Wednesday 17th June 2009

Whilst Grozzie went off to work, I made my way down to the local MRT station and got the train to Clarke Quay (first time on my own). I had worked out that it was easier to get to Boat Quay via Clarke Quay rather than City Hall or Raffles Place.

So on the purple line again, one stop and 2 minutes later I was at Clarke Quay.

My mission was to take in the sights and photograph as many sculptures along the riverside as possible on my way to seeing the Merlions in Merlion Park.

It was fabulous to walk down Boat Quay all quiet and actually see the restaurants and architecture in the day light. It's pedestrian restaurant heaven, and no one bothered me as it was still early in the morning.

I was in for a surprise. They were preparing for the River Festival. Several specially decorated boats were already moored in the middle of the river, while some were still by the quayside. Naturally I spotted the kites :)

The sun was out and the temperature was already hot, so it was with welcomed relief I found one of the sculptures in the shade of a huge building covered courtyard/atrium.

Some sculptures were hard to get to because they were rigging stages around them for the festivities.
I made my first rooky error. I went in to photograph the big bird which was surrounded on both sides and got cornered by a very nice Buddhist monk... no harm done, he wished me peace and he gave me this gift.

I carried on to Cavenagh Bridge and found some more sculptures there. Couldn't find the cats though.

It was getting too hot to hang around, so I pressed on to the busy crossing by Fullerton hotel. The lights take a while to change, so it was good to see the Esplanade and Flyer in the distance. After crossing I made my way down the steps and under the bridge, passing the Tapas bar and StarBucks, where folks were starting to chill out from the heat of the sun.

I spent some time in Merlion Park with the merlions. Lots of tourists were enjoying the bay scene. There was a good breeze blowing and the spray from the Merlion's mouth was spraying towards us :) Good for us to cool down but not so good for the cameras, but all ok.

The Floating Platform you can see near the Flyer is for the 2010 YOG (Youth Olympic games).

On my way back, I retraced my steps back past Boat Quay where it was getting busier for lunch. It was hard to say no to the restaurant owners recommendations to stop and sit "just have a drink" in their establishments. But I had other places to be and already had a place in mind for lunch.

I continued under Elgin bridge and walked along Clarke Quay a short way taking in the colourful buildings and restaurants on the other side of the river. I made a note to come back here again, as I walked back to the MRT station at Clarke Quay. Glad to get back into the air conditioned station and train, back to Dhoby Ghaut.

I purchased the cute t-shirt I'd seen yesterday. I felt a bit guilty as the shop assistant got out the XS so I could see it was really small. It seemed small enough.

I decided to have traditional chicken rice for lunch in the food centre in the Concorde Hotel. I've had chicken rice many times before, even make my own, but now I understand why my friends rave about it. The rice has a certain flavour that I don't know how to replicate, it's so tasty. I should have ordered the roast chicken, duck or char sui though. It all happened to fast I didn't really understand what I'd ordered, so the poached chicken was a little bland. Soup as always is so tasty and well balanced, not salty at all so I didn't go hungry and all for S$3.

The place was buzzing, but it wasn't hard finding a seat, just share a table with strangers. It's always interesting seeing what everyone else has chosen for lunch.

Ok, so after lunch I head back to the hotel, picking up our bag of clean laundry from "Washy Washy" across the street inside Cuppage Mall on the way. I tried on my t-shirt and XS is not so small but it's good enough.

A short detour to the hotel roof to see the pool.

What's all this blue stuff ? Way too hot to chill out by the pool even in the shade of the bar. So I venture out in search of more Malls up Orchard road to cool down.

I worked up an appetite and by the time I had wandered up and around Paragon Mall, I was ready for a long sit down in Canele Patisserie and enjoy my exceedingly posh but huge cafe and caramel gateaux slice and cappuccino.

The top slither of chocolate was sprayed with bronze colouring. How decadent. The crispy layer of caramel infused in the bottom layer was very tantalizing... lots of ummming proceeded *blush*

ok so this is a treat and at S$8 it could have fed two easily :)

 I didn't let the Indian-British couple next to me spoil my moment as she complained to her elder comrade about everything she'd ordered "Hot chocolate, late, too cold, taste bad....".  Maybe I should have started doing the "When Harry met Sally" diner scene, to shut them up ? (LOL)

So feeling very satisfied (completely stuffed) I paid the bill and waddled out to watch them make Japanese noodles. I looked around a couple of art galleries. Found some more sculptures and art around the street. Made my way up to Tang Mall, with the huge pagoda tower. I Liked the bamboo artistic lighting hanging down all the floors. I looked around the whole top floor in search of oriental batik silk and brocade clothing. No joy. Plenty of modern 'western' style silk clothing. Nothing caught my eye enough to buy it. Lots of shoes, bags and costume jewellery on display. But I was tired from walking around, so left quickly as possible.

Pressing on to the next Mall, Ngee Ann City the massive Japanese Mall via the basement under Ion and Wisma Malls. I emerge to the surface againa nd glance back to Wheelock Mall. Just no time to go in any of these. I think you need a year of going round each shop in every mall here to see everything!

Inside Ngee, I head tot he top floor via the many escalators. I spend some quality time in Shanghai Tang (my kind of store, expensive brocade and silks) Should have bought the purple double happiness symbol pashmina! After having a chat with the nice gal in the store, I figured I'd wait to show it to Grozzie in their London store. (no such place?, Doh!).

Fatigue setting in I sit on the marble bench and cool off watching the world go by. I took in some more art galleries. Enjoyed the 3 D art and calligraphy paintings.

It's a confusing Mall as the whole 3rd floor is a book store and the escalator only lets you off there or you keep going up or down. I went outside meaning to carry on my journey back when I spotted in the window of tower A "Madame Butterfly". I went inside and found my kind of 'oriental' heaven. No brocade or silk jackets or tops in my size though, all way too large.

Time is slipping away so I hurry back to the hotel to meet Grozzie after work. He gave me a surprise invite when he arrived not long after myself.

A quick change into semi smart clothes and a light happy hour. We get a taxi to Lor Chuan again. Fashionably late (half an hour) we arrive for a drinks reception in the same building as yesterday but with a different company. There was a short introduction and then we were all divided into groups for a tour around their facility. All very slick and impressive again. Met a  lot more of Grozzie's 'colleagues' in the wider field.

Feeling the day catch up with me we sit and chat and finish our drink. One of the last to leave we hail a taxi and head back to town for dinner at Chijmes.

Chijmes is an impressive 'romantic' setting. Lots restaurants, alfresco, lighting all surrounding the lit up church. We had a job to find a Japanese Teppanyaki place. Didn't know the name so found a map.

Even then there are several half levels to trick you like a maze ;)

We finally found the Teppanyaki place and inside there was a lively bunch of Aussies. We sit next to them and realise they know Grozzie...! Everyone is visiting the same trade show and I guess Grozzie does get about a bit LOL.

Gosh what an evening, we ordered the set menu, and it was pure entertainment.
At first Chef Rocky was very serious.

Serious Rocky concentrating on creating special dishes.

The waitresses brought us Jasmine tea, water and beer. The food arrived and was all wonderful. Tofu starter, salad and then the gorgeous salmon poached in special sauce on the teppan hot plate.

... Grozzie decides to order some warm sake and Rocky starts to relax, wielding his knife, rattling the salt and spice tins all very musical and tumbling his cleaver (left me speechless, don't want to loose any fingers in the meal)!

All the time our chicken was cooking on the hotplate.

Next course we are served teppan prawns in a delicious sauce.
We sip at the miso soup. And the sake is enjoyed.

Rocky ordered another jug of sake and shared it out with us, the gals on our left and the crazy drunk aussies on our right. This picture just sums it all up, the laughter and fun.

Rocky was teasing us girls about the snake skin and spiders he served us all. :)

Flames and everything exploded from the hotplate whenever he cooked someone's steak.
Our terriyaki chicken and rice were exceptional, as were the veggies, just everything was wonderful.

And with the sake flowing it just became more hysterical as Rocky got more inebriated. He was preparing the girl's garlic egg fried rice and he was rattling the seasoning tins over the rice... and his trick of tossing the tin up into the ventilation extractor 'hood' failed and the tin came crashing back down... so he re-seasoned their rice and threw it up again, and it missed dropping again, and he did this again and re-seasoned a third and by the fourth time we were on the floor laughing tears streaming down our cheeks (you had to be there). I hope the gal's rice wasn't too extra salty after all those drunken efforts.

It sounds mad, but it was very entertaining, engaging with a chef like that, having the banter... so to calm things down he puts on some Guns and Roses rock music.

It was so hot in there sitting, eating and drinking by the hot plate but we had the best seats, with one of the best chefs around.... "Happy Honeymoon" and thanks for the memories, we'll be back.

No idea what happened to all our desserts, too full and happy to care about that! :) And yes it was worth every cent too :)

Make sure you get Rocky to entertain and cook for you if you ever visit Chijmes. If you are after a romantic quiet evening out for two, better avoid this place :) Best stick to one of the other establishments in Chijmes.

Right 11pm, time to head back to the hotel and try and cool down... not much chance of that with 36 degrees Celcius outside and the cold water tap running warm again LOL (oh and my hair had gone wild, probably best described like in "Friends" as "inexplicable" all frizzy due to the heat and humidity LOL).

Too full to sleep so we copy the photos from the memory cards onto the laptop as back up and have a look at them laughing at the memories. (captured the tin dropping incident on video) ;)

[total number of images taken today: 355]

more on the next page soon...