My husband is a huge ice hockey fan. Specifically, a Detroit Red Wings ice hockey fan. He's got the jersey, he watches old games, he himself plays for the Norwest Emporers and he's even imposed 'distance from ice rink' as a criterion for where we live.
Suffice to say, watching a real live National Hockey League (NHL) game would be the dream for him. So six months ago I started planning a surprise trip to America for his 30th birthday. The Red Wings were playing a home game in Detroit on the night of his birthday. I booked Delta flights to New York, flights to Detroit and one night's accommodation at the Detroit Greek Casino Hotel. The Red Wing's home rink was the Joe Louis Arena, and I discovered that the rink offered fan tours to the locker rooms and commentators boxes. (Booked.) I found out that for a $50 donation, I could have a special birthday message come up on the video board during the game. (Locked in.)
Everything was planned and booked, and MP had no idea! All he knew was that he had to take a week off work as we were going away. As I had got the whole family in on the surprise, his guess was that I had organised a big family trip to Ayers Rock (which he wasn't quite thrilled about).
Then... disaster hit. NHL announced a lock out.
From my simple understanding of the lockout, there was/is a dispute between the hockey league and the players, over money. So as no one was/is yielding, all games have been suspended until further notice.
One of MP's good mates Jae (another hockey fanatic who had been helping me organise the trip) was the one who alerted me of the lockout. His advice was that I had to tell Merv so that he could keep on top of the lockout news.
So much for the surprise. I had planned for him to find out where we were going once we arrived at the airport and I told him which flight number we were boarding. Then he would have checked the board to find out which check-in aisle we needed to go to, then "SURPRISE! We're going to New York!"
Instead, I pulled up the Flight Confirmation email on my iPad and a picture of the Joe Louis Arena seating chart. Whilst he was reading in bed, I handed my iPad to him. The shock look of surprise lasted for approximately 1.5 seconds before pure disappointment hit.
"NOOO! There's a stupid lock out!"
... Which is how we ended up spending two weeks in New York City.
Stay tuned for our NYC trip in the next post.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Catchup Post - Singapore
It's been a long time between posts, and what a good five months it's been! Lots has happened. Lots didn't happen. And there was a whole lot of living in between.
We went to Singapore over the Labour Day Long weekend back in September. It was my dear friend Mel's 30th birthday. She and her husband Mike, are expats living in Malaysia. So we organised to all get our butts over to Singapore for a big, decadent birthday celebration. Boy was it decadent...
I made reservations at the Tetsuya's Waku Ghin restaurant in Singapore, and when our other friends, Frank and Sarah heard about this, they decided to ditch their bub with the grandparents and come along on this whirlwind trip. When Sarah's sister Tracey heard about this, she decided to third wheel and also come along. So the five of us boarded a Saturday afternoon Scoot flight and landed in Singapore at 8pm. First stop, Jumbo's Seafood Restaurant! Of course our first meal at Singapore had to be Chilli Crab! Mike and Mel were already there and we ordered every flavour of crab you can think of. Chilli crab, pepper crab, steamed crab... by the end of it, I promised my stomach no more crab for the rest of the year. (That promise was broken within 48 hours.)
After our crab feast, we went hunting down a nice place to bring in Mel's 30th. One of Mike's friends recommended a place called the Helipad and when we got there, we saw that it was literally situated on a Helipad. It was also swarming with groups of people whom I thought looked like underage teens. They were of course, all of age and, as MP so kindly pointed out, I was just old. Which is true. I was too old to queue in a line and pay a cover charge to a place which was lit up by glow stick accessories. So we left the helipad and rebriefed Mike's friend - Delicious Cocktails. Comfy lounges. City skyline views... and that's how we ended up at the Lantern Bar. The Lantern Bay is a stylish rooftop bar at the Fullerton Hotel which has spectacular panoramic views of the CBD and Marina Bay. The cocktails were scrumptious. The views were breathtaking and best of all, I was surrounded by my best friends.
We were one of the last groups to stumble out of the Lantern Bar, and just because we were in Singapore, we decided to hunt down some supper. We ended up at restaurant which served up yummy Hainan Chicken, and although none of us thought we were hungry, the whole chicken was gone in a blink! Belly full and bleary eyed, we headed back to the Holiday Inn Orchard Road to rest up for the full day we had ahead.
Sunday was officially Mel's birthday and her gorgeous husband pre-booked a pamper day at the luxurious Spa Botania in Sentosa. As Frank & Co were flying out that night, they skipped the pamper session, opting instead for a full day of power shopping. So Mel, Mike, MP and I piled in a cab and headed to Sentosa where we indulged in massages, body scrubs and foot scrubs. We got clayed up in the mud pools and lounged on floating beds in their pool which featured a waterfall.We had a healthy lunch at their restaurant, and before you know it, six hours had passed and we had to head back to the hotel to get ready for the highlight of the trip - Waku Ghin.
The meal at Waku Ghin deserves a post of it's own, but I'll let the pictures do the talking.
From the moment we stepped through the restaurant doors, we were floating in food heaven... Or more like, swimming in food heaven - It was an Aquarium banquet. Lobster! Abalone! Sea urchiin! Sea cucumber! Caviar! Everything was cooked right in front of us by our own private chef. It was an amazing meal from beginning to end. Highly recommended for anyone visiting Singapore.
On our last day in Singapore, MP and I spent it shopping and exploring the city. Just the two of us. Together, we hunted down a hawker centre round the corner of our hotel for an Asian breakfast of braised duck, hainan chicken, oyster omelette and rice. (When in Rome...) Then we headed to Ion, a shopping centre in Orchard city, and went nut balls at the little boutiques.
On our first night in Singapore, the taxi driver who had taken us to Jumbo Seafood restaurant for Chilli Crab, had told us that we should go to a place on Upper Thomson Road called "Urban Seafood House". Apparently, the Chilli crab there was not only better than Jumbo's, but much cheaper as well. So for our last meal in Singapore, MP and I decided to jump in a cab and try heading there. We didn't have an address and we had no internet connection on our iPhones, so we drove around Upper Thomson (which we found out is a very, very long, suburban road) looking for this mysterious restaurant. Merv pointed out a restaurant called "Urvin's" but it was empty. We thought, "that definitely couldn't be it." But in hindsight, it must have been as we drove everywhere and couldn't find it. The cab driver ended up dropping us off at a small village block, full of eateries. We stumbled across a seafood restaurant where quite a few locals were patroning. So we sat down and ordered one chilli crab, one pepper crab, prawns, man tao and vegies. When all the food came out, MP and I felt like fat Kings and Queens (and a little sheepish for being so decadent with our order.) The meal was amazing. Here's a before and after shot of our meal.
The food was sooo good and relatively cheap! (I think the whole meal came in at around $60.) After dinner we had to race to the airport, but the meal was a fantastic finale to our whirlwind trip.
Yes, it was OTT, but this whole trip was exciting, thrilling, happy, decadent, luxurious and ridiculously delicious. I loved every minute of Singapore. We will definitely be back.
We went to Singapore over the Labour Day Long weekend back in September. It was my dear friend Mel's 30th birthday. She and her husband Mike, are expats living in Malaysia. So we organised to all get our butts over to Singapore for a big, decadent birthday celebration. Boy was it decadent...
I made reservations at the Tetsuya's Waku Ghin restaurant in Singapore, and when our other friends, Frank and Sarah heard about this, they decided to ditch their bub with the grandparents and come along on this whirlwind trip. When Sarah's sister Tracey heard about this, she decided to third wheel and also come along. So the five of us boarded a Saturday afternoon Scoot flight and landed in Singapore at 8pm. First stop, Jumbo's Seafood Restaurant! Of course our first meal at Singapore had to be Chilli Crab! Mike and Mel were already there and we ordered every flavour of crab you can think of. Chilli crab, pepper crab, steamed crab... by the end of it, I promised my stomach no more crab for the rest of the year. (That promise was broken within 48 hours.)
After our crab feast, we went hunting down a nice place to bring in Mel's 30th. One of Mike's friends recommended a place called the Helipad and when we got there, we saw that it was literally situated on a Helipad. It was also swarming with groups of people whom I thought looked like underage teens. They were of course, all of age and, as MP so kindly pointed out, I was just old. Which is true. I was too old to queue in a line and pay a cover charge to a place which was lit up by glow stick accessories. So we left the helipad and rebriefed Mike's friend - Delicious Cocktails. Comfy lounges. City skyline views... and that's how we ended up at the Lantern Bar. The Lantern Bay is a stylish rooftop bar at the Fullerton Hotel which has spectacular panoramic views of the CBD and Marina Bay. The cocktails were scrumptious. The views were breathtaking and best of all, I was surrounded by my best friends.
We were one of the last groups to stumble out of the Lantern Bar, and just because we were in Singapore, we decided to hunt down some supper. We ended up at restaurant which served up yummy Hainan Chicken, and although none of us thought we were hungry, the whole chicken was gone in a blink! Belly full and bleary eyed, we headed back to the Holiday Inn Orchard Road to rest up for the full day we had ahead.
Sunday was officially Mel's birthday and her gorgeous husband pre-booked a pamper day at the luxurious Spa Botania in Sentosa. As Frank & Co were flying out that night, they skipped the pamper session, opting instead for a full day of power shopping. So Mel, Mike, MP and I piled in a cab and headed to Sentosa where we indulged in massages, body scrubs and foot scrubs. We got clayed up in the mud pools and lounged on floating beds in their pool which featured a waterfall.We had a healthy lunch at their restaurant, and before you know it, six hours had passed and we had to head back to the hotel to get ready for the highlight of the trip - Waku Ghin.
The meal at Waku Ghin deserves a post of it's own, but I'll let the pictures do the talking.
From the moment we stepped through the restaurant doors, we were floating in food heaven... Or more like, swimming in food heaven - It was an Aquarium banquet. Lobster! Abalone! Sea urchiin! Sea cucumber! Caviar! Everything was cooked right in front of us by our own private chef. It was an amazing meal from beginning to end. Highly recommended for anyone visiting Singapore.
On our last day in Singapore, MP and I spent it shopping and exploring the city. Just the two of us. Together, we hunted down a hawker centre round the corner of our hotel for an Asian breakfast of braised duck, hainan chicken, oyster omelette and rice. (When in Rome...) Then we headed to Ion, a shopping centre in Orchard city, and went nut balls at the little boutiques.
On our first night in Singapore, the taxi driver who had taken us to Jumbo Seafood restaurant for Chilli Crab, had told us that we should go to a place on Upper Thomson Road called "Urban Seafood House". Apparently, the Chilli crab there was not only better than Jumbo's, but much cheaper as well. So for our last meal in Singapore, MP and I decided to jump in a cab and try heading there. We didn't have an address and we had no internet connection on our iPhones, so we drove around Upper Thomson (which we found out is a very, very long, suburban road) looking for this mysterious restaurant. Merv pointed out a restaurant called "Urvin's" but it was empty. We thought, "that definitely couldn't be it." But in hindsight, it must have been as we drove everywhere and couldn't find it. The cab driver ended up dropping us off at a small village block, full of eateries. We stumbled across a seafood restaurant where quite a few locals were patroning. So we sat down and ordered one chilli crab, one pepper crab, prawns, man tao and vegies. When all the food came out, MP and I felt like fat Kings and Queens (and a little sheepish for being so decadent with our order.) The meal was amazing. Here's a before and after shot of our meal.
Yes, it was OTT, but this whole trip was exciting, thrilling, happy, decadent, luxurious and ridiculously delicious. I loved every minute of Singapore. We will definitely be back.
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