.....times of refreshing.....

1. Since the iPhone 6 was launched in Singapore in September, I always wanted to get one for my wifey as her older iPhone 4S, which she used for almost 4 years, is calling it a day. However, I am only eligible to recontract my line in November and since 1 November, I have been trying hard to check out the stocks at the local telco but the phones were always out of stocks. I continued to try for weeks till yesterday where I finally got it, and lucky too where I got the second last set. I cannot choose the colour as there's only silver left but then , silver looks good to me. Somehow, I preferred the smaller iPhone 6 than 6+ as I felt the latter is too big. My wifey too, she loves a smaller phone and I am glad I got this for her.

Still in the box and wrapped

2. I was at Orchard Road again today for my medical screening and managed to catch a glimpse of the Xmas street decors. Somehow, it doesn't look impressive to me but maybe it looks great at night when they lit up the lights. I only check out a portion of Orchard Road.

Orchard Road

The pathway leading to Paragon mall

Ngee Ann City at the opposite

A Xmas tree at Paragon

Another decor at the outside of Paragon

Tang's decor at the entrance

 3. I guess I am not going overseas for my year end vacation due to the peak season but will try to book early next year for cheaper options. Anyway, planning to take leaves in Dec and almost deciding my vacation plans. haha... It seems so difficult for me to decide this year, probably due to some distractions like my kid's compulsory 2 weeks tuition at his school, where I was informed last minute.

4. It was a relaxing afternoon after my medical screening as I went to coffee club in Wisma Atria for some bites before heading to the gym. I love the slice raspberry cake and cappuccino. I chose this place because it was less crowded and thus I can wind down after my medical tests, which was a staffs' benefit from my company. Glad that my ECG, Tonometry, Chest X-ray and prostate scan are fine, I am still awaiting for my blood test report, which was done 2 weeks ago.

The cake really looks good and delicious

First time at Coffee Club and find that their coffee is good.

It's Friday again and wish you guys a great and relaxing weekend! :)

My favourite Chicken Ciabatta in Italian Herbs and cheese

A cute Ginger-bread greeting you at Lavender Bistro

The marathon will be held in Dec 7, which is less than 2 weeks time and I have stepped up my training. Though I am not participating in a full marathon, it's still exciting to be running my first ever major marathon event. Oh yeah, this is the Standard Chartered Marathon. I am looking forward to a finisher medal and t-shirt. :)

I was at One Fullerton Bay Hotel last Friday for Hi-Tea, which is quite a 'atas' place with my colleagues.The place was nice and high class though the food served was not much but it did keep us full till can skipped dinner. I didn't take pictures of the food but I did took some landscape pixs around the area as it was really beautiful as well as relaxing. Btw, these pixs were taken from my camera phone.... :P  I should have brought my 3 year old faithful interchangeable lens camera.

Blocks of towers seen from there

More blocks ....

An evening view of MBS from opposite

A view of Suntec City and buildings near the Marina Bay

Shoot to the top ...  there's NTUC building

Another panoramic view of MBS

The outdoor areas around Fullerton

A docking boat seen here

Inside the hotel ... trishaw became an exhibit already

And, I love this lamp... very exquisite to me

And, here's some of the ala-carte buffet hi-tea food, courtesy of my colleague's FB pix.

Check out the pork braise with pau .... :P

Overall, it was a nice and relaxing outing though expensive ..... *sob*

A decor at Orchard Central

Another one at Orchard Central too, which is besides Orchard Gateway

2. Somehow I felt a bit anxious about a potential vacation in a nearby country and kept asking my wifey if her sister has already booked it for us in JB, and I got an earful from my wifey... hahaha...  Too bad, she's in Singapore and I probably gotta wait for the weekend to confirm the trip. My SIL is a well-travelled lady and she's got a lot of 'lobangs' (contacts). If else, my plan B would be in Malaysia, probably go back to Ipoh and bring my parents to Cameron Highlands for a 3 day 2 nights stay or Pangkor Island. It's been a while since I have been there.

3. I have been  training for my 10km Standard Chartered Quarter-marathon lately after my weights workout. It will be held in 2 weeks time. My training is simple, I just continue to run 5KM as usual daily but may  increase slightly to 6km if possible. I will try to run in the morning from now onwards in order to get use to the morning marathon and that will be a challenge to me as I am not a morning person. Waking up at 6am or even 7am can be tough, thanks to my teleworking where I am not required to be in office all the time.

With all these trainings, I think there's no harm to reward myself with a Shokado Wazen Bento, which is my favourite and affordable bento at S$15.90. :) I think it's ok la...once in a blue moon ... :P


And, weekend is here with the school holidays! Have a good weekend!!

It's almost year end already and this is the time where most of the folks will wind down by clearing leaves from work and started travelling for their vacation, whether near or far. I also planning to go somewhere but due to that I didn't plan earlier, I may have to pay more for my trip. I have also yet to decide on my vacation though I got some brochures back but at least, will go somewhere, whether it's local or nearby overseas. I don't mind going for a cruise again as I went for one last year but my family declines it, probably they find it to be boring. The kids would love to go for some theme parks and doesn't really care whether it's local like Legoland, Kidzania, Hello Kitty town and etc. As for me, if possible, I like to getaway to another country to see around.

Anyway, it's always good to take a longer break during this time to wind down from work, and going to places we never been to before can be very therapeutic and relaxing. Most of my colleagues already book their tours. Well, at least, it's some good rewards for ourselves after a year of work. Go ahead, folks, reward yourselves with a good vacation, whether its nearby or far.

Meanwhile, after a good workout tonight, I realised my favourite Japanese restaurant has a new menu. Thus, I tried something new tonight. I ordered a Shogayaki Shiro Bento, which consist of fried Dory fish, tempura, salmon sashimi, chawanmushi, miso soup and a bowl of rice. And, the servings was a lot !!

Fried Dory Fish and it's being kept warm by a mini electrical stove.

Tempura

Salmon Sashimi

My favourite chawanmushi

I was really full especially the four pieces dory fish which can be a serving for two person. And, there goes my workout .... :P

Well, I blogged about R.E.S.T in my previous post and I really did have a lot of 'R', which is rest over the rainy weekend. It was rain and rain over the past week and that makes us confined to home most of the time. And, when you are at home with nothing much to do, the slumber will usually creeps in. Not too bad as I complained about getting lack of sleep during the weekdays and moreover, I have a slight throat infections, thanks to a black pepper chicken chop I had on last thursday evening. It was a lazy weekend as we only go out for dinner after the rain stops. Anyway, thank God I managed to do a 5KM run on a beautiful Sunday evening after the rain.  It was cooling and the air was clean, unlike the previous week where it was hazy.

Temaki for my wifey

We shared a sake and kani maki

My little princess' chawanmushi

And, my salmon shioyaki bento, with teriyaki chicken, edamane and agedashi tofu.

I was chatting with my Amway friend on the subject of well-being. He mentioned four factors to well-being and good health , which I later thought it can be summarised into this acronym - R.E.S.T.

R stands for rest. A good night and enough hours of sleep will definitely give our health a boost and prepared us ready for the following day. Lack of sleep will definitely affects our performance in work as well as recreation or sports. We will not have the energy to enjoy the activities as well as we also will be moody and easily irritated. A good rest and sleep will also boost our immune system.

E definitely is exercise. Consistent and regular exercise will strengthens our mind and body, besides improving our stamina, reduce our blood pressure and bad cholesterol. It also regulates our mood and help us to sleep well. Try to exercise 4-5 times a week!

S stands for supplementing yourself with a good nutritious supplements or vitamins, besides eating and  never missed meals. I am not doing any distributor tasks for Amway but I find that taking good nutritions really helps to boost our health and mood. There are all kinds of nutritions for different needs. For example, a B complex is good to alleviate stress. Protein powder is good for body building, Q10 is good for the heart and etc.

T is for attitude. A joyful and stress free attitude is very important to our general well-being. And, the above three factors helps. A good night sleep will give us a good mood for the day, exercise helps to create the feel-good feeling in us and good supplements coupled with a nice hearty meal will boost up our good mood. Being kind, nice, taking up challenges , stay positive, worried free and so on will lit up our day!!

That was a good sharing from my friend and I thought it's great to share it here. Meanwhile, I had my Sapporo Miso Ramen on a cold rainy night. It was so so ... nice!! Warm and delicious!! :)


Have a good mid-week!

It was indeed a good weekend after a long week. Went to my kid's school fun fair on a Saturday morning and had a good time there where I had my breakfast and shopped for stuffs. I got myself a dri-fit sleeveless shirt which will be good for my running or badminton and some shirts for my kids. My wifey and my SIL also did some shopping over there. In fact, I was surprised by his school's effort in organising the fun fair as they seems to invite some good food hawkers to cook as well as car dealers, sports dealers, academic centres, lots of souvenirs stalls and even a feet analysis centre where I got my feet analysed. The  fun-fair also have groceries and some wet markets produce sold there, even bigger than a market or a pasar malam. I was really impressed! Some of the classes were used as temporary shops and it's almost occupied three storeys!

After that, I rested a while after lunch and had an hour of badminton with my kid before I went for my evening church. And, after dinner I spent my Saturday night glued to the tv as I have finally subscribed to the sports package and busy watching the English premier league in HD. :)

Sunday was a long day as it was my little princess kindy's concert. She was asked to perform the song  from Frozen, 'Let it go' with another girl who is one year her senior. I think she did quite well as she was very calm throughout the song though I can sense some nervousness in her but then, that's normal and furthermore, she's only 5. She performed another two group performance with her kindy mates later. Check out my facebook or the vids. :)

Meanwhile, I found a new steamboat outlet in Taman Molek and thought it's a good idea to give it a try. It's HK styled and there were some dim sum. I find that they are quite generous in giving out lots of seafood and ingredients and it cost only RM68 for 4 persons.

The set for 4 persons ... I almost sapu all the sotongs since my SIL and wifey are more health conscious than me!

Getting the pork bone soup ready!

Condiments to choose from ...

Here's the name of the steamboat outlet in Taman Molek ... I didn't note down the name but luckily I took this pix.

ready to eat ...

 It was very full as my two kids didn't eat a lot which left my SIL, wifey and myself to finish all the food. Quite worthwhile at RM68 and will certainly come back again.

A mee mamak for my wifey

I shared a nasi lemak with my little princess.... I have to took the portion of the rice without the sambal since she cannot take spicy food yet. The fried chicken was really good!

And, a kaya toast to go with my coffee.

I didn't really snap a picture of the coffee but it did appear in my other blog post. Have a good weekend, folks and don't forgot to exercise! :)

There was this day which I left company early after an event and seeing that I was in Plaza Singapura, I decided to go around to shop. And, somehow, I managed to get most of the stuffs here which I had problems finding it for weeks. Well, I finally got a Frozen toy for my little princess which consists of the two dolls, Elsa and Anna, in one pack. It was not easy to get toys from movies that has already been shown long ago.  Then, I went to World of Sports and got a Nike water bottle for my kid where he was nagging me to buy for him when he was in Singapore during the Deepavali week. I finally give in ...haha... though I know he has a few water bottles. He doesn't need another one! Well, it's always easier to get the daddy to buy stuffs rather than the mom too.

Then, I came across Pandora and I thought it's a good idea to get my wifey a gift. Somehow, I didn't give her any birthday gift last month and I always wanted to get this Pandora bracelet for her. It cost me S$433 and it only came with three beads. Well, I guess let's start with the basics first, let her add the beads later. hahaha...


That sums up my shopping evening... and oh yeah, I didn't get anything for myself. But I do feel good in getting gifts for my love ones. Very therapeutic! :)

Recently, I was involved in an art jamming workshop as part of my company's team-building event. The term 'Art Jamming' seems very alien to me and moreover, I am not into arts. In fact, I am very lousy in arts !! Anyway, what I learnt from the workshop was that art jamming was simply a spontaneous expression of your feelings in art forms. You just draw whatever you like on a piece of cloth using acrylic paints, which dried very fast, and the results of the art represented your mood or feelings. It's very therapeutic and stress releasing too. Of course, I believe usually folks who love arts will book a session at the centre to paint. There were a few artists there when we arrived and there was also a cafe at the beautiful glassy centre, which was surrounded by water everywhere from the pool. We were at My Art Space.

An outdoor seating area at the centre

A view from the top ...an artist was working on her pieces

We are surrounded by water everywhere !

 Some of the amateurish arts done by my colleagues.... which I felt they are very well done!







And here's what my group did ... probably we are thinking of the zoo then! LOL

Check out the panda which I draw... :P

Overall, I find that it's a very therapeutic session and before this, I have been to a clay moulding workshop few years ago, which was also very relaxing and stress releasing.

Have a good week!!