Spa Review: Aramsa Spa (Part 2/2)

Aramsa Spa: A Lush Haven In An Urban Jungle (Part 2/2)

Click here for Part 1

By Kareena Ally | reprinted from www.streetdirectory.com

Photos Robert J. Steiner

SPOILT for choice, I opted for the Lavender Drizzle. Attended by Ivy, the massage therapist, the session started with a foot wash. We then proceeded to the treatment bed for an oil-prep, followed by a lavender floral exfoliation. Then, it was off for a warm shower in the adjoining outdoor garden amidst the greeneries and nature. The shower facility, which included a sunken bathtub, was designed to be hidden from prying eyes or high-rise building heightens.

Then, it was an hour of blissful Aramsa Touch massage. To my delight, I was serenaded not only by the soothing background music but also by the melodic chirping of birds and sounds of nature. The therapy ended with a relaxing facial, which enhanced my overall therapeutic spa experience.

The SD Advisor's take on Aramsa Spa
The whole spa experience left me feeling totally rejuvenated. As a person who loves nature and spa, this combination is heaven sent. Indeed, how often do we, considering our hectic lifestyle, take time to appreciate the bounties of nature?

At Aramsa Spa, one gets to enjoy a “room with a view” while relaxing and, at the same time, nurturing one's well-being. Moreover, it is a spa getaway within Singapore that all the bells and whistles you'd normally get in spas overseas. Best of all, it comes at a fraction of what it may just have cost you for a quick getaway – you can use the extra money for additional pampering.

Kareena Ally is a former school teacher and a holder of Master of Social Sciences degree. She is pursuing her writing career while being mother to two boisterous boys. Kareena has a keen sense of humour, enjoys traveling, reading and meeting people and is a fan of online shopping. She has a knack for finding good buys and an eagle vision when it comes to value-for-money deals.

Source: Spa Review: Aramsa Spa

Wine Lessons: What Is The Correct Serving Temperature For Wine? (Part 1/2)

LESSON #3: What Is The Correct Temperature For Wine? (Part 1/2)

Is serving red wine at room temperature just a cute way of asking what's the right temperature for wine to get drunk?

IS DRINKING a glass of fine Champagne at 15°C room temperature really insane? That depends whether you know what you're doing and more importantly why you are doing it. We'll get to that later. First, let's cover some less controversial grounds about wine serving temperatures.

Everybody knows that "serving red wine at room temperature" is a grossly generalized answer to a complex question of "at what is the right temperature for wine to be drunk?"

Complex, yes but difficult to understand, it certainly is not once. All we need to do is to look into how temperature can alter the effect of wine have on our palates.

The temperature-sensitive aspects of wine include alcohol, tannin, acidity and body. Here is a table showing their how temperature's effect on wine-palate interactions:

TEMPERATURE EFFECT WINE APPRECIATION

Taste	********** Serving Temperature **********
Aspects	Higher	Lower
Tannin	Round, supple	Bitter, harsh
Acidity	Volatile, tart	Milder, flat
Alcohol	Less pronounced	more prominent, hot
Body	Lighter	Full or heavy
Aromas	More intense but dissipates quicker	Subdued but persistent
Flavors	Exaggerated	Less intense

Admitted it is slightly oversimplified but this table handles 90% of the situation that the average wine connoisseur will encounter most of the time. I don't know about you but for me, memorizing anything more is a lost cause.

Click here to read Part 2

Source: What Is The Correct Serving Temperature For Wine?

Wine Lessons: What Is The Correct Serving Temperature For Wine? (Part 2/2)

LESSON #3: What Is The Correct Temperature For Wine?

FINE TUNING SERVING TEMPERATURE

None of that information will help us much if we don't know anything about the wine that we're about to serve. That's why a sommelier is paid what he/she is paid - usually quite a tidy sum, I'm afraid. When faced with an unfamiliar bottle at home or in a restaurant, remember to taste it first, at the benchmark temperature of 15°C or red, 12°C for white and 5°C for Sparkling. Far too many restaurants make the far too common error of asking them to "taste" a wine at an inappropriate temperature. After that you can decide to adjust the drinking temperature up or down a little depending on the results of the tasting. Let me explain with a couple of examples.

For example, if a red wine imparts too much bitter astringency on your palate, you could warm it up by 2-4°C to make it taste "sweeter". If you find a white wine (or a very old red wine) to taste far too tart for your palate, you can chill it down a bit more to "calm" the acidity but once the fruit flavors start to disappear, you know it's too cold. If you have tried very hard to smell a wine and nothing is coming back, you might warm it up a little increase its vapor.

If you don't have a sommelier following you around all the time to answer your questions about the characteristics of the wines you choose, here are some standard serving temperatures for popular wine styles.

Wine/Style of Wine	Serving Temperature
Champagne esp. Vintage Champagne	5°C
New-world Sparkling, Cava, Prosecco, Sekt	7°C
Lean Whites - Chablis, Chenin Blanc, White Bordeaux, Riesling	9-10°C
Fino Sherry	8°C
Medium Whites and older than 10 yrs - Puligny-Montrachet, Meursault, Cold climate Chardonnay	10°C
Full Whites - Condrieu, Hermitage Blanc, Corton-Charlemagne, Warmer climate whites	12°°C
Coteaux du Layon, Monbazillac, ice wine other med-body sweet dessert wine	7°C
Sauternes, Trockenbeernauslese and rich sweet wines	9°C
Beaujolais Nouveau	10°C
Rosé, Beaujolais Village, light-bodied reds	11°C
Light-bodied and older reds; Beaujolais Cru	12°C
Beaujolais Cru, Dolcetto	13°C
Burgundy Village and older crus	13°C
Young Cote de Nuits and crus	15°C
Burgundy Grand Crus and new-world Pinot Noir	16°C
Gran Reserva and Reserva Rioja	14°C
Medium-bodied and 10-yrd-old reds; Barolo	12 -14°C
Amontillado sherry	14°C
Ordinary Tawny Port	14°C
Full-bodied reds	15°C
Very young reds	17°C
Chianti, Brunello	15°C
Young (5 years) Rioja, new-world reds	16°C
Cognac, Armagnac, Brandy	19°C
LBV and 10-yr-old Tawny	16-18°C
Vintage Port	18-20°C
Zinfandel, Amarone, Red above 15% ABV	17-19°C

Serving temperature is like make-up in a way: it can make a beautiful wine very ordinary and it can cover up a lot of flaws for not-so-perfect wines. When done properly, it simply brings the best out of a good bottle of wine without changing its personality.

Now back to drinking Champagne 10°C warmer than recommended, it is not insanity but slightly masochistic perhaps unless you are doing this to taste the wine behind the bubbles. There is "wine" beneath all the fizz and at the near-freezing temperature that we tend to enjoy our bubblies, the qualities of the white behind that goes into making Champagne are somewhat masked. Once we warm it up to 13 or 15°C, the "wine" starts to emerge. However, Champagne is one of the most "acidic" wines. Low serving temperature is necessary to make it enjoyable. We save a little Champagne to drink warm only to check the quality of its base wine. There'll be more on this subject when we devote one entire lesson on Sparkling wine next week.

Source: What Is The Correct Serving Temperature For Wine?

Wine Lessons: How To Differentiate Good From Bad Wine (Part 1/3)

LESSON #2: How To Tell Good From Bad Wine (Part 1/3)

LIKE they say in action movies, we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. Let's start with "easy" and take it from there, shall we?

Out of the many dozens of things we consider when judging a wine, for our purpose, all you have to do is to focus on just six tasting points, namely:

1. Concentration
2. Structure
3. Bouquet
4. Typicity
5. Balance
6. Finish

Concentration

Concentration is about a feeling of density and not a "taste" of flavors per se. A wine can have the loveliest of fruit and spice flavors but if there's not enough of it in every sip, it lacks concentration.

Don't let the "hot" feeling of alcohol fool you into thinking that the wine is concentrated. Alcohol only gives weight - through a sense of heat on the palate - not concentration to a wine.

Also, avoid being fooled by the sweet fruitiness that distracts you from how dense or diluted the wine really is. You can dilute orange juice with sugar water. It may still taste sweet but it lost some of its concentrated orange flavors.

Concentration is a result of a combination of weather and expert wine-making. Ripe grapes slightly starved for water reduces the liquid in the grape and concentrates its flavors.

In the winery, extra measures are taken to extract more (phenolics) out of the grape and its juice before, during and even after fermentation.

Good wine must have good concentration although it is perfectly normal for older wines (20 years or more) to lose some of its concentration. As wines mature with age, elegance replaces intensity, an equitable trade perhaps.

Click here to read Part 2

Source: How To Differentiate Good From Bad Wine

Wine Lessons: How To Differentiate Good From Bad Wine (Part 2/3)

Part Two - Bouquet and Typicity (Part 2/2)
Click here to read Part 1

"BOUQUET" is a wine jargon that refers to a complex mixture of smells exuding from a well-aerated glass of fine wine. In youth, wine gives out an array of linear aromas characterized by fruit, flower, food and herbs scents. With age, everything simmers down to rich collage of scents that form one integrated masterpiece of a perfume.

It really isn't necessary to dissect the smell of a wine to form your judgment of its quality.

But a good bouquet has to be clean, attractive, rich and free of unnecessary distraction.

Wine writers like to describe scents using "notes" of flowers (violets), fruit (raspberries, lemon, apple, pear), food (mushroom) and spice (cinnamon, vanilla).

Some common flaws that are easily detectable by the nose are: excessive alcohol, volatile acidity - vinegar - and sulfur dioxide. The term "oakiness" is used quite often to describe a flaw caused by over use of oak barrel ageing.

The oak scent dominates the bouquet - not good because we want to smell the wine not the wood in which it was aged.

Contrary to popular belief, the "flavor" of wine is 75% smell and 25% taste. Indeed for those who must keep alcohol intake to a bare minimum, just by using your nose, you get 75% of the kicks.

You can still taste by spitting instead of swallowing, you get 90-95% of the real thing. Considering that the average "normal" wine drinker gulps down 90% of his/her wine with less than 5% in discernment, you probably get more bang-for-the-buck than the lot of them all the time.

Typicity

A good wine can't ever be great unless it vividly demonstrates pedigree of region, climate and style. To illustrate the point, let' say we have big Pinot Noir, very concentrated with rich flavors. It tastes like a Shiraz and is great with a piece of rare red meat. All in all, it is a very good bottle of red wine, but it is not a great Pinot Noir wine. The delicate Pinot characteristics are totally masked out by its high alcohol content. When we order a Pinot Noir, a Morey-St.-Denis from Burgundy for example, we expect to find certain qualities unique to wines made from this grape, not just another generic red wine of good quality.

To judge the typicality of a wine, some knowledge of style of regions is needed to form a basis for our judgment. For varietal wines - wines that are classified by its principle grape such as Merlot or Chardonnay for example - knowledge on the characteristics of wine made from that grape is necessary. A number of (future) lessons are devoted to providing you this information. If you really need to know now, you can always buy a "Grape poster" for each of your favorite varietals - Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc for example. There are about 60 of them but your average wine drinker is only interested in a dozen or two.

Click here to read Part 3

Source: How To Differentiate Good From Bad Wine

Wine Lessons: How To Differentiate Good From Bad Wine (Part 3/3)

LESSON #3: What Is The Correct Temperature For Wine? (Part 3/3)
Is serving red wine at room temperature just a cute way of asking what's the right temperature for wine to get drunk?

Click here to read Part 2

The Finish
The "finish" is a wine jargon referring to the length of time the aftertaste lingers on after we have swallowed (or spat) the wine. You can easily measure it yourself in number of seconds. A long finish of over 10 seconds is a sign of quality. It is an excellent way to verify your assessment on the concentration and overall quality of a wine. Some great wines linger on for 30 to 60 seconds.

Length is not the only thing to watch in the finish although a long finish is always a desirable thing. The finish has to also retain the qualities manifested by the wine while it was still in the mouth. It should neither turn sour for example nor should the astringency of bitter tannins start to dominate.

Sometimes all that is left in the finish is a dry ugly woodsy taste. A long extension of a lovely flavor well after spitting or swallowing really separates the good from the ordinary. In other words, the finish should be just as well-balanced as the flavors while the wine was still in the mouth. What does well-balanced mean? Please read on.

Well-Balanced
This is the quintessential condition for greatness. A wine has poor balance if anything sticks out at all, even if that particular feature appeals to you. The major flavor components of wine are: tannins, acidity, (fruity) sweetness, alcohol and wood. They have to function in harmony coming at you like one single wall of flavors. None of these components should dominate. There is no solo performance just one tightly knit symphony of well-proportioned flavors.

Balance is the hardest virtue to achieve in wine. To deliver perfect balance, everything has to be done to perfection in the making of the wine. A thousand things can go wrong to upset the balance. For example if the grapes are unripe - not enough sun in the summer - the resulting wine will taste green.

It will lack the concentration of fruit flavors to counter the green acidity of unripe grapes in the wine. A heat wave like what happened in 2003 could cause the sugar content of the grape escalate to excessive levels resulting in a wine that is extremely high in alcohol.

Acidity comes from the cold which is in abundance in most parts of Europe. For regions like Australia and certain parts of America, with less drastic climates a lot of wines starve for acidity
Good balance is absolutely essential for a wine to improve and achieve greatness with age.

Balance doesn't come with age. Poor balance aggravates in time because the component(s) that sticks out will do so in more daring fashion as the wine gathers age.

Knowing how to taste wines in a systematic and consistent manner rectify our incapacity to choose because of confusion.

After a few more dozens of bottles, all of us should be able to evaluate a wine to determine its real economic value and judge for ourselves in an objective manner if for example a $20 bottle is indeed worth more than a $30 bottle.

Lastly, before we write out a big check to buy a few cases of just-released expensive wines to add to our cellars, we can use this ability to form our own opinions instead of relying totally on ratings and notes that are based on a stranger's palate.

Oh, one more thing: please do not confuse your like or dislike of a wine for its quality. Like or dislike is a matter of personal preference. Quality is not.

Source: How To Differentiate Good From Bad Wine

Jimmy Choo Opens In Paragon With $2339 Limited Edition Shoe

CHOO ON THIS
British brand opens flagship store in Singapore with $2339 limited edition 'Kristelle' shoe

BRITISH brand Jimmy Choo has finally opened a store mecca in Singapore.

The 1,500 square feet shop at Paragon is said to be the second largest in Asia, next only to Japan. It is designed like a 1940s boutique with its palette of ivory, pale rose and sand; mother of pearl finishes; satin boiserie wall paneling; and crystal drop chandeliers.

“I want it to feel as though you are walking into a lady’s dressing room, a woman’s boudoir.” says Tamara Mellon, Jimmy Choo president and founder.

It's a very welcome upgrade from the Takashimaya store opened two years ago when Jimmy Choo first set foot in Singapore.

Jimmy Choo, recipient of the 2008 'Designer Brand of the Year' award from the British Fashion Council, first entered the fashion bible in 1995 thanks to Mellon, a then-British Vogue accessories editor. Choo, a Malaysian, had counted the likes of Princess Diana as one of his rich clients.

Mellon has since then bought out Jimmy Choo, but kept his name for the company. The Malaysian designer still makes haute couture shoes and is said to be contemplating opening a shoe school in Malaysia.

Jimmy Choo is one of two shoe brands that often pepper conversations of the Sex and the City
ladies; in other words, it's a fashionista's wet dream.

The Paragon store opening is being celebrated with Kristelle, a limited edition sandal (only one pair per size) available in two colours: gunmetal pixelated leather and metallic gold nappa. (see photo above)

It combines crystals and pearls on a platform with a four inch heel, epitomizing the glamour of the Jimmy Choo woman.

The prize: $2339.

The new flagship store showcases an extensive selection of Jimmy Choo shoes, handbags, small leather goods, sunglasses.

It is the only store in the region with a complete bridal shoe collection.

"The strategic location of boutique within a premium mall further reinstates Jimmy Choo as a luxury shoe maker. We believe the Singapore market welcomes a new boutique by this super iconic luxury brand synonymous with the ‘red carpet’, style and glamour,” says Mr. Ashvin Valiram, director of Valiram Group, which operates the Singapore boutiques as well as freestanding stores in Malaysia and Australia.

The Paragon store coincides with a period of worldwide expansion for the brand; with recent store launches in prime locations such as Paris Rue Saint Honore, Rome Via Condotti, Barcelona, Cannes, Munich, and Tokyo Ginza, joining well established locations in cities such as London, New York and Beverly Hills.

The new Jimmy Choo boutique is located at Paragon #01-10. Telephone number: (65) 6732 9880

Source: Jimmy Choo Opens In Paragon

Help, My Son Still Cannot Read (Part 1/2)

Help, My Son Still Can't Read!
Don't worry, there's a number of reasons and steps to overcome this

By Vanessa von Auer | reprinted with permission from Today's Parents Magazine

FIRST thing’s first – don’t panic! There are a plethora of reasons why your son may not be reading yet. The other tidbit you should know is that your son is not the only one who may not be reading at his age yet.

Being able to calm yourself is essential so that you can be the best “researcher” you can be.

You now need to proactively examine what is delaying your son’s reading development. There are the following possibilities: social/emotional, psychological and developmental.

Social/emotional: If he is not reading because he is having a difficult time at school (i.e. with peers, teachers, separation anxiety, etc.) then this is something that can be easily remedied by involving teachers (integrating him more effectively in the classroom cliques) or his peers (i.e. by inviting them to a sleepover, taking them to an amusement park, etc).

Psychological: Your son maybe averse for some reason to reading. It may not be stimulating or fun enough. Then, when we add the constant reminders that parents often do e.g., “it’s time to do your homework”, or “you can’t go swimming until you finish your reading comprehension”, he may wish for you to believe he can’t read at all to delay the unpleasant consequences of having to read.

Another reason may be related to attentional issues. If he has younger siblings who need more attention, he may temporarily regress to get mommy to sit with him while he reads.

Developmental: Your son may be coping with a learning difficulty. The causes of such difficulties are not well established but it seems to be a real biological/developmental problem. Your son is not being a rebel but he truly has difficulty with stringing sounds together, reading sentences or making sense of the words on his book page.

Click here to read Part 2: Once you identify one or more of the core problems affecting your son you can now be proactive.

Source: Help, My Son Still Cannot Read

Help, My Son Still Cannot Read (Part 2/2)

Help, My Son Still Can't Read!
(Click here to read previous chapter)

Don't worry, there's a number of reasons and steps to overcome this

By Vanessa von Auer | reprinted with permission from Today's Parents Magazine

ONCE you identify one or more of the core problems affecting your son, you can now be proactive:

Social/Emotional: Involve your son’s school, teachers and peers. Provide him with much encouragement to strengthen his confidence and sense of self-worth. Help make going to school enjoyable to him.

Psychological: Motivate your son by making reading enjoyable. Some examples of turning a boring reading exercise into an exciting one would be “flashcards baseball”. Put some words he struggles with on a flashcard. Get him to try and read or sound them out. When he is able to complete this, he is allowed to move to the next base (which could be parts of the home environment i.e. the couch, the chair, etc.).

If he is able to read a complex word or sentence, he gets a homerun. This is just one example of adapting something very mechanical into something stimulating. The extra “mommy time” will also be very much appreciated! Get creative, folks! The more fun your son has the faster he’ll learn.

Developmental: If it does seem that your son is struggling more than usual with his words and has no other emotional or psychological challenges, then it is time to seek a psychoeducational assessment from your friendly neighbourhood clinical or educational psychologist.

This professional will be able to provide you with detailed insight into your son’s developmental difficulties. Identifying his core weaknesses are important so that he can receive appropriate intervention.

It is best to do so at an early age because as your child enters primary school, he will notice at some point that he is not able to keep up with his peers and feel “different”. Without further appropriate intervention, he will grow up thinking that he is not as good as his peers and his self-esteem will plummet.

Vanessa von Auer is a clinical psychologist whose passion consists of working with children and their families to ensure a healthy and happy family environment. She runs the VA Psychology Centre (VAPC), a centre that offers a variety of psycho-socio-emotional services to children, teenagers and adults.

Source: Help, My Son Still Cannot Read

Looking for Part-time Maid In Singapore?

How To Work With A Part-time Maid
Prioritize the tasks according to importance, says maid agency

THE poor economy is not the only reason why more people in Singapore are looking to hire part-time maids instead of full-time domestic helpers.

“It is also due to full-time maids giving many problems, insurance increase, strict regulations, etcetera,” says Dorothy Loh of AxcelMaid, an maid agency which specializes in Singaporean or PR part-time maids.

With a part-time maid, you don’t need to bear any medical fees in case of an accident. “Furthermore, neither meal or insurance need to be provided,” adds Ms. Loh, whose agency charges $50 for hours on weekdays and $60 for four hours on weekends ― regardless of the time.

“Timing is very flexible for part-time maids, as long as they themselves and clients can oblige each other.” That’s certainly good news for working people who only have the evening free to clean up the house.

The most common tasks assigned to part-time maids, according to Wipes It maid agency, are vacuuming and mopping.

In order to maximize your investment on a part-time helper, Wipes It advises that you ask the maid to do “only basic housekeeping jobs and additional ironing.”

AxcelMaid, on the other hand, discourages assigning tasks such as hand mopping and hanging of laundry as they take too much time to finish.

“In order to save time and cost for all clients, they need to prioritize the jobs according to importance ― cleaning of rooms, toilets, kitchens, all windows, changing bedsheets, cleaning cupboard & drawers, etc. Ironing should be limited to 12 to 15 pieces if too much housework is assigned within the 4 hours per visit because any OT will be charge accordingly,” says the part-time maids specialist. JPO

Source: Looking for Part-time Maid in Singapore?

Would you like to share your own experience with a part-time domestic helper? Did it work for you? Leave your comment below.