SG50 Commemorative Notes

Hello everyone! 

I am sure many of us would have collected the limited edition SG50 commemorative notes by now. I have collected mine and here are some of the pictures and my comments. Yes, I was very excited to collect the notes. However, when I received them, I was not that impressed. 

First of all, a little background information about myself. I love collecting Singapore currencies. I have currencies from the orchid series to the current limited edition SG50 series. 

The 50 dollar note of the SG50 series is impressive. I love the idea of gold as it represents the Golden Jubilee. Having the image of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew makes it very significant. I also like the idea of the lenticular printing of the years 1965 and 2015 right below the image of the Mr Lee Kuan Yew. However, I personally feel they could have added more colours here and there while maintaining an overall gold.

SG50 Limited $50 note - front

SG50 Limited $50 note - back

 What disappointed me was the 5 different designs of the $10 notes. I felt it was very uninspired. The designs were very "bleah". I only liked the 'safe and secure' design (the 1st note in the picture below). The rest had no design element, it felt as though they just threw in some designs to fill it up. :(

5 designs of the SG50 $10 notes.

Instead of printing 5 different designs of the $10 note, they could have considered releasing the $1, $2, $5 and $20 notes. To make it even more special, they could have released a $25 note. As someone who collects series of old currencies, this idea would have been spectacular. Below are the comparisons of our old and new notes. My husband and I prefer the $50 note of the Bird series. We think it is due to a mix of few colours, making it look unique and eye-catching. :) 

$50 Singapore notes are ranked from oldest to newest (front view). From the top: Orchid series, Bird series, Ship series and SG50 series.

$50 Singapore notes are ranked from oldest to newest (front view). From the top: Orchid series, Bird series, Ship series and SG50 series.

$1 Singapore notes are ranked from oldest to newest (front view). From the top: Orchid series, Bird series and Ship series.

$5 Singapore notes are ranked from oldest to newest (front view). From the top: Bird series and Ship series.

$20 Singapore notes are ranked from oldest to newest (front view). From the top: Bird series and the limited edition note.

If you have any comments about the new SG50 notes or the old ones, please feel free to comment! :) Hope you all enjoyed reading this post. Have a great week ahead! 

Simple home remedy for cough and sore throat.

Hello Everybody! 

We're back with the next great home remedy!

This remedy was shared with me by my mother-in-law when I was having horrible cough and sore throat. She kept asking me to apply castor oil. Being very skeptical I didnt take her too seriously. Eventually she bought for me the castor oil and asked me to apply. She also told me that I will experience immediately relief which obviously I thought was an exaggeration!

Now you readers are going to think that I'm exaggerating! hahaha It was amazing how soothing it felt after applying the castor oil on my throat. No pain in the throat which was due to the heavy coughing and the coughing completely stopped! It was almost immediate! However, the effect lasted only about 2-3 hours maximum. So I had to apply the castor oil again when I started coughing.

 Pure Castor Oil also known as Minyak Jarak in Malay.

 
You do not have to buy this particular brand. As long as it is pure castor oil, it should work fine. It does not smell bad, in fact it doesn't really have any smell. You may feel annoyed that it is oily on your neck area, but you wouldn't be complaining if it gives you immediate relief from bad coughs and throat pain!

You can purchase castor oil from any Indian provision shops at Little India, such as Jothi Store and Flower shop at Campbell Lane.

For more health benefits of castor oil:

•  Times of India
•  WebMD

You may try it and share your experience with us! 

*Please note that the above is not medical advice. I'm merely sharing what had benefitted me. If you experience any adverse reactions, please stop immediately and seek medical advice.*

Imam Banana Leaf Restaurant - A Review

We had dinner at Imam Banana Leaf Restaurant today. They used to have a single outlet, a coffeeshop at Lorong 1 Geylang. We have been buying food back regularly from there and we find their briyani very nice.

They just opened up a restaurant, behind their current outlet. We decided to give the restaurant a try and headed there for dinner. Turns out that the restaurant is open all day!

View from outside

A shot of the interior

As we didn't eat much for lunch, we decided to gorge a bit more for dinner :). We ordered 2 chicken briyani sets ($6 per set), 1 plate of cabbage and 1 plate of black pepper prawns ($5 per plate). For drinks, we ordered 1 iced milo and 1 iced coffee.

Chicken briyani

Chicken Briyani  :)

Generous portions of rice and chicken. They gave us the breast-meat portion that we requested for. The rice was flavorful but not overpowering, which seems to be a problem for most briyani dishes. The chicken was decent, though a bit too tough for my liking. The chicken gravy was really very good and went well with the rice. However, the amount of gravy they served us was insufficient and we had to request for an additional bowl. 

Each briyani set comes with just 1 papadam, which will annoy you if you're a fan of this fried appetizer. We ended up ordering 1 packet of papadam which costs $0.70 and came with 4 pieces.

The cabbage dish we ordered

 Cabbage :)

This cabbage dish was not on the menu. We asked the staff if they had any ala carte vegetable dishes and chose this when they said they had cabbage. Nothing much to  say about this dish. It came with slices of carrots and peas. It was nice and complemented the briyani well.

Black Pepper Prawns :(

The restaurant has two menus - Indian and Thai Seafood. This dish was on the Thai seafood menu and we gave it a try. But we regretted it. The prawns were tough, rubbery and extremely oily. In fact, I had to dab the prawns on the banana leaf to get rid of the oil. 

The prawns were quite bland and there was not much black pepper flavor. There were generous amounts of capsicum strewn on the dish and their smell was quite overpowering. Overall, we didn't enjoy this dish (even though the missus is a great fan of prawns) and will not order it again.

Nasi Goreng :(

We also ordered a packet of Nasi Goreng for the mother-in-law. It comes with an egg. It was quite bland and tasted like it had been burnt. We won't order it again.
 
Drinks

The iced milo was super sweet, even after 2 generous helpings of ice cubes. Delicious yes, but every sip feels like it brought us one step closer to diabetes. 

Total cost: $24.80

• 2 chicken briyani sets
• 1 cabbage dish
• 1 black pepper prawn dish
• 1 packet of Nasi Goreng
• 1 iced milo
• 1 iced coffee
• 1 packet of papadam

Overall - 7.5/10

We will definitely go back for the briyani and maybe, take the opportunity to try other dishes from their Indian menu. We have a feeling that their Thai Seafood dishes won't live up to expectations.

It is a good venue for large group gatherings as they have large circular tables that can accommodate lots of people.

Do leave your comments below if you've tried their food!

Simple Home Remedy for the Flu

Hello everyone! This is my first post and I thought I'd share a simple and effective traditional home remedy for the flu that I used just a few days ago.

Just some background. I tend to get the flu quite easily and typically, will take about 7-9 days to completely recover. This is even after taking the medication prescribed by doctors. 

So, I fell ill again last Monday. Initially, I took some flu medicine that I had. But it made me drowsy and tired. I ended up laying in bed a lot and even ended up feeling more sick as the day wore on.

The next day, I got to know a simple home remedy from my aunt, who found out that I was ill. I gave it a try, thinking that nothing could be worse than the medications I was already taking. I was amazed by the immediate results. The remedy acted as a form of nasal decongestant and I began to have a runny nose. Nonethless, I felt refreshed and not as ill previously. I could move about and continue with my daily activities. 

I repeated this remedy twice a day for the next two days. By Thursday, I had completely recovered. This was easily the fastest I had recovered from the flu. 

So, if you're interested, the steps are:

(1) In an open bowl that is just small enough to fit your face, pour boiling water. The amount is just less than 1 cup.

(2) Add a teaspoon of turmeric powder.

(3) Optional - For those who don't like the smell of turmeric powder, you can also add to the mixture some coffee powder or a very small amount of Vicks Vaporub.

(4) Take a towel that is large enough and place it over your head and the bowl. The purpose of the towel is to enclose that small space and ensure that the fumes do not escape. Place your face over the bowl and inhale the fumes through your nose. Adjust your distance from the bowl based on your own comfort. 

Source: Asthma Home Remedies - #1 Asthma Remedies

(5) Inhale the fumes for about 10-15 minutes. Take note that the effect might be immediate and you might want to blow your nose. When that happens, go ahead and continue with the inhalation thereafter.

Additional points:

• For best effect, do this 2-3 times a day.
• Tumeric will stain your bowl. So choose the bowl accordingly.
• You will perspire a lot due to the hot fumes. You can use the same towel to wipe your face. 

Why turmeric?

For those interested, check out the following links to learn more about the health benefits of turmeric:

• Huffington Post
• BBC Health News
• BBC Health News 2

Do share with us your experience after trying the remedy. 

*Please note that the above is not medical advice. I'm merely sharing what had benefitted me. If you experience any adverse reactions, please stop immediately and seek medical advice.*