Irodori Japanese Restaurant

It is the time of the year for our department to have our annual department dinner and this time round we are having it at Irodori Japanese Restaurant. The restaurant is situated in River Valley or to be precise, the Riverview hotel. Japanese food is one of the food that I liked due to the way the japanese took pride in preparing their food by placing much emphasize on the colour and the taste (One short of the "wei" or fragrance fragrance of the chinese famous "se" "xiang" wei" combo) of the food. Of course, I will not be expecting such quality especially in a restaurant that serves it the Ala-carte buffet style. So usually the best bet is to go about food that cannot and MUST NOT go wrong ~ sashimi!

The setting is not much to rave about. For started, we were served with some raw salmon with some tangy dressing... guess my taste bud doesn't reveal the combination of the dressing. Also, they served us Hiyayako (Cold tofu), which is pretty refreshing.

Marriott's Mai Khao Beach, Phuket Thailand

Given the number of people reading my blog (If any), I guess this wouldn't go far but what-the-heck, let's do it anyway because as they say that "Treasures are reserved for the few that has the will to find it".

I have been in Singapore since July 2000 and has stayed in a number of rented places as follow:

Yr2000 Commonwealth Drive
Yr2001-2004 Jurong West Ave 1 (More precisely Jurong West St 42)
Yr2005-2006 Bukit Merah View
Yr2007-Present Serangoon North Ave 1

Prior to my current residential, I have never known my neighbours at all and mind you, that's 6years+! Thank God that my current neighbour, the Kheng family of 3 are good neighbours. The soft-spoken Uncle George is the father who is still working as a senior teacher in a local primary school despite being 61 this year (He just celebrated his birthday a few days ago). Auntie Cecilia is the full time house-wife cum mother of Teochew Peranakan descend. She took pride in maintaining the cleanliness of her house and trust me when I say you won't find a speck of dust in her house. Gerald is the young and modern son who is currently pursuing an hons degree with the Singapore Management University (SMU) and is due to graduate in end of 2010. Gerald is going steady with Joanna (JoJo) who is currently seeking a place in the NIE, which will pave her way to become a teacher one day. This family would often bring us out for makan and stuffs regularly and to cut things short, they treated us as part of the Khengs clan.

Bali Here I Come!

Its been quite sometime since I updated my blog due to the shuttling between Singapore and Malaysia to do up my house in Port Dickson. You see, I have decided to DIY most part of my house by applying the scrooge as hell attitude of the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad. It was rumoured that during his younger days, Ingvar was about to buy some furnitures and was totally surprised with the price of the furnitures and ask the store owner why such simple furniture costs so much. In replying the question from Ingvar, the store owner said that the cost to assemble, store and deliver the goods has already made its way into the total price of the goods, thus the high price and some even to the extend of absorbing the after sales support costs. Disgusted, Ingvar told the store owner that he doesn't need all that and quipped that he could assemble and deliver the goods without any need for after sales support and further asked for a discount for the goods he is about to purchase, to which the store owner said "Then you might as well go make one yourself". Ingvar took this seriously and started to think along this line as a business i.e. to strip the goods bare and let the customer choose whether they would like to assemble and deliver their own goods or pay a premium for someone to do that, thus the birth of IKEA. Also, IKEA provides a simple tag/manual so that customers can understand how the goods work, which in effect allow IKEA not to have an after sales support centre, thus cutting cost for the company as well.