Blog inactivated for 2 weeks

Very excited now ! FINALLY after booking tickets half a year ago, tomorrow we will be heading for our holidays !

Will update blogs when I'm back !

Cheers
DT

Ah Mi's Birthday @ Cafe De Hong Kong of Balestia Road

We celebrated CK's mother birthday at Cafe De Hong Kong. I must say that they served pretty good food ! Check this cafe out. The dishes doesn't come cheap though but I think they are pretty worth it. For a table of 10 diners and 8 dishes, be prepared to spend about $480 !Don't be deceived by the name, Cafe.

586 Balestier Road
#01-01 Eastpac Building
Tel: +65 6255 3865

Opening hours:
Tue–Sun
11.30am–3pm, 5.30pm–12am
(Closed on Mon)


Pictures of MediaCorp artistes have been photographed eating at this cafe !


Not a highclass set-up but it was cozy enough.


Normally I don't enjoying eating such stuff but these little "Shou Tao" tasted extremely wonderful !


Winter melon soup which you must place order before 1 day in advance. Pretty refreshing although a bit blend for me. Just a pinch of salt will do the trick.


Big fish, I think this is a grouper !


U must order this dish ! This is called sea-food rolls and fried salmon fish skins ! Absolutely delicious ! The fried salmon skins were fried till they were crispy and fragrant. The same goes for the sea-food rolls. I couldn't get enough of them !


Special-made beancurds with a slice of scallop. This dish is also recommended.


This is the fifth dish and we were already quite full as the portions served were huge. When I saw this roasted chicken being served, I was quite disappointed. I have enough experiences of eating too many tough chicken meat made in the same style. To my surprise, I swear this is the best chicken meat that I have ever eaten ! The skin was crispy and the meat was tender. I do not even need any sauces to go with it ! This shows how nice this chicken was done.


I wasn't overly enthusiastic about this revolutionary "claypot chicken" rice. I won't recommend this dish as the black sauce rice was not fragrant enough. I prefer the tradition Claypot chicken rice where they mixed the black sauce and rice together.


"Black pork" from Taiwan cooked in black pepper sauce. It as a bit saltish, if not,it would have tasted even better. I missed out taking the last dish ...

Oh, we will definitely go back to eat again ... any takers ?

Practising skills

Adding on to the shoots. These were taken about 7:30pm. Couldn't resist the colours of the sky. (Aperture set at -0.7)




It's been quite some time that I use my Nikon D70. Better start to practice and show some love to it.

I really wanted to capture the beautiful Eiffel Tower and other scenes at it's glorious self at night ! These pictures were taken at about 8:30pm from my house's windows. (It is a must to use a steady tripod for longer exposure photos)


Click to enlarge

Taken from Master Bedroom's window. Somehow, the tennis courts were over-exposed. (Aperture set to +1 is enough to illuminate the streets) Pretty satisfied that the noise were largely reduced.



Taken from the chincilla's room. You can see the incinerator's fire burning from the distance from Jurong island !



Night scenes of buildings, hope no one thought I am a peeping Jane !



Indoor shoots with dim lighting. This will be useful especially taking inside churches or low-light environment.



Cutesy stuff photographed from a glass. Not very sharp though, must be some slight movement while pressing down the shuttle button.

Anticipation and excitement !

Finally, the railway tickets to Europe were collected ! Seems more realistic now that you can actually feel the physical tickets in your hands !


1. Eurostar from Paris to London (strangely, to buy first class ticket is just a top up of just SGD8.00)
2. Rail tickets from Geneva to Paris
3. 8 days Swiss pass (We manage to get an upgrade FOC to first-class in conjunction with the railway's Birthday celebrations !

We are still trying to firm up the itineraries but accommodation in all regions have been booked on-line.


Yes, these are our luggage! I could not imagine "squeezing" everything needed into the small space. I brought this pink Hush Puppy luggage to Malaysia for holidays and I am bringing this to Europe. CK is bringing his big backpack ! A present from me many years ago and finally now he got the chance to use it. (As we are traveling by trains, therefore could not afford to bring larger luggage)

Photogrpaher Part 2

Dr New has sent me another link. This time is to Greece !!!! Even though these photos were taken back in 2005 (his honeymoon) but they were still very nice !
Lovely ... so breath-taking !

Wonder when can I get a chance to go there ? All white and blue !

Please check the place out !

His website link for more photos: (copy and paste link into the internet browser)
http://www.pbase.com/neophotography/greek_islands

Photographer

I was really impressed by my colleague's photography skills ! He could take such awesome photos. These were some very wonderful photos taken during his last trip with his wife at Czech Republic and Germany!

I am certainly looking forward to take photos in Europe but I doubt they will be as professional as his !

His website link for more photos: (copy and paste link into the internet browser)
http://www.pbase.com/neophotography/czech_republic__germany

Let's Clap and Sanga Japanese Restaurant

Dinner with Regina at Let's Clap (Railway Mail)

Kinda a wrong decision to eat at "Let's Clap". The chilli crabs was pretty good but the salted eggs crabs tasted "Je Lat". The crabs were fresh but the culinary skills was bad. What a waste of fresh crab fell in the wrong hands ! Somehow or rather, Regina and myself managed to finish the crabs. We ended our dinner with a simple lemon grass jelly cocktail. Let's try crabs at Ghim Moh you have suggested next time.












CK brought my mum and myself to Jurong Hilltop. This must be a popular place for couples back in the 70s. When you reached this place, you'll feel that times have gone back 30 years ago ! Jurong Hilltop is situated on top of Jurong Birdpark.

There is a Japanese and adjoining Indonesian restaurant that was in business in Jurong Hilltop for many years ! CK said he has eaten here when he was a little boy.

We were surprised that even Ah Moh came to know about this restaurant ! The food served was pretty good.

Nicolas, Happy 7th Birthday to you !

Nicolas is SEVEN this year ! Time flies ...
His mum told me that he has already planned his list of guests to his Birthday party during Darren's December Birthday last year. His guests list consists of his immediate family, GuGu Mummy (me) and Gu Zhan (ck), Baby Gugu (cousin bee), Tao Kai Ma 9cousin's bee mum) and his 2 female cousins namely Jaclyn and Melody.

Hope you like the Monopoly Junior. You have too many toy control cars, trains, planes, therefore boardgame might be better for you this time. Happy Birthday, Nicolas ! May you remain as happy as now and ever so cute !

Looking more matured in looks now. The boy has grown.




I can tell that Nicolas was very happy and proud to have his loved ones to celebrate his special occasion with him. He called up his invited guests personally to attend his Birthday party.


Beautiful and delicious ice cream cake from Swensen chosen by Nicolas.


Nicolas, Dareen and 2 cousins, Jaclyn and Melody. The 2 girls are so friendly and we even play WII Mario Kart together !

A surprise trip to Jewel Box

CK's surprise dinner for me at Mt Faber's Jewel Box. There are 4 restaurants and a lodge under Jewel Box. We got not much notion what to eat but has settled down dinner at the "Black Opal" which serves a mixture of pretty casual western and local food. I think "Black Opal" and "Sapphire" serve the same food. The only difference is your choice to eat in a air-conditional or alfresco environment. I like the "Black Opal" choice of furniture, lighting and cutlery. Overall, the ambiance is suitable for dating couple. Well, that did not deter older couples or even family members to enjoy dining at the top of Mt Faber.

Farewell to Paige

Taking a photo of the 2 doggies.


Paige having her last "walk walk" with Jojo before Julian picked her up at 3pm.


The 2 cute doggies