My first vote!

Singapore just held it's General Election (GE2011) last Saturday, 7th May and like many Singaporeans, it's the first time I had a chance to vote in the Election. The last General Election was held in 2006 and I was kinda exempted because I was overseas on the polling day.

FYI, Voting is compulsory in Singapore as they deem it's part of the responsibilities of being an adult Singapore citizen. You must be a citizen of Singapore and at least 21 years old.

I have never been much into political stuff and it wasn't until we had a friend gathering a week before the polling day and the hot topic was obviously the upcoming GE2011. Well, just like there's our current government, People's Action Party (PAP) vs the opposition parties, between us friends, we have the pro-government and pro-opposition camps. Everyone was debating and I was like thinking "hey, am i missing something here?". That night, I searched and went through all the rallies videos on youtube and something in me just got ignited! Everyday, I would look through all those newly posted rallies videos. Some are refreshing, some are full of punch and some are depressing.

Suddenly, my one vote can make a difference. My friends knowing that I'm kinda neutral were trying to convince me to be on their camp. But a person needs to have their own personal point of view right. I need to make a choice and most importantly, a good reason why.

There's a couple of issues that Singaporeans are concerned about this GE2011. Mainly,

1. Cost of living - Inflation top 5 % in March, rising food and oil prices, rising of housing, health-care. As someone blatantly put it, the only thing that's not rising are our salaries.

2. Influx of foreigners- Singapore is a small country with an area of just 274.2 sq miles. Based on information from Wikipedia, the 2010 census shows a population of 5,076,70o. The list of countries and dependencies ranked by human population density put Singapore at 3rd position with 18,513/mi². Having said that, one in three (36%) people are foreigners. This led to higher property prices, more crowded public transport and competition for jobs.

3. Our current government, the People's Action Party (PAP) has becomes a party of Proud Arrogant People (PAP)? With ministers earning millions a year, living elite lives, do they empathize with the common people? Bulldozing policies through Parliament without any consultation and debate?

Check out the videos. I am both amazed and surprise to find out that my fellow Singaporeans are such creative and passionate lot!!! :))








The polling results:
After the nationwide voting, the PAP scored 60.1%, a vote swing of 6.5% against them as compared to the previous GE2006 where they scored 66.6%. Having said that, they still managed to secure 81seats out of the 87seats total in Parliament due to the way the system works. However it is the first time in Singapore history that the opposition parties managed to secure 6 seats in the Parliament (They had won 2 seats in GE2006).

The tide has finally shifted....

I know it's not my usual kind of post but thanks for reading :)))

Psst: This lady who gave me my polling card commented that she loved my T-shirt!! HAHAHA But I did get a couple of glances when I wore that to vote

Bangkok Grand Palace- 2010

This is kinda embarrassing but I realise that we didn't take much photos during our stay in Bangkok. So, moi decided to post photos of our Bangkok trip last year (We took tons of photos back then)

Let start with our trip to Grand Palace.

A little bit of infor from Wikipedia:

The Grand Palace (Thai: พระบรมมหาราชวัง, Phra Borom Maha Ratcha Wang) is a complex of buildings in Bangkok, Thailand. It served as the official residence of the Kings of Thailand from the 18th century onwards. Construction of the Palace began in 1782, during the reign of King Rama I, when he moved the capital across the river from Thonburi to Bangkok. The Palace has been constantly expanded and many additional structures were added over time. The present King of Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, however, resides at the Chitalada Palace.

All set for our day trip to Grand Palace!!

At the entrance of Grand Palace. It was such a hot and sunny day!!

Remember to head down early as they are open only from 8.30 AM to 3.30 PM. It's also a huge place and there's alot of stuff to cover

It's truly a grand place!

Im not sure if some of the structures are gold-plated. I believe there are. Think I read it somewhere before. Come to think of it, if this palace is for the Kings of Thailand, obviously it's gonna be extravagant and lavish. Okay, I conclude it's gold plated!!!

BTW, The Thais truly respect their King. The country has very strict “lese majeste” laws that forbid speaking ill of the King, the Queen, or the Heir-Apparent. Those unfortunate enough to be found guilty of such a crime can be sentenced to anywhere between three to fifteen years in prison. So no jokes about the King kaay!

Photos Photos Photos

A man re-touching the painting

Realise that we are getting to be such experts in taking photos of ourselves!! That is a good skill to master when there's just 2 of us. :))))

Yaay!! Managed to kidnap someone to help us take a photo!!

Found another victim to take a togetherness photo!! Muahaha :)))

We were there for almost 3hours and at the end of it, we were both hungry, hot, sticky and tired. Managed to grab a light meal before taking the river boat to the metro station.

Super spicy but tasty Tom yam soup!

Waiting for the river boat. It says Tra Chang stop. Think that's the nearest River stop for Grand Palace.

On the river boat. It was jammed packed with locals and tourists. There was an embarrassing moment when someone asked moi to step away from the railing near to the exit area. Turns out that the corner was meant only for monks. I looked behind and saw there's was really a monk standing behind me. Plus he looked super uncomfortable too (Hello! I'm not gonna eat u up). The man explains that Male monks are not allowed to touch females. It's against their religion or custom.

Found this on the webbie: Try not to put a monk in a position by which he might accidentally touch a female. If on a bus, don't sit next to a monk and if there is only one seat left next to you ( as a female ) then get up and let the monk sit down. There are usually designated areas for monks. If taking the river cruises or river boats, make sure you are not standing in a monk's area ( there will be signs ).

But seriously, I have to stand up to let the monk sit if there's only one seat left next to me?!?!?! OMG~

Moved to a safer location.

End of our wonderful Grand Palace trip. It's a highly recommended touristy place to visit. When I first stepped into the Grand Palace, it just took my breath away. The majestic of it, I was in awe!

But remember to slap on some sunblock and drink tons of water. I got a slight tan from being under all that sun! :)))

Krabi - April 2011

Tom suggested having a beach holiday one night and after some hasty planning, we were on our way to Krabi and Bangkok. Our itinerary: 4nights in Krabi and 4nights in Bangkok.
Krabi holds a special place in our hearts as that's the first holiday we had went when we started dating. So, to finally go back there after 4 years, I was so looking forward to it.

At Singapore Changi Terminal 1

I'm really glad that they finally refurnished one of our oldest airport terminal, especially with so many international airlines using T1 for their flights. It looks so much brighter and cleaner now. There used to be this moldy/damp smell at the old T1 (Think: Clothes stuck right at the bottom of your mountainous pile of clothes and haven't been worn for donkey years. Get it?)

Even that smell has vanished!!! Now it's just fresh and airy. Almost like new :))

Our Thai airway flight bound for Bangkok was departing at freaking 7.05 AM. And that's not all. Upon arrival in Bangkok, we had to wait another 5hours for our connecting flight to Krabi. Bless us.

I could barely open my eyes and smile.

Tom keeps insisting on using flash for our pictures. He says quote "Without flash, my eyes look like panda eyes and my forehead looks prominent"
Ermmmm, now that he mentioned it, it's actually true :P

I do agree that some photos look better with flash cos it's makes the photo clearer and sharper. But when you are under white florescent light, the photo would turn out looking slightly yellow~ish

Like this====>

I do admit it's still a nice photo (Thanks to the two subject in the photo of cos). But it doesn't reflect the true or accurate colours at that point in time. Arghhhhh, I having such a difficult time explaining that in words, but u know what I mean right? Hopefully....

We were beginning to feel the excitement mounting when our Krabi flight finally takes off from Bangkok. Our minds were thinking sandy beaches , sun, snorkeling, Thai food.... So imagine our shock when we read the first page news in The Nation. "Torrential rains, floods, mudslides and rough seas.... unseasonable storms inundated six southern provinces and offshore islands, killing at least 17 people and stranding thousands more..... Areas hit are Koh Samui, Krabi Surat, Nakhon, and most Southern Thailand Provinces"

We didn't know how bad it was until we arrive at Krabi airport. We could see the heavy downpour outside. To make matter worse, our hotel transfer pickup was no show at the arrival hall. We waited for an hour (with the flooding, traffic jam, it's understandable that they might be late ) till we were the last few passengers there. Left with no choice, we decided to make our way there on our own. We were fortunate (in a way) that we manage to get a big sturdy 8-seaters van to drive us to the Ao Nammao Bay pier that goes to Railay Bay (800bahts). A regular car couldn't have made the journey there in those floods. We heard from a couple that their taxi had to u-turn back as the car couldn't drive through the flood. The journey that usually takes 30mins took almost 2hours.

Scene that greets us at every roads

At the pier, we had to negotiate with the longboat guy to bring us to Railay beach. They would only depart for Railay bay if there's enough people to make their trip worthwhile (usually minimum of 8 people). Since there's only us and another German couple, they wanted us to pay double each, which we refuse. In the end, we managed to agree on 100 Bahts per person.
We had to slosh our way through the muddy knee high sea water and by the time we reached the long boat, we seriously looked a sight.

NOTE: If you have tons of luggage (like us), please book the hotel transfer service!!! Waddling through knee high water while trying to balance your luggage and with the heavy downpour was seriously no joke. We saved like 200bahts but it's so not worth all the trouble.

There we were, completely drenched from head to toes, muddy from the knee down, tugging our luggages and dripping droplets of water as we finally walked toward the hotel reception. Looking back now, it was actually quite hilarious and adventurous. We did laugh about it and thinking what a 'Great" start to our vacation. :))

The experience this time round was completely different. Due to the unseasonal rain, we couldnt do any snorkeling or tanning by the sea. Most of the day were spent just laying around the room, reading, relaxing and playing card games.

Check out the gloomy sky

The complimentary breakfast was pretty good. Mix of western and thai food.

Our favourite haunt for Thai food. Can't remember the resort name but their Tom yam soup is pretty good. We love their pizza too!!

And finally, a day of sunshine!!

It must be a lucky day cos they had Tom's favourite food on their breakfast spread!! He had like 3 helpings of it.

Here we are, at Railay bay!!

The beach on the western side of Railay bay
(photos look so much better when there's sun!!)

Much as I would like to say we were doing rock climbing, I shall not lie. I mean look at us! You'll have to be really fit to be able to do that, and we're so NOT. Plus I'm afraid of height :P
The lady in the picture had seriously strong arms!

Well, at least we had a day of sun. Albeit just a couple of hours. We should have checked the weather forecast before we planned the trip. The locals mentioned the wet weather was totally unexpected and unseasonal, so either way, we'll never really know.

To Krabi airport.

This time round, it was so much better. No more sloshing in muddy water. There's people helping us with our luggage and even a golf-cart to ferry us from the pier to the taxi stand. And all for just 1200bahts.

We arrived too early for our flight to Bangkok. Since we had 2hours plus before check in, moi suggested using their 100bahts/hr internet services to pass time. Tom gave me this distasteful look and said "I don't wanna be losers like them. Can't live without internet. You're suppose to be on a holiday and not think about work"

SAYS THE PERSON WHO HAS BEEN COMPLAINING THE LAST FOUR DAYS THAT HIS COMPANY'S EMAIL SERVER WAS DOWN AND HE HAS NO ACCESS TO HIS EMAILS ON HIS IPHONE!!!!!!!!

Sure, I wanna be a loser like them. Hmmphhh.
And Tom had to take a super zoomed picture of the loser :P

And this coming from the person who has been playing Zombies Vs Plants on his Iphone for the last couple of days. So, Tom, join the club. You are a loser tooo :PPP

Next stop: BANGKOKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!

~Back to Black~

After having the same natural black hair colour, the same hairstyle for 7 years, Moi felt that it's time for a change. Immediately after my resignation, I went ahead and:

1. coloured my hair to a shade similar to Hazelnut (courtesy of Tom)
2. got bangs (courtesy of Tom).
3. straightened it

It was really nice for the first couple of weeks but once my hair starts growing out, it's beginning to irk me. It doesn't help that the contrasting colours shows up REALLY WELL in pictures. Finally, i can no longer stand it and decided to colour it back to black again.

BEFORE: Bye bye, hazelnut

Soft black hair colour. That's the cheapest I could find.

AFTER: Black to the max

The saying "Once you go black, you wouldn't go back"

Head down to Ikea for dinner after and i just couldn't resist taking a picture of the blue sky!! Yaay, Singapore has really beautiful blue sky too!!!

Updates: It's been a few days since I coloured my hair and I'm still getting used to the shock of seeing black bubbles and black coloured water when I'm washing my hair. Oh crapz! I actually stained two t-shirts and a towel. When issit gonna stop? On the other hand, Tom been commenting that I look MUCH MUCH better with black hair :))))

Smelling Yummy~

I'm smelling super yummy today :P

A hint of Purple passion fruit, Shangri-la peony and vanilla orchid.
And no. I'm not a walking fruit-tart.

Tom and myself were browsing through the Duty-free shops down at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport whilst waiting for our flight back to Singapore (blog about it soon), and lo and behold there's a Victoria's Secrets (VS) outlet staring right in my face!!! Even Singapore doesn't have its own VS outlet. Sure, there's some chemist shops in Singapore selling VS lotions and body sprays but they are selling them at such atrocious prices.

BTW, American's Abercrombie & Fitch + Swedish's Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) are coming to Singapore really soon!!My prayers been answered!!
So, Mr Owner of VS, whatcha waiting for?!?!?!

I just had to go in!!

Came out 5mins later carrying their famous pink lil bag.
Check out my new scent, Bombshell!! Super heart~ing it right now!!! :))))))

I would, however refrain from using the word "bombshell" while in the airport. Can you imagine the airport security asking what's in the pink lil bag and you go like "Oooh, it's this VS Bombshell". He would probably lugged you away thinking you're a terrorist or trying to be funny.

Semla

Hey Peeps!! It's been awhile since I updated my blog (almost a year to be exact). Couple of changes in the past year, i.e one year older obviously, change my hairstyle, and most importantly, I'm officially unemployed since Jan this year.

Yupz, I have finally clipped my wings after seven years (as what my batch girl commented on my FB). It wasn't an easy decision for me. I heart my job totally!! The pay was decent enough, I get to visit all these nice and exotic places for free i.e airfare and accomodation provided for. All the shopping, the food, the days off back in Singapore. Oh man, I can just go on and on and on about the pros of it. I remembered distinctively when I just started my flying career, one of my colleague was saying "Where can you find a job that allows you to have breakfast in Frankfurt and lunch at NYC and dinner at say, London? or go shopping in Paris, London, Milan once or twice every month?" Lotsa people say we are just high class waitress in the air but i beg to differ. When the plane is force to do an emergency landing , we are the one who can save your life. Remember that.

The cons? Being away so often. When you are not around on most weekends, family gathering, anniversaries, birthdays, good friends weddings, friend's baby christening. So many times, I had to decline the invitations, the disappointment. And it's taking a toll on my family and especially on Tom. My health is deteriorating as well, with the odd working hours, adjusting to different time zones and climate, the jet lag etc etc.

My priority has changed. Sure, I miss flying ALOT. But family is much more important now. We are now trying to start a family and hopefully, we have wonderful news to share soon. :) Psst.. and Tom says I'm so much more relax and carefree now!!

Alrighty, enough of my ramblings. Anyway, Tom has been bugging me to update my blog instead of spending so much time on my Facebook games (btw, if you are playing Restaurant City, Cafe world... ADD ME PLSSSS!!! I send stuff everyday!!!) So I decided to look through my pictures folder and find something to blog about.. and get him off my back!! KIDDING!!

We were down at IKEA the other day and Tom bought this special Semla bun for moi to try. The last time he ate one was 12years ago before he came to Singapore.

Moi: "So how does it taste like?"

Tom: "Well, pretty much taste like the semla in Sweden 12years ago."

Some things just don't change.

That's me with the Semla! It's just a cute little bun actually. It's cardamom-spiced wheat bun which has its top cut off and insides scooped out. It is then filled with a mix of the scooped-out bread crumbs, milk and almond paste, topped with whipped cream. The cut off top is then put back on as a lid and dust with powdered sugar.

Simply sinful and delicious

I'm a huge fan almonds and I have to say it's a great dessert!! It's only available in shops and bakeries shortly after Christmas until Easter. No wonder i never try it as we only go back to Sweden during summer time.

Tom chomping away as you can see...

IKEA Food facts on Semla

Semlas are probably still available in IKEA so if you happen to pass by, do a small detour and try one yourself. :)