Mushroom Park (Revisited again)

Suggested here for SY's belated bday gathering. Once again, i think the crowd doesn't do this place justice and we all wondered how could they survive... For a while, we booked the whole restaurant.

Eight Treasure Tea - not exactly my fav cos the tea always taste a little bitter due to the orange peel but it feels really healthy

Mushroom Sashimi - nice

Mushroom pot

Mushroom rice

Desserts - the green tea jelly is nice.

We ordered only 3 sets from the citibank promo. Buy two of the most expensive set and get one free. The 4 of us were really full after the dinner! Cos we drank alot of the yummy soup. :p

After dinner, we adjourned to Raffles City for some Ben & Jerry's! i got the yummy cherry garcia. :)

Koi

No more Sweetalk and marshy pearls! Found out about Koi from an online forum and that there's a branch in Chinatown. Turned out that i had passed by this shop before when i was doing fabric shopping. But the name's unheard of so i didn't dare to try. Anyway, the best seller seemed to be the normal milk tea so i got that to try. Simply love the pearls! There's a generous serving of pearls and they are slightly smaller than the normal pearls. Very well cooked and chewy. No more marshy pearls getting stuck in the straw. Yay! No need to ration pearls with every sip. Double Yay! Cos pearls are the only reason i drink bubble tea anyway.

Anyway, there was no customer when the bus passed by. But after lunch, there was a long queue. Had to wait 15min for my drink. It comes in 3 sizes, S, M and L. You can select the sweetness level too. Prices are slightly higher as compared to other shops. Lucky this is out of the way so i won't be drinking that often. Phew...

ブタがいた教室 School Days with a Pig

Hot off the rack!! i'm the first one to rent this from the shop. haha... Had wanted to watch this when it was showing but been into the cinema too often a short while back. So decided to wait for the dvd instead.

Main triggering reason to watch this is, of course, Tsumabuki Satoshi! But i'm equally entrigued by the storyline. This is based ona true controversial story of a primary school teacher who decided to let his students raise a pig and eat it on their graduation. But after a year of love and devotion showered on P-chan, the fate of P-chan lingers...

Typical touching Japanese movie. (*sob sob*) The students and P-chan are real cute. Btw, the children are given a loose script so most of the scenes are their real reactions. Quite heart-wenching and thought-provoking when they are debating over the fate of P-chan.

Go see the movie if you want to know P-chan's fate.

命の意味はなんですか?

Red Lacquer Penang Peranakan

Had discovered this restaurant in a deserted corner at JP2 so decided to come here for lunch. i ordered the promotional set lunch. You can choose the appetiser and main course for $10.90++.

i chose the loh bak (seasoned meat rolls aka ngoh hiang), inche kabin (nyonya fried chicken served with worchester sauce) with rice and iced lemon tea. The loh bak is not bad. Taste a little different from the usual ngoh hiang. The inche kabin is fried without batter till the outside and inside are very dry. i don't usually appreciate fried chicken this way but i guess i'm in the mood for a nice lunch so it tasted ok to me. hee... i liked the achar that was served as a side to the rice though... Not too spicy nor sour.

And i still managed to top up $1.90 for cendol as dessert. The coconut milk is served separate from the ice which thoughtful (i thought). i would have wished that the gula melaka is served separately too. So that i can pour in as much as i like! hehe...

The place is quite empty for a weekday lunch. Maybe JP is now too big so the crowd is dispersed. No pictures. Use your imagination! haha...

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

***

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

“Why?” asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

“I’m a panda,” he says, at the door. “Look it up.”

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

“Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”

So, punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death.

***

This appears on the back cover of Eats, Shoots & Leaves : The zero tolerance approach to punctuation by Lynne Truss. Just finished reading over span of 2 library loan periods. Yay for free library renewals! Had wanted to get hold of this book when it was published way back in 2003/4 cos i'm trickled by the oh-so smart title; and i think i'm a stickler in grammar at heart. However, the modern world has diminished my competency in it... (Oh oh! Did you know that these 3 dots ... are called ellipses?!) i'm just so pleasantly surprised by the books i find in the library nowadays. Just today, i saw this children's book written by Madonna : The English Roses. But i think it is more for tweens than for kids. lol.

心花朵朵开 III

Wow! Didn't know that flowers from the same plant can change colour! Until heard from mummy that the first one died... Ya.. forgot that it was mentioned on my blog before... Lucky i got this online diary! Anyways, isn't this pretty? (^^) i would not have discovered it if i were not sick (again!?) at home! At least some good came out of it!

Girls Really Do Like Flowers :)

What a wonderful surprise! XX got me a bright, cheerful, lovely, sunny yellow sunflower today! One of my fav flowers! It is standing on my table; really perks me up when the boss breathes fire down my neck. i really should take a photo of it if i could! :p

Pardon the awful grainy pic. Was taken with a lousy office cam... :p

Reese's Pieces

Once you've ate these, you'll not want to eat m&ms. Never knew peanut butter can be so yummy!

Kyomomoyama @ Central

Had a quick bite before my haircut. Tried this cos of the $10++ dinner promotion and it is the most empty (read: we really want a QUICK bite). Remembered that i had entered this restaurant before but couldn't find something to eat so left after 10 minutes. Well, ordered the seafood sashimi rice aka chirashi don. Better than expected. Food taste better cos this is one of the RARE Japanese restaurants that doesn't use disposal chopsticks. Thumbs up for that! :p

Post Holiday Syndrome

Was terribly tired yesterday evening and i can't imagine i was knocked out for 11 hours! i really wonder why... Maybe it's the brain's reactions to post holiday mood... Really had to force myself not to nap today else would have wasted one day sleeping. Not that i had planned anything BIG. But i had wanted to spend the day idling. Zzz /= Idling. hehe...

End of holiday. Back to work tomorrow... BUT! It's the start of a short work week! Weekend's coming again! YAY!! :p

Phuket/Langkawi Cruise (Day 4)

Ran 2.4km first thing in the morning! :) Would have ran on the open deck if the floor was not wet from rain the night before. Feels so good after the run. Can eat more now! haha...

Change of breakfast from the usual buffet to Western. The best breakfast onboard! You get to choose a main and from the buffet bar. The spread here is much better than at Mediterranean. More focused. There's the usual bread, toast, cakes, cereal and yogurt.

My main dish of omelette with cheese and baked beans and grilled tomato

After breakfast, we went around exploring again for one last time. i finally found the helipad which i was searching the other night cos there was a special under the stars disco party held there. Not that i wanted to attend as it is specially for the majority 600+ nationals.



For the last lunch onboard, we went for Chinese. Can see from the photo the food is not that fantastic...


After lunch, we basically wandered from place to place dragging our luggage since we had to check out of our rooms. Finally the ship docked at 3pm. Long queue at customs cos of the solitary temperature scanner that was holding everyone up. Went for Mac hot fudge sundae the moment we touched down cos we had lost too much energy in queuing and waiting... Need a dose of sugar! hehe...

Slept all the way on the train ride home...

Home Sweet Home.... why do i feel like i'm still onboard?? having seasick on land. (X_X)

Phuket/Langkawi Cruise (Day 3)

Had a late night so didn't do any exercise this morning. After breakfast, the ship reached Langkawi. Instead of waiting in the room, i made the girls enjoy some sun and sea breeze. :p

We joined the Langkawi Highlights and Shopping tour. As with the previous day, we waited at The Lido to disembark. But the authorities are slightly stricter due to the virus, and we were made to wait for almost an hour.

First stop, Underwater World. For a moment i thought we were at the bird park. hehe...

This is sea urchin!

Nemo!

Next we went to the Princess Mahsuri's Tomb that was built in honour of a legendary maiden who lived on Langkawi more than 200 years ago... After which, we dropped by Galleria Perdana which is a museum housing more than 10,000 state gifts and awards presented to the ex-PM of M'sia, Dr M.

Then, we were brought to Kuah Town to have our late lunch (we had Macdonalds!) and some quick supermarket shopping.

Last is a photo stop at Eagle Square, Langkawi's most famous landmark.


After back to the ship, we quickly washed up in time for the gala dinner! But before that was the cocktail at the Grand Foyer where the Captain and other main crew meets the guests, followed by a magic show cum comedy performance at the Lido. And then comes the highlight of the evening! The Gala Dinner. We chose the western menu at Bella Vista. There was a "turmoil" initially cos SY wanted Chinese while SL and YV were ok with both. After looking through the menu again, we decided SY and i decided to go for western cos of the desert, Baked Alaska! We didn't know what is that but the chinese translation sounds quite interesting... hmm.. seems like grilled ice cream! Yum!

I feel that we were kinda UNDERdressed for the dinner. i was in a mini sundress while people around us were really aptly dressed for a GALA! Tux and all.

The menu

Appetiser - Spring salad

Clear Oxtail broth - this is the first time i'm drinking oxtail... doesn't have much of a cow smell...

Shitake mushroom - this is one of the reason i chose western over chinese but the mushroom (hidden under the rosti) is a little disappointing...

Baked alaska - it's only ice cream cake... -_-"

Petit fours

The lighting at dinner was too romantic to be taken well...

Phuket/Langkawi Cruise (Day 2)

Started the day with a 30min session of Hatha Yoga! Must keep healthy with all the binging! Went for breakfast at the Buffet right after the yoga! lol. Spent some time lazing around after breakfast. YV and i went to the slot machines. As usual, no luck. But it is more for the fun of it. My first go at the machines. (x_x)

The ship docked at Port of Phuket soon after our buffet lunch. We had signed up for the Shop till You Drop tour so we promptly gathered at 3pm to disembark.

First stop was Wang Talang. This is those high-class touristy shops selling the local products at exorbitant prices. Needless to say, we didn't buy anything cos most of the stuff were pearls, jewellery, Thai silk, etc.

Next were the Sri Burapa Cashew Nut Factory and Pornthip Sea Store. The former is a cashew nut factory cum retailer. You get to see how the nut was extracted from the fruit and cleaned for retail. The latter sells local dried produce like crackers, pork floss, etc. i've been to both places before when i first visited Phuket in 2003. i think these are probably the few touristy places that all groups would go. Didn't get much. Only two bottles of cashew nut and a pack of cuttlefish.


Dinner (another buffet) was served in the Thai Naan Restaurant. Tried the tempura flowers! Not sure what flowers are they but it tasted ok with the chili sauce. "花吃" hehe.


Our next destination was just cross the road to Central Festival shopping centre. This is supposedly the biggest in Phuket. Bought some toiletries and mister donut! i bought some home to eat and it is still soft and fresh after 2 days! i like the Pon De Ring! it is very chewy and unlike normal donut! Must-try!


Final stop for the night is Patong Beach. We spent the one and half hours practically walking up and down the streets. Most of the shops are selling similar stuff. And it is a MUST to bargain at least half the price down! Anyway, most of the activity concentrates on a walking street (can't remember the name). Especially in front of this pub/restaurant. They were standing outside their pub asking people to go in. BUT it is practically deserted inside while the row of pubs across the road are PACKED. And the seats are all facing these "girls". Those are the "best" seats! i was trying to take a pic of the girls without offending them. But then EVERYONE was whipping out their cameras and blatantly shooting away. It was very hard to take a good pic cos they won't keep still. And with people walking around, that's why the pic turned out to be so ghastly.


Oh! Saw reese's peanut butter cup at the local 7-11. Bought 4 cups back. Should have gotten more!

Finally left Patong around midnight. Was really knocked out after a day's tour. After supper, turned in at 2am... Was trying to watch the HK drama but too tired..

Phuket/Langkawi Cruise (Day 1)

Knock knock!


This is our cabin for these 4 days! Quite squeezy for 4 of us but we won't be in the room for most of the time anyway! :p After putting down our luggage, off we go for lunch!


First meal onboard - Chinese cuisine at The Pavilion. Food is so-so only... Surprisingly the nicest are the tofu and bun.


Went exploring the ship after lunch...


i like the feel of the library. :)


Watched a ballroom dance performance @ Galaxy. First time i'm seeing professionals dance live. WOW! i've gotta dust away the cobweb on my dancing shoes when i get back!


OMG! Is this how much we eat!?

After the walk, lunch was somewhat digested so we went for the tea break @ Mediterranean Buffet! hehe...

Managed to catch the sunset! The wind was VERY strong. Very hard to keep steady hands. My cam almost went for a dive!




Decided to go for western meal for dinner at Bella Vista.


Shrimp and corn soup


Baked(?) fillet


Crackers and cheese

Went for foot reflex and bingo after dinner. And after that watched HK dramas in cabin. hehe. Ended the day with Supper @ Mediterranean Buffet. :p

《天冷就回来》 2009

可能是最近太热了， 所以《天冷》没回来。。。

《天冷就回来》 is back after 2 years. i had loved it very very much in 2007 so i simply had to watch it this time. There's a soundtrack this time, new cast and additional scenes but i think i enjoyed the 2007 version much more. i'm still impressed by Ah Le's and Rose's singing but somehow the magic seemed to have diminished.