Tag Archive for Friends

Long Weekend Holiday in Penang

12 September 2013 Holiday No comments

Having always intended to visit Penang, I finally decided to book-up a nice long weekend last weekend. I joined with a work colleague, and the two of us just wanted to enjoy the time away and have a good time eating, walking and drinking 🙂

The good news is that I managed to finally use the S$50 discount that I received from Tiger Airlines after my complaint following my trip to Hong Kong late last year, so it was pretty reasonable 🙂 The total cost of the flight was just over S$150 (so £75) – brilliant, hey? 🙂

We decided to leave late on Friday, 7th September after work, and we arrived in good time before the rush-hour. The flight left at 5pm, so it was a good time to leave. We both decided to use the Priority Pass membership to get into one of the Lounges. It was the Green Market in Terminal 2 – which basically was a loung with a Japanese restaurant. It was okay, wasn’t really what I expected, but at least the food and drinks were free. The flight was largely uneventful, and we arrived just over an hour and 15 minutes in Penang international airport. I booked a taxi pick-up from my hotel, and the taxi was waiting as planned. It cost 45RM (about S$17), which wasn’t too bad. I didn’t realised how far George Town was from the airport, the airport was on the South of Penang island, whilst George Town (hotel was just near to George Town) was towards the North of the island. We arrived in good time, and was welcomed into the hotel.

The hotel was actually very nice – a truly refreshing boutique Museum hotel – located a stone throw from the centre of George Town (just look for the Zurich Office landmark, located nearby to find your way back to the hotel!). It is a fascinating place, built as a colonial home, with plenty of antiques and artifacts on display. The service is excellent, the front desk and the lounge staff are truly pleasant, they certainly help out as much as they can.

While the breakfast choice is limited to 4 dishes, which you are required to order before 10pm the preceding day, it actually is perfect for my needs, although a little limited in terms of choice. They serve it with style and grace and it is top quality indeed, and you eat it in such a nice breakfast room, you just can’t help but chill and relax as you plan your day ahead. The front desk and staff really are very supportive and are keen to help you in any way they can, and are very pleasant, and are always smiling.

The next few days we spent walking around George Street, finding pleasant places to eat, places to relax and chill, and enjoy the sight and sounds of this delightful place. We managed to do quite a bit, and ate most of the key things that we had to eat in Penang, so a bonus! My friend left on the Sunday evening, whilst I took off Monday as well – and managed to do another walk around George street. I actually found a nice tea shop, which I found on Trip Advisor – Huang Chen Hao Tea Art Shop (also known as ‘Wuyi Tea Art Centre’), located on Jalan Campbell (Campbell Street), I ended up talking to the owner for about 2 hours, sipping the tea, and also made a purchase – as I found it sooo refreshing.

I would definitely recommend a visit to Penang – and I think about 3-4 days is just the right amount of time – but overall an enjoyable trip.

More Holiday’s Planned

18 August 2013 Family and Friends, Holiday, Trip No comments

Well having come back from the wedding and my extended holiday in Langkawi, I knew I had to book some more holiday’s. I already have a self-made long weekend trip to Penang in early September so that’s a start.

I also am planning a trip to Boracay in Philippines with a few work colleagues and friends, and also looking to do another trip to Taiwan again. I also need to schedule a trip back to the UK to catch-up with my friends and family – and I think if I can work it out, I could do a part-holiday, part-work in the Brighton office, as one option to minimise the utilisation of my 2013 holiday leave. I then need to see what I want to do around Christmas – I was thinking of working towards the end, and do the odd day off, but maybe I could visit Hong Kong over Christmas again. We’ll see.

I better get cracking with the scheduling – as they say, work never finishes, so unless I get my finger out, none of the above will ‘happen’!!

Neha’s and Neel’s Indian Wedding in Langkawi

12 August 2013 Holiday, Trip No comments

It has been months in the planning, but we have all been anticipating the wedding of the year Рwith a good work colleague and her fianc̩, inviting a number of her Amex colleagues to the Indian wedding located at the WestIn in Langkawi, Malaysia.

I knew it was a going to be a good, and I also knew it would involve a LOT of drinking and enjoyment, and it didn’t disappoint.

A core group arrived on Thursday 1st August around midday, with another group arriving on the Friday.  The Mehendi was scheduled for the Friday, 2nd August for the ladies, the Sangeet during the evening and the Wedding Ceremony was on the Saturday, 3rd August.  Basically 3 days of “hard work” 🙂

It was such a gracious ceremony, and it was a great location to chill, relax and celebrate a great wedding ceremony.

Congratulations to Neha and Neel – I wish you many years of joy and happiness together…

Level 33 Sunday Roast with Chums!

30 July 2013 Food No comments

I always wanted to try out the Sunday Roast at Level 33, so managed to get a group of us together and we decided to give it a go! Well it’s better to enjoy a setting like this with chums!  It’s a bar located in MBFC Tower 1 (Standard Chartered Bank tower) – and ergh… is on the 33rd floor…go figure!!

Great View from Level 33 Balcony

Great View from Level 33 Balcony

I actually did the booking via their reservation booking system, provided by a service provider called “Chope” – it seemed to go through very smoothly, so I was pretty impressed.  It even sends you an email alert to remind you a few days before the booking – nice touch! 🙂

The setting was very nice at Level 33, I’ve been before for an after work dinner and drinks in 2011, during my previous Singapore secondment, but haven’t tried their roast before!    The roast is S$38++, so a little on the pricey side.

The food was amazing, thoroughly enjoyable, there was a good atmosphere, although with this ‘posh’ setting, it wasn’t really the feel of a ‘pub’ or ‘bar’ as such.  We also wanted to give the microbrewery brew ago, so as we couldn’t decide, we decided to give the ‘sampler’ option – which gives you 5 half-pints tasters…it was a toughie, but I actually enjoyed the House Porter over the others, including their Stout.  The sampler costs S$20.88++, but gives you a good array of tasty beer options to try throughout the meal.

We tried the following: Stout, Pale Ale, Blond Lager, Special Seasonal Brew, and a Wheat brew.  We also created the House Porter with the mix of the Stout and Pale Ale – my favourite of the 5 brews we tried.

The panoramic view is simply amazing from Level 33 – so we decided to have a coffee from the balcony and enjoy the view…

Great Panoramic View

Great Panoramic View

LeVeL33 Craft-Brewery, Restaurant and Lounge
8 Marina Boulevard #33-01
Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 1
Singapore 018981
Tel: +65 6834 3133
URL: http://www.level33.com.sg

Mad Men Attic Bar – Circular Road

23 July 2013 Food No comments

A group of us previously aimed to visit Mad Men Attic Bar a few weeks back – having just opened earlier this year, but our visit was postponed due to various timing challenges, so we managed to get another date sorted.

The bar is located at North Canal Road, near to Boat Quay and Circular Road, but it is tucked away from the main street – so you definitely need to know where to go before you go 🙂 It is actually quite a nice place – mainly due being positioned as a roof-top bar, above some shop houses. It has a great buzz up there, but it is quite an intimate place, so the main outside sitting area is very popular.

We cocktails were pretty good, although the food is quite ‘interesting’ – they are trying to ‘posh’ up the food, which in my opinion is not needed.  I just wanted ordinary fries, not one soaked with truffle oil – whilst it’s ‘nice’, it is simply a bit too over-powering for me (personally)…especially when you are just after the classic ‘fries’ taste.   The life music was pretty good too, with some great tunes sounding out, however I would say due to the limited space, it was probably a bit too loud to really ‘enjoy’, as you struggled to hold a conversation above the music.

Service is also a bit hit and miss too – I think they need more staff, and the issue is also that you can’t tell who is a staff member and who is joe-public – sometimes they serve you at the table, other times you have to go to the bar to order – it’s just a bit too hit and miss for my liking…especially when you also try to identify the bar staff – haha!  In fact, two of us tried to get the attention of passing guests, rather than staff, who looked at us blankly – whoops 🙂

Anyway, it’s worth to pay a visit, but I think it’s a one hit wonder.

The Mad Men Attic Bar
11 North Canal Road #03-02
Singapore 048826
Tel: +65 6222 3529
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Mad-Men-Attic-Bar/468047046574709

Bank Bar and Bistro Tuesday Pub Quiz

18 July 2013 Entertainment, Family and Friends, Marina Bay No comments

Having missed out a couple of quiz nights over the past month, I decided to make the effort and turn up this time – I can’t say no to a fun night with a few friends, and to Guinness (shock horror).

I also made a special effort to ensure work didn’t get in the way which has happened to the previous sessions.

The Bank Pub Quiz is scheduled twice a month (every other Tuesday), and it was actually a good venue for it – being in close proximity of the office, but far enough to relax in a great setting.

We did pretty well – ended up in the middle of the table by the end of the night, and I actually did well answering some of the questions – and focused on one particular round (the tunes we want to pretend we don’t know) – well I was brought up in the 80’s and 90’s – haha!

I definitely will do it again soon…

Indoor Rock Climbing (again) – What Fun!!

7 July 2013 Exercise, Family and Friends No comments

Another weekend, another session to chill and relax with chums. We decided to go for another indoor rock climbing episode, and I really enjoyed it the last time we went out.

This time, there was only a few of us, and I must admit I was shattered this time around, so I didn’t manage to attack many of the walls or routes this time, but I did 3 runs and reached the time each time, which was enjoyable.

I must get into a more regular routine, and maybe should sign up to a class – ‘cos it really is great fun 🙂

Onsight Climbing Gym
100 Guillemard Road
Guillemard Village
Singapore 399718
Tel: +65 6348 8272
URL: http://onsight.com.sg

Zsofi Tapas Bar – Fun Dinner

5 July 2013 Food No comments

After a hard day at work, it’s always good fun to get a group of us out for drinks and dinner.  We decided to give a Tapas Bar a try, having received a review from a work colleague – the key to the recommendation was free Tapas for every drink purchased during the evening – nice 🙂  Yup that got my attention too!!  Haha!

It’s towards the Little India district, just off Serangoon Road.  We went there around 8pm, and it wasn’t that busy, they seemed to have 2 parts of the restaurant, one a sit-down area, but this excluded the free Tapas offer, all the ‘bar’ side which offered a lounge type area and outdoor roof-top area, and of course the free Tapas.

It turned out to be a fun night, and was truly delicious – I would definitely recommend to give it a go, although I wouldn’t say the Sangria was the best, however, the Tapas were yummy!!

Zsofi Tapas Bar
68 Dunlop Street
Singapore, 209396
Telephone: +65 6297 5875
Mobile: +65 842 842 84
Email: info@tapasbar.com.sg
URL: http://www.tapasbar.com.sg

Sunday Roast with Chums at Retrospective Bar

18 June 2013 Food No comments
Retro Cocktails!

Retro Cocktails!

A couple of friends wanted to attend a ‘Sunday Roast’ event with me, knowing that I’ve been trying out several places already, around Singapore.

I have already been Muddy Murphy (in Orchard), Penny Black (Boat Quay) and the Bank (Raffles Place) – and I think one other place – already.  So this time, having done a bit of research, I found another few places to try.

The website City Nomads already done the main bit of research for me, so it was quite easy to then choose one from here.  I didn’t want us to travel far, so I will probably check out some of the far reached places another time, so we settled for Retrospective – which is meant to be a retro bar with a great Roast.  As one of the guests doesn’t eat beef, I also ensured we chose one with another ‘roast’ option.

Roast Beef - Looks Bland, Tastes Good!

Roast Beef – Looks Bland, Tastes Good!

It wasn’t that busy – but they did have another table of 6 and 2 when I arrived.  The music and atmosphere definitely was pretty retro, and it was a nice setting.

The location is near to a family friend’s place of work, and Outram Park was just around the corner – which is where I was staying for a few weeks when I first came out to Singapore at the beginning of this year – so I knew the area pretty well already.

It was a short walk from Outram Park MRT, and there were quite a few nice bars and restaurants around – so I am certainly going to return and try out some of these again.

And my views of the meal, it was nice – definitely good quality of beer, nicely cooked (medium), but I must say the dish looked a bit dull and bland (but it was tasty), due to the colours featured.  They hid the veg under the meat, so it looked pretty brown throughout the dish.  I would say 7 out of 10 for the beef Sunday Roast dish.

 

Retrospective Bar and Restaurant
21 Keong Saik Road
Singapore 089128
Tel:            +65 6223 1334
E-mail:       info@retrospective.com.sg
URL:          http://www.retrospective.com.sg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/retro.sg

Cycling Along East Coast Park

17 June 2013 Exercise No comments

I haven’t been cycling for what feels like weeks (actually it probably is almost 2 months now!) so I knew this was going to be a good ride from the outset.

I met up a work colleague at 4pm at the local Burger King at ECP – we managed to stay clear from buying anything there though! – and we went to the bike hire company next door.  We went for the $8 per hour bike, and took up their $13 each for a 2 hour stint (they actually had an offer which was buy 2 hours get another hour fee – so it turned out to be $13 for 3 hours).  That’s pretty reasonable methinks.

We headed along eastward, and before long we arrived at the Food Court at ECP – we stopped off for a Sugar Cane and Chicken Wings break – which was delicious – and then we decided to head off further east.  After about an hour we had made it to the south-east edge – we then relaxed for a few minutes, before we headed north – towards the Changi perimter road – and we went on and on.  The good thing about this ride is that it is very flat, and the cycle lanes are nicely laid out, there is also less people as you move east, so it became a nice tranquil ride.  We reached about half-way up along the Changi Airport perimeter, and we then noted that we had to head back soon, as we had a house waming engagement at 7pm.  I think we could have easily continued – and another 10 minutes, we would have reached the top of Changi airport and then reach Changi Village.  I think we will eventually do that next time, because that would create another opportunity to relax and chill, before we head back to base.

It took us another 45 minutes and we finally reached back to the cycle hire shop near Burger King.

I think we did a 2 hr 30 minute ride (with 20 minutes worth of rest in-between) – a total of 25km round-trip.  Nice!  I worked out that if we went all the way to Changi village, it would be a 17km journey one-way, that’s a 34km round trip, so another 10km cycling – ouch!

Cycling Along ECP

Cycling Along ECP – Our Route

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