안녕하세요 (Hello in Korean)

Catching up post. In desperation for an oversea holiday last year, I did a crazy thing of coming back to Penang on a budget air and reaching Singapore Changi at 10:20pm, rush home to change, and be back in Changi again for my flight out to Seoul, Korea by 11pm. My heart never beat so fast before while taking a flight for a holiday. To think that I trust Air Asia so much to be on time to catch my flight speaks volume of my faith in that airline!

So I ended up in Seoul on 14 December 2012 in winter with only one bucket list item to clear, to see snow for the very first time in my life :)  Guess what. Mission accomplish the moment I landed on Incheon Airport. It was snowing and everything was white! But as we took the rail to Seoul it self, there was less and less snow. But I did manage to see some of it during our visit to the Changdeokgung Palace on 16-Dec-2012.

 

We also briefly visited the main entrance of Gyeongbokgung while we were walking past it looking for a Kyobo bookstore. 

It was a last minute short trip for me. My second time to Korea as my husband requested to go there as he has never been to Korea before. We spend a total of only 5 days there, reaching on 14-December-2012, and leaving on 18-December-2012. Most of the time we were only shopping and eating. Will share more in other post.

Some info on the trip.

• Airport Transfer to Seoul, we went via Airport Rail costing W8,000 (SGD8.90) per person return ticket ( I think)
• For Seoul transport, we got a T-Money card each good for trains in city costing W2,500(SGD2.80) each, and we top it up with W10,000(SGD11) each. It was enough to last us the whole trip, but then again, we did walk all over the city most of the time :P
• We stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel, Myeongdong for  W107,500(SGD120) a night breakfast not included.

Ref:
Changdeokgung
Gyeongbokgung
Kyobo Book Store
Kyobo Official Site
Air Asia
AREX (Airport Rail Express)
T-Money
N Fourseason Seoul

Home

1st entry for year 2013, thought I'll start with something striking, beautiful, and close to my heart. Above is actually a photo of a corner of my home garden outside my HDB unit. Yes in this concrete jungle, I still try my best to maintain some sanity in my life. My garden is one of my little joy in life here.

I thought I'll start the first entry of the year (even though it's already April now), by showing you little things around my home that brighten ups my day. When you're working day and night, Monday to Sunday, sometimes you need to slow down and look around you to see what your life have become. These little things help keep me rooted to who I am, and who I want to be.

 

For a start, there's a lamp in every room as I love the ambiance a lamp brings to a home. It's warm, calming and elegant (plus it really keeps the utility bills down!). My dining table is a classic kopitiam style marble table, probably the single most expensive piece of furniture in my entire home (most of my furniture are acquired "freegan" style).  On the dining table I have a set of hand sewed cat coasters (you can click on the link to view the coasters in detail). I would love to always have fresh flowers on my dining table, but the cost is rather high, so I got some fake ones instead. Me bad. Maybe one day when I have an actual garden, I can grow my own flowers and have them on my table daily :)

Photo on the right is actually my shoe cabinet. On it are three potted plants I'm trying my best to keep alive as I love the idea of having indoor plants, and perhaps herbs in my kitchen. The cactus in front of the scarecrow is one of the very first plant we got in our home. Behind it is a traditional peranakan tiffin which I got from my mother, who inherit it from my grandmother. So in a way, it's a family heirloom. I'm wondering if I can get it restored. Anyway, moving on, there's somehow always pumkins and scarecrow in my life, a reminder of a friend I am very fond of. And right in front, Hello Kitty! It's actually my very first DIY paint-by-numbers. I have a bigger painting which I'll try to show it here in one of my blog entry.

Recently during the long weekend, I suddenly have this urge to buy files to organize my shelves. So above is the end result. I'm especially please with how the files get label to tell you what they contain. This is just the first shelve I tried organizing. I'm in a minty green phase of my life recently, so green and white is my color of choice. Next to the files are all my Japanese books. One day! One day I'll master that language! The other three holders are actually my husband's. But all the naked volcanic dudes are mine :) They are my beloved hell guardians I got from Hokkaido.

Lastly I painted my gate minty green sometime last year, and just two weeks ago, I managed to paint the wooden door white. It looks rather weird from the outside, but I kinda like it. The white and the metallic part looks really good together. My motivation for finally getting the door done, was to purchase SGD5 worth of door numbering so that I can finally hang them on my newly painted door. I would like to put a hand pulled bell outside my door, but I'm wondering if people would come around and steal it. If it's not too expensive, maybe I'll give it a try.

So there you have it, the start to my 2013. I'll try to continue on my backlog from now on, so that at least when I try to look back at my life, it won't be just some empty pages and nothing to remember me by. I'd like to chart as many information here as much as possible. Stay tune!

Ref:
HDB Flat
Kopitiam
Freegan
Hello Kitty

2012 Notable Dining Experience in Singapore

Its sad that I'm summarizing most of my blogs up as I rush to close off the year 2012. It's just that so much has been happening lately, and I don't want to miss it all, yet I don't have time to blog it all in detail! Yet I have this urge to share these information out with whoever that may be interested to read them. It's my way of contributing to the cyberwide knowledge based I guess.

Anyway, here's an entry on notable dining experience in Singapore 2012 for me.

1st stop: Ember @ Duxton Hill. I told my husband I wanted to try some of the French restaurant they have at Ann Siang Hill, and him being him, we ended up at Duxton Hill at a fusion restaurant call Ember for our anniversary instead. Trust me, it all means the same to him, but TOTALLY different to me. Food at Ember was expensive, perhaps SGD60 to SGD80 per head? But the review at Hungry Go Where was good, so I was looking forward to it. Sadly, the place was rather claustrophobic or me, and the portion was really not up to the price you're paying for. No doubt lots of rich people dine there, but for me, it was really not that value for money. Taste wise, sad to say the only thing I really enjoyed was the dessert which was a french toast with nutella, bananas and vanilla ice cream, something I could totally make at home. For half the price, go Le Bistrot instead. You get awesome food there, with an awesome setting.

2nd stop, luckily for me we did managed to discover a wonderful French Restaurant that doesn't take reservation. It call Saveur @ Bras Basah, and its totally lovely! Go early to get a place, even if it means queuing before the restaurant opens. Everything is affordable on the menu and won't cost you an arm and a leg. Service is wonderfully fast and efficient. Sorry no photo of the food, but please visit it, the duck confit is my fave so far in Singapore!

3rd stop: Au Chocolate @ Marina Bay Sands. Its a lovely fantasy place to visit as the brochures promises, but a  bit flat when you actually visited the place. For such a cliche place, the food was surprisingly good, but then again, for both visit, I tried their Egg Benedict both times! Haha. Planning to go back there in January 2013 to try their Duck Confit soon. As to the service at the place? Well, considering it's Marina Bay Sand, they have a lot to brush up on at the customer service department....

Ref:
Ember
Saveur
Au Chocolate

Garden By The Bay

After the disappointment of change of venue from the Retrolicious 2012 organizer (click here to read more), we had a stroke of good luck when my in-law was too tired to go on an RC trip to the Marina Garden By the Bay. The ticket was only SGD10, and includes transfer to and from the RC at Tampines, and entrance to the two air condition dome. So of course I said yes! And drag my husband there for me. I love gardens, and I heard from my colleagues that they were having a Halloween special featuring lots of pumpkins! How could I not go? I have a weak spot for pumpkins ever since my teenage years!

 

 First dome we visited was the Flower Dome. Before going I read that it would feature different garden from different region. When I got there, there was more concrete than flora...Slightly disappointed. The only up beat thing about it was actually the Halloween patch at the center which, without it I think, would have been a rather dull expedition for me. So all my photos are on the pumpkin patch :)  enjoy!

Next was the Cloud Forest. When you first walk in, the first thing you hear is the waterfall, and once you enter, you're more or less splash with water! I love it! It was exciting and mysterious! I especially love going beneath the water wall and looking up at all the gallons of water falling down like 4 stories! It's a lovely free feeling you get. If only the could hide away all the concrete stairs and metallic canopy walks. I love the Cloud Forrest better as I find its so much more interesting, what's with the heights, the canopy walk and all that water. For ladies going there, please don't wear a skirt cause all the canopy has holes in.

Would I visit the garden again? Not unless I'm accompanying friends visiting to the spot. I wouldn't pay the full price to go as well cause it's super expensive to look at flowers growing out of a concrete garden. I would however travel to Cameron Highlight anytime to look at the flowers there :)

Ref
Garden By The Bay

2012 Entertainment

Wow it's like 4 months since I like posted. Sorry for being gone so long, work has been crazy lately, and I've been doing some crazy stuff along the way as well. It's Christmas today, and since I'm off and have completed my mountains of laundry, I thought I'll started catching up on my posting and let you know what I've been up to the last 4 months. I thought I'll update you on the entertainment sector that I've been fortunate enough to participate in.

First stop, I managed to attend a concert with two friends at the Old Parliament House a.k.a The Art House. The venue was much more impressive to me than the concert itself actually, cause it was so classical with all the legendary Singapore politician's name carved into the seats. The concert was playing music from a Russian composer mixed with Jazz performed by Singapore youth. It was a bit hard to appreciate, but they were nevertheless good.

Second stop, Ivan Heng was performing at the Esplanade so how could I miss that? So off I went to La Cage aux Folles broadway style. I fondly recall my very first play was also by Mr Heng, the legendary Emily of Emerald Hill. I totally love La Cage! It was one very touching and funny play. Highly recommended!

Third stop, was the The Hossan Leong Show that my colleague drag me too. Hossan Leong was incidentally was also in La Cage, and compared to Ivan Heng's majestic performance, I wasn't actually looking to this show very much. It was shown at the National Library, so I was rather excited about that, but nothing more. The play started, and the jokes was lame, and I mean really really lame. After half an hour, the jokes was so lame that it was headed to the other extreme of being lamely hysterical. And when he actually took off all his clothes and did the pole dance, I was totally impress and in love with him! Managed to took a picture with him after the show. Can't believe he had more make up on than me or my colleague! He also had flawless skin and is older than me or my colleague! Look at him! And look at us (hung head in shame). We love you Hossan!

 Last stop: Retrolicious 2012. The only reason I said yes to this concert was because they initially plan to held it at the Garden By The Bay, an excellent site I've never been to. But one week before the event, they announced that it will be moved back to Fort Canning :(  Boo! Since the tickets were already bought, what can we do, right? So we went. This year features Tiffany, Wang Chung, Howard Jones and Alphaville, I was only familiar with Tiffany, and didn't even like her as compared to Debbit Gibson at that time. But after the concert, I can happily confirm that she sounds better live!

 

Here's my fave photo of me and my hubby at the retrolicious 2012 concert with matching glow stick bangles!

Ref:
Old Parliament House a.k.a The Art House 
La Cae aux Folles
Ivan Heng
The Hossan Leong Show
Hossan Leong