Countdown to a great 2009!

Counting down to the New Year @ Ryan's place this year! We missed out on Xmas & NY in Yr 2008, thus we must squeeze time out from our busy schedule for this gathering :) Ryan proposed to try Raclette this year (which is a type of dining centering around cheese. Oh, now i remembered - Leecher & me tried it at Jong's farewell party last year.)

Before we start the ball rolling, I have to rely on this bowl of beehoon to keep my stomach from growling, haha.

Introducing the attendees of the party :)

The couples who graced the event ...

The other "couple" ; waiting for the legalization of same-sex marriage :P

Ron made his grand arrival at the stroke of the 11th hr and joined the "foursome" gang, LOL.

Meanwhile, back to the feast ~

This gadget is pretty cool ~ maybe I should try to get a set of my own.

The main ingredient ~ looks so much like the cheese we see in the Tom & Jerry cartoon :P

Placing it on the tray and waiting for the cheese to "melt"

The side "dishes" that goes with the cheese.

Mr Ryan aka Jamie Oliver had the honour of demonstrating on how to eat the raclette cheese to us (aka the noobs)

1st step: pour the melted cheese onto your own plate (that sounds pretty easy)

2nd step: select the side dish that you wish to eat

3rd step: put the side dish & cheese together and popped it into your mouth! Tadah! Super easy right?

Grilling the food on the hot plate

Cheese with Ham ....

Cheese with Bread ....

Cheese with bread & salami... looks yummy right?

Can't wait to dig in!

Totally random - Fling got the gals Xmas pressie :) I'm glad to be your fren too!

Ok, back to the post: The gals bought a cake to celebrate the occassion.

Sweet Miaoli got us chocolate cake (@ my request! thx gal!)

Sisterhood ~ Miaoli left before we cut the cake :(

Pretty Babes ~

The gangsters, LOL

A group pic to end the night ~ Happy New Year & to a great 2009!

BPians Xmas Lunch

{Xmas last post! Finally, yeah & I know this is way overdue} Met up with Bobo & WL for our xmas lunch @ Kushinbo. As both WL & Bobo were on holiday, poor Me had to sacrifice my 1-day leave & popped by Jurong Point to have lunch with them. See, I am 伟大 :P

As sua-ku-ish as ever, this was my 1st time stepping into the new JP (ok, Leecher has yet to see the place yet, so he is more sua-ku than me, hahaha). Just when I thought that Lot 1 with its new wing was big, JP is like 1.75 times of the new Lot 1 now.

They even have this Jap street that houses the Jap restaurants. Bobo made a reservation and so, we were ushered into the restaurant while there was still a long queue outside, heehee.

The buffet spread in front of us ~ WooHoo! Lots of variety to choose from; which resulted in

.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Bobo & WL sure can eat man; I paled in comparison - but it's ok cuz they made my money more worthwhile :0

Our gift exchange!

Bobo got 2 pressies from WL； 偏心！

Smooch Smooch! You promised to bring your GF to our BP 50th Anniversary dinner hor, dont forget ar!

WL got my pressie; hope you like it!

My pressie from Bobo - how come got ribbon on this packaging while WL's pressie dont have ribbon?

Tadah - a group picture to conclude the post! Bobo is a 幸福的男人, haha.

BBB!

It's Blamer's Bro's Birthday! (aka BBB)

The birthday cake courtesy of Blamer.

The Bro and his girlfriend. (Bro looks pretty stunned)

Take 2

A photo with his dear sis.

A properly taken one. (noticed the bro likes to take crazy pics 1st time, den the proper one)

Finally, me! Trying hard to hide my tummy so tat Blamer will allow me to eat the cake later. (Wa ha ha, very 可怜 right?)

After much ra-ra-ing, we managed to get camera shy Auntie to pose for the group photo.

Gingerboy

{Xmas season, overdue yet once again} Gingerman took his baby, gingerboy and promptly arrived @ our office to celebrate the festive season ...

So cute rite? Couldn't bear to eat them ~

Wow, I didn't realise that Gingerman is as big as my face. Is my face too small or Gingerman too big? Hmmmm.....

Gingerman resting on Andrew's broad shoulders. How come it looks so small here?

While we fussed over Gingerman in the office (since it's more chic than his baby), Leecher claimed "ownership" of gingerboy, haha ... that is part of his Xmas present too :)

PS: Gingerboy has ended up in Leecher's stomach shortly after Xmas while Gingerman is still sitting on Andrew's table. Maybe we should get a Gingergal next time ....

Xmas Lunch

{Xmas season, once again} Finally, it was time for us to have our annual Xmas lunch to celebrate the festive season :) Rinta, being the CEO (Chief Entertainment Officer) got us a booking under the Les Amis Group.

It was pretty cool to be in town, away from the CDB area on a weekday afternoon. Quick snap of the restaurant while waiting for the other cab to reach the destination.

They finally arrived after a grand 15 mins. It's ok for us, as long as they're footing the bill :P

As we walked into the restaurant, we were pretty surprised that they didn't receive the reservation :( Turned out that Rinta got the names mixed up and we walked down to La Strada, haha.

Since they belonged to the same group of restaurant, it's not unusual that they share the same colour scheme - orange & white & black.

The private room that was reserved for our lunch

Free flow of cheese & tomato pizza/bread. Oh my, it was tasty. We gobbled down the bread as soon as it was served. Well, it was almost 3pm and we were starving.

Natasha gleeing with delight when she managed to "snatch" the last piece of pizza under Elliott's nose, haha.

We had a 3-course lunch that was satisfying & filling. Food-wise, the quality is pretty decent, a high 7.8 score on my score-card. Service was equally good, attentive waiters (they seemed to be monitoring us with a hidden camera, kidding) who came into the private room to refill the cup/glass promptly.

We were surprised when the cake arrived.... it was a pretty amusing conversation

Waiter: Where's the bdae gal?
Elliott: Which one are you looking for?
Waiter: The bdae gal?
Elliott: We have 3 December babies, which one you're looking for?

The 3 pretty December babies :)

The group picture ~ Oh, we even have a dress code for this event; everyone must be dressed in either gold, green or red. Andrew turned up in his most festive shirt, but a pity my camera cant capture the "bling-ness" of his shirt, haha.

Popped over to Hyatt Mezza 9 bar for their martinis ~
till the next team xmas lunch :)