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Cart in SG : Class of 97G 10th year reunion

For three years, Jurong Institute was part of my life. Jurong Institute used to be a school where we studied for the A-levels to head to the university. When JI closed its doors in 2003, many of us felt sad. Personally for me, my JI days was one of one of the most memorable days of my life, especially for the people and the friends that I made.

See if you can spot me 🙂

So when my JI classmate, Hong Boon sms’ed me about the the class reunion, I instantly replied back that I would be able to make it. It would be so nice to meet the gang again.

Sat, 29 Dec 2007

Cart and I decided to head to Geek Terminal for some coffee before going to the meet. Having always hearing me gush about how lovely their coffee was, Cart wanted to find it out for himself. Unfortunately when we reached there, it was closed!

We both left dejectedly and went to ‘Coffee Club’ instead, where we had some coffee and shared a really delightful Chocolate and Coffee Mud pie ice cream with Oreo powder and fudge drizzled onto it.

Mudpie Ice Cream

Yummy! It was so good that I felt sorry when it was finally gone.

After realising the time, we took the train to Orchard. Being a city area, it was a very popular place to be which tends to be a congested place. Both Cart and I had to walk against the week-enders crunch, like salmons swimming upstream.

Christmas Tree at Ngee Ann City

We finally reached Ngee Ann City and stopped a while to admire the beautiful 4 storey high Christmas tree before heading to the Family International Buffet Restaurant. I was surprised to see only Melvin and then Juli, BK, William and his wife arriving shortly after.

Apart from Juli, it has been ages since I’ve seen them. They were still as friendly as ever and we chatted amiably while waiting for the others.

But the others were so late! We could not take it any longer that we decided to enter the restaurant and have a seat. And that was when the rest arrived one by one. Over an hour later than the time stipulated -_-”

The restaurant looked like a nice place. Being voracious eaters, all of us couldn’t wait to attack the food there. And there were plentiful types of foods to choose from. Here are a few of the sections that I managed to capture :

Family International Buffet

From different types of rice and savory food.

Family Imperial Restaurant

To steamed food.

Family Imperial Restaurant

Colourful desserts.

At one point, Xiang Long said, “Stop taking pictures! You look like a tourist!” to which I replied, “Come on, I’m a BLOGGER!” 😛

But there were loads loads more like the seafood (like lobsters, sashimi and Salmon) section, that I neglected to take a picture of because we were all raring to eat!

Family Imperial Restaurant

Hello? Sorry darling, but I want to eat now. Callyoubacklater!

In the middle of our meal, Hong Boon, took out the class Time Capsule. This was where we added in memorabilia of our school life all the way back in 1997. And now that 10 years has passed, each of us were curious to see what was inside it.

97G Time Capsule

This is our time capsule made out of a coffee canister. On top of the time capsule reads, “This remains as 97G property to be rediscovered on 06112007” It turns out that we were one month late 😛

97G Time Capsule

It was really cool to see the things inside the time capsule, mostly hand written old letters, photographs and we poured over each and every one of them. Truth be told, many of us have even forgotten about these items.

97G Time Capsule

Like this excuse card. I don’t even remember putting this into the time capsule. I don’t even remember carrying it around! But since it had my name on it, it should be mine :

97G Reunion

See! Never skipped class, never left school early, never pretended to be sick. I’m such a good girl.

97G Reuinion

Here Max is showing the handwritten letter of one of our classmate. Briefly it says, “I have a wish to become a member of the parliament. I would like to be an officer in the Army or the Navy. And I would like to marry Karen Tee Wen Chi”

It was just so lovely to go through old memories together.

97G Reunion

After our dinner, on a whim we decided to get a new time capsule to be opened in the next 10 years. I wonder how we will all be like by then?  🙂

Cart and Rinaz at Ngee Ann City

Next : Meeting Geri and monkeying around in the zoo!

In this series :

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Cart in SG : Of Little India, Geylang Serai and meeting the Aunt

Thurs, 27 Dec 2007

I took Cartcart to Little India to for Indian vegetarian food. Ever since the first time he ate here, he has enjoyed eating Indian food a lot. I think that it is rather convenient since we have a peace of mind, without having to worry about the food containing any animal products.

We headed to a little place called Komala Villas where they served Indian food in a sort of fast food restaurant. Cart ordered the North Indian set while I had the Naan set.

Naan at Little India
A slightly eaten Naan bread before I remembered to take a picture

Cart’s meal had a piece of deep fried dried chilli in the middle of his meal. He started to pick it up and ate it! I was horrified as I’ve never seen anyone eat an entire chilli before. I stared at him with my mouth open as he muttered out a satisfied “Mmmmm”.

A friend we met at Komala Villas

What? He ate an entire chilli? Unbelievable!

We took the bus to head to the bnb where we caught on tv mobile, news about the assasination of the ex Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto. The first thing that came in my mind was how unreal it was.

Fri, 28 Dec 2007

Geylang food center

After Cart’s Islamic studies, mum, Cart and I headed to the Geylang Food Center for a spot of lunch. There were so much things to eat here. There were rows and rows of stalls selling wonderful local fare.

Mum and I ate Ayam Penyet.

Ayam Penyet

A slightly eaten Ayam Penyet before I remembered to take a picture

This was one of my favourite food. Ayam Penyet is deep fried marinated chicken that you eat with raw vegetables and chilli paste. The hotter the better! Granted that it was a much different variation of the Ayam Penyet that I was used to, with that particular chicken being drizzled with soya sauce, it was still very good 🙂

Mum asked me to let Cart try the Serabai

Serabai

This was a traditional Malay dessert made up of glutinous flour and eaten with gula melaka (palm sugar) Yum!

Mum decided to show Cartcart a couple of the everyday things that we had in Singapore so we walked to the wet market that was nearby.

Pasar Geylang

She showed the local vegetables, and foodstuff like spices, pandan leaves, tempeh (fermented soybean) and others, while she amiably chatted up with the ladies that were manning the stalls. That was when Cartcart spotted out some babas brand curry powder and said, “I want to make curry!” and proceeded to buy all three types that he saw in front of him.

As mum had prior engagement, Cart and I proceeded to go to the furniture shop called ‘Barang-barang’. In Malay, Barang-barang is a plural form of stuff.

Actually Cart needed some respite from the hot sun, while I just wanted to have fun and then take a nap after our lunch. I spotted a chair that looked almost like the one I saw in Secondlife.

Barang Barang

We reached our aunt’s place later in the evening where she was already waiting for us. My aunt has been looking forward to meeting Cartcart that she’s been trying to make me feel guilty for not introducing him to her when he came last year.

cart, rinaz and mak oteh
My aunt’s colourful house

But I was glad that we came over this time because Cart seemed to enjoy himself. He commented that my aunt had a great personality – very friendly, hospitable and a great cook.

It was funny because just a few moments ago, my aunt told me that she was a little worried as she has never cooked vegetarian food before. She had to crack her head and wondered what to cook. And in the end, she made Omelettes, Chap Chye (stir fried mixed vegetables) with mushroom sauce and some fried Macaroni.

My aunt, having already been to Italy some years back, started to talk about her experiences there to Cartcart. And one of the topic that they talked about as seen in the video below, was about coffee :

It was hillarous!

We then quickly said our goodbyes and went up to say hello to my parents since both my parents were home.

My family

Cart started to ask about my dad, whom was hurt during the accident and was surprised to see the well made prosthetic fingers that the doctors made for him. It looked natural, he said. And my dad seemed happy to hear that and even invited Cart to touch his fingers.

Cart handed some chocolates (which was the first and last time I saw, since my siblings were all chocolate monsters) as well as this very interesting thing :

Sapori Pie

This was a Panforte. I guess its a sort of hard pie which is made up of spices and dried fruit. Mum couldn’t wait to open and try it out.

And we all loved it. Yummy!

Next : My 10th year Jurong Institute school reunion!

In this series :

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Cart in SG : Of the gorgeous sounds of the handbells

Wed, 26 Dec 2007

A couple of weeks ago, fellow pingster, Tstar, twittered about her handbell group performing for a concert during the holiday week. After we bugged each other on gmail, she asked if I would be interested in attending. Naturally I said yes!

The tickets Tstar gave me to the handbell concert :D

The tickets that Tstar reserved for us!

Thus on Wednesday evening, Cartcart and I spent some chill out time over at City Hall. Prior to that, it has been a busy day for us, rushing over to attend the Islamic class in the morning. We were glad to have a little bit of respite afterwards.

The coffee conneseiur

We spent a little time for some yummy coffee at ‘the coffee connoisseur’ and I admired the adorable decoration which still had a Christmas theme to it. It was a warm and cosy place to be.

Afterwards, we took a walk along the parliament road where Cartcart admired the historic buildings that were around since 1800’s.

The street to the parliament house

Somehow this picture looks very London-ish. 

We finally reached the Arts house where there were a small number of people already lounging around. Once we found the poster, we went up the rustic staircase and went to have our seats.

the poster to the handbell concert

Though I’ve already been to the arts house, I’ve never actually been into the inner chambers before. This was where it was formerly the place where the member of the parliament gathered to debate. It was a very charming place. The seats were so antique! I even saw very retro speakers attached to the chair.

The show started just as soon as we sat down. I’ve never been to a handbell concert before, hence it was very interesting for me to observe the proceedings. I saw the conductor raise his baton, and then the music began.

Ministry of Bellz at the Arts house

My gosh, it was such a beautiful sound that both Cartcart and I were so enthralled by it! It was such a lovely and relaxing sound that everyone who attended the concert were mesmerized.

Here is a short clip of the concert :

Isn’t it gorgeous?

I scanned out for Tstar during the concert and there she was, cheerfully swirling her bells around. Tstar looks so elegant with her outfit, the cute purple tie scarf and her black gloves. I couldn’t wait to say hello to her afterwards.

During the intermission, I made my way to the ladies for a bit, and when I came back, I saw her chatting to Cartcart and I was quite surprised. That was when they retold their narration.

Tstar : Where is Marina? I thought I saw her here.

Cart : Hello. She is in the ladies for a bit. My name is Roberto

Tstar : Who?

Cart : Roberto … Hmm Cart

Tstar : Oh! You mean Cartcart? Hi!

That was when I saw Tstar’s family coming over to give her their support. It was always heartening to see that 🙂

I quickly took asked for a picture with Tstar but when I saw the picture I was rather shocked.

Rinaz and Tstar

I looked like a giant next to Tstar! I don’t remember being so big!? I’m only 1.6 meters -_-”

Next : Cart’s first meet with the aunt

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Sidenote : Anyone interested in watching the Chingay parade with me?

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Cart in SG : We went to the Singapore Science Center and Spagetti Too

Tue, 25 Dec 2008

I’ve always had fond memories of the Science Center. Back in school, we’d have rather regular excursions to see the exhibitions or omnimax films or to participate in their science courses.


A snapshop at Science Center, 2003

It was probably in 2003 when I’ve last been in the science centre. Even so, it was for a robotics competition rather than for leisure.

Last year, I thought that I’d bring Cartcart to go to the science centre as he loves maths. But it has been an unusually heavy downfall of rain the entire week that he was here last year. Hence, when the weather appeared to be fair this year, I dragged Cartcart to my stomping ground, Jurong East 🙂

Enterance to the Science Center Singapore

The entrance to the Science Centre was already crowded by the time we reached there in the early afternoon. There were plentiful of people around, kids, parents, tourists as we walked down the corridor past the waterworks.

For many of the parts, the Science Centre was quite familiar as how I’ve remembered it the last time that I was there. There were the displays that I still remembered. But at the same time, there were also a number of new displays that I saw for the first time.

Like this painting of the President of Singapore, Mr SR Nathan

But as cool as the painting was, I don’t think I would like to be in the same room with this painting, alone  and especially at night time. I think you’d feel the same too!

And there were plenty of other cool stuff around, like these display made up of laboratory created pills in the Biology Segment :

Singapore Science Center

As well as this interesting interactive game where one goes in front of a green screen :

And these beautiful cosmic like elements swirling around gracefully :

When we walked to another area, I regretted for not coming to the Science Centre before my examination period as I saw an ecology section where everything was very useful for my geography knowledge.

Ecology, Singapore Science Center

There was so much things to see that it seemed incredulous when we found out that we did not have enough time to see everything. I thought for sure that two hours would be more than enough time to look around Science Centre. But we did not even get to explore the second floor and then it was time to head to the omni-max theater at 6 pm.

We did however had just about enough time to pose with a little friend 🙂

Frog at Science Center Singapore

Since the first time going there, I’ve always enjoyed going to the omnimax theatre. It was, and still is the largest theatre in Singapore to date. With the screen being about five storey tall, it was an immersive experience that it was easy to feel like being part of the movie itself.

Omnimax Theater, Singapore Science Center

It was an arduous climb to the back of the theatre as the way up is a lot of stairs. One may feel vertigo if they stood up and look down as the steps were quite steep. But I think the best seats are the ones at the back. The poor latecomers would have to crane their neck up.

The show that we were watching was the secrets of the pharaoh. It was like watching the BBC’s walking with dinosaurs where current scientists explore how mummies were preserved and using the evidences that they had, pieced up the clues.

Secrets of the pharoh, Singapore Omnimax Theater

And like all the times that I’ve been in the omnimax theater, I was very drawn to the beautiful, lush and rich visuals.

Secrets of the pharoh, Singapore Omnimax Theater

After the movie, I decided to take Cartcart to IMM, which was probably one of the largest shopping centre in the area, for dinner.

We were standing there at the directory for a full five minutes, wondering what to eat when Cart decided that he would like to try to go to Spagetti Too and try their pasta.

Spagetti Too was a relatively new cafe in IMM. Everything in the menu looked so tempting. The front counter was so colourful that it seemed as if it was beckoning us to come closer.

Spagetti Too at IMM, Singapore

What a nice surprise when I saw that there the cafe had a halal certification. It didn’t carry it the last time I saw it.

Behind the counter was an enclosed area that diners could sit in. The décor was clean and simple.

Spagetti Too, Singapore IMM

We made our orders by taking the paper menu which is provided by the side of the table and mark a tick to the items that we wanted. And then we hand it to the front counter and then make our payments.

Spagetti Too, Singapore IMM

And I was doubly surprised to see that the food was affordable. I think we spent less than $25 for full set meals for the both of us. I was impressed.

As I still had a craving for chicken chop, I decided to order that, while Cartcart had Vegetarian Pasta. We had the Garlic Bread with Cheese ($1.70) as an appetizer.

Spagetti Too, Galic bread and Cheese

Cart liked this bread a lot. He said that it was nicely cooked and perfectly crunchy. But I thought that it was a little bland but there was no condiments to be seen nearby.

Nevertheless, we didn’t have to wait long for our food to arrive. By the time we were done with our appetizers, in about 10 – 15 mins, the helpful crew handed over our main meals.

Grilled Chicken Chop, Spagetti Too

This was my delicious Grilled Chicken Chop with Mashed Potatoes. ($6.90) I do love my chicken a lot. The meat was tender and juicy and was just a delight to savour. The sauce tasted more like black pepper sauce than mushroom sauce, but it was still really good.

I expected for some gravy on top of my mashed potatoes, but once I took a taste of it, it was good the way it was. It was smooth, savoury and creamy. It may look plain, but it was full of flavour.

Vegetarian Pasta, Spagetti Too

This was Cartcart’s Vegetarian Pasta. ($5.90) Cart said that although the dish was more of a fusion dish than true Italian pasta, it was still cooked well enough with the pasta not being overcooked – something that he is very particular about.

In the end, I was surprised to see that even an Italian enjoyed his pasta here 🙂

For dessert, Cart had the Chocolate Brownie while I had the Apple Cobbler ($2.50 each)

Chocolate Brownie, Spagetti Too

Apple Cobbler, Spagetti Too

We both loved our desserts. They were both inviting and each had a huge dollop of ice cream on top of it. My only mini issue is that I don’t like my apple cobbler to be heated up. I think it was nicer to eat at room temperature or cold, unlike brownies. But its not such a big deal, being such a value for money 🙂

If you are anywhere in Jurong, give this place a try. Good food and cheap prices. They don’t have a website yet though.

Next : Meeting Tstar and the beautiful sounds of handbells!

In this series

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Cart in SG : Of first lessons and I am legend

Monday, 24th December

After confirming our appointment with the ustadz the previous day, Mum, Cart and me headed to Darul Arqam in the early morning to attend his first Islamic lessons.

At Darul Arqam

We were introduced to a Haji Mustafa, a retiree who decided to spend part of his time teaching in the center.

It was interesting for me to observe the man. Even though he was in his golden years, he was very fit and active. Full of vigor, he started describing the session coverage and then began the introductionary lessons.

rinaz and mum at a coffee shop in Geylang, Singapore

After the session, we decided to have lunch at the nearby coffee shop and we looked around to see what Cartcart could eat. Cart has made up his decision to become a vegetarian for a number of years and I tried my best to be careful and had to make sure that the food ordered for him has completely no tract of meat in it.

Especially after last year when we patronised a restaurant where there seemed to be a miscommunication and we found out that the food contained meat. I felt really bad as Cartcart had accidentally taken a bite because of my negligence.

Finally we saw an Indian stall which was selling vegetarian meals and Cartcart had a nice plate of Masala Dosai.

Little girl playing at fountain in Bugis Junction, Singapore
Photo credit roboppy

As mum had a prior engagement that day, she left us to our own devices after lunch time and I brought Cartcart to sight see a little 🙂

Little girl playing at fountain in Bugis Junction, Singapore

We stopped by Bugis where there were already large amount of people congregating around the Christmas decorations and a number of children playing around the fountains.

The movie I am legend was premièring. Having already read the book by Richard Matheson, Cart was very keen to watch the movie. So we headed to Shaw Towers where we caught the afternoon show.

Will Smith in I am legend

Unfortunately for me, being not up to date with movie trends, I didn’t realise that the movie had some horror segments till we were in the middle of the movie.

I pulled Cartcart’s sleeve when Will Smith’s character entered a dark building and stumbled upon some creatures. For the rest of the movie, I was wide eyed, sunk in my seat

It was an exciting movie, and I thought that Will Smith did a fine job of connecting the viewers to his character. But without giving too much spoilers away, I was left unsatisfied with the ending of the movie. It was just too Hollywood-ised for my taste.

Later on Cart explained to me that in the book, there were a number of survivors whom did not get completely infected but physically looks the same as a vampire. These survivors formed their own society.

I am legend, Richard Matheson

Unfortunately for them, the protagonist, Robert Neville was not able to differentiate between the survivors and the vampires and kills them both, making the survivors live in fear of him, comparing him to a mythical character, hence the title, “I am legend”.

And at that point, I thought to myself at how interesting it was to actually watch a movie told in the point of view of the zombies / vampires. And I could not help but to carry on discussing about the movie with Cartcart.

How refreshing it is to have someone to banter about movies with!

(To be continued)

In this series :

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Cart in SG : Of book launch and his arrival

Its has been a week now that Cartcart left Singapore and I miss him more than I ever had before.

Cart's last moments in Singapore

Saturday evening, 22nd December 07

I attended the FAQ Book on Public Speaking book launch. Even though I was a little worried since the event was so close to the time that Cartcart would be landing, I thought that I’d just drop by for a while as Eric has written such a nice, personalised email inviting me to the event 🙂

When I arrived at Geek Terminal, I realised that I didn’t know a lot of the people there. But the people at the event were very friendly and I met Eric Feng, the writer himself and said my hello after recognizing him in his photo from his blog.

Eventually I saw a couple of blogger friends like Daphne, Herry and Brennan.

Daphne, Herry and Rinaz at FAQ Book

Later we were introduced to the panel whom guided and inspired Eric in the writing of his book. Andrew Zhan, Kelvin Lim as well as Irene Ang, all of whom were very experienced and passionate about public speaking.

The FAQ Book writer panel

I got my book signed by them, shamelessly asking them to sign as “To Marina with love”.

For me, the event was like food for the soul. As much as I am interested in improving myself, public speaking being one of them, the event felt more like a group of close friends gathering together. One could really see the love between the interaction of Eric’s family and friends there and I cant help but to just soak in the love 🙂

I enjoyed myself so much that I nearly forgot the time and I had to quickly slip away to board the train to Changi Airport.

There were a lot of people already waiting outside the arrival hall when I reached Terminal Two. I peered anxiously behind the glass to find him.

Waiting for Cartcart at Changi Airport

At long length I finally saw him. And my heart warmed. How I’ve missed him! We are together again 🙂

Back in June last year, while I was in Rome with Cartcart, we paid a visit to one of the mosque there to enquire about conversion and marriage processes. I was surprised to find out that there were no Islamic studies courses being conducted there

A mosque in Rome

I asked cartcart if he would be willing to undertake the lessons the next time he comes to Singapore and thankfully, he was open to the suggestion. Late Sunday morning, cart, mum and I went to Darul Arqam, a muslim convert center to register him for his Islamic studies.

Darul Arqam, Singapore

When we arrived there, the area seemed festive with a lot of people. It turns out that they were having a sermon upstairs in liew of the aidilfitri celebrations. We sat down and I listened as the preacher was postulating about the responsibilities of a child to their parents.

Darul Aqram, Singapore

I have to admit that the delivery sounded very different to me, having been used to listening sermons in Malay. But the essence and the message was still the same, in the end.

After the sermon, we met Nurul Jannah, one of the staff there whom gave a contact to a Haji Mustafa whom will be giving cart his personal lessons.

Later in the early evening, Cart and I headed off to Vivo City to meet Attilio, a blog reader and a friend. Call it a social experiment, but I’ve always thought that it would be interesting to see what happens when two Italians meet each other outside of their element. Thank goodness Attilio said yes!

We waded about in the human sea at vivo city and eventually found him waiting and one of the first thing I observed was how genuinely amiable they were to each other.

Attilio, rinaz and Cart

We stopped by starbucks and unsurprisingly, they started to converse to each other in Italian. It was like a jigsaw puzzle for me all over again. After ending my Italian language classes for some months now, I’m rather rusty. There were words that I could understand, and some which I could not. I had to concentrate hard to piece the image in my mind.

In the end, I could not keep up with the conversation and was just content to listen to their musical way of talking.

view in vimeo

After what seemed to be a short while, we were forced to say our goodbyes as Attilio was on his way to catch his flight back to spend time with his family.

We decided to have dinner at Secret Recipe. After which, I pulled Cartcart over to the area facing the sea to enjoy the breeze and the relaxing sound of the waves.

It was such a special moment for me. Just being there, enjoying each others company.

(to be continued)

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Fond farewell to 2007

Looking back through Marina’s Bloggariffic, I think that my style of writing has evolved from when I first started blogging in October 2004. From writing about random rambles about life, it has changed to something with more purpose (at least I hope it did!)

Looking back at 2007

This blog has also been instrumental for me to meet new wonderful friends, be it online or offline. To explore and try out new things. The highlight of my blogging life this year would have to be the Best Asian Blog win, which was the cherry on top of the cake 🙂

Here are a quick summary of the highlights of 2007 :

January

I started the year with blogging about Cartcart’s first trip to Singapore and joined my cousin for my very first cosplay photo-shoot.

February

I got myself a new SD card and a webcam which began my interest in creating videoblogs. I started my quest in learning the Italian language (though I’m have to admit, I’m not superb at it)

March

This was the month that I feel that I’ve propelled in the blogging world. I was invited to be part of the Panel in Nexus for my involvement in Secondlife to speak about relationships in the metaverse. There I first met the wonderful pingsters! Cartcart and I made the decision to get married. And I pondered if I could ever get into university.

April

I did a fun videoblog on how to cook arrabbiata completely in Italian! (Maybe next time do one on how to make roti jala or nasi lemak, hehehe) I realised that my newfound love in videoblogging could transcend for learning purposes.

May

For some reason, I felt compelled to explore more of Singapore. I started with the museum of toys, and then the Istana and I finally did a presentation on the benefits of netcasting for the school I was attached to.

June

My first time riding my scooter to Malacca, Malaysia with the vesporeans! A most exciting trip! Just as exciting is my trip to Italy, where I spent time with my dearest Cartcart.

July

Celebrated the first ping.sg anniversary where I was asked to be host (wow!) and nominated to be the most entertaining blog (wow!) I pondered about the places that I’ve lived in started my quest in being fit and for the first time ever, did a collaboration with Malique in remixing a song!

August

Had a great time at WOMAD and visited the Arts Museum

September

Having won passes, I attended a very interesting Spanish Cultural Workshop and had a bloggers day out with the orphans of Darul Ihsan.

October

Went in a motorcycle convoy to raise funds for the Bikers Aid Fund. And it was a lot of fun! Attended an Italian cultural fair with my Italian Classmates and a real Italian 😛

November

I was selected as a finalist and a week later, I won the Best Asian Blog Awards! I pondered about the evolution of blogs and I also killed a chair.

December

Attended the ping t-shirt launch, attended the tech65’s podcast, played the gamelan as well as many others that I did not had the chance to blog about yet!

Goodbye 2007. Thank you for the beautiful memories.

Related links :

Sidenote : Regular blogging will resume next week. There are so much things to blog about!

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Mega Bites Cafe – Generous Western Food

After trespassing a number of institutions, my consensus is that university students are very well fed.

Mega Bites Cafe - NUS, Singapore

Last friday, I joined Myztika, a fellow blogger for lunch at the newly opened Mega Bites Cafe at NUS.

It was not difficult to get there. Thanks to streetdirectory, I was able to find my way down to the science faculty in lower kent ridge road without any problems at all.

By the time I reached there, it was about 1pm. I met Myztika and after looking at the menu on top of the wall and made our decision on what to eat. I still craved for a nice plate of Chicken Chop, even after what had happened at NIE. Henceforth, I decided to get that, while Myztika ordered Chicken Cutlets.

Mega Bites Cafe - NUS, Singapore

We queued up and told our orders to the crew who will be preparing our food on the spot. Unfortunately for me, Chicken Chops was already sold out (so fast?!) so I had to settle for Fish and Chips. We paid at the other end of the counter.

Fish and Chips, Mega Bites Cafe - NUS, Singapore

At an affordable $3.90, my fish and chips was actually pretty good. It was nice and hot, well coated and wonderfully crispy and tasted fresh. The portions were very generous! It was much more than I anticipated that in the end, I could not finish my meal. I felt bad for being so wasteful.

The meal also came in a set with fries and coleslaw. As I don’t really fancy eating fries, I found them to be rather ordinary. But the mushroom soup which was nice and thick, which I quite enjoyed.

Chicken Cutlet, Mega Bites Cafe - NUS, Singapore

Myztika enjoyed her Chicken Cutlets, which like my set, came with fries, coleslaw and soup. It was her second time eating the chicken cutlets in a week, so I suppose that the chicken cutlets must be really good 🙂

Like my fish, the chicken were hot, being freshly cooked and crispy. The bbq sauce on top of the chicken was tangy and the portions were very generous. My eyes nearly popped out when I saw the amount of food on her plate. For this price, even hawker centers could not hold a candle!

In the end, both of us were extremely stuffed and satisfied. It was a pretty good meal.

Myztika, lets come here again! Next time, I would love to try their pizzas and hopefully if I’m lucky, a plate of chicken chop. Anyone wants to join us? 🙂

Here is a quick clip of our lunch :

Mega Bites Cafe - NUS, Singapore

Mega Bites Cafe

Other campus eats :

Sidenote : In about 12 more hours, he’ll be here. I cannot wait 🙂

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My first time inline skating!

Despite it being the monsoon season, it was an amazingly beautiful day.

East Coast Park - Sand Castle

Last Sunday, I spent the day with my extended family at East Coast Park for a family picnic. It was a really fun afternoon being with the family and surrounded with good eats like freshly grilled chicken wings :

East Coast Park - Grilled Chicken

and these yummilicious cupcakes made by my cousin :

East Coast Park - Cupcakes

Later in the afternoon, I chanced upon an inline skating rental kiosk. Having always wanting to try inline skating out, I told myself to stop procrastinating and that it is now or never. I gave it a try even though I had practically no skating experience at all.

My brother and my mum was game enough to join me. We headed to the kiosk and sat gingerly and had our skating shoes being fitted for us. My goodness, it was super tight! I can feel the shoes biting into my ankles. With the shoes strapped on, I could not even flex my feet.

East Coast Park - Trying to put on my skates

Putting on the shoes was daunting enough. Trying to move around was another thing itself! I could get up fine enough, but up to that point, I did not know how to move forward! Several times I find myself automatically moving backwards.

East Coast Park - Trying to put on my skates

Mum could not even get up. This was her first time skating too and she was not used to having wheels on her feet. Shelly, one of the instructors there, helped her to keep her balance and patiently coached her the basics of skating.

But after about half an hour struggling with her skates and feeling tired, mum gave up and retreated. Props to her for giving it a try though!

My brother on the other hand, having a little bit of experience with roller blading and ice skating was a little more confident. In fact, he even played the fool and had time to retrieve and pose with his motorcycle helmet!

East Coast Park - Is that a skating helmet or a motorcycle helmet?

And as for me? Well … this was what happened :

East Coast Park - rinaz is very tired

After the entire ordeal, I was feeling hot and was perspiring. My legs felt like jelly and I am very tired. But I’m still keen on learning how to inline skate. I’m considering the Sports Council since its closer to home but I just dont want to spend $300 for a new pair of roller blades!

Have you roller bladed before? What are your experiences?

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Sidenote : I went for aerobics for the first time with a blogger friend last week and I was almost dead at the end of the session! My friend didnt even broke a sweat!

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Zingdo – Yummy Korean Food

Updated : As of end October 2008, Zingdo no longer operates at Jurong Entertainment Center.

Zingdo - Singapore

My colleague, Zarina and I decided to head to Jurong East and we wandered around, wondering what to have for lunch. And thats where I suggested to have lunch at Zingdo.

I ate here for the first time last year when they were newly opened and already I enjoyed eating the food here.

The Place

Located in Jurong East Entertainment, it will be hard to miss this place. The bright orange décor makes it a prominent and cheery place. Almost everything was orange. Right to the square wooden tables and stools that we were sitting on.

Zingdo - Singapore

The Service

When I first came here, I had to order and pay first at the counter. So I was a little surprised when the waitress, with her cute orange outfit and black apron ushered us inside and handed us the menu.

Nevertheless, the staff here were friendly and patient and were more than willing to explain to us what the different menu was and did recommendations based on what was popular there. Can you imagine having to serve people all day long answering the same questions again and again?

The Food

The manager tells me that they have just started on new menus since last week. I was pleasantly surprised to see more varieties on their menu. Previously, there was only a limited amount of food, whereas now, there were two full pages of them.

Zingdo - Singapore

The pictorial menu was helpful, although we still needed the waitress to explain to us what the food was as we were both not very familiar with Korean food.

Zingdo - Singapore

For appetizers, we had deep fried assorted mushrooms ($3.90) It might not look pretty in the picture, but believe me, it was good. It arrived hot and when we ate it, it was juicy and flavourful. It was so tasty and interestingly, tasted more like meat than mushroom.

Zingdo - Singapore

I had my favourite, hotplate beef bulgogi ($8.90) It arrived steaming hot and part of the fun about this meal was the tossing about the marinated meat and vegetables to cook. After about 10 mins of tossing, the meal would be ready to eat. The dish was accompanied by a bowl of rice an a bowl of lovely, kimchi soup.

Comparing it to the first time when I had this dish, I felt that the fare has dropped a little bit, mainly because the meat turned up a little raw. It would have been improved should the meat be cut more thinly.

Zingdo - Singapore

Zarina had a plate of Tang Hoon with seafood ($6.90) which is basically vermicelli and a variety of seafood on top of an omelette. I had this dish before and I liked how fresh and zesty the food was. It was light to the tongue. And yet, it was very filling. Zarina said that she enjoyed the meal a lot.

Here is a quick clip of our lunch :

In a nutshell

If you are anywhere in the West and is hankering to try something meaty, Zingdo will be a good choice.

Zingdo - Singapore

Zingdo

  • #01-15, Jurong East Entertainment Centre

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