Monthly Archives: November 2007

Oops… behind on posting again…

Just a quick update since my exam is next Saturday… yikes! But after that I will be a little more free and hopefully less stressed… although I think I’ll be stressed worrying about if I passed or not…

Anyways, real quick just so you have something to see, we celebrated American Thanksgiving in Singapore on Wednesday. Yeah yeah, we know it’s the wrong day and even more off because of the time difference, but we really just couldn’t do it on the traditional day.

I didn’t take any pictures of my own so here are a few to see for now until I get some from our friends.

Click here for my friend Alex’s Flickr album.

I’ll try to write more soon.

Turkey Day Is Coming

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I’m a bit sad that Thanksgiving is coming this week but we won’t be home to celebrate with out family. However, we’re going to make our own dinner here and invite our new friends to enjoy our meal with us. So we thought we’d better go out and buy our turkey so that it could defrost in the refrigerator. It may be bit strange but I think we’re having Thanksgiving on Wednesday instead of Thursday because we don’t have enough time to make the turkey on Thursday… but we’ll see, that is still TBD.

Ron has been researching our winter trip to Korea all day and I’ve been studying all day so we finally decided to take a break to head to the NTUC Fairprice grocery store nearby here on Clementi Rd. My preceptor said that this would be a good place to buy a cheap and large turkey. We’d never been to this grocery store before so thought we’d venture out today.

Our flatmate Justine came with us and we had dinner first at Sumo House. The food sounded pretty cheap, like S$2.90 for a katsudon set meal or S$4.90 for a chicken teriyaki set meal.

Their logo was especially funny:

The service was a bit weird though, when you enter there’s someone at the door kind of blocking the way. Then they direct you to sit down at a table. Then they come take your order. Then they ask you to go pay at the register first. Then you have to go get the hot tea for yourself. We couldn’t understand why you didn’t just select and pay at the counter first before sitting down.

I tried the S$2.90 katsudon which is a fried chicken fillet cooked with egg on top of rice. It was served with miso soup (a bit too salty), picked cucumber, and 2 slices of orange. The dish itself was edible although not fantastic but considering it was less than S$3, I won’t complain too much. I was just hungry.

For some humor, we read the specials of the day. They offered “shishamo” which I usually like because it is filled with fish roe, but after reading the description underneath, it doesn’t sound so appetizing anymore…

Afterwards we did our shopping at NTUC and found our turkey and other ingredients. It’s going to be a challenge to figure out how to cook it, we’re going to have to borrow some oven space from our friends. I have to wait until they get back from their weekend trips… so hopefully they’ll say ‘yes’ tomorrow. I can only cook vegetables (sweet potatoes) and dessert (?peach cobbler) in our mini convection oven.

Imperial Treasure Nan Bei at Takashimaya

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More eating!

Today we went to Orchard Road and had dim sum at a place called Imperial Treasure Nan Bei. It is different than the first place we went to called Imperial Treasure Teochew but they are both in Takashimaya on different levels. Our flatmate Justine’s friend was visiting from Taiwan so we all went out to lunch together.

We ordered the “regular” types of dim sum and it was all pretty much okay, nothing too spectacular. Although I did enjoy their “nai wong bao” (egg custard bun) which was actually a steamed cake instead of a bun. I think they used salted duck egg in between the layers so the salt mixed with the sweet made it pretty tasty.

Deep fried squid with black & white pepper (although I didn’t really see any pepper)

Rice noodle with chicken (this was sort of unique, I’ve usually only seen shrimp, beef, or BBQ pork)

Ha gao (shrimp dumpling)

Siu mai (pork & shrimp dumpling)

Fried spring rolls (the skin was really crispy… and oily, watch out for zits in the next week)

Turnip cake (made differently than I’m used it, instead of “mashing” the turnips, it was made with strips layered together)

Shanghai dumpling (like xiao long bao but not quite)

Fried pork buns (we sort of ordered incorrectly as we were expecting something else but it was okay anyways)

Nai wong bao (custard egg bun/cake)

Green onion sesame pancake (inside was filled with green onions and the sesame nicely toasted, Justine said she has had better but it was pretty nice)

Afterwards we headed down to basement level 2 of the shopping center to look for some dessert. I ended up buying something called “obanyaki” for breakfast tomorrow. It looks like 2 pancakes stuck together and filled with either red bean, peanuts, custard, blueberry & cheese, and others. I bought the peanut for Ron and the custard for myself.

But we also decided to have some Hokkaido ice cream. Hokkaido is apparently very well known for its dairy products so their ice cream sounds like it should be rich and creamy. Ron and I decided to share a double cone of passion fruit and black sesame. I know a weird combination but they both sounded like the most appetizing flavors at the time.

The server makes the ice cream stand up to a point by first squishing down on the cone then jerking up his hand quickly to form a point. The ice cream seemed pretty soft.

It then comes out looking like this:

The ice cream was actually a bit ice-y for my taste but the flavors were pretty good. The cone itself was kind of soft, not as crispy as I thought it should be. I think it was S$5-6 so that is quite expensive for SG where you can get ice cream on the street for S$1 but then I guess you don’t have the variety of flavors with those street vendors.

After our dessert, Ron and I went to Lucky Plaza across the street to buy a new Wii game. Ron eventually picked out “Mario Party 8” and has currently been playing it all night.

Unfortunately I’ve been studying… which is always no fun… but it’s getting better, not so confusing. It will be another day of studying for me tomorrow before going back to work…

But Thanksgiving is coming so I think we’re going to have to go buy a turkey and rib roast tomorrow… yum!

End of week update

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Yes it’s been a while since I’ve had time to update our blog. It’s been a busy and exhausting week for me at work plus there have been quite a few activities. So this will been a quick picture-filled update.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11

Ron planned a trip with his classmates to the city of Johor Bahru in Malaysia which is very near to Singapore. You can literally walk across a bridge into the city. They spent the day there playing golf even though some of them had never played before. Apparently at this golf range there is no handicap requirement and it was relatively cheap, 80MYR (~24USD) for 9 holes.

They left Singapore around 12:30 and took a bus to Malaysia. They still had to go through the regular customs and immigration check going there and coming back. They ended up having to walk home over the bridge because there were no taxis or buses available around 10pm. Some were carrying their golf bag with clubs. Many people actually commute back and forth from Malaysia to Singapore so it can get quite crowded on that bridge.

I’m not much for golf plus I had to study for the pharmacy law exam so I stayed home all day.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12

Today was my last day of orientation! Yay! It’s been quite tiring and can get quite boring just sitting around and listening… it’s been a while since I’ve had to be in a “class” and listen for 8 hours. Although today was relatively interesting because it was presentations from all the departments to give you an idea of how the hospital is run and who to go for when you need help. Tuesday I would finally get back to work at the pharmacy.

Justine and I were at home alone for dinner so we tried out our skills on making a meal. We ended up making ground beef with coriander pesto sauce and wheat pasta. It wasn’t too bad although the sauce was a bit too garlic-ly.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13

I’m officially a legal worker here in Singapore. I picked up my official Employment Pass (EP) in the morning before work. It was just a green laminated card with my VISA stamped into the pages of my passport. It’s a bit different than Ron’s Student Pass because he has 2 cards, 1 is the VISA and 1 is the pass (I think).

I went to work after picking up my pass and it was a bit stressful. After only having worked 1 week then 1 week of orientation, I had some trouble remembering how things were done. But since it’s so fast paced there, at least you get re-exposed to everything again in a short time so more practice makes perfect!

Ron and I spent a quiet evening at home.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14

We went grocery shopping at Cold Storage today. It’s not the cheapeast place but it is the closest and I was craving some fresh food. I ended up going there first and having Ron meet me later. I got my hands on some mangoes, winter dates, fragrant pears, bread, baking goods (flour, sugar, nuts, baking soda, eggs), chips & salsa, and when Ron came, he picked up his frozen goods (pizza, spring rolls, fish sticks). Now our fridge is fully stocked so we can survive without eating out so much.

Wednesday is Bar of the Week night which this week was at Balcony Bar at The Hereen (a shopping center). It had a nice outdoor patio with “beds” (lounging seats) and a “hot tub” (actually a bubbling water feature with cold water that had a counter around it like a bar). I tried this drink called an Advocaat which I thought was going to taste like avocado but ended up tasting like and orange cream soda. Apparently it’s an egg-based liqueur topped up with sparkling lemonade. According to wikipedia, it did used to be made of avocadoes but it was adapted to eggs when avocadoes weren’t available.

The drink wasn’t very alcoholic but quite tasty, especially because it was fizzy.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15

Tomorrow is our flatmate Justine’s birthday so we went to dinner at this restaurant called Z’en located at UE Square. The dinner party was around 20 people so we had a set course meal. The sashimi was especially nice and overall, the meal was quite satisfying. The only kind of strange one was the chicken meat on a stick which seemed like ground up chicken with the cartilage and tendons because it was a bit crunchy.

We sat outside under a large awning with fans and we had a really long table. It was okay but a bit stuffy I think because of the weather, a bit more humid than usual. The restaurant has a large collection of sake so I recommend it if you also like sake. The service was pretty good for having to accommodate 20+ people along with their regular customers. But they went the extra mile in buying a very delicious chocolate cake for the birthday girl and even saying they were sorry when they couldn’t find the exact type requested.

Click here or see below for the slideshow of our meal:

We were pretty close by Clarke Quay and people did not seem like they wanted to go home so we ended up walking a few blocks and stopped at Fashion Bar. We stayed until midnight to wish Justine a happy birthday then called it a night.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16,

Today I look like I’m a drug user instead of a drug pusher… I had blood drawn this morning for the required annual blood screening. At NUH in the cancer center pharmacy, the employees are required to have a blood screening every year to determine if they’ve been exposed to the chemotherapy. In the US, during training we watch this video about how you can have traces of drugs in your urine and blood if you don’t wear the proper protective equipment but screening is not required. I’m not too fond of needles so I wasn’t looking forward to this morning’s blood test. The nurse had to prick me twice, the 2nd time because she did not have enough blood in the 2nd tube so she had to prick my right and left arm. Ouch! And my right arm was a bit bruised up.

So not only did I have to get blood drawn, I also had to get a Hepatitis B booster shot. I had the series of 3 shots done before starting pharmacy school (as required) and apparently my immunity is borderline low so I needed to get a booster. It hurt. Mostly because the vaccine was cold. I still need to go back in December for another blood test to check my immunity to make sure the booster worked. Not looking forward to it!

One good tip that my preceptor passed on to me is to offer your non-writing hand for blood draws, just in case something may happen, you’ll still be able to write. I guess that may sound a bit paranoid but better safe than sorry. From now on, I’m going to offer my left arm, like I always offer my left arm for shots.

But at least when I finally got to the pharmacy, I had a good breakfast. There was a drug company Kirin giving a presentation about their drugs GRAN (filgrastim, G-CSF) and Peglasta (pegfilgrastim).

It was also employee appreciation day at NUH so there was a free lunch for all employees. It was to thank everyone for a successful JCI (Joint Commission International) re-accreditation in July. JCI is the same as the US Joint Commission on Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). It can be a very stressful and difficult time for healthcare organizations because everything is looked at with a magnifying glass in relation to patient care. Hospital administrators are usually very appreciative of their employee’s efforts so there’s always these rewards like free lunches. We also all got NUH umbrellas as thank you gifts.

For dinner I had a pharmaceutical company sponsored talk and dinner to attend with my preceptor. GlaxoSmithKline sponsored the talk about the new drug Tykerb (lapatanib) as it was just recently approved here in Singapore. It’s a newly approved drug used to treat breast cancer. The dinner was at a restaurant near Chinatown called Xi Yan. The food was very nice and I’m sure very expensive. We were served lime juice and rose tea. The servers kindly explained the main entrees as they mixed or carved the dishes. We had a set meal and the flavors were Chinese, Japanese, and Thai. They apparently offer a cookbook there as well so you can try to make the dishes at home yourself. I think I will not likely get to eat there again so I’m glad I had this opportunity. Apparently if you would like to eat there you have to make reservations a few months in advance with a minimum of 6 persons.

Click here or see below for the slideshow of our meal:

Ron went to a BBQ tonight at our apt complex. More birthdays again. It seems like there are BBQs almost every week. I didn’t finish dinner until 11 so I got home after the BBQ already finished. It took me almost 30 minutes to wait for a taxi so I’ve had a long day and am exhausted.

I’m glad it’s the weekend but I’ve got to study for my exam. Only these 2 more weekends! yikes.

So sorry that wasn’t so quick but I’m going to try to be better about updating daily so I don’t run into this problem of forgetting what we did? where did we go? which day was that again? who were we with? 😀

Dragon Village Steamboat

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http://avipclub.com/sg/dragonvillage/

My goodness, I think we’ve been eating way too much… more on that in a bit.

This morning I went to wait in line (aka in SG: Queue or Q’ing) to pick up my Employment Pass (EP) from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). I need this pass in order to stay in Singapore to work. I’d originally applied for a Long Term Social Visit Pass (LTSVP) to let me stay in Singapore (“to stay with my husband”) but I actually did not need it because we travelled in and out of the country each month. But I need the EP in order to continue working and it took me a long time to get one because I was waiting for my letter from the Singapore Pharmacy Board plus I didn’t actually have the time to collect the EP since they aren’t open late and I’ve been at work.

When I got to MOM, my Q No. was 252 and they were only on 112! I like their Q’ing system here though, they have different letters for different services so it’s more specialized service, or else I think the wait would’ve been longer. It wasn’t so bad though, I just studied while I waited and it took about 2 hours for me to turn in my paperwork. I won’t be able to collect my EP until next week.

I went to shop at Central for some shoes and tops before heading home.

Tonight for dinner we planned on trying all-you-can-eat “steamboat BBQ”. I’m used to this kind of food being called “hot pot” or “shabu shabu” where you cook raw food in soup or on a grill. We had heard of these places here in Singapore where it is $12 for all-you-can-eat.

So we went with a few friends to this place called Dragon Village at Marina South.

Look at all the geckos crawling on the sign:

The place was actually $13 per adult, $7 for large bottles of beer, and $1.50 for other drinks. Ice cream included!

We piled high plates of food and started cooking.

They had chicken broth or tom yum broth. They had chicken (sesame, satay, chili), bbq marinated beef, seafood (crab, shrimp, squid, many types of fish), veggies, tofu, cooked foods, and fruits.

The meats: