Thanks, but no thanks

On my way home today, at Lorong Chuan MRT, a family of four were proceeding to exit the gantry. The son, around five years old, tapped his card excitedly and went through. His elder sister, around seven years old, received a 'Card Failed' message and was unable to exit. 

The son, on the other side, quickly tapped his card on his sister's gantry and yelled, "Jie! Now you can come out!"

A blessing in disguise?

I fell sick recently. It was nothing major; just a slight fever that went away in a day. But in hindsight, I was really glad it happened.

On the day I fell sick, I ate too much for lunch (ordered too much at Hong Lim Food Centre). And it made me immensely uncomfortable, probably exacerbated by the fact that a fever was coming three hours later. During my company dinner that very same day, I think I ate only a third of my usual portion.

All this while, I have been thinking of cutting down on my food intake for health reasons. But I was never really successful, mainly due to a lack of discipline. This fever simplified things, because I started from a smaller appetite. It was far easier to start from this point compared to 'starving' myself if things hadn't changed. Of course, only a week has passed, but I have managed to gain momentum - I think my body is slowly adapting to a smaller food intake, and I get full more easily.

Next was my energy level. Being sick forced me to rest. And one long night of sleep did wonders in helping my body recuperate. I felt much more energetic when I had recovered, and started the work week seemingly anew.

But this coincided with a particularly busy week, and by the end of the sixty-odd-hour week, I was back to feeling exhausted. Had better recuperate this weekend!

The dreaded message

After ten years of peace, I finally got the dreaded message:

(Fm: MINDEF) You have a National Service Call-Up Notification. For more details, go to www.ns.sg or call 6446 7636. For assistance, call 1800-eNSNSNS(3676767).

I was hoping that they would forget me until I was past the reservist age, but looks like that was just wishful thinking. And it was two weeks in September - the same month as my intended two-week Europe trip! But fortunately, I was posted back to Paya Lebar Air Base and not some random signalling or infantry unit. Oh well. It should be less stressful than work, anyway.

Alligator Pear @ Fairmont Hotel

Had a buffet breakfast at Alligator Pear, which was located on the 8th floor of Fairmont Hotel, right beside the swimming pool.

Breakfast by the poolside at Alligator Pear

It was certainly refreshing to have breakfast by the poolside, preferably without screaming brats around too. Today the weather was good in the sense that it was cloudy with a slight breeze, so we sat outside without any discomfort. If it was sunny, I think we would have gotten a table under the shade instead.

The food was only decent in terms of quality and variety. It was the standard international buffet breakfast spread, with fruits, yogurt, sausages, bacon, ham, local foods like nasi lemak and fried bee hoon, and an egg station where you can choose to have your eggs scrambled, fried, poached, or cooked as am omelette. There was a good spread of breads too, but this was totally ruined by the presence of birds. Three kinds of birds, to be precise - sparrows, crows, and mynahs. They certainly enjoyed themselves there as they helped themselves to the bread (fortunately the other foods were covered) and to the swimming pool water. It seemed like some bird haven, and there wasn't enough staff to shoo the birds away. Naturally, we gave all the breads a miss.

The buffet breakfast cost $36 per pax. With the Feed at Raffles card, I only paid $42.37 for two pax, but I probably wouldn't visit this place again. The ambience may be good, but the hygiene issues caused by the birds coupled with the average food quality don't make it a compelling case for a revisit.

Food For Thought @ Singapore Arts Museum

Second visit to Food For Thought. We arrived at 1140am on Saturday, and the place was full. 15 minutes later, we got a table.

Having tried their Full Works before - and experiencing how enormous it was - we decided to just order one order of it with two starters.

Zucchini with Almond and Cheese, $4

I need to be honest about this starter. It was... terrible. When we ordered it, we had no idea that it was a baked dish. The cheese was tasteless and clashed horribly with the almonds, so we ended up just digging out the zucchinis, which was at least still average. Somehow, this starter seemed to be a case of synergy gone wrong - where 1 + 1 gives you less than 2.

Fries with Rosemary Garlic salt, $5

The portion came out much larger than we expected. While this was fried quite well with little oil, I found the rosemary garlic salt to be too bland.

Today's visit was a bit disappointing due to their starters. Fortunately, their Full Works was still very good, so in the future we will just stick to it with no starters.

Past visit:
27th July 2012