Happy Chinese New Year 2006!
Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! You must be thinking that I'm nuts to blog during Chinese New Year but thats the only time i finally get to do some blogging. Hope everyone has a great reunion dinner and get ready to chiong for your angbaos tmr ... =)
After my family reunion dinner ended, DD and I met up to visit the annual Singapore River Hong Bao ( 春到河畔). Instead of the usual holding venue at Marina Promenade, this time the event was held at the Memorial Park near Fullerton. As compared to last year event, it seemed to have scaled down abit.
At Singapore River Hong Bao....
We reached there about 9 plus and the place was quite crowded. While the
Banglas hung out at Orchard during
New year, the
ah tiongs hang out at Marina during
Chinese New Year. Haha. Never seen so many ah tiongs gathering at one place (except in school duh.)
Only foreign visitors entittled to lucky dips?! Thats not fair!
Every year, there's always a
pasar malam selling the usual pasar malam food like Ramly Burgers. Except that even Sakae Sushi is here to make big money too at this pasar malam.
Whats so special about these Vending Machines?
恭喜发财... $2 拿来.....
Thats daylight robbery vending machine. Are the drinks made of gold?
The wishing well 许愿池
(but without water one .... )
Guess what the people are throwing their coins at?
It's the windchimes that the people are hitting with their coins. Each windchimes are labeled with different New year greetings 心想事成, 学业进步
etc... Man.. throwing away your coins like this.
A New Year is never complete with 财神爷.
muahaha.... nv drop some gold ingots down...pls throw some down k.
二狼神
with his erm.. 哮天犬
which looked too bright in the picture.
Thats the Rat! Hehe..My zodiac.
Oink oink.... the Piggies
Groarr.. The Tigerrrrrr....
.
In case it's not clear to you, there's "Heaven Peaches" on the trees
It's da long weekend again!
Whoa! Finally have the time to blog again after a
"drought of updates" and we have come to another long Chinese New Year weekend. That's the holiday which I really looked forward to. Not only getting an extra "income", but also a break from those neverending assignments/lectures/tests/homeworks. *phew*
It will even be better if I can go overseas now. Lucky Sotong now must be enjoying herself in... of all places.........
Tokyo, Japan!!! And Ling will be off to
Taipei, Taiwan with her bf and erm.. his extended family on Sunday. Hope they have a great trip (
of cos they will lah) !
Talking about Chinese New Year, omg.. I haven do spring cleaning yet. Haha! Actually I cant be bothered cos I can safely presume that nobody will come and visit my house. Aiyah. Save the trouble.
Btw, to those who are going away too during this long weekend, An advanced Happy Chinese New Year!!!
Notes all over. Dead duck... But i cant be bothered. Hohoho...
Dead! More piles of notes. (actually it was last semester's stuffs. =P)
Mission Kimchi
Damn. I have been spending
hours and hours for a normal lab report. All thanks to our Prof *Kimchi* who gives us "not-so-useful" hints. Totally not worth losing sleep over this report! So pissed off that I must blog this. >.<
Argh! Damn *kimchi* MCP. gggrrrr
Why momo not blogging recently?
1.
Busy with lecture, homework and tutorials. This semester lecturers are extremely particular about tutorial policies, especially Prof A* who is always so 死板.
2. Soon to be
busy with many many other reports and lab reports. Again, i must comment on how "nice" the profs are again.
3. Tiredness. I need some sleep.
4.
CNY coming and I have not finish buying my clothes. ArGh! And suay suay, I injuired my toe nail. My whole nail almost
came off when i accidentally kicked DD's shoes during shopping. I dunnoe when will that damn nail ever heal!
5. 我不知道要BLOG 什么?
Haha! Will update soon. =) tata~!
Crazy about Adidas
Just recently, I was quite crazy about Adidas Stuffs especially Adidas originals. Just last week on my birthday, my pals bought me a pink adidas jacket (
Hey! You all forgot to remove the price tag from the jacket leh!) and also gotten a beige adidas handbag. Today, I bought a new pair of sneakers today at Queensway. In fact, it was a shopping trip for the purpose of finding
Adidas SM-II- Sky Taekwondo Shoes (Blue stripes) for dear cos he loves it so so much and wanted it quite badly. Something he could "show off" during Taekwondo session once he gotten his black belt. Haha! End up it was me who bought a pair of shoes. When I first saw the shoes, It was "love at first sight" . Fall in love with the embroidered adidas originals logo. So cool. Whats more it's my colour (
pink) and goes well with the new jacket! Hehe.
My new limited edition Adidas sneakers! Now i have an Adidas bag (black/pink), an Adidas Jacket ( White/pink), an Adidas Handbag (beige), a pink Adidas Cap (Janice... when r u ever gg to return me?) and a new pink/white Adidas Sneakers. Wahaha!
20 to 21
A million thanks to pals who turned up yesterday at my chalet. But not forgetting pals who couldnt make it, thanks for all the smses wishes. It was the best Birthday I ever had.. yeah. 21st birthday supposed to be the best for everyone. Although the best birthday ever, there's still a bit of 遗憾 I must say. Friends whom I wished to see very much didnt manage to turn up... but I still do love them all the same no matter what happened.
What I gotten for Prezzies :
1. A Pink/white Adidas Jacket from Uni buddies. I guess you all know best what colour goes for me. Although my Adidas Jacket did not come via boat/plane like Juliana's ME Jacket, at least it still came via MRT/Bus. A big big thanks to u guys and gals.
2. A whole collection of adult, hardcover version of Harry Potter Books from HP and the Philosopher's stone to HP and the Order of the Phoneix. A whole new addition to my HP and the HBP. A million thanks to dear for giving me such a great surprise! But sorry for intercepting you at the mahjong game and cause you to go "bankrupt". I dont mean to steal your "5 Bamboos".
3. A whole set of funky accessories and a handbag from Meimei, Mung and Jiamin (and Tian Hong hehe...) . Deserve a great big thanks and hugs for that and of cos, staying over with me at the chalet and mahjong on the bed all night long.
4. A pair of Sookee diamond ear studs from cousin Jenny. Thanks dearie cousin.
5. A Jimmy's Picturebook from long time OG pals Hongkun and Qiujie. Poor Hongkun took the trouble to brave the rain to drop by at my chalet just to wish me Happy Birthday and pass me the present. Really grateful to them!
6. A cool black Bobbi Brown blotter with mirror from Weilun who couldnt make it for my birthday. Thanks boy!
7. A kawaii flower from Boss Anqi. Thanks gal!
6. An Adidas bag from Dear's brother and sister-in-law. Thanks for taking the troube to help me collect the Lana cake from Greenwood Avenue.
8. A very classical and pretty flora container from Tian Hong. Thanks for sparing some of your precious time for my birthday.
9. Many angbaos from my parents, granny, uncles and aunties. Thanks to all my relatives. A great special thanks for my parents who sponsor the chalet and catering. Papa and mama rox~!
As the clock striked 12 midnight......... I gotten my first Present from dear. Actually not the first lah. Guess whats inside?
Labels: Birthdays, Party
Lana Chocolate Cake. I think the cake didnt manage to feed many people. At least i fulfilled Yeling's wish! And surprisingly she ate 2 pieces of chocolate cake... So unlike her.
Blowing the candles...Hehe! Hit 21 lor! Thanks for the lovely Birthday song in Chinese and English. Mung... where's your Malay/Indian version? Hehe
Cutting the cake with such a big Knife borrowed from neighbours. Erm.. The knife went missing at the wrong time. So paiseh for the all those frantic moment of searching the knife and borrowing the lighter. So unprepared.
.
The Njcians... Haha. DD included. Haha! We have lotsa fun at mahjong but seemed like someone still owe us ice cream. hohoho.....
My Uni mates : Janice, Jul, Winnie, Beverly, Lesley, Anqi, Yeling, Xinxin, Xianyang, Cehao, Willy. I will never forget how you all sabo me. Argh!
DD and me cuting the cake. hehe...
Gals frens from NTU: Lixin, Lesley, Anqi, JulJul, Ling, Janice, Beverly...
My JC clique (from top) : Mung, Tian Hong, Jiamin, Juan, Meimei.
21st Birthday Celebration Blues?
For the past 3 weeks, plans for my 21st celebration had been ongoing. I have to plan earlier due to my Bangkok trip, so went ahead with the booking of the chalet and catering with no other ideas on my mind. Who asked me to be born so early in the year 1985 and become one of the oldest '85 baby? Argh.
As the big day drawn nearer to the date, I get more sian-er and sian-er. Worried about who can turn up, worried how many people will last minute pangseh, worried about whether the food sucks or feed enough people, worried about who can stayover at the Chalet, worried about what my guests can do and how to "entertain" them ... I knew most of these are unfounded but I just cant help feeling this way. Perhaps, I should shut myself down and not celebrate at all because I simply got no mood. Now I felt dumb booking the chalet cos' a lot of my friends cant stayover, then that's no point of booking a chalet at all. Sigh...
For those who are coming, below are the details:
NTUC Downtown East
(Not Pasir ris costa sands!!!)Blk K 2021
Buffet starts @ 630pm
Cut Cake @ 830pm
Any problems please call me @ 96283497
Golden Retriever up for Adoption
A friend of mine wanted to give up her 2 years old pure bred golden retriever,
Chloe for adoption. If nobody is interested in adopting Chloe, she will be send to SPCA and eventually put to sleep. Please spread the words around and save the cute pup.
For those who are interested (Best if you stayed in landed properties cos it's a large dog) , pls visit
http://savechloe.blogspot.com for more details about the adoption. It's really urgent. Interested parties pls do not hesitate to contact the owner.
Chloe
Bangkok Trip Part 3
Eating @ Bangkok
For the first time in my life, I felt like a real pig cos I was constantly fed with food. Haha! Every morning, there's very breakfast buffet offered in the hotel where you get to eat every single kind of eggs. Scrambled eggs, omettle, hard-boiled eggs, soft-boiled eggs, fried eggs... eggs and more eggs. Now I am so sick of eggs.
On the first night, we went to
Baiyoke Sky hotel (Bangkok's highest hotel) for our international buffet at their 78th floor. The view from the restuarant was really fantastic. You can see their city so beautifully lit up at night and the many vehicles travelling on the highways. After dinner, we went up to their 83th floor which was a revolving deck that allowed you to view Bangkok round and round unobstructed. It's open air somemore and pretty cold at night. I felt so sick after eating so much cos I was forced to eat by DD. Argh. So bad.
The following night we headed to
Chinatown for my long awaited shark fins and bird nests. Hmmm... yummy. The street on both side of Chinatown (Yaowarat Road) were lined up with many street vendors that sell bird nest, shark fins, pig trotters and seafood. As it's going to be Chinese New Year soon, you can also see many stalls selling Chinese new year goodies like Mandarin Oranges (Seen those very very small ones sold in a basket.), chun lian, those "dong dong chiang" chinese new year songs vcd and decors.
Chinatown. The place for shark fins and bird nest. Orh.. thats where you buy the original "gao sai" (a kind of meat floss roll that resemble dog shit) with the pig logo. DD bought 1000 THB worth of "dog shit" k.....
Another shophouse kind of restuarant in Chinatown selling Seafood. The tom yam is the best I ever tasted. That's also oyster ommelette, shark fins again and they forgot about our crab glass noodles. But we were so full from eating these 3. The "da tou" prawns were heaveeeennnllllyyy...
Shark Fins! Their shark fins are served with v raw bean sprouts which DD disliked. While at this Chinese restaurant, we saw a family of 4 eating one claypot of shark fins each! No doubt it's a Singaporean Family and a rich one somemore. That's many other street vendors along Chinatown that sell Shark Fins, fish maw soup etc...
Cabbages & Condoms restuarant was one of the most interesting places I visited in Bangkok. I am sure some would have already heard of this famous restuarant before on our TV and I can tell you that this place is a real eye opener. It's located at a pretty seluded spot
(@ Sukhumvit Soi 12) and a Cabbages & Condoms restuarant signboard hung up high at tall building nearby its area helped us to locate the place. The taxi driver dropped us off at the main road and asked us to turn into the soi ourselves. The road leading to the restuarant looked more like a dark dangerous alley. There's barely any light there and we even saw some Korean restaurants there.
When we reached Cabbages & Condoms, we met into a group of Singaporean guys (easily recognised in their singlets and surfboard pants) at the entrance trying to take pictures. Then we walked along a covered walkway that leads to the main door of the restaurant. There's also a souvenir shop on the left side of the main door.
Cabbages & Condoms restaurant. They have other branches and even a resort in other states of Thailand such as Chiangrai, Buriram. Not only a place to dine and learn about condoms, it's also a place to do some charity. These restaurants were set up to promote better understanding of family planning and to generate income to support their activities at their local Population and Community Development Association. Some of their proceeds also went to the Tsunami victims.
Cabbages & Condoms has a larger outdoor area while their indoor dining area has v limited seats inside. Most of their diners there are the farangs. We spotted a few Japanese tourists and Sinagporean tourists. Beside a main indoor dining area, a cafe
(Coffee & Condoms) is also available where diners can have free internet access and... many free durex condoms placed in a tray. As for the outdoor dining area, there's 2 storeys. Everywhere was so beautifully lit up, just like heaven.....
Boohooohooo.... all my outdoor pictures got blur. Their outdoor atmosphere is one of the best I ever come across. Romantic. =P There's also some Thai cultural performance at the outdoor area.
Indoor dining. However, the dining atmosphere of the outdoor area are even better.
The food served in Cabbages & Condoms restuarant are of mid-range prices, similar to the prices we paid in our Singapore Swensen, Jack's place etc. It's rather affordable for us tourist but definitely way too expensive for the locals. The servings were quite big as well.
Nevertheless, we really enjoyed our meal there, a very full and satisfying dinner. *Burp* After dinner, we were given 2 condoms
(not dinner mints k) entittled to some lucky draws. The "condom man" gave us a long pole with hook at the end each to hook down a box of condoms hanging up high on the tree. Inside the box, there's another free condom plus a strip of paper that stated your prize. I thought DD and I were really lucky to win their T-shirts while some farangs were going
" Whhat?! Only a key chain?!" Haha!
Cabbages and Condoms is not only an interesting restuarant with a "condom" theme, but also a place that serves quality food. The food also explained for my pimples when i returned to Singapore. Clockwise: Fried Shrimp Patty, Deep fried cotton fish in mango sauce, Soft Shell crab with tamarind sauce and meat and mushroom wraps.
1. It's a table lamp with the lamp shade pasted with colourful condoms which looked good from far. 2. Some of their tabletops are decorated with condoms. This place is super "rubberish". 3. Pink Condoms dress. Creative things they do with condoms. 4. More condom "clothes fashion". 5. Condom Xmas tree. 6. The "Condom" man. Haha! 7. Fake flowers made of condoms again... 8. A safe sex shrine. There are some missing sentence at the end which says " ..Your wish will come true only if it is reasonable...". 9. Souvenirs that can be bought from their gift shop.
Note: NSFC. Sex education and interesting condoms posters. They even had some of the posters made into floor mat, tees, mugs etc as sourvenirs.
Note: NSFC. Condoms from Some Part of the World such as China whose varieties are almost as much as their population, Japan, England (Got size somemore, XL, XXL, XXXL?!), France (looked like those bottle caps... ), Thailand etc.
How can i miss out on the food from Suan Lum NightBazaar? We had BBQ lok-lok dipped in delicious special chilli sauce...chicken murtabak.. sausages... fried noodles. All for the price of only Sin $ 5. Haha! The murtabak tasted real yummy although less meat compared to the one who had in Singapore. Perhaps due to their sauce or something.... *drool*
On the first day when I reached Bangkok, the moment I saw A & W, I was extremely overjoyed. It had been 2 or 3 years since the last A & W near my house closed down. Woah!
I finally get a taste of the fast food which I had been deprived of the past few years. A & W.....
Miss the good old waffles with ice-cream and choc topping and the root beer float. Yummilicious.......
Bangkok Trip Part 2
Shopping @ BangkokOn the first day we landed foot on Bangkok, we went on a shopping trip as the hotel we stayed in was at such a strategic location. The opposite
Central World Plaza was half opened and half closed for renovation, plus there was some blackout at certain shops. Eeew... nothing to see anyway except
Dunkin'Donuts caught our attention. Haha. Next we moved on along the Sky Walk that linked the major shopping belt in the
Siam area. There's newly opened
Siam paragon along the way, in front of the Siam BTS station,
Siam Centre, then finally
MBK.
At MBK, we finally started our shopping officially. While shopping, I saw a familiar face in a bag shop. Ooohh..One of my ex JC biology tutors who is very good at giving students heart attack in her class, Miss V L** !!!
MBK.... a place I doubt anyone will not go.
Pantip Plaza. The Thai version of Sim Lim Square. Lol. The games there are real cheap. Such good place that DD wont miss out. Haha! It is located near Platinum Fashion Mall.
On the 3rd night, we went to
Suan-Lum Nightbazaar. A short taxi ride from our hotel in fact. The taxi driver kept irritating us by repeating
"seafood...eat seafood? seafood" while on the cab despite the fact that we kept replying
"no seafood... No seafood...Dont want seafood...". It's very obvious that the taxi driver wanted to send off to some seafood restuarant which only stupid farangs would go. But somehow we managed to "siam" off later on.
Suan-Lum NightBazaar was much much more cleaner, better and more appealing. Most shops closed at 12 midnight and that's when the taxi drivers attempting to "suck the tourist's blood". Haha! Suan-Lum was also quite a nice place to shop, selling those stuffs that would appeal to me rather than those pasar malam nonsense. I bought 2 pairs of dangling earrings at only 20THB when they could have cost me $8 to $10 plus in Singapore. haha.. That's dirt cheap!
After some shopping and eating, we headed for some Thai massage and foot spa/massage. V v shiok especially the 1 hour foot spa/massage (280THB). It's so so so comfortable... even better than the pedicures. Thai massage almost made me scream with pain. Haha! But for the sake of my "mian zi", I had better shut up but it felt very nice after that. woohoo...
Suan-Lum NightBazaar. One of the place sure must visit.
Map to facilitate shoppers n tourists. However, walking through the sois (lanes) were very difficult and confusing if you did not have a "systematic" way to walk through the sois of shops. We got lost quite a few times and had to recall whether we had passed through a particular shop before.
A much more organised market.
Khao San Road is located at a walking distance away from the
Phra Athit Pier ( via Chao Phraya River express boat). Many guesthouses and Inns for the backpackers and a popular chill out place for the
farangs ... There's quite a few cheap outdoor and indoor cafe/pubs where they could happily indulge in their
Singha (erm... Thai version of Singapore's Tiger beer). Over there, i bought a nice 20 baht bracelet and 2 red/white adidas jacket as promised for Juliana and her beau. It is just a very short street with stalls lying by the roadside... nothing much actually.
Khao San Road.... There's the tuk-tuk as the signboard.
Chatuchak Weekend Market was one of the main reasons why I extended my stay till weekend. Earlier plan was to return to Sinagpore on Friday instead of Sunday. Although that meant spending more money, it's all worth it cos it's still one of the bestest place to shop in Bangkok. Over there, I bought many cheap
(but of decent quality) clothes and DD bought his "KU" bag and tee-shirts. DD searched through many many sois for his bag after the guy at one of the shop refused to bring down the price of the bag from 650 baht to 400 baht. So DD went hunting for his bag and finally found a shop that willing to bring down the price to 400 baht. But not the black colour he wanted and not the "EP" brand. Haha..."KU" is like the imitation of "EP" bag.
We reached the market at about 10. Some stalls were still busy laying their stuffs around. I should have reached earlier to be their first customer so that I can get my best price without having to bargain so hard. They believed that it's unlucky to chase thier first customer away, so giving their customer what they want.
The best part I liked about Chatuchak is the Pets section. Many adorable pups, rabbits and other exotic animals can be found there. The rabbits were so so so adorable when they bounced around on the platfform. Have a sudden urge to bring one of the rabbits back....... argghh... We saw some hamsters there as well. Poor hamsters. Some hamsters got trapped inside their own food bowl and suffocated to death. Many were also struggling to get themselves out from the deep food bowl. My heart aches when I saw dead hamsters. That reminded me of my boyboy and gerger. *sob* And the poor bunnies too... get trapped in their cages. Many looked so "sian" and depressed. Cruel.
Early morning at Chatuchak Weekend Market
Chatuchak Weekend Market has many this kind of small roadside cafes... and street vendors (actually so all over Bkk). I can tell you that their iced coffee and tea wont lose out to those at Coffee Bean and Starbucks. Yummy.....
It's a different experience sitting at such tiny coffee table and chairs under the shade, drinking iced coffee... v nice and comfortable spot although there's no air conditioner. It made drinking the iced coffee even more shiok under the scorching hot weather.
Enjoy a nice glass of Iced Mocha topped with whipped cream and some chocolate fudge before continued walking around the market that doesnt seem to end. We didnt manage to finish walking through the many many sections and the many many sois (lanes). 2 days are the minimum to finish exploring... so prepare to have sore feet from walking.... haha!
To be continued....
Eating
Bangkok Trip Part 1
Sightseeing @ Bangkok
During this trip, we didnt do many sightseeing unfortunately due to the time constraints. We missed out on Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. It is best to book a day tour with tour agency especially when the places (Damnoen Saduak Floating Market and Safari world etc..) are very far from Central Bangkok. Hohoho... Next time perhaps when I visit Bangkok.
One of the best way to tour Bangkok is to take the ferries along the
Chao Phraya River. You can choose to buy the one day unlimited travel pass for the river tour for 100THB. Either you squeezed with the others on the Chao Phraya Express Boat or take the Tourist Boat which was of course more comfortable with many seats available and a tour guide on board (eh plus free bottle of drinking water... Haha!)
The Starting Point of Our Chao Phraya River Tour : Sathorn Pier. The first time I learnt about this famous river was from Geography whereby we were supposed to locate the river on the world map.
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