Working working working…

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Well working working working is what I’m hoping to do. I spent this morning at NUH getting my papers certified by the pharmacy manager and picking up completed forms. It took me quite a while to find the cancer center pharmacy as it is in a completely different wing than the pharmacy office. Let me tell you that hospital is huge! Then I spent the afternoon at the Singapore Pharmacy Board (SPB) having my documents looked over by their staff. I feel a bit less discouraged today as there are only a few things left that they require. I will have to wait until tomorrow to request them though because UOP does not have a reissue diploma form on their website. My diploma is locked up in a PODS facility with no one to access it and probably extremely difficult to find. Same goes with my pharmacist wall certificate, it is locked up as well.

If anyone needs advice on how to apply as a foreigner to the SPB, I can try to help all I can but it seems like the best bet is to call them before you leave your home country so you’ll know what you need to bring with you. So you won’t have the trouble I’m having with having to request all these reissued documents. My friend Joyce is going through the same process with me so it was good to talk with her tonight and get out our frustrations.

I’ve got the job, now I just need to gain approval to work!

We ordered from McDelivery tonight for dinner. It’s the first time we’ve tried it. Apparently they are open 24/7 for delivery! Crazy, huh? The breakfast is tempting 🙂 It arrived pretty quickly, within 15-20 minutes although they quoted 30 minutes. I even got a Oreo McFlurry which was yummy.

Next will be KFC Delivery!

Now I’m watching Singapore’s version of American Idol, it’s called “Live the Dream”. It’s a bit different though because they have soloists and bands. The results show is also the same night as the show. I guess because Singapore is small enough of a country to tally votes within 2 hours… not sure though… they just scared the contestants though and didn’t send anyone home because this is charity week. Sort of like when American Idol was “Idol gives back” week.

I’m exhausted even though I didn’t do much today. I even had to skip Aqua-Gym today. I guess I’m mentally tired from all the worrying about my application. I have to stay up until midnight in order to call the UOP Registrar’s Office. Yawn.

Borders and enjoying a good book

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Well last night I got some disappointing news that my application for pre-registration with the Singapore Board of Pharmacy was not accepted. Their requirements have changed within the last month where originals of all documents must be certified by the staff at the board or by your future pharmacy manager. Plus they require original certificates like your diploma and pharmacist wall license. Plus transcripts must be submitted directly from the school and letters with specific terminology must be submitted directly from the foreign board of pharmacy and from the school of pharmacy. It’s all very specific so I took quite a bit of the morning taking care of requesting additional paperwork from California. It was a bit discouraging but I know things eventually work themselves out with a little hard work. My future preceptor said things are becoming more strict because of recent reports of people faking their credentials. I found a forum focused on this topic in one of our local papers, The Straits Times. So I can understand their concern.

I went to the Borders bookstore in the afternoon. I needed to get something more interesting to read. I miss having books at my fingertips. If you’ve seen my bookcase full of books at home, you’d know what I mean. I ended up getting a really good deal on two books as they were having a sale, 70% off red-marked books.

I bought:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Castro’s Dream by Lucy Wadham
Guidebook for Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia

I started reading Jane Eyre on the MRT home and got really into it. I continued reading it by the pool at our apt complex but had to stop in order to make dinner: wheat pasta with sausage carbonara.

After a dinner of pasta, I fell asleep but had to wake up at midnight in order to call the CA BOP. This 15-hr time difference is killer…

Restart of Aqua-gym and more shopping

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Yay! Aqua-gym restarted this morning as they are finally done with the painting at the pool. It was all aerobics today and boy, was it a good work-out! After not having done it for almost 2 weeks, I was really tired.

So I had a late start to the rest of the day. I didn’t go out until 4pm to Jurong East for shopping. Ron had class all day so I figured it didn’t matter what time I went out and I didn’t want to stay in all day either. After taking the MRT To Jurong East, I headed over to the IMM Building for some shopping. I was on task to find shorts for on and some work shirts for myself.

For Ron I stopped by Hang Ten which, strangely, we only shop while in Asia like on our visits to Taiwan. They have interesting sales here, if you buy 1 ‘new arrival’ item, you get 20% off; if you buy 2 ‘new arrival’ items, you get 30% off both items, if you buy 3 or more ‘new arrival’ items, you get 40% off all items. Plus if you spend $50 after all those discounts, you still get $10 off and that’s $10 off for each $50 spent. Sounds too good to be true, eh? How do they make money? There must be a catch, right?

There wasn’t. I seriously got 3 pairs of shorts that were originally $23 at 40% off plus (after I got some tops for myself) an additional $10 off.

After getting myself those good deals I headed the check out the rest of IMM. We’ve only been there to shop at the Giant Hypermarket and to have the chili crab dinner. Of course my next stop ended up being a store with Hello Kitty in the window. They were having a storewide 10% off. I was carrying a Hello Kitty handbag so the shopowner came up to me with the catalog and let me know what she had ordered for the coming month 😛 Just my luck that they just had a sale and cleared out a lot of their stock 🙁 but new things were coming in on October 30th. You probably don’t need to guess where I’ll be that day 🙂 I purchased a soft Hello Kitty plush and a keychain (Items #2 and #3).

I was almost going to leave but decided to explore further, I’m glad I did and I discovered my home away from home. Although the web states this store sells rejects and leftovers from America, I don’t see it that way. It’s more like overstock of US brands for a great deal! The store is called Factory Outlet Stores or F.O.S. and they carry things from Gap, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor Loft, H&M, Style & Co., etc. The tags are usually slashed, inked out, or cut out but it was so nice to see clothes I recognized! And cheap! I only paid $5 for a nice Ann Taylor Loft blouse. Apparently there’s a store closer to where I live so I’ll have to check it out.

I ventured upstairs to a store called Daiso. It’s filled with knick knacks like cosmetics, plastic containers, kitchen stuff, food stuff, plates, cups, socks, bathroom stuff, and more. No prices though. I was very confused. It wasn’t until I got home to search online that everything in the store is S$2. It’s apparently a chain in Japan where everything is 100Yen. The store is a bit overwhelming. You could easily be stuck there for a an hour or two and buy way too much stuff you don’t need. If you’re seriously looking for a plastic container for something specific, I”m sure you’d find it here! (They even have MD carrying cases, who uses MDs anymore?)

I headed home and brought Ron dinner at INSEAD. I stayed until 10pm when the cafeteria/bar closed and headed home to inspect today’s bounty. I guess I’m getting used to shopping by myself again. I always used to do it because I hate bothering others who might get bored plus I never know who’s around.

My token picture for this post; the poor crabs waiting to be cooked at the place I went to pick up dinner.

Oh but I must mention something. My friend Alex here once said that my appearance is deceiving because everyone thinks I’m Chinese. I finally really felt it today because all the shopkeepers spoke to me in Mandarin until I had to politely ask to repeat in English. I’ve got to sign up for Mandarin schools soon. I missed my chance earlier in September so I’m still looking for a course to sign up for. There’s one starting on Monday so I’m going to try for that.

MacRitchie Reservoir

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Well I was wrong about today being an easy day…

We left our apt around 9am with Ron’s classmate Nitin and his wife Nimisha. We headed to MacRitchie Reservoir where they have hiking/walking/running trails. We arrived around 9:30am and began walking. The reservoir itself is for rainwater collection and around it is lush forest. There is a wooden bridge-like trail that goes around the water’s edge and there are some inner trails that go through the forest. We all started walking together but then maybe 1km in, Nitin and Ron decided to jog so left us girls to walk.

On the following map, we started at the bottom right side with that little red dot with an arrow saying “You Are Here”. We walked along the trail against the water and up the left hand side. Nimisha and I turned back at the Jelutong Tower, sort of near where the yellow trail goes at a right angle. The guys ended up going all the way around: jogging and walking (as they called it: the “girly way”).

The water of the reservoir is very green. Probably lots of moss and algae.

There are lots of visible fish in the shallow water and there were also lots of turtles sticking their heads out of the water. They were so cute! I had a pet turtle when I was a kid but sadly it got eaten by a neighbor’s cat when we went on vacation.

Apparently there are monkeys in the forest although I did not see any. Ron said that he saw two monkeys since they went a bit deeper into the forest.

I did see this big lizard though, I heard it rustling in the leaves. It was probably looking for water or food as it was slithering its tongue. It was probably about 1-2 feet long.

Nimisha and I made it about 5km in to Jelutong tower where we climbed to the top of the spiral staircase, maybe up 6 or 7 rounds. It was wonderfully breezy up top and you could see how lush the forest really was. It seemed quite overgrown though as you couldn’t really see the trails as you looked down.


Yay! We made it!

It was already 11am by the time we made it to the tower so we decided to walk back the way we came. It was faster on the way back and we ended up at the parking lot around 12:30pm. The guys were already waiting for us and were ready to go out to eat!

We ended up in Little India at a restaurant called Anjappar specializing in Chettinaad cuisine, South Indian cuisine and apparently spicy and aromatic.

We had the following dishes:


Cauliflower and Potatoes


Fish Manchurian with gravy


Mixed veggie curry


Chicken

We had lunch with all sorts of bread (ie, naan and other styles) and overall, it was tasty although not as spicy as we expected. The fish was a bit tangy and a bit dry inside without using sauce. The chicken had a bite to it so was very good. The service left something to be desired though. The mango juice was served warm with a bit of ice on top so it was sent back but then didn’t reappear until we asked the waiter. They forgot one of our masala teas. A second helping of naan took more than 20 minutes to make. Overall, just strange considering the place seems it would be high class because it was high tech. They use wireless PDAs to write down orders and the bathroom doors are these special sliding doors.

But after that 10km walk, it was good to eat something filling. The after lunch treat were these little sweetened saffron seads. They sit in a bowl at the entrance so when you leave, you take a little scoop of it into your palm and eat them. They’re apparently good for digestion. It sort of tastes like sweet perfume to me. It’s not bad, just different.

Nimisha dropped us off back and home and we were ready for nap. It was only 2:30pm or so but we’d already had a big day. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening just relaxing as we’re already starting to feel some soreness in our muscles.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring…

The last few days

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For those who diligently read our blog, sorry I’m behind again… not much has been going on with me in the last few days.

Thursday I stayed home again because of a poor night’s sleep and coughing some more. Ron went to a conference all day and also a Japanese dinner planned at INSEAD. They didn’t have extra tickets so I missed out on dinner so instead made some pot stickers and baby bok choy for dinner. I didn’t clean the bok choy as well as I thought so I ended up biting into sand 😛 yuck!

Friday there was still no aqua-gym in the morning due to painting so I just went for a short dip in the pool with a few of the other INSEAD partners. Afterwards I headed over to INSEAD to fax over my application to the Singapore Pharmacy Board and to have lunch with Ron. I then had to head to the bank to pay our rent. It’s kind of cool here, you can deposit cash into an ATM for another person’s bank account as long as you have the their account number. It’s pretty convenient here too because many of the banks are very close to each other. We have an account with POSB (same as DBS) and within 5 minutes of the DBS branch, there is an HSBC, Citibank, UOB, OCBC, and Standard Charter banks. Plus there are ATMs everywhere.

I also ended up at a store called “Song & Song”. Seriously everything in the store is either S$3, 5, 7, or 10. It was weird but also made me happy to see things from Old Navy! I bought Ron some nice shirts for only S$5 each (and of course got myself a little something as well… hehe). I headed home for a little bit of rest as there was an Australian BBQ planned for the evening, sponsored by Bain & Company. This week was actually Korea-Japan-Aussie week.

The BBQ was held at the complex up the street from us called Dover Parkview. They had hamburgers (well seasoned), lamb sausages, veggie kabobs, and enormous salads. It’s so nice to eat fresh raw veggies, I really miss my homemade salads that I used to bring for lunch at work. We also got to try some Australian Beer called Little Creatures. Try the Pale Ale or the Bright Ale, they’re really light but have a great flavors, the Pale is buttery and the Bright is a bit fruity. The BBQ ended at 11pm because the apartment security showed up so we called it a night.

Today we stayed in for most the day but I wanted to go check out some fairs going on around town. Ron decided to stay home so I went out by myself. My first stop was the Singapore River Market at the Arts House. I may have mentioned the Arts House in a previous post of the tour I went on around Singapore. It’s located near where Sir Raffles first landed in Singapore. The market is sort of like a fair with local vendors. It wasn’t quite as I expected since there weren’t that many vendors. They had an outdoor and indoor venue so it wasn’t small either. The Art House itself is a very nice building, it reminds me of the South with the large white columns and beautiful staircases inside. There are artifacts inside and a little bit of history about Singapore.

There were only two vendors that caught my eye. One is a reseller for a company based in Thailand called Human Touch. They make unique T-shirts, mugs/glasses, plates, and pillow cases. Their sayings make you think.

The second vendor is called Artiris. If you check out their website, they make clothing, the especially unique piece is the “Vers-tyle” which can be a top or bottom (skirt) depending on how you put it on. At the booth the artist was also hand painting the floral patterns. Looks like you can custom design your outfit as well. They apparently have a brick and mortar store somewhere near Orchard Rd so I’ll have to go check it out sometime.

Here’s some views of the river:


A river boat which you can take


The river is flanked by restaurants and office buildings

Next stop was to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for a Mocha Ice Blend. I never knew it was a California based company until I was looking at their booklet today 😛 I took a break in the coffee shop as I was going to another fair called This & That Bazaar which is held at Clarke Quay, about a 10 minute walk. This fair is an evening fair, running from 6pm-12am on the last Friday and Saturday of each month.

There are underpasses connecting the “Quays” so you never have to cross through traffic. The passes are strictly for pedestrians and the occasional cats, I ran into these kitties on my walk (and no I didn’t pet them because I don’t know where they’ve been but I miss my kitties).

At the bazaar they had a lot of cute things: clothing, jewelry, shoes, bags, Hello Kitty… so yes I purchased my first Hello Kitty thing in Singapore. It’s apparently only available in Japan, part of a collection. It’s known as Lolita/Gothic Kitty:

I thought it was unique so had to buy at least one. The vendor was going to give me a discount if I bought the whole set and I almost went for it BUT, it was missing the “special” collector one. The set is 8 but there is a 9th one that is rare. So I restrained myself (can you imagine how hard it was for me?!?) but I may hear from them later as I gave them my email 😛

I also ended up buying 2 dresses, perfect for the weather here in SG, they’re apparently imports from Japan. They have an online store called Closet Craves. If you look at their dress section, I got the Flora Tube Dress and the Halter Dress. They ended up giving me a discount since I bought 2 dresses. Let me know what you think 😛

After I finished shopping there, I crossed the bridge to the other side as they were also have a Mid Autumn Lantern Festival. They had more cool lanterns all lit up with some live Chinese music at the steps of the mall.


I ended up shopping at the mall there called Central. I visited this store called Girl’s Talk and I walked in there for hair accessories but they are also a retailer of this Japanese company called The Kiss. Apparently if you slide the ring, it reveals a diamond and a message. Neat.

I checked out the rest of the 4 story complex and bought another pair of work shoes from Charles & Keith, only S$19.90. There are a lot of cute clothing stores so I’ll probably be back. They also have a Japanese snack store, yum! After all that walking around, I was glad to get home, had dinner, and watched Shrek 3.

Tomorrow I think will be a more relaxing day as we’re planning on going out for a walk in the park with some friends.