Weekend Getaway - Batam

just some snap shots of our Batam getaway with de girls over last weekend. A weekend is just nice there, since there's nothing much to do, most of the time we're shopping in super markets! lolx, that's about the most things you can buy there, some toiletries and local snacks, some of the girls are simply crazy over Indo Mie & Sedap instant noodles, they buy in cartons loh.

Massage there is so-so only, or maybe i don't really enjoy the spa kind of massage, prefer the cheena pressure point tui na kind.
on the positive note, the massage is 1.5 hours with 1 hour of massage and 30 minutes of body scrub, you get your personal room with a personal bath tub and option to go into the suana room, all these for a mere SGD30! how cheap that is!

Oh head massage there is damn cheap and good! even better than that spa massage we went to. only less than $10 SGD you get a cream bath (some sort of hair treatment) nd a 45 minutes scalp, shoulder massage.

Total damange for a weekend trip to batam inclusive of spa massage and a personal tour guide cum chauffer: $125 per pax, how worth it right?

ok enough said, this our first meal in batam:

the dragon fruit juice is heavenly la! thick and not diluted like most of de juices in Singapore, food so-so nia lo..

after drinking the heavenly dragon fruit juice, some of the girls went in search of dragon fruits to buy back Singapore, too bad they didn't have the red flesh kind..

here's some of their roadside stalls and the tapioca chips they sell, very sedap~! heard from Naini (bro's indonesian helper) that alot of them grow their own tapioca and make the snack to sell at the road side.

the roadside stalls very colourful hor? looks pretty...ahaha

and so it's dinner time! some pics of the food, not taken very nicely cos we're all too hungry than to be bothered to take nice shots of the food. ahah
the fish ain't very nice but the calamari and the sambal sotong is very yummy!
of cos their ayam penyet is nice as well, 6 of us with so many dishes costs us only SGD40.

oh ya the above teh botoh is very nice too like our teh o ice...



and so in between our free time, we're hooked on MONOPOLY DEAL! quite fun leh, my first time playing hehz..



Supper time!!

Tab strongly reccommended this sweet murtabak where they put tons of condensed milk, taste like our mee jiang kueh but theirs you can choose chocolate or cheese etc.
the chocolate is just lots of chocolate rice on it loh...

the satay is nice though, dun quite like the murtabak, mixture of sweet and salty kind of weird..

that's it, simple weekend over at Batam. quite an enjoyable way to spend a simple weekend if you need a breather away from singapore, pace there is really slow, they take a damn long time to serve you la! so good place to be there and relax..

didn't even feel that tired when i was there but when i came back , i practically slept the most of monday instead of companying uncle des (we both took leave), feel so bad, kind of wasted his leave watching me sleep..ahaha

suffocating..

duno why was feeling kinda stuffy @ work today...you know kind of in the total no mood to do much work kind of thing?
just can't wait for the day to end so that i can go home and have my ben and jerry's and let tomorrow arrive faster.

finally a weekend getaway trip, sounds like so damn long since my last leisure trip, that was in Toyko Oct 2009 i think or was it the malacaa trip in 2009..ay nvm...definitely more than a year loh.

kind of looking fwd to the massage and all, Drea has never been to Batam loh, very sua ku..
the only sad thing is, the much looked-forward getaway trip is not a getaway trip with uncle des, so sad, ain't able to share the relaxation and joy with him..haiz..seems so difficult to go on a trip with him eh.

you see, it'll be kind of boring to go just as a couple so you have to try and look for other friends to go together and most likely than not, only another couples wouldn't mind a couple couple trip...

Progress

and this is an update of uncle des uber sweet and warm pressie..







about done...looks about done still gotta do the outline and add in the words..i think it's just in time for valentines pressie..hehz..

was telling uncle des i didn't expect it to take so long also, what a huge project..all my hard work and 2 months worth of effort inside, he better treasure it.

random updates

it's random time again..had some visitors from Japan last friday, so it's a day of being a "tour guide".
cos they only have a day in Singapore, time is pretty tight bringing them to see as much as possible, to meetings and to have good food. they did not have chance to try the really good food in singapore though aka hawker food!

we had lunch at Rama thai, goodwood park hotel...
oh boy check out the huge chunk of shark's fin per pax..


and then it was a series of meeting at Taka, followed by meeting @ Mediacorp.

i almost forgot, CNY is coming..there's the usual CNY fair at taka, i've seen lotsa cutesy CNY stuffs and snacks, thought of accompanyig uncle des with his CNY shopping here, since i can't celebrate CNY, can only acc him loh, get a feel of CNY.
While explaining some CNY practices to our Japanese guests, i realised that my foundation of my own culture ain't really very strong.


@mediacorp: no doubt, tight security indeed. the internal staff has to register you way before hand with the receptionist so they can create a code for you and then you're allowed to enter the premises.

the long day finally ended with seafood dinner at Palm Beach, One Fullerton, didn't know that the view there is so pretty, right across you see MBS, and it's really pretty at night across the sereneity of the river. Thought it will be a good place to have dinner there as they can see and take pictures of merlion too...but who knows...



Merlion is taking a shower..oh yea, and so it indeed is....not to mention the guests are absolutely disappointed. nonetheless they managed to take a picture with the "showering" merlion though.
THe food are Palm Beach, One fullerton is....NOT NICE LA! though the crabs are huge but the taste....hmm...blk pepper crab and chilli crab, i think the one at Ghim moh's so much better! i only had one small part of the crab and it's enough to make me stop, it didn't leave me craving for more..
not very glam eating crab with guests, that's one, and secondly i don't really know how to de-shell the crab, and the more important part, the taste of the crabs didn't leave me yearning for more.

So if you want to eat crabs, don't go there ok! unless the view is more important to you than the taste of the crabs. their baked cheesy lobster is yummilicious though.
Sorry no pics, it ain't very polite to be snapping pics with guests around ya?

it's been a great experience bringing associates around for a day but at the same time very tiring as well, it can be kind of embarassing when you are bringing overseas guests and some places aren't very service oriented. And did i mention even the Q at Mandarin hotel during check in is so terrible? for god's sake you're a 5 star hotel ain't you? and your guests actually take 30-45mins just to Q and check in? to make things worse some of the rooms are not even ready yet!!
Speaking about making Singapore a gracious society? hmm....we gotta work harder. much much harder.


After a hectic friday at work, we decided to make our weekend more peaceful. Our first attempt in trying to whip up ok, whip up is too boombastic a word to use for our small, simple dinner...
But we tried to cook soup! hehz, mushroom soup...


oh yeah it may not look very appetizing with the dull colours and all but it's very nice, tasted like the mushroom's pot soup, minus off the herbs they use.
Not bad for our first attempt, mama thought so too, hehz...
Drea likes to cook with uncle des, cos he does all the washing thereafter..muahahahaa...

oooh received this hamper @ work with one of this cutesy stuff. it's a 'pineapple tart' the japanese way. you know the popular japan's buckwheat cake that is very similar to our kueh lapis but in a cyclinder shape?
they combined the 2 together and pack it in a cute little rabbit box.



cos it's the japanese style, they actually have "yuzu" taste in it..hmm kind of not too used to this kind of pineapple and a tad too sweet for my liking...

on another random note, this is how part of my desk look like now..


I've a double screen extension. this is so cool la, maybe i'm kind of suaku but my first time using an extension monitor. you can stretch your window to the other monitor, so say in this instance, i moved my windows media player to the monitor and open up another excel containing the characters and anime information, makes navigation and reports so much easier!

No more hassle of having to minimize each window or to cascade your windows just to compare data and information.

festive updates...

been working on this project for uncle desmond, as his belated Xmas pressie, cos delivery was delayed hence i can only start working on it late.

it's a cross -stitched cushion cover...can you tell what picture it is?


shall post the progress bit by bits..


the whole festive season is just eat eat and eat, here are just some snippets of the foodie..."SOME" only ok! it's a no wonder i've been putting on weight...haiz..

a simple new yr dinner we had at a kopi tiam around my place, surprising this is damn good la, mini herbal steamboat, the ingredients are all very fresh! heng this one not that fattening cos it's not a buffet styled steamboat..lolx - we just had one few days before we had this loh,,@ my fav Zhonghua SteamBoat with uncle Shane..

post Xmas Lunch @ French stall around Macpherson area..treat from Mamee Ronson...
never know there's such a nice place hidden among the HDB kopitiam..but the food..eh..nothing to shout about and not filling one loh.

.

lovely Xmas Potluck session with the shoot cock club members! ahah kind of miss shooting cock leh..everyone either prepared or bought some food over..nice chatting and catch up session with them..plus the homemade burgers by Jo is simple Fantabulous..

Ain't working the last week of December cos company close..nice time to be relaxing and nua-ing at home, cos it's mama's bday too! spent time at home playing with BB Zavier and went out for a family dinner @ Nex - Dian Xiao Er.
the food there not nice one loh...yucks......

on a cuter note, Bb Zavier ish all so smiley and even cheekier after his gai gai trip @ Nex..



this marks the last of my one week break, haiz, at least instead of binging we're working out!!
what you thinking? wash car la...lolx..


Uncle Des got me this pinky bucket and pinky sponge to wash pinky, it made car washing alot more delightful! not only that, he helped bathed pinky too..hehz..
see, my shuai shuai de Uncle Des on the left taken when he took off to go par tor with me since me not working...we're enjoying Fish & Co @ AMK hub

been a quiet, peaceful festive season but happy enough. ..