Haircut, Shopping, Movie, and Culture

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Today I went to Vivo City to have my hair cut and colored. I went to Joyce’s salon because she has a haircut plan. My color isn’t very noticeable but at least I don’t have any more white hairs. I met up with Joyce for lunch at the Food Republic.

Joyce ordered this thing called “tea rice” where it’s a mix of veggies, tofu, peanuts where you pour a green tea “soup” and stir it up to eat. I tried some and it is good although a bit weird… the bitter green tea taste is a bit strange but all the ingredients were very yummy.

I only ordered a basil omelet since I wasn’t that hungry. Had a latte from Coffee Bean so I think that curbed my appetite. The omelet was a bit salty though.

We did a bit of shopping and then saw Ironman. I want to be a superhero now!

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Afterwards, Ron and I went to this show at the NUS University Cultural Centre (UCC). Ron’s dad’s friend gave us tickets since he helped in the production of the show. It was called “The Musical Theatre Adaptation of The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings”. It’s organized by the Tzu Chi Foundation of Singapore. Although the singing was quite good, I had a really hard time concentrating since it was in Mandarin. My understanding is still not that good, especially in more formal language. There were subtitles but not for everything and it was difficult to read and then also try to concentrate on the performers actions. So I have a bit of a headache after the performance but I’m glad our family friend thought to share the experience with us.

If you want to see what my hair is like now, I had Ron take a picture. The color is hard to tell but the cut is makes my hair much thinner, not so thick so a bit cooler.

Dessert Heaven

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I’ve been suffering from severe jetlag the whole week… I was jetlagged in US and now jetlagged in SG. Oh well, after this weekend I hope it will be better. So far nothing much planned. Ron and I went to Bugis today and went to Sim Lim Square to shop for electronics. We met up with Joyce for dinner at Suntec City. Ron had a craving for Japanese food so we went to the Japanese buffet restaurant called Kuishin-Bo. I think I mentioned it before in a previous post… they have this annoying jingle which is unforgettable.

Ron kindly waited in line while Joyce and I shopped. She’d had an eventful day by giving a talk about Ambulatory Care Pharmacists to an audience of nurses and doctors. It was a talk about the evolving role of pharmacists. So she’s been a bit stressed so it was lucky she could get some retail therapy. On the ground level was a “This Fashion” sale where all dresses for $5 and tops for $8. Unbelievably cheap! Although Joyce and I will have to be careful how we dress so that we don’t match since we have bought some of the same clothes 😛

When it was our turn to be seated, Ron called us up and we headed upstairs. I really love to eat the sashimi and I tried Joyce’s favorite thing, it looks like a bag made from tofu and filled with mochi. It was yummy, I can understand why it’s her favorite thing.

But I really love the desserts, those are my favorite.. mango pudding, grass jelly, konnyaku, green tea frozen yogurt, mochi, donuts, cheesecake…

It was a good dinner…

Japanese snacks

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I mentioned I had a 2 hour layover in Narita so I went shopping at all the duty free and snack shops. So I wanted to share with you the delicious goods I bought.

First is the banana cake. Apparently famous in Tokyo. I love the wrapping.

They really look like little bananas, about 3 inches long. The cake is soft and moist and filled with a sticky banana filling. Ron doesn’t like the filling though, he said it’s too sticky… it actually kind of looks like snot… but I swear it tastes good!

Next is the melon steam cake. I love all things melon, like I really love Korean melon ice cream bars and their melon gum. So this packaging of course caught my eye.

Again the packaging is so cute. Each are individually wrapped and the cake inside is also very soft and moist. It has a sweet center and the melon taste is very yummy.

Next is from Chocolate House.

They are like mini pound cakes and come in butter, green tea, and chocolate flavors. They are only about 1 inch long but perfect as bite size morsels. You can tell they’re unhealthy because of how buttery they are.

Lastly, Hello Kitty cake.

Cute tin, huh? Well the cake is even cuter… it’s Hello Kitty shaped!

Yum Yum!

Return to Singapore

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I spent a long night packing and feel like I’m returning to Singapore with more stuff than I left with. I even brought stuff to leave at my parents’ house but my luggage is fuller than when I came. I even had to split my stuff into 2 pieces of luggage so I wouldn’t go overweight.

I did a load of laundry before leaving so now some of my clothes have that dryer fresh smell. Man, I miss having a dryer…

My parents took me to the airport and since I had 2 pieces of luggage plus my carry-on, I rented one of those trolleys… I was shocked that it cost $3!! The machine even has a credit card slot in case you don’t have enough cash. You don’t get the money back, it’s not like a deposit, it’s an actual rental fee.

My flight was around noon and I was flew to Narita first.

I had a window seat next to this older Japanese couple.

I didn’t sleep at all but instead watched all the movies plus shows on the flight. Watched things like “Hero”, “Bucket List”, some Japanese movies, “Frasier”, “Gags for Laughs”, etc etc.

Also had some interesting Japanese airline food.

This is unagi (eel) rice with soba noodles and smoked salmon salad.

The 2nd meal was more Western, a cream mushroom chicken served with a side of bean salad and fresh fruits.

When I arrived in Narita, I was exhausted because I had already been in-flight about 10 hours but had to stay away to catch my next flight. My layover was about 2 hours so I walked up and down the terminal buying little things at each store. They had a Starbucks there so I tried the coffee jelly frappuccino. Nothing that exciting, the jelly was like grass jelly.

My last meal on the flight to Singapore was a roasted chicken served with a coldcut salad and a chocolate cake. Most of it wasn’t very nice but that may have been because I was already really full.

We landed in Singapore around midnight but were stuck in the plane waiting for our terminal to be free. I guess there as a plane that arrived before us and waiting for everyone to get off and the luggage to be cleared.

I finally arrived back home after 1am and showered and went to sleep because I had to work today. I started feeling really tired this afternoon from the jet lag but not so bad for the first day back.

Oakland Chinatown, Out the Door, Mochi & Misu

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I went to visit my dad’s new pharmacy that is planning on opening in mid May. It’s below Oakland Chinatown’s Asian Health Services and it’s going to be pretty high tech with a robot to do the counting and labeling.

This sign will eventually also be in Chinese:

We had dim sum at Peony Restaurant with my parents’ friends. The best thing were the egg tarts, very flaky crust and very eggy center.

Afterwards I headed to San Francisco to wait for my friends Shirley and Patrick to get done with work, and pharmacy school graduation ceremonies, respectively. I entertained myself at San Francisco Shopping Center and met up with them for dinner Out the Door in the basement of the mall. I’ve always wanted to eat there but hadn’t had the chance when I was working in SF. Read some reviews about it here.

We had a fabulous filling dinner. There were only the three of us for dinner so we had leftovers that Patrick took home. Here’s what we ate..

Fried squid salad with a dill dressing and pickled onions.

Fried vegetarian spring rolls Vietnamse style, you use the lettuce to wrap the noodles and pieces of spring roll together.

Some sort of pork sparerib with a sweet sauce. It was good but I can’t remember what type of sauce it was.

Fish tomato “soup”, a bit spicy and a bit fishy.

Half a crispy duck! yum yum! The skin was delcious.

Ah, stuffed.

Tonight will be lots of packing… and leaving some stuff here. I’m gonna be sad to leave my family. And I’m gonna miss my kitties but at least I know they’re in good hands with my dad. Misu really loves to be held and scratched.