End of the road

Unfortunately, it's now time to go home after a month of hedonistic fun and shopping. Changi Terminal 3 is the newest addition to the airport. However, the shops don't seem to be as interesting as in Terminal 2, or at least as I vaguely remember it.

However, we did spot something new. Prima, the maker of the famous Singapore laksa-in-a-pack, appears to have decided that it was more lucrative to release an all in one package complete with noodles. Sadly, no chicken or prawns are included. We'll have to wait till we get home to try out the 4 packets that we decided to acquire. Home, James!

My parents went to Singapore and all I got .......(la deuxième partie)

Well, it seems that the last post was a bit premature. Dragged no 1 child down to Jurong Point Shopping Centre in the afternoon for a look around. This place is pretty huge for a suburban mall. It had all the usual places Singaporeans love to shop in, with the anchor tenant being NTUC Fair Price, a bit of a cross between Woolies, Aldi and Big W. Of more interest was the huge number of eateries scattered throughout the place, it even had a little food lane in the style of Osaka eateries, that is to say, gaudy.

As it wasn't long before dinner we had to satisfy ourselves with a snack, at a place which sold, among other things, clam chowder. And pretty decent chowder it was too, served in a square bread bowl. We loved the eating instructions, which went something like (and I swear we didn't make this up) 'gracefully cut the bread into little pieces and soak them in the soup......'.

We also passed by a place going by the oxymoronic name of Awfully Chocolate, which sold something called cold poached chocolate. The sales girl (chocolatier?) didn't make a particularly convincing case as to why we should part with S$6.80 for essentially a slice of mousse (albeit very nice mousse) topped with cream. Nonetheless as chocolate and no 1 child enjoy a very special relationship, we had to get one. Yumm.

And yes, I did find that elusive t shirt (on special at 30% off) right towards the end of our tour of the mall. I'm not Singaporean but I love a good bargain as much as the next person.

My parents went to Singapore and all I got was this lousy.......

As any husband will tell you, this could also be the lament of the poor man of the house. Whilst the rest of the clan got their shoes, clothes, stuffed toys blah blah blah, all I got was a lousy t shirt. Actually I couldn't even find a t shirt that I liked and was prepared to pay for. However, I did manage to get a new Casio (sadly that nice Hublot Big Bang that I saw at the casino shops shall forever remain out of reach). Well it was cheap inexpensive and I did like it, plus of course I don't have to worry about it being damaged or stolen. Indeed the price of watches here are quite a bit cheaper than at home, especially Casios. Merry Christmas, old son.

This particular model (GA-100B) is part of Casio's XL range (no prizes for guessing what XL means), originally released a couple or so years ago. It's got the usual basic Casio functions plus a nifty red onboard led night light rather than the usual EL backlight. The (still) strong trend towards oversized watches is great for us old guys with fading close in vision. The only negative for me is the weird colour choice of red for the hour hand, which makes it less visible. But hey, I bought it for the bright red strap so I could be more visible. If one can't have red hair one can certainly have a red watch!

Drooltastic snack of the day

A favourite (albeit pricey) Chinese New Year snack serving is bak kwa (barbecued pork jerky). In Singapore Bee Cheng Hiang is the main producer of these yummy delicacies although at S$30 a kilo I didn't see a lot of interest whenever we passed one of their outlets. Nonetheless I had to have some of this greasy goodness so I bought a few slices the other day. There are a few varieties to choose from but the spicy version is good! It tastes nothing like the dried beef jerky one can get from a supermaket, being moist and succulent. Also, being a 'heaty' food, it should not be consumed in large quantities in one go. Strangely, the rest of the clan did not share my passion, so my favourite 3 words applied here as well: 'more for me!'. 

Cultural stop

No not putting the brakes on culture, but us popping into the Singapore Art Museum. It's housed in the former Saint Joseph's Institution boys high school, which was relocated to the suburbs years ago along with all the other surrounding schools. I guess this probably had something to do with skyrocketing property prices together with increasing student intakes with no means of expansion, and the government's desire to have that area (being close to the CBD) serve a fine arts type role. Indeed, the area has other museums, galleries and we even spotted a ballet school.

The entry fee was S$10 which is halved for students (thankfully no 2 child had brought her school ID with her) and free for local students. On show today were pieces from the finalists in the Asia Pacific Breweries Signature Art Prize 2011 (what a mouthful), many of which were pretty good. There were also a few exhibitions from other local artists and (I'm told) well known Chinese painter Wu Guan Zhong. I thought many of his pieces had an elegant simplicity about them, with the sparse but deliberate splashes of colour providing the appropriate emphasis on his subject matter. (There, my transformation to art critic extraordinaire is complete)

The Singapore Flyer

We caught up with another dear old friend yesterday. She had some spare tickets for the Singapore Flyer (biggest obervation wheel in the world, topping the London Eye by a whopping 30m) and it would have been a shame for them to go to waste so.......

But before that, lunch beckoned. We had ours at a Chinese place located at the Flyer's base, which also housed a food court modeled along the old kopi tiam style (obviously designed more for tourists since that type of eating house has all but disappeared locally). It's interesting to see that many Singapore restaurants with designs of grandeur have their wine stock on display at the entrance. Nonetheless, the place had quite decent food. 

One particular dish which I had not seen (or tasted) for many years was mini cuttlefish fried till crunchy in sweet thick black sauce. This dish was once commonly available at seafront food hawkers at Bedok in days of old. Love it. They also do a pretty good fish head curry. Strange dish of the day was coffee pork ribs - so we had to try it. It had that slight bitter after taste reminiscent of coffee but I'm not entirely convinced of the combination. 

After lunch the queue for the flyer was still long, but not too bad. With a local population of 5+ million, queueing is a way of life, especially on public holidays. 

The entrance was set up like an aircraft departure area, with real X-ray scanners as well. You can't be too careful with such a visible landmark. After a bit of an internal queue (with bits of history and stats of the flyer for passengers to help stop boredom from setting in), we got onto one of the capsules. Oh, and along the way there is the obligatory green screen photo op where your photo is taken and superimposed on various flyer backgrounds for later purchase if you want to. In our case, the genius behind the camera hadn't noticed that our friend was wearing green slacks and no 2 child had green hair. As a result our guffaws could be heard clear across the Johor Strait as we saw the results at the end of the ride, with one legless friend and one headless child. 

Air conditioned, each car (capsule?) can hold up to 28 people (although thankfully, there were only about 20 in ours) and is very stable. The views over the CBD were fantastic, and to a lesser extent the east coast. Looking down, there is a track which is the part of the Singapore leg of the F1 race series. The ride takes about 45 minutes, and for the adventurous, some cars are outfitted with tables and white linen for that in air dining experience that you can't get on a plane. 

This must be the world's largest snow globe, apparently normally open for entry (you can just about see the huge zippered opening) but not today due to 'inclement weather'. It was a nice day (ie not raining).

An excellent opportunity for some interesting aerial shots, the lotus flower shaped building below is the ArtScience Museum.

But sadly, all good experiences must end, or at least be replaced by new ones. We bade our friend goodbye, and hope to have her visit us sometime.

No booking needed: Singapore (7)

We had a modest lunch a few days ago at the nearby market hawker centre. I had a local dish enjoyed by Muslim Indians, also called mamak rojak. But it's not the same as the Chinese version, with the sauce being sweet and (I think) tomato based, and has fried items like dou fu, fritters etc instead of vegetables. This particular stall wasn't that great (as no 1 child liked to remind me throughout the meal) but a thirsty man doesn't complain that his water isn't Perrier (or more likely Evian if you're a local).