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.

Next stop: Stadium

After brunch, I convinced Dad to take the new Circle Line to the stop called "Stadium". I had wanted to alight there when I brought Grandma on the Circle Line trip on the 18th (of this month) but she did not seem too interested and we had alighted at Bras Basah instead.

This time around, I was determined and Dad was agreeable as he did not want to drink the coffee from the coffee shop that we took porridge in (read previous post) and off we went, taking the NEL to Dhoby Gaut and switching to the Circle Line there. Dhoby Gaut is now super busy, it being the interchange of 3 different lines.

When we arrived at Stadium, this was what we saw:

One of the two stations with natural sky light. The other station is Bras Basah.


See the far end of the escalator on the first picture? This is what I can actually see, except that I had to walk nearer in order to get a nicer picture.




We shopped a little at Kallang Leisure Park and had our coffee at Wang Cafe. I ended up buying groceries from the Cold Storage there and as I was about to leave the place, there was an announcement to grab goodie bags as long as we have a minimum spending of $10. I quickly retraced my steps to collect my goodie bag and was happy that I got 2 of them! Reason being that my spending at Cold Storage was over $20. Wow! What a great day it was turning out to be!

I was happy too soon though for when I tried to top up my ez-link card at the new top-up machine, it failed to do so. I panicked as I did not see any station control except for this counter that looked more like a store room than anything else.

Thank goodness there were instructions to speak via an intercom to the officer. I pressed. Waited for about 12 seconds before there was a response and after briefly describing my plight, was told to wait for an officer to assist me. It was a good two or three minutes before I saw a figure of an officer, half running towards me. I soon got to know why.

The station control was right at the other end of where I was and I tell you, it could have been a 100m dash or maybe even 200m!! No wonder she took so long to reach me! I was breathing a little heavily after I was told to go there to get my card checked. Turns out that mine was not an isolated case. Ha! Systems. Do I know about them! I used to have to explain all the system boo-boos to customers and from that experience, I have learned that I need to give these staff a little trust and let them do their thing.

Apparently, if I used the old General Sales Machine (GSM) to top-up, they would have been able to check and re-fund accordingly (if any). But because this new top-up machine is by NETS, there is no way for immediate action. Forms were being filled out by the CSO (customer service officer) I had to fill in some personal details myself and then I had to wait. For two weeks. I suupose, they need to check with NETS and then ding dong a little before they find out whether money had been deducted from my NETS card.

I emphasise again, that if I did not work in a similar environment before, I would have screamed and shouted things like "I want my money back NOW!" or "How do I know that you are not cheating me of my money" or "Now that you have taken my receipt then what proof would I have that a transaction did take place?", etc, etc. Instead, I just smiled, nodded my head as she explained away and was very cooperative.

After that, I took a pleasant ride back to where I live. Happy and excited, as I was already planning what to cook for dinner.

Circle Line

I AM So IN LOVE with the Circle Line!!! Of course, it is completely new and it is fast!! Took it back home after work yesterday and it was a breeze until I came to Bishan.

I went to the NTUC at Junction 8 and it was so super crowded! I only half blame the people/shoppers for it you were a seasoned supermarket shopper like me, you would realise that the aisles of NTUC is narrower than those at Cold Storage or even Giant and Carrefour. The whole place was oozing with people.

What was worse was that I tripped and knocked my arm against the hand pole. The train jerked so badly when it was coming to a halt that I lost balance. Luckily someone supported me from the back. It was so embarrassing. Another reason why I prefer the less crowded circle line.

Back to NTUC, I have a love-hate relationship with it. While I have always preferred Cold Storage, I think NTUC is catching up! They were selling hams and meats supplied by Culina, which has very good expertise with quality cuts of beef, lamb, hams and anything European.

Nevertheless, I think I will still be bought over by the nicer shopping experience at Cold Storage. I don't get so worked up and haughty before, during and after shopping.

Cold Storage and Circle Line rocks!!!