HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA :D

Hello Humans,

It's been a while for my family to have staycation for NDP preview+ mum's birthday and coincidentally it was my eldest sister's first anniversary with my brother-in-law*! We got a good room at level 16 with this view (refer to images below)! So we got to watch NDP preview from the balcony of the room, which is quite clear though camera can only take blurry images of the stage. I think my mum did mention to the manager that she wanna watch NDP preview before her birthday dinner and the manager tried to arrange it for her! So sweet right! But hmmm, it took damn long for us to check in cos the rooms are not ready ):

*1 year pass damn fast cos we recalled last year,13th July 2012, Shan and I were in Zurich and we just got back to hotel receiving my brother's whatapp saying that they were busy preparing for my sis's tea ceremony. We tried to skype them but the connection was very bad and we actually thought the tea ceremony is on 14th July. LOL. So yeah, we managed to skype a bit with our family for a very short, hoping that they did not forget about us. haha.

Proud to be a Singaporean, born in this generation. Be grateful and count your bless. Though sometimes I love to complain about Singapore this or that, like.. eh I can't really remember what I've complaint but anyway, I know I'm a very fortunate one to be living and growing up in this city-state in this era. Though we don't really need to travel to learn to appreciate things, but sometimes it just helps you to contrast the difference between countries etc. There are always the good and bad, and all this make me love you, Singapore. :D

Five stars are rising~

A day of celebration.

We made a reservation at Peach Blossoms Restaurant for a table of 10 for my mum's birthday! :D Customized menu for my mum's birthday dinner! (She chose the dishes herself)

寿桃 is loved! I had two, nobody ever fought it with me for that. HAHA

Looks a bit cruel but we loved Suckling pig! My grandma didn't eat it cos she thinks that suckling pig is disgusting or cruel though she loves roasted pork etc. LOL. 

The chef did it well cos the Suckling pig wasn't too oily, unlike those we ate elsewhere! I had 5 of those in the photo cos the combination of wrap + crispy skin + spring onion + sauce= PERFECT!

Garlic Prawn- 1 plate with chilli padi and the other with garlic only. This is actually requested by my dad, who want it to be cooked somehow like this but not really like this. Guess he wanted the grilled or baked one that he had somewhere else. lol, can't blame the chef cos I think he/she really tried it. Anyway, generous portion of garlic made the prawn yummy yummy but hmmm, look at the prawn! THEY ARE SO SMALL! ): We actually made pre-orders so we were very disappointed by the size! )):

Check this out! The crab is a gigantic one!

Mee sua, probably the only dish that is less salty. We were thinking that the chef is probably very 重口味person cos shark fin etc are very salty! But anyway, this mee sua is nice and simple (:

Pretty cake from Prima Deli! Shan was the one who chose this design, think of the words and she carry it all the way! Hee, it's yummy cos the roses are made of white chocolate, chocolate sponge with real hazelnut and creams sided with chocolate pieces! Glad that everyone loves this cake! :D

Happy mum and dad.

Pop a champagne! My mum took damn long to pop it. It was hilarious that the angmors and staffs were kind of worry that somehow the thing will hit them. Tell you a secret- this champagne is 1 year old already cos I got it from France last year! That's the first thing that I got from my Europe trip last year, and that's for my mum. So sweet of me right?! Especially when I still have so much more travelling to be done! Not sure if that's the real taste of the champagne cos it tastes kind of weird. HMM, i hope it's the original taste. LOL. 

Family portrait! Do we look alike? Can you make a guess of the sequence of my siblings (if you don't know)? Empty spaces to be filled up with our future partners huh? LOL, someone in my family mentioned it last time before. HAHA

Shall end off with a happy photo of my mum! Happy birthday mama once again. Hope you had a blast and enjoyed your dinner! :) Stay healthy, pretty, safe and happy! (hello to the balloon that xq got for me the other day! it's still surviving well, though it has leaked some air already!)

Lots of love,
bean

Grad Photo Shoot at Serangoon Broadway Studio

Hello Humans,

It is finally my turn to graduate from University, probably the final stage of my education phase in my life. 4 years ago I set my foot into Serangoon Broadway Studio for family portrait after my elder sisters' graduated and how can 4 years pass so fast?! This is Shan who graduated a few years back but who has yet to use the package that she bought from the studio. So sweet of her to "wait" for me huh! :D

Mum trying to take a photo of me. Okay, I asked her to help me take actually, but all of them turned out to be blurry ): Wearing second sis's shirt, my BKK $6 black skirt and Payless $15 shoes. :)

My mum says everytime she sees me wear until like that she will laugh, cos she will think of 祝英台(acted by莫小玲) years back in the Channel 8 comedy show. Seriously, do it look like her?! 

Free make-up done by the make-up artist in the studio since the package includes it. My mum had a nice chat with the make-up artist, talking about Malaysia stuff. lol.

Both with make-up on! I'm thinking which shirt should I wear for convocation leh?! The bright blue that Shan is wearing or should I wear the light blue one?

Geared up with our gowns and ready for photo shoot!

The photographer and his assistance didn't really look and sound friendly. For our package we took 4 photos each. Though I'm kind of worry that the photos will turn out not nice or me not as pretty but I can't wait to see the photos (they will only be ready for viewing and selection by 26th)! Anyway cos Shan already have package with them so I can just tag along hers. She paid $100 deposit to secure a package and if $160 is spent, there's a discount of $50! We probably just need 8R photo ($115 each) so we got that discount and so it's $90 per pax for the photo that comes with frame and all. 

3 more days to convocation, the day that I have been waiting for since my education started more than 16 years ago.

Loves,

Bean

Meet up equates to meeting awesome people and yummy food!

Hello Humans,

I've found another reason to feast- MEET UP! HAHAHHA.

1. Kith Cafe

Meet up with 117 for brunch date. The both of us don't have any fate with Botanical Garden cos we planned to visit Food for Thought and walk around the garden after our brunch. It's either haze or rain, so we shall visit it NEXT TIME, one fine day. So as usual, we came out with random back-up plan of going to Kith Cafe and head for Despicable Me 2! Finally got to try Kith Cafe after so long as planned trips to there haven't been a successful one. Okay the food don't really look very appealing here but they taste alright! The one that's bigger in the picture is Big Breakfast ($16 before gst) that comes with choice of bread (I chose multi grain), choice of egg (I chose Omelette), grilled tomato, bacon and mushroom. The toast is slightly hard for me but I guess maybe all toasts will turn harder as they are left in the open. 117 ordered Chicken Mushroom Sandwich ($12-$14 before gst i think) and having tasted a bit, it should be not bad I guess.

Overall taste: Not bad, but a bit pricey. Environment is alright too, it would be good to spend your time with a cake and a cup of tea/coffee. And I don't mind going back another day cos I wanna try their duck sandwich! Think I saw it somewhere before and it looks not bad! :D

Waited for the rain to stop but it was never ending so we walked in the rain with our umbrellas to PS and happily bought our tickets straight when we reached there. I've never thought that I'll watch Despicable Me 2 cos it's like.. too cute... it's like for kids to watch in cinema. HAHA. I mean this kind of movie confirm plus chop Channel 5 will air it one fine day and I don't mind waiting for years. But anyway, it was really a let-down-your-hair kind of movie cos it's cute and funny! It can be brainless and senseless stuff but it's just for laughter. So yeah, not bad huh! :D

2. Tiong Bahru Bakery

Pretty food that we ordered at Tiong Bahru Bakery. Seriously don't remember their names- the yellowish pie thingy is pandan flavour and it tastes a bit like the egg tart I had earlier of that day; the round round thing is probably caramel something?; and the last one I remember! It's chocolate croissant and Earl Grey Lavender tea. Actually all of them taste pretty similar, layer by layer, and hard to cut using knife and fork. Atmosphere is pretty fine too cos we managed to get the corner seat and I can only see NPM in front of me. HEE.

Overall taste: Not bad, but a but pricey. Selection is quite limited with some sandwiches, tarts, pies. Probably better for breakfast or tea-time. I think my expectations and hopes were too high and I was a bit disappointed leh X:

So after our brunch date, we headed for our make-up class that was arranged just for the two of us. HAHAHHA, too bad cos you gonna do what you've promised. 

That is us after our make-up, with our smoky eyes and falsies! But ahem, my eyes are too sensitive for me to use my eyeliner for the lower eyes ): I teared and refused to try. HAHA. NPM damn power, she drew all.

Gonna remove falsies as it's either falsies or glasses. A bit pity cos the falsies is $1 a pair and I wore it for less than 10 minutes? So die die must take a photo! HAHAHHA.

Say HI to NPM's pretty eyes and lashes! Was told by the instructor that to have more natural look of the falsies, the criss-cross one should be used so that it can blend it with our own's lashes. Okay, noted. So that was our first try! HEEE. 

3. Tom's Palette

Not sure if you can see my make-up clearly since my hair and glasses is covering part of the make-up done. Personally I quite like this photo cos of my neat hair, eye make-up and yummy food. HEE. But anyway, headed to Shaw Tower/Center to look for recruit agency but they moved or something so we settled ourselves with yummy food again! 

Here's pretty NPM with her full make-up, posing with Banana and Honey Roasted Nut Ice Cream and Waffle (Promo $5). It was quite funny when I commented that I couldn't see her eyes in the first try X: Anyway thanks girl to accompany me to walk around in Bugis while I'm waiting for time to pass to meet up with my friends for dinner! HEE.

Overall Rating: As a banana fan, I love the taste of the ice cream and it comes with nuts in it! and the hot waffle! I guess $5 should consider cheap already huh! Anyway they have quite a few range of flavors and a lot seems to be innovated by them! They have interesting flavours! For example there's one Salted Egg Ice Cream, it really tastes like salted egg and I feel like I'm eating Mooncake (I don't know why but maybe cos it's coming soon?). But, I vaguely recalled that my friend whom visited it last time did mention that she didn't enjoy one of the flavor that she ordered. So... remember to ask for tasting of the icecream before buying them huh!

4. 藤

So after bidding goodbye to NPM, I walked around and meet up with my BFFs at this Japanese Vegetarian Restaurant 藤. Check out these lovely sushi! They look just like the usual ones we see outside! HAHA, and just nice there are 5 pieces for 5 of us! We initially thought that there are only 4 cos the one at the most left is camouflaged with the veggi! HAHA! Yes, I know we are damn cute :D

I super love this one. Piping hot, cheezy mushroom! I secretly took the biggest one HAHAHHA! Okay no longer a secret since I let it out here. Wait, I think I told them too.

Sushissss! The total bill of that dinner was around $100. Some of the food are a bit salty, depends on whether you prefer it to be salty or less salty. Since I'm quite 重口味kind I actually like some of their saltiness! HAHA

BFFs! Too bad CS couldn't make it but I'm still glad that we manage to meet up after so long! Great catch-up session with random topics! Hee. Oh yes, I have to mention this staff who is so helpful in helping us to take photos. He suggested to take with the signboard too- help customers and help to promote the restaurant. HAHA.

Overall Rating: Great environment for meet-up (we were there for around 2hours plus?) with awesome people. Price may seems a bit high but maybe because it's vegetarian food plus it's a restaurant. (:

I think I should stop here. Photo bomb of yummy food is sinful as it seduce our taste-buds and crave for more food. HAHA

Loves,
Bean.

Beware of me driving around Bukit Batok Area!

Hello Humans,

I am working towards the goal that I've set just a year back- to get a driving lesson. Basically theory lessons and tests were taken earlier this year and practical lessons just started recently in late June since the vacancies of the slot run much faster than what we expected. Yes "we" cos my sister is learning driving too! HAHA.

So...

Driving was kinda scary.

25 lessons sounds scary too. I'm more than 1/5 through my practical lessons but I'm still kinda get freaked out during driving lessons. HAHA. 25 lessons is just an average figure and it all depends on how fast or slow I'm learning. Given the choice of enrolling into school or being a private, I think school still suits me better for the benefit of all humam and myself. lol. 

Trying to have an intense schedule for practical lessons so that it can be cleared faster and better prepare myself mentally cos hopefully I wouldn't forget stuff that fast or be that afraid. And of course, since I'm not working I might as do something meaningful right! Having 2 or 3 lessons per week now and if I'm sot enough I might change it to 3 to 4 lessons per week, but highly unlikely for the time being.

So I just had my 6th practical lesson today and it was my second day on public road. 

IT WAS SCARY. haha, sounds like everything is scary.

But anyway, I'm on road now. So people, please beware of me as my driving skill is very cui. As a L-plate driver I can feel all the stress and inconvenience brought by all road users. If you wanna jaywalk, please do it safely. Please don't walk slowly like the road is your ahgong's especially when there's car approaching. And please don't appear out of the blue like magic. 

Anyway, I seriously hope I'll be ready for the practical test with 20 practical lessons, or the most 25 lessons cos each lesson ain't cheap!

Gonna overcome some fear in me, hopefully soon. 

Loves,

Bean.

Birthday celebration is just another excuse to feast!

Hello Humans,

As the title says it all, my birthday celebrations were all about eating and eating! HAHA. Even my sister couldn't tahan me and asked me how many birthday do I have and when is my birthday. X: But oh well, it's like one of the best excuse to feast, apart from maybe CNY. lol.

1) Tim Ho Wan with family!

So lunar birthday marks the feasting period. HAHA. Gonna queue since it was lunch time and we took an hour to queue. They will need every guest to be present in order to allocate you a seat and we have quite a big number of 8 pax so we gonna wait for big table (aka more seats) and those groups with 3 or 4 or even 2 went ahead before us before there are seats for them.

Check out their menu! It's only 2 pages only. Also, look at the amount we food we ordered. I think it's quite scary to tell people that we ordered 30 plates of them. But it's really okay! As in everyone will be full and all, especially when my grandparents don't eat much and we have to eat their shares. LOL

Some of the food of the day. I love the hot-from-oven BBQ charsiew bun! Cos it's hot and crispy though it's like the combination of normal char siew bun and polo bun. I can't really recall how the food taste like now, but overall I think they are okay okay. You can try it at least once and decide it yourself. HAHA. According to my fading memory, their food are quite soft and piping hot. But anyway we spent an hour eating, which is kinda a bit rush but the speed that they are serving the food was quite fast and the space is actually quite cramp.

桂花糕 or something. This really reminds of me those ancient time where the queens like to enjoy dessert in their 宫殿. lol. There's not much to talk about after our lunch at Tim Ho Wan cos we simply just walk a bit in town before heading home. lol.

2) Hatched

My very first time having brunch and my first time being here at Hatched! It wasn't in our plan cos we were planning to go Food for Thought and walk around Botanical Garden and enjoy all the scenery and probably visiting some museums after that. But all thanks to the haze, we changed our plan to Tiong Bahru Cafe and another last minute change to Hatched just right before our train reaches Buona Vista!

Hatched is pretty easy to find since it's located near the train station. Check out what we have ordered- Sir Benedict (ordered by me; bottom right) is quite a small portion of brunch, and Big Breakfast (i made up this name cos I can't recall what 117 ordered!; top left, haha) which is a pretty big serving with bread, pototoes, eggs, bacons and a pot of tea. Catched up with each other, but 117 did most of the talking, mostly sharing her pre-taiwan trip etc. HEE, you wanna excite me to go travel is it?! Back from toilet with a pleasant surprise cos this 117 paid the meal and I was still thinking that she was joking! SO MUCH THANKS AND LOVE TO YOU HUH!

And we went walk walk shop shop to get some of her pre-taiwan shopping trip done. Was kinda hungry after wandering around Bugis street and tatah~ My first try for Black Balls located at Bugis+! I would say they are not bad but they are not really that fantastic to me leh :/ We can't really taste each of the ingredient as they have undergone some processes to make them more chewy but I would definitely love their original tastes and textures. But anyway, tastes is something which is really subjective. If not, how could they open 10+ outlets in Taiwan in just 1 year right. HAHA.


3) Senki Japanese Restaurant

After our first driving lesson on 24th June, Shan and I had some mini celebration for my birthday by eating Japanese ala-carte buffet! Bought this voucher online long time ago and finally we got to redeem it! Hee. But anyway, we order this plate of sashimi to try since we rarely have the chance to do so and even if we have, it would probably be too expensive to order. Unfortunately, it wasn't to our liking and we prefer cooked fish. HAHA. I would say I don't have the taste to appreciate such a dish and we even thought we tasted fishes from sea and even fish tank. Ignorant us.

These are the food that we ordered! Out of that 6 bacons sausage and fried dumplings I had 5 for each cos Shan was too full and it's quite oily lah. But omg buffet leh, how can I not stuff myself with food right?! Happy Happy me :D


4) Jem

No food for this part since I didn't take any photo of the food. We had ramen at Jem and had a short meet up of 3 hours on the day before our birthday. HAHA. Gonna jot it done cos it's the first time the two of us meet up just right before birthday.

5) Peach Blossom

So it was finally the actual day for my birthday. HAHA. Dated with my mum to have some dimsum using our 50% off voucher! But ahem, after the discount it's still quite expensive leh. But luckily the food is nice and we even had take-away! Met up with Shan our lunch and we headed down for some movie.

Miracle in Cell No. 7

We didn't really plan to watch this but too bad the movie "The Hunt" (which we wanted to watch) was no longer airing and "Now you see me" doesn't have any good seats left. But heng, this movie wasn't that bad and in fact it was quite funny and we teared quite a lot too. 

How can birthday celebration be complete without free icecream from Swenson right?! HAHAHHAHAHA. Happy birthday to myself. Yes finally I'm 23. Okay not really finally but yeah.

Slight changes to wish list since I'm no longer schooling. So sad huh. But anyway, we had another dinner with my dad and brother since we only had this icecream and chicken wing after our movie. lol.

6) Carpenter and Cook

Woot, strike out the first cafe to visit on our list! It was actually quite easy to find, to think it's somewhere near the place where my sis's friend live. haha. Anyway, it was a tea time session.

Food we ordered! Basically they only sell these kind of food, and they aren't cheap. We spent around $13 per pax by ordering 3 tarts, 1 scones and 1 pie (don't know what is it called) to share. It would be good if you wanna nuah, spend some time with a cup of drink and a piece of tart and music/book/stare into blank. But it can be quite crowded.

One of the photos that I love, taken by BHL!

So after having our tea break, we went to Bukit Timah Plaza and Beauty World to have some quick walk to hunt for more food but we settled down at Bukit Timah Market for fried prawn noodle, satay beehoon, sugar cane juice and veg pasta. Hee, it's been really long since the four of us having hawker food together. The last time was probably when we were in secondary school. Good old days.

Okay, this pretty sums up all the fattening feasting for Birthday celebration. Shall think of other valid reason to feast after birthday. LOL.

Loves and till then,
Bean