ITALY 2010

How do I start to write about the FABULOUS sister trip we had to Italy? 5 years back, we made plans to visit Europe but it was shelved off due to our both new work commitments. Fast forward to 2010 and she’s coming back from London to Singapore for good. What better time than now to fulfil the long awaited trip! Esp when I can also live off her on the days when I am in London! Hahah!!

I will need some time to pen down the nice places and restaurants we’ve visited in Italy, therefore I’ll move on to other Oct – Dec 2010 posts 1st… :p

Summer in Shanghai

The post after my 1st trip to Shanghai :

"Being a work trip, I didn’t had the chance to visit Yuyuan, do more shopping (tailored made cheongsam), day trips to Hangzhou/Suzhou. Nevertheless, this is 1 of my best trip made ever. and, Shanghai – I’ll be back! "

I can’t wait to be back to Shanghai after my 1st trip in Apr. Perhaps it was the excitement of visiting the city for the 1st time; spending time with the gals; Shanghai Expo: the perfect cooling weather! I was loving every moment of it and raves was all I had about the country. With excitement and anticipation, I visited Shanghai again in July with the above “must do list” for this trip!

Yuyuan – checked. Tailored shirts – checked . Suzhou – checked

But this trip, “I so wanna go back to SG”… was what went through my mind. I blamed it on the hot weather. Really. With the summer heat, you see/ hear/ smell the real Chinese …

A side trip to Suzhou
People say 上有天堂, 下有苏杭 (“There is a paradise in the sky, but on the world there is Suzhou and Hangzhou”). I believed it was because we didn’t do enough research prior embarking on the trip. All that can go wrong went wrong. Though we travelled in “business” class train seats, it wasn’t a memorable trip, not enough for me to write any further about the paradise I saw…

Hr got into a quarrel/fight at the HK café
This has got to be DRAMA of the year. We went back to the nice HK café again hoping to get some nice comforting dinner. But we ended with Hr being splashed by her warm lemon honey drink because some LOSER wasn’t too happy that his 5% left drink was cleared, thinking that it was us who told the servers that he has left. He wasn’t too happy with the tone that Hr used on him and even asked her to “watch her attitude”… Hr, not being in a good mood + tough lady = don’t come messing with me, “ I don’t give a F*** about you” threw her hot bowl of nissin noodles back to that loser who was wearing a white shirt! You go gurl! That loser still has the guts to even wanting to hit her on her head but not before the waiters held him back. So much for getting some “comfort” food….

Tailored shirts in Shanghai
I went prepared with pictures of modern cheongsam which I wanna make but upon reaching the place, I couldn’t find any suitable material for my dream cheongsam. So, tailored shirts were not next best thing. My 1st piece came out quite a disaster but with a price of RMB 90, I decided to give them a 2nd or rather 3rd try. But like what my colleague said “It’s ok to wear it to work, ok to wear it in Shanghai” 2 out of the 3 pieces which I tailored are still untouched in the cupboard.

What didn’t disappoint me
Lost Heaven (Gaoyou Lu) & Yang's Fried Dumplings. I’ll visit Shanghai again for these 2 loves!

I said I’ll be back..

But never did I expect to visit Shangai again less than 3 months since my last visit!

Being a work trip again, I’ll have minimal time to hang around but will definitely make time for Yang’s dumplings and Lost Heaven!!

Strategy needed...

With 2 1 more online apparels purchases, I will definitely need Daddy’s help when the parcel arrives. Instead of putting them on the dining table, I’ll need to inform him to put them in my room or somewhere out of Mummy’s sight!

V romper looks good but have yet to try :) 星期五，快快来吧。。。

Update: received many compliments on the V romper *happy*.

Surprise in the mail...

What I ate in Penang

1st day
Toh Soon Cafe – charcoal toasted bread with half boiled eggs and coffee
Teik Seng (walking distance from Toh Soon) - double-cooked pork, home-made beancurd, sambal kangkong
Dinner @ New Lane – wanton mee, oyster omelette etc...

2nd day (Culinary tour)
Breakfast - Peanut and corn pancake, Char Kuay Teow, Lemper Udang
Lunch - Peranaken food @ Nyonya Baba
Durians @ road stall

3rd day
Brunch - Chendol and Char Kuay Teow
Lunch – Nasi Khadar
Tea - Goreng Pisang, Kuih Bakul, Banana cake
Dinner – Gurney drive

4th day
Lunch – Chilli’s

Penang – of food, movies and hair cut

Main purpose of this trip was R&R and to savour the delicious hawker food in Penang, and that was what we mainly did during our 4D3N trip. Being a small town, there isn’t much to do as we weren’t really interested in the temples and other tourist places. So what did we do pass time? Head to the cinemas!! Priced at only Rmb 7 – 10 per ticket, we watched a total of 3 movies when we were there! (1) Ice Kachang Puppy Love – part of the movie was shot in Penang and we even chanced upon the jetty where it was filmed (2) When in Rome (3) Shutter Island.

1 of the highlight for this trip would be the spectacular sunset viewing at Hard Rock Penang. I’ll let the picture speak for itself...

I also had my long awaited hair cut with Richard again. Having luck on my end, the 1st salon I went in to search is the one he’s working at! It was unbelievable that I could really locate him amidst the number of salons in Gurney shopping centre. So, I did my rebonding and hair cut with him, but alas, I don’t think the rebonding done was fantastic....

Not forgetting, lugging back 3 boxes of my favourite Dragon Pearl biscuit!! *loves*

What I ate in Shanghai

Cha’s Restaurant
* Hong Kong cafe food aka comfort food *

House of Flour (HOF)
* orange chocolate cake with caramel and sea salt *

Art Salon . 屋里香
* Shanghainese cuisine *

Yang's Fried Dumplings

My favourite restaurant (no pics)

Lost Heaven (Gaoyou Lu)
* Yunnan Folk cuisine *

Shanghai *heartz*

I was informed about this trip in end Feb but being a work trip, last minute changes could happen thus I didn’t keep my hopes high just in case it might be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. Thankfully, everything went as planned and I boarded the midnight plane and arrived in Shanghai on 8th May, 7am! Unexpectedly, the weather turned chilly during the week we were there, and I looked ridiculous in my sundress during the 1st day! Other than the eccentric weather and horrendous traffic, the pic above depicts my feelings for Shanghai.

Of course, no trip to Shanghai during this period is complete without a visit to the Shanghai World Expo 2010. Sad to say, we didn’t got the chance to enter the China pavilion as pre-tickets were needed...Singapore pavillion was kind of disappointing but me thinks our Little Durian Star mascot is sooo cute! All in all, Lx and I spent about 8 hours in the Expo, with majority of the time spent queinging up... Read this on Today newspaper and find it pretty interesting.

Hr said that as long as we’ve visited The Bund, we’ve seen Shanghai! BUT, of course we took her words with a pinch of salt as there's SO much more that Shanghai can offer. Lx went to Tianzifang and told me that I HAD to make a trip there as she knew that I’ll like it. And true to say, TZF is like love at 1st sight. From the modern propaganda art pieces to the many many painting shops and nice cafes, I wished I was there on a weekday + with a friend so that we could enjoy a cup of coffee at that interesting place!

Being a work trip, I didn’t had the chance to visit Yuyuan, do more shopping (tailored made cheongsam), day trips to Hangzhou/Suzhou. Nevertheless, this is 1 of my best trip made ever. and, Shanghai – I’ll be back!

Dragon balls!!!

. 22nd - 25th Apr .

Will be off to the land where I can find my favourite dragon balls aka tau sau piah! Perhaps I would even be able to find my fav hair stylist - Richard who went Penang few years back?? Cant wait for the stay in G Hotel, breakfast at Toh Soon Cafe, Penang char kuay teow and many many more!!

Hungry!!

Bali or rather Ayana Resort and Spa

Had the chance to go to Bali for a 2D1N site recee trip with the bosses. It's actually for the Marketing KOM in Oct but as THE BOSS is in charge of venue thus I got to tag along for the discussion and negotiation.

. AYANA Resort and Spa Bali .

. Club room .

We were urshered straight to the hotel upon arrvial and after an hour on the laptop checking and replying emails, I went around the resort for a quick recee on my own. Oh the weather was freaking hot, plus I was wearing jeans!! As we had to proceed to another hotel for a meeting later, we had to be dressed appropriately (no shorts or too casual). The other guests must be thinking "why is the gal wearing jeans on such a hot day AND in BALI??"

Despite the blazing sun, I was determined to explore the resort as much as I could as that was the only "free' time I had for this trip.

. Infinity pool .
. Wave hitting the rocks near the Rock Bar . Pool at 3BR Villa .

. 1 of the 2 wedding pavillion .

Sad to say, I gave up the chance to try to awesome looking Rock Bar as a proper restuanrat (serving mains and not snacks) would be more appropriate for dinner. Let's hope I'll get the chance in Oct!

. The only bar on the cliff - Rock Bar .

. View of resort's jetty .

Doubt I've ever been this sick...

Perhaps it started with the ulcer, but Mummy kept insisting that it's because of my late nights with the laptop. Nevertheless, the body protested and had me stayed in bed the whole of yesterday.

Sick to say, the pain medicine that the doc gave wasn’t easing my headache and body ache and I had to even pop my own painkillers to reduce my fever…

Ah damn the flu bug… Gotta remember my daily dose of Vit C.

On another note, it seems like I’ll be missing the Friday gym classes for the next 3 weeks due to sick (this week), work (2nd week) and Penang (3rd week). How “great”!!

Ulcer, ulcer go away...

A quick search on the net states that remedy/ cure for mouth ulcer : aviod spicy and hot food

Thai food = clear tom yum goong served in hot pot, deep fried stuffed wings etc for Thur's dinner...

Now...this explains why my ulcer is not healing since Mon! :(

p/s: should have stucked to our monthly Mac's brunch instead of falling into the temptation of hot & spicy shaker fries which resulted in the "birth" of the ulcer.

What's fair?

I’ve always believed that the world is unfair.

Circumstances at work have yet again reminded me about this awful fact.

Will I see the gain from the “no pain, no gain" saying?...

Shanghai, oh.. Shanghai...

If nothing goes wrong *fingers crossed*, I shall see myself in Shanghai from the 8th - 15th May for a work trip. With the Shanghai World Expo starting on the 5th, I will take this opportunity to visit the Expo too! However, 1 "big" problem which I'm currently facing is the hotel accomodation if I were to arrive there earlier / extension on personnel expense.

Hotels are raising their rates during that period - 1 of our affordable corporate hotel has doubled their rate! Well, to be fair to them, their usual rates are really attractive so I guess the Expo is a good time for them have the cash register ringing all the way too...

AHH.. how how?? I want an affordable + nice (aka boutique style) hotel!!!

Food blogs - no no

Reading food blogs in the night is a big no -no especially when you only had yougurt for dinner...

This resulted in 4 pineapples tarts and a couple of hae bee hiam rolls popped into my mouth :p

Plus many more "I want to try this.. this... and this..." restaurants being noted down.

A conference with mixed feelings

(initial) Relunctance - knowing that I'll be the only one doing all the logistical arrangements for the 110 pax and worried that should anything wrong happens, the blame will be pushed to me. However, the thought of gaining the experience of handling a conference from beginning to end made me moved on. It also helps that we get to fly buiness class to Beijing! :p

Fun - having dinner of Peking duck with the SG colleagues. It's really about the company you're hanging out with. I really enjoyed the dinner. It was so different from those wine drinking dinners we had 2 days back. Give me Qingdao beer anytime!


Cold & sick - it was so cold that my hands were numb and red and I didnt had the mood to take much pictures at the Great Wall and Forbidden City. During the last 2 days of our own extension, I fell sick (vomitted and fever) and didnt had the chance to explore more of Beijing and missed out on the snow!!

1 week before the event, I posted "that which does not kill us makes us stronger"... Should I be asked to be involved in next year's conference again, I'll say "Bring it On!"

Beijing Conference

Finally, after a month of preparation, the conference ended pretty well! Having to coordinate a meeting for 110 pax is no easy feat and I’m glad that my hard work paid off. Be in a toast/handshake or a simple thank you, it was really nice to feel the appreciation from those who saw the effort I've put in.

Of course, there were certainly more things which could be improved – starting everything early (sending out of items, arrangments for car pickup etc) and to declare shipment 100% correctly or risk having it stuck at customs (esp in China).

It was indeed a good learning experience!

Constantly reminding myself...

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

Friedrich Nietzsche

2010 New Year Resolutions???

I've never written any New Year Resolutions before and nope, this post is not going to have me writing the list for 2010.

Last year, I specifically requested a particular Xmas gift from Sis. And now, with that present on hand, 2010 will be a year for me to learn and improve my dealings with the people in my life!

Reading 1-2 chapters before I head the sacks daily, I realised that I'm trying to apply those points to my life the next day. And seriously, there's so MUCH for me to improve on! *hides*