Happy Birthday Darling!

My dearest hubby Colin turned 30 last Saturday. I love it that he's now officially "one year" older than I am. While i relish my last weeks of being in my 20s, Colin has bade farewell to his 20s and entered the big 3-O. Not that he minds. At all. After all, men do get better with age and at 30, Colin has achieved what he had set out to achieve by this age. Happily married with a wonderful wife (hehehe), having a job he enjoys and which covers our bills, owning our own flat and dream car (within reasonable budget).

Colin and his 1st chocolate birthday cake - compliments from the Singapore Swimming Club

Blowing candles of his 2nd chocolate cake - compliments from a friend. The ironic thing is, Colin hates chocolate and both his cakes were chocolate cakes. But not a problem coz his "wonderful wife" who did not buy him any birthday cake (oops sorry dear) is a true chocoholic.
Driving to dinner - We hold hands whenever we can. Even while he drives. :)
A sumptious spread at Tony Romas - We had an onion loaf, the family feast, and 2 full slabs of ribs done in different styles. *burp*
Dinner with my family. We also had high-tea at the Marriott Hotel with my in-laws, but unfortunately, we did not take any photos there.

A very short weekend with all the celebration, so little time together (colin had flown back specially only for 2 days to spend his birthday with us), but a weekend filled with joy and laughter, plus loads of food...

The "Ugly Singaporean Cab Driver"

I realised quite some years back that trying to grab an empty cab in Singapore at 11.45pm was about as difficult as striking the lottery. Somehow, cab drivers just “happen” to need their pee break, or smoke break, or supper break, or do-nothing break, before they came out again in full force when the midnight taxi surcharge kicked in at 12am. These cabbies are a little bit like Cinderella, I always thought.

As most things evolve with time, this problem has taken on a whole new form. These days, its difficult to grab a cab even at 8pm! I have recently experienced, on more than a few occasions, snakingly long queues at taxi stands, especially those outside malls. Plenty of empty cabs drive by the malls. Few turn into the taxi-stands. Everyone at the taxi queue holding on to their cell phones, some dialing furiously, some frustrated with holding on the taxi hotlines, everyone trying to “Dial-a-cab” while still holding on to their position in the taxi queue.

Whenever an empty taxi turns in to the taxi stand, everyone in the queue holds their breath with the anticipation of the queue shortening by at least one person, only to be disappointed with the “On Call” sign on top of the cab. Some “On Call” cabs do fail to pick up their intended passengers (who might have left in other cabs or maybe decided to take the bus or MRT instead). Instead of picking up those of us from the taxi queue, most of the empty cabs just drive away.

After a while, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that these same cabs just drive out around the corner, wait for our calls to come in, before they turn back into the taxi stand for their additional $4 booking fee. After realising this fact, many of us in the taxi stand just succumb to dialing a cab, as few of us are willing to wait forever for our turn in the taxi queue.

I am seriously pissed with this “Ugly Singaporean Cab Driver” phenomenon. While I understand that it’s a bonus to earn the $4 booking fee, I feel that taxi drivers are providing a service and hence should not have a right to refuse picking up passengers from taxi stands. Imagine what would happen if doctors start refusing patients unless they paid extra fees for house calls!

Anyhow, I'm sure there are still some nice cabbies out there. But for now, I have decided, that I will boycott taxis. Though I dislike taking the bus, I think it may prove to be faster than waiting for a taxi that will almost never come, and I, for one, don’t want to feed these "ugly cab drivers' attitude problems!

A yummylicious dinner date

Colin and I make it a point to go for weekly dates. Note that dates are different from, say, a normal weekday dinner, or a quick trip to the supermarket. Though those are entirely enjoyable activities that we do together as a couple, they are more for sustenance than for romance. Dates? Dates are a tad more special. Dates usually involve non-practical activities. We dress up for dates. We plan for special activities / dine at special restaurants during our dates. Dates are something we both look forward to, and are an excellent way for us to keep our romance alive.

We just had a date last evening. In the morning, i fretted over what to wear as I did not want to go for our date in my normal boring work attire. After scrutinising my wardrobe, I finally chose a flirty polka-dot dress, over which I threw on a mini cardigan.

We went to Jackson Miller for dinner. This is a cozy western restaurant located in the Singapore Swimming Club. Its pretty much a no-frills restaurant which serves quality western food. Here's what we had for dinner.

Started with a full-flavoured mushroom soup

Freshly toasted garlic breadRefreshing caesers salad - i love this!
The restaurant serves lime sorbet to cleanse our palettes before mains are served

Colin had the surf and turf for his main - one whole grilled maine lobster, 2 juicy crab claws, a piece of steak, served with mash and vegetables.
I had the grilled maine lobster with aglio olio spaghetti and pan seared duck liverHere's a closer look at my choice of main course. We were both so stuffed we gave dessert a miss (my favourite dessert at Jackson Miller's is the molten chocolate cake served with vanilla ice-cream). Absolutely Yummylicious!