Our 2nd ROM Anniversary - 9th Sep 2009

2 years ago, we exchanged our vows and became husband and wife. 1 year ago, we celebrated our 1st ROM Anniversary with much grandeur. This year, we decided to keep it simple. Why? Cos we decided to save our time and resources for a more important occasion that is coming up in November: our 1st Wedding Anniversary, which also marks our 5th year of couplehood. So, we decided to "standardise" our future ROM anniversary celebrations starting from this year onwards. Rather than doing away with it altogether, future ROM celebrations will only involve taking half day leave from work to spend the day together to mark this special day. No flowers, no gifts, only card exchange. A good meal, movie and if time permits, shopping or whatever that we feel like doing.

This year, we decided to have buffet lunch at Hotel Rendezvous. Read reviews that the hotel was under renovation and now it is better than before, so we decided to try it out. We had our lunch at Straits Cafe. The food was beter than Carlton Hotel's, but there wasn't really anything special. It didn't give me the "wow" feeling I had when I dined at Hyatt's Straits Kitchen last month. That was really yummilicious! Nevertheless, I feasted on my fave salmon sashimi, which was very fresh. A couple of other dishes that I like include the sushi, soup (papaya, pear & pig stomach)and durian pengat. There was one-for-one dining for UOB cardholders too, so the total bill only came up to $61.20, very cheap.

We booked tickets to watch The Proposal and after lunch, we crossed the road over to The Cathay. The timing was perfect, haha, buffet ended at 2.30pm and the movie began at 2.50pm. Watching movies on weekdays is cheap, but the best thing is, UOB cardholders only pay $6 per ticket! Liew! Why don't they build another Cathay cinema in Jurong??? As expected, half the audience were students. They enjoy student price at $6 per ticket too. The cast includes Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. The old cat didn't expect himself to enjoy the movie as he had thought it was just another "girly romance-comedy". Haha and as usual, I proved him right that these movies are nice. Funny and heartwarming. In The Proposal, Margaret (Sandra Bullock) forced her assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her so that she could secure her editor job in NYC and not being deported back to Canada. He agrees to go along with her plan, but has a few conditions of his own. The pair made their way to Alaska to meet Andrew's quirky family and from there things got out of control for the always-in-control city girl. Ok, to cut the long story short,they fell in love with each other in the end and Andrew asked Margaret to marry him - for real. :)

After the movie, it was 4.45pm, and we quickly headed to Plaza Sing to get the car out of the carpark so that we won't kana the after 5pm per entry charge. We had planned to check out 2 new shopping malls, Ion at Orchard and Illuma at Bugis. We checked out Ion first. The concept reminds me of Japan's underground train stations; no matter where you exit, there is always an entrance to a mall, haha! Anyway, we weren't very impressed. It's just another Takashimaya. Boring. We left after 2 hours. Next, we checked out Illuma. I thought it would be better, but turns out its 3 times more boring than Ion! The interior is huge, but there are so few shops. There is a lot of space wastage in the middle section of the building, space that can easily house another 20 retail shops at least, if it were maximised. We were out within 45 mins. Headed over to Bugis Junction for dinner at Yoshinoya. Felt so freaking tired... too long never go shopping already, haha! All I wanted to do was to grab a quick meal, then zoom home to shower and sleep.

That's the end of our special 9th Sep 2009. :)