Delifrance

I wanted to have a different breakfast this morning, to have a heavier breakfast, despite me already eating a lot last  night. Instead of walking the usual way to Yakun to get my daily teh c, I turned the other direction and went to Delifrance.

There were just a couple of other customers ahead of me, and it didn’t take me long to get to the front of the queue, but from that point, I waited 15 minutes before I was able to leave. The cashier got me the croissant I wanted in a paper carrier, without asking if I would like it to be warmed up. I didn’t ask for it to be toasted since it’s morning, and I thought it shouldn’t be too bad; plus I really don’t mind pastries that are not warm because that’s how they have it in other parts of the world anyhow. Being asked if we want to have our croissants/muffins warmed up is such an Asian luxury.

The message was passed to another staff for a takeaway cappuccino, but I don’t know if she didn’t hear it, or it just did not register. She was standing just next to the cashier when he told her so it couldn’t be that she didn’t hear. She went on to serve other customers, and I saw her preparing drinks for customers that came after me so I asked the cashier if my coffee was ready. He turned to the barista who then asked if I wanted milk in my coffee… hmm. I thought I ordered a cappuccino?

In the end, I got what I ordered. Honestly, I was a little annoyed at having to wait so long when it was obviously not that busy. I mean, the queue formed because they were so slow in filling the orders, until the manager returned and suddenly the pace picked up a bit. You can’t just rely on one person alone to get the game going, and especially where peak hours are concerned, speed and precision are key to making a food joint work. Perhaps the coffee or tea that I buy from Yakun aren’t of the best quality, neither is Starbucks or whatsoever, but at least they make up for it in terms of speed, so the turnover is high.

Anyhow, Delifrance has been in Singapore for a long time, even if their presence seems to be dwindling, which I won’t be surprised if the service remains at such a level. It’s not bad customer service, just slow, and I appreciate the apology from the barista, so I bothered to say thank you to her when I left. Anyhow, the croissant already got a little soggy by the time I got to the office. But it still tasted alright, and the coffee was decent too.

20120302-091513.jpg

I won’t write them off totally but I’ll reconsider if I am rushing for time. I guess they are for days when I have more time to spare waiting for my order to be ready.

2012
03/02
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
wine and dine
TAGS



Write comment

flashbacks

You know how I am running out of things to ramble about when I post very random stuff. Sometimes I don’t even know why I am writing, because some time back I thought I’d write for an audience. My friend commented how my writing was geared towards an audience; I won’t deny that, because like how I don’t talk to a wall and carry on a monologue unless I was alone at home and ruminating something, similarly when I write I want someone to read it. If I didn’t want eyes prying, I would not even bother writing them, maybe not here in this public virtual space anyway. Those words will never really see the light of day, not visible to the public eye.

Well so let’s take it as me penning down the randomness of my life. Perhaps I lead a haphazard life that is characterised by frequent travelling, not that much but definitely more than the average person who doesn’t need to travel for work. Writing these may help me to keep some memories, that perhaps later on in my life, assuming the blog is not eaten up by some virtual black hole, my decreasing ability to remember things can get a little bit of help in finding out what happened in my earlier years.

So I will just post some random pictures from the trips. It’s the last day of February today, a leap day 29th Feb! Two months on in 2012, and I have been to Makati City in the Philippines, Tokyo and then Milan. That was one holiday, and even though it really was just a month ago, I am already thinking that it took place so long ago and am seriously craving for another holiday. At first I thought I’d lost the inspiration to travel for leisure because travelling on the job is so tiring it takes any fun out of flying and going anywhere overseas. When I think of boarding the flight to go on holiday, I seriously dread it. I used to enjoy flying, alone or not, but now it just reminds me of work and the long tedious hours I have to spend crammed in the cattle class of the airplane cabin. Hmm so maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, but then there’s good and bad.

But no, I still want to go on holiday, just that I have no idea where to go. Initially I thought I’d do a last minute short weekend trip to Hong Kong, to visit a friend who’s working there, and also since two other friends will be there this weekend. But then I recalled that I’d already made plans to meet up with someone this weekend, this is the week where I’m trying to meet up with people I haven’t seen in a while, because this time is probably one of the longest I will be around, 3 weeks! I went for a concert when I came back, attended Bunzi’s wedding and then meet friends! These are the things that I wanted to do this time round, because after that on next Sunday I have to be on my way out of the city again.

Over the weekend when I was in Milan, my friend who was also in Europe on a business trip visited me. It was a really short trip for her since she only came in the afternoon on Saturday and was out again within 24 hours to Brussels. We had a rather great time though, but then the bed in the hotel was too hard for her. Haha. We went shopping that weekend, and spent a lot of time catching up; it’s always like this, when we meet we seem to have endless things to talk about and because the air was so dry and polluted with second-hand smoke, I think my sore throat got worse after that weekend because I was inhaling too much.

This was where we went for brunch on Sunday, at Caffe Milano along the way to the Duomo, most probably Via Dante. The thing about cafes in Italy is that they serve amazing pastries, maybe all European cities are like that, I’m not sure but the croissant I chose was simply divine. That, or I have really low standards. Both of us agreed that the croissants we had were great, soft and fluffy and totally delicious.

I don’t have to reiterate that the coffee was also always of a great quality. Too bad that I was recovering from flu so I tried to not drink so much coffee, but each day I still couldn’t resist at least 2; usually a cappuccino or latte macchiato for breakfast, and a caffe macchiato at lunch. This was the latte macchiato I had at Caffe Milano. I miss the coffee there… and the croissants, but I still don’t think I would have given up what I have here in exchange for a whole life of coffees and croissants.

2012
02/29
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
thoughts
travel
wine and dine
TAGS


Write comment

breakfast at Sheraton

Posts like the one immediately preceding are the ones nobody wants to read, because it exposes a reality that is not all about travelling, shopping and eating. It is a life not unlike what many other people have to go through on a daily basis, and perhaps that is why they would not want to be reminded about it by reading someone else’s account that still hits so close to home.

I know I complain a lot about how people only want to feel like they are the victim and maybe in this case, me too. But then thinking back on what I just wrote, maybe everyone likes to read only the good because they already have their fair share of the bad, so to read about the good things somewhere else, they can take comfort that the world is not all about bad stuff. Even if these good things, whether they are real or not, are happening in another person’s life, perhaps one day it will also happen in theirs.

Anyhow, while our bride and groom took off for a spin near the hotel on Sunday morning, the lot of us with the exception of P who already had breakfast were ravenous for food. We trooped to the coffee house on the ground floor of the hotel, attracting all sorts of weird looks from the breakfast crowd who were decked out casually on an early Sunday morning; we provided the perfect juxtaposition in that scene.

I thought I woke up early enough with sufficient time for a quick breakfast at home, but I spent too much time trying to figure out the convertible dress that Bunzi got us for the wedding.

So this was what I had instead.

20120228-091828.jpg

This waffle reminds me of the one at Charly T’s because it’s the crispy type. I don’t know if I prefer soft and fluffy waffles, or I might be mixing them up with pancakes, but this feels more like biscuits, albeit a tad softer. There was some cream they served together with it, maple syrup and berries compote, but the only thing I took were the berries. Generally I don’t like to have waffles with too much syrup or cream.

Ru’s french toast stuffed with bananas. I had a bite of this and it was pretty good! But maybe the whole thing might have been too much or sweet, since she had just a little bit more than half and left the rest for us to sample.

20120228-091852.jpg

Rara had the scrambled eggs with toast, hash brown and tomato. This I didn’t try though but the scrambled eggs on the toast looked good~

20120228-091906.jpg

K’s ham and cheese omelette, with hash brown and tomato too.

20120228-091919.jpg

We didn’t take any pictures of Chippy’s wanton mee though, but he was the only one who ordered a local breakfast haha. It was very expensive wanton mee, not that the rest of the  food wasn’t pricey. I suppose this is typical of hotels anyhow. We paid about S$20+ each for breakfast, and a serving of waffles and black coffee definitely can be obtained at a much better price and quality elsewhere.

I heard from K that the high tea at the hotel is pretty decent, but I didn’t ask further if it was the usual hotel high tea with basically the whole works, or was it real afternoon tea. My friends and I generally preferred English afternoon tea, and so far I think the best I have tried in Singapore is definitely Axis at Mandarin Oriental. But it would be nice to try others when I have the chance!

2012
02/28
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
thoughts
wine and dine
TAGS
1 comment

resisting the need to grow up

Congratulations Bunzi!

20120227-092908.jpg

Yesterday, one of the 姐妹s got married. She’s the third of our group of five, and we were all so happy for her! Bunzi’s wedding was more chillax for us as compared to most other weddings we have attended, because they just wanted to have a simple wedding with close family and friends. Imagine that we skipped the gatecrash part entirely, so Mark must have been really relieved after witnessing all that happened, and that he had to partake, at Rara and Chippy’s wedding last September. Incidentally, P and Sam also did not have the gatecrash, so haha maybe then K will also get to skip it? Also, we all arrived at the hotel around 830, and it was a little weird for me sitting in the bridal suite, and when the doorbell rang and the door opened to show Mark at the door, we all just raised our hands to wave and said “Hi!” before he went to the room door and knocked on it. It was that cool.

After that, while the couple went for a short spin in the car, the rest of us starved ones decided to grab a ‘quick’ breakfast at the coffee house. What was supposed to be quick lasted perhaps an hour because they took so long to get the food ready. I’ll post up the food pictures when I have access to my home PC. Now, let’s just make do with the ones I’m uploading from the phone.

It was a really nice and cosy wedding lunch, probably because it was only for a limited number of guests, it was really enjoyable. As usual our table proved to be the noisiest as the banter started to get slightly louder and crazier as the wine/beer glasses were emptied and refilled. Despite us feeling tired from our own personal commitments, it was good to meet up again to just shoot shit and not care about the responsibilities and burdens of our realities. Thanks for the good times!

20120227-092927.jpg

Most of my friends ask about the trips that I have been making in recent months, and of course most recently since I just returned from Milan, everyone was asking about the damages I must have incurred. Afterall Milan is one huge fashion capital and home to so many temptations for me. I almost caved in so many times when I walked past the Prada boutiques, and even came close to bringing home another Balenciaga, plus so many other things. It isn’t everyday that my work brings me to places like that, and it’s also not everyday that I am faced with some tempting bargains. It is still expensive nonetheless, but comparatively it is much cheaper than here.

BUT. It sounds a little sad, but yes there are some things in life that I have to give up, maybe on a temporary basis, or maybe on a semi-permanent basis. As most of the friends would have known by now, this year I will probably be making one of the biggest commitment in my life, big in terms of resolve, big in terms of monetary amount, big in terms of everything that I have ever considered in my life, at least before marriage comes along, if it ever does. I am now hunting for an apartment, and setting a very unrealistic budget for the kind of criteria that I have. I have just started the actual looking recently but there is so much information to read and absorb. It is a tiresome affair to have to trawl online and then think about the finances, consider the future possibilities, and so many other things I have never ever thought about. These only come into my sphere of consideration when I speak to more people who have had such experiences.

I am not in the position where I have a partner to share the cost of the apartment, and due to perhaps the same situation, buying from HDB is not an option. I can’t just go to HDB and wait for a successful ballot, there are so many other places I have to look at, so many more people I may have to meet and negotiate with, so much more money to save up towards the goal, before the real thing happens. This is all so time-consuming and exhausting, especially when I already had so much on my plate. Materially, I think I am going to have to give up many things, shelf many planned purchases. Aside from that, I may need to start relooking my schedules to see what are the things I should consider putting aside to get more time for viewing what’s on the market. Sigh. Nobody ever said life was fair, and in this path, I have to walk alone; it is just me. I’m just thankful I am getting a lot of help for the decisions.

Suddenly, it feels like I am finally supposed to grow up and do grown-up things. Perhaps it is a bit late since many of my friends are already married with properties, etc. But doing it on my own without having any prior interest in finances, properties, news, current affairs… is proving to be one of the most difficult things that I have to learn thus far. I am sure I will get through this, and I can put aside all my laments and gripes.

2012
02/27
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
diaries
shopping
thoughts
TAGS


Write comment

Lip care 101

Ok, this is really not going to be some massive post on lipcare since I am definitely not the best person to dish out advice on lipcare, but I just wanted to rave about a product that I had tried and am still using.

I have tried some lip balms before, but am not a big fan of them because I don’t particularly suffer from dry and chapped lips and because most of the ones that I have tried are not that fantastic. Either they don’t work or they do for a while but leave a sticky residue on your lips that somehow seem to make my lips feel even drier after a few hours of usage. Maybe the trick is to reapply every few hours but I am lazy like that. Even when I was in the phase of using lipsticks or glosses (that are also somehow too sticky for me after a while and I have decided to give up wearing glosses on a daily basis), I don’t have the habit of reapplying after eating, or when the gloss or lipstick has disappeared.

In 2010 when I went to Seoul, my friend and I went crazy over the various Korean skincare brands that you see all over the place. The variety was pure madness and don’t even get me started on the prices! It’s easily half or less or what we are paying here. So you can imagine the orders that I got from some of my friends to bring these stuff back for them, but majority of the loot was mine anyhow. So, anyway when we were at Skinfood I thought I’d give this a try, on my friend’s recommendation – the Shea butter Lip Care Bar #1 Raspberry. There were other flavours too but this was the one my friend recommended so I got it.

I really love it, and I think it’s one of the best that I have tried so far, for myself at least. It is not as sticky as the others that I have tried, and there is a slight nice fragrance to it too, with a faint cherry tint on your lips after application and still looking very natural. On the local Skinfood website, it shows that this product costs S$15.50, but I distinctly remembered paying less than S$10 for it, maybe not even half of its SGD price. But then again, lip balms seem to last forever, especially when I am not a heavy user. I bought one in July 2010 and I am now only on my second stick that I got last year. And this is even when I don’t wait till I finish the lip balm to bin it. Somehow, these are one of those things that you don’t wait till it runs out to ditch them; after using it for a few months, it just seems appropriate to get a new one.

The website also shows that it comes in #3 Apricot and #4 Mint, but I believe there were other flavours that I saw when I was in Seoul, like maybe watermelon. But I’ve tried Raspberry and liked it, so I will probably stick to this, until perhaps I find and try something else better. When I was there I also bought other lip balms from the other brands, but this was the one that emerged as the winner!

2012
02/23
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
shopping
TAGS

Write comment
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.