Day 2 - Eating all of Singapore...locally

Every Singapore holiday involves a few things. Sleeping, shopping and eating. Nothing more, nothing less. I don't do sight seeing, just sleep, shop and eat. Of course theres playing with the kids inbetween all of that. So after sleeping in and recovering from my jetlag, I woke up to a big bowl of red rice wine chicken noodle soup.

It is basically fermented red rice, used to cook the chicken and turned into a soup. We actually make it all the time in Sydney during winter. The alcohol content really warms you up. Which meant I ate this dish with the fan on full blast first thing in the morning.

After bumming around a bit, We went down to the playground for the kids to have a bit of a play before we went to local shopping centre Junction 8 for some shopping.

Bird's eye view of the local playground

Residents at the local pond

We also decided to grab some brunch. Yes I know, breakfast and brunch means a big BIG breakfast, but like I said, my Singapore holidays always involve a lot of eating.

The one good thing about eating in Singapore is that their dishes are quite small, but they're also cheap. So when you're full, you can easily just ditch the rest of the food and not feel guilty about wasting money, since an average dish at the food court would cost you around $4. So what did we end up getting??

Curry Chicken and rice

Egg Prata and curry

Paper Prata

Watching the master in action

And then you have PRATA!

Singapore noodle salad

Vietnamese summer roll

Fried Fish Bee Hoon

Rice, beef, corn, cheese and butter on a hot plate - Very weird but very nice

After eating all of that, the kids went off to watch Transformers the movie. I wasn't that keen on watching it, so I decided to head off on my own for some shopping instead. I did laps around the shopping centre, and decided to get some snacks to tide me over til dinner time.

McSpicy chicken wings! A must have every time I am in Singapore

Iced Lime Juice

Teh Tarik

I didn't actually end up buying much today which is really weird for me. Singapore's greatest sale is on right now, with 50% off a huge range of things and I barely bought anything. My sister thought I was sick...I didn't even buy any VCDs! But then they didn't have any of the golden oldies on sale. I didn't want to buy any of the new TV series as I find most of the plots quite stupid. I'll have to check the shops again on my way back to Sydney.

We went home for a nap and a shower whilst the kids practiced their violin and piano. At 7:30, we headed off to the local Japanese Restaurant for dinner:

Saba bento box

Salmon roe sushi

Tempura Udon Set

The service was very disappointing. They consistently got our orders wrong, giving us food we didn't order then insisting that we did order it. Some didn't come at all. Some dishes came out twice. We had to ask about 5 times to get our tea refilled. Despite all that, the food wasn't bad. I prefer hawker food though. Now to repack my bags because I'm flying off tomorrow night. Singapore to Frankfurt then to Rome. Its gonna be a hell of a long flight. >_<

Day 1 - Arriving in Singapore

It certainly helps your holidays when you don't need to wake up at 4am in the morning to catch a flight, which is generally what I do when I go overseas. I pick the earliest flight to maximise my overseas time.n However, I ended up with an 11:30am flight this time meaning I actually got to sleep in a bit before packing everything to head to the airport. I checked in online a few days before, so when I got to the airport, I had my boarding pass within 10mins of arriving. Then it was just shopping and grabbing a quick snack before getting on the flight.

I love flying with Singapore Airlines. I think they're the best airline in the world with outstanding service. Of course, my judgement can be tainted due to the delicious Singapore Sling cocktails they made me. Free and unlimits of course. Don't worry, I didn't get sloshed on the flight. Since I'm still recovering from my cold, I was dehydrated enough without adding multiple cocktails to the picture.

The flight was quite enjoyable. Because I didn't have to get up at 4am, I didn't pass out the minute I got on the flight. I read my magazine and watched the many movies/Tv shows on offer (Blades of glory, Will and Grace, House, Simpsons, Prison break etc). Surprisingly, all the food that was served was really really good. For the main meal, I had one of the most delicious grilled chicken with mushroom sauce I've ever had. As a snack, it was a curry lamb and potato pie and that was delicious as well! Of course, it may be the Singapore Slings talking. The only complaint I would have about my flight was the horrible turbulence during take off, and the fact that take off was delayed by about 40mins because of a few no shows and we had to unload their bags, but neither was their fault.

When I finally touched down in Singapore, I grabbed all my stuff and rushed towards immigration and finally to the baggage area to collect my bag. The whole process took less than 20mins. (Singapore contracts a company to run the airport, and the rule is all passengers must be able to clear immigrations and get their luggage within 20mins, otherwise the contract will be awarded to another company)

Pushing my trolley through the arrivals area, I saw all the kids with my sister and brother in law waiting for me. There were big hugs and kisses all around (I demand kisses from all the kids), before we all hopped into the car.

20mins later we were at the Chomp Chomp hawker centre. Its basically an outdoors foodcourt with a huge variety of food. You order at each stall, tell them your table number so they know where to deliver your food. Then you pay them when you receive the food. Within 10mins, all the food started piling up:

Chomp Chomp Hawker centre

Chicken Chops with fries, coleslaw and garlic bread

Singapore Hokkien Mee

Fried pork fat in the Hokkien Mee - SO bad for you, but SO GOOD!

My bowl

Combination Macaroni soup

Satay Bee Hoon

Sugar cane juice - $2.50 for 1L!!!

Chicken and Pork Satay Sticks

Sambal Stingray

A squeeze of lime to freshen the whole dish up, and extra chilli sauce incase its not hot enough..

Oyster omelette

Congee

Stewed frog

Mix and eat

Ice Kechang - Its huge!!

You'd think after eating all of that, we'd be full. Well, we kinda were, but it didn't stop us going to the local supermarket to pick up a few boxes of ripe and stinky durian. (Much to the dismay of my sister) We took that home to munch on whilst we digested. After a quick shower and rest, we jumped back into the car again and went down the road to another hawker centre to have some paper prata:

My nephew having some ginger milk tea

Paper thoasi (?)

Paper PRATA!

Prata is basically a very thin sheet of dough that has been stretched and flipped until its see through. Then you either fold it up and pan fry to make a soft fluffy pillow, or throw it straight onto the hot plate for what we call Paper Prata. The paper prata is sooooo light and cripsy, almost like filo pastry, but lightly dusted with sugar. Luckily its so paper thin otherwise my stomach would've exploded from the excess eating!!

We headed home after that for my second shower before I crashed into bed and passed out for the day.

I'm off for round 3!

In 12hours and 50mins, I'll be off for round 3 of Europe. All bets are off......First up is Singapore, then Italy, MYKONOS and then Istanbul before stopping by Singapore on the way back.

I'll try and update whilst I'm overseas, so hopefully it won't take me 3 months to blog about everything this time! Ciao!

Achoo!

It seems everytime I go on holidays, I get sick one way or another before I go. But mind you, the last 2 overseas trip I took was in winter/early spring, so its not THAT surprising I guess. Its just sucky! And bad timing! I could've gotten sick 2 or 3 weeks ago and I would've recovered by the time I go overseas. But NO. I had to get sick literally days before I go overseas!! Lets just hope that its a slight cold as opposed to a full blown flu. Luckily I'm stopping by Singapore for a few days, hopefully the heat will cure me. I know the last few times it has. Fingers crossed.

Need or want?

I can't believe I did this. Less than a week before I go on holidays, I've gone and treated myself to a new mobile phone. Well, its not a "treat" really. Its more of a necessity. The battery for my old phone is a complete piece of poo! I knew the battery life was bad when I purchased the phone, but it was pretty and it was supposedly scratch resistant (I managed to scratch the phone....don't ask). But it came with a spare battery and I didn't think it was a problem. However, it got to the stage that I was charging my phone every single day, and I would even have to charge it at work if I was going out that night. If I was overseas and I needed emergency help of some sort, and my battery dies on me, that would be BAD. So you see, it was out of necessity. For my own safety you know....or so I tell myself.

So what did I get? A brand spanking new Nokia 6110 Navigator with built in GPS and 3G capabilities (2 cameras so I can video conference!). It was a toss up between the E65, N95 and the 6110 Nav. The E65 had no GPS, but was soooooo sleek and pretty. The N95 had the GPS and a frickin awesome built in 5mp camera (Which is perfect for trigger happy me). However, the phone was the chunkiest out of the 3, AND it has a poor battery life meaning a recharge every night. HA! I'm not falling for that again. the 6110 Nav has GPS, 2mp camera (Not the best, but good enough), is inbetween the E65 and N95 in terms of chunkiness and 11 days standby time! So thats my new baby! Now I can carry that with me into the Scandanavian bar! Woohoo!

5 days to go! I need to pack!!!

(Oh, Moishii also messaged me that Its going to be 52 degrees in Turkey. 52!!!)

I welcomed the unwelcomed call

So I got a private number call on my mobile last night in the middle of my cooking crisis. (Crisis as in the food wasn't cooking fast enough and I was starving). I answered, ready to rip off someone's head when I found out that it was Moishii callilng from Turkey! OMG! We had a quick chat when I suddenly dawned on me. 10 days until I go on holidays!!! OMG!!!!!! 10 days!! And it didn't help that Moishii kept cursing me saying that I won't make it overseas! Then we had another crisis to deal with, we're meeting up in Rome, but we don't know where to meet up! Looks like I'll have to drag out all my documents to find out who arrives when and what the flight numbers are. Otherwise I might be waiting at the wrong arrival gate! OMG!! 10 days!!!!