Jazz by the beach

From my rediscovey of Sentosa two weeks ago, I learned about this Jazz by the beach event there. It's a series of concerts by different bands for each Saturday of July. So I made a mental note to drag my friends there for the last week it was playing.

So Saturday arrived, but from morning til afternoon it was very cloudy. The weather was so conducive to hibernating in the comfort of your warm bed blankets so I would really understand if the chilis would prefer to do so than go risk being soaked if ever the rain pours when we get to Sentosa. But I was going there anyhow, if it rained, my plan was to do some reading in one cafe' in Vivo City.

However, the weather had been cooperative and we had a 100% attendance, except for Aoisoba who was still back in our homeland enjoying all the Pinoy time she could have before becoming a princess of a leprechaun, I mean, an Irish policeman, by August. It was also a nice surprise that Omaritosan, whom I have not seen since he got back from his escapade in Portugal almost two months ago, was able to join us.

The event was held at the cool deck in Siloso beach. It started at 6pm but we arrived at around 7 and the sun was still up and was just beginning to set. The band playing was Singapore Airlines' jazz band. Their repertoi and performance were ok, although it wasn't the jazz music I was expecting to hear. Anyway, I am not complaining, it was a free concert and I did like the ambiance. I liked that there were beach mats and tables although it seemed like nobody wanted to sit in this style and most took the usual chairs and tables (including us).

We started out with one beer for each one of us..guess which beer was mine ;-)

Ooops, what's this little odd drink doing here? =P (yep, I had to still have my Coke light dosage, I did the same thing yesterday when Ays and I went for a drink in a bar after office hours and I had a glass of vodka tonic and later on a Coke of course =P)

Then we had some finger foods, some lip pouting lessons, more food in Vivo city on the way back, and lots and lots of laughter.

It was another fun, fun night. Must be because the moon was full. ;-)

The White Bag

I looked at it for one more time before putting it back in the plastic bag. I was still trying to convince myself that I needed to let it go, perhaps it wasn't really for me. But I thought it was! For months I've been looking for that perfect white bag and when I saw this one in a store, I fell in love with it but I didn't even buy it instantly, I thought I'd give it a test of time, that if it was meant for me it would still be there when I decide to buy it. Yes, it withstood the months, I never found anything better than it, so last week I finally decided to buy it. Call me crazy but really, I've never been so ecstatic about a bag, that whenever I look at it I just had this warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart that made me sigh and smile and admire my bag. There was even this one time in office last week that when I pulled up the drawer of my bin and I saw my white bag, I was surprised and I grinned when I remembered that I already owned that bag.

Off I went to the store, I told the salesgirl that I am returning the bag I bought last week because it was chapping at the sides. The salesgirl said it could be because it rubbed on my pants when I sling my bag. I wish she was right, I've been trying to tell that to myself too but logic will only tell you that it was not, because the chapping part were on the sides of the bag and these do not come in contact with any friction. Besides, I've only used the bag twice and it was not even a week old. I've had it figured out that it was the material of the bag and the humid weather outdoors. I remember it was the same thing that happened with an organizer given to me as a gift, it was from the USA, and obviously not compatible with the tropical weather in the Philippines. It took me sometime to convince myself that it could be the same case with my bag, since it was from a local store here and they must have considered that during manufacture, shouldn't they?

The salesgirl asked if I wanted to choose another bag or if I wanted another stock as a replacement. My heart skipped a little at the thought of getting another stock of the same white bag, I was sooo tempted, but I restrained myself and even if my heart was broken, I had to endure it because I knew the chances that I would have the same problem with the new stock was very high. So with a heavy sigh, I politely said "No, thank you, I would just have a refund." They gave me back a full refund without no qualms, the bag had a 30 day guarantee.

And so I am back to square one again, in search of that white bag for me. Sometimes I wonder if I'd rather have not found that bag at all, than to indeed find it but only to realize that it was just like borrowed for a very short span of time but was just long enough to break your heart.

Wishin Everyday is Harris Book Sale

Have you ever walked in to a place that made you smile from ear to ear?

It happened to me tonight.

Eypooh sent us this email ad about a book sale at Suntec City. So off I went there after office. But first we had some yummy Japanese food for dinner at the Food Republic in Suntec city, which, by the way, I love the new layout and design. Talk about designing a food court like a library, how cool is that? ;) I think it was a sign that something even better was about to happen...

Please excuse my crappy pics from my 2MP phone camera, better than nothing, right? :)

True enough, when we went inside the Harris book sale, I felt like I was in heaven. It was something I did not expect really because I thought they would just have books that were not so quality, you know, the usual surplus, unpopular books. But no, it was like walking into a bookstore with popular books in half the price! It was crazy! There were all the Paulo Coehlo books, Judith McNaught books, Nicholas Sparks, Nora Roberts, Agatha Christie, etc, etc.

But of course I had to restrain myself from the impulse of hoarding everything I could. I had to remind myself that I live on a limited budget (especially these days when I am foreseeing a budget deficit in the next couple of months). So after much contemplation and convincing of myself that it was not yet the end of the world if I could not buy all the books I wanted there, I managed to finally select the four books that fit my $30 budget.

I wish all book sale are like Harris book sale. I could live there, hehe.

Catching up in Sentosa

It was a nice Sunday, the sun was up. So, together with my beach mat in my bag, I took the bus from outside our condo which goes straight to Harbourfront where I went to Vivo city mall to meet Apo, Mariz and Gab. We were going to Sentosa for a picnic. I was very excited about having a picnic, it has been a while since I last went to Sentosa and I heard many things has changed over the months. Sentosa is a little island resort of Singapore just meters away from the city.

I was awed as I went inside Vivo city mall. It was very different than the last time I went there around 9 months ago (and I couldn't believe that was also the last time I was in Sentosa!). Back then it was still quite newly opened, there was still only a few stores open. But now it is in full blast, it was nice and cozy so it isn't a wonder for me now why it is now a very popular place to hang out. At the 3rd level, there's a monorail station going to Sentosa. This was one of the new things in Sentosa. Ticket to Sentosa is also now S$3, as I remember it used to be less than that before (I'm not sure if I remembered correctly though). Anyway, the ticket, besides the day pass to sentosa, allows you to have a day's use of the monorail and the buses in Sentosa.

Another very significant change in Sentosa was the construction going on at the area where the Ferry terminal used to be, where there was this nice garden and where the musical fountain used to be. Hopefully though, this area would be more beautiful than before, since from what I heard, this area will be where the Universal studios would be. So we'll see in a year or two...

We went to Siloso beach where Sherry and her mom, Ramil and his mom and sister were waiting for us. It was so nice to see my friends again whom I have not seen for a while. We enjoyed a sumptous lunch of Filipino food.

adobo, laing, steamed okra, fried tilapia (under the aluminum foil :) and rice

and of course, the usual star of an OFW meal, the Purefoods hotdog courtesy of Mariz. ;-)

The laing was specially made by Sherry, she used fish instead of meat, but it was really very delicious. I also had a feast on my favorite fried tilapia. We were really so full, and we wiped out almost everything in half an hour.

After lunch and some minutes of catching our breaths (hehehe), Sherry, Ramil and their family headed out in touring around Sentosa while me, Apo, Mariz and Gab went to have some coffee and eventually some muffins and blueberry cheesecake :) at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf ("Gab's spot" in Sentosa) where we ended up staying for 3 hours before finally calling it a day.

It was nice to rediscover Sentosa again but actually, what was nicer was... catching up with good friends.

the Merlion

Balloons, cakes and candles

A little princess turned 1 year old last July 5...

She had her first birthday celebration on July 7th. The morning of this day, she was so active and was so much in a good mood that we couldn't help but play with her and motivate her to continue being cute as we enjoyed the time. She knows a lot already, she can simulate how to blow a candle, she moves her little fingers together when you sing Insy Winsy Spider, she knows how to move her hands to make a wiggling fish or a fluttering butterfly when you tell her so, she can knock and utter "tao po", she will rest her chin on her hands when you say "I'm bored", she will hold her hands to her head when you say "hay naku" (a Filipino phrase that we say to express when we are irritated or frustrated), she would cross her eyebrows when you ask her to show you how to be angry, she can even do her version of push ups! Her speech is also already developed, she can now utter many syllables. She is a smart little girl!

And she's my niece!

And I'm so proud to be her Tita! :-)

Happy 1st birthday, Keira !!!

High fives in Cameron Highlands

Due to the back to back combo of stress and frustration at work, I looked for someplace where me and my friends could relax and unwind. The idea is just anywhere outside Singapore and that is affordable! I googled and found travel packages to Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, a countryside part of Malaysia which is around 10 hours drive from Singapore. From my research then, I infered that Cameron would be like Baguio City, (Philippines' highest point) since it was situated in the highlands of Malaysia. The itinerary just suited us fine: Friday night at 10pm leave Singapore via VIP coach bus and arrive in Cameron at around 8am on Saturday and go back to Singapore at 10am on Sunday.

I proposed the trip to my chili friends and I was so happy when they enthusiastically confirmed, although DayOhbee was not able to join since she was changing jobs and was going home to Philippines for a quick vacation before starting her new job. So it was just me, Aoisoba, Chuvanescense, Ays, and our adopted chili, Liana.

So we only had the whole Saturday to see Cameron and I think it was suffice because we were able to do a "Nature Discovery" tour in the morning 'til around 2pm. The first part of this tour is my favorite and is the thing that one should not miss to do in Cameron --the tour of the Tea plantation where you could see hills and hills of tea plants that it has been nicknamed "Giant Green Carpet of Malaysia". Then we went to the Boh Tea Factory where we saw how tea are made. I listened to our tour guide attentively and what do you know, I learned something new and interesting: that black tea (or English tea) is called as such because the tea leaves are burnt while for green tea, the leaves are made into tea without burning them, hence leaving the tea leaves green. There is a cafe' (or shall I say a tea place) beside the tea factory where we had some tea and sandwiches. It was so nice as it had the view of the hills of tea plants around. The picture below is my favorite and is one of the pictures I managed to take using my camera that was running out of battery (I could not find my battery charger!!!).

Next we travelled up of Mount Brinchang, the highest point of Cameron Highlands (about 6666 feet above sea level). Before reaching the summit, we made a stop to make a little walk in the mossy forest to find some picher plants. It wasn't really that fascinating since there were just a couple of little withering picher plants that we saw amidst the slippery and muddy trek (good decision by Eypooh and Liana to skip this trek). But going to the summit was worth seeing, because the panoramic view of the highlands. Although I think the best would be to go to the summit during sunrise (there was a Sunrise tour available as well but it starts at 6am). Nevertheless, the view was still nice, the picture below was taken by Chuvanescense from his camera.

Last part of the tour was a visit to the village of the Orang Asli tribe, the semi-nomadic natives of Malaysia. It showed how the natives are living in the mainstream, with the government encouraging them to settle in this village to prolong the lifespan of the natives. The government provides them solar cells for each house for a source of electricity. This was the part of the tour that me and my friends did not feel comfortable about and we were wondering why they included in the tour. Personally, I think the Orang Asli tribe should be left to live as how they are used to, to preserve their culture.

In the afternoon, we took the Agro tour where we went first to see a conventional vegetable farm. Nothing new for me really because in my childhood, we have a vegetable farm in our province, where I had the chance to harvest some vegetables. But the succeeding parts were quite interesting: the visit to a Chrysanthemum flower nursery and the water cress farm, the tour of a lettuce farm where lettuce are being grown using hydrophonic farming (method of farming that uses water and its vibrations/sounds), then to the Cactus valley where I've seen sooooo many varieties of cactus (I didn't know there were A LOT!) and where huge lemons the size of melons, grow. (First 3 pics courtesy of Chuvanescense and Aoisoba, the picture of the cacti is another of the few photos I managed to take using my camera).

There was also a visit to a strawberry farm to which turned out not as I was not expecting to be. I thought we were going to a strawberry field, because in the Philippines I've been to the Strawberry fields in La Trinidad (just beside Baguio city). Anyway, the strawberry farm turned out to be a small nursery where strawberry plants were grown using organic farming so the plants were not on the ground. It's not really that inviting to pick strawberries in that type of farm as to picking strawberries from strawberry fields. Anyway again, strawberries is Cameron Highland's flagship fruit I suppose because there were strawberry items of all sorts, even non-food products like T-shirts, key chains, balloons, wallets, and all other items imaginable in a strawberry motif. I was not able to resist it myself, I bought a strawberry designed floor rug. :)

The last part of the afternoon tour was a steamboat dinner at a restaurant. We had fun cooking our food in the boiling soup and yes, we were so full in the end! ;) After dinner, we had a little walk to their Market where we bought some magnets for souvenirs before going to our hotel for the night. We stayed at Equatorial Hotel and I was surprised to find out that this hotel was Cameron's Five star hotel considering that the travel package we took was relatively affordable. Although, the rooms were not fancy, just basic, but the location of the hotel was perfectly situated-- right in the center of Cameron, and the view of the mountains from our hotel room was magnificent. (The picture below was taken by Chuvanescense from his camera on Sunday morning.) The rooms do not have airconditioning unit, by the way, because the weather is already cold. (It was 20 degrees celcius at high-noon!)

On the way back to Singapore, we passed by Kuala Lumpur and changed bus (from a VIP coach to a "Super VIP" coach where each seat had an entertainment system to watch movies ;-). I saw the familiar landmarks I've been to from my trip there last April. It was a fun, fun weekend, another adventure with my friends that keeps me recharged to get me going. Cameron Highlands is truly a great discovery!