Reflection of Year 2011

Prologue: 

This post is written over the period of 2 days (in office). I have to dig out couple of entries to find out what I was up to this year. I’m lucky that it’s not those years when I have more than 100 entries to read up.

Start of Rewind: 

The year began after the countdown at Teck Whye with best friends over 7 years. For January, I was challenged to something I’m not so good at – Tour Guiding! It was a big pressure for me to make sure Alessa’s visit is memorable. I also managed to polish some of my Singapore’s landscape knowledge as my sister and her family came for 3 days visit.

February was a time for family gathering. I was back to home sweet home, getting some red pockets, and visiting my youngest niece, Jadyn – the latest addition to the big family. Come mid February, I went to Germany for a week to meet my team members. I’m thankful that I got to gather with them one last time before the changes which happened afterwards.

March was my birthday and the month of biggest roll-out (yet) for my project. Both of them fall on the last week of the month. I was so occupied that I ended up spending my first few hours of Birthday in office. The roll-out went out very smoothly. I was happy. But looking back now, I’m not proud of my decision to stay in office. I guess my perception about work finally changes :) On the same month, I had a gathering with previous AMGTO. I got a chance to meet up with Lisa sis when they came to Singapore, and went for a short break at Southern Islands in Singapore - Pulau Kusu and St. John.

In April, we had our high-school reunion at Cumi Bali Restaurant. It’s nice that we still stayed in contact after all these years (7 years after graduation!) We took our own path after high school, but now half of our class is actually staying in this tiny little red dot. Other than gathering, I joined Inche and visited Malacca for the first time. I will always remember the Satay Celup I had there :p

In May, we went to The Pulai Desaru Beach for a short gateway. We had Fendi and Tomy to thank for the nice trip :) It also marked the first time I bought something from Groupon, and then queued for an hour to use the coupons for my second buffet of the year at Joaquim. In office, we had a batch of Interns joining us and they can’t stop telling how old we’re. Oh well, I can’t be mad at them. I would have said the same thing to someone who is 24 if I were 19.

In June, we had our SCE reunion at Garuda Restaurant. While most of my high-school friends are coming to Singapore, some of our college friends are actually flying out from Singapore. I missed couple of faces, and we could only guess that they might have gone back to Indonesia. Couples of friends are attached, and some are getting married. Oh, some are actually married! Congrats, Maria and Freddy! In the same month, I also went to watch Badminton live match for the first time – Li-Ning Singapore Open. Indonesia won gold medal for mix double.

In July, I had my first 10 KM run at Jurong Lake Run. Other than that, we tried out the IMAX 3D for Harry Potter last installation. It was mind blowing! The movie was great but I believed the technology played a big part of the experience as well. At the same month, I visited Medy's house warming. He bought a condo near Bukit Batok. Congrats to the (not so) newly wedded couple!

August is the right month to feel patriotic (Happy Independence, SG, IN, ID, MY, CN!). I visited Istana, Asian Civilization Museum, and Art Science Museum. I had my first Chalet experience at Costa Sands Resort at Pasir Ris. Gathering is always fun :) It’s one of the biggest Blazers gathering for the year. In the later part of the month, my parents and I went to Australia to visit bro. He took days off and we traveled around Melbourne, Canberra, and of course, Sydney. I revisited Sydney Fish Market. The food was still as good as how I remembered it.

September denotes the start of spring in Australia. I was lucky enough to feel the transition from winter to spring. After another week in Australia, my parents and I bid good bye to bro, and we flew straight to Hong Kong. I attended my cousin wedding and got into VIP table! Wohoo! Back from Hong Kong, I went to Batam on the next weekend. I nearly passed out after the travel triathlon. Near Sep end, my childhood friend, Eka, came to SG and I finally got to meet him, after 10 years since junior high school graduation.

October marked the last quarter of the year, and about the time I noticed how the year is coming to an end. I went to NTU iGave Spooktacular – an event dedicated for those loyal donators over 3 years to NTU. I went there as a guest of Peko. The event was well-organized; the presenter was even more awesome. It's no other than Hossan Leong! Near October ends, my parents came to Singapore and we went to Korea for one week trip.

My November started in South Korea. I supposed to experience autumn, but the weather was warm and sunny when we was there. Seeing new place is always nice, but spending time with parents is something I treasured the most there. Back from travel, I went to the first DnD I joined since I started to work. I won a bread toaster (Gift #38 over #70 gifts). I called it beginners luck :) Other than that, I also went for a sponsored lunch with LadyIronChef (winner of the Nuffnang best food blog for 2011). Free food with favourite blogger. Thanks SMRT!

December wasn’t started as perfect as how I wished it to be. There were couples of late nights in office during handover and first week of my boss’ leave. Other than that, I’m thankful that my boss approved my last leave, which was a bit ad-hoc. I disappeared for couple of days, for something only few people know of. I finished my second 10 KM run on Standard Chartered Woman's 10KM Run. I also attended the first (and maybe last) baking session in my life. At the same month, one of our Fighterz Crew, Ratna, tied the knot in Singapore :D Happy Wedding!

Christmas was spent in Teck Whye, the same way we celebrate the start of the year. This time, we welcomed the addition of turkey, ham, sausages, and vodka! I really appreciate how we stick together throughout the years despite all the constant changes :)

End of Rewind. 

Epilogue: 

As the year is drawing to a close, I hope it’s safe for me to say that it has been a peaceful rabbit year.

I looked back at my New Year resolutions... there are give and take, but I guess I met the objective to be a healthier person:

1. I did limit myself to 1 KFC per month, but 1 buffet per quarter is really hard to judge, especially on those occasions (e.g. business trip, holidays, and trainings) where you have no other choice than buffet. 
2. I was really pushing my limit when I said I would participate in 10 KM run. Yeah, never underestimate what a year can bring! 
3. The promise to exercise at least 4 times a month was fulfilled with Distinction :D 
4. My only objective which wasn’t really met is the commitment of no more office mails after 9PM :( I have my thousand excuses, but well… missed mean missed! 

Now is time for a new set of New Year Resolutions!

1. Limit myself to 6 KFC per year! (It’s gonna be a tough year) 
2. Participate in 21 KM run 
3. As part of self enrichment… to learn all the country names with their capitals! 
4. (Still) on my commitment to reduce overtime. No staying until 9pm more than 5 times a month

 Lastly, a set of 24 pics for the 24-years old me :)

Once Upon a Bunny Year (2011) - Credits to Helios for main pics

Welcome, 2012!
ED

Last week of the year

I love this week! This is a week I will remember and looking forward for next year.

There is no Monday blues as the working day started on Tuesday. I was a bit surprised that there are 40 new emails since I left on Friday (I was expecting less than 10). Apparently, Monday wasn’t a public holiday in India, and hence the mail traffic. I did most of my work on the first half of the day, and then went for exercise and lunch. Back from lunch, I was just on stand-by mode. I received couple of calls from fella PMOs, but nothing apart from that. I completed my Development Plan, and then took the earliest Shuttle bus to Red Hill at 6.15pm. In the evening, I had a nice dinner with Citra at Din Tai Fung, Raffles City :) Thanks so much Cit for all the delicacies! Love the cake and brownies and bean curd!

Similarly, I spent my Wednesday morning clearing up mails and received some handover from my colleague in India. In the afternoon, I went for lunch with Helios, Masli, Theresia (John’s sister), and Silvia (Theresia’s friend). All are Medanese and all are working in Merryl (and not all of them know each other before that) ^^; I had a nice lunch, and went back to office at around 2pm. I didn’t do much in the afternoon. It was raining for awhile, but then it stopped just in time for me to jog. For this time, I decided to run around the park twice. Alas, I was a bit late and it started to drizzle again when I was on my way back to office. I managed to reach back safely at 7.20pm. There are almost no people in office. As I have some time, I went to visit ARC for the first time. Most of the shops are not yet opened, but it does look grand. Soon it will be a favorite escape place for office people :)

Come Thursday, I run out of ideas of things to do in office. Some colleagues back to office from their leaves, so I managed to pass the morning somehow by chitchatting. I went for lunch with the grads in the afternoon, and then paid a visit to our office at Shenton Way to get some gifts from Tun Naung. I reached back office at almost 3pm, and notice that I got around 10 new emails. I can't remember the last time I felt so happy of getting some work. I work until 6.30pm and decided to call it a day. We had dinner at Pasta Mania, then did some shopping at G2000 and Crocodile. There are up to 70% discounta!

Friday passed rather quickly. I had lunch with Connie at a food court near AIA building. At 3pm, Madeline came and said that I need to surrender my laptop by 4pm because the team wanted to borrow it for production support. Oh well, I was more than happy to! :p In the end, I shut down my laptop at around 4.30pm. Do not know what to do, I went up and chatted with Xiao Hong and Jingxi for half an hour. After saying happy new year to everyone, I then went for another shopping spree at Vivo. We reached back home at around 10pm, then watched a Korean Movie - A Moment to Remember (2004). It was a sad touching movie (thanks Cit for the recommendation). I'm glad I didn't cry in my sleep last night.

OK, That pretty much summarized all the happening in last week of 2011. Happy New Year to everyone!

Going for countdown soon!
ED

Post Christmas

So, Christmas is over :( I can see people tearing down Christmas decoration everywhere (and most probably getting up the CNY decoration soon). I thought if I blogged about the Christmas countdown, I can somehow slow things down. Well, it doesn’t seem to work.

Here I’m at the last 5 days of the year. I really hope to savor the last couple of days to the max. One last chance! After this I will need to wait for another 12 months T_T Duh!

Thanks that Christmas fall on Sunday, today becomes a public holiday :D I’m totally slacking around today. I slept until 10am, then woke up and spent an hour playing Monopoly, and then another hour playing the Sims. After shower and lunch, I spent another two hours playing Tiny Tower. Now I’m checking out if there is any new episode for Cause of Death. Yes, iPhone is a very dangerous tool =( Within a blink of eyes, it’s now 7pm and I have to think of where to go for dinner.

I just realized that my wardrobe begins to blow up. I will need to do some “spring cleaning”, sooner or later T_T

Till then!
ED

0 Day to Christmas

Christmas started just like a normal Sunday for me. I wake up at 9am, got ready, then went to Clementi for Badminton. We played until 12pm, showered, had lunch at our usual Kopitiam, then went back home. I did my weekly laundry, relaxing, and then my roomie asked if I want to join her for jogging. I tried to find some excuse (lazy me!) but in the end can’t find any valid ones… so I went.

Well, I can’t thank her enough for it! I managed to jog for around 1.30 hrs, covering around 11km. It felt good! :D At night, I was able to eat the whole Nasi Goreng Thai at Spize without feeling guilty :p

I thought my Christmas was ending after the dinner, but no. Helios proposed to catch MI 4 at Tiong Bahru Plaza. Since we don’t have to work the next day, why not? We went for the 9.30pm show and it finished at around 11.45pm. The movie was awesome!! Why I never realized that Tom Cruise is that handsome? XD The movie was full of actions from beginning to the end, with appropriate mix of jokes. I love the movie :)

Back home, I don't really have much energy left, so I just tidying up and went to bed.

Bye, Christmas,
ED

1 Day to Christmas

After all the sinful food that I had, I intended to wake up early for a jog. I woke up at around 7.15am. The wind was blowing hard and the sky was cloudy. I checked the weather forecast and it was showing as rain: 60% probability. I decided not to take a risk, and returned back to sleep.

I finally woke up at around 10am and further discovered that… there was no rain at all! I felt so cheated T_T and maybe sheer of disappointment of how my lazy mind ruined my plan =(

Christmas eve is also a birthday date for my roomie. I tried to find a birthday cake for her, but bumped into the same challenge like last year – there is only log cake available at most places. In the end, I decided to get a Christmas cake and ask the shopkeeper to give me a Birthday sign.

Double-Function Cake

After shower, we went to Tiong Bahru market for some shopping. It was one of the rare occasion when I actually go to wet market. Actually, Singapore’s wet market is not that wet ^^; Things are really clean and organized. Kudos to the management! After some time, we then went to Tiong Bahru food court for lunch. This is what I have been waiting for! Tiong Bahru food court is well known for good food. I had difficulty choosing my lunch for the day. In the end I went for the longest queue at that moment, which was the Pig organ soup. Helios joined us for lunch, and I ordered Ice Khacang + Avocado for dessert. Totally regretted the calories spent on dessert afterwards. Why am I so weak with food? T_T

After lunch, we went back home for half an hour, then proceed to NTU Alumni Club for KTV session :p It was raining and we got a bit wet, even with umbrella. We had a nice KTV session from 3pm – 7 pm (favorite song for the day was Mariah Carey’ All I want for Christmas), and then went for dinner at Tech Whye ”resort”.

Another Double-Function Cake

Happy Belated B'day Fendi!

For the last couple of years, we have been going to Tech Whye for almost all the major celebrations we have. I enjoyed it every single time :) It’s really nice to be together with friends, minus the crowd and rain and overpriced food. This time, we had Turkey, Ham, and Sausages set (thanks to Fidel + Boly), delicious log cake (thanks to Tomy), nyummy 933 golden pillow curry (thanks to Fendi), and a lot of other snacks + drinks + dessert all night long for $17.

Christmas Food! Lots of Meats! *Doh!

After dinner, we were divided into different groups: board games group, Wii group, and Xbox kinect group. As usual, time flies, and it’s soon 12am before any of us realized it. We wishes each other merry xmas, had our Christmas cheer with vodka (thanks Helios), then headed back home at around 12.30am. I slept soundly that day, can’t even finish restocking my Tiny Tower.

Merry X'mas everyone!
ED

2 Days to Christmas

By Friday, all my cubicle’s neighbors within the 3 seats diameters have went for leave. I had my last two calls of year. I did some documents clean up (both softcopy and hardcopy), and didn’t really know what to do afterwards. I went off after saying Merry Xmas to the remaining 3 people in the office, then headed to Clark quay for dinner at Marutama Ramen.

Marutama - Vegetable Ramen

We walked around Clark quay after dinner. Nothing fancy except for the normal Friday crowd. There is no special performance for Christmas.

My last Christmas Tree Hunting Effort - Christmas Tree @ Central

We went back after a short walk, and watched an italian spoof movie of Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter, Twilight, God father. It was light comedy, nothing really fancy. After the starter, we continued with movie “Contagious”. The movie was trying to depict the different people reaction when unknown virus attacked. Some will be agitated, some will try to help others, some will try to get some profit out of the situation, etc etc. I can’t help but felt that I watched similar movie before, but where? Anyway, this movie was well-directed, with famous actresses all around.

I slept after winning a Monopoly game in iPhone. Man it was addictive.

I won a Monopoly game!

Addicted to games these days,
ED

3 Days to Christmas

We had a small Christmas party in the office at around 4pm. They booked one of the big meeting rooms, put a small Christmas tree, lots of cookies, as well as playing Christmas song from Youtube :)

For once, it's a delight to step into a meeting room!

We have Christmas Gift exchange, and I got a pretty nice Starbucks cup from Xiao Hong! Fufufu… My gift of Passport holder went to Christina. Glen gave an alarm clock as gift and got scolded because of the inauspicious Chinese meaning. Sometime I wonder if he is really Chinese. Lol.

Gifts for the Xmas Exchange!

After the gift exchange, I went back to my seat for calls. Thursday is always a bleak day. I had continuous call from 4.45pm until 10.00pm. I was hoping that the call will miraculously cancelled… but no, Christmas miracle didn’t happen to me this time T_T. I went back at around 9.30 (thankfully the call ended early at least). Didn’t manage to get any Tang Yuan :’(

22nd Dec is a Mother’s day according to Indonesia’s calendar. Happy Mother’s Day, Mum! I love you always :)
ED

4 Days to Christmas

Famous People Died in 3’s?

I know death is probably not the closest topic to Christmas right now, but… I like myths and the story I read today really piqued my curiosity :p

I recently know about the club forever 27 (the superstition that famous musicians died at age of 27) during the death of Amy Winehouse. I was surprised to find out that there is such a long list, and it’s growing each year.

This time, with the death of Kim Jong Il, I come to know the saying that “Deaths come in three” (in this case, for famous people). Couple of the examples are:

• Princess Diana (31 Aug 1997), Mother Theresa (5 September 1997) and Mubuto Sese Seko (7 September 1997) 
• Ed McMahan (23 Jun 2009), Farrah Fawcett (25 June 2009), and Michael Jackson (25 June 2009) 
• And of course, the latest trios are: Christopher Hitchens (15 Dec 2011), Kim Jong il (17 Dec 2011), Vaclac Havel (18 Dec 2011) 

There are lots of other examples cited, but I’m not that avid reader, so I don’t know most of them.

In my half hour research in this topic, I learnt that the number “three” means something for Christianity (e.g. The Holy Trinity) and that might explain why the myth is so popular. Of course, I did found a lot of mathematicians complaining that it’s all derivable through statistics and purely coincidental. Haha.. Well, we are pattern-seeking creatures, and we find patterns where there are none :)

Ok, that story aside...

Big boss is taking leave today and well, I'm so busy trying to act busy in office today XD. I still have to complete my development plan and draft objectives, but I got no mood to work, really. In the afternoon, I joined the lady lunch session held by our senior management. We got free lunch (McD! Any meal of your choice! I have hard time to pick between prosperity burger and McGrill) as well as got to listen about diversity and issues sharing (if you got any).

Personally, I can feel that the management is really putting a lot of effort in this diversity and equality for ladies. So much effort that I afraid the guys will soon protest that we're discriminating them. Well, ladies get all the gender-specifc perks - maternity, the woman conference, the ladies lunch with senior management, the free nursery consultation, etc etc... but I never heard any for the guys. Hahaha...

After the lunch, I had my daily call until 5pm, followed by another call until 7pm. I didn't get to run, but get to come home early and rest. Two more days for this week!! For some of my colleagues, tomorrow is their last day for the year. For most of my friends, Friday is a half day for them, but I haven't heard anything for my side T_T I want half day, too!!! It doesn't matter if I didn't know what to do, but at least I want to see some sunshine when I leave. Haha...

I mistook today as Mother's day and caused my sister to call home at the wrong date XD. Well, it's tomorrow for Indonesia... along side with the Tangyuan festival (glutinous rice ball). Maybe I should try to get some Tangyuan tomorrow.

I downloaded Justin Bieber's Christmas collection and it was... disappointing T_T For Christmas song, i still prefer Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas" and Britney Spears' "Santa, That's my only wish this year"

Till tomorrow!
ED

5 Days to Christmas

I wasn't in the mood for a lot of things yesterday, including sleeping. I was browsing and playing games until my iPhone battery dropped to the red 20% before deciding to roll to my warm cozy blanket. It was around 1.30am.

The next morning, I got the present for my disobedient. What else if not the beloved pimples! I got 3 lined up on my forehead, which I swear wasn't there the day before. Why it's so hard for me to remember that staying up late is equal of getting pimples. Sigh!

Today, I exploded to my vendor counterpart (another side effect of not having enough sleep). After couple of emails back and forth, I decided to call him and explained the thing. My first intention was to talk, but for some reason, I blew up. Now that I think about it, it might be a good move. It wasn't the first time I told him about the procedure, but somehow he always forgot. After the incident today, he seemed to finally understand what I meant. Lesson learnt: Patience is a safe move, but not always the most effective one.


Apart from that, my day has been enjoyable :) I received 3 meeting cancellations for next week, which can only mean that holiday is very, very near. I went for my weekly exercise with Lynn, and also kicked off my jog regime again. The weather was so dark at around 6.30pm, but thankfully, it didn't rain! I run safely until around 7.30pm, came back to office, received couple of calls, and then left at around 8.45pm.

I brought my durian cake to office yesterday... and totally forgot about it until today. Luckily, the office fridge was quite good and the cake was still fresh looking. It took me much encouragement to finally decide to distribute it to the team. So the cake is settled. Now I only have to pray that none of them are on MC tomorrow.

Back home, I was 'slightly' addicted to Sims Free Play (I hope this is not permanent T_T) I promised myself to sleep earlier today. It's 11.15pm now, my roomie has already in bed since an hour ago... so good night!

To a healthier life style!
ED

6 Days to Christmas

It was gloomy and raining for the whole day.

After the whole MRT saga last week, I got my share of frustration today as my bus broke down on my way to office. v_v. I guessed it was kind of a jinx. I kept telling people that I don't mind getting stuck in MRT once for an experience. Voila, this is what I got.

The bus engine was actually working, but I overheard the conversation that the doors couldn't be closed. They tried to shut down the engine and turned it on again, alas it didn't work. In the end, all of us had to get out of the bus. We waited for the next bus, and I was stupidly tapped my EZ-Link again (by reflex). I ended up paying double for a bus broke down v_v

I reached office at around 9.30am, and couldn't find anyone to complain to. I checked with our department secretary, and she told me that most of the people are already on leave starting this week. In fact, she and 75% of the other people will also be on leave starting next week. It seems like I will be very lonely next week.

My mood wasn't really good (for the reason I know of). The coffee didn't have any effect on me today and I just couldn't focus. My colleague came back from HK and gave me a cute moon cake for the small favor I did for him. Even that can't make me happy.

For lunch, Glen and I went to Bakerzin to meet up with Sab and Eve. It has been so long since the last meet up! It was really nice to see them after sooo long. My thanks to Sab for organizing this lunch :) This is my first time eating at Bakerzin. I ordered the Carbonara Spaghetti mealbox set, which tasted quite good. For some reason, I didn't manage to finish the Mango Mousse.

GTO SG Grads from 2008!

 Back to office, the aircon + rainy weather really freezed my mind. I didn't manage to work for the first 15 mins. Lucky that I got some "urgent" tasks afterwards, so I was forced to focus. After couple of calls in the afternoon, I went off at 7.30pm for dinner with Ari.

Before I left, my big boss called me to his office and informed me one shocking news which makes my Monday ended bluer than usual. Sigh!

We had dinner at Skinny Pizza, City Hall. Poor Ari to be having dinner with me at the wrong day, I guessed I was complaining most of the time. I felt better after letting out the complains, and was soon occupied with the delicious pizzas. We had Ginger Butter Chicken and Smoked Turkey Swiss. Oh yes, the Smoked Turkey Swiss was REALLY Good. The butter chicken tasted like the usual indian butter chicken and I've tried better taste that that :p

Skinny Pizza - Smoked Turkey Swiss, $26++

He introduced me to Ladder Theory in relationship, which I found really amusing and hence can't help but to note it down here. It's said that every time we met someone, we did a mental rating and put them in a "Ladder" ranking system. Man lined up women in ONE Ladder, whoever on the top of the ladder will be the one they found most attractive of. Women placed man in TWO Ladders. One is Friendship Ladder, another is the real Relationship Ladder.


So now the criterion. For man, the position on the ladder is determined by: 50% looks, 40% how attracted is she to him, and 10% of other things. For ladies? The relationship ladder will be determined by: 50% of Power and Money, 40% unique characteristic, 10% other things. Any good guys will go into the Friend Ladder and not Relationship Ladder (poor god guy!) It also explained why woman feels that man & woman can be only friend, while man feels that it's impossible so.


If you're interested for more details, do google ladder theory and you will find some interesting articles :p hehehe...

We chatted until around 9.30pm, then I went back home, addicted to Sim Free Play for 30 mins, showered, and now getting ready to sleep.

Few more days to Christmas. I need some miracles!
ED

7 Days to Christmas

Half of Dec has passed, and it’s 7 Days to Christmas! Oh please slow down the time…. I haven’t snapped enough Christmas trees for my collections this year =(

I took leave on Monday morning, and went to office in the afternoon. I started to appreciate the morning bus frequency when I experienced the afternoon ones. It took me 50 minutes to reach office, compared with the usual 15 minutes in the morning.

Because of my improper planning, I had to run to ensure that I catch the last Yoga class of the year. I reached just 1 min before the class start. Phew! It was indeed a class worth running for. I felt so relax at the end of the class that I almost fell asleep during the relaxation period. After a quick shower, I begin the work for the week.

Well, the rest of the week was a fast-forward for me. I remember going to JPot for lunch with Yoga partners on Tue, given a Christmas cake log on Wed, noticed the opening of ARC Mall on Thurs, and board games on Friday. The rest was not really important – a lot of morning, lunch, and evening meetings :( I can’t be more wrong about December. This supposed to be my extended holiday period! Why didn’t my big boss go on leave!!

Jpot @ Vivocity

Nyummy Choco Log Cake! I wonder what's the Axe for...

ARC is officially open on Thurs! Finally we got a mall in front of office!

Hol's Der Geier (pic), Jenga, and Iliad are the 3 games we played on Fri

Settlers Cafe - 3 Hrs games + Main Dish + Snacks + Dessert + Free flow of drinks for $15

I didn’t go for a run at all throughout the week :( I don’t want to sound like giving excuse, but I really didn’t have a free one our slot in the evening at all. On Friday night in the middle of my sleep, I had a leg cramp. It has been so long since the last one. I wonder if this is because of my lack of sport these days T_T

Saturday morning, we went to Marina at Keppel Bay for a breakfast at Prive. The surrounding was really posh! The restaurant was facing the sea / lake / whatever it’s called with private yachts lined up. I ordered the egg benedict. It came with burger bread as the base, topped up with ham, bacon, perfectly poached eggs, and finished up with its special sauce. Delicious is an understatement.

Marina @ Keppel Bay - Doesn't feel like Singapore anymore

Superlicious Egg Benedict

After the breakfast, we walked around the posh areas, and then I went to Prima Tower for the first baking lesson in my life. Oh well. It’s an event organized by Recreation Club. And since it’s free, I assumed there is no harm in trying it out. The place was a bit tricky to find. The place was a bit run down, with big truck anywhere. I'm surprised that the only revolving restaurant in Singapore is actually located there.

View around Prima Tower

The baking class is at 11th floor, the other 10 floors are occupied by Prima Deli. I never know that it’s the headquarter! (Now the tower’s name makes sense!) The baking class started from 1pm, ended at around 5.30pm. I’m lucky to be in the same group with very nice people. They were doing most of the work, while I tried to make myself useful by cleaning up the dishes as and when available =_=

Each of us made a durian cake. Mine was done after rounds of help from each of them. Hahaha.. In addition, we also baked some butter cookies. Both were allowed to bring home afterwards :D I haven’t tried them, but it’s hopefully edible…

Our Durian Cakes!

Ok, It’s 1am now on Sunday. Time to get some sleep for badminton. There have been multiple issues with MRTs this week and it’s now officially closed until 10am tomorrow. Need to figure out how to go to Clementi later. Oh well.

BTW! Nuffnang Blog Awards for 2011 Winners are OUT! I’m so happy to see all my favorite bloggers come out as winner :D :D Feel so good to see their happy faces. Keep blogging all!

Time to think of New Year resolution,
ED

The Last 1 ½ Days of Annual Leaves

It’s annual leaves well spent :) Definitely better than my last year’s, when I donated two days to the bank because I don’t know what to do with the leaves. For some reasons (one is to try out the encryption method), the post is encrypted from this section onwards! Haha!

Enter the blog post

Till next post!
ED

The Last 1 ½ Days of Annual Leaves (Unencrypted)

It’s annual leaves well spent :) Definitely better than my last year’s, when I donated two days to the bank because I don’t know what to do with the leaves.

For some reasons (one is to try out the encryption method), the post is encrypted from this section onwards! Haha!

Welcome onboard to the world of Royal Caribbean International – The nation of Why Not :)

Day1: Friday, 9th Dec 2011: Singapore

I woke up 5 minutes earlier than usual. I showered, got ready, and left home at around 9.45am. We took the Bus 145 all the way to Harbourfront, did the check-in, and went for last minutes shopping at G2000 before finally boarding to the awesome Legend of the Seas.

Vivocity on a Friday Morning - No single soul

Our Lovely Ship! - Royal Caribbean International Legend of the Seas

The Eleven Decks in Details

First stop was Windjammer Buffet. My first free food onboard and I wasn’t missing a single moment. I took almost everything and well, my plate was full before I was even through half of the buffet table. I was full after the first plate, and finally decided to pass the second round. I have another 10 buffet chances, anyway :p

Windjammer - First Meal onboard

Our room was ready at 1pm. After checking in, we went to explore the ship. It was a bit confusing at first, but we’re the ship expert at the end of the cruise =) My favorite place was definitely Level 9; where buffet, pools, snacks, spas, fitness center are all in one level.

Royal Caribbean & Star Cruise side by side

Deck 11 - Viking Room

Deck 5 - Romeo & Juliet Dining Room

Deck 4 - Casino!

First time I see that it's actually allowed to take pic in a Casino

Before the starts of the cruise, there was a mandatory mustering at 3.30pm. It’s basically about ship safety, something similar to the airplane’s routine before flying off. It’s held outside the lobby. Weather wasn’t that hot but warm enough to make me sweat in the 45 minutes outside. We were basically standing there waiting for our room number to be called. I played “The Sims – Free Play” for the last time before I lost the data connection on the high seas.

The Mustering Place

At 4.30pm, the shipped departed from Singapore. We watched until it left the Singapore harbor, then proceed to have some snacks, then continued with dinner at 5.45pm at Romeo and Juliet. The dinner was in fine dining setting, with two waiters dedicated to serve your table. I was instantly in love with the place. Free fine dining for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? This is too good to be true! Plus you can continue with the buffet spread, incase the fine dining didn’t satisfy you. My heart skipped a beat.

View from the deck 9

View from the deck 10

Our 24 hrs snacks

First dinner @ Romeo and Juliet

First Appetizer - High Class Gado-Gado!

After a sinful dinner, we proceed to “That’s Entertainment” for our welcome show: “The invitation to dance”. Our cruise director, Gordon, was a superb entertainer. The show was filled with professional singing and dancing for the full hour. After show, we went to Anchor’s Aweigh to watch some dance lesson, then decide to call it a day. We went back to the room, watched “True Grit”, and fell asleep before we finished the movie.

That's Entertainment

View in the evening

Day 2: Saturday, 10th Dec 2011: Penang

We planned to wake up at 6am to have continental breakfast at the deck. For some reason, our alarm failed us and we only awake at 8am. We showered, and it was soon 9.30am when we finally went out from the room. We paid a visit to Windjammer to have a light breakfast before kicking off with the itinerary of the day.

Breakfast facing the sea

We went to deck 9 for a fun mini golf, then spent sometime watching wall climbing before deciding I might be too old for that challenge. We went to Fitness Center to run off some calories before proceeding for lunch.

The Wall Climbing!

Running with sea view! It actually made me a bit dizzy @.@

Lunch was at Romeo and Juliet. It was a full course with soup, salad, main course, and of course, dessert. By the time we finished dessert, the ship has come to a full stop and there we were at… Penang!

Winson's Salad Mix - Best Salad ever!

As soon as we stepped out from the ship, we started to hear familiar dialect, our beloved hokkien! Even Indian was speaking to us in hokkien. We took a cab to Komtar complex for RM 15, then shopped at Giant buying some necessities. After shopping, we decided to do our own sightseeing and have a slow walk back to the ship. Along the way, we had the famous Ice Khacang, Char Kuey Teow, and yes, Laksa. We reached back our ship at around 5.30pm, just nice to had a quick shower before going for dinner.

Penang Char Kuey Teao

Penang Laksa

Penang Financial District!

The food for dinner was good, but I can’t really finish most of it. I guess it’s expected after my greedy snacking T_T After dinner, we proceed to theatre for the show of the day – Ballet performance and Magic show. That’s the show I love the most. After show, Winson wasn’t feeling really well, so we decided to rest earlier for the day.

At the Main Lounge

Cute Towel-Made Animal! Actually I can't figure out what it is

Day 3: Sunday, 11th Dec 2011: Malacca

Thanks to my love for food, I managed to wake up early on the day. We went to our favorite R and J for breakfast.

My Omelet!

After breakfast, we went to Deck 9 and tried out all the different pool – outdoor, indoor; chill, warm, hot. The whirlpool was really relaxing. I didn’t feel like coming out even after half an hour. We went back to room at around 10am, showered, then went for early lunch. After lunch, we sit at the lounge area listening to live music while waiting for the excursion ferry to come and pick us up for Malacca.

Endless Live Performances

We reached at around 2.30pm. Lucky for us, the drop off place was around the attraction areas. We went to the usual tourist place – Christ Church and St Paul Church, then proceed to Jonker Street for some sourvenir shopping + chendol. It was around 6pm when we finally reached back the ship, and yeah, it was soon time for dinner!

The Must-Take-Picture Place in Malacca

I was conscious that it’s the last dinner in the ship, and my mood was kind of mix at that time. As the waiters performed and said good-bye to us, I almost felt like buying another ticket for another week.

The Farewell Performance from all the waiters

After the sad good-bye at dining table, we proceed to have another farewell at the entertainment center. The show today was all about singing. As expected, the last part was a farewell from the cruise director and all the crews in Legend of the seas. The show finished at around 10pm, and I wasn’t in the mood to sleep at all. So I went to take my last supper of Pizza and fries, then went back to room and finished our movie “True Grit”. The movie was really good (even though Brat Pit was really on side role in the movie). After movie and packing, we finally slept at around 12am. 

Day 4: Monday, 12th Dec 2011: Singapore

We woke up at around 6am, freshen ourselves, and then went for our last meal in the ship. We had it at R and J. I’m impressed that the services are good till the end, even when we all know that the gratitude has been given the day before. I had the big breakfast, and then left the ship at around 7.30am. The off boarding was a smooth painless experience. We strolled through sheltered, trolley friendly walk all the way from the ship to bus stop. We grabbed the today’s newspaper, then took a bus back home.

The journey ended there, but the memories will always stay. In the afternoon, I returned to be a slave in office T_T

The Daily Reading throughout the 3 days - Cruise Compass

Prolog: The experience was better than expectation =) While reading the facilities and itinerary, I was worried that there are not enough things to keep us occupied. As it turned out, well, there were really not many activities! :p but the services were so superb, it’s so hard to complain about anything. They made sitting at the lobby felt like a first class entertainment with live bands and free food all around. Basically, you’re the prince and princess for the whole 4 Days 3 Nights. Thanks Royal Carribbean for such a wonderful journey. Thanks Winson for planning this out :)