Thursday, December 30, 2010

(Northern) Ireland

i've been there for a while now, and managed to catch it in the middle of pretty snow.



post-christmas the snow had come and gone, however, and the thaw had left millions of people across the whole of ireland without water.

needless to say, i was one of those in belfast who had no water - the outage lasted for 4 days, and the heat also went out on the third day. i think it's partly cos we're in an older estate; the boy had a few friends who were in a newer part of the city and they had water - thank goodness for their shower!

good thing the water is back now - not sure how long it'll last though - and well.. i'd rather have no heat than no water! anti-bacterial wipes and hand sanitisers can only do so much - there's nothing to be done about dirty hair; i couldnt find dry shampoo here though i know some places that sell it back home.

off to dublin tomorrow!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Europe

Looking at the many Europeans on my flight, it strikes me that this is the first time I'm going back to Europe in 3 years.

Previously my thoughts were all centred on seeing the boy again, but the thought now of being in Europe is getting me more excited!

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20-something year old infants

Infantile behaviour was exhibited at the office today.

How do some pple at this age still do those stupid things like ask personal questions like 'how many boyfriends have you had' and then go one round the group? And not just that, but also give crappy comments like 'this is bonding' and think its really funny and fun.

Wth. The main insinuator in question is 27 years old. One would have thought a person would have grown out if such secondary school behaviour by that age. I really don't see how its any of other pple's business, especially if they're my work colleagues. In fact, they don't even need to know if I'm dating at the moment! It's really none of their business and I RESENT being peer pressured into bullshit like this.

I wish I were still at the age when I would have expressed my disdain and walked away from such a situation.

A person can do all the community service and good deeds in the world, but all that won't detract from the misgivings I might have about that person's character.

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Friday, December 17, 2010

happy birthday

it’s gonna be my birthday soon, so here’s some birthday trivia:

me, my colleague and our small boss all celebrate our birthdays on the same day. not only is that so, but i’m 7 years younger than my colleague, who in turn is 7 years younger than our boss too.

what a strange coincidence!

when that revelation was made, small boss spent some time over lunch musing that when i was born, he was already in secondary school; when he was in army i wasn’t even in kindergarten yet; when he was out in the working world i hadn’t even sat for PSLE yet.

something similar happened another day when we were discussing Prince William’s upcoming nuptials. i was raving about how he was so cute back then and all the girls in my primary school were gushing over him; we were in primary 6 and more interested in Prince William than Princess Diana’s death.

to which my colleagues replied: “What?? You were only in Primary 6??!! I was already in… (university, army, working, etc)”.

damn, i felt bad then :P

Thursday, December 16, 2010

two thumbs down – cedele, ngee ann city

dinner at the ngee ann city branch of cedele today was such a disappointing experience for the following reasons:

1. no more soups: we were told when trying to place our orders that all 4 of their soup options were sold out except for the beef stew. this news, at the oh-so-late hour of 7.30pm, was so ridiculous that i couldn’t believe my ears. how can any restaurant run out of their main items – since cedele is known for their soups, among others – when it’s smack at dinner time?

2. substandard service: one thing more annoying that service staff who speak only mandarin are service staff who speak little English AND don’t speak mandarin. i don’t think the staff really understood me, and they were quite poorly trained. one of them noticed me wanting to order, noted my request, then promptly ignored me even while she walked up and down serving other people. another one kept trying to push the bill in my friend’s face, even though i had already stuck out one hand to take the bill. and the store manager - 上梁不正,下梁歪 – in response to my statement “oh, it’s only 7.30pm and you have no more soups?” could only offer “Yes, it’s a very saleable item.”

come on, if it’s saleable, then you should just make more of it! Also, the first word service staff should learn is “sorry”, followed by “thank you”. an apology doesn’t achieve much, but it always helps to not make things worse.  And yes, the sarcasm was lost on her as well. sigh.

3. so-so food: i ordered a pesto fish spaghetti, but my dish had no pesto. what’s with singapore restaurants and pesto? they seriously don’t get the idea of what pesto ought to be (see my previous post) – just go to the supermarket and buy a bottle of the sauce, for goodness sakes. the pasta was dripping with oil and rather salty too, which means two more minus points.

 

so much for the good opinion i had of cedele. i should just heed my friend’s advice and head to the hawker centres whenever i eat out instead – at least even if the food is so-so and the service bad, it’s only costing me $5 or so.

i was never a cedele regular, but they’ve just lost one customer for good.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

recent going-ons

the bus i was on today smelled of perspiration and french fries, which made for a horrible mix of odours. next to me on the seat was also this guy who somehow managed to take up more space than he ought to – men should learn how to sit with their legs closed – which was annoying. 

i also realised today that my ‘leisurely’ walking speed is still a fair bit faster than that of other ladies on the streets; even in heels and strolling there were still too many other people in my way.

* *   *   *   *

i met up with some JC friends the other day; most whom i had not seen for more than two years. they haven’t changed much at all, though i wish some of them have.

that day, i also heard for the second time in a week someone saying that they wouldn’t mind working in Asia, perhaps Hong Kong or China – one friend had been in the US for several years now, another had been in the UK for around 6 months.

the interesting thing is that neither of them have been to China (nor Hong Kong i think). Despite my current vocation, i’m not interested at all in working in China for several reasons, and much of my current opinion stems from having visited the country myself – i think if i’d never stepped foot there on a personal holiday last summer i might feel differently.

* *   *   *   *

lunch today was at a cafe near The Office – coffee and pasta set for $8.90 only. naturally the price was too good to be true, as the pasta was overcooked and the ‘pesto cream’ sauce had no pesto and was too thin and watery.

the sign at the front of the cafe also wrote “tomato cream” under the list of pastas available. when i asked what was in the tomato cream pasta i got a strange look from the cashier and the ‘chef’ (i’m pretty sure i can cook better than her), and was informed bemusedly that the pastas came with either tomato sauce or cream sauce.

now, this isn’t the first time i’ve been misled by the words “tomato cream” in singapore. previously i was at Modestos, and a tomato cream lasagne we ordered turned out to be lasagne cooked in cream cheese with a dollop of tomato sauce on top.

and that’s what tomato cream pasta looks like (picture from here)

it’s depressing that tomato cream is unheard of here as it undoubtedly is my favourite pasta sauce – yes, even more so than cream sauce. it’s a fabulous sauce as the tang of the tomato combines with the oomph of cream to produce an absolutely delicious flavour. also, it’s extremely simple to make and has has the yummy taste of cream with little of the fat – i’ve made tomato cream pasta and one serving requires about 200g canned tomatoes with only 2.5 tablespoons of cream. it remains a mystery why restaurants don’t serve it here.

* *   *   *   *

the past two weeks have been spent playing computer games – mainly the childish ones, like Plants vs Zombies which i enjoyed tremendously.

for Black Friday, Steam held a huge sale and most games are still at sale prices – starting from USD2.99. as Plants vs Zombies was too short a game i bought Puzzle Bots at 4.99USD, which is really fun too.

 

there are 5 robots in all, each with different abilities, which one must use to complete tasks. the game has an interesting storyline and i like the robot voices!

just the other day, The Boy bought me Toki Tori as well, which features a ridiculously cute tori as the main character. it’s also a puzzle game, but when one takes too long to think through the puzzle, the tori gets bored and does things to entertain itself, like hop from one foot to another, wave at the player and juggle eggs.

  

この鳥、めっちゃかわいい!!~~

i’m not very good at puzzle games though, and am only on the first stage, so we’ll see how long it takes before i start pulling my hair out in annoyance. :P

Friday, December 10, 2010

Erm...

Dude, you don't 'play bowling', you just 'bowl'.

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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Raffles Hotel

I attended a work-related dinner event at Raffles Hotel, and unfortunately the quality of the Chinese food there was disappointing.

In general, the food was too salty. Their sharks-fin soup (the broth, not the fin) was flavourful but the saltiness was somewhat overpowering, while their broccoli with egg and crabmeat, though delicious, required several drinks of water afterwards.

The starter dish was okay – there was nothing spectacular or particularly appetising about the roast duck, pickles, jellyfish, mayo prawn and rock melon, fried wonton and scrambled egg with crab meat combination. Same goes for the fried rice wrapped in lotus leaves that came near the end of the dinner.

The fish wasn’t good – the meat was tough and slightly chewy, which was a pity as there were two sizable slices of fish that simply weren’t worth eating.

I liked the prawns though. Steamed with wolfberries and herbs (danggui and another one i only know the Hakka name of), they were fresh and succulent, while the taste of herbs was just right.

The dessert – beancurd with sesame sauce – was my favourite dish of all. The ‘beancurd’ had a texture reminiscent of Sun with Moon’s tofu cheesecake, with a slightly firm, mousse-like texture. It went perfectly well with the robust sesame sauce, and both were sweet but not cloying. Come to think of it, i would have gladly had a second serving of dessert!

PS: Separately, the toilets in Raffles Hotel are REALLY difficult to find!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Nivea Angel Star Soft Souffle – avoid!

When will i learn not to trust products that are attractively packaged? Especially when some internet work post-purchase reveals that the product is marketed at teens – and i’m well past that stage.

I was at Watsons hoping to buy some body cream as I’d decided that the aircon in The Office is doing too much damage to my skin. Nivea hasn’t let me down before, and when i saw this really pretty Angel Star Soft Souffle with raspberry scent that claimed to moisturise for 24 hours, I thought I had to give it a go.

I should have bought one of the really small samples available on hindsight, but there and then I thought, ‘How bad can Nivea’s products be?’. Well, there’s a first for everything, as this Angel Star Soft Souffle is quite a let down.

The scent is alright enough, though I think some might find it just a tad overwhelming. Its ‘youghurt-like consistency’ really means that to scoop it up you have to poke your finger into the cream, and that it’s thin, watery and glides over your skin.

I suppose this sort of cream works alright to retain moisture in one’s skin, but it does very little to actually moisturise parched, dry skin. The cream doesn’t seep in but instead sits as a layer – a greasy one – atop the skin, a quality which was my beef with the Vaseline Intensive Moisture Locking Lotion too. The cream also warmed my skin for about 10 minutes after application, which would be useful in colder climates but less so in Singapore.

My favourite Nivea product for dry skin is still the Nivea Soft Intensive Moisturising Cream below. It’s thick, rich consistency moisturises really well; too bad I didn’t notice it in the store today.

Oh well. At least the soft souffle smells nice?

NB: It’s been nearly 2 months since I made this review. The smell is milder now and after the first few applications, the cream no longer had that warming effect. My skin still isn’t as moisturised as I’d like it to be, but i suppose Nivea Angel Soft is a so-so product. I’d not condemn it, but wouldn’t recommend anyone buy it – would suggest they purchase the Nivea Soft Intensive Moisturising Cream instead.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

pandas

are such useless creatures.

an article on the BBC website reported on a panda breeding breakthrough in China, and i found the following particularly quote-worthy:

“Female pandas are only on heat for 72 hours a year, and can only actually become pregnant during a 12 to 24 hour window during this time.”

“Male pandas have proportionately short penises meaning pairs must adopt a very exact position in order to mate. During their observations, researchers found that pandas demonstrated poor knowledge of this position.”

“It is assumed that as pandas cannot store fat, they lack the milk or energy to care for more than one cub at a time.”

it baffles me how pandas as a species could possibly come into existence! surely natural selection should have finished them off by now?

Saturday, December 4, 2010

round 2

takeaways from the past few days:

  • Wuhan has really bad air quality. Don’t plan on visiting till after the next 3 years, as all the construction and road works will continue till then.
  • Try not to take China Southern flights from Wuhan to Haikou, Hainan. The plane we took was horribly old and cramped; the toilet door required some tugging before it would close; the main plane door took the cabin attendant at least 5 tries slamming it shut before she succeeded. It was a rather scary sight.
  • the Intercontinental Hotel in Sanya, Hainan, has beautiful rooms and seems a good place for a romantic getaway (unfortunately i was alone). Here’re some pictures of the standard (cheapest) room there:

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it even had a balcony you could rest and admire the view from – too bad it was really late by the time we got there, and we had to get up by 5am to catch our flight the next day:

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