Packed Saturday! ^_^

Sunny Saturday, sunglasses is a MUST! :)

:) Mr decided to drive out for our weekly Saturday date! 

Picked me up slightly later because he missed the exit and went all the way to NTU. -__-" I guess can't blame him too much since I usually drive myself home and he, on the other hand, will be busy with his iPhone. 

Anyway, first stop was to get some food for a late brunch. I came across this cafe: Department of Caffeine from Instagram and decided to give it a try. 

1-page menu

We did not make any reservations and tried our luck with walk-in. It was quite crowded partly due to a birthday party celebration which took up most of the seats. 

So we had to wait, and in the end, we were only left with the bar seats facing the road, aka beside the main door. Limited varieties on your menu, but enough to be spoil for choice. Usually when it's my first time to a cafe, I couldn't make up my mind on what to order. It's like you wanna try something new, but also want to eat something simple and see whether it's up to the standard. *LOL!*

We ordered a starter, a main & a cup of Mocha since Mr. is not feeling too well that day.

Starter: Soba noodles, wakame & herb salad, $12 (regular)

Very refreshing and the soba are just nicely cooked. Simple, yet easy on your taste buds. *Like!* Portion is quite big, so would recommend to share this if you're planning to order another main for yourself. :)

Main: From the Kitchen: D.O.C Breakfast Platter, $18

The picture said it all: Scrambled eggs & bacon with the meatloaf on toasted brioche, served with tomato confit & cheese bocconcini. 

Ok, so I'm supposed to comment on the brioche, but my 1st bite was the tomato and it was so soft and juicy. HAHAHA! Scrambled eggs are quite normal, tasted like just another sandwich. Not too bad, but have tasted better. :) 

Definitely going back to try out other main courses. ^^

I'm not a caffeine addict / lover, just occasionally have the urge to have a cuppa. :)

*Caffeine will eat my iron away! NOOOOO!*

Coffee art is quite standard, not sure was it because the place was crowded and the art done is simple to cater to everyone. I have seen some 3D art works and definitely wanna go see them! I know I would not want to drink and destroy all the art work! *LAUGHS!*

:) Enjoying his breakfast platter, and always on the lookout for the Summon Auntie! *LOL!*

Department of Caffeine

Address: 15 Duxton Road, Singapore 089481

Telephone: 6223 3426 (remember to make a reservation!)

Opening Hours: 10:30 am - 7:30 pm

After the quick brunch, we went to collect some stuff near Central, and we had no choice but to pass the ERP which cost $2!!! *OMG!* Seriously, driving in Singapore is not CHEAP! For the sake of convenient? No, I would still prefer public transport. *_*

2nd part of the day: Garden by the Bay to visit the Tulipmania! ^_^!

While on our way, the magnificent Singapore Flyer

The iconic Super trees at GBTB

The trip was supposed to be see all the tulips bloom, but the day before, they changed all the buds so most of them were not fully open yet. Quite wasted as I wanted to see a whole field of tulips. 

Some random photos of the flowers........

:) Weather is good, and inside the dome is quite cooling. 

The Holland-themed pavilion with lots of wooden clogs hanging around :)

We managed to clear both domes within 2 hours, before rushing down to Kallang for the Nike She Runs 2013.

Here's a preview, will upload more in the next post! :)

And also, more on the Taiwan trip, which is super long overdue! -______-"

Prelude to Eve of Mother's Day! :)

Just a super short random post! :)

First look at Tulipmania, GBTB, MBS

Spent the afternoon inside the Flower Dome, Garden by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands. They're having the Tulipmania event, so we decided to drop by and have a look! :)

More photos on the next post, and also updates on the Nike Shes Run 5km 2013! 

It was pretty fun having the girls back together for a short run in the evening! ^_^!!!

Update soon!

May Day Date

:) Supposed to go hiking at MacRitchie Reservoir Park early in the morning with Mr. Lin. 

But the moment I woke up and saw my phone flooded with messages, I knew I overslept! >.<""

 Flooded with whatsapp messages

-_-" First time I got so many messages from Mr. Lin within a few minutes! *LOL!* And yeah, you can track people with the iPhone! *WOW!*

So plans changed, and we decided to go in Malaysia just to eat shop look and maybe a hair pampering session at KSL. :):):) 

P.S: KSL can be reached by taking a bus at the bus terminal after crossing the Custom.

Walked around and it's so crowded with people doing nails, facial and hair treatments. Don't quite understand why it's so crowded, maybe it's Public Holiday and they just want some pampering stuff. So we decided to go back City Square and make our way home (to avoid the super long jam).

Stopped by City Square to have our super late lunch or early dinner. Didn't realized that City Square changed so much, lots of new restaurant and there's still a lot of renovation work going on.

And we stopped first at a Taiwanese Food Restaurant to have some snacks!

 :) Their recommended drink: 绿盖茶, which is similar to Machiato :)

 

One of the must eat in Taiwan - 卤肉饭

 盐酥鸡 & Fried Crispy 金针菇

The usual snacks from Taiwan, enough to suppress our hunger, but leave enough room for more! :)

D.E.S.S.E.R.T.S!!!

And guess what? .................................

I found the famous Hong Kong Dessert Parlor: Hui Lau Shan (许留山)! HAHAHAHA! Now we can easily eat this desserts as we don't have to fly to Hong Kong! ^_^!!!

芒之恋; 3 different types of Mango Dessert, sorbet, mango glutinous rice ball, mango puree

Mixed fruit platter with all the mango sorbet at the bottom :)

 

:) Non-stop eating again, and it's time to exercise! *BLEAH!*

Taiwan Escapade 2012: Part 5 - Taichung Day 2 (日月潭 1-day tour)

4th day in Taiwan! :)

Woke up early even though had a late night. Need to kick start our Sun Moon Lake (SML) 1-day trip early because we are going to find our own way there! ^^

Did some research online and found that there's an express bus 南投汽車客運 that specially served return trips to SML at interval schedules daily.

Bus ticket to SML, and the 1-day pass from SML information counter

:) Took us quite some time before we managed to find the shuttle bus company to get our tickets. We got to find our own directions to the bus stop and it wasn't easy cause the information I found online wasn't that direct. In the end, we had to ask directions along the way, and we had to pass through a wet market (which was quite an eye opener, because there's live chickens everywhere!).

Lucky we did find the bus stop and was in time for the next bus (which was leaving in about 10 minutes time). :) Journey was spent sleeping on off and watching some Taiwanese variety show. It's about an hour plus trip, and along the way the bus stopped to fetch more passengers. :) 

:) Here at Sun Moon Lake! *Pictures' color are slightly enhanced.*

Weather was quite sunny but at comfortable temperature. Beautiful view of the hills and clear water when we reached the pier. The most convenient way of traveling around SML is by the boat, which is unlimited rides if you purchase any tickets from the "tour agency" at the Shuishe pier (main pier). Of course there are the taxi and bus but the total distance covered will be much longer since you have to make a big round around the hills.

 Hotels located around SML :)

There's lots of small hotels around SML, thus you can choose to stayover for a night and enjoy the scenery and maybe catch the sunrise in the morning?

:) On the boat towards our first destination - I Ta Thao (伊达邵)

At  伊达邵, you will see more of the tribal group heritage, and there's a cable car ride to the other side of the Island where there's an outdoor theme park. Can't say much about this park though since we didn't purchase the admission ticket. Unless you're planning to stay for the night, if not you might not have enough time to play all the rides.

 A short walk to the cable car station :)

The whole ride takes about 15 minutes and you'll get a bird eye view of almost the whole lake. It's really pretty up there! :) And the good thing is when we were there, there wasn't much crowd and thus we could have the whole cable car to ourselves! :):):)

 The famous 阿婆茶叶蛋! :)

Spent almost an hour plus at  I Ta Thao, and we moved on to the 玄光寺, which is famous for the 阿婆茶叶蛋! :) The tour guide told us that the record number of eggs sold in 1 day was 15k, and each egg cost NT$10, meaning that she made NT$150000 in 1 day! Ok, if you can't imagine how much that it, well it's about SGD$6.5K! O.O!!! 

That's about 2 months of my salary! -____-"

HAHAHAHA! So yeah, she makes really good tea egg. Her secret? 

Well, I guess she uses the best tea leaves from the mountains and also the additional ingredients - mushrooms which I don't see it in Singapore! 

Too bad I didn't get to see her in person, most probably resting at home (she's quite old actually) or maybe up in the mountains plucking tea leaves. :):):)

Well, this sort of summarize the 1-day tour at SML! I strongly encourage you guys to visit this when you're in Taichung. It's BEAUTIFUL! :):):)

More coming up, and now we're back to Taipei! *WHEEE!* :):):) 

Super ON friends I have! :):):)

Started Tuesday with a heavy heart because of S.P.C Meeting in the afternoon! *ewwwww!* 

But then something really brighten up my day! Guess what....!

I JUST BOUGHT AIR TICKETS TO PHUKET! :):):)

That was me, 2 years ago, counting down to 2012! ^_^!!!

Yeah, I know, it's Phuket again! >.<"" HAHAHAHA! My 4th trip there since 2 years ago! ^_^!!! 

Well, it's a totally random because QL just sent a message over during my morning passdown and said that return tickets only $152/pax to Phuket, and I totally couldn't concentrate on the meeting. *bleah!* Though the dates are still quite far away, and I might have not be able to commit, thinking about the white sandy beaches just can't stop me from buying! *WINK!* 

Immediately we start to whatsapp the rest of the Dearies and also I wanted to ask BFF along since she haven't been there before. ^_^!!!

Side note: BFF, shall promise to bring you on the Taiwan trip next year! Only us! :):):)

Great response from the Dearies and before lunch time is over, 8 of us already bought our tickets! *WOW!* This is by far the fastest response and attendance we had in a long time! And it's overseas trip!

*LOVE YOU GUYS!* 

Would appreciate if you guys have any recommendation for villa style accommodation in Phuket, preferably in Patong area. :):):)

Can't wait to see the beautiful Kai Island again, with all the colorful umbrellas!

2XU Compression Run 2013

:) This post has been under the draft status for the past few weeks, finally managed to edit and publish! *^_^!*

:) 2nd run of the year: 2XU Compression Run - 21km. A colleague asked me to join the 21km to challenge my record timing and I thought "why not?". The Flagoff timing is at 530am which means that I won't be running under the super hot sun for long.

:) Start point is at the F1 Pit, which is besides the Singapore Flyer. :) 

A nice view while waiting for the first Flagoff! :) Started the run in a leisure pace, subsequently when there's more people, speed up a bit to avoid the crowd. The 21km route is quite standard, however, for this run there are quite a number of U-turns, which means that the view you're seeing are quite the same. :)

:) That's the Sports Hub which will be ready in 2014 with the Sunrise. 

I seldom stop to take photo during a run, but this view is too beautiful to give it a miss! ^^ And because of this, there was actually a small jam as many stop to snap a photo! If you guys are interested, it's along the Tanjong Rhu View, and that's the Kallang River! :)

The thing about running a half marathon is that at the 15km mark, you can feel your energy depleting really fast. I'm not sure about others, but for myself, I start to feel really tired and hungry, and the pacing will become even slower. Many times I wanted to stop and take a rest (not because I'm panting) to recover at least some energy but I knew that once you stopped, you will lose the momentum and it will take even longer to gain that momentum back.

I really wonder how those runners complete their full marathon! 

My new Adidas shoes on her first virgin Marathon! :) With my running kakis since University days! :)

One last shot of myself with my favorite sports drink now: 

 The Pocari Sweat! :)

Pocari Sweat was the Official Hydration for the run. And I believe this is the 2nd / 3rd time I had this drink for some of the previous marathons. Usually I would prefer 100plus as it has been around for ages and I'm used to it. But after this race, I so much prefer the Pocari instead. ^_^! It's regains my hydration faster and because the taste is very mild, my mouth don't feel as dry even after drinking 1 cup.

A bottle every time I finished my exercise now! :):):)

:) May will be running month, almost every weekend there's a run to complete. ^_^! Shall use these runs to train for the KL Standard Chartered and also for my 1st Mountain Climbing trip overseas (not considering the Mount Batur Hike in Bali).

2天1夜马六甲之旅

Weekends are indeed precious nowadays. Especially when you have to face your boss' angry tone everyday at work! Shall not complain about it, cause this is supposed to be a happy post! ^_^!!!

Early March, the Dearies' planned a 2D1N Meleka trip just for a short getaway (from W.O.R.K!).

Plan for the trip: EAT. SLEEP. PLAY. RELAX. NO-WORK!!!

Since there are 9 of us, we decided to coach down instead of driving there. We booked our coach tickets from 5 Stars, $50/pax return tickets. Our 1-night stay is at Hatten Hotel, which is besides the Mahkota Parade Square. Very easily accessible to different parts of Melaka. :) 

We booked a 2-bedroom suite for RM$715.40 (all inclusive for 4 breakfasts, service and hotel tax). Quite worth it as each of us only pay about RM$80 for it. The room is quite big and can fit us all in and sleep comfortably!

The Living Room - Spacious 

The Master bedroom & twin bedroom

The splendid view of Melaka with the sea in front of us :)

By the time we are settled in, our stomachs are growling like mad. It's like 3 pm in the afternoon so it's too early for Jonker Walk to open, thus we decided to settle our lunch nearby. Directly across our hotel is a Korean Restaurant: Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant.

The place looks quite like a authentic Korean shop, with people sitting on the floor like the tatami style. They have this huge exhaust thing about the table to suck all the smoke from the BBQ-ing.

BBQ-ing all the meat! *SINFUL!* The usual side dishes from any Korean restaurant.

Dearies looking happy after going hungry for so long! ^_^!

We ordered the typical Korean food like BBQ pork slices, marinated beef, tteokbokki, kimchi stew, stir-fried glass noodles (on the house from the manager ^^). Initially thought we ordered just nice for everyone, but turn out that the food portion is super big that we couldn't finished all the food.

After lunch, we went back to Mahkota Parade to shop around and digest our food. We found the famous Nadeje Crepe! HAHAHA! I missed it on my last trip so was really glad to finally giving it a try! :)There's so many flavors to choose and we just couldn't decide on it. ^_^! In the end, we bought 7 slices and the rest were giving me a O.O!! look! HAHAHA! Anyway, those for meant for our desserts cause we were too full! :):):)

Before our trip, we  saw on TV about this rotating  observation tower that offers the bird eye view of Melaka. It's just across the road from Mahkota and because the weather is super hot, we bought our tickets to relax up there. It costs RM$20/pax.

Bird eye view of Melaka, from different views.

It only took about 5 minutes and we're up at the top. :) 

Christchurch is next on the list! :) That's also another iconic feature in Melaka and it's just about 10 minutes walk from the Observation Tower. Notice that we walked around rather than cabbing. :):):)

It was still quite early for Jonker Walk. Only some stalls are setting up, so we went to the 三叔公 to hide away from the HEAT! A cold drink for everyone and also candy-crushing! ^^ It's really funny cause everyone is holding their own phone and starts asking for requests.

Lots of interesting stuff along the street, food, bags, some local products, etc. Just spent a while to take a look at some of the stalls and you'll see some of the really old school things.

Ate some street food and we went on for our dinner: Satay Celup! It was a mad queue so we decided to forgo it and went ahead for desserts! We're still full from the afternoon lunch too! -_-" 

Our 1st dessert cum dinner for the night! :) 

This dessert shop is just a few shops away from the satay celup and since we're still feeling hot from the weather, a big bowl of ice sounds good to us! We ordered a 6-pax mixed fruits ice and managed to finish everything! ^_^!!!

More food from the second day, woke up early to queue for the chicken rice balls! :) And of course before leaving Melaka, a bowl of Chendol is a MUST! :)

Dearies' 1st overseas trip after graduation! (Or maybe after everyone starts to work?) :)

Looking forward to our next trip: Phuket? My all-time favorite beach getaway! :)