Totally Unplanned.

A few nights before the day, Hedirman, Danli, and I were chatting at South Coast MBS, realising that ZoukOut was this weekend! But our old bones were telling us to just stay home and watch a movie and crawl into bed by midnight. We all agreed that unless we were given tickets, we weren’t going.

So at midnight, I crawled into my bed and was reading an email sent that afternoon on my iPad. An email from the lovely people at iris Singapore and Heineken giving me tickets to ZoukOut and to their Heineken tent! #winning

So… I guess we were going!

Courtesy bag that iris sent! How thoughtful!

Floating balloon was just a floating balloon till I saw a woman strapped to it spinning and twirling so gracefully in the air!

You know you're getting old when you don't see that many familiar faces at ZoukOut. Another observation, LOTS of tourists from India and Indonesia this year.

Hello Stranger at the Heineken Sound Dome. Me, Man, and Danz.

The Heineken Sound Dome was great, there were Outdoor Aircon Units galore (Sorry K I couldn’t fit it in my handbag! I would have if i could?), a bar with NO queues, free bangers & mash potatoes in a cup, chairs, and a cool photo station which projects your photo on to the entire green dome.

We didn’t stay late, I had a wedding to attend to in the morning. But I still had a great time thanks to iris and Heineken!

Easily one of mummy’s favourite restaurants. We chanced upon Dian Xiao Er at Vivocity one day, and have been back several times for a few of their signature dishes. Mainly the Roast Duck with Angelica Herbs and Dong Po Pork.

I highly recommend that you go for the set menu because it’s okay value and portions are just right. Food is churned out super fast too.We usually have the below menu for 4pax.
1. Steamed Rice
2. Duck Roasted w Angelica Herb
3. Baby Kai-Lan w Salted Fish & Lime
4. Mongolian Spare Ribs / Dong Po Pork
5. Soup of The Day
6. Hong Kong Style Steamed Fish Slices
7. Braised Assorted Mushroom w Broccoli

Dian Xiao Er

Address: #02-137/8 VivoCity

Tel: 6376 9786

see website for other locations

Discovering new café that serves a decent cup of Java is the best way to spend my Saturday afternoon. A worthy mention is Kith Café on Rodyk Street. It was a bit difficult to find at first, but just head towards the canal, and you will the row of shops. It’s located on the ground level of the Watermark condo on Robertson Quay, and parking is free if you mention that you’re going to the cafe.

Designed by a Justin’s company Hjgher, I would have not expected anything less. Hipster enough for my liking, great coffees and free wifi seals the deal. It’s a small place, so expect to wait for a seat during peak hours on weekends.

Oh and for cyclists, check out Vanguard Bikes just a couple of doors down. They sell some very pretty refurbished bikes, and accessories.

Kith Café

Address: 7 Rodyk Street, Watermark @ Robertson Quay #01-33

Tel: 63419047

Opening hours: 7am – 7pm

I’ve kinda stopped partying, but I know when Jon is in town that goes out the window. OK to let loose once in awhile?

Pictures from last year’s J & D visit. I love going out with this group because it’s always a happy occasion, no dramas, good times, good friends. Will NYE this year look like this? All pictured except Dave will be in Singers. What to do? Where to go?

There’s no such thing as a quiet night out when Jon is in town. Davo tagged along this time, and contrary to what you might think, no they are not a couple! Jon is as straight as a pencil lead.

More photos to follow, but here are the best few from the night.

Ping Pong Bar. Why hasn’t anyone thought of this earlier! Checked out Camp Pong on Tuesday evening with Danli and spent an hour or so ping pong-ing. Great way to de-stress and vent my work frustrations on the table. Shame it’s only around for 7 weeks.

Was keen to take part in The Camp Pong Championships too, unfortunately I won’t be in town. So before this place goes, be sure to check it out.

The Camp Pong Championship is a “not to be taken too seriously, style over substance” amateur league Ping Pong tournament. It will be held over 2 Saturdays, July 10 (heats) and July 17 (qtr, semi, finals).

Dressing up is highly encouraged, especially on weekends. Whether it’s head-to-toe sweatbands, superhero costumes, spandex, or complete New Balance or Fred Perry decked out glory- it’s your call. Its fun, it’s silly, it will add to the laughs. Take advantage of the ample UV lights and shine!

*EDIT
Here’s Danli’s video from that night.

Dates & times
29 May – 18 July, Open 7 Days a week
Operating hours: 2pm-12mn daily (Sun – Thu) and till 2am on Fri & Sat.

Address
#02-24, *SCAPE. 2 Orchard link, #02-24, next to Orchard Cineleisure

Ping pong tables are available at $10/half hr. For reservations, email camppong[a]presentpurpose.com with the subject “table reservation”.

Ushering in the new year in style at Mezzanine Grand Hyatt Hotel Singapore. This is probably the 3rd time I’ve done the Hyatt countdown dinner/party and this year it was by far the worse selection of dessert! Me thinks the pastry chef is feeling a bit uninspired or perhaps it had been a bad year for him/her.

We had quite a huge group, so we managed to book out the whole table at the cellar of Mezzanine. Dressed in our best, we left our baggage from 2009 behind and rung in the new year with lots of love, friendship and laughter.

After the countdown, it was a bus ride to Sunny’s place at Sentosa Cove for Casino-themed after party and 5am breakfast by the pool! Happy New Year!

Green Day comes third on my list of great gigs last year.

Glad they covered old tracks like ‘Welcome to Paradise’ and ‘Basketcase’.

Here’s my favourite song he sang acoustic.

Just another weekend out with the Sake girls.

Once in awhile, we would get together for dinner, sake and get jiggy with it down at the club after. Sake dinner strictly for girls only. Boyfriends and boy friends can join later

Never a dull moment with my ladies of leisure.

xoxo

On the eve of my actual birthday, I squeezed 20 good friends into the private room at Bedrock for an amazing dinner. Am glad I chose that place in the end.

First class service, food was great, and I had one of the most dramatic candle/sparkler I’ve even seen on a Awfully Chocolate cake.

Wearing my new dress I got through Sloane Elizabeth Robertson.

Went for my first Singapore Oktoberfest 2 weeks back at the Swiss Club. It was so hard to get a ticket, but luckily a few spots opened up a few days before! Lesson learnt, book early next time.

Oktoberfest was a riot! I absolutely loved it! And a lot of it had to do with the company. It was great to see old friends and meet new ones. I’m so glad I brought my DSLR along. Although it was a real pain to carry around, the pictures were well worth it.

Nat, Kim and I had bootcamp earlier in the day, so three of us rocked up pretty late at around 8:30pm. But that’s ok, the party went on till late.

Here’s the low-down. It’s basically a heuuugee tent lined with benches and tables with food stations on either ends of the tent. When you walk in, first things first, go get your beer coupon. It’s much easier just buying a booklet of coupons, because they finish pretty fast

Food-wise I stuck to sausages and pork knuckle with loads of honey mustard (my fav), washed down nicely with a mug (or two…or three) of Erdinger beer. There goes the calories burnt at bootcamp!

I loved how so many people were dressed up for the occasion, guys in their tight shorts+suspenders and girls as frolines! Towards the end of the night, everyone in the tent was dancing on the table tops! It’s amazing how much stress and weight those tables can take, I’m sure they took that into consideration when sourcing for tables

Till next year… Prost!

So daddy is back on F1 duties this year as Chief Secretariat. This time, the whole family was given free tickets to the Grandprix. Initially, we were told they were walkabout tickets. Then it got changed to Grandstand Marina Bay seats. WOOT! Can I just say, I’m just so darn proud of my daddy, at 64 he is still keeping active and pursuing his interests and passions.

With 4 tickets for all three days, we were thinking of splitting it up so we can bring friends and visiting relatives as well. Finals would be a family affair.

I had 2 tickets for myself for qualifying night, and none of my friends can make it! That’s too bad…… because…. they got changed again to Pit Grandstand!

Shame I have no one to share it with

Read about my behind-the-scenes tour here at last year’s inaugural Singapore F1 Grandprix.

I discovered this gem of a singer a few months back when I heard her on YouTube. Her music style was very much like Jack Johnson; mellow, acoustic, slightly melancholic together with a unique jazz-like vocals. Only after doing a bit more research did I find out she was signed on with monotone/Brushfire Records, the latter owned by Jack.

Was lucky to score an invite to last night’s gig at Timbre@Art House for her showcase organised by 98.7fm (Thanks Vanessa!) Was still feeling ill but this was too good to miss! Definitely not disappointing at all, she sounded great live. I had the pleasure of meeting her as well after the gig, and I have to say, she is the sweetest thing! I wish her all the success.

Here are my two of my favourite songs below. Others I like are: “First of the Gang and Bitterheart”

Oh btw, sorry for the hiatus. Be prepared to be to be inundated with random blog posts, food reviews and pictures in the next week!

Last month, adidas hosted a fantastic house party at the Timberlux warehouse to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the iconic 3-Stripes mark introduced by company founder Adi Dassler. The worldwide campaign encapsulated the cool and trendy factor with a fantastic TVC “invitation” which is available to watch on their website. Loved it and managed to find it on youtube.

The local house party was really well planned and executed, not forgetting brilliantly designed. When you walk in, you’re welcomed with a visual history snippets with pictures on the walls, frames, all in the style of someone’s living room. It was literally like a house party. Shelves were decorated with trophies, photos, candles.

Let me list the “I Likes”
- The shoes hanging from the ceiling, which made it look like a feature wall ceiling
- Free flow (FF) Blue candy floss and drinks
- FF Frolick Yoghurt and popcorn. (I’m actually really starting to like yoghurt more than ice-cream. It’s a healthier alternative if you keep the toppings to fruits. Frolick is like a Pinkberry for those more familiar with that name)
- FF Tiger
- The DJ table which stood inside a ginormous shoebox
- adidas styled vespas
- catching up with old friends
- meeting new friends
- liked how everyone made an effort to dress adidas or at least brand neutral

I leave you with a collage of photos from the night.

Coldplay’s concert two years ago was absolutely fantastic, so I wouldn’t expect anything less for the 2009 tour. Being a bit cash-strapped, I decided not to go. So I watched the sections on the sistic website turn red one by one. Within a day or so, all tickets were sold out.

Weeks went by, and I suddenly felt a pang of regret for not getting myself a ticket. So I resorted to listening to their music on my ipod all month, in hopes I’d get so sick of their songs I wouldn’t feel so bad missing their show.

To cut the long story short, I got a call from Danli 1.5hrs before the show asking if I’d like to go to Coldplay, because C+1 couldn’t make it.

“Hell yeah! I’m there!”

Showered and dressed in record time, I picked up Danli, Evan and Karen from Bugis and we all headed to the Singapore Indoor Stadium together.

The best part? Only found out when we saw the tickets, we got row 2 seats! OMG ROW 2! We were so close to them, it felt almost surreal.

It was undoubtedly the best concert I’ve been to.

All in all, it was a fantastic evening, they played all their greatest hits and new songs from their Viva la Vida album.

I especially love how they keep the crowds engaged throughout the evening, either through gimmicks, videos, visuals but also their use of stage space.

My favourite moment would have to be the butterfly confetti shower.

I wish I had a better camera to take better photos. All these photos were taken from my canon point-and-shoot.

Posted here are all the best shots I got, the rest were very “noisy” due to the high ISO. Tough compromise.

So would I pay to see them again in 2 years time? Definitely.

Here’s a video compilation of my amazing night with Coldplay.

Work has been hectic, so I haven’t had the time to sit down and write about Singfest. To date, it’s the best concert I’ve been to.

I’ve been listening to Jamie Scott & The Town for quite a while now, and surprisingly, he doesn’t have a huge following here in Singapore. Every time I mention his name, I get the “Who is he? What does he do?” answer. But judging by the crowd’s response on Sunday arvo, I’m sure he has scored himself a few more fans from Singapore.

I’m just so glad I got to listen to him live! … At times he sounds like a combination one of my other fav singer Ray LaMontagne and Paolo Nutini.

Nick the amazing cellist

I think the only down side was the heat! It was scorching hot, and we were all trying to keep cool with the ONE electric fan i brought. I reckon the organisers should have at least put a few industrial sized fans to cool us down. The crowd was ok, although it did get a bit rowdy when Jason Mraz came on.

Here are a couple more of my favourite photos of the night.

Panic at the Disco

One Republic

Mr A to Z

Mr Mraz, Toca and their fantastic horn section

Jason Mraz

More pictures can be found in my gallery HERE

Sorry there isn’t any pussycat dolls, rick Astley photos. I was a bit busy then.

So will i go to Singfest again? Well if the line up is going to be as good as this year, hell yeah!

I’m such a lucky girl. I got to meet both Jamie Scott & band and Jason Mraz & Toca Rivera at Singfest.

With Jason Mraz

With Toca

Jamie Scott & The Town
I just wished i didn’t look so disheveled. But then again after jumping around for four hours in the sun and the crowd, it was a bit hard to look fresh!