There's now construction blocking the secret stairs to
Keong Saik Road from opposite Outram Park. We made a
short detour to the right before we came to the famed
Kok Sen Coffee House, infoworks' inspired contribution to
the Do. They set up two tables for us, shortly expanded to
three and then back down to two-with-extensions. infoworks
with his knowledge of the place and karenkay with her
expert Mandarin ordered, as before. I believe all tables
got the same dishes except for the omelet, a concession to
a member who lives with numerous kinds of food allergy
including to peanuts and soy (how can one survive in
Singapore with these?).

Beef with ginger and hot pepper - a good standard that one
can get anywhere, but a fine child's introduction to Asian
fare, and the ginger itself was of a higher order than
anything we can get in the States;

sweet-sour fish - this was so fried that I had a hard time
even guessing the species, but I have my suspicion that I
did get my gourami goreng after all - a nice crunchy dorsal
fin gives me an indication; the flesh was tender and sweet,
the outside crisp. I had but a morsel of meat and ate a lot
of the fins and (crisp) bony parts. Some people are really
grossed out by what I eat, but too tough for them!;

Cantonese fried chicken - excellent, but not so heavily
marinated as last time, so more appealing to most but less
so to me;

baby bok choy - fresh and yummers;

ong choy in XO sauce - with the inspired addition of diced
crisp-fried pork crackling;

tofu, peppers, and eggplant stuffed with fish paste - good
soothing Teochow I think fare;

and a very good shrimp omelet.

Many Tigers accompanied.

Gave my regrets to the assembled company ready to tour
Chinatown in all its pre-New Year glory and went walking
with Lori_Q; it must have looked like I was steppin' out
with her, but I want to assure Doug that we were merely
solving the problems of the world, most of which fell at
the Moon Bar, a slightly creepy though upscale place not
far from where we had eaten. When asked the price of a shot
of Chivas, the cute bartender said "sirteee"; we debated on
whether this meant $13 or 30 and came to the conclusion that
we could afford a round in either case. Turned out to be the
former, a regular bargain by Singapore booze standards, even
though this works out to US$230 a bottle.

Got a bus from Outram Park back to the hotel. Had a short
snooze before having to rouse myself.

Five o'clock came way too soon. Groped my way down, paid
the bill, and was shortly taxiing to the airport. A bit of
sticker shock - paid just over S$30 - the last couple times
I'd been here I'd either stayed in the north part of the
city or traveled at non-surcharge times; there's also been
a rate increase.

At the UA door at T3, kluau88 and ws8n were just hanging out
greeting the FT contingent as we came in. Chatted a bit with
them and went on to check in, which took a minute or two, as
did passport control.

I passed up the *G lounge for the Silver Kris, where I
figured the UA804 minicabin crew would be hanging out, and I
was right. The staff was particularly welcoming, I thought,
this visit. I guess SQ too needs every dollar it can get.

E-fu noodles, green bean buns, and pork buns made a nice
breakfast washed down with the rather harsh but tasty
Otard XO. I sent bseller in its direction, but somehow he
failed to locate it. "Pay no attention to that bar behind
the curtain."

chchkiwi went off shopping by herself. At some point someone
decided that it would be better to wait breathlessly at the
gate for mashg's pending upgrade, so we got there somewhat
before boarding, with mashg and her dad alternately bugging
the gate staff. The upgrade finally came through, but she
was unsuccessful in getting into the minicabin, so WWBGD
gave up his spot to sit with her in row 15. So we ended up
having only 4/10 in the minicabin, down from 7/10 in '07,
but beating '08, when I was the only FTer on the flight.