For the first time, this year I celebrated Christmas with my family at home.

My mum bought a little christmas tree, which we put on top of our piano… and because there’s 5 of us and we all got presents for each other, we ended up with 20 presents that had to go ‘under’ the tree.

presents and our little christmas tree

Obviously it wouldn’t fit… so the presents kindof overpowered the tree. hahaha.
Because my sis only arrived in the evening of the 25th, we had to wait till evening to open our presents…

The Aftermath

Then it was time for Dinner!!

Mum roasted a turkey! (I helped! :P)

turkey, mushrooms, potatoes, veges and cranberry sauce

With a scrumptuous christmas dinner, we had to have champagne. My dad bought a bottle of some sort of fancy french champagne…

Look what my mum made…

So we don't get our glasses mixed up

There was a different design for each glass. I had to pick the shoe =D

Christmas at home was good

On a side note… the day after that we made our way to the city for some boxing day sales shopping! it was insane. So many people. Singaporeans can really shop.

This picture is from Plaza Singapura…

Hope everyone had a good Christmas.

I can’t decide whether I should post up family pictures on here or not… So for now I’m refraining. And for that reason my posts are a lot shorter than I plan for them to be. No pictures, no story to tell…

I said to myself this year- I will be spending New Years with my parents.

Well… I’m not. It’s not like anyone cares, I think. A lot of it is in my head. Self guilt…

 My bro is going off with his friends, my sis is back in msia. So it’ll be just me and my parents. And I know that spending new year’s with them would not be very enjoyable. I mean, nothing beats a night out with friends… right?

So once again this year I’ll be spending new year out with friends.

Well… I spent christmas with my family… that’s good enough… right?

Seems like Vi isn’t the only one with this problem.

I swear from the moment I showed her the picture and she only took one glance at it pretending she knows everything- this was going to be a bad idea. But I went ahead with it anyway.

She doesn’t understand ‘a little bit’ and she doesn’t listen.

Now I’m stuck with wispy, overly layered hair, too short to be corrected. Damn you haircut lady.

I might end up going back with hair a lot shorter than I planned to have. Or maybe I’ll make full use of my hair straightener now (and Kill my hair ) We shall see…

And I still haven’t done much….

I arrived in Singapore on Saturday night. We headed straight to East Coast Park for some food and ended up getting some stingray-bakar (the one with sambal), and some prawn fritters or whatever it was called.

The next day was my dad’s birthday, and we met some of his friends at Dempsey- a pretty new cluster of restaurants and cafes just down the road from where I used to live on Holland Road. We had breakfast in a western restaurant, and on top of our own meals (I ordered Banana and Pecan bread with a Passionfruit jam kind of thing) my dad’s friend ordered a cheese platter wit 3 different types of cheese and dried cherries (or was it cranberries…?) and dates served with crackers. We also had champagne. Yea…. at breakfast. 

So much for having kaya and toast with half boiled egg, or some roti prata for breakfast on my first day back But I’m not complaining. breakfast was good stuff.

Then we headed to Hort park and proceded to walk to Mount Faber along the canopy walk, seeing the Henderson Waves along the way etc. It’s one of those strange days were we do some out of ordinary things. Had something to eat at mount faber, then walked back. I’m making this really short because I forgot my camera on Sunday, so I used my mum’s camera and I seem to be having trouble getting those pictures on to my computer. So I try to skip details as much as I can.

So that was my strange Sunday. Monday was a day wasted at home. I was quite disappointed with the putu mayam mum bought for my breakfast (penang has better putumayam…) but had very yummy tou fu fah with soy bean milk. Then at night we went out to Northpoint- a shopping center about 5 mins ride from our apartments to walk around a bit… and had dinner at the hawker outside of it. Finally. Hawker food! not too bad, but I’ve had better…

Today I finally stepped out to see the City of Singapore. Well, kind of. I went to Raffles City because we had to get my dad’s watch fixed and the only place that does it is at Raffles. And… I finally had my Chicken Rice!!

Since we were in Raffles, there’s no hawker there… But there was a food court and that’s where I found my rice. It’s cool that I didn’t have to stand there deciding on White or Brown chicken. The shop sold it as you see in the picture above. And all that for $4.50. It’s not the cheapest you can get here, but compared to Adelaide… It’s darn cheap, AND YUMMY. Plus, it was a really new, nice, clean looking foodcourt. Even the Indian men making the roti pratas there were wearing white shirts!! They have a uniform!

And to end my entry for today… A little magic.

Tadaa!!!

The bowl can magically float. Like, seriously, how amazing is that!??

Hi everyone!
I’m writing from Sydney airport. I found ‘Free Internet Access’ from Optus at Terminal 1. I’m currently just around the corner of my boarding gate to Singapore. Finally going home!

Anyway, I was on the plane earlier on and I looked out of the window while landing and I saw the Sydney Opera House, and the Harbour Bridge and for some strange reason I got really excited I guess it’s cuz the last time I was in Sydney i was about 11 years old. Unfortunately for me this time, from the plane is as close as I will get to the Sydney opera hou. Hopefully sometime soon I’ll make it to Sydney again.

Anyway, there are a few people waiting to use the computers and this computer is quite annoying to use anyway. So i’m going to make a move. Write more when I’m in Singaland :)

(I actually wrote this on the night of the concert itself, but then my computer suddenly DIED so I couldn’t finish up the picture uploading. I know I said I was going to write later since it’s late. But I’m so excited I couldn’t stop myself. Besides, if I wrote this later, I would have forgotten a lot of details! To be honest this whole thing is probably not as accurate as it should be. I’m just writing from memory, and as a lot of you know I have a lousy memory and it can be rather distorted. So some details and song names might be wrong…)

On the 18th of December, I went to my first real-life-famous-musician concert.

Alicia Keys is an artist I’ve always admired. She’s a brilliant singer and songwriter, but most of all, she’s an amazing pianist! There’s only one thing she cannot do- dance. At least that’s what I gather from her concert… Will explain later.

My Ticket

So we arrived at the Adelaide Entertainment Center at 5:45pm, in time for the Dinner Before The Show (ok. if family reads this they’ll probably be asking q’s cuz i never mentioned it. But we accidentally bought tickets for the dinner and can’t return them so we went for the dinner.)

The Program and Menu

The dinner was set up such that we sat in tables of 10, so we were sitting with strangers. Dinner started off with a glass of Champagne upon entry. We were then served Canapes which included some fried fish (nugget sized), little mushroom with something… tartlets (looked like mini quiches), and some goat’s cheese and a fresh basil wrapped with prosciutto which were Really Good. Then we had some bread as well. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of those.

Cheers!

For the Main meal, we had chicken. The chicken breast was really juicy. The sauce around it and everything goes with it perfectly. It’s the best tasting meal I’ve had all year in Adelaide. The main meal was served with some fresh salad.

The Salad

Chargrilled Lemon Chicken Breast with Sweet Potato & Browned Butter Hash & Coriander Lime Paste

Dessert… was heaven. There’s a massively long name to it, but generally it was Panna Cotta with biscotti on the side. I’ve never had Panna Cotta before. For those who have never tried it before, it’s like mousse… but much richer, smoother, creamier and OH SO GOOD. I wanted another serving Then again I’ve never had it before so I couldn’t compare it with any other ones. Even if it was lousy I wouldn’t know. After that, they served tea and coffee and some Haigh’s Chocolate mint slices.

Chocolate, Baileys & Coffee Panna Cotta with Choc Chip & Hazelnut Biscotti & Coffee Praline

Finally it was time for the concert. The first band up at 7:30pm was LowRider. It’s a local Adelaide band whose music I can’t describe. I really don’t know what genre the music is in, but they have some very catchy beats and nice Intros… The lead singer had a really good voice. Unfortunately their music was a bit monotonous in my opinion, and sounded quite repetitive after a while. There was a short intermission after that, when we went back to our dinner area and we got to have tea or coffee or more champagne or other drinks.

Lowrider on stage. We sat so far from the stage we couldn't see much :(

Their tea was disappointing and rather tasteless, so I got myself a second glass of champagne, which they gave to me in a plastic disposable glass so I could bring it with me into the concert.

The take-away glass for my champagne :)

Up next was Jordin Sparks! I know her for two songs: Tattoo and One Step At A Time. No Air is supposed to be a pretty famous song too, but for someone like me who doesn’t have a radio to listen to- I’m a bit clueless on what songs are playing around the world. Her performance wasn’t too bad. She’s so cute

Jordin Sparks on stage. Yea... it looks all dark cuz I used the flash. But without flash the pictures turn out blurry.

Another intermission… during which E, M and I decide to spend by taking lots of pictures of ourselves The pictures are all with M though. Here’s one we took earlier:

The three of us

And then- finally ALICIA KEYS. At about 9:30pm her band started playing and backup singers started singing. The curtains on the stage opened to reveal her band and a grand piano on a very shiny circular revolving platform. Very simple, and nothing too fancy. She came out singing ‘Go Ahead.’ (From memory and trying to decipher the very short video I took in the beginning).

The concert tickets weren't sold-out but it was pretty damn full!! (once again, note our distance from the stage! ><)

As this is my first concert, I really have nothing to compare to. So I don’t know if it’s normal for a performer to do what Alicia Keys does. In the first half of her performance, she talks to her audience between songs such that each song links to each other and the order in which she sings them just make sense (if you know what I mean). In all it became sort of like a story…

It's Alicia Keys!

She then went backstage for a while after a few songs. I thought she was going to change or soemthing cuz she was wearing the strangest waist high skinny jeans, with a tshirt and suspenders… but then she came back out looking exactly the same- but with a small red cloth (as big as your kitchen towel). What did she do with it? Uhm… for the next song she just sort of waved it around a bit while singing. :S I really don’t know what it was for. Which is why i reasoned she can’t dance for her life… she did some strange hand waving thing, and some booty shaking but she’s no Beyonce. It’s ok though. We still love her

One of my favourite parts of the show was when she sang ‘Karma’. It was never a favourite song of mine, but she made it special. First of all the band played it SO latino-fied such that you can salsa to it. Seriously. The second reason is: It is in this song where she points out every single member of her band including her back up singers. Each person had a short solo and my god they were all amazing musicians. Her backup singers have amazing voices and everyone in her band was just… Good. I like how she shows her appreciation for every person on stage and point out that the show is not all about Her. It’s about the band, and everyone else who makes it happen. That’s why I love her.

Loved the stage lighting for this song

She also knows how to hype up a crowd. She got us all excited about her going to play the piano instead of just walking up to it and playing. Then towards the end, they tried tricking us- Twice. Everyone just walked off the stage and it looked like the show was over. But we knew there had to be more coming. Alicia Keys wouldn’t walk off without saying thank you! I mean she hadn’t sang songs like ‘No One’ and ‘Falling’. She couldn’t leave!!

Thankfully after a great amount of screaming and clapping, they came out again and finished the concert with a big bang. When she walked off stage for the final time at around 11:20pm and the lights came on again I was sad it had ended :(. I had screamed myself hoarse and clapped till my hands were slightly numbed… But I had thoroughly enjoyed myself and it was worth it. The whole fine dining for dinner thing just made the experience even more memorable.

Tuesday: K-box with darling C, then Madagascar 2 with some other friends.

Wednesday: Dinner at Zapatas with bunch of friends, then went to Casual Cup for some dessert and card games, then Buddha Bar for more Karaoke-ing

Today: ALICIA KEYS CONCERT! OMG IT WAS AMAZING.

Note: More comprehensive coverage of all activities should be up soon… When I have the time and a faster internet speed.

OK this has probably been around a while… But about a month ago I discovered that Gmail has new themes. The themes range from the orignal gmai in different shades of colour, gmail with cartoons, girly, boyish, nature loving- There’s something there for everyone.

After a long time clicking back and forth (I think I went through and tried almost the entire list) I decided on something called Tea House. I actually thought I’d only stick with that for one day, then revert back to the original plain Gmail. But I was wrong! It’s still on now. You want to know why?

IT CHANGES ACCORDING TO THE TIME OF THE DAY! It’s so cute! Let me show you…

Think they all look the same? Take another look! Earlier in the afternoon the little fox thing was bathing the bird (??), then he did some housecleaning, then he was trimming his bonsai plant, then he ate with a monkey friend, then well, the night one is pretty obviously different. But that’s not all! there’s a few night versions as well. And I’ve never been up early enough to see what’s on at 6am in the morning. Hahaha.

Um… yah… I just felt like sharing my excitement. Have a nice day!

Sometimes we look at friends’ pictures of their outings and activities and you say to yourself- I want to do that too. That’s exactly what happened a while ago when C saw some pictures of her friends on a picnic (and I saw them too… while blog browsing :P)

So we planned a picnic at the beach (originally C’s idea but I ended up being the contact person due to her computer problems…). Glenelg would be the obvious choice of beach in Adelaide, but I didn’t like that place as it was a busy buzzing beach with lots of people. So instead we opted for Henley beach, ironically, closer to the city (only about 15 mins drive away). Henley beach is, in my opinion, a cleaner, whiter, quieter beach to go to. Perfect for a picnic. So a couple of weeks ago, we planned- picnic on Sunday.

However, on Thursday night it started raining. The rain continued through Friday and Saturday. It was quite worrying really, and difficult to trust the weather forecast of ‘clearning showers’ on Sunday morning when it looked so gloomy up till Saturday evening.

I woke up on Sunday afternoon (I had work the night before and only got back home at 5:30am!) and it was still gloomy. :S I got a msg from M asking if the picnic was still on. I couldn’t cancel something we had planned a couple of weeks ago! So I said yes, it is. Later that day as I walked to C’s place it started drizzling! I got a msg from Y this time asking if it’s still on. I told him Yes. So moments later we were driving towards the beach (already 15 mins late. E called us on our way there saying she was there already!).

We arrived at the beach and as we stepped out of the car and the wind blew, I thought, this was a Bad idea. It’s gloomy AND cold. But we couldn’t cancel the picnic! So we walked along the beach and found a nice spot on the rocks. Fortunately, a while later the clouds cleared and the sun came out!! *yay*

What’s a trip to the beach without some jumping