3 Birthdays + 1 Wedding

May was a month of birthday celebrations.

Celebrated Vin Wee's birthday at Waraku @ Central.

And J-mee's birthday thereafter. A very tame celebration for dear J as compared to last year where most of us got sloshed. This year, we didn't touch a single drop of alcohol. Bummer! And to think Lee and I were dressed for the occasion, haha.

It was Angie's birthday the following week and it was also the day that my offer to purchase the apartment got accepted. So double happiness!

Dinner was at Sage @ Robertson Walk. FINALLY!!!

Expectations were high and Sage did not disappoint. It was pricey but it was worth it!

:: amuse bouche + appetizers ::

:: the mains - meat galore! ::

:: dessert ::

+++

Also attended Jianning's aka Lynn's wedding in late May. Kinda like a mini reunion of the old SCGS gals.

Sat next to Wendy who's a teacher and 5 months preggers!!! But still looking good and in great shape. I still remember her as the girl who's swift on her feet in those 100m dashes during sports day.

Apparently yours truly is still recognizable and looks the same back in primary school. How funny!

Satsuma

Paid a visit to Satsuma, the hipper and younger sister of Shunjuu.

Nope, Satsuma is not a geisha mind you .... its a nice lil enclave located at Gallery Hotel.

It was a pre-holiday get-away from the office ... we all needed a short break and so we planned for a lil tete-a-tete in dresses, high heels and all :)

Since the gals were craving for hot chocolate, we headed to Robertson Quay once again ... now a favourite hotspot with its close proximity from the office. Thanks for Angie whose friends' cousin owned Satsuma, we secured our reservations at the last minute and got to meet the affable owner herself.

Satsuma serves a terrific range of yakitori, we especially liked the foie gras and oysters wrapped with pork. The gals' favourite dish was tofu with melted cheese - very smooth and really quite heavenly .... Having heard about the drinking games at Satsuma :

" sorakyuu of shochu - a conical cup with a hole at the bottom. You'll have to cover the hole with your thumb then down the shochu in a gulp amidst much ruckus created by wooden 'clappy' things which the waiters will rattle vigorously"

But not quite in the mood for hardcore drinks, we opted for something a lil more lighthearted - Shochu cocktails, which were so-so.

As mentioned, we ended the night with dessert at The Chocolate Factory once again (my 3rd time there in 3 consecutive weeks!). With Easter round the corner, the coldroom showcase was peppered with delectable chocolate eggs which were oh-so-tempting!!!

More ECI

Friday 30.03.2007

been dreaming of chocolate the entire week ...

yup, after a stressful week at work and after a bout of flu ... spent Friday night with tee + lee having a light dinner at Miharu + dessert at The Chocolate Factory ...

this time, I opted for the Chocolate Tarte ... which was ecstatically goooood ... puuurrrre + smoooothh ... as expected, the gals enjoyed the Vienna hot chocolate ...

i'm one happy gal too :)

when the rest of the crew came, we had Mascato + Bubbly at Tasting Notes to start off the night ... followed by more drinks at O Bar ... leaving tee in a happee state, haha

we survived ... cheap + sleepee drunks unite!!!

:: [clockwise] Pleasure, Black Forest Cake & the Chocolate Tarte ::

Basil Alcove

Wednesday 28.03.2007

Dinner with the gals ... more specifically in favour of Rachel who has left our sunny island to seek greener pastures else where ...

The venue of choice was Basil Alcove - highly acclaimed amongst local floggers (food bloggers) for good quality Italian food at basement prices ... okay, reasonable prices. Located at Fortune Centre, it offers alfresco, no frills dining with its plastic chairs and foldable tables. To put it simply, it is fine-dining ala kopitiam style.

Upon glancing at the menu and its ultra reasonable prices, we ordered our mains and 3 starters/appetizers. A total of 7 dishes for 4 hungry gals! It was enough to feed an army!

The lacklustre ambience actually made the food shine even more, since one has no choice but to focus on the food and momentarily forget about the lack of frou frou associated with fine dining.

A fan of squid ink pasta, I ordered the linguine with clams - delish! Rachel ordered the duck dipped with vinigerette, Lak had the bratwurst carbonara and Kay Bo Cha Cha had the cod with mash potato on the side. Our starters/appetizers consisted of a mix of mushrooms, ceasar salad with generous portions of roasted chicken and a dozen mussels. Pity they didn't have a dessert menu.

Even though the staff kept forgetting that we needed spoons, service was pleasant. The only grouse we had with the place was the lack of payment options - only cash is accepted! Used to credit card payments, we had to empty our wallets to pay the bill which amounted to $90+ and thereafter we all had to scramble in search for the nearest ATM. It is a very unsettling feeling to have just 2 bucks left in the purse ya know ...

:: kinda like "in the mood for love", doncha think? ::

:: at it again ::

2.8.1

16.03.2007

yes, this is late i know ... but here is the documentation (ya lah, occupational hazard, everything also must document in order to cover my smarty @$$) on my 28th (sigh) ... which has come and gone like a whirlwind romance ...

1st celebration started with the 'ees' ... it was a triple celebration for tee (1st March), jee (17th March) and mee! (18th March)

Dinner at Brotzeit @ Vivocity ... succulent german sausages ... shall not describe any further else i'll start inviting lewd remarks from the bunch ... hehe ... crispy pork knuckle ...traditional desserts ... and of course BEER from Paulaner *burp*

all in all, a very good dinner with a nice laid back atmosphere with chill-out beats and excellent + friendly service ... the waiters were so accommodating that they even dimmed the lights just for us ... and come to think of it ... for no particular reason at all!

next stop was St James ... partied, partied, partied ... yet another failed attempt to check out Dragonfly ... guess the Ah Lian in me ain't powderful enuf to warrant a visit ...

was so bushed, I fell asleep on the table during supper only to be woken up when it was time to head home ...

2.8.2

17.03.2007

Part 2 of celebrations started with dinner at The Secret Garden along Bencoolen Street ... am not gonna elaborate too much since the gals have already blogged about it here and here ... the paparazzis were way ahead of me! haha

So read about it on JellBell's blog on Martin's flat tyre ... what an eventful night!

After the tyresome problem was resolved, we headed to Brussel Sprouts @ Robertson Quay for a couple of Belgian beers which were really quite intriguing with the cute + matching glasses ... some beer had a herbal taste to it, like essence of chicken laced with alcohol ... queer but well, worth the try ...

We love to cam-whore!!!!

2.8.4

20.03.2007

Dinner with the office gals at Netsuretsu Ichiban-Tei (at least that's what the receipt says)

Decadent dessert at The Chocolate Factory (finally!!!) Darn good! Too much of ECI (Estimated Chargeable Income) at work warrants this sort of ECI (Excessive Chocolate Indulgence) ... enuf said :)

The hot chocolate was marvellous! Never a fan of hot choco, but this is one not to be missed! Also, the chocolate souffle and bread + butter pudding was very very rich + very very yummy ... choco overload man! Can't wait to go back!

Gatherings

more gatherings during the Lunar New Year ...

first stop was lunch at Kay's place where we played several rounds of blackjack, with 7 of us each taking turns to be banker ... i'm lousy at gambling, so no surprise that i lost at being a ching-kay ... more exciting was polish a.k.a. in between ... at some points, the atmosphere was so intense that it was pretty stressful, but that added to the fun anyhow ... it was also very uncanny and errie at times when the cards which got called out were the exact same ones that we were chanting for ... it was as if the God of Wealth or the God of Gamblers was hearing our calls! brrrr .... scary stuff ...

second stop was at dinner Sharon's place ... and ooh ooh ooh, the babies are oh so cute! i can't stop gushing at baby Caleb ... Eurasian looking, uber friendly baby, cool (quite oblivious most of the time) .... sooo cute! Tiffany was hyperactive and super-happy ... and definitely a chip off the old block ... looks exactly like Melvin! We are keeping our fingers crossed that she won't inherit Melvin's curly locks, else its gonna be rebonding for life ... hehe

:: (L) Sharon's son Caleb at 7 months & (R) Melvin's daughter Tiffany at 6 months ::

:: er ... yea, mug shots ::

:: yea, we had fun camwhoring ... with the usual suspects ::

last stop was Hon's place where more gambling ensued ... didn't partake knowing that Corky had gamblers luck as banker ... which turned out to be true, yet again ...

Merry Christmas!

first of all ... Merry Christmas to me!!! muahahaha!!! thanks Mel for the greeting card :)

and second and most important of all ... Merry Christmas to one and all!!! *muacks*

Happy Holidays!

Christmas Eve was a low-key affair this year ... simple dinner at Wilson's and lazing around chatting amongst ourselves ... 1 marriage announcement + 1 engagement announcement among the circle of friends ... congrats!

more pics here

The Cannery

thanks to a very accommodating friend who works for the MOS group of clubs, we were ... ahem ... some of the privileged few (er, well ... among the thousands) that attended the exclusive, 'invites only' launch of The Cannery ...

with free flow of drinks, including bubbly (brut + rose) ... we all rose to the occassion and thronged the different bars at The Cannery ... first stop was Fashion Bar by FTV which was quite poseur ... expect catwalk music and LCD screens screaming models + high end fashion ...

second stop was The Clinic, where we spent most of the night as we managed to secure a huge seating area for our huge crowd of party-goers ... at the bar area, we spotted some staff decked out in surgeon-style uniforms ... very apt, very cute! pity there were no sexy nurses around to cure any potential hangovers ...

at the Insanity Room, we cam-whored a fair bit and we also did a cheesy lil' ditty for The Cannery's media team ... hollering our love for the place ... ugh!!! am hoping this gets rejected ... hahaha

then came lee's unfortunate encounter at the toilet where she spied upon a couple getting down with it ... ooohhh ... not a pleasant sight ...

passed by Kandi Bar by Hed-Kandi and stopped over at Barfly (which sadly resembles a food court) for a shortwhile before heading down to MOS where chaos and mayhem ensued ...

:: damien ... centre of attention, as usual :) ::

The Wedding : Kelvin & Lijuan

Kelvin + Lijuan ... the first in the group to get hitched ...

Wedding banquet was held at The Regent, graced by the whole gang no less ... it was really nice seeing all the guys smartly dressed in suits ... and of course the gals in pretty dresses as well ... feels like prom night all over again ...

First time emcee-ing for a wedding ... co-host was Keith (pic of us below) and i think we managed to chalk up enough chemistry to last throughout the emcee session :) hahaha






more pics here

No Man's Land

a continuation of last Friday's decadence at Q-Bar .... this time we roped in more gal pals to join in the fun ... and did we have loads of fun!!!

more bubbly + strawberries + hunks that rival TDF ....

Eugene's Angels

Yet another farewell ... time passes so quickly ... didn't even realise that Eugene was working with the firm for 5 months!!! Seemed like he had only recently joined ... and I had only recently started to talk to him on a more casual basis (shy mah!) ....

Love the Charlie's (Eugene's) Angels shot below ...

:: Eugene's Angels ::

The Mortians

hehehe ... the addicts (someone said that the filet mignon might be laced with heroin) at Mortons and Axis

chilling out after office hours ... and something to do with Eugene's farewell ... excuses, excuses

:: Mortons ::

:: Axis ::

TGIF

i'm so upset ... TDF is leaving the firm ... argh!!!! no more eye-candy!!!!

here's a pic of TDF & me ... just to prove that he is taller than me (aww ... so sweet) ... we threw off our shoes and did a comparison ... and he won!!!

ain't he a cutie???

later on ... girls' night out at Q-Bar ... we received special invites for the launch of No Man's Land aka Ladies Night at Q ... topless male models dishing out chocolates in the form of holy communion (via the lips) ... free flow of wine + strawberries + finger food ... it was pure decadence ...

and and and

dear Jackie won a S$2,000 Maboussin diamond pendant in the lucky draw!!! woo hoo!!!

Boo!!!

ok ... i have been too busy to blog ... in short ... it was serious partying over the weekend ...

Thursday night was martinis at Mortons + margaritas at Axis ... very nice chill-out places at Oriental Hotel ... this is what working life should be about ... chilling-out after work ... aahhh ... lee + i headed to Oriental after our respective off-site meetings ... meaning, we got off work earlier than usual ... hehehe

Friday night ... to deviate from the norm, checked out Skin at Red Dot Traffic Building to chill-out yet again ... headed to 2 gay clubs at Tanjong Pagar ... 1st stop was Happy ... apparently reknown for cute boys who dance with their shirts off ... but alas, at the unfashionable hour of 9pm, there was not a soul in sight ... we then headed down to Mox ... only to be greeted by 2 hotties slurping each other on the couch when we walked in ... couldn't take my eyes off them ... hahaha ... jokes aside, Mox is actually a very nice place to chill ... with retro/funky decor + furniture ... i think i could live there! :)

Saturday was fright night at Zouk's Halloween party ... went as a she-devil (who hopes to wear Prada one day) ... loads of fun + drinks ... pics say it all ...

am on my way to being an alcohol-*hic*

Rockin' B-day

Saturday 14.10.2006

Weihua's B-day at Hard Rock Cafe ...

Practically every table was having a b-day celebration ... there were at least 5 other tables celebrating b-days ... seems kinda fishy doncha' think?

Anyway, here is the Ever Ready boy with his pressies ...