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Diary

Dinner & Lunch

Part One – Dinner

Perhaps I shall hand out a feedback form to my mother to fill in at the end of her each visit to Singapore, at the airport, before flying back to Hong Kong.  The questions, I would imagine, go something like …

  1. Have you seen enough of your son in your visit?  [ ]
  2. Have you spent enough quality time with your daughter and your granddaughter?  [ ]
  3. Is your son’s home comfortable to live in?  Do you feel at home?  [ ]
  4. Do you feel overworked with the cooking and dish cleaning?  [ ]
  5. Have you been taken out often enough for sightseeing and dinning?  Sushi perhaps?  [ ]
  6. Do you enjoy your stay in Singapore?  [ ]
  7. Will you be back in the next 6 to 12 months?  [ ]

I honestly do not know how well or badly I do.  Maybe I could have done more, a lot more.  Maybe I am not so used to having people around me all the time, besides Cynthia.

Last Saturday evening – the evening before my mother headed back the next day – Cynthia and I were scratching our heads pondering where to bring my mother for dinner.  We discussed on the way to Church, we discussed while waiting for the Mass to begin, and we discussed on the way home.  We picked up my mother and we were still deliberating.  Where to eat?  Where?  To eat?  Such a profound question.  So fundamental.

Out of nowhere, I remember a radio advertisement.  Botak Jones’s new fully air-con restaurant opened somewhere in Balestier Road.  Inside the car, we quickly took out our wireless phones raced to search for the address.  We turned on Google Map.  In no time, we located the restaurant.

We seldom visit Balestier area, except that one time when I was hunting to buy a toilet seat, in board daylight.  Cynthia said the area reminded her of Jakarta.  As for my mother, Malaysia.  Botak Jones, to my best knowledge, started as a stall inside a hawker center serving authentic American food at a price comparable to other outdoor eatery stalls.  The tagline as I have later found out is: damn good food at damn good price.  That explains the T-shirts the staffs are wearing with the big logo “Damn Good” at the back.  The food is indeed pretty decent.  For burgers, I reckon the price is pretty good as well.  Around S$10.  My mother has ordered lamb chop and I, steak.  Ours were about S$20 each.  With two portions of mushroom soup (which was really good, or we were really hungry) and chargeable warm water, the bill came up to just over S$60.  I would say, Botak Jones serves pretty good food at a OK price, albeit the rather long wait for our food to be served.

Part Two – Lunch

In my current job role, I am not so used to having people lunching with me.  Hence, I often have my lunch alone.  It was seldom the case when I was working in town.  I always called upon friends from beyond my organization.  Since the office relocation, I have grown to enjoy the serenity of man-made lake and greenery, to treasure the time of my own.  I get to read books in a quiet space.  Or drive out and visit a library nearby.  Even lunch by the beach.  Recently, one friend of mine who works a few blocks away introduced me to a mall called Changi City Point.  You cannot imagine my excitement that day.

It is hard to describe the sheer pleasure in me when I first stepped inside.  A mall about ten minutes’ walk away from my office.  A mall that I did not even know exists.  It is quite a sizable mall.  Brand new, with garden (or rather oasis) concept.  Plenty of restaurants and cafes, outlets and there is even a music school.  Perhaps I shall take some drumming lessons during my lunch hours.  The food court in the mall offers cheaper and better food compares to my office’s canteen.  Pretty good food at a OK price.  My choice is obvious.  Better still, I get to have my healthy dosage of fresh air and sun and a good amount of walking every working day.

P.S.

The maps you see in this post are generated from Streetdirectory.com.  If you are from Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, or Philippines, you may use their widget to spice up your webpage.  Right now, they are running a treasure hunt campaign.  Click here for more information.  If you do win an iPad and you – like every other people in Singapore – have already got one, please send it over.  Thanks!

4 replies on “Dinner & Lunch”

Bro, I think you gotta blog more! You’re losing your touch! When I started reading about your mom, I was hoping for some more insights into your interaction with her. Or perhaps how she found the food she ordered at Botak Jones?

Kind of disappointed the last bit of the article turned out to be an advertisement for Streetdirectory. Nonetheless, thanks for the writeup on location of Botak Jones’s new restaurant, although I am not a fan of the food.

Mark – Well, sorry to hear that the quality of this post is not quite to your expectation.

First of all, this is a diary entry and diary is usually as it is. And like I said, I honestly have no idea how well or badly I do with regards to my interaction with her over her visit. So it is, again as it is – and it further illustrates the subtle underlying that the depth, as you may hope to see, may not be there. As for the food, the feedback is a collective feedback. All three of us found the food good and none of us complain about the quality. I suppose I could be more specific.

Actually, it is not my intend to “advertise”. This entry I have in mind since the weekend. I intended to go to Google Map, copy the image and crop it into my website. Like how I did for my Spain trip. It is tedious. I am happy though, now no longer do I need to do that. Just link it from StreetDirectory! Besides, it is a “contest” that the more people know, the worse my chance of winning is. So, why would I want to “advertise”? More for sharing because I think it is good.

Hahaha, that’s because I have high expectations from your writings. You know what they say, “With greater powers, come greater responsibilities”.

Nothing wrong with advertisements really. Guess I just wanted more, like pictures and more pictures perhaps?

Mark – Yep, there is a picture filled post coming your way!

Just that these days I am feeling lazy to bring the dSLR, unless there is an outing worth taking photos of.

Maybe I shall take some photos of Changi Business Park and share here, some days. Thanks for the suggestion.

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