Simple Complicated World 1.1

Moved...

2008-06-07T22:51:00.003+08:00

the call from my director made me realised another thing...that i do need to change home and move my blog. and also tone down on the language here. rest assure nothign secret will be leaked in the new post.

so dear all, please update your bookmarks and take note of the new blog url:
geraldtoh.wordpress.com

oh, and i must admit wordpress is cool! i managed to import all my post from here to the new post so you all can read up the past posts too!

see you all there!

love,
gerald

Talk bout being screwed

2008-06-06T23:17:00.004+08:00

i just tried my sample test on cfa website and haha, wat;s new when it comes to tests, i failed. miserably.

shifting shapes

2008-06-04T21:37:00.004+08:00

i am really starting to love this job.

Down Memory Lane

2008-06-01T16:15:00.004+08:00

Ok, the writers' strike earlier this year in La-La land had caused many shows to be reduced from their original schedules and since it's now June, all the shows I had been watching have also finished their runs. Somehow, Desperate Housewives had a really huge shocking finale when the show ended with a time morph showing Wisteria lane 5 years into the future and Susan having a new husband despite her having gave birth and married to Mike this season. Bleah.

Over at the other show, Betty is faced with 2 guys and she cannot decided on who to choose, and moi is getting really tired of her, but just in time, a new boy popped up and claimed to be her boss' son. Interesting.

Then of course my favourite CSI dramas, Gary Doudan's character is killed off, meaning 2 cast have left the series this season, but as long as the lao chio Catherine Willows on the show, and the funny lab assistant stays, i am happy. Haratio Cain's gunned down, but I really doubt he died since he is like central to the entire moody-gloomy-setting pivotal to Miami. Over in NYC, i really don't give a damn who leaves cos it's the city that mesmerizes me anyway.

Across the Atlantic, hotel babylon is somehow lost in the midst of BT torrents and i really dunno what happened to it. But another 2 key characters left the show and frankly, my interest in that is so low that n amount of posh 5 star services can perk me up.

Which brings us back to the greatest city on earth in NYC where the gossip girls are so deserving my unwavering attention till the next season starts.

Ok, the whole point of this post is in the years leading to all of this. Moi has seen so many TV shows that somehow, every time one of my favourites ends (and I mean series finale) I will be so lost and sad and somehow, unwilling to give other new series a chance. o, when people starts dying off and flashbacks starts coming in to TV, i really do fear that the show will just go boom. and I'll have to filter through all the new shows to pick one that I'll like.

A decade ago (gosh, i am actually able to relate stories now with the term decade!) Ally Mcbeal and Friends were the de facto must watch, and I was devastated and i actually swore off TV after they ended! Until Sex and The City and Will & Grace came along, my life was spent channel surfing on crappy shows.

There was a show called Everybody Loves Raymond which all loves, but somehow, I hated him. Then of course in between, there were Malcolm in the Middle which I thought was stupid and 2 Guys, A Girl and A Pizza Place which became plain ridiculous after they dropped the pizza place from their title in season 2.

Finally, when I started my military in 2002, CSI came along and relight the TV fire in me. Then their spin offs came along and throughout the last 4 years in college, Desperate Housewives and Will & Grace kept me going. somehow, rumour has it that DH will end in 2 years time after season 7 and moi is sad. I just hope gossip girl will last and actually make itself entertaining after 2 seasons. I mean, I am so sure the series will be canned after all the characters left high school.

Singapore's sooo boring

2008-06-01T01:10:00.003+08:00

that's the thought on our minds when we ran out of stuffs to do today after dinner and desserts. in the end, i had my swiftest saturday meetups and i was home by 11. oh, the good news: i tailore made 2 shirts from CYC, the famed tailor where our minister mentor got his shirts made. not cheap! 330 for 2 and i'll be going down next sunday after my doomed cfa exam for the 1st fitting. and after that, another week before i can collect. talk bout a wait!

Vain bunny said he looked way too weird in the previous one so he requested for another...vainpot

big brother is watching

2008-05-21T21:11:00.006+08:00

and i mean really watching. UP CLOSE.

today's papers had a local resident being arrested when he's at home (presumably in his boxers watching the TV or surfing porno website) by the local police because he made some racist comments on his blogs (if he's surfing porn then the police are so lucky to be able to add another charge). As I couldn't blatantly read that piece of article in the office since that is under Home news and media scanning on my part largely, or rather, most exclusively, revolved business articles,all I managed to stael a glance was "The local police raided his home" or something like that.

Yes, apparently, police raiding homes are the norm here in Singapore. Don't you love our sunny country where all the sun goes to waste cos nude tanning is illegal too? I mean, ok, the guy was wrong with his comments on the blog, but raiding his home? Ain't that like so, erm, communist era? It's such news that really makes me wanna get outta here and re-locate. It's also such news that reminds me to keep my blog in check and not be offensive. Because somewhere in novena, the internal security department is religiously monitoring all, and i mean ALL, internt activities.

Anyway, I realised upon googling (doncha love google?) that the said blogger called himself frangrance prince. YES. I am not kidding. It's amazing how people can name themselves in various fanciful words. If I were to have one, i think i'll call myself laddy macbeth...haha, get it?

Kindda like you office's IT system. Apparently, the folks in moi's office all knows I have a blog cos niggy mouthy moi let slipped the info. Ok, I partly wanted to gain more redership too so that I can be like those few star bloggers featured in the papers who earn few extra mooh lahs per month from advertisers. I am poor ok. Need money, and to get money, need exposure. not in the naked way, please.

So, remember what I said bout my office building's men's toilets having a better view than from my office? Well, at least the view from where I am sitted is bleah. I managed to get photos from the men's room. without the men of course, though I am sure some of you out there are disappointed. I am sure my place will be raided if there's a men in the men's room on my photos.

also, an accident happened just below my block and this time, sadly, no fatalities, but still, it was the most dramatic crash in years because depite the dent in the car, the driver was stuck in his seat as the door could not be opened post accident. the first time in the few crashes at this spot that I had seen an ambulance coming down with paramedics. Drama, I like.

But seriously, it just shows how goon some drivers can be. I mean...will it kill to slow down in a heartland?! You're not on the freaking Highway, you know. What's the rush? Ain't it worse now that you're caught in an accident and you do realise that time pst accident will not have happened if you used your brain and judgement to drive more carefully and slowly? Tis is another peeve here that makes me wanna re-locate. And I am not even a driver myself.

Another (Another, Another!) Bag(s) to my collection

2008-05-19T00:34:00.004+08:00

Well, my Longchamp bags arrived today and turned out one of it was not light blue! haha...It's actually the dark brown that I wanted! Yeah! Ok, but the RED one...well, it's actually kinda pretty and I must admit I did contemplate using it myself...haha...

But still! It's RED.Period. So ladies and gentlemen, I am gonna put this RED bag for sale at 110 SGD. And I'll throw in the Longchamp paperbag with that. haha. To let all know the size of the bag better, I've placed an A4 book on it so that you can roughly know how big it is. As for detailed size, look at post below to get dimensions in CM. Also, the first photo shows how the bag is after it is folded.

If you are interested, leave your name and email by replying to the post. So far, I have a friend interested and she's called Anonymous aka Tina Lim. But she has yet to tell me if she wants it. So the offer is still open. After one week, and no takers, you'll see me using it then haha....

Update: Bag's taken. Sale's off

so...can i pull it off?

2008-05-15T23:24:00.004+08:00

i told my friend to buy me 2 DIFFERENT longchamp bags, one laptop one for me, another tote for my mum. Well, cos he went to germany and its' cheap there..urns out he did get 2 for me at total of 100 euros (CHEAP!) but he also got 2 of same design.

One's in bright red for my mum, and another light brown for moi. Well, if you are asking which model he got it right, they are both the men's laptop. Yeah, another 2 bags to my collection. BRIGHT RED some more. Do I sound like a happy camper (or rather, Champer) here? Bleah.

Light brown, i can take it. light brown in women's tote, my mum can use that. But BRIGHT RED men's laptop? Mum cannot use it, and me also cannot use it.

See the problem (and photos) here? Talk about seeing red, literally.

But what to do? This really close friend of mine actually squeeze in shopping for moi into his ultra packed 5 day germany backpack trip. And he spent 1 hour searching for freaking longchamp shop in Frankfurt (well, there are many shops there but i merely emailed him 1 address..ok, partly my fault too). So tell me, my dear readers, how can I get angry? I mean, I am really grateful for all the trouble he went through, you know. And i know it is really difficult to shop for other people all the time. Like the trouble I went through in Tokyo to find a certain wallet.haha... Bt at least my trip was leisure. So, I am moreover ever grateful and thankful that I did manage to get a longchamp.

Well, I heard from my another friend that Australia sells longchamp cheap too. So if I really wanna get a tote for mum, I'll tell my air stewardess friend to get if when she goes there instead since she seem to not be flying the frankfurt route anytime soon...

funny poem + irritant + new found good blog

2008-05-08T23:38:00.004+08:00

well, apparently ,my friend do not wanna be named so i shall call her what I've benn calling her in real life (since she hates to be rec. even in cyberspace and wants, rather, insisted, that , moi coined up a term for her...).

Miss Obese introduced me to this great amazing blog that adelyn introduced her to.anyway, the blog is from this really scandalous guy who sleeps ard but yet maganes to write in a really great manner and puts his thoughts into proper words and phrases (read: unline moi with tons of grammer and spelling mistakes)

but i shall not reveal the blog cos it is better off for you to go and look for it urself.

Next up, ok, i got many things to talk about today cos i had not been updating in some time.

Well, Miss Obese has this new found enemy in one of her classes and apparently, this gal is the class' common enemy too. She also has a special webpage she made to specially commemorate her meeting with her boyfriend, and all's written from her perspective. Phrases like hoe guy met amazing spunky gal and they "uprooted" (i swear she did use that word) to form a tree or something. Just shows the power of language and who some can use it to create amazing intresting blogs to keep me addicted yet others can mis use it to freak off moi. oh the commonenimy apparently reminded us of our very first commonenimy in campus call miss d***n and even they look scarily alike man. and this new commonenimy name's jolin, which does rhyme with d***n...haha...

Ok, i also watched harold and kumar sequel and i just wanna share this poem from the movie. . First I thought it was made up for the show only when i google it up did i realise that it is REAL ! It's by this guy called Dave Feinberg and the title is call Square Root of 3. Amazingly funny man.

I’m sure that I will always be
A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun,
as 1.7321
Such is my reality,
a sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three

As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands

Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed

###

I love that poem to death! hahaha

All in the family

2008-05-03T18:34:00.003+08:00

Elise is back from her 2 month long stint in London and we warmly welcome her home with a dinner at Menotti. She also got me some very good chocolates from this brand which also caters to the Queen...And these chocolate truffles are delicious!

Must Buy From Nihon - Part 2

2008-04-30T21:10:00.003+08:00

Ok, not shampoo this time round.

Well, most of you know that I am a food lover, and how can I give Japanese Department Stores' food basement a miss when I am there. In fact, those were my motivating force when I was in tokyo last time round!

Other then $70 bucks spent on Bankaku Prawn crackers which, in my opinion, are the best prawn crackers on planet earth, I also bought others stuff. Oh, before I tell you what else I had gotten, this link actually reveals thatBankaku are being sold locally, albeit and much much MUCH higher premium. $70 can only get me 20 packs here, whereas 70 gets me 60 packs in Japan!

Now, I also got lovely pastries back. Remember Gramercy? Well, I realised that they have supposedly to-die-for cheesecakes and I decided to get mself some before leaving Tokyo. But! apparently those round whole cheesecakes are only available at 3 specific timings daily and I had to settle for these individually packed ones instead:

Well, I'm not complaining cos they are divine! They are flufy, yet unlike those so-called Japanese Cheesecakes we get here, they are not that fluffy and the cheese aroma and taste is absolutely great!

I also got magdelines from a french pattisier. Too bad I cannot afford to splurge on Perre Herme's Macarons so I got these next alternative from another brand...The magdelines I got are the original ones and they are divne too! The sweetness of honey and light airy crumbs makes my knees goes weak! Absolutely tasty!

Then of course, I got myself some alcohol. Not sake like I menetioned previously, but I also got some Umeshu (Plum wine). They are great! Sweet, and refreshing and with some soda, it's perfect for our hot weather!

this is not pretty

2008-04-29T21:20:00.002+08:00

ok, apparently a recent survey conducted locally, and by moi's university no less, revealed that Singaporeans are afraid to lodge official complaints with bad service but we are a whiny lot who keeps procrestinating to those around us. And I am gonna join in today.

I mean, I am already complaining about ALOT of stuff but today's different ok.

I have been home for 5 days and already, I am getting bored to death. I mean, ok the hoilday was nice, no. The holiday was GREAT. But, then somehow, as with all the trips I had made over the years, whenever the plane touched down, I feel glad to be back, but yet after the first night home, I get the feeling that life can only be like that. You know? Like that. Ok, you don't really know what i'm rambling here. But what I meant to say is, I view hoilidays and anytime spent outside singapore to be carefree time, and whenever I am on home gounds, reality hits and life sucks.

I am still unsure what I want to do. Despite having thought for myself on the trip. It's like, I thought about so many things and made plans, ok, not exactly concrete plans, but still I had one. But now home, I just do not see my plans, or rather, drafted plans come kick into full force du jour. Maybe I should try getting actual work done since thigs don't fall from the skies, but it's just so disgusting on home ground.

Maybe I should just stop procrestinate and move on. Yeah, I am gonna buy myself a lottery ticket tomorrow.

Must Buy From Nihon!

2008-04-27T15:54:00.010+08:00

On my trip to japan last week, my shampoo ran out and I decided to hedt down to the famous japanese pharmacy to stock up on it. I chanced upon this group of aunties snapping up this particular brand and I immediately decided to go have a look. Turns out they were grabbing this shampoo call "Tsubaki" by Shiseido (yeah, the beauty compan is that diversified over there...haha) and i immediately decided that I gotta try out too!

So I bought a small shampoo to try and gosh! The shampoo felt ily after I rinse my hair (cos it contained Tsubaki, aka, Camilia, oil) and just when I decided that it is way too oily, the miracle happened! Throughout the day, my hair actually do not feel oil at all! In fact, just one wash and i noticed my hair more managable and better compare to using Ascience (which I realised it's actually from Kao!). I mean Ascience leave my hair nice and all, but Tsubaki gave me that protection of nourchment ater wash and the oilyness stop after yor hair dries. Amazing!

Then I googled it up and realised that since Tsubaki was iriduced in Aug 07, it immediately shot to overtake Lux as the number 1 shampoo in Japan. And! Lux actually was No. 1 for 6 years continously! I love it so much that I bought 1 more bottle back home..haha...and the TV advert is great too! In fact sales were so encouraging that Shiseido now had introduced a luxe version of the old Red Tsubaki, the new one is white and the advert also features top Japanese ladies (which I find much gorgeous over the Korean ones anytime...haha) In fact, I realised that when they first started the they already featured 6 starlets (Yukie Nakama, Rena Tanaka, Takako Uehara , Ryoko Hirosue, Arisa Mitsuki, and Yuko Takeuchi ) , but somehow the adverts showed like a dozen Japn women all so pretty...Don't you wish you'll age like them too?

I really love the adver and the song...haha

Just when i thought they have exhausted all their resources, I chanced upon a new commercial featuring their spokespersons in kimono! How Japan can it get?!

Rewinding Japan

2008-04-26T17:07:00.009+08:00

I had a great trip to Japan, experienced so much on this self trip and made jpurneys which further opened my eyes and tried stuff that I would never have done had I not gone.

So I'm gonna make collages of the photos and show you all my 15 day trip to the land of the rising sun.

First up, I want to share with you all the foods and snacks I had tried there:

The first meal of Tonkatsu i had in Kyoto at steal price of 790 yen! and I tries Starbucks, not just from the cafe, but also their ones sold in 7-11. And the chocolate ice cream is amazingly creamy and thick, and only 105 yen! Then I had the best and cheap lunch set of grilled beef and pork in Kyoto, and also tried traditional Japanese snacks while cherry blossom viewing along Philosopher's Path in Kyoto. Also, the bad choice of set meal too, with the goey wheat. Then I tried ramen in Osaka which is delicious! And the pudding at Kinosaki and udon in Osaka, and great non spice Mah-Po Tofu seat in Himeji and lastly, the great meal Rachel brought and treated me to in Tokyo. We went to a cool beer place where local working class have their drinking sessions after work. Truly exceptional and local!

Also, since I made it to catch the beautiful Cherry Blossoms, I am also showing these pretty flowers off:

And my favourite Japanese city, Kyoto, with its amazing temples and shrines, there're so many things and sites to visit that I want to go back again!

An I thought I better dedicate one collage entirely the this shrine off Kyoto famous for its many whirling and winding trek lined with Tori Gates:

And Osaka is next! The city is vibrant, exciting and filled with noise and excitement! and great food too!

The I went to Nara and Horyuji (where the wooden structures are the oldest in the world!)

And my first Onsen experience at Kinosaki!

I also visited castlesthere so i am showing you al the 3 i visited: Osaka, Hmeji, and Nagoya.

Another highlight was visiting Nada district in Kobe and trying sake.

Himeji was gorgeous with its castle and also, I was really glad I decided to walk the off beaten track and try Mount Shosha where Tom Cruise shot The Last Samurai.

Another highlight was Miyajima with its gorgeous tori gate, but sadly, as it was low tide, I couldn't see the breathtaking view of it 'floating'

And meeting up with a friend! Its amazing how despite us not knowing each other very well, having a fellow friend overseas always makes trips better and so much more comforting with the talks and laughter!

And Nikko with the beatiful temle; so richly decorated that it is so different from all those I had been to, and that made the trip worthwhile!

Pre flight entertainment

2008-04-24T16:32:00.003+08:00

Here I am at Narita Airport. Waiting for my flight and has been here since 4. But the good thing bout Biz class is the lounge! And here at NW's Narita lounge, the food's great, the views great and the beer dispensing machine is oh so advanced!

1 starred michelin place!

2008-04-24T16:12:00.005+08:00

i finally tried gourmet meal! I was thinking of getting a meal, lunch to be exact at Ginza, but since prices there are like crazy, at 2000 yen and above for sets, I decided that I shall treat myself to the 1 starred michelin place at my hotel instead.

I opted for the mid priced Menu B with appetisers and 2 desserts with main. The food was great! My...money well spent. The bill: 6,000 yen. (84 SGD)

The Dessert Menu

These cheese puffs were amazing!

This is appetiser numero uno: Baby lamb capachio; yes, it is raw like...and it tastes great!

This is appetiser numero duo: Beetroot jelly with some foam, very good too!

Then comes the soup. Onion soup that is light, fluffy, and oh so aromatic and full of flavour of the onion! Creamy but yet, it's not overly think.

The main: I can choose from 3 meats and 3 seafood, and i choosed this fish fillet cos it's a Japanese fish so i chose this over the braised beef cheeks.

Then comes mini dessert: Lemon Jelly top with sherbet and zest. The magnitude of flavours really burst in this one. The tangy zest with tinge of bitterness. Yet sherbet was amaingly refreshing and jelly was sweet. Very refreshing overall and great way to cleanse the palate after the main.

Then the grand dessert: I opted for panfried strawberries with mascarpone ice cream. Great choice!

Then, as if that's not all, i still have tea with small sweets! I choose the rose and pistachio macarons and choco coated almond and coco bitter sweet orange peel.

Now, do you think Iggys and Les Amies will be this great? Or cheap? haha...

Ginza

2008-04-24T16:03:00.007+08:00

Today, after I checked out of my hotel at 11 and before leaving for the airport cos my flight is at 7pm, I decided to walk to the posh shopping mecca district of Ginza since it's literally besides my hotel.

You do get to see every singel posh designer brand on earth at that stree, including the Apple store. haha...the apple store even has a really cool rotation Apple icon ontop its building!

As for the rest, I'll just show the photos...Yes, LV and Loewe included! I also went into Shiseido HQ! haha...and also i saw local brand Hour Glass at Ginza too!

Even MOS has an outlet here that sells posh nosh!

Gucci, Armani, LV, Loewe, Dior, Cartier, Bulgari...blah blah blah...haha

This is the Nissan Showroom.

maxing out my rail pass

2008-04-23T20:34:00.014+08:00

yes, i really maxed out my rail pass and today, i decided to head to japan's 4th largest city 2 hrs away from tokyo call nagoya. I'd passed nagoya twice on this trip, on first day to Kyoto and on my return from Hiroshima and the city looks nice. True enough, the moment i stepped out into the main rail station, Takashimaya is housed in the same building! How great?!

Ok, I did not just take a blardy 2 hr trip there to max out rail pass and to visit Takashimaya, but rather, Nagoya also has a famed castle. I was actually deciding last night if I should visit Nagoya or Nagano, site of 1998 Winter Olympic and where the Olympic torch will be having its relay this coming Sat. But since Nagano only is famous for a temple, and I just went to Toshugu in Nikko yesterday and Kyoto's many temples at the trip's beginning, I decided that castle it shall be (since I had only seen 2 castle so far, at Osaka and Himeji).

(the 2 tall towers is where the JR train station and Taka is at!)

I took the 11.33 train and got there at 1.30, then took the 5.22 train back. There, I visited, whatelse, Nagoya castle, and also shopped at Taka. This castle is one of the few in Japan that is in its original structure (like Himeji, but unlike Himeji, and same as Osaka, the interior has been re-done), and the unique part of this castle is the way it is built; the stones forming foundation are laid in fanshaped sloping with curvature.

Also, the gardens surrounding the castle has many peonies and flowers, and a sign that spring is indeed here in Japan, just look at the gorgeous blooms!

The castle is pretty but Taka is prettier! haha...I finally re-found the prawn crackers! I dunno if i had mention this but on my first Japanese trip in 2003, I chanced upon this brand of ultra posh prawn crackers where it's individually packed in nice copper foil (circular with diameter roughly 7cm) and it costs 100 yen each! I saw it at Osaka again on this trip after failing to see it in Kyoto, and i bought just 1 to confirm it is indeed the one i had years ago. The next day, i failed to locate the place in the complcated basement of Osaka station!

So imagine my excitement when i see it at Taka @ Nagoya! I was snapping up so many of these lovelies that before I knew it, the bill came to 6000yen! That's 84 bucks for just prawn crackers!! I also had lunch at this chicken speciality restaurent and I opted for the cheapest thing, the 800 yen Oyako Don (same price as Oyako don i had at Kinosaki but the old lady; so Japan do have high standards of living throughout the country)

Before I left Nagoya, I had some time after all the shopping and lunch and I decided to try desserts! I chanced on this place that sells Soft Ice Cream and since I had seen it all over Japan, and Rachel told me to give it a try cos all are good, I decided to try this Green Tea favoured one and boy it is delicious! So soft and creamy yet smooth! Yummy! Then I went for tea and decided to sit on the deck to enjoy the view of Nagoya.

Then, I came back to Tokyo and just as I was about to swith to the Yamonote line back to my hotel to pack, and rest, I remembered that Dawn told me that the basement at Tokyo Station is a great place, and so, I ventured down and gosh! It is food paradise there man! I bought dinner (Oyako Dona again, but this time, I opted for the 1,200 premium chicken meat one...haha)

and also 2 bottles of plum wine and the weight of crackers, cheesecakes, magdalines and wine became so freaking heavy that I really needed to come back to the hotel! Look at the marks the stuff left on my arms!

Also, I want to share with you this beer (out of the many I tried here) that I think is not bad. I think I'm lucky cos the main breweries of Asahi, Sapporo and Kirin have all come out with new 0 sugar level low calorie beer recently and I tried Sapporo's Viva (very light and refreshing), Kirin's Green (not bad) and this from Asahi whish along with Viva, is my favourite!

another bag to my collection

2008-04-22T20:38:00.002+08:00

yeah, i did the un thinkable again: i bought yet another bag! Ok, now all of you can so scold me now...haha...just how many do i need huh? But every bag is unique and each serves diff purpose ok!

Anyway, I got one for my work! Well, if I even get a job anyway...

Ok, I bought a Paul Smith bag cos ever since i am in Japan, I keep seeing all these really cute Japanese guys in their impeccable suits and all carry nice bags! So i was walking pass Paul Smith at Omiya (I passed Omiya when I went to Utsonomiya earlier and realised that there are Sogo and Takashimaya, so i decided to drop by this town before coming back to Tokyo cos the sales stuff here from prior day's experience at Isetan Shinjuku sucks!)

So, I was walking pass and I saw it! The design that fits me so perfectly! Haha...all the excuses I can think of huh? But look at it! It is soooooooo nice! And! There's a sling you can attached to it too! And! The best part is, it's entirely made in Japan!

And! It costs on 26,700 yen! Meaning it is less than 400SGD! For a Paul Smith!

Now go ogle at the photos!

Day Trip (Another One?!) to Nikko

2008-04-22T20:15:00.012+08:00

I was so disgusted with Tokyo that I suggested to Rachel, whom I met up for dinner last night, and she brought me to a really local and nice japanese dining bar, that I want to go to Nikko. She said that's a good choice cos the fare there is ex if you do not have Rail Pass and since going to Nikko involves a train change in Utsonomiya, I can check out the famous gyozas from the area too!

So, I woke up like late today and only reached Nikko at 2pm. And since Japan Guide.com only really reccomended one place to visit, which is the Toshogu Shrine, i only visited this one single place even though the lady at the tourist centre told me you need at least 2.5 hours to cover Toshugu and 2 to 3 other sites.

Turns out Toshugu is gorgeous! The shrine, just when i get sick and tired of temple/shrines/pagodas/tori gates, is so different from the others I had seen. It is so lavishly decorated with wooden carvings and gold color coating!

I'll let the photos speak for itself above, and Nikko is also a really nice place, and it is actually up in the hills and I managed to get a really nice view with the snow capped mountains in the background oputside the train station there!

One of the famed wooden carving that I can grab a photo is the Three Monkeys: Ain't they cute?!

Then, there's this Sleeping Cat that is said to bring good luck! So cute!

Then on my way back, I had 30 minutes before my Shinkansen connection at Utsonomiya and decided to check out the Gyoza Alley (I dun even have to step out to the town to try Gyozas!) And I picked the most expensive item on the menu, so smart right? Cos I thought that one got seafood mah! Turns out when I re-look at the menu, I found the chinese characters seemed to tell me that what I pointed at is Whale. Oh my god! As if my first sashimi experience last night with Rachel was not bad enough! But i reckoned that since it is cooked it'll be ok...When the gyozas came, i kindda realised that the meat looks white and suspect that it is not whale meat per se. My intuition that the guy tried to cheat me was more founded when I paid at the cashier and the girl looked at the handwritings and stopped to think for a minute. As if what was written is a code or something to charge me 510 for whale instead of 290 for normal ones. Anyway, i paid and left and when the guy bowed to me on my way out, I snub him. Who say Japanese are always honest?

I decided to stopped by Omiya and went to buy Shiseido's Tsubaki Shampoo range cos i bought a bottle earlier and realised that it rocks! haha...then, i bought cheap strawberries from this Japanese Carrefour and then blew on Paul Smith, but that's another story...haha, but a preview of what I bought tonight anyway:

Oh! And i just wanna share with you what I had for lunch on the Shinkansen today and the view of Tokyo tower from my hotel!

Omotesando and its Hills

2008-04-21T22:35:00.005+08:00

When I was in Tokyo back in 2003's Nov., the 'in' thing then was the newly opened Roppongi /Hills and I vividly remember making my way there to snap photos of the spankling new complex. Fast Forward 5 years on, and not only is Shiodome Area new, Tokyo also has new chic area in the pressence of Omotesando and the complex there call, what else, but Omotesando Hills. I was there today to look for Kiyo's Dior Homme Wallet and oh my god. there are so many shops there that will make any milionaire go broke within minutes! See the problem with cities? When you are broke and budget, everywhere is no fun!

The Omotesando Hills Complex with stairs built inside to fir the slopes the complex sits on!

The hills are alive with many rich people with spare cash to spend.

The Dior Building there- ain't it cool! And I managed to snap photos of Dior Homme at the basement.

Oh, and speaking of hills, my Shinkansen passed by Mount Fuji today and i managed to snap this photo with my cell! I have never seen Fuji so upclose!

Tokyo Hotel: Park Hotel, A Design hotel

2008-04-21T22:25:00.004+08:00

I finally stayed at a boutique design hotel in my life! haha, I am stying in Tokyo's PArk Hotel and the place is cool! The fridge is stacked with Dean & Deluca stuff and even the tea (camomile no less) is also from the NY grocer. The other cool thing other that the tea is the Drop Coffee! Look at how cool!

Then I have to talk about my room! The Queen bed is a huge relief from the (already spacious) double beds i had, but the extra pillows are a great comfort!

And the toiletries! Oh.My.God. From Thann no less. Thann is a BKK based posh skin care spa chain (Think Thai Body Shop cum Clarins Spa) and I have been avid user of their soaps since my trip there 3 years ago.

And the view from my room overlooks Tokyo Bay and I can catch part of the Tokyo Bay Bridge too!

And the area the hotel is in is actually the Shiodome area, a cluster of towering skyscrapers like the following!

Now, this is what I call the High Life!

The lone cyclist

2008-04-20T17:15:00.004+08:00

Throughout the cities in Japan, be it small or big, I have seen countless people riding the bicycles as their mode of transport, and even though the sheltered shopping streets are freaking crowded, people are still cycling! Well, turns out my hotel provides free cycles for guests and today, since I wanna save on my tram rides fess cos the Atomic Bomb Memorial Park's only 2 stops away and too far to walk plus the weather here is sunny, I decided to utilise the bikes this morning and I managed to cycle through the streets of Hiroshima after the museum visit too.

Well, the memorial park is so so, but since it is a Sunday today, there were many many local folks out on the lanes enjoying the clear skies. It was only at the museum that my heart wrench cos I am someone who hates wars and terror and the museum showed the devastating and tragic effects the atomic bomb brought to this city; it is amazing that Hiroshima today is so modern cos when the bomb fell, it was rumoured that nothing will grow in 75 years.

I mean, I think that the museum is kindda one sided cos they just emphasis on the evil effects brought about by the bomb but Japan is always shunning away from the fact that they too, had caused great pains to millions across the far east during the world war. Somehow greed is never ending and it will never stop cos we are all human and despite what you and say about your integrity and beliefs, deep inside allo of us have that slight tint of human greed and it is just if you managed to contain it or let it manifest through your actions, like wars in the cases of, well, those who started it.

The building below was the A Bomb building and since the bomd exploded almost directly above it, the structure was relatively unscathed and just a look and you can get to know how everything around it gets wiped out!

Like I said, the museum is for the purpose of educting people about the effects of using nuclear heads in attacks and Japan has not really gone into why they were attached. Personally, I am glad that the Japanese that time attacked Pearl Harbor cos if it;s not for their greed to gain control of the Pacific, Uncle Sam's army will just sit idle and not care about the war in this region and not develop the Nuclear Bomb that ended WW2.

Since I cannot get anyone to shoot me riding on the bicycle, this is the closest I can get to it:

I had one of my best days in Japan today, partly because of the bike! haha...the feeling of air against your head while you are riding through the streets on a sunny day and now sweating is so great and calming!

I returned the bike then took the tram to the main city center for lunch and I chanced back upon the chain that I had my first meal in Japan in Kyoto and opted to eat this set at only 790 yen!

Then I went to LV central haha, and decided to try out desserts at this place cos the displayed looked soooo freakingly tempting!

The mango light mousse tart is so good! The cream cheese mousse is so light and you do not feel jialat at all!

Then I walked through the sheltered shopping streets and bypassed Parco and bought Lauren's mascara from the pharmacy where I also bought Shiseido's new hair shampoo cos my Ascience is out. Then I went to Si-Tar-Bak-Sou and try the Coffee Jelly again! It is sooo good!

Tomorrow early, I'll catch the 7 am bullet train to Tokyo and start the final leg of my trip to Nippon Land. I am so glad that I made this trip cos I have seen so much and enjoyed myself tremendously. This trip also gave me time to reflect upoon life and sort things out.

70 bucks dinner

2008-04-19T19:40:00.003+08:00

i spent around that amount tonight on dinner...yeah, i know...that's hell alot! But! I had like...many many MANY food! haha...

First I had Hire katsu at this place where the pork cutlet was so divine! The Hire pork tastes like those self claimed Hire pork we have at home...here, they DO melt in your mounth! Then, I passed by KFC on my way back to the hotel and I decided to try out Japanese KFC (20 bucks!) and the egg tart...the egg tart is divine!

Lastly, I was deciding on desserts when I chanced opon this place call Mochi Cream...I have seen the brand all the way from Kyoto to Osaka to Kobe so i reckoned that this must be something worthy. The mochis are steeply priced, from 150+ yen for 1!!! I bought the chocolate truffle collection which is a box of 6 for 1050 yen and oh my god! they are going to be the next big thing back home i tell you! Forget the waffles! This is gonna be the money spinner! I googled up mochi cream and they even have it in Hawaii!

Hiroshima and Miyajima Island

2008-04-19T16:27:00.008+08:00

I left Kobe with its pathetic bed at the Holiday Inn Express bright and early and arrived at Hiroshima, the city of peace, at 11.28. First impression is that I was very amazed at the city because rather than subway, the city uses trams and I just love trams for reasons of nostalgia and also, I think that tram riding/hoping are so freaking fun!

Also note worthy is that Hiroshima has LV too! haha, I saw it on my way to the hotel. As I was too early, i decided to leave my bags at the hotel and visit Miyajima Island since it was before 1pm. anyway, my room here is bright(er) than Kobe's and the bathroom is smaller! Do you all see a trend here? haha...And the pillow here looks cool! Just as I tot this hotel rocks woth its free breakfast and afternoon tea and coffee service, this bug stuck itself onto the wall in front of me! Yucks! I slapped onto it with my shoe and it now lise behind the cabinet, i think, struggling for its life...I hope it is dead!

Ok, Miyajima, the shrine and tori gate at the island is (yet another) Unesco site and the tori gate is what it is famed for. As one of the top 3 most scenis places in Japan, it is suppose to look this the ticket when the tides are high:

As the ferry approaches the island, I was awed by how impressive and pretty the orange tori gate against the green mountains and blue waters is!

Of course, when you are top 3 u must say right?

But since the tide was only high at 0900 and 2100 hours, the waters did not soak the gate and hence this is what greeted me:

The good thing is that you can get really up close to the gate...and see local folks oyster picking. Luckily for me, since i hate oysters, i did not try any of these shells when i was there. The island also is filled with deers, like Nara...

The shrine is also suppose to be 'floating' on waters too

But another worthy site to visit on the island is the 5 story pagodas (you never knew there are so freaking many pagodas in Japan, yeah?) and it is really pretty cos the orange varnish really made this particular pagoda strikingly beautiful! Then there's this Thousand Mat Shrine that is also very pretty.

The shrine also seem to be built as if its hanging over the cliff but its not as dramatic as the one in Mt. Shosha. But still, the view here is better cos Shosha only has trees but here, you get to see the Shrine below...

And now my fav. photo of this trip! I managed to snap the pagoda from the cherry blossom tree and I love this photo to death! What do you think?

Day out of Kobe to Himeji

2008-04-18T21:43:00.007+08:00

Okay, before I tell you guys what happened today on my day trip to Himeji, I wanna tell you all that yes, I bought my 3rd box of strawberries (or is it 4th?) in my 8 nights in Japan. Haha...I really love the fruits huh? Remember guys, I only eat fresh straberries and hate all things related to the fruit like, milkshakes, ice cream and jam...haha...weird huh?

Now, I van tell you all what I did today. I went to Himeji, 30 minutes away from Kobe (then I realised that instead of forking out 200 yen to take the subway to JR Kobe station, then take the JR local train ride to Himeji, I could actually just walk to Shin-Kobe besides my hotel and take the Shinkansen instead! And the shinkansen only takes like 12 minutes!) and I visited the very famous Himeji castle. Famos because it is cond=sidered to be the most beautiful castle in Japan and it is also a Unesco World Heritage Site along with Horyuji Temple off Nara. Himeji city itself is also famed because many movies have been shot in both Himeji Castla and Mount Shosha. Movies like Ran by Aikira K (Whatever) and the very famous pre-insane Tom Cruise's Last Samurai were also shot in Mount Shosha. Actually, My trip really only involved Himeji Castle, it was only till last night that I was info-gathering on web that I realised that Shosha is famed cos' there's where Tom Cruise shot his movie.

First, lets talk bout Himeji Castle. The castle itself is majestic and really very impressive. It is also one of the few original castle left in Japan where everything is left intact, as in, no further re-construction were done to it.

The main straight street you see is the way leading to the castle grounds from JR Himeji Station. Around a 15 minute walk (1KM) and since it is straight, unlike Horyuji's winding route, it is sooo easy to get to the Castle.

Of course, when you are listed as a world treasure, you need to show it, yeah?

I got into Himeji at around 12 and was done with the castle by 1330. So I walked down the straight street again and tried to look for food since I missed hotel's breakfast served from 7-9 as I woke up past 9...I finally settled on a Chinese restaurent! haha, i see lots of Chinese food all over Japan and naturally, since Japanese curry here tasted way hotter than the ones we had in Singapore, I have to try the Mah-Poh Tofu ans see if it's as apicy as the ones we have back home. And the restaurant is having this ultra value worthy set lunch at 880 yen that has 4 (!!!) dishes and a soup AND dessert!

The serving was actually really wortth the bucks! The tofu was great!!! Not spicy and so my taste bud level! The sweet and sour pork was great too! The sweet and sour taste is not as viniger-ish as ours and the pork is so tender! And they are real meat okay! Not like those C Jade ones where's its flour. Then the fried chiocken is also really crispy despite being cold! Not soggy at all!

So, after I finished lunch, it was already 2+ and I was thinking if I should go back to Kobe and rot or venture to Mt. Shosha. I decided that since I am already in Himeji, I might as well just go to Shosha since it's those been there and I'll never do it ever again thing. Plus, I really want to see Tom Cruise's footprints...haha...So I took a bus (30 min) and then transfer to a cable car (here, they call it Ropeway...yah...haha) and just for transport, i blew 900 for return ropeway and 520 return on bus! Then, I paid another 300 to get into the grounds of the temples. And I did my fair share of exercises today! To get to the temples that are scattered all over Mount Shosha, and I emphasis the word: Mount, you have to climb and trek through steep slopes and stairs! But the place was worth every tiring muscle of it cos I loved how off the beaten track Shosha is as very few tour groups comes here (think it must have to do with the slops climbing) so the place is really peaceful and serene. And the temple grounds is so medicating to heal the tired mind from city's bustle. Also, ok, not many of you know this, but I am a Guan Yin lover because I always feel peaceful and calm whenever I see a statue of the Bodhisattva, so imagine how peaceful I felt when the slopes are lined with many bronzed statues of it in various stages (Thousand hands, normal standing etc...)

Then I finally reached the Main Gate, only to realise that there are to be MORE slopes and treks ahead before seeing the place where Tom was filmed!

Ok, This is not where he filmed but this temple is buil hanging (like Kyoto hor)

This is where Tom shot his scenes! There are 3 temples (and it is called The 3 Temples). I chanced upon a tour group from Holland and the reason they were there is cos all of them have seen the movie and is there just to see the temples!

This is another temple 5 min away (=more trekking)

Then of course, when you climbed up, you must trek down later...

2008-04-17T17:38:00.004+08:00

I checked out of tiny Granvia into tinier Holiday Inn Express in Kobe today. And in case you are wondering if i really tried out my cheapo Kobe beef with boiling water experiment, I did not. The reason is simple: Uncooked Kobe beek is steep too. I checked out the food hall and apparently, the cheapest Kobe beef I managed to find costs 1300 yen for 100 g! That's like 18 bucks for 100 gram! How to afford like that?! haha...

And I am really broke cos I spent alot of money today again! haha, I bought etthusaias, the brand famous for acne care and it's so cheap(er) here! The pimple cream is only 2000 yen, ard 28, and in singapore, the last time i bought, it was 38!

Ok, and I also bought Sake! 3 different kinds to be exact! haha...Normal Sake, Cherry Sake and Red Rice sake! Why did I buy Sake? Well, Kobe's Nada area is famous for producing some of Japan's finest Sake and there are so freakinbg many Sake breweries there!

As I was running late as I've only reached Kobe at 2 cos I was lazing in Osaka, I only had time to visit 2. The first one I went had a museum showing the history of Sake production and I managed to try a free shot! Haha, the sake was 20% alcohol!

Then, I decided to visit this one I had a deep impression of from Japan guide.com called Sakura (I marked it "Looks Good" on my notes haha)

The Sakuraen is smaller that the first one and it does not really has a museum, but it does has a cafe which was already closed when I got there. So I went into the gift shop thinking I can get more free samples of Sakes cos I was deeply attracted by the 3 displayed in the fridge!

Turns out it's not free to try them! Haha, But! the great news is that it costs only a cheap cheap CHEAP 300 yen to try 3 of them! haha...

The first one I had was the vintage brew Sake which was potent!

Then I had this lighter one but still, it is strong!

And lastly, I tried what really attracted me, the red colored one (cos Rose is red and it taste great) and sadly, it is not sweet like Rose! haha, But it is light and very easy on the throat and I was so charmed by it I decided to buy a small bottle home!

I reallt love sake! haha, they do not burn your throat like the other alcohol cos it is so god-damn smooth and refreshing! The best thing is that you can have it cold, or warm!

you guys are in luck!

2008-04-16T17:41:00.011+08:00

so my cell finally has reception after like, a 5 day lag, and i brought it out with me today. that means, you guys finally get to see photos outside my hotel rooms! yeah! haha
lets starts by showing you how i spent today, aka my last day in osaka. I went to the Osaka castle and after that, went back to Shisaibashi area to snap the photo of the famous Dotonbori bridge's Galico Man signage.

Osaka is also famos for reviving the Kabuki culture in Japan, Kabuki is essentially, erm, i think, Japanese styled drama filled heacy make up broadway shows...go wiki it...

Then i passed by this Takopachi stall and noticed a queue. I decided that even though 2 hrs ago, I had just eaten lunch at a Shabu Shabu restaurent at Daimaru at Shinsaibashi (not the one in my hotel, Umeda), and after lunch, i had just had a choco almond crepe from a kiosk, I cannot afford to miss this Osaka famed dish of takopachi. The takopachi is the best i ever had! The balls are not overoly oily like those in our Taka B2 and man, they are generous! 8 balls for only 300 yen! the inside of the Takopachi are moist and soft and still slightly gooey! Yummy!!!!

Okay, rewind to my Shabu Shabu now.

Do you know that unlike our steamboat where the broth is real broth, the broth in my restaurent is plain water?! haha...i am sure not all are like this cos Chubby Hubby's one has milky colored broth. But the good thing is that at the lunch set price of 1490 yen., i can get to eat all the veggies i can from the stall. You get 2 kinds of sauce to dip your food, one's sesame, the other's ponzu. I love ponzu for the tangy-ness of it!

Needless to say, I had many mushrooms...haha...oh and the yazu ice cream served as dessert is oh-so-divine!

After dinner and pre-Takopachi, I tried to look for Kiyo's Dior Homme store along Shinsaibashi but cannot locate it. Either that or I was too distracted by what i see...haha, i was strolling along Mijori street (and the local map actually highlight this area and label: Street with Brand Name Shops) and I chanced upon LV! haah... and! they are celebrating their 30 years in Osaka! haha, can you ever imagine LV doing something like this back home?

Needless to say, I went in for a detour and right besides LV is Cartier, and Chanel and Fendi and Dior (lady's) lines up the other 'Brand Name Stores'! haha...

Oh, and along Mijori is Osaka's Apple Store. Now you know how important this city is...haha, Apple Store=Social Importance of City...hahaha

Ok, now rewind again! I was at Osaka castle before that and apprently Osaka had the castle because some guy won many battles and became the emporer;s pet so he built a castle in his territory, being Osaka. Surprisngly, Osaka was never a capital of Japan, Kyoto was, and yet, due to Osaka's port, the area eventually became more propserous than inland Kyoto...

You have to climb up 7 stories to the top and from there one can see the view of the city!

Oh! and I finally shoot some cherry blossoms for you all!! haha...so pretty aren;t they?!

Lastly, I want to share woith you the hectic transport system in Japan. Just in Osaka, it's aready very bad so can you picture Tokyo? Las i counted, there are 8 different subway lines in metropolitan osaka! Japan Railways' Pass only covers JR network and JR do not run the cities' subway system. And! JR is but one of 3 railway operators in Osaka. Just in my station at Umeda, there's the JR station call JR Osaka, Hanshu railway station call Hanshu Umeda, Midojori subway line station, and the subay has 2 other lines running through it! Phew!

if it is to be foreseen...

2008-04-15T20:29:00.002+08:00

you know how things we get at Taka B1 or Bugis always started from a craze in Japan? Well, if it is to be believed, and I think this will be a great hit in Singapore when started, mini belgian waffles shall be the next BIG thing landing in our sunny shores... I was passing by this kiosk at the basement of Osaka station many a times already and I always noticed a queue, though not snaking, and it kindda deters me off from getting any.

However, after dinner tonight (by the way, the dinner was great cos I had udon in claypot in a restaurant in Daimaru) and as I was walking back to my hotel after a walk around the Umeda area, I saw only 2 person buying it and I knew its a sign from the Almighty one telling me to try it! haha, I wanted to buy 3 (they had only 4 favours left, being plain, maple, chocolate and strawberry) cos i hate strawberry flavored stuff other than the fruit itself. Saw a box displaying 5 with price tag of 630 yen (140 each is original price) and decided to get 5, but someone, they still charged me 140*5! I really am staring to hate this display sign not living to my expectations thingy in Japan...haha...

I just had the maple and chocolate one and they are absolutely divine! I will so get it if they come to singapore (140 yen=2.10 each) cos i think for a snack, charging 2.50 should be ok right? I mean, its Japanese Belgian waffles freshly made on the premise you know...How East/West can you get? haha....

Ok, anyway, I am really famished today cos I made a day trip to this onsen town 3 hrs away from Osaka call Kinosaki. Saw many sakuras again...haha...and! I managed to experience my first Onsen experience! Haha, I arrived at 11am and immediately headed to the big onsen besides the train station and man it was HOT! I mean the water, not the guys inside...haha...FYI, I was the only nubile one there at that time, the other was an old man...haha. And yes, its all commando inside man...haha...But the highlight was this open air onsen on the roof top! How cool! haha... Then I had lunch at this place ran by an old minimun 70 years old granny and I was so touched by her hardworking attitude! I had the BEST don in my entire life and it felt so home-ish and I nearly cried! haha...really! such an old lady cooking..oh my! haha...

Then after lunch, I went to another Onsen and this time, it's smaller than the first one and since its after lunch, there were more young males inside haha...I finally realised that looks do matter more than a good figure...haha...There's this toned guy with bad looksa and a good looking guy with not so lean figures and that was when i realised looks really matters more hahah....

Ok, the open air onsen of this place is even better! The pond is directly underneath cascading rocks where hot spring water flows from the mountains and it really is more natural! I can so imagine doing onsen in snowing Hokkaido! haha...so super duper shiok! Well, gonna hit the hay cos i woke up at 7 today for the blardy long trip...haha tata!

welcome to osaka, japan

2008-04-13T21:41:00.014+08:00

Those were the words that greeted the teams in Amazing Race when they came to this city last season. Ok, so I am not exactly on a race to win a million bucks, but still...Japan's 3rd largest city after Tokyo and Yokohama feels...like Tokyo and Yokohama...haha. Bustling with activities and people here walk so freakingly fast that even I seem slow. And all these from quint (and already bustling) Kyoto was a (non) refreshing change.

I spent alot today. Ok, what's new anyway. Well, I checked out of my luxurous Okura Kyoto into (what I think is equally posh) Granvia Osaka today , and since the trip from Kyoto to Osaka took only 28 minutes by the normal train, I was too early to check in at 11+am. So, what is a bored boy like me to do? Ok, first the location of Granvia Osaka rocks. It is directly connected to the train station I arrived and this makes getting to the hotel a breeze. Also, posh Daimaru is located in same building and all i have to do is get in the lift, get out at reception, walk 5 meters and ta-dah! I'm in the land with no budget. haha...ohhh, Tiffany has a store in Daimaru too...

Ok, so, to kill my time, i decided to go shopping, and since I am too poor to afford first class luxury, i went to Rinku town's outlet mall which is 1 hour away (next to Osaka's Kansai Airport) from downtown Osaka. Man! I was in heaven and you guys are lucky cos I was lugging my messenger with my mobile inside so i managed to snap some shots.

Ok, the mall was realy cool, guys! There was Coach, Armani, Loewe blah blah blah, but I did not get any of those cos dah-ling, me ain't gonna fork extra bucks to get 40% off retail Japanese Coach bags that still costs more than me buying from the US website. No wonder luxury items makes tons of mooh-lah from Japan! Instead, I went straight to my purpose of going there: Edwin and Levi. Japanese made Edwin and Levi to be exact! I was in jeans heaven! I managed to grab a pair of Edwin and Levi's Engineered Skinny!

The Edwin was only 5,000 yen, off the 9,000 retail price and Levi was even better! Only 6,500 off retail of 12,400 Yen!!! And! I even got them to trim the extra length at only 300 yen each!Heck, even my neighbourhood charges more to (like what the Jap pronounce) cut-toh the jeans!

Look at my pretty Edwin!

And I love the Levi to death! It is totally unlike those we get back home (those are so mass!) and the material is soft and gorgeous!

I also bought the exclusive to Japan Paul Smith label, R. Newbold! I got a Tee and a black blazer for only 20,000 yen! Wanted to get a suit but i cannot fit into the matching trousers! haha...so too bad! Got a similar looking black blazer instead. The tees is really cheap! Only 3,000 yen, retailed at 7,000.

After all my sharing of the shopping loot i managed to gather, something more intereting...haha...I checked into my room and realised that besides the TV remote was a pamphlet...haha and guess what? Well, the land of Asian porn has a catalogue telling you what's showing on their pay TV channel...haha I managed to snap....the catalogue lah! Too broke to pay for view haha besides, i do have internet access, you know...haha...

I really wanted to close up this section cos I was very intrigued by the nurse haha, ok, and the gal with extremely big boobs and flexibility besides it...haha

Ok, the Granvia has bad rooms! haha...this is more noticable since I was at the ultra comfy and posh Okura,,,the toiletries here are those big bottle to be re-filled kind! No bath salts and! The bath tub is like...erm...3/4 the length of the Okura one...The toilet is also 3/4 the sixe AND height of Okura's! And so is the bed, and room and TV and...I can so go on...

OK, the view is not bad, but considering opposite me, I can see Hilton, it just makes me feel more shitty to be in this room...hahaha...

And! to make things worse, I just got an email telling me that since I did not turn up for the Kyoto hostel, I had to pay 100% cancellation fees! WTF?! Man, another 70USD gone like that!

And while I was trying to look for this ramen stall rec by Chubby Hubby near to my hotel, I went into what I tot was the one (all japanese words look the same, seriously) and then i realised it's actually not the place! Paid 1500 yen for this hot pot thingy (ok lah, actually, pay for experience lor, what to say since I already had it...) But one interesting thing is this really chewy thing in the pot, I suspect its some intestine of the chicken, I don't know what it is but it's really chewy and good!

Then I came back and went down th Daimaru food hall cos the pot of neggies did not fill me up and bought some Yakitori and bento that is on disc. I tot the yakitoris are on sale too cos I saw 20 yen signs so i choose like 5 sticks, but then i was wrong again! haiz...it pays (literally) to not understand Japanese, man. The bento was cheap though, only 300+ yen. Paid 1 k for all so actually my dinner tonight's very expensive leh! 2.5k yen u know, that's like 35 bucks! Ok, but the Yakitor's grilled chicken skin is REALLY good! Tastes NOTHING like our local flabby, soft soft ones! the ones here are oh-my-go so chewy and tender! I think I would rather pay for the skin than the chicken!

one shy geisha, 2 evading geishas and many cherry blossoms

2008-04-12T18:03:00.005+08:00

i have just came back from my last day outing in kyoto and i have eaten so much in these 2 days and esp. today that i am sooo freaking bloated and money starting to dwindle...haha...
ok, so, i went to the imperial palace today and it was crowded! partly cos today, the palace is opened to general public (if u wanna go on ordinary days u need to apply for permit on the imperial household websit...wah!) and frankly speaking, it is truly very japanese, as in, the decor and all..its ultra zen. still prefer europe's palaces...then i went for lunch upstair isetan at kyoto central and i chose this charcoal grilled place where they had a set lunch at 1600 yen. Bad bad BAD choice. the food was ok...posh and all, but the set comes with one main of 4 chicken chunks, rice and 2 sides, which i don';t eat! thers a marinated ginger look alike thing and another bowl which i tot was chawan mushi in the photo but tiurns out to be some gooey stick stuff...shudders. ok, there was ice cream still... but then...

then i went for coffee at starbucks and took a train to inari shrine. the shrine is famos for its toji gates and man, it's so worth the trip! the temple apparently pays its worship to the fox...haha...i know, like vixen right? haha but apparently fox is good here in japan. then i went to toji temple cos the pagoda is apprently "to-die-for" when i read up on internet forums. i was tricked by american's comments again. the pagoda is like...wooden and dark. ok at least it was not like the silver pavillion which was covered up. Oh yes, this morning, i also went to the Gold Pavillion, mush much MUCH more glam than its silver counterpart and its gorgeous! no wonder its on UNESCO list...

ok, then i went to daimaru and gosh its so freaking posh...more posh than Taka u noe! and i bo
ught some meat from the food hall which i tot will be my dinner till i got lost and ventured into the famous food lane call Nishiki where i stumbled upon an udon shop and i decided that I MUST try it since its ultra local...haha...had yaki soba and it is the BEST yakisoba i ever had. Too bad my camera went flat liao, if not i'll take some photos... ok... and so now i am back in my room at 7 pm cos i need to pack and plan my route in Osaka tomorrow...

Last words from Kyoto? Well, its an amazing city and i really really love it despit not seeing much geishas and old lanes. But if you like temples and shrines and and all things au-natural, this is it. Great food, great shopping, great people. It's like Tokyo without the hecticness...well, it was the capital till 1865 so i guess it must be good...

Oh, i finally took some photos with my camera of the room after i got back just now... I love the soaps they give...they even have satchets of bath salts! how cool?!

The famous Japanese toilet bowl!

I had tried the starbucks latte that day and bought the mocha for my train ride tomorrow...how cool? love how americans capitalise on the Japanese market penchant for all things americano. The chocolate ice cream is lovely!

My meat from Isetan

And.... me room! ultra small cos its single...haha...but the bed is oh-my-god...

Kyoto Day 1

2008-04-11T20:20:00.005+08:00

Ok, so i checked in really late last night (7+pm) and I was freaking shagged. And not knowing the area around my hotel did not help. Till today, I was still trying to figure out the transport system here in Kyoto, but ok, the good news first...There are still cherry blossoms!!! In fact, i just spent 1 hour walking along the old canal today on a route called the 'philosopher's path' and cherry blossoms are all lined up! They are so freaking ass-holic gorgeous!

Ok, and last night, I had wanted to bet some food from Takashimaya basement before it closes at 8pm cos some ass said the shopping mall is adjacent and next to my hotel. What an ass! Apparently, I realised today as I was walking and lost after my tired trip to Yakasa Shrine and Gion (the area famed for Geishas as seen in Memoirs of Geisha, but then, I cannot locate any streets that looks old and tiny...boo!) that Takashimay is (ok, it is walking) 25 minutes by foot. Gosh! So, i spent 10 min at the underground mall my hotel is connected to, and another 10 around the hotel, cos i tot that's where Taka is at (cos its supposed to be "next to and adjacent" right?) I realised that the rain is not worth me getting wet and hungry and tired just to get to Taka! Yah, it was raining yesterday too! It rained since I got onto the bullet train in Tokyo all the 3 hours till I got to Kyoto.

So, i ended up spending night in my room all hungry and cold and tired. Ok, my hotel room is gorgeous haha, but still! So, I was msn-ing on line and surfing web till i realised that the street next to me is famed for cheap eats! So i bid my friend tata and went to eat at around 9 and man! i got great food! haha...i had fried katsu with 2 edi and rice and salad and paid only 630 yen! thats like 9 bucks only! I took photo but too bad not on my handphone so u guys have to wait.

Speaking of photos, as my phone's not working here, so all i am posting are pics of stuff i got and had arrived back in my hotel hahhaa...so mostly shopping yah! haha...

Let's start! the view from my room of Kyoto...

I went to Fancl today to buy the facial washing powder and Alvina's calarie limit pills haha...and my pimple cream and some pills to help sleep...haha blew 12,000 yen there! that's like... 160 bucks!

Then, I went to Isetan and got strawberries! only 500 yen! 7 bucks only!!! so cheap and RED!

And! I also managed to go Takashimaya after dinner to get cakes! Saw this queue at this counter and realised it's called Gramercy, like the hotel in new york...and then, i realised, it IS a set up from the Gramercy of New York!haha...As with all Japanese stuff, the cakes are impeccably packed! So gorgeous, You feel good with the packaging even before you eat! haha... of course beauty comes at a price...1000 yen for these 2, that's 14 bucks...

I got a fruit cheese mousse (just ate and oh-my-god!) and a fruit short cake...yummy!

K, gotta finish the other cake and sleep cos I got many shrines to cover tomorrow. Oh, I went to the Silver Pavilion today and u know what?! After paying 500 yen for entrance, the pavilion was covered from head to toe cos it's being refurbished! Unlike Europe where the panels have photo of the structure being refurbished, here has nothing! Argh!

Pre Departure

2008-04-11T20:15:00.002+08:00

Well, I had originally wanted to send out a blog entry in the lounge here but blardy wireless seemed too diff to connect; so I am actually saving this entry into my c drive before posting it after I have reached japan. Anyway, flying biz class (not on SIA) is nothing too glamorous, the lounge Northwest uses here is the Thai Airways one and after eating 3 chicken sandwiches and a croissant, and a cup of coffee, and now, hearing China people spouting ching chong language, erm…ok, too early to even go there… Ok, so, I realized that I forgot to notify mindef of my overseas trip and after passing custom and I tried to sms them, it failed. So…BAD!!! I wonder what will happen to me after I am back from japan hahah…k, better save this message and grab another coffee and leave befor mr. ching chong (he’s talking bout him getting all sloshed last night…gross!) irritates the hell out of me! Catch me in japan! Tata!

kyoto here i come!

2008-04-09T16:02:00.006+08:00

i'll be leaving for the airport in 12 hours time and despite an earlier post stating that I had managed to get all my hotels, I made some last minute changes and since the cherry blossoms bloomed early and they are now all boomed...i managed to get a hotel room in Kyoto insead of the Hostel (which means my deposit of 10usd is forfeited) anyway, i was guilt ridden cos i blasted so mch on Daddy's card that I decided tha I am gonna fork out self mooh-lah for my Kyoto hotel and man its not cheap cos it's a 5 star one called the Okura Kyoto.

It's basically the Japanese Banyan Tree (since they are affilated) but i hope that my 800 buskc for 3 nights will be well spent considering that they had juat finshed refurbishing their hotel rooms, and this means that apparently, i get to choose between 2 types of room: a more contempory or a cheerful bright one:

My preference will be the darker one cos somehow the sofa looks better and more comfy for me to eat my cheapo bento box bought at discount from mart after 8pm...

Anyway, my hotel in osaka has also changed from ANA Inter-continental to Granvia. This hotel is located directly above the train station and opposit shopping centers, hence i decided to switch.

Also, since cherry blowwoms in Kyoto has already bloomed and most likely wilted, I dcided to go to Nagano of Tokyo on 22 Apr cos the blossoms will be peaking at that period. Since I made my way all the way there must as well fully utilise my J Pass and take a 1.5 hr trip to Nagano so tha can at least claim that I have sen the blossoms in my life yeah? haha

Very exciting!

new camera quality

2008-04-06T02:40:00.007+08:00

Remember that i had bought a new Fuji camera earlier? well, I've finally used it today to grab some photos while finalising slides in the school before we left for the Saint Regis hotel trip as part of my world tourism module, and frankly, i thnk the quality is not bad, though comehow i think canaon is better unless when it comes to night pix...

i wanted to grab some shots while we toured the newly opened Saint Regis hotel but too bad, i did not cos no one did it...haha..the rooms are gorgeous though i must admit, and the bath tubs all look so freaking deep and nice to soak!

Ok, anyway here's a photo taken at night with ISO set to 600 or 800 i think and i think it's pretty good!

Here's the photo taken under normal lighting indoors and i think its not bad too actually! So gonna look great and gorgeous and astoundingy ravishing in japan! hahaha

And Joanna jst had to see the geat view one last time! hahaha

School's OUT!

2008-04-05T21:24:00.007+08:00

I had officially ended my last day of my undergraduate studies yesterday (but then again, I'm heading back on Mon for final project presentation) and I chose to end it with friends despite not sleeping the whole night prior with a bad bout of insomia.

Well, like I said, I chose to end it by gong to Staryr Nite, an outdoor concert-ish with live band-ish event. Also t helps greatly that resident student ran cafe Frujch is selling beer which is oh-so-perfect with the throbbing heat!

Oh, and Daphne (Michaela's friend whom I was formally introduced yesterday to) pulled off a really funny stunt: she decided to be this crazy fan trying to get the band's attention by screaming like she's in a shash flick!...oh-too-funny!

so she is now connected

2008-03-26T23:47:00.005+08:00

well, mum finally got herself a new phone ever since that piece of crap i passed over to her from my US stint is now dead. Anyway, detour on our way to the ravel agency at Takashimaya to buy my Japan Rail Pass (14 days at $638, so freaking ex! and i had to pay with my own mooh-lah!), Mum went to Hello! Shop at basement and we decided to get the Motorola that is offered free of charge when we continue our mobile package. The phone's not very light, but she don't mind cos' it's a good clam phone that suits her perfectly. Anyway, I seemed to like the phone the more I look at it too and I'm now contemplating to persuade her to let me use it for a few weeks...haha..evil son i am, yes I know.

Oh, the wonderful thing about this deal other than the phone being F.O.C is that they have a free 1GB Micro SD Card and it comes with slot that fits into my newly acquired Fuji DigiCam! So now, I have 2GB of memories to fill up with for the impeding Japan trip of mine!!! Very Neat!

Oh, and yeah, i have not showed off my newly bought camera too, so here it is, my 12 mega pixels Fujifilm camera. I bought the black one.

so the end is indeed coming...

2008-03-25T00:02:00.002+08:00

there are many things in life that one always seemed to be able to grasp onto but still letting it slip away. Well, I was looking at all my previous blog entries (yes, that's what I actually do to kill time and admire my writing and humor...) and realised that never did i expect this blog to be able to survive so much bitchings and rant since 2006.

I remembered that when I re-blog in 2006 after a 1.5 years absence, I was just searching for a way to complain and update and let people know abut what I was doing as an intern, then, i decided to move onto this current blog and update people about my exchange in Vienna. In 2007, I was wondering if this blog should be continued cos seriously, i felt as if there was a void in my life ever since my exchange stint.

Luckily, with new found friends, my life stayed and remained more and more interesting and in a blink, it is now 2008. Soon I will be graduating and it seemed as if it was just yesterday that I was a freshman telling my friends about the bad stuff i blogged about this person i don't like in school.

It is good to have an avenue for me to jot down my thoughts and feelings and i guess blogging does serves a purpose in leaving down a serious of notes that racks one's journey through life. how many of us do not yearn for the ability to re-llok at past moments to reminisce about the good old days. because it's the memories that enriches one and made one anticipate the future. i have so many thoughts and question marks on what I will be doing in 3 months time, will i settle down with a job here? or will i be in hong kong in an apartment job searching and updating the blog from there? or will life's many unexpected changes and fate's man mystery bring me into another place where I never expected i would be? well, i am glad i tracked these thought down now because when look back in 3 months time, there;s bound to be a voice that tells me something.

lets talk bout flying in style

2008-03-12T02:55:00.004+08:00

ok, not like SIA first class that kind of way in style, but good enough though. I was trying to jolt my memory of Northwest World Business Class Seats cos I remember they looked really gorgeous from my view in cattle class when I flew with them years back. Well, the seats were really damn gorgeous from their promo adverts and since I cannot really afford SIA Raffles class now, I am jst glad that I can get to try outNorthwest's Biz on my trip to Japan

They have lie flat seats too, that sretches to 175 degrees, and from some reviews I've read, that 5 degree is sufficient t make you slide down from the seat when u lie...haha...but i really love the spiffy night lamp:

And the personal TV looks amazingly huge from the cattle class ones...and i must admit, Northwest have good solid economy class seats cpmparable to SIA with personal TV, and comfy seats on their A330 fleets.

Of couse, the other perk of Biz Class is to ability to enjoy the ounge: The Narita lounge is one of the gems and from the photos, I sure do not mind getting to the airport at 2 for my 7pm flight home to eat and relax.

whats at redhill?

2008-03-11T13:33:00.002+08:00

well, shuting thought a hip eatery had opened near Redhill when I told her that I'll be meeting her yesterday. Turns out I brought her to Ikea at Alexandra Road. She rolled her eyes...haha...well, but the trip to Ikea for tea with Shuting, K.S and Tina was really because KS and I wanted to try the Semla. the Swedish bun that apparentlt killed a King in Sweden eons ago afterhe ate 14 at one go. How can we not check out an actual food item that killed off a monarch?! haha.. Well ,the bun at 3.50 is slightly pricey and is essenially bun with whipped crean and a small dollop of alomond pastee under the cream under the triangular shape:

We also ordered other food: meatballs, chicken wings and I had salmon and choco mouse too...hahayummy! I love Ikea!

finalised trip

2008-03-10T11:27:00.009+08:00

so, after few days of planning ove a trip that was originally suppose to happen 2 weeks ago during my break week but put off due to extra classes, my jaan trip is gonna happen afterall.

This time round, what was originally scheduled to be twin city trip over 7nights got extended to a 14 night journey spanning Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Himeji, Miyajima Island, Hiroshima, Kobe and Tokyo.

I had bought my air tix on Northwest as they are havng promotional fares on their world business class and it cost only 1985 with taxes for a return! Hotel wise, I had book for al but since my trip co-incides with the cherry blossom blooming period in Japan, hotels in Kyoto are all snapped up, thus rendering me to stay in a hostel instead (4 bed male dorm, no less) So for the first 3 nights...hmmmm...

But since Kyoto has so many beautiful temples and palaces to see, I think I'll spend most of my time outsidethe hostel anway. Besides, its cherry blossom period! I can so just sit srd and infuse myself with all those cute japanese people ohh-ing and ahh-ing over the beauty of the flowers in the park!

After Kyoto, i'll pack my bags to osaka where I'll use the city as a starting base for a day trip to the ancient capital of Nara famed for its countless Buddhist temples. I'll also be touring around the city of Osaka lookng for great eats considering Osaka-ians are famous for loving their food. I am still not sure if I wanna do t, but I managed to find the beautiful hot spring town i saw on TV and is a 2.5 hrs journey from osaka and its called Kinosaki. Maybe if I have too mch spare time I'll go there and try an authentic hot spring...Oh, and this is my hotel in Osaka, the ANA Intercontinental. Got a room for 130 a night for a single room. I realised that Japan has many many single roms, maybe alot of people like to travel alone like me too?

After 4 nights in the big city of Osaka, I'll leave for Kobe, famous for its beef. haha..no, i am not there entirely for the beef. Kobe has cheap accomadation! haha, and it is also near the great Japanses castle at Himeji. So i am staying for 2 nights at Hoilday Inn Express at 80 bucks a night and visit the castle, tour a sake brewery and eat some good beef. haha...

So, after Kobe, I'm moving down further South to Hiroshima and you may ask what's to see in the city that was bombed by the A bomb in WW2? Well, the highlight of the trip is the offshore island called Miyajima and it has the best Japanese scenery ever. ahah... The red temple gate that is partly submerged in the sea at high tide? Thats' the kodak moment here. Imgine Frances' mont St. Michel but Zen inspired instead...Found a great hotel, Comfort chain, at 90 bucks a night.

Then, I'll take the bullet train back to Tokyo and end my journey with a 3 nights stay at the most expensive hotel for the trip. Hell, if i take Nrthwest promo economy fare at 745 with taxes, the hotel is even more ex! haha...but what to do considering this is Tokyo. I'll not be doing mch in Tokyo, just shopping and meeting Rachel (a friend of mine from JC who is now working there). The hotel is called Park Hotel and I got a great deal off zuji at 300 night.

I am eager for this hotel because, truly befitting to a great hotel : "Each room is decorated with Monique Le Houelleur's natural artwork and features color coordinated curtains and bedcovers. Bathroom amenities include the luxurious "THANN" Aromatic Wood Collection, exclusive to Park Hotel Tokyo. These naturally invigorating amenities help to relax the body and mind. The "Dé-Signe" nightwear and original pillows developed in cooperation with Lofty, Co. Ltd., guarantee a comfortable sleep at night. For those who have a hard time sleeping on a pillow other than the one they're used to, we offer professional consultation and advice to help our guests get a better sleep. Guests can request a massage in their rooms until 2:00am"

Perfect for me to recharge after the hectic journey across the various places...haha

pig out session at the Hyatt

2008-03-02T23:45:00.006+08:00

Remember in january when K.S treated me and Tina to hi tea at Min Jiang at Goodwood Park hotel? Well, today, i returned the treat and after a long search high and low for good hi-tea buffets in posh settings at a price i can afford, I finally settled for the Grand Hyatt's Scotts Lounge. And i am amazed at how Tai-Tai i looked in the photo above...

The selection of food is not very wide, with only a single meat item (roast lamb), mushroom soup, 4 kinds of sandwiches and shrimp cocktail. What was good was: the desserts with a chocolate fountain with gorgeous red sweet strawberries, and selection of at more than 5 kinds of cakes and a crepe station offering only crepe with bananas.

The ultimate highlight had to be the tea selection: 16 different kinds for you to choose from the tea station so you really can get to try all 16 if you are extremely thirsty. I love the strawberries and the lamb. The shrimp cocktail was also delicious. As for the tea, well, there were some miss (Tina's vanilla) and also, i loved the lamb bt tina kept insisting that she rather have duck cos she's probably pissed about my previous blog entry calling her 'atas' for ordering duck at Prego's. Try harder lady cos there ain't no class for duck at the grand hyatt. haha...

The shrimp cocktail: i had like 3 or 4, KS loved it too.

The roast lamb station at the end of the day...

Our table after we are filled and like what KS said "so full till we nearly regurgitated". The val capacio which i told Tina (but no comments were provided so i guess it sucked)

The 16 tyoes of teas with small sniffing bottles (KS realised that the sniffing bottles are same as those in our Sec. Sch. days in the science labs containing acids)

I had 3 tyoes i think, of teas: Cassie (a blend), healthy blend of greens, and ooling

The berries are sweet and some of them are huge!

The cakes station

The chocolate fountain station with 4 kinds of tems: biscotti, mushmellows, rock melons and strawberries

Overall, the cafe is nice and with the classy victorian setting, it's pretty good to chill out. The price is kindda reasonable (33 with taxes) and I am fine with the amount of food offered despite Tina thinking there being too little offering (i mean that girl stays in ultra heartland Yishun and i guess she just really love more bang for her buck). Like Fullerton's seafood buffet over the Line at Shangri La, I think quality of food matters more than quantity, and so happen, the food at this hi-tea buffet suits me more rather than giving me a huge selection and end up eating only a few items. Ok, and the price is really reasonable too cos is just darn hard to get 28+++ buffets now in 5 star hotels.

today's special

2008-02-29T19:44:00.004+08:00

it is the 29th of feb! leap year yeah, so i figure leaving a note to get the nice date on my blog will be nice! haha

ok, anway, i wanted to shocase the increasing trend in my university and people getting macbooks when shopping for a new laptop. evidence? Well, my goodgal pal Kai got a new Mac too! even she felt slightly embarrassed that she has crossed over to join the uber cool mac club...haha...but funny thing is, she don't seem t know what to click to maximse her internet explorer, sorry, i mean,safari...sceen. haha...

National Museum Outing

2008-02-26T01:36:00.004+08:00

Today, i went for a class outing as art of my Arts: East & West module to the roman sculpture exhibition at the national museum. The omph factor about this exhibition is that the pieces are all on loan from Paris' Louvre. Well, Louvre definately has a WAY better offering considering they owe it...haha...nonetheless, the outing was not that bad and we did manage to see some really good pieces and I love this in particular because I think she looks so surreal!

This shows off the male physic perfectly!

This is Aphrodite, later known to the Romans as Venus

this is the considered to be the perfect beauti face in greek times

This is the god of warrior, name. i forgot haha...but he had an affair with Aphrodite!

After the tour ended, we explored other parts of the museum and we went to the fashion room haha where i was elated to see lace! haha...really, its just stupid iceberg Alvina trying to make me look silly.

Then they were engrossed in the video clip.

Italian affair

2008-02-22T23:47:00.000+08:00

I met up with Huiling and Tina tonight for dinner and since it is a Friday, ur original plan for some hearty Italian fare at Menotti bombed cos the place was filled. So we decided to go a notch higher and dined at Prego at the Fairmont Hotel instead.

Huiling had the gigantic pizza which she can't finished at the end, Tina helped her cos her 38 bucks pan fried high class duck couldn't feed her enough (that's what happen when you are too high class and go for posh main instead of filing pasta like i or pizza lke huiling). I, being a squid ink pasta lover, tried the Prego version of the Squid ink pasta with lobster (though at 38, it was toooo pricey and tastes only bleah) Should have been high class lke Tina and tried the lamb instead...

Pampering self

2008-02-21T00:16:00.001+08:00

Many years ago in Dec. 2003, I had the best strawberries in my life while touring Tokyo Japan. But at price of 28 bucks for 15 tiny ones, those memories will only remain a, well, memory (Isetan supermarket is selling at like 38 to 58 for a punnet!)

Well, I spent 16 for some Korean ones last week (from Carrefour) but those, while sweet, is nothing reminiscent of the Japanese ones! Well, Mum and I went for dinner at Lei Gardens again tonight and we decided to cross the street to Jason's Mart after dinner to do some grocery shopping and I chanced upon these 20 bucks for a punnet at 500grams USA strawberries. I was hesitant to get it cos of the price and frankly, I don't really have faith in USA strawberries to actually taste sweet like honey but Mum told me to try it (ain't you all jealous for me having such a great mum?!)

Well, I got it and man...it was.....only ok. haha...nothing too great, the red part tastes sweet but not very sweet. the Korean ones are better any day. But these US ones are freaking gigantic! 500 grams for 15 of them so one weighs like 70 grams?! 5 of them and i actually felt full!

Also, I got the triple choco mousse from Da Paolo gastronomia next door again and this time round, i can finally show you the beautiful triple layering of the greatest dessert I found in Singapore!

Konichiwa!

2008-02-16T01:05:00.001+08:00

Well, another new food outlet had opened in town and this time round, its at the newly re-furbished and now thrice as huge as previously basement of Raffles City near school. Kiyo and I decided to go try out the new Japanese 'Marche' before the evening crowd kicks in at 7+pm on a Friday

We are impressed by the concept (taking Marche and giving it a Japanese twist?! How cool?!) the pricing (i spent 48 and kiyo 28, and we ordered like 13 items in all), the Tofu Cheesecake, Beef Hot Pot, and the potatoe salad. Not impressed is the terrible Hamburger steak, and not too crisp and good Tonkatsu Curry and Tempura and canned reb bean and too fluffy it breaks when you touch Crepe.

The Good:

Kiyo was raving bout his potatoe salad and think that the price is great (how much, i dunno...haha)

I love this beef sukiyaki hot pot to death! The gravy is oh so great and generous beef servings!

The mushroom was only ok, but think it's kindda cheap (less than 10) for a good serving for 1

My highlight! The tifu cheesecake definatlely taste better than Sun Moon Cafe's at only a fraction of the price!

The bad:

Too oily, blend and nothing fantastic.

The crepe! it sux!

italy found in singapore

2008-02-14T17:58:00.003+08:00

first, before moving into my topic proper...i have to clarify that the eye bag removal is a hoax...yes, i tried that as a form of social experiment to see how many ppl are reading my blogs...haha...but lasik was real though...haha...
i just went for my review 2 weeks after lasik and just as i had exoected, my left eye is not perfect...the test reveal i still have 75 degrees off the perfect vison but not the right though...nonetheless, i'll have to wait for 2 more months to see how the full recovery will go...

anyway, i have not blog about foos in like ages...well...i picked up some dinner from Da Paolo (a swanky Italian gastronomy chain here) cos theuy opened a new outlet at Paragon Basement after I had my check up. My previous trip there yielded wonderful results from the chocolate fidge cupcake, cornflake cookie and sheperd's pie and i decided try their take away this time. I ordered a $11 roast beef sandwich and a triple choco mousse (they had like 20 types of takeaway desserts!) for 7 bucks. The sandwich is enormous! And it taste great! the country bread is soaked with rosemary and oilve oil and the tomatoes are actually sweet! the thin strips of roast beef could have been more generous though but still, everything is purr-fect! I had not had this kind of sandwich sine my european stint! as for the mousse, well, i am saving it for class later! but that sure looks good too! phtots for you to judge:

RATZ!

2008-02-10T01:53:00.001+08:00

happy lunar new year to all! and...welcome to the year of the rat! haha...well, this new year was tiring! in fact, mum is now ill cos yesterday, all my relatives came over and mum had to cook for like 30+ people...but i must agree, the pig trotters she made...oh my god! it was so havenly, i swear if i charge the price that Crystal Jade Jannan at Taka is charging, it'll still be under priced for that great taste! imagine pig trotters so beautifully braised that all the oily fatty feeling are one! and one bite into the meat it is all tender and juicy gorgeousl infused with the favors from the cinnemon and that special ingredient, martell x.o. liquor! haha...there, the secret to beautiful braised trotters: martell x.o. liquor...really!

ok, so new ear is another period of mad crazy tiring prep work to entertain my lovely...yeah right, relatives, but i hadsome great thing outta it! on friday, also known as the 1st day of the new year, dad, mum and i went for great buffet at ritz carlton...and man, was that great!

oh, and since it is the new ear, i fugure i should let another bag outta the bag...remember i went for Lasik last wed morning? well, i had a secret, apparently everyone didn't really notie why i stopped wearing contects sice the difference is not really in-ya-face, but most commented my eyes looked different, and here's the secret.....drum rolls pur-lease.....i had an eye job to draw out fats from lower eye, i.e. the eye bags...yes..i did...haha..there u go, my lil' dirty secret.

lasik change my view

2008-01-31T23:37:00.000+08:00

haha, how apt! i finally decided to go for lasik after postponing it from last december. I went down for a check up on monday, and had the surgery on wed morning. Boy, was I nervous? well, i wasn't until i slept on the operating bed cos the operation was at 8.30 and since i slept only for 4 hours the night before, i was actually kindda tired. Only did i lay down and see the red laser beam did i get nervous...the whole thing was done in under 10 minutes and I was out of the clinic by 10. That fast!

In fact, prior to my operating, I was so bored and decided to snap some photos of me in my very first operation outfit:

As to rumours you heard that u get to smell a burning 'aroma', well, it is true, I can smell a burnt smell while the laser was beaming onto my cornea and since u have to open ur eyes throughout, u do get to see the entire procedure being carried out.

Was it painful? Nope, was it worth my 2400 bucks? Every penny.

insomia

2008-01-14T03:09:00.000+08:00

i have been having bad insomnia since dunno god knows when ages ago and these days, it just keeps getting worse because not only can i not get to sleep, i often feel hungry and has been snacking at ham and cheese sandwiches and milk and refrigerated nuggets at 1 or 2 am (in fact, see photo of what i just downed at 1 am)! that is so utterly sinful, not to mention that it's nearly 4 weeks I've stopped my jogging...man, i can so feel my already huge belly ever expanding: how to fit into those tees i got from hong kong?!

anyway, school had started for 1 week and i am actually still in the midst of trying to plan a finalized timetable on the courses I am taking. I had already dropped wealth management for a special communications topic in media relations (though i missed out on the first lesson cos it had the same timing as wealth management) and is now considering dropping change communication AND investment banking to gather all my e-dollars to bid for world tourism on saturday (?!). well i am doing tha, then i'll only be doing the following classes: Arts East West, Negotiation, Media Relations and World Tourism. With the two classes I am doing TA for, I'll still need to go to school on mon, tues (though only 6 more weeks to go for the negotiation class), thurs, fri and sat.

Still so undecided... I dunno if I should take media relations or change communications, and also, i really think that investment banking, though great to learn, but it'll just pull my grades down further. Also, I can so see myself ding world torism cos I have such a great interest in it.

Oh, and also, a good friend I knew since JC pop the dreaded Q to me today: that he needs to borrow some cash cos he is in financial problem cos he took some uncalculated risk by making soccer bets! Man! I was shocked when he asked for 6k, where did he think I'd have so much moohlah to lend? And besides, I always find cash to be the most important thing im my life, hell, it s even more impt than my own life! In the end, I felt so pressured by the friendship (though I am not even sticky close frens with him)that i decidd to lend him 1.5 k, whoch means i am missing another oppourtunity to enter the HK stock market. Well, think about it, if i get my 999.20 bucks of TA pay, and he defaulted on the 1.5k, i am losing 500.80...not big sum to buy myself another pair ofprada shoes or bag, but still, 500.2 can be used to buy a really nice suit from zara which I had been eyeing for a ong long time.

shopping in hong kong!

2008-01-05T00:41:00.000+08:00

So, I bought yet another bag...yes, why the hell do i need so many bags yeah? But this is different (and isn't that what I always say with a new purchase?)

I may have 2 Jack Spades now but they are in canvas. this, however, is in leather! haha...and at 20% off, I only paid 3,500 HKD for it so i personally think its a steal at less than 800 sing dollars for this. and I like the structured look of it, which unlike my mulberry, need not have any things to bulk up its frame. And I am so using this as my work bag if I can get a job...haha...

I like how it looks! not to mention the nice brown color of the leather!

As for Mum, she got a really nice Celine sling from its recent Cruise Collection (no discount then) and the price of that is lesser than my Jack Spade at 2,900HKD. Whether I find that a good price, i will not say. Haha. But she loves it because she has been looking for a small bag since like forever.

At the airport, where there are not so many China tourists trying to snap up lotsa stuff like in Tsim Sha Tsui and Central, Mum and I walked around the shops before departing and she managed to find a square wallet at Prada (also from its new collection) to fit into her newly bought Celine sling. I love the yellow nappa leather and it feels so supple!

dinner and drinks with michelle and celina!

2008-01-04T05:12:00.000+08:00

I met up with Michelle and Celina on Friday night in Hong Kong. Both of them were pals I met while on exchange in Vienna and what a difference 1 year can make. Both have graduated and are working (Michelle with Goldman and Celina with HedKandi HK).

Anway, Michelle bought me to a really nice Japanese place in Causeway Bay where I have the best Eel wrapped with omelette ever! And the hot stone pot rice and grilled beef tongue were delicious! After that, we had really good desserts in another Tong Shui shop around the area and the Mango Pancakes were drool-worthy!

Then, she bought me to take the tram and we headed over to Central (also known as where Gerald wants to work cos its the busy and glam Asian Wall street with good shoppin and great food) to meet up with Celina at Lan Kwai Fong, the clubbing central of HK. We had a few drinks at a lounge before Michelle made an early exit and Celina met up with her friend and we 3 headed to this club where for 120 HKD, you get open bar till 1 am. But the club is not fantastic. Even Celina loath the place because its not that big and it is filled with people who are very local. I made an early exit around 2+ and headed back to my hotel for some doze...But the night was fun and I really thank those 2 for meeting up and bringing me to have a great time in HK!

Hong Kong (yet, again)

2008-01-02T22:33:00.000+08:00

I arrived in Hong Kong on New Years Day and man! I just love the city! The food, the shopping and especially in Decembe, the nice cool weather which we here at the tropics never get. Plus, it so happens this ear that while I was there, the territory is having a week of lower than expected tempeatures due to some wind direction so I cannot possibly complain anymore bout' the nice coolness!

haha...i stayed at Hong Kong Island's Wan Chai area and despite the hotel being a nice Renaissance managed by the Marriott chain, with comfy looking beds and all, the pillows sucks big time and mum and I both did not managed to get any nice sleep at all over the 4 nights!

Another new beginning

2008-01-01T01:09:00.000+08:00

the year 2007 just passed and it's now 2008: another year, another new chapter in everyone's life.

2006 was awesome and sad because of the exchange, 2007 was stale but fun because of the friends i met and had the oppurtunity to strengthen the friendship, oh and of course, my pride-the patek.

what will 2008 bring for me? well, for one i am sure is that i am graduating come april and i am still jobless. I am stuck at the crossroads which I have dreaded i will eventually have to meet. 2008 will no doubt, be a major turning point in my life: one that will get me started onto the life and path of adulthood.

Why am i sounding so morbid this forst hour of the new year? haha...well, one thing's for sure and it's that moi needs to get some beauty sleep cos in 5 hours, moi needs to jet off to hong kong for my shopping trip and pig out at yung kee's roast goose, tsui wah's cafe foods, sweet dynasty's carrot cake and beancurd, and hui lau sin's mango desserts...yummy...and visit posh shops in landmark (even if i cannot afford), check out my fav. tsim sa tsui mall call ocean city, and lastly, ifc mall and meet michelle!

so, happy new year everyone and thanks for being such nice readers of this blog for the past 12 months (an some of you even longer!)

Tis' Da Season 2 B Jolly

2007-12-25T08:09:00.001+08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

my boyfriend: mr. philippe

2007-12-20T18:59:00.000+08:00

Yes, I am out of the closet...hahaha...no!!! not in that kind of way in case you are wondering.

But I do have a new love: Mr. Patek Philippe.

Yes, I finally purchased my very first Patek Philippe and this is what I am gonna assume to be a love affair with the watch for the rest of my life. From now on, all those LV and Loewe and Mulberry are insignificant because moi has something better to blow my budget on. haha...

I went down to Takashimaya's Hour Glass and bought the Ref. 6000. because I realised that I really need the date function in my watch and I think that this is such a lovely beauty! The watch has a white gold casing and is simply stunning and absolutely gorgeous! At the cost of $26,000, this is one of the cheapest Patek Philipe models because it is from the Catralava series and I love how updated this looks compared to the other Catralava models.

The watch is a true beauty! And it really made me feel so special when I wore it! I can finally understand how a girl feels when she puts on a Tiffany diamond ring, i guess. Haha. I really love the way the watch fits on my wrist. Usually watches look big on my tine wrist but the PP6000 fits on the countours perfectly!

Look at the beautiful and exquisite mechanism of the Patek Philippe! Everything is hand mad by the master craftsman in Genenva and the brand is the only brand in the entire world to have the very prestigious Genevea Seal: a stamp of approval to the very best in fine Swiss horology craftsmanship. The buckle is also very interesting: it has a snap button closure.

The watch also comes with an extremely posh hand made wooden case that is freakingly heavy! And a nice leather case for all the documents. The leather document holder is like the size of those holders that restaurants put their bill in...haha...

Bags of the Lady

2007-12-17T16:59:00.000+08:00

I am so bored, so, I decided that i should post some photos of my mum's handbags. Yes, not mine because I do have a heart and sometimes, I do need to share about others people's stuff instead of just me hogging to all the limelight. I am that humble...Its just that I am often misunderstood. Haha...Yes. I can feel all you stomachs churning now hahaha...

So, lets start with her favourite auntie brand: Louis Vuitton. She has these two but I cannot locate her other LV bag, the Noe cos I dunno where she placed it. Mum's always using the small bag when she goes for dinner or Dim Sum lunches with me and she love the size cos it can fit a bottle of water and umbrella (now you all know where I get the water-and-umbrella-combo as bag necessity from). The tote was bought this year and she is starting to use it to replace the Coach tote I got for her from the States 2 years ago. She used it for overseas trip and use it as a tote on the plane cos she can dump her seater or shawl into it.

And now, lets move to what I like in her collection. This is my favourite bag because it's such a great bag wiuth gorgeous leather. I bought this Bottega Veneta Interwoven classic design bag (called the Veneta) for her while I visited the outlet at Legio off Florence last September and despite it being a nice bag, we both find the zip too constricted and it cannot really fit alot of stuff cos the size I got for her is the small one. nonetheless, the leather's absolutely stunning.

This was gotten on our first Europe trip in 2001 from Gallaries Lafayette's Prada. It is a great small hobo and Mum loved it to death before she got her LV hobo. haha...But she said that she is starting to use it now as she loved the nice golden yellow (aunty thinks its a lucky color...haha)

This is the Cach bag I got for her in 2005 summer while I went to NYC. I think its a great tote and cos it's such a cheap bag (295USD) Who cares if it gets stolen or dirty haha..Ok, and I like it that the material is waterproof and the color's very lady.

lovin that brit(ney)

2007-12-17T02:00:00.000+08:00

i was surfing on youtube lookinng at jolin's gorgeous legs in her new MTV and i remembered that one of my fav. gossip monger blog trent mentioned something bout miss spears new MTV for piece of me...so i decided to check it out and man! i love that crzy mama! i am kindda glad she is getting rave reviews with her blackout (though I went blackout when i see the album cover) and i just love her new MTV cos the lrics is sooooo describing her (insane lifestyle)

Here's the lyrics to the song and darling, am i the nly one who think it mirrors her (crazy horrible) life?

I'm Miss American Dream since I was 17
Don't matter if I step on the scene
Or sneak away to the Philippines
They're still gonna take pictures of my derriere in the magazine
You want a piece of me?You want a piece of me...

I'm Miss bad media karma
Another day another drama
Guess I can't see the harm
In working and being a mama
And with a kid on my arm
I'm still an exceptional earner
And you want a piece of me

I'm Mrs. Lifestyles of the rich and famous(You want a piece of me)
I'm Mrs. Oh my God that Britney's Shameless(You want a piece of me)
I'm Mrs. Extra! Extra! this just in(You want a piece of me)
I'm Mrs. she's too big now she's too thin(You want a piece of me)
I'm Mrs. 'You want a piece of me?'

Tryin' and pissin' me off
Well get in line with the paparazzi
Who's flippin' me off
Hopin' I'll resort to some havoc
And end up settlin' in court
Now are you sure you want a piece of me? (you want a piece of me)

I'm Mrs. 'Most likely to get on the TV for slippin' on the streets'
When getting the groceries, no, for real..
Are you kidding me?
No wonder there's panic in this industry
I mean please...

Do you want a piece of me?

I'm Mrs. Lifestyles of the rich and famous(You want a piece of me)
I'm Mrs. Oh my God that Britney's Shameless(You want a piece of me)
I'm Mrs. Extra! Extra! this just in(You want a piece of me)
I'm Mrs. she's too big now she's too thin(You want a piece of me)

I'm Miss American Dream since I was 17
Don't matter if I step on the scene
Or sneak away to the Philippines
They're still gonna take pictures of my derriere in the magazine
You want a piece of me?
You want a piece of me...
You want a piece of me?

I'm Mrs. Lifestyles of the rich and famous(You want a piece of me)
I'm Mrs. Oh my God that Britney's Shameless(You want a piece of me)
I'm Mrs. Extra! Extra! this just in(You want a piece of me)
I'm Mrs. she's too big now she's too thin(You want a piece of me)
I'm Mrs. Lifestyles of the rich and famous(You want a piece of me)
I'm Mrs. Oh my God that Britney's Shameless(You want a piece of me)
I'm Mrs. Extra! Extra! this just in(You want a piece of me)
I'm Mrs. she's too big now she's too thin(You want a piece of me)

Oh yeah

You want a piece of me

another fickle minded personality trait

2007-12-16T18:49:00.000+08:00

Well, instead of trying to study for my GMAT, i was scoffing around the net trying to find a better hotel other that express by holiday inn and surprise surprise! At a special rate of 1400 (only 70 more!), i managed to get a luxurious room at Renaissence Hong Kong Harbour View! The special price was cos the hotel in currently undergoing major refurbishment works in 80 rooma so noises are expected hence, the low price. but the good thing i hope is that my room is one of the other 200 plus that have already been retrofitted with the Marriott (which Renaissence fall under) signature bedlinen and beddings. haha...and the view looks good!

last minute

2007-12-15T18:09:00.000+08:00

another random thought occured to me today, in fact, just 2 hours ago.

anyway, one of my pal is not getting married after all in december (luckily i called to check) and ok, i am actually kindda issed cos mum and i had wanted to go to hong kong in end december and stay in the lovely sheraton again a la 2005 but cos that fren was supposed to get hitched. so, in the end we decided to not go anywhere this year.

And, since my taipei trip fell through i was looking around various websites and chanced upon a deal by cathay for a round trip to hong kong in january for only 608 per person inc. taxes. Kindda a deal but hotel was the pain. Sheraton no longer has any rooms available for their promotion and that means if i wanna get my SPG (starwood preferred guest, not my alter ego, the sarong party guy) points, i have to choose the le meridien cyberport in the far fetched remote corner on hong kong island: read, bad location. so i had to loof for other alternatives and cso its soooo darn last mnute, all the better hotels cost horribly expensive for a room that is less than expansive.

anyway, i managed to shorten my chioces to either excelsior (managed by the posh madarin oriental group) or express by holiday inn (a lower end extension by hoiday inn) both of which are located on hong kong island (in my countless times to hong kong, i have always stayed at the Kowloon side). The excelsior is selling at 1500 HKD per night and express at 1300 HKD both exc taxes and i decided to go for the lower class express because the location is superb. It's smack besides Times Square at Causeway Bay meaning I have lots f things to do to entertain myself. And at 1300, its a steal compared to Sheraton's 3000 nightly rate! I remembered a time when I stayed at Sheraton for only 1700 per night and that has a "stay 4 nights get 2 nights free" promo which unfortch is not available this time round.

Anyway, Express is a good choice given that breakfast are ncluded everyday and the MTR is just below the hotel. The website on holiday inn is bare mnimun true to the express brand name, and i trust the brand name cos I once stayed in an express in Spain before (akin to accor's ibis brand) and had a good experience. Besides, the hotel s relatively new having only started operations this year and the room looks nice and simple. though of corse it lacks the overall omph factor of sheraton...

So i will be gone for my annual shopping trip from jan1 to 5 and hopefully, i can get some nice stuff...

Food, Desserts and Drinks

2007-12-05T00:41:00.000+08:00

If only that's the order of all gatherings, then wouldn't it all be lovely and puur-fect? Well, met up with derrick, brandon, xinna and peiyi for dinner at traditional hainanese kopitiam Yet On at Purvis, then we decided to force Derrick to frive us to Dempsey Hills for some desserts at the Ben & Jerrys where I ordered a 6 scoops ice cream to share. Then we decided that its still too early to call a night at 10+ so we head back to city hall area to chill at Timbre opp my school But we did managed to see the lovely Orchard Road Christmas Lights from Tanglin to Raffles City as we drove from dempsey to timbre.

We order steamboat and a few dishes. Personally, I oove the steamboat (which is by per portion serving) and the chicken here than Chin Chin opposite (though Peiyi prefer the one at Chin Chin) I think that the chicken here is more tender and not as fatty as Chin Chin. I also think the tofu is better.

The ben and jerrys at dempsey is freaking crowded even though its a tuesday! i think dempsey is a nice area, imagine a cluster of colonial barracks in an area surrounded by trees (and mosquitoes). The area is nice but unless someone is driving me there, I am so NOT going there in a cab.

There's a ben and jerry's van outside and my pals just cannot resis the temptation.

The highlight of this photo below is the enlarge it and look at the gap between the two male lead and surprise! you'll see something very special!

and it all narrows down

2007-12-02T17:34:00.000+08:00

Remember that in my earlier post i said something bout wanting to buy yet another watch? Well, this tme round, actually, today, I managed to narrow my choices to the following. But before I go on and tell you all about what I want, I shall be nice and tell you what my mum wants.

Anyway, we went for dim sum at Lei Gardens finally after months of wanting to try it and let me tell you...the dim sum was not bad. The flavors are not as heavy as Crystal Jade Golden Palace but overall, I am so switching to Lei anytime soon because there is no 1 hour queue at Lei Gardens unlike blardy Crystal Jade. Oh, and since weere at Lei, mum and I decided that we shall have another steam fish (yes, dear readers, you all can so tell that steamed fish is a must try everytime we are at Lei by now) to round up our meals.

So, after lunch, mum and I went over to Taka cos I wanted to check out my watches but that's laer...haha, so mum wanted to go LV and have a look but gosh! We were utterly disgusted by the long snaking queue outside, what do those folks at LV think? It's orchard road circa 2007, the boutique is not at Champs Elysees circa 2003, u noe! So, I told mum that we are NOT going in there and instead, we walked over to Hilton Hotl where the LV there was great! Met a very lovely SA(sales assistant) there called Sharon and she showed Mum a new arrival called the Tivoli which Mum oved, but! Tivoli is out of stock in singapore and next arrival will only be here in January. Cue to scene where Mum pout (and I gave a wicked smile inside) haha...But I do agree that the Tivoli is i nice bag...very auntie, very mum.

So, over at hilton, I am so digressing but I checked out the Mulberry boutique and *cough* they have a wel,, limited (ok, pathetic if that's the word) collection on display circa London Fall 2006.

In the end, I found that Missoni had a great collection there but then, who needs another Missoni when it's not winter here. So, i got a Paul Smith polo in purple (yes, but it's a nice shade, ok) as it was on sale, and sensing i had been NOT bying any new tops for this WHOLE year, I reckoned I should pamper myself.

Ok, so back to the watch. So, I went over to The Hour Glass and I was greeted by this really nice guy called (i forgot, but i did take his name card and he is so gonna get my commission from the watch sale, so take that you pathetic bunch of black suited Rolex SAs there who snub me on my way out!) and he showed me a few watches which I narrowed down to from the....drum rolls please... Patek Philippe collection. Yes, Patek Philippe. that is what I want to get. The holy grail of luxury timepieces. You know what the advert says: You never own a Patek Philippe, You merely look after it for the next generation.

Aw...Ain't that sweet?

so, I have narrowed down to these two which the my AD (authorised dealer) showed me, the Reference 5134 in white gold at 36,000 SGD

and the updated classic Calatrave Ref. 6000 at 32,500 SGD:

Which you think is better? My heart's with the 5134 cos it can shows 2 times and it is manual winding (meaning it is better for ppl like me who only wears it once in a while).

Oh, just in case you are all thinking that these money is falle from the sky. No! I am bying with my own money this time round cos lets just sa, the recent stock market rally this year has made me all these spare cash.

I am gonna start an affair with Mr. Philippe!

lets splurge

2007-12-01T02:33:00.000+08:00

Okies, i am thinking of a new splurge, and finally! I can now upload photos onto blogger after the past few weeks which I tried, but to no avail (and that explains why i had been blogging so little)

As the festive season draws nearer, I wished I am in Europe like last ear cos dah-lings, it is so much cheaper to shop there! haha...especially what I am cravng forr - a new timepiece, and I have been eyeing on the Jaeger Lecoultre Reverso Duo face which I think makes a great classic dress watch! The reverso is a signature trademark of Jaeger and I just love the fact that u can turn and flip the face to show another one that is in a diff color. (the normal reverso just flips to shoa a steel back) but i think it'll blow my budget considering that most price guides place it at 8k usd and above.

I was so hell bent on a jaeger till i saw the new rolex milgauss series which i think is also lovely; but it's metal strap and i am looking for a leather strap watch cos i just think leather looks better with formal wear. But the rolexes are easier on the pocket with prices starting at 4400 euros and above. I so adore the secong milgauss below cos i just think they look so gorgeous! Lok at the photos i got from the official rolex website!

comfort food and more fashion pin pointing

2007-11-08T19:49:00.000+08:00

i did disappear for a while but dah-lings, it's all because school work is just iling up and this blogger is trying to play catch up with school's ongoings! Ok, anyway, in the past 4 weeks I was absent from the blogsphere, so many things happened!

Firstly, I have been eating alot. In fact, 2 weeks ago, I have a craving to try out lots of foods on this street called Purvis that is 20 minutes away from campus. There's this Hainanese coffee shop I know I can always trust to gimme a pot of delicious stewed mutton. So, I went there twice over a period of 7 days and i tried out more dishes. The first time round, I went with Peiyi and we had half a chicken, a mutton pot, and hot plate tofu, the second time round, I went with my fellow bitch tina and we had mutton pot (yes, again!), claypot tofu (which turns out to be same as hot plate tofu, but they just change the storage device to a clay pot...duh?!), and kangkong belachan. I really really love Chin Chin, cos I think the food's cheap albeit not darn fantastic, but still, i'll call it a cheap thrill.

Opposite Chin Chin is this loving little Thai coffee shop which I thought was cheap, cos it has no air con (and aong that lne, there's this other posh Thai restaurent which I think is freaking ex, especially with it's oppulent decor) so, I went there to try out the place cos a fren of mine had tld me years ago that the food there is oh-so-good. I had a good Tom Yum, thai fried vermicelli, green curry and some veggies which I forgot..Bt the point is, the food there is not cheap. A meal is twice the price of Chin Chin, and depending on your lck, you may get a pair of fellow diners seating besides you who can just plain give you bad vibes (which I realised is a term I am using so often nowadays to describe people whom I don't like about).

Ok, so here;s thi bitching part, I was walking to the tran station to catch a train home on a random night after school project and saw this gal with like one side of her pants rolled up to reveal her calf...hmmm...somehow, i suspect she's a FOBer and I really cannot fantom what kind of message she's trying to give to others with this weird sense of fashion trensetting - whch will so not take off.

Ok, to end this post on another note, tina and elise decided to fully utilise the pockets on my tee to fit in theor handphones and whore me out for aother sexy photo opp. TASTY!

lets talk bout fashion and random pin-pointing

2007-10-17T22:08:00.000+08:00

before i go into my topic du jour, i'd just wanna tell all that my new lappie rox! haha, colors are so real and i am so enjoying every mnute at home with this gorgeous baby of mine.

ok, anway, i wan adedicate this post to fashion, yes. that's right. I wanna talk bout how some people have great fashion sense and taste (i.e. the shameless me) and how some others have well...let's just say they are Fresh Off the Boat (a.k.a. FOB), a great term to refer to certain gp of ppl here which a great frien miss Michaela had taught me the term.

So, i have this FOB couple in my monday strategy class and this FOB gal actually wore this atrocious outfit the other day in class. I cannot hep but just had to play papz and snap this while she was walking out of the class:

i was kind enugh to circle her so that you can pay her your utterly undevoted attention. Look at the dress which is bleah and so ultra communist (hint hint at her country of origin)with bright shocking all over the place prints, it really reminded me of a ultre cheap version of a zara/H&M/topshop rip off of Missoni collection - from the 80's.

As if a rip off is not bad enough, it actualy looks like a rip off from anothe rand that does rip offs. shudders. Oh, and may i divert you attention to her shoes, more accurately boots, or rather to be precise, KNEE high boots. Yes. KNEE HIGH. IN SINGAPORE! KNEE HIGH IN SINGAPORE WITH A RIP OFF FROO RIP OFF DRESS!

She must have suffered some brain damages to her fashion nerves while on the boat to our lovely shores.

And now, lets proceed to the good stuff! My bddy Karin got me a birthday gift, and since I was perpetually busy like forever, I only got to meet her after a lng hiatus yesterday for lunch and look!

I love the Tee to death cos I for sure, know this joke! Ha! I am so gonna wear this soon, oh, maybe tomorrow? haha... Thanks Karin! I love the Tee to death!

Now, to another event that was stressful: In my Tuesday equities clas, the roff cold call ppl to do up some problems and guess what? Yes! My group was that lucky! So in the end only KS went to the board to do up the problem ans since I cannot leave him to die there alone, I tag along and decided to be the flower vase with the caculator besides him to help him punch in the numbers and give him the answer. Man, only till then did I realised that Vanna White had such a stressful job! I the end, I cannot help but had to capture KS's baby on the board to show all (ok, plus I am runnng out of party photos cos I am broke and thus staying at home lately)

familiarising myself

2007-10-15T23:15:00.000+08:00

yes i am trying to make myself familiar with my new laptop: from the bigger keyboard where i kept pressing the home key instead of the backspace key, thus making my continue my sentence from the start of the sentence to the new ms vista plaform which ust seem to ake everything slower. even my 2 gig ram cannot seem to speed up this demon! but then, the colors from my new screen is wonderfully rich and vivid and watching my tv shows on it are full of pleasures!

i am also in love with the fun mode on vista call wondows switcher, just look at how cool it is!

Still craving for steam fish

2007-10-13T23:41:00.000+08:00

So, the steam fish Mum and I had for our birthdays 2 weeks+ ago was so fantastic that we decided to go for dinner tonight at Lei Gardens again. This time round, I tried their fins in superior stock (78 bucks for the bowl below) and found it below that of Crystal Jade Grand Palace (not those express outlets that targets the *cough* poorer people, though i dine there too, haha) but above that of Min Jiang (somehow, alot of places are above Min Jiang, i realised)

Since we also had the steamed fish last time and this time agian, i though I'll spare all of you the torture of yet another fish photo and took a photo of the Stir Fried Hong Kong Kai Lan with Prawns instead (31 bucks) :

Then, Mum loved the stewed baby ribs to death that she just had to order again and I took a closer photo of it :

Another great dinner at the ever friendly Lei Gardens, we so gotta try their Dim Sum soon.

a new baby is born

2007-10-12T20:58:00.000+08:00

hi all, i have a major majpr annpuncement to make! I have a new baby! haha, no! not another prized bag or shoes to aadd to my collection, but rather, i have gotten myself a new laptop! Yes,despite spilling coffee over my fujitsu and it refusing to die, i still decided to i need to move on to get myself a new lappie with a bigger sceen to replace my desktop which has been collecting dust circa 2000.

S, after weeks of extensive research and budgetting, i decided to get a heavier laptop from Vaio but with spaectacular colors and resolution so that i can finally indulge in my CSI and Ugly Betty BTs.

Well, i have not taken any photos of my baby, but you can visit here to ogle at the amazing designs of it!

un beso

2007-10-10T03:02:00.000+08:00

haha...yes yes...it was meeting up with my Chilean BSM buddies tonight, but poor Uvy had bad tummy problems after dinner of comidas de Mexicanos that she had to leave early; to think that she was the one that wanted to get wasted tonight...bleah! so happened that this was the forst time we all met ever since Sam (now a PR honcho at local IT club Zouk) came back from a 1 year stint in Japan teaching English and me back from Vienna, and JR and IVY back from a term overseas in Rouen, France and Jonkopong, Sweden respectively! Man! These are my ultra get hiogh drinking buddies; a trait we realised and shared from Latin America!

so anyway, sin ivy, JR, Samantha and i decided that 10+ pm to call a night is way too early and we diceded to check out Lunar; a Mandarin pop oriented place newly opened at Clarke Quay. Funny thing: two ang mohs were there and i bet they have the same confused feelings as us when we ventured into a underground trace club in Buenos Aires 2 years back (where almost everyone were hgigh on drugs; trance is so not for me and sam and JR, thoguh ivy professes her love for it though...go figure)

Ok, noe Lunar was ok, i mean the first band had a very pretty gal who knew how to work her hips by constant sashaying to get the horny guys in the audience excited with her whiny voice but the other 2 members are so forgettable. The second band with a rejected Project Superstar (Singapore's own Mandarin pop version of American Idol) was good and Sam got heaving with a rather cute guy singing from the band. But really, Lunar is kindda sucky. Period

Then JR decided to head home at miodnight but Sam and I used the guilt trip on him to make him go to Dragonfly at Saint James Powerhouse with us; man! it was a worthy tri pthere cos that place is packed! On a Tuesday some more! The band was really great, and Sam opened a bottle of Chivas and we all enjoyed purselves there ( which happened to be the 1 year annivesary of St. James Just look at our smiles at Dragonfly; ain't us so much more happier there?!

Oh, as I was saying, it's Dragonfly's 1 yr anniversary so they put up a really great and cheesy performance! JR got some shots...ultra farnie!

the lovely smell from them

2007-10-07T22:32:00.000+08:00

i love strawberries; in fact, i can survive on strawberries and any berries all day long for 3 days straight. Ok, i know 3 days can't really prove my love for these berries, but hey, try that and if you still have normal intestinal activities then i take my hats off you.

Ok, anyway, on de rigour grocery shopping trip to carrefour with my mum yesterday, i picked up 3 lovely punnets of these lovely australian strawrberries, despite theyu all looked a lil bit mal-nourished and awfully tiny - chihuahua strawberries anyone? Nonetheless, they are still delightful!

me and my (boy)friend

2007-10-05T23:31:00.000+08:00

haha, well, in case all of you reading this thinks that I am finally out of the closet, NO! haha...i am very comfortable inside my closet so i have no intention of doing that or anything remotely close to the outside of my comfy closet.

Today, after celebrating my strategy professor's birthday at Ice Cold Beer in campus (and i do mmean celebrate by going there and getting free beer), Elise, Huiling, I and Kenneth (now you know where the title of this blog entry comes from) headed down to Holland Village for dinner and desserts at Marmalade Pantry. I wanted to head to Holland V cos there's apparently a new dessert bar call 2am but after 30 min of walking around, I still cannot see it. Well, after a search on google, i can be sure that it is indeed there in Holland V but we just cannot find it. Darn.

Anyway, I played Kenneth's gay boyfriend tonight and provided countless moments of fun and joy to Elise and Huiling...haha...oh, and the desserts at marmalade was good, nothing uber fantastico; just mas o menos mis amigos.

I also showed the gals my new 'itsy bitsy spider' dance on kenneth with my fingers...hahaha...

Elise had the brownie, Kenneth had the sticky date pie and I had a lemon tart (like me, a tart...haha)

Elise and Huiling with disastrious white wine from marmalade pantry, no wonder it was 1-for-1

Oh, and while I was with the pal, I got a call from UPS saying that my education books are delivered to my place (Mum;s fearing it is some weirdo decided not to open the door at night) and I quickly called mum to accept the box...Man, turns out it is my CFA textbooks; all 6 of them! And I only registered 2 days ago! Ain't they fast?

belated elated gals

2007-10-03T20:58:00.000+08:00

my dear ole' fren lauren was so sweet and got me a lovely pressie and i am glad it came late than never! She got me an espirit polo tee:

She of course, jazz up the gift with a very lovely birthday note address to someone very special (i.e. me):

After BP class today, my project mates consisting of Lauren, Andrea, Michaela, and Sara even treated me to coffee and cakes at gloria jeans at raffles city! They are such a sweet bunch of gals! And very funny too, may i add. I am so glad that I am making so many more new friends in my last year of school. Somehow, i realised that friends made in year 1 and 4 are the special ones. Ok and a couple from my year 2 days...of course.

These gals even sprinkled lotsa colored rice candies on the plate to jazz up the cakes! haha...so sweet of them! The cheesecake was lovely and the chocolate cake was ok, but the presence of these friends more than made up for the blandness of the choco cake!

Andrea and Sara:

Michaela, me and Lauren (I tilted more to lauren's side cos i so do not want michaela's bf to come punch me if i lean towards her! haha)

sing sang sung

2007-10-01T02:01:00.000+08:00

despite a sunday, nothing in this world just seemed to make a bunch of ole' pals down and keep them satisfied with juat a dinner. So, to the ktv we all went where, despite 2 ladies needing to wokr regular (harrowing) hours on weekdays, we sing, sang and sung and tore the whole place down till 1+am.

Ok, so, not all are free on a monday, and especially miss stewardess who just touched down this morning after a night stop in manila, and a nus student who has no lessons on monday,
an ntu student who is on MC from chicken pox recovery (at this age still?!), and me, the one with a noon lesson with dear strat proff.

Noneteless, lotsa fun despit some having problems keeping ahead with the fast tracks and feeling sleepy...

Lagsana galore

2007-09-27T22:33:00.000+08:00

i finally decided to make full use of the baking dish i had gotten from ikea eons ago by making some lagsana today. I mean, anything with pasta sauce is so hard to go wrong, right? unless of course you did what this idiot did many years ago at a christmas party by making spaghetti neopolitan with much sugar and turned the perfect dish into spaghetti neopolitan for desserts instead of main.

Ever since that fateful event, moi has learnt that sugar never ever goes hand in hand woith pasta sauces. Ok, so anyways, I decided to make some lagsana today cos while channel surfing days ago, I happened to chanced upon this lovey dovey couple making this dish and found out that lagsana is kindda an idiot-proof dish to make (once the suger is outta the equation). And so my dear readers, presenting to you all: Gerald's first attempt at the lagsana; and it turned out amazingly delicious!

I added in lotssa garlic (which is my favourite part of the sauce) and mushrooms and minced pork for the sauce. Yummy! And of course, since i love all thngs cheesy, I also added in extra mozeralla inbetween layers of pasta!

I am SO getting old(er)

2007-09-25T15:48:00.000+08:00

in the spirit of making the birthday boy(=me) feels pampered and know that his friends actually still cares for him, dearest friends k.s., tina, elise, huiling and adelyn got me my favourite cake (=strawberry shortcake with lotsa whipped cream) when we had lesson yesterday. Ok, so things this year are not as happening as the event last year where the whole of Vienna literally celebrated for me...haha, but still, i had a great time! Oh, its is so darn sweet to have friends that reminds you that you are getting older.

And of course, my bitching buddy Tina decided to unleash all the grudges she has on me by telling miss pastry lady to write happy birthday BITCH on the cake. Nice (and i do really love it!)

The rooms all have smoke detectors so we were trying to light the candles and get a quick shot and then i have to blow off the flames...haha, another cheap thrill moment; atypical of me...haha

just the 2 of us

2007-09-23T00:53:00.000+08:00

since mum and i share a birthday only day apart, we decided to hop into town today to treat ourselves a nice lavish dinner (sponsored by daddy dearest, no less) tonight before the actual days on monday and tuesday coming.

I was cracking my head trying to think of a place to go and since my last experience at Min Jiang at Goodwood was good but not purr-fect, I actually though of heading back there tonight to try their steamed fish which looked gorgeous on other diner's table. Of course, I remember Mum always love to have a good nice perfectly steamed fresh fish done Hong Kong style.

Just as I was looking at the WWW for the phone to call, I suddenly remember about this restaurant which my friend told me eon ago: Lei Garden. Ha! I don;t know how many of you heard of this but back when I was a Freshie at SMU, there was an occasion where I dropped my cell oin the cab cos the pockets of my berms were too shallow and when I called back the number, a japanese lady was in the cab (thanbk goodness it's not some evil asshole trying to steal my cell). Ok, so what has this got to do with Lei Garden? Patience my dears...Well, turns out that japanese lady was actually heading to Lei Gardens! Haha...and I had to pick up my phone from the restaurant in Orchard that time.

Ok, back to Lei Garden proper. Well, There are 3 branches here and I tried to pick up a reservation for moi and mi madre at the Chijmes branch opposite my campus but apparently, the lady said "Well, you can come at 6, but you HAVE to finish you food and leave by 7, or you van come after 7.45pm" Now, if it's me i don;t mind 7.45 but since Mum (=old folk) hates late dinner (anything after 7 is late) i decided that 1 hour is definitely not gonna help us place any memory of the dishes meant to celebrate our birthdays at dinner.

So, I called up another branch in Orchard (there's 2 there, and I chose another one nearer to Somerset MRT) and thank god! I manage to get a reservation and we actually decided to head to town earlier so that Mum can do some shopping (no LV this time dah-lings, she got a pair of cheapo flats from Taka instead) before we head to Lei Gardens for the much anticipated dinner (I mean I've heard great raving reviews of them but somehow, I've also heard that Ming Jiang at Goodwood has oh-so-great food which turned out to be, great, not oh-so-great, u get my drift?)

We had a fish, braised pork served with deep fried buns and Stir fried Geoduck with Asparagus and XO sauce. Then I ordered my favourite dish of glutinous rice with chinese sausages and i had mango pudding for dessert.

The meal was spectacular! The fish was fresh and steamed to pure perfection (we hate over steamed fish to death!), and the braised pork was a nice chunky 5" by 5" square piece of meat (not the individual small 1"X1" square at Ming Jiang) simmered and stewed to a moist tender perfection (ok, i am so running out of other words to use other than perfection, there goes my food critic career)

Oh, don't get me started on the Geoduck! The geoduck was extremely tender and the XO sauce tasted way better than the other chinese restaurant. Glutinous rice was not as good as I had expected it to be but nonetheless not bad (though at 18 bucks for a portion, it is kindda ex).
I thought i was too full to get a dessert but somehow, I just blurted out to the waiter that I wanted a mango pudding. The mango pudding turned out to be extremely well worth the extra space in my tummy! You have to taste it to gauge for yourself!

I love every bite of my dinner and mum had nothing but praises too. In fact we are so hyped, we are going to go back next week to try their Dim Sum! Hopefully, we are ably=e to stay this enthusiastic about that (the Dim Sum)!

Lastly, even though you will never get to see this cos you totally do not know how to use the computer, mush less the internet and, coupled with the fact that you don't read English, Happy Birthday Mum, and thank you for giving birth to this spoilt brat of yours whom share so many wonderful moments in the apartment that never fails to be filled with words of anger and laughter of joy. People often say that the child brings the greatest joy to a parent, but I think you bring me even more joy to be your child.

update 2.00

2007-09-20T22:46:00.000+08:00

well, another week just passed (or rather, is gonna pass) by; week has been rethaer boring and the only bitchy person i had met this week was my career counselor whom I went to seek advice on how to jazz up my resum on Thursday.

"Your resume cannot make it"

(thinkin) "Then tell me how to re phrase it so that it 'can makt it', and not stop at that sentence, you goon, to trust that you are my career counselor"

(but rather, i said) "Oh, that's sad, so how do you think i should re do it?"

yada yada...

And my flu is still here, so, I finally went to another doctor yesterday in my neighbourhood to get more flu tablets and some pills to clear my phlegm.

I also went for my IPPT (mandatory fitness test by the singapore military for all fot young men) test yesterday before my birthday next week (more on that later) so that I will not get charged by the ever so efficient singapore government for failing to oblige my mandatopry singapore citizenship duties. Well, as usual, i failed. haha...lets not even go there, so yes, my gym routine ain;t working it honey.

Yes, it's gonna be my birthday next Tuesday! Yeah! Another age added on top! Boo!

Well, so happens that this year, my birthday falls on Mooncake Festival too, so well, at least i can look forward to a night with the brightest and round-est moon in the year! Since Mum's b-day is one day before mine, I think we will probably go for a nice dinner in some Chinese restaurant on Sunday. It always feels weird celebrating a birthday, somehow, you wonder even why there's a need to do it, I mean, after the tender age of 16, 18, and 21, all the rest are just painful reminder of how long one has been rotting on earth. Oh my, such a pessimist!

My choice gift this year? Hmm, Lasik, Vaio, and wisdom tooth extraction. haha, ok, ok, maybe a job overseas in Hong Kong or London or New York. Or even an acceptance into NYU Masters in PR program! Life, oh life...

so getting ole'

2007-09-15T23:26:00.001+08:00

after a pathetic thursday last week at zouk, elise and i headed down last night (friday) to zouk again, and man this time round, it is very crowded, in fact, phuture was sp farking crowded that i don't think there's much space to dance cos it is just so freaking packed. Love the music, hate the (too young) crowd. In the end, the night was spent (trying to) dance in phuture, drinking at Zouk and Winebar.

Yes, its Elise, Vanessa and Huiling who i went to Zouk last night.

Yes yes yes, i drank lots again but what is new? haha..but highlight of the night was meeting Vanessa'a friend (think she's called Stacey) . Stacey byt the way, was so sloshed by the time she met Vanessa at the club and we kindda suspected it cos her text message to Van went somthing like this: I am new ouebc zouk, whte u? Oh, and my favourite thing bout this really crazy drunk is that she actually got drunk at 7-eleven (WTF?) oh man, who knows 7-1 can get you like that.
Stacey kept insisting I am gay, then went on to brush my hair (do i look like a puppy?), then when Elise said that I am not gay, she went on to brush Elise's hair! haha... She was such a noisy drunk anthat I just gotta grab a photo of her to show you all (she's the one on the left):

Vanessa and Nicholas (Elise's long time friend who went to Europe for a tour last year before she started school in Prague)

Somehow, I have a feeling this photo was taken after my hair was messed up

Elise and Nic

Elise and me

VIP event

2007-09-09T00:44:00.000+08:00

This media whore finally became a VIP at a (not ultra but still glam) event today! Haha, well, Ling's boyfriend had to fly to Paris for a meeting for L'Oreal executives so he passed 2 VIP tickets for the Kiehl's J J Lin Showcase (J J Lin is a Singaporean singer who is apparently, tremendously popular in Taiwan and China and basically according to his PR folks, all across Asia) at St. James Powerhouse' Dragonfly bar.

Well, like mentioned earlier, Ling's boy was away so she (knowing that I love Kiehl's products) asked me to go with her and to get the free goodie bag. So there we were, 2 ultra happy souls being first time VIPs and man let me tell you, you ever see those events sponsored by a certain brand and they have a huge (in this case, not that huge) board plastered with the sponsor's name all across the board at the main entrance? Well, this slut and his pal were photographed at that board at the entrance. And. Since we are VIPs, we did not had to queue up with the rest of the commoners who had to fork out $88 to buy the JJ Lin package from Kiehl's and queue up early to get into the bar to see him. And those commoners were also barricaded from us VIPs. haha...

I so need to get a power girlfriend cos I just love this kind of lifestyle haha...

Anyway, once (ling signed me) in, we both were kindda disgusted that there was no goddie bag in place! Nothing. Kaput. Nicht. Zero. Period. Followed by SAD and DISGUSTED! WTF, we came all the way to Dragonfly not for that blardy singer (there's always the MTV channel my dears) but we want goodie bags! Ling was so pissed that she sent her boy a sms immediately (despite him in Paris) to complain. Ha.

But here's the good part, ok, although the showcase was at 6pm, diva boy only cam on stage at like erm, 7? What did we do in the meantime? haha, apparently, VIPs have a wrist tags and we get unlimited drinks at the bar! Yes! Drinks. With Alcohol! This is the pass that gets you everywhere:

Ok, note the words at the bottom, haha

Both of us downed at least 5 Vodka Ribenas each I am sure cos darling, by the time JJ started singing, we were downing. Of course we saw some (semi famous) celebs. Eunice Olsen, a ex Miss Singapore-turned Wheel of Fortune Vanna White a-la Singapore version - turned member of Parliament was sitting right in front of us in a ultra bare back plunging top. Oh her way to the ladies, Ling saw Sarah, the Channel V VJ (who looked way better than Eunice) By the way, I though Sarah don't understand Chinese. Anyway, JJ sang quite a number of songs and he was so trying to think if he should speak to the audience in Mandarin or English, But for most part he spoke English cos I reckoned the maybe Kiehl's is american so maybe that will be better? haha

Yes, I took a really short video while Ling was at the Ladies to kill time:

And just as we were about to down more drinks, the photographer came to me and Ling again to take another (!) photo. Gosh. It is so tiring to be a VIP. Well, I better grab this chance since I foresee I won;t get such chances in the near future so just, please allow me to be bitchy, ok?

After the event at 8pm, we two were desperately trying to walk through VivoCity in a non-drunken manner (and vivo is apparently the largest mall here, so we were indeed struggling) I mean, drunk at 8 is not a very good glamourous moment!

We dined at Spizza which i think serves the best wood oven baked pizza in Singapore and after that, desserts at Bakerzin. I can get so used to this. Ok, but the drinking part, it should come after the meals.

Oh, and since Ling just flew to NYC (which happens to be the birthplace of Kiehl's) she can't manage to find me the Jack Spade bag I want and got these from Frankfurt instead.

thursday is not the new friday

2007-09-07T12:58:00.000+08:00

well, apparently over at zouk, it is not! we (meaning, elise, huiling and kenneth) went down to zouk yesterday thinking that it'll be open so that we can get to shake our booty were greeted by *gasp* silence cos apparently, main zouk and phuture are closed on thurs! asshole!

so we had to go to the adjoining winebar for some pre drinks and thereafter we headed to the other adjoining bar Velvet (thinking that there might be at least a few souls) sigh...at least we drank...haha...ohhh and as it was Deutsche Bank's career talk yesterday in school before we all left for zouk, there were many many free wines during the networking session! haha...needless to say, we all piled up on these drinks first!

881

2007-09-06T14:38:00.000+08:00

881 is the title of the local movie that is making wavs across Singapore; apparently, it is tipped to overtake another local production by the incumbent Jack Neo (a comedien turned director well known for churning out movies with touch of lacal-ness) this year.

881 is also the movie moi went to the theatre with mi madre yesterday to watch. Luckily this is the school break for the primary and secondary kids, if not, Lauren (who watched the movie with her family weeks ago) warned me that I am highly possible to be the youngest person in the theatre.

Well, moi actualy thinks that the success of 881 lies in the fact that it is a story that is very close to ever Singaporean. One of the highlights if the lunar 7th month is the staging of a production in our various paerts across Singapore called the Getai - stage show with singers performances. Apparently, getai is a uniquely local act which even our neighbour Malaysia pales in comparison. In fact, a famous or well received performer often has to run from a stage to another in one single nights and what he/she erns in this one month alone can make up to be a staggering amount of mooh-lahs that is equivilent to another person's yearly pay! Of course, to be able to command such a high price, you must be very very popular! Another interesting fact is that singers (agian, referring to those popular ones, dah-lings) can actually be booked up to 1 year in advanced!

Now, of course, people like you and I who are trendy and shop in nice air conditioned sterile enviorments are so not the target audience of the getais. In fact the reason for such performence is to entertain the spirits roaming around earth (cos the gates oh hell are opened for the month on July in the lunar calendar and spirits are free to roam the earth - kind of like, i guess, a 1 month retreat) But nonetheless, older generations uncles and aunties with nothing better to do also love to visit such shows to rid their boredom. Which exmplains why most folks in the cinema are erm...the greying population.

Well, the movie is actually nice you know...The story of the 2 leads who developed a friendship over time only to realise that one is going to die is tear wrenching, and coupled with songs that are oh-so-tear-inducing... I personally still cannot get over some parts which are rather lame (fighting with laser beams as part of their special powers ??) but oveall, i love the songs (i know, i am so auntie and un-posh) the fancy costumes and of course, the heart wrenching ending.

cough cough

2007-09-04T16:40:00.000+08:00

oh gosg, i am having another bout of bad cough...it kindda started last friday and it really took a turn for the worse over the weekend...rest assured cos i went to the doctor yesterday and is happily a crackhead downing the cough syrup and a course of anti-biotics.

i really hate coughing, and flu, and fever...they all just messed up your entire life...especially having coughing or a running, or worse, a blocked nose! I am just glad that i am only having a cough cos if not, i'll be unable to sleep with my blocked nose and in t he end, i
'll just get bitchier and bitchier...a bitch that coughs and has a blocked or running nose is sooooo unglam, u lnow what i mean?

Whoa! What A Night @ Butter Factory

2007-09-01T03:48:00.000+08:00

Oh my...i am so not sober right now so probably u r seeing lotsa spelling mistakes on this post! anyway. i just reach home from a nioght out at the hip clu called Butter Factory with my bunch of lovely friends and here are the photos:

Guess who i saw there! i saw Claire (who was in my physical science class last semester and actually believe that lauren and jeremy are indeed togethr!)

I met up with Ivy (whom i got to know from the Chile Argentina BSM and since then we have been best nbitching buds)

Well, Ivy was feeling abit desperate for my affection haha....

I also met up with Jillian and boy does she look ravishing or what?!

Ivy and here gal pal, Zhirong

Ivy's friend, Joyce ( I think), Zhirong, Ivy and Jillian

I cannot wait for another night of fun!

I've never walked like this at home before

2007-08-31T20:38:00.000+08:00

Today, I brought my buddy Karin to Chinatown (finally after postponing it last week due to bad weather). And we eat lotsa stuff there! Haha, well, when u have a glutton like me as a buddy...Sadly though, the Austrian saussage stand was not open (it only operates from 5pm) and I had to come up with a contingency plan. So, I bought her some famous barbequed pork jerky to try whoich she loved! Then, I brought her to Maxwell Hawker Center to try the famous Tian Tian Chicken Rice (apparently, this is the chicken rice to eat here at home cos Mr Anthony Bourdain only eats there). Oh! I also bought some egg tarts from Tong Heng for her to savour!

In case you think all we did today was eat, then obviously you are so not reading the headline of this post. Yes we did alot alot ALOT if walking...We walked from Outram MRT to Chinatown, then I also brought her to the Hindu Temple, the Buddhist Tooth Relic Center and we even waled to Tanjong Pagar, and Raffles Place. Oh, as if walking across 3 MRT stations was not enought, I even brought her across the Singapore River to Asian Civilisations Museum. Seriously, I never though I will walk like this at home! I mean, for god christ's sake, this is not Rome you know...If not for the food, I'd so never even bother to walk all these!

Well, one interesting we saw was that we chanced upon a school production at the Old Parliement House which is noiw called the Arts House and these group of Thai students were putting on a really weirf play called, The Boy who ate 7 blah blah blah, whetever, I was soooo enjoying the air con and comfort of the seats in the Cabinet that darling, I ain't pay no attention to the play (yes, and I am doing the finger stick out neck swiveling action as this comes out if my mouth)

But one fun thing was the photo I took below:

Apparently I dunno if it's an actual arts installation or some prank but I so agree with the humour! Sir Raffles had the vision, but it was the migrant workers that actually built this city! haha... And they placed the humour piece directly opposit the statue of Raffles! haha...even Karin found it hilarious.

Why are we so old?

2007-08-25T02:30:00.000+08:00

It's always nice to meet up with old friends, but when you realises that the friends you are meeting have a friendship spanning 7 years, you know you are so getting old...well, and what do old friends like to do? Well, for sure, this old man likes to infuse himself with various alcoholic stuff.

I met up with the lovely SIA gal Ling, Peiyi, Bunny Brandon, Xinni and Derrick (who had just came back from Shanghai in China on exchange) and we all had a lovely dinner at this seafood restaurent by the Singapore River call Jumbo (whichi happens to be a fairly goof seafood restaurent with various outlets across Singapore). The menu? We had fried venison with spring onions and ginger, fried baby squid (which was amazingly crunchy), fried rice, stewed tofu with various mushroom (amazing dish, by the way), otameal prawns (which were de-shelled so that we can eat with ease) and local favourite, chilli crab with buns. The meal was amazingly satisfying! So what were a bunch of 24 year olds up to after such a gratifying meal? Well, we decided to cross the river and head down to Clark Quay for some drinks.

We tried to get into Pump Room, but the ultra gay door bitch (and I really mean Bitch with a capital B) was like: Sorry, but tables are reserved for diners only and most in your group has to eat. Desserts, light snack, please go to the bar. Anyway, the last order for food will be in 15 minutes; after that, what you guys do in the place, I don';t really care.

Needless to say, this bitch (=me) was not really up in bitchy-vana, so I decided to let that gay be...erm...gay. Pal and i headed to China One but the place was also fulled and after 10 min or so on the very traditional wooden bed, we all decided that, darlings, we are not so hard up for drinks that we gotta be in such a state, do we?

So, we head over HedKandi bar and goddness gracious me, luckily we head there cos we managed to get a nice area and we had like 4 jugs of 1-for1 housepours (=8 jugs) and a bottle of house white. Xinni was so gone thaty she had to attempt the Merlion to erm...de-toxify herself from the jugs of Vodka Cranberry, Whiskey Coke, Vodka 7-up, and Wine. In the end she was so badly merlionish that she had to skip the Rum 7-Up(which sucks by the way).

After the binge drinking, we all head over to Mac's at Liang court for some tender McNuggets and Fries while Ling and her bf, Don decided to head home. Gosh, when it comes to a bunch of 24 year olds, staying till 1 is such a challange. but we all made it! In fact, we all managed to pull through till 2! haha...old pathetic losers!

How does Peiyi still look so awake after a week or "I'm rushing on a project"?

Xinni, Derrick, Ling and Brandon:

"She's so lucky to have gotten brown eye-shadow" Ling and the media-whore

Don with her ultra anorexic looking stewardess gf, Ling, Peiyi and Derrick (who looks like Strawberry Shortcake with his Made-In-China Hairdo)

The Hamster and the Bunny

LA-Z-Boy

2007-08-23T18:13:00.000+08:00

Yes! I finally gotten rid of the disgusting ole' sofa sitting in the living room and bought a new gorgeous La Z Boy recliner. Yes, it is for ME, not anyone else in the family (meaning the MUM) but just me. haha...Anyway, this model is too huge for her, so i guess she's just have to be happy with the new fridge she got and the cheapo 20 bucks make shift recliner chair made of elastic straps. Well at leats the MUM has got a better bed than me...Am i the sourpuss or what?

More of Thailand!

2007-08-23T17:25:00.000+08:00

Hey guys! Remember the lovely trip I took to Bangkok to look for the lovely 'Tigers' 2 weeks ago? Well, Tina finally managed to pass me her set of photos so that I can whore myself to you readers...

Remember the lovely cafe called Another Hound? Well, I was so excited by my Roast Beef Salad that you can see I really really wanted to attack the dish

Tina ordered a lovely crayfish Tom Yum with Stuffed Ravioli which was delicious!

Vanessa had the traditional Thai dish called Pad Thai whoch according to a famous Singaporean food blogger, Unami, is the best she had in Bangkok; hence I told Van to see if the comment is true...of course it was and Van loved every bite of the dish!

That night, Cha, Mook and Fon drove us to this lovely Thia restaurent and we had a great dinner!

The restaurant sits besides the Chao Praya River and had a magnificent view! Ain't it lovely?

Cha is the driver and man, she has great driving skills!

The Toigers and 2 irritating attention seekers...

After dinner, we went to Khao San Road, the backpackers' heaven for a walk and some drinks...

Now that school has started, I really missed the times in Bangkok with my lovely Thai friends!

Surviving First Week of School

2007-08-23T14:08:00.000+08:00

Well, first week of school has started and luckily for me, I only have a 3 day week from Mon-Wed, whoich means I can and do get to go out for some relaxation time (read: Alcohol sessions) with pals.

Last night, I went to this place called Double O and had a great time, and i guess the photos will be able to tell you that we had a great time!

Kai really really wanted to join us before she flies off to China for her internship next week...

Elise, Karin, Huiling, Tina and Kai

My twin sibling (Tina said that we both have starkingly similar personalities and moves) Elise

Elise, Karin, me and Tina's Spanish buddy, Griselda

Yes, Huiling and Elise are great friends, put all nasty rumors (if any) to rest now, will you...haha

An Austrian Affair

2007-08-20T22:42:00.000+08:00

My lovely buddy from WU, Karin invited me and Kai (Xuan) over to her cosy little apartment in Tampines on Sunday for some lovely Austrian dinner! (and because it's my buddy, I didn't mind the making an arduous 45 minute long journey to get there)

Well, but of course, as with anyone cooking, Karin made a disclamer to me and Kai to inform us that this is her first time cooking Austrian food, so we better don't get our expectations too high up! But in the end, her food was great and Man! It's been so long since I've had Schnitzels and the sausage with bacon wrapped around it thing (was it called Kaiserkrainer?)

She also made some lovely austrian Frittenzuppe for us and we ended the night with wine (lovely Australian Muscato by Kai; yes, Austrian wines are hard to find here so we had to make do with it) , mooncakes (the famous Champaign Truffles mini snow skins from Raffles Hotel bought by yours truly) and some lovely Austrain dessert pancakes!

We started with some Frittenzuppe (which was the favourite of Lovely Miss Whitney Rhorer in Wien) chicken stock with strips of pancakes, i missed this!

Then we had Schnitzels, in pork and chicken, no less! Karin could not find the breadcrumbs so she got another type of multi purpose crumbs instead, but the end product is still amazing! It tastes so authentic and reminded me of the cafe SV opposite WU where on Monday nights. has Schnitzels for just 3 Euros (I if course, loved that place to death!

Then the bacon wrapped saussages (which I remembered dear ole' Claus made for us when he invited me over to his home in Austria). Sadly we don't have cheese stuffed saussages so Karin bought frankfurters and had to wrapped the bacon herself - it was heavenly too!

Then dessert time! Traditionally rolled in apricot jam, we tried Nutella (who dosen't love Nutella?) and also, added some local twist with Kaya (which Karin said is delicious!)

Karin's apartment is so cosy! Look at how lovely it is!

I really love her long kitchen! It is so inviting to want to cook!

Come Friday, I'll be bringing Karin to Chinatown and find that apparently very famous Austrian Guy in Trenganu Street selling German Sauassages (Karin said he was mentioned on Austrian radio!)

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow!

2007-08-17T00:27:00.000+08:00

And so here we are! Lauren welcomes you to her shop! Haha, not exactly her shop, but rather, the shop where she's working part time from Wed- Sat for these 2 weeks to kill time and earn some extra mooh-lah. Well, the jewellery shop she's helping out is in the posh Mandarin Hotel Shopping Gallery and apparently, since she's the only one tending the shop, she has the entire shop to herself to erm...read her books and loisten to nice jazzy tunes to kill time while waiting for the occasional shopper.

The shop actually stocks some very interesting pieces, and from what i've seen, they are mostly american stuffs and apparently many hollywood (yes dear, hollywood, not our local caldecott hill) stars have been spotted in these lovelies! There're even magazine cutouts to show you who's wearing what and they range from Eva Langoria to the infamos Paris Hilton (though if it's me, I would really just show Eva and the others and not miss 'Stars are Blind')

And the prices for these stuffs ain't cheap my dear, a quick glance at the display shows earrings costing 300 upwards! Poor lauren only made 1 sale so far selling off a 250 bucks earrings yesterday (which in her words were 'enough to cover for my pay', haha) Maybe the bad 3rd fllor location is to blame and since lovely lauren is hidden from view oif outside world, those lusty boyfriends are not able to spot this lorgeous shop assistance and come in to buy something for their girlfriends (and while at it, flirt with lauren)

Anyway, I went down to look for her today after my haircut! Yes! I cut my hair finally! I got a new shop crop which I really really love! It's always so damn refreshing after i had my hair chopped off!

There's this teddy bear sitting in her shop which Lauren told me everyone who comes into the shop to look for her loves to play with, Of course i wouldn't give up such a a good shot! and aother cheap thrill. By the way, all who played with it are boys and men...hmmm wonder why...

There's also this lovely black chandelier hanging in her shop (which you'll definately hit with your head of you're over 5 feet 5)

And I also brought her some starbucks and snacks while I went to visit her; there's actually a lovely little corner at the back of her shop where there's a lovely table and you can just sit there to eat and we had some chit chat session there

And of course, we spent most of our time trying to find the perfect spot for a great shot where the lighting's purr-fect to make us look worthy of matching those jewels she's selling!

My lovely Austrian Buddy!

2007-08-16T15:19:00.000+08:00

Hello All! Yes! Indeed, I have an Austrian buddy this term and she is the lovely Karin from WU! I was soooo excited when I got the email from the buddy network group telling me that I've gotten an Austrian Buddy! Now, I can finally show her some lovely Singapore hospitality which Claus and Cathi had given to me when I was in Vienna last Fall!

I brought Karin and Kai (who was in the main university in Vienna on exchange last semester) to Ministry of Sound (MOS) last night and before heading to MOS, we met up with Tina and her group of Spaniards at the beer place Pump Room.

Karin enjoyed herself and I am glad she had a good time! I cannot wait to bring her to the Zoo and tour Chinatown and see the Austrain guy selling lovely bratwurst in his push cart!