Not Smoking In Singapore

There is quite a lot to do in Singapore like standing in the middle of Orchard Road during Christmas!

Like recycling.

Like being a tourist.

There is quite a lot to do in Singapore smoking is not one of them. Only a small percentage of eateries have tables allocated to smokers. We were at Walas having a drink. I was smoking when a waiter told me that I’m at a non smoking table and I’ll have to step off the curb if I wanted to continue smoking. So I got off my chair and took 2 steps away and continue smoking. THAT, was allowed. I can understand that Singapore has rules but this is just way too funny!

Guess it worked in a sense cos I smoked a lot less while there. There is just not many places which allows you to smoke and stepping off the curb or walking to a corner is either too troublesome or too odd.

So eventually the new generation of Singaporeans will stop smoking. And the government would have lost income via sin tax. Are they going to be more lax about the smoking rules in 2 decades time in order to gain back their income?

Like when the Singapore government told their citizens to stop having kids because the island was being over populated and then a few decades later, realized that they have the problem of an aging population?

But I did notice a lot of young mothers when I was in Singapore. Has the government done something to encourage marriage and starting families?

Guess it worked in a sense cos I smoked a lot less while there. There is just not many places which allows you to smoke and stepping off the curb or walking to a corner is either too troublesome or too odd.

So eventually the new generation of Singaporeans will stop smoking. And the government would have lost income via sin tax. Are they going to be more lax about the smoking rules in 2 decades time in order to gain back their income?

Like when the Singapore government told their citizens to stop having kids because the island was being over populated and then a few decades later, realized that they have the problem of an aging population?

But I did notice a lot of young mothers when I was in Singapore. Has the government done something to encourage marriage and starting families?

Happy 1st Birthday Isabelle Halle Ng

Happy 1^st Birthday Isabelle Halle Ng!

And just like that, my god daughter is one year old, one year has passed and we’re all growing a little older.

Fruitcake and Ed held the Belle’s first birthday party at My Dining Room at their condo on Tropicana.

Lots of relatives came. And lots of our friends came with their babies.

Of all my clubbing friends, most are married and with kids. And they all agree that while they are parents now, the days of clubbing are still dear to their hearts though that doesn’t necessarily feel like they want to go clubbing every weekend like before.

Guess I’m moving onto a new phase of life. I’m no longer scared of babies! I can even carry them for long periods of time and not feel scared or disgusted or be fearful that they puke or spit on me.

So here are some pics of babies which I’m not freaking out about and even do consider cute.

Friends tell me that they caught me in a maternal moment. Is that possible? It’s me! Well, I guess I’m warming up to babies and the idea of babies.

Ed & Belle.

Fruitcake & Belle.

Chris & Ayden. Chris our dear DJ from Viva has a 1 year old son! And looks like he likes it rough.

Sue Ann & Kay Lee. Look at the cheeks on her!

My little god daughter.

Friends & Babies.

Babies really do like paper and boxes more than the actual present. So does this mean that we should give out boxes to babies till they are at least 3 years old? Or buy a toy meant for a 3 year old baby for a 1 year old baby and let them play with the box first. They'll appreciate the toy when they grow older.

Jones The Grocer @ Dempsey

Okay besides shopping in Singapore, there’s also the eating.

I still maintain that Malaysian street food will beat Singapore hands down, especially since Scott’s has been torn down along with the food court which means no more beef ball noodles! Anyone knows where else I can find similar beef ball noodles in Singapore or KL? The one in Tung Shin and Silang and just completely different.

While Mohamad Sultan is dead and Clarke Quay is getting a revival, one of the newest places to be is Dempsey. Once the old army barracks, it’s been converted to chic eateries. Singapore is fantastic at maintaining historical buildings and turning them into trendy places. There’s a Dome there along with other stand alone F&B outlets. Paul’s cousin brought us to Jones’ The Grocer for Christmas Brunch.

The food was nothing to shout about but the décor and ambiance was excellent.

I’ll go back there again and pay S$20 for breakfast (excluding the coffee) just cos I like the place so much. It has so much character.

Friends tell me that PS Café is still really good though I didn’t have time to go this time round.

There are only a handful of F&B outlets in KL which can be described as chic, quaint or full of character. Now why is that?

Why can’t Malaysia appreciate our history, maintain and restore more historical sites and buildings?

Big and nice as Pavilion Shopping Mall is and as much as I like the huge Timnes Bookstore within it, I still think it’s wrong to tear down the Bukit Bintang Girls School to erect yet another mall.

Christmas 2007 in Singapore

Happy New Year!

So it’s 2008 and so much has happened in the past few weeks. So many parties and traveling and before you know it, it’s the New Year!

Paul and I spent a week in Singapore celebrating Christmas. Since we are both very familiar with the island, all we did was shop (the Boxing Day sale is irresistible even to non shoppers) and meet up with friends there.

About shopping – I bought 5 pairs of shoes.

Yes I know my shoe obsession is getting out of hand especially since the pretty ones are usually too painful to be worn for long periods of time which means in the end, they don’t end up being worn much. But they are way to pretty not to be bought. I justify the purchase by wearing them for at least 6 hours every 6 months.

Also bought some dresses, pants, tops and accessories from AX, FCUK, Esprit, Gap and other small non branded shops. I almost bought a Prada bag which wasn’t on sale but is still much cheaper than in Malaysia. I didn’t bother to go into LV because as usual, there was a queue going into the store.

I can see why Singaporeans are such shopaholics. Firstly, there’s not much else to do. And secondly, things are so cheap, including branded stuff. If I was earning in S$, prices will be dollar to dollar and I’d be able to afford to go shopping every weekend too.

But other then shopping, it was great to meet up with friends.

And when you’ve shopped and finished drinking with friends, there are 2 things which can be done in Singapore but not in KL and that’s midnight shopping!

As we were drinking in Holland V and there was a 24 hour Cold Storage in the area, it’s often we do a spot of drunken shopping which is totally hilarious.

We did that one night when Paul’s cousin suggested an even better way to entertain ourselves when drunk – to go shopping in the 24 hour Mustafa Centre! So we hopped into a cab at midnight and arrived at this amazing building selling everything. Imagine Poh Kong, Watch Shoppe, Tesco, Ace Hardware, World Traveler, Jusco and World of Sports under one roof.

That’s 6 floors of Nike watches, Casio watches, Omega watches, Victorinox Swiss Army Knives, Samsonite luggage bags, dried popodoms, Maggi instant noodles, scissors, Indo mie instant noodles, gold chains (I’m talking 2 whole floors of total bling), frozen turkey, chopped chicken, baby powder, bottles of honey, basket balls, Nike running shoes, non-branded white school shoes, balloons, masquerade masks, super glue, bicycles, industrial sized rice cookers, dice, Winnie–the-Pooh toys, toilet bowls ……

It’s possible that the only thing they don’t sell at Mustafa Centre are cars, tanks and jet planes.

Needless to say it was a thoroughly entertaining experience enhanced with a little bit of alcohol going to the head which makes a pile of Nike shoes in the middle of the aisle excruciatingly funny.

I’m certainly going back there the next time I’m out drinking in Singapore.

We’re scheduling the next trip there in July 2008 to coincide with the Great Singapore Sale. After all, drinking and shopping are the only things to do in Singapore!

Hugs and Wishes and Merry Wishes!

The last few days in the office was spent wrapping Christmas presents. I’ve gotten a few paper cuts (marshmallow marshmallow marsmallow!!!!) but have finally wrapped every single present and given them out. So the stress of Christmas is over and I can now enjoy the joy and festivities!

The company secretary was also kind enough the buy a macadamia cheese cake, cookies and a few bottles of wine for us today before we all go on leave which was great but it lacked something …… entertainment!

We screamed at, cajoled, cheered and threatened (with a bad evaluation to his college professor) one of the interns to take off his shirt and do star jumps. The poor boy was so shy that he was clutching his t-shirt tightly and hid in a corner in case we ripped it off him. But as the cheers and support grew louder and more people walked into the room to see what the fuss was all about, he probably thought he should bite the bullet and do it before the his audience become 2 fold. So the boy actually did it in front of about 15 people. Respect.

Now the other intern needs to do the same. It’s only fair. And again, he’s been threatened by a bad evaluation. We’re so evil. But it’s all in the name of fun.

Now I wonder if anyone captured the intern and his 6 pack on camera……..

I’m leaving the office now for dinner with Paul and Jon. Then Paul and I are off down South to spend one week in Singapore for Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

May you have love, joy, hope and many presents from Santa!

Hugs & Kisses and Merry Wishes!

Holidays In The Next 3 Months

The work days are finally getting easier. I’m not working as late and the days are not as intense, nor as stressful as usual. This is how the month of December should be. It will be too much to ask for snow but easy, relaxing, festive weeks leading up to Christmas would make me happy too.

Paul and I will be spending Christmas in Singapore and will be there for one whole week. There will be a bit of Boxing Day shopping since friends tell me that the sales are totally crazy and worth it. It’s been a decade since I used to make yearly pilgrimages to Singapore for shopping so I’m totally out of touch. And there will be lots of catching up with friends and a little bit of eating since generally food in Singapore cannot match up to the overall taste of Malaysian food. Unless you’re talking gourmet….then, they’ll beat us hands down.

We’ll be back in KL to celebrate New Year Eve in KL with friends in the Fragrant Garden in Paul’s condo. It’s going to be a BBQ among a small group of friends with good food, good company and of course plenty of booze. I’d now much rather this than to be stuck in a club with far too many people….. or stuck in a traffic jam trying to head from one New Year Eve party to another and end up doing the countdown in the car.

Then in mid January, Paul and I are off to Bali for one week to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. We’ve booked 2 lovely private villas with pools and I can’t wait to enjoy the tranquility of our own villa as well as tanning and surfing on the beach. Fairy who just came back Bali also recommended swimming with dolphins and that’s something else I want to check out.

And after one week of being back after Bali, I’m off to Krabi on a company trip. Last year, I lost the fight to a Group Account Director who chose to go to Chiang Mai since he’s into mountainous jungle terrain. So this year, way before anyone even asked about a company trip, I did the research, pitched it to the CEO and sealed the deal. I believe more of us would want the beach and fun in the sun rather than being up in a mountain yet again. Well, I know I do anyway. The more beach holidays, the better!

Then CNY will be upon us. More holiday and good food.

And in mid March 2008, Paul & I will be in Chiang Mai with his family.

I’m loving the next 3 months!

A Day Off in a Usual Work Week

What a glorious day was yesterday. Being a public holiday for the state of Selangor only, it’s great to have a day off when everyone else is working.

After watching 8 episodes of Desperate Housewives Season 3 the night before, I woke up about noon yesterday upon being woken by Michelle Who Stays on the Seashore. We headed to La Bodega Lounge and met Sin Cyn for lunch. Ashley joined us for coffee then the girls trooped over to a new massage place on Telawi 3. The masseuses were from China and they used some kind of pressure point technique. Sin Cyn and I got the head and foot massage and it felt gooood.

Once done, I went to Starbuck Plaza Mont Kiara to meet Diver Master Jon.

What an enjoyable & stress free day. If only all days could be like this.

On second thoughts, maybe not.

It’s nice to be a tai-tai once in a while especially when you get a whole day to yourself in the middle of a work week. However, if I were to do this every day of every week, I’ll be bored mindless.

I don’t understand how tai-tais do it. What do they do if they don’t work? Lots of them go shopping. But I don’t like shopping. And once I buy stuff, they just pile up at home and create clutter. And spas? I love spas but you can’t be doing scrubs and rubs every single day right? And morning coffees and hi-teas with other tai-tais I guess. I could do that but can see it getting boring after a few weeks of the same thing. And I’d feel incredible unproductive.

Days off like these are nice when you value it enough. And you can’t appreciate a day off if you get one everyday.

That said, I do wish a weekend was either 3 days long. Or we were given a day of per week whenever we choose. Now that, would be perfect.

Club Monaco Launch @ Pavilion

After a week of pulling our asses out of our beds before the sun comes up to go to KL to attend the Diageo Way of Brand Building training, it finally ended on Thursday of last week.

And I came back to the office with a back log of work plus new jobs which I’ve been staying late to complete.

So it’s only now that I’m about to blog about what we did AFTER the training.

We celebrated by drinking at the new La Bodega at Pavilion. There were several rounds of Tiger Beer, after which Sin Cyn, Cheryl Smurfette, Annie Boobster, Paul & I headed to the launch of Club Monaco.

It was all very glam. Once your name is ticked off the guest list, you step onto the red carpet. But this red carpet, covered about 400sft outside of the store. Guess they wanted everyone to feel like VIPs.

The event was grand with a lot of pretty looking men and women.

As soon as we walked in, we were served champagne which is always a good thing.

We then nibbled on popcorn on chocolate sticks and white chocolate shaped like corals and dipped into dried strawberry. Very yummy and interesting morsels of food catered from Lafite.

Then I discovered that they had a single malt whiskey bar upstairs. Which was of course why I parked myself on the upper levels. Which was a good thing cos that’s where I met many advertising and production who’s who. I also met many from the media, publications, fashion houses and even Bank Negara. Bumped into a lot of friends too.

My only problem now is watching the name cards to the faces I vaguely remember in my head.

Here’s some pics of the clothes and the food.

The clothes were simple but very stylish. The pieces I picked up averaged at RM400 a piece. ‘Picked up’ meaning ‘lift up to touch the material’ and not buy. Hahaha!

I do like the clothes and am planning to go back there to have a good look. Kinda hard to try on dresses with a drink in one hand, a tuff of cotton candy on a chop stick in the other while waving to friends and trying to extract a name card from a very tiny clutch to pass to a new acquaintance.

And here’s some pics of when the beer, champagne and single malt whiskey decided to gang up against us.

This is what happens when you drink too much, Sleepy Smurf!

Diageo Way of Brand Building

Of all the client trainings I’ve attended, I can honestly say that the Diageo Way of Brand Building is the best among the rest. It’s a 3 ½ day workshop where those who work in Diageo as well as on Diageo brands come together to learn about how the company builds brands. They must be doing something right because Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff and Baileys are among some of their brands who are leaders in their categories.

From an agency’s perspective, I found the training to be beneficial as it give us an insight into the inner working of the client’s brand team and to understand why they work they way they do.

The waking up at 6.30am everyday and getting to the hotel by 8am was tough. And so was the shortened breaks where we had to down our coffees and stub out our half smoked cigarettes and actually run back into the seminar rooms ….. unless we want to stand up in front of everyone and sing a song. I guess that penalty worked cos most people were punctual if not way ahead of time for all of the meetings and break out sessions.

And of course the product training part of the course was excellent.

The Johnnie Walker session was best since we got to sample the red, black, green, gold AND blue label. Yummy.

And this is how the room looked liked when we left for the evening.

Diageo Training & Traffic Jams

It took 20 minutes for me to get to work today. That’s twice as long as it usually takes. That’s because I wanted to come in earlier to work today to check on work by 9.30am before I leave for my training session at 11am.

Diageo owns Guinness and they have training sessions for all personnel working on all their brands. Their marketing staff as well as advertising agency personnel alike attend the training for all their brands which includes Guinness, Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Baileys and more.

The training will include an understanding of how they come out with the briefing template for agencies to work on jobs as well as product tasting. Yup, we’ll be sampling (or downing for some people) all the different brands and variants of their alcoholic brands. But I don’t intend to be high until after 5pm each day. Such a good and sober girl!

The sucky part is that if we want food in the mornings, we gotta be there by 8am. The training session starts at 8.30am everyday. Which means I’ll need to wake up by 6.30am and be ready to leave the house at 7.15am! I know that this may be the norm for some people but for me, that’s madness!

I hate being woken up. I like to wake up on my own and at my own body clock time. I already find it a struggle waking up at 9am to be in at work by 10am. What more waking up at 6.30am? Just because there are traffic jams. I hate traffic jams. They are such a waste of time. So far I’ve managed to find jobs which allow me to go to the office late and leave work whenever I want so I’ve managed to avoid traffic jams. At least that’s 95% of the time. And I schedule meetings so that I hardly need to sit in jams either going to the meeting or coming back from it.

It’s for this reason that I have a rule that I my home and office should not be more than 15 minutes drive away from each other during normal circumstances. This means that I’ve ruled out working in downtown KL. Unless they triple my salary. AND include perks.

And since I’m in KL for the next few days (and I’m hardly in KL cos of the jams), I may as well stay there in the evenings and enjoy the night life there. And avoid the traffic jams of course.

So there won’t be any more posts from me till at least Friday.

Have a good week everyone!

I’m off for my Guinness, vodka, whiskey and other assortment of alcohol.

TV & Movie Watching Mood

Stardust the Movie was funny, sarky (I love good sarcasm!) and fun to watch. While it wasn’t that close to the book by Neil Gaiman, it was entertaining and I had no major gripes about it.

Apart from About a Boy by Nick Hornby which was a movie based on a book which I personally felt was as good as the book and even stayed true to the storyline up to the small details, more often than not, I always feel disappointed after I’ve watch any movie based on a book which I’ve read.

When you read a book, you’re in a theatre of the mind which can draw you in completely especially if you have a vivid imagination. Sometimes when I watch a movie based on a book, I feel like I’ve already seen the movie. It helps when the author is descriptive and totally immerses you into the world he’s created.

Thus, this time with Stardust, I decided not to re-read the book which I tend to do sometimes before movies. I didn’t want to end up frustrated and through the course of the movie, think to myself “That’s not what happened!”, “Who is that new character?” and “They jumped from the scene on Page 57 to Page 285?!!!”.

Thanks to Sin Cyn who organized for 8 of us to watch the movie at Cineleisure on Cheap Movie Day Wednesdays!

We may be watching Beowolf soon to see Angeline Jolie (hot hot hot!). Neil Gaiman was part of the team which adapted the legend for the big screen.

And I can’t wait for Enchanted. I thought it was a cartoon but the trailer showed that it was animation meets the real world, something like the original Roger Rabbit. The trailer was funny from the start to the end. It had me in stitches…. All 3 minutes of it or however long trailers usually lasts. Not to mention that Mc Dreamy (Patrick Dempsey of Gray’s Anatomy) plays the modern day prince. How apt. He’s not my version of hot, by those eyes would make most women swoon.

I’m going home now to watch the last few episodes of Gray’s Anatomy Season 3. I heard that Season 4 is already available!

I’m in such a TV series and movie watching mood!

Time For Facebook

I finally have a bit more time in the office and can play with Facebook again.

I’ve deleted a whole lot of applications which I’ve installed but no longer use. And have clicked the ‘Ignore’ button on the new application invites umpteen times in an effort up to clean up the programme and only keep the those which allows me to keep in touch with friends through common interests.

Since I had time, I did the ‘What Drug Are You Test”. The result:

You are "Mushrooms"!

“Why does everything need a definition? Why must society insist on labels? Why can't we all, as a people, decide that life is about living, and that all this hatred and fear has no place in today's society? And why is that couch talking to me?”

And that’s so true about me. Especially the couch talking portion.

I also did the ‘Lesbian Test’ and the result:

Amanda is an Anne

“Whether she's a lesbian or not depends on the day of the week. Or how intoxicated she is"

And that again is so true! Strangely my current boyfriend and also my exes do not like the idea of me kissing a girl. So I’ve refrained from doing it now when I’m on an alcohol buzz.

The funny thing is that many women are like that especially when under the influence. I believe that everyone, both male and female, have a bit of gay tendencies (being homophobic could be a sign of being afraid that if they get close to a gay person, they may turn gay themselves). It’s just a matter of how much they are willing to take it. And sleeping with the same sex does not necessarily mean that you’re gay.

And my current favourite application (besides Fluff Friends) is Visual Book Shelf. Problem is that I can’t recall all the books I’ve read. I’ll start with the ones I do recall then will go back home to look at my book shelf and key in the titles.

Ikea Called Regarding the Missing Meatballs Within 24 Hours

After 2 emails from me and a long follow up email from Jasmine, I received a call from Ikea! They explained that there was a problem with the quality of the meatballs and they are sourcing for a new supplier.

Unfortunately they were unable to tell when the meatballs will be available again.

They probably think that Jas and I are some kinda psycho meat ball lovers who’s experiencing withdrawal symptoms from Swedish meatballs.

I’m slightly surprised they called to follow up. On one hand, I expected them to call because they are an international company but on the other hand, customer service in Malaysia is so crap (I’ve still not received any word from BAT despite informing several friends who work there. I could write in formally but quitting seems like the better idea) that I’ve learn to lower my expectations.

But bottom line is that they did call to follow up within 24 hours. That’s pretty amazing.

I now hope that they have the good sense to reply my email inquiry which I also CCed to 20 other friends.

Only then will I be convinced that Ikea’s customer service is on par with international standards.

I’m contented enough for now but I hope they bring the meat balls back soon!

Bring the Meatballs Back!

Ikea is not only known for their furniture but their food too. Besides furniture and food, I often go to Ikea to :

- play with the animals (and try not to bring any back with me though Ashton, the Minnen Ratta, put the guilt trip on me so I had to bring him back home and I now love him to bits)

- walk around when I’m bored and end up buying something small which I don’t need but is cute so I can’t resist like the jigsaw puzzle shaped ice cube makers

- take a nap on the beds or sofa beds

- do a sales pitch and try and sell a sofa bed to the customers

- sit in the ‘living room’ with friends and pretend I’m hosting a tea party

Today, Michelle Who Stays on the Seashore, Sin Cyn and I went to Ikea for lunch. We already knew that the Ikea Café no longer served the Swedish meatballs, though we don’t know why. We heard some rumour about it being not halal. Anyway, the last time we were there, the meatballs were replaced by something else that I can only describe as flattened meatballs. They tasted about the same but it was slightly crispier, due to the shape.

We headed to the café today and there were no meatballs! Flattened or otherwise. Ikea is famous for their Swedish meatballs! How can they not have it on the menu?

I asked the server who told me that it’s simply no longer on the menu and he doesn’t know when it will be brought back. I asked the cashier and she said that there’re a problem with the supplier.

I then called Ikea Customer Service and they put me on hold so many times. They really should not call themselves Customer Service. I’ve just emailed them instead. I need an answer. They need to bring the meatballs back. I’d really like it if they would offer both the traditional meat balls and “meat flatties”. Maybe I’m asking for too much but just bring one version back.

And they need to take the sign out from the car park area.