Aizat's 18th Birthday @ Hard Rock Cafe Hotel

[29 January 2011]

2 years ago we attended Aizat's Sweet Sixteen.. time flies and now it's his 18th Birthday! Damn... that means I am 2 years old too! :( Time really just pass by for a woman after her 21st birthday! It's already the end of January! OMG!

His birthday party is held at Hard Rock Hotel, RWS!

The whole lobby is bathed in a beautiful, soothing purple light... Joyce is gonna love it!

But it's kinda dark so the first time you go in.. you will feel abit disoriented and wonder why the reception desk is.. Oh, and the staff are totally unfriendly. They don't greet you or smile at you... just ignore you. I think the reason is because the main clientele are mainly from Mainland China and they can be boisterous and overwhelming sometimes...

I was telling Pipimon, they charged the locals $400++ for a night but maybe they lease out to Mainland tourists for $100++ a night to accumulate mass volume and prevent empty rooms so they can boost minimum occupancy.

Whatever lor. The price is super not worth it for the service, but the decor of the place is fantastic.

Arrived at the room... it's also in purple! :)

This chandelier is hidden in a tube-like thingy.. maybe they are afraid people will spoil it.. But then, what's the point of putting it in the room if you are gonna hide it? Sibeh boliao.

Good thing about the beds is.. it's a Sealy! And the double beds has a pull-out single bed! :) The room can comfortably sleep 4 people cos there's a long sofa near the windows which also double-up as a really comfy bed! :)

The food!

The cake!

With the Birthday Boy~

Best part of the hotel are the lifts! Really pretty!

Carpark is mad expensive! Luckily we had complimentary carpark coupon cos Aizat's family booked 3 rooms (Almost S$1500! Gasp!).

Unfortunately they did not get to enjoy the pool facilities cos it was raining persistently over the weekend.. But we did get to see the USS fireworks from the room!

Pipimon's 38th Birthday Weekend~

[30 & 31 January 2011]

For the record, he wants to remain 28yrs old forever and has reminded me at least 5 times that he has stopped counting his birthday and I should stop reminding how old he is.... =X Wahahahahahahha!

We had lunch at Thai Accent, Vivocity at Yaya's recommendations..

The food are quite pricey, and service is a hit-and-miss..

Pipimon already warned me before we go that despite Yaya's high recommendations, he's afraid that my expectations of food are too high and my tastes may be different from Yaya's...

To give it some credit, the Tom Yum soup is really delicious but the fried rice was served cold! I think it's ridiculous that fried rice can be served cold.. and it's super unforgivable! Just some simple dishes and it's over S$60.. so I don't think I will be going back anytime soon.

After the lunch, we went to watch "It's a Great Great World" at GV Vivocity. Pipimon slept thru most parts cos he said there's too much talking and not much action. Personally I prefer more emphasis on the set than on the people.. but of cos, building an elaborate set costs $$$! :)

Than we went for desserts at Cafe Gelare! It's tucked in the corner and is newly opened. Service is not that fantastic, but the waffles are nice. :D

To sidetrack a bit.. I am not fussy or particular about service. All I ask are:

1. Smile
2. Greet
3. Sincerity

Don't act as if I owe you money lah! Is it so difficult to say "Hi!" or "Good morning!"?? I'm super appalled by our local service standards... Still love Japan! Even if you don't buy anything, they won't glare at you give you snide looks.. They will still greet, bow and treat u like royalty!

After desserts, we went to City Plaza to help his friend sell an iPhone than went for supper! Die lah.. keep eating....!! We went to 126 Dim Sum at Geylang! I LOVE IT! Cheap, unpretentious and super authentic feel!

Best Chicken Wings!

Best Scallop Porridge!

Next day, we went to Nex for dinner. Gave Pipimon few choices and he chose Xian De Lai, which was also featured in the recent 8days review..

Pretty pots!

The food is alright, but a tad pricey! They DON'T SERVE ICE WATER which is a super big no-no and their drinks are very expensive! S$2.50++! Madness! We spent over S$70++ for the dinner..

Haix. Isn't there somewhere in Singapore which serves nice, reasonably priced food with good service!?!??!?!?!?!?! :(

Centre Ps DIY Pineapple tarts

Other than Bak Kwa, the other essential item for CNY is.. PINEAPPLE TARTS!

I saw an ad in 8days advertising on DIY Pineapple tarts and I had to try it! It looks sooo good in the picture (above) with the little glass jar containing the jam!

I called to place an order a few days ago and Pipimon fetched me to Guan Chuan Avenue to collect them. It's somewhere near Tiong Bahru and it's a bit ulu ulu..

The salesgirl was polite but cold. You don't feel that she is happy to serve. Pipimon says it's because it's CNY and they have many orders and lots of business so she can't be bothered with one little order.

Well, my one little order is $70.85! Maybe it's because I used Citibank credit card for the 18% discount? Or maybe it's because I had to yell "HELLO? ANYONE THERE!?!?" into the kitchen for 5 whole minutes before someone comes out to entertain me.. Whatever the reason, I won't go back again to patronize them because I don't feel welcomed at all.

What if the pineapple tarts are super nice? Will I still boycott them? That depends on how nice the pineapple tarts are... But when I saw the jam placed in plastic cups instead of the pretty jars.. I super sian liao. So the answer is most probably no.

Anyway, I bought a total of 3 bottles, 1 for Wany and 2 for Pipimon! ^^ I hope I can meet Wany before the jam expires on 20th Feb.. Lol!

Now I have lots of CNY goodies but I am trying to lose weight! So how?!

Update! [10Feb2011]

We tried the jam and it's not very fantastic.. it has a sour tinge to it.. and has to be refrigerated so it's quite weird to eat cold pineapple tarts.. Moreover it expires very quickly even when refrigerated.. so it's a waste of time and money. Boo!

CNY Goodies

Janice made me a box of her lovely pineapple tarts and promised me more if she has the time to make another batch! :)

Chloe smelt it and she keep trying to jump on the table and lick the pineapple tarts while I was trying to take pictures of it.. I am not kidding! I have photographic proof!

See? Pineapple tart thief! Hahahaha!

I love Janice's pineapple tarts cos they are very cute looking, the base is super buttery and crumbly and the pineapple is very smooth and not too sweet/tangy. LOVE IT!

Santi guniang also bought a whole cake lapis and a box of pineapple tarts for us!

Yum Yum Yums! Thank you Santi!

One of my customers gave me a box of cookies too!

Lots of CNY goodies coming my way when I just decided I wanna lose weight.... 8kg! OMFL! I was looking at the pictures I took from last April compared to now.... it's like I turned into a hippo or something. :( Sad lah!

Oscars @ Conrad Centennial Hotel

Yaya's birthday was on 13 January but she was in Nepal, so we only get to celebrate her belated birthday on 23 January instead. :)

She initially wanted to treat us dinner at International Building's Rice Table, but Pipimon told her the food standards dropped by a lot and it's not really nice compared to the Suntec Outlet which closed down.

So, at the very last minute she changed it to Oscars at Conrad Hotel!

A super big "upgrade" from the Rice Table dinner cos it's S$58++ per person!! T_T" Even after her UOB Card promotion, it still came up to over S$200... Thank you Yaya for the super duper yummy treat! It's one of the best buffets I had in a while... mainly because they have a fantastic Caesar Salad! ^^

Here's Yaya (& my kitty mascot at the corner) posing with the table of food! :D

Cheese Bar!

The dessert corner is a bit boring cos there's very limited desserts available.

Joyce & Pipimon!

Pipimon nomming!

Yaya's Oysters.. Bwahahaha!

My Laksa! Slurps!

CAESAR SALAD!!!!!!!!!!

And this is how the chef makes it!

IN A GIANT BOWL OF CHEESE! SUPER OHMYGODYUMMYHEAVEN LAH!

He will scrap the cheese first, than put in the veggies + sauce than I will put the condiments myself. OOOH! Super nice! I wanna go back just for this!!!!

Yaya chose all the ice-cream lah! Wahahaha!

SEE?!?! SCARY!!! BUT YUMMY!

After a few hours of nomming, we finally gave her the belated presents we bought for her... A perfume from Etude House, TWG Tea and Shu Umera cosmetics! ^^

Love!

Girls' Group picture!

Thank you Yaya for the wonderful birthday treat! :)

BBQ @ Aloha Loyang

My ex-colleagues from CTC decided to have an impromptu gathering at Aloha Loyang today.

The location is at Terrace A, which coincidentally is the exact same unit where my secondary school classmate, Cindy held her 21st birthday. Weird.

I met Nathaniel after work at 6.15pm at Outram MRT and we took a train down to Pasir Ris before cabbing to Aloha Loyang. When we arrived at Pasir Ris MRT, I pointed out my old house (Blk 584) to Nat and he was like "Woah! The house very big leh! Why you moved?". That stupid idiot forgot my parents divorced and sold the flat. T_T"

We bought some more munchies from Old Chang Kee and arrived at the chalet around 7.15pm.


Anyway, I was glad they ordered BBQ Wholesale items cos I love their sambal chili! Best in the world! We cooked sambal hotdogs, fishballs and crabmeats! Ultra yummy!

Sambal Fishballs!

Playing with my new camera~

Smile Detection works great...

Self-shots a bit tricky & all the pic looks blurred.. :(

Elson (far right) and Mei was the organizer of the event. Props to them for making the effort to gather some of us up for a get-together..

Nat went to buy a Strawberry cake after his work and very smart of him to make me carry the cake from Outram Park all the way to Pasir Ris (I was standing some more hor!). I was so afraid I will smash the cake cos I am super clumsy with cakes... This is our contribution to the gathering. :) Each person was to bring a food item or contribute $20, and we both bought this $46 cake! ^^

This is the same cake that Nat had during his birthday last July, though it's much much smaller in size.. hahaha!

YUMMYLICIOUS!

He's pretending it's his birthday again.. Wahahahaha!

5 of us, including Dennis who refused to be in the picture cos he don't want photographic proof of our pigging out session, was hiding behind in the kitchen devouring 1/3 of the cake amongst us after distributing 2/3 of the cake to the others. Instead of eating it in slices, we just used forks and dig into the cake. Super fun and super shiok!