Long Brunch On A Long Weekend

Thanks to Deepavali (though I don’t really understand the complete story/essence of it), it’s a long weekend!  Hence, I managed to have a “stressless” day which commenced with a long brunch at Mercure Hotel with my flatmate – pizza, pasta, varieties of cheese and wine!

After a short nap (thanks to the heavy meal, I felt sleepy immediately), the day ended in Haji Lane with fellow Pinoys.  The culinary treat continued with seafood nasi goreng (plus extra plain rice), chili prawns, Grey Goose and Kilkenny.

Tomorrow’s gonna be another food day perhaps…  Will have to sleep after this post so I can immediately wake up to another round of “yummy” / “delicious” / “sarap”!  :P

The Cup That Signals “Christmas”

Finally, these special cups are out!  Back home, it had been an annual activity to collect Starbucks purchase stamps from Nov-Dec to get hold of that elusive “planner” after gulping at least 21 (if my memory serves me right) cups of coffee.  Unfortunately, the same promo was not implemented in Indonesia while I was there, and is also not done here in Singapore (hmmm…  Pinoy lang ba ang nauuto ng promo na to?!  hahaha!).

Anyway, the more important element to it is what it signals, i.e. the best season of the year!  For now, there remains 49 days before the grand celebration – can’t wait for it…  perhaps because it automatically means that I would be home, I would not be working, I would be with family and friends, I would be sharing and receiving gifts, I would be…  the list can go on and on and on!  :)

I Love Singapore # 1

“I Love Singapore…  because of Ya Kun!”.  After discovering one of the many branches of this heritage-coffee-stall-brand near my office building, my trip to the joint became a Monday-Thursday morning habit.  What’s even more interesting is that my order did not change since day one – Kaya Toast and regular coffee (except that one day when I experimented by having the peanut butter toast, which unfortunately, did not tickle my fancy).  And another amazing angle is that the “auntie” facilitating the order-taking and cashier-handling has been the same person since day one – hence, my order is now just triggered by a smile and a spoken “good morning, auntie” and she will automatically punch in my “usual”.

While I’m quite adventurous in food (especially in trying anything and everything), my daily breakfast had been so monotonous – and I love it that way.  To put a minimal twist to it, I’m absent on the stall every Fridays though…  Why?  Well, coz it’s time for a once-a-week trip in Starbucks for my tall/grande hazelnut non-fat latte and original bagel with cream cheese (which by the way, had been my “regular” Starbucks beverage for nearly 12 years now!).

Personal insight: “In a fast and continuously changing world, it is refreshing and comforting to know that there are things that remain and will forever stay constant!”.  :)

Touch It (For Days) and It’s Yours!

Just saw an interesting marketing stunt along Orchard Road this evening.

The mechanics is pretty simple – contenders just need to touch a car (well, for four days though) and the last man touching it brings the car home!  When I passed by, they were there for 32 hours already and from what I’ve heard, the contestants were given only a very short time for break periods (perhaps only to address “call of nature”…  made me think now, won’t they sleep for four long days?!).  Also heard that this is now an annual on-ground activation done by the automobile brand – for sure the previous rounds had been successful, thus, the repeat!

Call it a profound sacrifice, perseverance and commitment…  for a brand new car, why not?!  :)

 

Search for the last man "touching"

Yup, they all want the car!

Magazines for November 2010

Just before I officially end the weekend, I made a trip to Takashimaya-Orchard Road to have a much needed haircut (thanks to my “official” stylist, Celia of Reds – she now knows what to do even without me saying a word), pick up a new set of earplugs (the current one broke down on me last week) and make a trip to Kinokuniya – not to buy new books as I still have a couple to finish, but grab new mag issues for November 2010.

Bought three titles (since based on record, I can only finish three in a month – tried having six per month previously and the other three just got eaten by dust!) and all of them seems to have quite interesting contents.  First is “Time Out” (a staple buy since I was in Jakarta, but this time I’m getting Singapore – for obvious reasons), main highlight is the new dessert/sweet (literally, that is) joints in the island.  Second is “Marketing” – a first time buy for me, got quite intrigued with the cover story which features the CMO of Old Spice who was responsible for the brand’s advert this year which became a fairly huge hit in social network sites (remember the guy riding a horse?).  And lastly, “GQ” US Edition – yes, this is the issue which has a pretty controversial cover – the main cast of “Glee” portrayed quite differently compared with their characters in the hit TV series (do get a copy and check out page 155 – will make you wonder what else Lea Michele can do in the coming episodes!).

For immediate reference...

 

 

Back After More Than Four Months

Charge it to laziness combined with a slew of toxic days that escalated to weeks, that turned into months – tis the reason why I was absent from my own blog site for more than 4 months!  Anyway, I forced myself to get back to this and I’m glad that I am now…  Coincidentally (or not), I also decided to re-activate my very dormant Twitter account today – for no apparent reason, it just got to me after I heard mass (was it an inspiration from God?! – nah, I don’t think so).  Boredom perhaps, as I was waiting for a cab to arrive and there’s nuthin much that I can fiddle around with on my BB.  :P

Bottomline, I am so back in the cyberspace and I will do my very best to be more committed in religiously updating this – same way as I was a couple of years back (hmmm…  what happened that marked the difference?!  oh well…).  And not to forget (note to self, actually), the theme of my blog is picking up “life defining” bits – big or small, lame or profound, simple or complicated and not picking up “angst” and magnifying it!  :)

Hence, back to normal – Joseph is alive again and this time, reloaded!!!