Archive for 2016

Home Archive for 2016

Hello! Hope everyone having a wonderful Christmas! Did all of you have a great night celebrating Christmas Eve? No? Meh? Yeah?

If yes, then good for you and please cherish those people who are willing to spend this special night with you. If no, it's okay, it's only one night which is no different than other night especially if you are staying home (I often do this too when all my friends going holiday without me. Grr!). My Christmas eve celebration is pretty much low key this year because we do not want to splurge a lot of money as my buddy and I are going to Taiwan next year (something to look forward to in 2017, woots!).

So what did I do over few days leading to Christmas? Christmas gift hunting (which I hate the most not because I hate giving but it's hard to give something which please everyone). For example, the cookies that I buy end up too sweet (Famous Amos is trying to make its customer diabetic maybe), someone in office does not eat chocolate, etc etc. Tough decision to buy gift although I wish I can just buy everyone whatever they desire (but how am I gonna ship Gong Yoo to their house without being charged with criminal charges?). Maybe Pokemon is after all, an easier gift for everybody. LOL.

If you have time to visit Changi Airport (or probably if you have had already travelled earlier this month), you will see that the airport is decked in festive decoration this year too. The decorations are a bit different from the usual year because Changi Airport has become home for certain Pokemon like Snorlax and Pikachu. I hope they put a lot of Eeves inside too but the management thinks otherwise apparently.

Christmas village at Changi Airport Singapore

Say hello and Merry Christmas to Pikachu when you are there. This cutey Pikachu is located at departure area of Terminal 3 in Changi Airport (before immigration).

Pikachu says Merry Christmas from Changi Airport

And once again, wishing you a very blessed (and not lonely) Christmas everyone.

P.S. If you are lonely, don't listen to Christmas songs. Why don't you just play Coldplay like what I am doing now? LOL.

Hello! With less than 2 months to go in the year 2016, I have decided to do something about one of my resolutions this year which happened to be the most challenging resolution for myself. It is a personal challenge to expand my social circle, which I have tried to do with a great reluctance. LOL. I have applied for another type of volunteering. And to make it the most effective challenge ever, the voluntary work involves saying hello to people. Whee~~~ talk about meeting your own demons. Oh well, since it's only the early stage and who knows, they may only summon me when I am away for my end of year holiday (and hence, it's unforeseen circumstances, it can even be divine intervention).

While I am pondering upon my upon fate, I realise that it's time to meet another new year's resolution despite the tardiness. It's time to eat healthier I suppose since December is coming. Hahaha. I leave this resolution to my friend who is a healthy-eating-freak (I mean it in a good way if you happen to read this..LOL) now since she wanted to lose another 10kg. Everytime I meet her near her office building, we always go to Pasarbella at Suntec City where she could enjoy a plate of salad/ protein from Pimp My Salad.

I have to admit the selection offered here is the "pimped" version of salad sold at food court or hawker centre (oh yes, nowadays you can find salad at hawker centre like Golden Shoes and Amoy Street Food Market). Each ingredient has each own price tag. Even the sauce has price tag, no kidding. A plate of salad base (lettuce), sweet potato, mushroom, chicken breast and mustard sauce costs me SGD 11. Nobody tell me eating healthy creates hole in your wallet but I have to admit, this plate of ingredients taste pretty good and clean. It lasts me until 6PM too.

Singapore Eats: Pimp My Salad, Pasarbella

But I suppose there is always a price in everything. Including in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Let's hope for a steady stream of income while we live in this world.

Pimp My Salad is situated at:

#01-455 North Wing, Suntec City

3 Temasek Boulevard

Nearest MRT: Promenade/ Esplanade MRT

Opening hours:

11AM - 10.30PM Daily

Aloha! How has everyone Sunday been? Some personal revelation to start with. The pastor has touched a topic of thanksgiving today and the message kinda slapped me in the face because I have been, well, complaining for a while now about my life in general. I suppose I have not been giving thanks enough and probably by doing that, I could have a new perspective of life.

To be honest with you, being grateful is easier done when you have a fully fed tummy (for a start, be grateful that you can enjoy eating, a lot of people is starving in this world). Fully inspired by the message, my Sunday date (Sun-date) and I proceeded to Mak's Noodle (yesh, the famous wanton noodle from Hong Kong) in Vivo City. This is the third branch of Mak's Noodle in Singapore. The first and second are located in Centrepoint (Somerset) and Westgate (Jurong East).

I ordered dumpling while Sun-date ordered wanton to go with our noodles. As you can see, the portion is leaning toward to the word "small". But I heard Mak's Noodle at Hong Kong has the same serving portion so this is probably the best portion to enjoy wanton noodle?

Dumpling and Wanton Soup from Mak's Noodle

The whole meal for one person looks like this. Pretty humble I must say but I think just enough to feed ladies (and kids?). I wonder if the uncles who dine besides us are full from eating their noodles. Hahaha.

Dumpling Noodle from Mak's Noodle Vivo City

Taste-wise, I really enjoy the salty and springy thin noodle. The oyster sauce is amazing and I wish Mak's Noodle is not that stingy with the sauce.

Dry noodle with oyster sauce from Mak's Noodle

The dumpling soup is not bad but it does not wow me as much as the noodle was. A lot of people think that the price-tag set by Mak's Noodle is pretty steep considering the small portion that the restaurant serves. I suppose I kinda agree with this sentiment because the whole meal costs me SGD 10-ish. Considering the cost of living in Singapore, I guess we have to live by this price tag for the days to come.

Dumpling soup from Mak's Noodle at Vivo City

Mak's Noodle is located at the following locations:

(1) 176 Orchard Road, Centrepoint, #01-63/64

(2) Westgate, 3 Gateway Drive, #03-06

(3) Vivo City, 1 Harbourfront Walk, #B2-27

Opening hours:

Daily 11AM - 10PM

If you happen to stay over at Ankara and you have free time to spare, you may want to check out a public park in Ankara (not sure how safe it is at the world today since I went to Ankara back in 2013 when everything is still peaceful in Turkey). Our tour group stayed the night in Radisson Blue Hotel in Ankara and while the bus was making its way to the hotel, I saw this beautiful view from the window's bus.

We had to wait for a while to deal with the check-in and stuff but once we received our room keys, my brother and I were ready for adventure. I don't think it is wise to go out from the hotel just two of us in the current situation so if you'd like to walk around your hotel, I suggest to do this in group. Better be wise than sorry I suppose.

Ankara public park is situated right opposite Radisson Hotel (because we can see the park from the balcony of our hotel room).

This is the view that we saw from the balcony. The park is huge and it has a big pond and some kind of mini theme park inside. The fountain never stops sprouting water. Kinda miss the peaceful days of Turkey, really.

Ankara Public Park View from Radisson Blu Hotel

When we arrived, it seems that there were some preparations being made for the show later on tonight. Not sure what it was gonna be but we assumed it got something to do with lights show.

Pond and Ferris Wheel at Ankara Park Turkey

Since the weather is so hot, we decided to buy an ice cream to share (dinner coming soon). As usual, the Turkish ice cream seller always loves to play tricks on his customers (especially tourists). My brother seems to be enjoying it though. The ice cream tastes oh so good with the three flavours: vanilla, custard and chocolate.

When the night arrived, we could see sound coming out from the pond's direction and we guessed correctly, there was light show happening in the park. We enjoyed the show from our hotel's balcony. Nice one.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay at Radisson Blu in Ankara so if you'd like to stay in Ankara, you may want to consider this hotel as one of the options.

I can't believe it is already Sunday night now. Weekend comes and goes so quickly. I did not really like the fact that I have to work again tomorrow but at least I am grateful that my weekend seems to be quite productive. That if your weekend goal is (a) trying out new cafe and (b) dating bae. Initially I was planning to cut down my expense since I just got myself an iPad (which is awesome by the way!) but at the same time I feel like trying new cafe too and the temptation of the latter wins. Hence, here we are at Curious Palette, one of the eating place located along Prinsep Street right opposite POMO.

Quick glance on the menu if you are interested. Based on Burpple (a popular foodie app used by many in Singapore), Curious Palette's most popular items are the Hotcakes. I am not really a fan of Hotcakes (due to their huge size) but it feels not right not to order the most popular item especially on the first visit.

But at the same time, I feel like munching on something salty and these spam fries look so glorious. I used to eat spam and rice as a child and I remember I enjoyed it so much back then. Needless to say, bae and I finished the whole plate even before our Berry Ricotta Hotcake arrived. #spamlover

It took Curious Palette a while (definitely more that the waiter-claimed-to-be-25-minutes) to serve the hotcakes to our table. At least, Berry Ricotta Hotcakes looks super pretty on the outlook. Taste wise, the hotcakes seem to be on the drier side. We started to wonder if we should ask for another portion of maple syrup but we tried not to cause we scared it will become too sweet. Bae prefer the hotcakes served at Atlas Coffeehouse though. I should probably try the mains next time but Curious Palette only serves dinner after 6.30PM so I better make sure I reach the cafe not before 6.30 or otherwise, I will end up munching spam fries again. LOL.