New Year's Eve

It is the eve of New Year. In another 3.5 hours, it will be New Year 2013.
Have you decided on your new year's resolution(s)? If not, there is still some time to reflect and think about what you want to achieve in the coming new year. 
I have decided on my new year's resolution. It is also a promise made to a good friend. I will do my best to achieve it. I really hope I can achieve it! :)

Happy Lunar (Chinese) Birthday, Marieann

It is Marieann's lunar (Chinese) birthday today. It is just one day apart from her other birthday on 2 January lol. Since it is her Chinese birthday, a bowl of mee sua (面线) in double-boiled chicken soup was cooked for her to eat as well as a hardboiled egg for her to shell and eat. Usually it should be two hardboiled eggs (double digit is lucky) but I thought it might be too much for her. The mee sua represents longevity and the egg represents life. 
Marieann is now into cheesecake. So I bought her a simple Light Cheesecake from Breadtalk for today's birthday. For her other birthday, we will be getting her the more elaborate New York Cheesecake from Bakerzin lol. :) 

"Medieval" Food Experience

I have always been intrigued by the lone red knight that is stationed on the first floor of Vivocity. Finally, I have a chance to find out more about it - by having dinner at The King Louis Grill and Bar. :) 
The King Louis Grill and Bar is Singapore's one and only castle themed restaurant serving medieval cuisine with man-sized armoured knights placed around the restaurant.
The girls ordered from the Kids' Meal: Marieann and her Princess Grace Tomato Spaghetti ($10.50) and Juliane and her Castle Omelette ($9.50). We also ordered The Knight Lancelot (meat & seafood) ($79.90): marinated boneless chicken leg with onion sauce, grilled porkloin with mushroom sauce , oven baked king prawns with cheese, fish fillet in garlic cream sauce and sauteed green mussels with tomato sauce and came with vegetables and salad. I liked the chicken which is tender and juicy as well as the prawns and the fish fillet. The porkloin, however, was quite tough which was a pity.

Castle Omelette from Kid's Meal

The Knight Lancelot (meat & seafood)

One of the several armoured knights around the restaurant

Other than its unusual theme, The King Louis has also been voted by parents for the past two years as one of the best family restaurants. :) Families with children, please feel free to visit this restaurant. 

2012's Last Weekend

This weekend, 29 December and 30 December, is the last weekend of 2012. 
Time really flies. 2012 is finally coming to an end.
Have you achieved your new year's (2012's) resolution(s)? If yes, congrats! If not, you still have slightly more than 2.5 days to achieve it/ them. Good luck. :P 
As for me, I only had one new year's resolution to achieve and I achieved it - I got my PhD. :)

Cafe + Lifestyle Store

Due to the fact that I am clearing my annual leave, I was able to meet up with a good friend who is into visiting interesting cafes around Singapore. She drove us to a part of Singapore which I seldom venture to, Farrer Park area. There at the corner of Owen Road and Dorset Road, I saw L'etoile Cafe, a two-storey quaint cafe looking pretty in white.
We sat downstairs as it was closer to the cutesy stuff that are being sold in the cafe. The ambience is really nice, cosy and relaxing, very homely. I love the floor-to-ceiling windows which allow light into the cafe, making it nice and (not overly) bright and ideal for reading and doing work! Lol. :) I ordered a Chicken Cordon Bleu ($17.90) while my friend had Bangers and Mash ($17.90). After ordering our food, I browsed around the cafe, the lifestyle store and upstairs. However as there are other customers upstairs, I didn't take photos except for one. I took plenty of photos of downstairs though. :)

Corner selling cutesy/ handmade stuff

Interesting - a Singer sewing machine turned into a table for two!

Not long after, our food arrived. Both our dishes looked good and tasted likewise, deliciously good. :) I think I will come back to L'etoile Cafe to try out the other dishes.

After our satisfying lunch, we also shared a Matcha Azuki chiffon cake because it looked so tempting despite us being really full. :P The matcha chiffon cake was light and soft and the buttercream with azuki bean bits complimented the cake well. (Sorry, no photo as I was too busy eating :P) Before we left, I bought hair accessories for the girls and a pair of earrings for myself! :) 
L'etoile Cafe is a good place for a meal, for tea/ coffee, for hanging out as well as for reading and working on notebooks (preferably on weekdays, not so crowded).

Apprehensive

Starting to feel a little apprehensive about my new job, this coming 2 Jan 2013. :S 
Although it is still research work, it is a new working environment as I have been transferred to another department. The boss will be new to me as well so I will have to work out his working style and adjust to that. I have been told that I may be required to work on multiple projects or whatever they want me to work on. But at least, they have assured me that my strength and knowledge about assessment will be fully utilised. Wish me the best.

Boxing Day 2012

Happy Boxing Day 2012!
It's the end of our Christmas Day staycation. 
I woke up early because I wanted to catch the sunrise. However, it was yet another cloudy day. So I went back to sleep lol. The girls woke up around 9am. We went to get some bread from the bakery at Raffles City and returned to our room for our breakfast and morning tea while watching tv, Discovery channel again lol. :) 

Views from 6.40am till 7.15am

Bye bye, Grand Room 5270

We checked out at 12noon and went to have lunch at Cafe Swiss. From the kids' menu, Marieann had a Spaghetti and tomato ($14) and Juliane ordered a Chicken hotdog served with fries and vegetable sticks ($14). I tried their Steamed Norwegian Salmon with organic spelt risotto ($29).

Lovely, warm, soft bread that came before our main course (cheese in the bottle)

The organic spelt risotto was absolutely delicious and healthy too!

Juliane and her new keychain, My Neighbour Totoro

It was really nice to have a break (even if it was only for a day) with the girls before school reopens. We had time to chit and relax. I hope it has recharged them for the new school year. :)

Christmas Day Staycation

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2012! :)
My girls and I went for our Christmas Day staycation at Swissotel The Stamford. We arrived just after 12pm and were promptly checked-in and given our Grand Room on the 52nd floor! :)
The girls were really excited to be so high up from the ground. Actually, Juliane was more like freaking out because of the height and kept asking me to change to a room on a lower floor haha. The Grand Room (50m2) was nice and spacious for the three of us. The views from our room were spectacular (there were two balconies). 

From the door, looking into the hallway (bathroom and closet)

Study table and the first balcony (view of Marina Bay)

From study corner, view of living area and king size bed

Living area, bed and second balcony (view of city)

View of living area from the bed

From left to right: Singapore Flyer, Marina Bay Sands, Esplanade

Civilian War Memorial (and Park)

Looking down from the second balcony: swimming pools and tennis courts

Lots of flats

The green patch is Fort Canning Hill (and Park)

After having explored our room and done taking all the photos, we left for lunch at 1pm. We were spoilt for choice as Raffles City is the attached shopping mall with lots of eateries. We went to Xi Men Ding (Taiwanese cuisine) as the girls couldn't decide what to eat.

Taiwanese-style "Bai-ye" Tofu ($13.90), Taiwanese-style double-boiled soup ($18.80) and Salted Veg with Tripe Soup ($6.90)

Pork Ribs in Plum Sauce ($16.90) - Delicious!

Sweet Glazed Duck ($15.90) - Tasty!

Fried Noodle with Shrimps ($11)

Stir-fried Pig's Intestines with Ginger and Pineapple ($13.90) - I like it lol

Taiwanese-style Noodle Soup ($4.90)

After lunch at 2.30pm, we walked around Raffles City and spent most of our time in Paper Market, NBC bookshop, Precious Thots, and Marks and Spencer. We returned to our room at 4.30pm. 
As the sky looked cloudy and cool earlier in the day, I told them they couldn't swim. But the girls were lucky. The sun came out in the late afternoon and I brought them down to the swimming pool on the 8th floor. They swam for close to an hour before we went back to our room at 6pm.

Marieann looking pensive

Juliane looking cheeky

After we watched our Korean drama, Ice Adonis (7-8pm, yes we are Korean drama addicts lol), we went for dinner at Out of the Pan, Raffles City. We shared a Grilled Honey Soy Chicken crepe ($15.50), Traditional Roasted Turkey Breast crepe ($19++), Fresh Berries Waffles with custard cream, berries and vanilla ice cream ($14), and Old Style Rum and Raisin sweet crepe with caramelised apples and rum & raisin ice cream ($14).

Views at dusk

At 52nd level lift lobby waiting for the lift

Fresh Berries Waffles - Sweet!

Old style Rum and Raisin Crepe - Yummy! (the girls didnt like it because of the rum lol)

After dinner, we went back to NBC bookshop. The girls just love the shop. We returned to our spacious and cosy room close to 9.30pm. We watched Discovery channel for the rest of the night! Lol. The girls couldn't sleep. They were like "Princess and the Pea"!  They complained that the bed was so different. They turned and tossed in bed, kept going to the bathroom and even tried to sleep on the couch! Finally, they knocked out just after 12 midnight. :)

The goodies that the girls bought

Amazing night view of the Marina Bay area from the 52nd floor