Merry Belated Christmas!! O.o..

In the blink of an eye, I've been working in Singapore for almost 6 months now.. I know I haven't blogged about my new workplace before but day in day out its almost the same as the number of colleagues I have now is so much lesser than before and it seems to me that they are not as spontaneous as my previous colleagues, so there's much less interesting stuff happening.. T___T

Apparently, we will have a Christmas celebration/ dinner every year as my lady boss is a Christian. This year we had to celebrate much earlier to accommodate everyone's leave schedule. Can you believe that we had our Christmas dinner on 12 December?! @.@~ This year, the dinner was held at Latitude Bistro at this private club on Sentosa Island called ONE°15 Marina Club.

Since there are 11 of us and two bosses=2 cars, and one of the listed companies had an announcement that day, I got to go in a taxi with 2 other colleagues after releasing the announcement. The whole way there we were fretting about how we were going to get home, cos Sentosa Cove, where the club is located is a long long long loooong way in from Sentosa Gateway and the initial plan by our bosses was to go for drinks after dinner and we would only be allowed to go home around midnight :S Thank goodness, we managed to finish early in the end and I very luckily caught the last mrt back!

Exterior of the restaurant, some photos are blur as my phone camera doesn't do well in bad lighting.. @.@

Co Sec Department, LoL at how I used to work in a similar department with around 80 people.. Downgraded.. XD

My senior at work, who really is my senior from college since she was in the same course two years earlier than me.. what a coincidence! :)

Dinner was an all you can eat buffet! The spread wasn't large but there were lots of good stuff to pick from and the dessert section which is my favourite part was quite satisfying~ I only had three rounds though, maybe it was because I didn't feel the need to gorge myself silly when I wasn't paying for the meal @.@~

As you can see, there was sashimi, fresh oysters, crab claws and Maine lobster!! I don't recall eating a lobster straight from the shell before, it was really really good! Sweet and springy~ There was an array of sushi too, but I didn't want to have so much rice, so I skipped that part..

Roast beef (Yums!), Cod fish, samosas and cheese and crackers from the cheese platter~ I remember enjoying the brie cheese but there was one called Reblochon which was incredibly pungent and the taste just stuck to my tongue, definitely not my type of cheese.. I also decided to skip the turkey roast which has a reputation for not being the tenderest type of meat~

Dessert!! warm and gooey bread and butter pudding, assorted cakes, sinfully sweet christmas cookies and pecan pie! I've always wanted to try pecan pie but never knew where to find it,thank goodness it tasted quite good, something like what I'd imagined it would taste like, nutty and not too sweet~

After dinner, we played some games, which were kind of stupid, but rather fun once you immerse yourself into it. First, we played one where two people were assigned to a team and we had to hook our hands together behind our backs so that we would be stuck together back to back, then run around trying to grab the other teams' Christmas hats! Sounds so ridiculous, but it was quite exciting really and great exercise! I think I sweated more that night than I do in one week @.@

Then we switched to the classic pass the parcel game. The losers had to do a forfeit such as: dance like Shakira, walk like a duck or some extreme ones like trying to propose to someone whose parents disapprove of your marriage, lol.. My favourite one was where a chinese colleague, filipino colleague and my boss had to pretend that they were an underwear thief, victim and policeman respectively, and they each had to speak in different languages trying to explain the situation, even without the scenario, it was so funny all of us were laughing like crazy..

Angie trying her hardest to win the hand of her 'lover'.. hahahahaha...

Crazy woman alert!! You'll never guess what I was doing.. :P

after the second game it was time to have the birthday cake~ Since my birthday is only 2 days apart from Angie's, we had a joint celebration and the restaurant had prepared 2 banana cakes for us, lol..

Yippee, I'm 10 years old this year!! :) *Denial much?!*

I wish with all my might~

Blowing out the candle~

Got a birthday card from my colleagues and a birthday kiss from our French client who rents one of the rooms in our office, a very fun person to be with~ All thanks to her, I now know how to say 'How do you do?' and 'I'm very well, thank you' in French.. :D

A very rare evening full of laughter with my co-workers =)

Earlier that week, we had to stay back one Friday evening to set up the christmas tree, which is also a yearly tradition. The tree looked much more impressive than the one at my old office, but it wasn't fun setting it up at all as the centralised air-con was switched off already! *groan*

Group shot~

The tree and a glimpse of my boss who spent ages fussing over the tree, at the same time hindering us from going home

Oh, had a surprise when I went to work yesterday, my boss was giving out photos to everyone from our Christmas celebrations. I'm so glad because I got the one that I liked the most out of the whole lot! Something special since its the first time I have an actual tangible photograph of myself (besides passport sized ones) in ages.. Thanks boss~

I'm still rather undecided as to I'm happy here or not.. sure, working here has its perks i.e. I can afford a car now which I definitely couldn't at my old job but I sure miss my old colleagues and most of all my old boss who has my utmost respect and adoration.. Kind of miss my old job, but I know that the environment is different now since most of the people I had worked with have also left.. le sigh~

What a difference a year makes. Last year's tree at my old job.. smaller tree with less grandeur but you could feel the warmth and love emanating from the office.. This year, we also exchanged gits and set up the tree together but it felt like just another task that we had to finish, with the boss standing there barking orders at us.. I think with the new year, I should try to think of only the good parts and try to hang in there, 1 and a half years more to freedom~!

My favourite photo from 12 Dec 2011:-

Xmas '11

Korean Garden Club Restaurant - The Korean BBQ Experience~

Caught in a Korean craze lately.. @.@~

Latest Obsession!! Lee Min Ho as City Hunter~ *swoon*
The rare Korean drama that is perfect! exciting, not draggy at all and with the perfect music score to boot.. Yeah I know, its been out half a year already.. I'm outdated lah, so what :P

What better time to remind myself of some wholesome, yummy Korean food?! I've been wanting to do a post on this Korean restaurant in Johor Bahru since ages ago but its been hard to find excess brain cells to blog properly after finishing a whole day of work.. The first time I went was in July last year for a gathering with my secondary school classmates and the second time was for my birthday dinner with Mum and Bro~

They say that first impressions are most important, so it was lucky that I had a very good first impression of the place as the second experience wasn't that good and if my review was based on the second visit, it would be a very bad review indeed.. more on that later though..

The Korean Garden Club Restaurant is situated along Lido Beach at one of the old bungalows by the side of the road, its easier to spot now since they put up a red signboard, but it was much harder to locate previously, we had to look out for some wooden huts to find it..

The very understated and hard to spot entrance! This was the only sign telling us that we were at the correct place the first time I went @.@

said huts and part of the main house~

What a pretty house.. I want!!!

We arrived early :)

So there was plenty of time to chit chat and fool around before our gathering began :)

Behind the scenes of Domokun's modelling photoshoot~~
Link to the album here, but it could be locked, hehe

There were 10 of us, so we ordered Set H~ I'm so kind that I'm going to list out what the set consisted for easy reference:

Set H (6-8 pax) RM300
Marinated Pork Meat x 2
Seafood Onion Pancake x 2
Grilled Mackerel Fish
Ginseng Chicken Soup x 2
Chicken Meat x 2
Fresh Pork Belly x 2
Fried Dumpling

Even without the pan chan (which I've defined before previously) it already seemed like a lot.. whats more the tea, pan chan and salad greens are refillable, so you can be satisfied even if you are literally starving before having dinner there..

The mind boggling array of side dishes, ALL REFILLABLE!! *great for stingy people like me who love a good bargain*

Enjoy the sunset and sea breeze while dining :D

This is the grill for the BBQ! Don't worry about consuming too much carbon since they change the lid every time they cook a new dish :):)

Pork Belly before and after.. Yummy!! Highly recommend the pork belly :)

Marinated chicken meat, I remember it tasted a little sweet because of the sauce.. Note to self: I don't like my meat sweet @.@~

This is the grilled mackerel, which tasted slightly burnt because of the skin.. I didn't like this as it tasted a little too fishy for me.. I think this wasn't very popular with the others as well..

Korean Seafood Pancake~

I forgot to take pictures of the Ginseng Chicken Soup and Dumplings, but as you can see, even with such a long table, we still had trouble fitting all the food in... muahahhaha... The thing I love the most about Korean food is that its so healthy, you feel healthier even by looking at the amount of greens on the table *Trying to ignore the fact that I'm eating BBQ-ed meat*

Quite a good turn out, 10 out of 12!! I think we sat there from 6pm (when the restaurant opened) until 11pm, there was just so much catching up to do :)

Anyways, I couldn't wait to go again after that first time.. but the second time was a little disappointing, there were mosquitoes everywhere, we had a hard time getting people to serve us, i.e. for refills (which wasn't the case the first time I was there T_T) and I think we just ordered too much for 3 people, which made the volume of food on the table a bit too overwhelming.. aaaand, the toilet was a huge disappointment, maybe because the house is so old that the accompanying toilet just seems like it can't hold up much longer..

Lesson learned: Do not sit outdoors after it has rained!! (and also hold your bladder until you reach home so you don't have to experience the run-down toilet, hahaha)..

Do not fret though, I would still love to dine there if given the chance and I'd still recommend the restaurant to friends, just be sure you follow the instructions above~ :D

Missha's Princessy Wedding~ ^o^

Sunday 20.11.2011

You know you're getting old when you start getting invited to weddings and full moon parties *groan* I'll have to admit, this wasn't my first wedding invitation, but the first that I actually looked forward to attending :) 2 big reasons:

i) The bride was absolutely sincere and had asked us to book the date for her since February, not someone who contacts you out of the blue just to tell you that they are getting married; and

ii) The venue of the wedding was Westin, KL, which is located right next to Starhill Gallery, and a 5* hotel no less! Im your neighbourhood 'jakun' (i.e. country bumpkin) who hasn't stepped foot into any 5* hotel since god knows when, so just had to jump at the chance to do so =)

My outfit.. a rare chance to dress up, but ruined by the huge bruise on my arm T.T

My chauffeur and me~

The backdrop at the stage area. I really loved the shimmering effects created by the strands of lights!

A closer look at the gorgeous cake.. I seriously thought cakes like this only appeared in dramas =)

my beloved fellow ex-Tricorians..

Wedding favours were chocolates from Westin KL and wedding photo bookmarks~

and the very crowded table settings.. I really didn't dare move much in case I knocked anything over and despite me trying to move as little as possible, i still had quite a few near misses with the wine glasses *groan*

Everybody went to get their hair set and looked so glamourous except me T.T

The menu was full of stuff that I'd never tried before and the dessert was completely unpronounceable -- fine dining~ :)

We were all pretty hungry already by the time the first dish appeared at 8pm++ This is The Westin Combination Platter. Clockwise from top: Spinach Mushroom Parfait~Calamansi Chilli Marinated Taiwanese Shell Abalone~Star Anise Ginger Marinated Salmon~Spicy Prawn Tartlet~ My favourite was the slightly smoked salmon followed by the pastry of the prawn tartlet, hahaha.. The abalone with the greenish coloured seaweed just tasted too fishy for me and the parfait was interesting without being especially yummy @.@~

Braised Shark's Fin. Dry Scallop, Shredded Seafood with Twin Melon Broth (which did nothing much to satiate our hunger, the waiter didn't even fill our bowls properly, as you can see, my bowl was only 2/3 full)

Steamed Red Grouper Hong Kong Style This was quite good, but I wished the portion could be a little bit bigger, I think I would need supper after having a dinner fine-dining style =.=

Esmei! I miss you immensely!!

Honey Mustard Glazed Spring Chicken with Braised Black Plum and Rosemary Juice. Quite nice, especially the plum which I had thought that I wouldn't fancy since its all mushy..


Braised Abalone with Hong Kong Kai Lan and Premium Abalone Sauce. I loved this, but strangely enough, not because of the abalone, but because of the kai lan, which I love =)

Roast Duck and Garlic Rice Cake with 5 Spice Duck Gravy. This I found rather weird,. Would have preferred the duck to be served alone, I couldn't finish the rice as glutinous rice has a way of sinking in your stomach and making you feel very full, especially when we were so far into the meal. I think I would have enjoyed this dish more if it was served earlier..

Gateau au Chocolat Chaud, Creme Glacee au Yaourt
Hot Chocolate Cake and Yoghurt Ice-cream. The completely unpronounceable dessert, hehehe..basically nice and warm moist chocolate cake and youghurt ice-cream, hehe..

The beautiful bride finally came round to take a group picture with us.. I don't know why but it felt like I was in the room with a super star... =) So proud of her... Congrats Mish!!!

This pic damn cute! ^^ I failed to get a picture of her in her first dress, which was even nicer than the green one.. but very hard to capture her while she was walking down the red carpet and with so many other tables in front of us.. T.T wasted..

The newlyweds cutting the cake~

A very fun night marred a little by the service at The Westin, I'd expected better service at such a high-end place.. The waiter had to be told repeatedly to refill your glasses, until we were quite fed up at the end.. and they made us wait for quite long intervals between dishes, which made the dinner drag on for more than 4 hours.. argh... We only finished at around 12.30am... Furthermore, the servings that he dished out to us were so obviously different that we couldn't help complaining amongst ourselves.. i.e. some of us got a plate full of fish and some got a plateful of bones @.@~

Anyways, can't complain too much else it would seem like I was there more for the food than the celebration, which wasn't the case.. We still managed to have quite a nice little gathering :):)

Aww.. I'm so glad that I got to know you guys...