Every year during mooncake festivals, my house will be stocked with boxes and boxes of mooncakes sent by our friends and suppliers. We couldn't be more grateful as it always filled our kitchen with happiness and excitement. Every this time of the year, our chinese tea pot and mini cups would also come out of retirement and my mum would prepare lovely chinese tea to go along with all these beautiful mooncakes. What's even better is to light some lanterns by the beach at night and enjoy the mooncakes and chinese tea with your love ones.

Look at how big my sister-in-law's mug as compared to mine. Mine was beginner's mug.

It's my first experience going to Comex I.T Show and apparently it's not really what I thought it would be. Firstly, the crowds were insane! I expected it to be packed with people so I'm mentally prepared for it but still, it's like insane! Secondly, Sony only showcased their games section and accessories throughout this show. No cameras no nothing. I was planning to get the Sony Camera RX100M3 so I was pretty disappointed. I mean I have to literally get knocked by hundreds and hundreds of shoulders just to locate the Sony booth where they sells their camera but then, it turns out there wasn't any. The only thing I find it fun was to disturb my little brother who was working under Challenger HP Printer section and that's about it. Super empty handed! Lucky elder brother of mine managed to get the laptop he wanted. I think if you are looking for like laptops, printers, gaming console, TV and computers accessories, Comex will be the best place for you. Nikon, Fujifilm and Canon cameras too. Poor Sony doesn't have a booth to showcase their cameras. Too bad then. I still managed to get my cameras at the Sony Center in Marina Square so I'm happy.

That night, my family and I went to Paulaner at Millennium Walk for some drinks and small bites. I'm not into bars and drinking but I would definitely come back to this place. The food was great. The sausages are the best! Apparently their beers are good too! I finally drank beer after so long and I wasn't even planning to at the first place. My elder brother was like "You come to this fabulous place with awesome beer and you are going to order Earl Grey Tea? No, you are going to drink some beer tonight". Yup, I have pretty awesome family who always encourage me to drink since I literally dislike drinking alcohols. Overall, we had a pretty good night at Paulaner and the live bands were good. Let’s just say with good food and good beers, nothing will go wrong!

*Sorry for the poor quality of pictures. Took it with my iphone.*

This is the first time my family and I (excluding my mum, I'm sorry) planned a surprise mission for my mum's birthday. We planned a month ahead and it's killing me for not telling my mum. I almost blew the whole plan up a couple of times. Good thing my mum isn't that quick. 

So my dad came up with this plan to fly "my mum and him" off to Bangkok and letting her thinks that all her children will be staying in Singapore, then we hop onto the next flight to Bangkok for her birthday. It's a tough mission for us since we couldn't pack anything until they leave for the airport (which is only a couple of hours) and the worst thing is, my brother and I actually have to wake up really early to pretend to go to work and wait for them to leave. Once my dad gave us the green light, we rushed home immediately and start packing like crazy. It was so hectic and my nerves are driving me insane. 

It was funny how my mum kept reminding us to make sure the gate to our house is closed and to make sure all the switches are off before we go to bed, and she even stock up on food in case we go hungry. My dad and I were laughing like crazy behind her back. She's just so cute and clueless.

Once we reached Bangkok, we head straight to Mandarin Oriental Hotel where the restaurant (Sala Rim Naam) is located with our luggage (good thing the hotel helped us store our luggage at the counter) and to our surprise, the restaurant is actually located across the hotel (though it's still under Mandarin Oriental Hotel). The staffs there are so helpful and friendly which is a total thumbs up and lead us to the pier where a traditional thai boat will bring us over to the restaurant. Good concept ya. Loved it.

The waiters and waitresses were really friendly and they even helped us through the surprise event (I will be uploading the video up soon so do stay tune!). The food there was great! The pineapple fried rice (yum!), the duck dish (once it reached the table, it's all gone so you know how good it is), sweet potato appetizer (love!), fried fish (I'm not really into fried fish but my family loved it), green curry (holy moly! YUM YUM YUM!), mango salad (it's really good and the mango is just so fresh), pad thai (was alright), mango with sticky rice (BEST EVER!!). They also served us a plate of thai desserts for my mum. So sweet of them. Two thumbs up for Sala Rim Naam and we will definitely go back again for the food.

Stay tune to the surprise birthday video!

Sala Rim Naam

48 Oriental Ave Alley

Bang Rak, Bangkok,

Thailand

Tel: +66 2 659 9000

Website: http://www.mandarinoriental.com/bangkok/fine-dining/sala-rim-naam/?htl=MOBKK_salarim&eng=google&src=local

My dad brought back some really huge and fresh sweet potatoes from Malaysia and my mum and I decided to have a small little BBQ session on our own backyard. Something my mum and I have in common is that if we crave for something bad, we will do whatever we can to get it in our tummy and that's how this little BBQ session came about. My parents love inviting their friends over for BBQ and we can easily top the chart of having the most BBQ parties among our friends. Even when we are living in a HDB apartment, we will set up the BBQ pit just outside our doorstep and have our friends over. Sweet Potatoes are a "must have" during our BBQ Parties and if you don't have it in your BBQ parties, I might simply just not attend. Haha. Just Kidding! 

The perfect way of cooking sweet potatoes is by roasting them over a small fire and let it do it's magic. Slowly turn them around every 10-15mins to make sure every side of the it is cooked. Use a satay stick to poke through the sweet potatoes to see if they are ready. If the sweet potatoes are still hard, let them continue to sit in the fire until you can easily poke the satay stick right into the sweet potatoes and wala, your sweet potatoes is ready! Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Have a great weekends ahead!

xoxo.

A blink of an eye, it's already June and half of the year is gone but June since to be an exciting month for me and it's just the second week of the month. 

This month, I will be traveling to Bangkok, Thailand on the 18th to 21st for a very special surprise event, my mum's birthday. So this is how the plan goes, my parents will be heading over to Bangkok first and my siblings and I will be hopping on the next flight over. By the time we reached there, my parents will probably be out shopping so we have to rush to the cake store to get a cake and meet them at the restaurant to surprise my mum. I'm finger-crossing everything will go well!!! 

I will also be posting about the trip once I'm back so do check out this space!!

Next, my family and I will be heading to Australia (Melbourne and Tasmania) on the 25th September to 4th Oct for our annual family vacation. I love planning trips so I'm glad we're not following tours this time round and will be driving around ourselves. I'm excited!!!

Lastly, my parents and I will be going to Hong Kong this December to just chill and relax. My mum and I will be visiting the fabric street together this time and I'm excited because the previous time we went, my dad insist my mum to follow him for some day tour and I have to go to the fabric street alone. That's sad but since she wants me to make a gown for her, I'm dragging her along with me to the fabric street to choose her fabric. I'm so looking forward to Hong Kong. That also means, I can get my Chinese New Year clothes there!!! Can't wait.

It's awesome awesome year ahead and I hope there's more good news to come!!!

Til next time..