Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas Lunch

Despite not being able to celebrate with my family, I was thankful Uncle Gordon (Alec’s Uncle) and family invited us to join in for a Christmas lunch.

Initially, I thought of ordering turkey or ham from Delifrance, but Aunty told us not to buy anything as they have everything covered. So, we just bought bottles of appletizer and chocolates (You can’t go empty handed can you?)

Uncle Gordon and family have been very kind to both Alec and I, they are very accommodating and always kept food vouchers or coupons for us to take advantage of certain places as they know we are practically living on a tight budget.

Uncle Gordon’s family has become like an adopted family to us.

When we got in, we were surprised there were presents, (Oh no), I really hope they didn’t buy anything for us cause we didn’t prepare any presents! Well.. they do! Suddenly I felt guilty for not buying anything but just chocolates!

The lunch was superb! Turkey, ham, eggnogs, pudding, baked potatoes, mayonnaise potatoes, a complete Christmas meal!

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Uncle Gordon and Family
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Christopher & his gf (Siow Wei)
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My meal, turkey, ham, pumpkin & veggie
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Beef Stew
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Mayonnaise Potatoes
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Yummy! (I forgot to take the turkey’s picture, was too busy digging into my meal)

It was a fantastic meal with laughter and jokes. It was a nice Christmas lunch, soothe my loliness and being away from family.

At the end, we exchanges gift (well, it was receiving for both Alec and myself).

I have a lovely pair of earrings from Gerardine and Christopher
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and a shower and bath set from Uncle and Aunty.

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Thank you Uncle Gordon and family for making my Christmas a memorable ones!

Churching

Merry Christmas everyone, this would be my very first time celebrating away from home. If you ask, why didn’t I go home, (everyone smsed me, asking will I be home) well, I just can’t. I have taken advance leave for my Study last month. SO, I have no more leave to spare, Unless, I plan to go on unpaid leave or MC! Well, I just can’t fake being sick neither can I have my meager salary being cut. SOoooo…. I’ve decided to have a lonely Christmas this year.

Thankfully, Alec’s relatives are Catholics, so they’ve invited me to attend Midnight mass on Christmas eve, Alec wasn’t too pleased with the idea though, being an atheist himself, he thinks why on earth should he be spending his Christmas in Church when he is in the most happening country especially during Christmas, oh well, too bad. He is dating a Catholic girl. He has no choice but to give in, J.

In addition, I am kind of an anti-crowd person, especially during festive season, zillions of people would be flocking Orchard, the squeezing and jamming seriously turn me off, I rather be spending my time at home, relaxing or simply blogging!
We had a simple dinner at Delifrance.
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I ordered a Ragout Au Boeue (No idea what is it right? Neither do I, I just look at the picture to order). Alec ordered a salmon steak.
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Ragout Au Boeue is in fact beef stew but sugar-coat it with fancy name, sometimes, they want to make it so complicated to confused people, why not just put BEEF STEW?? Oh well, of course, life is complicated, otherwise it would be too mundane right?
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Alec’s portion was surprisingly small, Photobucket

he was soooo sad….
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Knowing that tiny salmon will never satisfied his tummy, I ordered some finger-food. Wedges!
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It comes together with Mayonaise wasabi.
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The wasabi wasn't too strong, so it was just nice.

My portion was fantastic, love it very much.
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The brown sauce is just nice, not too thick nor diluted, the meat was tender too. The mash potato was okay. I give it a 7 over 10. The remaining 3 being not spicy, would appreciate if it was black pepper sauce.

Then after our simple Christmas eve dinner, we went back to meet up with Alec’s relatives to go to Church. We were not informed the time of the mass, but were told to gather at 10pm. Saw Alec’s uncle at the bus-stop so we tagged along directly to the Church instead of meeting Alec’s cousin as was planned earlier. We went to the Holy Spirit Church at Upper Thomson road.
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It was 10pm when we arrive. Plenty of seats and a handful of church-goers booking seats (Mass only starts at 12am, we were 2 hours early, talk about being Kiasu…) Churches are known to be as packed as Clubs during Christmas, don’t believe me? Try attend one next year. I call this phenomena ‘Churching’. Similar to Clubs, we have music

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Choirs

We have wine
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We have food (Food for the soul)
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Eucharist

And finally, Church ends late too. At 2pm.

See the similarity?

So… thou shall go Churching! No cover charge needed, just a small donation will do.
Merry Christmas everyone and may be peace be with you and your love ones.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Hello Kitty

It is Christmas eve today, but here I am blogging at home (Half day today!).

My client came into my room today and while discussing with my AM, suddenly she turns all silent and start writing notes on the post-it notes to my AM. Well, I didn't really bother about it afterall, sometimes, certain things are meant to be confidential, what I do not know it is that, it was about me!

Oh well, okay, not about entirely about me, bout about my.............
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This lil' Cutie here
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Oh.. crap.. now, I can't use my cutie.. and have to resort to using this..........
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Hmm.. what can a harmless Cutie do??

Perhaps, Alec was right, being a professional from head to toe....

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I can't be acting all kawaii can I?
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Sunday, December 23, 2007

Dining at Giraffe @ Dhoby Ghout

Yesterday, Alec and I did our shopping around Orchard while meeting some of my Coach customer www.chessgalsalelist.blogspot.com to pass them their purchase, and gosh, the crowd is HUGE. This is my first time experiencing Christmas in Singapore and judging by the long queue at Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Coach.. Christmas is REALLY a time to splur!

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Goldie Chessgal (MNG Gold Blouse+Gold hair band+White shorts from Bugis Street+Coach Gold Striped tote & gold sandal from OG+Gold Belt)
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My Alec
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One thing good bout shopping in Singapore mall is that, they always provide free wrapping services, if you prefer to do it yourself, then you can have the wrapping papers for free.

We started our limited budget shopping spree at 12pm, bought a Levis jeans, a few MNG blouse and a Nike shirt for my dad. Currently MNG is having a sales, I bought a gold blouse a few weeks back for S$50 but now it is selling at only $25! Darn, I was so frustrated that I ended up buying another gold blouse to take full advantage of the discount! Bought a couple for my sister and mum too.

Alec on the other hand, spend more than I do, he bought himself a Nike shirt, another shirt from Takashimaya (http://www.takashimaya-sin.com/) and another shirt from Guess. I start to wonder if Alec was a Shopaholic in his past life, he seems to be more keen to shop than I do. And he ALWAYS force me to buy things... for myself of course. Giving me a whole lot of ideas to dress and in the end, got me hooked to shopping! (The sole reason why I am still terribly broke, I suspect Alec has an evil plan to de-rich me (is there such a word? I believe not) so that he has power over me!)


As we were shopping, Alec decided to step into Burberry, for all I know, I can never afford a Burberry in SIngapore stores (But I can always get a good deal online), but what a pleasant surprise! They were having sales as well, but too bad, the bags that I like was way over my budget so I just tagged along with Alec and pretending to be interested. Alec spotted a cool shirt going for only $40 plus, he gets soooo excited that he asked the promoter 3 times on the price! He tried it on, but tooo bad, his lil belly was a bit too prominent, so sadly he has to say No.

Before we left, he asked the promoter are there any Burberry shop around (I think Alec is infected with a branded virus: To only buy and carry branded stuff like LV, Gucci, Coach). Many times, he has given me hints to get him some Tag Heuer watch, but I just pretend dumb not to notice it :). Pointers to gf out there, NEVER EVER spoilt your bf, it is hazardous to your bank account!

Since Christmas is just around the corner, Alec and I decided to have our very own early Christmas dinner on 23rd Dec at The Giraffe. And for non-Singaporean, NO, it is not at a zoo nor it serve any Giraffe meat, it just happened to be name as such.

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It is just beside Dhoby Ghout MRT station, in front of Plaza SIngapura. Alec read some review on the restaurant so decided to give it a try. The place was pretty nice and romantic. There is a big man-made pond directly in front of the restaurant. It was raining that day, so can't get a good picture of the place.
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They have this cozy lounge so we decided to sit on the sofa instead of the dining table. A good place to chill out with friends.
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There weren't much of a choice for the main course, so i decided to try the Tagliatelle All' Arrabiata Con Polio. Yes, I seriously have no idea what it was until i consult the waiter. While Alec decided to try the Giraffe 7oz Burger, the house's specialty.
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Tagliatelle All' Arrabiata Con Polio aka Spicy Chicken Pasta
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Alec's Giraffe Burger
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Before the main course, we were served a complimentary bread with some greenish olive (Seriously have no idea what was that).
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Taste wasn't that bad.

We ended our meal with a 'to-die' for Molten Lava Ice-cream.
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Oh... it is soooo good! The texture of the chocolate cake is so fine and when it was served, it was still steaming hot and the choco melts together with the ice-cream, it is just heavenly.

The price is pretty reasonable, if we were to eat this in Msia, it can easily hit up to RM100 plus! Great place to dine!

We ended our day at 10pm.