I finally caught Ironman with angdao today. With only 2 screenings on a Saturday I believe its ending soon. I was famished after the show, and we decided to try out the crab bee hoon that angdao’s colleague recommended near his “future home”. Sorry there’re no photos at all, so concoct your own mental images.

The stall was a regular coffee shop stall at the void deck of a HDB block. We had to order before we were allowed to seat. We were told by angdao’s colleague that we might need to wait for an hour or so, but I think we were lucky we reached early and there were many empty seats still. He was right because just about 10minutes later the queue started to form and they had to wait for seats.

And so we were lucky to be served in about half an hour. 1 whole crab in a claypot, milky soup and bee hoon underneath. The soup was very crabby (tastes of crab) and the bee hoon was the 鱼片米粉 type. The crab had a good amount of meat. They offered a variety of other side dishes, I saw many people ordering the 小馒头s, but we only tried the bee hoon only (and a 油条rojak). Glad we didn’t order more, cos I was very full after the whole event. angdao did also comment the teh si kosong was surprisingly good.

We were quite “impressed” with their “customer service” as well, they knew what the customers wanted and needed and provided them.

1. When the queue formed up to be longer, they shifted the entire queue out to near the car park area, to facilitate staff movement within the coffee shop and breathing space for the queue-ers.
2. They allowed a guy to take a big table to wait for his friends, but when they never came after many minutes, a staff politely advised him to give up his table first for people in queue. The guy obliged.
3. There were 3 basins in the toilet (more than typical coffee shop) and each basin had a big bottle of soap (dishwasher actually) for handwashing. What everyone needs after a crabby meal.
4. Most amusing was in the midst of our meal, one of their staff stepped out with a whistle and a loudspeaker. She blew the whistle loudly into the loudspeaker, and shouted “CAR PARK 来了!!!”, and you can see many people scrambling to the car park. I’ve seen kopitiam people shouting when the pontianak comes, but this is the first time I see a formal version, with whistles and loudspeakers, as part of their “operating processes”.

A few spoilers: Firstly, there was a little ant in the soup when it came. Not sure which stage it got into the soup, but probably the last cos it was floating right on top. Secondly, at the end of the meal, a cleaner attempted to “chase” us off when she asked if we are still eating and prompted us to bill. It was probably OK as there was already a long queue, but when angdao said we wanted to finish our drink before billing, she didn’t proceed to clear the dishes, even when she has already offered to do so.

Overall it was great; good food, organized operations, meaningful service, and deserves a 4/5 from me!

Mellben Seafood
Add: Blk 232 Ang Mo Kio Ave 3 #01-1222
Tel: 6285 6762
Bus: 166, 169 from AMK Interchange

Nice song, and I like the way different people sing it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5BxymuiAxQ

Didn’t like the music, but I enjoy the first few buses alot. I admire the creativeness to make use of an existing component to illustrate a new idea. Such as the first bus in a bus. SBS has this too, but its the back view of the bus. The kissers on the door, smoking picture using exhaust pipe, bendy toothbrush using bendy bus. The rest sucks.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/787885/painted_buses/

Nature that I will probably never get to see in my life. The photographers are fantastic too to be able to capture these shots. Of all I hope to see 13. Mammatus Clouds the most.
http://listverse.com/science/20-amazing-and-unusual-weather-phenomena/

I was on my way to work this morning, walking from the bus interchange to my office. Along the way, there is this 2-direction 3-lane straight road I had to cross, and vehicles along this path usually run fast and furious. There is no traffic light near enough, nor were there barriers in the middle of the road, so it is typical that everyone just waits for a chance to get across the road.

While I stood on the pavement waiting for traffic I noticed this sort-of drunk, unstable and wobbling from side to side as if trying to maintain balance. Then it happened. A black sedan car hit right on, and I could hear an obvious audible ‘BOM’. The body was flung to the next lane, and the wheel of the van on the other lane ran over it. The black car didn’t brake or slow down at all, it just hit and run. The vehicles were quite fast, and there were other cars behind which quickly blocked the view so I didn’t even get to see the car number plate.

I didn’t know what else I could do, so I decided to eat vegetarian for lunch.

Poor bird…

For those who don’t know Mandarin (probably none reading my blog), the title means “asking for directions”. I don’t know about others, but I keep getting 问路ed by people.

I just got asked again by a lady before I reached home just now. Few days back I got asked by an (educated) Indian man trying to travel from Clarke Quay to Farrer Park. And to think I didn’t really want to go to Clarke Quay that day — I was going to Orchard via Dhoby Ghaut when I overshot the NEL by a stop. Ended up “helping” him while waiting for the train back.

I still recall there were many times both tourists and locals ask for directions when I worked in town, especially before I cross the junction between Merchant Road and Eu Tong Sen Street. Once my colleague and I pointed in exact opposite directions when asked for the nearest MRT station, because Clarke Quay and Chinatown was just as far in both directions. Most memorable was a falungong member who had a big wooden signboard hanging on his neck asking where the Supreme Court is, near Furama Hotel. We were wondering if he’s going there to support a case hearing, and only realized later that we accidentally pointed him to the Subordinate Courts direction instead of the Supreme Court…

Maybe the reason is one of the following…

1. Everyone gets asked the same number of times, I’m just oversensitive.
2. I look like a map.
3. I always stand beside the map.
4. I look like I 混 everywhere.
5. I look friendly, helpful and approachable.

Maybe I’m just oversensitive.