Monday, May 19, 2008

Discovering the Southern Ridges

The Southern Ridges comprise a 9-kilometre chain of green, open spaces spanning the rolling hills of Mount Faber Park, Telok Blangah Hill Park and Kent Ridge Park before ending at West Coast Park. It is an area steeped in history and is home to some of nature’s greatest gifts of flora and fauna. It is also one of the best spots in Singapore to catch panoramic views of the city, harbour and the Southern Islands.

Marang Trail

Faber Walk

Henderson Waves

Hilltop Walk

Forest Walk

Alexandra Arch

Floral Walk

Canopy Walk

We will defnitely attempt to finish the above walks and trails before the year ends...we promise!











Tried out a bit of the Floral Walk the other day when we were at HortPark...surrenderred due to extremely hot afternoon sun..

-SGMale

Saturday, May 17, 2008

'Windows' shopping at Vivocity

After leaving the hot and humid Botanic Garden, we decided to seek refuge at Vivo City for some free "aircon". Initially intended just to do some 'windows' shopping but SGFemale ended up buying 2 pair of shoes at Tangs.

SGFemale managed to shop for 2 pairs of shoes within 30 minutes while I was busy chasing and catching with our hyperactive son who created such a noisy din with his running non-stop near the lady shoe department.

A showdown on SGFemale's prized shopping items today



Nice pair of sandal with red flower and stylish pair of shiny black heels.






These 2 pairs of shoes just got enlisted into SGFemale's collection of more than 30 pairs of shoes.

-SGMale

Visit to Botanic Garden & HortPark

Thanks to the hot and humid weather, we were being forced out of the house again today. Brought our son to Botanic Garden for lunch and a short walk around the sheltered facility.



Nicely renovated shelter


Botanic Garden has become more and more attractive after the much-awaited makeover took place.



Nice Pond full of lotus.




Wooden Sculptures of various shapes and sizes








Our son never fails to feel very excited whenever he sees lot of fishes inside the pond.


We tried walking out to the park for a while, we ended up perspiring so much after 10 mins that we decided to leave for a cooler place.

But in actual fact, we 'drove' right into another inferno - HortPark. HortPark is a one-stop gardening hub that brings together gardening-related, recreational, educational, research and retail activities under one big canopy in a park setting. It is a knowledge hub for plants and gardening and provides the platform for the industry to share best practices and showcase garden designs, products and services. This 23-hectare regional park in South-Western Singapore is also a park connector, connecting Telok Blangah Hill Park to Kent Ridge Park. It was officially opened to the public on the 7 December last year.





Main entrance


Good for evening chill out...


Wow..so much enclosed plants...


Hort Mart selling most of the gardening tools and plants..


Nice combination of colors.


So much greeneries inside air-con room, is it really neccessary?


Looks like the enchanted Garden in one of the fairytale I have read during my childhood days.


There is so much to see, will definitely drop by again during cooler part of the day.

-SGFemale

Friday, May 16, 2008

Accelerating expenditure

Did some research on recent year expenditures and was amazed to find out that our entire household expenditure has been rising 10-15% year on year. This shows that Singapore is really getting to become a more and more expensive place to live in..

It becomes worse when you own a car, why? When there is a new shopping mall opening, new place for prawn fishing etc...the urge and temptation to get out of the house never fail to pound on us especially when the weather gets hotter these day, staying at home on a saturday afternoon seem like mission impossible for us.

Of course, taxi is always the replacement if one does not own a car but it is never as convenient as owning a car when you can choose to leave the house and hop on the car anytime of the day.

As petrol prices has risen towards the $2.50 per litre mark, SGFemale and myself resolve to stay at home more often now especially during weekends. Difficult as it is, we shall give it a try and find out this weekend..hehehe;)

-SGMale

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Hoegaarden Beer

Was in the mood for a drink and I decided to try out HoeGaarden White Beer for the first time. Our friend A recommended it to SGMale long ago but I have not got the chance to try out till today.
We saw it on promotion at the supermarket last Sunday and SGMale decided to buy a pack of 4 bottles to try it out.

Its a belgian white beer with a light blend of 4.9% alcohol. Not too strong for non-beer lover, It's the tastiest non-ale I've ever enjoyed; looks light but tastes solid. It's also an ideal introduction to non-beer drinkers. Nice!

-SGFemale

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Scratch It Again!

The "next time" mood dropped by today! So I bought another 5 SCRATCH IT tickets when we passed by the supermarket.

My 5 pcs of "hope"


Example of my "hope" (just win one time of the below will do!)



I scratched the tickets one by one, slowly and carefully! Done with the 3rd pcs, but still no luck!
Then I told SGMale, is it so difficult to even win $1? SGMale laughed at me for having such small "hope".

Ignoring him, I continued scratching till the last ticket. Oh....my god! I shouted again!
What? What? SGMale asked. You won the big prize of $10,000? He asked. I replied, no lah, just got a damn $1 that I "hoped" earlier. SGMale congratulated me and said that my dream had came true and my prayer has been answered. He also said today is my lucky day as it's Mother's Day and I should have "wished" for a higher prize!

My 1st winning ticket, $1. (the smallest winning amount of all amount!)

Winning ticket and "rubbishs"<--fate for non-winning tickets.



Nevermind, I won't be defeated so easily! I will try again soon!
Wish me luck!


-SGFemale

Mother's Day - 11 May

SGFemale gets to celebrate Mother's Day for the 3rd time today. We went over to IMM and got a cake from Crystal Jade Bakery.






As usual, our 26 months old son could not wait to blow the candles and cut the cake.


SGFemale rarely cooks. But she did it today since she was in an extremely good mood. ;)

- Grilled cod fish, steamed prawns and butter baked potatoes

She was very moved and touched while she found the below card when clearing our son's bag from Childcare centre. It was made by our son during one of the Childcare activities for Mother's Day. She was especially moved when our son gave her a heart-warming hug after that.

This year must be the best Mother's Day for her.

-SGMale

Dinner at Sunset Grill Restaurant

Since this place was recommended by Makansutra website, we decided to give it a try. And thanks to the below address, it took us almost 2 hours to find this place. The actual address is 140B, Piccadilly, Seletar Airbase, East Camp <-- the KEY WORD to finding this palce.
Nice Ambience, perfect for first dates..;)
Very packed even though the place is so "ulu" and hard to find.

Nevertheless the food was great and it was worth the journey.

Striloin Steak
Calamari
Buffalo wings - "level 2 " (available from level 1 to level 10 of spicyness)
For 1st timer, they recommened us to start with level 1 or level 2.


No GST & Service Charge here..
-SGMale


Marina Country Club

Wanted to make a second attempt to JB today but was again forced to abort the trip due to heavy jam despite going via the 2nd link.

While deciding where else to go, we saw a van advertising about prawn fishing at Marina Country Club. Since we have nowhere to go, we decided to go there to see see look look.

Even though I use the GPS to help navigate our way there, it took us sometime before we reach our destination.




Old building


Yacht repair & maintenance facility


Lots of yacht..average price : S$700,000


Prawn Fishing - Was tempted to try out...but did not have the mood to do so


Punggol Seafood Restaurant is also here


Nice view at the pier over seeing Coney island


Parking fee was $3.15, would probably be our first and last time here.

-SGMale

Thursday, May 8, 2008

SCRATCH IT!

Bought 3 SCRATCH IT tickets yesterday during lunch time with SGMale. I got excited when I saw it on sale again, it's back after 2 years or so. This time, it's only $1 for a ticket, I remembered clearly that it was $2 last time. Anyway, isn't it better when it's cheaper now! Hee...;p

Below are some information for the SCRATCH IT! :

SCRATCHIT! - TICKETS: THE RACE QUEEN (RED) SERIES
The Race Queen (Red) Series Scratch on the game panel to reveal 8 symbols. If you find 3 matching symbols, you stand to win up to $10,000!

I scratched the first ticket, oh my god..... I shouted! Got chance, got chance! I told SGMale who was driving. I then told him that I have got two "$2000" value on the first line, and if I got another "$2000" value then we will win $2000. Yeah! Then I scratched the second line, but there's no value of "$2000" at all, very disappointed! I went on scratching the other 2 tickets, no luck as well!

1st ticket - with two "$2000" value


2nd ticket - with two "$40", two "$500" and two "$10,000", why?


3rd and last ticket: with two "$40" and two "$10,000".


3 pcs of "rubbish" now!!!


Hopefully I can have better luck next time.
Cheers!

-SGFemale