7th Storey & the DHL Balloon

The DHL Balloon.... and the 'New' 7th Storey Hotel around the Beach Road area will be gone soon to make way for the new Downtown MRT line. Somewhat sad to see them go. It is always a fun thing to watch the balloon float up into the air tethered by a metal cable, and my friends and I have had fun chatting about what would happen if the cable snaps. Would the folks be blown away into the sea? Lolz.

The 7th Storey Hotel is a place where people go for the charcoal steamboat, and I don't know where else could we find such charcoal steamboat in Singapore anymore. I'm actually somewhat sick of the buffet style 'ma la' steamboat with msg soup, and would prefer such charcoal style traditional steamboat. There is fun in having steamboat in a somewhat open grass field. Despite the many protests about why we cannot dig underneath the hotel, I actually agree with the decision to demolish the building, because buildings on marine clay are typically unstable and I don't think this building could withstand the digging nearby if it is on marine clay. Pity, but I guess no choice, unless they shift the MRT lines.

Oh well... nothing stays permanent in a place like Singapore. So I took a few pictures of these 'landmarks' before they disappear.

Also See:
DHL Balloon is gone

Afternote: 7th Storey has shifted to the Marina Barrage, and also opened a branch at the new shopping complex @ Selegie area. Here's a pic.

Bugis Taiwan Food Street / Fair

There is a Taiwan Food Street / Fair @ Bugis Junction this week, lasting from 21 July to 27 July. I was walking past Bugis Junction this evening when I noticed the huge crowd, and of course the distinctive smelly tofu 'fragrance' in the air.

So I decided to pop by for a quick look. The smelly tofu is located outside of the air-con area, right opposite the Bugis Junction MacDonald. Make sense, no one would step into the air-con street from now on. The queue for the tofu is long. I don't understand the attraction of it, but well, some people also don't understand my durian cravings. The tofu sells for $2.50 per pack.

The place is full of food stalls, some with very long queues. There is this stall selling 'mala tofu' that attracted a long queue. Due to time constraint I didn't queue up for it. There is also a smoked duck crepe which looks a lot like Peking duck to me. Yummy right? 1 Box at $6 for the duck is not that cheap but it's ok lah.

There is a also a long queue for the Taiwan big fried chicken chop! They are selling a much bigger piece than what we usually get at the foodcourt, or the small 'Taiwan stall' that we commonly see in shopping centres.

I only have enough time to get two items and so I got the Yam Abacus (Suan Pan Zi?) and a fried durian roll. The Yam Abacus is good, and only cost $3.50 per pack. The fried durian is normal, and with a price tag of $2 per roll, I rather walk over to the Bugis village and get a real durian, possibly at $5 per durian with plenty of durian flesh inside.

For those who just want to shop, there are also stalls selling Taiwan deco stuff, like these flour figurines, and even a stall selling orchid flowers (errr... orchids not from Taiwan right?)! Flour figurines of Mickey Mouse or Lao Fu Zi seem strange somehow. I think I'll go visit the place again on Thursday for more food, hee.

Goodwood Park Durian Puff, Cake & Durain Oreo Cake!

My sister brought back durian puffs and cakes. That is a spectacular event in itself because she hates durians. Anyways the durian puff and cakes are great. The puffs and cakes are from Goodwood Park Hotel, and yes that is a famous place for durian pastry in Singapore. I read that the durian oreo cake she brought back is actually a new 'creation' by Goodwood Park. Here's the link to their flyer (pdf).

Now I understand why the cakes and puffs are so famous; each bite fills your mouth with yummy durian. I don't know how they do it, but the durian consistency is good, meaning each puff / bite of cake has the same wonderful taste of durian. The durian is not too sweet, and lack that 'bitterness' that some folks actually crave in durians. It's ok, since these are pastry afterall.

Actually between the cakes and the puffs, I like the cakes better. The puffs taste a bit dry somehow, perhaps it is because I kept them in the fridge for a tad too long. Heh, pardon the semi-eaten picture below of the durian cake and durian oreo cake. The mix of cake and durian is somehow just nice, something which I didn't expect. These two are really worth a try, though I would recommend the cake more than the oreo version. Perhaps the durian taste overpowered the oreo taste, and couldn't bring out the combination to its best flavour. The durian cake is actually 'durian, pandan and coconut' cake. I guess the coconut and pandan complement the durian taste better.

For those interested, the 6 pieces of puff costs $10.80, Durian Oreo costs $8 per slice, and the Durian Pandan Coconut costs $7.50 per slice.

See also:
- Goodwood Park - Durian Fiesta & Mooncakes (2009)
- 2011 April post about Goodwood Park Durian Products

Thien Kee Hainanese Steamboat @ Golden Mile

Today we went to Thien Kee Hainanese Steamboat at Golden Mile Complex. The food was great, and particularly so for a rainy evening. The outlet has expanded over the years, and now occupied multiple shopfronts. The building looks a bit run-down, but helps to add to the authentic dinning experience.

The steamboat is traditional hainanese style, with food all piled together and served on a single plate. The choice of broth is just chicken broth, i.e. no choice. Nonetheless the broth is good! The broth gets a bit salty after we cooked all the food though. We chose the medium sized 'platter'. Initially thinking that the food is insufficient, we realised later that there is actually a lot of food, i.e. the raw food is really all 'lumped' on the plate. The variety includes vegetables, egg, sotong, prawns (3 each), pork, pig liver, fish balls, fish, sea cucumber, 'fish maw' (suspect it is not fish maw, but taste like one), and most importantly, cockles! You could have beef if you want to. The rice they served is chicken rice. Seasoning comprise of chilli, ginger and garlic mix, and dark soy sauces.

Overall the experience is good. The price is also cheap, with $28 for 2 pax, comprising of $26 for the medium size platter, and $2 for the wet napkins and rice. The small platter costs only $22, good if you are not that hungry. For those going with a bigger group, you could add 'steamed' white chicken or deep fried seafood.

Would most likely go back one day, especially when the weather is cool. :)

What happens when your car runs out of fuel? - Step by Step Tutorial

What happens when you car runs out of fuel, as in completely stop? Lolz. That happened to a close buddy of mine on Sat. Guess after the blinking lights / warning signals on the car panel, the car can still run for a good many kilometres (easily 50km, depending on the emergency fuel tank). If one doesn't topped up the fuel by then, the car simply stall.

Then, here's a step by step guide on what to do next.

1st step: DUN PANIC!!!

2nd step: Go to the nearest petrol station, by taxi (or in this case, in my car, hee hee which gave me a chance to poke fun at the unfortunate buddy).

3rd Step: Tell the cashier that you need a container of petrol. Don't worry, apparently this happens enough time that the cashier wouldn't be surprised by the request.

4th Step: Get the shiny empty container, and fill in the particular and reason for wanting a container of petrol. Acceptable reason include 'My tank is empty', lolz. Perhaps the form filling is for safety and security reasons. I saw the form has quite a number of names, so this emergency need for container of petrol REALLY happens frequently! Lolz.

5th Step: Go to the actual petrol booth and ask for petrol. Don't be shy, they seen it all before.

6th Step: Go back in to pay for the petrol and the container. The container costs $3, and can fill up to 4.5 litres of petrol. The cashier may even give you this as a free gift, to help you pour in the petrol later. Lolz... yah, this proves the point that it happens frequently enough.

7th Step: Go back to the car, and fill in the petrol. Now, keep a screw driver or some long object handy, cos' you need to 'push' the catch to the petrol tank in order to fill in the petrol. Wipe off any petrol that drips onto the paintworks.

8th Step: With 4.5 litres or so of petrol, the car could go another 20 kilometres (at least!), so it's time to go back to the nearest station to pump the tank fully.

Heh heh simple tutorial right? The lesson though, is not to let it happen! So, pump up the petrol before the blinking light / warning signals come up!

The New Oasis @ Toa Payoh

After Oasis, the famous porridge place has shifted to Toa Payoh, we have yet to have a chance to try out the new place. So on Saturday night, after the movie, a group of us went to give it a try. The location is not as ideal in terms of parking, but the park surroundings give the new Oasis a different look that is equally attractive as the old Kallang Oasis. For those who are driving there, you could park at the Toa Payoh swimming complex, and walk a short 5 mins distance over.

The food quality is the same as before, and I suspect the menu is exactly the same. The interior is equally nice, but is of smaller seating capacity. The 'walls' are mostly full length glass panels, and that gives a 'garden' view dinnign experience. Compared to the previous location, the distance between tables is smaller, thus you could hear conversations from other tables. Oh, there are seats outside for the alfresco dinning experience. Lolz, alfresco for Taiwan porridge?

Correction: In my previous entry I mentioned that the new place is open 24 hours, but apparently they decided to have a break from 3pm to 530pm. Not an issue for most dinners I think.

Overall it's still worth it to have porridge there. Price is cheap, since we spent about $81+ for 9, or $9 for a night porridge session with fried chicken pieces, sweet & sour fish, egg omelet, salted egg & fish, normal vegetables, pig intestines with salted vegetables, ...etc (no special food, just normal porridge fare).

Here's the pictures of the 'before' and 'after' of our satisfying supper.

Related Posts:
- Oasis shifting to near Toa Payoh Swimming Complex

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

It was a (another) hectic week, so was quite glad to go for the movie on Sat night to relax a bit. This time round the group watched the Hellboy 2: The golden Army.

It is a good show! The story plot is somewhat predictable, i.e. bad guy come out, seized some power, threaten the world..etc. Good guy (i.e. Hellboy) jumps in, embroiled in some level of personal conflict, teamed up with the rest of good guys, and beat the bad guy. Show ends. Lolz. Here's the plot on wiki for those interested.

The good part about the show is the computer graphics, plus the sense of humor in the little things. For example, the way the dead and later animated tooth fairy complained about Hellboy being uncouth is quite funny. The part where Mr Wink and Hellboy both complained to each other (one about the broken tooth and the other about his broken fist) is again quite humorous.

There is also some level of save the Earth element inside, when the Prince described how human has destroyed the truce by killing off the trees to make way for carparks...etc, and how Hellboy felt undecided about killing the gigantic forest spirit. The romance part between Abe and the princess is a bit far fetched though, but the way Abe reacted is interesting. Abe and Hellboy drinking beer together while singing off-key love songs bring a human aspect to the otherwise inhuman characters ... lolz.

Overall worth watching.

Interns equal Good Source of Cheap Labour

There is this AsiaOne article that displayed 'Interns: Good Source of Cheap Labour?', but when you clicked on the article, the actual title becomes 'Sourcing Young Talent'. Both titles are shown below.

Wow, what a remarkable change! Anyways, the article has both perspectives but I tend to agree that many companies exploit interns as cheap labour.

When I was an 'intern' for 6 monthsback in university, I know for sure I was being exploited by the boss. The reason is simple. It was a small company with less than 10 people, including the boss. At the end of the internship of 6 months, me, the intern, became the most 'senior' employee in the company. All other employees left, simply cos' they felt (and it is true) that the boss over exploited them. So I was being exploited, equally with all other employees. Lolz.

Anyway, the school rejected my request to transfer to another company, or back to the school to help out in lab. Sigh... wasted months of my life. I could have learn more by being a lab assistant.

The article did mention about good companies who treated their interns well, meaning that the internship gave the students good exposure...etc etc. I guess these companies got it right. Hope more companies would do the right things. :)

Hectic week - are we 'talkers' and not 'workers'?

Heh nothing particularly interesting to blog about today. Nope I'm not going to blog about how two famous female bloggers in Singapore are having a 'war', nor about the ever present inflation in Singapore.

Rather, just want to say that it's been a hectic week. Work-wise it's quite busy, till the extent when I kept having my work place calendar mixed up with lots of over-lapping stuff. Lolz, modern workers spend so much time in mtg rooms. Sometimes I wonder if 'talking' and 'discussion' will become the pre-dominant way of working. Maybe...

This week a colleague and friend left my workplace. He was from another division actually. I know of another girl leaving another Division as well. Guess people come and go at the workplace and that's also a common theme of modern work.

All these stand in contrast to years ago, when people are expected to 'work' not 'talk', and colleagues stay around for easily up to a decade. Guess that is why we are called 'workers' and not 'talkers', and the working place is known as the second home.

Lolz...

Panda & Hancock

Watched two movies this week! This is an accomplishment in itself because I've seldom watch more than a movie per week.

I watched Kung Fu Panda and Hancock. Both are good movies. But I like the Panda better becuase it is simply soooooo funny.... muaa haa haa. Guess I kept laughing non-stop throughout the whole show. It's a family movie, for both adults and kids. The only irritating thing is that after the credits there is an additional scene? Really? How come I don't see it in the cinema... I stayed till the end!! zzz....

Ok I watched Hancock later. I guess I got high expectation for it cos in part it's acted and produced by Will Smith. Moreover, after Panda, I sort of expect an equally good movie experience with Hancock. Hancock is unlike your usual Super hero movie by painting a hero who faced rejection by society and also suffered from some measure of low self esteem. Hmm it's a good movie, worth watching... but between the two, I'll still choose the panda.

Afternote: I didn't realise that McDonald is selling Panda meals lolz... bought some Panda nuggets to try, and yupz the nuggets are not bad!

We're a PSP Nation?

There was a news paper article 1-2 weeks back commenting that people on MRT rather play with their PSP (and Nintendo DS) than reading books. Lolz I guess we are all more used to playing PSPs than reading books... as evident by the photo below.

Took the photo when I walked past these 3 guys after lunch at Marina Square. They were busy playing their PSPs, commenting to each other about the game, and so totally absorbed in their own world to notice that I was taking a photo. lolz...

Yah, we 're a PSP nation (not just PSP lah but all mobile entertainment devices). :p