Angel

Here is my older cat. She's a chinchilla (which is a kind of a persian) She's a little bit less sociable, more quiet, more poised, has her mood swings, and thinks she can open doors just by staring at them.

Staring, staring, staring.

Nirai Kanai Okinawan Restaurant

Was first introduced to Nirai Kanai by my ex-boss-lady Pat Law. It's now so close to my office that I eat there pretty often but I really only order 2 things from there.

According to trusty ol' Wikipedia,

Okinawan cuisine is very different from mainland Japanese cuisine due to difference in culture, climate, vegetables and other ingredients between Okinawa and mainland Japan. Okinawan cuisine incorporated influence from Chinese cuisine and Southeast Asian cuisine due to trade.

As you can see, the interior is pretty quaint and cute. Reminiscent of an old Japanese diner (I suppose, I wouldn't know any better.)



Chu-hi x Calpis drink - $9



One of the only dishes I order - bitter gourd with tofu and pork.



The other dish I always order - stewed pork.





Jo and I ordered 2 meals - the bittergourd one cost about $15 and the stewed pork set about $18? Each came with rice, miso soup, peanut tofu, pickles and this absolutely yummy salted miso something which went really well with the rice.



Peanut tofu in sweet soy sauce made for a very refreshing appetizer!



Beef carpaccio, about $18. SUPER GOODNESS. A little too much for 2 people.



Ended it off with a good ume on the rocks :)

The entire meal for 2 (2 sets, 1 beef carpaccio, 4 drinks) set us back by $86.50.

Nirai Kanai Okinawan Restaurant

2 locations:

177 River Valley Road
#B1-01/02 Liang Court Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6339 4811

Opening hours:
Mon - Fri: 12-3pm, 6-11pm
Sat - Sun: 12-11pm

19 Tanglin Road
#04-05 Tanglin Shopping Centre
Singapore 247909
Tel : +65 6737 5811

Opening hours:

Lunch : 12-3pm (Mon-Sat); no lunch on Sundays
Dinner : 6pm to midnight (Mon-Thu); 6pm - 2am (Fri-Sat); 5pm to midnight (Sun)

Broun Cafe

Popped by Broun Cafe for lunch! It's just opposite Hong Lim Park, nearest MRT is Clarke Quay. Food was not bad, ambience was great, and NO LUNCH CROWD hurhur.





Broun supports local musicians - you can see that their CDs are up for sale there, and they host Broun Sessions on Wednesday - Saturday evenings, 7.30pm til 9.30pm.



Simple, grungy decor.



This miso pork shoulder stew ($14) was really good! Came with brown rice. 2 sunny side up eggs acted as a "cover" that unveiled porky porky goodness. A tad salty.



L: Bangers and Mash ($14), R: Mushroom & Pumpkin Wrap ($10), Grilled Pork & Pineapple Sandwich ($9)





Add $5 to get a drink (ice lemon tea / honey lemon, hot or cold) and a dessert too (brownie / carrot cake). Eh. I got bored and started doodling with the chocolate sauce.

AAANDDD. no service charge. yey.

Broun Cafe

36 North Canal Road
Singapore 059292

Opening hours :
Mon – Tues: 11:00 am-3:30 pm
Wed – Thurs: 11:00 am-9:30 pm
Fri – Sat: 11:00 am-11:00 pm

The Best Way to Beat Insomnia

I need to share this sleep inducing app.

Now before you get all apeshit and say STEPH how can you be so gullible. Let me share my experience.

It's the most effective sleep inducing thing okay, and trust me I've tried close to everything, from drinking chamomile tea to warm milk to melatonin (no effect :<) to dousing myself in wine (okay, quite effective.).

The story goes something like this:

One night I was up, like at 3 or 4, not being able to sleep because I was too awake. Happens pretty frequently. So I tweeted something about not being able to sleep.

Zhili tweeted back, asking me to try this app.

I was doubting it (sorry Zhili) and told her I was too lazy to download it.

After about 20 mins of tossing and turning, I decided that I should try it. No harm right? So I downloaded SleepStream2 (free version...) and selected "deep sleep" or something along those lines. I heard the sound of rain playing through my speakers.

5 minutes later, I was asleep.

NO KIDDING.



It's crazy man. I've used it thrice so far and it hasn't failed me. I haven't fully figured out how to use it but hey, whatever works as long as I get to sweet sweet slumber. It states that it's designed for headphones but it sure as hell works through an iPhone speaker.

If you find yourself unable to sleep at certain godforsaken hours in the morning, or super sleepy in the office but find it impossible to take a power nap cos you take too long to fall asleep, try this app.





You can pick from different sounds! My favorite is... rain. You can even go into details like distant thunder, on tent, in city...



Use the app for naps, and apparently meditation and learning (?). Powernaps are great with this - you fall asleep easily and wake up gently with the timer and alarm funciton.

From their website:

Studies suggest that a power-nap can raise energy levels by 30% and be as effective as three hours of normal sleep. A Power-nap is a short sleep session which terminates before deep sleep (or slow wave, delta sleep) occurs. Scientific experiments show that an average power-nap duration of 20 minutes is most effective.

SleepStream's timer function makes it easy to enjoy power-naps! Simply engage the timer and alarm button, and SleepStream will gently wake you after your session has ended.

They even have calming pics on their visualizer. I am too lazy to rotate.

Here they sort of explain what the sorcery is:





From Wiki:

Binaural beats or binaural tones are auditory processing artifacts, or apparent sounds, the perception of which arises in the brain for specific physical stimuli. This effect was discovered in 1839 by Heinrich Wilhelm Dove, and earned greater public awareness in the late 20th century based on claims that binaural beats could help induce relaxation, meditation, creativity and other desirable mental states. The effect on the brainwaves depends on the difference in frequencies of each tone: for example, if 300 Hz was played in one ear and 310 in the other, then the binaural beat would have a frequency of 10 Hz.

Quite cheem ah. I still don't really understand. You can get more info at their website.

Just try, let me know if it works.

Sleep well!!!

Hello, meet Ivan.

Hello, world. Meet Ivan. He takes photos. I like the variety of what I get on his site. Here are some awesome wedding ones - click on the images to view more from the same set!

About death

The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating...and you finish off as an orgasm.

George Carlin

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

T.S. Eliot

ANYHOW PASTE KENA FINE

Seen these around?







They were the brainchild(ren) of an artist that goes by the moniker SKL0. (Photos from her tumblr.) Just found out that she was behind this brilliance today. And there I was, thinking it was some pretty cool gahmen initiative. Anyway, today she suay suay tio liak (kena caught).

(Guess our gahmen really not so cool.)

Granted it's illegal - "The case is classified as Vandalism under Section 3 of the Vandalism Act, Chapter 341. A person who is convicted for the offence shall be punished with a fine not exceeding $2000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding to 3 years and shall be liable to caning."

Knowing our country, a law is a law is a law, we just follow law. and examples have to be made.

BUT STILL, She stirred something up in us Singaporeans. Injected a little humor in our otherwise blah lives. Gave us something to smile about. She's the reason why "MY GRANDFATHER ROAD" is trending on Twitter right now. People identify, people enjoy, people sarkpork.

At most tio fine and give warning lah...

Anyway. Good luck, SKL0. If you ever read this. Respect.

I don't think she has any regrets.



In fact, she could've seen it coming.

Download her stuff here - http://skl0.tumblr.com/download. There, you will also find the infamous LIMPEH sticker. Go on, stick them all over the Internet - mai ham, you won't kena jail or fine.

PS -

PRESS TO RELEASE:

Sign the petition here.
Get a picbadge here. 

The Loft

Food was alright - ordered my normal coffee: flat white. Wasn't too full bodied. Shared a breakfast platter (about $14++) with my boss - it's good for 2. I liked that it came with a variety of stuff; what gets better than a bit of everything to start the day? 2 eggs (done however you want), 2 buttermilk pancakes (which were awesome), 2 halves of a grilled tomato, 2 slices of ham (tasted like spam), fresh salad with vinaigrette, 1 peppery sausage, 1 bacon, muesli with yoghurt. Everything was okay, save the pancakes.

Half hearted food review! Didn't plan to do one. I don't even have pics of the place. You can find some at their official site. The Loft was rebranded from Echo Loft - previously a food, music, art space. Think they've done it up quite well... It's basically a great place to chill, they have quite a big area, seats for various sizes of groups, sofas as well, some window side seats. Located in a shophouse space. They even have a kiddy area with toys. Will take photos if I go again. Seems like a good place for meetings or meals for families with kiddos.

A picture of Muffin to make up for it.



The Loft Cafe
268A South Bridge Road
(off Smith Street) Singapore 058817
Tel: 65 6221 2103

Operating hours
Monday
9:00am – 3:00pm
Tuesday – Sunday
9:00am – 10:00pm

Best SYTYCD audition. Ever.

http://youtu.be/cxYm36HVUmU

So heartwarming! <3

http://youtu.be/e5afnMoj1_E

and if you'd like to watch the entire dance, Amelia just pointed me to her rehearsal clip - in a room filled with toddlers. :) made me smile!

Nails and manicures.

I would sadly like to say, that my nails are super ugly.



Looking on the bright side, they're very low maintenance. I don't even bother spending on manicures because they're beyond rescue. BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I CAN'T APPRECIATE NICE NAILS. I'm always slightly jelly I don't get to experiment with different polishes (crackle! magneto!! all sorts now!) and draw cute things on them. So I've been living vicariously through Pinterest. (My board is titled "If I had nice nails", not even kidding.) All these nicely manicured nails!! If you have nice nails please go forth and indulge them.

Digging matte metallic:

 

Monotones:

 

Simple designs:

 

Psychedelic colours:

 



Cute stuff (including the totoro ones on top!)

  

aren't they all so pretty. :< i also want.