THAT porridge place

Well, I have always said that I would take some pictures and show you what the porridge looks like etc, etc. Here they are:

The name of the stall: Guangdong zhou pin. Translated, it roughly means porridge from the Guangdong province

My favourite pork ball porridge with fried dough fritters. They make their own pork balls and there are lightly browned sesame seeds and some other preserved veggie that makes it yummy. They are bigger than most other pork balls too!

Lovely day

Met up with some girlfriends to have tea and we ended up having such a nice, arty kind of afternoon. First stop: K.Ki at Ann Siang Hill. Quaint little place with nice environment and nice people. Here are some pics:

 Then we went to this place called Stevie General Store. They sell second hand almost everything and they have got quite a nice selection of retro clothes. Not that cheap though but the owners are really nice.

The owners also sell a collection of second hand books, which they themselves have read and like. They were very humorous and so was their way of tagging their items. There was a bust of Bruce Lee which they labelled as "One of Ip Man's disciples". Thought it rather witty. Just that I cannot remember the rest.

We then hopped over to Books Actually which was diagonally across the road. This shop is now 3 stories high and if I wanted old typewriters and those toy baby grand pianos made in China, I would know where to buy them.

All in all, it was a lazy afternoon, spent with 3 ladies and rounded up with very good dinner at Spizza's.

The Face Shop

Three Face Shops in the span of 3 days later, I managed to complete what I needed to buy and found the satisfactory customer service in the third and last shop.

The first shop I went to was at Wisma Atria. The girl who served me was only interested in me buying lots and lots. When she realised that I was not going to do so, she became very lukewarm. I had already surfed their site and actually knew what I wanted: Eye pencils which were eyeshadows and this green eye shadow which the eye pencil range was not going to offer me.

Turned out that they were having a promotion: take one or two (I cannot remember) eyeshadows and a blusher in order to get a special discounted rate. But I didn't need a blusher! The sales person's head could not turn fast enough. It was like a straight road with no side turns and slip roads. She could have simply suggested that I get what I wanted and she would still have a made a better sale than my two pencils.

Next, there was the cashier. After asking me "Do you have membership?", she decided to converse with me totally in Mandarin, even though I actually spoke to her in ENGLISH! Rude and how can one not be able to speak English when she is working in the customer service industry. It IS our language of communication after all.

Second shop I went to was at the HDB Hub. I was looking for that green eyeshadow palette but could not find it. I was tempted to use Mandarin but decided to test the sales person. She was not very good with her English but at least she attempted to speak to me. That, I applaud her. Only thing was, she had no turns and slip roads either. The green palette was out of stock and she just gave me an apologetic look and smile. She could have suggested the triple baked eyeshadow instead.

The last shop was at Junction 8, Bishan. I could not remember whether I spoke English or Mandarin but what made me buy more than I intended was because the sales person knew when to retreat and when to come forward to assist me when help was needed. I finally got my green palette eyeshadow and this liquid foundation with BB cream. She was very patient and detailed with her explanation of the foundation and seeing that I was looking at the placard for the detailed explanation, she took it up for me to read. Nice!

If I were not put off by the mouldy looking powder puff in the tester, I might have already bought their loos powder from them. Lucky thing I did not though, for I found Kate (cosmetics brand by Kanebo in open shelf style) at Watson's and their loose powder was at almost half the price of that from The Face Shop. Phew! More savings!

Lazy but productive Sunday

Wanted to study and do my work at Coffeebean & Tealeaf (Junction 8) today. Was also craving for eggs benedict since I have been cooking it in Cafe World.

The minute I reached there, I was quite put off, as they had put up a sign "no studying" on all their tables. No studying for me then. Then, when I saw the picture and portion of the eggs benedict that they had, I kind of lost all apetite for...it did not look as good as the one in Cafe World. Hahahaha...! It looked too dry and the portion looked too small for my already very hungry apetite. I ordered a "brek 'o day" instead.

I suppose I was too hungry and my brains already told my stomach that the food was not going to be nice and so I did not feel that filled up at all. Not wanting to stay there to try my luck, I left after gulping down my coffee. Plus, the table next to me kept having the irritating message tone from her Nokia and I found that rude.

Anyhow, I ended up buying some cosmetics for myself (see next posting too) as I did a clearance of what I had before. Most of my old stuff are now not usable as they have been left in the box for too long. Don't want to put mould onto my face.

Wanting to buy groceries from Cold Storage, I took the MRT to Novena and instead of going to the supermarket immediately, I decided to park my toosh at TCC. What a lovely decision!


I ordered a side of calamari rings and a herbal tea called "Exotic French" and had a lovely time getting some stuff done! There were lots of distractions though, especially these two friends, a guy and a girl, dissing Facebook. They were just trying to act uppity, if you ask me.

The girl was telling him that some friends update their status and things like somebody in their family died also gets posted and he immediately replied," I think that is too personal to put isn't it? I will never put something like that on Facebook".

Well, who is to say who is to put what on FB? Anyway, it helps keep friends connected, especially those who may not be in the same place/ country as you are. Then finally the guy says what he felt inside him all along; "I think I prefer Twitter. It is so much better". DUH! Whatever!

In that whole span of eavesdropping, I managed to finish a whole chunk of my work. I packed up and left, hoping to give my ears some peace.

Corrine May for NDP song 2010

Only Corrine May has the ability to move and stir a person's heart with her voice and music, no matter what she sings. Kudos to Corrine May!!

Of friends and transport

Last Friday, I met up with my Primary school friends, PK and Karen. We were supposed to go and try out this new place called Kichi Kichi at Takashimaya but  we ended up at Seoul Garden instead. Why? Because we all forgot that it was a Friday and all of us forgot to make reservations!!

We had a good time at Seoul Garden though. I was happy to be eating BBQ stuff, together with soupy things as well. There was a lot to catch up on and we re-connected with one another.

It was quite funny though, before we met up. PK and I are the ones without a car and yet, when we suggested another restaurant (Ebisboshi Shogentai@ Iluma), Karen told us to change to a place whereby there was less ERP, etc, etc.

Seriously speaking, if you have the money to own a car, then why don't you have enough to pay for ERP?? Surely you must have factored that in when you decided to have one. Besides, I thought cars are supposed to give you more convenience as when compared to us public transport folks. I personally just find it a little absurd to have to compromise most of the time.

Well, we finally got it all ironed out and came to a compromise alright! Whatever it was, all's well that ends well.