29th April Is My Day!

I celebrated my birthday with my family recently at a cozy neighborhood Thai eatery called E-Sarn Thai Cuisine situated at Ridgewood Close.

At E-Sarn, I tasted one of the best tom yam soup ever! It's a must try!

I was rather hungry when I arrived and the tom yam soup was the first dish to be served. After taking just 1 mouthful, I couldn't stop finishing the whole bowl of it. Because of that, I suffered a minor stomachache midway through my meal. But it was all worth it! =)

Val's new pose

Acting cute with yee yee

The grilled pork was not too bad also and overall, the food is value for money. I will go back again to check out the ice cream cafe next door. It's a nice place to chill.

The next day on my birthday itself, bf treated me to a hotel stay. Guess which hotel this is:

Yeah, the rather new Resorts World Sentosa Hard Rock Hotel. The guitar-shaped toiletries container looks kinda cute eh?

The room is so so but the pool is simply fantastic!

View of sand pool from our room

I simply love the sand. I was told that they were specially imported from Australia at the price of SGD$500,000!

The sand is fine enough and yet, the grains are not so fine that they will stay on your skin when your brush them off. It's amazing! I really enjoyed the recreated beach at the hotel.

There is a total of 4 pools with 1 sand pool. Although my fear of the harmful sun rays and chlorine damaged hair have caught up with age, it wasn't enough to keep me away from swimming.

And I tasted my first rabbit meat pasta at Palio at Hotel Michael. Did you know rabbit meat taste like a cross between chicken and tuna? Anyway, The Spaghetti Frutti Di Mare is better. One of the better ones I've tasted.  

I Love Books... The Old Fashion Way

With the launch of the new Apple iPad, ebooks can only gain popularity. And not to mention that the ebook market is definitely growing in US and Europe and that many are even selling their own ebooks on the internet these days.

A friend casually reminded me of this when he saw me carrying a book to keep myself occupied while waiting for bf to finish work on Saturday. He showed me how easily I can download all that I wanted to read into my iPhone. Why would anyone want to buy a physical book to lug around these days when you can get all sorts of information from nifty high tech gadgets?

Well, I have an intimate relationship with my books. I love to read. And I love to read books with pages that I can flip, with new paper that I can smell, with interesting covers and book spines that I can display on my bookshelf. In other words, I simply find ebooks too cold and electronic for my liking.

I can't slot cute bookmarks into my ebooks. I can't feel the excitement of holding my book after paying for them. I can't choose special edition ebooks with interesting covers. I can't relax my eyes reading from these gadgets. I can't feel ebooks calling out to me on the shelves with their unique identity. And the list goes on.

To me, the classic book has more character than an ebook.

I am not rejecting new technology, I'm just slow to catch up with it. For now, I am happy with my bulky books and will remain as one of those not seduced by new technology.

Until the day when the inconvenience of carrying a few books outweighs the pleasure I derive from them, I'll just enjoy my books in the old fashion way that feed my soul.

What about you?

Little White Riding Hood

I was working on my laptop when a cute little white riding hood appeared and gave me a fright.

Great Service Makes Me A Happy Girl (Magarita's @ Dempsey!)

I met up with 2 friends from Japan & Taiwan yesterday. To show our hospitality, we brought them to Dempsey for dinner & drinks.

For drinks, I recommended Margarita's. I simply love love love the strawberry and mango margaritas there. If you haven't tried it, do give it a go someday. It's a lovely and cheerful place to hang out and the margaritas are simply divine. It's so tasty that you won't even realise when you have a drop too much. *Hick* 

It's dangerously delicious!

The electricity tripped 3 times while we were there. Not a very good thing I know but they made it up when they allow us to finish up our wine even though they were closing at 11am.

I was pleasantly surprised as I seriously believe that it's hard to find great service here in Singapore. 

The extra half hour or so was precious and enough for us to enjoy the rest of our night with great conversations and drinks.

Great Food at Jumbo

Snoring Snoring Snort Snort!

This pictures tells my story last night. Being woken in the middle of the night almost made me a zombie today.

Help! How can I deal with this?

Rosemount O ver Ice 2009

I was introduced to this sparkling white wine recently and I fell in love with it. It's light and crisp, low in alcohol content and can be served on ice!

There's how the name came about. "O" for O ver Ice. Clever eh? 

You can get it from the DFS in Singapore Changi airport. It's so refreshing that I can finish it in one go! Just like soda!

Silra Home(Singapore's Leprosy Relief Association) in Singapore

We joined some nice people from the Cravers Club Singapore and Lion's Club last Saturday morning at The Silra Home at Seng Kang.

One volunteer we met brings and serves lunch to the ex-leprosy patients there every Saturday. It's such a regular affair that all the patients really look forward to this meal of the week. 

The new premise looks comfortable and clean.

The Lion's Club donated 5 wheel chairs too. 

I remember when I was only 17 in JC, all students had to contribute a certain number of hours to volunteer work. My class initially decided upon visiting ex-leprosy patients but some of the classmates objected because of the social stigma attached to leprosy.

There's still some social stigma attached to the disease. We were told some of the patients were abandoned by their family due to their conditions. Just by bringing them a nice meal or spending time with the patients may mean something important to them. 

If you're keen to volunteer your service, do give them a call. Or you can also contribute by helping to buy packed lunch/drinks/snacks for their Saturday meals.

To me, it's meaningful that these car club people do not just meet up to talk about the cars, but also to contribute to and organize charity events.

Gorgeous Sunday!

It's a gorgeous Sunday today!

It's one of the rare days that I decided to lunch with my parents and sis. We had turtle soup near Macpherson. Yummy, my favorite!

My parents' decision to buy 4D of my birth date on the way home says a lot... Yes, it's that rare that I go out for a meal (not for any kind of celebrations) with them.

Hmmm...I should go out with them more often.

In The Mood For Love

Do this once a week (if not once a day).

1. Hold your loved one's hands tight.
2. Look deep into his/her eyes.
3. Tell him/her why you appreciate them for.

This puts me in the mood for love... =)

Our New Ride - Old Gold Honda CR-V

We collected the car 2 days ago.

It's old gold colour! Apparently, gold is a colour for older people when it comes to car. Hmmmm... but we're very please with our new old gold car. 

The both of us have always like the Honda CR-V, especially the white one. Yet, we've never considered it. 

One day, bf just called to tell me that he will buy a new car on that day itself to beat the COE price hike caused by the government's pegging of the number of COEs to the actual number of vehicle de-registrations.   Within 2 hours, we selected and purchased the car.

He paid $18k for COE and the price bid value is $36k. Yeah! And it's already $45k now.

And bf said I look small behind the wheel...

My Cheenah Beans Progress

Here's the update on the cheenah beans I bought 2 weeks back. 

They did grow. I planted 2 in a pot for my nieces and taught the older girl to be responsible and water the beans everyday.

And they grew. Just shot up one day like this:

Disappointingly, the words are so faint... Yeah, one is born on the year of the pig, and the other a sneaky mouse.

As for my bf's ones, one didn't even grow out. Only the middle portion of the stem push up ahead!

We were advised not to touch it or the plant will die but we gave it a little help by digging the sprout out. 

Hmm... how can we help this poor little bendy plant survive?

Joop Warehouse Sale at 313 Somerset

I passed by Joop store at 313 Somerset yesterday and saw a mess of clothings. Feeling rather shopping deprived, I walked in with the intention to just take a fast look.

I even scoffed at the rack of "2 for $10" clothings until the purple top caught my eyes. The tops all cost me $5 each, clothings are getting real cheap here!

My friend turned back and joined me in search for more super duper worth it buys. She was hesitant in buying the same long sleeve top (but in white colour) as it was a little too sweet in her opinion. With a little nudge, she was convinced by my rationalization that these $5 tops falls under the category of "must buy"... simply for being so cheap!!

It so wonderful to satisfy my shopping craving without the slightest tinge of guilt. What's more, we even received a $10 shopping mall voucher for a combine purchase of $50. Yeah... being cheapo for a day thrills me so!

8ttote Tote Bag from 8tokyo.com

This is the classic and easy to use Abeille tote bag  from 8tokyo.com that all guests received from yesterday's meet up session (you can read more about it from my previous post).

It's interesting when we were asked to open our goodies bag as everyone got a different colour bag. That got everyone a little excited.

Mine's pink with grey handles and base like this. I love it 'coz I like pink clothes and it's a easy colour to match.

8tokyo will launch new colours and combinations every season and they even take orders to custom the colours!

Their generosity and thoughtfulness made my day! Thank you! =)

8tokyo.com Comes to Singapore at Oomphatico's

I attended a fantastic event today at Oomphatico's at Tanglin Mall.

It was really cute! We were all given different presents and the Japanese brand owners, Yoko and Yamada of 8tokyo.com made it more fun and exciting by sharing with us the current trends in Tokyo.

The food was great and they even brought us thoughtfully packed Japanese snacks!! 

And did you know that it's no longer rare to find guys who can cook and sew in Japan these days? They touched on the new age Japanese Bento Boys and Embroidery Prince. Heehehe....Embriodery Prince...

They even had a Bingo session with Marc Jacobs Towel, Paul & Joe T-shirt etc. as prizes!! Even guests who didn't win didn't walk away empty handed. They had a range of super cute soft toys to choose from.

I got these.

I really had a good time at this event. Thanks Tricia for organising it and I'll share pictures of my goodies and the lovely tote bag soon.