today is supposed to be a pool date with the butter girls and kaizhi's colleagues *ahem*lian yi*ahem* haha..

but i got lazy and decided to shoot aeroplane.

but at about 10 plus, they called me and tried to tempt me with ktv and the pressure was if i dont go, elrin wont go either so i went to join them for ktv at marina square.

as usual, camilia was show casing her flair for singing english songs. shes one of my few friends who can actually rap and sing english clubbing songs pretty well!




























elrin with the prehhh i got her from germany...



the 'sock' went missing for awhile in the ktv!! we flipped almost everywhere but couldnt find it and i got reminded of what cynthia told me about marina sq's ktv being haunted! scared the hell out of elrin until camilia found it!

The butter girls' xmas exchange gathering is today!

thanks to snowy who always research on new places, today she introduced Mr Punch!



located along Seah Street where the mint museum is located.




decor is nice, lots of old english posters, a little retro...



the butter girls christmas 2011!



we first started out with my prehhh from Germany...



camilia started out with wearing the necklace which matches really well with her attire today. snowy also started to put on the hair thingy i got which also matches her dress so kz was joking to say does it mean she needs to put something on from my prehhh too so she put on the lil santa thingy on her ears!



and camilia passed me her prehhh for me from korea...



and yeah! everyone remembered to bring the presents for our gift exchange!



Camila got us all candy canes!



and snowy got us hello kitty chocolates from marks and spencers...







snowy made us pause to explain her distribution of the different chocolates...



and our creative snowy also made 'lots' for our pressie drawing lots according to our attires last year!



and i pointed out to her, im santarina, not santa! haha



we did our gift exchange and here are the results!



but food came so we decided to hold the opening till after our meal. everyone is eager to see what kaizhi bought coz she kept saying she doesnt mind keeping her own gift! haha

truffle fries...



their truffle fries are really good! im tempted to say its better than skinny pizza's.

that was starter not part of the 3 course set meal they had for xmas.

part of our set meal was the starter. starters included either a mushroom soup or tomato bruschetta...







the mushroom soup is not bad. the tomato bruschetta is ok.

for mains, i had the tuna loin with mashed potato......



i found the tuna a little too salty but kaizhi feels that its the nicest mains. differing opinons. i liked the mashed potato though.

snowy had the chicken...



which was not bad.

camilia had the cream sauce with soft shell crab...



i quite like their spag. the sauce is a little different and i think its nice.

kaizhi didnt order from the set. she had pork ribs...



i like it! its not overpowered with sauces and its relatively tender.

the dessert for our set meal was the log cake...



the log cake is nice! not too sweet and most importantly its got this round bits of chocolate pearls. i like!

and because kaizhi ordered ala carte, she ordered ala carte dessert as well. warm chocolate cake...



pretty decent.

our presents unwrapped....



snowy got kaizhi's present which is a small shimmery pouch. haha.. ideal for clubbing i guess?

i got camilia's present which is a very nice olive pouch.

kaizhi got my present from germany which is a bracelet.

and the funniest was camilia who got snowy's present because she was relating to us how when she went shopping with elrin, after she bought the pouch she saw another blue clutch which was totally ideal for the exchange and it turns out that snowy bought the exact same clutch for her!!!

camilia and snowy began cam whoring around...





after the gathering, i very guai, i took the bus back.

i like sparkling water...



ordered a beef goulash and it turns out to be a super big bowl...



just to give u a perspective of what i mean by super big bowl... its even bigger than the plate of the main dish!



the beef goulash soup was not bad. lots of peppers and looks a bit like ma la soup but much less spicy. they add traces of sour cream on top which looks a bit like tofu on our sze chuan soup. haha

for mains, it was a schnitzel pork chop...



the fries were yummy! the pork chop was nice too. it wasnt super tender but it was decent in texture. the batter was just nice and slightly salted, yummy!




me looking cute...


when i paid the bill, the server who attended to me called me hello kitty. haha

the view from the restaurant overlooking the train station is quite nice...



totally shows the overview of the station...
























the train ride to munich brought about very nice views and scenery. i saw snow!!



and i was a little worried coz i dressed thinnly today. luckily i remember sharon's ai xin chemical warmer....





munich's hotel orly...



the room was clean...

i admired the buildings around germany.. all the old european buildings...






























 passed by a xmas market which totally psyched me up!



so this is the xmas market everyone was telling me about!! its a bit like our pasar malam but western style!







thing is, the things they sell are nice but u wouldnt want to really buy them. firstly coz i didnt want to buy things that are nice but i wouldnt use them for the next 10 years.. and i cant bear to buy anything that i know i can get cheaper in bangkok. hahaha

some street performance...



there was H&M! and New Look! and there were CROWDS.. so i skipped all that shopping!





















they have really pretty decorations for their xmas market decorations!








decided to try some of the street food. there was this stall selling some pancake like thingy...





the famous german sausages...


sausage bun!



and some mushroom stew thingy ....



the sausage was decent... i didnt find it much different from what we can find here in singapore. the mushroom was damn good!! creamy sauce and all. yummy!




and at almost every xmas market you can find a stall selling wine. its called mulled wine...



its really really good! its warm and sweet. totally good for the cold weather! and because their cups are really pretty, they force a deposit on patrons.. so if you attempt to bring the cups home, you basically forsake your deposit.





look! everyone has a cup on their hands!



and there was this other booth selling chocolate coated fruits and nuts...



i thought for awhile before choosing a stick of round things which turned out to be cherries and turned out to be SUPER GOOD!!!







the cherries are SUPER SWEET!! i SUPER LIKEY!!

look! they even have carousel!

driver picked me up in the morning and sent me over to the airport...



i like my dressing!







Singapore Airlines is the way to go for long flights. Lesson learnt after my previous USA trip.

shortly after getting on the plan, a menu was served to let me choose my meal when it is to be served.

i chose the beef brisket...



it was yummy!! so were the mashed potatoes accompanying it.

the turkey salad was ok but was a nice touch to the xmas season.

there was ample onflight entertainment.. movies which i've not caught. i caught a brainless HK comedy and watched a couple of episodes of How i met your mother, 2 and a half men and slept most of the flight away.

i keep hearing people get upgraded to business class. how come it never happens to me? i was seated beside a pair of eldery german couple - not the most friendly people around although i thought i was pretty helpful helping them inform the steward about the mdm's leg rest not working and even gave the grandpa my pillow when i saw him fidgetting around, not able to find a right posture to sleep. overall, the journey was fine.

for my next meal, i opted for fish with mashed...



the fish was not as wow-ing as the beef earlier but it was decent.

After like 12 - 13 hours, i reached germany.

as i walked through the customs, the immigration officer did his usual KYC asking where i was visiting. I gleefully replied - Frankfurt!


there is a.. a travel anxiety in me. i didnt feel at ease. i constantly worried about my belongings when we passed by people. i guess being in a western country made me feel like i stood out even more and while i had travel insurance in place, i was not prepared to lose anything particularly things like my camera and phone!


and there is my hotel....




the hotel bed... my pick is their pillows are really thin...



 

Phyllis' facebook pictures of Forlino looks scrumptious! I want to gooooooooooooo!!

i thought we were meeting at 10 am so i woke up at 9 am. turns out i got our meeting time wrong, we were supposed to meet only 1030 am and the girls were late so i was done preparing very early!

but it was good coz i had time to play with Niki!












Kaizhi effectively came by around 11 am and we picked Camilia and Sq up from Paya Lebar.

Its thanks to SQ also, she really knows how to find the different new places in town to check out. For her birthday this year, she said she wants to visit Loewen Farmer's Market!

Actually, we didnt really know what to expect to find here. It looks like those western flea markets....
















because xmas is round the corner, they sell a lot of christmas pastries...









these red riding hood pouches are all so cute!


















we contemplated having lunch at the pantry place but there were no seats and it was really hot! the food did look good though...



us checking out the menu...



variety was quite limited hence we decided to move on elsewhere for lunch!






a group shot before we leave!



we let kaizhi decide on where to go since she was the one driving. kaizhi randomly drove along and reached the Ben & Jerry's side of Dempsey where we saw CA (California)'s banner of their breakfast. Looks damn yummy!






as we entered, we realised they were linked to ben and jerry's.



we were famished! so before the food we ordered arrived, we secretly indulged in the cupcakes and pastries that SQ bought from the farmer's market!



arent they pretty...









happy birthday sq!



this shot of camilia is incredibly funny...



and our food arrived!

chicken burrito....



it was not bad. chicken and mushroom cubes in the burrito.

turkey ham and mushroom cream pasta...



decent pasta. the cream sauce was ok but i think its not thick enough.

their breakfast set...



was also not bad. as i mentioned to the girls, actually alot of these items can all be easily prepared at home. but somehow we still end up ordering them for brunch at restaurants. haha

open faced steak sandwich...



not bad either.

overall, food is decent.

the girls passed me their prehh from their different trips....



very much enjoyed the leisure morning and afternoon with the girls, sitting around and chatting about everything and anything.

in the late noon, i met up with dad to choose a new helper. chandra is not coming back. going through the series of interviews and selections got me sooo sleepy.

after we got home, i took a very short rest before heading over to orchard by myself to pick up a few more items for my trip.

gave andrew a call to check on where they were, they said they've not done dinner so i brought them over to Boon Tong Kee which Charlotte had wanted to try...




after the chicken rice, i also brought them over to Spize to try Milo Dinosaur and tissue prata. Andrew commented that taxis are much cheaper in singapore than UK but taxis are much harder to get in singapore than in UK. He was proven right when we waited about 20 mins before we could get a cab.

Andrew arrives in SIngapore with Charlotte....



and today is also Andrew's birthday!

Who would have thought that two online scrabble friends will become real friends! I've known Andrew for easily a good 4 - 5 years.

picked them up from the hotel after work. Brought them to dinner over at Paragon's My Grandma's Place because it is near their hotel and i figured its a good place to try a range of local food...


andrew wasnt so into spicy food but charlotte was fine. i think andrew really enjoyed the chendol!

a last minute lunch arrangement with sherlyn.. and a last minute call by louis resulted in a together-ly lunch! a lil awkward but interesting! haha..




met up with sharon and saphy after work....

my 3rd driving lesson today. Tio scolded by the instructor till jialat jialat :(

seldom got people scold me till like that... BOO HOOOO!!


driver came to pick me up after the lesson and brightened up my day by agreeing to buy the mouse for me as xmas present! yay!


made a wasted trip down to city hall because i got stood up.. end up shopping at Forever New and found MORE things that i fancy! Forever New is sinful!! their bags are sooo pretty! their accessories are soooo pretty!! their everything all so pretty!!