Xmas presents

My Xmas Presents this year;

A box of Royce chocolate from my boss
Hershey's kisses from my colleague
A USB humidifier and essential oil from office's Xmas exchange
2 Grana sale t-shirts that I bought for myself
Iherbs stuff that I bought for myself

Everytime a parcel comes it always feel like Xmas!

Booked snow trip

Due to budget constraint and my manager who didn't allow me to take leave on the last week of the year, I had to either cancel my snow trip or postpone it to next year so I was thinking of the first week of January, at least skiing over New Year's and the shops will be opened when I return to Tokyo. But I was afraid of the delayed snowfall so plans got delayed again.

For the last few weeks I have been seeing all those snow or japan posts on social media and it was just too much I HAVE to go once this season.

The tentative dates were after Chinese New Year because my friend has to use his flights before mid Feb. It was met with 2 coincidences: one, my cousin and her husband are going to Niseko in Feb and two, the dates coincide with our planned dates. I roughly checked the accommodations in Hokkaido but it was almost fully booked and the only ones left were the expensive ones, for the past 2 days I was fretting over whether to go back to Myoko or explore Niseko where I had never been.

Within 2 days I pretty much bought and booked everything for my snow trip and this time round it's.... drum rolls.... NISEKO!!

The cost of accommodation is the difficult part. All those which are left are either really expensive like Hilton or some 6 star resort that costs one month of your pay for 4 nights, or really lousy but at the price of a 5 star hotel. I was really contemplating on booking this new $350 per night resort which is really beautiful until chanced upon this affordable lodge on airbnb. I messaged the owner on airbnb but there wasn't any reply so I googled them and all the booking sites on them were fully booked.

It's either the slim chance of getting this $180 per night lodge called the Frying Pan or I will have to take the $350 one called The Kamui, which would also be unavailable if I didn't hurry. I called the Frying Pan directly the next morning. Despite the language barrier, I managed to ask if there's a room available for 2 person for 4 nights and he said yes. I was quite skeptical because he might not understand what I was talking about and I had to confirm with him again. Even after we hung up I was really surprised that they really did have a room but still not sure if it was confirmed. That afternoon I got an email from them confirming my reservation and I was soooo relieved.

Next was the accommodation in Sapporo. Most of the hotels were fully booked and prices jacked up for that week because of the snow festival. After searching for sooo many, I did manage to book a reasonably priced business hotel using my Japanese alias. Hehe.

Next were the domestic flights and the transport. I didn't want to waste time travelling from Narita to tokyo city center and back again for the flight so we are flying 3 hours after landing and a separate one back to Haneda, because our Tokyo hotel is nearer to Haneda.

Everything fell in place perfectly, except for the prices of hotels in Hokkaido, but oh wells, opportunity comes once in a while. I still miss Myoko though. I saw the amount of snow there, it's incredible this year.

Hm.... maybe in March.........

boat straightens itself

Wow I'm really glad everything worked out. The boat really naturally straightens itself when it reaches the bridge-end.

I was so stressed over the Kinokuniya refund of my item and my video call schedule that I couldn't really sleep, but everything was settled with emails.
I took leave on Thursday and Friday too. I have some more days to clear though. December is holiday moodz.

Wow! Major relief!!!

Dec meets and cakes

December is usually the month that I spend the most because of all the xmas meetups and probably present buying and holidaying.

For presents, I have 2 cakes from Fullerton that were delicious. And FYI, my favorite cakes come from The Patissier, which I haven't had for a long long time. Sighs.

Saturday was with Amanda with wolf burger and 2 bottles of wine.

Tuesday Exxon interns meetup and it was surprisingly full force! I bought the matcha chocolate cake from Cedele that I wanted to try for so long to celebrate YC's birthday.

Thursday was JC friends with HY and pregnant HT at Clinton Street Bakery and we shared a pint of chocolate origins ice cream after that. Wow the amount of chocolate. I had a little sore throat the next day.

Many more to come and many more to spend....

Moana

I'm not a fan of cartoons but this movie definitely blew me away.

See the line where the sky meets the sea, it calls me.
And no one knows, how far it goes
If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me
One day I'll know,
if I go there's just no telling how far I'll go

And the call isn't out there at all, it's inside me
It's like the tide, always falling and rising
I will carry you here in my heart, you'll remind me
That come what may, I know the way

missing my snow

Sigh I miss this. It's weird not to have somewhere cold to look forward to.
My annual snow pilgrimage.

On another matter, I had some unhealthy food last week and it came to bite me in the ass.
I'm feeling extra fat this week.

Lunches in October

These are the culprits that made a hole in my pocket and brain, and inflated my stomach this October.

La Strada Lunch

The Disgruntled Brassiere Lunch

Semi-buffet lunch at Four Seasons

Devastating

That's the only feeling I had when I saw my unofficial gmat score. Disbelief.

The thing is... I don't even understand how I got that score. I don't know which question I did wrong or right, or how the question derived my score. I had a pretty okay score for 2 of my mock test but this is far below my expectations. Many months of studying at night, one week of leave just for intense practice, $40 of Uber still didn't make it up. ARGH.

Maybe I'm just lousy.

It's like I hit a wall, I never felt so low, so low. Like a waterfall, my tears dropped to the floor, the floor. They left a swimming pool of salted crimes, crimes. Oh.

4th gym week

Today is the 4th gym week and I haven't gone to the gym for the past 3 days! Argh,

I have been ending work late for the past 3 days just to rush out everything before my leave starts tomorrow, then I would have to clear my mind to prepare for Gmat and Gym and Tan.

I'm so relieved to finish everything. Now I need some study time. 

2 gym weeks

2 weeks into gym and I'm still doing well.

I have adjusted schedule to accommodate gym time at 9pm and my diet a little bit, I can see some shrinkage in the middle section and upper torso getting stronger. It might be the exponential reduction in the beginning and will start to reduce more slowly as gym time continues but so far I am feeling so fine!

I'm a little bit behind my cardio coz of some last min. events but I should be able to catch up with the program schedule.

I need to allocate more time for my GMAT and starting Luke Cage now is really not a good idea. I have already started episode 1.

Summer pavilion

One year one Michelin Star.

Dim Sum at Summer Pavilion is the best I had in Singapore.
The taste and texture of the food are impeccable, the presentation right on point and service is definitely top notch.

Just look at the utensils

Just look at the Liu Sha Bao

Just look at the Char Shao Bao

We had beef brisket, siew mai har gao, feng zhua and pork trotters in vinegar. Absolutely delicious. The only complaint I had was the price of the tea. $7 per person? Are you kidding.... Even more expensive than most dim sum....

So after that I caught my first Bridget Jones movie, which was really hilarious and super inappropriate. I didn't expect it to be so entertaining and I shall catch the first BJ movie soon....

Well.

I have been thinking.

So let's see how it goes after first year

Gym

I have been considering joining Fitness First membership but the cost is putting me off for the longest time and I was quite surprised to learn that my colleague had signed up for FF since May and have been going there to swim every morning. I can definitely sense that he is more cheerful and energetic than before. My considerations for gym: crowd, cost, convenience.

So I had consulted my friends about True, Virgin and FF, and was mentally preparing myself to go to the gym on weekday mornings when I'm most free. I even wrote down a list of what to bring, what time to wake up and what's for breakfast and preparing the $155 monthly fee. So many classes to choose from, workout attire, drinks and good equipment.

Then, a rather sudden turn of events. The day before, three groups of friends said that FF is too expensive for a gym membership, although facilities and the experience is good. I went swimming on one evening at my usual hometeam and thought of the gym there - the one I go to regularly. I went up at 9pm after swimming, checked out the crowd and the price, and decided to sign up there instead. I don't need the classes nor the drinks nor the attire at FF, the gym in hometeam suffice. I don't even need to shower there I can just come home in 15mins to shower. The most attractive thing is, it's only $406. Per Year. $33 per month.  Wow.

So I have been going for a week now and it has been great. Working out at 9pm before it closes at 10pm is so satisfying with only 4-5 people around.

Another big ticket expense. ~$~.

dying

What's wrong with my electronics nowadays!!
My phone and my tv dying on me at the same time.
Just like my heart.

big ticket

I really wanna go snowboarding this season but my wallet doesn't agree with me. I barely have savings over the last few months with big ticket spending every month. Sighs. Maybe I'll skip this season.

I already spent $410 on my glasses this month, adding up to 1K of expenditure.

GMAT in October. Let's go!

Mooncake Festival

This Mid-Autumn Festival came really really quick and there were so many mooncakes in the office.

I took home one box of Raffles hotel traditional mooncake.....

Then the next day my boss bought this box of snow skin Champagne Truffle mooncake for me.



And I bought a $410 pair of specs. ~$~

Q & M

My metabolism is really slowing down with age.

The million dollar question:

Should I sign up for FF gym membership?

or

Should I put brace?

or

Should I not do both?

olgh

I was running today and I really felt my body getting rusty by the year. I used to be able to do 5km without breaking a sweat when I was 21-24. I can't imagine doing 5km now haha or maybe I should try it someday.

Working is increasingly heavier and I'm increasingly getting unhappy with what I'm doing now. Salary is not getting higher. The motivation is no longer there anymore. But well, nobody's happy working in a bank, except if they are earning loads. In such times I guess I would have to make do and tide over.

I'm trying to find back the drive and the emotional state I had when I was in school or Shanghai. I can't find any of it. I don't know anything now.

I wouldn't imagine the things I would be thinking or doing right now 1 or 2 years ago.
I can't even imagine me enjoying being a bell.
Sometimes I think I'm too unstable now.
Maybe I need a solo trip again.

Joseph Schooling

The historic moment when Singapore's Joseph Schooling beat 3 swimming legends, broke Olympic record and got an Olympic Gold. Nobody expected that.

Just wow!

Phuket beach holiday

I thought I was going to KL for the National Day holidays and I was going to buy the bus ticket that day when plans changed and Expedia had super cheap package to Phuket and I wanted a beach holiday so why not?

Flights and Swissotel altogether was around $386, which is pretty decent for Thailand.

Day 1 Around Patong
Our mini van had an accident and the rear screen was smashed. Reached hotel, napped, walked around Patong area and then I booked my tours for the next 2 days. The shop owner was super nice and introduced authentic and non-touristy thai food.
Wa I haven't had thai food for sooo long.

And see the famous Bangla street with all the sleazy bars. Oh it was some election day so they can't sell alcohol until 12am.

Day 2 James Bond Island
We did some island hopping, highlight of the day was the canoeing around some islands in the middle of nowhere. I wonder how the canoeists got there.

Dinner steamboat at MK, some supermarket shopping then back to the hotel to rest.

Day 3 Phi Phi Island

Sun tanning and swimming at some island, then snorkelling at Phi Phi and more sun and more swimming.

Dinner at Number 6 thai food, which is super popular.

I was super tired that day so I crashed immediately after dinner and some drinks.

Day 4 was a relaxing day and our flight was quite late at night, around 10pm. Breakfast was in a rush.
We had some drinks, ate at MK again, supermarket to get some Thai stuff back then it was Thai massage time at Let's Relax. Dinner we dabao-ed Number 6 thai food to check in gate for dinner.

Altogether, I spend around $686 everything in, including $386 hotel and flight, $120 for a 2 day tour and the rest on food, drinks and alcohol. How did I spend $180 on the rest. LOL.

I really don't know how to enjoy a beach holiday hahaha. I mean the sun, sand and sea are nice, but it's the hassle to go to the beach with towels and all that and the sea is so salty, and the sand gets in everywhere. I'd prefer to stay in my club pool, which is clean, big, empty and near my home with clean toilet and big shower. Well, the islands are nice, I just love thai food. I need to go Bangkok soon.

2 days after I came back the news reported that 2 bombs exploded at Phuket Patong beach, the area where I was staying. OMG.

I'm missing my wa wa Swissotel big bed already.

Pokemon Go

Pokémon Go is here in Singapore! And the crazy begins....

Les Miserables

One of my lifetime goals since secondary school days is to watch this musical.

I was so excited when I learnt that they are coming to Singapore to perform at our only world-class theatre at the Esplanade. The problem is... it's costly and not a lot of people knows how to appreciate musicals. My choir friends have watched on their own. 

Luckily one of my friend-colleague Benny asked me randomly if I'm interested in watching and I've been keeping a lookout for discounted tickets ever since

Last Friday 15/7/16 5pm somebody put up an advertisement on carousell to sell 3 x $136 tickets at $80 each. I had no plans for that night so I guess it's possible because it starts at 8pm. I quickly messaged Benny to ask him if he's okay and it turns out he just needs to make some arrangements and within 5 minutes I found another person to watch too and Bam! Bam! Bam! Magic just happened. 

What a steal and how impromptu the whole thing was! 

It was as awesome as what all other reviews said. Our seats were not too shabby, Jean Valjean was awesome. I liked Eponine and her "On My Own" and the sequence when they were marching on the streets in a orderly fashion with all their voices as one. The average part was probably master of the house. I can't hear clearly what they were singing.

3 hours of live performance, totally worth it. 

Les Miserables... checked. 

Next up... probably Book of Mormon or Dreamgirls. I don't mind watching Lion King again too!

Woohoo

Yes finally I'm so relieved. Now I have the freedom to do so many things on my own.

Female boss

At times like this I just hate having a female boss.

• Temperamental
• Emotional
• Anal about details
• Naggy
• Super bad at maths
• Lack of focus
• Inefficient
• A little bimbo
• Non-techie

Sigh.

Breaking Bad

After over a year of weekdays and weekends of catching up with my shows I finally unlocked the Finish Watching Breaking Bad achievement. I have heard many rave reviews about the show, especially when the finale was so hyped up that year it ended. I kinda regretted not watching it in Shanghai when I had so much time. Or maybe I wasn't really interested in the show yet. It won so many award and had a cult following.

I guess this show started the whole long running US series and the Game of Thrones kinda killing off characters style. And I kinda liked all the sciencey things discussed in the show. Sigh why must Walter White die..... I'm so glad I'm done with it after one whole year. Now I have other shows to catch up on.

A relaxing stay-home Sunday ftw.

Lunch at Jaan

Just let the pictures do the talking.

Generally ok but I won't spend so much for a meal again.

Colony at Ritz Carlton

I have a love hate relationship with buffets. I love to see so much food and so many choice. I hate myself for eating so much after the buffet.

Anyway, I didn't take many pictures. We were seated at a cozy corner.

There were quite a mixed fare. They had the usual sashimi and seafood and crab legs. I took some crab legs and went back to my seat, the waitress immediately gave me a bowl of lemon water to wash my hands and a pair of crab scissors. Service is superb.

They had a chinese corner, with laksa with lobster ball and wanton mee and some chinese food. I didn't touch the indian corner, then it was the western corner

 The chicken rice was one of the better ones. Like seriously? Chicken rice? Yes, chicken rice. It's better than those foodcourt chicken rice. And they had a fresh fruit juice corner. A really nice touch coz usually you need to pay extra for fresh juice.

Then the desserts.

There's also fresh crepes, waffles and ice cream.

My stomach exploded after the meal and we had difficulty walking around. Overall, one of the better buffets I had. Wide variety, amazing service, delicious food, fresh juices for around $61 nett per pax after 10% discount. Pretty worth it. Just don't be late for the buffet.

After work activities

Things I have been doing after work:

Running

Watching Breaking Bad

Doing Gmat

Watching Game of Thrones on Mondays

Watching Preacher on Tuesdays

Watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Applying for jobs on Linkedin

Hanging out/drinking/eating with friends

Well, just wasting my 29s away. 

Today

It's such a weird day today.

The touchscreen on my phone has been cranky since yesterday night so I wasn't able to use my phone much in the morning.

Then I discovered something big happened and sent the first email blast to the entire team in SG and UK.

Then I had latte macchiato while attending training in the meeting room.

In the afternoon they wanted to go Bugis for lunch but I didn't want to follow so I bought salad and got a free sushi at the roadshow. I thought they were joking about the Bugis,

After getting frustrated with my phone, I took out the glass screen protector that was there for 1 year plus, and it became better. I can use my phone occasionally but it's still cranky.

UK office opened with some people getting frantic about the mail I sent out in the morning.

I sent out a second email blast and got a reply from my global head. "Good mail" it said. He almost never responds to unnecessary emails.

Still trying to organise ourselves from my first mail, I went back at 6pm.

On the way back, I saw some bitch that I didn't want to see. She saw me and stared for a second before turning to the other side. Ya go on and pretend we don't know each other. Fitch.

Then I found out that my bottles of chicken essence just expired for 10 days in my cupboard.

WEIRD.

One year later

Last weekend was my grandma's first death anniversary.

Well it didn't feel like it was one year ago, definitely. Everything was so fast for the past year. I still miss her sometimes.

So everyone went for a short session on Saturday 5pm, and we needed to stay overnight for that but I though the people playing mahjong were going to do that so I didn't. In the end there were only a few who stayed overnight.

Sunday morning was the full thing and we burnt a lot of things for her.

It was nice, everybody getting together and catching up on rare occasions, all the babies and adults. I guess only events like these brings people together.

Last friday night

It was awkward and so weird.

The maze is so dark, the people are so weird and the place is not exactly clean.

I felt super out of place. 

Things come and go.

L'effervesence

No. 12 on Asia's best restaurants is L'effervesence in Tokyo.
Lunch Menu: Through the pathway

Horse mackerel, cucumber, sugar pea, gazpacho

Mountain breeze-
Deep fried firefly squid and mountain vegetable, hamaguri clam and leek jus, sour cream, and micro tomato

A fixed point -
4 hours cooked Tokyo turnip, parsley, basque ham and brioche

From an idea of apple pie #19-
Conger eel, hamaguri clam, new burdock, langoustine and apple, seaside flavoured sauce with seasonal salad.

A little tipsy -
Sake lees mousse and sake lees chocolate ice cream, sake baba, blood orange

Matcha & World Peace

The lunch was not bad. There were a lot of vegetables and the ingredients were very fresh. One of the dishes my friend had was beef with spring onions, but the star of the dish was the spring onion, which they claim is the best in Japan because the farmer took 3 years to come out with a produce that he's really satisfied with. All courses were very well executed and balanced although the preparation time was too long and I had no patience to eat for 2-3 hours for a meal, especially when you are overseas and you have much things to shop/buy rather than wait for your food to come. Haha. 

The overall experience was really good. They allowed you to choose your own knife which was made up of different woods. Their sake + french wine drink was a nice touch, in addition to the freshly baked bread and their tofu cream cheese dip. As a takeaway gift, we were given freshly baked turnip cookies.