Singapore 2016 Year End Trip

Hello everyone, Happy 2016! 

If you follow me on Instagram, you would have already known that my family and I were in Singapore for Christmas. After all the procrastination and the super slow internet, here I am to update you guys with what has happened recently in my life! And for the first time ever, I have a video to accompany this blog post! Continue to find out more!

So first off, I was on my semester break and it felt really nice to be back home. 

Reason number 1: Wifi. I maxed my Maxis quota and my Digi quota finishes so soon that I have to reload often, so unlimited wifi was really very much needed back into my life.

Reason number 2: Food.  Okay, I don't really starve to death or anything but purchases must be made and for these purchases to happen, sacrifices must be made. Long story short I was glad to not be eating instant noodles anymore.

Reason number 3: Family. It's been a while since I last saw my family and although I wasn't homesick, it was nice to see them all again. Plus, my family just moved to Melaka and this is my first time staying at our new house!

As soon as I got back, some drama happened with my housemates. It all started before my flight home with a simple gesture of me and Bella telling our other housemates that we cleaned the fridge for them and threw away all the rotten and forgotten food that they had. We didn't have to do it, we were just cleaning the whole house and felt that helping them clear the fridge would be a good thing. Mind you, there was A LOT of food.

So one thing became another and they started saying that we always complain, we always criticize them, so on and so forth. They then said that they would move out, which was fine with Bella and I.

Fast forward to when I arrived home, I couldn't enjoy my family time because they suddenly announced that they were gonna move by the END OF DECEMBER. Luckily enough (after stressing for hours), Bella managed to get a junior of ours to come stay with us. You may think that "Oh, this is only Eros's side of the story and the other party may be innocent". Think what you may, but I am so over this whole thing. I did my part in helping out around the house, I used the common things (aka pots and pans) with care, I didn't clean plates sloppily, I didn't leave food in the fridge for months and I most certainly did not play victim. You can post all your "I feel betrayed" & "You're welcome to leave my life" posts on Facebook, but as you all may know, I am a big believer of KARMA. What goes around comes around, and if you do good, good will come to you. Since I know that I did nothing wrong, I am confident that my 2016 will sail smoothly and most definitely more hygienic than how it did in 2015. Good luck and goodbye.

So, now that that's over with, on with more me! XD

After a nice dinner, my family and I went to watch Heart of the Ocean, a movie about the origins of Moby Dick. It's not really the type of movie that I would choose to watch, but it was unexpectedly okay *although a bit slow*.

Hermo.my also had a fabulous Christmas Sale and I did a whole post on that, so click here if you're interested in reading it!

I also managed to redo my hair, thanks to the fabness of my brother Euri. I should have just waited and let him bleach my hair instead of doing it in Penang. Anyway, he fixed my ratchet sideburns and and uneven hair, and I started living my life as a brassy-not-really-but-kinda blonde ♥

I've searched everywhere for a purple toner to get rid of the brassiness, but I couldn't find one anywhere I went. I tried making my own but it didn't really work out.

My hair goal colour for the holidays was gray, so I bought this box dye from Watsons:

But unfortunately it didn't turn out that good. It just turned my roots into a slightly darker bronze and the roots of my bangs a dark gray (you can see it in the third gif in the collage, why did it work only on that part??!). A week later, the gray dye washed off completely!

My parents actually went to Germany the day after I arrived so I spent my days just catching up with my shows, etc. When they arrived on the 22nd however, we went to Singapore the very next day!

S I N G A P O R E

(No Fufy I didn't copy your heading style)

Instead of just taking photos, I decided to document this trip with Snapchat! Although a few snaps on the 24th got lost, I compiled the videos and some photos into a video, so before I get to talking, please watch this video I put together! ^^ It'll give you a brief idea of how things went down:

*Remember to like and subscribe!*

PS: My Snapchat ID is fishmeatdie

D A Y 1

My family and I departed by bus at around 10am and reached Singapore around 2.30. Since it was Christmas I was expecting a lot of traffic but luckily there wasn't much. My hair color was still messed up from the gray and needed some serious cutting.

We actually got lost and ended up having Dominos at Victoria Street for lunch lol.

And I could finally use the geo filters on SC! ^^

After googling we found out that our hotel was actually quite near, so we walked to it and passed by some of Singapore's streets. This street below in particular was called Penang Road and even looked like Penang a bit I guess.

We checked in and met up with one of my besties fo life Sammi! Kinda sad that I didn't get a photo of when we first met up, so here's one of my sis:

Sammi was kinda our tour guide for the rest of our trip hahaha. We headed to Clarke Quay and it was my first time riding the Singaporean MRT! Much convenient though, we need to get one of those back in Penang.

Clarke Quay kinda reminded me of a fancier and nicer Riverfront (minus the LED lights). We managed to catch the sunset when we were there too.

After dinner, we decided to do a little sight seeing and ended up going to Gardens by the Bay! Marina Bay Sands has been an iconic Singaporean landmark ever since it was made, plus I saw some photos of the Christmas displays in Gardens by the Bay on Instagram and couldn't wait to see them for myself!

So if you didn't already know, Singapore has this massive fancy hotel called Marina Bay Sands (which people mostly know of because of the Infinity pool) and below it is a park called Gardens by the Bay. Inside, there are these things called Supertrees that have exotic plants growing on them and basically they look like futuristic trees. According to wiki they're part of SG's plan of  becoming a "City in a Garden".

Although there was a lot of people, the view really made up for it. I feel like compared to Malaysia, I would prefer to live in Singapore because of the city life, all the shopping malls and just the whole futuristic city feel. If only Singapore wasn't the most expensive city in the world to live in. Maybe I'll get a chance to move and live there in the future?

Anyways, here's another family photo and yes, there's a lot of us but after so many years, I've learned that in a family, the more the merrier! ^^ (Plus we're all actually quite loud and noisy so there's never a dull moment).

Going more inside the grove, we got to see the entrance to the Christmas Wonderland display:

And behold, the centerpiece of the display!

  

Isn't it just pretty? 

When we got to the display, we also met up with one of our friends from high school Demi!

She's gotten so much prettier and omg much white. I gotta be honest (and everybody who knows me in real life probably already knows) I'm not that fair and although I would really like to be, I can't seem to go lighter. Maybe I should invest in that in 2016? Hmm. Anyways, it would take too long to photoshop all these selfies, so I just edited a few (like this one below), but most (almost all) of the photos in this post will be sans edit T.T

The lighting was really pretty and from that night alone we managed to get hundreds of selfies hahaha. I managed to use my front camera a lot and only then did I realize how pretty the photos my S6 front camera takes!

Aside from the display, there was this carnival thing going on around it where food was sold in stalls. There was even a fancy looking restaurant there.

We saw that one of the stalls was selling churros and who can say no to churros right?

After buying them we walked some more, took more photos and just chilled under one of the supertrees.

We had to go home at one point and I thankfully got away from the heat. For this trip I was actually hoping to see one of my fave bloggers like Yutaki, Miyake, Qiu and Sophie (not Xiaxue because I knew she was in the US) walking around but sadly I didn't. A few days later though, Qiuqiu updated her Insta and said that she was in Gardens and I felt kinda sad to not have seen/met her :( oh well. Just another excuse to come back to SG.

This panoramic shot I took of the garden at night is just so pretty!

There were no seats on the downtown MRT that we took and we were all just so tired from walking that we just sat on the floor (ratchet, I know).

And that marks the end of Day 1!

D A Y 2

On our second day, my siblings and I separated from our family and went around shopping with Sammi and Demi. I finally got to visit Bugis after hearing so much about it from Sammi in high school!

And I actually documented the whole day (shopping, eating, tons of walking and selfies) through Snapchat but unfortunately most of them weren't saved! Sigh...

For this trip I just brought my basic skincare which consisted of my cleanser, toner, acne cream, lotion, moisturizer and sunblock. I would die and break out without these products. I also bought some hair serum that kept my hair shiny throughout the whole trip (fyi I bleached my hair 3 times and it is dried and fried).

It was drizzling that morning but nothing major. I was forced to wear my denim jacket that clashed so bad with my PMC shirt -,-

And after a quick bus ride, we arrived in Bugis! We first went to Astons in Bugis+ to have some lunch.

And homg isn't Demi's camera quality zamazings?

And after three years of not seeing each other, we also met up with Abi! We all know each other from high school plus our parents were friends with Abi's parents as well, us being a Filipino community back in Ipoh and all~

And while Abi was finishing her lunch and catching up with Yana, Euri an Demi, Sammi and I decided to get some froyo. She recommended me Llao Llao's froyo which Caryn also had when she visited. All I can say is that I was not disappointed! It was literally heaven in a cup. I think the best thing about thing about it was the cookie sauce!

The both of us then headed to Bugis...something (I forgot the name of the place). Its basically not a mall but more of those shops where you can bargain stuff. I'd show you guys snaps buy I don't have them T.T

Yana, Euri, Demi and Abi soon caught up with us and we spent quite some time walking around the shops.

I managed to get a nude beanie because I've been looking for a nude one for the longest time. I'm planning to put together a nude/brown outfit because of this one Style Nanda spread that I saw once haha. Sammi also got one in black so yes, we now have a couple item! Last time friends visited Penang we all got matchy T-shirts, but Sammi wasn't with them, so now we finally have something matchy too! ^^

Demi and I also managed to haggle with this nice aunty who we bought stuff from and we both got sunglasses for free instead of $20! XD You'll see me wearing what I bought later on, but yay for the power of haggling!

After Bugis we headed to Orchard where there was a ton of people walking around. We checked out their H&M and as expected, the stuff was much more expensive than H&M stuff in Malaysia. It was nice seeing more variety though.

I also helped Euri take his OOTD shots while the girls were still lining up for the dressing room.

Follow him on Instagram @eyemonstahyuri if you aren't already following him! ^^

There were Christmas decorations galore all around Orchard and after going through the stuff in H&M we decided to stroll around *and of course take selfies*

*I look so much better in selfies tbh*

Abi had to leave after that, and although we saw her only for a while, it was nice seeing her after such a long time.

The six of us headed back to the hotel and while we were deciding on where to go for dinner, we feasted on these pretzels and dips that my mum got in Germany.

We somehow ended up in Chinatown and had Chinese food for dinner. Don't ask me why, it just happened like that hahaha. The food was good though, and although it was different from my past Christmas dinners, it was still nice.

After dinner, we dropped my two brothers and my grandma back to the hotel, while my mum and dad went off to celebrate Christmas on their own. The five of us decided to go to Clarke Quay to countdown and thinking back, I don't understand why were so excited and were counting down like it was the new year hahaha.

As you've seen in the video/snapchat diary, we made it to Clarke Quay before the stroke of midnight! We got these temporary tattoos at a stall and headed for a bar.

I couldn't really remember the name of the bar because I was too busy drinking *lol*, but after some research I found out that it's called Fern and Kiwi.

Demi was zamazings, just goes to show how much of a party girl she is XD. She got us a VIP table and even managed to get us free mixers! She initially suggested going to Zouk, but in the end we decided to go to Clarke Quay. I'm really looking forward to the next we're in Singapore though so I can finally see what all the hype around Zouk is all about. But anyways, good job Demi! XD

We all had a great time and at about 2-3ish we headed back. Funny thing is, the Uber driver that drove us back actually knew Demi! XD

Overall the night was fun and like I said in the video, I threw up! Now, just to make things clear I can hold my alcohol and the only time I ever vomited was when I drank that whole bottle of Carlo Rossi during the Christmas of 2011. I'm not really sure what happened but like I said in the video it was probably something with my stomach.

Sammi Uber-ed back to her house and Demi stayed and spent the night with us. We rambled on and on in the video and I actually edited out some parts where were were just randomly talking hahaha.

And that marked the end of our second day in Singapore!

D A Y 3

Okay, so I slept at like 4 and woke up at 7 because I really wanted to go to shopping in the malls in Orchard.

We gave our family our presents and I kinda felt bad because we didn't have anything prepared for Demi. When we meet each other next I'll be sure to get her something~ And I was really thankful to my brother Euri for getting me Versace Eros! I've wanted it for the longest time and now I finally have a bottle of my own! ^^

A little later, the four of us headed to Orchard but before that can we all please take a moment and admire my hair? It was so straight, so blond and soooo...mushroomish to be honest hahaha. But still, that day was a good hair day for me. 

We reached Orchard where we took more photos:

And I got my OOTD shot! I got the glasses free and the cardigan for $20 from this shop called The Style Mafia in Bugis, my shirt is from H&M in Germany *which I could have gotten the exact one in the H&M in Malaysia but whatever*, bag from Pestle & Mortar, socks from Topman and shoes from H&M.

TBH if you look closely you can see my stomach T.T I definitely need to work all that fat off asap!

Sadly Demi had to go off for lunch with her parents after that. Hopefully we'll meet again soon!

The four of us then continued to go on shopping and taking polaroids! We bought some film and got some memorabilia out of this trip ^^

I managed to get some Innisfree masks and an exfoliator from Etude House as well!

 

I also finally got to see this Etude carriage! I saw it on Yutaki's Instagram and although I regret not being able to take a million photos with it because we were kinda rushing, at least I got a pretty polaroid with it ^^

My head was kinda throbbing from last night so as a break we had some ice cream sandwiches on the side of the road.

And before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye to Sammi as well T.T I definitely enjoyed going around Singapore with her and was really thankful to her for bringing us around. Ppalli come to Penang so I can take you around too!

The trip coming back took slightly longer than it did than going to SG, but it was all good.

We managed to reach Melaka at around 9.30pm.

We were all tired (even after having dinner), but we all had to unpack. I found out that I left my charger in the hotel, which really sucks because it was a fast charger T.T

So that's it for my Singapore trip. I really enjoyed myself and I wasn't expecting myself to enjoy it that much, but I did. I definitely can't wait to go again!

After Singapore I focused on taking photos for my skincare reviews and I have to say, I'm happy with the results. More photos, products and news about that soon, so do keep an eye out for that!

The new year was basically a family event and we had lots of cheese, ham, arroz valenciana, wine, pasta and all that good stuff.

On New Years Day, I went with my parents to Ikea and got a few stuff for our new house as well as a few stuff for me.

My family and I also watched Star Wars, which was fricking awesome! I can't wait for the next one!

And I managed to get my sister to draw me an illustration on my new notebook. She's really good at drawing and I hope she gets to go study Fine Arts (my parents want her to do something science related idek). 

The weather these few days has been really hot, and a lot of people say its because this coming year is the year of the Fire Monkey. First I was like "eh", but after experiencing the heat myself, I can't help but think that what they said was true.

And that marks the end of this long post! If you're still here reading, thank you so much! I have review posts lined up (as always, blocked by procrastination) so please do look forward to them. One of my 2016 goals is to be more active and to blog more!

Thanks again for reading!