Universal Studio Singapore - 23Dec2015

In December for the year 2015, my mum was very sick and was admitted to hospital. Her cancer cells had spread to other parts of her body. It was a difficult period for my siblings and me. She had always been very independent but now she was bed-ridden and in pain most of the time. The agony of seeing her suffering jn pain was unbearable, we even cancelled our year end Hong Kong trip from 19Dec to 23Dec. 

To compensate to ah boy for the cancelled trip, we decided to take him to UNiversal Studio of Singapore on 23Dec. It was our first trip there. The weather was hot and the queue was unbearable at times, taking as long as 80min. Ah boy was complaining of tired legs during the Queues. 

We reached USS around 11 plus in the morning after eating our breakfast at Seah Im hawker center. We boarded bus rws8 at the bus stop outside harbourfront. It cost 2 SGD to go into Sentosa by this bus. 

USS was opened at 10am. There was a long queue outside USS ticketing booth. I found a shorter ticketing booth near the monorail station. 2 adults and one child ticket cost about 200SGD. Ouch.. That was really expensive! 

USS was divided into few areas, namely Hollywood, New York, sci-fi city, ancient Egypt, the lost world, far far away, Madagascar. 

We enjoyed the transformer ride most at sci-fi city. It was a 3D battle between Optimus prime and the autobots.  Superb!

We also saw an empty sound stage at New York in 'lights, camera, action!' being the setting for a major hurricane to hit us before our eyes. There was fire and water. Ah boy was scared. 

The first show we went into at Hollywood was a Sesame Street Christmas show. Sesame Street characters such as Big Bird, Bernie, Ernie, Elmo etc sang Christmas tunes on stage. 

Treasure hunters at ancient Egypt was not worth queuing for. The desert jeep ride through an abandoned Egyptian excavation site was too short and not many surprises. 

We didn't go for any adventure at the lost world. Hope to try them on future trip to USS. 

Far far away shrek 4-D adventure was a 4D theatre adventure with sight, hearing and action right from our seat as we joined princess Fiona and shrek in a fairytale adventure. 

Puss in boots' giant journey at far far away was a journey that we queued for 80minutes. It was a roller coaster ride in an anti-gravity, swashbuckling adventure with Puss and Kitty. This was ah boy first roller coaster adventure. He enjoyed it. 

Ah boy eating chicken wing at Lot One - 4Dec2015

Porn's at Star Vista - 7Nov2015

It was a cloudy Saturday. I decided to go to Star Vista after visiting my mum in the hospital. It had been some time since I last stepped into this place. This place brought back some memories of an old friend who passed away last year. A few of us had gathered here to meet up to visit her at home last August 2014.

Anyway, my focus is to introduce this Thai restaurant in Star Vista. It is opened by local celebrity pornsak. I like pornsak. He seems to be sincere in front of TV and off TV. I didn't get to see him in the restaurant. 

We ordered coconut Tom Yum soup, some fried platter and 2 drinks. The food cost 40 plus. It was a bit expensive but I would say the serving was good enough for 3 persons. The coconut Tom Yum Soup was only a bit spicy. The fried platter smelled good and tasted good. I loved the roselle flowers drink. On the whole I would recommend this restaurant to my friends. Thumbs up. The staff at this restaurant was as sincere as the boss pornsak. Hope the restaurant would continue to open. 

Tonkichi - 17Oct2015

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, I met my friends at Orchard Central Tonkichi for lunch. I ordered the set menu with soba and pork fillet. 

We later proceeded to TCC at Isetan Scotts for our tea-break and dinner. 

We ordered Halloween high-tea set and some drinks. The Halloween set consisted of a cute chocolate 'spider' and 2 bats. We had a good time chatting and eating our food. The service was good and the atmosphere was conducive. I would recommend this place. 

Baskin Robbins at jurong point - 2Oct2015

It's been a while since I last had ice-cream in a shop. 

5SGD for a value scoop. This place used to be Wendy's burger. 

I order Sorbet ice-cream. Not very filling but I like the taste. 

Dazzling cafe - 5Sep2015

It had been a while since I met my two lovely girlfriends. Today we decided to try out a new restaurant Dazzling cafe at Capitol building. 

The ambience was lovely but the food was a bit disappointing especially on their famous desserts. It was too sweet for my liking. Luckily, we shared the 2 desserts - waffle and honey toast among the 3 of us. Otherwise, I would not be able to finish one dessert on my own. We also shared the scallop and crabmeat pasta and spicy tomyam pasta. The scallop pasta was too dried but the tomyom pasta was good, in spite of being too spicy for my taste. 

On the whole, dazzling cafe might be worth a first try but a second try might be difficult for me. 

Inside Out - 4Sep2015

4Sep was teacher's day. I watched Disney animated movie 'inside out' with ah boy. The movie's theme was innovative. The focus point was on emotions inside a little girl's head. The 4 emotions were characterized by 4 characters namely Joy, anger, fear, disgust who worked in the headquarter of Riley's brain. 

The story began with Riley's as a baby and followed through her toddler days and her life experiences at Minnesota. However, the emotions were faced with challenges when Riley and her family moved to Sans Francisco. 

It was a happy ending when Riley came to accept her emotions and expressed to her parents her sadness of leaving her old home. 

I loved this movie. I found it quite meaningful. 

Live turtle and tortoise museum - 9Aug15

Today was SG50 national day. We went to Chinese Garden for a walk. Ah boy wanted to see the turtles. I paid 15SGD for 2 adults 1 child plus 2SGD for turtle food. 

The museum was small but interesting. We saw a big tortoise roaming around on its own around the garden area. It picked up scraps of vegetables on the floor to eat. Other big tortoises and turtles were held enclosed. 

高记-China town - 8August2015

It's been a while since I went to China town in the evening. The weather was cooling. We went into an eatery shop near the 美食街。The food was reasonably priced. We ordered rice ball chicken set, yong tau foo noodle set,  tofu rice set and ice milo for a price of 17 plus SGD. 

On the whole, it was a satisfying dinner. 

Chris's house - 19July2015

Today I took ah boy to Chris's house-warming party. We had a good time. He played hide and seek, and I chatted with my wine club friends. Of course there was wine. 

Seoul Garden - 13July2015

It was ah boy's 8th birthday. We went to Jurong Point Seoul Garden to celebrate his birthday. The cinnamon tea was free flow. I helped myself to 2 refills. The food was average. 

Bugis+ Ramen - 11July2015

It has been a while I went to bugis+. We decided to go one Saturday. Some shops had changed. The Ramen eateries were still available. I tried one Ramen that was labelled 'best Ramen'. The pork meat was tender, the Ramen noodles were QQ and the soup base was delicious.

Sufood - 26June2015

I had dinner with my friends at Sufood at Raffles City on a Friday evening. We shared the main course. It was filling. 

Raffles Marina Country Club - 20June2015

I went to Raffles Country Club to celebrate Father's Day. There was not much crowd in the Captain's table Chinese restaurant. We ordered few dishes, mostly vegetable dishes. The food was average. The ambience was good. We looked at the yachts that were parked along the Bay Area. Some were big, others were small. On the whole, it was worthwhile going there for a walk. 

Shabu Shabu set at Jurong Point - 15June2015

The other day I went to Jurong Point Shokuten Street (Japanese Street) to buy some bread from Green Pumpkin bakery shop and received a free voucher worth 11.90SGD on free collar pork with every purchase of Shabu Shabu set.  

One evening, I decided to try out the Shabu Shabu set at the Japanese restaurant. We chose the cheapest set priced at 58SGD that comes with free soup base, free side dishes and 2 plates of pork meat slices. We were entitled to one more plate of collar pork meat slices because of our voucher. 

The hotpot had a lot of vegetables in it. We chose creamy chicken soup base. The mushrooms were very big. There were tofu, cabbages and green leafy vegetables. 

The hotpot was a better looking presentation than 海底捞 hotpot at IMM. The sauces for the Shabu Shabu and were free. On the whole, the pork meat was tender and fresh. There were a lot of vegetables. It was a good eating experience. 

盛记at IMM - 13June2015

We went to 盛记at IMM for dinner. We ordered Wanton noodles. The wanton pieces were very big but ah boy didn't like them. He liked the noodles instead. 

Seoul Garden IMM - 10June2015

Seoul garden at IMM does not serve buffet meals. We went to try its kimchi chicken hotpot and fried tang hoon. 

I loved the hotpot. It was served hot. The rice serving was small which I could not share with ah boy. I had to order another bowl of rice for him. 

The fried tang hoon serving was also small and it tasted ok. 

We also ordered fried dumplings. They tasted better than those from Ajisen Ramen.

Jurong Bird Park - 11June2015

It was a cloudy day. Ah boy and I agreed to go to Jurong Bird Park. We took shuttle bus 194 from Boon Lay interchange and stopped outside the bird park.

There was a SG50 promotion for Singaporeans. We paid price of one ticket for a one year unlimited entry membership. Adult was 28SGD and child was 18SGD. 

We later bought the tram tickets at 5SGD for adult and 2SGD for child. There were only 3 tram stations, namely main station, lovry loft and waterfall stations. They didn't check on the tram tickets after we boarded from the lovry loft station.

Ah boy was most interested in the Penguins. The Penguins coast was near the entrance. However we missed the feeding time at 10.30am. Another exciting show not to be missed was the flying birds at pool amphitheater. It was fun watching the birds performed. We made it on time at 11 am for the first show. 

The other exhibits were disappointing. Some areas we couldn't even see any birds. 

The lovry loft feeding for the parrots was 3SGD a cup. Quit ex. Lucky ah boy wasn't interested.

The waterfall aviary seemed run-down. Ah boy wasn't interested at the waterfalls.

We went to the breeding centre near the main station and saw some baby birds in their incubators. We didn't see any baby birds hatching from eggs.

The food at the cafeteria was very expensive. It cost 9.90SGD for a plate of nasi lemak. I bought a plate to share with ah boy because I was afraid he was hungry. However, he ate little. 

Overall, the bird park was on an average rating. Singapore indeed is an expensive city in terms of food and places of interest pricing. 

海底捞-IMM 6June2015

One Saturday afternoon, we decided to try the steamboat at 海底捞-IMM. The daily opening hours are from 10.30am to 4am. 

 

The steamboat menu items were ordered by using an iPad. Soup base on average was 22SGD. We ordered 2 different types of soup bases : chicken and laksa. The chicken soup base contained black chicken pieces, a few fishball and some mushrooms. The laksa soup base contained toufu. 

For meat to go with the soup, we ordered black pork meat and tender chicken meat. For vegetables, we chose lettuce. Both meat and vegetables were very fresh. 

We were told that the sauces cost 4SGD per person. Quite ex. The fruits provided with the sauces were watermelon, oranges and honeydew. 

On the whole, the service was good and the staff was attentive. 

I might consider to go again not so soon in the future. 

Kids stop at Science Centre - 2June2015

It was the June school holidays, ah boy and I took bus 178 from Boon Lay interchange to go to the Science Centre. The ride was about 25mins. 

We went early around 9.30 am to catch the first session of kids stop from 9.30am to 1.30pm. The tickets were priced at 10SGD for adult and 5SGD for child. We were required to show our nric and student pass. 

There were not many people in the early morning. Ah boy went exploring the several stops. We went to the sand pit to dig out dinosaur bones. We went to the construction site where ah boy tried to control a crane. He also tried his hands at cooking and being a cashier. 

The most interesting place was a free fall area as high as 7m. Ah boy tried falling at 3m and then at 4m. Socks were required. As I didn't bring any socks for him, I bought a pair at 4SGD at the kids stop minimart. 

Another area that caught ah boy's attention was the site where the children could play with the big Lego pieces. 

There was an area where kids can climb onto doors, clouds etc to reach to the top. Ah boy was scared at first but he managed to overcome his fear and climb quite high.

We left around 1pm because we were both tired and hungry. It was a fun day for ah boy. 

Dome at Plaza Singapura - 16May2015

I had the chance to try Dome signature 

Laksa pasta dish on a Saturday. The dish was spicy but the laksa pasta was yummy. I didn't expect laksa and pasta would be such a good combination. 

We also ordered Lemon and ginger tea in a pot 6.50SGD shared by me and my 2 friends. The tea had a refreshing taste.