Thursday, March 31, 2016

Mind the Weight of Your Luggage

In this modern day of traveling with budget airlines, you have to pay to have check-in luggage.  The amount you pay depends on the weight of your check-in luggage.  For example, you have to pay SGD50 for 15kg of check-in luggage for Tiger Air.

You grumble about the steep charges, but have you ever wondered what is the weight of your luggage bag itself?  I have two luggage bags, both are 24", one is from United Colors of Benetton, the other is from Slazenger.  They are of slightly different shape, but both are made of ABS material.  Just out of curiosity, I weighted both of them.  Guess what, they weight 4kg each!  Just the luggage bag itself, it weights 4kg.  That's 27% of your 15kg luggage quota.  It means you can only stuff another 11kg into your luggage before it goes over the 15kg limit.


Friday, March 18, 2016

Sponsor A Child

It is both great joy and great sadness that I received a letter from World Vision Singapore, informing me that the boy that I sponsored in China has completed his high school education, and is now independent enough to leave the program.

When I first started sponsoring him, he was still in primary 4, now he has completed his high school.  So many years had passed.  I am really happy that I am able to make a small difference to someone's life, to give him a potential to lead a better life than his parents.  It feels good to give others hope.

Now that this Chinese boy has left the World Vision program, World Vision Singapore recommended another boy from Sri Lanka as the candidate for my sponsorship.  I think I will just continue with this program.  Maybe I can only offer a little bit help, and I can only help a very small number of people, but it is always better than doing nothing.

If you like to sponsor a child, making some difference to someone's life for the better, you can visit: http://www.worldvision.org.sg/ways-to-give/sponsor-a-child/.  Together, we can make a better world for everyone.  

Monday, March 7, 2016

Peach Garden @ Miramar Hotel


Went to Peach Garden at Miramar Hotel for an ala carte lunch buffet.  The service was quite good.  After we arrived, they ushered us in, and served us drinks promptly.  Menu was also provided for us to start ordering.


Dining environment was not too bad.  As the restaurant is hidden inside a hotel, and it is not very accessible, and it was a week day, so there were not many people.


The first dish that  came was fried fish skin.   The fish skin was very crispy, and still a bit hot.  The taste was great, but one of my friends complained it was a bit on the oily side to his taste.


Then came the deep fried shun hock fish.  The fish was fresh, and the deep fried was just nice, even the bones became crispy.  For people who hate fish bones, this dish would be a good choice.


They served the dishes a bit out of sequence, as the fish came before our appetizer, drunken chicken.  I would say this one was not bad.  It had the alcohol taste, but not so strong that it would become bitter.  The chicken meat remained tender, with a little taste of Chinese herbs.





We ordered four different types of prawn dishes.  They used good quality fresh prawns.  I must give them a thumbs up for this.  All four dishes were good.  When you squeezed the prawn, the meat would come out nicely.  And the prawn would pop in your mouth when you bite it.  Good!



They also have many different meat dishes, such as pork ribs, fried chicken wings, etc.  They were not bad too, but the portions were simply too big, even though we ordered 'small' portions.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience.  The service staff should be praised too for their good service, especially the duty manager.  He was very polite to us and also to his own staff.

For the ala carte buffet, you need to have a minimum of 4 dining parties though.  The price was S$58++/pax  for weekday lunch, with some discount.