From SIM: Beauty World Centre/ Bukit Timah Shopping Centre

I only update this space once in a while, I guess I'm just going to talk about a few places to go after class from Singapore Institute of Management (SIM).  From SIM back to my house in Teck Whye, there are quite a handful of places to stop by, visit and explore!

Bukit Timah Shopping Centre and Beauty World Centre are located along Upper Bukit Timah Road, located opposite of famous Cheong Chin Nam Road (click here for list of restaurant shop houses). From the bus stop right outside SIM, take bus 75 or 184 (alight at 4th stop) and you will see yourself opposite these two buildings as shown below:

(Picture 1 credit)(Picture 2 credit)

Bukit Timah Shopping Centre

Lets start with Bukit Timah Shopping Centre. This is a place filled with lots of maid agencies and printing services but I'm just gonna talk about ONE interesting shop right here.

1. GOOBYCAKES

Located at #04-19,

Operating from 11am to 6pm

I guess you would have seen their lovely creations on instagram: http://www.instagram.com/missgoob and never knew it located in this humble building! And you should follow Missgoob on instagram to see the lovely creations on those cupcakes!  Just look at Missgoob's great portfolio of customised cupcakes:

Interesting concept for Goobycakes is that,

Missgoob will post flavours of the day on instagram and all you have to do is to Whatsapp her to place your order and inform her of your estimated collection time. I did order from her, took a bus down from school and I love how cosy and comfortable I felt when collecting from her! Oh yup, and if you did remember, her cupcakes were sold out in SIM's bazaar by early afternoon already!

Her cupcake sizes were relatively smaller than other cupcakes out there but easy for consumption, not too filing since they sell in groups of 3 cupcakes and you can mix the flavours. The flavour was light and fresh, best consumed within first few hours after collection :)

All pictures of Goobycakes in this post were obtained from: https://www.facebook.com/goobycakes

Next up..

Beauty World Centre

This is one of the coolest shopping mall many years ago. My nail academy classmate told me she used to shop here and would be proud to boast after her visit. Over here, there is a very famous doctor in..

2. Nam Seng Clinic

You must be thinking that I'm crazy to introduce you to a clinic. Haha, I guess this piece of information will be useful to you one day. That morning, I made a trip down to Beauty World Centre to help my mum obtain a queue number from the famous Nam Seng clinic here and source here provided their operating hours.

Nam Seng Clinic Pte Ltd
144 Upper Bt Timah Road #01-22
Beauty World Centre Singapore 588177
Tel No.: 64620082
Operating Hours:
Mon - Sat: 1000 - 1300; 1545 - 1700; 2000 - 2200,
Sun & PH: 1000 - 1400

I started blogging this post from Beauty World's McDonalds and I reached the clinic at 9.30am with queue number 16. Queue number is distributed from 9am and consultation will start before 10am. You should't be surprised from this because I had seen his clinic yet to close at 11pm to clear the night consultation queue. This clinic is famous for its long queue and high commitment level but I can ensure you that your visit is definitely worth it. He has a "scanner" in his clinic and he fully utilises it for consultation. My mum needed a scan for her bladder and he scanned the whole area including liver, kidneys and womb just for her to feel safe about her health. This is the kind of differentiation so go consult him if you have pressing health issues or enquires.

Dr Koh, the General Practitioner(GP) of Nam Seng Clinic, was my saviour when I had a facial boil between my eye, at the side where my spectacles was lying on. The boil was so bad that my face was beyond recognition when the infection spread outwards all the way to my cheeks. I couldn't move my facial muscles and other GP I saw, told me it was merely a pimple. I was hesitant to admit into hospital. The hospital could probably just operate on me to suck all the infection out. After much thoughts, I headed to consult Dr Koh and waited for more than 2 hours. Empathy and professionalism was what I needed. He saw my face and immediately flipped through a book to show me a picture of someone else with the same condition. He told me the severity that any later, the pus will enter my brain and I can die of it. It struck me when I recalled two small boys that I know from my previous hospital stay, who passed away after I was discharged because of brain infection from similar conditions. He gave me a jab to clear the infection, cheered me because I was scared of needles and I went back again the next day out of anxiety and he gave me a second jab. On the third day, I went back again and he drained the pus out. No pain, no hassle. It took me more than 5 hours of queuing time and spent around $250 to recover fully with no scarring in that 3 days. Can you imagine how much I would have spend if I got myself admitted to hospital?

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The long waiting time of at least more than one hour suggests a good timing for a manicure/pedicure treat at..

3. Beau Essentials

Beau Essentials is opened by my friend, Sophia, who has been encouraging me and advising me in my nail education. Her numerous achievements, outstanding performance, outgoing and friendly personality did set a good role model for me to be a good nail technician. The mall is generally quiet but I'm sure you won't be bored in such a fun environment here at Beau Essentials.

Some examples of her works and her being featured recently:

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/beauessentialsbwc?ref=br_tf 

After the wonderful pampering session, your stomach must be growling.. Take the escalator up all the way to..

4. Beauty World Hawker Centre

Sounds typical with Bak Kut Teh, western food, fruit juices, kueh, teochew porridge, home-styled economic rice, but these stalls have been here for a really long time. You see many regulars - senior citizens, office people and families coming here to enjoy good food at affordable prices.

(Picture source here)

Top One Homemade noodle store has one of the most obvious queues in this hawker centre and I found a review here: http://www.missingavenue.com/2013/08/top-one-is-only-one.html

Honestly, I'm getting sick of the modern hawker centres where you can only find overpriced food that taste really awful or just alright. The number of traditional hawker centres is declining really badly. I recalled the days of my internship at Raffles Place where I pay $6 for a bowl of prawn noodle and $5 for noodle soup which is merely maggie mee with ingredients that you can find at home. Nothing special about the taste and the queue is so freaking long. Golden Shoe Food Centre is the only place where you can find economic rice less than $3 and western food at around $4, but the queue can choke you.

Now, it's probably time to do some (window) shopping around this mall but you might want to buy some pastries home for your family members. Right beside the hawker centre, near the escalator, you see a simple-looking..

5. Oishii Bakery

(Picture source here)

There weren't exactly a lot of reviews available online but I love their cakes. There was once my mum randomly bought a Blackforest cake home and we were amazed by the taste of it! Yeah, blackforest cakes were so mainstream in the past but Oishii has one of the best blackforest cake!

For our best friend's recent birthday celebration, Swing and I got one for her too :)

Now you can head off to go around this mall in search of those traditional hardware shops, Shop&Save, lots of tuition and enrichment centres, florist shops, retail boutiques, shops for the Koreans etc. It is a rather unique place because it is kinda "ulu" and very different from the heartland malls. In a couple of years' time, this place is gonna be very convenient with the new MRT line.

Shall think about the next place to depart from SIM :)