I have heard so many comments / reviews about Rochester Park and have been wanting to check out the place for the longest time. The houses there used to be colonial bungalows but have now been converted into standalone pubs and restaurants.

Luffs kept me in suspense and refused to reveal our makan place until when we got there. He actually made a reservation at Graze @ Rochester Park for our anniversary!

Graze
4 Rochester Park
Tel: 6775 9000

http://www.graze.com.sg/

Graze, a contemporary Australian restaurant, is located in a colonial style black-and-white house set amidst lush tropical foliage. Matthew Lawdorn (shown in the bottom left photo below), founding chef of this restaurant, was responsible for crafting Graze’s exceptional homemade cuisine.

The photos in the above collage are taken from their website or off the internet.

This place is totally awesome with greenery and water features that run through the place. Even their menus and name cards are so uniquely made!

That’s the happy us sitting at the alfresco lounge!

Inside the dining area

Yummilicious drinks - Lychee for Luffs and Strawberry + Kiwi for Lingz!

We went for the set menu.

After being seated, we were served this oyster shooter served with ginger wine wasabi and cucumber oil. Those who know me will know how much I detest wasabi but surprisingly this dish turned out quite well.

For the entrée, Luffs chose the tiger prawns which were prepared in 3 different styles : tempura, chilled and pan tossed and I had the salt and pepper grilled sea scallops. Both dishes were extremely fresh!

The main courses took a while to be served - Luffs had the lamb cutlets and I took the pork hock. We were quite against the pork hock initially because both of us cannot stand fatty meat but the waitress assured us that the fats were very minimal.

We were already quite full when the desserts were served. We chose the bittersweet chocolate tart and the pudding plate since it is Graze’s signature dish (I think)! Luffs also got the chef to write “Happy 1st Anniversary” on the plate - Very sweet of him but unfortunately they spelt “anniversary” wrongly? Haha…

Thumbs up for both the ambience and food, but I guess I should also give credit to the service staff of Graze. The service they rendered is, without a doubt, five stars! The waiters / waitresses are so professional, prompt and dedicated.

That's all for the dinner part! I totally enjoyed my time at Graze and really appreciate all the effort Luffs has put in to make this anniversary a special and memorable one!

* hugz *

We headed to our 'secret' (not really a secret lah) dating place after that before heading home.

♥ ♥ ♥

Now to the presents part!

Hehe… As mentioned in my blog entry dated 08 August, I bought 2 pairs of Rockport shoes for Luffs - I told him that will be his anniversary present because I really ran out of ideas on what to get for him. Both pairs are of the same design, just different colours.

Black

Brown

Anniversary gifts are always so troublesome because they need to be unique and fresh every year. But the most important year is the first wedding anniversary so I wanted to do something more special for Luffs. Shoes are just so not creative gifts for anniversaries!

I chanced upon this scrapbooking workshop (conducted by Canon and Craft In Vogue on 15 August) and got Jocelin to attend the workshop with me. Both of us were rather disappointed because the facilitators were basically trying to promote their new Selphy printer and we left the place not doing anything but just bringing home some free materials that they provided.

But I was determined to do something for Luffs, so I bought some extra materials and headed back to brainstorm some ideas.

Below shows the planning progress.

This is the end product - Not very creative but I tried my best, yah?

On top of that, I have also ordered before hand some cupcakes from Cake & Crumbs to be sent to his office. The cupcakes did not really turn out to be what I have expected but Luffs said they were nice?

Somehow, I think many people cannot spell "Anniversary"? The spelling on the cupcakes was incorrect too. Hehe...

That is all that I have prepared for Luffs, so what did he do for me other than the dinner date?

He bought me a Brilliant Rose - A very nice pendant + necklace from Soo Kee’s Brilliant Rose series! The photos below probably did not do justice to this pretty piece of jewellery but I totally ♥ it.

Thank you so much, Luffs!

That’s not all!

He ordered flowers and delivered the bouquet to my office. I felt so pai seh when the delivery guy came and the whole office thought 18 August was my birthday.

The flowers came with a small card and a sweet sweet message from Luffs!

* blush *

That is the end of our special day.

Although we did not do anything "extraordinary" for each other, I am glad we made it all the way through the first year of matrimony and promise to love each other more than ever.

I ♥ you, Luffs!