We would like to apologise for the site’s downtime. During the past 1 week or so, our web hosting company has been carrying some upgrading task, including migration of servers to another site, for larger capacity, support and power. This, inevitable, has resulted in some unexpected issues that cropped up along the process. Nonetheless, the IT team has managed to resolve most, if not all, of the problems. Besides, readers are likely to experience faster and better performance. We regret for all inconvenience caused.

McDonald’s has introduced a global first for the company – online ordering in Singapore!

Note this : customers can make their delivery orders online 24hrs a day, at mcdelivery.com.sg

The web ordering system allows customers to check their order status instantaneously by entering their order number. You can also make your orders in advance, for a party or so, by specifying a preferred date and delivery time and payments can be made by visa or mastercard.

To celebrate the launch of the new initiative, they’re now giving away 10,000 sing dollars each week to one lucky customer who orders online for the first time from March 10 – April 13

So yeah, you couch potato…and Mac Fans… yeh!

For overseas Fans of the fastfood giant..don’t despair, you might get your chance some other time.

After much initial indecisiveness on where to bring my Father In Law for dinner to celebrate Father’s Day, we finally settled on Changi Village Tekong Seafood Restaurant.

Was a fantastic day. We arrived at quarter past 6, lovely sea breeze and I had a really funny girly chat with my mother in law and a little stroll just by the beach. Sea views were just breathtaking at that particular time of the day. At about half 7, my brother and sister in law arrived..We went straight to the restaurant which is conveniently located near the beach and park.

We got a table inside the restaurant, which incidentally wasn’t air conditioned. Most of us were starving by then, and we quickly picked up the menu and browsed.

We ordered a thai style fish, garlic kangkong, fried squid, Deer Meat, Cereal Prawns, Dried Chilli Diced Chicken…and a pot of chrysantenum tea to start with.

The Mainland foreign waitress served the fried squid first. it wasn’t the worst thing, but it certainly was not up to standard. It was soggy and sour, the texture tasted like the squids have been preserved and kept for some time.

The garlic kangkong came, it was a huge dish, but there wasn’t any garlic taste to it. Very watery and certainly unlike the typical garlic kangkong.

The deer meat on hot plate has to be the best dish on the table. Lovely soft texture and full flavour lean meat. Nice. The cereals prawns wasn’t disappointing too, the dried Chilli diced chicken was average.

A pot of chrysantenum tea was served and the chinese waitress kept refilling the cups and then asked if we wanted another pot. When asked if it’s free flow like most restaurants, the waitress said no. A beverage was needed and my father in law ordered another pot. We were charged at 3 sing dollars a pot and it wasn’t pure chrysantenum tea, the pot had less than a handful florets of chrysantenum, and the tea was made primarily from powder form.

finally, the long awaited thai fish was served. My mother in law, after trying it looked satisfied. She tried it again and made a brief comment that the fish was ‘powdery’. I clamped a piece with my chopsticks and knew my mother in law was right immediately when i tasted it.

We asked for a replacement and to our disappointment, after about 30mins of waiting, it hasn’t arrived. We went to the boss and demanded an explanation, but we were told that the fish would be served promptly. After another 10 mins, we approached the till counter and requested for a refund, stating the reasons that we’ve finished our dinner and we’ve waited 40mins for our replacement dish. We were given a refund after some very unpleasant verbal exchanges with the lady boss at the counter. Just then, the waitress walked out with the fish. My mother in law started eating the fish and eventually we had to make do with the replacement fish. Unfortunately, the replacement was almost equally bad, the fish was different this time, but it had a soily-oily taste to it.

I think it’s only basic courtesy to give a discount or write off the charges for the replacement. AFter all, it’s their fault for serving a fish that’s not fresh and worse, for keeping us waiting and with such a poor service attitude.

I have been to many restaurants of smaller and bigger scale and have never encountered a seafood restaurant with poorer service. There’s no basic courtesy.

Nonetheless, my father in law seems happy enough and that’s good enough I guess.

Tekong REstaurant – NO MORE.

Dengue fever has received escalating attention over the last few years in Singapore. In the recent months, the mosquito borne disease seems to back with a fierce vengeance. Raising fears and worries, according to reports, one person has died this year and numbers have crossed into warning levels beyond which a serious epidemic could occur.

The humid climate in Singapore can undoubtedly attract and cause the multiplication of these dreadful aedes mosquitoes. The female mosquito is attracted by body odours, carbon dioxide and heat emitted from animals and humans.

The aedes can breed in days. Under optimal conditions like warm and wet climate, with enough stagnant water, the egg of an Aedes mosquito can hatch into a larva in less than a day. The larva then takes about four days to develop into a pupa, and an adult mosquito will emerge from the pupa after two days. Three days after the mosquito has bitten a person and taken in blood, it will lay eggs. The cycle begins again.

The Singapore Government has taken steps and action plans in the last few years to help prevent and control the dengue condition to worsen. areas with high aedes population are checked routinely by the National Environment Agency officers, Public awareness campaigns are carried out, fines are imposed if mosquito larvae is found in households and this year 2007, an educational package including discount vouchers for anti mosquito products are to be issued to 1.2 million households.

It is important to be aware and take necessary and practical steps as recommended by the government to dengue-proof our homes and surroundings. You never know when it strikes!! Once the mosquit transmit the virus to the person, the dengue virus can incubate in a person for between 3-14 days within which most people feel well and shows no symptoms. Only after the incubation period, the person will become sickly. she will have a high fever and suffer body aches, nausea and diarrhoea. During this fever period, she can pass the virus to a second aedes mosquito when it bites her. The vicious cycle is then repeated.

Prevention is better than cure. Gear up Singaporeans! If they breed, you will bleed!

2) Hairnets start making sense to you

3) Singles with Wrinkles registration forms flood your mailbox

4) You’re leaving your entire estate to your 18 cats! HAHAHa!

5) You’re still pining over your childhood sweetheart…from kindergarten!!!

6) Any guy who buys you a drink gets it thrown back in his non-feminist face

7) You religiously forward chain mails to 6/15/23 friends or you’ll never find true love

Men you fancy always mysteriously leave the country for good.

9) The chocs and flowers from ‘Xavier’ your imaginary boyfriend of 10 years

10) The magic 8 Ball said NO when you asked if you’ll ever get married.

Went to Vivo City for the first time on Monday, got dragged there by my sister and parents.

The biggest shopping centre in Singapore, looks like i won’t be missing any UK mega brands, TOPSHOP, ZARA, Marks & Spencer, WAREHOUSE etc..You could spend the entire day there, that is, if you love shopping

Wasn’t quite in the mood to shop, so we only spent about an hr there or less.

Fantastic POSH shopping plus fabulous hang-out spots under the sun overlooking Sentosa Island…. Vivo City is certainly THE PLACE now, although i still pretty much enjoy the neighbourhood shopping areas more.

Significantly, the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer is increasing at an average of 3% annually. Women of all age groups are affected but are more common in women above 40 years old.

As the awareness for cancer heightens, there’re two major tests which women should always do to prevent and detect early signs of cancer.

1. Clinical Breast Examination.
It is important to check for breast lumps and all women should know how to conduct Breast Self Examination.

Who should go for breast examination?

• 40 years and below Monthly Breast Self Examination
  Clinical Breast Examination yearly
• 40 to 49 years Monthly Breast Self Examination
  Clinical Breast Examination yearly
  Mammogram yearly
• 50 years and above Monthly Breast Self Examination
  Clinical Breast Examination yearly
  Mammogram every 2 years

Clinical breast examination (CBE) is a physical examination of your breasts by a trained medical or health professional. CBE includes inspection (looking) and palpation (feeling) of the entire breast/chest area including the lymph node areas above and below the collarbone and under each arm.

A small percentage of breast cancers are not detected by mammography but can be felt during a clinical breast examination. Therefore, it is important that a woman should have done both her mammogram and clinical breast examination.

Every women should do a self examination every month after their menstrual period. It is a good habit to cultivate and should you detect any lumps or have any doubts, do visit a doctor before it’s too late.

2. It is also important to do a PAP smear test.

This screening test can detect pre-cancerous changes or early cancer in the cervix. In its early stage, cervical cancer can be completely cured by simple treatment.

What is a Pap smear?
During a vaginal examination, a specimen of cells is obtained with a spatula from the cervical lining and examined under the microscope. If the Pap smear is abnormal, further tests are needed.

Who needs the Pap smear and how often should it be done?
All sexually active women between 20 and 70 years of age are advised to go for a Pap smear regularly. An initial smear is performed once a woman is sexually active and repeated after one year. After that, the Pap smear can be done every one to three years, as advised by the doctor.

Important : Don’t wait till it’s too late and think it’s never gonna happen to you. For more information, go to www.http://www.singaporecancersociety.org.sg/ . BE EDUCATED for your own good.

Personal/Private Online Shops
Establishing your own online shop front saves costs and you’re able to administer and design your own website. However, maintaining your own website can be tedious and requires a lot of technical expertise. It can also be difficult to establish a customer base at the beginning as the business will rely on promotional techniques via other websites. As for buying via private online shops, on the whole, one shouldn’t be too paranoid. Always check out the references if any, always try to get in touch with the seller before purchasing and avoid high risk purchasing.

Online Trading MEDIUMS
If you’re a small business or if you’re just doing a clearout or just to make a bit of pocket money in your free time, one can always sell via what i call an internet trading medium. Familiar examples would be Ebay, Ebid, Amazon.com, Ioffer.com, Yahoo Auctions, etc. Ebay is definitely one of the best, as it hits a huge audience across the world. However, it can be expensive to sell on ebay and one should always do ample research beforehand. Ebay has become very stringent in its selling regulations in the recent years and it can be tough to sell online and still make a sound profit. One has to pay listing fees and ending fees, of course, if you’re using paypal, paypal fees as well. Though so, I’ll still highly recommend selling via Ebay, from my personal experience, i find it to be rather systematic and also user friendly, and very very reliable. Most importantly, you save on promotion fees! Also, it is generally reliable and safe to sell via Ebay. On the contrary, some trading mediums can be fairly unsafe or unreliable. Ebay provides a rather supportive selling framework that protects sellers to a significant extent.

Generally, there’re a few methods to put your goods up for sale via Trading Mediums, i.e Buy-it-now, auction or negotiate on offers. Ebay and Ebid are generally auction sites although you can also choose to sell fixed price items. Ioffer is a selling and buying site where sellers and buyers can negotiate the final price. I personally had a very bad experience buying on ioffer and I will not recommend this medium to trade, especially if you wish to buy wholesale or in bulk. There is no supportive framework from Ioffer themselves if the deal goes wrong, one cannot file for a claim if the deal goes wrong, whereas in Ebay, under certain favourable circumstances, you could, as a seller or buyer seek compensation.

Yahoo Auctions, Ebid and Amazon is a great place to buy and sell too, but generally speaking, Ebay is the best if you wish to target a bigger audience and it’s reliable to buy from ebay sellers too, as one could gauge for themselves the reliability of individual sellers based on their feedback status. For more information on how to buy and sell via ebay, visit www.ebay.com

Overall, buying and selling over the internet undoubtedly has its risks and benefits, but as long as you’re cautious, it can be really fun and you never know, you could make loads of money or bag amazing bargains!

Mahjong is a traditional game that originated in China and is a popular game in Hongkong, China, Singapore and Malaysia. With a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 4 players, this is a game requiring observation, memory and tactics. The way the game is played in the different countries listed above varies slightly, rules are slightly different and occasionally, setup can be different too.

I personally love playing Mahjong. It’s a brilliant game between family members or friends and is almost better than playing monopoly or scrabble! If you know the game, you’ll know that this game requires strategy and tact and of course, luck to win. It’s also addictive, especially when you know how to strategise. Some people gamble, others don’t.

Overall, not a difficult game to learn how to play the game, i.e the rules and how to win the game, but definitely requires more than just a wee bit of effort to get a complete grasp of the game, for eg. to memorise the tiles, to remember and guess your competitor’s tiles, not to throw the wrong tiles, and how to get the best formation to win. The better the formation, the more money you win.

Very exciting game….completely addictive! Play the traditional mahjong, not the western kind that you can find on yahoo or msn games!

Went to Bottle Tree Village yesterday…. It looks like a resort from a macro view, yet it is a fishing village. They’ve got a nice seafood restaurant where you could enjoy a sumptuous meal in a peaceful, serene environment.

There’s a children’s playground and surrounding the fishing pond are straw top tents where you could sit, relax and chat with your friends…. if you’re the thrifty kind, you could have a little picnic like I did with my friends yesterday instead of eating at the restaurant. The three of us packed some food from the kopitiam, prata, nasi padang, chicken wings and bubble tea and we walked all the way from khatib mrt station to the park. Fairly long walk i have to say, but it was so worth it….

Fantastic view at around sunset….the quiet peaceful surroundings and the beautiful scenery really appealed to me. I would rather sit there all day than shop the malls in town.

I highly recommend this place…. but as it’s a private property, the place close at around 1130 or so. So if you’re looking for a place to hang out until after midnight, it’s not the best place i have to say. But if you’re just planning to chill and relax, it’s almost the perfect place. Better than east coast park or pasir ris park……. without the buzz and certainly the tents keep you away from the annoying heat and sunlight.