Short update 2015

Forgotten space.

Decided to do a short update of my life so that I can come back and read it when I feel like it in the future.

1. I have graduated from FASS majoring economics! 
Honestly speaking, my university days were the darkest period of my life. I enjoy learning, I enjoy making new friends but I hated the stress of studying for examinations. Did I mention, I had epic hair loss in my last semester in NUS. The kind that you see on hair loss TV commercials, where you gently brush your hand through your hair once and a bunch (> 50 strands, NOT EXAGGERATING!!) of hair would fall out all at once. The first time it happened was when I realised that I had a submission that was due in 12 hours and I totally missed it on IVLE, and then came the epic hair fall and my FIRST anxiety attack. I don’t usually get SO stressed out from school work, but somehow I was very worried about failing my final semester and end up not being able to graduate resulting in the hair loss, anxiety attack, weight loss and insomnia. I lost 5 kg in 2 months?!?! And my weight fell to the lowest in my entire life, 48kg!

Then I spent quite a bit of money seeing a dermatologist, $150 for a session and another $400 for blood test and iron pills. In retrospect, that was really not needed. When your hair is falling, there’s really nothing you can do to stop it from falling. Everyday, my mum would come into my room and vacuum the floor, because she knew that if I saw them all over the floor, I would feel sad and cry my day away. Seriously, crowning glory. Also, I went to BeeChoo Herbal Hair treatment weekly for 1 month straight. Decided not to continue back the aunties would wash my hair so roughly, and you know, “massage” the tonic into my hair and then I will leave the place with a bigger empty patch on my scalp. Anyway, the hair came back after my exams ended, and 3 months later, my head is full and thick again!

Then came the 2nd horror, I was so sick that I was pooping blood with mucus everyday. I saw a specialist at NUH and she dismissed it as piles without even doing a scan or anything. It continued for an entire month before I got so worried and went to a private specialist. I remembered that I went on a friday afternoon and had a colonscopy on saturday morning 9am. (EFFICIENT), got my biopsy result on monday and it turns out that I had a bacteria/virus attacking the lower rectum that can only be cured with antibiotics. The toughest part of the colonscopy was actually the emptying of bowels before the procedure. Imagine going to the toilet every 15 minutes for 5 hours straight. IT WAS MISERABLE AND MY ASS WAS SO SORE BY THE END OF EVERYTHING. I am sure that’s how getting raped in the ass feels like although I haven’t actually experienced it before haha. See, stress from school work is so detrimental to health!

2. Fell out with my bestfriend from NUS.

I had an indian bestie in NUS, let’s call him A. For the first 2 years of my NUS life, I could always count on him for school work, for companionship and for friendship. I honestly thought that he was the best thing that happened to me in NUS and I secretly made a promise to myself that I am going to try my best to keep him close to me for the rest of my life. I don’t remember at which point of my life that we started drifting apart, but I think the reason that happened was because he found a cooler friend, which happens to be my bestfriend (then) as well. Let’s call her C. C retained in jc and came into NUS 2 years late. Somehow I thought that it would be a good idea to introduce the 2 of to each other and then we can all hang out together. I painted a very pretty picture of me hanging out with my 2 bestfriends only to realise that in reality, the picture wouldn’t have me in it. C comes from a wealthy family and A would often talk to me about C’s family and how rich/well-connected they are. Slowly, all my conversations with A became C-related and then after a while, I don’t even see him anymore because C or A would ask each other out, without asking me. (oh, C also got herself a boyfriend before I left for exchange and her boyfriend T was also good friend of mine from NUS as well, and yep, I am no longer talking to T too)

I know deep down in my heart that it is not C’s fault. But I can’t help but to blame her for it. She’s funnier, smarter and more talented than I am. I can see why people would enjoy her company, because I (used to) enjoy her company as well. I just hate how she handles friendship thing. She didn’t even try to mediate or resolve the conflict even though she probably knew that she was the only one who could do it. During my darkest period, my last semester, she robbed me of my 2 friends and left me to struggle alone (with all the hair loss, anxiety, colonscopy shit) Yep, I dealt with it ALL BY MYSELF.

After she got together with T, the 3 of us went out once. So the conversation went like this in the restaurant.

Me: T, mind helping me get a glass of water?
T: Of course
C: *stops T from getting up* Just because your boyfriend isn’t here, you’re bossing MY boyfriend around
*proceeds to get up from the chair and get me the class of water herself*

Second incident. T and I were laughing about some stupid comment, and C didn’t found it funny.

T: HAHAHAHAH
Me: HAHAHHA DAMN FUNNY
C: EEYER. T, why do you laugh her Tiff’s jokes. You don’t even laugh at my jokes that much. (Serious tone)

That was the first and last time we went out together.

Soon enough, T and I stopped talking too.

Tragic story of how I lost 2 out of my 3 friends from NUS. Yep. Money makes the world go round. If I had a wealthy family, I am sure A will think twice about chucking me aside.

3. Made a new bestfriend J.

Met J in my last semester (during the whole C & A saga) and 3 months after my graduation, we are chatting everyday and he’s keeping me sane. I have never met anyone so down-to-earth, so patient, so sincere and honest in my entire life. Our conversations were always honest and truthful, sometimes it hurts, but it was never fake. He was the one who told me that I am a lukewarm christian and that is a sin. He called me a pagan after church and told me that I am not fit to call myself a christian because I didn’t show enthusiasm in God’s words. It was all true, it hurt quite a bit but I really appreciate him for being honest with me because since then, I think I have become a better christian. Slowly but surely. In all my troubles and sorrows, he’d be there to listen to my rantings every single day and give me feasible advice to keep me grounded. I don’t think he knows how much impact he has on me since I met him but I hope to keep him close to me.

4. Currently unemployed and looking for a job!

Been searching for employment since I came back from my 2 months Europe trip 3 weeks ago. I am really getting quite anxious because I have yet to receive a call for any interview. I know finding a job takes time and I shouldn’t be so anxious about it but it is really, really giving me a lot of stress. Last week, I overheard my mum bitching about me to her friend over the phone. The content was about how I am bumming at home and being a liability to her. I don’t know why I cried, but I did. It just didn’t feel nice waking up to your mum bitching about you and it just made me feel worthless. I just feel that if the employer knew how I led my life, I am pretty sure I’d be hired on the spot.

Extremely independent, started walking to school by myself on the 2nd day to school. Survived Europe all by myself – I went on a 2 month Europe trip ALL BY MYSELF.
Extremely good salesperson, did i mention how I hit the skincare target, highest sales in the 1st week of work at YSL?
High EQ, I don’t think a person with low EQ would be able to sell stuff right?
Extremely hardworking. Even though I don’t have a first class honours to be proud of, but I excel in what I love, at the national level haha. I used to be the principal oboist of Singapore Youth Orchestra. Not too bad right.
Highly optimistic. No matter how much shit I have to endure, how sad I am, I just need a sleep and I’d forget it all.
I don’t look ugly. When you hire someone, that person has to have a face that you can “tahan” looking at all day right?
Great sense of humour. Interview me to find out!

Anyone reading this post? If you’re looking for a perfect employee, wait no more and hit the comment button!

That’s all for now. It’s 4.19am. Forgive me for my grammatical errors, my eyelids are closing and good night world!

Gardens By the Bay (Singapore Attraction in a Day )

 

Started the day off by bring Daryl to the Imperial Treasure – which I think they have the best Dim Sum restaurant in Singapore! That rice roll with fried shrimp and youtiao was amaaaaazing!!! Even though it’s $6 per plate, it was worth every single cent :’)  We headed to Gardens by the Bay right after lunch to do the usual touristy stuff. Just take a mrt (train) to Bayfront Mrt Station, and Gardens by the Bay will be right outside.

It was super crowded on that day, so we decided to move on to our next destination, Chinatown!
We went to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple but didn’t take any photos. When we exited the temple, we saw many middle-age to old people dancing to kpop songs. This is probably as Singapore-ish as it gets, lucky Daryl got to see it in a day, so cool right !!!

Settled our dinner at NEX, Siam Kitchen (Serangoon mrt). Everything was great, just don’t order the chicken stuffed in Crab shell dish, it was horrible. Green Curry & Pad Thai was awesome ^^

 

 

Groupon : Revive Wellness Signature Brazilian Waxing Review Blog (Clarke Quay)

For lazy readers who wants to know if this is a good deal and not read through my entire review, my answer to you is ‘PLEASE DO NOT GO FOR IT’

I’ve never felt so compelled to write any review in my entire life, but I feel like I have to do this so that anyone who google and sees this review will know what they signed up for.

My package with Strip has ended 2 months ago and I was looking for a cheaper place to do my Brazilian waxing because each session at Strip cost about $62, it’s slightly cheaper with the package, maybe $55 per session (?) but that to me is still a rather hefty price to pay.

After reading good reviews on blogs about Revive wellness, I decided to buy the Groupon and give it a shot. Groupon offered another option which is 2 session for $35 and I AM SO GLAD THAT I DIDN’T TAKE UP THAT OFFER EVEN THOUGH I WAS INITIALLY TEMPTED TO. 

What to expect?
1. Call them up to book an appointment
2. Turn up for appointment, fill in some forms for registration
3. Put your items in a locker provided
4. Enter the room to wash your Vagina (V)
5. Change into the bathrobe given to you, with your undies off
6. 30-45 minutes of torture begins.

It’s only right that you expect some form of pain from Brazilian Waxing, but having gone through so many sessions at Strip, I can tell you the kind of pain experienced at Revive Wellness compared to Strip is so much more!!

What is wrong?
1. Number of times they wax your V
Strip: As far as I can remember, the average number was about 5-7 times? Which means you only have to endure the excruciating pain of the wax ripping off your hair for a maximum of 7 times? They usually smear the hot wax over one area of your V once and rip it in a swift action and trust me, for some reason, you just don’t feel that much pain.

Revive Wellness: I counted more than 12 times. They do the same thing, smear hot wax over one area and rip it in a swift action. However, the difference is that they go over the exact same spot 2-3 times because they don’t do it well the first time! Not all the hair are off compared to strip where everything comes off at the first try. This is shit because after the first time they wax over that one spot, the pores are opened and maybe some of the top layer of dead skin are also being pull out, so imagine if the first time is not done smoothly and you have to put the layer of hot wax over it the 2nd time, it’s gonna hurt extra because it’s like pouring hot water on your new “wound” and trust me, it hurt a HELL LOT. Now, imagine this x3 for some area that’s more tricky (ie your inner lips) WA I TELL YOU, I WAS SO TEMPTED TO WALK OUT OF IT, PAIN UNTIL CAN DIE. I suspect it’s the type of wax they use and perhaps also the lack of skills of the beautician.

2. Interior Decor:
Strip: The room is brightly lit, no feel of sleaziness at all. From the equipment they use, to the lighting and design of the room, it just feels very clean, very sterile and it also smells super clean for some reason. You will be asked to lie on a bed with a clean white towel on it. After that, you will be asked to spread your legs so that they can start the Brazilian Waxing, and your knee will be supported with cushion.

Revive Wellness: The first thing I noticed when I walked into the room was that it was very dimly-lit, and it felt quite dirty for some reason (maybe it’s due to the poor lighting) I was asked to lie on a bed with a flimsy tiny plastic sheet that was too small to cover the entire bed. When I looked up at the ceiling, I couldn’t help but notice dust/mold forming around the walls. It turned me off a little before I even started the Waxing. After you spread your legs to begin the Brazilian Waxing, they will support your knee (at the side) with towel rolls – towels rolled up in a roll. (Not a big deal for most, but I just didn’t like that idea.)

3.Beautician:
Strip: Out of the 6 or 7 times I’ve been to Strip, all the beautician were very chatty, they will talk to you, distract you so that you don’t feel as much pain as you were supposed to. They were all very friendly and somehow put you at ease.

Revive Wellness: It was complete silence. Except for the “1, 2, 3 BREATHE IN, *RIPS THE WAX OUT*” By doing that, I felt that it was more painful and it made me more anxious to know that I had to wait 3 counts for them to rip it off.

Duration:
Strip : Start to end – 20 to 25 minutes. (Duration of suffering? None. Mostly painless and quick) And I would say it’s a fair review because I’ve done it so many times at strip. Every single time was painless and quick.

Revive wellness : 45 Minutes. (Imagine out of the 45 minutes, you have to suffer for 35 minutes)

5.Results

Strip: Smooth and no red bumps after 2 hours.
Revive Wellness: Smooth but red bumps stayed for more than 10 hours.

 

Advice?
If it is your first time, just go to strip, because doing it at Revive Wellness will induce some serious phobia of Brazilian Waxing. If you’re not cash-strapped or you have low pain tolerance, please do not buy the Groupon. It is just 35 minutes of torture. I left Revive Wellness with the bathrobe soaked in sweat because I was perspiring from the pain. When it comes to your Vagina, just pay more, it’s worth every single cent!

My friends keep me sane :)

Look at that 1 litre of sugarcane juice! Eric finished it!!! Cray cray!

This was what happened, we had to top up the petrol because the marker was at E! Eric got out and helped himself to the fuel refill gun thingy (?) or whatever you call that while cass and I sat comfortably in his car. Cass said ‘I don’t think eric knows how to use that thing.’ I had 100% confidence in him because he always knew everything and also because, to me, eric is like my all-knowing friend and I replied ‘I’m pretty sure eric knows how to use that!’

Cass continued “no leh. I really don’t think so”.
At this point, I really wasn’t doubting eric’s ability to operate that thingy until he walked away and got a man over.

And it turns out that he really didn’t know how to use that LOL. Epic.

Epic Cheong Songyi Givenchy Top and Kim’s family restaurant

Had dinner with my brother and sister at Kim’s family restaurant, because the pregnant sister was craving korean cuisine. The food was okay, good enough for a quick korean fix although i suspect that even food court korean stall might be better and cheaper. We paid about 75sgd for the meal O.O Service wasn’t good, they hired many chinese waitresses and the one who served us couldn’t exactly understand us when we spoke to her in english (we initially thought that she was a korean because korean and chinese look so alike….) and then we changed it to mandarin when we realized from her accent that she’s probably a chinese. I felt really offended when she replied us in her sub-standard english and refused to converse in mandarin. I mean it’s obvious that we are all chinese so why can’t she just reply us in mandarin?! We had a hard time figuring out what she was saying argh.

Felt really annoyed and wanted to tell her to speak to us in mandarin when she returned with our food, but the brother thought that she was cute and told me not to “bully” her. Seriously, men are just such visual creatures! 

I don’t remember much from our conversation except for the part when my sister told me “EH FANNY, PCB (pua-cheebye) is real! You know the cut your vjayjay when you give birth?!” That imagery itself made me cringe and swore never ever to have kids, even though I’ll most probably still have kids. In the perfect scenario, my husband and I would die together and probably leave earth together and donate our assets to charity without any children. However, in real life, the men tend to die earlier and if I didn’t have any kids, I’m gonna be so lonely and sad when my husband leaves 😥 Therefore, I still think that it is important to have at least 1 or 2 kids to complete the family haha.

We headed to Udders for ice-cream after the dinner and had our table invaded by a huge cockroach T_T Scary shit seriously.

Oh did I mention that I’ve recently bought THE BEST EYELINER IN THE WORLD – BENEFIT THEY’RE REAL PUSH UP EYELINER. It is freaking epic for an eyeliner because it doesn’t smudge and it is completely waterproof. It’s literally impossible feat to remove the eyeliner with just water or sweat, I tried and smudging it with water and it just refused to budge! So happy with this product because it made my eyes go from -.- to o.o 

Super epic! I also bought the mascara and they are both freaking good!!! So worth my 75sgd hahaha!Then I went to cheryl’s house after the dinner to show her how epic the mascara and eyeliner was and I saw this shirt hanging on the wall. The super straightforward me immediately shouted ‘OMG CHERYL, THIS HAS TO BE THE UGLIEST SHIRT IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!’ Seriously, it looks like a horrible printing mistake and I couldn’t comprehend why would she spend $25 on an ugly shirt like this until she showed me the next picture! 

 

 

Basically, the original top is from Givenchy and it cost about 120USD (?) and it was worn by a famous actress (cheong songyi) in the super popular korean drama “My Love from the Star” but obviously the one that cheryl bought was an imitated copy of the top, which I thought was freaking hilarious lolol.

 

 

&MADE – Affordable Gourmet Burger by 3 Michelin-Star chef.

Los Amigos $23.

Finally got to try out &made burger today! Fiona told me that the Chef, Bruno Menard, who owns this burger joint is actually a 3 Michelin Star Chef! I expected it to be more pricey, but it turned out that the price was actually rather affordable! All burgers come with a suuuuper generous portion of fries (normal) and additional $2 top-up for truffle fries. Hehe, I opt for the truffle fries because I really like the smell of truffle oil. I had Los Amigos, which wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t exactly life-changing, maybe because I had such high expectations of the restaurant after hearing so much raved reviews. The beef patty was cooked really well, medium rare and juicy, but the guacamole toppings didn’t add much taste to it.

The ‘B’ Burger, $19

Simple burger with caramelized onions and mushrooms. I didn’t get to try it, but according to my 2 friends who did, they both agreed that it was simple yet super delicious. I guess yummy burgers doesn’t have to be too complicated after all. I would definitely return again because I really liked the truffle fries and the service of the restaurant. We were there for about 3 hours and the waiters kept coming over to fill up our cups with ice water! It was as though they were afraid that we’d get thirsty from all the talking haha. It’s a nice place to catch up with friends and most importantly, it’s a restaurant in town that’s actually wallet-friendly! Nearest mrt would be Orchard.

 

Address 9 Scotts Road | Pacific Plaza | #01-04-06 | Singapore 228210

Schloss Schönbrunn – home of Empress Sisi

Schrönbrunn Castle in Austria. Perfectly symmetrical and where Empress Sisi stayed.

Lech Am Arlberg, Austria Ski Trip.

I’d say ski-ing is probably the most exciting thing that I’ve ever done in my 22 years of living on earth and the other time I came half as close as this was when I attempted bungee jumping in Thailand in 2011. Note: The keyword is “attempted”. So, after spending almost 20 minutes at the top, with all my friends and some other NUS school mates cheering me on, I was the only one who failed to jump 😦 I’d totally be cool with it if there was at least 1 person who backed out with me, and if not for the fact that 11 others went ahead of me before my turn and all succeeded. Ohwells, the teasing on facebook lasted quite a while.

Being able to rollerblade and ice ski did help me quite a little in trying to pick up skiing, but did nothing in solving my fear of heights. It took me 5 days of private lessons in order to be able to do the blue mountain comfortably. I don’t fully blame myself for that because the money-sucking instructors didn’t take me seriously simply because it was a private lesson and I’m all alone with them. Seeing a young asian girl, they simply assumed that 1. I’m not going to tip them much 2. they can slack off and the oblivious me would not know that I’m getting shortchanged.

It was only my 3rd instructor, Alexander Crompton, a 22 year old from Manchester who bothered to teach me properly and I would like to thank him for that. If not for him, I might not even have the chance to try out the green slope. Do ask for him if you’re looking for a private instructor! Also, the ski school at lech am arlberg takes customers’ feedback very seriously. Private lessons (4 hours + 1 hour lunch) cost 320 EUR a day, joining a class with the school cost about 100 EUR a day. I’ve heard of instructors getting fired from the school because of their bad attitude towards their clients (Often because their clients are mega rich and wealthy people, you really can’t afford to offend them if you want to keep your job.) and if I’m not wrong, I did not have to pay for my lesson with my 2nd instructor because he was really rude, taught me nothing, brought me to an expensive restaurant and insisted that I pay for his lunch and spent the entire day complaining about how stingy rich people are. We made a complaint to the ski school and fired him the next day.

However, I’d like to mention that skiing at Lech may not be for the budget-conscious crowd. The hotels, restaurants, lessons were really expensive but if price is not a concern, then I will definitely recommend you to go for it. The ski slopes weren’t too crowded, perfect temperature to ski in, many michelin star restaurants around and a really beautiful town with a characteristic architect unique to the Arlberg region. The bonus part is that you might even get to meet some hollywood stars if you’re lucky because they do have some really famous clients visiting. Apparently princess diana used to be a frequent visitor as well.

Below is a link to the video made by my boyfriend’s brother using a go pro, if you’re interested in seeing how the slopes are like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZJoPiecR3o

 

 

Things you can’t find in Europe! (Cheap Japanese Food) – Itacho Sushi Singapore

Salmon with soy sauce, Salmon with Cheese and Salmon with Butter. (I think, I really don’t remember). They limit each customer to 2 pieces for each of these sushi, the both of us obviously max it out by ordering 4 of each. Each piece cost about $0.40, $0.60 and $1.20 if I remember right.

Salmon Lobster Salad Roll. ($2.90 for 2 pieces)

Basic Chirashi ($9.90)

Tonkatsu Don ($11)

I just realized that I’ve already been back in SG for 5 days, after spending almost 9 months in Europe. Currently still trying to adjust to the unforgiving weather in Singapore and trying to overcome my jet lag. As much as I miss Europe, I’m glad to be back to the company of my friends and family. I met up with Cheryl yesterday and she went “Okay, you can decide on the place to eat because I know that you must have missed Singapore’s food a lot”.

I do miss the food in Singapore, but definitely not Singaporean cuisines. I was never into Laksa, Chicken Rice, Hokkien Mee and stuff like that. I’m usually a pasta, burger, sushi kind of person and it’s virtually impossible to find decent or good-quality Japanese food in Europe without burning a hole in your pocket. In response to her question, I literally went “AHMYGAD, SUSHI PLEASE. I’M DYING FOR SOME SUSHI AND SASHIMI!”

We decided on Itacho in the end because lunch buffet at Kiseki was overrrrrpriced at $35 (after gst) on the eve of public holiday. We gave up our seats after queueing for almost 30 minutes because it was so overrrrpriced. Their lunch buffet is only about $25 after GST on a usual weekday and the aunty inside me just couldn’t bear to pay that much knowing that it’s a lot cheap on other days.

The bill came out to be $34.25 and we both went home with a happy tummy! #rubmytumtum

 

PARIS ITINERARY 4-DAYS (IN SEARCH OF THE BEST DUCK CONFIT)

Day 1 Paris -Love lock bridge, Notre Dame

Day 2 Paris – Lourve Museum, Tuileries Garden, Eiffel Tower (Night)

Day 3 Paris – Musee d’Orsay, The Arc de Triomphe

Day 4 – Versailles Palace

Tips for travelling in Paris : 

1. Buy metro tickets in Bulk. 1 Single Ticket cost 1.70 EUR. But 10 tickets cost 13.70 EUR. If you’re not traveling alone, you can definitely finish using 10 tickets during the entire span of your 3 days trip.

2. So save on dinner, opt for a good lunch. If you’re on budget and still want to enjoy good food, I suggest to eat your good meal during lunch time. Lunch menu differs little from the dinner menu but cost more than 50% less than the dinner prices.

3. Buy the Eiffel Tower tickets online – to prevent yourself from queue-ing for 2 to 3 hours.

4. Keep an eye on your things, Paris is really one of the more “dangerous” european country.

 

Day 1 Paris -Love lock bridge, Notre Dame

After we checked in at the hotel, we decided to take a stroll around Notre Dam and check out the area.

After walking for a bit, we saw a lot of people on a bridge and we decided to walk towards the direction. There, we found the Love Locks which is situated Pont de l’Archevêche. It’s a pity that Daniel and I didn’t bring a padlock, so we couldn’t put a lock on it. We kinda told ourselves that we will be back in the next few days to do it, but we really forgot all about it until the last day. Ohwells. You can always purchase a padlock from random people selling it near the bridge, but bear in mind that it’s probably illegal and most likely charged at exorbitant prices.

We arrived at the town hall, which is in fact right in front of the Notre Dame, which explains why it’s so crowded. After which, we decided to hunt down our first restaurant as part of the quest in search of the best duck confit.

Ma Salle a Manger
street-address Dauphine Paris,France (Louvre / Place Vendôme)
Tel: 33 1 43 29 52 34

We did our research and read a few blog reviews on this restaurant and found out that they have one of the better duck confits at reasonable prices and made a trip there. Their lunch set, which includes appetizer, main course and dessert was just slightly above €15 and since we were on a poor-student’s-budget, this restaurant sounds too good to be missed.

Fried Goat Cheese – Not too bad, but the portion is really small even for an appetizer, too small for my monstrous appetite.

I think Daniel ordered a Beef Goulash thing. It doesn’t look too pretty on the photo but it tastes really good. I’d say give it a try.

Amazing duck confit! I really liked it a lot. The meat is kinda soft and really easy to pull it apart with your fork, and the sauce went really well with it.  I wouldn’t say that this is the best duck confit I had in Paris, but I think it’s the 2nd best I had in my 5 days here. The potato thing that came with it was also super delicious.

Crème Brûlée for dessert! All I can say is, there really isn’t anything you can complain about because it’s so yummy! The sugar crust at the top was nicely burnt and crispy. The service was also amazing – the waiters were all rather comedic and they’d attempt to talk to you and tell you a few jokes here and there but it’s also funny because I don’t understand what they are saying in French and had to give them a not-so-condescending laugh. It is no wonder that this restaurant is so highly recommended by so many people.

Visited Notre Dame de Paris after lunch. It was just 10 minutes walk away.

Back view of Notre Dame. We were really tired by 6pm because we woke up really early our train to Paris and decided to call it  a day.

Day 2 Paris – Lourve Museum, Tuileries Garden, Eiffel Tower (Night)

Decided to start the day off with our duck confit lunch hunt. Actually it’s really because lunch is a lot cheaper than dinner despite the same menu offerings. We kind of decided that we will have a good lunch and a hobo dinner (basically anything that fills our tummy. Usually bread and ham from the local supermarket) for our entire trip to keep our budget in check.

I’d like to apologize for the fact that I really don’t remember the name of this restaurant. The duck confit wasn’t great, so I guess it’s okay if you give it a miss. It was about 10 Euros for a lunch course and it’s in a restaurant 15 minutes walk away from Lourve Museum.

Paris is really cheap if you’re a student or a student on exchange in EU schools. With your student card, you can enter most museums for free! We entered the Lourve Museum for free (Hurray to freebies!) The down side was that we had to queue in the cold for about 20 to 25 minutes because there’s ALWAYS a long queue at these tourist-infested places in Paris. If you want to bypass the queue, you’d have to reserve your tickets online or get the Paris museum pass.

An adult ticket is €12
Paris Museum Pass prices
2 days – €42
4 days – €56
6 days – €69

You can find more information about it in the link below.
http://en.parismuseumpass.com/rub-the-pass-price-36.htm

Saw the famous Venus de Milo.

I think one of the main reasons why Lourve Museum got so famous is because it houses the Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. But really, it falls short of my expectation because there were so many other huge and prettier paintings inside. There were a huge crowd in front of this painting, because everyone wanted to squeeze and take the perfect shot of the painting and maybe go “Waaa I saw the ORIGINAL mona lisa painting, I can die now”.

Okay, except that I wasn’t really kidding because I did overhear someone saying that. At that moment, I rolled my eyes, took a good look at that person, gave them my most judgmental glare and walked off.

 

Mandatory shot. There is actually a queue to stand on this thing lol.

Entrance to Jardin des Tuileries which is just outside of the Lourve Museum.

I took this picture because I love naked women ^^ Who doesn’t? 😀

There were many kids holding a stick and pushing their toy boats in the pond. I couldn’t quite figure out what they were doing until about 10 minutes later. They were all trying to get their boats to the center of the pond. This girl was rather successful as you can see from the pictures later.

Pierre Herme Paris.

They have quite a number of outlets in Paris, so do check them out online. We went to the one closest to the Tuileries Garden and the opera house. It is said that they have the best macarons in the Paris.

€12.50 for a box of 7, €2 for each individual macaron.
Hefty price indeed. I’d say give it a try so that you can show off to your friends “I had the best macaron in Paris!” To be fair, we had the Rose, Peppermint Tea, Salted Caramel and Chocolate macarons and they were all wonderful. In fact, the Salted Caramel one was rather impressive.

We decided to visit the Eiffel Tower next. That was also where we made our BIGGEST MISTAKE in our entire Paris trip. We did not buy our entrance ticket online and made the decision to queue for it. QUEUE-ING FOR IT. It definitely took us more than 2.5 hours to get to the ticket counter and another 30 minutes or 1 hour to get to the tower. Seriously, if 3 hours doesn’t sound a lot to you, add in the fact that we were waiting in the cold (because we went in February) and definitely NOT romantic at all. So I’d say, skip the queue and buy your tickets online. About 13 EUR to get to the top if you’re a student. 

View from the top of the tower.

The Eiffel Tower sparkles every hour starting from 9pm to 1am. It only lasts about 5 minutes each time. We caught the one at 12am just when we were leaving the place.

Day 3 Paris – Musee d’Orsay 

Had our breakfast at Brioche Doree. After having so many crossiants from many random bakeries, I declare Brioche Doree to have the BEST Crossiant.

Head down to Musee D’Orsay after breakfast and spent almost the entire there. It is FREAKING HUGE and free for EU students ^^ Free for us 😀

 

After which we head down to SADAHARU AOKI for the best pastry in Paris. We have heard raved reviews about this place and decided to hunt it down. The pastries were really amazing and they are also a Matcha specialist. Known for their Matcha pastries, we bought a few to try and it was truly heaven on earth for fans of green tea.  I strongly advise you to make a trip there if time permits.

Sadaharu Aoki Pattiserie
35 Rue de Vaugirard, 75006 Paris, France
+33 1 45 44 48 90
http://www.sadaharuaoki.com/profil/en.html

Day 4 Paris – Palace of Versailles.

First of all, the reason why I HAD to include Palace of Versailles into my itinerary is rather immature. I read an article on Buzzfeed that says “19 penises you need to visit before you die” and apparently Palace of Versailles is one of the 19 places.  You can click on the article if you’re interested but please do not judge me afterwards. Daniel gave me a mega WTF face when I showed him that and I remembered his reply was “I’m really speechless, I don’t know what to say to that” Okay.. to my huge disappointment, I couldn’t find it despite scrutinizing every room thoroughly. 😦 Leave me a comment if you managed to find it.

It’s about an hour train ride from the Paris City, so make sure you wake up early so that you can have more time at the palace. Food inside the palace is also exorbitantly priced, do bring some bread and snacks so that you can picnic while enjoying the beautiful scenery in there 😀

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tanyachen/penises-you-need-to-visit-before-you-die

 

 

Palace of Versailles is really really really HUGE. There were so many gardens, rooms and gardens. I’d say this is by far the LARGEST palace I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been to a fair number in order to make this sweeping statement.

Wanted a Taylor-Swift-like dreamy shot in a palace. Didn’t happen because I’m obviously not Taylor Swift and therefore do not look like a princess.

Saw a pasture with many lambs on it before exiting. This shot is to express my love for kebab which is usually made of lamb meat. I really couldn’t resist taking this shot and to those visitors who saw this, sorry for freaking you out, not all asians are weird like me.

We had kebab for dinner at a random kebab place because seeing the lambs in the afternoon induced my kebab craving.

Day 5 – AU PETIT SUD OUEST – WE FOUND THE BEST DUCK CONFIT & FOIE GRAIS 

AU PETIT SUD OUEST
46 av. de la Bourdonnais. 75007
Paris. +33 1 45 55 59 59

We tried to make a reservation for dinner, but it was fully booked and we booked it for lunch on a friday afternoon. To my pleasant surprise, it was almost empty during lunch hours and that meant that we had a nice quiet restaurant to ourselves.

There’s a bread toaster on every table for you to toast the bread. The first restaurant I’ve ever been to to have such awesome practice. I think in the long term, it’s good for the restaurant owners too, because they get to keep their bread for many days and nobody would ever complain about having stale bread because bread always tastes good when they are toasted. A pretty damn good idea right?

Foie Grais for appetizer – A freaking generous portion. 2 huge fillet of foie gras for only 20 EUR. I mean where can you get foie gras at the price, definitely not in Singapore! Usually, I don’t really like the taste of foie gras because they always have this fishy, powdery weird taste that I can’t really describe. But this foie gras is life-changing, it has changed my perspective of foie gras and now I’m a fan 😀 We got the one that is cooked with truffles, and the combination is amaaaazing!

 

The best duck confit in Paris 😀 Actually, I enjoyed the potatoes alot as well. I really have no idea how they made their potatoes, it isn’t oily, it’s rather fluffy and light. Fluffy potatoes, can you imagine?

Daniel had a braised duck in red wine sauce, which was really good too. Tender meat and delish sauce, there’s really nothing more you can ask for. I’d say this restaurant is a MUST-GO and it’s really affordable during lunch hours. We had the above 3 courses and creme brulee for dessert and it cost us a total of only 60 EUR. A reasonable splurge for the high quality of food 😀