Curry Favor

Dropped by for dinner. Had the Chicken Curry Stew. The curry comes in normal or spicy. I chose the normal one. Nonetheless, had 2 bites of the spicy curry. First taste was before eating my own dish. i thought the spiciness level was quite low. 2nd taste was after i finished my whole plate of curry and left with 2 spoons of rice, so i added some of YZ's curry. My mouth nearly exploded! Think i was too accustomed to the bland normal curry so the spicy one came as a shocker.

Anyway both curry are nothing to scream about. The tonkatsu is nicer at Liang Court while my mum cooks much nicer chicken curry stew!

Manchu Mania

It was MADNESS at ACM today cos of the open house. Longggg queue to the Kangxi exhibition. Overheard it was 45min queue to enter Kangxi! i just wanted to just look at the last few portraits i missed on the last trip. Luckily i already know the way and managed to sneak in through the back door. *wink wink*

Also finally managed to visit the other galleries which are so deserted in comparison. i wouldn't dare to enter those galleries if i'm alone! Some of them really gave me the creeps!

Was and am still really impressed by the Kangxi exhibition. Really scrutinise the Birthday Scroll in detail today. The scroll illustrates Kangxi's 60th birthday celebrations. The original was lost and the one shown is a copy of the original painting. The scroll is really long - 80m and is divided into 2 handrolls. Only 10m of the second handroll is unveiled in the exhibition. Really wowed by the details of the scroll. e.g. officials giving out 寿桃, artistes doing makeup backstage. The best detailing is on the robes worn by the court officials. i really like the 寿 pattern imprint on some of the robes. Simply awesome! You really have got to see it! DO pay and visit it one of these days.

[Sidenote] Also dropped by the Verandah Cafe for lunch. There was no chef's special this weekend... And the music's different. Somehow the whole mood changed and there isn't that out-of-Singapore feeling... and the food today is disappointing...

Departures (おくりびと)

Elegant
Beautiful
Poignant
Light-hearted
Sombre

Get ready the Kleenex!

What Is This?

Botan (Revisited)

Wanted to maintain that relaxing mood for the day. Decided to stay away from the usual crowded shopping malls. Wanted to try out Curry Favor at Stamford House but we couldn't decide if curry is "heaty" or not cos both YZ and i are watching our diets.

So decided to visit this Jap restaurant again. Ordered the chicken teriyaki set ($18++). Really value for money. Consist of the chicken (of course), sashimi, chawanmushi, side dish, miso soup, rice and fruits. Whoa! i've managed to finish it all (ok, except for half a bowl of rice)! :p

Crappy photo and YZ's tonkatsu set is in the background.

The Kangxi Emperor: Treasures from the Forbidden City

Had wanted to see this special exhibition when i learnt about it from the papers. Was really excited the whole week and looking forward to the weekend cos of this. hehe. Had decided to pay for admission rather than waiting for the open house cos from my experience open houses are really crowded. Although guided tours are not starting till 2weeks later, we still decided to go ahead anyway. Was really pleasantly surprised and we can't believe our luck when we learnt that weekend guided tours is starting today! (weekday tours only from Apr) YAY! And the best part is cos we had stayed quite a while at The Verandah Cafe, we were just in time for the next (and last) guided tour which starts like one minute after we got the tickets. Simply awesome! Cool!

Some really rare items are on show in the region for the first time. You could see the items are really well preserved from the strong vibrant colours. My fav are the long scrolls and the intricate detailing on the portraits of Kangxi and Shunzi Emperors. Unbelievable thing is we couldn't finish the exhibition despite spending 4 hours there till lights are out! Cos we really read every single explanation and scrutinise each exhibit. Would have to drop by another day to finish up the 3 portraits or so... hehe... and i realised that i did not visit the permanent galleries after so many visits to ACM... Will do so in my Kangxi trail (Part 2)! :p

The Kangxi Emperor exhibition is at ACM from 13 Mar - 14 Jun 09. Lots of open houses ahead. Admission charge $8. Students go in free (*envy*) while Passion cardholders enjoy 50% off (yay! better than nothing).

The Verandah Cafe @ ACM

Had decided to drop by this cafe for lunch before embarking on our journey to the forbidden city! A very nice quaint place at the back of ACM. It has that totally out of Singapore feeling while dining at the cafe. Very European-ish / small-town Japanese cafe. It does help that we were seated at the best table in the 24 seater cafe. Next to a window overlooking the Singapore River. And most of the people who came into the cafe are angmohs. It eludes a quiet charm and relaxing ambience that you can just nuah there the whole day! aww.... (^^,)

Food was surprising good though the selection was quite limited. i had the Chef's Special ($7+) which happened to be grilled chicken and mashed potato. Added $3 for soup of the day and tea to make it a set.

Such a charming little place, i would definitely come back again! Too bad the mood and atmosphere can't be captured in a photo. You really have to be here to experience it! We spent almost an hour and a half at the place and maybe probably longer if the sun has not shine onto us. :p

Seafood chowder but there are more vegetables in it than seafood. But i quite like the hearty chunks of vege!

i like the chicken. The mashed potato is quite nice too. It has garlic mixed in it so it's not as plain as it looks. The funny thing is the food here has that "artificial" steam that gives a false impression that it is steaming hot. "Artificial" cos it is not that hot.

You know you are Really ill when...

... (when) the doctor gives you medicine that is 见不得光 and the dosage goes from 3 or 4 times daily to once daily! Been ill for the past 2 weeks... The longest i have been sick! It's taking way too long to recover! Well, partly cos of my "miraculous" recovery whenever i was at the doc's so i always don't seem as ill as i was when i see him. (-_-") So this is my THIRD visit in 2 weeks! He finally gave me some stronger medicine and antibiotics to clear my super blocked nose and throat with the yo-yo mucus (cos it went from clear to green/yellow to clear to green again. Yep! i'm monitoring...). Hope the wheezing will finally stop. i haven't been this asthmatic since my one and only adverse allergic reaction. i do hope that it is not bronchitis so that i don't need to go for chest x-ray. Well, at least i don't have a fever or i might have to go for blood tests as my concerned boss suggested... (x_X) But i think i had better get a flu vaccine when i've recovered! *ouch!*

Suspect X (容疑者Ｘの献身)

Planned to catch this movie in the afternoon somewhere in town but only front row seats left. Ended up spending lots on food and watching it at GV Tiong Bahru in the evening instead. And the theatre isn't even half full! So you know where to get seats on weekends!

Typical jap movie with no big ups and downs and it's such a simple but ingenius story. すごい! Fukuyama Masaharu is looking cooler than ever and oh that detective played by Kitamura Kazuki is the master in Tenchijin.

[Sidetrack] <<天地人>> (Tenchijin) is NHK's 48th 大河ドラマ and the first Jap historical drama i'm watching... well cos of its main lead Tsumabuki Satoshi! :p

Don't Hate Me Cos I've Got a Seat

Ever since my private chauffeur retired last year, i no longer get rides to work. (Hence i'm always late now. Well, that's besides the point!) i figured it just isn't cost effective for me to drive myself to work so i had to content to becoming sardine every morning. Is it just me but the trains' overcrowding issues are really getting from bad to worse. The line near my house got extended last week. The original BL station is still as crowded as before during evening peak. The crowd during morning peak just got promulgated down the line by SUPER ks commuters who would spend their time riding 1 or even 2 stops to the new terminal station before starting their journey to the east... (-_-")

Me? Cos i'm stuck smack in the middle of 2 stations, walking to and fro BL is the faster, programmed-into-my-sub-conscious and more logical route. But since my private chauffeur can still drive me to the nearest station, my smart choice would be to the new P station! But it seems that everyone else thinks that they are smart too... cos the train would already be packed by the time it reached BL and you can see the look of disbelief and bewilder on those swarming in. You mean there are SO many people staying near the 2 new stations!? It won't be long till the whole crowd at BL starts to learn the trick of heading west before east... Till then... Don't hate me just because i've got a seat and you have not! :p