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Thursday, August 31, 2006

Raining Non Stop, Today's Pix is The Fullerton Hotel

It has been raining non stop since yesterday in Singapore. It was wet wet wet and this is a photo for today, a rainy day picture of The Fullerton Hotel.

The building is named after Robert Fullerton, Governor of Straits Settlement (1824-1830) The building was a first used as a Post Office. Today it is a 5 star hotel with superb deco and facilities. If you are visiting Singapore, and want to stay in luxury, visit: http://www.fullertonhotel.com/




The smeared areas are rain drops on the glass. Freshly taken less than 1 hour ago. The weather bereau forcasts that it will continue to rain for the next 2 weeks.


For visitors from Malaysia, wishing you all a Happy Merdeka Day!
If you like this Singapore Daily Picture, you can also visit http://kualalumpurdailyphoto.blogspot.com since today's Malaysia's National Day.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Singaporeans love Swedish Meatballs.



FÖRVAR jar with lid $2.50. Great marketing eh? Looks so cheap.
Oh yes, I have one of these FÖRVAR at home :-)

IKEA is one of many Singaporeans favourite haunt. The store is always packed. The IKEA restaurant is always so pack that you have to wait and wait to get a seat.

Colleagues and I, we went to IKEA to have lunch today. They have this "Local Meal of the day". Today's meal is Curry Rice. It consists of rice, curry vegetables, 1 fish cake, 1 otah slice and 1 piece of deepfried chicken cutlet. It cost $4.90



The Big IKEA word with the IKEA flags at the Alexandra Store.

If you are adventurous, you can try those cold plates of herring. They are actually quite delicious! A bonus for you readers, if you like Swedish Meatballs, you can make them at home with this recipe from IKEA itself. Remember to invite me over to taste it :-)

Recipe courtesy of Ikea-Friends Singapore Website: http://www.ikea-friends.com/corner/recipe-meatball.shtml

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

$1 Ice Cream on Orchard Road



Another permanent display at Orchard Road is the ice-cream carts that you now see along most road junctions along Orchard Road. They sell ice cream for only $1. They are usually sold by 'uncles' or 'aunties'. Most of them are uncles, but you do get see some aunties vendors.

The ice cream comes in variety of flavours. Choc Chips, Vanilla, and unique flavours like Durian, Lychee etc. It all depends on where the vendors get their stocks from. Usually it is Walls, Magnolia or Kings.

When you order, the uncle will take out a block of ice cream from his container that's filled with dry ice. He will then slice out ice cream the size about a bar of soap. Then he asks you, wafer, bread or cup.

The ice cream bar will then be sandwich between 2 pieces of wafers if you request for wafer. If you request bread, the bread will wrap around the ice cream bar. Their bread are usually colourful bread, with pink and green streaks. haha.. Cups will be your choice if you prefer not to get messy and use a spoon to eat.

WAIT, you say... (from overseas readers of this blog) Ice cream with bread? Yes. Try it at home. Get a slice of bread and wrap around your favourite ice cream. They taste rather good.

So, visitors to Singapore, pop by these uncles and aunties for a cheap $1 treat when you are visiting. It's hot and humid in Singapore, and their ice cream provides a quick refreshing perk.

Question: What if I am a snob, and I dont eat cheap ice cream.
Answer: There's a Haagan Dazs kiosk along Orchard Road :-)

Monday, August 28, 2006

Singapore's Youngest Busker - Ethan Ong

Locals who stroll along Orchard Road during the weekends will see Ethan performing. Did you know he is Singapore's youngest busker?



Visitors from overseas, if you are in Singapore, and want to see him, he is usually busking in front of Paragon Shopping Centre.

If you are interested, Ethan has his own website too: www.ethanong.com

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Orchard Road - Association of Bartenders Singapore

I was walking along Orchard Sunday afternoon and saw this juggling act by the bartenders from the Association of Bartenders Singapore.

Did you know such association existed? Enjoy today's pic...



Today's bonus, two pictures.


Hey foreign visitors, if you are visiting Singapore, you should walk along Orchard Road during the weekends. There are lots of things to see.

OK. More about Associations, there's also a Orchard Road Business Association and they have this website: www.orchardroad.sg which you visit know more about Shopping at Orchard Road.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Kit Chan - Empress Dowager of The Forbidden City

Was walking around in Tangs yesterday (25 Aug) and the in-store announcement had meet Kit Chan at the hand-bags section. They were selling the Forbidden City tickets at 20% off.

Then when you walk outside the store, you can see Kit Chan in the window display, with fans all lining up to get her autograph.




Pardon for the not so clear picture. There was a glass and it had reflections and I had to turn off the flash to take the picture.

More about:
Kit Chan - www.kitchan.com , a fan site
Forbidden City - the Singapore Repertory Theatre website, www.srt.com.sg/03/Microsite/ForbiddenCity

Friday, August 25, 2006

Tower of Babel rises from the Jungles of Singapore

Continue with the theme of Concrete Jungle emerging between the Green Jungle.



The Birds (species name: cranes) perching above the Concrete Jungle, the Tower of Babel rises amongst the Green Jungles of Singapore. Can anyone guess where this place is?

Why call it Tower of Babel? Heard that its the Communications Tower or IT Centre or something... So thats why...

Thursday, August 24, 2006

How to "chope" (reserve) seats in Singapore.

Visitors from overseas... this is the tip of the day. How do you reserve a seat in crowded foodcourts etc in Singapore? (the local slang is "chope", if you do not know how to pronounce it, its rhymes with choke)

Yes tissue paper!



Why do you need to "chope" seats? People will want to eat their food immediately after getting their food. Not walk around carrying the delicious bowl filled with hot soup, (or maybe a heavy claypot) trying to balance it, prevent it from spilling, salivating at the same time, and there's no place to sit and eat. How pathetic that would be.

So, you find an empty table, leave a packet of tissue there and walk away, you have indicated to others that this table is taken, so do not even think of hijacking my table! LOL...

The tissue is from a colleague who recently went to Japan, they give out lots of free advert tissues. Here's one of the many packets that you can collect as souvenir from Japan.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

MRT Station in the Jungle (yes, those with trees)



No, Singapore is not all concrete jungle. There are real green trees, and there is even a MRT station (Dover) built right in the middle of the jungle! Yes, you can go take a train, get off and you are right in the rain forest. haha...

It's hazy these few days, so the pictures are not as clear and crisp that it is suppose to be. Wait for the haze season to be over, and I shall retake the picture.

You can read more about the Singapore Train System at www.smrt.com.sg and www.sbstransit.com.sg

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Drink Dry The Milo Truck



Today, 22 Aug at the National University of Singapore's Forum, the Student Union is having the NUS Breakers. They are going to set 3 records:
1. Drink Dry The Milo Truck.
2. Fold 10,000 cranes in ONE hour.
3. World's fastest Crane Folder.

All 3 will go into the Singapore Book of Records. The cranes are folded for charity. Well, here's plus, if you want to learn how to fold a crane, click here.

More updates another time...

Milo Truck
The Milo Truck is an obsession with many students both Singapore and Malaysia. Nestle since I was young, has been sending Milo trucks to school to provide complimentary milo for all. So, whenever we see a milo truck, everyone's delighted. Their milo is always served icy cold and super tasty. One observation though, the milo cups provided seems to have shrunk! Look at the picture above. That's the size of the cups. It used to be 1/3 more haha...

Monday, August 21, 2006

Water from the Tap at 20 cents.



Pay per use water tap for 20 cents. It flows for around 30 seconds.
To make this more interactive, anyone knows where this particular picture is taken? Don't be fooled by the Jurong Town Council sticker. :-)

For non Singapore viewers, there are taps like this around HDB flats that allows residents to collect water for washing their cars. It is more convenient than bringing pails of water from your home say 25 floors up right to the ground floor.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Sunset - National University of Singapore - Kent Ridge Campus




Picture of NUS sunset again. This is taken across the connecting bridge between two buildings where I work.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Sunset - National University of Singapore - Kent Ridge Campus


Evening time, around 7 pm, most office staff left an hour ago, students are playing games at the NUS Football and Multipurpose Fields.

Friday, August 18, 2006

View from Kitchen - Sunrise in Clementi




I like many others in Singapore, live in a HDB dwelling. Here's a view of Singapore's Sunset from my kitchen window.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Singapore or Cameron Highlands?



Can you believe this is Singapore? It's one of those mornings that it is really misty because the rain has been pouring non stop. I got up, look out my kitchen window and saw this, I thought I was holidaying in Cameron Highlands in Malaysia.

That apartment on the left, one of my dream homes, I doubt I can afford it, 1 unit cost over SGD1 million. It's called The Marbella, at Mt Sinai Road.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

LT27 - Lim Seng Tjoe Lecture Theatre



This is the facade of the many Lecture Theatres (LT) in NUS. Like universities in US or elsewhere, you have buildings name after people. This theatre is named after Lim Seng Tjoe. Anyone knows who he is?

LT27 is also one of the biggest LTs around with capacity of over 600. Many Computing and also Science students in NUS would be familiar with it.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Vegetable Farm - Hangars



What are these? These are also vegetable farms. But they are the more modern compared to yesterday's. Don't they look like aeroplane hangars?

Each "hanger" has 1 type of vegetable planted in them. If they are popular vegetables, they are planted in more of them. (what am i talking about, am just stating the obvious. haha)

Sunday, August 06, 2006

How a vegetable farm looks like



Hmmm for you who are visiting from big cities, have you seen a vegetable farm? Do you know how vegetables are grown?

Well, in super modern Singapore, there are still vegetable farms! This is a snap shot of the vegetables all covered in netting, to prevent pest from invading.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Ruta - Cao Cao



The name of the plant is Ruta. We call it "Cao Cao" in Hokkien.

This plant brings fond memories because my grandma used to plant them at home before she moved home to heaven above. It is one of her multipurpose herb, I remember her having them soak in wine, so it can be used as ointment.

My sis would definitely know what it is used for. Granny used to prepare a cure for a problem she had when she was young ;-)

Friday, August 04, 2006

Chinese Mugwort



This vegetable looks prickly doesn't it? It's called Chinese Mugwort. Another vegetable in the "from the farm" series these few days.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Winter Melon



Look how interesting they are. Winter Melon or in Chinese they call it "Dong Qua". If you like the "dong qua cha" can drinks, they are made of these.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Vegetable Farm





Do you know that Singapore has vegetable farms too? I visited one some time last year. This is radish. The farm is in Lim Chu Kang.

Most of the green leafy vegetables however does come from Malaysia and Indonesia.