GOODBYE 2011

Every year just fly pass so quickly...
What have you accomplished for this year?

For me, biggest accomplishment will be getting a full time employee position in Symantec.
Since graduation, I have not been working long in any company. Symantec is the third company and I'm happy that I did it on my own. First job, last April, worked in DP Group through Chris. Second job, last June, worked in Ready Mortgage through Vonne & Singyee. After quitting from Ready Mortage, I started finding jobs online, going interviews alone & finally got a contract position in Symantec. After working as a contract staff for 8 months, I found a chance to hop over to another team for a full time position. It's good, really good & happy. I have lovely team mates, Michelle, Jiahui, Lynette & Ken in Singapore with me! :)
Having a secure job meaning financial stability in some way... which is good for me.

Most happening & memorable day in 2011
It will be none other than the eight days in Taiwan!
Best Days! Missing every moments of it...
I have been wanting to go Taiwan but I didn't really see myself going this year because I really don't have much savings... And after the trip makes me really poor but totally worth it! :)

Major decision in 2011
Signed up for Prudential savings cum insurance plan.
It is not just going to be a decision impacting my life in 2011 but also for  probably the next 10years? Hopefully.
I know I couldn't save, so I just have to force myself to save!

This year got to be the year I had attended MOST 21ST BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS!
Starting from Jiaqi (July), my own 21st (Aug), Vonne, Singyee, Yvonne (Oct), Fennie (Nov), Yinghui (Dec).

I'm Twenty-One now. I'm a grown up.
I need to come up with some plans for 2012. Many things in mind that I wanna accomplish for the next year but money has always been an issue. I'll share my New Year Resolution 2012 on this space in a few days time.

Today, 31st Dec 2011, I'm gonna spend it AWESOME! Going to meet up besties & their bfs for a steamboat session & X'mas gift exchange!
Everyone should spend it happily be it with your friend, family or your love ones!

H A P P Y  N E W  Y E A R  E V E  !

marking an end to 2011, goodbye 2011 .

g i s i a n g

Post X'mas 2011

This is gonna be the second last post for 2011.
In fact, it can be the last one, but I just want to separate this post with another post about 2011.

I had a lonely Christmas Eve this year. Staying at home watching 6 hrs of dramas. What to do? Friends not in Singapore, friends celebrated with their boyfriend.... NO more lonely eve please.
Christmas Day itself, I went out with Yinghui & Vonne for a dinner at Soup Restaurant, AMK, followed by desserts at Anderson's Ice Cream. Laughed and joked around a little & headed home.

Post Christmas? This is what I'm going to share! Something better than staying home, going just AMK for dinner...

POST CHRISTMAS DAY

26 december 2011

I met up with Huifen to catch Alvin & The Chipmunks 3!

A happy and funny movie! I love Theodore, extremely cuteeee!

After movie, we went to H&M to check out the dress I wanted.

Sadly, it's just fated not to be mine because the size I wanted ran out.

It's okay, there is always something else I can get! Soooo... I got myself a bag!

My second bag from H&M! LOVE IT! :)

There were some sales going on for H&M and saw this cute jacket below!

So lovely please! I just couldn't think of where I can wear it to other than Genting based on my financial status now.

If I'm going Korea, I will definitely want to get this! It's just $50, not too expensive! Wait till I go Korea............ when?!?!

Okay, anyway so after H&M, I suggested a dinning place.

A place that I always wanted to try out. 

IPPUDO @ Mandarin Gallery

We reached at around 6.20 pm, but we only managed to get a seat near to 7.15 pm.

I think we reached quite early but the queue had already started. 

Ippudo don't take any reservations as well, so be prepared to queue at least 45 min during dinner time!

All we could do while waiting is to take pictures...

n a m e c a r d

m e n u

Karaka-men (spicy ramen)  $17

The noodles were soft & nice. Soup was alright.

There are different kind of soup base so probably will give it a try next time.

The other kind of soup base might be more impressive! :)

Comparing this to Tampopo, I will still prefer Tampopo- my all time favourite place for ramen.

Crispy Chicken Fuujin or Raijin  $12

I'm not sure if this is the correct name but seeing the online menu, this is the closest.

It has a star or some "recommended" icon on the menu.

This is a MUST TRY.

The skin is crispy and the chicken is so tender!!!

Between the lettuce and chicken is some yummy mayonnaise and drizzled with some sweet sauce on top! 

Be warned, the serving is really small. It's just half or 3/4 of Shilin XXL chicken & it cost $12!

Doesn't come with any rice. It's an ala-carte.

Ippudo Rice Ball  $4

Minced chicken and mushroom were rolled in together with the rice forming the rice ball!

I love the chewy rice! Yummy :)

Mini Cream Puff  $5

Not the soft and fluffy kind that I like.

The skin is harder, the cream is not those that will be oozing out....

Ippudo is a nice Japanese restaurant serving very nice food but expensive.

Probably I should put it in this way...

The prices on menu doesn't seems expensive ($10~$20) but the serving is small for ala-carte so you might need to order a few more dishes to fill your stomach and thus the expensive bill!

No matter what, Ippudo will still be added to one of my favourite dinning places in Orchard.

GO TRY IT OUT! :)

g s i a n g . j a p f o o d

The Marmalade Pantry

OMG! 

Where is this crazily dark road leading us to?

. 

.

.

.

.

.

.

Yes, that was the road to The Marmalade Pantry @ The Stables! 

Scary road with totally no street lamps & something funny happened on the way.

The taxi driver somehow sounded like we were going to rob him when we told him to stop at a roadside so that we can check for the direction.... LOL!

. . . . .

Anyway, after going through all the darkness, we finally reached! :)

Marmalade Pantry is a restaurant with really nice ambience. 

I should say for high class "tai-tai". We are not tai tai anyway, we went there because we bought the deal online! Heehee! 40% off leh! :)

Definitely not gonna be a cheap meal to dine there, but quality assured! :)

Trying to do some testing for the lighting on my camera before the food comes. 

#FAIL

#FAIL2

#FAIL3

HERE WE GO FOR THE FOOD!!!

*most photos were very ugly & blur, this is the best I can do with Photoshop* 

.

.

.

FIELD MUSHROOM SOUP   $10

SPAGHETTI CARBONARA  $24

CRABMEAT LINGUINE  $24

We shared the 2 main courses among 4 of us but realized they were not filling enough so ordered another risotto! And also desserts! :)

. . . . .

TRUFFLED FIELD MUSHROOM RISOTTO  $22

CARAMELIZED PEAR AND SALTED CARAMEL BREAD PUDDING  $12

*one of the nicest picture I've taken so far, hahaha!*

SEA SALT CARAMEL CHEESECAKE  $8

OLD FASHIONED CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE  $8

*No matter how hard I tried, it still looked as ugly! Hahaha!*

Take pictures... Eat desserts...

We started off with this ....

After half of the other 2 desserts were gone, the black one still remain untouched!!! 

& we started saying, it looked sooo not tempting! Hahaha :)

Conclusion is....

Initially the Caramel Bread Pudding tasted really normal, but in comparison with the other two, it's the nicest because you won't get sick of it easily. 

Anyway, Sea Salt Caramel Cheesecake and Chocolate Fudge Cake were good too! :)

I looked damn shagged on that day..... Hais, not a good day to take photo :(

There're Alfresco dinning area too!

You can have a drink or something there will be nice! :)

Sadly, Fify couldn't join us. She was one of the people who said wanted to dine at Marmalade Pantry.

I wouldn't mind going there again but not the one at The Stables (Fairways Drive), probably just choose the Ion outlet!

Overall, the food were good. I love the risotto & carbonara & desserts!

However, it is too expensive for a casual dinner on a normal day, a celebration for some events or birthday will be good! :)

I hope to explore more dinning places :)

g s i a n g , f o o d <3

Symantec X'mas Lunch 2011

Today, 23rd December 2011 marks the day for Symantec X'mas Lunch & Gift Exchange! :)

Very excited over the food we are gonna have and whether the person who gets my gift will like it or not... Anyway so here we go!

Thanks to my colleague who helped in all the ordering of food.

FYI, the food are from Kriston.

Here the website if you are interested: http://www.kriston.com/

It's a little late to know now but you can always order it next year! :)

The Party Set that we ordered consists of ALL the below :

I really didn't had so much space in my stomach to eat/try ALL.

I skipped the salads. 

I'll tell you what's good:

Smoked Sze Chuan Salmon, Half Shell Mussel with Mango,  Baked Scallop, Chocolate Fudge Cake

Those I did not list doesn't mean that they are not yummy, just that I didn't try.

Like the Prawn, I believed it's good but I'm lazy to peel. 

Anyway, the fudge cake was really good! I had 4-5 of it!!! I practically finish up what was left in the box!

Potato with Bacon Bits (it doesn't seem to be in the menu & I got no idea why!)

Totally got no idea what's this, it's not in the menu either! 

Anyway it's something like Chicken (shredded) Pie.

Honey Glazed Chicken Ham with Pineapple Sauce :)

Yummy with the refreshing pineapple sauce!

Roast Beef.

It came in a huge chunk and we spent sooo much effort trying to cut into pieces!

Even when it came in pieces, it was still too hard! :(

The sauce that came with it was good thou.

Shepherd's Pie from Dad's Shepherd's Pie.

Here's the link for you. http://www.dads.com.sg/

It's really good! Not too oily and it comes in standard tray, mini set and party sizes!

We ordered party sizes!

There were leftover so I brought 2 of it home and warm it up..... OMG YUMMMMY! :)

Joe, the one who always grabbed a handful of Jellybeans!

He got to do it! Sliced the HUGE Turkey!

Anyway, Turkey is just like chicken breast meat!!! 

And, everyone got a super creative Christmas card from Joe!

Can you tell what's that??!

It's Joe's BACK!!! He is doing "ba guan" & using that as 'decorations' for the Christmas tree.

Super creative, AMAZING! :)

. . . . .

Concluding the day with presents/goodies I've received.

Received a brown pouch for the gift exchange.

 The colleague who received my present is also the same person who I got my present from. :)

My lovely colleague who bought each of us (my team) a diary/planner.

It comes in 4 different design so just nice each of us got a different design! :)

Super cute and totally loved the way she wrapped the present but I forgot to take a picture of it!!!

Cute snowman cookie from my another colleague (my team) & her bf who is working in Symantec as well!

A goodie bag from someone from another department, just because I helped her to wrap presents.

A box of cookie from a relatively new colleague in my department. A funny lady :)

OK, that's all for my company's X'mas Celebration!

Hope you enjoyed yours too!

I'm gonna stay home to read a book that I just bought and watch TV at night!

Not gonna squeeze in the crowd! 

BYE! 

g s i a n g , s m i l e s .