Friday’s Dinner @ Hai Di Lao Hot Pot

If you haven’t heard about Hai Di Lao (like me, one week ago), go google it and you’ll know. Being the most popular hotpot in China, it finally opened up its flagship in Singapore @ Clarke Quay. Thanks to Glen’s recommendation, I got to know and tried it out one month after its opening.

Hai Di Lao Hot Pot!

We went there at around 8pm. Sab helped us to queue earlier, so we managed to get it 5 mins after waiting. I have been informed of their services at the waiting queue, but I still felt super excited when experienced it myself. They served free fruits, popcorn, chips, and tea for customer waiting! They also have origamis – fold 20 and you’ll get a dish for free. Plus they have free manicure for the girls! *too excited. I blamed myself for not spending enough time queuing.

Free food and drink at the queue area!

Free Manicure!!!

Dedicated playing place for the kids

Once we’re sent to our table, they provide an iPad Menu, whatever we clicked are sent automatically to the kitchen. That’s a sleek implementation of technology! :)

The elegant looking Hot Pot table!

The user-friendly menu. Come in dual language! :p

Whatelse? They give free rubber bands to tie the hair, free spectacles cloth to clean your spec, plastic to cover your phone, cloth to protect your bag, apron to protect your dress, and whatever you want to ask for. Sab’s phone was running out of battery and they happily helped her to get it charged *.* They have a nice condiment, fruit, and dessert bar (sadly forget to take pics). I could eat from the bar forever, but the main came very swift so I started to dig on the main :D

Out Hot Pot - come to around $36 each

The happy and hungry diners!!

For hot pot, normally I will come out feeling smoky and smelly. Well, not for this one. I came out feeling really fresh. They even have someone dedicated at washroom helping you to turn on the tap, get the soap, and offer you towel after washing hand +_+ I was really awed.

It’s one of the most awesome hot pots I have ever tried. The food is great, but I think their services are beyond excellent, which make the restaurant truly stand out from the rest :D

I’m willing to go there again anytime soon! Everyone just love being spoiled after all :p
ED

Cass’s Farewell Lunch at Secret Recipe, Anchor Point

Ok I decided the place. And Ok, before everyone started to judge me on why choosing such a decent place for a director farewell... allow me to explain.

It’s one of my very first attempts to hold a farewell lunch. Ideally, the manager of the leaving staff would arrange for it, but since her manager is in such a faraway Frankfurt and she has been such a lovely boss for me, I decided I should arrange a farewell lunch for her.

So after finalizing the list of invitee and the timing, I tried to look for a place. I tried to find a place that is halal, vegetarian, served Western food (since she isn’t very adventurous with food), at the same time not very far from office and allowing reservation. There are really not many places come to my mind with that kind of requirements. After few rounds of serious discussion with other secretaries, we decided to go with Secret Recipe :)

With all the internal chaos I created, I was quite nervous if the farewell would be a mess. Well, everything turned out to be fine :) People who promised to come did turn out, and everyone was able to find the place without getting lost. The food was served pretty fast, and we had a nice lunch and chat with a bunch of team members. I personally really enjoyed the lunch :p She herself was really appreciative and even sent me a separate thank you note for it.

Not easy to squeeze everyone in... at least we tried!

I think I won't get such a beautiful boss again anytime soon :(

We finished the lunch at about 1.30pm and headed back to office to work, while she decided to “work from home” for the rest of the day.

The final day is next Friday, but I already know for sure that I’m going to miss her a lot!

Counting down,
ED

And the first prize from our DnD goes to…

Lets wind back few hours before the announcement was made.

This year, our Rec Club DnD is held at Carlton Hotel. I was quite disappointed when I heard about the venue. Every other Dnd I heard of is taking place at Resort World. Where is this Carlton Hotel even located?

Having complained so much, of course I was still happily forming a table and applied for the DnD. At least I would have a buffet dinner, even though I have paid for it over the year :p

The theme of the year is “Musical Night”, but I don’t think anyone wear anything musical. It’s held on Thursday night, so people are rushing to the hotel after work. The registration opened from 5.45pm. Our team reached at 7.30pm and still received the early bird prize, which was given to the first 10 tables ^^; Now we know how hardworking everyone is.

Rec Club AGM cum DnD!

Bottle of Wine for Early Bird!

The event started at around 7.45pm with President speech, followed by AGM and election of new committee. At around 8.30pm the buffet started. I was quite lucky to be seated near to the buffet table XD.

The serious looking chart is actually... the number of Rec Club members ^^;

During buffet, they played musical related videos, followed by some stage performance with volunteers from different table. As expected, being the youngest in the table, I was being pushed forward =__=’’ I have to sing a musical song, which was actually all about “aaaaaa” for 2 minutes. My team didn’t win - there must be something wrong with our microphone! :p

Forget about the venue, the food was delicious!

Row of Dessert

My first, out of many, buffet servings XD. Team kept asking me to do Carb Load, so I just follow

Dance segment with Jai Ho Song. After laughing, it was my turn next for singing =.=''

The most awaited segment, apart from the buffet, is of course the lucky draw. From statistic perspective, it’s one of the few lucky draws which I might have chance of winning. 70 prizes for 210 guests. 1 out of 3 people will walk out with a prize.

The prize announcement started with the bottom – prize number 50 – 70, and slowly going up to list number 20-49. By the time they were announcing the top 10, 6 out of 10 people in our table already got their prize. Going to top 5, another one from our table got it. The three “not yet lucky” of us were congratulating the others and they jokingly said that the top 3 are reserved for the three of us.

For the first prize, the President actually threw the whole lucky draw up and catch one of the names. The DJ looked at the name and said “Interesting, the winner’s surname started with D”. My table’s mate started to shout my name… and indeed, the DJ announced my name!!! I really, really can’t believe it. I went up to the stage and get some photos taken (“As a proof for Audit”, they said), and everyone congratulated me on the prize. I guess we’re one of the luckiest tables. 8 out of 10 people at the table get something!

Feel really happy, and I still can’t believe my luck. My name was picked out of the other 150 names! I got the White iPad with Retina display, 16 GB, Wifi - $658. Second Prize was $500 Takasimaya Voucher. Third Prize was Carlton Hotel stay + buffet for two. I think I have used up my luck for the DnD. I won’t be surprised if I don’t get anything for the next few years.

New Baby! :D With Lightning Port! haha...

For now… new iPad!! Oho!!!
ED

Health Promotion Board: Understanding Depression

When we went out for lunch on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, we were greeted with a rather unusual view. There was something like Lifeguard chair (tall chair) at the atrium, and on top of it as a guy seemed to be taking a nap.

A napping guy?

Looking closely to the board, it’s actually a campaign from Health Promotion Board related to Depression (oh, so the guy supposed to look depressed). Whether I need the help or not, I’m quite impressed with the awareness they are building. I have seen creative ads at bus stop and mrt, and this is yet another one live. They are one of the government services which I can really see doing a lot of work, thumbs up!

To help support them, I’m posting the bookmark they shared during the campaign. I read through the signs of depression and now can’t decide if I’m in the victim list or not. Sleeping too little is considered depressed, too much is also considered depressed. Feeling energized is depressed, feeling lack of energy is also depressed =__=’

The Sign of Depression - Bookmark (front)

The Sign of Depression - Bookmark (back)

Anyway, keep up the good work, Health Promotion Board!
ED

Bye, PR

Visited ICA on Tuesday to get my PR revoked and took oath for citizenship. With such a long journey from 30th June’2012, I thought it’s all finally ended after the oath. Well, it’s not really the case. I might need to wait another year for my pink IC to be released during the ceremony. Till then, I’m still hesitant to call myself Singaporean, while I’m definitely not Indonesian anymore *stateless. Sob.

ICA e-Lobby - Quite cool! (but i don't know yet what is it for) Took my IC pic here.

Luckily, I’m now allowed to apply for the Passport. Unluckily, my passport application timing crosses with school holiday. They said there might be slight delay due to the high demand. Another sob. There goes my Dec holiday planning. I just hope that I will still get my passport before end of the year.

"Passport application? Just drop your pic and CC details to this box" ^^;

There are quite a lot of people taking citizenship oath, so I waited until around 10am even though my appointment was written as 8.45am =.=’ thankfully I took half day leave. The oath taking is quite simple. I was asked to get into the oath room. The commissioner of oath (in my case, a middle age auntie) was sitting behind a big desk. After confirming my identity, she asked me to stand, raised my right hand, and started reading through the oath from my application form. Took less than a minute and then she congratulated me and asked me to go out from the room ^^;

After the oath taking, I didn't feel like going back to office, so I walked around Lavender and had early lunch at the Kopitiam. I ordered the supposedly Kolo Mee, but was quite disappointed. It was not even half as good as the one from Jurong East :(

The Fake Kolo Mee T_T but the taste is ok... haha.. just different from Kolo Mee

Next Step out of many: Waiting for Passport application approval,
ED

Christmas Drinks @ Starbucks

Just want to reiterate my gratefulness to Standard Chartered for the opportunity given. Ever since the promotion launched few months ago, I have been diligently following through the schedule and never missed the 2 cuppa Starbucks on the last Monday of every month :p

As expected, the competition was getting fiercer. Last month, I could stroll easily to Starbucks at 9am and get my free cup within 3 mins. This time, I went at 8.15am and the queue was snaking all the way to the exit door. The coupon shown as fully redeemed at 8.35am, right after I redeemed mine. Not sure what happen to the rest of the people queuing behind me.

Is it me or the queue was really dominated by girls?

Thanks for having two slots for redemption!

For morning, I tried their Christmas special – Toffee Nut Latte, which I loved lots! For the afternoon, I tried yet another Christmas special - Cranberry White Chocholate Mocha. I couldn’t really taste the cranberry so it just tasted like usual mocha. No complain though for free mocha :p Not sure how long will the promotion be around, hope that they will be here for good, just like the SC slogan :)

Hot Toffee Nut Latte - Love Max!

Cranberry White Chocolate Mocha Frappe

Proof of redemption :p

I love free monday treat! Cya again in Dec! :D
ED

Aunt & Uncle Weekend Visit @ Penang Seafood Restaurant + Durian Testing + Orchard Lit Up

Aunt and uncle were in town during weekend to visit Feli. Being a thick face as I always am, I joined their family gathering on Sunday evening :p

I visited them at Mandarin Orchard Singapore – it’s my first time to see the hotel room and I quite like the room design (or maybe I’m just really bored with Marina Bay Sands). With such a strategic location, I think it really worth the $200/night.

From the hotel, we took a cab all the way to Geylang for dinner at Penang Seafood Restaurant. For such a distance and traffic jam, I thought the cab would cost us at least $20. Surprisingly, the final cost was… $12. Oh I love taking taxi on Sundays.

Penang Seafood restaurant is located at 76 Geylang Lorong 25A, just outside the Aljunied MRT. We reached there at around 6pm and the place was almost fully occupied. Despite the good business, the manager who attended to us was very down to earth. He also did his best to cater for us when we asked for change of menu after ordering. Thumbs up for the service!

Penang Seafood Restaurant - Outside Aljunied MRT

The restaurant was famous for their Assam Fish Head, so we got that one. The rest of the dishes were based on the manager’s recommendation, which was nyummy! I ate my heart out and was glad to know that it didn’t cause a bomb to our wallet :p By the time we went out, a long queue was already forming outside the restaurant.

Their Famous Assam Fish Head - $25

Group Pic before the food disappear :p

The bill - no service charge!

After a nice dinner, we walked around Geylang. I never really explored the area before. It’s filled with rows and rows of restaurant, selling various Chinese foods. After a 15 mins walk, we decided it’s time for a sweet dessert – what else if not the king of fruit – Durian! Again, it’s my first time eating durian in Geylang (what have I done over the past 8 years in Singapore =_=’’) I don’t really know which good place to go, so we just try the one across the street (nearest from Aljunied MRT).

Durians! With various prices and promotions.

How to even differentiate them? All look rounds and spiky.

Well, I heard how tricky it could be to pick a durian at Geylang. Before I can warn my uncle, he already bought a durian for… $60 bucks! $60 bucks? Half a million rupiahs for a Durian? I rather went back to the restaurant and have another round of Fish Head. The durian is supposed to be “Wang sang Wang” – “The King of all Kings”, which is even better than “Mao Shan Wang”. Well, I’m no Durian expert, so I’m not sure what was so special about it. Out of curiosity, uncle bought another durian (what they claimed as Mao Shan Wang) for $18 and it actually tasted sweeter with smaller seed. Feli and I ended up eating most of the durians since both uncle and aunt couldn’t eat too much due to high blood pressure concern. My first and last durians of the year, I swear (OK I’m not a real fan of durian :p)

Wang Sang Wang - the $60 Durian O.O

After filling up our tummy, we took a taxi back to Orchard and continued our adventure – hunting Christmas trees. The whole Orchard was beautifully lit up with Christmas decorations :)

Christmas Tree @ Takasimaya - Awesome as always!

Road Side decoration - would have been better without the traffic :p

Guess! Which mall is the Christmas Tree from! Ion Orchard. The purple ribbon gave the answer away :)

We walked around until around 10pm, and then I excused myself to go back home. They sent me home with a big pack of souvenirs – biscuits, crackers, mangos, guava, all I could ask for ^^;

Nice gathering,
ED

Friday - of GT Social Event, Embassy, and Gym

OK, I admit, I hardly do a single work on Friday.

Friday morning, I was helping the team to setup the Charity lunch. It finally happened :’) We started planning one month ago with target participants of 50 people. We ended up with 120 people! Love the sense of team achievement :D And of course, nothing can go wrong for me so long as there is food around :)

GT Social Event (Interact Care Eat!)

The Food!

The Crowd - listening to MD Speech

Friday afternoon, I went to Indonesian Embassy to collect my confirmation letter. Met Hen Che along the way. What a coincidence! It’s most probably the last time I went to Indonesian Embassy. It started raining when I came out from the embassy. Even the sky was crying. Sob.

The Last Office I visited

The Last Visitor Pass

 It’s around 3.30pm when I came out from embassy. I weighed my option – I can either go home and slack or go gym and suffer. I chose the latter. I took the direct bus to Orchard and went to Paragon’s Fitness First.

It’s my second time there, and I’m still feeling confused with the structure @.@ I went for 12km treadmill, accompanied with a view of orchard and Ellen’s Show. After run, I had a hot coffee while it was still raining outside. Felt really warm :)

If there were anything I like about the Paragon’s Fitness First, it would be their Mind and Body classroom. The classroom is really relaxing with dim light and soft music. Love the whole setup! I tried out two new classes that day – Hatha Yoga and Hot Yoga. My whole body felt like breaking afterwards.

I was starving as I went out from Fitness First. Don’t know what to eat, I went to Burger King at Ion to claim the $1 Cheeseburger and ate on my way back.

Paragon with its Christmas Cue.

Orchard Road with Christmas Decoration!

Back home, we chatted and watched Glee before finally calling it a day :) Slept until 12pm the next day =.=''

Last weekend before SC Marathon!
ED

Thursday Dinner at IKEA

It has been a while since the last time I ate at IKEA, so decided to pay a visit and look around for their Christmas menu :D

I was greeted with their simple yet elegant in-store Christmas decoration. I love IKEA!! There are just so many fancy things with affordable price. Not like I buy anything there, but it's really fun to wander around :)

Love the Christmas Star!

As I was pretty hungry, I headed straight to the Restaurant and start queuing. Long queue, but it took us less than 15 mins to get our food. We decided to try something new this time - Curry Chicken & it's Christmas Hot Pot (not sure why it's called Hot Pot - nothing hot ^^;).

Curry Chicken - $3.9 

Christmas Hot Pot - $8.9

I don't understand how IKEA setup their food price. The curry chicken was really filling at the price of $3.9. I had their Christmas set which was twice the price and still hungry afterwards ^^; I ended up going for their other snack - Hotdog for $1!

Hotdog for $1 - IceCream + Hotdog + softdrink for $2. Such good deals!

Had fun dining at IKEA ^^,
ED