And the winning pair is...

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My honey and I went home early today. He needed to pack his things for a four day work related stay in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. He was doing it with ease, perfectly matching what polo shirt goes with what pants, until he got to the shoes part. Having so many pairs to choose from, and almost every pair matches the clothes he picked, he then had a hard time deciding which would be the best pair to bring along. We did the elimination process, until we were down to three pairs.

First pair he picked was his Osiris shoes. This pair is called the Osiris Branson that he bought from a friend who travelled in some foreign land (the exact country skipped me at the moment). Since he purchased this pair, he's been praising it so much. It's a slip-on loafer type in color black. According to him, the sole is so soft that he never had a hard time walking with it even if walking usually dreads him. The style could be for casual or for corporate look, so there are times he uses it for malling, and times for corporate meetings. Either way, it matches whatever outfit he is wearing.

Second on the list- Timberland shoes. This one is in color tan, styled like a slim running shoes with shoe laces to secure it. This one, according to him, also has soft soles and could make his walking from one office branch to another with ease.

Third pair we had was his Traffic shoes. This pair is in black, and like Timberland, it has shoe laces to secure it. Traffic has been known to give comfort to the feet, and my honey is one satisfied buyer of Traffic shoes. This particular pair also has some red details making it's looks modern, young and hip.

So which, oh which among his Osiris shoes, Timberland shoes, Traffic shoes emerged to be the winner?

None. There was no winner. None emerged as the lucky pair to visit the islands of Palawan. Because he packed the three pairs! Since he will be staying there for four days--three days work, one day for "happy hour", why not wear a different pair for everyday? Osiris shoes for Tuesday, Timberland for Wednesday, Traffic for Thursday, and well, maybe just his Crocs flip flops on Friday the rest day.


Now, I do envy those shoes. They will be kissing the lands of Palawan while I do my regular thing here in Manila. One day soon, I will be there too!! Watch out! ;)


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Singapore Experience -- Day Three

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July 06, 2010-- Woke up at 6, jump off the bed at 7, off the road at 8. Honey and I wanted to go to Orchard to see how it was in the morning. And since we did not have a nice breakfast experience yesterday, we decided to go to McDonalds to have a decent starter this time. Two orders of their breakfast De Luxe was surely a great way to start the day.




Orchard road that morning looked like a busy yet relaxed place. Majority of the walking people were in their fastest pace, while there were some who looked as if they were just paying a visit in the park. Different group of people, different styles of walking, I guess.



One place we failed to visit when we arrived is the Visitor's Center. Though honey already mastered our routes and activities for the day, we still went there and asked for further information, activities and whereabouts. Our Customer Service Officer did an excellent job! She spoke good english so we were able to catch everything she said. She gave us tips on where to go for cheap, authentic electronic buys, helped us revise our plan for the day by suggesting on what places to definitely see and eliminating places that we can miss-out so to maximize our time, and furnished us a list of bus numbers and train stations that made our hopping from one point to another a breeze.


The Singapore Flyer.
First impression was, yeah right another giant ferris wheel. What the heck, the flyer is not just an ordinary ferris wheel ride! We rode in an air-conditioned capsule that could accommodate 28 persons (imagine how big the capsule was!) and slowly took us 165 meters off the ground. This is currently the world's highest observation wheel that took my breath away as my eyes feasted on 360 degrees view of Singapore's skyline, greens, architectures and waters. This 30-minute ride was so worth it, and could be romantic too if it would be just you and your lovey alone in the capsule ;)






The Marina Bay Sands.
Just at the sight of it from afar, I could not help but think how lucky could I be, me stepping inside the world's most expensive hotel? We entered at Tower One and we were ushered to Tower Three and queued for tickets-10S$ per person. The elevator took us in less than a minute to the 56th floor where I had, again, a breathtaking experience. The Marina Bay Sands, recently bagged The Most Expensive Hotel in the World title, freshly opened it's doors last April 2010. The wonderful structure of three towers, 55-storey each, connected together by a hectare-big roof (that was where the elevator took us) that serves as a luxury park in the sky with the Singapore's skycrapers and landscapes as the backdrop, convinced me that this hotel deserves to have that title. There's also an infinity pool exclusively for the guests situated a floor higher. My experience alone felt so expensive already, even more if we were checked-in in one of their 2,600 rooms.





The Esplanade.
Esplanade, known as Theaters on the Bay, looked like two durian fruits from a distance. Closer and closer, spikes designs came flashing to my eyes. This is located in waterfront along Marina Bay and serves as Singapore's prime performing arts venue, which also houses a mall, restaurants, library, and others relating to arts.





The Merlion Park.
As what I have posted, Merlion is Singapore's icon. There are few other location of Merlion in Singapore, but the main spitting beast is the one located in Singapore River. This one measures 7 meters high (the one in Imbiah Lookout is it's taller version sans the spitting water). Unfortunately, the mother Merlion was taking a shower when we visited the park and the one "open" for picture and for viewing was the baby counterpart which is only two meters high.



The Chinatown.
We wanted to have a different feel of Singapore, one that is away from city glam and modern living. So we headed to Chinatown, as suggested by the magazine we read that tackled about quiet yet worth visiting corners of Singapore. Good bargains, interesting food in kiosks, old shophouses--these welcomed us upon reaching the Chinatown stretch. This is where we had our lunch. It was like eating in a carinderia or turo-turo, but much, much cleaner and safer (no beggars asking for food or street children waiting for your leftovers).







Funan Mall.
The map's description to this mall: the digital mall. Floor by floor, all I saw were gadgets, electronics, gadgets, electronics, gadgets, electronics (keeps on repeating)!! Techies would surely fall in love with this mall. We did not stay that much for we were not set on buying anything. We just wanted to see how many gadgets this mall can accommodate.



We ended the day by having dinner at Food Republic again (we were tamad to explore this time). After dinner, we went to different Orchard malls, hopping from one to another, for this would be our last to experience Orchard at night. After ten, we met with honey's cousins who are based there and had a little chat and how are you's over a cup of coffee.



Tomorrow, we will be going back to Manila. Yehey! I will be seeing my little man already who I already terribly miss.


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Singapore Experience -- Day Two

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July 05, 2010 -- First activity for the day turned out to be a booboo. We were trying our best do what Singaporeans do, eat what Singaporeans eat. So for breakfast, we had noodles or pancit for that was what we noticed people were eating. We found this market/eatery area that was just walking distance from Balestier. Armed with anticipation of a new experience, we ordered noodles (pancit) for breakfast. My, the cook was so slow!! Plus the food was served after a long 35 minutes, for there were customers ahead of us that they had to cater first (we did not know that and they did not even inform us). When the food arrived, we were not excited to taste it anymore. "Nalipasan na ako ng gutom" were the exact words of hubby. To make it worse, the food turned out to be not that delicious as it looked. We forcely finished what we ordered for that was the only choice we had.

Second day was the Sentosa day. I have been hearing about Sentosa, all of them saying "kulang ang isang buong araw sa Sentosa pa lang". That was true, indeed. Despite the limited time, I believe we made the most out of it.

There is a train station in Vivo City that directs to Sentosa.

First activity we had inside Sentosa was the Skyride. Sentosa skyride is one of the many activities to enjoy in Sentosa's Imbiah Lookout. This ride is supposedly paired with Luge Ride, but we were just half-adventurous that time and just settled for the skyride. We availed of the two-way (back and forth) that costed us S$12.00 per person. Sentosa Skyride is an aerial ride that took us above the tree tops. View from above was spectacular! It was so relaxing for me, but upon checking out on hubby, I found him stiff and almost not enjoying himself. I bet he was scared of the terrible yet perfect heights the skyride took us.







Trip to Singapore is never complete without paying a visit to the Merlion--Singapore's famous icon that is half-lion half-fish. There is one Merlion in Imbiah Lookout and one can enjoy tons of activities and attractions from where it is situated. However, since we had limited time, we just satisfied ourselves by taking pictures of this 37-meter tall icon.






Next Sentosa stop: Universal Studios in Sentosa's Resort World. We missed the opportunity to go inside this new theme park for there were no tickets available anymore. Despite that, we enjoyed the view outside and took a lot of pictures of their ever famous revolving Universal globe. We also visited their souvenir shop located outside for some tokens. Items sold were limited for there is also one souvenir shope inside that carries the complete line of Universal Studios stuff.







Not to miss inside the Sentosa park is the famous Underwater World. It was a such a wonderful feeling seeing lots and lots of sea creatures in all shapes, colors and sizes. I enjoyed every corner of Underwater World, and I promised myself that when the little man is big enough to appreciate this, we will go back and bring him there for a wonderful experience.




We also watched the Dolphin show. It was again a new experience for me, despite the fact that there are also dolphin shows in the Philippines. The place was full and I could see from where I was seated that they closed the gates and just-five-minute-late-visitors were not allowed to enter anymore. The dolphins were great! It just disappointed me because the show lasted for more or less twenty minutes *Bitin!* I also regreted not bringing a fan for the place was so hot and I felt uncomfortable the whole time because of the heat.



After the show, we went again inside the Underwater World and there spent another half an hour of picture taking and interaction with sea creatures. We then went back to Vivo City and gave ourselves another round of mall stroll. We ended the day by having dinner at Boat Quay.
There are many alfresco restaurants and pubs along this stretch and this place is also quite popular among tourists and expats. It has a nice scenery day and night, but I stongly agree when they say that it's much better to dine there at night having the Singapore river and the lights of Singapore's skycrapers in the background. How romantic could that be?

Photos from Google Images

Two days down. I'm looking forward to the next day.


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Singapore Experience -- Day One

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It's July already, where did the first half of the year go?!

Well, at least going to Singapore neutralized my sentiment. Flashback: Honey so wanted to go out of the country to run away from the stress and pressure from work, yet the mother in me was so reluctant to go. Just how could I, when just going to work makes me miss the little man so much, what more be away with him for like, what, four days? But due to the enlightenment of my aunt, who said that my big man needs me too, I closed my eyes and made the decision. Yep, I agreed to go to Singapore at the last minute.

July 04, 2010-- We were scheduled to fly via JetStar at 4-ish in the morning, re-timed at 6-ish, and again re-timed at 12-ish noon. Twice rescheduled, that was a spoiler! Hubby already arranged the itinerary and the delayed flight meant bye-bye to the supposedly tour for that day.

Smog delayed the flight.

Changi Airport.
Me feeling excited already to head to the city of Singapore.

Since it was already around 5pm when we arrived, we were left with no choice but to tour the city at night. After checking in to our humble hotel (Value Hotel Balestier), we headed straight to Orchard via bus no. 124. It was just ten to fifteen minutes away from Balesteir Road. It was fun strolling along Orchard at night, seeing all flashy and colorful lights. Names of famous designer brands ganged-up this road--Gucci, Dior, Vuitton, Prada, and a lot more that made my eyes twinkle in delight. This is just one of the many faces of Orchard at night:






At around 8pm, we headed to Food Republic to have our first Singapore dinner.
Chicken rice, as we all know, is the popular one in Singapore. So on our first night, we ordered this dish. This particular white chicken (chicken rice/hainanese chicken rice) tasted so-so and comparable to the ones I tasted in Manila which made me kinda disappointed for I was expecting something like this-is-the-best-chicken-rice-ever reaction. Nevertheless, it still satisfied my hunger.

Sergeant's Hainanese Chicken Rice

Food Republic in Wasma Atria

After the dinner, we again strolled the main and corner roads of Orchard. Last stop for the first day was Hard Rock Cafe. Hubby's trips on foreign lands will never be complete without a visit to Hard Rock Cafe which he makes richer everytime he buys a cap to add to his growing Hard Rock cap collection.

We ended the day a bit late, I guess that was 1 am already the following day. Yet the primer of the Singapore experience was fun, fun, fun!! Cannot wait for the next day ;)



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Wives, read only the first part. Husbands, the rest.

A Woman was out golfing one day when she hit the ball into the woods. She went into the woods to look for it and found a frog in a trap. The frog said to her, “If you release me from this trap, I will grant you three wishes.”
The woman freed the frog, and the frog said, “Thank you, but I failed to mention that there was a condition to your wishes. Whatever you wish for, your husband will get times ten!”

The woman said, “That’s okay.” For her first wish, she wanted to be the most beautiful woman in the world. The frog warned her, “You do realize that this wish will also make your husband the most handsome man in the world, an Adonis to whom women will flock.” The woman replied, “That’s okay, because I will be the most beautiful Woman and he will have eyes only for me.”
So, KAZAM! she’s the most beautiful Woman in the world!

For her second wish, she wanted to be the richest woman in the world. The frog said, “That will make your husband the richest man in the world. And he will be ten times richer than you.” The woman said, “That’s okay, because what’s mine is his and what’s his is mine.”
So, KAZAM! she’s the richest woman in the world!

The frog then inquired about her third wish, and she answered, “I’d like a mild heart attack.”

Moral of the story: Women are clever. Don’t mess with them.

Attention female readers : This is the end of the joke for you. Stop here and continue feeling good.




Male readers, continue reading….

The man had a heart attack ten times milder than his wife.

Moral of the story: Women think they’re so smart. Let them continue to think that way and just enjoy the show.

PS: If you are a woman and are still reading this; it only goes to show that women never listen!




Note: I got this article from www.InspiredDreamer.com. My reaction when the woman wished for a mild heart attack: that was clever, you girl!! Heck, it did not occur to me what would happen to the husband. Now this article got me thinking. Do we really "just believe" that we are smarter than the men? Hmmm...

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