I might not fully understand the pain that you are going through but we both know that our good Lord is our refuge and strength in times like this (Psalm 46:1).

Continue to look to Him and He will see you through, yah?

After much consideration, Maggie Jie and I decided to bring the family to Seafood Paradise for mum's birthday dinner (her birthday falls on April's Fool Day).

Seafood Paradise
30, Raffles Avenue, #01-01
Singapore Flyer
Tel: 6336 5101

The restaurant has a nice and trendy renovation - The place was all quiet and peaceful when we arrived but soon got noisier when the whole place filled with diners. Also, we were impressed with their service even though the place was packed - The service staff were very polite and attentive to our needs (refilling our water promptly etc).

Anyway, we were spoilt for choices when we were going through the menu because everything looks good. It was painful having to choose but I am glad our choices were pretty good.

Here's what we had!

Appetiser

Seafood Supreme Fried Rice

Braised Vermicelli With Pork Trotters

Assam Fish Head

Double Boiled Black Chicken Soup With Ginseng

This was how the soup was served!

The menu said that the soup is for 2 - 4 pax but I think all 6 of us had a fair share of the soup.

Crisp-Fried Crystal Prawns With Salted Egg Yolk

This is a must-try!

Stewed Egg Plant With Minced Pork & Salted Fish In Claypot

Creamy Butter Crab

They were having 2-for-1 promotion if we use OCBC credit card to pay, so these 2 crabs only cost S$32++.

Longevity Buns

That's all for the food part and I will end off this post with some 'human' photos we took.

Here's the birthday girl!

Sisters!

* I hate my eyes *

Poor Luffs - He has been sick the past few days.

Get well soon, yah?

EDITED (25.03.10)

I tried the fries!

My director went to the drive-thru to buy lunch, so I got her to buy one packet for my colleague and I to share.

Totally yummy with extra hot and spicy "powder", but fries are fattening!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The McDonald's advertisement on the front page of 《我报》 is so tempting.

I want to try the hot & spicy shaker fries!

H E L P !

:(

You can add S$1.90 for their value meal which comes with a soup and side dish.

Overall the salads were good and I will try their Oriental Beef Salad the next time round.

:)

It has been awhile since Luffs and I 'celebrated' our monthsary, so Luffs decided to knock off earlier to pick me up from the airport before we headed for dinner.

We have no idea on where to go so Luffs suggested going to Big Splash to take a look and we eventually settled with Claypot Fun (managed by Jumbo).

Claypot Fun
902 East Coast Parkway Block B #01-11
Playground @ Big Splash
Tel: 6440 7975

Luffs totally ♥ the interiors of this chinese restaurnt.

There isn't many choices on the menu but sufficient to make us drool.

This is what we ordered!

All chosen by my ♥.

The juices came first to help quench our thirst.

Price: S$3.80 each

This is Luffs' favourite - Claypot Rice with Minced Pork & Salted Fish!

This dish is totally awesome, so it is a must try!

(Cantonese style claypot rice is different from the typical claypot rice that we eat outside - It is not come with black sauce but just some light sauce specially formulated by their chef.)

Price: S$10.80

The soup chosen was Lotus Root with Old Cucumber.

Price: S$5.20

Another dish which Luffs and I like alot - Sesame Chicken.

The dish is awesomely tasty but I wished the chicken was boneless.

Price: S$9.00

Time to pay for the delicious food we had.

Look at the 'cashier' sign - Totally old school lah!

Anyway, the total damage was S$35.70 after a 10 % discount. Not totally cheap for the kind of food we ate but Luffs and I agreed that we will definitely go back there again.

We took a slow walk along East Coast Park after the dinner and we were both glad that we could have some 'pak-tor' time because Luffs has been so busy ever since he started work.

Dear, thank you for taking time off your work today.

I ♥ you!

HOORAY!

And I am heading to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow (again!).

Fortunately it is only a day trip.

:)

Hope the weekend comes soon.

I have been wanting to try the food at Thai Accent but Luffs has been so busy. And we finally made it there this evening for our late dinner! Mum went along with us because we went to Best Denki to look at electrical appliances for our new house.

Thai Accent
1 Harbourfront Walk #02-145/146
VivoCity
Tel: 6376 9282

Luffs had Green Curry with Thai Fragrant Steam Rice (the rice cost $1.50 but I think the rice is refillable, so you can top it up FOC). The portion of chicken was pretty generous so I felt that this dish is best shared between 2 or more people and the coconut milk inside the curry might make you sick.

I ordered Tom Yam Glass Noodles Soup with Seafood, - It was originally served with vermicelli but I have requested for it to be changed to glass noodles. Luckily I told the waitress that I want it less spicy. :)

Luffs and I choose the Claypot Glass Noodles with Prawn & Sliced Pork for mum. We all agreed that this dish is very tasty but can be slightly too oily. So request for less oil if you are ordering this!

We also added 2 sides which were pretty good.

The Thai Fish Cake was slightly spicy but nice!

The Pandan Leaves Chicken was yummy too.

However, the Thai Style Ice Kacang was a disappointment.

HELP - I need to lose weight!

This guy is the winner for The Biggest Loser (Asia) show.

How did he do it?

David Gurnani, 25
Starting Weight: 161 Kg
Current Weight: 78 kg
Nationality: Indonesia

Standing tall at 6 feet, David is successful salesman who prides himself on his ability to convince others. This confident young man considers himself a kind person, also admits to being easily angered and having a short fuse.

David grew up with a big loving family, which has always supported him in every endeavor. He lives with his father and 2 siblings and he recently became engaged to a beautiful woman whom he loves dearly.

Ever since he was a small child David has been extremely overweight and has loved eating more than anything. As a result of excessive eating he has gained a huge amount of weight and is at the point where he feels heavy and uneasy carrying his weight around. Being a sports lover, David is disappointed that his weight has impaired him from playing lots of sports.

David loves his work, which sees him traveling around Indonesia as part of his job, and is actively involved with his local church ministry. He is concerned that being overweight is abuse to his body and is in contradiction to the teaching of his faith.

What is motivating him to lose weight for good? David reveals, “I want to honour God with my body, to look compatible to my fiancée, have good health and a long life, and make my family proud.”

***************************

From Yahoo :

Being the “Biggest Loser’ in Asia is certainly not a bad thing.

After all’s been said and done, the stars of Asia’s very own ‘Biggest Loser” series are beside themselves with joy. Though only one of them took the crown, there is no question that all of them feel like winners.

‘I feel great! I’m really happy for David (Gurnani) for winning it,” Malaysia’s Aaron Mokhtar told Yahoo! Southeast Asia in a phone interview.

Aaron, who took third place in the show after losing to the Philippines’ Carlos Miguel by a single point, is just happy to have lost the 60 kilograms that threatened his health just a few months back.

‘From the moment I first saw him (David), I knew there was no way I would win,“ Carlos admitted. “The amount of weight David lost was just staggering,” Carlos admitted.

Staggering is right. David lost 83 kg and now weighs only 78 kg.

But despite the suspected rift between the two, Carlos and David were happy to pat each other’s backs at the end of the day.

“I just thank God for this opportunity,” David says. “Carlos is one of those who pushed me to work hard, and I’m sure I pushed him too. But after the competition, we will always be friends. We got to know each other a little but later.”

Now that the show is over though, David plans to take a holiday, buy a house and plan his wedding. On the other hand, Carlos will return to his job as a less-diet-worried chef, while Aaron plans to teach his friends and family to cook and eat healthy.

So what’s next for our biggest winners? To live a fuller, healthier life. Sounds like a good plan.

***************************

Luffs was craving for black pepper crabs when doing his showflat duty.

Ask and it shall be given!

:)

Here's the not-so-fantastic black pepper crabs which Luffs finished by himself.

And this box is the oh-so-dry salted egg crabs that mum, Maggie Jie and I shared.

Bought these crabs from the coffeeshop near my house, but they are nothing compared to those at Melben Seafood or Taman Sentosa.

The only thing I look forward to when I go on business trips is the hotels that I get to stay in. Oppies!

Anyway, I stayed in Mandarin Oriental this time and it is right next to KLCC!

Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur City Centre
50088 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

My boss was pretty impressed with the size of my luggage.

View from my room!

My deluxe city view (king) room came with 1 buffet breakfast and internet access daily, but I did not bring my laptop.

Anyway I was away for meetings, so the only time I spent in the room was for sleeping. Haha!

Dinner was with our business associates at Lai Po Heen - An elegant Chinese restaurant at Mandarin Oriental, specialising in contemporary Cantonese delicacies and dim sum.

The food was yummilicious and I had my favourite shark's fin soup! So you can guess how much the total meal cost for the 6 of us.

Seriously there isn't anything much to blog about since it is only 2D1N, so that's all for KL!

Anyway, Luffs and I decided to catch a movie after my return from KL.

Dear John tells the story of John Tryee (Channing Tatum), a young soldier home on leave, and Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried), the idealistic college student he falls in love with during her spring vacation. Over the next seven tumultuous years, the couple is separated by John’s increasingly dangerous deployments. While meeting only sporadically, they stay in touch by sending a continuous stream of love letter overseas - correspondence that eventually triggers fateful consequences.

I have not read the novel but I'm pretty pleased with what I saw on screen. Firstly, Channing Tatum has really good looks and physique - Even Luffs agreed! The budding romance was not too cheesy with the build-up well paced and I like how family ties were thrown in (i.e. John's dad played by Richard Jenkins).