Jo and I got invited to the opening of the Singapore Writers Festival. Since it was evening and we could make it, well, we decided to go! As we approached the tent, we glimpsed Dave Chua of Gone Case but ALAS, he disappeared as we entered for that evening was also the opening of an exhibition by Sonny Liew elsewhere which I didn’t know and also the launch of the Gone Case 2, the graphic novel.

NO MATTER, so we bust into the tent like the writers we are.

Which is to say we pushed opened the doors and pretty much walked in after saying our names at the sign in area.

In the corner of the festival pavillion (that part is free for anyone to come) was an exhibit on Kuo Pao Kun’s lifetime achievements while the middle-ish part had black and white leather benches in front of a mini stage. The perimeter of the whole pavillion was pretty much a bookshop so there were shelves of local and non-local books. As usual, it is le literary people who are there. We recognized faces but we are shy girls not really so we just decided to check out the spread.

We are but PEASANTS for out of the whole affair, we liked the vegetables, salad and potatoes best. POTATOES AND VEGETABLES. Such simple tastes we have! The other dishes were too sweet for us even if it was sea perch soup, fish and Jo tried the chicken. It’s… sweet which was kinda weird. NO MATTER, we scoped out the people there while we stood around with our plates.

For those who didn’t know, there was a dresscode in the invitation to SWF. It was “literary chic”. There had been a lot of questions on Twitter by others who had this invite too. I decided that “literary chic” meant to dress up like a writer but not a hobo writer. It worked and as you can see from the pictures, everyone pretty much just wore whatever the heck they wanted.

We saw the NAC people too! They were busy so we didn’t want to disturb the people so we just shovelled more potatoes and enjoyed the air con there. So yes. We just spent the opening eating potatoes and vegetables before we decided to scram since well, everyone had their own person to mingle or speak literary chic and it was getting late for us. It was a preview night after all and there would be panels and such the next day.

I purchase my festival pass via Sistic when it had the early bird special so it just cost me $11 then. The thing is that you were supposed to exchange it at the festival pavillion to get your swanky proper pass! A lot of people were confused about this bit and eh, this was the first time the Singapore Writers Festival is being charged. Hopefully the next one would be less tedious.

For one thing, the ticketed events like workshops and stuff, you needed to buy via Sistic first since it was separate from the festival pass. And the festival pass was for everything else. Mostly, people were also confused on where to exchange your Sistic festival pass into the red plastic one since it wasn’t really obvious at the counter of the festival pavillion (it was said to be Info counter and was sharing with the bookstore’s cashier).

As Jo and I waited (we went to the fest the next day, so imagine a time lapse here instead of us camping in the festival) for the launch of Ceriph’s issue 4, we found this! Bubble G.U.M and Happiness at the End of the World was available! So was an Irish Tour of Singapore which you could buy it all at Two Trees too!

Plus, it amused me that Low Kay Hwa’s book that I bought a week or so before the fest was there since I was corresponding to him currently. That meant that they didn’t just stock the literary stuff at the festival bookstore.

Also, we found a book that was going to be launched the following week there. I had to buy it because the first line was:

Tara first met him at the Singapore Arts Festival in Moscow.

You have no idea how many people picked up that book there, stared at that line, looked around and back to it again. Worry not. I will read out parts of the book and reveal to you what it is since it is queued in my bunch of books to be reviewed.

Meanwhile, it was time for the launch for Ceriph issue 4. This issue is divided into different paper types and if you want to hear her reading, just click the video below since I would rather let her explain it herself!

One of my favourite stories in this issue is titled $trategic KPI + %Synergy% = Love by Mary-Jane Leo. I refuse to believe the ending. I believe that it was AMBIGUOUS, SINCE it was just merely a squashing. MERELY. It’s just a squash. You can get this issue and the previous ones at Kinokuniya, Books Actually or just check their website on where to get it.

After that, we went to the panel on Adoring Fans and Stalkers: Relating to my Readers, featuring Randy Taguchi and Fira Basuki. It was a super engaging and fun session. Very informative too on what fans they got and how they related to them or handled the really extreme ones. This was in the transaction pavillion which is to the left of the festival pavillion and needed the pass.

Before this session though, Jo did attend another panel and considering the layout of the tent, there was a distracting spider involved? The place is a bit dark too.

After that fan panel, we left to eat prata since there was quite a bit of prata talk somehow. Meanwhile, Vertical Submarine were responsible for these. Hahah, I always like Vertical Submarine stuff. It’s a mysterious case and another is called the UnderWriter’s Table. Yes, the book there says “How to write a blank cheque”.

Time lapse to the next weekend! It was getting quieter and the white board was getting more insane with art. You could get free fans too. Hah! Fans. I don’t think the bears at the info counter were for sale but they had mini versions of the festival’s programme. Anyway, it was a super hot day and I headed into the festival pavillion since the session I wanted to go was an hour away.

I must say that it was really quiet. There was also half hour readings and besides me and the bookstore staff and some of the NAC people, there wasn’t much visitors at the pavillion (unless they were buying books). I found out from my friend (not Jo. Check out the 1st prize winner for the Malay short story for Golden Point award, that is him) that the panel he was interested in was pretty quiet too, like around 5 or so people including him and the writer.

I think most of us attributed it to the fact of the festival being spread out in 3 places instead of The Arts House in which it made everything feel livelier. Plus, I didn’t know there was such thing as half hour readings at the pavillion. So sad for authors being slotted in the timings then.

Meanwhile, I was going to Is Facebook killing the Blog? Featuring: Pat Law, Gilbert Koh, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow at The Salon of the National Museum before I met my friend to find all this out. This panel was talking about finding your voice and write what you want to. Plus, more insight on how the panelists blog or intergrate facebook by linking to their blogs.

Their take away point was that if you are a serious writer who wants to write articles etc, choose a blog. Facebook is too spammy and your words might disappear if FB keeps changing. At least you will have an archive somewhere if you have your own blog.

The reason I met my friend cause HOHOHOHOHOH, I got a ticket to Joe Haldeman’s science fiction workshop. He had bought his before the start of the festival and I got mine in the last minute cause another friend of mine couldn’t make it and so I bought it off from her.

Heh, heh, heh.

As we bought headed to SMU, there was a performances, Words in Motion by breakdancing crews and other dancers. The whole thing was organized by Soul Theory Studios and there you can see Sheik Haikal being the emcee for it all. He was certainly entertaining for what brief time I was there.

And the last ticketed event for the evening was Building Other Worlds – The Fundamentals of Writing Science Fiction Featuring: Joe Haldeman. Mostly we got to listen stories from him, how he wrote his books and I did get to learn the difference of the types of science fiction written.

Not really sure how to explain it but okay, I did get to learn quite a bit and that it is tough to write science fiction nowadays.

It was certainly a sold out workshop and it was overrun a little bit since we wanted to listen to him more.

Lastly, my friend and I managed to listen to the LAST argument for the  Closing Debate: This House Would Trade English for Singlish at the transaction pavillion.

The well-acclaimed SWF Closing Debate is back! This time, the two teams of mystery speakers will debate on the motion: “This House would trade English for Singlish.” Singlish, Singapore’s colloquial English, has always provoked much controversy in a country torn between its commitment to a global and a national identity. Now who will make the most kilat (polished) argument for or against it? Who will conversely kena whack jialat-jialat (get trounced) for talking too much rubbish? Hopefully, all of them! Join us for a session of side-splitting, nose-bloodied, rowdy fun that will bring this festival to its irreverent close!

Members of the public could comment and well… WOW.

Singlish versus English debate

Although I’m sure there were official videographers, I know that footage won’t be used in… official videos or anything like that. No point for me to put up a video of the last arguments since it was really THAT packed. The audio’s good enough for you to listen.

Choice quote from the English camp:

In a nutshell the Singaporean identiy is about the acquisition of personal material wealth.Thank goodness our ministers are not like that.

There’s more leading to that but you got to listen to it, hahahaha.

Choice quote from the Singlish camp:

These days ah, we are told to speak English cause they are powerful international language, correct? But then ah, government also tell you nowadays you must speak Chinese because Chinese now very powerful. Right? I can guarantee ten years time they tell you to speak some Indian language because India also powerful. But you think ah, ok? English, Chinese, Indian, when put together Singlish already what.Correct? We are already in the future!

And that’s the end of the SWF. It was judged by how loud you clapped and thus both won. Hahahah, that kind of ending. In any case, that was great. In summary, SWF was fun. The venue needs to be worked out a little more since a lot of people have commented on not being able to switch rooms if they’re not interested in the panel and the ticketing needs to be a bit more clearly. That and the scheduling of panels. There was quite a lot of clashes with hot topic panels at the same time.

We’ll see how it is next year. For now, I’m going to keep my pass since it’s the first pass ever for a paid SWF here. COLLECTOR’S ITEM GET!

In a land of blue skies and floating platform, a fair was to be had upon the lush greenery. That fair was in fact… Ben & Jerry’s Chunk Fest at Marina Bay’s Promontory!

It’s nearer to get to if you drop off at Raffles Place MRT than if you were to do so at Marina Bay station.

Such was the entrance for you had to queue to get in! Also, you got a red band on your wrist once you entered. Perhaps this is to make sure there is crowd control for it does have a limited amount of space there. It’s large but you know, just in case.

You receive a paper cowbell to be a Chunkpion. If you managed to get signatures/stamps for every square at the back of it, you will win a… NOTEPAD!

Yeah.

I think that was what the prize was. However, at some of the stations you do get stuff for doing the activities so you won’t technically just win a notepad.

Meanwhile, real monies was not used at the fair, you needed to change them into fair coins! The exchange rate was equal to our money so in Chunk Fest land, a yellow 1 coin was equal to our $1.

We did calculations after touring the place since 6 coins = 1 ice cream scoop (1 ice cream scoop however, didn’t look like just ONE, it was kinda big) and 1 coin = 1 game at some stations.

What evaaah shall we do? By the way, it looks so green here but the grass was rather muddy from the previous day’s rain. Most of the staff were going footwearless since it was just that messy if you had to run around.

Moo went the cow. It was a cute moo too, I think the one dressing up inside was a girl. She went, “Moo. Mooooo”. You can take a picture with Woody the cow and then get the signature/stamp at the main Ben & Jerry’s booth where they were selling merchandise like cups, thumbdrives and everything else.

There were bands playing on the main stage there and other competitions too. According to the papers, I think that’s also where the main ice cream eating contest was held too, the Vermont or so I heard.

Pin the pint! Chunk digger, where you dig for puzzle pieces and also the dunking tank! There were other games like toe wrestling too. They pretty much just cost 1 fair coin. I did the dunking one but my soccer ball ONLY HIT IT BUT DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH FORCE TO PUSH THE LEVER DOWN. BAAAAAAAAAH!

The main tent for the ice cream was pretty popular. It’s when the exclusive ice cream flavours were available too. The queue wasn’t that long even if it looked like there were a lot of people.

Ok, we had strategized with our coins. We were going to do the Merlionster. It costs us 30 coins for 6 scoops of ice cream, toppings of bananas, brownie bits and pretty much a lot of things and that was still cheaper than a scoop on our own at the main tents. When we went there, no one managed to finish it in 1 minute.

And so we did it… AND DID NOT SUCCEED. NOoooooooooooooo! We only got it halfway through. No matter, the ladies gave us extra spoons at the end so that our other friend could eat it with us too. It’s a two player game, you see.

STILL, I got a nifty badge! So yay! Ok, so maybe I did just try it cause I wanted the badge. GOT TO CATCH ‘EM ALL!

Ice cream, give it to us. Yes.

After being sent ingredients for a lemon cake, it was fun to realize that most of the Adventure Crew and other people we knew were invited to this HBO Asia event.

But first, dinner. The HBO Asia team were groovy enough to invite some of us to break fast with them at Meatworks! (They told us that some of the canapés etc at the event weren’t Halal and really they’re just canapés anyway.) FYI, Meatworks is originally from Malaysia and the food is certified Halal but apparently they won’t show the cert outside for here cause guests can bring their drinks from elsewhere, like that.

We got to learn why some scenes of shows were cut from them and ok duh. It’s cause they’re HBO ASIA. They don’t specifically screen shows  just for Singapore! They screen shows in Philipines, Malaysia, Indonesia etc!

I don’t know if you know how the censorship works in Malaysia and Indonesia but they do cut quite a bit from their own normal shows not on cable TV. (I remember for Malaysia, they cut out the “It’s morphin’ time!” sequence in Power Rangers on one of their free to air channels just cause it said “morphin”, so gee.) Thus, the team has to work to get stuff and convince the other countries to get said programmed to be passed before it’s screened!

Sounds like tough work to make sure all countries say yes.

Then it was time to get tagged and go off to the main event upstairs at the Ion Sky.

It was on level 55. Yes, there is a level 55 at Ion. There’s only one location to get to it and the lift just has two buttons. Either to get to level 55 or to level 4. I like the zig zag lighted up bits, kinda like Tron.

Game of Thrones banners of each house were put up against the pillars and the way up towards the party location. Apparently near the windows at some ends were these digital binocular things to see how the streets and buildings looked like in the day, night or well, live.

We clicked live to check it out. The range of these binoculars were really good and you could check out what car was parked at where.

It was a pretty fancy event with really nice decor of Game of Thrones. They even brought in an Iron Throne for us to take pictures on.

If you sat on it, the photographer takes a picture and then it goes off to the printer at the table near the far end where the staff puts it in a magnetic crystal block like a paperweight.

I wasn’t up there for long but the rest were and told me that the host was funny and entertaining. Also, it was then time to watch the first episode of Game of Thrones!

Expectedly, it ended at a point that made everyone go “WHAT, WHATTTT! What happens after that?”. Boo hiss! Well, we can’t stay there and have a marathon anyway considering the series premieres at HBO on 28 August.

Screening over and yet there were still people mingling about because it was fun. We pretty much knew a lot of people there too, heh. Well, we had to go anyway since it was going to get late.

We got a goodie bag of stuff too! A small bag, a letter opener in shape of a sword, 5 leather bookmarks (going to be totally useful) and a booklet on the houses and families in GoT.

Oh you can see the tiny magnetic crystal paperweight thing if you click the picture with all the stuff in. Thanks HBO Asia for inviting me! It was totally fun and it was certainly a series relevant to us! Plus, we like fantasy stuff and goodies too, heh heh.

Ok. So I did receive eggs and a clue for the third piece! In fact, I finished the whole puzzle so here’s what the fourth item is.

It’s a box from a fancy pastry confectionary!

And that was what in it!

Ok, obligatory shots of the lemon and cake cause I had shots of the flour and sugar in the previous posts.

And the clues are finished! The last two:

House Targaryen – “You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?” The Targaryen dragon eggs may hatch. (eggs)

House Baratheon – They say that “the King shits and the Hand wipes.” Keep some lemon zest handy if you’re in service of King Baratheon. (lemon)

So in total, I got ingredients to make lemon cakes plus a recipe! That and an invitation card to get to the event. So you know the recipe they send? I decided that since I did have all of that, why not make it? Here’s what they sent me BUT I modified the recipe on account of only having a baking tray, no rameskins nor buttermilk. My comments are in red.

Lemon Cakes – Serves 6 (From Craft of Cooking, Clarkson Potter, 2003)

½ cup sugar plus additional for dusting ramekins I think I used more than that.

2 eggs, separated

3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour Waaay more than this amount of flour to fit my baking tray.

Pinch kosher salt What I used wasn’t a pinch but around half a teaspoon for the amount I used.

⅔ cup buttermilk I just used regular milk.

2 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice I used the whole lemon they gave me instead.

Finly chopped zest of 1 ½ lemons Hah! I grated it since that’s faster and you get finer pieces.

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

Instructions:

Heat the over to 300 (I assume fahrenheit which is 148 degrees celcius). Butter and lightly sugar six 4-ounce ramekins. Beat teh egg whites until they hold soft peaks then set them aside. Sift the sugar with the flour and salt. In a mixer, use the whisk attachment, combine the buttermilk, lemon juice eggs yolks and lemon zest.

Gradually add the flour mixture then fold in the egg whites. Divide the batter between the prepared rameskins. Place the ramekins in a water bath (set the ramekines in a larger pan; fill the pan with enough hot water to come halfway up the ramekins) cover with aluminium foil.

Bake until the cakes rise and are almost firm, about 25 minutes then uncover and continue baking until the tops are lightly golden and the cakes spring back when touched, about 15 minutes more. Unmold and serve.

Ok. How I did it? Ignore all that, dump everything into a bowl, stir it and pour it into the baking tray, set oven to 150 degrees celcius and let it bake for around 30 minutes or so until the tops brown over.

Looks nothing like the picture they provided but it tasted pretty nice! Put more lemon if you want more sourness or sugar for more sweetness. As it is, it was good enough to go along with tea. I turned it upside down and sliced it like so.

And for those going to the Games of Thrones event…

No, I’m not bringing this there. I’ve finished it.

Salut everyone! It was after this particular short adventure that the crew and I headed off to 10 Haji Lane to check out this new Halal bistro called Le Bistro Parisien. Oui, oui. It is French food. Oooh, la la!

It is in between other shops on that street! As you know how the streets there are with their bohemian looking shops and whatnot. Anywho, we had a reservation for there were about six of us! We were then led to their sitting area upstairs where the longer tables are. We faced a cello as we reached the second floor and we went “Ooooh” at the decor.

Once we were all seated, the waiter placed bread baskets and a bottle of water on the table. The bread basket was delish since it was those tiny little rolls you had to break with your fingers and then butter it with your knife. The butter packs provided were unsalted which I always liked since you could taste the creamyness spread upon the soft interior of the bread.

As the others figured out what to eat from the menu, I looked around. The decor upstairs had vintage posters and photographs of Malay actors, actresses and singers from the past! French music played from the radio in the corner where if you sat at the window seat, you could look out to the other shops along the street.

WARNING: THE NEXT BUNCH OF PICTURES WILL BE OF FOOD.

Tsk, tsk to people who’ll always go arrrrgh whenever they read these types of posts by me before lunch hour or something. Oh by the way, some of the pictures below… Well, I had a second trip there so I got more pictures of food! So hah! Ok, let’s go! You can check out their menu on the bistro’s Facebook or website. Oh and no, I didn’t eat it ALL by myself. I tasted some from my friend’s plates and such so there.

Be sure to ask the waiter or waitress what is available because at this time of post, there had been a Groupon deal a week or so ago and that a lot of people have come to try the food. So do ask what is available if you go to the bistro quite late in the evening.

LAST NOTE before I get to the food. I will name them by NUMBER cause I can’t spell it in the proper French spelling with this keyboard.

Firstly, the soups! You can’t go wrong with mushroom soup (no. 3 in the menu) and the French onion soup (no. 1). The cream of mushroom soup is mushroomy and creamy. Well, I can’t describe it more than that because it IS what it is stated, heh. The French onion soup meanwhile, has a lovely cheese crusty top that you have to break into, to get to the sweet onions soup. A delightful blend of cheese and sweetness that got my table (on my first trip) going “Uuunggh, it is French Oniooooooooon” in a gorgeous way.

Let us now start with the salads and entrees. This is the green salad with goat’s cheese and walnuts (no. 9). If you like cheese, this is quite lovely since as you bite it, the cheese will melt in your mouth since it is served warm. I also tasted Sue‘s mesclun salad with prawns (no. 10) preferred that more cause it had a more tangy taste with its sauce!

Entrees with the escargot (no. 12) or the baked bone marrow of veal (no. 13). It was interesting eating the escargot as I haven’t tried it before. The others who have eaten escargot before said that this was well cooked and the green peas puree did match it well!

Meanwhile, oh maaaaan. I certainly like the baked bone marrow of veal. The brown sauce is addictive while the mushrooms on the side are bitter. It’s not your standard cheap button mushrooms, non. It is a smaller type that you have to acquire a taste for but heck that. I liked this entree and this is one of the popular dishes there too.

This is what I ordered! The salmon with lemon butter sauce (no 18)! You can see it comes with a side of pasta and oh my, it was done well! The pasta was al dente and the sauce was not overwhelming nor was it sucktastic as some other pasta I have tried. The salmon in the meantime was cooked properly! Not overdone and dry but just a light pink where one is able to taste it and savour the true salmon-y taste. (This is why I’m not a food blogger. “Salmon-y taste” indeed.)

Chicken fricassee (no. 17), sauteed prawns (no. 19) and navarin d’Agneau aka lamb shank (no. 15). Of these three (and my salmon), I would say that the sauteed prawns were a winner. I mean all of them tasted good but it was the prawns that made us go “WOAAAAAH, I likes thisss”.

Unfortunately, Mintea ordered that so no, we couldn’t swipe it away from her that much BUT we can always go and order it the next time we’d go to the bistro.

Considering this place is super new and didn’t have reviews or pictures by others, we were wondering how the portions were like. I must say that it is not small nor it is too huge like some other restaurant we tried but it was satisfactory! Like just enough to go “Woah, I’m full…. BUT OK LET US HAVE DESSERT SINCE THE FOOD WAS DELISH”!

Which leads us to perhaps freaking the waiters out.

This one here is a Gianduja tart. At least, I think that’s the name. Or was it the caramel one? I DON’T KNOW THE NAME. To us, it was called “OH MY, THIS ONE IT IS CREAMY AT THE START BUT HITS YOU WITH THE AFTER TASTE OF REAL SWEETNESS OMGOMGOMGOMG!” to the point of us forgetting what it was called. EDIT: It’s called the CARAMEL PEAR TART!

Yeah, I told you we might have freaked the waiters out or something.

This is Chocolate Amer. It is deliciously chocolate! IT IS NOT SWEET. Not the cloying sweet or cheapo milk chocolate! NON! It is just WOAAAH CHOCOLATE. It is the chocolate of, as I quote one of our crew, “If this was a man, I will marry it and eat him forever!”.

Yes.

Chocolate.

This is the creme brulee. Ok, you see there’s limited desserts or there might be stuff they made for the day so you’d have to check what’s available. The creme brulee was apparently the last one in the bistro and we went all, “PLEASE! Go forth and let us have the creme bruleeeee! Run, run!” even though the bistro isn’t that big but heck, we’re very dramatic when it comes to dessert.

As it was served to us, I tapped the surface with my spoon and it made a little crack sound and we all went “OOOoooooooooOOOoOooooh” like it was some ground breaking ceremony of sorts. Yes, it is light and not too sweet. It is a very good creme brulee.

Lastly, on the table we had the strawberry sorbet. I would like to feature this out of all those desserts above because it is GORGEOUS. It is made by the chefs there using real strawberries. It’s the one that got as all, “Oh… it is gone” in a semi-ladylike manner because it looked as if we were gonna snatch it away for ourselves instead of sharing.

But no, we didn’t do that for we were in a French bistro and one must keep classy! So ok, now for the facts!

Le Bistro Parisien

Address: 10 Haji Lane

Phone: +65 9800 0319 , +65 6396 6383 (Call up if you have a large number of people in your party, best to reserve a place!)

They have a Facebook here and their website is http://www.BistroParisien.com.sg

It is a Halal French bistro in Singapore and while it doesn’t have the MUIS certificate, it is owned by a Muslim uh, owner. The food is more creamy and subtle tasting since it is French cuisine. The cost is around $20 and above but it has no GST or service charge so it’s easy to calculate from the menu.

The best time to go is in the afternoon since most people like to go in the evening.  Yeah, I think that’s all there is to know besides… TRY IT OUT indeed!

Au revoir.

The other time we went on the tracks, this time we went to one of their stations! Tanjong Pagar Railway Station is going to close on 1st July and then it’ll be up for some renovations or something like that. We’re not sure but it’s to be at least kept the way it is as a historical place. Well, the crew didn’t get to go on the guided tours by the heritage board but we did research on our own and took pictures on our own time!

I wonder if they’re going to renovate the station, will they keep the clock as it is? Frozen in time? It was said to be that it stopped because it was struck by lightning but I’m not sure how accurate that fact is. Kind of like Back to the Future eh?

To get to the station, you either take the bus, walk or get there with your own vehicle. In 3 March 1932, it was officially opened by Sir Cecil Clementi. Ok, in the following pictures, you might see FMSR, that stands for Federated Malay States Railways. It is said that it is influenced by the architect of Finland’s Helsinki Station. Hence the art deco style and all. Let’s get closer.

Now, they’re the statues of agriculture, commerce, transport and industry.The boxes below them are light fixtures that were originally inside of the station. I find it amusing that agriculture has a plant growing out of it now. I wonder if that’s by chance or was that designed to be that way. Interestingly if you read wikipedia or infopedia about the station and about the statues, it says that it’s by Rudolfo Nolli, the architect who also did the Old Supreme Court. However, this is NOT ACCURATE.

Hold on there, WHAT IS THIS? On all of the statues, these hard to see signatures are carved upon them. I’ve enhanced the photos so we can see the names. Angelo Vannetti is the sculptor and art by R. Bigazzi of Florence? Interesting, non? At the moment, I don’t have much info on them but well, this is something to find out more in the future. I’m not sure where Rudolfo Nolli came about since the statues seemed to be a different style when you compare other works.

Ok, let’s head into the station. It’s still being used by people who want to go to Malaysia or even up to Bangkok. The last train from the station will be manned by the Sultan of Johor on 30 June and it’ll cost at least $300 for a ride. Expensive much cause it’s the last train.

Lots of signs and the schedule is hung on the left wall as you enter the station. The VIP rooms don’t seem used any more. It was station hotel of 34 rooms and once, there was a suicide in one of them! Scandalous! The door probably leads to the second floor where the rooms are but we didn’t have access to that. It’s also the one hotel besides one in Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur for the line.  Sad.

There’s a kampung house in the middle of the station by Malaysian Tourism Board. It’s a “model of a homestay in Malaysia”. You can’t go in it but there’s an LCD screen playing a video of Malaysia!

When you’re there, the most crowded area would be the ticketing counter and the seats where passengers would wait for the arrival of the train. The police station seems closed, I wonder if it’s cause the officers are at the restricted part of the station where you need tickets to enter. Oh besides that, on the right side of the station is a restaurant and some old arcade games or gashapon machines. It says Railway Restaurant but it’s not really a restaurant that you’d think, it’s more of a classic style food court.

Meanwhile, if you look UP, you’ll see these mosaic pieces of art on the walls besides the FMSR coat of arms that’s similar to the ones outside of the station. So, if art was by R. Bigazzi, would it be a logical conclusion that the scenes of Malaysian life is done by him?

Ok, off towards the other side of the station you’ll find a money changer and bookstore. The Habib Railway Bookstore that has been there since 1936. At the moment it is like your typical mamak shop with magazines, snacks and other items.

Before we continue looking and taking pictures of the railway, the crew and I took a short tea break at the other restaurant. You can see the metal gates of where the bookstore is in this picture as we’re facing it.

The kueh stall is self service, just grab what you want and pay at the drinks stall! We had some pisang goreng and some fried fritter thing that I always don’t know the name of and say “I want that one” instead and glasses of teh tarik. It was delish. The staff at the drinks stall seem to be Indonesian! TEA BREAK OVER. Let’s get back to the main railway which was just next to the food shops and tables.

See the train there? Back then nearly all FMSR steam locomotives were manufactured by various builders from the United Kingdom, the had all-black liveries except for the Johor Railway which used Catalonian blue.

Ok, Singapore has KTM’s (that’s Keretapi Tanah Melayu aka Malaysian Railways) only hydralic buffer stops by Ransomes & Rapier. That company is closed now so hmmm. It’s that red thing in the back you see. The pushcart there is now like a landmark of sorts for the station.

Soon it was time for the people to get on their train too. Lots of passengers in tour groups from what I noticed.

Then we were off. Not in the train, we got out of the station. Oh if you’re looking up, you’ll see this on the arcs of the roof outside. The 8 points is for luck. Heh, we’ve got Helsinki influence and of course Asian influence too for this station. They have green tiles for the roof anyway which is more of an oriental style.

So good bye railway station! Still, what will happen to the staff there, the food stall owners and the resident cats? Hopefully it won’t change much and will reopen as a historical landmark as what was planned by both the Malaysian and Singapore government! Well, you have until 1 July to check the place out before it “temporarily closes”.

Ps. Considering the nature of this post, I have lots of links for you to check out since I researched and took it from various sources here.

Sources:

http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_953_2005-01-25.html

http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_954_2005-01-10.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanjong_Pagar_railway_station

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federated_Malay_States_Railways

http://www.malayarailway.com/2009/07/tanjong-pagar-railway-station.html

http://oceanskies79places.blogspot.com/2011/05/tanjong-pagar-railway-station-tour-on.html

http://localadventures.blogspot.com/2011/05/tanjong-pagar-railway-station-tours.html

http://thelongnwindingroad.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/the-last-train-from-tanjong-pagar/

http://misuzu.posterous.com/last-peek-at-the-tanjong-pagar-railway-statio <— The cats of the station!

http://365days2play.com/2010/05/28/tanjong-pagar-railway-station-and-the-food-here/ <— Especially on the food!

Pps. If you have any other fun facts about the station, don’t forget to comment!

There comes a time when one can just show pics to tell you what happened. This is such a time! It shouldn’t be hard for you to figure out what happened too!

Time is brain. I know time is money… But I don’t think it works like that to use brain like that. Anyway, you can check out their website to learn about first aid training.

Figured out what’s happening yet?

His name is Charles.

Thousand and more people.

And then after we headed to Mintea’s place for Hari Raya. We had kueh and I bought a mooncake. It’s charcoal baked yam from Polar. I think there’s lotus too but mostly it’s snowskin with yam inside.

And MUCH, much later we went to Botak’s Favourites (Woodlands)! There was a shoe getting soleless involved as we made our way there so, much walking was had. Nonetheless, those are stuffed jalapenos. Yummy but pretty hot!

I had the grilled salmon!

The others! Fish and chips, sirloin steak and rib eye steaks. We recommend the Woodlands branch of Botak’s Favourites. The staff are great and they know how to do steak very well.

THE END.

I hope you figured out what the day entailed! It’s pretty much very descriptive from the pictures in this post. Next week’s episode… Well, there’s going to be lots of sun in it.

And so since it’s Ramadhan, I decided to have a looksee at Geylang Serai before Hari Raya or to some of you, Eid Mubarak. Diff languages, same thing. Anywho, here we go!

It’s a crowded place with the bazaars stretching on both sides of the road. Parking is difficult so it’s best you get there by bus, MRT or well, park further and walk there somehow.

Nonetheless, every year they have a light up at Geylang and you’ll see tons of lights there. Amusingly, you’ll see light ups for every festival here, Chinese New Year at Chinatown will have a red tinge to it, Deepavali at Little India might be purple (or at least, it was that last year) and Christmas is free for all depending on that the malls at Orchard Road like. In any case, Hari Raya = Usually green.

The bazaar is a packed place where you can buy baju kurung, kebayas etc including kueh (tidbits), toys, music etc. Pretty much anything to do to decorate your house too. There’s usually a trend at the bazaar, last year it was dendeng (thin slices of barbequed meat) and this year… It’s Upin and Ipin inflatable toy dolls. Stalls were all selling it and kids were carrying them around. The characters are very popular since the cartoon series is about Ramadhan and them having adventures.

Keep your monies close to you since it’s really packed and you’ll jostle as you get along the stalls. Still, you can get very good deals there!

Funness! Anatolia Express is the mobile version of the Anatolia restaurant that I like. They’ve very nice kebabs. In any case, besides Muslims, you can see a lot of other people like to go to the bazaar to buy food! There’s a whole range there and it’s pretty fun. The green looking stall in the middle picture were selling decorations and packets for you to put money in. Kind of like Chinese New Year if you don’t know. Or heck, if you don’t know CNY too, you put monies in the packets to give to children visiting your house during Hari Raya or the elderly etc.

One new thing that I haven’t seen in previous years was that there was a choir! They were singing songs about being good etc. You know, what choirs usually would sing about being pious and whatnot. Ok, the word choir here is weird when I see it translated but that’s pretty much what it is in English.

Anywhoooo, I spent more time doing a video instead! So check the video out. Ok. It’s cause I didn’t back up my photos before shooting my camera and had limited picture space. That’s it for this year’s bazaar! Hari Raya is tomorrow as of the timing of this post so wooooh.

OH YES, before I forget! These guys actually filmed this the same day as the location that we were at last Saturday. The Adventure Crew was at the Malay Heritage Centre when Hirzi and Munah did this (you’ll only see this episode of SDS on Monday!). If you’ve stuck around this blog for quite a while, you might have found them familiar, heh. Watch it, it’s funny!

Yesss.

Anywho, Avariel and Raven Silvers brought me along to Fika Cafe. When I mean brought me along, I meant that it was dark and we relied on Raven’s iPhone to make sure we were on the correct road. It is a Swedish cafe! Mintea wasn’t there for the evening but she had told us that her Swedish colleagues had told her that it was very authentic! (We didn’t see any hot Swedish guys at the time of our trip though.)

And so we traversed the dark streets to find it.

It was a fairly busy and crowded night but we got a table inside!

You can actually check out the menu on their website too but mainly, you’ll see what we ordered.

For starters, we had Långedrag salad.

They gave us each a little serving plate and so we shared the salad and it was gorgeous. I liked the Swedish roe thing and the prawn is quite yummy too with the combo of greens and the egg!

And then the meatballs came. BORK, BORK, BORK! The sauce is beautiful as we ate them with also the lingonberry jam. Sweet with a tiny bit of tangy of the berries with the cream sauce and beefy taste of the meatballs. It crumbles under the pressure of your fork if you are not careful to eat it properly! The meatballs are surely handmade and oh myyyy, with the potatoes it is gorgeous.

This is Swedish hash. Raven ordered this. It is a lovely combination of beets, potatoes and beef! The beets makes it refreshing with each bite of beef and potato. (We pretty much ordered different things so we could share and taste the different dishes.) The roasted potatoes are especially nice in this.

This is the Swedish pasta bake! Pasta, cream sauce, LOADS of beef topped with cheese. I ordered this. It is tres yummy but I asked the rest to help because it is very large somehow. Oh yes, all of the servings are quite a lot! The cheese is yummyyy. Also by this time we were scrambling to shove the greens and whatnot of the Långedrag salad onto our other main plates because we were getting a lack of table space!

Grilled salmon! Some places might have a tendency to overcook salmon but not here! At least from our first time here, the salmon is cooked very well with a delicious lemon butter sauce on it. If I wasn’t going for the pasta bake, I’d gone for this because I like fish so yesss. And look, the salmon! It is fish shaped! Or rather, it didn’t look like some weird non salmony shape and was served to us whole and unbroken!

Amidst all the food, I have no idea where they came from. I mean, sure they came from a kitchen somewhere but I didn’t see where from! You can check the selection of cakes they have by the counter too and they had tea. We didn’t get tea though since we weren’t there for that.

We were quite full but hey, since we were there we figured we’d try a dessert since might as well yeah? We opted for the Swedish pancakes with whipped cream, ice cream and lingonberry jam. If you guys know a Malay dish called lempeng, it was kinda like that or the French crepe! We finished that so you can know it was quite delicious too as we scrapped the plate for the ice cream and jam with tiny bits of pancake.

Our bill totaled up to a hundred whatsits because it was seriously a lot. Worth your money though like woah. Anyway, here’s the details to get to Fika Cafe and stuff.

Fika Cafe

Open from: 11am-11pm(weekdays) & 12pm-11pm(weekends)

No.257 Beach Road / Arab Street, Singapore
(on the corner of Beach Road and Arab Street)

They have a number to call if you want to have reservations too which is +65 6396 9096. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot to note this too. It’s Halal!

BORK, BORK, BORK!

Co-stars of this episode includes: Avariel and Mintea.

Now, this episode had me thinking, should I write nicely or should I just say it as it is in Sarah form. Hmmm. And when I mean nicely, I mean in a semi generic manner without putting my take on it. However, then it wouldn’t be a Seriously Sarah posty so HECK THAT. New readers, those who don’t know my style, note that being ridiculous and chic-lity is my forte so that’s what you’re going to get. Oh for a MORE comprehensive general outlook for this event, Mintea has posted here.

This is all going to blow up in my face somehow sooner or later since I’m involved book-wise here and in the end, I’m SO gonna see these people once more but eh, whatever man. It’s not mean… Just CHIC-LITTY once you read what I mean.

SUPER WARNING: This is gonna be wordy as all heck.

The registration for All in! Young Writers Seminar at The Arts House actually started at 9.30am and I arrived that just a little before that which was pretty sad since I DIDN’T EAT ANYTHING IN THE MORNING. I thought, “Heh, maybe I’ll get something from Earshot Cafe or something” but uuugh, that opens at 11am(??) and that Avariel and Mintea were there telling me that it was going to start later. Well gee. Okay, that’s alright at least we were all early and not late!

I registered at the counter and then got a blue plastic file with the programme schedules and the bios of the speakers for the day including some paper for us to use to take notes with. Unfortunately (or fortunately considering my lack of breakfast?!) the first speaker of the day for the plenary session : Writing and the New Media: Redefining the Author/Reader/Text Relationship was cancelled as the speakers couldn’t make it due to something.

Alright, the first session was cancelled, no biggy and thus the organizers were nice enough to tell us that we could go and have the tea first while setting up for the concurrent sessions instead. The concurrent sessions were: The Age of Blogging – “Why We Write: The Future of Content-Creation” by Ivan Chew and Lucian Teo and Comics by Otto Fong and Jerry Hinds.

I stuck around for the Age of Blogging since I didn’t need to go for the comics panel.

For seriously, I’ve been to quite a bit of them and it’ll be like a rerun for me.

So thus after tea, it was time to sit down to listen to Ivan and Lucian!

I made sure not to wear something obvious for that day, like to show who the heck I was but MISSION FAILED! Ivan spotted me. BWUAHAHAHA. Oh yeah, actually I pretty much knew the info for the whole day but just that I wanted to see what were the discussions or questions asked since it was a young writers seminar.

What do these young writers want to know?

Not to be TOO utterly braggy but when I read the programme contents I was like, “Huh, I could actually do a panel at this seminar” but then I don’t think I could because I might be evil. OH before I go on, I’d like to say ALL the speakers were pretty good in giving advice to the audience and they are so nice and tactful and understanding.

And I mean REALLY, they’re good and nurturing.

No one’s paying me to say this but this should be a great hint of how evil I could be if I did a panel. Well, not that evil since I’d be polite enough to answer questions and people have asked me questions before so I’m not that evil, DON’T LET THIS CHANGE YOUR MIND IF YOU WANNA INVITE ME TO GET ON A PANEL.

Um, right.

Anyway back to Ivan/Lucian’s panel. They talked more about Creative Commons and other ways on how collaboration online could work and how blogging is like a way you can also showcase your stuff AND have other people helping out etc. Basically, don’t knock off blogging or online collaboration before you try it, mmkay? Soooooo many comments I could say when they presented but I was being a good girl plus, when I looked at the audience, I knew that I was going to be in for a ride.

For that guy was there.

The guy who asks rambling questions that I can’t get the gist of unless I wrote them down and disappears after eating the food.

In fact, he’s the reason why I have a “Please ask me questions in 10 words or less” policy because I’m a ditz who can’t remember long questions unless they’re written down. (I can answer long questions when it’s written but I can’t do it when it’s asked audibly because I’ll FORGET.)

In the midst of their panel, Ivan or was it Lucian, well one of them asked the audience who wanted to be a writer when they graduated and a bunch of them raised their hands up. The following question was something to the point of who wants to make money out of their writing or live on it or something and they raised their hands up too.

MAIN POINT IS THAT THE THREE OF US WERE TRYING NOT TO LAUGH EVILLY BECAUSE WE WERE SO FREAKING CYNICAL.

As stated, this was a young writers seminar and really, we could see hope bubbling in their eyes  as they confidently raised their hands up when asked that question. Joelyn says it best in the blog post here regarding the matter actually.

Some of the audience, I knew were gonna be trampled when the harsh realities of being a writer once it hit them with a 2 by 4 while the others I knew in that bunch were gonna be stubborn people who’ll make it work somehow. Still, tsk tsk, to think we were young and full of dreams back then like the young writers there and now we’re  the cynical biyatches of literature.

Hmm, that sounds like a good band name somehow.

We still write and want to make those dreams true but ya know, still cynical.

Anywho, the questions after the presentation that were most memorable for me for this panel was about copyright and creative commons. Check out what CC can do for you, it’s like giving people specific permission to use your stuff.

Next up was lunch so the three of us hit Funan to have some sandwiches at Delifrance. After lunch was a plenary session called New Media and Creativity – the Great Leveller? by Paul Rae.

It was interesting in a sense that it was to engage the audience into thinking, are all these media things actually good for us?

For sure we have access to Wikipedia and such information at our fingertips but do we actually use it?

Kinda like does hoarding books make us smarting if we don’t read it properly? So indeed, it was also a session that informed us how the use of spreading info with the use of  media helped in the past, present and perhaps how it could be in the future. So it’s like the pros/cons of how media could work.

And then another tea break! Amusingly that guy disappeared after the first session so oh well! Next concurrent session was about Online Journalism by Ravi Philemon and Quak Hiang Whai and Publishing and the New Media by Lance Ng and Sean Elwell-Sutton.

The three of us went for Publishing and the New Media.

I am so glad I went to that one even if I knew the contents of their talk.

Mr Darcy Sean is on the most left while Lance is on the most right. Just so you know they’re both publishers, Sean manages the digital publishing solutions for education and language teaching products for Cambridge while Lance is a romance book publisher at Renaissance while looking like a romance hero himself.

So Mr Darcy Sean presented about new media and the future of publishing in regards to the whole Kindle issue and electronic formats of books. It wasn’t specifically about ebooks but he did present about what more can be available too as they also publish online educational games.

OKAY SO I KINDA FORGOT WHAT HE SAID, OKAY?

I know he was talking about something something ebook contents and that their main staple of publishing is academical books and that Cambridge has been around for hundreds of years and they know what they’re doing. Also that it was informative and stuff that I knew from reading articles about e-publishing.

What I remembered was:

Ha ha, Cambridge, that’s kinda in the UK… Like where Mr Darcy is. He looks kinda like Mr Darcy and he’s a publisher. That’s so hot. I wonder how it would be like the scene where Mr Darcy comes out of the lake but more like the Lost in Austen version since I’m a modern day girl. This is inappropriate to think in a writing panel. I should pay attention. Oh here’s Lance’s turn now!

Right.

Okay, his presentation, I remembered because he had a power point! I remember things when they’re written down more also for the fact that he actually did state to the audience the process of how publishing works here. This was very good since what he said was SO totally true.

Heck, if you were wanting to know how to publish a book in Singapore, his presentation was pretty much it. Well, it’s actually the same thing what I’d answer so it was good he lay it out in a tactful way of saying, don’t quit your day job, if you want to write, WRITE but you won’t make the big bucks yet.

It was a process of manuscript to distributor and to post distribution. Since he’s a publisher, he did get reactions from his own writers that they’re too shy to go on tours around and book signings and such and to ME that’s appalling (of course to him also).  See, you actually DO need to go around to doing this and not be “shy” since you’ll need to be marketable else heck, who’s gonna publicize for you?

You may be a writer but after writing your story, it doesn’t just end there for you. There’s still much work to be done after that. You want to know more, go check out his website with the guides there. Just know it’s a tough stubborn process to get your book out and I know it from my experience too.

And then I zoned out and thought of dragonboat rowers paddling up next to Mr Darcy and how this would all fit in a romance book.

WELL, I PAID ATTENTION TO THE IMPORTANT BITS ANYWAY.

Then it was the last bit of the day with a discussion forum entitled: Career Options for those with Writing Skills and Aptitude to Write. I had no idea what this one was going to be about because remember? Cynical much?

Though vaguely, I was sure you can make money out of some freelance work in writing since yes, some of us do that but besides that? In Singapore… Not so much unless you wanna be a journalist or copywriter etc.

This session had Koh Juat Muay, Chua Hong Koon, Adibah Isa and Anita Prakash.

It was good because they laid it out what the options were and in the end, it summed up to: Don’t quit your day job. Well for fiction anyway. Anita Prakash was so good at this since she did say it logically to the audience who were those bubbling hopeful things that they needed to be sensible and all for our current market etc. You can do it but you need money to support yourself still.

Oh and that writing would still be a good skill for you in any type of job related to media or whatever. I agree with this because you still need your communication skills and it would win over anyone who has none at all. Lastly, there was just a tiny bit from Adibah that if you wanted to write travel stuff, go check out Guide Gecko, hahahah!

In the end, nothing I didn’t know since after all, it’s a young writers seminar for those who didn’t know nothing at all. It’s a VERY good seminar for beginners to know what on earth the obstacles they’re going to face. I hope to those who went, well it’ll equipt them with the knowledge that they’ll be facing that 2 by 4 of a reality plank to the face and they’ll be able to roll with the punches as they get on with their dream of being writers.

I’m mixing metaphors but heck that, write on, right on!!