first visit to brewerks

scheduled post while i'm on my way to genting! =D

... ...

i've always wanted to try out brewerks after knowing that they actually brew their own beer, but never really got the chance to do so. was finally able to drop by yesterday.

boss ordered the pilsner beer; first a jug and then a tower when the rest subsequently arrived. tasted quite normal. actually i still prefer the barley beer i had once at harry's. i think they brew it themselves as well. lols. and i had wanted a cocktail but they don't have long island. tsk.

ordered some appetizers too. we got the nachos, calamari, chilli fries, and fried shrimp. i didn't get to try the nachos and calamari, but the fried shrimp was nice. so nice that we ordered it twice. the chilli fries came with beef, but the sauce is yummy!

then settled for small fish and chips as main. i don't think that they have a large variety of mains. pretty boring. lols. but the portion is huge! look at the fries. all 3 of us who ordered the fish and chips didn't finish our fries. tsk.

overall, i think neither the beer nor the food is worth dropping by again. bill for 7 of us (cos boss never order main) came up to almost $450! boss was hopping around cos he never expected it to come this high. lucky i wasn't the one who suggested this place. XD

the 3-hour dinner didn't actually turn out as bad as the CNY one, even though i was super tired (and pissed. ahem!) last night. the group was smaller and it was easier to get involved in the conversations. quite fun i have to admit. i guess it's just during work that i cannot stand. i am so contradicting. LOL.

alrights! let's hope this trip is safe and sound and the cable car is working and i can actually make it to the strawberry farm. ^^

auntie for a day

so last saturday, i joined a one-day wellness tour organized by kolam ayer CC, together with SSD and the 2 aunts. it was a good experience, as in, it allowed me to see how horribly-planned it was so that i will never participate in one ever again. lol.

♥ it was drizzling throughout (ok not their fault but it still sucks)

♥ they should have liaised with companies who were more willing to show the production of the goods instead of us just going there to purchase the stuff

♥ there were 4 of the factories who were on the same row, and they had to plan the one furthest as the first stop. the lane was too small for the bus to u-turn, so in order to go to the subsequent stops in front, the bus had to exit the lane, go one big round, and enter the same lane. twice or thrice it happened. damn freaking lame and brainless.

♥ 'tourguide' fail. instructions were not clear. apparantly she wasn't really prepared. tsk.

my main purpose of going on this tour was to practise shooting. i was honestly visualizing taking pretty black and white or sepia shots of old nostalgic factories and machineries. sighx. i kinda gave up after the first stop. -_-

 anyway.

1. grass jelly factory - table set up to sell products. there was machinery at the back, but it was not running that day.

2. ice cream factory - lameass. one small chiller room with one small section of ice cream. priced almost the same as haagen daaz and ben&jerry, but dunno simi brand. the rest were stuff like cheesecake....and can't remember what else.

3. 包 factory - we walked over to the 包 factory next door, only to realize it actually wasn't part of our itinerary. lols! it was also very boring, just go in queue up to buy 包.

4. salmon factory - this was probably the only thing that made up for the tour. bought salmon sashimi ($18 per tray)! they have a whole chiller room full of seafood (salmon, prawns, cavier, codfish etc) at slightly cheaper prices (like 2 salmon fish heads for $1). they also have some mushrooms for sale outside.

5. 點心 factory - they sell frozen stuff like curry chicken, chilli crab, seafood rolls etc etc. 點心 meh?

6. vegetable farm - my favorite part of the tour. =D the vegetables all look so fresh and colorful, and the rows and rows of veggies make me feel like i'm not in singapore! lols.

... ...

then met cher and zhu yesterday. spent majority of the afternoon shopping with cher. lol i've always thought that me buying shoes was problematic enough (due to my big feet *paiseh*), until yesterday. she's worse than me! =X

(i really miss shopping with 媽. at least i don't feel that self-conscious when we dig for $10 bargains. i cannot get over the fact that $50 for a pair of shoes or a top is 'affordable' nowadays. quantity over quality for me i guess. boo.)

lunch at asian kitchen and dinner at hotpot culture. both are overpriced. definitely won't drop by again. hmmmmmm.

(p/s. bought the bb cream i wanted at watsons with 35% off! super duper happy i saved 10 bucks on it. lol.)

... ...

horrible work week ahead. please let me survive this shit.

on hiatus?

i hope not but it seems i don't really have much to blog about recently. the most interesting thing in my life so far would probably be food. which...kinda gets boring after some time. i could probably blog complain a lot about work. to be honest, whether or not current and future employers might see this, it's unbearable.

of ALL the places i've worked at, GBA people are by far the worst. even at NTU, where there was open war, at least my superiors and immediate colleagues were helpful. actually, i could really care less about them, cos you see, i'm more of a get-work-done, good-colleague-relationship-is-just-a-bonus kinda person (and i have yet another early confirmation to prove). but it's pissing me off super badly that the people are actually making it hard for me to get things done. i don't know how long i can stand this shit already.

on a lighter note, met up with ex-uni-mates for dinner! it used to be me not working while the other 3 were; now it's the opposite. ah wells. i never want to face that income-less days again. lols.

sumo house has moved! into NTUC at AMK central. it seems smaller than the previous location, but surprisingly we managed to get seats! sobas and don~ yummy! oh, and i already trained this group to wait for me to take photo first before they can start to eat. ROFL!

it's funny how majority of our conversations ALWAYS revolve around relationships. maybe it has something to do with them being younger than me. it feels nice though. *gossip gossip gossip* I LIKE!

xinzhi and gladys got me 我的美麗日記 masks from taiwan! together with the 4 boxes that SSD got his colleague to buy, i think i have 70+ pieces altogether. i sooooo wanna try the strawberry yoghurt and mixed berries ones. =D

and remember in my previous post here, i mentioned i wanted to try mr pang's assam fish head? SSD and i went to try! they were out of medium, so we got the large one instead ($25). it was wonderfully nice! looked super big but we managed to finish everything. boo. do give it a try if you're in the area!

TGIF tomorrow. gonna be a busy busy week before i fly coach off to genting. mad looking forward! and i hope they stop quarreling before then or it'll just ruin everything.

alice florist

i was totally in a bad mood early this morning because of some unhelpful people, but my mood was greatly alleviated with a call from alice florist. ^^

so i was asked to send a funeral wreath to one of our distributors in taiwan. the major local florists and majority of the taiwan florists either (1) did not ship there, (2) did not accept amex, (3) have weirdly bright funeral wreaths, (4) way over our budget, or (5) unable to input chinese characters into the order form. was totally about to give up for the day when i happened to chance upon alice florist.

♥ they accept amex

♥ they have normal (pretty and presentable) funeral wreaths…

♥ …at a reasonable price (i saw another florist selling a single pot of white orchid for usd160!!)

♥ they allow chinese characters (i gave the address in chinese and english lmao)

♥ they allow orders through website / phone / email / fax

but you know the best part? i made the order last evening and they called me this morning, having already liaised with the other party on the delivery. 原來 according to taiwanese funeral custom, you should send flowers on the last day. cos the flowers only last a few days and their funerals are apparently very long, like 50-60 days? seriously!! this lady was pretty understanding and helpful when i couldn’t understand the funeral terms while she was explaining. they have also decided on a delivery date next month, and will keep the order till then.

so nice and efficient! where to find such service in singapore? =D

I guess this is not really useful information but perhaps the lack of service in singapore made me appreciate good ones even more. i do kinda miss taiwan now. lols.

[sponsored review] the vow

'sponsored' because i had won a pair of tickets from nuffnang. ^^ couldn't book the seats online, so i chose a midnight show cos i thought we would have better chances of getting a good seat. thankfully SSD went to buy the tickets in the morning on his way here. the cinema hall was almost full! tsk.

(i never liked midnight shows cos i had watched too many horror shows where the 'action' happened in the female toilets during late night movies. but i guess since nowadays even midnight shows are fully booked, i'm pretty safe! lols.)

anyway, the movie was rather disappointing. sorry but the idea of paige falling in love with her husband again after her memory loss just didn't appeal to me much. i thought leo would do whatever he can to make paige fall in love with him again, but nooooo! he lost his temper at her and gave up trying after some time, signing the divorce papers in the end. 

i went in with, 'so here's a guy that's gonna be the envy of all women cos he loves his wife so much, even when she cannot remember him'. i came out with, 'shit him. i don't see him making any effort. what's the point of saying he loves her when he simply gives up?' if paige didn't initiate, it would have been the end of them. -_-

it'll probably be quite romantic if we had watched it during the vday period. but now 2 months later, it's kinda lame i have to admit. i think leo should have done more to prove his love for paige. oh wells. lucky the tickets are free. boo.

... ...

and i finally got down to making the green tea ice cream we bought some time ago.

it tasted quite nice leh! not alot of green tea taste though. the instructions said 200ml of milk or water was enough for 4-5 people. LIARRRR!! lol. but i had fun. =D

my tired saturday

my paktor day! =D

headed back to school in the morning to pickup my transcript. i thought there was the cert as well, but i guess i gotta wait till october for it. tsk.

then made our way (SSD came to meet me in school ^^) to city hall for SE! feels like it's been such a long time since we dined there. missed it! and i specially brought wall-e out to shoot because om nom really can't capture the beauty of my favorite grilled salmon belly sushi. LMAO.

not much photos; we took repeat plates most of the time. and the salmon sashimi i forgot to shoot. lols. oh my grilled salmon belly. y u stay so far?! =(

walked to plaza sing for our movie - the highly-raved hunger games! SSD says she looks prettier in the poster. lol. i like her though. cos she uses the bow - my favorite weapon in mmorpgs. XD

it was indeed as nice to watch as they say. but i didn't like the concept of it. although it's somewhat similar to the gladiator shows in ancient rome, at least in the latter, you can survive if you're strong enough. the hunger games is so much sicker because the elements can actually be added and controlled. like fireballs, trees, and even the hounds in the end. why would anyone enjoy watching people kill one another? -_-

anyway. walked back to city hall after the show. (bought 2 pairs of shoes on the way. boo.) and had dinner at makansutra. dabao-ed hokkien mee, char kuay teow, and hei jian to the 'riverside' to eat.

honestly, hei jian was not too bad. char kuay teow was so-so. hokkien mee tasted HORRIBLE. i probably won't waste my money (and appetite) on this stall anymore.

blur night mbs shots. *need more practice for wobbly hands*

did so much walking that day; my leg muscles hurt. and i fell asleep with my mask on. tsk.