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Monday, December 06, 2010

Unfolding July's Folder -- Anniversary Staycation

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To celebrate our 1st year wedding anniversary, the hubby and I had a staycation right here at home at Sentosa Hard Rock Hotel. I was unable to clear my mountain of work to take leave for a vacation so a short 3-day staycation it was!

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Sentosa was chosen for the bimbotic reason of answering people that I went "overseas" for our celebration as techinically Sentosa is not on mainland Singapore.

Of course that wasn't the reason. Kh was asking me to choose between Marina Bay Sands and one of the hotels at Sentosa. I was thinking that we could hang out by the beach or check out other attractions at Sentosa. Should we choose the former, we could only hang out in town no matter how enticing the roof top infinity pool was.


~*Day 1*~

After my work that evening, we zipped off to Hard Rock Hotel. There weren't many people but it took a while to get us checked in.

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The lobby still looked like it was undergoing renovations. Part of the walls and floors were grey concrete in July. When I went back again in September this year, they've erected a bar and the lobby looked more spruced up by then.

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The observing of the changing colours of lights made waiting more tolerable.

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We finally got our keys!

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I loved our room! It had a boutique hotel feel to it and I absolutely love how purple reigned here.

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The hubby switched on the tv and scrolled through a list of restaurants --categorized according to fine dining, family, casual etc-- for our anniversary dinner.

In the meantime, the overly excited wife started snapping photos of everything in the room and letting out shrieks of delight every now and then.

"Wah deardear! Look at the fridge! So futurisic."

"Oh! Look at the bedroom slippers, so cuuuuteeeee!"

"Whoa! The inside of the lamp very nice leh!"

"I like the motifs on the wood."

You get the drift.

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The bathroom reminds me of a rock star trailer with the rows of light bulbs bordering the mirror. I liked how the lights illuminated the room on the other side of the glass panel as well.

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Never once did I fiddle around with the safe deposit box while snapping photos as keeping our valuables was always kh's job.

While I was still snapping away like nobody's business, it was kh's turn to exclaim. He pretended to open the safe and yelled out.

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I was ecstatic yet puzzled at the same time, wondering in my heart if my silly tailtail had informed the hotel that it was our wedding anniversary and that the hotel was really that thoughtful as to prepare something special or that the silly boy had something up his sleeves again. When I saw the little bue box with beautiful white ribbon, I immediately knew it was from him and I guessed that it was the choker which I was eyeing the other time.


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It was a pleasant surprise as I thought he would not have gotten any present since he had already said that the Ferragamo bag was a combined birthday and anni present. I didn't get anything for my silly tailtail but I guess putting up with his constant keyboard bashing of WOW (Warcraft for those who dunno) and his other annoying traits sort of balanced it up. ;P

After that, we changed into more presentable outfits as I told kh we had to dress up for our dinner date just to make us feel like it's an important occasion. Haha... Turned out that we seemed to be overdressed in the sea of beach-goers, Universal Studios patrons and temporary denizens of the island.

It was CROWDED everywhere. Every restaurant had 30 minutes to an hour's wait list time. We then realised that it was the weekend of the World Cup Finals and there was an event at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) which would screen the live telecast of the finals on huge projector screens with rounds of booze and madcap partying the following day. What a bad timing for us to be there! Many families and friends had made use of this event to hold a staycation at RWS hotels too.

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Palio, an Italian restaurant, was the only one without a wait list time. However, there was only outdoor seating available. Not being able to withstand the hunger, we decided to dine there.

The food was not bad. I love the bread, the oil that went with it, the soups, the appetizer but the mains were so so. I almost could not finish my steak. As usual, kh thought I was being too picky. My camera battery died on me and so I'd to use my lousy nokia camera to snap the food with flash (urgh!).

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Some shots of us...
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This wasn't meant to be an outfit photo but this is the only full length solo pic of me.

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Dress:
River Island
Accesories:
earrings from Green Petals
necklace from Tiffany & Co
shoes from Anna Nucci


~*Day 2 *~

Rise and shine! I was up by brunch time but the lazy tailtail wanna snooze more. I amused myself by annoying him till he woke up.

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We didn't get a room that faced a good view. Lots of parts of Sentosa was undergoing a facelift which explains the multitude of cranes seen. The pool view would be good but I reckon they were all snapped up by the "World Cup People".

We had to take this dazzling bling bling lift. I like the bling but I swear that I would be momentarily blinded each time I stepped in.

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What was supposed to be brunch and lazy lounging by the pool turned out to be an almost 2-hour lunch for us at Fiesta buffet. They had quite an extensive selection of food. I love their little sandwiches.

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Me thinks the hubby looks like those HK triad gang member whenever he puts on his aviators and acts in a certain manner. Am I the only who one thinks so?

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After lunch, it was time for some lounging by the pool.

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Erm... actually this was taken after the lounging at the pool but heck, I needed a photo for the above sentence. Haha... remember this "fat photo" from this post? And I made a mistake in the date. It's supposed to be July. I'm not quite sure what got into my head.


The pool at Hard Rock Hotel consist of the normal pool with a lap length side and a simulated beach side, what they call a sand pool. How ingenious is that? Kh and I had initially wanted to head out to one of the beaches on Sentosa but with this pool, we could enjoy the sun, sand and "sea" in close comfort of our room without having to shower at some beach toilets.

I don't know if anyone understands my description about the pool but this video would probably help. Scroll to 6:51 for the pool shots.




The beach side was filled with people of all ages, sizes and nationalities. It was also filled with loads of screaming kids since it was a Sunday. Hence, we adjourned to the pool side where there were significantly lesser people and more people of our age, or so it seemed.

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The numbers on the scale
Left:
Before stuffing my face silly with buffet at about 12pm
Right:
After a whole afternoon and evening of lazing by and in the pool at about 8pm.

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Wow! Lazing by and in the pool could actually lose weight by the grams! I dunno what the weight was immediately after eating! I'm a 43kg on normal days. That's how much food weighs!

I'm never obsessed with my weight and numbers (aside: only with fats and flabs) but having a weighing scale with blue illuminated screen made weighing oneself really addictive. Now if only they came with a body fat content ratio, I would see 90% of fat on my flabby arms and tummy (they've recently migrated to the cheeks too). I'm really terrified at how my arms and tummy fats are increasing at an exponential rate.


After showering, we decided to walk around RWS. There are many stores and lots to explore. There is even a Victoria Secrets store, the first ever in Asia.

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Blah dinner at Ruyi, a chinese fast food restaurant under the Tung Lok group.

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I was hungry and craving for fried rice so I ordered it. I was exepecting the warm fragrant fried rice a la zi char style. However, the rice was too hard and I could not finish my food. The seaweed soup was not as tasty as how seaweed soup should be. I was expecting Tung Lok to whip up better dishes even at wallet-friendly fast food prices.


They've got a really cheesy write up on their placemat about how ruyi the little cloud came about. Click to enlarge.




Have you seen Ruyi today?

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Outfit of the day: Top from Armani Exchange

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This has since become my FAVOURITE casual tee. Love the fit, love the comfort of the material and love the little tie closure instead of the usual buttons on polo tees.

We spent the night watching the World Cup finals in the comfort of the bed rather than to squeeze with the crowd at the large screen area at RWS.

For one of the rare times, husband and wife were not on the same side. Hubby supported Netherlands while wifey supported Spain which I thought played quite fairly and well I must say.

When Spain won, I jumped up and down the bed till I pulled a muscle but the pain was nothing compared to the joy of seeing kh's expression when Netherlands lost... Go Spain!


~*Day 3*~

We had to check out in the afternoon but I called to ask for an extension and so we headed to the pool once more. This time by the simulated beach side of the pool. We were the only few at the beach since it was a Monday. All the families with screaming kids had since gone home. Or else then, they slept in after the World Cup Finals.

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I loved how soft and fine the sand felt. It doesn't really stick onto the skin too and it feels really clean. I really hate the icky feeling of wet sand in between my toes but the sand here seems to slide off easily.

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As I was stepping around in the sand, I thought of cyn and the kids and how we could bring them here in future to play with sand. The kids missed playing with sand.

It's a lot cleaner with lesser people, towels are available and the public shower rooms are definitely cleaner than those at the beach.

We did end up here in the end for Charmaine's birthday outing that same month which I would blog about when I get down to it.

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We were famished and decided to check out what's available at the pool bar. We ordered some cocktail but kh drank it up before I could say snap.

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As for the food, it was absolutely gratifying to eat hot cheesy marcaroni and fries with the accompanying delicious dip. Pretty good for a pool bar.

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shower rooms for the men and the women indicated by "M" and "W".

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For dinner, we headed to Vivocity and ate at Japanese Gourmet Town. It houses 3 restaurants under one roof. There is Botejyu from Osaka, Yoshimi from Hokkaido, and Ajisen from Kyushu - central, north, and south of Japan.

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The food wasn't too bad. I had Ajisen ramen coz even though it is considered one of the cheaper ramen alternative in Singapore, I feel it could never go wrong. Kh ordered the curry tempura rice. After that, we headed for a movie and as I'm typing this, I can't remember what we watched. It's unnerving when you want to try to recall something but can't. I asked kh, I checked my old ticket stubs but there isn't any clue.

It was home sweet home after that and the gruelling realization of having to work the next day. Talking about work, I've to settle some urgent work stuff via sms and calls even as I was sipping my ramen. This sort of annoyed kh as he wondered why I had to reply to those work sms and calls while on leave. =(


Here's what I did with the layer of construction works dust which coated the car at Hard Rock Hotel carpark in reply to the engraving on the back of the pendant:

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14 comments:

  1. oh nice a new post,

    I have never been to hard rock hotel :O That looks pretty nice!! I dont' think we have hard rock hotels here, only cafes. Everything looks damn nice. Okay that's where Im staying when I visit singapore lol.

    I saw the blue box and immediately recognized it as tiffany =D But it's 5:44PM right now, I just got off work and haven't eaten all day. Seeing this buffet food and fries by the pool is driving me insane :(

    finally, I love ajisen!!! I love their spicy fried rice most. They make it taste like teppenyaki style. I've had it in hong kong and we have it in toronto! The one in toronto isn't as good, the ramen is kind of hard.. whereas the one in HK was silky smooth. A lot of my friends dont like it - they say the soup has WAYY too much mei jing (MSG).

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  2. LOL I love how purple your hotel room was! don't think I've ever seen a purple room before =P
    The fridge does look very futuristic! and that bling bling elevator is FREAKING AWESOME!! I'd probably feel like a millionaire if I ever get to ride one XD

    And omg... you're so light!!!!!! I only weighed like that when I was in high school T___T ever since I moved to America my weight has shot right up lol. sadness. your weight scale number makes me saad. hahahahah

    You and you husband are soo adorbale ^__^ happy belated anniversary to you ^___^ (and yes I actually was thinking that he looks like a triad when I saw his guitar pic XD) the engraving on the necklace makes me smile (: I love all your outfits! especially the River Island dress! you look absolutely stunning in it <3

    How did Charmaine's operation go? Is she back from the US yet? And also I smelled the DKNY XD I actually really like it =D but it doesn't smell like me XD hahaha. it might sound creepy but I actually think this scent smells like you! XDXDXD don't ask my why I don't know XD

    PS: I'm curious... did you type this post back in July and just edit it now? haha I guess I just got a bit confused when you were talking about work at the end

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  3. You made a good choice for the staycation--when you live near such a great place you might as well take advantage of it. Thanks for the descriptions of the places and food, I enjoyed reading about it. Most of the pictures didn't load--I'm using an old computer tonight, so the descriptions were great.

    About my post, I think people who know me would say I'm a nice guy...and people who know me really, really well would say I'm a nice guy who doesn't mind speaking up when someone neds to speak up. I think I tolerate things that are annoying, but not things that are wrong. Maybe I'll do a post about times I didn't bite my tongue. =)

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  4. You are as light as a feather. The last time I was 40+ kg was like school days. Haha, ok, I'm a guy, so cannot compare.

    Happy 1st wedding anniversary, many more better years are coming your way, Jo!

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  5. brutalturtle,

    Once you disappear, you disappear for long but once you appear, you leave a few long long comments. Me like!

    I was just as clueless too. I was surprised when I saw Hard Rock Hotels as one of the hotels at RWS and was wondering if it is from that same Hard Rock Cafe franchise or just something with the same name. Never quite knew that the hotel version existed. Singapore has got lots of other nice hotels too but what I like about HR is that it resembles a boutique hotel with the purple walls, retro pictures, boudoir-like area by the window and not the usual classy elegant feel you get from most hotels.

    Spicy fried rice from Ajitsen? I didn't know they have that. I do know about the spicy volcano ramen which is quite good. I shall bear that in mind the next time I go there. I'll get the hubby to try the fried rice the next time while I snitch from him coz I usually whack the ramen. The ramen in sg Ajitsen isn't too bad for the price. It's springy and smooth. I'm ok with the soup but of course it pales in comparison to its higher scale counterparts. I love prok broth that's boiled for hours or days as well as sea salt flavoured soup base. I agree that Ajitsen's soup does have the MSG taste. We call it wei4 jing1 in Mandarin here.

    Gosh... I'm so hungry at 1+am and I'd better stop talking about ramen coz I've got cravings for it now.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Frances,

    The first time I saw how bling the lift was, I also felt like a million bucks. I was rather enthralled by it that I kept wanting to take pictures inside. However, there would always be other people in the lift coz there's only like 6 levels and not enough time to have it all by ourselves. There were only twice when we had the lift to ourselves and I hurriedly went snap snap snap. I do get a bit dazed once I stepped out though coz the rest of the hotel is much darker.

    I'm usually a 42--43kg on normal days. That's how much food could weigh. haha... The figures on the weighing scale is not indicative of slimness. I've got really light bones. I could find smaller sized people who look very much lighter than me but weigh heavier. It's in the bones. That's why I drink lots of milk to pack the bulk back into the bones. America makes one fat! Their portions are huge and they've got lots of meat and carbs in their dishes.

    Aww... thanx for all the sweet words. I love the engraving too. He gave the reason saying that it would be unique and different from others who have the same necklace coz he's got the impression that many gals like that choker and would think that they owned one too. (He's just trying to give the excuse to tell me that his is unique... duh!) I love the River Island dress too coz it hugs all the curves, unfortunately it also hugs belly curves so I've to suck in all the way and it was pretty unbearable after the huge meal. That was no fun! Ooh high 5 for the HK triad gangster! ~5

    Charmaine's op went smoothly. The last time I called, she was so bz playing a game that she didn't wanna talk to me. *sobz* Mum and kids are coming back to SG in like 6 hours time.

    HAHAHA on the DKNY perfume. Glad you like it. Haha... not creepy la. As in when you smell it, you can imagine that this is the scent I would wear is it?

    Oh, I was talking about the work calls and text I got while I was on leave for the staycation then. I just edited my post a little here and there. I realised there're loads of typo, unsensed keystrokes and awkward expressions.

    I'm the one writing a novel now!

    ReplyDelete
  7. RicAdeMus,

    I've always thought that I tend to be excessively verbose. I tend to just type whatever comes to my mind and slowly edit once I reread after posting up. I'm glad that my verbosity/description helps you understand w/o the pix! Goes to show that sometimes pictures aren't everything! Hope you get a new computer soon. Your current PC sounds really ancient when you said the photos don't load. =D

    Yes, from all your little posts about the strange people you meet, I think you're a really nice guy. This personality of yours is oozing out from every word you type in fact. Your posts always put a smile on my face, even the "evil" ones... Haha... and those people definitely deserved being treated that way. Great that you always stand up for justice.

    I just realised that I still do not know whether I pronounced your name correctly. It was on one of your fact post about your name and why the A and M are capitalised.

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  8. Shingo T,

    You're a guy! Definitely can't compare! Even 60+ 70+ kg is light for a guy of average height right?

    Thank you for your wishes! =D

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  9. Hey Jo...

    Hard Rock Hotel looks totally cool. And you are so HAUT in your bikini! Btw may I know how much is it per night?

    You must have enjoyed yourselves very much.

    Happy anniversary to you!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. citrella,

    Thank u dear! Yep it was relaxing. Oh it was $315 for peak and $270 for non peak for us that time. Not sure about the rates now.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Okay I know this post is like a year old, but I was looking through your older posts and just had to comment on this one. You look absolutely gorgeous in that white dress and your legs look a mile long. You and the hubby make a cute couple! :D

    ReplyDelete
  12. Rinny,

    Aww... Thank you. I had a surprise too when I saw in my inbox a comment for a post last year. I like how my legs look with that dress (it's actually light grey)and it must be the heels. My legs in recent photos don't look like these anymore. =)

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  13. aww..well regardless I still think you look great in all your recent photos too ^^

    ReplyDelete

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