the less than mediocre food, the company was great, even though soon-to-be Mr+Mrs TechnoCoolie refused to reveal how the proposal happened. YDD was sharing her Hokkaido trip with us and we got to meet TK Tan, which you can read about on YDD's blog. She brought some oishii Hokkaido chocolate-corn cookies that definitely was the hightlight of the dinner, and that saved the night, i must say!

Next we moved on to OOosh, we thought the receptionist was kinda bitchy, she was like, with a snort: "sorry tonight full, you got to make reservation next time" Shitty attitude. I remember her name N_DIA.

So we decided to check out the other place Hacienda, but we like had to walk around the compound braving hanging cables, muddy grounds and deep drains, in the darkness! It was an ok place, most of the people there we realised were rejects from Oosh. It was a nice night with the full moon and kinda cool after the rain to be sitting outside. The TechnoCoolie couple then revealed their wedding to be held on my birthday. Miss Mo and I started to give them concepts of various wedding ideas since they are not doing the usual thing. One good one was since this is going to be held on April Fools', the guests will arrive to have to realise that there is no wedding at the said location, they will be given clues and will need to perform tasks. The first 20 to arrive will be allowed to celebrate the rest will be barred outside having to watch from a tv screen. Of cos this is all inspired by Amazing Race...kekeke...

Over all we had a fun night because of the company. TK Tan despite new, was really loose and comfortable, we thought YDD might be too shy...kekeke, RELAK LAH! :) We will continue to search for the real Seoul food in the coming months, with two recommended places already by local Korean expats. Keep checking in!

Going out Menu - Nihon Night

2007-01-04T23:37:00.000+08:00

Due to lack of dates during the holiday season, Miss Mo decided to concoct a combination of night spots for the evening and invited the former Astorians and Fort Lee resident out to enjoy the 'menu'.

We first went to Coffee Bar K, which is located at UE Square. It's one of those old men's bar which you've seen on tv, where the bartendars wear tuxedos and any kind of cocktail can be made on request. We had Yamato-san as our bartendar. For Young Master, he had a Remy Superstar, kind of a girly-looking drink. We had the Titanium, which tasted like Mojito with champagne, created by Yamato-san.

The bar was empty when we went because we were there at 7pm, before dinner. The seats were so cushy and it wasn't smokey at all. The Astorians even practised Japanese with Yamato-san! We all love the place and said we would definitely pay Yamato-san a visit (the following week).

We then proceeded to Sapporo ramen Miharu at the Gallery Hotel. We couldn't locate the restaurant at first. We asked this sweeper uncle in the hotel. He said 'Oh, that noodles place??! It's outside lah'. Funny! The noodles were great but the broth was too salty for our taste. We were so hungry that we still ate the whole bowl of ramen. Delicious!

AFter the departure of former Fort Lee resident, we tried to locate Nihonshu, the sake dining bar which we were supposed to head to. Alas, Nihonshu has been defunct. So we went to En Dining Bar instead, which we liked. The decor was normal but somehow we liked the feel of the bar. The funny thing was there was a menorah in the bar. Did they know it's jewish?

We went home before midnight but yet we had a great time checking out new places to hang! We are doing it this Friday with Christian and YDD!

Goodbye 2006, Hello 2007

2007-01-04T22:22:00.000+08:00

Christmas came and went a little too quickly. After the Christmas holidays, Miss Mo went back to a quiet office and counted the days to the end of 2006. Meanwhile Superstar and I were busy sourcing around for programs on New Year's eve.

We decided that all else failed, we'd go pay $38 and go to Zouk for the countdown. Miss Mo got invited to a party at Joel's whom she doesn't really know at all. But hey, at least there's a party to go to!

We had the privilege of having KQ with us on New Year's eve. How nice! We were saying the last time the 3 of us celebrated New Year's together was the millenium! Time really does fly! We went to Chinatown for dinner at the Soup Restaurant. Delicious chicken and soup with matronly service from the waitresses.

We then proceeded to Bar Sa Vanh on Club Street for drinks while waiting for Young Master to arrive. I didn't really like that bar, pretty pretentious.

We had a little difficulty locating Joel's apartment on Siglap Road but thanks to KQ, we managed to find it with ease, but it was 11.30 and we only had half hour more before 2007 arrived!

The place was packed when we got there. There were different kinds of people there. First, there's the host, Joel, Swede, still sober when we got there. There was the hot S'porean mother, Catherine, who looked 20s but is a mother of 3! Then there was Charlie, S'porean who works at PSA, who said our Mandarin was very bad. LOL! Then there was Walter, this Belge who speaks Mandarin and Spanish! Of course, there was Tibault, who's from Normandie and can speak a little Mandarin too (these people!) and was looking lovingly into KQ all the time. LOL! Of course, there was Diane, a chubby girl, who knows Brett, whom I used to work with. She said she was going to New York and was thinking of doing the SATC tour. Her US office is in Hoboken but she thinks Hoboken is boring. WTF! For someone who hasn't been to Manhattan, shut the f'k up! C'mon, she was wearing a white t-shirt with thick green stripes! Oh, there's this vegetarian Indian guy, who went around shouting 'Ladies and Gentlemen, it's thirrtee minutes to 2007', with the music blasting some Abba song! Oh, KQ was busy talking to this strange girl Jan. But Jan gave us some drinking groups which we intend to check them out.

Of course, there was abundant alcohol and there's
laPhroaig. Superstar and I were busy tasting it. Kekeke!

So it was a pretty fun party after all. Hello 2007!

Happy New Year! A Face Lift!

2007-01-04T11:47:00.000+08:00

Miss Mo and SupaStar wish everyone a really HAPPY NEW YEAR and lots of wonderful things to bestow on everyone who knows us. :)

Since it's the start of all things beautiful, we decided to launch a new skin for this blog...still working on details to suit our picky taste, so, erm...please ignore the odd blue colors since we are still trying to decide the best colors....Meanwhile, please feel free to comment!

Miss Mo goes Jazzy

2006-12-26T12:35:00.000+08:00

Last Friday, Miss Mo and Christian went to a Christmas Jazz concert, Noel Asiana. Christian has mentioned that he wanted to go to a concert at the Esplanade and this Jazz concert seemed pretty mainstream for someone who hasn't been to arty-farty.

It's a Jazz band led by Jeremy Monteiro with Asian players, hence the name. The self-composed tunes they played were great. In the second half of the concert, they focussed more on Christmas tunes with 2 guest singers, one of whom used to be in NJ choir! One could really feel the xmas atmosphere in the concert hall. We really enjoyed ourselves.

That was my best Christmas gift this year

Christian is back!

2006-12-26T11:28:00.000+08:00

Two Sundays ago, Miss Mo went out with Christian Slater. Remember him? He was this guy whom I met a couple of months ago and I said he's kind of normal.

He has been in China and through my request, he actually bought some DVDs for me. I was so happy that I finally got to watch The Sopranos. Love it!

Anyway, back to Christian, we met for dinner after his church on Sunday evening. It was great to see him again. It was kind of awkward at first but after a while, we warmed up. It wasn't romantic or what but dinner at Crystal Jade was great but quick (coz it's Crystal Jade). I thought it would be adios but he suggested going to Prinsep Street for soya beancurd. I was like 'har...we'd have to drive there leh and it was freakin raining...'. He really wanted to have it and it's been probably 15 years since I was there so WTF, we went in his car. It was a Volvo. At first, I was like 'err..Volvo..Then he said it was his mom's. LOL!

Christian was very gentlemanly - served me first, opened the car door. I was impressed but didn't put much thought into it. I just assumed his mother taught him well. But then he was kind of touchy-feely. It's kind of unusual since it was the second time we've met. It's a nice feeling but I'm confused because the feeling was more friends than daters. I doubt his mom taught him that.

But the soya beancurd was delicious and cheap. We had a good time chatting too. After that, he sent me back to my car at Suntec and I went to another date at Clark Quay. LOL!

Dinner with the Bostonians

2006-12-26T11:08:00.000+08:00

Last Monday, we had dinner with the people from New England suburbs, who were back to visit family. I can't say they are from Boston since they hardly go to Boston. LOL! Thanks for YDD, we went to the NUS Guildhouse at Suntec City for dinner.

I doubt anyone would go to this place for dinner because it is such an obscure place. I had to go to Carrefour, which is 5 miles from the Suntec main entrance. Then I had to take the lift to the 5th floor up to the Bistro. However, I can only take the lift from the first or 3rd floor because there isn't a lift on the second floor. Of course, I was on the 2nd floor. LOL! It's as if the NUS alumni doesn't want the world to know of its existence so it's hidden at a corner of the building. But thanks to it, I finally know where the Suntec cinemas are now.

It's not as if the restaurant is so posh but the guys need to be in a collared shirt. The food was so-so, the portions too small. The service was mediocre too. Lots of uncool NUS people, feeling great dining in a 'posh' place. Kekeke!

We then proceeded to have drinks and YDD suggested to have drinks in the Bar. We obliged since the prices were cheap. But the atmosphere was great NOT. It was as if we were transported back to the 1970s. There was a solo singer singing evergreens, playing the guitar. There was a group of middle-aged men toasting. The menu given was the same as the restaurant. LOL! But the prices of the drinks were dirt cheap. I guess that's the price to pay for being in a not very cool place. Kekeke!

But it was great catching up with the US-related people. Techno-coolie even broke the news that he's engaged and he proposed at The Cliff. Oo-lala!

High School Reunion

2006-12-26T11:01:00.000+08:00

You thought I have disappeared, right? Well, I have been kind of lazy, not really busy. I have been just in a period of daze. But now, I'm back with more stories to entertain you guys.

Two Saturdays ago, Miss Mo had a mini secondary school reunion. It was a bbq held at new-born Kiefer's mom's condo. It's a nice condo, formerly the Equatorial hotel.

A few of us showed up. Duanfang (still very fierce), Ruiqing (can't believe she's a mom now), Diana (still boyish), PQ (I'm still not used to her long straight hair), Jasmine and her husband Alvarone and a stray one from another class, Superstar, and of course, Kiefer's mom. The missing one was XG, who was too busy at school on a Saturday night!

We had fun remininscing the old school days. Nobody really changed much. It was kind of fun because we were talking as if we were still in school. It's been nearly 20 years since we were in school together. How time flies!

U-turn in Singapore

2006-12-15T14:05:00.000+08:00

I encounter such experiences. The U-turn incident happened to me before!

BAD SERVICE CAN DRIVE YOU NUTS
Some days, it's apathetic service at every turn

The other morning, I tried to get something sent overseas at a convenience shop. An international courier company had signed on the shop as one of their drop-off points.
What an innovative idea - or so I thought, until I went to the counter. "Cannot," the shop assistant said. "We don't do such things." "But your shop is on the courier company's website," I protested. "No, don't have. Never heard before." When I insisted, she gave a theatrical sigh, then said she'd phone her supervisor when she had finished serving all her "legitimate" customers (who wanted nothing more mentally taxing than a can of soft drink or a packet of crisps).

After giving me a few hard stares to will me to leave, she finally called
her supervisor, reluctance written all over her. Thirty seconds later, she
turned to me and then said: "Ya, got such thing. Give me your parcel."

I wish I could say that this was an isolated incident but I've encountered
many sales people just like her. Their motto: If in doubt, just say no. Is it possible to get free alteration? No. Can I have mashed potato instead of fries? No. It's as if they've been programmed with a set script - greet customer, give product, get money. Heaven forbid if there's a deviation because their brains just shut down.

Now I understand what Creative boss Sim Wong Hoo meant when he said in his book, Chaotic Thoughts from the Old Millennium, that Singaporeans are Nuts. He coined the phrase, No U-Turn Syndrome, to describe how we need someone in authority to tell us what to do before we can proceed. To describe this, he compared local traffic rules to those found overseas. Here, drivers can't U-turn unless a sign allows them to do so, while in other countries, drivers can U-turn unless a sign forbids them to. "When there is no rule, we cannot do anything. We become paralysed," he noted.

You see this problem most with service staff here, mainly because they're lowest in the pecking order in any shop or restaurant. They don't dare to deviate from the rule book because they know it might incur the wrath of someone higher up in the organisation.
And in most hierarchical Singapore companies, that's not an exception, it's a given.
If there are no rules specifically allowing them to do something (for example, offer rice instead of baked potato), they will err on the side of caution and say no. This apathy may serve them well but it sure doesn't serve me, as a customer, at all. While I may sympathise with them, that doesn't stop me from feeling irritated just the same.

Given the Nuts around, it will be impossible to ask them to change by themselves. If we want better service all round, sales managers should be trained to give their underlings more control. A good example of this was in a restaurant I recently visited. Because they were having an a la carte buffet promotion, the place was packed and the two waitresses there had their hands full trying to get the orders right. Inevitably, orders went missing and tempers were frayed. What I expected to be a quiet half-hour meal turned into a long-drawn two-hour affair. At the end of the meal, I told a waitress that it was the worst dining experience I'd ever had. I was prepared never to step foot in the place again. But she totally disarmed me by apologising and, without applying to her manager, gave me a $10 voucher. "Please come again. I promise we'll do better," she encouraged. I was impressed. By trusting her with the vouchers, her bosses had allowed her to use her initiative, wow customers with good service - and drum up more business.

There's no prizes for guessing which place I'd be going to again. I'm never going into that (in)convenience store again, not even for a pack of crisps. The shopaholic writer has no qualms dealing with shop assistants, as long as the first word that comes out of their mouth is not "no".

WTF?!?

2006-12-15T14:01:00.000+08:00

I read this article on the TODAY newspaper this morning. WTF??!

CAN NY PASS THOSAI TEST?

The city's foreign cuisine is great but then ... A city's surroundings
help make it a great place to live

IT HAS become fashionable to refer to some cities in the West, particularly New York and London, as "cities of the world". It is time not only to question these claims but to challenge the whole fascination with the idea of being a "city of the world". Goh Kok Huat's well-written article, "Can Singapore handle New York's buzz?" (Dec 14), provides such an opportunity.

New York is no more a city of the world than Singapore is just because its taxi drivers are migrants from all over. That just shows taxi-driving is an available entry-level occupation for migrants. New York would be more a city of the world if a sizeable portion of its cab fleet were made up of vehicles of European and Asian makes, instead of reflecting a "Buy
American" ethic.

New York does not qualify as a city of the world just because one's colleagues there might comprise Argentinians, Germans and Indians. It would be more so if they and their children retain the characteristics and culture that make them distinctly Argentinian, German and Indian.

New York would be a city of the world if it becomes a given that third-generation Chinese immigrants can speak Mandarin with confidence and proficiency. Yet we know that to integrate, in what has been grandiosely called a great melting pot, is to become culturally Anglo-Saxon American.

Of course, New York offers a great range of foreign cuisine at low and high-end eateries. The former caters to poor first-generation migrants, while the latter is for the well-heeled seeking nostalgia or the exotic. New York would be a city of the world if a white Anglo-Saxon American living there were as likely to wake up to a breakfast of masala thosai or
nasi lemak.

And to suggest that New York's economic growth benefited by learning from Chinese, Vietnamese or Hispanic migrants is really stretching things.

The point is that mere physical juxtaposition of diversity should not be mistaken for open-mindedness, cross-cultural understanding or a catalyst for economy or innovation.

New York would be more a city of the world if a former mayor who had snubbed a visiting Chinese leader to pander to anti-China sentiments weren't so popular.

To begin with, why the need for "cities of the world" when the world is becoming "smaller"? It would be a loss, not gain, to diversity were New York or London to become cities of the world. It would not be a slight in the least to call them American and English respectively.

What we all need is a deeper understanding of points of view that don't come from our part of the world without forgetting our origins.

Thus, to Mr Goh's question - "Do we find it threatening if the ang moh culture becomes a mainstream one on our shores?" - the answer is that it already has been for some time. Practically all of us have, consciously or otherwise, incorporated some aspects of ang moh culture in our identity. It only becomes a threat - and culture only becomes a zero-sum game - if we start seeing it as a necessary good to distance ourselves from the
ethnic dimension of our identity.

THE writer has made many comparisons between Singapore and New York, but he has omitted one important detail that distinguishes the two cities.

New York is a city where the denizens can escape to tranquillity to the vast American hinterland easily. In contrast, Singapore is an island state, so cramped that impromptu music performances are not allowed at parks. Whenever anyone feels stressed in New York, forests, mountains, lakes and even Niagara Falls are just a short distance away, not to mention the quaint little towns of New England.

All the nature reserves of Singapore are quite limited, and one gets the feeling of living in a glasshouse even deep within MacRitchie Reservoir Park.

ZoukOut!

2006-12-12T10:28:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday, Miss Mo and the Astorians ventured to Sentosa for the biggest event of the year - ZoukOut 2006!

Traffic into Sentosa wasn't as bad as we'd expected. We ignored the sign that parking was full at the beach and managed to find one in the garage. There were already drunk people around and they offered their vodka, when it was obviously whisky or rum.

Being new to Sentosa, we couldn't really find our way to the beaches. When we thought we were walking in the right direction, we saw people walking in the opposite direction. We thought hmm...maybe we should follow them. We were such losers!

ZoukOut was located at the Siloso Beach. There were a few stages with different kind of music playing at each stage. There were also many stalls, some selling food and drinks, VIP lounges, sponsor tents, etc. It was a carnival only at night.

The people there were pretty interesting. We didn't know such people exist in Singapore. Of course, there were the gays but they were exceptionally horny that night. Then there were the crazy dancers who were holding some luminous thing in their hands and doing funky dance moves. Of course, there were the girls decked out in bikini tops, most of them with tiny boobs. Occasionally, we see one with big boobs but they were fat lah. Kekeke!

We came upon this sponsor tent called Sensoria and we thought it was for VIPs only. We saw the blue-coloured martinis and were dying to get it. Then from my zoukout source, we realized that we could just walk in and we did. However, to get those free martinis, we need to get the coupons. We went around asking for coupons. At the drinks counted, we spotted this girl holding a big stack of coupons so we asked for 3 more. Kekeke! Apparently, my source didn't know there were free drinks available. Arthur even had free ben and jerry's ice-cream! We even had our picture taken with the Sensoria girls!

The drinks sold on the premises were pretty cheap. Just $6 for a beer or cocktail. Dirt cheap! The food prices were reasonable too. Of course, the music was fantastic. The band stage had Electrico, a local band that played pretty decent music. We also stayed at the hip hop/mambo stage. Jazzy Jeff was rapping there, lotsa atmosphere. Then we also went to the main stage. There were big podiums where people could stand and dance on them. We saw this gross and fat Indian guy, who was shirtless with a big tummy and he was trying to dance with 2 chicks. Gross! Then when we were in line buying drinks, we witness this horny old gay trying to hook up with a young gay boy; both were shirtless. Funny! Lots of people watching.

My source and his friends stayed at the nearby new hotel Siloso Beach Resort because they were going to stay till the end, 8am. We left around 5am, too tired but it was certainly fun.

Cross Pose

2006-12-12T10:11:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday, Miss Mo attended her cousin's son's wedding. Not that Miss Mo is that matured, the son was 30 years old.

You'd think that after all these years, the wedding dinner scene would have improved but no, it's still the same 'template'.

After settling down, the lights were dimmed and they played the Shania Twain lovey-dovey song 'From this moment on' to welcome the bride and groom. Goose Pimples! They then played a slide show of the couple when they were young, when they were together, when they first kissed and then their studio pictures. Walau! The couple proceeded on stage to cut the fake 4-tier cake. Then when everyone was seated, this Kitaro-like tune came on and the waiters came out with lit first dish. Too funny! I thought that was 10 years ago but it still happened.

During the middle of the dinner, the couple then went on stage to pour the champagne tower thingy, as they pose for more pictures. Each holding a glass, they did a 'cross-pose' where they cross each other's arm to drink the champagne from their glasses. LOL! Cross pose! Together with their families, they then toasted to the whole room - YUM SENG! Very funny. Next, the couple made some thank-you speeches and then went to each table to take pictures.

At the last dish, the couple and immediate families had to line up by the door to bid the guests good-bye. Too standard.

I was off to change into my beachwear for

Logcakes in Singapore

2006-12-04T16:26:00.000+08:00

I don't understand the obsession of log cakes in Singapore. Everywhere you go, hotels, cake shops offer log cakes for Christmas. Where is this tradition from? I don't geddit. Do you?

Miss Mo goes running

2006-12-04T12:42:00.000+08:00

I ran a new route yesterday, after supporting the Marathon Geek at the Singapore Marathon. She came in at 3hours 58mins, which was awesome! Good for her!

This new route I took takes me up the hill along AMK Ave 4 and along ave 3 towards the central. Then I run passed the new 24hour MacDonald's near the park and then back to the usual route along the MRT track. It's more interesting than the older route I used to take and it's not as quiet.

Miss Mo goes Jazzy

2006-12-04T11:31:00.000+08:00

Last Friday (seemed like a busy last week), Miss Mo went to check out the Jazz scene in Singapore. We went to this Jazz bar called Jazz @ South Bridge.

It's a cosy bar above Coffee Bean on at the end of Boat Quay. No frills. The band that was playing that night was from Montreal. I'd definitely check out that place again when the locals are playing.

Miss Mo went to Bora Bora

2006-12-04T11:25:00.000+08:00

Last Thursday was Miss Mo's company function. Just like last year, we chose to have it on Sentosa island. This year, we held it at Bora Bora Beach Bar on the .

Not much to mention about the function but I would definitely check out the Palawan Beach again. There are other bars in the vicinity and a foodcourt too. The restroom and shower facilities are new and clean