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!