TGIF Specials 24: Hot Virgin Oil @ Porn's

Hot virgin oil?!

The fact that the restaurant was called Porn's is an irony not lost on me...

Walking and observing the wildlife

I have been walking a lot more. Trying to pass my health test next month *roll eyes*. I used to study and practise exercises to pass exams, and now I exercise to pass health exam. I downloaded a pedometer (please get your head out of the gutter), and I have been using it to drive myself to walk more. Swimming is out for the time being, so I have to rely on walking. (Yes, I notice that I keep going on and on about it. Must have been effects of too much sun on the brain)

It's pretty fun actually, because I spend the time checking out the wildlife as well. As I was telling Mr Bear, as we were walking, I have seen so far:

• 3 monkeys
• 3 snakes (1 live green one, 1 flattened green one, 1 black one)
• 7 squirrels (2 of them horny males chasing 1 female, plus 4 more eating nuts. Could be the same squirrels)
• 1 rooster (don't know how he got there. Never saw him again. Could have been in someone's curry)
• 2 mice (eww)

The squirrels have been quite funny. Here's one eating a nut upside down. I didn't manage to catch another one on camera eating a nut upside down along the stem of a signboard.

Me: Is this a dead snake?
Mr Bear: I think it is a snake skin.
Me: I don't think so. There seems to be bits coming out from the side. Ewww.

See the extremely bright green "rope"?

This was the most disturbing one of all. This afternoon we were walking past the traffic light on our way up the hill, when I saw a bleeping green snake slithering its way up a tree. Less than 2 metres from the pavement. Scary. But I think it is a harmless snake.

Googling it, I found out that it is called a oriental whip snake. Only slightly venomous, but not to humans, according to one site.

It was all about portion control... Shrove Tuesday

Miss Bear decided to starve me into submission, by ordering only 1 tofu dish, and 1 vegetable dish (she vetoed my suggestion to contaminate the vegetables with any form of meat). Later, she commented drily, "do you think you the waitress think we are vegetarians?"

Gee. You think?

Very amazing spaces style

I thought she might be controlling the portions because we were going to have waffles, though I told her if she wanted me to eat at Creamier, she should just haul me out to ze barn and shoot me between the eyes. 1st of all, it is more overhyped than the rest of the overhyped gelato shops, next, why the fuck must I queue to buy ice-cream, then queue for seats? It's insane.

But like I said, I was starved into submission, so we tried out another gelato shop further down, near Braddell MRT station, called Shrove Tuesday (no idea why. There was a great wall of text explaining why but I couldn't be bothered to read it). 

We chose Baked apple caramel (me) and Roche (her)

I like the shop design. It is very eclectic, Amazing Spaces style. Roche was basically ground hazelnuts (flavor, but no actual nut) mixed with chocolate, while baked apple caramel tasted pretty sticky but ok. I could tell that Miss Bear preferred my choice, because she kept eating mine instead of hers. But the most amazing part is how they spin the waffles. These gelato shops claim that by using a yeast batter they can create crispy batter but the reality is that since it is yeast batter, the batter rises so they earn more while incurring lesser material cost.

Exiting the shop, we saw a little shop at the opposite block. It was selling traditional waffles and ice-cream separately. I remarked to Miss Bear how ironic that that shop had 0 customers when it was selling the exact same thing and cheaper too. Lovely juxtaposition of cheap yet less appreciated versus expensive yet hyped. We are such suckers for packaging.

[Batam 2014] A&W - the original Creamier

So in lieu of traveling far this year, Bobo and I decided to take a short weekend trip to Batam to relax. Unfortunately I was true to form, and wouldn't relax, choosing to travel around Batam instead of resting at the resort. If you travel from Singapore to Batam, NEVER buy the trip from a tour guide when you can buy a coupon for it. After researching for days, I chose the deals.com.sg coupon over the groupon one because (1) it was cheaper (2) had free bus transfer, otherwise pay S$5 in 1 direction/person (3) free bowling game (4) free foot reflexology/massage. Good deal right?

The deals.com.sg coupon we got entitled us to one free bus transfer, so we used that on the first day we got to Batam after dropping off our gear. The resort bused us to Nagoya Hill Mall, where it is said by many Singaporean tourists, that you haven't traveled to Batam if you didn't worship at the A&W idol's paws.

The Beary God

Oh, A&W, how we mourn the loss of your waffle and root bear float on our tiny shores, subjecting us to the fate of overpriced waffles and ice cream made with flour at over-hyped gelato shops.

I must admit it was tremendously strange to eat chicken with rice and no veggies.

Ate with the fingers. Dish didn't come with utensils.

Of course the meal was not complete without the Pièce de résistance, La Waffle. Yumz.

[Bali 2013] Staying at Green Field, Ubud

Our room was near the pool

After the rest of Bobo's family flew home after the wedding, he and I travelled upwards to Ubud for the rest of the stay. I wanted a restful stay (disclaimer: I was not trying to eat, pray, love, though I did get preyed on by monkeys and mosquitoes). 

Stone Mushrooms. Why?

Our room door

The massive bedroom with no tv...

Balcony, to show you how close we were to the padi fields

The other side of the massive room

I could feel eyes boring at me

Oh there you are!

We stayed at Green Field, Ubud. The bellboy was showing us the room, which was in a separate building with its own path, though we seemed to be sharing some parts of it with a eater-prayer-lover long-term tourist  lady. Frankly the room gave Bobo the creeps (later it turned out that an iguana lived above our heads, and was probably the eyes staring at him). As for me, I was most disturbed by the fact that there was no television. But wait there was a huge cupboard in one corner of the room. When I pointed at it, the bellboy opened it and sort of like "ta-da", to my massive disappointment. It   was NOT a massive LED tv hiding behind the door but...

The only one who enjoyed himself

A bloody tiny fridge in the midst of all that balinese wood. I was like.... WTF!? The bellboy was a bit puzzled over my lack of excitement. I suppose most people who visit Ubud want to find themselves and not HBO. Later when we were visiting the heron colony, which was in the trees above a kampung (village), I noted sourly to Bobo that even the local villagers were richer than us, because they had a tv to watch.

More cam-whoring

Other than that, the place is gorgeous, and very restful with a lovely salt water pool (if I didn't recall wrongly). It also had beautiful flowers, bizarre garden ornaments and scary fauna. The only entertainment available was at the lounge near the lobby. But you could watch the ducks amble in and out of the flooded padi fields. Great consolation for me, because I liked ducks. For Bobo, it was like watching Bebek Bengil flexing and working out to meet his palate's satisfaction.

Having breakfast

"What are you staring at?" says the Squirrel

"What are you staring at?" says the iguana

I'm pretty sure there was something in this photo, that's why I took it. Nothing else special about coconuts.

There was a plum tree outside our room. I didn't realize that plums could grow in Bali!?!!!