The Central (No Mall)? No More!

Have you been to The Central recently? Not that Central Mall near Magazine Road but the new shopping mall at Clarke Quay.

DC and I went there after work early this month. A lot of shops were still not opened but most restaurants were already operational. One distinct characteristic is that there are A LOT OF Japanese restaurants there. The restaurants were all lined with long queues. Choosing what to eat was a big headache. In the end, we chose a Chinese restaurant but sad to say food there was only so-so. One of the signature dishes was spinach tofu. At the mention of it, DC and I exchanged glances. Ha, how could we order it when we know the consequences of consuming spinach with tofu?


After dinner, we had our dessert at the Hokkaido Ice-cream stall on the first floor. Thumbs up for the green tea flavor!


When it was time to go, we decided to take a cab back (as usual). We called for a cab. The cabbie was supposed to pick us up at the taxi stand. We assume that the taxi stand is at the basement carpark and we waited for quite a while but didn't see any taxi coming in at all. We wonder whether the taxi driver went to Central Mall instead. After checking with the customer service, we were told that the nearest taxi stand is at the Merchant Court Hotel, opposite the shopping mall!

*angry*

So, we walked to the part of the mall that is opposite the Merchant Court Hotel, thinking that the cab would probably pick up there. However, we waited and waited, minutes after minutes... our taxi didn't come at all! When checked with the taxi company, we found that the cabbie has cancelled our booking without informing us!

*angry Angry*

The taxi company arranged another taxi for us. This time, although the driver managed to find his way to the building, he was unable to locate our exact position.

*angry Angry ANGRY*

WE GAVE UP and walked a distance to the main road where the cab was. Once we got in, we let go a sigh of relief.. FINALLY WE CAN BE ON OUR WAY HOME!

All in all, more than an hour was wasted waiting for the taxis.

THAT'S IT!

WE ARE NEVER GOING BACK AGAIN!!!

CENTRAL? NO MORE! WE HAD ENOUGH OF IT!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow...

Since I'm working near the area and DC's on leave, we decided to go down to Tanglin Mall after my work on Mon to experience the "snow" in this Christmas season.

First time I see falling snow in Singapore...what an experience!

6:15pm: Had Starbucks coffee at Tanglin Mall


6:30pm: Took pictures of the beautiful Christmas decorations




7:00pm: Avalanche bursted out





7:15pm: Started snowing, Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow...



7:30pm: Show's over


8:00pm: Christmas Lightings along Orchard Road

A view from the top

A snapshot of the view from my office building... lots of greenery and a swimming pool beneath and my workplace lies within Singapore's busiest shopping district...

Nice view ya?

Preparing for SCSM 2007

Hehe, no we haven't really started training for it yet.. Rather, we went shopping at Addidas, the Co-Sponsor for the race, for running shoes, sportswear and accessories. We had quite a great buy there! :)

Beware of non-branded LCD photo frames (I bought a lemon)

I bought this non-branded in September from Amconics during the IT Show in Suntec.

Price: $149

Spoilt in the 1st week. No display. Went down Sim Lim to change.
Went back and noticed the image is flickering. So went down next day to change again.

1 month later, no display again! Went back to Sim Lim. Lady boss said must send for repair ... huh ... I asked for refund but of course it was not given. No choice then. Luckily, after lunch she called me and said the power adapter is spoilt.

Now another month later, no display again!!! Went back Sim Lim 3rd floor and lady boss wants to charge me $10 to change a power adapter ... Accessories are only warrantied for 7 days! If it spoils 7 days later, got to pay another $10 to change a new one.

She even has the nerve to say if I want quality, I should have bought Phillips. Indeed I should have. To think I have gotten a lemon.

Anyone facing the same problem with their LCD photo frames?



So now I have gotten my own power adapter instead. Adds a $33 to the cost. Well, we'll see if it can last.

SCSM 2007 - Goodie Bags Collected

Yup, yup! We are going to the StandChart Marathon Run this year! :) DC had collected the goodie bags and wow! There were A LOT OF people in the queue... he had to wait for 1 hour before it was his turn! While waiting, he took these photos and sent them to me. Luckily DC was on leave, he save me the trouble of queuing by collecting on my behalf, hehe...

添饱肚子容易, 满足肚子难!

It's getting harder to think of where to dine at for dinner ...

TCC ... Coffee Club ... Olio Dome ... Secret Recipe ... Cafe Cartel ... Crystal Jade all starts to get boring. It's almost the same old stuff everytime.

After wandering round a long time, decided to head to a nearby coffeeshop for western food. I think it's probably one of those mentioned in the papers recently.

Ordered a Ribeye Steak!
Steak was juicy and tender. Ample portion for $12. A bit salty though. Maybe they should learn not to drench the meat with too much sauce. The sauce is to complement, not to compete with the steak.



Of course, nothing much to expect from the presentation but it's a good fix for steak craving.

CP ordered a Chicken Cutlet Fried Rice. I liked the fried rice better than the cutlet but then I never was a fan of chicken cutlet. This costs $5.



I discovered a new way of drinking espresso - the Affrogato way. A scoop of vanilla ice-cream into freshly brewed espresso.

So off I bought a tub of vanilla ice-cream. Clean up my long idled espresso machine.



And with some Cafe Boheme, my own Affrogato is done.

Wellness Village Spa

Another of our spa ventures... this time we tried out the Wellness Village Spa at the Pan Pacific Hotel.

The time of appointment was set at 6:30pm, at 10am in the morning, the Spa called us to bring forward the appointment. We readily agreed to this last minute arrangement but were slightly late as we had to finish our home chores.

The environment has very "Bali" feel with the essential oil frangance in the air. We were led to a waiting area which overlooks the hotel's swimming pool. The view and mood was good. The mood however was dampened when the consultant came to us and attempted to cut short our 1.5hr body scrub + massage session to 1hr body massage and arrange the remaining 0.5hr body scrub on another day. Reason given was that we were late and they need the room for the next appointment. *What is this?* Then, she left DC and me there feeling bewildered while she prepared the room. Fortunately, the consultant came back shortly and claimed that she has found another room for the next couple and we could stick to the original treatments. *That's better!*

The session was actually very relaxing. This is the first time DC and I tried hot stones massage and both of us like it very much! The shower room was a very open and an outdoor one (Yes, the type we were looking for!). The roof was barely covered, Lift up our heads and we can see the Conrad hotel... Too bad we didn't have the chance to soak in the bath tub, it'll be nice if we could do that. :)

After the session, there weren't very much sales talk which was good. Probably, because they have more than enough of "Ang Mo" customers to entertain us. We were glad to just pay and go. While paying up, we saw that the cashier had this weird look on her face and kept repeating the numbers "118.8" to the consultant but the consultant was indifferent to the cashier's words.

Anyway, we can't remember exactly how much the session cost but it turned out we were overcharged 80 cents. They also didn't bother or offer to reverse the transaction. Forget it, since we were rushing off to catch a movie but thumbs down for this. Well, hopefully the next spa will be better ... till now, not one has worth us putting in money for the long term.

Read our previous Spa experiences:
The Garden Spa
The Ultimate Spa
Matahari Spa

Choked!

I love to eat fish but this is the first time I'm scared of fish... I choked on a fish bone during dinner at Secret Receipe. :( It was quite a long one and made my throat really uncomfortable. Took me quite a while to manipulate it out of my throat.

What's at Coffee Club?

Definitely worth trying -

Country Pie

Love the cheese and the chunky chicken bits in a mash potato mix.

Mudpie

Sinfully delicious ice-cream on a chewy chocolatey base.


Try once -

Lychee Panna Cotta


Seafood Lasagne

A lot of clams, prawns, very rich but a tad too salty. I guess that's the way with lasagne, it gets saltier as you stuff more of it.

Not worth trying -

Iced Cuppucino

I guess there's a reason why the good ones are served hot.

Sadly, all coffee sucks at Coffee Club.

How many birthdays does Mum have?

Everyone in my family has 2 birth dates to remember - the Gregorian and the Chinese Lunar dates. Being very traditional, my parents would celebrate our chinese birthdays with red eggs and noodles. The Gregorian birthday is left for us to celebrate with our friends.

This year, the family gathered together to celebrate mum's birthday... not just once, but 4 times! The day before her lunar birthday, on the actual lunar birthday, Tim Sum on a Sunday morning and on her legal birthday!

Haha... the number of celebrations were indeed a little too many this year but who cares? so long as mum's happy and I'm very sure she did because, for her, nothing beats gathering all her beloved children on the same table. Now, it was actually DC with a bit of a problem... on every celebration after the first he would question: "Exactly how many birthdays does your mother have?" Haha..*LOL*

How about TCC?

The presentation of the food is the nicest, each like an art piece. I always like taking photos of the items I ordered. Some of the items worth trying:

Oven-baked Marinated Chicken

This never fails to please.

Ti-Rum-misu

Not bad at all, with a strong taste of alcohol.

Chicken Wings

Delicious, skin is fried to a crispy golden brown, juicy on the inside. Yummy!

Seafood Aglio Olio

Very spicy, but then I am no spicy eater. Scallops is the winning part of this dish.

Beef Mozza-Tofu

The cheese on top hides a suprisingly soft and tender tofu with minced beef underneath.

Bisque of Forest Mushroom

I can't guarantee that the mushroom is harvested from the forest but I like mushroom soup and this is really tasty. It's a frequent choice when I eat at TCC now.