of little fOotprints - oCtober 2011

Bye bye October.

This month, we have been blissfully married for 03 years! We had a short getaway at The Sentosa and ended off with a relaxing massage session at Spa Botanica. I always love the "Bali" feel at The Sentosa.

our room 2011

us before dinner

the breakfast spread at Terrace

the Honey spread at Terrace

the drinks section at Terrace

Many TWGs to choose from!

my simple breakfast

plain porridge

my morning juices

Spa Botanica

Contrary to everyone's belief, I passed my Traffic Police test on the very 1st attempt on 04 October 2011!!! This really is one of the highlight in this year for me!

First attempt @ TP Test! - I Passed

It has been super fun attending classes at BBDC over the past 2 months, especially with all the great instructors from Grp 8011. Special thanks to Mr Ker Sam, Mr Lim, Mr Pang, Mdm Chua, Mr Sim, Mr Lee, Mr Gan, Mr Leow and Mr Teo for all your valuable teachings!

Passing TP test is one thing, but actual driving on the road is another. It's been almost 1 month since I got my license, thanks to the coaching of zh, I am more confident now.

One day while driving pass Bukit Batok area, I saw car 113! This was one of the car I was taught in!

My learning car!

I am loving polka dots these day. This month, I did my 1st pink French manicure with white polka dots tip. Am really loving it!

Polka Dots!

This month, we also embarked on a healthier lifestyle by trying to run for at least 30mins each session. It sure was tiring and I hope to continue!

Tired us after a run at NTU

Good food is never missing from our life and this month, we discovered a few hot spots!

A good and quiet French-Japanese restaurant tucked away in a secluded corner in siglap! I love the food.

Etoile @ Siglap

A nice pasta/western food restaurant in Sunset way. We love their set dinner and pasta so much that we visited this place twice this month. If you happened to be a Safra card holder, you are entitled to 10% discount for ala carte dishes (above $50).

Buttercake N cream @ Sunset way

Ristorante de Valentino, an Italian restaurant that is strongly recommended by I&S! However, one man's meat is another man's poison. This is probably true for us in this case.

Ristorante de Valentino @ Rifle range road

This October, these words have the strongest impact on me:

在最悲伤的时候，不能失去信念
在最幸福的时候，不能忘记挫折

I came across them when I was very very sad. 不能失去信念!

Can god please help me?

[Fun] Cycling at ECP

Haven't cycled for the longest time ever.

Today, we headed over to ECP for a cycling session. For $10, we got 2 hours to cycle.

The weather is good, quite windy and it makes cycling very relaxing.










After 2 hours of cycling, our back were really numb. Why can't there be better cushioning for cycling seat?

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[Eat] my favOurite breakfaSt ~ Ya Kun

A traditional breakfast!
One of my favourite morning indulgence!

A sip of coffee, 2 half boiled eggs and a nicely toasted butter kaya slice!



What else can beat this heavenly combination?

Thanks dear for giving me such a great meal!

[Eat] Ristorante De Valentino

Happy Deepavali!

We managed to book a precious dining space at Ristorante de Valentino today!
The legendary crab meat linguine that Ivan has been telling us about and thus, we decided to try it out on this precious day!

Met Sw & Zz and we drove in to this rather deserted place at Rifle Range Road.
It really is inaccessible and parking spaces are really limited.
Luckily we got the 6pm slot and managed to park along the minor road.

The restaurant is quite a homely setting and seating spaces are really limited.
No wonder reservations are needed.

To make a direct comparison between La Cantina & Valentino, we decided to order the same dishes.

Appetizer: Parma Ham with twisted mozzarella cheese
When this dish was first served, i was shocked.
The Parma ham serving was very generous and it came as a separate dish.
On the other dish was the twisted mozzarella cheese with baby tomatoes.
For us, the best part about this dish is to sample the cheese, ham and tomato together.
The baby tomatoes were really juicy! The juice simply burst out when you bite it in your mouth. *thumbs up*
The parma ham is best eaten together with the cheese and tomato cos it is simply too salty to be eaten alone.
The Mozzarella cheese pale in comparison with that of Burrata cheese.

Verdict: We (all 4) still prefer the Burrata cheese at La Cantina. But we also agree that the baby tomato was simply too delicious! *slurp*

Main Course: Squid Ink Fettucine tossed with Crabmeat in Creamy Tomato Sauce
The serving is smaller as compared to the one served at La Cantina.
In a battle between Fettucine vs Linguine, my personal preference is still Linguine.
Having tried the squid ink linguine at La Cantina, my choice is still La Cantina.
However, Valentino's serving of crab meat is really chunky!
Creamy tomato sauce is still won by La Cantina.

Because hubby decided to be special, he was the only one that ordered a different dish ~ Stuffed Pasta with Porcini mushroom perfumed with Truffle Oil.
We were all so shocked again when his dish was presented.
The serving was small.
Oh man! We can literally count the number of stuffed pasta on the plate.

Bill!!!
This came as a greater shock to us.
Gosh, this dinner was all about being in a trance of shock! haha...
A dinner with just 1 appetizer and 4 pasta cost us $200!

My eyes popped out when i see the bill!
The "killer" turns out to be the appetizer.
No wonder the parma ham was served separately away from the mozzarella cheese.

This is definitely costly as compared to us dining at La Cantina.
A bill of $100 could fetch us 2 serving of drinks in addition to our appetizer and main course.

We walked away feeling unsatisfied. Really.
I wondered when we will revisit this place again as long as La Cantina still lives on.
It was a hands down victory for us personally where this battle is concerned.

Till the next time maybe?

[Eat] Buttercake N Cream

Today we chanced upon a nice western restaurant ~ Buttercake N Cream at Sunset way.

Buttercake N cream @ Sunset Way

We have passed by this restaurant many times thinking it sells only coffee, pastries and desserts like what it's signboard has written. However, that is not all that this small restaurant has to offer.

Beside indoor dining, there is also an Alfresco dining area. The restaurant has installed fans, a lovely thoughts.

We opted for their set dinner.

Set dinner for 2!

Appetiser: Chef's Wild Mushroom Soup
~ Tasted Nice and Normal

Appetiser: Seafood Cocktail Salad which comprise of baby octopus drizzled in thai salad dressing

Roasted Teriyaki Chicken Leg that comes with chicken sausage
~its so delicious that we have forgotten to take the picture

Grilled Pork Collar ~ Yummy!

Coffee Chocolate Doodle
~ Sinfully delicious!

Coffee, Chocolate and Vanilla Tart coated with peanuts 

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

The food was good.
We enjoyed it so much.

A place that we will definitely revisit!

[ThOts] week 1 of passiNg my TP test

Times flies.
1 week and 1 day since I last passed my traffic police test.

This 1 week has been a roller coaster ride emotionally!

Day 1: On the very evening of earning my license, I drove to dinner at West Coast Plaza and subsequently home. I had to do a U turn at the busy Clementi junction and it was really scary! Subsequently after dinner, zh made me travel on AYE to go home. This is my first NIGHT experience travelling on expressway and gosh! It was really scary as the cars are all very fast. Tonight is also the first time that I am driving up multi story carpark. I was so scared that I would "kiss" the walls! If that really happened, zh would definitely kill me!

Day 2: Still feeling excited to be driving, so I drove to work from home. What used to be a 10 mins ride turn out to be a 25 mins ride with me behind the wheels. That evening, I drove home from Siglap (28kM). Was again traveling on expressway and this time - ECP! Voom voom voom! The cars are really traveling at a fast speed and I keep strictly to my 1st lane. Was so afraid of lane change..

Day 3: Apart from driving home, I drove daddy & mummy to airport! A total of 31 km covered and traveled on SLE, CTE and TPE! What a milestone! It was also the first time that I drove at 80/90 kmh! At such speed, it's really hard to keep the car in the centre of the lane. Any slight movement on the steering would caused the car to steer off course easily! So scary. Nearing the airport, I nearly knocked into a bus which is exiting from side road.. Luckily I braked hard!

Day 5: The group decided to try some atas restaurant selling French- Japanese food at Siglap. So after picking up CY, we headed over to the East! First time traveling on the expressway during the day. Still super scared of having to lane change and traffic was very busy.

Day 6: First time driving ZH to 354, and he sure is delighted! At night, we drove to school for our newly embarked hobby! I nearly got into an accident again as it was a merging lane and the car beside me was traveling too fast and so was my speed. So scary! Must be careful ar!

Day 7: Drove to work as usual today and nearly got into an accident. As I was doing lane change to my left, another car was trying to do a lane change to his right (which is my lane)! We nearly collided! It was damn nerve wreaking! When I was a learner, I simply check blind spot for the sake of doing it to prevent getting marked! But after getting the license, it's for own and passenger's safety!

After 1 week of driving, I think this is really no joking matter! I don't have the confidence at all without the instructors or anyone by my side! I wonder if all new drivers feel this way!

Also, I really can't stand those drivers who keep honking at 'P' plate drivers! C'mon everyone has to go through this phrase of learning and adapting to new road conditions after getting their license. Who has the privilege of being an experienced driver right from graduation? So, please be friendly. Don't keep honking at us! It does no good and only serve to freak us out further!

[Eat] Friends gathering at Etoile

Tucked away in a serene corner in siglap is Etoile Restaurant which serves French-Japanese dining.

After picking up CY in the west, ZH allows me to drive all the way down to our gathering place. This was Day 5 of me earning my license!

Unless u drive, this restaurant is simply too inaccessible for public. According to JY, this is a very popular restaurant and reservation is needed to avoid disappointment.

So we made ours.

When we reached the restaurant, we were surprised by the quietness. There were nobody else except us. It would really be terrible if their lunch crowd on a Saturday is just this size.

Courtesy of JY,








Escargots sur portobello |16|
Snails served on baked Portobello with garlic butter & chives emulsi




Tai sashimi et foie gras Avec la truffe miso |15|
Tai Sashimi & Miso glazed foie gras with baby spinach on truffle miso

Both were really unique appetizer.
It's my first time sampling snail and tai sashimi.

Etoile has a very affordable set lunch which is available at $26. Compared to the rest of the menu, this set lunch is a good catch!



























Despite only having us as customers, the dishes were served pretty slowly. Not sure if it is part of this 'French' thingy.

However, the food is good.

So, if you are interested, Etoile is located at 1 Figaro Street, Singapore 458322.

Link is www.Etoile.com.sg


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[Celebrate] Office pizza lunch

Today, all of us lunched in.
We ordered our favorite pizza!

Boss is on vegan diet today so we ordered a personal pan pizza veggie lover flavor for him.

For the rest of us, we got their cheesy bites pizza and normal regular pizza to share. Flavors wise was easy to reach a consensus as all of us wanted hawaiian flavor and seafood supreme!

Look at the amount of food we ordered?











I am amazed by the number of chicken wings and drumlets we have ordered! But it was the first to be gone!

Today is the first time ever that I tried a pizza apart from Hawaiian flavor. Ocean Supreme is really nice. I love the tuna in the pizza! *yummy*

The cheesy bites version of the pizza is also hotly received by everyone in office.

Boss promised to have another office lunch should we hit 15K of sales daily during non-promotional month! The treat would be Sushi Tei!

玩太大了!

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[BBDC] mY dRiving exPerience @ BBDC の i pasSed mY TP teSt!!!

Date: 04 October 2011
Warm up: 10.45am
Test time: 11.45am
Venue: BBDC
Weather: Rainy
Attempt: 1st
Test route: #1 (Teck Whye)

Wow! Woke up this morning to a rainy day!
It is my TP test date.
Was hoping that the rain would stop by the time my test begins at 11.45am but alias...
I try to comfort myself by saying that by having "bad" weather, it would be compensated with "good" instructor.
This is all the more so after hearing from my instructor that there is a "thumb-up" tester that gives high failure rate to his students...

ZH bought me to 373 for a satisfying breakfast before we headed off to BBDC.
I was really nervous and butterflies were all in my stomach!

After scanning the NRIC, i passed the slip, my PDL and NRIC to the staff at the information counter before heading over to the small room to wait for the warm up. During the wait, i was trying my very best to calm myself down.
My warm-up instructor was Mr Woo. A nice and friendly guy.
He could tell that i am very nervous and told me to calm down and take it as if its just another practice session.
I got car 131 for today TP test. While at the waiting area, my group instructors drove by and waved at me! It helps to lighten my mood slightly.

The warm up finally commence at 10.45am.
During this warm up, we were allowed to do 1 circuit and 1 test route.
I must say it was quite terrible during my warm up session as i was so nervous!

#Vertical Parking
I couldn't went in the 1st attempt and had to do corrections. Something which i dread. The more actions, the more chances for mistakes.

#Ramp
Jerky!
And the ground was wet and slippery.
I was so afraid that i would hit the pole and KO!

#Directional Change
I "banged" into the wall when entering the directional change course and my instructor has to hit the brake hard.
I got no explanation for this and all Mr Woo could say is to ask me to calm down.

#Road
There are only 3 instructions from the TP tester.
- Turn left
- U- turn
- Go straight

*I just learned that!!!
When the tester says "Go straight", that means prepare to lane change once. It doesn't mean go straight!
That is a trick question, wasn't it?

After the warm up, we proceed to the waiting area at level 2.
I was praying for a reasonable tester and not the "thumbs-up" tester.
And haha, i got a seemingly friendly tester.
My test route is #1.
By not getting the "thumbs-up" tester, the rest is on myself to perform and pass.

The key is really not to be nervous.
I keep reminding myself that it is only a 30 minutes show and thus, must perform well.

But i guess, nervousness still got the better of me.
When we entered the car, i signaled left to move out of the lot even before i release my handbrake and changing to "Drive" mode. *faintz* I only realised that after my car didn't move after i step on the accelerator! *Haha*

Lucky the instructor didn't fault me for that.
Best, i also didn't turn on the wiper until i was about to do my first circuit course.
Lucky the rain wasn't heavy.

#TP circuit の Ramp
That was my first test subject. I had to do a right turn at 12. As lesson have just begin not too long ago, the circuit was full of cars. Even though test car got priority, a training car cut my lane and i had to brake. =(

Ramp is one of my key weakness in the circuit. I tried my best to be super cautious and not hit the pole. *Thankfully*

#TP circuit の Slope
Got through this one smoothly too.

#TP circuit の Vertical Parking
For once, i got it right in at my very first attempt.
I must have been so excited that i forget to reverse all the way.
When i told the tester that i have completed, he told me that it is still incomplete as the front of my car is still protruding. Quickly adjust!
While reminding myself that i can only steer left after kerb reaching the shoulder, i forget one of the most critical thing - Adjustment of mirrors!!! I only realised that after i am out of the vertical parking.

#TP circuit の Directional Change

My directional change was done at spot 23.

This was a well-hidden lot and i had to turn right in.

Lucky, over the past few revision classes, my instructors allowed me to practice quite a few times here.

#TP circuit の Crank Course

I had to right turn into the crank course and because i just got out from vertical parking, it was only a very short distance and i had to do a right turn. I was so near to the right and i was praying very hard not to strike kerb.

#TP circuit の 'S' Course

Got through this smoothly and this is really one of my most confident circuit course.

All thanks to Mr Teo!

#TP circuit の Parallel Parking
This is also one of my most confident circuit course.
I didn't had to do any adjustment to enter the lot.
However, when exiting, the tester was chatting with me and vice-versa, i cant remember if i have "drive" forward enough and hence i paused at my reverse stage. Was also praying that i don't mount the kerb when i exit.

Finally, circuit course is completed and we headed out to the road.
At the slope exiting the school, the tester asked me to fasten my seat belt!
"HARZ???"
But it was just a bluff! Hahah...

Just before we exit the circuit, the tester reminded me to check my mirrors! OOps...


#TP road の Test Route #1

Test Route #1 (Teck Whye)

I couldn't recalled that test route #1 was Teck Whye area.
Had to ask the instructor =)
The road condition was good today despite it being a rainy day.

After the right turn, i could easily do lane change back before the first traffic light.
Test route #1 required me to do a left turn at ITE College West.
At the zebra crossing, i stopped and hesitated to move off as there was a group of student leaving the traffic light and approaching the zebra crossing but i figured that i should move off. And the tester didn't say anything.

Maybe i was too engrossed talking to the tester and somehow, i forgotten to slow down during the right turn into CCK area. Oops.

At the junction to the U-turn and at the U-turn, i must say i am very lucky because there is really NO traffic or very light traffic. Lane change wasn't a problem at all.

After the U-turn, it's all the way straight back to BBDC, and the last 2 things to pay attention is don't cross the marking on the BBDC entrance when left turning back! And i didn't!

Thus, i smoothly completed my test. *Super delighted*

PS: My tester is Mr Tan Chong Chiat. He is a super friendly guy, and with his presence, he helps to decrease my stress level by a few notch!

Result: Pass!

TP Test Result!!!

With this, i say good bye to my PDL

Provisional Driving License (front)

Provisional Driving License (back)

Hello (temporary) Driving License

My (temporary) license!!!

With the passing of my TP test, ZH bought me to buy my P plate! I really couldn't contain my happiness.
Its been my goal to pass my TP test at the first attempt and up till yesterday, i still thought it is impossible to achieve.
I am really so so so so over the moon now!

I immediately put up the 'P' plate on ZH's car...
Now i am officially a driver!

'P' plate!

Really grateful to all the instructors in G8011!
Thank you all for your patience, encouragement, valuable guidance!!!