I met up with a couple of friends this evening to try out some Middle Eastern food, in a quest to find ‘dodgy’ food places that are not usually noticed by locals. Located in a quiet corner of Pahang Street, I took a while to find it. Heck, fact that the only street sign I saw was the words “Pahang Street” scrawled on a wall nearby speaks a lot doesn’t it?

Anyhow, I digress. The food was filling, and I loved everything that I got for my set meal. The eggplant hummus dip needs special mention, and the main course ( I had a delicious lamb dish) was filling and satisfying as well. Do check it out if you pop by the area next time!

I had to go into our wonderful little resort island of Sentosa yesterday for a friend’s wedding, but didn’t have the complimentary entry pass with me (left it with the wife, who was coming later). As we approached the gantry, I was getting ready to pay the entrance fee to get on the island, when the taxi driver turned around and told me not to worry: he would save me the $2.

I was just wondering how he was intending to do that when he slowed down for the gantry, wound down the window, pointed at me, and said one word: “Golf!”.

Right. Golf. Me in my new dress shirt, tie, and best suit (which I hadn’t worn since my own wedding 5 years ago).

They waved us through.

This, I have to remember for next time. Maybe in a few years, I’ll just have to shout “gambling!” and they’ll let me through again.

What do people dress up as for Halloween? Spotted at last night’s Virtual Insanity party:

• 2 gladiators
• a Disney-esque princess
• 2 belly-dancers
• a ninja
• Emily the Strange
• a pair of Al Capone-esque mobsters
• a Vietcong soldier
• a biker dude
• a pirate
• a junior college student and convent schoolgirl
• Phua Chu Kang! (though sans mole and bad perm)
• Morticia Addams
• Jason from Friday the 13th
• several cowboys, including one outfitted with a stuffed horse-head from Ikea, and a cowgirl (me)

I think the Emily the Strange outfit won the prize hands-down for the most spot-on and self-assembled get-up.

Over supper at the Beo Crescent Teochew moi (porridge) place later, there were a couple other people with blood-and-gore-smeared faces. Pretty surreal for Tiong Bahru at 2 am.

Besides the usual costume shops, it seems that Far East Plaza was a good place to hit for D-I-Y costumes. The friend of mine who came as a vampire bought the entire outfit at Lips. Lips! I haven’t been there since I was in secondary school in the late ’80s.

Edited to add (Nov 1):
For more Halloween goodness, check out these posts in the Metblog family: blogging.la, Berlin, Lahore, NYC and, on a sadly tragic note, San Francisco.

Jer invited me to Loof many months ago, when he met up with Nat and Jasmeet for drinks one night. Well, I didn’t manage to join them but I finally made my way there last night with a couple of friends. Pretty decent open-aired bar at the top of Odeon Towers, and thankfully there wasn’t any haze to spoil the night air.

I’ll probably be going there more often in future.

It’s been a month since the IMF/World Bank delegates packed up their meeting and went home, which means it’s time to tear up all the expensive landscaping and resume construction downtown. The bulldozers and other heavy equipment are somewhat camouflaged among the remaining foliage in this picture, but trust me, if you knew how much the Singapore government spent on landscaping and you walked by this construction site downtown, you’d stop in your tracks in disbelief too.

Meanwhile, Xmas decorations have popped up along Orchard Road already, even though it’s only October. At the Raffles City end of things, the theme seems to be poinsettia, poinsettia and more poinsettia. Very tasteful, very red — but where’s the mistletoe, I ask?

…we’re finally getting a break from the haze. At least for today, that is.

The skies actually look clear from my office window (when the PSI hits above 70 or so, buildings in the distance start “disappearing”), and the NEA says that the PSI has been in the 30s for most of today.

Cause for celebration indeed!

On the way to work today, I spotted a Brahminy Kite perched on a railing by a monsoon drain. It’s quite rare to see a bird of prey next to a busy expressway, and it’s always exciting to see one so close up. As a former amateur birdwatcher (a childhood hobby which I didn’t continue into adulthood) I get the impression that the number of birds in our urban areas has increased in recent years.
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Here’s a happy new year to all our muslim friends out there. May you have a wonderful year ahead!

Today was the opening of my friend Jeff Chouw’s exhibition on Member of Parliament for Potong Pasir Chiam See Tong’s sixth electoral win in May this year. I have to admit that I don’t know Jeff that well, which is why I didn’t even know he had been working on this until I received an invite through a mutual friend a few weeks ago.

As Jeff explained in his opening speech, he thought it was important to document for posterity Mr Chiam’s electoral campaign and eventual win. As Mr Chiam (who was guest of honour at today’s opening) added, the win was a historic event because the dominant People’s Action Party sent its “big guns” down to campaign in Potong Pasir constitutency, dangling an $80 million housing upgrading packaging before the residents — yet 55.82% of the voters turned their noses at the “deal” and voted Chiam back in anyway.
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Whatever you say about dinner at Ristorante da Valentino, you can’t say they aren’t generous with their portions.

From the hearty appetizers (we should’ve ordered fewer of them) to the rucola-covered pizza to the superlative Fiorentine bisteccona (grilled steaks, enough for 2-3 persons), we had easily enough food for eight people at our table of five — and that was before we ordered dessert.
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