Singapore = no blogging

For some reason, Singapore makes me a very lazy bum. I haven't been blogging for a while, and I feel really bad, but I'm just so busy doing stuff that whenever I reach home, I'm reduced to a putty of fatigue.

Went with Moots to this Italian restaurant called Senzo on Club Street. We had originally wanted to go to this French place called Sage but it was fully booked, -__- which was totally unexpected since we were laughing about how reservations is a foreign concept to Singaporeans. Apparently NOOOT. Daym.

So this place. I have to say, it's not that good. The impression I get from the food, and the prices, is that it's trying to pull off as an ataps classy type place, but its dishes are way too hearty for that. And not delicate enough.

We had a complimentary starter which the server introduced as a fried chicken ball. And I thought it was funny cuz he really couldn't think of any fancy pretentious way to put it but a "fried chicken ball". And it tasted like chicken nuggets from Mackers. -_-

For starters, we had the fried duck liver (mock foie gras) and lobster bisque.


The lobster bisque was way too salty. It felt like the chef prolly accidentally tripped and added a smashing of salt in that soup. The lobster meat was tender enough, but the salty soup just canceled all its merits out.


The foie gras was oookay. I don't imagine me ever saying this, but the foie gras serving was way too big, and at the end of it, it was a little too much. On top of it, it was crusted with some sugar and nut coating, and presented with sweetened peppers, and I just felt that the whole concoction was a little too sweet for me. Just a little, I mean it was still good, unlike the lousy foie gras I had at St. Pierre at Fullertion. *shudders*


The pasta servings were too big. I had the capellini in a cream sauce with sea urchin and black caviar, but it was way too rich for me. The caviar wasn't fishy, which was good, but the sea urchin tasted like rubber. Very dry and very very bad.


Moots had the strognani or whatever that thick pasta is called, with wild boar "marinated with red wine for seven days". Seriously that's what they wrote on the menu. For some reason, it amused me. It was good tho, good flavor of the wine with the boar, and the pasta wasn't overcooked, tho you can taste that the pasta wasn't home made.

So in all, it was a great night of catching up, but unspectacular food. If you're ever there tho, the strognani or something is the best thing to try when in doubt.

Thoughts

Everytime I come back to the motherland, I feel a little less connected to it than the last time I was here. Is it because I'm slowly unrooting myself from this country? I used to be so used to taking train rides cramped with people, lining up for everything, and well the hot weather, and the bad service. Whatever happened to that? I find myself swearing to myself on the train ride home today, because everyone was packed like sardines in the train carriages and there was no space to even breathe.

In recent years, it has dawned upon me that Singapore is a great city to visit, not to work in. My sisters work so hard, and it's rare for them to knock off before 8. In Europe, they would shoo people out of the company, or go for a company drink at the local pub after 5. Why are Singaporeans so overworked and underpaid? I see tired and unhappy faces everywhere I turn in the early evening around knockoff time. I don't want to be another unhappy and weary face in the crowd......

The days of this week is flying by. I don't want this week to come to an end.

Wed night. Darn, I should be out drinking free booze.

Perth

Perth is awesome. The last time I was here, I was an awkward 15 year old who didn't know better, and was amazed at the sheer amount of nature reserves that can be stuffed in one city. 10 years later and 10 years wiser, I got to know this city on a more intimate level, thanks to Sammy. ^___^

Couldn't get over the jet lag , so been waking up early and sleeping before 12 every day. I kinda like this routine, gives me more awake time to do everything I wanna do.

It's been a week nothing short of perfect. I have to admit, I kinda like this city, even though the accent is funny and shops close super early. I feel like I've slipped into a simple life, a life with only the bare elements and not having to care about unnecessary wants and extravagant things to satisfy me. It is refreshing, and I have to admit that I'll be a very sad person leaving this behind when I board the plane tomorrow.

P.S: The oysters at David Jones rule. In good/awesome company, of course. :)

Fuck Cathay Pacific airline.

I’m sitting alone in a crappy airplane seat right now. My feet are stiff, my neck is aching, and my eyes are swollen. Ever had a moment when you had everything planned to the T, and someone up there just simply wants to disrupt all that and shake things up a little? I’m living in that moment. Screw my original perfect plan of taking the 1.10pm flight out of Los Angeles, and arriving back in Singapore at 11.45pm on a Friday night, just in time for supper with my family. Screw my plan to go home, pack my already separately packed baggage in a smaller suitcase for the Australia bound flight the next morning, and my plan for a good night’s rest. Screw my deliberate attempt to book a flight 9 hours from my arrival into Singapore, to avoid any fuck-ups any airline can ever give me.

Because I was wrong. Cathay Pacific can sure do more than that. What it did do, was to arrange for a fuel-up in Korea, leading to a delay of 2.5 hrs in our entry into Hongkong, effectively killing all hopes of me catching my 8pm flight out of Hongkong, which also happens to be the last flight of the day from Hongkong into Singapore. It doesn’t matter that Hongkong happens to be the base of Cathay Pacific. Apparently they just have a pathetic number of flights, and inefficient planning skills that when it comes down to the crunch, which happens way too often, all that they have to offer is an apologetic tone, and unhelpful advice. I tried all alternatives. I can’t take the earliest flight out of Hongkong since it will land after my boarding time for my Australia-bound flight. I can’t wait for a later flight out of Los Angeles because apparently, all airlines, which include Singapore Airlines, Eva, Ana are ALL OVERBOOKED, including the business and the first class seats. I can’t fly into Singapore on the earliest flight, and take a later flight to Australia, because the earliest flight is at fucking 7.25pm at night, which would put me at an arrival time of 1225am on a Sunday, instead of my originally planned 2.10pm on a Saturday.

There seemed to be no other better option than to suck it up and stay overnight in Hongkong, and take a straight flight from there to Perth, which would be a 3pm flight that would result in an arrival time of 1040pm. Screw my plans to have hotpot that night. Screw my plans to go out dancing. Screw all of that, just because of a crappy airline that doesn’t even have the intelligence to plan flights better.

So here I am, alone, and angry, and upset, and helpless, which is exactly the opposite of what I’m supposed to feel on my trip. And that makes me even more upset, because I wanted this to be perfect. And it’s not my fucking fault that others try to fuck me up. It’s exactly like the lyrics off the “Prayer of the Refugee” song by Rise Against: We are the angry and the desperate, the hungry and the cold. We’re the ones who kept crying, and always did what we were told.” “Don’t help me up now, I can stand my own ground, I don’t need your help now, you will let me down”.

I’m unhappy, and trepidated, and starving. And also, I have no clue how to get money to spend in Perth. And I will arrive 8 hours late, which is an optimistic estimate since Cathay is such a lousy airline. You know when you yell at crappy drivers on the road that if they drive like a retard, they’re better off not driving? Maybe Cathay should do something more within their means, which doesn’t require much planning skills…like transporting urinals or fertilizers.

Okay so I wrote that on the plane, as a result of sheer frustration and no one close enough for me to strangle. After I got off the plane, a lot of people were arguing with the counter staff. I pretty much saw an Indian guy version of me yelling at the staff. I had to take it all in and just laugh it off. There's just some moments in your life that things seem so hopeless and you feel so helpless that you appreciate the twisted humor in it.


Dodgy signs leading to the airport hotel. Hope it's not that bad...


Thank God it's decent.

I intend to destroy this room by the time I check out.

Aight, gonna go shower because I smell like a hobo. If anyone feels like helping me with the complaint letter to Cathay, please holler.

Bling bling! (I'm such a ditz)

Gonna board that plane in less than 10 hours. Excited! :) It's gonna be crazy. Gonna be a 18 hr flight to Singapore, and then flying to Perth the next morning. AHHHH.

I finally got to blinging my camera and ipod. I know it's a very girly thing to do, but well, I am girly, so live with it. Lalala!

Need to sleep. Blech. See yer all in the other side of the world! :D