Arbite

Went to Arbite for brunch recently with Trish and Chan. Brunch is now our usual activity whenever we meet up haha. Poor kaii had to work so she couldn't join us for brunch that day.

What we ordered:

Arbite breakfast.This is very filling as it had all the typical breakfast ingredients in one plate. It's similar to Food for Thought's and although Arbite's serving is smaller, it's enough for a girl like me to finish. P.S. the baked beans were in bbq sauce and not the typical sauce we always have!

Smoked salmon smorgasbord.Love the smell of the spices on the foccacia bread. The bread is soft and goes well w the salmon and scrambled egg. The taste is just normal to me but its good.

Tagliatelle w prawn aglio olio.

Had some fun trying to pronounce the first word hahaha. I still don't know the exact pronunciation tho lol. The pasta was a tad dry and Trish said it tasted like meepok. I think it's because of the chilli and the texture of the pasta? Haha!

Last but not the least, my wife's chocolate cake!
The cake is rich in chocolate and moist but it doesn't give the jelat feeling at all. Perfect match w the ice cream!

All in all, the breakfast prices were pretty reasonable and the environment is cosy for friends to gather. It might get a bit warm there but I think it's because the cafe is full house that's why.

I'm back!

After a hiatus of about 2 and a half years, I've decided to return to the blogosphere! I think posting regularly and esp of certain key events are meaningful as it helps me to rmb what I have experienced and it would be nice to reminisce the good old stuff if I ever look back at my archives. 

So I'm back! Back to blogging :)

Hi!! Haven't been blogging lately, too shagged from work these days esp last week! Last week was so hectic, it was like work, go out, sleep, work, go out, sleep. I hardly had the time to use the computer!! Now that I'm here already, I don't know what to blog too lol. Too many things have happened, maybe I shall just briefly blog about my birthday!!

This year was a rather cool birthday for me cos my lunar birthday happened to be a day before my actual birthday which meant that I had 2 consecutive birthdays this year!! :D

So on my lunar birthday, I went to Timbre with Xiaotian, Joanne, Gena and Wanqi!!

Our drinks!!



Roast duck pizza ftw

Eaten this before when you were young? For me, it's a no and they were shocked to hear it. Haha sorry no childhood lol.

Celebration!


Only group photo but xt and me blinked!

And Shaoyun happened to be the one who helped us take the pic! Gena didn't even know that she was from our sch when she approached her to help us take the grp pic haha.

They sang a birthday song for me! And also for the rest who celebrated their birthday there that day. But my name was called first! Hahahaha.

The next day, which was my actual birthday, I celebrated with my family first and we had dinner at Din Tai Fung.

Love the biscuit part of the cake!!



Afterwhich, I went to meet the trombonists for drinking session! First time gng to Clarke Quay so late at night, I was kinda uncomfortable with all the smoke in the air and walking around alone waiting for the rest to come. Thankfully, Jess came soon and we had a mini birthday celebration first with the rest before heading to Yellow Jello to finish up the half bottle of Jack Daniels they left the other time. The pub was rly noisy and the heavy downbeat of the music made my heart thump at the same time as the music goodness. I feel rly kuku hahahaha

And guess what, I met shaoyun AGAIN!! Such a coincidence, isn't it?

We finished the bottle rly fast, prob cos there were like 6 of us? After walking a few rounds, we finally settled for Clinic which has cool drinks like this!!

This is what they called Blood Tranfusion. Doesn't taste alcoholic, more like Ribena lol!

Shots

We were high on alcohol I suppose haha cos after Clinic, we were still not satisfied and went to Forbidden City for more!

Still have half a bottle left, which means we gotta go back to finish, the second time we are keeping a drink!

Char and Meixin went hyper after that, which was quite a hilarious sight. Throughout our walk to City Hall, Char was swaying and Meixin was laughing madly to herself lol. Luckily the 4 of us were still sober so we tried to watch out for them in case they walked too fast and got out of our sight. Later at Macs, they kept laughing at each other and talking crazily in their sub-conscious state haha. And I missed my night rider! Should have taken the bus straight from Clarke Quay :/

Rainbow bridge



Char was sober by then haha. Many things happen in between, like how I couldn't stop Char from leaving Macs to go to the ATM machine and she ended up walking drowsily across the road to ATM (!) Lucky Jess saw her and quickly attend to her omg. I thought el and xueli would be able to stop her since they were downstairs that time (Char and me were upstairs) We then stayed on to chat till about 6 plus before taking the first train home.

Then on Monday, 2 days after my actual birthday, I met Sinyi, Vaish and Desmond!

Haven't seen them for almost 2 months gosh! Chatted a lot over dinner at Soupalicious, we talked about almost everything under the sun, like about our jobs, driving etc. It was great meeting up with them. There were some hiccups during the meet-up like how Sinyi lost her way at Citylink and walked all the way to Suntec and Vaish being caught up at work. It was only later that I realised it was some sort of drama created by the 3 of them just to spare them time to get me donuts and candles for my birthday! Desmond even brought me to Esplanade to take a look at some exhibition! Haha, but I rly thank them for their thoughtfulness cos I rly thought they were caught up at work/ lost their way haha. Nice surprise, I must say. I only realised it when I asked Vaish how long she OT-ed haha. She thought I had alrdy figured that it was all a drama actually! Sorry Vaish, but I can be quite a blockhead at times lol.

Okay I'm tired. CNY is coming, I don't feel the festive season coming to me yet. Prob cos my hse is not deco-ed yet and this year, my cousin is gng to Malaysia with her hubby to spend the new year, which means our family gathering will be smaller, and even quieter. But that's for the paternal side, hopefully there will be more fun, laughter and joy at the maternal side!

Mum just saw on the newspaper that mahjong tiles and table are selling at $38.88! Dad doesn't want but we are persuading him to get it!! Hahahaha. Yay play mahjong! I want play mahjong during the new year!! :D But must play with relatives, cos if I were to play with my family, we will always be 三缺一! LOL.

Aim : To finish packing my room before my birthday.

GOGOGO!!

I passed my BTT! Woohoo~ Hahahha. A lot of questions were kinda repeated from the e-trial so all was good! I finished within 5 min! :D Like wah right, hahahaha. But I was afraid that a 'FAIL' would appear on the screen once I ended the test immediately so I went to double-check my ans again and yay I PASSED! But I realised I applied for my PDL too early :/ I forgot that the PDL can only last for 6 mths and I went to apply when my first practical lesson only starts in March! OMGOMG. I'm so gundu !!!!! Now I pray that I would have enough time to obtain my license before my PDL expires, if not I gotta pay another 25 bucks! T.T

Just came back from the childcare centre and I miss the kids so much! :D Kids are rly adorable at their tender young age! Young, sweet, innocent and pure! And not forgetting their chubby cheeks and lovely smiles! :D Ahhh my heart melted when my fav boy hugged my leg and smiled before leaving!!! Like omg he's the cutest kid on Earth!!!! I will miss him dearly! I'm not allowed to post the pics I have taken but if you guys wanna see my fav boy and fav girl and of course the rest of the cutey kids haha, do ask me if we meet up! I will be glad to show you guys! :D

My parents should have given me more siblings!! Then I can play with them! :) But then again, when they grow up, it's a different thing.. They will not be as cute as last time. If only they could always stay as a 3 year old, I will be happy to take care of them! Okay, this is nonsense. I'm not gonna have another sibling, if I rly have one now thats insane! It will be almost a 20 year gap omg! I shall admire the pics I have with the kids and treasure the moments we once shared :) No more working at the childcare aww, I've got another job! :) *kaching kaching* hopefully all goes well for this new job!

HAHAHA i'm very excited now. Was talking to Trish and Chan about where to go for my birthday celebration and we brought up so many drinking places! Hahaha. Timbre, Zirca, Forbidden, DXO... okay I think that's all actually lol. I was telling them about free flow of house pour spirits at DXO on Sat and they were so thrilled! Lol! I think we are between Zirca and DXO for now and I'm fine with both. Just that I feel like gng to Timbre too! Cos Timbre is like open air, feels kinda like a peaceful place with the live band playing... Someone pls ask me out to go Timbre? :) Hahaha omg am I that despo!

Day 4!

We saw on Jetstar magazine a recommendation for breakfast at Australia Dairy Company, which is located at Jordan, near our hotel! We chanced upon the shop during one of our days in HK and decided to go have a try that very morning! It was very crowded and we had to share a table with someone else. And as usual, menu is in Chinese but at least I know what the food is now lol.

Our sumptuous breakfast!
The scramble eggs with cheese sandwich is the best! I love the toast too!
Very delicious! Must come back for more the next time I go to HK!
No wonder so many ppl patronise the shop!

After breakfast, we walked around before heading back to the hotel to prepare for check-out. We had to pay an extra 85 HKD for service charge every night! Damn, it was not mentioned in the website that there is an extra charge! I thought everything was alrdy included in the price we had originally paid. Ahhh. Should try other hotels next time. They must have thought we were nice to bully :( First, there's no king-sized bed then next it's the service charge thing sigh. But anyway, I also don't rly fancy a fixed shower hose for bathing so I don't mind trying another hotel next time. Maybe will try to go back to Eaton? Heard Mum said that Nathan also has a fixed shower hose, if not I would prefer to stay at Nathan next time haha.

We left our luggages at the hotel lobby before heading to Mongkok to look for Hang Heung Wife's Biscuits! Had to ask for directions a lot of times along the way before finding the shop finally. And in the midst of finding the shop, I bought this to try!

The cup is bigger than Chan's hand!
It was such a big cup and costs only 12 HKD. I see a lot of ppl buying drinks from the shop (Gong Cha) everywhere I go so I thought I should give it a try.
It tastes good but the expiry is within one hour so must finish quickly haha!

After buying our goodies, we went for dimsum!

This is ultimate joke LOL. We wanted pepper for our sharks fin soup which didn't come with the bowl served earlier so when the next waitress came with our carrot cake, I saw the pepper bottle on her tray so I asked for it. And you know what she did?
SHE POURED THE PEPPER ONTO THE CARROT CAKE!
We were stunned.
Then I had to explain to her again that we want the pepper bottle not pepper for our carrot cake LOLOLOLOL.
So we ended up with a peppery carrot cake to eat but luckily she didn't pour that much so can't rly taste the pepper hahahaha.
And just as I thought how weird that waitress was, I noticed that ppl DO ADD PEPPER ONTO THEIR CARROT CAKE.
This is rly weird custom.
Pepper on carrot cake?!
Hahaha.

After dimsum, we walked around and bought some more goodies from Wing Wah before gng back to the hotel to claim our luggage and make our way to the airport! We were a bit lost at first cos we couldn't find the free shuttle bus to bring us back to Kowloon where we could take the airport express again. I checked with the hotel crew and they said there is no free shuttle bus here to Kowloon, which is weird. If there is a free shuttle bus to Jordan, why is there no free shuttle bus back to Kowloon?

But anyway, we managed to find the shuttle bus bus-stop in the end (not the same place as where the bus alighted us during the first day but further ahead) and we took an airport express from Kowloon to the airport!

We were there early so we spent A LOT OF TIME at the disneyland shop in the airport. We spent hours there omg and it was only ONE SHOP. Imagine if we had gone to disneyland, we probably need the whole day to shop, can't even play! Hahaha but we won't lose out in any way cos Disneyland's rides are too kiddy. But still, I don't mind gng to Disneyland the next time I visit HK though. Can buy a lot of cute stuffs! Hahahaha.

We had dinner at the airport before gng to immigration counter. It was quite a hassle getting to our plane cos we had to take a train and then a bus before we could get onto our plane.

We did a lot of self-entertainment on the plane back like this!

Japanese got ninja warrior, we got our french fries warrior!
Muahahahahha.

We even did a video with this french fries warrior which turned out to be quite funny! Hahahaha.
The plane back home was very stuffy, think the plane turned on the warmer or sth. It was not as cold as when we were gng to HK, I took off my sweater and still feel very hot, like suffocating omg. Luckily it turned cooler later on.


Can you see some twinkling things in this picture? It's the stars in the nightsky! Doesn't look very nice taken in picture but looks beautiful if you can see it in person cos the sky is just full of these stars!

Okay that marks the end of my first getaway with friends woohoo! A wonderful and memorable experience! And as you can see, day 4 was nth much cos we were practically looking for things to do. Check out the photo album title for day 4 on facebook HAHAHAHA. We still had a lot of fun and hopefully there would be more of such trips coming up? Hehe. But that means I also need to start saving a lot and hopefully the next time Kaii can join us!

Day 3!

We went to Ocean Park! Hehe it was my first time gng and I was so excited cos there are thrilling rides to be taken!

Our tickets! So cute right! We get to keep our tickets!

The dolphins that greeted us at the entrance!

Ocean Park!

There were many attractions to be seen too! It's like a zoo cum underwater world cum theme park!

And the first animal we saw was...

PANDA!!
I didn't expect to see a real panda there! Panda so cute! And rly can eat a lot! It just keeps eating non-stop haha.


Our first ride was the carousel! Have not taken it for ages! Felt like I was reliving my childhood over again riding the carousel :D

For a trial turbo drop, we took this!

HAHAHAHA KIDDY TURBO DROP!

It was so kiddy that Chan and me couldn't take tgr cos there is only one adult seat. Lol. And Chan was so scared that she made me to take it first! I was quite scared at first but later I found it quite okay, my heart didn't feel like it was gng to drop haha so it's alright!

Haha!

We then took a train to the other side of the ocean park where all the thrilling rides were!

Started off with a mild game - flying swing!
We are flyingggg~
Such a breezer flying up there! A pity Trish didn't join us but well at least she helped us take a lot of pics!! In fact, Trish didn't take any rides with us except the carousel and the ferris wheel!

We went for pirate ship next, thinking it was peanuts just like how my mum thought so when she came here for her honeymoon haha. She went up to the highest end and regretted immediately when it started. She was screaming for the crew to stop but obviously, it didn't HAHA.

Chan and me were not like my mum lah, I wanted to sit higher but Chan insisted on the second lowest. And it was still quite scary despite on the second lowest row HAHA. Well, if you think it in another way, the second lowest row turn out to be the third highest row HAHAHAHA so it's still quite scary k! I lifted up one hand at the one point (the other hand holding onto Chan lol) and Chan said my butt lifted up too at that point! Haha.

And it was a very contradictory sight I see at the opposite side of the pirate ship. One woman sitting at the highest level was raising both her arms high up in the sky, enjoying the game thoroughly while another sitting at the second highest was having some sort of asthma attack throughout the ride. She seemed like gasping for breath the entire ride and I pity the man sitting behind her (her husband I assume) cos he had to keep comforting her and couldn't enjoy the ride fully lol.

Zoom in to see the expression on the lady in front of us. HAHAHAHA

Went to take The Dragon afterwards
I had to take off my spects for this ride so couldn't feel much but when it was gng up the tracks my face, being sandwiched between the protective gear (?) HAHA okay its the you know when you sit for a ride, you have to pull this safety thing down? er.. okay the main thing is my head was sandwiched between it and when it was gng up, my head kept jerking between left and right, and my ear stud kept poking me!! Omg, damn painful! But overall, the ride is not say very scary so it's okay!

We then took eagle which was a big mistake cos it made Chan and me so giddy that we thought we need to rest before taking the actual turbo drop in case we vomit halfway haha! Chan didn't want to take the ride at first, thank god I managed to persaude her! Hahaha, cos I know if I don't take it now, I don't know when is the next time I will ever enter Ocean Park lol. My parents are most likely not gng to come to Ocean Park with me and I won't want to take all the rides alone :(

TURBO DROP!!

The frightening part is the way up cos it moves up very slowly and when you think it's alrdy very high, IT IS STILL MOVING UP. And then the hanging in the air for 10 seconds, gosh. You don't know when to be prepared to plunge down and before you do anything, you are on your way down lol. The worst part is the moment you drop down, it goes up again. WAH I WAS STARTING TO MAKE VERY FUNNY SOUNDS THEN HAHAHA. That's according to Chan lol. I thought I was screaming hahaha but the ride ended quite soon so perhaps no time to actually scream yet? Lol!

Went for lunch and took the flume ride. we didn't want to get ourselves wet so we bought a poncho there and it costs us 25 HKD, which is about 5 SGD! Very expensive! But at least, it kept us dry! And the seal performance is rly nice! Must watch it when you're there! A pity we couldn't watch/ feed the dolphins cos this period is their rest time. So don't go to Ocean Park between 4th and 29th Jan yea? Cos it's winter and the dolphins must keep themselves warm and not catch a cold! (I'm guessing it's because of this that's why they are not performing)

Visited the Atoll Reef and Sea Jelly Spectacular later. Shall let the pics do the talking.

Nemo!

It's smiling at the camera!

I love all my jellyfish pics!

We took a cable car back to the entrance of the Ocean Park so that we could leave for our next destination - Victoria Harbour!

We were there early for the Symphony of Lights at 8pm so we walked along the Avenue of Stars first.

My hands fitted the handprints of this particular artiste!

The Symphony of Lights was rly pretty but standing out in the cold for 15min watching the performance is a bit unbearable because my hands were very cold after that. Think it's because the whole time I was video-recording the laser beam display that's why.

We then went back to the shop we patronised on the first day for dinner!

Sharks fin!

And then it was shopping at temple street before home sweet home!