Bangkok Shopping Spree!!!

I've never shopped so much in my entire life until this trip to Bangkok with Bunny and her sister.

Once we touched down and checked into our hotel - Silom Serene, we freshened up, had dinner and headed opposite to the Patpong night market, where we started peeping into the numerous bars with bikini-clad pole dancers and whatnot. It was really an eye-opener, catching glimpses of dancers in the infamous Patpong stretch. Too bad I was busy looking around to actually snap some pictures.

Silom Serene - a boutique hotel

The view from our room


Our mess

Day 1 - First visit to the tailor and shopping at Platinum Fashion Mall

The next day, we started our 3 day long shopping craze:

Outside our hotel along Soi Piphat

Walking along Silom Road


Silom Road



The BTS station nearest to our hotel - Sala Daeng

Bangkok's Skytrain

First stop - Pinky Tailor:

This was a tailor which was recommended to us by Teri and because we desperately needed some pants and shirts, we decided to tailor make some since we were in Bangkok. We went there on the first day to choose our fabric and to take our measurements, and we had to return the next day for fitting and amendments. So I guess about 1/4 of our trip was spent at the tailors!

One of the tailors getting Bunny's measurements for her jacket

After spending almost 2 hours there, we left the tailors for Platinum Fashion Mall (wholesale paradise!!!):

We spent the whole day shopping for clothes, shoes and lingerie! Cheap wholesale prices really makes one go ga-ga!!! Bikinis for SGD 8, tops for SGD 4.55, shoes for SGD 11 and underwear for SGD 1.45! What more can you ask for?

We had to lug our shopping back to the nearest BTS and headed towards Healthland spa. But before that, to appease our empty stomachs we started looking for a place to eat at and chanced upon a seafood restaurant near the spa and till this day, we have not found out the name of that restaurant.



After a heavy seafood dinner with beer, we took a slow stroll towards Healthland, which was situated about 300m from the restaurant. Pity I didn't take any pictures of the place. The spa was HUGE and we each had a 2 hour full-body massage session where I fell asleep when the lady was massaging my limbs. Zzzz. But it was the perfect way to end a tiring day of walking and shopping.


Day 2 - Shopping at malls in Siam

First stop: Pinky tailor again! We were advised to come in for fittings so that any amendments could be made on time.

Please disregard my white 'holiday headscarf'


Poor girl must have been bored out of her wits while waiting for us, fussy Virgos

After much fuss at the tailors, we proceeded with our shopping spree at the malls in Central Bangkok. The first mall which we decided to conquer was Siam Paragon:



Three of us concluded that the malls in Bangkok were so much bigger and nicer to shop at! Although certain items were sold at the same price in Singapore, the sale items were pretty cheap. Well, even if there wasn't a sale, their stuff are still slightly cheaper than Singapore's. Their department stores were typically nice to shop at, not to mention their local brands. We ended up buying a lot of stuff from their local brands, as opposed to brands we would normally get in Singapore. A few shops we were looking out for were Jaspal and Greyhound. But we ended up buying stuff from their departmental stores, Xtra, CPS (which incidentally is Bunny's initials) and BOOTS!!!

Taking a breather (and a puff) outside Siam Paragon

Next destination - Siam Centre. This place wasn't as glamourous looking as Siam Paragon, but there were quite a number of shops to visit:

After shopping at Siam Centre, we proceeded towards Siam Discovery Centre and ended up skipping it, as there wasn't much there. We walked along the road and up the bridge to MBK (Mah Boon Krong), where before Platinum Fashion Mall came about, this was the place to shop for wholesale items:

We didn't do much shopping there as we realised that the items at MBK were of inferior quality when compared to the stuff being sold at Platinum.

After walking around MBK for a mere half an hour or so (I say mere because we spent HOURS in other malls), we took a taxi to Chinatown for seafood dinner with shark's fin and bird's nest!




My colleague recommended this Chinese restaurant called Nan Sing for its shark's fin and bird's nest.

Hungry, tired and grumpy


Cost of bird's nest:
First row - $800 plus
Second row - $1000 plus
Third row - $5000 plus

Shark's fin - Bunny refused to touch it because she said the way sharks are being hunted for their fins is cruel.


Crab, beef and veggies


Bird's nest dessert

Day 3 - Central World (ex-World Trade Centre)

We went to the same area (Siam Central) as the day before after making our LAST trip to the tailor to finalise our clothes. This time round, we visited Central World, which we had skipped the day before.







One of the highlights of Central World was their department store called Zen:

Posing outside Manga (a designer/music concept store)

After shopping here for a few hours, we lunched at their foodcourt upstairs and were very impressed by how clean and new the place was:


I think Singapore food courts have a lot of catching up to do in terms of cleanliness and hygiene.

First of all, in order to purchase food, you use a card issued by the information counter at the food court. You let the person at the stall swipe your card (in which you would have put credit in already) to pay for your bowl of noodles. This way, there is no handling of money and thus makes it a cleaner system to have.

Second, the floors, tables and chairs are clean, plus there are no food remnants lying around. Third, they even have a small station where you can take napkins, toothpicks and even different sauces. This station is always kept clean and there are no stray toothpicks or napkins lying around, not to mention the sauces! There are no chilli sauce stains or soya sauce drops anywhere! Now this is a rare scene in Singapore food courts. Plus no one bothers to steal napkins or toothpicks to top-up their remaining stock at home.

Even their plates aren't the typical canteen-style plates we use in Singapore

As you can see, we're really enjoying this place because it doesn't stink!


The view from the food court

After wandering around Central World for awhile, we had to return to the hotel to re-pack our shopping and leave for Singapore.

Suvarnabhumi Airport

I've never felt the thrill of shopping until I started shopping in Bangkok! And this picture just sums it all up:

I've forgotten how to cook...

Having not cooked for god-knows-how-long, I finally did so last night. The last time I cooked for Bunny and her family was on Christmas Day, where I whipped up a so-called ‘traditional’ Christmas meal comprising roast chicken with rosemary and lemon, and honey-baked ham with pineapple and orange. This time round, because Bunny was craving for authentic Chinese food, I did my best to come up with hearty home-cooked dishes.

And this was the end-result of having not cooked for almost 2 years now:

I made a chicken stew with Chinese wine, mushrooms, black fungus and wolfberries (a recipe which I accidentally came up with a few years ago); stir-fried Kailan with loads of garlic, steamed sea bass with spring onions, ginger and parsley, and sweet corn soup with carrots. It’s been awhile since we had a nice home-cooked meal together, and I ended up eating almost three bowls of rice!

I love seeing people stuffing their faces with the food I cooked. Heh. That’s the reason why everyone grows fatter and fatter except for me!

###

Richard says he’s going to make goat stew tonight. YUCKS!

Mum's Birthday Dinner @ Goodwood Park

After many days of deliberation, we finally settled on buffet dinner at Goodwood Park to celebrate my mum's birthday:

Photo-whoring while waiting for my mum to return



My brother and his "fruit salad"


Closely knit - well, not really


See the resemblance? Bunny and her sister says we look alike and I look like my brother in drag. Haha.



Getting bored and frustrated with too much photo taking.

Dinner was ok and the food was mediocre. I enjoyed the appetizers though, but the spread was really quite limited. Mum kept saying that I should be bringing her out for dinner at least once a month and explore various venues. Oh well.

After dinner, Bunny and I proceeded to Teri's place for mahjong. Both of us didn't lose at the end of one round, and it was a good thing because that covered our cab fare. Hehe! At around 2am, we went to explore another room where Bunny started jamming on Teri's drum set:

Not bad for someone who has never taken any lessons before.

Playing the drums at 2 in the morning! Geez. It's pretty fun though; maybe Bunny should go take lessons.

12.07.07 - One Year

It's our one year anniversary today. *beams*

We decided to have dinner at Morton's Steakhouse to celebrate not only our first year anniversary, but also Bunny's new job at Mediacorp!!! I've always known that she could do it. Hahaha! That silly Bunny was so skeptical all this while!

Anyway, dinner at Morton's was great. Generous portions is an understatement to the amount of food they serve in just one serving. The steak was so well-seasoned, it's unbelievable. Not to mention the size of it! We ordered a single porterhouse portion to share and were struggling at the end. I think the steak was huge enough to feed almost three mouths.

We started the dinner with a beer for Bunny and an Amaretto sour for me (winks at Zon), followed by their signature onion-egg bread, which was larger than Bunny's head:

It was simply just too much, so we packed the rest of the bread in a doggy bag and it's now sitting on my desk waiting for me to finish it off.

We shared a crabmeat cocktail appetizer, which was the tiniest dish of all. But the crabmeat was fresh and tasty.

And here comes the mother of all steaks:

Ok, the pictures don't actually show how gigantic the steak was, but trust me, it was humongous!!! I've never seen such a large slab of meat on a plate in my life.

After the meal, we had their signature chocolate souffle cake and each time the chocolate oozed out, both of us went "Oooo", "wahhh..." and "wahlau". Hahahaha!



We exchanged presents after dinner, where I presented my second work named "Quintessentially Us". The first book I made was a visualogue called "Quintessentially You" for her birthday. This one is a scrapbook though; similar yet different:

Bunny flipping through her present.

To respect to our privacy, I shall not divulge the contents within.

It was such a nice and peaceful evening, when it got disrupted by this ang moh man. Three of us were in the same lift and when we were stepping out, we heard him make a remark saying that we were "freaks". Then I turned around and said "fucker", but he brisk-walking away. He looked a bit drunk. By the time we reached the taxi stand, we started having a staring contest. Bunny and I didn't even have time to react, plus we didn't want this to ruin our evening. But when you come to think of it, an expatriate in a five-star establishment muttering such remarks is really unacceptable. Nevertheless, we didn't create a scene.

After that, we called for a cab from Premier taxis. We were informed that it will arrive in 5 minutes, but we waited for almost 45 minutes and NO cab showed up. We called other companies, but kept getting cut off because there were either no cabs, or we couldn't get through. Sigh. So this morning I wrote in to Premier taxis with my complaint and the 'service' which they 'provided' us with last night, or the lack of it.

On a lighter note, CONGRATULATIONS to Bunny on her new job at Mediacorp as a copywriter/producer for radio and TV! Hahahha! I've always known she could do it and once again, she has proved me right! All the best to you, my Bunny!

Climate Change (Asia Nat Geo)

I was having lunch alone in the pantry just now, so I brought along Asia Nat Geo to read and I came across this article:






I headed straight to the scanner, scanned it in, did some cropping, printed it out on A4 paper and stuck it on the noticeboard in the pantry. I don't know why I did this because it's usually the 'committee' who does this, but when I first saw this article, I just knew I had to display them somewhere for others to read.

Even with the recent spate of warnings on global warming and climate change, a lot of people are still unaware that this global change is occurring right in front of their eyes. Damn, they're even experiencing the drastic changes, yet a lot remain ignorant!

The office environment is the greatest contender to environmentalists because of its high energy usage and it really is a shameful sight when I see how paper is wasted in the office. Not that I'm a 100% pro-environmentalist myself, it's the tiny things I do to stop wastage.

Yes, we're all lazy and just to make our lives easier, we end up harming this planet we live on. She's given so much to us; I think it's time we paid our dues.

My Funeral Song

Speaking of funerals and death, Bunny, Grace and Zon have all experienced the sudden loss of someone they knew recently and all of us have launched into 'morbid' conversations, discussing how we want our funerals to be.

We've shared ideas and although I've mentioned how I wanted mine before, I think I didn't mention what song I want to be played during my procession. And after reminiscing and trying to recall what song I wanted previously, I now remembered that I want Svefn-g-englar (Sleepwalkers) by Sigur Rós. This song has touched my heart for many years; don't ask me why. I don't know.

It runs for over 9 minutes and you've gotta be real patient:

"Purple people!", said the fat cat

I had such a wacko dream last night. I have strange dreams every single night, but I remember this dream vividly, maybe because of the significance of it.

We were in a room and Grace was teaching some kids. I was her assistant. She made them watch a documentary and there was a (fat) cat in the room. After the documentary ended, the cat spoke and this was what it said, "Why are the people purple in colour?" (It was referring to the people in the documentary). Grace and I stared at each other in amazement and burst out laughing because the cat's voice was just so strange! I think we were both so amused by how the voice sounded like, that we didn't answer the cat's question. We were also very puzzled because we didn't know that cats were THAT colour blind, or that cats actually saw us as purple.

After that incident, it was my turn to assist the kids in the second part of the lesson and I had no idea how to start. I felt nervous and started panicking, and that was when I woke up.

So here's the interpretation of that strange dream I had last night:

Cat - To see a cat in your dream, signifies much misfortune, treachery, and bad luck. However, for the cat lover, cats signifies an independent spirit, feminine sexuality, creativity, and power.

Purple - Purple is indicative of devotion, healing abilities, loving, kindness, and compassion. It is also the color of royalty, high rank, and dignity.

Children - To see children in your dream, signifies your own childlike qualities or a retreat back to a childlike state. It is an extension of your inner child during a time of innocence, purity, simplicity, and a carefree attitude. You may be longing for the past and the chance to satisfy repressed desires and unfulfilled hopes. Take some time off and cater to the inner child within.

Classroom - To dream that you are in a classroom, symbolizes that you may be learning an important life lesson.

Television - To dream that you are watching television, represents your brain, mind and its flowing thoughts. It shows how you are receiving, integrating, and expressing your ideas/thoughts.

VCR - To see a VCR in your dream, suggests that something needs to be or has been carefully documented. There may have been something that you have overlooked. It refers to memories and lessons of the past and the insights you can gain from it. The dream may also be calling attention to the impression you leave behind and what others may think of you.

I guess the VCR bit is relevant to what I wrote about last night - my old blog, my life documented from 2003 to 2006.

Even after all the interpretation, I still don't really know what my dream meant.

How I've documented my life since 2003

Bunny and I went to Lido last night to catch Transformers and while I was queuing up at the popcorn stall, I bumped into a Melbourne friend whom I met AGES ago. Let me see, I think we officially met each other in 2000 through a mutual friend. I remember it was the IRC days (winks at Zon and Richard) and we met through a pool game at Charltons - Val is her name. I know some of you might remember her.

Anyway, the point of this entry is not to reminisce on my good/bad old days in Melbourne, but she brought up something - my old blog. We chatted for a bit before she caught up with her friends and the next "important" question she asked me was, "How come you're not on LJ anymore?" And I was stunned because I had totally forgot I was rather 'active' in LiveJournal prior to switching to Blogspot. Why she brought that up is no mystery. Besides our occasional chance meetings in the city, we found each other on Friendster and that's when we started reading each other's blog because we were both on LJ.

So here I am, with my ass plonked in front of my brother's half-dead PC with my old blog loaded in the next tab. Honestly, I don't really want to venture more than 2 pages of my blog entries because it really isn't a wise thing to look at your past and start criticising yourself for what you should have or shouldn't have done. However, there ARE a few interesting entries and now that I'm reading my past posts (which isn't really too long ago, maybe a year or so?), I think I've learnt something about myself again.

I realised I kept talking and talking about my uncompleted masters, and then afterwards about my last trip to Melbourne, my new job, how I was suffering from mild insomnia, and so on and so forth. So whiny! Tsk. I'm annoyed at myself now. Well, at least I have the lucidity to put my life in order now and to finally, finally let go of my emotional baggage from so many years before. I've been in a self-destructive mode for almost the past 7 years of my life, although of course not to the extent of drug addiction or anything along that line. Right now, it seems as if a veil has been lifted and things are orderly (I like order), even if I'm not really doing something I love, but it's almost as if I'm reaching a state where I can tell myself that I'm in control now; I've always been.

Last night, my mother asked me if I knew any lawyers so that she could finalise the divorce. D-I-V-O-R-C-E hasn't been in my dictionary for the longest time and when she brought it up, it brought me back to the turmoil I know I've always been through - what about dad? Divorce is easy now because there are no issues with custody or property; it's just not easy for the eldest child, your daughter. But I shall not spell out my woes.

Hmmm, I meant to re-post a horoscope reading from my old blog because I found it very accurate indeed and I wanted to archive it here, but I must have gone off topic. I'll do it next time I suppose.

Although I really hate reading some posts in my old blog, I can't bear to delete it. 2003 to 2004 posts were darn boring; most of the entries went like this, "Can't believe I couldn't wake up for the 9.30 lesson. Had coffee with XX and XX. Met XX for dinner. Decided to start on my work tonight". And then it gradually progressed to longer and longer articles, and finally to other interesting topics which covered a bit of political issues, current affairs and of course, criticisms on Singapore and Singaporeans. Ha!

Ok. My old blog address is http://www.livejournal.com/users/karrot_22. I can almost hear your thoughts, "Talk so much but never give us her old blog address."

Catching up with C.E.

CE stopped by Singapore over the weekend and continued her return flight to Melbourne last night. Moo, CE, and I met up at Upper Thomson Rd for dinner and chilled at Liquid Kitchen for a while. Was nice catching up with her and I think she put on a bit of weight. Hmm...

The waiter was such a bad photographer

Monkey face #1

Monkey face #2 - she never stops making monkey faces

Met CE at the airport for dinner the next day and I was shocked at how much she ate! We ordered fried rice, claypot veggies with vermicelli, prawns, cheese baked clamshell thingy, I had a soup, she had two Tigers and we had two mango puddings, which she ate most of it (one and a half portions to be exact).

She was booked on a midnight flight, so we just bummed around by shopping at Cold Storage and had a drink at Pacific Coffee before she went in at 10pm.

Now I can't wait for MY turn to go back to Melbourne! Hahaha! Can't wait to see my daddy, Jun, Zon, Richard and the rest! *prances around* Pity I won't be staying for long.

...and all its fucking cognates

After watching Angelina Jolie's interview at The Actor's Studio, I went searching for other interviews from The Actor's Studio and stumbled upon Hugh Laurie's interview. I enjoyed this interview very much, due to a few reasons: he's British (and I had no idea till I watched this), I like the British accent a lot and he plays Dr. House in the TV series House, which is incidentally one of my favourite drama series.

Many people don't enjoy watching House, but I really liked Season 1 a lot and have yet to watch Season 2. Maybe I like it because Dr. House has such a cynical character, indifferent to his colleagues and sarcastic by nature. I seem to find his satirical jokes humorous, although others might not.


Anyway, here's an excerpt from the interview which I thought was quite funny:

(James Lipton will usually ask a series of questions and here's how it goes)

James: What's your favourite word?
Hugh: Marsupial
(what the...? bahahahaha!)

James: What is your least favourite word?
Hugh: Whatever (rolls eyes)
James: Ditto. Ditto's also a least favourite word of mine.

James: What turns you on?
Hugh: Eye contact

James: What turns you off?
Hugh: Financial advice (look of seriousness all over his face)

James: What sound or noise do you love?
Hugh: I love the sound of the acoustic guitar being played badly
James: Why badly?
Hugh: I can't explain it. It's a physiological response...I'm like a Labrador lying on its back having its tummy tickled. I, I, just...it physically does something to me i absolutely love.

James: What sound or noise do you hate?
Hugh: Ringing telephone

(this is the bit)
James: What is your favourite curse word?
Hugh: Fuck, fucking, fucked...and all its fucking cognates (in a very matter-of-fact tone)

James: What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Hugh: I would like to be a singer in a rock and roll band

James:What profession would you not like to participate in?
Hugh: Financial advisor

James: If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the gates?
Hugh: No hard feelings.



You just have to watch the clip to get the full British effect and if you have the time, try to watch the entire interview not only because it's interesting, but also because Hugh himself is pretty comical, the British way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBohWfYC8G0&mode=related&search=

Hmm, I might just be the only one who finds this amusing.

Sunday Tennis

It's been awhile since we've played tennis outside of Thomson. Someone from RQ (Red Queen) arranged a tennis session at Seng Kang, so we went down for a 2 hour game, or rally, since we didn't play an actual game.

Posing outside the court


Elevated tennis


There's an LRT in the background




"She's got the motion..."

Today's game was pretty fun, compared to how we played on Friday night. Urgh. If only everyday was a Sunday...

Henna from Bali

During our trip to Bali, both Bunny and I got a henna tattoo each (she did 2 and I did 1). Because nothing is permanent and forever (even REAL tattoos), I've decided to leave the memories here instead:

Balinese symbol - represents OM (symbol of God)

Bunny getting the same OM symbol done, but a more elaborate one.

We came to this conclusion immediately after doing the tattoos - we can't do real ones because we're perfectionists and we'll never ever be happy with the position, the design, the colour, the angle, and so on, and we'll probably regret for the rest of our lives. Hahaha! So painted ones are fine with us, because we can't commit to permanently inking our flawless skin.

Ahhh, Bali. Sigh.

Left or Right

Natalie forwarded this email to me and I decided to post it here:

First, identify yourself as right or left brain person:

1. Hold your hands together, as if you were praying. Look at your
hands. If you see

Left thumb is below the right thumb ---> left brain
Right thumb is below the left thumb ---> right brain

2. Fold your arms in front of you (as if you are angry)

Right arm above left arm ---> left brain
Left arm above right arm ---> right brain

Based on 1+2 (order important), below is the interpretation of your
personality:

Right-Left
==========
Considerate, traditional, indirect type

can instantly read other's emotion, and respond
friendly by natures. Although not very into taking initiatives in
moving forward, but this person
will always take a step back in supporting others. Stable personality
and considerate, give
others a being protected feeling. But the weakness is they cannot say
no; regardless how
unwilling they are, they will take care of others.

Right-Right
===========
Loves challenges type

Straightforward. Once they decided on one thing, will take action right
away. Very curious, and
love challenges. Dare to face dangers without thinking through
(sometimes foolishly). Their
weakness is they don't listen to others, will filter in only what whey
want to hear in a
conversation, and very subjective. However, because of their
straightforward attitude, they tend
to be fairly popular.

Left-Left
=========
Dedicated, cold, perfectionist

Very logical in all aspects. The only way to defeat (or win over)
him/her is through reasons. Has
a lot of prides, and feeling strongly about doing the right thing. If
they are your friends, they
are very trustworthy. However, if they are your opponents, they will be
very tough to deal with.
Because they can be very "anal" as a perfectionist, they usually leave
a bad impression of being
hard to deal with when first met.


Left-Right
==========
Likes to take care of others, leader type

Has a cool and keen observation ability to see through situations, yet
still can be considerate in
others needs. Because of their cool and calm nature, and strong sense
of responsibility, they tend
to become head of a group. Popular among people. However, they may not
be able to help themselves
in meddling because they want to take care of others too much. Very
concerned about how others
view them, and always on alert.

###

Geez, I didn't realise that the grammar was so bad. But anyway, I think you'll get the gist of it and I'm too lazy to make corrections to the paragraphs above.

I am a right-left personality type - a pretty boring person. What about you?

Little White Pills

The pills I took to delay my period over the Bali trip have totally screwed up my hormones and my mood swings are totally fucked now. I can be light-hearted for an hour or so, and I’ll be back to being all emo and depressed, with me trying hard to hold back my tears.

And just to inject a bit of excitement, I get bouts of anxiety attacks with my heart beating at such a fast rate I can barely breathe. On top of that, I get butterflies in my stomach because I’m feeling nervous half the time.

And I get all this just by sitting at my desk at work. Last night, I managed to meet up with a few friends. Throughout the whole time, I was fine but I still suffered from small anxiety attacks, and my stomach was hurting from being too nervous, so much so that I had a hard time making sure I was behaving normally. Even loud music and crowds did not succeed in distracting me.

This morning I came into the office all bubbly and cheerful. It’s now after lunch and I’m feeling all jittery and emo again.

Since I’ve stopped the pills I’ve been worrying so much, it’s unbelievable. This is a major fuck up I tell you. It’s screwing me over and I’m trying hard to function properly.

I swear never to take the pills again.

No Such Thing

"Welcome to the real world", she said to me
Condescendingly
Take a seat
Take your life
Plot it out in black and white
Well I never lived the dreams of the prom kings
And the drama queens
I'd like to think the best of me
Is still hiding
Up my sleeve

They love to tell you
Stay inside the lines
But something's better
On the other side

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the
Top of my lungs
I just found out there's no such thing as the real world
Just a lie that got to rise above

So the good boys and girls take the so called right track
Faded white hats
Grabbing credits and
Maybe transfers
They read all the books but they can't find the answers
And all of our parents
They're getting older
I wonder if they've wished for anything better
While in their memories
Tiny tragedies

They love to tell you
Stay inside the lines
But something's better
On the other side

Back from Bali

We came back from Bali and the first thing we did was to play tennis on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

For the first time in my "tennis career", I've finally managed to get a few points on the scoreboard. As of today, the score for today's match between Bunny and I was:

6-0, 6-2

Har-har!!!

P.S. I can serve now!!!

P.P.S. Bali post coming up...