1st Wedding cum 5th Year Anniversary!

It's 11 Nov 2009, exactly a year after our customary wedding! Both of us took leave to celebrate this day, and boy it felt really good not to be slaving in the office haha.

I received flowers from the old cat in the office the day before. It was the first time I received such a dark bouquet, my no. 18th from him! It was so dark, that many people turned to look at me when I was out of the office, lol.

  



Lunch at Basilico (The Regent)

We decided to have lunch at The Regent, just like how we went back to Mandai Orchid Garden for dinner on our 1st ROM anniversary last year. We had our lunch at Basilico, a restaurant that serves Italian cuisine.



We could not decide whether to go for buffet or a la carte, and the staff was very nice. She ushered us to a private area and gave us a table that overlooked the lobby. Very nice. She handed us the a ala carte menu for us to look through, then brought me (the old cat had to look after our belongings) around the buffet counter, introducing the varieties of food that they serve, where I can find the hot and cold sections, the desserts..etc. This is a very simple action that can be done by any service staff, but so far none of the staff at the other hotels (not even Shangri-La and Grand Hyatt) I had been to for meals offered such good service! This simple gesture really sets The Regent apart from other hotels.

The Italian buffet spread:



One look at the buffet counter and I decided that buffet would be the perfect choice - they have such a fantastic spread!! Picture wood-fire pizzas, hand crafted desserts! I saw a lot of our favourite foods, and manz, they even have homemade gelato!!!

Here are some of the food stuff:



Bread is readily available at the buffet counter and we see many patrons helping themselves to the bread and cheese. The old cat and I did not take any as we weren't particularly fond of eating bread at buffets. The waitress would make her rounds around the restaurant and she must have noticed that we didn't have any bread on our table, cos the next time she came to our table, she brought along an assortment of bread for us! I mean c'mon, usually waitresses only appear at tables to 1) refill the glasses or 2) clear the plates. To top it off, when I was having some difficulty with the lasagne, the chef came over within 2 mins and offered his help! We are very impressed with the service indeed!

Ham pizza and a plate of roast potatoes, lasagne and meat (beef steak, lamb chop, grilled sea bass and grilled salmon):

  

The grilled salmon is really yummy, the best I have ever eaten!

A plate containing chicken fried rice, dou miao, spicy prawn (very fresh!!), ginger chicken, stir-fry beef with ginger and oyster sauce, and a bowl of Sea cucumber with dry scallop broth:

  

Fruit meringue and chocolate gelato:

  

Manz, the chocolate gelato is really out of this world! Very authentic! It is sooooooooooooooooooooo delicious! So smooth!!! Just like the ones we had in Europe!!! You'll have to try it to know it for yourself! They have different flavours too, but this one is so heavenly that I could not bother with the rest, waahahahhahaha!

Tiramisu and Chocolate Shot:

  

Other pics:

The old cat said to bring the bouquet along, enhances the photos you know? LOL.


  

  

  

  

  



The buffet spread is really good! We like the fact that the meat items are cut into bite-size portions even for the fish. No bones, great! I don't know about the old cat, but I will give Basilico 9 for Ambience & Setting, 8 for Food, and 9 for Service! We are very happy with our Regent experience! Service is really number one!


Next stop after lunch: Sentosa

We have not been to Sentosa for ages, and decided to be local tourists for the day. We signed up for the Sentosa Choice Package which entitled us to 4 attractions at $38.90 per pax. The package included island admission by Sentosa Bus or Sentosa Express (aka LRT) too!

     


We went to the following 4 attractions:

1) Gogreen Segway Fun Ride

This is something that the old cat wants to try when we go to the US next year, but honestly, I have never been too keen on it. Now that we can try the segway in Singapore, we won't have to try it in the US! Wahahahahaha!

  

2) Images of Singapore

This is definitely not as boring as the old cat had thought it would be. Or perhaps it is because I am one of those people who likes viewing life-sized exhibits of the past.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  



3) Tiger Sky Tower

This is Singapore's tallest observatory tower which offers panoramic views at 131 metres above sea level!

  

  

  

4) Sentosa 4D Magix

We watched "Pirates", a 15 mins comedy on pirates' adventure. We had to wear 3D glasses. Throughout the show, the chairs would rock, and we were shot with cold blasts of air and water. Haha, quite entertaining.

  

  

  

Other pics:

The Merlion, and giant Christmas tree at Vivocity Level 3

  


Dinner at P.S Cafe (Dempsey):



  

  

BBQ Ribs that look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and Chicken Rossa Penne

  


After dinner, home sweet home for cake!

  

  

Pressie from the old cat:

Tempur pillow...



and a handmade book titled "The Story of My Heart"!

  

Pressies for the old cat:

  

  

Yay so happy, I can finally use my new Tempur pillow!!

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. :)

Finally completed our Wedding Memory Book!!!!!

Liew I'm so happy!!!!! Guess what?? After soooooooooooo freaking long (a good 7 months), we have finally completed the last 2 chapters of our wedding memory book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FINALLY AR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have been procastinating and procastinating, and procastinating, giving excuses that we got to re-reno our MBR, shop for a car, and goodness know what other excuses we have given, lol. So I set a deadline, that by hook or by crook, we got to complete the memory book by 30th June 2009, cos after that I want to concentrate on planning our itinerary for our US trip! Don't like the feeling of something pending there you know? *winkz* So with the set target in mind, we started on the wedding chapter somewhere in April (I think). Finished it within 2-3 weeks I think, it wasn't that difficult. Then we stopped. Procastinated for another month until about end May, that's when I realise that time is running out, haha. Quickly dragged our asses to select photos from our Europe trip and to think of the layout. 10 freaking pages... not easy lor. Send the pics for printing then started shopping for additional materials. I think one of the toughest part of making the Honeymoon chapter is the trimming of the pics. Liew, not easy if you want to do a good job, got to be freaking precise. I think I have never cut so many photos in my whole life, lol.

Anyway, to cut the long story short, the book is FINALLY completed!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Officially completed on 28th June!!!!! Finally can close shop liao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can view pics of each page at our website with this link:

http://www.embraceeternity.com/Album_WMB.htm

Our Wedding Memory Book - Page 26

Its been 5 months since our customary wedding but its only a week ago that we started working on the last 2 chapters of our wedding memory book (customary wedding and our european honeymoon).

Here is Page 26:



Kitty was the one who paste the petals. I pasted the letterings.

Here are some pics taken by Kitty:

The day I almost lost my wedding ring

A month back, I was lunching with the computer guru and john lemon and we were on the topic of "what would you do if you lose your wedding band". I was saying that I would be sad, but then... I can always get a replacement at Soo Kee. CG was saying that a replacement ring will no longer be the same, the feeling is different cos it would have lost its sentimental value. I know what he was talking about, but it didn't really register fully in my thick skull until 2 days back when I lost mine. Well, nearly.

I was shopping with LYY at the Esprit outlet at Jurong Point on Tuesday evening. The tees were selling at $29.90 (very cheap!) and I was happily grabbing some to try. Either I have slimmed down considerably (lol), or I was too excited at my potential buys, so much so that I did not realise that my wedding band had slipped off my 4th finger.

It was not until I was about to make payment then I wondered "how come I can wriggle my fingers so smoothly huh???" I looked down at my left hand and realised with horror that my wedding band was missing! A million and one thoughts went through my mind. Could I have left it in the office? Can't be leh, it was with me when I went to the toilet mah. Could it be in the changing room? Maybe? I immediately called my boss who was still in the office and asked her to help me check if the ring was on my desk. It was not!

I was lucky LYY was around. She immediately went to search the changing room while I was on the line. The ring was not there. Strangely, even though I was upset, I was still relatively calm, reasoning to myself that a similar ring can be bought at Soo Kee. Should I just let it be? I wasn't sure if I had dropped it at Esprit anyway. But... the old cat will be disappointed. Thankfully, LYY was rather persistent and insisted that I search around the area where the tee-shirt display was. Just then, the sales assistant spotted something on the floor, picked it up and asked, "Miss, is this the ring you are looking for?" I was like "YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Wahhahahhahhahaha!

I was so freaking lucky!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So freaking grateful too!! I am really, really lucky!!!!! And then I realise that after this incident, I finally understand fully the meaning "a replacement ring will never be the same".

I am sooooooooooooooooooooo happie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!