k r i s a n d r o

I have been a Citibank customer since 2004 and in fact, my first credit card is from the bank!

Citibank recently updated their mobile banking application on the iPhone and made quite a few significant updates. Being an obsessive iPhone user, I always look for apps that are fun, cool or useful. I have always primarily used Citi Mobile banking app to login to my accounts and check for balances and transaction details on my cards and this new update caught my attention on quite a number of interesting features!

Location based searches

It is always useful to search for things you need based on your current location using the GPS and the Citi Mobile app is able to search for nearby ATMs, Gourmet Pleasures dining deals, shopping privileges and Citi Rebate outlets in your vicinity. The app is also able to base your search from nearby MRT stations in the event that you are planning in advance to shop or eat at a place with a good Citi deal, or in areas with bad GPS connection.

If there are too little or too many results from your search, you can always adjust the distance of your search in 1km increments to a maximum of 5km in the settings.

Mobile Treats

This is probably something that is interesting to folks who loves discount coupons/vouchers. The Citi Mobile app is able to download e-coupons and e-vouchers for great deals right from the app!

For now, there are only 2 Mobile Treats available for use but I’m sure they will be adding more to the list as time passes.

I hope to see more from the location based searches in the future releases for the Citi Mobile app. More listings and the ability to show all the search results on a map will be nice. I find it easier to choose where I want to go visually.

I have inside news from the Citi folks that they already have immediate plans for the app and are also looking for feedback to improve on it. So do tell them what you will like to see!

[Disclaimer] Citibank is a client of my company. The purpose of this post is to share on the features that I like and the views expressed are of my own.

Training has been great from the start of the year ever since I threw my shoes away for Vibram Five Fingers although I was probably overly enthusiastic with the momentum that I faced injury at the end of April. After 4 months of inactivity, I finally started training again at the start of September and the result is even more rewarding when looking at my data and my form.

“What doesn’t kills you, makes you stronger” – Friedrich Neitzche

Of course I don’t train to kill myself  but I definitely can see myself getting stronger after each setback.

Of course I can’t say that I ran as much as the Jan-Apr period since this is only the 2nd month into my current cycle of training but the difference is that I am running further per run on average and taking my slow runs even slower – to the point of finally calling it a jog. I am also running harder for my fast runs and tweaking it here and there to better suit it for long distance training.

I used to think that in order to run fast, one has to train fast but after reading about Japanese marathoners, they really emphasize on clocking mileage and they are extremely fast in the marathon – If I dare say, the fastest group of marathoners one can find in Asia. Some of the Japanese run as much as over 1,200-1,300km per month. That is 300-325km per week and 42.9-46.3km per day even if you ran everyday. A f**king marathon everyday! Crazy much? Haha!

Interestingly, most of their mileage is done at a “slow” 5min/km. Seeing that they race 42.195km at 3min/km, 5min/km is definitely slow for them.

As an Asian, I shall look up to their training (instead of the Americans) and hope that one day, my “slow”  jogs will be as fast as their “slow” ones.

Last year, I finish the Singapore Bay Run/Army Half Marathon in 2hrs 43mins 32secs. I shall aim high and say it here…

I’ll finish the half marathon at Standard Chartered Marathon in under 2hrs on 5th Dec 2010!

As I approach the dreaded big 30, the topic of marriage always lurk around corners. There will be friends of similar age who are getting hitched and are waiting for their HDB to be ready within the next few years. There are those who are already married with a kid or even two. And then there is the girlfriend like mine who is just waiting for me to pop the question.

Credits to hammer51012

The thing about marriage is…… I don’t believe in it if it’s about love.

I always have big notions about love and relationships and it might seem contradicting to my view above but I think marriage is one of the worst things that can be done for most people in love. It makes leaving each other harder if the love is gone.

“The root cause of divorce is …… marriage” - heard over the radio

In many ways, doesn’t it ring true? A marriage is a contract. If two are in love, why is there a need for a contract to bind them together? If one cheated on the other and decided to stay together because of a contract, is it love? If you know of an old couple who has been married for the last 50 years, would you think that they truly love each other? If you know of an old couple who stayed together for the last 50 years without marriage, wouldn’t you think that the latter couple is DEFINITELY much more in love than the former?

If you love someone, you just do; you don’t need to be legally bound to remind you that you should love him/her do you? Marriage is an administrative procedure that allows a couple to do many things legally but does nothing really good for the relationship in the love department. Some might say the marriage protects the woman. When the relationship turns south, the woman is helped legally in many ways. I say, unless the woman is a money grubbing one, she loses more than she gains from a divorce.

Divorce and the social ramifications that stem from it makes it troublesome and difficult to go through.

My point is that marriage is not the ultimate nor the final thing one can do for love. Marriage and love are mutually exclusive. Love can exist without marriage and marriage can be kept without love.

If you want to know if a person is available, don’t ask if he/she is married. Ask if he/she is in love.

I love KuKuNehNeh, and thus I shall comfort her, honour and keep her in sickness and in health and forsaking all others, be faithful to her, so long as I shall live. Sounds familiar? It’s an adaptation of a version of wedding vows that one will take in Singapore and it’s ALREADY true for me. Note that I love her and thus I am/will do all that follows (comfort, honour, faithful….). If I am already doing all that without marriage, why do I have to marry her, take vows of love, promise of eternal faithfulness and care when it can all end with divorce.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll marry my dear KuKuNehNeh in the not so distant future. In fact, I’ve been constantly thinking of ways to propose to her for the last year and more. I know she’ll say ‘yes’ of course but my motive is to make her cry buckets with the proposal. So why do I want to marry her when I don’t believe in marriage?

I’ll marry her not because I love her. I’ll marry her because of all the advantages that society only gives to those who are legally bound by marriage; kids, housing and all. Sounds shallow doesn’t it? But if you really think into what I said, KuKuNehNeh is a very lucky woman because I love her and already treat her as well as a husband should.

Now, to save up for the money sucking activities that society demands for a piece of paper.

Tucked away behind the busy Orchard Road is the lesser known sister of the Pan Pacific Hotel chains, the Pan Pacific Orchard. Now that I have tasted the great food at the signature restaurant, 10 at Claymore, I think the lesser known sister should have a chance to revel in the limelight.

After a little poking around the internet, it seems like 10 at Claymore has been quite popular for it’s buffet spread and so I was quite curious when I was invited down by Citibank and the 10 at Claymore folks to try out food from the à la carte menu. I was also joined by 7 other bloggers: Chester, Veron, Keropokman, James, Walter, Jeneen and Claudia.

Seeing that the restaurant expected us down, I won’t talk about the excellent service that the staff showed as there but without any biased opinions, the food served to us was great! Pardon me for not packing vocabulary like a food connoisseur does but you have to believe me when I say the food is great, considering that I hardly get excited over food much.

I forgot whose idea it was to share food around like Thanksgiving instead of ordering mains for each of ourselves but I think everyone enjoyed eating chunks and morsels of food from the variety that 10 at Claymore served us that night.

If you every make your way down, do try the Thai Beef Salad from the appetiser section and for mains, do try the delicious Oven-Roasted Bonito Cod.

Oven-Roasted Bonito Cod with Honshimeji Mushrooms, Pea Sprouts and a Garlic Shoyu Sauce ($29)

Now, if you have a fat wallet and/or has a thing for beef, I implore you to spend it on the Blackmore Wagyu Beef Tenderloin. It is 200g of Wagyu Beef goodness that stirs my gastric juices as I am typing out this blog post. Even Veron who isn’t much of a beef person, enjoyed the tenderloin of Marbling score 9+.

“What MARBLING SCORE?!?” you might ask? Well, I was clueless also and apparently, a benchmark marbling/marble score of 1 to 9+ is given to Wagyu beef which grades it on the amount of intramuscular fat that gives the famous Wagyu it’s famous juicy texture. Need I mention that the best grade is on the high side?

Blackmore Wagyu Beef Tenderloin (200g) 600 Days Grain Fed – Marbling Score 9+ ($100)

Yes. It costs $100 and I swear that I didn’t knew of the price until someone pointed it out to me on the menu. Truthfully, it’s not something that I would order if I had to pay because of the hefty price tag but it’s worth every cent! The meat was juicy and the generous portion is good enough for most folks. I had it medium-rare so as to fully savour the goodness of the meat but I think it’s also extremely delicious served medium. Anything more cooked than that and I’ll go over and kill you myself…. and eat the remainder of the Wagyu beef you ordered….

10 at Claymore has a few promotions if you are a Citibank card holder:

• Valid 1st Aug 2010 – 30th Sep 2010
  Get 1 complimentary THE CLAYMORE (which is a steak) with any order from the grill menu.
  Get a 2nd grilled item from the grill menu for $10 only, with any order from the grill menu.
• Valid till 31st Dec 2010
  • 15% off total bill

Pan Pacific Orchard
10 Claymore Road
Singapore 229540

[Disclaimer: Citibank is a client of my company and the food was kindly sponsored by the restaurant. My opinions of the food are of my own and are not influenced in any way or by anybody.]