Sunday Champagne Brunch @ the Ritz

On the days that you are feeling extravagant and are up for some happiness found in a glass. You will definitely find some at Greenhouse in The Ritz-Carlton.

There will be free flow of Moët & Chandon, and other cocktails available at the bar,

Sashimi,

Foie Gras,

Scallops,

Fresh lobsters,

Roasts,

Desserts,

The spread and quality of the food is amazing – there is a variety of 5 oysters for you to choose from. My only regret is that they didn’t have bread and butter pudding!

On the free flow of champagne, you get to choose from Rose, as shown above, or Vintage, shown below.

Bearing in mind that it is a Sunday champagne brunch, it is best to keep well hydrated after with lots of water. My hangover kicked in around evening time and it was a rather painful experience which I had to manage with Panadol and rest.

On hindsight, would I do it again?

The hangover that I got from the champagne is a major deterrent despite already limiting the number of glasses I had. The food and ambience on the other hand is something I wouldn’t mind experiencing again.

It is a great place to hang out and catch up with friends & family, and also to bring your overseas friends. Everyone is loosened up after a couple of glasses of bubbly, the conversation starts to flow naturally, and everyone is just there having a good time.

For those who have yet to try this, I would say, “Go for it!“. As for those who have tried it before, the decision lies with yourself, doesn’t it?

Greenhouse @ The Ritz-Carlton, +65 6434-5288
Sunday vintage champagne brunch: 11:30 a.m. – 3 p.m., offering an unlimited flow of Moët & Chandon, wines and selected cocktails accompanied by freshly shucked oysters, seafood, roasts, 50 French farmhouse cheeses and freshly baked soufflés 

Naked

Naked 2 palette from Urban Decay
The Naked 2 palette from Urban Decay has finally hit the shores of sunny Singapore!

I’ll have to admit that I was waiting, with ants in my pants for this palette to arrive. To the extent, I even went to Sephora weeks ahead to inquire on its arrival.

And finally, it’s here!

Launched in Sephora last Saturday, I could barely believe there was still stock left on Sunday. To be exact, there were about 50 left in the Ion outlet at around 4pm when I popped over in my slightly intoxicated state after Sunday Champagne Brunch.

There’s no need to hesitate in buying these palettes. Buy them both!

I haven’t used the Naked 2 palette to give an opinion on which is better. Just at at glance though, the tones in the Naked 2 palette is a lot cooler than the first one. So if you like your Greys more Golds then the 2nd one will be great.

Naked palette from Urban Decay

TGIF

Have an awesome first Friday of the year. Keep telling yourself that how you end this day sets that pace for the rest of the Fridays of the year, and you will be on your way to make the best/most out of it!

Mac: Character Map

Being a long time Windows user, coupled with at least 8 hours of usage 5 days a week. There are small things that are overlooked when considering making a switch to Mac. One of the things that just crossed my mind today – Character Map, or CharMap.

In Windows, all you need to do to bring up this box to insert symbols is go to Start > Run > “Charmap”.

On a Mac, I was stumped. But not for long..

While I can’t say which I prefer, it is a useful tool, and both are just as easy to access.

For starters, you will need to activate it first.

1. Under System Preferences > Keyboard & Text.
2. Tick the check box next to “Keyboard & Character Viewer”.

Once done, every time you need it,

1. Click on the dotted square next to your battery meter, and select “Show Character Viewer”.

Happy Mac-ing! ☺

2012

2011 – a typhoon, where I seldom found the calm in the eye of the storm.

While it brought some good things; needless to say who, I still feel a sense of relief to bid it goodbye.

Welcoming the new year, (albeit a few days late with this post), well why not write down a couple of I hope(s) now, and see how far I’ve become in 12 months.

1. Happiness and Humility.
   Find peace with life, embrace it with delight, and be thankful for my blessings. Throw aside any negativity!
2.  Prudent Saver
   As if the recent years are not lessons enough that you can never be prepared enough for a rainy day. Rising costs, coupled with winding markets. Not good.
3. Appearances
   Over the years, this department has definitely fallen the ranks. Hair, nails, makeup. *poof*

HAPPY 2012, and I hope this excitement doesn’t fizzle out on me any time soon.

Da Paolo – Baked Lemon Tart

Baked Lemon Tart, Da Paolo
Ever since I got my first taste of a lemon meringue pie at the sweet age of 14, I was hooked. A little bit of sour, masked slightly by a little bit of sweet. Heavenly.

It is not a common dessert though, hence making it a rather difficult dessert to find. It is also not an easy dessert to make, speaking from experience.

Other than just tracking it down. It’s also hard to find a decent one – the one with the delicate balance of lemon and meringue.

In addition to finding a good one, inflation has also caused a significant decrease in serving size since the good ol days.

For $7, Da Paolo serves up a pretty mean piece of lemon tart.

The tart is firm and full, yet not to the point of crunchy flaky, neither does it get soggy from both condensation or bleeding of the custard. The lemon is not overpowering, and has a rather soft and light texture. Not too watery, nor too plasticky starchy. Finally, the meringue is sweet but not sickeningly sweet for one sitting. It compliments the sour lemon custard very well.

Together, and with a cup of earl grey – the perfect companion to kick back and catch a few episodes of Modern Family!

Spotted: Limited Edition PacMan 2012 Moleskine journal

Harris Bookstore, 313 Somerset

Remember the days before the likes of Facebook, Twitter, iPhone and iPad came to occupy our time? Instead, there was Tetris, Sim City, Theme Park and Pac Man.

Seeing this 2012 Moleskine journal definitely brought back some good nostalgic feelings. When days were much simpler, more carefree.

Display Chinese Characters in iTunes

Having jumped onto the Jay Chou bandwagon recently (albeit a little late), I was ecstatic to have found a complete download of his albums from 2007 to present. The best part was they there were all nicely labelled in Chinese characters as opposed to their lesser hanyu pinyin counterparts.

However, imagine my horror when I dragged all my fresh new songs into iTunes, and in that instant, turned to gibberish.

Thankfully, there is a solution to restore this. Though I don’t know the mechanics behind it, but it works.

And that’s all that matters to me. At the moment.

So to get from gibberish back to Chinese characters..

First, you will need to change the language option to chinese. (Drag it right to the top of the list.)

Quit, and re-open iTunes. Select all the affected songs, right-click.

Choose the option with “…ID3…”. Select the last option.

 

Once all that is done, the songs should appear fine now. However, there is still one more step to ensure that they stay that way.

Again, select all affected songs, right-click and select the “…ID3…” option. This time, use the first option, and select v2.4.

And you’re done!

All you have to do now is just switch back the language to what you’re used under system preferences.

Note: If you do not do the last step of converting the songs to v2.4, your songs will revert back to their gibberish state once your language setting is no longer chinese. You need to do the conversion to ensure that the chinese characters stay that way, regardless of the system language being used.