Living it up!

Ah this is the life.

I am writing this after a glorious weekend mini break at the Intercontinental Hotel, Singapore. For those of who have never experienced a hotel getaway weekend within our fair shores, I highly recommend it. It's truly a getaway, but without the hassles of airport transfers, customs, strange food, weird smells etc. And the rude locals you encounter are your own people, so how to get angry with them?

I capitalised on one of my gift certificates that I bought from the hotel in April and got a really good deal on the room. It was one of those spur of the moment buys (like signing up for credit card to get a free coffee maker), but this is one that I have actually gotten more out of than I spent on it.

We checked in on Saturday afternoon at 2, me and my boy. Otrie said he would be right behind us, but in true CPT fashion, arrived at 6. Hanan and I used that time to do other fun things like get ice cream and hit the pool.

Now, I don't want to hear any "You think you ang moh , issit?" comments over the next paragraph. I sat on one of those cool deck chairs in the sun and read my book while Hanan frolicked in the pool. Everytime I got too hot, I jumped into the pool, then back out again for more sun warming. If you have not done this, don't knock it. Its actually very relaxing - a true sense of doing absolutely bugger all.

At about 8 we mosied down to the esplanade to catch the fireworks festival. Unfortunately about 100,000 other pple had the same idea. The only way to get a nice seat was to eat at one of the restaurants there, and the only restaurant with room was 2Hot Halal Cafe. And soon it was evident why. The sandwich was stone cold. The rendang was good, but took an hour to get there. (Maybe they made it fresh for us. Yeah right.) The satay was ok, biasa, but seriously overpriced.

Verdict: Dont eat there unless there is an astounding fireworks deisplay going on.

The fireworks were really good. The crowd pleasers were the big white fire works than ending in colored balls at the end. They were cool. Found out some of my colleagues were just 50m away from me, but we never saw them. The crowds were enormous. In 15 short minutes it was all over. An hour later, it was like nothing happened at all - unless u look the ground and see the massive mess left by the "No Littering Campaign" Singaporeans. Sigh.

So go catch rounds 3 and 4 this Friday and Saturday if u can. Starts at 9. For free entertainment, it quite good lah.

After a good nights sleep on linen sheets and feather pillows, we went to whack the buffet breakfast. Awesome lah. U name it, they had it.

Bacon and eggs? Have.
Cereal and Fruit? Have.
Teochew Porridge with the works? Have.
Dim Sum and Miso Soup? ALLL Have!

Very good. More time at the pool, then we checked out at 2 to go to church (500m away!)
I am so thankful for little sanity trips like these. Mental note: must do more often!