Eat, Shop, Travel, Chill

Shall try to quickly update my life over the last 5 months based on the 4 main areas in my title post.

(a) Eat - simple reviews/thoughts about the many eateries that I've visited. (1) Auntie Kim's (around Thomson area) - decent but I just think I'm not a fan of Korean food. Don't fancy kimchi and probably what I like best are the salads that tend to be a feature in most Korean restaurants. (2) Ice Cream Chefs - nice franchise and can't go too wrong with ice-cream from here (3) Garibaldi - Italian restaurant near Bras Basah/City Hall area. Pretty good food maybe slightly pricey (about $70 per pax) and quite nice ambience. Enjoyed the focaccia with the olive oil and tried risotto for the first time but not quite a fan of it probably cos the rice was quite thick and hard. Some of the other dishes were quite enjoyable though such as wagyu beef carpaccio. (4) Roma Deli's (at Shaw Centre) - vegetarian place but can't say that I fancy the food haha, or at least the dish that I had which was some seafood pasta. (5) V8 Cafe (at Bugis Junction) - not to my taste. (6) Shokudo (at Bugis Junction) - Nice! Pretty affordable even for students and I liked the pizza and dessert there. Wouldn't mind going there again. (7) Soup Spoon (at Ion Orchard) - quite nice salad and soup there. (8) Bakerzin (at Novena) - didn't like the seafood pasta that I had but the salad was decent. (9) Vegan Burg (beside Eunos MRT) - vegetarian place that was in the mould of a fast-food restaurant and I quite enjoyed it. Not many decent vegetarian places around I think...(10) Potato Depot (at Raffles City) - quite nice and pretty affordable. =) As the name suggests, all the dishes contain potatoes with a variety of toppings/ingredients to match it. (11) Ricciotti Italian Deli and Pastry - quite liked the salads there but ambience not great for me. (12) Hai Tian Lou (at Pan Pacific Hotel) - definitely one of the best Chinese restaurants in Singapore. (13) Sabai Fine Thai on the Bay (near Fullerton Bay Hotel) - very good food imo and decent price (for that quality). The owner was friendly and offered good advice on the food and I liked the ambience. (14) Mr. Curry (at Marina Square) - overpriced and nothing that was decent to me. Nuff said. (15) Hei She Hui (at Vivocity) - very nice dim sum and I liked the drinks they have to offer. (16) Mad for Garlic (at Suntec) - very nice variety of food which obviously contains garlic and quite decently priced. (17) Bistro Soori (at Teck Lim Road) - OMG good! The wagyu beef cheeks were awesome and overall the quality of food and pricing was definitely worth the trouble to go there (it's almost always fully booked). (18) Peony Jade (at Keppel Club) - set meal was disappointing and foie gras infused with wine meant that it killed my favourite dish. For the price, definitely not worth it and I didn't even recall any dish which excited me or made me feel satisfied. (19) Barcelos (at Nex) - decent food at good price. (20) Your Woul (at Goldhill Centre, near Novena) - Korean place which was quite decent and seems like a lot of people like it. Again I'm not blown away by Korean food but it's pretty nice. (21) Salad Stop (at Novena Square) - they serve nice salads! (22) P.S. Cafe (at Paragon) - decent food, but wasn't blown away. Again, salad was nice - I've been eating a lot of salads haha. (23) Men-Ichi (at NEX) - surprisingly pretty good food at very affordable price! Ramen was good! (24) Paradise Dynasty (at Ion Orchard) - tried their Xiao Long Baos which were very exotic cos there are 8 with a variety of flavours and fancy colours (has black sesame, cheese). Not every flavour went down well with me though but it's an interesting experience. (25) Kuriya Dining (at Great World City) - very good food, perhaps even on par with the posher Kuriya Penthouse but we didn't eat enough to determine that. (26) Spizzico (at UE Square) - good Italian food at decent price. (27) Yum Cha (at Serangoon Garden Country Club) - decent dim sum (28) Spize (at Simpang Bedok) - popular hangout for many to chill and it's decent simple fare. (29) Fat Boys (at Thomson area) - interesting place where you can design your own burgers - quite cool! Decent price also and decent taste. No ambience lah haha. (30) Sun and Moon Dining (at CHIJMES) - have been there before a few times but we decided to try out some new dishes and they were generally very good. Definitely a good place to try out for anyone. (31) Melt-the-World Cafe (at Pan Pacific Hotel) - priciest buffet I've eaten (about $76 per pax after discount) and I can't say I'm blown away by it at that price. The food is nice though certainly and I love the ice-cream too. If you have time to sit down and can eat a lot, you'll enjoy this but for me it was just ok. (32) Kinki restaurant (around Fullerton Bay Hotel) - nothing kinky about this place at all haha but the food is very nice (about $70 per pax) and I like the view of the bayfrom where we were sitting. Waitress was very friendly and good with recommendations and the funniest thing was her face when I ordered a mocktail called "Doraemon Cream". (33) Au Petit Salut (around Dempsey area) - very nice French cuisine and the foie gras was even better than what I normally enjoy. Loved the dessert also which had a variety of texture and taste. Nice ambience but difficult to get to the place unless you drive (or cab there). (about $120 per pax) (34) No Signboard Seafood (around Geylang) - ok but not blown away by it. (35) Ippudo (at Mandarin Hotel) - very popular place that has always been crowded everytime we walk pass and it was again crowded. Food was nice, price was decent, but not awesome enough to warrant my time queueing (rarely anything is worth my time queueing for). (36) Azur (at Crowne Plaza Hotel) - tried their buffet which was ok but not blown away. Decent food and I think people just enjoy going to the airport to chill so it's a nice place. (37) Ramen Monster (at Velocity) - Ramen was just ok, gyoza not great. (38) Barnacles (at Shangri-La Hotel, Sentosa)- tried the grilled seafood platter there and it was quite decent, though not awesome considering the price (about $70 per pax). Realised I don't really appreciate lobsters as much as I should considering the price haha. (39) Yan Ting (at St. Regis Hotel)- posh dim sum at about $70 per pax but it was quite tasty although the desserts were a disappointment. (40) Akira (around Havelock area) - went with Jon and co. for their buffet lunch there and it was decent considering the price (about $25 after using UOB card) (41) Cold Stone Creamery (at Orchard Central) - very nice ice-cream and I loved the Strawberry Banana Rendezvous! (42) Lerk Thai (at White Sands) - was ages since I last ate there and I thought I'd try there just before my trip to Bangkok. Wasn't great imo and not great variety which was the feedback I gave to them also. (43) Saboten (at Changi Airport Terminal 1) - quite expensive meal but I suppose at the airport the prices are inflated. Liked their free-flow salad though but the main stuff which were the fried stuff weren't awesome. (44) Ling Zhi (at Liat Towers) - vegetarian fine dining, which is probably quite rare. Tried their set menu (looks like no. 3 from their website) and some of the dishes were decent but I didn't fancy the noodles cos it didn't look appetising and didn't taste great also.

(b) Shop - spent probably close to 10k in the first half of 2011, much more than any of my previous years as I underwent some major revamp of my wardrobe and learnt a lot more about fashion in terms of choosing patterns (ditching my usual stripes for colours, chequers, and other fancy stuff), colour matching, materials/fabribs, cutting, fitting, trimmings, details, and also expanding my array of pants (probably more than 15 now, including various work pants in colours such as gold, silver, khaki, and in various shades of brown, grey, apart from the boring black I used to wear), shoes (more than 15 including loafers, sandals, sneakers, working shoes in a variety of colours such as tan, shiny black, white), and belts (about 10, including some reversible belts which were fascinating to me), in addition to the shirts which tend to be my areas of focus last time. Also made 2 new pairs of spectacles involving the classic look and the clean-cut look and coloured my hair.

For sure, the changes brought about much speculation about what's happening to my life and why the sudden change in dressing sense but no, it's not because I'm attached nor am chasing anyone but because I'm bored with life and just enjoy looking better and feeling better. Certainly I would say it's been a change for the better, with many compliments from students (past and present) and colleagues about the improved fashion sense and fresh look, which the credit must go to Da Jie for her fashion advice. =) Of course there will be that 1 or 2 detractors but hey you can't please everyone so I'll just heck care people who mean nothing to me.

(c) Travel - (1) Bintan Trip in Mar - stayed at the Angsana Resort which was quite nice and we had a room with sea-view. Pity that no one seems to be around to play volleyball / water polo though so we just swam and spent most of our time chilling in the rooms playing Monopoly Deal haha. Enjoyed an awesome and cheap meal at Aneka seafood restaurant which I'd highly recommend. Also ate at "The Cove" which was at the neighbouring (and very posh) Banyan Tree Resort and the food was fantastic and well worth the $100 per pax. Very nice ambience also and quiet. Went for foot massage at a branch of Martha Tilaar, which seems to be quite a big company in Indonesia.(2) Bangkok Trip in Jun - stayed at Pullman Hotel, which is a very nice (5-star) hotel that is also quite near to the shopping areas, namely Siam Paragon and Central World. There were plenty of places to shop at though and it would take ages to cover everything there, esp for girls. When we got past customs we passed by this tour agency booth and they offered a good deal which amounted to about $10 per pax for a half-day tour with a personal driver and tour guide. Probably the bad thing was that the tour guide turned out to be not really good at conversing in English and she was quite bad at explaining stuff so that was a dampener but well for $10 I guess we couldn't expect too much? There were some pretty good tour guides though that we saw so I wouldn't discourage anyone from avoiding the guided tours there but just that you gotta be more selective haha. Anyway we took a trip to some temples (including Wat Po, which is supposed to be a well-known place) and the palace. Note that proper dressing is important and by that we are talking about no sleeveless tops and shorts and they had a lot of other restrictions but those are the main things. Of course there are many people who are willing to help, at a price, outside the palace by selling or even renting clothings so as to fulfil the criteria for going to the palace. The guards will actually check quite thoroughly so don't think you can smoke them! Some of the interesting things to do there were to take the various forms of transport there, such as the taxis including the famous tuk-tuks (the good thing is generally it's quite cheap and it increases by 1 baht (4 cents) which is not painful at all!), the train (known as BTS, v. similar to our MRT) and even motorcycles (just the 1 time which was v interesting but dangerous cos they don't even provide helmets!). Visited the famous Chatuchak market (it's actually spelt as Jatujak market and is known as JJ Market from the road signs there) and it's really HUGE. It would probably be a youngster's heaven cos of the great variety of things there and the good thing was that unlike our big pasar malams which tend to have quite a few repeated stores, JJ Market had many unique stores which means more things to buy. Bought some stuff there after some careful picking cos quality and style of clothes is important nowadays but if you want to spam t-shirts this would be a good place. Also recommended if you like all the jewellery kind of stuff! Went to some great eating places such as Lebua State Hotel's Sirocco Sky Bar which is situated on the 63rd floor of the hotel and offers a great view of Bangkok. The hotel itself looked surprisingly plain considering it's a 6-star hotel but the food at the Sky Bar was just awesome - truely fine dining with the taste and texture of all the fusion dishes that they prepared. Also ate at this place called "Baan Khanitha Thai Cuisine" which served very tasty food at an affordable price. It had a nice homely setting (btw "Baan" means home) and has won more than 10 consecutive awards for their food and definitely strongly recommended by me as well. Went to this place called "Hapa Spa" for some aromatherapy and facial treatment and they provided good services though it was kinda ulu and difficult to get to. (3) Phuket Trip in Jul - went over the long weekend (due to Youth Day)and travelled around the island mainly by a rented car, which is a very good form of travel due to the convenience and it's also not too expensive. Had a hard time driving around initially though, no thanks to the terrible maps which didn't show a lot of the roads and the road signs with the English words in font 8 size so there were quite a few occasions where we missed turns and had to make a big round cos there were quite a few one way roads, esp in Phuket Town). Had our first meal at this place called "Raya Thai" which took us like forever to find it but it was worth it cos they served pretty good food, esp their crab in coconut milk which was awesome and cheap. Then travelled to Avista Resort and Spa at Kata Beach to check-in before going out for dinner at a floating restaurant at "Kruvit Raft". It was again difficult to get there but the guy at the concierge gave really good instructions and his timing was spot-on which made it easier to navigate. You have to take a short boat ride from Laem Hin Pier and there are a few restaurants there (3 I think) so either tell them the name or apparently it is number 1. The seafood there was really good and I enjoyed the black pepper crab and clams though not so much the garoupa, not that it wasn't nice - it was v fresh actually but I realised I'm not a fan of that. Second day travelled around the southern part of Phuket, going to some of the view points to look at the scenery and then to Chalong Bay before going to the very popular Patong Beach for massage and a good dinner at the "Baan Kamnan Restaurant". Headed to Phuket Fantasea to catch their special night show (the place is actually a theme park) which was quite interesting but just a pity I didn't understand some of the cultural significance of the dances. On the last day, went for jet skiing for the first time and later parasailing and the jet skiing was cool though there were 2 dangerous moments when I went quite close to someone who was snorkeling v far out and also a rock which was hidden by the waves. Quite expensive sports I must say but I suppose it's ok for the experience though I don't need to do them again. =) After checking out we went to Patong Beach area for some shopping at Jungceylon and then had a really good massage at "Bali Hai" before a scary experience of chionging to the airport amidst busy traffic and nearly missing the flight back because we only reached the airport 25 min before the flight. Thankfully we were allowed to check-in probably because there was no check-in luggage so after all the running we finally caught the flight back. =p

(d) Chill - (1) Feb 12th - Caroline's birthday party and good to see her and some of the others in her clique whom I've not seen for some time. Nice Minnie Mouse theme haha. Sent off Liju earlier in the day before the party. (2) Feb 14th - Friendship day - met up with YH for dinner at Roma Deli's before walking around Plaza Singapura and catching "Black Swan" which was an excellent movie and it made sense to watch with someone who's into literature and can appreciate the movie. Certainly a highly recommended movie and Natalie Portman well deserved her Oscar for her role. =) (3) Feb 19th - Meet-up with the SRP people for dinner at Bugis Junction and went to V8 Cafe and Shokudo. Always fun to see and crap with them. (4) Feb 26th - Karaoke with Jon and co. - had a sore throat actually but on the way to recovery and surprsingly I was quite pleased with my singing heh. Funny cos I was choosing all the funkier and newer songs while they chose ancient songs like those from Teresa Teng. =p (5) Mar 28th - Anqi's concert at the Esplanade - well technically it's not her concert but for her NUS Symphonic Band. Decent I'd say - can't say I'm a huge fan of concerts even though I've attended many to support people haha. Was busy commenting on the dressing of the conductors and looking at their shoes also lol. (6) Apr 17th - 10S417 Party - borrowed Da Jie's place to host the kids and it was certainly a very meaningful and fun day as we prepared a variety of things for them. From buying the ingredients to preparing the food (learnt that cutting apples and grapes weren't as simple as I thought =p) and my main contribution was to the waldorf salad, to buying games (even bought a WII Guitar Heroes Band set to play), gifts (for best-dressed, highest score in trivia quiz), to buying a cake and even designing my very-own 10S417 rainbow t-shirt to suit our Rainbow theme, it was a really meaningful thing to do which the kids were surprised and appreciative about. When I reflect about my teaching life, this is one event that would certainly be a memory I treasure. (7) May 6th - WII Party and we played Guitar Heroes and it was a lot of fun to play together as a band. We were crapping about and joking about a name for our band, which was called the LJ Bros. It came about cos Da Jie was thinking of using our initials to come up with something so after me and my bro, she said LJ and we all laughed then decided to just stick with it. (8) May 7th - Kejin's Birthday Surprise - went to White Sands for consultation and then met up with some of the others in the class to go down to Kejin's place to surprise her. Her house is HUGE!!! 4 storeys if you include the little basement. (9) May 26th - Karaoke with MJC friends at Crystabelle - same old same old I guess which admittedly I've found getting rather boring because too often I hear the same songs so the entire night I chose to sing purely English songs and songs which are unlikely to have been heard by my group like the newer English songs and those from Linkin Park. (10) Jun 16th - attended this meeting for singles at the Malted Milk around Mohamed Sultan Road which was a first for me and I was tagging along. Really didn't want to go but just followed to see how it's like. Ended up talking almost solely to guys hahaha and good thing some of them were quite funny but really I just don't like such events. Nevertheless it was a different experience and I guess it was just exposure to learn how to talk to people since I have problems doing that especially with strangers heh.

Ok, that's as much as I can recall for now though missed out on the details. I REALLY should be updating more often so that I can remind myself of some of these memories years down the road. Updates on school and thoughts on teaching sometime later this week. So many things to do but so little time, sigh!