Saturday 6 September 2008

Gourmet Fair

It's another Saturday afternoon in Singapore and as is our want, we spent the middle part of day in town and then returned home to take time out to read the Straits Times.

Today's visit took us back to Suntec, this time to take in the Gourmet Food Fair (pictured below). If truth be known there has been a promotion in the above mentioned newspaper which encourages people to visit the fair and leave their coupon, in the valiant hope of winning $6,888.


I am not sure of the odds of winning but they must be very long indeed. It was noticeable though that the foot traffic in the malls is definitely less than the same time last year. No doubt this is a result of financial downturn affecting all major economies, including Singapore's.

There were nibbles galore to sample as we did the round of the stalls from herbal jellies to various version of the classic Bak Kwa.

Following this we went down a couple of levels and visited the large Carrefour supermarket. Here too were a range of delights to try, as a variety of sales people did their best to get us to buy their products.

If one is clever enough is possible to sample the equivalent of a three course dinner without paying so much as a penny! Judging from one old Auntie I spotted making here second circuit around the display booths I suspect other have already worked this out long before I.

From the upper deck of the 111 bus on our return journey one could see the development of the Marina Bay areas and dominating the scene, the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort (casino). It is meant to open next year but there still seems a lot of work to complete it?

Good news... the $New Zealand dollar has fallen below the $Singapore for the first time in about two years. This means that we can send funds back to put on deposit as the interest rates in NZ remain close to 9% whereas in Singapore one is lucky to get over 1%.

This week promises to be an eventful and exciting one and I hope to expand upon this observation when next I write.

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