Category Archives: Singapore

Foldable Love

Urban cycling has taken a stylish turn. From utilitarian city bikes, to mechanically efficient fixies to ultra-compact foldies, clever designing and technological improvements have turned what used to be clunky, sluggish and old-fashioned bicycles into lean mean machines of high performance. Works of art that put cool into laid-back urban cycling.

Folding bikes, or “foldies” as they are affectionately known, have been spinning up a storm in Singapore in recent years (albeit of late, a storm of the nasty kind). We visit a popular lifestyle bike shop LifeCycle to check out these gorgeous bicycles that are garnering such a strong fan base in Singapore. Continue reading

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Colour: The Language of Ian Davenport

Colour, the incorporeal attribute that complements form, texture and motion to shape our everyday world. Colour invigorates, adds dimension and conveys emotions. Under the right pair of hands, colour can be composed to spellbinding effect. In Singapore to open his inaugural solo exhibition in South-east Asia, the talented British abstract artist Ian Davenport shared with us his creative technique where colour takes centre stage. Continue reading

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Qun Zhong, Resurrected

Qun Zhong fans rejoice! Since this local establishment shut for business some ten months ago suddenly and without apparent reason, lovers of the restaurant have grieved and despaired. Well fret no more! The restaurant has finally re-opened on 9th February with as little fanfare as it had closed, spruced up and bigger. And lucky us, the menu has stayed true to the original in offering, quality and price! Continue reading

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Remember: Don’t Forget To Remember

The annual Arts Festival for Social Causes, i-AM Festival is into its fourth year, with a 2012 theme of Many Hearts, Many Hands, expressed through a series of visual art exhibitions, performing arts performances and outreach programmes. Altruism through the platform of the arts is an ideal close to my heart. What is even more impressive is that the team that organized the visual art exhibition Don’t Forget to Remember, are six students of the Arts Management Programme at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. Continue reading

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Royal Romance with Penhaligon’s

Fresh from the heady arrival of the lunar spring, Jack and friends’ pleasure of the senses is unsatiated with the promise of 14th February!

When I was in London several years ago, I bought a bottle of Penhaligon’s Malabah, and long after I finished the fragrance, it has lingered in my mind, haunting my olfactory senses like a seductive old flame. When I passed ION Orchard after having a meal with Jack at Canton-I, I recalled my wonderful experience in London and that intriguing scent and implored Jack and friends to step in. Continue reading

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Pablo Reinoso: Inspired Form Meets Function at Art Plural

Jack and Friends are back at Art Plural Gallery!

When we last visited the gallery, we were floored by the four levels of art. Argentinian-French artist, designer, architect and researcher Pablo Reinoso’s solo exhibition did not disappoint.  Continue reading

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Papa Palheta

This place is no longer a secret. In fact it is so well known and popular that I was contemplating for a long while if I should bother to write about it. But call it paying tribute. I love Papa Palheta. Continue reading

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Filed under Coffee, Singapore

Canton-I

I was excited to bring Jack and two other food-loving pals to Canton-I at ION Orchard. It has been a favourite lunch or dinner haunt for me since I first tried it.

With four branches in Malaysia, this Hong Kong establishment never fails to disappoint me with their roast duck and ‘carrot’ cake, both deserving of last-meal status far as I’m concerned! The fried rice with abalone is another great dish to share with family and friends. Continue reading

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Seeing Pink Elephants

“There are, broadly speaking, two types of drinkers. There is the man whom we all know, stupid, unimaginative, whose brain is bitten numbly by numb maggots; who walks generously with wide-spread, tentative legs, falls frequently in the gutter, and who sees, in the extremity of his ecstasy, blue mice and pink elephants. He is the type that gives rise to the jokes in the funny papers.”

London, Jack. John Barleycorn New York: Oxford University Press. 1989

Hmm…no blue mice, thankfully, but we did see pink elephants. That belonging to what was once elected the Best Beer in the World – Delirium Tremens. Continue reading

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Filed under Cafes, Lifestyle, Singapore

Bombay Sapphire Blue Room

The blue skies on 25 October sang of the night to come. Everywhere I looked, I chanced glimpses of delicious blue hues. The elegant sinews of a blue car hummed with the night’s elegant possibilities. Jack had invited me to the opening of the Bombay Sapphire Blue Room; the embodiment of the well-crafted gin’s spirit. I could not wait to see how the various art collectives, individual and musical artists would interpret the theme. Continue reading

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Filed under Art, Lifestyle, Singapore