1 rochester

we sent off cayden and his entourage from the hotel lobby. and since it was real early for a public holiday’s eve, we decided to be adventurous and set off for rochester park – the hottest place in town to be and seen at.

we settled at 1 rochester for drinks. it has a very lush and verdant alfresco area. a better looking version of villa bali is how i would describe it.

prices of drinks were standard, around $14 each with a small selection of finger food which we didn’t try since we just had dinner.

it’s great place for conversations with friends especially for people like me without our own pads.

café swiss

doris suggested trying this new place at swissotel and since thomas can get his staff discount there, how can i refuse such a good offer, right?

cayden and his entourage were there, so were tracy and eric. diane didn’t join us ’cos johann was in bangkok on a company trip.

the bread basket was a delight with about 5 different kinds of bread. there’s an interesting coffee-flavoured one which janet pointed out. i love all of it since i’m a bread person. atkins diet be darned!

also fed cayden lots since he can’t resist bread either. :) hehe...

i ordered a smoked salmon salad wanting to share it with doris but it was puny appetiser-sized that even doris wouldn’t have any problem finishing it all by herself.

the waiter suggested that i have the cod fillet which was done simply and rather nice. couldn’t help pinching the rosti from tracy’s plate. i just want to have my carbo and eat it! it was nice and buttery although a trifle too salty.

all of us were happy with our mains. for desserts, we shared the chocolate fondue with fruits and a slice of oreo cheese cake. the chocolate fondue was rather runny, kinda disappointing.

overall, the price is on the high side at about $40 to $50 per person if you order a non-alcoholic drink, an appetiser and a main course. definitely, not for the budget-conscious.

would seriously think twice about eating there if thomas wasn’t there. :P

sakae sushi @ wheelock

wilson wanted to have dinner together before he flies off to vietnam for a working trip on monday. i’ve haven’t been here for a while and didn’t realise that they’ve renovated.

the lighting is now dimmer with lots of wood accents. nice.

missed my yoga

me and elyn stayed back to help monica with a large shipment that she had decided to export at the last minute.

got conned by the ups guy and waited for a long while for him to come and pick up the boxes.

after which, we had a hard time trying to get cab booking resulting in me missing issey’s last class before he flies off to the us.

oh well… just too bad... :(

food & hospitality asia

this is a trade-only event but serene’s brother had a few complimentary tickets so we pretended to be industry folks and visited the exhibition. :P

it was a huge affair occupying the entire 6 halls at singapore expo. the exhibitors were most generous with food and drink samples. serene, jeanette and sally spent a most fulfilling lunch time there.

i didn’t try out much food since i already had lunch at burger king earlier. the gals like it so much that they decided to return the next day for another day of feasting after learning that their passes will still be valid the following day.

duh!

fish & chick

when does it matter if fillets instead of the whole fish are served to your guests?

would your guests mind if they were served herbal chicken and not roast chicken?

apparently, it does when you talking about a wedding dinner menu. kind of unbelieveable, right? when food is not just something you put into your mouth for sustenance but carries a whole lot of significance beyond what most people of our generation can comprehend.

cod fillets sound yummy to me. but nope, according to my aunt connie, that’s no good, the fish should be served whole with the head and tail intact to symbolise a perfect and complete marriage.

herbal chicken a healthful alternative to roast chicken, right? wrong again! my uncle tony thinks that herbal dishes are served to people who are ill and not suitable for a wedding dinner.

and i thought that food-tasting session is just to suss out if the food is nice or not?

gosh!

yoga retreat

issey informed the class that he’ll be going off to the us for his annual yoga retreat for the 1st 2 weeks of may.

i wonder how does it feel to do nothing but yoga for 2 weeks… should be a period of peaceful solitude and calm repose.

previously, he had gone to india for a yoga retreat too. where he was totally immersed in the practice of yoga, meditation and chantings. removed entirely from civilisation: no newspapers, television or internet.

that’s not too bad i think, but i wonder how long can i survive on vegetarian meals... :P

ge ’06

as widely anticipated, the general elections will be held on 6 may. that’s the same day my cousin, edaline is getting married.

hmm… wonder if i’ll get a chance to vote this time round.

*** post note: i don't get to vote at this ge since no opposition party is interested to contest the holland-bukit timah grc.

back to work

i’m back to work after a 5-day break. busy, busy, busy… got 3 meetings with my vendors scheduled today. arrgghhh…

bye, dayang

by the time the boat returned to the jetty, we had already packed our gears into our dive bags marking the close of our dive trip.

had a sumptuous brunch since according to the staff, they had served the food for breakfast and lunch together. we showered and packed our bags next. then we logged our dives while waiting for the rest.

it was a tiring, yet fulfilling first-time dive trip for all of us. time well-spent picking up a new skill and bonding over our struggles to master what had been taught.

a welcomed timeout from civilisation, away from television, newspapers and all mass media without any interruptions from the office or even your friends since there isn’t any mobile network reception at all.

with a touch of weariness, we made our way to the jetty, to our boat. but i left the island with a sense of longing. a longing for the peaceful and idyllic paradise that i know exists now in this world that is pulau dayang.

dive 07

rayner’s rock, pulau dayang

our final dive for the trip, we were all relieved that we had done alright for the course so far but at the same time feeling a bit nervous about this dive although it’s a leisure dive since any major mistakes made will jeopardise our passing of the course.

it was great to forget about the drills and just focus on enjoying the underwater marine life. we saw lots of it…

4 huge [around 50 – 60cm] bumphead parrot fish swimming together. the infamous and sometimes dangerous trigger fish, not a very big one. countless other fishes and marine life that i couldn’t name. some of them actually will swim past very near my mask.

we also went past this tall wall encrusted with corals. truly awesome!

it was here that we first experienced a thermocline – a stratified layer of water with a noticeable temperature difference.

the next thing we know, the particles underwater were zooming past our masks relentlessly. now we know what’s an underwater current… we had to fin extra hard just to move ahead by a few feet. kay yaw told us later that was only about half a sea knot.

when we did our safety stop at 5 metres, we had to hang on to the coral walls to prevent ourselves being swept away. pretty exciting, right? :)

after surfacing, we had to fin real hard to return to the boat. this dive gave me a new-found respect for sea currents both underwater and surface. and also taught us the importance of good fining techniques.

pant!

theory test

the test consists of 50 mcqs to be completed within an hour. the requirement is to get at least 75% of the questions correct including the 4 dive table questions. the 4 dive questions got us slightly keyed up ’cos we weren’t sure what to expect…

eric reassured us that we’ll surely pass. nevertheless, ky immediately went back to our room to mug after dinner.

we took the test at about 10 pm as we had to wait for kay yaw to return from the night dive. we sat at 1 of the dining tables amidst others who were having dinner or drinking away and chatting about the day’s dives.

had a fruitful time discussing the answers among ourselves, paying extra attention to the dive table questions. :P hehe… in the end, we scored 92% and only got 4 questions wrong. yeah!

most of the questions were not technical so it wasn’t too difficult. just have to watch the language though. and i think if we had paid close attention to patrick’s lessons, passing the test is not a problem.

kay yaw went through the answers with us, patiently clarifying all our doubts even though he had not eaten his dinner yet. he also let on that we will all pass the course unless any of us float up unknowingly during tomorrow’s dive.

i jokingly remarked that we shall skip the dive and consider ourselves to have passed! haha…

dive 06

pulau lang

surprisingly, it didn't rain and the skies began to lighten up although the waves were choppier than before.

we had to gear up and walked to the jetty in our full gear... pant!

i started the reciprocal navigation in the navigator role while doris did the timing. headed out at 30 degrees for 2 minutes. kay yaw had to adjust the bearings for me.

managed to set out and return to the starting point without any problems although sometimes i felt that the compass needle doesn’t seem to be floating freely.

doris also completed the navigation successfully but not before almost leading me to the surface! gosh!

i was too engrossed timing and following her lead that i wasn’t conscious that we were ascending until i heard kay yaw hitting his tank to catch kl & ky’s attention.

only then did i realise we were already very close to the surface. i promptly signaled to doris to descend quickly and frantically descend as fast as i could before kay yaw realise where we were. :P hehe…

we also revised our scuba unit removal and replacement exercise while kl & ky did another round of navigation thanks to somebody’s speed fining. haha…

then while kl & ky were practicing their scuba unit r & r, doris swam around in a perfectly horizontal position displaying her fine control of neutral buoyancy. what a show-off, right? :P

kay yaw showed us a cluster of brown shark egg sacs. the egg sacs felt like some plastic material that was quite resistant to my attempt to tear it apart.

we also completed our final drill, the controlled emergency swimming ascent [cesa], not a very difficult drill since we just have to keep breathing out during ascent simulating an out-of-air situation. only need to be mindful that we do not ascend too quickly.

originally, we were supposed to do it after our rescue drill at the earlier dive but kay yaw called it off since we were not in good shape by the end of the drill.

at the end of it all, i just want to get out of the water away from the waves!

stung

the light breeze started to become strong winds whipping up the waves onto the shore. the skies darken considerably and a heavy downpour seemed imminent. we were thinking that the next dive might be cancelled due to bad weather.

doris and kl were mugging for the theory paper that we were planning to take tonight while i decided to take a short nap to reward myself for the 2 tough dives this morning.

was awoken by a small commotion, 1 of our fellow divers was stung by some creature and kay yaw had to apply hot water to her thigh to neutralise the toxin.

after this incident, we were all extra careful when we descend and where we put our hands underwater.

the beach

had a leisurely lunch, and since we’re skipping the next dive, i decided to eat a bit more. :)

ky complained that there wasn’t much food left at such a late hour but we had already asked him to eat first if he was hungry, no need to wait for us what... duh!

we decided to take a walk along the beach for a look-see and some photo-taking. ky returned to the room to sleep. so lazy hor? :P

the sand is really fine and almost white while the waters are clear. living in singapore, you wouldn’t believe such lovely beaches do exist!

doris spotted a hermit crab and “tortured” it a bit by burying it in compacted sand. poor crab! but it did struggle free only to be buried again! haha… i picked up a small piece of dead coral as a souvenir of my 1st dive trip.

we walked back to the shed to take a nap while waiting for the next dive.

dive 05

jetty, pulau dayang

went for light breakfast after the earlier dive, didn’t have much appetite and wasn’t sure if i can keep it down for the next dive.

had a briefing and demo on the rescue of unconscious diver drill at the shed. then we practised there for a while… tried very hard to remember all the steps for the drill.

the 2 key points according to kay yaw are:
1. do not endanger yourself in the rescue.
2. bring the diver to the surface.

for this drill, we did another training dive at the jetty. while waiting for kl and ky to start first, me & doris had to bob up and down with the waves while waiting on the surface. not a good situation for me to be in. also we need to swim over when they surface to help kay yaw with the weight belts.

i “rescued” doris first. everything went smoothly for the entire drill. the tough part was the simulation of towing the victim back to the jetty with no air in my bc. had to fin like mad… till i was breathless and my thighs nearly had a cramp.

after that, doris had a go at it. considering my size and hers, i think she did an admirably good job of “rescuing” me. bravo!

and when it was done, i puked again! :P

kay yaw decided to end the dive since kl said that he’s having a headache and we proceeded to do a beach exit. removed our equipment and took a break before lunch.

we decided to sit out the next dive.

dive 04

pulau pinang

the first dive of the day, supposed to meet up at the jetty at 7 am. that’s right, we’re going to dive even before we have our breakfast. that’s how fanatical divers can get in order to be the first boat to arrive at the dive site.

however, the boat crew doesn’t seem too eager to start work so early. we had to hang around till about 7:30 before they decided to bring in the boat to the jetty… took the opportunity to take a few photographs of dayang.

this is our deepest dive so far, we went down to 17.5m. fortunately, i didn’t have any equalisation problems. my stomach churned even though i didn’t have anything to throw up.

we were also reprimanded by kay yaw for not remembering what we’ve learnt yesterday ’cos a few of us couldn’t control our buoyancy well and sort of floated up to the surface, sometimes unknowingly. :P

barbeque dinner

after a long day of 3 dives, having a freshwater shower to wash off the salty tang of seawater was more than welcomed, even though there wasn’t any hot water.

by 8 pm, i was already ravenous. can’t imagine how hungry those divers who went for the night dive will be.

the dinner spread was simple but good. i gorged myself silly since technically i didn’t really have lunch. had lots of chicken wings and satay.

randy joined us and we chatted over his dinner. doris started dosing off. after that, we had a debrief by kay yaw. by then even kl started zoning out.

kay yaw showed us a reference book for all the different types of fishes, corals and other sea creatures that we’ve seen today and might see in the waters around here.

he also warned us about the territorial trigger fish that supposedly have very sharp teeth. we were instructed to swim off as a group if we see him fending off one underwater.

it was already past midnight by the time i hit the bed.

dive 03

jetty, pulau dayang

kay yaw decided that we go for a leisure dive and not do any more drills for today. we were all too glad to hear that.

can’t remember much of what i saw… my stomach churned again at depth. there weren’t anything else to vomit except for gastric acids. this time round, we went even deeper, up to about 11.5 metres and stayed for about 40 minutes.

i didn't really like the part where we were diving around the jetty structures with the propellers making a huge din underwater. in fact, it was slightly stressful even as we had to be extra mindful that we did not become too buoyant and float up to the spinning propeller blades! :P

by the end of it, we were rather tired of breathing through our mouth with the regulator. although i wasn’t drained physically, there was some level of mental fatigue. and it was with a sigh of relief that we complete the last dive for the day.

i just want to get my feet on solid ground as soon as i could.

dive 02

batu kuti, pulau pinang

this after-lunch dive was the most memorable for the obscene amount of puke that i regurgitated. threw up my entire lunch plus some gastric juices in a series of spectacular pukes. think doris witnessed a part of my underwater performance.

i survived… with a weird taste in my mouth and a contaminated regulator. fortunately, doris didn’t have to do buddy breathing using my regulator. haha… :P

we went slightly deeper to about 9.5 metres for this dive. except for kl, the 3 of us didn’t have any equalisation problems. we revise some of the earlier drills and did new ones like the regulator retrieval and alternate air source breathing.

didn’t pay much attention to the fishes and corals this time round ’cos of my stomach churning experience. just glad that i didn’t need to abandon the dive.

dive 01

telok mariam, pulau aur

our instructor kay yaw gave us a briefing on the ferry roof deck before we proceed to gear-up. gosh, the equipment is really heavy and we made our giant stride entry into the waters with much relief.

kl buddy up with ky while i buddied with doris. we covered most of the drills like mask clearing, removal & replacement, weight belt ditch & don, scuba unit removal & replacement and buoyancy control at a depth of around 7 metres.

visibility was good and we could see as far as 12 metres all around.

we spent almost an hour below and had time to explore a bit. saw clown fishes & sea anemone, magenta sea cucumber and bright orange christmas tree worms.

the abundant underwater life was awe-inspiring.

check-in @ 6 am

that’s right, you didn’t see wrongly… by the time, we reach pulau dayang and were allocated to our rooms, it was almost 6 am.

doris, ky, kl and myself shared room #2 since they’re all quad-sharing rooms. and the room can’t be more basic: 4 beds, a mirror, a ceiling fan, an air-con unit and some hooks on the wall for hanging clothes.

bathrooms? they’re communal and there isn’t hot water!

we were told to catch a nap till 8 o’clock and then have breakfast later. nothing could’ve sounded better at this time.

just to let you have an idea how "ulu" the island is, there isn't any mobile network available and there aren't any phones on the island either. we were told that to make a phone, we need to go over to another island and use a phone card!

gosh...

late night travel

reached mersing jetty at around 1+ am… the place was deserted except for the 2 minibus-load of people from mako.

everyone helped to unload the dive bags from the minibus and loaded them onto the transfer boat. the tide was too low for the ferry to berth. as doris commented, we really felt like illegal immigrants trying smuggle past the coastal guards in the dead of the night.

transferred to the ferry in the open sea and tried to find a place to sleep through the rest of the journey. surprisingly, i was still holding up… the band and the dramamine that randy, the dive master gave me must be working.

open water @ pulau dayang

will be traveling to malaysia tonight for our scuba diver training course open water dives. dunno what to expect except that i’ll probably be sea-sick. :P haha…

will be going to pulau dayang off mersing. got to endure a 4 hour road trip followed by another 4-hour ferry ride. hopefully, i’ll live to tell the tale. :)

kyo nichi @ marina square

met up with alicia, tracy and eric for dinner at this ramen restaurant recommended by sunday lifestyle a few weeks back. it’s supposed to be 1 of the top 10 ramen places in singapore.

had to look hard for the restaurant since it was situated in an isolated corner of the mall. when i reached the place, it was almost deserted with only 1 other table occupied and 1 service staff. doesn’t look very promising at all…

the place only started to fill up as the evening crept by. but it was still woefully under-staffed by 2 wait crew only.

alicia and tracy were pretty excited about having the collagen ramen. turns out that the collagen is actually “dissolved” in the soup due to the extended preparation time of the stock.

the ladies had the spicy char siew ramen while eric and i decided on the thick char siew ramen. we also get to choose a side dish worth $6 each plus a cold drink since we all ordered the $16 set meal. quite good value for money i would say.

took a while for our ramen to be served. very ordinary looking bowls of noodles with slices of char siew and an egg. even though we’ve surmised earlier that the “thick” refers to the soup stock, we couldn’t really tell by looking at it.

the ramen were springy, al dente with a good bite while the stock was a lovely milky-white broth. what about the char siew?

it’s heavenly and truly out of this world! the meat slices just melt in your mouth. i can say without any doubts that it’s the best japanese char siew i’ve ever tasted. and to top it all, it doesn’t even have any fats on the meat. yummy!

eric says that even though he’s not ramen person, he’s really liked what he had.

my recommendation?

as makansutra will rate it: die, die must try! :)

winds of change

my department manager is moving out to an asean role effective 1st april while the manager of another team will expand his role to take over our team as well since we’re all under the umbrella of integrated supply chain reporting to the same asean manager.

in management speak, it’s called integration and synergising. to me, it’s a very obvious cost-cutting measure since 1 management position has been eliminated.

so how will the new “angmoh” boss be like?

only time can tell…

ps café @ paragon

doris called to have dinner together since she’ll be in town. couldn’t get a table at sushi-tei even after waiting for half an hour so we decided to go downstairs to ps café instead.

surprised that the café was not crowded on a saturday night. a table was readily available and we even managed to get a bigger one when janet and jason joined us later. guess this is no longer the “in” branch.

the décor of the café beside the boutique really looks like a kitchen straight out of a hollywood movie or an american sitcom.

i shared a roasted vegetable salad with doris that was pretty good. the red pepper was delightful sweet while the zucchini and sweet potatoes provided contrasting textures to the greens. in my opinion, it’s good enough to be a main course if you’re looking for a vegetarian option.

thomas had the laksa pesto while doris tried the classic beef stew. i didn’t feel like having sandwiches, so i ordered the chicken tau kwa burger. the bun has been replaced by the tau kwa. found the shredded chicken a little dry though.

doris and thomas had no complaints of their mains. cayden likes the mashed potato from the beef stew. he didn’t open his mouth when i fed him, just stared at me. only when janet gave it to him then he ate.

janet ordered the chocolate cake which was served warm. quite good... a huge slice that can’t possibly be just for 1 person. then again, it has to justify its $8.90 price.

cayden still allowed us to carry him and we passed him around without any fuss. he seems to know who’s mummy ’cos he’ll turn to look at janet whenever i asked him, “where’s mummy?”. he also gets “talkative” when’s he happy or excited.

however, there’s one not-so-nice trick that he has learnt and that’s spraying his saliva all over you when he blows air out of his closed mouth with a “boo” sound. jason says he does it when he is bored. apparently, he can’t sit quietly in restaurants.

i think he's just happy to be out and about and don't really care who's carrying him. :)