I love the Christmas season, with the warmth and tingly sensation it always send to my spine. The new design for the Christmas cups and a cinnamon roll. Alas Cinnabon cinnamon roll it is not. I still prefer Cinnabon (yum!) with its thick frosting and soft roll.
I spied that last weekend when I was at Ngee Ann City. The familiar black and white striped facade. The makeup haven from France is finally going to be here. After reading about Sephora going to open in Singapore so often, it sure took its own sweet time to finally pin down the exact location in the mall. It was supposed to open in July 2008, but somehow that didn't happen. Not this time.
There it is....in black and white. It is opening in December 2008 which is soon going to be here in just a few days. Not sure of the exact date though. I just hope it will be like those in the States, with a wide range of brands which we do not see here - Too Faced, Nars, Vincent Longo, Cargo, Philosophy, Bliss, Fresh, TheBalm and many more! If they are priced reasonably, it will make sense, otherwise we will still continue to buy online or get people to buy when they are in the States or Canada. 
The movie trailer for Confessions of a Shopaholic is finally out! And the movie is slated for release on February 13, 2009, so that will be a Valentine chick flick feel good movie. Can't wait for it to be screened here. Hope we will get the same timing as the States.
Based on the beloved Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella, the movie is slightly different as it is not totally true to the series at all. It is set in New York in the movie, unlike in the books where the story is set in England. There are several differences but if you are not a stickler about it, it can be an enjoyable movie.
Based on the trailer, it is funny. The fashion and the goodies are just so tempting. Shoes, clothes, sample sales...shopping is just so in a woman's blood. Sniffing out the best deal and the thrill of the hunt are just intoxicating :p
Synopsis of the movie
Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is a sweet and charming New York City girl who has a tiny, little problem that is rapidly turning into a big problem: she's hopelessly addicted to shopping and drowning in a sea of debt. While Rebecca has dreams of working for a top fashion magazine, she can't quite get her foot in the door -- that is, until she snags a job as an advice columnist for a new financial magazine published by the same company. Overnight, her column becomes hugely popular, turning her into an overnight celebrity, but when her compulsive shopping and growing debt issues threaten to destroy her love life and derail her career, she struggles to keep it all from spiraling out of control?and is ultimately forced to reevaluate what's really important in life.
Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy played the leading roles and the movie is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.
More information can be found in the official movie site. It is surprisingly sparse that I wonder if this is a low budget movie.
I absolutely adore chocolates from Ghirardelli. Founded in San Francisco, it is what most people (who knows about it) will buy when they are there. There are not many Ghirardelli stores all over the States and are confined to only 5 states (California, Nevada, Florida, Wisconsin and Illinois). 
Well, technically only the gold glitters nail polish is considered a top coat. The white polish is meant for the white tips of a french manicure.
These are the colors I use for my tips. I prefer something softer and neutrals for the hands as they tend to chip faster and it look unsightly when you have chipped nails.
These are the berries/pinks.
I took this pic a few weeks ago and now I have no idea which is which. But the reds do look very similar to one another, right?
We were hungry while waiting for another friend and ordered the avocado shrimp to start. It was so so good. Warm and crunchy with the creamy mayo and avocado. The basket was some fried stuff which was tasty too.
The interior of the main dining area. It was a pretty big place.
And yes, the beef for the sukiyaki. It seemed like this is one dish we would always order either to share or on our own. It was so beefy tender (depending on the way you cooked it)
The sukiyai pot with the steam rising. You could request for the broth to be topped up though it took some time for them to bring to the table.
Pink dragon roll. Somehow I think I prefer the rainbow roll or something - the one with the mango and avocado on it.
My blue nail polishes from OPI. Don't they all look about the same?
We had a movie and dinner thing as part of team bonding for the office and so we decided to try the food from Shokudo. It seemed like there are so many such Japanese-Western fusioned restaurants now.
Fried mushrooms as a snack for us. It was not too bad, not too oily and crispy. Not fantastic though.
One colleague ordered the rice wrapped in egg with pork cutlet and curry sauce. It was not too bad. Curry was good :)
Another colleague ordered the same thing except the curry is beef. The beef was tough so it was not as nice.
Another dish to share - rosti with egg and curry sauce. I quite liked this. The rosti was done pretty decently and I think the curry just made a difference.
Dessert for one colleague who was too full to have a main (we had early dinner at 5pm or so) - she said the red bean mochi dessert was good. I didn't try it.
My order of scallops pasta which was not too bad. At least the scallops were not tiny and quite generous too. Didn't take pic of another colleague's pasta which looked similar - some seafood pasta. 
Tom's Palette over at Shaw Tower serves a pretty decent selection of ice cream. They are home made, with no preservatives (I think) and fresh ingredients.
View of the Riani wing from the Island Bar walkway. I thought I took pics of the facade of our rooms but somehow they were not in the camera.
View of the Tirta wing with the newer buildings and rooms. J & I decided we should stay at the Tirta wing should we ever go back to Turi again. Elevator rocks!
See the mangrove? The roots showing. These trees are all around the island. 
J & I while waiting for the ferry to depart. Black and white sunnies made the picture. I am so tanned!
Hello world! The ferry was not very nice at all. Good thing it was a short journey. I spent the entire trip leaning over and feeling the wind blowing which was cooling. But the journey back was better than going over. It was like a senior citizens convention with aunties and uncles smoking non-stop (even though there were signs indicating no smoking) and spitting on the floor. Ewww!
One part of Batam from the ferry. Mangroves again. Totally undecided if I do want to go back to Batam. While cheaper than Bintan, it was definitely not a very nice ferry experience.
Happy people everywhere. With just 3 restaurants, there were not many choices available.
Teppanyaki chef getting busy with the orders placed. This was the 2nd time I actually sat by the teppanyaki counter.
He sure was quick with his spatulas. Had to take pics with camera phone as the camera battery was running low.
Our chef (Eddie) who was quite serious. So serious that J kept urging him to smile and he finally did. Hahahaha.
J also kept commenting about the lack of showmanship til he finally did something and of course we applauded. Sometimes they are serious because no one actually appreciated what they were doing. The vodka mango which identified us. Hahahaha.
Another shot of us with the bibs.
1st course of our teppanyaki set - salad. The seasame oil dressing was refreshing and not very oily at all. Easy on the stomach.
2nd course - veggies. It was very lightly seasoned and the butter brought out the taste of the sprouts.
3rd course - fish with lemon butter sauce and prawns. The fish was tender and not fishy at all. The prawns were so sweet.
4th course - beef. This was a disappointment. Too tough for medium rare. It might be the cut of meat.
5th course - garlic fried rice which was pretty nice. And miso soup too. J ordered bubbly which was really nice. Cheap too at $50 or so. Last course was the dessert of the day - ice cream. I didn't finish it.
It can actually sleep 3 as there are 3 pillows. We should have asked for more pillows.
My C & E bag, finally put to use. It has a high ceiling with fan which we didn't use. Aircon was good enough.
Pretty modern bathroom with shower and sink. No bathtub. Bathtub is only available in the suite. The towels were big and think and fluffy. Really nice!
Balcony with only 1 chair. I wanted to dry my swimsuit outside but there was something dark flying around which scared me so I decided to dry it indoors. Apparently those were bats or dragonflies.
The connecting room for the other 3 girls. 2 Queen sized beds which could actually sleep 4. Reminded me of those rooms in North America where 4 of us would usually share the room. 
View from the restaurant where we had lunch while waiting for rooms to be assigned to us.
Ikan Bakar - grilled black pomfret. It took a long time but it was worth the wait. The sauce tasted like stingray.
Ayam Penyet which C ordered. I didn't try it. 
I was on a nasi goreng drive and ordered it. Quite ok. Seafood fried rice with fried chicken, pretty dry beef, satay and prawn crackers.
Walkway to the Island Bar where we were supposed to have our free mocktails. 
Turi beach. The beach was not as nice as Angsana Bintan but seaview was equally lovely.
Signposts indicating where to go. Main area was the free form pool. There was another pool at the new wing which looked nicer. 
The old wing were we were staying. Huts on stilt which was good to experience but not necessary to try again.
Pool and the huts where you laze the afternoon away. Nice view of both the pool and sea. 