Saturday, September 27, 2008
13:13 by FoxTwo
I met up with xinyun beforehand though, because I'm shy like that :) When we arrived at the place, xinyun's bionic eyes found DK even before I could scan the whole place. She even said "Nicole's sitting beside him" and I didn't even see anybody looking like either DK or Nicole.
Anyway I found them finally, sitting in a secluded corner (*wink wink*).
Pretty soon, we got down to ordering the food. Now, this place is a German joint, so the menu items had German names. Needless to say I couldn't pronounce three-quarters of the names on the menu, much less have an idea of what's in them. I just decided to get sausages and pointed randomly to an item on the menu to the waitress. DK, xinyun and Nicole had something called "Pork Knuckles".
Here's a shot of the dish, courtesy of xinyun using my camera :) If you think it's big, you are right. It's positively HUGE!
Xizor was seated next to xinyun and this is what he had:
Here's a 2nd shot from another angle:
Yeah those are Xizor's hands attacking the sausages :)
When my order finally came, what I had ordered was actually this:
Remember, I had no idea what I ordered, and when it came, I had a slight feeling of being let-down. Xinyun's ter kah looked so big and juicy, and mine looked pathetic. Just 3 sausages floating in water, and a bagel.
Surprisingly though, what I ordered was good, and pretty filling. Didn't really leave me craving for more food after I was done with it. Xinyun was very generous though - she kept giving me and Xizor small portions of her ter kah asking us to try it. I must say, it was indeed tasty!
Everyone then ordered their Oktoberfest beers, except me. I just had iced coffee. Yeah I know, although I am classified as a "drinker", I don't drink beer (except for Kilkenny or Hoe Gaarden). Beer makes me feel full and burp constantly which I hate.
Brotzeit is a nice enough place, but I doubt I'll ever go in there alone, or on my own at least. No, it's not that the food isn't good. In fact the food was more than satisfactory. What will be stopping me is that the menu items were all unpronounceable to me :) Full, authentic German names.
13:13 by FoxTwo
Meeting Bloggers For Dinner At Brotzeit
I met up with xinyun beforehand though, because I'm shy like that :) When we arrived at the place, xinyun's bionic eyes found DK even before I could scan the whole place. She even said "Nicole's sitting beside him" and I didn't even see anybody looking like either DK or Nicole.
Anyway I found them finally, sitting in a secluded corner (*wink wink*).
Pretty soon, we got down to ordering the food. Now, this place is a German joint, so the menu items had German names. Needless to say I couldn't pronounce three-quarters of the names on the menu, much less have an idea of what's in them. I just decided to get sausages and pointed randomly to an item on the menu to the waitress. DK, xinyun and Nicole had something called "Pork Knuckles".
Here's a shot of the dish, courtesy of xinyun using my camera :) If you think it's big, you are right. It's positively HUGE!
Xizor was seated next to xinyun and this is what he had:
Here's a 2nd shot from another angle:
Yeah those are Xizor's hands attacking the sausages :)
When my order finally came, what I had ordered was actually this:
Remember, I had no idea what I ordered, and when it came, I had a slight feeling of being let-down. Xinyun's ter kah looked so big and juicy, and mine looked pathetic. Just 3 sausages floating in water, and a bagel.
Surprisingly though, what I ordered was good, and pretty filling. Didn't really leave me craving for more food after I was done with it. Xinyun was very generous though - she kept giving me and Xizor small portions of her ter kah asking us to try it. I must say, it was indeed tasty!
Everyone then ordered their Oktoberfest beers, except me. I just had iced coffee. Yeah I know, although I am classified as a "drinker", I don't drink beer (except for Kilkenny or Hoe Gaarden). Beer makes me feel full and burp constantly which I hate.
Brotzeit is a nice enough place, but I doubt I'll ever go in there alone, or on my own at least. No, it's not that the food isn't good. In fact the food was more than satisfactory. What will be stopping me is that the menu items were all unpronounceable to me :) Full, authentic German names.
Monday, September 22, 2008
13:52 by FoxTwo
Today's rant is partly inspired by a plurk thread here by XinYun. She was talking about calculative people who whine about being shortchanged (or being asked to pay more) a couple of dollars. Yeah these people probably scored distinctions in maths back in school.
In the plurk thread, xinyun was complaining about people who whine about having to pay $2 more than they originally calculated. However I'm going to rant about a few other kinds of people.
First off - those "call me back" people. In Singapore, all 3 mobile phone providers offer post-paid plans which include free incoming calls all day (yes I believe it's unique only to Singapore, or at least, this region of the world). In other words, you pay NOTHING when people call you on the mobile phone. So, they get the cheapest plan available, which may offer nothing more than 50 to 100 minutes worth of "free" outgoing calls.
Now, what irritates me is not really that they call me and tell me to call them back. Well it does irk me a little though. Come on, everybody has free incoming calls. Why should I not enjoy the free incoming calls?
What really irritates me is that these people REFUSE to call out to vendors or support personnel when the shit really hit the fan and we need network/tech/whatever guys onsite NOW. All they do is send SMSes and then they complain about how slow the response to their SMSes are. These guys also refuse to let the company "pay" for the bills because that would mean that now they are supposed to be "available 24 hours a day".
Sorry to break it to you guys, but IT people are, by default, on call 24 hours a day. With or without company paying for the bills. Just because it doesn't happen very often in this company doesn't mean it will never happen, or that if things really get bad, that you won't be called back.
Then there are even those even more extreme people. They charge their phones (and PDAs and MP3 players et al) using company electricity. "Why should I charge at home when charging at company means it's free for me?"
These are also the same people that will complain that the plate of chicken rice costs $3.50 in the city because it's supposed to cost only $2.50 back in the heartlands. By the gods, it's only $1 difference! Whatever you do, don't invite these kind of people out to a group function or something. They will whine about the cost of the bill and will squabble about even the cents portion of the bill.
Which reminds me of a particular incident which happened pretty recently. Something needed to be done on a server offsite, and we didn't have the right parts. We called back to HQ and the guy that answered the call was one of these kiam ganas. When we told him that it was pretty urgent, please take a taxi down, he said no. He would need to submit an expense claim, and it would take a couple of weeks to be processed and reimbursed. Thus, he will take a bus instead because it's cheaper than MRT.
After much cajoling, we told him we will pay for his taxi fare and we'll submit an expense claim for it later, that he agreed to take a taxi down to deliver the item. When he did arrive, the first thing he asked for was the money for his taxi fare, before even handing us the item we needed to fix the problem!
13:52 by FoxTwo
Quirky Singaporeans - Kiam Ganas
Today's rant is partly inspired by a plurk thread here by XinYun. She was talking about calculative people who whine about being shortchanged (or being asked to pay more) a couple of dollars. Yeah these people probably scored distinctions in maths back in school.
In the plurk thread, xinyun was complaining about people who whine about having to pay $2 more than they originally calculated. However I'm going to rant about a few other kinds of people.
First off - those "call me back" people. In Singapore, all 3 mobile phone providers offer post-paid plans which include free incoming calls all day (yes I believe it's unique only to Singapore, or at least, this region of the world). In other words, you pay NOTHING when people call you on the mobile phone. So, they get the cheapest plan available, which may offer nothing more than 50 to 100 minutes worth of "free" outgoing calls.
Now, what irritates me is not really that they call me and tell me to call them back. Well it does irk me a little though. Come on, everybody has free incoming calls. Why should I not enjoy the free incoming calls?
What really irritates me is that these people REFUSE to call out to vendors or support personnel when the shit really hit the fan and we need network/tech/whatever guys onsite NOW. All they do is send SMSes and then they complain about how slow the response to their SMSes are. These guys also refuse to let the company "pay" for the bills because that would mean that now they are supposed to be "available 24 hours a day".
Sorry to break it to you guys, but IT people are, by default, on call 24 hours a day. With or without company paying for the bills. Just because it doesn't happen very often in this company doesn't mean it will never happen, or that if things really get bad, that you won't be called back.
Then there are even those even more extreme people. They charge their phones (and PDAs and MP3 players et al) using company electricity. "Why should I charge at home when charging at company means it's free for me?"
These are also the same people that will complain that the plate of chicken rice costs $3.50 in the city because it's supposed to cost only $2.50 back in the heartlands. By the gods, it's only $1 difference! Whatever you do, don't invite these kind of people out to a group function or something. They will whine about the cost of the bill and will squabble about even the cents portion of the bill.
Which reminds me of a particular incident which happened pretty recently. Something needed to be done on a server offsite, and we didn't have the right parts. We called back to HQ and the guy that answered the call was one of these kiam ganas. When we told him that it was pretty urgent, please take a taxi down, he said no. He would need to submit an expense claim, and it would take a couple of weeks to be processed and reimbursed. Thus, he will take a bus instead because it's cheaper than MRT.
After much cajoling, we told him we will pay for his taxi fare and we'll submit an expense claim for it later, that he agreed to take a taxi down to deliver the item. When he did arrive, the first thing he asked for was the money for his taxi fare, before even handing us the item we needed to fix the problem!
Labels: quirks, Rant, Singapore, Singaporeans
Monday, September 15, 2008
01:38 by FoxTwo Saturday is usually a rest-day for us, since we normally drink on Fridays. However this time it was a little different, because one of our drinking friends is leaving for a land far yonder, and we gathered to wish her well on her journey. Scratching our heads for a nice place to hold a farewell dinner-cum-drinks, another friend suggested a new place - The White Rabbit.
So, it was set. We headed to The White Rabbit.
First impression - the place was posh. It was indeed posh, as we later found out (at the bill). Secondly, it was a nice place indeed. Ambience was cosy, and best of all, food was good! Since I have already eaten dinner that day prior to us going to The White Rabbit, I only ordered side dishes and a salad.
I ordered the Macaroni and Cheese side-dish. I can't help it, I love cheese. When the dish came, I tucked in. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how good it was. The cheese was creamy, and full of texture. Everyone else also tried a small portion, and all agreed that it was good indeed. In my opinion the Mac And Cheese is the best I have ever tasted. Kudos!
She ordered something that looked yummy too. Sorry I forget the name. Here's a pic of that dish, and I wish I could remember the name now.
After dinner we ordered a whole bunch of desserts. My drinking buddy and I shared a Banana Split.
Honestly though, the banana split wasn't that fantastic. I can honestly say that Swenson's has better Banana Splits than White Rabbit. However, all is not lost. The other dessert, Mars Bars Souffle, was good!
Here it is. We were joking "Where are the Mars bars?". Seriously though, this is good too!
On the whole, we agreed that The White Rabbit had good food, and nice cosy ambience. Coincidentally, there was an event happening on that particular Saturday. It seemed that Mumm's champagne was having a promotion, and there was a free flow of Mumm's champagne out in the yard. Unfortunately though, free flow was restricted to only ladies.
We did hang around for a little bit, just so the ladies could have a go at the free champagne.
All in all, The White Rabbit is a nice place to go. However, be warned - it's not your average run-of-the-mill restaurant and bar. Expect to pay - A LOT.
01:38 by FoxTwo Saturday is usually a rest-day for us, since we normally drink on Fridays. However this time it was a little different, because one of our drinking friends is leaving for a land far yonder, and we gathered to wish her well on her journey. Scratching our heads for a nice place to hold a farewell dinner-cum-drinks, another friend suggested a new place - The White Rabbit.
So, it was set. We headed to The White Rabbit.
First impression - the place was posh. It was indeed posh, as we later found out (at the bill). Secondly, it was a nice place indeed. Ambience was cosy, and best of all, food was good! Since I have already eaten dinner that day prior to us going to The White Rabbit, I only ordered side dishes and a salad.
I ordered the Macaroni and Cheese side-dish. I can't help it, I love cheese. When the dish came, I tucked in. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how good it was. The cheese was creamy, and full of texture. Everyone else also tried a small portion, and all agreed that it was good indeed. In my opinion the Mac And Cheese is the best I have ever tasted. Kudos!
She ordered something that looked yummy too. Sorry I forget the name. Here's a pic of that dish, and I wish I could remember the name now.
After dinner we ordered a whole bunch of desserts. My drinking buddy and I shared a Banana Split.
Honestly though, the banana split wasn't that fantastic. I can honestly say that Swenson's has better Banana Splits than White Rabbit. However, all is not lost. The other dessert, Mars Bars Souffle, was good!
Here it is. We were joking "Where are the Mars bars?". Seriously though, this is good too!
On the whole, we agreed that The White Rabbit had good food, and nice cosy ambience. Coincidentally, there was an event happening on that particular Saturday. It seemed that Mumm's champagne was having a promotion, and there was a free flow of Mumm's champagne out in the yard. Unfortunately though, free flow was restricted to only ladies.
We did hang around for a little bit, just so the ladies could have a go at the free champagne.
All in all, The White Rabbit is a nice place to go. However, be warned - it's not your average run-of-the-mill restaurant and bar. Expect to pay - A LOT.
Labels: drinking, food, pubbing, self
