A Day of Surprises!

Well this is kinda overdue, from 2 Saturdays back, on 23 Feb. As such, some of the details I forgot. But anyway, this day was sorta a compensation celebration of our Aniv, cos I was bedridden that day (and halfway into my grave).

It began with Clarisse booking me for the whole day on Sat, then on that day, me having no clue at all, followed her around.

And the first place I was brought to:

Aquamarine@Marina Mandarin
We arrived there at 12 noon, for a hi-tea buffet from 12-4.

First, a pic of ourselves in the mirror right in front of us. Very nice setting, as you can see.

The water feature by the side.

First plate: salads.

(from top left, clockwise). Squid (-), Smoked beef slices (++), chicken breast slices (+), Croissant stuffed with egg salad (++), Shrimp salad on a slice of bread topped with shrimp roe (++), Smoked Salmon on a slice of bread (++).

As you can see, lotsa good stuff. The salad table is tied with the sashimi bar as my fave spots.


The second: misc. from salads, main course, and dessert.

Kueh Lapis (--) [ok, I was wrong. But this was really bad, very dry] Apple Pie (++) which tasted like a slice out of a gigantic egg tart, Sambal Fish (+), Hainanese Chicken (-), deep-fried sesame ball (-), and more croissant and smoked salmon.


3rd serving: still misc.

Mango pudding (neutral), green tea pudding (+), more apple pie topped with an extra strawberry, more smoked salmon, more croissant, and the seafood salad (++) which had very fresh prawns and oysters.

Herbal Jelly (+), Mango Pudding (++), Some chinese salad thingee (neutral), more smoked salmon, more shrimp (from seafood salad), and more green tea pudding. Chin Chao in the background left is also a (++).

Thereafter, I got extremely repetitive, and nothing new came up. I didn't even try much of the main course items cos most of them were either unhealthy or too heavy (but still looked pretty good). Also, gave the Popiah table a miss, as well as the Fondue and Ice Kacang stations. All in all, lots to choose from.

Only when we were resting after 2 and a half hours of slow and relaxed eating, did we realise that we missed an entire sushi/sashimi bar at the other end of the restaurant. We still had a little room, so we took some sashimi (no pix tho), and the tuna/salmon/swordfish were all the freshest I had ever tasted (++++). That is sufficient reason for me to go there again.

Cost?

33++ per pax. Figures to be 38.80 per pax. BUT! Clarisse had a UOB Credit Card, which gave a 15% discount, and we were delighted to pay 33 per pax Net. It might sound very expensive, but believe me, for the quality, it's value for money. Ritz quality food at a lower price. Top it off with the 4 menus rotated every week, we're going again this saturday to try another menu .

^___^

And some pix of the innards of MM.

Nice Cantilevered levels.

The well of light within.

A very nice wooden statue of Confucius.

Post lunch(+dinner) was a bit of a walkabout at Orchard, a little shopping, etc.

I tell you, she's got ATAS feet syndrome, or the saying "you get what you pay for" is true. Remember that I said that Zara shoes fit her snugly? We went into LV, and upon trying a few pair of shoes, they fit even better than Zara. Like ZOMFT. I'm quite speechless at that.

Anyway, we were there to look for sthg she saw in NY which she liked. She regretted not getting it, cos after seeing it in the display window for a couple of days, it was gone by the third day. Turned out that upon asking, it was a limited edition bag, and it's gonna be hard as hell to ever find it again.

Of course, we had to return to the place where we took our first photo together.

That's us, back in 14.02.06.

That day, we were watching a movie at my parents' place in hougang after school, and after that we went for dinner at the coffee shop nearby. After that, I was about to send her home when something struck me, and I just dragged her to Orchard for a casual stroll. And she seemed delighted about that.

But like I said, we didn't even know when we actually began dating, it was kinda gradual. 14.02 was kinda a ballpark figure. lol.

That's us back at the Taka fountain.
I think we've come a pretty long way since then.

Thinking there wasn't anything else, she tricked me into going to City Hall MRT by saying that she wanted to look at a pair of shooz we saw on a magazine.

Grr.

She then brought me to the Swissotel Stamford. Took a lift to the 70th, and when given a choice between New Asia Bar (a pub) and City Space (a lounge), I obviously picked the lounge as I preferred a quiet environment. I think I had an overdose of clubbing back in TW.

My Equinox Blue and her... erm... Ok...sorry I forgot. Anyway, very nice ambience, nice view, nice setting, aaaaaah.....*slumps into sofa*

Clarisse planned it at 6.30pm, so that we could watch the sun set upon the city. Too bad it was too foggy to see the sun, but the view was still very good.

@6.30pm

Orchard Area.

I could only recognise Meritus Mandarin in the background left; too foggy to identify much.

@7pm
When the street lights came up.

@7.15pm
Darker but not all the lights are on yet.

@730pm
The final "evening" shot.

@8pm
Full blast.

Also @8pm
With Night shot mode.

Too bad the glass panes were strewn with lines left by rain, or the pictures would have been much clearer. Nevertheless, still pretty good.

The ceiling above us was strewn with lights, in the semblence of stars. This is a reflection of the lights in the window pane right in front of us. Pretty nice and dreamy.

Me in the 69th floor toilet. Focus is on the shirt I'm wearing!

Well recently I've been kinda into British India clothing, the one in the pic is a white loose-fitting shirt with nice embroidery all around the collar. It's white so you can't see it from far, but it's actually of some flaura and fauna along with a parrot. Very jungle, moi like very much.

So that day, we went to buy a couple more from British India @ taka basement.

A nice brown-gray shirt (don't shoot me if I get the colour wrong) with nice dull red embroidery of roses.


Nice white shirt with bluish-grey embroidery of flowers and such.

A close up of the embroidery.

Very nice work. All hand-made. The tag behind says that each and every piece is unique, and this is not considered a flaw but a virtue of hand-made clothing. I like.

But... considering Clarisse's mum also wanted to buy clothes from British India when she was here (for her dad) but didn't due to the cost (average price of 180 bucks for a shirt), I decided to let Clarisse's dad choose from the two first. In any case, I wouldn't mind if he took both since I also got some others.

But... my mum commented that I looked like an uncle with these clothes... T-T

I dowan to be uncle la...