Dim Sum Dolly

Back to back dim sum lunches this weekend, must be my birthday or something! Oh wait, it IS my birthday week!

Attended mass in AMK today with Mildred and after that I suggested heading to Thomson Plaza. My main intention was to have the special fried bee hoon from the food court but Nick wasn't keen so I proposed Peach Garden instead.


I've been meaning to try them for a while, they get decent reviews and as it was early, we were shown a table immediately. Theirs was the kind where the waitresses push around trolleys so we could pick and choose what we wanted on sight.

The century egg porridge was really good but the polo buns at Wah Lok are nicer. And I have still yet to find better xiao long baos than Din Tai Fung.



Sasha entertained us by subjecting her food thermos and face towel to a round of Peekaboo, she must have thought she was a magician and basked in the attention we showered on her.



Nat is getting much better at feeding herself, less spills and that gives her confidence to want to do it more often.

Last night the 4 of us ventured to Ikea, Sasha went wild among the aisles and made herself comfy in the poster section. With no stroller and no maid, it was hard to keep them from touching things, but amazingly we didn't break anything.

Royal feast

I love birthdays, don’t you?

The festivities continued today with a JGR lunch at Royal China, Raffles Hotel. Another restaurant on my ‘have-to-try-at-some-point’ list, we met for dim sum and had a special guest in Joshua.

I fell in love with the interior as soon I stepped in. Very modern Chinese and instead of the usual reds and golds, it was a soothing pale teal.



We had an assortment of dishes - almond coated seafood balls, deep fried spare ribs, braised beancurd skin rolls and scallop dumplings etc. Also tried a steamed bun filled with salted egg yolk and mango which was savoury and sweet at the same time.



Rena brought a Polaroid camera along and we took individual shots. I’m going to give mine to Nick and ensure he puts it in his wallet!


I got a Mapletree shopping voucher which allows me to splurge at Vivo and after lunch we posed for a group photo outside the restaurant. As I put my camera on timer to take multiple shots, the silly girls hammed it up!



Love you guys and thanks for the lovely lunch!

A couple of days ago, I met up with some of the SingTel folks at City Golf. The original plan was to go to 1-Altitude but the rooftop bar was closed due to rain.

There was me, Jeannie, Desmond, Crispian, Hong Wei and special guest Choon Hon whom we had not seen for a while.




Crispian and Choon Hon left early though so the rest adjourned to a nearby TCC for dessert. Desmond’s face lit up at the mention of cake, it was quite funny. I think he’s more into sweet stuff than Kevin!

M is for ...

...my birthday and Marina Bay Financial Centre.

In honour of my birthday, the boy and I had dinner at The Lighthouse, Fullerton Hotel. Another restaurant I can check off my list!

Slept in and went to work in the afternoon after dropping the kids at Membina. I carried one of the new Prada bags from Montevarchi and wore my DVF Lune dress in Orientalist Diamonds, had to suck in my stomach the whole evening!


He picked me up after work and we parked at One Fullerton. Unfortunately our reservation was too last minute to secure window seats, but I could still enjoy the view somewhat.


I ketuk-ed him by ordering the $138 degustation menu comprising:

- Amuse bouche
- Coffee-spiced dusted goose liver with bitter cocoa scented apple puree, fine herbs salad and sambuca sauce
- Milk and fennel soup with crispy pork belly and pomegranate
- Risotto cooked in capon consommé, with fresh thyme and caramelised shallots
- Adriatic style cod in ‘brodetto’ sauce and seasonal vegetables
- Seared green apple, caramel soil and cinnamon ice cream




It was topped off with coffee and some petit fours and the restaurant provided a complimentary birthday tiramisu. I liked the risotto the best, tasted like rice in a rich French onion soup! The goose liver was wasted on me, I started feeling ‘geli’ after a couple of bites but forced myself to eat as much as I could.

He had a green pea soup and they replaced his mullet with prawns and gave him some pancetta on the side. For his main, he had a fettuccine with bolognaise sauce. It was not too bad, but he proclaimed to the waiter that my bolognaise sauce was better!


We took a walk along One Fullerton after dinner, I experimented with the shutter speed on my camera to capture a less grainy night scene. With no tripod, I had to be super still.


I brought him to Level 33, I had a corny wish to celebrate my 33rd birthday on the 33rd floor. Treated myself to a Kir Royale and he had a Bailey’s on the rocks. Don’t think he enjoyed himself too much though, we were distracted by the loud rantings of the SPG next door and called it a night after one drink.




So here I am, another year older, but probably not any wiser!

All things considered, I think 32 was a pretty good year for me. Work is good, a new boss came in and he's much more hands on and approachable. Plus there's been a couple of recent work trips to places I've never been which is a bonus.

The kids are well and growing and never fail to amuse. They look after each other and are not unmanageably naughty so we're not as harassed as other parents. Or rather, I'm not harassed but Nick is a perpetual kancheong spider.

The marriage is still going strong after 8 years, we get on each other's nerves more especially when it comes to parenting styles but at the end of the day we know the other will always be there.

The main highlight of 32 has got to be the trips made. From going to Perth to see U2, to winning a trip to the Maldives and exploring Italy with mummy plus Tokyo and Jeju, my 31st birthday wish for more travel was granted, so I am grateful.

For the coming year, I wish for more of the same but there is a dark cloud looming on the economic front so time to tighten belts and be prudent, a word that has never been in my dictionary! If I can go on 2 flights exceeding 4hrs per way this year and excluding Jeju, I would be a happy clam.

Hopefully I can accumulate enough miles to at least redeem a flight to Hong Kong or something!

Jeju, Korea (Day 2, 2 Aug)

In the blink of an eye, we are home! Just in time for my birthday too!

Yesterday was an intense round of back to back site visits, we had hired a taxi for the day to bring us around. The driver was friendly and spoke good English.

First up was a golftel recommended by a Korean colleague, called The Elysian. They had a scenic golf course and very nicely furnished villas for accommodation, unfortunately they don’t have enough rooms for us and their meeting rooms are also limited. If I played golf I would stay here, the villas are very affordable at about 250 SGD for 2 bedrooms.



Next we went to a place called The Spirited Garden, which is like a bonsai park. They’ve hosted outdoor dinners before but the space was a bit disappointing, not much of a view at night should we host a dinner there. I did see a grapefruit tree for the first time though!


En route to the east side of the island, we stopped at another golf course called Pinx but as time was limited, we didn’t linger and proceeded to the Haevichi Hotel. The ride took almost an hour and Germaine and Phil snoozed in the car, they can sleep anywhere!

It was a lovely property, I liked the newness of the rooms and meeting space, but it’s a little out of the way from any entertainment, being on the opposite end of Jeju though it’s closer to some main attractions.



We stayed for lunch in the name of ‘food-tasting’ and had a delicious meal, I loved my grilled skewers of prawns, vegetables and steak.


There was a folk village nearby that we visited but it was deemed unsuitable for a dinner venue, though many a Korean drama has been filmed there. Germaine and I were competing to see who could take nicer flower pictures!


We told the taxi driver we wanted to see a waterfall on the way back to Lotte and he took us to Jeongbang Waterfall which he said was the nicest of the ones in Jeju. Unfortunately the weather was gloomy and we were in a rush so we couldn’t really appreciate it.


There was an exhibition hall and courtyard nearby which we checked out, but the view was limited hence a no-go as a dinner venue.

We rushed back to the hotel to freshen up and check out, wish we had more time to cover more places but time was not on our side.

At the Jeju airport, I bought some Dunkin Donuts and souvenir chocolates and killed time at duty free, succumbing to a Longchamp Pliage bag in mauve. It was on sale at 40% and a colour and size I had been considering…only 61 USD! Since my birthday was approaching, I was in a spending mood but then, when am I ever not?


We took a Korean Air flight to Incheon, all of us had emergency exit seats so plenty of legroom. I was impressed by the service and the inflight magazines, wouldn’t be averse to taking Korean Air again.

Before the flight even took off, Germaine and Phil fell asleep!


At the Incheon airport, we had to wait for the SQ counters to open and Phil and I did online check-ins on the spot so we could skip the long queues. It didn’t make much difference in the end because after clearing immigration etc, we realised that most shops and restaurants had closed.

It was only 10 pm and we couldn’t find anything decent to eat or buy but eventually found a little food court, however Germs and I already dipped into my donut reserves!

I had a lukewarm tonkatsu ramen that came with a truckload of long towgays, I’m sure the store is ripping off the O’Brien’s logo.



With time to kill before our 12.20am flight, I went to the only duty free store that was open and decided to treat myself to some designer sunglasses, yet another birthday present to myself!

Got carried away trying to decide which one to buy and ended up with 3 pairs – 2 Loewe and 1 Fendi, I found them to be much cheaper than European prices, especially at 40-50% off.

My indecisiveness nearly made us miss our flight, by the time the salesgirl wrapped up the purchases, it was the final call for our gate. We ran to the gate only to find it had been moved, and had to run a little more. Germs and I ended up being the last 2 to board!

After the flight took off, I moved seats to the next cabin as Germs had informed me her row was empty. She and Phil had a surprise for me – cake and a Hello Kitty towel to usher in my 33rd birthday on the plane.

Unfortunately SQ didn’t allow candle-blowing, and neither could Phil persuade the crew to get the whole plane to sing for me but a stewardess was kind enough to bring over some plastic cups of champagne so I toasted Germaine at 4 am, somewhere over the South China Sea.


Happy birthday to me!

Jeju, Korea (Day 1, 1 Aug)

Never been a fan of Korea, mainly because of the cuisine, but here I am in Jeju for a whirlwind site inspection! 28hrs here from arrival to departure!

We are planning a customer event for the end of September and our colleagues in China suggested having it here and of course we couldn't plan properly without visiting it for ourselves! Am here with my boss Phil, and Germaine who has been appointed to handle the logistics.


We took a red-eye flight last night via Shanghai and stopped over for several hours this morning before boarding a China Eastern flight to Jeju, as the domestic flights from Seoul were all fully booked, it being the peak of the summer holidays.


It's a pity I didn't get to leave the Pudong airport, always wanted to visit Shanghai for the shopping but it would have been too rushed to do anything. I got a kick out of the funny mangled English signs and had a moment of panic too when Germaine was late in boarding the Jeju flight.


At the Jeju airport, we were met by a driver from the Lotte Hotel where we are spending the night and upon reaching the hotel, we dived straight into our site inspection of the property, it's one of 3 being considered.

The hotel staff were certainly very hospitable and the guest rooms are large and spacious, though the ballrooms a little old-fashioned.



Next was the Hyatt Regency a few hundred metres away, we were shown around by one of the concierge staff. Guest rooms were smaller than Lotte and showing signs of age but they did have a nice lawn facing the sea, and their function space was more modern.



We stayed on to sample some food at their outdoor deck, sharing a surf and turf grilled steak with prawns. Yum!


Then it was back to Lotte to experience their daily poolside volcano show plus buffet dinner. It was large spread, there was even abalone and snow crab. The show felt like something you would see at Haw Par Villa, could feel the heat from the flames of the volcano from where we were sitting, it was pretty hot!



It's been a long day and we are all knackered...g'nite!