recapping a wonderful 2009

time flies and today is 31st dec 2009!

2009 has definitely been a wonderful year for me.

prepare yourself for picture overdose, highlighting the main activities i had done in 2009, the hk dramas and movies that i had watched, the countries that i travelled, and the tors that i par with darling. hoho.


















ok i am now going to hueyshin's house with darling to usher in 2010 with a bunch of keviians! sayonara!

batam trip 2009

the last batam trip was last year march, which i went with mak and leow. during that trip we tried out the one hour massage at tea tree spa, which is an award-winning spa. then ever since, tea tree spa keep sending us emails on their latest packages.

so one day i received one of their many promotional emails from tea tree spa. its a 2.5 hour spa package, inclusive of 30mins Avocado Body Scrub, 30mins Boreh Body Mask, 30mins Foot Reflexology and 60mins Balinese Massage. thinking that darling needs a short getaway to recharge herself for the next semester of fyp craziness, i asked her whether she will like to go and she said yes!!! so i went to make the booking. haha.

finally the day of our spa getaway arrived, which is yesterday. our ferry was at 1210 pm, so we reached harbourfront at 10 am to collect our ferry tickets. and same as last year, the similar mistake happened again on my customs card. -.-'''

march 2008:



dec 2009:

yawnnnnzzzzz...

our first meal at batam was at the seafood restaurant delima. it is actually very near to holiday inn (the hotel which we stayed at) but if u dun want to walk or u dunno how to walk there, u can actually can get the service staff at holiday inn to give delima a call and delima will send a car to the hotel to pick you up. good service rite? anyway dun expect the food there to be super delicous and ridiculously cheap. the food taste decent, and prices are only very slightly cheaper than sg.

the 2.5 hour spa package was really shiok, which made us so pampered and we felt like royalty. shopping at batam mega mall was boring cos not much things to see. anyway holiday inn is located at a ulu part of batam, and the nearest shopping centre is located in the city centre of batam, which is 35 min drive from the hotel. you have to get a taxi to drive you there, and each ride cost 16 sing dollars. come back to the hotel from the city centre is another 16 dollars. so the morale of the story is, you must make your shopping trip worth the 32 sing dollars.

so if you ask me whether our shopping trip is worth it, well we ate A&W which is not around in sg anymore, we bought JCO donuts which cost cheaper than sg, we bought the famous kueh lapis which is really very very nice, darling bought a tshirt for her dad, and i da-bao kfc for supper. hahahah.

the next morning we did some mediation and yoga at the balcony outside our hotel room.

after breakfast, the rest of the morning was spent at the jacuzzi, the pool and packing up. we checked out at 1215 pm and intend to have lunch before our ferry which was at 210 pm. but we were told that the ferry timing was changed to 130 pm. wah we nearly freaked out and as a result we din have time to eat lunch. so we survived on a few jco mini donuts, and starved on the ferry trip back to sg.

ok so that's about it! darling really loved this short getaway and she dun mind coming here once a year just to chill out! :)

and a final photo of the both of us:

pls try ur best to ignore the bulge at my tummy area. i will try my best to lose the bulge. hahahahaha.

christmas eve dinner

in the past, christmas eve is to go orchard road squeeze with pple, get molested by bangla, and do the count-down.

in the present, when i look back i cant believe i actually did this kind of crazy thing. the moment i thought of the crowd i will shudder. so for this year's christmas eve, it is actually a simple affair whereby darling and i stayed at home and whipped out a few dishes. :)

dish 1: stir fried cabbage (by darling)

dish 2: pork fried with mushrooms and 菜心 (also by darling)

dish 3: drunken prawns (yours truely)

dessert: honeydew sago (hahaha also prepared by darling)

drunken prawns is actually quite easy to prepare. you need the right ingredients, and the right seasoning, and of course the right amount. too much ingredients, the soup will be super concentrated. too few ingredients, the soup will taste bland. of course i will prefer the soup to be super concentrated, cos still can add in some hot water.

if you want the menu for drunken prawns you can get from darling, cos she favourited the online recipe.

thank you darling for the wonderful dinner! sometimes simplicity is the best. :)

oh yah i will be going to batam with darling on monday for a spa getaway trip! yay!!!

turkey trip day 7 & 8

its another 坐车坐到屁股酸-journey from ankara to istanbul. we crossed the magnificient Bosphorus Bridge, which links europe and asia.

and finally, our one and only chinese meal throughout the whole trip. for goodness sake we are already at day 7 and nobody can fault us for missing chinese food so much.

dishes were wiped out by a fleeting hurricane. and this sight was the same for the other tables, even the table of malays! oh yah forgot to mention in the tour group there were 9 malays. first time i travelled with malays in a tour group, but dun worry, no racial discrimination, everyone mixed really well with one another. i think this is the best tour group i had experienced so far. :)

after the super satisfying lunch, we walked to the hagia sophia, which was just opposite the blue mosque. on our way we passed by the Hippodrome again. hagia sophia is a unique place, because it has christian and islamic features under one roof.

(by putting your thumb inside the hole, if you can turn your whole palm without turning your thumb, the wish that you make will come true)

but i must sincerely apologise for not appreciating this unique feature. i am constantly checking out this taiwanese blonde babe from one of the taiwan tour groups. hoho.

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ok ok sorry. darling rulez. no more taiwanese blonde babe. and i must clarify that the kid she is carrying is not our flesh and blood.

so where were we? oh yah the taiwanese, oops i mean hagia sophia. ok after touring hagia sophia it was time for the bosphorus cruise, which was an optional tour. my family din take this tour because my aunt went to turkey last year and said that it was not worth it for US60 per pax. so we walked through the happening streets of istanbul, soaking in their culture and buying local products to boost turkey's economy.

the weather was really really freezing cold and we were so thankful when the other pple had finished the cruise, which means we can go up the bus and get some warmth. the next place is a shopping centre called GALLERIA! yay shopping! but the things there are not cheap. i was quite tempted to buy one of the turkish soccer club jerseys but thinking that i already had 42 jerseys in my closet, the temptation miraculously transformed to determination in NOT buying. haha.

finally its dinner time, and while we were having our food, we were treated to a series of performances by turkish folk dancers and belly dancers. the performance was supposed to end at 12 midnight, but all of us were quite tired and we left the place at 930 pm. and i will remember this place, not because of the pretty and voluptous belly dancers, but i believe its the food here that caused me to have lao sai on day 8!

introducing to you the culprits:

(the dish of cold appetisers. yucks.)

(the very oily chicken thigh.)

(maybe the turkish beer caused the indigestion, but i must say that the beer is very nice! 100 times nicer than the tigers, carlsbergs and heinekens.)

oh and i must also introduce our hotel for the last night in turkey: Istanbul Cartoon Hotel! its called cartoon because inside the hotel you can see mickey mouse, donald duck, goofy, pluto and many others, in the form of posters, telephones, clocks, figurines etc etc. very cool!

day 8 - i had no appetite for breakfast, no thanks to the lao sai. after breakfast, the rest went to the Grand Bazaar, which has more than 4000 shops, but out of the 4000+ shops, only 10 different kinds of things are sold, meaning to say there are at least 400 shops selling turkish souvenirs, another 400 selling the same kind of clothes, and another 400 selling the same condoms, ok i hope you get my point. while the rest were happily shopping, i was resting in the bus with another girl in the tour group, who was also damn sway to fall sick on the last day. haiz sadded.

(the entrance to the 4000+ shops)

(one of the 400 shops that sell the same model of handbags)

12 hours flight to singapore with lao sai is seriously no joke. i was so relieved when i reached sg and can lao all i want at home.

wonderful memories of turkey i brought back, but definitely not the wonderful memory of lao sai on the last day. MERDEKA!!! (that was for random-ness)

turkey trip day 6

this morning we begin another long bus journey from cappadocia to ankara. i am sure that many pple thought that istanbul is the capital of turkey, but actually it is ankara.

on the way to ankara, we stopped at the famous picturesque Salt Lake, which is the second largest lage in turkey, and it is 3 times the size of sg. wassup! but upon seeing the lake, i can understand why it is really that big, because the most apt description for this lake is 一望无际.

and for today, the lunch is our favourite kebabs again. besides the kebab, we also had salad, soup of the day which is very salty, and cheese prata whereby the cheese taste extremely horrid.

we finally reached ankara and the first attraction we went to in ankara is the magnificient Ataturk Museum. Ataturk is the founder of turkey.

(the handsome guard)

(they have to hold the bayonet in the other hand! wah lao test their perseverance to the max.)


(these turkish youths wanted to take picture with us.)

we stayed at a very nice hotel called ankara etap hotel. the room has wifi which is really awesome. we had some free time to go shopping but i chose to stay in the hotel room to chat with darling. :)

the hotel restaurant also serve very nice food and nice desserts, so without further ado, i shall introduce the desserts:

starting from the pink one, in a clockwise manner:

strawberry mouse; turkish muah chee; banana chocolate cake (this one is the winner because everyone is taking it); i-dunno-wat-to-call-this

-end of day 6, the second last night in turkey-