Amba Hotel @ Ximending

Planning a free and easy 15-day trip is definitely not an easy task. We got to do quite a bit of research online.  After checking through zuji.com, we decided to fly with Cathay Pacific because of the price fares and also the timing that we wanted.  Through booking with zuji.com, each of us paid around $580 for the air tickets.  We also decided to spend our first 4 days in Taipei first before venturing to the other parts of Taiwan.  I picked Amba Hotel as it is quite a new hotel, officially opened this year in February and it is located right within the bustling and happening streets of Ximending.

Within the hotel itself, there is a department store "Eslite", which also houses "Muji".

I was captivated by the Artwork at the lobby and I even posted the photo on my facebook to let my friends guess what medium was used to create this very interesting Artwork.  Are you able to guess?

This hotel has a very interesting and quirky theme.  You will find this Chinese character "吧"  almost everywhere!  It means "Let's"!

The lobby is located on the 5th floor and it states here at 5F - Let's Ask!  Let's Eat!

Minimalist design

Let's Write!

Let's Read!  Let's Watch!

 Let's Wear!

I love the fragrance of all the shower gel and shampoo given.  On the day of checking-out, I grabbed a bottle of the shower gel.  :)

Let's Sleep or Let's Sweep?  You decide which magnetic tag you want to stick outside your door.

 Overall, it is a nice hotel that I will consider staying again in my next Taipei trip in near future, perhaps.

Family X'mas Party

We had a family Christmas Party on 25 Dec 2012 (Tuesday) at my third aunt's place.  This year, we decided to bring back gift exchange again to add more excitement to the party.  As I just came back from an  overseas trip, I decided to order Sakae X'mas Sushi Tray to bring to the potluck party for convenient sake as I didn't really have the time and skill to cook nice food.  

This year, Sakae Sushi came up with 2 types of Christmas Party Tray - Happy or Starry Sushi Tray.  I ordered the Happy X'mas Tray at $69.90.

 Happy X'mas Party Tray from Sakae Sushi

Very tasty starters - Cheese Sticks and Fried Corn Fritters.

 My cousin Krystal who enjoyed the cheese sticks very much.  This chatty girl can talk non-stop for hours without feeling thirsty.

She could interrogate my brother, who is normally very quiet and "forced" him to talk.

 Except for the sushi, all the rest of the food were prepared by my aunties and granny.

 Some Pork Knuckles...

 Turkey

 Even the Oreo Ice-Cream was made by my third auntie.  

 My aunt's neighbour who would always bring his 2 prestigious cats for us to see everytime we are here.  He is very nice to allow us to touch the fur of the cats and take photos too. 

Look at the eyes!!  

Finally, time for the gift exchange session that most of the kids (and big kids) were waiting for.

My big pressie...

2nd Aunt got my gift from Candylicious.

It was fun celebrating Christmas Day with the family.  Hope you had enjoyed your Christmas too!

X'mas Party with my "Multiply" friends

Merry Christmas to everyone in advance as I will not be updating this blog until after Christmas.  I will be away in Malaysia till end of next week.  I will share a blogpost on a Christmas Party that I had just attended today.

This was my second Christmas Party with my "Multiply" friends.  What or Where is "Multiply"?  Oh well, it is a social website that we used to connect with other online friends.  I started using "Multiply" when I was preparing for my wedding back in 2007 and often took a peep into other brides-to-be's experiences in their preparation too, through the photos that we uploaded in the Multiply albums.  Then, after my wedding, I continued to use Multiply to connect with others who shared same interests with me, mainly travels and food!  However, due to competition from facebook and other social media websites, "Multiply" is closing down by end of this year.  However, I was glad that I made friends with my online Multiply friends and we had frequent celebrations and gatherings that really spice up my life.  I do hope we will continue to build up our friendship in the years to come.

If you are interested, this is my "Multiply" link which contained many of my wedding and travel photos.  However, do note that it will close down anytime soon.

http://www.mystique0811.multiply.com

This year, our Christmas Party was again held at The Raintree and as usual, we tend to bring too much food since it was a potluck party.  We also had gift exchanges for both the adults and children.  It was fun for everyone with good food and good company.  :)

For me, I contributed Char Siew pastry and egg tarts from "8tarts & Pastries" from Tampines Mall Basement.

 Other than the original flavour, I also bought coconut and jackfruit egg tarts to try.

 Pizzas from Sarpino's, contributed by Cheryl.

 Theresa prepared some finger food for the kids.

The host, Hazel prepared some dry laksa.

 Pauline prepared eggs and pasta.

 Kimchi and Kimbap from Mrs Park.

 Angeline cooked vegetable curry.

 Sam bought Soon Kueh and Rice Kueh.

Janice bought 2 chicken pies from "Don - Your Personal Pie Club"

 Geok Ping made delicious Prawn roll in Beancurd Skin and Fried Wanton.

                                           Jiaming bought lots of fried items from Old Chang Kee.

Some photos of the gift exchanges:

Before the start of gift exchange for the kids, we need a young disciplinary mistress to help to settle down the kids and you can see she was doing quite a good job!

 This Caucasian lady is not in "Multiply" but she is Jiaming's pen-pal since she was 11 years old!  Almost 20 years of writing to each other and this is her second visit to Singapore!

X'mas lady of the day - Fiona 

 The 3 of us had one another's gifts... What a coincidence!

  I got Angeline's gift - A very nice bracelet and necklace :)

Thanks Angeline for the lovely gifts!

Group Photo