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17 June, 2010

dinner with Wendy

It's that time of the year again for our birthday meet-up, but was delayed for a fair bit since Wendy needed to do some travelling to Japan and Ba.. gosh, which remote country was that again? Bratislava. It's a place in Slovakia. Now for abit of Geography.. because I needed it. Good to get our bearings right, right?

Slovakia is here:


And its town, Bratislava here:

View Larger Map


Cool right? Haha! I think she also said something about Vienna's famous cake that's found in a hotel, so I guessed it's this one. Have to wait till she post the pics to fb! Hehe.

So yesterday catching up session was fun, and I was quite fascinated by her adventures in Japan. It's almost like reliving Japan hour all over again. She went to one of the World Heritage site, of a village with thatched roof, and stayed there. Awesome!



my little present from Japan, which Wendy said she bought it 'coz of the rabbit


it's sweet~

As for our dinner, we were at Itacho as she haven't tried it yet. Of course, I MUST MUST order my 40cents sushi! Wahahahaa!



egg


spicy something


wasabi squid and ikura


wafu pork salad


ark shell and mackerel


extremely thin slice of pork sushi


my all time favourite, 40cents sushi (per piece)


dorsal sushi? not much taste


with scallop on top


sweet potato (can skip) that looks good but doesn't taste as nice


pumpkin ice-cream, recommended


As usual, we always say we SHOULD meet up not just during our birthdays. So, see you during Christmas! And thanks for the dinner!

16 June, 2010

when the sky was blue...

Liked the sky color, the clouds and the clothes hanging out of windows... kinda relaxing, don't you think.. as if nary a worry...


as seen from the bus stop


it was a fine day =)

12 June, 2010

first day in class

Certification course is sure different from the degree course! For instance, there are refreshments provided. Not once, but twice! There's a coffee machine that can do mocha, cappucino, latte, milo etc. And they bought sandwiches (for morning) and cakes( tea break) from Polar. Cool!

Lunch was at Lau Pa Sat. Have been many years since I visited Lau Pa Sat, so it's as good as forgotten...


inside Lau Pa Sat


Walking from Raffles to Robinson Centre... one will encounter buildings after buildings.. after buildings...








Saw someone doing wedding shoot near Raffles MRT traffic lights. Like when the lights turned green, they will go and shoot with the vehicles waiting... quite strange but probably the effects are good?


The class size is about 20, but probably less than that turned up today. Got 2 groups sponsored by company, since they came in groups of 3 each. Then there's a medical doctor (whoa), and a project director who has overseen like 100 millions of dollars worth of projects (wah!), a US national, and an Australian amongst them. Bottom line is, about 90% of them are working as project managers, and mostly quite large scale. Impressive.

off to school!

Starting the exam prep course today. It's been ages since I do smthg for my current chosen vocation. If anyone is near Lau Pa Sat during these weekends (now till 26th June), and wanna do lunch or dinner, feel free to sms.

11 June, 2010

high class lunch

Was at Shin Kushiya for lunch yesterday... wasn't feeling hungry so decided just to order some kushiyaki to try. The sashimi, sushi's and chirashi's looked tempting but probably a little too high a budget for lunch.

So we ordered skewers like foie gras (exotic!), beef karubi, pork tontoro, 1 bowl of garlic rice and soya bean pudding for dessert. Actually wanted to try beef tongue but our server didn't key in that order, so didn't get to taste that..


foie gras


Haven't tried foie gras on its own before, so I've always wondered how it's like. Apparently, after tasting this version from Shin Kushiya, figured I didn't quite like it... It's oily, and tasted bitter, and the skewered version is actually foie gras mixed with something else and then coated in flour and deep fried. Then probably after deep fried, it was grilled? Not sure, but it did looked and tasted like that!




tontoro and karubi


The tontoro was GOOD! Salty, but still goood~ The mustard sauce is a good match with the pork meat. Beef karubi, tasted pretty much like tender beef slice with pepper.


soya bean pudding


Dessert was something different from the cheesecake tofu or goma ice-cream that I'd usually get. The soya bean pudding sweetness most of it was from the soya bean powder and red bean paste on its top. Otherwise, it is firm jelly like, and tasted quite nice.


Bill came to about $17 per pax. Not a lot of stuffs to eat for that price. Probably it's better if just stick to their lunch set!


ps: pics taken with my measly 1.2MP phone...

09 June, 2010

bad experience on pizza hut delivery

Yesterday Cathy suggested to have pizza, so we called Pizza Hut to deliver using the office line. The order was confirmed pretty quickly and was told the delivery time would be 12.55pm which was 1 hour from the time of call. One hour? No problem with that... or so I thought. That was when, everything started to go downhill...

At 1.10pm, still no sign of pizza. So called the delivery again to check on the status. The girl at the other end, took note of the non-delivery and said that she will get the delivery man to call us. Still, no one called and so, at 1.15pm, we called the delivery line again. This time, a guy picked up, and before I could say anything, he correctly stated my name and he apologized profusely about the non-delivery and stated that he will need to call higher authority and get the DM to call us. DM I suppose is either delivery man or dispatch manager? No idea. But whoever it is.. our pizza was still missing! Very simply I asked him, "Is the pizza coming?" He said, "Of course!" Then I asked, "By when?" He said, "I'll get the DM to call you!" I was like .............................

By 1.30pm, still no one called and still no pizza. So, called them again and this time, someone picked up after a long while but the person made no sound and the phone was put down shortly. Hmmm... I can only imagine that perhaps, they haven't find good enough excuses, so didn't dare to say anything to me. Undaunted, I called the delivery line again. Someone manage to pick up and the girl confirmed the phone number that they are seeing in their system. To play safe, I gave her my mobile number while she went to call the store that was supposed to send the pizza more than 1.5 hours ago.

About 5 minutes later, someone called. He said, "My delivery man actually came to your office twice but nobody came to the door." I was like, huh? Nobody knocked and nobody came what. Then he said, "He called your office but it was asking for extension number. I also called you twice but always ask me for extension number so cannot get you." Errr.. I was dumbfounded. Was it really the office phone cannot get through? If that's the case, then those who managed to call in without knowing any extension lines must've been either very lucky or simply geniuses! So I asked, "What is the conclusion now? Is the pizza still coming?" He said, "Sure, if you want it, we'll send it in 15 minutes time and you will have to guide the delivery man to your office." Err... so I said, "You really should send someone who knows the address." He said, "Oh, our delivery man knows your address as he's been to your office twice. And he knocked and nobody open the door." I was like thinking, "Can't the man click on the doorbell like anybody else??" Strange.

So decided to cancel the pizza order since the manager said that it was he who dispatched the call to the delivery man, and he claimed that the delivery man did go to the office twice, and both he and the delivery man tried to call the office phone but cannot get through since they don't know any extension numbers, and hence, this non-delivery is none of their problem. No apologies from this end, not even for the futile wait, nor any discount offered if the customer want the pizza to be delivered in another additional 15 mins time (which would've made the total waiting time an astounding 2 hours)... so that was that, in accordance to that Pizza Hut store manager.

Feeling quite upset, I called the office number soon after the conversation ended, and indeed the recorded voice message will ask the caller to key in extension number if they know any, otherwise, it will advise the caller to press 1 for sales, 2 for something else and finally 0 for general enquiries. All in all, the recorded message would've played for less than a minute and if the caller had pressed the number stated, or just press 0, then the office phone would've rung. So, from this mini exercise, I can only conclude that both the delivery man and the store/dispatch manager lacked the patience to listen to the recorded instructions... customer can wait 1.5 - 2 hours, but they can't wait for just 1 minute. Sigh.

So I called the store again, and informed the person that I spoke to that the recorded message would've asked them to press certain numbers if they don't know any instructions. At this point, he became defensive and didn't even have the courtesy to listen finish to what the customer was saying, and began his chant that the main issue was that the delivery man had done his job by going to the address twice (although cannot find the entrance door...) and both he and the delivery man had tried to call the customer (albeit half-heartedly...) and that was that. Job done.

Haha, if they believed they had done a good job in this case, I have nothing more to say. I can only say, it was pure unlucky to be in this kind of situation and to encounter people who had this unlimited amount of self-assurance, and who gave themself a pat on their back even though they have gained one customer less. I wonder what did they do with the non-delivered pizza? I can only imagined if I had ordered some hundreds of dollars worth of pizza and whether they would still be as callous as that. No one at the address? Just discard the hundreds of dollars worth of pizza lo... no issue, job done because called the customer twice but the phone kept asking for extension numbers. Nope, don't know any extension numbers~

To Pizza Hut Management, perhaps can consider allowing the staff to update the status of the delivery into the system, so that when the customer called the delivery line to enquire the status, immediately someone there could've said, "Oh, we tried to call your phone but cannot get through. Can we get an alternative number to call you?" Something like that la. No need to wait for your customers to call you like 3 times. Of course, one customer less may not mean anything to you. That I understand.

07 June, 2010

missing Japan...

Went to Isetan with the intention of getting some sushi. But somehow, can't be convinced to buy any. So walked abit and came across this person cooking okonomiyaki in the supermart... It smells pretty good, and it's made on the spot, so why not. That was how it ended up as dinner. One packet is SGD$5.80, which translates to about 390 yen. Still ok I think...

The okonomiyaki has lots of cabbage, minimum flour and lots of octopus! Too bad, I didn't get to eat it hot from the stove, because by the time I reached home, it was an hour later... But still yummy!


okonomiyaki


look at the tako.. yums!


The lady manning the stall (she's a Japanese and can speak a little English) was also quite cute. At some point in the queue, she ran out of coins to return to the customer so she either charged $5 or for those customers who didn't mind, paid her $6. She looked quite flustered. Haha! So when I gave her exactly $5.80, she looked so relieved.. hahahah! :P


The price of canned beer is only slightly higher than those found in Tokyo's am/pm shops or 7-eleven. There, you can buy it for about 200+ yen. Here it costs about SGD$3.50. So probably around 40-50 cents extra per can.


yebisu beer

06 June, 2010

saturday night out




Located at B2 of ION Orchard towards Paterson Link. The queue was still ok for a Saturday evening (around 645pm), and we got seated after waiting for about 10-15 minutes. Saying yes to counter seats means shorter waiting time ;)




Had a clear view of the sushi master, who was all smiles and had lively exchanges with his staff (kitchen and service crew). Sushi master seemed to be Japanese, while his kitchen crew were mostly speaking in Cantonese.


sushi master at work


colorful bottles of sake


The sushis are priced at per piece and ranges from below $1 to above $6.


plump looking scallop sushi


fatty tuna mini rice (it looks like served using an ashtray... )





unagi mini rice


foie gras sushi


eel sushi ($6)



The eel (anago?) sushi looked impressive, and it tasted real soft.. but somehow, I didn't quite like it. Still prefer unagi.



hamachi sushi (i like~)


jack mackerel


california maki, with tiny crunchy roe


saury, fatty aburi salmon and ark shell sushi



They're having a 50% discount promotion for salmon in soy sauce (originally was $0.80 per piece).


aburi salmon in soy sauce


The aburi salmon in soy sauce was cheap and good! It's yummy when eaten together with the raw onion slice. Recommended!


After that, went to 111 Somerset. They have an NTUC Finest (quite small actually...) and a couple of restaurants as well. But decided to go back to Orchard Central for coffee.


taken from dunno which floor of OC but quite high la!


looking at Robinsons

The shops at OC are practically empty. So, if you need a breather from the hustle and bustle of Orchard Road.. just head to Orchard Central.

03 June, 2010

postcards

Updates on the postcards received thus far :)

Jamie, from USA sent this one. Just 17 years old, and by far the youngest sender I received from. Oldest was 34 years old :P and that's provided they wrote their age!






wat's up doc


ah.. just 17, that's when life begins!


Cat, Hong Kong sent this one 'coz one of the items that I indicated that I'm interested in (besides photography) is food. Hehe, yup, mayb it shows that generally we're all real nice people and will try to accommodate the recipient's preferences as best as we can!




bird series.. SG 50cents stamp also bird series




Next, was Debbie from Germany. Her postcard has cute little stickers on it :P


she says she stays in this town, and I thought, "How interesting to stay in a town like this!" Maybe everyday, I'll go around taking pics! Haha




notice the stickers?


Last of the batch, received yesterday on 2 June 2010 was from Nathalie of Netherlands.


chocs~








So far, I've got 2 from Germany, 2 from Netherlands, 1 from Finland, and 1 from Hong Kong. Cool eh?

I like receiving handwritten postcards/letters from an actual person that lives at the other corner of the world... Besides feeling more personable, the charm is also that someone somewhere out there is offering you a glimpse of a life in another culture, another country... but we're still breathing the same polluted air... hahaha!