I Love Long Weekends

The 1st of May (Friday) was Labour Day and I had a really fulfilling long May Day weekend last week.

But first...

The days before the enjoyable long weekend summed up a pretty stressful week. I was practically on my phone intermittently throughout the day to settle some personal issues despite the piling work in the office. Fortunately, my colleagues were understanding towards my situation and nobody spoke about me being constantly on the phone.

I was also beyond thankful for the company of a gal pal who at short notice made the time to meet me after work for a good listening ear and words of wisdom even though she was drowning in work and had planned to OT. And then in a separate day of alignment of the planets, I met up with another gal pal for an impromptu dinner and chat at such a short notice too. Prior to arranging the impromptu dinner, we were texting and lots of coincidence in our situations were revealed and so we thought "Heck, it's a sign for us to meet."

Those signalled the start of a really good long weekend!





~*On Friday We Slept and Ate*~


I don't sleep a lot during the weekdays. My daily sleep averages to about 3 to 5 hours a day. Hence, I usually spend Saturdays sleeping till the afternoon to catch up on my sleep debt, leaving me with very little constructive weekend time. (Yeah, I seem to infer that sleep isn't constructive but you know what I mean... productive awake moments) Thanks to the long weekend, I spent three quarters of Friday sleeping and then headed out straight for dinner as hubby had cravings for the blue cheese mussels at Brussels Sprouts.




As usual, the hubby loves to over-order. He simply cannot gauge the amount of food logically whenever he is too hungry. We had grilled portobello mushrooms, beer battered onion rings and free flow of fries that came with the full pot of Fromage Bleu mussels and half pot of Laksa mussels. Hubby totally forgot about the free flow of fries when he insisted on ordering the giant onion rings. I didn't snap any pictures of those as it was too dark. Here's a picture of how we ruined our healthy lifestyle with booze. At 4.5% alcohol content, Lindermans Apple beer is just like sweet sparkling apple juice.





~*On Saturday We Ate, Cycle and Ate*~


The bimbo sisters had been talking about cycling for many months but it was difficult to find a perfect slot in everyone's schedule. When Tiff and I met up on Thursday night, we decided to just set aside Saturday evening for cycling and even if nobody else in the group could make it, we would still proceed to be on track with our healthy lifestyle goals.




It was great that cycling fitted into Zanne's schedule that Saturday so there would be 3 of us! And yes, you are seeing double of the same bicycle shot coz I couldn't make up my mind which effect I like better. Thanx to Tiff for the great photo of the Tiffany blue city bicycles!




I reached Punggol Settlement first at 4pm and was almost toasted just by standing in the afternoon sun for a minute! It really was a mystery how the weather app stated thunderstorm in the afternoon for the whole of Singapore.

With the time alone, I recced the place and found a bicycle kiosk nearer to the beach side which was less busy than the one at the end of the row of shops along the waterway. I was totally seduced by the Tiffany blue bicycles with cute rattan baskets that I had to drag Zanne and Tiff all the way there after Tiff nearly settled for a metallic purple city bike at the busier kiosk.

Psst... the rental for these pretty city bikes are $8 for 2 hours (1 hour free for 1 hour rental) unlike the not so pretty city bikes at the busier kiosk at $10 for 2 hours. Ok fine, if you don't need your bike to look pretty while cycling, you can settle for their BMX or mountain bikes at either kiosk.





Hungry Tiff was the last to arrive. In view of the scorching sun, we decided to eat a fuller meal since Tiff was dying of famine. And if you were on my Facebook/Instagram, you would have seen the caption for this photo which goes something like this:
"What kinda weather forecast is this? The sun is freaking hot. Let's go and eat till the sun is down then cycle." ‪
#‎whatkindahealthylifestyleisthis‬ ‪#‎bimbosisters‬ ‪#‎bestie‬ ‪#‎bff‬ ‪#‎galpal‬ ‪#‎ilovemyfriends‬




We had crispy chicken strips and homemade fish fingers at Georges by the Bay. They looked golden brown and absolutely should not belong to the check list of Healthy Lifestyle but we deceived ourselves by saying that these were protein-rich food.

Oh yeah, could you spot a non-food item here? A shout out to Benefit Dream Screen. Tiff loves how smooth and non-oily the application is and so, good things are meant to be shared with good friends. The lotion to powder texture feels just like those Japanese brand sunscreen like Sunplay and Sunkiller only that my pores don't feel clogged with Benefit Dream Screen.




As if the chicken and fish weren't enough, Zanne and I had to agree on adding steak to share for our "tea-time snacks". What kinda healthy lifestyle is this?




I was totally mesmerized by Zanne's rainbow-coloured contact lens. The photo don't do justice. In real life, the amalgamation of colours reminded me of opal though more subtle.




Punggol is a really busy place! The whole park was filled with loads of people. At last, we found a scenic spot with not many potential photo-bombers and quickly snapped some pictures of us and our bikes. Watch the flipagram here.










How could we not take a wefie in the setting sun?




Join us, Zanne!



Soon the sun set and the moon was up. There was no more good light for photo-taking and isn't this a cycling outing? We were busy cycling instead of taking photos as you could see. We covered a long stretch and got lost at one point as we thought that taking a certain path would loop us back to where we came from. Instead, it brought us back to our halfway point.




By the time we returned our bikes, it was exactly 2 hours later when the sky was dark. From the buckets of perspiration, it sure was a good cardio workout!




So after cycling, it was dinner time. Time to eat AGAIN! We met up with Paul and had Din Tai Fung for dinner. Once again, our food looked brown or fried. Duh... we probably exercise only to eat.




Match the shoes to the characters!
Ok I reveal the answers...
I super love Tiff shoes coz they look so atas. This gal... go sports also so atas.
Love Zanne's pairing of bold-coloured lace with her Converse.
My Puma had a little plaster as its sole totally split till the heel and I couldn't tear it all out since it is connected all the way to the back. I was walking like a clown before the Zanne's plaster came to the rescue.




I thought of glueing the sole back and realised that these sneakers had served me for 7-8 years. Perhaps that's an excuse to buy new sneakers. I really do keep this pair of sneakers clean, don't I?




See, even Meow Meow couldn't be bothered to show respect to her fellow cat family. The fur that got in between the parts to glue made me lazy to glue them back.




My after workout (and eat) selfie.
Do you like my new "curry pok" fringe?
For my non-Singaporean readers, curry pok hair simply refers to hair that is combed backwards and hairsprayed till pouffy, puffy whatever.
I'm glad that my fringe is long enough to be styled this way now though I feel like cutting bangs again for many bimbotic reasons.





~*On Sunday We Shopped, Ate, Avenged and Ate*~


As I was typing the sub heading for each portion of this post, I realised that the long weekend consisted of lots of eating. I was supposed to shop for new sneakers but I ended up buying other stuff instead. Instead of standing around, the hubz went to TCC to drink some coffee while waiting for me. He saw that there was some bimbotic girly tea set on promotion and knew I would love to order it just because it was photo-worthy.




Just look at the shoe cupcake!




Actually, I always prefer the savoury items in tea sets coz the sweet ones are usually as sweet as they look.




Complimentary sample cookies were served to entice us to order the full set. I tasted unique taste in the cookies like bacon, tom yam and other savoury sensation. Not too bad at all. We didn't order the full size though as we reckon that this would make up for the overall bad service at TCC Shaw. Only 1 particular waiter saved the bad experience and coz of him I shan't complain about the overall bad service we had that evening.




After catching Avengers -- Age of Ultron, we checked out La Strada, a subsidiary of the award winning Les Amis Group. It is located at the sidewalk of Shaw Centre.




“Built on the name La Strada, which literally means ‘The Street’ in Italian, the team was inspired during a trip to Italy by the people’s love to socialise at the sidewalks over a meal or a cup of coffee"




The rustic décor, wood panels and green awnings exudes a homely Italian feel in this ristoronte.




For antipasti, we had Wagyu Carpaccio with Baby Arugula, Aged Balsamic Reduction.

Kh loves Carbonaro to bits. I usually cannot finish a whole creamy pasta on my own and would never order Carbonaro. OMG, his Carbonara with crispy ham, egg confit, shaved parmesan and truffle butter sauce was AMAZING! I've never tasted any creamy pasta that was so light yet flavourful. An oxymoron I know and that's why it was amazing.




What with ham, egg yolk, cream sauce and truffle butter, you really would expect a very heavy and cloying taste but no, I could finish this Carbonara all on my own. I wished there were more and I wished I had ordered his dish. His was the Chitarra ala Carbonara btw.




I know I ordered a tomato-based pasta but I cannot seem to find it on the menu on their website. I think mine was the Tagliolini al Granchio -- Homemade Thin Cylindrical Pasta with Mud Crab, Cherry Tomatoes, White Wine, Chili and Garlic. It was supposed to be Tagliolini pasta but they probably ran out of it. Porbably if the original thin cylindrical pasta was used, I would have liked it better. It was good too just that kh's Carbonara won hands down.




I would end this post with my failed attempt at OOTD (it's a selfie really). Well, the hubz doesn't like to take OOTD shots for me and it was dark anyway so selfie in the room to the rescue.

When I posted the pic of me and the cupcake shoes, some people asked about my top. This is a sold-out item on Fleurfaerie. We had lots of enquiries for restock both on FB and Carousell but unfortunately when we tried to re-stock, our supplier's new stock could not pass our QC. The material of the first batch was really good and the exact same top was selling on BYSI and other individual retailers for $40++ then. We wondered whether we should continue our hunt for this top with the frequent requests of restock even up till now.




It is another weekend, Mother's Day weekend in fact. Later, we would be taking our parents out for casual French food. I hope they like French food as much as we do.

Here's wishing all of you a wonderful weekend!

Staycation at the Tree Top Lofts Part 3 - Interacting with Dolphins for the 1st Time

The bulk of the final instalment is a pictorial walk through our maiden interaction with the dolphins (just one in particular) at Sentosa. I will keep the text in this post short and sweet but if you're interested to read about my mixed feelings on dolphins in captivity and the RWS dolphin controversy, those chunks of paragraphs in between are the ones to look out for. =)

In you're interested in my previous instalments, click on the following links:
Staycation at the Tree Top Lofts Part 1 - Virtual Tour
Staycation at the Tree Top Lofts Part 2 - Anniversary Dinner at Forest 森








~*Dolphin Discover Programme*~

As mentioned in this post, our 2D1N package for the Tree Top Lofts included 2 Adventure Cove Waterpark day passes and 2 adult tickets to Dolphin Discovery. I've read compelling stories about the way marine animals are treated in some water parks around the world. As for Singapore, Sentosa RWS is the first organization to bring dolphins into our country. Surrounding the controversy of the six dolphins which died during the process of being brought here and also the death of one dolphin during its stay at Dolphin Island a few months back, animal activists have since termed Sentosa RWS's dolphins as the "world's saddest dolphins". =(




Prior to the programme, I had mixed feelings about our dolphin interaction. I wondered if I was in any way increasing the demand for dolphins in captivity and also perpetuating the cruelty to them by going for such dolphin interaction programmes. Many people believe that animals thrive in the wild and should not be trained for human entertainment. Other than the cruelty in confining these free-spirited animals, many believe that keeping dolphins in captivity is exploitative.




Before going for our individual dolphin interaction, it was compulsory for the group of 10 to 15 of us to watch an informative video on what to and what not to do during the dolphin interaction. The bubbly trainers also reiterated the dos and don'ts in language simple enough for the kids to understand. I could tell how much they cared for their dolphins. After the video, everyone broke into groups of couples and families with a dolphin trainer and a dolphin assigned to each group. Our dolphin is a male called Sheng Guo; I asked if he was from China and why the Chinese name. Needless to say, my instiable curiosity and candid questions are often the bane to my husband. He felt that these were bimbotic questions. -_-|||




Sheng Guo was such a friendly and playful dolphin. BTW, he is the largest dolphin the group.




We were shown by the trainer how to properly treat the dolphin with care and respect, how and where were fine to touch and stroke.




Sheng Guo performed every single task he was told to do readily and happily.




He even listened to our commands. Of course it was really the trainer giving some hand signals.




It was fun to see the blow hole opening and closing at whim.




Our trainer told us that the air ejected from the blow hole could be so forceful, it might cause pain.




We tried putting our cheek there and true enough, the small sprays of water and air pierced my delicate cheek like smithereens of microscopic glass.




Inspecting the mouth and teeth at close range, we learnt lots of facts about dolphins that we never knew. Since I taught Science at primary level for a few years, there were lots of facts about dolphins that I already knew so I was glad to take home new knowledge from this programme.




We even saw how the fish and jelly slid into Sheng Guo's throat. So cute!




Only trainers were allowed to massage the dolphin's tongue while I looked on longingly.




It was time to dance with Sheng Guo. He was such a gentle little boy.




Kh said it was weird for a boy to dance with a boy.




Even weirder for a boy to kiss a boy. Look at his weird expression.




Kh wanted to look like he was not kissing but kissing Sheng Guo because that's gay.




I, on the other hand, was so eager to be kissed by a dolphin.




And to kiss him back. Muax!




It took a while for the trainer to get Sheng Guo into this position and to hold it there for the photo-taking.




Sheng Guo was really obedient. I heard that there were some dolphins who would simply swim away when they didn't feel like doing certain acts. The fact that they would not be forced to do so if they continued to refuse after coaxing them made me feel that the dolphins here were indeed treated with respect.




Sheng Guo opened his mouth at the trainer's hand command.




I was so afraid of hurting Sheng Guo while he was holding his pose. You know? Like aching muscles or something.




After that, we splashed water at each other. My my, Sheng Guo could splash. I could almost see a twinkle in his cheeky eyes. There were couple of shots of the water being splashed more wildly but we had weird expressions in those.




Sheng Guo twirled and danced with us too.




Next it was time to play "Fetch". Kh tossed the rugby ball for Sheng Guo to retrieve.




I chose the frisbee. It was thrilling to receive our thrown items with a dolphin's beak.




A round of applause to encourage Sheng Guo.




A final massage and tickle for Sheng Guo. The trainer even turned Sheng Guo around to let us rub his belly. After which, we pat him and waved goodbye. Sheng Guo waved his flippers back at us and swam back to his enclosure.




Throughout the whole Dolphin Discovery experience, I felt that the trainers were doing their very best to treat the dolphins well and to also impart these acts and values to their visitors. However as I've mentioned earlier on, me being me, I simply had to fire all the burning questions in my mind to the trainer. As we walked out of the dolphin pool, we had a short discourse on the whole RWS controversy and keeping dolphins in captivity in general. The trainer recommended some YouTube documentaries for better understanding. I won't be revealing much here but I must say that the trainer gave a very balanced answer and satisfied my curiosity. Without my first-hand experience here, I would actually still be sitting on the fence about the RWS controversy. I wish that those activists could also understand how dolphins are very sociable and really love interacting with humans. The dolphins here arrived shaken initially like how all living things would but have very soon settled down and enjoyed the human interaction. I came across this blog post on RWS Dolphin Discovery written by a really cool Singaporean dad with 3 lovely kids. For those who are still half the mind about animal rights and cruelty to the dolphins, you should head over there now.







~*Exploring the Rest of Adventure Cove*~

Adventure Cove Waterpark was not exactly that big and did not actually have much food choices for hungry hamsters like us.




To fill our cow bellies before the Dolphin Discovery, we had a hot dog bun and mashed potato from a stall shaped like a hot dog bun.




This was heavenly for our growling tummies.




For lunch, we used our free coupons to redeem for chicken and pasta, coke and apple juice. I could cook better than this but we were hungry.




A childhood lime with vanilla cream ice lolly which I loved a lot back then.




By the time we finished our Dolphin Discovery session, the water theme park would close in an hour's time. I used to be thrilled by all these water rides and slides but somehow there wasn't any urge to play that day.




We simply wasted our free tickets.




Fake stalagmite added on to the adventure feel?




The hubz and I felt that these reminded us of some alien beings.




Interaction with the rays.







~*Relaxing Bath with ESPA*~


So the 2D1N was really too short but I simply had to squeeze time in for a relaxing bath just to make sure we made full use of the facilities.




All the bath products in theTree Top Loft bathroom are from ESPA.








It is nice to know that I''m using products against animal testing.




While soaking in the bath tub, I savoured on one of my favourite Indian snack -- Muruki.




I once took a legs in bath tub shot once in Maldives shot and I'm horrified to see the difference in skin tone. I very much prefer my legs to be tanned.




All refreshed!




Outfit of the day:
♥ FleurFaerie Layered Stripe Dress in Mocha worn as a top
♥ Cotton On denim shorts
♥ COACH Park Signature Swingpack in gold
♥ Mimosa studded floral slippers



Outfit of the day:
♥ TEZENiS Italy striped bikini
♥ Cotton On denim shorts




I'm typing this post with half my eyes closed and nodding off to sleep. Proofreading and phases of edits would come after everyone has spotted my grammatical error, spelling error and weird sentence expression. It is close to 5am now and if you are in Singapore and countries that celebrate, Selamat Hari Raya! Enjoy the last day of the long weekend.