Storm

The inevitable's gonna happen soon. It's sad... but I could somehow understand. On the other hand, we hope to see rainbow after the rain.

There're so much changes for the last 3 years.

Branch out

Did I say we discovered Aston's (the popular western food I previously talked about) second stall in Serangoon Garden? We only chanced upon it about 2 or 3 months ago. You may not know if I tell you Huat Hin Coffee Shop... but how about [榕树下解渴站]?

If we don't wish to join the long Q & want more privacy yet don't mind the warm environment especially at noon, we'll go to Serangoon Garden's. However sometimes we still like to go to the one at East Coast Road which we gotta prepare to wait both in a Q & for the food. It doesn't seem to help in easing the crowd after the expansion.

Last friday in Serangoon Gardens... waiting for our food served.

So this is what I meant...

Hubby's mobile phone VS our car audio remote control

All about flowers & plants

I love decorating our place with fresh flowers.

And the current concept is to keep it simple.

Now on our coffee table. We love purple roses!

Now on our dining table

2 weeks ago, on the dining table

A fake Calla is based on our vanity counter... which occasionally replaced by some fresh flowers when in the mood.

We go to Far East Flora as I like choices. But my preference changes from time to time. Previously I was into those garden floral décor.

Done for the last gathering with my colleagues. Placed this on each of the tables in the multi-purpose hall. Does the candle look familiar? Yep, it's from our wedding. In total we brought home 54 pieces of my favourite aqua-blue pillar candles after the big day... given away a few pieces & we're still left with more than 40!

We've also changed the decorative piece of 2 years that's next to the tv console.

The old one.

The present look.

I was actually eyeing a 6-foot tall real monstera deliciosa plant and would love to have that in our living hall. However we're not ready to pay $250 for it... perhaps wait till we're richer:) So we got the fake leaves instead for S$60+.. not that cheap too! I think it would look even better with another stalk but that would mean a total of $100. Anyway we're still very happy with the new "plant" we set up together (which wasn't that easy) and mum thought they're real.

New York New York

New York New York @ AMK Hub last Thurs

An unplanned small celebration for hubby's promotion :)

The gigantic root beer float. If only they could give 2 scoop of ice cream instead of one.

1 morning in the life of a Postman

Hubby & I woke up real early this morning & left home at 6.45am.

What ever for on a Saturday morning?

Delivery of Harry Potter books. The nationwide delivery was to start at 7am this morning (I heard the press conference was @ 6am!?!) & the more senior staff were mobilised to do the job too. Hubby was to cover certain area with another colleague. I tagged along to navigate & guard our car while they're doing delivery. Hubby had a brief taste of being a postman, or rather, a courier man ;) and we both have long understood that it's not easy at all for them to do the running around everyday, rain or shine, with many many more articles & letters to deliver.

Back to the delivery... it's such a rave that some of the readers were actually waiting anxiously for the book & soon after 7AM, called to ask why it wasn't delivered yet. That included one of his friend's kid. Once, hubby thought no one's home after knocking for several times. When he brought the book back, we're chatting next to the car while waiting for his colleague who's covering other blocks nearby. Then not sure since when, there's this young girl (think in late teens or early 20s) with puffy eyes & somewhat messy hair appeared next to me. She showed us a piece of paper & asked whether we're delivering the book. I was curious & asked why she knew it's us. She said by the time she finally heard the knocking on her door, hubby had already left. And she ran to the window & saw him walking to our car with a book in hand (wow her just-woken-up eyes were sharp ya).. so she ran down to catch us in her sleepwear. Haha.

Everything had been smooth & we finished before 11am. Ran some errands of our own thereafter.

Phone freaks

I changed 4 mobile phones within 10 months & 3 for hubby. I'm being known as someone who "plays" handphones by some colleagues & the boss. They usually go "huh, change phone again?". It's never our intention to change phones so frequently though we do like to explore new phones. Nothing to be proud of actually... each time we trade in, we tend to lose more than 20% of what we paid.

Why then??

Perhaps the more you pay for a phone, the higher the expectations you have. And I seriously think there isn't a phone that's really good & stable now. Or is it me?

Previously hubby would let me use the new phones & he always took over mine... till last year we bought a pair of Samsung E730.

In Oct 06, sold our E730 & bought Samsung X820. I've forgotten what's the problem for mine but it's always self-rebooting for hubby's. So before the price dropped even further, we traded them in. One lesson we learnt.. Samsung phones are nice to have but low resale value.

Mar 07, Nokia E65 was my next phone after X820. It's supposed to be the first Nokia phone with wifi that's the most compact. Besides the normal hanging & no reception at times, the other party always complained the volume was too soft. Hubby got a Nokia 6300 at the same time.

Jun 07, Nokia N70 music edition with 1GB memory. Was deciding between Nokia N73 (I love the 3.2 MP camera with Carl Zeiss lens) & Sony Ericsson K810i (another 3.2 MP camera). N73 was out of stock at that moment & after some consideration, I decided to get N70 instead as just needed to top up $50. And I gotta admit IT'S A WRONG CHOICE. I know lagging would be part & parcel for a Symbian phone. Besides, the reception always blanked out... like there's one night just before we slept I realised there's an incoming sms from sis & I wanted to reply but no network. Usually when this happened I would go & choose the network manually (hubby taught me so because by switching on/off wasn't useful) but I was too lazy to do that. The next morning when I woke up, there's still no reception. And this no-network problem had become as frequent as several times a day. Then the phone, when in crazy mode, also refused to accept instructions, eg. I clicked to use certain function, it appeared to process but after a few secs would still go back to the main screen. Constance's hubby who used the same phone, had problems with it too.

By the way, we sold the E65 at a very high price of $430... about $50 above the market resale rate... kind of a consolation.

Last Sunday, I gave up my N70 & bought Sony Ericsson S500i. As for hubby, he surrendered his Nokia 6300 when it began to "selectively" receive smses. And the speaker cracked. He bought a LG phone with very basic functions.. imagine there's no bluetooth. Thankfully it's a colored screen. Hehe. Just nice for his reservist next week. The phone is so light & small that everyone says it's just like the audio remote control in our car.

Now I just want a simpler phone that can take reasonably clear pictures & won't give me much problems. So far so good though yet to confirm... fingers crossed. Like the slimness & black-green combi.

Last evening hubby got me a 1GB memory stick. He's waiting for Sept (with 21-month upgrade) to get me a new phone so he can take over my S500i.

So, 2 months later you'll see me with a new phone, again.

Heartburn

Been feeling unwell for the past week. Started on Mon night when I took an apple before going to bed. Then for the whole night I felt as if the apple was stuck in my throat & chest. The next day onwards I experience a bit of pain when drinking & eating. Went to a doctor near my office on Tue. Told him how I felt... he laughed at me and said it's impossible that the apple to still be there. He concluded that it's some gastric problems I am having. I still kinda have apetite but it feels lousy and very uncomfortable... as if my esophagus is choked with too much food (when you eat too fast & too much at one go). I feel pain all the way to the chest and there's burning sensation inside too. Sigh.. So most of the time I take lesser than normal and am mostly on liquid diet (crave for hot soup!). Yet I get hungry very fast.. like after every hour or so.. and if I don't feed myself soon enough, I'll feel as if my stomach is being digged vigorously.

Thurs night after work went to see another doc when I didn't get any better. Same diagnosis.

Am feeling a lil bit better today. Mum made me a big pot of soup which is one of my fav. My poor honey has to put up with all the inconsistency (one minute I want food but the next he has to finish most of it plus his own portion) and funny requests (trying hard to look for soupy stuff). And I admit I'm already a fussy gal on normal days.

Nuptials

Attending wedding events never fails to bring back all the fond memories of our own

Well for last wed's wedding dinner of LL & Mandy, we arrived early at 7.40pm. That's the earliest in my record, hee. We went straight after work, that was why. And our table was still empty... been wondering with whom we would share the table as apparently, all other classmates we mutually know weren't in the list. Made a boo boo the day before by asking an ex-classmate, Chris, whether he'd be attending the dinner. He said he wasn't invited. Oopz... had to end this awkward sms exchange by saying "let's organise a gathering some time soon ya?". Hope LL won't kill me for that. If Chris not informed, needless to talk about my other classmates.

Thought I could at least see his former buddies - mickey mouse & ninja turtle.. but no sight of them. Maybe the turtle had mutated till beyond recognition? (duh~) The table was slowly filled up but none of them I knew. Perhaps except one, the Malay guy, who I found a lil bit familiar & thought we're from the same school but I wasn't sure at all. We tried very hard to figure out who our table was made up of - besides us, 4 of the other guests knew each other, another couple was all by themselves, a relative dropout from the next table (hubby's so amused by my description), then there's this poor dude who's there all by himself. Finally during the 2nd or 3rd course, I broke the ice & spoke to the girl next to me. We got to know that 2 other guys (including the only Malay guy... so I was right to have recognised him!) & I were from the same college.. they from science (same as LL) & me from commerce. The girl was one of the guys' wife & the other chap was the Malay's ex-colleague & LL's IRC friends (complicated!). The 6 of us ended up chatting happily & cracking jokes. The remaining four were very quiet throughout the dinner. So it turned out to be quite fun.

We felt really happy for LL. After all that he'd been through, he deserves an angel like Mandy. We believe he's so looking forward to this day, to celebrate their love & to share his life with someone he loves who also loves him for who he is.

I thought we could take a pic together with the bride & groom. It's a pity we didn't manage to.

Some pix of ourselves after the dinner then! ;)

French-cuff shirt with blue floral prints, the second piece bought in KL.

Close-up. Don't think I've mentioned how much we paid for this... S$12.

As for me, this a pretty good way to hide the tummy fats after all the good food in KL.

Not a big discovery but I'm happy!

Last evening we're browsing in River Island Raffles City when I spotted this pair of sunglasses that looked exactly the same as the one I bought in KL (see pic in last post), from the boutique in Times Square Berjaya where I bought my pants. We could recognise because of its unique design, mainly: lens not framed at either sides and the bridge part. The differences?

RI	Mine
deep brown frames	red tone (which I like; chose that over the other 2 colors - deep brown & white)
silver lining at the hinge	none (which I like)
S$45	S$8.90 (which I like most!)
transparent plastic pouch	hard case with zip (which of course I like.. look much more presentable)

Spree

Of feasting.

We ate so much for the past days that hubby said he had forgotten how it felt like to be hungry, haha. Especially during a ritual visit to the chinese restaurant in KLCC. We ordered peking duck (whole duck + 2nd course which we requested to have the meat fried with rice), dim sum & soup at one go. Been craving for peking duck & some other dim sum.. so having two very bloated tummies & leftovers were the result of our greediness. And the carrot cake fried with XO sauce was also too good to be missed. Sedap!

One of the evenings we had Japanese buffet at Saisaki Japanese Buffet Restaurant. The place was very near our hotel... just about 10 mins' walk. Good that I made reservation a few days before as they were running full on a weekday night. This gotta be the most generous spread we've ever had and the food was fresh! And the best part was.. we paid only S$53.40 for two (S$26.70/pax)! Too happily indulging in the great food that we had forgotten to take any pic.

Our all-time fav 4 the mouth-watering char siew

Remember to tell the auntie in cantonese 半肥瘦 when you order.

Can't tell the shabbiness from this picture. We usually prefer to sit outside as it's very warm in there... and with the very worn-out interior plus it's exactly this dim inside, it's definitely not a preferred place to sit. Yet the place is always full. This was the second visit during last week's stay.

Address: Jalan Tengkat Tong Shin

Well it looked much nicer in the photo. In fact it's better now as they've done up the entrance few years back... Before that was a long dirty smelly drain after the steps (at the gate).

Fully occupied but the turn-over rate was very high... everyone just wanted to sate his char siew craving chop-chop.

Waiting for our dinner at a 大排档 on the following night near Bukit Bintang (opposite Ritz Carlton KL). Another of our regular makan haunts.

We're seated in a very old coffee shop. But we ordered our 鸳鸯 (in cantonese: yin yeung) which was hor fun+bee hoon (yummy!) & hokkien mee from the trolley cart hawker parked in the side lane just next to the coffee shop. There're also rows of tables & chairs on the pavement. Apparently the stall was so popular that they needed to rent space from the coffee shop since they're not open for business at night. Fyi, they only sell staples (fried rice/kway tiao/noodle..) & not a normal zhu-chao but all seats are usually taken up for both in & outdoor... again, it's a place with high customers turnover.

Dinner at Bakerzin in 1 Utama while resting our extremely tired feet & eyes. Great ambience & like the interior (we're currently into contemporary decor with lots of glass & hues of burgundy, hee). The big catch was the Clams Linguini Vongole that we both love. We usually pay S$14.80 here in Singapore whereas we got to indulge in the same stuff for S$9.40... & it tasted just as delicious!

The only dampener during our trip - Chakri Palace @ KLCC. The food served was great before renovation. The restaurant looks much nicer now but the food sucks. The deep-fried prawn wrapped in wanton skin was so salty & peppery, the fried tang hoon was very oily & tasteless, the Kung Po chicken & cashew nuts was pretty ok except the meat a lil too tough. The only one that didn't go too wrong was the thai coconut soup (Tom Kha Gai). We deduced that there must have been a change in chef. And I got even more upset when we footed the bill... it's more expensive than previously. Definitely drop this from our list of places we frequent.

In between meals we had lots of bites (& daily ice cream treat!).

Of Shopping.

Compared to the last couple of trips, this year's damages were not the biggest. Before the trip we're quite happy as it coincided with Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival (started just 2 weeks ago) which promised better buys. But to our disappointment the sale wasn't as attractive. More commonly seen were 10% - 30% though did come across some 50% discounts. Rarely saw 70% ones. Unlike in the past when there're 70% - 80% off everywhere.

Nevertheless, we managed to find some great deals from each of the places we shopped - KLCC, Times Square Berjaya, Sungei Wang, One Utama. By the way, 1 Utama is H-U-G-E... we're so exhausted from walking & browsing as well as trying not to get lost. 5 million sq.ft with more than 600 shops & restaurants... wOw!!!

In the midst of consolidating all the items

Among which these are hubby's...Flat-front lowrise pants from local designer Key Ng. Very nice cutting & according to hubby, very comfortable. Considered the best buy of all as these were 2 of the only 3 items we got that were slashed by 70%.. ie. S$18.50 each. Very rarely we can find good cutting guys pants at this price.. except in Bangkok which is still the cheapest @ 350 baht for a nice pair of bell-cutting pants & doesn't look cheap at all (always receive compliments from his fashionable colleagues, hee). Never prefer hubby to wear those roomy, high/normal waist pants & thank goodness that his taste is exactly same as mine. Phew.

One of the 2 nice shirts bought. He'd worn the missing one to LL & Mandy's wedding dinner last evening.

3 polo tees. Hubby likes the one on right most... it's a muscle polo tee with just a simple read logo "Kuan" (軍).

And mine....

A top, mini tube dress & 2 tees. I didn't realise I was into yellow tees of late.


This not very cheap but it fits me real well. Given the fact that I always have difficulty in finding a nice pair of pants, I couldn't let this go.

I like this FCUK dress which we paid 30% of the original price (yep besides hubby's pants, this is the only item that went for 70% discount).

Clockwise: A pair of red earrings, sunglasses, cream color nail polish with purplish-blue shimmer, Cyber Color black eyeliner (looking for cheaper substitute for my Shu Uemura eyeliner), Kanebo Kate white eye shadow.

4 pairs of shoes

Our accomodation

We stayed in Traders Hotel for the first time. Wanted to try this relatively new hotel (1 year old) since I couldn't find a room in Mandarin Oriental. Besides the excellent view, there's nothing very impressive.

The hotel is strange in many ways. Firstly, I was led to my room straight upon arrival by the limo driver who fetched me at the airport. It's the very first time I've come across limo drivers doing the hotel reception job & I personally don't think it's a good idea. I'm not discriminating at all but they are of totally different roles so how can they combine the two? Once I was in the room he asked me to sign on the check-in form. But I realised I was checked into a deluxe room while I had booked an executive room. So I told him but he knew nothing & insisted that it was the correct room assigned to me. I refused to sign on the slip & with no choice he called the front desk & passed the phone to me (this is what I meant.. he didn't have a clue of what's going on & I don't blame him.. his job was just to get my signature on the form). I told the guy what's the problem & only then he explained that the hotel had upgraded me to the next category which was the city-view deluxe room on Club floor. But I told him I preferred space & view other than the club facilities as I don't utilise them (tested & proven many times). The guy must have thought that I'm weird but he agreed to give me back an executive room. Then we waited in the room for the key to be delivered in awkward silence. Well I wasn't impressed at all with this type of service if different was what they were trying to be.

Another thing that truly turned me off was the pillow cases. Every single piece was stunk with a very strong damp smell. I asked for 2 more pillows & it's the same... so were the entire days of our stay.

Then there's always this funny knocking sound on the glass window that I heard every few minutes. Initially I thought there're workers washing the window but nope, no one out there. It's kinda irritating.

Take a look at the picture below.

Can you tell what's amiss?

Yes! There's no shower door. Initially I thought the sliding door was broken when I saw this in the deluxe room I was first escorted to. But seemed like it's the same in every room. Frankly I did find it quite refreshing to be showering in an open space.. but if this is really what they want the guest to feel, they should have taken good consideration of the layout for the guests' safety. After each shower, the toilet bowl & flooring surrounding would be all wet. There's once I nearly slipped when I was about to do my business. The bathroom is very spacious so why did they put the bowl so near to the shower area?

Oh yes, there's something quite interesting that I've observed. I think the hotel only hires young staff to portray a young & vibrant image. At the main entrance, there're quite a few guest relations officers to welcome arriving guests and all the male GROs wore big crystal/diamand ear-studs. Hmm.. is that somewhat a part of their uniform or it just happened that they've become buddies?

On the other hand...

I'm so into this beautiful night view of Twin Towers & KLCC Park. That's the reason I chose this hotel.

Also like the contemporary & hip image of the hotel though the lobby & reception is a tad too small. The business centre is nice & unique too. What we've missed was the Skybar on Level 33.. heard it's chic.

Had dinner with Jose on the day of my arrival which happened to be his birthday. I wanted to get him a gift & my sweet hubby was so supportive in helping me to search for one on the Fri evening before my trip. But without any clue, it's tough. So I decided to get him a nice cake instead. Ordered one from the hotel's coffeehouse & planned to enjoy it together over drinks after dinner. We went to the hotel's Gobo Upstairs Lounge & Grill (there're only 2 restaurants in the hotel) and it's a nice one. Like the metropolitan atmosphere (I always do ;>). And it turned out to be very funny as after dinner, a few staff sang birthday song aloud while bringing the cake to us. Oh man I should have guessed it would happen this way. Honestly I was kinda embarrassed and so was Jose, being a cool guy. First he's shock (me too!), then he went "f***...". What tickled me even more was the one who sang the loudest & handed the cake to our dear friend was a very feminine waiter with a very entertaining voice. Thereafter we moved over to the restaurant's lounge for a drink, continued with our catching up in front of the dazzling Twin Towers. Cool! Dear friend, thanks for spending your birthday with me :)

Nice park view from our room.

The Twin Towers & big fountain in the day. A lil blur because of the (dirty) window. The building on the left was Mandarin Oriental & I missed my stays there whenever we walked to Suria KLCC. Traders not too far away though - a all sheltered 10 to 15 mins walk.

Alternatively, the guests can take the hotel's buggy to KLCC via the park. It's nice. But most of the time we still walked due to various reasons - the buggy just left / there's already a waiting group / during non-operating hours.

Enjoying the buggy ride.

Hubby dearest did all the packing

One last pic before checking out