7NNT: Day 33 – Singapore

Soundtrack:

First full day in Singapore, and first priority is sorting laundry so I have enough clean clothes to get me through. I failed to find a laundry service nearby (a mall might have one but I walked around it and couldn’t find the place, I did find a second hand bookshop to check later). Instead I headed for a coin operated DIY facility, it’s sad that it’s come to this, no option to just hand my bag and some money to someone else, this load was all on me. Being Singapore, the coin laundry was clean, everything worked, there was a coin change machine, and the washing machines dispensed soap automatically. I dumped my clothes into the machine, hopefully selected the correct cycle, fed in the coins, and headed to a nearby mini hawker centre to get breakfast. Went with some char sui pork and noodles, basically all the ingredients of a bacon sandwich just done differently, and it hit the spot. I took a quick wander around the building, in addition to the food, there was a convenience store, several shops for beauty services, two bicycle repair shops, a shoe cleaner, a zumba studio, and several places offering tuition for high school subjects. Ah Singapore. I’d packed a book (The Path of Thorns, A.G. Slatter) and happily read while the washing happened, then when it was all in the dryer.

Noodle 12: Ma Bo Lor Mee (Ma Bo, Albert Centre)

Washing done, it was time for more food and shoe shopping, which I could fortunately combine into a stop at the Albert Centre on the way to Bugis Junction. I found a stall with a decent queue (enough people to guarantee the food is good, as well as moving fast enough so it wasn’t just folks standing around waiting). Lor Mee is served with a very thick, starchy sauce that is full of flavour, that sticks to the noodles, making every mouthful a treat. Add some breaded chicken and condiments of chilli, garlic, and fried onion, and there’s a lot of deliciousness going on here. I followed up with some sugarcane juice for a wonderful lunch.

Got a new paid of shoes, they have some good cushioning support which is what my poor old knees need. Dropped these back at the hotel then headed out to the Kapong area as there’s a shop there that has two of the D&D tomes on L’s hit list. Noticed the bus went past the National Stadium, so filed this useful knowledge away for Monday night’s show.

Katong has a bunch of older, early colonial houses that look stunning, as well as some shiny malls. Tucked away between these was a Friday flea market, offering lots of weird and wonderful items but sadly nothing that really had to come home with me. I found the gaming shop just after 3pm, noting their listed opening time was 2pm, but after climbing the stairs the place was locked. Went to the coffee shop next door, grabbed an iced coffee (Singapore is quite warm right now, even the locals are saying this) and messaged the shop. They got back to me that they’d be open for retail after 5pm. I didn’t really want to go away and come back, so decided to do some local wandering along Joo Chiat Road. It’s full of wonderful old buildings, all looking in good condition but that might just be the paintwork. A surprising number of pet shops along this street, possibly also some doggy day care facilities.

Having wasted all the time I could, and before I totally melted, I headed back to the gaming shop. Like several others, the focus appears to be on providing a space for people to game and paint miniatures, with a sideline in selling things from the shelves, but unlike others, this place was a bit more of a maze, with an additional series of small rooms of another corridor that I first thought was staff only. They also have a bunch of 3D printers which I’m going to assume they use for all manner of figurine creation. While I could get into the shop, the only people inside were all gamers, and I had to wait until the owner/manager/retail person arrived, at closer to 5.30pm. By then I’d found the books, and he was more than happy to take my money.

After dropping my shopping at the hotel and blogging, I headed out to The Emerald Room by The Swan Song, I think that’s the title anyway, it’s the Swan Song bar in a different location. (First I grabbed a quick dinner of pork rib broken rice at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant, and while it was ok, wasn’t fabulous and worth describing.) I’ve been to the Swan Song at least 3 times previously, and this is the third location of those. This time there’s a mix of indoor and outdoor seating, a slightly shorter bar, and still some comfy chairs, so I settled in. The main person responsible, Mr A, was in attendance, and was charming as always. They’d mentioned opening a couple of new bottles of Clynelish on facebook this week, so I started with the younger of these (Finest Whisky Berlin, 9 year old, 52.5%, hogshead) and it was wonderful, a hint of toffee and pepper on the nose, a wonderful creamy texture full of spicy malt flavours. Young whisky tends to be less well regarded, but I’ve had some wonderful drams that had less than 10 years in the cask, including this one. Next I challenged Mr A to recommend a decent bourbon cask whisky, and he responded with a Fettercairn (Hart Brothers, 13 year old, 56.8% abv), which based on previous events I took without hesitation (I’ve had some less than stellar Fettercairns, and they certainly have an inconsistent reputation, but I’m also not the greatest fan of Mortlach, however last visit Mr A handed me one that was simply stunning). This Fettercairn wasn’t as amazing as the Mortlach, however was among the better Fettercairns I’ve had, a nose full of fruit including fresh green apples, and a smooth full mouthfeel with a hint of cocoa on the finish. Delightful. For my third and supposedly final dram I asked for something finished in a rum barrel, and Mr A responded with a Ledaig (Malt Grain & Cane, 16 year old, 58.7% abv) a wonderfully balanced peaty dram, with wonderful sweet and spicy notes, a long finish almost herbal in complexity (in a good way, not in the way of those medicinal herbal liqueurs you find in Germany). You’ll note that I prefaced this as being the “supposedly final” dram, as Mr A also has a track record of being unnecessarily generous, and in this case he then put a mystery dram in front of me, no charge, and asked me what I thought and if I could guess what it was. The only clue he gave me was that it was an official distillery bottling. It was a definite mystery, as this whisky was full and lush, an amazing mouthfeel, and made me think of Islay but lacking the peat. There was a suggestion of mint at the end, possibly citrus, but I could think of no distillery that this was more than about a 50% match to. I guessed at Loch Lomond, as something about it seemed to line up with some of their whiskies, as they can vary a bit. I wasn’t correct, but I should have stuck with first impressions, as it turned out to be a Bowmore from the early 1980s (I should have realised it wasn’t a current distillery bottling, as Swan Song don’t tend to have a lot of these), but once I knew what I was dealing with so much made sense, as it had some definite Bowmore characteristics, but with an older mouthfeel as most distillery released whisky I’ve had in the last 15 or so years hasn’t had the same thick texture of whisky released in the early 2000s and before. Mr A being a gracious host, it ended up with myself and three other patrons having a chat in the bar long after closing, with Mr A periodically passing or pointing out a bottle to the awesome S behind the bar with the simple instruction of “pour 4 of this”, which he then handed to us, while we discussed history, language, cultures, and music, the latter being a definite passion of Mr A, who loves blues, old style country, big bands, among other genres (there’s a stack of records in the corner, with a blues compilation facing, and I’ve promised to troll him next time by slipping some 80s neon pop record in front).

A fine night was had, yet again, consuming somewhat more whisky than I actually paid for (though I did manage to leave a decent tip, only by convincing Mr A that if he wouldn’t accept it, pass it to his bar staff for keeping things going past closing). Many many thanks again Mr A. Then it was a bit of a stroll back to the hotel, as from previous experience and current advice, trying to get a car at that time almost always took a while.

Tomorrow it’s more food, some shopping, and then catching up with the wonderful N and family for dinner, with maybe a drag show after.