Ann's Caricature

During my trip to the Peranakan Museum, it was a free-entrance + free ice cream + free caricature day on that rainy Sunday. The queue was fairly short, so i let this man channel his creative energy into his caricature of me!

His masterpiece.... wow, i have nice big eyes!

F1 SIngapore Grand Prix : Race Day

Race Day! This day, we arrived early as i wanted to soak in the atmosphere at Padang, at the Walkabout area. This field is where the post F1 concerts were held and many walkabout ticket holders will be jostling for space to get a glimpse of the cars.

There were many bazaar stalls like this, selling F1 memorabilia and team merchandise. So far, Ferrari seemed to have the most items and judging by what the fans were mostly wearing, i would say that Ferrari is earning a big chunk of the F1 market. I hardly see fans wearing items belonging to other teams, maybe just a handful McLaren caps, and maybe some Renault t-shirts.

I was so happy to spot these antique cars at the Padang area, just before the drivers were due to sit in them for the Drivers' Parade Lap. Look whose car i found! Kimi!!

Boy, isn't this a nice-looking BMW for Robert Kubica?

At 6.30 pm, the Driver's Parade Lap started, and Kimi Raikkonen was the second driver on the parade lap. Many fans rushed to the front to wave at him, as for me, i stood bare-footed on my grandstand seat, waving frantically at him as well.

Nico Rosberg was so cool, hardly waving at all, just striking a pose.


Just before the start of the grand prix, i whipped out this mini Singaporean flag to capture this moment to remember.

F1 Singapore Grand Prix : Qualifying Session

My first time at a live F1 race! And it was a night race too~ Here i was, at Gate 7 before getting in to the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix circuit at Marina Bay. It was Saturday late afternoon, just before Practice Session 3 and Qualifying.

I made way to my Bay Grandstand seat, just before the Singapore Flyer, at the back.

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The scenery in front of me turned more and more beautiful as the sun began setting. The sky turned an orange hue and the lights flooding the circuit became more apparent, making the road more prominent.

Here, Lewis Hamilton dashed past us, the cars were too fast for our camera during the Practice Session. This was right in front of our seats, where the cars turned into Turn 18, into a tunnel beneath the spectator's grandstand, the first of its kind in Formula 1.

Between practice session and qualifying, we popped into Marina Square for dinner. The F1 crowd was in there, and many people flocked to the Ferrari road show, where girls like me quickly planted themselves to a nice spot to get a picture with Kimi Raikkonen's car!

Zombies from Hell

A rare video of our hall dance-play production from 2003. Can you spot me? Clue : I'm not of those zombies welding an axe....

Kinda miss dancing, this clip is particularly memorable because it is one of those few occasions that i do faster and heavier numbers. Usually i'm confined to modern-ballet-Chinese dancing.

I can feel my bones getting stiff these days =S

Three to Tea

What do three ladies do on a lazy Saturday afternoon? English tea is a good idea. And so, we ended up at the place, Fosters: An English Rose Cafe for an afternoon of tea-sipping and chit-chatting.

This cafe is decorated with beautiful armchairs and ornaments. The only minus point i can think of is that their chinas are all pure-white. I prefer drinking from a teacup which has pretty floral details =)

We ordered their famous Devonshire Tea Set which comes with their signature scones (2x) with cream and jam, fruit cake and a sandwich. Just the scones were enough to make us pat our bellies, the buttermilk taking up spaces in our stomach.

After the fulfilling tea, we promptly went shopping ( or window-shopping), and bought tickets for a movie. Just before the movie, we visited another girly shop for dinner. This place is hidden in a small corner, called Tea Cosy. It is actually a furniture shop, but has a small corner for a cafe.

This shop uses its furniture on sale as cafe chairs and tables. Everything in this place has a price tag, so if you find that the sofa you're sitting in is very very comfortable, you can actually purchase it after your meal.

I can't believe my friend can still down another cup of rose tea after consuming a full pot for tea time. This cup is what i was talking about before! Nice floral patterns!

Some root beer and cranberry juice for us two. The cafe uses angels as their main theme. All the tables have angel figurines on them.

Our baked mushroom with cheese. Absolutely divine! We all loved it to bits.

And finally, grilled chicken with penne. Another good dish, would recommend friends to patronize this place. I heard that they're currently undergoing renovations, will probably visit again next time to see if they retain the charm.

HK Adventures : Big Buddha

As mentioned in the previous post, last day in HK was just me and Kenny heading to Tai Yu San. It was a week day and crowd was thin. Weather was good too, a nice day for an outing. Tai Yu San is at the outskirt of HK. We boarded the MTR to one of its last stations, lodged our luggage at the locker to be collected at the end of the day on our way to the airport, just a stone's throw away.

We opted for the spectacular Ngong Ping 360 Crystal Cabin. The views were magnificent, very green and picturesque. I felt like i've been transported out of HK to another dimension.

The Big Buddha was what we were there for. But i reached the place at noon ( wah...so sunny) and there were hundreds of steps to climb before i was able to reach the top ( wah...so tired)

Yeay...i did it ! It was scorching hot, so after a few moments looking at the Big Buddha, we went indoors to explore the columbarium and altars inside.

One last breathtaking photo before heading down. Down at the Ngong Ping Village, Kenny and I also watched the Monkey's Tale and Walking with Buddha shows.

On our way down, we got the crystal cabin all to ourselves...lucky!

Hong Kong Chow-down Part 7

Last day in HK! We decided to split into two groups to explore our own itineraries. Kenny and I had a quick breakfast at a local coffeeshop. We loved HK cheong fun so much that we had to order another plate.

Also a basket of 'Ma Lai Gou' ( steamed cakes). It was so hot it misted up my camera lens. I've loved steamed cakes since my childhood, they are so fluffy and comforting.

Who can miss a cup of HK milk tea whilst in HK? We can't!

For lunch at Tai Yu San, we went for a vegetarian lunch. This is our tofu with mixed vegetable. SOmehow this looks uncannily like something i could whip up in my own kitchen. Blah...

Creamy corn soup! A little salty but i love the corn flavour and its starchy texture. This warm serving is best consumed in an air-conditioned restaurant.

Another dish of mixed vegetables. A very healthy lunch after a long day of scaling the hundreds of steps to the Big Buddha ( post to follow soon).

I've been whining about wanting to try 'Put Chai Gou' ever since i landed in HK. Unexpectedly, this local delicacy was very difficult to find! Thanks to Sixian who stumbled upon a shop in Jordan which sells this and brought it to the airport with her, i got to try it at last! Tastes like a bigger version of Malaysia's 'Wun Chai Gou', but with red bean toppings instead of coconut.

Fantasy Vs Reality

One night, Kenny and I joined his friends in a farewell for a friend who will be relocating to Switzerland for the next 5-10 years. We had a nice seafood dinner at Longbeach Seafood Restaurant. Kenny's eyes almost popped out when he saw the sexy vixens portrayed on their wet towel packaging.

But he was disappointed beyond words when he looked around and saw the so-called sexy waitresses looked like this!

My Sisters and I

The Powerpuff Girls have always reminded me of my sisters and I. Blossom ( pink), is the leader of the pack. She is like my eldest sister Lynn, who is a little girly and barks orders at the two younger ones. Buttercup ( green) is like my 2nd sister Crispy. She is the headstrong one, a little fierce and hardy on the outside, but soft inside. Bubbles ( blue) of course is like me, very 'teh' and is protected by Blossom and Buttercup.

My colleague who sits near me displays these three figurines on her desk. Just like the Powerpuff Girls, they also reflects the personality of me and my sisters. The frilly, girly one in the middle is like Lynn, the one wearing the pants with short hair is like Crispy and i guess the leftover is like me too!

HK Adventure : Madame Tussauds

Hong Kong Chow-Down Part 6

The only day that we didn't have much local delights was on the day when we visited Ocean Park. I had lunch at the cafeteria, this was my pathetic lunch of Kiwi Fruit juice and a bowl of Thai Fishball Glass Noodles. It was bland bland bland, and so so so ordinary, over-priced too!

Kenny's Chicken-Skewer Rice. According to him, it was pretty decent, but as we expected, nothing special.

At least this Seafood Cold Soba was quite good. After days of stuffing our faces with oily food, this was a nice change and pretty refreshing.

The weather was scorching in Ocean Park, we got an Ice Cone to cool ourselves down. It looked so adorable, but tasted really artificial and the shaved ice was really coarse.

We had our dinner at Cafe De Coral, a very convenient chain of food franchise in Hong Kong. It is sort of like a fast food chain, and the menu changes according to the time of the day. Customers order at the counter and pays for the food. After that, they proceed to the food counter to receive their orders.


I shared this Sweet Sour Pork Rice and Corn Soup with Kenny. The food was hot and yummy. The soup was exceptionally good, considering this place is like a fast-food chain. The service was quick and there were so many choices to pick from.

This is the Roast Pork rice set, which also comes with a plate of green leafy veggie and a bowl of lotus root soup. There is also a side order of bubble milk tea.

This is a mix-it-yourself-latte. The coffee, milk and syrup comes in different containers and you can mix the ingredients yourself to your liking.

This is the five-treasure set. Yes, there are five ingredients in this bowl ( excluding rice).

HK Adventure : Ocean Park

No HK Disneyland for us! Give us Ocean Park anytime!! Ocean Park is a nice little theme park in Hong Kong in which the main attractions are the endangered species of animals they keep in there. Of course, there are also other attractions such as thrilling rides and exhibitions.

Introducing Jia Jia, who was munching away on bamboos when we visited. I wanted to capture An An's photo, but he was sleeping BOTH times i went into his habitat. And Ocean Park had the nerve to write in his description, describing him as 'Agile and Active'.

This is one of the younger pandas, either Le Le or Ying Ying. He/she was sleeping so soundly, amidst all the frenzy happening on the other side of the exhibit. Many visitors were scrambling to capture this cute photo of him snoozing on a rock.

No visit to Ocean Park is complete without catching one of their many famed Animal Shows. Among the animals featured were the seals, dolphins and sea lions. Here, a live band warmed the audience up right before the start of the show.

There is a nice big aquarium in the middle of Ocean Park, the Atoll Reef. Small and big fishes circle the two main circular aquariums in the exhibit.

One of the main attractions would be the Jelly Fish Spectacular. These spineless creatures swim in tanks which were brightly lit with colourful lights to accentuate their movements. And i never imagined jelly-fish could dance!

At the other end of the park is the Pacific Pier, house to the seals. It was feeding time, and they were happily hopping into the water to retrieve their snacks. There is a viewing gallery under the water for visitors to watch them underwater. They actually swim upside down, gentling guiding their movement by swaying their rear end.

The cable car that takes people from the highland to the lowland and vice versa. Nice views as the cable car travels along the coast.

The new Amazing Asian Animals Exhibit where some new pandas are housed. They also managed to acquire two new Red Pandas, who are not shy at all, jumping around and playing while the excited onlookers gawked at them.