Weekend at Conrad Centennial Hotel: Saturday

Since we haven't brought the girls overseas since 2005, we thought it would be nice to surprise them with a weekend away from home at a local hotel. Truth be told, I also needed a break very badly, lol. We chose Conrad Centennial Hotel because the girls were pretty enthralled by their Teddy Bear Christmas tree, lol.

We checked in at 12:30pm, earlier than the 2pm check-in time and they already have our room ready, actually, our suite ready, lol. Conrad's service is really good, has that extra personal touch. They greeted us, yes even the girls, before we could walk up to the reception area. They didn't neglect the girls at all, made small talks with them and the girls were also each given a little box of cookies to make them feel welcome. I am impressed. But err... how come I don't have the box of cookies? I also want, lol. :P

We stayed on the 18th level at the Centennial Suite. The girls were really excited and exploring the suite, running from living room to bedroom to bathroom and back to living room again, lol. They even managed to play hide-and-seek with each other in the suite, lol. Well, I was pretty excited too, lol. It is almost like going away, hahaha. Yar, yar, I know cheap thrill. :P The suite was really nice. I just love the bathroom, the huge King's size bed and 47 inch LCD screen TV, lol. They also gave us complimentary fruits, chocolate and a Conrad Teddy Bear to make us feel welcome. More personal touches. :)






















We were finally able to drag the girls out of the suite at 1:30pm to have lunch over at Outback Steakhouse, which was across the street from Conrad, lol. By now, the girls and their father have their favourite dish at Outback, lol. The girls again ordered their Chicken Fingers ($10.90) to share, and their father ordered again Ribs on The Barbie ($19.90 half) and our fav appetiser: Bushroom 'Shrooms ($15.90) (all pics in a previous post). I like to try new things so I ordered Queensland Pasta with Chicken ($23.90): pasta tossed in alfredo sauce and steamed veggies, topped with parmesan cheese and a whole piece of chicken fillet. The pasta with the alfredo sauce was great-tasting and the chicken was really tender and juicy. The portion was huge too. When I ordered the pasta with chicken, I expected to see tiny slivers of chicken here and there but NEVER a whole chicken fillet. Order this if you are really hungry, lol. We were given a free dessert so we tried the Sydney's Sinful Sundae ($13.90): vanilla ice cream rolled in toasted coconut and covered in chocolate sauce and topped with whipped cream. Of course, it is sweet and sinful, lol. But I don't fancy the coconut too much.





After lunch around 3pm, we headed back to Conrad for a rest. I also requested for Internet access. While setting up my Internet access, I browsed The Centennial Spa menu. I thought why not have a spa massage while here at Conrad since I never had a spa treatment before, lol. I decided to go for Double Impact (80 minutes, $160). I signed up for my massage session at 9pm. Just nice, after my shopping and come back for a massage, lol. Oh boy, what an experience it was, lol. Will talk about it in another post. :)

We went over to Marina Square at 4:30pm. We walked round the whole mall within 3.5 hours, including having a light dinner at 6pm and trying out some dresses for me, lol. I managed to buy 2 dresses, including an interesting halter-neck piece, lol. Always feel good to get something one can look good in, lol. :P We had dinner at Pasta de Waraku. We didn't order a lot because the girls were still quite full and I shouldn't eat too much before my massage. We had the Half & Half Set ($19.90): came with a corn soup, a salad, a drink and two pastas of our choice. We had the Carbonara Waraku style and Pork Bacon & Cabbage with tomato cream sauce. We thought both pastas were pretty average. Maybe we should have tried other stuff, lol.



We went back to Conrad around 8pm, but not before the girls' father got snacks, e.g. ham and cheese sandwiches, chicken pie for the night, lol. We stopped by the gift shop and borrowed a DVD, compliments from Conrad for hotel guests, Fantastic Four: Silver Surfer. I managed to bathe the girls before going for my massage close to 9pm. (My massage experience in another post, lol). I returned to the suite close to 11pm. Took a long hot shower before joining the family in the living room to watch F4. I was hoping to update my blog while watching F4. Unfortunately, my notebook could only be placed on the study table so I either had to watch the movie through the mirror in front of the study table or watch and blog at an awkward angle. Ended up with headache and aches, gave up updating the blog and just focussed on watching F4, lol.

Being all excited, the girls didn't sleep until 12+ am, which was understandable. The girls' father fell asleep on the couch around 2am. I was still awake at 3am, watching Harry Potter 4 on HBO, lol and updating my Warbook, hahaha. No lah, I couldn't really get to sleep because my neck and shoulder muscles were really aching after the massage. Indication that I should go for more massages to unknot my knotted neck and shoulder muscles, lol. But I think I finally fell asleep at 4 am but thinking I have to get up at dawn to try to catch the sunrise... since I have the view of the sea from my window... zzz... zzZ... zZZ... ZZZ...

Here's some pics of us relaxing, especially for me just after my massage and hot shower, lol.

Brief Hiatus, Really Brief.

Dear Friends and Family,

I am away for the weekend. I will update my blog when I return on Sunday. Thanks for tuning in. :)

love,
Hwei Ming

PS. Oh, do come back on Sunday night for the updates, lol.

Dead to the World

Today, I was dead to the world. Completely dead to the world, even in board day light.

I went to see the doctor early in the morning. When I returned, I fell into bed and didn't wake up until 11-ish am. Had a little food and went back to bed at 12-ish pm and didn't wake up again until 7 pm. I really had no idea what happened to me. I was completely knocked out. I think my girls were kinda worried about me when they didn't see me move from my bed. Despite my deep slumber, I remembered sensing some movements and voices in my room and over me. No, I am not clairvoyant enough to sense objects and voices, lol. It must have been my girls who were peeping at me and checking to see if I was still alive, lol. Well, I prefer to think of it this way, haha.

Now, despite sleeping for the whole day, I still feel tired, lol. Maybe I have slept too much...

Sleepy and Wet Day

This morning, I was dragged out of bed by my girls at 8:45am. I had only just gone to bed about 3.5 hours ago! I need MORE SLEEP!!! I was so hoping to sleep in, and it was raining, such perfect weather to sleep in... But...sigh, NO such luck, lol.

Marieann was coughing quite a bit and so I had to bring her to the doctor's but have to wait until 10am. when the clinic opens. Which meant I could actually have slept for an extra 45 minutes! Sigh. Marieann has a throat infection and she was told by the doctor to stay off cold drinks, orange juice, ice cream, sweets and chocolate! I hope all at home will cooperate in helping Marieann to stay off these forbidden stuff. Thank you very much!

After the visit to the doctor's, it was still raining. But we were able to pop over to Wheelock Place which was next door, without getting too wet, lol. The girls were hungry and requested for their frog restaurant, yes Sakae again! Hahaha. Each girl had a plate of Tamago nigiri sushi and a chawanmushi. I had my Soft Shell Crab Temaki, Unagi nigiri sushi. We shared a Chicken Teriyaki & Kushiyaki bento ($13.99) which came with chicken teriyaki; 3 sticks of salmon, scallops and mushrooms; rice and miso soup. The chicken was tender enough but the kushiyaki sticks were overcooked so became a little too tough.




After lunch, we dropped into The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at Borders for something sweet. We shared a Low Fat Cranberry Muffin and I had a Peppermint Latte. I was sleepy and was also distracted by the peppermint in the Peppermint Latte that I forgot latte is coffee. You see, I don't take any coffee at all. But too bad, I was stuck with the latte. Don't think I will grow to like coffee, still too bitter for my taste. And coffee does something strange to me, it makes me sleepy! NO joke, lol. Maybe if I am already sleepy, by taking coffee, it would cancel out the sleepiness in me?? Nope, no such luck, lol. I was still sleepy as ever.

We walked around at Isetan Scotts for a while before heading home and it was still raining. When we returned home, I had my much needed sleep!! :)

My Collections

Most of us have collected things at one point of time or another. Likewise, I have collected different things at various points of my life.

When I was a child, I started to collect stamps due to my mother's influence. I used to marvel at her huge collection of stamps. I still have my stamp albums in my book cabinet. I only stopped when I went to Australia for my undergraduate studies.

During my teen years, I started to collect bookmarks. Most of the bookmarks had Chinese wordings on them about friendship, love, and life. As most of these bookmarks were printed in Taiwan, when I visited my relatives in Taiwan, I was able to build up my bookmark collection over the years. The other day I was just looking at my bookmarks which I kept in two cookie tins and all of them are still in mint condition, lol. Again, I stopped collecting them when I went overseas for my studies.

In my late teens, as my best friend migrated to Australia, I became an avid letter writer. At the same time, I started to collect letter sets. I continued to collect letter sets and writing letters when I was in Australia. And surprisingly, some of my nicest letter sets were bought in Artbox, Melbourne when I was actually studying in Brisbane. Lol. Well, you see, I used to visit my best friend who stayed in Melbourne and also my ex Aussie boyfriends who were also from Melbourne, lol. :P Soon, with the advancement in IT such as email, I started to write less letters and so, there was less need to buy so many letter sets. But occasionally now, if I see nice ones, I would still buy them. :P

From my teenage years until now, there is something that I am still collecting most avidly - postcards and magnets, lol. I still have the postcards that I bought, when I was 15, at the various countries in Europe in mint condition! Postcard is one way of preserving my memories of the places I have visited, besides the photos that I took. But of course, if I haven't visited the places/ countries, I look forward to visiting them, lol. All my friends know about my postcard and magnet collection. So when they go overseas, they would all buy me postcards and magnets without me asking for them (sometimes lah, lol)!! I am really glad to have such nice friends. Lol. :)

Not sure what I am going to collect next... lol.

PDA Phone

I am thinking of getting a PDA phone. I think it is time for me to upgrade myself technologically, to be more IT savvy than what I am now, lol. I guess my progress has been pretty satisfactory. I mean I learnt how to sms, msn in 2006 and learnt how to blog (and maintaining two blogs) in 2007. For an IT idiot like I am, it is an achievement, lol.

Being pretty engaged with my blogs and Facebook and of course, I also have my emails (work and personal), I thought it is time to get a PDA phone. At least, I would be able to stay connected almost all the time, except when I am asleep of course! Lol. I can check my emails on the run, I can blog on the move, I can Facebook on the go... you get the point, hahaha.

The girls' father upon knowing that I am interested in getting a PDA phone has offered, just over the past weekend, to buy one for me. Wah, this is better than striking the lottery! Since he is in such a generous mood, I better grab his offer hor and nail the deal before he changes his mind, lol.

Now the question is which PDA phone to get. I have been looking at some PDA phones and have pretty much narrowed the choices down to Palm Treo 750 and HTC TyTN II. But I think I might go for HTC TYTN II. It looks pretty cool and of course, it has fantastic features for a first time user like me! Haha.

So far, reviews from users of HTC TyTN II are good but if any friend(s) out there who is/are currently using HTC TyTN II, let me know what you think of it. Thanks in advance. :)

Images Around Singapore III

I carry my camera 24/7 with me wherever I go. It is as important as my IC and my credit cards, lol. You never know when an opportunity for photography might arise and I feel a great sense of achievement when I take nice photos. :) So it pays to be prepared with the camera in my bag but I am also paying in another way... I am now having shoulder/ neck ache. :( My bag is too heavy, lol. :P

Here are some photos that I have taken around Singapore. :)

Yum Cha and Tea

The girls' father was craving for his yum cha (yes, he has his cravings, he is sometimes more woman than a woman, lol) and so we went to our favourite yum cha restaurant, East Ocean at Shaw Centre. We were there at 10:30am because they would only accept walk-ins before 11am. After that, you would have to have made a reservation before you would be able to have a table.

Must-have dim sums at yum cha for Marieann and their father are: Char Siew Bao, Har Gow, and Siew Mai, Juliane must have her Fried White Bait (see photo), their father must also have his Fried Cheong Fun with Egg and my favourite (and Marieann's) is Steamed Turnip Cake. The girls ordered a dim sum from the speciality menu. In the end, they couldn't bear to eat the dim sum because they were too cute (see photo). Sigh. Never going to let them order anything again because the parents ended up having to eat them! Of course, the girls had their usual Mango Pudding for dessert, their father had Mango Sago with Grapefruit and I had the Almond Tea.




After yum cha, we went to Isetan Scotts to get the girls their new school shoes. It is really tedious buying shoes for kids. They can't really tell you if the shoes pinch at any part of their feet. They would tell you it is okay because they like the design of the shoes! No way! For growing feet, comfort must take precedence over design! They can look at the designs of shoes all they want when they can afford to buy shoes on their own! For now, they listen to me, their mother, muahahaha.

Thinking it was rather late after the shoes shopping, turned out it was only 12:30pm. Their father complained of extreme thirst so we ended up at tcc. He had an Iced Lemon Tea while I had a Pomegranate Ruby (beautify) tea: blend of white tea, pomegranate, pomegranate blossoms and magnolia. It was really fragrant. Of course, what is tea without a sweet to go along, lol. We had the Pear-fect Melody ($6.90): pear mousse with aromatic spiced orange sauce and berries. The mousse was perfect: light and not too sweet, you could still taste the pear.



It was only 1:30pm when we finished tea. So we brought the girls to Borders to read. I managed to have a browse around and saw some books which interested me. Maybe during the week, I might pop down to Borders again to get those books. :)

German Lunch (Again!) at Brotzeit

Yup, we went back to Brotzeit, Vivocity again for lunch. Haha. Last Saturday, when we were there, we didn't order the pork knuckle. So this week, we decided to go back to try out the dish.

The girls' father ordered the pork knuckle ($32.90) which came with potato salad and sauerkraut. The pork knuckle was roasted to perfection! The crackling was really crispy and the fat underneath it was, well, fatty and chewy. Together, the crackling and the fat made the most perfect combination! One bite, you think you are in heaven. The pork itself was most tender and juicy. Ah... think of the salad scene from " When Harry met Sally", but substitute it with pork knuckle instead, lol. The pork knuckle was simply perfect and went really well with sauerkraut and the potato salad (which was came with vinegar dressing). Still lua nua-ing just thinking about it. The portion was quite big too, no problem sharing it with two persons, especially if one of them is a small eater. :)


I thought I better order something lighter since there is going to be the pork knuckle. I had Petersfisch ($19.90): grilled Atlantic dory fillet topped with garlic butter, served with wild mushroom sauce and potato wedges. The dory was nicely grilled and tasted good with the garlic butter melting over it, and combined it with the mushroom sauce (which was almost as good as being a side dish on its own), perfection. The girls shared my dory. Not bad, they know good food when they see it, lol.


For the girls, they shared the chicken fingers ($9.90) again and Tagessuppe ($7.90): Soup of the day Mushroom. The mushroom soup was really good - rich, of a thick consistency and full of mushroom bits. (No picture of chicken fingers as it was posted on 8 December 2007.)


We were so full at the end of the meal that we didn't even have room for dessert which was very, very RARE for us, lol. It meant that the lunch was really great. :)


We had a walk around Vivocity to work off the heavy lunch we had. We had tea at Pacific Coffee Company. The girls had their vanilla and blueberry gelato and their father, a mango juice. I tried out the Ginger Ginseng tea since I already had Mint tea at Brotzeit. Hmm, tasted the ginger but not much of ginseng, haha. We also shared an Apple Crumble. Yes, we did have our sweets in the end, lol.