Yeah, the title is kinda lame, but heck.

Met up with Bruno today to go Cirque du Soleil – Totem, their second last show of their leg in Singapore.  Initially when Bruno was asking if I’m interested to go to this show, I was like “nooo I don’t like musical :3 “.  Then he was like “WTF this isn’t musical.”  He then showed me a few videos… and I realised okay, this is something like acrobatics.  But since I wasn’t like too familiar with him yet (I think we haven’t even met up when he was telling me about Cirque), I told him maybe not… He sounded really disappointed though, coz he couldn’t find anyone else to go with him.  And he would really love to attend it…

A couple of weeks later (after we met up for the first time), he mentioned about it again and I relented and say OK, I’ll go if he really can’t find anyone to go with him.  Well, he really couldn’t get anyone, so yup, we went today, on their last day of performance, the second last show.

The show was totally spectacular.  Every segment has their breathtaking moments, and some are hilarious.  Bruno and I found out that our favourite segment is actually the same one, so that’s pretty cool.  This is just our third time meeting, but we were kinda like old friends already.  Silent moments were totally not awkward at all too.  And he’s such a persuasive person, lol.  I hated Vietnam coffee, and he could managed to convince me to try his favourite Vietnamese coffee – Trung Nguyen’s Legendee.  It has a similar taste to civet cat’s poo coffee, and it’s priced at an alarming price – SGD16.50 for a small cup!  He still treated me to it though… as he said I should try it at least once.  OK fine…. It’s very sweet actually.  Strong and sweet.  To be honest, I preferred the one that he ordered for himself – Passion (if I didn’t remember the name wrongly).

We lingered in the cafe for a good while, because he needed to charge his tablet and there’s free wifi in there too. Then while we were thinking of where to go for dinner, he suddenly suggested Vietnamese food.  Well I’m really not a fan of Vietnamese food, but somehow he again managed to convince me to go try one restaurant that he feels has really good Vietnamese food, and so we went.

It was this small restaurant at Grandlink Square called Little Vietnam, and to be honest, it’s really not a place where I would even take a second glance if I pass by it.  But okay, we were seated indoors, and we looked over the menu to decide what we could order.  He decided to order the braised duck because he said it was really good (he did know that I should be avoiding duck and chicken though), and we also added a dish of stir fry kangkong which he specifically asked for no chilli (thanks, Bruno).  So when the dishes came, I tried the duck and boy, the meat was bursting with flavour with every bite.  It was spicy, but for some reason only my lips were tingly, and my throat felt fine.  There’s totally no need to drink water at all because I don’t feel the spiciness in my mouth!  That was a pretty surprising experience.

The kang kong that came along was good too.  Usually if I asked for the non-spicy version, either it’s super salty or it’s just totally tasteless.  The chef though, managed to get it done just right.  Heavy on taste, yet not overly salty.  I don’t need to reach for the water even after eating half of that dish of kang kong.  The beef slices were flavourful and tender too.  Very nice!

Braised duck in claypot and vietnamese coffee

Stir fry kang kong with beef slices

Oh yeah,  he ordered Vietnamese coffee again, before remembering that he would get migraines if he drank too much coffee.  In the end he only drank about half of it, and I helped him finished the other half, haha!

So yup, that kinda summed up what happened today… a bit tiring for the both of us because we both really kinda disliked going out on Sundays (he made an exception for Cirque du Soleil), but interesting for me because there’s so many “firsts” today!  And really, big thanks to Bruno for managing to convince me to go for the Totem show.  That was an awesome, eye-opening and hilarious experience.  ^_^

So yup, I’m officially older by a year now.  Hello, 34 years old!

Got a couple of birthday wishes from some colleagues and close friends, thank you all so much!  *feels loved*

Received a lovely drawn card from Reko again (hadn’t received any from him in a while!), and I thought the idea was so cute! It probably took him only like 5 minutes max to come up with it, but heck, it’s the thought that counts, lol.

Haha, isn’t it cute!!  He says the bear is on his way to meet me for my birthday lol.  I could see that it’s really just a simple and rough picture, but it really just put a huge smile on my face.  Thank you, Reko!  For remembering my birthday, that is.  :D

Took leave on my birthday itself and Bear was nice enough to spend it with me.  I knew I could count on my buddy to accompany me!  Haha.  Not that I would mind being alone, of course.  I’ll be alone later today!  Which I’m so looking forward to, too.  :)  Anyway we went to Clinton Street Baking Co because the last time we were there, it was so crowded and the waiting list was so damn long that we decided to give it a miss.  But since today is a weekday, we were hoping that there’ll be less people, and yup, we got a table!  We ordered their “signature” dishes – their Pancakes with Warm Maple Butter and Wild Blueberries, as well as their Buttermilk waffles with fried chicken.

Pancakes with blueberries

Waffles with fried chicken

Verdict:  Well I didn’t really try the waffles with chicken, so no comments on that.  The pancakes were good though.  Soft, warm, fluffy, fresh.  The maple butter was sweet and slightly salty, and when paired together with the slightly sourish blueberries, the taste was really “oooomph!”. Very nice!

And because I had my TCM appointment at 4pm, we then slowly walked towards Orchard and stopped by Peace Centre because Bear’s suddenly craving for the tom yum soup there.  He managed to convince me to take a sip, and boy, it’s good!  It’s not spicy AT ALL, to be honest – just sourish.  It’s not those kind of sour-taste that will make your face all scrunched up though.  The sour taste is just right and it really kind of opens up your appetite and makes you want more of it.  Maybe next time I can go there again if I’m around the vicinity, haha!

Then we head to PoMo and tried the coffee at the Montana Brew Bar.  Their latte was not bad, but I really just prefer Percolate, haha!  I guess I’m biased.  :x  After coffee, I went for the TCM appointment, and we just head for a Shin Sapporo ramen dinner after that before heading home respectively.  I’m SO disappointed with the ramen at Shin Sapporo now.. their egg is totally flavourless!  The soup and noodle texture are still all right, but the chashu and eggs are totally off the mark.  Like, WAY OFF the mark.  Sad… I remembered I used to love their ramen when they had a small shop in Suntec… it’s really disappointing to find that they’ve totally lost their standard.  =(

Well that kinda concluded the stuff that happened on my birthday!  Nothing much, really, obviously. Haha. Gonna go catch my beauty sleep now… long day ahead tomorrow too!  Breakfast at Percolate… solo karaoke session at Teo Heng… Dinner with the girls… woot!  And on Saturday, it’s GameStart Asia!  Gosh so many things lining up! Now I’m kinda looking forward to Sunday too, when I finally can relax and rest at home lol.  There’s still that colouring book that Sharon gave me!  Need to get started on that too!  :D