If there's one thing I really really miss...
It's dancing.

Ok, so before this blog gets stagnant again, lemmie share with you some pictures from my recent press trip to Bangkok!

~Proudly sponsored by the good rice people at Golden Phoenix~

DAY ONE

After touching down, we were immediately whisked away to our hotel to unload and then off to brave the hideous Bangkok jam before arriving at our destination - The ABC Cooking School

Thats me being the chef's assistant, only because I was being sabo-ed by the rest! Geez. That is what happens when you're the youngest. Hurhur.

Gayle, from Food & Travel, got it too. Haha. She had to peel prawns!



Two dishes we learnt how to cook - Thai-style Fried Rice & Pineapple Rice with Seafood




Two dishes we actually cooked - Tom Yam Kung and Sticky Rice with Mango (done sushi style)



Josephine, from Se Xiang Wei, and myself with our Tom Yam Kung (and holding up the prawns I helped to shell. heh.)

And here's us posing with our packets of Golden Phoenix rice before leaving the cooking school. Haha! It felt so weird, like we were mini-celebrities. When we first arrived at the school, there were tons of people around, constantly taking our pictures. I really can't imagine how uncomfortable and exposed celebrities must feel...
From L to R: Our guide, Jen Lee (The New Paper), Ambiga (NTUC Lifestyle), Me, Gayle (Food & Travel), Josephine (Se Xiang Wei), Kenny (Mileage PR) our cooking instructor, Bonnie (Golden Phoenix Rep), Z (Chinese Gourmet Magazine...Gah...Can't remember the name!)

The cooking class ended later than planned and we were caught in the insane rush-hour traffic on our way to the Siam Niramit show. By the time we arrived, we only had time to empty our bursting bladders and find our seats in the ginormous theater. We completely missed the buffet dinner that we were supposed to enjoy before the show!

Too bad we weren't allowed to take pictures during the show. It was pretty spectacular with all the sounds, special effects, flying around (yes! FLYING!), songs and dance. It helped that I went for SE2101 because a lot of the performances were based on traditional Thai folk stories.

I did manage to take pictures outside though, albeit not the most interesting. Haha!



Elephant! I love animals!



Heehee. Yet another 'elephant'.



The words read "The stage of SIAM NIRAMIT is certified by GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS as the highest in the world". No kidding. They need the height for all that flying around!

(To find out more about the show, click HERE)

The entire show took about 1 hour 45 minutes. By the time all of us fought with the crowds to got out of the theater, collect our cameras (we had to deposit our cameras! so strict one...), find each other among the hordes of mainly ang mo tourists, we were absolutely starving!

So we all voted to go for a much needed late night supper. So we told the driver to take us somewhere to eat. So we all got into the van.
Guess what. It took the driver about 45 minutes to get us to our dinner destination. I mean. How hard is it to find food in Thailand??! Street food is EVERYWHERE!
Geez.

Finally, we ended up at a popular chicken rice place.



Pork rib & bittergourd soup + duck & black mushroom soup + lotsa chilli sauce



Chicken! I can't really tell you if it was good or not because I was hungryyyyy. The piece of chicken blood was untouched by the ladies at my table. Instead, it was promptly sent over to the other table and eaten up happily by Z!



This is what you get when you order cold water. Despite the brownish tint (i'm guessing due to tea leaves or smthg) it just tastes like plain ol' water.



The Full Feast!

After satisfying our tummies, finally, we arrive back at The Hotel Intercontinental.



The Study and Sitting Area



The huge comfortable bed - Just to prove how huge the bed was, when I slept on the left side, I woke up in the morning the find the right side still neatly straightened and folded, the door hanging thingies didn't move an inch either!



Close up of the study area.



Complimentary kiwi fruits! Too bad I didn't have the time to enjoy them. If they gave fruits that didn't need peeling, I might have gotten round to eating them!

And that's all for Day one. Stay tuned for more!

(:

When I first laid eyes on thatttttttt Anya Hindmarch bag in March, I thought it was cute and quirky and thus proceeded to contact my friends residing in UK to see if they would be so kind as to help me get it.

But lo and behold, suddenly, the whole world wanted that bag too. Updates on the Anya Hindmarch website stated that outlets were completely sold out, as was the online shop, and new stocks would be severely limited. The craze then flooded into Asia where anyone who was anyone, or rather their PAs, scrambled to speed dial the PAs at their respective local Anya Hindmarch boutiques to secure thatttttttt bag for their superstars. At the point in time, I was already with SWW and the fashion stylist called up a friend to put my colleagues and I on the waiting list. Alas, it was not to be as in the end. The waiting list was never looked at and possibly, there was never a waiting list to begin with.

Come to think of it, I'm quite glad I didn't get the bag. Given the amount of fakes I see everywhere, even if you were carrying the authentic one, people would still snigger and think "fake one lah". I'm very sure Anya Hindmarch herself would be mortified, and bemused, at the sight of everyone, from HDB aunties to pimply teenage girls totting thatttttttt bag.

But being the environmentalist that I am (Don't laugh ok. I hate the thought of wasting water, electricity and using plastic bags!) I really wanted to get hold of thatttttttt bag. However, I have found for myself a replacement! Not to mention a much more expensive one than thatttttttt bag.

So what bag did I get? *drumroll please..........the Market Bag by Cole Haan. Made of environmentally friendly canvas material, the versatile bag is also reversible - one side reveals the signature Cole Haan logo while the other side features a brown gingham-type continuous pattern. It's also big enough to dump in press kits to free up hands for giving out name cards at events!



Never heard of Cole Haan? Doesn't matter because it means that the bag is unlikely to be copied into lousy replicas found in pasar malams or far east. It also means lesser people carrying it! Heehee.

I know I know. One whole blog entry dedicated to my latest purchase. But then again, this is after all a GIRL'S blog. It's bound to have shopping entries and other girly ramblings right.
Right right right?

RIGHT.
(:

P/s to CHERIE TOH - I don't get to wear jeans to work! Only on photo shoot days!

Four months into my job (not counting the two months of internship) and I'm definitely, as cliche and horribly McD as it sounds, loving it.

I love trying out the food I know I'll never be able to afford, going for private previews, events and launches, getting the VIP treatment (most of the time anyway) as well as the different people I've come to know and interact with.

But it is frustrating. To be in a job that I love and can see myself doing for quite a while, but yet, to not quite be in the job.
Pardon the apparent incoherence.
Just to explain myself, and the sentence above, right now, I'm on a "retainer" basis.
To put it simply, I'm one up from being a zero-paid "sai kang" intern but one down from being a fairly paid full-time staff.
I mean, I have a name card and all, as well as the credibility to be able to go on press trips representing the Singapore Women's Weekly (more on this later) but it just isn't the same.
Everyone's been telling, or at least hinting, to me that I'm being exploited. Even the photographer I work with has been taunting me about my lack of concrete status and measly pay every time I meet him on photo shoots.

Well, like I said before, its something very very hard to give up. Despite the pay, I've been gladly hanging in there, scrimping on transport like crazy just so I can pocket the full amount of transport allowance. Thanks to Lili too for accompanying me to events and food-tasting sessions so that she can claim the cab fares.
But yes, I know I know. Something definitely has to be done.
BUT, stubborn as I am, I'm still waiting for something to happen.
It's already past the three month mark and I'm expecting a "pay revision" as stated on the contract. Of course that doesn't necessarily imply a pay raise but I'm being optimistic.
That's the least I can do right now.
Heh.

On to my press trip! My very first one at that.
I'll be heading to Bangkok for a press trip proudly sponsored by the rice people at Golden Phoenix.
Yup. This translates into an itinerary filled with visits to the rice padi fields, rice factory and a cooking class featuring, what else, RICE!
Haha.
I'm not complaining though, especially since everything is fully paid for (except for shopping and lunch on the last day. heh.) and planned.
It also helps that I'll be staying at the 5-star Hotel Intercontinental with a room all to my little self! Haha! It does sound indulgent, but I think I rather stay with someone else. Its a bit too creepy to be sleeping alone in that big ol' room.
My only hesitation is with the people I'll be going with. So far, from what I heard from Ange, there's going to be two other persons, one from NTUC FairPrice and the other from the Straits Times.
I'll be meeting them this Thursday when the PR fella (coincidentally with the same name as my dog. hurhurhur.) hands out the plane tickets over lunch at Thai Express (how awfully apt.).
I'm crossing my fingers, and toes, and praying like crazy that I'll be able to click with them. If not, I foresee quite a dreadful trip.
Another peeve? It's from Friday to Sunday! How dare they eat up my weekend! Initially I thought I could get the Monday off but it turns out I have an event to attend. But its alright. Its the launch of the newly renovated Food Junction at Great World City and the children from Club Rainbow have been invited too. Should be a worthwhile trip out of the house!

Hopefully I'll not fall into the lazy-trap and update more often.
Preferably with pictures, because, at least for me, I find the more interesting blogs are filled with pictures. Haha.
I wanna get a new camera!
(:


Jo, Me, Ange, Lusi, Pris
(Photo Shoot @ Olive Restaurant)

I couldn't fall sick at a worst time. Actually, I suppose I could. But just let me rant.

Because of my runny yet dry runny tap nose, dry and itchy throat and consequential dry eyes, I missed out on a food-tasting session at Peach Blossoms and had to leave office early which resulted in me missing out on a advertorial briefing.
This means that I have two advertorials to churn out tomorrow morning before I have to run off to attend a string of events.
If I'm not well tomorrow, I'll have to lug myself through returning a bunch of extremely heavy Le Creuset pots (which includes going from the office to the studio then to the return location, I don't even want to think about the can fare I'm going to incur), a high-tea tasting session at The Fullerton Hotel and later rushing to the Meritus Mandarin for a Christmas tasting.
I know I know. I shouldn't be complaining about the last two but its definitely no fun when you're sick. Not to mention down with the flu bug.
It just kills your taste buds.

Heh.
It is kinda horrible that my first post after being MIA for so long has to be nothing but complaints.
But at least it became a sort of catalyst to kick start this blog again.
I was contemplating on moving to another blog address but my lack of creativity and alright, I admit, plain laziness to use some brain cells has halted that move.
For now at least.
I feel like I need a new home, a new channel.
Hmm.

If you read this in time,
do pray for me!
I definitely am going to need God's strength to keep me hanging in there!

(:

I promise to start blogging again.

It's just a matter of when.

Until then,

Know that I'm still alive.

And very much kicking!

(:

Just a wee little post to let everyone i'm still alive (yay!) and to update a lil bit on what's been going on...

hmm. lemmie think. It's been pretty much work work work ever since I became "junior food coordinator". But don't let the new post fool you. I'm still being paid peanuts (speaking of which, its already sept 10 and i still haven't got paid for august!) and the workload is getting heavier by the second.
But it's still manageable and rather fun actually. Just like any job, there are the high, insane, crazy deadline periods and the slow lullaby periods. They balance out each other i suppose. Thankfully they do. Haha.


Hmm. what else. Well, i coordinated my first photo-shoot and styled my first set of 10 dishes! Woohoo! haha. it was nerve-wrecking i tell you. But i managed to pull it off despite my inexperience and what felt like the entire butterfly park in my tummy.
will post them on this blog once i get my hands on them. Hehe. same with my other "hand" pictures. Haha. (pun not intended!)


Besides work, i made a really short 3days 2nights trip to bangkok.
which, most unfortunately, was unsuccessful.
i mean, i still have quite a bit of thai baht left! thats saying a lot isn't it. haha.
yeah. didn't get much for myself.
BUT, i'm proud to say that i got more stuff for my friends then myself!
*BIG GRIN.


Oh, and my whole family, plus the extended family, and of course, JY, made a trip down to the hotel intercontinental last saturday.
I was given a free one-night's stay voucher at the executive suite and decided to hand it over to my parents for them to enjoy.
But them being the nice people they are, decided to invite the whole gang down to share in the fun
and experience something we probably will never get to ever again.
situated at the highest floor of the hotel (which is already reflective of the price of the room!), the minute me, my bro, JY, esther, and my aunty entered the front door, we were totally blown away.
the size of the room, the height of the ceiling, the size of the flat-screen tv, the large 6-seater dining room set was too overwhelming.
i had to walk around the place a few times before i finally slumped down on the comfy L-shaped sofa and channel surfed through the 20 over channels available.
the bathroom, as one can expect, was equally plush with its gold, but not gaudy, fixtures, the l'occitane bath products, the fragrant potpourri and the soft bathrobes hanging behind the door.
gosh, i sound totally incoherent but thats how overwhelmed i was.
and of course, how could we forget the bose radio in the room and the free fruits garnished with a stalk of orchid for the taking.
i'll post the pictures once i get them from my brother.

well, i'm just glad that my parents really enjoyed their stay.
they totally lived it up and were even given a free breakfast buffet on sunday morning.
absolutely lovely to see them so happy.
(:


hopefully, i'll be posting regularly again.
so much coming up and so much to look forward to.
suddenly, i feel like an adult.
suddenly things are different.
suddenly i feel like im different.


hmm.

Just another day at work...

(:

For those who have been hearing my incessant gushings and whinnings

(actually, it would just be poor michele and JY)
about the Marc Jacob jelly mouse flats,
rejoice (!) for I have found myself a much cheaper pair of replacements.
Sure they're not the real thing,
nor come close to being anywhere near the style, comfort and name of Marc Jacob-produced goods,
But,
they look almost the same but cost only $9.90!
Woohoo!

Hooray to super-duper cheapo knock-offs for the underpaid fashionistas.

the original marc jacob red flats:
unfortunately, the $9.90 ones don't come in red.
so i got myself one in bronze:
if you look carefully, you'll notice they even copied the holes on the sides of the shoes!


Oh,
have I mentioned I'll be going to Bangkok?
Yay to my mummy who somehow, amazingly, managed to convince my dad to go.
Haha.
And JY, practically by default, is coming along too.
Now how cool is that.
13 more days to the shopping and eating paradise!


(:

Sorry for the lack of updates.
Been relatively busy, out of the house often and just plain lazy to update.
Hurhurhur.
But here's one so you know I'm still alive and kicking.


Caught two movies this week.
Rush Hour 3 and The Bourne Ultimatum.
Rush Hour 3 was ok I guess. I found it to be rather short and totally predictable.
But then again, they're merely following the standard tried-and-tested Hollywood formula of good guys always win.
At least they tried to put in some twists and superfluous characters (I totally didn't get the point of that weird Chinese lady at the gentlemen's club).
And the jokes were cringe-worthy. Haha. Terribly lame, borderline racist and crude.
But nonetheless, it is afterall Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan.
What else could go wrong?


The Bourne Ultimatum on the other hand, gets both thumbs up from me.
Considering that I'm not much of an action movie fan, that's really saying a lot about the movie.
I love how the director played with so many camera angles and the editing was superb.
The fast pace of the action was actually in tune with the morality behind the movie, rather than just punching and spewing blood around for the sake of it.
And thanks to my cousin for the free preview tickets!

Work-wise, I've been doing ok.
I've got a great editor, a manageable workload, flexible working hours, casual dress-code, free food every week and colleagues who are nice.
There are, of course, challenges coming my way.
Like the upcoming photo shoot where I have to be the food-stylist for 10 reader recipes.
It's nerve-wrecking because I've never done it before.
But thankfully the cook working with me is really supportive and the other food-stylist has offered to help as well.
Thank God for always providing me with these little reassurances.
And JY too for accompanying me to Daiso to pick out the plates and what not.
And of course carry them for me.
Heh.


And finally,
to my dearest uni SPG,
let's meet up the week after!
Before you guys get so caught up with school work!


(:

so finally i'm getting paid.
but its a measly amount.
lesser than half of the starting pay i can garner outside as a fresh grad.

its really crazy i know.
yet i can't give up this job.
not just the perks,
but the fact that i really enjoy it is what keeps me hanging on.

it doesn't help that its not really a permanent job too.
but i'm giving it 3 months.
and then,
sadly,
we'll have to see whether i'll be forced to move on.

sigh.

For those of you who don't already know by now, probably because ure some random reader or I haven't spoken to you in a while, I'm a food-critic-in-training. Yup. Scrawny little me is slowly training up my palette to be more discerning about what touches my taste buds.

For the past 2 months or so, there definitely has been hits and misses. I'm not too sure if I'm allowed or should be openly dismissing some places, so, I'll just stick to being politically correct and give you the lo-down on the eating scene in Singapore. Or at least try to. Heh.

But here's one restaurant that I rather highly recommend.

Place:
Brown Sugar
Address:
277 River Valley Road, Stardus Clubhouse
(between Kim Yam & Mohd Sultan Rd, enter via Institution Hill)
Reservations call:
63336612 (its a must! its quite a small place, only seats about 35)
Website:
www.brownsugar.com.sg (please remember to type in the "sg"...without it...erm...yar...you get to a site with questionable content -_-'")
Misc:
Free Parking (both in front and at the back of the building)

Setting:

Delightfully cosy and casual, plush and comfortable seating, gorgeous cream coloured wallpaper, mirrored walls, soothing and non-intrusive background music.

Must Try:

Deconstructed Apple Salad
$13
Salad of deconstructed apples, walnuts, brie, apple balsamic dressing

Wagyu Burger
$28
Hand-chopped wagyu burger, truffled mushroom sauce, salad and fries

Sticky Date Pudding
$10
Sticky date pudding with brown sugar butterscotch, walnuts, vanilla ice cream

Pear Tarte Tatin
$12
Tarte tatin of pears with honey and fig ice cream

Other dishes worth mentioning (but have no pictures):
organic mushroom soup, seared tuna salad with capsicum salsa, traditional oxtail stew with mash

If you do go, let me know how the food and service is like.
Sometimes they're nicer towards us because they know we're from the media.
Which, I'm not complaining about of course.
(:

I'm already done with my 7th week of internship.

It's been a great experience so far.
It has allowed me to learn more about myself, what I'm really capable of and meet so many new characters, interesting, weird and totally out-of-this-world.
Most importantly, it has given me the assurance that this is the line of work I really want to see myself get into.

But of course, I'm not closing any doors just as yet.
I'm still young, still full of energy and still have the time to make mistakes.
I want to try everything, sample everything, dip my toes into everything.
From the conventional to the slightly more adventurous.
So many options, so little time to do it all.

Of course, not everything has been fine and dandy.
I've had my fair share of stress, let-downs and moments of frustration.
But I thank God that He has never ever let go of my hand, even when I felt I was alone.
Praise God for always knowing whats best for His frail little children.
Though there are still more unresolved issues, feelings and emotions,
and questions of why He has put me in various situations,
I know and trust that He will still be there.
Thanks too to all those who have been patient enough to hear me rant and praying for me!

Anyway, before my blog gets too boring, I will now present to you with an onslaught of pictures!
Pictures are always a good thing.

The ceremony speaker who just couldn't stop fidgeting!

Michele!

Me!

Us!

Us again!

JY, Me, Michele

Family

Me + Mum

Me + JY

Me + Bro

Me + Bro (again!)

Me + Dad

Dad, JY, Me, Mum, Bro

Ally, Me, Mish

Ally (the photographer!) + Me

Close-ups of my pretty flowers

(: