Thursday, October 24, 2013

Yummy Dim Sum Lunch @ Tim Ho Wan With My Family

I went with my family to HDB today for the first appointment of our new home purchase and we were lucky that we managed to get everything done before lunch time. I was hoping to eat lunch at Tim Ho Wan (next to Toa Payoh HDB Hub, at the old Eng Hwa Entertainment Centre) and avoid the long queue at lunch time and was happy that we managed to get seats immediately. We had a yummy lunch there and our top favorites are its porridge, char siew bun, carrot cake and siew mai and i can't wait to go back again during our 2nd HDB appointment in December :) 

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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Must Watch Japanese Drama - Hanzawa Naoki

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If you are looking for a good drama to watch, i highly recommends this Japanese TBS drama "Hanzawa Naoki" which ended recently in Japan. I have been wanting to write about it but i have been really busy with finding suitable contractor or ID for my home renovation. I finished watching this drama 2 weeks ago and finds it really entertaining and meaningful. I love its fast paced plot which keeps you hooked on each episode and leaves me craving for more. I'm hoping that TBS will continue with season 2 and alot of fans are also asking for it. I have been recommending this drama to my family and friends and my cousin told me that she and her boyfriend love it.

The collection from the TV episodes and the popularity poll for the show has achieved the highest rating in three decades of Japanese television drama. "Hanzawa Naoki" achieved high ratings in Japan and even broke drama king Takuya Kimura's record viewership ratings in his 2010 drama "Beautiful Life" which was one of my top favorites and a Kimura classics!  "Hanzawa Naoki" will be showing soon in Taiwan and Hong Kong and hopefully in Singapore too. In the meanwhile you can also watch it online at (http://www.gooddrama.net/japanese-drama/hanzawa-naoki).

The series follows the story of Hanzawa Naoki, a banker working for the largest bank in Japan, Tokyo Chuo Bank. He faces numerous obstacles from upper management as he climbs his way up the ranks. The show received consistently high ratings: the final episode reached 42.2% in the Kanto area, the highest figure for a drama in the Heisei Era. Read on for more information about the drama.

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Hanzawa Naoki (Masato Sakai) works for Tokyo Chuo Bank as the head of the Loans Division at their Osaka Nishi branch. Hanzawa has a secret reason for working at the bank. He has been hoping to seek revenge on executive director Akira Ohwada (Teruyuki Kagawa) for causing the death of his father. He had witnessed how Owada humilated his father and caused him to commit suicide after recommending that the bank withdrew the loan for their family business. Hanzawa was only a teenager when his father passed away and their family went through alot of hardships and he believes in double payback for those who messes with him.


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His kind and supportive wife Hana (Aya Ueto) constantly tries to remind him not to always seek double payback and spare a thought for the repercussions on those people's innocent family members. She is the one that helps Hanzawa not to turn to the evil side at times when he is obsessed with seeking double payback.
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The story starts with Hanzawa working at the Osaka Nishi branch and his overbearing branch manager, Asano had forced him to award an unsecured loan of 500 million yen to Nishi Osaka Steel. On the surface, Nishi Osaka Steel seems like a very reputable company, but in actual fact it is a company in deep trouble. Debt-ridden, the company accountants resort to window-dressing the financial statements in order to hide the truth from the public. Three months after the loan, Nishi Osaka Steel goes bankrupt and the ambitious and power-hungry Asano makes Hanzawa the scapegoat for the 500 million loss. Hanzawa is called to Tokyo to answer to the internal investigations team, where he vehemently denies responsibility for the loss, and swears to recover the 500 million yen. That is the only course of action for Hanzawa, if he wants to survive in the banking industry.

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Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Updates & Yummy Lunch @ Ikea Tampines :)

I have not had the time to blog recently as baby J has started teething and it is a really terrible time for him. He is really fussy at feeding time and dislikes drinking his milk at times and i have to spend more time coaxing him to finish his feed. Really pity the poor guy and can't wait for all his teeth to come out. His mummy feels his pain but can only give him chilled teether and teething gel and lots of hugs and hopes that it can lessen his discomfort. I have also started feeding him fish porridge as advised by his pediatrician and have to spend more time on cooking. But i'm glad that he loves it and its strange that teething does not affect his appetite for solid food. He loves it when i add his favorite organic Japanese pumpkin or carrot puree to his fish porridge but he hates spinach in his porridge. Will have to think of ways to coax him to eat more green veggies ;)

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I love my happy baby J :) He is getting cuter and cuter each day hehe...
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So unglam in his new Ikea high chair haha waiting for his mummy to feed him more of his favorite porridge
I have not had much time to blog as we are in the midst of moving house and have been spending lot of time meeting contractors and comparing quotations. We do not have alot of budget for renovation as the amount we paid for the new place had exceeded our initial budget. Would share more about our experience meeting with the contractors and IDs if i have the time. Hubby was quite pissed off with Sky Creation as its staff was really rude when replying to his email enquiry for quotation. My best friend had recommended her ID at Sky to us as she was really please with her service and willingness to work within her tight budget for renovation. Hubby had sent an online enquiry via Sky's website for the same ID to contact us and indicated our budget for renovations but someone else replied to our enquiry and apparently he was unhappy with the amount we indicated and was really rude and sarcastic. We were actually prepared to increase our budget if needed but because he was so rude and ignore our request for the specific ID, we rather look for someone else then spend money and have to put up with such nonsense. 

Despite the trouble we face looking for a good contractor or ID, we are really excited about moving to our home by the end of the year. We have been looking around for furnitures and home decor ideas and made a trip to our favorite Ikea store recently. How i wish they would open a branch in Sembawang as i would love to lunch there daily heehee... Check out what we had for lunch below... so sinful but i love it :)

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