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4 naughty peeps pulled a great surprise on me!

Stank is gonna love this post because I cried on MY birthday! Was cheated by Cablenazi as usual. Oh he does that very well. Whisked me away to Kim Choo Kitchen, a pretty peranakan restaurant right in the Peranakan enclave of Joo Chiat and kept me wondering what is he up to.

At Kim Choo Kitchen,  the colourful patterned tiles and attractive floral porcelain dining ware caught my eye. Beautiful. Totally embodies the distinctive Asian culture of Peranakan culture. This place really gave me the vibe of a humble Peranakan home.

Just when I was admiring the decor, he almost gaveaway his act when the waitress mentioned ‘table for 5 right?’ and when I was about to tweet about his suspicious behavious, Winnie popped into the seat next to him without a sound. The next second when I lifted up my head, I was extremely shocked! But what comes after made my nose turned red. Never expected Stank and Elaine to appear from the stairs! Shockers!

lol. And here are my two lovely ladies.

A ghastly face Stank pulled.

And this, the smug-looking sly mastermind.

Of course will cry la . Never expect Cablenazi to surprise me with these three unexpected guests during dinner! Stank, Winnz and Elaine! Oh my goodness. They actually came all the way from JB for me? Such sweeties! After all the drama, We enjoyed peranakan food at a restaurant and mm the Kueh Chang was very very good. Yum yum. Must eat while its still warm!

Here’s some pictures of the peranakan fare we had that evening. Well, food was passable probably because I’ve tasted better peranakan food. Remember Restoran Nyonya Suan? Anyway what you must-try here is definately the Kueh Chang, beef/chicken rendang and probably the cendol.

Anyway good food is just secondary. The company is what that matters and this year was perfect! Don’t you love surprises! I do!  Especially when it happens on 8 Jan. Definately a birthday I will never forget.

Thanks loves. xoxo, C

My family celebrated All Souls Day today! Our annual visit to the cemetery is always a very pleasant family outing.

(:

BUT this year is particularly special, especially for me! Why? Because this is the FIRST time Ken is accompanying me, with family, to visit our ancestors and also as a new member of the family!! Meet the rest of my folks, baby! Lol

First stop, the Catholic cemetery at Ulu Tiram where Anna, my Lao Ma (great-grand-mother) and Cecilia, my Lao Ye (grand-aunt) rests.

All Souls Day is a good time to tell family stories and reminisce. I had really faint memories of Lao Ma. She left us when I was only a toddler. Only had vague memories of her holding me in her arms. Anyway, these two ladies were awesome. You see, my dad lost his parents when he was really little.

Really unfortunate isn’t it? I cannot imagine how life would be without Pa and Ma.

Thus, he and his siblings were brought up by Lao Ma and Lao Ye. I love how Pa would remember their lives, and tell us how he used to share a ciggie with Lao Ma and the creepy story of he and his friends going for a cheap thrill by playing with candles in the cemetery late at night.

I can tell how much Pa loves them.
As much as I love him and Ma.

That’s Lao Ma, Me and Him. He’s such a darling, getting to know my faith and being inquisitive about stuff we do at the cemetery. He asked so so many questions. Some questions nearly made me strangle him.

K: Hey baby, so is All Souls Day the Catholic version of Qing Ming (???)? Just different branding?

E: …

K: *chuckles*

E: There are significant differences in these 2 occasions la. Qing Ming originates from a cultural standpoint and the Chinese value of filial piety. On the other hand, All Souls Day holds a lot of spiritual value for us, Catholics. Besides being a day of remembrance for friends and loved ones who have passed away, we commemorates and pray for all souls stuck in purgatory to enter heaven.

K: So you guys pay respect to loved ones AND pray for them to enter heaven? What the hell is purgatory? Why are they stuck there? Is it some kind of Middle Earth?

E: OMG. What are you? An elf? Haha. Eh you know, most souls don’t enter heaven/hell upon mortal death. Heaven/hell admission is not so straightforward because most humans are neither too evil to be destined for hell nor good enough for heaven. Thus, those in-the-middle will be ‘purified’ for heaven at a condition of existence called purgatory.

K: Wow that’s interesting? So what I do is not to be too evil and I can be sure of getting a place in heaven! Woohoo~

E: …

Next stop is the Catholic cemetery at Larkin. Hello Joseph, my Yé Ye (grandpa) and Mary, my Ma Ma (grandma)!

For your info, my Ye Ye’s grave is the coolest grave you can find in the whole cemetery! I wonder if that reflects his style; a modest man to be exact. Let me show you what I mean.

Au natural. Check out the half-submerged cross which gets deeper year by year.

Psss. I look like my Pa and my Pa looks like my Ma Ma.

Hence, I look like her! Can you tell the resemblance?

At the cemetery, we say prayers. But not only for those whom we knew and loved, but also for the “poor souls”. We took time to pray at the giant cross for souls who may have no families, no children or grand-children to pray for them.

On this special day, I shall end with a short prayer for the faithful departed.

(:

In peace let us pray to the Lord.
Grant to your faithful people pardon and peace,
that we may be cleansed from all our sins,
and serve you with a quiet mind.
Give mercy and grace to the living,
pardon and rest to the dead.
We ask these through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Thanks to STB (thanks Ben!) and Singapore Flyer, Ken and I had the best Halloween ever! Honestly, this invitation was a pleasant surprise! Never knew my post on having a sky dining experience would be picked up by them. Isn’t it good to know that companies do actually listen to what people are talking out there?

Certainly, candid observations on a given product/service is much more credible than any forms of advertising/ information found on their own website. Kudos to those organisations that are proactively engaging people on the ground.

(:

Actually, this is our 2nd visit to the Flyer. Previously, we went on a boat ride to catch the F1! This time, we took the MRT to City Hall and walked to Coleman Street where the FunVee bus stop can be found. It’s directly opposite St. Andrew’s Cathedral.

This was our first time on FunVee. Purchased the $2 shuttle bus tickets and sat on the open-deck. It was kinda enjoyable to have cool breeze slapping our cheeks!

We hung out at the Halloween Village (Singapore Flyer’s Outdoor Promenade) before checking in the VIP waiting area! Check out the crowd!

The highlight of the village was the Tarot Card wizard! The way he presented his divination was professionally crappy. LOL. The performance was so well done that the balding guy sitting there actually believed!

Come to think of it, due to mundane circumstances in life, many of us had to dress a certain way, wear our hair, limit our jewelry to only conservative pieces. Hence, Halloween is really a good time to express our own fantastic wild side! Imagine being who and whatever we want to be! But it’s not a local custom for people to dress up for Halloween so it was pretty hilarious to find lots of ‘interesting’ characters hovering around us.

One particular ghoul really spooked me out.
Make a guess which one!

Was it Scar, Simba’s evil uncle?

Male Sadako ghoul with unkempt hair?

Screamm/pretty Corpse Bride with smeared make up?

Unknown Prince of Egypt with odd coffee stain? Perhaps related to Pharaoh Tutankhamen from Night at The Museum.

Slasher!!! The psychopathic killer!!

Haha So which spooks/monsters is your favourite?

(:

That pesky Sadako ghoul was the one who gave me lots of frights! OMG he kept creeping behind me, sweeping his uncombed hair against my arm! EWwWW so itchy! Then he knew I was freaked out and he kept coming back to haunt me! Haha. I had fun. In fact, we had so much fun at the Halloween Village that before we know it, it’s time to board the Flyer!

The set-up was lovely! We quickly got into the mood to savour our romantic Halloween sky-dining.

Wait wait before I start, take a look at my bird-woman get-up.

ROARRR I WANT FOOD.

Oops fine dining. I forgot. I should be chirping demurely instead.

HEHE. Tada! First up, our Halloween cocktail! The Spicy Dracula! It contains vodka, celery stick and chilli padi bits served in salt-rimmed glass. It was a really quirky drink but I couldn’t finish it! There was some Tabasco sauce in it. Felt like I was sipping pizza. lol.

For appetizer, we had the Maggoty Pumpkin Soup served with ghoulish fingers. The soup was creamy and rich in flavour but… where were the maggots? Can’t find any gross maggots swimming in my soup.

:/

Luckily, it was filled to the brim with pumpkin goodness!

O look! Happy face on my soup with a third eye (the inner eye)!

Ghoulish fingers were sliced ham stuffed with pumpkin.

You know, I really need to brush up on my close-up macro shots. Perhaps it’s time to get a new lens instead of using the kit lens which comes with my Canon 450D.

Our main entree, Chucky’s Bloody Eye looks pretty tame. I’m sure everyone knows who Chucky is.

It was ribeye on a bed of eyeball salad and roasted pumpkin. The steak was so tender I could cut it with a fork. We couldn’t get enough of the roasted pumpkin. It looked like wedges but so much sweeter.

Let’s take a closer look at Chucky’s Bloody Eye.

Booyah! LOL. Do they look alike?

Dinner was sumptuous! We were serviced like VIPs by our butler. Dinner would be creepier if there was some eerie music playing over the background. Overall, the sky-dining experience was sophisticated and tasteful for a romantic date.

And you know what? A guy actually proposed to his partner in our capsule! Then again, he should had booked the entire capsule instead of sharing it with 2 other couples! haha. AND he did not went down on his knees!!!!!! Isn’t that how a wedding proposal should be? Probably he was feeling awkward with 4 other sets of eyeballs staring at him.

:/

Well, he shouldn’t worry so much because we were too absorbed with the stunning view than anything else! ?

So after 2 rotations, we were escorted by our friendly butler, Grace to the VIP Lounge where we enjoyed dessert. Witches’ Hat was served with a choice of freshly brewed coffee or specialty tea.

Looks like the ‘witch’ was wearing a pretty white sugar bow instead of a hat. She had long mustache too. Sexy?

:p

Need I say more? Our Halloween experience at the Flyer totally RAWKS!

Though it wasn’t spooky at all, our sky-dining experience was so amorous! Guess what, I think SDU should arrange speed dates on the Flyer and run a campaign called “Romance is in the Air”. Seriously, romance is a creation of circumstances that makes lovers feel special and for that, Singapore Flyer passed with flying colours.

BTW I found out that the Flyer has lots of interesting stuff coming up. For starters, they are extending the $10* Student Weekday Flight. Any student with a valid student ID can enjoy this offer! Also, check out the sky-dining menu for November. Mm. the Braised Beef Cheek with Aromatic Spices sounds scrumptious. Well, $199 for a date with full butler service is pretty reasonable.

Where else can you have a romantic dinner date 165m from the ground?

Singapore Flyer
30 Raffles Avenue, #01-07
Singapore 039803
Tel: 6734 8829 / 6333 3311 for bookings

A combination marine park and amusement center, Ocean Park conveniently is located on the south side of Hong Kong island.

To get there, we took the Ocean Park Citybus 629 from Admiralty MTR station.

After a 15 minutes ride, we found ourselves at the Tai Shue Wan entrance which is near to the park’s Headland.

OK here’s how it goes, Ocean Park’s marine attractions, thrill rides and shows are divided between 3 areas: Lowland, Headland and Tai Shue Wan. There’s two modes of transportation to move between the Lowland, Headland and Tai Shue Wan. The Lowland-Headland is connected by cable cars while, the Headland-Tai Shue Wan is connected by the second longest outdoor escalator in the world which stretches over 225 metres!

These were our tickets to a entire day of fun-filled activities!

That’s Chief (Mr.Parrot) and James Fin H2O (Mr.Shark)! Ocean Park has 6 mascots. Besides Chief and James Fin H2O, there’s a waving sea lion named Whiskers (known as Wai Wai in Chinese), Jewel (a butterfly), Swift (a dolphin) and Professor (a turtle)!

With much stuff going on, we decided to plan which attractions, thrill rides and shows we wanted to catch so we won’t be wasting time running all over the park aimlessly. The map was pretty useful.

Despite ’studying’ the map for few minutes (too distracted), we started our adventure with a terribly wrong choice.

Our first ride was the Space Wheel.

It still baffles me why we went on that monstrous contraption of thrills spills and action before other moderate attractions. Perhaps we were too excited and couldn’t wait to get ourselves in a giddy adventure.

I puked 3-4 times after that damned ride.

That was a really wrong decision, I ended up feeling nauseous and weak the entire outing. Which was pretty upsetting because there’s so much other stuff to do at the Headland! Headland houses many thrill rides, including the Dragon, Eagle, Crazy Galleon, Ferris Wheel, Flying Swing, Raging River, Mine Train, and Abyss Turbo Drop.

I was too weak to go on any rides after the horrifying Space Wheel! Sat at a corner while he tried other rides.

:/

After that hair-raising experience, we hopped on the Ocean Park Escalator to get to the other side of the park. At 225 m (745ft), it is the second longest outdoor escalator in the world and I felt like puking the moment I stepped on the escalator. It doesn’t help that it was a super long way up. Baby laughed at me when I had that manic look, searching for places to vomit!

To make me feel better, he dragged me to watched an ice skating showing with people juggling fire batons, performing acrobats, and dances.

But half-way, we left because I felt like puking. Not that the performance was sucky. It was Space Wheel.

He laughed at me again!

:S

Had to rest at a bench for about 10 minutes before moving on. Lucky the weather was cool and breezy. I felt much better and that was the last time I puked. Thank God.

Eventually we gave up following the map and decided to roam randomly. We found ourselves at the Marine Land. We were hoping to get a seat at the Ocean Theatre but it was totally packed! Well, this show is a family favourite where dolphins and sea lions participate in lively daily shows. Good place to bring your kids and educate them on marine mammals. Probably that explains why it’s so popular. We had to stand all the way at the back. Snap a few pictures and made our way to other attractions.

Ocean Theatre features shows by talented dolphins, sea lions, and a killer whale. How exciting! But we only caught the dolphins. Here’s some shots of the dolphins doing tricks!

Nearby there’s the world-class Atoll Reef aquarium which holds 2,000 fishes from close to 250 species and the unique Sea Jelly Spectacular, where we could interact with 1,000 beautiful sea jellies!

Had to grab a drink near the Pacific Pier. Felt thirsty. Here’s a weird ice drink everyone buys at Ocean Park. A witch hat with a green ice ball!

Since we couldn’t grab a real sea lion to hug, the fake ones were perfect for photo-taking!

(:

Oh there’s plenty of choices for food here. We grabbed some BBQ spring chicken and BBQ sausages from the Light House Grill somewhere near Pacific Pier. Pretty ok but a little over-priced. Hmm there’s McDonald’s with typical hamburgers, french fries and soft drinks at Headland rides. Over at Adventure Land, you can find this stall, Raging River Squid which offers delicious-looking fried squid and drinks. Chinese food is available at Noodle Bar (somewhere along Tai Shue Wan entrance). They serve Chinese soup noodles, wanton, dumplings, Chinese dessert and beverages.

Took a quick stroll to one of the tallest observation towers in Southeast Asia, the Ocean Park Tower! This tower gave us a 360º gently rotating view that enables us to see clear to Aberdeen and the outlying islands. I think my body is better-suited for this sorta ride. sigh. sad. I’m just not made for zany rides.

That was our last stop at the Headland, shortly we boarded the cable cars for a spectacular 8-minute ride over a hill to the Lowland. The cable car system offers a convenient and exceptionally panoramic route between Ocean Park’s Headland and Lowland.

The view of the rocky coastline was spectacular.

The lowland is also subdivided into several areas and attractions. But most of the stuff here are more suitable for kids. We were thrilled only at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Giant Panda Habitat (?????????) where Le Le, Ying Ying, An An and Jia Jia, greet visitors!

Adorable! If you want to see what they are doing now, check out the Giant Panda Live Broadcast!

After about 4 hours here, we rushed off to catch a church service at Cain Road. Yup, to do Ocean Park justice, plan on spending at least 4 hours here, but you’ll probably stay the whole day if you’re travelling with kids.

Note: never NEVER go on crazy rides first and do plan your trip beforehand.

This is where ma used to bring us to get candies and snacks in bulk for Chinese New Year/Christmas/a random party. This place is like a paradise for candy/snack lovers!

It’s the third shop lot from the left, next to the pharmacy.

Cannot resist not taking a pic with the candy auntie who is so friendly! She keep asking me when was the last time I came with ma and where am I staying now. Baby was kinda astonished I ‘know’ them like old friends. Haha. Guess every young adults who come back for candy/snacks are still seen as kiddies to the cute auntie here who owns the place.

Yes auntie I love your shop! I feel like a kid! Haha.

Anyway I was here looking for the retro 20 cents cotton candy. It comes in a small triangular packet with all sorts of colour. My favourite is green! Asked auntie where is it and she told me it’s no longer available! The factory stopped producing it already. I was super sad when I heard that.

:/

Oh well, shifted my attention to her brother who was jabbering something over the background. Her brother is an interesting man. Drank water from an original Tupperware tumbler (the office is along the same shop rows) while I took a candid shot of him with all the loose ’samples’ for sale at the background. If you walk between the narrow aisle, you can find boxes and boxes of assorted candies/snacks all ready for distribution.

Most of the retro brands are here. Apollo, Mentos, Fisherman, Bubbleyum, Mamee, Jack & Jill, Kopiko, Choki-Choki, Chupa Chups (yeah you can get them here in those large cute-looking tins), Yam Yam etc but don’t expect to find Ruffles here though.

Most people pop by when it’s nearing Chinese New Year to grab lotsa sweets because it is auspicious to load your house with tonnes of candies for the coming year to be sweet-sailing. On normal days. here’s where mama-shop owners/sundry shops/retailers get their stock. Well, random people like me also drop by to get a nice sweet treat.

This trip, I bought a few boxes of Horlicks Malties!

Sin Tong Yuen Food Products Sdn. Bhd
54, Jln Perang, Taman Pelangi, 80400 Johor Bahru, Johor
07-3321734