An Engagement I didn't expect

Yes, Yes, Yes! I said Yes! *happy*

It's been 1 month since our engagement. It was supposed to be our 5th year anniversary celebration but J surprised me with an engagement instead :)

Here's our story: 

We were supposed to meet for lunch at Dhoby but when I was on my way there, he texted me saying that his brother-in-law booked a room at Rendezvous Hotel for his staycation and if I were to reach Dhoby first, to take the room keys from Rendezvous Hotel's concierge to collect something from the hotel room. And yes obviously, he made it seem like I was the first the reach. The manager brought me up to the executive level and told me to head to the room on my own.

The whole time I was like thinking, why can't his BIL leave the things at the concierge instead and why J was so late haha. So upon reaching, I knocked, opened the room door and took a peek in case someone was inside and was super puzzled when I saw J standing in the middle of the room, smartly dressed, holding a bunch of heart-shaped helium balloons. He hurried me to the couch and asked me to sit down, while I was like asking questions like why are you here? Where's your brother in law? Did you borrow the room for awhile? Blah blah blah.. And insisted that I give him my anniversary gift first haha. He was like no.. no.. noo please sit down. and next minute he said he wanted to sing a song for me hahaha.

His proposal was in the form of a song which he created his own lyrics and printed it on a flip chart, which he sang to the tune of Stay the same by Joey McIntyre (the first song that he sang to me as friends).

By the way, from beginning till the end, I didn't even once suspect that he was going to propose because I thought it would be too cheesy for him to propose on our anniversary haha. So when he flip the chart to the last page and sang "Will you marry me, baby?.. What do you say?". I was...

STUNNED! My mind went blank for a few seconds and I started to cry like as though something sad just happened! And I only managed to nod my head in reply haha. At the end of the proposal, he said that the whole thing was being filmed throughout by 3 cameras which he made into a video to be showed during our big day. Gosh so embarrassing and totally unglam!! I should have maintain my composure hahaha. Weirdly being quite an observant person, I actually did not noticed that he placed one of the camera so near me.

I felt so touched when he told me that the day before the proposal, he went to my house and asked my parents for my hand in marriage and packed some clothes and toiletries for our 1 night staycation :)

J, thank you for the lovely proposal and all your love for me! Love you!

Made with marbles

 

J specially purchased the leather ring box that comes with a small bulb from the jeweler as the box they provided was kinda out-dated haha. 

Scented candles from Daiso

Upon knowing that it was going to be a proposal, the hotel upgraded us to the executive room and decorated the rooms with the colourful balloons and the rose petals!! Love!

  

  

After taking some photos and giving him my gift, we went for lunch at the executive lounge, ordered a submarine sandwich and a BLT sandwich *hungry*

  

J wanted to bring me to Dozo at River Valley but sadly they were closed for relocation. So we decided to check out Concetto by Saveur which serves Italian cuisine. 

Concetto by Saveur
Address: The Cathay 2 Handy Road #01-11 Singapore 229233

Open daily 12.00pm to 9.30pm

We ordered 2 Appetizers: Grilled octopus served with fennel salad and anchovy dressing (S$10.90) and pan-seared tuna served with baby romaine and honey mustard sauce (S$8.90).

2 Mains: Crab risotto with crab meat and crispy rice crackers (S$12.90) and the main of the day - pan-fry sea bass served with ratatouille (S$12.90).

2 Drinks: Apple juice and lemonade.

Total bill came up to about $65 (I think they charge for service but not GST). We wanted to try their desserts but we were too full. Even though the dishes were slightly salty, I love every dish that we ordered, it has a full array of flavors and texture to each bite. I would highly recommend all to try :) That's how we ended our night.

 

  

The next day, before we checked out, we went to the lounge again to have some light bites, a mini portion of spaghetti bolognese and an egg prata. Tasted pretty good :)

And for dinner, we headed to 112 Katong to try the Korean BBQ restaurant called Nolboo Hangari Galbi. It was really crowded but gosh it has to be the worst Korean BBQ I have ever tried! It was so disappointing. The service was below average and the food quality and taste was like 3/10. And it was pretty expensive given the quality - $35 per pax.

And guess what... last week when I went to 112 for a movie, I  realized that they have closed down for whatsoever reason. mmm..

 

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my post. Currently, we are in the midst of our wedding preparation- sourcing for wedding venues and geomancer, so I will update our progress and matters regarding wedding preparation on my blog, hopefully it will be of use to you :) 

 

Tata for now. 

 

PetiteFreckles ♥

Pho Street @ Bedok Mall

J and I decided to head to Bedok mall for late dinner, but realized that most of the eateries were already starting to close thus we just pop by Pho Street for a quick dinner. We ordered a snack platter, chicken chop with rice, rice noodles with chicken and sweet chili sauce and a lemongrass drink.

 

The food was alright but was nothing to shout about, and I feel that it's pretty expensive and not really worth the money.

Since I didn't really enjoyed my dinner, J brought me to Coffee Club to have dessert and drinks. Ordered one of our favourites: Gooey chocolate monkey tart! Love it! :) 

PetiteFreckles ♥

Ikoi @ Hotel Miramar

Had a sudden craving for japanese buffet, so decided to try my luck to make a reservation with Ikoi at Hotel Miramar, usually they require a reservation of at least 3 weeks as they are always fully booked. But! I was so lucky, in addition to being able to make a reservation just 1 week before, I managed to get the normal table seats instead of the counter! I don't really favour counter seats as I'm relatively short which means my legs would dangle and it would be mad uncomfortable :s

 

Oh ya, they do have tatami style seatings but that's only for a group of 4 or more and also depending on availability.

Address: 401 Havelock Road

Hotel Miramar Lobby, Main Wing
Singapore 169631
 

Tel: 6887 3788

 

Opening Hours (Everyday):

Lunch: 11.30am - 2.00pm

Dinner: pm - 8.00pm (1st session), 8.00pm - 10pm (2nd session)

Price:
S$38.00++ (adult), S$22.00++ (children 10yrs and below)

 

Their complimentary welcome dish- I think it's marinated salmon sashimi in teriyaki sauce? It tasted super good! The sashimi was super fresh! No fishy smell detected. LOVE IT!!!

This sushi looks like california roll but it tasted even better as there's sesame seeds on the surface which made it more fragrant :) It's called Futomaki.

Complimentary teapot soup and claypot porridge. The porridge is really tasty but it was too much for both of us, it made us really full :s On top of the super fresh sashimi, dishes such as shishamo and tempura are highly recommended!

 

Another complimentary item: salmon soup? We suspect that they try to fill our tummy with lots of soup and porridge so that we will order less sashimi hahah.

 

We ordered a small serving of udon, it's not too bad.

We actually ordered more than this, but we were too busy eating to take photos of all the dishes that we ordered, sorry :p 

 

Overall verdict

The selections were great, food tasted fresh and flavourful. I read a few reviews saying that the service wasn't that good as they weren't fast enough. Thus when we are half way done with our food, we will order again so by the time we are done, the food would have arrived :) A recommended strategy so that you do not have to wait too long and get frustrated over it.

 

Personally, I feel that Ikoi is value for money and worth a try :) Do let me know your verdict.



 

Till next time, PetiteFreckles ♥

Korea Day 10 to 12: Seoul

Day 10

Overslept till 11am, quickly showered and head out for lunch at Insadong. We settled at a restaurant located in an alley called Friendly Hyunja- ordered a boiled octopus bibimbap and a soy bean bibimbap for a total of 13000won (S$15.50).

 

Their food tasted superb! Wanted to order more dishes but there's only 2 of us! Like some restaurants in Korea, they serve free coffee near the exit of the shop, a very nice way to end a meal, super satisfying! :D



Since it's our 2nd last day in Korea, I had to get my favourite snack from Myeongdong - Delimanjoo!! Even though it was slightly too sweet for me, I love the taste and aroma of this hot custard snack. It's to die for!!! It's located at the Myeongdong's subway mall. We went there twice/thrice and there's always a queue, but it's worth the wait! A definite must-try!

Met sis for dinner at Myeongdong- we randomly chose a restaurant- ordered an army stew, soy bean stew, kimbap and a pan fried dumpling for 17000won (S$20).

 

Did some shopping before heading to Banpo Rainbow Fountain along the Han River to check out the last light show at 10pm. We waited till 10pm but there wasn't any show so we asked the carpark attendant and he said that the last show timing has changed to 9.20am :( Sad! It was freezing cold and we were getting hungry so we decided to head back to Sungshin area for supper.

 

Day 11

Didn't take much photos on the last day in Korea, was busy doing last minute shopping for ourselves and J's colleagues. Had lunch at a chicken galbi restaurant. Ordered the chicken galbi fried rice with cheese. It wasn't as delicious as the one at Sinchon :(

 

Met sis for dinner at Gosami again, this time round instead of ordering stew, we ordered the spicy pork. Total bill: 20,500won (S$25) and had supper at a cafe in sinchon called Ann's house. The cafe has a very princessy and European feel to it. J was like feeling cringy at the girliness of the place hahaha. We ordered 3 drinks and 2 slices of cake and the bill came up to 29000won (S$35).

 

Day 12

LAST DAY! Feeling really sad to leave Korea.

 

Adding to our sadness, we had a disappointing end to the trip: when we board the plane, we were told that the aircraft that we were supposed to board was on repair and we had to take the old plane, sooooo there wasn't any inflight entertainment for 7 - 8 hrs! And sadly our mobiles and iPad were low on battery. Since we didn't have anything to do during the flight, we decided to sleep BUT we were assigned to sit near the toilet and the pantry area, so it was super noisy with the toilet door banging and the flight attendants were chatting so loudly. My cranky level was like 7.5/10 which was highly attributed from the lack of sleep...

Inflight meal from Seoul to Vietnam

Since the next connecting flight from Vietnam to Singapore was in 3 hours, we decided to rest in the lounge, I think we paid about US$30 per pax. Sadly, there weren't much food available, so we just munch on some sandwich and chicken pho while clearing some emails from work.

Inflight meal from Vietnam to Singapore

    

That's all for my trip to Korea. I will be heading to Bangkok end of June, so do look forward to my post on it! Thanks for reading :)

 

PetiteFreckles ♥

Korea Day 9: Seoul

The 9th Day in Korea coincides with my sis's birthday so we decided to take a trip out of the city to Petite France and Nami Island. We woke up at 8 to take a train from Sungshin women's university to Cheongpyeong station which took us about 1hr 45mins. 

Upon arrival at Cheongpyeong (청평) Station, leave the station via exit 2 and you will see a bus stop right in front of the station. For 5000won (~S$6), you can freely board and alight the bus for unlimited times as long as you retain your ticket.

These are the stops for the shuttle bus service:

• Gapyeong Terminal
• Jaraseom Island
• Gapyeong Station
• Namiseom Island
• Petite France
• Cheongpyeong Terminal
• Cheongpyeong Station
• The Garden of Morning Calm

   

After 15 minutes of bus ride, we arrived at Petite France. The Korean game show, Running Man and drama, Secret Garden, increased the popularity of this place. Petite France is a French cultural village set with the concept of the Little Prince that consists of 16 French-style buildings for visitors to experience French cuisines, clothing and culture.

Admission fee: 8000won  (adult) 5000won (children)
Opening hours: 9AM - 6PM

 

            

        

  

  

We had our lunch at one of the restaurant, ordered 3 lunch sets at 32000won (S$38), the price is really reasonable for the portion and it tasted pretty good.

 

After lunch, we head to Nami Island, take the shuttle bus and alight at Namiseom Island stop and bus the ticket for the ferry to the island. 

Admission fee: 10, 000won (adult) 4000won (children)

Namiseom Island was formed from the construction of the Cheongpyeong Dam which looks like the shape of a half-moon. It is famous for its' natural landscape and it was a filming venue for the Korean drama- "Winter Sonata" which brought fame to this place. Other than families who comes here to have a picnic outing, many couples also love to have their pre-wedding photos taken here.

   

      

Conclusion: I enjoyed Nami Island more than Petite France, purely because it's more romantic haha. Highly recommended for all couples :) It's so nice to stroll around with your significant other while taking in the scenery, not forgetting the cool weather ♥♥♥  On a side note, too bad we didn't have sufficient time to visit the garden of morning calm, would love to visit it in future!

PetiteFreckles ♥