Surprise surprise ...

One of my successful surprise! Glad this turned out well.
had a birthday party for my dear karin whose birthday falls on 16th Sept. So, I gathered a few of her good friends whom I've met and went out a couple of times, and decided to throw her a Staycation!
The Staycation was at Naumi Liora Keong Siak Road. We chose this cause it's one of the boutique hotels which all of us have not been to. Apparently, many of the girls went to many other boutique hotels and I haven been to yet!!
Naumi Liora is actually a sister of a more atas luxury hotel - Naumi Hotel which is located near City Hall i think. But it's closed for renovations till end of 2013.
So, I went to Spotlight after my gym to buy balloons and pump the helium. Spotlight provides such services, of course at a cost. I pumped 6 balloons and I took a cab because it was kinda embarrassing to carry it in the train myself. haha... maybe cause it's pink. And i'm not a very pink person. hurhur...
I went to check in around 3pm and was told the room wasn't ready. So I left my barangs, and went back to PS to get Rive cake. Rive cakes are always good :) One of my favourite place to buy birthday cakes.
After that, I headed back and was able to check in. Was a bit disappointed because the pictures on web looks big but it's not. But the porch is big. We booked the room with a porch. When they rest came, we started to plan out what to eat etc, went to buy famous Tong Yat Zi char. Honestly, I would definitely go back and eat again. Really nice!
So anyway, when we knew she was coming (we texted her bf), we hid outside the porch. I was very nervous standing by the door side just waiting for her to open the porch door. I could hear my heart pumping. haha.. think I very long didn't do such thing liao. #signsofaging
She sense something amiss... so she didn't went out to the porch.. then we decided to crash in! And she got shocked. haha... I thnk the good thing was she didn't expect which group of her girlfriends. Cause usually we go out in 4's. So I was glad I asked her other 4 good friends too!
So we have dinner together and took lots of photos before playing games and drinking. Played till 3/4am before going back home. Damn tired. I think I really cannot "ton" overnight liao... haha... ok, till then. Photo spam!

September celebrations

Last Saturday was an ang pao giving day. Afternoon had 1st year baby birthday, and evening had an 84th year birthday. The 1st baby birthday (friend's of GGH)... he brought me along so that I won't think so much when i'm alone. Anyway, the baby has the same name as my nephew LUCAS! It was held at With a Pinch of Salt .
Never been there but I've heard from my sis-in-law that it's quite a nice cozy place and I can understand why she said that. The deco are very pretty, and gives u a feeling of home. Very colourful too!
The deco that they put up for the birthday was pretty too! They had light snacks (cause it started at 3pm), and the food was okay only. Maybe can try and pop by again for their proper food.

After that, we walked over to Sinpopo (just opposite 112 Katong / opposite Tian Tian Chicken Rice) for a "lim-kopi" session. But I was the only one who really "lim-kopi". the other two guys ate desserts which my tummy cannot fit anymore. Also, was saving space for dinner buffet. hehe.

There are more desserts than main foods and their desserts are very Singaporean old style, like I was told that the ice kachang used to be in balls where your parents hold the ball and eat. I skipped that altogether, and not very interested in trying cause both of the guys have durian ice kacang & durian chendol, both are too sweet to my liking. Lots of the gula melaka.
We parted ways and I went to ah ma's birthday buffet at Parkroyal on Beach Road. I thought I was lucky cause Katong had a straight bus to Concourse and cross the bridge reach Parkroyal already... but.... the bus stops on nicoll highway was closed for F1!!!! In the end, the bus could only stop at suntec city and I had to walk back! SO FAR!!!!
Called my elder bro up to pick me... The road was pretty bad with all the diversions. Never go town whenever there's F1.
Parkroyal renovated and had a new ballroom which looks good on the outside. But not sure inside good not la. Anyway, the dinner buffet had lots of variety of crabs - black pepper crab, chilli crab, butter crab, salted egg yolk crab, danggui crab, and I can't remember anymore. I only tried chilli crab. hurhur. so-so only.
as usual, I had my salmon cause it's been a long time since I ate salmon! Niceee!!! Didn't really tried much cause maybe I wasn't hungry so I kinda skipped the desserts totally, and the array of food, I had the chicken rice which is quite good in fact!
Ah ma's 84th birthday. May you always be healthy and strong!

Clueless

This year is probably the worst mid-autumn festival I ever had.
Went down to the law firm to go through the final HDB documents.
Shit #1 - I had to repay the housing grant in cash. The original communication was I didn't had to. WTF.
Shit #2 - Bank loan on hold. Cause I may be in the new scheme ruling. Seriously.. Firstly, the loan expired, I asked for a renewal, you said no need. just get it approved asap. And getting to you is always so difficult. What banker are you??! Secondly, screw that bedok branch officer. You took more than 1 year to close this case. Always have to send nasty emails before you can reply. Government eh. And now, i'm caught in deep shit because of you.
But what can i do? I cannot complain, and I'm at the losing end.
Shit #3 - All this shit is causing me more than what I calculated. Where can I cough this 6 digit amount of money....
All I can do is rant and cry here. cause there's no other way around it. Who can I complain.
Life seriously sucks.

The Chop House

Last week managed to try out a new restaurant at vivocity, The Chop House. It's actually by the wooloomooloo group. Yes, I spelt correctly. hehe
The whole week had full day meetings, causing me to do OTs because of the warehouse move. Everytime I think of this, I always shake head. That aside. So, we had a early dinner so that we can beat the queue. And thankfully, no queue! It's near the riverfront, so we got outside seats so that we can enjoy the daylight while we ate. :)
Knowing I can't finish the main course myself, we ordered the apparently popular main course to share - The Berkshire Pork Chop. Cost about $32. And... seriously, I like it myself. The juice and the gravy on top was very fragrant and meat was tender! I'm not a very meat person, but I would go back for more! The main course came with a tray of sauces which was pretty good as well.
They have chilli mustard, onions, and something that taste like cranberry sauce. My favourite is the oinions. Sweet and nice! The mustard is not bad too. I didn't like the red one that tasted like cranberry. It's like the Poulet sauce, except this is chunky bits.
For starter, we ordered Crispy Calamari, and the mashed potatoes. The calamari is good! Fresh and fried just nice. The mash potatoes, if you like it plain, then it's good cause it's actually milky mash potatoes. Not my favourite cause firstly, I like mash potatoes with gravy, and this one, I tasted the milk abit. haha... But i realised GGH likes to order mash potatoes like that. hmm...

Milk vs Zombie

Non stop OT since Monday. Totally killing all my good cells. Everyday step into office, i'm like a zombie, fighting with this milk company. I lost. Went all the way down on Thursday noon. Managed to crawl back only like this evening. Super draining. Can I last? My Australia trip is cancelled so which means I got nothing to lookd forward anymore. But it also means my work schedule is evenly packed instead of cramming up all in September. Although September is rather low period, but I have couple of friends birthday coming up!!! :) Looking forward to celebrations even though not travelling. Hopefully this illness will go away. Cannot afford to go on MC anymore. Shall have an early night.