Have you tried rebooting?

Busy schedules

// November 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Blogroll

It’s been a while since I  last posted. Started my new role, and have been flat-out ever since. Numerous email’s reminding me that the domain is up for renewal prompted me to drop by to put in a few words.

It never occurred to me in my previous roles that I can ever be so sucked in to work. I have had my share of busy periods in the past, which lasts for a good week or so, but never an end-to-end string of activities. Having said that, I do have friends who have had those sort of jobs and previously I never understood how or why it wasn’t possible for them to peel away. Until recently of course!

Don’t get me wrong. I love my job. Not because I’m afraid that my bosses would read up on this blog (which I’m sure they won’t because I don’t think anybody does) but more of the fact that I have always wanted to do this. However, like all passions, we get easily sucked up into what we do and we lose track of certain things. This didn’t really occur to me, until recently when I pondered and realised that I rarely do the little things that I used to enjoy so much in the past. For example, the joy of watching 8pm sitcoms on TV, morning grocery runs before the wife wakes, early morning cuppas, just to name a few. Then I start to wonder, if everything that I do for work is worth giving up on for those little joys.

Life is short that’s what everyone says. But is it truly?

I remember when I landed my first ever job at Disney. Looking back now, no where since then have I ever had a workplace where I did not have a single day that I was actually dragging my feet to work. I kid you not! We definitely had our off days from time to time that we dread going to work, but back at Disney, I was yearning to go to work every single day. Was the pay good? It’s not good but it was enough. Life was simpler, expectations were lower and life was as good as it can be. And I don’t remember having to work a single minute after 5pm. We even had the flexibility to work till 7pm from Monday to Thursday and would have made enough hours to take the Friday off!

It is because of ambitions and dreams that I decided that I needed to try something else and move away from Sydney.

So if you ask me today if its worth it… It’s a resounding YES.

However, I try to not lose sight of things too much. If you observe the people that have made it from rags-to-riches, you will realised that no matter how achieved or wealthy they are today, we  still see them hanging out at their favourite hawker stalls lining up like the rest of us…

Singapore Breakfast All Day – Wild Honey, Mandarin Gallery

// March 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // Blogroll, Food, Singapore

Nothing beats waking up on a Saturday morning after a hard week’s work to a nice cuppa and breakfast with fresh morning breeze in your face and warm sunshine on your skin. Something I sorely miss from my days in Sydney. My favourite Saturday hangouts back then were Campos and Urban Bites.

When I moved to Singapore, I enjoyed a style of breakfast which I’d always had growing up. Kaya butter toast, half boiled eggs and steamy hot Teh C. Love it as a daily breakkie for my Mon-Fri grind days, but come the Saturday or Sunday, I still prefer the usual hearty westernized breakfast like I used to love in Australia. So I set out in search for a similar joint in Singapore, and after 2 years, I finally found something worthy! (tried and tested many, none made the cut… )

The place is known as “Wild Honey”. It is located right smack on Orchard Road in a new shopping mall, Mandarin Gallery. This place serves up a variety of breakfasts classified by countries. For example, they have an Italian themed breakfast with frittata, fontina cheese, and tomato. Then they have a Tunisian breakfast with chorizo, eggs and tomato stew. Besides these 2, they have Japanese, English, Mexican and California just to name a few. They don’t have menus and you self-order at the counter. Alternatively, their pictorial menus are loaded onto 2 x iPod Touch near the ordering counter. This is really borderline funky / annoying. It is a fairly small joint, so it is best to go early to put your name down and go for a stroll. Coffee is fairly good at Wild Honey. They use Australian Roasted Vittoria Coffee, which I’m used to. However, I must say that the serving sizes aren’t all that huge, and you don’t really get to customise your breakfast anyhow you want it (or at least I didn’t try, pretty much just the sets). While the breakfast is good, they also don’t have the Aussie favourite. Vegemite toast and maybe a bacon and egg sandwich topped with BBQ sauce.

For me, this is as close as it gets to “fresh morning breeze and warm sunshine with good breakfast”, or if you prefer “cool air-conditioning and warm downlights with good food”. I do highly recommend this place. And btw, did I mentioned that breakfast is “ALL DAY”?! Enjoy.

Wild Honey
Mandarin Gallery,
Orchard Road, Singapore.
Telephone: +65 62353900

www.wildhoney.com.sg

Note : Didn’t bring my camera, so I just nicked photos from their site.

Tom N Toms Coffee, ICON Village Singapore

// December 30th, 2009 // 9 Comments » // Blogroll, Singapore

Recently, the F&B shops in ICON Village Tanjong Pagar were refreshed as part of a move by the management to make it a cooler/hip place to be.

One noobie was a Korean coffee chain called “TOM N TOMS COFFEE”. I was a little suss initially about it, given that the tagline for this store was screaming “Korea’s Famous Coffee”, and (seriously) Korea isn’t all that known for being the greatest coffee in the world. Anyhow, gave them a fair chance given that I love coffee.

Tom N Toms Coffee, ICON Village

Ordered a Cappucino and Plain Pretzel (given that it was on special) with Honey Mustard dippings.

The cappucino tasted fairly ordinary, but I must say they made good with the frothed milk (close to Campos in Newtown). However, what surprised me was the pretzel! I was half expecting the commercial pretzels like Aunty Anne’s, soggy and bunched up dough, but this was fluffy and most importantly baked fresh. It tasted even more heavenly with honey mustard. Yum…

Apparently, they have another branch at Far East Plaza. So if you guys are around Tanjong Pagar or Far East Plaza, do swing by and grab yourself one of these yummy pretzels.