Dad's birthday

Today not watching movie with 小花 as it is my dad's birthday and we are celebrating with him. As JEM only opened recently, we decided to go there and have dinner at Ichiban Boshi. There was a long queue and even though my parents and sisters started queuing first, it was still not our turn yet when I reached. Luckily, we only had to wait a while more for a table.

The menu has much more variety to choose from as compared to Ichiban Sushi. We decided to order a different set each and also a grilled ika to share. My mum loved the grilled ika as it was very tender and delicious. I ordered the grilled mackerel set and the fish meat was really thick and juicy. We were all very full and satisfied after the meal.

After dinner, we walked around the mall before going home. The mall was big so we only managed to cover a small portion of it as it was getting late. Shall visit again next time.

Time flies...

Today spent the whole afternoon at City Square Mall. However, have not finished the work so will have to go back again next week. Met up with my family at IMM for dinner. We went to Ichiban Sushi and ordered the set meals. Had a very full dinner. After dinner, we went to Giant to buy some groceries and daily necessities before going home.

So fast... My Saturday is gone just like that...

Sale!

This morning, my mum and youngest sis saw on newspaper that there would be a one-day member's only sale at BHG Bugis so they asked me to go with them. Actually I wasn't keen to go at all as I had planned to laze around at home, but since it was a long weekend I grudgingly agreed.

When we reached, we were shocked to see that there was a long queue of people waiting to go in. After a while, 3 Civil Defence officers went in with a stretcher, followed by 2 police officers. We thought someone has fainted or was injured but we didn't see anyone being stretchered out. Or maybe they left by another exit.

After some time, we finally managed to go into BHG. My dad also joined us after his work. We spent some time shopping around but it was crowded everywhere. There was also a long queue at the cashiers. I managed to buy a blouse, a pair of shorts and a backpack. My current backpack is starting to show signs of wear and tear from my "abuse" :P

After that, we went to Kazokutei for dinner. I was pleased to see that they had handmade soba and udon and the soba was my favourite buckwheat soba instead of the usual cha soba. I ordered a set of cold soba and udon together with mixed tempura. We were all satisfied with our food :)

Sea Aquarium

This morning we had our breakfast at the hotel restaurant again. The spread was more or less the same as yesterday's. After breakfast, we went back to the hotel room to pack as we will be checking out today. However, as it was still quite early and we only had to check out by noon, we decided to laze around in the hotel room. We were also feeling a bit tired from playing at the Waterpark yesterday and had some muscle aches.

We finally went to check out at 12pm and then proceeded to the Sea Aquarium. We walked around and looked at the different marine life through the glass. There was some information about the species displayed near each "glass tank", which is rather educational and interesting.

We walked till about 3pm then drove to Vivocity for late lunch. We had a quick lunch at Hong Kong Kim Gary Restaurant before going home. Felt so exhausted when I reached home...

Adventure Cove Waterpark

This morning we had buffet breakfast at the hotel restaurant. The spread was quite good and we had a good meal. After that, we went back to our hotel room to change and get ready to go to the Adventure Cove Waterpark. As it was still quite early and we were quite full, we dilly dallied and only reach the Waterpark at about 11am.

We decided to go to the Adventure River first. We were supposed to sit on the tube and float leisurely around the river but as it was very hot and sunny, we submerged ourselves in the water and held on to the tube instead. The river passed by a grotto, which reminded me of the one we went in Italy. We also passed through an underwater tunnel where we can see different fishes swimming around and above us through the glass. It was quite fun and even my mum who didn't know how to swim enjoyed it.

Later we went to the Bluwater Bay. It is actually a giant wave pool so people could enjoy "surfing". It was also quite fun, just that the waves were rather strong and we had a hard time getting up after being continually pushed to the shore by the waves. 

My sisters then went to play on the slides. As the queue was quite long, my parents and I went to find a shady spot to wait for them. After that, my sisters and I went to try out snorkeling. There was also quite a long queue and we had to wait rather long for our turn. We had to put on life jackets and an instructor taught us to put on the face mask and use the tube to breathe when underwater. However, I couldn't see very clearly without my glasses so I didn't really enjoy it. It was only at the end when I realized that my younger sis did not finish the snorkeling, as she panicked when she didn't really know how to breathe through the tube underwater.

After that we went to look for our parents and decided to call it a day. We walked back to the locker to get our clothes and it was so hot that we were almost dry by the time we reached the locker. We quickly changed and it was only then that we realized that it was past 3 pm and we hadn't had our lunch yet. We went to the nearby Astons to have a quick lunch before going back to our hotel rooms to rest. I wanted to watch the J-drama that I had saved on my handphone but after watching for only a short while, I felt so sleepy that I dozed off. My parents and sisters also had a nap until evening time.

We then went to Singapore Seafood Restaurant for dinner. Actually we wanted to order chili crabs but my parents were having a cough and sore throat so we decided to order dishes that were not so heaty. The food was served quite fast and the taste was quite good. We had a full meal and after that we slowly walked back to our hotel rooms to rest for the day.

Universal Studios Singapore

This morning I woke up at about 8 am and after breakfast and last minute packing, we set off for RWS. We first went to Hard Rock Hotel to see if we could check-in. However, as the rooms were not ready, we proceeded to Universal Studios after checking in. My younger sister has already been to Universal Studios twice, so she would not be joining us but wait for the rooms to be ready and just relax there.

It was quite crowded but luckily the weather was not too sunny. It threatened to rain but was mainly cloudy. The queue for each ride/show averaged between 25 - 50 mins so it was considered short as compared to Tokyo Disneyland. Glad that we chose to come on a Saturday as there is a Hollywoods Dream Parade at 5pm but only during weekends and selected holidays. Additionally, the place closes later at 8pm and there are fireworks display then. Overall, we managed to go on most of the rides and watched the shows that we wanted to.

After watching the fireworks display, we met up with my younger sis at Malaysian Food Street for dinner before proceeding back to our hotel to rest for the day.

It's Friday!

Today also not watching movies as 小花 was just flying back from Korea. Left office a bit later than usual as there were some last minute work to do.

Have to sleep earlier tonight as I will be going with my family for a 3 days 2 nights stay at Hard Rock Hotel at RWS tomorrow. Looking forward to go to Universal Studios, Adventure Cove Waterpark and Sea Aquarium during our stay there.

Shopping

Today went out with my mum and youngest sister to Clementi Mall. We just walked around and I bought a pair of flat shoes at Bata. The shoes felt quite comfortable when I tried them, so hopefully they won't "bite" my feet when I wear them out.

Later my dad joined us and we went to IMM for dinner. Actually wanted to eat at Ichiban Sushi but there was a long queue (probably due to Mother's Day tomorrow) so we just went to Wan Chai HK Tea Room for dinner instead. We will be celebrating "belated" Mother's Day at RWS next week so my mum said we should just have a simple meal tonight.

After dinner, we went to Giant to buy some groceries before going home.

CNY gathering

Think I drank too much champagne last night and was so tired that I only woke up at about 11 am. Even then, I still felt a bit groggy and lethargic and spent a long time in the shower to wake myself up.

In the evening, I went to my 8th Uncle's house with my family for a CNY gathering. He had arranged for a caterer to set up a few stalls at his house and we could just order what we want to eat from the stalls. However, I think the staff was very inexperienced and one of them manning the Popiah stall did not really know how to wrap a Popiah. He either put too much sweet sauce or too much chilli and in the end, my uncle had to teach him instead. Overall, the food was just passable. We chatted with our relatives while eating and only left at almost 11pm.

大年初二

Slept only at about 4 am this morning as I stayed up to watch the match between Man U and Everton. With Man City losing their match the previous night, it was good that Man U won and extended the lead at the top of the table. Hope they will keep it up! :D

Had some New Year goodies for breakfast, then popiah for lunch. My sisters' boyfriends came over in the afternoon and we chatted and watched TV shows while eating snacks. They then watched part 1 of Ah Boys to Men. I had already watched it previously so I went to watch my J-dramas instead.

So fast... tomorrow is the last day of the Chinese New Year holiday before having to go back to work...

新年快乐!

Chinese New Year has finally arrived! We had 汤圆 for breakfast and popiah for lunch. It was raining throughout the day and we only left home at around 4pm :P We went to my 大舅's house and stayed for a while to eat and chat with some of our relatives who were there.

After that, we proceeded to my grandma's house. She had just moved to this new house recently and she had a hard time opening the gate as she was not familiar. After trying a few times, we found out that the key had to be turned twice to lock/unlock the gate. We chatted for a while and also helped to set up the television before leaving.

We decided to go to West Mall for dinner. My father actually wanted to have fast food but we saw that Swensen's was open so we went there instead. Had a very full meal as the portion was quite big. We went home after our dinner and the first day of Chinese New Year passed just like that.

团圆饭

Today is the eve of Chinese New Year. We would be having our reunion dinner at Ban Heng Pavilion Restaurant at HarbourFront Centre. We had to reach the restaurant by 5.30pm, so my parents left earlier to fetch my grandma and uncle to the restaurant, while my sisters and I waited for my youngest sis's boyfriend to drive us there. 

We felt like we were attending a wedding dinner as it was held in a ballroom with many other tables of people. The food was served quite quickly as our time slot was until 7.30pm and there would be another set of diners from 8-10pm. The food tasted quite good and we were very full, partly because the meal was for 10 people but we only had 8.

There was a short lion dance performance in the middle of the dinner. The person operating the lion head was supposed to throw out oranges after he has peeled off the orange skin. However, someone carried a child towards the lion head and he gave the orange to the child, then suddenly many people started crowding around the lion head and tried to get the oranges too. It was quite funny to see the people putting their hands into the lion's mouth and attempting to get the oranges.

After dinner, my parents sent my grandma and uncle home while my sister's boyfriend sent us home. Shall stay up late tonight to 守岁.

Shopping day

Today I woke up around 10am. Had some breakfast then went out with my mum and youngest sis to Jurong Point. My sis told me not to always shop at Bega only so she brought me to another shop Sense to try the clothes. The shop assistant was very helpful and kept taking clothes for me to try. In the end, I bought 11 pieces of blouse/dress/pants. My mum said I was very efficient, can always settle everything at one store.... haha.

My dad joined us after his work. We then went to John Little where my mum and sis wanted to try on lingerie. I was not interested so I went to the shoes section to have a look. Saw a pair of flat shoes by Americaya that was very comfortable and it was made in Japan so decided to buy it even though it was rather expensive :P

We then went to G2000 where my dad chose a few shirts. He had already bought some last week but decided that it wasn't enough so he bought a few more. After that, we passed by Bega so I just went to see if there are any clothes for more casual wear. I was only looking for tops of T-shirt material so didn't find many to my liking, but I still bought 1 top and 1 three-quarter pants.

It was about 6pm after we have finished our shopping. My mum and sis wanted to have a hair cut and insisted that I go along with them so they called the salon at West Mall to check if we could go over at about 7.30pm. We booked an appointment and decided to go to West Mall for dinner. I actually only wanted to have a hair cut but as my mum was coloring her hair, my sis and I did an additional scalp treatment. We were only done at almost 9pm.

We were about to go home when my dad asked us to go to Harvey Norman next door to see if there were any good TV set to replace our current one. A white patch has formed on the display panel of our current TV and the patch seemed to be enlarging. In the end, we decided on a Samsung LED one which was on sale and seemed good value for money.

Next week will have to stay at home and do spring cleaning...

Ice-skating

Today I spent the whole afternoon watching J-dramas. In the evening, I went out with my parents to buy some things at JCube. After dinner, I suggested going to the ice-skating rink to have a look as there were posters in the lift saying that tonight will be disco night. I had thought that there may be some performances but actually there were only disco lights being shone and disco music being played. However, we still stayed for a while to watch people ice-skate. There were quite a number of people ice-skating and a number of young children rented the Penguin Skating Aids to learn how to ice-skate. I thought it was very useful for them.


We were rather amused by one of the ice-skaters. The person seemed like he just started learning and his hands were swinging wildly to try to keep himself balanced but still failed and slipped on the ground. We didn't mean to laugh at the man but his actions were just too comical :P  There were also a few skaters who were very good and they looked so graceful and effortless while ice-skating. One of them who looked quite old even skated to the music for a while.

Ice-skating seemed fun so maybe will give it a try some day ;)

Wedding at Jurong Bird Park

Today is my cousin's wedding. It was held at Jurong Bird Park and we had to reach there at about 10.30 am for the solemnization ceremony. A tram near the entrance brought us to the African Waterfall Aviary and there was some confusion when the staff told us that only about 30 people could attend the ceremony and it was already full. However, we thought it was impossible and still proceeded there and it turned out that there were only 30 chairs but plenty of standing room. The weather was rather hot and sunny and we were perspiring while waiting for the ceremony to start. There was a "performance" whereby a bird would fly to the bride and groom with the rings but I thought the distance seemed too short.

After the ceremony, we walked back to the tram and it took us back to the main entrance. The restaurant was just a short walk away and all of us walked quickly towards it as it was getting really hot. After the cocktail reception, we proceeded to the dining area. We could see lots of flamingos from the window of the restaurant.

There was also a wedding souvenir prepared for each guest. It was either a parrot or penguin plush toy! I thought it was rather special.

Lunch started at about 12.30pm. However, each dish took quite a long time to be served and it was almost 4 pm when we finished the full 8-course! I jokingly told my mum that we don't have to eat dinner liao. In the middle of the lunch, it started raining heavily so it was just as well that the dishes were served slowly since the path from the main entrance to the carpark was not sheltered and most of the guests did not carry umbrellas.

When we reached home, I felt so sleepy that I went to take a nap and only woke up at 7.30pm. It was still drizzling so the weather was cool and nice. I felt refreshed and started watching my J-dramas again :P

Happy Birthday to myself! :D

This morning my sis went to buy Subway sandwiches and soya milk from Mr Bean for our breakfast. My father's company had subsidized tickets for the movie "Ah Boys to Men" for today so my father had reserved 5 tickets for our family．Usually I don't watch local productions, especially Jack Neo's, but I just went along since it's supposed to be part of my birthday celebration.

We reached Vivocity at about 12.30 and went to collect the tickets from the organizer. The allocated seats were rather close to the screen (4th row from the front), maybe because we were later than others in getting the tickets. We were also given a voucher each for a box of popcorn, a cup of coke and nachos/hotdog bread, but we were still full from our heavy breakfast so we only redeemed 3 out of 5 vouchers.

The movie was supposed to start at 1pm but only really started at about 1.20pm after the usual advertisements and trailers. The movie was ok and I must admit that I felt a little sad at the beginning when Singapore was under attack. However, the rest of the movie was rather typical of Jack Neo's style, though non-locals would probably not be able to understand all the humor. I was also surprised at the end when I found out that this show was only part 1 of the movie.

After the movie, we went shopping around Vivocity. We then went for early dinner as we only had some popcorns and nachos during the movie. We took some time to decide what to eat and finally settled on Brotzeit as we wanted to try something different. We ordered the Brotzeit Platter to share and chose Roasted Potatoes and Napkin Dumplings as the side dishes. The food was good but we felt a bit 腻 towards the end as it was full of meat.

After dinner, we continued shopping till about 9pm before going home. Managed to buy some clothes so at least the time spent shopping was not wasted :P So my birthday passed just like that and I'm older by a year now *sob* XD

Shoes

This morning my youngest sis was on her way to work when the wedge of her shoes came off. She was so embarrassed but she was already reaching the MRT station, so she just tore away both sides and continued to work.

Ha ha... I can just imagine the scene :D It reminded me of that time when the sole of my sandals gave way, and later even the toe grip came off too. My colleagues and I couldn't stop laughing about it. Guess I was luckier than my sis as I managed to buy another pair of sandals at a shop near our office, while my sis had to wear the shoes with just a thin layer of sole remaining for the whole day :P

There goes my Sunday...

Went to my grandma's house this afternoon with my family. Was actually not very keen on going as I know my grandma will ask me the same question again -- "Do you have a boyfriend?" Sure enough, when I said I don't, she nagged at me saying that I am getting old and should start looking for a boyfriend, especially since I'm the eldest and my younger sisters already have boyfriends.

Sigh... I hate to repeat this conversation over and over again whenever I see my grandma. It really gets on my nerves but all I can do is just smile and nod and say that I will try to look for one. I know that actually my grandma is asking out of concern for me but somehow it just makes me feel irritated with the constant "reminders".

After leaving my grandma's house, we decided to go for dinner. I suggested The Star Vista since my parents have not been there yet and they agreed. We ended up at Watami again :P There was a queue outside but not as long as that on Friday night. However, we felt that the staff were really inexperienced as they kept people waiting with their weird "first come first serve" seating arrangements. They seated 2 people at a table for 4, then left a table for 4 empty and waited for a neighboring table for 4 to finish and settle the bill to combine into a table for 6.

We wanted to order the Mentai Potato Pizza but it was sold out :( So we ordered the Wafu Pizza instead. We also ordered the Ebi Tempura Maki, Kaki Fried, Tako Satsumaage, Tempura Moriawase, Hire Katsu Tamago Toji, Hiroshimafu Okonomiyaki, Ishiyaki Sutamina Don and Watami Tonkotsu Ramen. We were all very full and satisfied with the food.

My youngest sis told me she suddenly remembered that she lent my card reader to her boyfriend... :S Anyway, I'm not in the mood to sort out the photos now so shall leave it to another day.

Started watching a J-drama called "花のズボラ飯" (花的懒人料理) and it was quite entertaining. It also teaches how to cook food that is easy to prepare but delicious at the same time. I think the phrase "ズボラ" suits me since I'm lazy so I decided to add it into my blog name :P

Shall continue watching the J-dramas and there goes my Sunday... *sob*

End of holiday...

As our flight home today was at 3.25pm, our tour manager told us the previous night that he would not set any morning call so that we can get a good night's sleep. Therefore, we only went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast at about 9.30am. We even had time to go to the nearby supermarket for a stroll after breakfast.



We reached the airport at around 12.30pm and after checking in our luggage, we went to queue for tax refund. Luckily there were not many people and we managed to get our tax refunds quickly. We then went to grab a quick bite before boarding the plane for Dubai International Airport, where we waited for another 3.5 hours before our flight back to Singapore.






Time really flies when on holiday and now will have to prepare to go back to work again on Monday. So sad...

Italy - Rome

This morning we left Naples for Rome. Firstly, we went to Vatican City and visited the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, as well as St. Peter's Basilica, which is the largest Catholic church in the world. The architecture of the buildings and art collections were truly amazing, and even the ceilings were covered with frescoes.



























After that, we visited the Colosseum. There were a few people dressed up as gladiators for photo shoots with tourists but I managed to secretly take photos of them from far :P Near the Colosseum was the Arch of Constantine, which was erected to commemorate Constantine I's victory in a battle.







Later we went to the Trevi Fountain, where legend has it that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome.




We were then given some time to explore the area near the Spanish Steps, the longest and widest staircase in Europe. Just below the Spanish Steps was the "Fountain of the Old Boat", so named because it is in the shape of a half-sunken ship with water overflowing its bows.




After that, we went for dinner before proceeding to our hotel for the night. We were pleasantly surprised that our triple-sharing room was a suite :)