Afternoon Tea at Mandarin Oriental Hotel

We seemed to have become bored of our usual eating places and shopping malls, lol. We are now venturing into the world of afternoon tea, haha. :P

When we were out getting my envelopes and labels, I casually asked if the girls' father was interested in having afternoon tea. To my surprise, he agreed readily! Ok, someone is really getting hooked on afternoon tea, lol.

We went to Marina Square as there are 3 hotels: Pan Pacific, Marina Mandarin and Mandarin Oriental and we could take our pick. In the end, we settled with Melt, The World Cafe at Mandarin Oriental. Afternoon tea started at 3pm and it was $34 per adult and $17 per child (5 -12 years old). It was basically English afternoon buffet with a small local spread. Here are some highlights of the buffet spread and what we had. :)












On the whole, the afternoon tea at Melt wasn't too bad but I think I still prefer The Rose Verandah, Shangri-La because I could choose from 51 choices of tea to have. I guess I like to have that choice. :P

Good Deed and Good Food

I needed to do some mass printing for my activist work so I brought Juliane out with me. We took Bus "105" to Far East Plaza where the photocopier shop I frequented is.

It was a little crowded when we boarded the bus but we were lucky, there was an empty seat just behind the driver's, a row of four seater. So I settled Juliane in the seat while I stood in front to her. Just before the bus moved off, an elderly lady boarded the bus. She was about 70-ish and really frail-looking. Next to Juliane were seated this young able-bodied couple in their late teens or early twenties. As the elderly lady was still scanning her EzLink card, I watched to see if the couple would take any action. I mean Juliane is still a child who could barely hold on properly to the railing. But I was most disappointed by the young couple. They saw the elderly lady definitely. And that was all they did, they stared at her and they showed absolutely no sign of giving up one of their seats for the elderly lady! I told Juliane to get off her seat and asked the elderly lady to take Juliane's seat. As the elderly lady was moving to the seat, she almost fell, I had to grab her with one hand while the other hand I had to hold on to Juliane and it was a moving bus! It was no easy task. And the thing is no one bothered to help! They only looked! How cold and distant have Singaporeans become?!

The elderly lady was really grateful for the seat and told Juliane to share it with her. Now, the young couple got off their seats. Oh no, NOT because they were embarrassed that a 3rd year old gave up her seat for an elderly lady but because it was their stop. So their stop was the next one after the one we boarded the bus. Would they have DIED if they didn't sit down for one stop? SHEESH! DAMN strawberries! I got Juliane into one of the seats and there was still one left. But there was another lady, probably in her 40s standing so I gestured for her to take the seat. The elderly lady was really funny and kept pushing me into the seat, lol. The 40-ish lady took the seat but she moved to one side and said there's still enough space for me. That was nice of her. The elderly lady was most happy when I sat down too. So there were 5 of us in a four seater, lol. The elderly lady chatted with me in Mandarin, expressing her gratitude and commented that Juliane is a beautiful girl. Yes, just what mothers love to hear, their children being praised, lol. Juliane waved and said goodbye to the elderly lady when we left the bus. I think the elderly lady was most happy when Juliane did that. I am proud of my girl. :)

I was really appalled by the young couple's absolute lack of respect for the elderly and lack of manners. Has our education system failed so badly in its moral and ethics education?? SIGH. I am really sad and disheartened to see this happening. And when the old lady almost fell, no one moved to help. So what if I was there, I also had a child to take care of. What is happening to Singaporeans, to our youngsters? Sigh, Sigh, SIGH! At least, I felt good that I was able to help the elderly lady and I hoped that Juliane has learnt something important from this.
Now, my former students, if any of you happened to read this post and you do take the public transport, PLEASE GIVE UP YOUR SEATS FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT MORE THAN YOU!!

After I left my stuff to be photocopied, we went to Nanbantei Japanese Restaurant, 5th level of Far East Plaza. We shared the Obento set ($12.50): 5 sticks of yakitori (quail eggs, asparagus wrapped with pork, meat ball, chicken with leek, chicken roll), rice covered with minced chicken, mushroom and seaweed, miso soup and red bean paste with mochi, and Mini Tomato Maki ($4.80): mini tomatoes wrapped with pork. The obento set was really good! The yakitori were really delicious.



Juliane had initially resisted eating at Nanbantei as she wanted her green frog (Sakae) but I was so sick of eating there! As her mother, I vetoed her vote to go to the green frog, lolol. However, in the end, Juliane really enjoyed her food and she said she wanted to come back again, lol.


After we collected my photocopied stuff, we took a taxi home, lol.

Craving for Sweets

Tonight, I had a sudden craving for sweets!! Since going sugar-free, there is hardly any sweet stuff at home. I just couldn't take it any more. I desperately need something sweet!

The girls' father came home, had his dinner and off we went to Holland Village. There would be something at HV that will appease my craving, lol.

We tried 2am: desserts. It is a place more for yuppies, couples, but not really for families with young children. They either had seating at usually high tables or sofa seating. But you had to remove your shoes to sit on the sofa because the sofa is deep and once seated, your feet would be the only part of your limbs that are sticking out of the sofa. Definitely no mini or micro mini-skirts for ladies, lol.

We ordered two desserts to share:
Twix ($13): brunt caramel mousse, peanut crumble, home-made valrhona chocolate ice-cream. The mousse was fantastic, but maybe it's because I love caramel, lol. It went really well with the peanut crumble which gave it extra crunch, literally too, lol. The ice cream, on the other hand, I thought wasn't necessary, it didn't really add value to the mousse.


Apple Pudding ($13): apple crumble, caramel beer sauce, cinnamon spice ice-cream. It wasn't the usual apple crumble for the pastry was moist, more akin to a christmas pudding kind of apple crumble. The caramel beer sauce was poured over the apple crumble. It was nice enough but nothing to shout about. I like the cinnamon spice ice cream though. It's really exotic and spicy in taste and I think it saved the apple crumble.


Overall, I think 2am: desserts is kind of pricey for desserts, even for a tai-tai wannabe like me, lol. The portions were fairly small too, having one dessert is just not enough to satisfy a dessert lover like me. :P

After the desserts, we popped into The Marmalade Pantry, a few doors away to see if we could still get any cupcakes. But they were sold out. The manager, who has become our friend now, gave the girls a piece of tea cake to try instead, without charge. That was really nice of her. :)

We did a little grocery shopping at Cold Storage such as getting my Almond Soy Milk, the girls' Chocolate milk, etc, before returning home.

The Secrets of Handwriting

Do you know that a person's handwriting can reveal secrets or, depending on how you look at it, truths about a person? This can be done through graphology, which is the study and analysis of handwriting. There are books out there in the market that actually teach you how to analyse handwriting. However, if you want a quick analysis of your handwriting, you can try out "What Does Your Handwriting Say About You?" on Blogthings, lol. Here's my quick handwriting analysis, lol.

What Your Handwriting Says About You

You are a fairly energetic person. You know how do pace yourself, and you deal well with stress. You are very extroverted and outgoing. You are loving, friendly, and supportive. However, you are also manipulative and controlling at times. You are very detail oriented and meticulous. You are a careful thinker and a true intellectual. You need a bit of space in your life, but you're not a recluse. You expect people to give you a small amount of privacy, and you respect their privacy as well. You are somewhat traditional, but you are also open to change. You listen to your head and your heart. You are a decent communicator. You eventually get your point across, but sometimes you leave things a bit ambiguous.

What Does Your Handwriting Say About You?

Happy 6th Birthday, Marieann!

Happy Birthday, Marieann. May you have lots of fun and happy times! Hope you had a day filled with laughter and joy!

Today is Marieann's 6th birthday. Since she might not be able to have a birthday celebration next year as she enters Primary 1 and her birthday, as you have noticed by now, happens to fall on the first of school! Lol. So better let her celebrate her birthday with her K2 classmates whom she have known since K1.

I went to office real early in the morning as I had some work to do. I rushed off from work around 10:30am to collect her birthday cake so that I could bring it to her school around their lunch time. When I reached the school, Juliane's N2 class happened to be playing at the playground. She was very happy to see me, lol. I had also requested for Juliane to be excused from her class to join in her sister's birthday celebration.

Marieann was, of course, most happy to see me with her birthday cake and the goodies bags we have prepared yesterday for all her classmates. The teachers settled the children for the celebration in a jiffy. When the children were all singing Marieann her birthday song (both English and Chinese versions), she was beaming away. Even Juliane too, lol. Together, the sisters blew out the candles and Marieann proceeded to cut the cake. Together, the sisters also gave out the goodies bags to Marieann's classmates. The celebration ended with a group photo of the children. :)







Marieann had a surprise when her father returned home at 8pm with another birthday cake, lol. We had a mini-celebration at home. Marieann was thrilled to blow out candles for a second time within a day, lol.



Once again, Happy Birthday, Marieann. Hope you have had a great day today. :)

New Year's Day Lunner or Linner, lol.

We had quite a heavy meal for New Year's Eve. This morning, we were all still feeling the after effects of having a heavy meal, lol.

We went out close to 2pm because we had to get the goodies bags for Marieann's birthday tomorrow. If we had a choice, I think we would rather stay home and veg, lol. We went to Holland Village as there is a Cold Storage there and also lots of eating places since the parents haven't had any breakfast or lunch and could do with a snack. But alas, we couldn't find any car park at HV. We decided to go Great World instead. But as we would pass by Dempsey Hill, I suggested going there to have a look.

We finally decided on Jones the grocer for our snack. You know, it is an Australian brand, right? Yes, I do miss Australia a lot. This whole place: Jones the grocer, Dempsey Hill reminds me of Milton, of Paddington, of Australia, lol. So laid-back, casual and relaxing. Jones the grocer is a pretty sassy place too, lol. Bright, high ceiling, airy, very down to earth with its concrete floor. :)
We ordered the following to share:
Today's quiche - salmon ($9.50). I am surprised at how big a piece it was and it also came with salad. It was rather tasty and you could actually find pieces of salmon in the quiche, lol.


Today's soup - Cream of Pumpkin ($7). It was suppose to be for me alone but it was hijacked by the girls who totally enjoyed it. I managed to steal a sip or two. It was smooth and aromatic. The soup came along with two pieces of baguette bread topped with a pesto spread. Yummy.


Shaved leg ham sandwich ($7.50): shaved leg ham, jones chutney and swiss emmental cheese on white sourdough. It was nice and tasty enough. Juliane only wanted to eat the sourdough bread but not the filling, lol.



Charcuterie plate ($11.50): selection of cured hams and meat from the jones deli and bread. It also included a salad. It was really simple but delectable. I guess it is joy in its simplicity, lol.


I can't live without dessert so I ordered a Apple frangipane tart with vanilla bean ice cream and pashmak floss (a candy floss) ($9). It was not the usual tart. The pastry was really crispy and it went well with the vanilla bean ice cream. The thinly sliced apples were sweet enough, but a little dry. But this slight flaw could easily be overlooked. In the end, the tart was shared by us, the girls. NOT enough to go round, lol. :P




We were surprised by the rather large servings. We had wanted a snack but turned out it became our lunch-cum-dinner, thus lunner or linner, lol, since by the time we were done, it was 3:30pm.

The best thing to do after good food is to sleep. But we don't have that luxury, lol, we had to get the goodies bags for Marieann's birthday celebration in school tomorrow. So off we went to Great World City, lol.

New Year's Eve Dinner

I was supposed to put up this post before the New Year greetings post but was too full to do anything, lol. Anyway, here is it now, a day later. :)

We had our New Year's Eve dinner at Carousel, Royal Plaza on Scotts Hotel. It was $88 per adult and $50 per child (5 - 12 years old). We arrived around 7:05pm. The girls were really excited with the party hats, the party masks, etc. I think those things attracted their attention more than the food whereas I was more interested in taking photos of the food, hahaha.

There were Salad bar, Sushi bar (sushi, sashimi, cold soba, chawanmushi), Seafood counter (lobsters, spanner crabs, crayfish, mussels, scallops, oysters, etc), Asian buffet counter (Chinese, Malay, and Thai dishes), Western buffet counter, Pasta counter, Roast counter (turkey, beef, roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, roasted carrots, etc) and the indulgent dessert counter (cakes, puddings, chocolate fondue, fruits, ice cream, etc). Some highlights of the buffet, lol.

We took our time having dinner. For once, the girls were really cooperative and let us eat in peace, lol. I think, like me, they were also most fascinated with the dessert counter, lol. But we put our foot down, they have got to have hot food first before having their desserts. Here are some of the delicious food that I had.



The seafood was succulent, tender and fresh! They were tasty on their own without the need of any sauces.


Mediterranean Seafood Broth (on the left) and Crab Bisque (on the right). I preferred the bisque, it's more tasty and aromatic.


The various salad and cold cuts: foie gras, shrimp salad, mussel salad, etc.



Western: roast turkey, Yorkshire pudding, various roasted vegetables, seafood in garlic sauce, etc.


Asian: slipper lobster in black pepper sauce, duck in green curry, scallops and asparagus in XO sauce, braised shark's fin soup.




Desserts: various cakes and puddings (chocolate pudding, bread & butter pudding, pineapple crumble, crepe, etc). Most sinfully sweet. :P

Before, during and after the dinner, we managed to take some photos on this last day of 2007.









We finished dinner around 10:30pm and we went for a drive along Orchard Road for the girls to see the fairy light decorations. The girls were pretty enthralled with all the pretty lights. Unfortunately, I couldn't get good photos of the fairy lights from within the moving car. :P Maybe before they take the lights down, I should walk along Orchard Road to get the best photos, lol.