Teeth cleaning

For the past two years, I have been going for regular teeth cleaning once every six months at the dentist. I usually go on a weekday morning at 9am, and try to reach office by 10am. It was starting to feel like a hassle. Maybe I should just get my teeth cleaned once every eight months, I thought. 

This visit was quite different. A different person attended to me this time, and she introduced herself as a hygienist, not a dentist. Despite having brushed the back of my lower front teeth, a considerable amount of calculus had accumulated there. "Look," she pointed out, "see how much calculus had built up." 

"But I have been brushing there diligently since the last session!" I protested, with a tinge of indignation.

"Your lower front teeth are crowded," she said. "This causes plaque to accumulate more easily. Also, the gum around there is slightly swollen due to that."

By the way, calculus is actually the hardening of plaque after some time. Once plaque becomes calculus, supposedly only a dentist or hygienist is able to remove it.

"Do you floss?" she asked. "No right? I can tell. Because your teeth are crowded, you must floss. By right, we should floss everyday. But for a start, maybe you can floss just once a week."

Oh well. I guess I don't have a choice. 

The teeth cleaning continued. Then she asked, "Do you smoke? No? Then you must have been drinking a lot of coffee. Your teeth are quite stained."

Well, that's very true. I drink on average one to two cups of coffee a day. This may not sound like a lot, but I only drink kopi-o or black coffee. So I guess that makes things worse. Maybe I should gargle  each time I drink coffee. 

"Also, I see some gum recession," she continued.

"What?"

"Look here - can you tell that your gum has receded? The exposed tooth area is of a different colour. Can you see?" 

Damn it, I could. 

"You have been brushing too hard. I will show you the correct way of brushing later. Also, I will give (sell) you another toothbrush later. It is smaller and softer, so it won't hurt your gum that much."

I was a bit wary of how much this toothbrush would cost, but it only cost $3.

"The last lower tooth at the right side needs more attention. I think your toothbrush is a bit too big, so you can't really brush it properly. You will need another toothbrush - one with very small bristles - to be able to clean it."

Another one! Great. Now I need to use three toothbrushes just for one mouth. Fortunately it costs around $3 as well.

After I have paid for the session - it cost me $153 - the receptionist asked if I would like to schedule my next appointment.

Without hesitation, I scheduled it six months later.

Types of Coffee

My gf has asked me "why is a long black called a long black?" several times and I couldn't answer, so this time I decided to do some research on it. (At the very least, it will give me some peace of mind too.)

I thought of some common coffee terms below. This is not meant to be extensive, so I have only indicated very basic explanations.

So here goes.

An espresso is a thick and strong drink prepared by forcing hot water through finely ground coffee. It is one of the core constituents of many other drinks, as shown below. If you allow twice the amount of water to pass through the coffee grounds, it becomes lungo.

A long black is made by pouring a double-shot of espresso over hot water. There is usually a layer of crema (foam) on top. A short black is just another name for the normal espresso, so I guess adding it over water just changes the name to 'long black'. When you add even more water and dilute it further, it becomes an Americano.

A cafe au lait consists of 50% milk and 50% espresso (or just strong coffee). 

A cafe latte is quite simlar to a cafe au lait, but with more milk. It generally consists of 67% milk and 33% espresso. If steamed non-fat milk is used, it becomes a skinny latte.

A cappuccino is a shot of espresso with a combination of hot milk and steamed milk. It has more foam than cafe latte. 

A mocha is prepared by adding chocolate syrup or powder to cappuccino or cafe latte.

A frappe is espresso or instant coffee blended with sugar, water, milk, and ice.

A flat white is made by pouring microfoam (steamed milk) over espresso. In this sense, it is extremely similar to cafe latte and cappuccino, with roughly the same ratio of coffee to milk. But according to Wikipedia, it can differ in milk texture or number of espresso shots. 

Intrusive advertising

I absolutely detest it when someone clips flyers on my car. Firstly, who gave you the right to put your trash on my property? Secondly, a dustbin is not always nearby, and if I just toss it on the floor, I could get fined for littering. 

But the worst is when you drive off and only notice it while driving halfway. Rarrr.

Car flyers are an extremely intrusive form of advertising, which doesn't go well with me. It is basically a shove-in-your-face method - you are forced to take (and read) the flyer because it is clipped under your windscreen wiper. This is a contrast from handing out flyers on the streets, because you can choose not to take it.

That reminds me. I have been receiving advertising SMS from a variety of merchants. The most recent one is from CapitaLand, on 25th July. 

<ADV> Vote & Win! CapitaLand & Nat Geo invite you to visit..................... T&Cs apply. Unsub SMS UNADVCM to 97420594

I have been getting quite a few such SMS recently, so I tried to SMS the number given. After I sent it, I realised that I have actually sent it before on 14th March 2011 (it was on my iPhone messages history). 

Well, well. This is an interesting discovery. This means that I have messaged the same advertising agency before, and clearly, I was not removed from their contact list. The most possible explanation is that they only removed my 'tagging' to a particular merchant (in this case, CapitaLand). But this also means that the advertising agency is free to use my contact number for any other merchant that signs up with them.

I am not in the advertising field, so I must admit that I could be wrong. Maybe advertising agencies are not allowed to use any contact numbers that are not provided by the merchant. But given the poor privacy and data protection laws in Singapore, I won't be surprised if they do so. After all, many institutions that have our contact details actually sell them to other parties. It may not be done by the company; someone I know once told me that when he was working in a local bank's credit card department, he would always compile hundreds to thousands of contact information and sell them to third parties for his personal gain.

Food For Thought @ Singapore Arts Museum

Food For Thought is located at Queen Street, just a few steps away from Bras Basah MRT. I visited here for breakfast on a weekday morning with my gf, and we were the very first customers. We ordered their House Works and Full Works, and the former is basically a subset of the latter.

House Works - $12

Full Works - $18

The Full Works was a sight to behold. The plate was piled with a small hill of food - scrambled eggs, brioche bread, sauteed mushrooms, sausages, salad, bacon, and hash browns. The House Works was basically the same, minus the mushrooms and sausages.

I wouldn't order scrambled eggs normally, but having heard that theirs was good, I decided to try and was not disappointed. It had a strong milky taste and the texture was just nice - neither too dry nor too creamy. Their brioche was normal, though it was a bit too crumbly for bread. The salad had no dressing, but was a good compliment for the other 'heavier' sides. Mushrooms and bacon were not bad, and I loved the sausages and hash browns. The sausages were sliced into bite-sized portions before baking, and I found it quite pleasant to the eye. It was also deliciously tender and rather juicy. The hash browns were also excellent - slightly crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

At $18 with no service charge, the Full Works was extremely worth it with its huge and delicious portions. In fact, I think it is even enough for two.

Saveur @ Purvis Street

Saveur has been well known for their cheap and good French food - and for the long queues that form outside (they don't accept reservations). I went there today with my gf at 540pm, before they opened at 6pm. We were the first ones there, but within a few minutes, there were already more than 20 people queuing behind us.

They shifted to Purvis Street in March this year, and even more recently, expanded to the unit beside. This should alleviate the long queues somewhat, I guess.

Mushroom Cappuccino, $4.90

Compared to their other dishes, I thought this was relatively expensive, though at $4.90 it was still a good deal. This was really good - the soup was so rich and delicious that we ordered one more. This was their soup of the day though, so it may not be available every time.

Angel Hair Pasta with Tiger Prawn and Lumpfish Caviar , $6.90

The angel hair pasta was swirled beautifully, with pieces of prawns and lumpfish caviar placed carefully on top. It was a delight as the slightly bland pasta was nicely matched by the salty caviar. The prawns were also quite fresh though a tad tough.

Pan Fried Foie Gras with Apple Infused Port Wine & Vanilla, $9.90

Pan Fried Foie Gras with Lentils and Pickled Onion, $7.90

The first thing I noticed when both foie gras came together was - the one with lentils was much larger than the one with poached apple! (Can't really see from the picture) I am sure that wasn't their intention, though. Despite its price, this was pan-fried nicely and disintegrated in my mouth. Between the two dishes, I preferred the one with poached apple; the lightly sweet taste of the apple seemed to complement the oily foie gras better compared to the lentils. I was tempted to order one more, but that's enough cholesterol for the day... I mean, week. 

Confit of Duck with Orange Segment and Saute Shitake, $9.90

The duck confit was pan-fried rather well, such that the skin was brown and crispy and yet the insides were tender and not dry. Compared to The Tastings Room, this was so much better and only costs a fraction. Oranges are commonly used as an accompaniment for duck confit, and in this dish, it provided a good balance with the meat. 

Crispy Pork Belly with Poached Egg and diced Vegetables, $10.90

The pork belly was good, but the skin was not as crispy as I hoped. While I love poached eggs, I thought the egg yolk made the dish a bit too 'heavy'.

Overall, the food here was good, albeit not fantastic. But at their prices, they probably give you the best value you will ever get. Why pay three to five times more for just arguably twice the quality elsewhere?

Tao's Restaurant @ PoMo

Tao's Restaurant is actually set up by my primary school classmate, who is a Taiwanese. It opened sometime in 2003, and offered a unique proposition - a six-course set lunch (seven for dinner) at an affordable price. The set lunches cost $21.80, which is really value-for-money considering how much you get from it. 

Starter - Bacon & Mushroom Gratin

This didn't taste as good as I remembered it was a few years ago. Today it was just decent.

Salad - Huai Shan & Tofu

Supposedly a new addition to their menu. The tofu was quite normal, but the huai shan（淮山 - Chinese Yam) was an interesting dish, as we don't really eat it so often. However, I didn't really like the dip for it - it was a bit too sour and overpowering.

Salad - Japanese Cold Noodle

I thought this was pretty ordinary, actually.

Beverages - Ice grape mallow tea, and iced rose apple tea

Both beverages were good! Cool, refreshing, and yet not too sweet. The portions were very generous too and easily lasted us through the whole meal.

Soup - Cream of Pumpkin

This tasted rather watery and my gf complained that it had the "instant-soup" taste, which I do agree.

Soup - Japanese Fish Consomme

To be honest, I couldn't taste any fish inside and the soup was too bland.

Main Entree - Grilled Sea Bass with Japanese sauce

The Japanese sauce was actually teriyaki sauce, and was a bit too overpowering for the fish. The fish was also not really fresh enough.

Main Entree - Tao's Steak

This was incredibly tender - in fact, so tender that it tasted a bit... artificial. I suspect that tenderiser was used to achieve that effect. Still, this was pretty good, mainly because of its doneness - perfectly medium rare! The sauce was also not bad.

Superbly medium rare.

Dessert - Tiramisu

This was disappointing. Beneath the cream, the tiramisu tasted tough and dry. We left it half-finished.

Dessert - Green tea ice cream

The green tea ice cream came with some raspberry fudge on top, which made us wonder - why raspberry? Why not red bean? Wouldn't that be much more suitable?

Overall, I thought today's lunch was below expectations. I have been here around three times (well, over the past eight years) and this time it was the most disappointing. I wouldn't dismiss them though; the crowd on a weekday lunch justified its popularity. Will give it a try again next time.

The Dark Knight Rises

Batman takes on Bane, in The Dark Knight Rises. Source: CNN

With all the hype about how good The Dark Knight Rises was, I watched it with high expectations. Significantly high expectations, actually. So I was a little disappointed after watching it, especially with all the loopholes. Here are some that I noticed, and I am pretty sure there are more that I missed out.

1) Didn't the doctor say the cartilage in Bruce Wayne's kneecap was totally gone? How did it get healed totally with just a knee brace? I would love one of those for my back.

2) Wasn't Batman out of action for eight years? How did he still manage to fight so well after that? Heck, if I hadn't exercised for just half a year, I think I would be panting ten times as hard as him after fighting some thugs...

3) Regarding Bruce Wayne's bankruptcy via fraudulent trading in put options - trading should be suspended immediately when the trading floor was stormed. A trade of that magnitude, especially after an attack, should raise a lot of warning bells and take quite a bit of time to clear.  And come on, who trades using fingerprints? I don't even think the NYSE has a biometric system for accepting trades via fingerprints! Maybe I am wrong. But on the whole, it seems like a too-convenient excuse by the director to make Bruce Wayne bankrupt. 

4) Gotham seems to be very efficient in cutting off the power to someone who didn't pay their bills in just a short while.

5) How did Bruce Wayne return to Gotham City from that hellhole (which looks like it is located at the other side of the world) in just six hours, without any resources? And he looked like he just came out from the bath - clean, dressed up, and shaven. 

6) Which brings me to my next point. How did he even get into Gotham City, considering that all the bridges were closely guarded by the police and he had nothing? No suit, no submarine, no Batpod, no Batplane, no shit...

Having said all of that, if it was still reasonably enjoyable (although it felt like the whole Inception cast migrated over to this movie). Tom Hardy's acting was really good, considering that with his nose and mouth covered, he could only express himself mainly via his eyes. And I really liked Anne Hathaway (a lot of my female friends disagreed with me, though), especially how she was riding the Batpod and uh, how she got off the bike.

Clear Vision

Sniper heaven indeed. Source: iTunes

I downloaded Clear Vision on the iPad, after a colleague told me excitedly that it was free and the reviews were crazy - an average of five stars by more than 3,000 users. My first thought was "Clear Vision? Is that some sort of contact lens solution or what?"

It turned out to be a sniping game. Gosh, which guy hasn't dreamt of being a sniper before? The story revolves around Tyler, who gets bullied and push around by his supervisor in a grocery store. One day, he lashes out and punches his supervisor, which, unsurprisingly, gets him fired. After going for dozens of interviews and failing every single one of them, he decides to take up arms and become a.... sniper who kills for money. A hitman.

Graphics-wise, FDG Entertainment has chosen the innovative way instead of utilising brute force in churning out ultra graphics. They use... stickmen. Can a game get even more simple than this? But it is precisely their minimalistic features that attribute to part of this game's charm. The gameplay is also extremely simple. Most of the time, it consists of just staring through a sniper scope, shifting a bit to adjust for distance and wind, and *bang* - it's done. There are some different missions, like poisoning and crushing victims at a car junkyard, and these serve as interesting variations to the normal shoot-and-kill assignments.

The story also progresses well, giving players the urge to see what comes next. The game's narration has a certain charm to it, with its silly newspaper articles, getting assignment requests via notes and emails, and its cutscenes. I got the app when it was free; now it costs a dollar, which is still very worth it. I am now waiting for the next chapter of the game to be out, and I wonder if they will charge for subsequent updates?

Oh well, it's still not that bad

Today, I chanced upon Scoot Airline's offer - $88 for a one-way trip to Taipei. Being a big fan of Taiwan, I decided to try my luck.

Unsurprisingly, the $88 tickets were already sold out. But I still managed to get a reasonable deal; after factoring in all the taxes, surcharges, convenience fees, seat choice fees etc, the total bill came up to around S$380 per pax for a return ticket. No check-in luggage on the way there, but with 15kg of check-in luggage on the way back to Singapore. I did a quick reference check with Jetstar; for the same period, it costs around $460, so I went ahead.

I have some gripes about the convenience fee. It is basically a credit card surcharge of S$8 per sector. This means that a return ticket would incur $16 in fees. But I wasn't given the option of an any alternative payment method. Booking via their call centre is worse - it will cost S$30 per guest. So why not just bundle it together with the air ticket? Calling it a 'convenience fee' does not seem apt, considering that I was conveniently forced to pay only by credit card. If they offered alternative methods, say, paying by internet banking, AXS, cheque and so on, then it would make more sense.

Okay, actually I know why they didn't bundle it together. It's a tactic to lure customers in with low prices first, then add fees incrementally to test the customer's 'marginal tolerance' to extra fees. If the customer quits halfway, so be it. But at least the airline had the opportunity to try and lure the customer. It's better than not having any chance at all.

This makes the whole experience of buying an airline ticket less than satisfactory. Because people tend to have higher expectations when they go in, and get turned off incrementally when the airline slams another fee in their faces. The total fee may still be within their budget, and if they decide to go ahead, the feeling is usually more of "oh well, it's still not that bad" rather than "I got a damn good deal!".

Here is a summary of my experience:

1) I select my date of departure, and the departure fare is $150. Not $88 as I hoped, but still reasonable.
2) I get slapped with three fees. An airport imposed security fee of $8 + a government imposed aviation levy of $6.10 + an airport imposed service fee of $13.90. Ouch.
3) I select my date of return, and the return fare is $150.
4) I need some check-in baggage allowance. Let's see, 15kg would do. That's $12 more.
5) Another fee? Government imposed service tax of $12.82?
6) I pay by credit card. What? Convenience fee of $8 per sector, totalling $16? And there's no alternative payment method! What the hell...
7) I choose my seat. $5 per sector again, so it's $10 in total. And I didn't even choose those seats near the emergency exits or at the front rows with more legroom; those cost up to $99 more... per sector.
8) Finally done. Total damage was $378.82, instead of the baited $88 x 2 = $176. The flight only cost $312 (with check-in allowance on the return flight), but the smaller fees contributed to a hefty 21.4% more.
9) Oh well, it's still not that bad.

Record highs?

Today, the Straits Times reported that 'Temasek's portfolio rises to record $198b'. But on closer look, the article also mentioned that 'net profit fell 16 per cent to $10.7 billion from $12.7 billion', and that shareholder return 'fell to 1.5 per cent from 4.6 per cent a year earlier'. It also stated that it 'fell short of its internal performance target by $12.6 billion'.

It is obvious that the article is structured to make Temasek look better by choosing to emphasise on their portfolio's record highs on the headlines. But does this tell us anything?

If Temasek were to switch their entire portfolio to low risk investments, they would essentially be able to report this piece of news every year. 'Temasek's portfolio rises to record $200b' in 2013, and perhaps 'Temasek's portfolio rises to record $202b' in 2014. Is this an accurate portrayal of its investment return?

An article title, in essence, can be used to convey the summary and intent of the whole article. And in this case, I find it a bit misleading as it gives the idea that Temasek made superior investment returns for the past investment period. Of course, they did disclose the details in the article, but what matters most is public impression - people who just skim through the papers, read the article title only, or fail to think more would interpret this as a piece of good news.

The Amazing Spider Man

After watching The Amazing Spider Man, these were my first thoughts:

1) How did he sew such a kick-ass suit by himself?

2) I don't think Spider Man would be very popular with the city cleaners, with all the web that he is leaving all over the city. (And the web doesn't look easy to remove!)

3) Wasn't he shot in the leg? How did he get the bullet removed?

I should state that I wasn't specifically looking for loopholes, but these just came naturally to me (the first and third point). Overall, the movie was still quite all right, and comparable to the first movie by Tobey Maguire. The biggest question on most people's minds are "why remake Spider Man again?" so I took the liberty to do a bit of research on it.

It turned out that in 2010, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios wanted Spider Man 4 to focus on Peter Parker back in high school. And Tobey Maguire, who was 34 at that time and married with two kids, probably thought that he would not fit in anymore and hence rejected the role. Sam Raimi, the previous director, also quit after being unable to accept the new script and financial conditions (he supposedly requested for US$300 million but was only granted US$200 million). Thus, Sony and Marvel decided to simply refresh everything - new director, new story, and new cast.

Set aside time... to slack

Recently, I have been extremely busy at work. Many people assume that being busy in work equates to being productive (even after assuming that you are really working), but I find that this could not be further from the truth.

It is when we have time to slack - that we manage to think about things. More important things. And being relaxed and not being too involved in our normal work activities - is when we can think out of the box, think about improving the way existing things are done, taking a step back to look at the big picture instead of being immersed and obsessed with the details, and doing things that are not required in the short run but can provide immense benefits in the long run.

I am a forgetful person, so I have a notepad to jot down my tasklist or anything I find useful. Some of them are more urgent cases, like reviewing a particular client's portfolio, or replying to a client's enquiry. Others are less urgent but could improve efficiency in the medium to long run, like combining several scattered hard copy forms into one single Excel document. Today, when I flipped through the earlier pages of my notepad, unsurprisingly, most of the tasks that have not been completed are those that are less urgent but of no less importance.

So this is why sometimes, we need to set aside time just to slack. It would be good if the time comes naturally, when you have finished your most urgent *but not necessarily most important* tasks. But most of us do not have that luxury. Thus, we need to priortise our time. Setting aside just half an hour a week could already yield significant benefits and boost productivity.

Too busy to do that? Maybe you are not that productive after all.

The Tastings Room @ Marina Square

Yet another visit here, due to a friend's incessant bugging. But this time, I really felt that I have been coming here too often, so I don't foresee a next visit at least within the next three months or more.

Truffle Wild Mushroom Risotto, $24.90

Compared to their previous servings for risotto, this looked quite... small. They have been coming out with a slew of discounts and offers via Groupon and so on, and I guess this has caused them to scrimp a bit more on the quantity. 

I thought that they added a bit too much truffle oil, actually. Prior to this, I thought truffle oil was something very expensive, but recently I found out that most truffle oil do not contain any truffles at all. Most of it is made up of olive oil that has been artificially flavoured using a synthetic agent. In this case, the truffle oil was a bit too overpowering and distorted the taste of the risotto somewhat. 

Confit of French Duck Leg, $29.90

The duck was supposedly imported from France. I have always hesitated to order duck confit, because the majority of duck confits ended up too dry. This dish was no exception.

Past visits:
2nd June 2012
29th May 2012
17th April 2012

Happycall Pan and steaks

After I got the Happycall Pan, cooking steaks has become an entirely different game. For one thing, I am much more inclined to fry steaks now instead of roasting or baking, as it is so easy and convenient. One big inconvenience with frying steaks using a normal pan is that the kitchen usually ends up in an oily mess due to the oil splattering out from the pan, but with the Happycall Pan, this isn't an issue anymore. Additionally, if the steak has some visible fat on it, you don't even need to add any oil.

However, steaks cook faster using the Happycall Pan, so the timing would have changed significantly. After various experimentations and attempts, this is what I summarised, assuming all steaks are medium rare:

Normal steaks (around 2cm thick)

1 min 30 seconds for each side, then turn off the fire and let it stay for another 30 seconds for the steak to continue to cook more uniformly and for the juices to come out.

Thick steaks (around 2.5cm to 3cm thick)

1 min 45 seconds for each side, let it stay for 30 seconds.

Thin steaks (around 1.5cm thick)

1 min 15 seconds for each side, let it stay for 30 seconds.

Foie gras

I got this right on my first attempt, fortunately! Just 25 seconds on each side would do. But the foie gras I bought was quite thick, so after I turned off the fire, I flipped it onto its sides for a while more to cook it more evenly.

Update as of 6th October 2012: 
The timings above are all based on two steaks in the pan. I tried putting more and the steaks turned out too uncooked. So if there are three steaks, perhaps you can fry it for 15 to 20 seconds more per side.

Modified events on MS Outlook not appearing on iPhone

Still couldn't solve the issue with modified Microsoft Outlook events not updating correctly on my iPhone, so I turned to the Google Product Forums for help. I went to test a variety of scenarios before posting, and here they are:

Create new event on MS Outlook --> Google Calendar updated correctly --> iPhone updated correctly

Modify existing event on MS Outlook --> Google Calendar updated correctly --> iPhone not updated

Create new event on iPhone --> Google Calendar updated correctly --> MS Outlook updated correctly

Modify existing event on iPhone --> Google Calendar updated correctly --> MS Outlook updated correctly

Create new event on Google Calendar --> MS Outlook and iPhone updated correctly

Modify existing event on Google Calendar --> MS Outlook and iPhone updated correctly

The issue is obviously very specific. I found a way to get around it though, which is to go to my iPhone Settings --> Mail, Contacts, Calendars --> Exchange, disable Calendars, and enable it again. This would wipe out all my calendar events, and then subsequently download them from Google Calendars again. This would ensure that everything is updated, but it is only a temporary solution. Another method is only to update events on my Google Calendar (instead of MS Outlook), but again, I would prefer a permanent solution.

Mythbusting #2

I am sure all of us have heard this before.

"Don't pluck your white hairs! If you pluck one, three more white ones would grow out!"

This has to be one of the most ridiculous and silly myths ever, but many people still believe it. If it is true, it means that to grow more hair, I can just start plucking away all my white hairs. I will end up with three times the hair I plucked out, and I can just dye all of them black and end up with a shining mane of black hair. Duh! 

As for the research, the best I got was from here. It basically says that our hair turns white when the pigmentation cells in the follicle surrounding the hair die. When a hair is plucked, a new one should grow in its place, assuming that you are not balding. As the pigment cells are no longer producing pigment, this new hair will also be white. But one follicle only produces one strand of hair, so surrounding hairs will definitely not turn white after you pluck one. And that follicle alone will obviously not cause three more white hairs to sprout from a single root!

Google Calendar issues

Last year, I blogged about how to sync Microsoft Outlook's calendar to the iPhone automatically without any cable connections. The key lies in using Google Calendars as a medium between the iPhone and Microsoft Outlook, and my post can be found here. 

Recently, I realised that calendar events were not updated in my iPhone. By updated I mean that if I create a new event on Microsoft Outlook, it turns up on my iPhone fine. But if I update it, my iPhone doesn't reflect the new timing. It's odd, because it used to work perfectly fine.

I went to Google Calendar to take a look, and yes, the event had been updated there. So the connection between Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar was fine; apparently the issue is with the connection between Google Calendar and my iPhone.

I tried to delete my Microsoft Exchange account on my iPhone and activate it again. The initial sync managed to reflect all the latest events, but once I tried to update an event (on Outlook) again, it did not reflect on my iPhone. 

What could be the issue? Arghhh. I need to do more research.

Transformers Masterpiece MP-12 Sideswipe

Transformers Masterpiece MP-12 Sideswipe is out for preorder! Have been waiting for this for quite some time. For those who are unaware, the Transformers Masterpiece series consists mainly of figurines from the original Transformers Generation 1, and more recently, from the live-action movie. Compared to all other Transformers figurines, they are considered one of the highest quality, being larger and more detailed as well as having superior poseability. 

Some screenshots of MP-12 Sideswipe, taken from www.e-hobby.co.jp:

MP-12 Sideswipe, robot mode

MP-12 Sideswipe, vehicle mode

Just ordered four pieces of this for myself and three other friends. MP-13 Soundwave should be out for preorder soon too; I am looking forward to Soundwave even more than to Sideswipe...

My Humble House @ Esplanade

Second visit to My Humble House. This time, quite a few dishes we ordered were not from the menu, but were specially recommended by the waiter.

Roast Marinated Rack of Lamb with Herbs in Port Wine Sauce, $18

The lamb was tender, but I felt that the taste of lamb wasn't strong enough. The seasoning was quite good though.

Crispy Spiced Kurobuta Pork Rib in Sun-dried Tomato Reduction, $14

This was very disappointing. The pork was very tough, and very dry - obviously overcooked. It was so bad that I told the manager about it.

White French Asparagus, $15

I recently read from the newspapers that now is the season for French asparagus, so we decided to give this a try. This was still not bad, though we had no idea what the rich black sauce was. The crab meat was a good addition to the dish and was a good complement with the asparagus. The asparagus was a bit tougher than expected though.

Wagyu beef fried rice, $12

Somehow, I think using wagyu beef in such dishes is a big waste of wagyu beef. Firstly, because the beef is sliced into such small pieces, you could not really taste the real flavour of the wagyu beef. Secondly, when it is fried, the quality of the meat does not matter that much anymore. 

Still, the dish was still quite all right, if we treat it as normal beef. 

Foie gras with duck meat, $18

The picture isn't clear, but the black rectangular object is actually a slab of foie gras with duck meat below. While the portion of the foie gras was quite generous, it wasn't really pan-fried well enough to bring out the flavour of the foie gras. And the duck meat was minced and mixed with some other stuff, which failed to impress. Finally, I thought the foie gras and duck didn't really go well together, and we ended up eating them separately.

Crisp-fried Fish Skin with Oatmeal, $8

This dish, along with the two below, were ordered from the tapas menu. We were told that we had to order two main dishes first too to be able to order from this menu. I am glad we ordered this; it was certainly one of the better dishes tonight. The fish skin was fried perfectly such that it was crisp and yet not too dry. The oatmeal was a good variation of this dish too.

'避风塘' Style Crisp-fried Ocean Scallops, $12

I have no idea what '避风塘' style is, but I assume it has to do with the toppings as shown. The picture shows six scallops placed into a small box-like thing (which is edible, but I don't know what  it is exactly). The scallops still retained some of its juiciness, so it was quite good. As for the toppings, I think it consists of some dried prawns, chilli, salt, and sugar.

Crispy Golden Tofu with Special Spicy Powder, $6

This was also fried very well such that the outsides were crispy and the insides were tender. The spicy powder was a nice touch to the normal 'crispy fried tofu' dish.

For a place that supposedly serves fine dining food, I guess the price was still arguably reasonable - after the 50% discount from the Palate membership. The food wasn't too impressive either, with dishes ranging from disappointing to decent to 'not bad'. Nothing was fantastic or really good. And when you  compare My Humble House to the likes of Tong Le Private Dining which I visited two months ago, this place falls short. 

Past visit:
7th March 2012

Mythbusting #1

I am always amazed by how easily people believe random things they find on the internet or hear from someone. For example, someone told me this a few months ago.

"You shouldn't feed your dog with so much bread! My friend told me that bread is not good for dogs..."

I scoffed at her, and told her to show me the proof first. She went to check, and came up triumphantly with this from here:

"Yeast dough (dough prior to cooking) - the yeast can continue to rise in the dog's stomach and cause painful bloating, gas and even rupture of the intestines or stomach."

I pointed out that the description already states that yeast dough is dough prior to cooking, so it is different from bread. Further research yielded merely opinions rather than facts. The most ridiculous one was that dogs should not eat too much bread because the excessive carbohydrates may cause them to get fat.

Erm... doesn't the first part apply to all food in general and even to humans, in the sense that we all should not eat too much of something? And the fact about the excessive carbohydrates are basically 废话 because too much carbohydrates would obviously make anyone fat, dog or human! I might as well say that 'dogs should not eat too much lard because the excess fat and oil may make them obese'.