Trip to Beijing (Day 1)

17- 24 December 2012
Beijing

Because my brother was having his exchange in Beijing, our family decided to pay him a visit as well as bring some of his stuff back. We were not sure how much stuff he wants us to bring home so we brought 3 pretty huge luggages. Air tickets were on promotion via Singapore airlines. I always look forward to food onboard but there was nothing interesting about this meal. I really love their bread and butter though :D

Food on board SQ flight to Beijing

As my dad snores REALLY LOUDLY in his sleep, I refused to stay in the same room as him so before we left for Beijing, We book 161 hotel (more to the budget side) as the price was reasonable for 2 rooms. Reviews for that hotel was not bad. Before we arrived in Beijing, we have already notified the hotel beforehand that we will be checking in late due to our flight. However, when we arrived at the hotel, we were told that the rooms are not ready as usual check in time is 12 noon. They decided to put us at their sister hotel (Super 8) until our rooms were ready the next day. The stay at Super 8 was horrible. The rooms smelled bad, floor and toilet were dirty too. I got so paranoid that I feel that their bed/ bedsheets/pillow/ towels were dirty. Thinking that we will only be there for 1 night, we decided to just ignore the state of the room.

We did not have wifi or china number for my brother to contact us, so we told him to meet us at 161 hotel after his class. Instead of waiting around at Super 8 for a phone all to go back to 161 hotel, we decided that we will just go ahead back to the hotel even if it was way before 12 noon (offical check in time). We were told by the reception of Super 8 that our rooms are still not ready. As we were really insistent on going over, they had to call 161 hotel. As Super 8 could not explain the situation to us, they handed the phone over to us to 161 hotel could speak to us. We explained what we wanted to do and to our horror, they told us that we might have to wait till 5-6pm before we know if we can return to 161 hotel. OH WAIT, not only that. They were not even sure if we could even return to 161 hotel throughout the whole duration of our stay. It will be really ridiculous for us to be sitting around just to wait for their phone call. We asked them why can't we know if the room will be ready, they could not answer us. If they could not get the room ready for us, tell us beforehand so we can make other arrangements. We were pretty angry then so we went out, got a local number to contact my brother. Updated him of our situation and decided that we will not go ahead with the booking. As the reservation was make via Agoda, I made a phone call to Singapore's office. I am thankful that I managed to get a full refund for this.

We went off to Holiday Inn and we settled for 1 room. I have to endure my dad's snores for 4 nights and the thought of it was torturous.

After we have settled accommodation issue, we could finally relax. PHEW.
The room at Holiday Inn was not bad!

 The 2 beds in the room can sleep 4 people.

Along the streets of Beijing

Food on the first day!

Picture on the left is of some potato dish. I don't know how they do it but their potatoes and mushrooms are amazing! On the right, it's 海底捞。It's a 24 hour steamboat place that my brother highly recommended. He recommended it for the service. They provide manicure, shoe polishing, internet counters etc at the restaurant itself!

海底捞
http://www.haidilao.com/
They have many branches in Beijing which you can find on their website.

Time to lose weight!

Ok, it is getting out of hand.
Yes. I have to start losing weight.
Yes I am dreaming of those too good to be true body.
Well no harm dreaming ya :)

I figured that if I keep track of what I eat and the exercise I do here, 

I can see what I am doing right/ wrong. 

Height: 155cm

Weight: 55kg

(as of 07/01/2013)

Quarter life crisis?

I think this is the point of time in life that I don't know what i'm doing with my life.
I don't find anything that interest me, don't have a goal in life,
Can't seem to find the motivation/ passion to persist on.

Botanic Gardens

Visited the botanic gardens last week as Bee wanted to take pictures of trees for his FYP. 

Can't remember when was the last time I visited the place and it was so much nicer than what I have expected!

No other complains other than the weather :P

They have really nice trees there. 

 Played with the pop colour mode on my EP1 and the pictures turned out really nice. 

Love the colours <3

We met this uncle who has this super adorable Saymoed! 

He is sooooo tame and friendly! 

Can't help but wonder how hot he is feeling with his thick coat of fur :x

Our dates now consists of hunting of stuff for Bee to shoot till he his done with his FYP.

So when he's busy with his stuff, I make plans for myself too!

Work has been pretty crazy these few weeks and it's going to be as busy for the whole of this month :(

I must be crazy.

Pre Chinese new year post!

My love for all things red and my shirt looks as though it's the same colour as my curtains!

I have quite alot of Iphone cases and only 1 is not red :P

Chinese new year is coming and I don't as though it's chinese new year. The mood is different. It's also the first time celebrating CNY without my grandmother :(

Work has been really mundane. People leaving and coming, hope the new staff will be able to cope well. I must say my team is not the best team to work with and it will take sometime to get used to how we work. 

It's already nearing the end of January and I have yet to pen down my new year resolutions. Highly doubt that I will actually even write them down. Year after year, my new year resolutions tend to be the same. It's either I want to achieve the impossible or I've been way to lazy to get things done.

It has also been a month since my trip to Hokkaido! We have been missing the good food and cold weather alot after we got back :( I can go to Japan year after year and not get sick of the country. Really love the country! So to satisfy our Jap food cravings, we headed to Astons for Wagyu Beef! It's better than nothing :)

 

I think this was grade 6 Wagyu beef.

Favourite sweet from Hokkaido! Anywhere I can find this in Singapore?

Ramen at this store in Millennium walk. 

The egg is SUPER GOOD!

 How did they make the egg like this? Hard on the outside and soft inside!

I think I can survive on Jap food for all meals of the day!

Really hope that my little venture would be able to progress step by step.
It's quite hard doing things alone right now but hopefully things will get better and I can rope in some people to help me out :D

Eat more pineapple tarts and Ba Kua!

Changi City Point shopping center

I didn't know that there's a new shopping center in the East until my colleague told me! It was so near my house ( I pass by it everyday when I take the train) but I have never noticed it! Changi City Point Shopping Center is located just beside Expo MRT station. 

Went to check it out yesterday and even though quite afew shops are not open, it was a comfortable place to be in because it wasn't overly crowded (on a friday night). There are only 2 levels of shopping and a basement level with food and a cold storage. There's also starbucks, coffee bean, Macdonalds, Watsons, Guardian etc. I think the last level has an open area some sort like vivocity. Food wise there's Carls Junior, Manhattan Fish, Texas chicken, 2 food courts, Ya Kun, Soup Spoon, Marble Slab creamery etc.

Shop directory can be found here: *Link*

*pictures taken with iphone 4S*

 Basement level with loads of empty space.

That's pretty much the 3 levels there.

  Christmas tree outside the shopping center.

Shops wise, most of the stores there are outlets. Nike outlet, Adidas outlet, G2000 outlet. There's Pedro, Charles and Keith, Cotton on etc. Not a place where you would do Christmas/ CNY shopping though. I didn't buy anything at all though Macdonalds was really tempting. 

It's a nice (new) place to hang out for me because I like the fact that it is not overly crowded and the choice of food there is not bad! Not sure about the crowd on weekends though. Will definitely pop by again soon for meals and leisure walk :D

It's December once again.

Time flies.

Last year this time, I was happily travelling in US with nothing to worry about other than how much money can I spend shopping in each State that I visited.

This year, I don't feel like Christmas is just around the corner or am I in the mood to celebrate my birthday. I guess I'm not that kind of friend for you guys. I will stop putting in effort to do stuff for nothing. That sour feeling in the heart never goes away. That kind of sour feeling when you know that things will never be the same again. The feeling of being so ignored is unimaginable. Especially by you guys. I will fade away.