Meeting Friends (and Food)

22 Apr - Jc meet-up
At the suggestion of Mr L, I initiated an outing. It's been long, since January since we last met? Longer for some of them. I thought it was slightly untimely since it's almost the end of the semester, but since he said so... I'm fine with anything, small turnout included. Postponing wouldn't make any difference. All except me are eternally busy.

Stella was going to participate in a Spanish event. But there was an entrance fee of $15, not sure if food was included. I can't be on my feet for too long too.
In the end the suggestor couldn't make it. ~_~

Had a hard time coming up with the venue. Q suggested somewhere in Lim Chu Kang, where I foresee lots of protests and Brewerks. I was keen on Brewerks but it's out of budget for a few of us. So where is cheap, accessible and new? Crab beehoon is far, expensive and long wait on a Sunday, so it's out. How about the ramen I've been wanting to try? Upon on googling, I realised there are many ramen shops in Cuppage and even in Orchard Plaza next door. Not sure which one I should go to. Revenue House sushi buffet? Menu a bit limited. How about Ricciotti? I don't mind going back again! But I eat before already ley. The serving is small. And it might not be easy to find. Aiyah I dunno lah! Don't think already.

I was still undecided on the morning of the day. Z asked me where we were going. Yes, make him decide for me! I asked him if he wanted Jap or Italian food. He picked the latter since he had Jap food lately. Ok decided! I sent out a sms with directions. Cross the underpass at Central Mall's exit at the river. Walk 30m. Should be ok ba, don't think can get lost.

All of us were late. Nothing new. I ran into Q while on our bikes. Not literally, ok? What a coincidence! My worry came true. There was no drop-off near the restaurant. I had to drop illegally again, something I do everyday.

3 out of 6 people were lost. The confusion was Riverside Point, like the taxi driver. So... it's not such a convenient place lah.

We looked through the menu. Being lc people, we:
- asked what discounts there are for credit cards. 15% for UOB.
- confirmed that there was no 1-for-1 for UOB. It's 3-6pm, Just missed it!
- asked what time the desserts would go on discount. 9pm.

We should avoid that place for the next 3 months, until the present waiters quit or something.

People in life science sure talk about strange things. Like how many fridges they have.

Food time!

• 1 of the sandwiches. Didn't get to taste it. It's REAL small.
• Tagliolini Neri & Capesante. Quite a mouthful, but it's squid-ink noodle lah. Nobody's teeth turned black. Can eat in peace, no need to bring toothbrush.
• Mine was marinated salmon pizza, thin crust. Gosh it's big! I think the diameter stretches from tilde to backspace. I stopped myself after the 5th slice to save space for dessert.
• Parmigiana, which is baked eggplant and tomato. It's like a lasagne. The eggplant tastes no way like what I have eaten before.
• Agnello, the lamb shank.
• Ravioli di vitellio. It's veal ravioli with mushroom and brown sauce. Kid's serving.

They are all GOOD. I wanna eat everyday!

When we finished, it was still a long way to 9pm. Gelato won't be on discount, so we got 6 scoops to share. The coffee flavour is the BEST I've ever had! It tastes like good coffee? Ok bad description, you should try it yourself. The lemon super sour! Wa felt like dapaoing back, but cannot lah, still got ice-cream at home. There was a bit of ice crystals in the strawberry, but all is forgiven when it's delicious.

9pm! No vultures descended upon the dessert showcase as we thought. We got tiramisu, morbida and limoncino. Sadly, I thought the tiramisu wasn't moist enough. Is it supposed to be like that? I should try Prego's soon. Limoncino was ok, not a big fan of anything that looks like white cream.

Dapao for breakfast! Not. Save money.

The bill came. We were only given 15% off the desserts. Cheats! But couldn't be bothered to haggle with them. It's only like, 80 cents.

I'm hungry now~~

Sotong is AGAINST Corporate Branding

As part of the my company's corporate branding campaign, all PCs and laptops NOT located at the main office shall implement the corporate wallpaper and screensaver. I've used the colour of my ink as my wallpaper for the longest time. I shudder at the thought of being forced to use a colourful wallpaper with no purpose other than obscuring icons.

My plan for Monday morning was to print out my documents for my credit card application and get my father to mail out immediately. My pc took a dreadfully long time to load. Nothing wrong with that, it has 1 leg in the coffin already.

Finally the desktop appeared. But there's a patch of white just beside the rightmost icon.

Then the pictures loaded. The contents of the intranet website filled up the white space, complete with clickable hyperlinks!

Finished loading is it? Kns, take so long. I opened Firefox. Clicked on my shortcut to Yahoo mail. Cannot load! All my other tabs also cannot load! Firefox kena ban or what? I opened IE. My default page has been changed from about:blank to the company's intranet. What the! They even want to dictate the default page! Tried to load Yahoo mail and failed too. Unable to connect to MSN and Yahoo messenger as well. Internet down? But cannot be ley, everybody else seemed fine. Only me?! The sys admin wasn't at his table, have to wait for him to return. I scrapped my plan.

A while later, the sys admin wasn't back yet. Or should I say he wasn't even here to start with? He's on leave today AND tomorrow! So far only the intranet was working. Living without internet access for 2 days is unthinkable. I must do something!

Forced by circumstances, I checked all that I could, but of course there wasn't much I could do. Gave up. Maybe I should change my default page back to blank. Should be ok right? Won't get into trouble with the people who came up with this funny idea right? Who needs the intranet everyday anyway?

I reversed the change and noticed that my wallpaper has turned into a white patch. O, so the wallpaper is linked to the default page! But the patch is so ugly ley... aha! I can make my default page black! I happily went to Paint to make a black picture and set it as my default page. Didn't work. IE asked if I wanted to download the picture. On the other hand, it did not show up on my desktop at all. 该如何是好？

How about my browser settings?

Something new there. What's this proxy.pac? I copied and pasted the path and saw the problem - I'm using Win2K, so it should be C:\winnt instead of C:\Windows. Who is this smart alec, conveniently copying the settings meant for XP to 2K? Win liao lor! (Is it my sys admin? Aiyer don't wanna destroy his image in my mind ley) Never test before declaring the job finished? It's obviously not working!

I corrected the path. Still didn't work. Opened up the file. It looks like a script to decide which proxy to use. Something like this below:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {
if (shExpMatch(url,"*.foo.com/*")) {return "DIRECT";}
if (shExpMatch(url, "*.foo.com:*/*")) {return "DIRECT";}

if (isInNet(host, "10.0.0.0", "255.255.248.0")) {
return "PROXY fastproxy.foo.com:8080"
}

return "PROXY proxy.foo.com:8080; DIRECT";
}

Nahh I don't wanna debug this. Tried each of the proxies. None worked. So what are they for?

One last thing to try. I noticed the unchecked proxy server setting. Checked it.

And it works! Put it in Firefox. Can surf with Firefox too, no need IETab¹ already! Whee!

2hrs of anguish in exchange for a happier future. Ok lah quite worth it.

I mouseovered the top of my NEW wallpaper and accidentally revealed a status bar, with the minimize, maximize and close buttons. CLOSE NOW! HAHAHA! Good riddance to the idiotic wallpaper!

Reversed all my company's efforts. No corporate branding on Sotong's work pc!

¹Something was blocking Firefox from the internet. I needed tabs, so I had been surfing using IETab.

Credit Card Shopping

A family factor pushed me to seriously think about getting another credit card. Been lemming for UOB or Citibank, but for the longest time, UOB has no welcome gifts and Citibank was under the delusion that a facial and having to go through a potential barrage of package hardselling and a free iron (the kind for clothes) was attractive. I went to their websites again. As usual, UOB is acting dao1. Citibank finally wake up their idea! 3 years waiver and $100 Tivoli voucher! I know can just call to waive one lah, but I lazy mah. I also know when they give $100 voucher, it means you cannot get anything for $100. Get the cheapest item lor, better than an iron right? Mustafa sell so cheap only. Still got coffee voucher if I sign up for the biometric payment! Can link all my bills to Citibank! Can pay the credit card bill by GIRO! Ok Citibank!

Now the question is which card to get.

Clear Platinum (CP)

It's oh-so-pretty, on the picture at least. 5X rewards points with certain merchants, with the unfortunate being that there's very few of them.

No supplementary cards.

Dividend Platinum (DP)

Cash rebate just for spending. 5% rebates for petrol! The downside is a minimum payout of $50, every quarter. If I have only $49.99 by the 3rd month, sorry ah, please wait 3 more months. Eeks.

EMV enabled. It's a global standard for chip-based debit and credit transactions, supposed to make it more secured.

The card is plain, even uncle-ish. Unglam like my gim-gim HSBC.

Supplementary cards available. There's a promotion of 1 year waiver now.

DP: You know from experience, you always charge $0 to your own card. It's the supp cards doing the spending.
CP: I got 5X rewards.
DP: I got rebates!
CP: The rewards merchants got er, Coffee Club and Cartel! Your rebates ah, dunno when can make it!
DP: You know how many times a year you actually go Coffee Club and Cartel or not? 2 nia?
CP: ... I'm PRETTY!
DP: I got EMV, you ley? Don't even know have or not, never say!
CP: I'm PRETTY!
DP: ¬_¬"

So I applied for both. No need to think.

The Citibank exchange rate is $5 for 1 reward point. HSBC is 1-1. Crystal Jade $20 voucher is 3800 points on HSBC, 1000 Citi Dollars. :\

More Blabbers

On 16 Apr, my team had a dinner at Indian Wok to congratulate ourselves for working non-stop since October last year and not having our names appear in the A01 and A04 messages for Insane Man Hospital¹. Good food! The fried cauliflowers is DELICIOUS! Considering that I don't really like cauliflowers. I think I like it because it didn't taste like cauliflowers.

Another thing about Lobby Court@Swissotel. The waitress who took our orders has a GOOD memory! She memorized all 7 drinks, no pen and paper at all! I was waiting to see if she could serve correctly later, but to my disappointment, her colleague did the job.

There's actually Japanese buffet at Revenue House! And it's cheap at $18+++ for weekend lunch. Although the menu looks slightly limited, but as long as there's salmon sashimi...

Did I mention that I finished the Cipro?

¹A01 and A04 are used for patient admissions.

Blabbers

Accumulated over a few days.

People sitting around me moved to another room on 12 Apr. Now I'm alone in an area that can seat 6. It's now MY personal office (minus the boarding up)! Even bigger than my boss' boarded-up cubicle! But boss said there would be newcomers. Don't come, don't come :P

Ordered a chicken dish to be shared among 8 at Crystal Jade Macau. The waitress suggested upsizing it and I said ok. Turned out that dish was a whopping $38! It was a bit too big and we couldn't finish it. Should have asked how big and how much first :|

Starbucks raspberry with tea is too strong to be drunk at night.

Don't take charsiew, Starbucks raspberry and deep purple dragonfruit on the same night if you don't want to scare yourself the next morning (assuming your bowels are regular).

Prego is good.

Lobby Court@Swissotel is also good.

Organizing 2 outings are tiring. Makes me unenthusiastic about meeting a 3rd group.

Long Time No Sick!

My Friday morning routine was broken by a visit to the toilet the moment I reached office. Tried to eat my breakfast but couldn't. The coffee smelt good but I didn't feel like drinking it. Felt a faint urge and went to the toilet first just in case the feeling grew exponentially and I was glad I did so. Was alarmed by the reddish stools, but they looked too thin to be blood. It's probably the charsiew, Starbucks raspberry or reddish-purple dragonfruit from the night before. But still, it's the third visit to the toilet in 2hrs. The toilet is not 3m away from me like at home. I'm more tired from walking around so much than having a high output-input ratio, so I decided to call it a day.

The clinic I always went to had 18 patients in the queue and didn't accept phone registration. I thought last time they said can? And the rude woman hung up on me. O well nevermind, not that I still have anything to say. My father took me to a clinic in the Jurong East area. I didn't know I was having a fever. 37.1­­°C. Cool, something to prove that I wasn't faking it. He tapped my abdomen. Sounded hollow all over. I must learn the meaning 1 day. The doctor told me not to consume coffee and dairy and to go on a soft diet for the next 5 days. Yeah, the normal advice. But 5 days? Dunno can tahan or not. I was given 2 days' MC and some drugs. The lady said I must complete the course for 2 out of the 4. I wasn't really listening. Can't remember one lah, just read the labels later lor. Didn't see any charcoal pills. Odd. $34. So expensive!! Even with the company claim, also have to pay $14.

When I got home, I took the drugs and looked for the 2 which I had to complete. Eh, the labels never say! Walau! I googled for help.

Lactobacillus sachets
At first glance, I thought it was isotonic drink and almost chucked it away. No new knowledge gained. No indication for this. But should be ok to eat all lah, only 4 sachets.

Dhacopan tablets
Each tablet contains hyocine butylbromide BP 10mg. For diarrhoea and cramps. Didn't say if I had to finish it. But I guess not, since it looks like it's for the symptoms.

Colodium (loperamide hydrochloride)
For diarrhoea. Again, nowhere was it mentioned if I had to finish it. What's the difference between this and Dhacopan? I guess no need to finish?

Cycin (Ciprofloxacin.HCI)
An antibiotic for killing bacteria in the intestines. Patients should not consume dairy and caffeine. Wow do I need antibiotics for diarrhoea? Maybe it's because I told him about the abnormally coloured stools. O well. And now then I know the advice about dairy and caffeine was due to Cycin. All the more I should stick to it then. I wondered how Cycin and lactobacillus go together, but the doctor give me, then I eat lor. The doctor didn't say if I should eat them separately, so I just swallowed them together.

Conclusion
My guess is that I must complete Cycin. The identity of the other drug remained a mystery. How? Eat all?

I was supposed to meet my ex-colleagues in the evening. I think cannot go already. Boohoohoo~ cannot eat Prego already~~ I told M about it, but she told me to make the decision later in the evening, in case I got better.

Went to sleep. Got up at 4 something as I had to make a decision and also because I was hungry. My sister cooked 粥水 for me. Essentially, it's a bowl of water with 3 mouthfuls of porridge. Lapped it up happily. Ok, appetite seems to be returning, no more LS, means ok can go lah? :D Just have to be careful not to be spotted by my colleagues.

It's sad having to choose a dish with no dairy in an Italian restaurant. And had to stay off oil and seafood. The menu is so happening, but I could only have tomato-based pasta :( It tasted good nonetheless. Later we had drinks at Lobby Court. No booze, but a smoothie for me. Why~~~

There's a mint mocha which looks like Fe²⁺ solution. The mint is only the aftertaste. I should remember not to order that since I will most likely be disappointed.

Today, mykrobe, a pharmacist-to-be, came to my rescue.

Dhacopan tablets
Dhacopan is for cramps. But funny ley, I didn't say I got cramps what, how come I got that? Ok can stop this already.

Colodium (loperamide hydrochloride)
From opiate class, reduce bowel mobility. Ok can stop this already.

Cycin (Ciprofloxacin.HCI)
Cipro turned out to be a strong antibiotic, coincidentally used for treating anthrax too. Wa. And one of the side effects of Cipro is diarrhoea. :O

Lactobacillus
Milkless Yakult? This tastes bad. I was breathing them in while emptying the sachet into my mug. Nothing much about it, I've finished the course by then.

No wonder $34 so expensive. And all these for mild diarrhoea. Maybe I shouldn't visit him again. Too bad, he seemed like a nice guy.

If I complete Cipro, I might feel worse. If I don't, I will be contributing to the global antibiotics abuse. How? 怎么办?

And I already forgot about the warning and had teh-peng. And of course I'm back on a solid diet. And I am hungry now.

Birthday Outing

Went out to celebrate my brother's birthday! It's a good excuse to go somewhere out of the way for something new.

Originally wanted to go try the ramen at Cuppage Plaza, but later I thought I shouldn't be so cheapskate lah... he had it before also. And it's centralised, so I can have it any other time.

Looked around the HSBC website... 1-for-1 deals! Cream Bistro looks good... but it's the usual western stuff, nothing interesting. The Cathay Restaurant... oops too expensive. Six-course set menu at S$68+++ per person --> SIAO! Cannot lah, wait till I qualify for platinum card first. Menotti Italian food... good location @ Raffles City! Went to it's homepage, for the menu but another outlet under the same group caught my eye instead. Riciotti Italian Deli & Pastry. Desserts! Got main course too! Affordable even if HSBC bluff me got 1-for-1! Never eat before! Ok pass!

Got into a Merc cab and said we wanted to go to Riverwalk. The driver asked where we wanted to drop, at taxi stand or Merchant Court? I was confused as I didn't recall seeing Merchant Court anywhere near it on the street directory. Maybe I blur. So taxi stand lor. We dropped off and... couldn't find Riciotti. I saw Liang Court and thought something was wrong. If I remember correctly, it should be quite far away. We were confirmed to be at the wrong place upon seeing Central Mall on the same street. We dropped at Riverside Point. O well. Took bus 11 to our destination and passed by many Jumbo Seafood outlets. Seriously trying to project itself as the choice seafood in Singapore to the angmohs.

Riciotti was not crowded at all, despite a weekend. Nice deco, full of wines and other products on the walls. Desserts and gelato are on display to entice the weak. I checked with the waiter and to my disappointment, only got 1-for-1 for UOB. Sian. Stupid bank bluff me. I should get a UOB. Ordered a set lunch, Agnello, Torino hot chocolate and a mango tea. 2 main courses for 3 people. The shortfall will be made up with desserts :D~~

Set lunch

• Linguine with a creamy sauce. There's a proper name for this dish lah, but forgot already. The serving is quite small, BUT the sauce is incredibly cheesy and creamy! Not tasteless like elsewhere. The sugar crystals-coated cheese shavings are something new.
• The tea came in a pot, served with steamed milk. Dilmah tea, red tag. I think it's English breakfast tea.
• Dessert - coming soon

Agnello
Lamb shank with mash potatoes and mint (don't know where the mint was, couldn't taste it). It's like the lamb stew from Secret Receipe. SR's lamb drowns in the gravy, making you want to eat a spoonful of gravy with each mouthful. Ri's gravy is modest and lighter, but the lamb is still juicy on its own. The mash potatoes are buttery and fragrant. The bone marrow still looks delectable, but too bad I don't feel comfortable eating it generally.

Torino hot chocolate
99% of chocolate beverages sold outside taste like diluted milo. Seeing this is an Italian restaurant with proper-looking desserts, I decided to give them a chance. I was delighted when it was served as concentrated chocolate (stir the powder in a little milk to form a sticky lump) in a cup and a jug of frothed milk. Yes that's the way man! My sister tried to make latte art but you can guess the outcome.
The only other place selling qualified chocolate that I know of, is Spinelli.

Mango tea
Came in a pot. It's just infusion tea lor, can get from the supermarket to try yourself. I'm not so into such teas.

Next was to choose the desserts. My sister spotted a cake with a broken top, called Soffiato. Its clones looked the same so it should be no accident. A check with the waiter confirmed that it was the cake that oozes chocolate when you cut it. She's dying to try that! But we never knew that the chocolate has to be poured in through a hole probably with an instruction "insert chocolate here". Haha!

I thought this golden cake looked delicious. The waiter said it has a mocha centre. The Morbida, I shall get.

They covered up the gap with icing. Comes with a scoop of ice-cream. Not gelato, unfortunately.

When taken out of the display, it looked greenish. O well.

Watch the soffiato ooze! My sister was disappointed. She thought chocolate would GUSH out of it, like on tv, but now she only got a capillary cut. Now we know it only happens on tv. The cake is warm and has absorbed much of the chocolate.

As I bore deeper into my golden-turned-green mousse (it's not a cake), I encountered a hard centre. Not wanting to have my money dart across the restaurant, I got my sister to cut it open with a murderous butter knife. Guess what we got!

My mousse BLEEDING chocolate like a punctured vein! That was unexpected. Thin, crispy wafer lined the centre. The chocolate ball is hollow, not very tasty, nothing special about it.

I was sugar and chocolate overloaded halfway through the desserts. I still had my chocolate drink. But they are all too nice to waste :D~~~

Surprise #1 - Didn't know there's 15% off pastries!
Surprise #2 - They charged the more expensive dessert to the set!

Overall: 美味しい! Affordable! Recommended!

Next stop was Central Mall. Not fully opened yet. A LOT of Japanese restaurants. Many clothes there, but not in clothes-shopping mood. Wanted to get earrings since I haven't gotten any for the past 1 1/3 years, quite a feat. And perhaps a necklace too. As usual, the earrings were too cheap for my expensive ears. And don't know how to choose necklace.

Before leaving, I decided to just take a look at Girl's Talk! at level 1. Lots of not-cheap-looking earrings, but they were stainless steel. Not sure if I can wear them. I was directed to a small section of silver. More expensive-looking, with a corresponding pricetag. Up my budget lor...

The salesgirl said it has diamond dust on it. Hope it stays there. Happy with it :)

Next stop, AMK Hub. The NTUC Xtra sells live seafood. Joined the crowd to watch a worker catch prawns. Many shops! Looks like a good place to go shopping. Finally AMK is happening! As it was evening, snaking queues formed outside all restaurants. Even this odd prata shop. People were just queuing to take-away.

Met my brother and his friends for dinner. Went to Ramen Ten at Jubilee. Please don't ever go there. The soup is add milk one. Eeks. At least it's not MSG-laden. Cheap at $65.25 for 5 people with 2 side dishes and no GST, and that's about it.

Then my first time drinking MOS burger teh-peng. Good!

Then... go home.

Sotong the Spendthrift

I blew almost $7k in 1 day!!

So poor now~~

Special Requests

Please count tablet in front of patient.
(aiyoh who wanna cheat your pills?)

This patient is very impatient. Always serve first.
(What the! I also want to be impatient!)

Call patient by Chinese name doesn't like English name.
(So is her English name Maria or Lucy?)

Mrs {VIP's name} mother. Mrs {VIP's name} wants bill to be split into 2. 1 bill to be about $100, so that her mother doesn't worry.
(Aww so filial. But can I get the same treatment too? Split into several bills, max $20 each, dated differently so I can claim from my co.)