Wedding Dinner @ Grand Copthorne

On the same night we had the daylight fun of setting Chui Ying off to married life, we attended her marriage solemnisation plus wedding banquet at Grand Copthorne Hotel.

A nice gazebo for her ceremony. The gazebo is right outside the hotel at Robertson Quay and overlooks the waterfront. Beautiful....and the guests sit surrounding a moat with water pouring down from the top of the gazebo once the ceremony starts.

A little glitch happened during the vow-reading...poor Chui Ying's microphone malfunctioned. Boy, was she pissed....anyway, it went by smoothly apart from that and it was a beautiful moment.

After that, we were off to the wonderful banquet. The dishes were different from most weddings. Heard from a friend that this hotel is a value-for-money if you are interested of having your wedding dinner here, but you would need to reserve early! Ha Ha...free advertising...

Food For Thought

This is a very very nice place, "Food For Thought" is situated just outside the Singapore Art Museum, near Bras Basah MRT station. When we reached this place at 3 pm on a Saturday afternoon, it was full-house and we had to wait 10 minutes to get a seat.

This place is special for one thing : It serves breakfast all day long till 5.30 pm!!

All the waiters wear t-shirts with an inspirational phrase on it, as with the paper placed on our seats. They are randomly placed, and this was my phrase of the day~

A pair of scones with an unidentified goooooey sticky jam and generous portions of cream. The scones had a very strong buttermilk aroma, and the smell immediately tickled our sensors into hungry mode....wahahaha...

This is 'Chinese Chicken Caesar'. It was sooo sooo sooo good, oriental version of Caesar Salad. The dressing was ginger sesame and it was very appetizing, especially with its crunchy leafs, soft chicken breasts ( which were so juicy with the sesame oil marinate) and soft poached eggs ( Japanese Ramen style). Very very nice, i would go back for it again.

Ahhh...the Trio of Pancakes that we waited ages for, but it was worth the wait. Each pancake came with a crunchy crust, but soft and fluffy inside. It came topped with berries, gula melaka syrup and cream. FATTENING but so irresistible..

The Ghostbuster's Opening Theme

Marshmallow man!!! Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!! haha...

Chui Ying's Wedding

This is Christylia, or better known to close friends as Chui Ying, who recently got hitched to Poh Swee. Chui Ying has always been the flower of our group and never short of admirers and boyfriends. It was our pleasure that she finally said yes to such a sweet and soft-spoken Poh Swee.

Chui Ying's mom specifically said 'NO' to these behaviours during the gate-crashing ceremony : No vulgarities, no filth, no eating of disgusting food, no underwears... That means we didn't have much choice. One of the very personalised games was that we asked Poh Swee and bros to segregate out the things that Chui Ying does not eat from this bowl. And other tasks were short and easy, but really did keep up the atmosphere, surprisingly!

Three of the five jie-meis posing for photo. The irony is that we five knew Chui Ying during different stages of her life, so we didn't know each other. Nevertheless it was good knowing them, and find that they are all very sweet and nice!

The weather was perfectly sunny. The videographer brought us to Chinese Garden to shoot some videos and photo montage to be shown during the wedding dinner. Many passer-by stopped and took Chui Ying's photo. They also shouted out praises to her, telling her she's the most beautiful bride they've ever seen ! HEee~

Rollin' Good Times

After a bad economy year, we had our Annual Dinner and Dance really really late! Normally the company will host the dinner around Chinese New Year, but this year it was closer to mid year....haha...

This is my 6th dinner and dance with the company, and only the second time it came with a theme. My first time was my first year, where the theme was 'The Roaring Twenties' and this time it is 'Rollin' Good Times'...where attendees were encouraged to dress in retro style.

The order of the night was girls in hairbands...haha...but some of the guys dressed pretty cool, like with afro and huge glasses. It was a nice change, and one of the more fun and easy-going dinner and dance for me!

Most of the lab people did not really dressed according to code though....not like the Sales, Marketing, Finance and Customer Service people, who really were in the mood! Ahh...but it was great fun for all :)

The Nanny Opening Theme

The Nanny! Don't you just adore how Niles and C.C bite off each other's remarks with their humourous wit?

Xin Wang Cafe and Heaven's Loft

Post MacRitchie Reservoir walk, we took a cab down to Cineleisure for a K-box session. But before that, a quick lunch at Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe. We were there at about 12 pm and the crowd had not started streaming in so service was attentive and efficient.

After all that huffing, puffing and sweating, we needed a good cold drink. Isn't it adorable how this cafe serves their drinks in an old school 'kong'? Haha...

We both ordered the chef's recommendation : Papaya Milk Noodles. It came in sweet corn, papaya and noodles cooked in milk broth. There is a half-boiled egg hidden in the noodles and a piece of crunchy luncheon meat by the side. Both healthy and greasy at the same time. I couldn't decide whether it was healthy or not...haha...

For dessert we went to Heaven's Loft at Orchard Central. This place serves American and Italian food and is more renowned for its dessert and ice cream. It serves only Ben & Jerry's brands. The food and service was not good....duh...the service was especially bad, it was no wonder that the place was deserted. I did like the way they decorated the place though. Thumbs up to that magnificent painting on the wall!

Their kitchen looks very clean and modern. But that must be because it is so under-utilised... :P

HSBC Treetop Walk

As we felt we began to sag at all the wrong parts of the body, and with flabby belly acting like love handles, we decided that it was time to do something about it by going for an exhausting 4-hour hike at the Tree Top Walk at MacRitchie Reservoir in Thomson Road.

Gromit was the leanest meat among us so he could afford to sit all the way throughout the journey in my backpack.

Me and Ching still felt and looked fresh after navigating the nature trails, but look at poor Cui Cui and her friend's flushed faces! The trails were fairly easy, but the uneven grounds make your knees and thighs hurt after some time.

After close to 5 km on a nature trail, we finally came to the climax of the hike : The HSBC Tree Top Walk!

It is actually a hanging bridge suspended above the tree canopies. This bridge is one-way, and so when people stop to take photos (like me!), they cause a jam behind them.

You see that tiny little patch of water? That's Upper Seletar Reservoir near my house that Gromit was just there weeks before ( refer earlier blog post). After admiring the view, we had to walk 5 km back....haha... the following Monday, we all suffered from body muscle protest. I had sore ankles, Ching had sore calves while Cui Cui had sore thighs.... :P

Blossom Opening Theme

Blossom is a sitcom i watched when i was a young teenager ( say around when i was 14). Blossom herself is around that age, so i could really identify with her. Loved her ditzy brother, Joey....he was so cute and funny.

Outback Steakhouse + Max Brenner Chocolate Bar

I had a craving to have steak, sinful thick piece of beef to savour on a nice Friday evening. We happily parked ourselves at Outback Steakhouse in Millenia Walk for this purpose of satisfying my appetite.

Ahh...some warm bread with butter to start off our meal. The bread was soft, moist and fluffy, just the way i like it. But didn't like the fact that it looked like a crime scene with the knife stuck onto its belly.

Here's my Sirloin Steak ( I always order medium rare). According to the menu it was supposed to be 'seasoned and seared to perfection', but mine was tough and dry. Plus, the table at the restaurant was a little high for me ( made for those ang mohs), so my elbow was aching from all the slicing....arrrgghhh....one word : FRUSTRATION. On the bright side, the mashed potato was commendable.

Heehee...my friend was chiding me for coming here cos she is on a strict diet. She had to order this Grilled Chicken Breast which she complained was dry like shit...haha.... and way too expensive for its quality. Looks like we'll never return again...

For dessert, it's at Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar at the Esplanade. The last time i was here was like 5 years ago, quite surprised that nothing has changed. Except that this time around, the waitresses are sooooooo yaya-papaya....treated us like we were invisible. Such below-par service....

My friend ( the one on a diet...haha), had to just have this little mug of hot dark chocolate. The odd thing about this mug is that, she didn't know how to use it, meaning where to put her mouth.... It's shaped like a teardrop, so your guess is as good as mine :S

I ordered their signature dessert : Suckao - Do It Yourself Concentrated Hot Chocolate Shot. It comes with chocolate pastilles of your choice ( i picked Milk Chocolate) and with a cup of warm milk. You basically mix it into this aromatheraphy cup with a small fire below and suck it out from the metal straw ( which also works as a stirrer).

This is what it looks like after mixing. The word Suckao comes from two words that describe the utensil and the unique it contains. SUCK - to draw the dense liquid through the metal tube. KAKAO - the Spanish word for cocoa beans.

Upper Seletar Reservoir with Gromit

Good morning everyone. My owner has gone crazy, going round all these national parks in Singapore. First we went to Lower Peirce Reservoir but the view was 'not nice' according to her, so we had to drive to Upper Seletar Reservoir instead. Duh....

Ehhh...this place is practically deserted. Anyway, this park is near our new home in Sembawang, and guess what? It overlooks the Singapore zoo....if you look close enough you can see the crowd in the zoo right across the reservoir! You can even see the little boat cruises at the zoo.

My master scaled a tower 4-storey high to get me to this height! She huffed and puffed her way through the spiral staircase and almost suffered from heat stroke....( we were here on a real hot day, at about 2 pm).

The view ain't so bad yeah? So much greenery in this part of Singapore. Not such a bad idea, moving to Sembawang... :)

My owner looks stupid with her new short fringe....pah...But i'll give her a kiss to console her...muacks!

And that's the tower that almost killed her....haha...