Walk in the park

Lately we have been visiting the newly done up park a short drive from where we live.
this is Bishan Park... looking rather pretty eh.
Its a good time to get out and get some exercise!

Samuel also loves seeing the doggies of different shapes and sizes taking their walks.
Its amusing to see him point at them and go "wow!" and attempt to follow them.
He's even had a few chances to pat a few friendly dogs!

Little India photoshoot

Been going to Little India for the last 2 days to do some location shooting for an on going project. The place is full of interesting sights, sounds and smells. And it was also very warm, and I got sunburnt! Its been a busy week! clearing loads of work before we get going on our holiday.
But some how, running up and down Little India didn't really feel like work :)

here are some shots that I'd like to share. :)

This is a shop that sells clay pots for incense burning during prayers.

And flowers shops are a common sight with many along the streets.

Pretty Indian outfits for sale at the market. Look at all that shiny beads and bright colors! :) really pretty.

This uncle at the chappati shop was really friendly and obliging, :) he let us film him going about preparing chappatis.

Bangles! another pretty thing! shiny and colorful. :)


Lots of vegetable shops here too. Nice array of colors from the different variety.

Holidays holidays holidays

Wooo been caught up in the holiday mood recently, which explains my lack of postings here! :P
Well, I'm back... and about to post about... what else but another holiday!
One that's coming up pretty much soon.
The Lunar New Year, or some call it Chinese New Year.
This holiday mood is felt once the Xmas decorations are taken down and get replaced with red flowers, crackers and mascots of the year's zodiac animal. (this year being the ox) Shops start playing traditional Chinese new year music (which is like Xmas carols but, on a whole different twist! The songs are filled with lots of 'Dong' and 'Chang' sounds, which I can't really stand! hurhur)
So anyways, made an early trip down to Chinatown (to avoid the crowds) for a look see, and soak in more holiday cheer... Chinese New Year is about 2 and a half weeks away, and at the speed time passes, it'll be here in no time!
For those of you who dun celebrate this occasion or dun have a Chinatown where you are, here's a peak into one! :) Enjoy!

Here's a stall selling Chinese paper cuttings. They are really pretty and intricate. :)

Chinese knot tassels... you can hang these on your floral arrangements or anywhere around the house.

Cherry blossoms are a popular flower to decorate your house with during the festive season as it represent Spring.

Brocade ox plush! These are so cute I had to get a pair! :) they are holding onto to little stuffed gold bags.

This shop house in Chinatown has been all decorated for the occasion.

Many different varieties of melon seeds. One of the auspicious tidbits to serve when guests and relatives visit your home.

The great wall of sweets! Hahaha! :) Sweets are also an auspicious tidbit to serve.

The Chinese New Year is kinda like Xmas, whereby you stuff all your guests silly with lots and lota of goodies. These are sweet and savory cookies. These red capped containers of various tidbits are a popular sight during Chinese new year too.

Everyone is busy buying decorations and ornaments to decorate their homes for the festive mood.

These candied dried fruit are a rather traditional auspicious tidbit. Sweet things generally symbolize the sweetness of life.

Red packs with various kinds of ox mascots on them! Red packets are one of the highlights of the Chinese new year, especially for kids! These contain money which are handed out to children or adults who are not married yet. I'll miss receiving these now that I'm married... in fact, I've now become one of the distributors of these! HAhaha :P

Sunset Grill

Sunset Grill
140B Piccadilly, Seletar Air Base,
East Camp (Near Singapore Flying Club)
Tel: 6482 0244

Ok this is a back post :P
Few weeks back we finally made it to Sunset Grill again.
(I was wondering if the place was still standing, since there are plans to develop that area.)
It'll be a real pity though if it were to go, coz there are not many of such places left in Singapore that have these colonial bungalows, rustic feel and roads with no lamp posts. (not sure the last point is a good thing or not :P)
But anyhow, it was a nice feeling driving into the peaceful area once again after so long, marred by the fact that this time, you can see construction work going on in some areas already. :S

Ordered the caesar salad, which was a huge portion! I like how the dressing is so evenly distributed onto every leaf.

And of course the house favorite, buffalo wings. We're not large chilli fans, so we went for just level 1, which i find is just nice. (think level 30 is the max, and i think you may need the fire brigade for that!)

Mr D ordered a Chili con carne. First time trying this here. Not bad, bit spicy... and yummy garlic bread! (wish there was more :P)

We opted for the indoor seating as we didnt fancy donating blood while having dinner! (those mozzzzzzies:( it rained earlier lah) I think the places has an old charm still. Hope it stays around for a while more.

After dinner we took a walk around. Not very far lah, as it was pretty dark already. Came across this graphic on the road. Ok, i've seen arrows, bicycles and footprints on roads, but this is the first time I got to see an aeroplane graphic! hahaha:P

Haiz, another reason why this place should stay.


saw this parked outside one of the aircraft hangers there on the way out.
Hmm, nice evening....wonder when we'll be back.

Hong Kong trip Day 5

More rain! But luckily in a much lighter form.
We decided to stay in the Mongkok area as we were leaving HK in the afternoon.
Went to Fa Yuen Street again as I had to get pastries from the old bakery to bring back. Along the way we passed by the goldfish market.




I saw this cute pom patiently waiting for its master to finish breakfast. How cute! I think I saw the 2 of them(old man and dog) a few days before walking in the market. :)
What a good doggie!
Caught the hotel's airport shuttle to the airport and took in the last few sights of Hong Kong from the bus. Something about their dense living fascinates me...mish mash of apartments, old and new, packed closely together.




While waiting for our plane back, spotted some mascot planes... :)


And for my in-flight meal back, I had the beef noodle set. Must say that its not bad... :P

Hong Kong trip Day 4

It rained on us on the 4th day. :S
look at how heavy it was...

can't even see the skyline on the Central side.
We went to Harbour city in Tsim Sha Tsui to wait for the rain to get lighter b4 we crossed over to Central and Sheng Wan. At least there was City Super there to help pass the time! :)
We had lunch at the city super food court.

After quite a few days of no spicy food, we decided to try Curry-in-a-Hurry. (what a quirky name!)
This is an Indian stall in the food court selling curry sets. Well, not bad and also rather generous portions i must say! I had the fish curry set which also came with a mango lassi. Stuffed!
After lunch, with the rain gone, we visited the Western Market at Sheng Wan.

This is one of the historical buildings in Hong Kong island and houses shops and a bakery.

At the entrance, Mr D got 'assaulted' by one model tin soldiers at the door. Hahaha..
We walked along some streets near cat street and ladder streets(think i know why the name came about!) after that and my, you'll need lotsa leg muscles here as most of the walkways are made up of steep stairways as the city was built on the side of a mountain.

If I had to go to school this way, I think i might drop out after a while! imagine climing up all these stairs every morning! Urgh!

Stairs run up along every side path here! Those who stay here must have great legs muscles. They even have small stalls along the sides of these stairs! I was really worn out!
We ended the evening back at Kowloon, at the new and huge Elements Mall in Tsim Sha Tsui. Too tired to take the train, we took a cab back to Mongkok. :P

Hong Kong trip Day 3

OK so here are some day 3 pics.
Hmmm, day 3 seems like a super long day. we went to many places but i think I shall blog it as a good food day! hahaha. (coz think we had lots of it on this day)
we started out at the Mongkok area and visited the flower market. too bad its all see and no buy! heheh, they bouquets are so nice and reasonably priced!
Saw a cute corgi walking along the market.. so cute! :) I like corgis.

After the flower market, we headed to the nearby shopping street (fa yuen st, my fav)

and also went to the pastry shop there and got some munchies. :P After shopping, we headed for our 'yum cha' meal at Langham Place. This was like the highlight for the day. My sis had read about Ming Court's popularity and we decided to try it out and it was GOOOD!! :P
Ming Court, Langham Place Hotel
Level 6, Langham Plach Hotel,
555 Shanghai Street Mong Kok
We had:

Pan fried radish cake

Salmon and cheese tarts

Pan fried mushroom stuffed buns

Steamed rice rolls with scallop and green beans

Steamed sliced chicken with dates and herbs

Xiao long bao (soup filled steamed dumplings)

Pan fried vegetable buns

Just couldn't resist ordering the steamed custard buns! And no regret about this one at all! :P Best I ever had!
After the super satisfying meal, we decided to head down to HK island as the weather was looking good. (we were lucky.. there was a 90% chance of rain that day , or so the forecast said)
We heard of some shops round the wan chai area and decided to check them out. also heard of Xi Yan Sweets there, which had good desserts. Hahhaa, ok, so we have sweet tooths! :P And by the time we got to Xi Yan, we had already walked lunch off.
Xi Yan Sweets
1 G/F 8 Wing Fung Street, Wan Chai

There was only another table that was taken when we got there, so we mostly got the place to ourselves. Nice red. white and black decor. All the items on the menu sounded so good that we took some time in deciding what we should order.

My mom preferred to stick to more traditional desserts and ordered the lotus seed soup. :)

My sis, being a big lover of anything with osmanthus, went with the lychee ice cream with osmanthus wine and enjoyed every bit of it.

I had the apple crisp ice cream. The sourish taste of the apples was a refreshing difference from the sweet caramel. Yummy!
Mr D went for the tea set which had the option of an appetizer and a dessert.

He had the fried radish patty with XO sauce and had the

signature dumplings in ginger soup, which really blew us away! Most unique and best 'tang yuan' we've ever had with a peanut, sesame, salted egg yolk, sugared melon bits and butter filling. Slurp! This was the winner of the meal!

Happy and satisfied faces :P (mom was camera shy and declined to be photographed :P)
Another good gastronomical experience!

We spent the rest of the day walking around causeway bay area where I happily took more pics of passing trams.