A Staycation - Hotel Fort Canning Singapore

Few months ago, after the mayhem of the last show in 2012, my boyfriend and I had a mini staycation.

I needed to take a break so went online to hunt for good bargains at local hotels - which aren't much to begin with or rather, the bargains aren't really big ones because hotels and spas in Singapore are overpriced anyway. However with that said, it is mostly because our hotels and spas and resorts are actually really really of great standards - so it does translate to the cost.

Well, we found a pretty good deal with Hotel Fort Canning, and if anyone is visiting Singapore or if you are a local and would like to have a staycation as well, I would suggest it. It was a good price of SGD$200++, which is considered very good bargain in Singapore standards.

The hotel is beautiful, set in an old colonial building, which used to be the British military building in the 1920s - it is now preserved and updated as the hotel. The interiors are modernly designed and decorated, clean and smells so wonderfully good as you enter their main entrance - I love it when a hotel makes that kind of efforts to seduce all your senses! Staff were helpful and nice as well.

Their beautiful outdoor grounds are also very popular as a location for weddings. 

There were also complimentary drinks and canapes served for all guests during their stay in the lobby every evening at 6pm.

Drinks include their wide array of Nespresso - there is gigantic machine with all the coffee tablets available. Red and white wine are also served - canapes include cheese and crackers, mini quiches / bites etc.

This was a lovely touch to me, as I know many other luxury hotels elsewhere in the world do not provide this service.

The rooms are clean, modern and cosy - I felt it was a very clever use of the space. It's small, but because of the smart design, you have a luxurious bathroom in the balcony - the high ceilings makes it feel roomy too.

We were completely comfortable and relaxed in the gorgeous decor and comfortable King size bed. They also had a mini Nespresso machine with some complimentary coffee tablets available in your room - you may always call room service to top up more coffee.

 Hotel Fort Canning is up in the hill hidden in the middle of the city centre - it is among the lush greenery of Fort Canning park. So it's really different from staying in a hotel in the bustling city, it feels like you are away from the city and able to relax in nature.

So I went for a morning run through the Fort Canning park on my first morning. Ok, for those of you who are unaware, I currently still work and have been working at Singapore Repertory Theatre for the past 3 years, and the company does Shakespeare in the park here in Fort Canning. So I pretty much know my way around the park, but for those who have yet to visit, here are some photos I took during my run.

 All in all, I would say that was a very relaxing and wonderful stay, and if I do find a reason to need another staycation, I will definitely come back.

Cheers,

Emilia

S.T: The perfect get away: Moganshan

Hello hello,

One of the perks of living in China is China's Golden Weeks (we have three in total) and during a golden week, everyone gets a whole week off from work (7 days to be precise).

So, for this holiday (1-7 October), the Gorilla and I decided to escape the smoggy bustling city of Shanghai and set off to explore the mountains in Hangzhou, Moganshan. （莫干山）

View of a bridge at sword pond lake. 

We spent 3 days and 2 nights there and we returned with aching thighs and smiles on our faces. First discovered as a holiday destination by the Europeans who dotted the landscape with Victorian style houses, Moganshan is currently the quick weekend getaway for the residents of Shanghai. It is perfect for those who want to escape the city and be surrounded by the unspoiled beauty of nature. Here are some of the views we  took it.

                           (The Gorilla had to scale the rocks to get this shot. My fear of heights overwhelmed me and I couldn't join him on this climb.)

I definitely recommend going to Moganshan if you want to spend your days just wandering aimlessly and taking in the sights. 

Getting there: 

By train: 

If you are coming from Shanghai, its a 45 min train ride on the bullet train from Shanghai HongQiao Station to Hangzhou. Once at the train station, you can take a taxi that will drive you to Moganshan ( about 1.5hr ride if there is no traffic) or alternatively, you can ask the place you are staying at to arrange for a driver to pick you up at the station( which is what I did). 

By Bus: 

There is a public bus for you to take from either Shanghai or in Hangzhou itself. I honestly cannot vouch for this option but some do. I would suggest to check out trip advisor or google it thoroughly before going as schedules and numbers change frequently.

Places to stay:

We stayed at the Moganshan House 23 ( a villa that has 6 bedrooms, you can choose to rent one). Its beautiful and pricey. The staff is friendly and wonderfully tucked away.

Another place to check out ( for a more hostel feeling), check out Bamboo Guest House. Its on the other side of the mountain and its more for cycling and hiking).

Things to eat:

-The produce on Moganshan is fresh, organic and delicious. If you aren't fussed about hygiene( its China, come on), try eating at the local restaurants. 农家菜(Nong Jia Cai) is the cuisine of Moganshan and its delicious.

Fresh Bamboo Shoots with Broad Beans and Carrots

Deep Fried Potato Patties

Sweet and Sour Pork

Strange Beer that tastes like water and makes you wanna pee alot.

Note: All locally produced beer ( Moganshan Beer esp) is exceptionally light and makes you wanna pee. Not much taste.

The restaurant we ate at was on the roof of this building.

Another place to eat with cuisine closer to home ( think pastas, sandwiches and freshly baked cookies and cakes) is Moganshan Lodge. I didn't take any pictures but they made killer GIANT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES! hehe. 

So do visit Moganshan, its really beautiful. A great resource is C-trip, its a go-to site if you intend to go to China.

XOXOX

S.T

Hair tips

Happy Sunday to all! It's been too long since we've shared anything here, so I'd like to write a part 2 to my previous post about Taking care of your hair.

This is a follow up to updAte you on the effectiveness of the products after a long period. So in that previous post I was using L'occitane's volumising shampoo, And it has been about 3 months now. The effects of the shampoo is, in all honesty, really terrible for my hair!

It was over drying my hair that it became so hard and stiff. I was using the Moroccan hair oil treatment with it at the time ( also seen in the previous post), which was the only thing that made it soft and bearable. But I had to use it everyday in order to save my hair, even skipping it a day will result in a big unruly stiffened mess on my head, because of this shampoo. However I do have to say that I think it is helping with the volumising effect, as it promises. My hair does feel fuller, but it was giving more texture in them rather than more hair growth - I guess that's why it was so stiff.

And this is where Organix repairing awapuhi ginger conditioner comes in! I got it after I finished the Moroccan oil treatment, and I must say this conditioner is far more effective! And it really does leave my hair silky soft and luscious even after shampooing with the volumising shampoo! 

I definitely feel better about my hair now. If you asked me if I'd get L'occitane's shampoo again, I might if I'm going to use this conditioner, but I think I'm more likely to try out the other organic products instead.

Hair Tips:

1. Trim your hair at least 1-2 inches after every 3 months, if every 6 months trim at least 3 inches. This gets rid of the dead ends and let's the new hair grow out healthier without the frizzy split ends

2. If you follow my steps of hair care, here is what I do daily: shampoo, condition in shower - leave it on for 5 mins so do a scrub down while you leave it in. Then after shower, towel dry hair, and when its still slightly damp, slather on organix vanilla silk serum (seen in previous post). Blow dry, then slather on more of the serum - the first application was to protect hair from the hair dryer, then the second application is to keep it moisturised, this should be done even when using curling iron too.

3. Never colour or bleach hair! This is the worst thing you can do to your hair and scalp!

4. If you can afford it or have time for it, do a hair mask or treatment for your hair at least twice a month. At a salon or even a home one with a drugstore product is good enough.

Hope this helps you to a better hair day!

Cheers,

E.L.

Greetings from Shanghai! -S.T

Hello all!

Its been quite a hiatus for me, having moved to Shanghai and almost after 2 glorious months, I finally managed to get the VPN working and hence, able to blog!

Its been quite an adventure, having to go back to dealing with messy paint and screaming children to checking out live jazz bars in Shanghai.

Here is just a quick visual summary of what I've been up to:

Its been a great adventure and like anywhere new, you have to embrace everything that happens with a great sense of humour and adventure. :)

I'll be blogging more about the nightlife, great bargain shopping places, craft shops and recipes so keep watching this space! :)

XOXO

S.T

Taking Care of your Hair

If you have been following our blog, you would know that I've tried dyeing my hair about a year ago due to greys, and as much as I liked the idea that I can cover my age, and my reviews on the hair dyes still stands - I regret dyeing my hair!

The chemicals in hair dyes are terrible for your hair and scalp! And honestly I'd really rather have my greys than what the dyes did to it! So until I explore natural hair remedies to cover greys - that are not harmful to hair or scalp - I have been trying all ways to recover the softness in my hair.

I am all about departmental brands or herbal natural remedies when it comes to beauty aids - mostly because I cannot afford the luxurious brands or facials every month etc. If you can then great for you! Go do that because yes it is true, money can really buy you better skin, better hair, better health and better everything!

So for the middle class folks like me, we have to experiment... and I did. So here is the best result thus far in repairing my damaged hair.

My Hair 2 months ago-

Ok bad photo, but good enough to see how frizzy and split my hair was... you can see the ends of my hair are now brown as it gets that way after the chemicals in your hair dyes are stripped over the months of washing.. 

At this point, I was using Dove intense repair series. It was wonderful when I used it before dyeing my hair.. but after, not so much. Considering that the intense repair series is supposed to help hair that are damaged by chemicals, it did not really help. 

So I tried getting a hair trim at my neighbourhood saloon - bad move! The silly scissors that is half-comb and half-blade that is used for thinning the hair [to get the layered effect] is really bad, it gives split ends! And that was what the saloon used and I ended up with plenty of split ends... But still workable.

I then decided to bite the bullet a little, and bought Organix hair products. I've always seen this brand on the shelves, and for frugal people like me, this is much higher priced than most other products in a pharmacy. But I was desperate, so I got the Moroccan Argan Oil leave on conditioner and Vanilla Silk Serum at about $15 each. I also ventured a little further for my pockets, I went to L'occitane and bought the Volumising shampoo.

Ok firstly, I wouldn't suggest the L'occitane shampoo to everyone, I got it on impulse and got sucked in by the store's warm and sweet smelling and dreamy marketing strategies. It's really expensive considering it's only a 500ml bottle of shampoo [that's gonna end up down the drain anyway] at $53. But I do like the idea that it's supposed to be for volumising, because I have very thin hair, and have quite bad hair fall.

I liked this collection as they are all organic products, and I'm quite conscious these days about Parabens - especially after using Korres [no parabens in Korres products is the biggest selling point - ok to digress a bit.. Parabens is an ingredient in plenty of beauty products that has been causing some controversy as research has shown that breast cancer cells have shown a presence of Paraben in them - although no solid proof has linked that the ingredient of Paraben in beauty products are the cause of breast cancer.., but then again, if you can avoid it, why not right?] So none of these contains Parabens, and the all natural and organic oils etc sounds all so delicious for my hair!

So my routine is - Shampoo, leave on the conditioner, towel dry hair and apply serum to hair. The bottle for the conditioner says for ultimate effects, apply conditioner then wrap in warm towel - but I'm too lazy. I started doing the conditioner like once in 2 weeks, and the serum after every shower. But these past couple of weeks I've been doing it every evening.

Hair now-

Okok bad photo, I just took it while in the office... but hey even so, you can see the difference! I can feel the difference too! My hair is back to it's softness from before the hair dyes! And it's far less tangly too! 

I find that the one product that made the biggest difference was the Moroccan Argan Oil conditioner. It really left hair so soft and silky. The serum is pretty good too, just that if applied to completely dry hair, it gets really sticky and heavy - so don't use too much of it. The Shampoo is good too, but it doesn't lather as much, of course considering that it is supposed to be mostly natural ingredients - its volumising effect has yet to show much results but who knows, maybe in a couple months!

Cheers,

E.L.

p.s. see my follow up on these products here

Korres - Beauty products

Korres' values are about using natural Greek herbs to make up at least 80% of their beauty products. Basically stressing the fact that they are trying to use less of artificial, chemicals that can be harmful to our bodies. You can learn more about their research and motives for their all natural products here.

Before S.T. left the company, she worked with Korres on a marketing tie-up, which resulted in Korres giving us a ton of complimentary samples and cash vouchers for our staff. Awesome!

The samples includes a White Tea Facial Cleanser, Thyme Honey Mask, Showergel Basil Lemon, and Shampoo Aloe and Soapwort.

I've tried the samples and was in all honesty not very impressed with the products.

The White Tea Facial Cleanser was really nothing special, it wasn't drying as the product promises, but it didn't really leave my skin spectacularly soft either. To be honest, it did not lather so well, and at the end I felt like it did not clean as much as it should. So I used more of it, then it felt cleaner. But I washed my face again right after with my Simple facial cleanser. I felt it wasn't spectacular but did its job moderately, and felt my Simple Facial cleanser was actually better.

The Showergel Basil Lemon was also quite average. The smell was nice, and it did lather better than the face cleanser, but overall my skin wasn't buzzing with excitement. I think I felt softer and smoother after the first time I tried my Netrogena Rainbath..

The Shampoo Aloe and Soapwort was actually a disappointment. It did not leave my hair silky and soft at all.. it wasn't drying either, but it just felt like it did the basic minimum of cleaning with some lingering smells of freshness. To be honest my hair is shinier, softer and silkier using my Dove Intense Repair shampoo.

The Thyme Honey Mask was good. I tried it on my arm, it felt more like a moisturiser than a mask. It's supposed to be applied thickly all over the face and left on for like 10-15 mins than rinse - I think - but I wiped mine off and it feels like the softness retained better. Skin did feel softer and moisturised, just that the smell can be quite off putting to those sensitive to weird smells.

All their "soapy" products claim to be "Formulated with vegetable-derived soap substitutes—deeply cleanses and refreshes without dehydrating the skin." And products also claims to be Paraben free - Paraben is a common chemical used as preservatives in beauty products, it became a controversial product when it was found that paraben is present in breast cancer tumors. So I guess for that fact alone, it is quite a good factor to be a Korres convert - but just to note that it is not proven that Paraben is a cause for cancer - not link has ever been found.


I may not be tooting Korres effectiveness in its beauty outcome, but I will give them credit for pulling off the all natural products with their not-horrid results. I guess I had high expectations, considering that they do charge alot of money for their products, with facial creams at $90 over - I thought they would blow me away at their results. But I guess being limited with their all natural ingredients it is rather hard to pull off miracles. After all beauty these days do not come naturally...

I may not have found their showergels and shampoos much to toot about.. but I do have to say their Multi-Vitamin compact powder is really making me contemplate converting from Chanel forever!

 It is apparently loaded with Vitamin C and E, so good for skin, and it has this new skin mimetic ingredient which [I guess] mimics your complexion to have a more natural coverage. It's for oily skin as it is mattifying - I have a problematic T-Zone so I feel this helps! And actually I'm in love with how light-weight it is and how natural it looks! Of course it has no Paraben and artificial dyes or fragrances - so it treats your skin well.

I have not found a compact powder that can compete with Chanel's which are always flawless, but this one can be quite a competitor as it has all its goodness as a factor. Of course Chanel's Natural matte powders or their Lumiere collection is flawless - it literally feels like silk on the skin and so light but full natural coverage. Well... for the price of Korres MVpowder which is $61, it feels more worth it to buy Chanel's refills which are at $60. I got Korres this time round as I had the cash vouchers. So in all fairness, if I did have to purchase a full priced one, I will still go back to Chanel.

Hope this helps you make your decision on Korres!

Cheers,
E.L.

L'Entrecote Singapore

On a recent meet-up with a couple of dear friends, we decided on treating ourselves to dine in L'entrecote.. For those of you unfamiliar with its background, originally a French Bistro based in Paris, it has set out to take the world with restaurants popping around the globe's famous cities like New York, London and here in Singapore as well!

It's famed for it's hearty 2 servings of steak with their secret sauce and a free flow of fries! This is their only main course, so the only choices you need to make are your appetisers and desserts.

L'Entrecote Singapore is beautifully located in one the several old peranakan buildings and amongst the pre-war Shophouses in Duxton Road. With it's European interiors and impeccable service, the entire experience was lovely!

The high glass ceiling of the restaurant [right above our table!] and lightbulbs in whisks lighting adds a whimsical touch.

We picked a couple of appetisers to share... or rather my friends shared the Escargots and I shared the Duck Foie Gras Terrine.

What was the most loveliest touch [in my opinion] was the welcome complimentary drink! I didn't exactly catch what it was - I think it was Vodka something... Although they did charge us an extortionate $9++ for still water.... always feel the charge for water in any place is an arrogant and obnoxious business tactic... but felt like it could be forgiven considering the $29++ for their perfectly  cooked medium rare steaks in large portions with free flow of fries were worth the total expenses.

All in all a wonderful restaurant, good food great service wonderful friends... Check them out!


Cheers,
E.L.