Shamelessly stolen from
here.
POSB Everyday Credit Card
SP Services/StarHub - 1%
SPC Petrol - 5%
Carrefour - 5% - up to 10% (Fri) sometime
Watsons - 3% - up to 6% sometime
KFC Home Delivery - 10%
UOB One Card (qtrly period)
$30 cash rebate for at least $300 for three consecutive months...
$80 cash rebate for at least $800 for three consecutive months...
Citibank Divdends Card
Up to 5% - Cash in cheque for $50 with accumulated dollars of last 15 months
HSBC Credit Cards
Caltex Petrol - 5%
Golden Village - S$1 off for movie ticket
KFC Home Delivery/Swensen ala carte menu - 10% off
Maybank Family & Friends Platinum MasterCard
Home Delivery - 5% cash rebate
McDonalds, KFC, Canadian/Oishi Pizza, Cuisine/Makan Xpress
ABN AMRO Switch Platinum Card
Gain City - 10% off storewide (except airconditioners)
Standard Chartered Manhattan card (each mth)
$1 - $500 = 0.5% cash rebate
$501 - $1500 = 1% cash rebate
$1501 - $3000 = 2% cash rebate
$3000 and above = 5% cash rebate.
Time to get a POSB card. The Manhattan card looks OK but I hate their stupid advertising which is clearly aimed at dickheads who don't know they are dickheads.
UOB cash back is also a nice deal but what "at least 3 consecutive months" means in the small print is anyone's guess. If you think you know what this means - call them and verify. Then you'll know that nobody knows what it means.
Labels: cash, credit card, singapore
One problem with having a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables is that they can spoil and there's wastage. Many foods ripen and spoil due to the release of ethylene. For detailed info about this process see here.
There is a solution in the form of ethylene absorbing bags. The most well known brand is Evert Fresh but these are not available in Singapore. There was another brand called Ever Fresh from japan that used to be carried by Cold Storage but no more!
Fortunatley, I hunted down the local distributor who still carries the bags. At S$50 for 100 bags, this is cheaper than the Evert-Fresh product available at Amazon.
You can buy them here (call first to confirm stock):
Tantraco Ent Pte Ltd
32, Ang Mo Kio Ind Pk 2
#04-17, Sing Ind Complex
Singapore 569510
Phone : (65) 64823575
Fax : (65) 64824398
Email : info@tantraco.com.sg
Open 9-6pm weekdays.
I got some and will test in coming weeks to compare to normal bags. I use them now - so far so good but cannot say how much better they are than normal plastic bags. But they are sturdy and re-useable and so far nothing has spoiled using them.
Labels: diet, food, health, singapore
Recently I've moved to a "mostly raw" diet. To facilitate putting together tasty gourmet raw meals, certain tools are recommended. Finding these in Singapore was no easy job. So here, for those interested, are the fruits of my research. Note that all prices are in Singapore dollars:
Dehydrators
- Ezidri - You can buy this from Tangs or direct from the distributor in Singapore, K-Industrial. They have two models at $200 (500W) and $300 (1000W). These are relatively inexpensive but of course the larger model will cost more in electricity bills. It is expandable and extra trays, sheets and spacer trays are fairly cheap ($5-$15).
- Excalibur - This is the premier choice of raw foodies. The Fit For Life Center (details below) sells the Excalibur 2900 model (600W) for $650.
Juicers
If you don't already know why you need a masticating juicer, then read this. There is also a great comparison of juicers here.
- Champion - top choice if you do NOT intend to juice wheat grass. Available at the Fit For Life Center ($690).
- Twin Health - Fit For Life Center, Organic Paradise ($999), Brown Rice Paradise ($999)
- Green Star - Organic Paradise ($939)
- Samson 6 in 1 - Organic Paradise ($480), Brown Rice Paradise ($480)
Mandoline
This is the queen of food slicers. Amazon info here. This is a serious piece of kitchen equipment engineered to a high standard. You can probably get another food slicer for less but I was unable to find one that would meet my needs (this would have done fine but where to find?). So, I ended up buying a professional model. If this is out of your price range, look for a food slicer that would let you cut cucumbers and zucchinis length-wise into small, thin strands. If your machine can do this, it can probably do most other things you would want of it. Update: see comments below
- Lau Choy Seng, the shop 2 doors down from Sia Huat on Temple Street ($170)
Blenders
Missing from this list are details of where to get a K-Tec or Vita Mix blender (with enough blending power to dispose of a corpse). This is because I have decided to stick with my Braun MX2050 (525W) blender until it dies as it seems rather sturdy and is coping with the present load. When I ultimately research the acquisition of these items, I will update this entry.
Food Processors
There are a number of different food processors available at Tangs, Best Denki, etc., including some all stainless steel professional models that can run you up to $1000.I'm going with a cheap Phillips model for the time being as there seems to be no definitive guidance from the raw community on the ultimate food processor and I take that to mean - any will do in a pinch.
I would recommend, however, that whatever model you purchase, look for (1) more stainless steel parts versus plastic and (2) a large volume capacity. This model, for instance, can hold up to 7 cups. If you are going raw, being able to process food in bulk is very handy. My present food processor barely holds 4 cups and it's a bit of a drag.
Companies
Fit For Life Centre
Blk 462 Crawford Lane #02-55
Singapore 190462
T: 6291-8080, 6392-6088
Hours: 9am - 5:30pm M-F; 9am - 1pm Sat
Brown Rice Paradise
Level 3 Tanglin Mall
163 Tanglin Road
Singapore 247933
Tel: 6738-1121
Organic Paradise
5 Koek Road
Cuppage Plaza #01-25/27
S228796
Tel: 67371824, 67362089
Organic Paradise
62, Temple Road
S058607
Lau Choy Seng info
No.23/ 25 Temple Street, Tel: 6223-5486
Labels: diet, food, singapore
Singapore isn't exactly famous for good service but Harry's took the cake last night. A number of dishes that my party ordered were not available but they didn't bother to advise us of this fact until the kitchen was closed and it was too late to prepare substitutes. This left 3 out of 11 of us without food. When we ask them to make repairs, the manager on duty generously offered to allow us to "order from MacDonalds and eat the food here."
Labels: singapore, world
Singapore is the ideal place for a national recycling program. You would simply mandate that everyone recycles (as in Canada) on pain of egregious fines (fines are big here) and in a short time you'd have over 90% recycling rates. But that doesn't happened now. Is it because Singaporeans are among the
laziest people in the world?
So where does all the waste in this country goes... Into landfills? Shipped to Indonesia? There are
four incinerators in Singapore - at Ulu Pandan, Tuas, Senoko and Tuas South... The government is calling them "
waste to energy" plants. As usual, independent efforts don't go very far so Uncle GOS (Government of Singapore) has to step in. In this case it is in the form of the
Singapore Environment Council which has a good
list of recycling resources. Well the list is up to date but unfortunately everything on there seems to be some kind of thrift shop.
But to be fair, we can't overlook the New Water recycling effort which turns sewage into drinking water. And there are a number of
lights on footpaths that use solar power (that's pretty cool).
Well somebody MUST be recycling in this country because there are recycling bins in my condo but for the life of me I don't know who does the collection. Is it possible this is just the
rag and bone man getting organised? There does seem to be some kind of
National Recycling Programme that's ongoing but is this just an umbrella term for encouraging people to send business to
independent operators in this area? Who gets the booty from the
Recycling Bins scattered around the island? There certainly seem to be some major players in this space - like
ECO and
EcoWise.
But who collects my cans and how can I get them to collect them from the whole condo by making the system easier for my lazier neighbours?
Labels: singapore
Despite many people assuring me the opposite is true, you cannot store your own blood in Singapore. They will only do autologous transfusion for a designated surgery.
Long ago I studied the prevalence of
O Negative blood in Singapore. Many of the links there are now dead but the bottom line is, there are not a lot of people with O negative in Singapore.
Plus given that they will now not accept donations from anyone who has lived in the UK (which includes me) due to the theoretical risk of mad cow, the pool of potential donors has shrunk considerably since my survey. The risk of getting mad cow disease from this pool of donors is so theoretical that it seems foolish to block yourself off from such a rare blood type.
The doctor I spoke to at the Blood Transfusion Center (ph: 6213-0626) said there was plenty of O negative blood in supply.
There's a total of 30 pints of fresh O-ve for the entire country of 4.3m people.
That struck me as shockingly poor. He didn't know how much frozen blood there was in supply but he said that was more than ample. Given that there is a fairly big dengue epidemic right now (which can lead to hemorrhaging) I'm not very happy.
"You can freeze blood for up to 10 years."
Perhaps... but I wonder what that 9 and 10 year old stuff tastes like...
Time to invest in a major supply of DEET.
Labels: singapore
I've lost my brief interest in badminton. We had such high hopes for dear Ronaldo to win the $1m bribe prize and bring Singapore a gold medal. After a brilliant bashing of the 1st seed in the first round of the tourney, he walked over some big white german in the second round but then completely choke in in a 15-10, 15-1 defeat to some guy from Thailand - a country whose athletic fame comes from transexual volleyball players and kickboxers. What a let down.
But all is not lost! There's still one medal contender left. Li Jia Wei has made it through to the semi-finals of the women's table tennis. It's a little harder to get excited because she's obviously a Chinese import. OK so Susilo is obviously an Indonesian import but at least he speaks English which makes him sound kinda, like, sorta, just a tiny bit Singaporean (yes world - they speak English in Singapore despite that funny accent). But if truth be told, Susilo only got citizenship in 2002 whereas Jia Wei has been toughing it out since 1996. That means she's been here since before the Esplanade and the convenience of underground shopping at City Link Mall. The woman is a trooper.
It may seem a bit embarrassing to have to buy in talent this way but given how the home grown athletes have done (dead last in all the swimming heats but it's possible they were held back by their water wings) there's no choice really. Every child from a third world country now has the hope of growing up to be a Singaporean with the opportunity to with $250,000, $500,000 or even $1,000,000!!! for Bronze, Silver and Gold contributions to the country's Olympic record. The fund is well stocked as apparently the last medal win for Singapore was in 1963 but given Singapore was part of Malaysia until 1965 I'm not sure it counts.
Anyway, for the next 48 hours I'm a die hard ping pong fan. This is more exciting than the lottery.
Labels: singapore
Olympics coverage in Singapore is a rather sad affair.
Firstly, it consists largely of badminton and table tennis with cursory glances at other sports that Singapore has no hope of qualifying for. Secondly, it only comes on at 11pm for an hour long recap... unless of course you are gainfully unemployed and free to watch the live broadcast of badminton matches at 2:30 in the afternoon.
Watching the success of Singaporean Olympians makes for a rather short telecast so there is also focus on the victories of other Asians and then underdogs in general. But then who didn't rejoice at the triumph of Puerto Rico over the US in basketball? Who didn't besides the Americans of course...
The presenters could, however, probably do better at concealing their glee. After clips of the upset, the announcer said with a huge smile “and stay tuned for more crushing US defeats after the break!”
Well if you can’t rejoice in your own victory, watching the fall of the mighty is the next best thing.
Labels: singapore
It's Saturday evening and the show has started.
At this time of year, for 6 weeks, I get a free aerial show every Saturday. It starts with the choppers: 3 chinooks fly over the basin about 400 meters from my flat. One is dragging a huge Singapore flag. About 2 minutes later, 5 fighter jets fly over the National Stadium, right by my condo. The whole building buzzes to the roar of engines. It's thrilling. I love that sound. I don't love it when it's not expected. Then it scares the shit out of me. But when it arrives at 7:03pm on a Saturday evening, it's great.
The next part of the show is rather annoying. They start cannon shots from across the basin. There's 19 of them. The crack of the cannon fire is deafening. I don't know what the significance of 19 is but I'm sure that's the number because they've been doing these practices almost every "summer" (it's always summer) since I moved into this condo 6 years ago.
The whole thing is for the National Day "Parade" on Aug 9th. It's not so much of a parade as a show because the whole thing takes place in the stadium.
The upside is that I have a prime seat for the fireworks display on that night plus the two dress rehearsals in the weeks before (actually because of limited seating capacity at the stadium, they do two full runs of the show before the actual day so more people can see it).
The downside is that everyone on the island tries to park on my street every August 9th and it can take up to 2 hours to travel the 2 kilometres from the beginning of Tanjong Rhu to my flat. So on National Day I have to choose to either camp in or camp out.
This year it will be out as a friend of mine, who just got her citizenship, will be throwing a BBQ party on the other side of town.
Well the canons have stopped and I'm left with the noise of one lone helicopter hovering over the basin. It will be there for the next hour or so. I arrives at 5pm, disturbes the late afternoon until the flag and jets show when it disappears for a bit then returns. I suspect it's just watching the national stadium from above to ensure that all the formations are done correctly... but who knows. I like to think I'm an NDP expert but that part is a mystery.
It just so happens, Singapore was born the same year I was. This fortuitous event means I tend to get all sorts of discounts this time of year.
Labels: singapore
I just thought I'd share a few pictures of the show mother nature has been providing me lately.
It rained most of the week with mornings looking either like this:
Or like this:
I suppose if I had nothing better to do at 7:30 in the morning I could have waited around for some lightening to dramatize the shots... As it stands, I've always got something better to do at that time: sleep.
The rain was mildly exciting at first. But after a few days of it I became somewhat vexed. Traffic in the morning is like sludge when you can't see more than 10 meters in front of you. And it messes up your schedule because everyone now has an excuse for being late.
People tend to be tardy in Singapore anyway - the whole rubber time thing is part of the culture. The government bangs on about being courteous and timely. But despite the enthusiastic poster campaign, most people think showing up 15 minutes late is totally acceptable. The rain is a convenient excuse to stretch that further... as if it was some kind of rare phenomenon and not a common experience of life in the tropics.
Well back to the plot.
Today all mother nature's foul mood was forgiven. My view is normally pretty good. Today it was fabulous. The skyline, usually a plain concrete grey on sky blue, was superimposed on a backdrop of glorious white mountainous clouds.
It was breathtaking.
Labels: personal, singapore
There's an urban myth that illegal Mexican immigrants were being found frozen in the middle of the Southern California desert. How could anyone freeze in the heat? Answer: they were hiding in the wheel wells of jumbo jets, freezing to death and then falling out on a landing approach.
Welcome to my wheel well.
It's
raining again. So I'm freezing my butt of in my office because the aircon cannot adjust for the fact there isn't sun streaming through the windows. It's like an English winter – gloomy and cold. Outside it's probably 82°F ... but that's about 4° below normal so indoors it's about 60°F. Everyone is in jackets and sweaters in the office and I'm considering bringing a space heater back with me from Canada when I go in two weeks. This is life in the modern tropics.
I still remember the first time I took a cab in Singapore about 12 years ago. I stepped out and immediately my glasses fogged up. That was mind blowing. My entire life, my experience of foggy glasses was when entering the house after coming in from the cold. Here you come in from the heat. When you go out, condensation sticks to every cool surface. As evidence of the barbaric conditions we're under with this lousy aircon, I even get condensation on my hands when I head home.
Anyway, before my fingers drop off from frostbite, I'm heading to the pantry for the 5th time today to run my hands under warm water. I even drank a hot chocolate today for crying out loud. I drank it with both hands cupped to the mug while shivering. I was in a Coffee Bean that was also freezing cold despite the fact their doors were wide open because it seems nobody on this island has a thermostat and everyone is destined to succumb to hypothermia if this rainy weather doesn't pass.
Labels: singapore
When I went for my singing lesson last night, I had my temperature checked at the door. I felt like a potential terrorist being padded down for a hidden weapon. Except when you don't know what the thermometer will read, you're somewhat apprehensive that you might in fact be guilty.
Tonight it will be the same story. Each choir member has to have his/her temperature checked before rehearsal at the Esplanade. One poor soul has 30 minutes to check 200 people. That's roughly one every 10 seconds. Good Luck!
We're told this is so that "everyone will feel more comfortable." We were told this Monday as we all sat in VCH together not having had a temperature check. So I'm guessing this is to make the soloists feels comfortable! Or it's simply a government requirement in order to "go on with the show."
I wonder if anyone has ever put ice in their ear to get through the check?!
It would be amusing to get a picture of the entire choir in masks. Well I think you know who wouldn't find it so funny.
We all signed sworn statement that we have not so much as looked at anyone from Hanoi, Beijing, Toronto or Hong Kong. I wanted my sister to see me perform but given that she's coming from Toronto, it's just as well she arrives a day too late.
My Esplanade Pics
Labels: singapore
