Merry Christmas 2013!

Have you ever wondered how and why time passes so quickly yet when you take a step backwards and look at it, it seems only a short time has passed? #Cheemthinkingoftheday

Anyways, this morning we went to Lighthouse Woodlands to watch the Christmas drama. Mama & Papa Chew went to attend the Mandarin session while Cheryl, Le Hubby and I went for the English session. Pamela goes to a different church so she did not join us.

After the service, we went our separate ways because the parents-in-law have a lunch appointment (sometimes the older folks are more "happening" than us). We decided to go to Changi City Point for lunch because we had to collect the food that Mama Chew ordered from NTUC for our Xmas Party tonight at our home.

Lunch was at a Japanese-Italian restaurant where we had pasta! We ordered the combo set so it comes with drink, dessert and 2 different pastas. All of us had different tastes and it showed when we ordered Set A, Set B, Set C respectively.. Haha! Mine was the Vongole pasta + Carbonara pasta.. yums!

We ordered all 3 different desserts so we could share! :)

My favourite is the Mango pudding!

Afterwards we walked around for a bit and shopped a bit before collecting the food that Mama Chew ordered from NTUC then headed home so I can prepare for tonight's party! :)

I set up my own mini buffet line at home! Whee!

Mama Chew's BBFF (beyond best friend forever) Aunty Mona & her husband joined us for our dinner.. and I invited Nat & Ray along too! They also brought extra food to supplement my buffet line! Yay! :) My sister came along and she took a few pictures of me cooking cos she want to show my future kids that their mother can actually cook. Mad funny!

It was so nice to spend Christmas with family & the people I love! Yay!

Christmas Eve Party at Nat's!

For the past few years I've been going to Nat's home for Christmas parties! It may not always be on the eve or actual day of Christmas but he'll definitely have one every year..

He is also super sweet to make sure that the party fits my schedule because sometimes I had to be overseas for work and he will just adjust his date accordingly for me. Super duper nice of him! Love him to bits! :)

Last year's party was really short because Le hubby's grandma passed away and we had to be at the wake.

This year he did away with the gift-exchange because he just wants people to go over and eat instead of stressing over what to buy. Lesser people this year because many people are busy with other stuff.

At least he did not buy a "live" tree this year!

Last year he bought a real live tree which smells nice but since our weather is so warm, it started dying before Christmas day! The pine needles kept dropping too and it was a nightmare for him to clean up. This year he bought a plastic tree but as usual, loaded so many ornaments on it that a small push will cause it to topple down. Excessive lahhhh!! Hahahahhaa!

Wany, Nat & Me!

Me & Le hubby!

They said I dressed like a Christmas tree cos I am in Green+Red. Ehh! Must look Christmassy ok?

Close-up of the pink logcake that he bought from Crystal Jade

Nat was busy preparing for the party so I went out to get little presents as door gifts for his guests. I even wrapped them up nicely for him.. then this silly dodo bird forgot to give them out cos he left them under the Xmas tree and was too busy & excited during the party. Kua kua kua.

Tomorrow is Christmas Day! Hope everyone has a fun and enjoyable holiday! :)

Le sister's birthday celebration (Champagne Brunch Grand Hyatt Mezza9)

My sister's birthday was a week ago and we celebrated her birthday today at Grand Hyatt's Mezza9. The last time all of us were here was on 29 September for our wedding banquet! Time really flies!

Grand Hyatt's Mezza9 champagne brunch is really popular and is fully booked for the entire month of December. Our reservation today was made 2 weeks ago and there was only a few tables left! I believe it must be due to the Christmas period and everyone is meeting up to have a festive meal together.

Love the Christmas decor!

We were seated at a really nice corner away from the crowds.

Happy birthday to youuuuuuu!

She didn't want the hotel staff to sing for her cos she was paiseh. -_-

❤ I love you meimei! ❤

Le hubby and I gave her a Hollywood Universal Studio Annual Pass in Los Angeles for her birthday this year cos she will be heading there for an exchange program from Jan-May 2014 for a whole semester.

Then we told her there's a Part 2 to her present.

Brendan: "We have good news for you!"
Sister: *eyes widen.....*
Brendan: "Your sister is..."
Sister: "PREGNANT! YOU ARE PREGNANT!"

So funny we nearly died of laughing! He was going to tell her that I managed to book tickets to accompany her to Los Angeles next month to help her settle down since she has never travelled overseas alone before plus she will be going there 9 days before her schoolmates do..  and she jumped to the conclusion that I was pregnant.. kua kua kua.. But she was also happy about me going over with her though disappointed (me too) that Le hubby can't accompany us because of his work + NS reservice commitments.

Two favourite men in my life!

Brother from another mother & Le hubby!

The buffet is quite expensive. Since my sister and I don't drink, there is a $30 discount per person.. But thankfully it was complimentary because of our wedding in September. It is not part of the wedding package that we paid for, but I received the vouchers after giving them some feedback about a few cockups during our wedding banquet.

The food was alright (my fave is the Illy's coffee freeze!). It's a very nice place to chill and chitchat, but very disappointing service. Le hubby & Nat only drank 2 glasses of champagne cos the other drinks they ordered (cocktails) did not come even after repeatedly reminding the waiters. They gave up in the end. The most maddening thing was I had to remind them FIVE times to serve the surprise cake for my sister which I already requested when I made the booking. Like seriously... 5 times!?!?! I highlighted the matter to 3 waiters, a manager and even to the receptionist at the entrance of the restaurant but the cake did not arrived. Only after I EMAILED them did my cake appear, plus a manager came over to apologize.

Majority of the clientele are foreigners and I think there's only a handful of local Singaporeans there. Many of the guests were drunk after the free flow alcohol and we saw a guy walked and banged into the glass door and dropped his champagne glass.. and another woman fell cos she was so tipsy. -_-

Laneige My Little Winterland Party 2013

Today we went to Laneige's "My Little Winterland Party"!

Nat was bugging me non-stop to accompany him to the party at Pan Pacific Hotel (beside Marina Square Shopping Mall) cos he is a big Laneige fan + a ton of other beauty products that's too many to mention. He is such a beauty junkie!!! Most of his money is spent on CC cream, masks, scrubs, facials, and God-knows-what. 

Sigh. I should be more hardworking like him, but he is too "on" until it's kinda scary. Haha!

The admission fee is $80 per person which is fully redeemable for products.

We were actually the first ones to arrive.. Super kiasu right? We were so early that we had to sit at the sofa area and wait for another 20mins before the doors were opened. LOL!

There is a photobooth at the entrance of the event.

Your photo will be placed in the booklet and you can also go to the caricature booth to have a picture drawn of yourself! The artist drew me as "Wonderwoman". LOL!

Christmas cookies as doorgifts!

Free flow drinks being served by the hotel's waiters. We took the specially concocted Winter Wonderland drink which was Sprite + some blue syrup thingy.

Make your own Snowglobe!

I chose a really fat & cute Santa for mine! Haha!

There were also free makeup sessions (which we did not go for) and other fringe activities. We just bought the items to utilize our $80 x 2 vouchers and head over to Suntec for munchies because since we were so early, there were 2-3hours to kill before the lunch provided by Laniege.

Nat bought so much, he got a free luggage!

20% mine, 80% Nat's loot!

Actually we went to Hong Kong last month and we already bought alot of Laniege products there.. Moreover it was cheaper to buy in Hong Kong than Singapore..Nat is just crazy over beauty products.. as you can see. Hahahahhahaa!

In the ballroom waiting for the event to start..

We had a buffet lunch (not very yummy) before playing some games (our table won! lipgloss for everyone!), pole dancing performance (I know right?), then watched a live makeup demonstration by Cat, a senior makeup artist from Laniege who flown in from Korea specially for this event. Her model was Qiuting, aka Bongqiuqiu. Finally was the lucky draw which both of us didn't win anything cos we don't have that kind of luck. Haha!

After the event we went given giftbags filled with Laniege sample products and some cutesy stuff like pen, towel, notebook.. Quite a good haul! :)

Bangkok Trip with Le Hubby

Le hubby had to go to Bangkok for business for a few days so I tagged along! Heh heh! I love tagging along on his business trips. ^_^

 

Four Square check-in upon arrival in Bangkok!

The last time I came to Bangkok was with Le hubby last year January 2012. That was our first overseas trip together and where he asked me to be his girlfriend. :) Read about it here.

I love the multi coloured taxis in Bangkok, especially the pink ones!

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Bangkok Siam.

Complimentary coffee, tea & 2 bottled of waters per day.

There's no bathtub but the bathroom was big and very clean.

A lot of people go to Thailand for shopping.. but I prefer shopping in angmoh countries like Australia & USA, UK because they have my size. In Bangkok it's mostly small sizes or 'free' sizes so I am not really interested in going shopping. Instead of shopping, we went eating!

Local food FTW!

Fried noodles, duck noodle soup, pork belly rice and strangely.. takoyaki!

Supper in our room! :)

I love thai chendol! Yummy!

Mad love the Mango Sticky Rice! So different from Singapore's version.

It was so nice I tabao more from the hawker on the street!

Actually I can't eat mango cos I was having a really terrible cough. We flew to Bangkok just 1 day after returning from Hong Kong, and I fell sick the night before we flew back.. the cold and cough I had that (might be the cold weather, but Wany said I ate too many mango desserts there..) mutated into something worse while I was in Bangkok. The copious amount of Mango Sticky rice I ate made my condition worse... but somehow miraculously I recovered on the last day before I flew back to Singapore! LOL! Fight poison with poison!

To prove my point.. EAT FRENCH FRIES!

Huge Mcdonald's french fries!

SOOO BIGGGG!

I didn't know how big the fries were.. the countergirl asked if I wanna "Upsize" and I said "Ok". Little did I know that it's soooo big! LOL!

Le hubby is a Mcdonald's fanboy. He must eat it once whenever we visit another country. Must must must. Even in Japan where there's so much yummy food to choose from, my hubby insist in having Mcdonald's for dinner. -_- He said it's his dream to try all the Mcdonald's in the whole world. Hahahahhahaa...

A visit to Bangkok is never complete without having a meal at one of my favourite steamboat restaurants!

The roast duck is so damn good. Omg. So good.

Le hubby with the mushroom plate!

Same one we had last year! Heehee!

The Christmas decorations are up in all the shopping mall!

On a more serious note.. the demonstrations in Bangkok are heating up.. One day when Le hubby had to go to the factory to view some machines, I decided to take a cab to Central World shopping mall for lunch. The bellhop told me that it will be faster to walk as "the roads are closed". He did not tell me there was a protest going on.

So I walked from our hotel to Central World.. which was around 15mins away by foot. I wanted to take a cab cos I am a lazy pig. It was so warm! Especially when I just came back from Hong Kong where the weather was so cooling!

Since I seldom go to Bangkok, I don't really know the place well so instead of using the skybridge, I walked along the main road. While walking, I saw a crowd upfront where the roads were closed.

I thought it was some daytime pasar malam where there's food stalls and also stalls selling Thailand flags for souveniers. Obviously I am someone who do not read the news because at the moment in time I had no idea there was a political unrest in Bangkok. 

The food trucks were handing out food for free because there's no money involved and I see people queuing up and taking bowls of food and just walking away without handing over any coupons or money. 

I realized it was no ordinary event when I saw someone giving a speech on top of a lorry, and when the crowd responded very enthusiastically whenever he said something that seems very forceful. Like "Blah blah blah blah.. BLAH BLAH BLAHHHHHHHH!!" and the crowd will cheer, blow their whistles and wave the Thai flag.

Video #1

Video #2

After seeing someone attempting to cut off the power lines that belonged to the Thai Royal Police Headquarters did it finally dawned upon me that I am in the middle of a demonstration and things could get ugly and I might die or something in the worst case scenario if I get caught between crossfire. No one can save me because the local people are storming the police headquarters! If the policemen are being attacked, who's gonna protect the tourist who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?

I know the Thai people has a reputation of being kind, warm & gentle.. but you have not stood in the middle of a protest where the feelings of resentment is so strong that even I, a foreigner who doesn't know the language or shit about what's going on can feel it...

Have you ever heard of "Herd Behaviour"? Read more about it on Wikipedia here. Things can turn violent with a simple spark.. and there's really nowhere to run.

While taking the video above, someone came over to me and started yelling at me in Thai. He's super fierce and super aggressive. Then another person handed me a flag and yelled "GO THAILAND!" in my face and I just waved the flag and walked quickly towards the shopping mall so I can be safe from the protest, waving it frantically everytime the speaker yell something loudly in Thai and the crowd cheer.

Fucking scary shit.

Le hubby wanted to meet me at the shopping mall cos I was so traumatized, but since all the roads were closed I decided to tabao food and walk back to the hotel. On the way back I made sure to sure the sky bridge so I can avoid the crowds below. In case of stampede, at least I am safe from any cross fire and I can run away quickly in the opposite direction.

Below are some pictures I took from the skybridge.

I went to read on the reasons behind the demonstrations and realized it's not as simple as it seems.. a lot of other government buildings are also being surrounded by the protesters who are trying to force the Prime Minister out of office. I believe the protest will continue on until early next year, so I think now is not the best time to visit Bangkok. In fact, our Singapore government has issued a statement urging Singaporeans to avoid travelling to Thailand unless necessary.

About me not reading the news.. I don't like to read news because it's full of negativity. Disasters, murders, rapists, economic downturns, fare hikes, yadah yadah yadah. All sad shit.. or just a load of propaganda nonsense. I'm not really one of those people who has to be "in the know" with the happenings of the world.. I only read the news when I absolutely have to or when I am extremely bored and there's nothing else to read.

Anyways, other than the scary protest that I stumbled into accidentally, the trip went well without any hiccups. The only thing I hate about Bangkok is the taxi drivers.. scumbags who overcharge a few times the normal fare! Isn't there any regulatory system in Bangkok to enforce the rule that all taxi drivers MUST use the meter to charge the fare? Compulsory metered taxis are one of the reasons why I love living in Singapore. I hate haggling with scumbag taxi drivers who tell you "Same same" when they want to charge you THB200 for a THB60 ride. Seriously!?!?! Go to hell lah.. You wanna overcharge tourists just to make a living.. fine. But don't overcharge so much! It's daylight robbery!

I think the best solution is to stay in a good location where you can either take the train or walk to the shopping malls.. do not rely on Tut tut and taxis!