Merry Christmas Everyone !!!

The Old Monk bar & Grill :)

I was in Hong Kong Last week for a couple of days. Met up with a few friends who were base there. They told me to meet at the Old Monk bar & Grill restaurant for drinks. I was staying at a hotel hereby so went there in the morning to look see first. This pic was taken early in the morning :) Love the name, cute isn't? The rubbish cart was gone by the time we were there. We had beer ,wine & pizza & spent the whole night drinking, chatting & watching people. Really cool place to chill !!!
Next time you are in Hong Kong you might want to check it out :)

The Old Monk Bar & Grill, The Hart, 4 Hart Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui. Tel: 2353 1271

Open: 2pm-3am or later (“it’s flexible”). Happy hour: 3pm-9pm

8 years of Dexter

One of my friends is moving into her new DBSS very soon, so she's packing & getting rid of old stuff. Last week she gave me a bag full of discs for the TV series Dexter. Well why not, I've not seen it. I watched the first episode & loved it, so I figured I'd watched the second, and before you can say 'blood spatter', I had watched 8 years of Dexter.

That would be 12 episodes per season & the show has run for 8 seasons, so I watched 8X12 episodes & each episode an hour. My dad complained that's way too much television. Not only that, but I watched all 8 seasons in a matter of days, which means almost continuously. I even watched it in the office during lunch, rushed home for dinner so that I could watch it. It kept me up past bedtime, and I even started getting up early in the mornings before work to squeeze in another ep.
Notice I said ep?
I'm too busy watching TV to take time to say 'episode' ...lol...
It's over now, & I miss it.
The show should never have ended!

Dexter, best show Ever !

Lladro's Angels

Today is Sally's birthday. She's a friend from primary school ,whom I still keep in touch with. Amazing right? Most of you might have lost all contact of your primary school classmates already. Truth is, it's not that difficult for us, as we go to the same secondary school & JC after primary. Today is her birthday.

I've celebrated most of her birthdays with her, excluding those that she went overseas to celebrate with her family. She has no boy friend at the moment, so it's just me & her tonight. Her last boy friend said good bye just last month! According to her, it's per-meditated, he wanted to save on getting her a present & also the dinner! After seeing my shocked look, she said you can't underestimate him, he's that stingy. WOW ...

Looking back, I've gotten her numerous gifts through the years. The one she cherished the most is a gift I gave her 5 years back. It's a Lladro's angel. I bought it on ebay as Lladro have discontinue it. She loved it so much & it has been in her room ever since. I'm thinking of getting her another angel this year. I'm sure she'll love it :))

Chinese Angel from Lladro

Pranks

Yesterday I had an afternoon tea appointment with a friend, Sal (my primary school classmate). Since my time is more flexible, I decided to just take the MRT to Orchard to meet her- tired of driving. Plus parking at Orchard is a nightmare. Could be the timing, when I got on the train, there's very few people in my segment.

Then I heard someone screaming at a kid. I turned & saw a lady berating her poor kid. From the uniform, the kid was from my former primary school. Apparently the kid & a couple of her friends had hidden the teacher's chair & other things, before the teacher came to class, as a prank. Ok, in normal circumstances, when you heard something like that, you might even smile, as it's a good, cute prank. But not in my case. Why? Becos' me & Sal had done the exact same thing when we were in the exact same school.

It's too weird as I'm on my way to meet Sal. A theory born out of desperation floated into my mind. Could my friends hire paid performers to weird me out, while filming the whole thing on covert CCTV. Except I didn't have friends with that sort of imagination or money or who cared enough about me to go to so much trouble. In which case, it was just a coincidence. But the same prank,in the same school, the kid even look a little like me when I was a kid- pony tail & all!

When I related the whole thing to Sal later, she laughed non-stop !!!

Fortune cats

I was distraught when my colleague Mandy has moved back home, though my sadness was tempered by the shipping rates to America that resulted in her unloading half her worldly possessions onto me. Among other things, I become the proud owner of  4 'decorative' fortune cats, a set of Ikea Vardagen bowls, 2 Ikea egg cups - everyday objects that i couldn't conceive being a part of my everyday life but made me miss Mandy each time I ate instant noodles out of the Ikea Vardagen bowls or used the egg cups to contain chilly.

I might have to visit her soon, at last to pass her one of her fortune cats. She emailed to say nothing is going quite right since she got back home. Maybe kitty here would help !

Her favorite !

What's your bucket list like?

Alright time to update the blog.
How about coming up with my own bucket list??? Get excited people!

1. Fly first class
2. Scale China's top 5 mountains.
3. Ride in a hot air balloon
4. Go to a Broadway show in New York !
5. Go to Finland , visit Santa Claus (I think it's in Finland, will confirm later)
6. Read a 1000 books , (995 to go...lol..)
7.Stay in France for a month.
8. Travel solo
9. Get married
10. Get a cat or a kid

wouldn't this be awesome ????

Whitening injections : Skin Boosters for the dewy, fairer look

I finally tried the Whitening injections aka skin Boosters !!! My bestie has been insisting that we do it. Everybody wants a fair dewy luminous look even without make-up right? It's known to be GREAT for practically everything from dry skin, fine lines, aging skin, acne-scarred skin to pigmentation etc.... This is the latest in the world of skin care in Singapore.

Ok... it's for almost everyone who wants to look better! I'm serious. Went to DR Keith Ong & discuss with him.  It's a versatile treatment. You can even do it for your  neck & hands as well. It's delivered via multiple micro-injections of Restylane ( long-lasting hyaluronic acid). It hydrates the skin from inside, resulting in smoother & firmer skin.

Dr Keith Ong, recording what's to be done for me ....haha..

The treatment: Numbing cream was applied to my face, :) After awhile Dr Keith Ong started with a series of very quick micro injections. Within about 10 mins it's over ... WOW... that's very fast & I was relief ....lol.... The numbing cream & the speed made the procedure pretty OK & bearable.  I was reminded to expect some bruising or swelling. Well I indeed have some bruising, thank God it went off within a week. My male colleagues look at me & laugh & said they don't understand women. My female colleagues look at me & started thinking of making appointments for it ....lol.... they just love the fair dewy look!

Result wise:  For my case, the effect is pretty good . The small acne-scarring I had before, improved ! I'm super happy about that. I'm fair from all the Vitamin C injections I have been doing before. But now, my face takes on a new soft dewy radiant look. Like some Japanese celebrity, I'm serious! A colleague who did it as well, found that it has a whitening effect on her. She could not stop talking about it. Even without make-up, the effect is seriously great!

If you are interested the price is $350-  you wont regret it :))

My Doctor : Dr Keith Ong @ International Building Orchard
# 04-10 , Singapore 238869
Tel;  8777-0736, 9746-7720 
Open from:
Monday & Friday   : 10am to 1pm, 3pm to 8pm
Tue, Wed   : 3pm to 8pm
Saturday  : 10am to 1pm 
Sun & PH close.

 779 Yishun Ave 2, #01-1541, Singapore 760779
Tel; 64846010, 8777-0736, 9746-7720
Opening hrs; Tues, Wed  : 9am to 12 pm Thurs  : 3pm to 8pm

Shirakawa-go, Japan, through the Tateyama Alpine Route

I did this trip last year during Autumn. Japan has always been my favorite holiday destination, love the culture, the food & shopping. Have always wanted to visit the town of Shirakawa-go ever since I saw pictures like this of this lovely place

Shirakawago like a Christmas Wonderland during winter

Me & my bestie Celest usually visit Japan, on our own & never joining tours. This time around Celest argued that, she just want to relax & let someone else do all the planning for once. Well she has a point, though we have been to Japan many times, their transport system is still a mystery to me. I just can't imagine finding our way to this place on our own! So this time around we joined the SA Tours, Alpine Route Tour with a short stopover at Shirakawa-go. We decided to go early Autumn as we were tired of dragging along those heavy winter wear. It'll be cool & light, perfect.

Flight out was midnight by Singapore Airlines (we were very please with that).

Beef sushi on a rice cracker so yummy!

Day 2: When we reached Nagoya, it was already morning & we began our tour. Local tour guide is a lovely petite lady who speaks perfect Mandarin: no English speaking guide available. Thank God both of us are bilingual.
First stop, Takayama Castle Town, it's a small quiet town, with quaint traditional Japanese houses- pretty! Here I ate the most delicious sushi from a road side store on Kami Sannomachi Street.  Wish I ate more ...lol...

Day 3, we went to a local Takayama Morning market. We found some very interesting fruits & other things there. Next was the Yatai Kaikan Hall, this place displayed traditional festive floats. It's different & very interesting seeing them upfront. They were beautiful with exquisite details & very heavy. I was thinking, we will never come to places like these if we do this on our own! The planning itself will probably drive us nuts ,Glad we join the tour:) Nice place:)

Next was Shirakawa-go, we visited the Gassho Village, famous for those steeply thatched-roof farmhouses. What a place...... I've been thinking of this place for like 3 years now...finally here... it's almost emotional ...lol...... Though there's no snow, the autumn scene is not too shabby either. Look at this:

Charming isn't it?

Kenrokuem Garden

I'm sure you have seen countless pictures of those famous steeply thatched-roof farmhouses. So I wont paste anymore of them here. But the above, taken by me, is my favorite picture. I call it "the Little House on the Prairie", after an old famous American show :)) look at the beautiful color of the wheat fields or was it malt? Kinda artistic don't you think? I love it! We vow to come back to experience the winter scene & maybe even to stay in one of those farmhouses.

 Next we proceed to Kenrokuen Garden in Kanazawa. Very beautiful. They have very interesting trees there too. Something like giant bonsai plants:)

Tateyama Cable Car

Day 4 was the most exciting day as we went on the famous Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. If you are thinking of doing this on your own, STOP THINKING NOW ......... you wont be able to do it smoothly without any mishaps, I can assure you! It's just too complicated.

Tateyama Trolley Bus

Join a tour, it'll take away all the pain ....lol.... not a thing to be done by yourself, you'll badly need some expert guidance :))

We did the right thing joining the tour as the guide took us through  a distance of 86 km from Tateyama station on the Toyam Chiho tetsudo line to Nagano Ogisawa using the famous 6 modes of transport: Tateyama Cable Car, Tateyama Highland Bus, Tateyama Tunnel Trolley Bus, Tateyame Ropeway, Kurobe Cable Car & Kanden Tunnel Trolley Bus.

Lots of queuing & running to board some of these transport, & if you are not familiar with it, chances are you'll spend much time trying to figure out what to do next, it's confusing! Our guide just go " Quick, join this Q"- " Quick board that bus"- & we obey like little sheep- works like magic... we were all very grateful ....lol..... The view of the Tateyama Mountain Range was lovely. The different kinds of transport we have to go through makes the whole experience very unusual & interesting. I really enjoy the Kurobe Dam- the place was breath-taking .

Beautiful scenery at Kurobe Dam

Day 5 was unexpected, we visited  Kusatsu Yubateke, an impressive field of hot springs, another place we might not go if we did it on our own. This place was charming, I felt as if I've gone to Switzerland, it has that feel, well a little:)). Wish we have more time there for coffee or something. Next was shopping at an outlet before driving to Tokyo.

Yes it's piping hot sulfur, incredible

Charming place: Kusatsu Yubateke

Day 6, The trip was coming to an end. Today we spend sometime shopping at Tokyo's SkyTree & visited some famous ramen place at Harajuku.We leave for home the next day.

It's as good as it looks !

In all I enjoy myself very much. I finally get to visit my dream place Shirakawa-go. Though I didn't get to see the snow, I figured, winter might be too cold & uncomfortable. Anyway I can & probably would come back. I'm one of those who's never keen on joining tours, but after this I'm totally changing my mind. It's really not bad at all. I get to see some pretty interesting places. Places I'll never dream of going if I'm on my own as it would be too tedious :)) Imagine navigating through the whole itinerary , it's an impossible task. Also imagine booking all the different hotels, .. this trip is totally worth it:)
Good Trip!