Will be collecting our wedding bands tomorrow, or so I hope. :p
We did not manage to collect it in end July when we went to eClarity, for part of our customised rings was made of 18K yellow gold (or some called it champagne gold) and I personally found it too yellow for my liking. Jeff was actually fine with it though. Anyway, Amanda, the owner was very nice and offered to remake the bands for us as we specifically requested it to be of lighter tone.
Though we left eClarity with disappointment, we were glad that the result of the design we came up with - mix of white and champagne gold with roman numerals engraving and diamonds (we were very particular - even coming down to the exact size of the dimension of each of the 2 golds and diamond size) were really nice. We were initially afraid that the combination might not turn out well. Glad that Jeff and I decided to customise our rings at the end despite the cost was almost twice what we budgeted for. :)
Shall provide details on our bands searching process, together with pic of our customised rings in our next entry.
Exactly one more month to go ...
Friday, August 21, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The Pampered Lion
Celebrated my birthday with Qi Qi on the evening of 18th August at the intricately-named "The Nautilus Project" at ION Orchard. It was a dreary day in the office for me, so the gastronomical delight that awaited me was the perfect perk-me-up to lighten an otherwise plain birthday.
Located at the top storey of ION Orchard, the restaurant looked impressive enough with a large LCD monitor displaying the day's menu. The wine cellar was tucked away at the side of the entrance, with a wide array of wines and champagnes that would certainly have been a haven for wine connoisseurs. More impressively, the restaurant offered a quite-breathtaking view of the Orchard area and part of Scotts Road as well.
Alas, we were told the unfortunate news that the restaurant would be officially opening the next day, and the food currently available was limited to a single page of entrees. Which sort of explained why we made up half of the total diners in the restaurant when we entered. That was never going to deter us though, at least not on my special day. While the menu was short, it remained challenging to pick out what we wanted to fill our tummies with - not least because the short description beside every item sounded ever so appealing...
But we settled on the Seafood Platter, which was on 1-for-1, and of course the restaurant's signature dish: the Nautilus soup kettle. The Seafood Platter was a sight to behold and looked interesting once it arrived at our table:
The essential requirement for seafood as a cold appetizer hinges on its freshness, and here the Seafood Platter scored big with us. The generous serving of 3 shrimps were sweet, juicy and firm to the bite; the oyster on a half-shell tasted like it came straight out of the ocean (there was a whiff of sea-water as I lifted the succulent oyster with my fork) and the accompanying crab claw was another winner. We didn't need any dips for anything - everything tasted great au natural. The Platter included a tiny slab of smoked salmon, some chillied clams, Japanese unagi and crusty French bread toasted to a crisp. Qi Qi especially loved the bread, as I would expect her to, which came with 2 tasty cream dips which complemented the warm bread perfectly.
Then there was the soup kettle - another hit with us. At the front of the restaurant, there are 2 big pots which the restaurant uses to brew their cooking stock. Diners ordering this get to choose between 4 types of cooking stock and then choose from 2 seafood combinations. If my memory serves me well, the 4 stocks are Thai spicy coconut (sinful!), sweet & sour Sichuan (sinful!), clam chowder (very sinful!) and fresh Mediterranean (sounds healthy...) And of course, Qi Qi and I sinned to the max! The thick and creamy clam chowder was slurped up in no time! 4 thumbs up from us, definitely!
And, oh, what is a birthday without presents... Qi Qi had kept the present well-concealed from me, as usual... so I had to use all my senses to decipher what it could be...
I tried to listen...
And I sniffed...
I was so desperate, I even tasted it...
But still I couldn't get it right... And so I did the only thing I could - I ripped everything apart and saw it for myself!
A Gucci wallet! Heart pain la... so expensive... that's the way my dearest Qi Qi is, splurging on me, so that she can continue to say that I am a pampered little boy!
Happy birthday to me!!!
Located at the top storey of ION Orchard, the restaurant looked impressive enough with a large LCD monitor displaying the day's menu. The wine cellar was tucked away at the side of the entrance, with a wide array of wines and champagnes that would certainly have been a haven for wine connoisseurs. More impressively, the restaurant offered a quite-breathtaking view of the Orchard area and part of Scotts Road as well.
Alas, we were told the unfortunate news that the restaurant would be officially opening the next day, and the food currently available was limited to a single page of entrees. Which sort of explained why we made up half of the total diners in the restaurant when we entered. That was never going to deter us though, at least not on my special day. While the menu was short, it remained challenging to pick out what we wanted to fill our tummies with - not least because the short description beside every item sounded ever so appealing...
But we settled on the Seafood Platter, which was on 1-for-1, and of course the restaurant's signature dish: the Nautilus soup kettle. The Seafood Platter was a sight to behold and looked interesting once it arrived at our table:
The essential requirement for seafood as a cold appetizer hinges on its freshness, and here the Seafood Platter scored big with us. The generous serving of 3 shrimps were sweet, juicy and firm to the bite; the oyster on a half-shell tasted like it came straight out of the ocean (there was a whiff of sea-water as I lifted the succulent oyster with my fork) and the accompanying crab claw was another winner. We didn't need any dips for anything - everything tasted great au natural. The Platter included a tiny slab of smoked salmon, some chillied clams, Japanese unagi and crusty French bread toasted to a crisp. Qi Qi especially loved the bread, as I would expect her to, which came with 2 tasty cream dips which complemented the warm bread perfectly.
Then there was the soup kettle - another hit with us. At the front of the restaurant, there are 2 big pots which the restaurant uses to brew their cooking stock. Diners ordering this get to choose between 4 types of cooking stock and then choose from 2 seafood combinations. If my memory serves me well, the 4 stocks are Thai spicy coconut (sinful!), sweet & sour Sichuan (sinful!), clam chowder (very sinful!) and fresh Mediterranean (sounds healthy...) And of course, Qi Qi and I sinned to the max! The thick and creamy clam chowder was slurped up in no time! 4 thumbs up from us, definitely!
And, oh, what is a birthday without presents... Qi Qi had kept the present well-concealed from me, as usual... so I had to use all my senses to decipher what it could be...
I tried to listen...
And I sniffed...
I was so desperate, I even tasted it...
But still I couldn't get it right... And so I did the only thing I could - I ripped everything apart and saw it for myself!
A Gucci wallet! Heart pain la... so expensive... that's the way my dearest Qi Qi is, splurging on me, so that she can continue to say that I am a pampered little boy!
Happy birthday to me!!!
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