Sydney: Sunshine and Lollipops, well, sorta.

Work’s put me up in Sydney for 3 weeks to do knowledge transfer on one of their products.

The accommodation booking lady booked me into Carrington Apartments in York St, which if you look up the pics on Tripadvisor is just disgusting.

Well it’s not that it’s bad.. ok it is bad. But at least it’s not filthy. It’s just OLD. It would have been a nice place 30 years ago, but I think everything IN it is still FROM 30 years ago.

My main gripe was the bed. The bed too, was 30 years old. I think. As soon as you lay on it, it would sag. If there were springs in the matress, they’ve long been sprung. Try and sleep in a hammock and wake up without a sore neck. This was pretty much the same.

As soon as I checked in I told our accommodation lady to get me out of there, and find me somewhere decent. Unfortunately I had to spend the first 3 nights there, and my neck is still hating me for the experience.

The replacement place was somewhere a co worker was placed previously… so why didn’t they book that in the beginning! Argh!

Apart from the accommodation, everything’s pretty good. Even the weather, for the most part. I’ve only required the use of my umbrella once, which was on Sunday. I’ve also even worn tshirts, it’s been that warm on some days.

On Friday night I went clubbing at the Midnight Shift, which was kinda fun. More fun than I would’ve had in Melbourne anywhere, anyway.

Saturday night a friend took me to Stonewall, where some queen managed to spill beer all over my leg. He then proceeded to pat my leg, as if that was going to dry it off. If anything, it rubbed the beer in more. I’m not quite sure what the look in my eye was at that moment, but they sure fucked off quick. I went upstairs to the toilets, to unsuccessfully rid myself of the beer smell. At least my hands weren’t beer-sticky.

After we left there, we went to some hideous place called The Palms. If you’re into Campy Bottoms who love all music prior to 1900 1987, this is the place to go. Unfortunately I do not. I lasted a total of 7 songs in there, during which I sat at a table. The music wasn’t danceworthy. As he went past, some old queen barguy (this place can’t even get decent barboys) told me to get up and dance and get off my best asset (arse), and probably received a scorning look in return.

Then we headed upto Shift. I got asked for ID, so I think the bouncer was bored, rather than me looking a youthful twinkish 17. As much as the locals pay Shift out as being dodgy, it’s funny how they still come along. I really can’t see how it’s that bad. If all they had was the Peel, Market and Exchange - then they can whinge. Loudly.

Apart from the ’straight’ asian club down the road, there’s no other club in Oxford St which can boast a large populous of asian bodies in one place. (I use the word ’straight’ coz i’ve heard rumours of some of those boys nicking down to the gay sauna while their girlfriends continue dancing inside… heh.)

Of course anywhere you have a club full of asians, you also have old men (as well as the occasional asian admirer. :D). It’s like Salt and Pepper - very rarely you see one without the other. But for the most part they’re reasonably behaved, and the ones that aren’t soon get told where to go. Of course i’m talking pre-4am here. Post 4am is another story - the freaks just seem to come out of the woodwork. So if your hunger hasn’t taken you to The Rocks for pancakes by 4am, (or you haven’t picked up and left already), you may as well just call it a night. Unless you’re into freaks.

Sunday was spent sleeping until early afternoon, at which time I got up and went in search of food. I met up with a friend and we had Thai for (late) lunch, which was pretty good. We wandered around everywhere until our feet started getting sore, then we settled into a Starbucks sofa to drink their mediocre beverages and talk crap for awhile.

Dinner was at a place called “Mamak” near chinatown. I’d been past a few times and noticed a queue out the door, so I wanted to see if it was any good. In short, it was. Although missing the signature Rendang Curry, they still had good Rotis and other Malaysian staples like Chicken Curry, Teh Tarik and Cendol on the menu.

After we waddled out of there, we walked around a bit more, then to the bus stop. The bus took ages to come along, but finally it did. I guess tardy public transport isn’t just a Melbourne thing.

Last night was washing night. Coin operated machines in the basement, at $4 a load. Powder was $2, so instead I went to a nearby Coles and got some decent liquid. On the way back I got a McFeast Deluxe meal for dinner, simply because there’s not much else around me - hence why I walk down to Chinatown most nights for dinner.

While the machine was rumbling I surfed with my dial-up internet (GAH!) and ate my burger. Clothes finished. Hung them up to dry - screw paying $4 for the dryer as well.

Now i’m not drawing any conclusions in that I was served by Indians at the Maccas, but I started getting a bit of indigestion. That kept up all night, as well as my voice getting croaky. Which was weird, it’s like an onset of the flu except I didn’t have the headcold. Food poisoning? Who knows. I’ve been chowing down on vitamin C today, and my voice has gone from Barry White back to normal me.. almost. No more maccas. Nuh uh.

Tonight my co workers are taking me to Ichiban Boshi, a place i’ve reviewed on Candid Cuisine previously.

Should be fun.

16.Sep.08 Food, Holiday, Random, Work Comments (0) 

Woohoo! Sugoi!

They say a bargain is only a bargain if you need it. Right? Wrong. And who are ‘they’, anyway?

But yeah, there’s a reason I refrain from looking at travel sites.

Here’s a theoretical scenario:

Load up airline website.
Notice sales advertisement.
Click on search.
Choose some random dates in the distant future.
Click search.
Oh, wow, available seats. Cheap.
Think for awhile.
Try and think of reasons you can’t go.
Then BOOK it anyway.

Actually, that’s not theoretical. I’m off to Japan in March! Coincidently, that’s when the Fertility Festival is on too. Funny shit.

Now I just have to work out my itinerary. Plenty of time though..

17.Aug.08 Fun, Holiday Comments (0) 

Singapore Again (Part 9)

Last night, it rained. Today I woke up, and it was still raining. The sky was overcast, and it looked like it’d rain all day. Maybe.

On my way to Suntec on the bus the other day, I noticed a shopping centre I hadn’t explored. Plaza Singapura. Just near Dhoby Ghaut MRT. Today, I decided to see what they had inside.

Armed with my umbrella and headphones, I left the flat. By the time I got to the bus stop, my pants were pretty much saturated from the knees down. My bag was also a bit wet, but luckily it’s waterproof so my camera was safe.

I waited awhile for the bus to arrive, and then hopped on when it did. I sat up the front on the second level (double decker!) so I got a few interesting photos on the way;

This is at the intersection on Tanglin Road. As you can see, it’s been pouring, and everything is thoroughly soaked. Unlike when it rains back in Melbourne, which is barely enough to cover the ground.

Here’s one of the new shopping centres that is going up in Orchard Rd. They seem to have put up a lot more structural stuff in 2 1/2 months since I was last here, though it’s not yet taking shape. Maybe next visit.

The Homo Gym. Otherwise known as California Fitness. Not cheap. I think Gage’s friend, Chad, mentioned that he pays about $1000 for 6 months or something. I could be wrong tho.

Here’s another shopping centre that’s going up. This one is taking shape, from what I can see, anyway.

A short time later I alighted at Plaza Singapura. *Tap* with my tap card. I wonder if Melbourne’s Myki cards will be this easy when/if ever we get them?

There were quite a few levels to explore, but first stop was lunch! I headed downstairs, as that’s where I figured the food court would be.

I was tempted to try Burger King, but explored further. Then I saw a Carl’s Jr burger chain, and thought they might be decent.

I saw the big ad for the Jalapeno Chicken Burger Meal, and decided that would be lunch.

I ordered, and was given a cup and a number. I filled my cup with their own ‘Iced Lemon Tea’, which, when I tasted it, was like normal tea gone cold. Not cold, not sweet. Bleah. I hoped the rest of the meal would be better.

The burger and fries arrived, and surprisingly, the fries were half cold. I held out hope that the burger would be ok. It was the size of a whopper, but it didn’t look anything like the picture on the billboard. It tasted pretty crap, so if all the Carl’s Jr chain stores taste this bad, I don’t know how they survive. I want my money back. I couldn’t finish the burger and the fries. And it’s not just coz they tasted crap, my stomach was reminding me it was smaller now. Good tum tum.

Good old Americans. At least if they don’t have big penises, they still have their big burgers. And big trucks. And big egos. [Penis Envy?]

After that rather disappointing and slightly unsettling lunch, I began my shopping adventures.

I found a funky canvas belt in one of the department stores, as well as some ankle socks. I only wanted the socks because I was short 1 pair, so this way I didn’t have to do washing again until I got back to Oz!

I also scored two really cheap powerplug converters in Best, which is like our RetraVision or Good Guys stores. $1.50 each. Even in Sim Lim they were trying to sell them for $4.50. Ripoff!

Then I wandered into Carrefour. Similar to our Coles stores because it sells groceries, but that’s about where the similarities end. Apart from some of the meat being grossly overpriced (it all is, everywhere - Australian Beef? $33+ per kg, depending on the cut..) most things were relatively cheap. Either that or it was just really fresh, or huge range.

For example, look at these tongs. They’re normal size tongs. Now look at the King Prawns. SAME SIZE! Our King Prawns back in Footscray are nowhere near that size. That’s just too good. I want Thai prawn curry. Now.

I wandered around the store, either giggling or gaping at the prices and selection on offer. One thing Singapore lacks though, is decent Salt & Vinegar chips. That’s why G1 asked me to bring a couple of packs over with me. Here, if there’s such a thing as artificial vinegar, they use that. Not the real (good) stuff.

After I headed to the checkout with a few things from Carrefour, I continued browsing through the rest of the shopping centre, and found a furniture store having a sale. They had some quite nice stuff, but no way would it fit in my luggage. I needed a Mokona to swallow it. (If you don’t watch xxxHolic, don’t worry about that comment)

After I finished there, I walked across the road. Furniture stores. Very expensive ones. But they had nice stuff. Then I walked back along Orchard Rd, and called into a Camera shop. I got the guy to fit a new screen protector to my camera, as the old one had started peeling off. $15. Not bad.

While I was in the camera shop, I got a call from Aaron. He had an hour to kill before heading back to work for a meeting, so we decided to catch up for a coffee. I walked back to Dhoby Ghaut and caught the MRT back to City Hall, and then we met up at Coffee Club.

I ordered an iced coffee, and Aaron got a Chicken Pie, and chatted until it was time for him to head back to work.

I accompanied him as far as Bugis on the MRT, then did a bit of window shopping for an hour or so. Then I headed back to Orchard Rd, and dropped in to say hi to Gage. After that I wandered around Centrepoint, and found a pair of work pants at Domanchi for $39. Bargain!

It took awhile to get a pair in my size that I liked, as the stupid sales girl couldn’t get through her thick head that when I said I wanted 32, I wanted 32. Not any other size. Did I mention it’s hard to find good help these days?

I met up with G2, and we had dinner at the foodcourt nextdoor. Yummy Pad Thai. G1 joined us, and then we took a taxi home.

I surfed the net for awhile, looking up some prices on Sim Lim’s website. I found that hard drives were a lot cheaper here than back in Oz, even though I can get them at wholesale price. Hmm…

With that thought, I got ready for bed, and slept.

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

Singapore Again (Part 8)

Since I got to bed earlier last night, I woke up earlier! 10.30 to be exact. G1 had gone already, and G2 was all dressed ready to go.

I quickly ran through the shower and got dressed, and we caught the train to Bugis, then walked to Sim Lim.

The first stop was to get my Synology Cube Server. I forgot my post-it note so I didn’t know the shop number, but I knew it was on the 4th floor. We walked around, and around and around and around. I couldn’t find it! Then we walked around the 3rd and 5th floors, just incase I was mistaken. Still couldn’t find it. Then I wasted about $15 of GPRS internet trying to find their website and pricing pdf’s, just to get their address.

In the end, it turned out that THEY WEREN’T FUCKING OPEN. How slack is that? Rolladoors were still down, which is why I kept walking past it.

We went upto level 6, and got Gerard’s server case, some cables, a cable tidy, and some mounting screws. Then we paid for it all, and lugged it downstairs. The server case was DAMN heavy, but i managed. We stopped by the 4th floor while I ran to have a look to see if my store had opened, and ABOUT TIME.. they had just rolled up the doors. Evidently they had some meeting that went longer than supposed to, so they didn’t open the shop until now. I told them they were slack, and it wasn’t good enough. They should have discounted me $15 for all the GPRS net I wasted trying to find them.

So I bought my Raid Cube, and went back to Gerard at the lift. We lugged everything downstairs, then to the GST Claim counter. Filled out all the forms, and got about $42 back. Yay! Then we lugged everything out to the taxi rank and loaded it into a cab (at least those old Toyota Crowns’ have a big boot!) and Gerard set off to work with it all. I remembered we’d forgotten to get a wireless access point, so I went back to get it. I was going to have a wander around Bugis again for awhile, then head over to G2’s workplace later.

I found a Linksys WAP54G at one shop for $105, then at a different shop for $88. You seriously have to know your pricing, and never buy the first one you see.

Afterward, I headed back to Bugis Junction and had lunch in the food court. I saw a sign for a rather yummy looking fried rice, so I ordered that. Unfortunately what I was served barely resembled the picture, and there was more rice than anything else. Next time i’ll stick to what I know. I didn’t finish all the fried rice (and not just because it was crap), I think today was the first time i’d noticed my stomach had shrunk. From all the smaller meals i’d been having, I was now used to eating less. Which combined with all the walking (not to mention the sauna-like heat), was hopefully doing me the world of good.

I walked around a bit more, and bought a $6 topup for my phone. After this morning’s little effort, I only had 25c left of credit. Also, as I was on a prepaid card, if your credit falls below $5, it will give you a pre-recorded message before EVERY call you make, until you top up again. I guess it’s useful in a way, but it’s also fucking annoying. That’s on top of it telling you what your balance is the first time you use it every day. Did I also mention that I get charged for incoming calls? Yeah, that’s another feature of prepaid here (with StarHub anyway). But on the upside, I kept getting free sms’s. I’d send 5, and then i’d get 10 free to use that day. Evens out in the end, I guess.

I got bored about 4pm, and I also wanted to beat peak hour, so I headed off to catch a bus to G2’s work. After getting directions on which bus to catch, I was on my way.

It took quite awhile to get there, as the buses seem to double-back on themselves just to cover the whole area. I guess if you want to get somewhere in a hurry, you could take a cab (or the MRT, if it goes where you want to go).

Eventually, I got there. G2 met me where the bus stopped, then we went to the shopping centre again. He grabbed some Subway for one of his coworkers, and while he was doing that, I got a couple of donuts. Then we went back to the office. I tried one of the donuts, and it was fucking disgusting. It tasted like it was about 3 days old, and the chocolate icing tasted bad as well. Granted, it was from a different donut chain, but nothing compared to the one I had at IMM in Jurong.

G2’s co-workers were working until about 9pm, so I couldn’t switch off the server or unplug the patch cables until then. In the meantime, I compiled a list of sites (msn servers and web messenger sites) we were going to block on each of the office computers using the ‘hosts file’ method, and ‘fixed’ the ones that weren’t being used. Then I unwrapped the server case and configured the wireless access point, and rearranged some stuff in the server rack that could be moved without unplugging.

Then the co-workers all left, and it was funtime. Time to gut the server, rebuild it, and pray it’d still work. So off I went. I pulled it all to bits on the table, then used most of the pieces to rebuild it in the rack case. Then I went to mount it in the rack, and realised that mounting rails weren’t included. D’oh!

While I was doing that, Gerard went around to the leftover computers, and put the hosts file on them.

So I used an existing shelf and just lowered it a bit, then put the rackmount case on the shelf. And then put the monitor / keyboard on that. Voila, it worked first go! I thought that was pretty good.

After that win, I pulled out all the cables and repatched them into the switch, neatly. That took awhile, as they were long cables and they were going everywhere.

We looked at the time: 1am. Not too bad for the amount of work I did. One thing left to do.. the bill! Oh wait, it was a love job.

We locked up, and just as we reached the road, a taxi came along. We hailed it, and headed home. Showered, then hit the hay. Zzzzzz..

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

Singapore Again (Part 7)

I woke up late again today, probably around 12. Bathed, got dressed, headed to the bus stop.

Took bus alll the way to Suntec, and had BBQ Pork Buns and Siu Mai for lunch.

I noticed this sign while I was there.. How exactly were these prawns fortunate? They got caught and made into dumplings! That’s not fortunate!

Then instead of catching the MRT, I decided to walk to Bugis Junction. I figured it wasn’t so far, as I thought I passed nearby on the bus on my way here. So I walked back the way the bus came. And walked and walked and walked, then turned right and walked some more… and as I walked past a white building, I saw a sign on the side. Sim Lim Square! This is where you come in Singapore to buy tech stuff.

I went inside and wandered around all the shops, one level after another. At about level 4 the call of nature came upon me, so I went to visit the loo. There were two stalls, one western and one squat. And luckily I checked if there was toilet paper, because there wasn’t. You had to take what you needed from the big roll near the sink.

While I was getting the paper, someone came in and went straight into the stall. Hmph! But at least he went in without any toilet paper, so serves himself right. I took the stairs to level 5, and used the toilet there. It smelt like it was backed up.. ie SHIT. Then the cleaner came in and sprayed, so it smelt like ’summer breeze’ for all of 2 minutes, then shit again.

I’m glad I missed these ones in my toilet review that I did last time, because these would have to be the worst (apart from the roadside toilet) toilets i’ve come across in Singapore, and Malaysia. Now that’s pretty poor.

Back to looking at nerdy stuff. I wandered into one shop which was selling NAS (Network Attached Storage), and noticed they were selling a model of NAS that I was toying with the idea of getting back in Oz. My jaw almost hit the floor when he told me the price.. $360 cheaper than buying it back home. And that was a wholesale price I was comparing this to as well!

I pretty much made up my mind that I was going to buy it, I just had to figure out how to transport it back home. I told him i’d be back tomorrow, as I didn’t have my passport (for GST refund) nor my Credit Card.

I continued on, and found the server shop which had rackmount stuff - the stuff Gerard needed to put his desktop server into the Rack Cabinet at work. Most of the enclosures were expensive, but they had one which was surprisingly cheap ($280) - ‘barebones’, but not nasty. Theoretically I could just gut the desktop, put all the contents into the rack case, and mount it in the rack. Simple!

I got the guy to print a specs sheet, and put it in my bag to show Gerard later on.

I walked out the front of Sim Lim, and opposite I recognised the OG store Gage had showed me through the other day. I was kind of getting my bearings now, but still had no idea where Bugis was hiding.

I took out my iPhone, and loaded up Maps. I pushed the “Locate Me” button, and voila! I was… A BLOODY BLOCK AWAY from Bugis. Damnit, so close and I totally missed it.

I walked back in the direction of Bugis, and took a turn which would lead me to it.

I noticed these apartments down an alleyway, and each one had a stairwell painted a different colour. That’d be good if you lived there and came home drunk!

Then I entered the Bugis Marketplace, with all its stalls and semi-permanent shops. I looked in one called Spades, and saw a really fleecy hoodie that I liked. I tried it on (really quickly, 30 degree heat is not hoody-trying-on weather!) and it fitted well. The sales guy gave me a discount, though i’m sure they mark things up specifically so they can give every customer a ‘discount’.

As I came to the main road, there was another donut shop strategically placed near the bus stop, to entice people to buy while they’re waiting. Lots of different flavours, but strangely enough with my sweet tooth, I wasn’t even tempted. If that thin chic keeps buying up on the donuts though, she won’t be thin for long.

I crossed the road, then took a couple of photos again. I didn’t know Bugis Market was the largest in Singapore, but I guess it would be, because all the other places are classed as Shopping Malls.

I thought the name of this eatery was a bit unfortunate, I don’t know what it means in Cantonese/Mandarin, but in English, Yu-kee (yucky!) isn’t a good association to have with a restaurant.

Into Bugis Junction I went.

Singaporeans also have a dear love for their acronyms.

HDB, MRT, SMRT, NTUC, NS, SBS, LRT, ICE, PR, PIE, CBD, ATM, AYE, GST, AJ (Ok ok, that one’s rhyming slang), and a whole lot more, so it’s amusing to actually find a sign that’s stuffed them up. Shall we take a trip on the ATM today?

I wandered around all the levels of BJ (haha, see!), browsing in various stores, but didn’t really find anything I liked. Bossini still had a crap range, and Samuel & Kevin seem to have moved over from Gay to Grungy.

I looked at my watch, and it was almost time to meet another friend of mine, Aaron, for dinner. I asked the security guard how to get to the MRT, as I didn’t quite trust the ATM sign to be truthful. Then I followed his directions, and I was soon on the train. One stop and 10 minutes later, I was right on time. I stood near the steps at City Hall, and waited.

Then I got an SMS. He was going to be at least an hour late… what to do, what to do. To kill some time, I walked along the entire length of CityLink Mall a couple of times, then finally settled down in Gelare, with an (expensive) ice cream. Quite creamy, and tasty too, but still overpriced.

Finally it was time to meet Aaron, so I headed back to City Hall. After waiting some more, he arrived. He’s quitting his work (already given notice) but still seems to be working very hard. Back in Australia, once you give notice, it’s pretty much slack-off month, because what are they going to do, sack you? But here in Singapore, evidently the employer can pull some nasty shit on you, and withhold your entitlements unless you work hard until quitting day.

Aaron had to do one last thing, so we walked to some office where he had to choose some invitation designs. That over, then we were free to have dinner. We dropped past a bus stop where his bf was waiting, so I got to meet him - even though he had stuff to do, so could not join us for dinner.

We ended up at Thai Express in Raffles City for dinner. There was a bit of a queue, so they were getting everyone to order while still waiting for a table.

I had a quick flick through the menu, and settled on something that sounded quite decent - “Yellow Ginger Chicken”. Sounded exotic, but yummy. Aaron ordered his ‘usual’, I can’t quite remember the name of it.

Then we were shown to our seats, and we waited.

Not too long later our meals arrived, and mine was… covered… in chilli. I thought “This is going to be interesting..”. I tried it. Zinggg! It was spicy, but good. I could handle it. A few mouthfuls later, I started going for the water. Halfway through, I asked for another glass of water, at which time the waitress told me that i’d ordered the hottest thing on their menu. Thanks for the warning! Bah. Another glass of water, and I managed to get through it. Really tasty, but damn hot. I’d order it again though.

Aaron also ordered a dessert (which took ages to arrive), but I was happy sipping my Lime Juice that i’d ordered to put out the fire.

I wondered how long it’d be until I was running for the nearest toilet, but surprisingly we walked around for ages afterward, and I never needed to go. I figured if I could handle that and not have any ill effects, I think i’m ready for a trip to Thailand.

During the flow of conversation over dinner, I told Aaron about my clubbing experiences. Surprisingly, he said I should have invited him out on Saturday night. I didn’t ask because I knew he wasn’t a clubber, so.. *slap*. Haha.

At about 10.00, it was time for him to head home, so I did the same. Watched some TV with G1 & G2, and also told G2 about the server stuff. He decided to do it, so we’d scoot off to Sim Lim first thing in the morning.

I headed off to bed, and talked to Louis on MSN for awhile before I fell asleep.

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

Singapore Again (Part 6)

The overnight rain/storm had subsided by the time I woke up, which today, was about 12pm. I know I know, lazy huh?

The Gerards’ were about to head out to look at another apartment, in the block next to the last one. We arranged to go out somewhere for Duck Rice when they got back, then take a trip to VivoCity. Sounded like a plan.

I busied myself with getting up, showered and dressed, checked email and surfed the net a bit.

They arrived back with smiles, and announced they’d sealed the deal on their new apartment. And this one even had Air Conditioning! The only drawback was the… squat toilet.

Well i’m not planning to visit again any time soon (ie, I haven’t booked yet!) so it won’t worry me. And if I visit while they’re in that place, I might just make sure i’m out at a shopping centre when I need to go. Heheheheh..

We took a taxi to the Duck Rice place, which was just a coffee shop amongst a small cluster of shops in some residential area. An expensive residential area, full of mansions. (But supposedly cheap mansions, in the grand scheme of things. Cheap compared to what, I wondered..)

Plastic chairs and plastic tables. I almost felt like I was eating in Malaysia again, or in the kids playground at Ikea, except these chairs probably weren’t that expensive. I let G2 order seeing as I didn’t even know what they served, let alone what was good to order.

G2 ordered us each a rice and a Lime Juice drink (loaded with plenty of sugar), and a main of the duck pieces drizzled with some sauce. I watched the guy carving up the duck, and was amazed at the speed he was chopping considering how close his hand was. If it was me, i’d be Captain Hook by now. The Duck tasted quite nice, but most duck does unless they really fuck it up. I think the sauce had a lot of Kekap Manis (thick sweet soy sauce) mixed with some other stuff, which went well with the duck.

G2 also ordered a Sambal Belacan, but it wasn’t great - it hadn’t been washed properly, and was a bit gritty.

Despite the budget plastic seats, tables, utensils and bowls, there was nothing budget about the cost. I think it cost around $40 for the 3 of us, which considering average food court meals are around $5 - $6 each, this was quite a step up.

Some of the diners wouldn’t have cared though, they had their BMW 7 series’ and Audis’ parked outside. You have to be seriously loaded to have a 7 series BMW in Singapore AND a family.

Anyway, after we finished up we walked down the road to the bus stop.

5 minutes seemed like half an hour, as it was really humid standing there for some reason. Must have been some water nearby or something..

The bus arrived, and we clambered aboard. *Tap* went my tap card. Didn’t even take it out of my wallet. No stupid Met Cards here.

I saw some interesting things on our way to VivoCity. There was this building site, and all these blocks stacked up like a pyramid. Evidently this was to check the soil for stability, or something. Interesting the different building methods they use, and how everything seems to get built way quicker.

We arrived at Vivo, and walked inside. Near the entrance, one of those massage brands was showcasing their entire range. People were trying out various pieces of the equipment.

This Indian family had jumped on what I could see was a communal vibrator. Basically you stand on it, and it vibrates the platform beneath your feet (and in turn, vibrates the fat off you?). The photo would have been more amusing if it’d caught the motion blur, but oh well.

G2 asked me if i’d ever heard of Daiso. I hadn’t, so he told me it was a Japanese store, where EVERYTHING in the whole store was $2. Slightly different to our $2 stores, where you can sometimes find multiples of things for $2. E.g. 3 bags of chips for $2. But the best part was that unlike our $2 stores, Daiso isn’t filled with crap. Well ok, in any $2 store there’s bound to be some crap, but its was still better quality. And I think I found the place where Singaporean Aunties go when they leave home. It was almost as packed as a nightclub, except with Aunties. All getting their $2 bargains.

I bought a few things - a pill container for dad, some small containers for me, some junky thing for my aunt, and some brown poo shaped gel blobs. They’re funny, and they stick to walls. But yeah, useless, really.

You could also go nuts with all the stickers and stationery they had, but remember… each item at $2 really adds up. The person in front of me at the register clocked up $132, and that was only a bag full of stuff.

Also while I was queued up, they have things near the register to tempt you into buying more. I saw a few types of hair gel. The first one was called Pretty Hard, and next to it was Really Hard. $4 was too much to waste just for amusement, so go look yourselves.

If they opened up a store in Malaysia where the same stuff was $2 Ringgit, that’d be pretty cool.

After we came out of Daiso, we wandered around some of the other shops, until we came to Giant. It’s a big grocery store, hence the name.

G1 & G2 did their normal grocery shopping, so I wandered around with them, occasionally gasping at prices. I did find the hair gel Louis like to use 80c cheaper than at Guardian though, so i’ll know for next time.

We went to get some meat from the deli, and while we were standing there, I noticed a group of people hovering around the “Thailand Longan” box, EATING THEM. They’re only 42c per 100g but people are STEALING by eating. When the whole family crowds around and chows down, that’s not sampling, you cheapasses!

After G1 & G2 finished grocery shopping, they caught a taxi back home with all the stuff. I continued browsing around Vivo.

I just happened to walk past a Converse shop, and Fuck me! I found the exact same style/colour of shoe as what I bought at Lee Cooper, for $39.95. If Gage had’ve been with me he would have laughed at me, as he’s a fan of the ‘original’ Converse, and wouldn’t buy a clone/replica/copy. In my defense, I did ask him how much Cons were, and he said they’d be more expensive than my Lee Coopers.. so not my fault

I also found a New Urban Male store had opened up, and although I didn’t find any tshirts I liked in there, they actually finally had a sales boy working there that i’d consider cute. But that was still only 1 out of about 6… but it’s a start. Their sales might even go up.

I wandered around a while longer, then went to catch the bus back home. I must have just missed the last one, coz I had to sit there for aaaaages. Still, it’s interesting watching the people around me. (No not perving, nothing to perve at. Just watching people.)

Finally the bus arrived, and I was on my way home. I had a short nap before dinner, so I wouldn’t be falling asleep later at St James. After dinner I tried to nap again, but ended up just laying there, unable to sleep. At about 10.30 I showered and got changed, then headed out to the bus stop. I caught the bus back to VivoCity, then walked around to where St James was. By now it was about 11.30, but there weren’t that many people yet.

The queue was short, so I was soon inside. I grabbed myself my free drink, which I selected as a pot of Tiger. (They’re not nice enough to give away any of the good stuff, you can only choose a wine, beer, or soft drink). I sat at one of the tables for awhile, drinking my beer. About midnight people finally started filling the place up.

I ordered myself a Bacardi Breezer, which took a good 10 minutes to order, pay for, then get back the change. I went and sat near the dancefloor, where only a few people were dancing so far.

I drank slowly, and watched as a few more people started dancing. By the time I finished, it was full enough yet still plenty of room, so I got up and started dancing as well.

The music was decent, and i’d heard most of the songs. As time went on, the dancefloor started getting more packed. A group of three tanned chinese guys were dancing near me. The closest one was about 5′5″, and pleasant on the eye (Reasonably cute, ok?).

Dancing away, just smiling in general. Occasionally caught his eye, just smiled a bit more. All friendly like. As the dancefloor became more packed, we ended up closer still, and then somehow, we were basically dancing together.

Then a good song came on, but the DJ started putting these 5 second pauses in it, where everyone would basically stop dancing until the music came back. After the 3rd time he did that, I leaned over to the guy dancing with me and asked, “Does the DJ do a lot of this to the songs?” He leaned close to my ear, and said “No English“.. I smiled, and nodded. I also thought, ‘Oh-kay then…’

Digressing for a moment, from the TalkingCock Coxford Dictionary, comes this term:

CHEENA PIANG / CHEENA POK
A derogatory term used by Singaporeans who are more well-versed and comfortable in English to describe (insult) those who are more well versed in Chinese and who cannot speak English [properly].
1. “Wah lau! He’s super cheenapiang, man. Hear the way he speaks English!”
2. “Ah Lians and Ah Bengs are all cheenapoks!”

So i’ll continue referring to him now, as Cheena.

I was just out to have a good night. Making a couple of friends to dance with would just make it more fun and enjoyable.

I continued dancing, and he continued dancing close to me. I assumed from what he’d said, that he couldn’t speak English. I also assumed he’d know I couldn’t speak Chinese, considering I would have started conversing in Mandarin/Cantonese if I could, before.

Dancing. His hand brushed against my crotch. Accidental, maybe, I thought. Continued dancing. Smiled.

Now, i’ll define a couple of terms:
Grope: This is fairly deliberate. A flat hand brushes against you, feeling any bumps and curves along the way.
Grab: This is more deliberate than a Grope. This is where someone actually (momentarily) grabs [a part of] you with their hand.

Dancing some more, Cheena GRABBED me. Where? Well use your imagination, it wasn’t my arm.

I knew he knew the word NO, as he’d said to me earlier, ‘NO English’. I mouthed the words NO, and shook my head, as well as holding my hands up like I was doing the Bus Stop.

Danced a bit more, and he made for another GRAB. Again, I said NO.

This went on a few more times, until he took my arm and led me off the dancefloor. We headed toward the entrance where it was a bit quieter, and I thought he was going to attempt to talk to me.

We stopped, and he faced me. I thought he was going to talk, but instead he GRABBED me again. I said NO.

Then he took my hand, and squeezed it against his groin. (Forced grab?) He was obviously very happy to see me, so to speak. Once again I shook my head and said No.

Then he turned around, and rubbed his butt against my groin. If we were having a game of charades, this guy would be very good at making himself understood. But alas, this was not charades.

I shook my head and said NO, again. He pointed to the door, I assume meaning to go home with him. NO, again. I pointed toward the dancefloor, and danced a bit. I pointed to his groin, and shook my head.

I was at a loss on how else to tell someone that I was just dancing, and wasn’t out to pick up.

But he finally seemed to get the message, because we headed back to the dancefloor. We danced some more. But then he tried it again.. GRAB.

I got out my phone and sms’d Gage, “Can you SMS me back in chinese characters saying ‘I have a boyfriend, i’m just dancing’ please?”, then waited. In the meantime, he tried another grab, which met the same result. Then suddenly, he wandered off. He’d disappeared to find his friends a few times before, but this time, he didn’t come back. And just then, I got a reply from Gage, with the message I needed. Just incase he did come back.

So there I was, dancing by myself again. Which was cool. Then along came some thin, shirtless, camp Indian guy. Now if you’ve read this blog for any amount of time, you’ll know I have a low tolerance for Indians. Very low. But proving how nice and friendly I was trying to be, I didn’t immediately tell him to take a hike.

He asked if he could dance with me, so I said yes. Dancing was.. fine. So we danced. He started mouthing the words to the song, but in doing so made all these weird facial espressions. I assume he thought he was being funny, but it just wasn’t. I continued dancing, looking all around, everywhere but at him.

There were two asian guys dancing nearby, which I assumed was a couple, but one of the guys had looked me over a number of times. I’m not sure what he was thinking, but there are a few options;

a) Ugh, Ang Moh.
b) He’s kinda cute..
c) What the hell, dancing with an Indian?
d) I wonder if he needs help to get away from that Indian?

Now if he was thinking anything from b) to d), that would have been flattering. But I couldn’t quite catch his eye as to convey my “Help! Do anything to get me away from this guy!” so I endured it. Until the Indian tried to kiss me. I leaned back, avoiding his pass. I told him I was just dancing. These people mustn’t understand English, because he tried to do it again. I told him I was going to get a drink. He asked if I wanted him to join me, and I just waved him off, which meant NO.

I queued for my drink, another good 10 minutes. Whilst waiting for my change, someone came up behind me and grabbed me. Now at least this grab was around my waist, rather than any lower. He’d had enough excitement for one night, already.

I whirled around, with a look of ‘Whoever did that is going to die!’ on my face. It was the Indian. The look had the desired effect though, as I didn’t need to say a word - he shrank back into the crowd, and I didn’t see him again.

Oh well, I tried to be nice for most of the night, that’s probably some kind of record for me.

I went back to dancing after finishing my drink. Dancing dancing.

Then some late 30’s black-as-your-boot Indian grabbed my hand on the dancefloor, and started shouting, “Hey, I have champagne, you want some champagne!?” I said no. Then he asked again. I snapped my arm out of his grasp, and told him in no uncertain terms to fuck off.

So if anyone else had their eye on me from that point on, I think I sufficiently discouraged them from making a move, because I didn’t get approached again.

It was only about another half hour anyway, until the DJ started playing weird kind of music. I call it Eccy music, because only someone who’d popped a few E’s would be able to appreciate it.

It’s normally what DJ’s play to drive out the clientele, so they can wind down for the night. It was 2.45, so I took the hint and left.

The taxi rank was full of Toyota Crowns’ again, so I just grabbed the first one available. The driver was nice enough, and was surprised when I told him to keep the 30c change out of the $13 I gave him for the fare ($12.70). If he saw how much coinage i’d accumulated since I arrived, he would have understood. (If it wasn’t so much hastle to carry the coinage around, I probably could have paid my entire fare with it.)

I collapsed into bed, knowing i’d be sleeping in late tomorrow as well. The joy of holidays..

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

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. 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)