Ion Sky Bar and Bobby Chinn

I attended the launch party for Discovery's TLC channel on Thursday at Ion Sky. TLC is a lifestyle channel which will replace Discovery Travel & Living and it promises to be "bigger, better and bolder"… featuring new faces, new genres and new places. "TLC celebrates everyday life and special occasions by offering both new perspectives and shared experiences from real-life people in remarkable circumstances."

Ion Sky is located on levels 55 and 56 of the Orchard Residences, the highest point in Orchard Road. The view was fantastic indeed! It was kinda surreal, looking out at the night view, sipping the freely flowing bubbly and eating the delicious canapes (I am so coming back to the Salt Grill for dinner). The highlight of the evening was taking a picture with celebrity chef Bobby Chinn! Justin Quek was there too :)

I thought the event was well planned - the turnout was good and guests were kept well entertained with activities such as a lash bar, caricature drawing and tarot card readings. K and I dressed up and had our photos taken for personalized luggage tags. Lovely freebie evening!

iSheep

My current iPhone 3 is old and battered, a relic compared to the shiny iPhone 4s my friends carry around. But it has sentimental value. Unfortunately, I dropped my phone last night and the screen cracked. So much for waiting till August (iPhone 5 rumored to be released then). This warrants me to go buy a new iPhone 4 later. And to soothe my pain in losing the old phone, I decided to also buy myself the new iPad 2. Present to myself for my 三十三大寿 haha. White 32gb wifi + 3G with red leather cover - chios!



So in a matter of a few clicks I will now suddenly be the owner of both the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2. Baa...

Royal Wedding

With the Singapore election fever raging, it's no surprise anyone is hardly talking about the Royal Wedding. Personally, other than an interest in how the wedding dress looks like, I'm not too psyched about the union of Prince William and Kate Middleton either.

But I suppose there are some amongst us who are keen to watch the proceedings. BBC is showing its coverage through Starhub to viewers here in Singapore. If you want more buzz by watching it public, you can check out the following places:

1. The British Club : These guys are celebrating the event in a big way - ten days of happenings up to the event. Tomorrow they do a live screening, followed by dinner. You can choose to splurge on a 4 course dinner in the ballroom (wedding style, no less, $198+ for members, $218+ for non-members, with wine, beer and a special souvenir) OR for poorer peasants, a buffet dinner at the cafe ($68 for members, $78 for non-members). K is going for option 1 on company account, lucky him.


2. Cricket Club: From 5pm to 9pm, feast on drinks and food while watching the live broadcast. $70 for members, $100 for non-members.

To be honest, I'm sure there will be other places screening the event live without charging a fixed fee. I'm really not too fussed about where to go. It's likely I'll just watch the re-run on Saturday. So much easier when there's the option to fast forward!

Moo-oose

Not sure if you heard but Abercrombie & Fitch is coming to Singapore!

The brand's second Asian store (after Japan) will be at Knightsbridge (for the suaku amongst us that's the new building in Orchard opposite to Mandarin Gallery) where Topshop's largest flagship store also sits. Personally I love their cute tees and little towel dresses. Shopaholics had better walk down Orchard Road at their own risk haha. Around the corner at Orchard Building, there's also the H&M's flagship store so bring (or don't) your plastic!

Kallang - Tanjong Rhu Run

Watching reruns of American Idol on the hamster mill are fine on weekdays but weekends, I like to run outdoors. I read this article a while ago and have been meaning to check out the recommended routes.

I'd normally just head to the old Kallang track to jog whilst watching cute caucasian kids attend overpriced soccer classes but today, I decided to try something different. The recommended Kallang - Tanjong Rhu route is literally in my backyard lor.

Weather was excellent and it was a nice run, with scenic views of the river and families having picnics (go figure) and flying kites. I simply walked from home to the Macs near the stadium and started running along Kampong Arang road, Tanjong Rhu Road, turning into Tanjong Rhu Place, going further out to the riverside and making a loop right beside the river. Thankfully they cleaned up the river, no bad smells! 5km was just nice as my muscles were still aching from the workout yesterday.

Happy Easter everyone!

Black Sheep Cafe

I wish I had taken K somewhere else for the celebratory dinner.

Food was just satisfactory and the service was really quite jialat (I'm sorry but the two indian waiters didn't seem to understand English). The only redeeming point was that the limited wine list (only 5 whites and 5 reds) was reasonably priced. Overall for a bill of $115 nett for 2 pax, I normally would not complain.

But wait. This was the highly raved about place I tried to book 3 weekends in a row and failed to get a reservation. Sheesh, we went all the way out for this? Pardon me, but it was a waste of my time.

The baked brie cheese appetizer was nice but it was salty and it took them 20 minutes to get us serving of bread. By that time we had already finished the cheese out of sheer hunger, but we gobbled the bread down anyway. We then asked for 2 more servings of bread to while the next 30 minutes away before our mains came.

Duck confit was sheer disappointment. It was dry and unflavored. The crispy pork cheeks K ordered was a tad better but it was very fatty, sigh, so much for my long gym session in the afternoon. I wanted to try the souffle but it was sold out when I ordered it at 7.30pm (?!!).

Oh well, it wouldn't have been worth the calories anyway.

Election Fever

I love how everyone these days is talking Singapore politics.

Lucky for us, unlike some of our neighbours, we get a (relatively) balanced coverage in our local mainstream media. The people around me, at least, have also become less apolitical and appear to be taking a greater interest in issues.

After JB Jeyaretnam's downfall which likely contributed to the general negative perception of joining the opposition parties, it is heartening to see that in this GE, so many talented Singaporeans are stepping up to the task. I have genuine respect for these people. SDP's Tan Jay See and WP's Chen Show Mao look promising. This 24 year old bright spark from the NSP has also impressed me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Ju7q6rIYI

It will be a 3 way fight for Mountbatten and I am interested to see how the NSP's Jeannette Chong will fare against PAP's Lim Biow Chuan. Even more exciting will be the fight over in Aljunied and Sembawang GRC.

Who will have YOUR vote on May 7th?

Shangri-La Hotel's Big 40

It just gets better and better. First, it was 38% discount off total bill, to celebrate their 38th anniversary. Then, it was 39% discount, to celebrate the 39th anniversary. This year is the 40 大寿 so from now till 31st July 2011, Shangri-La Hotel is offering 40% discount! It's true what they say, that life just gets better as you grow older hurhur.

The discount applies to The Line, Shang Palace, Nadaman, The Rose Veranda and BLU, for a maximum of 8 persons. Reservations can be made up to 40 days in advance and only online at http://dine.slsrewards.com.sg/.

Tips

1. I managed to snag a booking for 5 pax at the Line’s Thursday Seafood buffet last year and it was a fantastic deal. Originally $88++, each of us ended up paying only $63 nett – for copious amounts of fresh lobsters, oysters, prawns, crab (you get the idea) AND best of all, free flow of house wines, beer and juices! The free flow of booze only applies on Thursdays though so plan your reservation ahead of time.

2. My next target is to use the promotion to check out the degustation “Experience Menu” at BLU (original price $148++ per pax). I can’t wait! 6 courses left to the imagination of Chef Kevin Cherkas - previously from Lafite in KL, and stints at 3-Michelin stars Arzak and El Bulli. Woohoo – the gym can wait haha.

Armani's Face Fabric

I only know of Armani as a fashion brand and didn't even know they had, least of all thought of using their make-up range. Until Viv highly recommended and urged me to try their Face Fabric Second Skin Nude Makeup. Since I was going to be at Hong Kong Airport and you have to buy something duty-free when you are at the airport, I figured I should check it out.

Wow I was impressed. This stuff turns from liquid to powder almost instantly on application and though it's light, it covers. Great that it comes with SPF as well. I have dry skin, but the sales girl says it also controls oil. I went 10 hours today and the make-up stayed on.

So the next time you are at HKIA, you know which counter to head for (the Kiehl's sales people were really rude btw).

Basilico

One last food post before I fly off to Beijing/Hong Kong for my cheenah holiday. My hungrygowhere 50%-off-buffet-dinner-for-two voucher was expiring soon so I grabbed my reliable makan buddy NDee along for a mid-week gorge. Sorry, limited pics as I was too busy stuffing my face.

It's normally $65++ for a 3-course dinner with a choice of main course and semi-buffet of (i) cold cuts, marinated seafood, salads and cheeses and (ii) desserts and gelato. 50% off with the coupon was a freaking good deal lah.

Just like during the Sunday champagne brunch last year, the cheese and condiment spread last evening was AMAZING. I was like a kid in a candy shop, spoilt for choice! So I did the logical thing. I took some of EVERYTHING. Wet cheeses - mozzarella, buffalo ricotta, burrata. Soft cheeses - ricotta (original and truffle flavoured - love). Semi/Hard cheeses - asiago, pecorina, fontina. Nuts - almonds, pistachios. Quince paste - 2 flavours. I drizzled truffle honey, lemon honey all over my cheeses - lovely!

By the time my main course of seabass came, I was stuffed! Nonetheless, the fish was good. For desserts, the glutton in me sampled the cannoli, panna cotta, fig tart and the vanilla and expresso gelato. The gelato was the best of the lot.

Burp. I still felt full this morning when I woke up. Definitely one of the better priced and quality (thumbs up) dinner buffets around. Don't miss out on the Sunday brunch too - I don't care what they say but foie gras (station) this good has to be ethical. It's $128++, worth the splurge! I so need to hit the gym later.

Miss Read-a-lot

One of my new year resolutions for 2011 is to "read voraciously". Besides LKY's Hard Truths (which I will be reviewing soon), my list of books to read include many classics such as Wuthering Heights, the Great Gatsby etc. I don't like borrowing books from the library because I don't like the smell of the old books (sorry, a bit spoilt here). Buying the books would typically be expensive, but thankfully, I found this series of books from Penguin Books. I bought 10 (!!!) titles from Kinokuniya and average price was between $6-7 - SWEET. "Good quality contemporary fiction should be made available at an attractive price and sold not just in traditional bookshops, but also in railway stations, tobacconists and chain stores." Hear hear! It's time we all extol the joy of reading as a way of life. Even though the iPad is about the coolest gadget out there now and I'm lusting after one myself, nothing beats the pleasure of burying one's nose in a good book.

Dona Manis Cake Shop

Katong Shopping Centre was THE mall of the east when I was young. Those days, mum used to like shopping there and I used to tag along, taking in the buzz from the billiard saloons, food courts, computer shops, pet store and comics store. I remember there even used to be a bowling alley, how cool is that? Haha.

Then the new malls such as Parkway Parade came up and KSC slowly became defunct. In comparison, it seemed to be stuck in the 80s without any real exciting shops to pull in the crowds. That is, of course, for basement cake shop, Dona Manis. I grew up eating their banana pies. It’s touted as "Singapore's best pie" but to me, it’s just a slice of old fashioned goodness. They also do apple and peach pies ($2 a slice, $20+ for the whole pie) which are good too (but banana is still the way to go).

Almond nuts sprinkled on top of crisp flaky pastry, with coconut and banana baked inside. OMG it's just so good! Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and be transported back to the wonder years.

I Got Published!!!

Tip of the day: Quick way for the cash-strapped to earn 150 bucks. And for the narcissist to get a high from one of life's minor victories from seeing oneself in print. Internet edition here. Who knows, this could be the start to a new career for me. (Athough for what it's worth - $150, I better still keep the day job).