There was a KFC Chizza contest and they said to dance the Chizza.
So I did.
And I won one of the prizes!
Anyway if you think this is a filler episode, YOU ARE RIGHT. I am so backlogged on my posts especially my train one! So here, here’s another bonus video since you’re here on my post.
I walk a lot but in general, a random day out would happen vaguely like this. Mind you, it’s a lot of walking, eating and exploring.
I got to 76 Serangoon Road via the train and a bit of walking from Little India station to get to Komala Vilas!
It’s my favourite restaurant and heck, prime ministers have dined here too.
Here, I ordered pongal and teh tarik. If we’re doing the whole “food blogger” thing, the whole set cost me just $5.
If we’re not doing the whole “food blogger”… flogger? thing, AHHHHH pongal.
What has Overwatch got to do with anything?
Well on Saturday night, my crew went to the Geylang Bazaar to buy food without me because I just finished work and had to go home.
And then.
They found butterbeer.
It was the brand we wanted to get years ago for our Harry Potter parties but the shop closed down. But now… it’s back!!!!!!!
And so.
I asked them to come to my house with butterbeer because I was stuck at home. Boo hoo tragic kingdom.
And while I was Overwatching, I WAS FINISHING THE GAME QUICKLY SO I CAN TELL THEM TO COME (hence player of the game, get the objective, get my butterbeer), they conferred with each other and then yes.
THEY DID COME BY MY PLACE.
One of the most ridiculous plans we did. Them coming over just to let me try butterbeer they found at the Bazaar.
FYI, it’s near the market side/cheers of Haig Road, the stall name is Word. You can get butterbeer and a butterbeer float after the bazaar at their own bistro too so no worries on that.
WE REALLY ASKED.
YAY!!!
EXTREME YAAAAY.
Try it chilled over ice. In a frosted glass.
Ahhhh, such Harry Potter vibes.
Ok. Here’s the comparison to people who have went to World of HP and tried the butterbeer and this.
This brand’s more buttery and sweet. But BOTH are good. So it’s really a matter of preference. With the bottle, we found that it has a distributor too, Rogue Merchants! So yesss. This is looking quite good for our future HP party when Fantastic Beasts comes out…
And if not at Word Bistro (they have rainbow bagels and other foods), you might want to try buy online which I found out from another friend it’s available here.
Butterbeer is back in Singapore for all you wizards! HUZZAH!
OK, BESIDES THE WHOLE BUTTERBEER THING. I’m pretty AWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww at my friends who DROVE OVER to just come by with the bottles of butterbeer cause we’re a bunch of nerds and shared it. They are ridiculous but so AWWWWWWWWWWWWW. A++ Imma make my salmon wellington for them once puasa is over and we all can have a great day together.
On production, I usually get there earlier than others. Usually anyway. I tend to usually try panorama mode on my phone while I sit down and wait.
Anyway, that’s Punggol jetty.
I wouldn’t have gone there unless I had to and wow, it does look great.
There’s a boat or a ferry coming by and I learned that it goes to Outward Bound School or Pulau Ubin camp 1 and 2 area.
I doubt it’s for everyone though since it’s chartered only for participants and the people who work there.
If you know more about the boats from Punggol jetty, let me know! I do want to know where exactly it goes and how do I get on it.
In the words of Twitter, here’s what you missed.
YEAH!!! Congratulations to both my teams for making it to the top 10, Duck Vaders and Spatium.
Spatium got the 2nd Runner Up this year!
Hmmmmmm. Is it me or no matter if I pick or teams pick me to be their ambassador… at least one will be in the top 3? HMMMM.
Thanks to all those who voted for them too. Yay!
And I need you guys to help me achieve some things.
Firstly, I’ll say what’s going to happen and which ones would be the ones for youuuuuu to help me out!
That’s for the first half of the year you guys can help out with. Mostly just voting and enjoying yourselves, huh?
Ok, this is what I want to do.
Considering this is my blog, I can just post up my progress here for my own archival anyway. HELP ME GET FIT, YOU GUYSSS.
Places I have yet to go in Singapore:
This is just the first half-ish of the year. And not everything I want to do so, we’ll see as we strike it one by one. Ok, except for CF, that’s at the end of the year.
But yeah.
This is not a review of Gion Dining because this post is more of a memory of what I ate there last Saturday.
Please go to other blogs if you want a review because I went there as a walk in and near the end of their lunch service.
But I needed to try it then because the previous few days I had the most disappointing Japanese food at some other place and that some woman was randomly sobbing at her table with her friends. I don’t know why, but what ever, I was just sad about my sad food and sad sobbing.
Thus, I went to Gion.
It was quiet since it was an hour to the end of lunch service and I did ask if walk ins were available. They said yes, I entered.
They passed me a tablet after I was shown to my seat.
I actually knew what I wanted so I managed to order it quickly since I had spent the previous day or so looking at their pdf menu online.
And so I waited.
The waitress told me pictures were not allowed of the menu and I went “Huh, very well” because… It’s actually already on their website and facebook.
No matter, I deleted them from my phone since I figured, I’m not going to review the place mat and cutlery setting anyway.
What I ordered… Their tempura set, tamagoyaki and wheat tea.
It did not take too long, the tamagoyaki was set upon my table.
I took a bite of one slice and oh. Oh my, it was warm and it was sweet.
Perhaps I should stop and wait for when my tempura set arrived. But no, I couldn’t stop myself since I was quite hungry.
The wheat tea came, the waitress poured the cup for me and I savoured it.
It had been steeped properly and it was real wheat grains if you were curious enough to open the top of your teapot.
Do not insult this tea with sugar for you should savour it as it is.
The food did come soon after.
Ah, finally a proper set. Pickles, a potato salad, a vegetable salad with vinaigrette. Chawanmushi, a small yogurt dessert in a shot glass and the tempura with its sauces and miso soup with rice.
The rice, it was fluffy. Warm and sticky enough for me to use my chopsticks. As I tasted it, I thought, “Ah yes, this is Japanese rice” for you can tell the difference in taste compared to normal or basmati rice.
They cooked their rice properly. It was comforting as the rain started pouring outside. The tea kept on steaming away in its cup as I left it to cool and dipped my tempura in its sauce.
Oh… it was crispy, the saltiness of the sauce glancing against the battered exterior as I bit into it. Not oily, just crisp and full of the sweetness of the prawn itself intermingled with the sauce.
What a balance.
The grated radish was garnished with fresh ginger, an interesting choice, I thought. It brought a bigger kick than what preserved ginger would have.
I looked out to the side where the other few diners were eating their food. Did they realized what skill this needed? It was far simpler than what other dishes they might have ordered and that was why it was even more impressive since it was the simplest which was easiest to mess up.
I tilted up the bowl of miso soup, taking a sip of it. It was light, instead of tiny tofu cubes as I came to expect from many places, in place were small Japanese mushrooms. A delightful surprise at this tiny detail.
The side dishes, I polished off quickly, darting my chopsticks back and forth.
I half wondered if there would be any other disaster would befall in Orchard as the rain kept getting heavier.
I dipped my small spoon into the chawanmushi.
Ah yes, it was still warm and it had been freshly steamed.
It was still soft, so soft.
Finally I managed to eat a proper chawanmushi for the week as I scraped the spoon trying to get every bit of it, clinging to the cup.
Pouring myself another cup of wheat tea, I started on my dessert.
A tangy yogurt to finish the meal.
The rain stopped as the last drops of tea was drunk.
I left since I had paid for the meal before the lunch services was over.
As I like to say to eating such delicious food, itadakimasu, baby.
It’s already November. Either you’ve done your year’s resolutions of keeping fit or well, not.
If you haven’t, you could try getting a head start on next year’s resolutions on trying to be fit.
Or it’s at the point in time where you can pre-present yourself shoes for Christmas to go oooh, wow since you’ve gotten shoes like Nike Free 5.0 (I’ve seen these in stores and they seem really nice), you might as well go run.
Run before Christmas, run before the holidays so you can be ready to eat all the things?
I guess, it’s the easiest thing to do though, just run around if you don’t know how to carry weights or other exercises.
We’ve got a lot of marathons in Singapore. For a country that’s pretty small, everyone seems to be wanting to run all over it.
Speaking of marathons, I don’t know how I did it last year. I did one run a month for 2014 and this year I chose only the obstacle courses.
It wasn’t that many runs this year but enough for me to go “What was I thinking?†last year because besides the whole running thing (which, I admittedly walked a lot in between sprints), the starting time is always super early and in some middle part of Singapore or even in Sentosa.
How the heck did I do it?
Well, I’ve got a Spartan Run left coming up soon, I really have no idea how I’ll do that one since it seems so tough according to the ads online. WILL I MAKE IT?
Probably yes, I freaking paid for a spot in the run.
I won’t want to give up in the race or even go “Meh, I’ll just sleep. Sleep is nicerâ€.
It really is kind of a thrill when you complete it. Kind of like “YESSS, I DID ITâ€.
The medals are really nice too, you can keep it or hang it somewhere. Ok so.
Would you guys go sign up for runs if they were cheaptastic and you get a nice goodie bag and medal to go with it BUT if it started early like heck?
OK. That was a mini hiatus of sorts?
Not sure who noticed but yeah. I’ve been doing things.
1)Â Love Kuching needs your help financially (transfer moolah to DBS current 027-905975-3) Â if you can’t volunteer your services. You can know more from their website.
I did that mini vid for them and they’re my choice of cat charity to go to.
2) THIS COMES OUT on 1 November at the Singapore Writers Festival! Escape from Reality! It’s an anthology of short stories of the fictional sort. The fantasy-ish kind. $20! After the official launch, you can get it ordered directly through us or the publisher. More details then.
3) NANOWRIMO KICK OFF PARTY!
It’s on 31st Oct, 6pm at the level 5 Possibility Room of the National Library. Our theme is ‘Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?’. RSVP here:Â http://nanowrimo.org/forums/asia-singapore/threads/251222
4)
We’re going to Comic Fiesta! Yes. It’s in KL so if you wanna chope any of us to meet any of you guys, ‘book’ us early.
Last year had been fun so we’ll see how it is at the new location!
5) I’ve been on shoot for a mini series.
Hence why I haven’t updated in a bit. I’ll tell you more about the series when it is officially out on 27th November!
6) I’ll be at the library customer appreciation day on 6 November. I don’t know why I had to add that but in case you guys are there, you can say hello to me. The library people are always so nice.
7) You want to ever watch one of the telemovies I helped in? Here’s a trailer
Ambika English Trailer from Millenia Motion Pictures Pte Ltd on Vimeo.
Or watch the whole telemovie on Toggle here. I think it is only available for those in Singapore though. Darn you regional restrictions?
8) IT IS THE 10th run of N.E.mation! Soooooo I’ll BE BACK to support the teams! But why do the teams I support always get the top? Is it a correlation, a stroke of luck or what? HMMM? Tune in this year and we’ll see.
9) I’m doing the Spartan Race. Soooo I got to train (more).
10) I’m blogging here, aren’t I? SO WOOOH. OK. More posts ahead.
It’s hazy.
My take is that if you can see the air, wear a mask. Whatever, there will be people saying “No needlah” but whatever. That’s them. I’ll wear my mask, thank you very much because IÂ can tell the difference with and without it.
Especially when I went for a shoot and oh my goodness. Yes. Whatever, maybe you’re good without it, cool. My asthmatic friends, just wear it okay?
I got my 3M V-flex mask from Guardian pharmacies but I did notice them being sold at Popular bookstores too.
And this is an upgrade from Vogmask. We have an online store selling to Singapore.
Verdict? It’s comfier than the 3M one and way more stylish. Still, if you want to get an even more cooling one, try the double vent one, I guess since it’s cotton (I haven’t tried it but I’m guessing since if this one is ok, that one should be even better).
I still have the 3M with me but with the Vogmask, I’m sure I won’t accidentally tear it or anything of that sort. Let’s face it. Until Indonesia gets things sorted out, the haze is going to be here for quite a bit.
With all this haze though, it means most of our activities are limited indoors. But ungghhhh. I can stay indoors. On the computer all the time but eh, sometimes one needs to just go out and run around.
SO HERE’S A LIST of indoor activities you can do that does not involve being stuck at home (besides lurking in shopping malls):