The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, Fish and Co Express

Second day of Ortho was an early one - actually not that bad now, minus rounds - with 9am by leehc, neck injury/hall valg/the subtle foot drop for me/amp and the 3 requisites for prothesis by jeremy. We had breakie at qiji (lontong cheecheongfan is the first for me) and tried to hunt for the spine cases, and ended up seeing cvs stuff.

Kels and I decided the east was just making us too tired, so we decided to take a break to go even further east to Downtown East.

She was paying bill so we were longingly eyeing WWW =P

We zoomed down to watch the 445pm, and just made it in time to The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus.

The movie has enchanting escapades with equally beautiful people, with the extremely lovely Lily Cole. Diving into the mirror brings you into your wildest dreams, and this always comes with a price. A lil disjointed segments (esp the character morphing from Heath to Jude to Colin!) but nonetheless it is like an amusement theme park ride. I enjoyed the ride =)

And for such a suburban cinema, the thickly coated sweet popcorn was of extremely high standards!!

We explored Downtown East after the movie, and spied on Mr Chicken Rice and the yam fries at Old Chang Kee but decided to head to Fish and Co Express (Downtown East) to try the burgers.

Fish Chowder is one of the yummiest cheaper soups I've had, and you'll like it if you like chunky creamy soups.

Sambal fish burger is very delicious and is one of the most ingenious burgers I've eaten. Its everything in a nasi lemak with out the rice. The sambal chilli has ikan bilis within, laden in between sliced cucumber and a fried fish fillet. With a forewarning from the server that it is gonna be hot, this is a very enjoyable burger for those who like spicy food.

The Teriyaki Salmon burger is what Kelly had and its a piece of grilled Salmon between buns, made more delicious with my sambal chilli, the free flow chilli, and the mayonaise!

Calamari was extremely thickly coated with seasoned batter and I realise the grilled pepper ones I'm used to in the Seafood Platter is very different from these.
Extremely skinny fries to share, upsized =) It was a set with hot milo for each of us.

Had an interesting ride to Kels', and the 70kmh KPE channel lol.

Arnold's Chicken

TGIF second last wk before closure of wards, morning pep talk by low and long lunch at canteen (tempura fish set from qiji) before heading to see some surg (red herring for kels and wm, fishbone-abscess for d and me haha) and went to read some scans, before our tut on AS.

We then went to see UL/LL/ball-cage before we left. Kels and I were lingering around the lounge wondering about Percy (but misst the timing!!) but we decided to head to Arnold's Chicken (City Plaza), with the secondary intention of shopping for new clothes.

The queue here is INSANE by the way, we were queue number 65, and we were to order when we took the queue number. What a crowded place in an uncrowded mall !! This place has a very communal feeling about the passion for fried chicken. Everyone's spring chicken or bucket of fried chicken gives me a sense of camaraderie, a feeling Kels and I only got in the chachantengs of Hong Kong.

And btw, the parking here is very cheap in the evening - its $1.20 per entry...tho....hehe...

City Plaza reminds me alot of Shenzhen, with wholesalers and bizzare clothing galore, and just a very old school feeling about the whole mall.Even the snacks stall is wholesale too.

2 piece Chicken set - with fries and coleslaw. Well, this is a decent well fried chicken. The ribs piece was especially good. Bonchon on the other hand blows me away with the insane marinated crisp skin.

The amazing Potato Basket - trio of Waffle Crisps (my favourite with excellent texture), Sliced Potato Chips (Kels favourite), Potato Wedges (good too) and its very yummy help yourself to the cheese sauce dip. And of cos, the thing that pleases best friend is the FREE FLOW BOTTLED CHILLI SAUCE!
Onion rings with a thick coating of batter.
Miss the clear plastic gloves in HK! Fried chicken is lickin good.

We drove thru Geylang and found XiaoFeiYang right at the end, and then thru Chinatown and then to town for a febile attempt at Percy's again, but of cos, it was not meant to be. Knee thereafter.....HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! =)

House

Day 1 of Derm - We had long admin talk and post walkaround orientation before we promptly went for breakfast and then started clearing the treatment room and phototherapy, before going for the intro lectures..We zoomed out to Hong Kong Kitchen to have a quick lunch (the chicken rice place was full ++) so I had fish head beehoon there.

We came back to attend clinics (super good at the start of the posting), and thereafter Kels and I proceeded to House (Dempsey Road) for early dinner, over some nephrotic synd discussion.

Spot Priscilla!

We ordered the American Sliders - Mushroom Cheese burgers (had the Truffle Aioli with Chongs the other time) . They very nicely divided the full portion into 2!! We upsized the AMAZING TRUFFLE FRIES. Never quite tasted the truffle in this before( had it with Michelle/Fly/Cel once, and another time with Chongs) but somehow the full glory was only discovered today. lol as Kels say maybe its the company. Actually the very intention was the sweet potato fries which I had loved when I was with Chong cos its sugar dusted but somehow it was overshadowed by its cousin!!

Salted Caramel Banana Cake - this is an amazing contrast of textures - from the soft chewy Coffee popcorn, to the sweet banana pudding like cake, with the bits of salty caramel right in the middle. Its really gotta be the most ambitious cake I've had.

As night fell, we left - and the place started waking up with more people streaming in. We were the only ones as the sun was setting! But we loved the homeliness of this place, with the PS-like ambience, right by the forest and the green house alfresco sitting right beside us. Love this place, and will be back for more of those giant cakes.

Old Airport Road Food Centre

Today's the first day of the last posting ever (hopefully), and after the nus lectures on spine/LL/hand, we zoomed down to Old Airport Road Food Centre; cos D didnt drive he and weeming didnt join us for lunch as they hitched a ride from enming.

Initial confusion but after pickin Marc and Jeremy from the bstop we left for the East. The multistorey carpark is less crazy than the ground level one, though i momentarily forgot where i parked =P

When I came, eveyone split up to buy food for everyone, and it seemed rather like a picnic, with chinese music in the background to add to the atmosphere. At least here, the queues are not crazy and no one rushes for tables.

I finally got to try Nam Sing Hokkien Mee - the first time I am trying this cos this stall uses veg oil. It tastes similar to what my grandma cooks at home - but my gran's stock of prawn heads gives much more aroma to the noodles. It reminds me of comfort home cooked food, and is good for me since I am just recovering.. Its divine on the Makan Sutra meter btw..

Toa Payoh Rojak never fails to impress, and the sauce always seems to accumulate right at the end, even though it seems quite dry at the start...Wanted to buy youtiao to dip into the huge amount of sauce left but K and D couldnt find..
And the repeat order of the Freshly Made Chee Cheong Fan .. Mushrooms and Prawn - this is one of the best (or maybe it IS the best) chee cheong fan I tried, simply cos the silky sheets of rice flour are just melt in your mouth smoothilicious!

We headed back to cgh, with trouble with parkin( in more ways than one), and congregated at the lounge for admin. Many false alarms, before heading for skc's revision at ncc after that - our day ended at 830pm, 12 hour days are just insane.

Singapore Polytechnic Canteen

What seems like everyday canteen food can look quite good, captured on camera:

It was the second last day of surg at nuh, and while we were scrambling to submit our log book, and Kels to return the last bit of the paeds notes to me, we decided to take the shuttle to Singapore Poly for their canteen food.

We were directed to canteen 4 by this girl we met, and later by another group to canteen 6 (up a hill, which we chickened out) so eventually we headed here where we were greeted by a kopitiam like setting. There was some major renovations going on so it was a little obstacle course getting there and the canteen was really really stuffy (though not with students, like the nus one can be...)

I had the salmon omelette rice from the Japanese stall, which tasted every bit like you imagine it to be..

Kels' Chicken cutlet rice with black pepper sauce - this is from the Malay stall and was strongly recommended by a student for the different sauces. Towards the end, when I asked K to ask for more sauce to eat with my rice, we discovered the most interesting Bandung sauce ! It has this spicy tinge to it. Most delicious with my rice and even the fries.
We shared the cheese fries from the Western Food stall. We got excited at first cos I thought the waffle shop sold zidanzai but it turned out to be sausage waffle =P

We adjourned to the fast food complex (which has Subway, Pizza Hut, and KFC, btw!) which also houses Popular and is right next to the half filled swimming pool. Within the 1/2 hour till 315pm (when it rained!) we zoomed through colorectal osses before I managed to get back for the feedback session with d low, and then the uro tut. rushed day!

Coffee Bean

Today was a crash course on shorts - cardio/respi/neuro/abdo and subsequently porridge lunch at kpt before short cases around all the different stations around nni/clinics - saw p neuro, optic atrophy (visual acuity+rapd!), spastic gait, pes cavus sec to polio, it was a really enlightening session, which I wished they had organised for us earlier.

Marc and I went to see more after that, but it was not high yield (esp after what we saw earlier!), and subsequently the SN told us about the incident and discouraged us from further seeing...

I was totally craving eggs so I went to Coffee Bean (Velocity) to get this smoked salmon scrambled eggs breakfast set (comes with an iced tea) . This is super yummz esp if you like your eggs creamy, and today there was lotsa smoked salmon chunks. Even the bread was toasty and warm, it was really delicious to eat with the laden mayonaise and cream seeping out from the scrambled eggs. Now I feel like eating this everyday (along with Macs' Eggs McMuffin). I totally love the idea of all day breakfasts at Coffee Bean.

I had to linger around here longer before picking mom and sis from ps...this is prob the most exposed Coffee Beans around I think.

What we eat when we're studying. Check out those DARK CHOCOLATE Kit Kat Bites and Maltesers!! Thal down.

Your Woul

Keeping a diary now is like penning down my countdown to mbbs, and as I write this I'm imagining myself reading this in time to come, pondering about all my extremely succint summaries of those horrible times on the way to the finals..

Anyways, this would be an account of Thursday week one of derm, after the 8 am lecture on exo psoriasis, I was in clinic with Wei Yan - in which the doctor took the fingering legs hint to leave (poor him with a uber packed clinic), I found Daryl Dedrick Kels and Jeremy in the library, with D and J having a huge discussion, before we finally adjourned for lunch.

D drove us to Your Woul (Goldhill Plaza) where we all had the lunch specials - D had the steamed pau (which turned out to be Gyoza stuffed with Kimchi), J had the pork, Kels had the kimichi fried rice, and D had the bibimbap.We were dying waiting for the side dishes to come, and the favourite of the day has gotta be the Fried Lotus Root. I liked the ikan bilis too.

We shared the seafood pancake - which had lotsa squid, and crispy batter. It's sliced like pizza!

My raw fish rice.

Udders thereafter of cos (it was next door), with Jeremy going back to join Marc at his clinic first- Orange Chocolate Bitters (arent u bored of reading my ULTIMATE FAVOURITE all the time) and Kels' Gila Melaka. We still havent managed to figure out what those bits inside her icecream were. They were not attap chee as clarified by Daryl. The dear girl is missing her salty mr brown too much. Dedrick had Cookies and Cream and Daryl her Mao Shan Wang which she says costs as much as a Macs Meal lol.

We lingered around to draw money, and for me to take my passport photos for employment lol, before we went to tt where James brought us through a double pathology pt, and another cardio, before we went for derm lect. Kels' stamina finally fizzled out and she went back thereafter =P

Adam Road Food Centre

Tuesday of week 2 at derm saw us going back to nuh for some card clinic with dr C Hia and dr Fr and it was rather uneventful save for 2 mvps back to back and getting echo tuts from the expert herself. Its amazing, the grace of paediatricians.

We attended C Ning's stroke tut too, with a grand total of 7 students turning up, im still pretty tickled about the way he teaches.

Ate lunch with Kels and Dedrick at Adam Road Food Centre - I had the Full House set from Selera Nasi Lemak. Love the texture of the rice. Swopped half the wing for a bergedil from Kelly's Otah set. The rice, as always is the bomb!! And the yummilicious sweet chilli.

Always have the cheng tng from round the corner. Kels' Ice Jelly and mine cheng tng, which I just had during dinner with Jacob just the other night.

We hurried back for the fungal derm lecture, and then back to tt to see many many effusions, and a gentleman who was so nice to let us see his hands, legs, and chest with different pathologies in each. Very very gracious person..

We adjourned to Mos Burger (Velocity) - there are 2 new burgers - I had the Triple Prawn Burger - lol, which I went back to the counter, cos i thought they gave me the wrong burger, cos i didnt see the tails - its actually a 3 prawns in a patty and it tastes really similar to a fish burger. The other new burger is the scallops in rice burger, which may be for another time. Kels had the Fish burger (cos scallops ran out) and Jacob had the spicy cheeseburger and his HUGE peach tea.

Dragged them to Udders for ICECREAM!! We had Ballsy Mint (new flavour) - mint with chocoballs with Orange Chocolate, Kopi C (which really really tasted like what I just drank during teatime with J) and Baileys (its flavour being drowned out by the rest, as usual!)

Finishing up with paeds cvs in 3-7, with soft peanuts and M&ms and soft drink-milo...and my third icecream of the day at Mr Bean..no wonder down with sore throat now...

Adam Road Food Centre

Friday of Week 1 in derm, I picked Kels from nsc and we headed to KK for Macs brekkie - timed it, so that we reached right on time for the interval between breakfast and lunch, so I managed to have my usual egg mcmuffin with fries !! =)

The afternoon lecture got pushed forward - it was a rush back for endogenous ecz for 1/2 hr before I attended a clinic and rushed to lch's revision surg lecture. His catered food are beginning to be super similar, but not like we're complaining..

J and I had dinner at Adam Road Food Centre and I had Satay Beehoon (which gave him an allergic reaction....=P). This tasted super similar to the one I had at Whampoa Food Centre.

The rojak was also from the same stall. I wished it was drowned in more peanut sauce!

Ice kachang for him, and cheng tng from me. Loved this stall first introed to me by James, and it opens till late at night!

Rushed to a petrol station for some chocs before off to L to discuss...weekends no longer exist...

Toast, Burger Bench and Bar

It was the eopt slideshow for surg and after the dreadful test we went to engine Macs for a yummy breakfast on a wet wet Friday morning. Engine is a maze of stairs and it was an arduous long flight of stairs to the toilet (and everywhere else). We first headed back to NUH for C Ning's but it got cancelled (second time pangseh, in time to come.....). Decided to bus to town whilst Marc and WM and J stayed on at nuh. At employment clinic - it was a long long queue for - urine/blds/xray. Off to Toast (#02-11 Ngee Ann City )- only groups of ladies within. No breakfast available, didnt wanna pay for peanut butter banana toasties, but there were interesting cupcakes we'd try on another occasion - green tea and apple cinammon.

Smoked Salmon for Kels and Smoked Turkey for me. These are perfectly healthy sandwiches, no messiness of sauces whatsoever... Somehow after those sandwiches at the Bank of China place, healthy sandwiches still evoke Pavlov's reflex...

And cos of this getaway, when we went back- all the ppl who came in the golden time (after us) finished and left! We rushed for LCH's - wanted to cab and in the end trained, met Kels across gantry ande eventually at the train. We went down with the very nice lect always catering stuff for us... there was soon kueh and carrot cake, and cake. Crumbs was all over J at a jostle, irritating him ++. That night's entertainment was courtesy of Yh and Steph, Lyn, Yansheng, Charanya, Ryan (ex's).
Kels and I met Chongs at basement before going to Orchard - where we ate at Burger Bench and Bar (Cathy Cineleisure Orchard, Basement 1). Must intro to Chongs the queen of fries to the wonderful burgers here, and so I can satisfy my curiosity about the other non-beef burgers. I had the Butterfish with Wasabi Mayo. I LOVE the tender, fried battered fish here but the wasabi mayo adds a real interesting nose crawling tinge to it, and it tastes rather herby, necessiting some getting used to. Kels had the Japanese Curry Chicken Cutlet,and it tastes every bit the way you imagine it to be, with bread, sans rice.
And of cos Chongs had her Mushrooms cheese burger which I had and absolutely loved, the previous time.

And the absolutely yummz Dark Chocolate Icecream !!! The 2 girls were too full, but I can never get enough of ice cream. This was my third scoop of the day - after Mr Bean at nuh, the yummilicious mixed $1 icecream from the icecream man (he's stationed right outside Taka) with real peanuts all over the mixed flavours icecream.

We had not much luck for shows though, so much for the aspiration to consume and vegetate. There were no tickets for Invictus, New York I love you. We rested at 313 (whom Chongs was foreign too!) where we vegetated at the Food Republic, getting amused at all the reserved tables, and decided to Up and Go to Cathy, but with no luck.. tickets sold out everywhere!! Last straw went to Marina Square where she got REAlly tempted with My ex, but also no luck , no bowling either (cos we're old ladies and no energy anymore, sadness) so we just caught up at the Starbucks (Marina Square)! It closes at midnight, and it was quite interesting hanging out at a thriving starbucks, in a deserted mall in the dead of the night. Whatever happened to our energetic souls, Chongs!

Burger Bench and Bar

I feel like a Burger special again....

It was a trip down memory lane to AH - parked in front of Auditorium (realise the value of coming early for parkin esp now with the damn satellite place), ECG Star - Team YJ vs Hons and Prof Raja's puzzle spotting, my elective tutor NST's crash course on x rays.

Went to sg - rejected for morning (neuros) Came back and the intensity of murmurs ++ (asd vsd,ar with gallarv,mr,av replacement) and respi (hydropneumot,lobect,post tb bronchiec). Lunch was insipid at the canteen with Marcus, Daryl, Weeming - crush on y, vijayjay and evilness to convert v's to adobe. Quite fruitful seeing a DM ft abscess s/p amputation, acute gout. Came back to feel a thal (jaundice, hepatospleno) and listened to the (hopefully scary)mo briefing.

We initially planned to go House but we veered offtrack (the burger moods strike) so we headed to Burger Bench and Bar (Cathy Cineleisure Orchard, Basement 1) Was at a corner seat, then shifted in.

We love the casual atmosphere at this place, despite it being situated at a high human traffic area. By the time we finished our early dinner there were already people waiting for seats (there was no structured queue). The decor reminded me very much of Relish, where the menus are scrawled on the walls. B3 is trying to promote burgers as wholesome fast food, that fast food can be good if prepared with fresh, wholesome ingredients. I must say they kept to their promise.

I had the Sarawak Special - this is the black pepper beef and I declare this to be the top of my fast food burger list!! Extremely tender, and loosely packed meat patty which was most meatilious topped up with lovely toasty sesame buns The burger is simple and good, no qualms about that. It was so delicious I forgot there was no cheese in this.

However the chips were a little stale I do wish they can have those yummy thick cut fries straight out of the fryer.

Kelly had the Mushroom Cheese and she enjoyed this to bits too.
We really miss Pro Burger from our Hong Kong days. 180 grams of Angus beef man, power.

Another item worth trying is the Gourmet Dark Chocolate soft serve. I found it amazing that the dark chocolate flavour came through and through despite it being a soft serve. Well, its not that soft I suppose...its like the consistency of perhaps Mr Bean's soya icecream (which I eat everyday) so I really really enjoyed this. I'll prob have this most times when I come to watch movies here now !

We were trying to then find a place to discuss about the fruitful day and the plan was first Spinelli's at Heeren (too crowded!) - and boy has that place gone through a huge revamp. We managed to find a spot at the Coffee Bean at 313 Orchard and managed to iron out vsd and asd, with Kels spotting my mom and sister (not incidentally!) Nutty Special = Pistachio Milkshake, White chocolate Frap for her.

We were so glad we went to satisfy our burger craving. Finally a great affordable place in town to eat at! We wanna try the curry chicken burger and the butter fish wasabi burger next. Watch this space.

Burger Shack

It was a day when we saw a test lump, clerked a oeso ca, no luck with paeds, had the BA tutorial with Praba at 10am, then clerked a breast CA before heading back. Marc's parkin was running fast at science, so we zhaoed and I went to Coronation Plaza for some (birthday!) errands.

Oh boy that Starbucks there makes me really old !! Its super inconducive to read whatsoever there....its great fun to watch what your neighbours are up to tho, we spied some of Jacob's alma mater's students reading The Highly Sensitive Guy in Love, and soon his friend started sewing!!! ROFL.

And we even gotta witness a staff training midway..most hilarious having a tasting session, and they were thinking of ways to describing the drink to customers.

Anyway, he tried to teach polyps and we went through abit of swallowing before I went to collect my stuff from Coro and back with Chocolates. Back was a quickie dinner at Burger Shack (555 Bukit Timah Road, Kings Arcade 01-01) before we zaoed for Chew's.

There are 4 beef burgers - Original, Double, Ramly and Mushrooms Cheese. Luckily they could whip up the burger in 10 minutes or else its gonna to have been Macs =/ I had the Mushroom Cheese and I thought my burger was a mid between a gourmet and a fast food standard of a burger. The patty is gruffily beefy, but not as meaty as the ones I had in Hong kong (they were amazing...Pro Burger never fails to make me drool). Its just slightly thicker than the Macs one too. But I guess if you like your burger neat, and not greasy and dripping with sauce and juices, you will like this burger. I prefer my burger to gruesomely messy and chunky (like Brewerkz King Brew!) and this is quite the opposite. Even the Mushroom Swiss from BK will suffice that messy burger craving sometimes.

Jacob had the Original and the first few bites he mumbled it was not bad but eventually said it was a little dry...Yes without the mushroom sauce I guess it is too neat for real burger.

We had no time so we didnt try much else - would wanna try their BBQ chicken burger next time, and their other fried items esp calamari too! And the ice cream !! Saves me walking about 4oo meters to Serene Centre =)

Anyway, on the way to walking to Coro, I now realise where is Le Wu Cafe and La Petit Roastery ! I can't believe James couldnt find online where is La Petit Roastery...we are going there the next outing ya...

Wild Honey

Its great to start the year with breakfast.

No, actually, I had Macs after midnight on new year's.....not counted!!

Anyhow, after some online getting together in the morning, the girls (and Qian's fren) decided they were gonna watch Holmes (which I watched last night) and we later all gathered at Wild Honey (Level 3, Mandarin Gallery).

The stories of the world of animal med is most intriguing.... and the realm of sci fi shows =)

I love NY - Scrambled eggs, Smoked Sturgeon + Cheese bagel. I really enjoyed the scrambled eggs, with the salty bits of fish between, and the condiments. Its creaminess and egginess hit a perfect balance. And the sesame bagel was really delightful, love my bread well toasty, and with that extra edge of texture by the sesame seeds, just like how i love nutty breads. Yet, it manages to be chewy within. My love for bagels has just got reignited by this.

Tuniscan - sunny side eggs with tomato stew - This was originally mine, but E decided to take it in the end (she doesnt do beef). This comes with chicken chunks especially catered to our requests. If you like your eggs crusted down to the pan this is for you.
This is Yiqians - its Ciabatta with Scrambled eggs and Tofu. I ended up eating the last portions of this as she thought this was a tad too bland and couldnt finish. I guess I understood the value of the smoked sturgeon in my scrambled eggs, for tofu doesnt provide much of a bang in scrambled eggs.

Waffles with Custard and Mango - gotta catch this fella hot and crisp!

Note that photography is not allowed here so do ask for permission... the service tries to be personal but somehow it wasn't as homely and forthcoming as it was at Chalk.. perhaps ladies (at chalk) do give off a more genuine vibe? Anyway, the novel thing about this place is that it has no menus for reference, you gotta refer to the boards around the counter, or to the iphones at the counter, which will flash pictures after the captions.

I would say that this place is a little pricey, but I guess you are paying for what you are eating, and where. It wasn't crowded on a Friday night at all, and loved the casual homely feel of the place. This is quite a novel idea I must say, offering breakfasts from all over the world from Mexican to Jap to American.

We went grocery shoppin at Taka after, and I quickly grabbed a longs at Mango before we set off out of the ridiculous parkin at taka, gotta go satisfy the craving for green tea soy latte again (two consecutive days!! =P)

Jasmine, we missed you! and im sure you miss breakfast food too! and us ! haha =) hope china's treating you well!

Chalk

After a very strict non nonsense 8am by the flickering tree, and clerking uro, rushed in a fast bf of the usual Mr bean ice cream and pancake, and an equally quick neuro surg tut (with the high d iatrogenic cn3!), and free yums fish and chicken by the deans, and more fish from the sci canteen, after the long uro tut (really admire prof heng's stamina.....and brain bank), marc and i discussed a bit more on p CA following which I hurried to meet Clare.

Picked her from Acid Bar and we headed to Mount Emily to try Chalk (01-03, 11 Mount Sophia )which Dedrick has been egging me to try.

Its a rather quiet place, and we loved the corner seat by the shelves, and even the al fresco seats overlooking Dhoby Gaut was gorgeous. This place opens late, with the last order at 1030pm. We sat till past 11 pm, with no pressure on the staff, really nice of them.

D recommended the daily specials, of which we had 2 of them. The service here is excellent - tho we in an isolated section of the room, they never failed to check on us to make sure we're alright, topping up our water even tho they left the glass water bottle on our table. And, when we asked for the daily specials, the waitress actually brought the HUGE chalk board over ! rofl.

The AWESOME bread is free flow, and has got to be the best i've had in a while. The olive bread especially, it was crusty and perfectly baked. Served with butter and olive oil with vinegar, but best when dipped into the soup below.

Seafood bisque - within which lied a prawn, a mussel, and small bits of scallop. This has a well rounded rich seafood flavour, and still manages to be slightly creamy.

Calamari confit - of which it has been soaked in oil for 3 days, explaining its extreme smoothness. This has definitely got an oriental twist to it especially the vegetables in the middle, soaked in a cheese sauce.

Beef stew was the waitress's personal favourite - if not would have gone for the veal. This is comfort food, and it really reminds me of Grandma's stew actually - kudos to gran for fantastic food self learnt!

I loved the ambience and Clare's company, with her stories about the horrors of grocery shopping and the safety of East London, and her wonderful guy in her life. All prices here are nett on the menu.

Wanted to carry on in Timbre at Old School but the female singer that night was rather ghastly so we explored the compound a fair bit - from ergonomic chairs to media firms, that place is a enclave of creativity. We zipped out to City hall, where I left the car behind Raffles Hotel and we walked to New Asia Bar (Swissotel) meeting Winnie on the way (whom Clare was supposed to meet on nye). She loves the east coast panel while my favourite was the Boat Quay side, and the view of the water front and the floating wishing spheres was amazing - retract my statement of how hideous it was (actually, it still is, in the day.)

Had a mini countdown with Vivian Tan (heavily pregnant but very pretty!!) practising for the actual event... This is at the Esplanade outdoor amphitheatre. From afar we were wondering why there were djs on the decks!

Innocently, we thought that each sphere was lighted up on its own (and the balls were actually violet, appearing blue now =/) My favourite colour has gotta be yellow, cos they all look like floating popcorn!

But its not!! Very powerful lights shine upon them! From our little countdown corner.

This was on our way to One Fullerton - where we met Qian and frens who queued like crazy (seriously!) and sadly Starbucks was closed so we actually sat at the Japanese bar which was closed (on the chained bar seats, and eventually the comfy rattan sofas, with the Moet and Chandon bottle in front of us. Loved her stories about the biz ppl she's reading up on - from the no1 Pork Chop seller to how the finance world works. On our way to the second Starbucks under the Fullerton bridge, we got a bit wet from the cleaning...the 2 starbucks are in such close proximity!! (whilst she was reporting strength heh)

Anyway, the crowds at Butter was just..insane! We went in at 230 am (not queuing, of cos =P) and as it was, Fash was packed to the brims - there was r&b aplenty (guess to make up for those who dun attend the other room) and some retro and rock. Miss the trance and house quite a bit =P

And there is a table in the lady's podium at the r&b room!! Very strange...

Love how we can pick up from where we left...Enjoy London more for me, Clare! You'll be missed...