k r i s a n d r o

Wanting to try a fish spa after hearing and reading so much about it, KuKuNehNeh (KKNN) and me finally got a chance during one Saturday. KKNN managed to find one such spa near her home in Ang Mo Kio Central called ‘Dr. Fish’.

We arrived at Dr. Fish in the afternoon to find that there wasn’t a soul in the shop. The shop attendant appeared out of nowhere and ask us to try out the 30 minute fish spa therapy that will cost each of us $28. Having some spare time before we head out for dinner at Serangoon, we agreed and entered the shop with KKNN making a snorty remark,

“He is kinda ticklish!”

“I will be fine!” I replied with a slight doubt as the said truth manifests in my head.

Under instructions from the friendly attendant, we washed our feet at a washing point and I guess it’s all part of hygiene as each fish pool can accommodate up to 5 people. That, and the remote possibility of killing all the fishes when one submerge their stinky feet into the pool.

I was the first to the pool and had no hesitation in plunging both feet into the pool and ALL the fishes swam towards my legs as though my feet were the tastiest thing ever to set foot (pun intended) in their underwater world.

The feeling of having the fishes nibbling at my feet is actually quite therapeutic! On the other hand – having the sight of the fishes swarming around my feet and making it look as though I was wearing boots probably had KKNN think twice about putting her feet in the water.

And the following two hilarious videos roughly summarized her experience at the fish spa.

 

She was so tickled that she couldn’t stop laughing and crying at the same time! WAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!

 

She couldn’t take it anymore and she asked to reduce the session to a 15 minute one even though she gamely put in her feet for slightly longer periods in the session and even managed to calm herself to take pics like this.

 

Information on the fishes used for these kind of spas can be found on Wiki. The location for Dr. Fish is at Block 710A, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8, #01-2631 and their website is here.

I am serving my first In-Camp Training (ICT) this week as an National Serviceman (NSman) and it’s been a wealth of emotions and feelings leading up to Monday and the completion of the first day in the camp.

1 year and 3 months have passed since I left the Air Force as a regular and the stressed job of being an Air Traffic Controller. The memories of the 4 and a half years spent in the service still lingers in the recesses of my brain (whatever is left of it).

I need approximately 2 hours to travel via public transport from my home to my squadron in the east and I wanted to rest early. I tried to sleep from 12 midnight and could only doze off into a semi-conscious state at around 3am because I stressed myself out from thinking of all the situations in difficult controlling situations.

Besides the insane amount of travelling time, another big complaint I have is that I cannot bring any gadgets like my laptop, psp or my Nokia N95 into camp and that means ZERO entertainment for 4 hrs of travelling everyday and not being able to take any nap in the train ride as well. Wearing the Air Force uniform with officer epulettes and sleeping on the train is akin to shouting out loud,

“HEY!!!! I AM AN OFFICER! I AM TAKING A NAP! WHY DON’T YOU ALL TAKE A PICTURE OF ME SLEEPING AND POST A PIC TO STOMP???”

 

So, for the 1st time in a decade or more, I went to the library to borrow books to help me pass time in the train. BOOKS! I know people STILL read books but to me, that’s such a retro form of entertainment.

BOOKS! *rolls eyes*

The Singapore Slingers have a month before their next game on the 5th November against the Malaysian All-Stars and were all given a one week break. Nicholas took the chance to organize an outing with a few of the stars on the team and boy were we lucky! My favourite player, Eric Sandrin and the teams tallest player at 2.21m, Sam Harris, were free to accompany the bloggers for a night out in town!

The people in attendance apart from the basketballers were Mo, Nicholas, Hillary, Daphne, Molemole, Jason, KuKuNehNeh and if you haven’t realised by now….. myself as well.

Eric is a huge man himself who stands at 2.05m in height and already attract stares from the crowd with his presence. But when Sam arrived, he became an instant celebrity and if I get a dollar for every stare, jaw drop and photo request from strangers, I would have made quite a tidy sum from that day alone.

We decided to dine at Newton Food Centre and let them try out delicious stuff like Satay, BBQ Stingray, Kang Kong and delicious dessert like Cheng Teng, Chendol and Ice Kachang. We then drove to City Hall and took a long walk in the heat to the Esplanade and the Merlion and to Raffles MRT where they took a train back to where we started just for fun.

Eric and his girlfriend, Mo

Chopsticks that look like toothpicks in Sam Harris’ hands

Satay will be a million dollar business if he sells them!

This is how pathetic it is when a 1.77m tall Singaporean faces off with them

If you look closely, Sam cast a shadow ON THE CEILING!

Eric trying to sneak on the Merlion

MRT cabins were not built for people of their size

 

It was great fun hanging out with the basketball stars that day and they were extremely funny and friendly! I have to warn you people on the dangers of neck aches when talking to Sam Harris for extended periods. Wahahahaah!

 

Catch them in action on the 5th of November at the Indoor Stadium!

On workday mornings, either KuKuNehNeh (KKNN) or myself will send a morning greeting to the other via email. Since she cannot use tools such as WLM to communicate, the emails are our way of keeping in touch with each other during work hours and gossip about the latest happenings in the world, Singapore, the blogosphere and you.

YA…. YOU!

 

On the 2nd of October, she sent me an email like any other workday except that the content made me as guilty as a kid who broke his mum’s favourite dinning glasses.

 

I COMPLETELY FORGOT that it was our 14th monthsary! And I had already promised to attend the Samsung event that day at Vivocity and we decided to not celebrate it. KKNN went to hang out with her friends after work at Deborah’s place and I headed down to the event as promised.

I am not much of a romantic and I decided to do something spontaneous to hopefully make up for my forgetfulness. After the event, I decided to travel to her place at Ang Mo Kio (AMK) to surprise her and spend some time together. KKNN is not much of a flowers person and so I bought beer and 3 of the fried chicken wings that she digs at the coffee shop nearby. In order to ascertain if she was already home, I text her along the way to AMK but she failed to reply me. As it was already 10+ in the night, I assumed that she had pigged out in her own bed and so I went ahead to buy the stuffs at the coffeeshop.

While waiting for the chicken wings, I got a call from her.

“Hello?” KKNN said groggily.

“Hi Dear! Where are you?”

“I just woke up. Still at Deborah’s place. I fell asleep while they were playing poker.”

“Ah? It’s late already and you got work tomorrow. Why don’t you go home to rest early?”

“I still waiting for Huiwen leh~”

“Huh~~~ Go home earlier lar!”

“Never mind lar. I will wait.”

“Okay lor. Text me when you reach home hor?”

“Okay!”

 

Failing to convince her to go home and not wanting to spoil the surprise or pressure KKNN to go back early because I am heading for her place, I decided to wait it out at her void deck. It was about 10.45pm when I reached the void deck and little that I know that she would only come back at around 11.40pm. So I spent 1 hr sitting at the bench, accompanied by a foreign worker who was sleeping soundly two benches away with the cold beer turning warm and the piping hot fried chicken wings turning into soggy remains of a cooked chicken’s body part.

I was to keep myself entertained and finally got a text from her that she was heading home. The sounds of a taxi greeted me as I hid behind a wall and I appeared in the open once I heard footsteps approaching the lift landing.

Well, the lady whom alighted from the cab and saw me grinning from ear to ear at the lift landing near the stroke of midnight that day wasn’t KKNN. WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA!!! It was just a stranger who was probably prepared to kick me in the nuts if I followed her into the lift. The moment of awkwardness was simultaneously greeted with the sounds of 2nd taxi stopping at the corner and a bewildered KKNN coming out of the cab and seeing her bf who was supposed to be at home but was waiting for her at the lift landing.

“DEAR! WHY ARE YOU HERE?”

A smile formed on my lips and I said,

“Happy 14th monthsary my Dear~”