My Favourites from the 2010 Emmys

Love Kim Kardashian's Greek Goddess look.

Don't like how botox-ed Claire Dane looks, but i have to admit she is still resplendent in this dress

And Nina Dobrev's gown, is my favourite of the lot.

Seventh Heaven

Today marks the 7th year we've been together.

It's also the last time we'll be celebrating our anniversary on this date, before we become Mr and Mrs.

I guess time really flies when you're having a good time :)

I'll save the mushy words as this is public space but thank you for all the love, joy and laughter.

Happy anniversary, and here's to many more!

Down Under Day 7: The Grampians Part 2

Once we had checked into our lodge, we decided to make full use of time and do some hiking, despite the ominous weather. After all, that's why we decided to include the Grampians in our itinerary - because we love the outdoors.

I first got hooked on hiking when I tried it in Bali in 2008, where we did an early morning climb to the summit of Mt Batur. Though i struggle with steep terrain and the descent (i blame it on the short legs and the fear of heights), i enjoy the changing landscape and that sense of accomplishment whenever i reach my end point.

But i digress.

Based on the information we had found from a website on the different walks in the Grampians, we decided to start off with an easy hike at the The Balconies Lookout (the walk is graded as Easy with 50 metres in elevation), which according to the Visit Melbourne webbie, is a great place to take in panoramic views.

Grey and foggy on our drive there

One of the lookout points near the carpark. A pity the weather wasn't clear.
The start of the trail to the Balconies Lookout. The return trip took us 45 minutes in total.

Little Red Hiking Hood

I'm not into bird watching but I was very excited to spot this Kookaburra on our way there. Thanks to Wikipedia, i've found out that it's a Laughing Kookaburra.

At the Balconies Lookout

The two sandstone rocks jutting from the cliff face are nicknamed the Jaws of Death. Again, i wish we had better weather. The view would have been much better.

We then drove to the Boroka Lookout, which was known as one of the best lookouts in the Grampians. This time round, it was just a short 15 minutes walk from the carpark to the lookout point. Amazing how the weather could morph so quickly.

We were very thankful for the clear weather, and the double rainbows :)

Our last stop of the day (racing against sunset again) was The Pinnacle. There're two routes leading to The Pinnacle from different car parks. We chose the easier route, a 4.2km return walk graded as Medium with an elevation of 110m.

And it was back to gloomy and grey weather again. It was drizzling almost the whole return trip and we were wet and cold.

Because i was too busy getting my footing right and making sure i didn't slip among the wet rocks, I don't have photos from the first 3/4 of the ascent. Photos below were taken when we were nearing The Pinnacle.

Nowhere near The Pinnacle

The weather got clearer and clearer as we ascended. Hooray!

The only people we met at The Pinnacle was an Australian couple who had taken the tougher route to reach the summit. Kudos to them for making the wet and slipper climb in their Wellington boots! By the way, it was really scary going up the steps to the lookout point where they were standing in the pic. You can't really tell from the photo, but it was so windy I felt like I was going to get blown off any moment!

The beautiful view from The Pinnacle. Reminds me of how small our existence is really.

I guess he likes to live life on the edge, literally

Yay, I made it!

The fiance led the way on the descent and pointed out the yellow arrows to follow. If I were lost in a National park, i'd never be able to find my way out :P

Back to gloomy weather again

We just had to take these 'accomplishment' photos

It was then back to Halls Gap for dinner

Nothing like a warm hot choclate to end the physically exhausting day

Mid-week Musings

I like Wednesdays because you know you're halfway through to the weekend :)

And speaking of the weekend, i am looking forward to the coming one - there's the NATAS fair where we hope to snag a good honeymoon deal, his Grandma's birthday, our anniversary lunch and Joash's 2nd birthday.

Now that things are winding back to normality at work, I hope to have more time to sit down and resume my remaining Aussie entries (YZ, i'll fulfill my promise to blog more often!)

Everything With Fries

A couple of weeks back, we checked out Everything With Fries at Holland Village.

I really should stop indulging so sinfully, with my photoshoot looming around the corner. But what can i say, i love my carbs!

Like the name suggests, you order a main, which comes with a generous amount of fries. You also get to choose your greens - either a Caesar Salad orColeslaw.

You also get to choose the flavour of your fries, from Original, Curry, Salt and Vinegar, Sour Cream and Onion and Garlic and Herbs.

I had the Breaded Salmon with Original fries while the fiance had the Grilled Pork Chop with Garlic and Herb fries.

Because we were greedy, we also ordered Skinny Wings to nibble on.

Skinny Wings

The verdict?

I was pleasantly surprised that the salmon, being deep fried, was not overcooked. In fact, it was seared very nicely. Crispy breadcrumbs enveloped the moist, 3/4 cooked salmon fillet inside. Very nicely done. My original fries came seasoned with salt and paprika. Nothing fantastic.

Breaded Salmon with Original Fries

The pork chop was well marinated. A pity it was a little on the tough side. His fries were nothing to shout about too as the garlic/herb taste could have been stronger.

Grilled Pork Chop with Garlic and Herb Fries

Overall, it was still a good dining experience. And affordable too. I wouldn't mind going back but I still prefer the good old fries from Mac's, if you ask me :)

Wedding Eye Candy: A Proposal In The Park

This proposal video put a smile on my face (and almost had me tearing at the end).

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did :)

Dried Chillis FTW

A colleague told me that every year, the NDP organising team would hang dried chillis to ward off the rain.

I'm not sure how true it is, but come to think of it, it rarely pours at the National Day parade. Just like how, it's extremely hot and humid today.

Maybe i should hang dry chillis for our photoshoot and wedding! ;)

Photo of NDP rehearsal taken on Benjamin Sheares Bridge

Not A Serene Experience

I'm going to be writing (again) about a lack of service which i encountered.

This would make it the second time in a month that i've encountered bad service. Something must be terribly wrong with the training provided to our service staff.

The fiance had picked me up after work on Friday, for a much needed nice dinner to unwind from the crazy work week.

We decided to try Serenity Spanish Bar & Restaurant at VivoCity as there was no queue. On hindsight, now i know why.

We ordered a tapas to start, a Paella Valenciana to share and were told there was a 45 minutes wait for the paella. We didn't mind. Our tapas - croquettes came. We finished it within minutes and continued to wait patiently for our main dish. There was still no sight of the elusive paella. We were relieved to see a service staff bring out a paella and walk in our direction.

However, he whisked past us and brought the paella to the table of ladies behind us. We were taken aback. The ladies came at least 10 minutes after us and we were very sure we placed our orders before them. How was it they got their order first? But, before we could ask him if he had gotten our orders mixed up, he was gone.

We called another service staff (let's call him B) and told him what happened. B told us he would help us to check. He came back minutes later and told us that indeed, our order was placed earlier than the other table's and the service staff had sent it to the wrong table. He apologised and said he had told the kitchen to put our order as priority and we should be expecting it in 3 minutes.

10 minutes later and still no paella. I told the fiance that if i were working in the restaurant, i would try to provide some form of service recovery, like a free dessert or something to appease the customers. But of course, we didn't expect that from them, because how many F&B outlets in Singapore offer service recovery?

Our paella finally came and it looked so pathetic we both wanted to laugh. For close to $50 bucks, it only had 4 prawns, 3-4 pieces of chicken, 3 slices of chorizo, lots of peas and a sprinkle of squid pieces. Seriously, what's with restaurants and short changing its customers nowadays? But i am not going to harp on that because this entry is meant to be on their service.

When the bill came, the fiance told the service staff that he was not going to pay for service charge because he didn't feel it was fair we had to pay.

The service staff brought the bill back to the cashier and B came back with it.

The fiance looked at the bill and noticed it was the same one. He repeated what he had told the service staff earlier about how we did not want to pay for service charge.

B became defensive and said, "But Sir, you agreed to wait for 45 minutes when you placed your order." I can't belive he had forgotten what he told us earlier about the service staff mixing up our order.

The fiance said, "Yes but you made us wait longer than 45 minutes."

B then said he would have to check on that and went off to the cashier.

When he came back, he told us, "Sir, your order was placed at 752pm and it indeed came within 45 minutes."

The fiance said, "No, the issue here is not that we had to wait 45 min for the paella. We don't mind waiting, but not when we had to wait for the additional time, because the service staff had served the dish to the wrong table."

B said he was the supervisor and would speak to the manager to see what we can do.

He soon finally came back with the bill, sans service charge and said "The service staff who made the mistake will pay for the service charge." Was he trying to make us feel bad?

Before we left, another service staff came and asked us how was everything and whether there was anything wrong with the food. We told him honestly about our experience and hoped that they could do something to improve, perhaps put table number placards (we noticed there were no table numbers, and maybe that's why the mistake happened?). The service staff apologised sincerely and thanked us for our feedback.

We weren't trying to be difficult or calculative. It was the principle behind it. It's hard to believe that this guy who wasn't the supervisor, was the one who wanted to improve the situation, while the supervisor didn't make any efforts at service recovery.

If you read the other reviews on HungryGoWhere, they are equally bad. I also noticed that the restaurant had the Singapore Service Star accreditation.

How they got it, i've no clue.

Down Under Day 7: The Grampians Part 1

It was a rainy, cold morning when we checked out of our motor inn at Warrnambool. But before we made our way to the Grampians, we headed down to Logan's Beach in hope to do some whale watching.

Each year, between June and August, the Southern Right whales make their way to the southern cost of Australia to give birth and raise their young. We were told that there hadn't been any sighting of the whales yet, but we didn't mind trying our luck.

The rainbow connection

Logan Beach

No luck with the whales

We then took a long, three hour drive and knew we had arrived at the Grampians when we were greeted by the following sights.

Home for the next 2 days was at The Kingfisher. Cosy and well-equipped. And centrally located to Halls Gap, where there's a small supermarket and restaurants. I highly recommend this for anyone who plans on making a trip to The Grampians.

Love the spacious kitchen

The bedroom on the 2nd level. No star gazing for us because we didn't know how to use the telescope!

We wanted to sit at the porch, enjoy the cold weather and have a bbq but the supermarket at Halls Gap did not stock up on fresh meat nor vegetables. I guess it was because it was low season and the food would go bad if there wasn't a demand. We were so so disappointed. If only we knew, we could have bought our supplies from the supermarkets in Warrnambool!

Down Under Day 6: Great Ocean Road Part 2

While driving along the gorgeous coastline on the second day of our Great Ocean Road leg, he said wistfully, "As beautiful as the scenery is, don't you think it's sad that we will probably never be driving down this same stretch again?"

It's true.

Although i'd love to go back, i would rather spend the time and money visiting somewhere we have never been to. With so many places to see, it's impossible to cover them all, needless to say revisit them.

A beautiful start to our day

Got Milk?

Endless green fields

The 12 Apostles

Geography lessons come aliveWatercolour shades

One of the last shots for the day before we raced against sunset to Warrnambool