2013 New Year Resolutions....Not?

I know it’s a bit late for New Year Resolutions but honestly, I don’t intend to have a full list of it this year. In fact, there’s just a few things I will like to strike it off my To-Do list this year.

- Accompany mum out of SG for a holiday
- Bring my girl to Disneyland
- Change to Android phone (hopefully?)
- A Getaway for just Dear and me

It’s not gonna be easy since some of them had already been on my To-Do list since 2 years ago. I am pretty bent on accompanying my mum out of the country this year and she’s also quite agreeable on that, though I can’t be sure she can bear being apart from her grand-daughter for those few days, hah! This is a plan I am not planning to postpone any longer and hopefully, I can strike it off my To-Do list for this year.

Bringing my girl to Disneyland was my plan since her 3rd year birthday but we were really afraid she’s too young to truly enjoy the trip and the rides in Disneyland, not to mention she may possibly not be able to sit in most rides due to insufficient height limit. Not so sure if this year is also possible but it will be on my list until the day I can get her to Disneyland for vacation.

Android phone was what I planned to change from iPhone last year but I really didn’t know what I was thinking that made me stick to iPhone(5). Therefore, I hope I can successfully change to Android phone this year….maybe S4 or Note 3? HAHAHAHA!!

Yesterday, I had a sudden thought that it was more than year ago when Dear and me last went overseas together for vacation, even though it was half vacation, half work-trip for me. I hope I can go for a short trip with him again this year, even if it’s going to be a day or 2 only.

Again, it is a question mark for me whether I can strike these off my To-Do list this year. I sincerely hope to do that, or at least, clear 1 or 2 away…

Oh, and I realized this’ my first post of 2013, hehe!

DIY iPhone 5 Jelly Cases - Exclusively Mine!

Do you often come across those bling iPhone casing selling from shops, online stores or even Taobao? I'm sure you did. I'm also sure that you knew those bling/crystals are mostly, if not, entirely encased with hard iPhone casing. Well, I could have simply bought those casings for my iPhone 5 but there's a problem...I HATE Hard Casings!

I always love jelly casings ever since I wore one on my old iPhone 3GS. The glossy surface and rubberised material somehow make me feel that my phone is secured even at the edges, not to mention the odds of getting my phone scratched by the casing itself will be minimised to the smallest. So...I came up with the idea of DIY-ing my own bling casing for my iPhone 5, with jelly case of course!

That set my determination and purchases of the materials from Taobao. Afterall, where else can I buy materials at the lowest cost other than Taobao? In fact, I got rather greedy and bought far too many casings with tons of rhinestones (blings) to work on them! Gosh, will I even need so many casings in the first place!?

My first attempt was a white iPhone case with Melody.

I really love this Melody whom looked so studious! It was my first attempt hence, I didn't dare to put too many pearls and rhinestones for fret of overkill. However, after a day of consideration, I still decided to add on more...

Tada! More 'bling-ing', right?' Maybe to you, it still isn't bling enough but trust me, going for a first attempt on this made me feel skeptical to add more. And with that, my first DIY iPhone bling casing was completed!

Unfortunately, I was unable to enjoy my first bling casing due to an ultimate joke...The casing was NOT iPhone 5 casing! I was trying to fit this casing into my iPhone 5 when I discovered I wasn't able to fit the casing in! Stunned for at least 3 seconds, I came to my senses and knew it was the wrong casing (iPhone 4S). How sotong can I be????? DIY finished already then found out I used wrong casing...truly a WTF circumstance. In the end, I realised my seller packed this casing wrongly in my order (packed a iPhone 4S casing in a iPhone 5 casing box). I only tried 2 out of 3 to ensure they fit but lady luck just wanted to play a trick on me and purposely had the wrong one be the one I never tried on. Sad, ironic and comical as it can be, I didn't want to let this casing go to waste and gifted it to my BFF instead since she's still using iPhone 4S. Am so glad she loves it though!

With that to be gifted to my BFF, I was back to square one with no bling casing of my own again. Determined to DIY a true bling casing for myself, I started on my 2nd attempt...this time, on my existing neon pink jelly case with another design.

This was how my casing looked like when I just started on it.

Big and beautiful piece of ornament it is ya? It wasn't easy getting it to dry if I continued with other areas and so, I gave it a rest for a day to let the glue beneath the ornament dry. I continued on the very next day and was hell bent on finishing it.

Such determination did yield results. I completed my DIY within 2.5 hours!

Not bad ya? I know such design might have already been available at stores so it is not uncommon. However, having such design on a jelly case is definitely a first! And Exclusively MINE!

Also brought proud DIY bling casing out for Christmas gathering and took a beautiful shot of it at a boutique while waiting for my BFF.

I am getting the hang of DIY-ing the casings, especially since I can have the best of both worlds in terms of blings on jelly cases. Am gonna DIY more on the rest of the casings so I can rotate using them from time to time!

Oh wait, before I forgot, I also re-ordered the studious Melody since I really like it but am gonna stick it to a baby pink jelly case this round!

 

Goodbye, my friend...

Went to a funeral wake earlier today to pay my respect to my dear colleague whom had been working with me for more than 2 years.

It was not easy standing in front of him, covered up in the box and said my goodbyes to him that night. I controlled my tears to refrain them from dropping but they finally gave way after I had a talk with his mother.

That day, that place, many familiar faces were present although it wasn't an ideal venue for us to be reunited, at least not under this circumstance. However, it is a comfort for his family to know that he has so many friends who care for him out there.

I missed him..it was just few months back when we went to Korea together for work..and now he's gone. He's really gone, and this time, he won't be back. No matter how much I, or we, miss him, we need to believe that he is now in good hands. He had move on, journeying ahead of us.

Rest in peace my dear friend. We shall meet again, when our time is up, at the place you are watching over us.

New Hair Color!

I had been so sick and tired of my messy hair, I finally decided to do something about it before I fly off to Korea (Yes, I'm going to Korea once again).

While I was at the salon, the urge to change my hair colour just kept building on me. After much consideration and given the fact that I'd once again gotten my hair shorter, I made up my mind to turn into a redhead woman...

Honestly, it must be like eons ago since I last gotten my hair red but with my goldilock hair of many years, I guessed it's time for a change.

There, a self-portrait of me right after the cut and colour. Many colleagues and friends commented this hair colour suits me better than the brown-ish gold colour, not to mention my daring attempt of cutting my hair really short from behind (bob-style). This colour and hairstlye are mostly like gonna be with me for a considerable amount of time. :D

A New Me

Yesterday I wore a tube top of a freaking daring colour which I usually will NEVER wear, to work. However, apart from the daring colour, what really shocked me was the way I looked after I snapped this camwhore shot...

My whole body is more toned now with less fats on my waist and arms! Not only that, my face looks less chubby now. And..l really think I look pretty nice with this tube top. :D

Most of my friends knew that I have been applying low-calorie intake in my eating habits since April. Although I did not intend to have major weight loss, I wanted to slim down eventually with the new eating habit (not so new now!). Just so you know, low-calorie diet does not make you lose weight fast compared to low-carb diet, but gradually. During the 1st 3 months, I'd seen drops in my weight of up to 3kg and I felt so ecstatic! Most who saw me could see I'd shedd a fair share of weight. However, my aim was to lose 7kg in 8 months with this diet.

Now, 6 months later, my weight did not drop any further apart from the 3kg I lost. The funny thing is, everyone who sees me now think I've lost more than 3kg. I'm still watching my eating habit with low-calorie intake but the weight itself just won't go down. How funny to hear comments from others who commented I look like I've lost like 5kg! After some talks with my friend, she deduced I must have lost my fats instead of weight and gotten rid of water retention within my body (I had quite serious water retention issue). From the way it seems, I am toning my body rather than slimming down. Well, I guess it's true. :D

I do not reckon I'll ever stop this diet (I'm not even considering it as a diet) as it has already become part of my eating lifestyle. It may be a torture at times to calculate calories during meals but at least I do not need to compromise any type of food so long I ate them sparingly and wisely. I certainly hope to see further drop in terms of my weight but if not, at least I know I am keeping my body toned with body fats away from myself.

Speaking of which, this afternoon's lunch was such an overkill, I'm not so sure I won't get some weights back. However, it was our colleague's birthday so 1 day of indulgence should be alright yeah? Gotta make sure I do not over-indulge in future!

At this point of time, I'm pleased with progress of my 'weight loss' and I still hope I can reach my ideal weight sometime soon (No hurry!).

My Birthday Celebration ~ Night Out!

17 August 2012. Yet another year to declare I'm another year older.

This year, I did not expect any extraordinary birthday celebration but just a quiet and heartwarming time with my family. I didn't even expect to go out at all till Dear told me my god-brother wants me to go down to their usual pub to celebrate my birthday. Ever since I gave birth to Amelia, my trips to pubs had greatly reduced. So, I agreed!

I also took the initiative to gathered my BFFs for a dinner after work, before I joined my god-brother at the pub. Knowing I would be going out, I had to doll up myself, ya? In all honesty, I did not put on too much war-paint but just emphasised on my eyes.

It wasn't really a pre-birthday dinner per se but I appreciated Cindy and Javier for turning up as they originally wanted to stayed at home due to their son's tuition. We had an enjoyable dinner at Joyee's favourite steamboat restaurant though she suffered a mild car accident just that evening. The men simply couldn't stand our topics as we mainly discussed about LUXURY BAGS! After the dinner, we headed to the pub without my BFFs as they needed to work on the next day.

It was really great to be able to meet up with my pub friends gang from time to time, especially when they remembered my birthday every single year! My god-brother, Fabian even managed to summon my next good friend, Larry to come along even though he always have a hectic travelling schedule! Come to think of it, from Network at Chinatown, to Mongkok at Tanjong Pagar, and now S Club, we have known one another for almost 6-7 years. Frankly, to be able to still keep in close contact for so many years whom we known from a pub, it is considerably amazing.

Alright, back to my birthday celebration night out. It is a standard practice in the gang that whenever someone's birthday is here, birthday song will be sung and most importantly, a yard of beer will be delivered right to your face. Naturally, I'd gotten a yard of beer on my hands cos it's a night out for ME!

Me with a yard of beer. I was also wearing my new top from Taobao that night. Oh yes, and that's Larry behind me in the photo, photobombing. :D

When most of them helped me clear the yard till it was left till the bottom (the round base...and the most lethal), I had to drink it up all by myself. The owner of S Club, whom we knew very well too (he's the one in the top-left photo with me in the photo below) saw me drinking up only the base, he 不甘愿 and asked me to drink more. I told him jokingly that I'd drink any alcohol he brought to me and I regret it the moment he came back. Why? Cos when I thought he would have brought a glass of liquor on the rock, he brought along another yard of beer to me, demanding me to drink it all by MYSELF! Blamed me on my silly mouth and promise, I had no choice but to finish 1 whole yard myself. Come to think of it, I think I'm the only one he brought 2 yards on someone's birthday...多有面子啊!

开心不忘娱乐. While we were happily enjoying ourselves at S Club, I also took photos with most of my gang ( some just hate the camera!), making more sentimental footprints down my memory lane.

I heart them so much, the friendship's most definitely gonna be a lifetime thingy. Who says friends whom we made from nightlife won't be longlasting?

Last but not the least, I gotta thank my Dear for spending my birthday night out with me and our pub gang!

My birthday most certainly didn't end with this. More birthday celebration posts coming up next! ^^

 

SUPRÉ Haul

Temptation never fails to circle around me, especially when it comes to online shopping! With a successful instigation from my colleagues, I've come across an online shopping site - SUPRÉ. Its products were all on sale and seriously, with my colleague's discount benefit and sale, how am I suppose to turn my back against this?

And so, I ordered a few pieces of items from SUPRÉ. I wondered if I'm becoming more and more daring cause for this round, I've purchased outfits which I do not usually wear at all.

Outfit #1 - A sleeveless dress, coloured 'poppy'. It was so freaking bright and outstanding, not to mention it is in the colour of peachy-pink. I really didn't know what went wrong in my mind to have ordered this but somehow, it looked just splendid when I wore it. Phew! Oh, I also forgot to mention that since it's on sale, I only got this piece of dress for less than 8 bucks! Good quality, cheap buys!

Outfit #2 - Sleeveless black dress with floral prints. Alright, this is really the type of outfit I would never dream of wearing, nor wanted to wear. Like I said, my mind could be malfunctioning for all I know cause all the outfit I ordered were not my normal style! However, when I first wore it to work, many colleagues of mine who saw this dress said it looked nice on me. Guess it wasn't such a bad attempt afterall, hehe...and...this dress only cost me 12 bucks!

There's one more dress I've ordered from SUPRÉ but till date, I do not have the opportunity to wear it yet. It is a black laced dress which in my opinion, was my best buy from SUPRÉ. Let me have the ocassion to wear it (it is more of a formal type of dress), and I shall post it up here!

 

Todai @ Marina Bay Sands

Today, I am going to blog about FOOD. Yes, FOOD!

I've heard reviews about Todai many times, good and bad. Being one who likes buffet (though I don't really eat that much), I always hope I would have the opportunity to patronise Todai. That said, it is often true to the saying, "Be careful what you wish for, for it may just come true afterall". During my partners' visit to Singapore, I grabbed the opportunity and arrange a dinner at Todai.

For one, I didn't expect the restaurant to be so...blue-ish. It gave me an impression of a Seafood-oriented restaurant. Well, it is somewhat true since it serves international cuisine. Once seated, something on the table caught my eye.

How thoughtful of them to place a "map" of their restaurant on their dining tables so customers will have ease of navigating within their restaurant! During my visit, I was arranged to sit at the "Chinese Zone" shown on the left of the photo above.

Todai serves quite a wide selection mainly Seafood, Sushi & Roll, Chinese, Deep Fry, Churrasco, Oven Food, Korean, Italian, Cold Food, Noodle and lastly, Pastry. The 1st place I "attacked" had to be the Sushi & Roll section! I took plentiful salmon sashimi and some sushi to begin my dinner at Todai~

Sushi & Roll section

Sashimi & Seafood

As you can see, there are simply too many varieties just for the sushi & roll section. I almost didn't know where to start when I got there. On the other hand, their varieties for Seafood were quite little compared to other buffet restaurants. Yet, I gotta thumbs up for their prawns. They're so fresh, and huge!

Next section, I moved on to the "Cold Food" section~

Cold Food & Italian section

This section displays mainly salads and cold cuts. Further end shown in the picture displays Italian food. Rightfully speaking, I should have started from here to amplify my appetite but the sushi section just got to me first.

The "Churrasco" section is one nasty section for meat-lovers. Oh, and when I said nasty, I don't mean it's bad, it's just filled with many choices of meat!

Ribeye, beef striploin, chicken and sausages are all in this section. How could the meat-lovers not love them? However, yours truly aren't exactly a big lover of meat, thus I just took a wee bit of chicken and mushroom. They taste equally delicious though!

 As I explored further within Todai, I found myself standing in front of the "Korean Food" section.

Korean Food section

What's the chef cooking? Korean Fish Pancake of course! They also serve Bibimbap (my fav!) but if I took that into my stomach, I definitely wouldn't be able to stuff other delicacy anymore. Other than those, they have bulgogi, spicy pork, kimchi and more. Took a little of each (except for beef) and headed back to my seat.

The "Chinese" section has quite a wide variety as well. Those who just can't stay away from Chinese cuisine may simply fall in love with this section.

Chinese section

The bestseller from this section will have to be the Chilli Crab. From what I saw the queue was always very long and the staff would need to refill it every 10 minutes. I skipped this dish due to the long queue...

Alas, we reached the final but the most sweetening section - Desserts & Pastry! This is one section no one should miss!

Desserts & Pastry section

Todai's dessert & pastry section is very impressive. They have so many different types of desserts & pastry, it took me quite some time to decide what to take first. In this section, I feel that the way they display the macaroons is very innovative (shown on the picture above). I felt kinda guilty taking them down from it, hehe.

Thanks to my colleague who was with me that day, he took a pretty good shot of me ^^.

To conclude, Todai is a pretty good place for buffet if you are looking for an exceptionally wide spread of cuisine, internationally. Priced at $42++ (Lunch) $58++ (Dinner) for weekdays, and $54++ (Lunch) and $58++ (Dinner) for weekends, I would say their price is pretty reasonable for the number of varieties they have.

However, do come on an empty stomach if possible. There's too many for you to indulge and you will not want to miss any of them. I made a mistake by having a high-tea session before going to Todai for dinner and I believe I only ate 50% of what's available over there. :(

Rating: 3/5

Address for Todai:
#B2-01 The Shoppes @ Marina Bay Sands,
2 Bayfront Ave Singapore 018972
Phone: +65 6688 7771

Travelling Extravaganza - Taipei

As mentioned previously, I was travelling madly since Jan 2012 and after BKK, Taipei was my next destination for business trip.

Honestly speaking, I wasn't so upset being appointed to go to Taipei for this trip. Which woman will resist Taipei!? Though I am under a travel craze from company aspect, I was still pretty much happy to step my foot onto Taipei! After all, I could go shopping after work due to their night markets!

Let's get started on the yummy-licious part...FOOD! There are just too many delicious food all over Taipei, hehe! Here's some I've ordered and taken during my stay there. Most of them were my breakfast & lunch during the business appointments and etc.

银座拉面: Their katsu and rice sets are pretty nice but I heard from my colleagues who ordered ramen commented that the noodles weren't that good...

便所餐厅: What more can I say? Patronised this restaurant previously during my last trip & LOVE their hotpot, thus, couldn't resist but to drag my colleague along this time to let her try it out!

Ikari Coffee: This is a Americanised cafe serving Amercian style of breakfast. My FAVOURITE. Served delicious breakfast and won't hesitate to re-visit again if I go back there!

Dante's Coffee: Introduced this cafe to my colleagues for breakfast since there was one nearby our hotel. Again, they serve American style of breakfast thus, I love it to the max ^^.

集客人间茶馆: That would be the hotpot photo you see at the bottom of the photo above. Recommended and brought there by our partners. Very fresh and clean base soup with pork shabu shabu. Really hard not to like it when the weather's cold enough to make you enjoy it.

Another restaurant I will like to recommend will be the Kazu Cafe. This restaurant is located in an alley opposite of  师大夜市 (Shida night market) entrance. The ambiance of this restaurant gives their customers a very cozy and English-style of feel which really makes you feel at home. They serve a lot of varieties, especially OMUrice which is one of my favourite! And so, off I went to order. :D

Looks delicious right? This is an omelette rice served with minced meat. Frankly speaking, this dish is fantastic, but somehow, it wasn't stated what kind of meat it was and I tasted it to be like of beef (I can't take beef due to health issue), so I kind of took it aside and ate up the rest. Overall, it taste good!

Their choice of beverages are also amazing. Lots of choices to select and I chose a mango ice-blend. Sigh, I asked their waitress countless times to verify if this beverage contained milk. While she said no, it turned out they blended it with milk still, after a few rounds of clarification. TOTALLY WASTED!

Looks so nice but I couldn't drink it!

Given the fact that my 1st visit to Kazu Cafe was much of a good experience even though the ambiance and the food weren't so bad, I returned once again, this time, with my other 2 colleagues who wanted to visit Shida night market (I extended 2 more nights to shop) to taste other dishes. This time, I really LOOKED at their menu CAREFULLY!

Hahaha, ordered an omelette pork cutlet rice on my 2nd visit just to play safe. :D

Enough of food already. Now let's go to the LOOT I've gotten from Taipei. How can I leave them out ya? Be warned, below-mentioned are just some but not all of my loot!

The photo you are about to see is an incredible photo. Reason being.....the outfit you are going to see were all bought from Taipei and I wore it during the trip instantly, LOL!

Beret, coat, scarf, bag.
All from Taipei!

Hat-lookalike (a hairband) & sweater from Taipei

While browsing and walking around at Shin Kong shopping mall with my colleague during her last day of stay in Taipei, she commented why I still haven't bought a single Hello Kitty item. Truth be told, I was puzzled too. Alas, you really can't speak of the devil cause the devil will come to you naturally and speedily!

Hello Kitty watch from Sanrio!

See? End up I got myself a Hello Kitty watch (AUTHENTIC one OK!) just 20 minutes after my colleague made that comment to me. It was not intentional but I happened to be really looking for a watch and this Hello Kitty watch looks just too attractive to me ^^.

Apart from that, I've also bought a few items I feel really a catch as they are just too damn pretty and nice and affordable to begin with!

This owl ring is the prettiest ring out of my entire ring collection,
other than my skull ring :D

My 3rd skull bag! This time, it is bigger!

My 1st pair of boots!

I promised myself I wanted to get myself a pair of boots during my Taipei trip. I almost gave up the thought of buying until the very last night when we were browsing through 通化街 （通化夜市) Tonghua night market as our last shopping ground. The shop was selling all their shoes at 2 for 500NT which is less than 12 bucks per pair of shoes! Which dumbass won't grab them?

Mad and crazy travelling they seemed, but I gotta admit, I did enjoy them too. I always believe, a business trip may be tiring and stressing to some point but if you are able to make good out of it (Work is work, after work, PLAY), business trip can be fun too. :)

Oh yeah, once again, there is this one thing I can never forget about doing when I am in Taipei, especially in their airport. That will be........GODIVA Ice-blended! I can tell you, it tastes like heaven and you will NEVER love any other chocolate ice-blend anywhere else! Too bad I could only taste it in Taipei, somemore in their airport (within Departure hall).

My love. I wish I can drink it again!

I took a picture of myself when I returned to work after my trip full of Taipei loot on me. Since it is impossible for me to post ALL my loot from Taipei here, let me just post this here to close the loot chapter.

下回见! For my next post! :)