Mirror mirror on the wall…

My beauty blogger version of mirror mirror on the wall ❤

Some days I dream, I wish I was eighteen

Do you remember what you were like and what you enjoyed when you were eighteen?

Dejavu.

Dinner and champagne brunch in Singapore – A special Kitchen Table at W Hotel THIS WEEKEND

It’s no secret that I’m a massive thundering screaming poster-holding fan of the W Hotel and general SPG group. Most of you – friends and followers of this blog – might have seen my multiple pictures in and around the W Hotel and related SPG hotels. The funky decor, top-notch service and comfortably chic vibe, make all the Starwood Preferred Group hotels a totally lovable and livable place.

Holidaying at W Hotel Taipei, Taiwan

Eating, sleeping and working during my 2 week business trip at Fourpoints in North Carolina, USA

Weekend in Aloft Bangkok – a younger, big value multi-facility hotel concept by the W Hotel.

You can only imagine my glee when W Hotel Singapore called me and asked if I’d like to have a special dinner at their hotel’s flagship restaurant? “Let me check my calendar,” I say with a usual professionalism, while proceeding to salivate all over my living room floor. Two things my heart throbs for – good food, and all sorts of hotels. Combine the two, and I assure you, I am completely excited to wind down this weekend at The Kitchen Table, W Hotel Singapore.

I expect sugar, spice and everything nice – This is one treat for the tummy not to be missed! Freshly flown in just for THIS WEEKEND ONLY, from June 7th – 9th, revered Executive Chefs of Spice Market Restaurants – Anthony Ricco (W Hotel New York) and Peter Lloyd (W Hotel London) – will cook for all W Hotel Singapore guests at The Kitchen Table restaurant during dinner time THIS Friday and Saturday, and brunch on Sunday. (More details at this link.)

Spice Market was the brainchild of team of Culinary Concepts, created by famed chef and restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Indulging in his Asian experiences and love of spice and far eastern ingredients, Spice Market restaurants can be found across the USA, London, Bora Bora, Kauai, Abu Dhabi and at W Doha. Enjoy this international sizzle this weekend at W Hotel Singapore

Char Grilled Chicken Kumquat Lemongrass Dressing

Hamachi Sashimi, Soy-Ginger Dressing, Radish and Avocado

Pork Vindaloo, Crispy Herbs and Leeks

Spiced Chicken Samosas, Cilantro Yogurt

May I remind you again – only for THIS WEEKEND, not one but two kitchen legends will be cooking up a storm at W Hotel’s Kitchen Table. Set in the feels-like-an-escape-but-you’re-actually-still-in-Singapore Sentosa Cove, the scenery won’t be so bad – you only have to tolerate the idyllic view of W Hotel’s gigantic night-lit pool. I used to work in F&B, and I like to appreciate the people that make my food good great. Do you?

W NEW YORK’S EXECUTIVE CHEF ANTHONY RICCO has been an integral part of Culinary Concept Hospitality Group’s team since he joined Spice Market in 2005. He is responsible for the operation and success of Spice Market New York. THE restaurant’s operations serves up dishes to 700 people, coming in and out over a normal night on weekends. Anthony Ricco has been a guest of LXTV, Martha Stewart Living Radio, De Gustibus Cooking School and The James Beard Foundation.

W LONDON’S EXECUTIVE CHEF PETER LLOYD has held senior positions in some of London’s most demanding kitchens, and his cooking career seems to me like a dreamy soap opera. Being selected to join a team cooking for H.M the Queen and members of the Royal Family, alongside the King and Queen of Malaysia. After involvement in several successful restaurant launches, Peter was approached by Sir Anthony & Lady Bamford to act a private chef aboard their luxury yacht and their estates in the UK and the Caribbean. He accepted and in the following year, travelled extensively, cooking at prestigious events like the Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival and the Monaco Grand Prix. Peter appeared on Masterchef on numerous occasions, opened and ran cooking masterclasses for children and launched other ventures within the group.

DINNER AT THE KITCHEN TABLE: 7-8 JUNE 2013
SGD65++ International buffet, SPG members enjoy 15% discount.

SUNDAY REMIX: 9TH JUNE 2013
– Inclusive of 2 restaurants, THE KITCHEN TABLE and SKIRT cuisines
$108++ International buffet, OR
$148++ INCLUDING FREE FLOW OF CHAMPAGNE.
SPG members enjoy 15% discount.

Join SPG for free today and receive this 15% discount among others.

If you see me at the W Hotel’s Kitchen Table this weekend stuffing my face with all things sugar, spice and nice, please say hi but let me know first if there’s anything stuck in between my teeth or around my mouth.

This is an advertorial/promo review for The W Hotel, Sentosa Cove.

My funny, daily, delicious life at Raffles Place

“Yeah!” I thought to myself, after successful morning meetings and lunch meetings. Finding a decent spot around the grassy patch of Raffles Place, I sit down for a break and whip out my phone.

I was quite engrossed with my social media updates but I noticed my surroundings. A well-dressed not repugnant man circles me. He wasn’t tall but he wasn’t short, looked about early 30s and had his work clothes crisply over a nice watch. He wasn’t bad looking, but I know he was up to something. As I kept my eyes on my phone, I felt his eyes on me. I watched him as he watched me.

I was actually thinking about a reply to an email, when he finally sits next to me and opens with “Hi, I’m a part of a Bachelor party dare…”

I swing my head around to stare squarely at him, and then around me. I didn’t see any other guys standing around, nor any potential PUNK’D type of video cameras.

“Where is the rest of the Bachelor squad? The wolfgang pack?” I ask.

“They are in a room at Fullerton Hotel, and we need a female to witness the groom-to-be doing a striptease.” Well dressed early 30s man explains.

“A full striptease? Take out everything?” I ask incredulously.

“Yes.”

“On a Tuesday?” Nevermind the groom-to-be’s undies – I was more shocked that they wanted to do this on a Tuesday.

“Ya, my friend is the boss of the company so most of us have the day off for it.”

Do I look meek and vulnerable or am I wearing Yves Saint Lauren “Ask me for bad and illegal things” perfume? I smiled politely as I pretended to think about this.

Even the eager beaver boys next to the Standard Chartered poster nearby holding survey clipboards would give me a pen for my time (or maybe even, points for a free holiday if I decided to sign up). Do I get a free Takashimaya shopping voucher for subjecting my eyes to a FULL striptease from a man that I (hopefully) don’t know? Probably not. My friend Christine would probably ask to see a photo of the stripping guy if she was in my situation. She might not even go through with it, but I know she’d at least be curious to see what he looks like.

“I have a meeting in 15 minutes, but thanks for trying.” I kindly rejected the offer.

“How about after your meeting? We can do it after your meeting.” He persisted. I don’t think there was a long line of ladies for him to pick from.

“I have meetings, though, so I won’t have the time today but good luck with the special day.” I pushed it off nicely. I also offered some suggestions of things he could do and shook his hand. He thanked me for my time and disappeared as quickly as he had appeared.

I read a couple more emails on my phone and take off as well. Walking into Raffles Place MRT, a thought shot through – “Maybe I should have asked to see the photo of the stripping man?…” Not like it would have made a difference.
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Would you have said yes?

A video of a song I wrote + me singing + playing the piano + talking + making faces

My video entry for Charmaine Yee’s #HotFMDateMeDavid contest. YouTube singing sensation David Choi is in Singapore lah. I’m not so much a singer, nor a sensation, so I decided to hack a new song from the first line of his first song…

PS: This is my FIRST time writing a song. And singing it. And recording it. All at the same time. Don’t laugh all at once!
(I guess Rome was built in a day after all)

OCBC Money Insights advice: E-banking = EASY banking

Read my first post HERE to find out why my handbag has no receipts anymore.

If you don’t want to crowd your handbag with ugly stacks of receipts, or manually track your expenses with excel or an iPhone app, then OCBC’s new Money In$ights banking tool is super valuable. Best of all, it’s free! (But of course.)

<strong>Why is this a good tool? </strong> Probably because it’s the small things that matter. When you add little expenditures together, you might get a shock at how much money has wafted out of your pocket, just like this cartoon guy in the video. (Poor, poor guy. Literally.)

I don’t know about you, but my guilty pleasure is taking taxis. Late here, lazy there. $10 here, $15 there… Before I know it, I have $200 missing from my bank account that month. (Taxis are getting so expensive lah.) There is power in knowing how much you’re spending and how much you’re saving. I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty powerless right now.

What OCBC Money Insights does is keep track of where you’re spending your money, so you can start deciding how to save your money.

You can view your spending by bright and appetizing pie-charts too, if you like that sort of thing.

The data in the system also offers you a median explanation of how other people like you are spending their money. Are they earning more than you? Maybe. Are they saving more than you? Likely.

Don’t cry for me Argentina.

Set individual budgets for each category to help you stay on track with your finances. The system even sends you kind reminders through SMS and email alerts when you’re coming close to blowing the budget.

The full step by step E-BANKING EASY-BANKING guide is available through OCBC’s website.

Ladyxtel, Melissa Celestine and I are all smiles now – knowing how to turn our spendings into savings. If this rich new service and cute pictures doesn’t convince you to become an OCBC customer, I don’t know what will.

I have to figure out which bank gives me maximum return % on my savings, but other than that, I am seriously considering using OCBC now for my personal spending account. What do you think?

Bang for your buck: New banking tool OCBC Money Insights kicks banking butt

There was once in Secondary school (I went to Temasek Sec), my teacher actually put my name into a math question – probably to get my maximum attention. I still got the answer wrong. Nothing has changed and I am still currently quite lousy at math. Let’s test YOURS!

If you have a $5 pizza slice for lunch on Monday, a $9.50 salad from SaladStop on Tuesday, went out for dinner with a friend after work at Sushi Tei which costs $22.30, had more lunches on the rest of the week, went for a few drinks and took a bunch of taxi rides (Robertson Quay and Dempsey Hill isn’t so near an MRT lah), how much would you have spent that week?

Can’t remember?

Multiply that by 4 weeks in a month.

4 x No idea!

At the end of the month, I usually know I spent my money – but I can’t quite remember how I spent it exactly.

OCBC organized a bloggers’ event last week and they completely kicked butt with a categorise-your-receipts-in-the-fastest-amount-of-time game. Boy did I suck at it. I think at the end of 1 minute, I had only managed to sort out 4 out of my 40 or so receipts!

Things were confusing and messy.

If there was an award for the worst performer of the game, I would be presented with it.

Not only was the game difficult, but it was also horrifyingly realistic. In my world, I probably DO receive at least 40 receipts over a period of a month – IF I even collect EVERY receipt from my purchases of the month. Which I usually don’t bother to.

Who wants to walk around with a stack of paper in your wallet or handbag? So unglam, can?

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.If you don’t like carrying around a handbag full of receipts like me, click here to find out how you can get more bang for your buck. (Don’t worry, of course it’s not going to cost you money to save money lah.)

I don’t want this post to be too long, so check out my next blog post for a more detailed look at this new e-banking tool.