Todai Buffet

Haw said excitedly" i am going for the mother of all buffets tonight!"

Nowadays, we rarely go for buffets but at tea's suggestion, we went to Todai @ Marina Bay Sands.

The place's pretty new so it aint that crowded. Was pretty impressed when i first entered the place cuz the food were nicely placed out with a great variety. My impression of buffets were that food were sloppily presented, and long queues snaking at the sashimi areas. But at Todai, it was very bright, comfy to move ard. Wanted to snap a few pictures of the foodies and chefs standing behind the counters but was too shy to do it. So , only these few miserable pictures of the food and a pictorial layout of the food area.

The best thing for the night has to be the company, not so much of the foodies.

And spotted in haw's bag! My own crafted little red riding hood pouch, one of the few which she asked me to do for her jie mei's after her wedding many many years ago and the card holder - she still using them!!! wo ho ho!!! :D

new large clasp pouches

Donna Carmela @ Greenwood - a total letdown

Brought family out for italian dinner today @ Donna Carmela, Greenwood. Was there few months back with tyre and loved the food! The most memorable dish was the signature pizza that had generous topping of rocket salad, parma ham and mozerella cheese. Yumz!

Its pretty pricey and had been thinking of going back to 'relive' the good food. So, the best way to enjoy good food would be to have it with love ones so decided to bring family there to enjoy good food. But this time, it was way below expectations - what a let down.

The service was lukewarm (they only focus on the ang mohs), the food was lukewarm when it reached our table.


The minestrone soup resembled more like a stew rather than a soup as it was probably 4/5 filled with vege and stuffs and little liquid. The pasta tasted a bit uncooked and not hot enough. The Vongole was so oily, even oilier than the alio olio pasta. The signature pizza was the worst - i had been drooling over it for ages and was thorougly dissappointed. The pizza was BURNT/CHARREd. Very very obviously overcook and burnt and yet they served it to ask. And when i told the waiter about it, he just took it back and replaced with a new one, without any explaination! Was pretty pissed with the whole experience.

Had been recommending this place to frens in the past, but after today, i only have negative reviews for it. tsk tsk. What a total waste of money and calories. :((

Seperately, dropped by Ms G's fair and snapped pictures of my stuffs @ her fair :D . Spot my signature metal clasp purses on the first shelf.

And those big clasp pouches, its down to only 4 pieces from more than 20 pieces before the fair. WO HO HO! Thanks to those who have bought my stuffs!! Thank you thank you for your support!!!! :D

iphone pouches

when i first crafted these, i didnt think that it will be popular. Just wanted to do something different using metal clasp frames. Turns out, the iphone clasp pouches are a Hit! :)) Well, i guess cuz its different. So far, i have seen zipper iphone pouches, draw string ones, sock ones, plastic, leather etc etc but no metal clasp frame ones.

Anyway, Ms G's having her fair at Liang Court this week again and she said some customers were looking for the iphone clasp pouches. I have crafted some during my Shanghai trip but tot i better do up a bit more, just in case those fly right off the shelves!

I forgot to take pictures of those 'made in china' pouches but i have for these latest 6 pouches. Here they are.

My first love is for russian dolls. I like anything in russian doll prints - fabrics, pouches, cups, houseware etc. And my second fave has to be these kokeshii dolls from japan.

And between the animal prints, i heart the hedgehog ones. KK got this, amongst many others, from her japan trip last year and i snipped off a small bit of her pretty stash. So, i only have enough to make one iphone pouch with this hedgehog print, and maybe another small pouch. As for cheery bright red hippo print, it was discovered by Lak. I wouldnt have choosen it myself. She chose this print and tasked me to craft a big clasp pouch for her 2 yrs ago and she has been using it since then.

And in this last picture, these two prints are hot favourites and i have been using it repeatedly for quite a few pouches already. One's so sweet looking, another's very cute!

I should really take effort to photograph my crafts before selling them. I try i try....

To JB To JB

The Vong's invited me to join them on a day trip to JB via the railway, the good ole fashion way. That got me excited cuz (1) it will soon be defunct come Jul-11 and (2) i havent taken it before.

The highly anticipated trip turned out to be rather... lukewarm at best. A one-way ticket to JB from the train station at cantonment costs S$12, while the return ticket costs merely RM3, but you have to get it in JB. Overall, we all agreed that it's better and more comfortable to take the train to JB instead of bus cuz its less crowded at customs and there's air con most ways.

The trip turned out to be more of a foodie trip rather than a shoe spree trip. We started off with my fave bak kut teh near the Vong's place, then nonya kueh once we reached JB and then, out of boredom, we ate assam laksa & rojak.

We initially planned to return after dinner, but after less than 2 hours of shopping, we were ready to go back to singapore. Train ticket back was really cheap at RM3, but i think its cheap for a reason - there's no air con !!! freaking hot and the cabins only had 4 small miserable windows to aerate it!! The journey back was more interesting as we paid more attention to the sights. We passed by some parts of Singapore which we would never have seen.

Tyre & Damon joined us after we returned to Singapore for dinner and we wandered around the tanjong pagar area by foot in search for some pretty eateries which were spotted before.

And then we ended up having chinese food - nothing very fanciful nor interesting but the restuarant was packed!!!

And that ends our day trip. Not bad , not bad after all! :D

Shanghai again

Back to Shanghai again. This time, with Tyre - its his first time! Younger bro joined us towards the end of the trip too.

When i booked the tickets, i tot that timing's just right @ towards the end of winter. Shd be cooling. Cooling it wasnt. It was freaking cold - some days between 4-7degress in gloomy weather. Lucikly i was quite adequately armed with warm clothings but tyre was feeling pretty cold most times.

Explored a few more places this time, thanks to Tyre. For without him, i would just go back to the same old places. But with him ard, everyone felt compelled to bring him to places of interests and i got to tag along! :D

We went to Tian Zi Fang located near our place @ Da Pu Qiao Station. Its an area made up of alleys of small quaint shops and eateries. Pretty interesting to wander around and get lost in the maze of shops. Too bad the weather was too freaking cold, else it would have been pretty good for al fresco dining.

There's a wet market located right outside Tian Zi Fang and we decided to do some grocery shopping plus let tyre have a taste of 'local life'. Tyre got pretty turned off after less than five minutes and opt to wait outside for us to finish up. We also had our first shanghai home cooked food - prepared by cousin lili (see pictures in last row below)

Snapping pictures of a very unwilling tyre carrying foodies bought from the wet market. Love the right most picture ... looks cool yet comical with the bags of groceries! hehehe

Tyre's aunty is teaching in Shanghai and we managed to meet her for dinner. She brought us for yummy xin-jiang food - mainly made up of mutton.. yumz! i love mutton.

One of the sightseeing places we went to was Qi Bao - its located within Shanghai and accessible by mrt. It was so packed!!!

None of the food sighted along the food alleys look enticing enough but this cotton candy stall really caught my attention and i had to try it - multicolored flower shaped cotton candy. Only RMB6 (S$1.20). So pretty.

We also visited Suzhou. Nothing very interesting, except for those small chinese teapot shops where dad got quite a few for his collection.

That's all from the recent trip.

Next stop - Korea & HK! Yay!!! So looking forward to it!

Love To Wander goes public!

I Lup My Friends

I lup my friends. I lup having them around to keep me company, I lup having them around to make decisions for me, I lup having them around to help plan for me, I lup having them around to go to their house to chill out, I lup having them around to play with... the list goes on. I think I will be lost and bored without them.

Last week, went to Baba Jo's places for lo hei. I sort of tried to organise it at the beginning but gave up halfway and Baba Jo took over ... heeheehee. I am a starter, not a finisher i guess. Thanks for waiting for us for lo hei !

Then, on Saturday, Mr V cooked "cully kuay" for us.. also known as curry chicken! Yumz.. although he used the A1 curry mix, he said the difference was due to the secret additional ingredients which his mummy lovingly added. The curry was so good. If i werent watching my weight, i would have cooked some maggi noodles and eat it "curry maggi noodles" style. Lynn came and worn LTW owl earrings! So pweeettttyyy!!!

V-Day 2011

I am not a fan of such occassions. No doubt i like them, but i am not a fan. Because I will feel compelled to celebrate it or at least do something just to fit into "social norms".

Ask me how i spent my last few v-days? I ponder.... and blank tots.. i cant remember. The only one i remember spending with Tyre was our first v-day which was eons ago too. That's when we first got together. He brought me to this place by the beach, had candlelight dinner, a stalk of rose (comes complimentary with the set dinner) and a trio of singers came and serenade us with the song "Besame".

So, how did i spend my v-day 2011? we had yong tau foo @ raffles city food court! tyre had planned for a nice dinner and actually made advance reservations but couldnt make it in time as i was shopping :P

raffles city was packed on that day, pretty usual given its a monday for its usually quiet. And littered with girls carry bouquets of flowers and most of the nicer eateries were packed. And in view of my rumbling stomach, we settled for yong tau foo. Its my world's best yong tau foo, which must be taken dry with bee hoon drizzled with lots of fried garlic, ikan billis, soyabeans and oil! YUMMYZ!! Super satisfying @ less than $10 for 2 pax!

Composition Companion

Lately, i feel that i am 'selling' more on my blog rather than updating on my crafts it seems.

Anyway, here's another 'advertorial' - for my dear sis-in-law.. she didnt ask for it but i am just being a busybody as usual and told her i will do it :D

She has a tuition centre, Smartz Kidz, at Bedok North. And one of her tutors wrote a book aimed at helping primary school kids write better compositions. When I saw it, it brought back memories of my primary school days - my tutor back then, Mrs Yee, who taught me little composition tricks similar to what this book now offers. It helped me alot back then with my compositions - made it more flowery.

The book, Composition Companion, is written by Helena Paterson. She is also one of the tutors at Smartz Kidz. She's an amazing ang moh tutor from Scotland ( i think ) who has great passion in teaching and kids.

A peek into the book. It basically gives you nice flowery sentences for writing compositions. It not only adds "flavor" to the writing, but also contributes to the word count.

It also gives gives list of words u can use instead of the same old words. Example: instead of using [he said], you could replace with [he exclaimed] [he argued] [ he rebuked] - gives more emotion to the writing.

I feel its a very useful book. Alternatively, you could create a similar concept one for your kids to flip but for the lazy ones, this is good. :D Only $10 - cheap cheap!

LTW V-day Launch

LTW V-day new collection is out. We decided to do a floral range cuz floral = romantic = v-day? Love is in the air.. :D

We have more new stuffs up our sleeves and will have them avaliable for sale @ our upcoming fair on 19th Feb.

Stay tuned! :D

I Heart Cotsworld!

Went on a day trip to Cotsworld while we were in London in Dec-10. We had run out of places to go to and Yueling suggested that we go to Cotsworld. She then helped us to book a day trip, inclusive of lunch & afternoon tea for less than 80 pounds per pax.

Enjoied myself on this trip, partly due to the fact that we were chauffered around (by bus), instead of the usual transportation of subway and walking. Also, it was good to be away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Cotsworld's located about 1 hour ride away from London and its really a very picturesque place made up of many small towns and villages. The tour brought us to several villages where we stopped to take some pictures & shopped a bit. A tour is not complete without shopping :D We had a good tour guide this time who was very chatty and informative. She seemed to know everything and could even educate us on the difference between sheeps/lambs, types of stone walls etc. Pretty educational. Just did up collages of various sights around Cotsworld.Cant really go into details cuz i cant remember exactly where i went :D

We stopped by this town for lunch and discovered one of the prettiest shops i have seen around in UK during the trip (with exception to another similarly themed shop in Covent Square). Everything in the shop's just picture perfect.

And i had the best scones in my life so far! Freshly baked paired with clotted cream and jam! YUMMZ!!!! I DROOLZZZ...

Its a Dogs World !

Lak's cozy place has officially turned into a dog house! It smells of dog pee & food now :D

Mr P's out on a family holiday and has left FiFi in her care for the week. Poor FiFi. She must have thought that her family has abandoned her and she was terribly insecure and jittery at Lak's place.

I brought Yuki & Snowy over for a visit yesterday, thinking that FiFi may brighten up after 'playing' with other doggies. Turned out i was wrong. They ignored one another. In fact, i think FiFi was more terrified of Yuki & Snowy. There's motherly Lak protecting & comforting FiFi.

And the very naughty and 'act innocent' snowy enjoied herself so much that she treated Lak's place like her home and peed everywhere to mark her territory. There's Tyre washing off the pee and a very sheepish looking Snowy in the background.

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Snowy's keeping me company while i blogged away. Snapped a picture of her next to me :D That was half hour ago. Just minutes ago, Suparni came in and carried her to the bed - she said snowy's feeling warm on the table and told me to put her there. Makes me feel bad :(

I heart Palace of Versailles!

Palace of Versailles was the capital of France from 1682 to 1789 and it is located about 40 minutes train ride away from Paris city. We were there for a day trip and i loved it. I guess it must be due to the influence of the movie Marie Antoinette. The movie, released in 2006 was base loosely on the life of the queen leading up to the French Revolution. I love the movie and have watched it maybe 4 times?!? I am a sucker for movies from those era.

Anyway, i felt that i could connect better to the palace after watching the show cuz i got to see the actual venue which was filmed. The palace was a very tour friendly place and audio guides was provided for every tourist to the place for free! It gives me a better understanding of the palace tho at many times, i do get tired of concentrating on the explaination. The interior of the palace was really grand and pretty.

And the exterior and gardens were equally pretty! In the movie, it showed the queen staying at her own retreat and we got to visit it too. It was a longgg walk from the palace about 1 hour, i think, but i was glad that we took the stroll despite the cold freezing weather. Her retreat was a stark difference to the palace in its simplicity.

I wouldnt mind going there again, perhaps in the summer when the trees are green and flowers are blooming!

I heart Korea!

It was my first time to korea and i love love love it! The country, the cafes, the shopping, the weather, the food - i heart all! Lak had blogged about it in her Seoul Searching entry & it seemed pretty redundant for me to re-blog about it but i wanted to write my summarized version so here goes...

Was there on a free & easy tour with the Vong's and Lak in early Nov-10 and we stayed at Hotel the Sunbee @ Insa-dong area. Very nice, clean and conveniently located hotel to stay in if you are going on a budget. We had intially contemplated taking the subways but taxi rides turned out to be pretty affordable when shared among four of us, so we ended taking taxis all the time. Be warn, however, do NOT take the black cabs! Their fares are way way higher than the normal cabs.

We did the touristy thing on the first day. Visited Changdeokgung Palace and spent a few hours doing the walking tour. Lucky the weather was cooling, else it would have been torture, i think :P

We also went to this Samcheongdong area. Its a nice area with narow streets flanked by houses by the sides on the 'hillside'. We spent some time wandering around and taking picture perfect pictures.

We found our picture perfect wall as backdrop for a mini photosession.

According to forumers, the Nanta show is a must watch in Seoul and i second that. It was extremely entertaining show and i was awake throughout. :D Amazing feat considering the fact that i was very tired that night.

Lak found this graffiti street. Its good to have lak around :D

And we went for this day trip to DMZ. A must go trip when in Seoul too, according to forumers. Overall, its not bad, if only we had a better guide. Our guide's very fresh and spoke in limited sentences. I remembered quite clearly one of her 'punch' lines : we were passing this bridge that goes over a river and she said :" sometimes, dead bodies are found here. " then silence.. no more explaination why there's dead bodies etc. Got us stunned for a while.

Food was fantastic! I love the 'ban mian' equivalent there and the korean bbq meat! droolz... the korean bbq was sooooo good that we had it 3 nights in a row, complete with beer & shaojiu.

Here's us looking red and tipsy from too much beer! :D

Ooo.. and i spotted my crafts! hahahaha yeah.. kay and myself brought some of my ever so useful pouches out on the trip together :D Always happy to see my handmade crafts in use :D