Birthday Dinner

It's 姨妈's 66th birthday this year, we were invited to dinner at Mong Hin Teochew Restaurant, Keypoint.



It's quite a while since the families and friends last got together... of course DC wouldn't miss the opportunity to put his new lens to good use! :) Besides 姨妈, there was another star that night who DC shot most with his cam and that was none other than the 7-months-old cute nephew! :)


DC's cousin is due to deliver her child in another week. I'm sure the next gathering won't be far...

Ways to fight off Flu

Ha! I'm finally recovering from the one-month-long flu!

This is such a terrible ordeal! After seeing 4 doctors over the past month and taking many advices from friends, families and doctors, I've learnt quite a bit from this experience. I feel that I've done a lot to combat the sickness and thought it'll be good to share some of the ways to fight off the flu.

1. Drink plenty of hot (but not scalding) water. They'll soothe your throat, relieve nasal congestion, and replace bodily fluids lost through perspiration caused by fever.
2. Gargle with tepid, strong tea or warm salt water.
3. Suck on lozenges or hard candies to lubricate your throat.
4. Avoid drinking milk or eating cheese and other dairy products for a couple of days-they can thicken mucus secretions, making them difficult to expel.
5. Avoid eating chicken and red meat. They form mucus and can worsen clogged sinuses.
6. Take one or more of the expectorant herbs — lobelia, licorice, wild cherry bark, horehound or guaifenesin — for a cough or bronchitis.
7. Buzz away sore throats and cough by taking bee pollen or propolis. Caution: Not recommended if you're allergic to bee stings.
8. Sip hot ginger tea. Ginger stimulates circulation and helps clear sinuses and lungs of mucus.
9. Take chinese throat tablets or loquat syrup (川贝枇杷露) for soothing the throat.
10. Get plenty of rest.

Web References:
Seven Ways to Fight Off the Flu
50 Ways to Fight Colds and Flu

Nikon 85mm F1.8

Truly a fantastic lens for its price. A new cost $540. I got mine 2nd-hand with a Hoya HMC UV filter for $450. The catch? No warranty ... and dust in the lens itself! I thought I got myself a lemon! Only myself to blame for choosing to deal in a dimly litted MRT station. Fortunately, the pics turn out fine. Still satisfying. Long wanted to get this lens already.

Flower Blossom

That's what it is at Haagen Dazs. This is by far the best sundae there. The fondue had gone for the worse, prices has gone up exponentially. So it's comforting there is still one good ice-cream sundae around.

It's Mid-Autumn Festival Today!

No lanterns, no mooncakes, no chinese tea, no reunion like last year. Something is lacking this mid-autumn festival... maybe because my family is not in Singapore. They have gone holidaying in Taiwan but they will be back midnight. *Happy* I'm counting down to their homecoming! :)

New Phone

Model: SE W880i
Cost = $158 after $100 trade-in.
Thickness = Super slim.
Free = Portable speakers.

A trip to Changi

We wanted to go Pulau Ubin but too bad 天不作美, it rained the whole morning. We ended up going Changi Village for lunch.

Saw this really long queue at a Nasi Lemak stall. I knew I just have to try it! According to DC whose camp is just around the area, the standard of this Malay stall has dropped over the past 10 years. Despite this fact, the stall still have many faithful fans.

Well, the plate of rice tastes nice to me. I like the wings especially, it was very well-marinated.


After lunch, we went to the nearby boardwalk for a short walk... and of course we took some pictures along the way. DC wanted to try his hands on taking nice antz pictures but capturing antz movements proved to be too difficult. There were no other insects worth taking...Nope, no spiders spotted, only lots of irritating mosquitoes around. DC and me were ill-prepared, we were badly bitten/beaten by the mozzies! :(







* Pictures taken using k610i hp camera.

Brewerkz

A colleague's last day was on Friday. We had his farewell lunch at Brewerkz.

This place was popular for its beer and is always packed with ang mos and locals after work and during the weekends. I came here a few times previously with ex-colleagues and friends, their beer was quite nice but nope, this time I didn't order any beer... I'm still having cough, so I'm sticking to warm water until I'm well again. :P

I had beer braised salmon for lunch. Not too bad, the serving was just right but I find the salmon a little too soggy. The portion was very big for other dishes that we ordered: BBQ chicken, pizza and burger...and oh ya, the nachos was a terrific snack, I like it. :) The Buffalo wings were however a little disappointing. We ordered extra spicy wings which the restaurant termed as "Suicide" level but even someone like me who can't take chilli can stand the hotness! Boo for that!

The lunch was quite enjoyable but I would prefer it more if we were seated inside. The riverside scenary may be nice, but it was really very hot outside and there weren't much breeze blowing...I felt so hot that my face was flushed with redness and it could be seen from the photos... please do not be mistaken that it's from the effects of the beer! Hee..

Car Brake Down - A Near Miss

I had the most terrifying driving experience yesterday! :(

There was huge resistance when I started off, the engine was very noisy throughout the journey and the speed was slow even though I had stepped hard on the accelerator. After about 15 minutes of drive, at a traffic light junction, I had the worst shock of my life when I saw white smoke rising from below the car!

We pulled over at the nearest bus stop bay where DC went out of the car to examine the car exhaust pipe. He suspected it to be damaged and the likely culprit could be my sis since she was the one who last used the car. However, the exhaust pipe showed no signs of damage. DC consulted his buddy's dad and from experience, he deduced that it was likely due to burning of the brake pad. After cooling the car down for 10 mins, we decided to bring the car back since it was too late to visit a car workshop.

DC took the wheels. On the way back, the car behaved well. There was no more smoke. He suddenly seemed to know the reason and popped a question at me: "Could it be that you did not release the hand brake fully?". I was stunned by his question and guiltily tried to brush aside his question... but my conscience was pricking, I confessed to DC eventually. :P

Oops! It turned out that I had totally forgotten to release the hand brake! Now that the whole truth was out, DC has set the order to ground me from driving until I've gone for a refresher couse! We were sorry that to have pointed an accusing finger at my sis... Hehe... :P If there's any good driving instructor around, let me know!

Good Ol' Neighbours

Oops! DC did it again!

This is the second time he forgot to take the keys out from our lock! The first time it happened, he was with the electrician. One helpful neighbour who lives downstairs walked past, saw the keys and took them home. When the electrician was done with his job, DC couldn't find his set of keys anywhere and the poor electrician had to climb out of the house through the window. Haha...

This time, we left our gate unlocked the whole night. The next morning, our next door neighbour saw our gate door opened and the key still in the lock, she pressed the door bell and woke us up. That was only 6am in the morning, however, we were very grateful to her.

Oh boy! That was really dangerous! We were lucky our house wasn't broken into and the newspaper boy did not make use of the opportunity to commit crime. Phew! Twice is enough! We must remember and remind ourselves to be extra careful not to let this happen a third time!

Kudos to our kind, friendly neighbours for watching out! We are certainly blessed to have them as our neighbours!

Food for thought

Had Pomfret Steamboat dinner with my parents at a coffeeshop along Thomson Road, it was a happpy get-together before they fly off for holiday tomorrow. Guess it's the season for travelling again... my family is going Taipei tomorrow, VN and her mum are going NY and Canada next Tuesday and another friend is going Swiss on Saturday. Hehe, very soon it will be our turn! :)

Back to the food...We wanted to order Tofu and Spinach but we were told by the waitress that Spinach and Tofu cannot be taken together. In the end, we dropped the idea of having Spinach and ordered another veggie instead. I had doubts about this. Is it really so? I remembered watching on a Korean popular drama 大长今 that Ginseng when taken with Nutmeg will accentuate the effect of Nutmeg and cause numbness to the limbs. So, what will be the result of eating Spinach with Tofu? Food poisoning? Hmm.. I'm very interested to find out...

Hungry to seek the truth, I did some research on the Internet. It turns out that the food combination will lead to formation of stones in the body and it is most probable when the Veg Acid in Spinach and Calcium in Tofu hit the ratio of 1:2. From the Net, I also saw a lot of receipes that combines the nutritious Spinach with healthy Tofu esp. in soups. Now that I know of the risk, I will avoid the combi at all cost! Better safe than sorry!

Web References:
菠菜豆腐汤的潜在危害
菠菜能与豆腐同食吗
Food Combining

Save my skin

Have tried the Clarins Truly Matte's Hydra Matte Lotion for quite some time now... it was really good! No outbreak and the lotion although creamy is not oily at all, best for combination skin like mine! I simply love it and decided to get the rest of the family as well! :)

Also bought SKII's "miracle water" despite the recent scare on its ingredients... I've been using this for a number of years but stopped since I got married. Felt that my skin has lost its radiance, this is just a must-have to get the balance back!


Total amount spent = $66.30 (Pore Minimizing Serum) + $56.10 (Hydra-Matte Lotion) + $152 (SK-II Facial Treatment Essence) = All worth it to improve my face condition! :D

Bad HAIRtitude

VN and I met up on Saturday to color our hair. We decided to try out the hair salon at Funan IT Mall since we have a one-for-one hair services voucher. When we reached there, we were informed by one of selected senior hairstylist that the other senior hairstylist has declined to do our business.

The two stylists were specially picked by me because of positive comments from the Net and from family and friends about their good skills. I didn't expect one of them to play us out esp. when the appointment was made and confirmed more than 1 week ago! In the end, my hairstylist had to recommend another hairstylist to VN and she explained to us that his bizzare behaviour was due to our no-show for our previous appointment.

What?!! Even though he was the most popular and sought after hair stylist in the salon, it does not mean that he could reject a customer's request to use his service! Is this how a senior hairstylist should behave? I was very very disappointed and displeased!

The one-for-one voucher was not as simple as it seems too! There's some complex calculations involved. As VN's hair length is very much longer than mine, after discount, her hair cut, colour and treatment will come out to be $190 and my hair colour service will only cost me $110. To help balance the cost, the hairstylist advised me to top up another $140 for hair treatment. This will bring VN's cost lower where we both will pay about the same price i.e. $150 each. The calculation method used is weird and illogical and should be stated clearly in the voucher in the first place! It not only create confusion to customers, but also waste precious time in the computation! Some of the hairstylists didn't even know how to calculate!

All in all, it wasn't a very fantastic experience, the result didn't turn out to be as good as claimed in the Net. DC didn't like the way my hair was highlighted either.

I will not go back to this salon ever again! I rather go back to a trusted but hyper expensive salon than this!

2nd visit to Botanic Gardens

What a let down, it had to rain ... and it was heavy. By the time it stopped, we didn't have time to go into the Orchid Gardens. Anyway, it was time to try out the new Tamron 90mm macro lens. Pics didn't turn out as good as I wanted. Went to look up some tips, think I'm gonna try again next weekend.

Possible destinations:
Mandai Orchid Garden
Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
Pulau Ubin - Chek Jawa

2nd lens purchase - Tamron 90mm Macro

Wohoo! This is one hot lens at a sweet tag of $490. So many people bidding it. I finally got my hands on it after losing out previous 3 times. Gonna try it out asap!

Buddha Jump Over The Wall

A colleague brought VN and me to a restaurant for a meal of Buddha Jump Over The Wall. Guess how much it cost?

For only S$8.90, you can get a set which consists of Buddha Jump Over The Wall (mini) + Bean Spout + Rice + Chinese Tea + Dessert. It's quite yummy actually. :) Besides Buddha Jump Over The Wall set, there are shark fins and other sets to choose from.

The price sounds unbelievable? Go check out at their website!

Man Fu Yuan

Big Boss gave our team a treat at Man Fu Yuan last week. It was my first time to the restaurant. I've always heard good comments from colleagues and have been longing to try out the food there. Finally had the chance to do so. :)

The food did not disappoint me, in fact, they were much much better than expected! Innovative dishes with heavenly taste served with nice presentation. It was such a wonderful feast! I would definitely return for more with my family members!

Gathering

I met up with my university friends for lunch at Bugis Junction today. I can't remember when was the last time we got together... Not all were present but attendance was good enough! It was definitely fun to catch up and reminisce old times with one another!

Ahhh, how I missed those days! :)

The Donut Craze

Saw this ridiculous long queue at Suntec last month... So, besides queuing for lottery tickets, HDB walk-in selection, primary school registration, NDP tickets and Hello Kitty, Singaporeans are also capable of queuing for "Donuts"! In fact, the donuts are so hot-selling that order has to be limited to a max of 2 dozen donuts per person!

It's actually quite laughable when the next door neighbour Carrefour decides to join the game and promotes it's freshly baked donuts for 90 cents each...The results is pretty obvious!


Coincidentally, DC and I tasted some very delicious donuts while we were at Taipei last May. We thought it would be nice if Singapore has such a specialty shop. This is definitely a delightful surprise to DC who is a Donut lover, when I told him about the new donut chain in Singapore. :)

Kawaii Donuts in Taiwan

We have not tried the popular donuts yet, will wait for the craze to slowly die down and the queue to get shorter...

TCC, Coffee Club n Olio Dome

These are about the 3 of the most common cafes that we go to. At least once a week, sometimes more. After trying out some of the items, we realise that each has only 1 or 2 items worth trying but at least they are good. They are also getting better at the food presentation.

TCC:
Beef Mozza Tofu - Soft tofu with minced beef and cheese on top. Makes a nice snack.


Oven-baked Marinated Chicken - Always our favourite. Nicely baked chicken with linguine, aglio olio style.


Coffee Club:
Lychee Panna Cotta - A nice after meal dessert. Not too sweet and light enough but probably not enough to warrant a second craving.


Olio Dome: Coming up ...

Prices are up

Prices are really up after the GST hike. A iced coffee with ice-cream at TCC now costs $7.50 instead of $6.90. As far as I can see, all prices on other items have went up. TCC is smart, they took the opportunity to produce a whole new menu book. If you hardly go, you probably won't noticed the difference. That say, I think I will still probably continue going there, cos where else can you go in Singapore? Starbucks ... Coffee Bean?