got myself a new samsung f480 in luxury brown. love its sleek and stylish design. I was initially eyeing samsung soul, but decided to get the f480 instead after trying and comparing both handsets.

before going to the shop, I cleared out all customizations from my existing phone (i.e. sms inbox, notes, calendar, phone book) since I wanted to trade it in. but the trade in value has dropped so much they valued it for only $10! so I ended up bringing my existing phone back home, just in case I need it again for whatever purpose in future.

my very first handphone was a motorola - baby blue color. next one was nokia - white color. then it was sony ericsson - silver color. and now it's samsung - dark brown.

went for lunch gathering at a friend's house in west side of the island. had home-cooked meal plus yummy desserts of snowskin mooncake (my first piece of mooncake this season!) and mango cake =)

had dinner at fisherios fish n chips at bugis junction basement. ordered their signature beer battered fish. at $7.90, it certainly could be better. the plate contained one big white paper wrapper, enveloping a slab of fried battered cod fish, some french fries and a slice of lemon. the fries were so few I could count them all. perhaps they should either put in more fries or use smaller plate to prevent the empty look. the fish tasted alright although a bit oily. the creamy soup tasted good and it's thick enough. don't think I'll make a return visit, though.

went to ikea to look for a new bolster to upgrade my old one, just to find out that they don't sell any bolsters.. *disappointed*. but we had a nice dinner, though. swedish meatballs, blueberry cake and daim chocolate cake. yum!

I guess I'm kinda into chick lit recently. after completing two addictive sophie kinsella's (shopaholic abroad & shopaholic and sister), I borrowed marian keyes' last chance saloon from the nearby library.

the story revolved around 3 best friends and their struggle on their love life. one of them thought she couldn't live without a man and thus, any man would do. so she wasted 2 long years having non-committal relationship with an undeserving man while she kept giving excuses for all his annoying behaviors. another girl had a troubled past and thus she steeled herself to reject any romance possibilities, believing instead that men would just leave her after they knew the real her.

until one of them suffered from a life-threatening disease, and ordered his two friends to do what they were supposed to do all along. one was to leave the undeserving boyfriend, and the other was to get herself a man. they resented him for ordering them around, though they knew those were the right thing to do. in fact, all he wanted was to make sure his friends were not going to waste their lives.

just when he did not really care anymore, they started to take actions to live their lives to the fullest.

the novel was thick enough to make me feel involved with the main characters. and I simply knew it would have a happy end, and it didn't disappoint me.

next book I'm gonna devote myself to: lukisan hujan by sitta karina

this collage is posted in response of vemach's request for a glimpse of ice cream I had yesterday at marvelous cream. the left photo shows the shop's banner with colorful ice cream pictures to entice customers. the right photo shows a 'chef' mixing a scoop of ice cream with a few toppings on top of frosted table top. the middle photos shows the mixed berry cheesecake ice cream on chocolate waffle bowl. it looked a bit pathetic as the bowl was too big for the ice cream, although it was the medium size. I thought it might be better if the shop provides waffle bowls in 3 different sizes, S/M/L, served according to the size of the ice cream ordered.

went for second installment of live fireworks show - today's was from korean team. the crowd was undeterred by the constant drizzle, and the show started even earlier than yesterday, at 9.10pm. it's a good thing since there were two little girls sitting beside me who kept shouting to their parents asking if it's gonna start soon, and the parents kept saying it's starting now - so noisy. anyway, today's show was better than yesterday's.

tried mixed berry cheesecake icecream at marvelous cream, citylink mall. the shop looked very girly with nice-looking plastic samples, pretty pictures and pink tone. this first overseas outlet outside of japan sells ice cream and french parfait for take-away.

customers can choose to create their own concoction or pick from the array of their original creations. everything looked so tempting. after order was placed, the 'chef' would get the ice cream and toppings, then mixed them on a frosted table top. our mixed berry ice cream tasted great, I liked the subtle, lingering taste of the cheesecake.

I must have gone mad or really had nothing better to do, but I braved the infuriating crowd at city area tonight, during the after-office rush hour, carrying my bulky handbag and heavy notebook, for the sake of watching the fireworks live.

managed to secure a good spot just behind esplanade's outdoor theatre, and waited for more than an hour there. the last time I went to esplanade for fireworks, I was stuck in the crowd, all sweaty and unable to move, and promised myself not to repeat the same thing.

fireworks was supposed to start at 9pm according to the schedule, but it was delayed for almost half an hour. we heard some loud announcement a few times from the floating platform nearby, where all the happenings took place, got ourselves excited, only to find out that it's not time for the show yet. finally it started at about 9.30 and lasted for 15 minutes. it involved music as well as light show, on top of the 'dancing' fireworks display.

true, the crowd was maddening. true, good coverage can always be found in tv or photos or videos posted online. but nothing beats the feeling of seeing the grand fireworks shower with our own eyes.

anyway.. I wonder how much tax payers money are spent for each spark.

received free gifts from eurail today! I've totally forgotten that I sent back to them the completed feedback form after europe trip in may. there were 3 choices and I chose sudoku electronic game and phrase book. but what we got were a mini alarm clock and a mini radio with step counter. I guess they might come handy during holiday trips. the gift is not much, in fact they look like they won't last that long, but I won't complain getting unexpected useful free stuff :)

recently found out that pilccolo pizzeria just opened a new branch nearby, so we went to try it out this afternoon. both aglio olio and carbonara were nicely done. they gave generous bacon pieces for the carbonara. the aglio olio was too spicy to our liking, the garlic taste was almost covered totally.

finally had a chance to sample the famous nasi lemak-flavoured cookies by cookie museum. the cookies for sample were really small, in a size of buttons. I could taste the hint of peanut and ikan bilis, but no hint of chili. it's quite nice, but I still prefer the real nasi lemak anytime, cookies are not supposed to taste that way.

bought the east of venice (strawbery citrusy flavour) after trying various different sample cookies. their low-sugar cookies are made without eggs, they melt in the mouth. there are so many interesting flavours, some of them are sold only within specific period.

service was really good - warm, friendly, knowledgeable, but not pushy. the cafe is decorated really nicely in victorian style. I shall come back for a dine-in experience next time.

as I kneel before you
as I bow my head in prayer
take this day, make it yours
and fill me with your love.

ave maria, gratia plena
dominus tecum, benedicta tu

had a dinner gathering with ex-colleagues this evening at joaquim, suntec. what would be better than yummy food and great company? how I have missed all the gossips and jokes :)

the food variety was quite good. aside from the various selection for our steamboat, there were also stalls of rojak, popiah, vegetable tempura, crab beehoon, roasted meat, some cooked dishes, fruits, cakes and ice cream.

it's a good thing to have steamboat with individual soup pots. everyone can have their own choices of soup and meat or veggie they want to eat. for the side dishes, the best was rojak - it's really fresh and crispy served with generous sauce. crab beehon was satisfying as well. on one ex-colleague's advice, I tried a little serving of bubor hitam with a small scoop of coconut ice cream. it was nice, a combination between the hot and the cold yummy dessert. but the ice cream melted very quickly.

the not-so-good thing about the buffet: drinks were sold in ala carte style instead of free-flow, only ice water was free flow. after the dinner, I felt really thirsty I gulped down glasses of water and orange juice. must be the MSG effect.

pretty chocolates from germany.. all comes with different wrappers full of neat drawings and alien words, hehe..

colorful flowers to chase away my monday blues. photos were taken during the southern ridges walk yesterday.

had lunch at pocket full of posies' green house cafe at vivocity, tempted by its set lunches. ordered lasagna and chicken cutlet set, which came with soup of the day, orange juice and dessert.

soup of the day was potato soup, served in small white bowl. there're more carrot cubes than potato cubes, but it's quite tasty. chicken cutlet was nice too, crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside, served with fries and small portion of salad.

their lasagna looked small, especially when compared to the photo in the menu, but it's surprisingly filling. 3 layers of thin lasagna noodles, ground beef sandwiched in between, topped with melting mozzarella cheese and tomato pasta sauce, sprinkled with herbs. yummy! beef portion was generous, and I could really taste the cheesy mozzarella.

the cafe was set up beside the flower shop, so the ambience and 'decorations' were really nice. there were only a handful of tables in the cafe, ensuring timely servings.

explored the southern ridges today. it was drizzling when we left home early in the morning (I consider 7.30am early for a sunday), but thankfully the sky was clear when we reached harbourfront station. we completed about 6.18 km, walking in leisure pace, stopping every now and then, for about 3.5 hours.

it started with merang trail just outside of harbourfront station, until we reached mount faber. faber walk was quite full of people taking the morning walk or jog. mount faber and telok blangah hill is connected by this newly built henderson waves, the city's highest pedestrian bridge.

next was the hilltop walk at telok blangah hill park. the most impressive part was the terrace garden, located at the top of the park, almost fully covered by blooming purple bougenvilles. pretty!

it was then followed by forrest walk, which connects telok blangah and alexandra arch. it is a step-free elevated walkway, giving a bird's eye view of the forest below. alexandra arch is a newly opened 80 metre bridge that spans across alexandra road, which leads to the next pitstop: hortpark.

the stroll from alexandra arch to hortpark was really pleasant thanks to the paths of floral walk. the 300 metre paths are lined with various beautiful floras. I took lots of photos there for sure! oh ya, I met PT and family near the base of the bridge.

from hortpark, we walked to kent ridge park and went pass the canopy walk. wanted to walk all the way to science park, but on top of the hill we saw the really dark and cloudy sky. so we quickly rushed back.

I'm currently addicted to this cheesy dip sauce from tostitos.. it's so yummy! it goes really well with any kinds of nachos.

another personal favorite is lorenz's pomsticks, product of germany. it was a nice surprise to find them sold in cocoa tree some time back (not to mention that they were on promotion), and now they're also available in cold storage.. =)

truly mesmerized by the spectacular olympic opening ceremony. the grandness of it all...

anyway, I was wondering why the local singer dressed so casually when singing the theme song together with sarah brightman on top of the 'globe'. just a simple black t-shirt and pants.. the contingents parade was really unique, the countries were marching based on the number of strokes it takes to write their names in chinese. there was no way for me to guess which country would march in next. it was such an educational show as well, there were so many countries whose names I never heard before.. hmmm...

"...Biarkan keyakinan kamu, 5 centimeter menggantung mengambang di depan kening kamu. Dan... sehabis itu yang kamu perlu... cuma...."

"Cuma kaki yang akan berjalan lebih jauh dari biasanya, tangan yang akan berbuat lebih banyak dari biasanya, mata yang akan menatap lebih lama dari biasanya, leher yang akan lebih sering melihat ke atas."

"Lapisan tekad yang seribu kali lebih keras dari baja...."

"Dan hati yang akan bekerja lebih keras dari biasanya...."

"Serta mulut yang akan selalu berdoa...."

"Dan kamu akan selalu dikenang sebagai seorang yang masih punya mimpi dan keyakinan, bukan cuma seonggok daging yang hanya punya nama. Kamu akan dikenang sebagai seorang yang percaya pada kekuatan mimpi dan mengejarnya, bukan seorang pemimpi saja, bukan orang biasa-biasa saja tanpa tujuan, mengikuti arus dan kalah oleh keadaan. Tapi seorang yang selalu percaya akan keajaiban mimpi keajaiban cita-cita, dan keajaiban keyakinan manusia yang tak terkalkulasikan dengan angka berapa pun.... Dan kamu nggak perlu bukti apakah mimpi-mimpi itu akan terwujud nantinya karena kamu hanya terus mempercayainya."

(5 cm - donny dhirgantoro)

to celebrate church's feast day this year, we decided to do something different. instead of merely buying coupons, we opened up and manned our own food stall for the fun fair today. we ended up buying coupons more than the usual amount, though, to ensure constant supply of 'fuel' during the fun fair operation hours.

the preparation started yesterday. four of us went for grocery shopping, followed by slicing, boiling, seasoning, mixing, baking, tasting, packaging, wrapping, and preparing of the food. not to forget drawing and decorating the stall mini banner.

woke up early today for last minute preparations before going to church for setting up the stall. basic stuff like tables, chairs, stove, plates, spoon and plastic bags were already provided. we sold macaroni schotel, pasta salad, sliced cakes and chocolate brownies. all food were sold out. mission accomplished!

I finally found the song.

to reach my dream aim for the sky
you always said
your head up high smile on your face
and wish that you will always be loved
the stars will lead you every step you take
don't you ever be afraid believe in you
and I'll be there to guide you
wherever you may go
thank you for your love forever

(your love - gita gutawa & delon)