Saveur @ Far East Plaza

It's the last Friday of the month of October, neither have I turned up at any Halloween party nor attended the Oktoberfest. Oh well, very unrelated huh... I asked Clarissa out for dinner, and having known that she's in favor of European cuisine (I hope I'm not wrong), I sourced this French restaurant - Saveur.

The French word saveur means savor/taste/flavor. I believe the restaurant has got something to do with Christianity - there's bible scripture on its website and on the wall above the waiting seats. Besides, on the receipt I found the phrases "God Bless! Taste and See that the Lord is good!" at the bottom.

Duck confit @ $12.90
I shamelessly turned my head, checked out what were on the tables around me and noticed most people ordered this dish. As read from other blogs, it's their signature dish, which one can easily tell from their trademark - a duck looking to its right.
It's Clarissa's order, I took a small piece of it and I think together with the mashed potato it tastes pretty pleasant.


Sea bass @ $14.90
This was my order, and I have to say that the cubic saute potatoes somehow looked like scallops to me. I know right, how on earth can I get so many scallops for only $14.90.
I personally like the crispy and salty skin a lot, which Clarissa doesn't.


Crème brûlée @ $6.90
My appetite was instantly whetted at the moment I broke the top layer of hard caramel while scooping a teaspoonful of custard underneath.

If you're looking for a 'saveury' and relatively affordable French cuisine, please really do visit Saveur.

Try to be really early. We walked in 15 minutes after the restaurant was opened for dinner and half an hour later, the restaurant was almost full, and no reservation can be made, according to their website.

Bon appétit!

14 Scotts Road
Far East Plaza #01-07B
Singapore 228213

Cameron Badminton Tournament

One thing I like about Cameron is the weekly badminton games, held at the sports hall of Jurong West Sports and Recreation Centre, located just next to Pioneer MRT Station. So every Tuesday after work we take the one of the company buses which will drop us there and we play from 5pm to 7pm.

Firstly, I feel so fortunate seriously, without this I couldn't have been able to play badminton regularly, and badminton is the only sport which I'm relatively good at.
Secondly, those who play badminton know how costly it is to play badminton - the bloody shuttlecocks (approximately $30/tube). And having played under Cameron's recreation scheme, everything (booking fees, cost of shuttlecocks etc.) is beautifully covered by the company! Glory to God!

Bukit Gombak Sports Hall

This year Cameron held it's annual badminton tournament on 19 October 2013 (Sat) 12pm to 5pm at Bukit Gombak Sports Hall where all Cameron Singapore employees are welcomed to join. I signed up, and my partner was Terry Tan, another 1^st year GRDP.

Every participant was given a bottle (1.5l) of isotonic drink, an apple and a towel. I love freebies!!

There were 4 groups (6 teams in each group) of men's double and 1 group of women's double. I was the coordinator for group B, coordinating 15 preliminary matches (intra group).

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Question: Why are there 15 preliminary matches?
Answer
There are 6 teams in a group, and any 2 teams play against each other.

Number of possible combinations =	C(n, r) =	n!
		r!(n − r)!

where n is the total number of teams and r is the total number of teams combined

∴ C(6, 2) =	6!	= 15 combinations (or press 6C2 on your scientific calculator)
	2!(6 − 2)!

---

It's fair that every team gets to play at least 5 matches in the preliminary round, unlike some tournaments which disqualify you once you lose.

The top two seeds in each group will play against the top two seeds in the other. Top seeds are determined by the highest number of winning matches (and by the total scores if two or more teams have the same number of winning matches). That happened to my group, but Terry and I were the top seed in Group B as we had the highest number of winning matches and total scores, so we play against the 2^nd top seed of Group A in the quarter final match.

It's close, but we lost in the quarter final match by a few points. However, we still have another round, called the 2nd tier final (sounds pretty nice though), where we played against the other loser of the other quarter final match, which we won pretty decently, fortunately. That won us a title - Champion (2nd Tier Men's Double).

Champion (2nd Tier Men's Double), prizes presented by our Director of Manufacturing Asia
The title sounds so prestigious for its achievability, but the ranking was actually men's double 3^rd runner up.

There are four NTUC FairPrice $10 vouchers and five SPORTSLINK $10 vouchers in the envelope - abundant fruitfulness of spending time playing badminton. There were four GRDPs including me participating and each of us actually won something. ✌

It's been a while for me experiencing the ache that drives me to a wonderful good night sleep. Healthy ache moreover.

Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant @ Jalan Besar

Calvin was finally back ashore, after his offshore construction and commissioning which took the lunar phase to repeat exactly once, and you can assume that someone's having a king's ransom to give everyone a sumptuous treat. Muakaka…

Serangoon Road (taken from the sunroof)

Calvin picked us (Alison, Emilia and me) up from home and drove all the way to Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant 瑞春点心餐厅, located along Jalan Besar, via the lit up pre-festive (Deepavali) Serangoon Road.

Jalan Besar reminds me of the filming of the 1st scene in "Where the Queue Starts 4 Episode 1", where I was tasting the wanton noodles at Da Jie Chicken Feet Noodles Famous Wanton Noodles 大姐鳳爪麵 雲吞麵.

The very first thing I want to anally point out about this restaurant is the wrongly spelt ‘Tim Sum’, which should be ‘Dim Sum’, according to the Jyutping (Cantonese phonetic alphabet).

Second thing... actually there's no second thing, just get a menu and a queue number from the receptionist and get ready for delicious dim sum!

Chee Cheong Fun 豬腸粉 @ 1.80


Shanghai Xiao Long Bao 上海小籠包 (4) @ $4.00


Red Bean Paste Pancake 豆沙鍋餅 @ $4.80


Fried Dou Miao w/Garlic 蒜茸炒豆苗 @ $6.00
I like the saltiness of the pea shoots.


Char Siew Pau 叉燒包 (2) @ $1.80


Siew Mai 燒賣 (2) @ $1.80　　Har Kow 蝦餃 (2) @ $2.40


Fried Prawn Dumping w/ Mayonnaise 明蝦角 (3) @ $4.20
Oops, I'd eaten one before taking the photo.


Steamed Salted Egg Yolk Custard Bun 奶黃流沙包 (3) @ $3.60

The custard bun that I had before in Penang is yellow both on the outside and the inside, but this one here is white on the outside but yellow on the inside, just like the opposite of banana, resembling an angmoh who speaks Mandarin but doesn't speak English. Hahaha..... Ok, not funny.

Thanks Calvin! ^_^

Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant
185/187/189/191 Jalan Besar
Singapore 208882

第23回 星蘭祭

ペナンにいたから、第22回のを見失っても、今年（第23回）のへ帰ったぜー！

今回の参観は日本から帰ってきた後輩、忠祥さんと一緒だった。
彼は日本語が上手だし、日本へ交換留学が終わったばかりだ。

制服試着会

二年前の星蘭祭で制服の試着を見失って、ちょっと早く並んだらできたのに…けど、今回は最初の訪ねたスポットは「制服試着会」だったので、やっとすっかり日本高校生に変身したよ！

実は、制服の待つ時間は長すぎたから、試着会の後はすぐ食堂へ昼ごはんを食べに行った。$5の食券でこのきつねうどんをもらった。とても美味しかった！

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なんか、奈良で食べた巾着きつねうどんのような味がした、懐かしいなあ…

桃太郎のフェスタ

「桃太郎のフェスタ」でピンボールとか、ボウリングとか、ヨーヨー釣りとかした。

ヨーヨー釣りは本当に苦手だ。いくら頑張っても無理だったそうだ。

ゲームを上手にやれなかったもので、スコアが低くて菓子が二三個しかもらわなかった。

甘かったけど… ^^

御化け屋敷

僕はいつもこんな怖さに楽しみにしてる、やっと今日は経験できた。

グランド・ピアノさえ使って…

暗かったけど、怖いことはあまり怖くなかったと思う。でも、楽しかったよ。

アラジンと魔法ランプ Photo studio

おかしいテーマだったけど、あっちで簡単なマジックを一人の高校生に見せてもらった後でアラブの服を着てから写真が撮られたんだ。

忠祥さんの留学仲間と一緒に





早稲田渋谷シンガポール校の学生と先生たち、お疲れ様でした！
また今度ね！

Waseda Shibuya Senior High School
57 West Coast Road, Singapore 127366

Tampopo たんぽぽ @ Liang Court

There's this female colleague of mine, who sits beside me on bus heading towards the company everyday. Claire, joined Cameron a week after me in July, and thereafter I was no longer lonely on the bus. 2 of our common friends are actually the GRDP Trainees of the same batch as me, and I'm glad that I know a friend who's also living in the relatively remote Bukit Panjang area.

We're having a mini celebration cum dinner at Tampopo たんぽぽ near Clarke Quay, which specializes in ramen.

Deluxe Tampopo Black Pig Shabu Ramen デラックスたんぽぽ黒豚しゃぶラーメン @ $16.30


BP Rich Pork Bone Ramen 黒豚濃厚豚骨ラーメン @ $15.30


Katsu Don (served with Pork Miso Soup) かつ丼（豚汁付き） @ $18.00

Something fishy is to be expected when someone is begging for an excuse to visit the washroom.


Claire looks happy with the present we bought her in the U.S. during our GRDP Leadership Week


177 River Valley Road, #01-23/24,
Liang Court Shopping Centre,
Singapore 179030