turi beach :)

we went to turi beach, indonesia for our post anniversary celebration. it's just a 30 min ferry ride from the tanah merah ferry terminal so why not? :)

this was our game plan: take 8am trip on a friday and do an early check in instead of the usual 2pm check in. they would be lenient since guests start flocking in on saturday mornings. and the plan worked :)

we arrived at the ferry terminal at around 6am, which was very oa sa aga. we learned that counters open at around 7am. so we had quite a time to kill at the deserted terminal.

at around 8am, we boarded the ferry and said our temporary goodbyes to sg. side note: i wonder why there were many elderly passengers. as in! i was confused for a while if we were on the right vessel. looked like a group tour for the groovy lolos and lolas :) back to regular programming, i loved the mangroves on the bay of nongsa, id.

we arrived at 8am local time (they are behind by 1 hr), and they generously granted our request for early checkin.

we loved the simple, maaliwalas room! comfy bed, a big mirror on the wall, resting chairs, big bathroom, balcony, and a view of the pool and the sea (that's semi obstructed by the roofs of the other cottages, but i'm not complaining). special mention goes to the overhead shower that is just divine :) i have to do this because from where i came from in pasir ris st 21, our shower sucks with very low water pressure.

we learned our lesson well when we went to bintan last year. food was over priced and even failed to impress someone like me who could eat grass if i have to hehe. this time, we thought of bringing a ton of sandwiches for merienda and packed lunch - our favorite lumpiang mami and rice. the dilemma was: there was no microwave. on that day, innovation was reborn! we reheated our food in any way possible. we could say we had one of the best meals of our lives in the balcony with our fave food and our view. even the ants agreed and celebrated with us!

after stuffing our tummies with good stuff, it was swimming time! the weather was perfect! we had a light rain in the morning, but later that day, the sun said hello and we had our cold, perfect swim.

in the afternoon, we roamed around the place and found good spots. we noticed they have lots of statues and icons. this is coming from the perspective of someone who doesn't know any background: i think the statues are a bit scary with big eyes and uninviting stares.

we also had a much needed massage in their couple room. 1.5 hours of pure massage bliss :)

for dinner, we went to the buffet restaurant. food was ok. not great, but ok :) naks. entertainment was provided by a local band. we were specially impressed by ate's rendition of whitney's "i will always love you". pasado! naks.

breakfast buffet was ok too. i got just a little bit of almost every dish. so i could taste them all. bongga diba?

we found out that they have another pool that's being renovated. sayang :) maybe one day we'll come back.

then it was time to go... we loved this short holiday!!!

nando's

i first had a taste of nando's peri peri chicken when we went to malaysia. ot: we were hopeful that we could shop for cheap clothes and shoes, but that didn't happen. it's a good thing nando, whoever he is, did not disappoint us. :)

nando's opened in singapore some time ago, and this is the first time we tried it here. thumbs up for mang nando!

ikea sunday

ikea will never fail to entertain and amuse visitors :) while i heard that ikea is not for the rich in europe, ikea always makes me (and anyone i tag along) happy. it only means one thing. i am not rich. and i don't have dugong bughaw bwahahaha! the downside is: it has the effect of making you feel that you suddenly "need" a lot of things. we usually go there to just waste time or buy sandwich bags hehehehe. we end up with a lot of "needed" stuff and a bruised credit card. arouch!

one fine sunday, mike and i went to ikea. we boarded a double decked bus. we went to the "2nd floor" so we could enjoy the view of the country, este the kalsada lang pala. we found a lovely site as the seats are all empty!

as expected, we loved the road viewing hehehe. the ride was short and sweet.

bonus: lovely afternoon clouds just outside the store :)

i wish all sundays were made of these! roadtrips and food trips and cloud trips!

christmas and new year 2012

being an ofw means you get to spend christmas and new year differently each year.

on 2010, my first year being married, we spent christmas in aklan with mike's parents, and new year in cavite with mike's family. papa is a seaman and he doesn't get to spend christmas and new year at home that much so he requested that we stay with them during the holidays.

last 2011, i spent christmas in tarlac with mami, tito danny, wawin, and mike. new year was spent in cavite with mike, mama, and ate yogi.

last 2012 holidays, mike and tito peps (april's papa) went here to sg. so the feast was celebrated in our humble home in pasir ris.

during new year, this was the menu:

- roasted chicken courtesy of mr. fair price. i bet he roasted chicken for a number of families during the holidays :p
- tita's pancit canton could pass for max's!
- lumpiang shanghai courtesy of caths. there was also lumpiang mami. chochal may choice ka pa?!
- macaroni salad made my april. i love macaroni salad and the fat it promises hehe! well, all dishes promise fat during the holidays!
- my ref cake was a failure. maybe it was the thick layer of crushed marie biscuits. whatever, it wasn't for the win.
- fruits and some instant juice and some really nice plates from ikea.

we wore green because we heard it's the lucky color for this year. i don't know if an old shirt from yesteryears still has the same effect though. wala nang luluma pa sa pambahay kong ito. yey!

flashback some 20 years ago (i know this time will come - when i'll do flashbacks from 10+ years ago!) - christmas during my childhood would mean fiesta ham, bread, fruit salad, and some other stuff. but the thing that i remember most is lola's chocolate drink. it's that small green can of ricoa cocoa. lola would boil it with water and, once served, you could add evap and sugar and mix every now and then so the cocoa would not settle at the bottom of the cup (cheap brown cups bought from the malaking palengke) life was too simple then. simple yet complicated, complicated yet sweet. i wouldn't trade my childhood holidays for anything else! :)

but wait there's more! mike sweetly offered to cook aka mix the lumpia filling. here's one of the rare pics you see him helping in the kitchen. i now declare, "my husband could cook!" triple A rating! fireworks! love love love for the effort! :)

marina bay day

it was a friday night last december. the family (semi-complete with tito peps and mike here for the christmas break) thought of having dinner at glutton's bay. it was closed for quite some time last 2012 for renovation, so it was the first time we're visiting it after it reopened.

here are some pics ;)

auntie, keyla, and tito smiles galore!

keyla and tito belat

red and white doggies and kitties at the esplanade

we watched this combo. keyla loved it too and danced along with the music :)

buildings and lights and water

mrt ride going home

dim sum night

still posting from last december. major backlog :)

during mike's december visit, i did not file for leaves because i just joined a new job, and i believe that newbies don't just go on holidays during the first few weeks of employment. :p  to compensate for that, we just continued with our date-night-after-work thing. i'll go to work as usual, and after work, we'll try to go out on a date. we only get to do this when we are together like this. it's a shame that he had to stay at home during the day, but maybe it's better that way. super rest... if you could call it that.

inspired by our swee choon find, we thought of searching for places that are not highly commercialized. maybe there's life beyond din tai fung :) i left the searching part to mike.

that led us to this.  the keywords say it all: dim + sum + good. that's all we need. mike said it's walking distance from my office in tanjong pagar. so we walked. a lot. but that's no problem at all because we enjoyed seeing good sites like this:

these little spaces are actually offices. i like.

i'm not sure what this is, but i was just attracted to the lights :p

and more shops like this. so beautiful at night!

we walked and walked and walked and walked. sometimes forward, sometimes in circles. the address said 80 neil road. and this is 80 neil road, which isn't dim joy. it's some other restaurant that definitely doesn't offer dim sum. i searched again for dim joy (these are the moments you become thankful for 3G or LTE or whatever). we found out that dim joy is already closed. nice. hehehe.

80 neil road isn't dim joy. how dim. at least the moon was looking good that night.

in the end, we decided out of hunger and exhaustion, and got inside this small tim sum restaurant. only 1 table is occupied. looks promising. hehe. but we were so hungry we could eat anything, really.

that small dim sum restaurant

we ordered fried rice, siomai, adidas, and siopao. it's either we were so hungry or the food was really good. may pagsusungit pa si ateng serbidora dahil sa chili sauce. ok fine. nagtampo na kami. ayaw na namin ng chili sauce.

the good stuff

mike refusing to look like a fool

fine. smile properly raw. :)

food tiangge

these pics were taken during the last christmas break. there was a food tiangge at pasir ris and we had a lazy afternoon. mike had shawarma from this seemingly authentic shawarma stall hehe. i had a big potato on a stick - deep fried and bathed in cheese powder. and we had some deep fried stuff that were not so good. we bought bottled drinks from the nearby uncle store, sat down at the park, ate our super healthy  food, and had a real date. at some point, we shared food with the ants, but it's all good. hehehe. love days like this. :)