bling blings
was greeted by this when i got home just now! i love seeing parcels lying on my working desk when i step into my room, especially when i least expect them - what a pleasant surprise after quite a bad and tiring day at work. a pretty expensive pair, but i felt the charm leaves were really unique, i always like how turquoise beads go with jeans, i haven't been splurging on accessories (or anything in particular in fact)... oh man, do i really need to provide so many reasons/excuses to buy a $40 item, and a matter of fact, i haven't rewarded myself properly since bonus payout, except for all the food indulgences - crystal jade, imperial treasure, lemon grass, jalan kayu, cafe 211 all in 10 days! i wonder what's next. eh, now now now...what should i wear this weekend to go with these lovelies?
i just remembered i have been talking about this for a long time, i really should reward myself with the whole collection of tintin comics. i love snowy, his white little cute terrier! :D
scribbled at 8:03 pm
.::.
was greeted by this when i got home just now! i love seeing parcels lying on my working desk when i step into my room, especially when i least expect them - what a pleasant surprise after quite a bad and tiring day at work. a pretty expensive pair, but i felt the charm leaves were really unique, i always like how turquoise beads go with jeans, i haven't been splurging on accessories (or anything in particular in fact)... oh man, do i really need to provide so many reasons/excuses to buy a $40 item, and a matter of fact, i haven't rewarded myself properly since bonus payout, except for all the food indulgences - crystal jade, imperial treasure, lemon grass, jalan kayu, cafe 211 all in 10 days! i wonder what's next. eh, now now now...what should i wear this weekend to go with these lovelies?
i just remembered i have been talking about this for a long time, i really should reward myself with the whole collection of tintin comics. i love snowy, his white little cute terrier! :D
Sunday, July 23, 2006
saturday baking
decided to use up the blueberries that have been lying in frozen for a long time, and some of the many green apples that my mum bought. the blueberry cake recipe is taken from joyofbaking.com, and the apple muffins are from allrecipe.com. btw, did you spot the pair of purple baking gloves? yups, bought those from phuket.
scribbled at 12:35 pm
.::.
decided to use up the blueberries that have been lying in frozen for a long time, and some of the many green apples that my mum bought. the blueberry cake recipe is taken from joyofbaking.com, and the apple muffins are from allrecipe.com. btw, did you spot the pair of purple baking gloves? yups, bought those from phuket.
Monday, July 17, 2006
3D/3D phuket
okay, it's time i updated with the holiday details, it isn't too difficult to remember with the pictures to guide me, and we did scribble some notes every night and noted down every single one of our expenses - normally, i need alot of discipline to do that, but yeah, this was a low budget trip, so we got to be careful of our spending.
DAY 1 -
spot the sandwiches i made? since jetstar asia is a no-frills budget airline, i.e., no catered dinner, i decided to make wholesome ham with melted cheese and sunny-side-up sandwiches for us to snack on the plane. well, it didn't work out 'cos we were so hungry we gobbled all up before we even got the plane. :P we arrived at phuket international airport at about 8-plus in the evening, then hopped onto the mini-bus (shared among approximately 10 persons, costing 150B per head) to head back to our hotel, deevana patong resort & spa, where we were served our welcome drinks - this EXTREMELY sweet cranberry juice which tasted like concentrated ribena. the bf concluded that the thais have extreme taste buds - very sweet, very spicy and very salty - my direct opposite. we didn't want to waste the rest of the night lazing at the hotel, hence, we decided to venture out to the main street and us being a kiasu couple (as always), we bought a SIX-LITRE mineral water to last us throughout the trip (hey lion, fyi, nestle produces terrible tasting mineral water, to think we thought we were leaning on the safe side by buying from an internationally-known brand, hai, disappointing!) and three bottles of bacardi breezer. if you notice hard enough, you'll spot the harley davidson shirt from singapore - this picture was taken at nicky's handlebar, where we sat down for an extremely late dinner of thai fried rice and chicken wings at past midnight. food was cheap! we only paid slightly over S$5 in all, considering it was in a proper restaurant playing jazz, and the waiters were entertaining, the only complaint was that both the food and bill took far too long.
DAY 2 -
the weather wasn't in our favour, we woke up to a gloomy sky and slight drizzle. we decided on this: fill the tummy first, and plans later! the free breakfast at the hotel was reasonably good as you can see, for me, i stay away from the usual continental breakfast fare of bacon, ham and sausages, and stuck to my cereals and bread with jam (to each his own, but the bf calls this boring). after breakfast, we walked down to patong beach, maybe it was the weather, or perhaps the time of the day, the whole stretch was generally quiet. after a short stroll, we decided to get onto a tuk-tuk and head our way to central festival phuket, this shopping mall in town. the tuk-tuk uncle was this smiling old man, very polite and hardworking (always seeing him clean his vehicle while waiting for us) and he gave us an extremely good rate (200B bargained down from 300B). well, in thailand, taxis and tuk-tuks tend to bring tourists to gem stores and they claim that they can get free diesel for doing so (god knows if this is true or some scam), anyway, yes, we did that, quite willingly, since he seemed quite a nice guy and we weren't in any sort of rush anyway. oh yes, half-way through the ride to town, upon our request, he stopped us over for a go-kart ride (400B/head for 10 mins). i didn't go that fast but it was quite an exhilirating ride, but would probably have been more fun if there were more than just us two lonely souls at the circuit.
the picture below is all about FOOD (everybody knows i like taking food pictures, haha). lunch was at MK restaurant where we had a steamboat set with mixed pork and seafood. did some shopping - toiletries, lingerie (cheap!) and even kitchenware! don't get me wrong, we're not that crazy to go shopping for pots and pans...our initial plan was top up our purchase to 2000B so that we can be entitled to the VAT 7% discount (or so we think), so after browsing through the whole damn departmental store, i finally managed to find a pair of purple kitchen/baking gloves (designs sold here are ugly and expensive) and some pancake metal moulds (heart-/flower-shaped, so cute!). AND THEN GUESS WHAT, they told me you need to clock 5000B for your entire trip to get that 7%, the 2000B was for a single day. can't they just make it clear at one shot, those brainless idiots. anyway, they made us look like fools as well! anywayyyyy, we had a sweet craving after shopping and went looking for desserts - cheap desserts in fact, at grand canyon coffee, blueberry mocha cake, american chocolate cake and blueberry yoghurt drink. detoured to the local supermarket, i.e. big C supermart, which was walking distance away for a couple of minutes before making our way back to the hotel, and upon recommendations by the receptionist, we make reservations for thai full body massage at baan tummochart spa (400B/head for 1 hour). it was the bf's first time (wahaha), well, thankfully they provide loose clothing for some form decency. anyway, thai massage do not use massage/aromatherapy oil, but focuses on pressing on pressure points and stretching, although it can be painful at times, i did feel very relaxed at the end.
oh yes, last thing for the day, see the bubbles picture? our room had an outdoor jacuzzi that faces the resort pool, it's really cool! but i wished it supplied warm water though, for the sake of my goosebumps. the bf sneakily bought bubble bath from tbs (last minute i couldn't find it at watson's or guardian) and he must have poured in too much, the bubbles were so foamy and thick we were afraid it'd overflow and kill the plants outside, wahaha... we had a hard (and fun) time trying to get rid of them so as to avoid being cautioned by the hotel security. *hides hides*. sipping bacardi breezer and munching mixed nuts (our favourite movie snack, btw) in our bubbly world.
DAY 3 -
still no bright sunny weather, which was actually a good sign, because i have absolutely no intention to get any darker. we went on our full-day phang nga bay tour (1300B/head), finally some tourist-y activitiy. we travelled on a longtail boat as oppposed to the speedboat (something different, plus cheaper), the waves were choppy and the wind was blowing in our faces on our way to our first destination which was james bond island. as reiterated SEVERAL times by our friendly local guide by the name of john, james bond island was made famous by the james bond movie played by roger moore in 1974 (btw, the movie's "the man with the golden gun"); in the local context, this place is actually known as "ko tapu" (meaning "nail island"), because of its cone shape - narrow at the bottom and widening at top. lots of photo-taking opportunities at the island because of the spectacular scenary and beautiful waters. okay, we made a mistake by buying a james bond magnet at the souvenir stalls there, bargained only till 100B, it should only have been 80B max.
one of the main highlights was the canoeing trip into the sea caves. basically, the boat guide does all the work, while the two of us just enjoyed the view - the centre of many of the islands have collapsed, leaving behind small cave openings which we managed to enter by lying back flat on the canoe. the waters were calm because of the mangrove forests all around the islands, we even spotted a mudskipper among the roots! although we didn't seem to have walked around much, we were really tired and hungry by lunch time. lunch was provided for at a malay fishing village perched on stilts and we had company of three americans and a brazilian. as part of the package, they also brought us for ox-cart riding, all i can say is, don't waste your time... the optional elephant tour might have been better, but we didn't think it was worth an additional of 800B for two. and where did they bring us at the end of the tour? THE SAME JEWELLERY STORE where the tuk-tuk brought us the previous day. come on, get a life, do we look like we're the sort that buys back rubies and emeralds :\. oh yesssss...the bf was already feeling car sick on the mini-van on our way back to the hotel, and guess what, the amateur driver didn't know where deevana spa was, and WE (THE TOURISTS) had to direct him! piece of shit.
DINNER TIME-
the evening was spent at patong beach, enjoying our expensive seafood dinner and shopping. FOOD again, let me list the dishes we had:- the highlight has got to be the baked lobster with butter and garlic sauce (500gms = 900B! approx. S$38), squid deep-fried with bread crumbs (just like calamari) (200B), crab meat salad with thousand island (180B) and pineapple baked rice with seafood and pork floss (150B). well, they forgot to charge us for the extra two bowls of white steamed rice though, hah! after such a sumptuous meal, we went shopping along all the stalls... although we did spent about S$50 in total on shopping that night, we didn't managed to find what the bf wanted which was PHUKET SINGLETS. we bought phuket t-shirt and baby set (for his mum and baby troye), white islander resort-styled top (for my bro for his wedding shoot), magnets, sea-shell photo frames, plastic stud earrings... BUT NO PHUKET SINGLETS. every stall we go to, the owners tell us they only have got phuket t-shirts, but not singlets. we were polishing our bargaining skills as the night went by, for a place like that, you have to slash the price by 1/2 or even more to get a reasonable deal... which i believe we did for most items. *accomplished*
DAY 4 -
last day and it's time to check out! the weather was surprisingly good that morning, so we decided to go for a short dip before breakfast (the pool is right in front of us, don't use abit wasted :P). after checking out, we left our baggage with the bell service, and headed for patong beach again. my greatest regret was not slapping on enough spf 50 on my shoulders, and now i'm burnt again! the heat from the sun wasn't very tolerable for us, so we had to seek shelter half-way at haagen-dazs for ice-cream! yum! we went for foot massage by the beach, ermm, those old aunties used massage oil, but they don't seem to follow any proper technique, i think even i can do a better job! well well, at least we managed to bargain for 6 free hair braids upfront! i was supposed to be back at work the next day, so the colours of the beads had to be subtle.
okay, remember the PHUKET SINGLETS? YES, WE MANAGED TO FIND THEM! i think only this one small inconspicious shop in the whole patong beach sells that, and only in ONE design. THANK GOD. he bought two, in different colours. can you imagine the joy? for me, it was more of a sense of relief... haa. we were really tempted to try para-skiing or jet-skiing, but those were expensive (1000B), and most importantly, we shouldn't be getting our clothes wet. well, there will future opportunities for sure. ;) before making our way to the airport, we stopped over for an hour at the supermart again to get some local snacks for our family/colleagues (the usual pork floss crackers and stuff), and our last meal there was KFC - i kind of miss eating this using proper cutlery.
the last picture just shows me snoozing away - although it was just a 1.5 hour flight back. due to a slight delay with the plane, we only reached home past 1am... and my parents actually surprised me by fetching us from the airport - oh-so-sweet of them! :) home sweet home! what a great weekend getaway, i'm now all rejuvenated again! :)
scribbled at 6:50 pm
.::.
okay, it's time i updated with the holiday details, it isn't too difficult to remember with the pictures to guide me, and we did scribble some notes every night and noted down every single one of our expenses - normally, i need alot of discipline to do that, but yeah, this was a low budget trip, so we got to be careful of our spending.
DAY 1 -
spot the sandwiches i made? since jetstar asia is a no-frills budget airline, i.e., no catered dinner, i decided to make wholesome ham with melted cheese and sunny-side-up sandwiches for us to snack on the plane. well, it didn't work out 'cos we were so hungry we gobbled all up before we even got the plane. :P we arrived at phuket international airport at about 8-plus in the evening, then hopped onto the mini-bus (shared among approximately 10 persons, costing 150B per head) to head back to our hotel, deevana patong resort & spa, where we were served our welcome drinks - this EXTREMELY sweet cranberry juice which tasted like concentrated ribena. the bf concluded that the thais have extreme taste buds - very sweet, very spicy and very salty - my direct opposite. we didn't want to waste the rest of the night lazing at the hotel, hence, we decided to venture out to the main street and us being a kiasu couple (as always), we bought a SIX-LITRE mineral water to last us throughout the trip (hey lion, fyi, nestle produces terrible tasting mineral water, to think we thought we were leaning on the safe side by buying from an internationally-known brand, hai, disappointing!) and three bottles of bacardi breezer. if you notice hard enough, you'll spot the harley davidson shirt from singapore - this picture was taken at nicky's handlebar, where we sat down for an extremely late dinner of thai fried rice and chicken wings at past midnight. food was cheap! we only paid slightly over S$5 in all, considering it was in a proper restaurant playing jazz, and the waiters were entertaining, the only complaint was that both the food and bill took far too long.
DAY 2 -
the weather wasn't in our favour, we woke up to a gloomy sky and slight drizzle. we decided on this: fill the tummy first, and plans later! the free breakfast at the hotel was reasonably good as you can see, for me, i stay away from the usual continental breakfast fare of bacon, ham and sausages, and stuck to my cereals and bread with jam (to each his own, but the bf calls this boring). after breakfast, we walked down to patong beach, maybe it was the weather, or perhaps the time of the day, the whole stretch was generally quiet. after a short stroll, we decided to get onto a tuk-tuk and head our way to central festival phuket, this shopping mall in town. the tuk-tuk uncle was this smiling old man, very polite and hardworking (always seeing him clean his vehicle while waiting for us) and he gave us an extremely good rate (200B bargained down from 300B). well, in thailand, taxis and tuk-tuks tend to bring tourists to gem stores and they claim that they can get free diesel for doing so (god knows if this is true or some scam), anyway, yes, we did that, quite willingly, since he seemed quite a nice guy and we weren't in any sort of rush anyway. oh yes, half-way through the ride to town, upon our request, he stopped us over for a go-kart ride (400B/head for 10 mins). i didn't go that fast but it was quite an exhilirating ride, but would probably have been more fun if there were more than just us two lonely souls at the circuit.
the picture below is all about FOOD (everybody knows i like taking food pictures, haha). lunch was at MK restaurant where we had a steamboat set with mixed pork and seafood. did some shopping - toiletries, lingerie (cheap!) and even kitchenware! don't get me wrong, we're not that crazy to go shopping for pots and pans...our initial plan was top up our purchase to 2000B so that we can be entitled to the VAT 7% discount (or so we think), so after browsing through the whole damn departmental store, i finally managed to find a pair of purple kitchen/baking gloves (designs sold here are ugly and expensive) and some pancake metal moulds (heart-/flower-shaped, so cute!). AND THEN GUESS WHAT, they told me you need to clock 5000B for your entire trip to get that 7%, the 2000B was for a single day. can't they just make it clear at one shot, those brainless idiots. anyway, they made us look like fools as well! anywayyyyy, we had a sweet craving after shopping and went looking for desserts - cheap desserts in fact, at grand canyon coffee, blueberry mocha cake, american chocolate cake and blueberry yoghurt drink. detoured to the local supermarket, i.e. big C supermart, which was walking distance away for a couple of minutes before making our way back to the hotel, and upon recommendations by the receptionist, we make reservations for thai full body massage at baan tummochart spa (400B/head for 1 hour). it was the bf's first time (wahaha), well, thankfully they provide loose clothing for some form decency. anyway, thai massage do not use massage/aromatherapy oil, but focuses on pressing on pressure points and stretching, although it can be painful at times, i did feel very relaxed at the end.
oh yes, last thing for the day, see the bubbles picture? our room had an outdoor jacuzzi that faces the resort pool, it's really cool! but i wished it supplied warm water though, for the sake of my goosebumps. the bf sneakily bought bubble bath from tbs (last minute i couldn't find it at watson's or guardian) and he must have poured in too much, the bubbles were so foamy and thick we were afraid it'd overflow and kill the plants outside, wahaha... we had a hard (and fun) time trying to get rid of them so as to avoid being cautioned by the hotel security. *hides hides*. sipping bacardi breezer and munching mixed nuts (our favourite movie snack, btw) in our bubbly world.
DAY 3 -
still no bright sunny weather, which was actually a good sign, because i have absolutely no intention to get any darker. we went on our full-day phang nga bay tour (1300B/head), finally some tourist-y activitiy. we travelled on a longtail boat as oppposed to the speedboat (something different, plus cheaper), the waves were choppy and the wind was blowing in our faces on our way to our first destination which was james bond island. as reiterated SEVERAL times by our friendly local guide by the name of john, james bond island was made famous by the james bond movie played by roger moore in 1974 (btw, the movie's "the man with the golden gun"); in the local context, this place is actually known as "ko tapu" (meaning "nail island"), because of its cone shape - narrow at the bottom and widening at top. lots of photo-taking opportunities at the island because of the spectacular scenary and beautiful waters. okay, we made a mistake by buying a james bond magnet at the souvenir stalls there, bargained only till 100B, it should only have been 80B max.
one of the main highlights was the canoeing trip into the sea caves. basically, the boat guide does all the work, while the two of us just enjoyed the view - the centre of many of the islands have collapsed, leaving behind small cave openings which we managed to enter by lying back flat on the canoe. the waters were calm because of the mangrove forests all around the islands, we even spotted a mudskipper among the roots! although we didn't seem to have walked around much, we were really tired and hungry by lunch time. lunch was provided for at a malay fishing village perched on stilts and we had company of three americans and a brazilian. as part of the package, they also brought us for ox-cart riding, all i can say is, don't waste your time... the optional elephant tour might have been better, but we didn't think it was worth an additional of 800B for two. and where did they bring us at the end of the tour? THE SAME JEWELLERY STORE where the tuk-tuk brought us the previous day. come on, get a life, do we look like we're the sort that buys back rubies and emeralds :\. oh yesssss...the bf was already feeling car sick on the mini-van on our way back to the hotel, and guess what, the amateur driver didn't know where deevana spa was, and WE (THE TOURISTS) had to direct him! piece of shit.
DINNER TIME-
the evening was spent at patong beach, enjoying our expensive seafood dinner and shopping. FOOD again, let me list the dishes we had:- the highlight has got to be the baked lobster with butter and garlic sauce (500gms = 900B! approx. S$38), squid deep-fried with bread crumbs (just like calamari) (200B), crab meat salad with thousand island (180B) and pineapple baked rice with seafood and pork floss (150B). well, they forgot to charge us for the extra two bowls of white steamed rice though, hah! after such a sumptuous meal, we went shopping along all the stalls... although we did spent about S$50 in total on shopping that night, we didn't managed to find what the bf wanted which was PHUKET SINGLETS. we bought phuket t-shirt and baby set (for his mum and baby troye), white islander resort-styled top (for my bro for his wedding shoot), magnets, sea-shell photo frames, plastic stud earrings... BUT NO PHUKET SINGLETS. every stall we go to, the owners tell us they only have got phuket t-shirts, but not singlets. we were polishing our bargaining skills as the night went by, for a place like that, you have to slash the price by 1/2 or even more to get a reasonable deal... which i believe we did for most items. *accomplished*
DAY 4 -
last day and it's time to check out! the weather was surprisingly good that morning, so we decided to go for a short dip before breakfast (the pool is right in front of us, don't use abit wasted :P). after checking out, we left our baggage with the bell service, and headed for patong beach again. my greatest regret was not slapping on enough spf 50 on my shoulders, and now i'm burnt again! the heat from the sun wasn't very tolerable for us, so we had to seek shelter half-way at haagen-dazs for ice-cream! yum! we went for foot massage by the beach, ermm, those old aunties used massage oil, but they don't seem to follow any proper technique, i think even i can do a better job! well well, at least we managed to bargain for 6 free hair braids upfront! i was supposed to be back at work the next day, so the colours of the beads had to be subtle.
okay, remember the PHUKET SINGLETS? YES, WE MANAGED TO FIND THEM! i think only this one small inconspicious shop in the whole patong beach sells that, and only in ONE design. THANK GOD. he bought two, in different colours. can you imagine the joy? for me, it was more of a sense of relief... haa. we were really tempted to try para-skiing or jet-skiing, but those were expensive (1000B), and most importantly, we shouldn't be getting our clothes wet. well, there will future opportunities for sure. ;) before making our way to the airport, we stopped over for an hour at the supermart again to get some local snacks for our family/colleagues (the usual pork floss crackers and stuff), and our last meal there was KFC - i kind of miss eating this using proper cutlery.
the last picture just shows me snoozing away - although it was just a 1.5 hour flight back. due to a slight delay with the plane, we only reached home past 1am... and my parents actually surprised me by fetching us from the airport - oh-so-sweet of them! :) home sweet home! what a great weekend getaway, i'm now all rejuvenated again! :)
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
i'll be looking at this view in less than 24 hours - guess where?
scribbled at 10:40 pm
.::.
surprise!
it has been a while since i'm involved in a surprise party, now here's one! celebrated siu yee's 27th two days ago with a gourmet cake from canele, topped with drinks at cafe cartel, serangoon gardens. this was the night after watching the world cup finals - boy, was i tired! anyway, she definitely deserved this after organising neumann's party at artz pizza on saturday, i missed that one 'cos of a wedding dinner, and everybody's telling me the thin-crust pizzas are good! (pleadingly) when when when can i get to go?
scribbled at 10:13 pm
.::.
it has been a while since i'm involved in a surprise party, now here's one! celebrated siu yee's 27th two days ago with a gourmet cake from canele, topped with drinks at cafe cartel, serangoon gardens. this was the night after watching the world cup finals - boy, was i tired! anyway, she definitely deserved this after organising neumann's party at artz pizza on saturday, i missed that one 'cos of a wedding dinner, and everybody's telling me the thin-crust pizzas are good! (pleadingly) when when when can i get to go?
Sunday, July 02, 2006
a slow weekend
my sweetened black carrot cake from takashimaya food court (yups, finally managed to get a seat there):
foot reflexology session no. 2 - both therapists commented on the tiny grainy crystal deposits that can be felt at the soles of our feet. these crystal deposits, actually commonly found in most people, are believed to be caused by waste products such as excess uric acid and calcium; they tend to deposit in the nerve endings of our feet and impede our blood circulation. obstructions to the flow of energy can cause pain in the body and may limit function or motion, for example a stiff neck or back pain. anyway, you can really feel a sharp pain when they pressed on these little lumps (no kidding, it is VERY painful). reflexology is supposed to help to disperse the blockages and encourage the body to get rid of these deposit through the excretory system to regain proper blood circulation and functioning of the organs. i'm still skeptical about its actual health benefits, but it's always interesting to learn something new everyday.
anyway, both brazil and england are out! urgh, so disappointing. anyway, i really feel like slapping that smug look out of cristiano ronaldo's face, no doubt about his skills, but he's such an irritating brat. good luck to manchester united next season.
scribbled at 10:54 pm
.::.
my sweetened black carrot cake from takashimaya food court (yups, finally managed to get a seat there):
foot reflexology session no. 2 - both therapists commented on the tiny grainy crystal deposits that can be felt at the soles of our feet. these crystal deposits, actually commonly found in most people, are believed to be caused by waste products such as excess uric acid and calcium; they tend to deposit in the nerve endings of our feet and impede our blood circulation. obstructions to the flow of energy can cause pain in the body and may limit function or motion, for example a stiff neck or back pain. anyway, you can really feel a sharp pain when they pressed on these little lumps (no kidding, it is VERY painful). reflexology is supposed to help to disperse the blockages and encourage the body to get rid of these deposit through the excretory system to regain proper blood circulation and functioning of the organs. i'm still skeptical about its actual health benefits, but it's always interesting to learn something new everyday.
anyway, both brazil and england are out! urgh, so disappointing. anyway, i really feel like slapping that smug look out of cristiano ronaldo's face, no doubt about his skills, but he's such an irritating brat. good luck to manchester united next season.