I will be heading down to SAFRA Yishun where we will do a “live” video streaming of me chatting with fans on the SAFRA Facebook fan page.
Whenever I think of SAFRA Yishun, I think of rock climbing. Haha. So miss it. Nanny Wen and I haven’t gone climbing since we did our Level 1 certification cos it’s a bit hard for us to coordinate our timings, especially since we’ve both been travelling a lot recently, sometimes with each other, sometimes without.
Anyway, please come join in the chat tomorrow! :) You get to ask me all the questions you’ve been wanting to ask!
THE HOOK
Awesome food and great company all day long!
THE CHALLENGE
Nine hours of nonstop eating morning till night! Can you last?
THE CATCH
You’ll have to put up with crazy antics from event hosts and, sometimes, loopy bloggers like Sheylara, while trying not to snort food out your nose due to excessive laughter, while at the same time trying to eat as much as you can.
I was just joking. We’re not going to force feed you while inducing you to laugh; we’re not sadists, obviously, but the food is free-flow and you might want to get your money’s worth.
As one participant said, he’d gone with a 3000cc stomach ready to conquer all the innocent (but delicious) little foodstuff!
This guy in the picture isn’t the one with the 3000cc stomach, though. Just using this pic here because it’s a convenient illustration.
Anyways.
SAFRA has started up a new club for food lovers and the Bitez Food Trail is one of the ongoing activities that members get to enjoy.
I was invited to the inaugural trail although I was only present for the second half of it, together with DJ Mario from Power 98.
I suppose attending only half of the food trail was quite enough for me. I don’t know if I could have survived all six stops. Then again, at the same time, I can’t help feeling rather bummed that I missed out on so much great food.
The first thing that ladyironchef and Charmaine got to enjoy was a great American breakfast at Breeks (Changi Airport). I so love American breakfasts!
Their second stop was dessert at Crowne Plaza. How could I have missed this?!!
Billy Bombers was the third stop, which I also missed, which was sad because I love Billy Bombers.
But I was also relieved that I was assigned the second leg since that meant I was able to sleep in a little later. :P
My first stop was Mushroom at Macritchie Reservoir. I hadn’t been to the reservoir since my secondary school days when we went there for cross-country running practice. It was very nostalgic.
The cafe offers snacks and a variety of local meals.
This fourth stop was probably designed to serve as a pleasant break for participants after three stops of rich food. Here, we were served light bites such as chee cheong fan, siew mai and fried mushrooms.
It was yummeh! I wouldn’t mind going back there again. It’s a very peaceful, scenic place. Nice to set up a laptop there and do some writing while enjoying yummy snacks!
Mario and I were given a fork and a spoon to carry like a team banner of sorts. It’s made of wood so it’s heavy! But it was all qute hilarious. I liked walking around holding a giant spoon!
Next was Old Chang Kee. I so love Old Chang Kee! We were allowed to take anything we wanted from the stall!
That could possibly have been the happiest day of my life, offered all that food in unlimited amounts. But I didn’t eat much because I was supposedly there as a celebrity guest so I had to maintain a glam image instead of looking like a glutton, right?
No, actually, I didn’t eat much because I was suffering a mild tummy upset from having eaten something wrong the night before. That’s Murphy’s Law for you.
On the bright side, the involuntary restraint was probably a blessing in disguise. It did help me maintain a semblance of a glam image (I hope).
What would have happened if I had gone with my full eating capacity!!
(I heard that the organisers are thinking of inviting me for the next food trail, so my “glam” image is going to be placed at risk because I’m sure I won’t be having a tummy upset the next time.)
As it happened this round, I ate very modestly and coquettishly. I’m sure everyone thought I was very ladylike and dainty.
So there.
Here’s a group photo that I cut up a bit. Otherwise it’ll be like the one above where you can’t see anyone because everyone’s faces are so small, lol. Sorry, the rest of you who got cut away. =(
The last stop was the most fun! It was at NYDC Holland Village, where we had the Great Elephantcino Challenge!
Or, rather, I was forced to participate in it, lol. Mario and I had to team up against two other contestants to be the first team to finish the great Elephantcino drink at NYDC.
Unfortunately, cold drinks have never been my strong suit. In fact, drinking has never been my strong suit. People who know me know that I’m a camel and I drink very infrequently.
So, after drinking for ages, I really thought I was already halfway through but when I held up the mug to look, I found I had hardly made a dent. What an impossible challenge!! For me, at least.
23,846 hours later…
Darn bottomless mug!!
Mario was a real pro, continuing to maintain his role as emcee, entertaining the audience with his jokes even while being a contestant himself. So, between his having to work the crowd and his useless camel of a partner, we were totally creamed.
Don’t think the mug looks so small or what, okay. It is very difficult can??! It’s so freaking cold you can’t feel your mouth after like 10 seconds!
Anyway, the two winners won SAFRA vouchers which can be used at various participating stores in Singapore! Whee!
I guess it was quite a fitting end to a gluttonous affair!
Oh yeah, NYDC fed us till bursting point. There were buffalo wings (really awesome, my favourite), pasta, sandwiches, potato wedges and cheesecake! Craziness!
Oh, wait. It wasn’t exactly over yet.
After the six advertised stops, we were treated to a last bonus stop at a gelato cafe at SAFRA Mount Faber.
THAT was a great end! The gelato was awesome!! I’m going back for more! The cafe is situated in a big store that sells sporty clothes and equipment, so I was able to go shopping while eating my gelato! Heh.
Still eating my gelato during the last group photo shoot of the day…
Before I end this post, let me try to entice you into joining the next food trail. Wait, do I need to entice you even? I’m sure you’re very, very enticed by now. Can you resist such fun and yumminess?
Be a member of the Bitez Club by SAFRA!
For a minimal membership fee of $30 a year, you’ll receive a Bitez card which entitles you to discounts and birthday treats at partner restaurants all year round. Also, you’ll be able to sign up for the next food trail (and the next one and the next one…) and enjoy the same thing I did!
It’s a lifestyle portal which helps connect people who have the same interests!
So, I just signed up for fun. See, here’s my profile page:
There’s a buddy system in there which allows you to search for buddies by interest, so you can easily connect with someone who enjoys the same things as you!
For NSmen, you can even search by ORD! LOL.
Well, this portal was created by SAFRA so I suppose it’s geared towards NSmen. Many articles in there cater to guys (cars, gadgets, how to read girls’ body language, etc). Also, SAFRA members get occasional perks like discounts and stuff.
But girls and non-members can join also lah. I see girl members in there!!
Who are these cuties?! =D
Fuse is the club for clubbing peeps. LOL ok I shall explain about clubs now.
There are 19 SAFRA-run clubs which you can join for planned outings in your interest area, where you also get discounts and privileges!
Some example clubs here:
Besides clubs, there are also user-created interest groups for gathering like-minded people. You can create a group easily and have the system recommend people to invite!
You can also create public activities which will appear on all members’ in2it.sg homepage with an option to join your activity. (Or create private activities just for friends.)
Anyway, signing up is free, so no harm trying, right? There’s a series of six contests happening right now as part of in2it.sg’s first-year anniversary celebrations, so please try to win yourself something! $5,000 worth of prizes up for grabs. Whee!
The contests are only happening in March so now’s a good time to sign up! =)
If you’re an SAF NSman, receive a 2GB thumbdrive for being the first 100 to sign up. You need to do two things on signing:
Use WMGi as the referral code.
After logging in, update your profile to indicate you’re an SAF NSman.
So not fair lah, you guys get all the perks!
But, anyway, my job is done now. So…
No, wait wait wait… one more thing!
FACEBOOK FAN PAGE! =D
Be a fan and win prizes from the many contests! ;)
I was recently invited to check out Game Haven, an entire building made for gamers and for people who love having fun!
It houses 160 PCs for LAN gaming, six private rooms for console gaming and one function room for gaming parties (as well as a pub and restaurant).
What a gaming haven!
It’s not officially launched yet, although it is already open for business, so me and my friends are one of the first people to preview the place! Yay!
Waiting at the lobby for all my late-coming friends.
We were first shown the function room, which holds 10 PCs and one LCD TV for console gaming.
There was a little kid’s birthday party going on and they looked like they were having the time of their lives.
Guitar Hero World Tour was set up for play on the TV but I think the kids were more interested in the balloons at that point of time.
The Goonfather wanted to crash the party but we all pulled him away before he started traumatising the kids beyond repair.
By the way, the party room (with 10 PCs) is also very suitable for clan training sessions. I envy professional gamers! I want to be really good at FPS, but it’s just not my thing. All I’m good at is being a sitting duck.
We went on to tour the PC floors.
In the background, my friends studying are the PCs intently.
The guys just couldn’t wait to get started on some heavy-duty FPS action.
But we adjourned to our private gaming room first. Our room was called Thunderbluff. All the rooms are named after World of Warcraft zones! There’s, like, Ironforge, Silvermoon, Undercity and so on. Coolness!
Our room had two PCs, as well as one TV set up with a Wii. We decided to play Wii because we don’t have Wii at home.
My friends sitting around gawking at the TV and doing nothing else. Sometimes they do the darnedest things.
Anyway, we finally got started with a round of Wii Sports.
First round: The Goonfather vs. Morte!
Since only four people can play with the Wii at once, two guys parked themselves at the PC table. All the latest and most popular shooters and MMORPGs are installed in all PCs in the building.
So guess what game Unker Kell started up when he commandeered the PC?
None.
He logged in to Facebook.
!!!!!!##$$!!!!
We all yelled at him, “We are in a gaming centre! We have free play of all the games available and you’re checking your Facebook!!”
“What’s wrong with Facebook?” he tried to argue.
“Facebook is not a game!”
“Weeeell….. Facebook has games in it. Sort of.”
Anyway, you’ll have to excuse him. It’s just in his nature to act like a moron sometimes.
We played many more Wii games through the afternoon.
Our favourite (not shown in picture) was Raving Rabbids 2. It’s one of the best party games out there, allowing up to four players to make fools of themselves at once.
You’re a roll of pink toilet paper if you come in last!
We took turns to challenge one another while also taking turns to play Counter-Strike on the PC. It’s kind of a neat arrangement!
Here’s a video of us playing Wii and being very, very noisy (you have been warned):
We were also served snacks from the Honshitsu Japanese Buffet Restaurant (located in the building).
Yummy!
The restaurant serves a special tea-time buffet at only $15++ for adults ($10++ for children) and we were contemplating eating there first before gaming, but that would have compromised two hours of our gaming time, so we decided to just order in. Heheh.
The best parties in the world are when you put food and gaming together!
After a few hours, we decided to abandon the Wii and troop up to the PC floor to indulge in our blood lust.
We were given eight PCs in a cluster so we could physically yell at each other while we fragged each other.
Happening!!
Unker Kell really wanted to play Left 4 Dead, the popular survival horror FPS, but he got severely overruled because we started off with Call of Duty 4 and we all got so hooked on it we couldn’t stop playing it.
We played till 7:50 pm, by which time we had to leave because we had a dinner reservation at 8 pm at Funan, which is just a short walk/drive away.
Even then, the guys, especially The Goonfather, didn’t want to stop playing.
“Can we skip dinner?” he asked.
I would have been happy to oblige, normally, but we were going to lo hei that night and I wasn’t going to miss my yu sheng!
By the way, Game Haven also has a pub called Nova! There are gaming stations inside the pub!!! COOOL!
We were given a tour of the premises. It only opens in the evening, so we had the whole pub to ourselves in the afternoon. Woohoo!
The entrance to the Nova.
A promotional shot of Nova’s gaming corner.
Nova has a section where you’ll be able to enjoy Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 gaming while drinking and partying. Is that cool or what?
There’s also an annex pub on the rooftop of the building which you can access through a staircase on the 6th floor.
Another promotional photo.
Well, we visited the place in the day so it looked like this:
Alfresco area on the rooftop.
The view is quite nice at night!
As we walked out of the building to go for dinner, the guys started saying, “Hey, let’s come back after dinner!”
Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded.
The rates are rather reasonable for LAN gaming — $1.50 an hour for Game Haven + SAFRA members, $1.90 for SAFRA members and $2.50 for guests.
They also have discounted rates and promotions from time to time. Anyway, you can find out more details at the www.gamehaven.sg.
We’re definitely going back again!
Game Haven is located at 29 Carpenter Street, very near Clarke Quay MRT Station. Click here for map and transport directions.
If you ever see me there, come up to me to say hi! Perhaps we could play some games together! ;)
For the usual gaming news, updates and miscellaneous anecdotes, there’s always here. I will announce contest winner tomorrow. Don’t go away!! (Yes, camp here for 24 hours. lol.)
![[Gamer Girl Friday]](http://www.sheylara.com/images08/gamergirlfriday.jpg)
