Sunday, September 25, 2011

First Encounter with Golf @ MaxSwing

Groupon.sg offered a deal of S$38 for 1 hour of indoor golf at MaxSwing@Orchard Central, plus coaching!  It is such a good deal then how can I miss it?


MaxSwing is located on the 4th floor of Orchard Central, right next door to the even more expensive flight simulation shop.  It is indoor, with air conditioning, so it is perfect for the rainy season of tropical Singapore.  In addition, you can check out your own swing speed.  Well, it somehow looks like a giant arcade game, I don't disagree.


Golf balls will come up automatically, although that mechanism doesn't seem to be very robustly designed.  During our short 1-hour sting with golf, it jammed :(

Our coach is an old grandfather, David, a very kind and patient man.  He is also a PGA professional golf more many decades!  Ok, back to my golf experience.  David taught us the basics for golf, as we are so green, knowing next to nothing about golf.


While I was at the counter waiting for the receptionist to bring us to the indoor golf room, I overheard a conversation between the receptionist and a guy enquiring about the cost of hiring a coach.  Guess the price?  S$100/hr!

At the end of the 1 hour session, we managed at least to hit the golf ball, and then getting a bit interested in this interesting but a bit expensive sports.  If there is another opportunity to try this, for sure I will grap that opportunity, if the cost is reasonable.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Sarang@Orchard Central

Sarang is a Korean restaurant on the top floor of Orchard Central.  There are two dining sections, indoor and outdoor.  Outdoor tables have a pretty good view of the central area of Singapore, and at night, you can gaze at the stars, if there is any :)


Being in a Korean restaurant, I, of course, ordered the Ginseng porridge, which is what the Koreans are famous for.  The porridge came in a stone bowl, that is quite special.  Stone can maintain the temperature of the porridge so that it will not cool down so fast.  Unfortunately in Singapore, with the tropical weather, you do hope your porridge to cool down faster, especially in a sunny afternoon :)


The porridge came together with a small plate of plum power.  I wondered why, as I have never seen ginseng porridge with plum powder before.  Anyway, don't think the plate looks very nice?

Back to porridge.  The taste of ginseng is gentle and mild, but you can tell that distinctive Korean Ginseng taste.  The porridge is like the Cantonese style, so it is to my favour.  Yeah, I must say I enjoyed the porridge, although the portion is on the small side.

We also ordered a plate of fried chicken wings.  Usually chicken wings have 3 sections, but the chicken wings here have only two!  The way they fry the chicken wings is also a bit different, neither the KFC with lots of flour style, nor the Chinese way of without any flour style.  They are in-between, with a thin layer of flour.  Outside is crispy, inside is juicy and tender, and it is not salty.  I must say it is quite to my liking.

Total damage of this late after snack is S$32, including one ginseng porridge, one plate of fried chicken wings and that yellow alcohlic drink.  Well, it is a bit on the high side, but still acceptable.  Not too bad.  

Friday, September 23, 2011

A New Phone, A New Experience


I had used my time-tested old Nokia phone for more than 3 years, and I am one of those from pre-historic age who still used a non-smart phone.  All that changed two weeks ago when I made my first ever smart phone purchase - A Samsung Galaxy Ace.  

It is one of the low cost smart phones available on the market.  It has all the basic functions I need for a phone, plus the many advantages that come with a smart phone.  

What is different now?  I can read electronic version of news, get updated on all the latest time-sensitive data.  I can enjoy reading a book or something interesting while waiting patiently for friends who are known to be forever late.  

I practice my Japanese on the go, or any small little time I have.  Practice makes perfect.  I do notice I have improved on my Katakana, which was very bad previously.

I can use my phone to record down my exercises.  It shows you the distance you run or walk, amount of calories burnt.  Pretty interesting, heh?

Most importantly, my phone now has more functions that I can use, although I still think that unless I am hooked on my phone most of my waking, my phone usage is still quite low.  No time for all the 'fun' stuff :(

Generally speaking, I am quite happy with my new experience, although it is already quite a lag behind others.  

Monday, September 19, 2011

New Menu @ Wong Kok

Went over to JB again last Saturday and enjoyed a hearted meal at Wong Kok Restaurant, a Hongkong Tea House kind of restaurant.  For a while, I was already bored with the food they offered, as the menu was always the same, no new stuff, until recently.  They came up with some new dishes, which are more western oriented, such as lamb chop, chicken chop, etc.  It is a set menu, a lamb chop set meal offers you a lamb chop, obviously, plus a choice of drinks of tea, coffee, or fruit juice, a soup, a dessert and a piece of garlic bread, for a grand total price of RM 23.00.  It is quite a good price, comparing with Botak Jones' lamb chop of ~S$15.00, and your neighbourhood food court lamb chop of around S$7.90-8.50.


The taste of the food is not bad.  The lamb chop is tender and juicy.


I quite like their dessert.  It must have some plum as its ingredient, and really enhances your appetite.

I had already had this particular set meal twice, and I am still loving it. :)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

大武生(My Kingdom)

It has been quite a long time since the last time I watched a Chinese movie in a cinema, and Wu Zhun & Han Geng's 'Da Wu Sheng' (My Kingdom) is the latest one.


Story-wise, the plot is not that bad, although it is still predictable, and the characters are really dumb.  They fight for nothing but a useless title.  They seek revenge and at the end, two talented young man can never go stage to perform again.

The movie has many theatre fighting scenes, quite an eye opener to people who have not seen Peking Opera before, like me.  You can find a 12-min trailer of the movie below.



My rating: 3/5

Thursday, September 15, 2011

中孝介 それぞれに( 各自遠颺)

It is a Japanese song that I like much and I would like to share with you.  By Japanese singer Atari Kosuke.