Tawandang German Brewery at Damsey

There is one place I like for a special day out - a nice place with good food and great atmosphere - Tawandang German Brewery at Damsey Road. Why is it a good place? I think it is good for people of all ages - you see families, couples, teenagers, working adults, etc, all soaking in the great atmosphere with a live band performance, big tv screens showing the latest soccer match, and of course very good food. They brew their own beer and serve them in great mugs or beer towers and their Thai food is yummy!

For a nice satisfying meal, be ready to fork out at least abt $40 per pax.

The German beer costs abt $15. A giant mug of it!

I highly recommend ordering this prawn crackers basket to go with the beer. It comes with a chili dip that is super awesome. The basket is quite big. $7.

We ordered this Thai deep fried promfet that comes with another Thai chili dip. They have removed the bones on the fish so it's awesome for ppl who dislike the fuss of fish eating! The fish was delicious but a bit oily since it is deep fried. Can't remember exact cost of the fish but it was between $25-30.

We also ordered this awesome Thai fried noodle that's different from the usual Phad Thai. This is really what we usually called "hor fun" - wide flat noodles. I don't know how they made it so awesome but it tastes wonderful. Maybe they used a little rice wine. Picture shows the large portion that serves two (or more) and is $22.

There were a lot of other dishes on the menu which I would like to try - including German pork knuckle which I saw many tables ordering. Maybe next time!

The need for self love

While randomly surfing around for self-improvement tips, I came across an article on the need for self love. And I think it is valid to share. According to the article, one will be a happier person if he/she needs not be always doing things to make others happy in order to make themselves happy. It speaks of the type of person who derive happiness from others' feedback on their kind act. It says  that without self love - if I give you a gift, I give it because it’s what I want to do, but I do it wanting you to like it and, by association, like me (with expectation). If you like it and praise me, I might feel warm and good about myself. If you don’t like it I might feel very sad and disappointed, leading to thoughts that I have failed and let you down. My sense of self has decreased because I didn’t fulfill my goal of you liking my gift and giving me love and acceptance back.

Errrmmm, I don't know about you but I do feel damn sad when the "gift", whatever that is, that I had painstakingly prepared for someone is not (perceived by me to be) appreciated by the recipient. There were times that I had spent hours shopping for a thoughtful gift or spent hours hand making a gift with the recipient simply quipping a lukewarm thank you and putting it aside soon after it passes hand. The article said that people with self-love would react differently to the same situation. With self-love: if I give you a gift, I give it because it’s what I want to do and I do it without expectation. If you don’t like it I might feel sad or disappointed, but I can accept that’s your choice. Either way, I still know that what I did was a kind thing and I still have a good sense of self-love and self-acceptance. 

Going by the theory, it would mean I lack a general sense of self-love?  - which I think could be true. I do think that I'm overly concerned if others like me and what I can do to make people like me. Oftentimes I conform to social norms even if it's not my preferred option. I feel guilty when I say no to someone and I worry the person may be upset. I had realized that "self-sacrificial" unhappy side of me and had been challenging myself to be myself more and not what others prefer one to be. Reading the self-love article makes me feel that it is not too selfish to value my inner self more! Ha!

Here's some tips to more self-love. 

• Self-care.

  Self-care means you treat yourself just as kindly and thoughtfully as you would anyone else. If you are uncomfortable doing something, then you don’t do it and that’s OK. Just because somebody might be disappointed that you didn’t help him or her, that’s his or her choice to feel that way.

• Considering your needs.

  If that means others don’t get all of you, all the time, then that’s also OK. People can learn to adjust and be responsible for themselves.

• Caring for yourself with the same level of effort that you do for others.

  That might mean you don’t always fulfill your goal of helping others because you’d prefer to spend time doing something for yourself. That’s not selfish.

• Accepting yourself for all that you are — both your positive aspects and your human fallibility. 

  You cannot be all good all the time. That’s OK. You can work on self-improvement, but that doesn’t mean you discount the parts of yourself you don’t like as much. Those aspects are still part of your whole.

• Saying no to others’ requests.

  That’s OK. You are not totally responsible for everybody else’s needs.

Breko Cafe @ Holland Village Singapore

Hungry at night but you wanna have western food? LOL. Had such a random craving last Saturday. What happened was that I went to Sentosa Adventure Cove (It's a great place by the way) in the late morning and had a late lunch on Sentosa Island. After that my family went home and I knocked out till late.

By the time I'm hungry for dinner it's already past 10pm. HAHA! And I had a craving for meeeeeat!!! OMG. I mean, I usually settle for anything available if I am hungry at night but this time there was this strange desire for some meat (preferably a lot).

Anyway, so I head out for some dinner with my bf and decided to go for Holland Village since it is a well known hang out place for weekend nights. And then we decided to settle for Breko Cafe since it looked like a decent place for some western food.

Holland Village is pretty crowded on Saturday night:

Steak with 2 sides: (Cannot remember exact price but it is below $20, excluding tax)

Double fish burger with fries & salad (I remember it's $14.90)

I think the food was decent although not fantastic. My fish burger was a bit dry but the fries was good. The steak was more cooked on one end vs the other. However all in all still acceptable. The serving speed was fast too. And the price was really reasonable. Overall I would rate it 7/10. A possible option for random peeps with random craving for western food past 11pm. They serve desserts too! 

Personal Review: Noproblem Ion Balance products

First and foremost, I'm not being paid for this review. It's my personal review - not performed under any scientific settings. Why do I want to write a review on this product? Because I myself couldn’t find sufficient personal detailed reviews of the product online despite several searches. Not sure what's the reason, but I can't seem to find many private reviews of Noproblem Ion Balance products before I actually buy it. I wonder if such reviews are being restricted or my searches are poor? Most of the stuff I found are commercial or general, not personal. Anyway, this review goes out to those who are like me – those looking for a private review on the product.

Okay, these supposedly health beneficial bracelets/necklaces have been in the market for quite a few years now and shouldn’t be new to most people. The concept of such health balancing bracelets or necklaces etc, is largely debated and remains not conclusive. There are actually many brands in the market, based either on the concept of the health benefits of germanium, tourmaline or some other stuffs like magnets or "holograms" that synchronize with ur body's energy field (Something like that). Some popular brands are like Noproblem Ion Balance (NPB), PowerBalance, iRenew, etc.  

Even though it's not proven to be effective, they were wildly popular for a period of time (all the sportsmen were donning one at one time) and some users claimed that these products helped them in many ways such as sleeping better, better moods, better sports performance, better flexibility, better alertness and a whole long list of miracles. Some experts believed that it's just a psychological trickery that your brain reacts the way u want the results to be. I read that if you believe strong enough that something exists, then ur brain will actually create bodily reactions that resonates with what u believe in. Our brain is a damn powerful equipment lah.  It's something weird like for example, if passengers on a plan think that there is a virus on the plane (hence causing some panic), some of them may actually start developing immediate symptoms of being infected even if there is no virus at all. So the theory is that if u tell someone that he will immediately feel better strength upon putting on a balance bracelet, he will actually respond to be so when being tested. However, the results may be the same even if u pass him a fake bracelet. So it's largely dependent on how much your brain bought the idea.

Anyway, the scientific proof and whatever debate aside, I think there is no conclusion. Why? I still see the stuff being sold at rocket prices. In fact, there are stores in Singapore or counters specialising in the sale of these products. It makes me wonder – if they are truly not effective, why is there still such market demands warranting the survival of such brands and stores? Is it really a case of blind demands? In addition, I also feel that researchers are constantly confused themselves. How many times have you encountered this – something was “scientifically proven” to be beneficial for health and became the hype, and then many years later another research surfaced to prove it wrong? For a period of time, collagen related cosmetics was the hip thing appearing everywhere and then it was later said that there is no way for the body to absorb collegen from surface applications and it should be ingested. Subsequently I read yet another article that only collagen derived from certain livestock can actually be absorbed well through ingestion… So what have people been wasting their money on all along? And is collagen products still popular? – YES. Well, if the brain is powerful enough to creates reality of what you believe in, what is the harm of believing in a good thing like perhaps a Noproblem Ion Balance product will bring you better health? Obviously you are not supposed to substitute it with exercise or your prescribed medications (if any). It is just a supplementary product.

I have colleagues and friends who told me that the ion balancing products made them feel better, such as through the relieve of neck pain or shoulder pain. Due to word of mouth, I had contemplated getting one for myself for a while but I never got to it as I felt that the price is quite expensive. I recently came across a sale event on Qoo10.com.sg (Previously Gmarket) and grabbed the chance to buy 2 Noproblem Ion Balance necklaces at a steal. The site stated that each product will come with a verification code to verify the authenticity of the product on NPB’s website. (Hey, if I am going to spend money on some silicone, I may as well make sure it is THE silicone. You get what I mean?). Anyway, Qoo10’s users who bought em seemed to like the products even though it is again a wrestle between 2 school of thoughts on the effectiveness. The main consensus was that the necklaces are of good quality and the packaging was good and the products were verified authentic online. Sounds good enough for me. So here are what I got:

Overview of my black P055A & white P055B Noproblem Ion Balance necklaces:

The packaging is quite decent and came sealed. There was some verification codes for one to check for the authenticity online as per stated on Qoo10. Apparently, the same code can be used to check for authenticity only 3 times before the system will block you (the verification webpage stated so) I think it's an added security measure to prevent fakes. Not that this method is foolproof of course. Anyway, I checked for one of my products and it was verified authentic. Haha! Didn't bother with the second.

I think the stainless steel's parts are sturdy and well built. Unlike some cheapo stuff. Guys might actually buy such accessories even if there is no health benefits.

Picture on the steel parts:

An impressive part was the clapse to lock the necklace in place. It requires a push and twist action which means the necklace is unlikely to fall off on its own during some sports. The engraving on the pack of the pendent is centralized and well printed (Another indication of authenticit).

The manual

There is no need for much instructions really. Except that first time usage will cause certain symptoms such as nausea,  dizziness etc. Some may report more vivid dreams. An interesting thing here - I did feel nauseated when I first wore the necklace - before I read any instructions. It could be I was dehydrated that day, or it could mean the necklace did caused some bodily reactions. Anyway, I'd been wearing the necklace for about 2 weeks now, I didn't do any really physical activities so I'm unable to review the part on better flexibility and strength etc. I am however able to feedback that I do seem to have better sleep - as in I wake up feeling less lethargic. In addition, I seemed to have better skin lately. Whether it is my brain causing the effect or perhaps the magic of my noproblem ion balance I'm unable to prove. But I say - hey, no harm trying. Tell me if it works for you.