The Return of TV Series!

It was 9.30PM on a Tuesday might in the Office.

Me: Were you looking for me? Sorry I was on call earlier with my sister

Big Boss: No worries it's OK. Oh you have sister?

Me: Yes elder sister, I'm the youngest in my family.

Big Boss: Oh yes, that one I know for sure

???

What could it possible mean? am I emitting such a strong youngest child aura? the spoilt, weak, and alway-dependent-on-someone-else traits? Well thinking about it, that might be true T_T

Anyway, this is one of the weeks which I wish could have been better.

I started my Monday and Tuesday pretty much alright, took my exercise and kick off my running again. I felt a bit of sore throat, but instead of taking medication, I ate heaty snack every single day (what to do, chips + TV series came as a pair). Adding to the fact that I haven't been eating any fruits and kept staying late for the past few weeks, my body finally protested and I got sick!! Worse than when I was in HK. My Wed and Thurs went with me wishing that I would get better. On Friday, I almost fainted during lunch because of headache. Worst thing of all? I can't taste anything that I eat. It's all bland :( Lost my appetite (but of course I'm still eating. hehe)

Apart from that, office has been pretty much standard. I'm trying my best not to stay too late in office UNLESS there are any calls I need to take. As it turned out, I got call until 10pm for Mon, Tue, and Thurs this week =.=' I went back at around 7pm for Wed and Fri, so I guess my commitment still stands.

On Wed evening, Glen and I went to Chinatown to meet Susan. Finally! We have planned for this gathering for months. She is still as cheerful as usual, and I can sense that she is quite enjoying her new work. Meeting her just make me miss the days office used to be when she is around. Sigh.

Dining at People's Park Complex (Can't read the Chinese Restaurant name)

On Fri evening, we went to Clarke Quay and finally managed to try out at Tampopo, which said to be serving the best Ramen in Singapore. I want to go for the Tonkatsu Ramen, but the fried chicken looks too much for my sore throat, so I decided to go for the Hokkaido Ramen with corns. Well? I can't really taste much due to my blocked nose :( but I can say that I prefer this than Ippudo, in term of service, price, and quantity! hehehe... I guess I will go back for other items when I recovered.

Hokkaido Ramen @ Tampopo, Liang Court - SGD15++

Saturday was a well spent day, despite me running here and there with running nose. I started the day with house cleaning, then went to Chinatown for lunch at People's Park Center. After lunch, I went to submit my Korea Visa application at SA Tours, then went to Dhoby Ghaut for Johnny English Reborn. The cinema was almost full house, and the movie was pretty entertaining till the end. Had a good laugh and didn't realize that it was already 5.20pm when we came out.

After movie, we met up with our gangs for dinner at Good Thai Restaurant (more known as Sbey Sbey Thai Food) at Sunshine Plaza. The food was OK (again, this is as per by malfunction taste bud T_T) I must said that the portion was crazily huge, even for my standard. There were 8 of us, and we had to stuff our self to max to finish the 7 dishes. It's more like all you can eat for SGD 15.5. Haha.. During the dinner, Helios suggested Ah Loy at Shawn Tower, which said to serve the best Thai food. OK, shall keep it in my to eat list!

The Happy / Hungry Faces at Sbey Sbey Thai Food

Our dinner finished at around 7.30pm, and I went back afterwards, while the rest went to Play Nation for some sports after the sinful dinner. I wasn't feeling at all well, so decided to take some medication and sleep early at around 11pm.

Sunday, I woke up at 10am. I kept waking up on midnight and couldn't really fall into deep sleep =( Gosh I just wish that I can recover soon. I don't want to keep spreading the viruses to people around me. My childhood friend gave me a call at 7am telling me he is currently in SG and I decided to go out and met him for lunch at Orchard. We haven't met for 10 years since he moved to Jakarta for high school. He is all well. We had a good lunch at Food Republic, chit chat, got them Royce Chocholate for gift, sent them to Chinatown, then I went back to home for a nap.

A meet up after 10 years! I'm looking forward to the wedding invitation :p

At around 6pm, we went for dinner at Yoshinoya, Dhoby Ghaut, did some shopping, then came back and watch F1 from TV. I really want to see Charice's performance T_T but of course those are not broadcasted in TV. Sigh. After F1, I took shower, and now ready for the movie of the week: Horrible Bosses! Hehehe...

Yoshinoya - Beef Vegetable Rice Bowl + Scallop + Drink - SGD7.5

Welcome back HIMYM, Big Bang, and Glee!
ED

Batam Getaways

OK. I'm totally overestimating myself. or underestimating my work. Either way, my planning skill was horrible. I learnt so much about giving buffer in project, but never really thought of giving buffer in my life planning.

So I started with planning the schedule to Australia. Then I planned my training to be one week after the trip. Ad-hocly, I agreed to extend my leave to accompany my parents to HK. It still gave me one day in office after holiday before going to training afterwards. Well, the one day in office is root of all my sufferings.

The moment people saw me in office on Wed, they started to give me task to be completed before Monday. I kept explaining to them that I won't be around on Thurs and Fri for training, but guess it goes in from left ear and goes out from right ear. In the end, on my both training days on Thurs and Fri, I stayed until 2am just to finish what has been asked for. I felt so tired and I still have 1001 of things to do: my flat and toilet to be cleaned, my neglected emails to be replied, my cloths to be washed, my sister to be called, my friends' birthday to be celebrated, etc etc.

It would have been nice if I had weekend to handle all those, but alas, smart past Erlin planned for a Batam trip instead, which took away my whole weekend. In the end, I was so overwhelmed with work that I finally had to forgo most of my To Dos, even my friend's birthday party :( I'm really sorry, friends...

But! It doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy myself in Batam. I had been wanting to travel somewhere around Indonesia for awhile and it's finally realized :D

So on Sat, 7 of us (Fendi, Tomy, Handy, Henry, Inche, Winson and me) took Ferry to Batam at 10.20 AM. I felt sleepy and was quickly unconscious until we reached Batam.

We met our pretty guide, Florence, after we passed through the checked point. She seemed to be a bit surprised that there are Indonesians taking package tour to Indonesia ^^; After gathering all the people, we went to our first destination - Batam Layer Cake - to see the making of layer cake... which is a delicacy originated from Medan, Kue Lapis =__='' The taste wasn't even half as good.

Afterwards, we proceed for lunch @ Golden Prawn 933. The food was OK, but the service was kind of slow :(. It was almost 3PM SGT when we finished the lunch. The rest of the itineraries include Taman Mini Indonesia, Aroma Massage, GTS Local Product Shop, Factory Outlet, as well as Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya, before we finally went to Batam City Square Mall for dinner and shopping. It was around 9.30 PM when we finally checked in hotel - all tired and I finally slept at around 11.30.

Chili Crab! One of the 7 dishes from Golden Prawn 933 Restaurant Lunch

Taman Mini Indonesia with 27 different miniature houses from Indonesian Provinces 

Ginger Tea after my first body massage! 

Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya Temple 

Our superlicious dinner at Citra Pempek

Cozy Mecury Hotel

Sunday, I woke up at 4.30AM, then decided to go back to sleep. At around 7 AM, we went for a swim, then proceed with buffet breakfast at the hotel. Guess what I found! Out of so many different local food, the hotel decided to serve NATO! I loved it to the max. I think I finished half the whole nato myself. Thanks Winson for letting me know :D

Watashiwa Nato Gasuki

After a filling breakfast, we went to Nagoya Hill for anotheround of shopping. We were there until around 12.00, then went back to hotel, check out, took a ride to Batam Center, and took our lunch at Bakso Lapangan Tembak. After one last round of shopping at Hypermart, we finally said bye to Batam and took the ferry at 5.10PM. Again I was unconscious throughout the ride and waken up only as it reached SG. After a dinner at KFC, we went back home and rest.

Bakso Campur - Bakso Lapangan Tembak

So that marks the end of my insane travel marathon. I have really no energy to plan my next trip to Korea right now T_T Hopefully the spirit will recover after few weeks. I'm missing my routine life of spending evening watching movies. haha...

Now let me take a look at long abandon mails,
ED

Lei Ho, HK!

Thursday, 8 Sep 2011

So our flight to HK was delayed for half an hour. I suspected it was partly due to the delay in luggage transferred from some of the connecting flights. I had my dinner on board, then browsing through various movies before deciding to go for X-Men (first of trilogy). Unfortunately, I only managed to finish half of the movie when they asked me to return the headset :(. It was 11.15pm when we reached HK, and by the time we got into Taxi, it was already 12.10AM on a Friday.

The stressed SIA officers trying to get passengers to multiple transits

Friday, 9 Sep 2011

Our hotel (Eaton) was around half an hour ride from airport. Our taxi driver was a 30-ish guy who came in shorts and slippers. Shorts and slippers for work?? I thought. After couple of days, I realized that it's really common in HK.

It was around 1AM when we finally get into our room at floor 8. The room was - omg - super tiny. It was the smallest hotel room I ever seen (Complain #1). My dad almost bumped to the big mirror thinking it was some space. When I asked the bell boy, he told me that my room is not even the smallest one yet. Oh dear. After 2 hours of struggling trying to fit our luggage in the room, we finally slept at around 3AM.

Time was 7AM when mum and dad wake me up for breakfast. I was not really refreshed, but also not in the mood to sleep so I showered and started the day anyway. After an heartening warm Congee at Nathan Congee and Noodle, we paid a visit to uncle and aunt, who run a cafe at office compound. I never knew that! We shopped at the shopping mall near by - Megabox, before going back there for a free lunch at the cafe :p My uncle was such a great chef! It actually feel really nice when you can go in and order whatever you want regardless of the price :p

Jidi Congee - Nathan Congee and Noodle 

Infront of Uncle's Cafe Sans Souci

After lunch, we continued with shopping near the MTR shopping mall, where I learnt my first lesson in HK. I got a pair of jeans from boutique for HKD 1,200, and then found the very similar thing in Giordano for HKD 150 (Cry!! Complain #2). Later on throughout the days, I realized that there is really no standard price in HK for anything, except Mc Donald, perhaps. You can get discount for almost anything, even in Yue Hwa department store! Gosh!

Done with the lesson, we went back to hotel to rest for a while, then went out for (another free) dinner from uncle and aunt at their house at Kowlon. Afterwards, we pay a visit to his son at his new apartment at Tiu Keng Ling. We took MTR to go back to hotel, which was super crowded and I didn't manage to secure any seat for my parents (Complain #3). It was almost 12AM when we reached back hotel. All tired and wore out due to lack of sleep (Complain #4).

Saturday, 10 Sep 2011

I decided to have a better sleep and woke up only at 9AM. At around 11.00, we went for lunch at Cafe de Coral, then proceed to Lantau Island for the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car and Giant Buddha. The weather was super hot (Complain #5). We bought an umbrella for HKD 130, but it didn't even work due to the strong wind (Complain #6). Afterwards, we proceed to Tai-O where Mum and Dad did some shark fins shopping, then Ladies Market where I did most of the shopping. The price marking was quite crazy at the Ladies Market. I started with asking for 10% discount. Later on, I realized that I can actually get everything with 50% discount (Complain #7). There is no way they allowed people to try on the cloths before you buy (Complain #8), and they threw tantrums when you decided not to get anything from them (Complain #9). Having said all those, I enjoyed the window shopping as they have lots of unique stuff. It was again almost 12AM when we got back to Hotel.

We didn't go to Disneyland due to time constraint, but did manage to take the cute Disneyland MTR and pay a visit to its station. I felt that the station is actually nicer than its entrance gate! ^^;

Ying Yang Fried Rice - Cafe de Coral (Reminded me of Kim Gary)

Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car  - The whole cabin only for us! 

Giant Buddha - Super Hot. Forgot my sunglasses. Wrong Attire

Tai O Fish Village - Rows and Rows of Shark Fin!

The Infamous Disneyland MTR Cabin! All for myself! :D

Sunday, 11 Sep 2011

It was 3 more days in HK and all 3 of us are down with flu, cough, sore throat (Complain #10). Dad even lost his voice and Mum had to take medicine every few hours. Guess it was quite tough after all to go on 15 days holidays. In addition, I guessed we didn't had enough water as we weren't able to find any supermarket nearby somehow (Complain #11).

For Sunday, we went to Hong Kong Island for the infamous Roasted Goose at Yung Kee (even though it's only one bite for each of us due to sore throat), then to the Peak for sightseeing and Madame Tussaud Museum. Afterwards, we went to Sun Kee Noodles for dinner and Victoria Park for the Mid-Autumn Carnival. I stopped at Temple Street for a quick look at the shopping, then got caught with rain where we again had to buy umbrella =__='' two umbrella in a week!

The Famous Yung Kee's Roasted Goose Rice - HKD 60

The Victoria Peak - Family Photo!

Lucky enough to see Jay Chou!!

Diana and Diana at Madame Tussaud Museum

Sun Kee Push Cart Noodle - HKD 42

The so-called Largest Sculpture made of Laterns in Guinness Book of Records

Throughout the journey, we spent at least an hour halting, looking at map and trying to figure out direction. This HK trip reconfirmed my unsuitability for free-and-easy and my vote for package tour. I felt really guilty when mum and dad had to walk back and forth with me under the sun trying to figure out the location. It doesn't help also where each of the street has three pronunciations - English, Chinese, Cantonese. Most people are only familiar with the Cantonese name and don't really know what we were looking for T_T (Complain #12)

Monday, 12 Sep 2011

It's the Mid-Autumn Festival, as well as the day we have all been waiting for - the wedding day of my Uncle's Son - Alex. Actually, it's the only reason that Mum and Dad insisted on coming to HK.

The day started with us going to the tea ceremony. It's similar to what I saw in Bro's wedding, except the fact that it HAS to be done at the Groom's parent's house, and not in hotel. Remember when I said that the hotel room is tiny? My uncle's flat is no different They actually have to fold tables and shift cabinets to give some space for the groom and bride to bow. The ceremony was short and sweet and we went for lunch afterwards.

After the tea ceremony - Thumbs up to the photographer to fit all us in the pic

We had lunch at New Harbour Pearl restaraunt, which is just 5 mins easy stroll from my uncle's flat. The restaurant was full house. Even though we have made reservation earlier, we were still requested to wait for around 5 mins. But anyway, the food made all the waiting worthwhile!

Fabulous Dim Sum at New Harbour Pearl Restaurant

Infront of us is what they named as "Singapore Style Noodle". It's basically noodle with curry powder =_='

After a filling lunch, we went to Tsim Sha Tsui for shopping. It was around 5pm when we finally reached back hotel. After shower and everything, the car picked us up at 7pm sharp. We reach the restaurant Whompoa at around 7.30pm. 

Now there is something I want to say about their dinner reception. Apparently, most of the guests are already there since 4pm! For what? Photos and Mahjong. When we reached the main door of the restaurant, there is a big poster with numbers and names. There is no one to send you to your seat, you're supposed to read your name and find your seat. After finding seat, you then go to the stage, where the groom and bride will be waiting for you. They did another round of tea ceremony for those who didn't make it in the morning. After some photo-taking, you can then proceed to your seat OR you can go out and have some snacks, cake, fruit punch, while enjoying the small photos gallery of the happy couple.

Guess what? I got seated at Red Table! the only 2 table in the whole room!! (Actually, there are only 11 tables in total :p). I got the best view of the stage, and was actually sitting just across the groom and bride. It's really nice to be at VIP seat. Food are served to your plate, and FAST! We started the first course at 9.30PM (I almost fainted), and they managed to finish serving the whole set of 12 kinds food before 11PM. After that, my cousin sent us back home, while I heard the party actually continued until 1 AM++.. That's happening!

Red Table! Finally!! First time in my whole life (Tears of Happiness)

With one of my relatives - Her face is 90% similar with one of my high school friends

Tuesday, 13 Sep 2011

It's the last day in HK and all in sudden, I don't feel like leaving. We woke up at 7AM, showered, packed, then went for the last breakfast in HK. This time, we went to the cafe across our Hotel (literally 1 min walk). The food was surprisingly really good! All of us had a satisfying breakfast before finally leaving for airport.

Fish Curd in Vermicelli in Fish Soup + Coffee - HKD 23 @ Tsui Wah Cafe

The airport checked in went fine - we managed to get the seat we want. After some chatting, we finally said bye to uncle and his son, which went all the way to pick us up and send us to the boarding gate. Thanks a lot for all the hospitality :) After a while, we flied off and I eagerly waiting for lunch. This time, we got Haagen-Dazs for dessert!! Wow! SIA is rich! (So unbelievable that I actually checked the expiry date). We reached SG on time, I accompanied mum and dad for a while, then finally said good bye to them as they proceed to the transit area while I proceed to MRT to home sweet home.

Vanila Haagen-Dazs for Dessert on flight back to Singapore

Epilog
So it was my second time to HK, and my impression has changed from OK to... well, not so good. I would admit that my judgement might not be very objective due to all the built-up fatigue from Aussie and the fact that we were all down with illness :( The last time I went there was almost 4 years ago on Dec 2007 (how time flies!) which might have been better as it was a fully guided tour and in winter, so I wasn't really bother with the planning and the heat. Due to the situation, there are quite a number of attractions we missed: Disneyland, Ocean Park, Macau... but I was quite satisfied with this shopping heaven.

Anyhow. Enough of travelling.... not! Coming soon this weekend with Batam tour :)
ED

Bye, Aussie!

We said bye to Princess Aurelie at the Airport on Thurs, 8 Sep 2011. My holiday was over... not! HK awaits.

The last week in Aussie had been pretty much relaxing, lots of home stay, bearing in mind that we still needed to save our energy for our travel to HK (... and for bro: to Taiwan). Here was the rest of the travel log in Aussie:

Sunday, 4 Sep 2011 - Sydney City Tour

I woke up at 10.00am and welcome by the warm sunshine through the window. Spring is really here! I took my breakfast (chee cheong fun), showered, then continue with my lunch (fried kway teow) before finally leaving for our own city tour.

"White" Char Kway Teow - Mum and Dad's Version

We started with a quick shopping at pharmacy for some vitamins and order from sisters. Afterwards, we went to "Red Roll" for a delicious Vietnamese sub. It was so good that I only remember about taking picture after I finished the sandwich T_T It really reminds me of Subway - the Vietnamise Style. It even has the meatball menu!

Menu of "Red Roll by Hong Ha" - The queue was never ending!

We continued with Paddy's Market for quick browsing. Didn't really find anything to buy, we decided to proceed to Queen Victoria Building as the next tourist spot. Along the way, I gave a try to "Easyway tea indulgence" pearl milk tea. It was similar to Sweet talk in Singapore, except the fact that it cost AUD 4.8 for regular cup instead of SGD 1.5 T_T Oh God I miss Singapore. Similarly, Easyway has its very close competitor, ChaTime. This kind of reminds me of competition between Gong Cha and Koi. Hehe.

After 10 minutes of easy walk, we reached QVB which is actually a... shopping mall! =__='' I thought QVB is a historical site or at least something of elegancy. To be fair, it was actually some kingdom / government place before converted to a shopping mall. Oh well. At least the inside was not disappointing.

The Statue of Queen Victoria outside the Shopping Mall

The Infamous Clock inside the QVB Shopping Mall

After half an hour and hundreds of pics, we took a free shuttle bus to Circular Quay, from where we walked all the way to Customs House, Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge, Royal Botanic Garden, Mrs Macquarie's Chair, before finally taking a rest outside of Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Princess Aurelie on the Replica of Sydney @ Customs House

Must-Take Pic of Sydney Opera House + Harbour Bridge

Spring at Royal Botanic Garden!

It was almost 7pm before we decided to go back for dinner. After some debate, I managed to get Domino Pizza for dinner :P Their ordering system was quite advanced. You can track whether your pizza is being prepared, in the oven, or ready. And since I was there, I can see that all the pizzas were freshly made from the dough upon order. The pizza was still steaming hot when we reached home. The taste? It's so soft and cheesy and nyummy that I can almost finish the whole large pan myself.

Domino Pizza - Cute Packaging

I slept at around 12am after doing some ironing and supper.

Monday, 5 Sep 2011 - Another Princess


I woke up at 10.30am and seemed like mum has given up waiting for me for breakfast. I had toasted bread, then went out to the city for lunch at Umi Kaiten-Zushi. It's the rotating table style and gosh, there were so many choices! At least 100 of different styles of sushi. And while in Singapore we had it in either normal plate or red plate, they have it in green ($2.5), orange ($3.0), red ($3.5), blue ($4.5), purple ($5.5), and grey ($6.5). After around 20 plates and noodle and rice, we went to next destination - visiting another princess - Claresta! She is around 1 year younger than Aurelie and just as cute =D We played for around an hour then move on to the next destination - Bondi Beach!

At Umi Kaiten-Zushi

At Maestri Tower - with relatives

The weather was really nice at Bondi Beach. And since it's weekday, we pretty much have the beach for ourselves. After having fun with the beach, we went for dinner at Hurricane's Grill (my favourite!) before going back home feeling full and sleepy. No more staying up late on Monday as I needed to wake up early the next day for Canberra.

Bondi Beach (read as Bondai Beach - Initially I read it as Bondi =_=')

Hurricane's Grill @ Bondi Beach - The Ribs are amazing!

Tuesday, 6 Sep 2011 - Canberra

I set my alarm at 6.30am but it didn't ring =_='' Thankfully Aurelie  managed to wake me up at around 6.45am. I quickly went showered, breakfast, then went with mum and dad for the one day Canberra tour. The bus arrived at the pick up location at 8.00am sharp, and I quickly asleep along the way.

The tour was a miss compared with what we had in Melbourne =( For one thing, it was raining. And since this is still early spring, we don't get to go to the flower festival, which is the biggest attraction in Canberra. The worst is the driver. He was super rude, kept talking loud in phone while driving, looked down at people who bring their own lunch, pushed people to go out on raining time without providing any umbrella, threatening to leave us behind if we are more than 5 mins late, and 1001 things which made me hate him to the core by the time we finished the tour =_=''

Complain apart, we did manage to go to few places: Cockington Green, Royal Australian Mint, Embassies, Parliament House, Australian War Memorial, and some other places which I don't really know the name. The next time I go to Canberra, hopefully it will be for its flower festival!

Cockington Green Garden - Where it's the little things that count

Royal Australian Mint - Create your own legal coin!

Parliament House - Where laws are made!

A massive collection of Great War 1 and 2 at Australian War Memorial

Back home, we ate the warm cooked dinner, watched some episodes of HK movie: The Drive of Life (quite captivating), then went to sleep.

Wednesday, 7 Sep 2011 - Resting

Since it's the last two days in Sydney, I decided to wake up at 7am and it actually surprised everyone =_='' I had cheese toast, sorted some pics to be developed for mum and dad, relax, then went for last lunch in Sydney @ Kingsford Chinese Cuisine. After a filling lunch, we took a stroll along Kingsford area, which is also known as "Indonesian" town. True enough, I can hear people chattering in Indonesian :D

After a quick shopping for dinner ingredients, we went back to home and relax for the rest of the day - packing, watching TV, taking pictures, chatting, etc. We had steamboat dinner at around 7pm and then rest early for the day after playing COD.

Thursday, 8 Sep 2011 - Bye, Sydney!

I woke up at 7.00am, had breakfast, packed, then left for airport. We arrived early, got our flight and seat arranged to HK, walked around, then departed on time at 11.30am. This time I managed to complete Disney's Cars :D Actually, I had my own movie marathon and finished Bridesmaids, Something Borrowed, as well as Hoodwinked within the 9 hours flight. I like Cars the most. Somehow Disney's movie always so touching for me. We reached Singapore at 6.30PM, delayed from the earlier scheduled time of 5.45PM =_='' It won't have been an issue usually, but since we still needed to catch our connecting flight at 7PM, well, we had a small run for the HK flight.

OK, more of HK on the next post! For now, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to everyone! :)
ED