Volkswagen Jetta GLI 2.0T

Sgcarmart’s Amery Reuben takes the GLI for a spin and sees how it compares to the GTI
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If you recall, Volkswagen started the Jetta lineup here last year with the 2.0 TFSI. Great, if you like the engine of a Golf GTI in a four-door saloon with a gigantic boot. However, it never really looked the part. Simply put, its design was plain boring.

Now though, they’ve brought in the venerable Jetta TSI, and that essentially takes care of the “economical but more-than-adequate powered,” entry level lineup of the Jetta range. That leaves the identical-looking Jetta 2.0 TFSI with not much room to breathe, so instead of continuing with it, they’ve decided to up the ante with the GLI instead.

Keeping in line with German tradition, there are no GT-wings, vortex stabilizers, outlandish body kits or fake carbon fiber. Expectedly, this sleeper of a Jetta has understated touches to designate its high performance lineage. If you look closely, you’ll realize that the car is completely unlabelled of the word “Jetta,” having the two GLI badges replace it completely both front and rear.

Read more on this car review.

The Great Online Singapore Sale – only at 88DB.com

88DB will be launching an exciting feature in line with the Great Singapore Sale in June 1, and would like to invite all online shop owners to be listed in our special edition microsite. Whether your store sells jewellery, kitchenware, diaper cakes, or car accessories, we welcome all (unless it’s somewhat less appropriate).

The special edition would contain all you need to know about shopping, the best discounts islandwide, online sales, as well as a contest for all you shopaholics.

If your web store is having a mega sale as part of the GSS, we would love to help you promote your site by listing you under our microsite.

Simply email the following to marketing@88db.com.sg by May 28, 12pm.

1. Your name and contact number
2. Name of your online shop
3. Web URL of the shop
4. Hi-res logo in jpeg format
5. Specific description of the discount/sale offered, including terms & conditions and duration of the sales
6. At least 3 clear pictures of the different products on sale

*All shops would be listed according to alphabetical order, under various categories.

Want Some American Idol Soup?

It’s a mixture of good and bland, actually.
By Fiona Poh
Photos from www.chickensoup.com



The ever-popular TV talent-search series American Idol has found another way to milk its appeal and is now making soup. Not literally, of course, because Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul is just another book in the uplifting Chicken Soup series. Though this edition is about a reality TV series, it seems too tightly entwined with the fantasies of American Idol to be totally believable.

First season finalist Jim Verraros’s “The Impossible Dream” is both memorable and touching. He writes about his parents and the sad fact that they’ll never hear him sing. “I wouldn’t trade them for all the hearing parents in the world, but sometimes I dream that one day, by some miracle, I could pick up the phone and say ‘I love you’ without an interpreter in the middle,” he writes.

Speaking like a character out of a Disney production, Verraros is still optimistic, however, because “impossible things happen every day”.

Read more about Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul.

Fashion, Painted

Balinese artist Ni Nyoman Sani paints women garbed in fashionable dresses in her latest exhibition at CurioCity Gallery

WE LOVE fashion and art. In fact, we love fashion and art so much that we practically fainted at the opening of Ni Nyoman Sani’s exhibit at CurioCity Gallery along Bencoolen Street where she showed over 10 works, mostly in huge canvasses, of women dressed in fabulous clothings they look like they just stepped out of the pages of Vogue magazine.

“I get my inspiration from magazines and Fashion TV,” Sani, in her 30s, whispered to us as she related how she’s always loved to paint images of women, though it’s the first time she’s gone deep into fashionistas.

Read more about Nyoman Sani.

Step Back In Time With P Ramlee

Award-winning KL production of 'P Ramlee The Musical' goes to Singapore this weekend, paying homage to the talent who made over 60 movies and more than 300 songs between 1940 and 1960

FOR the cast of P. Ramlee The Musical, to be staged this weekend at the Esplanade Theatres, the bus from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore had a sense of déjà vu about it. “It reminded us of the scene where P. Ramlee takes the trip from Penang to Singapore…and he doesn’t know what his future will be,” says Liza Hanim, who plays Saloma, the last great love of P. Ramlee, the late great Malaysian entertainment legend.

Those who grew up in Singapore between the 1940s and 1960s know who P. Ramlee is. He directed and acted in over 60 movies, and wrote and sang more than 300 songs. He was a prolific, creative talent. On a more personal note, he was also an inspired lover. He fell in love more than once.

Read more about this musical play.

It’s Playtime Again This June!

Modeling courses, Kooky Cookies, Financial Education, and everything your child can possibly want
by Mavis Ang

GONE are the days when Singaporean kids spend their holidays cycling along East Coast Park, having sleepovers and building ‘tents’ out of blankets and laundry clippers, and having five stone marathons with friends.

Our children now are highly intelligent little bundles with endless amounts of curiosity and energy which need to be nurtured well lest they end up frustrated, pent-up, or restless. You can search and pick the most interesting summer programmes for your kids this June holidays with 88DB’s extensive list of children enrichment programmes, or browse through the most interesting ones we’ve spotted below.

Find out more about children enrichment programmes.

Lose Weight By Hypnosis?

In this eight-part series, we follow the fictional life of Daniel, a software engineer who is in search of the best way to reverse his obesity.

Chapter 1: THE FLESH IS NEEDING BUT THE WILL IS WEAK

DANIEL is a software engineer at a prestigious Information and Communications Technology (“ICT”) consultancy house. “Incoherent Convoluted Thinking”, his colleagues would often make light fun of the acronym that is much revered in certain industries, especially after gulping down more than a few mugs of good beer at a dinner of usually greasy franchised fastfood or even greasier traditional hawker fare.

This is typical of Daniel’s work style and life style; long hours at work that is only briefly interrupted by quick meals of fastfood, both the Western franchise and Asian hawker-by-the-roadside styles, before scurrying back to his workstation, to continue working into the late hours of the night. So, it is no wonder that Daniel, at 95kg, and most of his colleagues, range from the chubby to the obese.

To make matters worse, spotlighted in the brightest corner of the office pantry is a vending machine filled with the most heavenly assortment of snacks: candies, chocolate bars, nachos, potato and tortilla chips, cookies, etc., etc., etc. Seemingly harmless, but yet each time Daniel and his colleagues take a break from their workstations, it would call out to them like a Siren of Greek mythology and they are hypnotically drawn to it like the Argonauts, mechanically plugging in the coins, pressing the selection buttons and watching in a hypnotic trance as the spiral rings turn, pushing the candies, chocolate bars and bags of chips off the shelves onto the catch tray below.

Continue reading about Daniel's weight-loss program.

88DB Mother's Day Contest - Win at least $8,000 worth of prizes

Mom's The Best! So show her how much you love her... with these prizes, of course!

This Mother's Day, surprise your Mom with the most elaborate gift bundle ever. Simply submit a fun picture of you and your Mom, and include a short paragraph on three personality flaws you’ve inherited from her, and you might just walk away with one of these amazing prizes.

P.S. We know that the prizes are extremely attractive, but as much as we would like to keep it for ourselves, they are intended solely for Mother's Day gifts. We trust that you won't be naughty and keep all the gifts to yourselves!

Read more about this Mother's Day contest or join now!

Mother’s Day Feasts

Choose from four restaurants at Fairmont Singapore hotel when you take Mum out this Sunday

IT HAS been said that the hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world. On 11 May, the world will momentary stop rocking and spinning as it pays homage to its true, dominant rulers — the Mothers. On this special day, Fairmont Singapore hotel (formerly Raffles Plaza hotel) will elevate matriarchal power and authority to a higher level, courtesy of its multifarious culinary spectacle to remember.

With an array of indulgent offerings and a cacophony of ways for Mothers to bask in the lap of luxury even only for a day, Prego will be leading a sumptuous epicurean tribute to fête all hard-working Moms and give them a fighting chance to enjoy a heart-warming, tummy-thrilling and soul-satisfying meal — a meal they did not whip up themselves.

Read more to find the best treat for Mothers.

25 °C Is Hot

Every month, this restaurant/bookshop in Chinatown recreates a recipe from one of the many cookbooks they're selling — this May it’s miso-steak by lifestyle guru Harumi Kurihara, regarded as Japan's Martha Stewart
By James P. Ong

WE’VE all heard the story before: friends who love food so much they decide to open a restaurant and café. For sure, it’s not a new trend, and definitely, it’s not an original idea. But to be able to create a restaurant that’s both original and trendy — well, that’s something we’ll always welcome in Singapore.

At 25 degree Celsius in Chinatown, which opened six months ago, owners Sally Tsai and Karin Chan have hit upon a brilliant idea: a bookstore and dining outlet that also happens to be a test kitchen.

Read more on this food review.