Dinner@ L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon (HK)

While a terribly careless me completely forgotten about our wedding anniversary, it was fortunate that at least one of us remembered. For once my renowned "Elephant memory" failed me.....so much for engraving the date on the wedding band. Alot of good it did me.... sigh

Anycase, we had a wonderful fine dining dinner at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon @ Landmark (Add: Shop 401, 4/F, The Landmark, Central, Tel: +(852) 2166 9000)

The place has received pretty mixed reviews. Personally, I do think its a little on the steeper end in terms of value for money but I enjoyed every dish ordered which is what mattered when u are out for a good time.

The decor is hip, chic and urbane looking. The reception is dimly lit to create that romantic feel. To head to the table seats, you will be led past the counter bar seats which allow you to view the chef cooking (which is a pretty waste of time for me, since i prefer to be looking at the company I am with). The table had a really nice setting. I love the plates and the napkins and the whole setting. if only the HK chap next to us divided by a wall wasnt talking that loud in horrible english.

We both had lobsters for starters. Stick to the lobster bisque if I am you. It is flavoursome, tender sweet meat and a relative sizeable portion that allows you to be a little "selfless" to swop some with your dining partner and still have enough remaining to satisfy your own palette.

The waiter recommended Lobster Celero which is is a cold dish with cream base. I think the cream base is a slight miss as it abit bland and doesnt enhance the seafood flavour. A pity. And the little teeny-weeny digs of fruits round the circumference barely was enough weightage to compliment the dish.

The main was a good 20mins wait, but alright since we aint rushing anywhere. My husband had the lamb while I went for the duck with foie gras.

Ok, while i have to say both main dishes were supremely excellent and divine, I must say the portion was a little smaller than expected. There was only 2 slices of duck, accompanied by 2 equal sizes of steamed foie gras. Hmmm... not exactly most satisfying quantity because it was really good and leaves you craving for more.

The lamb was also a little small in size, as well in quantity of 3. But the meat was so succulent and juicy, and you wont be able to tell it was even lamb! Tasted more like sweet soft pork really.

The bread accompany was really good. freshly baked, small snack size and i loved the herb cheese one! Yummy! The dessert was average. Souffle was done perfectly but somehow, I felt something was missing or it could be better.

As we left the restaurant, we were surprised with a "bag of gift." Turned out it was half loaf of bread. I tried it today after 2 days, I have to say the bread is soft and really good.

Music: Nostalgic Pangs

While I was in Sydney, I came across some of my old times favourites when I was in high school. Every song has an attached memory, a lingering scent. Things was almost as clear as it was back then...

those soothing melodies brought on a sense of longing. A wish to return to those simple good times. Music has a way of touching people, transporting one back through the passage of time, bringing to mind people that have faded away. I dun know how many people rem them, but if you do, i hope they brought back good memories for u as well.

Song 1: Hands to heaven (dwnload)
Back in convent where each class take turns to prepare our morning mass session, if it wasnt the fav tune from chicago or songs from david foster, the next hottest pick has got to be hands to heaven. All the girls in our blue pinafold huddled together, arms across the shoulders, and singing away without a care.

Song 2: And when she danced (dwnload)
This song brought on memories of my college best friend. We used to take those long bus rides, sharing a ear plug and softly singing to the song. Our laughters, our fights, our secrets, our giggles, our heartaches. Friendship was such a simple affair back then. Love was such a simple uncomplicated uncynical emotion back then.

song 3: Ocean Deep (dwnload)
This is one of the earliest song that was introduced by my aunt from states at the age of 11 when she was staying at our place. I dun think i truly understood the full meaning of the song back then, till I was much older. She told me it was one of the best love song in the world. While the song remains deep in my head, I will never have a chance to get to sit back and relax with my aunt reminiscing about this song again.

Sunday @ Stanwell Coast

Had a lovely Sunday in Sydney.

First, Yilin brought us to this french cafe where they had the most glorious poached egg ever.

No kidding. Best ever....

We started our day late, primarily myself and stan woke up late due to our nocturnal lifestyle of turning in at 5am each day. It was about an hour's drive to Stanwell Park and the view was simply lovely. I had to take 2 seperate shots and merge it into a paranomic view as below.

The thing about in Australia. All you need is just great company, a lovely weather and a car. Yilin drove us down and we just lay on the grass and laughing and chilling. Looking at the bright blue sky, nestled amist the quiet green. Not rolling meadows but good enough.

We chatted. We laughed. We enjoyed the breeze. All u really need is good friends on such a postcard picture perfect day.

By 6pm, the sun was setting to a magnificent glow. I turned to my side, and against the sun glare, I couldnt help but capture this intimate moment of a pair of strangers for my departing shots.

As Yilin was driving along the coastal way, I couldnt help but snap a rapid shot of the pinkish blue sky using the motion mode. I'm glad it did turn out well after all...

All the "Pollutions" up in the air...

My flight to Sydney was incidentally full of oddballs - again.

Before the bunch of happy campers got on board the plane, there was just one more thing to do. An additional bag inspection after all the xray earlier. I didn't really quite see the need of the halfhearted additional manual bag search/ patting down just before the entrance of the airplane. Really, it was so lame that it is almost a joke to watch - that is if only I didnt have to wait in line for the pointless exercise to reach my turn.

The lady behind me was so irate about the whole redundant process that she actually broke away from the Q to complain to the staff at the counter (those that validate your boarding pass). Not that it did her any good, apart from having to rejoin the Q from the BACK.

The flight was relatively bumpy but that wasnt what got me.

What is this thing about me and farting people. I'm almost a magnet for one. The Caucasian dude sitting before me was farting non stop. It was so utterly smelly that it actually choked me to consciousness at one point when i was starting to drift off to la la land. the assault on my nose was pretty unbearable that I had to fan the air around me to share the "air goodies" with my neighbours seated around me. If there was any dying patient, the smelly fart would have either sent his soul straight to heaven, or bad enough to drag his soul back and make a dash for the nearest plane exit...away from the stench.. Honestly, I wonder if one of the shit stained towel bowl in the cubicle was an artistic contribution by him though I have my serious doubts coz his fart shouldnt be so stinky if he had let it all out..

I know its downright gross to have to describe but there were serious splats.... almost like shit hits the fan sort of effect. you get the picture... It is beyond me as to why anyone would not want to clear their bowels before the flight or at least try to clean up their shit.Does the air turbulence makes the whole experience more memorable? if not, why all these shitting in the air? No matter, I sure am glad I aint goning to be the one having to scrub down that seat...

if that air pollution wasnt enough, the night was intermingled with noise pollution and ahem, "waste" pollution as well...the indian old man in the row diagonally next to me had the loudest snore. And when he isnt performing his own symphony in his sleep, he was snorting, and blowing his nose constantly at the loudest decibel known to human ears. To top it off, the old dude had the most ridiculous obessions with his hair. 30mins before the plane was due to land, I swear he was furiously combing his ruffled white hair non stop with mighty strength. It was almost as if, someone had told him that he would never have a chance to comb his hair again and so he should maximise the chance. 20mins non stop of combing but for the life of me, i see no difference. I was almost afriad that his repeatative motion would eventually dislodge some bodily flakes and dandraff and send them my way. I was so horrified that I had to actually squirmed behind my seat as far towards the window as possible.

At that moment, I didnt know which was worse.
To be poisoned to death by stinky fart from a 30yr man, or be contaminated by indiscriminately flying bodily waste of a 70yr old man.

either way man, it seems like a pretty horrific deal to me.....
yeah, I hope u are laughing. at least one of us could have a good time out of this episode...

Ripped off my Sydney taxi driver

It was already a begrudging trip back to sydney for me. This morning, the Iran taxi driver took me for a ride and reminded me of all the nasties that I hate about this city. He ripped me of A$50 when it should have been a A$30+ trip. And mark this, he had GPS system to guide him.

I am so tired beyond words. I just want to finish my business here and leave...

Have no idea why some asian chinese are so hard up about migrating to here. I fail to see its greatness. Apart from its scenic view, beaches and great produce, it is just another busy city, with all the flaws and stuff ups, and immigrant cheats, a city without any cultural history to speak off. Not unless you count the Aboriginal's "Stolen years"....as some form of history.

A.S Reunion

Thanks to Heidi, we had a pretty fun gathering of the ex Anna Sui regional team. It was fortunate that all the ex and current team could make it for the dinner.

When you reached a certain age, changes are hardly perceptible anymore. So to me, many essentially remained as they were before I left.

The good thing is that the bond of the team and jibes didnt cease. A bunch of crazy girls with a million silly ideas. No matter how long you have worked on a brand, its hard to get it out of your system... It was great catching up again before some fly off.

All those petty grievances feuds and frustrations due to tight datelines, seemingly never enough budgets are now nothing but a distant memory. Only the fun and laughters remains. I'm glad life works this way...

Simple yet annoying SG habits...

Just back from reading my gf's post. Like many singaporeans who have been living overseas alike, she has a string of grievances about the host country. While she has her list of unhappiness about living in Japan, I too have my string of negatives about the countries I had experienced.



Yet when we returned to our birthplace, she rightly point out that we are reminded of the singapore frustrations that still plague us as today. Things that I have raised before -

1. Incompetent spoken English. Grammatically wrong and proud of it. Plus sounding like ah lian and ah beng even for bunch of university students who obviously should have passed GP at A levels....

2. Inability to stand one side of the escalator. I suspect the SHORT escalator length in sg has something to do with it. In HK, australia and london, the escalators are much longer and so people are less inclined to block the way

3. Lack of graciousness to hold the doors, lift, lend a helping hand for strangers.

4. Impoliteness and inability to say thank you to strangers who hold the lift door open for them.

5. The bad china habit of talking louder and louder in your face

6. Inability to maintain a clean public toilet

7. Inconsiderate flinging of water off their hands all over people around them and onto the floor

8. Inability to aim the used / soiled tissue into the rubbish bin or toilet bowl

9. Inability to correctly throw their used female products into the sanitised bins provided in each cubicle.

10. Inability to provide a CLEAN toilet seat for the next user

11. Perfectly healthy and able younger generations refusing to give up seats for the elderly and pregnant or injured people.

12. Inability to dress correctly for the event or venue, thinking Tshirts and Bermudas and fli flops are the only things invented even for higher end restauarants in singapore or overseas.

Yet despite all the national flaws as above, and my gripes about it. It does not mean I am or I want to be any less Singaporean. It is still the place where I too feel most at home, in my own skin.



Like the little note I left for my friend. No parents are perfect, and hence no countries are perfect either. However, I am not defined by their imperfections. I am the person I choose to become by my own choice. And if I didnt care about the place, the perhaps, I wouldnt have so much views and wish for the country to be a better place.


NO matter what people say about tacky TV campaigns and it having a reversal effect on the intended message, I still love my "Courtesy Singa Lion" and "Clean and Green Frog" and POSB saving Squirrel. The familar mascots in my growing up years.

Propaganda tactics perhaps but personally, I think it worked well enough for my generation, where we believe giving up seats for the needy is still our way of life. The message somehow has been lost in our younger generations...when my heavily pregnant friend was shocked to have a 70yr old man giving up his seat for her.

Useless Singapore standard chartered bank customer service

Some of the customer service staff in Standard Chartered Bank Singapore fking deserves 2 tight slap. For something as simple as getting my address and mobile updated, they simply couldnt get it right after 4 times. If these are not morons, I have no other idea what constitute a moron.

1. Firstly, I SNAIL MAIL my change of address in mid August. Using the "CHANGE of ADDRESS" form (the back of your payment slip). I mailed it the same time as DBS, and UOB.

2. I emailed to their customer service email posted on their website after a week. NO RESPONSE AT ALL.

2. I called the customer service on 28th August to query on my particulars update. It was not done. So assuming that the mail was delayed due to all the typhoon seasons, I requested the update via the customer service

Now, the customer service staff is either from china or someone who apparently could not differentiate her alphabets. First of all, she couldnt seem to understand a word I say, and she has bloody halting English. I am not sure if she is from china or what but she definitely sounds chinese and her stuttering got me worried. SO i REPEATED MY ADDRESS FOUR TIMES to her. Spelling every letter and number out for her. I had a premonition she would screw it up.

I was told i need to wait for 4 workin days.

3. After a week, I received update from DBS and UOb but nothing from standard chartered.
I called the customer service line again. This time, another guy pick up. I asked about teh change of address and read it to him. He said the address has already been updated and now it is shown as HK address. I asked about my mobile and it still was NOT updated. So i request for it to be updated. Again, I was told to wait for another 4 days.

4. This is the end of the 3rd week. Tonight I called the customer service asking why isnt my mobile updated. Hence I couldnt so any internet banking.

The girl, who is definitely a malay and could speak DECENT english asked to check my address. TO MY SHOCK and HORROR, my address was TOTALLY WRONG! Only my block number and building was correct. The district and the UNIT NUMBER was all wrong! How could that moron get "A" for apple mistaken for "E" for elephant? IS that china sounding woman stupid or what?????

Then to my next horror, this girl read my mobile number and it is STILL THE WRONG NUMBER! So what the fuck has the 2 earlier standard chartered service officers been doing? The china sounding one DREAMING and the chinese male officer busy wanking off over the phone???

My 3rd horror? This customer service girl said I had changed my address over the last 2 MONTHS. WTF??!!! I informed her that the last change was LAST JULY in 2007 not 2008. That is A YEAR AGO, not 2 months. How could standard chartered bank singapore screw up so badly?

I wanted to know who was the bitch who updated my address wrongly the first time but i was told there is no records of name. I do not believe it but really, the service is appalling!!!!! This is the first time i have such bad service from std chartered.

So no service from customer service. This last call had the staff calling to apologise profusely for the mistakes of her two other imbecile colleagues who couldnt speak a word of english. I know I shouldnt bring race in but I really am glad I got a malay officer this time whom I can at least trust to know her english and letters knowledge.

Really, if you do not speak decent english, then you really shouldnt be manning the phone. It is indeed only stupid HR that employ stupid people.

I cannot believe UOB, DBS, CITIBANK can get it right but standard chartered have such a bunch of losers doing their customer service. I really do not know where some of these people come from....

IS it really just my string of bad luck or someone else also have to spit saliva at these people who are just asking to be yelled at?

真想把他们杀了！

I want to throttle somebody's neck. I want to swear at that Australian imbecile but I cannot. I want to bitch slap that moron but I cannot.

一堆废物，垃圾，蠢猪，白吃，混蛋，没脑，烂材，王八的东西。真的是世界最最最没有用的一群饭桶。我快要受不了他们的服务态度了！真令人不敢驹同。真希望他们的金济跨掉，这一堆没用不可雕的朽木来个没饭吃才会学的积极点！拜托！可不可以不要以你们的懒散再令我烦恼了！

Chinese Music: 不要对我再说爱 -林凡

篮球火OST - 插曲

不要对我再说爱 -林凡 (dwnload)

太多愛不明不白
我還在　分手的那一天原地徘徊
太多事不明不白
不明白　怎麼笑著走出來

不要對我再說愛
你回來　可是過去再也回不來
不要對我再說愛
我還在　鞦韆上搖擺

太多人不明不白
我不想　重新開始　還想著原來
太多人不必等待
我不能　給你確定的未來

不要對我再說愛
你回來　可是過去回不來
不要對我再說愛
我還在　鞦韆上來回搖擺

不要對我再說愛
我坦白　一直忘不了原來
不要對我再說愛
我害怕　我們再受到傷害

不要對我再說愛
你回來　可是過去回不來
不要對我再說愛就讓我
一個人靜靜搖擺

一段愛從不明白　到明白
我的眼淚才慢慢流出來

Fashionable Luxury

Over the years of conditioning by marketing strategies, worldwide consumers alike are so into logo obsessions, which in my humble opinion is so totally blown out of proportion. These people have a vague perception of luxury goods, making a beeline to purchase something with a flashy logo or loud high-profile monogramming. I am not even sure what is their intention anymore. To be perceived as having good taste, or wanting to be perceived as rich? I just don't get it. Because they are neither.

After all, those who can afford genuine luxury goods without batting an eye are usually so acclimated to that lifestyle that, well, they don't need to scream it.

I have always loved products without logos since I was young. Which was one of the reason I loved the simple clean look of Muji products and clothings when they first launched in Singapore Isetan (before they failed and retreated from Singapore for a while). It is just sooo tacky to be wearing or carrying something blatently loud and ostentious. If it has to be monogramm, I prefer it to be something that is rarely remake in the pirated market at a fraction of the original price.

I love premium product, not for its brand, but rather for its make. Even if I cannot afford it, I still would appreciate it from an artistic point of view. Just like BV, a anti-bling, anti logo luxury brand. I so loved their products even though I wouldnt pay a ridiculous amount of money for it. I would though if i print money. I love their leather desk and their soft bags. I even loveTomas Maier's lovely fashionable yet completely wearable and functional dresses. I just so love his understated style. What 's there not to love?!! I just want to swoon over the website pictures over and over again..... how nice it is to be rich... haa haa

Ross Fountain Video clip

For those who didnt get to go the gardens in vancouver island... here's a glimpse of the fountain at display

My little Squatchi

I couldnt resist not bring this little fellow home with me despite not being a softy fan......
Its the 2010 winter Olympics Mascot for Vancouver. He is just soooo cute! To me, this Sasquatch is so much cuter than the 5 representatives for BJ's Olympics....

I proudly present my "little Squatchi" (Official name: Quatchi ) My husband couldnt stop laughing at my obsession with it and taking portrait shots for it :P

Travel Vancouver: A day at Buchart Gardens

We did a one full day excursion on bus to Vancouver Island. It was a Loooooooong day from 7am to 11pm. We visited The Buchart Gardens. It was lovely. A pity I am not exactly a flower lover to go bonkers goo goo ga ga. Those old ladies really had a ball at the venue. The only nice part for me was watching the Ross fountain water play (in memorial of the garden owner's son) at the sunken gardens.

(I thought this plant looked really weird like an alien)

(thought these were so cute like yellow brollies!)

(Above is the famous Empress hotel renowed for their afternoon tea)

(walking around the city and saw this lovely wall painting of the whales)

Vancouver: Museum of Anthropology

Suddenly remembered I havent completed my blog on Vancouver trip. Getting harder and harder to recall. Guess Pictures will have to do the trick then to retrieve some lost memories...

Here's some highlights at "Museum of Anthropology" at University of British Columbia.

(Sculpture of Raven and First Men)

(I couldnt resist "poking" fun of the wooden sculpt piece)
(Boat shape dish- used to store food and stew)



(Historical pieces collections of cultures from all over)

(lovely mini flasks..)

(see those tiny shoes for women in the olden days!) There was another section on porcelin and ceramic displays.... it was a small but interesting section.
(Walking around UBC compus...suddenly felt like going back to school!)