Wedding Feast

We attended a wedding dinner on Sat night at the Four Seasons' Hotel. The ballroom was beautifully decorated in classic white, silver and gold colors, with lots of candles and off-white roses as centrepieces on each of the 30 tables. It was a formal affair with the men dressed in suits and ties, and the ladies in their evening best.

At the pre-dinner reception, instead of serving the usual mix-trail nuts, there were lots of strawberries served on shaved ice plateau and fountains of melted chocolate and brown sugar on the side for your fondue indulgence. The ballroom event began with the bride and groom marching down the aisle onto the stage where they cut the 3-tier wedding cake. A Priest was then invited to say Grace before we partake our dinner.

We were expecting a typical Chinese wedding feast, only to be individually served a 6-course fusion of western and chinese meal. The servings were in small portion much like a fine dining affair in a western setting. On the menu were Peking duck (skin), sharks fins, abalone, cod fish, duck meat and mee sua. There were a good beverage selection of beer (from Brewerks), red wine, white wine, and calamansi, apart from the usual chinese tea and soft drinks. We were all served champagne for the toast. For dessert we had the hazelnut chocolate wedding cake. It was delicious!

Like a western-style wedding, the groom (Sam's colleague) gave a speech followed by the best man and the maid-of-honor. The father of the groom, and some friends also shared on their joy of the union, and the speeches were followed by rounds of toasts. Throughout the evening, the friendly wedding couple went around socialising with their guests and thanking them for gracing the occasion. There were no structured photo sessions, or games to embarrass the young couple other than the rounds of toast to get them in 'high-spirit'. It was an interesting union of a Josephian and a Convent girl.

The highlight of the evening for me was the performance by this talented male jazz pianist cum singer. He sang all my favorite jazz pieces like 'Dream a little dream', 'Someone to watch over you', 'La Vie En Rose', 'The way you look tonite', 'Quanto, quanto' ... just to name a few. He also turned ballads like 'Moon River' and 'Somewhere over the rainbow' into lovely jazz pieces and sang to perfect pitch. You get the idea... it was a wonderful way to end the evening.

Celebration

Yesterday was just like any other Sunday. In the morning, I taught the kids some craft work for Mother's Day. After church we went out for lunch at a Beef Ball House at Joo Chiat Road. We went home after that to re-charge and left for VOP practice at 6 pm.

While at VOP they celebrated Mother's Day, but not before Mr Ong announced that it was also my birthday, along with another Alto lady Kathleen. So it was nice to have powerful vocals singing their birthday blessings. We had a nice mango cake and ate lots of home-cooked food. :)

Prata

On Saturday after running some errands, we went to our regular prata shop 'the Prata Cafe' on Evans Rd. We like its good variety of pratas, thosai and indian dishes at reasonable prices.

For our late afternoon tea, we ordered Milo Godzilla (ice milo drink, topped with lots of thick milo powder and vanilla ice-cream), Teh Halia (hot ginger tea), Indian Rojak (fish cakes, fried prawn fritters, eggs covered with flour which has been deep-fried, all served with special peanut sauce) and plain pratas (with curry sauces and sugar).

The best part about this place are its proximity to home and the 'easy' road-side parking :p

Honked

It all happened yesterday. My colleagues had a whale of a time doing up an artwork for the spare tyre cover at the back of my car. Some also left the office with me in a convoy and took lots of pictures in excitement. They mentioned that the luminious orange sign and glittery flying streamers can be sported from afar! Of course I was oblivious to the prank and drove from the west to central of SG!


There were sporting drivers who honked at me along the way. There was also this car load of people that drove alongside on the highway with their windows wound down screaming and waving hysterically at me. I glanced at them and thought: "Do I know these people??" After picking Sam up, I drove home and parked head in only to realise the gaudy artwork behind the car. Gosh!

We had a good laugh today, but not before I replaced the artwork with 'Go back to work' and kept cool when I got to the office. They thought that I was still unaware of the prank and went to check on the car. I was told that if I had not discovered the sign, they would have replaced it with 'It's my birthday today' instead of 'tomorrow'. Phew! :p

Well, this is a revenge of the prankster, cause we had a similar prank on one of the colleagues 2 years back, though the decor was not so gaudy and elaborated! This reminded me of those IJ days when we used to have lots of tricks up our sleeves.

They ordered in pizza for lunch, had home-made banana shake and raspberry cheesecake today. And they surprised me with a bouquet of flowers too! They had obviously put in much effort into this day. Thank God for fun and thoughtful colleagues! :)

Fine Dining

Last night, we had a nice European-Asian dinner at Ember Restaurant located in boutique Hotel 1929 at Keong Saik Rd. We had to make reservations one day in advance as it is usually full house.

For appetizer, we ordered crispy tofu with mushroom and foie gras sauce, and pan roasted scallops with vegetable. Love the tofu! Our main course were marinated cod with black miso and herbed potatoes, and roasted lambloin with sauteed baby spinach, fleur de sel. I had the cod which was very nicely marinated and pan fried on the outside. Dessert was a warm banana tart with homemade lavender ice cream. The ice-cream was exquisite. It's a MUST TRY!

The price is considered to be reasonable for such fine cuisine. The dinner was delicious and perfect for special occasion :)

Beetle

We visited the new VW showroom the other day. Saw the new open top Cabriolet Beetle in pastel yellow on display.

Like the Mini, the Beetle has been regarded as something of a "cult" car since the 60s due to its association with the hippie movement and surf/pop culture. Like its peers, it has the attributes of a unique and quirky design, and has made numerous appearance in films.

These are exactly the reasons why I like both the Beetle and the Mini. :)

Basil Plant

We bought a Basil Plant today from Cold Storage. A check on the web says that Mediterranean and Indochinese cuisines frequently use basil, the former frequently combining it with tomato.

Basil is one of the main ingredients in pesto (a green Italian oil-and-herb sauce). Chinese also use basils in soups and other foods.

Although basil will grow best outdoors, it can be grown indoors in a pot and should be kept away from extremely cold drafts. Let's see how long it will last :)

Alaskan Crab

Had a department dinner on Friday with my colleagues at Ah Yat Hunan Restaurant at Turf City. We had seafood dinner and my colleagues ordered one huge Alaskan Crab costing $500 on top of the set menu. It's so expensive that we have to take pictures of it. We also had Geoduck Clam, another expensive dish.

It was a nice treat which I don't think I will order if on my own...