Apple & Carrot Juice

Yes, I'm trying to be healthy.

I juiced up 1 green apple, 1 red apple, and 1 carrot.

It's not bad. I guess I'm just a bit hesitant because there's carrot in it, but I really need the vitamins for my eyes.

Next week it will be apple with cucumber, for my skin.

Walking ATM

Some months back, I asked if I looked like a local because a lot of people has been asking me for directions.

I have a new question now. Do I look like an ATM? Sure, I have a squarish jaw but is this enough to make me look like one?

I'm exaggerating of course, because I've only been in 2 incidents where someone asked me for money.

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Tonight I decided to walk home. After crossing from Newton Circus to the other street, I tried to overtake an oldish guy (about 40+). I think he sensed it, so he gave way then said "sorry... happy new year". Being the polite being that I am, I smiled slightly to show that it's okay (that he's blocking the way) and to mumble "Happy new year". I walked ahead and then he said "Excuse me (I turned around to look at him at this point), do you think you can give me blah blah (didn't really hear the exact words) to eat (with matching hand-grabbing-food gesture). I stared at him for a few seconds, then I asked if he was based in Singapore. Then he said he is, and sometimes there's work (for him to clean something because he was doing the wiping movement), but sometimes there's no work for him.

He said he doesn't have work for the past few days.

Hmmm.. what to do? Do I look him in the eye and say "Sorry" and walk away? (not my style), do I run? (not my style) or do I give him some money?

I pulled out my wallet, lo and behold, I didn't see any small bills! I didn't want to give him 10 bucks. I mean, that would be hypocrisy. I do not have spare cash to give out.

So I mentally computed how much is needed for a decent meal, and finally spotted a small bill in between pesky receipts. I gave him the cash (and coins) which I thought could buy him a rice meal and a drink (as long as he doesn't eat at Newton Circus).

He took the cash and said "Thank you, God bless you".

A few minutes after waling away from the 'scene', I was thinking about what happened, and thinking : what if he's like those guys in the movie, who would ask for help and after someone helps him, would become something else (just trying to see if you're a good enough person to extend a helping hand)... when suddenly I felt the hair at the back of my neck tightening and my arms become all goose bumpy. Darn it! All the way I prayed for whatever it is to get away from me.

Finally I reached my condo and felt normal again...

To summarise, I don't care if he's lying or what. For me it's better if a person just asks, rather than steal. I also don't think that after hearing him say those things, I could just walk away holding my shopping plastics filled with popcorn and Marks & Spencer chips.

Various Photos

Whatta dramatic shot... This is where I've been living since June 2009.

Sosis at Clarke Quay. Selling hotdogs and fries.

Chicken dog (because I can't eat beef) with mustard and chili.

Alegro Spanish Street Food at Clarke Quay. We ordered their churros. Same as my previous blog about churros, Dulcinea's (resto in the Philippines) churros is still better (much much better). It's crispier, tastier and the chocolate dip is richer.

My mom's dishes: Black pepper fish fillet, fried egg tofu and pork mee sua (also spelled as misua in the Philippines)

Sun Moulin pork floss bread. I bought a couple for my dad who loves to eat floss.

My brother's artistic shot...

Cold tofu (with extra sugar syrup) and Yu tiao

These are my hands, squeezing fish noodle onto our wintermelon soup. (Hey Hey Hotpot)

Fish ball, dumpling, fish fillet, pork with mushroom. We also ordered for watercress.

Dipping sauces

Regular eggtart and Greentea eggtart from 313 Somerset

Xiao Long Bao from Din Tai Fung (DTF to shortcut. Hee). I've tried a lot of Xiao Long Baos in Singapore, but I still think DTF's is the best!

Dec 26 - Jan 03, 2010

Queue outside Asian Civilization, waiting to get the goodie bag. It's not so much of what's inside it, but more of the thrill of getting something for free!

It's a Philippine exhibit, so they made two cardboard picture of a guy and girl wearing the Philippine national costume. Barong for guys, and baro't saya for the girls. My brother and I had our pictures taken. First one with him as the guy and me as the girl. Next, we swapped. I was the guy, and he was the girl!

There was a dance number...

The coupons to redeem the pie and ice cream

Cereal prawn from Jumbo. Apparently, we didn't take pictures of the other dishes: Salted fish fried rice, tofu with spinach (yum) and hong kong style fried noodles.

The Facade

During the fireworks.. You're looking at the Asian Civilization side. No fireworks, since it was behind us.

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I couldn't really remember the sequence of events anymore, but basically our family would usually laze around at home till late in the afternoon and go out when the sun has almost set.

We would go malling and eat. and eat.

Here's where we ate:

- Din Tai Fung, 313 Somerset

- Soup Restaurant, United Square

- Kopitiam, Velocity

- Food Republic, Vivo City

- Yigloo Yogurt, Vivo City (Recommended)

- Food court, Raffles City

- Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, Boat Quay

- Food Court, ION Basement 4

- Hey Hey Hotpot, POMO at Selegie (Recommended!)

- Rochor Original Beancurd, Selegie Road

Here's where we roamed:

- 313 Somerset

- Wisma

- ION

- Tang's

- Orchard area

- Raffles City

- Velocity

- United Square

On workdays, I would go home for lunch and be treated like a princess. I would sit down, and the dishes would be there. A bowl of warm rice would be brought out and I would call for 'juice!' (tetra pak juice), which my brother would get from the ref. (I'm not really a spoiled brat, I was just pushing my luck).

Then after lunch, I would go to my bed and rest for awhile.

Each time I went back to the office, I felt heaviness on my shoulders and tightening of the chest. How I dreaded going back to the office on those days, knowing my family was home.

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Anyway, on New Year's eve, we went to Asian Civilization since there was a Filipino exhibit AND new year countdown by 91.3FM. They gave out goodie bags for the first 500 guests, coupons for micro-mini pies, Udders ice cream and Bacardi. Plus, never ending coke in sexy coke bottles.

We ate our NY Eve dinner at Jumbo, Boat Quay and walked back near the Asian Civilization area for the countdown. We were able to get a nice space to wait outside a building. Finally the countdown started. FIVE. FOUR. THREE. TWO. ONE..!!! 'Pop pop pop pop!!!' the fireworks started shooting up the sky. We could hear it, but we couldn't see it, because the fireworks was behind the building we were standing on!!!

Too late for us to run to the other side, so we just tried to watch it from the reflections on the tall buildings. I heard the coverage on tv was great though, with Singapore historical tidbits in between. If we only knew, then we could've gone home with boxes of pizza and chips, and just waited for the new year in the comfort of my rented flat.

My First Workday for 2010

Today was my first workday for 2010.. Hmm, I think I'm already going overboard...
Anyway, following what I wrote last night, I tried to start today with a fresh mind and fresher outlook..

Did it work?

I guess so, since everything seemed normal at work today. One thing I noticed though, I have the tendency to repeat the same mistakes to the same clients.. I mean, generally I am careful when giving TMD rates to client. For some reason, I gave the wrong interest rate to the same client whom I gave the wrong interest rate to before. I really don't understand, and I don't want to try to understand anymore. Anyway, that has been settled.

If I have to pinpoint what went wrong today (except for the above), then these are the things I didn't like:
1. I ate minced meat noodles and ended up having some black bits stuck in between my two front teeth, and somewhere near my upper 'fang'.. It's probably the chili. What makes this bad was I kept smiling after lunch, and was only able to go to the toilet about an hour after. This was when I noticed the black bits!

2. I had 'bad-face day' today. I don't know why, but I'm having skin breakouts on my jaw area. Honestly, I think I'm getting too old to still be having these pimples. Why wouldn't they go away!?

Dec 25, 2009

I know the food wasn't great, but my mom kept praising it still. Awww, that's what moms are for...

Those ant-like images are Orchard strutting people...

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Ah, I miss writing dates in this format, because in Singapore, it's always DDMMYY.

Anyway, here's the series (not so complete and detailed) of events:

Dec 25 - Tan clan (mum, dad, bro) arrived in Singapore. I was supposed to go to the airport to meet them, but at 1130am (they have already landed) I was still at Novena, making my way to Novena church. I ended up waiting for them at the bus stop outside Hotel Royal (near my condo), while munching on a chicken wing and spicy sotong (not nice, too hard) from Old Chang Kee.

For our Christmas lunch, I cooked herbed chicken (recipe borrowed from jie jie) and pork rib soup with raddish and watercress. Then, I bought a small christmas log cake from Polar.

We rested the whole afternoon and went to Orchard that evening to see the lights. Oh, the throng of people! It was a bit scary.

New Year! Oh... Happy

Must be one of those days when I'm down, depressed, sardonic (and everything negative)..

I wanted to start the year right, but a lot of things went wrong today.

By now Im pretty much okay... well, maybe not, since my disposition still hasn't changed. But I'm hoping tomorrow will be better.

The day started pretty messed up. A lot of things to do..

Then, this is what went wrong.. A client complained about my servicing skills, my knowledge, and basically about me.

I've been told that this client complains about everybody, so I shouldn't take this to heart. But I'm friggin mad because it's difficult for me to accept this! Servicing has been my career (if you can call it that). Almost eight years. Corporate Banking, Branch Services (teller and head cashier), Personal banking.

Since this is my blog, I guess I'm allowed to make 'excuses'. I was thrown out of balance when I went down to serve the client. I was told I'd just be accompanying the client to the branch to make some withdrawals, but lo and behold the client started asking about conversion. (my least favorite thing). Then, to make matters worse, she already had this fx rate sheet on hand. First, I am not familiar with that rate format (with its wrong decimal placements). Second, whatever I say, she made it a point to contradict me (like I said, this is indicative, then she said 'no this is the rate now, whatever is here is what I will get [that's the context, but she said it in a bitchier way]). That's my main mistake. I allowed her rattling to rattle me, which messed up my computation skills. I do admit I computed wrongly at first, but the 'first' is what took her to brand me 'incapable'.

So, I asked my relationship manager to help me, and he went down to face the client. As expected, she complained about me, talking behind a raised hand which was holding a piece of paper. She said 'I want somebody who knows what she's talking about blah blah blah'.

To my rm's credit, he did defend me.

(PS for this first case.. Immediately after my first smile and statement, she asked me if I were a Filipino, because she said she could tell by the way I speak. I just hope her hostility got nothing to do with my nationality.)

Second thing: RM from Manila sent me an email to follow up on a transaction (which was supposed to happen 2 weeks ago). It wasn't processed, and my rm couldn't remember it anymore, I also couldn't remember it. Which puts me in a tight position, because the the rm from Manila was chasing ME for it.

Third thing: I went to eat lunch alone, after my colleagues and friends have asked me for the nth time to join them and I had politely told them to go ahead as I was waiting for my rms (to follow up on the transaction that wasn't done). There was hair on my fish soup! I hate hair on/in my food! Okay, this third thing is petty, I know.

Oh well, I better make sure to erase these things from my mind and make believe that January 5, 2010 is the first workday for year 2010.