Shopping Mania

Today (21 April Tuesday USA; 22 April Wednesday Singapore) is designated as outlet shopping day. :)

My friend and his wife picked me up from my hotel at 10am+ and we set off for Desert Hills Premium Outlet after a short detour to Target for some essentials. We arrived at Desert Hills Outlet in slightly over an hour, at 12:35pm. After deciding to meet up at 5pm, we went our separate ways.

There are about 130 shops, with a large collection of designers and brand names. I wasn't really interested in the designers and brand names like Coach, Prada, etc as I feel those could be found in Singapore too. I was more interested in buying from brands unknown in Singapore because whatever I wear will definitely be one of a kind in Singapore haha. :) But I must admit, the only brand I went after at the outlet is Kipling. I bought 3 bags at one go! Hahaha. :P I am so happy. Friend and wife saw me at the Kipling shop and told me our meeting time was extended till 6:30pm. Yippee, more time to shop lol. :P By 5pm, I had browsed through all the shops (those that I was interested in) and had bought quite a few things. I took a break at the food court as well as took in the sights and took some photos too. The outlet has the mountains in the background. It is beautiful.






On the way back, the sun was setting and I took some shots of it too. I just love sunsets. My friend and his wife dropped me back at my hotel around 7:30pm. Thanks for giving me a ride to Desert Hills. I had a great time shopping. :)

Private Sale

It's that time of the year again at Isetan. :)

After counselling (I swopped my counselling to today because of the school workshop yesterday), I went to the Isetan Private Sale with my parents and Juliane. Marieann was still in school as she had after school activity.

I got my Clarins skin care products and a new Kipling bag for my US trip lol. Yes, I would use any excuse to buy a new Kipling haha. :P My mother also bought a Kipling bag lol. My parents bought some bamboo charcoal health care products. I also bought two children's bamboo charcoal pillows for the girls. The pillows are supposedly good for aching shoulders, insomnia and respiratory health. Finally, we got some Japanese snacks for the girls from the supermarket before heading home.

Monkey Businesses

As I looked at the events of the past week, I realised it was dominated by monkey businesses! Lol.

First, it is, by now, the infamous monkey mating business, haha. :P Already on that day, colleagues who were with me at Seletar were "lamenting" (jokingly, of course) why I didn't capture it on video. When my other friends read about that blog entry Sunburnt Fun, some asked how could I not have captured that?! :P While some asked why was I so tickled by that? Well, we all need some excitement in our lives lol. Never mind, if it is only excitement from seeing monkeys mating away. A colleague said either we (researchers) are very deprived or we are going nuts, haha. Hmm, maybe both I think. :P
That blog entry also resulted in an ex-student of mine laughing in her class. Thank goodness, she wasn't caught by her teacher for not paying attention in class. I am glad I could still make you girls laugh (remember I used to tell you girls jokes in class?) but please NO MORE reading of blogs in class. Pay attention, even if the class is boring. Ok?! Haha.

Second, it is the Kipling bags. I have never been to Kipling shops one day after another. In case, some of you don't understand, the logo for Kipling is a monkey. For some of its collections, each bag has a little monkey hanging from it and each monkey has a name. :) That's why my girls and I also fondly call Kipling the Monkey bag. Actually, I think I buy Kipling bags for the monkeys. Hahaha. :P No lah, Kipling bags are water-resistant, light weight and durable. :)

It has been a fun week with the "monkeys", lol.

Kipling Craze II and Tea Break

We had lunch at home as my mother cooked chicken rice. We won't pass it up for anything, lol. After lunch, we decided to go "walk walk" but undecided where to go. My mother upon hearing we were going out, wanted me to get her the same Kipling bag which I bought from the Kipling boutique at Vivocity just last week. Ok, that's it, my mother has just decided that we are going to Vivocity but I dragged her along. Haha. Since she wanted to buy her bag, she might as go down to the boutique. Who knows, she might decide another bag is better. :)

At the Kipling boutique, the salepersons were clearing away some of the collections to put in new arrivals so it was a little messy and some shelves were empty. Unfortunately for my mother, the bag she wanted no longer had the blue colour. She looked around and did find something else that she likes but it wasn't on sale as it is a new arrival item. She decided she will wait for the Isetan private sale to get the bag from the Kipling counter.

We were tired as we spent an hour at the Kipling boutique lol. :P We went to Pacific Coffee Company for tea. We girls had gelato (strawberry, chocolate, vanilla and tiramusu) and we also shared a Ham and Egg Pie and a Molten Chocolate Cake. The gelato was nice and cooled us down as we were seated outdoors. The chocolate cake was really rich and sweet. It was a pretty relaxing afternoon. :)

Kipling Craze, Choupinette and Lord of The Rings

Today I went out with Juliane. We went to Isetan Scotts as I needed to buy pj for the girls and some items from the supermarket. With the Isetan card, we could save a bit, lol.

As usual, my first stop at Isetan was the Kipling counter, lol. Currently, they are having a 30% off for selected regular-priced items. For sale items, they are as much as 50% off for some! Quite worth it! Hahaha. Ok, it might be worth it to me only as I am crazy about Kipling bags lol. I was just causally looking through the sale items and saw the cutest Kipling mini handbag! It is a miniature of the adult handbag. Really cute! It is just nice for the girls and it is 50% off, at only $49.50. Hmm, it is time to introduce Kipling handbags to the girls. Hahaha. Must share the joy, right? :P I got both girls the same mini handbag but in different colours, Juliane purple and Marieann red. :) They look quite good on me too, I can borrow from the girls. Lol. :P

After being sidetracked at Kipling, we returned to our shopping and then adjourned to Sakae for lunch. No choice, since Juliane hasn't had it for a while. Wah, Sakae has upped the prices. Sigh. Inflation, what to do?! :(

We got home around 2:30pm. After that, I had a pretty relaxing afternoon reading a novel and napping, lol.

***
The other morning, after registering Marieann for Primary 1, the girls' father and I wanted to have a quick breakfast before he sent me to work. However, not many places were opened for breakfast. We had almost given up hope and thought Mckkies might be the only choice when we happened to chance upon Choupinette which is along the way to my work place, lol. Choupinette is a quaint little French bistro along Bukit Timah Road. I like the decor and the atmosphere. :)

We both had the Laurent's Set ($18+): egg (scrambled, fried or poached) with sausage (chicken or pork), a "tomato provencale" and bread roll with small juice and hot/ cold drink. I had scrambled egg with pork sausage, grapefruit juice and iced passion fruit tea while the girls' father also had scrambled egg but with chicken sausage, orange juice and iced mocha. I never ate my breakfast so fast! Lol. It was really good, specially the scrambled egg and pork sausage. The egg was moist with a creamy consistency. The pork sausage was nicely herbed and with bits in it. It was very nice and full of flavour and bite.


I will come back to this bistro again to try its other dishes. :)

***
Am watching The Lord of The Rings while writing this entry. LOTR is one movie or rather a trilogy that I will never tire of watching. My family all rolled their eyes when they saw me watching The Two Towers last week and now The Return of the King today lol. I can't help it, LOTR is a great epic fantasy! :)

Fusion Lunch At Serenity

We went to Vivocity close to 12:30pm for lunch. The girls' father wanted to have Japanese but I wasn't too keen as we just had Japanese last weekend. There were queues at some of the restaurants. We walked around and I decided to try Serenity Restaurant & Bistro. The decor looks nice - blue and white, like that of the Mediterranean. :)

No wonder, blue and white, it is Mediterranean fusion cuisine at Serenity. The girls both had Seta del Sol or Mushroom Sunrise ($5.50): creamy mixed mushroom soup with turmeric which came with 3 pieces of bread drizzled with olive oil. They enjoyed the bread very much but not the soup, I guessed the soup had a tad too much black pepper in them for the girls' liking.


The girls' father had Vongole Vino ($16): clams braised in white wine, lemon grass, lime leaf, blue ginger, lime juice with fish sauce bouillabaisse. He didn't like it very much as he thought it was like pasta in tom yam soup. I tried a spoon. I guessed the lemon grass, lime leaf, and lime juice have overpowered the taste of white wine.


I had the set lunch ($17.50++): Garden salad with thousand island, Coriander chicken with herb-baked tomato, paprika fries and chili jam and Vanilla ice cream with digestive crumble and wolfberries. It is interesting that they put dried wolfberries in the salad and in the dessert. It didn't taste too bad as the wolfberries were sweet but without the usual medicinal taste lol. The chicken wasn't too bad either. The skin was crispy and the meat was tender and juicy. Looks like I am the only one who enjoyed my lunch lol.




The food at Serenity is Mediterranean fusion with a strong Asian twist. It is not too bad if you don't mind the Asian feel to the dishes. The prices are pretty reasonable too.


After lunch, I skipped to Esprit to get my sunglasses fixed. I was willing to pay for the part and the service rendered. But the Esprit store manager got it fixed free of charge and get this, she brought it to an optical shop nearby! How's that for excellent service?! :) :) On my way to Esprit, I did get sidetracked and went into the Kipling boutique. No prize for guessing what happened. Hahaha. But it is really worth it, a Kipling bag at 50% off! Lol. :P