Farewell Dinner For Buddy Rie

Though she has left MC but we went ahead with the farewell dinner for her as we took it as a normal dinner gathering instead. We went to Bella Pasta as the food there was pretty good, price is reasonable and location is pretty convenient for everyone too.

When we arrived at the restaurant, it was already quite crowded. Before dinner begins, we handed her farewell gift from all of us and we were happy that she loved the gifts.

We ordered some of their popular dishes like the assorted ham selections, the pastas of course, pizza from Bella Pizza and as well as the meat combo too which came out to be fantastic! The beef was simply tender and juicy, while the pork belly was crispy and as well as the yummy sausages.

Dinner was enjoyable and we went for drinks as our second round. However, Wine Connection was full housed and we went to Barraka instead. It was co-incident that my boss Yatomi-san was around that area and we met to have drinks together.

It was an enjoyable night indeed with the good companies and food. We will definitely miss Rie but we trust that we will meet often…  

Birthday Treats From The Birthday Girl

Our newbie Samantha will be celebrating her birthday this coming weekend and as well as her first year receiving ang pow from the gang. She bought some cakes for us during her lunch date with her friends and the cakes were so pretty that we can’t bear to eat them.

Anyway, being the greedy gang, we all wacked it in the end. The cakes were from Medz located at Millenia Walk and though it looked very pretty but it did not tasted as good as it looked. The cakes were pretty dry and I personally would prefer the topping to be fresh cream instead of cream cheese… anyway, it was not too bad.

Thank you Sam Sam and wishing you a blessed birthday! Cheers!

Buddy’s Last Day

I am sure my buddy Rie was counting down to her last day with a heavy heart as she has been here for a good 6 years. Time flies and as the years passed us by, we became close buddies.

Today is her last day of work at MC and though I am really sad about her leaving but at the same time, I am happy for her for having the courage to make a change in her career. We were happy that we are given the time to lunch with her at TCC, one of our favourite joint.

As for her farewell, we somehow arranged to do it a little later as she was busy packing up, clearing up stuff and putting all docs together for handover. I was surprised that I did not tear like I did when mummy Florence left. I was somehow feeling fine and happy to know that she will be happier.

Buddy, I will surely miss you la… especially our secret gossips about ‘aunties & uncles’ around our office but am sure that we will be keeping close in touch!  

Lunch @ Grandma’s

After the recent major face lift at Suntec, they have added many new eateries after they reopened for business. One of them happened to be one of our favourite – Grandma’s.

As our buddy Rie will be leaving us soon, we decided to dine out instead of our usual packed lunch from the food court. We went to Grandma’s and while waiting for our table, Linda placed orders for the dishes so that it can be served once we are seated.

Though it was a pathetic one hour lunch, we managed to finish luncheon at a good pace and even had time to take a slow walk back to office. The food was great especially the beef rendang… that’s my all-time favourite from Grandma’s and of course the sambal long beans was awesome too.

There are many new eateries after the reopening of Suntec and guess we will take some time to check out all the restaurants.

Dim Sum Luncheon

I chanced upon this Teochew restaurant during an inspection with boss couple of weeks back. I was surprised that they served dim sums and I would really want to try them out as usually, dim sums are served in a Cantonese Restaurant.

Went to pick mum from church and we checked out the dim sums at Chao Yue Xuan located at Mohd Sultan Road. We were happy to be seated swiftly as it was crowded since it was slightly past lunch time.

We browsed through their menu and hubby took the liberty to order the dishes. I would say the dim sums served here were pretty good and the prices were reasonable too. Though this is a Teochew restaurant but the dim sums were as good as the ones served in a Cantonese restaurant.

This would be another good place that I can hangout for dim sums. Yippy!  

F1 Weekend

Ever since Singapore became one of the countries to host F1 races, hubby became a fan almost instantly. We went for the F1 races twice and I must say it was pretty enjoyable except we were unable to figure out which car passed us by.

This year, having Faith grown from a baby to a little girl, hubby thought it will be fun to have her experience the F1 but I thought it was too loud for her. Anyhow, we brought her to my office area just to let her have the feel of F1… Actually, I suspected it was hubby who wanted the feel instead!

Before heading down to Marina for their practice session, we dropped by at Skinny Pizza for lunch as our little one requested to have crispy black cookie… that was what she called the squid inked pizza. As usual, we ordered our norm dishes like the squid inked pizza, the aglio pasta but this time, we tried their risotto which wasn’t much of our favourite.

Faith enjoyed her ‘crispy black cookie’ and the pasta very much that she had quite a portion! She did not like the risotto too as she thought it was porridge! She said she did not want her porridge to be in yellow as the ones grandma made were white! Geezzzzz

After luncheon, we brought her to Millenia Walk for a stroll and to test if she is okay with the sound of the F1 cars… Conclusion, she did not like the sound of it and she told us that it was too noisy!! Too bad hub… Faith is still too young to watch the race!

Little Cars

ZOOOOOOMMMMMM….. The sound of the cars zooming pass every few minutes started on a sunny afternoon! When I looked down to check them out, the only thing I could see was tiny cars flying pass.

That somehow began the F1 weekend… though the noise can be quite disturbing but we still love the atmosphere yearly! We are experiencing loads of tourist hanging out around our office area who are attending the event and fans of the F1 drivers hoping to bump into their idols.

To me, this should be the EVENT of the YEAR at Marina area and I thought it is pretty good to have but then again, rather not due to some traffic inconvenience.

F1 Fever

The Formula One Grand Prix is here again and though it creates loads of inconvenience to traffic around my office area, I still love it!

It’s about 2 days away from the actual race and the drivers are already in town to promote the race. Fortunate enough for me that they are staying around my office area as there will be many star appearances happening this weekend.

This afternoon, the two handsome looking star F1 drivers made their appearance at Millenia Walk to promote the event. My colleagues & I sneaked out of the office for a while just to get a glimpse of them. Lewis Hamilton & Nico Rosberg looked really good and both were very friendly.

Though it was overcrowded by fans but I managed to take some pictures of them… Good luck guys!

Dinner Gathering At Chanko

Though Minowa-san has resigned from MC but he is still keeping close contact with us nevertheless as he considered us as his friends and told us that we should continue the gathering.

Tonight, to celebrate Minowa-san’s return from Japan and new employment, we went to one of our favourite restaurant Chanko Nada located at Orchard Plaza. As usual, we will leave Minowa-san to order the dishes as he knows well what is good.

This is one pretty good restaurant which I personally like but somehow I thought it was a bit costly compared to other restaurants. The sashimi was great and so fresh that they melt in your mouth. As for the rest of the dishes like the sausages with fries, chili squids, the hokke which was delicious!

After the small dishes, they served our two hotpots that filled with treasures… in the hotpot, the ingredients were sliced pork, vegetables, mushrooms and we had ordered 2 types of soup based – miso and curry. We too ordered our mochi for the soup and man… it was great!!!!

When we were done with the hotpot, they added rice to the soup and cooked them till they turned porridge. I must say that it tasted so good that I would want to have a second serving but I was too stuffed up…

Thank you Minowa-san for this sumptuous dinner! Can’t wait for our next gathering with you!

Birthday Lunch For GM

Last year we did not have a chance to celebrate our GM’s birthday at the restaurant so, I baked him a cake instead. This year, probably his last year to be stationed here as our GM, we planned a birthday lunch for him.

Our GM, who is well-liked by everyone and having given this opportunity, it was our turn to show him our appreciation by celebrating his birthday in a simple way.

Linda booked Paradise Inn at Marina Square and she pre-ordered the dishes before the arrival of GM. Yoshiko also kindly prepared a tie as his birthday gift which was shared by all.

Everyone was enjoying the lunch and good conversation with GM. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance or time to bake him a cake but hopefully I can do so next year… which means I am hoping that he will stay for another year…

Mid-Autumn Festival

This is another wonderful festival where the whole family will gather for dinner at my mother-in-law’s place. Though we visit them every weekend but it is rare to have full attendance for dinner.

My mother-in-law cooked up quite a spread while we bought the braised duck from Geylang. The food was simply great and it seemed like a Chinese buffet at the comfort of our home. After dinner, the kiddos quickly have their lanterns lightened up and started walking around the corridor. Maggie also brought them to the void decks for a walk about.

While the kiddos were out, the rest of us enjoyed the durian moon cakes from Goodwood Park Hotel, champagne moon cakes from Raffles Hotel and the traditional moon cakes from Da Chong Guo. Everyone was really happy and enjoying the delicious moon cakes as a family.

It was indeed a great gathering for the family and I always believed that having good family values are good for our children.

Disappointed Brunch

This is one rare occasion that we headed down to Orchard Road hoping to enjoy some good brunch and buying of mooncakes.

We chanced upon this cool and well décor café located at Wisma Atria and decided to try out their brunch since all their pastries looked so alluring!

Faith went along with me to check out those pretty pastries on the showcase and chose a cheese stick for herself while hubby wanted to try out their French style egg tart. We also ordered their Scrambled Egg Brioche and by the look of it, it was simple BUT…. It was seriously disappointing! It was pretty oily and I actually expected it to taste good but… Sighz…

Back to the cheese sticks & the egg tart which was somehow a better choice. Faith enjoyed the cheese stick as it was chewy and tasty. As for the egg tart, it was not too bad but compared to our Chinese traditional ones… NO WHERE CLOSE! Sorry!

Dinner Gathering With Yatomi-san

This is one dinner gathering most of us were so looking forward to. My popular boss Yatomi-san kindly invited us to dinner and this time, he also included our neighbouring colleagues…

He reminded me of my ex-boss Minowa-san who loves to hang out with locals rather than the Rotating Staff in our office. Everyone tried their very best to make themselves available for today’s dinner as he is really well-liked by everyone.

I booked La Pizzaiola and my cute boss actually bought 3 bottles of wine just for us as he wanted this dinner to be perfect! When we arrived at the restaurant, he gave me the green light to order anything on the menu and I went ahead… hahahaahaha  

I ordered as per my own favourites… burratina with Parma Ham, baked egg plants, squid risotto, ham & mushroom pasta & pizza. As for mains, we had the stew beef cubes, fish, & the spring chicken which was their new dish.

Everyone enjoyed the food as much as the good wine boss brought for us. It was indeed a wonderful and fun night out with the ladies with our wonderful boss. To mellow the alcohols in our bodies, we ordered delicious desserts to keep ourselves stable… hahahaahah…

Thank you, Yatomi-san for the wonderful evening with a spread of sumptuous dinner and great wines.

Happy Wedding

We were honoured to be invited to witness this wonderful and blessed occasion at Blessed Sacrament Church. Though I do not know her well personally but she is one of the members in St. Vincent de Paul society which hubby is serving.

It was a beautiful church wedding and Faith got excited when she saw the bride entering the church and she told said to me, ‘Mama, see… its Princess!’ For a moment, I was lost but then realized that she meant the bride.

After the wedding mass, we managed to have a picture taken with the newly-weds and Faith was happy to be on the side of the ‘Princess’. After the photo-taking, she kept asking me where the princess will go… will she be back to her castle… and will the Prince be with her… etc…

There was a wedding lunch held at the church’s Damien Hall and Faith was looking around for both the Prince & the Princess… She even asked me if they will be dancing on the stage like what she saw on TV.

MC Chill Out 2013

I thought 2011 was the last chill out organized but our ever generous and sporting GM requested another chill out session this year. The organising committee were excited about the event as this was specially requested by our GM.

After three months of preparation, the party is TODAY! I was way too excited or worried for today’s event that I could hardly sleep last night. When we arrived at Zouk earlier to check on the arrangements, I was more or less relieved that everything was in good order.

The guest arrived pretty promptly and our party officially began on time. Our host for tonight was our trusted colleague Patrick Ong who was very professional and simply made everyone in the house excited from the beginning.

After the short speech from GM, dinner was served. I was very delighted to see everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves with a drink in hand and moving around greeting other colleagues whom they hardly see.

We began our first game – drinking competition with a twist. Patrick requested for volunteers and we were surprised that many came forward to participate. He paired the men and ladies into five pairs and they had to finish all the drinks which were placed on the trays. The ladies to finish up 10 tequila shots which carried 2 points each while the gentlemen 10 mugs of beers which carried 5 points each.

This is one fantastic game especially during such occasion. Many came forward to cheer their favourite ‘couple’ and others were taking pictures of the moments. I had to say that the ladies were pretty good drinkers as they were the ones who finished up the 10 shorts while the gentlemen were still struggling with their beers. Some ladies actually helped the men to drink their beers after they were done with their shots. Our final winner pairs were Daniel & Katryne who finished most of the drinks on their tray.

We started our first dancing session and we were happy to see our GM started dancing on the dance floor and many followed quickly. The dance floor was filled up shortly and everyone was dancing their head off… it was really fun and happy to see so many colleagues enjoying themselves on the dance floor which was pretty rare.  

The dancing lasted about 50 minutes and we began our next game which was guessing the number. Many volunteered when MC requested. MC prepared 3 sets of numbers and each participants got their chance to guess and when they got the number correctly, they had to do a forfeit… one of them had to eat a piece of sushi that was loaded with WASABI, the other drunk ‘Submarine’ (warm B52 with iced cold beer) and one of the participant got away lucky.

We threw in five lucky draw prizes for the night and everyone continued to party even after our event ended. Many of us stayed on to party at Zouk while the rest left for home and others stayed at Phuture for drinks.

This is one great party with colleagues and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves very much. I had too much alcohol in my body but I was happy that I danced quite a bit tonight to prevent myself getting drunk…

Thank you committee for helping to put such a fantastic and successful event!!

Our Half Day Adventure

My buddy Leng been suggesting watching the horror movie ‘The Conjuring’ and we finally took half day to watch it. Before leaving the office, Leng actually checked the number of people watching the movie that day and found out only 7 patrons for that particular movie… man… that actually horrified me already!

We went to have our lunch at Central, a Hong Kong Café located at VivoCity. The café is nicely decorated with olden pictures of Hong Kong artistes, retro items like table lamps, radio etc…

Since they claimed that it’s a Hong Kong Café, I ordered their shrimp dumpling soup noodles as I really missed the ones in HK. Leng ordered their chicken chop rice and fried wanton to share while Jessie had the baked rice. 

My noodles tasted pretty good and closed to the ones I tried in Hong Kong. I believed I can bring hubby here to try someday. Leng’s verdict on her rice was not too bad too and so were the fried wantons…

 

After lunch, we went to watch our movie… okay… my verdict for ‘The Conjuring’ was not as scary as I expected but it was my two buddies who went with me that shocked me… especially LENG! The whole time she was making so much noise especially when the evil spirit was attacking the kiddos, she will go… ‘Vee, come already, come already… you saw that…’ Yes, I admitted that I cover myself with my shawl but I was still watching the show and I certainly knew what was happening!

As for Jessie, she was complaining about the kids in the show for returning to their haunted house having known it was Haunted!! Hahahaahah… it was quite funny but yet headache at the same time to be seated between them.

Overall, it was quite a good movie and a good half day spent with my buddies.

Back To Rokeby

It was quite a lazy Sunday for me while hubby went to church early this morning leaving Faith and myself sleeping in. We wanted to plan to lunch out but he ended his activities earlier than expected.

Finally, we decided to have brunch at Rokeby so that we can cut down on travelling time. We have been to Rokeby before and thought it served pretty good brunch and reservations were not necessary.

When we arrived, we were quite surprised to find the restaurant turned out to be crowded but we were lucky to be given a seat shortly. They have renovated the place a little by taking out the children’s corner for more tables.

We did not take long to decide on our dishes and I ordered the Eggs Royale for myself while hubby had the omelette with ham and cheese. Faith was on high spirits and she ordered a pork sausage for herself. She enjoyed our bread and the sausage very much and finished them up pretty quickly.

After her little meal, she started to browse the magazines from the rack behind her. She was flipping the mag and asking us some questions like… what is this mummy and why is the coffee in brown and not YELLOW (being yellow is her current favourite colour)!!  

I am really happy that we found good eateries at Jalan Riang which is not too far from where we stay. THUMPS UP!