+ Meals | Pizza Night

OK... I did not feel like having something heavy for dinner tonight.

Since my son likes pizza, I was game for it too. Wify thinks it is just too expensive a dinner to have, but I guess it would not hurt our pockets if we indulge in it once in a while.

Now, we have 3 pizza company to choose from... Pizza Hut, Tuscani Pizza, Canadian Pizza and now, a new Japanese pizza outlet called Oishi Pizza. Loosely translated is should say Delicious Pizza.

It just had its Halal Certificate, so it caters to Muslims as well now. Great!

Interesting menu and lots of Japanese words as toppings. Should be an interesting meal. So I ordered it for the first time. Just like Canadian Pizza, it is a "buy one, get one free" offer.

Called the hotline, but had to leave my name and contact number instead. The line was just too busy. They called me back in less than a minute to take my order.

Spicy is the main interest here, so I ordered Wasabi Seafood and XXX which will take between 45 minutes to 1 hour to arrive.

It took them 1.5 hours instead. They are that popular I hope. We we starving!

The taste was interestingly different. Asian taste with a blend of western origin.

How do I rate it with 10 being the best?... I would give it

• a 4 for delivery,
• a 7 for looking delicious... then again we were starving,
• a 6 for generous toppings,
• a 6 for overall taste.

It was an overall "rated-6" experience for both my son and I. And later tonight, another 6 from Wify.

We have tasted all the Halal pizza delivery in Singapore, including this latest entry. We have made our choice for the best pizza award to... Canadian Pizza!


The order of preference is as follows, 1 being the best:

1. Canadian Pizza
2. Oishi Pizza
3. Tusconi Pizza
4. Pizza Hut

Canadian has the most fluffiest and softest bread, with the most, generous toppings of all. The taste is great! Our most favourite pizza is Singapore Special, followed by Hawaiian Pizza.

Will by default choose these two with a "buy one, get one free" order. It is definitely worth the money.

Pizza Hut has been a total disappointment for us on several occasions - both with home delivery and dine-in at the restaurant.

The service is good, but the pizza is bad!

The bread is thin and the topping so sparse, you would think they forgot to put in. The price is definitely not worth the effort... why even wait for it?

So I guess, Canadian Pizza will still be our family favourite. We can vouch for it.


Wait... I just saw New York Pizza turned Halal a few days ago at Century Square Mall. Wonder they do home delivery...

Will try it sometime and it will go through the Imran's Family Favourite Pizza Rating Routine or short for Imran's F2PR2... say it out loud and it sounded like a Star Wars character.

+ Charity | Club Rainbow

I received two phone calls from my son while at work today. Both in the afternoon, about 3 hours apart. These were his accounts...


1st Call: 2:40pm

He was playing with his kick-scooter outside at the multi-purpose hall when he saw the 2nd floor of the multi-storey car park next to it was beginning to be filled with smoke.

He went up to "investigate" and saw the plastic trash can was churning out smoke.

Most probably from a smoker who threw a lighted cigarette into the trash bin instead of the ash tray provided on its top.

He told a man who was parking his car about the fire to call for help. The tried to put out the fire by kicking it down, but the trash can was already in flames.

The man called 911. By this time, thick smoke from the fire had the residents alerted and they started to vacate their vehicles out from the 2nd storey car park.

A Rhino Fire Truck came in a few minutes and put out the flames. They were so fast to arrive because the newly built 2nd Division HQ is a stone's throw away from our block.

My son witnessed the whole incident and took the right action to call for help.

I was not to thrilled with him for going into the car park to investigate, though.

It could have been dangerous. He should have just alerted an adult after seeing the smoke; He did not have to confirm its source.

He understood my concern and the real dangers of his action to approach the car park.

In my mind, it could very well have back-fired on him too!

People might mistakenly think he was the one who set the fire instead. Fortunately not. One woman sand "Good boy" to him when she drove her car back to the car park.

Nonetheless I was proud of him. Wait till I tell Wify about it!


2nd Call: 6:20pm

"Are you expecting someone?" was his question to me over the phone.

I was on the bus heading home when he called my cell phone.

I was not expecting anyone, well... maybe the newspaper vendor who collects payments every first week of the month.

"No... not the usual man. Its a lady and she has been ringing the door bell repeatedly!" He explained agitatedly, "She is a young lady with a file in her hands and she is still ringing the doorbell!"

I asked him not to answer. The lady would go off once she gave up. And she did.

"There you go..." I told him, "I'll be home soon."

Now I am again proud of my son because he used his initiative to call me to confirm whether to answer the door or not.

Knowing fully that sometimes Wify's courier service or suppliers would come by for deliveries, he calls us to confirm before answering the door. Good job, son!


3rd Call: 8:00pm

No, not from my son, but the lady who rang the doorbell came back again.

It is either very important or very unnecessary to disturb our peace. I had to put as stop to this.

Opened the door, and there it was... representative of Club Rainbow Singapore, going around our neighbourhood making awareness calls and seeking donors to fund their charity.

It is a private non-profit charity organisation of 14 years. It is run mostly by volunteers especially for children born with chronic illnesses who need long term and often complicated medical treatments.

I know it from some ads on TV quite sometime ago, but never gotten around to find out about it to do my part.

What I lack in time to spare for volunteerism, I make up with donations. To do the least.

Every quarter, the organization will deduct S$120.00 off my credit card as donation. They will do so every 4 months until I wish to stop, for whatever reason.

The donation is tax deductible, which is validation enough for me, that it is a well-respected and properly-run charity organization that is recognised by the government and major hospitals here.

Somehow rather, I feel kind of a relief after signing the Donor's Form.

I remembered Barbara's tips from Trying To Catch Up blog on stress management.To complete your task you have put off for sometime.

This was one of those that I have in mind but did not get to go about doing.

I have now! Boy am I glad! I always feel that I have to give something back to keep my conscience in check, in balance.

I feel I am doing more for the greater good than just my immediate family, however small my contribution might be. I feel relief. I am proud of me nonetheless.

Am I gloating?... Guess I am. I am happy and life is good!

+ Parents | 3rd Physiotherapy

Left home so early this morning to be in time to fetch Mom and Dad at their home in Woodlands and get to Tan Tock Seng Hospital Medical Centre by 8:15am.

Her appointment was the earliest since there was no later time on Saturdays.

It was her 3rd time today, it should progress to a better condition, but she had an attack of leg cramps last night that made the two of them so tired to wake up this morning.

Mom was in pain that she could not sleep well, and Dad was awake massaging her legs to ease it. They looked really spent and was quiet as they dozed off during the cab ride to the hospital.

We were 10 minutes late reaching there and had to wait a little over 5 minutes before it was her turn to have her routine traction treatment.


This time, Dad was allowed into the therapy room for the first time since there were not many patients this morning.

He saw Mom going through the 15 minutes traction treatment after the physiotherapist did a physical examination of Mom based on her complaint of pain last night.

The traction intensity was reduced by 2 Kg today, to 26 Kg pull for 20 seconds and 10 Kg for 10 seconds alternately for 15 minutes. A little straining for Mom this time as compared to the previous two sessions since her spine was still sore from last night's attack.

Instead of the scheduled stationary bicycle exercise, the physiotherapist replaced it with a heat pad for 10 minutes.

And like routine, since it was still quite early in the day, we headed for the Kopi Tiam food court for branch - breakfast and lunch in one.

Like me who cannot pass on Tom Yam, today I got to know my parents current favourite foods - Mom is crazy over Spaghetti Bolognese, while Dad likes Yong Tau Foo. I had Fish and Chips.

Since the day was still young, we decided to go to IKEA, Mom's favourite window shopping.

It was not window shopping after all. Mom bought kitchen wares, laundry basket and a carpet. I bought metal racks to extend the display at Wify's shop.

Fortunately all the shopping items were able to fit into one cab as Mom's wheelchair was one large item to fit as well.

All seemed good until we noticed we left the carpet was unaccounted for. We must have left it somewhere between the payment counter, Burger King when we stopped to take a drink break and the inside the cab boot. Sigh...


I somehow dozed off on Mom's comfy couch for about an hour. By the time I woke up, lots of food and fruits was prepared for me. I was stuffed full!

Knowing that I will be meeting them, Mom and Dad cooked Durian Serawa and packed in two plastic take-away containers for me to take home; Wify's and my son's favourite snack.

Dad helped me all the way down to the side of the road where I got a cab to Wify's shop directly from my parents home.

Dad pointed out to me the Rambutan trees that lined their block. The trees are full of green hairy fruits waiting to ripe into bright red, juicy fruits.

Unfortunately, the fruits are not allowed to be harvest by the general public, but only RC members who will distribute them to old folks homes and orphanages.

It is always bitter-sweet to bid them good bye. Waving goodbye as my cab drove off.