Flash in the Pan

During my sabbatical leave from work for a few months, I engaged in a couple of meaningful activities to enrich myself and also to remind myself that life does not solely revolve around work.


~*Boating*~

A while back, I purchased a Powered Pleasure Craft Driving Licence (PPCDL) course at a great discount from Groupon and promoted this course to many of my friends who eventually signed up too. I can't remember how much the discount was but I know that the offer was so enticing that it really got me interested in learning how to operate a boat.

I managed to persuade the hubby to go with me and bought him a voucher too when none of my friends was able to match the dates I wanted.

The course included a theory and a practical lesson after which, it was up to us to continue pursuing this course with additional top ups, sitting for the tests and eventually attaining the boating license.

The theory was sleep-inducing but I love the practical lesson a lot.

I've got no pictures of us operating the pleasure boat but here are some pictures of humongous fish and the hubz taken at the venue to share with all of you.



This fish about the same "length" as my hubby. It sure didn't look as big and as long due to the angle and refraction of the water. If you were to see it with your own eyes, it is a lot bigger.




Although possessing a PPCDL seems really cool, the hubby and I were not able to find time to carry on pursuing the course together and sitting for all the tests. Eventually, we gave up. It was a flash in the pan but we did have fun operating the boat.


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~*Hip Hop*~

I also attended Hip Hop dance lesson with one of my bestie, Gerra, during my sabbatical. I would say she is quite the pro but I did not do too badly for my first 2 lessons considering they were the intermediate and advanced classes. The intermediate class' teacher commented that I was not too bad for a beginner even though I felt I was a total klutz.

Aside: She might just be offering some encouragement though so I might just be the klutz after all.


Anyway, here are pictures of us taking a break.




Gerra quipped that we should adopt a more hip hop pose for the photo and so I did this while she did nothing (or my camera would have fallen)!




Like the boating course, I stopped after a while.

That makes another flash in the pan!

I do not give up on everything I tried my hands at. I prefer to think of it this way: at least I tried and that I am pleased that I did.

Of course, I would continue to pursue my interest in art and I'm still doing lots of artistic stuff during my free time. That is something I would never give up. ;-)


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~*Some recent updates*~

I really felt recharged after this sabbatical and was geared up to enter the workforce again. Everyone who insisted that I'm not one who stays at home to be a homemaker and a full-time mum is right after all. I thought I would be able to do it but I was wrong. After some of them knew that I've gotten a new job recently, they reiterated their point once more and maintained that I would always be the workaholic they knew. I'm not so sure if this is a good or a bad impression but I would console myself that it is better to be known as the workaholic than the one who sits at home and in my mum's words, not having a "proper job".

It has been one week into my new job. I can't and won't be talking too much about my current job since there are simply too many local lurkers around. All I can say is that my insomniac physical body and night owl habits would require more time in adjusting to the new office hours.

I would have to wake up between 5 to 6am to prepare for work and to beat the crazily horrendous morning traffic to no avail. Even though I knock off at normal office timing, I KO (knock out) in front of the TV at night. I do not even switch on my lappy to surf the Internet and I do my daily Internet activities on my iPhone after work.

I'm so sleepy every day that I can't do anything constructive (read: involve the brains) but laze in front of the TV and let drowsiness overtake me. I even fell asleep while watching my favourite CSI.

I do not have the time to meet anyone except my family. Some of my good friends were so happy to know that finding a normal office hour job would leave me with more time for friends. Unfortunately, I'm still doing all the stuff that I have been doing during my sabbatical on top of having a full time job. Some say I'm killing myself but I know that all I need is some readjustment.

Expressing myself through my blog and reading blogs of my favourite people have always been something I love and have since become a favourite hobby of mine. I really hope to continue this hobby of blogging as often as I have been doing.

I just need more time for my physical body to adjust to the new routine and I'm very sure I would bounce back again.

I have missed out on many of your blogs but even if I haven't been visiting your blog and commenting, I would always reply to your comments here so do remember to click back to check.

I'm going out to meet my bestie Cyn and my dearest godson, Jase now.

Cya till my next free slot! =D


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If you haven't already known, I'm hosting a giveaway. There would be 3 sets of prizes to be given out. Click here to participate in my giveaway.

I may extend the deadline for this giveaway as I'm really too tied up with many issues on hand. If I do so, I hope all of you participants would understand. =)

Without a GPS...

This is how some people drive without a GPS when alone....



Or is it only me?

The maximum I could go is 3 sheets of paper (written on one sided recycled paper)-- One clipped onto the flip opening compartment and two on the passenger seat.

This photo was taken last year. Now that the hubby has changed car, there is no longer anything for me to clip on and I have to squeeze all road directions onto 2 sheets of paper from now on.

Anyway, those were the directions to my friend's house and my friend happens to have 3 very beautiful cats all named after the public holidays in Singapore.




They love to slink everywhere. On the table, on the sofa and even on the bed.




They sometimes join my friend and her hubby and the kids too in bed. How cute is that? Last time when my Simba was still around, I would beat her butt butt whenever she slept on my bed. She would feel so abused should she still be alive and know about how the cats at my friend's house are leading their lives.


PS:
I'm sorry for not visiting your blogs and for the late replies. I've been really busy running lots of errands before I embark on a new job this coming week. By then, I would be even busier as I reckon I would finally be sleeping early every night, leaving me with not much time to do anything else.


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If you haven't already known, I'm hosting a giveaway. There would be 3 sets of prizes to be given out. Click here to participate in my giveaway.

Smiley Little Leo

My distant cousin, Sushi, has a really adorable son.

On most of our girly outings, Sushi would bring Leo along too and he never fails to ignite lots of Oohs and Aahs from the people in the group and any passers-by around. He is such a smiley baby that it is almost impossible not to fall in love with him.




A little distraction from Leo with pictures of pretty babes.




[Hears thunderous chorus of "We don't want pretty babes."]

Ok fine, let's look at droolicious food, shall we?





[Hears incessant chanting of "We want Leo! We want Leo!"]



Nah, here you go!




Claps claps...

"Thank you for the support!"





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If you haven't already known, I'm hosting a giveaway. There would be 3 sets of prizes to be given out. Click here to participate in my giveaway.

Once Bitten Twice Hatched

~*Hatched Breakfast at 4pm*~

For a period of time, the hubby and I have been on the hunt for eateries that serve all day breakfast. After having checked out Privé Cafe a while back, our next stop was Hatched at Evans Lodge.




Hatched is an egg-inspired all day breakfast restaurant.




There were not many patrons that day but our food took quite some time to arrive. As usual, kh would have his cup of coffee.




I can't remember the names of the dishes we ordered but I love the corned beef in kh's dish and the sauteed mushrooms in mine. We also shared a Pancake Party with caramelised apples.




Outfit of the day:
♥ Fleur Faerie Knitted Cropped Shrug in Mocha Grey
♥ No label inner lace spag top
♥ American Eagle shorts
♥ Necklace from Far East Plaza





~*Hatched Breakfast Encore*~

Two weeks later, I met up with Karen and her hubby at Hatched again.




This time, there were more people. Almost all tables were full and we had to settle for the stool seatings.




Karen had just bought an Olympus camera then and she brought it along to play with its settings.






Here was what we ordered (which I have once more forgotten their names) and a Pancake Party with Bananas to share.




A gift from Karen for all the gal pals.




After breakfast, we headed outside for some outdoor photo-taking.




Testing out the various angles for outfit shots.




I will end of this post with my outfit of the day.

♥ Fleur Faerie Slouchy Top with Pocket in Beige
♥ No label inner lace spag top
♥ This Fashion layered crochet shorts
♥ Fifi Lapin necklace
♥ Nue shoes





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If you haven't already known, I'm hosting a giveaway. There would be 3 sets of prizes to be given out. Click here to participate in my giveaway.

Happy 47th Birthday Singapore!

Singapore turns 47 on the 9th of August. Happy birthday Singapore!

Scrolling through my Facebook news feed, I could see that almost the whole world is out partying, clubbing and drinking. Up till now at 6am, there are still many people who are awake partying while here I am trying to nurse off the last leg of my URTI (upper respiratory tract infection). I've been dozing off to sleep on and off throughout the past week and am frequently awake at unearthly hours.

I don't think I would be watching the National Day Parade live on television later. Having watched the NDP twice at the venue itself and once as a preview, I have since lost interest in watching it on TV as the whole atmosphere live at the Float @ Marina Bay is really electrifying.

This year, kh managed to score tickets to the NDP combined rehearsal which was held in July.

Singaporeans love wearing our national colours --red and white-- for such national events and here I am clad in our national colours.




By the time we reached Marina Bay, ominous grey clouds shrouded the sky and as soon as I snapped this picture, it started to pour monkeys and elephants.




We had never attended any NDP related events in the rain as cloud seeding would most probably be done on National Day itself as well as the preview. I reckon that since that was not a full-dressed combined rehearsal, cloud seeding was not administered that day.

Fishing out our disposable ponchos from the NDP fun pack, we braved the rain and enjoyed ourselves tremendously, though movements were impaired by the amount of space we could wriggle under the poncho.




Due to the heavy rain, some segments involving the fighter planes and the SAF's Red Lions Parachuting Team were scrapped. It was such a shame. I know of a friend who was there for the first time and all she wanted was to catch the Red Lions team in action.

All photos and videos in this post are taken with my iPhone as I did not want to subject my canon camera to the rain. For that reason, I did not snap many pictures at the parade coz after a while, I realized that it wasn't exactly a very good idea to drench my phone in the rain too.

Beautiful fireworks against Singapore's stunning night cityscape. Pardon the low resolution.




After the parade, we trawled the surrounding areas for a place to have our dinner and stumbled upon Izakaya Tomo which had no long queue at all. What a little gem this place was! We might just come back here again in future.




I love the decor of this restaurant. It made us feel as though we were in a little sake shop in Japan.






I had Tempura Soba for I was craving for something piping hot in the cold weather. It was my first time eating hot soba and I do not like it. Give me my cold soba anytime!

Kh had tuna sashimi don. It consisted of tuna from three different parts of the fish. The sashimi was fresh and tasty.

To share, we had wagyu beef and salmon carpaccio. Those were scrumptious!




Itadakimasu!




I should be spending the rest of National Day dozing away like all the party animals, only that instead of recovering from a hangover, I would be trying to sleep my illness away.


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If you haven't already known, I'm hosting a giveaway. There would be 3 sets of prizes to be given out. Scroll down or click here to participate in my giveaway.

Eat, Walk and Shop with the Hubby

I used to love taking photographs during outings with the hubby, but more so of the food. Recently, I've grown a little lazy to take that many photos as before. Looking at my photo folders in 2011 and 2012, I could see an apparent decrease in the number of folders.

As usual, here's a backdated entry sharing with all of you a mishmash of photos from our outings.



~*Lazy Sunday Breakfast at 3pm*~

Due to our night owl lifestyle and few hours of sleep per day, kh and I tend to sleep in on Sundays whenever possible. We would wake up and crave for breakfast food only to bemoan that breakfast is long over.

Privé Cafe is one of those places in Singapore that serves breakfast till late and hence we decided to check out that cafe one lazy Sunday afternoon.

The cafe is located by Keppel Bay. We marvelled at the many yachts there and imagined that we owned them.




Coffee would always be for him and tea for the madam.




Prawn Bisque and smoked salmon for appetizer




Prive's Ultimate Brekkie for him and Eggs Royale for me




What a delicious and hearty breakfast!




Although we were full, I just had to have my dessert to end the meal.




After breakfast, we strolled along the bay and pretended like we were looking for our yacht.




Outfit of the day:
♥ Fleur Faerie Slouchy Beach Top in Cream
♥ No label inner lace spag top
♥ No label brown cardigan
♥ No label pink capri
♥ Green Petals bird and flower necklace
♥ DMK nude chunky heels/ clogs





~*A Lamborghini for His iPad Please*~

Since kh can't afford a Lamborghini, his next best option was to settle for a Lamborghini iPad cover.




We ended our day with ramen and soothing Japanese tea.




I've set my ramen benchmark as Santouka and so every other ramen seems to disappoint me without a doubt.





~*Button, you must wander*~

Button, you must wander, wander, wander.
Button, you must wander everywhere!

Whenever I see many buttons, I would think of this song but I could never quite understand what this song was about when I was young. You see, I thought it was "wonder" and so I often wondered why the buttons had to wonder.




It is the same pink capri again. I wonder if anyone else hangs their many clothes on a rack and would wear the same few clothes for every outing during a certain time period.




Kh really liked to spoil my shots.
Asked him to smile... he showed me serious face.
Asked him to show serious face... he smiled like a clown.




~*TCC*~

Ever noticed how when an eatery begins to have its chains sprouting everywhere, standard would tend to decline? Not for TCC. TCC has maintained its standard and is one of our favourite chain cafes.

Anyway, I thought TCC stands for "The Coffee Connoisseur". All of a sudden, it became "The Connoisseur Concerto". The hubby also remembered the former. Have we been mistaken all along?


Appetizers




Mains




Extras!





~*Hoshigaoka Japanese Restaurant*~

Our off day happened to fall on the same day that week and so we went out running errands together.

We rewarded our growling bellies at the end of the day at a place with no queue-- Hoshigaoka Japanese Restaurant. The food was not too bad for a restaurant with no queue.




The stripes were totally spontaneous.





~*Wasabi Tei*~

There are many ardent fans of Wasabi Tei at Far East Plaza as evident from the long queue. Kh and I are never those who queue for food. In case you are newly acquainted with us, I've to tell you that we are pigs which are forever dying of famine. Hence, we do not believe in waiting in a long line when it comes to food.

I do not think that the food is that great as of its service and I don't think we would be back again. This 16-seater has many house rules and the author of this blog has done a remarkable job in describing Wasabi Tei's service and house rules.





~*Katong Laksa and Sushi Tei*~

I don't know which is the original "Katong Laksa" but I do know that the contents in our bowl do not in any way bear any striking resemblance to what was depicted in the poster. This is the one at Queensway Shopping Centre. Any of you out there know how authentic this Katong Laksa is?






Fortunately, the taste was gratifying enough for me to satisfy our Katong Laksa craving. We lapped up everything including the spicy gravy.




We have a bad English sign right in Queensway Shopping Centre!




It is actually a case of words with multiple meanings and the subsequent translation boo boo.






Dinner was at Sushi Tei which was another of our favourite chain eateries.




I absolutely love green tea/ macha desserts and drinks.




Oh, how we love our food!




I know that I have come to the end of my post and it is a little too late to say this. I do hope that none of you are viewing this post on an empty stomach like what I am doing right now. Trust me, it is a torture.



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If you haven't already known, I'm hosting a giveaway. There would be 3 sets of prizes to be given out. Scroll down or click here to participate in my giveaway.