So it doesn't happen very often but one of the highlights for this weekend breather turned out to be a plate of kuay teow goreng from the corner coffee shop adjacent to Serangoon Road and Kitchener Road.
It was something I deliberately wanted to have, and I'm glad to say that it was definitely the dollar, the carbs, and the oil.
Perhaps it was redder, and spicier than I'd thought it would be, but oy, I liked it, and I hope to have it again when I'm back in the area after.
Kuay teow goreng wasn't the only dish that we ordered from this shop.
There was a kebab, which although tasty with a nice mint sauce, had a texture too hard to appreciate, and we found ourselves enjoying the soup kambing way much more.
I can't remember just on which floor it was that we stayed this time, but I know we looked out towards the east (where the Lavender Street area is), towards the South (all the way down Kitchener Road heading to the sea), and towards the Downtown Core.
From where I stood I got to see lots of high rises, mid-rises, condominiums, hotel buildings, shop houses, office skyscrapers, South Beach and the CBD.
It was a charming sight.
The scenery wasn't unadulterated though- structural pillars and frames granted a little addition to the otherwise expansive view.
But I didn't mind.
The view you get from their windows is one of the joys staying here at One Farrer Hotel.
And it''s remarkably restful.
Looking now at these pictures now, it strikes me just how compact and contained this country really is.
Had we been on a higher floor we would have been able to not only see the blocks of flats on the Kitchener-Maude Road side, we would also have been able to see the entire coast stretching out towards the horizon of eas, whilst on the other side we'd see as far as the Marina Bay Financial Center and slightly further beyond.
If the view alone is not enough of a surprise, sometimes we bring along our own too.
This time one of us decided to bring along a big flask for a ready supply of hot water and tea.
We also decided to bring along bottles of mineral water that, coincidentally, had been purchased (at a very affordable price) from Mustafa just opposite the road.
We had the Little Black Grill, of course.
Except that I can't remember what it was we made.
It might have been rice with egg done fried rice style, which if you ask me, when fried with olive oil, is pleasantly light and clean.
There might have been a couple of shabu-shabu style meats that we bought from DDD in City Square Mall.
But we definitely bought a box of pre-cooked gyozas from the same supermarket and had them heated up in the grill.
It made for a lovely, light dinner- something which I greatly appreciated.
Best part, we had snacks, and for supper I was gifted a box of McDonalds Mcrispy, because I missed it, and there's a McDonalds right opposite.
