Upcoming happenings in SG

i Light Marina Bay
Venue: MBS
Date/Time: From 15 October to 7 November 2010, 7.30pm to midnight
Entry: Free

Singapora-Flora by Warren Langley (Australia). This piece can be found between Fullerton Bay Hotel and One Fullerton.

26 light artworks of i Light Marina Bay are placed across 3.5km of Marina Bay to make up the Light Walk that spans The Helix Bridge, The Floating Platform, The Esplanade, One Fullerton, The Promontory @ Marina Bay to the City Gallery at the Waterfront Promenade. Each light artwork is accompanied by a signage explaining what the work is about, who the artist is & also what's smart about the work.

Check out the official website for more information

Utsav – Deepavali Street Parade
Venue: Race Course Road
Date/Time: From 7pm on 30 October
Entry: Free
Regarded as one of Little India’s most amazing events each year, Utsav brings together the best elements of Indian performing arts to form a collage of song and dance that makes for great entertainment.


Halloween Fright Night!
Venue: Asian Civilisations Museum
Date/Time: 30 Oct 2010, 5pm to 1am
Free admission to galleries from 5pm - 1am
Check out the event schedule here:

okay, that's all for now. I am quite keen to check out both events... Drop me a sms if you are keen to go too and we can make arrangement =P

SQ Business Class

I absolutely dislike overseas business trip! Cos your boss will make sure you are kept doubly busy, you are the first to report to office and the last to go... cos you will need to teleconference the colleagues in the evening (which is SG time) and Melbourne is 3hours ahead of Singapore. Haiz... Poor me!

Well... since I am flying business class on Singapore Airlines A380 from Singapore to Melbourne, I shouldn't complain that much... hahaha. Check out the photos for the business class lounge which I went before departure, super comfortable seat cum sleeping bed and the delicious meal.

Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge. Come here to rest, read your book, watch TV, browse free magazines, or have some snacks (pastries, local delights, hot food) and beverages (soft drinks, coffee, tea, tiger beer, alcoholic drinks) before you board your flight. Pretty nice and comfortable here =)

1-2-1 forward facing cabin layout in Business Class vs 2-4-2 in the Economy Class! ... So you can imagine how spacious the seat is and how much space I am getting yah =) The seat can be unfolded to reveal a large full-flat bed where I can stretch out my whole body (since my legs aren't really that long in the first place) and enjoy a good night's rest.

Top: See! I can stretch out my legs in full... Nice. Welcome drink is Golden Spy which tastes good and refreshing. Think it's similar to Singapore Sling but is mixed with pineapple juice.
Bottom: Lying down comfortably to watch in-flight movies using the given aviation headset which has noise canceling function. Wore the headset to sleep too so that the loud engine noise is minimised.

Food is served to you in proper plates and utensils! Starter: Mixed lettuces with prawn, cheese and mango, plus glass of champagne. Main: Corn fed chicken breast with ceps mushroom stuffing, buttered peas and potato mash. Finale: Ice cream, gourmet cheese, fresh fruit and tea.

Service is really good as well. The air stewardess will address you by your sure name (i.e. Miss XXX or Mr XXX) whenever they serve you your drink or food. Well, I guess if you are paying so much for a business class seat, the service has to be of a certain high standard! FYI, cost of buiness class return ticket for SIN to MEL is abt $5,000 lor...

Don't you love overseas business trips?? hahaha... I shouldn't complain so much in future...

Ugly Braces, Beautiful Smiles

As some of you may know already, I am wearing braces now!! The orthodontist was really quick in doing his job to fix me up with them, hahaha...

Summary of tasks till date
1. Mid-Aug -- Visit to the orthodontist (at Jurong Point) for consultation. He did a quick check on my teeth, said that my case is the non-complicated kind and the treatment would typically take abt 1 to 1.5 years, and arranged for me to take x-rays of my mouth, take photographs of my face, teeth, and mouth and take molds of my upper and lower teeth (gotta put a pinkish gum-like stuff into the mouth twice lor, disgusting taste!). Cost of package: $3,900 via installments

2. One week later -- I extracted 4 teeth (gotta make space to move and align the remaining teeth!) Not really painful per se cos the affected areas would be numb... I wish though that the orthodontist could talk to me while he was doing his work; at least I can know what he was doing and not second-guessing his actions. Pretty scary to lay down in the dental seat and not knowing what's happening!

The orthodontist also inserted rubber spacers between the molar teeth. It's uncomfortable and painful to chew food as the rubber spacers would be forced deeper into the teeth with each bite... Argh! Luckily, it's just for a week...

3. One week later -- Braces fitting time! Orthodontist removed the rubber spacers, placed giant metal brackets around the molar teeth and glued metal brackets on each tooth. A high intensity plasma light is then quickly applied to the surface of the bracket to set the bond. Arch wire is then placed through the brackets.

Viola! All done within 20mins, and I'm wearing braces. So efficient hor, hahaha...


What's next?
I would need to visit the orthodontist every 5 - 6 weeks for him to examine my teeth's progress, remove the arch wire and put in a new one to tighten or adjust the pressure. Pretty straightforward right? Per visit is expected to take less than 15mins.


My experience with braces...
...so far so good! Not as painful as I would imagine and the initial discomfort is pretty okay and manageable. Just gotta eat porridge for the first week (while the teeth get used to the pressure and extra weight), cut food into smaller pieces, chew food slower, brush teeth after each meal, etc... Ok lah, can one.

Snapshot of my teeth after wearing braces for a week. Still a very very very long way to nice straight teeth!! PS: Hope my not-so-straight-teeth photo didn't frighten you, hahaha...

UPDATE: Look at how much my front teeth have straightened after wearing braces for 6 weeks!! Wow wow wow!

Have you ever wondered how braces work?? I actually pretty amazed that the use of a simple arch wire to exert a constant and gentle force on each tooth can move teeth via bone remodeling process into the desired and idea position... For more information on how braces work, check out this website, click here

And anyone toying with the notion of wearing braces after reading my experience?? haha. My advice... Just go for it!!

Chalet 2010 is back

Do you find this place familiar??When was the last time you ate BBQ food??When was the last time you played Wii with a group of good frens??

For those of you, I'm sure the answer is... last year ! Hahaha =) Good news for you then!!

Our annual chalet cum BBQ cum gathering is back!!

Date: 11 Dec 2010 (Saturday)
Venue: Aloha Changi, Netheravon Terrace A
(Terrace A should be the one next to where we were last year)
Plan: BBQ, mahjong, Wii, chit chat

More details will be provided nearer to the event. Watch out this space for more updates yah. Seeya!


UPDATE! We will be catering the following food from KCK Food Catering. 10 dishes at $11.00 per pax =) No BBQ and we can have more time for games, mj, gossip, etc

Menu: Tropicana Swing
01. Baked Teriyaki Chicken Chop
02. Indonesian Mutton Curry
03. Fortune Sauce Fish Fillet
04. Oat Cereal Prawn
05. KCK Signature Golden Tofu
06. Broccoli Abalone Mushroom
07. Chicken Nugget
08. Salted Fish Fried Rice
09. Ice Cheng Tng
10. Fruit Punch

Day 10: Honganji Osaka Home

We had McDonald breakfast near Kyoto station. The breakfast menu in Japan is very different from here; no big breakfast nor pancake there; the egg muffin comes with bacon! yummy! Price: ¥390

We strolled through the grounds of Higashi Honganji (Eastern Temple of the Original Vow) - head temple of the Otani faction of Jodo-shin Buddhism. Its main hall, the Goeido, is Kyoto's largest wooden structure and dedicated to Shinran, the sect's founder.

Our last night in Japan and we decided to spend it in Osaka, Japan's third largest and second most important city. KYOTO ----- 29min JR Special Rapid Service -----> OSAKA, ¥540
where we transferred to another line to get to...

...our hotel - Hotel Sun Plaza 2. That's our bed in a small room, shared bathroom, and to our horror, there was no heater! Gotta close the window at night, else we would freeze, haha. Oh well, you get what you pay for; 1 night at ¥2,520 (SGD 40)

First stop in Osaka: Kuromon Ichiba Market (Black Gate Market) has a total length of close to 600 meters with 170 shops, where majority of the stores specialize in the freshest and best quality meat, vegetables, eggs and other ingredients from around the country and abroad. Subway Sakaisuji Line Nippombashi Station, exit No.5 and 10.
It's pretty fun to walk around here as we got to marvel at the gigantic live crabs/fish, huge organic fruits, delicious snacks, groceries, etc on display... Just look at the price tag for the watermelon!! Super expensive man, ~SGD40 for a normal size watermelon, gosh...

As we came a bit late (almost 1pm-ish), most of the stores have closed... I'm sure the place would be very buzzing in the morning, so if you intend to check out this place, do come earlier.

We were lost and were trying to find our way back to the train station when we chanced upon this teppanyaki restaurant which was packed with happy customers busy eating, drinking, laughing and talking. Packed restaurant = Good food! And so we decided to have our lunch here.

The menu was in Japanese, the chef doesn't speak English and thus we had to point randomly at some items and 'prayed' that good food would come! hahaha... Luckily for us, the random items we ordered were noodles (yakisoba) fried with cabbage and sliced beef (top left) and vegetable pancake (bottom left). It's very enjoyable to watch the chef cooked in front of us (though the area was kinda warm) =) Bill came up to ¥1080 for two. Place is highly recommended!

It's shopping time! We wondered into Takashimaya shopping centre (at Namba Station) and checked out the various brands (cos we were contemplating whether we should get Burberry Blue bag here), wondered into the underground shopping mall where I spent at least an hour hunting for a list of cosmetics items in the cosmetic store, and returned to the street.

We walked along the main street to look for Amerikamura, a well-known haunt of expatriate Westerners, and is identifiable by a small-scale reproduction of the Statue of Liberty that looks down on the streets.
There are many retail stores here and mostly punk fashion which isn't suitable for us... haha... It's interesting to walk around the area to see see, but if you are on a tight schedule, I'll recommend that you can give this area a miss.

Finally, we found ourselves at Shinsaibashi-suji, a very very long street arcade with many many shops all leading off one huge long roof (yesh, it's sheltered and pretty cooling here!). Crap! we should have come here much earlier to do all the shopping... Definitely a paradise for shoppers.
From the sidewalk stone bridge, you can see enormous neon advertisements and billboards which covered the entire buildings. Above is snack/candy manufacturer Glico's giant electronic display of a runner crossing the finish line, a very famous landmark... Ah, this is the Japan that we were expecting and looking for!! Surprisingly, we didn't see such scene in Tokyo...

Dotonbori is a single street running alongside the Dotonbori canal and is the main destination for food travel in Osaka. Ah, we should have looked for a restaurant here to try out okonomiyaki (pan-fried batter cake) or takoyaki (octopus dumplings) for dinner... There's alway a next time!

Next morning, we took a train to Kansai Airport (¥890). Airport is poorly designed (in our opinion) cos there is no sheltered linkway from the train station to the airport terminal and we gotta braved the strong chilly wind and light rain to reach the departure terminal. Really cold and freezing!
We had lunch at one of the few available restaurants (it's 11am already and most stores are still closed lor). AG was disappointed with his plain cold soba, cos he thought it'll come with seafood or meat since it costs so much... I had claypot rice with a tiny piece of crab meat for ¥1080.

The first Daiso that we saw for our Japan trip... and I cannot go in to shop around cos it's almost boarding time for us!

At last! We managed to find Hokkaido White Lovers chocolate (which is really delicious! A box of 12 pcs for ¥740) and Royce chocolate (slightly cheaper than what it'll cost in SG) at the airport... and we bought ~SGD100 worth of chocolate home! Just look at our luggage!

Home sweet home! Our short Japan trip was really fun and I'm sure we would be back for more. I want to see cherry blossoms during Spring!! Anyway, hope you folks have enjoyed the photos =)