Wine Tasting – Hubert Lignier Wines

22 April 2013 Entertainment, Exhibition, Shopping No comments

I was invited to join a couple of friends for a wine tasting event at Crystal Wines @ River Valley Road.  The winery is called Hubert Lignier – and when we arrived we were directed to the table to “deliver” the wine.

We were given a wine glass, and a stamp-card for the 7 samples – apparently, we were only meant to sample each wine bottle once until the 7 stamps were completed.  This particular wine tasting didn’t provide a host to explain the differences, just a chap sitting behind the table that pours the wine, and briefly explains some of the background of the wine bottles – but it was a bit ‘limited’ in the terms of a more detailed run-down.

We ended up chatting with each other for a while, and we basically continued drinking, nibbling at the cheese until the wine tasting session ended.  They didn’t seem to mind, I guess for them if the wine is open, they would have to finish to themselves, so might as well give it to potential customers 🙂

We did take a walk around the wine merchants/shop – and I did notice a nice display of Barolo Wines as well as Montupulcino – my favourite two Italian wines – but alas all wine in Singapore is very expensive.  So I opted for one of the ‘weekly specials’ – the Windy Park Sangiovese – another nice red grape.  I hope it tastes as good as it looks 🙂

I do hope that they do a Barolo wine tasting soon – haha!

Crystal Wines
491 River Valley Road
#01-02/03 Valley Point
Singapore 248371
Tel:      +(65) 6737 3540
Email:  retail@crystalwines.com
URL:    http://www.crystalwines.com

Extreme Sailing Act 2 Singapore – Sailing Event

13 April 2013 Entertainment, Exhibition, Marina Bay No comments

Whilst at work, we have all been watching the Promontory @ Marina Bay transform from a grass-area to a stage and hospitality area, but we didn’t know what was happening. So on Friday, we finally worked it out – it was an boating event on Marina Bay, as part of the Extreme Sailing Series 4-day event from Friday 11th April through to Sunday 14th April.

I decided to go on Saturday, 13th April as I already had plans for Sunday, and it was a great sight. It was very hot and humid – around 34°C but must have been at least 95% humidity. The event started at 11am, so I arrived early to enjoy the various water events (windsurfing and other small boating events), then I went for lunch at La Pau Sat and returned to my apartment to shower and refresh myself, before returning back to the event for the main event at 3pm. Between 3pm-6pm was the ultimate Extreme Sailing – with the Extreme 40 Class. Amazing scenes, but as the wind was quite light, they weren’t going as far as they normally would. These are the sailing boats which tip up as you speed around corners, and you have to balance the boat to avoid it tipping over.

I managed to take plenty of photos and it was such a fun day watching the amazing sports men and women – now I know why sailing looked so much fun, ‘cos it really is! It must be tough work regardless – both for the body and mind! I managed to take plenty of photos – I just hope they came out where (they looked great on the camera!)

Imagine Prepaid Card and Amex SIA KrisFlyer Credit Card

12 April 2013 New Chapter, Shopping No comments

I managed to receive two more credits cards now – the EZ-Link Imagine American Express Prepaid Card – and the American Express Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Gold Credit Card.

I will start to use the Imagine one (which combines a prepaid Amex purse and EZ-Link purse on the card) once my current EZ-Link card has depleted to zero. My KrisFlyer one will be used to help me start to increase my KrisFlyer status and mileage – I just hope I get to the next grouping of the Frequent Flyer Programme. Then again, I tend not to go with SIA or SilkAir (SIA’s low-cost arm) as they are usually very expensive for short-haul trips. Good to have the card anyway, as you get 5k free bonus miles on the first purchase 🙂

Rock Climbing – That Was Fun!

9 April 2013 Exercise No comments

Last time I was in Singapore, I was invited to experience indoor rock-climbing with a couple of work-friends; I couldn’t find the time last time, so decided to venture this time around.

We went to the Onsight Indoor Climbing Gym at 100 Guillemard Road – it was a nice experience, and I just about remembered what we had to do. I managed to climb up 3 walls with relative ease, but the next 2 were tougher to achieve. My arms and legs just were zapped of the energy required to push or pull me up so I managed to do half-way on both before I decided to have a break.

But it was great fun, and I would certainly repeat this. I just need to do some weights and push-ups/sit-ups, to improve my upper body muscles 🙂

Catholic Church – Easter Service

3 April 2013 Apartment No comments

I also managed to find the local Catholic Church – and luckily for me, it was located very conveniently in Novena – down Thomson Road.

I decided to go for the 09:00-10:00SGT service – and it was a very popular church service. The challenge was the outside area with seating was not that ventilated – and it was sticky and hot!

The church mass was very nice and relaxing, and it was good to spend it properly this Easter at a Catholic Church – so glad that I found the place, and hopefully it won’t be as long when I return for my next service.

Easter Weekend – Cycling Mad

1 April 2013 Exercise No comments

Well I was aiming to spend some time away for the Easter Break, but didn’t manage to book anywhere, as the air fares were ridculouosly high, so instead I decided to spend it in Singapore.

I wanted to enjoy the time, so decided to spend some quality time with some friends doing cycling around East Coast, drinking and eating 🙂 (Well that seems to be a usual weekend, at the moment – haha).

It was actually quite enjoyable and relaxing…and I am certainly getting fitter with all of this exercis malarkey 🙂

Russell Peters – Notorious World Tour 2013

30 March 2013 Entertainment No comments
Russell Peters' Notorious Tour 2013

Russell Peters’ Notorious Tour 2013

The Canadian comedian Russell Peters visited Singapore as part of his global 2013 tour, and after hearing quite a lot of good things about him, I decided to get a ticket and enjoy the evening’s entertainment.

It was pretty good – the warm-up DJ sets were fantastic (DJ Spinbad and DJ SFS) – not as good as Fatboy Slim mind you or Carl Cox, but yeah pretty enjoyable listening, whilts we waited for the two comedy acts to appear.

The supporting ‘warm-up’ act was Ruben Paul who was pretty funny – he got the crowd going for about 20 minutes, and then the man himself came on stage.  The highlight of his show, for me, were Russell’s various impromptu conversations with members of the audience, mainly taking the micky out of them, whether race, religion or just for turning up late to the show (haha!)…definitely adult humour involved too.  Although, there were a few occassions this ‘links’ weren’t brilliant, and there was a few moments when he paused to try to bring it back to this material, just felt it wasn’t polished at times, but it was still a great night all in all!  It is just a shame that some members of the audience just didn’t get it, enjoy it, or understand the humour – their lost 🙂

Well I would definitely recommend going to see Russell but just be prepared on some bordering-the-line humour!

 

Air Conditioning Servicing

25 March 2013 Apartment, New Chapter, Shopping No comments

Well one of the stipulations of my condo contract, like the vast majority of rentals here in Singapore, is that you have to perform quarterly servicing of the Air Conditioning unit.

The previous tenant provided me their invoices from a company – and this was for $70 each time.  I have two units in my apartment, so that worked out to be $35 for each unit.  I knew this was quite expensive, having asked around.  I was told that I should be able to get it between $15-$20 if I shop wisely.  I also knew that an annual service contract would be cheaper.

Anyway, I wanted a bit of consistency in the paperwork, so first contacted the ‘Atlantic Engineering Air-Conditioning’ company, who previously serviced the units for the previous tenant.  They told me that an annual service would be $200 – which equates to $50 a visit, or $25 a unit.  I still wanted it slightly cheaper, so told them about a comporative price where it was quoted as being $17 a unit for an annual contract.  They couldn’t match this, but rather than the inconvenience of phoning around to get a cheaper quote, I accepted their slightly discounted offer of $180 – or $45 a visit, or $22.50 a unit.  That will do 🙂  I am sure I could have found one slightly cheaper, but alas I’ll be happy with this – a few bucks spare to spend on the Guinness!!.

The first visit was scheduled for 21st March, and they came and serviced the units very efficiently.  In 20-30 minutes it was all done.  Sorted for another quarter and sorted for the next year at least!

Pure Art @ Keong Saik Exhibition – Cleo Lim

16 March 2013 Exhibition, Family and Friends No comments

I was invited to visit a family friend’s private art exhibition at Jiak Chuan Road on Friday, 15th March, and I was delighted to pay a visit.

It was a delightful exhibition and it must have been good for the artist, Cleo Lim, to see all of her pieces of work in one exhibition, and I must admit some really got my attention. There were broadly two types of pieces, one on canvas and one on Japanese Rice Paper – and it was the latter that I really were my type of thing. It was the attention of detail and the true emotions that came through each piece.

I was even keen to get a piece – may still do so – it costs S$3,500 so it has to be something I really need to consider before I do so, especially, as I would need to find a way of getting it to the UK 🙂

Prior to the exhibition, as I turned up a bit early, I was given a tour of the Blu Connections marketing and logistics company – and company focused on ethical denim, it was fascinating and really made me think more about the clothes and denim I buy from the shops – very interesting background indeed – visit their website here –> Blu Connection.

Gardens By the Bay – Very Relaxing

25 February 2013 Exercise, Gardens, Marina Bay No comments

Well I’ve heard a lot of good feedback about the new Botanic Gardens by Marina Bay (Gardens by the Bay for short), so I was keen to pay a visit.

I finally got around to visit, via Marina Bay MRT and then to Bayfront MRT – which now links the red line with the circle line on the east side. You walk underneath Marina Bay Sands to the Gardens, and you can take a leisurely stroll (for free) in the outer gardens or pay to go into the two ‘cloud’ domes, which houses the ‘Forest’ and ‘Flower’ themed gardens (visits to this costs about $28 to visit both domes, or $20 for local residents / workers). The Skyway costs $5 and the Garden Cruiser is $5.

I decided to stay out in the free gardens this time around – which was also very enjoyable and relaxing, and decided to come back to visit the domes another time.

In fact, looking at the annual ticket price, I decided to buy one of these, as it only costs $68 which allows me to enter all parts of the attractions for free unlimited – so if I visit over 3 times, I have made up for the annual ticket cost – and I become a friend of the bay – to get our discount entitlements 🙂 Bonus!

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