YOGeez

The YOG opens tomorrow. Read about how grand the opening ceremony is expected to be in today’s papers.

I was lucky enough to play guinea pig – attended the rehearsal on Wednesday. I had to use a lot of imagination, visualizing how it would be if Sean Kingston was there, the overwhelming fireworks, the VVIPs. The best were the substitutes (of the YOG and IOC chairmen) saying “Beginning of speech” and that was it. The audience was tickled.

Can you spot the monster/ET in the picture?

We were all quite enthusiastic in the beginning then started feeling sleepy, playing with their handphones, taking wu liao pictures (me) and some just left halfway. There was even a queue at the exit just about an hour into the show. The audience was invited to do a marina wave which didn’t quite take off, and this 4-step dance which required pushing our palms out towards the air, stretching our out hands when we were already packed shoulder to shoulder… the music throughout the evening was admittedly, nice.

When the flags of participating countries were revealed, I cheered loudly for Sri Lanka since I could relate with them.

In line with the hungry ghost festival, they also have larger than life, multi-racial balloon manipulated by performers, floating around. We were all scared stiff when they came round the audience.

I am still at the end of the day, proud to be a Singaporean, if only the tempo of the national anthem at the ceremony could go faster. The best for the evening was the beautiful skyline and of course, the impressive set.

Energy drink

Pardon this blur photo. Discovered only last Saturday that the ginger tea that I so enjoy drinking at my facial salon is made out of a packet drink. So here it is – Madam Kim. I like it cuz it’s mildly sweet and not overly pungent. I feel re-energised drinking it after my facial.

Got a bad news recently - I heard from my mom that she still has another 50 episodes to go before she finishes the Taiwanese drama, “Ai”. A total of 700 over episodes. It’s crazy!!! I think I definitely need more ginger tea to calm me down.

Italiano!

Went to Italiannies at Singapore Powers building (111) in Somerset for dessert. The restaurant opened in April this year. Nice coffee (generally $4.90 to 6.90) and a HUGE slice of tiramisu ($11+) which I thought would taste better if less sweet, more bitter with a stronger taste of coffee and alcohol. The place was packed with diners as many of them tucked in to pizzas and pastas (er.... we were already at desserts at 7.30pm). Hope to try those next time. Nice ambience! The best was the free flow of bread which we cud dip into olive oil n vinegar. The only downside was perhaps that the waitresses were quite snooty.

Surprisingly, 111 has lots of nice restaurants and cafes! Good getaway in the crowded stretch of 313.

Attitude House and their magical cream!

I must say BB cream is quite magical, especially the one from Etude House. But the service attitude is even more so!




I accompanied my colleague to Etude House at suntec to purchase something. She was searching for her stuff so I looked around. A salesgirl who looks young, petite and coloured almost her entire eyelids with her eyeliner, came up to offer her help. I told her I’m just looking around, she insisted on showing me something, so I checked out the pressed powder. She said powder doesn’t provide good coverage as BB cream, so she started squeezing and pumping out the different types of BB cream for me. Then came the cooling aloe vera one. One big lump flew onto the sleeve of my new blouse. She was apologetic and helped wiped some off for me. Then she said she tried her best and managed to remove only 50% of it, and suggested that I went to the toilet to wash it off. I told her not to feel bad about it n wanted to leave the shop. BUT, she insisted that I try out more types of BB cream and started applying them on her own hand, and ended off “So would you like to get one”? Wasn’t she persistent?

Thankfully for her, I was sick, otherwise I would have asked her if she would be keen if she was in my shoes and dragged her with me to the toilet to clean up my sleeve.

But for Etude House, I must say they have gotten themselves such a great, persistent employee!

Thai Accent - don't know what to say

Went to vivo city for dinner yesterday. I had wanted Japanese food but my friend said the Q was freaking long and suggested Vietnamese food. On our way to the Vietnamese restaurant, we got distracted by the aroma from a Thai restaurant - Thai Accent, so we decided to settle for that. The conclusion: the food is like my mom’s cooking – ONLY smells good.

The ambience promised great potential for the food but it stopped just there, like BaliThai (in Suntec). The minced meat with rice and sunny side up was too watery n salty; the clear tom yam soup was equally salty, n unauthentic (the one from Thai Express is anytime better). Only the stir fry kai lan with garlic was passable, but I think i can do that too. The bill came up to about $55, discount if you have the stanchart card. I don’t have that but so what, I definitely wun be going back.

Contrary to the name of the restaurant, most of the waiters seemed to be from the Philippines. Not only was there no Thai accent, one said “sawadee ka” as we left the restaurant.

Don't doubt the oracles!

Was doing my usual morning walk on Saturday when I saw some tourists surrounding a small table outside little india arcade. When I stopped and looked from across the road, I thought I saw Mani, the uniquely Singapore oraculous parrot! However, the world cup final has proven that Paul is the almighty! He has been my idol since the Spain-Germany match, though I lost and said I wanted to eat him. The day after Mani chose Holland, I went to place a small bet. Now; I feel like eating birds (including chicken)!

I have this friend who said she respected the choices of both animals and betted on a draw. And so, she won!

Actually, my McDull also predicted a draw, but as he is a fakie from my boss, I didn’t trust him…

Burger vs Octopus

Paul the octopus, has once again took his pick on the world cup. He chose Spain over Germany!

But animals can be wrong. Mani, the little parrot in Little India predicted a Uruguay vs Spain in the finals. I had wanted to go Little India after work yesterday to twist his neck but thankfully, he was wrong.

My bet with a colleague for the Spain vs Germany match tomorrow morning is on a BK or equivalent lunch. So, I’ll either have a free BK meal this Friday, if not, I’ll go for a bbq octopus feast this weekend.