After-Work Dinner at Orange Thimble

I've been wanting to visit this Art Cafe ever since I heard about it from Adora and walked passed it one evening.

So I arranged to meet my friend J for dinner at Orange Thimble.

The Orange Thimble

I brought baby girl along because J has not seen her in a long time and want to meet her. But Girlee was more interested in the ice-cream on display..

"Ooooooo ice-queam!"

Seeing how interested she was and dying to make her like him, the service staff gave her some to eat!

"Nice?"

And ever since then she kept going back to the ice-cream freezer, hoping to get more from the nice "uncle".

As they only serve "breakfast food" such as sandwiches and pastries, I ordered a Portobello while J ordered a Chixie.

Clockwise (from left): Store counter; J's Chixie sandwich; my Portobello sandwich

The price of the sandwich is slightly higher than Subway but not as nice. I thought the taste was very ordinary only.

But baby girl had a blast eating the old school biscuits we used to eat when we were little kids!

She really loved it!

Thankfully, our meal ended off with a very tasty, albeit pricey, cake!

Hazelnut chocolate cake

I loved how the chocolate melts in your mouth! Mmmm! =)

I'm such a sucker for good dessert.

Orange Thimble is located at Blk 56, 01-68, Eng Hoon Street, Singapore 160056.

P.S: To everyone born on the day that only appears once every four years..

Happy Leap-y Birthday! =) 

A Bloggers Night Out at Grand Mercure Roxy Singapore

I was invited by Omy.sg for a cocktail cum dinner bloggers party hosted by Grand Mercure Roxy Singapore.

The newly renovated 4th Floor of the Grand Mercure Roxy

They just did a renovation of the fourth floor of their hotel and were excited to show it off to us. First up is the visit to their newly refurnished rooms.

Clockwise (from left): Walking along the 4th floor corridor; the queen-sized bed in the room; only a transparent glass separates the bathroom from the bedroom.. woo kinky!

The bathtub in the bathroom

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I brought baby girl along with me because 1) she's my backup just in case I feel ackward meeting strangers for the first time (I can just talk to her and she can really talk!) and 2) I need to give my mum-in-law a break from taking care of her the whole day.

Obviously I was the only one who did but I didn't care =)

Baby girl checking out the room

One of the cool things about the rooms on the 4th floor is that they lead directly to the pool outside so there's no need to take a lift and freeze while waiting to get back to your hotel room.

Checking out the porch that leads to the pool

The small but beautiful pool

Next, we made our way to check out their bar and their in-house gym.

The breez bistro.bar

Somewhere to exercise even when you're away from home

While I was busy taking pictures, one of the hotel representatives asked me "Wow, you brought her so she can enjoy the party too?" And I said, "Oh no.. I brought her to be my model!"

I mean, pictures look so much nicer when she's in it right? *laughs*

Posing for the many uncles & aunties taking her picture

And she did one hell of a job at it too, don't cha think? We then spent some time hanging by the pool and enjoying our mocktails.

Photo of me and baby girl

Mocktails and unique entrée

Baby girl kept asking me for more "duwink!!" The egg burger thingy looked so cute I almost didn't want to eat it. I say almost, because I did eventually eat it as the wagyu beef in the middle was just too tempting to resist! Yum =)

We had to proceed onto dinner soon but not before we take a group photo together.

Group photo with the other bloggers and hotel representatives

Dinner was at the hotel's very own restaurant, Jia Wei Chinese Restaurant.

Jia Wei Chinese Restaurant

Very "Cheena" (Chinese) decorations

The kitchen of the restaurant is lead by the award-winning head chef, Chef Lee Tuck Seng.

See all his medals and awards? Told ya he's good.

Chef Lee can only speak Cantonese so he explained the dishes in Cantonese and from the sound of it, seems very tasty indeed. I was very excited! It's not everyday you get to eat food cooked for you by an award-winning chef!

And boy, were we not disappointed!

Clockwise (from top left): the beautiful cutlery; four different types of dim sum (lovely!); tofu in "slimy" sauce; 海中宝 'hai zhong bao' (literally means 'treasure within the sea')

I really liked the Dim Sum, baby abalone and the uber glossy Peking duck. Reminds me of the food that we ate in Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Clockwise (from left): Glossy, glossy Peking Duck;
The skin of the duck wrapped with paper thin pancakes (yes it's weird, we only eat the skin!);
Tiger prawns in pumpkin sauce (baby girl's favourite); Tasty laksa.

I wiped out every last bit of the food placed in front of me as it was just too good! Then they served my favourite part of every meal.. the dessert!

Their famous durian cake and durian paste

Ah my favourite fruit in the whole wide world! I ate so much of it when I was pregnant that my girl is hooked on it too. The cake was really nice as it has just the right amount of durian. Not too sweet, just right for me! =)

Obviously, baby girl had trouble staying in her seat for too long so she was either walking around and disturbing the waitress or playing with the iPhone that Paula kindly loaned her (thanks babe!).

Keeping her entertained

Overall, it was a great event! Many thanks for the invitation =)


Disclosure: An invitation to this event was received from omy.sg and Grand Mercure Roxy Singapore. No monetary compensation was received; all opinions are my own.

KL II Day 3: The Last Hurrah

Morning breakfast this morning was more crowded than yesterday due to the arrival of large crowds of tour groups the night before.

You can choose to dine indoors or outdoors

The good thing about eating here is that you can enjoy the beautiful view of the swimming pool. The bad part? The food was less appealing and there was less variety as compared to Berjaya Times Square.

We checked out of our hotel rooms at 11.30am, bought some books for Girlee at Borders (at Berjaya Times Square) and ate lunch at Sweet Chat Cafe, which was famous for their curry laksa, tang yuan (glutinous balls) and durian pastry (sorry, forgot to take the pictures!). Yummy!

Then it was off to Grassland Express' Super Nice Office to check in and board the bus bound for Singapore at 2pm.

Grassland's KL Super Nice Office

We ended up reaching Singapore only at 8.30pm due to heavy rains and a jam at the Woodlands Causeway. Thank God for journey mercies! HOME SWEET HOME! =)


<< Back to Day 2: Petronas Towers, Swimming & More Shopping

P.S: Visit my travel page for more of our travel itineraries! =)

KL II Day 2: Petronas Towers, Swimming & More Shopping

We woke up today to sunny skies and had a nice breakfast (included in the hotel package) at the 3rd floor before heading out to Petronas Twin Towers and Suria KLCC Mall via the hotel's free shuttle service (if your hotel does not provide shuttle service, you can try travelling by MRT or get a cab).

Since we couldn't visit the Petronas towers the last time, we thought we could visit it this time. Unfortunately..

..the tickets were SOLD OUT!!

There was no more tickets available for the day as well as the next! Looks like the towers and I are not fated to be together.. *sigh*

We had little choice but to have fun with a video camera..

..and take pictures of the towers from the outside (once again).

Petronas Twin Towers II

We took a blue cab (as advised by our driver yesterday) from the taxi queue and had to pay a surcharge of RM2, which I thought was way better than overpaying a regular cabbie and then having to 'see his face' (literal translation of 看他的脸色 'kan ta de lian se'). Blue cabs run by the meter and costs exactly what our shuttle driver said it would cost us (i.e. RM13).

As it rained suddenly, we decided to take away lunch from the restaurants across the street from our hotel.

Shophouses and restaurants directly across the street

The 饺子 'jiao zi' (dumplings) that we bought from the restaurant, which prides itself on being 水饺大王 'shui jiao da wang' (king of dumplings), was really tasty and not too dry or salty.

Restoran 水饺大王 (shui jiao da wang)

The wanton mee we bought from a few shops down was also really springy and value for money. *yum*!

We probably shouldn't have gone swimming straight after such a heavy meal but we did anyway since the sun made its appearance in the sky and we were so afraid it might go away again. Baby girl finally had the chance to wear her brand new swimsuit for the first time!

She was in such a good mood that I managed to have a mini photo shoot with her
in her swimsuit from Tom & Stephanie

She was so excited she was jumping around in anticipation. The pool was pretty empty except for a Caucasian woman who was basking in the sun hoping to get a tan. We put arm floats on her and let her go solo a few times but she was really afraid and clung onto us.

Loving the cool water!

Swimming with her arm floats

We let her go solo anyway just to let her instincts to swim kick in.

Judging from the video, it might take just a little bit more time for that instinct to kick in *laughs* Poor girl.

She didn't want to leave the pool but as a strong breeze started to blow and dark clouds started to loom, I decided it was time to go or we'll all catch a chill.

We headed over to Berjaya Times Square again for dinner at Bar.B.Q Plaza, which had a long queue and looked pretty unique.

With Bar.B.Q Plaza's Mascot, 'Mr Hawaiian Dragon'!

We ordered the family set meal which comes with assorted beef, pork, chicken and seafood.

Ingredients for the steamboat

My favourite dish, the Fish Noodle

I particularly love the unique Fish Noodle, which is basically fish balls but kneaded into long thin strips like noodles. You can't find this in Singapore (at least not to my knowledge). Baby girl and I loved it! The entire meal costs only RM101, which is really pretty affordable :)

Our feets were aching and we were so drained by the end of the day, we slumped onto our comfortable beds and snoozed till the next morning!

Continue to >> Day 3: The Last Hurrah
<< Back to Day 1: Shopping at Pavillion & Berjaya Times Square

P.S: Visit my travel page for more of our travel itineraries! =)

KL II Day 1: Shopping at Pavillion & Berjaya Times Square

When I said that we'll be back to Kuala Lumpur (KL) soon, I had not expected it to be this soon!

This time however, we'll be going together with my mum-in-law and youngest brother-in-law. We boarded the Grassland Express Super VIP Coach at Golden Mile Complex at 7.45am.

Yay!! So excited! =)

She had a great time exploring the bus..

The driver took longer than usual to set off because of some very inconsiderate folks who arrived very late. We ended up reaching Jalan Imbi KL at 1.30pm instead of the usual 12.30pm, argg =(

Unlike our previous trip where we stayed at Berjaya Times Square Hotel, we stayed at Furama Bukit Bintang hotel this time because they have large family rooms with four beds so that we could all bunk in together.

In order to get there, we'd have to walk along a short lane to our hotel located just behind Berjaya Times Square. However, as the lane is not covered and it started pouring with heavy rain suddenly, we had little choice but to brave the rain with just 2 umbrellas and a raincoat! Needless to say, we were quite wet by the time we reached the hotel and were so thankful to finally be able to get warm and dry.

Furama Bukit Bintang Hotel @ Kuala Lumpur

The family room that we booked was actually two rooms that were joined together by a common main door, corridor and living area.

Clockwise (from left): The corridor linking the room on the left (for the hubby & I) with the room on the right (for the in-laws); the bed in the room on the right; the TV and the door leading into the common living area.

Clockwise (from left): The relatively small bathtub in the bathroom; the right side of the bathroom;
baby girl hiding in a corner

There were a total of 4 super single beds, 3 TVs, 2 bathrooms and 2 mini bars! There's so much space for baby girl to run around and play hide-and-seek (albeit with no one in particular..).

The room on the left is the master room which has a better view and bigger toilet

The price of this room is the same as the room we booked at Berjaya Times Square Hotel so it's really value for money if you're travelling as a group with relatives or close friends. The common living area is especially great for gathering together to watch TV, chat or even play board games! :)

We couldn't spend too much time checking out our room as we had to catch the free shuttle service provided by the hotel for guests going to KLCC, Pavillion and Berjaya Times Square.

The hotel's shuttle service

I thought that it was very thoughtful of them to do so! Saved us some time and money :)

However, they do not provide the return trip to the hotel so we would have to find our own way back by cab. Our driver was really nice and gave us tips on taking cabs as he was afraid that we might get cheated. According to him, blue MPV cabs are the way to go as they go by meter so it's much cheaper. If you really can't find a blue cab and are forced to take the regular ones where you need to negotiate a price, the reasonable amount from Pavillion and KLCC to Furama is RM8-10 and RM13-14 respectively.

We decided to visit the Pavillion as it came highly recommended by some of the hubby's friend as well as my fellow mum blogger Ruth.

A nice directory that showed you all the restaurants and eatery with pictures!
So convenient when we're unfamiliar with the mall

There were so many to choose from that we got a little dizzy and ended up eating at Food Republic, which is a common sight in Singapore.

Food Republic @ Pavillion

Come to think of it, you can find almost every other store in the Pavillion (such as Diaso and F21) in one of the malls in Singapore.

Central square at the Pavillion

As we were shopping, baby girl suddenly stopped walking with us and ran behind us all the way to this shop just
so that she can point out the "Mei Mei" (little sister) in the window display -_-"

Since most of the stores can also be found in Singapore, we were kinda bored after a while to be honest so we decided to leave as it wasn't the kind of shopping experience that we were going for.

Baby Girl thoroughly enjoyed herself shopping around in Japanese Market though..

We tried to get a cab and the cabbies started charging us RM30 for one trip back to the hotel! Are they crazy? I told them straight out "no way, let's go somewhere else" and started walking away like we always do in Shenzhen (I learn from the best) when we wanna force the seller to back down on their price.

The hubby said RM20 and they said RM25 and I was like "NO FREAKING WAY!"

They later agreed to RM20 but I will have nothing of it. I started walking away again and they finally said RM15. It was RM5 more than the usual RM10 but I finally gave in cos it was more convenient than walking to who knows where to get a cab only to save a few bucks.

He asked us if we wanted to buy some chocolates which was along the way but I firmly refused, saying that my daughter is tired and needed to sleep. He took us there anyway hoping to convince us to go but I shot back with a "I thought I told you I want to go straight back to the hotel?!" and he got unusually quiet after that. I didn't care since I paid more than what was reasonable so there was no reason why I should be made to feel bad about it!

We decided to spend the rest of the day at Berjaya Times Square where we shopped till our feet ached and ate at my personal favorite restaurant, Kim Gary Restaurant.

But not before baby girl had the time of her life playing in the bathtub!

Wheeee!!

She banged on the bathroom door till she was allowed into the bathroom to share a soak with her dad. My baby girl's got my level of determination =)

Continue to >> Day 2: Petronas Towers, Swimming & More Shopping

P.S: Visit my travel page for more of our travel itineraries! =)