To my Japan trip!
OMG suddenly it seems to be coming fast.
Will we be able to catch the trains? Will we have trouble navigating around on our own? Geeeeeez, so many burning questions, but only can be answered when we are there.
Hope everything will be fine!
Right! So I haven’t really been doing much lately, to be honest. Just playing WoW (thanks to the WoW anniversary XP buff that’s gonna end tomorrow) whenever I’m free, and listening to radio dota in the meantime.
I’ve finally spent the $200 Fraser Mall Giftcard that my insurance company gave me last year, and I used it to buy Fitbit Alta. It’s actually quite interesting, and it kinda really motivates me to walk more in order to reach the goal / milestones. I even wore it to sleep because it’s pretty interesting the way it tracks my sleep. It tells me how long did I sleep for, how many times did I actually wake up during the period (and I didn’t even know about it) and how many times I was restless throughout the sleep. The bands on the Alta are interchangeable too, so I’ve bought a few more colours off from Taobao. God knows when they will arrive, but I guess I’m not in a hurry to get them.
So yup, I’m now a proud owner of a fitness tracker! Can strike that Charge 2 off my wishlist already, lol.
Two more weeks to Japan trip! Suddenly the trip seems so near… Not exactly sure if that’s a good thing. =/
Meh, I should be more positive. >_<
Happy (belated) birthday to me. =)
Celebrated my own birthday by booking a club room at Village Hotel Albert Court, thanks to a promotion they have for their existing members. I have stayed at their sister hotel at Village Hotel Katong before, and honestly I prefer Village Hotel Katong a little more, as it’s refurbished and renovated. Village Hotel Albert Court is a little… hmm, dated.
The Club Room that they’ve upgraded for free for me due to it being a birthday stay, but then again we didn’t really make use of the club facilities, lol. Bruno was kind enough to keep me company (I would have gone alone otherwise) for the three days, hence the king bed. It’s wide enough for the two of us with plenty of space in between. He hates body heat, so space is necessary on the bed lol. Here’s some photo spam.
Yes, it’s an extremely huge room. But if you look closely at the TV cabinet, you’d see the corners have already been chipped off. I’m not that fussy, so I didn’t complain about it. The toilet light was flickering throughout our stay too, but it didn’t give us any trouble, so we just leave it as well. One issue I had with the room is that there’s no additional power outlet anywhere near the TV. Hence, there was no way I was able to charge my laptop while leaving it connected to the TV. Yes it’s extremely important… because I used it to watch dota matches on TV. =(
This hotel has the same issue as the Katong branch – and that’s the blanket is way too warm. Synthetic feathers are bad, sigh. But other than that, the bed is fine, towels are fluffy and white, and their water kettle has to be one of the cleanest and newest I’ve seen in a hotel, really.
We watched a movie on his USB stick – Alice Through The Looking Glass, before getting a late dinner on the first night at Swee Choon, a place where he never went to before. We ordered a couple of dim sum, and were generally pretty satisfied with the food. Then we went back to the hotel and watched more dota.
Sunday was truly a relaxing day. We did literally… nothing. Except watching dota and movie (caught up on The Mechanic Resurrection after dinner). We didn’t even walk too far for dinner, before going back for more dota matches. But because our sleep quality was pretty bad (thanks to the blanket) the night before, we went to bed earlier than expected and tried to catch some wink.
It’s an uneventful day today when we checked out, except for the fact that it was pouring cats and dogs when we left the hotel. We ended up really wet all around even though we shared an umbrella. The rain was just too big. And after I got home and was done washing my clothes, I’m just sitting here and trying hard not to doze off during the day. Don’t really wanna screw up my sleeping timing….
… but now I guess it’s time to go sleep.
28 more days to Japan trip! =)
Didn’t really have the time to write for the last few days, so maybe this will be a long post. We’ll see.
On last Saturday 22/10/16, Bruno and I went for the Escher’s Journey Into Infinity exhibit at Artscience Museum. Photography is allowed, but I didn’t take much photos. We were there to marvel at his works, not to take photos lol. I only took one photo – which was aptly named as the exhibit itself.
So after spending two hrs and a half inside there, we went for a short coffee break at Commune, before we went for our Restaurant Week dinner. One nice thing about Bruno is that he can always commit a date (I mean, date, not dating kind of date) for such activities. So it makes it a lot easier for me to make the bookings when the reservations are open. This time, we tried Wooloomooloo Restaurant, with me making the booking despite no menu being provided initially. I mean, what can go wrong, right? It’s a steakhouse!
So we went there at 8.15pm, 15 minutes earlier than the expected time of arrival, and their service was astounding. The lady did not keep us standing for 15 minutes. Instead, she ushered us into their bar, and asked us to make ourselves comfortable while we wait for the tables to be free. By 8.30pm sharp, we were being ushered to our table. It was a 5 course dinner (wow), at the special Restaurant Week price of $58++ (double wow!). You can never find such a price in their regular menu. And the best part is they didn’t skimp on their serving size!
Our first dish was actually their complimentary onion bread. It was still warm when it was being served to us, and although the sauteed onion at the top was a tad too salty on its own, it complemented the warm plain bread very well. It was so good that we finished the entire bread off.
Next up was the first dish on the menu. The item reads “Shooter of Forrest Mushroom Soup | Parmesan Cheese | Truffle Oil”. I was still wondering what the hell does it mean by “shooter”, and I nearly laughed out loud when it was being served. It was mushroom soup served in a vodka shot glass! LOL that was so unexpected. I drank it and wow, the truffle taste exploded in my mouth. The mushroom soup itself was very thick, and chock-full of mushroom bits. Mmmm-nice!
Next was their duck confit salad. I have to confess that 1) I can’t eat duck, and 2) I hate salad. Like literally hate, with every fibre of my being. But when the salad was being served, and after gingerly putting one spoonful of salad into my mouth, I eagerly polished the whole plate off. It was so good! The vegetables were fresh, and came in manageable bite-sized portions (no huge lettuce that you have to stuff into your mouth), and with the pulled duck meat, walnuts, beetroot and cheese, every flavour just came together so nicely, yet at the same time you can taste each of them individually in one mouthful as well. It was honestly amazing. The best salad that I’ve ever eaten, really. I swear to god, if I ever go to Wooloomooloo again and they have that dish, I will order it. Yes, I will voluntarily order a salad in a restaurant! It’s that good.
The next dish on the menu is sauteed garlic prawn. I wasn’t blown away by this dish. The toasted garlic was okay-ish, the lobster cream was pretty good, and the prawn was absolutely perfectly grilled – slightly crisp on the outside but succulent and sweet on the inside. Very nice, yes, but not out of the world. Bruno absolutely loved this dish though.
Main courses were then served. We had a choice between Grain Fed Australian Ribeye, Pan Seared Barramundi, or Tagliatelle Salsiccia. Our choice was obvious. We were at a steak house. What else do you order other than steak, right? XD So yup, both of us ordered the ribeye. The guy who served us the main courses had a little mixed up – he gave me Bruno’s medium-rare ribeye, and gave him my medium ribeye. We both sensed something amiss while slicing the steak, so we just switched it between ourselves. No big deal. But the kitchen staff saw it, and alerted the guy, and he came over to apologise profusely for the mixed up. We had to reassure him firmly that it’s absolutely fine, and the food was absolutely perfect too, please don’t worry about it. It was very nice though, to have him apologise for the mistake (but not that we minded, seriously).
It was certainly not the -best- steak that I’ve eaten, but it’s definitely ranked up there among one of the best. I asked for medium, and the doneness was perfect. The sauteed mushrooms on top and the Lyonnaise potatoes added a slight tinge of other flavour at the same time. And the serving size was perfect. We were feeling full after the steak – and that’s with the complimentary bread!
Desserts then came along promptly after we cleaned off our steak plate. I picked the Wooloomooloo cheesecake with yogurt gelato, while Bruno got himself the Wooloomooloo Brownie with vanilla ice cream. My cheesecake tasted heavenly actually – slightly salted cheese mousse, and a delicious crumbly biscuit base. I couldn’t take yogurt though, and the raspberry coullis was a tad too sour for me as well. Nice dish as it was, but I couldn’t finish it. Bruno couldn’t really finished off his either, coz his brownie was too sweet and too dense. But he did mentioned that it will definitely be an amazing dish for those with sweet tooth.
So that concluded our Saturday. An interesting art exhibit, an amazing dinner, and a lovely companion. Life’s good. :D
Oh, and Bruno finally finished my Facebook cover photo! Initially I only asked if I could use his original artwork (a swiss roll cottage!) for my Facebook cover, because I fell in love with it the first time I saw it in his portfolio reel. I said I would pay for it (with dinners!), and he said okay, but he’ll have to polish it and resize it to Facebook resolution. And that took him almost 10 months to do because he was so lazy! :x Okay he’s not lazy, just that he had other priorities. But yeah he finally got it done, and on top of that he tweaked a little and added my favourite comic strip characters! He also changed my display pic so that it all fits into the banner.
How cute is this?!??!?! Omg I’m grinning face to face everytime I see it. The swiss roll cottage looks soooo delectable, and then there were mushrooms! And there’s all my favourite Capoo characters… awwww….. *heart melted* <3
And today is Bruno and I’s friend-niversary! Yupyup, we met up with each other exactly one year ago on this day. I’m meeting him later for dinner, at the same place we first met too! Huehue, maybe I should just make it like a tradition. XD Hopefully we have more friend-niversaries to come!
I noticed this documentary trailer on Golden Village’s website months ago. I got the chills from just watching the trailer. I must admit that I’m not a fan of sushi or sashimi – I don’t eat anything that’s raw. Nevertheless, I’ve heard of this fish market Tsukiji in Tokyo since forever. There are tourists who would get there at 3am just to watch the auctions, to go for sashimi or sushi breakfast at the small eateries just there at Tsukiji. Initially we also had plans to go Tsukiji, but at that time Tsukiji was planned to be relocated to another place in November 2016. And also the fact that we would need to wake up really early to see any action there, kinda threw our plans out of the window. We both ain’t fans of raw food, so it’s not that great of a miss for us, I supposed.
However when I watched this trailer, I thought to myself – this is the documentary that can open my eyes to how Tsukiji works, without being there! I was so excited, only to get super bummed when I found out that tickets were fully sold out in all the three cinemas that they are showing the film in, and each cinema gets only one time slot for one day for this documentary. Yet they kept advertising this.. showing trailers everywhere, sending me mailers about this movie. I was so mad at one point – it’s already fully booked, why did GV still trying to market this?! It wasn’t until I checked the website again on Monday, that I noticed they sneakily added time slots for this movie! The additional time slots were during weekdays, but I’d gladly sacrifice my resting hours after work for this! I immediately called Bruno and asked if he was interested. Even if he wasn’t, I would have gone for it myself. He said yes immediately, because he was very interested in this film as well, and was also disappointed initially when it was all fully booked.
So we watched the documentary last night, and boy it was good! It was so informative, and we get insights to how the market works, what goes through the minds of the people who work at Tsukiji. The feel-good vibes, the short witty moments from the people being interviewed/featured, the super famous chefs at world renowned Japanese restaurants in Tokyo (god I would never see them in person because I don’t have the money to dine in their restaurant)… I’ve never really enjoyed documentaries that ain’t related to natural disasters, so this is really the first one that I love. L-O-V-E. I even shedded some tears at some inspiring words from the people who work there. I would gladly get this on DVD if it’s ever released.
Go watch it, if it’s ever released in your country. Go watch it, you won’t be disappointed, I swear. Here’s the trailer:
Spent last Saturday with Bruno, as usual. I went over to his place and we caught a bus together to Sembawang Hill Food Centre. Unfortunately the kway chup stall had closed for the day, so he settled for laksa while I settled for an unassuming mixed veggie rice stall, which turned out to be quite delicious.
Then we took another bus to Thomson where he grabbed his Bakery coffee, and we kinda just walked around Thomson Plaza a little (for the aircon) before heading to Bishan to catch the movie Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children. I have to say, this is almost the first time I’ve watched “typical” Tim Burton movie. The only other Tim Burton directed movie that I’ve watched was Planet of the Apes, which wasn’t quite “Tim Burton-ish”. I resisted the urge to google for the movie plot and ending before the show, so this is the first time (in many years) that I went into the cinema with zero idea what I’m gonna watch. And I have to say, the movie was quite nice! Nice enough for me to rate it a 4.1 at least, out of 5. Although it’s kinda like a “kid’s movie”, I still quite enjoyed it. It was a little annoying to keep hearing someone snoring in the cinema though… there’s a Dad sitting next to Bruno who snored halfway through the movie. -_-
After that we went to Canopy Garden Dining, where we had a dinner reservation. We ordered a sausage platter to share, and he got himself crabmeat aglio olio while I had a mushroom burger with fries. The mushroom burger looked plain, but it was still rather good. The fries had a right crisp to it, but unfortunately it was a tad too salty for me. Bruno loved it though. After that we walked a bit around Bishan Park, where Canopy Garden dining was located at. But it was really dark at some parts of the park, and we kinda “interrupted” a few couples who were lying at the reclining chairs there doing… you-know-what. It was kinda embarrassing yet hilarious.
We were supposed to go to Gamestart Asia 2016 yesterday, but we both kinda fell slightly sick on Saturday evening when we were on our way home. He was feeling slightly feverish, while I was feeling the onset of cold (was sneezing and having running nose). So we decided to call it off and just rest at home, despite the tickets already bought. We caught most of the StreetFighter V SEA Major action (that was happening live at Gamestart) on stream, so it wasn’t that big a loss to not attend the convention.
Aaaaannd, it’s another new week. This is getting so tiring. Wish I can have a break…. though the next vacation is like two months away. That still seems horribly far though…
Haha, so I bought another pair of shoes last Saturday. I mean, really, that North Face outdoor shoes is really giving my heels some problem. I really have to wait till my heel cushions are shipped in before I can wear them again. Bought a new pair of running shoes at Decathlon with a surprisingly springy heel cushion – and it’s an unheard brand Kalenji. After Googling a little, I found out that it was Decathlon’s own brand. Most of their models are relatively cheaper than Nike/Reebok and the likes, but this particular pair of shoes is slightly over a hundred, so it’s actually not that cheap anyway. But it’s really quite comfortable, and both Bruno and I bought the same pair – same colour too. I laughingly told him he can never wear this pair of shoes to my home if my parents are at home, or else they’ll gonna get the wrong idea. I’ll take a picture of the shoes this Friday… if I remember.
My mom’s now in Japan enjoying her atas travel with my cousins. I’ll have to be waking up earlier for this whole week to prepare and tidy the house, do the necessary stuff like boiling water so that my dad has drinking water, wiping down table tops etc… after work, I have to go home to sweep the floor and wash clothes.. hmmm. I’m not exactly complaining though. It’s something that I’ll have to do for myself when I get my own little apartment anyway.
I’ve nothing to do at work.
Nothing.
God, this is so boring. I’ve done all my work, and now it’s really just a lull period, till month end when we’ll start to do our quarter-end closing. Meh, but before that… I’m just bored.
Amended the side bar background a little – changed the picture to reflect the current season “Fall”. I think it looks pretty nice, yes? I’ve changed the text background colour from black to grey as well, so that it’s easier on the eyes with white-ish fonts.
It’s not good being bored… I’m so tempted go visit Taobao to browse the items, and if I do that, most likely I’ll just buy more unnecessary stuff.
Counting down to my Japan trip…
I’m really tempted to go without titles. It’s so silly to have to keep thinking of titles whenever I want to post something. I just want to blog! Why do I even need a title when I’m just rambling off about stuff that’s happening?
Right, so, Bruno and I went to catch Sully in the cinemas last Saturday. I thought it was a pretty solid acting (as usual) from Tom Hanks as Capt. Sully. It was a good story telling from Clint Eastwood. I like the replays, the flashbacks… and the background music was on point. Bruno seemed to think the movie was just okay-ish, but I kinda like it. Wonder if I should buy it off iTunes….
Dota 2 roster shuffle is killing me. The shuffle is locked, so the teams are fixed. PPD and Fear is no longer in EG, so I’m unsure whether should I keep the #BleedBlue hashtag or just stop supporting the team. The new lineup still looks pretty strong, with Universe, Sumail and Zai still in the team. Cr1t is an interesting addition and as the new captain, I’m kinda curious to see how he can manage the talents he has on this team. RTZ is… RTZ. There’s no need to say anything more about him. *insert rolling eye GIF here*
Miracle is now in Liquid (yay), but Bulba is also in Liquid (boo). I have nothing against Bulba, but he really doesn’t seem to be that strong of an offlaner, and much less of a support in Liquid now. I haven’t seen him play support position, but I have my doubts and reservations. It’s difficult to support Liquid now that Jerax is not in there anymore. =( But it’s difficult to support OG (where Jerax is) too because Fly is still in there. >_> Gah.
I don’t really have a favourite team to support anymore………… and this sucks. =(
Played WoW together with Reko again yesterday. It’s been a while since I last partied together with someone in the game, so it’s like… something to get used to again. He’s still as accommodating as ever to my play style though – which was nice. Boosted my shaman to level 100 – something that I was regretting a little… but well, maybe it won’t be that bad. Resto shaman prolly needs a group to level efficiently, so it’s probably the right choice. My druid can level alone just fine – good damage, decent healing. Resto shaman has bad damage (lol – worse than my disc priest, really) and relatively bad healing (burh). It’ll be amazing if I actually can manage to heal decently as a resto shaman, you know. Maybe once I do that, I can be godly in healing on my disc priest and resto druid. *insert rolling eye GIF again*
So uh. Yeah. Fell sick on Saturday after I went to Queensway Shopping Centre to buy a new pair of outdoor shoes for my upcoming Japan trip. Talking about the shoes, I’m kinda regretting that I didn’t go with my gut to get Salomon. Instead, I was being persuaded to buy The North Face, which was um, well, not enough cushioning for my feet. We’ll see how it goes though. I might get insoles or heel cushions if it feels bad after a couple of months.
Anyway, I was having a bout of running nose, while Bruno wasn’t feeling too well either. So we kinda just get our arses home by early evening. And my body succumbed to the virus. -_- Nose just kept running non stop, and I had to pop Fedac at night and a couple of Neuflo pills as I felt sorethroat coming up as well. Spent the entire Sunday sleeping too. Woke up at 11am, then got out of bed to eat, then climbed back to bed to snooze again till 3pm. All that – with a headache. Meh I was just literally sleeping my long weekend away. Felt better on Monday, so just sat in front of the PC and WoW for the entire day… while having a super bad migraine that felt like something was tearing apart the insides of my head. And I actually went down to Percolate to buy another cup of coffee at 6.30pm…
… which was a bad move. I couldn’t sleep – at all – last night. At 1.30am, my eyes were still wide open. Whenever I tried to close my eyes, things just flashed in front of my eyes – random things. Odd shapes and sizes, random 1-second scenes from my memories – everything just came in a rush until I opened my eyes again. And needless to say, I was in a panic state of mind. I think.
Left my boss a Whatsapp message telling her about my insomnia, and that if she didn’t see me in office in the morning, it means I’ll be taking an urgent morning leave from work. Felt a bit better after sending that message, but still uneasy that I still couldn’t sleep at 2am. Messaged Bruno a bit, but the lad was playing Dota 2 with his friends, so I didn’t really wanna disturb him much. He was kind enough to drop me a bit of advice here and there when I was kinda at a lost. not knowing what to do and feeling rather helpless. (I really hate not being able to sleep when I know I’ve got to get up for work a few hours later.) Finally settled with watching a Dota 2 match – F5 vs FTMR (For The Mother Russia) – and managed to finish watching the whole game 2, while yawning umpteen times. I thought I’d be ready to sleep, but nope, the moment I put down my phone and close my eyes – the flashes came again. So, oh well, I continued watching the stream again… and I think I actually dozed off a little (YAY!) at the start of the third game at around 3.15am. But hurhur, woke up 30 minutes later with eyes wide open. Zzzzzz…. but I could feel the tiredness creeping in, so I tried to sleep… and yup, I think I managed to sleep at 4am. Woke up at 6am due to alarm, and I just kept snoozing the alarm until 6.30am before I totally shut it off. Went back to sleep again, and finally woke up at 7am. I sat up on bed, wondering if I should just continue sleeping, then decided that I should be awake enough for work, so here I am, typing this blog entry in office. Not too sure how long I can survive the rest of the day till I hit the bed… but we’ll see.