Next Saturday's activity

+0 @ AMK1-office ™

Hooray~~

Received the complimentary tickets from our secreatary.

Zoomanji !!! We are coming..


This is our company 40yrs anniversary Family Day.

Venue: Singapore Zoo
Date: 7th November 2009 (saturday)
Time: 9am - 3pm



I remember the last time I went to Singapore Zoo was more than 15yrs ago. Returning there this time with my little girl. I am sure we gonna have a lot of fun there. :)

Happy Birthday, my sweetheart

+0 @ Home ™

To my beloved - Xiao Yue:
"Happy birthday and a birthday kiss for you, my little sweetheart.Today you turned into 1, and mummy hopes you can grow up happily and healthy in this family."

Today is her birthday, and yesterday we have celebrated for her at home by having a small party, with some friends and relatives showed up to make the party more merrier.

After breakfast, we were busy tidying up our house, lining up chairs for guests, pumping colorful balloons for decoration..Xiao Yue was taking her morning nap at this hour.

About 11.45am, caterer Mei Hao 99 arrived setting up the tables with skirting for the buffet with 10 courses including drinks. They took about 15mins to get all done. Pretty fast. And they were earlier than I requested.

We were not sure how many people will turn up and whether the portion of 30 from the caterer is enough. Hence, we ordered also sushi and maki platters. Sushi platter 52pcs at 39.90 and maki platter 26pcs at 19.90. Collected at 12noon.

At about 1pm, the cake ordered from Yiling cakes arrived too. The cake is really big, with only 2kgs. Looks like a 2.5kgs cake. The cake was done just like what I saw from their website. Very nice cake. I will be buying from them again for any occasions, since their cakes are affordable and variety choices for any kind of occasions.

Thanks to Chai! He was the first to arrive. :D
Friends and relatives arrived after one and another. This is Xiao Yue's cousin, Bryan, 2yrs+1month old.

Xiao Yue seems to be a little frightened seeing so many people in the house, and everyone was trying to play with her. But she was just acting cool, and sticked to me and daddy.

Time for singing birthday song for her. She was happy checking out the big birthday cake.

And here are the birthday presents for Xiao Yue from our guests. Thanks to all..

Comments for the catering foods and cakes:

Mei Hao 99:
- pretty well decorations, with a pot of fake flowers on the plant watering can from IKEA.
- food served hot, with warmers and candles.
- the portion ordered is considered OK. Some of our guests take-away for their favorites. Luckily, else I will have to consume for the whole week. :D
- the seafood fried rice not so nice, because the rice are still hard.
- sambal prawns were not so fresh, but the sambal gravy is pretty tasty.
- vietnamese spring-roll and you-tiao with sotong paste are so-so.
- Thai style sliced fish which is fried sliced fish with Thai sauce. The fried fish by itself is pretty plain. You need to add a little bit of the sauce on the sliced fish, the sauce is good.
- pork ribs with orange sauce, braised curry chicken is very nice. A lot of potatoes and curry gravy. Most of my guests like it. The next time when I will order again, braised curry chicken will be in the list.:)
- brocolli with chinese mushrooms is the only vege. All the brocolli covered with mushrooms, and this dish consider OK. Drink and dessert are also enough for all. Eventhough hot weather, there are still remainings.

Yiling Cake:
- there are few choices for flavor of the layered cake:- strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, and some that I can't remember. I chose vanilla, which I think most people will accept.
- 2kgs is enough to serve 30pax with some buffers. I think enough for 40pax.
- Between the cake layers, there are 2 layers of creams. You won't feel too much creamy, and the vanilla cake tastes good.
- Last but not least, affrodable cake with nice design for special occasion.

Preparing for birthday party

+0 @ AMK1-office ™

Has been busy on surveying for caterer and getting a cake for my daughter's 1st birthday on this coming Sunday.

First time organising a birthday party for ~30pax. Hopefully everything will fine.

Found out a lot of caterers on this island, with their variety menu. Corporate set, japanese bento set, easy party set, tea reception set, banquet set, ROM set, wedding set, a lots more... Making me don't know which to choose. At last, shortlisted a few:- Eatz catering, KCK catering, Yeh Lai Siang catering and Four seasons catering. Some menus are fixed, some beverages not included, some over budget, some with 10courses+drinks. At first decided to take KCK, but better to check on some reviews.

Good and Bad reviews I found. Making me even harder to decide.

Then, from forum, found another one which have more Good than Bad reviews - Mei Hao 99 catering.

At last, booking made with them. Choose their Buffet B. Hopefully their food are nice and setting are neat as well.

About the cake, I found Yiling Cakes looks quite nice for 1st birthday cake. They do have a lot of different categories of cake for any event that suits the theme. Variety of designs for you to choose from. And most important is the price is not too costly.

At last, choose a cake with a cute little girl design.

Here is the picture from their site. I hope the actual one will be not big differ from this. Will post up the picture of the actual cake next week.

Everything has been almost settled. Need to think of a little decoration at home. I hope she will be happy on that day.

Love you, Xiao Yue.

4 things that you can never recover

+0 @ AMK1-office ™

The stone.. after the throw!

The word.. after it's said!

The occasion.. after the loss!

The time.. after it's gone!




I read this from a forwarded mail. I found it very intereting and would like to share with all.

the stone..refers to something that will remind you of sweet memories that you had.

the word..refers to your attitude towards people around you.

the occasion..refers to event that if you missed it, you will never have second chance.

the time..refers to the CURRENT that you must never waste.

This is just my opinion. What is yours?! :)

Weekday Walk at Orchard

+0 @ Orchard ™

Orchard.. When was the last time I came here? Not too sure, but normally if come here, it will be for a specific purpose, and not like last time, for window shopping.

I found it too crowded during the weekends, and hence seldom come over. And for weekday, the shops close pretty early, if not wrong 9++pm, you can see most of the shops are preparing for closing. No points to come on weekday.

However, yesterday I went. And the purpose is joining for a farewell dinner to a friend, also colleague, that is leaving on today. -Kenneth-
He introduced a Ramen House in Orchard Plaza, Noodle House Ken. The shop is pretty small, but when we arrived, it was full of people. Luckily Kenneth made a reservation, else I don't know how long we will need to Q to have a table for 10pax. We were lead by the waitress to the reserved table.

The interior is not too much of deco. There is a counter near to our table, but there was a mess. Full of their stocks all over. I think the shop can only occupy ~35pax. 2 connecting tables, each can accomodate 10pax. 2 small round tables and a row of counter table in which I think can sit up to 5-6 pax. However, entering into the shop, I had a feeling of entering a ramen shop in Japan. To me, every land in Japan is extremely expensive. So, most of their shops are small. And this noodle house is small too. Haha.

Looking at the menu, there is only few to choose. 5 different types of ramen (Char Siew ramen, Stewed Boiled Egg Ramen, Miso Ramen, Hiyashi Chuuka, Audrey’s Miso Ramen), some side dishes and drinks.

From reviews and Kenneth recommendation, most of us ordered Char Siew Ramen with addon stewed-egg. We ordered also the gyoza, as recommended by most of the eaters.

The soup base was nice. Ramen is a bit special. It is not the same like you can find from Crystal Jade. The ramen portion is pretty a lot. Most of the big guys in our group were having difficulty to finish the whole bowl of ramen. Maybe I was hungry, I can easily finish it. :D The Char-Siew is a lot too. And thick. But, I found out the char-siew has no char-siew taste. More like normal sliced pork. I think their speciality is the stewed egg. It was very soft. They controlled the time very well to maintain the egg at the very soft condition.

Each Ramen costs SGD12.

If you are interested to give it a try, here is the address:
Noodle House Ken @ 150 Orchard Road #01-17/18 Orchard Plaza

After dinner, we decided to have a drink at Orchard Central, which is just right opposite CentrePoint. It was opened in August 2009. Design of the building is special. It is the first "Vertical Mall" in Singapore, with 11storeys above ground.

Before entering, took a picture in front of the mall.

We entered the building through a escalator. And here is what I saw while taking the escalator.

As recommended by Kenneth, we went to 8th floor. Looking for Ben & Jerry shop and it was at one of the corners. Walking through the ice-cream shop, we arrived to an open-air section, which is another shop named Heaven's Loft.

Very nice ambience, with soft music, serving all kinds of beers, wines, cocktails and liquors. And also can take a look of the Orchard Night View, even though it's not so glittering.

Enjoying a beer, watching at the night view of Orchard, on weekday... Seems not bad ya. :D

Heaven's Loft

Food for the Soul ~ Desserts to Die For

181 Orchard Road

#08-01/02

Orchard Central

GooGle LoGo

+0 @ AMK1- office ™

While searching on web hosting information, I found something interesting.

The 12 of the BEST Google logos. I still remember during Olympic in Beijing, the Google logo is changing, everyday. Can see a lot of different sports theme design on the Google logo, based on the Sports of the Day. I did collected everyday on the logo. And here are there:

Back to the 12 best logos that I found. Here they are:

Do you find out how come the last one is without alpabet? Look at the celebration. It's for the birthday of Samuel F.B. Morse, which is the single wire telegraph system creator. That's why the design also a MORSE code. LoL...

Lai Lai Beef Noodles

+0 @JurongPoint ™

A lazy Sunday. Almost reach dinner time. Husband suggested to go out for dinner, but has no idea where to go and what to eat.

Driving out from parking area, still don' t know what to eat. Finally, decided to go Jurong Point, since the previous time that we went, we didn't walk to the 'new wing'. New wing refers to the extended area of the shopping mall.

Walked to the new wing, to check out any special restaurant for our dinner. Passed by a restaurant, which selling Taiwanese cuisines. Seats are pretty occupied. There are also Fig & Olive next door, Din Tai Fung, Burger King and Swensen at the same row. Don't feel like eating western food, we decided to try new food, the Taiwanese food, LaiLai Casual Dining [来来红烧牛肉面].

Since the famous dish of the shop is their beef noodles, for sure we ordered it.

The set is not so expensive. For a beef noodles + a side dish (to be chose from 4 different dishes) + pearl milk tea is only SGD13.90. Comparing to Ajisen Ramen, this is pretty worthy. One bowl of Ajisen Ramen is already this price. I know we surely cannot finish if we order another set with different main course, so I chose to order ala-carte.

I chose vermicelli aka mee sua with beef meatballs (3 different toppings: pork organ, pork meatball or chicken), and a glass of Orange-Peach juice with Konyaku jelly. While the set we ordered dry beef noodles, fried brinjal with pork floss and red tea pearl milk tea.

The food served pretty fast, even though the restaurant is fully occupied. The fried brinjal is special. Mee sua and their famous beef noodles are delicious.

Overall, very satisfying dinner, and we paid SGD27.60 (including 10% service charge and 7% GST charge).

Ubin Island, here I come~~~

+0@Ubin ™

Saturday morning, woke up very early, at 7am. Feeling excited for an island trip outing.

There are 5 of us. Apart from visiting the island, the purpose of the trip is photo shooting. One of us is the Model of the Day, 3 photographers and 1 assistant (that's me!).

From my house to Changi Village Jetty is about 45mins. Arrived and parked the car at the open space parking area. One thing no good is parking system is using coupon and not EPS. So, you will need to estimate what time to be back. At last, we displayed 8pcs hourly coupon, which is until 5pm.

Then, we took the seat at the waiting area. We departed at 9am.

The boat will depart when there is 12pax. Else, you will need to wait. I read from forum/site that the boat fare is SGD2. However, maybe they just increased to SGD2.50. The traveling took about 8mins on the boat to arrive at Ubin Jetty. Wow.. So near only. Haha.. I was thinking at least 15mins or half an hour far. Anyway, weather is just nice. Sun is up.

A group photo taken on arrival, on the jetty entrance.

Once entering the Ubin small town, you can see a information kiosk, where you can get a free copy of Ubin map. Then, there is an area of taxi (vans) that waiting for you to approach them. Walk a little further, you will see few bike rental shops with a BIG BIG $2 board. I was wondering whether it is so cheap or not. After enquiring, the $2 is for children bicycle only. For adult, it varies from Sgd6-10, depends on the type and age of the bike.

At last, we rented fully suspension bike, which costs $8 per bike. First time riding a fully suspension bike, I found it very comfortable. Just like a car with good suspension. Even the road is not so even/flat, you won't feel it too much.

We ride to Chek Jawa, which is at the east side of the island. Luckily we chose fully suspension, the road to Chek Jawa is up and down, steep slope, rocky path. So tiring. We all regretted to rent bike. Haha. But, is a good experience. However, before reaching Chek Jawa, the sky started to turn dark. Wind brought a lot of big clouds. Luckily, we managed to ride until the stopping point where we need to park the bike and walk into the Chek Jawa area, which is only 190m away. The stopping point is Punai Hut. Once we parked the bike, it started to rain. Very heavily. We took rest at the hut while waiting for rain to stop.

A note that I wrote on the phone during this time:

"Now is 1024. Raining heavily. We stop at Punai hut, waiting for rain to stop. We are just 190m away from Chek Jawa Wetlands. Forecast is so accurate today. Sigh..."

Not sure how long we have waited. Finally we are able to move forward. We first arrived the information kiosk, briefed us on the wetlands and some precautions. Then, rain started heavy again. Waited for ~10mins, a lot of mosquitoes. Then, we walked toward the viewing jetty. There is restroom and a house showing some creatures that can be found at Chek Jawa.

Once looking at the house, 3 photographers started their jobs (taking out their gears).

And the assistant also cannot resist to pose for a few pictures, because of the nice background and view. Haha.

At the first glance to the house, a very strong feel of England/European designed house.

Rain never stop. Continuing drizzling rain. Cooling but still prefer sun. And..And..and each of us never care of the weather of either sunny or rainy day, cameras still on the photographers hand and never stop snapping.. On each and every unique corner of the house.

Inside the house, there are a lot of information that you can find related to Chek Jawa, for example the species that you can find in the sea.

There is a Viewing Jetty for you to walk about 150m from the house.

Then we go to another point which is about 1km of boardwalk (mangrove and coastal loop). Was raining still, and all of us are quite tired. We just continue to walk until the other end, just to finish the coastal loop viewing on the mangrove trees, some plants that are planted on swamp, lobster crab habitat (if you are lucky to spot any crawling on the mud), and also Jejawi Tower (in which we have been told by the officer at the information kiosk that the tower is closed due to raining).

Back to the boardwalk loop, in fact we came at the wrong time. The BEST time to arrive on this coastal loop is during low tide. This is because you will be able to see a lot of wonders underneath the track. This is what I found from mangrove.nus.sg.edu website.

"The list of wonders in Chek Jawa is incredible—stick insects, Flying Dragons, Oriental Pied Hornbills, junglefowls, wild boars, otters, Seashore Nutmeg Trees, Sea Anemones, Seahorses, nudibranchs, sea cucumbers, Cow Fishes, octopuses, stingrays, starfishes, decorator crabs, shellfishes, sea grasses, seaweed, and sponges, etc."

Wah~~~ Unfortunately, I was there at high tide, and was not able to see anything. :[

Next time will plan for a trip to reach Chek Jawa during its low tide. Sure I can see something that others never saw. Haha...

After Chek Jawa, we cycled back to the town near the jetty to take our lunch. There are few restaurants that offered variety seafoods. After cycling from Chek Jawa to the town, all of us were exhausted, tired, and hungry. And all of us agreed to go leave island after lunch. Haha. We were really too tired of continuing the Ubin island journey.

However, all of us are very satisfy and happy for the trip. And 'enjoyed' the most the cycling part. Haha.. We swear to take taxi for our next visit to Chek Jawa. Cycling there is really a challenging task, but very good for exercising. :D

Taken a few photos to add in some meaningful quotes, and dedicated to you. :)