Bro in law comes to visit and Adeline ties the knot!

G hop into Spore last Friday and followed us to KL for Adeline's tea ceremony. The bride looked ever radient and we had good fun "torturing" the guys. Phillip was sporting enough to do some of the "challenges" like eating grapes which has already been licked by 8 different guys *eww* (but he refused to eat the wasabi covered crackers -top pix) but have to say he was very "cheapo" - giving the girls only RM20 dollar ang pows :p

(above pix : happy couple, Jin and G playing around with the headbands, us with the bride in traditional chinese "quah")

After the tea ceremony where we got to check out Adeline's new nest, the "pampering" session started. We all booked ourselves for a hair wash and for RM20, we got a 40 minute hair wash along with head and shoulder massage....then we headed to the manicurist where the guys both got pedicures and I went for the full works. Next day before heading home, we managed to squeeze in a one hour aromatherapy massage (RM30)..ahhh,,.the joys of being in KL for the weekend :)

Not forgetting to mention, we ate like piglets..the eating spree started on Friday at marina food court where we had popiah, kung pow chicky claypot rice and curry laksa..then to Xin Wang cafe for a huge ice kacang. In KL, the food spree continued with Ramli burgers, maggi mee goreng, prawn mee, fried keow teow, siew pau, roti canai, tosai and a full 8 course dinner with shark fins. Poor G could not stomach all the "dirty" KL food and his tummy gave way so he missed the 8 course dinner :(.

Thankfully his tummy improved thanks to Mom's po chai pills - back in Spore, I let him try teh tarik ice cream and lin and ren yuh dropped in with portugese egg tarts, tau fu fah and taiwanese pancakes from Geylang. The food fest continued with bak kut teh, spore blk carrot cake which he thot was a dessert ;), satay, crayfish, stingray and bbq chicky wings..poor G - i think he cld not wait to get away from food crazy spore :)

When you have an apple pie craving in the middle of the night...

...what does one do? Thankfully, the good folks from local ice-cream chain "The Island Creamery" thought this out and taa daa - Apple Pie ice cream. Angela and Charmaine brought these tubs along when they came to our house warming last night. I am definitely leaving some for Gordon when he comes all the way from SF this weekend to let him try.. might even hop in and buy a tub of pineapple tarts flavoured ice cream seeing he is quite a fan of pineapple tarts :). Jin's quite addicted to the teh tarik flavour but my personal favourite is Burnt Caramel..one you start, it's wayyy too hard to stop...:p

Last night's gathering went pretty well. Spent the morning grocery shopping at Tiong Bahru mkt..then Jin was kind enough to accommodate me to check out BMW's X3 SUV..my first time driving a Bmer..was a great experience..am totally gunning for this car vs the more luxurious Lexus..total sucker for brands ..occupational hazard? :D

Back to the gathering - we had fried noodles, satay, chap chye, prawn and mushroom dish (by me!), soon kueh, bak chang and no meal's complete without dessert. I spent the afternoon testing out my molten lava cakes with the oven and temperature and my new moulds which I got from Chinatown earlier. Happy to note that the guests seemed rather contented after consuming the cakes with non other than Tillamook's Vanilla Bean ice cream (13.50 a tub but worth every penny!)

I made some for Karen since it was her bday..here's the bday girl with Lin

Now, back to the X3 driving experience. I really like the compactness of the SUV - it's brother the X5 is HUGE. Jin's concern is that it won't fit our golf bags..I disagree, it fits if you put the bags in diagonally la! hehehe. The drive is really smooth and how cool is it that the rear mirrors tilt down when you engage the reverse gear? this ensures you dont hit those nasty curbs or a silly cat! Sigh, if only money grew on trees...I would get a X3 for me and a Lexus for Jin. X3 X3 X3.....

Port Dickson weekend with the KL friends

Have not been on a group trip for so long so took opportunity of the Raya weekend and organised a trip to PD with the usual KL folks. Managed to get a 3 bedroom suite at Ancasa for 9 adults and 2 littles ones. Was a really fun, relaxing trip - we ate really cheap seafood, played volleyball and frisbee, walked the beach, hung out at the pool and at night, played RISK till 1.30am..wow, no wonder I am exhausted - so many things in only ONE day :)

Short but great trip..already planning where to go next year :)..

Mooncake festival with the girls

This year, we decided that the "homeless" msians should get together to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival. As it was a weekday night and the guys were not free to join , the girls (Karen, Li Mei, Lin and myself) met up at Li Mei's place for this gathering. We had vietnamese paper spring rolls, DIY style..yummy! and I bought mooncakes from Orchard Hotel. The pumpkin snowskin was really good..can't wait for next year to come..we will do a lantern walk next year :)

Jin's 32 :D

Jin turned 32 last Wed. Celebrated the weekend before with dinner at Peach Garden with Jimmy, Gail, Lin and RY. Ordered a carrot cake from Lana..yummy! Yummier than the choc cake.

On his actual birthday, made him a nice cheesecake..and dinner at Bonta. Food was not that great but service was excellent. I still owe him a spa treat..hmm..where should I take him.:p

Brunch at Dempsey Hill

This weekend was a particularly good one..managed to meet up with Ed and Lilaine along with baby Lukas who we have not seen for 4 months..how time flies..decided to have brunch at one of the new places at Dempsey. Unfortunately Ben and Jerry's was not opened so we decided on Jones the Grocer. It was packed but we got a communcal table with another family of 4. the menu listed the usual eggs and pancakes which was what we got along with sides of mushrooms. Not a bad place for brunch as the ambience and atmosphere gave an easy-going vibe. After brunch, we walked around the area and hopped into B&J..wow, the smell of waffles was amazing..I can't wait to come back here to check it out.

Spent the afternoon doing something out of the ordinary..I actually took a afternoon nap :p..felt really good after the nap - we then headed for our 6 hole golf game..it was really fun and Jin hit a PAR at hole 6 - 2 very estactic people were doing high 5's at that green :)

Then it was a quick rush to meet the gang at Whampoa fish steamboat where I had my filled of the delicious soup. After din, RY wanted to check out Timbre in town - we circled around for a good 30 minutes to find parking :p. that night we played MJ till 2 in the morning and I won $4.50 from Karen :)

Quick weekend getaway - Macau and Hong Kong

Jin was invited to attend ex colleague - Rita's wedding in HK so with our cheap JetStar tix bought months ago, we took off last weekend. Flight was ridiculously early at 7am but that also meant we got into HK really early. Decided that instead of staying 2 nites in HK, we wanted to check out the newly opened Venetian casino in Macau so we quickly wove our way to the seaport where the hovercrafts leave for Macau from HK.

Checked into 3 star Hotel Sintra. Although they were having major renovations and therefore lots of noise, since we were out most of the day, it did not really bother us. What was more impt - clean sheets and bathroom..thankfully, they past the test :). I did my usual homework about places to eat and that took us to Lisboa Restaurant where we ordered a meal enough for 4 people..hehe, how greedy. We had the shrimp soup which came in a lovely loaf bread so you could scope the pieces of bread from the side when you dig the spoon in for the soup. Jin wanted the stewed herbal duck and that was a big dish for two...too herby for my liking but Jin enjoyed it. I could not resist but to order the baked crab which was listed in too many reviews..it was yummy..very oily but yummy ;))

Macau (and HK) was very very extremely polluted..the haze hung like a dark cloud over the city and visibility was miserably poor. We managed to catch a fireworks competition..very spectacular and would have been even more so if there was no haze. I like macau..it's so quaint and i love the local biscuit shops where you get to sample everything..I have to say, these shops were quite generous in they amount they let you sample which makes you wonder about the profit margins. :p

We left Macau early as i could not wait to check into the very nice Conrad HK hotel..Jin managed to exchange his points and they gave us a room on the executive floor which meant we got to use the lounge on the 59th floor for free...the lounge faces the beautiful HK harbour but sadly, the view was hampered by the haze. :(

First food stop in HK has to be wanton mee at our favourite shop at wellington road. Got to meet little Ryan finally and he is such a handsome boy.

Spent the rest of the night amusing myself by walking from lan kwai fong (women's street) all the way down to temple street..it was a loong walk and I did not buy anything..finally found myself at the esprit outlet where I managed to get some winter clothes at 50% discount. As jin still wasnt done with the wedding, I found myself craving a foot massage. There was this lady on the street waving pamphelts on cheap foot massages and convinced by her, we walked to a nearby deserted looking building, took the lift to the 13th floor and got into a dingy looking flat. At this point, all my warning signals were peaked...I sat down and quickly smsed Jin all the details and told him to come look for me if he does not hear from me after an hour. Thankfully my fears were unnecessary and it was a proper all business foot massage which I got :)

Our third day was spent rather reluctantly at the hotel lounge - working :p...both of us had to clear important emails..anyway, figured we probably stay healthier staying in the hotel vs walking outside with the pollution. Managed to get out for 2 hours to Causeway Bay where I got 2 boxes of lo poh pang from the famous Hung Heung biscuit shop at Sogo's basement. We headed to the airport pretty early, giving Jin enough time to pack a yummy char siew and duck rice from Cafe Cartel at terminal 1 before our flight home to Spore. Was tempted to pack 2 boxes of Krispy Kremes for the office but decided that it was too much work to hand carry doughnuts onto the flight :D