.::Haji Long Weekend::.

have been wanting to blog but keep procrastinating as my laptop is really too slow at home. my trusty fujitsu laptop is already more than 6 years old so you can imagine how slow poke it is by now. but the good thing is, i can still surf net and run funshion provided i wait a bit in between lags haha

decided to start blogging again as i enjoyed reading back my entries and remember some details or events that i would had long forgotten if i had not blogged about it. and as age is catching up, my memory is also becoming worse

recently, bf and i had been embarking on foodie hunts around singapore lol... here are some places to share :)

MARMALADE PANTRY @ THE STABLES

was in the mood for brunch and i had been wanting to try riders cafe at bukit timah saddle club (51 fairways drive) after hearing so much about it... but we were a bit too late for their brunch menu, they only served scones and very limited items during the timeframe we were there. so, we headed to marmalade pantry next door instead...

while walking over to marmalade pantry, we saw my 白马王子 haha... 

my 1st marmalade pantry experience was at ion and honestly, the food was decent enough but it didn't have a wow factor that will make me want to visit again. so, i had quite low expectations of the branch at the stables... but perhaps the ambience at this branch was better so it kinda redeemed itself...

we ordered eggs benedict, crabmeat caesar salad, truffle fries (i was craving for this so badly that day), seared scallop spaghetti and fruit juices.

The poached eggs was done nicely and bf commented it didn’t taste like an egg at all cause there was no eggy taste (does that makes sense? Lol)

Sis love the Caesar salad as she had been obsessed with salad ever since we came back from the States. She was always complaining that Singapore’s veg is not as sweet as that in US. Lol… I guess it’s true, most of the salad we ate here has a bitter taste… but marmalade pantry’s salad was really fresh and sweet… there’s also a generous portion of the crabmeat mixed with the salad, very addictive!

For me, my favourite is the truffle fries lol… I think I am going to start a quest soon to find the best truffle fries in Singapore =p P.S café’s truffle fries is the best so far, in my opinion :) it seems that you either love or hate truffle fries… I loveee it for the smoky taste haha… will go to the supermarket one day to buy truffle oil and make our own truffle fries =p

Drinks-wise, we had iced chocolate and fruit juices, they were decent enough.

As for the haji long weekend that just passed, we went to tiong bahru for more food hunt!

 

Went to the food centre first to see if the wanton mee is open... sadly they are open but sold out :( so i only had the chwee kueh before we moved on to our main aim:  

TIONG BAHRU BAKERY - ENG HOON ST  

Very crowded but we got a seat quite fast as turnover rate was high. Ordered the kouign aman and chocolate croissant, the kouign aman was too sweet for us but the chocolate croissant was just nice… You can see the layers of the pastry going round and round, the outer layer is crispy but remains soft inside, so delightful! Only complain is the chocolate filling is too little… We had a cup of chamomile tea to go with our pastries as both of us are not coffee lovers.

All food and no exercise, how can! But this time, we went cycling at ecp instead of hitting the gym.

I am real excited about the cycling trail that we are gonna do during our upcoming Taiwan trip in November! We will be cycling around 1 of the island in 高雄 for sightseeing, I’ve already printed out the route and it is seriously one of the things I am most looking forward to in Taiwan *rub hands in glee* thinking of joining OCBC cycle next year!

.::Our 1st Home =D::.

hello!

i have not been blogging for quite some time, years in fact D: but, i still come back to this space occasionally to read my past entries. so, recently, i got the kick to blog again hehe so here i am! hopefully, i am able to start blogging regularly again as i get the momentum started and going :) i've forgotten all my html codes for font type and colour though haha...

for my 1st entry of Project Blog Revival, i shall blog about the biggest update in my life right now heh... bf and i finally selected our flat on 23 Sep 2012! :))) just wanna share this journey on the blog so that i can read back in a few years time and reminisce :)

how it all started:

i came back from my USA holiday in April and he came to airport to pick me up. so while we were heading out to buy food, he suddenly told me his friends told him there's a may bto coming with good location at boon keng. i've always liked that area as i grew up there before moving to punggol and it's really convenient at bk.

ok to be honest, i didn't really take our convo that day very seriously as i thought it's probably due to the fact that he miss me too much those 2 weeks when i am away and it got him thinking about our future. =p  not that i am doubtful, but it's just that he always had the stand that we shall only look at such things when we are 30 years old as he want to build his career first. so it's not my fault ok that i never take him seriously that day, but i was secretly happy actually =p

as the days passed, the topic came up a few more times and i realized maybe this is really happening earlier than planned. =p fast forward to the day the may sales launch was released and we went for the ballot! :)

after an agonizing 2 weeks wait, we got the ballot results end June:

we were # 800 out of 888 units available! it's not a fantastic # but at least we are within the units available hehe... thought we can get a selection appointment date in july but zomg, we are scheduled for 23 Sep lol which is another 3 months away o_0 another coincidence was that our selection date actually falls on 农历八月初八! (did i mention our favourite number is 8? lol) haha huat ah! i was secretly very pleased as the number "8" had special meaning to us.

it's our 1st time balloting and we were quite pleased with our luck :) we have 2 sites to choose from, BL and MT

 

  

i was constantly monitoring the flats selection during these 3 months and have never visited a website (not even online shopping sites) so frequently in 1 day =p www.hdb.gov.sg muahaha

on the eve of our selection, we still do not have any fixed unit in mind =p right from the start, we only know we want BL... was discussing at home when we saw some online pics of nearby blocks that could potentially affect some of the BL units that we have narrowed down. bf wanted to go down site recee again to confirm. that was at 1am haha but crazy us went ahead! drove down to the BL site and there were indeed some blocks that will block our view if we choose the leftover units at BL... we went up to the existing blocks beside BL to recee also and one of them gave us both uncomfy vibes :( that was kinda scary and made us consider switching our choice to MT instead...

went to MT next and felt better, ambience was more cheery, no uncomfy vibes hur hur... was done at 3am and we were so tired... our selection appt is at 830am which means we will have less than 3 hours of sleep... but both of us felt that it was worth the effort as it's gonna be a place that we will stay in for at least 5 years heh... went to bed feeling tired and excited! but we also went to bed with no final decision on what to choose, bl or mt? we have 2 units from bl (low floor, 6th and 9th) and 1 unit from mt (mid floor, 16th) in mind lol...

the next morning, we were at hdb hub by 815am =p busy chiong-ing to the 3D models to see see look look, eliminated the BL 6th floor unit but we did not have time to make a final decision between our final 2 units (BL 9th floor and MT 16th floor) before our number was called haha shit...

we got a rather blur Customer Service Officer (CSO) and he kept throwing smoke bombs at us and vice versa lol. after lots of documents signing, the cso asked us which unit we want to select. we were like oh no howww, bl or mt? we even asked the cso to give us 5 minutes more to think it through. he said ok but he sat there staring at us and we felt so stressed and pressured to make a decision immediately lol... finally, baby decided and said let's go for mt lol...

my mummy is more anxious than me, she woke up at 5am just so she can do some prayers for me. she also kept calling me to see if we are done. but, due to the blur CSO which resulted in lots of miscomm, our appt took a whole 2 hours =O lol. other couples with a later appt timing were already done with theirs. =p finally it's all settled!

16th floor, i've not stayed that high before, wonder how is the view up there. we went up to the nearby blocks to take some pics of the view. best thing is my sis will also be moving to the same area in 3 years time and our unit will face her condo lol... i can use telescope to spy on her! hopefully, this will remain as my potential view in 3-4 years to come :) (we used to stay at the curved block on the right of the pic before we moved a decade ago)

and we MIGHT be able to get very limited view of the city from our master bedroom corner window. i am praying hard that we can at least see some fireworks at the flyer spot hehehe, guess we will only know the answer in 3 years time =p

will share some reno ideas and pics that i like in the next post =p it's a bit too early to think about those but just see for fun hehe :)

and this is probably one of the rare moments that he expresses his feelings hehe i am happy too :)

some might think that we've reached the final step, but i think we've not reached the end, it is just the starting of another journey :)