POST NEW YORK LAZINESS

WOW. I can't believe it's already been 2 entire months since I went on my trip to the Big Apple. I miss is sooo much, even my eating and lifestyle habits haven't changed since then. I told myself I'd let go a little bit in New York, (not that I was very disciplined with my diet and exercise in the first place), and that I'd immediately get back to the grind of things after. But man, I've only went swimming somewhere between 3 to 5 times in the past 2 months? I haven't been good with my diet either. I get into moods where I just feel the need to stuff my face even if I'm already full. Then of course blaming everything on Singapore's bad weather. I mean Keshav, wut?!

I see a glimmer of hope now though. I'm working with this new guy in office who is basically the walking definition of the word "fit". He gyms, eats in moderation, and all in all just has very good habits that I'm sure we'd all want to inculcate in and for ourselves. I know I want it, and I'm really hoping that being surrounded by a person like this motivates me to get of my butt and get to work. I'm pumped and ready. *inserts flexing arm emoji* #leggo

CONFUSED.

I didn't quite know how to express this for the longest time, but I've been feeling kinda confused lately. I just feel that there's so much, maybe too much, that I want to get myself into, yet can't seem to focus on anything. I'm struggling to stay on the same train of thought right now. I have a goal to feel at least mildly satisfied with what I have accomplished with my life by the time I reach the age of 21, and I am nowhere close. Yeah, there was the successful surgery, but I don't want to leave it at that. I want to be able to make some form of income and have my efforts to make this income recognised in other ways. I always try to remain positive and believe that this gratification will come in some form or another in time, but another part of me wants to see it much sooner. That's normal though, right? Maybe I just need to see a sign that I'm heading in the right direction. Maybe I need to learn to focus my energy and effort on one thing at a time. Maybe I just need to grow some balls, bite the bullet and get shit done no matter what. Whatever it is, I need a plan.

SENTOSA COVE.

It's been a while! I got caught up focusing on developing whatever skills had in photography and neglected writing for a bit. I sure am determined to get back on track though.

Thought I'd start off with something that to me was especially special - my visit to Sentosa Cove. I really underestimated the calmness and the beauty that the place has to offer, you can see it as soon as you enter the area. It is pretty difficult to get to if you don't have a car/taxi. I didn't see any bus stops even when I was on the way in and later when I was leaving.

We parked at the W hotel before making our way down the lane of restaurants. Naturally, we stopped at the first dessert place we saw - Note Di Sicilia. OMG. They have the best gelato I've tasted in ages, heck, the best gelato I've tasted since I was in Italy 3 years ago. I don't think you can find any other place here that gets close. There weren't that many flavours though and I definitely would have preferred more. I like having a whole bunch of choices. I got the vanilla and hazelnut, but I did feel a little "jerlak" after a while cos it was pretty sweet. My Mum got some champagne with sorbet in it, which you can also see below. I thought it looked stunning, but I was driving so I didn't try it. 

[Side note: I finally got my driving license after my 2 month wait for the test. #Passedonthefirsttry]

Enjoying some good gelato by the dock just taking in the immense beauty of the place with it's blue waters and clean, white yachts felt amazing, as if I was on a short getaway overseas. The best part I think was that it was more or less empty, and we had a lot of space to ourselves, which was amazing for a Saturday afternoon. I hope it never gets crowded.

We walked around for a bit after that and I took a few shots of random restaurant settings and stuff. I really can't wait to get back there to try the other restaurants, I bet they have killer Italian food. Enjoy the pics!

STRAITS KITCHEN BUFFET.

My Mum decided to celebrate the first official day of Christmas celebrations with a trip to the Grand Hyatt Hotel for an Asian food buffet. It also happened to be my first day of leave, so I was pumped for it. HAHA. From all my previous posts you probably assume that food is the only thing that excites me like this, but I assure you it's not.

I have nothing much to say except that the food was pretty amazing, especially in comparison to the last buffet I had a couple of months ago at Swisshotel Merchant Court. That was honestly quite terrible and a complete waste of your money, unless you like cold shellfish. The buffet spread at Straits Kitchen was pretty big, and featured many local dishes from all the different cultures that we have. There was even a satay station, which of course was very popular and had a pretty long queue most of the time I was there. The Malay food was the best I think, with all the different kinds of meat, prepared specially in different sauces. *Salivates*.

The Chinese food station had everything from Chicken Rice to different types of noodles, and some stir-fried stuff too. The Indian station also boasted a large variety of different dishes, which were mostly South Indian. Oh, there was also a popiah and rojak station.

The dessert station was the least impressive, although they did have a lot of kueh that was apparently really good. I didn't try them, but I had some coconut ice cream, which was ok I guess. I don't like Asian-flavoured ice cream as much. Overall a fantastic place for all-you-can-eat local food, perfect for tourists especially who prefer a nicer ambience and are willing to pay a little more for it.

EXPLORING UPPER THOMSON

I'm back after what seems like a really long hiatus! Haha, haven't been going out much with friends or family in the previous weeks. I was just really tired for some reason and really wanted to just stay at home and chillax for a bit. Plus my Mum was overseas most of the time, which meant that I couldn't rely as much on my "let-my-Mum-pay-for-it budget", as my friend from work calls it. Heh.

So after about a month I went around upper thomson again with some friends, just not for cafes this time. We wanted somewhat cheap supper food, so we first headed to the dim sum place that me and Dan Ling had been wanting to try for the longest time, but never got around to. It's called the Hwa Nam Restaurant, located along the side where Udders and Salted Caramel is, but is closer to Mookata and Meng's Kitchen - all also very popular eateries. The dim sum was pretty decent both in terms of taste and price, we paid a total of $16 for everything you see in the pictures below, which came up to about 4 bucks per person. Not bad, I'd say.

We then hit Meng's Kitchen, where a couple of my friends had more to eat. I didn't have anything cos I was saving stomach space for dessert. I can't remember the prices exactly, but I don't remember the food there being as cheap as I thought it would have been. 

We ended our little supper adventure at Beegurt. It wasn't the first time I'd been there, but I went back cos I really love their frozen yoghurt. If you look at Beegurt and Llao Llao, Beegurt definitely has better tasting yoghurt, but Llao Llao has way more toppings to choose from. So it really depends on what you personally prefer I guess. Beegurt isn't as popular as I think it's gonna eventually become so, if I were you, I'd head down ASAP. 

Think I'm almost done with my Upper Thomson food-tasting adventures, but I still have a few places to hit! Check in with y'all later. 

XMAS DECORATING.

I just love this time of year. When we finally get together as a family to put up the Christmas tree to the calm tunes of holiday music. I love that we go all out to make the entire first floor of the house look so utterly majestic for Christmas, when we don't even really celebrate it in the traditional way. It just puts all us in a good mood to come home to the sight of the yellow lighting and colourful tree.

This year's tree was no different - we always go for a really messy kind of look, where we just load the tree with almost every single decoration in our collection. I don't think we ever tried colour-coding it, but it always turns out looking absolutely incredible. People all love it, and it's become our signature Christmas look that I'm kinda hoping we never change.

We usually put everything up in stages, with the tree and the lights before we finish up with the other colourful decorations. This year we found time to finish everything in a single day. I love how we just forget about all our troubles and shit that's going on in our lives as we get together to put the tree up. Just saying. I can't wait for December to arrive, and I can't wait till Christmas Day itself. I hope we have a genuinely joyous one.