profile a loner who needs friends. a law-abiding rebel. a rigid hippie. a mediocre prefectionist. a walking contradition. likes travelling the world | rainy days | sleeping in | a good book | cliched romantic comedies | singing in the bathroom | looking at clouds | daydreaming | babies | people watching | late night buses | rooting for underdogs | smell of fresh linen | being alone | when karma works . tag links avril | cam | issac | jovi | leigh | manda nina | the cranky flier | cruz | the satorialist archives May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 May 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 credits skin by: Jane |
Saturday, November 1, 2008 | 5:31 PM
a (close to) perfect off day despite having screwed up my body clock completely during the last exercise, i managed to drag my a** out of bed and over to vivo city for a lunch and movie date with bert on wednesday. was blissfully early thanks to a ride from mom and promptly spent it visiting all my favourite shops. there's something special about having pageone's travel section to myself and even golden village was surprisingly (and thankfully) queue free.
bert was running late due to a particularly punishing satistics tutorial and what better way to wait than grabbing a grande iced passion tea at my fav coffee chain and pouring over the october issue of travel and leisure s.e.a?
finally caught nights in rodanthe, which starred 2 of my favourite thespians of all time, Richard Gere and Diane Lane. reviews about the movie weren't the most desirable to begin with and unfortunately i'd have to agree with them. though the acting was flawless (i wasn't expecting anything less), the choppy editing and a lack of build-up left me wanting more. the novel, which was one of bert's fav Nic Spark, certainly had potential, but the movie, like most other adaptations, didn't live up to it.
that being said, the sets were gorgeous and the beach hotel, with its robin blue shutters and eclectic mix of furniture was certainly alluring and kudos to the music team for producing such an appropriate score to accompany the movie. the sub-plot about the simple yet solid love between a man and the woman which died on Richard Gere's operating table moved me and left me in tears. having read the book, we both knew how the story was going to end but bert's floodgates (and i'm not exaggering here) still opened when James Franco turned up on Diane Lane's doorstep clutching Richard Gere's last belongings. bert had to leave for work not long after the show but that didn't stop him from getting a brand new protector for his ipod and promising the apple vendor that he'd return for the macbook skins that he'd set his sights on. i was really blown away but the range of new macbooks with a single sheet of aluminum and the ipod touch like mousepad. really put their older and slightly cheapo looking cousins to shame. i hereby promise myself that should i get a scholarship, any scholarship, i will get my hands on one of those delectable babies asap. shallow i know, but who's complaining?
had dinner with hiang, who was on yet another price survey in town. i swear the woman spends more time on such surveys than on her actual job. floated aimlessly around raffles city before finally settling on canele, which i've heard so much about. sorry about the lack of food pictures but kicked off dinner with a steaming bowl of comfort style crab and corn chowder which was nothing to shout about. i thought it tasted too much like clam chowder while hiang reckoned that it was only marginally above average. she had the seafood marinara and i settled for the beef stew with red wine sauce with pasta. while both mains where enjoyable, but they fell into the so-so category. the beef stew at the now-defunct (why oh why?) cordury cafe at vivo city beat this version hands down.  the tres atas version of the gummy burger i'd say we spied macaroons amidst the dessert spread on display and since we both haven't tried them before and were rather curious to find out what the hype was about, we had them for dessert. it wasn't the revelatory experience that i was expecting but was impressed with the begamot flavoured one. the unanimous afterthought was that the hazelnut macaroon tasted too much like nutella and the 60% dark chocolate version was nothing fantastic. at around $2.50 each, i left feeling rather cheated. a most unremarkable dinner unfortunately and coming in at more than $30 per person, a very costly one to boot. the initial plan was to head for max brenner's at esplanade mall to satisfy our chocolate cravings over hug mugs and chocolate shots but considering that the next day was still a working day for both of us, we very sensibly headed for home instead. saying no to a cuppa Java Dark Chocolate with Orange Peel called for a lot of self control, but yes, we did it. high five! waking up fashionably late, shopping without the crowd, catching up with a dear pal, bawling over a aimless strolling and dinner with the best friend, and not having a thought about work the entire time, off days just doesn't get much better than this. now if only i'd gotten my chocolate shot. >.< |
