blink.

now playing: set fire to the rain – adele 

wow, i can’t believe how long it has been since the last blog post. it’s been a good full seven months since i touched this site, and my gosh, wow, is all i can say at the moment.

between work and school and work and life, i wonder how people find the time to update their blogs! maybe it’s poor time management on my part, and maybe this isn’t a priority. i’d like to think it’s more the latter than the former

a couple of things have been on my mind lately, but i don’t know what would be the best way to list or express them. from wondering how some people can be so hung up over the past, to how others are such hypocrites to how childishness beckons and how wonderful others are, it’s been more than a rollercoaster ride.

about the first point. a jewish proverb once said, ‘what you don’t see with your eyes, don’t witness with your mouth’. i don’t understand why and how someone could spread false rumours and gossip about something he’s completely not in tune with. i probably won’t ever understand why he did what he did and said what he said, but i only know that he’s got nothing else in his life to look forward to, which resulted in his lowly actions. i can’t even bring myself to pity you because you’re disgusting.

on the second and third point. maybe i don’t think the same way as you do, but my dears, there’s more to life than wasting it on filling your lungs with poison.

the last point. i love my friends and i love D’s friends. sometimes it takes distance and time apart to realise how great friendships can be. i’m stoked about meeting a crazy girlie this saturday, and i know she’s just as stoked.

now that those thoughts and feelings are off my chest, i can say that it feels slightly better. on to happier subject matters, i’ve just started reading blink by malcolm gladwell, which talks about how the mind thinks and reacts in two seconds. for example, in two seconds, you’ll know instinctively whether you like something or not. D and i went to the launch of the mercedes-benz singapore slk and c-coupe launch last week. in two seconds, i had already decided that i didn’t like the c-coupe, and i felt that the new slk looks a tad too long and resembles the sls a fair bit. oh, and that there were way too many freeloaders guzzling at the event. it’s been an interesting first chapter so i’m definitely looking forward to what else awaits.

at the mercedes-benz slk and c-class coupe launch

national day is just round the corner, and twitter has been abuzz with the trending hashtag ‘iamsingaporean’ and it’s really funny reading certain tweets, like how the first reaction when annoyed is to want to complain, or how people will queue up not knowing what they’re queuing for. i’m glad to be singaporean, although i can’t agree with everything singaporean

i’m so looking forward to christmas. please be here sooner, i can’t wait to hop on that plane to tokyo. everything i’m reading about the wonderful japanese city, especially on www.dannychoo.com makes my heart skip a beat in anticipation for the trip. a part of me is excited to walk down the streets of harajuku, shinjuku, omotosando, the other part of me looks forward to the cold weather and the airport lounges at changi, suvarnabhumi and haneda. <3

The Year-End Post; 2010

It’s already the end of the year?! That was quick.

In a nutshell, here’s what I’m thankful for this year:

1. I returned to a job that I loved (thankfully they wanted me back, too), got a promotion (and bonus!) and am blessed with awesome workmates who also became my pals
2. Continued the routine trips to Bangkok to spend time with D’s family and dogs (other than devoting time to the many shops in the many malls including Ferragamo at Gaysorn!)
3. Found a love for shoes; in the likes of Christian Dior, Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, John Galliano,  Louis Vuitton, Salvatore Ferragamo, Valentino
4. Found the courage to enroll for school after having delayed it for long enough
5. Met famed musicians David Foster, Natalie Cole, Peter Cetera (and others like Charice, The Canadian Tenors, Ruben Studdard) as part of the Singapore Sun Festival
6. Got rid of the ugly label of being a P-plater at a perfect score with no demerit points – woohooo!
7. Fell in love with a beautiful and buzzing city, Seoul; experienced shopping at the wee hours in the morning at the 24-hour shopping area, DongDaeMun; went skiing at a resort, didn’t fall much at all and kept on going up and down the slopes; attended a wonderful Christmas mass at one of the most beautiful churches I’ve seen, the MyeongDong Cathedral; had an allergic reaction after Christmas dinner at the restaurant Walking on the Clouds at 63 Tower from the pine mushrooms in the soup (although the soup was bloody fantastic); added more Prada bags to the bag collection; saw snow as we were leaving Incheon airport, the world’s best airport with the best duty free shopping!
8. Blessed with love all around – from D, his family and mine.

I hope we all had a fantastic 2010, with even better and greater things to come in 2011. Happy new year!

 

“I don’t know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.”

It has been a weekend of crazy queues, crazy women and crazy shoes. Who ever gets enough of shoes?

Hawt pink MJ jellies - they're so comfortable they're like second skin.

Simple black Stuart Weitzman pumps for every other day.

John Galliano's sexy back.

John Galliano hooker heels; naise.

But the best is always kept for the last. It may look ordinary at first glance, but like I said, save the best for the last.

Gorgeous, lovely thing.

Kim - the lovely charcoal-black leather shoes.

Presenting "Kim"; my Kim!

It's all in the details; the gold trimmings with the classic initials.

I wasn’t the only one shopping for shoes yesterday, clearly:

Damian's stash, from The Wizard of Oz

All four, all square

But the loveliest of the lot has got to be this pair:

Sex in the shoes.

For all that, I only have four words.

Welcome to the family

Ku De Ta, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

The integrated resorts have welcomed plenty of guests for quite a while now, and you’d think that it would mean they’ve ironed out all the kinks to ensure that operations are smooth.

Damian and I went to MBS last night, to have dinner at Ku De Ta with his parents and some guests.

Let me first start by saying that the bloody hotel is rocking. When we arrived at the lobby, I could have sworn that there were at least 10 cars and taxis alighting people, or trying to get to the carpark. It was a right mess. And once you’ve walked through the main doors, you look up and go “hmmmm. wow.”. Until you have to walk right to the last tower where the lifts are.

After reports about how Ku De Ta is apparently exclusive – daring to charge a premium cover charge of $50 with no drinks if you’re headed to the club – perhaps I had expected too much from them. I thought there’d be a separate lift that brings guests to Ku De Ta, and another to take other guests to the SkyPark. The moment we went to the correct lobby to take the lift to the 57th where Ku De Ta (and the rest of the SkyPark) is, we were each given a “pass” that would permit us entry to the restaurant. Can I just say that it was incredibly tacky? A fancy-smancy restaurant that has to hand out a (very cheaply printed) card – not exactly the classiest. Lines weren’t even cut straight, and it was clearly re-used; when we got out of the lift, a staff member collected the cards from us and pointed us to where the restaurant was – all this while other guests from the pool were walking past us to get to the lifts (the lobby is damn psychedelic and colours were clearly plucked from discos-70s and the rainbow), and others who were in the same lift as us exited to the right to get to the SkyPark. I should also add that the route leading to the restaurant was pretty grey and dull!

Maybe it was the haze that clouded my judgement and vision – literally – but when we got to the restaurant, it didn’t really get any better. Our seats were outside at the deck and we had to walk through half of the restaurant, pass the restaurant’s service area and the kitchen doors just to get to the outer deck. When we finally sat down, the first thing I felt was that the seats were way too low for a dinner. It was great for lounging around for tea, but to sit and have a meal, not the most ideal. See what I mean when I said it didn’t get better? As our dinner reservation was at 9.30pm, it was dark and because of the ambience that they’ve created, the only light we got was candlelight from tea-lights in three very nicely carved (plastic) holders. No way we could have read the menu in that kind of setting, but thanks to Energizer clipped on book-lights we did.

Okay, everyone is dying to know about the food. What caught me by surprise is its dining concept; at the first page of the menu, it says that the menu was designed for sharing, or better known as communal sharing, and that food would be served in a continuous flow, a la colds first, warms later, desserts last. Communal sharing? I don’t remember that in Bali’s Ku De Ta… and it sounds very similar to 1-Altitude’s dining concept, no? But anyhows, the food was generally good – presentation was excellent, temperature was right, meats were done very nicely. My only problem again was the lighting; with allergies you sometimes need to make sure you know what exactly you’re having because you really don’t fancy an episode of bowl-hugging after a nice dinner. And true enough, there were shrooms in at least two dishes we ordered.

Here’s what I liked at Ku De Ta – sorry there aren’t any pictures, it was way too dark for any photos and the flash would’ve bleached the pix:

• Crisp – Crispy-sticky baby squid
• Crisp – Jumbo softshell crab
• Fish & Seafood – Bamboo-roasted black cod in red miso
• Poultry & Meat – Berkshire pork belly steamed with shaoxing wine
• Poultry & Meat – Honey-miso glazed roast Australian lamb sirloin
• Poultry & Meat – Simple salt-grilled Australian wagyu porterhouse
• Rice/Noodle/Soup – Hand-made Japanese udon, wok-fried with sambal

Of the lot, the cod, pork belly and the wagyu rocked my socks. The desserts didn’t really match expectations, so let’s not mention anything.

Bringing me to my next point – service.

I know for a fact that service staff basically make or break a restaurant, an office or a name. I must applaud Ku De Ta’s staff for being very attentive, efficient and they’re definitely a good bunch. To the extent that when they were switching shifts at 11pm, she came up to inform us that her colleague will be taking care of our table. The assigning of each section to a particular staff worked well and almost everytime we put up our hands for something, they’re ready to help. The only thing lacking, I felt, was that no one asked about allergies when we placed our orders, especially when allergies are on the rise. But then again, it could just be me…

Another thing I felt lacking was the availability of Ku De Ta merchandise, unlike in Bali where they had music and such available for purchase.

I guess there are both the good and the bad at Ku De Ta. I must say that the club looked great, excluding the many hookers in the very white environment! It’s a great concept, although I’m not sure I’d like to party there, and I can only imagine how humid and stuffy it could get, especially in tropical Singapore. Plus, I don’t know if I’d be able to deal with swirling colours and hues at the psychedelic lift lobby after a rough night…

On the whole, it was a good experience, but it’s not something that needs to be repeated.

The Herd Mentality

It’s been proven in Singapore that if someone decides to pull off a publicity stunt where a handful of people start forming a queue, even if there aren’t any signs to promote or communicate what they’re lining up for, in a matter of five minutes, the queue would definitely grow. And Singaporeans, for reasons unknown whatsoever, would join the queue blindly, for fear (thanks to the kiasu and kiasi mentality) that if they aren’t part of the queue, they’re going to miss out on something – even if they didn’t have the slightest idea of why they’re queueing up.

I never thought I’d experience it for myself, until last weekend, when D and I were at Ikea. When we send the car for the regular servicing, we’d always hang around the Queenstown/Alexandra area, which saves us the hassle of having to shuttle back and forth (on public transport) before the car is done. So since Mercedes-Benz (and all the other car dealers, for that matter) is so close to Ikea, we decided to give Ikea’s breakfast a try, instead of going for (evil and fat and unhealthy) McDonald’s. Little did we know that it’d be the start of a really fascinating morning.

We got to Ikea really, really early. While the store opens from 10am daily, the cafe only opens for breakfast at 9.30am. We reached at 9.10am, so we decided we’d sit at the benches on the ground floor and  wait till it’s open. But, after hanging around with no one to really people-watch (man, locals really don’t dress up when they have breakfast on the weekends – do they not have mirrors?? – and to top it they’re all bloody rude, ugh!), we decided we’d go upstairs since we saw many people going up the escalators.

Still, it was only 9.20am. And of course, the cafe wasn’t open yet. There was this other elderly couple who were also hanging out on the benches on the ground floor, who also went upstairs before we did, so when we went up, we saw them standing right outside the door. Sure, I know how hungry one gets in the morning, yearning eagerly for a nice breakfast that they didn’t have to prepare or make. I really didn’t want to seem too much of an eager-beaver, so D and I stood miles away from them. When I say miles, I literally mean a distance of at least 15-20 people away from them.

I could have sworn that the moment we stood there, this other lady stood behind D, but the whole time, we were just looking out the windows, talking about other things that we had in mind. Shortly after, a frigging queue formed.

And soon after the herd of locals started to form, that lady who was immediately behind D said, “Excuse me, we’re forming a queue here, so can you move up?”

Firstly, no “Please” or “If you don’t mind”.

When she said that, I just looked at D and said “Should we move up??? Seriously?” I mean, who ever said there was a bloody queue? If there was, did you check if we were queuing in the first place?

So D said, “There is no queue! If you want to, you can go ahead and move up.”

BECAUSE WE WEREN’T QUEUING IN THE FIRST BLOODY PLACE.

The moment she moved up, it’s as though the whole world was shaking, and this activity of moving up was earth-shattering, and everyone just sort of fell into place, queueing up and waiting for the Ikea cafe to open.

The last I checked, they’re pretty damn big so I’m sure there’d be enough tables, chairs, cutleries, drinks, napkins, chicken wings, pancakes, waffles, eggs and bread to go round.

Why the need to be the FIRST BUNCH OF PEOPLE to get into the place? There must be over 10 tables with a window (that looks out to nothing much, apart from Anchorpoint and lots of cars who’d eventually be queuing – yet again – to get into the Ikea carpark). Even if you didn’t get a window seat, there are tonnes of other tables to plonk your’s and your family’s butts on. So why the rush?

What really peeved me is how no one bothered to even check in the first place if we were queuing up to get into the cafe. They assumed we were. Don’t you know, never assume. God gave you mouths, not just to eat and drink from it, but to open your mouth and talk. Ask and you shall be given. Don’t ask and you’d end up being a fool, queuing behind us who have left such a huge gap, and having to bear with your killer (or wait, should I say half-dazed) eyes as you walk past us.

And the rest of the crowd who just gathered behind the silly people who stood behind us – what the hell is wrong with you? Why do you just follow ever-so-blindly?

Again, they assumed there was a bloody queue.

It amazes me how people choose not to ask, and when they end up finding out that they weren’t in the correct queue, they’re absolutely appalled that they weren’t in the right place. Why queue blindly??

In the end, we decided that we’d not be part of this crazy herd of locals who were dying to get into the damn cafe; honestly, I wouldn’t want to have to spend my breakfast with people like that. Elitist as I may sound, did everyone there just lack the initiative, or the common sense to ask?

I know we’re a young Asian society, which means we seldom voice our opinions as compared to say, Western countries like the States or Australia. But this, to me was baffling. Common sense, people. I think it’s time we took off those blinkers and opened our eyes a little bigger, and this time, use our mouths. Stop being blind followers!

Three more sleeps to…

I’m looking forward to meeting …

Lovely Lee

Lappy Lap Sap! The newest addition to the de Souza household in Bangkok.

Mummy and Tai Tai

Somcheng, the largest of the lot!

I love Bangkok, and I love the doggies!

Happy National Day!

Instant Noodles

I really love instant noodles. If they weren’t that unhealthy, I could have them everyday. I heart Momofuku Ando, the guy who created instant noodles.

Did you know that approximately 94 billion servings of instant noodles are consumed every year? I’m sure I’ve contributed to that statistic greatly.

I absolutely love the Myojo Char Mee (which Damian thinks it stinks, like, it leaves a funky after-breath smell), the Nissin Tom Yum cup noodles, Mama Noodles Tom Yum and Indofood Pop Mie. I LOVE INSTANT NOODLES.

Hearts Myojo Char Mee

Best tom yum instant noodles ever; I always have two packets at a go!

Pop Mie! My ultimate fav instant noodles in Bali!

I love instant noodles. I could have instant noodles on my death bed. If I can still chew, at that age, that is.