Into the hole called Shanghai

I've dissappeared into the hole called Shanghai for a few weeks in search of the next step; or my next step. i was mentally and emotionally prepared to take the next serious change in my life since things here have been a little better/worse in some areas. and i thot shanghai would be a good place to start looking. things were put in planned but upon arrival, changes happened and it just ended up becoming a holiday... and exploring my options.
i managed to meet some people who have helped me to view things a little clearer :)

the skyline of this country was wonderful and the trip was good... i actually enjoyed it very much... i enjoyed being away. but the best part was i felt a little out of place with just sooooo many chinese! and hardly any other coloured person :)
the weather was perfect... thou it did rain most of the time while i was there but i LOVED the cold... it was definately a very appreciated change from sg's heat

one day i found myself just getting lost in the streets and found myself in this area:

this little square was surrounded by tall buildings... reminding me of SF alot.. a little too much. i found myself really missing my LA friends and everything tt was during those few years

food wise....

i found that M at the bund really didnt dissappoint, service was good and food was yummy
oh and not to forget the view... the view of pudong was great!
best part abt this particular day was that it SNOWED!!! it has been ages since i've seen snow and i've missed it soooo much. since i've been unable to go back up north earlier this year, im really hoping to go there end of the year... and im really keeping my fingers and toes all crossed

however the following few days i got the chance to try Jean Georges.... and very unfortuantely, i was very dissappointed with the quality of food they put out. this was afterall the happiness that came when i found out there was a Jean Georges in shanghai. ive tried the branch in NYC and thou the food wasnt the best of that particular trip, at least it wasnt bad. i found that the accompaniment over-powered the main item on my particular starter and main. after paying my bill... i left with the feeling that i shd have just saved that amount of money and gone for more meals at M

at the restroom of Jean Georges Shanghai

and of course no trip to shanghai would be complete without xiao long bao :)

i followed my taxi's drivers advice to go to the xiao long bao restaurant at chen huang miao... unfortuantely i wasnt too impressed by it. i guess that by this time i was craving chilli more than anything and since this particular xiao long biao didnt come with my usual crystal jade's chilli, i found it rather bland hahaha i knw... blasphemy. but i still remember this day really clearly, after lunch i was able to walk arnd this touristy place and unfortuantely nothing caught my eye except for a toy store... in it, they had all these old tin toys that gina normally goes crazy over and i just spent sooo much time in there, i was unable to choose what to get her :)

clubbing here was also an interesting experience all together... haha ordering in mandarin and getting served fruits with our bottles of whisky etc

oh oh oh not to forget... this year is the year shanghai hosts the world expo :) on my way to the airport... i caught a glimpse of what is installed for visitors there and i cant wait to head back there later this year to walk thru those amazing structures

bye singapore for now

im off! to the land of no blogspot or facebook... to tempt my fate

its a little exciting yet terrifying at the same time

i hope what im doing will yield results and my mom to be strong
i'll miss all my friends again esp sarah and gina
and start all over again

always....

the bridesmaid, never the bride

ever since graduation, mom's been not so subtly hinting that she wants a grandchild. all my friends here all have heard me lament over and over again how im being pressured into bearing children even though im not dating anyone at the moment thou mom has tried to suggest guys. so today while i was talking abt being the maid-of-honour for my cousin, we were going thru how many weddings i've participated in

my first ever appearance as a flowergirl was with aaron at his aunt's wedding. somehow i seem to vaguely remember this experience... if im not wrong, i think i tripped over the ribbon tied to the bouquet of flowers at the ministry of weddings place. but goodness who knws if this memory is even accurate
then it was my own aunt's wedding in indo... my partner was my cousin didit :D i remember this as one of my first few introduction to stephan and michelle. by this time i was 5?
and the last time i was ever the flower girl was at ku's wedding here in sg and it was held at regent? i knw the 2nd nite for family was held on top of ocbc towers... i walked down with ko and i definately remember the amount of trouble we got into the very first morning when uncle graham tried to come thru the gates
the last wedding i participated in was my aunt's at ritz... i still can remember the honeymoon suite and ce was my partner :D i remember having to stay with her the nite before, only to haf to stay up coz we needed to pluck the petals off roses coz they forgot to order them for the next day! hahahaha
so this year... i will be maid of honour for my cousin, and bride's maid for swas hehe

mom's now just worried that it will not be my turn at all hahaha


happy cny to all!

how sad....

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/el-bulli-to-close-permanently/

mi birfdae weekend

instead of celebrating my wonderful ahem "forever 24" / 25th birthday in indo, i decided to risk my liver and take my chances here in sg.

it all started on thurs..... meet swas for dinner which was basically a whole evening and night of eating at 3 different places - tea at twg, then cheese snacks at the cafe outside ion then again at a jap restaurant on robertson. at our last place we also ordered a 720ml bottle of sake which surprisingly we managed to finish. then it was off to sinclair's where the girls were waiting patiently with me for midnight :)

i love my pressies i received that night!!!!!!!!

then horror struck.... i crashed my brand new car onto my neighbour/family friend's car just one hour into my birthday and this is the first time ever i am in an accident where i caused it. sigh... just wonderful start to my birthday rite?

it caused me a terrible night of tossing and turning coz i felt soooo bad.

with this utter lack of slp, i then had to get up to meet my dear kah sian for breakfast otherwise i would not be seeing him for quite some time. it was a good time of catching up with him :) time passes so quickly that i never realised that we havent met in over 6 mths! and for the first time was he late to pick me up :D hahaha thing is... as a pilot, he's always on time if anything earlier but never late even thou he knws he'll still end up having to wait at least another 5-10min while i rush to get my things together :) but for the first time ever, i was ready on time and he was late! hahaha

after breakfast, i met mom for a quick meeting with potential bankers who were basically trying to convince my mom to move some of her assets to them... just mostly tons of sucking up so it wasnt as interesting as i expected it to be. dropped off some cny stuff at my dentist's/former neighbours/family friends hahaha then off to lunch and omg... it was absolutely wonderful! food was simple but good but the place, the place was soooo amazing i cant believe a foreigner had to it to me hahaha. i was soooo impressed by it, i didnt realise i had walked past andre till he called out my name haha. silly me.

lunch dragged on... then it was rushing for the 2 of us... him back to work then me to the airport to pick my grandmother up... only to get her an hour late! oops

by this time, i had been out for the most part and was just pooped out of my mind so headed back home for a nap and to avoid drinking for as long as possible :) had dinner with mom coz i hadnt had my birthday mee sua yet and grandma had brought back food frm bangkok too so dinner was yummy! just as dinner ended my darling sister, janice came over :D

then it was off to overeasy :)

my greatest friends ever since sc days

my double waterfall birthday drink all thks to indra!!! utter madness...

will update with the coolest pic taken by sinclair once i get it haha

everyone was just waiting for me to pass out rite after... but i lasted! or at least till i got to zouk heh

next morning.....

somehow found the energy to drag myself out of bed to head here for brunch :D
even thou i was terribly late... yet another oopsy

i would love to thank all my darlings and friends for such a wonderful 25th!!!!!!! those here and who were here in spirit... i love u guys!

Bali pt 2

6th - dont quite remember the weather truthfully but im sure involved some rain

sat started slow... had breakfast, jumped back into the pool, then it was off to spa at dala spa... beautiful rooms, good service and best of all a really good massage. the rooms were beautifully decorated, each with its own theme. perks of having a competent family is that even at this award winning spa, we still got great discounts

the last pple done were leo and sarah... both were off in bliss land and forgot abt time.... then it was a mad rush to get to kudeta. where else

my darlings were the BEST... they wrote all of that on the sand for all to see my age :p and as per what leo said, the most amt of work he has thus seen frm the girls haha

since we all didnt really haf lunch, we had some nibbles at kudeta before running of to metis... the lastest restaurant in bali.

they haf wonderful foie gras menu and the food was truly worth raving for... unfortunately in one of the writeups, it seems that the owner wants to haf one of the best wine collection in bali, that however, fell very short. thou an experience in itself

on the list, had a "hatten" wine grown and produced locally in bali. as is that shd haf set off an alarm rite but gina and leo were excited to try it to the detriment of everyone else.... it was TERRIBLE. i have officially tasted a wine that is worse than those box wines andrea used to drink at pepp. :s
after dinner, we were hoping to find some place to find bottles to buy back to our villa but everywhere was closed! it was hilarious! our driver had to drive us to various places in search of either hard liquor or wine.... when we totally chanced on this sorta dodgy kinda supermarket looking place and continued our party in the pool :)

7th - cloudy but with sun :)

got up early to go jetskiing and bring the girls to nusa dua :) leo was out cold as the past 2 days worth of activities and a night of gossiping totally fried out his wires.

since the girls werent into water sports... it was left to jason and myself to jetski arnd... it has been ages since we haf done it so it was soooooo fun! 20 mins out in the ocean. we wanted to do our ritual banana boat but since there were only 2 of us, we werent feeling up to it and tried ot convince sarah to no avail. while waiting the girls found a new boutique hotel rite next door and swam in their infinity pool that overlooked the ocean.

for lunch we took a very long drive to the other side of bali at denpasar to bu chandra's for the local delight of babi guling......

leo left right after lunch to catch his flight back to sg in order to watch some concert... but the girls stayed on only to leave later that night. i decided to bring them to one last place to catch their last sunset in bali... ayana resort and spa

this place was the former ritz carlton... very cute. i got to see the place my cousin got proposed to... the sunset was truely breathtaking... too bad leo totally missed out on it. had drinks and some nibbles at their rock bar. unfortunately the drinks and food werent as good as kudeta plus more expensive too... so the agreement is that kudeta had a better atmosphere even thou they didnt haf the sunset view as beautiful as ayana.

johan totally missed out on this trip :( thou a wonderful start to my birthday celebrations :D

great start to 25

got into my first accident one hour in..... just great

BALI (part 1)

i decided that i needed a break so took the opportunity to fly back in surabaya, indonesia. now that some of my closer family members have moved back, indo doesnt seem too boring, so i really dont mind going back. only problem is that my diet just goes to crap and i basically come back the size of a pig and haf to restart my diet all over again

however, this time round was a little different... i made plans with the girls and leo and cousins to all meet up in bali for jason's and my birthday celebrations. the girls and leo haven't visited bali ever before while i havent been back to bali in forever so it worked out :) andrew was suppose to join in but due to work had to back out last minute which was really dissappointing esp coz it would be over jason's bday weekend

so bali started on the 4th :) jason and i left in the afternoon frm sby taking domestic to bali... we basically had to endure delayed flights and crappy plane... it was a pretty bad start but the excitment of bali was still intoxicating. arrived over an hour later, and got whisked away to our cousin's villa - villa de daun in legian

since we had the afternoon to ourselves, we decided to take a slow walk down legian to find lunch and just walked into a restaurant that had surprisingly good grilled meats :) and jason had his first margarita there :D spent the afternoon in our villa watching korean movies or shd i say my younger cousin was exposing me to what is in right now for teenagers :) haha we watched the art of seduction and 200 pounds beauty... and all really good shows too!

then it was off to picking up the remaining pple frm the airport... they too landed late and while at customs, leo got high-fived by the customs officer for having 2 asian girls with him. it seemed that the officer was so impressed by leo, a white englishman would have 2 asians that he too offered his daughters hahahaha

since all 3 of them were rushing from work esp gina, i planned dinner before heading back

i had been here before and remembered the steak... and truthfully by 1030pm on a thurs nite, our choices of restaurants were limited... yummy steak for affordable prices at seminyak plus their tummies needed getting use to the quality before throwing them local food

then it was off to our 3 bdrm villa :) and guess who was the first to be in the pool fully clothed... all thks to my darling guys

 

5th - rainny all day

breakfast was provided at the villa

while leo was still aslp behind those glasses :D

we managed to catch some of the the last rays of sun after breakfast and before we headed off to ubud for naughty nuri's!!! but first... satay penu

found by a road side, and only known to locals... this satay is yummy... the best satay ever. thou the understood understanding is if u're queasy, dont ask, dont tell :D

though it was a trek to find nuri's its my ritual to go there ever since i started going to bali... this place has the best ever ribs and now we found out sausage and pork chops and margaritas too! the pork chops were soooo juicy and thick and well bbqed

after nuri's i had planned to let the girls explore ubud and the galleries there but since it was pouring... i had our driver find us a place to sit and haf a view of the padi fields.... he brought us to amandari... funny thing was that i had this hotel in mind when thinking of a place for coffee and padi fields but coz i had gone there when i was significantly younger, i didnt knw where it was much less the name but the driver seemed to haf read my mind :)

then it was off to jimbaran... we really had to keep our fingers crossed coz if the rain had continued, plans to jimbaran would haf to be cancelled coz it was basically dinner by the ocean. unfortuantely for the girls, they were expecting really nice beaches in bali, which under normal circumstances are beautiful, they however came during rainny season, so the sea itself was gloomy...

but thankfully they managed to catch a good enuf sunset, haf good seafood and try teh botol :)

by the time we were done, it was still pretty early in the night so we decided to walk off our full day of meal outside our villa.... shopped, had drinks near the first bali bombing memorial and sidetracked on the way back with many many smirnoff ice... it got to the point where at every minimart we passed, we wld go in to buy a few more bottles