February 8th, 2010 §
Attended Esmirada’s 15th Anniversary Party with Ken. Thanks Carlyn!
The celebration was held at the new Esmirada At The Pier located in the thriving dining hub of Robertson Quay. Warm lights illuminated the interior of Esmirada At The Pier and the combination of rustic brick walls with blue accents brought an easy-going allure. Seemed like the perfect place to idle away a lazy Saturday evening with girlfriends!
Esmirada At The Pier is a really cosy and casual restaurant with a rustic charm! We spent the evening at the al fresco seating. Good thing that the courtyard was breezy and when dusk arrived, pretty candles tea lights evoked a romantic feel! Nice.
Ken and I enjoyed a glass of Sangria with Esmirada’s Famous Garlic Bread (S$6) – a towering crusty baguette loaf fragrant with garlic and butter – before digging in to the selection of appetizing antipasti, salads, soups and tapas!
My favourite starter would be the refreshing Greek Salad (S$16)! The cheese was awesome and it gave the salad enough flavor that salad dressing isn’t needed. The sharp taste of onion went really well with the red peppers and sun-dried tomatoes. Tasty! Would be perfect if I could add a bit of garlic, a dash of oregano and a teaspoon of white wine vinegar! Hehe I like my salad to be fancy.
Tossed a couple of cold prawns on our plates too to go with the wine. Fresh goodness.
Of course, Mediterranean food is not Mediterranean without some grilled meats, pita bread, and falafel. It was nearly impossible to decide what to taste first considering the selection dishes displayed on the counter.
That’s the roasted pork. I love the few unique starters especially the delectable Balkan dish, Cevapcici (S$18) – grilled meat fingers made from minced beef and lamb and served with a homemade mustard ragoo dip.
Another tasty entrée was this. Make a guess what this is.
Smoked ham! Totally scrummy! Look at the size of that humongous piece of meat!
The chef was there the entire evening making sure that each slices of smoked ham was cut to perfection. These delicate paper-thin slices of smoked ham were so well-flavoured.
Our appetite was further satiated by main courses such as the Esmirada Skewers (from S$28) – perfectly grilled quality ribeye steaks, lamp chops, chicken kebabs, king prawns, swordfish and vegetables served on a custom-made iron frame and accompanied by bell pepper relish, tzatziki sauce and oven baked potatoes.
Ken tried the famous Spanish saffron rice dish, Paella Espanola (S$30), that is brimming with fresh mussels, squid, prawns, chicken and vegetables. That was a hearty dish.
Always have space for dessert when it is chocolate fondue and fresh strawberries!
I’m sure no one could resist creamy smooth chocolate cascading down a chocolate fountain. Sinful.
Craving for some Mediterranean goodies? Well there’s something going on now. You can enjoy 15% discount off Total Bill from now to 31 March 2010 (not applicable with other promos) at all three Esmirada outlets.
Esmirada At The Pier
80 Mohamed Sultan Road
#01-03 The Pier at Robertson
February 1st, 2010 §
Abandon ship! Bloggers on board the Uniquely Singapore Clipper!
Photo credit to Huishan
Last Saturday morning was not put to waste as I went under the sunny weather and got a healthy dose of Vitamin D. Good thing we did not chanced upon any ox-eye/a cloud or other weather phenomenon that may be indicative of an upcoming storm. Marina at Keppel Bay is a very pretty place. Was here exactly a month ago for the NYE yacht party.
Huge red Keppel logo on the clipper as it was the main sponsor of the Uniquely Singapore yacht in the 09-10 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race! Very amusing how I keep running into stuff affiliated with this company. First, it was Ken. We were quite into Keppel Nights for a period of time. Then there’s the very interesting oil rig tour. And now I’m going sailing! Woo hoo!
It was blazing hot! Wanted to get a healthy tan but freaked out during breakfast. Don’t want to look like Ken. He went sun tan and became an ugly brownie after peeling for a week. So bought the mini Mentholatum Sunplay SPF130 sun block from Guardian. $1.95 only! Woah good stuff. It worked like magic.
The crew on board were very friendly and I got a feel of their enthusiasm to be sailing around the world! Singapore is actually the 4th leg of the race and up next is Qing Dao, China. Would you want to be an ocean racer too?
Fyi The Clipper Race is the only round the world yacht race for non-professional sailors and takes place every two years. This means people from all walks of life can sign up to be ocean racers! Apparently many of those who took part had no sailing experience before they began their pre-race Clipper Training. But be prepared to leave everything behind for at least a year to pursue this extraordinary aspiration.
Uniquely Singapore is helmed by Singapore-born Skipper Jim Dobie, whose present crew includes female Keppel Ambassador Karan Teo as well as Nicole Ho, who is circumnavigating round the world. In just ten months, the race will see the international Clipper Race fleet cross five continents and visit 14 ports, including Brazil, Qingdao and California. So cool! Around the world! I also wanna go! But on second thoughts.. maybe not. I don’t want to end up looking like a sun-dried tomato.
Despite the scorching UV-rays, I enjoyed the breeze and awesome sea view as the Uniquely Singapore Clipper sailed across the waves. It was generally a smooth ride.
Briefly pondered if I am up to the challenge of becoming an ocean racer but my hopes were dashed shortly. Though the Uniquely Singapore Clipper was easily sailed and maneuvered, I freaked out minutes after I steered the clipper when it tilted precariously to one side! SCARY. I think the girls screamed in horror or maybe it was just me.
Ben attempted to do some tacking/zig-zagging so as to sail directly towards the wind. Not bad. Lester and Lionel was pretty good at steering too. As you can see, the clipper is quite narrow. It’s an amazing feat for such a compact vessel to house a team of ocean racers.
Didn’t really dared to move around the clipper. But my fear of falling overboard gave way to photo opportunities! Haha. Stole Vic’s bright yellow sunnies.
Photo credit to Huishan
Just when I thought the clipper is stable enough for me to move around, I was wrong. Huishan caught my panic-stricken expression.
Photo credit to Huishan
Big thank you to Ben and Lionel of Singapore Tourism Board for the invite to be onboard the Uniquely Singapore Clipper! Though we were all pooped after sailing across the wind for 3 hours, this outing was extremely enjoyable! Most of us went home with uneven tan but Victor acquired a really strange tan because he only smeared a streak of sunblock on his arm. Lol.
Last but not least, wanna thank Huishan for the lovely pictures! Lucky girl! No sun block but unly her eyelids were burnt! Can you believe it? Anyway the rest of the pictures were taken by me using Hipstamatic for iPhone. Nice?
If you noticed, the few italic words in this post are all commonly used nautical terms. More at wiki.
January 30th, 2010 §
I’ve always been fascinated by mega structures and oil rigs is definitely one of them. Ken invited me to go for the christening of the oil rig project he was working on with Ensco. Yup the same peeps who hosted the NYE yacht-party.
So there. Ensco 8052. His baby. It is so huge, my lens is simply not wide enough.
The christening of an oil rigs is very much similar to how a newborn baby is baptised in a church. Similarly, a baby’s christening is also known as the naming ceremony. So on that day, Ensco 8052 was officially named.
That was the pastor giving his blessings to Ensco 8052. A short heartening prayer was offered. Wondered if other religious man will be engaged if the client is not American.
Anyway a highlight of the christening was when the very important lady, Ms Cambria Reinsborough pressed a button and a champagne bottle was smashed onto the hull of the rig signifying the start of a glorious for this vessel. Ah this ritual is very important because apparently maritime superstition held that a ship that wasn’t properly christened would be considered unlucky and a champagne bottle that didn’t break was a particularly bad omen. Anyway all went well and with the most enthusiastic round of applause and a brief shower of rainbow confetti, Ensco 8052 is off to a good start!
Can you spot the champagne bottle? By the way, when I told Ken that using a button to smash the champagne bottle seemed to spoil the fun. I felt that the ceremony will be more kick-ass if the lady smashed the bottle manually. Then he told me about the Curse of Camilla. Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall was the honored lady who christened a passenger ship in 2007 and the bottle didn’t break. Turned out the first few cruises were marred by a vomiting bug which afflicted passengers. Hor hor. He also mentioned that the infamous Titanic was launched without a christening ceremony. Ok point taken.
Ah I can’t stop admiring this mighty rig. Isn’t that magnificent? Woah my eyes practically gaped in amazement. I was so fascinated by the super huge structure! Fyi those slender columns you see will be submerged under water when Ensco 8052 start drilling the seabeds for oil/gas. The idea of these columns supporting a platform deck at a significant height above the sea surface is kinda freaky to me.
Felt so tiny when I stand next to that humongous rig. Even the ropes I saw was monstrous.
And I was told to be wary of the thruster. lol.
Ben, pls. I know what you’re thinking. No. Not hard gay. The thruster I meant works just like a propeller. It pushes the vessel and is meant to keep the rig in a fixed position when the environment condition becomes extreme. According to wiki, an oil rig is used to house workers and machinery needed to drill wells in the ocean bed, extract oil and/or natural gas, process the produced fluids, and ship or pipe them to shore. That’s a mouthful isn’t it?
Oil rig 101.
Ensco 8052 is a Semi Submersible rig which floats and stay upright. I guess this type of platform is good for urgent projects because it could drill a hole in the seabed then quickly moves to the next location. If you are interested to know more about oil rigs, check out this wiki entry on oil platforms. Personally, I think the jack-up rig is pretty interesting.
After the ceremony, came the tour which I am so excited about! Personally, climbing up the stairs was a scary enough. The horrifying wire cage elevator was worst. It jerks unexpectedly and I almost thought I’m going to fly out of it just like how Charlie flew out of Willy Wonka’s glass elevator.
After surviving the terrifying elevator ride, I landed on a large deck. Everything was perfectly fine until I looked up. I was a little perturbed by the steel beams. Ok maybe perturbed is an understatement.
Getting more and more paranoid that this thing will land on me, I escaped to the control room. Couldn’t make sense of the buttons though it looked simpler than those dashboards we normally see on spaceships in sci-fi movies. Coolness.
Goofing around at the living quarters. Guess what, there’s also a gym and a TV room with a huge LCD TV on board!
Popped by the pantry for drinks and muffins. Finally I could take off the helmet.
That’s the end of the indoor tour and we were directed out to the open again. Wacky photo moment with me and darling Sok Hui.
Ting-ling-ling lunch is ready! Lol. I’m pretty sure that’s not the purpose of this bell. We also shared some fun moments at the helipad. Especially when Timmy decided to propose! So sweet!
Haha It was just for fun! He already proposed to Nic, his lovely fiancé weeks ago I think. But nonetheless, it was still laudable act. Haha. Just like a typical scene from some Mediacorp drama. If you recall, Keppel did ran a drama series on Channel 8 featuring Christopher Lee with hideous white hair.
Before I end my post, I want to say that I’m proud of Ken being part of this project. Silly-billy looked very happy in the following picture.
Though the science behind how you guys put this astounding thing together still baffles me, I’m aware of the loads of man hours took to build this. This explained the extra hours/OT you needed to put in. All is forgiven. (:
At times, Cablenazi have to go offshore for couple days to run checks on the equipments and I wish I can get him to smuggle me into the cabin! Can’t whine to him for couple of days is quite torturous. I heard that one of his friends is involve in a floatel project! A floating hotel! Would you like to spend a night at a floatel? Could you imagine the excitement and drama of the oil adventure, life on board an oil rig? Honestly, I don’t mind the experience! Sounds fun! Imagine wearing the white telly-tubby overall and walking around pretending to be an engineer for a day. lol. I’ll probably drive my colleagues crazy.
Though interesting to the uninitiated, the nature of an oil rig’s operation — extraction of volatile substances sometimes under extreme pressure in a hostile environment — means risk, accidents, and tragedies occasionally occur. Now it seems pretty scary isn’t it?
(:
Thanks Ken for the invite and all the guides on the tour for your sharing. Well done folks for the successful delivery.
January 25th, 2010 §
Was invited by Ivy, Singtel to the launch of Motorola’s first Android-powered phone. Thanks! (:
It’ s been a while since we last heard any news from Motorola. Well gotta give them credit for trying. What caught my eye when I saw this phone was the conversation bubbles all over the home screen. Woah. Conversation threads, friend updates, stories, links, photos and more are automatically delivered to live widgets on the home screen. Interesting. Widgets.
What you think? The bubbles looked pretty cute right? But will you be distracted by the real-time updates on the embedded widgets which link directly to Facebook and Twitter? One thing for sure, those who don’t mind will be pleased with the smooth integration Motorola DEXT offers with MOTOBLUR.
What’s MOTOBLUR? In a techie noob terms, its a useful system designed for blur people like me. MOTOBLUR combines various social networking portals such as Facebook and Twitter all in one place without the need of logging into each service separately. This means I can post a status update to one or multiple accounts at once. That explains the ‘everything else is anti-social’ tagline.
Trying to psycho Ken to get an iPhone too when his plan expires but he is still looking around for one with a QWERTY keyboard. DEXT should be ok and it even comes with a pretty responsive touchscreen, but I think it is a tad bulky at 15.6mm thick. Not very handbag friendly. Honestly, it is not very sexy so there’s nothing much on the form factor for me to elaborate further.
I guess this phone is more function than style. So for a techie review, check out what Joe thinks of the Motorola DEXT.
As for the launch event at Helipad, it rocked because the bloggers were awesome as usual. Enjoyed the after-launch at the rooftop lounge! That’s me with sunshine Sidney. His caption: Kiddies on the loose. Eh how old are we again? *giggles*
Mus, Yin and I. Taken with his DSLR. Mus has sturdy arms. Lol. Oh must thank Kelvin for the champagne. Yum yum!
January 6th, 2010 §
2009 was an exciting year where I survived an internship at Hill & Knowlton, ROM-ed, graduated from NUS and joined 24seven! There’s no better way than to end this marvelous decade with a lucky invitation to a yacht party!
Thanks to Cablenazi’s client, Ensco (the largest offshore jack-up oil and gas well drilling corporation), we boarded the Harbour Queen on New Year’s Eve at Marina Keppel Bay and celebrated the coming of 2010 with a bunch of happy people! I fell in love with this place instantaneously. Wouldn’t you?
Before long, the Harbour Queen left Keppel Bay and went island sailing! It cruised passed Marina area, Sentosa, Kusu Island and St.John Island. Ah the warm sun, blue water and a good breeze were so indulging . Wine was free flow on board!
Back in the cabin, we camwhored with funky hats! Haha Yes funky. Although not as funky as those I saw at the Hat-py Party, it was enough to keep us entertained. Hehe.
The vessel was circling Marina area, Sentosa, Kusu Island and St.John Island the entire time while waiting for the spectacular fireworks display at Marina to go off at the stroke of midnight. Unknowingly we spent close to 7 hours on the yacht. The initial waves of excitement kinda drowned as I felt a little dizzy and drowsy from the rocky-rolly motion of the craft.
Ah should had taken some anti-seasickness or nausea capsules before coming. But it’s too late. I had to take a short snooze and thankfully, the uncomfortable sensations disappear after that. Was only told later that I should go outside where fresh air could blow on my face and keep my eyes directed to a fixed shore or horizon, where possible to prevent seasickness.
When I woke up, the peeps were having fun with glow sticks and the beer funnel.
FYI the act of is using a funnel to rapidly consume a large amount of liquid, most commonly beer is referred to as Bonging a Beer! lol. That’s Dean.
Anyway the party continues with rock and roll and great music! There was plenty of space for guests to twist and grind to the music. Some dance moves were super hilarious! Check these cool moves out!
Finally the moment everyone was waiting for has arrived. Minutes before midnight, we scurry up the upper deck and anticipated the fireworks display. Poof! Bang! Kaboom! We had a blast watching fireworks explode across Marina Bay! Beautiful! Singapore’s night sky turned magical in glittery shades of green, red, blue, purple and gold!
In retrospect, I still can’t believe a decade has gone. 2010 seems like a loooong way from 2000 when I was still in secondary 2! Though I cant turn back time, I can’t help but wonder if I could have spent the last decade in better ways. Perhaps, I should had set my priorities and goals right and be more focused in getting to it. Oh well! the passing of a decade feels like a wake up call as much as a fresh start. I shall look forward to the new year and new decade with anticipation and optimism!
Cheers to 2010! May it be another decade filled with fun, joy and love!
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Cablenazi is a Lead Electrical Engineer/going-t0-be Project Engineer in February at KeppelFels. He’s a lucky boy to have such fun-loving, appreciative clients.
Hey Ensco, you need any social media help?