A nice day spent with friends at Far East Plaza

Far East Plaza is a nice place to hang out. As it is in the city, it tends to get quite crowded. But there are loads of things to buy and see there. I like it namely for the affordable and wide variety of apparel sold there.

I recently bought some clothes at Far East Plaza. Each of the apparel that you see in this picture here averages at about 30 dollars each. One could easily go crazy with the range of clothes here.

Yesterday, I was at Far East Plaza again. But it wasn’t for shopping. Instead, it was a day for meeting of friends.

My good friend Juli, asked for help in designing a logo and namecard. We met at Far East plaza as designated. As I turned around, she pointed to a guy who was right next to her and introduced him.

“Marina, this is Man”

Man is Juli’s boyfriend. We’ve talked about him quite a bit during our girl sessions and it was nice to finally meet him in person. Over lunch, we got to know each other and I can’t help to think of what an adorable couple they were.

Man and Juli

Man and Juli were always teasing each other. It was so cute. They said that they planned on getting married at the end of the year, God willing. We spent the time talking to each other. Man seemed a funny and friendly guy.

After we were all happy with the final look of the logo, we waved our goodbyes and I headed to try to find the ping.sg gang. There was a buybuttonz event going on. I saw a white booth outside of Far East Plaza, but where on earth are the pingsters? I twittered in desperation.

Luckily, Tstar picked up my message and adviced me to head up to the second floor where the fair was. It was then when I saw quite a number of booths being set up. I walked to each booth trying to find a familliar face. I must have made an entire circle around the fair and that was when I finally noticed DK. Finally! A familliar face!

Me : Hi! (DK doesnt hear me)

A guy who happened to stand in the middle reciprocated instead.

Guy : Err .. hi. You are?

Me thinking : Who the heck is this person?

Guy : Hi I’m Farinelli.

Me : Alamak! Hi! I’m rinaz!

How embarassing! What a way to start to know another. Luckily for me, Farinelli was very friendly and easy to talk to. All feelings of embarassment quickly disappeared.

I quickly scanned around the booth and saw Uzyn and his girlfriend, Sek Ling, I finally got to meet Nicole and her boyfriend, Hendri. There were also arzhou, Ridz, Miccheng, Veron, Estee as well as others whom I unfortunately did not managed to catch their names.

Lets beat them up!

It was so funny to see the gang acting so silly. It seemed like everyone was goofing off. I guess this pose was inspired by the picture that was made infamous by DK.

We headed off for dinner afterwards at the Ayam Penyet Ria restaurant . I’m crazy about this stuff. Ayam Penyet is an Indonesian dish that consists of a deep fried chicken with floss sprinkled on top, served with some raw vegetables and rice as well as extra hot chilli.

A picture of Ayam Penyet

Unfortunately, as our group was a little too big, we were split into two groups to fit a table. Everyone at our table seemed to like the speciality ayam penyet there. Here is a quick video of our dinner

Click here to watch in youtube

Clockwise from left to right : trecillia3678, Hendri, Nicole, Ridz, Veron, Miccheng, NTT, DK, CJ, Uzyn, Sek Ling, Farinelli and me.

After dinner, we chilled out for a bit at Starbucks and had a bit of a chit chat. Just for fun I thought I’d do a quick interview of everyone there.

Click here to watch in youtube

What a lovely evening it was. Anywhere can be a lovely place, with great company 🙂

A lovely evening with the peeps of Ping.Sg at Essential Brew

Ping.sg is a bloggers community that I’ve been with for some months now. I don’t remember exactly how I stumbled onto this website, but it is a great place for Singaporean bloggers to gain some eyeballs to their blogs as well as finding interesting posts by Singaporeans.

After much contemplating, I decided to go for the meetup last night.

The evening didn’t start very promising. My lion hair decided to puff up and while riding my scooter on the road, the sky decided to rain. I went to seek shelter at a petrol station nearby and listened amusedly to two Indian men chatting amiably together.

At long last the rain abated and I went forward to the journey.

Pic of Holland Village, Singapore

Holland Village! It has been quite a while since I last been here. It isnt really my type of place as I was more of a heartlander, a neighbourhood person. But its a lovely place to go to. I should have brought Cartcart here.

There were heaps of well dressed people and expatriates there getting their groceries, having dinner in nice looking restaurants and people just walking about enjoying their saturday evening.

At length, I reached Essential Brew where the gathering was held. It looked very cosy. The decor was a mix of zen and homeliness. It looked like a good place to spend time with friends.

The first person I saw was Uzyn (Yes thats his real name!) as he waved at me from the room upstairs. As I entered the room, I saw Kevin, NTT and DK whom I met previously from the Nexus meet. As I sat down, I met this very sweet lady. She introduced herself as Tstar. She was very friendly! We hit it off instantly.

I was curious to see Ridz, who was sitting beside her. He was wearing the army uniform.

me : Did you just got off camp, Ridz?

ridz : Oh no, I am doing this because Tstar said that she’ll only come to this meeting if I wore my army uniform. She said she loves men in uniform. I’ve already completed my army training.

me : Ohmygosh. I cant believe you actually did that!

ridz : Yeah, too bad I couldnt find my camoflage cream for the face. I would have put that on too!

I realised later that the man who was sitting at the head of the table was Ebie, one of the owners for Essential Brew. He is a ping.sg member too! He sat with us for a while, but couldn’t stay long as it was a very busy night for him.

Pic of the Ping.sg group

From left to right : Tstar, Ridz, Kevin, NTT, Ebie, DK and Uzyn

Clappingtree arrived shortly after. She told me that she just came from mass from her church and that she lived nearby. It was really lovely to talk to her upclose. She was very friendly, warm and very easy going. The first time I saw her was at the Nexus meet, some weeks back. But I only managed to see her from a distance away and we didn’t get a chance to talk.

Any meetup with the Ping.sg gang will bound to have a plentiful of cheerful laughter. I am always amazed at how friendly these group are. I chuckled at the jokes and conversation. The topics ranged from the Pingnation netcast that Kevin planned to host, to the spontaneous netcast that Clappingtree suggested, to my cloudy drink ( Uzyn : It’s cloudy because its going to rain ) and practically everything else under the sky.

I looked at everyones dinner. Ridz had this yummy looking fish and chips. Uzyn had a plate of cream pasta. I think Tstar had a plate of beef and she looked like she enjoyed it. I decided to have the Vegetarian Verdure Pomodoro pasta. It was pretty good. So good that Tstar and I forgot to take a picture of our dinner 😛

Kevin and NTT had to leave after dinner, due to prior engagements but shortly after, Eastcoastlife and her husband arrived. She jokingly introduced him as her boyfriend. True to as what DK mentioned, she was a charismatic and attractive lady. When she talks, her eyes sparkled and it seemed that everyone warmed up to her.

Actually, I suspected that there could be something going on with Eastcoastlife and DK. Whenever they were in the chatroom, their chatting would dominate the entire chatroom that I got disgusted by it, quite frankly.

But DK explained that he has never met her before and regarded her as his “aunt”. They were both so funny and friendly that it was hard to stay mad at them.

Pic of the Panna Cotta Dessert

Ebie was so kind as to give us complimentary desserts after our dinner. Thank you Ebie! You rock! Each of us had a Panna Cotta with strawberries on top. It looked too pretty to eat. But when I started, it was so delightful to eat that I sighed when it was all gone.

Pic of the Ice Cream Bombe Dessert

We also had a plate of Ice Cream Bombe. I had to take a picture of this really quickly as everyone were eyeing on it. They couldn’t wait to devour it.

And it really was very very good. It had an entire medley of yummy treats like ice cream and lovely crunchy hazelnut bits in it. In no time at all, it was gone!

Rinaz wants more!

See!

It was a very lovely evening, well spent with the group. The night seemed to end too quickly and we had to say goodnight to each other. I waved goodbye to clappingtree, saw Eastcoastlife walk the opposite direction, hand in hand with her hubby, saw chilvarous Ridz accompany Tstar to the bus stop. Uzyn and DK still wanted to to have coffee though.

Saying goodbye

I had to decline as it was nearly 11 pm. My parking was only valid till 10.30pm. Clappingtree said that this was a hot spot for parking wardens. Ack! I really didn’t want to get fined!

I had a really lovely time. It was definitely a great meetup! Here is a short clip from during dessert. Enjoy 🙂

Click here to watch in youtube

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Bras Basah Complex – a great place for arty people

Can you imagine finding these three books at almost unused condition costs in total for about $20?

Woah! Bookpoint rocks!

Wow right? Yeah, thats what I thought so too.

It has been a while since I’ve been to Bras Basah Complex. I used to go there some years ago while undertaking digital design course in a distant lifetime. I love this place as it has plentiful of things for people who are interested in books, design, or just looking at stuff. I used to patronise there to print for posters and name-cards designs.

I think its really worth going there. For $2.50 you could print an A3 sized poster and for $10 you could create a stack of 100 cards which are as beautiful as moo cards.

I stopped by this place on the third floor, called ‘Book Point’ where there were loads of treasures that you could find. You do need a little bit of patience as the place was rather large, and will take a while if you have a specific book to find. I was hooked for a couple of hours in the literature segment looking for some books that I wanted to read. There were some books with some scribbles in them, after all, this *was* a second hand bookshop. But most of them were almost pristine.

I still couldn’t find The Metamophorsis by Franz Kafka nor Godel Escher Bach; An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter which Cartcart has recommended me to read. In the meanwhile, I’ll keep trying to find them 🙂

Exploring the rest of the floor, I found myself at ‘Art Friend‘. My gosh, this is a great place for crafts. There were so many tools for art here, I could go crazy. Everything that you could want for art is here, from painting, to pottery, to sewing, to welding to things that I don’t even know of!

Nimmo and friends

I was almost inspired enough to create my own Nimmo and friends plushie. But the only thing is, that they don’t really have exactly what I want to create a decent sized plushie. I think a better place for it would be at the area near the Sultan Mosque where mum, a seamstress, gets her materials for sewing clothes.

And at length, I stopped by the fourth floor to take a peek at the famed graphic-book bookstore, Basheer. I poured for a long time over their beautiful, colourful and artistically designed books. It’s a great place to get ideas by looking at the creativity of other designers.

That was when I find myself stuck reading this book. Design Basics Index by Jim Krause. It has loads of info about composition, concept and component. Although I wasn’t a designer per-se, I thought that this book was a very fascinating read. On a whim, I decided to buy it.

Design Basics Index

But zomg. This book costs $47! It’s almost as expensive as the $60 computer book that I bought some years ago.

How come graphic and computer books are so expensive?

Anyway, do drop by Bras Basah Complex if you’re anywhere in town. It’s a great place for the creative soul 🙂

The days my dearest visited finale

“Hey you! Yes you lurking there! Its National de-lurking week. That means you MUST post a message and say hi! 🙂 “

Saturday, I wanted to show cartcart the science center . Being the science and maths enthusiast that he was, I was sure that he’d enjoy it. We strolled to Jurong East, had a late lunch at my favourite Vegetarian stall and marvelled at how closely it tasted like actual meat.

Then we stopped by a local supermarket where Cart had the time of his life comparing as well as learning about local foodstuff.

He poured over the curry spices, the dried herbs, the noodles, basically things that Singaporeans use to cook on a day to day basis.

He was most excited.

Cartcart even quipped that he found this experience as enjoyable as our trip to the underwater world.


Look! A genuine Italian brand!

We took our time and when we finally reached the Science Center, I looked quizzedly at the ticket booth which had no one manning it. Then I realised that we went there 5 minutes too late to last entry! Even shows at the Omnimax theater till 9 pm were fully sold out.

That’ll teach me to be so ill prepared. We walked out dejectedly past children who were laughing happily in the water pool which was side by side to the pathway.

But the day was still young! We were at Jurong East! I hang out here a lot. And what better way to spend it by watching a movie together with your partner 🙂

The show that I was interested in watching was Night at the Museum, but it started much too late and the only show that was remotely watchable was Charlottes Web . I guess that would have to do. *chuckles*

The movie was pretty okay. Even with the many many changes from the original book, I think I got teary eyed when Charlotte died.

It’s a good thing that the arm rests in the movie theatre were movable and we were able to cuddle 🙂

On our bus journey back, we passed by Pasta Fresca and after hearing its jingle being played regularly on 938 live, I thought it would be nice to have dinner there.

A slightly bitter, fizzy drink that is well known in Italy

The decor looked nice enough. Cartcart mentioned at how authentic the place was decorated and even noticed that the type of fabric the curtains made were the actual type of fabric used in Italy.

Cartcart ordered arrabbiata, just to compare how it tastes to the pasta we had yesterday.

So cartcart, how much does this one rate?

5

Wow, a whole point compared to yesterday 😛

Yes, now I can safely say that this is the best pasta I’ve eaten in Singapore 😛

Heaps of cars lining up next to the mosque

Sunday, Hari Raya Haji.

Mum had just completed sewing Cartcart’s baju kurong the day before. She seemed unconfident that the outfit would fit him well because of some of the pertinent additional measurements that I didn’t take.

But when Cartcart put it on, it fitted him perfectly. When he came out to show me, I was floored at how stunningly handsome he looked in the green baju kurong. So handsome that I forgot to take a picture of him wearing it.

My Mum and dad gave him generous compliments at how good he looked. Cartcart was putting on the capal, the Malay sandals that we bought during our trip to geylang. He really looked so elegant. Mum thought that if he wore the samping (waist cloth) and songkok (hat) it would be more complete.

But cartcart seemed to be doubtful. “It has long sleeves!” He whispered to me. “I might perspire badly in this

However, during the entire journey to my grandmother’s house, cartcart didn’t break a sweat due to the cooler December weather and the air conditioned train coach.

When we reached the doorstep, in my mind, I was wondering and hoping that everything would go al-right.

My aunts were there and the first to greet us, then my uncles, and then my cousins. We talked, and then had lunch together and just chilled. I see one of my cousin, Eusoff, deep in conversation with cartcart while the rest of the clan seemed transfixed in a Malay soap opera that was premièring.

It was pretty relaxing.

But I got nervous again when grandmother came out of the room, gave that slow and knowing smile of hers and asked me that question that grandmothers always asks.

So when are you going to get married?

Uh … Um …

When you go out with him, don’t hold his hands.

Oh …

But all in all, everything seemed okay. My worries about a drama happening was for naught. I feel quite relieved that everyone seemed pretty cool with it.

The same evening, we had new years eve dinner together at the community centre. Mum suggested that cart and I go to have a local national feel. But I think it was kind of a bad idea.

The entire concert was like a hungry ghost festival concert with music blaring at a million decibels and the singers wearing clothes that is so shiny that it will leave you momentarily blind. It was pure torture. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. But cartcart had the patience of a saint and thought it would be better to wait till the dinner course ended.

By then it was too late to take public transportation. I asked cartcart if he was game enough to ride on the scooter with me. He was! And he managed to squeeze in one of my helmets and off we went and we managed to reach the bed and breakfast in time to see the fireworks from the new year countdown from the city skyline.

Monday, New Year’s day

Today is the last day that cartcart will be staying here. I really think that a week is just not enough to spend here … I haven’t shown him everything that I wanted to show him …

Juli was free to have lunch with us today. Cartcart and I took the scooter to vivo city, where the parking area was so large, that it was so easy to get lost in there.

We went to a cafe which I thought it would be good, but turned out that the food there was below par.

Coffee with a piece of pen?

I wasn’t enjoying my fig and apricot sandwich. I have no idea what cartcart was eating. And Juli wasn’t thrilled with her fish dish either.

But it was a pretty casual affair, the three of us talking together. There is few things as satisfying as talking to friends

After we said our goodbyes to Juli, we had to rush to Chinatown to buy presents and souvenirs for his family. We only had about less than two hours before needing to reach back to my place to say his goodbyes to my family.

Cartcart bought a mask for his sister, and a lovely Chinese tea pot set for his mom and dad. We reached the temple again. And this time, Cartcart decided to enter and see the interior of the temple and witness purification a ceremony where the priest was at the altar, washing a large utensil. It was too far for me to see as non Hindus were not permitted into the holy area.

When we reached home, mum asked us to have dinner together, “I promised to make you Nasi Lemak!” We sat down together, where our family had our last meal together with cartcart.

As I walked out of the kitchen to clear the plates, I overheard mum talking to cartcart, “She’s a good daughter. I hope you will take care of her. Will you take care of her?” “I hope to do that

I went deep in my thoughts …

At the airport terminal, even with mum, sis, aunt and my cousins there, I still couldn’t control my sadness and the tears began to roll down. One week just isn’t enough. “Why cant I spend all days with you?” I looked in cartcart’s face as he gave me a hug before reluctantly leaving for his flight.

Sometimes I feel like this is all a dream. That we are all asleep and then we wake up to our reality.

In all honestly I don’t know how long I can take this. Such happiness when we are together, and then heartbreak when having to part.

Why cant I spend all my days with him? That would be such a beautiful. He is kind, gentle, romantic, patient, wise and the sweetest person I want to spend the rest of my days with you.

The days my dearest visited part 4 – Visiting Sentosa


Another view from the Bed and Breakfast

Friday. For the first time in weeks, the rain stopped pouring down and we finally had our respite and first sunny day!

I decided to bring Cartcart the Sentosa Island. It was easy getting there, just one train stop away to get to harbour-front and then we could get a choice of taking the ferry or the cable car. We took the cable car as it gives a nice and picturesque view from the top.

There were loads of people queueing there too! They must be the same as us, enjoying the nice sunny day.

There were so many people of different nationalities here. I could see Indians, Filipinos, Indonesians, Japanese, Americans and loads more.

Soon after, we entered an cable car which we shared with a nice Indian family and we enjoyed the sights from up above. I pointed to Cart the ferry terminal hall and the new train service that will soon be in operation as well as Pulau Brani where much industrial work happens.

A quick stop to have coffee at one of the cafe. We sat on top of a plank which was high on top of a hill where we could see much trees and the industrial island in front of us. It was such a lovely day. Though, cloudy, it was relatively cool and had no trace of rain.

There were little feathered friends like Peacocks and Mynah birds walking around and I was quite surprised to see them being so unafraid of humans. Why didn’t they fly away when we walked closely to them? But Cartcart said that they are scavengers and are so used to human presence that they aren’t afraid any more.

Something made me glad was that the place where we had our coffee, employed handicapped staff and I noticed some deaf staff communicating through sign language as they cleared some tables and chairs.

Our first stop was the “Images of Singapore” exhibition where we could see the development of Singapore from the 1700 to the present day. It has been a while since I’ve seen the exhibition and I was quite pleased to see that the place has been expanded, it was bigger and had more exhibits inside.

A scene during the signing of the treaty by Tengku Hussein and Sir Stamford Raffles


An Indian fortune teller – the parrot is supposed to pick a card to tell my fortune.

My new boyfriend. See how happy he looks! Haha!

I use Fab! To get my clothes white and clean!

I found it very enjoyable. I do like seeing historical things, especially being presented this way. Through the exhibits we saw different customs and traditions as well as significant dates throughout the years.

There was even a very funny scene that happened to us – while walking about the Malay exhibit, I pointed to Cartcart on the shape of the house as well as the roof when all of a sudden, something that we thought was a statue initially came to life and jumped in

Boy: Yes! This is a traditional Malay house and inside, they are playing a favourite pastime – checkers!

Cart: But you’re wearing Chinese clothes!

Boy: Yes! I am visiting my Malay friends!

The conversation was so weird that it was humorous 🙂

Next stop was at the underwater world. Again, it was much different compared to the last time I went there. I liked it. This time, the exhibition was categorized in different types of sea creatures. And we saw many denizens of the sea – some odd looking, some humorously huge and some extremely colourful ones.

This crab is as big as me!

But I think the highlight of the underwater world was when we were in the conveyor and felt as if we were submerged underwater.

It was very very cool.

We had dinner at a cafe in Vivo City. I hoped that Cartcart would like eating here since I did enjoy the food at one of their branch at Bugis.

So Cartcart? Upon 10, how much does this arrabbiata rate?

4

Only 4? That’s a fail!

It’s not al-dente and it just doesn’t taste right.

Wow, high standards! And I haven’t brought him to pizza hut yet 😛

(To be continued)

The days my dearest visited part 3

Thursday, on this day, we visited Chinatown and saw the sights that there was there. It was still raining, can you imagine that?

We took in the colour and the sights. I saw many clothes shops as well as antique shops and trinket shops. Cartcart seemed particularly interested in a mask shop.

Cart: My sister collects masks, I think she’d like one of the masks here

I looked at the rows and rows of elaborate wooden, I admired the craftmanship and design. Cart asks if there were any Malay masks being song there but I couldnt tell – I’ve never seen a malay mask before.

We walked along the rows of shops till we reached the sri mariamam temple.

We heard music being played inside and I asked cart if he wanted to take a look inside.

Cart: No, I dont think I want to.

Me: Ok

We walked back to the train station and cart pauses for a while

Cart: But I’m being silly right? I’ve travelled halfway round the world and I’m saying no to seeing a temple?

Hema, a close friend of mine was free on that night and decided to have dinner with us at Little India. We were supposed to meet by Tekka but I couldnt seem to find her.

Me : (handphone) Where are you Hema? I cant see you?

Hema : I’m right here, by the bus stop, dont you see me?

Me: Where? Where?

Hema: Here! Here! I’m waving my hands and jumping up and down!

Me: I dont see you!

Cart: There she is (points)

Me: Oh!

We had dinner at Komala Villas, an Indian fast food restaurant that Hema recommended. We walked fast to avoid the drizzle of the rain and after many turns along the roads, we reached a nondescript area. The place seemed so ordinary but since Hema recommended it, we were game to give it a try.

Cart got a meal with some biryani rice, puri, different type of gravies, papodam and yoghurt while I had some naan bread while hema had thosai.

Me and Hema looked at Cartcart eating.

Hema: Do you know how to use your fingers to eat, cart? You curve your fingers like this, and pluck the bread, bit by bit and scoop it in your mouth

Cart: Like this?

Hema and me: Yes! Very good!

The food was actually pretty good here and I thoroughtly enjoyed my naan bread and the gravies. Cartcart seemed to like his food too.

Cart: Mmmm! How come we dont have things like these back home? This place would be so popular back, since its fast food, it would be good during lunch time. I like the food! I like everything!

I smiled at Cart and Hema and enjoyed their company and wished for the pleasant night to never end.

(To be continued)