Cafe spree

One of our friends who is working in the US is back for holiday. A group of us went out, making it a point to go somewhere new.

Indeed, we really went to quite a few places today! Was like a discovery trip in Singapore. We went to Tea Party in Bukit Timah Road as one friend had read about the place. It is an average place and we ate too much though. :)

Then we remembered we read there are horses and a rider cafe nearby that area. So we hopped on Fern's car and went searching for it. We were so excited when we see the horses, commenting so loudly in the car, the horses would have been frightened should the car window be opened haha.

The riders cafe looks a nice place though we were too full to eat anything. http://www.riderscafe.sg/ Nice ambience indeed and most importantly does not look overcrowded. Then we went seaching for an elusive seafood restaurant. We discovered a golf course instead.

Next we decided to go somewhere for a drink and settled at Little Bali (http://www.littlebali.com/) at Gillman Village. Is quite a comfortable and relaxed place. There were even a karaoke competition some tables away as teachers from some schools were having some event to celeberate Teachers' Day! In a way, we enjoyed some *live band* music.

Had a great time laughing and talking about "anything under the sun". Mostly exchanging gossip news that we read from the press or exchanging updates of ourselves. The most memorable part was at the end of the session, all four of us girls were "fighting" to settle the bill. We were having such an animated and boisterous exchange trying to get the bill that some other diners were laughing at us. J even showed some gongfu stances to stop the rest from going near to foot the bill! :) It must be hilarious looking at us!

There were much laughter today and it is really a great day out! :)

Mail reached

I received a message from my friend that my mail has reached her! Wow it is really much faster than we expected. 12 days is all it takes for the mail to reach Nigeria from Singapore! Wow!

Online Shopping

Seems like more and more people are doing online shopping for clothes. My friend just passed me a pair of pants that she could not fit in after she bought from the Net. Not sure I can squeeze in too, been putting on weight.

Was asking my colleague yesterday on a new dress she bought and discovered she got it online. It was a very good deal! Apparently she has also started buying her clothes online as they were very much cheaper than those from the stores!

Wow, seems that one can save and have more choices when buying clothes online! Time to probably do my homework. My online shopping has so far been limited to airfares, hotel rooms, chocolates, concert tickets and books. Its time to venture further. haha

Stop the horror with soap and water

I saw this picture on the bus the other day! Isn't it hideous? Was shocked by the picture, the hand really looked monstrous! Took a further look, it is an ad "Stop the horror with soap and water" by the health promotion board to encourage people to wash their hands with soap.

The message did work though! I could not bear to look further at the picture and just wanted to alight and wash my hands!!! haha.

But after alighting from the bus, I forgotten about it and went along my business haha. Nevertheless the picture does leave an impression and in a way, it has done its job, spreading the message across and people remembering it.

(PS: Picture was not taken by me, was trying to look for it online and found it in google by a blogger who has taken a picture. Thank you for the pic! )

Mail to Nigeria

My friend has just left to Nigeria for a month not so long ago. She will be spending her birthday there.

First thought of Nigeria is "Scam". There are too often reports of scams cases from Nigeria in the news. In actual fact, Nigeria is also thriving economy, one rather significant oil producing country and one whose economy is relatively more developed among the African nations.

Anyway I was so excited when my friend mentioned she was going and wanted to send her a mail. Was thinking of surprising her with a parcel, until she told me that it is likely the mail will only reach after she is on her way back. I then insisted that it is ok, I can find a way to send her.

I wahinking how difficult can it be, I can always use Fedex or UPS. Didn't they said they can sent a mail anywhere in the world. I remembered sending a mail by Fedex to the USA was not too expensive, starting from 30 plus dollars. Thus I went about searching for the postal rate to Nigeria and was shocked! It costs upwards of $400 dollars to Nigeria by Fedex or UPS. The base rate is $400 plus, thus even if you are sending a 50 gram letter, that is the minimum cost!!!! I initially thought there was some mistakes, rub my eyes :> and checked several times etc.

Wow the drastic difference in the rates between sending to Nigeria and USA! I know there will be differences but did not expect that huge a difference. No wonder my friend told me that there is no need to send her anything.

I later learned I can send a letter via Singapore Post to Nigeria for $2.50 via Air Mail. The mail will be sent via Singapore Post to Nigeria where it will be transferred to the recipient via the local postal system. To test the Nigeria Postal system, I have happily sent her a letter via Singapore Post. Will await the result and let you know haha! :)

Fell down from bus

I often heard about old people falling down when alighting from bus. Must be careful when you are with your parents etc as it is no good for old people to fall since they take longer time to recover.

Never expect that I will be a victim too. For no reason, I was alighting and the next moment I was flat on the ground. I felt more embarassed than anything haha. Some people were walking by nearby and I could still remembered their shock expressions! Hmm....did I fell too loudly or was my fallen posture dramatic? Maybe. (I wonder how to fall in a beautiful manner, must learn ;> ) Not that I screamed, but I thought there was a loud thump sound. Lucky I was alone. After getting over the shock, I quickly dusted myself up and left. I thought the bus driver also knew as the bus stopped for quite a while. Thank you for waiting for this clumsy person to get up before you went on your way! :)

Just a few scratches though my ankle still sored after 2 days. All well. Do be careful when you alight from the bus next time.

100 m record

Have you watched the record breaking 100m run by Usain Bolt? Wow, he went under 9.60 seconds at 9.58 seconds. A fantastic timing. It was thought that man cannot go under 9.60 seconds but he did it! He showed that you can have fun and yet performed well at the same time.

Actually I feel for Tyson Gay. He is also a very good runner and he also wanted to win a lot. However in life there can only be one winner in the physical race. But he should be happy too, I think he broke his own record despite having some injury.

Often the process of the journey is more important than the ending. Both are winners if I look at it!

I finally got my Book!!!

A few months ago, I chanced upon this seemingly pictorial book - 《再苦也要去旅行》in Popular Bookshop. Was browsing the bookshop and the title and attractive cover of the book captured my attention. It was a travelogue by a Malaysia gal. Wow! travelogue exactly the genre I enjoy reading. I have always lamented that I hardly saw Asia writers, and what's more a female Asian writer from my neighouring country! Somemore the book has lots of pictures, and not so many Chinese words. I hardly if ever buy Chinese book due to poor grasp in Chinese, so it seems a good start. In addition, there were good reviews of the book from the newspaper. It seems though a very popular book as I had to go to several bookshops just to check its availability (out of stock many of times) after I decided to buy it.

Once I bought it, I was hooked on reading it. Through her book, I seemed to be travelling with her. Her journey though was a bit extreme for my standard. Though I had backpacked alone several times, but I still prefer to travel with some comfort, eg stay in a room on my own on guesthouse etc. She slept in dorms and even prefered to sleep at sofa at the guesthouse reception area, camped out alone etc to save costs. Her style of travelling could be something I probably be uncomfortable with. I guess that is the difference between travelling a few weeks for me and travelling a few years for her.

After finishing her book, I realized that there is a earlier travelogues written by her called <<再穷也要去旅行>>, I had to buy it!!! I went to Kino at Orchard and various bookshops only to learn that either they do not carry her earlier book or that it is sold out and I need to order. Being me, I preferred to ask Kino at Orchard every time I am at the area whether new stocks have come in instead of ordering which will probably save me a lot of effort.

Yesterday I was at orchard again with my friend and I suggested to her to go to Kino to look see after our dinner. Haha actually it was because I wanted to check out the book. At the info counter, I asked for the book again only to hear it is not available but new stocks will arrive soon, maybe next week. I was about to finally give my contact but decided on a spur of the moment to ask them whether their other outlets have the book. And Kino at Liang Court actually have one last copy left! Wow this is great! I immediately abandon any plan of shopping further and told my friend that I had to go! The shop will close in one and half hour time. She was somewhat excited too as she had read the later book that I lent her and like it. She said I have to lend her after I finished. Of course, it is such an interesting book! I rushed down and finally got my book!!!! :) Looking forward to reading it.

Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan

I was watching a number of online video clips on the typhoon these few days. It is really heart wrenching. The destruction caused by the weather..... Whole village buried in mud...

Nature certainly has great power, and when it unleashes its fury, the consequences and toll on people along its path are at times devastating. There have been too many examples recently near home, the Aceh Earthquake/Tsuanmi, the Shichuan Earthquake and now the Typhoon in Taiwan.

Sitting in front of my laptop/TV, thousands of kilometres away and seeing the images of destruction still cause discomfort. Really hope these people did not need to go through this hardship.

Drought in some areas and floods in others. Are the increasing incidences of these disasters a result of global warming and partly caused by us?

We are indeed very very fortunate to live in Singapore where there have been no records (at least what I know) of natural disasters. I certainly hope we stay disaster free. Let us be more involved in our daily lifes in protecting the environment. May help reach these people sooon.

Free bus service in Orchard

Last weekend, I was waiting at the bus stop opposite Park Mall. A colorfully painted SBS transit bus came by and 2 guys dressed in costumes with masks on their face came down (think they were impersonating some movie characters) and approached the people waiting at the bus stop! They were trying to advertise the new free bus service along Orchard Road. Supposedly, the bus will drop people at the bus stops near the various shopping malls. The impersonators were quite on their job, they will approach some young girls and said "Gorgeous, bus service for you" etc. It had the girls giggling and the people were merry. One of the impersonators even threw the girls a goodbye kiss after he boarded the bus and left.

It is quite a good idea to have such a free bus service since there are now so many shopping centres along Orchard. Can start using it the next time you go to Orchard!

Walking

These past few weeks, I have been spending a lot of time walking around my area for some work. It sketched to a few hours at times. It was tiring and my walk reduced to a shuffling of legs after 1-2 hours. It was certainly also interesting in its own way, I discovered many shops that I did not know exist etc.

Today I was walking (or rather shuffling) when I chanced upon two beautiful cats who were staring at each other intently. I could sense a fight about to begin. The cats looked clean and grand though.

On way back, I overhead a lady talking to her closed ones about a bird that she believed was the one she saw previously and was staying at around our area. Wow lovely! There are people who actually observed the environment we are staying around so much.

Thinking aloud, I wonder where do birds hide during heavy rain? I sometimes doubt their nest in the trees can really shelter them from heavy rain.

Triathlon

Recently there was a much discussed news about a seemingly active person who died in the swimming phase of the triathlon. It was a sad news but nevertheless highlight the danger lurking in some sports.

Last year I took part in a half triathlon (750 m swim, 20 km cycle and 5 km run). Before the event, i took part in the swim clinic as I was concerned about swimming in the open sea. Indeed swimming in the sea was much more tiring but actually swimming in the clinics was so much more better than during the event itself. Not that the water was more rough, but the rush among the competitors. There was not so many people in the swimming clinic but on the actual event there were so many people. Even though we were flagged off in groups but in the water, it was congested. Due to space constraints, inevitably you will be kicked on the head or hand or other parts by the swimmers in front. Sometimes you may feel someone hitting your legs from behind as some people swam faster than you. My friend who also joined the race with me commented that she nearly drowned. She is a very fit person but all the thrashing in the water can really tire the swimmers, not from the physical exercise of swimming but from the dangers of overcrowding.

Nonetheless we managed to finish the event. The highlight must be running in the rain. It was raining quite heavily, but surprisingly, I thought the rain was refreshing, else it will be so hot.