Goodbye 2009

Had thought of hiding in the comfort of my bed and watching my soon-to-be returned dvds. But it'a a different story when you are out and soaking in the atmosphere. Anyway, was sitting along the sg river near central enjoying the cool breeze and the colourful lights and looking at people doing reverse bungy. Thought had got a good seat and see the fireworks from my location BUT alas! T'was not meant to be. Could only see the smoke and brightening of the sky. :(

The lighted trees outside central along the river reminds me of sakura blossoms! Didn't take a pic of them but this is the closest! :)

Osaka Castle Spring 2008

Anyway, while walking home from the station, it suddenly dawn upon me. i think i'm very fortunate to be living at a place where i am able to walk in the middle of the night alone. But of course, this should not be taken for granted. Low crime doesn't mean no crime. But still, i'm very thankful cos there aren't many places in the world that you can do this. :)

And i think i shall not do this too often. Grown up as i am, but i would still be my papa's and mummy's little girl. They still stay up late to wait for me even though i had told them i'll be out late. *so touched* *sniff sniff* Shall not add another grey hair on their head.

House of Peranakan

This restaurant in Pan Pac Orchard hotel would have been easy to find if LF had not told everyone that it is "behind Isetan Scotts". Lol. Anyway, it's the annual Christmas meetup. Good quiet place to slowly enjoy dinner but food is average. We tried almost all the chef's recommendation. The duck is the nicest. The rest are so-so though it has the home-cooked feel. No wow factor.

Anyway, something very funny. i gave YZ a La Source Crabtree hand therapy. YZ gave MT some Crabtree stuff for her belated bday. And LF got me a lavender Crabtree hand therapy in my assortment of pressie! So coincidental!

Pride and Prejudice

My fav book.

i can't quite say the same about the film... i like some scenes but there's somehow something lacking though Keira Knightley plays a lively, witty Elizabeth. i remember being shown a video during lit class in secondary school. i googled and seems that the timing of the production is wrong. The BBC tv version starring Colin Firth seemed to be later... But i thought i've seen him as Darcy before. The search continues...

Countdown to 2010

Here we go again... Last week of Dec and nothing accomplished. :(

The Proposal

Gone on rental overdrive. 7 movies in the span of 2 days. Seen 4 so far....

Anyway, The Proposal is so-so only. i didn't find it funny nor romantic. SH recommended me to watch Definitely Maybe instead. Oh well, after the other 3 dvds maybe... :p

Ma Maison (revisited)

Finally finally met up with my JC pals, YS and YY after so long! It was good catching up with them though we seldom meet up these days (i mean years!)

And i've finally tried black ink spaghetti! It was good. Not as gross as i thought. But they said that the Italian version has much stronger ink taste. This Japanese version is supposedly milder but i quite like it. But this is definitely not a dish that you should be eating if you were on a date and trying to impress someone with. Imagine black lips and teeth after eating. :P



I've always thought that Ma Maison has really good taste in decor and food but they really lost it in the dessert. At least for my dessert. Ordered the caramel pudding but you won't be faulted to think that they were serving gui ling gao instead cos it came in a totally china-looking TINY tea cup! Prefer Tampopo Deli's custard pudding anytime. YY ate the royal chocolate cake that tasted heavenly sinful.

Twilight

Finally seen the one that started it all. The prequel to New Moon. Though Edward's really cute looking and i prefer him in the behind the scenes sans the white makeup and lipstick, i still don't understand the hype around it... Maybe i should read the book next... And OMG! Jacob's really a kid here! But he's turned into a pretty mean werewolf! :p

《吓到笑》

This is probably not suitable to watch on Xmas day. But we did. haa... Made up of 3 short stories. Typical Jack Neo movie with his brand of self-professed "hormedy" (horror + comedy).

The last segment aka Money No Enough 2.5 is continuation of Money No Enough 2. Have the similar touching feel.

Shin Kushiya

First visit. Due to the location and time, it's pretty quiet at Far East Square on a Tuesday night.

We ordered ALOT. Each had a dinner set and we got a kushiyaki moriawase to share too. Not forgetting 2 bottles of Asahi. OMG! i think it must be the holiday mood. And the club med "training", i can miraculously finish my glass! Ok, it was not full in the first place. Initially we ordered one bottle to share among 3 pax. The waitress was looking at us like !?!?. It was really pathetically little so we got another bottle.

Prices are not cheap but the food can't seem to match it.

Kanpai! This is 2 bottles shared among 3. Might not seem alot but it's plenty for me! And i'm not a biru person. Hmm... correction: i'm not an alcohol person of any sort.

The kushiyaki moriawase that we shared. Only the shitake and the bacon is nice.

Alot of food. Taste ok but not wow-ing and not worth the money.

The dessert that comes with the dinner set. Looks better than its taste.

The Princess & The Frog

Green or Blue? Blue or Green? it was (almost) a battle of the colours. Had wanted to watch Avatar but then i'm not really a blue person so green wins! hehe.



This is an original twist to the classic fairy tale The Frog Prince. Nice! Totally enjoyed it. The 2D effect has a whole nostalgia glow to it.

My Club Med Experience

i'm back! with a sun-kissed face and very sun-kissed back and aching muscles! This has to be my sporty-est vacation ever! :p Notwithstanding the buffet breakfasts, lunches and dinners (and not forgetting snack times!), every other time is on some activity to burn the calories.

Let me recall what i had accomplished for these 4 days.

Day 1 (11 Dec):

- Depart from TM ferry terminal to Bintan. Reached Club Med about 10am.
- Tried tennis and squash but failed miserably so abandoned ship for lunch. Squash must be the hardest ball sport i've ever tried! It's just so hard to hit such a small soft ball.
- Checked-in
- Went for salsa at the Santai Bar. Finally managed to finish a glass of white wine with my dinner! And i couldn't finish half a glass back home! :p

View from the room

Near reception area

The Pool

Day 2:

- Practised a few golf balls at the mini range. There was a pro to teach beginners in the morning. It was good cos i picked up some tips.
- Tried archery (finally!) Even though the archery range is at a very ulu part in the resort, have to climb flights and flights of stairs, walk pass the Sports complex before getting to the range, it is always perpetually fully booked. A lot of times, the trek to the archery range was not fruitful cos registration is on first-come-first-serve basis and the time open for adults to shoot is quite limited.
- Did stretching at the Zen Area which is a grass patch by the sea!! Can see the sea, listen to the waves and look at the blue sky while doing stretching exercises. Cool! But not so cool are the gigantic ants and spiders that seemed to like my towel alot! :S
- Another glass of white wine with dinner.

The sailing counter is right next to the putting green. Can see the sail in the background.

The view from Zen Area

The view while doing stretching exercises at the Zen Area

Day 3:

- Went sailing twice! Ok... It was more of a ride on a sail rather than going out on a sail myself. Mind you this is the monsoon season so the sea was extremely choppy. The first time out on the sail boat, i was very apprehensive cos i was very scared that the sail would capsize every time the wave came. Luckily we survived and went for another ride! :)
- Power Yoga at Zen Area. OMG! Muscles aching cos of this! The moves are really difficult!
- Had dinner at the Terrace restaurant which is by the beach too! Had to wake up early this morning to make reservations at this beach restaurant cos seats are limited. It would have been nicer if it was not so dark. Could hardly see what i'm eating. Nice ambience. Downed 1.5 glasses of red! OMG! i didn't know i have it in me. It must be the good mood but i do think that the alcohol content in the wine isn't that strong. :p

Day 4:

- Had planned to go archery again but felt like going sailing once more. So set off to the sailing area but started drizzling. So shelved sailing plans and settled for archery. Halfway through breakfast, sky cleared but i was too full to sail. Didn't want to risk doing a merlion. So made the trek to the archery. Started drizzling again. Shucks! So archery was out too. Returned back to the room to relax.
- Checked out. Sky cleared again. Climbed and walked all the way to the archery corner again. But it was fully booked. :(
- Lunch then chill at Panorama Bar
- Meditation Yoga at Sports Complex. First time doing meditation. i would prefer a little more action cos all we do was to sit the whole session doing breathing exercises. My legs were numb halfway through.
- Last snack time at the Snacking Restaurant.
- Departed Club Med at 1615hrs for the ferry terminal.
- Boarded ferry and started my roller coaster of a ferry ride back home. i'm never going to go to Bintan again during monsoon season. This time was even worse than the tsunami day. That fateful day in 2004 was also the day i last rode a ferry back from Bintan and the sea was so choppy that i was feeling very uneasy the whole ride. This time is even worse! Imagine 10-15minutes of roller coaster rides on a ferry! Yep! The ferry really went up and down. i was literally grabbing to my dear life on the seat handles. Never am i going to ride to Bintan in Dec again!

Conclusion:

The room and food was kinda disappointing. Maybe cos of the price, we had expected the room to be nicer. Btw, there's no bathtub, no bedroom slippers and the toilet is separate from the shower. Foodwise, quantity is there but not much quality as in the food are not the expensive exotic type. And there's no sashimi!

BUT

Club Med is a must-go cos of the G.O.s. which stands for Gentle Organisers. They are basically the people who are there to show you around, conduct the classes and generally do everything to make your stay fun and enjoyable. Every night at 9pm, there would be a performance at the Theatre where the G.O.s would put up a splendid show of dance and music. Mind you, this is besides their "day job". The G.O.s are so talented and full of energy! Sometimes the kids from the mini club would put up a short segment too. And after the 9pm performance, everyone would gather at the Santai Bar which is outside the Theatre for the Club Med dance. It's really fun to see everyone (mostly G.O.s but includes guests - they call us Gentle Members (G.M.) - too) dance to the funky moves. It's like JC orientation dance. Fun! :)

i would want to go again. Maybe to other Club Meds. If the price is right! Ha! Have to wait for promotions. :p

One of my fav places in Club Med Bintan - Panorama Bar. You can have a panoramic view here. Hence the name. But no, this is not where i hone my drinking skills. :p

Someone practised the 铁砂掌 on me. If only that someone is a cute guy... hehe. :p

There's a mini and petit club med for children, teenagers and even toddlers! This being the school holidays, there were lots of families with children on tow. Here they are making kites.

This is the only activity that i didn't try... but i'll be back!

Dec break

YAY!!! Sun, beach, here i come! Hmm.... correction! Buffets, lazing, here i come! (^^,)v

古早味？

During today's boss treat at Yakun, i learnt that people used to add butter to their coffee. And the boss dunked a whole portion of butter into his coffee and ate another slab with kaya toast. Cos they were thinking what to do with the free gift of butter from our purchase... i didn't try that cos 1) i was not drinking coffee and 2) i better watch my diet since i would be feasting for the next 4 days! :p

Anyway, drank the Silky Barley at Yakun. Nice! It's like the barley with beancurd dessert but it is in drink form.

Then the other day, Mummy said pineapple used to be served with chicken rice. i tried that and it was quite nice as the pineapple helped to get rid of the oiliness feel. But i'm not really a fan of pineapples and it left a tingling sensation on my tongue.

My Fav Spread

My all-time fav peanut butter with grape jam! Been ages since i last ate this. It still taste so yummy! :p

終わった！

Didn't turn out exactly the way i like it but JLPT's over! Now i can really look forward to the rest of Dec and my holiday! :)

残念な時間

My 3 days of planned cram school have almost come to an end. What did i accomplish? Everything and anything but study! Yikes! Boohoo... :( i'm prepared for the worst anyway...

Expended like one box of kleenex today! Why do i have to fall sick when i'm on leave?! Arrrrr chooooooooooo!

Cram School

Countdown! 5 days to go! Yikes! From tomorrow onwards i shall have to 闭关修炼。It's do or die! Nah... won't die... at most waste $50? (can't remember how much is the registration fee already...)

頑張って！勉強！

Holiday Inn Batam

What an eventful weekend! T'was meant to be a relaxing retreat but our program was packed!
Let me recall what we did these 2 days...

1. Checked in
2. Lunch at Dragon Inn Restaurant
3. Explore around the resort
4. Spa package consisting of body scrub, bubble bath, massage and foot reflex
5. Tepanyaki dinner
6. More exploring around the resort looking for stuff to do. Went shopping at the Polo shop and ended up buying 2 polo tees! Gasp!
7. There's really nothing to do so we went to the gym and worked-out in slippers! Can't believe i was lifting dumbells there. The gym boy was really happy to see us there cos i think we might be the first people to step into the gym the whole day. But he was equally pleased to see us leave cos we were there for quite some time and i think it was almost time for him to go home. :p
8. Back to room, shower, watched tv and TRIED to sleep
9. Dunno if it was the bed or the down pillow or the workout or the noisy aircon, i had a hard time trying to fall asleep when usually i am knocked out within minutes. Slept like intermittently 2-3hours. :( But i'm already better than YZ. She only managed to sleep like after day break. Took a lousy sunrise photo from the room and tried to go back to sleep. Didn't dare to explore the resort for a good sunrise spot by myself.
10. Breakfast was super packed cos there were 2 huge groups of people having their retreats
11. Took a cab to Nagoya Hill mall. YL wanted to do hair spa so all of us ended up doing something there.
12. Lunch at A&W
13. Last minute dash to the hypermart to spend my last 4000rp which is like about 60cents. haa... ended up buying 2 bars of soap.
14. Cab back to the resort. We had asked the same cab driver to take us back and we found out that he was waiting for us at the carpark for the whole 4hrs there. We guessed he would have made enough by just driving us...
15. Checked out and made our way to the ferry terminal. Was to had taken the 4pm ferry from Waterfront terminal but it was full even though we had confirmed our tickets. -_-" So we were rescheduled to the 5pm ferry from Batam City. Horror of horrors, at the terminal, we were told that we might have to take the 9pm ferry instead! OMG! We were literally penny-less cos we had spent all our money. To much relief, our busload managed to squeeze in the 5pm ferry.
16. Before we say our goodbyes, there was almost a stampede in the ferry terminal. We were nicely queuing in line at the gate when people just suddenly all rush to gather at the front. It was really ugly but not to be outdone, we had to follow the people at their game too.
17. Finally managed to survive the ordeal and home sweet home!

New Moon

Not quite an action movie. Not quite a romance. Not quite a fantasy film. Was waiting for some ACTION the whole movie so was kinda disappointed when there wasn't. But was also kinda relieved there isn't much action cos i startle at the slightest sound in the theatre. i really can't understand how the girls go gaga over a seriously over pale guy. The vampire's cute but would look better with a little tan. The saving redemption are the pack of werewolves. Give me six-packs anytime! Especially with a cute face to boot. :p

Not sure if i wanna watch the part 1 of this twilight saga... i dun think i'm missing much but i'm curious to see what have i missed too...

Take The Lead

Wanted to watch this cos of a 7 habits course that i had attended months ago. The course left an impact on me not because of the course content but rather the life lessons the instructor imparted.

He showed a short clip from this movie during the course of the course. i think i was kinda affected by the clip that made me want to see the whole show. Other than the ballroom dancing which roused a tiny weeny bit of dancing itch in me, the movie is quite average.

"There are only choices to be made."

Up

The dvd is finally out! i really like this simple tale of Carl and his adventure to Paradise Falls and the odd combination with Russel, Kevin and Dug. Life's real adventures are often not what you make them out to be.

The dvd comes with a documentary on the filmmakers' journey to South America to the real Paradise Falls! i didn't know that Up is based on a real tepui and the Angel Falls is the tallest waterfall in the world! Cool!

Up up and away! :p

City Hall

XX lent me this dvd a while ago. Probably around the time SL lent me the <<败犬女王>>. It's been a while since i watched a kdrama. This starred the female lead from My Name is Kim Sam Soon which was one of my fav kdrama. Anyway, finished watching City Hall in a week. Great chemistry between the leads and the male lead looks really man in this show! :p

The mayor and the city staff did a dance in the last episode. i thought it was really cool so i searched for the song and it's the exact same moves!

Walkout

No more jap classes! Yay! But woke up earlier than usual for a walkout with my parents. They have started walking every morning this week and i decided to join them to do some exercise too. :p

To accomodate me, we left the house slightly before sun break. Usually they would have completed their workout by this time! haa... Walked all the way to our old house to have breakfast and to do some marketing. It's not really that far but we walked for 1 hour! Gasp! Distance is about 3 train stations.

Most meaningful cohesion

The office does seem to have excessive cohesion/team building/welfare activities. Especially when you belong to so many different entities. But today's especially meaningful cos it's at a school for people with special needs.

We were split into our 4 houses - i'm in blue - and were joined by the students. Together, we danced to the crazy ditty Nobody, played games, cheered and clapped till the day is over. Although the games are very simple, such as, balancing bean bag on the head, transporting balloons, rolling hula hoop, etc, they were fun! Happiness can be so simple. Seeing the students giving their best in playing the games sure put alot of the adults around to shame. The easy chatter between the students and the teachers also made me wonder how long did the teachers spent with them to build such a rapport. i think you need lots of love and patience to be a teacher nowadays, much less to children with special needs. i really salute them.

The most touching moment was when the principal asked the students to give us a "thank you" clap. They have a special applause for guests. i almost teared when i heard it. It's just a simple and common clap but it's the thought that matters. Can see that they really enjoyed themselves as much as i did.

Oh did i forget to mention that blue team won today! We were the underdogs again. Won by a dance step! :p

李玟 - 爱我久一点

Heard part of this on tv yesterday and realised it has been a decade since i last heard this song! Tried searching youtube but alas, i think this song is either too 冷门 or too old, original MTV cannot be found. i liked this song then cos of the MTV, way back during the days when MTV was played on channel 8 every Saturday. Oh well, can't find the original so this is the next best.

Oooohhh! Just remembered i have a vcd of this mv in my drawer! :p

Car Wash!

After Pa got a new eye, the car is mostly sitting in the carpark. i don't have a habit of driving to work yet. Unless i'm out of office for half the day. It doesn't make sense to pay additional parking fees when i can reach office in around the same amount of time on public transport! Anyway, the car is badly in need of a wash and so off i go for my first car wash! i think cos today's Sun so there's a queue at the car wash.

This might sound mundane but i think it's cool stuff! First, they wet the car to wash the dirt away. Then they splatter this mechanical bubble maker on full blast at the car. Awesome! It's really different watching them do their ritual on other cars and sitting through it yourself. After they give the car a little rubbing, they hose the car down. Next stop, wipe dry. Viola! As good as new and all these in under 15 minutes!

If i'm to do this myself, i'll take at least an hour! hehe. i remember when i was driving the ex-office pickup few years back, i would be washing the vehicle every other week. It's really funny cos everyone would be cleaning their brand new cars in the car park and i'm scrubbing an old pickup. But i like cleaning the two-seater vehicle. i think cleaning is therapeutic and it is a great workout. But now? i think i'd go for a manual car wash! :p

[Sidenote] Kinda miss the pickup driving days when everything's free and i just need to pay for parking! Have to thank those days too - for letting me hone my driving skills. Not that they are any good but i think i'm more garang when i'm behind a pickup than a saloon.

Food Race

Yet another office event. And i swear this would be the last time i'm organising one!

The big boss gave us a budget of $10 per pax to plan for cohesion day. Nearly fainted when i got the arrow. What can you do with $10!? You can't even find a decent restaurant to eat in. Don't even talk about cohesion or teambuilding! Luckily, thanks to a very constructive idea from DT, SL and i cracked our brains and thought of a very simple but brillant plan. And most important of all, very budget!

Split the office into groups of 5. Make them go to designated places to buy specific food items and go to an assembly point. Then everyone eats the food that they bought! What a simple plan!

To get to the designated location? Solve a jigsaw puzzle which we DIY by going on-location to take photo, print on office printer, home-laminate fully sponsored by SN and cut into puzzle form! :) Luckily there were 5 shopping malls near the office. Just nice for the 5 teams.

What food to buy? Crossword puzzle developed by SL which got even us cracking our brains!

And from which shop? Fill-in-the-blanks hangman style.

Where is the end point? Yet another jigsaw puzzle but this time it is a giveaway in the form of a map. Yet another "free" venue which we managed to get by a stroke of luck!

Since we didn't spend a single cent on the teambuilding part (the solving puzzles portion), we can spend all the budget on the food! Most importantly, we got the teams to buy food that WE wanted to eat! Cos we (the organisers) planned everything we can't participate so this is at least one part that we can manipulate! hehe. :p

[Sidenote] Got to know one week ago that another office took the "initiative" to suggest to the big boss to use another bank account for their cohesion. They engaged an external event organiser and spent $86 per head! WTH! i was real p*ssed when i heard this. Really don't know what the big boss is thinking of. We highlighted to my boss and took the "official" route to "inform" the big boss about the inconsistency in his execution but to no avail. i had hoped to twart their plans but haiz... When we first got to know the budget, we had asked my boss if we could request for more money but my boss had told us not to cos the big boss had only allocated that amount. So we listened to instructions and worked within budget. To hear some people taking "initiative" really turned us speechless.

Anyway, moral of story is, we are so creative we can do anything with even a small budget. At least i can proudly say that we had planned and organised an event that i think my colleagues enjoyed. It was really fun looking at them trying their best to solve the puzzles which i must admit was challenging. We could afford to give everyone a survival pack and prizes for the winning team and the first runner up. i had fun organising it though i hoped we won't have to organise next year's!

Thanks to SL and SN for sharing the arrow and cracking their brains with me! :)

My Sister's Keeper

i think the storyline is interesting and poignant which make it a good teary watch (read: hankies ready!) But overall, feel that the movie is too even. The flashbacks were sometimes confusing, especially the part where Cameron Diaz shaved her head and the next scene she's back with her silky lock of hair. i think she doesn't look the part of the mother (not to say that she didn't act well but she just don't look like a mother!) and that there is absolutely no chemistry between her and the guy who played her husband. The saving grace of this movie must be Kate and Anna AND the soundtrack.

Oosters

Got to know of this Belgian restaurant at the recommendation of LF for her early birthday celebration. Well, cos it sells her much beloved mussels and pork knuckle!

The atmosphere here is very good for dating (read: very dim and dark) but bad for reading menu and taking photos. i have to bring the one and only table flame next to the menu before i could strain my eyes to read it.

Pork knuckle with apple sauce. Not really my kind of food. But the apple sauce is quite yummy.

Mixed Platter which we regretted ordering cos the portion is really huge and meaty. Half of it was doggy bagged.

Mussels in creamy pesto sauce or rather soup cos there is really alot of the gravy which is quite nice. But the mussels are really tiny as compared to those at Grill-Out!

i really gotta stop feasting like this! i'm really piling up LOTS! :(

Ootoya

First visit to this Japanese restaurant at Orchard Central. Was surprised to see that there is a calorie indicator for every food item on the menu. Good if you are calorie conscious. Ordered the Ootoya Special set. The calorie count for just the set alone is about what i'm supposed to eat for one day! But heck! i ordered it anyway. haa... :p



Doesn't it look yummy?? The potato croquette is one of the nicest i've ate so far. But the part i like most must be the rice. i added a yam topping to my rice. :) That's the white gluey looking stuff. Grated yam isn't something that you see often here as it is what most people would call an acquired taste (just like natto) but i love it! :) Btw, rice is free flow (not the yam though) which i tried and tested to be true which i regretted almost immediately after. The refill took sometime to come and when it finally did, i'm already full. Luckily, SY is a "rice bowl" so i gave her half of it. hehe.

Popped over to Heaven Loft for Ben & Jerry's. This place currently holds the record for the fastest melting ice cream ever! (-_-") Anyway found another nice flavour after cherry garcia - chocolate mint chunks!

My First Mani and Pedi

Went for my very first manicure and pedicure this evening. Was quite apprehensive cos i read a few horror stories. But the grooming turned out to be quite fun.

Waiting for the polish to dry

Thanks to SL, SY and YV for the birthday treat! :)

the day i could rattle 20 random words in 3 minutes

Whoa! i never knew i could look at a list of 20 random words and correctly list them out in sequence! AND in reverse order too! All in under 3 minutes! woohoo! Ok, it is with a little facilitation from the instructor but it's my memory i'm working on. :) Let's hope i can keep that up. hee...

Amazing Race (Office Edition)

Super long and tiring day even though it is not at work. :p

Morning - woke up earlier than usual to journey to the east coast for office event of the year. Discovered that east coast park is really huge. Especially since we spent the whole morning covering only half of it. It was raining all the way from the west but thank our lucky stars that the sun was out at the east.



Afternoon - went ktv but was too tired that i lost my voice. :(

Evening - dinner with the girls. Went back to Okinawan Diner @ Liang Court. Ate back the same old ginger pork set meal. Portion is as huge as ever but the peanut tofu seemed not as nice as the last time.

败犬女王

It's been a while since SL lent me the dvd but i finally finished watching My Queen in a week! :p

Initially, Fated to Love You is kind of easier to watch as there are more comedic scenes but i think i could relate to My Queen better. Probably since we're around that age. Especially since i'm going to be a year older soon. haa...

谁说单身就是败犬？

Grill-Out

LF wanted to try a highly recommended Belgian restaurant serving mussels and pork knuckles at Orchard Central and so we came. But after searching the whole of level 6 and 7 and 8, we couldn't find any Belgian restaurant nor any restaurant selling both mussels and pork knuckles and the friend who recommended the place to her couldn't be contacted. So we settled for this place only other place that serve mussels.

We ordered mini portobello for starters ($8), pork ribs ($28), kurobuta (sirloin) and mussels with spicy tomato for main. There's a promo on raw oysters so we got that too. The first 30 diners get free wagyu beef and champagne! Ooohhh... There's free flow of bread with very nice flavoured butter. So we ate quite a bit of roti too. And all of us got the poached pear with basil ice cream for dessert except for LF who took the tiramisu.

The food is not bad but prices are not cheap cheap. i think the free food added alot of points to the overall eating experience. Plus the girls decided to take this as a early birthday treat for me. So that's even better! hehe. :p

Cheers! i think i got a little drowsy on this glass which lasted me very very long. haa...

According to the girls, this is the nicest dish. i'm not a connoisseur of beef so i can't comment. It just tasted like meat to me. hee...

This is the most special dish. The basil ice cream is quite nice though i would rather it has less of the "grass" (i.e. basil bits).

the day pa got a new eye

Pa got a new eye today and we discovered that you gotta break an arm for parking at JMC! $8+ for 3hrs+! We would even have spare change even if we took a cab to and fro! duh... i should have drove the car back home and walk the 10min distance back to JMC, then go back home to get the car again when Pa is done.

Anyway, since we couldn't go into the op theatre, Mummy and i popped over to mac for breakfast. They are giving out free coffee for every value meal (i think). Mummy don't drink coffee so i gave her my tea. And i found out something about Mummy that i never knew! OMG she drinks tea like sugar water! i think she added like 5/6 (?!?! forgot, lost count) packs of sugar and 2/3 packs of creamer for one cup of tea! Actually i never see her drink tea / beverage of any kind outside. She said if she drinks them she like it sweet. That's why she don't drink them at all since it is so unhealthy! No wonder she carries a water bottle everywhere! Imagine getting high on that sugar! And now i know where i get my sweet tooth from! i always thought i'm bad but she's worse!

How well do you know me? (Q8)

Q8) What is my dialect group?

a) Hakka
b) Hainanese
c) Hockchew
d) Hokkien
e) Cantonese

the day i went for a health check

The office gives out free yearly health screening but it's the first time i went for mine. In fact, this is the first time i have a blood test. i'm terribly afraid of needles. Injections are ok but extractions are a total different story altogether. i always have the impression that extracting blood from the inside of the elbow is excruciating painful cos the skin there is so thin. So i was pleasantly surprised that today's test was not painful at all. It's just a slight prick. Well, slight pain but definitely none on the scale that i had imagined. i could do this everyday! Ok, i exaggerate. i don't think i would like to do this everyday cos the day i went for the health check is also the day i got a bruise. Around where the needle pricked. :(

How well do you know me? (Q7)

Q7) Which of the following sports do i play?

a) Golf
b) Scuba dive
c) Cycle
d) Roller Blade
e) Go-kart

Ma Maison @ The Central

Finally ate at the Central branch! The place is much smaller than the Bugis one - maybe about half the size. No wonder there's always a long queue! Thank goodness i made reservations. :)

Tried the escargots with garlic and butter! Yum! It's better than Saizeriya's. Interesting presentation too! It came on a bed of fire!


Ordered the Tarako omu rice. Decided to be a little more adventurous in trying the fish roe omu rice with white soya sauce. The omu rice is nicely done but i would prefer a creamier (non-clear) sauce. i'll stick to the brown / tomato / curry / cream sauce for my omu rice from now. :p

Jurong Bird Park

Although i stay relatively near to the bird park, i've not been here since primary school (?). Office events are so much more fun when you are not the organiser. :) You can literally eat and leave. hehe. :p


And i found out that birds are really hard to photo. (-_-") Except for this pink little cutie who stayed still while i take its picture and it even started climbing the fence for me to take more shots. :) Most of the birds are left out to roam but some like parrots are enclosed as they are more prone to hurting people as they get aggitated easily.


Children are a really curious and daring lot. Alot of them were raising their hands and volunteering for the bird shows even though they only want adult volunteers. This is the only kid who was chosen for a last item. He is really cute. The trainer put an owl on his arm. i think perhaps the owl was too heavy for his little arm so he had some problems keeping the owl up. hehe.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Interesting story but somewhat slow with no big ups and downs. No wonder it is shown at limited theatres... and i really think the female lead don't look like her in the poster. Talk about the marvel of photoshop.

[Sidenote] Saw the trailer for My Sister's Keeper. Waiting for it to open!

Dead Sea Scrolls

Complete waste of time and money! Spent $18 ($20 during weekends) and about 2.5 hours in this exhibition at The Arts House. We were fooled by the splendid write up in the papers into believing that this is all about the scrolls. Well, there are only 4 tiny fragments on display.

The exhibition is housed only on the 2nd floor of The Arts House. There are only 3 small galleries which loosely categorised into the Scrolls room, Book room and People room. The scrolls room, well, is where the scrolls and watnots are. The Book room where the books are. And the People room where the people are. There is no proper write up / intro / explanation of the exhibits which are arranged randomly.

The guide was saying that the majority of the scrolls found are not related to religon but strangely, the focus of the exhibition is on religon. i had expected to see more on the daily aspects of living in the era.

Really. Don't waste your time. This is the worst exhibition i've been to so far.

i can't live without...

Electricity!

There was a short power failure in the gym this afternoon. The class had to do our moves in silence as we try to strain our ears to hear the music "blasting" from the instructor's ipod. Thankfully the lights, music and aircon (!) resumed after about 20 minutes. EVERYthing in this modern world runs on electricity. i really wonder what can we do without this great invention.

How well do you know me? (Q6)

Q6) What would I be most likely to do in my free time?

a) Shopping
b) Movies
c) Ktv
d) Eating
e) Idle at home

How well do you know me? (Q5)

Q5) Which of the following is NOT one of my favourite movies?

a) Sound of Music
b) Grease 2
c) Dirty Dancing
d) Romeo + Juliet
e) Titanic
f) Footloose

命中注定我爱你

正在追看这部2008年的偶像剧。其实当时这剧正热播时，我没想过要看因为我受不了那超级“耸”的剧名。 但没想到还蛮好看的。 值得捧场。而且男主角超帅的！ 嘻嘻！:)

緊張の時間

決まった！！レベル１の日本語能力試験！つまり、勉強するべきだ！

How well do you know me? (Q4)

Q4) Which is my favourite book?

a) Harry Potter
b) Pride and Prejudice
c) Jane Eyre
d) Romeo and Juliet
e) Shopaholic

How well do you know me? (Q3)

Q3) My favourite flavour of milkshake is _______.

a) Chocolate
b) Strawberry
c) Vanilla
d) Banana
e) Papaya

How Well Do You Know Me? (Q2)

Q2) My favourite flavour of ice cream is ________.

a) Cookies and cream
b) Chocolate
c) Strawberry
d) Rum and raisin
e) Vanilla

How well do you know me? (Q1)

Q1) What is my favourite colour?

a) Blue
b) White
c) Red
d) Black
e) Yellow

Festival of Drum & Dance 2009

It's the Japanese Cultural Festival again. Got to know the tickets for giveaway by chance. This afternoon's performance is of Japanese Drums and Dance. First time to such an event. The drums is quite good. Very hypnotising and energetic! But the dance is pretty amateurish. And it shows.

The next event is Choral and Harmonic on 13 Sep, followed by the Karaoke Competition in Oct. i'm planning to go as many as i can. These performances are quite interesting. Best of all is they're muryo! (i.e. free) :p Let me know if you wanna join me. :)

Blogk

Had a spate of blogger's block recently... so much so for the absence in SP's Ivory Tower... been wasting alot of time doing nothing actually... yeah... i'm very much of a procrastinator. Should do something more worthwhile/meaningful with my time while i lament the loss/passing of time.

i'm never gonna be a dare devil

Had a near brush on the way back from JB tonight. Was cruising on the second link when we noticed a man walking along the side of the bridge in total darkness. The next thing we saw was a motorbike lying right in middle of the road in the exact lane that we were on! The next thing i know the car started swerving from right to left as my friend tried to stop the car to avoid crashing into the bike. We were lucky nothing happened to us. We were lucky there were no cars next to us. We were lucky the man had walked away from his bike. That was a hel'ofaride and i'm never going to speed even if the road's empty. And i'm glad for seat belts.

Time Out

Decided to go on strike this afternoon. Went for nice long lunch at Ion Orchard. Tried out the ramen at B4 Food Hall. A friend said this is nicer than Aoba. Had the normal Hokkaido Ramen (red miso). Mind you the prices are restaurant style though the atmosphere here is more like food court. If you like really authentic (read: salty) Hokkaido ramen, you would like it. Even though i could accept stronger tasting ramen, this is abit too salty for me.

The highlight of the meal would be the HK actress sitting at the next table, feeding her son. i had seen her in some HK dramas before but i dunno what is her name. Her complexion is really good. Very well maintained. i keep glancing at her direction and her son is quite cute too. :p

Had wanted to go home after lunch to sew a long overdue bag initially... But took a long detour at Uniqlo. :p It's not as crowded as weekends so i could take my own sweet time browsing every corner (of B2 ladies level). And of course i can't leave without some slight damage to my wallet. hehe. :)

Watami @ Ion Orchard

Decided to join in the crowds at Ion this afternoon. Spent more than 7 hours just at this mall alone before calling it a day. Really unproductive. Only bought a camisole and a pair of sandals (both on sale at $9.90) from Uniqlo cos since we had already squeezed into the newly opened shop, i must die-die get something from there! And YZ will kill me if i didn't! hee...

After emerging from Uniqlo victoriously, we decided to try our luck at Watami since we didn't manage to the other day. Imagine this, we reached the restaurant before 5pm and already there is a queue! Had to wait about 30min before we got a table. i was quite surprised they gave the booth seats which could probably seat 6 pax to us. :)

The service in comparison to Imperial was much better. To much "horror", the waitress kneeled down to take our order. We each had a Sapporo ramen and shared a hotate butter yaki and sashimi supreme. Don't eat the ramen. A waste of $ and tummy space. The hotate is forgettable too. But the sashimi is good. This plate costs just $19.80++. Prices here are generally quite reasonable.


When we finally finished our food, there was a long queue at the door. Hee... we were really mean. Cos we don't feel like giving up the table so soon, so we ordered drinks. The fruit liqueur sodas are generally not nice. i thought my lychee-shu soda tasted like cough syrup. :p

Interestingly, the layout of Ion is such that the higher you go, the lesser people there is. But the conclusion is that there isn't really much drawing factor for me other than all the Japanese stores and eateries... Maybe cos shopping does not interest me any more i think.

Amazed Amused

Accidentally found out that someone copied and pasted one of my previous posts on a forum. Although i had set the blog to be private and not searchable but i'm amazed that it still managed to be found. Well, my post is of my feelings after watching this concert. i had since forgotten about what i had wrote. But i was kinda amused to read people's comments on what i had wrote. And it was even more amusing to re-read what i wrote myself! Haha! i think i'm really (1) crazy or (2) i really enjoyed myself that night indeed! :p

Imperial Treasure @ Ion Orchard

Had wanted to try out Watami but there was a LONG queue even at 6:40pm on a weekday. Quite crowded at Aoba Ramen too. So after a lengthy discussion, finally ended up here. We ordered 4 dishes to go with rice. Frankly, the portions were quite small and ordinary. Added 2 baskets of dim sum too. Service is terribly slow but probably these are teething issues. One of the aunties is quite cute and friendly though she forgotten to take our cake out for us the first time. But she's quite friendly that we gave a portion of the cake to her.

Talking about the birthday cake -- the tiramisu that XX promised to make for YZ! So nice of her to rush out the cake last night. :) Yummy! i had placed my "order". i want a black forest cake for mine! :p

It is really hard to take a nice pic of the tiramisu. YZ said it look more like a box of sand... (-_-")

[Sidenote] Will definitely have to go try out Watami one of these days to see why there's the long queue. Oh and we tried the takoyaki at B4. Also long queue but we didn't see how special the balls are... The taste is ok and the tako bits are bigger than others but overall no wow factor...

回光反照?

The home computer miraculously managed to wake up! Better take this chance to back up all my files!

Ma Maison @ Bugis

Finally ate at Ma Maison. Nice cottage, country-style environment Wanted to order the Plate Lunch set which comes with a mini salad, soup, main course, ice cream and drink. Thank goodness i finally decided to eat the Beef Stroganoff with butter rice instead cos i don't think i would be able to finish the set. AND i really have to watch my diet too! :p Anyway, i wanted to eat something with omu rice and this seemed really nice from the menu. i like the omu rice but the brown sauce is kinda salty. Otherwise, the sauce with the omu rice is a perfect match.


Saw alot of people eating the escargot. The family of 4 behind us ordered 3 plates of that! And 2 of them are small kids! Oh.. Ma Maison have the cuttlefish ink spaghetti. Might try that another time when i'm feeling a little more adventurous! hee.. :)

Quiz Time

Q: What goes "beep....... beep....." while running and shows me a blank face??




Give up?


A: My computer! :(

The home pc has not been able to start up since Monday. All it does is give out a "beeeeep... (pause)... beeeeep...." sound even though the fan and everything does seem to be running... But nothing is on the screen. What has happened to it?? HELP!!! :'(

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince

One more to the collection! Well... as usual, most of the book is cut, making this 6th installment of the Harry Potter series another cut and paste movie. Still, the show is a must-watch for people like me who are waiting to complete their series. Though i question the rationale for the inclusion of some of the scenes... e.g. the one where the Death Eaters burn the Burrow down.

Oh as i was recalling the previous books/movies. i realised that the last (i.e. 5th film) is really that insignificant that i forgot about it totally. i think so far the nicest would have to be the first Harry Potter film when Harry, Hermione and Ron were first learning wizardry.