Monday, October 27, 2008

Come Fly With Us!

The view from the world's tallest observation wheel, The Singapore Flyer, simply took my breath away. Yes, "INDEED"... Our city skyline is so filled with constructions at the moment lah, with the IR coming up, Marina Barrage coming along next month. (we're going there next weekend for the BIG WALK, WooHoo!!) I would say that the city skyline will not be finalised until maybe 2010? That's where I may revisit the Flyer once more, before I can really comment on the ride.

Anyway, we were there to celebrate our 7th anniversary. Ya.... I know 7 years is quite a long one. That's what everyone says about us. Oh well, enough of talking, picture time!




a helpful tourist offered to take a picture for us
u see what i mean?

picking up the Esplanade

look how big Swissotel is
We headed down to Prego, Raffles City, for dinner. Overall, this restaurant has a relatively nice ambience and food is not bad too.
Prego, a MUST try italian restaurant
Complimentary Bread – A nice round load of bread was served whilst you are waiting for your food. Served warm, the bread has a little crisp on the outside yet soft and fluffy on the inside. Not too bad to just eat it plain. You can mix around trying various ways to enjoy your bread: dipping into a tomato dip, olive oil with vinegar, or simply, the nice traditional way, butter. If you are that hungry, you may want to help yourself a 2nd round.


Maccheroncelli Ragu Di Maiale – What a long name for this dish. Basically = Pasta. The meat slices in the sauce is succulent and tender, melting in your mouth, literally. Sauce-wise, do add that little bit of crushed black pepper to bring out the full flavour of it. As for the pasta, every spoonful is a mouth-bursting experience, with sauce oozing out from it, trickling down your throat, tickling your taste buds.


Calzone Farcito – Pizza in name, ang mo curry puff in appearance. Honestly, this is my first time facing a non-traditional looking pizza. The crust, or rather the dough has a nice soft and chewy texture, wrapped inside are the “pizza toppings”. Prying open the pizza, a whole load full of stuffing was unveiled... Melted mozzarella cheese, pork sausages, artichokes, spinach and black olives. Yummy! It goes well with the tomato sauce served separately. 8.5/10 for uniqueness, 8/10 for the yummy index. Felt damn full after eating that pizza.


Zuccotto – What’s that? Well, I’ve no idea on what it’s supposed to be. According to Ying, it should have coffee liqueur, but my taste buds sensed nothing. Just treat it as a mud pie ya? I personally like the aroma of the coffee sprinkled on the top. The mild bitterness of the coffee was of the right amount to match with the sweetness of melted vanilla. For those choc lovers out there, there is an irresistible dark chewy chocolate, right at the bottom, forming the base of the dessert. A pretty nice combination for the coffee and chocolate addicts.

Putting the food aside, the service there exceeded my expectation. I was very impressed that they made an effort to look in to those minute details, for example, addressing you by your last name. When was the last time you actually heard a waitress addressing you by the last name? Initially I thought it was "Sir", but hearing it clearly the next round, it was actually "Mr Seow". Next, when it comes to clearing the table full of bread crumbs, a curved spatula looking tool was used. Impressive and professional looking. Too bad I did not manage to get a picture of it. Try littering your table with bread crumbs and wait for them to clear it... Haa.

Pricing is reasonable; what do you think it would be? We were expecting it to be like $80? But nah, it was less than that. With discount, it was even lesser than $70, working out to be around $35 per pax. Decent price, for the both of us carried a heavy belly out of the restaurant. Do try Prego, and tell me your experience there.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

RARE Sighting

Just got back from school and my sis came and showed me this video clip.


Check this out!!

Tell me what's your comment.

Apparently the distance from the cage to the glass partition is approx 7 cm away and 10 cm tall. So, hamsters do really JUMP, or shall I say LEAP?

Monday, August 25, 2008

Redang Retreat

Headed down to Redang right after the Olympics trip. Really missed the big blue sea, fishes, breeze and the sand. I would consider this dive trip to be the most fruitful trip so far... Visibility here is good, many unique creatures and one of the most exciting and "memorable" trip. Fill you guys in a while.

First up, nudi branches... Beautiful creatures, with so many varieties and more yet to be discovered.




Next, some of the common sightings.
Last but no least, unique sea creatures camouflaging. Try spotting them!

Road to Beijing

A wonderful experience in Beijing, China by VISA International was indeed an enjoyable and memorable one. The whole itinerary was well planned and I must say, they have left me with a good impression of China.



Flew on SQ to Beijing. Can't remember when was the last time I took SQ to travel overseas. LOL... We arrived at Beijing Terminal 3 - The Dragon.

This is one remarkable structure. It's aerial view is shaped like a dragon, which symbolised the Chinese. As mentioned by National Geographic, this terminal is HUGE and spacious. To prove it's point, it took us a whopping 15mins to walk from the plane to the customs!



Headed straight down to the hotel (Jiuhua Spa and Resort, Beijing) upon arrival and the hotel is simply magnificent! It is literally a VISA hotel, as VISA booked the entire 15th block for the Beijing Olympics. All VISA winners around the globe stayed in this unit. Lobby view was Olympics themed and we took some poster shots with the Chinese stars like Yao Ming and Liu Xiang.



Following which, with some free time on hand, we attempted to tour the whole hotel area. Alas, the area is too big as there are a total of 21 spa pools and 17 units of accomodation. Only managed to tour 3 blocks and we had to leave for lunch.


In the evening, we caught our 1st Olympics event - Women's soccer semi-finals. USA vs Japan. It was quite enjoyable as most of the spectators there were rooting for USA. They did not let the crowd down by thrashing the Japanese with a score 4 : 1.



Next day was the most fruitful trip of all. In the morning, we toured the Forbidden City. The "Forbidden City" formation and tune formed during the SYF suddenly came into my head. Haa...
After all the historical sites, the Olympics Green was next.



The Bird's Nest Stadium and Water Cube really captures everyone's heart. We stood there in awe of the 2 modern and very unique archeitecture.



Belgium showed China who's boss by giving us a spectacular display of skill, strength, determination and stamina. With a 2 point lead after the final whistle, it silence the whole chinese supporters, leaving them packing up quietly and going back home.


Finally, on the last day, we visited one of the Ancient 7 Wonders of the World - Great Wall of China. Pretty chilly up there and took a couple of shots. After that, we headed to the airport and returned back to Singapore.

Thank you VISA!


For more pictures, visit:

Friday, August 1, 2008

Back from HK

5 days in HK was just nice for us to shop and view the various tourism spots. Took many many photos.. At first, we could not even believe that we took nearly 800 worth of picts!! After a hard time filtering the photos, these are the selected ones for your view pleasure.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ziqrob/HongKong2008

Saturday, July 19, 2008

~En route to Beijing Olympics 2008~

Finally, I can start to countdown to Olympics. Had a pre-departure briefing conducted by Visa International, informing us on our flights schedules and accomodation. Each one of us received a departure kit, consisting of a identification tag, badge and a "All to know about Beijing Olympics 2008" booklet.


I must say that the 3D2N is really a FULL 3D2N.... Departures on the 18th at 0100hrs and returning back to Singapore on the 20th at 2300hrs. Itinerary is packed back to back, as we are going sight-seeing in the day and watching the Olympic Games at night. So by the time the event ends, we'll reach hotel around 0030hrs? Damn tiring lor...

Oh well, just enjoy the Games and get into the mood for Olympics. Beijing here I come!

Why so Serious?



"Why so serious?"
"Want to know how I got my scar?"

Those are the lines you're gonna hear from THE JOKER.

This 153 mins action-packed movie is a MUST watch movie for all of you out there. It punches off with the classic Gotham bank robbery, with Batman trying ways to clean out the mobs plaguing Gotham City....Blah blah blah..

Enough of those story telling... One scene that really hurts me was the Lamborghini being rammed by a truck. OuCH!! Poor car, only had a few minutes of fame before it became disfigured.

Alright, shan't say too much for those who are catching this movie. But trust me, this movie rocks!

Doesn't Batman reminds you of Darkwing Duck?
"I'm the terror that flaps in the dark.... I am Darkwing Duck!" LOL

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

What a Day!!

Month end closing, the most DREADED day of the accounts department. It's OT OT and more OT. Finished my work before 5 today, submitted the bank recon statements of 3 BUs, tallied my sales and purchases schedule, updated the debtors aging and all ready to leave at 6 to give tuition.

Alas, life's not that easy after all... too efficient la... My supervisor saw that I was free and I landed up in another huge pile of statements waiting to be consolidated. *It's not even the BUs that I am doing one lor*

Learnt a few lessons today:
Rule #1: Always act busy...No matter what.

Had to cancel my tuition class and work till 930pm. Only the thought of able to claim taxi fare back lightens up my heart a little.

Dragging myself down the Concourse building and attempted to flag for a cab home was no easy task. All the taxis are hired... or they just simply ignore me.

Tried walking further down to Golden Mile Tower, also no cabs available. Kaoz...
Waited for 30mins and there wasn't any sign of an available taxi. So I took out my phone and dialled for a cab. "Dun care already, claim my cab fare gao gao..."

Who can expect that the lines are all engaged!! Everyone at this time is calling for a cab. After 15mins of continuous dialling, it finally got through. The operator told me to wait for a moment and will return back shortly with the taxi number. 2 mins have past... 5 mins... 10 mins... and this was the response from the machine, before the call ended:

"Sorry, there are no cabs available in your area. Please try calling again..."

What the?!!

Rule #2: Call the cab way way in advance. Especially if you work in the city area.

I've only managed to get back home at 11pm.... That's 1.5hrs since i knocked off from work. And tmr's only a Wednesday...

Saturday, June 21, 2008

2nd week of work

Auditors are within 2m of my radar scope in office. They are litterally everywhere! Kept asking for this doc and that doc non stop, understanding how this figure is calculated. The noise level, I would say, is as though i'm in the fish market.

I'm beginning to get the hang of the job and the JDE system, although I'm still not really good at it. I still have to ask my supervisor on which accounts to enter for some entries and accruals. Month end is coming soon and I have to start preparing the bank reconcilition statement and debtor aging list from the excel spreadsheet. Gosh!! I've totally forgotten how to do. Why cant they just churn it out from their system instead?

Next tue, BIG boss gonna treat us to lunch in Raffles Hotel for Financial Year 07/08 closing celebration. Hope the food is gonna be good. Haa..


view from my pantry


view from one of the office window