Cheeburger? Wonder how that tastes?
(Picture taken in Kuwait City)
I Wonder if Chee is Good?
Real Life FarmTown Coconut Tree
Look familiar to anyone? This really does remind me of the coconut trees in Facebook’s FarmTown application. Ya, I’m addicted to it! Kinda silly, but it’s a fun way to kill time.
Sorry, to those of you who saw this when I posted it to Facebook before. ^_^
A View of Orchard Road From the Lucky Plaza Mall
Orchard Road is the main shopping strip in Singapore and is well maintained by the government to present the best image possible to foreigners who are in the country. You can find everything from Louis Vuitton to McDonald’s there.
I read an article recently that was talking about counterfeiting in Singapore, and wrote a post about it because I saw it for myself, and it was saying that it is very prevalent, but they keep Orchard clear of it. Well, as much as possible anyway. Not that I can blame them for it. Singapore wants to present the best image possible to tourists, and they want that image to be clean and law abiding. I guess getting Singapore 100% free of bootleg items is impossible given the nature of the surrounding countries.
Regardless, Orchard Road is filled with malls that are very clean and posh looking, including the new Ion mall that was recently opened. Lucky Plaza, however, is the ugly kid on the block. Lucky Plaza is a sort of ‘bargain bin’ mall, with a lot of little shops that have, honestly, cheap looking products. The whole interior of the mall has sort of a cheap feel to it actually. It’s also acquired a reputation of being the Filipino mall in Singapore, since a majority of the shops there are run by Filipinos and there are mostly Filipino eateries on the top floor. There are also quite a few money remitting establishments there. Money remitters are where people go in Singapore to send money back to their home countries. It goes without saying that most of the patrons in Lucky Plaza are Filipinos.
Those things together make Lucky Plaza a somewhat undesirable place to visit for most locals. Adding to that negative reputation is the rumor that a portion of the Filipinas that hang around in the mall are prostitutes. It could be true. I don’t know. That sort of behavior isn’t just limited to Lucky Plaza though. There’s a rumor that if you go towards the end of Orchard Rd, where it meets Tanglin Rd, there are prostitutes there as well. So, it looks like the hookers are slowly making their way out of Geylang!
Still, Lucky Plaza’s not that bad a place. The Filipino food is cheap and good. You can get products there that aren’t available in many other places in Singapore. Also, there are imported products from the Philippines, which is probably what initially drew such a predominately Filipino crowd.
And, there’s a nice view from the balcony, as seen in the photos above!
Half-Height Safety Doors at Singapore MRT Stations
I read an article on ChannelNewsAsia’s website saying that by 2012 Singapore will finish installing half-height screens (or safety doors) along the lengths of above-ground MRT stations.
They’re doing this in an attempt to make the stations more safe for passengers. There have been 92 instances since 2006 where people have fallen onto the tracks, accidentally or otherwise, and it causes a serious disruption to MRT traffic that can last up to an hour while police do investigations. That may not seem like much, but there is only one line going in most directions, so it can cripple public transportation. Not to mention it’s just not that cool for people to be killing themselves.
Here’s a map of Singapore’s MRT lines, just so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about:
So anyway, this all seems like a good thing right? It’s gonna cost some cash (S$126 million for all 36 stations) but in the long-run it will save lives and prevent costly disruptions.
When polled, most Singaporeans were in favor of the idea, quoting safety reasons. Some even wanted to see the entirety of the outdoor stations enclosed (and I’m guessing air conditioned, though it wasn’t stated).
However, you can’t please everyone! Here’s a quote from the original article:
Most commuters 938LIVE spoke to welcomed the addition, as they believe the doors can prevent accidental intrusion onto the tracks.
“When it’s too crowded, and people start to push each other around, then it can stop that from happening,” said a passenger.
However, some raised concerns about ventilation. “I think it’s very unsightly. It just blocks the flow of… the air. (The air) doesn’t flow from left to right. Mainly it’s unsightly,” said another commuter.
They were nice enough to make it sound more like the woman was concerned about ventilation, but as you can see, she mentions first, and then again at the end, that it is “unsightly”. She even says that it is “mainly” unsightly.
I mean, come on. What’s more important? Preventing the loss of human life or aesthetics? It’s a train station, not an art gallery, and not the Prada or Louis Vuitton store.
Personally, I think these screens are a fantastic addition to the above-ground train stations and will help to prevent accidental loss of life and suicide attempts.
According to the article they were installed at the Pasir Ris MRT station, but I haven’t been through the MRT station since Tuesday, so I’ll have to get over there and check it out!
Buddy Hoagies at Downtown East
The first time my wife and I saw this place we kinda scoffed at the name. It sounds pretty lame right? So, we didn’t bother trying it out. We didn’t even bother looking it up online.
I was really in the mood to try something new, though, so when a Friday night rolled around and we couldn’t decide where we wanted to go, I said, “Well, how about that Buddy Hoagies at Downtown East?” My wife couldn’t think of anything she’d rather have, so that’s where we went.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The first thing I noticed was that the place has a nice ambiance.
The place is really relaxed. The lighting isn’t too bright either, though it seems that way in the second photo. That’s just a bad shot! I think it helped that there weren’t too many other people in the place at the time. It gave the whole dining experience a relaxed feel and was conducive to conversation.
The place also has a fun look to it, with nifty little pictures up on the wall, a cafeteria style bar, and (though you can’t see them in the photo) a section of seating with nice, cushioned seats that help you relax.
The service was pretty good. I got the impression that our waitress wasn’t having a good day, but she still forced a smile and was passably polite, if a little brusque.
The food itself was another surprise. For what we paid I wasn’t expecting a miracle, but you definitely get a lot of value for your money. I was so happy with our food in fact that at the time I snapped these photos on my phone and put them out on Twitter. Some of my Twitter followers were quite jealous of my meal that night!
The Sirloin Steak
The veggies were crunchy, the meat was well cooked, and I was actually kinda shocked to see baked potatoes. I think this was the first time I’d had one in over a year. Too bad there was no sour cream, chives, and bacon bits to go on it, but hey, can’t have everything right?
Overall, Buddy Hoagies was a great dining experience. The food was fantastic and the value for the food was great too. We’ll definitely be going back.
Interested In A Golden Shower?
Hey, I didn’t make this up. That’s a street in my wife’s old neighborhood in the Philippines.
The Search For Great Pizza in Singapore Continues
One of the things I’ve been unable to do since moving to Singapore is locate a great pizza. I mean a great pizza that tastes like a slice of pizza I could get in New York City. I know that’s not likely to happen, but man, I was hoping for something close at least.
There are Pizza Hut franchises here, but they’re just not the same. They use a different type of tomato sauce and they use a lot of weird ingredients that you’d never find on the menu in the US. I never liked Pizza hut anyway, since it’s so greasy. The last time I ate at a pizza hut was in Alabama and I literally used a napkin to sponge the grease off of it before I ate it.
In the US, my preferred pizza, as far as franchises go, is Papa John’s. That stuff is just plain good!
Here in Singapore, I’d take just about anything.
There’s a Sbarro’s in the Philippines that I ate at. It was great! There’s another restaurant there that looks good too, an Italian place, but I just can’t remember the name of it. I haven’t been able to try it yet, but hopefully the next time I’m there I will. I have a craving for Mexican food too, so hopefully we’ll get to stop by Mexicali. Not sure when that’ll be though, since my next trips are lined up for Phuket and maybe Bali or Sabah.
But… my quest for great pizza in Singapore is still incomplete. I thought I might have found a winner at a restaurant called ‘New York, New York’, but it wasn’t quite up to par either.
To start off with, the pizza was really greasy. You can see that in the photo. The second problem is that the sauce was put on so lightly they might as well have just excluded it from the recipe, and what sauce was on there wasn’t very tasty. I guess they missed the whole part about pizza sauce having spices and being more than just tomato sauce.
The worst part is that we had to pay 13 SGD for this disaster and it was only 9 inches in diameter.
Oh, and speaking of ‘diameter’, our waiter didn’t understand what the word meant. He got so confused that he wound up telling me that they only sold pizza by the slice and that the slice was 9 inches long, and cost 13 SGD. I told him to go get a manager and the manager was able to clarify for me. Plus, I just wanted to point out to him that his waiter should at least know what’s on the menu.
So, ya, ‘New York, New York’ was another fail.
The closest I’ve seen so far is that ‘Canada Pizza’, I think it’s called, but it wasn’t good enough to make me want more.
On a positive note, I heard from another person’s blog (An American Girl in Singapore) that there’s a Dunkin Donuts in the new Ion Mall down on Orchard. That’s GREAT news. The donuts at most shops here in Singapore are just… too much I guess you could say. They’re overdone with icing and overdone with fillings and way too sweet to the point they’re not even good anymore. Some of them are so bad you might as well just be eating a big ball of sugar. The mom and pop bakeries here, on the other hand, don’t put enough and you wind up feeling like you’re just eating plain dough. Dunkin Donuts is a franchise though. They should get it right, because it’s a standard recipe. I can’t wait to get down there and check to see if they have Bavarian Cream!
(A photo of the last Dunkin Donuts we had in Kuala Lumpur’s airport a few months ago)
If you enjoy reading articles about pizza, you might enjoy THIS great article about a Singaporean’s search for good pizza in Italy. It’s quite enjoyable and funny!
Singapore’s National Day
So, Sunday is August 9th, Singapore’s National Day. The country will be celebrating it’s 44th birthday, it’s 44th year of nationhood, supposedly. I say supposedly because I remember reading recently that the Prime Minister said that Singapore is not yet a nation. I know he was speaking figuratively, but it still can’t be a fun thing to hear if you’re a Singaporean. I’ve seen that same sentiment echoed quite a few times on forums and in blog posts, though. There are plenty of Singaporeans that feel as though Singapore doesn’t belong to the Singaporeans anymore.
Somehow, I can’t blame them. A full third of the population isn’t native. About 68% of the country’s jobs are given to foreigners. The country has been built up quite nicely for just 44 years of self-government, but somehow it has failed to produce people who feel like they belong.
Here are some quotes I pulled from a blog post’s comment section:
This is just a small sampling. You can visit the blog post itself for more, but this is just to show that there’s a lot of dissatisfaction with the current situation in Singapore. There were even comments from Singaporeans stating that they planned to wear black on National Day, rather than the national colors, to represent the fact that they’re mourning rather than celebrating.
Still, not everyone was full of doom and gloom. My wife and I walked through Pasir Ris Park tonight and it was packed full of people barbecuing and camping out for the night. There were tents everywhere! It sort of reminded me of parks and neighborhoods in the US on July 4th, with groups of family and friends getting together to celebrate.
From what I’ve read, and I’ll admit it isn’t too much since I try to steer clear of much involving Singapore politics, people have come to believe that National Day in Singapore is more of a celebration of the PAP (People’s Action Party?) than a celebration of the people, and so a large portion of Singaporeans aren’t as enthusiastic about the day as they used to be. It’s pretty sad that many people in Singapore are opposed to celebrating their own national holiday.
Singapore is a young country. It has a lot of maturing and learning to do yet, and I’m sure that in time it will become a place that all Singaporeans are proud to call home. So, here’s hoping for that day. Happy 44th Singapore.
Dead Smiley
I found this shirt in the mall a few weeks ago and I’ve also seen quite a few people out and about wearing it here in Singapore.
Anyone who has used he internet much has been exposed to “smilies”. They’re cute icons used to express an emotion in chat. Sometimes they’re called emoticons.
Given that, what does this shirt say? A dead smiley = “CHEER YOU UP”? So, death is the way to be cheered up then is it?
Either people are blissfully unaware of what the smiley means, or there’s just some meaning behind this that I’m totally missing. It’s not uncommon for Asians who have poor English language ability to wear a shirt with something totally screwy on it, but this should have been pretty easy to steer clear of.
Sexism on the Internet?
Every time I turn around someone is crying discrimination or sexism on the internet, even in situations where it’s blatantly obvious that the original writer’s intent was something else entirely.
People nowadays can’t seem to distinguish between what true sexism is and what’s meant to be taken lightly or meant to be used as an example. At the merest hint of something that seems not completely “Politically Correct” people are up in arms and there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth, as though the world will end.
Get over yourselves. Not everything is sexism and not everything is about you! Sometimes it’s just illustrating a point.
What’s got me going is that a recent article on Mashable was talking about Internet Explorer 6 and the need for people to stop using a legacy browser, as it’s slowing down advances in internet technology.
Here’s a quote from the article with the supposedly offensive text colored in red:
“While it’s great to see companies taking a stand against the broken browser, we can’t help but wonder whether this type of campaign will make any impact, given that many users of IE6 are only using because of work/IT restrictions or are in underdeveloped countries. David, co-founder of Weebly, gave us his thoughts on the matter:
“We think we can have a huge impact: For those users that are just unaware they are using an old browser (mothers, grandmothers), we’d like to encourage them to upgrade and have a better experience using our sites. For those users in corporate environments, we’d like to start putting pressure on the IT department to upgrade — the more users who complain about seeing the prompts (especially if coming from the top), the more pressure the IT department will have to either upgrade IE 6 or install Firefox
side-by-side with IE 6 for compatibility reasons.””
The real kicker in this case is that actual statistics shows that this particular demographic, as well as corporate users, are in fact the highest demographic of people still using IE6.
Right away though, someone jumped in with this comment:
“It’s pretty dumb and sexist to label “mothers [and] grandmothers” as the people who are ignorant of technology, and to separate mothers and grandmothers from the corporate world. Mothers and grandmothers don’t work? Males don’t use IE6?”
Are you serious? In the same way that IE6 is holding back the internet, this mode of thinking in which everything has to be politically correct is holding back the entire world in terms of self-expression.
Should we go ahead and ban all of our classic literature, because it contains mentions of things that aren’t politically correct?
Get real, and if you’re so damn sensitive that something as innocent as what was mentioned in that article offends you, then maybe the internet isn’t for you!
Here are some amusing images to put this all in perspective:
I’d just like to emphasize one more time that this mode of thinking is ass backwards. I’ve even seen people complain that a person is being sexist just because of their personal preference in women. What? Is a person not allowed to have a preference for what he considers attractive anymore?
This insanity has got to stop.
Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog 