An exhilarating holiday

It has been a long long time since I blog about daily life as life has been quite monotonous, which consist mainly of marking, exams, results, targets, meetings, remediation strategies etc. etc. But the break this week was really a break from the crazy drilling & the tremendous pressure put on us to achieve some goals which will surely seem meaningless many years down the road, both for us & for the pupils.

Since I will never have the chance to go for a long trip during one week break, I will always grab the chance to enjoy myself in Singapore & JB, & the main enjoyment will be catching up with friends of the same profession, eating, shopping, singing, listening to music, watching drama series & reading. With my parents going overseas this week, I also enjoy myself tremendously at home as I finally have no one to nag around me & having a quiet & personal space of my own.

On Monday(1/9/08), I met up with SW & her son for lunch at cafe cartel. The set lunch was already sold out at 2pm, so we had to settle for something more expensive. Alas, it was a pity, because only during the school holiday can we go for such value meal. But nevertheless, we had an enjoyable chat over lunch. After that, we took a 20 minutes walk over to MY's house as SW's son walk very slowly & we had to take a nice, relax stroll with him. This is the 3rd time we visited her since she gave birth earlier in the year. It was really a twist of fate, & god's blessing that she finally gave birth to these pair of twin boys. An unfortunate event happened during her 1st pregnancy, but it was really a good testimony that god will not forsake those who have being through much tears & heart-break. Below are the photos we took during our 2 visits:


On Tuesday(2/9/08), I had to go back to school for an exhausting 2-hr lesson. After that, I had to rush off to meet JX so as to accompany her to Ngee Ann City to make the NZ visa. It was nearly 3pm when we finally had lunch. I couldn't really think of any restaurant with weekday lunch promotion, so in the end, we settled for 翡翠拉面小笼包馆 as it was the only restaurant still open for lunch at 3pm. The food was really great, much better than the famous 鼎泰丰. The xiao long bao is one of the best in Singapore, and the la mian was not bad. Although I don't really like the dishes at 翡翠小厨, I highly recommend its la mian & xiao long bao. But I guess if you go to taiwan, you can just eat xiao long bao at any breakfast shop & it still taste much better than any restaurant in Singapore.

After that, we went to watch quite a stupid movie called "Forgetting Sarah Marshall". Nothing much to talk about, just that the movie ticket costs us only $6 & we had a small packet of free pop-corn & I spent another great afternoon with JX. Never ate dinner that night as mum's not around & I had a very filling late lunch.

On Wednesday(3/9/08), I had to go back to school again for lesson & I had intended to just do my work & settle for a simple dinner alone at home. But in the end, I made a last minute date with MH & we went to 避风塘 to have dinner. Even when mum is not cooking, I settled for chinese food again as I ordered the roast pork rice, brewed soup, & side dish set. The restaurant has undergo a revamp & it is much classy now & the management has expand the menu to include more dishes. I love TM & CS, we are really spoiled for choice here. I can just meet up my friends in this area & there is really no need to go to the central area.

On Thursday(4/9/08), MH, K & I had quite a nerve-breaking morning taking part in a meaningless competition, presenting some meaningless stuff to some meaningless people. But all's well ends well & we had a sumptous lunch at the combined restaurant of 翡翠拉面小笼包馆 and 翡翠小厨. We ordered different varieties of dim sum, porridge, & xiao long bao again. This is the 3rd time this week I'm eating oriental food. We just ate & ate, forgetting about going back to know the result.

After that, I went for my free 1 hour massage at wellness spa at Marina South. It was great, & it was the reason I had the energy to walk from Marina South to The Plaze(beach road) to get the free humidifier & then to Midland House(Middle Road) to collect the free tickets for Japanese drum & dance festival performance & then back to city hall again to meet SW & SL to go for our free Singapore flyer ride.

We actually had quite high anticipation for our ride on Singapore flyer. But it did not really meet my expectation. Maybe if I had gone up when the sun was setting, I would have love it more. The night scenery is beautiful, I agree, but to see it through a thick layer of glasses, there is always something missing. I love the DHL balloon more because there is no barrier to the scenery around you. But then, i can't complain more since its free for me. Below are the photos taken with SW's camera. We went up at around 7pm, when the sky was turning dark:

These are photos taken from the net, but similar to the night scnery that we saw:

After that, we went to Canele at Raffles City basement for dinner. This is a restaurant that I have always wanted to try for a long time. The pastries, cakes on display have been "calling" out to me every-time I pass by. The ambience there is also great, giving me a cozy, "cooling" & romantic feeling.

I ordered the Croque Madame. Its actually Homemade pain de mie (white toast bread) baked with ham, Swiss Gruyère cheese, with sunny side up, and side salad with house dressing. I love the taste of the freshly made white toast bread mixed with cheese.

Another 2 dishes that I love are the Rustic Bacon & Pea soup & the strawberry crepe. I love the taste of the rich chicken broth. It looks like a very simple dish, but I doubt I will be able to brew the soup to such taste. The strawberry ice-cream on the crepe is also very special, as it tastes like strawberries that had just been pick from the garden.

It was an activity-packed day & I look forward to the next day as I am going to JB with SW & her hubby.

On Friday(5/9/08), I woke up quite early as we intended to go JB for breakfast 1st before heading off for our KTV session & shopping spree at City Square. However, SW & her hubby came to pick me up only around 10am, & by the time we reach Woodlands interchange, it was nearly 11am. We board bus 950 at around 11am, & by the time we reach JB, it was only around 1150am. We took only 50 mins from Woodlands interchange to the other side of the causeway. It was really great going on a weekday with no jam & crowd at all.

The first thing we did when we cross into JB was to change money(rate was RM2.37, very good) & then headed to our favourite herbal duck & chinese dish restaurant for our favourite herbal duck & roast duck. We ordered the set meal for 3 which costs only RM35. It consists of a big bowl of winter melon soup, fried vegetables(dou miao leh), signature dou-fu, a plate of herbal duck, 3 bowls of rice & also free-flow of chinese tea. I love all the dishes, the soup was really sweet & well-brewed, the hot-plate dou-fu was really fresh, the fried dou miao was tasty, & the herbal duck was the best. We ordered another plate of roast duck with honey sauce on it. Sedap too. The whole meal only costs 3 of us less than RM40. That's cheap.

After that, we headed off to city square for our shopping spree. It was a great joy shopping on a weekday afternoon when we were the only customers in the shop. No noise, no queuing, no squeezing. I didn't bought much stuff this time because of lack of time. The only clothes I bought are these. The top is from bossini & the bottom is from FOS. Bossini is having 50% sale, & the bottom costs only RM14, & you can't get it in Singapore :

After that, we went to Neway for KTV session. I had always wanted to try KTV in JB. The price is only RM30, & you can sing from 1-7pm & have 2 free drinks, & free-flow tidbits. But we reach only around 1.45pm, & we sing only until 5.30pm, as we still had lots of shopping to do. There are more categories of songs in this KTV & more songs that cater to different ages of people. Really great. We intended to stay for 1 night next time, so that we can really sing our hearts out, go for massage, manicure, pedicure, hair-cut, shopping, movie, makan, etc. Its really the value of our money that we find it worthwhile to really enjoy ourselves here.

The highlight of our trip this time was to buy moon-cakes & the only brand of moon-cakes that I really love is Lavender. Lavender is also a famous confectionary in Malaysia. I bought 4 flavours of snow-skin moon-cakes & they are durian, green tea, sesame & orange. I love only snow-skin moon-cakes, don't really like the traditional brownish skin ones. It costs me only RM45 for the 4 pieces of moon-cakes & I got $4 free voucher that I used it to buy bread from Lavender's confectionary.

It was nearly 9pm when we wanted to have dinner. We decided not to go to the food center for seafood & just settle dinner at any of the restaurant in city square. In the end, we decided to have dinner at the HK cafe which is considered cheap relative to the price of HK cafe in Singapore. We ordered main courses, side dishes, & desserts & paid only RM60 for 3 persons. The food was just alright, but filling & relatively cheap.

It was 12pm by the time I reach home. I was feeling really tired but exhilarated. I had forgotten all the stress & burdens of work, & played really hard this holiday. Two more days, & its back to reality again. I must continue to enjoy my weekends......