Singapore Again (Part 5)

As usual, I woke up around 10.30. I spent some time chatting to G2, and then showered and got dressed to go out. I figured by this time the shops would be open, so I gave the shoe shop a call.

The sales girl remembered me, and yes, I had left my bag of underwear there. She had it behind the counter, ready for me to pick up – I told her i’d be in, mid-afternoon.

I was lucky it wasn’t a G-String or some of that dodgy SMA underwear, or I wouldn’t have gone back to claim it. I can just imagine…

“What’s this bag lah, that Ang Moh forgot it what? Ooh, come come look, Ang Moh buying slinky underwear lah! Quite sexy one lor, but no support what. Make him try on jeans when he comes by and check out his package on security camera…”

I accompanied G1 & G2 over to Holland Village, where we ate lunch at the food court. G2 had some dry cleaning to pick up, and I was on the hunt for The Undershop which, according to its’ website, had a branch there.

Without too much trouble we found where they were supposed to be, but weren’t. Surprise surprise, they’re hopeless – can’t even update their own website. Typical.

We dropped into Coffee Bean for awhile, and had a delicious little orange teacake muffin each, and I also ordered a latte. I almost freaked when they served it – I was expecting a small latte glass, but instead got something bigger than what you serve a milkshake in! Value for money alright.

While we were there, G1 looked through the local paper to find some apartments up for rent. Their current landlord gave them notice, so they had to find a new place by June. G1 managed to find 2 places not far from their current place, which would make moving far easier.

We arranged with one of the agents to meet her at the place on our way home.

Some HDB flats have been upgraded, but other have not. This one hadn’t been. The flat was on the 19th (top) floor, but the lift only went to roughly every 4th floor, and only as high as 18. Which meant you’d have to take a flight of stairs, then the lift, every time you’d go out. And the reverse for when you come home.

G2 wasn’t too keen on it – that combined with the fact the agent was asking far too much. The lift thing alone would have been enough to turn me off.

Something else G2 said that I didn’t know – when you rent an apartment, you have to give the agent half a month’s rent! (I think it’s half). I can’t really understand why. For the fuck all effort of putting an ad in the paper, you’re the one contacting them, it’s not like they have to chase around finding people. It’s all inbound. At the most they should get a nominal fee from the owner, out of the owner’s pocket (or a % of monthly rent over the lease term).

Oh, and if you renew a lease of a place you’re already in? They want their cut again! For doing absolutely nothing this time. Fuck that.

We headed home. I changed shoes, then headed out to Orchard Rd again via bus.

The first stop was Wisma, where I picked up my underwear. The security tape was still unbroken, so she hadn’t even peeked to see inside! How nice.

Afterward, I walked to one of the shopping centres I hadn’t been to much. Paragon. From previous visits, most of the shops were overpriced, and others weren’t of much interest. But I made myself walk around, just incase. On the 4th floor (I think) I found a sports shop. And lo and behold, they had my Speedo Sports Chamois! And it was $3 cheaper than another place i’d seen it too. So I bought it.

After that, I wandered into the department store there called Metro. I had a look at the underwear section, and they also had my underwear on sale – but they had more colours! So I bought another pair. I’ll never be caught without clean underwear, that’s for sure. Mum would be proud.

As I hadn’t bought a lot of clothing with me, I needed to look for some pants to wear out clubbing later tonight. I had one pair of shorts in the wash, and another pair on. And my jeans were really heavy (for wearing back home) so I didn’t want to wear those clubbing.

I literally walked all over Orchard Rd again, trying to find something I liked. I almost bought a pair of pants at Topman, but they were nothing special.

I finally found some light jeans in Shaw Plaza Isetan that I liked. The sales guy couldn’t convert UK sizing into S,M,L properly so I couldn’t fit into the first pair he gave me. Second pair fitted really well. So I bought them. Now my outfit for clubbing was complete – (Esprit shirt I bought yesterday and these jeans).

I wandered upto where Gage was working, and said hello. He was having a slow day, not many customers, so I think it broke the boredom a bit.

Then I felt a bit hungry so I grabbed a McSpicy Burger from a nearby Maccas. We don’t have thse little gems back in Oz, but I wish we did. It was breast fillet just like KFC burgers, but it really shits all over KFC’s ‘Hot n Spicy’. Way waaay better/hotter. I doubt your average Ang Moh would be able to handle it.

I went back to Gerards’ to rest for awhile, before going out about 11pm.

Gage recommended I goto Taboo, so I did. I paid my $20 and entered. Big mistake. It seemed to be the narrowest club i’d ever seen (Apart from that crappy Heaven’s Door place back in Melb), and it was just pathetic. Well maybe it wouldn’t suck so much if they didn’t fill it so jam packed with people. Honestly, you could not even move. I squeeeeeezed all the way down to the back so I could get to the bar, so I could order a Coke – which cost $8.00 (mostly ice). Fuck me. Then I stood there for 10 min, more squashed than on a Melbourne Peak Hour Train. Nothing seemed to be happening, the dancefloor seemed to be roped off and everyone was just.. standing there. Fuck it. I squeeeeezed all the way back out, told a couple of guys waiting outside to pay that it was ‘packed like a sardine tin’ (hopefully they didn’t waste their $20’s), and left.

Across the road was Tantric, which looked to be just as full, and I knew it was almost as narrow too. So I didn’t bother with that one.

I wandered down the road to the 7/11, and bought some alcohol for less than what my Coke cost. Then I sat for awhile at the bus stop and drank it, contemplating whether I just go home or give Taboo another try. I got into the city too late to change more cash to SGD, so I didn’t have enough for another entry fee & more (overpriced) drinks, as well as the cab ride home.

I walked up to Taboo again, showed my stamp, and entered. I rounded the corner, and oh, still packed with people… still standing there. I left again.

Walking back toward Play, a group of 4 guys walked past me. One turned around and shouted ‘Hey, you’re cute’, so I smiled and said thanks. I decided to goto Play and ask if they accepted Amex.

At the door of Play they had a big sign, ‘Capacity Full’ or something to that effect. I hoped their idea of full wasn’t like Taboo’s, and then asked the bouncer if they took Amex. They did! In fact, everyone seems to take Amex in Singapore – unlike in Australia, where most places whinge about the extra % processing fee Amex charge them, so they refuse to take it. (Cheapass bastards!)

The atmosphere inside Play was better, but it had a sunken dancefloor. The problem with that was you couldn’t see where the steps were (no reflective stuff), so if you were standing on one and someone bumped you, you could kind of fall over (into people) and look like a tool. I didn’t quite go that far, but I did do a stagger when I found air where I expected floor to be. The music was ok, but I decided i’d goto St James on Sunday night, the previous times i’d been there I really enjoyed it.

About 2.30 I decided to call it a night, and left. I saw the queue of Toyota Crown taxis, and decided against using one. I wanted a nice new cab, so I walked a bit further up the road, and when I saw one of the Mercedes taxis with its’ green light coming along, I signalled to it (Well they’re the same price as an old shit cab, so why not!?).

Cab fee: $13. I’d allocated $30, i’m so used to the insanely expensive prices we get charged for cabs in Oz. In Malaysia it’d probably cost $13 Ringgit, which is half as much again. The driver was quite talkative, and was telling me that there were better places to go clubbing, depending on whether I like Thai girls, Filipinos, etc etc. Amused, I just replied with ‘no, none of those’, and let him read between the lines.

Just after I got home, it started raining. Glad I didn’t hang around any longer, because it was really heavy rain – I would have been soaked.

I headed off to bed. I woke up once during the night, when the rain was really pelting the window and the thunder sounded like it was right next to me. But I drifted back to sleep.

10.May.08 Food, Fun, Holiday Comment (1) 

Singapore Again (Part 4)

I woke up about 10.30am, did all the usual stuff and headed out. I took the bus down Orchard Rd, and got off at the first stop.

I wanted to buy a Speedo Chamois, they’re way better for drying yourself after a swim than lugging a big towel around. I walked into one of the shopping malls and found another sports store, but they didn’t have any. I did find another Nike dri-fit shirt though, on sale too. Ka chingg!

I met up with Gage about 12, and he wanted to show me the Esprit factory outlet in Jurong – because half the stuff I bought on the last trip ended up being from Esprit. Unfortunately he had a cold and looked tired, so I told him not to worry. But he insisted. So in the end I agreed that after he dropped me off, he’d go home and sleep. :)

Once we reached IMM in Jurong, I waved goodbye, and he set off home. I was starting to get hungry, so my first stop was MOS Burger. I’d decided this trip i’d not only try food court dishes I hadn’t had before, but also some of the local fast food. (When I say local, that includes American chain outlets we don’t have back in Oz).

I ordered a Spicy MOS Cheeseburger meal, which was served in a cute basket thingy. The burger itself was small, but that was ok, because I was trying to convert myself to having small meals anyway. :P The slightly annoying thing was when you took a bite out of the burger, half the filling oozed out the side. Kinda messy, but I managed to NOT spill it all over myself.

Then I headed to Esprit, the reason for being there. The first thing I saw were the SG$105 / RM$295 grey pants I bought last trip, on sale for fucking $39.00. Bastards! Then I was afraid to look around anymore, for fear of finding other things i’d already bought, cheaper.

I contemplated buying another pair of those pants, but thought better of it. I had limited space, which after the Bods visit, was disappearing fast. Even my vacuum bags wouldn’t help me out much.

I did find a nice dark grey casual short sleeve shirt with epaulettes (those army type tabs on the shoulders) for $49 though, so headed for the checkout.

I walked around the rest of the shopping centre, but didn’t find anything worth buying. The upper levels were almost solely dedicated to big ticket items, such as whitegoods, furnishings and more amusingly, kitchen appliances such as cooktops, stoves and ovens, and bathroom products with in-wall fixtures (Central hot water, anyone?). I say ‘amusingly’, because I haven’t seen anyone with one anywhere. Especially the ovens or hot water systems – unheard of.

Considering approx 88.6% of housing in Singapore is HDB, and only 6% are private condo’s and 5.1% is landed (house) housing (Census 2000) I really can’t see a huge market for all these places. You can’t make any of those changes to a HDB.

I grabbed a donut from some place near the food court, and it was fresh and soft, but the icing on top didn’t really set. It tasted nice. They had all these other fancy ones, but they looked a bit sickly – i’ve never really been a fan of filled donuts, beyond the standard raspberry jam balls.

Singapore seems to be going through an explosion of donut stores at the moment, some better than others. Another fad like bubble tea, except bubble tea is goooood.

I saw a StarHub shop, so I went to the service counter – my GPRS still wasn’t working, and I needed the APN. I’d done some searching on the net, but the one I found still wasn’t working. I assumed it was outdated.

I explained to the girl, and and she said “Cannot”. So I stepped up my Singlish, and replied with “No, Can!“. She went and got some guy, who was supposedly the know-all of the store.

He explained that due to the hacking method i’d used for my iPhone, it wouldn’t work. So I said BULLSHIT. This is a guy who doesn’t even know what StarHub’s APN is, for fuck’s sake.

I calmly explained that if he can tell me what their APN is, which is the same for all phones because it’s non-phone-specific because it’s a network config, that it’d work.

Then I remembered I hadn’t rebooted my phone since putting in the APN I found earlier. I rebooted, and it started working. He looked surprised. Miss Cannot looked even more surprised. Just to be a bitch, I then repeated, “There. Can.”

Then I explained to them, that they have a prepaid and a postpaid APN. The prepaid one, for all phones using a prepaid sim, is shppd. And I dunno what the postpaid one is, but why spoil all their fun. Let them find out.

I walked out, and I think the dumbfounded look was still spread across their faces even after I left. It’s really hard to find good help these days, yah?

I walked to Jurong East station, and the sun was super bright as I came out of IMM. I forgot to bring my sunglasses, so I squinted my way along the path until I got under some shade again.

I took the train to Orchard again, changing at City Hall. Then I continued on my shopping wanderings.

I walked. A lot. Up down, back, around, up, and down again.

I found some SkinXwear underwear on special at OG (nextdoor to Centrepoint), but unfortunately most of the good colours were already gone (in my size) – but I bought one anyway.

Then I walked around a bit more, and had a look through The Heeren. There was some broadcasting thing going on at the ground floor and lots of people were crowded in. Made it hard to get to the escalator to escape. Upstairs, nothing much had changed. New Urban Male were still peddling the same tired old crap. Beats me why people buy it, there’s lots of better avenues open to them. And the sales guys aren’t even cute.

Out on the street again, I headed down to Wisma. By now my feet were KILLING me, so when I passed by a Lee Cooper store, those shoes I saw yesterday suddenly looked pretty damn good. Except here, they weren’t on sale.

There only seemed to be a single sales girl running around, serving about 4 customers at once. When she seemed a little less busy, I asked her if she was having any sales, and told her about the 30% off at Chinatown OG.

She seemed surprised at that, and rang her manager. In turn, he rang the sales guy at OG, and scolded him for telling people the wrong information. Evidently only women’s shoes were 30% off, but for letting them know, they’d give me 20% off – even though there was no sale. So I bought them, and my feet instantly thanked me. Not that the sneakers I was wearing were uncomfortable, but wearing them all day for the last few days, I think my feet just needed a change. And I refused to look like an (albino?) indonesian, wearing thongs (aka flip flops, sandals) around everywhere, so don’t even contemplate that option.

I’m still wondering if i’d actually gone back to Chinatown OG, whether I would have scored 30% off instead.

Anyway… after I finished there, G1 msg’d me, as he was about to finish work. We arranged to meet at Raffles City (shopping centre), so I took the MRT. To kill some time once I got there, I dropped past Ralph Lauren to untidy mess up some of the folded stock (I do that every time i’m here, ever since I bought something and they refused to swap for a larger size a few days later – even though it was unworn with tag attached!) and then wandered around Topman, but didn’t see anything I liked. Then G1 arrived, and wanted to have a snack.

We found a table at Cedele, and I looked over the menu they had on their big signs. I decided I wanted one of the milkshakes, but strangely enough the sales guy said they DON’T do milkshakes anymore. Then why the hell have it on the menu?? I settled for an Iced Coffee.

G1 ordered a slice of cake. When my Iced Coffee arrived, I asked the guy what it was. There was no whipped cream, no ice cream, just a watery liquid. And it was WARM. I’m sure last time I had an iced coffee, it was COLD. No?

He went away and I suspect just tipped out some of the liquid, and threw more ice in. Then I asked for some sugar syrup. They didn’t have any. How the hell do you drink an iced coffee without sugar syrup? Sugar crystals don’t dissolve! (Haha yeah true, they do when your iced coffee is still warm.. BLEAH.)

So I drank my disgusting iced *snort* coffee, whilst G1 ate his cake. He said it was dry and disgusting too. I took my shoes out of their box, and rearranged my purchases in the bag. Then we left, to meet G1 at Suntec.

I then realised i’d left the shoebox behind. Nothing in it, but wondered if anyone would call the bomb squad after watching all the MRT ‘be alert to terrorism and strange packages’ videos on the display monitors. Oh well, serves themselves right for serving up crap.

So yeah, incase you missed all that, DON’T GOTO CEDELE! They suck – and not in a good way.

The Gerards’ love Pho (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup). They’d been telling me about this place in Suntec that served reasonably decent Pho, though it’d still fall short of the real stuff I get back home in Footscray.

G2 met us near the station, then we walked to Suntec together. The Pho place was within the Food Republic area, not far from the Roti stall I went to last time.

We glanced over the menu, then ordered a serving of Rice Paper Rolls, and a bowl of Pho each.

The rice paper rolls were dry. They need to be made fresh, but these had been sitting at least a few hours. Too chewy and dry.

When the Pho arrived, I was also unimpressed. The accompanying bean sprouts, chillis and thai basil were very meagre (I had to ask for a second plate) and the Pho itself was.. well.. dishwater. It didn’t have much flavour, and the sliced beef had little flavour. Not to mention that there was hardly any beef in the soup. All I can say is that if this was better than what the Viet places on the top floor of Suntec were offering, then some Viet family could seriously kick arse opening a decent Pho place in Singapore.

After our Pho (or rather, what passes for Pho in Singapore), we went for a walk across the road, around Marina Square.

As we were walking around, I noticed a group of very manly women heading into a shoe shop.

And the reason they looked rather manly was because they were men! Yep, a group of trannies. Nothing that strange, except I didn’t think i’d see a group so ‘out’ in Singapore.

It must have been a full moon or something, because we encountered more freaks when we reached the main area. A stage was set up, and there was amateur karaoke going on or something.

This guy was really animated, he was dancing and everything. I’m sure if I had’ve gone closer with my camera, he would have busted a few more moves. But I was scared. What!?.. he was scary. Karaoke and alcohol go together for a reason, you know.

Now that dinner had settled, G1 decided he wanted to have dessert. We ended up at ‘Out of the Pan’ back in Raffles City, and I ordered a Rum ‘n’ Raisin Crepe. Gerard got a waffle.

It tasted better than it looked. Which is good, because we all remarked that if you removed the scoop of ice cream, it looked like a giant arsehole. Err, yum.

After that we cabbed back home, and I finally managed to fix the router. All I had to do was reboot the cablemodem, then turn the router back on for the net to connect. Grr!

As I was unpacking all my goodies, I realised i left the bag with my underwear behind, probably at the shoe store. I’d have to ring them up tomorrow, and see if they found it.

B&B time. (Bathing and Bed)…

09.May.08 Food, Fun, Holiday Comments (0) 

Singapore Again (Part 3)

Today I slept in again, though not on purpose. I woke up to find Bubbles and Baby (the dogs) curled up near me on the bed, and the sun streaming in the window. G1 & G2 had obviously already left for work.

I got up, showered, got dressed, and then felt like I needed another shower. Today was going to be a hot one. (Hotter than yesterday, which was already hot.. haha).

I fast-walked to the train station (which is further than the bus stop), perspiring even more. The train arrived, and I stepped inside. Aaaah.. air conditioning. All was well again.

I met Gage at City Hall at about 11.00, and then we walked down to Marina Square, through the airconditioned comfort of the CityLink Mall. I noticed there was a TCC halfway along, i’d have to visit that later.

Once we got to Marina I checked out Xara on the way to the Bods store, but didn’t see anything exceptional I liked enough to buy. Then we entered the Bods store, and I was… lost.

Almost the entire store (and this is their bloody flagship store!) was now dedicated to chic stuff. One solitary wall at the back still sported a few racks of clothing for guys, but it was nowhere near the range they had when Louis and I splurged 2 1/2 months ago.

Disappointed, I walked out, and we headed straight over to Suntec. I hoped the Bods store there had more to offer.

I changed some Australian money over into SGD on the ground floor here, they have the best exchange rates of anywhere in Singapore. (that I know of, anyway – and you don’t have to haggle with Indians to get it!) It’s just around the corner from the Ducktours counter, incase you’re looking for it.

We took off upstairs to the Bods shop, and Hooray! Men’s stuff! And Bargain Bins! Whaddya know, there is a God.

I bought 3 pair of trackpants (2 for Louis), 2 white tees (both for Louis), a singlet (for Louis) and a pair of speedos for myself (I thought i’d forgotten to bring any with me). I would have bought more, but the available sizes were a bit hit-and-miss: more Miss in my case. A lot of things I liked were all sold out of size M/2.

After that we wandered around Suntec a bit more, then made our way over to Chinatown, where I bought mum a Singapore Merlion tshirt, and 3 little cat ornaments. I bought her one back last time, but she wanted 3 more for her friends!

After we finished that, we took a walk down the road to Pearl’s Centre, where the Barcode shop (the one advertising on Fridae) was. Despite their ads looking fairly decent, the merchandise… wasn’t. It just really looked cheap, and no self respecting gay boy would be caught wearing it. (I said self respecting gay boys, i’m sure there are others who’ll still buy!) The owner was also trying to chat Gage up too. Professional, hmm?

We wandered up the road again to Chinatown Point, and had a browse around SportsMenAsia. (They also advertise on Fridae).

They had lots of underwear, some decent, and others borderlining between tacky and obscene. There were also lots of tshirts with quirky slogans, some of which made me smile, unlike the lame ones at NewUrbanMale.

There was also a glass cabinet with Prostate Massagers and Fleshlights on display. The sales guy was trying to be helpful and took out a Fleshlight to show us, and added a “It’s very good, trust me.” – whilst raising his eyebrows.

There’s something about an unattractive sales guy highly recommending a solo pleasure toy that just definitely makes me not want to buy one. (Not that I was contemplating it anyway.) If he thought his verbal recommendation would result in a sale, my mental image of him testing out the display model had the opposite effect. We left.

Tummy growling, so it was time for (late) lunch. Gage took me to some food court, and we found a table. I walked around until I decided to order a plate of Zhen’s Malaysia Famous Wanton Noodles ($3.30), and also a Thai Style Fried Beancurd ($2.00) from another stall nearby. Then I went back and sat down, and Gage queued for awhile to order Yong Tau Foo from some other ‘famous’ stall.

While he was queuing, a couple of stallholder Aunties were rather interested in my Thai beancurd dish, and how much I paid for it. Maybe it was a new addition to their competition’s menu? After asking how much, one exclaimed “$2 for one what?“, so I don’t know if she was inferring it was cheap or expensive. Probably the latter.

Then Gage came back with his dish, and we ate. My Wanton Noodle was pretty average, but the beancurd was nice.

I also like the brand of Iced Lemon Tea I can get here in Singapore – “Seasons”, I think it’s nicer than the Nestea or Lipton brands back in Oz.

After lunch we took a walk through OG, and I kind of lost my sense of direction. I knew I was near Chinatown… (I later discovered this OG was right opposite Sim Lim Square!) I saw some Lee Cooper shoes I kind of liked (similar to Converse), and the sales guy advised that the whole range was 30% off. I resisted buying them though, incase I found something better, cheaper, later.

Then we browsed around a few other shops/shopping centres, and then headed back through CityLink Mall. We had half an hour to kill until it was time for Gage to go and meet some other friends for dinner, so we sat down in TCC for a drink.

I ordered my usual Hazelnut Milkshake with a scoop of ice cream, but the stupid Indian waitress could barely understand English, and it was missing the ice cream when it arrived. Sack her! Gage ordered some green lime thing, which he said was pretty average too.

We took a couple of camwhoring shots with all the Bods stuff i’d been lugging around all day, and then one of Gage.

Then it was time for Gage to meet his friends, so we said goodbye – until tomorrow, he had another day off work.

I’d arranged with G1 and G2 to meet them at Ngee Ann City to have dinner at Crystal Jade, so I took the MRT to Orchard, and then walked through to Taka.

I arrived first, and waited a little while for them. A table was cleared for us just as they turned up – perfect timing. I ordered my favourite Chilli Oil Dumplings, and also a serving of the Soup Dumplings as well. G2 ordered a few other dishes for us as well (no fishy eggy thing this time), so it was all good.

Afterwards we wandered around a bit to let dinner settle, and then caught the bus home. I spent some time fiddling with the router, but we needed to call Starhub to get the account settings, so another night without ‘Net. Watched a couple of shows on tv before bed instead. Local Singapore ’soapies’ are amusing.

09.May.08 Food, Fun, Holiday Comments (0) 

Singapore Again (Part 2)

I slept in until about 10ish SG time (G1 & G2 left about 9.00), then got up and bathed, then set out to commence my new exercise regime (aka shopping!).

I took the bus down to Orchard Rd, one of the biggest and best parts of Singapore for shopping. I got off at the stop opposite Ngee Ann City (otherwise known as Takashimaya), and crossed the road. It was about 10.50, and a lot of shops were still closed – most open around 11.

I walked into one sports store which was open already, but the staff were still in the process of reorganising / replenishing stock.

Then to the side, I spied what I was hunting for… bargain bins!

The sign said ‘Prices as marked’, and that everything was at least 20% off. That’s on top of my Aussie Dollar buying 1.27 Singapore Dollars. Put simply, BARGAIN! I started looking through.

For the fatties out there, you can really score a bargain. The XL sizes were marked down the most, which is ironic considering they use more material so they SHOULD be more expensive. As I value my health (and my relationship!) i’ll never become an L, let alone an XL.

I found a few things in my size, (M!), and a few more things in S. Wasn’t sure if Louis would like the designs though, so decided against buying him anything there. I got myself a black dri fit top for gym, which would be more comfortable than what i’d been wearing.

After that, I walked along Orchard Rd a bit to where my friend Gage was working.

We planned where we’d meet up tomorrow, as he had the next couple of days off, and offered to accompany me around.

Then I decided i’d drop by Gerard’s workplace, as one of the things I intended to do was have a look at (& fix) his network (he’d been having some trouble with it).

The Singapore MRT (Mass Rapid Transit – aka Trains) maps really don’t give you a true indication of how long it’ll take you to get somewhere. I decided to follow the red line around to Choa Chu Kang, instead of swapping to the purple line, then the green line, then onto the red line (opposite direction). It LOOKED quicker. Ahem…

Just over an hour later, I arrived at Choa Chu Kang, after a very long but scenic route right up around Woodlands. You know you’re right out in the heartlands when the voiceover starts telling you to ‘get off here’ for buses to Johor Bahru (Malaysia).

Then we continued on, gradually heading back toward the heart of Singapore. I then transferred to the LRT (Yep, Light Rapid Transit – though i’d go easy on the Rapid part..) which ambled along at a tenth of the pace. Another 20 minutes, and I finally alighted at my destination.

Singapore’s tap card system is fairly simple if you have a prepaid card. If you get a day card like I had, and hadn’t paid the correct amount for the station you’re getting off at, it gets a little more complex. At a manned station you can just pop it on the cardreader and they’ll tell you how much more you need to pay. But at this unmanned station I contemplated jumping the barrier, but was sure the old Aunty standing nearby would give me a disapproving look, or call the cops or something.

Instead, I figured out how to move the one-way gate so I could access the ticket machine. Her grandchild (I assume) was in the way, randomly mashing buttons. I looked at her and made the motion to remove him, else he would get squashed when I moved the barrier gate.

I may as well have just jumped the barrier, because I still got the disapproving look. With an overdone expression of effort, she called the kid back over to where she was standing, and I operated the gate, topped up my card, exited the barrier, returned the card, and retrieved my deposit credit. Yep, jumping the barrier would have been way easier.

A quick walk along the road later, I found Gerard walking toward me, assuming i’d somehow gotten lost.

It was lunchtime, albeit a bit late, so we headed to the nearby shopping centre for some sustenance.

We sat down in the Hong Kong Cafe, Gerard’s regular lunch spot. Surprisingly not everything on the menu was slathered with that artificial looking yellow curry gravy, so we ordered a few things.

I can only remember ordering the salty squid for entree, and that’s because they mixed the salt in the batter (instead of a light toss later *hehe*), so it tasted a bit disgusting. I think my main was some kind of noodle dish, because I remember I could use chopsticks to eat it. But obviously it wasn’t memorable, because I can’t remember what it was! I’ll update this later if I can remember.

After lunch I went to get a StarHub SIM card, as global roaming charges are NOT included in my cap, as I found out after the last trip. (Despite what the dickhead I talked to at Optus told me!)

Retail jobs are never easy, but they’re a lot harder when you’re a pair of bimbos who would be more at home in a stickerfun stall than a mobile phone outlet.

When I asked the girl if I could access Internet via GPRS with their prepaid card, I got a blank expression before she told me that ‘No, cannot’. I knew not to trust her answer.

I asked if I could access Internet with the prepaid card. (Same question, but simpler lah)

No, Internet only postpaid, sorry.

So I picked up a brochure, and read through it. On page 3, I pointed out the big heading which was titled SETTING UP YOUR PHONE FOR GPRS INTERNET USAGE, and asked again. This time, she picked up the phone to call someone who had a clue.

Then she came back with the answer I was looking for, and expected. “Yes, you can”.

Then she dropped the phone handset, and then both girls bent down to pick it up, their heads colliding in the process. Then they stood there and giggled, rubbing where they bumped. And we just stood there watching, thinking, OMG.

Like I said, it’s hard to find good help these days.

I wasn’t able to get the prepaid sim anyway, as I didn’t have my passport with me. Australian Driver’s Licences aren’t valid ID, evidently. Even though they’re valid for driving in Singapore with. *Shrug*

We walked back to Gerard’s office, where he gave me a quick intro to the staff, then zipped off to a client meeting.

I made up a list of issues I found with the network, configuration and security issues. Then I put it all into a report which Gerard could forward onto his superiors. After that, I rang around some computer shops in Sim Lim Square, trying to find one who sold rackmount server cases – Gerard’s server was a desktop, which he wanted to move into the rack with the other server equipment.

By the time I finished all that, it was time to pack up for the day and think about dinner. We locked up the office and took a taxi to VivoCity, where we arranged to meet G1.

Just as we met G1, G2 realised he’d left his phone in the taxi. We rang it, someone picked up, but then hung up. I was surprised to learn that Gerard would assume no one would return it, as people SEEMED to be fairly honest. He rang up Starhub and cancelled the SIM, and then we went upstairs for dinner.

Our dinner at one of the restaurants in Food Republic consisted of a range of chinese style dishes i’d never tried before, and they were all good – except one vege dish, that had century egg in it, and some weird sauce.

After dinner, G1 used his Singapore ID card to buy me a Prepaid SIM card, and then we did some grocery shopping at Giant (one of the big supermarkets there), then we got a phone call from someone who’d found his phone in the taxi. Gerard enlightened me that this was more the exception, than the rule. Normally once it’s lost, it’s lost. We headed home, swinging by the honest stranger’s place to reclaim the phone.

Gerard’s router was playing up and didn’t want to connect to the internet, so I had a fairly early night (it was about 11pm). I was tired anyway from the flight still, so it was probably a good thing – i’d be all rested for a big day of shopping tomorrow! :)

08.May.08 Food, Fun, Holiday Comments (0) 

Shenanigans!


Mac Mini.


Mc Mini. (Crispy Chicken Fillet Burger Deluxe)

I saw Maccas had some new burgers on offer, and was getting sick of having Subway for lunch the other day.. so I tried one. I got back to my desk, took it out of the bag, and fuck! it’s SMALL. (Not much bigger than that 50c coin!) It’s barely bigger than a damn cheeseburger – and I thought KFC’s chicken burgers were getting small!!

Meanwhile, guess what!? Melbourne Council has done what every good Council with excess cash has done lately, they bought a Ferris Wheel. Big whoop. This one isn’t very big, but there’s a way bigger one still being built near Docklands. Even bigger whoop.

And that milk crate guy climbing up the wall is part of a travelling art festival.. he keeps popping up in random places around the city.

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02.Dec.07 Food, Home, Random Comment (1) 

Size Queen…


My, what a big Roti you have!…

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09.Nov.07 Food, Random Comments (2) 

SG/KL Shopping list:

… more stuff to come as I remember.

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08.Oct.07 Food, Fun Comments (6) 

Food

I’m hungry.

25.Jul.07 Food, Random Comments (8) 

Yum Cha Minge Fest

Yesterday, we went to Shark Fin House for brunch/lunch.

Once seated, we noticed a table near us consisted of allll dykes girls. We only noticed that after looking reallllly hard.

Minge!

In other news, the yumcha we were served was quite good.

25.Jun.07 Food, Fun Comments (2) 

George’s @ Crown

Last night, Louis and I went to Crown Casino to have dinner with a new friend, Andy.

Earlier in the evening, we’d looked up Crown’s website and one of the restaurants, George’s, seemed to have quite a good menu – $9.90 Pizzas and Pastas – so we arranged to meet there.

By some miraculous stroke of luck, we managed to find a park close to Crown in a side-street, without any trouble. With the time saved from looking for carparks, we browsed through some of the shops in Crown until it was time to meet up.

Now, if you’ve ever visited a casino and forgotten your ID, (that’s assuming you’re still young enough to get asked for it) you’ll know that if they decide not to let you in, there’s nothing you can do. Or is there?

George’s is situated inside the main gaming floor, so you need to get past the surly security guards. I don’t know why they always look surly, if I was getting paid as much as they do, for the amount of work they do, i’d be grinning from ear to ear. Or perhaps, like them, i’d be lamenting on my failure to get into the police force, hence the security guard job.

Anyway, there are at least 7 entrances to the gaming floor that I know of. And surely, there’s at least one decent guard who’s not a complete arsehole.

We approached entrance number 1: Louis got asked for ID by the fat bald guards, and they wouldn’t let him in without it. So we left.
Entrance number 2: Louis got asked for ID again, but the average-height blonde haired mid-30’s security guard was nice enough to let us in, after giving Louis a warning that he should have brought ID.

We queued for a short time at George’s, and then we were seated. Andy arrived soon after, after also being rejected by one lot of guards, we told him which entrance to use – and I assume the same guy was nice enough to let him in as well.

After looking at our menus, Andy ordered one of the woodfired pizzas, and Louis and I chose a pasta each.

While we were waiting for our meals to arrive, (which actually took quite some time) there was an amateur show on the stage nearby, with a few prizes being handed out to various old people who were keen enough to bother entering.

And then a white Tina-Turner wannabe belted out a couple of songs, complete with pom-pom girls to complete the picture.

Some people enjoyed the spectacle more than others. Like the pervert guy in the bottom-left:

You can tell he’s a.. umm.. errr… music lover. Yes, that’s it.

Andy seemed to enjoy his pizza, but both Louis’ and my pastas were rather average. At least Louis enjoyed the seafood bits though.

Once we had consumed our food, we decided to head over to Cafe Greco for dessert. Louis and I hadn’t been to Cafe Greco since late last year, when I ordered a whole cake for Louis’ birthday.

As we queued for a seat, Andy made the discovery that if we take-away our desserts, they only cost $6.50 each instead of $9.50 for eat-in. So we did.

Louis ordered a wedge of Mars-bar cake, I got a slab of Coffee Tiramisu (miss you too!), and Andy got a slice of Cherry Ripe Cake. We then headed down to some vacant seating near French Connection and had a bit of a chat while we ate.

My tiramisu was a bit tasteless, like there wasn’t enough sugar and they’d watered down the coffee. Mine’s better.

By the time we finished everything, it was getting rather late and the buses had already stopped running (Our public transport system assumes everyone’s in bed by 9pm) so we gave Andy a lift home, and then headed home ourselves.

Fun :)

23.Jun.07 Food, Fun Comments (0) 

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