Of bags

I bought this kate spade stevie for travelling and it turned out great. Roomy, light and secure with a zip top closure. It went on its first trip to England recently. I hope there will be more trips with this bag. :)

J received many compliments for this Coach bag I got him. You won't believe how difficult it is to buy something for him. For one, he has better taste than I. I'm almost sure that anything I choose is not good enough. Turns out he likes this enough and didn't chide me for the money I parted with in exchange for it. Thank God! :P

London May 2012

We did not manage to catch Wicked in Singapore and decided to do so in London.

Musicals are really not my thing. I fell asleep every time someone started to sing!

kate spade in London, Sloane Square

Paddington stall at Paddington Station

And we brought home not one but two Paddington Bears!

Hong Kong #5

Dug up these 2 photos from my computer.



Days leading up to Christmas, the malls are completely packed. We love the buzz and managed to do some shopping.



I miss Hong Kong. If only we can spend Lunar New Year there. :)

Hong Kong #4

Here I am at Kowloon Station, wondering if I should make a trip to the speciality store in Sogo at Causeway Bay after visiting the boutique at Elements!



In the end, I got ...



A mug for the new work place. :)



A bon shopper which can only be bought in HK! So worth the money! Actually J's money. Hee hee...

Hong Kong #3

I have always known that the HK kate spade outlet does not sell its stuff cheap but still I cannot resist making a trip there each time.

For over an hour, I debated over a pair of shoes which fit but felt a little snug. In the end, I left with these items.





Journal flat pouch. This is from the earlier batch which means it's an old stock. But I like the red zip pull over the new one which is a short black ribbon of sort.



Bet you can't tell what this is.



Unzip it and you'll find a grocery bag! 环保袋!



Now I feel so glam doing grocery shopping! Plus no more plastic bags so I'm doing my part saving Planet Earth. :)

Hong Kong #2

Eight years of travelling together, this is the first time we left with two pieces of luggage and came back with three!



J was rather indulgent this time and let me buy everything I fancied. With my new job, it's unlike that I can drop my work in an instant and accompany him on his work trips. This means us travelling together less next year. Which makes me sad! Hence his indulgence in a bid to cheer me up.



This is me very very anxious because for a long time all we got was J's bag. The loots were in the other two bags of mine!



My agnes b. bag charm did not survive this trip. One of the blings fell off somewhere in HK. Because I do not even know where I dropped it, I can't glue it back. Sadly this means early retirement for this bling bling. It is my favourite and always will be.

Hong Kong #1

Like many, we love the eating bit in HK. There's so much good food, I hardly take pictures of them anymore. Besides, a quick search on the Internet will lead you to a zillion blog posts about what and where to eat in HK.



What I did take a picture of is this dessert shop. I think it's called Hang Fa Lau. We were told it's pretty good. There is one just 10 metres away from our hotel. J and I love 甜汤 (dessert/sweet soup) and really nothing beats a hot bowl of sweet soup on a winter's day!



Double boiled papaya with white fungus is my favourite. I must have a bowl of this every day every time I am in HK. I know I can do it myself but I'm lazy and it's available every where in HK. So easy!



Usually at the dessert stores, you can also find fried radish cake. (萝卜糕) J swears the ones in HK are better. I think he's just biased. :)



Look at those glass bottles! For the sake of drinking out of a glass bottle, I ordered soft drinks with my wanton mee. So ancient and so nostalgic! I don't even know where we can find these in Singapore.



I eat these small sweet cakes for remembrance sake! We love walking from Tsim Sha Tsui to our hotel late at night. On the way, we will stop by this stall and grab some 鸡蛋仔. Because we did it the first time we went to HK, we have been doing so every trip.





Miniature egg tarts (蛋挞仔) are another of my favourite. I love everything to do with eggs! These are from our favourite dim sum place, Dragon Dynasty (龙朝) in JD Mall.



Maxim's Cakes came up with Angry Birds muffins this Christmas season. Hilarious I thought! The icing isn't great but the chocolate chip muffin is! Yummy.

Taiwan #4

No trip is complete without a visit to kate spade. Lo and behold! The only store in Taipei was a short 10-minute walk from my hotel.





Service was marvellous. One of the saleswomen came up to explain which items were on sale and which were new arrivals. I asked her if I could use my membership card and found out it wasn't valid in Taiwan. Quick as a flash, she immediately offered me a 10% discount.

How could I resist?!

So in the end??



Hee... J bought me this lovely bangle. :)

Taiwan #3

This is all about food!

We raided Shilin Night Market (士林夜市) and had a wonderful time stuffing ourselves silly.



First stop, beef noodles (牛肉面). Cheap and good.





Next, the famous Ah Zong Mee Sua. Once is enough for me though. The mianxian was okay but I didn't fancy the ingredients.





Then I decided I needed something sweet and got 奶油饼, a custard cake of sort. Not too sweet and definitely different from anything I have tried before. I like!



Finally, another must-try, 大鸡排, the gigantic fried chicken chop. Super delicious! We had to share because the piece of fried chicken was the size of an A4 paper.



A fantabulous eating experience! Taipei, I like!

Taiwan #2

This is the train ticket/token in Taipei. Cute!



Travelling by train is quite affordable, fares range from 50 cents to 2 dollars (SGD). Trains are not too crowded, unlike those in SG and HK. By and large people do not occupy the priority seats meant for the needy, even when the trains are crowded. Thumbs up!

Taiwan #1

We were told Din Tai Fung in Taiwan would be different so off we went in search of the restaurant the moment we got to Taipei. Lucky for us, there is one just two streets away from our hotel.



First thing we noticed was the declaration of the Michelin star on the menu. Our expectations were raised even higher.

It turned out that the food was indeed different. It was more bland and I like my food tasty. Yes, there are a few dishes which seem to be available only in Taiwan and not SG. But if you ask me, I think the DTFs in SG are good enough, even without the 1 Michelin star. :)

Men!

Oh, these sure make me wonder if they originated from a different planet.


Yes, we know it's hot. Come on it's summer in China. But really? Rolling up your shirt isn't exactly cool.



Oh sir I know it's the trend but your sense of fashion baffles me!



This one is from the family of perennial idiots I am bound to meet on any holiday. The one who walks RIGHT in front of your camera while you are trying to take a picture. Hello?! Oh! Did you want me to take a picture of the back of your head? Wait, is that dandruff I see?? As you can see, this idiot doesn't mind someone blocking him when he takes a picture but not everyone is a sloppy photographer like him.



Here's another from the same family. He too wasn't even just passing by and happened to walk into my picture when I was trying to take a picture of a lady's swingpack (that one on the left). He had walked up in front of my camera and stopped to take a picture. What the @#&%?!?



And of course at the theatre watching an acrobatics performance, I had to sit next to a guy who took off his shoes. Mind you he didn't just discreetly remove his shoes. He did it with great gusto and then placed them neatly next to his feet. He was making himself so comfortable that I half expected him to recline in his seat and whip out a can of beer from nowhere!

二锅头

has got to be the most potent thing I have ever drunk in Beijing! Oh wait, or in my entire life for the matter!


It's like vodka except its alcoholic content is 56%!


I took one little sip and almost died! Oh yes, we drink it neat! It 'burns' whichever part of the body it touches, tongue, mouth, throat, stomach. After two sips, my whole body was so warm, I thought I was running a fever. This tiny bottle of 100ml was shared by 6 adults, 6 useless foreigners who took baby sips while at the next the table a few Mainland Chinese were merrily drinking a bottle each! Hilarious.


二锅头! Oh, 二锅头! I wish I had bought a bottle of this rice wine! One of my MA professors and J's current colleague swears by it and we heard he bought two big bottles home!

Peaches

are everywhere in China!


This one is incredulously big! It's the size of a grapefruit, actually no, it's probably bigger than a grapefruit.



Lady selling the peaches insisted that J buy a whole bag for RMB12 (less than SGD3).



She's smiling because she probably fleeced us! The peaches were big but not sweet and apparently they were sold a lot cheaper elsewhere. But oh well, it's just a few dollars. :)