Went to look for friends (particularly boxo, who had wanted
an early breakfast). Started off at the business class area
on 4, but they hadn't seen her. They suggested I try Oscar's
downstairs, which I did. There were other FTers there, but
no boxo. I expressed interest that the likes of opushomes,
a Diamond, had chosen to dine with the polloi, but he
gleefully told me that it was an open secret that the coach
meal was the best of the lot, having a better selection than
the business one and both better selection and less crush
than the first-class one.

I found a table with chchkiwi and SEA777GUY (I think), and we
had a substantial and fairly yummy meal, the notable features
for me being a dragon fruit (nobody else wanted any, so I ate
the whole thing myself) and VSOP Cognac ice cream (available
with or without Belgian waffle). The rest of the spread was
a good one, with Chinese (shumai, congee, fried rice) and
American (smoked salmon, bacon, eggs, sausage, an omelette
station) staples, a wide variety of fruit, and abundant
and nice-looking breads and sweet pastries. Bade various
folks good day (I had no interest in a walking tour, in the
heat, given everything) and went off again to try to find
boxo; it turns out that she had apparently overslept and
had gone downstairs about the time I was returning up; after
a certain amount of elevator tag, she was found in time to
take the biz breakfast; I joined her but ate only a couple
pieces of grapefruit. The kindly staff (who said that the
Oscar's breakfast was the same, and if we wanted to prove
this to ourselves, nothing was preventing us from taking
meals both places) didn't close up until past 11, at which
time we began our day's outing. She was hotel-hopping, so
we cabbed to the IC and got her situated in her quite nice
room (accompanied by a most obsequious concierge named
Danny I think); then I proposed to go to Boat Quay for the
beer part of the do. boxo was tired but game, saying that it
didn't make sense to sleep all afternoon, with Singapore
beckoning. We took a quick tour of the Raffles Hotel, then
walked down to City Hall, where we bussed across the river.
I hadn't counted on the stairs down to the quay, but she
negotiated these heroically. There was nobody at the Thai
place where we usually get our S18 pitchers, and we were
sitting moping among the Botero sculptures and beginning
to regret our wild goose chase, when alex0683de and
bschaff1 came around the corner with the news that
there was a place down the way with S15 Tiger pitchers.
We tried to get the Thai place to match, but the hostess
smilingly declined our offer, so off to the seafood place
up the quay and its ... well. We ordered a Tiger pitcher,
and what came was 3 mugs of something that wasn't very
good. Alex thought that it was Anchor, which was on offer
at S8 the pitcher. boxo's coffee and ice came as coffee
with a side of water; sooner or later her order was
rectified, but ours wasn't. Presently bseller came by, and
we ordered another Tiger pitcher, which was at least
different from our previous beer. The situation wasn't
conducive to continued drinking, so we returned to the
executive lounge at the Conrad (where our Diamonds and
Golds had taken over a conference room as our private
club, complete with secret handshake) until Jumbo time.

We met at Jumbo Riverside (a jumboer Jumbo than last
year's) at 8. Five tables had been reserved, of which one
went unused by us, but the restaurant had no trouble
turning it, which made us feel somewhat less guilty.

The no-fish table was segregated from us by the empty
one, which is as it should be.

I was at the middle table, which enjoyed a shellfish-heavy
menu, thanks in large part to my suggestions, which were
pretty normal but a little on the extravagant side.

Chili crab is less sweet and more tomatoey than at other
places, so it's more to my taste than at either Jumbo
East Coast or either of the No Signboards we've used; still
I prefer the adult pungency of black pepper crab, whose
blackish sauce contrasts rather than competes with the
natural sweetness of the excellent Sri Lankan crabs.

Two kinds of prawns, because some preferred shell and head
on, and some off. Salt-pepper prawns I thought substantially
yummy (we got these with); cereal prawns were different from
usual, as we'd gotten them shelled, but still pretty good.
Garlic roast chicken was as advertised, a little salty for
me, but nicely garlicked and pretty tender. Sauteed kangkong
with hot pepper and fish sauce was very savory as our
obligatory veggie. I'd ordered broad noodles with seafood
as filler for the end, but it came early in the meal. I
saved mine for later: it was fine as filler goes, but the
amount of shellfish was disappointing.

With abundant beers, we spent about S50 each; I think
we were the second most expensive table.

Need I add that we returned yet again to our haven for an
afters that lasted pretty late. Thank goodness for the
excellent and long-forbearing staff, Deakin Estate Caberet,
lili's getting the staff to offer up substantial amounts
of it, and Baxter&Bessies'Mama's discovery of the mother
lode of same. I don't recall staggering back to my lovely
room, but I must have done so.