Garden By The Bay 2018

This post is a continuation of the previous post. After having my tai-tai tea, I headed to Garden By The Bay was I had tickets to the Beer Fest that was happening there. What better way to relax after an interview than drinking beer! But I was early, so I took a walk around the garden, at 430pm in the hot Singapore afternoon. Afternoon are usually not the best time to take photos, but surprisingly, all the shot turned out better than I thought. Almost artistic if I may say. Above, one of the best shot I took of the super tree, using just my HTC phone!

As mentioned in the earlier post, it was still around mid-autumn festival season. I love paper lanterns. I saw these hanging above the covered walk way. Some guy was also taking a shot of this, and I thought I'll do the same. Turns out better than I thought! It must be my lucky day. I was starting to enjoy my solo walk around the hot garden. 

Sometimes we just need to slow down and just take a look at the world around us. This walk cost me nothing, yet brought so much joy to me, from clearing my head, to rewarding me with so many beautiful photos. My surrounding and environment was beautiful. I felt grateful to be there, on a Friday blue sky afternoon. 

It wasn't really crowded, and the man-made lanterns added so much colour to the other wise concrete garden. Some people were even seen sun bathing at the grass patch. The warmth of the sun is free. Why are we always stuck at work on such a lovely day? 

I wish I could spend more blue sky days like this. Just enjoying my surrounding. Just talking lovely photograph and sharing them here with you all. It doesn't really matter to me if nobody read this blog. It just matter to me that I continue to write them. Cause believe it or not, this is my external memory of my life here on Earth. Sure it's usually only the good part. Yet I come back here often, just reflecting on my life, recalling recipe, and sharing travel info with friends. 

Fast forward about ten hours, it was night time. Above onwards are photos  I took while we were walking to the car park after spending a great time at the Beer Fest. I'll write about the beer fest in the next post. Surprisingly, even the night shot turns out good! What gives! I felt so positive about that day.

The garden just looked magical that day. Almost a fairyland to me. I'm glad I went there that day. I could have easily said no. Sometimes you just gotta put yourself out there in order to experience the unexpected joy that life can bring. So here below is the last photo: me and my hubby. Next: Beer Fest 2018!

TaiTai Tea at TCC Shaw Center

I've just changed job like 2 months ago, and since we're still fresh on this topic, I thought I'll just document my journey on that here. What does an afternoon tea at TCC got to do with a job change? Well it was on my 2nd interview, I took a full day off to attend the interview. It was Friday, and the interview was at noon. Since it was probably my final interview, I thought I should reward myself after it, regardless whether I succeed or not. It was  a reward for giving it my best shot. So I've made an appointment to meet with my ex-colleague to have tea at Orchard. 

When you are a female, working full time, you always dream of a tai-tai lifestyle. Tai-Tai translate to being a rich housewife, one that has time to have tea in town and chat with her girlfriend. And that was what we did. We probably sat there 3 to 4 hours just talking crap and sipping my herbal tea. The ambiance was great, with bright weekday workday sunlight shining into the restaurant. It wasn't crowded. A great place to catch up with friends and talk about anything. I manage to ask about working in South America, and whether it was safe for me to work there. That was my KPI for my new job (if I get it).

It was near mid-autumn festival, and TCC offered this special mooncake tea set consisting of two mooncakes and a tea. That was what I ordered. Above are two snowskin mooncake, one was chocolate truffles, and the other was white chocolate with some berries. I wasn't expecting much, and was pleasantly surprised how good they were! Individually they cost around SGD8 per mooncake! I do recommend it. 

After tea, I headed to two more interesting place. Stay tune!

Singapore CBD Walk

Singapore is a beautiful city. Clean. Orderly. Green. Well planned. Today I'm gonna be writing about one of my favourite places to take a walk in Singapore, and that is the Singapore Central Business District (CBD) area. Especially during the weekend where it is almost ghostly, and especially in the early morning. The view is beautiful here. Whenever I need a walk to clear my mind or make a life changing decision, I would take the trouble to take the train down here, and just take a leisure walk around this place. Sometimes I even come here on my day off, just to take pause, and see where I've come so far.

Well all except one of the photos taken here was taken in April 2018 this year. It was a special walk. I was actually surveying a place I was going for an interview at on a beautiful Saturday morning. It was a special morning because while I was walking past my own company's building, I took a photo of it, and that was the realisation that I was setting the wheels to move, to find another job, and letting go of my dream job.

The consideration of the Singapore government is amazing. This is one of my best thinking place. You can sit here in the early morning just looking into the CBD area and get a nice tan along the way. The view is just spectacular. And it is so quiet in the morning. Only joggers are around, and they too appreciate such a nice route for their morning exercise. 

This was what I was looking at while I contemplate whether to change my job. It was a powerful image. Cause after around 15 years of working, I was  finally in a company in the CBD, doing what I do best, and chasing a dream of working in Japan. Did I really want to throw that all away to go work for a start-up company? 

This is the view of Fullerton Bay, probably my favourite hotel in Singapore. I hope one day I'll be able to spend a nice relaxing staycation here. The service here is spotless. And I am able to experience all these, is because I've been working so hard through out, hardly ever taking a break between work. I was exhausted. The dream I held now wasn't what I expect it to be. I was disappointed in it. Should I hold on? Or just give it up and move in a different direction?

After that walk, I decided to move on. No, I didn't get the job at the start-up. I got another different job instead. From the biggest bank in Japan, I now work under the stars of a German automobile (as my German ex-colleague always say). Strange how life leads you to this moment. Do I like my current job? It's hard to say, I haven't been doing much so far. Did I like my previous job? I did. I gave it so much of my time and effort. I don't regret working there. I was just disappointed that it wasn't a better experience. There was so much that could have been improved. But it just wasn't so. 

This is the view of the 'heartbeat' of my main office. It's a beautiful building from the inside. But outside, it just looks like a city wall from the Game of Thrones or some midivil era. I am still finding my peace. Maybe I should go take a walk there to start a new 2019.

Air fryed Pork Ribs and Corn

Today's real time post is on my lunch, and dinner, and probably tomorrow's lunch as well, my first roasted pork ribs and corn, cooked using my air fryer! Above is the result of it. 

I've mostly used my air fryer for frying stuff, but apparently you can also make roasted corns and pork ribs Tony Roma's style! I already got a bottle of mustard flavoured BBQ sauce which was on sale last week for around sgd3.95. So this week, voila!

I must say, ribs are expensive! Although I asked my husband to get me sgd8 worth of ribs, he came back with sgd16. But I managed to make 3 meals out of it, which is still expensive of I'm targeting to retire early! The sweet corn was sgd1.50 for two, and they were delicious!

Cooking the sweet corn only took ten minutes, and I'm amazed at how yummy they turned out. And best of it, they have a smokey burned aroma to it, something I can't get if I steamed them. So that's a thumbs up for me! After ten minutes, while they are still warm, lotion them up with butter and a bit of mayo. 

The ribs was marinated with just BBQ sauce, pepper and garlic. Some recipe calls for honey, soya sauce etc. But I figure the BBQ sauce was sinful enough. Recommend to marinate for 4 hours. My first serving was marinated only for 3 and the marinate haven't really sipped into the bones yet. 

Cooked for 15mins. Then maybe another 10 to 15 more mins depending on the ribs. Let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes before eating. It was quite good, especially the fatty part and the burned part. I had only 2 ribs for lunch today, paired with one whole corn. I think it's a pretty healthy and easy to cook meal. Looking forward to my dinner! 

Roof-top Bar IndoChine

As I've mentioned in my previous post, getting the chance to dine at SuperTree IndoChine was mainly about the view. So this post is to share some of the view we saw while we were there. So at the restaurant level, if you dine outdoor, you can see the garden below. You will be even taller than some of the super tree! Snap a photo! 

Above is what the Christmas village lights looks like from above. But as the 1st and 2nd photo shows, there are building structures all over the shot that kinda spoil the full view of the things you are trying to capture. Fear not! Just take a short walk up the stairs and you will find your self at the roof top bar of IndoChine! Clear view there!

There is a bar there, and you can get your poison there. All around are seats where you can chill out with your friends. The view from here was breath taking! I would recommend coming in the evening to see the sunset and then stay till all the lights are up to get your money worth it. 

Here's a view of Marina Bay Sand.

And a view of the flyer and all the highways as well. 

And here is me and my super young colleague running around all over the roof top. I was quite happy to hang around with them cause they ate so much food that it made me look less bad when I am dong my 2nd, 3rd or 4th helping of food. And so ends our very memorable team building. And I'm still on probation too! 

Dinner at Super Tree by IndoChine

Our company's team building ended with dinner at Gardens By The Bay. We have booked the whole of SuperTree by IndoChine, and it was a highlight of that day for many of us. For one, we would probably never come here on our own cause it would be too expensive. I've never visited any IndoChine establishment before cause it was always frequent by "Ang-moh" that I always assume it was expensive, and probably not very asian anyway. 

Apparently, this place was one of the top restaurant in 2016. But I think most of us were there for the fabulous view. It was those super unique place to dine cause there is only one super tree you can dine at, and this was it. 

You have to take a lift up, and it leads to the restaurant directly. So when the lift opens, you are already at the entrance. It is a circular shaped restaurant, and you can either dine indoor with aircon, or outdoor overlooking the view. Me and my friend decided to dine outside cause it was cooling after a heavy rain that day, and the view was really the main attraction. But I must say, the indoor seating wasn't too shabby either. It was very lounge like and comfortable. 

We were served buffet for that night, and we ate till 10pm. Surprisingly the fried rice,  a simple dish you would normally avoid  in a buffet, was super delicious! But I spend most of my calories on salmon sashimi and scallop sashimi. My friends were hitting on the raw oysters. The thai fish and other finger food was also surprisingly good, not to mention the super addictive creme brule. 

The bar was an open bar, so I helped myself to a glass of wine. My colleagues who were with me didn't drink, so boo. I wished I could come here with my Japanese colleagues instead, it would have been wild. 

The bonus of having our dinner here was, we get free entrance to the Christmas village below as we need to go pass it to enter the restaurant. The whole garden was light up with Christmas lightings, and it was such a wonderful sight. Too bad we were there on a weekday and was in a rush to go catch the train  back, so I didn't really get to browse around the Christmas village much.

We did managed to snap a few photos of the place here and there while we were walking to and from the restaurant. So here are a few shots to share with you. Below is a "souvenir shot" as I would call it as it shows Christmas Lightings together with the Super Tree, thus telling the time and the place of the photo at the same time. Cool and smart, right? Stay tune for the next post as I will be sharing the view from the roof top bar of IndoChine. 

Ref:

SuperTree by IndoChine

Laser Tag

On our company's team building event, the other game I like was Laser Tag. This was my first time playing laser tag, and we played it in the super empty multi-storey carpark at Kranji Turf Club. Above is the playing field. Each team has to start at opposite end, and each play has two teams competing with each other to see who gets the highest point. You score by shooting your target, and bonus point for capturing flags which are placed at the centre of the playing field. 

The laser itself was fun to hold and shot. The helmet was basically just a target board with 3 points which people can shot you at. I played 3 games, and the sound of hitting your target became quite satisfying to hear. On my last game, I managed to score best shooter. 

The only that was really tough about the game, is all the squating and kneeling you have to do to get cover. It was rather hard on my leg, so much so that my thigh muscle crams up and I fell down and hurt both  my knees on the first game. I'm still recovering from the injury. Even on the next day of work, most people who played came in limping with sore all over the body. On game 2 and 3, I just stayed way behind and concentrated on shooting targets instead cause my legs just wouldn't move any more. Fun! should be less painful than paint ball.

KF1 - Go-Kart

Today I'll be blogging about recent events! As fresh as like only last week! My new company recently had a team building event last Wednesday, and I thought it was so interesting that I've decided to dedicate 3 to 4 blog post on it. So this is the very first one, and it's about Go-Karting at KF1 circuit in Kranji Singapore. 

We have booked the whole place for the day, and our department was split into 4 teams to take turn at the GoKart. There were other events on-going as well, but I guess the main highlight was the race. Lucky for me, our team got to go first cause I was grouped together with all the people who didn't have a driving license. So our speed was cap at 30kmh max! If you have a license, you can drive at 50kmh. The best place to be at this event, is actually at the lounge which is air conned! And has a great view of the race track. 

The track is not too big, and it does involve some weird turns. The last time I drove one of these was like 10 years ago at Downtown east. I was kinda nervous about driving, but my fear was uncalled for cause it was so freaking fun! After the first trial, everyone was just eager to get behind the wheel and drive and drive.

The track is really really near Kranji MRT. Here is a shot of the train going pass. I guess that would be a good advertisement for them as well. When I last checked their website, I saw that they were opening another circuit in Jurong. So I guess business is good. 

For the race, we were assigned team 1A, and had to share 2 karts among the 6 of us. So 3 each. We had Kart 1 and Kart 2 and had our own pit stop area as well. They provide the helmet and a shower cap to wear as well for hygiene purposes. No sandals are allowed when driving. No seat belts or gear in the kart as well. We were given around 40 minutes to trial the circuit, and then a 35mins relay race to see how many laps we can do in that timing. There are boards where you can see how well your team is using. Kinda like a race course board. 

Above is the shot of the pit stop before the start of the trial drive. To get in and out of the pit stop, you have to drive through this narrow path which I am always afraid of hitting into. Lucky for me, no casualty. When you drove into the pit stop, you are required to also slow down. If not, they will deduct 1 lap from your team, which is quite a bummer.  

After the trial, the timing determines the position on the grid start for the actual relay race. I got to drive only 2 laps during the trial, but drove a solid 10mins during the race cause we were minimising the pit stop to have more time to clock more laps. It was super fun. I drove quite recklessly. Don't mind driving again but it was quite expensive. Expect to pay around SGD40 for maybe 20mins round the track. I would have love to drive alone on the track, but with other equally reckless driver around, it was easy to bang into people, which most of my other colleagues did. It was rather comical actually. Highly recommended!

Ref:

KF1 Karting

Penang Ye Ke Shu (一棵树) Vegetarian

The next and most recent restaurant that I would like to blog about is also found in Penang. I know for a fact that it is still open as I was there just this year in August. This place is called Ye Ke Shu, which translate to chinese as One Tree. And as per previous post, this vegetarian restaurant also have a sketch of it's own! A very profession sketch too! With the wording thats translate to: a beautiful good life, starts with beautiful and good food. Can't argue with that!

You can do a comparison with the sketch and the actual look for the restaurant. It was pretty accurate. This place is located at Tanjong Bunga area, or more precisely near Concourse Area, just outskirt of T.A.R colleague area. I and my friend used to live around this area when we were in high school. The restaurant is actually a residential house converted. And just like visiting a friend's house, you need to ring a door bell before they let you in. I guess this is a security feature in Penang to prevent weird people from just entering the place.

Same as the previous place, this restaurant also has a no shoe allowed policy. The front door is glass like, and the owner has written and drawn all over it with vegetarian friendly wordings. 

Above was what was written on the other side of the glass door, and I guess it helps answer a lot of question people ask vegetarian. Is it due to religion? How do you get your nutrients? What about other animal products? Etc. Surely anyone that has access to google already knew all these questions?  

Inside the restaurant, everything is rather Scandinavian style. Nice clean wooden tables and chair. White walls with menu photo all around it. Me and my fried decided to take a high stool window seat overlooking the main road outside. It was a great choice as the below photos all turned out so much nicer as compared to if I were to take them just on a usual table. 

We ordered fried rice and fried home-made tofu to share. I love anything soya based, so I have no problem being a vegetarian. The tofu was lovely, the rice was just normal. But to be able to seat there looking out the window was just awesome. We should have more shops like these!

We ordered a pot of fruit tea to share as well, and above was how it was served. The refill was free flow, so it was definitely worth it. It also came with slices of fruits on the side for you to nimble on. Needless to say, the glass cup and the wooden serving tray got a super 5 star like from me! Notice also the flag of Penang outside! Lovely memorable shot.

We also ordered a fruit jelly to share, and it was not too shabby either. Cost of it was around RM50 for two person. I just love it that Penang has all these wonderful chic cosy shops for us to explore in. And that they are vegetarian gives a good vibe that we are headed in the right direction. Keep it up Penang!

Ref:
Ye Ke Shu