Last day of the year

It's the last day of 2010, I can't believe how fast this year has been.
And the best part about it is that I'll have this blog to remember it by.
Here's to another brilliant year 2011!
Happy new year one and all... Eat, drink and be merry... responsibly *grin*

Secret Garden

I know this is bad, but what can you do when you have time off from work but to catch up on your dramas!

Secret Garden is probably one of the best Korean dramas for this year, and the drama team is ending the year on a good note. Nothing since Boys Over Flowers came out back in 2008 has made me swoon. Not over the actors so much as the interesting storyline.

The story is about a rich dude (shopping centre president) and a poor girl (stunt woman). Aren't they all like that? Scriptwriters have given the rich dude some really good lines and the actor has managed to pull off on the acting. Also love the scary mother, as you would have, I haven't seen a drama where the super rich family has a mother and father who would be so kind to the uncultured, poor and not so pretty girlfriend (yeah, where would the drama be in that?)

The leading man is Hyun Bin. Tall, dark and handsome he used to be, but he has recently lost a lot of weight on his face and is looking rather haggard in this drama. I preferred his look when he was doing World's Within. Don't know who the leading actress is but her facial expressions are really good, especially when a soul switch happens between the both of them!

And instead of recycling a grand mansion, they have managed to find a place with sprawling gardens and a couple of beautiful studio houses. Love the wall to ceiling bay windows, open concept interior design and a quaint lake at the back of the house. How do I get me one of those?!

The shoe queen

I didn't think it would be possible or that I'd actually do it, but I've managed to buy six pairs of shoes today, all for the equivalent price of a discounted branded shoe!

I've been looking around for a comfortable pair of work shoes for the longest time and it's been rather difficult because for one, I haven't been wearing closed shoes for the longest time (living in this humid country just doesn't warrant walking around with shoes that don't air very well) and two, the choices of comfortable shoes here don't really exist for the price I'm willing to pay. So I was resigned to the fact that I might have to opt for some branded shoes, you know, the ones that cost at least a thousand dollars for a pair. Walking into the various boutiques and looking through their designs didn't even pique me. Let's face it, the fashion was a litte on the boring side (read suitable for older people).

So I chugged back to Nine West (my absolute favourite shop from when I first discovered it in Australia) and managed to find five pairs to my delight! These ones should last me for the year, ya?

ps. I need a new shoe cabinet!

Grilled meats for dinner

The hubs and I had yummy Korean food again tonight.
Hangari Galbi located on the 8th floor of Orchard Central.
This time we tried the unmarinated short ribs done medium *yum*
Unfortunately, the bulgogi chicken didn't come out the way we expected it to. We thought it was going to be marinated in the bulgogi sauce then grilled. But it came out like a watery stirfried dish.
But we would definitely go back as it has become one of our favourite Korean restaurants. We just know what to order the next time we're there *grin*

Weather Indicator

I don't know if I've written about the weather before. Contrary to what everyone says, it is an interesting topic.

When I was younger and living in Malaysia, we didn't really pay attention to the weather forecast because it would be either sunny or rainy or sunny with light rain, typical forecasts for tropical islands. Then we moved to Australia, and I started to pay attention to the weather forecasts because it was going to be close to 4 seasons a year. Where we stayed, it was more like Winter for 9 months and Summer for 3 which was not a lot different from Malaysia but at least the temperature varied quite a bit. Anyways, I moved back to the tropical island area, this time to Singapore and didn't bother about the forecasts again. Just never leave the house without a brolly.

So when the hubs was posted to Europe recently, the weather suddenly became interesting again. What more with the iPhone weather app, pretty pictures have been formed and are keeping me amused especially since it's Winter and snowing at the moment.

Travel Chaos Part 4

People are still stranded in Europe and I'm glad I'm not one of them and neither is the hubs.
It would've been really bad to have to spend Chrissy at the airport, cold, hungry and thoroughly depressed.

Ho, ho, ho and all that jazz

So Merry Chrissy everyone... and all that jazz.

What does Chrissy mean to me this year...

The holiday season
It's just another holiday, as I'm working again, and this year Chrissy so happens to fall on a Saturday, I get another day added to my annual leave. Which means I can take it at any time I want to which is better than proclaiming Monday a holiday and closing the office.

Log cakes
Well, I have to admit, I don't really fancy log cakes, especially ones in the black forest flavour, which seems to be the flavoured-log-shaped cake underneath all that icing theme this year. Which means I haven't bought any log cakes this year (nor any other year, for that matter)

Travel time
This year, the onset of Chrissy has brought travel chaos to the world. Nothing as exciting as the Iceland volcano, but chaos nonetheless. It has been snowing heavily over UK and Europe, filling runways with too much snow and depleting the various airport's de-icing supplies. Visitors and locals have been scrambling to the various operating airports trying to get flights out or back to their home in time for Chrissy. A lesson, remember never to fly during or near a holiday season, anything could happen to ruin it.

Family meals
This year, the hubs and I decided another home-cooked meal of Shabu-Shabu. I'll bet all the restaurants are milking this for all it's worth, nothing spells money supply as the holiday season does. What more, a full restaurant means having to wait for your food, plus with a hectic kitchen the quality of your meal might fall... heavily.

And that's what Chrissy means to me this year... and I'm happily waiting for more!

It's Chrissy eve and I'm still at work

No, I'm not blogging from work, although, with the number of people left in the office, which I can count with one hand and the amount of work which I have to do (which is none), I could. But no, that's just not on.

Meanwhile, unlike every other office in this area, everyone's left at around one o'clock, or earlier, which was a couple of hours before I had the above thought. Even the hubs' workplace has an official half day of work.

So should I just sneak out? Who's going to know? The phones are not ringing off the hook... and it's also because the people who usually call are not at their office. And we can always work from home...

Travel Chaos Part 3

The hubs is back!
In one piece!
Unaffected by the travel chaos!
Thank you guardian angel!
*widest grin*

Travel Chaos Part 2

The hubs is back tomorrow... if everything goes as planned. I should go to sleep soon as I'm weirdly tired, but I can't. I think it's the accumulated interrupted sleep I've been having for the past week.

Meanwhile, the hubs has said that he'll give me his blow by blow on whether he's able to get onto his connecting flights! Counting the time difference, he's not due to board his international flight till 4am tomorrow. I've read articles where planes were canceled even when the passengers were in the boarding area.

I hate it when there's chaos when you're travelling.

Travel Chaos

Oh, no... I knew something like this would happen. The hubs is due back in a couple of days time. He's actually flying off sometime tomorrow. But as luck would have it, it's snowing heavily in Europe.

Flights into and out of Heathrow and Charles de Gaulle have been canceled as it was just too unsafe to continue. People have been stranded not only at the airports, but in local areas as roads are too slippery and trains have also been unable to continue as scheduled. Luckily the oceans haven't frozen over. I think we would be in serious trouble if that happens.

Mary stayed out all night

So at some point in time, you kind of wonder how people who write dramas come out with the titles. I've been searching for a new show to watch and this one (also known as Marry Me, Mary) is currently showing on the telly. I think the one above doesn't make sense. So what if Mary stayed out all night... did something happen? Well, one episode into the show and I'm wondering if it did... she met someone, literally knocked into him... and so the story begins.

All I can say about this show now is that the actors are still adorable! And that's more than enough for me to keep watching. And what more, they're showing 2 episodes a day, which is 4 episodes a week. At least we won't have to wait long to find out what's going to happen next (or what happens at the end)!

Sunday blues

I can't believe the weekend has come and gone!
Didn't accomplish much this weekend
Was supposed to clean the house but it's not all that messy...
The laundry pile looks 4 weeks worth...
*grin*
I love living without the possibility of guests coming to visit

Meanwhile, gotta get up for work tomorrow...

Coffee House

So it's the weekend, and what would you do over the weekend but to catch up on the telly dramas which you've missed out on during the week. I'm glad we have a digital recorder... something we got recently where we can record shows (sort of like when we used to have the VCR, only we store the recorded shows on a hard drive) that we're not around to see. So I'm supposed to be catching up but what do I do instead? I went out and bought the above.

The show's about a novel writer and his life. That's just the gist of it. Now all the scriptwriters and actors have to do is to make it into an interesting 18 episode drama... making it interesting so that people would actually sit through all 18 episodes and not just 1 and 18 which is what I'm fond of doing. Sometimes, I wonder why there are so many episodes in between, especially when the show's not interesting.

Can't say that the actors are interesting to look at, so hopefully the storyline will do it for me.

Christmas and Log Cakes

I'm not sure when we (as people who have lived in Asia since birth) started adopting the presence of a (or a few) log cake to have during Christmas. Sure it's not a holiday we generally celebrate, but with the heavy western influence from the telly and even companies who set up shop here, it's not something we can ignore. Christmas trees, presents, Santa, carols, ho-ho-ho and all that jazz.

BUT... it never seems out of place when we try to fuse Asian taste buds with western food. Yeah, never out of place until they tried adding durian (the king of fruits, extremely smelly to some and a fruit that I love to eat) to everything! I've seen durian flavoured mooncakes, durian eclairs, durian filled crepes and even durian jam!

But a durian log cake??? I can't even imagine and I don't even want to taste it.

Food Blog : Kentucky Fried Chicken

Dinner today (and for the next 3 meals) will be fried chicken. Ever since Popeye's came to Singapore, I haven't been eating Kentucky's, only because I don't have a particular branch I go to (the taste is all different at the various branches) and they usually don't cook their chicken through. I hate eating chicken with red bits.

Anyways, I'm starting to get lazy, having to decide what to eat for dinner every night, whether to have it in the city before I get back or not. So today, I ordered Kentucky's, enough to feed 4-5 people. I'm not planning on leaving the house for meals over the weekend!

The best part of this was that it was extremely delicious! Can't be the fact that I haven't had it in a long time... it has to be the outlet. I wonder which branch this came from...

Biggest Loser Asia 2

I can't believe this show.
More so the pictures that they publish!
People were not meant to lose weight that quickly.
It's horrific and doesn't actually make me want to lose weight anytime soon.
Skin gets all saggy and you have a gazillion stretch marks!
Urgh...
*shudder*
Gross...

Faberge Eggs

I've never really understood the importance or value of a Faberge egg, so Google it I did and this is what I've learnt from Wiki.

There are only 42 imperial eggs left in this world...
It's a Russian thing.
Being egg-shaped, they used to be presents during Easter.
Tiny ones that could be worn as a pendant.
They are made of small gemstones coated with enamel and probably gold.
Very, very pretty little things.
There's no hope in me owning one *grin*
(I didn't need wiki to tell me the last one!)

Food Blog : Viet Cafe

There are a few branches of this chain of restaurant and I decided to try out the Battery Road one, under the Standard Chartered Bank building. Ordered the seafood vermicelli platter. It was quite awful. Their only saving grace, the lightly fried fish drowned with lemongrass batter (if you hate lemongrass I don't suggest you have it) and the cold roll. Doesn't look like I'll be going back anytime soon.

Seafood Vermicelli Platter

Haunted Hotels

This must be an interesting fact. I've lived in Singapore for the past ten or so years and I haven't heard of this before.

The Raffles Hotel Singapore has been cited to be a 5 or 6 star luxury hotel. Rooms start from $400 and go up to the thousands. They still maintain the image of concierges from when they were first established and the building itself is a hundred and twenty years old. Their Long Bar is well known for having peanut shells strewn all over the floor. For a luxury hotel, they allow patrons to mess the place up by throwing peanut shells all over the floor.

So how come it's haunted? Apparently, at the end of the Japanese occupation of Singapore (Aug, 1945), some officers decided to fall onto their ceremonial swords after learning that the British were going to win their invasion. So the spirits of the officers roam the hallways, or so they say. But that's not going to stop me from hanging out at the hotel... it's one I have yet to do.