i honor company more than gifts

Gonna stay at home to deal with some paperwork and approvals in progress and it's nice to have time to update this little space of mine :)

Gonna update the awesome 25th birthday I had here in Dubai.

I never expected myself to have so much fun on my birthday but my friends did make efforts to celebrate it well with me and made me a really happy girl that day, so much so that it relieved the once, strong desire of me wanting to spend it back home.

What will you do without friends? :)

Chose the restaurant that I would like my friends to dine with me ;)

Shino-chai @ Healthcare City is a quaint Taiwanese restaurant that serves really good Chinese food, with our favorite bubble tea.

They do really good sweet and sour chicken/fish and great brown fried rice, and not forgetting their variety of dimsum ;)

Invited my 2 girlies Rita and Ems for dinner, and I guessed they managed to work with their chopsticks in the end. They loved chinese food. Em's favorite should be the kung-bao chicken while Rita loves anything with sweet & sour sauce.

while my buddy Suy and I are exceptionally pleased to order bubble tea :)

The girls took pictures of kisses with me, so much so I have to pick just a couple of shots to post.

Lucky me had 15 girls that night, any guy will kill to be me :p

The girls got perfect champagne roses for me which is a spot-on!

Love them :)

Adele sweethearts brought out the strawberry cake for me.

Surprised to find that it's from Paul's - my favorite french bakery here in DXB.

There I was exclaiming "NOOO WAYYYY"

Little did I know:

1) Adele knew that I love Paul's because I kept mentioning "Let's dine @ Pauls" every other time

2) JS and Adele texted each other at the same time to ensure that I get the correct cake (i.e. strawberry).

Happy little girl :)

Taking shots with my girls who came to DXB with me; V and Sarah :)

It was marvelous having them - we went shopping to get our necessities together when we were all new in Dubai, discovering new places and doing all the paperwork that the company requires us to during induction. ;)



Cake was really good, best strawberry cake ever.

before they ended the session for next stop, I was carried 3-4 times for a perfect shot, and here's it!

<3!

Some of the girls left due to other commitments, so the majority of us went to QD bar @ Dubai Creek Club. One of my favorite chill spots here because you get the breeze since it's near the creek, and if you're lucky, you'll sit at seats near the waters.

joked and chatted till almost 1am before we retired - a great time catching up! :)

splendid night out, grateful for friends and company :)

my presents from the girls :)

Went out with my housemates to Thai-Chi at Wafi Mall.

Another beautiful place with a BBQ corner that's well known to serve great, local thai food.


they do the best tom-yum soup :)

Thursday was buffet night ( though we much preferred the ala-carte style) but nothing beats the ambience here at the top of Wafi mall, so we thought it will be wise to stay :)

Thanks for the treat Chris, Erika and Shimi!

You guys have been a great help to me when I'm staying here, giving me tips and advice whenever I need. I am really fortunate to have you guys around :)

my wacky housemates;

really grateful to have the really nice company from my housemates once again!

& presents from my housemates ;)

a new cup and a new cushion set that're really handy since I needed them, domo arigato Shimi-chan & Erika-chan! ;)

pain.

Some things are so near, yet so far.

Some dreams are so real, and yet when you wake up from it, you'll never see yourself being part of it.

This is the distance between me setting myself in this realm and me living in reality.

of cakes and parties

Hello all!

Back to blogging because I have now more time on hand, and my training is going to end tomorrow. Not sure if I still have energy to celebrate it honestly, because everyday we end really late at night (and most times, I arrive home at 1am..)

It was Veriza's birthday 2 weeks ago and she courageously threw a house party for 20-30 people in her 4-room apartment :)

here's lorna and rita doing some cooking in the kitchen with us.

with some help from adele, I managed to cook olive + basil fried potatoes which now is one of my favorite dish to cook at home.

Also helped to fry banana wrap with cinnamon icing and chocolate sauce. mmmm, awesome.

Gonna ask adele to cook with me some day again, she's such a great cook with marvelous receipts to share.

the galore of food for the party prepped by the girls, headed by adele;)

the sautéed mushrooms with baguette are the best, ought to ask adele to teach me again.

to put faces to the names, here's adele (finally), riya, patricia and me ;)

got cheated to wear pink while everyone is in black 'cos it was themed black x pink dress code.

:(

me + birthday girl, veriza.

taking a picture with the Singapore girls that night :)


it's nice to have people to talk to and to hold when abroad.

This support group of mine helps me when I'm in trouble, when I need company and it's always fun to hang out with them, like it's never enough:)

cupcakes for V, love them;

while the clock strikes the time to cut the cake,

V's got all the presents she needed ;)

a picture before we rode on the pink limousine that was booked to drive us to Gold club @ Sheikh Zayed (unfortunately we didn't take much photos of it);

girlies who started our adventure; Singapore to DXB on the same day ;)

* * *

I thought it'll be nice to hang out to do some shopping and tea, and Shuping was off so we finally got down to doing it together.

Was near the Dubai Aquarium that was known in the mall;

tickets start at AED50 (around S$18) for the aquarium tunnel and underwater zoo (akin to our underwater world). Would love to go when JS comes to visit!

Our first stop was to Lush because we know we'll spend the least money in bath products (as compared to clothing stores). DXB mall is so huge, you can practically find everything and every brand from Bershka, F21 (where we've got 10%), H&M, NEXT, Topshop etc. Once you start, you'll not stop!

Lush is less sinful

The store in Wisma SG is really small, so the fragrance that sets off in store is kinda overkill that I hardly stepped in to look. This one is so much better, and with a shopping companion, I managed to purchase a bath bomb and a bubble bar! :)

us in store :)

With Shuping's recommendation, we settled at Dean & Deluca :)

I know I was hesitating as Laduree's in the mall too (we have that here and i can't wait to try their macaroons, no need to wait for paris/NY at all!!)

The terrace seats set us in an amazing view of the exterior of Dubai Mall;

At my 10 o'clock direction is the Burj Khalif;

Awesome!

Having lunch/1st meal of our Saturday, accompanied with a cuppa fruit juice;

we both shared 2 flavors of wraps - spicy prawn and grilled chicken quesadilla, and they fared really well as wraps. The potato chunks are well done - crispy outside and soft when you sink your teeth in :) Yumms!

Watching the periodic fountain display;

Would be nicer at night, but we'll see when I get that chance to get the terrace seats at 7pm :p

We got to shop for awhile in F21 - Shuping got a pair of boots which are really cute, and I got a cardigan for JS in F21/Men21 there.

My companion suggested we get cupcakes off Magnolia bakery, a hidden bakery in Bloomingdales store (concept store) and off we went.

Magnolia Bakery originated in NY and they are very famous for their moist cupcakes which I've heard a lot about.

As greedy as we both are, we finally settled for 2 cakes instead.

Seated near a humble water feature :)

CAKES ARE SO GOOD - they are moist and we both loved the texture.

Ain't too sweet or creamy so it worked very well with our english breakfast tea:)

Hit the top of my chart for cakes!

chocolate banana, red velvet (my favfav!)

my pretty lady and I enjoying our tea ;)

and to reward myself, perhaps tomorrow'll be a good time i sink in these candies!

can't wait to see Althea, my local friend tomorrow when she comes here for a work trip, hoping tat I'll have a chance to bring her to Magnolia again :)

Mommy packed some stuff for me including my miso soup and jap curry - so i'm really looking forward to see her ;D;D

love it when I get to host my friends here, they'll have a splendid catching up time to do with me!