Shopping Spree... Again!

Today I went to the library to borrow some books with my niece. Was elated when I found "Veronika Decides to Die" by Paulo Coelho, "Train Man" a Japanese book by Nakano Hitori (which was later developed into a movie) but translated by Bonnie Elliott, and "The Great Railway Bazaar - By Train Through Asia" by Paul Theroux!!!

After that, we decided to do some shopping! So we headed to Tampines Mall.... Thank God the crowd was not too bad today!! PHEW!!!

Our first stop was Music Junction as I wanted to look for Debbie Hsiao's latest EP (which I saw at HMV, but couldn't find it anywhere else! DARN!). However, I was quite disappointed when they didn't carry that EP. Nevertheless, we bought 1 CD for Eunice which featured all the Disney Princesses theme songs for her birthday. I had bought a VCD "Bratz" for her on 31st December and thought I should get her something else since that VCD only cost $6.95.

I also bought Lee Hom's new CD - Heart Beat - which came with a calendar FREE!!! I haven't started listening to the CD yet. Think I can only do so on Monday since tomorrow will be a hectic one as I have to helpout my mother at the Pau Stall, and then at night I will be attending Mayday's mini concert at Indoor Stadium!!

After that, we went to Mini Bits and I bought 2 pairs of earrings and 2 necklaces. The designs were so CUTE!!! I actually spent $49.95 there!!! Phew! Luckily I had the Minitoons Membership Card and am entitled to a 15% discount! They are actually giving a mirror & comb set (super exquisite, and looked a bit like Anna Sui) if you made purchases more than $80. I don't think I want that set since it will just sit at one corner of my cupboard to collect dust! Furthermore, there's nothing much I would like to buy there to chalk up to $80!

Charles & Keith had this End of Season sale but I couldn't find that bag which I saw at Vivocity which I am very keen to buy!!! I wonder if it is also on sale?? That bag cost $89.90!!! My God!!! Why does that bag have to be so expensive?? I also couldn't find the pair of sandals which I thought looked pretty interesting at the Tampines Mall branch just now... Strange... I saw it earlier.... I think they must have hidden those sandals since most of the items on sale belonged to the past season... Maybe I will just have to wait for the next sale...

After which we moved on to Century Square and shopped a while at BHG... Somehow, I think the stuff in BHG are pretty boring... I still think Metro has better variety than BHG. The same goes for the BHG at Bugis... Anyway, we tried to look for the shoe which I was particularly interested to buy at URS but couldn't find that. So I gave up and went to "Craft Jewellery".

"Craft Jewellery" is having a SALE now too! I managed to get a pair of earrings, a necklace & a bracelet at $49.32.

Next, we went to BEGA. I had wanted to buy a bag, but in the end, I bought 3 tops, 1 skirt and a brooch as well!!! THANK GOD!!!! I think I've bought enough clothes to last me for the whole of 2009!!! On 31st December when I was at Jurong Point with my friend, I already spent $200+ at BEGA on 4 tops and 4 skirts.... today I spent another $160 on clothes & a bag... Okay... I must start eating bread from next week onwards...

We had wanted to go to Cafe Cartel for dinner but there was a queue forming. Hence, we decided to go into Century Square again and headed straight to Billy Bombers. Strange... the Billy Bombers at Century Square was always quite vacant. I don't think its the issue with the food as we had the "special set dinner" just now and it tasted great! The cream of cauliflower soup was really tasty!!! I had the spring chicken while my niece at the Cajun Fish & Chips. I would avoid Cajun Fish at all cost because everytime I ate that, I would vomit and have diarrhoea!!!

I bought a nice purple bag from Osmose as well. I thought the design was simple and nice, and what's more, the colour was pretty unique. Guess what? There's only 1 piece in the shop and I am so lucky to buy that! There's a black one as well but I thought that's pretty common. That bag is 49 bucks! But ok lah... Charles & Keith is $89.90 leh!!! I can 2 bags at that cost!

I think I really need to curb my spending when I go shopping the next time!!!

6th to 7th December 2008 - Tunisia Part 1

The most painful part of the trip was the time spent at the airport waiting for our transit flight...

We took Turkish Airlines to Istanbul on 6th December 2008 which only took off around 11:30pm. It took us about 13 hours to fly to Istanbul, after which we had to adjust to the 6 hours time difference, and then wait for another 5-6 hours for our flight to Tunis!!!

Damn! There's only so much we could do at the duty free shops. After a while, we decided to find a cosy spot - Starbucks - and began to order some coffee and cakes, and take out our books to read. I had brought along a copy of Readers' Digest, as well as a book which I've borrowed from the library - a mandarin one, and the waiting thus began.

AT last it was time for boarding.... upon reaching Tunis, we were really very tired... It wasn't easy for me to fall asleep on the plane as the ride was quite bumpy, and we sat near the wing, so we could practically hear the engine 'roar'....

Anyways, that's beside the point. Maybe its the excitement that's keeping us awake!!!

Tunis is the capital of Tunisia, and it didn't feel like winter at all since the weather was about 16 degrees celsius in the day. Our local guide is Ahmed, and the drive is Mohamed.

We were immediately shuffled to lunch at this restaurant Le Phenix De Carthage and this was located near the Roman Aquaducts. As we arrived 1 day prior to the sacred day - Hari Raya Haji - where sacrifices were to be made, a lot of people were on holiday and we had to make some changes to our itinerary.

We went to Sidi Bou Said instead. Sidi Bou Said was a pretty sight and reminded me of the picturesque white houses with dome shaped ceilings in Santori Island which I've always wanted to go!!!! The doors to every household bore different designs and motifs, and the door knobs were also of various designs! How interesting and pretty the doors of Tunisia are!!

The black and white arches reflect the day and night. According to our tour guide, the reason behind the white walls was to reflect the sunlight, and blue was a symbol of good luck and warding off evil spirits. There was a famous cafe - Cafe des Nattes - in Sidi Bou Said and a lot of people actually visited this place for a fine cup of mint tea!

After visiting Sidi Bou Said, we need to take the coach and head down to Kairouan. We stayed at Kasbah Hotel for the night and it was pretty grand!!!

Happy 2009!

Phew! 2008 ended just like that...

I really hope 2009 will be a better year, especially when we see the bleak news everywhere about negative economic growth, the financial crisis, high unemployment rate, war, diseases...

I watched "Bolt" with YS on the last day of 2008 at Jurong Point... Well... We were not out of our minds, just that we heard that there's a new extension of Jurong Point, and we thought why not go there to shop?

We ended up spending hundreds of dollars buying clothes from BEGA, as well as picking the birthday present for our dearest godson, who will be celebrating his birthday on 11th January!!! We bought him a cute caterpillar (an educational toy), as well as 1 CD full of Nursery Rhymes, 1 VCD on Sesame Street and 1 DVD on Hello Kitty & Friends. We want our godson to be a super intelligent baby and do us proud in future!!!

After that we proceeded to the airport for our usual coffee session and had our 'countdown' there.

The airport has becomme a favourite haunt amongst Singaporeans for after dark activities... We reckon that its clean, safe, quiet, air-conditioned and at the same time contained numerous eateries. Every cafe was crowded!!! We had initially wanted to crash in at Coffee Club since they have better cake selections.... but there were already RESERVATIONS!!!! So we proceeded to TCC and horror of horrors!!! The place was pretty crowded too! In the end we went to Coffee Bean to try our luck.

Managed to get a sofa seat :) Ordered my Original Ice Blended and a Toberone Cheese Cake! YUMMY.... Tasted good! Although I find it more cheesy than chocolatey....

Anyway, I hope that in 2009, I can achieve the following:

1. Travel more!
2. Lose weight
3. Get a pay increment!
4. Better health
5. Learn a new language
6. START my Travel Blog
7. Update my Blogs (Photo blog, Blog, etc) regularly...
8. Take better pictures!
9. Save more money

Well... I shall not call the above NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS since I NEVER keep them!! HAHAHA