Kids eat for FREE at IKEA till 26 Nov
Kids eat for FREE at IKEA from 21 – 26 Nov 2016
Flash your IKEA FAMILY member card at the IKEA restaurant check-outs to enjoy choice of meatballs, pasta or chicken nuggets children meal. If you’re not a member, all you have to do is sign-up for free in the store
Being at the Singapore Turf Club brought back memories for Miss Universe Singapore (MUS) 2016 top-five finalist Joeypink Lai.
“I remembered my grandmother bringing my brother and I here when we were little,” she said.
“I don’t remember much though… I was seven or eight then.”
“All I remembered was our helper looking after us while we entertained ourselves,” she added with a laugh.
Lai, 24, and four other MUS 2016 finalists – winner Cheryl Chou, second runner-up Sonya Branson and finalists Nikki Tay and Shanice Hedger – made a guest appearance at the Singapore Turf Club for the Dester Singapore Gold Cup yesterday.
Lai, who clinched the title of Turf Belle 2016 at the MUS pageant last month, added: “It was my first time experiencing an event like this, and it was so fun.
“I learnt how to bet on the different horses, and that made it even more thrilling.”
For the rest of the ladies, the race event was also a first.
“I’d never been to anything like that before,” Chou, 20, said.
RICHEST RACE
“When I first walked in, I was a bit lost about what was going on. But it didn’t take long before I understood how it worked.
“It was such a privilege to be a part of an event with such a long and rich history.”
The Singapore Gold Cup is the richest race on the Singapore domestic racing calendar and dates back to 1924.
Branson, 25, said: “It was my first time at the races, and I was surprised by how exciting it was.
“People were screaming and jumping up and down as their horses won, especially for the final race.
“I wish I had placed a bet.”
This article was first published on November 21, 2016.
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LOS ANGELES – Canadian rapper Drake won his first ever American Music Awards on Sunday (Nov 20) and former One Direction boy band member Zayn was voted best new artist.
Drake, 30, who got a leading 13 nominations, took home the awards for best rap/hip-hop artists and album for his best-selling “Views”, which earlier this year became the first album to earn one billion streams on Apple Music.
“For our genre, I like to keep things exciting and keep making music… more like this is coming soon,” Drake said, accepting the award.
Pop singer Selena Gomez, 24, surprised fans by making her first major public appearance since cutting short her world tour in August to deal with anxiety, panic attacks and depression caused by an earlier diagnosis of lupus.
Gomez walked the red carpet in a red full-length gown and is a contender for the night’s top prize – artist of the year – to be announced at the end of the evening.
Zayn Malik, who quit British boy band One Direction last year to launch a solo career, beat Canadian newcomer Shawn Mendes to take the best new artist trophy.
“It’s been a crazy year… I didn’t expect anyone to still vote for me,” said Zayn, who uses his first name as his stage name.
Girl group Fifth Harmony, formed during the X-Factor TV talent show, won best collaboration for Work From Home, Twenty One Pilots were voted best pop/rock group, and Tim McGraw won favourite country song for Humble and Kind.
Despite an overwhelming lead in nominations, Drake was knocked out of the running for artist of the year before Sunday’s show had started.
The American Music Awards are entirely fan-voted, and the 10 artist of the year nominees were pared down by fans last week to five. Beyonce, Adele, The Weeknd and Twenty One Pilots were also removed from contention, leaving Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Gomez, Ariana Grande and Carrie Underwood vying for the title.
Bieber, whose five nominations include favourite video, male artist, pop/rock album and song, performed “Never Give Up” via satellite from a concert in Italy.
Featured performers on Sunday will include Sting, who last week released his first pop/rock album in a decade, 57th and 9th, and who is to sing a medley of his greatest hits.
The British singer-songwriter is to be presented with an honorary award recognising his contribution to the music industry.
Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Niall Horan, James Bay and John Legend were among the dozens of other performers on the Los Angeles stage.
The American Music Awards were created in 1973 as an alternative to the Grammys. This year, organisers added new categories for tour and video of the year while the crowded song of the year race was split into different categories for pop/rock, country, R&B/soul and rap/hip-hop.
For the past five years, radio DJ Yasminne Cheng’s crisp and perky voice has been making radio listeners salivate as she talks about scrumptious meals in her weekly restaurant review segment, Gastro Guide, on her lunchtime radio show.
But lunch on most days for the Class95 FM DJ is actually very simple.
Over the past year, it has usually been steamed salmon or barramundi. She marinates fish fillet with condiments such as lime juice and sesame oil, and pops it in a steamer at the radio studio during breaks on her Lunchbreak show.
The bubbly 38-year-old says it is a “healthy, low-calorie option that is easy to cook”.
She says: “I have a love-hate relationship with food. When you are having a party in your mouth, you wouldn’t want to stop halfway. But I am a glutton who puts on weight very easily, so I need to limit my calorie intake.”
The diminutive DJ Yasminne Cheng may be maintaining her 50kg weight, but does indulge in CreatureS’ Ah Gong Fried Chicken & Ah Ma Noodles and Ngoh Hiang & Cuttlefish Kueh Pie Tee. ST PHOTO: DON CHI While the “natural-born foodie” relishes checking out new food places, she limits herself to three “indulgent meals” in a week. Besides having light lunches, her dinners are equally small – she has fruit, salad and a handful of nuts.
She says: “I really like eating and am a slave to the flavours, but I do not need to eat a lot in order to feel satiated. I eat till I don’t feel hungry, not till I am full.”
Watching what she eats – on top of having a high-intensity interval workout routine – has allowed the 1.58m-tall DJ to maintain her weight at 50kg.
Cheng, who has been a radio DJ for 18 years, used to host a late-night show, Love Songs, for seven years until 2011.
She is also a familiar face on television, including hosting talk show The 5 Show last year. She will be hosting a renovation show, Designer In The House, on Channel 5, premiering on Dec 6.
Does she get bored with her monotonous diet? She shrugs and says: “Hosting on television is brutal as you look fatter on screen. I’ve come to accept that looking nice is part of my job responsibility.”
Cheng does not come from a family that is rooted in a strong culinary culture. She says: “My mother is a terrible cook. She eats to live and does not have an interest in cooking, although she made sure that I always ate clean and healthy food.”
She discovered her “inborn interest in eating” during her secondary school days, when she would save up $5.50 for a hotplate of beef with black pepper sauce from a coffee shop stall near her school as an after-school treat.
Cheng, who is married, says: “Food is one of the colours of life, it makes me smile after a bad day, and having sh**** food makes me angry. It can make or break my day.”
Growing up, what are your fondest memories of food?
Every Sunday, my mum made breakfast with the whole works because my dad liked it. There were fried sausages, baked beans, toast, toasted grapefruit, juice and coffee, and my neighbours came over to eat with us. It was such a treat.
Share some food gems you discovered while working on the Gastro Guide segment.
I like CreatureS cafe in Desker Road for its Western food with an Asian twist that is consistently good and homely.
I usually go for the Ah Gong Fried Chicken & Ah Ma Noodles, as it is so hearty with the crunchiness of the big, fat juicy chicken cutlet topped with garam masala, and for the smoothness of noodles tossed with fragrant fried shallots.
I also like the ngoh hiang (prawn roll) as the beancurd skin is crispy, but the meat inside is so juicy.
Another place is Sunset Railway Cafe in Sunset Way, which is owned by local singer-songwriter Jessica Soo. The food, such as nasi lemak, mee rebus, kaya toast and chicken curry and bread, are value-formoney as they are mostly under $10 each.
What are your favourite eateries for Singapore food?
National Kitchen by Violet Oon in National Gallery Singapore probably serves the best kueh pie tee in Singapore, as the turnip is stewed in a lobster stock, which makes it so flavourful.
I also like the dry laksa as it has a thick and gooey texture and is filled with strong spicy and lemak (rich) flavours; and udang goreng chilli, which has fried battered prawn coated with a very shiok spice paste.
Then there’s the san lou hor fun from zi char stall Hong Kong Zhen Ji in Alexandra Road. The dish may look bland, but the noodles have good wok hei.
There’s also chilli crab from Blue Lotus Restaurant at Quayside Isle in Sentosa. Its sauce is spicy and intense, and is thick without being starchy.
I also like char siew (roast pork) from modern Cantonese restaurant Mitzo in Grand Park Orchard, which is beautifully caramelised like creme brulee.
Are you an adventurous eater?
No, I am quite a selective foodie. I cannot eat dishes with innards, such as kway chap, as I don’t like the smell.
And after seeing photos of the bloody geese that produce foie gras, I told my friends to stop showing them to me or I will turn vegetarian.
I also feel like vomiting whenever I bite into lamb as it has a gamey taste.
What is your favourite overseas food destination?
I go to Hong Kong two or three times a year for a holiday, and when I am there, I have to visit two food places. One is a street-side stall on a hill slope that sells beef brisket noodles at the junction of Elgin and Peel streets in the SoHo district. The meat is nice and soft, the stock is salty and has monosodium glutamate. It makes a great late-night meal.
Another place is Ramen Jo in Causeway Bay, which is in the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand list. I always go for the spicy tonkotsu ramen that has al dente noodles in a super flavourful broth. You can add sides such as seaweed, onsen egg and spicy beancurd.
What is your guilty pleasure when it comes to eating?
I love curry-flavoured Twisties, Doritos spicy nachos, Marmite chips, which are so salty and shiok, and Mama Zuma’s potato chips that has very spicy habanero chilli pepper. I buy them in small packets so that I can keep track of how many chips I eat.
What were your favourite supper haunts when you hosted latenight radio show Love Songs?
One place that stands out is Chicken Up in Tanjong Pagar Road for its spicy fried Korean chicken. It is crispy outside and juicy inside, and is served piping hot. I also used to go for laksa at The Line restaurant in Shangri-La Hotel, which used to open quite late.
If you could choose anyone to have a meal with, who would that be?
Radio DJ-actress Denise Tan. She is my foodie companion as she loves food as much as I do and is also adventurous in trying new food. We usually meet for meals at least once a week.
This article was first published on November 20, 2016.
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Cold Stone Creamery – 1 for 1 Love It Signature Creation ice cream at Far East Square till 25 Dec
Cold Stone Creamery offers 1 for 1 Love It Signature Creation icecream @ Far East Square till 25 Dec
Celebrate the season of giving with Cold Stone Creamery’s 1 for 1 Love It Signature Creation. Buy one and get another free!
She was playing golf with her husband when his tee shot sliced badly, causing the ball to hit her left cheek just under the eye.
Describing the horrific accident that happened 18 years ago, Madam Aileen Ong, 63, told The New Paper that her nose was also fractured.
“It took 4½ hours of plastic surgery to repair the cheek bones with titanium implants, followed by two procedures for the nose a few days later,” she said.
The accident completely changed her life. It prompted the music teacher to give up her career of 30 years to concentrate on charity work.
Born into a privileged family in Malacca, Madam Ong, who became a Singapore citizen in 1980, told TNP that she was taught to give back to society from young.
“Before the accident, I was occasionally helping the less privileged through my church. But the accident made me rethink my purpose in life,” she said.
“The surgeon said I was very lucky. If the ball had hit me just two inches away from where it did, it would have resulted in me having brain damage, or I could have died.
“Since then, I felt like my life was spared for a reason, and it was a wake-up call for me to live my life purposefully.”
In 2007, while on a trip to the Philippines to feed malnourished children, Madam Ong found her calling – to improve the lives of the poor and eradicate poverty.
There, she volunteered her time – about 10 days every month – with a group known as Gawad Kalinga, a Philippine movement that helped the poor.
After five years of helping out in the Philippines, Madam Ong decided to move on to Cambodia.
In 2009, she set up GK Hope, an international charity organisation that aims to eradicate poverty.
It was later renamed to Solutions To End Poverty (Step) in 2012.
Step teamed up with Pour un Sourire d’Enfant (PSE), a non-governmental organisation that provides free education to poor children, to start an initiative known as Smile Village (SV).
LIFE SKILLS
SV provides homes for poor families and teaches them life skills so they can eventually make a living for themselves. (See report on left.)
Madam Ong said: “The first time I was invited to Cambodia was in July 2011, and I visited nine non-governmental organisations with a friend. PSE was not on our list at all.
“It was only on the day we were supposed to head back to Singapore that a mutual friend came by and got us to have breakfast at the cafe in PSE.”
PSE project director Ouk Sovan said: “We started discussing ideas and realised we had a common interest – to improve the livelihood of underprivileged families by providing proper homes for them.”
Madam Ong had to spend the first two years building up trust with the Cambodians, and it took four years for the SV concept to come to fruition.
One of Madam Ong’s four children, Ms Elizabeth Lee, 36, told TNP that their family is supportive of their mother, and that she also goes to Cambodia to help her mother out.
The health coach said: “Being a contributor is in my mother’s blood, and I can’t remember a time she wasn’t involved in a project.”
As there is not a stable stream of volunteers, Madam Ong is looking for long-term volunteers and funding.
“We hope to find people who can provide training for residents in SV to acquire entrepreneurial skills and technical consistency for product quality,” she said.
“Expertise support is also needed for design, as well as local and overseas marketing.
This article was first published on November 21, 2016.
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Job seekers who want to work near their home or in a particular neighbourhood can turn to a new locally developed app for help.
Using the Global Positioning System (GPS) technology common in cars, the JobsRibbon smartphone app will show where the vacancies are in the preferred neighbourhood.
It was created with an eye on helping professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) as well as hiring companies to find what is right swiftly and efficiently, said Mr Nicholas Goh, chief executive of local start-up Verztec Media, which developed the app.
“Job seekers can also receive real-time notifications of new job opportunities on their mobile phones,” Mr Goh added.
A five-man team took 11 months to develop what he called Singapore’s first location- based job advertisement app.
The app is free. Likewise, simple listings by companies.
The Straits Times found 17 vacancies, mainly for PMETs such as product engineer and customer service officer, in the Central Business District area listed in the app in the past week.
Mr Goh expects the job listings to grow as word about the free app spreads.
Local business group Workforce Advancement Federation (WAF), a non-profit organisation, is partnering the start-up to promote the app among its members. Its chairman Chan Chong Beng sees “small and medium-sized enterprises using it to hire staff”.
Toh Yong Chuan
This article was first published on Nov 21, 2016.
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Earlier this year, Ms Sonia Soh noticed that her employer was becoming tardy in paying her wages and Central Provident Fund contributions.
The 31-year-old, who was then a business development planner, saw the writing on the wall.
She went hunting for a new job.
Her first stop was the job placement centre in Hougang Central run by the North East Community Development Council (CDC).
“It was near where I live,” said the Hougang resident.
The centre found her a job within a month as a trainee manager at a local restaurant chain.
Job seekers like Ms Soh will soon have more neighbourhood job centres to turn to for help, with the opening of two more centres in Housing Board estates.
One is in Punggol and the other, in Toa Payoh.
GREATER CONVENIENCE
With multiple centres, Singaporeans will enjoy greater access and convenience.
NTUC ASSISTANT SECRETARY- GENERAL PATRICK TAY, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Manpower.
The Punggol centre, to be set up by North East CDC in January, caters to professionals, managers and executives (PMEs). The addition will expand the CDC’s job placement network to seven centres.
At Toa Payoh, the new centre is the first branch to be set up by the Jurong-based Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), the training and job placement arm of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).
It opened its doors last month.
Meanwhile, local business federation Workforce Advancement Federation (WAF) and home- grown start-up Verztec Media have teamed up to launch a free location-based smartphone app for job seekers to find jobs near where they live .
These various efforts come amid a slowing economy that has driven up the number of retrenched workers this year. A total of 11,890 were retrenched in the first nine months of this year and another 1,720 contract workers were asked to go early.
The corresponding figures for the whole of last year were 13,450 and 2,140.
Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say had said earlier this month that the number of retrenched workers this year “will be higher than the whole of last year”.
Many of those retrenched tend to be PMEs and North East District Mayor Teo Ser Luck, who is also Minister of State for Manpower, said more of them, especially the mature ones, are taking longer to land a job.
The new centre at the basement of Punggol 21 Community Club will cost about $250,000 to build and operate, said the CDC’s deputy general manager Samuel Tok.
It will give information on job vacancies and training courses, and offer job-matching services.
“Hopefully, these services will give job seekers a higher chance of getting employed,” said Mr Teo.
Mr Tok added that since the start of the year, more jobless PMEs have been turning up at his CDC to seek help but Workforce Singapore, a statutory board which oversees jobs and training, declined to disclose how many the CDC has helped.
At the Toa Payoh centre, which is about the size of seven five-room HDB flats, more than 30 workers provide such services as counselling and training needs assessment.
NTUC assistant secretary-general Patrick Tay, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Manpower, lauded the growing network of neighbourhood job centres.
“With multiple centres, Singaporeans will enjoy greater access and convenience,” he said.
Ms Soh added that a job centre’s success depends as well on its career counsellors being able to give one-to-one attention to job seekers.
“Also important is the range and quality of jobs available, so that people can have more choices,” she said.
This article was first published on Nov 21, 2016.
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Stomp contributor Masrom alerted the citizen journalism website about a death tent spotted near 39A Bendemeer Road this morning (Nov 21).
Photos taken by Masrom show a death tent with police officers cordoning off the surrounding area from the public.
According to The Straits Times, the body of a 60-year-old woman was found and retrieved from the Kallang River.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
A Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) spokesman said it was alerted to the incident at 7.11am, and dispatched a fire engine and an ambulance to the scene.
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Earlier this year, the Ministry of Education announced changes to the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) scoring system and how it will be used for posting to secondary schools.
But the new system will take effect only in 2021. Until then, the old scoring system applies. Pupils go to the secondary school of their choice based on their aggregate score in the PSLE.
•First, pupils are ranked according to detailed aggregate scores that extend to decimal points. The No. 1 pupil is posted to the school at the top of his list of six choices. Likewise the second pupil and so on, until there are no more vacancies in the school. The pupil who fails to get his top choice will be posted to the next school on his list. If that school is also full, he will be sent to his third-choice school, and so on.
•Where there are two or more pupils with the same rounded aggregate score vying for the last place in a school, they will be posted based on their citizenship. Singaporeans get in first, followed by permanent residents and international pupils. If there is still a tie, between two Singaporeans for example, the one with the higher unrounded aggregate score will be posted to the school first. If the two have the same unrounded aggregate score, then posting will be determined by a computerised ballot.
•Pupils who fail to get a place in any of their choices of schools will be posted to one near their home that still has vacancies. But they must have met the school’s lowest PSLE aggregate. Those still without a school will be posted to one in other postal districts that still has vacancies.
•If your child’s school has an affiliated secondary school and he wants to go there, he must indicate it as his first choice. This gives him priority. But it does not guarantee admission; it is subject to the availability of places.
The secondary school posting results will be released on Dec 21.
Sandra Davie
This article was first published on Nov 21, 2016.
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