The BIG 3-0

I have not been celebrating my birthdays much since the 21st one. Every year, one night was spent having dinner with my family and another night with hubby. So I was really overwhelmed when I received presents and had celebration with close friends, colleagues, and of course, with my family. I suspect it is due to the big THREE-OH. They say reaching the big THREE-OH, you have stepped into another stage of your life. I guess so.

I was invited to my sec friend's house for steamboat a week before my actual day. Since we do not meet up much, I had thought it was just a normal gathering. I brought my little girl along. I had really no idea that they prepared a cake (apple crumble made lovingly by my bestie) and sang birthday song for me! I was so touched! We have known each other for 17 years...and counting...:) Thanks girls.

Close collegues also planned a dinner with me. We went to Ma Maison at Millenia Walk. Come to think of it, I have known these guys for almost 7 years! They treated me to a nice dinner. Received eye masks and body lotion from them as presents. Thanks!

Was rushing my work one day before my actual day coz I had planned to be on leave on my birthday (which was the next day). Received a unknown call from someone. Thinking that it may be call from some bank, I did not pick it up initially. After letting it ring for sometime, I do not know why but I decided to answer. It was from a florist. He said he is reaching my office in 5 mins and asked to meet at the guard house. Oops! Flowers! From hubby? Unlikely, though not impossible. I was thinking more of my sisters. And yeah..they were really from them! What a great surprise! Thanks, sistas!

So on the actual day, hubby and I had a buffet lunch at MBS Todai Seafood Buffet. It serves a wide variety of food. However, most were there for the seafood and so were we! It was my first time having Alaskan Snow Crab. Yummy!

First time to MBS. Didn't know that there was a "river" indoors, just like the one at Macau Venetian Casino. Instead of gondolas, the Singapore version were sampans.

After watching "Real Steel" (a very good show), we shopped around and finally, to have dinner with my family. We went to the Singapura Restaurant located at Selegie. Saw the recommendations of this restaurant from a Channel 8 show and decided to give it a try. The crispy duck was really good.

Can see that I was trying desperately to take a photo with my baby, but she refused!

Blurred pics of a hug and a kiss.

Birthday cake from the sistas!

And, my present from hubby. Yay! :)

Thanks all for the presents and celebration. I really felt loved......and old. Haha..:)

***This is another long overdue post. Just FYI, baby's birthday was in Sept and mine was in Oct...***

baby's 2nd birthday

A long overdue post as I finally managed to get all the pictures. Buffet at my parents' house.

It is child friendly and much bigger than ours. Invited only relatives.

Bought a home-made birthday cake from my ex-colleague who quitted her engineering job to venture into baking business. Yummy! Thumbs up! Baby zq loved the hello kitty design too.

Lots of presents! A rocking horse (from toy story), I like! A little small for her size so need to fix it and let her play with it now before she outgrown it. Too many presents, cannot let her play all at once, need to introduce one by one to her.

Started off with her cooking toys. And she loves it. She has to play with it everyday, even until now.

2nd birthday celebration in JB, as will be our practice every year. Just a small one at home with the family. Another tricycle (if you notice from above pics, there were already 2!) and a learning board with sounds.

Happy 2nd Birthday to my little one... :)

food, food and more food......

If I say this, I might get dagger stares from people. Me, or rather, my sisters and I are those that love to eat but, due to high metabolism rate (or that fat worm in the tummy), do not put on a lot of weight. People take a look at me and thought that I eat very little, but actually, I do have a big appetite. Especially for GOOD FOOD. Actually, I have taken these photos of food some time ago. Was looking through the photo album in my Iphone and decided to share them here.

This small restaurant, Arbite, is situated above Guardian at Serangoon Gardens. Decided to come here for lunch one day and found that they serve 1-for-1 set lunch a $30. Unlike some of the places where the portion will be slightly lesser than normal ala carte dishes during set lunches/dinners/promotions, this is not the case here. You can see from the pictures below. It consists of a soup, salad, main course and a drink. $30 for 2 set lunches is defintely worth it.

soup

mushroom salad

grilled chicken chop with pilaf rice

bacon and mushroom fettucine

First time trying mooncakes from Peony Jade this year. We bought the durian and chempadak ones. They were really yummy. You can really taste the durian and chempadak pulp inside the mooncakes. Paired with tea, it is almost heavenly. Sis and I decided to buy this Black Tea when we passed by TWG one day. It is quite expensive but it is really nice. It has a tinge of blackberry taste in it.

If you go to Serangoon North Ave 1 neighbourhood, you will come across a Thai restaurant (Sakhon Thai) that is situated at a corner beside the street. Have been here a few times and the food is not too bad. Photo below was taken at lunch with hubby during weekday. I like their green chicken curry and Thai fish cake. Recently, I have also tried their basil pork (no pics) and I love it.

Lunch at Canele (Shaw House) at Scotts Road. They had a change in their menu. I loved their pesto prawn but it is nowhere to be found in their new menu. Tried the beef stew with bread. It is very delicious. It was served hot and goes pretty well with the toast. As usual, hubby order spaghetti. It was crabmeat spaghetti which faired well too. If you haven't noticed the little message in their teacups, take a look at the picture below. It is really meaningful. :) [in case it is too small, the msg is: stresseD=Desserts]

That's all the food that I have for you this time. Mine is not a food blog, but will definitely share the places where I have good food in my little space here.

movie screening at home

during the long hari raya haji weekend, hubby and I watched movies every night. eversince we had our baby, we seldom had time to go to the movies, hence whenever we have time, we'll try to watch some at home.

hubby selected some highly rated movies to watch. all these movies were not the latest, the most recent was screened in 2010. usually, before deciding which movie to watch, I would read the synopsis to decide if it is worth watching. however, this time, I started watching all 3 without knowing anything beforehand. I must admit, watching movie this way is interesting too since the expectation is not so high. so I shan't divulge much on the storyline but just to share my thoughts on each one.

movie watched on the first night
:: the blind side:: 

from the title, you would never have guessed what is the story about, unless, of course, you read the synopsis. this movie was based on a true story. screened in 2009, it was much raved as the story is very heartwarming and touching. this movie was the best out of the 3 we watched over the weekend.

movie watched on the second night
::  岁月神偷 ::

a bittersweet family saga. actually the storyline is simple and anticipated but it is still a heartrending film. it makes you laugh, smile and also tear.

movie watched on the third night
:: crash ::

this movie involves many characters which life intertwines as the story goes. it talks mainly on racism in the united states. language used were very harsh and blunt but i guess they tried to film it as close to reality as possible. weird feeling i get from watching this show but the storyline is really fresh and interesting.

try to google these 3 movies. all 3 are award winning films. have fun watching them! :)

marmalade pantry + robert timms + jacky cheung

Lunch at marmalade pantry at ion. Their desserts looked too good, so we shared a main, crabmeat linguini and a plate of scones.

Din look appetizing when the crabmeat linguini was served. It just looked like any normal tomato based pasta. After the first spoonful, hmm, it was quite unusual, unexpected. Linguini was mixed with thin shreds of crabmeat in each mouthful. It was tasty and full of flavors. Mixed with some pine nuts, it was even better.

Scones were served hot. They smelt damn good! I wanted to wait for the pasta first before having the scones but sis couldn't resist. She had one as an appetizer. She was "hmmming" away while I resisted and took the biscuit at the sides first. They were already tasty on it's own but paired with clotted cream and jam, they were even tastier. Scones were not hot after I had my mains, but they were still very good. We had to use our hands as the scones broke into crumbles once you cut with the knife. No way for both of us to act demure.

Yums! We both agreed that it is even better than those highly raved scones at regent tea lounge.

As we finished our lunch at 3pm, there is no space for our tummy to have a proper dinner before the concert. So we shopped around and had a break at 6plus.  Sis read that Robert timms coffee were highly recommended. So we went for coffee and shared a plate of cheesy Bolognaise crisscut fries.

Ordered piccolo latte to go with it. A bit weird to pair coffee with fries, but there is really no space for desserts at all. Left orchard at 730 to go to the Jacky cheung's concert at indoor stadium! Super excited as I can't remember the last time I went for a concert.

学友!!

View from our seats.

Us together at the concert.

Despite no photo taking and videography, many people were still using their handphones or camera to video record the songs. Me and my sis also follow suit for some of the songs.

It was really a great concert. 3hrs and 20mins of nonstop singing from the 歌神. Instead of a normal concert style, he started with his own created musical, then to normal concert songs, with an animation of his life since young somewhere in the middle. Really really loved his voice. Will be looking forward to the next concert!

Hongkong Trip Part V

HK - 30 Jul 2011

No morning alarm today again. Wanted to try the dim sum at Maxim's Chinese restaurant as it was recommended in the guide book and I have also read it from a blogger's trip to HK.

It was located at Whampoa, where there is no MTR within walking distance, so we took a cab there. Food here is not bad, actually, I find that that dim sum in SG is comparable to that in HK (or maybe because I have not tried the best yet). The charsiew pastry is yummy and we both like the quail egg siew mai, though the one at Lin Hueng teahouse tasted better. No pics coz I think they all look the same.

Whampoa in HK is really like the one in SG. It is like a heartland but with many shops/shopping centre within. Look at this huge ship in the middle of nowhere. It is actually JUSCO hypermart.

We had nowhere in mind to go, just walked around and happened to reach a bus terminal. We boarded a 小巴 (mini coach), thinking that the destination is to Mongkok east station.

 Unknowingly, we ended up in Kowloon Tong, where there is a big shopping centre, Festival Walk. Luckily, it is on the same line as Prince Edward MTR, where we had planned to stop to visit Fa Yuen street. Had dinner at a Cha Can Ting again. Though it is only instant noodles, I really like the way they cooked it. Looking at the pics make me drool. After dinner, we went to temple street to walk walk.

Bought lots of stuff at Fa Yuen street and Allied Plaza. Magnets from Ladies Street.  

HK - 31 Jul 2011

Today is our last day in HK, unknowingly we slept till 10am today. Went to a small shop selling 车仔面 behind our hotel to have our breakfast.

Checked out at 12pm and hubby wanted to go back to the anicom exhibition again. Took train to Wanchai, and he went alone while I waited for him at Starbucks, to use up the wifi time for tourist that we bought at 7-11. By the way, this is like a wifi login password that costs HKD20 which can be brought at 7-11 stores. If you purchase the octopus card for 3 days usage, there is a coupon inside which entitled you to buy the wifi login at at discounted price of HKD15. This login only lasts for 24 hrs from the first moment that you login and it can only be used at PCCW (service provider) wifi hotspots, like Pacific Coffee, Starbucks, 7-11 stores, MTR stations, etc.

 

Saw a backpack yesterday at Allied Plaza but hubby thinks SGD60 is too ex for a bag, so din buy it. After much consideration, he decided to buy so we went back to Allied Plaza at Prince Edward. As we still had time, we went to walk walk again at Sino plaza and then took a rest at Wood Cafe (near Yau Ma Tei MTR station, near our hotel) and also for the free wifi to spend our time before leaving for airport.


Hubby's bag. Managed to bargain a bit to SGD53.

A closer look, what does it resemble?

In this building, there are many such cafes that offer comfortable sofas and board games to play with. Took the free shuttle from the hotel to airport express station, Kowloon. And from there we took the airport express to the airport. Hubby liked the 葱油面 from Crystal Jade so there we went again for our dinner before we depart for SG.

Wood Cafe

Back to SG!! Landed at around 1230am and by the time we got our luggages, it was 1am. Hungry and decided to have supper at Wang cafe before we head home.


My chicken macoroni

 

Hubby's laksa

This HK trip this time was not as tiring as the last time as we took our own sweet time to walk around leisurely and rest our feet whenever we can. It was quite a relaxing trip and I did manage to shop a lot! Hubby also enjoyed this trip as he manage to go to all the comic shops that he wanted to go and even visited the exhibition twice!