Saturday, November 30, 2013

Weekend full of events...

I was invited to my colleague's, Hazel's baby shower last Saturday. I went there after my exercise lesson. Glad to be back to the lesson because I skipped one week of lesson due to Run Happy 2013. Will blog more about that next time :)

Anyway, thanks to Lester who came to fetch me down, so we reached there not too early/too late, just in time for a sumptuous lunch. I was really hungry after the 1 hour car ride from boon lay to punggol. We passed through 4 expressways just to get to Punggol. Yup, no joke, 4 expressways! 

Honestly speaking, I got a feeling I will have friends/colleagues coming over for the housewarming next year, complaining how far it is from the west. lol. 

Having said so much, hereby presenting to you Ying Xuan! I gladly welcome her to the Scorpio club. lol.


Lester and I concluded that she will have a high chance sleeping sideways/head tilt sideways as she sleep when she grow older. Because that's a trait of a scorpio. I've been suffering from stiff neck on half of my neck for weeks. I over-worked it but it didn't recover that fast.I highly suspected it's due to my have-to-sleep-sideway sleeping posture that have probably worsen it. -_-. Glad that it's much better now.

Last Sunday, I attended Zhi Xiang's wedding. He's the first among us to get married and have a house which is all done up! It's been more than 2 years since I've met all of my uni mates. We've not met in such a big group ever since we graduated. Seriously, time flies! 

The wedding was held at Marina Mandarin Hotel. It's like exactly 1 year ago(probably 2 days apart), I attended Hazel's wedding at the same location. lol. So much of a coincidence. 

Took a #OOTD Shot in the hotel toilet..

I had a great time catching with the rest of the uni mates, other than Darwis/Guo Liang which are the 2 I often meet. Glad that everyone's doing well in their life, singles enjoying their life, attached ones are prepping for wedding/house..#lifeaftergraduation, 

Not forgetting, we chatted about each others' travelling experience. Though I've just come back not long ago, but I'm tempted to travel again lol.But I know it won't be so soon that I'll travel again. :(

                    
With Riko! It has been quite awhile since I met her :)

The group shots that night whereby everyone has a copy of it..The service was really good because they are fast in delivering the photos. Those instant photobooth with props are really slow...And I've met those who don't wish to print each guests a copy, and instead they asked you to go to their facebook/website to get the softcopy. -_-". 


We grab hold of the photographer walking around and requested him to take a photo for us before he walked away.

The table shot with Zhi Xiang and his wife, Elizabeth :)

Hereby wishing them a happy and blissful marriage!

Thursday, November 28, 2013

04/11/2013 - Bangkok Day 3 Part 2(Roast Cafe and Mr Jones Orphanage @ ThongLo)

After the birthday surprise from Baiyoke Sky hotel, I changed into my newly bought dress from Platinum Mall and headed out for my early birthday dinner. Read more about what went on in the earlier of the day here :)

We went back to Platinum Mall first to get something for Derp's mum before taking a cab down to Thong Lo. We initially wanted to take a BTS there, which is probably around 4-5 stops away from Chit Lom, but we were lazy to walk to the BTS station. Hence, we hopped on a cab outside Platinum Mall.

We were pretty skeptical about taking a cab in BKK because we were afraid of the taxi driver overcharging us or driving us to somewhere else that's not our destination. I did a little research on the expected cab fare before leaving the hotel that day for the 2nd part of the day. It should be 120-150baht which is $6+ sgd. The taxi driver quoted us a 150baht for the ride and we happily hopped on.

Honestly speaking, the traffic was pretty bad and was infact getting worse as it gets later in the evening. The taxi fare would probably be 10+ dollars for that same amount of distance travelled. $6+ is quite worth it afterall. We don't really want to sweat a bucket and look unglam for my birthday dinner. :)

Roast Cafe is located at this place called Seenspace. We told the taxi driver to head to Thong Lor Soi 13. It was a long stretch of road and actually, we on our GPS just incase he drove us somewhere else. We guide him till somewhere near Seenspace and got off. We walked a little and finally locate Seenspace. It's pretty not obvious especially if you go there for the first time. It took us quite awhile. 

The whole environment is pretty quiet, there are other shops around the vicinity but it's just totally different from the crowded area that we have been in for the past few days. So if you think everywhere is crowded in Bangkok, you are wrong. Who would have thought that there's nice and pretty cafe in Bangkok? :)

Roast Cafe is located on the 2nd level of Seenspace.

Took a photo outside the cafe..


We were there pretty early, like around 5++pm sg time.. hence there wasn't much people. And they were still serving the lunch menu. But overall, the restaurant has a really nice ambience. I love the fact that it's away from the hustle and bustle of citylife, it's so much quieter :)

The menu is in the form of a newspaper.


I can't really remember what is the drink called, but probably some refreshing drink that we each ordered one.

And I chose there as my birthday dinner venue for a simple reason..

\
I simply LOVE Duck Confit so I was really excited when I found out that Roast Cafe has yummy Duck Confit. They were really affordable too as compared to those I had in Singapore. 

The skin of the Duck Confit was really cripsy on the outside and the meat inside was soft and chewy. They paired it up with potatos, veggies and cranberries. No idea what's the purpose of the cranberry because it was really sour, but our guess is that it should be eaten together with the Duck Confit. Somewhat acting like the sauce for the Duck Confit.

With my Duck Confit..


Derp ordered this Beef Shank  I can't really remember the actual name. He originally wanted to have a big steak piece but it was only available during dinner time. The kind waitress kindly suggested other beef steak dishes which were somewhat similar. The beef was yummy too! 

Mandatory shot..

With my birthday dinner date.. 

The waitress helped us took this photo before our dinner start. Very beautifully taken! :)

 The bill costs up to 900+baht, which is around 30+sgd. Worth it! This meal would have probably costs around $50 in Singapore. 

Roast Cafe 
251/1, Sukhumvit 55 Road (Thong Lor) | 2nd Fl., Seenspace Center, Bangkok 10110, Thailand

We hopped over to Mr Jones Orphanage for our dessets. We were pretty full by then and wanted to only take photos. But after that we feel bad and decide to share 1 slice of cake.

Mr Jones Orphanage is a place whereby everything is so instagram-friendly. One can just go in to take photos of their stuffs even without dining in. Do check it out if you are at that area.



All the pretty desserts! Now you know why I say this place is so instagram-friendly? lol.



Their macarons have a pretty unique color though..


As the name suggests, it's a orphanage. But for? For all this cute little bears waiting for adoption :)

Derp was playing with the toy soldiers before our cake comes..



Can't help but to camwhore with the bears around us..So cute! 

:)



We ordered the red velvet cake which tasted so-so..The cakes are not that fantastic there so don't pin high hopes on it..


Derp chose the white chocolate drink for us to share. Seriously, we regretted because it was tooooo sweet. lol. But anyway white chocolate are supposed to be sweet right? We can only blame ourselves for trying so hard to avoid heaty stuff but ended up with something so sweet! 




#OOTD shot outside Mr Jones Orphanage.The dress was bought in Platinum Mall earlier in the day and I immediately change into it for my birthday dinner. Pardon that slippers of mine! :)

Mr Jones Orphanage
251/1 Thonglor Soi 13 | G Floor, Seen Space, Bangkok 10110, Thailand

We wanted to cab back to Central World area so that we can go to Big C supermarket to do some last minute shopping on our last night in BKK. But the cab driver kindly told us that there's a really bad traffic jam towards that area. He suggested us to take the train instead which will be faster than taking a cab. Their cab driver are really honest, in the previous trip we met with such cab drivers when we wanted to cab back from Chatuchak. 

We walked around 2+ km just to get back to Thong Lo BTS station. It was getting dark hence we speed up our speed.I'm glad we didn't went there by BTS in the day because it's gonna be so hot. We walked in the evening time, it's so much more cooling and we didn't really sweat even though we were at full speed. 

We managed to reach Big C around 8++ local time. Anyway the shops in BKK closed pretty early, so we were really kan cheong. Pretty afraid we didn't get the chance to buy back snacks from BKK, but we made it! We headed back to the hotel pretty late as it was the last night, but we know we still have to go back to pack our stuff lol. The most sian part of a holiday trip. 

Anyway, presenting to you my loots of the day from Platinum Mall and Pratunam Market..


And also all the snacks we bought from Big C Supermarket..and some other random stuff...


The elephant tank top is really cute but I don't know when will I have a chance to wear it lol. It's made of good quality and totally non sheer! 

Be back again with the last installment of my BKK trip..till then!

Do check out my other BKK2013 Entries Here:
Bkk2013 Day 1
BKK 2013 Day 3 Part 1
BKK 2013 Day 3 Part 2
BKK 2013 Day 4

For any enquiries please mail to jing_xian88@hotmail.com.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Osmar Taiwan Bento @ The Central, Clarke Quay

Derp and I went to Clarke Quay after work to finalize our ROM location and etc. We sort of gotten many things off the to-do list recently, I'm just praying hard that we did not miss out any details. 

Definitely looking forward to the gown fitting and etc, but the thought of keeping fit all the way through CNY is quite sian though. But anyway, I know we can do it. :) We'll probably come up with fitness schedule and motivate each other lol. 

Anyway, we don't really come Clarke Quay that often and we don't work around that area. Hence, we are usually at a loss when we need to have a quick dinner there. 

The basement of The Central is a food heaven. It has got all sorts of food basically, from western to chinese to Japanese food, it's not that difficult to find something to eat there. 

We decided to dine in at this Osmar Taiwan Bento shop which sells mainly bento set/Taiwan braised noodles. 


We had tried before Woo Ricebox when we were in Taiwan, it was so god damn nice. You can read more about it here :) 

Woo Ricebox has opened 1 outlet in Singapore, at Raffles Place. I've yet to try because if i never remember correctly, they didn't bring in the fried pork cutlet to Singapore. :( I missed the one I had in Taiwan.

Back to Osmar Taiwan Bento, the shop area ain't big. It's suitable for takeaway or simply 1 person dining in during lunch peak period.

Their menu and that's Derp ordering for me hehe.

Everything is self service at Osmar Taiwan Bento and there wasn't any dinner crowd at that time., the food was ready pretty fast. 

Our dinner..



Derp ordered the Osmar Special Bento(5.80) and he chose Taiwan Crispy Chicken for his meat to go along with the rice box. One can choose the monkey-head mushroom too. As for his drink, he ordered passion fruit green tea.


On my side, I ordered the Golden Fried Pork Chop Bento($6.80) and milk green tea.

We felt kind of cheated because what we were given is kind of different from the picture on the menu. No idea if is they ran out of the other ingredients for the rice box hence they didn't give us, or simply they don't serve it in that way anymore. The bento set was lacked of corn, brinjal and broccoli. As for their milk tea/fruit tea, it tasted okay, similar to outside standard, nothing special.

I won't recommend one to purposely go there to try it, but if you're working around that area, I guess you can consider this as 1 of your lunch choices. They do sell their fried chicken cutlet just by itself, serves as a good snack though. :) Come to think of it, it's pretty costly to have it for lunch. Oh well, it's the town area, nth is cheap.

Took a #OOTD with the xmas tree at The Central before leaving..

Derp snap this while I was keeping my stuff. I look as though I'm stealing something. -_-".


#OOTD - In a dress bought in BKK 

I'm hardly in such prints but this dress is really comfy with a tie-back sash, not forgetting this dress matches my bag and shoes well. :) I've had another similar dress in light blue and mini heart prints. I've yet to wear it out but all in all, it was a good buy. It's not easy finding good quality clothes in BKK nowadays. Do take note if you're heading there soon! 

Sunday, November 24, 2013

04/11/2013 - Bangkok Day 3 Part 1 (Platinum Mall, Alex Fashion, Surprisefrom Baiyoke Sky Hotel! )

Happy Birthday to Myself! 

It's also my 2nd last day in BKK. Basically, we ate our breakfast, went out for 2nd round of breakfast, shopped a little, went to the tailor before heading to our dinner venue. A very simple and relax birthday spent in bkk! :) 

View while having breakfast. 

We didn't really get to sit at the window seats because for the past 2 days it were all taken up. There were more visitors over the weekends as compared to the weekdays. 


A shot before I tucked into my yummylicious prata!  


Derp having his cereal. He had it every morning without fail whenever we go on a holiday lol.


Baiyoke' sky prata is da best!  I always have it when I'm there :) I always add a little maple syrup and sugar to go with it. 

After our breakfast, we went back hotel to rest awhile before heading out because it's way too early lol. We had an early night the night before because I was having a severe headache thanks to the heat at Chatuchak. Regretted not bringing any panadol but thankfully the headache was gone once I woke up 

We slowly walked around Pratunam Market before heading to Platinum Mall. Explored the different small lanes of Pratunam Market which we had never been before. Those shops in the inner lanes are not so easily noticeable but some of them really sells pretty stuff. 

We passed by the Wonton Mee stall again and decide to eat it again lol! I know we just had breakfast like less than 1 hour ago. FYI, directions to the wonton mee stall can be found in my Day 1 entry

Their menu.

We had the soup wonton mee this time and not forgetting to add lots of chili. 


We tried the wonton mee with soup this time and not forgetting to add lots of chilli. :)
Otw to Platinum Mall..



My birthday #OOTD that day. In Love Bonito's Romper once again. :) And pardon for the mismatch slippers lol. 

We started shopping at Platinum Mall pretty early. Some of the shops weren't open yet. We were killing time before heading back to Amari Watergate for Derp's fitting. 

There were various tailors at Amari Watergate. All of which were located at 2nd level of Amari Watergate. After doing some research, Derp decided on Alex Fashion


And so that's how the 2nd fitting went..


A lot of needles around the piece of cloth they let Derp to try. I can't say it's his suit because it's not a suit yet. 

After Derp try it on, the staff continue to make adjustment by shifting the position of the needles. lol. Derp and I went like O.O when they took out this piece of cloth with all the needles on it. 

We decide to go back Baiyoke Sky to put our loots from Pratunam Market and Platinum Mall before continuing the 2nd half of the day. We went to find the famous fried chicken stall which we didn't manage to find the previous day.

Directions to the fried chicken wing can be found here :)



The surroundings of the fried chicken stall..

They are located pretty near to the main street connected to Pratunam Market. 

The stall is operated by a Thai Chinese couple. 

The abundance of fried chicken! 

While we were deciding on what to get, there were many Singaporeans who came by to get the fried chicken. 

Since we were on our way back to hotel to put our staff, we got 4 fried chicken wings back to eat in our hotel room. 

:)

We still prefer the one we ate at another stall, also on the same street but further down. But there are plenty of fried chicken street stalls around, I believe more or less they taste the same. 

Just as we were prepping to get out for the 2nd half of the day, we heard someone knocking on our door. Actually, we were seated next to the door because our power point is there. Most of the time we were there charging our gadgets and surfing the net there. 

Derp opened the door and this lady, I presume she belonged to the housekeeping department, delivered all the things below to us. She smiled and went off. 

Birthday Cake and complimentary cookies from Baiyoke Sky Hotel.

So after she left, we went like O.O? How did they know it's my birthday???!!!

Probably when I was booking for the hotel, they did ask for my birthdate? I really have no idea lol. And how did they know we were in the hotel at that time? lol. I'm pretty sure it's not arranged by Derp because I'm the one who booked the hotel, furthermore he's also in a shocked too. lol.

We were pretty full due to the fried chicken wings, hence we left the cake for supper that night.

Not forgetting to take photo with the pretty heartshape cake from Baiyoke Sky :)



Thanks for the birthday surprise! Guess we didn't make a wrong choice to choose this hotel again for our 2nd trip to BKK :)

Will be back again to blog about my birthday dinner!

Do check out my other BKK2013 Entries Here:
Bkk2013 Day 1
BKK 2013 Day 3 Part 1
BKK 2013 Day 3 Part 2
BKK 2013 Day 4

For any enquiries please mail to jing_xian88@hotmail.com.