A new year, a new national day song! This year’s song is “My Singapore” by Lorraine Tan, a local mandopop singer-songwriter, and it’s actually pretty good.

“My Singapore” takes the form of a love ballad to Singapore, with lyrics that recall the now-iconic “Home” (“No matter where we are, I know it’s here my home”) and references the classic “Count On Me Singapore” (“My Singapore, together we’ll achieve so much more”).

I do wish we’ll go back to the rousing, unabashedly patriotic sing-along songs of the 80s some time in the future though. Nothing quite beats “We Are Singapore” and “One People, One Nation, One Singapore” even after all these years. I’d wager that you’d be lying if you said that those songs don’t move your cynical Singapore heart at all!

What are your favourite National Day songs over the years?

Lyrics to “My Singapore”:

I know a place where, dreams are made.
A land where beauty never fades.
This is where we build our destiny.
A place of peace and harmony.

Tomorrow’s where we’ll look upon.
Where history has made us strong.
No matter where we are, I know it’s here my home.
It will always be a part of you and me.

My Singapore, my Singapore,
a place that lives forever in my heart.
My Singapore, together we’ll achieve so much more.
Let’s sing along, let’s sing a song,with love for Singapore.

Tomorrow’s where we’ll look upon.
Where history has made us strong.
No matter where we are, I know it’s here my home.
It will always be a part of you and me.

My Singapore, my Singapore,
a place that lives forever in my heart.
My Singapore, together we’ll achieve so much more.
Let’s sing along, let’s sing a song,with love for Singapore.

It’s here and I will give my all.
It’s here where you and I belong.
Let’s unite our hearts and sing along.
Let’s sing along,with love for Singapore

My Singapore, my Singapore,
a place that lives forever in my heart.
My Singapore, together we’ll achieve so much more.
Let’s sing along, let’s sing a song,
With love for Singapore.

Last, T-ara, After School, T-Max and MBLAQ were in town for the concert “KPOP Heal The World”, I managed to get the arrival timing for T-ara and After School and decided to head down to the airport to see if I’ll be able to grab photos/videos from the girls.

Arriving first would be T-ara at Terminal 2. I managed to catch the girls after 45mins of waiting and they were so pretty! Too bad most of them were wearing shades :( At least I get to see Hyomin, Eunjung and Boram, I’ve recorded 2 fancams of them leaving the arrival hall.

After School’s arrival was at Terminal 3 and the amount of fans that were there were pretty similar to T-ara’s amount. I manage to get a position just infront of the door of the arrival hall. When the girls appeared, everyone went wild and rushed forward trying to get a glimpse of them. The girls gathered at the arrival hall and waited for security or their staff?

After a few minutes, the girls finally walked out of the arrival hall, and wow they were so pretty! JungAh noona neomu yeppo. Was estatic that I was able to see JungAh, Kahi and Bekah upclose in real life.

A friend of mine Jael, have always been telling us for quite sometime now, that during her previous trip to New York in 2008, she visited a place that serves the best ramen.

So when she heard that it came to Singapore, she went to queue just to get in and have a taste of it. After the long wait, she mentioned that the ramen was just not the same as what you got from New York but it was still one of the better ramen that you can get in Singapore.

After tempting us with her pictures, we finally managed to visit Ippudo Singapore last week at around 4.30pm for dinner! Yes, that early because we wanted to beat the crowd in case we would have to queue. Located at the newly renovated Mandarin Gallery, it was the best ramen experience I ever had.

The place was nicely decorated and there were quite alot of staff standing around waiting to take our orders. We liked how we were attended to very quickly and how fast our ramen came!

Both Jael and I ordered the Akamaru Ramen (Char Siew – it was nice and fatty but there were only 2 slices if I am not wrong) that comes in a red bowl and Valerie had the Shiromaru (Char Siew – it was nice and fatty but there were only 2 slices if I am not wrong) that came in a white bowl.

Amongst the two, I preferred the Akamaru as I felt that there was more flavour in the soup. There was this layer of sauce or oil on the top and some paste in the middle of the bowl. It was so good that I finished all the soup in my bowl. The Shiromaru on the other hand was rather plain and did not have as much flavour as the Akamaru.

I loved the noodles, it is really thin something like the egg noodles you get when eating bak chor mee. But this noodles were really springy!

I read about the eggs online saying that its not the kind of runny yolk on the inside and that it was not nice because of that. But I liked the egg that I got in my bowl as it was not runny and yet it was soft. Just the way I like it!

In addition to this, we ordered the Ippudo pork buns which is similar to Kong Bak Bao’s you get in Singapore except there was mayonnaise in it. I did not really enjoy it as I felt it lacked of flavour and its something you can buy in the coffee shop at a cheaper price.

Overall, I really enjoyed Ippudo but I did find it a little pricey. The Akamaru and Shiromaru Ramen costs $19.00 inclusive of an additional egg and the Ippudo pork bun was $3.00 per piece. I will visit them again once in awhile just to give myself a treat!

Ippudo Singapore
#04-02/03/04 Mandarin Gallery
333A Orchard Road
Tel: 6235 2797

Spotted at Isetan Supermarket, Shaw Towers.

This is a board at level 4 of Orchard Central where people can post their To Do’s for the new year.

It’s free for everyone to write and they will take a picture and post it on http://todo.ape.sg

Interestingly lots of people wrote that their to do’s for the new year are to do their homework and to be fit and healthy!

Most of the time, when we think of having fried chicken we’ll end up at KFC or sometimes Popeye’s.

I was introduced to Arnold’s by my classmate back when we were in primary school. Back then, their fried chicken didn’t leave much of an impression on me. So 10 years later, I revisited Arnold’s because Wei Meng heard about it and wanted to try it. We ordered a set for two persons that came with four pieces of chicken, two drinks, two fried buns, fries and coleslaw. We ordered an extra side of mashed potato as well.

I found that their fried chicken was yummy! It tasted like the fried spring chicken that you get from western food stalls at coffee shops but much better: more tender and juicy.

The sides were unmemorable. The fries tasted like the kind you can buy from supermarkets and fry at home. The coleslaw and mashed potato were nothing to shout about. Overall the experience we had at Arnold’s was good. The queue was rather long but the tables cleared really fast. The total bill amounted to $21.70, which we found a little pricey for a set for two and mashed potatoes. Arnold’s is located on the 2nd floor of City Plaza near the Watsons store.

We recommend that you try it if you are around the area or are a big fan of fried chicken. Otherwise, it’s nothing worth going out of your way for.

May your new year be filled with new adventures, new discoveries, new friends and happiness, joy, laughter and good health.

Photo of the Singapore 2010 countdown fireworks courtesy of @novariyanti. Thanks!

We are at The Roti Prata House, located at Upper Thomson Road, for supper. It has been a few months since we last came and the place is now brightly lit with their menu displayed at the entrance and in the store itself.

They even have a new menu! The great thing about it is that they now have pictures of the food and drinks so you know what you are ordering. Because of all the pictures, Wei Meng is now tempted to order so many other things like coin prata, nasi goreng mutton masala, sotong masala, pizza murtabak and nasi goreng mushroom.

Too bad we already placed our orders for plain prata ($0.90), onion prata ($1.10), egg prata ($1.20), bomb cheese prata ($4.00), teh cino ais ($1.40) and kopi cino ($1.40).

For those who doesn’t know they are famous for their prata because its one of the most crispy prata that I have tried in Singapore! If you would like to try can visit the store at No. 246M Upper Thomson Road (near Thomson Plaza) Singapore 574370.

Spotted on the side of the taxi: An advertisement for some brand of ghee. Guess who is endorsing it? A celebrity chef? A famous actress? Nooooooo.. Its a random kid from Campus Superstar 2. What’s the relation?? Does he eat ghee to sing better?

Saw this wonderful green sweater at Forever 21 at 313@Somerset but it was out of reach! That’s Joycelyn in the photo, but even I couldn’t reach it – and I’m about 1.7m tall.

What’s the point of putting clothing on display where nobody but the super-tall can reach? What do you think?