PS cafe

The PS cafe at paragon is just another convenient coffee joint for shoppers to stop by, have coffee, sandwiches, salads and cakes and basically, to rest our tired legs after hours of shopping.

So I brought mr. goh to try out the roasted vegetables salad at PS cafe at paragon today. (I've been craving for it ever since the day I tried it with mich and eil.)

but I didn't know that mr goh is another person who doesn't like to eat brinjal, or anything 'ugly looking' (He loves sea cucumber by the way, and i thought THAT was ugly looking enough)

So, i didn't enjoy the roasted vegetables salad as much as i did last time since my recommendation was not exactly that fantastic. : l

an ice latte, hot earl grey and hours of magazine browsing was still good though. enough to satisfy two tired people on a lazy sunday afternoon.

unwinding weekend

started saturday with the thought of intensive blading from one end of ECP to the other and back, plus the weather was great! cloudy and windy, not humid and just the right amount of sunshine... but...

by the time we got to ECP, mr goh didn't feel like blading anymore and my legs were feeling very very tired! I have no idea why.. they felt so tired that I couldn't walk on my own anymore. I tried to convince mr goh to piggy back me, but obviously he wouldn't.

so we went for some ice cream waffles at gelare instead.



but this must be the most unappetising-looking ice cream waffle we ever had. It was banana walnut, whip cream, with chocolate sauce... : l

Luckily the drink was berry nice!



Nantocket Nectars-Kiwi Berry. Tastes a bit like ribena, but with a different punch. and it's like 8.90 for one bottle. : l



Spokesperson for kiwiberry drink!Heeh.

and mr. goh in deep thoughts:


These few days, I've been looking at my feet and thinking that they are looking more like my hands. So i compared my toes with mr goh's....



hah, what do you think?

but the feet is often a part of us which is highly neglected. SO...feel the presence of your toes, my friends. wriggle them everyday. It's good for blood circulation (or so I heard from the OSIM sales pp at taka square).

hmmm.. looking at the sea and listening to the sound of the waves definitely calm you down.... completely. :)



I'm dreaming of my white sands, palm trees, ocean waves holiday. Hopefully in the maldives. HeeeeeeH.

really a busy bee...

I have not been so busy at work for some time.

Working for three projects concurrently with tight schedules seem almost hard to complete. but I love it.

I love the feeling of accomplishment when at the end of the day, I finished what I planned to do in the morning.

When I can happily check the "things to do" boxes and plan what I want to achieve for the following day. I love feeling organised.

but I also yearn for the occasional "down time" when I don't have to work so hard.

Patiently waiting for the two long weekends in May to service my engine and keep on going the journey ahead....

the tissue paper lady...

I don't usually buy tissue paper from the tissue peddlars at hawker centres or along the roads because there are just too many elderly people doing that along the streets of orchard road and like most people, I just normally shake my head and say no.

However, I buy tissue packets from one particular elderly couple once in a while on my way to work in the morning. This couple is there every morning, rain or shine, right in front of the rolex building. The wife, I presume, will always cry out: "tissue paper one dollar, tissue paper one dollar" while her husband, stick thin, leans on a wooden crutch and stretches his frail arms in hope that some passer-by will approach him and buy his tissue packets. I must say I always feel my heart wrenching every day I see this old couple. On a few occassions, I wanted to find out what their story is...why do they do that every morning? Don't they have children? Why do they have to sell tissue papers every morning? Why..why..why.. but I never pluck up the courage to approach them and speak with them. Why?

This evening, met up Mr. Goh to have dinner at clementi. Both of us have tonnes of work-complaints. my china colleague is testing his limit with me EVERYDAY. I can just imagine spewing blood onto his face one of these days. Anyway...i digressed...
This really old lady... think maybe in her 70s.. came by our table with tissue packets and we bought the tissue packets from her. She was selling them 3 for $1 but we gave her $2 and she was kind enough to let us know again that it is just $1. Other tissue peddlers may have just taken the money and kept it, I don't know. Maybe cos she's an elderly lady, not man... maybe cos she looked kind and grand-motherly, maybe she doesn't give me the feeling that she's pushing us to buy the packets from her... maybe.. a lot of maybes which led me to want to buy it from her.

But the thing that really made me really upset was when I saw her going to the other table and upon seeing the leftover foods, took out a plastic bag from her bag and started to fill it with the leftover foods. Carefully, she used the chopsticks and filled up her plastic bag. I cannot imagine my grandmother, or anybody's grandmother, to be doing that every night. why? Where have her children gone? Or is she living alone? Is this the result of her not working hard enough when she was young? Or was she abandoned by her children cos she's too old and troublesome to take care of. lotsa questions ran through my head... One man's trash is another's treasure. Is this her fate?

Sigh, what a blue monday. and what a timely reminder for myself to count my blessings and cherish everyone, everything I have today.

Memory Toggle

#1: My primary school chinese teacher was called "bulldog" because he looked like one -dark short and fat- and he also had to run around the classroom chasing my boy classmates with the wooden metre ruler in his hands. There's supposedly a bulldog song created just for him.

#2: I have got two indian friends. One took over his father's business and became a money changer, the other, last remembered to have jumped down from the second level of our school building in order to prove his love for my best friend. Apparently, he twisted his ankle only.

#3: My favourite thing to do during recess is to play hopscotch and zero-point. I can jump over the "2-inch" level and we throw our wallets on the hopscotch drawing on the tarmac ground.

#4: My favourite food in the canteen was from the noodle stall. Occasionally, the cheese sandwich from the drinks stall, and the He Bao Dan from the fried rice stall.

#5: I used to play the organ when I was young and my best piece of music (apparently) is 爱相随 by 周华健. The music scores were bought from the big popular bookshop near school, and it is one of my favourite hangouts.

#6: I vaguely remember my winning chinese story telling competition piece to be about a girl who happily went out to buy dark soy sauce only to break the bottles and dare not return home. It was a story chosen by my teacher and she trained me every day in front of the class like how you'd train a parrot to speak. (of course, i'm grateful that she did what she did)

#7: I remember getting a love letter from a classmate.... and taking MC for the rest of that day.

#8: I had to stand in front of the entire school and sing the school song/national anthem and recite the national/school (sometimes over the PA system) every day. The bad thing about it is, I cannot be late... the good thing about it is... I get to people-watch. hm, is that a good thing?

A retro night with mum

Slipped on my 'happy dress', put on fancy dangling earrings and little tote and I'm all ready for Fong Fei Fei's concert Saturday evening with my mum.

I must say I looked and felt retro with the polka dotted 'happy' dress. I just lacked platform shoes and a polka dotted ribbon for my hair to complete the retro picture. Can still afford to throw in some bubble-gum shades for an extra dosage of fun.

Anyways, it was a really enjoyable evening. This lady, well-known for her various hats and powerful vocals, has been singing since the early 70s!! Her first song was in 1972 lor.... and it's amazing how there are still fanatic fans supporting her all these years!! FFF's probably in her late 50s but still look very pretty, like late 30s!

Stage and the supporters


The concert lasted for 3 hours or so and towards the end, I was sceptical that there will be an encore but at the same time, hoping that there will be people chanting the magic words for FFF to come out and sing again. And they did! So her most loyal fans were going, "Encore, encore, encore..." and we find ourselves shouting encore too. It was fun. Heeh. and the funny thing was, FFF came out after 5 min, and said, "Did I change fast enough? I was afraid you guys would leave!" That tickled my mum and up til today, she's still talking about it.

We were given free light sticks too! Sea of lights...

This is one of my favourite songs she sang that night.
<掌声响起>
孤独站在这舞台听到掌声响起来
我的心中有无限感慨
多少青春不在多少情怀已更改
我还拥有你的爱
好像初次的舞台听到第一声喝采
我的眼泪忍不住掉下来
经过多少失败经过多少等待
告诉自己要忍耐
掌声响起来我心更明白你的爱将与我同在
掌声响起来我心更明白歌声交会你我的爱

We could hear from her voice that she was trying to control her tears when she sang this. and honestly, I could feel tears rolling in my eyes too. She is really a superstar and her songs, the ways she emote, really gan dong dao wo. And my mum, I could see from her eyes that throughout the entire evening, she was transported back to the 70s and 80s, back when she was about my age, still a pretty young thing and reminiscing those times when she’d go for tea parties and song and dance. And that made me want to tear even more. I don’t know why, do I feel sorry for my mum that she’s lost her youth? Or do I feel happy for her that she’s finally able to ‘xiang fu’ now that all her children are grown up? Hmm...

Anyways, I love oldies. The songs from the past really have a different flavour and feel to it. I wonder if Stefanie sun’s songs will have the same effect on my children 30 years down the road...

the night at devils bar

It's true that some things happen for a reason, or are fated to happen in one way or another. When I got a call from my primary school friend this afternoon for some drinks tonight, I thought, well, why not? We haven't been in contact for 10 years! So, I decided to be spontaneous about it and agreed to meet up. (originally, my mum wanted to go shop for sofa set after i end work, but she called and said she's still at the hair salon. And being the planner that I am, I don't really like to be so spontaneous. hur.)

So yep, I rang up another primary school friend, who also happens to be my ex-neighbour, and best friend in primary school and asked her if she's available to meet up tonight. And so happens that she's going to devils. So that's when all the missing pieces of the puzzle starts to fall in place.

Pity leroy couldn't make it... cos it was actually birthday celebration thingy for jasmine! and it's like how qiao. I knew her birthday was around the corner.. but I didn't expect the timing of everything to be so accurate. So yeah, it's amazing how the chemistry among the few of us are still there, although i seriously think there is something wrong with my memory.

I can hardly remember things which happened during those primary school days... does that happen to you? I mean, they can really rememeber a lot of details! All I get are only 'screen shots' of events. like 'SNAP' boys throwing coins into our blouses, then 'SNAP', coke stains on school uniforms, 'SNAP' sitting in front of movie screen... what's wrong with my memory bank man.... how nice would it be if I could still remember exactly how I felt during those moments. By talking about childhood stuff with them definitely makes it easier to dig certain deep-seated memories from my brain and make those images start to appear again. Although we've not been there for one another for so many years, I'm sure there are times when we will think about one another and just wonder how they are doing now...

I'm glad we finally met up and on such a joyous occasion too. :)






And since I always feel very awake after i bathe, plus I've just drank some dang gui chicken soup thingy my mum prepared... I shall talk more about the night at devils.

The live band was not bad, vocals damn power. and there's always some fat, gay-ish looking guys bar-top dancing. Entertainment level for the night---high.

Drinks--- we had chivas. and I just found out that there is such a thing called chivas green tea. yeah, very suaku i know...but green tea was only popular a few years ago? and how i know any other drink also can be mixer. :P and jc broke the chivas bottle to get 3 crystal balls out and i took all of it! muahahaha.

and, it is proven that nokia handphones can take better pictures than the more expensive mini 02. ha ha ha ha. the flash from the 02 was BLINDING and pictures are still dark.

my heart is still beating at a faster-than-normal rate and my stomach feels HOT.
no cravings for green apple or dustbins or toilet bowl. no feeling constipated.
hair still stinks badly and ops, i think i didn't have dinner just now. (but the chicken wing they serve at devils is pretty good).

Need to detox my system tmr. now, need to get some beauty sleep.

I am a....

Career Inventory Test Results Extroversion ||||||||||||||| 50% Emotional Stability |||||||||||||||||| 60% Orderliness ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Altruism ||||||||||||||| 46% Inquisitiveness ||||||||||||||| 46% You are a Planner, possible professions include - management consultant, economist, scientist, computer programmer, environmental planner, new business developer, curriculum designer, administrator, mathematician, psychologist, neurologist, biomedical researcher, strategic planner, civil engineer, intellectual properties attorney, designer, editor/art director, inventor, informational-graphics designer, financial planner, judge.

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I would really love..... to be a judge. Hee hee. But this test is pretty accurate, I'm an economist! and i definitely like to have things planned. :)

Lunch at the Balcony

I've got such a heavy lunch at the Balcony today that I totally forgot to have dinner when I got back home. I think it might have something to do with the 200ml of HL milk in the office at 6pm, or it might be the tonnes of work that kept my mind occupied until 7.45pm. So, it's almost 12 now and I am still FULL.

SO.....Let's take a look at the place I had lunch...


The chairs we were seated are rocking chairs! and of course, the swings behind us. I would have loved to sit on it if not for the company I'm with. :)


The bar at the end of the restaurant.


The drapes and nice cushions.

And now the food at the Balcony...

For starters...SOup of the day: Minestrone! my favourite!

This photo really doesn't do justice to the minestrone soup.


Spaghetti with Prawn and Tomato Basil Sauce.
Still pales in comparison with Bakerzin's seafood pasta.


This is the salad my colleague got... but i also have a mini salad which comes along with the pasta and set lunch comes with tea or coffee or me.. hur.kidding.

My male chinese colleague found an ant in his ice coffee when he was about 3/4 done with it and he asked the waiter over and said,"Just for your information, I happen to find this very CUTE little ant in my ice coffee." I was speechless, threw a glance at my close female colleague, m. When the waiter kindly offered to get him another drink, he said,"It's fine, I already lost all my appetite." What's up with that man. I mean, I didn't even kick up such a big fuss when I found a baby cockroach in my horfun (but I also hadn't started eating it).

Anyway, we decided to cut the dining experience short and head back to work.

I'll still go back to the Balcony again, but this time, i'm bringing someone else.

Mandarin and a whole day of shopping and feeling like a princess

It was a sweeties night on friday. Luckily I was able to get off work early 'cos my boss finally recognise that it is impossible to finish the interim report by sunday and submit to client on monday. and he just got a new hire, china masters prc girl. (more on my china colleagus another day)

so, as usual, everywhere was packed on a friday night (and for places that are not packed, there MUST definite be something wrong) We originally wanted to go to Marche for dinner before heading to the Balcony to chill out. But there's a long queue outside and they won't allow us in unless at least 80% of the pack is already here. so, conveniently, we just went upstairs for Nydc. not very crowded, which we will soon get to know why. Service was slow, food arrive very late (like 45 min later??)and we can't have "outside" cake and eat it. There's this quite "funny" guy who served us and told us that the most they can let us do is to blow the candles and cut the cake. how ridiculous. Ironically, they have this board that says service with a smile at the door.

so, the balcony was equally crowded...but i really want to go there sometime!! there's a jaccuzi in the middle of it lor! and I want to sit on the swings!
we then shifted to the mandarin hotel for some drinks instead. Service was so much better and the drinks were good too. I like my lychee martini which was served in some kinda jappish teapot with the dry ice effect. apart from sangria and baileys, i think this would be my next favourite drink. had a really long chat with the girls... so many things happening, so many changes... everyone's growing up in different directions. and towards the end of the night, i think i got a bit tipsy and flushed BUT i slept really well....

The lychee martini!!

so the next day was a princess treatment offered by the sweeties! (thanks very much for the pretty dress!) went shopping around with eileen and zee in the afternoon for a wedding dress... heh, basically, just a dress to wear for mr. goh's sis wedding in june. then had gelare waffle (comfort food) and did more shopping around at far east, when mich joined us. decided we may be a bit too young for far east, so headed to paragon's PS cafe. They have the BEST roasted vegetables salad!!! MUST TRY! and we had some flourless cake with an equally light ice-cream, and of course, coffee.

Before we left, went and got myself a gucci tote in a short span of 15min. *big grin* Should have spent more time in the boutique to make my money's worth... All in all, the weekend was fantastic. one of my best birthday celebrations. Thank you sweeties. :)

Sun with Moon

Went to Sun with Moon at wheelock for dinner on Thurs night and the food was superlicious!! The place is really pretty too! They've got the cafe section at one corner with big red armchairs that look really comfy. and then there's the main dining section with pretty blue lighting, a view of the busy orchard road, a teppanyaki bar place and a more personalised dining area for couples. We were seated at that area and it's so comfortable with the white cushions that we forgot about ordering our food!

So, turning to the menu, we decided to order some sake since it's a joyous occassion and had some salmon sashimi for starters.





FRESH, SUCCULENT salmon sashimi. Our favourite. and if you look closely at the pic, you'd realise it's served on top of crushed ice!

Being the beef-lover that mr.goh is, he had the Yakiniku hotpot.



I tell you...this must be the BEST Yakiniku hotpot I EVER tasted. The entire hotpot looks extremely mouth-watering!! I actually didn't want to try the beef cos of my braces and I was afraid that I won't be able to chew properly. But no.... the beef was cut into thin slices, looks a deep red when it arrived in the hotpot and melts in your mouth! YUM. Definitely a must-try at sun with moon.

I tried the Eel and clam Kamameshi. It's something like our chinese claypot. not fantastic, but the way it is presented makes the dining experience fun.



I got to play with the hourglass.



and the eel is really tasty, but rice can be a bit hard.



so in between eating and talking, we drank sake....the japanese way. I must say i am really not a very good drinker. so mr goh had to finish like 200ml of sake. I probably only drank 10ml. The remaining 30ml... unfinished. hurhur.

and lastly, we had the tofu cheesecake. It was presented in a bird cage! but the lady took the cage away before i could get a shot of it. Next to the cake, there's this bird origami which i'm sure all of us have learnt how to fold when we were young.



and there's this really nice couple next to us who offered us a 15% discount voucher cos he's got extra. so, thank you, whoever you are.

Overall, it was a good night. Yummy food, nice ambience, friendly waitering staff and good company. I'll definitely want to go back there again. Maybe visit their outlet at CHIJmes sometime.