The Simpsons are meant to be ridiculous. Even when it comes to marketing the latest film, real life imitates art. This (see full article) made my day. I feel sorry for the other dude, Homer looks absolutely terrifying with his uber largesse donut, far more regal (and edible) than a massive stick…

The Majestic Hotel is a boutique hotel on the "once was seedy" side of Keong Saik Road, in Chinatown. Now a swanky little retro modern meets Chinoiserie joint, the Majestic has a pretty good but small kitchen.

The cuisine is traditionally Cantonese, with some Japanese and nouveau accents with regards to plating and cutlery. The decor is decidingly 70’s with a thick pale green bamboo-esque wallpaper and giant booths set against sexy boudoir-like chanderliers. Unlike the usual fanfare of expats, the Majestic actually attracts locals and the de rigour family of 10 dinner outing. The kitchen has an open counter and one can enjoy watching chefs blow up abalones with XO sauce.

The menu also has a pretty good value for money degustation course, with about 6 dishes at nett price of up of $65. Nice thing about it is that most of the household dishes are available on the set menu, so one doesn’t lose out at all.

The guestroom - small but pretty. And crowded too - we nearly didn’t get a booking.

Starter plate: Peking duck (v. good), prawn salad (good) with watermelon slices (not sure about this bit - weird confluence of tastes). Overall, i m not sure if i am having starters or dessert cos of the sweet melons.

Abalone and broccoli over fois gras - very very nicely done. Possibly my fave.

Last but not least, a quick spin in the washroom. I love the little mosaic tiles.

The rules of product bundling are relatively straightforward. Where products have positive correlations in consumer buying patterns, bundle them together to generate more sales. Ever since the big marketing discovery that beer and diapers go hand in hand (or is that an urban legend), marketeers worldwide have definitely gone wild in trying to be creative and test new waters when it comes to bundling.

In my recent Orchard Road walkabout, I picked out some simply strange, quite creative, perhaps trying product bundles. Not sure about the relative commercial success, but if u can’t hire a marketing discovery firm, just go ahead and test in batches. Empirical evidence in this case, almost always works ( Caveat being: in the very short term)

For $12, you get the condoms AND the music to go along…Marvin Gaye will be happy. Styled with a Durex-y finasse too!

This one is way out there…coffee and massage…AT THE SAME TIME. The rationale: Both give users a BUZZ. urh huh. I think it’s weak, but none the less…it deserves blog credit.

I love my job. I can say truthfully that i have been totally lucky at picking the right job post-MBA, the right team and the right region. But working long hours means…munching and I have become slowly but surely a Ritz Bits whore. In addition to the little japanese snacks that i sneak myself under the table…

Where do i begin to describe the space in which I work in? Firstly, it is a veritable mess. As 6 of us bash away at our latest financial models, the office is being torn down around us. Some of our chairs are old, with the fabric slowly peeling out - but it’s still comfy mind you But I am so not a fan of purple office chairs - yhew.

Only this week did the lift showcase our company name when one steps out onto the floor. Our office signboard is now a mighty paper cutout in Arial Font size 200, plastered on our weird reception desk, which are not in our coporate colours by the way. Unlike other financial institutions, we don’t have the usual earmarks of a giant:

- High floor

- Expensive decor

- Sexy receptionist (actually, I am the receptionist at times, so that’s why not so sexy)

- Corporate memorabilia

- Awards and plaques hung up to mindlessly remind clients what a rock star you are

The highlights of being in an up and coming office is the inputs that one gets to make, especially with regards to stocking the pantry. I can safely vouch for my value-added contributions (Starbucks ice latte, coke light, fruit juices and instant cup noodles). Having tested the groundwork, I think i shall work my insidious ways to introduce Hello Panda! to the rest of the office, because one has not truly lived unless one is addicted to Hello Panda strawberry flavour.

There is even a Wiki post on it. see here.

I don’t always get up to RuPaul in the mornings, but thinking about appropriate office attire can be a fun exercise in its own right. Singapore has pretty dastardly weather - it’s hot and sweaty on the streets (and in my bathroom), but cold when one is working in a slab block. Still, I decidedly to shamelessly photo my new office wardrobe, because it is after all…a girl’s privilege…something that the men just don’t get

A girl is always happy with a Marc Jacobs jacket

A girl is always happy with a Chloe top

Geometric prints rock too!

Blue is a fun black. My fave Paul and Joe pants and Diane von Furstenberg belt

Peishan has convinced me to join a Flickr group called Wardrobe Remix, where all shameless wardrobe fanatics such as myself can post pics of various outfits. While you browse through the rest of the album here, let me sign up!

Singapore has changed a lot in the last 2 years. Better bars, nicer restaurants, a more cosmopolitian and authentic palatte. All part of what is fashionably termed "the golden age". The last time the economy was doing this well was in the laste 80’s with the immense property boom and FDI-fuelled growth.

But the best of all is my new favorite building: The Lasalle school of art/ design, just a stone’s throw away from my house. Lit up at night, the building is a magnificient sight, with zig zag walls, steel reinforcements and a huge white canvas that covers the central walkway. They even created a new road just to house this school. Very nice.

Side view:

Center view: the huge white canvas that shelters the walkup is in the midst of being put up.

Sweet. It’s great to live in a city that has constant change as its only constant.

I survived Week 1 suitably, not to mention that my office is completely a renegade outfit. Firstly, our laptops didn’t arrive, so we were basically fighting all week for internet access. Not to mention that I get staffed to manage 2 upcoming deals - which is great, except the last time I read a financial statement seemed like a day and a world away. But I love this, if there is anything I like doing, it’s reading the Notes to Financial Statements. geeky and pathetic but i quite enjoy it…and especially when dealing with inflated currencies like the rupiah in billions (how many zeros is that exactly), the challenge is ten-fold.

Just kidding. Starting work is exhilarating, not least to say how i spend every morning pleasently contemplating my workwear. How does an indierock chick like me blend corporate wear with street pizazz? For starters, I allow myself to wear my Casio digital calculator watch, but only on Fridays - just for shits and giggles - it amuses the analysts greatly. For those of you that know me, you would know that I make a wicked DCF on my Casio. Secondly, I adorn my work jackets with victorian broaches. because retro and vintage is cool. and of course, we can’t forget large headbands, because we love the Jacky O look. And everything 60’s is beautiful.

The barrage and challenge of starting work is getting all these new things. New responsibilities, new clothes, new handphone (which is so freaking complicated that it took me 3 days to figure out the camera function). Don’t laugh, the last BBQ we had where i left my decrepit Nokia lying around, Ginette immediate knew it belonged to me. Only Peishan and me have such embarressing ancient handsets. But no more! I now rock on with a Nokia N73 - big colourful screen, 3.2 MP camera, 2gb extendable memory, enhanced stereo sound capabilities so my phone can also be a stereo set…and the ability to read my excel spreadsheets, surf the web and mblog. crazy. i don’t really know how to work it all. But i figure i probably never will, because that would be all i would do is to learn how my phone worked. As if that wasn’t an overload, i received my bombass HP 12C financial calcuator (the 25th aniversary edition with its own sexy leather case) which allows me to do all things financial, real estate calcations and figure statistical equations. How much numerical muscle can one handle? amazing. All that, and having a 4 hour Bloomberg training on only 1 coffee - i think i haven’t had that much learning since forever. and insead doesnt count

But on the musical front, I finally had the time to take out my guitar, dust it off, tune it and play a couple of songs. Nothing too fantastic. But therapeutic, until i start singing, then even i scare myself. Listening to Suzanne Vega’s latest album - Beauty and Crime - i love it to death. That, paired alongside Feist’s The Reminder, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Carla Bruni’s new effort - No Promises; has pretty much set me up for my Chick List musical journey. For a break, i am checking out Phoenix’s new album which is more interesting than their 2nd album (yith) but Vega 4’s new album blows my socks off. It is now my de factor running album as the bass and beats make for a pounding accompaniment to any good workout. Along the way, I  have the opportunity to imagine… playing loud fuck u music in a large stadium to 100,000 strong audience, tons of screaming fans, huge ass lights and as the song comes to a climax, I crash into the drumset with my guitar (can’t decide if it ought to be a Strat or a Gibson) and everyone in the audience screams in ecstasy and there is sweat everywhere. and the guitar reverb goes apeshit and there is a sonar assult that envelops and swirls…

Ok back to reality. Snap. I really ought to do something useful with myself, like decide what to wear for work tomorrow. Good night and good luck, my fellow slab rats!! :p

One more day before starting work. How does one spend their last day of absolute freedom? By packing it full of lackadaisical affairs that as a whole unit form into a giant mass of stress. Voluminous menial tasks can drive one suitably sweaty and insane.

After a morning coffee jaunt at Starbucks, I find myself separating egg yolks and beating up a tiramisu. The previous landlord had been kind enough to leave a whole tin of what mysteriously looked like sugar, but of course turn out to be salt. Despite trying to cover up the taste of salt with 3 times the sugar, the salty taste remained. There is a lesson to be learnt from this, that sugar and salt operate clearly on different taste buds and are not actually on the same taste planes/parellels, meaning 2 spoons of sugar does not etch out the taste of1 tablespoon of salt. Sad. but at least I now know!! Having destroyed my first tiramisu. I tried again, this time using MY sugar that I know is sugar.

I invited Kian, Ally and Denise over for pot luck lunch - a good reunion since the last time we met and it’s always fun to show off one’s new pad, only because I have been so absolutely stressed putting the house together. One white hair and an absolutely horrendous week of painters, electricians, carpenters and housing agents later, the house now looks somewhat livable and stylish (but of course)

Denise sitting with Kian;s colourful spinach and fruit salad. Yums!

To further build out on the theme of having an absolutely packed and overly meaningful day, I attend Princess Peishan’s bookclub, which she had forewarned me that I had to come prepared and read all my alloted books. Looking at my past and being an MBA person, i respond quickly to undue stress and unnecessary challenges. I not only read my books, I also geekily wrote notes and typed them out - much to the chargrin of every one else. So embarressing - luckily, my tiramisu saved the day and shut out the cackling. snigger.

A book club made of 8 hot girls is quite something. Every book discussion starts off with "Who likes it? Who hates it?" Invariably, the scene remains divided. Fight! The bell rings off.

The Time Traveller’s Wife was hotly debated - with half the people finding it a chore of a read. Problem: the suspension of belief - who the heck believes in time travel? Ridiculous? What happens to his molecules when he time travels? Isn’t it Michael-Jackson-esque that he meets his future wife when she is 6 and he is 26? It’s like grooming her to fall in love with him. I just dig the protaganist because he wears skinny black jeans and listens to punk-rock. Stacey thought it was laborious that the couple was too artsy and overly cool. We do hate that in people, especially when we are not that… Author’s writing style aside or the fact that it is a sci-fi story meets romance, our all-womens’ book club meeting is punctuated with hilarious comments that turn personal - such as "Maybe you are just selfish!" or even better "You are just a slut-hoe!" (quote - Ginette) How we celebrate authors and their work and somehow translate all fictional events to our own value systems and lives - it’s funny, but instinctive perhaps womanish? I take heart in knowing that somehow out there, there lives a man who suffers from Chrono-Displacement disease, who is time-travelling to love me eternally… cackle.  But the heart-stealer of a story is Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud - an enchanting, heartbreaking and heartwarming tale of a boy Oskar, who had lost his father in the 911 disaster and had since found a secret key that he thinks would help bring closure to his father’s inopportune death. The story follows Oskar on his jaunt through New York City, meeting with colourful and strange individuals, taking the reader through multiple parellels between the living, the dead, what could be, what had been and the test of love - between father and son, son and grandmother, grandmother and grandfather, son and mother. Fascinating. Heartwrenching. I nearly cried at certain points in the book. And the artwork cum literary writing makes for a quirky read.

8 girls and a cat - how old wives club is this?

To heal all catty wounds (kidding) and to celebrate Dave’s macho manhood, we all sat out on a hot summer’s night barbequing the hell out of his new grill - duly named Mr Burns. The inventiveness is astounding Menu included fresh beef patties and vege kebabs. yums!

Someone even brought a Wii along and a couple of challenges were sent out to see who can chop vegetables faster. Sweet. Can’t believe i have to leave all this behind and start work. tears…but i also can’t wait for my first paycheck because living like a pauper is starting to bore me.

Posing for meaningless pictures is what we are really good at: