Sunday, January 31, 2010

Painting

Today we had our 2nd round of painting. Woke up early as my elder sister phoned me to ensure we tried to clear our rooms stuff so that painting could start immediately when they arrived. However, we took some time to clear the 5 year old "dust" behind our cupboards. So gross...

We managed to paint 2 of our bedrooms only. Left my parents room for next Sunday. I was so tired now and having aches. So worried that tomorrow I will have problem walking again like last week. Cross my fingers and toes. Ha ha...

Due to time taken to do painting, I did not have much time for my nieces. My brother-in-law god sister came with her 2 kids too. So my 3 nieces played on their own and did not disturb us. After the painting, my younger sister and myself started to invade my brother's cupboard. He had so many space but always keep junks inside and did not tidy them. We managed to throw away one big bag of "rubbish".

I am going to watch "Liar game 2" last episode today. For past one week, I was rather busy hence can only watch today.

So fast, tomorrow need to go back to work. Left two weeks and it's Chinese New Year. I need to go and see if there is any suitable shoes to buy this coming week. Maybe will visit URS at VivoCity during lunch time. Hope I can find one or two pairs. :P

Saturday, January 30, 2010

My Dad's Lunar Birthday

Today is my dad's lunar birthday. My mum cooked 面线 for him and we could also eat them at the same time. Usually the ingredients were a lot and we liked to eat it so every year we are looking forward for my dad's birthday. My mum cooks this only during my dad's birthday and not any other day.

There was not much time left for me to buy New Year clothing hence I went to Century Square to see if i could find suitable ones. I went there 2 months ago but could not find suitable ones and just bought 2 pieces of blouse. Today, I bought 14 pieces in total from Bega and spent $523 there. Wow... need to 绑肚子 liao. Spent so much today. However, I seldom buy clothing so spending it one shot today still consider reasonable lah. Ha ha...

After the shopping, I brought my mum to Haagen Daz for ice-cream. They had a new flavour, Dark Chocolate with Orange. We tried it and indeed it was nice. Yummy...

Friday, January 29, 2010

Its Movie time again

Finally it's Friday. My favorite day of the week.

This afternoon, I went to Bengawan Solo to order Chinese New Year Hampers for our customers. This was the 1st batch as I still have some more to order. In fact, I am doing on behalf of my colleague who was on leave. Good thing for me is that I can earn Linkpoints. Ha ha ha...

The shop supervisor had given me 10% discount as I am ordering quite a lot. For past 2 years, I have been ordering from her so she already knows me well.

Recently there are so many new movies and we decided to watch one tonight. Chose "Tooth Fairy" and glad that we enjoyed this movie. It was a comedy and we laughed & laughed as there were so many scenes that were funny. In the mid of the movie, we heard a little kid shouting "come back" when the Tooth Fairy disappeared. So cute.

After the movie, we had our dinner at Carl's Jr. We ordered Fish n Chips and glad that they still have stock for the Fish fillets. While eating, I made 小珠 laughed non stop when I mentioned "Mother God Fairy" and "Mother Tooth Fairy" where the correct one should be "Fairy Godmother" !!! I also kept laughing at myself. Ha ha...

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Finally it's movie time again after a long break

This afternoon, we had free lunch hence did not leave office. We had set lunch from Thai accent. Not too bad. The food was tasty. I finished the whole packet and ended up very very full.

"20th Century Boys III" launched today and thought of watching it tomorrow. However, the timing was no good hence we decided to watch it tonight since there was a 9pm show. This was a last minute decision as we were afraid that the movie will have lessor choice of timing next Thursday onwards or in even worst scenerio, the movie will not be showing at GV VivoCity after 1 week.

Do not understand why the timings are so weird and is not possible for us to watch the 11.45pm show tomorrow as it will finish at around 2.45am.

We had LJS and it had been a long time since we last ate there. Today's chicken pranks were a bit "chow da" but was still yummy. Hee hee.

Just watched the movie and I was a bit blurred in certain scenes where I had totally forgotten some parts of the previous 2 movies stories. The ending was a bit "cold" as it just finished with a black screen with few Japanese words. Found some part of the stories a bit funny but overall was not too bad.

Tracking back, our last movie was "Avatar" watched end of last month. Usually we watched movie every Friday but December 2009 was a very busy month for us (or rather it was me) and we only watched 2 movies in that month. Shall now start our movie marathon every week. :P

My tracking shows that we had watched 41 movies in 2009. Wow!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Mid week

So fast, it is Wednesday again. 2 more days to go and it's weekend again. So good and looking forward to waking up late on Saturday. Hee hee...

Was feeling tired on every morning due to insufficient sleep. Need to adjust my timing and has more sleeping hours. My panda eyes are appearing again.

Today, we had lunch at KFC. Voting by majority won. I had the original recipe 2 piece chicken set meal as usual. We enjoyed the lunch as we chit chat. This is the only time we usually gossip and talk rubbish. Ha ha...

Our new temp girl said she did not know why she kept having dreams that she was doing her order entries into our company system. She must be too stressed up that had same dreams. Hope she will overcome it soon.

It has been so long since we last watched a movie. 小珠 and I decided to watch "20th Century Boys III" this Friday. However, the timing is not so good for GV VivoCity. There is only either 6pm or 11.45pm shows for the evening onwards. 6pm is too early for us and 11.45pm is too late. The duration of this movie is 156mins. Shall decide tomorrow whether to watch the tomorrow's show which is 9pm or to watch the 11.45pm show on Friday. Why so weird timing???

For almost 2 weeks, I did not view Takeru's blog. Went in today and realised that he had only updated 3 days blog for the past 2 weeks. I think he was too busy with his new dramas and do not have much leisure time.

I like his blog photo and the one he took for himself with Haruma. It must be during break when they are filming "Bloody Monday 2". They are so cute.





Shall continue with "Liar Game 2" episode 8 and rest. じゃね.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

My stomach exploding!!!

Just back home after dinner at Summer Pavillion restaurant at Ritz Carlton. Our overseas team leaders are in town hence we had a dinner together with the Singapore team. The food was good as all the dishes were of good quality and taste. The portion was big too which ended up having very full stomach. I feel like it is going to explode any time. I did not finish the last 3 dishes and felt rather pity to waste the food. However, I had no choice.

It lefts about 2 weeks and will be Chinese New Year. So fast and I yet to get prepared to buy clothing, shoes, goodies etc. Feel so busy and no time to do it. Since the painting of the 3 bedrooms of my house will be done on this coming Sunday (my brother-in-law not free on Saturday), I think I need to take some spare time to go shopping. Perhaps not going far but to nearest shopping malls at Tampines.

Went to read the fortune prediction which was put up at HarbourFront Centre 3rd floor. Seems next year will be a much better year for me. Hope the predictions will be accurate so that I can enjoy a better year in the Tiger year. More money, good health, lessor workload... Ha ha ha...

I was so busy and tired these few days that I yet to watch the last 2 epi of "Liar Game 2" and to sort out my photos. Shall try to do so in coming few days. :P

Monday, January 25, 2010

Back to office

After 9 days break, finally back to reality. Back to work today and this was really a good break for me.

Thought I could clear my stuff slowly but got a phone call from my colleague that she will be on leave for 2 weeks. Her son has Hand, Foot and Mouth virus hence doctor advised her not to come back to office as the virus is contagious. Therefore, I have to try to clear my work as fast as possible so that I can take care of her work while she is on leave.

The day passed quite peaceful for me and hope rest of the year will be good for me too. Last year was too hectic for me from beginning till last day of 2009. Hope this year will be a better year for me.

Rather tired today hence will sleep early today. Eyes are closing soon.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Painting day

Woke up at 11am this morning and found that my father had already started to shift our furniture in our living room. He was getting ready to start painting. I ate my breakfast and joined him. This was my 2nd time doing painting and therefore had some experience on it and need not have more guidance from my father.

My younger sister was the one who wanted to paint the house since our last painting was 5 years ago. However, she came home at around 3pm where we already done half of the job. Luckily my brother-in-law came and helped us. It sped up the process. After finishing the painting, we decided to continue to paint our 3 bedrooms next Saturday.

We will try out different type of combination this time round for our bedrooms. The room shared by my younger sister and me plus my brother's room will be painted with dark purple for the ceiling and white colour walls. Door will be white and door frame will be light purple. Hope this will give us a different feeling and sleep better.

My parents room's wall will be painted with a moderate purple colour and ceiling will be white. This colour will be a bit darker than usual colour we chose in the past for bedroom. However, it will be more cozy feeling. Hope my parents will get better sleep with their new cozy room next week.

Hope the colour will go well. Cannot visualise now until next week. Whatever it turns up, we must accept as it is our choice. Ha ha...

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Back home at last

Arrived Singapore past midnight and was busy doing unpacking. I preferred to empty my luggage and try to sort out my clothing, gifts and food before going to bed. Although I was tired but I still managed to finish the unpacking and slept at around 3.30am.

Yesterday, after we arrived in New Chitose Airport, we managed to check in our small little Hello Kitty Lucky bag. Therefore, I had the excuse to shop for more food. Ha ha...

I bought more biscuits and sweets since I could hand carry one more bag. Also bought curry to try out. Shopped till my bag was full. We realised there was not much time for us to have our lunch before going to the gate at 1.40pm. Therefore, we decided to buy bento sets and eat them since it will be faster. No regrets. The bento sets were yummy. After eating, we went to the gate to board the plane to Narita Airport.

When we reached Narita Airport, our shopping started again. We bought the fish cakes as we tried them before and found them nice. I bought some Royce chocolates and potota chips. This time round, my bag was really full of food and could not squeeze in any more additional stuff. After happy shopping, we boarded the plane back to Singapore at 5.55pm.

A bit sad to leave Japan and back to reality (to work and no play). However, it was a good break for me as my colleagues tried not to disturb me during this trip. In fact, they did not call me at all.

Just heard from my mum that my father will be doing painting for our living room tomorrow. Oh dear... thought I can have more rest tomorrow but guess not so now. Will need to help out. Well, it's ok. Shall try my best lah.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Day 8 : Sayonara to Hokkaido

This is the final day and we will be flying home this afternoon. Time flies and today will be end of our trip. Our domestic flight is at 2pm and our connecting flight back to Singapore from Narita Airport is 5.55pm.

Since we will not be going anywhere in the morning, we decided to reserve train at 10.10am so that we will have more time to shop in New Chitose Airport. There will be many shops there for us to do a last minute shopping. My luggage is so heavy and so worried that it will be overweight. Cross my fingers that it will not be.

It is not snowing now but believe the road will be difficult to drag our luggage. Furthermore, we need to carry our luggage down from the nearest staircase down to the Subway underground link towards the JR station. There isn't any lift or escalator. Perhaps we need to take a taxi to the JR station although the distance is so near. Not too sure if the taxi driver wants to take us. Anyway shall see how later.

Shall go back to room to take our luggage and check out after breakfast. Next updates will be when I am back home.

Sayonara... I will be back!!!

Photos:
- Bento for lunch. Chose the right ones. They were super nice.
- Meal onboard was curry rice.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Day 7 : First time sledding

Got up rather early today and felt rather tired. We had bought so many things that we were busy packing yesterday night till 3.30am. Woke up at 7.30am as we needed to catch the subway and transfer to local bus in order to reach the Takino Park. Buses timing in Japan are so punctual that even 1 sec late, you are still late and cannot catch the bus. In addition, as the area is not in city, the buses timing are like once or twice every hour. If we miss one bus, have to wait for another 30mins to 1 hour.

Thought we managed to reach on time before 10am to catch the bus but in the end, we went to the wrong berth searching for the correct bus that we missed the bus. Too bad lor. We had to wait for 45mins for the next bus.

It was cold today and weather forecast was minus 6 to minus 8. True enough, when we reached there, the temperature was minus 6 and went down to minus 9 at 2 hours later. So cold....

We finally had chance to take photos and the scenery there was nice. Not many people so we could take our own sweet time. The sled ground was rather empty too. This was my first attempt and I was like sotong and did not know how to play at first. However, it was so fun that we play three times in total. Although we could continue to play as there was no queue but the weather did not allow us to do that. We were so cold as the wind was blowing right onto our faces when we sled down the slope. Very happy that I could try this today.

By the time we were back in Sapporo, it was already near to 3pm. We went to Nijo market for some topping up of titbits plus scallops. I made a mistake again and we went the wrong direction! Did not know what happened to me this time round. So blurred.

After that, we went to Susukino for our crabs meal. Finally we had a chance to eat the crabs. For past few days, either we were too late to have our dinner or we could not find suitable restaurant. The restaurant we went to is usually recommended as one of the best here. The restaurant's atmosphere was nice and service was good. As we were early for our dinner at around 5pm, there were not many customers yet. Therefore, we could enjoy our dinner peacefully.

Just came back after buying some more titbits. Will be busy packing later to ensure most of the items can be squeezed into my luggage. We are taking the 10:10am train to New Chitose airport tomorrow and will be back in Singapore on 23 Feb after midnight.

Bye for now.

Photos:
- Reached Takino Park.
- Good weather at minus 6.2 deg.
- Some people skiing there. Nice pose.
- First time sledding. Very fun.
- Many children there. Glad that park was not very crowded.
- Temperature dropped to minus 8.9 deg when we left the park at 2pm.
- Our 10 course crab meal at Susukino. Yummy.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Day 6 : Back to Sapporo

Today we headed back to Sapporo. Due to travelling time was 4 hours, we had to take early train so that we could reached Sapporo early as we planned to go to Otaru in the afternoon. Happily found our seats and the journey started smoothly.

However, disaster occurred in the mid of our journey. There was a man who came up the train and was looking at his ticket and the seat 小珠 was sitting. We compared the tickets and realised that both tickets showed same seat no. What had happened? Initially we thought it was JR ticketing error. However, we realised that our tickets were of wrong date!!! We did not realise that the ticket was reserved on the wrong date and the train conductor also did not realise the mistake when we got up the train. Ultimately, the train conductor asked us to transfer to another 2 seats because my current seat was belonged to another young man who actually patiently waiting at the holding area of the train. So pai sei uh!!! We 'chiong' all the way to the new seats and dared not walk back towards the original seats to collect our hand luggage until we reached the terminal at Sapporo.

This did not actually affected us a lot but just felt so embarrassed. We went to do our check in at Toyoko Inn at around 12.30pm and left for Otaru as fast as we could. As the shops closed rather early, we had to be fast in order to eat the big big grilled scallop.

We found a small restaurant that served grilled scallop and decided to have our lunch there at the same time. The restaurant owner got quite puzzled when we ordered our don sets as it was already 3pm and by right no one should be ordering lunch. Ha ha ha...

It started to rain and we just went to a few shops to buy our goodies. By the time we finished, it was very dark and time was only just around 6pm. It got complete dark at around 5pm. The rain was getting bigger and we had difficulty walking on the slippery road covered with melted snow (became ice actually). Got lost in direction towards the JR station and ended up walking along pools of water. We were so wet when we reached the station after asking for directions from the locals.

Back in Sapporo and went to Kinokuniya. I bought 2 magazines this time round. One is 'Tokyo Dogs' photo book and another was 'Junon' where there were many actor and actress whom I know. Ate dinner at McDonald as by the time we finished buying some goodies, it was already late and most restaurants were closed. We tried the ebi and terriyaki burgers and they were fantastic. Previously, we usually had no chance to eat fast food. This time round, we managed to eat KFC and McDonald here.

Hope tomorrow's weather will be good. It was snowing now and hope tomorrow will turn better. Not raining, not snowing but with nice sunny sun. We plan to go to a nearby park to enjoy sledding there, but provided the weather is good. In winter time, the park is with free admission.

So fast, we left one more day before flying back to Singapore. Will miss the time we spent here. :p

Photos:
- Train ticket showing wrong date. So embarrassed.
- Ordered scallop and seafood don for lunch.
- Had McDonald for dinner as majority of the restaurants or foodcourt were closed.


Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Day 5 : Day out in Kushiro

This morning, we took local bus to one of the national park to look at their marshland. As we were unsure on where to take the bus, we went to the train station tourist information counter to get more details. They were helpful in giving us the bus no and bus timing. This time round, we did not miss the bus as we were pretty early today.

Reached Kushiro Shitsugen National Park and found that it was so quiet. Perhaps due to it was winter time, not many people will take the trail to watch the marshland. We still proceed with it and took about 20mins to reach the observatory station. While on our way in, we saw sign giving warning that brown bears are sighted so have to take caution. However, we still proceed with it but I did try to look around for suspicion movement among the trees. Luckily the way in was quite bright and you could see all view clearly.

We took some photos there and since it was not so cold and no people there, we had time to pose here and there. Hee hee... Noticed it was already 12noon and we quickly walked back to the bus stop. If we missed this bus, we had to wait till 3pm. Luckily, the bus came just after we reached the bus stop. Instead of moving to another observatory station, we decided to go to Aeon shopping mall. Took the bus from the terminal and we shopped there for about 4 hours.

Lunch today was KFC since we seldom had chance to eat local KFC so we decided to try. Bought some stationeries and chopsticks/spoons as they are nice. We tried to catch some toys from the UFO catcher but in vain. Spent 1000yen but could not get anything. Nevermind, this was a training for us. Will try again...

Since we were back early, we decided to eat the complimentary dinner in the hotel. Tonight they were serving meatball curry rice. Yesterday's was pork curry rice. Yummy yummy. In total, we saved 3 meals as we ate the complimentary dinner from the hotel. Also saved some $$$ by registering as a member of Toyoko Inn. Sunday's room rate has 30% off and Monday has 20% off for a fee of 1500yen. Worth it. :)

We are travelling back to Sapporo tomorrow. Hope tomorrow's weather here and there will be good so that walking will be easy.

Bye for now.

Photos:

- Scenic view at the park.
- Huge marshland covered with snow.
- Park with nobody except us.
- Took more photos here as there were no one to block our view.
- A & G ~ Adeline & Gillian 在此一游.
- Our KFC lunch at Aeon Mall.


Monday, January 18, 2010

Day 4 : Arrived in Kushiro

After 4 hours of train ride, we arrived in Kushiro at 1.15pm. I slept at the first 3 hours as I was so tired. Slept very late last night around 3am as we were so engrossed with our Nds game.

The weather was not so cold here and it was not snowing for quite some time. This was bad as the snow was melting and causing us walking in 'danger'. It was very slippery hence we tried to choose correct path in order not to skid and fall down. Although I mentioned it was not cold, the temperature was still around 0 deg.

After checking in, we went to the nearby Washo Fish market for lunch. Wow... we had a very good seafood lunch. The don set was with sashimi chosen by ourselves. They were so fresh. If we have time, hope to go there again. After the lunch, we bought ice-creams. Finally I had a chance to eat ice-cream. Past few days, we were too cold to eat them. Today, the fish market was warmed enough for me to enjoy them. We chose orange and melon sherbets. Yummy.

We did not have plan to go far so we just shopped near the hotel. In the end, we bought a Sanrio lucky bag at 3000yen each. Real value for money. Hee hee.

Tomorrow, we will be going to watch Japanese cranes. Will have more time to rest tonight. Bought some titbits and can enjoy them while playing our Nds tonight.

Photos:
- Washo Fish Market
- Our "picked as you like" sashimi bento. I starts to love Uni (Sea Urchin).
- Yummy Japanese fish cake.
- Delicious Melon and Orange ice-cream.
- My value for $$$ Sanrio lucky bag.