Villa Bali

Heard so much about this place called Villa Bali and finally I'm going to go and take a look at the place.

Let's see...they have an indoor and outdoor section. And they have individual huts where you have to spend a certain amount before occupying one. As there are only 3 of us and the only option given by the waitress was indoor, there isn't much choice.

So we settled for a spot in the air-conditioned area, seats are pretty comfy although i hoped for more sofa-like chairs (the bigger tables have huge comfy-looking sofas and cushions as well)

We ordered this white wine from Chile - Limari Valley. It was lovely and sweet aftertaste. We were served this tapioca snack which has a strong lard taste in it. Yucks.

The overall atmosphere of the place is pretty cosy and nice.

Rude Neighbour

I had an unpleasant encounter yesterday and just wanted to get it off my chest. Both hubby and I returned home from my in-law's place last night and after parking our car at the basement of our place, we walked towards the door to the lift.

There was this mother with her son who was walking to the same block as us. I went in first and waited for Hubby while Hubby held the door for them to come in. The mother didn't even say thank you. Never mind....they stood in front of the lift and never even push the button for the lift so I had to push the button myself.

When the lift opened, they just stood at the back of the lift. Hubby then asked which floor they are going and pushed the button for them. Again, no thank you. I was getting really pissed.

Then when we were out of the lift before them, they also didn't want to push the close button but just stood there and waited for the lift to close.

What the @*^*(@*(&%#)%*().&#^&%^&6!!!

I know one should never expect any returns for kindness rendered but to ignore kindness given is simply uncalled for.

Congrats Jeri

I was glad to be part of this wonderful event as we witnessed the exchange of vows between the lovely couple. Frankly, it's the first time I saw the groom (seen his pic a couple of years ago but everyone was so small in that pic) but I knew Jeri will be well-taken care of.

Hubby and I were talking about the wedding later in the day and realised we both felt exactly the same way about Jeri's wedding. We were sharing about how long we have known her (about 11 years I think). Her whimsical ways caught my attention then in NUS where we were studying on the benches outside the Terminal Rooms, going for dinner together when we were mugging for exams and I remembered she was always so jovial.

We had fun times together even after graduation...going on picnics and even clubbing together.

Through the years we have seen her "grow" and have witnessed the things and relationships that she had gone through. And finally yesterday, we seen her moving on to another stage of her life. To me, I felt as if I am marrying my daughter...felt so happy and proud for her.

I'm truly happy for you, girl. May you always be surrounded with love.

(No pics as I realised I looked terrible in the pics I took with my camera phone...hahahaha)

Most Embarassing Moment

I had my most embarassing moment last evening. I was in a shop trying on a new dress. The zip refused to go down when I tried to remove the dress. So I was like struggling inside for a long while before I smsed my hubby to come in to the fitting room. He tried hard and still can't get it to move so eventually he called in the sales person.

She can't get it to move as well and called for another sales person to help. So there I was half naked with 2 sales ladies trying to unzip me. The thing was the zip did not catch on any part of the dress but it just refused to move.

In the end, the sales lady had to destroy the dress by cutting the part with the zip. I felt so bad that they had to destroy the dress that I bought the dress ( a new one ). And I was the last customer in the shop. They closed at 10pm and I was there till 10.25pm. They had very good service attitude though, I didn't want to try on the other dress as it was already late but the lady said it's ok and even helped me with the new dress. Thumbs up for the service which is ever so needed in the retail business of Singapore.

Last but not least, the shop is called Club Marc at Vivocity. Cheers for the good service.

Carnivore Night Out

Had a sudden craving for meat so decided to head down to the Carnivore Brazilian restaurant in VivoCity. Ala carte menu only available from 6pm - 7pm so we had to settle for the buffet dinner which costed us $34+++ per pax. Wanted to have Japanese food actually but Hubby going for Jap dinner this evening with his colleagues so decided to have meat instead..heehee

The salad buffet was not bad, like the spicy eggplant, the pasta and vegetables. We were waiting so long for the meat to appear that we had to ask the waiter to get the "meat" man to come..hahaha.

First up: chicken hearts...not my favourite but I tried. It tasted better if I ate it with other vegs. Second was roast beef...a lot of fats but it was tender. Then came another beef (I can't catch what the guy was saying), it's not bad too. Then it was lamb which I didn't like. Then chicken followed by some pineapple, then chicken breast in bacon, tenderloin in bacon and lastly we had beef ribs.

It was nice but it was too filling ....

New Baby....

Was told that my friend had just given birth to a baby boy this morning and visited her during lunch just now.

It was an emergency caesarean as the blood sugar in my friend's body is quite high and the doctor was worried it might affect the baby. Thank God the baby is healthy and well. The baby weighs 2.88kg and is so small. I was so worried when I was carrying him just now.

Chocolate Fondue...Yum Yum

I have been saying I wanted to try the chocolate fondue from Haagen Dazs for quite some time and finally did it last evening.

We went to the outlet at Anchor Point and the place was empty. I was really happy when the fondue came as I have always like chocolates...heehee.

We didn't finish everything as we were really bloated and full mid-way through the thing and taking more will cause diminishing returns...but it was a good experience although I felt that it will be better for 3 people to share the fondue.

Groovy Baby....

Had a really rushed dinner with a friend on Friday night. Why did I say it was rushed? Because we literally met up for dinner and say byes after that. I was quite pissed about it actually. Initially, we wanted to meet for movie and some drinks.

Then it was changed to dinner only....then the venue changed...then he said he can't make it when I reached our meeting place...then he said he can make it and then he chose the place for dinner without asking for my opinion and then he finished his dinner by gobbling down his food and then he just walked off in the direction towards his place and said good bye.

How rude was that? I don't think I will want to go out with him anymore. He only looked for me when he fell out of love everytime. The only difference this time is he is currently attached.Because his girlfriend is in Sydney now, he wanted to rush back and chat with her online.

Enough said about the pathetic guy...so I went to meet hubby after the dinner and it turned out that they were arranging to go to St. James and I offered to join them.Hahaha.

Went home..took a shower and change of clothes and we are ready to hit the town....

We reached there about 11.40pm and 2 other friends who were supposed to join us were no where to be found. It turned out one of the guys had to wait till his daughter fell asleep before coming out. I can't remember when they finally turned up.

Anyway, we decided to go to Movida but there was a long queue.Clement (one of the guys) went and signed up for a membership so we could get in faster. We went around several places before settling in Movida.

My friend, Alex met a friend of his there and we managed to share the table with them...hee

So it was dancing and drinking and more dancing and more drinking. Deryk (another friend) used to drink but stopped after having alcohol poison some time back so I think he had fruit punch or something.

As the night went past and more drinking, Alex became really high and started babbling. It was so funny. We eventually left the place around 5am and it took us quite a while to get to the carpark as we had never been there at this time of the night (or should I say at this time of the day?)

When we got into the car, Alex was like "concussed"...we handed him a plastic bag just in case he needed to puke. Hubby asked me to drive as he felt a little bit giddy as well. So I had to bring both the guys back home.

By the time we reached home, it was already about 6am. Took a shower and fell asleep shortly after. What a night. Yah, I saw my friend, David there as well. Nice to see you, David...it's been more than 2 years since I last saw him.

LAYS Potato Chips - Mori Seaweed

Accidentally stumbled upon this particular flavour of Lays Potato Chips in Krabi 7-eleven. There was a promotion going on with 2 packets selling for 49baht which is about S$2.13 for 2 packs.

And I brought back 6 packets and my friend brought back 10 packets. I tried searching for this flavour in Singapore but couldn't find it.

I really like this flavour as it tasted different from the rest with the tiny weeny bits of seaweed on the chips. It wasn't as salty as most potato chips.

Hopefully Lays will bring it in to Singapore.

IT Show 2007

Went to the IT show last evening and the place was packed as usual.

Saw a lot of people carrying the Sony Paperbags with VAIO inside....makes me wonder if there is any cheap sale going on as I didn't go to the Sony booth.

Bought a 2GB Kingston SD card for S$34.50 and a 2GB imation swivel cap thumbdrive for S$38.90.

The printers are quite cheap too....saw one epson all-in-1 printer which has scan-copy-print function, a 2" LCD screen and built-in card reader for only S$178. It was sold out when we enquired about it.

Anyway, IT shows/fairs looked the same to me every year but the strange thing is I will still go every year..hahaha.

Happy Women's Day

For all you lovely ladies out there....

Wishing you a day as special just like you!

Be proud to be a woman!

People who think multi-tasking is done by computers alone...

Certainly Need to meet a Women like you!

Here's wishing you a day that's just like you...

Simply WOW!

Hot and Sunny Krabi

An exchange of msn chat with my friend a few weeks back and we made a decision to go to Krabi...

Booked the tigerairways flight to Krabi on a promotion, 40% off if you pay by Visa. So we made the booking for 3 - me, my sister and my JC friend.

I fell sick 2 days prior to the trip and was so worried that I can't get to go. My temperature was soaring to 38.2deg celsius. Thank God the temperature went down on Thursday morning.

My flight was at 7.30am and I set my alarm clock at 5.15am, in the end I only woke up at 5.40am. Reached the airport at 6.30am and checked in....and guess what??? I took the wrong passport. I took my hubby's passport!!!!

I quickly asked my hubby who was on the way back to take my camera (was a real sotong, I charged my camera's battery but forgot to bring it out) to take my passport.

The counter had closed for Krabi and I was so worried that we couldn't get to Krabi...Finally, hubby came back with the passport at 7.05am and I quickly checked in and went through the immigration. We ran all the way to the plane and were the last ones to board the plane.

What a start to our vacation....

It was quite a shock to when we arrived in Krabi airport, there was practically nothing there. No taxi stand and we had to book a taxi from the counter for 600baht. That was pretty expensive for a 25mins drive to our Hotel.

We stayed in Vogue Pranang Bay Resort and Spa. The service at the Hotel was pretty good. We arrived around 9am at the hotel and checked in but the room won't be ready till 2.30pm so we decided to head out to the beach.

We opened our luggage, took our bikinis out and changed into more comfortable clothings and took a beach towel each and off we went to the beach. No...we stopped to have some food at McDonald's which is just next door to our Hotel.

The beach is pretty disappointing..it's dirty and the sand is coarse. We tried to find some spot under a tree and laid our towels on the sand. Saw a lot of nude babes walking and sun-bathing. I dared not sleep under the tree as I saw a leaf full of big red ants dangling on the tree above me.

After lying there for a few hours, we decided to try this massage place near the beach. It was pretty cheap...200baht for oil massage. And you get to lie under a shelter facing the sea...cool.

After the massage, we walked back to the Hotel and our luggage were already in the room. The room was pretty alright and there was a balcony of quite a good size as well.

We took shower and laid around the room watching some movie on HBO (it's an old movie and my sister said she watched it before...she seemed to watch a lot of TV...hahahaha). We decided to go to the Krabi town to take a look and the hotel's transport costed us 1000baht for to and fro. Super duper expensive but we were too lazy to walk out to look for other transport.

Krabi Town was a huge disappointment. There's only a shopping center there, a night market with nothing much and no restaurants in sight. We eventually ended up eating the noodle soup from a street vendor. It's pretty tasty, I must say. We saw a queue for pancakes and decided to give it a try. It was superb. Very much like prata with bananas inside and topped with sugar, condensed milk and choco fudge. We ordered another 3 more, first one came and then it was a long wait, we decided to give up and walked away.

We only spent like at most 1.5 hours at the town and went back to the Hotel. Tried calling the hotel to get in touch with the driver from a public phone. Didn't know how to operate the public phones and had to ask a passer-by for help.

So that pretty much conclude our first day at Krabi. Looking forward to the next day where we will be going island hopping.

Started the next day early around 7am as the transport will be picking us up at 8.30am to the pier. Breakfast was pretty normal with nothing to shout about.

Reached the pier about 8.50am and was told we will only depart at 9am so we decided to visit the loo. The toilet was right at the back of a shop and it was damn dirty and smelly.

On board our speed boat for the island transfer, we had a swedish couple (I think they just got married recently), a finnish guy, a mature couple from bangkok, a group of thai girls and the 3 of us. We passed by some really nice limestone caves and there was this place called the viking cave where there was a viking inside but now it's been used to collect the bird's nest.

We stopped at a bay for some snokerlling. 3 of us were the first to jump into the water but my sister was so frightened that she held on to my hand so tight. Her life-jacket was too big for her so she felt insecure with the life-jacket. I had to bring her back up on to the boat as she kept screaming and refused to move around at all.

Saw a couple of parrot fishes and some other small fishes. The corals weren't colourful though. We stopped by the Maya Bay where the film "The Beach" was shot. It was a really nice beach but very small stretch of sand only. We saw this really really cute caucasian baby girl.

Next we stopped at Phi Phi Island for lunch and the guide told us about the 10m wave that swept off his bar on the island. The next snokerlling site was pretty much the same as the first one so we didn't go down. Thank God we didn't as one of the thai gal got her foot stunk by a sea urchin. I took a look at the sea and saw a lot of sea urchins.
The guide tried to remove the pricks from her foot but every one of them broke. Then they tried to pee to get rid of the toxins. In the end, they docked the boat near one of the bay and brought her off the boat (don't know what they did but the rest of us waited on the boat). She came back a short while later and she seemed to feel better.

Then is off to our final destination in the open sea. This is the best spot as there are more fishes and deeper. I think I saw NEMO...heeheee. The day ended about 4.30pm and we went back to the hotel, tired, burnt but satisfied.

After shower, we walked to other side of the beach and had dinner in this first and oldest thai chinese restaurant on the beach. Dinner was pretty good although the portion was a bit small for each dish. We ordered tom yum goong, fried sotong, fried vegetables, chicken, fried rice with crab meat and ao nang fried rice with drinks for about 500baht. Doesn't taste too bad.

Initially we wanted to go kayaking the next day but we were so tired that we decided to opt for a less strenous activity and booked ourselves on an elephant trekking trail.

The elephant we sat on is 41 years old already and they retired at the age of 50. Along the way, some of the other elephants were quite naughty, stopping to drink water, eat the leaves etc.

There was one that even stopped to pee and poo. We took turns sitting on the elephant itself and it was pretty fun. The elephant was really tame and docile. We bought bananas at the end of the trail and fed them to the elephant we sat on.

After the trekking, we went to visit one limestone cave, dated 37,000 - 40,000 years ago. Nothing much in the cave actually. We were brought back to our Hotel and we went in search of a place for lunch. We had lunch in one of the thai restaurant, the food was more expensive and tasted ok only.

Then it was more shopping...I bought some t-shirts and shorts for me and hubby. Dinner was at this place called Eden's and we had seafood basket which consisted of 2 flower crabs (which were tiny), one whole fish, mussels, 3 king prawns and one giant squid. This seafood basket costed us 1600baht and frankly, without the accompanying dipping sauce, it won't taste nice. Tried looking for cab along the street to the airport tomorrow as the hotel charged us 800baht. We managed to find one for 390baht (but we ended up giving him 400baht at the airport) And that concludes our third day in Krabi. And we exhausted all our thai baht and had to exchange for more thai baht over there.

We decided to take it easy on our last day, decided to go for massage after breakfast. Took a leisure walk along the streets to the beach where the massage place is. My friend decided to have a 2 hour session so my sister and I went off first after the massage and walked back to the Hotel for a dip at the pool. When we reached the pool, it was so hot and full of people that we decided to just laze around back in the hotel room.

After checking out, we went over to the restaurant opposite the hotel and had lunch. This was by far the best lunch we had. The portion was big and the food tasted good. It was just opposite our Hotel and we didn't even bother to go there and try on the first day. After lunch, we went to the McDonald's for some air-conditioning and bought some nuggets to eat later before boarding the plane.

So it's bye bye Krabi and back to Singapore.

Blood Donation

My fifth blood donation so far. Reached the Singapore BloodBank around 12.15pm and there were already so many people waiting to donate blood. The nurse said it gets crowded usually after the festive season.

Waited 15mins before I went into the room and another 10mins or so before the whole procedure actual starts. Usually it won't hurt as they would have inject the anaesthetic but I'm not sure why it hurts this time round. Anyway, I saw this guy taking a video of the whole process of his female friend, I believe it's her virgin blood donation. They were pretty funny as the girl was fidgeting throughout the whole process and the nurse kept telling her to stop fidgeting and the guy purposely asked for a seat besides her so that he can be there to support her and take video for her. Haha.

Dinner and Movie Date

I was commenting to my hubby few days ago that we have not gone on a date ever since we got married and he was saying...oh....we date everyday...at our home. Pengz.....

Anyway, he called me on Friday noon and said that he wanted to bring me to a dinner and movie date. So sweet of him to do that.

Initially we wanted to go Orchard but the roads were closed due to the Chingay preview so we decided to change the destination to Vivocity. The parking is horrendous with long queues so we ended up parking in HabourFront and all these going around took up so much time that we need to rush our dinner. We settled for dinner at Sakae Sushi at Harbourfront which we needed to queue and wait as well.

Tried their garlic rice from the teppanyaki menu and it was not bad but a bit too much MSG and I can taste butter too.

After the dinner, we proceeded to GV at Tampines where we caught the show - Epic Movie. It's a damn funny and non-sensical show. Basically, its a spoof of various movies. It's relatively short as well...85mins. So that concludes our date...hopefully more to come...: )

Leonidas Chocolate...Expensive

Saw this brand of chocolates outside Carrefour the other day and it's the exact brand I bought in Amsterdam (although its Belgium choco).

I bought this box for about 15Euro and there are about 30+ pcs and the one I saw outside Carrefour is selling at S$72 for fewer pcs than the one I had.

Expensive,right but the chocolates are nice.

Visitations and More Visitations

Frankly, I do not enjoy CNY because of the visitations that I had to do. Maybe because I am anti-social???

Why can't people visit their relatives for the 360+ days in a year but choose to do so within 2 days?? Oh yes....it's for the ang pows which you can't get during normal days!!!! Hahahahaha.

Chinese New Year's Eve

It's time for reunion dinners again. This year, I will be going to my mum's place as well. It's good that my parents like to start the steamboat reunion dinner early so I don't have to rush. Reached my parent's place around 5.15pm and we started eating around 5.45pm and ended about 7pm.

After resting for a while, we have to go over to my in-laws place for the reunion dinner. As there were so many of us, the kids had to eat their dinner on a smaller table on their own. After dinner, we had some wine and then we had our "Lo Hei".

It was nearly midnight on our way home and we decided to drive slowly so that we can watch the fireworks along the Benjamin Sheares Bridge. However, every car in front of us had the same idea and we were forced to a standstill behind some trees and watched the fireworks peeping out from the trees. What a letdown.

Abalone Midnight Sale

Read in the papers that Shop n Save will be having a midnight sale on New Moon Abalone. Each can at only $32.80. So we end up buying 3 cans. Hahaha....

Steamboat..shabu shabu

Hubby and I had our own reunion dinner this evening. We went groceries shopping late afternoon at Carrefour and the queue is damn long. (pardon my language).

Look at the spread...Good isn't it? We bought the beef and pork shabu shabu, mushrooms combo, prawns, veg and some other stuff. The beef and pork were too much so we had to pack 3/4 back into the fridge. I actually made some gyoza (right at the end of table) and they tasted really good. Am going to make that for my gathering this coming Tuesday.

My Valentine's Day

This is my second valentine's day after my marriage. Hmm...what did we do last Valentine's Day?? *scratch head*

Hubby came back with a bouquet of roses with a doggie attached to it. It was sweet of him to get me the flowers but I really have not much space for soft toys. It's the thought that counts, right?

We went for dinner at a thai restaurant and then we proceed to night safari. Let's see, the last time I went to night safari was more than 10 years ago.

There were a lot of tourists and school students at the night safari. We begin the night with a "creatures of the night" show at the amphitheatre. The show is pretty interesting although quite predictable. Next we took the tram and went round the whole park and there are instances where the animals were just roaming next to us. The tram ride was fun.

After the tram ride, we decided to walk around on our own to explore other parts of the park. Frankly, it was so dark that we couldn't really see many animals. We decided to call it a night and went for supper. I know...I'm supposed to be dieting. Sigh....I promise I will do it after CNY. Hahaha.

So we end up at Jalan Kayu for roti prata, mee goreng and milo dinosaur!!! Yum Yum.....

Super Baby BreakDancing

Baby Breakdancing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aus7I7MhaOM&eurl=

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day

Friends from the start, when everything was new.

Friends through the hard part of growing-up we got through.

Friends through the middle parts: the good and the bad.

Friends through the happy times.

Friends through the sad.

So wherever you go: here, there or wherever...

know that you've got a place in my heart

Friends from the start: friends forever.

Happy Valentine's Day

To a great friend!

Disappointing turnout

The carnival was a huge disappointment. Was up early on Saturday and down at SMU around 8.30am to set up the stall. Our stall is located at a prime area but traffic for the whole day was pathetic.

So we started Sunday at 10am and still the traffic was quite bad. The worse thing is there are suddenly 2 stalls in front of me which practically blocked off my view and customer's view to my stalls. Bad planning of the people at SMU. I complained to the person in charge but no actions were taken to correct anything.

They promised me that my stall is the first and only stall there. I am very disappointed at the way they arrange the whole thing.

Parfait D'Amour in SMU-Carnival 10th Feb - 11th Feb

Hi Friends,

Join us for a fun and eventful 2 days from 10am - 7pm. We are located at Booth E105 - School of Economics and Social Sciences, diagonally across from Kopitiam.

Please help to spread the news around and see you there.

Thank you for the dinner and coffee...

Met up with my university friend yesterday for dinner at the Crystal Jade Golden Palace at Paragon. He is in town as his grandma just passed away.

It has been like 3 years since the last time we met and I still remember we had Japanese food at the Nadaman at Shangri-la Hotel and then we chatted till pretty late into the night.

He is based in Zurich, Switzerland and for as long as I can remember he has been there for ages. Was in Zurich 2 years back but missed the opportunity to meet him.

Talking about how we came to talk to each other is really funny. We had been in the same course for almost 3 years but the first time I spoke to him was during our graduation ball. And after that the mode of communication was always through emails and we actually met up in person only after he went to Switzerland to work and came back here for business trips.

Anyway, it was always interesting to reminisce about our school days. Catching up on how each other has been doing and the funny things that happened then. On the course mates that are based all over the world now, whether they are married, how many kids they have etc.

Time has really gone past so quickly. I still remember the days when all of us mugging for exams in tutorial rooms, going for dinner together and even supper. Those were really nice memories. Now everyone has gone into another stage of life.

Thank you for the wonderful dinner and coffee and of course your presence. Till we meet again. I wish you all the best.

Just another "thoughtful" day

Sometimes I wonder what I want in life. I would ask myself dozens of questions and never get any answered. Even if they are answered, I wonder if they are the right answers and then you start to think, what are the right answers?

Life is just so contradicting. People only cherished things or people when they are no longer around. And the irony is letting go is just so difficult for most people.

Have you ever felt loneliness even if you are surrounded by friends and family? I often do. Why do i have such a feeling? I don't know. Maybe this is just one of the questions that will never get answered.

The other strange thing I discovered about myself is I like to feel depressed. I just indulge myself in that kind of feeling. I have absolutely no idea why.

I don't understand why someone can just change their feelings and thoughts overnight? I don't understand why people are so afraid to go after what they really want? Is it because of family pressure? peer pressure? or just the thought of venturing into something unknown scares them? I am guilty of this as well. The society has molded me into such a person that I do not know what is what anymore.

When you are young, you are not scared of anything. You get up after falling down, you ventured into the unknown - crawling - walking - running. If taking risk is always hanging on your head, maybe we are all still crawling now. Why has this changed when we grow up? Is it because we have family? We have too much committments in our life?

Why do I have so many questions? I don't know. Frankly, I don't know anything. Just another "thoughtful" day.

A Fruitful and Tiring Week

Finally it's the end of a very very busy and tiring but fruitful week. I learnt so much about what the rest of the people have been doing and of course I shared what I have been doing as well. I'm like half way across the globe from these guys. Let me summarise what's been going on this past week.

On Monday morning,I was woken up by a call at 2.15am (which is around 9.15am singapore time) from a withheld number. The caller hung up when I picked it up. Tried to go back to sleep but finally woke up around 5am. Not a good day to start the day by.I went to take a shower and went down for breakfast at 7am. The next day, I got a call again and this time at 3.30am (10.30am singapore time) from the credit card company asking if I made a transaction with my card in Netherlands. My goodness, if they know I am in Netherlands, can't they wait till later to call me? Disrupt my sleep again.

Watched the news and saw that the temperature will be going down this week and can go down to -2 deg. That was indeed very bad as I think I was not well prepared for the cold weather and I had on 4 layers of clothes already.

So I asked the hotel to get me a cab to the office and that costs me 17euros for a 15 mins ride. Look at the snow covered tulip fields near my office.

Things start to kick in after lunch, we had meetings, presentations and workshops for the whole of the week. But not forgetting the fun we had as well.

We went to the SnowWorld for skiing or snowboarding (for some). It's like the snow city in Singapore, I guess although I have never been to the Snow City. My boss had so kindly brought all the ski pants,jackets,socks and gloves for me. Thank God I can fit into them else I think it's going to be very embarassing for me.

Skiing was no easy task, at least for me. First of all, I had problems wearing the ski boots and then I had problems fastening the boots onto the ski and after that I had problems trying to walk up the slope in the skis.

Then I tried to ski down the slope and ended up crashing into the trainer. I had to walk up the slope again and this time, I crashed into my other colleagues so I was practically crashing into everyone that is on my path. Finally when the ski lesson ended, I managed to ski a little without falling or crashing into anyone. You would never imagine that you can actually perspire under all the thick clothes you wore for skiing but yes, I was perspiring. It was tough but fun to experience it. Whether I will be back for more, well...that depends.

Next, we went for rock climbing. I always believed I lacked the wrist strength for rock climbing but surprisingly, it's pretty easy. I can go all the way to the top. Here's a picture of my team at the rock climbing place.

After all that exercise, we had a good dinner. Meat Fondue...never tried before but it was really interesting. I thought it would be somewhat similar to cheese fondue but I am wrong. There was oil in the fondue pot and then you had a plate of different meats - veal, beef, pork and chicken and you put them in the fondue and fried them.

The weather was getting colder and colder by the day with yesterday morning at -3 deg. My face and skin were so dry that I can feel them peeling off. The feeling was terrible. I was also almost down with a cold with me sneezing a few times a day and on some nights, my nose was blocked. I tried to pile on the moisturiser and hand lotion as often as I can.

We went to another city - Leiden for dinner one of the nights and we had indian food. Leiden is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland in The Netherlands. It forms a single urban area with Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten, Valkenburg, Rijnsburg and Katwijk, with 254,000 inhabitants. It is located on the Old Rhine, close to the cities of The Hague and Haarlem.It was a nice city and there is even a windmill museum there as well.

One thing I had an issue with was on the service by the restaurants. We had dinner in one of the japanese teppanyaki restaurant and the waitress just refused to serve us until there was another order from another table. It's really sickening. The whole dinner was finished only in about 2.5 hours.

Had quite a late evening on the last day of work. Was in the office till around 7pm. All other colleagues were coming in to say goodbyes to me and wishing me a safe trip home. Left the office around 7pm and went to Amsterdam for dinner. Guess where we had dinner? Hard Rock Cafe...hahahaha. It was cold and we didn't want to walk too far from where we parked the car. After dinner, we walked around the surroundings for a bit before returning to the Hotel. Say goodbyes to my boss and colleague as they were on an earlier than me the next day.

On Saturday, I checked out around 11am and met up with a friend living in The Hague. He picked me up and we drove to the airport to deposit my luggage at the storage room. Then we took the train from the airport to Amsterdam Centraal station. From there, we decided to just walk to the Van Gogh Museum. It was a nice walk as the sun is shining and there isn't much wind. I realised I know more about Amsterdam than my dutch friend. He said he seldom come to Amsterdam so he didn't know much about the place. In the end, I am the one who is bringing him around.

Walked past the sex museum and decided to pop in for a look. It costed 3euro for entry. Frankly, there's nothing much. Photographs of sexual acts, rapes, sadism etc. Some artifacts from the past and paintings, drawings etc.

Here are some pictures I took inside the museum.

Always remember to get your tickets for the Van Gogh Museum in advance else you have to join in the queue at the museum. Frankly, I am not a great fan of Van Gogh but I just need to visit the tourist attraction,right? Hahahaha. Bought some sourvenirs at the museum shop and then I went to the LV shop along the expensive shopping district of Amsterdam. Bought myself a wallet and a small sling bag. Bought some stuff from the HRC for my cousin, chocolates requested by my friend and colleagues and bought some cheese as well for myself. I also did some shopping at H&M and Zara. Most of the shops were on sale and some of the items in the shops were so cheap. Time went past so fast that soon it's 6pm and all the shops were closing.

So we walked back to the train station and caught the train back to the airport. I had a hard time trying to fit all the stuff into my luggage and had to hand carry another 2 bags and 2 paintings I bought from the Van Gogh Museum. After checking in, I said goodbye to my friend and I went to the lounge for some rest and drinks. The flight back was pretty ok, I fell asleep after watching a movie.

Finally back to Singapore after a long and tiring week. Couldn't get used to the heat and was perspiring in the airport. Sort of miss the cool weather there. Sleep in on Monday as I was feeling so tired.

It's raining snow!!!

Reached Amsterdam around 6am this morning and it was raining with strong wind. The plane can't connect to the gate due to the bad weather and we had to wait in the plane for a while. After landing, I stayed in the airport for my conference call at 7am and then leave for my hotel around 7.40am.

It costed me 63 euro to get to my hotel in noordwijk. The wind was so strong that the cab door seemed going to blow away. I was checked into the beach wing of the hotel and the room and toilet were so small and its a long walk to the main wing where breakfast was served.

Peek at the hotel room and view from the balcony of the hotel room.

I went to walk around the neighourhood and the wind was so strong, I was almost blown away several times and since the hotel is near the beach, sand keeps blowing into my eyes and on my face.

Decided to head back to the Hotel and get online. The internet access in the hotel was very expensive. 10 euro for an hour's of access.

Met up with my colleague for dinner in the evening and we went to Haarlem. Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, capital of North Holland province. The city is located by the river Spaarne, about 20 km west of Amsterdam and near the coastal dunes. It is the center of a flower-growing district and the export point for bulbs, especially tulips.

My colleague said when the tulips are in bloom, there will be buses of Japanese tourists along the roads taking pictures of the tulip fields.

It started to rain snow on our way to the dinner place. My first encounter with that kind of rain. Interesting and my hair was full of little bits of snow which melted soon after. We had tapas for dinner, my colleague ordered like around 8 different kinds and I thought that it's going to be too much but the portion was pretty small.

After dinner, we went for a drink at the opposite cafe but I ordered tea as it's cold. It was a nice evening although staying in the Hotel for 9 hours before my dinner appointment wasn't that fun.

Tomorrow will be the start of a busy week.

Stormy Weather in Netherlands

Take a look at this website. It tells of how strong the wind is in Netherlands. It's going to be a cold cold week ahead.
http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/article388802.ece/Rijkswaterstaat_ga_bij_deze_storm_niet_de_weg_op

Finished packing and hopefully I didn't forget to bring anything important. My boss just informed me that I am scheduled for a presentation yesterday afternoon and I have to rush something out so that I have something to present.

We are going to have a team activity on one of the days for skiing or snow boarding followed by rock climbing and then dinner. Sounds interesting. It will be my first time at skiing and rock climbing.

Amsterdam...Here I Come...Again...

Just got my air ticket for my Amsterdam trip. Went to the internet and check on the status of the booking made.

Can't check in now but will do so before i fly and then i will choose the seats which i think are nicer. My seats are reserved on the upper deck of the plane.

Pray that the in-flight entertainment will be working this time round as it wasn't the last time i was on the plane and I wasn't prepared and stuck only with my puzzle book.

I can't really sleep on the plane so makes it even worse for the whole journey. The movies on this flight for this month going to Amsterdam are The Queen (yes, I'm going to watch this definitely), Step Up, Open Season, Fearless ( by Jet Li), The Black Dahlia, Beat the Drum and Miami Vice.

And the movies coming back to Singapore are The Guardian, Scoop, The Departed, Flyboys, Jackass Number 2, Stormbreaker and Nachtrit. Okay, have watched none but some of them I have never heard before.

A new diet

After a gruelling 2 weeks regime of dieting, I lost 4kg. Not a lot but considering the fact that I have been trying to lose weight for the past 2 years.

Actually, the diet works perfectly fine for me but after 2 weeks, I think it's time to take a break and since I am flying off to Amsterdam, no point continuing the diet now. I might probably revert back to the diet after I get back from Amsterdam.

I feel more alert and don't feel tired easily and I believe if I have exercise during the diet period, I might have lost even more weight.

Happy for now....hoping to lose more...must pray hard that I don't gain back all I have lost after my Amsterdam trip.

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Haven't been posting for quite some time. I was on leave beginning mid-Dec and it's my very first day at work in the office today although I am working throughout my holidays too.

And Yes, I am officially one year older. Everytime the year starts, I am older by a year. So sad.

No one really remembers my birthday except for a few people so I don't get presents most of my life.

My hubby will always try to get me a christmas present cum birthday present everytime. But I want 2 presents....boohoohoo

Christmas 2006

Decided to have a quiet christmas this year with my hubby, part of the reason is that his parents are volunteering at the Christmas Festival in Orchard, his niece and nephew were down with chickenpox so we didn't have any celebration together this year.

As we were only back on 20th night, we had to catch up on our christmas shopping so we decided to just go out in a day and grabbed everything. Think this year we spent quite a sum on christmas presents, we bought a DVD recorder for his parents, adidas watches for niece and nephew, guess kids clothes for niece and nephew, disney bags and stuff for niece, sticker maker for another niece, a white gold pendant and mango blouse for sis-in-law and a pierre cardin key pouch for his brother.

On christmas eve, we decided to cook ourselves a christmas dinner. So we bought beef, assorted vegetables, canned soup and mashed potato.

We marinated the 1kg beef overnight and it took us about 36mins to roast the beef and it looks and tastes good. We roast the vegetables consisting of yellow and green peppers, carrots, asparagus, mushrooms and tomatoes. Heat up the soup and made the mashed potato. Results are not bad at all. We even had a 1/2 kg log cake and it tasted good. I ordered from my sister's colleague. Must tell her that it's good.

Cameron Highlands and KL

Hubby and I decided to take a road trip up to Cameron Highlands and KL for our 2006 year end holiday.

We started the day early around 5.40am as it takes 8 hours to go up to Cameron Highlands and that is if you drive non-stop.

The immigration was smooth and soon we were on the north-south highway towards Cameron Highlands. The journey was tiring and I fell asleep like 2 - 3 times along the way. I was responsible for keeping my hubby awake actually..hahaha.

We took the new route via Simpang Pulai to Cameron instead of the old route via Tapah. The roads were narrow and a lot of bends so you need to drive slower on these roads. We made it to the hotel at cameron around 3pm as we stopped a few times for toilet break and just to take some rest and we encountered a slight jam on the way up to our hotel.

The air was wonderful, fresh and clean although its drizzling everyday. Temperature never goes beyond 20deg celsius everyday. We checked into our hotel - Strawberry Park Resort. The room is big, with a common room, a kitchen, a bedroom and a big bathroom but its just not to my liking. I like places which are clean and although its pretty clean, it looked run down and old.

After checking in, we made our way to a town called Tanah Rata for lunch. It was a really small town with a few restaurants. We ate at this Mayflower Chinese restaurant and it was pretty cheap for a soup, veg, beef, fried rice and chinese tea. All these costs us RM30.

Dinner was just marrybrown chicken as we tabao back...had a late lunch so decided to keep the food till later.

We started the next morning with breakfast in the hotel and they served really really lousy breakfast. After that we ventured down to Brinchang area (the opposite side of Tanah Rata) and stopped by several strawberry farms, cactus farms and flower farms. We bought some cactus and several pots of plants.

We also stopped by a reputable tea plantation called Cameron Valley Tea Plantations and bought some packets of tea which costs us about RM70. We went back to the town of Tanah Rata and had some indian food for lunch. We had banana leaf rice and it costs us RM7 per pax. In the evening, we went to another chinese restaurant - Hong Kong Chinese restaurant for steamboat. The steamboat costs us RM17 per pax and it came with fixed items. Good weather to have steamboat.

The next morning, we visited the famous BOH tea plantation and hubby met one of his colleagues there as well. In the BOH tea plantation, we learnt about how tea are made through a factory visit and again we ended up buying more tea and that set us back by about RM120. The BOH tea plantation has a huge land mass and has a cafe that looks over the plantation at the top of the mountain.

After the visit, we checked out of our hotel and drove towards KL. We decided to take the old route (via Tapah) as we were told there are some waterfalls along the way. The old route is definitely more dangerous than the new route as it's really very narrow and more winding than the new route. But we did hit upon a waterfall, not a majestic one but not bad.

We hit the jam at KL about 3.30pm and eventually only reached our Hotel - Novotel Hydro Majestic KL around 5pm. The hotel is really new and although the room is small, everything is just to my liking. I forgot to take pictures of the room. Our hotel room has a view of the Petronas Twin Tower (just one tower though)

After checking in, we went out shopping, as its around dinner time, we went to a chinese restaurant inside sungei wang called esquire kitchen. Been to this chain of restaurant a couple of times, food is not bad.

After that, we went walking around for a bit more before heading back to the hotel. Started the next day late...woke up around 10am and finally dragged our feet to checking out around 11.30am. After checking out, we drove to KLCC and walked around and had lunch at Genki Sushi.

Wanted to buy christmas presents but nothing seem nice and even with Malaysia's year end sale, the prices were not attractive. Eventually left the place around 2.30pm and began our journey back to Singapore. Along the way, we saw some villages got caught in the flood and some children swimming in the flooded water as well. Just like what I always saw from the TV news.

Certain parts of the roads were blocked and were closed due to the flood so instead of a 4 lane road, it became one lane and caused a slight jam. We saw a rainbow on the way back to Singapore too. Finally reached Singapore around 7.30pm after making stops along the way for food and toilet breaks.

Now I am going to plan my next road trip..heehee

BEWARE of the MRT Molester/Flasher

Last weekend my sister and her friend were on a crowded train from orchard to plaza singapura around 6plus in the evening.

There is this guy who came in at the somerset station and was pressing himself against my sister's friend. My sister's friend thinking it was because the train was crowded so didn't really bother with it. As the train approached the station, she turned around and saw the guy with his hand in his pants. Shocked...she flung open his shirt and found him zipping up his pants.

So she started screaming at him but no one came to help stop the guy or whatever and when the train door opened, the guy ran out.
My sister then went to the control station to seek help but was slapped with a "bo-chup" station manager who says he don't know anything and just sat there without doing anything. My sister's friend went after the guy but couldn't find him anywhere.

This is when the gross part came in....my sister's friend found some sticky liquid at the back of her shirt. OMG.

That night, she lodged a report to her police station.

SO LADIES BEWARE!!!! Take notice of the person behind you in the train.

Parfait D'Amour

Dear friends and fellow bloggers,

My sister and I started this online shop that provides wedding gifts and services. As we are still in out infant stage, I would appreciate all kind support and feedback on improvement.

Please do help to pass the message around to friends, colleagues, neighbours, relatives etc if they need any services from us.

I have also attached a promotion leaflet for our opening special.

















Thank you very much. The link to our website is www.parfait-damour.com