2 Scoops, A Set and A Milkshake

I’m loving my leave so far, really feels good being able to go around my business without worrying about the time or meeting deadlines.

Last week, I was able to try out some new food places around town. They have been around for quite some time, but this is the first time I’m trying them out. I happened to pass by the first while running an errand, the next was a second chance and I made an effort to get to the third.

Udders @ West Mall

I was at West Mall last Tuesday to transfer my home phone line back to SingTel fixed line after about a year on Starhub Digital Home. The wife still prefers the tried and tested. Might blog about it in another post.

The opening hours was supposed be from 11am to 10pm, but I was ‘lucky’ enough to choose the day when they delayed opening by an hour for annual financial year consolidation. So with an hour to burn, I roamed around the mall to do some window-shopping.

The first thing that caught my eye was the ad on the first floor escalators. Udders was having 10% off single scoops.

Having read Justin’s post on Little Ice Cream Kafe, I recalled his reference of the Lychee Martini ice-cream from Udders. Being the lychee fanatic that I am, I couldn’t resist checking it out.

The outlet is situated on the second floor in between the escalators. Though it is in a corner, it has a sign along the walkway that you can’t miss. The table tops at the outlet have hilarious cartoons of cows and udders.

The staff there were friendly and offered me free tasting of their various flavours prior to purchasing. They even allowed me to take a photo of their price list.

Their flavours are classified into 3 ranges, Classic, Premium and Connoisseur. The prices varies according to range.

In all, I tasted 4 flavours,

• Bailey’s & Burbon (Premium) – Nice creamy flavour, can’t taste the burbon though
• Earl Grey (Classic) – Rich taste of Earl Grey
• Vanilla Beanz (Classic) – Classic taste of Vanilla
• Strawberry Fields (Classic) – Full of strawberry bits and pits

After tasting, I settled for a Classic and Connoisseur combo of Strawberry Fields and Lychee Martini. It is a good combination if you like fruit flavoured ice-cream. The two flavours of lychee and strawberry blended well together.

The Lychee Martini was palatable with a nice refreshing lychee flavour. However, I was unable to taste the alcohol that Justin mentioned (probably due to my occasional swigs of vodka). d8

The Strawberry Fields, on the other hand, was heavenly. I could taste the bits of strawberries with every spoonful. If you look closely, you can actually see the strawberry pits in the ice cream. Definitely a must try if you love strawberry ice-cream.

They have other outlets in Bukit Timah and Novena. Do check out their website.

Kaffe & Toast @ SGH

I mentioned in my post last week that I would try out the otah bun from Kaffe & Toast the next time I visited my dad at SGH.

So on Wednesday, I had the otah bun set for lunch. The set came with an otah bun, 2 half-boiled eggs and a hot drink. I had the coffee with my set.

I’ve always had a soft spot for otah with bread. I usually pair the small 40 cents otah and with Gardenia sliced bread. This is the first time I tried bread with mackerel otah (the bigger $1.50 type with fish chunks), and I wonder why I never thought of this combination before. The bun that came with the otah was nice and fluffy and it complemented the spicy and firm texture of the otah very well.

The eggs that came with the set were cooked just right, which should be expected of any respectable kaya toast and eggs makan place. The coffee, though fragrant, lacked the caffeine punch that coffee junkies, like me, require.

The otah bun set is a refreshing change to the kaya toast breakfast set which is commonly found in various breakfast places and coffee shops. I would recommend it to anyone who has a soft spot for otah.

Once Upon a Milkshake @ Tanjong Pagar

Ever since reading tweets about the milkshakes from DK and posts by myfoodsirens and claudswu, I have been looking for a chance to try out the milkshakes at Once Upon a Milkshake.

On my way back from SGH, I decided to pick up the ASUS UL30A I got for recontracting with Starhub. The collection outlet was in China Square Central on Cross Street, which was not too far off from Maxwell. It was a warm and sunny day, a day which made slurping down a cool milkshake all the more tempting. So, armed with Nokia Maps on my trustyN97, I decided to hoof it to Maxwell Chambers to try out the milkshakes.

When I got there at around 4pm, what greeted me was a quiet little outlet with white tables and wooden chairs that seats about 20-30 people max. And because it was late in the afternoon, there were only a couple of customers around. It would have been a nice place to sit down and chill out, if I wasn’t in such a rush to get back and pick my boy from childcare.

The milkshakes have very unique names.  There are 10 flavours to choose from.  The flavours are,

1. agent strawberry – Strawberry
2. chocolate truffle castle – Chocolate
3. nutty peanut butler – Peanut Butter
4. spooky mocha – Mocha
5. pirate queen peach – Peach
6. sir cookies & cream – Cookies and Cream
7. vainilla pot – Vanilla
8. grumbling raisins – Rum and Raisins
9. cerious maple – Maple
10. litchi otokonoko – Lychee

Ordered a regular chocolate truffle castle. Have been craving for a chocolate milkshake for ages. It didn’t disappoint. The milkshake was very chocolaty with lotsa chewy chocolate bits and it was topped off with chocolate chips. Delish!

I am already planning what to have on my next trip here. Eying the litchi otokonoko and grumbling raisins. Two of my other favourite ice-cream flavours. Can’t wait!

Photo Post: Nursery Excursion Part 2

Before we started, we did not have the exact addresses or names of the places we intended to visit.  I tried searching on Google Maps, but searching the word ‘nursery’ yielded more childcare centres than plant nurseries, and searching the word ‘florist’ gave me a list of flower shops.  In the end, we used the age-old method of trial and error based on memory and chanced upon the places we visited on Sunday.

The second nursery we visited was Bedok Garden & Landscape by Far East Flora along Bedok South Road.

Photos were taken with a Sony T90 and resized and watermarked using XnView Portable

Finally Circle Line Phase 1 and 2 Opens

When I moved into my place in the Old Airport Road area  in 2002, one of the highlights was having a Circle Line MRT station nearby which goes directly into the city by 2008, and being able to transfer to the existing MRT and NEL lines at various interchanges.

However, the Nicoll Highway tunnel collapse in 2004 delayed the opening of both Phase 1 and 2 to 2010 beyond the 2009 opening of Phase 3. On Saturday, 17 April 2010, Phase 1 and 2 of the Circle Line officially started operations from 6am.

We were excited to try out the new station and trains on the first day since it was practically in our backyard. So, we decided to have a family dinner at Tung Lok Seafood in Orchard Central.

We left home at around 7pm and started walking to the Mountbatten MRT station which was around 500m away. We took the city bound train to Dhoby Ghaut interchange to transfer to the North-South line. It was fairly crowded when we boarded, but most of the passengers alighted at the next station, Stadium, as 2 concerts were being held there that night. The ride through 6 stations to Dhoby Ghaut took about 20 minutes.

Surprisingly, the transfer to the North-South line was a breeze, it was much closer than the walk between the North-South line and North-East line at the same interchange. The transfer consisted of a ride up the escalator to the transfer deck, a short walk of about 10-20 meters to the escalator to the existing North-South line and the ride down the  escalator.

We took the north-bound train and alighted at the Somerset station. In all, the transit from home to Somerset, including walking to the station, waiting for the trains and the transfer at Dhoby Ghaut took slightly more than 30 minutes. In comparison, taking a bus would have taken around 45 minutes. Driving was not an option as traffic into the city is nightmarish on a Saturday evening.

Dinner was uneventful.  It was neither fantastic nor was it terrible. Typical chinese cuisine from Tung Lok. We adjourned to the roof garden to take in the night view.  The view of the lights in Orchard Road and the horizon was nice.
The trip back home in the opposite direction also took about 30 minutes. In all, the new alternative route that the Circle Line provides into the city is definitely appreciated, especially with public transport being more crowded and owning a car being more expensive.

Photo Post: Nursery Excursion Part 1

My wife had to source for some plants and trees for the garden at her workplace, so we did a family excursion to two plant nurseries in the Bedok area on Sunday.

The first place we visited was Katong Flower Shop along New Upper Changi Road.


















Photos were taken with a Sony T90 and resized and watermarked using XnView Portable

Parking @ SGH

Friday was the first time in the week that I actually drove to SGH to visit my dad with my mum. Now I understand why my dad said that parking was a nightmare and insisted on taking public transport on the day of admission.

We arrived at SGH around 11.45am, just before visiting hours which starts at 12 noon. We entered via College Road with the intention of parking at Car Park G which was close to Block 5 where my dad was warded. To our dismay, the car park full indicator at the entrance was on. We drove on and rounded the main building only to find queues at the entrance of  Car Parks C and E.

We then tried our luck at Car Park B which was a coupon parking car park. We drove around the car park and found cars waiting at every corner for available lots. We gave up trying to get a lot there and decided to go back to Car Park G and queue at the entrance.

While driving out of Car Park B, I saw a sign pointing to a car park at HPB, and it was not full. We drove in to take a look. To our delight, we found a basement carpark with lots of available parking space. We parked at a lot near the lift and proceeded to visit my dad. During the visit, a friend of my parents who was working at SGH dropped by to see how he was doing. It turns out that she also didn’t know about the car park at HPB, which was just opposite of her office building.

So on the way back to the car, I decided to take some photos and blog about this ‘undiscovered’ secret. Though it might be a distance away from the main SGH building, I would prefer parking there because it is a basement carpark (great for not getting wet when it is raining), and since it is just beside the walkway to the MRT, it is sheltered all the way to the main building (no umbrellas needed). The most important point for an impatient person like me is that I do not need to queue or waste time waiting for a lot.

Oh, and did I mention that it is cheaper than the other SGH parking on week days?  Its 51 cents for every half hour, just 1 cent more than URA coupon parking.

The Missing Zodiac from McDonalds

When McDonalds released the Zodiac Doraemon Lucky Charm in January, we planned to buy the zodiac signs of our family, so 2 dragons and a pig.

2 weeks into the promotion, when we got the dragon lucky charms, we came to realize that the pig lucky charm was replaced by a cupid one so as not to offend the muslim community.  This sort of backfired as buying a pig toy and eating pork are not at all related, so most of our muslim friends are not offended. But, the chinese customers born in the year of the pig were disappointed as they could not get the lucky charm of their zodiac sign. We too were disappointed.

Then, McDonalds announced in late January that they apologized for their oversight and said that they will bring in the pig lucky charm in mid-April and all proceeds will go to charity. I don’t know why, but I have a nagging feeling that the whole thing was all an elaborate PR stunt to bring more publicity through controversy. Anyway, that’s just a personal opinion.

Either way, I am glad that they decided to bring it in.  And I just bought mine this morning to complete the family collection. Yippee!

Packaging

Soft Toy

Oh, and by the way, don’t make the same mistake as me. You don’t need to make any food purchase to buy the lucky charms.

So, all those waiting for this, have you gotten yours yet?

Unboxing of ASUS UL30A

I recontracted my Starhub MaxOnline Premium account last week and got an ASUS UL30A notebook in return.  Got the collection email on Monday to pick up the notebook from China Square Central.

Collected it today on my way back from SGH.  First charge should be at least 12 hours. The specifications of the notebook according to the Starhub website are as follows,

Processors	Intel® CULV Processor SU2300 1.2GHz
Operating System	Windows® 7 Home Premium
Graphics Chipset /Chip Type	Mobile Intel® 945 Express Chipset Family/ Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Display	13.3” WXGA Screen
Standard memory	2GB DDR3 RAM
Hard Drive	320GB SATA Hard Disk
Networking	802.11 B/G/N, Bluetooth
I/O Ports	1 x 34mm Express Card Slot, 4-in-1 card reader slot (SD/MMC/MS/MS pro), 2 x USB 2.0 ports, RJ45, VGA, mic-in, headphone (stereo)
Audio & Speakers	2 x internal stereo speakers, single build-in microphone with echo cancellation and noise reduction
Battery	8 Cell battery, Up to 10 Hours Battery Life
Webcam	0.3M Pixel Build In Camera
Weight & Dimension	(LxWxH) 250.2mm x 183mm x 22-27.5mm 1.25Kg with Hard Disk and 3-cell Li-ion Battery
Warranty	2 Years Global Warranty
Finishing	Black Brushed Aluminium finishing

Here are some photos of the items in the package,

Will attempt to do a review post after I have fiddled around with the notebook for about a week. The first impressions of the notebook are that it feels light and looks sleek.

Gripe about SMRT Bus Service

For the longest time, I have been griping about the bus service by SMRT (formerly known as TIBS, which merged with SMRT in 2001).  Especially now that I am temporarily staying at my parents’ place in Bukit Panjang during my leave, and have to rely solely on SMRT buses for public transport.  Either that or take the LRT-MRT combi, which is forever crowded.

Its not like the service from SBS is anywhere near perfect.  But at least the intervals between buses are quite regular and predictable.  And with iris, I am able to time my trips out of the office or home without spending too much time at the bus stops waiting for the bus to arrive.

Though we are paying the same fares for SMRT buses, there is no such online service.  I believe the infrastructure to determine the bus positions is in place as PublicTransport@SG Mobile is able to tell the arrival time of SMRT buses at various pre-defined bus stops. Perhaps it is to cover their inadequacy to provide sufficient buses on a regular intervals.  The wait for buses can be as long as 30 minutes to an hour even during off-peak hours when there are no jams.

And to make matters worse, some of their buses are so old that the aircon cannot be felt during hot, sunny days.  This make taking the buses feel like being in a sauna on wheels in the afternoons.  I shudder to think what would happen if someone with an infectious disease unknowingly boards the bus and starts coughing and sneezing during the journey.

I was ‘lucky’ enough to board one such bus today when I was making my way to Bukit Batok.  The bus was so old that the seats were still the old fabric type and buzzers were use to notify the driver of the intention to alight.  Based on the record on Wikipedia, the bus should be about 18-19 years old.  I thought the COE was supposed to prevent such vehicles from being on the road.  Mind you this is a public transport vehicle that travels long distance day in and day out.

And to top it off, the recent review by the PTC about a month ago was that the bus service by SMRT was considered satisfactory.  This is probably a prelude to upcoming fare hikes due to so-called increases in crude oil prices and running costs.  I seriously think that the people doing these reviews should get off their cushy office chairs and experience the bus service first-hand.  Even when God created the world in 7 days according to the bible, he was on hand to see that things were good before proceeding.

Day Trip to SGH

As I mentioned in my previous post, I chose to coincide my leave with my dad’s surgery.

This morning was the date of admission.  I had offered to drive my parents to the hospital, but my parents with their usual thrifty mode on, said that the roads will be too jammed up, finding a car park lot at the hospital will be too much of a hassle and will cost a bomb.

So off we went on our ‘world class’ public transport of LRT and MRT from Bukit Panjang to Outram.  The trip there was pretty uneventful, though it was fairly crowded during off-peak hours and we had to wait 5 minutes for the LRT and another 6 minutes for the MRT at Choa Chu Kang.

When we arrived at Outram and saw a queue for the free SGH shuttle service, we decided to walk up to the Admissions Office.  Along the way, I was surprised by the changes that were made since the last time I was there, which was more than a decade ago when I had to visit the Specialist Outpatient Clinic there for my thyroid condition.

It felt more like a shopping centre cum hotel than a hospital.  The Admissions Office was situated in the middle of everything.  There was a Kopitiam Food Court, an O’Briens Sandwich Bar, a Kaffe & Toast outlet, a Retail Pharmacy, which was super crowded like a sale was going on, and a Cheers convenience store.  There was not even a hint of the usual hospital/clinic/medicinal smell of antiseptic.  The only telltale sign that we were at a hospital were the signs pointing to various clinics and the hospital staff going about their usual routines.

The admission process felt like a hotel check-in. They checked for my dad’s record and booking for the surgery, and asked him to wait for the previous patient to be discharged first so that the bed is available for him.

Had lunch at O’Briens, since I have not had their sandwiches for quite some time and my mum never had it before.  Sort of regretting it after reading Julia’s post about the otah bun from Kaffe & Toast, which was just opposite O’Briens and I wrote them off as a Ya Kun clone when my mum asked what they were selling.  Will make it a point to try out their otah bun when I go visit my dad later in the week.

It only felt like a hospital when we made our way to the block where my dad was to be warded.  At the ground floor, the lifts were cordoned off and there was a queue for visitors to register their visits.  The scene looked something like the ones on the news when SARS and H1N1 hit the country.

We had to register our visits using our ICs, provide our contact numbers and were issued stickers for the first visiting hours session.  We were advised to return/swap our stickers if we intend to stay for the second visiting hours session.  As my dad is a new admission and he is to go to the OT the next day, we were allowed to stay beyond the visiting hours.

At the ward, it was business as usual with the nurse going through the motions with my dad on his particulars and admission.  The conversation with the ward doctor was a bit more interesting.  I found out more about my dad’s condition, the tests that he had to go through and the surgery to be performed.

Apparently, one of the valves in my dad’s heart is not functioning properly, which causes some of the blood to leak.  This causes the murmurs that led to the detection of my dad’s condition.  The surgery is to correct this problem by replacing the valve with an animal tissue valve.  Before going into surgery, he has to go through an angiogram procedure.  According to the doctor, this is done to check if my dad has any blocked arteries which can also be corrected during the same surgery.

Hospitals usually ward patients with the same condition together to facilitate the doctors going on their rounds.  There was this other patient who went through the same surgery by the same surgeon about a week ago.  He is due to be discharged tomorrow.  It is really reassuring to see him walking about normally and talking to us.  What really left an impression on us was the term he used to refer to his condition.  He called it lao hong in Hokkien, which means leaking air.  My mum and I nearly burst out laughing.

I really hope that my dad’s turn on the surgery table will be just as successful and he will be up and about in a week’s time and be ready to be discharged from the hospital.

The Sabbatical Begins…

Today, I begin my sabbatical leave.  Time really flies, I have been working for the past 10 years and maybe I am long overdue for a break from work, literally.

I’m not talking about the usual annual leave that we are entitled to.  I’m talking about an actual break from work where I can ignore most phone calls and emails for an entire month.  When my boss offered me the chance to go for this break, I jumped at it.

The mobile phone is a great invention which brings people closer than ever, but I come from a generation when mobile phones never existed and you can be a hermit for awhile without worrying about missed calls and SMSes.

Anyway, so it begins.  A whole glorious month away from work.

I chose for the leave to coincide with my dad’s surgery so that I can be around to settle any loose ends, if needed.  Will be writing an entry about that later.

A custom that is usually associated with sabbatical leave is setting personal targets to be achieved during this period.  So here goes, my personal targets are as follows,

1. Blogging!  Wrote 3 entries before this, not counting the introduction one, and the last one being more than 2 months ago.  Pretty pathetic right?  Hope to blog every weekday of my leave, on anything and everything I do.
2. Going to the gym.  Target to go to the gym every weekday, and go on the treadmill.  Hope to lose some excess fats and weight.
3. Spend more time with my boy.  He is growing up so fast and will turn 3 next month.  Hope to spend more time with him and bring him swimming every weekday afternoon.
4. Do my own things!  After I started working, everything I do day in, day out seems to be a routine.  Hope to be able to just bum around and go wherever I please, whenever I please!

Think that’s about it.  Especially with the last one, it seems to cover whatever I want to do, whenever I decide to do them.  Will blog about it as I go!!

Cheers to time off!!!