'I knew I had to stop'

Here’s something strange. I haven’t stepped into Plaza Singapura mall for like, months and months but since last week I been there three times. And all three times, I been eating at BrukFAUST (hah!) shop at the basement. The Grinders Coffee flat white is a must-have! Here’s the bacon and eggs sandwich with BBQ sauce I had for lunch. Will probably try one of their hotdogs next time.

Anyway, checking my budget application in my iTouch and it looks like I waaaay overshot my book/publication budget for the month. Should have known S$30 for a month was just wishful thinking. I blew almost S$60 already and it sure didn’t help with the Kinokuniya sale last weekend. But I still think it’s good to have the budget application cos I know that if I didn’t, I would have blew almost a hundred bucks on a whole bunch of other books, mags and comics that day. I looked at my iTouch and I knew I had to stop.

What else did I overspend? Under the Misc. column, I OD on that too. Same with action figures category. BUT I'm still within the overall month's budget! That's cos I have yet to overspend on my wardrobe, household groceries and gadgets!

'Sky high, crazy Yen'

*Whew* what a week. Working my @$$ off in the office. So far the recession is biting me via no freelancers to help out so I'll super busy and the sky high, crazy Yen exchange rate means no Tokyo vacation for me this year.

Yup, looks like this is one year that I won't be visiting Japan. Anyway, here's something that cheered me up on Saturday morning. A big breakfast at the Brukwurst Shop at the basement of Plaza Singapura.

A very, very nice flat white.

My breakfast, part of it. Hehe!

Here's the other part. Ok, I didn't have three pancakes, only two! And I'm still skinny!

'The last time the French saved me'

Let's see now, the last time the French saved me was a few years ago during a footbal bet. Last nite, they did it again only during dinner, not over a bet.

Dinner was at Absolute Haven along Prinsep Street, I must admit I haven't actually been to that row of eateries before. Have passed it many times but never really found an excuse to dine there. So anyway, our group of like 10 I think, had dinner there and well .... we all agreed the food was alright but not that good to make us wanna go back there again. The medium ribeye I was tasted rather bland, a friend who had the same said the ribeye at Jack's Place was better. The asparagus wrapped in cheese starter was quite crunchy and good.

The pix are a little dark cos I didn't wanna use the flash.

So anyway, after that we headed to another new place (at least to me) Crepere des Arts for drinks and dessert, also along Prinsep Street. Guess what's their speciality?

The French expat in our group brought us there. We had lots of crepes and we opened a couple of big bottles of apple cider brut. And gawd, what a great way to end an otherwise-average dinner. I have always luv cider since I was a kid. I had 2 cups of it last nite. That was good.

The crepe I had (shared) was a simple one, no toppings or ice-cream for me. Light but perfect. I may be wrong in what went into it but it had lemon squeezed over it and a little sugar over it. I would definitely come back. And they served WARM cream with their coffee! Believe it or not, not many places do that, it's always cold milk from the fridge. Hate that.






But the highlight of the day was this little purchase. An impulse buy when I was watching Tropic Thunder (great show!!!) at Cathay eariler in the afternoon. Something I would recommend to any food blogger, not that I call myself one. It's a little fun thing I thought, a little pricy S$30. An ex-colleague had shown me her copy a year ago and said she got it from a shop in Cathay. So I figured since this is like, my second ever time in Cathay (really!), I'll go look for it. Saw it before the show and only made my mind to get it halfway during the show in the theatre! <^;^>




...

'Treat myself to the good stuff'

Am liking the budget application in my iTouch. Good cos it serves to remind me if I’m gonna be overspending on something. My ‘eating out’ budget for the month is S$500, and that includes mostly lunch, dinner and weekends where I’ll treat myself to the ‘good stuff’. Doesn’t include groceries or homemade meals. Well, it’s the middle of the month and I have spent less than half, $240.51 to be exact! Like I mentioned in my eariler post, the biggest bill so far is still the S$52.96 lunch for 2 on the first of October, a public holiday.

I gave myself S$100 on transsport and so far I have spent S$59.70 already, but that's cos S$50 was spent on topping up my train and bus card. Oh yah, the name of the software is Spend at the Apple Apps Store for only 99 US cents, but you can get a limited free version Spend Lite for free.


Bought into StarHub's video-on-demand for the first time, just to catch the first episode of CSI's new season on Monday nite. That's like 3 or 4 days after it was first shown in the US! Ties up last season's cliffhanger nicely. Might do the same for CSI: New York and Miami once I finished watching all of last season's episodes.

'What recession?!?'

Well, it's a Saturday nite and I'm home blogging (don't worry, I am recording Best of Saturday Night Live on cable right now). Its been a crazy work week; up till waaaaaaaay past midnite from Monday till Wednesday. That's why the office went a little party crazy on Thursday and Friday nite. So its like home only in the early morning for the whole week, either cos of work or out drinking, and this Saturday nite, tonite I'm gonna turn in early by which I mean before midnite. <^;^>

But I was out in town in the morning till afternoon and all I can say is 'What recession?!?', the malls are packed, long Qs at the cash registers, everyone's still buying lotsa stuff. Oh, yes I do read the papers ... am just saying if you look at the crowd at Orchard Road today, you wouldn't know there's a global credit crisis.

And what did I buy today? Besides another book at Kinokuniya, I also got myself the new Black Sesame cake from Patissier. Was ok, the black sesame taste was a little too overpowering for me, unless you are a big black sesame fan. The layer of red bean near the bottom of the cake was cool and kinda helped ease the black sesame taste.

'The good stuff on weekends'

So I got this new iTouch application that does my budget for me. Used to have something similar in my old Palm. So I’m thinking like S$500 a month for eating out…wonder if that’s enough. Doesn’t include groceries of cos but it does include stuff like snacks and drinks. Keeping my weekday lunch to bout S$6 average, not over S$10 a day. That’s just lunch. And if I have the good stuff on weekends, I hope S$500 is gonna be enough. For instance, last Wednesday was public holiday and I blew $52.96 for lunch for 2. What else I got? I set like S$100 for transport and …er... S$100 for entertainment/gadgets. The good thing is the software lets you snowball the money that you don’t spend so if I don’t buy any gadgets for 2 months, I’ll have S$300 in my third month to blow on some new stuff.

Still on food, here are some pix of a little something I prepared for dinner. Real simple stuff. Some baked mushroom, Japanese style. Got the recipe off a magazine.

Like I said, pretty easy. Just place your favourite mushrooms on a buttered piece of foil. Add Sake, I added 4 teaspoons and my own little special ingredient, Chicken Salt!


Bake at 220C between 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how much mushrooms you got in there.

All done! I liked it and so does Yotsuba!

'TV has been pretty good'

My last post on breakfast got me really thinking bout more breakfast stuff.

Been heading to Freshly Baked at Killiney Road recently on Saturday mornings while visiting my aunt who lives down the road. Heh, my elderly aunt and mom are big McCain supporters, I dunno why I’m saying this but I just find it highly amusing that two little old ladies halfway across the world are so into the US elections.

Anyway, I’ll usually get the cranberry buns and the banana loaf at Freshly Baked. But they were out of banana loaf when I was there this week so I tried something new, the coffee buns.

Didn’t really like the coffee buns, a little too bland and dry for my taste, don’t think I’ll be getting that again. The cranberry buns are light and soft, just the way I like my bums. Both packs of 4 are S$3 each. I believe the single banana loaf was like S$6 for one. They have a breakfast menu for $9.90 (I think) that I’m very tempted to try the next time I’m there.

Yes, I had 2 of each for my breakfast this morning, plus a cup of instant coffee.

Oh yah, TV has been pretty good to me lately. Been catching up on my CSI: Miami and Reaper. Also really looking forward to the Best of Saturday Night Live coming on 11 October nite.

'Lots of beaches and ... er... and its real sunny'

Day 2 of babysitting saw the kid arriving at my place at bout 4pm. His mom dropped a ton of Primary 1 homework on him before leaving for the F1 race, I was like, ‘you mean I have to supervise him?!?’. Fortunately not, he’s a pretty good kid, smart and for a skinny kid, eats like a full-grown adult! No shit, he can finish a full adult portion meal at a restaurant and then be hungry again a few hours later. And did I mention he’s really skinny too?

Oh yah, one more thing, he suffers from verbal diarrhoea. He can talk and talk and talk. He doesn’t shout, scream or yell. He just talks, bout almost everything, sometimes even to complete strangers. Bout how good the food is to the fact that we are now walking down Orchard Road to what happened at school yesterday. Sometimes he reminds of some old guy who goes on and on and on….

So there I was trying to catch up on last season’s recorded episodes of CSI: Miami but the kid kept asking me homework and TV questions.

"Uncle Cavalock, where's Miami?"

"It's a place in America, with lots of beaches and ... er ... and its real sunny."

And damn! Primary 1 homework questions these days are like light years ahead of what I been through.

And I also managed to pick up the latest Saveur mag at Kinokuniya. Strictly an impulse buy, saw the cover and I couldn't resist it. Breakfast. Pretty much my favourite meal of the day.

Am really tempted to try whipping up those eggs one of these weekends. Who wants to come? Really! (^;^)

'I got the angry face'

Its babysitting weekend for me. Had to take care of a 7-year-old while his folks is at a wedding dinner on Saturday and then again on Sunday nite when they are at the F1 race.

As I'm typing this, he's watching the live Ben 10 movie in the living room that I recorded for him last nite. Picked him up earlier as instructed at Forum after his classes, while we were there we picked up some Gashapon ourselves! Got him a little Pokemon Gashapon, apparently we were lucky to get the figure he desperately wanted. For myself, I couldn't resist these! Mos Burger Gashapon!

While at Takashimaya for dinner and shopping later, got him a Spy Gear toy.

And for myself, I found this! An edamame 'toy'! I posted an article on me making edamame for myself a couple of years ago, and its been ages since I done that although I still luv edamame. So obviously I couldn't resist this, even though it's a little over S$8.


The 'toy' is similar to the bubble wrap toy that I got earlier this year. It doesn't do anything except give you the same kick you would get outta popping them bubble wraps. In this case, pushing out those little peas outta the pod. The ...er... unique thing bout this 'toy' is the middle pea is a random thing, as in the pea has a face! And there are 12 different faces to collect. FYI, I got the angry face.

'Hawk it on ebay'

So I was offered a free ticket to catch the first F1 nite race on Friday but I turned it down. So I said 'Maybe I should just take the ticket and hawk it on ebay...'

So I met this hotel manager on Thursday, I said biz must really be good cos of the F1 but he said 'nope'. I told him the papers were reporting that hotels were almost full etc. He said, 'don't believe everything the papers say.' Even with his hotel in Orchard Road, everything is more or less the same. Apparently the only hotels that were really fully booked were the ones housing the racing crews along the Marina. Rooms prices have also dropped but the hotels aren't saying it out loud cos they don't wanna 'offend' their regulars who booked and paid the early craaaazy high room rates. Hah!

So the other week, there was an article in the local New Paper tabloid bout some beauty queen who's also apparently a straight-A student too or at least had a degree. Was bout her complaining not being able to get a date or find a boyfriend cos guys are intimidated by her. Gimme a break! How come every time a woman with so-called 'beauty and brains' can't get a guy, it's the guy's fault???

Has it ever occurred to anyone that the woman could have a really ugly, sucky personality? Proud, arrogant, bitchy? I mean, I know a woman who looks great and I'm sure quite intelligent too but who just couldn't stop bragging/comparing bout how rich her ex-boyfriends were.

'Back from the fair'

I'm back from the fair! Our local Isetan's Japanese Kyushu Fair, that is. First thing I saw and got was the sweet potato snacks! It's exactly the same as the ones I had in Japan, the caramalized one and the baked (I think it's baked) one. This here is the really sweeeeet caramalized pack for S$5.50 and the baked one (S$6.90) is below. As of this writing, I have yet to try the baked sweet potato but I'm sure it'll be great. You guys should try. When I was in Japan, I actually bought a box of it back for my family.





After paying for my groceries, was walking past the liquor section when I saw their sake promotion. They were the really sweet fruity kind that I like. Tried a few shots and they were really good. Finally settled on the Francisco Delaware ice white wine (S$54), made from Japanese Delaware grapes. The shot below is a little over-exposed (in more ways than one, heh). Oh man, its so sweet and smooth. The bottle in my fridge is now half empty! ^;^


The other bottle I got is Iichiko Bar's Cassis Liqueux (S$22.90), that's actually blackcurrent shochu. It's pretty good too. I actually had it before at Waraku.



Well, buying those two bottles got me a lucky draw on the spot. Guess what I got ... a little 200ml bottle of shochu. Heh, not bad for an afternoon of grocery shopping. The fair ends next weekend. But I think I''l be back to get another bottle of the ice wine real soon!

Oh yah, as you can see, I'm back to trying out some more shots with the Ladies Drinks.

'The White Wabbit for lunch'

Finally made it to The White Wabbit for lunch with the girls. First time heading there but I have heard bout it. Like that it was once a church, bearng that little piece of info in mind, I told my cab driver to drop me at the first church along Harding Road. Well, that first church turned out to be a real church.

So remember folks, it’s the second chapel up on your left coming up from Harding Road. After a 5-minute walk up the road, I was inside the church. Not as big as I expected it to be. The pulpit is now a bar and the bartender is now dressed like the Pope. Noooo, I’m just kidding … bout the bartender, the pulpit really is the bar.

Anyway, we all ordered from the S$30 set lunch menu. I had the Wardoff chicken salad for my starter and the veal for my main. The salad was just a little too creamy for me but I found the apple strips quite nice. I actually couldn’t tell it was apple at first.


The veal was better than the one I had at next-door PS Café. The mushrooms complemented the veal perfectly. Wasn't too dry either. Lunch wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be. Why was I expecting a bad meal? Cos of the mostly negative reviews that were hopping up all over the Net, I guess. Pity we didn't have time for dessert as we all had to get back to the office by 2.30pm.


Now the other interesting bout lunch were the patrons. Lots of rich folks but the group of tai-tais and expact wives at the table next to us, man o man, I have never seen so much botox in my life. One of the ladies' face was so tight and stretched, I was expecting it to snap back anytime.

'Sound kinda creepy'

I know I posted some pix of my current favourite manga Yotsuba & ! some time back. It’s this award-winning series that’s kinda like a Japanese version of Calvin and Hobbes. Am pretty pissed that the official English manga comic translations have stopped with volume 5 even though it’s one of their best-selling series.

Took some pix of the new posable Yotsuba figure with the summer vacation gear. Pretty neat huh? The gear and all were featured in one of the stories. Also got the non-posable figure of supporting cast member Fuka a few months ago. She and her sisters are Yotsuba’s neighbours and the one that Yotsuba calls the ‘unpretty one’ cos she’s like the least attractive of the 3 sisters.

Which leads me to the two newly released Yotsuba! figures. The new Fuka in swimsuit figure. While getting my figure from China Square Central, the shop owner told me that no one else ordered it cos she ain’t really pretty. I thought that was kinda funny since she was, I believe, intentionally drawn that way.

Also got Fuka’s younger sister Ena. OK, here’s where it might sound kinda creepy to some. From what I have read at a Japanese Otaku site, little Ena is selling out way faster than swimsuit Fuka. One of the reasons why she’s hot is cos you can change her out of her outfit to a little bathing suit but the Japanese reviews of her are rather… er… interesting.

Reviews of " Yotsubato Ena Ayase": Tsurezure-blog-san wrote "from her back to her butt is like a little chick. Her skinny thighs are just fine w. No apples, little chubby stomach, they are lovely w. This is the real cute figure w." Chiisakitaika-san said "the street clothes version- It's just ordinal. It's too ordinal. But that is excellent. The swimwear version- only some dangerous comments come up to my head. Therefore, I'll not speak out." foo-bar-baz-san wrote "however you see, she's a little cutie (^^;)"

Yah. Right. Whatever.

'I'm awesome level'

Well, was back to work on Tuesday after my birthday leave. Had an Omakasi sushi lunch at Tatsuya at Park Hotel. Figured I’ll have it before they renovate the entire building. Yah, they are gonna turn the entire ground floor area into some luxury brand shopping zone. Dunno if Tatsuya will move out or stay put.

Then it’s off to Cedele at Paragon for Mont Blanc dessert.

Been playing with my iTouch a lot too. Got up on Sunday morning and started reading the NYT in bed. Damn! They even got the NYT magazine. I try to do a Sudoko a day. Set it at the ‘I’m Awesome!’ level (second hardest), yah, that’s what it says. It’s a free software and it only generates one puzzle a day. Got over 20 free software on my iTouch now, trying out one that helps keep track of my expenses, if it works for me, I’ll probably buy the full version.

Hell, I even feel a little guilty for neglecting my DS games. So wat do I do? Charged up my DS Lite to complete my Lego Indy adventures. Yah, and just to show I’m not some soft-hearted, sentimental lily with my games, I went and sold a few games to a second-hand game shop for S$45. Am I a bad-ass or wat? ;)

Was actually hoping for another Kinokuniya book sale this weekend but no such luck. Had my eye on a couple of comic book trades and Japanese magazines.

Oh yah, I still got my Nov 8 Avenue Q tickets for sale! Let me know if anyone wants them!

Got to watching lots of TV too. Clearing as many recorded shows as I can. CSI: NY, Monk, Pushing Daisies, 30 Rock and probably a couple of others I can’t remember right now. Only show I’m waiting for cable to start is the first season of Reaper. Buffy meets Ghostbusters, you can’t really go wrong with that.

'A race of killer man-ape soldiers'

So here I am on a pre-birthday leave from work and home alone on a wet Friday morning ... watching TV. I always got a kick outta watching the morning talkshows. I remember watching them while in NYC years ago till bout 10am, then going out so as to avoid the rush hour traffic. Hah! 

Anyway, caught the tail end of Ellen bout an hour ago and saw a guy run and leap over 4 cars. Then switched over to the Tyra Banks Show. Now this was an eye-opener. They had a segment with hidden cameras in the rooms of all the posh US hotels like Ritz, Shereton etc. And they showed how gross and unhygienic their room service really are. Maids who don't wash your wine glasses or just rinse them instead, dirty towels etc. Really, not the kinda thing you would expect from 5-star hotels.

And right now I'm watching the History Channel on humans and apes genetics. It's a little mad scientist-ish, with talks bout crossbreeding between man and apes. Sure, there's a huge possibility that men and apes did crossbreed bout 6 millions years ago, that's what the documentary said. But as recent as WWII when there were rumors that Stalin and Russia tried to create a race of killer man -ape soldiers.

'Make cattle walk up 22 flights of stairs'

Now here’s something you don’t normally see at 8am in the morning. A full-grown cow and calf on the 11th floor of an apartment building! I’m still trying to figure out how they got the cow into the lift! I mean, no way you can make cattle walk up 22 flights of stairs.

I believe it’s for an Indian religious home ceremony or something either that or we are talking bout the freshest milk delivery service in the country.

'Best.Gashapon.Ever.'

So there I was, drafted for babysitting duties to a six-year-old boy with tickets for this year's fireworks display. Figured it was time to try out my big ass camera again and the shots came pretty good. Got some shots later on but the highlight of the day was this little cool discovery of the week at Suntec.

Special 30th Anniversary Space Invaders magnet gashapon! Best. Gashapon. Ever. Why?

1. They are only S$1 each. The official price is 100 yen, that's like S$1.30. So they are like the cheapest gashapon around.

2. Unlike other gashapon, you don't mind getting lots of extras cos you can start building your freakin' Space Invader army. Just spend like S$20 bucks and your army is complete!

3. It's super retro cool! Imagine transforming your fridge door into a video game screen. How cool is that?

Here are some fireworks shots, here I said, a little better than my last fireworks shot. Heh. Downloaded over 40 pix into my iTouch this morning...

Ended the nite with a Forsty Bailey's at TCC. Not the best Bailey's drink around.