Simply Me

Haagen-Dazs - The Jouney of Indulgence

2011-11-30T21:56:00.000+08:00

Thanks to Ann, me & shan had a wonder ride on the open top bus along Orchard Road with free ice-cream, champagne & chocolate.

My last birthday starting with the digit 2! =S

2011-10-23T20:05:00.012+08:00

Yes! It's my 29th birthday!! OMG, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!! I have exactly 1 year before welcoming the BIG 3 into my life!!! Haiz...

Had a dim sum buffet with my family & hubby at Swatow Restaurant (Tao Payoh), the whole restaurant is packed!
The foods there are still OK but their service sucks! The way they serve you your dim sum is messy, our table was missed a few times. We missed a few dishes altogether!

Knowing that my sis like to eat carrot cake, my mum saw a waitress dashed passed us with them & stop a few tables away from us, she took a plate & walked over to her thinking that the waitress could gave her some carrot cake. In return, the waitress told her off saying that our area has been served & she needs to serve the other tables 1st, so we should wait. My mum was very pissed! Isn't it a dim sum BUFFET?! even we were served before, couldn't we have another serving? What kind of service is this?

Well, this will be the 1st & the last time we patronize this restaurant.

Forget about the unpleasant experience at the restaurant, I received a surprised present from my bro & sis! It's a lovely heart shape crystal chain from Swarovski!

Also, a birthday present I requested from hubby, a watch! A few choices I had in mind were Solviet Titus, Baby-G or Adidas. Finally, I found the right one at City Chain causeway point.

The Baby-G KE$HA Limited Edition!! Love the contrast of the black & gold combination & pink leopard-skin pattern on the clock face!! =D

To end my day, a birthday cake from SIL!

Resort World Sentosa - Hard Rock Hotel

2011-10-20T21:46:00.001+08:00

This year's company kick off was being scheduled in Singapore's Resort World Sentosa - Hard Rock Cafe. Although its a little boring but I'm glad that it was not in Genting or Penang.

I've not been to any hotel in Resort World, hence this is actually a good chance to see around. The moment I checked into my hotel room, I fall in love with the theme they've used for their room! I think is contemporary + romantic? I think the room is quite suitable for couples.

the toilet is open concept..

My room comes with a balcony..

My first & last Star Cruise trip..

2011-09-10T13:18:00.000+08:00

I've never board a cruise & since its a family trip, we booked a balcony class cabin for two that cost a freaking SGD$1064 for a 3D2N cruise trip to Redang, Malaysia. Well, I feel kind of being cheated, its not 3d at all, to be exact, its just 2D2N.Cruise left at 8pm on the 1st day & back to Singapore at 1pm on the 3rd day. Where is the 1 day stated in 3D2N?

Anyway, the room is quite a disapointment. Not what we have expected at all. Food on board is still ok, except for the fact that you need to be very kiasu to go queue up at those restaurant that is inclusive in the cruise fare every damn meal time as there will be atleast another few hundreds of people queueing for their meal too! The restaurants has a specific meal timing too! So you got to go queue early!

The facilities wise, if you don't gamble. There's nothing much more you can do. The shows are nothing much, the swimming pool is very small. The only thing that I like is this aqua swim pool that creates a strong jet of water current for you to swim against it. Its like you can exercise by swimming at the same spot!

Apart from the boring activities on board, the highlight of the 2nd day is going to Redang Island! We were transferred from the cruise to the island by their render boat. Redang Island is very beautiful! The water is super clear! I wished I have more time there! I am thinking of planning another trip there!

Anyway, I don't think I will be cruising with Star Cruise anymore. I am hoping I will be rich enough to try Royal Caribbean one day!

our balcony class stateroom..

a family photo at the lobby..

the aqua swim pool..

the swimming pool..

the boat that is going to ferry us to Redang Island..

perfect weather for the perfect scenery..

the water is so clear & cooling I have to get myself into it..

the all time famous more more tea inn..

A new cleansing experience - Biore Marshmallow Whip Facial Wash!

2011-09-07T09:51:00.007+08:00

I do not belong to the categories of people who can use or switch around different brands of skin care products. So I'll stick to the one that works well for my skin for the longest period of time until I find the next product that works for me.

Recently I tried this facial wash - Biore marshmallow Whip facial wash.

I was wondering why marshmallow until I bump out the cleanser from the bottle. It's not the usual liquid type you'll get but a fluffy foam straight out of the pump!

The texture of the foam is so smooth & spreads so well onto the face, my face feels clean & refreshing after the wash without any tightness. It's also able to keep my face clean for a few hours unlike other facial wash I've been using. Within an hour after washing I'll get an oily face!

How does this facial wash work? Ever wonder why people creates foam out of their cleanser with foaming net that usually takes some time before you can get that little foam?
Foam is the secret behind effective, gentle cleansing!! The finer the bubbles, the cleaner your face gets. Not only that, high density foams can helps to cushion the hand pressure on skin & acts as a massager as well. The ideal state of foams should be dense & not drip even when flipping upside down. The texture should be smooth & bouncy with very small bubbles.

Biore Marshmallow Whip facial wash has just put all those cleansing criteria into a bottle! A brand new & best ever format for facial cleansing! Ultra fine foam in just a pump not only provides a better cleansing ability due to the small bubbles size that is smaller than the size of pores, it is also enriched with collagen that helps to moisturize the skin while you clean your face giving your face a baby smooth feel after wash. What's more? It comes with 150 Pumps per bottle.

So how is it different from other facial wash compared to Biore's Mashallow whip foam?

Biore Marshmallow Whip Foam (top picture) – Ultra Fine, Fluffy and Dense compared to a Flat Foam Quality straight out of the pump, from Hand Lathering of brand x facial wash (bottom picture).

Its definitely worth a try for this facial wash! I'm loving it! You can get Biore Marshmallow Facial wash at major supermarket & medical stores with the retailing price of $13.90 & refill pack at $10.90 =)

Don't miss out on a chance to win attractive prizes from Biore by playing the Biore Mashmallow game www.marshmallow.com.sg !

Procedure of becoming a Singapore Citizen

2011-05-15T16:31:00.003+08:00

Finally after a long wait of 11 months, I received the letter from ICA congratulating me on the my application to become a Citizen has been approved. I was told that I need to renounce my Malaysia citizenship before attending the Oath taking ceremony at ICA at the mentioned date.

I did some research online & manage to find some helpful post that has help a lot on the whole experience.
I got everything settle in just 12 days, starting from the time I received the ICA letters, going to the the Malaysia embassy to submit my documents & getting a copy of the Borang K (which is needed by ICA) & going to the ICA to take my Oath.

I must say I am impressed with the efficiency of the Malaysia embassy. I was worried that I could not get back the Borang K form on time. But it only took 3 working days in the end. Also, the staff at the consular office is very friendly & helpful when you treat them politely. Smile & say thank you ALL the time!

The procedure is that you need to travel to the Malaysia High Commission of Singapore. You will first see the entrance gate, but you need to change for a pass before the guard will let you in. Just walked a few more steps & you will see the guard house, tell them you are going to the Consular office & they will exchange a pass with one of your card (an ez-link card will do).

A guard will be at the entrance gate, just let her know you are going to the consular office, she will point out the direction for you. It is just on the right of the entrance.
The moment I enter the Consular office, I was greeted by a friendly officer & he guided my throughout on what are the forms I need to submit etc.

I downloaded & filled up all the required forms in advance, except for the Borang K form as it is all in Malay. There will be a guide pasted on the notice board in the Consular office where you can reference to, or the officer will help you also.

Basically, you need...
1) 2 set of the Barang K (print 2 set of this file)
2) 3 set of the Annex A form (print 1 set of this file only as it already contain 3 pages of the Annex A & 1 page of Additional Information Form)

The documents that you need are..
1) Letter of approval from ICA, Singapor (Original & two photocopies)
2) Malaysian I.C (Original & two photocopies)
3) Singapore pink / blue I.C / National Service I.C (Original & two photocopies)
4) Malaysian / Singapore birth certificate (Original & two photocopies)
5) Malaysia Passport (the one you are using now)
6) Recent colored passport-size photographs (blue/white background) (Three copies)
*they accepted mine with white background, as ICA needs 4 white background passport photos, I just develop all in white background.
7) $10 in CASH (I forgot to withdraw the money & I ended up walking all the way out (took me abt 5 mins) to the petrol station to withdraw)

Once you have all the forms filled properly, you just pass everything to the officer sitting at the corner of the room, he will help you check everything before giving you a queue no. Just wait for your queue no. to be called & head to the counter where the officer will ask for the rest of the documents & your photos. After which you wait again for your name to be called & you pay $10 to them, they will hand you back a receipt & another slips of paper telling you when to come back for the copy of the Borang K. I arrived there at about 830am, by 930am I'm done!

Do note that the time for submission of documents is only from 8.15 am to 11.00 am & the collection of the Borang K is only from 2.30 pm to 3.30 pm.

I went back to ICA on my appoinment date together with the Borang K form & necessary forms mentioned on the letter from ICA. Scan the letter for queue no. & waited for my no. to be call.
The passport photos I had did not show my shoulders so I need to retake it at the photo taking booth at level 2 & spent an additional $5.45 on it =\. So PLEASE check your passport photos!

Other than that, everything went on smoothly, paid $70 for the Citizenship handling fee & $10 for the pink I/C. When into a room for Oath taking & was told that I will be notified through mail on where & when I will receive my pink I/C & citizenship certificate.

You can apply your new passport online or simply drop them into the deposit box which you can see everywhere in ICA, which only cost $70 compare to over the counter at $80. It only took 4 working days for the pink collection card to reach me. I collected my passport the next day without an appointment & the waiting time only took me 10 mins!
I was afraid that it will take 2 hours or more as mentioned on the collecting card for those without appointment. But I guess it depends on the time you go, as I reached at the time it open at 8am sharp!

Day 7-9, Switzerland - Luzern, Engelberg (Mt Titlis)

2011-05-10T11:40:00.001+08:00

This morning, we are heading to the Rhine Fall in Schaffhausen after the Zurichsee boat ride. We checked out from the hotel & stored our luggage in Zurich train station locker, each large locker cost CHF8, we only need a large locker for both of our hand carry size luggage =D.

We plan to take a boat ride at the Rhine fall, but realise that there isn't any as its still winter time. Hence, we just stroll around the area, taking photos.

I must say the force of the water are magnificient!

We returned to Zurich station to get our luggage before heading to our next destination, Luzern.

The central of Luzern & the our hotel room..

Etap hotel is where we will be spending our 2 nights with. So far, we are very pleased with all the hotels we've stayed so far (except for the one in Florence), its all budget but its already good enough as we only need the bed to sleep at night.

After checking in to the hotel, we started exploring Luzern. Some of the attraction we went was, the KKL Building, Chapel Bridge, The Lion Monument, The old city wall...

We had our dinner at one of the supermarket restuarant which serves up quite an impressive meal at a reasonable price! Our day ended with a stroll near Lake Luzern with the chilling wind.

Day 8 was an exciting day! As we are going to Mt Titlis at Engelberg. We started our day really early, we are already on the train to Engelberg at 8am! The journey took about 50 mins.

It's a sunny morning! We took an enjoyable stroll from the train station to the entrance of the Titlis Rotair. We will be taking the revolving rotair cableway to reach an altitude of 3020 metres above sea level for a fabulous view of the central Alps.

Basically we only change to the Rotair when we reach the Station stand. First we need to take the gondola to Trubsee stand, then change to the cable car to go up to the Station stand.

The gondola in the top right corner of the photo..

the cable car at the middle bottom & rotair on the top left corner of the photo..

At the top of Mt Titlis!! Freaking cold with strong wind, -3 degree celcius! There is a glacier cave, the whole cave was craved out of solid ice! Its freaking cold inside too!

It was fun to take an Ice Flyer ride, enjoying the view on its way.

Having spent almost 1.5 hrs at the top of Mt Titlis, we make our way down to the Trubsee Stand for some snow activities.

Hubby posting for photo with people's ski equiptment =P. There is a slope for you to slide down sitting on top of a tube, we had a few rounds of fun before it gets too hot & we decided to make our way down Mt Titlis.

We spent the rest of our day exploring the rest of Luzern.

Day 6, Switzerland-Zurich

2011-05-04T13:48:00.005+08:00

A total of 6 hours train ride from Mestre to Zurich via Milan. Spent my traveling time doing some last minute planning for Zurich, blogging, enjoying the beautiful sights out of the window.

As usual, my traveling partner is snoozing 90% of the journey -_-.

A short stop-over at Milan train station while waiting for our Eurocity train to Zurich.

We arrived around mid afternoon, checked-in luggage at easyHotel & started our itinerary of the day right away. Having the Swiss Pass on hand (remember to validate your Swiss Pass at the train station counter before you start using them ), we make most out of it.

Taking buses, trams to go around the city, saving our feet from blisters! (been having blisters for the past 5 days!! Painful =S)

Zürich Hauptbahnhof station.

easyHotel for the night, budget yet well equipt with the basic amenity.

Most of the sights/attractions in Zurich are churches, museums, monuments. The highlights were cruising on their sea look alike lakes!

Polybahn ride with Swiss Pass, it basically send us up to the top of a hill which you can overlook the Old Town of Zurich. It seems like there are University at the top of the hill & we see students sitting at the open square enjoying reading under the hot sun!

We planned to take the boat ride (also covered with Swiss Pass) out to the Zurichsee, by the time we've reach the quay, it was already the last returning boat ride. We ended up taking the earliest ride the next morning.

Rise & shine, here we are for our 1st lake cruise in Switzerland!

As we don't have time to cruise across the lake (that will take a full 6 hours!). We took a 1hr50mins round trip instead. It was a morning cruise & sitting on the deck of the boat will let you experience the freezing cold wind hitting right at your face! Cold but "shiok" for us!! =D

Boat rides timing can be some what cofusing, timetables are difficult to decode. So if you are planning for boat rides, give yourself some time allowance to find out the routes, arriving/departure timing of the boats.

Shops & supermarket generally closes at 6 / 7 pm. By 8pm, almost all shops are closed! The streets are rather quiet by then!

We packed our meals from the supermarket's take away restaurant. Budget yet enough to fill our stomach.

Shield the UVs with SUNPLAY's Ultra Protection range

2011-05-03T22:56:00.009+08:00

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I've used SUNPLAY's sunblock before & find them not as greasy compared to other brands of sunblock out there thanks to its Japan Watery Liquid formulation which is light and non greasy. It's also highly waterproof.

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Day 5, Italy - Venice

2011-05-03T17:35:00.006+08:00

Took the train from Florence to Venezia Mestre station & check-in to our hotel near to the station before heading over to Venice.

What a nice train..the seats are like 1st class flight seat =D

Hotels in Venice is too expensive, so we stayed in Mestre, which is the mainland of Venice. Got this hotel at a reasonable price of €70, with shower, toilet & breakfast buffet included.

Hotel Trieste..just beside the train station of Mestre..

For a price like this, this room is consider very good!

The toilet is still small! -_-

Took a bus (bus no.2) in front of Mestre train station into Venice for €1.20 every single trip (get the ticket at the newspaper stall before boarding the bus, getting the ticket on bus cost €2.50!). Find the newspaper stall at the very end of the train station. The bus ride took about 10 mins to reach Venice.

The bus interchange in Venice

After walking for about 10 mins, we reach the train station of Venice.

Venice is like a town of maze!! So many small alleys!!! We keep losing our ways even with a map!

You only have 2 choice..

... walk to the end of the alley or

look above you.. in hokkien..我问天！ OK! lame =P

We found the bakery which sells the best tiramisu in Venice.

Bar Pasticceria Gilda Vio, Rio Marin 784, S. Croc

€1 for a slice of it, Cheap & Delicious!

Then we had a big big piece of pizza recommended on wikitravel.
Pizzeria ae Oche, santa croce 1552A

It is said that their pizza menu have the most extensive & exotic types of pizzas..

We ordered the pizza call "4 stagioni". The pizza is very big! Enough for 2 Asian to share..

It comes with one side topped with olive & artichoke..

The other side with ham & mushroom..

Rialto Bridge behind me..

On Rialto Bridge..

Next we head to St Mark's Square (half the square is under renovation, hence we couldn't see much) & St Mark's Basilica just before the time it closes at 5pm.

Inside St Mark's Basilica

The square is very quiet that day! Where has all the pigeons gone to?! =(

We walked along the coast line of Venice before taking their water bus (Vaporetti).

A cheaper way to cruise along the Grand Canal without causing a bomb to our wallet, as riding the gondola can easily cost €60-80!! This is a transport used by their local, the ticket is €6.50 for a 60 mins ride. You can get on & off at any station within this 60 mins.

Rialto Bridge again!

We cruised along the river for a full 60 mins before getting off at the Rialto station which is near the Rialto bridge.

We were looking for restaurants along the Grand Canal & came upon this restaurant which offers a 3 course set menu at €19. You can choose from a variety of starter, main course & dessert.

Walking down this bridge will see the restaurant..

We ordered their house pour white wine at extra cost, they taste good!

There's one thing you definitely need to try when you are in Venice. That will be the black sauce (squid inn) spaghetti!!

Its not very glamorous to eat this dish as it will make you look like this..

Hahaha...

Everyone around us is curious on what we were eating! No one ordered that! I don't know why =P
But it's truly delicious, with meats of the squids taste so tender it seems like you are eating fish.

That's hubby's penne in carbonara sauce

My main course...braise pig liver I think..Not to my liking..

Hubby's fish & chips..

Lastly, our desserts are..

Dessert 1 - Chocolate Pudding..

Dessert 2 - Caramel Pudding.. That is pure caramel which you can taste the bitterness of it compared to those we had else where. This is my 1st time having pure caramel, I like it!

Overall, the meal is good with the highlights of the black sauce spaghetti & their caramel pudding!

Very full after the meal, total damage was €48. Not too expensive considering that we had a proper Italian meal.

Night in Venice is very quiet with most of the shops closed at 8pm. It took us about 30 mins to walk from Rialto back to the bus interchange, enough to ease the bloatedness of our stomach after dinner.

Day 4, Italy - Pisa & Florence

2011-05-01T22:27:00.002+08:00

Left Rome by EuroStar train to Pisa early in the morning. Heading for the famous Leaning Tower! I booked my train tickets (to Pisa & Venice) online 3 weeks before my trip & I got their Mini tickets at a 30-70% discount compare to the normal ticket. Saving a great deal of euro!

Train to Pisa!

Killing time on train =P

Their long distance train all has toilet & socket for you to charge your laptop or hand phone, so do packed your charger & adapter in your haversack or handbag.

That is a very clean train toilet!

We arrived at Pisa Centrale train station & left our luggage using their baggage deposit service located in a corner, right at the end of the platform at €3/baggage for 12 hours.

In front of the Pisa Centrale train station..

We head off towards the Miracle's Square where the Leaning Tower & Tower of Catheral is. Walking from the train station takes about 30 mins (found a route map online drawn by a university student in Pisa), enjoying views along the way. You can choose to take the red line bus no. 2 too!

The cinema mentioned in the map..

The sight of the Leaning Tower really awed us by sending goose pimples all over!! Really not over exaggerating! Its really really awesome!!!

The Leaning Tower

There are the Tower of the Cathedral & Baptistry at the left of the Leaning Tower. It seems like the Baptistry is a little leaning too, but hubby said its not.

Tower of the Cathedral

The Batistry

Pisa in my hand!!

OK! We can't get it right..not easy! or we are simply lousy =P

We stayed for about 1.5 hours before heading back to the train station to catch the next train to Florence.

Bye Bye Pisa..

Google map had us spending 30 mins walking to our hotel where its just 5 mins away!! Pissed! Super aching feet AGAIN for walking the extra miles with our luggages!

As soon as we finished check-in, we start our tour around the center of Florence. Losing our ways here & there. Spending at least 1 hour looking for the shops that sells Florence's best braised cow stomach & panini only to find those places closed or non-existence -_-".

Well, we had ice-creams again! At least to cheer ourselves up with all the walking.

We visited the..

Catheral of San Maria del Fiore

A flee market that sells all leather goods..

Ponte Vecchio..

.... a bridge that sells lots of jewelry especially gold!!

A boar statue which our reception lady told us we should go and touch its nose so that we would return to Florence again.

See how shining its nose is!! haha..

We didn't have much time to explore other area of Florence other than its central..

...hope our wish does come true

Florence is well known for their T-bone steak (Bistecca alla fiorentina). We went to this self-service restaurant call Leonardo for dinner (recommended in wikitravel), its very near to the Catheral of S. Maria.

The restaurant is above this Guess shop.

We order 2 starter
Cabonara trivioli
Meat sauce penne

2 main course
Potato croquette with french fries
The famous T-bone steak (ours weight about 500g), cooked in Florentine style (that means medium rare!)

But trust me, it doesn't taste raw!! The surface of the meat is evenly sprinkled with salts as seasoning & put on top of the grill till its crispy on the outside. The texture of the meat is tender on the inside & crispy on the outside!! Superb!!

YUM!

Now you must be thinking this meal must have cost us a bomb! NO!! Starter at €4 each, main course at €5, steak at just €15 for 500g! Total damage €28! The steak is well worth the money, where can you find such good deal with good taste in SG?

That was the best meal we had so far in Europe! =D

Our hotel for the night is a bit run down with poor sound proof. Although it has all the basic necessity of what a hotel should have. Luckily, its just a night stay.

Day 1-3, Italy - Rome

2011-04-24T13:07:00.003+08:00

Day 1 - 1st Apr, 0025

Flying off with Emirates from Singapore to Dubai (stop over in Colombo for passenger to alight, which we totally have no idea this would happen, luckily those going to Dubai do not have to leave the aircraft). Transit in Dubai for 2 hours before leaving for Rome.

Flight boarding in Dubai airport..

Arrived in Rome on 1st Apr (still!! after flying for 12 hours =D) at 1345 local time, after collecting our luggage we head towards the railway station for the Leonardo Express train (you can buy tickets from the biglietteria in the station to avoid the long queues at the train ticket counter! €14/person) to Rome termini where we will need to change to the metro to get to our Bed & Breakfast Hotel.

Ticket counter on the right with queues, biglietteria on the left is empty.

Remember to validate your ticket at a yellow machine box beside the train platform before boarding the train.

Getting a Roma pass gives unlimited travel (does not include Leonardo Express) using their metro, tram, bus & also free entry to 2 museum/archeological site together with a free map & some useful Rome guides @ $25 per pass! Its quite a good deal & it also save us time & trouble on getting/figuring which ticket to get each time we need to go some where. Get it at the tourist center once you exit the airport.

If you are transferring from train to metro, please go to the main hall of the train station, then exiting from the escalator down & you will see metro entrance shortly. We got the wrong way & trust me, before we start our itinerary, we're already getting sore feet.

Finally, we found the entrance to the metro BUT it was not in operation until 5pm!! The metro info board was displaying something like protesta blar blar blar.. So we guessed it could be due to protesting that the metro has stopped its operation. End up we have no choice but to walk from Termini station to our B&B which took us like half a freaking hour!! Pulling each of our 13kg luggage! Whereas from the metro its just 5 mins!! Our feet are aching by the time we reach our B&B.

The unit of our B&B

The room of our B&B.

Alessandro, the owner of the B&B is a nice guy, he handed us a map (fyi, no free maps everywhere in train station or airport! You need to buy one & its not cheap!) & a briefing on where to visit/eat. We have free & reliable wifi throughout our stay!! YEAH =D

Places we covered in Rome were..

Trevi fountain..day

Trevi fountain..night

The Pantheon

Vatican Museum

The Sistine Chapel

St Peter's Basilica

St Peter's Square

Colosseum

Spanish steps

& a lot of alleys, uneven streets of bricks...

We lost our way looking for Trevi fountain on our 1st night!! By the time we are ready to head back to our hotel we were shocked to see there are no more metro service (for line A)!! What a day full of "surprises" for us, as we arrived without metro, now we are stuck without metro back to our hotel!! As we try to calm down, we saw the display board of the metro indicating there is bus services to the various stations affected. I looked around for the nearest bus stop & decided to walk over to that bus stop while praying hard that this bus stop can take us to the station. Luckily, we got it right & headed back to the hotel.

The metro line's normal operating hours are 5:30-1:30. But due to the construction of the metro line C (currently they only have A&B), operating hours of metro line A for sun-fri are 5:30-21:00 & sat 5:30-130, disruption will continue until Apr 2012!
Other than this, traveling with metro in Rome is very easy. Try to avoid peak hours like morning, lunch & after work, as it can get really crowded.

A decent meal is relatively expensive in Rome, we had pizzas/paninis (a wide variety of ingredient like ham, salmon, veg, cheese etc sandwich with piece of roll or loaf of bread) mostly for our entire stay in Rome. The prices are still acceptable, €3-4 per slice or €5-7 for round for pizza & €3-4 for panini, all taste great!
They have a few snacks, but we tried only suppli, cheese wrap around with rice in tomato sauce & deep fried with bread crums. Taste good when its hot.
Expresso or café is good! Its not so bitter from what I've heard from, drink standing up at €0.80 per cup.

We had it at this caféteria near The Pantheon, Caffe Tazza Doro. Heard its a 70 years old cafeteria!

We had ice-cream almost everyday! They just taste so good! So smooth! But Italian like to add whip cream on top of their ice-creams. I tried, it taste gross! I scoop off the rest. Price range around €2-3 for 2 flavors or €2.50-3 for 3 flavors, depending on the area.

Shopping on day 2, Yeah!! At Rome's outlet store - Castel Romania Designer Outlet, about 45 mins away from center of Rome. Taking a shuttle bus (check out the bus timing at their website) at Rome Termini station, along Via Masala road for €14 per person return trip, just in time for me to get a new pair of boots to replace my cheapo one! I got multiple blister on my sole in only 1 day of walking =(.
Manage to get a pair of camper boots at sgd103, at least my feet gets some comfort for a lot more walking in the days to come. Got a Nike sling bag at sgd28 too! There're alot more brands there but they just don't appeal to us.

Ok, you must be thinking, didn't Duke get anything? Well, he didn't! Nothing caught his eyes! Very picky! But that means, I can buy more things! =P

We buy drinking water from supermarket, Despar is the only one we've seen so far. €0.25-0.35 for a 2 litres. Where €1-3 for a 500ml anywhere else!!

A lot of Indians trying to hand you stalks of roses, I observed others around refused to take it so I followed. I'm not sure if you need to pay if you take it, but I don't think it's free.

Time flies..

2011-04-24T00:58:00.004+08:00

Yeah, here I am, writing another post after my EUROPE trip.

14 days of care-free life has over & we're back to the world of reality!!

Now, its time to get busy with work, sorting (& editing) out the photos & a lot more (soon to come in the month of MAY! *sweat)

Enough rumbling...Stay tune for my EUROPE TRIP post!

Akan Datang~~

Busy March with much anticipation =D

2011-03-03T09:18:00.013+08:00

Have been busy with work the whole of Feb & will still be busy in Mar too! =(

At the same time, I need to plan my trip to EU on 1st Apr. It's a 14D F&E trip to Italy, Switzerland & France!
Luckily, at this point of time, I have managed to come out with a more or less detailed itinerary (will update the itinerary when I'm back OK..) but STILL there is a lot to do like finding out hotels & making reservation & quite a few miscellaneous stuffs which I can't think of it now.

I am left with less than a month's time for all the preparation! Will I be able to settle everything before I depart?! PANIC~~

Well, I'm really looking forward to the trip, especially to Switzerland! Have done extensive research on this country & it seems there are so many things to see! Sadly, we only have 7 days there..

Nonetheless, here's where we will be heading..it looks so amazingly beautiful even by just looking at the photos!!

Rhine fall...looking forward to the boat ride & climb up to the rock in the middle of the fall..

Lauterbrunnen - a small town nestled between the towering walls of a sheer-sided valley that is famed for its waterfalls.

One of the water falls in Trümmelbach Falls..

Mt Titlis with Rotair Titlis..

Boat ride in Lake Lucern..

Boat ride in Lake Geneva with the famous Château de Chillon (Chillon Castle) located on the shore of the lake..

Can't wait for the once in a life time experience for all these!!

Dim Sum at Peach Garden (Novena Garden)

2011-02-20T09:26:00.003+08:00

Met up with my gals for a Dim Sum lunch.

Duck meat fry with yee mian is very tasty! It's not easy to find a restaurant that can fry the yee mian this good..

Yummy custard bun..

Peking Roast duck..

Steam prawn dumpling..

Sharks fin dumpling soup..

Bali trip with my girlfriends...

2011-02-12T13:10:00.002+08:00

It was almost a last minute kind of trip, we planned it only like a month ago & we are set & ready to have our 1st ever trip to BALI!

Cheers to our virgin trip to BALI! Oh, btw thats our 1st dinner in Bali, yummy-licious! =D

Most of my colleagues were surprised my hubby did not went along. I did asked him but well, he said since its a girl's trip, he just want me to enjoy myself with my best friends. =D

Basically, we got most of the info on hand easily as 1 of the our's colleague just went Bali & shared with us all the activities, hotels we could have stay at. So what we need to do is to plan the itinerary & book the hotel!

We decided to book Poppies Bali which was rave with great reviews on tripadvisor.com. But as it was about 1 month from the date of our arrival, their weekend rooms are all fully booked. So we have no choice to split our 5d4n's hotel into 2 different hotels. The 2nd hotel we went to was Kuta Lagoon Resort and Pool Villa.

Poppies Bali was great, each of the rooms were a separate cottage with a small front porch surrounded by a small private garden. The toilet was design to a semi open concept style where they allow the natural sun & rain to get through with a mini garden as part of the toilet. The only drawback was that, my bed is always having some tiny insects crawling around, luckily they don't bite. It might be due to the thatch-roofed. Other than that, the staffs there are very friendly, they have free wifi access in each cottage, they lend you whatever things you need without extra charges & also provide free airport transfer.

On the other hand, Kuta Lagoon Resort has a more modern design, the usual kind of hotel & service you would be expected to get. The big drawback was, everything needs to pay! No free wifi, you call with your room's phone & they charged you! But overall, the stay was a pleasant one.

Our stays in Bali was not that rest & relax! We had all the activities planned out & we woke up at 7am everyday!! We arrived Bali at around 8pm on the 1st day & we walked around to look for tour operator to book our activities for day 2. MBA was the recommended one, we booked our white water rafting with them.

Ready for our white water rafting!

A stop over at this beautiful water fall for everyone to pose for a pic...

Lunch & dinner (our breakfast were very light as we start our day really early!) was great & cheap! The tiger prawn was super fresh, the Kang Kong (Water Spinach) is so crunchy & crispy, I've never eaten such tasty Kang Kong before! Not forgetting their famous Nasi Goreng! And their Bintang beer is great! So smooth!! We had it with almost every meal! =D

Anyhow, most of the meal we had in Bali was good except for one that we went, as we were too tired from all the walking, we just settled at this small eating house. The food doesn't seem fresh, especially the BBQ fish we've ordered! All the flies came when the fish was served! We guessed the fish could have been floating on the water for sometimes already. Luckily all of us did not get any stomach upset after that dinner.

We had our sea sports & went to the water theme park - Waterbom on our 3rd day. Our Mt Batur climbing on 4th, with full body massage at the end of the day.
5th day was a "relax"day, in quotation mark says it didn't seem to be that relax after all =P.

Well, it was a wonderful trip & we've enjoyed ourselves very much!

Parasailing..Enjoyed the view but is was not 10 mins as mentioned. Luckily we had a very good bargain for all our water activities!

After snorkeling & on our way to Turtle Island..

Turtle island..

With more other creatures on the island..my first ever encounter with snake!! Omfg! I'll never touch snake ever again!!

At the Waterbom..

Mt Batur! We make it to the top!!

The small hut that serves everyone hot coffees, breads & eggs cooked with the hot spring water from the volcano. Not forgetting the guarding "angels" of the mountain - Mr & Ms monkeys..

The active volcano - Mt Batur

On our way down, the same way we climbed up.
The mountain is full of big & small slippery rocks, making the climb so difficult & tiring. That is the "coca-cola" man helping me on my way down, has he not helping me when we climbed our way up, I would have given up half way as the climb is REALLY very tiring!!

There, we've conquered the top of Mt Batur. The crater is where we've taken our photo.

Relaxing at the Kuta beach...

Trip to KL

2011-01-17T11:12:00.015+08:00

It's my FIRST ever business trip! My mission to KL's office is to share my Flash knowledge with the colleagues there on basic Actionscript 3 as well as some tips on working with Flash.

It was a rushed 2d1n trip which include traveling -_-. I was sick the whole trip but I managed to pull myself through, quite amazing with myself though...

It was planned that me & my boss travel together to KL on Wed morning, but she had a last minute meeting to attend to, in the end I had to go there all by myself! Its a mixture of excitement + fear, but still I have to go ahead & I WENT!! It was a smooth trip there. I enjoyed the coach ride, not to mention its a first class coach with first class kind of seat. You practically can sleep flat, but I didn't manage to figure out how to make the chair lie flat until when I was on my way back from KL & when I've figured that out, I'm almost reaching Singapore! -_-.

I took a cab all by myself to the KL office, luckily the taxi driver did not quote me a fare that I need to negotiate with him.

I worked from 230pm to 930pm, had my dinner at 10pm. Continue working till 1am before I go to bed. I woke up at 7am the next day & went down to the hotel restaurant for my breakfast alone, after I check out from hotel & head to the office for my 2nd half of the training. After lunch, I make my way to the bus interchange at 2pm for the coach ride back to Singapore.

They have a waiting area for Solitaire & First Class passenger! I was waiting inside! =D
Each chair comes with an entertainment setup with movies & games,they even have a socket for you to charge your handphone or lappie!

This is a double deck coach, the upper deck all having only 2 rows of seats with very spacious chair!

This is how much the chair can get down.
I just can't figure out what are the buttons to press until it was too late! You practically have to press 2 freaking button at the same time to make the chair go down! wth~~ -_-""

Breakfast (top, on my way to KL) & lunch (bottom, back to Singapore)..Breakfast was yucky but lunch was good!

Day & night view of the Twin Tower of KL from my hotel window..Oh, btw I stayed at Novotel Hotel.

The room has a see through window to the toilet.

View from the toilet..
Seems like this is a very famous design among the hotels in KL..

Marry me, Mary!

2011-01-04T09:28:00.006+08:00

Ooooh! He is so cute!!

Currently crazy with this Korean drama! It's so difficult to find a good korean drama with handsome/cute male lead these days! Luckily I have this one to enjoy now =D

He is Jang Keun Su, an Actor, singer, and model!

Got to know him through the drama You're Beautiful, recommended this show to my best friend. At first she find him sissy (due to the kind of make up they put in the drama) but alternatively she fall in love with him too! This could be her 2nd "bf" after Lee Min Ho!

Go catch this drama if you have the time!!

Here's the OST of the drama!

2011!

2011-01-01T14:45:00.011+08:00

YES! IT'S 2011!!

Another year has gone by so fast! It seems like I had just celebrated 2010 a few months ago..

I always wonder, is it that we have grown older & got so much things to do that time never seem enough to use these days or is it that the Earth is spinning too fast?! Its possible you know? Especially looking at what the damage we human has done to the Earth! Ya ya ya, I know this sounds crazy, but anybody out there agreed with me?! heez..I told my best friend, she actually agree with me haha..

Anyway, 2010 is a good year for me!

I went Hokkaido for honeymoon in Jan, seen snow for the 1st time of my life! Enjoy skiing, enjoy wearing boots everyday (which you can't do in SG) !!

I joined a new company in Feb. The most prospective job I've ever had throughout my working life thanks to my boss for giving me the chance. And all the challenge at work really build up my skills & knowledge for what I am doing.

First company trip to Phuket (1st time to Phuket also -_-") in my working life! ( I sound so pathetic right?) haha..

Looking forward to all the plans I have for 2011. Bali trip with my 2 best girlfriends in mid Jan, EU trip (hopefully can make it) in Apr, more career opportunity...

Wish me luck! And Happy New Year to everyone out there!

苏打绿《各站停靠》演唱会 2010

2010-12-12T14:55:00.012+08:00

I've never been to a concert for the past 28 years of my life! It happens that my friend, Peidi's sister was too sick to make it for the concert last night & decided to let out the ticket to us $26 cheaper. So I thought it would be a great chance for me to go experience what a real concert is like, furthermore I do like sodagreen a lot!

It was a long journey from woodland to expo, Max Pavilion but that was well worth for! They're great!! Especially 吴青峰, love his powerful vocal! It's such a pleasure to listen to his singing.
I hope I don't get addicted to going to concert after this wonderful experience =P.

1st time to Max Pavilion also..very "sua gu"..

Our seats were at section C

Photo taking time before the concert starts..

《各站停靠》新加坡站！

吴青峰 aka the main vocal..

Although no 小情歌， but am happy that he sang 无眠 hokkien version...NICE!!

Short trip to Penang

2010-12-08T22:16:00.004+08:00

I was on a mission to bring my aunty to Penang for her regular consultation with a TCM doctor over there to reduce her pain caused by her cancer. I thought I could also get consultation by the doctor for my headache problem. As such, me & my hubby decided to take our Friday off & fly there with my aunty.

It was a 1 day 1 night trip, all we do there was eat & eat & eat...

Finally, I get to ease my craving on Penang laksa! It's very difficult to find yummy Penang laksa in JB, not to mention in Singapore. I'm very curious though. Almost every stall we went to, the foods all taste great! Are all Penang people born as a chef?

Anyway, I missed out a lot of yummy food photos. Here are only some of the foods we ate =)

At JB's Senai airport waiting to board the plane..

Chendol~~ perfect on a hot day..

All kind of kuay they sell..all are nice!

Fried oyster..

This is the best food we've eaten! Salted egg char kway tiao! (also call 鸭面, as it uses duck egg aka salted egg)

There's too many things for our stomach when we only have 1 day there. So we brought back those foods that can be stored for at least 1 day.

Famous ang ku kway...

& dao sa bia...

This is the place we stayed for the night, it's a residential house which they let out for budget traveler. We were brought here by the volunteer helping the TCM doctor, as we were here for consultation, the landlord only collected RM50 for the night for 3 person.

The house is very clean, just that it looks a bit run down.

Anyway, its only a night so we just make do with it.

Salted egg pumpkin recipe

2010-12-05T17:39:00.003+08:00

Another easy to prepare yet yummy dish from me =D

Ingredients:
- 1/3 pumpkin (serving 2 to 3 pax), peeled and cubed
- 2 salted eggs

Methods:
1) Boil salted eggs till fully cooked

2) Put the pumpkin into the microwave for 1 minute, use a fork & poke into each piece of the pumpkin after 1 minute. Put them into the microwave again for 3 minutes. This helps to soften the pumpkin without having to cook them over the stove for a long time.

3) Cut the eggs to half & separate the egg yolk & egg white. Crush the egg yolk & egg white.

4) Heat the pan with some cooking oil, put in the egg yolk to saute until you can smell the aroma of the egg yolk & add in 2 tablespoon of water into the egg yolk paste. Add in the egg white into the egg yolk & mix well.

5) Add in the pumpkin & stir fry for about 1 minutes until the eggs paste has mix well with the pumpkin to serve.

Cooking up a storm!

2010-12-02T09:57:00.011+08:00

It's a Saturday afternoon & we all decided to stay home & cook up a meal for ourselves. We head down to the NTUC Xtra at AMK hub & bought way too much food for a dinner for 3 girls. It's 8pm when we finally reach home.

This is the 1st time 3 of us do cooking together after knowing each other for 12 years!

The preparation starts the moment we reach home.

In the process, we have to figure out how much water to put into the rice, how much soya sauce or oyster sauce to flavour the fish, or if we should add some wine? 绍兴酒 or 花雕酒 ? Cook the soup with those soya bean? tomato too? how much water to add? how should we cut the bitter guard? put them into salt water to make them less bitter? when to put those bitter guard into the soup? put some oyster sauce? add salt already? haha..It was really fun with all those trial & error!

Luckily, everything turns out GREAT!

Menu of the night!

Let's start with the fish!

Mushrooms for the fish..

Busy preparing the ingredients..

Ready to go into the steamer!

Bitter guard for the soup..

Boiling the soup with soya bean, tomato, bitter guard & some dried mushroom..

Shan's mix mushroom dish..

Boiling the salted egg for my salted egg pumkin~

Here's the recipe if you need to know how to cook this dish =)..

And we got our dinner done in 30 minutes!!
Tata...

Oh, btw..we bought the roasted chicken from the shelves..

Dinner time!! =D

Wonder of fake eyelashes..

2010-11-26T10:42:00.000+08:00

Fake Eyelashes really works wonder on how they can change the look of a person, a great invention! I am very tempting to try those on.

So I bought an eyelash glue that cost way too much, a few pair of fake eyelashes from Daiso. Eagerly I tried, 5 minutes has passed, no success. Another 5 minutes passed, no success still. I keep putting on & pulling out, it just can't stick perfectly onto the shape of my eyes. After trying for more than 15 minutes, I gave up! Now they're all "resting" quietly inside 1 corner of my make-up box =P.

I saw this article on myPaper, there's this big advertisement from Sasa on fake eyelashes, so glamorous!! I shall give it another try!

source from myPaper.

Pumpkin Chicken Stew recipe

2010-11-25T14:27:00.007+08:00

Both me & hubby enjoy cooking up a meal at home since these days our "chef" is on leave, its time we conquer the kitchen!

My mum introduce me this dish. Its very easy to cook & a healthy dish too!

Ingredients:
- boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
- peeled and cubed pumpkin
- spring onion chopped into length of 5cm (separate the white & green part of the onion)
- 4-5 sliced ginger (squeeze out 1-2 slice of ginger for its juice & put aside)
- light soya sauce
- dark soya sauce
- oyster sauce
- ground pepper
- chinese cooking wine （绍兴酒）
- corn starch
- pinch of salt

Method:
1) Marinate the chicken meat with some light soya sauce, corn starch, ground pepper and oyster sauce for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.

2) Put the pumpkin into the microwave for 1 minute, use a fork & poke into each piece of the pumpkin after 1 minute. Put them into the microwave again for 3 minutes. This helps to soften the pumpkin without having to cook them over the stove for a long time.

3) Heat pan with some oil, saute the sliced ginger & white portion of the spring onion. Put in the chicken to fry, add some water to simmer until meat is almost cooked.

4) Add some salt, black soya sauce & corn starch into the pan, add the pumpkin into pan & leave to simmer until sauce is thickened.

5) Switch off the stove, put a few drop of the chinese cooking wine & the ginger juice.

6) Garnish the dish with the green part of the spring onion.

Yummy yum!

What me & my skin is in love with now..

2010-11-20T22:33:00.041+08:00

I am totally lost with what I can use to help improve my skin condition as I've tried too many & almost all failed me =(.

See how bad it is those acnes on my chin (not neglecting those near the nose area too), you can practically see small hums of acnes all over my chin (hate that, it gave me an uneven ugly looking skin texture!). The bad thing about acnes is that it doesn't goes off that easily, all these acnes is going to stay there for at least 1-2 weeks (or even longer). Of cause acnes are not the only skin problems I have, my skins were oily with open pores too!

It has been 2 weeks since I start using Vichy Normaderm's range of products & I think my skin has really fell in love with it. It started to get less oily & shiny, with almost all my acne healed except for those new out break but it won't stay on my skin for long. Find out more about Vichy's acne gel in my previous post here.

Here's how my skin has improved after I was on Vichy for 2 weeks.

Let's look at my chin area. The acnes were mostly subsided. Constant acne outbreak is common for me, but at least the old one has gone & now I just have to deal with the new out break.

Not only my acne problem has improved but the large pores I have on my cheek has become smaller too! Not forgetting that my face doesn't look/feel so oily now, I've even using lesser oil blotter.

Even my hubby notice the change in my skin's condition, when you know guys are less sensitive on this kind of matter & yet he could take notice of that. My colleagues noticed the changes too! One of them even commented that my face doesn't look as oily & shiny as before!

The only flaw that was left with my skin was my acne marks. I wonder if there's anything I could use to make the marks goes away faster? Anyway, no more acnes = no more marks right?

So I'm definitely gonna stick on Vichy for they are the guarding angel for my skin!

Vichy is now giving away S$200 VICHY Hampers via the VICHY Anti-Perfection Challenge! All you have to do is vote for me here and you could walk away with a hamper!

Every photo shows the progress of me using the VICHY products. You can vote on every photo (there are 15 of them!), click on the GREEN VOTE button to VOTE for ME! You can vote everyday!

VICHY's Normaderm Active Anti-Imperfection Concentrate (pimple gel)

2010-11-15T19:11:00.008+08:00

I LOVE this product!!

How it works?
It contains maximum strength Salicylic Acid to treat breakouts and blackheads while helping to prevent new acne blemishes from forming.

My acne always take days or even weeks to subside. With VICHY's Normaderm Active Anti-Imperfection Concentrate, all it takes is only one night's rest with it & my acne is healed! Amazing huh!?

Unlike other brand of acne cream I've used before, it does not have a stingy feeling when I applied them on the acne & yet it gave me such an instant result.

I've never thought I'll be a satisfied customer of VICHY until I got a chance to try out their range of products & fall in love with them.

Vichy Normaderm Zero Imperfection Challenge

2010-11-13T11:37:00.021+08:00

I was approached by my dear friend, Ju Ann, to take up the VICHY's NORMADERM Zero Imperfection Challenge with her.

I have oily & acne prone skin. This problem has bug me since young & I'm now on my way to find out if VICHY can solve my skin problem.

I went down to the Guardian at Tanglin Mall to get my skin check & was prescribe the products that is suitable for my skin condition.

This machine took a picture of me & analyses the shine zone on my face & also the small machine on the right analyses the hydrating level of my skin.

My skin type analysis result - Combination skin, dehydrated with imperfections.

The dermatologists explaining the condition of my skin.

She's doing a sebum evaluation of my skin.

The result - my skin type is oily.

And here's the range of products prescribed to me.

I was given 2 weeks to use VICHY's Normaderm product & to monitor how much my skin improved after of using VICHY's Normaderm product.

This is how I look before & after using the products for 5 days.

I must say I really love using their range of products so far.

The challenge is still on going & I will update my progress on VICHY diary, do stay tune to find out my progress & VOTE for us too!

Ku Chive Pancake

2010-11-10T12:25:00.013+08:00

This probably has to be my 1st recipe post ever & there will be more coming =D.

This is a snack that I miss a lot every since I got married. My mum will often make this for breakfast for the family & I miss it so much I've decided to ask my mum for the recipe & cook them myself!

Not a lot of people know about this snack, but surprisingly, this seems to be the favourite of Malaysian. One of my colleague (M'sian) was so happy that she finally found someone who knew about this. haha..

There's 2 version to this snack, you can make it salted or sweet (like popcorn where you can choose, hehe..)

What I'm going to share is the salted version. Sweet version was when you don't have or don't like Ku Chive.

It's actually very simple to make.

Ingredients:
- Plain flour
- Corn flour
- Water
- Eggs
- Ku Chive
- Pinched of salt & pepper (replace with sugar if you're making the sweet one)
- some shredded dried shrimp (if have) (omit for sweet version)

Methods:
1) 3 cup of plain flour + 2 cup of corn flour (portion for 1 person)
(the proportion of the plain flour & corn flour goes like this, 1.5 cup of plain flour to 1 cup of corn flour)

2) Add 10 cup of water to dissolve the flour mixture, add more water if you feel the mixture is too thick.

3) Beat 3-4 eggs and pour in the flour mixture,shredded dried shrimp & Ku Chive into the eggs & mix well.
p.s: for sweet version, add 3-4 (needs a bit of trial & error here) tablespoon of sugar into the egg.

4) Heat frying pan with some oil or butter (butter would taste better), scoop an appropriate amount of the mixture into pan & pan fry.

It takes some times to finish frying everything as you can only do one at a time. But its a simple snack to prepare!

So the final product.

Enjoy cooking!

I am 1 year older =\

2010-10-25T15:04:00.014+08:00

Me & Hubby went over to JB, my grandma's place for a short stay & had ourselves hunting for yummy treats around that area. Of course, shopping spree too!! How not to shop when you go to Malaysia?

Our activities all focus around Tun Aminah, Taman Sutera Utama. The furthest we went were Bukit Indah Aeon Shopping mall.

We went into JB on Friday morning & reach about 1pm. Our 1st stop we headed for our lunch were at this eatery call 食品街.

L to R: Thai style fried bee hoon, coffee + milo pork rib, (2nd row) fried squid with salted egg yolk, 虾枣 (don't know what its call in eng =P) , ice yuan yang & honey tomato juice.

I must say I love their honey tomato juice!! I had 2 cup of it! haha..

All dishes we ordered taste great! The Thai style fried bee hoon uses the tom yum paste to fried with, the texture of the bee hoon is just nice, not too hard & not too soft! Coffee + milo pork rib is delicious, different from the one I've tried before. The combination of coffee & milo is just nice & the pork rib is tender & juicy!! Fried squid with salted egg yolk is also good, seems like anything goes well with salted egg yolk taste fabulous (but damn high in cholesterol too). For the 虾枣, its skin is fried to crispy which fully filled with minced meat & prawns. This dish is good when you have 3-4 person eating it, as the portion is too big, you get sick of eating it after a few piece.

We are definitely coming back to try out more of their dishes!

After a sumptuous lunch, we headed to Bukit Indah for our shopping spree!! As usual, our favourite store is FOS! hehe...

Dinner, we went back to Sutera Utama, there's this Japanese restaurant - Ayukawa for their buffet dinner. Its our 2nd visit here, tried out their buffet lunch a few months ago, they serves different dishes for lunch & dinner, it's an ala carte style buffet.
The portion is really miniature but I feel that their serving size is very space saving for the stomach giving you more space to try more food, and a good way to prevent food wastage. Anyway, you can always order the same dish if you didn't had enough.

Here are most of the dishes we tried! Too many that I couldn't name them all 1 by 1.

We are freaking bloated after this dinner!

We decided to pop by this KTV - 大嘴叭 (I like the way the play with the word) located within Sutera Utama. I joined their member & we paid only RM38 for their membership, both of us enjoyed free session as the membership entitles 1 free person & another on their birthday month.

Rise & shine on a Saturday morning. Had breakfast at this place call 厨娘.

My all time favorite Penang Asam Laksa!! Only this taste OK, wanton mee is tasteless, a total disappointment.

I was delighted to find an archery center in Sutera Mall. 60 arrows for RM20 is freaking cheap! I had no reason not to get my hands on it.

We left grandma place around 1pm & stop over at City Square for late lunch & early dinner. Surprised to find Nando's there & decided to give it a try. The food wise is nothing to WOW at but I must say their chili sauce are good. I wonder why there's always long queue at Bugis Junction -_-.

Phuket retreat

2010-10-07T14:27:00.004+08:00

This is my 1st company retreat after working for 5 years! And it's my 1st time to Phuket too! Kind of exciting but at the same time, worrying that I'll get really tan after that. Nevertheless, I embraced the sun & sea courageously! Turn out, I have a great time & enjoyed myself very much! A lot of 1st time experience for me!
Setting aside the fact that I've become quite tanned & sun burn which I've never experience before.

It's a 3d2n (Fri-Sun, Fri was officially an off day for everyone!) trip to Clubmed, Phuket. The Clubmed in Phuket is not as good compared to the one in Bintan (heard from my colleague, which they went in 2009). The condition of the rooms are a bit rundown & its quite a distance to walk from the main hall back to our rooms, hidden deep inside lots of tall grasses, leaves & trees! It's really eerie to walk along the walk way in the night alone!

Kind of fell in love with beach & sands, have been thinking if I should plan 1 such trips myself.

The best shot after jumping for don't know how many umpteen times!

Nice weather! But I'm back with a tanned skin tone!

1st year anniversary @ The Greenhouse, Ritz Carlton

2010-09-30T23:28:00.006+08:00

Today is the 1st year anniversary (for our customary wedding that is), so we decided to go out for a meal. Decided to have buffet, after looking around, we decided to give Greenhouse a try.

They are having Asian seafood delight on Thursday night, each person is $65++.

The spread of food is not a lot, but everything taste fabulous. Especially OYSTER! Its so fresh & juicy! I've never get a chance to eat oyster in buffet, this is my 1st time & its a great one!

We got a complimentary cake from the restaurant as hubby told them we were there to celebrate our 1st year anniversary. Very thoughtful of them, the cake is freshly bake! Yummy!

I think it's a mango mousse marble cake.

Thanks to my good hubby, he took all the photos of the spread of foods but deleted his photos from his phone before copying them out for me!! So not much photos to share.

Essential Damage Care products review

2010-09-28T16:49:00.022+08:00

Ever wonder how Japanese city girls can maintain their luscious cascading curls or soft loose waves despite of daily styling and multiple chemical treatments done in pursue of the latest hair trends?

Their secret lies in caring for their hair especially the hair ends which is the ‘oldest’, most difficult to manage and most obvious part is...

Essential, the No. 1 Damage Care brand in Japan!
It has always been the holy grail for trendy Japanese girls with less than perfect hair after the “tortures” that they have subjected their hair to.

Did you know..

About our Hair Ends...

The last 15cm of your hair ends are the oldest; it is 1 year older on average compared to the rest of your hair (for those who have hair longer than shoulder).
Hair ends that went through most “torture” and most prone to damages such as dryness, frizziness, tangles and split ends. On average, it has been permed/coloured/rebonded 2.5x more than the hair crown.

About Hair Damages...

Typically a flat iron or curling tong uses a temperature of 175 degree to style hair – same as the temperature used by clothes dryer to wring out moisture from wet laundry.
Females, in general, spend an average of one hour and 53 minutes a week washing, blow drying and styling our hair. That may not sound like a lot, but by the time we reach the age of 65, we will have spent more than seven months of our lives on our hair!

So now did you know how damage our hairs are?! Time to do something about it!!

Essential is a product that is created to give..

100% focus on Damage care!
Cares to the last 15cm of hair for ease of styling!
Hair shines even at the last 15cm!

Essential is formulated with:

High Purity Honey & Milk Protein to deeply repair and strengthen hair
Ultra Shine Essence to restore shine to hair
Wild Rose Essence (Nuance Airy) / Sunflower Oil Essence (Rich Premier) to leave protective layer to keep hair moisturised
Fruity floral fragrance

Be Sassy Kawaii with Essential!!

Essential has 2 different variants for 2 different finishes desired by consumers who are damage conscious.

NEW ESSENTIAL HAIR ESSENCE

Encompassing the Essential Nuance Airy Anti-Frizz Serum and Essential Rich Premier Nourishing Care Lotion, this leave-on treatment range will repair hair surface and protect it from external aggression such as styling, blow-drying and UV.
Just a few pumps and apply. Viola! Beautiful, shiny hair from root to tips, even for the last 15cm. The effect lasts all-day long too!

Designed as a convenient, fuss-free, leave-on treatment for damaged dry hair!

The 2 new Essential Hair Essence...

Essential Nuance Airy Anti-Frizz Serum

This lightweight and non-greasy oil-based treatment helps to tame away frizz and flyaways so hair becomes instantly smooth and bouncy all-day long.

...and Essential Rich Premier Nourishing Care

Unlike most of the leave-on treatment lotion, this concentrated lotion gets adsorbed easily, leaving hair soft and manageable all day long.

I am very happy to receive the free samples of Essential Damage Care product range thanks to TheSampleStore & Kao.
And I'm eager to try out both the Anti-Frizz Serum & Rich Nourishing Care lotion on my dry curled hairs.

Before applying the Essence..

my hairs are dry & my curls are dull..

After applying the Anti-Frizz Serum

it really gives an instant bounciness to my curls, it feels like I just blow my hairs!!

After applying the Rich Premier Nourishing Care Lotion

the lotion instantly soften the hairs & make the hairs manageable!!

I am impressed by this magical essence from Essential!

Here's a TV commercial on Essential Hair Essence.

Visit Sassykawaii.com for more info on Essential Damage Care range!!

Lúcido-L's hair styling wax, cream & lotion

2010-09-20T12:38:00.006+08:00

I can say I'm a fan of Lúcido-L's product. So far, I've tried 3 different range of their product & is still a satisfied customer of theirs.

I keep my hair permed. So I need something to protect & style my hair.

I first tried Lúcido-L's wax for natural shapely wave. The wax is a bit sticky if apply directly on dry hair, its most suitable to use after washing your hair, else you'll need to wet your hair a bit before applying the wax.

Lúcido-L's Designing Pot #Swing Loose

A tip here on how to wet your hair fast & hassle free, get yourself a spray bottle.

This method has served me well for the past 3 years & counting, since I am always running late for work.

I switched to their hair milk/creams after finishing the wax.
I've tried this hair milk both on dry or wet hair, it works fine for both. Having it on wet hair will give your hair a "wet" look, while a "messy" look on dry hair.

Lúcido-L's Designing Pump #Hair Milk

Lastly, a hair lotion which I bought recently.
This is perfect for a bad hair day. It can quickly revives beautiful waves, moisturizes hair & reduces dryness & keep style for a long while. Just spray the lotion at a distance of 5-10 cm to moisten hair then massage into hair by grasping wavy hair by hand& leave to dry.

It works like a magic! I bought this without a second thought after trying out their sample!

Lúcido-L's Designing Aqua # Hair Perm Water

HIP blogger party by L'Oréal Paris

2010-09-19T12:00:00.019+08:00

L'Oréal Paris Singapore has brought in the HIP (high intensity pigments) collection all the way from US into our shore, first in Asia!!

I was lucky enough to be invited again for the 2nd time by L'Oréal Paris Singapore to attend this pre-launch party thanks to the people at L'Oréal Paris Singapore! See here for the 1st launch party I've attended by L'Oréal Paris Singapore.

It was held at Hairloom & Carame l (Shaw Towers), a unique place with salon and cafe housed in a comfortable and cozy environment. I like their drinks, I had Vita Plum (blending of vitagen & sour plum) & Marshmellow Cafe Au Lait (cafe latte). Both their signature drink in the house, both are perfect!

I am definitely bringing my girlfriends here, its a great place to chill out!

vita plum

marshmallow cafe Au Lait

The party started off with some introduction on the HIP collections followed by an eye make-up demo & an eye make-up contest where we could show off our skills & creativity with HIP's eyeshadows on ourselves or on a drawing paper given to us. The best 3 walk over with an exclusive pack of L'Oréal products.

demo of using HIP's different shades of eyeshadow...

my creation using the Platinum palette..

HIP boast a range of eye shadows & eyeliners. With the use of Super Refine Micro-pigments technology, it allows for more lasting color impact with truer color payoff. HIP was inspired by the work of makeup artist James Kaliardos and his muse Linda Evangelista as a result of their years backstage and a desire to bring the tips & tricks from the professional makeup world in the mainstream.

HIP Bright Shadow Duos Eyeshadow. Featured with a micro-pulverized formula that allows for even, intense color deposit for contouring and defining.

8 fabulous shades of HIP Bright Shadow Duo create bold, vibrant, backstage-inspired eye looks!

HIP Color Chrome Eyeliner. A liquid pencil eyeliner in rich metallic shades that create a unique, chrome finish. With the intensity of a liquid eyeliner and the precision of a pencil eyeliner, it give eyes a 3D look.

4 intense metallic shades of HIP Color Chrome Eyeliner.

Amid the fun & informative session, we were served with foods & drinks. We also have fun on cupcake decoration.

my cupcake creation..

my lunch..

Spaghetti with Salmon in House Special Pink Sauce. The pink sauce taste good but a bit salty though, might be due to the smoked salmon..

Some of the girls ordered this...

Baked Penne Japanese Style, with Unagi & Seaweed. Its yummy!

The event ends off with each blogger bringing home a goodies bag! Here's what I've got in my goodies bag! =D

I've got a Base Magique (an eye foundation), 2 shades (Black Shock & Silver Lightning) of eyeliner pencil & 4 shades (Riotous, Adventurous, Flamboyant & Platinum) of eyeshadow. =D

Both the HIP Bright Shadow Duo & HIP Color Chrome Eyeliner is available in at selected Watsons stores at $18.90 & $17.90 respectively. Look out for it in the coming October!

OC Girl Contest

2010-09-06T16:25:00.014+08:00

Orchard Central is having an OC Girl Contest which they give a complimentary make over without have to spend a single cent! You can get your complimentary make over every Sunday from Mar to Oct, 3pm-6pm.
Together with my other 2 best friend, we went yesterday. Purely for the make over, not thinking of winning the contest though. The chance of winning is pretty slim though we do hope one of us can win! =D

We reach the place around 310pm, there were some people waiting but some are friends that came along as accompaniment. After registration with this sulky face & bad attitude registration women (I decided to call her a registration women), one of us were hastily asked to go over for the make up to be done. The make up is pretty fast, takes about 20-30 mins a person. Basically, touching up the eyes area is the most essential part of the whole face make up, getting the eye done perfectly is enough to bring out a different look.

Its stated a complimentary make over but in the end, due to the poor management of the whole event, there's like 5 of us who can't get our hair done for. That registration girl is telling us we can't get our hair done anymore, the salon that is sponsoring is complaining that they've got no time for their customers because of us.

This whole thing is ridiculous! A sponsor unwilling to do what they've promised? And the organizer can't do anything about it?! Well, we couldn't do anything but to just forgo the hairdo. You won't want to get treated like an idiot by the rude hair stylist that blame you loudly for taking up way too much of their time & their customers have to wait for us.

Anyway, we're contented with our make up & we make our way down orchard & Shan attracted way too many attention from all the guys walking passed her. I caught a few whom was looking at her so "openly"! =P

the OC girls..

the make-up artist help us took this picture..

By the way, the make-up artist who did our make-up is good & friendly too! Anyone needs make-up service for wedding, ROM, birthday etc can give them a try. Not sure of how much they charge, but I believe you will want a service that is satisfying more than anything else right?

look for Jen..

L'OREAL 24 HOUR SUPER LINER water proof gel eyeliner

2010-09-01T09:59:00.009+08:00

I've never wanted to try liquid eyeliner for the fear that I might miss the "line" & end up taking more time to clear up the mess. Until I discover the L'OREAL Super Liner.

I got this as 1 of the free item inside the goody bag from the L'OREAL's new product launch party. I decided to try it today & am awfully surprised by how easy & fast I get my eyeliner done!

The eyeliner gel is contained in a small glass jar with a black cap, very exquisite. Dip the brush into the jar for the right amount of gel, with the use of the high precision brush like a pencil to draw the line along the lash line.

I like the brush very much!! The tip of the brush is neither too hard or soft, the amount of eyeliner gel to put onto the brush all depends on you. You don't have to worry how much eyeliner was on the brush unlike the usual liquid eyeliner where the brush is immerse in the eyeliner liquid. The whole brush is filled with the eyeliner when you took out from the bottle.

Absolutely suitable for someone who is not familiar in using liquid eyeliner but wanted a long lasting & waterproof eyeliner to go with!

Marina Bay Sands

2010-08-29T17:20:00.001+08:00

Thanks to Ann & Jason, we got a chance to go up to MBS's infinity pool. Its was a sunny Saturday, the great weather gives a clear view from the top of 57th floor of MBS.

We had our lunch buffet at The Rise restaurant. The spread of the buffet is unique, there were a few dishes which is not seen before in other buffet restaurant.

Lunch finished at 230pm, we had some rest & cam-whoring session inside the hotel room.

such a great weather!

We went for the pool at about 430pm, the sun is still scorching hot at that time. We manage to get everyone up & into the pool! Time for cam-whoring again at the pool!

By the time everyone had their bath, it was almost 930pm. We head to the Flyer's Popoye for dinner & our days ends with a tired & tanned body!

Triple 3 @ Mandarin Orchard

2010-08-17T22:45:00.020+08:00

We decided to go for Triple 3 's lunch buffet @ Mandarin Orchard Hotel last Saturday. If is not for their DBS/POSB credit card promotion; 1 for 1 for Saturday's lunch, I wouldn't have consider this. Sgd75+++ for their lunch buffet, it's quite expensive.

The whole restaurant was very spacious but the food spread is really not something to "wow" at. Just 2 row of food displaying area, 1 side serve oriental delights & the other serve a mix of western and Japanese cuisine with sushi, sashimi etc.

Overall rating for their food, ambiance & variety - 3.5/5.

well..something pleasant that caught our eyes..a handsome chef! =D

the best of 3 @ Triple 3!

lime + orange sorbet..

Singapore Flyer

2010-08-10T23:14:00.004+08:00

Thanks to the Passion Card members' promotion deal with a 50% discount on Singapore Flyer ride, I seized this chance & bought 4 tickets bringing my parent for the ride. By the way, the promotion is until 31 Aug & the tickets are open date tickets till end of October.

Frankly speaking, the location of our Singapore Flyer is not that easy to reach. We took the MRT to City Hall & walked all the way to Millenia Walk via City Link & Marina Square. From Millenia Walk we still need to walk another 10 minutes in order to reach the Singapore Flyer. It was indeed a long long walk, plus the weather is super humid!

We decided to board the flyer at around 645pm, the whole ride would take about 30 mins, so the 15 mins of the ride, we can enjoy the day scenery & for the next 15 mins we'll be able to see the night scenery. I was afraid that the queue is going to be too long, so we went up to queue at around 620pm. There are not many people visiting the Flyer that day & we ended boarding the capsule way ahead of the ideal timing at 630pm! And the worst part is that, we shared the capsule with an inconsiderate family!!

Their 2 kids were crying so loudly inside the capsule most of the time. The speaker in the capsule was playing the songs damn loud, I was force to shout every words I wanted to say inside the capsule. It's damn irritating! My first flyer experience shouldn't have ended up like this!?!

Anyway, we totally missed the night scene. It was only 7pm when we make the full turn, what a total waste! After which we went back to Millenia Walk for our dinner at Saboten - a Japanese restaurant that serve foods that are quite similar to what Tonkichi serve. Overall, I still think Tonkichi wins over this, although here their miso soup, rice are refillable & green tea ice cream is included in the set menu but the cutlet is not as good as Tonkichi 's.

I hope my parent has enjoyed themselves!

This device introduce Singapore Flyer in different language.

Spot the difference!

I like these 2 photo best!

See the sun & moon?

The portion for the platter of 2 is very little!

Eyelash Essence

2010-08-03T22:50:00.004+08:00

I've never thought of writing a blog post on beauty products. But I ought to share this one with everyone out there.

I've been using this product for about a year now & is the 3^rd bottle so far. What I'm talking about is this..

The “Canmake – Lash Care essence”'

I have short & fairly little eyelashes. So I went google abit for solutions & I found quite a number of people recommending this product online. It’s suppose to help grow, protect and nourish your lashes but it also helps to grow your lashes as well. The price is reasonable as well, I think its $12.90/bottle if I remembered correctly & can be found at John Little. I usually buy it while there's sales at John Little =).

Personally I feel it did work for me. After using for 1 month, I felt that my eyelashes did grew longer. Not only it makes the eyelashes to grow longer but it also help the growth of more lashes.

PHYSIOGEL's exclusive bloggers' event

2010-07-24T12:49:00.031+08:00

The event was held at the Grand Park Hotel! It's on a Tuesday, 7pm. I guess most of us rushed over after work.

Upon reaching the place, all were registered at the counter & a skin moisturized level test was being taken with a moisture meter. While I was registering myself, they took my skin's moisturizing index & I've got 131. They said they had finally found the perfect index level, I didn't really get what they mean at that time.

A $140 worth of goodies bag were given to everyone who turned up that night..

Later, I found out that if I beat everyone in this "Skin Hydration Challenge", I get to win something. That really excites me!

And SO...I WON! =D

My prize - a bottle of shampoo (that was not included in the goodies bag) & another bottle of lotion..

There were some finger foods served & the event started off with a presentation by Dr Mark Tan, a dermatologist from National Skin Center - sharing about our skin condition, why we will get dry/itchy skin. Examples of which includes, staying long hour in an air-conditioned environment, frequent washing , use of soaps & alcohol sanitizers etc.

Everyone is listening attentively..

Mr Eugune from PHYSIOGEL also shared about how the product uses Derma Membrane Structure technology that cotains ceramide and other physiological lipids that mimic our skin's lipid layers to Repair, Rehydrates & Revitalises dehydrated/itchy skin. PHYSIOGEL provides a very comprehensive range of products like creams, lotion, cleanser & shampoo for face, body, hair & scalp.

After which, all bloggers were split into 4 groups & play some Q&A games, each person in the group with the highest scores win a PHYSIOGEL Shampoo worth $22.20.

I'm in Team Revitalise..

Nearing the end of the event, there's a lucky draw & when I still can't get myself sitted after getting my prize for the Skin Hydration Challenge, my name was called again. This time I won a lucky draw prize which is...

$50 taka voucher!!
Lady luck is really on my side that night! =D

Free photo taking for everyone..

Have tried the lotion & I find it really good. It's non-sticky & non-fragrant, the kind of lotion that I'll absolutely go for!

The Patissier's Patite Patisserie

2010-07-20T17:57:00.001+08:00

YES! The Patiessier has added their latest addition - Patite Patisserie, to their family! It's a range of frozen mousse cake. You can find out more about how these cakes were make here.

Thanks to Ann, I was invited to attend the launch of the new product which as an exclusive preview for bloggers on 18 Jul 2010.

This event was held at Hotel Re!. I've heard of this hotel, for their retro themed hotel rooms but I've never had a chance to go there. This event gave me at least the chance to look around & one interesting fact that I've observed at Hotel Re!, was the way their meeting rooms or restaurant were named. For instance, Re!union as one their meeting room's name / Re!fresh for their restaurant, that to me is quite creative.

Back to the event, Patite Patisserie's frozen mousse cake comes with 3 different flavours - chocolate, mango & strawberry. We get to try out the different flavours of the cakes during the event. I personally like mango a lot! Not as sweet as the chocolate, also not as sour as the strawberry. Of course each has its unique flavour, its up to each individual to decide which is the best they like!
If you guys would like to try all 3 flavours but was thinking that it might be abit costly, here's your chance! Now, Patite Patisserie is having an online promotion of only $60 for 3 cakes! But do act fast, its valid only till 15 Aug 2010! =)

So we all get to bring home a cake of our choice & decorate it with all those yummy deco that was provided for us. I was too busy with all the decorating & once I'm done I box it up, forgetting to take a picture of it, and by the time I reach home, my deco is all messed up =\..

Nevertheless, I've enjoyed the event a lot & the free cakes that I get to bring home and share with my family members.

Here's some of the photos taken during the event..

Retro!

Inside the event room.. chef hat & apron(the brown thing below the hats =D) are for us..

Patite Patisserie's staff preparing cakes for our tasting..

My flavourite mango madness!!

That's how it will look like straight from the shelves..

In our chef hat..

Here's all the yummy-licious deco for our masterpiece..

This is Ann's cake.

Another one, which I help in topping up with the chocolate & colourful chips =D

Walt Disney Studios's new film - The Sorcerer’s Apprentice!

2010-07-10T21:31:00.012+08:00

If I am a sorcerer’s apprentice, I would like to use my power to save the earth by turning back the time to 100 years earlier & change the way we human live nowadays (like creating solar energy back then & minimize the use of fossil fuel that emit too much carbon dioxide) so that the earth does not have to go into global warming!

“Catch The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Movie starting from 22^nd July 2010 and join the Walt Disney Studios Singapore official Facebook and Twitter page!”

Rock Climbing @ CSC

2010-06-25T22:15:00.009+08:00

It's the first time 3 of us go rock climbing! Its my 2nd time doing rock climbing since secondary school times (@ outward bound), that's like how many donkey years ago. Nevertheless, we got a friend coaching us on the correct techniques & rules.

The fees for renting their climbing shoes + harnest + entrance are $17, if I did not remember it wrongly.

After less warming up, we start conquering this wall full of rocks..haha =P

Rock Climbing @ CSC p1/7

Rock Climbing @ CSC p2/7

Rock Climbing @ CSC p3/7

Rock Climbing @ CSC p4/7

Rock Climbing @ CSC p5/7

Rock Climbing @ CSC p6/7

Rock Climbing @ CSC p7/7

Venue: Climb Asia
Address: Civil Service Club, 60 Tessensohn Road, Singapore 217664

Finally, Toy Story 3!!

2010-06-08T21:20:00.017+08:00

Andy is preparing to depart for college..Buzz, Woody and all his loyal toys finding themselves in a daycare..What other interesting toys they will meet at the daycare? How would their journey for home work out? I'm so excited to find out!

My favorite scene in the trailer is when Barbie meet Ken. "Love at first sight" with a twitch of humorous.

Take a look at the trailer below!

My favorite Toy Story 3 character is "BUTTERCUP".

It reminds me of a cartoon(My Little Pony) I've watched when I'm young, about a few unicorn fighting for survival against witches, trolls, goblins and all the other beasts that would love to see the Little Ponies destroyed, enslaved or otherwise harmed protecting the world..
wonder what kind of "magic" ButterCup might have in Toy Story 3!

haha..my imagination is running wild here..

Catch Toy Story 3 Movie starting from 17th June 2010 and join the official Facebook and Twitter page!

Open Eyes Chrome Intensity Bloggers' Party by L'Oreal Paris Cosmetics‏

2010-06-07T23:02:00.000+08:00

I attended this event, thanks to my best friend - Ann's invitation =D! She was invited by L'Oreal Paris to attend this party & she's allowed to bring 2 friends along. Shan was not able to make it so Ann's sis came along.

It was fun, I've never gone to event like that. We got free food, free eye make up, free goodie bags! Ann had all the 4 shades of their new Open Eyes Chrome Intensity eyeshadow palettes while we only have 2, but one of which - the "Magic Amber" is exclusively for us as it is only sold in departmental store while the rest of the 3 shades can be found in Watson/Guardian.

Open Eyes Chrome Intensity by L'Oreal

The event was held at a Swedish restaurant name Fika @ beach road.

Here's our sumptuous lunch. FOC!! Love the chocolate fudge brownie!

Eyes make over time!

The goodies inside our goodie bag!

Crazy for S.H.E!

2010-06-03T23:36:00.003+08:00

I am so in love & crazy with S.H.E recently. Really admire them as a pop group that had lasted for the past 9 years & coming to their 10th year! When I realised that they are coming to singapore for their concert, the tickets are all sold out! I've never been to a concert & I wanted to have S.H.E's concert be the 1st concert I watch in my life but that was too late!

So I join their fan page on Facebook, watched all videos on YouTube or wherever I can find that was related to them. I followed their news closely! "You are crazy~" my hubby keep saying! But I just can't stop my liking for them! As a celebrity they are really down to earth & has no 'air' from the way they appear on every public event. Its really worth for them to be so famous even after so long!

And so my craziness went even further when I suddenly have the urge of getting their book "愛的三溫暖" which they wrote about their life, their loves, their career & with a lot of their personal photos in it. I went to Popular to ask about this book & the staff told me it was out of stock. I went to another cd store to ask, the same answer I got. Then I went online to search, all was saying out of stock, no more selling in stores. I was not sure I still can get it & I was trying my luck to look for it in Kinokuniya. And YES! I got it!!! Its the one and only left on the shelves! I grabbed it without any second thought!
So why am I saying myself crazy is that, the book is not cheap! Friends who know me will definitely know that I'll consider that amount expensive even on clothes or shoes & yet I spent it on a book now.

I think I'm getting older & older now that my heart never follows my brain, or is my brain cell dying too much from my everyday headache?

Anyway, here's how the book look like..

It comes with a poster, a dvd of 3 mtv & a game cd-rom which they are the spoke-person of it.

Love THEM So MUCH!

Volunteering work for the elderly

2010-05-22T20:57:00.000+08:00

Its my 1st time doing volunteering work, exciting! I went there myself (without my hubby/my friends). I got to know this event thru My ex-boss, as he is a member of the Man Fuk Tang society. They are having a charity dinner for the old people from old folks home as well as those with mental disability. Its a very big events, so they need a lot volunteer to help out.

It was held at hougang's kovan hub, a formal bus interchange.

each of the volunteers (in red) are in-charge of 1 table.

that's the chatty ah ma in white hairs (more about her below)

What we really need to do is just to look after the old folks throughout the night & make sure they go home safe & sound. Of course, we should try to chat with them as much as possible. Old people in the old folks home are very lonely people, they are more than happy if there's someone who wanna talk to them.

That night, I was in-charge of the old folk from the Sun Love home. There is this very chatty ah ma, she's in her early 60s. She likes to chat, and I see that she should be the "da jie da" in her group. She look out for other people from the home & sometimes trying to help out the nurse who's looking after them. We chatted a lot throughout the dinner.

I learned new things from what she shared with me. They have to wake up at 7am every day & sleep at 10pm. Lights out at 10pm sharp. They have to work, they work as packer; to pack used on-flight earphone nicely into the plastic bag. They earn $300/month but they never get their pay as this is deducted off for their accommodation fees in the home, they still have to top up another $200 for it. They are actually supporting themselves in the home.

There's really no free meal in Singapore, everything involves money. We have to work till we die, what's worse with these oldies without family to support them when they are old & some were actually abandoned! I do feel sad for them but I guess that's life!

I hope by helping out on these peoples I'll know how to treat other people better & even appreciate everything that I have now & not taking them for granted.

Its been some times since I blog..

2010-03-21T14:22:00.007+08:00

Time flies, its almost like 6 months? or more? into the new phrase of my life. Things are getting 'well', so far so 'good', need to close 1 eyes open 1 eyes in order for things to be in 'well' & 'good' condition though. If I take things too hard, I guess life would not be easy for me.

Very busy at work but still able to manage so far! Welcoming myself to the WWW world!
Flash I've created, works on my local system but don't work correctly on the browser!!! WTH! I always have to troubleshoot the issue caused by browser problem! I used only 1/3 of the time given to create what is required & 2/3 of the time trying to solve out why this & that doesn't work on the browser -_-.
I am totally new in this area, hence it often takes longer time to find out what is the root cause of the problem. But its with all these problems encountered, I'm able to learn & take note next time when I'm doing the same thing. At least I'm learning new things, getting more knowledgeable =D.

Apart from the things I need to do, nowadays I need to dress appropriately, semi-formal is the basic dress code that I must have. So yeah, I start spending money!! I need to upgrade my wardrobe as I've been wearing casually to work in my previous company..haha..
In another word, I need to upgrade my bank's saving too!! Money is forever not enough these days =\.

Something to share..

2010-02-18T13:34:00.004+08:00

*source taken from Mypaper

My new job!

2010-02-04T23:18:00.004+08:00

I like my new job! I have nice colleagues & great leader.

Although I was given an assignment to be completed by tomorrow but still glad that I have something to work on instead of having nothing to do. So far so good, I'm 70% done with the assignment.

Had a welcome lunch for me on Tues as well as a farewell lunch for another colleague.

Today is also our department manager's birthday. Around 3pm, my leader came over & gather all of us for a meeting. When everyone is in the meeting room, she told us that we are going to sing our manager a birthday song & it'll be recorded & posted onto Youtube. None of us was prepared, but well, its kind of fun for something so impromptu.

And so we sang & recorded this video.

oh ya, the 1st lady is my leader which is the one who interviewed me too =).

Hokkaido honeymoon Day (15 - 21 Jan 2010)

2010-01-25T12:15:00.023+08:00

Back from Hokkaido! Don't wanna come back actually =\, life's so relax & good there!

Miss the snows, amazingly powdered snows! Miss the milk, so thick & smooth, I had to drink 2-3 glasses every morning during breakfast! Gosh, I am so FAT now! And their corns, pumpkin all taste SO sweet! All these can only be found in Hokkaido itself, the taste is never the same when you left Hokkaido! Back to Tokyo on our last day, the milk served during breakfast is totally different from the rich & smooth taste of those in Hokkaido!

And so we flew off on Friday morning, basically our entire day 1 is spent on the plane. 830am flight, by the time we reach Tokyo, it was about 430pm Japan time which is 1 hour faster than Singapore. We need to switch to a domestic flight to Sapporo (capital of Hokkaido).

One bad point of following a tour is that you do not get to go to the local stalls or restaurant to try out their local foods. All the restaurant that we went were mostly cater for tourist & the foods that we ate everyday is almost the same. A bit disappointed on the meals actually.

But overall, it was still not too bad. Managed to make a few friends after the trip! My trip were mostly young people, 5 pairs of couples, families of 3 & 8, so total of 21 person for my tour, which is quite a perfect tour group size. Just that we always have to wait for the family of 8!

If there's a chance, I will go back to Hokkaido again (maybe for skiing) & a F&E trip for Central Japan!

We took hell lots of photos! The camera was having some problem on the 1st day, it auto shut down, we figure it out maybe its due to the extremely cold weather, in the end our camera also need heat pack to help it keep warm! Haha..after which its working normal.

Look at the links below for photos! =)

Day 1 Flight from Singapore to Tokyo's Narita Airport then domestic flight to Sapporo's Chitose Airport (capital of Hokkaido)

Day 2 Chitose Airport -> Otaru -> Kiroro Ski Resort

Day 3 Kiroro ski resort -> Nikka Whisky (Yochi Town) -> Ishiya Chocolate Factory (Chitose) -> Odori Park, Sapporo TV tower (Sapporo)

Day 4 Sapporo -> Snow mobile land -> Lake Toya

Day 5 Lake Toya -> Mt Showa -> Bear ranch-> Kanemori Shopping Mall (Red brick warehouses) -> Goryokaku Palace -> Shikabe

Day 6 & 7 Shikabe -> Hakodate Morning market -> Tokyo

Some videos taken..

Hokkaido part 1

Hokkaido part 2

Hokkaido part 3

Hokkaido part 4

Hokkaido part 5

Anxious!

2010-01-07T11:54:00.009+08:00

Its been sometimes since I blog! In fact, that was last year.
So yah! In the year of 2010, a new year, a new start for me!

First of all, I'm now on a long long leave waiting for my new job to start in Feb. Exciting about my new job, a different area in what I've done so far but still in multimedia line. The only thing that don't make me looking forward to the new job is that I have to wake up REAL early now, 630a.m, as compared to 830a.m for my previous job! Its all the way to Aljunied! =\

Talking about this job, in case anyone who has no idea how I got it yet. Its actually a half-hearted attempt. Never really hope too much I would get the job! Its the one & only interview I had in 2009.

It was actually a job posted by a recruitment agency. Was actually more interested in the content developer post than a flash designer (involve website) post but I have to be a Singapore citizen in order to qualify for that post, its a highly confidential government job! So I try my luck for the flash designer post since the company is interested on having me to go for an interview, all the way to Aljunied! I went half willingly actually, but still do my best in the interview though.

This is the 2nd interview in my life that needs to take a test. So I took. Was given a written test & a practical test which they showed me a flash effects on some website & required me to do something like that. While doing the written test (MCQ), I realised I was given an answered sheet rather than a question paper -_-. Was struggling inside me whether to tell the truth, well I did. So I was told to skipped the test paper & just do the practical test instead. 1.5 hrs later, my interviewer came in & apologized for the long wait as she just finished a meeting. That was really fine with me as I was given more time to complete what I need to, although I only managed to do like 60% of what was required. Then we started to usual interview.

At the start of the interview, she was telling me that usually she'll look at the written test result to judge if someone's knowledge on Actionscript 3 is good. I was being ask what level of Actionscript programmer I think I am. I told them honestly that I considered myself in the intermediate level. Then she highlighted me with: "Are you aware that we are actually looking for an advance level programmer?" I said Yes.

So I thought, Ok, maybe I don't stand any chance after all. Furthermore, no test result for her to judge my knowledge on. Well, the interview went on, asking me about my family members, my hobbies, am I very devoted to my hobbies, how often I do them, etc..
I was quite puzzled why she asked so. Later, I found out from my best friend that, actually sometimes interviewer asked those question to find out the personality of the interviewee. That's what her sis-in-law do when hiring. And nowadays, employer are looking into personality more than skills as good personality will have a better working attitude & skills can always be improved with a good attitude to learn.

Well, for me, I do like to learn new things, as I find learning new things fun! It let me sees different aspects & ways of how things can be done. So I had a long 2.5 hrs of interview, 1st time ever in my life also! I almost died of thirst! Was told if I went through, I need to go for 2nd round of interview, which I hate. I have to go back to that place 2nd time & still not sure if I'll get the job or not!? Really did not carry a high hope for this job. I was telling my hubby, if they want to hire me, the 2nd time I go back, its the time I signed the appointment letter!

So after 2-3 days, I did not get any news from the agency, so I thought that's it! Then on the afternoon of the 3rd day, I got a call from them accepting me!! Wanting me go down to the office to sign the appointment letter without a 2nd interview too! Everyone said I'm lucky!
Ya, I think I am!

That's how I got my new job then.

So while I'm on leave now, I'm preparing for my Hokkaido trip! This is the most exciting & anticipated part! Finally after 2 times of my visa application (cos I'm holding a Malaysia passport), I got my visa to Japan! phew! Its only 1 week before the departure, if I still can't get it, I would have to cancel this trip.

That's a little update of my life. Next post would be about my Hokkaido trip!

Genting 21-22 Nov 09

2009-12-07T11:26:00.015+08:00

Its a short short get away to Genting with my mum, uncle's family & my 3 poly friends. We've never go on a trip together hence we've decided to make use of this opportunity!

We're taking a coach there (707 traveling), hence my mum bought the bus tickets for all of us, RM110 for 2 way, which is so much cheaper than getting it from Singapore the only cons is that we have to board from JB. So Friday after work, I meet the gals at woodland Interchange & we took bus 950 across the causeway. There were jams but luckily the cars are moving constantly & we make it to Merlin Tower just on time before the bus took off at 10pm sharp! The bus seats are quite spacious. We met up with my mum & uncle at another pick up station later.

It was about 5 hours ride before we arrived at Genting. It was only 3am in the morning, another 9 hours (12pm) before we could check-in to the room at First World Hotel. One good thing about reaching there early is that you get a shorter queue no. for your hotel room check-in. So then we roam around the hotel's mall, most shops are close (well, it should be at 3am) except for those fast food outlet that opens 24 hrs. I think this is the 1st time in my life I step into a casino! haha..
Well, I went in, walked one round & came out. Can't stand the smoky smell inside an air-conditioned area! Those gambler just smoke despite the "no smoking" sign! Everywhere in Genting, you can just see people smoking in air-conditioned area! STUPID!

Frankly, I'll never go Genting again. There's nothing you can do there except for gambling (which i don't really like), theme park (not really interested). So well, we do things that actually can be done here like going for movie, ktv, arcade, eat. We actually decided to go for a 2d1n instead of 3d2n which my mum & uncle did. So we left Genting on Sunday morning.

DAY 1:

Around 4am in the morning..super tired but no where to sleep..waiting at the lobby of the hotel..

Rise & shine, just that it was a rainy Saturday!

Visibility..I think less than 500m.

Went to the arcade to kill time..

KTV time!

Like nursery room..

Their lunch meals are quite good..

Dinner at the mushroom farm..called for their van to pick up at the hotel lobby..

Supper at Kenny Roger..

Only 2 side dish in Malaysia...

Strawberry & Mango yogurt drink..

Day 2:

Dim sum breakfast at one of the restaurant(forget the name) in Genting Hotel..

Another cold morning..

In my shorts with the super cold wind blowing at me, goosepimples all over!

Home sweet home..

BKK trip (31/10/08 - 02/11/08)

2009-11-15T23:01:00.006+08:00

Its a short trip with one of my best friend, her bf & bf's friends. A group of 6 traveling with Jetstar, we manage to grab their promotion tickets in July, with 1 for 1 great deal!

Not much preparation for this trip as I have a tour guide to bring us around (for shopping only), so the guys are quite boring & aching feet throughout the trip, haha..Although we gals also had aching feet, but the shopping mall is too irresistible for us to STOP! We went for foot massage one the 1st day & a thai full body massage on the 2nd day night.

So we stayed somewhere very near to the shopping mall that we are 'attacking'. The hotel we stayed was Citin Pratunam, its a small hotel & seems to be a new hotel just opened not long ago. Overall, the hotel room are OK, having all basic amenities except that the bed is a bit too hard, what to expect when its like sgd61 per night.

Basically, Thailand is not a place with too many foods that suits our taste bud except their tom yum gong, that is really superb, nothing like that can be found in Singapore, the taste is totally different. They sell shark's fin in food court! Braised pig trotter, almost any stall you get them from, the meats are cooked till very soft! Just that the taste may vary.

Not forgetting their ever so sweet mango! All is SO SWEET and JUICY! Tried their glutinous rice with mango too! Very nice! I'm missing their mango~~

Thai people likes to eat KFC, the kind that sells on the roadside though, cheaper version of KFC. haha..They'll have all parts of the chicken, including deep fried crispy chicken skin, its so crunchy that will make you keep munching on it although you know that might increase your cholesterol level. So now you know how much I gain!? I dare not weight myself though..

Below are some pictorial memories that I have for this trip =D

some illegal operation is going on...

Alot of cabs waiting at the airport! I think its around 9am Singapore time & 8am in Thailand.

After like 1hr+ of journey on the cab we've finally reach our hotel!

A small hotel indeed with some renovation work going on beside it.

After putting down our luggage at the counter, we couldn't check-in the hotel yet. We start our itinerary of the day!

Road side KFC! Those near the right side of the stall wrapped in plastic bags are chicken fried skin!

Pan-fry chives cake (韭菜糕) ..something like they mix chives in some kind of flour & pan fry it like that until the outer layer is crispy. It's yummy! But its quite oily too!

Alot of pink taxi on the road..so pretty..

On the way to the ultimate shopping paradise!

Here it is!

First meal of the day,

Laogong's Phat Thai..their chili flakes are very good...

Mine, not very sure what it was..Its VERY spicy! I think I added too much chillies..

Shopping time!

Tired already?

Old Sim Lim square look alike - Panthip Plaza, a place that sell pirated software, but mostly outdated ones according to laogong..

Our hotel bed..

The hotel's tut tut, which have free shuffle from 9am-8pm to the nearest mrt station.

On our way to the mrt station..its really fast & furiously scary!

Getting our tickets for the mrt, heading to MBK..

Day 2, we had our breakfast at this restaurant which is very famous with Singaporean for their Wanton mee & braised pig trotter. Indeed, the moment we walked in, at least 2-3 tables of the diners were from Singapore.

Braised pig trotter with rice! DELICIOUS!

Preparing our wanton mee..the portion of the noodle is consider quite small, but the ingredient like char siew, vege is alot!

After breakfast, we start our day with some sight seeing. We took a train from Siam station to Saphan Taksin station where we could board the tourist boat to cruise along Chao Phraya river. We're visiting Grand Palace, Wat Pho(incline aka sleeping Buddha) temple & War Arun (Temple of Dawn). In the end we skipped Grand Palace as our attire does not allow us in. But we get to enjoy traveling on the boat along Chao Phraya.

Getting onto the tourist boat..

River boat routes..

Here we are! Stop no.8

Wat Pho temple. Like this shot with the cloud & the blue sky, contrast is good!

Sleeping Buddha..

This shot makes me look tall! hahaha..

On another boat to cross the river to the Temple of Dawn..

Taking a pic while waiting for the boat to leave..

Alot of fish at the pier!

Temple of Dawn.

After which we took a cab down to Chatuchak but we arrived at Jatuchak plaza. In fact, Chatuchak is just behind it.

Here's 1 section of Chatuchak..It's a super hot day!

Roti prata - Thailand style..

They put egg, sugar & condensed milk to eat with..quite nice

We walked around Chatuchak for 2+ hrs under the hot sun after which we decided to head back to hotel for a rest before dinner while my friend continues her spree till later. Its too hot that I have no mood to shop for anything.

Dinner, we're heading to China Town.

Street of China Town.

Had our dinner at a restaurant & head for some dessert after that. We went to this shop to grabbed some local snacks to bring back home for our family.

Alot of people there..

They said this is make from the real crocodile..so poor thing, still have to make it into a "sawasdee krub" pose -_-

Last day of our BKK trip!

We went to the Pratunam morning market, here is a whole new lots of small shops that sell cheap clothes!

Everything less than 200baht!

A street of shops for clothes..

Went back to the same wanton mee place for one last time of wanton mee! After that we continue shopping around the Pratunam market before going back to the hotel to check-out. While my friends left for the airport (their flight at 145pm, while mine at 9pm as I booked the wrong timing) so we still got time to have some last minute shopping! Glad that I booked the wrong flight though, cause I get to grab a lot more stuff one last time!

Lunch at the 'real' KFC, but we mix with the chicken fried skin that we bought on the road side earlier =P.

We head to airport around 6pm & off we fly back to Singapore.

Bkk airport.

We reach Singapore about 115am & here's our dinner cum supper! My favorite food from here, their mashed potato! Yummy!

Still trying to adjust...

2009-11-10T10:53:00.004+08:00

Has anyone had the same experience as me? I don't seem to have much time for myself after getting married.

Its almost 2 months since, things are still not settling down. I still have so many things piling up on the list that I'm not able to do them! Or is it that everything come just not in the right time? I usually have time to rest during weekends, now I have to go home on weekend to visit my parent. So basically, 1 out of the 2 days of the weekend is gone. The other day of it, I'll have to do some housekeeping, usually that will take half of my day.

I have been busy with work, went back to OT on both last Sat and Sun. Work late on weekdays too! I HAVEN BEEN to gym or yoga for 3 weeks already!! -_-

I have been sick, ever since I moved in. Sore throat for 2-3 weeks, stomachache on and off, mouth ulcer pain & toothache after coming back from BKK. Strangely, I was all well when in BKK, all sickness gone. The moment I'm home, I feel sick again. Is it that the Feng Shui or something in the new place is not good for me or its just that I can't get used to the new changed of environment or is it because I've broke one of the taboo on the Chinese customary? no more 'pure' water to drink? All the wild guesses I have, haiz..

I hope its just that I'm too busy and has not been resting enough, thus all these sickness. But not something related to feng shui or things that its in the house affecting me, in that case, I'll never get better =\

A new phase of my life

2009-10-15T21:01:00.005+08:00

It has been 2 weeks since I stepped into a new phase of my life. Have started to get used to all 'things' happening around me. Such as the loud cars, buses, lorries, motorcycles noises that passes by the bedroom's window every night. Water flushing sound in the middle of the night could have woke me up for the 1st few nights. Last but not least, the one that I choose to sleep with for the rest of my life's snoring...haha..
Atleast now I could have a better sleep, unlike the 1st few days when I got back to work. I could just start 'fishing' straight after lunch -_-.

My FIL is a great chef! Btw, he cooks delicious, mouth watering hainanese chicken rice's chilli! haha...Of course, the chicken & the rice also taste VERY GOOD lah!
SO every night I get home, I could smell food the moment I entered the house. Within 1 hr, we have a table of food enough for...I think 8 person to eat. Usually 3 big plate of dishes & 1 big pot of soup. He cook soup especially for me as the whole family don't drink soup at all. Every night I sleep with a full stomach!
I weigh myself a week ago, it was 50.7kg. This week, after standing on the weighing machine, I couldn't believe my own eyes...52.1kg! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!! I think the weighing machine is not working right that day!! Cannot be...CANNOT, something must be wrong right..
Well..I did not verify this 'error' when I reach home, don't want to find out the truth ~_~

Tonight, my laogong came home late from his Japanese language lesson which he paid a freaking "ATAS" sum for it. Only telling me after he enrolled himself to the lessons, thanks to him I was left with nothing to say coz he PAID for it liao. CANNOT BE STOP! MUST GO LIAO..if not waste $$ right..He also get ourselves a LIABILITY which I was also told after him making the decision himself la! OMGWTHBBQ!!

My WEDDING day!

2009-10-10T18:02:00.001+08:00

After a long year of preparation, this day has finally come & over with a blink of eyes -_-.

I woke up at 530a.m on 30 Sept 2009, slept at 2a.m on 30 Sept 2009. Next day, my eye bag is terrible =\. All thanks to my MUA that I could look better =D. Quite happy with her make up, even though I were to pay her in full amount when she came in the morning rather than after the evening's make up. Feel abit unsecured coz usually people paid after getting the full service. Luckily, after taking the money she still did a wonderful job & make me a beautiful bride that day! =D

Its 750am & the time has come! I heard car horns & I were to stay in my room until hubby gets his 'treats' from the jie meis..haha
Was quite nervous when I was waiting in the room. Most funny of all, I forgot about my rings. Luckily I realized that my fingers feels empty & went to get them before the sisters let him in.

Have not got the photos back from our photographer. Here's a previews of what's taken by his sister on the actual day =).

The groom has reached to fetch the bride!

HUAT AH!! Huat for the bridal car no. to open...Sadly, that day not even a single 'lucky' no. open =\

My cousin (uncle's son) to open the bridal car door. My bro can't do it as his chinese horoscope crash with my hubby's. He was so sad & said he only has 1 sister, 1 chance to open the bridal car door..NOW he has no more chance to do it =\...hahaha..

Roasted Pig!

Battled it out with my 2 jie meis aka my best friends!

Finally break through the barrier & lifted my veil..

With hubby's sis & bf..

With hubby's cousin & hubby

Ready to leave for in-law's house..

Father sent me off with a red umbrella..

Reached in-law's place..

Eating tang yuan..Don't know what laogong was thinking for having that funny face..haha

A pose for the camera man..

Buffet (Pin Si) for the relatives. Reviews from the relatives that the buffet were not bad.

We were ahead of our schedule, managed to finish the tea serving ceremony 1 hour earlier as planned at 1030am. We initially arrange for buffet to come at 12pm & we changed the timing to 1130am 1 day before. On the actual day, we called up to ask if the food could be delivered 30 mins earlier, but were told that the earliest they could make it was 1115am. Luckily, the buffet came at 11am.

But it was time we head back to my house for tea ceremony to my parent & relatives.
*no photos here as hubby's sister did not follow us back so its all with our photographer.

After everything, we had some rest before the MUA is back to do make up for the dinner.

Me & my MUA. I had my make up in the toilet! Hahaha..
What a choice I make! As I realise later on its easier to clean up for she sprayed alot of glitter on me & its everywhere on the toilet floor rather than in my bedroom floor!

That's all for now..
Stay tune! Will upload the whole album when I got all the photos back!

my NEW room!

2009-09-09T18:01:00.002+08:00

Finally we got our furnitures delivered to us by IKEA on .

Getting things from IKEA means you have to do some work before you see the final product. So, its time laogong show his 'muscle' (emm, don't know now is muscle or fats =P) power!

Laying out every parts of our drawer cupboard. Ready to start WORK!

Now is almost done...still some more to go...Jia You! Laogong~

And...tata~~

Finished product!

And now...this is how our room looks like...

Wedding portrait..heez

Our bed..king size!

custom made sliding door wardrobe..

Our computer table..i sit inside, on the bed..but a bit far from the table, sitting too long will make my back ache..but sitting on the red stool will make my butt ache -_-...

Master bedroom's toilet..

The cupboard that is used to stored laogong's gundum! FULL with IT!

Shower panel..

Shopping @ Ikea

2009-09-05T20:14:00.005+08:00

Finally the chest of drawers that we wanted is here! So, we head down to Ikea this afternoon to grab the items before they are out of stock again! Unfortunately, there's still 1 items that is STILL out of stock! WTH, is Ikea's stuff so cheap that everyone grabbed for it?

Ok, whatever it is, we have to wait. Here's what we've gotten..

1) Verner swivel chair (in black)

2) MALM series - chest of 6 drawers (in black)
3) Transparent glass top to put on top of the drawers

4) Amon table top (wanted to get the storage drawers, but out of stock)

We had our late lunch at Ikea's restaurant...

Laogong's favourite meat balls..

Soup of the day - mushroom soup set with bun..my stuffed baked salmon on the far top end..

Heres a sneak preview of my angbao box, still need to touch up a bit though..

Tonkichi

2009-08-31T23:36:00.000+08:00

Tonkichi is famous for their Tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet). Here they serve different part of porks for their Tonkatsu, pork fillet & pork loin. Tried it with my ex-boss the other time & feel that I should bring hubby here to tried them too!

Their meal come with rice, cabbage, miso soup & fruits. Each set is rather big so we ordered just 1 set & added on with 2 side dishes, 1 bowl of rice & upgraded our soup.

Side dish #1 - Chawanmushi. Their chawanmushi has prawn in it, overall it taste not bad. But still prefer the 1 at ichiban.

Side dish #2 - Tofu Katsu (deeped fried breaded tofu). This does not taste that fantastic.

Upgraded soup - Tonjiru (there's stripped pork, radish, carrot & another ingredient which taste like jelly (abit harder than the usual jelly), which we don't know what that is, but it taste nice) from the standard miso soup.

Our main set, Jumbo Katsu set. Deep fried jumbo pork loin. See the big chunk of cabbage!? Its free flow! When you've finished them, they will come with a big sieve with those cabbage in there & refill for you!

Too bad this time, laogong didn't get to try the roasted sesame seeds that was given in a small bowl with a wooden stick before the food come. It was given to me the last time when I dined with my ex-boss, to grind it to powdery form & mixed with their sauce as a dip for our katsu. Maybe it's due to the set that we ordered is different.

Wedding preparation

2009-08-29T22:28:00.004+08:00

Can't do much this month on wedding stuff as its the Chinese's 7th month aka the ghost festival. Was told not to do anything much related to wedding like sending out invitation cards etc. Not really sure what exactly are the things that we can't do but we are doing things like planning schedule of the actual day, seating arrangement, making our angbao box, making of montage etc. Those little little miscellaneous stuffs. Kinda have lots of things left to be done, not sure if I'm missing out anything also -_-.

Getting some furniture that we still need, new shoes, new pants (for hubby). After 7th month, need to go buy items needed for our An Chuang. Things seems to be piling up in my mind as I'm blogging now. Gosh, I'm having a feeling that I do not have enough time for everything now.

We went JB today, main purpose is to buy my wedding shoes & accessories (looking for ideas at the same time too) for our angbao box. Well, since we are there, we went for a KTV session in the morning, from 10am-12pm at City Square's Neway. RM40.10 for 2 pax with lunch, free flow of salad buffet & drink. Even though the singing session was just 2 hrs, its still much cheaper than SG's kbox!

we got quite a spacious room..

Laogong was singing these 2 Hokkien songs which everytime he hear my MIL sing, until he knows how to sing them & liked them evetually -_-.

We went catch a movie after that - Laughing Gor - Turning point. That's the title for this show in Msia's cinema. Finally know how laughing kor become an undercover (those who don't know who laughing kor is, go watch this HK drama 學警狙擊, E.U.). Reason we choose to watch this show in JB, #1- its in canto, #2- its more 'worth' to watch this kind of show in RM =D. It cost us RM21 for couple seats ticket, RM9.90 for popcorn & a drink. Only about SGD13 for 2 pax to watch a movie on a weekend.

After the show, we start shopping & ended up in our favorite shop again - F.O.S! This time, laogong finally able to find T-shirts there, but there's nothing much for me today. We went hunting around for shoes & ribbons/lace for my box after that. Walked pass a shop & saw this..

Was thinking maybe I could get that as my side table, but laogong said its too big coz after we put our bed, think there's no such a big space left for it also. Quite like the design actually.

Then we walked pass a shop that sells, cheong sum & traditional clothings for chinese & malays (mostly for chinese). I saw a few cheong sum, quite nice. Was thinking if I should get them as my tea dress, as I do not have any Qun Kwa for my AD. Thinking of renting, so far checked with 2 shops that do rental for this, at least $180 & above -_-.

This design has 2 colors, 1 in pink (pic above), the other in red. Only manage to snap a photo of this pink one when the sales person came & stop me taking a pic of the red one =\. It's a knee length cheong sum @ RM159, should I get it? Does people wear this kind of knee length cheong sum as tea dress? If I buy it, when will I wear it again? haha...
Dilemma! =S

Manage to get my shoes after the hunt but not ribbons/lace, no shops selling lace there -_-.

Was a bit hungry after the movie & shopping (we had our lunch like 11+ while ktv-ing), so we were wondering around CS on what to eat. Finally we settled down at 旺角茶餐厅 located within inner city, level 3 of city square. Tried their XO酱炒肠粉，避风港金鱼饺子 & 2 hot 鸳鸯奶茶. Can say their food were all up to standard, especially their 鸳鸯奶茶. RM24.65 for all, consider cheap coz if we were to eat those in SG, it will cost about the same amount also, but in SGD!
By the way, we only realised that we hadn't taken a pic of the foods after we've 'cleaned' the plates. Haha..Next time! Hope we remember to snap them before we move our fork & spoon.

JB 7/8-9/8/09

2009-08-13T15:45:00.002+08:00

It's a long weekend again! We went in to JB, my grandma's place to stayed over.

Took half day's leave on Fri as we're afraid it would be terribly jam after work. In the end we each went to meet up with friend & ex-colleague for lunch. By the time we went in to JB, its already 5pm. Luckily, the JB custom is still quite empty at that time. We took less than 30 mins to reach JB from Singapore.

We went to City Square to shop for awhile before heading to the food street behind Jln Ah Fook for our dinner. We ordered 1 plate of char kway tiao, 1 plate of fried oyster & 1 sting ray.

This stall only have fried oyster & we ordered ours from here! Even "Ang Mo" knows that this stall has delicious fried oyster & came over from quite a distance away from his table to order it.

Char Kway Tiao! Sinful but delicious! =P

Fried oyster. A lot of oyster!

Samba stingray. This is a great deal of its taste & price. RM12 for 2 pieces of it & its meat are thick & very fresh! Simply melt in your mouth! Oh, emm..I'm not advertising for M&Ms hor =P

We discovered these 3 stalls the last time we went there, they're all delicious. So this time laogong is eager to have them again! I'm just worried how he's going to burn all these fats & those fats that is already in him now, in 1.5 mths time! =P..

We reach grandma house around 9pm. Had a bath & rest for awhile before meeting mum's friend to drink tea & chit chat at this indian kopitiam. They have tasty nasi lemak, roti plata & best of all their fried chicken. "Teh Halia" is nice too. Too bad we left our phones charging at home & did not take any photos of it.

Most funny of all, there's this indian waitor at the kopitiam, he had a super fast tongue. Whatever he said, we can't catch him at all! Especially when he is totaling the cost of our meal. He just sound like a machine gun, calculating the price out loud to himself (in indian). Its just amusing & kind of entertaining to the diner there. haha..

We went for gown choosing the next day at our bridal house. Here's some of the gown that I tried.

So many that I like, but I can only choose 1 wedding gown & 1 evening gown =(

My mum also tried on some as she wanted to rent one for the dinner. Here's what we all think looks best on her.

After this, we went to Bukit Indah shopping center to shop again!
We had something at Shihling. Yes, Shihling the name of the night market at TW =D.

Fried big chicken cutlet. Must eat it in whole piece, ask them to chop, they tell us that.

Fried sweet potato sprinkle with sour plum powder.

This branch here in JB is not bad, their "O Ah" mee sua is better than the one at far east.

Continue to shop till 5pm+ after that we went home for awhile before heading out for dinner. We went to this restaurant in a shopping center near my grandma place. All the dishes are good, we ordered ..

Black pepper ostrich meat

Hong Kong Style Steam fish

Bitter gourd fry with salted egg, special dish

After 20 minutes...

Ate too much these 2 days, need to do a lot of exercise! But I was sick since Sun after we got back to SG =\

My guo da li..

2009-08-09T16:25:00.004+08:00

We had our simple Guo Da Li (a chinese wedding custom, a procedure whereby the groom send the the bride's gift as requested by Bride's family) on 02/08/09.
My grandma, uncle & the kids came over from JB as well.

My parent does not have much requirement from my hubby's family, so hubby got those items that is a MUST for this custom.

What hubby gave us:
- 2 bottles of red wine
- 12 oranges
- 12 canned of pig trotters
- 2 pairs of dragon & phoenix candles
- Pin Jin & ang bows to thank my parent & grandma on bringing me up (养育之恩红包）
- 20 boxes of cakes. (cakes are from Sweetest Moment, friends if you need any baby full moon, wedding, cupcakes for special occasion can look out here.)

Then we (bride's family) returned some of the items hubby brought here with the dowry.

Items given back to hubby:
- 2 bottles of orange juice
- 2 oranges
- 2 canned of pig's trotter
- 2 boxes of cakes
- A pair of pheonix candles
- Some of the Pin Jin & angbows from my grandma

Items (my dowry) for hubby to bring home :
- Towels wrapped up as presents for my PIL & sis
- 2 lamps (battery operated)
- Comforter Set, Pillows, bolster (tie together using ribbon)
- 1 Tea set to be used for tea serving to hubby's parent & relatives, my mum is using her tea set for tea serving on actual day
- Baby Bath Pail, Face basin, Ruler, Spittoon, 1 Sewing Box with 6/8/12 rolls of threads + needles + scissors, Mouth rinse container, comb, Red string, Yuan Qian

We actually simplified most of the items & procedures, so everything is done like less than 1 hour.

Finally, a family shot!

Laogong needs to go over to his relative's place to bai bai to his ancestor, distribute invitation cards & cakes. So I did not follow him over after that. Whats going to happen at the relative's place is going to ruin hubby's happy mood & messed everything up.

Well, I shall not blog about unhappy things then. I guessed most of my friends already knew what happened.

So yah, this is my Guo Da Li day!

Taiwan Trip 24-28 Apr 08 (Day 4 & Last day)

2009-08-01T23:56:00.008+08:00

We were on day 4 of our trip.

Today, we are going for another hot spring.

We started our day having our breakfast at this restaurant call Tamagoya, a japanese-style omelet concept restaurant. We kept passing by, but every time we're back to Xi Men Ding after our one long day touring around Taipei, it's closed.

We ordered one curry escargot & a cutlet pork omelet rice.

Escargot taste good!

Just wanna try how they taste, so we just ordered 1 pork cutlet omelet rice. It turn out that it's not that fantastic.

We each had a bowl Ah Zhong mian xian after this to complete our breakfast =P.

We headed to ..

alighting at 中正纪念堂 station.

The ceiling of the roof..

蔣介石 Chiang Kai-Shek

On the day of our visit, they are having some rehearsal events for mothers' day.

I like this shot.

Next we are going to 乌来 (Wu Lai), for our 2nd hot spring of our trip. Alighting at 新店 (Xin Dian) station we took a bus, about 20 mins to reach Wu Lai's hot spring area.

Very nice scenery..

This is our private outdoor hot spring room. We could look out at the natural scenery outside.

Here's what we can see..

This the hot spring we went for. Its hidden quite deep up the mountainous area, we walked for about 30 mins before reaching the place.

It's time we head back to Taipei.

Today we explore yet another night market here in Taipei - Shida Night Market.
Alighting at 古亭 (Guting) mrt station. Its not a big night market, but the food there is quite cheap & the portion is big, as its near an university so its more to cater to students.

生煎包 is something like xiao long bao. It's juicy with meat inside except that it's cook this way (see above pic).

They sell hot plate steak, chicken chop, pork chop, lamb etc here..

Look at the price, its consider cheap. The most ex steak (T-bone steak) on the menu is TWD 240 which is SGD$12. The portion is quite big that 2 person can just share it, it come with free flow of red tea too.

That's the end of our day 4!

Day 5 (Last day)

We will be taking 6pm's flight back to singapore. So we still have till 2pm to loiter around Xi Men Ding before we need to take the freeGo bus back to airport.

So we woke up later like 10am & stroll around Xi Men Ding. We spotted a shop that sells noodles. We thought we should have it for our breakfast.

Something caught our eyes - 状元蛋, its half boiled egg with an interesting name. I wanna have half boiled egg, so we ordered it. To our dismay, the half boiled egg came chilled! -_- really cannot get used to eating cold half boiled egg, yucks!

We order some noodles too. Nothing fantastic here.

After breakfast, we walked around again & I spotted this cat. It's fur's pattern is so rare! So Cute!

The we had 芋丸 at this shop call 鲜芋仙. I guess this shop is rather popular in TW, as we've seen in everywhere in Taipei.

Home Sweet Home..

We love Taiwan, we will definitely be back again to other parts of TAIWAN!!

Click here to read my previous post on this trip..

This is my desktop background!

2009-07-28T10:46:00.004+08:00

I suddenly think of 'our' tatty bear, then i went to its website & saw their main page's design.
Very nice.

So I print screen, edit & make it into my screen background..

Taiwan Trip 24-28 Apr 08 (Day 3 - part 3)

2009-07-17T22:04:00.015+08:00

On exit of the train station, we were welcomed by the crowds of people at the night market.

The 1st stall we walked past, was this stall selling 手抓饼, which is something like our roti prata here.

There're really a lot of people on a Saturday night, we started to walk with the flow of the crowds.

As we walked into the 'heart' of the street, we can see that there's 3 parts to the stalls. Those shop houses at each side of the street & the one at the center of the street, those 地摊. That has some how divided the street into two lane, one way going down the street & the other walking out. There's really NO 'human' jam at all even though the street is full of people, the crowdss moved on smoothly.

Then we saw another stall selling 卤味 ..

All kinds of stalls in one street. In fact, Shihling night market is make up of a few streets that crossed into each other, so you just walked around that place until you realise..Hey! I've passed by this shop before! haha..

Think this shop has an online store..

Almost every shop we walked pass is having close down sales..hmm..

VERY big sausage!! faintz..

We've just finish one part of the Shihling market, YES! One part! There's another part where its something like a hawker center, which sells all the yummylicious foods!

Looking across the road, those bright lights with lots of people, that's where the hawker is!
*sorry image a kind of blur

Alot of people also!

Any idea what's the famous food at Shihling market?

Yes!! That's the chicken that even came to singapore! haha..

We bought one & we have to say, its really a very big piece of chicken! But we felt that it doesn't taste that fantastic after all.

Then we go on to explore more..
And we found..

Its recommended on the travel guide, so we gotta try it too..

Actually, 大饼 is a thin piece of skin, like the po piah skin. 小饼 is what you see below, its some crispy dough (i guess). They will put that crispy stuff on top of the po piah skin & smash it to pieces, added some floss & those flavour powder that you've ask for.

I can't really remember how it taste like now..haha, but I do remember, we like it =).

Afer a long day, it's finally time we end our day.

That's how the nearest mrt station look like..

It's called Jian Tan station. So friends, if next time you wanna come to Shihling Night Market, just take train to this station!

Click here to read my previous post on this trip..