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.

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.

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!

The fanciful deco along the way before we entered the posh dining hall was almost dreamlike. I felt like Alice in Wonderland as I walked through the corridors with checkered floorings, robin’s egg blue panels and gold highlights.

That evening, we had items from the ‘Traditional’ Menu, a four course meal with amuse bouche, petit fours and coffee/tea. Thanks Fulvia for the lovely arrangement.

(:

Kicking off with the amuse bouche, our mouth was definitely amused. The amuse bouche we had that day was sliced duck breast with vegetable mousse and beetroot sauce.

Nope amuse bouche is not an appetizer because we don’t even have to order it and it is offered for free! Apparently, this dish which was meant to be finished in one or two bites is something extra that showcases the artistry and showmanship of the chef.

Our small bite before the meal was accompanied by the home-baked focaccia bread which looked like a chubby pancake.

Although the pancake were free flow throughout dinner, we only ate a quarter of ours. Not that it is so bad, just that it is nice to munch on only when it is warm. However, I’m not sure if it was suppose to be served without any olive oil & balsamic vinegar. I didn’t bother to ask. Was busy checking out the wine list.

Praba, the manager was recommended Laurent-Perrier Cuvee Rose Brut Champagne for me and Prosecco Brut Bubbly for Cablenazi. Good choice. His was dry, crisp with a slightly spicy finish while mine had a sweet aroma and was wonderfully refreshing!

As for the mains, we went nuts over the Pan Roasted King Scallops with French Beans and Hazelnuts.  Amazing. This tasted better than the scallops I had at Pierside.

The scallops were cooked to the right texture and degree of done-ness. The sides of the scallops were beautifully panfriend with cocoa butter and were served with a light tasty sauce made by homemade fishstock with white wines, spices and hazelnut oil. I enjoyed this very very much! Being a big fan of light dishes, this dish was excellent!

The Homemade Spaghetti with Black Cod, Baby Artichokes and Mint was commendably al dente. The black cod tasted a little like Chilean sea bass but had salmon-like texture. The pasta was dressed with aunique artichoke sauce. According to Genevieve from Forlino, the sauce was prepared by sauteeing the artichokes with shallots, garlic, white wine, peppermint, italian parsley and spices before blending all to get a smooth cream! No wonder the dressing was so flavoursome.

The dish was also topped with a garnish of deepfried baby artichokes! Er I find this richly flavoured pasta dish a little too dense probably because it is spaghetti egg noodles. Personally, I prefer lighter tasting noodles. Right now, my current favourite would be chilled capellinni!

The only course which disappointed me was the Roasted Pigeon with Goose Liver Sauce, Chanterelle Mushrooms and Wild Chicory. Though it was fresh ‘Bresse’ pigeon all the way from France, we didn’t finished it.

The meat was a little tough and cablenazi complained that the wild chicory was too bitter. But I think it was pleasantly bitter. Our difference in taste explains why I adore bittergourds and he hates them.

Ah we were kinda surprised by dessert. It was Saffron Jelly with Strawberries and Balsamic Vinegar Ice Cream. Yeah balsamic vinegar ice cream? Sounds weird right? Obviously I don’t dine at Italian/French restaurants often.

Anyway I never expected strawberries and balsamic vinegar ice cream to taste so good! Was told that the fresh strawberries were marinated with mint, lemon and sugar for this dish. Oh my the addition of balsamic vinegar actually tempered the richness of the milky ice cream and added a nice little zing to the sweet marinated strawberries. I also liked the chewy texture of the saffron jelly. What a great way to serve strawberries!

Our romantic dinner date at Forlino ended daintily with the delicate looking Petit Fours which comprise of sweet chocolate biscuits, baked meringues and tarts.

Well petit four means mini dessert or confections. It can be cakes, macaroons, éclairs, tarts; basically anything sweet and cute.

As a fine dining restaurant, service, ambience and the presentation of food was quite right though I was a little surprised that the dining room got really noisy when it was 3/4 full with guests. Anyway I am quite impressed at the attention that the waiting staff lavished on every diner. Ladies will definitely be pleased with the mushroom stools available just for our handbags!

Forlino
1 Fullerton Road
#02-06 One Fullerton
Tel: +65 6877 6995
Mon–Sun
12pm–2.30pm, 6.30pm–10pm

Yesh I was at Supperclub for an exclusive World AIDS Day event of art, music and dance! Despite the gloomy weather on the outside, I managed to have quite a rocking time with plenty of good food, great company and wonderful music at the VIP chill out room (:

If you remember a while ago, I was spreading the message of AIDS awareness and early testing! A big thank you to all who supported this effort by commenting on the post. Of those who commented, Kuan, Ivy and their partner joined me at the party! Hope you girls had fun! Kudos to the folks from Health Promotion Board and Ogilvy 360º for organising it.

Besides Kuan, Mariko, Kelvin, Victor, Claudia, Diana, Justin, Nadnut, Nicole, Darryl, Hisham, Jayden, Kamen Rider and other interesting peeps. Electrico was there.

I still prefer Maroon 5. But having any rock bands in the house always make a good party and partying for a good cause always rocks! Supperclub’s King sized beds with plush cushions is very comfy. Not to mention the many servings of Shepherd pie I had that evening.

Jack and Rai performed Pixelated, a song dedicated to World AIDS Day 2009. As what Vic said, this song reflects the need for more people to “look at HIV/AIDS through pixelated eyes so Learn more about HIV/AIDS to protect yourself and your love ones and show your care and concern for people living with HIV.”

Here are some lovely pictures of me and my peeps.

Claudia, me and Vic. Thanks dude for the pictures!

Vic was showing off his geeky specs! I must try it on!

With the geeky specs, I tried to do a wink here with my left eye. fail. lol.

By the way, a graffiti was created by graffiti artist Killer Gerbil near the entrance, driving the message to paint our life right with bright, striking colours!

Remember. Your Life. Your Canvas.