Cruise Trip (Feb 2018)

How's the new year coming along?

Well for myself it's pretty much busy at work. It's back to the crazy and hectic year ahead again. Only in December that I managed to get a mini breather and finally clear some backlogs. Now it seems it's starting to pile up again :(

Work is never-ending they say. We also need to take a break sometimes. Here's to my very much awaited Royal Carribbean cruise trip to get away from work and just chill and enjoy the sea breeze <3

My last cruise trip aka Star Cruise was when I was young, I think.... 

Day 1

The ship will depart Singapore at 4.30pm but boarding time is in the morning at 11.30am. 

The view while having the buffet lunch after checking-in.

Our room. No window to enjoy the sea view though. 
But wells, there's always the top deck of the cruise ship.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

And next was dinner time. Fine dining style. 

Starters dish: Bay Scallop Gratin
with melted garlic-herb butter, olive breadstick

Initially, when we asked which starter dish they would recommend, the waiter suggested the above starter dish. I did not choose the above. Instead, I chose a fruit dish as I felt that I might not like the dish with the scallops. That was before I saw other tables having that dish. Then regret a bit since it looks not bad. 

But guess what, when the waiter served us our starters, he actually had an extra Bay Scallop Gratin just for me. He said that he had brought one for me also, since this dish is really good. And he's right! I love it a lot! :)

Entrees dish: Slow Roasted Prime Rib
garden vegetables, mash potatoes, onion gravy

Next up, the Entrees dish. 
Since this is fine dining and I do not usually have beef steak outside, might as well give the Prime Rib a try. Also another recommended dish by our waiter.

And of course, not forgetting desserts!
Like they say, there's always space for desserts, isn't it? HAHA

Overall, not bad the food! Yummy Yum Yum! 

Thereafter, we went to explore other activities inside the cruise ship, such as the movie screenings and the ice-skating performance. The ice-skaters were so pro that they wow-ed the audience! We kinda end the night enjoying the sea breeze at the top deck (the wind was super strong and cold!) and having supper snacks. 

Day 2

Starting off our morning with buffet style breakfast. 

My breakfast platter

After breakfast, just randomly walking around and we happened to stumble upon the Raffle game that the luxury boutique is hosting. So since we are there, we got a ticket each to try our luck in the draw. 

The encounter was pretty much quite hilarious. After the draw for the plush was over, and the speaker announced that the next draw prize is a bag and a scarf, I actually put away my phone into my bag and was preparing to take out my room card (since they will need to verify if we win). At the same time telling my friend that this prize will be mine so I need to prepare my room card. And just as I said finish, the speaker announces the winner - which is our room number! Cannot describe the shock/ happiness/ unexpected feeling we experience in that mere few seconds. 

Unexpected luck and coincidence!

The prize

Lunch time~ 

I opt for Chicken instead of beef steak this time round.

Dessert

And today is the day we have the half day stopover at Penang. We arrived at 4.30pm and the ship will depart at midnight. 

See how huge the cruise ship is, as compared to the other one :P

Cafe hopping to Cafe 55
We chose this cafe because the 3D art drinks looks interesting. But then it's only when we are there, that we know that they no longer offer that as they recently had a change of management.

Ice Mocha

Original Penang Layer Cake

Mango Cheese Cake

And thereafter we went to those shops that sell traditional Chinese biscuits (just in time for the new year), and also shopping and walking around. 

Penang Laksa

Seafood Popiah

Dinner before heading back to the cruise

Look what we came back to. Specially by the crew.
Creative much?

Day 3

Day 3 morning and afternoon was pretty much spent chilling around, staying in the room watching drama, playing games and taking a nap.  

Breakfast at Fine Dining Restaurant

And then it's lunch..

And finally it's time for the formal night dinner where everyone kinda wore a dress/ formal wear to have their dinner at the fine dining restaurant. 

Steamed NZ Mussels
with light white wine cream sauce and shallots served with garlic bread

Same thing this time round. I do not eat mussels but then giving this a try since it's what our waiter recommends. And it's real good! The taste was not too bad due to the cream sauce.

Garlic Shrimp
with mash potato, seasonal vegetables, herb butter

Tiramisu
creamy mascarpone cheese, espresso-macerated lady fingers, hint of Kahlua liquor

Picture of all the waiters.
After which they actually sang the 月亮代表我的心, and also a few of them did the Gundam Style dance. 

And here's another, which we found when we are back to our room

Room service for supper after enjoying the last night at top deck, enjoying the sea breeze.
We actually ordered 2 cookies. But look at how many they delivered over. HAHA

Overall I enjoyed the cruise trip. Just forgetting about everything for a while and just chill and relax - enjoying the sea breeze and view. We pretty much spent every night at the top deck enjoying the breeze. You can also look up at the night skies at the many little sparkling stars above <3 Nice view. Just too bad that the camera will not be able to snap that view down. 

And furthermore, we do not have any data connection during most of the cruise trip! We only managed to have half a day of data when we stopped over at Penang (using our Malaysia sim card). That was pretty much the hardest part since we are already so used to having data connection anytime and anywhere. But we managed to survive it. Nice to just chill without any distractions/ worries :)

Goodbye 2017!

With 2017 coming to an end, it's time to end off the year with some reflections once again. I was actually scrolling through my previous blog posts and then realized that I had not posted anything about 2016 reflections here. End up, I found it in my Dayre instead. I was not even aware. Oops.... 

2017, a year with the most changes I would say? Drama-mama filled and all. If I am going to start on it, I am not sure when I can complete telling the whole story. It's complicated like that. And I have no idea where to begin from anyway. But then I am glad that at least the drama-mama had sort of ended nearing the third quarter of this year. It's not as bad now at least. Phew~ 

So other than that, there were also many happenings this year. And many first. Like first time to JB via bus and train, first mentoring volunteer exposure, first cheesecake making, and many others :P 

Of course, I am glad for the ones who came into my life this year, thankful that we have met <3 

Hope that things will go smoothly in 2018! :)
And I will try to continue updating this blog and my dayre (I know it's been a while since I updated that). HAHA.

So here to a better 2018 ahead! Cheers~

Malacca Trip (08 - 10 Dec 2017)

So finally a short trip to Malacca with the girls. We went via the bus - leaving at 2pm that day. 

By the time we finally reached our hotel (Hatten Hotel), it was already close to 9pm! 7 hours ride on the bus. And imagine how hungry we were (though we did have some biscuits and fruits which we got at the stopover). 

Our hotel room! We got a free upgrade when we checked-in.

Upon putting down our stuff, we immediately left the hotel to have dinner since we were all starving by that time. The initial plan was to walk over to a seafood restaurant near our hotel (which J mentioned that their crabs are nice). 

But not sure if we are unlucky or what, the restaurant was closed for the weekend that we are there. So there goes our plan to have their crabs :(

In the end, we went to Jonker Street straight. 

DINNER FINALLY! 
This was like taken at 10.16pm! Mad Hungry.

Bamboo Shoot Clams
Our first time trying.
It tasted not too bad with the sauce and all. But still can taste the clamy taste (maybe to someone like me who don't really eat clams)

2nd Day

So we started our day at Jonker Street.

Traditional Kaya Roti @ Jonker Street

And here's a photo of us :)

And another one here

Then it was lunch at Restaurant Nyonya Suan: 

And after that was heading back to the hotel to rest a bit before heading out shopping at the malls and Jonker Street. And guess what's our plan for dinner? Haha. We decided to get some street food and bring back to the hotel.

Dinner while watching TV

3rd Day

Wanton noodle for breakfast this morning. And we ordered the Bee Hoon Kuay to share too. Delicious~ But we kinda expected the wanton noodle to be the black sauce version. After eating halfway, we then realized that we will need to request for the black sauce version when we order (which we overheard others haha). 

And here we are, in the big green field that we happened to pass by. Such a nice view despite the hot sun, so we spend quite a while spamming photos and videos taking there

Great short getaway and we sure had a great time together - shopping, eating and including the gossiping at night :)

Looking for our next trip again together~ 

JB Trip || Paradigm Mall (02 Dec 2017)

Visited the newly opened shopping mall, Paradigm Mall - the largest mall in Johor with XH. I didn't even know until she told me. LOL. So there we are~

There were actually many promotions and sales happening since the mall is relatively new. Not all the shops were opened that time when we went. But they sure do have lots of things there, ranging from food, retail, entertainment, beauty services, and more. 

So now back to the details of our day trip....

Breakfast (or rather brunch) was settled at Issac Toast. Apparently, this is very much popular in South Korea. So if you have not visited Korea (like me), you may consider visiting the newly opened Issac Toast in Malaysia instead :)

We had the Chicken Bacon Cheese Special Toast.
Tasted not that bad especially with their special honey-like sauce. It seems that is their secret recipe~

And thereafter is pretty much shopping around. And hoping to be able to find some gifts for Christmas. We decided to start off from the top level down. 

Impromptu haircut/ trimming and wash since they have a promotion going on. Quite pleased with the results of the trim though. Although there isn't much difference since it's still long hair. Maybe unless I suddenly 想不开 chop off my hair to something above the shoulder. hahaha.  

And we could not believe that after nearly 2 hours, we are still midway the top level only. HAHA. Maybe partly also due to our hair trimming :P 

And finally, we managed to find Gong Cha (by that time we were already extremely thirsty). At least the queue over here was not as bad as compared to Singapore (due to the recent re-entry).

Thereafter we proceed to KSL mall, and had korean food nearby. 

Army Stew!
The portion was not as huge though. Just nice. That's why we add on Truffle Fries after this. We had wanted to order previously but we were afraid that it will be too much. So since we saw the portion was alright, we then added on the fries.

Truffle Fries~
Fav <3

Crispy Chicken

And our drinks. I like the colour~

Hmm... This pretty much sums up the highlights of our trip :) Eat shop chill~

Arcade Night @ Cow Play Cow Moo

Throwback to our night at Cow Play Cow Moo @ Suntec City. The biggest arcade which housed many arcade games and the claw catchers machines. The place was already crowded with many people inside when we arrived after having our dinner.

The tokens are quite affordable as compared to other arcades, 16 cents per token with minimum of $20 spending.

Look at our basket full of tickets~

8000 plus tickets and still counting~

The prize we managed to redeem <3

It's really not easy to earn that much tickets (if you want to be able to redeem a decent prize). Tip maybe is to analyse which machines will yield a higher number of tickets. But fret not, if you are not able to meet the numbers that one visit, you can actually keep the receipt and accumulate from your next visit, valid for 3 months.

Or maybe can consider buying the decent prize elsewhere. HAHA. But okay lah. At least it's fun once in a while to visit the arcade to play the machines and all :) 

Wait what, It's December already?!

They say every time October comes, the rest of the months (November and December) will zoom past like a flash of light. Do you agree with that? Well, I guess I do agree. It's passing by way too fast that my mind can process. Inside my mind, I keep thinking that there's time. And I will only register the truth whenever I check the calendar. And then the cycle repeats HAHA! 

I was just reading back on some of the previous blog posts I posted. It's nice to read back on previous happenings - some of which you have already forgotten or put to the back of your mind. I know that I haven't been blogging often as compared to last time (or rather the previous years). Maybe I should keep that on track. Will try to blog often despite being busy (or rather busy being lazy) :P

With the end of the year coming up, it's time to do up our new year resolution once again. Not sure if I did fulfill my resolutions every year though. Maybe I should take some time to do some reflections.