tsr ver. 2

due to popular demand, i conducted another tour of the southern ridges from the marang trail to the hortpark.

it was altogether another experience walking on a sunday morning, the weekend crowd livens up the hike and lends a more 'festive' air to the trail. somehow, it feels shorter today.

after hortpark, we were all famished and took a bus to funny lasagna for lunch. i had a maraimana, and was served with penne although i didn't specify the type of pasta that i wanted. portion size was reasonable given the price. i only wished that the tomato sauce contains more tuna but can't complain much since it's only $5.

we also shared a chicken and spinach lasagna that had a light cream sauce. for somebody who usually avoid cream pasta, i feel this isn't overly heavy or cheesy. i think i would be adventurous and try another of their lasagna the next time. wanted to try their tiramisu but it wasn't available. so we rewarded ourselves with cheesecakes at secret recipe after lunch.

all the morning exercise was in vain. :P haha...

party @ 183

another month, another birthday... we're celebrating cayden's 3rd birthday today. just a small gathering of friends and janet's & jason's family. since i'm still not working yet, i volunteered to take charge of the buying of the present.

in the end, i settled on a leap pad with 3 story books from toys 'r' us and a bob the builder lego duplo set from metro after shopping around. toys 'r' us has the best price for the leap pad and a buy 2 and get the 3rd book free for the leap pad books. while only metro and tangs have a 20% discount for lego sets.

when i arrived at punggol with siew leng, janet was out collecting the cake with jason and cayden. and the caterer had not arrived! so i sms-ed janet to complain 'i'm here liao... where's the food?!' :P hehe...

as with all kid's parties, there was a lot of screaming and running around. soon the playroom's floor was filled with toys as each of them brought out more toys to play. followed by the inevitable throwing of tantrums when some of them want to play with the same toy.

strangely, i didn't think they were overly noisy today... maybe my hearing is going off? or i'm conditioned by the upgrading construction noise at home?

the food by neo garden was quite good, i had 2 servings of it as well as 2 servings of the longan almond tofu cocktail dessert. jarad likes the dessert too! :P

next up was the birthday song singing and cake cutting, much-awaited by the kids. however, cayden doesn't seem to have warm up yet, looking a bit spaced out and detached.

i think the grandparents looked most happy.

somebody asked why so many photos of jarad? that's because he's still not running around with the rest yet! haha...

the southern ridges

went for a little trek at the latest 'in' trail provided by our national parks. since its publicity in the media last month, it has become a popular destination for families especially during the weekends.

the start point is at the marang trail, a stone's throw away from the bus stop in front of seah im bus food centre or harbourfront mrt station. although it was a weekday, there were still people on the trail ranging from families with kids, retirees taking a walk, joggers, students on excursion, tourists and expats experiencing a different facet of singapore.

i didn't know that marang trail is a challenging 70 metres upward climb [equivalent to a 24-storey building] until later at night when i read about it at the nparks web site. so those less-fit or have bad knees might want to take it easy and slow.

the slightly strenous ascent will be well-rewarded with superb views of sentosa and the southern islands when you reach the top of mount faber. from that point onwards, it's pretty much an easy hike all the way to kent ridge park without much difficulty.

henderson waves, the tallest pedestrian bridge in singapore at 36 metres high is truly beautiful with it's undulating curves and wooden deck. this connects mount faber to telok blangah hill. my knees felt wobbly when i looked straight down onto the traffic below on henderson road. :P

the forest walk reminds me a little of the hsbc tree-top walk in macritchie except this isn't as high nor is this a suspension bridge. then came the alexandra arch which was a slight anti-climax after the spectacular henderson waves.

next up at the bottom of the bridge is the floral walk leading to the hortpark. i must say i've not seen so many flowers here in singapore except the time when millions were spent landscaping orchard and suntec/marina area for the wto delegates.

the hortpark - the gardening hub is a beautiful place showcasing many themed gardens and is southeast asia's first one-stop centre for gardening-related recreational, educational, research and retail activities in a park setting. there were actually picnickers having food and drinks on the grounds of the park while we were there.

at the end of the hort park is the canopy walk that connects to kent ridge park. couldn't see much on the canopy walk. kent ridge park gave better views of the southern islands. since the park is adopted by the army, there is actually an amx-13 and a howitzer on display.

the orginal plan was to proceed to clementi woods and finally to west coast park. but due to the lack of directional signs and proper research, we got lost and stumbled upon lim seng lee duck rice [recommended by eric previously] instead. just in time for our lunch break! yeah!

the skies darkened and started to rain after lunch. we took shelter at the village centre and discovered allan bakes' cheese cakes for desserts. yummy!

the wet weather prevented my plan to continue to west coast park. so although i've been living in the west for so long, i've yet to see how the park looks like. haha...

dinner @ wasabi tei

i've heard of this tiny japanese place on the 5th level of far east plaza from a friend previously but didn't have the chance to try it since there seems to be a perpetual queue outside the eatery. me and a friend braved a 45 minutes wait before i was seated around the 16-seater counter.

wasabi tei is staffed by a dour-faced peter and a lady whom i think is his wife. long queues and less than good service mean only 1 thing in singapore - the food must be cheap and/or good. first of all, the prices are nett meaning there're no add-ons of service charge and gst so that's a good start.

peter served an intriguing warm appetiser of indeterminable origin. i think it's fish and something else. if you happen to go wasabi tei, let me know if you can figure out what it is. :)

the size of the california maki are the biggest ones i've ever seen in all my years of having japanese food. taste-wise was pretty standard. when my sashimi set was served, i understood why there's always a queue waiting outside. i think it's the most value for money sashimi set i ever had in singapore. it costs a grand total of $15!

check out the pictures and drool! :P

not msk

haha... thought this is cute...

a not-so-oblique reference to the poster of the most wanted guy in singapore.

sales job

ever since i've updated my msn and facebook to read that i was looking for a job, i've a few helpful friends who volunteered lobangs for me... including a not-so-close friend whom i got to know from playing the mmorpg, cabalsea.

he enthusiastically called me up to ask if i'm interested in doing sales. so i politely replied that i'm keeping my options open and enquired what kind of sales job is he referring to. and guess what?

he said, 'selling cars.'

i think i exclaimed a very loud 'har?!' :P

not that i've anything against a car sales job, but i told him i wouldn't be a convincing car salesman since i can't even drive. how credible will my sales pitch be? i declined his kind offer.

would you buy a car from a car salesperson who don't drive? or something which the salesperson obviously can't or don't know how to operate?

world class

how do you know if our public transport is world class?

hmm... when the commuters start to feel so 'at home' and comfortable enough to do their own things, blissfully oblivious to their surroundings?



i was utterly disgusted that i whipped out my mobile to film this clip, lest nobody believe what i saw, so that i can rant about it here. she was really enjoying herself, right from the time i boarded the train at city hall station to the time she alighted at clementi station.

duh!