#285 - All Hawker Food Friday

 I think the haze 2 weeks back and the sudden

changes in the weather have given me the worst

flu of all time. So last Friday, I finally decided

to surrender the fight and went to the Polyclinic.

 

The line at the Polyclinic was surprisingly short

and I was seen by the doctor and was released with

an armful of medications earlier than expected.

 

The doctor promised me that taking said medications

will result in me being very drowsy ... heh that's not

good right? I better do things before I become very

sleepy.

 

So I went to Vertex and decided to check out what 

10$ can buy me LOL. It turns out I can't buy much

with 10$ ... and so I decided to just pig out. Food is

always there to make one happy :-)

 

Anyway, off I went to Lavender area, to be precise

the Army market at Beach Road.

 

Lunch was at the Thai Experience hawker. This

hawker is difficult to miss since it faces Golden Mile

and is always surrounded by Thais which seem to

be content with the cooking here. Needless to say

the food is authentic Thai and you only need to

see all the Thais eating at this place to believe me.

 

 

 

 

Next is Dessert at the Ah Balling Peanut Soup.

There are lots of 'pretenders' to the throne BUT this

is THE King !

 

I always, always order the Yam balls with peanut

soup. I always order five pieces as well since they

are just 2$ for 5 pieces.

 

 

After dessert is coffee.

Have you seen this Blog Post ?

Well, I have and I had to see for myself since

I'll be taking bus 145 home anyway and I will

pass by the North Bridge Hawker on the way

to the bus stop.

 

To be honest, when I first read that blog, I thought

to myself : "coffee with butter ??? yuck ".

 

But I thought I could always just don't finish the

coffee if it is really yucky, right? Well, when I

finally tasted it .... it wasn't bad .... actually it is

nice !

 

The thing is, that blog really hit the nail on the

head. That coffee shop indeed seemed to be stuck

in the 60s/70s. Even the old uncle who serves

coffee is still wearing the same white singlet

and stripped pajamas. It seems time stood still

and so I sipped my coffee like I was in Starbucks.

But the atmosphere in that coffee shop is much

better. Just you, your coffee, your thoughts

and nice people whose greetings is not :

Good Afternoon but 'cha pa bueh?'.

 

After a few minutes, I finished my buttered

coffee bought a bottle of mineral water and

took my medication. That should ensure that

I sleep immediately once I get home :-) 

 

 

 

 

 

 



#284 - Last Instalment of Roadbiking for Mountainbikers

From left to right, top : 2 tire levers, 1 inner tube,
1 tube of glue, dessicant, "sand paper", 2 tire patches,
water bottle (to keep them all in).
Bottom : multi tool, 1 lezyne CO2 cartridge, 1 adaptor,
2 more CO2 cartridges

Tool 'water' bottle on the seat tube. Real water bottle on the
down tube

 

8. Change the way you bring your Spare tires and Tools

For mountain bikers, it is simple. If you need spare inner

tubes, tools and water, that's easy. Just get a Camelbak

in the required size and off you go.

 

But for roadies ... Lugging a camelbak is a no-no!
Even those popular saddle bags are a no-no! For complete

enlightenment, I advise you to go and read THE RULES.

While you're at it, pay attention to rules #29, 31, 32

and 52.

 

So to prevent being the object of ridicule by the

roadie community, I bought a pair of matching (they have to

be matching!) and color coordinated bottle cages and water

bottles. Since my bike is blue, black and white, my bottle cages

were black and blue and are attached by lightweight blue

aluminum screws (hehehehe). My bottles are white
with black letterings. One bottle carries water and the other

bottle carries SPARE TUBE AND TOOLS! So my jersey

pocket only contains a phone and a wallet.

 

This is the cheapest version of Speedplay Zero.
There's a Stainless and Titanium version there's the
race day Nanogram version ... but I can only afford the
cheapest. So Chrome Moly for me ;-)

 

9. Choose your pedals

When I bought my bike, I also bought Shimano 105

pedals for it. I was thinking I have used Shimano and

Crankbrothers on my mountainbikes and I always go

back to Shimano XT pedals because they are bombproof.

 

So it should be the same for roadbikes, right? Yes,

that is right ... BUT the thing with these roadie pedals is

that you can only clip in on one side of the pedal.

 

I tried to love these 105 pedals, I really tried.
But whenever the traffic light turns green on the
junction I am on I swear I am mentally prepared that
I get honked at (or sideswiped?) by cars for being soooo

slow in clipping in AND all the while looking down to
see if my pedals were right side up and why I am STILL

not clipped in.

 

I actually had an epiphany while going to T15 on my

MTB. It was early (6AM?) in the morning and I was

at Velocity in Novena. I was going to cross Thomson

Road to get to IRAS (and on to Bukit Timah Rd).

I saw two roadies going to the direction of Long House.

The lead guy clipped in easily. But the second guy has

already crossed Newton Rd and yet he is still trying

to 'find' his pedal !?

  

This won't do. It's an accident waiting to happen.
So I got myself some lollipops AKA Speedplay Zero
Pedals. There's a lot of reviews about these pedals
online and I may do a review as well. For now though
I am not so nervous in the junctions anymore. I don't
miss my XT pedals. When the light turns green, I stomp
on my pedal and that stomping motion will generate a
satisfying click which means I'm already clipped in.
Simple and safe.

 

 

10. Always ride with a Group

Last and definitely (as the cliché goes) not the least :

Always, always ride with a group. I'm not talking about

getting a ride buddy. I am saying really go and ride

in a group !

 

In the same way that I am such a coward whenever

the trail heads downhill, I am also a coward when cycling

on the roads of Singapore ALONE.

 

You can call me a chicken and stick feathers on me but
I will not leave the pavement when I am cycling alone.

So the best thing here is that you go cycling with a group

of friends.

If you don't have friends or your friends are not available

then you create a new set of friends. There are many road

cycling groups here in Singapore but I contacted JoyRiders

because they are very visible and I see that they cater to

both the really fast riders as well as the newbie riders.

 

You may head to the JoyRiders FB Page and inquire
how to become a member.
 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 



#283 - Cycling in 'slightly' hazy conditions

 

 

 



#282 - Kallang PA

April 20, 2014 Update : I was cycling on the way
to my Dragonboat practice and this time I saw Kallang PA!
The building still stands! It's just that it seems to
blend in with the surroundings. Also the gate is
locked and I could not get in. Anyway, here's a
pic I took this morning :

These past few weeks / months I've been attending

Dragonboat practice in Kallang. We're preparing for

the first race of the season AKA MR500.

 

I go to Kallang using my bike. I normally go out

of the house at 6:30AM, cycle to Kallang and go

through the closed-off roads/construction area to

East Coast Park. I'll cycle to SAFRA and then

do a U-turn, go to Kallang KFC, have porridge

for breakfast and then go to Kallang Dragonboat

nursery at 9AM to meet up with my team.

 

I've been doing this for quite some time ... until

... it struck me ... where is the Kallang Airport Tower?

I can't find it ! Is it still there? So one morning I

brought a mountain bike instead of a road bike and

cycled around that area .... I still can't find it !

Has it been demolished?

 

Sighhhh ... anyway, I managed to find the gates

to Kallang PA. I remember that when the car / taxi

that I am riding in goes through the gates, the

surroundings was cool due to the shady trees.

 

You might ask why this place is special to me.

Here goes. Do you notice that Remote Control

Race Track at East Coast Park? The one where

RC Car addicts race their 1/8 on-road gas cars?

 

Looonnnnggggg ago, it wasn't there. Also, loonngg

ago, I was one of those RC car addicts. We didn't

have any place to run our cars. So there we were,

having toy cars that cost thousands of dollars and

can reach speeds in excess of 80kph and yet we don't

have any place to run them.

 

Until Winnie of Swan Models whispered to me that

there is this place in Kallang where like minded

people meet to run their cars.

 

That 'place in Kallang' was actually the big lot

behind the Kallang PA. I went there one Sunday

morning and saw people make a 'race track' with

corner dots. Then more people will come and then

they will contribute more corner dots.

 

These meetups were a very relaxed affair. People

come with coffee in plastic bags. They will sip their

coffee, hang them by the string on their big bags

(we used luggages last time, yes, complete with

Samsonite markings) and drive for a tank or

two then come back to their coffee and chit chat.

 

You will always get help tuning your engine,

truing AND gluing your tires, repairing your car.

You can even buy some parts from those who

carry lots of spares.

 

I started my RC addiction with a Tamiya TA01

car. But my FIRST race was in Kallang PA using

a Picco RS600. The race track was deadly to our

toy cars because it was made up of unforgiving

4x4s. I think I finished last. I didn't even finish

my qualifying heat as I refuelled very early

so as not to be a victim of the dreaded pitstop

traffic jam. But my refuel was so early there

was not even a pitstop! So while my car was

refuelling, another car came and hit my car!

My car went back to the unassembled kit

form and broke some aluminium wishbones.

(Yes, those times, Picco had aluminium wish-

bones! Not plastic like today).

 

So 1 wishbone back then was 50$ and I

didn't have spares. Come on who could break

an aluminium wishbone on a toy car? Hehehe

I could. So my race day was over and I went

home.

 

That was the LAST Time I went in Kallang PA.

 

So last Sunday, I took pictures of the gates of

Kallang PA and said goodbye to another Singapore

landmark :-(