Birthdays Staycation & All

I planned for a surprise birthday dinner with the siblings on the Sat before hubby's birthday. It's at one of his current favourite spots. Then just 2 days before the dinner, I'd the idea of a hotel stay as wanted hubby to drink to his heart's content without worrying about how to get home after that. To justify the amount spent, it'd be for both of our birthdays. So almost the whole of Fri was devoted to an intensive search for hotels. Top requirement - gotta be near to where we're dining at (ie. Raffles Place) which didn't leave with many choices. Not considering Fullerton Hotel as the standard room is miserably small. Finally, just before end of the day, I booked us a room for the next day but almost regretted when I got to know there's no carpark within the premise. And then I saw the old façade of the building when I saw it after work.. somewhere which I've never taken note of in the past though it's at Raffles Place & we passed it everyday.

To spice up the whole celebration, I decided this as the second surprise for hubby. Initially I didn't even want to tell him we're having a 2D1N short getaway (like what I did before) but due to the very last minute plan, I didn't prepare at all by secretly packing our clothes & all needed... it's totally impossible for me to pack everything & hide in our car in a whole 10 minutes. So all I told him was a hotel stay, which was surprising enough for dear hubby:)

Hubby suspected it'd be in CBD and for the whole night, he's trying to fish information from me but I successfully dropped misleading hints to diverge him, haha. Anyway, I was very sure he wouldn't know we'd stay there. Was really relieved that I only needed to keep the secret for 1 night as there're times I nearly blurted out!

The next day, I navigated hubby to drive to the nearest carpark. Slowly, more & more details unveiled.. it's almost as if I blindfolded him & led him to the destination. So, Mission Successful! It totally didn't occur to hubby that we'd be staying there.. He couldn't even remember there's such a place!

The place turned out to be a hidden jewel - what seemed like a tired looking building externally, is totally different inside, especially when we got into our apartment. We're very impressed with the luxury of space, the interior & the little details that are paid attention to.

The fully equipped kitchenette (including coffee maker, hidden washer/dryer & dish washer etc)

The open bathroom. Cool!

The concept is similar to Hilton KL (Sentral)'s but this is more thoughtful with a clear full view of TV while showering/soaking in tub. What's more - a speaker specially installed in the bath area!

Bed is placed in the middle.. special.. & they're generous to put 2 TVs.

L'Occitane toiletries.

Made ourselves very at home with a tapao-ed Starbucks earl grey & green tea latte ;)

Dinner+Drinks @ OverEasy. I made sure that we're the latest to arrive (it's only a short walk of less than 10 mins from Ascott) & hubby was surprised to see his siblings & partners as I previously told him they couldn't make it by giving a few convincing reasons.





BD gift from the siblings.

As for my birthday, I wanted a simple one (because I wanted a gift instead + the earlier hotel stay). Still, we took half day leave & had my favourite Peking Duck lunch at Imperial Treasure Ion (that's the only one that opens through afternoon). Then we met sis later who treated us to afternoon tea @ TWG Ion.

My present! Will show later what it contains.

About The Preps

For Con's wedding

I bought a dress that's worn by Karen Mok before. But it looked very different on me...

I looked fat, especially at certain angles.. Can you imagine? I wore a Size L!!

Hubby bought this gorgeous looking tuxedo shirt...

We took the opportunity to have an enjoyable 3.5-day long weekend. On Fri, we're on half day leave & started the weekend with my honey's favourite Korean lunch.

We'd a late & slow one at a Korean restaurant near my office that exudes quite a bit of Korean feel - Dae Bak BBQ Restaurant. I'd say, for now, that's the best Korean meal I've had in Singapore considering it's tasty, cheap (@$10/set for lunch) & we'd the luxury of time to savour our food.

Ginseng chicken soup set & beef rib soup set for hubby. It's the first time I could finish the soup & meat *thumbs up*

After lunch, since we still had time before my manicure at FEP, we took a stroll to Good Morning Nanyang @ Hong Lim CC for a cup of tea. After the long awaited move, the standard was as good as their franchised outlet at Sembawang Shopping Centre.

Nails to match my dress. A combi of the lady boss' & my ideas ;)

The Wedding

Of Ivan & Con on 4 Mar!

Pre-Luncheon Cocktail reception @ The Fullerton Hotel
A pic with our pretty AP birdcage. Guests were amused by it! :)

After the wedding lunch, the few of us wanted to have a drink before heading back. But both OverEasy & Level 33 were closed. Stopped over at Fullerton Bay Hotel's Lantern Bar but it's too hot to chill out.

So we walked further down to The Bank Bar & Bistro @ One Shenton.
We give them 1/5 for service so no, we won't be going back there.

AP "Box"

Con tasked us with making an Ang Pao Box for her Big Day.

So about a month before, hubby & I started to brainstorm.... thinking of ideas to dress up a big box. In the meantime, we got an empty copier paper box from my office. On the Sat that we scheduled to buy all needed materials, there's a sudden twist in the design & Serangoon North was where we got . . . . . .

This birdcage!

We visited all the bird shops in Serangoon North & hubby was so overwhelmed as we're being surrounded by so many birds & parrots! Haha. This was the first time that we bought a bird cage when we've not, in our lives, kept a bird before (& never will :P).

That evening, we went home to spray paint it & got the materials on Sunday. We'd 2 themes in mind... one's our style & the other was the couple's decor style for the wedding event. Just nice that we got to visit the wedding venue earlier that day for the food tasting lunch session.

First, we did it according to our own preference

After another week's consideration, we changed it to what we thought the wedding couple to be would prefer more :)
Just that poor hubby gotta smell the paint twice..

Voilà! This is the final creation of Vincent & Kelly! ;)

And it got a close-up shot at their wedding..

Talking about our 'creation' for wedding event, the last was for Vincent CH's wedding.

For Uncle CH's... we did the stage decor & floral pieces for the high tables.

We really enjoy doing such "special assignment" together! :)

Happy International Women's Day! :)

All the ladies were greeted by the big bosses with a stalk of gerbera once we came out of the lift on individual floors.
What a pleasant surprise early in the morning.. ;)