A Year of Events & Thanksgiving

Sembawang's 白米粉

We discovered this eating place beginning of this year, just before CNY. We happened to park our car near the coffeeshop one night as it's just opposite Sembawang Shopping Centre & were curious that it's so crowded. So we tried it out soon after.

Since then, there's no turning back hehe. We love the white bee hoon which is also their specialty.

Even now, though we're staying in Bishan, we'll eat the white bee hoon at least once every other week.

Don't be deceived by its appearance. The first time when we saw it, we thought "what's so great about it?"... Then we're pleasantly surprised that it tasted sooo good.. & light!
And on every single table, you'll definitely see a plate of this :)

Another of our fav dish to go with the white bee hoon ~ spinach with silver fish. Yummy!

The place looked quite JB ;)

That day, we reached early @ 5ish on a weekday. By the time we left was only slightly past 6 but diners already started flowing in. During peak hours, the wait could be really long. But the flexible part is that, for tapao which we sometimes do, we can call & order in advance.

Soon.... we'll be really close (to it) to enjoy it more frequently :)

New Saturday Routine

This is developed about 3 months ago ~ we will leave for hubby's office together. I keep myself entertained with my lappy while hubby works. Then we have american breakfast @ Novena Square's Hans (well-done beacon for us please). We've gone there so often that the waiter now knows our preference and automatically serves us extra butter without us asking:)

Hubby will then wrap up the rest of his work & we will leave for the day.

It's a "honeymoon" period for us these few months, ever since we moved out of our own home, as we don't need to do housework;) Everything's done by Uncle CH's maid, we just take care of our own laundry. So we've more time & most of it is spent on housing stuff as lately the focus is our new place, of course.

Last Fri ~ Sun

Last Fri after work we went to Vivo's Howards Storage World as I love their acrylic range.. expensive though. Also shopped @ Daiso. Had a nice evening walking around... looking out for stuff for the household & also for Christmas. As we'd planned for a late dinner elsewhere, we enjoyed a session of Ya Kun toast & tea at HarbourFront in the midst of shopping as "downpayment" for our growling tummy, hehe.

@ Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant(瑞春点心餐厅) along Jalan Besar (opp New World Centre). Hubby rinsing our tea cups:)

Seated in the alley behind the restaurant & it's so crowded @ 11pm.

Our fav is the 小笼包... Yummy! & not ex... The bill was $18 including tea & wet tissues.

I've been there a couple of times about 8 or 9 years ago for breakfast. I guess at that time , it's too early (@ 7am+!) for me to appreciate the food. The only impression I had of the restaurant then was that it's a traditional dim sum place. Then recently we visited New World Centre for our housing stuff & went opposite to Swee Choon to get some snacks. They tasted good! So we decided to go there for some dim sum. It's an ideal supper venue for the late nighters... Opening hrs: 6pm-10am.

So now, we've 2 options for dim sum supper... 1 in Tampines (which opens 24hours) for nice & cheap dim sum & the other, gotta be Swee Choon which is a lil more expensive ;)

Sat morning, I went for treatment @ hubby's followed by hydrotherapy. It's so good to know that hubby was working hard in the next room while I soaked myself in the hot water (it's REALLY hot ok) & a refreshing shower thereafter :) Besides making a trip to this particular Christian bookstore in Chinatown (but were disappointed by the variety available), the entire afternoon was spent in Ikea & IMM.

On Sun, after attending service we visited our new place. Sorted out a few things & then had dinner with mum. Sis would be away on holidays the whole week... left mum alone at home... so we gonna see her more often the coming week.

That's it, another busy but great weekend:)

@ Singapore Expo now ...

Hubby's having a booth @ the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon exhibition. So I spend the day here too ;) And been feeding myself with junk food while being with hubby these 3 days, haha.

Happened to see TM just now... he's running the 21km tomorrow.

Day Trip

Last Tue, we made a trip to JB. We used to drive there so often 5 years ago... so regularly that on some evenings we would just get in to have dinner after work.

What triggered this visit was the intention to replenish my skincare products.

I've switched to Vichy Normaderm after our last trip to KL. One of them was running out & I thought of replenishing & getting other products of the same range. Since I bought it more than 35% cheaper in KL, thought we could get the same in JB.

As we didn't dare to drive in, we took a bus. The new JB checkpoint is much more convenient & the walk to City Square is a hassle-free one.

For this trip, since it's a short 1, we just moved around within City Square. Had lunch at Kinsahi Japanese Restaurant which used to be our favourite restaurant as it's cheap & good. Previously it's only in Pelangi but now they've got quite a few outlets including 1 in City Square. But standard has dropped, except for their grape smoothie was still as good, & the prices increased, so guess that would be the last time we patronised them should we go in again.

After lunch, we had dessert. Always treat ourselves to Baskin Robbins ice cream (pistachio almond is our fav!) whenever we're in Malaysia:)

Vichy products are only sold at 2 locations in JB & thankfully, 1 of them is City Square's Watsons. However, the range I was looking for was mostly sold out & seemed like the prices had increased too though still cheaper than in Spore. Good that there's a 20% discount storewide so we paid almost the same price as in KL. But sadly, I only managed to grab 2 products:( Saved a good S$30+ on these 2....

Glad to see quite a few new stores there (new to us as we haven't been there for years) like Etude House, Skin Food,...

Replenished my Tea Tree Emulsion cleanser which is much cheaper there (savings of S$6!). Also bought a Peach Sake BB Cream which isn't even selling in Spore yet. I've asked when back & was told it'd only be sold here in mid Dec. I guess it's also cheaper, @ S$18+, than in Spore.


Had an early dinner @ Kim Gary Restaurant. It's funny that we've never dined in there before given that we've been to KL many times. Not in Spore too.

This shall be our regular restaurant when we go to JB:) Cheap... approx S$7 for a generous set meal.

Hubby's set meal - sausages + fried chicken & spaghetti with garlic sauce. His egg was without yolk!

His yolk's actually in my bowl of mushroom rice! Hubby gave it to me... hee!

Though only a 3-quarter day trip, it's a fruitful one for us (yes, esp for me:P).

Hubby is happy with his only purchase, a pair of shoes from Seeds @ S$20+ after a 70% discount.
As for me, on top of those skincare & cosmetics products, hubby bought me 3 pairs of shoes! :D

We shall go in again. Not sure when though as we've been really busy settling stuff regarding our new place.

It's Christmas Time in the City

Yesterday we went shopping in Orchard. Also bought some small decors for where we're staying now to make the place more Christmassy. :)

On Mission

These recent months, I've seen a few programs about celebrities going on trips to do charity/voluntary works.

I've gone on a similar trip as well. That's 10 years ago & a mission trip to Chiangmai organised by my ex church... a really eye opening 1 for me.

A visit to the slum in Chiangmai city on the day of our arrival.
Tip given: to walk through the area in high alert mode as security within was very low. Also not to peep into the squats as strangers were usually not welcome.
Looking at the living condition, I really couldn't imagine if I were to stay there. We're so blessed.

The 1st day's activities were pretty light as by the time we arrived & settled down, it's already in the afternoon.

On the 2nd day, we had a crash course on Thai culture - what were the to-dos & taboos.. & spent some time in learning some basic words to get us around. The most interesting part gotta be the practical "test". We're split in small groups & being brought to a wet market. Each group was given a fix amount of bahts & a list of items to buy that were needed to prepare for the evening's dinner. So we had to use the newly learnt language to get the required items & if it's more than the amount we're given, we had to bargain. It's fun & a great way to learn a language. It's also useful for my subsequent work trips to Bangkok when I shopped ;)

Besides paying visits to some pastors/mission schools/missionaries... to know more about the mission field in Chiangmai & to pray for them, we travelled to a few interesting places ....

At the Agape Home.
It's an orphanage but not a normal one. This was home for those children with HIV/AIDS. Their parents had either died of HIV/AIDS or were unable/too ill to take care of their children. And some were abandoned babies. Precautions we took - cover all open wounds with a plaster. We could carry the babies but had to be more careful of their movements & not to be scratched. We truly admired the founder & the baby sitters who had so much love for these babies.

We went to the Street Kids Home. These kids, age ranging from 4 to 16 years old, were abandoned by their parents. Some were even formerly sold to syndicates which used them to beg for money on the streets.

We're travelling up in songthaew (meaning 2 rows) to a church in a minority tribe.... if I don't remember wrongly, it's or related to the Miao tribe.

The road was like this all the way up. When we reached, one of the guys wiped his face with tissue & turned out to be brown. We then realised it's the same for all of us! Apparently our foundation that day was the soil.

I was teaching the kids some songs.



Game time.

Our last stop was Mae Hong Son.
Crossing rivers & bridges to the Shan Village, located in the mountain, just next to the border of Myanmar. The community there was made up of Burmese refugees.

A closed school

You won't believe that.... this was home for the lil boy & his mum.

Another one.

Seeing the condition of these homes, even the shabbiest one in Spore would be a haven to them.

Trekking down to visit more people

We organised a 'carnival' for the villagers. That night, we brought much happiness to them especially the children.

When we're leaving, all of them formed a line to bid us farewell.

This place, comparatively in a much better condition than those we visited, was where we spent 2 nights. The whole place was made of straws including the flooring & elevated by lots of bamboos. The arrangement was all guys in 1 room & all girls in another. But straws didn't block out any sound at all, so much so that when one of the guys snored, all of us could hear it so well that as if the noise was right next to you! And when 1 walked past, the noise of the straws travelled the entire place. And it's sooo cold! But we're all thankful enough to have such an experience.
(* Both of us were busy playing with a very cute lil kitten)

A group pic before we left

In these 10 days, I've gained lots... & somehow that year's Christmas, which was 2 weeks after we returned, had an added meaning too.

3 Weddings in 1 Month

3 Oct, Cousin Kelvin's (Daddy's youngest bro's son) wedding banquet @ Hyatt.

30 Oct, J's (ex-colleague from PwC) wedding banquet @ Furama River Front. All pictures are with another ex-colleague, who's taking ages to circulate.

1 Nov, Cousin Ann's (Mum's 5th younger sis' eldest daughter) wedding banquet @ M Hotel.

Our wallet has gone on a "crash diet".. 3 ang paos in a month. Hmmmm.

A Lovely Evening

Capella Singapore

On Tues, we had our 4th Anniversary dinner at Capella Singapore, in Sentosa.

This is 1 of the bungalows built in 1880s during the British colonisation which now become a luxury hotel after restoration & extension.

Free parking! We're happy that the first thing that greeted us was a good one:)

The Knolls, where we had dinner. This obviously not taken by me as it's already 80% dark when we arrived.

Hubby was "studying" the menu while I was snapping away...

Tried to capture the nice view before the sun set - the pool & the South China Sea

My hot honey with lemon slices. The waitress offered me this drink when she knew I was having a bad throat & cough. She even replenished the honey for me. We're very impressed by the personalised service & even more when we realised that it's complimentary.

The attentive waitress volunteered to take some pix for us & even told us where to stand to get the best view. But it's too dim to see the pool & the South China Sea.

Hubby's order - Sliced Beef Bistecca. Appparently it's a good choice & a generous portion was served.

My order which was a wrong one - Chicken Makhani. Thought it's some Western cuisine :(

Very good service. We actually wanted to order desserts together with the main course but were advised by the waitress to take our mains first & see if we still could take in desserts thereafter. Not pushy at all. And it's like a private dining as each table (6-seater) is sectioned & you have a choice to keep the doors opened for the breathtaking views. Interesting.

We chose the Dessert Tasting that allowed us to select 4 types of desserts from the menu.

After desserts, we're invited for a tea sampling session. This invitation is extended to all their dining guests every evening.
We had Straits Chai - a spiced & very perfumed tea. So good after a meal. I like!:)

At the end of our dinner, we're billed for only our mains, hubby's Kilkenny & the dessert. Besides the assortment of bread, my continuous supply of hot honey with lemon, the rich serving of belinjau cracker with belachan dip throughout dinner & the spiced tea were complimentary.

After dinner, we took a stroll around the hotel.

At the outdoors of Bob's Bar. Too bad I wasn't fit for any alcohol that day. But hubby promised to bring me back there for drinks;).. in the late afternoon perhaps, so we can enjoy the picturesque view while chilling out...

A long flight of stairs in white. We imagined the classic scene of a bride gracefully walking down the stairs to her guests... Hee...

The evening would even have been better if we could be there earlier & if I wasn't ill.
But it was still a very lovely one with hubby :)