Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

I noticed that I never blog about Christmas, or even once. Please don't be misunderstanding. I never keep myself away from Christmas celebration. In fact I love this occasion very much especially seeing those busy preparing Christmas gift for their loved one, meanwhile give themselves a reason for shopping as there is always a Christmas crazy sale in town! :P

What stop me from blogging about Christmas? Time. I lack of time. (This always my good excuse? :P)

Prepare Christmas dinner menu
This year is the year I say goodbye to my singlehood, and be my darling's wife. There should be something different. No counting down in the crowd. No early restaurant reservation. No dinner dishes which cooked by famous chef. Yeap, simply 2 of us having the candle light dinner at..... HOME. I believe HOME is always the warmest. ^__^

Christmas Gathering/Party & Gift Exchange
Believe me, I never a lazy person in organizing a party, but I will never be the first one to kick off a party. =P Gathering is always a fun stuff in my life. From deciding on the food menu to picking up a lovely gift for exchange, it is totally precious! I am Do-It-Yourself person. I love to DIY something lovely and special for my guests (just like in my wedding). Time for me putting my DIY skill on this Christmas! ^___^

Christmas Decoration
Christmas tree is necessary in this occasion. This year we get ourselves a "giant" Christmas tree! At least it looks huge to me and my newly adopted Paddington bear from London. Hehehe.. Decorate it with pinky tree ornaments, as well as switch on the fairy lights.. Tada, please welcome my lovely Lady - Miss Pinky! should I name it this way? Hmm.. ="= "

"Snowing" effect
My country never snowing since I was born. But it is okay as i will make my house "snowing"!! ^___^ I believe my hubby will say that I am silly. Air conditioner & fans is the greatest creation for ONLY this moment. But I believe you will not think that it is as great as what I said when you receive your monthly electricity bill.. ="= Create lovely snow flakes on the glasses using the white and removable spray. Again I believe that you will never say they are lovely when you need to remove them.. =P

Last but not least, have yourself a Merry Christmas!

New Year Dinner @ Asmara Middle Rock Bar

31. 12. 2010

On that day, we celebrated last day of year 2010 and welcome the first day of year 2011 together. He have made a reservation at Middle Rock Bar, Bishan Park. In such special day, we decided to order set dinner instead of ala carte.

The environment here is just nice for dating and also a great place for friend's gathering. Of course, sometimes I wish to have some private times together with my bf. Just he and me. I think he understand me well, therefore he choose that night to have such wonderful dinner with me.

Our first dish of the night - Prosciutto Di Parma Con Melone. It is appetizer. I love the taste! The appearance of the appetizer looks yummy with luscious rock melon wrapped with thinly sliced parma ham. It served together with zesty apple spaghetti & my favorite cranberry.

2 choices for the soups on that night. Without hesitation, we ordered each of them. First we have hearty french onion soup topped with gruyere cheese. It is a bit salty for me. It would be great if it is not that salty.

Second we have mushroom soup infused with truffle.

A glass of champagne each person to toast for our 2 years anniversary! ^_^

For him, a roasted beef loin served with roasted mixed root vegetable and Shellot red wine sauce.

For me, pan seared black cod fish and braised endive bacon, served with mash potato and asparagus fritter. The portion is just good for me.

Girls' all-time favorite!! THE DESSERT!!! No matter how full I am, I still can swallow any dessert that put in front of me. =P Our dessert of the night - Fresh fruit Pavlova. A taste with sweet & sour combination. Loving it!!! ^_^

The night is sweet when he popped out a question "Will you marry me?" and I nodded. ^_^ I am happy to be known as Mrs Tan now!

Christmas Dinner @ Chalk

My colleagues and I had been planned for year 2010 Christmas party one month before the actual day. We had considered whether to do it indoor or outdoor. BBQ would be always a top option as outdoor party. Due to our laziness, we ended up decide to have our Christmas party indoor. We choose Chalk restaurant as party venue and we celebrated our Christmas eve there.


Chalk restaurant is located at old school, Mount Sophia. It happened as a school before, but now it turns into restaurant. Means we had our dinner in classroom. The ambient is nice and suitable for gathering and dating. You never feel like you're in the classroom at all.

Address
Old School
11 Mount Sophia, #01-03
Singapore 228461

Telephone No.
65 6883 2120




First we warmed our stomach with a glass of beer.

We started our dinner with a plate of bread. Bread is always a great combination together with butter or olive oil. I prefer eat it with olive oil because it makes feel more healthier. Simply mental reaction. =P

Today's special is chicken salad and meat lover thin pizza. I love the chicken salad very much! It whet my appetite. Sharing is always enjoyable moment. I never say NO when share the food. And now we have 8 person shared 1 plate of salad and.. 1 plate of thin pizza. Hmm.. feel sorry for those who have big appetite.. =P



Every people order one main course. I choose to eat roast spring chicken Cardamon wild rice sauteed mushroom and fine beans. It is licking good! Others main courses such as seared duck breast, roasted quail and carbonara are also recommended for those food lover.

Soup of the day was mushroom soup. It was so filling for every spoon. Luckily it comes after our main course, else I don't think I can finish my portion.

It's time for gift exchange!!
We set a lot of rules on buying the Christmas gift.
- No food.
- No toiletry like tissue paper, but body lotion is acceptable.
- No jigsaw puzzle.
- No mugs.

So, no one break the rules! We got what we want! ^_^

It is never complete if no log cake in Christmas day! Last activity in our Christmas party was Christmas log cake. They all really puzzled with this 1kg log cake and wondered how to finish it after the dinner. Therefore we decided to cut the log cake into half and we eat the half of cake. The other half would be handled by one of our colleagues.

Christmas is meaningful when you have a bunch of friends celebrate it together. Laughter and joy filled the restaurant. No wonder I love Christmas so much! ^_^

Mid Autumn Celebration | Photography

I love to learn different kind of photography techniques. Due to interest, I always spend some times in gaining photography skill. Especially like to shoot low-light pictures. Love to capture city light, street light, people gathering, and etc. This really takes a lot of hard work and effort.

During mid autumn festival, get myself ready mentally and physically and headed to Clark Quay. It is one of the good places for night time photo-shooting. Should not miss the opportunity to practice.

Clark Quay ♥ Night Life

Clark Quay ♥ Fountain


Clark Quay ♥ Riverside


Clark Quay ♥ Mid Autumn decoration


Had a surprised birthday for my friend. We visited Chinese garden during the same period. Everywhere are red lantern. A really great environment for gathering. We laughed, we shouted, and we played sparklers near the lake... Everything just peaceful..

Chinese garden ♥ Light bulb


Chinese garden ♥ Full moon night


Chinese garden ♥ 7th floor pagoda


Chinese garden ♥ drawing with sparklers

Izakaya

Izakaya (Japanese: いざかや ♥ Chinese: 居酒屋) is traditional shop which serves food and drinks. It is popular and relatively cheap place for after-work drinking. My first time visit to Izakaya is also my last day working in Japan. Yea, you're right. I've completed my 3 months work/training and force to leave my favourite country - Japan. T__________T

Although I sometimes always grumble about the tough working life, Japan is still a country that I'm longing to visit. Within these 3 months, have been gone through sweet and tough moment.
Sweet because of Hokkaido / Kyoto / Izu Peninsula short trip. Of course have been visited most of the tourist attraction in Tokyo. Have been stayed in different types of backpackers hostel/Youth hostels. Also have a good time when I saw endless lavender farm as well as enjoying King Crab feast in Hokkaido trip. Able to fulfill my dream by taking number of photos with geisha in Atami trip (First attempt failed in Kyoto trip). Bought my 1st DSLR in Akihabara. My birthday celebration in dormitory.
Tough because of work for 5 days OT per week. Everyday walk about 20 mins to office (even experience the scary Typhoon No. 8). Squeezed ourselves into the train in order to get to destination. Spent too much and make ourselves in tough situation at Ameyoko (Nearly cannot return to dormitory. Btw thanks to CREDIT CARD!) During the stay in Japan, I wore the same clothes because can't afford to buy even one dress not really keen on japan fashion.

Well, please come back to Izakaya. 2009-10-16 ♥ Our farewell ganbatte party with my colleagues in Tokyo. We still have to continue our task when we return to Sg. ="= Really great to visit Izakaya before we left. They serves a lot of food and drinks such as,

Yakitori & Kushiyaki

Sashimi (Wow!!!!!)

and other dishes...

All the best to you all!!!!

Birthday celebration

[Part 2: July 26, 09]

This year, I could not celebrate my birthday in Malaysia or Singapore. How nice if departure schedule delay one more week, then I will be able to celebrate my birthday with my family and friends. I have to give up my 4-days-Penang-trip flight ticket and fly over to Japan, furthermore work like cow everyday (also play crazily :P).

Thanks to SZ and SH for surprising me with 2 slices of cakes from Lawson. =)

Thank you to those who sending me birthday wishes on that day or before my birthday or after my birthday through Facebook/MSN/email/birthday e-card. Thank you so much. ^_^

Jason Goh's farewell at Kuishinbo

We celebrated Jason Goh's farewell at Kuishinbo Jurong Point. Last year I missed the opportunity to have this japanese buffet with just paying 7 dollars (company paid for the balance). This time I have to pay it in full price, around $40 per person. T_T Really pricey. For your information, Kuishinbo is an authentic Japanese buffet restaurant serving a wide variety of excellent Japanese Cuisine, fresh Seafood and other foods. Most important is they serve long leg crab. =)

Random food photos:

Dessert

Special tea pot which serves seafood soup.

What is inside?

Small prawn is hidden underneath it.

Green tea ice-cream with different types of topping.

Group photo in Kuishinbo.

All the best to Jason Goh. He will be working as a teacher then. No more Singlish! Hehe...

Lee's Christmas Party

Lee invited us to his Christmas party. Her wife prepared us their hometown cooking. First time I have chance to try out Philippine cuisine. Normally we can find various kind of meat in Philippine cuisine, from chicken, pork to fish. Since now is Christmas season, they never forget to prepare us turkey meat as well. I admit that I'm not interested in Pasta at all, but I ate 2 plates of pasta that night! Why? Because it's really delicious!! I should give her wife a kiss because she prepared us a special dessert - sticky rice. She spent a lot of time and energy on it.

According to Lee, they have to sing us a song or play guitar when guest visit their house. This is to show that they are welcoming us to their house for dinner.

Group picture of that night:

Patrick, Pat's wife, Agnes, Louis, Leren, Lee,

SW, Me, Thi Thi, Cynthia

My Christmas present from Lee's family. Thanks a lot! Thanks for such wonderful night that his family gave to me. Merry Christmas!