Author Archives: Administrator

Weekend in Bali – Day 1

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Ron and I caught an early morning flight on Lion Air, a low-cost airline based in Indonesia, to Denpasar (Bali). We booked through a travel agent but I read about the airline in the newspaper and I’m glad I did because the cost was about 1/2 compared to Singapore Airlines to Bali.

Ron became an instant millionaire when we exchanged money at the airport (1 SGD = 6800 IDR).

We stayed at Kozy Villas while in Bali. We had our own private pool which was pretty cool.

We took a short nap then took our villa’s free transport to Kuta beach to do some walking and grab lunch. We shopped a bit before heading to a place to get a massage. We ended up at a place called Well Being Spa where we actually had to bargain with the people to get a reasonable price for the massage. The massage was okay but wasn’t that impressive. The lady who was giving me a massage also stepped out for 10 minutes to go to the restroom and when she came back, she didn’t extend my massage so those 10 minutes were lost. A bit inconsiderate I think. I guess that’s what we get for just picking a random spa without reading reviews or taking recommendations.

We went back to the villa after doing a bit more shopping and had room service at our villa. A chef from the restaurant Fabio’s with two servers actually came to our villa and cooked for us in our private dining room. It was a quite nice experience and the food was quite good. My favorite was the pan fried shrimp.

Please see more photos here or see the slideshow below.


The Cheese Prata Shop on Clementi

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Ron wanted to eat at a place close to home rather than going all the way out for Friday Foody. We pass by this Cheese Prata Shop on the way to Joyce’s condo so I thought it might be interesting to try. It’s open 24 hours and I read online that they make a good cheese prata.

We ordered quite a lot but it was only $20 and we came home pretty full. The only complaint I have is that it’s hard to get to unless you take the bus. It’s good for midnight munchies as it is open 24 hours so I can see why students go there. There are other restaurants next door that also seem interesting.

So we tried the mutton murtabak, which I found a little dry. It came with sauce which made it better but the minced meat seemed a bit overcooked. It was nice though that it didn’t have the “gamey” taste that I usually have a problem with in lamb.

Inside there were lots of onions.

We tried the banana cheese prata which was good except there wasn’t much cheese in it. I like the light syrup on top, not too overpowering.

We had the Roti John which is French bread filled with some egg and vegetables and served with a sweet chili sauce.

We ordered the maggi goreng pattaya. I found it on this person’s blog and it sounded pretty good. It’s similar to the Japanese yakisoba wrapped in an omelette except they use Maggi instant noodles.

Inside:

I tried one of their “special” drinks, this is called a “tehcino”.. basically teh tarik with some foam like a cappuccino.

Yes we ate a lot… and it was very filling. I’m not sure if we’ll go there again because like I said, it’s not to easy to get there unless you’re patient with the bus… or willing to pay for a taxi.

Sorry the photos are a bit blurry… my camera phone doesn’t take very sharp pictures.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Bali… can’t wait to get pampered…

Cat Cafe

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I was watching the news the other night and they featured these “cat cafes” in Japan. Apparently most apartments in Japan don’t allow renters to have cats, they’ve been opening up these cafes where you can pay to pet and play with cats. They looked so cute on TV! It sounds expensive though, 500 Yen for 30 minutes at one place or 800 Yen for 1 hour at another place.

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I was just thinking they need these in Singapore…

Hello Kitty Build-a-Bear and Ice Monster

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Our pharmacy has decided to extend their inpatient hours so that it is consistent throughout the week. It used to only be open Mon thru Fri 8am-5pm, Sat and Sun 8am-2pm. Then they slowly extended hours the last few months so it’ll be open 7 days a week, 7am-5pm. I happened to be scheduled to work today the mid-shift 9:30am-3pm. The workload today was okay but we didn’t really get time for lunch, only a 15 minute break so I came home really hungry. I ate quickly then went to take a nap.

I didn’t wake up until 7pm. We went out to Plaza Singapura because I wanted to go to Made With Love to buy some crafting supplies. At Plaza Singapura, we passed by the Build-a-Bear and saw that they have two Hello Kitty Build-a-Bears!! I’m going to have to build them both before I leave Singapore… they don’t have them in US anymore because when I went back, I checked and they didn’t have them anymore. The newest one is the Tropical Kitty where she has a tan 🙂

We had dinner in Basement Level 2. We ate at Ice Monster which is famous for their shaved ice desserts, especially the Durian and Mango one. We didn’t have one though since I wasn’t in the mood for shaved ice. Instead we had their hot food.

We had the ja jyang mian which was only okay. The sauce was a bit runny so it didn’t stick to the noodles so it wasn’t very flavorful.

We also had the spicy beef noodles which weren’t spicy at all. The meat also had a bit too much tendon for Ron’s taste. The soup was not bad but could have done with a bit more spice.

We shared the mango popiah which is stuffed with mango and pork floss. Ron thought there wasn’t enough pork floss and the mango was a bit too sweet. It’s the same fruit they use on the shaved ice so I agreed it was a bit too sweet. But it’s a lighter option compared to the other dishes.

We had a hard time catching a taxi home so now I’m exhausted and ready for bed. Back to work again tomorrow… it’s Monday.. ack!

Arab Street, Ministry of Food, Shopping, Made of Honor, Han’s Cafe

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Today I spent a lovely day out with one little hiccup.

I work tomorrow so wanted to enjoy a day relaxing. Joyce also wanted to do some shopping we we headed out together. We met up at Bugis MRT station so I could show her Arab Street and see some local, although touristy, stores. I discovered this store called Utopia a few months ago and although some of their clothes are a bit “loud”, the are unique, comfortable, and pretty.

After Arab Street we headed 2 streets over to Haji Lane see if the boutiques were open. They weren’t and this is where we had a little hiccup today. As we were walking down the street, we were trying to avoid a parked van, I walked right and I felt something hit my left foot but I then walked left to follow Joyce around the other way. I just thought it was a rock until we started walking further down and my left foot felt wet. I looked down to see the sole of my sandal covered with blood. These nice shop owners saw my predicament and offered me a chair and to use their bathroom to wash my foot. I dried off as much blood with tissues first then ran my foot under water for 5 minutes. It stopped bleeding quickly and I pulled out my alcohol swabs and bandaids from my handy bag. She likened to me to Doraemon who has a “magical” bag with lots of stuff. So I patched myself up and we went in search of the nail… I found it with a bit of blood on it. I got a bit scared when I first saw it but I had my tetanus booster only a few years back so I’m fine but will watch myself for the next few days just to be sure. It doesn’t hurt or anything when walking since it’s in the arch of my foot. Joyce captured the moment for me.

We headed over to Bugis Junction to take a little rest and have some lunch. We went to Ministry of Food so we could enjoy their yummy desserts. Their food is pretty good too. Joyce and I ordered the set meals which includes rice, soup, a side dish, coffee or tea, and you can top up an additional $3 for a dessert that costs less than or equal to $6.50.

I ordered the seafood toji (a sort of egg dish) with fried chicken on the side.

Joyce ordered the unagi with vegetables. It included fried chicken but since she doesn’t eat chicken, after some convincing, the chef agreed to give her more mushrooms and carrots instead.

I ordered the green tea imo (one sweet yam, one taro) served with soft serve and green matcha sauce. I love those fried potatoes…

Joyce ordered the mango mini gelato. The ice cream had a really nice flavor.

The wait staff today was a bit new so the service was a bit slow but we had an enjoyable lunch anyways and had enough fuel to last for the rest of the day.

We went over to Bugis Village which is like a covered outdoor market for clothing, accessories, collectibles, and beauty treatments. We walked around a bit inside since it was raining pretty hard and went to check out the prices of the eyelash extensions 😀 There is one shop where it costs about $45 for the glue-on type (which I did) and $48 for some Korean eyelash weave (which I don’t know much about but is supposed to last longer, the ad says 100 days).

We stayed there until about 5pm before heading over to Marina Square to catch our planned movie. We took the MRT over there and did a bit of shopping and rested a bit. Siew Woon met up with us at the theater and we watched “Made of Honor”. It was a cute movie, reminiscent of “My Best Friend’s Wedding”.

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After the movie, we looked around for a place for dinner. We ended up at Han’s Cafe which is sort of a self-serve/full-serve restaurant. You order and pay at the counter then sit down and they serve you. A bit weird. I ordered the set meal fish & chips which included a drink (coffee/tea/water), soup of the day, and dessert. The soup of the day was some sort of creamed carrot. The dessert ended up being once slice of watermelon! That can be a dessert but when you look at their delicious dessert case, you expect a piece of pie or cake, not fruit. The menu should’ve just said fruit 😛

The fish was very greasy but the price for the meal wasn’t bad, I think it was less than $10. By 10pm, the place was closing so they were subtly trying to kick us out by mopping the floor around us and closing the gates.. they eventually did come over and ask us if we were done so we decided to leave.

Gotta work tomorrow… sigh…