Goodbye 2014 and Hello 2015.

I am seriously thinking we are moving in a super fast pace throughout the year. It feels just yesterday we celebrated the beginning of 2014 and suddenly we are on the last day of the year. I suppose this calls for a grateful reflection upon what happened during the year right?

2014 has been quite great even though I started slow in ticking my travel bucket list. My first trip of the year was only happened in May. But the place that my family and I go was simply breathtaking, Lombok Island in Indonesia. Some of the posts about Lombok can be found here, here and here. Alternatively, you can type "Lombok" on the blog's search blog. 

Summer days were even better when my bestie told me that she needed a I-cant-take-this-shit-anymore break. So with spontaneity, we booked a flight to Hong Kong. Dim sum feast at Hong Kong can put smiles on our faces. Yum! Hao chi! Some other foodie post about Hong Kong can be found here, here and here. 

I went hiatus (from travelling) for the next 3 months after that (home-bound trip not counted of course) to save some bucks for....an awesome trip to Europe. My mum nicely sponsored half of the trip cost. Teehee. The benefit of not-married-yet-even-at-this-age. LOL. 

I have not finished blogging about the recent Eurotrip but you can find some posts about it here, here and here. 

To finish off the year, I decided to stay in Singapore simply because I'm broke. And celebrating Christmas in Singapore is not bad at all I suppose. For some pretty Christmas decorations in Singapore, you can read my posts here, here and here. 

Travelling will definitely still part of my life in 2015. Simply because the mundane daily life will suck my bone dry and travelling kinda cure the condition (well, it sucks my wallet dry though and hence, the cycle continues).  Thanks for reading this blog, lovely readers! And let's cheer for a jolly merry happy amazing wonderful awesome 2015! God bless! <3

Eastern Euro Trip: Christmas at KaDeWe Berlin, Germany

When I went to Germany last november, the shopping centre there has decorated the stores with a lot of Christmas decorations. And since today is only the third day after Christmas, I feel like reminiscing my past trip there. #nostalgiamood

We are dropped here at KaDeWe even before the shopping mall opened for business. So we ended up looking at the items displayed on the shop's window. 

After we went in, we immediately saw a beautiful Christmas tree. <3

I always wanted something like this in my house. Looks cozy. 

Classy Christmas decorations spotted. 

Christmas cookies, anyone? =)

If you are interested to find out more about this huge department store, you can visit its website here.

If you are a fan of Longchamp, you can find the store inside KaDeWe. Indonesians seem pretty crazy about Longchamp I must say. Hahaha. 

Singapore Eats: Christmas High Tea at Rose Verandah, Shangrila Hotel

Ho Ho Ho it's finally Christmas! Hope everyone having an awesome Christmas day. Well if you don't know what to do, you can probably book yourself a high-tea during these few days because having high-tea can be pretty festive too apparently. XD

My high-tea buddy and I decided to try out Rose Verandah to celebrate Christmas this year.

You can have one pot of tea per person so make your choice wisely. If you are overwhelmed with the choice, you can always try the house tea which I think called Shangrila-something and Happy Birthday tea. I like the Happy Birthday tea. 

Now let's attack the food. One thing that I notice is that everybody was attacking laksa station as soon as they are seated (okay, some people started queuing even before they sat down). So the laksa must be so damn good right? The laksa station is DIY station. The prawns are big and fresh. Well, I guess the laksa is worth the queue. XD

High tea in my text book means cake. A lot of cakes. And since it's Christmas season, Rose Verandah serves log cake too. 

Other than on dessert table, the cakes are displayed on the glass cabinet. And all looks so delightfully yummy. O_O. 

Every hotel in Singapore seems to be in competition on Christmas decoration whenever it is Christmas season. Which we don't mind of course. Here's a Christmas tree displayed at Shangri-la Hotel. 

The decorations displayed on the trees are for sales. And the proceeds from the sale will be donated to non-profit organisations. Nice way of giving. =)

If you want to make reservation for the high tea (which I highly encourage because it was full house on a weekday afternoon), you can go to this link.

Last but not least, I wanna wish you guys a Merry Christmas! Be Merry and Happy! =)

Christmas Magic on Orchard Road: Takashimaya Shopping Centre, Singapore

Three days to Christmas and I am working overtime. What a life. At least when I reached Orchard Road to meet a friend, the lights are lit on and I can enjoy the Christmas feel too. #selfconsolation

This year, Takashimaya seems to embrace pastel color. To be exact, the mint green and soft pink.

Oops my bad. They have blue pastel too. Aww, the store display looks so lovely. 

Silvery lights inside the store. White Christmas concept? =P

Laduree has its own version of macaron Christmas tree in pink. Too bad they are not edible. On second thought, if they are edible I think it will be gone within minutes? Hahaha. 

Takashimaya's giant Christmas tree is always nice and bright. 

And full of dices this year. 

I'm so excited for my Christmas break!!! Two working days to go (cuz now it's already Monday night here). Yeah!

Singapore Eats: Pasticceria Ferrero, Singapore

No idea on what to buy for Christmas? If your family or friend is a chocolate-lover, you probably want to check this out.

Pasticceria Ferrero is a pop up store set up by Ferrero Rocher in front of ION Orchard. The store will be there only for Christmas period (I think). Other than the normal kind of Ferrero Rocher, you can find an abnormal size of Ferrero Rocher here. XD

Or even a bigger one. Wow. 

May your Christmas be filled with chocolates. XD

Christmas Magic on Orchard Road: ION Orchard, Singapore

Every December, walking along Orchard Road is a must. I started my walk partly due to guilt feeling that I had after having high tea with my friend at the nearby hotel. But it turns out to be an amazing walk under the lights. Let's start from ION Orchard! =)

ION's Christmas tree is simple yet pretty. They opt for white Christmas tree with red decorations this year.

Closer look at the decoration. Awww...

You can go inside the tree. And look up. 

Just beside the trees, there are an area which has been transformed into some sort of candy-christmas-land. It's kinda like Candy Crush X Christmas. Hahaha. 

Nice one this year, ION! =)

Singapore Eats: Pepenero, Telok Ayer

I love December. Simply because it's the season to be merry. And to put it in another way, it's the season to have good excuse to eat good food.

I had an early Christmas celebration with two of my besties because they are flying home for Christmas *sob* *sob*. It is our custom to pick new place to try every year and this year, my friend picked Pepenero. Because she managed to buy voucher online so we got a discount. XD

The place is decorated for Christmas. Love it. 

When all of us reached the place, the waiter started to serve the complimentary bread. Good timing, because we were already starving. 

For starter, we picked an eggplant dish called Eggplant Parmigiana. The taste of the dish is superb! Must order!

We ordered 3 mains to share amongst us. The first one is the Boston Lobster Linguine. The lobster looks huge, eh? The taste of the pasta is quite unique and we definitely can taste the lobster-sauce in the linguine. 

The next dish that we chose is also pasta dish called pappardelle with deer meat and tomato ragout. I do not really know how to appreciate deer meat to be honest so I prefer the lobster linguine.

Last main is the beef tenderloin served with potato and mushroom. The meat was cooked perfectly (medium well) and we love this dish better than the above two pastas. Hahaha. Ironic. 

Girls will not leave a restaurant without a dessert to close a wonderful meal. So we ordered chocolate lava cake served with vanilla ice cream. It tastes heavenly. <3

Overall, we had an enjoyable night with yummy food and nice service. If you want to know further about the restaurant, you can go here.

Eastern Eurotrip: Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna

Our first stop in Vienna is Schonbrunn Palace, a magnificent focus of court life under the reign of Maria Theresa.

The palace is big. Very big. The section for the servants' quarter itself is very huge. 

The Christmas tree has not been set up yet when we visited the palace in early November. Too bad. 

Here is the ticket price for the entry to the palace. 

The map of Schonbrunn Palace will give you the idea of how huge the whole complex is. I don't think we have enough time to see all. But at least we covered the main rooms inside the palace.

Photography is not allowed inside the palace. So I took this picture from Google to show you how it looks like. This is the picture of the ballroom when the golden chandeliers are lit. I got the vibe like in Anastasia's or Beauty and the Beast's movie. =P

If you are hungry, there is a cafe at the left side of the palace. We did not have time to go in and take a look but we smell something good coming out from the cafe. Yum~~

Taipei Eats: Hang Zhou Xiao Long Bao, Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall

I suddenly think about xiao long bao. And not, it's not gonna materialize right before me at this hour by itself. So I can only blog about it. And cry in hunger. LOL.

The Taiwanese did not really like to eat xiao long bao at Din Tai Fung (DTF). They always say the xiao long bao sold at DTF are overpriced. Well, okay, if that's the case, I decided to try xiao long bao sold at...other places. For once, there is one just behind Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. It's called Hang Zhou Xiao Long Bao.

There is a queue in front of the restaurant but it's not as bad as the queue at DTF. Within 5 minutes, we got our seats. ^^

English menu is available here. 

We ordered the juicy shrimp dumpling (the menu does say that). The shrimps are indeed big. Happiness~~~

Some buns. Shoot, I forgot what's inside. I should not procrastinate when it comes to blogging. Hahahaha. Hmm, char-siew? custard? red bean? lotus? OK, my money is either on char-siew or custard 'cause I don't think my friend will go with red bean or lotus. LOL. 

And of course we must order the speciality, xiao long bao. They taste quite good, comparable to DTF I think. 

The restaurant is located right behind Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall so there's a distance to walk before you reach this place. Well, exercise before eating is healthy I suppose. =P