Singapore, food, photos @ 10:53 pm
Apart from the friends I live with, I rarely see other people unless there’s a special occasion like birthdays, Christmas, New Year etc. I’m busy during the week days and only free during the weekends. Soon, I might be busy during the weekends as well. 
During the weekend, I went out to meet an old friend of mine. We had dinner at Azabu Sabo (Marina Square).
I love Japanese food. 
I chose the tempura bento. Yummy-looking right? It was good. I thought that it was just a little bit too oily. I had already finished eating the pickles when I took this photo. 
Dessert was good too. Apparently this restaurant is quite famous for its desserts. I saw something called ‘hot balls’ as well as other unusual items on the menu but after 10 minutes of looking at the menu,I finally decided to order something more normal. We asked the waitress if it was possible for us to choose the ice cream flavors that we wanted but she said no. This one was chocolate, green tea and black sesame(it cannot be seen in this photo. It was under the chocolate ice cream). I love green tea ice cream! :love: Black sesame ice cream probably sounds weird to many people but the taste was alright. I’ve eaten black sesame desserts in Shanghai before and I’m used to the black sesame taste.
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Me, Singapore, food, photos @ 11:57 pm
I remember when I was a kid, I talked my mum into buying a Christmas tree even if we didn’t celebrate Christmas at home. Kids love Christmas. Decorating the tree was fun and getting Christmas presents were even better. When I grew older, I no longer got excited about Christmas. We still don’t celebrate Christmas at home and I’m fine with that. My parents are Buddhists but for some reason or other, they got my siblings and I baptized at church when we were kids. In primary school, there was the First Communion and Confirmation. I went to church a few times when I was younger and went for confession also. When we were young, we didn’t really have a choice. We just listened to the parents and the teachers. Luckily, I’m the only one in the family who doesn’t get called by my Christian name which starts with a K. No one calls me like that. I send New Year cards sometimes and I write Merry Christmas and Happy New Year inside. That’s only because my friends celebrate Christmas. When someone wishes me ‘Merry Christmas’, I smile and say ‘Thank you. Merry Christmas to you too’. I don’t want to say that I don’t celebrate Christmas because I don’t want to explain the reasons why. People all over the world celebrate Christmas nowadays and many don’t even realize that Christmas is supposed to be a Christian celebration. Many non-Christians say that they celebrate Christmas but the truth is, it’s only the gift-giving part which appeals to them. They don’t do anything except give each other gifts. It can’t be helped. Christmas, just like many other celebrations is very commercialized and it’s not surprising that many people all over the world ‘celebrate’ Christmas. Even in Shanghai, I saw Christmas decorations, Christmas trees, people wearing Christmas hats and they were even playing Christmas songs in the supermarkets. During my 4 years in Shanghai, my non-Chinese friends invited me to a few Christmas parties and our faculty even organized Christmas parties for the International students. It was fun to see how people from other countries celebrate Christmas. 
Yesterday was my first Christmas eve in Singapore. Lisa, Audrey and Nicolas usually celebrate Christmas and they planned a Christmas dinner with the other Mauritians at their place. I’m staying at Lisa’s place so I ‘participated’ in the celebrations as well but I’m not sure if there will be a second time. Not doing anything on Christmas eve is fine with me. Still, it was an interesting experience. Lisa, Audrey and Nicolas worked really hard in the kitchen as well as getting the tables ready in the living room. Last year they ordered food but this year, they did everything by themselves because it was too late to order anything,esp the turkey. I didn’t go to sleep the night before and yesterday, I went to sleep at around 2p.m after helping them in the kitchen for a short while. I woke up 3 1/2 hrs later and it was time to shower and get dressed. I was so sleepy. :faint:
Some photos:
(note: weird color in some photos because of the dim light)
One of our first photos of the night. Lisa, Audrey and me. I had to force myself to smile. I was too sleepy.
The 3 of us decorated the Christmas tree. It’s a bit small but I like it.
A photo taken with the tree.
Group pic minus Hanssen who hadn’t arrived yet because he was working. Nicolas was the one behind the camera. The turkey didn’t look like what I had imagined it to be but it was delicious. 
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Singapore, photos @ 7:19 am
We went to Central a few days ago and then went to Hooters for dinner afterwards but I was too busy and only managed to find time to resize the photos today.
We took bus 176 to Butik batok and then took the MRT from there. I think we changed to another MRT line somewhere on the way. I forgot already. Taking the public transport in Singapore is not complicated but it is time-consuming. In Shanghai, I was taking the cab very often because it’s not expensive. It is more expensive in Singapore and apparently there’s an extra charge if we take a cab during the peak hours. I still have lots to learn. The main reason why I’m not taking cabs here is because I still don’t know Singapore well. Taking the public transport is a good way for me to get to know my way around here.
~ At Central ~
When Lisa told me that we were going to Central, I didn’t realize that it was the same place I went to with Desmond a few months ago when I came to Singapore. I only recognized the place once I stepped inside.
We were meeting the others at Central and we arrived early. We sat down to watch the ice skating show.
Some photos:
I didn’t really like their costumes but I enjoyed their performance. I found the area on which they performed very small. :no:
Huge black thing on the head. 
All the photos were taken using Lisa’s camera. I didn’t bring mine.
Lisa didn’t take many photos but I found nice photos of the show there.
After the show, we were bored. The others still hadn’t arrived. We asked Colas to take some pics.
Lisa and her new dress.
Shoes. Shouldn’t be difficult to guess which ones are mine.. 
me,Lisa,Audrey.
Yikes. 07:19 now. I’ve been sleeping at similar hours during the past few days. Time to go to sleep now. I’ll resize the Hooters photos another day.
Me, Singapore, photos @ 7:00 pm
I reached Singapore last Tuesday. My flight was at 10:05 a.m and I left home at around 07:40 . I thought that I would reach the airport at around 08:30 but due to the heavy traffic jam caused by 2 accidents, I only reached at 09:20 and I was probably one of the last persons to check in. The girl at the Garuda airlines counter called out to someone behind her to wait, that there was still another piece of luggage coming. Well actually I had two. I was around 10kgs well over the weight limit but she didn’t make me pay and just gave me my boarding pass. Gate D59. Yikes. She told me to hurry up because the passengers were going to start boarding soon. I didn’t get to say a ‘proper’ goodbye to Desmond. Just a kiss from him and a ‘bye’, then I hurried inside.
Bye Desmond, bye my little Sushi, goodbye to everyone else in Shanghai. :weeping: I’ll be back soon. (I hope) I wasn’t able to say goodbye to many people because I was still packing till the last minute and I didn’t even sleep on the eve of my flight. Packing 4 years of personal belongings is harder than it sounds.
I really wanted to stay one more day because the 3rd December was our 4-year anniversary but unfortunately, my PRC visa was expiring on the 2nd and it wasn’t possible to get another extension.
I enjoyed the flight on Garuda airlines. I liked the food. I had the chicken and it was a bit spicy. Yummy. :love: I’m one of those persons who love airplane food. I noticed that some of the Chinese passengers didn’t touch the chicken and only ate the rice and the bread. I suppose that it was too spicy for them. The people sitting near me were Chinese workers who were going to work in Singapore. They had a lot of difficulty filling in the Singapore Arrival card because it was all in English. They asked the Chinese guy (who was going to Singapore to study) sitting next to me for help while I watched on silently. I finally spoke up because he made a mistake. In the country section, they were supposed to write ‘CHINA’ but they wrote the province that they were from instead. I think that they should have made a Chinese version of the arrival card for flights from China. How do they expect all the Chinese passengers to understand English? I remember that arrival cards for flights to China were in both Chinese and English. They should do that for flights from China to Singapore.
I was feeling a bit sorry for the Chinese workers. They were all dressed nicely. Some of them were even wearing suits. I heard them talking excitedly about their new life and new job in Singapore, how they were looking forward to these. One of the workers even showed me his employment letter and I saw that he was going to work for XXXX Builders Ltd. It seems that the rest of the Chinese workers on that flight were going to work there too. They were supposed to write a Singapore address in their Singapore arrival card but they had no idea where they were going to live so I told them to write the company’s address(which was on their letters) there and to show their letters at the immigration checkpoint. In my heart, I sincerely wished them all the best for their new life in Singapore. I hope that the agency/person who recruited them didn’t lie to them and gave them false hopes.
==============
It was around 15:30 when the plane finally reached Singapore. The duty free shops at arrival were a bit disappointing but I took my time walking around before going to the immigration checkpoint at Terminal 1. Afterwards, I spent one hour looking at perfumes & liquor and then I finally went to get my luggage. Someone had already removed my suitcase and sports bag from the luggage belt. One thing I love about Changi airport: the restrooms. When I think of toilets in general, the words which come to my mind are ‘dirty & smelly’ but I was impressed by the cleanliness of the restrooms at Changi airport.
I’m staying at Lisa’s place at Hillview just like last time. She rarely uses her laptop (gasp!! :faint: ) and is letting me use hers.
Me & Lisa , a photo taken with Lisa’s camera on the coach to KL a few days ago.
I forgot my canon charger in Shanghai and I will probably receive it by the end of this week. (thanks Des!) Desmond told me that he paid RMB40 to send the charger. Buying a new charger in Singapore would probably cost more and I didn’t even know where to buy the charger anyway.
There’s one thought which keeps going through my mind: “Did I make the wrong choice?” I wonder..
Singapore, food, photos @ 3:47 am
It’s almost 4 a.m right now but I’m still up because I’m backing up some files and going through all the photos that I had taken in Singapore. I have to send some of them to Lisa later.
I’m a bit hungry right now but I’ll just drink water and wait a couple more hours until I have my breakfast. 
Speaking of breakfast, having breakfast in Singapore was really.. hmm.. different. Nothing bad but it took me a few days to get used to it.
Desmond and his family took me out to have breakfast many times during my stay in Singapore.
The first time I had breakfast with them, I thought Desmond was kidding when he phoned me early in the morning and told me to get ready because we were going out to have breakfast. I’m used to having breakfast at home and don’t usually go out to have breakfast. At most, maybe I’ll go out to buy breakfast and go back home to eat.
For someone like me who usually doesn’t eat much in the morning, it took me a few days to get used to breakfast in Singapore. They eat so much! :faint: What I also wasn’t used to was the fact that they can eat sweet things like kaya with bread but then also eat otah or other salty things. If I eat bread and jam, I usually don’t eat bread and cheese or roti,etc. I don’t like to ‘mix’.
Here’s what we had for breakfast when I went out with Desmond and his family the day before I left Singapore:
Toast and kaya (I love kaya! ) , otah, roti prata, eggs with soya sauce, coffee. There was another plate of roti prata to my left but it’s not in this photo. By the time I took this photo, we had already finished eating some of the food. I was already feeling quite full but I continued eating a bit more because there was still so much left.
(Someone ate an egg on this plate and was having a second one. This explains why there is already some soya sauce on this plate.)
According to Desmond, this egg was boiled a bit too long. Here’s how they usually eat it: pour some soya sauce on the semi-boiled egg, mix the whole thing and then eat it. Erm.. Or rather, drink it. It might look a bit disgusting to some people but it actually tastes good. I think I took a photo of the egg when it’s mixed with soya sauce. It should be on Desmond’s laptop. I will upload it another time.
Roti prata with .. erm .. I don’t know what. I forgot what it was. I’ll ask Desmond later.
I will write more about my trip to Singapore. I’ve got to resize the photos first
Singapore, food, photos @ 4:41 pm
During my first week in Shanghai back in 2004, I was buying ice cream everyday,sometimes 2 or 3 times a day too. They don’t sell red bean ice cream, ‘zong zi’ ice cream, green tea ice cream, green peas ice cream,etc in Mauritius. Of course, the more ‘normal’ ice creams are also sold in China but I love trying all the different kinds of ice cream. Eventually (and for obvious reasons), I cut down my ice cream intake to one or two per week but I still love ice cream. :love:
Now that I’m in Singapore, I have to try the local ice cream! hehe. When I was at Orchard road with Desmond,Ah ting, their aunt and little Jack, I saw many ice cream sellers. It’s a bit difficult not to notice them.
People queuing up to buy ice cream.
The different flavors available. People can choose waffle biscuit or even sliced bread. I’m not sure if the cones are also available. Everyone seems to be buying the waffle biscuits so I opted for that one too. I wonder what it’s like to have ice cream between 2 slices of bread.
The seller is preparing my ice cream. He took a long bar of ice cream, cut a piece from it and then put that piece between two waffle biscuits.
I chose yam ice cream. :cloud9: I love it. It looks simple but tastes so good. I’d like to try the sweet corn or durian ice cream next.
Singapore, photos @ 5:41 pm
The next attraction we visited was Images of Singapore where we learned a lot about the different cultures in Singapore. It’s a pity that we don’t have something like this in Mauritius.
‘Welcome’ in four languages.
Adrian,Lisa’s little cousin sure had lots of fun posing for the camera.
me and Lisa on a carriage.
Don’t feel like writing about the rest of the photos right now. It’s nearly dinner time. I really love the food here but Desmond keeps telling me to control myself and not eat too much. *Snif snif* :weeping:
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