Monday, January 6

The Season of Giving


24/12/2013

Reached Sg at around 10 at night. Everyone gathered around for Christmas exchange and of course as usual, pictures taking. 


Memorial of Kor's hand where he tried to photo bomb us thinking it was a phone camera. There goes a wasted polaroid. Hahaha. Epic moment. 



Success on the 3rd try :)


My presents from under the tree! The moment the "kids" love the most: our names being called to receive the presents. ^^


Super excited when I saw this because I wanted to get it the other time. Pris told her Mum to get this for me because she thinks I'll like it. Thank you Laopo, you know me best! 






Adorable us with adorable headbands :D





The yearly tradition that never fails; us gathering at one of the houses with presents for everyone. Although this year's was pretty rushed b/c some of us had plans later on and there wasn't time for TCSS  with log cakes, ham and sparkling juice, it's the love we have for one another that matters. Ever year, I feel blessed to be part of this family. Love you all! 


Selfie with the pretty X'mas tree.


After that cabbed down to Victor's place to meet 'em bros. Those assholes start bullying me the moment I reached -.-
Brought my reindeer headband with me and they decided to take "mugshots" of everyone wearing it...


Didn't do much except mahjong and drank a little but it was good seeing you guys again and having a full attendance. Hope to see you all botaks soon enough. 


25/12/2013



JP bought me One Piece Gachapon for Christmas. Now I have Chopper and Princess Shirahoshi on my shelf!!! ^^ I was already happy with them but he told me those are just "appetizers" and the real present is still in the plastic bag.....


A. Freaking. Blender. 

I have been passing comments about having a blender because it's so much easier to make fruit juice instead of the old-school juice maker we have at home (the one where you put in fruit one by one). And with a blender, there's so much more I can do, like make smoothies and milkshakes! Plus, it's useful for cooking too if you wanna blend the ingredients together. Now I have one, Woohooo! 

We decided to stay home this Christmas because everywhere else would probably be packed and it wouldn't be easy to find places for dinner and post-dinner activities anyway. Went grocery shopping for the ingredients and cooked together for this...







Made strawberry smoothie with my new blender. With a bottle of Moscato that is still in my fridge because I didn't like the taste of this one and it's too strong for me. The Brown Brothers one that JP bought after this was way better. 


Miso Chicken. 


Ham wrapped cheese franks. Supposed to be wrapped with bacon but I am a weirdo who doesn't like bacon so substituted it with ham instead. Tasted awesome! :D


Loved this dinner so much. I like how we cooked together and made the whole setting feel like we are dining at some restaurant, our own private restaurant. 

Had a good X'mas this year. Maybe Santa decided I was nice this year round. 

X



Friday, January 3

Family Trip


When I say "family", this time I meant the entire maternal side of my family. Which means my grandparents, uncles & aunties, cousins are included. This is the first time we went on a trip away from Singapore together as a whole like this. I've went overseas with them (separate families) on several occasions, but not as an entire family, so I was pretty looking forward to it. 

22/12/13

Met at Sengkang as early as 7am to put our presents under the Christmas tree as we'll be back on Christmas eve. Finally boarded the coach.


My artsy candid shot of Sissy. 
I think I'm a talented candid photographer.

After several pitstops in JB, we reached Malacca to rest for a few hours. Stopped at this street that's rather popular with tourists, and had their famous chicken rice balls.






It was pretty special, but nothing fantastic. Spend an hour shopping along the street but there was nothing much that caught our eyes so basically, we took it as sightseeing (& thinking it was a waste of time, shortchanging our actual trip which was to KL).

Stopped for some dessert. According to the guide, it's pretty raved by tourists, by we found it normal. They had ice caching in durian and chendol flavors but both were pretty meh. 


Time to leave Malacca and so we took the must-have touristy shots.





Sissy & I are the only ones wearing shades because we didn't have our contact (cosmetic) lenses on. Vanity runs in our blood. 

Stopped by Sunway Pyramid to pick Rachel up as she was already in KL for her bowling competition. Stopped by a restaurant on our way to the hotel for dinner because we were all starving. 






Reached our hotel pretty late. It was close to midnight if I'm not wrong. 



And boy were we amazed when we stepped into our apartment. The "kids" had one all to ourselves while the adults split into another 2 apartments. 



My room with Priscilla. 



Entire living room area and the other 2 rooms. 

It was tough trying to capture the apartment in its full glory even with the panorama function. We even have a Nescafe coffee machine, a professional oven, stove lights, lots of utensils in the drawers, a proper fridge (unlike the mini ones we usually find) in the kitchen. Every room has its own toilet and the one in the master bedroom comes with double sinks, a shower stall & a bathtub. Each room has 2 closets while the master bedroom has an additional column of square shelving. The TVs are mounted to the walls with extension attached, and there is access to ALL CHANNELS, almost like having the MioTV or Starhub thingy where you can subscribe to international channels.

The suite is freaking huge & awesome. In my opinion, it is probably even better than the condos we see in Singapore. And before you ask, YES THERE ARE BALCONIES. But you have to request for the staff to pass you the key so we didn't use them. 




23/12/13

Woke up really early the next day for hotel's breakfast.


I got to say, it sucks. In fact, one of the worst hotel breakfast I've ever had. Even the one I had at a boutique hotel in BKK was better. Everything was beyond cold (it was only 7am) and scrambled eggs taste horrible when they are served cold. Enough said. 

The "kids" went to Sunway Lagoon for the theme parks under the "supervision" of my dad and Jiujiu. My grandpa came along too. The rest of the adults went to Sunway Pyramid for their shopping. 

My craycray family.




AND I AM SO DAMN PROUD BECAUSE I TOOK THE 360 DEGREES VIKING SHIP RIDE!!!
It was not scary at all actually. Because it had to turn 360 degrees, we had a safety harness instead of the usual bar for vikings so it didn't really had the "falling" feeling. But I was completely nauseous after this ride. Super duper giddy when I got down.

The roller coaster was scary though, cus it only had a safety bar and there were falls that were high enough to make us feel our butts lift from the seats. Kind of like the Human roller coaster of Battlestar Galatica in USS before they installed the harness. 

Only had enough time to try the Extreme, Adventure and Water theme parks. Would like to give the Scream Park a try the next time I visit Sunway Lagoon :b

Shopped around Sunway Pyramid and waited a good 2 hours for the coach to get out of the traffic right outside the mall -.- 

So while waiting, crazy photo spam. 


My adorable angel.



Gramps. 



Granny. 



Papa. 


Mumsy. 



Sissy. 


Laopo. 





Attempts to capture the full glory of the pegasus X unicorn in our family photos. 










Went to some shopping mall for dinner. The "food court" is known as a street which serves food that are popular in different countries. Food was good but super expensive though. Walked back to the hotel ourselves because it was very late and they wanted to let the driver & guide rest. 

24/12/13



Breakfast was as horrible. The mee tai mak was hard and chewy. Didn't finish much of what is in that picture. Ordered half-boiled eggs from the chef instead. 

We were all mad pissed that morning because the driver screwed up and got lost, which caused us an hour long journey to the mall, Midvalley, which allegedly only needs 15 minutes. (This is not his first time going the wrong way, getting lost, etc so our patience were at its limit)

Didn't manage to get my hair done together with Pris. She had made an appointment beforehand with the salon and had wanted to bring me with her as the salon told her they will open earlier for her appointment. I was super pissed off and disappointed because:
 1. I have not washed my hair since the shower after Sunway Lagoon. 
2. If the coach driver did not make that mistake, I could have done my hair. 
3. We were left alone so I had to call my mum on data roam.
4. It was freaking hard to communicate because there was some reception problem.
5. I needed to find another salon to wash my hair at least, and I have major trust issues with unfamiliar salons. 

Daddy then accompanied me around Midvalley and we finally found a salon that is not fully booked. Unfortunately, they don't just do "Wash & Blow" but I had wanted to cut my hair anyway. It's just...my trust issues. So far, I only allowed ONE hairstylist in Sg to cut my hair and change my hairstyle so I was a little worried. 

Thankfully, it turned out pretty well and the hair stylist was so patient with me while I tried to explained what I wanted. I even went with the dye he recommended me to have. 



Super satisfied with the results. If anyone is interested, the salon I went to is called A Cut Above. For my previous hair length, wash, dye & cut is around 460 RM. It's a little pricier than what I had expected but to give them credit, the interior is really luxurious and they gave me a senior hair stylist because they do not let their junior stylists do hair cuts. So I would say this salon is pretty atas as compared to the rest that I came across. Plus, my previous hair length was really long, so I guess the price is pretty reasonable, and a fair bit cheaper than in Sg if all else is equal. 



A comparison with my previous hair. It was so long till it gets out of the camera frame every single time. I can finally get rid of the ugly faded color from the previous ash green dye and say goodbye to unmanageable hair that tangles into crazy knots all the time. I was so frustrated in having to comb/pull/cut the knots out I decided I have to get my hair cut before the New Year, and I did it! :)

A good trip to end 2013 with. 

X.