In a year's time...

Mr. Koh and I have been searching about for the past few weeks, for a suitable venue to hold our wedding banquet..

We visited quite a few hotels (and peeped into some hotels' ballrooms too), to check out how they look and feel like.. Haha.. It was a fun process.. We emailed a few hotels to enquire and finally short-listed 3, to pay a formal visit to, and further understand their banquet packages.. They are Fairmont, Swissotel merchant court and Pan Pacific respectively..

I shall not talk about the meeting with Fairmont.. Haha.. The salesperson don't seem interested with our business =p

We met Pan Pacific first.. I was wowed by the lobby and hotel interior~ haha.. Very classy hotel, but the ballroom looks average.. Salesperson was nice too =)

And we get to drink tea at their beautiful lobby while discussing the packages that they had to offer.. Haha!

So pretty! I meant the background.. Haha

Mr. Koh with the bar behind him..

Yay! Free tea and cookie.. Haha

Next up... Swissotel Merchant court... They have a beautiful ballroom, salesperson was very helpful too..

We got to drink tea again! Haha

TWG earl grey..

 

I shan't dwell into Fairmont, but we had a hard time deciding between Swissotel merchant court and Pan Pacific.. Haha.. It was really difficult! Both have their pros and cons.. Swissotel has a beautiful ballroom, but Pan Pacific has a better overall feel.. And how we eventually came to a decision was an even tougher process.. Hahaha.. Even I found it amusing =p

We had to do up a scoring matrix to give both hotels a thorough evaluation.. Ok, it was my idea =P Haha..

And much deliberation, we finally dropped by the chosen hotel to sign the contract... Guess which it is~

So it was decided that Pan Pacific will be the hotel where we will hold our wedding! =)

Save the date everyone! 12 Oct 2014, it will be... Haha!

We signed and paid the deposit (ouch!), and the salesperson even treated us to a free buffet dinner at The Edge! Haha.. That's a nice gesture from her.. It felt like a mini celebration for us, that we finally settled on the venue to hold our wedding.. Haha! Free buffet, I like! Hohoho.... Eat eat and eat! Fat-die-us...

Slurps!

More crabs!

So pretty!

Their desserts are wonderful!

 

Wedding banquet venue checked! I'm glad we settled the venue..

Next up.. The bridal company~~

 

Our trip to River Safari

Balloted for the River Safari corporate pass and Mr. Koh and I headed over on a bright weekday morning, awaiting our meet-ups with the lovely animals there! Haha.. It was my second time there, and it was his first!

Been there with my family few months ago, and sadly the river ride was not ready yet.. This time round when we went, it was still not open to public! =( the zoo attendant told us it will be ready by this month..

The River Safari houses more aquatic animals as compared to the zoo and the night safari.. And of course the highlight of the trip was the 2 lovely pandas kaikai and jiajia, and the huge flooded amazon forest aquarium..

Shall let the pictures tell the story~

Mandarin ducks swimming around

My favourite Saugu!

With his favourite animal - crocodile!

Next we passed by the monkeys' den and saw a bunch of monkeys playing about and to my amazement, they actually swim! So well that I'm ashamed of myself.. Haha.. But honestly, I didn't know monkeys can swim!! My teachers in school/textbooks didn't tell me that.. haha.. So shocking that we spent quite some time there observing them.. They don't need goggles in water! =p and the fishes didn't bite them.. Haha

Splashing good times!

So cool!!!!

*peep*

Big, huge and powerful!

Big black and beautiful fishes

We then headed over to the panda conservatory to say hello to kaikai and jiajia!

We very much welcomed the cool temperature within.. Haha.. Aren't the pandas fortunate? 24/7 in air con =p

That's kaikai eating his bamboo

Us with the fake panda.. Haha

Sleeping after eating.. So lazy..

Outside the conservatory, is this panda themed cafe.. We stopped for a break and had our early lunch there..

Had to try their famous panda bun.. Haha

So cute, but we still ate it.. Haha

Final stop of the river safari was this huge aquarium - flooded amazon forest!

I like this place too, coz its air-conditioned! Haha..

Deadly piranhas!

Stare all you want Mr. Piranhas, you can't eat me.. *neh neh ni boo boo* =p

There, we were treated to a beautiful sight! A huge aquarium that mimics the flooded amazon forest.. With tree trunks submerged, beautiful water creatures thrive within....

Awestruck

Clumsy yet graceful Manatees

We came to the end of the river safari trail, and not willing to leave this place, we toured the river safari again.. Haha waving goodbyes to all the lovely animals.. And said hello to the red panda (at the panda conservatory), coz it was taking a nap when we came to visit earlier.. Haha!

Good afternoon, Red panda!

We'll be back again, most probably next year when the river ride opens! =)

 

Happy mid-autumn's festival!

中秋节快乐！

Reminds me that another year had gone by.. It's one of my favourite Chinese festival.. Haha! Second to Chinese New Year~

It's a time where hotels and bakeries will bake tonnes of sweet and colourful moon cakes, baked and snow-skin ones.. Haha.. A time where people will buy moon cakes as gifts to others, a time for little kids to carry lanterns in the parks, a time to take pictures of pretty lantern decorations around town.. And of course the best part is to sit down together as a family, and savour the moon cakes together (even though it's loaded with lots of sugar and unwanted calories).. Haha!

A very happy and colourful festival =)

This year, we have received MBS moon cakes from mummy's boss.. Atas and comes in a very nice packaging.. In the shape of a Chinese lantern!

Like I'm doing an advert for them =p

Yums!

Mr Koh bought us snow skin moon cakes from home favourites.. Haha.. Yummy durian and cempedak snow skin moon cakes!

We also visited the lanterns display over at Gardens by the bay.. Good use of the empty space/grass patch to place lantern displays that light up beautifully at night.. They look pretty in the day too! =) Pretty refreshing from the usual venues like Chinese garden/floating platform.. Haha.. There are some snack stalls and dance/singing performances too, but we weren't really interested.. Do drop by if you have time!

Beautiful reflections!

Happy eating the moon cakes! =)

Lifang's birthday!

Met up with the girls to celebrate Lifang's birthday!

We had dinner at this very nice sushi place at Far East plaza.. A rare hidden gem with very yummy sushi!

It was pretty 'eventful' as the waitress spilled the whole steamboat dish while trying to place it on the table, thankfully we weren't scalded.. Think they were too busy already, and due to limited space to move about, it was pretty hard for the servers.. Nevertheless, they were very apologetic, and replaced with another new one..

The little blue box!

Happy birthday dearest Lifang! =)

 

High tea - PB style

PB - Paris Baguette

Actually they have been around Sunny Singapore for quite some time already, but the first time we ever tried it was back in Seoul earlier in Feb this year, where they originally came from..

Side-track: I miss Korea, can't believe 6 months just whizzed past like that =p

So we headed over to PB at Wisma 2 weeks back, and it was as usual, filled to the brim.. We were lucky enough to get seats without much waiting.. People were everywhere!

We settled down and ordered their seafood chowder, crab sandwich and freshly brewed cappuccino..

Our tea break!

V for victory!

I can't describe how exquisite each of their sandwich/salads/pastries/cakes/sugar, spice and everything nice are.. If our tummies could contain, I would have ordered one of each.. Haha!

Lovely cappuccino

We ordered cheesecake too!

They look too beautiful~ felt bad sinking my teeth into them.. Haha.. Not exaggerating!

Till then, I await the next visit to PB! =)

 

Night Festival 2013

An annual affair~ to check out the exhibits and installations at the night festival.. Seems the same every year, but short of the highlight performance outside the National Museum this year.. Actually there is one, but it's a smaller scale performance.. No pyrotechnic effects, loud music, flashy lights.. Just some acrobatic performance.. I hope they've instilled some artistic flair in me after these years.. Haha.. I'm not very hopeful =p

I have a very short attention span when it comes to art.. They are like Greek to me, vice versa.. Haha.. I only know how to pretend being artistic.. Haha

We hopped around the museums within the vicinity, and chanced upon this exhibition at the National Museum - The princely treasures~ something I find abit more interesting.. Haha

A very colourful exhibition, with treasures from this royal family (that's about all I got from the exhibition).. And very beautiful and life-like paintings..

The thing that caught my eye most, was this calendar I saw at the merchandise store..

Haha! Every date, day and month has a singlish word associated with it! How cool... Haha

Yes! I'm indeed stylo~~

Mr. Laidback and never Gan Cheong

That pretty much sums up our tour of the Night Festival 2013.. Till next year!