Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Did you mail one of these Visit Singapore cards out?

Singaporeans and residents have mailed more than a quarter of a million postcards and electronic cards to invite people to visit Singapore.

This was part of the Singapore Tourism Board's fourth Project Postcard - an initiative that turns Singaporeans and residents into tourism ambassadors.


From CNA

Monday, January 29, 2007

The quick updates

Well - the paucity of posts in December was mainly due to too many parties - lots of good food, not much time to blog, but that didn't mean I wasn't eating!

So I'm going to blog those entries in the correct date sequence, but linked through this entry... Enjoy!

1. Tampopo Ramen
2. Spizza for Friends
3. Miharu Ramen
4. Superdog
5. SoHo@Central

Saturday, January 27, 2007

More fun with fingers

After my post two days ago on thumbprint ATMs, today I read a post on Marginal Revolution, where a poster comments that an upscale supermarket in US was allowing shoppers to pay for shopping with a swipe of fingerprints. Halfway through the comments now, and of course most of the comments are focusing on the security inadequacies and how easy it is to fake someone else's fingerprint.

I guess lopping someone else's finger off to buy groceries probably isn't worth it, and kind of gross anyway.

I want to give you permanent brain damage -- some of you, anyway...

Wow!
NYTimes article...

Scientists studying stroke patients are reporting that an injury to a specific
part of the brain, near the ear, can instantly and permanently break a smoking
habit, effectively erasing the most stubborn of addictions. People with the
injury who stopped smoking found that their bodies, as one man put it, “forgot
the urge to smoke.”

Well, I don't know if I'm really suggesting it - but I can see visions of kungfu masters demonstrating the anti-smoking chop. "Hit him right here.. and when he wakes up, he won't want to smoke anymore!"

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Money for thumbs

Remember when they had these cars which were locked by owners' thumbprints? Then there was the case in Malaysia where the owner was robbed and they hacked off his thumb?

We're about to see major cases in another part of the world...

Monday, January 22, 2007

SoHo@Central

Liang Court has got competition for the Japanese dollar! SoHo @ Central is starting to open its doors...

Well, I'm not sure that's the name of the place. It's labelled Central on the wall above Clarke Quay MRT, it's called SoHo@Central on Streetdirectory.com (and is scheduled to open in 2013), and websearches don't seem to show a place.

But anyway, it commands a beautiful view above Clarke Quay and seems to have a fantastic assortment of restaurants coming up, including Waraku and Sun with Moon (of the Tofu Cheesecake...

How beautiful a view? Well, this is the view from Dining@Kopitiam, the food court.


Hm. wonderful, innit? Well, I don't think I've mentioned before how much I like Waraku. It's yet another Jap place that's pretty good and at the same time affordable. At about $15 for a basic meal and $25 inclusive of dessert, it's mid-range. And both the Marina Square branch and the SoHo@Central branch offer a good ambience, though the service standard at the SoHo branch still needs to pick up.




Of course, the other important thing is that the portions are plentiful and the meat (pork katsu don in this case) is nicely fatty and delicious.

Try out the restaurants here before they become crowded!

Friday, January 19, 2007

It's not the teachers' fault...

One teacher writes in the NYTimes,

Every day teachers are blamed for what the system they’re just a part of
doesn’t provide: safe, adequately staffed schools with the highest expectations
for all students.

She's referring to the movies - all those movies about inspirational teachers in schools of the urban poor - and the aspirations they generate:
Every year young people enter the teaching profession hoping to emulate the
teachers they’ve seen in films... It’s no surprise that half the teachers in
poor urban schools, like Erin Gruwell herself, quit within five years.


Wonder if I can get my brother to read this - not to discourage him from teaching, but to stop him from joining the quitting half...

Monday, January 15, 2007

Anniversary...

Today was our 3rd year anniversary... lol..
I gave her an Aldo bag and little white toy that she wanted ... (but that was last Friday)

And she gave me a sweet little pencil box and a game, 明星志愿3. Lol...

Dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, spaghetti carbonara and hawaiian pizza - decent, with slightly undercooked pasta, and pineapples which tasted like they'd been soaked in wine.

Dessert at NYDC - Grandma's Going Nuts.

And... lots of walking around Borders, me with a 40% discount coupon and not quite sure what to buy....

Friday, January 12, 2007

Superdog!



With a name like that it's bound to attract attention, right?

Superdog is a new franchise I think, with its first Singapore branch in VivoCity. The premise seems to be (based on the name) built around the hotdog.. I'm not entirely sure, since they have a Superburger as well.

Anyway, I ordered a hot dog:


As with this review, I found the sausage so-so only. It was totally ordinary, I think I would have preferred just to eat a standard Cold Storage pop-it-in-the-microwave cheese sausage, without the bun!

As for price, it was just about comparable with other fast food, with a discount coupon which we picked up at the escalator. Though Keying was super attentive and kind and shared our coupons with the next person in the queue, I remarked to her later that in future, if there were no coupons I'd probably not eat here at all! Price reminds me of A&W, come to think of it.

Overall, forgettable experience. It only makes me think of my beloved In-N-Out back in California, sigh...

Wednesday, January 03, 2007