My Weekend

I went to this organic vegetarian food restaurant at fortune centre for Saturday brunch. The service (especially of the chef) was amazing. She totally ignored us when we were ordering our food but said I had to wait really long for my organic lor mee. No reply when I asked for my must-have teh c. it’s totally service so by the time my friend realized there was a cup of cold teh c sitting on the counter, it was 15 mins later. Maybe it was organic c or even soya milk, the drink was tasteless, and I returned it on basis there was no response from her, so I assumed the drink wasn’t available.

Verdict: The salad bee hoon was good – tasty home made salad with organic bee hoon, made me feel really healthy. The service was amusing but I’m quite well-trained for this having seen that in mcdull’s movies many many times. I always enjoy rude service.

*****

The Slumdog Millionaire theme song was ringing in my head the whole Saturday! I knew how much I was into when I had to urge to hide behind the pillar while waiting for my friend at the mrt station. After that, I had my first-ever river cruise in Singapore. Free one! And it was the first time I saw Merlion’s front. It was as usual, spouting water but now has to supervise the construction of our casino… I mean integrated resort.

******
To prepare myself for the upcoming Beijing trip, I went for the Kang Xi Forbidden City exhibition at the ACM yesterday (the real reason – it was free! International Museum Day). My fellow Sporeans never disappointed me! They were with me at the museum! Loads of them, with crying babies, out of control kids. I thought I heard someone break the display glass.

The number of exhibits was pathetic, and we had to queue and be herded by security guards. I’m glad I’m going to the Forbidden City in 2 weeks! Just be careful of what my Canadian friend called snot rockets.

Kiasu

I feel quite compelled to blog again because my neighbour at work has been furiously blogging for the last 2 weeks about her 2-week trip to the country next to Down Under. Clue: the population of the country’s dairy cows surpasses that of Singapore, according to their advertisements.

The problem is, I don’t have much to talk about other than that I’ll be going Beijing and Dalian in about 2 weeks. But must still blog cuz I kiasu. My friends from china, Singapore and even Canada, have been giving me tips on where to go, what to eat etc. My Chinese friends assured me that the seafood in dalian (next to north korea) will be safe for consumption when I told them my worry that my potential seafood meals will be floating on the sea with radioactive chemicals and fired missiles, courtesy of Pyongyang. When I asked one of guys “大连有什么好玩的?”, he replied without hesitation “男人”. Pretty helpful tip!

I also intend to purchase travel insurance for fun and just in case, as I can’t claim a single cent even if I cancelled my trip cuz of a H1N1 outbreak, UNLESS I catch that flu before I leave for my trip or during it. What’s the point? But still buy lah, kiasu mah.

What I had for breakfast this morning

Hot dog on green leafy veggies. Appaling!

The only comfort is… it was much better than festive sandwiches - white bread with leftover mooncakes and pineapple tarts as fillings my ex-colleague’s mom made her. Absolutely exotic!

BASKET!

Yesterday, my colleague from Indonesia sitting beside me asked a very interesting question, something that never occurred to me. Another colleague (a ship captain) sitting near us shouted “basket!” over the phone.

He asked very innocently “What’s the meaning of basket? Cuz I keep haring Sporeans say that.”

“It’s the basket under our desks.”

“Really? No other meaning? Is it unique to Spore?”

“I think so but I don’t know the origins. Only know that it’s a scold-people word. Maybe people meant to say ‘bast*** but couldn’t use it openly.”

“So there’s really no real meaning to it?”

There’s another colleague who always faithfully google for answers on something discussed over lunch, and then emails it to the lunch kakis. I met one of his kakis today and posted the question to him. Waiting for the most “basket” answer now.

Amazing!

Season 14 of the Amazing Race has finally ended with the siblings (Tammy & Victor) winning the race. Yay! Cuz I couldn’t stand the other 2 teams – the boy who thought the whole world owed him something and played it dirty at times; the b***** cheerleaders who gave each and every taxi driver a tongue lashing without fail.

Victor proved himself brainy during the last leg to arrange the pictures on the surf boards in the correct order of the 12 legs of the race. The only grievance I have about this team is, tammy kept dropping the pig. No respect for the animal! Carry it on the shoulders lah!

Some said the Asian winners had the language advantage in China but well, had the other teams expected this, they too could have picked up Mandarin, alongside Thai, Romanian… at some point of their lives. Then tammy could have learned to carry pigs.

If I were a participant in the race, besides the million dollars, I would love a taste of the exotic Beijing snacks (star fish, scorpions, centipedes…)! They looked yummy!!!

Phuket

My Phuket trip over the weekend was short but fun. We left on Friday afternoon and came back last evening. I had wanted to spend the remaining baht I had on underwear but the shops were closed after we finished our dinner… so I went to Boots and splurged on dessert looking body creams and lotions.





The island’s a fun(ny) place with a fair share of thai culture like the he-shes, nice restaurants and pubs. Check out the photo of this gwai-lo or ang moh ballerina! He was standing around talking to people and I stole a shot of him. He shouted and came after me. We thought he wanted us to pay for or delete that shot but he actually wanted to do a sexy pose for us. That posy photo is unfortunately in my friend’s camera but watch this space. Phuket is a mix of bintan I think, in terms of the resort feel and with a touch of Bangkok with the shopping. Of course food and shopping are no match for bangkok. I’m not into water sports but the beaches are really beautiful, so is the resort we stayed in. Traditional thai massage was good but I must say regular yoga makes a real difference. My bones could have cracked otherwise.

And I DO agree with my colleague who suggested I rent a motorbike to get around the island. Transport is really expensive! Especially for someone who stayed in a resort on the hill! A trip from Patong beach to hotel cost us between 100 to 200 baht! The thought of having to go into another bargaining battle after a long day was equally tiring as the game itself. Talking about the peaceful Singaporean-owned baan yin dee resort, it was a mix of good and bad service. The aircon in our room was making a lot noise when we were about to doze off on the second day. The technician came but couldn’t fix the problem, so they gave us the room next door for sleeping. There’s a one-way free shuttle to Patong beach but the last one was at 4pm. Everything else from phone calls to taxi booking was money and money. Trip to patong by limousine would cost 300 to 1000 baht, 3000 baht for one-way airport transfer. Siao ah!!! I’d rather splurge it on seafood or even underwear.

My favourite experiences from the trip? Definitely the ride on the elephant back! Every step of the gentle giant was slow and steady! And the tune the mahout hummed was really pleasing!The rides on the fast boat was simply memorable, esp the non-stop 40 min ride right after lunch. It was high tide and the sea was extremely choppy. We were flying all over the place and getting knocks on the head and back. One uncle from Msia onboard who was talking throughout the morning became quiet after lunch.... cuz he said he wanted to puke out his food. Thrilling!