Life's Journey

The Grand Announcement

2008-11-07T17:25:00.003+08:00

Well... Some of you may have known this big news by now.. After the previous postings on my worries on not being able to conceive as easily as others. I am proud to announce that I am going to be a mother soon!!! Haha...

I am currently 17 weeks pregnant (approx 4 months). My baby's expected delivery date is 20 April 2009. I had a separate blog to mark baby's growing journey. Its http://www.eviangal-littlestepsjournal.blogspot.com/. I had created a link for it at the side of my blog. You may login there if you are interested to know my pregnancy process. Partly due to my pregnant status, I am getting lazier and lazier in my blog's updates both the current one and the baby's one. I will try my best to update it as soon as possible.

If you are wondering the baby's gender... I will keep it a secret for now first and will reveal it after baby's detailed scan in Dec. Keke... Alright... I am getting tired now.. Will put up my posting soon... Will be going for dim sum buffet and Singapore flyer this weekend. I will blog on my recommendations as soon as possible. Tata for now...

Babymoon to Bali (30 Sept to 5 Oct)

2008-10-13T11:01:00.078+08:00

Day 1, 30th Sept

Finally!!! After five months of longg.... waiting... I am going to Bali.....Vomitted several times on the morning of depature though... As our flights to Bali was an evening one, Dear and I worked in the morning before leaving for the airport that day. Not a very good start for a trip huh... Having some spare time at the airport, we decided to take the oppurtunity to explore the newly opened Terminal 3 instead. Was rather disappointed though when we searched the terminal high and low and couldnt find the widely publicised open air aviary.. with a butterfly walk-through passage... The terminal 3 was not as spectacular as we had thought either.. Rather sparse and empty.. full of space with nothing really really worth picture taking... Grab some Burger King and off to bali we went...

The flight to Bali was a surprisingly short one. Only about 2 hours and 20 minutes. Compared to other international airports, the Bali airport was rather old and lacks renovation. We were rather tired by the time we arrived and were so glad that the hotel had arranged a one way transfer to transport us to our hotel. Our hotel is located in the Seyminak district and it is about 20 minutes ride there from the airport.

The hotel's entrance does not appear to be very inviting. However, you will be surprised as you make your way into the rooms passageway. Its a totally different world from the hotel facade. You get rows and rows of little balinese villas in a garden setting. Each villa had its own private garden, porch and outdoor bathroom. It was beautiful. Let me leave it to the pictures to do the talking....

The Front Porch

The bedroom

The Kitchenette and Outdoor Bathroom

In case you are wondering, the hotel cost US$40 per room per night. Approx S$50+ per room per night. Rather reasonable for a room in Bali. Furthermore, if you stay 3 nights or more, they would provide daily breakfast, daily fruit basket, one way airport transfer and a bottle of wine. You can refer to http://www.putubalivilla.com/ for more info or http://www.balifriendly.com/ for booking.

Day 2, 1st Oct

Too excited to sleep the night before, I woke up pretty early that day. Had intended to wake up and start the day at 7am but was already up by 6.00am. In Singapore, at 6.00am.. the sky would probably still be rather dark.. However, the sun in Bali rises and sets early... By 6.00am, the sun was already bright and shining.. Lazed a little longer in bed before we prep ourselves for the power breakfast of the day...

Breakfast was semi buffet with a pretty wide selection of food. We were allowed to have free flow of cereals, bread, sandwiches, etc and also a choice of a main course and a side course. A power breakfast session indeed.

Today was scheduled to be shopping day. There are so many shopping areas I wished to explore. One of which was this wholesale store named Geneva. Read online that it is one of the cheapest source for shopping and with the largest range of variety. Some even commented that even the locals find it cheap. According to the map, it was only a road away from our hotel. We wanted to walk there initially. However, the hotel staff encouraged us to take a cab there instead. True enough, the distance on the map and the actual distance itself can be rather decieving....

Geneva is totally packed with 3 levels of Balinese handicrafts and had shelves after shelves on products on display. There are thousands of varieties here that we simply didnt know what to buy... Pricewise, I would say its not the cheapest as acclaimed... Places such as Krisna, Tegallalang and Sukiawati could fetch you better rates if you bargain well.. Still.. its much cheaper than those you find on the streets of Kuta or Ubud market where you need to bargain real hard to get close to what Geneva is offering. Of course, if you are a good bargainer, you might get better rates. By the way, the prices shown is not the final price. There is an additional 10% tax imposed on the items. We didnt know about it till after payment. If you are still keen in visting this place for shopping, you can log on to http://www.genevahandicraft.com/ for its address. Its located in Seminyak, Jalan Raya Kerobokan.

Due to the Ramadan holiday, most of the shops along Jalan Raya Kerobokan are closed. Hence, we decided to head for the infamous tourist area.. Kuta instead. Kuta is famed for being a tourist packed shopping paradise and its beach. I went there full of hopes that I could probably grab some shopping steals here... Only to find myself ending up disappointed... Kuta does not have huge shopping malls except for the Matahari and the DFS Galleria. The rest of its shopping are either small little shops by the streets or the Art market which is also filled with stalls all selling the same stuff. One thing about Bali is that irregardless of where you go... You will see the same range of handicrafts, clothes, etc on sale. Even the designs are similar. Perhaps because I have expensive taste or something, I don't seem to take a liking for the street stuff. I ended up buying my clothes mainly from boutiques. By the way, its not a joy shopping on the streets of Kuta under the hot sun...

After some shopping and lunch, we managed to find the infamous Kuta beach which I had read so much about. The beach was indeed beautiful.. No wonder the Australians enjoy coming to Bali for surfing... The sand was pristine white and the waves was strong and clear. Its a far cry from the East Coast Park beach we had in Singapore. We were there at around 2.00+pm in the afternoon but the sun was still sorching hot... Due to the hot sun and our improper attire.. we scooted ourselves out of the beach after about 10 to 15 minutes.. No choice... City gal not suitable for sun tan activities...=p..........

Besides being packed with tourists, the beach also had several peddlars selling their wares and services dotting the shaded areas of the beach. There were peddlars selling sarongs, food, braclets, beach wear, massage services, manicure and pedicure services, hair braiding and temporary tattoo services. With a little bargaining, one could get the product or service at a pretty cheap and reasonable rate. Well.. Dear and I are not quite in the mood for a massage by the beach though... Hence we moved on from here. Tried doing a little shopping at Poppies lane near Kuta beach.. Again.. same old stuff..

FYI, this is where the second bombing in Bali had taken place. It used to be a famous bar in Kuta area. Today, the bar is gone. In place of it was a memorial stand of all who had died during the bombing session. Majority of them are Australians.

To avoid being barbequed by the sun any further, we got ourselves a cab and went to Denpensar instead. Read in the forum that there is a shop here that sells very cheap stuff. Wana check it out. Its call Krisna (Puri Nusa Indah Hotel). True to its name, the stuff sold here are indeed very reasonably price. Prices start from less than S$1. You can easily purchase several souveneirs here without hard bargaining or even hard thinking to make purchases. Definitely worth a visit.

As it is the only shop in the vincinity, we move on to another destination from here. We decided to give the local night market at Kereneng Bemo Terminal, Denpensar a visit. Rightfully, prices here are local based. However, it could be due to our inability to speak Malay and their inability Upon seeing your reaction, they immediately reduce the price by 50%. This tells you how honest they can be with prices.... Nothing much worth buying or seeing here.. Very local products.. similar to Singapore's pasar malam.. As no cabs come into this area, the cab driver who brought us here promised to return at a designated time. We waited for a while to no avail.. That's when I start to get worried.. We are stranded in a foreign place where no-one understands us, no tourists and no transport out. Lucky for us, a bemo offered to send us to our next destination... The Kumbasari market.

This is a 3 storey building by the river.. I read that it operates on a 24 hour basis. Thinking that we could do a little shopping here, I decided to pay this place a visit. Was disappointed to find the shops in the 3 storey building all closed. Only the traditional market is open. Well.. still a rather interesting sight as you realised that the locals have the habit of placing their groceries purchases in the basket on their head. Our day's journey finally ends here....

Day 3, 2nd Oct

Today, we hired driver, Nengah Polos to drive us around Bali for the next 3 days. Its going to be a long and ardous journey today as we will be travelling for hours from one place to another. Nengah had been rather patient with us and had given us much insight of Bali over the next few days. His rates are also very reasonable and he speaks English pretty well. If going to Bali, you can consider hiring him as your driver. Login to http://www.bali-day-trip.com/. You can email him for further discussion at info@bali-day-trip.com.

Our first stop is the Fruit Bats and Monkey Forest. This place has a few hundred monkeys and bats. Due to the fierce shopping competition of 200 over shops in this place, each shopkeeper will take turns to bring the tourists around and afterwhich to their shop. Tourists will most likely be obligated to purchase something from them eventually. Besides monkey running around and an old temple in the area, there is nothing much worth seeing here though... In Bali, monkeys can be seen anywhere, at Uluwatu, Tanah Lot, Ubud, etc... hence, not quite worth the 10,000 rupiah (S$1.50) entrance fee and the obligated item purchase at that place. As for the bats, most are hanging upside down high up on the trees... If you ask me, you can skip this place as well as the one in Ubud. But if you are a die hard fan of monkeys... go ahead....

Here's some monkey business pictures....

Next stop.. we make our way to a very beautiful lake that is up on the mountain. Its known as the Buyan and Tamblingan lake.. On our way there, we make a pit stop at a very scenic rice field terraces at Pacung mountain area.. The weather here is similar to what you would experience in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia.

The journey continues as we make our way up to the mountain to capture the spectacular view of Buyan lake and Tamblingan lake. The lake was indeed beautiful. Interestingly, we came across a balinese couple who were on their way to celebrate their wedding celebration stopping by the lake for a short rest. Being a new sight to tourists like us, we got Polo's help to speak to the couple on having a picture taken with them.

Done with the Buyan lake, we move on to visit the Bratan lake, also known as temple in the lake. The temple by the Buyan lake is known as Uludanu temple. "Ulu" means "heart" and "Danu" means lake. This temple is being dedicated to the Danu Goddess (God of lake or water). This temple is being found in the 17th century by Mengwi. It has 3 courts. The outside, middle and inner. The inner court is restricted to only certain group of worshippers who would want to have a close contact of worship with their Gods.

We break for lunch here. Instead of patronising the touristy restaurants, we highlighted to Polos that we would like to try the local food the same way as the locals do. Hence, for only 5000 rupiah (S$0.75) per bowl, we got ourselves a bowl of Bakso (noodles with meatballs). Cheap it may be but Dear commented that the meatballs taste funny. Its like eating plastic.. In addition, the quantity is not quite sufficient.. So much for cheap huh....

According to our itinerary for the day, we were supposed to stop by Taman Ayun temple before moving onto Uluwatu for its sunset dance. Having seen several temples in a day, we are getting rather sick of it and requested for a change of place instead. Polos suggested that we visit the dreamland beach in Jimbaran area. As it is a private beach, each person are being charged 5000 rupiah (S$0.75) for entrance fee. Worth paying that nominal fee though.. The beach here is even nicer than what we see in Kuta. In addition, they had cliffs and corals as part of the beach backdrop.

At around 5pm, we leave Jimabaran beach for Uluwatu. Uluwatu is at the far end of Bali. Despite having travelling several hours from Buyan lake to Jimbaran, its still another 1 hour journey to Uluwatu temple... We need to be at Uluwatu by around 6.00pm to be in time for the Sunset Kecak dance at 6.30pm. The Kecak dance is a dance performance by 50 half naked man continuously chanting the words: Cak- ke cak- Cak-ke Cak in rhythm. This is a performance with no music accompaniment. The story is based on a Ramayna epic. Ticket fee costs 100,000 rupiah (S$15) per person. As the chant "chak" sounds like the hokkien word "Chiak" = eat.. Dear had been performing the Kecak dance for me before dinner everytime.. haha...

The beautiful sunset

We were so tired at the end of the day from the various sightseeing that we requested Polos send us to the nearest Macdonald's to take away our dinner for that evening. We had dinner in the hotel that night. We were sooo... drained out and tired.. we just simply couldnt move another inch.....

Today, we checked out of Putu Bali Villa and proceed onto the other side of Bali..Ubud.. Read sooo.. much about this place. Most people commented that it is better here at Ubud than Kuta due to its tranquility and cool weather.. Wasn't really sure about that.. but we are definitely very keen to see this place for ourselves..

On our way to Ubud, Polos brought us to his hometown area.. Batubulan to get some stone carvings ornaments first. This place is where most stone carvers produce their wares at. It was a long stretch of streets with homes behind the shop front probably selling different types of stone carvings. In Singapore, a huge piece of wall carving display could easily cost S$500. In Batubalan, you will be surprised at the opening price.. A wall carving display of approx the same size cost less than S$100 per piece (That is the non negiotiated price somemore..) Prices could be further reduced with a little bargaining... If not for my luggage allowance and our concerns on shipping costs, I would really love to lug back a few pieces of the beautiful stone carvings home.. And there we have Dear nagging away on weight and stuff.. so we only managed to buy a stone carved lamp at only $12 and 2 x 3-panel stone carvings frame at $6 each...

With some time to stash.. Polos suggested that we do a short stop over at Sukawati market to have a rough idea of the prices sold here. He mentioned that compared to other parts of Bali, this market sell stuff at rather low prices that are catered to the locals as it is like a wholesale area... Still... bargaining is required.

After lunch, we went onto Gunung Kawi.. This is a temple with very beautiful stone sculptures... Problem is there are more than 200 steps to climb. Furthermore, the weather is not very friendly.. With my previously acquired sun burnt, the trip here only come to worsen my skin condition... Entrance fees and sarong required. You can rent the sarongs for a nominal donation.

Blessings of holy water before entering the temple...

Beautiful ricefields at Gunung Kawi

The local river life

After the "skin barbequeing" session... we moved on to a cooler attraction, Kintamani town where an active volcano, Mount Batur lies. This volcano had erupted several times over the past few centuries. The largest eruption occured in 1926 which had the entire Batur village destroyed. The village had to be relocated as a result of it. Another black lava eruption took place in 1974 and till today, black smoke could be seen emitting from the mouth of the volcano at times. For a clearer look of the volcano, one could take part in the sunrise tour which starts from as early as 2.00am in the morning (depending on which part of Bali you stay in). The cost of transport and a tour guide hire starts from 350,000 rupiah per person.

Not being the early bird kind.. nor do we have the stamina to climb the ardous journey, we could only view the volcano from a distance. The best view of the volcano could be seen from the newly relocated Penekolan village. The climate at Kintamani is rather cooling.. Its similar to the climate in Lake Batur where you get to enjoy natural air-con.

View of Mount Batur and the Lake

If you are not already sick of rice fields... here's another picturesque ricefield view at the Tegallalang village.

This is a long stretch of little shops who manufacture the handicraft items that you find selling at places such as the Ubud market. Being the manufacturer, needless to say.. prices are very reasonable. You don't even need to bargain much as the prices are very low already... However, you do face some sky high prices at times... =(..... Note: Not all shops are willing to sell the retail items.. Some shops only had sample pieces on display. If you would like to purchase them, an order had to be placed. Some shops don't even entertain retail pieces. Hence, you had to check with the shop owner when you actually had your heart set on an item.... We faced a few disappointing moments when the shop owner refused to sell their wares to us.....

After a full day of touring.. its time we retreat back to our new hotel to refresh and recharge ourselves. This is the number 1 rated hotel in Ubud (or even Bali) by the Virtual Tourists reviewers.. To book your choice room, one had to book about 5 to 6 months in advance. If you are lucky, a few days could get you your choice room too. In my case, I was unable to get my 1st choice (the duplex - a 2 storey room) nor the wooden room despite 5 months of advance booking. Still.. I managed to get one of the popular, new rooms in that area.. Speak about Kiasuism...

This wonderful hotel is known as Tegal Sari, Ubud. More info can be obtained from http://www.tegalsari-ubud.com/. My room cost approx S$80 per room per night. Its room number 24. If you would like to book a room in Tegal, its reccommended that you research on the different room numbers and specify the room that you would want to book. As it is highly recommended online, many people had posted their room pictures and its number online. You can view the different rooms design before you check with the hotel on its availability.. Super hot hotel....

Steps up to our hotel room (Very private corner.. just for us.. keke...)

The balcony and its view

The living room area

As we were honeymooners, a special set up was made at the bed and the bathroom.. So sweet... We were so happy when we saw the lovely swans set up...

The bathroom area

After a long soak in our lovely bathtub.. we took the hotel's shuttle service to the central of Ubud for some exploration. Ubud is like a small town. You can easily cover it within a day or less. As it was already late, we went for dinner first. Dinner was one of the longest we had in Bali... 15 to 20 minutes to have our order taken. 45 minutes of food waiting and 20 minutes to complete our food. The food taste was pretty good but the long waiting time is enough to kill. Did a little shopping at the shops that were still opened and had the hotel shuttle us back for yet another day's rest.

Day 4, 4th Oct

At Tegal, breakfast could be served in the room as you sit in the balcony and enjoy the view of the rice fields. Compared to Putu Bali, the breakfast choice offered is rather limited. However, you can choose to order additional side orders at a rather nominal fee. We had additional bacons for only around S$1. As we had a lot of nasi goreng at Putu Bali previously, we avoided ordering that.. My recommendations would be the Tegal Sari banana pancake and the breakfast set that comes with eggs of your choice, bacon and toast.

The Swimming Pool

Outdoor Massage and Gym

Today's plan was to explore Ubud in the morning and later depart for our luxurious spa at Semana Villa. It would be a day of relaxation. As the hotel provide free shuttle services within Ubud area, we arranged for it to bring us to Ubud market for some shopping. Read that the Ubud market is a great place for shopping if you can bargain hard. Dear and I seem to think likewise though.. We find the things similar to other areas and not accustomed to our taste. In addition, prices are quoted rather high. Even after deducting the quoted price by 50%, you still can't claim it as reasonable. After some pestering from shop owners, we decided to give the place a miss. Instead, we heeded the Polos advice and tried walking our way to Tegallalang for some cheap finds.

According to Polos, its only about a 10 minute to 20 minute walk from Ubud Central to Tegallalang. I beg to differ. It was a long route there. Dear and I walked for about 30 to 45 minutes before we even reach the end of the Tegallalang street. We continued walking for another 1 hour or so under the hot sun without much stuff worth seeing as you keep seeing the same old stuff over and over again.. and to make matters worst... no cafes or restaurants around.. We gave up after some time and tried to hitch a taxi back.. One thing about Ubud was you cant tell which is a taxi. There are no clear cut taxis here. Most people drives a private car and would offer you rides at a price. If you are interested, the deal is close. If not, try again. And most of the time, they will ask if you need a ride or not. You faced this all the time when walking in Bali, especially Ubud.

To cut the long story short, we finally got back to Ubud and settled for lunch at this nice little restaurant besides the Ubud Palace. Cant quite remember the name now.. But what you see in the picture below is a dish that offers 9 different Balinese specialities. It allows us to try 9 different dishes at one time. And its delicious. Not very costly either. The meal cost less than S$20 for 2 with drinks included.

P.S: Dont be fooled by the serving size.. Its actually very filling...

After lunch, we still had some time to kill before our spa session starts. Dear and I tried exploring Ubud town from where we left off the day before. It wasnt very long before we decided to stop walking and just grab some drinks whilst we wait for the spa session to come. There is just nothing really worth seeing especially under the extreme heat and sun. Managed to capture a picture or two at the Lotus Pond in the Ubud Palace though....

Finally.. its time for our spa session. A vehicle had been arranged to drive us there. Due to a computer glitch, our spa session had to be delayed till 6.00pm instead of the previous 3.00pm slot... Sighz.. we are going to miss out on the scenary as a result of it... Even though our spa session was at 6.00pm, we wanted to enjoy the hotel's facilities first before indulging in the session.

The swimming pool overlooking the Ayung river....

In trance, as we relax in the bale bengong by the riverside........

Pure relaxation and meditation........

As hi tea was also provided, we enjoyed our tea by the poolside as well.. Soon, it was time for our spa treatment. Due to my "new" condition, there were quite a number of restrictions for me. The only spa treatment suitable for me was the "Summer Rain" spa treatment which comprises of a foot soak, body scrub, flower bath and a massage to end it all.. Its US$65 and subject to 21% taxes. The hotel had been very generous in offering us a 15% discount. Our spa treatment adds up to about S$100 per person after all taxes and discounts. More info can be obtained from http://www.villasemana.com/

Needless to say, we enjoyed our spa session throughly.. Every section of the treatment was heavenly.. As I had some sunburnt on my shoulders, certain areas could be better if not for the slight abrasion... To further enhance our spa experience, we were also served some chicken drumsticks, popiah and fruit juice during the flower bath.. Hmmm.. yummilicious.... In fact, we enjoyed the spa session sooo.. much, we both felt that it had been one of the best part of the trip and wouldn't mind going for it again.

The flower footbath

Open air area for body scrub

Flower bath by the riverside and waterfall

Massage beds overlooking the Ayung river

To top off our wonderful evening, we made reservations at Lamak, a slightly higher class restaurant to end our babymoon holiday on a sweet note. Had wanted to go for Bebek Bengil initially (dirty duck restaurant) but was strongly discouraged by the spa owner. He mentioned that the restaurant is very dirty in its food handling procedures and suggested we try other restaurants instead. This was one of the most expensive meal we had so far, the total bill came up to almost S$45.

Cheap you might say... but haha... we are a rather budget concious couple...

Day 5, 5th Oct

Today marked the last day of our trip. Not knowing where else to go to in Ubud.. we decided to give Tegallalang another shot. This time round, we hired a bemo for 2 hours to ferry us through the various shops and stopping only at places where we find stuff interesting to us. After much bargaining and search for a driver, we found a badly maintained car at 75,000 rupiah.. Its not that bad though.. except that it has no doors nor cushy seats.. Well.. price is more important to us in this case... We were probably there too early... as most of the shops are still not open when we arrived. We were there at 9.00am.. Sighz... should have gone there later.... Managed to buy more stuff this time round.. the most fruitful trip of the 3 times in which we had been there...

Back to Ubud.. okay.. lets search for lunch then... we are no longer in the mood of shopping in Ubud...for a very simple reason... You can get the same stuff at a much lower price from Tegallalang or Sukiawati market. As we will be spending the rest of the day at Sukiawati market, we decided to take it slow here. Lunch was rather interesting... Dear had his green curry served in a coconut husk... It was delicious.. Mine was more simple.. Pork... I think.. but forgot what sauce was in served in now...

Polos came to pick us from the hotel later in the afternoon. We proceed to Sukiawati market for our last minute shopping purchases till around 6.00+pm before we leave for the airport. From there we bade Bali goodbye.....

Personal Bali Thoughts

It could be because I am too accustomed to being a city girl... I find the weather in Bali very atrocious.. Not being a person who enjoyed being tanned... I dont quite enjoy myself basking in the sun most of the time.

Its a great place for a short 3 days getaway just to relax, enjoy the nature and spa.. but shopping is highly not reccommened. I wonder why the "Ang Mohs" enjoy shopping so much here.. To me.. there is really nothing much to buy.. We do have some regrets to not making certain purchases though.... Great place for honeymooners...

Quick Post for The Week

2008-09-22T10:17:00.002+08:00

Yup.. I know.... its been more than a month since I last updated my blog... Well... some plans didnt really work out nicely.. ended up with no mood to touch my blog nor even read it till now... Ok.. enough crap... I wanted to post some pictures on a mini mooncake festival with Yaling and Dear initially with pictures taken by my new camera... but always so plain lazy to upload the pictures... Ended up till now also havent post...

Nothing interesting to write lately... Lazing around at home most of the time these days... Hardly any mood to go out... Ironically... if I get cooped up at home tooo much... I would start feeling sick and cant wait to go out for some fresh air....Sighz... I am sooooo... lonely... Besides seeing Dear everyday and every weekend, I hardly see anyone else... Even the gal gang seems so busy that even a meal out seems soo tough....

To the brighter side... leaving for my "honeymoon" trip to Bali in about a week's time... I could hardly wait!!! Ahem.. except that my situation is a little different now... Hope I could still enjoy the trip bah... Will update with pictures and of course the Bali trip soon.... So long guys!!!

Night Safari (16 August)

2008-08-22T17:17:00.011+08:00

First the Day Zoo... Now.. Night Safari... After fish spa at Qian Hu that day, Alan and Jieying, Dear and I continued our day's outing at the night safari...

Join us on our night journey now... This way please....

Welcome to Night Safari!!!! Ulu Ulu......

Warm welcome of native music.. Bang.. Thump... Bong...

Ew.... What's that... A Python... Do you dare to put it round your neck??

With all the pictures and stuff, it was almost 7.00pm.... There's a tribal dance show at this time.. Its right beside the Bongo Burgers restaurant. Wanted to dine here initially, so we went hunting for a table which had a good view of the stage.. Managed to snuggle at some seats around the bar.

And the show begins.... A rather interesting side as you see the performers dressed in the tribal costumes dancing around, shooting mouth arrows and spit out fire from their mouth.. They had to drink something, hold it in their mouth before they light the torch and blow. I wonder is it kerosene... Seems rather dangerous huh... I wouldnt have dared to try that myself... The show lasted for about 30 minutes.

Nearing the finale.. Fire spits from several of them. Dear did not manage to capture the finale. It was rather spectacular....

After the show, its time to satisfy our fumbling stomachs. Being a Citibank cardholder, we are entitled to a 20% discount at Bongo burgers. Dear and I went to check out the prices. It was rather expensive. Firstly, burgers were min $10. Drinks were a seperate cost of $5. As Citibank had a 1 for 1 buffet promotion at Ulu Ulu restaurant, we decided to go for that instead. Its only $5 more per person at $20nett after discount and we get to enjoy International buffet spread and desserts too... Hmmm.. this is better....

The restaurant interior.. Not bad huh... The idea is to create it like a village. People can either choose ala carte or buffet.. Ala carte prices are not cheap too.. but it serves grills.. which smells good!!!

Yayyy... FOOD!!!!!

Sweet.. Sweet Moments....

It was 8.45pm now.. We have just finished dinner. Problem is... its almost 9.00pm... and we have yet to step foot into the night safari... Oh No!!! Lucky for us, the park closes at 12 midnight... It opens from 7.00pm to 12 midnight daily... Restaurants and gift shops operates from 6.00pm. Admission fees is $22.70 for adult (not inclusive of tram rides.) I am not very sure about child price though... As we had bought our tickets from the passion card deal, it only costs us $10 each... hiak..hiak.. hiak...

Alright lah... enough crap... let's go in... no more time to waste..... Got your tickets... Excuse me sir... we are here for the night safari... Here's my ticket...

As it was almost time for the next show at 9.30pm, before we even have a chance to explore the park, the night safari staff advised that we start queueing for the animal show first... Quite boring just waiting there lah... So what we do??? keke... We played around with light sticks....

Chain of Light Hearts..........

Finally.. after the wait of about 30 to 45 minutes... we are ready to go in for the show.. As flashes are strictly prohibited during the show.. most of the pictures taken are either blur or not clear... So not much pictures to share... We were warned that by using flash, the animals might be frightened or might be provoked and attack us.... So.... DONT USE YOUR FLASH PLEASE!!!

And the performance begins....

These cute little otters were rather "li hai" (Chinese for good). They were able to differentiate between plastic, metal and paper and put the respective items into the recycle bin. Due to their size, they had some problems with the metal cans.. Rather funny.. haha...

The animals can appear from all directions. One of this.. cant quite remember the name liaoz... looks like a beaver.. walk across the rope at the audience area and hang itself upside down.. We were once again reminded not to use flash at this juncture. Using flash cameras will cause the animal to lose its grip and fall.. It might injure the animal....

This python that you see here was in fact hidden under the seats amongst the audience on the left aisle.. Lucky it was not under my seat, I would have freaked!!! Snakes were my biggest phobia... There were screams amongst the crowd when they said an animal is hiding amongst us... It is really scary if you are the one seating on it...

The show ended at 10.00pm after a full 30 minutes of animals' performance. Well.. I must say, it was pretty worth the wait.... But then.... we only have 2 hours left to explore the park... At this time, I suggested that we take the tram instead. Its a 45 minutes ride around the park and covers most of the attractions with a stop over in between. Choosing to walk would require 1 hour to cover the 3 walking parks. Hence, we got the tram tickets instead.

Finally, got the tram tickets.. Quite ex lorz... $10 per person... but it covers almost the whole park... As no flashes were allowed, capturing the animals clearly posed to be a very difficult feat.. Saw many interesting animals such as the hyenas, etc during the ride... Didn't manage to capture any decent shots in the dark. Here's some pictures from the Night Safari website - http://www.nightsafari.com.sg/.

Pit Stop at the East Lodge! We alighted here and went on the fishing cat walking trail and the leopard trail... This is taken at a very interesting cafe that uses Zebra as their theme...

With very much patience and balance, Dear managed to capture 2 very clear shots of the animals in action... Yes... sadly only 2.... but he tried very hard liaoz... No flash... very difficult to take good pictures...

Its 11.00+pm now... Very close to closing time, off we went back to the East lodge in wait of the 2nd half of the tram journey... Due to the number of people and the lack of tram seats, we actually had to wait for a few trams.. before we could actually board one... Waste soo... much time waiting that I couldnt visit the last trail... Also the one I have been looking forward to because of its suspension bridge....

The tram ride ended at almost 12 midnight.. 10 minutes to closing... The gift store was still open... Went in for a peek..

Some final shots before we say goodbye to Night Safari.... Hoot... Hoot.... Some people said that there is really not much to see in Night Safari.. It had been a rather fun night out for the 4 of us... Wouldnt mind going again... but not in the near future lah....

Qian Hu Fish Spa (16 August)

2008-08-22T13:31:00.011+08:00

Its been sometime now since I last updated my blog. Rather busy at work lately after I had joined the company's recreation club. Here's an update on my latest outing faze.. We went for fish spa again.. This time round, its Qian Hu - Singapore.

I have heard of fish spa at this place before but I do not know how is it like to experience fish spa here. At present, this is the cheapest fish spa outlet in Singapore. It charges only $10 per 30 minutes session. For people who finds Qian Hu too out of the way.. Fret not! Free shuttle bus services are provided on regular intervals of about 20 minutes from Choa Chu Kang and Boon Lay Interchange. More information on the bus schedule can be obtained from http://www.qianhu.com/.

As all of us have not been to this place before, we decided to make a tour of it. The group for today includes my 2 cousin in laws: Yaling and Yazi and colleague Jieying and her boyfriend, Alan. Not forgetting of course, Dear and me.

Let us first explore the indoor aquarium..

Exploring the fishes... In Qian Hu.. most of the fishes are free for you to catch with the pails and nets and hand it to the counter for payment. Being a person who does not quite know how to appreciate fishes except on the dinner plate, I find these aquarium rather expensive.

Note: These fishes are sick and had to be quarantined. They are not for sale.

Let us now move on to the outdoor landscape garden where most of the attractions are.. The outdoor garden is rather small in size. It comprises of a koi feeding pool, a pool for some tortoise rearing, small kelong for children to catch fishes and some pools for the fish spa. Koi and turtle feed is at $2 per packet I think. For children between 3 to 12 years old and wish to experience the kelong fishing like their parents during kampung days is at $5 for 30 minutes. The fishes are very, very small...

Cute turtles in the turtle pool...

An overall view of the place

Finally, let's go for the fish spa.. For $10, you get a 30 minutes session of fish spa in the pool, towels and slippers. Every minute counts. If you exceed the given time, you will be charged at $0.30 for each additional minute. They would give you some time grace as it takes time for one to wash the legs, change shoes etc.....

Let's change our footwear first.

Alrighety.. lets start dipping... It must have been rather ticklish for Yaling and Yazi seem a little squeamish at first......

The fishes are rather small and probably due to the size of the pool and number of people, I dont find the feeling as great as the one in Kampong Fish Therapy or Malacca. In the previous 2 fish spas, fishes were at least 10 times bigger. The fishes in these pools were rather 'ini machiam' in Malay (=tiny)... To make it worse, they were rather sparse.. There were indeed fishes coming to bite your feet but in Kampong fish therapy and Dr Fish Spa, Melaka.. the fishes never leaves you. Even when you lift your feet and expose only your heels, the fishes still continues to nibble at it.

Being first timers, Alan and Jieying were rather cool about the experience. But when asked to go over to the bigger fishes pool... Jieying was rather jittery about it.. In fact, none of the group wana try out the big fishes with Dear and me.

Bored with the tiny fishes, Dear and I decided to give this a shot!

The fishes are indeed much bigger here. In fact, it is probably 50 times bigger than what we faced in Malacca or even at Kampong fish therapy... And when it bites, you can really feel its mouth nibbling at you.. Unlike the previous fishes whereby you only feel small little sensations, the big fishes here gives you much greater sensation.. Rather fun I must say... This is where I got squeamish too.. keke... Sadly.. only spent 10 minutes here... Not quite enough....

The big fish I was talking about.. What do you think? Is it really BIG BIG?? (P.s: FYI, those hairy legs are obviously not mine... They belonged to Dear..)

See how cool Dear look even when he is being nibbled by the big fishes...

30 minutes sure passes by rather quickly.. before we know it.. TIME's UP!! The whole group all agree that 30 minutes is definitely not enough... The next time round when we come, we would go for a 1 hour session straight. Anywayz.. it only costs $20 for 1 hour. Compared to other fish spas.. its rather cheap... Yaling and I somehow still missed the one in Melaka where we could do a full body dip.

National Day Celebration (9 August)

2008-08-11T23:07:00.002+08:00

Count on me Singapore... Count on me Singapore... Count on me to give my best and more.. Together Singapore... Singapore... Together Singapore... Singapore...... Its 9th August... The day Singapore gained its independence 43 years ago... The national day is celebrated nationwide every year of this day at the national parade previously at Singapore Indoor Stadium.. In recent years, the national parade is held at the new floating platform...

Its extremely difficult to get the National Day parade tickets every year.. So this time round.... We had gal gang gathered at my house for the national day celebration... Yeah.... Instead of watching the parade at the floating platform.. we watched it live at Home from my very own TV set. Dressed in red or white and holding the National Day flag.. boy.. we are soo... in the mood to celebrate the nation's birthday....

Enjoying our dinner of Canadian pizza and KFC over dinner whilst the parade showed pretty displays of the aero jets flying in the sky....

Jeral was the commentator of the day as she gave live updates of the parade's action.

Sing - along with us, the National Day songs.... Stand Up for Singapore! Do the Best you can......

The National Anthem

Mari kita ya yat Singapura sa sama sama luju....

And the Pledge....

We the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people... Regardless of race, lanuage or religion..........

At the Floating Platform.........

The crowd cheered on at the parade

At HOME...

the group enjoying ourselves with the national day parade and wii....

Our group birthday wishes for Singapore!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!!!! FROM ALL OF US!!!!

And Finally... The Fireworks....... Whooo.....

National day parade may be over...BUT NOT for us.... haha....

After the national day parade, the mood suddenly starts to change... Winnie became the stylist for the day... as she transforms Jeral with a new hairdo....

Curling Jeral's hair with the curler....

Preparing model gal for her photoshoot

And here's our very own Gal Gang cover gal...

Princess Jeral

Note: To all potential young men out there... Drop me a comment if you wish to know sweet, pretty, demure Jeral... (P.s: Jeral is going to kill me for this)

The day is finally over at 3.00+am... The gang camped over at my house that night... Here's some pictures of us in action before we zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......................................

GOOOOODNIIIGGGHHHHTT... YAWNNN....

Exploring Sembawang (3 August)

2008-08-07T09:51:00.006+08:00

We had moved into Sembawang for some time now... since December 2007 but still we do not really know what we have around us. To start with.. Sembawang is a very small town in the Northern district of Singapore. Compared to the big players like Woodlands or Yishun.. Sembawang is much more subtle. E.g. It only has a small miserable shopping centre.. Sun Plaza..

With our newly bought bicycle, we went on our mini expedition around this small town. Started off at 5.00+pm on Sunday (after all the houseworks are done...) Yah.. I know.. the pictures quality are a little sucky... its taken with my Nokia phone camera.. so it will be rather pixelated. Please bear with it.. I am getting a new camera real soon... waiting for the upcoming computer fair at the end of the month.

With just one bicycle, we encircle the Sembawang area going wherever we like... Finally saw the one and only wet market in Sembawang. Quite small and about 10 minutes from my house. Nothing much to see though.. Forgot to take a picture of it for posting here. FYI, its rather near the Northlink factory (industrial building which houses a lot of furniture, car, etc manufacturers.

Found this very nice park called Montreal Green in Canberra, Sembawang which we could see from the MRT whilst travelling home from work. Its rather new. It has some very interesting features. Well.. would have been nicer if they switch on the water supply...

Some of the Park's Features

Looking for a place to BBQ, they have BBQ pits for rent here. I think the booking fee is about $20. Booking could be made via AXS stations, online or through Sembawang town council.

From here, we went further out..towards the back area of Sembawang. Was told that there were alot of good food near the previous Sembawang shopping centre (now under development). But the food there were mainly seafood and looked so pricey and commercialised. Decided not to dine there for fear of end up as a "carrot head" (kena cheated)...

FYI, this is a new shopping centre in Sembawang that is under developement now.. The previous one was doing so badly in business that they had no choice but to tear it down and redevelop it. It is estimated to be ready in the 1st quarter of 2010. Well.. I hope they provide free shuttle services... its quite a distance from the MRT station... Hopefully it will be as good as IMM or better.... After all, the builders of this place, Capitaland had successfully built many great malls across Singapore.....

Was trying to find where this Sembawang beach was.. but... both Dear and I are poor road navigators... so ... yah.. you guessed it, we couldnt find the beach and ended up in Yishun instead... Went for Nasi Lemak opposite Chong Pang City... Reasonably priced, it has a wide variety of nasi lemak delectables.. This place is only opened from 5.00pm onwards and sells till dawn. Long queue throngs the place most of the time. Dear and I had a selection of 4 dishes and 3 dishes respectively (including 1 drumstick) for only $6.20..... To me... its cheap liaoz... Ever paid $5.20 before for a plate of Malay rice in Raffles Place with only 1 drumstick, 1 potato and an omelette... The most expensive Malay rice I had ever eaten.

Done with dinner and we off to return to Sembawang district. Passed by some very nice latern displays in front of Jelutung Community Centre.. The actual latern display was rather nice.. however, due to my lousy phone camera... pictures may not turn out as nice as the actual... Here's some latern treats to get you in to the mood for the upcoming latern festival....

Under the Sea theme

Singapore Garden Festival (01 August 2008)

2008-08-06T23:00:00.000+08:00

Went to the Singapore Garden Festival with Winy and Puifong recently. Didnt had the intention to go initially until kacee sent an email to us 1 day before the end of the show to check if we are going... And yes... we finally went on the last day of the show....

The flowers were so beautiful.. The artists were able to make use of the different types of flowers gathered worldwide to come up with beautiful pieces of arts. There were a number of themes in the exhibition hall. I simply couldnt believe that we could have beautiful landscapes created in hot and wet Singapore. Its really an eye opener for us all.

We were so appalled with the displays that we didnt know where to start... ?????

Felt like I am in mystical fairytale land when I saw this....

Don't really know what theme this is but I guess, it feels kind of like Autumn doesnt' it?

This exhibit here was a Gold award winner...

More exhibits at the show

Can you see Marilyn Monroe in the picture with Fangz?? FYI, this Marilyn Monroe was make up of real plants...

The flower festival show even had hospitality tentages serving food and drinks for free!!! (favourite Singaporeans word) to all at the show... and of cos... people were drove in bunches to these tentages for the free food... Not knowing that there were free food.. The three of us actually spent a bomb at the food court in Suntec... $4.50 for a plate of Chicken rice... Very expensive rightz??

Anywayz.. as we were there rather late.. (near closing time).. most of the food had already been wiped out.. leaving behind only empty trays with some scraps... sighz... should have known earlier... keke...

The atmosphere in the Singapore Garden was rather nice. There was also a tentage for couples who are getting married to hold their solemnisation there. I have a friend who held her solemnisation there to a party of 25 people. I was told that the rental was $2000 for the venue rental and food was $30 per head for hi tea or something like that.. cant quite remember the exact cost... I believe it will be rather lovely to hold the solemnisation here.. given the nice atmosphere.. Only downside was the lights were a little too dim....

The Singapore flower festival was being split into 2 levels. Level 4 and Level 6. Level 6 is the main exhibition hall with all the beautiful flower sculptures. Whilst level 4 was more like a market place selling all kinds of gardening stuff for budding or seasoned botantist who loves to have their own gardens at home. It also features orchids display and works of the schools and communities.

I was trying to scout for some nice items to buy home. However, as it was close to closing hour, most of the stalls are either sold out or are happily keeping their wares. It is after all the last day of the exhibition and they had cashed in enough sales during the first few weeks of the exhibition. There were however still some stalls trying to clear their leftovers before they pack and go. Managed to get a free packet of fertilizer for my mother inlaw though.. (Despit winy teasing me for getting a packet of fertilizer when all the plants I maintained at home were fake.)...

Well.. and of course... we ended our flower festival here.... Till next year....

Baby Woes Updated

2008-08-06T10:08:00.004+08:00

There are soo many things that I would like to write about.. such as an unhappy dinner incident a few days ago.. or a free trading seminar that focuses more on advertising the paid trading course that cost $4888!!! Crazy right??!! or my discussion with mum last night on babies.....

Anyway, this is about my entry on baby woes posted earlier. I should have post this update sooner but was too absorbed with other postings that I left this out! My last visit to KK Hospital was attended by a different doctor this time. The doctor told me a somewhat different story from the second doctor I consulted. One problem with KKH. The doctors assigned to you are different everytime and you keep getting different opinions from them.

This doctor told me that its very normal to have cyst on the ovaries. She added that Victoria Beckham had this problem too and is now a mother of 3 children. In addition, I have regular "menstural flow".... my so called problem is not major at all. She assured me that I am normal and suggested I try for a baby over the next 4 months. She will review my condition again 4 months later to check if I am successful in my baby making task.. Otherwise.. they may have to review my baby making strategies... keke... and who knows what the next doctor in line will tell me this time....

Well... I am half hearted on baby making (to be honest). On one hand, I wish I could have my own child soon... On the other hand, I do not wish to end my merry making days so soon.. Besides.. if I am the first to give birth.. There will be some form of age gap between my child and gal gang's future children... Sometimes our topics are already different... with the child, there will be even more differences... Sighz...

Whatever the case is, we just leave this to the hands of God... Should I really get pregnant one day, you can be sure that I will keep you guys posted on the progress.. keke... =)

Retro Moments

2008-08-05T10:45:00.020+08:00

A Go Go Times

August 1964 Issue

Editor Notes of A Go Go Times

Welcome to A Go Go Times. This month's highlight is to relive the wedding moments of Mr and Mrs Lai Guoxiong held in March this year. They had a wedding theme of Modern, Retro, Shanghai and Traditional. A Go Go Times will be doing an exclusive coverage of their Retro wedding moments. Scroll down for more information.

In addition, we had some very interesting advertisements from our sponsors. Do check them out.

Love

A Go Go Vienz...
Editor

Disclaimer: All information stated here are for fun only. Please do not take it seriously. Any similarities to any person, subject or thing is coincidental...

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Highlight of the Month

Mr and Mrs Lai had decied to tie the knot on 15 March 2008 at Raffles Country Club. They had the theme of transcending through time. With programmes and costumes based on 4 different eras. Their wedding featured eras of 2000s, 1960s, 1930s and 1800s.

A Go Go Times is proud to be able to provide exclusive coverage of the couple's Retro theme for the evening. Read on to find out what happened.

Host of the day, Tay Hongpeng (Blue shirt) and Jeremy Teo (White Shirt) presents a video of the couple's teenage moments during their Poly dating days to the audience.

After the screening of the short video, the couple and stunt dancers, SPIDER entered the hall for a dance item.

Let's ROCK!!!

Couple rocks with their grooviest and latest dance moves of the 60s...

Dangerous stunts performed by SPIDER..

Children, please dont try this at home.

Groom - Leo getting high with the music.. Oh Yeah..

OMG!! How did they do that!!

We have come to the end of this month's issue of A Go Go Times. We hoped you had enjoyed the coverage of Mr and Mrs Lai's wedding

party.

We are currently in the midst of planning an A Go Go Christmas party of the year in December. Do get a copy of A Go Go Times - December issue.. Better still... Join us at A Go Go Times Christmas Party for a Ra Ra moment.... So long folks....

Love

Ra Ra Vienz
Editor

Museum Festival (25 July 2008)

2008-07-29T20:00:00.003+08:00

I have always hated to go museums.. To me, museums are rather boring places to visit as you browse through the old artefacts and pictures that were already there way before you are even born. Well.. that's fine.. But there are usually restrictions such as you cannot touch this.. you cannot touch that.. Only see, no touch!! Well, the National Heritage Centre should start exploring more interactive options that allows visitors to experience the olden days themselves. Having hands on stuff to try out how it feels to be a Tok Tok hawker, etc.

I must say, the recent visit to the night museum was not bad... All thanks to this "Auntie me" who is always on the look out for bargains.. recommended the gal gang for a night out at the museum due to free admissions and some activites to keep us busy for the night. Surprisingly, we only managed to cover 2 museums that evening.

First stop: National Museum

This David sculpture by Michalegeo?? or something like that greeted us upon our entrance into the museum.. Note: Parental guidance advised.

There were also some sam sui womans stationed at a counter near there too. They could be hired as guides for the evening at $2 per person per museum. Well.. why pay when we could walk around for free was our concept.. and so.. our museum journey begins.

Well.. Let's move on.... Food Gallery

Singapore food in the olden days are more or less the same as current. Local favourites such as Char Kway Teow, Laksa, Carrot Cake, etc had been widely available in the past.. The only difference with the past were the stalls used to sell these delicacies.

E.g. Tok Tok mee (currently known as fishball noodle) was sold by having a boy holding a bamboo kind of stick and knocking on it.. shouting.. Tok, Tok, Tok, Tok... Tok, Tok... and the auntie upstairs (shophouse).. will shout.. wait.. I want....

You must be wondering why I have such vivid memories of the tok tok mee... Well.. I am not born in the shophouse era yet... Saw this on those normal local dramas which screen lifestyles of the olden days...

Fangz and me savouring the smell of the satay stall.. There is really the aromatic smell of Satay emitting from the stall...

Pull and smell the spices used in traditional Singapore food...

Guess the purpose of each equipment.

The Movies Gallery

Music has always been enjoyed by people irregardless of which era you comes from. Today, we have MP3s, DVD players, CD players, etc... In the past, only the rich could afford a radio or even a gramophone like the one shown in the picture.

As there were no TVs.. One of the entertainment in the past were watching outdoor movies. These outdoor cinemas have rows of benches and a big screen at the open field for people to gather and watch their shows. Tickets were very cheap then.. I think 10 cents, 20 cents.. Today.. a movie ticket cost at least $7.50 (weekdays) and $10.50 (weekends). See how much inflation has kicked in... Here's a vague impression of movies in the olden days.. (Yes.. its black and white.. no such thing as colour yet...)

Goofing around with light sticks in the "theatre"....

Besides outdoor movie, the opera is another form of entertainment for people in the past. The actors and actresses were be heavily make up and will wear exaggerated performance costumes as they play our characters of the epic tales on stage. Some could be mystical and legendary like Sun Wu Kong, Lady White Snake, etc.. whilst some could be based on historical events. The Chinese opera goes a long way back to the Chinese dynasty times.

The Fashion Gallery

No matter which era you belongs to.. fashion is always on the go for woman (especially)... They are always ready to follow the latest trends and designs... Fashion brings us into the clothes that people in the past used to wear... Quite similar to the fashion today though... Why not?? Retro is BACK!!!

By the way, I used to have this.. I think it belongs to my grandma.. Could have been an antique item... if we have not dumped it when we moved house...

Tired of seeing all the exhibits, we decided to head out... There were some interesting exhibits out there. E.g. The exhibt: "Baby, where are all the fine things you had promised me?" It featured a grown eurasian man in a tiny little house. He was playing the guitar when I peeped in.. Couldnt see his face.. could only figure out his legs.. Boy, he looks big!! How did he get in there??

Finally, 10.05pm... the display of the light show.. the highlight of the evening. This group of artistes from Australia are going to make use of light effects to turn the buildings of the National museum and National art museum into fine pieces of arts. It was beautiful... There were 11 designs showcased that night.. Here's a selective few....

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Design 4 and 5

There were a total of 5 museums open that evening.. but we were rather tired after the National museum... Still we made our way to the newly opened Peranakan museum for a peek.

It could be because we were tired or something, we dont really find the Peranakan museum attractive. The Peranakan museum had 10 categories of exhibits spread in a shophouse of about 3 levels. Some of the interesting ones are stuff such as Wedding and Food.

At this point in time, we have come to the end of our journey...

Till next year...

Escape to Wild Wild Wet (26 July 2008)

2008-07-29T11:06:00.000+08:00

As an NTUC member, one is entitled to a free entry to both Escape theme park and Wild Wild Wet during the birthday month. Being a bargain hunter, I just dont wish to let this chance slipped by.. Hence, I cooked up the excuse that its Dear's birthday and "tricked" him to go with me... keke... Escape usual admission price is $17.70 for adult and $14.70 for NTUC member. Using my usual bargain sense, I managed to purchase a theme park ticket from another forummer at only $8. keke..

As for Wild Wild Wet, the usual ticket price is $13.80 and $10.80 for NTUC member. As I did not manage to meet the forummer for the purchase of another $8 ticket, we bought it at the member's price. Still cheap...

Leaving home for downtown east.... (Long journey there....)

Finally reached. Dear had to work that day so we only managed to reach at around 3.00+pm.

First Stop: Escape Theme Park

P.S: Dear had wanted to go to Wild Wild Wet first. As there were certain rides in Wild Wild Wet that I am scared of playing, I am afraid that there might not be much choices left to play. Hence, Dear accompanied me to Escape first. keke...

Place looks empty... Well... it is....

Most of the rides in Escape were rather kiddy, some of the better rides such as Wet and Wild, Revolution and Rainbow were closed for maintainence (as always....). That leaves us with not much choices... Despite having 15 attractions in the theme park, we only played a few. My last trip to Escape was during Poly days, it was rather boring... Unconvinced I decided to try it again.. Conclusion: Still boring...

The Haunted House

The haunted house is more suitable in scaring children. The place was adorned with dark lightings, shredded black clothes and "so called ghosts" made of unscary statues which move in an unrealistic manner. There were no ghosts wails nor anything to scare you. As it is a walk through gallery, I just quickly breezed my way through (just in case, something pop out unknowingly..)... Dear was pretty upset with me for walking so fast. He said that he had not even take a proper look at the exhibits.. Neither did we stay to watch the exhibits move.. haha.. We were so fast, we completed the tour in about 5 minutes or lesser...

The Kite Flyer

One of the kiddy rides we took. As it doesnt look too scary, I decided to give it a shot. Its like taking a faster vesion of Merry go round. I think the theme park at Genting is better.

Family Coaster

The family coaster is rather mild, very suitable for young children. But super no kick for young adults.

The Inverter

Being a super scaredy "mouse" with a "weak" heart, I do not dare take on the challenge of exhilarating rides such as the inverter. Poor Dear had to go on board himself.. Well, not too bad either, as I could be his photographer and capture his smiley face despite the thing sending him upside down.

Red Baron

Full of excitement before the ride...

Super bored during the ride....

There were many other stuffs to play such as the Flipper, Bumper Boats, Viking (too exciting for me), Ferris Wheel, Daytona (super long queue as usual + how to play in flip flops...), etc. (Most of the games played in Genting previously.) We decided to leave Escape for Wild Wild Wet instead. We were here for about 1hr+..

Second Stop: Get Wet & Wild @ Wild Wild Wet

Thinking that wild, wild wet would be boring.. like the one at Afamosa previously, I didnt really bear high hopes for it. But after being disappointed by the trip at Escape, I decided that I must make this fun... Let's get change first.... Com'on...

Okie.. Time to get into the water and have some fun!!!

There are about 9 attractions here. Some belongs to the children's categories, some too exciting for us and some well.... (not enought time lah.. only 1.5hrs to cover the park, somemore.. i suggested go Escape... so some time wasted there...)

Yakult's Professor Playground (A little like Waterworks of Science Centre)

Can't wait to get into the pool......

Climbing up to get to the Water Works Slides...

Weeee.... Open Air Version....

Ahem... Tunnel Version with "drowner".....

The Tsunami...

with the waddling duck... keke....

WAHHHHHHH.......

Cam-Whore Moments..

Next.. something more relaxing, the Shiok river. It spans 355 meters around the perimeter of the park...

Come get me Dear....

I am trying.....

Let's take a look at the park's scenary through the Sky Rider...

Can't take picture whilst riding... too dangerous... The thing is tricker than we thought.. You are being supported by tall thin pillars at the bottom and you have to cycle your way through manually.. There were times whereby the thing jerk a little when we were almost reaching the ending point.. Rather scary.. Dont even dare to look directly down...

P.S: Never wear non waterproof mascara to wild wild wet. Or you will end up looking like me, one eye Panda...

Well... Thats our last stop... and off.. we went to shower... Its 7.00pm liaoz.. Cant play anymore... Closing Time... Some stuff we missed, the Ulah lah (group rides), Slide Up (too scary for me), Yippe (Toddler's pool), Jacuzzi...

All nice and pretty now... Lets get dinner.. The new extension of down town east houses quite a number of F&B outlets. We looked from level 1 to level 4. Guess what we eat in the end?? Well.. Superdog on level 4.

A little disappointed as the "Superdog" was not as big as the name sounds... The size were rather small. We got a combo meal (supposedly for 3 persons), which had a fish burger, a super dog, a fish and chips, a passionfruit tea and a yoghurt drink at $18.90. Quite expensive huh.. and despite the food, we were just satisfiably full only.... Carl's Junior are more generous with thier serving size...

Enjoying the view of the indoor ferris wheel whilst waiting for the food. If you are wondering the price of the ferris wheel, its $6.50 per person.. Not very cheap huh...

FOOD!!!!

Com'on Let's Eat

Time to go home... Final Cam-whore shot

Till next time... Ta..ta...da.....

Malacca/ Kuala Lumpur Trip (18 July to 20 July)

2008-07-23T14:30:00.005+08:00

Day 1 (18 July)

Bags packed. Passports checked. Off we go!! As my company owned a bungalow in Afamosa resort, Malacca, staff are entitled to book it at a very subsidised rate of $50 for the whole stay from either (Mondays to Thursdays) or (Fridays to Mondays). Dad suggested that we take advantage of this benefit and drive in to Malacca and Kuala Lumpur over the weekend.

I had tried this with the gal gang previously in March. We took a bus in and travelled everywhere by public transport. Due to the lack of car and distance of Afamosa from town, it was extremely inconvenient and expensive to travel out of the bungalow. Even shuttle services from one area of the bugalow to another area within the resort cost RM 1 per person per way!! As a result, the trip did not end up as a very pleasant one.

Anywayz.. Dad and 4th Uncle together with a party of 6 women drove into Malacca by 2 seperate cars on Friday afternoon. It was a journey of about 3 hours. Sooo... most of the time we end up sleeping..... zzzzzzzzz.......................

Yipeee!!! We finally arrived at Malacca!! Drop our bags. Take a short break. Off to Malacca town. It takes about an hour to travel by car to Malacca Town.

Some shots taken at "The Baba House". A very nice authentic Perankan theme hotel that we stayed in previously. It is only a road away from the infamous Jonker street. The last time I stayed here, room rates were around S$40 per room per night. More information could be obtained from www.melaka.net/babahouse.

Growwwwwwl... After the long journey.. we are all hungry like crazy now... We decided to settle for the Museum Cafe (recommended by Fangz during our last trip to Malacca.) From the sight of the crowd hoarding outside, you can tell how popular the place is for its food. You can go to its website: http://www.jonker88.com/ for more information.

After queueing for a pretty looonnggg... time (approx say 30 minutes..) Our food is finally here. Yayyy!!

Food prices are extremely reasonable. Ranges from RM 3.00 to RM4.50 for a bowl of laksa, noodle or a plate of rice. The ayam goreng is RM 3.00 per plate (mixture of fishballs, tauhu, etc and accompanied with its homemade sauce). Not bad for the price you are paying. As the Nonya laksa (sweet version is sold out), I went for the Assam one instead. (Warning: Its very sour. Not recommended if you are not a person who likes sour stuff). I had a rather hard time finishing it). Too stuffed for chendol.. unable to comment.

Some food cam-whoring pictures... haha...

Now that we are so full... We need some form of digestion exercise... Let's go Shopping!!! Jonker street is buzzing with night market stalls every Friday and Saturday nights. Its a must go attraction if you are in Malacca during the weekends. The stores usually opens till rather late in the night.. We were there till around 10.00pm and the streets are still filled with activity.

After all the shopping at the night market, we went to the supermarket to get some food stuffs for our breakfast over the next few days. Needless to say.. the rest of the time was spent..zzzz...

Day 2 (19 July)

Woke up bright and early... Apparently, we were all supposed to be up by 7.00am. Not having any alarm clock, both my aunt and I slept right through till around 8.00+am. It was only after my mum started rushing through our room and chided us for not being up and ready when everyone else are already done with breakfast and ready to go.... Oh no..

Finally... ready to set off for the highlight of the trip. SHOPPINGG!!! As my uncle has some difficulty in road navigation, dad suggested that we all bunked into his MPV to faciliate travel. We were supposed to go to Central Market for breakfast. However, as the usual roti prata store was no longer there, we ended up at a coffee shop outside Central Market instead. (Food was not as good as the good 'ol Roti Prata store though)...

Managed to grab some bargain items here. One of the shops in Central Market that sells accessories was having a storewide 50% sale.. Bought some stuff there.. Super cheap!!

Some pictures taken at the Roti Prata store during breakfast.

Was raving about the KL deer park in the car whilst we were on our way to Plaza GM. Out of curiousity, the gang decided to pay that place a short visit. Unfortunately, we were there on the wrong day.... Due to the Malaysia flower festival, the deer park was charged a nominal fee of RM3. Well.. Its not really the admission fees though.. the problem was we need to go all the way to the front to get tickets (= waste time)... With not much time in hand, we decided to give that a miss. Took some pictures in front of the Orchid Garden instead.

Finally, after all those trouble, we arrived at Plaza GM. Found out about this place over the internet. Its a 7 storey wholesale building near Chow Kit station. If you are looking for handbags, wallets, sunglasses, accessories, etc.. This would be the place you could go.

However, please go in a group of minimum 6 shoppers. The minimum quantity required for wholesale prices is 6 or 12 pieces (can mix designs). Should you wish to purchase only 1 piece of the item, the price will be charged at double of the wholesale price. It was claimed to be the largest wholesaler in Malaysia. Well... I dont think its that impressively big compared to the platinium mall in Bangkok. Nevertheless, the things are rather cheap. You can refer to our shopping damage checklist further down in this blog for a gauge of prices. For more information of this place, refer to http://www.plazagm.com.my/.

If you are more interested in clothes, you may visit another wholesale area in KL instead. Its at Hang Tuah station. Its a row of shophouses located behind some "HDB" look a like blocks. I had been there once. The clothes are rather reasonable in terms of prices. They usually cater to wholesalers. However, some shops are willing to sell you 1 piece only if you are willing to pay a little more. According to one of the newspaper article found online, this place will soon be redeveloped into a one stop wholesale shopping mall. It is estimated to be ready by 2010.

Sadly, as we had spent too much time at Plaza GM. Plus the wrong trip to deer park earlier, we were unable to make it to the wholesale area in Hang Tuah. FYI, wholesalers usually close by 6.00pm and closed on Sundays. Be early, if you want to go there.

After the shopping, we proceeded to Chinatown for dinner and more shopping!!!

Mum cam-whoring with the menu

4th and 6th Aunt

Jeral in the night scene of Chinatown hawkers

The food is here!! Yummy!!

Can't quite remember the name of this restaurant... But this place is very famous for this black kway teow that I am having here. They started off as a small roadside stall just outside Hong Leong bank in Chinatown till now... the occupants of a newly renovated restaurant on the 2nd floor. In fact, their premises is so big that they still have several tables by the roadside on level 1. Prices are very reasonable. For a table of 8, we spent about RM140 in total. They are located in the centre T-junction of Chinatown.

After eating, we went shopping at the stores of Chinatown. Was being chased out by one of the shoes store owner as we bargained way below his budget.. He claimed that we are not interested in buying things from him.. Was so affected by the case that we do not dare to check on prices until we are very sure... When told to quote prices, were afraid that we quoted too low and get scolded... Sighzz...

There was an accident on our way back from KL to Afamosa that I would like to blog here. 2 dead cow carcasses and an unidentified item were found lying on the road of an express way. There were several cars parked at the side of the road. Dad was trying to brake to avoid the dead cow and woke everyone up. Thinking it was a road block, I peered my head out and saw the body of the dead cow. The scenario could have been like this:

The cow was trying to cross the "extremely dangerous" expressway. It came out of now-where in the dark night. The cars which saw it were trying to avoid it and got into an accident with other cars instead. Unfortunately, the cow still end up not able to leave the expressway alive and had to meet its maker there. It leaves with it, several accidents caused from either trying to avoid hitting it or trying to avoid its dead body... Sad case...

And now... we would like to present the shopping steals of 6 women in 1 day!!!

Ta-DA!!!!

Here's our shopping checklist over the past 2 days. (FYI, the 3 of us did not manage to buy anything on the 3rd day. As for the 3 aunties, they bought lots more stuff than us 3 gals. They had a seperate shopping checklist to account for). Jeral claimed that there is nothing much to buy at Plaza GM, take a look at her shopping checklist.

Yaling's Shopping Checklist

1. 2 flower hairclips (Malacca, RM 6 each, S$ 2.50)
2. 1 packet of aroma therapy herbs (Malacca, RM 10, S$4.20)
3. White Sling Bag (Plaza GM, RM30 each, S$ 12.60)
4. Men's Leather Wallet (Plaza GM, RM5 each, S$2.10)
5. 1 spectacle and 1 sunglass (Plaza GM, RM 5 each, S$2.10)
6. 1 cute T-Shirt (Plaza GM, RM 8 each, S$ 3.40)
7. 1 white vest (Plaza GM, RM 15 each, S$ 6.30)
8. 1 Leather Wallet (Plaza GM, RM 10 each, S$ 4.20)
9. 1 pair of Sneakers (Chinatown, RM39, S$ 16.30)
10. 1 Sports Blouse (Chinatown, RM 18, S$7.50)

Jeral's Shopping Checklist

1. 1 flower hairclip (Malacca, RM 6 each, S$ 2.50)
2. French Manicure Kit (RM 9.90 each set, S$4.15)
3. White Sling Bag (Plaza GM, RM30 each, S$ 12.60)
4. 1 spectacle and 1 sunglass (Plaza GM, RM 5 each, S$2.10)
5. 1 Cute T-Shirt (Plaza GM, RM 8 each, S$ 3.40)
6. 1 Kitty Singlet (Plaza GM, RM 8 each, S$ 3.40)
7. 1 Leather Wallet (Plaza GM, RM 25 each, S$ 4.20)
8. 1 pair of Sneakers (Chinatown, RM39, S$ 16.30)
9. 1 Women's Work Bag (Chinatown, RM 80, S$35)

Vivien's Shopping Checklist

1. 2 flower hairclips (Malacca, RM 6 each, S$ 2.50)
2. 1 Straw Hat (Central Market, RM 7.50each, S$3.15)
2. White Sling Bag (Plaza GM, RM30 each, S$ 12.60)
3. 1 Laptop Bag (Plaza GM, RM30 each, S$12.60)
4. 1 Checkered Sling Bag (Plaza GM, RM 30 each, S$12.60)
5. 1 Cute T-Shirt (Plaza GM, RM 8 each, S$ 3.40)
6. 1 white vest (Plaza GM, RM 15 each, S$ 6.30)
7. 1 Tissue Box (Plaza GM)
8. 1 pair of Bling Bling Sneakers (Plaza GM, RM28, S$ 11.70)
9. 1 pink blouse (Plaza GM, RM 19, S$7.90)
10. 1 pair of casual pants (Plaza GM, RM 28, S$11.70)
11. 1 checkered blouse with belt (Plaza GM, RM 28, S$11.70)

Day 3 (20 July)

With the incident on day 2, several people came knocking on my room door that morning to wake Aunt and I up. Jeral, Yaling and I had made a pact to wear the same dress code for the day. Barbie T-shirt, Shorts and Sneakers. Just in case you are wondering how the chalet looks like, here's some pictures of it.

The Front Porch

The Kitchen

The Games Room

The Dining Area

The Backyard

Whilst on our way to Mini Malaysia (One of Malacca's attraction), we stop by the roadside and enjoyed some kampong version durians.... (Not for me... No thanks.)

Savouring the durians...

City Kids - These are how the fruits are grown

Back to the Kampong Days

Mini Malaysia - Theme park showing houses of Malaysia's states in a "Make to Life" miniature version. When I was young, my parents bought me here twice. Entrance fees were only a few RM in the past. Today, they are charging an exhorbitant rate of RM 12. The worst part is, they also charge for cameras (RM3) and video cameras (RM5). We ignored the equipment charge and paid for the entrance fee only. If you are thinking of coming here... DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY... Its not worth it!!

Some pictures of the mini houses exhibited in there. Note: Both the interior and exterior of the houses are rather similar across states.

Free Ride Anyone??

Finally... The last section of this blog entry... also one of the trip's highlight...Fish Spa!!! (Very tired writing this liaoz.. )

I had read about it, I had tried it. But I have not tried the full body fish spa whereby you dip your whole body in.. And in Malacca, we finally had such a chance to experience it ourselves. The whole group of ladies are first timers in this fish spa thingy except me.

Dr Fish Spa is located at Taman Melaka Raya, rather near the Palawan Shopping Centre in Malacca. Refer to http://www.gml2u.com/drfish or the advertisement below for more information. They are not located at a very strategic location, hence, you might have difficulty getting there if travelling by public transport.

The usual rate is RM 40 per person per hour (S$16.75) or RM 300 for 10 sessions. In Singapore, the lowest is S$10 per 30 minutes for feet only. As there were 6 of us, we bargained pretty hard for RM35 (S$14.65). Please note that prices are subject to 5% taxes.

Bring your swimsuits if possible, as that would gives you the flexibility to dip your whole body in. If you forgot, you may request for a pair of tights and T-shirt. Lockers, towels, slippers and shower facilities are provided. Hence no worries about having fishy smell or leaving the place wet.Having done prior research of the place, we went there prepared. We changed into our swimsuits and start plunging ourselves into the pool.

Lo and Behold!! The fishes are soooo... BIG!! They are twice or thrice the size of the fishes in Kampong Therapy. Rather intimidating... Being fearful, most of us start with level 1 by dipping our feet into the pool first. As it was rather ticklish, we keep sticking our legs out after a short while.. This moment was constantly repeated. We end up spending about 30 minutes warming up.. before we are comfortable enough to dip the rest of our bodies into the water.

Based on observation, the fishes prefer to nibble on the skin of the hands and feet. Feet especially.... They seldom nibble elsewhere... I tried dipping my chin into the water but they never come... Smooth skin...keke... They sure know their stuff... I sure wouldnt mind trying this again. To me, fish spa is more of a form of entertainment than therapy.. Sure enjoy it!!

After the fish spa treatment, we went for more shopping at Palawan Mall and then headed back to JB for dinner. Lucky for us, there were no traffic jams that evening. Able to be home by 11.00pm. In time to see my dear husband whom I have not seen for a week!!! Honey, I am HOME!!!

Home Feature - Sunday Times (20 July)

2008-07-21T16:56:00.001+08:00

Update on blog, "Home to be featured in Stomp!" Mentioned previously that my home was going to be featured in Sunday Times but later clarified that it will only be in the Stomp website.

Well... Straits Times contacted us recently and mentioned that they saw our post in Stomp and would like to feature us in The Sunday Times. We were elated (word too strong... exact word should be happy...). Okok.. enough crap.. anyway, they sent a photographer to our house to take pictures of us.. about 2 weeks ago.. Manz.. we were like models for the day.. haha... They ask us to pose here, pose there.. and phew.. finally its over...

Being skeptical and fearful that it might not be published eventually such as the "Cubes" case (designer told us later that only 1 house will be selected out of 3 houses.. so disappointed) or the Stomp case (end up in website not newspaper)... So I kept mum about it and didnt write about it here. Now its finally out!!! Please refer to article below for more information... haha... Oh ya.. FYI.. the papers wrote the location as Aljunied!!! Major error!! I am staying in Sembawang.

Actual Birthday (16 July)

2008-07-18T08:53:00.000+08:00

Haha... Guess you guys must be bored by now... How come you keep talking about birthdays, birthdays, birthdays... Well.. I must say my birthday celebration for this year was rather loooonng.... Stretching from Saturday till now..

Anyway, despite all my loved ones and friends birthday blessings, I had a bad start on my birthday itself. Wanted to doll myself up for the big day... ended up at work with zero makeup and messy hair... (Reason... overslept!!!!).... =(.......... Of all days.....

Went for a makeover at Makerover Inc with compliments from UOB Lady's Card. Was dressed up and stuff and had 24 shots taken.. Sighz... I look sooo... old in the pictures... I am only 25 years old... but I look as if I am in my early 30s... sadness.. It could be the hair.. it could be the makeup... Nevertheless, I reluctantly chose a picture for the birthday card still.. (Sorry guys.. dont mean to whet your appetite but I dont have the picture yet. Will post it soon.)

Knowing my love for Precious Moments, my colleague: Jie Ying gave me a Precious Moments birthday figurine. I was soo... happy when I saw the Precious Moments label. Due to my love for Precious Moments, most of the time, my gal friends or even colleague would get me one of these. Please refer to picture below on my Precious Moments birthday acquisitions.. haha...

P.S: If you are thinking of the gift to give me in future, Precious Moments figurine would be the safest choice. You will never go wrong with it.

Fish Spa at Kampong Therapy

2008-07-16T16:48:00.001+08:00

If you remember, I posted in my blog previously that I will be going for fish spa ALONE.... Well.. Here's the update...

Apparently, i got this free hand or feet fish spa therapy from Tangs as a birthday treat at Kampong Therapy... Usual price would have cost $28.90 (Hand) or $38.90 (Feet) for a 30 minute session. Knowing that my friends will freak out at the cost and not go with me, I decided to try it out on my own. (Other places such as Qian Hu only charges $10 and Nibbles $15 if you take package).

Surprisingly, the place is rather near Novena MRT station. Even though the address sounded ulu... Thomson Road, Novena Ville).. It is actually 5 to 10 minutes walk from the station. You need to cross an overhead bridge to get there.

I like the interior of the place. It was set up on a kampong theme basis.. Rather nice in concept. The service provided by the staff were very good too... They were very professional and keep checking if you are okay... If not for the price, I would love to go back again... Even for packages, it would cost around $28 per session after all the discounts...

Before going to the pool itself, our legs and heels were checked for any open wounds. Guests with wounds on the feet were not be allowed to take part in the fish spa. This is to protect other users and the user himself/ herself. Continuing to dip in the pool will only aggravate the wounds on the feet when nibbled by the fishes..

Okay, feet checking cleared. Please disinfect your feet first.

Good. You may now start to dip your leg into the pool...

I was rather jittery at first as the moment I put in my feet, all the fishes started gushing towards me... Its rather scary.... The first 5 minutes, another girl and I just keep laughing as its really ticklish... The staff encouraged us to relax. They also suggested that we start with our heels first. They told us that as this is our first time trying this out, we might not feel comfortable at first.

The fishes excitedly jump out of the water and kept nibbling on our feet when we tried lifting our heels from the water... Slowly, I start to relax and dip the whole feet in again... The sight was rather scary... As my leg was filled with lots of black fishes around it... The other couple had much lesser... It must be due to the amount of dead skin chalked up on my feet over the years... haha...

As the time slipped by.. I am getting more and more comfortable... You feel so good... Midway, the staff even got us to take our feet out for some scrubbing to loosen the dead skin so that the fish could nibble on our feet better. They also told us to try opening in between our toes so that the fishes could nibble the dead skin in there. (In between toes are the hardest area to clear of dead skin..).

According to the staff, fish spa is a good form of therapy for blood circulation and could cure skin disease.. I am not sure how true is that, but the nibbling does send some sensation through you... I was also informed that our dead skin is a form of food for the fishes... which seems quite true though... Cos as we approach the end of the session, the number of fishes surrounding our legs seem to decrease... 2 reasons... They are either full liaoz.. or not much dead skin left to eat liaoz.. hahaha...

After the 30 minutes, you dont feel like sticking your leg out of the water... The nibbling feels so good, you feel like dipping your whole body in and continue to let the fishes nibble.. Anyway... we completed the session by washing our legs again and some mosturiser was applied on our legs. The skin sure feel smoother and lighter... Do try it!!!

Can't wait to try the full body version in Malacca over the weekend. I am hooked!!!

Birthday Celebration Again.. (13 July 2008)

2008-07-16T16:32:00.000+08:00

This year birthday celebration seems endless.. Outing to Science Centre on Saturday and a family gathering at my house on Sunday..

Mum suggested hosting a birthday party at my house with Teppanyaki and Steamboat... She prepared sooo... much food... She had actually spent 3 DAYS!! to buy and prepare the spread for this gathering. Several relatives came.. Some gave ang pows and some gave gifts.. Apparently, I had told mum not to tell them its my birthday.. Just tell them its a gathering.. Not sure, how they got wind of my birthday and brought gifts along..

My brother bought me this cake from Bread Talk...

Anyway, dinner was good (the food i mean).. Didnt had much time to talk or play with my cousins as they were watching the movie "27 Dresses".. And I?? I was busy running around helping out in the nitties gritties... and of course.. enjoying my food....

25 years on earth already but I still feel soo... small... haha...

Sadly one of my auntie actually indirectly commented that I look older than 25... "She 25 only meh???"... Sighz... maybe because of my married status and curly hair.. I do look older...

Exploring Singapore Science Centre (12 July)

2008-07-15T15:33:00.000+08:00

Went for a "school excursion" to Science Centre on Saturday. It was meant to be a celebratory excursion for "MINE" birthday.. haha... Geezz... old story.. last time I went to Science Centre was when I was in Primary school... blah... blah....

Do I look geeky or like a klutz??

The gal gang had even prepared a tea session this time for this excursion trip. Packed in individual zip lock bags and labelled with our names, we all had our young time favourites of "Hello Panda lah... Wang Wang biscuit lah... cheap jelly.. etc" for us... haha... They even included some props to spice up the outing in my bag... A bright ultra big spectacles, a fake moustache (for dear) and a super bright, ultra chic ribbon.

Alright children... enough fun, let's get the tickets. For those intending to go to Science Centre, admission tickets is $5.40 (after 10% discount for passion card holders and others). Bundled deals are of a better worth. Bundle A: Science Centre admission + Imax = $12.80. Bundle B: Science Centre admission + Snow City = $15 (Fairprice plus cardholders can get it at $11.00).

RUUUUNNNN.. FOORRR YOUR LIVES!!!! Its the T-Rex!!!! ARRRRGHHHH!!!

Phew... What a relieve.. we managed to escape harmless.. keke... Now to the exhibits in the Science Centre.

First Stop: The Mind's Eye
Our mind can play tricks on what we see... This is what this exhibition is about. In the first picture, you will see a sea but when you look into the silver tube, the reflection of the sea scene has converged to form a face instead.

Don't know what this is. Just find it cute for picture taking...

Hey, how did they get in there?? Apparently, there is an entrance to let us in from another side. I tried this too... and scared a little girl who happened to walk in at that time... Is my face really that scary??? haha....

Do you find this familiar?? Not the president lah... I mean the picture frame technology... It was shown in Harry Potter movies whereby the subject in the frame moves and stare at you wherever you go. That's what is happening in the scence below. President Nathan's will look at you no matter where you go... I wonder if this will become common in future homes...

STOP!!! Security check before we go to the next point..... Chemistry Zone

You are entering the Chemistry Zone.. Please ensure you are well insured. We are not responsible for any mishap in the chemistry zone!! Minor explosions are commonplace. Enter at your own RISK!!! HEHEHEEHEHHHH......

Give me a "C" "H" "E" "M" "I" "S" "T" "R" "Y"!!! What do you get??? CHEMISTRY!!!! OHHH>> YEAHHHHH!!!

ZAPPP!!!! Oh No!!! We have been zapped into the computer.. We have to complete this game in order to get out!!! HEEELLLLLPPPPPPP!!!!

In the lab of the mad Scientist........

Freeze your shadow... Kazam... Kapow....

The Dinosaurs Are Alive!!! Welcome to Dinoland!

PSLE Science Corner... Found several interesting stuff here...

Exhibit 1: Number of people in the world and Singapore at the time picture was taken.

Exhibit 2: How we look when fat!!

Exhibit 3: Bridge of blocks

Back in the main atrium... Looking lost and in time for a Science show...

The Eco Garden

I vaguely remember that the eco garden in my primary school days was rather boring. jus a normal garden with some plants in there. Not much different from the garden in our school backyard.

Today, there is a tree house build in the very own ground of Science Centre. A rather unique sight.. Do we look like we are in another country from this picture??

CUTE Kindergarten Shots
PRESENTING... Teacher Ms Mousie Teo...

A typical lesson day.. Ms Mousie Teo trying to teach a bunch of inattentive children..

FINALLY.. BreaK TIME!!!! The children are watchin TV and enjoying their break... what about Ms Mousie Teo?? Where is she??

..... She is busy dating...... -_-".........................

Don't you dare mess with us. Welcome to Body World!!!
Come visit our body parts in detail..

Our NOSE and EAR

And the TONGUE... =p

Water Exhibition at Science Centre

Brrr... its cold in here......

Wild encounter in the North Pole....

Amazing Electron

Found this amazing machine that could predict how you look when you are a baby, present, middle age and old. This is how I look when I was a baby. Any similarity?? (Without the teeth of course, baby that time, I am bo gay mah...)

This is how I look say... 60 years later... (FYI, I think I will look much better than this... with advanced technology such as botox, I wouldnt look so bad lorz...) Check out this blog 60 years later and do a comparison bah... haha...

Here's a comparison of Dear's baby picture. I think it doesnt look like him at all leh.... The technical baby picture look cuter. =p

Dear claims that he still look so handsome 60 years later.. What do you think??

This is how people were interogated in the past for information. This is also how some people were killed for committing crimes before the hanging take place... The ELECTRIC CHAIR.. Try it if you dare!!!

I- SPACE

Welcome to the world of the Future. Mad professor Vien is here to conquer the world... WAHHAAHAAAHAA!!!!!

Disco Time.... Arh.. Arh... Arh... Arh.. Staying Alive... Staying Alive.....

My future dream kitchen. Fully electronised. Can even search for recipes, do your grocery shopping, etc... all from the fridge in the kitchen.. Powerful rightz.....

Okay now.. Its 5.00pm... Time for the Omnimax Show.. The Grand Canyon... As usual, the show is rather boring as it is based on a documentary. The Omni theatre still the same after soo.. many years. Its time, they start to revamp the place by changing the chairs to those which you could lie back on. Its rather difficult watching the show in an upright position.

After the movie... its time to goo... home... But its not over yet.... Gal gang had prepared a report card for me!!! yah... Sadly.. Got an "F-" for punctuality in Poly days... Luckily the results improved and I got a "C" in recent years.... Needless to say.. I got As for the rest of the subjects.. haha....

Its very sweet of them.. Winnie even stayed up the night before together with Cony to complete this stuff. They only managed to grab some sleep at 4.00+am!!! The rest of them actually meet up at 11.00+am at Cony's place to do the wrap up. Puifong even helped to sew the cover!! Where to find friends like them huh???

NS Reservist

2008-07-14T14:18:00.000+08:00

The 2 weeks that Dear is on reservist is hell... I am bored like crazy during this time... Whoever implemented the reservist system should actually consider those with families.. I feel so loss without Dear... People say absence makes the heart grows fonder.. I agree totally... I have become so disorientated and moody in the absence of my dear husband... Sighz.. I have been in a rather lousy mood lately.

Tried staying at home without Dear by my side... It wasnt pleasant.. but manageable.. Knowing that Dear will not be home.. I simply while my time away by watching TV and doing things to kepp my self busy. Going to bed was a torture too... Imagine lying in a big bed with no-one to hug... I missed Dear real badly...... Cant wait for this reservist thing to end soon...

Time killer treats for today: Going for a free fish spa therapy at Kampong Therapy later this evening... ALONE.... I hope I could enjoy these lonely moments... Sighz.......

Zoo Outing (5 July 08)

2008-07-07T09:06:00.000+08:00

We are going to the zoo! zoo! Zoo! How about you? you? You? You can come too, too, too. We are going to the zoo... zoo..zoo... The zoo outing in commeration of Winy's 1/4 century birthday was one of the best outings so far... We had great fun!!! All of us were very sporting in dorning on furry animal gears for pictures and taking our favourite animal stuff toy for an outing. To tell how much fun we had, refer to the picture for more information.. hiak..hiak..hiak... There are lots of pictures and colours..

Food preparations at my place in the morning... Boy, we had such great time as we used the animal cutters to prepare sandwiches of different animal shapes. The sad part is... my kitchen became a mess (Small little kitchen not suitable for mass production lah...)

We have our tickets ready. We are going for a zooie good time!! Yeah!!!

Ms Tourguide Fangz will show us the "way". First the cute lovely Otters.

The rare white tigers. In the world, out of every one thousand tigers, only one is white.

Presenting.. Our very own rare "white tiger"... "Winnie.

At the Hippo Sanctuary.... The Water Ballerina... Watch how they prance around in the water...

Whatya doing?? Trying to kiss the hippo??

Done with the Hippo! Off we go to hunt for the Australian Outbacks!!

Look Out!! Kangaroo Crossing.. Not this one lah... The real one....

U mean this one?? How come so skinny?? It looks under nourished...

Look at me with the big kangaroo feet. Haha....
Ewww.. What are those beside me doing???

Danger!!! Animals to be crated away trying to escape....

Hooray!! "Zoo keeper" Vienz is here to send them back to Australia!!!!

Enough fun nowz... Can we go for lunch?? Growl....

We found our perfect spot by the lakeside pavillion.

and our animal tea party begins..

Cam-whoring moments with our lunchboxes.

The Star - Winy

Fangz

Kc and Kiat

Jeral

Dear and me

Party's over. Let's catch the elephant show.
How to go huh?? Winy will show the way....

A picture before going to the elephant show!!

The elephant show was ok-ok only lorz... I think Thailand one is better.. Or is it Afamosa?

Wildlife African.... OOOOOOOlooooooo.......

Dont cross the road without the pedestrian crossing...
The ZEEEEEBRAAAAA!!!

Look!!! Our friends... Family reunion.....

Dangerous wildlife... Enter at your own risk....

The Orang Utans

Commemorating Ah Meng - Well loved and Singapore's famous Orang Utan

Teddy Bear Land here we come....

Young Explorer Fangz...

Teddy Bears Gathering

Bears of the World
I am the Singapore version.

Giant Turtle. First picture so nice.. But second picture... OMG... So Chor Lor... (un-civilised...)

OK... enough of land animals.. Let's visit the aquatic ones....

if you are wondering.. YES.. This is real. It even snapped at Dear and almost took away his camera with its beak.. Close shave...

In Singapore, due to the tropical climate. Mould tends to grow on the fur of the polar bears. Rest assured animal lovers.. Its is totally harmless on the polar bears. The sad part is their beautiful white coat looks ugly in the mould.

Resting at the seal sculpture.. "Tai Tai" me...kekeke...

Its 6.05pm. The zoo is officially closed now. But we are still drinking and enjoying the crocodile view at the last pit stop.

Walking out of the zoo.. Funny thing, they have no PA announcement to inform that the zoo is closed. We were wondering if there are any blurz tourists who will be left stranded in the zoo for the night...

Some shots at the zoo shop first... FYI.. Fangz got chided for taking pictures with this "expensive" giraffe. Guess how much?? S$1,200. Expensive rightz???

The last group picture before leaving the zoo....
Apparently, we had another one taken by a passer by with dear in it. But it was too blur, hence, I couldn't put it in.... Goodbyez now.... Till the next outing.

Outings.. Money.... Banking....

2008-07-03T15:45:00.001+08:00

Ha.. My latest faze these days are... to go for outings not usually done previously... checking out the latest bank rates and credit cards.... Woah... The month of July is a sure busy one... We are already planning of outings on almost every weekends with Sundays for housework and rest..

July Week 1: Singapore Zoo - We are going to have an animal tea party there.. so sweet..

July Week 2: Paintball Attack!!! ... yeah...... manz..... (Change to Science Centre/ Snow City due to paintball fully booked and other reasons)

July Week 3: Trip to Mlz/KL... visiting the wholesale markets there... Shopping!!!!

July Week 4: Either Wild Wild Wet & Escape/ Qian Hu & Spore Discovery Centre/ Just cycle around the neighbourhood of Sembawang and explore the beauty of the place.. (Confirmed it to be Wild Wild Wet & Escape Theme Park)

Stay tune for more pictures in the month of July.. Lots of activities and events posting every weekend!!! Haha.. I will try to update these activities as soon as I can....

Ice Skating @ Kallang

2008-06-29T15:30:00.000+08:00

Went Ice Skating at the newly furbished Kallang Leisure Park on Saturday with my gal frens.. Winy, Jeral and Puifong. Apparently, it was supposed to be Win'y colleague Wendy. However, as she couldnt make it, Winy replaced Wendy with Puifong instead and kept it from us. When i first saw Puifong, I was wondering, "How come Wendy looks so much like Puifong"... haha... And the best part was she went to hide herself and pop out in front of us all of a sudden, trying to give us a surprise... DUh...

Anyway, the event was organised by my company, so the whole place was booked and each staff are able to bring up to 4 guests in for free.. Yeah.. free... I like it!!! We were there early, so not much people around. We got into our gears and went to the ice skating ground.

All of us are first timers except me. But I am a lousy skater... and the last time I skated was like... hmmm... I was sixteen then... Oh my Gosh.. that was almost 10 years ago!!!! Sob.. Sob.. I am getting older now.... Yah.. so I have to train up my rusty skills again... Jeral and I held tightly to the side of the ice skating rinks like crazy... We were so afraid of falling down...

Winy and Puifong are a talent.. They got accustomed to the ice skating feeling so fast. In no time, Puifong and Winy were already skating in the centre of the rink with no problems at all.. How Jeral and I envy them as we clumbsily skate our way at the side most of the time. After some time, I managed to gain back my skating momenteum.. and Jeral?? Well... she managed to steady herself better after a few falls.. haha...

Teacher Puifong managed to help Jeral regain her skating confidence and (I dont know how she do it...) encouraged Jeral to move out to the centre of the ice skating rink... Ahh.... finally we are all able to skate (After 1 hour of struggle....).

And just when we thought that the 2 ice skating "professionals" are good at ice skating (despite it being their first attempt).... Winy fell... And if that is not bad enough, she actually "tuo puifong xia bing" (in English means pull Puifong down to the ice as well... She make Puifong fall too lah...)

As for me... I was just trying to keep my balance most of the time in the ice skating rink. Lucky me... I managed to maintain a "zero fall" record... At the expense of skating like a penguin. =p

More Cam-whoring pictures taken at the ice skating rink...

Taken as a group

Taken with Winy

The Threesome

Marilyn Monroe Wana Be

Kukup Trip (21 to 22 June 2008)

2008-06-22T22:40:00.000+08:00

Just got back from my kukup trip this afternoon. Still in a daze and groggy from the trip.. but I just cant wait to blog the details of the trip in here before the excitement start wearing off. Keke...

Set in the outskirts of JB, Kukup is a small fishing village famous for its cheap seafood and water holiday chalets. The houses here are mainly built of stilts over the water. As one walked on the newly improved pathway to your chalet (pathways in the past are made of wooden planks), avoid looking below as the floor is filled with mud, mouse, snakes and mudskippers. Definitely not a sight for the faint hearted. The lifestyle here is simple and laidback.

Yaling and I posting in front of one of the water chalet.

We stayed in the Red Mangrove Holiday Resort. It was the largest and newest holiday chalet in kukup. For a small price of around S$78, you will be entitled to a 2 way transport from Singapore to Kukup, 6 meals over a 2 days spread (Seafood Lunch upon arrival, Tea, BBQ Seafood Dinner, Supper, Breakfast and Seafood Lunch), lots of entertainment (Karaoke, snooker, cards, mahjong, kelong trip, etc) and a bed in a shared 8 bunk beds bedroom. A very reasonable price for a short trip holiday. If you are willing to splurge a little more, it would only cost you S$92 for a double bed airconditioned bedroom with seaview and attached private bathroom and TV. How nice.. You could also log into http:\\ehongshulin.tripod.com for more information.

I vaguely remember that during my first trip to Kukup when I was 12 years old (13 years ago), the price was at S$50 per person without transport. Kukup lifestyle is so simple that even the price remained the same even after such a long time... (with better standards somemore).

Day 1 (21 June 2008)

Picture with Mum at the kukup bus station.

We arrived Kukup in the afternoon at around noon due to custom clearance and stuff (grr... despite leaving Singapore at 9.00+am) in time for a sumptous lunch.

In Kukup, seafood is cheap, hence they are able to provide seafood for all sessions. Every meal served usually comprised of a dish of fish, prawn, cuttlefish, etc. Lunch today was one of the busiest... Flies were all over the place. We had to struggle with our meal as we fend off the irritating pests from attacking our food. As a city chick, flies at the meal table is definitely not in my list. I was so particular that I wiped the cutleries before used and was surprised that the rest of the table followed suit.

After a very satisfying yet tiring lunch (busy guarding the food from the flies), we proceed to make our way to our lovely water chalet. And of course took pictures along the way.. haha..

Taken at the water chalet porch

Another picture with Yaling ...

Upon arrival, the aunties and uncles...

Played Mahjong and sing Karaoke (Oldies)

Flaunt their dance skills.....

What about the young ones? Where have they gone to???

We went shopping..... Kukup is a small town. So shopping is limited. But we still managed to buy some stuff.. at very reasonable rates too.. Bargaining is recommended.

Went back for tea (Red bean soup with prawn crackers) and off we went shopping again... Soon after... its dinner time!!! We had our food barbequed by the chalet. None of us need to lift a single finger to cook. There were lots of food. Chicken wings lah... stingray lah... dumplings lah... prawns lah... etc... Not enough? Just order for another plate.. They just keep feeding you till you raise the white flag and surrender. Still hungry? Chicken porridge and bee hoon will be served at 10.00pm...

After dinner, we were too stuffed to move anywhere. We found a small piece of "haven" away from all the oldies karaoke and dancing... and watched a movie "Maid of Honor" in our mini cinema....

We later had a "dangerous" session of fire crackers on the roof top. (P.S: Felt so cheated.. bought a big firecracker at RM 25 expecting a spectacular shower display of fireworks... you know what came out of it??? Refer to pictures below....)

Disappointing results from my RM 25 fire cracker... =(

There was a time whereby I tried lightling on a fire cracker. Thinking it didnt light up as there was no reaction, I continued holding on to it and talking to my cousins. Luckily, my cousin Priscilla actually yelled out, "Vivien, what you doing?!!". To my surprise, the fire cracker was already bursting into flames. Shocked! I quickly threw it to the floor and it continued into bigger explosion... Scary... It was a very close shave.......

More fire cracker pictures.. Apparently, the cheaper ones gave out better results. Only RM5 for a big bunch.. Can play many times.....

It was indeed a long, fun and tiring day.. After the round of fire crackers, we still did not retreat back to our rooms. Instead, we had a few rounds of mahjong before we call it a day and went to sleep.

Day 2 (22 June 2008)

Woke up bright and early this morning. Was informed the night before that due to some works to be done by the Government, the whole town would be cut off their water and electricity supplies from 9.00am till late evening. This means that all preparation works (such as shower, etc.) had to be done before the power supply cuts off. So troublesome... grr... We are being deprived of man's two most important necessities (Water and electricity).. go toilet also cannot. Anyway.. took some funny pictures with our newly bought sarongs before leaving for the kelong and mangrove tour... keke...

P.S: Breakfast was rather good. Selection of Bee Hoon, Kway Teow, Fried Thick Bee Hoon and Fried Eggs.

Posing with Mum in the morning.

A Bevy of Sarong Girls...

KungFu Panda... HIA.....YIAK.... POW....

Charlie's Angels (Hawaiian Version..)

The Hawaiian Girls....

Ethnic Indian Beauties

Afterwhich, we left the chalet and made our way for tour at the Pulau Kukup island (famous for its mangrove conservation area). We purchased our tickets from a restaurant at the kukup main town. The two way boat ride only costs RM 1 per person. We were informed on board that when purchasing our tickets for the mangrove to specify that we are locals instead of foreigners. The rate for locals are RM5 whilst foreigners are charged at RM10.

Arrival at the mangrove park

More "Modelling Shots" at the mangrove park

The highlight: "Suspension Bridge". Not very safe... Only 3 persons allowed on the bridge at one time. Most of the group are rather quirky when crossing this bridge.

Next stop: The Kelong....

The Kelong was pretty boring... as it was raining, the fishes just wouldnt want to come out and get drenched further in the rain. No performances, no excitement and not much pictures taken due to the rain and the limited walking space. We have to do our balancing act you know....

After the kelong, we went back to the restaurant for seafood lunch. Not being able to squeeze into a table with our relatives, we had to share a table with one of the dancer groups. We finished lunch hastily and left. (Leo claimed that the food were moving rather quickly, hence were rather hungry still after lunch.) Due to the non electricity and water of the place, we left for JB at 12+pm. Was told, we could go for shopping at JB initially.. Plans were later changed due to fears of traffic jam (due to last day of school holidays). Went home pretty early. Reached Singapore around 2.00+pm.

In conclusion, kukup is a small quiet town for relaxation. It is definitely not recommended for an adventure seeker, shopaholic, or comfor seeker. The price tag is extremely reasonable with no worries about food or time. Definitely a place for a 2 day getaway....

World's Greatest Dad

2008-06-15T22:33:00.000+08:00

As a tribute to Father's day today (15 June), I would like to dedicate to my father who had been tirelessly and unconditionally providing for me for the past 25 years. A man of few words most of the time, he is a remarkable man. He does not say much when young but he silently does stuff to contribute to the family. Despite being married, my father had continued to assist me in all my needs all this time.

From young, my father had been working hard to provide for the family. As I grow older and prepare for wedding, my father helped me with my house hunting process. He actually went from 1 unit to another to helped me rackey the different units situation and reported to me which unit is better for consideration in terms of view, environment, etc. Okay.. house finally selected, dad actually went to my house several times a week to monitor the house's renovation works and helped me with several renovation stuff. He helped me with the house wiring, etc. Without him, my house could not have been completed so beautifully and yet within our shoes's string budget. On many occasions, I had tried offering to compenstate him for the efforts or materials, he had kindly rejected the offer.

Even till today, as I signed up for my Starhub Broadband, dad had offered to redeem his starhub points for a new voice enabled modem so that I could save $100 over dollars. My dad consistent selfless acts have gained respect from my friends, husband and most especially me!! I am so glad and fortunate to have such a great father in my life. I dont think anyone else can offer such selfless sacrifice as my father. Even till today, I had always consulted him on things that I am unsure of. He seems so knowledgeable in everything. From electronics to travel, etc.

Dad, You are really the Greatest Father I have ever known. I really thank you for your consistent selfless and unconditional love. Happy Father's Day!!! I am sure Jeremy thinks the same way too. We both love you and are really happy God bestowed you as our father. You are one the greatest gift on earth. The other greatest gifts to me are Mummy, Jeremy and my lovely husband, Leo.

Buffet Fears

2008-06-15T22:09:00.000+08:00

Celebrated my Grandma's 78th birthday yesterday at Sakuara, Tampines Safra branch. There are lots and lots of varieties and delectable food. Despite the buffet spread, the place was a mess. Screaming children, crowds, uncleared table. Certainly not a place you would go for if you are seeking for ambience. At a price of $24++ per person, one could savour different types of food varieties at one go.

There was a wide range of sushi selection, grills, dim sum, local delights, desserts, etc. I kept on gorging myself with food. Taking a little of everything, having a bite or two and off I went for another item. Leo was soo... fed up with my eating style, he said: "You are wasting food you know?!! Look at the amount of food you have wasted!!"... But.. but... I want to try everything.. yet I can only eat so much.... Haha.. he ended up clearing quite alot of my "wastage" for me.. To make matters worse.. he doesnt seem to know my dislike for raw food. He got a whole plateful of sushi selection, but none of them touched by me. Reason: They are all raw... Sighz.. boyfriend + husband = 7 to 8 years and still... he doesnt know my food preference...

Anyway.. the day ended with us all stuffed and still singing the birthday song and cutting the birthday cake. I avoided the cake at all cost.. I am too stuffed to add on anymore food to my platter. This birthday party has also make me realised how distant I am from my cousins. We used to play anything under the sun. But at the party, there were few words of exchange. Most of them seemed to be in their own cliches and family.

After the food galore and stuff, I suffered from nightmares of flying cockcroach and an unknown fly attack throughout the night. In addition, I suffered from stomach discomfort this morning. This resulted in me being unable to fight for the first 50th position of getting a digital camera from my sign up with Starhub for broadband services at the computer fair. Woke up at 9.00am and after all the suffering and stuff, only managed to reach at 10.50am.. too late to vvy for a digital camera with the rest of the kiasu Singaporeans who probably took the queue since 8.00am.. Sighz.. failed to be a kiasu Singaporean.

New Hairstyle (Big Wavy Curls)

2008-06-14T14:31:00.000+08:00

I had always admired the hairstyle of those Japanese models. They managed to look soo.. sweet with the beautiful big curls. All these years, I had always maintained a head of long sleek hair since the rebonding technology started when I was 16. Rebonding came as a blessing to me. However, after the introduction of big curls by the Japanese, I tried perming my hair. It was disastrous. I went to a hair school and got the school students to help me with the perm, it looked okay.. initially, but it slowly become very auntie looking as many of my friends commented it to be.

Well.. lesson learnt.. I avoided curly hair for a period of time.. A few years later, backside itch again.. sick of straight hair, wana try something new.. tried a new hair perm technology in Far East known as Japanese perm.. Well.. as usual.. thought it looked ok initally until comments given by friends was that the perm again.. make me look very old and auntie looking.. Dejected.. I avoided curls once again...

Curls on second attempt 2005

Fearful of the results of perm, I specifically requested with the hairdresser during a trip to Hairwaves, City Square for rebonding today. After a few conversation, the hairdresser assured me that I could try going for curls again. He added that curls are supposed to be more femine and would be a new change from my usual straight hairstyle. He encouraged me to take on curls instead and told me that with proper care and handling, I should be able to achieve my desired results. Besides, technology in hairstyling has advanced and digital perm could allow one to perm the hair without looking auntie as it focuses only on the lower section of the hair. Half fearful, half hopeful, I decided to leave it to his hands to create the magic. To make matters worse, he is only 19 years old. Will he be really able to do so? After almost 5 long hours of perm, colour and highlight, the results was not too bad. With the exception that the colours were too natural that my colour and highlight was not very obvious. Apparently, my curls does turn out better than my first and second attempt at curly hair. So far Leo and Winy commented that the curls look rather good on me and is much better than the previous perm session. Is that true? You be the judge

Anyway, I have concluded that perm hair is too much of a hassle to maintain. You need to keep adding styling cream, twisting you hair, etc for the curls to turn out nice. Otherwise, it will be limp and almost straight with some waves at the end. On the flipside, straight hair makes one looks younger and is almost maintainence free. Conclusion: I could go with curls on an occasional basis. =p

Retail Therapy

2008-06-08T10:59:00.000+08:00

Was quite perturbed with work issues lately. Kept making small little mistakes, which caused my boss to be rather unhappy with me. I am not sure is it because of my sensitvity or what. But I find that his tone seems to be less friendly and he tends to be less willing to share information with me as he prevously does.

Well.. looks like I have to start pulling up my socks and start concentrating on my work instead of web surfing and blogging all the time. Despite the light work load, i shouldnt let my hair down as I had been doing lately.. I think this has somehow affected my boss's perception and attitude towards me.

As this has been rather disturbing to me mentally, I started plunging into retail therapy for relief. Went on a shopping trip with Jeral and Puifong yesterday at Charles & Keith anchorpoint. I had initially no intention to purchase anything. However, upon glancing at the price tag, my retail madness instinct starts to creep into me. I start shopping like a fanatic. Trying shoes of shoes. Pointing at bags after bags. Of course, I still have my $$ saving rationale within me. Ended up bagging 2 bags at $25 each, a pair of boots at $30 and a pair of shoes at $17.50. This is even better than shopping at Bangkok.. haha.. In addition, as we managed to struggle to a $150 purchase, we get a Charles & Keith membership card and bag holder in return.

Crazy me, actually start to change into my new pair of boots and carrying the new bag after the purchase.. Yah.. no one actually bothers.. but auntie me for that day.. manage to transform into a vogue "auntie" after the dorning on of my new gear...

To top it all, the shopping centre had also given us a $10 voucher for purchases exceeding $180.. What a day..

Well.. the retail therapy does helps a little.. (after burning almost $100.. in my pocket)... I felt rather happy and excited yesterday... As my boss is on a 1 week break.. I am going to make use of this chance to revamp myself (work wise) - especially my working attitude and be more careful in the work issues that I am doing... Have been rather distracted and careless lately... I must be extremely careful......

House to be featured in STOMP!!

2008-06-07T09:27:00.000+08:00

Posted my house pictures taken by the designer in the forum. I was wondering.. Boy! Its soo.. pretty... it would be a pity if I do not send it to the home magazines to bid for a chance to be featured.. Well.. half worried.. and half non chalant.. I sent my home pictures to both Stomp! and Home and Decor.. Sadly the email to Home and Decor doesnt seem to work.. Sent in twice but was bounced back. Will try it again next week.

Stomp actually replied that they are keen to post my home pictures in the newspaper section known as My Space!. If I did not remember wrongly, I think I saw this newspaper feature my space in The Life! section of Straits Times (National newspaper, largest newspaper circulation in Singapore). And usually the coverage is not small.. Yippeee!! My house is going to be famous!!!

According to my designer, my house is due to be featured in the upcoming issue of Cubes as well. Sadly, having visited the newstand several times, still cant find the new issue of Cubes out yet. Hopefully I wouldnt end up disappointed.

Anyway, back to Stomp! I was requested to answer several questions about the house such as how we derive on the house concept, how much effort was being put into the design, our favourite corners, etc. I had replied them and hope to hear good news from them soon.

Here's more pictures of my most talked about house (blearh... so thick skin right....)

View of Dining Room

Living Room View

Art Gallery behind TV Console

Masterbedroom

Kitchen

Jeral's Birthday Part 2

2008-06-02T15:19:00.000+08:00

We celebrated Jeral's birthday on Saturday, 31st May. As part of the birthday present, we have bought a bag (as requested) for her. In addition, I had created a photobook for her. Slogged 2 nights for it, working till 4am.. cos the stupid program couldnt read the photos from other source and I had to redo the whole thing again.... !!!! But I kinda enjoy doing this book though.. Its indeed a flashback of all the goody, fun moments we had over the years. Compiling it is like a refresher.. its like.. did we do this?? did we really do that?? Haha.. Look at all the funny faces!! One of the favourite pic amongst the gal gang is the picture posted here. (our famed gal gang cover) (Refer to Jeral's Birthday Part 1 for more photobook pics): As usual, forgetful me promised to print a copy for everyone but had'nt do it. Will have to get it done by the next meeting as we present the long awaited photobook to her (guess the earliest will be during Win's bday then)....

Had a great session of steamboat cum Teppanyaki session with the gal gang on Saturday, 31 May. The food looks yummy right?? It is indeed. We got Jeral to come later so that she could be spared from the tedious preparations.

Leo even specially bought a new game - "Mario kart" to entertain them.. Haha.. So.. even though its a "home in" outing. It was still great fun. Beats wandering on the streets outside, not knowing where to go and spending $$ on overpriced entertainment.. Sighz... Seriously hope the gal gang could get their own place soon... Can do some house rotations... Anyway.. more pics of Jeral's bday have been posted below.. Enjoy...

Funny Shots!!!!

Baby Woes

2008-05-29T11:26:00.000+08:00

Went to see the gynaelogist for a ultra scan of my body today. The shocking news came when the doctor told me that I have inbalance hormones due to cyst on my ovaries and tell tale signs of having febroid. These factors can result in a low chance of one getting pregnant. She gave me the solution of consuming "contraceptives" pills to readjust my hormone levels. I am suppose to consume these pills known as "Yasmine". Some known side effects are things such as weight gain and even higher chance of child preventive measures..

Leo and I had planned to have a child next year. And not having none at all. Hearing such news kinda make me somewhat worried. Will my plans be disrupted? Well.. All I can do now is to "kuai kuai de" take my medicine and see how it goes... The doctor mentioned that another scan will be conducted in 2 months time to reassess my situation.. Hope its good news.. I want to be a normal mum.. One who can actually bear my own children... (Even though not now.. but soon..)

Jeral's Birthday Part 1

2008-05-25T19:08:00.000+08:00

Rush.. Rush.. Rush.. Jeral's birthday celebration is next week and I had proposed to the gal gang to print our own gal gang publication featuring all the special moments over the years. All in one book. And I have less than 24 hours to complete this! The worst part is I am still blogging here.. A sad fact about the photobook was the poor response from the gal gang.. Nevertheless, we are still sending it to print for Jeral's surprise pressie. This is in addition to a bag we searched throughout the whole of Orchard yesterday...

Here's a preview of the photobook. Its created by pixart. You may log on to http://www.pixart.com.my/ to create one for yourself. It is book bind and very nice and handy for keepsake and to carry around. The customerservice team are extremely helpful. Feel free to ask them any queries you might have about your order. They are very prompt and efficient. My book is arriving sometime this week. So excited...

The introduction page

2005 Moments - Its Winy's and mine birthdays.
Both in July and both celebrated at Clarke Quay.

2006 - Chinese New Year. Visited a number of houses this year.

2007 - Jeral's Surprise Birthday Celebration

2008 - Trip to Malacca, Afamosa

Auntie Vienz

2008-05-25T18:56:00.000+08:00

Well.. married life have taken some form of change in me.. I am becoming more like an "Auntie".. Since young I have been very careful and particular about every expenses. Now its worse. Today, I even argued with the cashier at NTUC for an overcharge of $0.75 for milk! Can you imagine that?? Theres already a beeline at the cashier, but for $0.75, I decided to fight for my "rights". Sighz.. even leo cant stand this "Auntie" in me. I could even go through the hassle of carrying a 1.5l drink from City Hall all the way home to Sembawang. Th reason? To save $0.10. You heard me right!! Its 10 cents.. Very auntie right??

I used to sleep to the late hours and wake up to watch tv or slack.. Today, I wake up to do housework, attend cooking talks, thinking of financial tools to change my lifestyle... Life is so different now.. And I am a gap away from my galfriends as they continue to enjoy the freedom to pursue their dreams and enjoy life.

Despite the "auntie" term, despite the different lifestyle, its all worth it.. I mean.. saving $0.10 or $0.20 could amount to alot, especially when you are using these stuff on a daily basis. And when the baby comes, the "auntie" me will start checking on the latest diaper bargains and stuff... Haha...

Birthday Moments

2008-05-21T06:01:00.000+08:00

Haha.. Its sure great fun to plan and celebrate birthdays... We celebrated kc's quarter century birthday with her yesterday.. Thinking that Mr K would celebrate her birthday with her.. we decided not to touch the actual day but to celebrate a post one instead.. Only to find out from her yest that Mr K is too occupied with exams to celebrate it with her.. grr...

Anyway.. it was great fun as we celebrated her bday a Clarity rest - Seah Street.. (recommended by poor, sick winy).. (she was recovering and hence had no appetite for any food)..

Food wasnt fantastic.. just ok.. wouldnt recommend it for a second time.. I ordered garlic baked chicken and it was too spicy.. The set that comes with a soup (bland and watery), a drink and a dessert (too sweet and mash) wasnt spectular either.. Even though the price was OK... at approx $15 per person.

Guess we are getting old or something.. A few hours out and we are back home in our own bedrooms. Meet ups these days is only for a meal and some short shopping and poof.. home we go.. We used to be able to shop from day to night and even end it up with a midnight movie.. where had all the energy gone to??

With KC's birthday over, the next will be Jeral's.. We are starting to tok about printing our own gal gang's publication featuring all the good ol times we had from Poly days till now to mark our quarter century age... sighz.. sounds so old... Yup yup.. And we are going to present one of this book to Jeral as part of her bday present for this year (since she is still unable to make up her mind..)

Can I also state that I want a food blender (one that can crush nuts, blend juice, make smoothies, etc) and if there are some cash to spare.. a recipe book featuring hawker delights that teach one how to cook boneless, shelless, fatless, easy, healthy food? =p

Update on Holiday Glee

2008-05-19T03:05:00.000+08:00

Sadly.. the trip did not manage to take place.. As all my girlfriends find it too risky to book the tickets 8MONTHS in advance.. Life is too unpredictable to make plans far too early.. In the event, anyone of us is unable to take leave and cant go.. the mood will be disturbed.. We have tentatively shelved the plans till the 2nd half of the year... I pray that a similar promo will be launched by Air asia or other airlines again... Out of curiosity, a peek at the airasia website showed that prices have shot by at least S$ 60 per person.. That's S$200+ for a trip to Phuket and Bangkok!!! Sighz.. Lets just hope that we will be able to make out a trip later this year.. somehow...

Blissful Living

2008-05-17T11:43:00.000+08:00

I am in bliss... I am so glad I had chosen and married the perfect guy... After a hectic time in the kitchen and I am dead tired.. only glad to be able to take some time off to chat with my buddies online.. I just thrown the dishes aside.. Meany me.. actually told my husband to help me with the dishes.. Which he actually DID!! The usual him will only wash the dishes in the sink and ignore the rice cooker as well as the pots and pans..

Haha.. probably due to my "usual training".. he actually helped me scrubbed those pots and pans for me as well.. Despite having married for 2 months and staying together for the past 6 months.. Every moment spent with him is indeed a joy.. We would snuggle beside each other watching tv and enjoying a tub of ice cream together at night.. or me cooking in the kitchen and he suddenly popped in to give me a peck on the cheek.

There were plenty of cheeky and funny moments with him and I simply enjoy married life.. Its a time for both of us to enjoy each other's company.. Baby is not in our plans right now.. We just hope to continue this carefree lifestyle and maybe next year.. I hope I have the chance to announce my pregnancy...

Holiday Glees

2008-05-16T05:22:00.000+08:00

This is so exciting!!! All thanks to the air asia free flights promotion to Bangkok and Phuket.. My girlfriends and I are already starting to make holiday plans for a trip in January... Yup.. you heard me right.. we are already starting to plan for January 09.. Due to the frequent trips to Bangkok.. this time round, we are planning for a trip to Phuket first then Bangkok.. Looking at the pictures alone is enough to make me salivate and dream of the beautfiful scenary there... A 5D4N trip to both Bangkok and Phuket only costs a mere S$ 180. We are now in the midst of discussion for this holiday plans.. Will keep you posted with pictures and entries in the event this managed to fall through..

Nightmares!!!

2008-05-14T09:34:00.000+08:00

Geez.. today started on a rather exciting note... Firstly, I had this terrible nightmare of me running into "relatives turned" bloodsucking zombies in Bali... (my dream honeymoon destination in October).. and if that is not enough.. I was blabbering in my sleep (hope my honey didnt catch me doing it)... as I run for my dear lives... I am only more than relieved to wake up and realise that it was only a bad nightmare..

Hope it doesnt happen in reality.. I dont wish to have my dream honeymoon ending up in a drastic "zombie chase"

New Blogger On Board

2008-05-12T13:26:00.000+08:00

Well.. how should I start... I have read my girlfriends blogs and am very excited to start one myself.. In fact, I kinda regretted starting a blog so late... =( Most of the history making moments had been over... Setting a home.. Going through a wedding... Being termed a Bridezilla by my dearest friends...

No fret.. I will keep you guys posted on these events on a post dated basis. Otherwise, you can always refer to my team of girlfriends and read their blogs for more info..

I would first like to give my thanks to girl gang - KC for a help in gathering those lovely blog links to help me get started. Its really interesting reading all those little snippets of people's feelings and the events that are taking place in their lives. Blogging is indeed an avenue for one to express oneself and to let others know you better..

Stay tune for more postings as I put on post life marking events in my blog... and of course more to come on future events that are going to take place. =)