There's something about Fridays

That is my favourite day of the week - I get really excited counting down to Friday since it signifies a weekend of rest ahead, most of the time anyway.

Asked Jenny out for dinner and we finally got to try the much-raved Ippudo located at Mandarin Gallery. The interior was nicely decorated; red, white and black ceramic (?) bowls and spoons were used to decorate the walls and there's a grand-looking chandelier hanging right above our table. Servers would shout out some greetings in Japanese in unison when they spot customers entering/leaving the restaurant but it's not the usual Sakae/Suki Sushi greetings. 

#1 Salmon on hot-plate - This was on the seasonal menu, though I can't think of how salmon is seasonal. It came across as a little dry, but we polished off all of it anyway. The butter looks like it's been infused with some herbs, and it's a pity that I didn't really manage to taste anything special.

#2 Shiromaru Tamago - Jenny ordered this and she seemed to have enjoyed it. I tasted a little of the soup and while it didn't really taste as salty as I'd like it to be, I have to admit that it was quite flavourful.

#3 Akamaru Tamago - Much stronger in flavour due to some special miso paste and garlic oil.

I talked about expectations for food over dinner and confided in Jenny that I'm always getting disappointed by food that's been hyped up; it usually ends up with me stating that so-and-so food is over-rated and I can't see why everyone is raving about it. Note: I'm not a fussy eater and I'll finish whatever's on my plate/bowl whenever I can whenever I'm not trying to go on a diet, I just think that some queues and waits are not really justified.

Maybe I'll need to learn to manage my expectations; food and relationships are similar in this sense - having great expectations will only lead to great disappointments haha.

#4 

Monkeying around at Ion Food Hall; picture with a slightly better resolution that shows my newly-coloured hair.

#5 Sour Sally fro-yo with granola and walnut crumbs

Ignoring what I've just said about food expectations earlier, now this was some good froyo! Xuanie recommended it sometime back but I never had time to make it to town the past few weeks; was really excited when I finally had the chance to try this out at Wisma's basement. I thought it tasted slightly sweeter than my usual favourite (Yoguru ftw), but Jenny said it tasted quite sour and she prefers the one from Canteen 2. 

#6 Hello, meet Sally.

Ordered another one with pink and green mochi-bits for topping and I loved it; could taste hints of melon in the tiny green bits.

#7 Takoyaki with egg mayo from Tsukiji Gindaco at Ion Food Hall

Bun joined us later and this was what she had for dinner. I tried one (10 balls for $7 if I'm not wrong) despite being so bloated from our ramen dinner and it was yummy; was much denser than the usual ones from places like Takashimaya's basement 2 and the octopus chunks were also bigger.

#8 Happy Bun and Jenny

#9

Popped by HnM for a quick look (finally) and got some suspenders for YF when I saw it in the mens' section since he'd been talking about getting those for awhile now. Thankfully, nothing caught my eye and I was happy to be just briefly browsing through whatever they've got in there. 

Winded up at Acid Bar for some drinks at the end of the night, and discussed many things over beer, a glass of sangria and a banana margarita (that tasted like a smoothie).

 #10

Somehow, Bun likened herself to "a monkey who missed her branch" after something that had (or maybe not) taken place in her life and suggested that was a result of her over-thinking things; e.g. having too many considerations such as "is the branch long enough?" and "is the branch thick enough?" My eyes immediately brightened in amusement when she said what she did; couldn't help it but made some suggestive associations with the words "long" and "thick", and that became our joke of the night.

I'm sorry for having such a dirty mind! :p

#11 Banana Margarita

And that sorta marked the end of my fantastic Friday.


Oh, and Korea's not happening. Vietnam is; Bun invited me to join her for a service learning trip where I'll be teaching English as a second language (I think) to some local kids at a home. I'm really excited.

Red and green

Made my virgin trip down to Red Dot on Friday night with JM and Zhen. That was probably one of the most impromptu outings that we've had, it must be!

I had a taste of one of the beers offered at this watering hole, and guess what, it's green!

Green beer, anyone?

According to the menu description, the green comes from a Spirulina (some health supplement) infusion. So now, we can all drink beer and stay healthy. What a great idea!

The green may come across as off-putting for many, but taste-wise, it wasn't bad at all. In fact, I thought it tasted refreshingly light for people who don't drink beer that often like me.

We had a great time catching up, and WY joined us for a late-night supper at McDonald's after. I think it's really cool that the topics we're talking about these days are so different from what we used to discuss.

I crave...

(picture credits to Tumblr)

for a nice cup of green tea latte!

In fact, I've been craving for it so badly for the past few days and I think that feeling's only going to further intensify until I finally satisfy that craving.

I will must have green tea latte tomorrow!

ps. I finally drank it today; it was love at first sip (this is the first time I'm trying green-tea-something that's not green tea frappuccino from Starbucks!). Yum.

Err... Impromptu Oktoberfest?

Headed down to Millenia Walk one hour after Jo's phone call. People were mostly gone by the time we started drinking; some white dude with a most-out-of-the-world hair-do offered us free beers because their tables were just too damned filled with beers, listened to some live music before we winded up at Dbl O. Dbl O's dancefloor was super packed with guys trying their luck; we were out in an hour or so. The hostess told us they were closing in 2 hours but they started chasing people out in 1; liar; that was probably the shortest session I've had. I don't think we drank much tonight; but the drinks we had were expensive!

Jo thought their costumes were cute

the place where we were at

how do I make my face look less red/how do I turn red slower?

the gang of four.

I'm having tuition later at 10 a.m. and I'm totally not looking forward to it. Why did I have to be sick on Thursday? Big fat sigh.

Chalet of the semester

totally wasted.

I don't think anyone will stop laughing at the "alibaba... whoo!" joke for a long time. Thank you Shiqi, for looking after me when I was a drunk bitch/clown/goner. Update, soon!

ps. btw I've just changed the settings for commenting. Now everyone can comment!

Older... and feeling it.

In the most impromptu fashion on Tuesday night, Chaihong asked some of the surfers out go Zouk for ladies' night the next day. In the name of fun and spontaneity, SX, Titus and me agreed. I haven't been to the club in the longest time; and with the re-opening of Butter Factory, people have been saying that there'd be much of a lesser queue for Phuture. What rubbish. People turned up by the orientation groups; and you'd see one/two persons queueing up, only to be joined by a dozen more people later.

I spotted a BIG group of people from the NTU Sports Camp, and the rest of the gang spotted various classmates and schoolmates from their faculties. There were just university students everywhere in there. I couldn't identify with more than half the music being played all the way till 1.15a.m.; and that pretty much sucked because I had to leave one hour later. SX let me have the Flaming Lambo that was supposedly Shiqi's (she wasn't able to join us), and a few apple shooters later, I could feel my heart thump to the unfamiliar music played.

It was a lot of fun; I can't dance to R&B for nuts but I think SX's "dance like no one's watching" helped, hur. I must've made a great fool out of myself, but seriously, who is going to give a shit? What happens in the club, stays in the club.

We left just as the music picked up at two-ish, because I had to drive Little Red for it's thousand klick servicing next morning at 9.30 a.m. Really sorry I made you guys leave with me; hope we won't have to leave so early the next time round.

Anyway, my legs were sore by the time I reached home last night. I can't remember them aching so much the last time I clubbed so... I guess age must really be catching up with me! I seriously wonder how people are able to take it, hitting the clubs Wednesdays after Wednesdays and going to work/school early morning the next day.

Timbre, The Arts House

love the lights

Lesson of the day: It's a bad, bad idea to drink on a nearly empty stomach. I almost puked back in the toilet cubicle, but somehow, I couldn't after I heard the poor lady next door vomitting her guts out. Had a few slices of the yummy thin crust pizzas (roast duck ftw!), some more food and tried to wash it down with some Erdinger but the nauseous sensations came not long after. I hate that feeling; that grinding in my stomach.

I want to go back for some more roast duck pizza soon.

Do you like beer?

I do!

So in the most impromptu manner two nights ago, I asked some of the windsurfing peeps if they wanted to head down to the beerfest that was going on at the Flyer. We had Popeye's for dinner, and it was all good. Crunchy, deep fried chicken and the cajun fries (love it!), definitely one of the oiliest dinners I had in awhile. Screw that diet seriously.

just what's so great about the Flyer?

There were not too many people when we arrived at eight plus p.m.; in fact, I thought the crowd was quite sad for a supposedly big event like that. In the big tentage area, we occupied an empty table, only to learn that was reserved for some company. Not cool lor.

Thankfully, there were some empty seats at the table where SK and company were seating at. Mai tu liao. Settle our asses comfortably, placed the bucket of Aussie beers we got right in the middle of the table, and it was time to drink.

from left: Redback, Pure Blonde, Victoria Bitter, Crown and Fosters

We had a taste of each of the beers, and I liked Pure Blonde and Victoria Bitter most. After all that beer swapping, we started playing some beer games. First, it was the "I've never..." game, and we learnt new things about everyone who was playing. And then we moved onto the obligatory "5, 10" finger-guessing, and to the Game of 21 finally.

David & Kwunhok

No idea who started the whole lame riddles thing, but we spent a lot of the time trying to figure out answers to them. Think frustration and hair-tearing moments. Hahaha. I guess I'm pretty lame in the sense that I managed to figure out quite a few of the answers. 

SK

Good clean fun! Definitely looking forward to our next drinking session.

cheers!