Micro Posts (Twitter Updates)

    follow me on Twitter

    Saturday, March 28, 2009

    Food Diversity Weekend

    For the past week I should have been eating anything that I can easily and quickly get my hands on (like hawker food) because week 12 is at an end and that means deadlines this week! So people are rushing to finish off projects, reports, papers, and 'mugging' for final tests and quizzes (I have one of each due this week). For me however, it feels as though it's been like that every week since I got back from recess, so it's been a while since I ate anything other than Koufu or Kopitiam. So the past 2 days have been such a refreshing change in terms of cuisine!

    It's so easy for me to just eat what I'm comfortable with in Singapore as I'm surrounded by Chinese food. But that's not to say that Singaporean food is just Chinese food. Singapore is the only place I know that can safely say it's very diverse, and it's reflected in the food. Just over the weekend I had 3 different types of cuisine (if not more) over 2 to 3 days. I went from Indian Muslim food, to Chinese dessert to really good Western food!

    To find out where I went and see pictures and videos click on the post title.


    Friday - Indian Muslim Food at Beach Road hawker centre (army market) + Chinese dessert around Bugis

    So on Friday a classmate wanted to show me something a little different about Singapore and took me and a few friends to have Indian Muslim food. We had mutton steak (bottom right of the picture)- finely chopped mutton cooked dry with diced vegetables, Mee Kuah (far left) - which has noodles in a red spicy sauce with diced mutton, potatoes and peas and some other veg and Sup Tulang (square dish at the top) which is primarily eaten for the bone marrow. The thing about the Sup Tulang is that you have to get to the bone marrow yourself and the video below shows how we attempted the muslim way of eating Sup Tulang. I know the food might not look very appetizing but I've learnt that when it comes to food, you can't let the appearance fool you.




    After dinner we went to Bugis for Ah Chew Desserts. It's the perfect place to satisfy your sweet cravings and even for night time supper. This was only my second visit and ever since I was taken there for the first time a month ago, I still wonder why none of my local friends brought me there before or even suggested it last semester?! It's more of a local favourite and they serve a range of Chinese desserts such as glutinous rice balls, grass jelly, sweet soup based desserts and I was so happy when I found out they had my favourite dessert - mango, sago and pomelo (pictured left) and even the option to add Durian to it!

    Saturday - Brewerkz and Churros

    Saturday we decided to splurge out a little and headed to Clarke Quay for dinner and a few drinks with friends. We already planned this at the start of the week when I saw Angry AngMo's suggested top 5 places for burgers in Singapore and Brewerkz was one of them. As they're known to have good beer (as they brew it themselves) we decided to throw all our cravings into one (because we haven't really been out drinking/clubbing much this semester either).

    Earth Ho
    ur
    <---- Clarke Quay during Earth Hour... Difference?

    While we were there I was expecting to have witnessed an hour of "darkness" for Earth Hour, but it didn't seem as though Clarke Quay switched off that many lights? Perhaps I was expecting a bit too much, I guess when I read that Clarke Quay was taking part in the initiative they only switched off the 'Clarke Quay' sign? The surrounding hotels took part too by switching off their main lights but there wasn't much of a difference? I think they could have switched off a few more lights if they really wanted to show their support.


    Fashion Bar
    The logo on the window of this bar is what caught my attention when I first saw i
    t last semester because I only associated it with Fashion TV, but what lured us there at the weekend was $5 Martini's for girls (yes even on a Saturday night, a promotional offer only throughout March). Even though the alcohol was rather weak (what do you expect for $5 really?) we stayed there until we felt like having a little more food.

    Across from Fashion Bar is Allegro, a rather well known place for Spanish street food. So for dessert we had Churros and chocolate sauce, and they even have 2 for 1 cocktails! Who would have known there would be good drink deals around Clarke Quay on a saturday night?!

    Typical Student balancing act


    Saturday, March 21, 2009

    Mr Brown at SMU

    If you've been in Singapore for a fairly long period of time I think you would have heard Mr Brown (AKA Lee Kin Mun) mentioned at some point (a friend described him as Singapore's equivalent to Jay Lenno?). He points out the weird and dysfunctional things about Singapore in his satirical blog and as that grew in popularity, he created the Mr Brown Show, which hosts his podcasts and parodies. In addition to that, as a self proclaimed social media junkie and "geek" he also created the WTF! show (That's "Wah! That's Fierce!" by the way), which focuses on gadgets and technology, and the "See What Show".

    So, yesterday Mr Brown came to SMU and shared with us his life, passions and love of poking fun at the government Singapore. I've only seen his photos and profile pictures, and the one that I remembered more clearly was his twitter profile (because I've become slightly addicted to that lately), then when he arrived he looked a lot slimmer and trimmer. Later I found out that he used to be pretty big in size and if you look for him on Wikipedia and compare his photo there to what he looks like now (see below), he's done really well for himself! Well done on all your hard efforts Mr Brown =) (I hope you get better sleep now).

    He shared with us some of his spoofs such as 'send ah kong' (means send Grandfather) and "Mee Siam mai hum" (Click here for the explanation if you don't understand) and other government blunders topics that he's been following. His presentation was refreshing and funny, it really showed me the stupid a different side to Singapore and he's proof that Singaporeans do have a good sense of humour.

    Even though I had only heard of Mr Brown 2 months ago, I could tell more about his personality in that one hour presentation than I could reading his online materials. He's a really humble and down to earth guy living in a HDB flat, has a love for cycling (which is now his main mode of transport), a great sense of humour, young at heart, a loving husband and father, proud Singaporean (despite what you may gather from his writings) and probably has the best job in the world. You can tell he enjoys what he does through his creativity in his podcasts and the other sites that he hosts.

    It was a great end to a stressful week and I wish him all the best in his future projects! =)
    *Hmm...According to him I do sound like a Singaporean, so perhaps I should continue to follow his stuff when I return to the UK to keep in touch with my inner Singaporean?*


    Me with Mr Brown

    Friday, March 20, 2009

    Surprisingly impressed with Orange

    So last night I had an encounter that brougt me back to the UK and it made me think perhaps going back there won't be such a bad thing and instead of dreading the day I actually have to get on that plane to England, I can happily sit in on a 12 hour journey and look forward to be back in my home comforts, thank you John@Orange, he completely de-stressed me from my troubles yesterday and made my day with his tongue in cheek type of humour.

    To read more click on the post title.



    So, I was browsing on the Orange website (a UK phone operating network) looking at phones until a random pop up asks me if I needed any help and that I could speak to an advisor, 'click to chat with an advisor'. I thought "cool let's see what this is" and clicked on the pop up window (after all I remembered my Prof, Michael Netzley, telling us not to be afraid to click around on the internet and explore). After about 30 seconds, John@Orange enters the chat and in a predictable manner asks how he could help me. It starts off kind of slow and mundane as I ask about features of the Sony Erricsson W705 such as HDPSA and EDGE because I had never heard of them before. Coming across as a complete girly girl who knows nothing about technology I probably asked some of the most stupid questions but he dealt with them in a professional manner and with great "patience and forebearance" (as he said in his own words when i asked him how he handles annoying customers).

    I could imagine him thinking I'm just really stupid, so I tried to humour him back with sarcastic jabs at his selling techniques. He did recommend some pretty decent phones though and respect to him for putting up with my stupid questions about transmitters and internet connections. He soon took me seriously though after he suggested the LG Renoir to me and I said it's not a good phone because it focuses too much on the camera and video function so compromises on the main function of the phone, which is to talk to people (battery talk time is only around 3 hours). Then his whole tone changed and he was surprised at my comment, then he suggested the HTC Touch HD =). See, all you have to do with Sales people is know enough about the product to surprise them.

    All in all, it was a rather amusing conversation, not only was he honest but I have a habit of psycho analaysing the way people behave and he made me wonder if he would have said half the things he said to me if it was face to face sales? He definitely lightened up my day though and apparently I made his day too haha. It's weird how you can sense other people's personalities through text, and I guess John@Orange is pretty good at what he does if he's able to project a personlity behind the screen and still manage to keep the customer happy and remain professional.

    Orange has been using online chat services since June last year, it's definitely a great way to communicate with your customers by using today's technology. This was one of those moments where I actually understood how the things I've been learning in Digital Media apply to real life, and it's very rare that I make connections between theory and practice, which is worrying, but the point is I noticed the connection here haha =)

    I still haven't chosen a phone that I want though, but John@Orange (who was actually in Scotland) did let me know that there's a new Samsung Ultra Touch S8300 that'll be on the shelves soon and the specs don't look too bad.

    Hopefully when I ring up Orange about my current situation with my contract, they'll be just as nice.

    Tuesday, March 17, 2009

    My accent's going meh? It's still British what?!

    Walau!

    I've realised that my British accent is becoming less obvious to Singaporeans... no, to other people. Maybe it's the fact that I've been surrounded with American or similar accents at home (as in my home in Singapore) and at SMU. I know that I often have a tendency to slowly pick up accents or my accent begins to change ever so slightly when I'm in a different country/place for a period of time.

    Yesterday I was walking with a local friend of mine and we were just talking normally, until he paused and said "Either I'm getting used to your accent, or what you said just now sounded really Singaporean." Then I frantically tried to replay what I said. I couldn't figure out what might have sounded so Singaporean? Did I unknowingly say 'lah', 'neh', 'meh', 'what', or did I miss out a connecting word somewhere in my sentence?

    Then my friend pointed out that it was the tone I said a particular word was flatter and the way I said the word was dragged out longer than I normally would have said it.

    Then yesterday during a group meeting, a group mate of mine asked me where I'm actually from because she thought I was from the UK but she didn't think I sounded English, but she couldn't tell from my accent where I was actually from.

    Don't get me wrong, I do like the Singaporean accent, I remember the first time I went away for a few days and when I came back, the first time I heard a distinct Singaporean accent put a smile on my face.

    But for me, my accent helps define who I am over here and I kind of like the fact that people always think I'm local until I open my mouth.

    Hmmm... perhaps I have potential to be moulded into a Singaporean? =)

    Wednesday, March 11, 2009

    Udderly Good Ice-cream

    In Udders with fellow Gourmet-ers

    Last week I attended an ice-cream buffet at Udders, which was an event offered by SMU's Gourmet Club and no regrets about the amount of ice cream I consumed or the pounds I might have piled on in that one visit to the cool, cute, little ice cream store located next to United Square Shopping Mall.

    Udders is known to create their own flavours and are always experimenting with new tastes. You walk in and there's a long chalk board filled with different ideas for new ice cream flavours suggested by customers and others can add their own ideas on there too and vote for the ones they like. A simple, yet very cool way of consumer participation and feedback... I'll probably use the word 'cool' more than a few times because it's the only word that I think describes it's atmosphere, it's look and concept, and ironically also relates to ice-cream. In my mind, anything that allows your customers to express their creativity is a cool idea, so not only can you put up ur ideas for ice cream flavours, but there's a black plastic board on the opposite wall for you to scribble on, with neon pens provided for you. This board was completely filled with messages, birthday shout outs,'xyz was here 08' and other random ramblings. It all adds to the rather young, hip and cool decor and atmosphere. They're ice-cream flavours also reflect this with best sellers such as Lychee Martini, Rum and Raisan and Baileys and Bourbon (one of my favourites), Orange Choc Bitter (with Triple Sec Vodka) and Amaretto Black (all of which were stronger than expected). Of course they have classic flavours such as vanilla and strawberry (although I don't recall chocolate as a flavour being offered), and they also offer distincly Singaporean flavours, like Durian (two types of durian flavours available! Who would have guessed?).

    Not only is the ice cream popular there but they're drinks are a hit too, with ice cream floats (in what looks to me like a vase for fake flowers - pictured left) and their hot chocolate are favourites among their customers.

    One of the best ice-cream places I've been to in Singapore.If I had to give a rating, I would give 8 out of 10 =)

    Saturday, March 7, 2009

    Are Singaporeans really that nice?

    So something interesting (or at least I think so) happened on my way back home:

    It's Friday night and I'm heading back home, catch the MRT like usual, get off at my station, head to the bus stop and wait for my bus to come. So I sit down on the benches looking towards the traffic keeping an eye out. Even though it's past midnight and there isn't a lot of traffic it's still pretty hard to identify the right bus you want at night.

    Whilst I'm waiting, a car pulls in and stops, the window winds down and a guy probably in his late 30s or early 40s looks my way and starts talking. Couldn't hear what he was saying so thought maybe he wanted directions or something so I go up to the window. The guy asks me if I need any help.

    "Oh no, I'm just waiting for a bus" I reply.
    "Where you go I can take you" He offers,
    "Oh no it's ok thank you"
    "I can take you where you need to go, just say"
    "Oh I live nearby and there's a bus that comes very soon so I'll just wait"
    "You're not Singaporean?"
    "No I'm not"
    "Where you from?"
    "England"
    "you speak Mandarin?"
    "No, sorry I can't speak Mandarin"
    "I friend you, can take where you need to go"
    "No, it's o.k. thank you, there should be a bus that's arriving soon"
    "really can take, you will wait for long time now"
    "I think a bus should be coming in the next few minutes, I normally wait for this bus anyway, but thankyou very much!"
    "Sure?"
    "Yes, thank you, I really appreciate the offer. Thank you"
    Then he drives away.

    O.k. so the conversation wasn't word for word, but the content is more or less the same. The weird thing is I did consider at one point to get into the car, but common sense said no of course, and in these circumstances it's important that I listen to it, even if I don't normally. But this situation got me thinking; Singaporeans are generally nice people, but are they that nice to offer a random stranger a lift to their choice of destination? Of course there's two ways that it could have played out if I had got into the car. Chances are he was being genuine and just wanted to help, and then there was a chance it could have gone terribly wrong.

    After he drove away, I thought "This is Singapore, people are gerneally quite nice and I think it's safe to trust Singaporeans... He didn't seem to be too weird or dodgy... I'm one girl waiting at a bus stop late at night... maybe he did genuinely just want to help?... If I was a guy I think I would have definitely taken up the offer... if the driver was female... I think I would have taken up the offer too, but would still be a bit wary to begin with." Weird how gender roles play a huge impact on this type of situation. Also, even though Singapore has low crime, it doesn't mean no crime.

    I messaged my local friends to ask if this kind of behaviour is normal, they all said no and hoped that I didn't take up the offer. But I do wonder how it would have played out if I did get in the car? Some of the most interesting things happen if you take risks right?

    Then my bus arrived and I got home safely.

    So are Singaporeans really that nice and can they be trusted completely?