Shortcuts

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Missing NYDC..still as good as ever.

The sat morning before I flew off, two other gfs drove down specially from the West to the East to have brunch with me..*Super Touched*

After lunch at Dian Xiao Er which was better than I had anticipated (esp the stir fried lotus vege dish), we headed to NYDC @Tampines One. The Big O cake is still as delicious as ever!!! It's days like these that I wish we have more cafes in HK....


The Big O cake


Friday, December 30, 2011

Dinner@PS Cafe, Palais Renassiance

After much logistical change, the Friday dinner for 5 ended up for 3 which was fine by me since dinner was still good.

I turned up alittle later than expected being held up due to the trip to the vet with my doggie but thankfully the other gals werent too early too. Phew...

We tried a new place PS Cafe@ Palais Renaissance in Orchard based on my IJ gf's recommendation. She wasnt wrong, the food was good. I wont say its delicious or to die for but its good hearty meal good value for money. Price wise is kinda more on the steep side but it wasnt overly expensive. the interior was also rather nice with a good ambiance. Service could be better in term of attentiveness but it wasnt too bad.


PS Cafe@ 2nd floor

Entrance Interior
I had the miso cod for main while Jas had the ribs. She couldnt finish hers and so I pig out on her main after I polished mine. 



I felt kinda bad coz the trip had been so rush so I didnt have time to get any Xmas presents for the gals but instead I ended with 2 big bags for me..heh heh.


Combined with other presents received...this is such a fruitful Xmas this year! Hee hee hee..
Thanks gals!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Catching up with the uni guys@MBS

There aint many uni frens that I get to meet up from my course. Mainly being they are all guys with families (too busy changing diapers and packing their children to sleep - doing what used to be a mother's role...lol), and two being that: for some others, I was no longer close to those whom used to be really close to for various reasons. I guess when the sense of common goals are gone (tutorial assignments Sharing/Coping, FYP completion and passing the exams) , the bonds that held us together had also withered with time.


Thinking back of those Uni days, those were the WORST freaking educational years I ever had. The fact that I had absolutely no interest nor prior computer knowledge in what I was majoring, adding that I knew it would never be my lifelong profession after the first 2 weeks, made those years felt like lifelong imprisonment. 


If it wasnt through sheer luck that I had acute understanding capability, coupled with great smart classmates & tutors that took personal interest to help me, I prob would never had been able to graduate. Frankly too, I observed that being the few better looking gals in the course do have its perks in this case ( I swear this isnt intended to be self praise!). I discovered people are just more inclined to help better looking people, provided they are friendly too. Of course none of us deliberately flirted to get help (too stress to even think about things like that), but looking back, the guys were just naturally more helpful and less critical esp when they saw that you had tried hard but failed. Still rem the other bitchy poly gals didnt want to share at all seeing us JC gals as threats.... Yet being the genuine"damsels in distress" was like making the guys more protective. I suppose army trained them well to have the sense of "protective" instinct too? Till this day, I still think of them genuinely as my life saviours!!!


For all the hardships I had underwent, this is precisely why I hoped my nephews would never make the same mistakes which I had, going in the direction and taking up a course with no thoughts to the future job interest. Many people I knew failed the course and/or dropped out, it was only my fear, ego and pride, not to mention lack of financial funds, that made me determined to prove my naysayers wrong. The biggest joke I had heard was of course having some of the guys dissuading me not to change faculty, in their words "This faculty is pathetic enough with the gals we have, please dont go!" My fren had to remind me that night and I had to "thank him" profusely for the rarely heard compliment! hahaha!


Back to present, those that had been my great buddies, we still catch up in FB so recently one of the guys proposed a catching up session with another fellow uni mate. Why not?

We were talking about universal studio and MBS which I professed I had never been there yet, so it was decided promptly to dine there killing two birds with one stone.

Dinner venue was decided to be Pizza Mozza, which my fren really really liked. Since the other two of us had never tried it, so it was a good "adventure" to try someplace new.

The taxi driver dropped me off at the MBS lobby. I walked up to the concierge and asked for directions to Pizza Mozza. The MBS staff must have gold stuff in her mouth because she was so freaking stingy with her assistance words. She grabbed a piece of pre printed mini map and pointed "there, there." I asked her where the escalator was that she had refered to and she did that lame lazy "wave wave" with her hand, pointing to a vague direction. I asked her again "Do you mean just ahead?" She replied lazily "Yah, u will see it. It is just ahead" I almost wanted to tell her "If I know where it is, I wont need to ask u anything right stupid?" 

As I walked ahead, it was definitely NOT JUST ahead. Does she know the meaning of "JUST AHEAD"?

It was a longer distance than I had expected but I was determined not to let bad service ruin my night. (incidentally when I shared this experience on FB, alot of my gfs replied that this fking irritating lazy "wave wave" hand gesture is super common for bo chap service staff who just couldnt care less. So thankfully I wasnt the only one who seem to see lack of service/ faults everywhere I go in Singapore)

Arriving promptly at 7.15pm, the pack was jammed pack. Obviously if you do not have prior reservations, you can dream about getting a seat during peak hour. Considering it was a weekday nite, and business is booming, I am assuming in good faith that food must at least be decent to others too.

Service was as typical "let-down" Singapore style service. The indian fellow was rushing us to place order. We decided to go with the mushroom pizza and the parma ham pizza. While deciding the starters, I enquired what was good. The indian waiter said "Everything is good." Fine, so we decided on Calamari. The waiter looked at me without much emotion and in a monotone replied "We have run out of Calamari." Great. So we decided on the next best appealing option, "Can we have the chicken wings then?" I asked. The waiter replied in his couldnt-give-a-shit-I-m-so-fking-bored voice, accompanied by a dead pan expression "We have run out of chicken wings." 

So instinctively, the 3 of us said in unison "Then what exactly do you have for tonight then?" The waiter replied "Oh everything else on the menu." Really, it was such a "WTF" moment with such appalling service, which btw, is a complete contrast to the chirpy reception staffed by 2 foreigner-looking ladies (a Filippino and a Westerner). It is moment like this that I think Singaporeans should really pull up their socks in their attitude towards their job before lamenting that their jobs are stolen by other foreigners. Much that I do prefer to be served by locals and am all for jobs preservation for the locals, but if this is the sort of service I get from locals...then it does make me ponder if the locals deserve  job protectionism in the first place. The job is not owe to you just because you own a pink IC. If u are wondering how I tell the Indian was local, let's pay tribute to our distinctive local accent regardless of race.

Anycase, being rather fedup, we decided against ordering any other starters and just stuck to our pizza order with a bottle of wine, which by the way, is the worst Italian Gewürztraminer I ever had to date.
A cook to order pizza worthy of the 40mins wait

The pizza however was indeed a delight. The crust was thin and crispy with a generous serve of toppings. I wasnt too great a fan for the parma ham version but I was in love with the Fungi Mushroom pizza. It wasnt overly cheesy and the serving was reasonablely large with a relatively reasonable pricing too. Not that I have been to Pizza hut since 20years ago, but my fren told me the pricing isnt much more expensive than crappy Pizza hut. That is good news isnt it?

After the meal, we decided to head elsewhere for followup chat. So off to the MBS lounge we went. Service was completely staff by foreigners sounding like Filippinos but hey, at least they gave me a better vibe and attentiveness was way better. 

They had finger food there but I was stuff, so I settled for tea though I wish they had hot chocolate and some decent cake options which they had none. Their dessert sounded let's just say "Unimaginatively Boring".

One of the guys was suppose to leave at 10.30pm so that he can relieve his parents from their shift of looking after his two young boys while he and his wife are out on "school reunion", but somehow the conversation of the uni days dragged on till 11pm. It was truly interesting to recollect those days esp versions that I hadnt known myself! hahaha! 


Apparently a new story I had heard that night, I was told that in one of the lectures in our first year, the lecturer was asking the guys why did they leave such a big gap in between them from one end to another, and if there were "ghosts" between them. My best bud then of course started to laugh as he told the story and revealed that it was because Ms Piggy-Moi was laying comfortably across the lecture bench, snoozing away from the start of the lecture! So the chaps couldnt close in and they didnt tell on me either!! Since I was dead asleep, I didnt know that episode either! Hahaha!   

Of course, he had to remind me another episode as to how panicky he was when we were once outside the library and I was kneeling down, crying over a joke he said, but with tears in my eyes (and soundless laugh while I bent over) , he was deemed "the monster" by all the other students walking past us, for making me cry! Then of course I would remind him what a "bad influence" he was too, copying all my lecture notes for some classes he completely skipped, getting me to cut some really boring lectures and headed to his hostel room, cooking those Taiwan Sausages with the mini oven in the room and then falling asleep until the next tutorial class. However, it was also mischief memories like these that had made uni life an interesting one.  

We could go on forever but it was getting late so decided to finally call it a night. I guess it could be said to be a relatively good night!!


I had fun! Thank you guys!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Crab nite! Dining at House of Seafood@182

The next group was meeting up with my college council buddies. It's becoming quite a "tradition" for us to meet up on most of my trip back now. Which is partially due to our super "on" council president who helped organise all the makan trips. Good thing too that they have supporting spouse who looks after the kids while they do the "late owl" nites with us. Hahaha!


This trip is especially exciting for 2 reasons. One being that our president brought us "country pumpkin" gals (who dun venture out much) to the House of Seafood@182 for Huge crabs!!! It was honestly finger licking good!


The crab meat was solid and firm and I really love the chilli sauce! The black pepper crab didnt do it for me, taste like bottled sauce but I had to request for more buns to soak up the chilli crab version coz it's simply fabulous!!! We also had the salty egg crab version too. It tasted pretty good too but since I am not an egg fan, I stuck to my chilli version. The boys as usual being the doting gentlemen they are, let us gals have our fav picks:)
The salty egg crab
My All time Fav - Sweet Chilli Crab (Medium Size)


Black Pepper Crab (Medium size crab)


The chilli sauce (left) and black pepper crab servings!


The second reason for our excitement was having one of the guys to bring his new gf to "meet" us. He was initially joking that he isnt that stupid to have us grill her to death. In his word.."In our experience...you council gals are too damn tough!" Of course, being old friends, "pai sei" is not on the menu and so we persisted and persisted and persisted...our very cute president of course also chip in by "offering" the gal a "ride home", not before some supper prata and tea together.


Since the gf was having a Cedar gals nite out in town, we patiently baited our dear fren to text her. Finally he caved in and text his gf "Hey, the group wants to meet u. Where are you?" Sitting next to him have its perks, I get to look over his arm and spied the reply that she was on train back home.


In that instant, the motion was set and a flurry of discussion of where, how, when ensued! While my poor fren was still grinning at all of our excitement, I "grabbed" the iphone over with a grin and started to text her while telling my fren : You are too slow buddy! She will be home by the time u start typing!!  Without a moment's delay, I hit the buttons : "Join us! Get off the train and we come pick you up" *sent*


It took maybe a second when the chick replied "Okie. Next stop Boon keng. Get off?" President was like "No No, tell her Kovan! Gives us time to drive there!" So i was off doing the texting "No.Kovan. Gives us time to drive there to pick u up!" As I was typing, I asked my fren, do you type "C U? or See U? or See you? or Cya? normally???" The dude was still stunned by the friendly"takeover" and went "ahhhhh" So i type "See U soon!" The gal replied next "Ok."


The deal was sealed in a flash and we scurried off to the toilet before our next mission! Meet the chick date! President kindly picked up the $200+++ tab and while his car zoomed off to pick her off with the bf in tow, we chicks headed off to Jalan Kayu to "chop" a table for the star VIP to arrive in style.


On the way, some stupid van apparently didnt pass his road test and tried to swerve into our left lane without signal and considering we were already 3/4 of his way. The arsehold jam stopped and my fren was furious, so she wind down the window and started to curse at the fellow for his dangerous driving. The man must have seen her hand gesturing and got off the car prob ready for a fight or hostile verbal engagement. However when he saw us 2 chicks fuming away, ready for battle, he shrugged and backed off and got back to his van, getting out of our right of way. Pretty sure if there were guys in the car, the man would have started a fight judging from his bodily language. My galfren was telling me "if my son (age 3-4yo) was in the car, he would be screaming "Fuck YOU!" to him." I am liberal but this is still something that still stun me speechless! hahaaha! Talk about Bohemian style of parenting!


Anycase, back to coffeeshop. Our president joined us first while the couple went off for a quick puff before honoring us with their joint presence. Despite being my junior...totally cannot recall her in any of those 2 years in VJ. Still, she was good company, and gave us good vibe which was important because my fren had just gotten thru a bitter divorce giving up his flat and kid to the ex-spouse, so we wanted to be sure he didnt get screwed over by another xxx. Since the last time he jumped into the marriage blindly without any of us knowing his ex-wife, this time round, he was definitely more cautious and wanted any voluntary feedback.


We felt it was good really, apart from the fact she was definitely more a babe than his exwife ever could dream to be. Well travelled, well spoken and being from the same educational background definitely helped. She was also very preceptive. Halfway through the conversation when we were joking about the old days, I said something about getting straight to the point and she quickly connected 1-1 and remarked "You must be the one who texted those sms rite! haha!" It was suppose to be a "secret" but since she was so sharp, the cat was out of the bag. I joked that it was prob too "business like" and cut the crap sms unlike the usual longwinded romantic texts rite that gave me away! We all had a good laugh!



Catching up with the IJ gals@Professor Brawn Cafe,Velocity - Round 2

The next day was catching up with other IJ gals who couldnt make it for dinner the nite before. So at Ramona's suggestion, we decided to meet at Velocity@Novena, to lunch @Professor Brawn Cafe.


One of the reason for the pick is that the cafe is a socially responsible company, set up to aid children/people with autism. There is no reason not to support a joint with such a noble cause. Plus Ramona said the food was good, at least for cafe standard. She wasnt wrong.


Moo Moo requested for the waist wrap to cover her nursing fats...:P

We had the miso set for the day, as well as Calamari. Ramona had her Truffle chicken. I liked them both. During the meal, we laughed so much over things we did. Moo Moo was of course dishing up dirt on me, as to how relentlessly, I would only eat either 20piece nuggets (has to be freshly cooked), chicken rice or fish soup. She would remind me at how I had "maximise" our dollar for the coke, by asking for a full large coke without ice, only to turn around and ask for a separate cup of ice to share the large coke between us. My logic was that, why pay for the ice when u can get it free and extra coke at the same time? Ramona wasnt in my class but was my softball teammate and so she was privy to all my eccentricities back in those 4years..by the end of the lunch session, I think both of us had a very good recount of my youthful days!

At the same time, she shared about funny incidents when she was working at Delifrance when times were bad and she couldnt get a job after uni. The first incident was her asking one customer if she wanted alfa sprouts and the customer snapped at her saying "Do I look like a HORSE to you?" Before my fren knew what to say, another customer standing in front turned around and questioned the rude customer "Are you saying I AM A HORSE then?!!!" The story had us bursting into laughters!!

The second joke was when an elderly man came in and said "I want Ba Ku Teh" My fren told him that they do not serve pork ribs here but the man insisted. Just when my fren didnt know how to explain further, the old man pointed to the bread and said "There! That's the Bak Gu Teh lah!" The old man was pointing to a freshly baked Baguette - which the man had broken it up as "Ba-Gue-Te"! It was hilarious!

After lunch, Ramona had to rush off but Gwenie and Moo lingered with me alittle longer, chatting about other stuff. Moo Moo's daughter is continuing the Tradition of being the next generation of IJ gal! Mummy there was joking about digging up her old pinafold and do a mother and daughter in uniform shot! Hahaha! It was funny! Soon, it started to piss down rain and so it was time to call it a day. Always sad to say goodbye.

Me and my lovely Moo Moo...
My softball teammate, my hockey teammate, my rotary club mate, my classroom & lab partner, my project mate, my lunch mate, my shopping mate for 4 solid years back in those IJ years. 


One more shot before the next time we meet again...prob in oz! haha



Thursday, December 22, 2011

Catching up with the IJ gals@Marmalade Pantry, Orchard Ion!

Straight after my Krabi trip was non-stop action in catching up with my friends from school days!

The first nite back was spent with the girls from secondary days. 20 years on and still counting.

Gwen made it back from Oz for Xmas as well and so it was great since she had missed out on several past gatherings. Since we were the only 2 available ones who could meet up earlier, we went around munching snackies in town.

Both of us didnt have lunch and so we ended up buying po piahs from Taka basement. Bloody hell! Teochew popiah wrapped by China woman cost us $2.80 each. Ouch! That's like double the price u will get from coffee shop or hawker stalls! Gwenie was still hungry and she went to get our second craving, tako balls! Yummy! Instead of hanging out at coffee joints, we decided to head straight to Orchard Ion, Marmalade Pantry where we were meeting the rest for dinner. It was Cynthia's suggestion and since I am open to new places, was happy to jump at her recommendation.

It was a good nite for all, talking about the past and present. Wonder how we will all be rite in another 20years from now.


The staff was pretty good to us. So we started this chronological order of shots of whoever turned up first.

First there were 2...

Then there were 4...


Then the complete 6 pack of IJ gals! had to tickle Tracy to get her to grin:)

Dinner is served and ready to eat! The meal wasnt too bad.

Candid shots by the waiter who was amused by our expression of disbelief!
We were all stunned by the sheer size of the cakes! We were thankful at only ordering 2. Cynthia was far from wrong when she said it wasnt light weight!!! I would say not for the faint hearted!

Cheers to Good Times!


Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Travel Log: Krabi Trip, Dec 2011

Had a fabulous Xmas for a change this year! Left my partner to his journey home alone while I opted out of heading back to Oz and went back to Singapore and Krabi instead!

Had planned for a 5 day/4 nite stay in Krabi just the week before Xmas. Basically it was to be a R&R trip with some snorkeling and fishing thrown in. After Maldives, dont really expect much from snorkeling elsewhere especially my less than stellar experience with Koh Samui like 10years ago. Now with Tsunami wreakage still reeling from the damages...I wasnt wrong in my low expectation.

That aside, it was a good trip spending time with my best friends. Since Cambodia 11 years ago, I havent travelled with friends. Travelling with partner and alone is great, but it's just different from being with friends. I didnt have to plan anything, we didnt have to do something every other day. We didnt have to plan advance. PERFECT!

Went to Krabi town and boy I hate to bargain and haggle. Conclusion, the Indian shop owners drive the hardest bargain. You have to really want to walk out of the shop without buying a thing before they would relent a little. The local thai people were more shrewd by lowering the price bit by bit. by the 3rd shop, you prob will know the cost price and the lowest price you can get for bundle buys for the T-shirts, which by the way were of decent quality. When we got back, my friend made a beeline to the toilet and started to wash all our purchases! My lucky berms! hahaha!




My first ever Tuk Tuk ride!
So I had the best snoozing trip ever! My gf and her hubby was astound by my ability to sleep everywhere and any time even on the rocking fishing boat. Initially they were worried I might be bored with the day trip out at sea while they fish. Unknown to them, sleeping while the boat was at sea is exactly down my alley. I love nothing more than to have the gentle sea breeze caressing me as they lured me to lala land. I think I have kicked up a notch of "respect" for my sleeping prowess amongst my friends!hahaha!

Fishes we caught for the day!
We took only 4 fishes for dinner while the rest is given to the captain who brings it back for dinner to all the Thai Orphans whose homes and family perished in the Tsunami. 

Happy Trio!

Happy days with my BFF!

Leo's Triumph!

Slow ride back



Hotel in sight

View from the Boat


Swiftly, Safely back to our hotel

View from boat



View from hotel Pier


The hotel Pier
The Thai family of 3 (father and 2 brothers) whom we chartered our fishing boat.
The boat owned by an Ozzie guy, who lets them sleep on the boat after their village was destroyed by the Tsunami.

 We stayed at Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Krabi. Everything was great with grave exception to the Lotus Restuarant. A bunch of snooty arse serving staff with a ridiculous priced menu. The staff located in other dining spots such as the Thai and japanese restaurants were sooooo much better! The only face saving redemption in Lotus was their Pianist from Philippine. If anyone else stays there, I would say avoid Lotus at all cost! Can u imagine charging us 900baht for 3 fish dishes, and mind you, we CAUGHT the fishes ourselves, So for frying and steaming our fishes, they charged us an arm and leg full price costing for the meal. If this isnt ridiculous, I dunno what it.











Other than that, the spa at the hotel was excellent! The room was ok, but hell of alot of stairs to climb up but I suppose its good for after dinner exercise! Room housekeeping service is pretty haphazard and plenty of room for improvement.

Every day, there is something that they missed out like giving new fresh hand and face towels, did not change the deck chair towels, forgetting my orders 2 times in a row on separate occasions. The standard at reception also is left wanting at times. The nite before departure, we asked for late checkout at 12.30pm instead of 12pm, and luggage to be collected at 12pm instead of 11am. We were told all will be settled but when we decided to do an early pre-payment on checkout day, the gal told us that she had heard no such thing and insisted we vacate the room as informed. I told her that we had spoken to her colleague but she wont budge and unfortunately, neither would I. What can she do? Forcefully throw me out? She said she will check but her colleague could not be reached and in the end, she finally relented over a 30mins extension. Yet, when we returned to the room at 11.30am to get ready to wash up, the poor luggage guy was already waiting since 11am! No one bothered to tell them about our changes. I felt bad for him but it really wasnt our fault. I told him its not possible because we are still showering and not fully packed but he was a good chap about it.

The people that were truly on the ball and had the worst jobs were the luggage carriers. Our bags aint light and they had to carry it up and down the stairs! We decided to tip them 100baht each person. Prob alot from what I saw what others tip. This Singaporean woman had the audacity to pay them loose change (about 4 small coins from what I saw) for 4 huge bags of theirs...ashamed of such misers...

On the last morning, we headed to the pier and fed the fishes some bread. I screamed like hell when the fishes started to tickle my feet! It's strange because I dont feel ticklish when I am snorkeling but sitting there looking at them having a go at my feet is completely different! hahaah!
A game of the nations!


The sand trophies!

come fishy fishy!

Great company = Great memories!

Eileen helping to stuff bread between the toes

First attempt in trying to get the rock structure in the background

2nd attempt!

Lucky on the 3rd attempt! lol!

Last one we gave up! hahaha!
View from our room patio

Will I be back to Krabi, probably not. Snorkeling at Phi Phi was a complete waste of time after the corals were destroyed. However was the trip great, yeah it was for the company and the massages!