My friend won a pair of tickets to Joe Labero's "A Night of Magic At Raffles" and he gave them to me since he couldn't make it. I went with my mum and I was expecting the usual smoke and mirrors but was still hanging onto the hope that he would do something really spectacular or different.

The setting was a little quirky, with 2 side screens with outlines that were a throwback to the 1930's and there was Labero's profile there too.

Joe Labero is actually the Swedish magician's stage name and it's derived from his birth name Lars Bengt Roland Johansson. His style is very much like a rock star and popular music stars heavily in the show. I liked how he constantly kept the audience as part of the whole show by not only interacting with them but also using their belongings in mind boggling tricks that make you wonder how he did them. These tricks that used live audience members' belongings were a lot more impressive and naturally, received a lot more genuine applause.

However, to judge the whole show, it was a little too predictable. Some of the tricks were too obvious because it has been done to death by other illusionists and Labero clearly didn't watch the TV series "Magicians' Secrets Revealed". The straight-jacket routine was the worst. He tried to make the tension rise by having these "jaws of death" snap after 60 seconds while he escapes. Looking at the length of the jaws and where he is hanging, he'll never get impaled by those jaws even if he didn't manage to wiggle his way out of the straight-jacket.

I think another reason why the show fell a little flat was because he came out as a rock star, expecting rock star treatment from the audience who probably didn't really know who he is because he hasn't been a staple on our TV screens.

Nonetheless, when you do a quick search on him, you do realise that he is quite the celebrated magician - having won several awards, the most prestigious being the "Illusionist of The Decade" in 2009. This award was previously conferred to the likes of David Copperfield and Segfried & Roy and is awarded by The Merlin Award Society, which is like the Oscar of the magic world.

Judging from the crowd of autograph seekers, I guess Labero does have his fans - mainly children and women. I do like my magic shows but I always like those who really do cutting edge illusions or super quick-of-hand tricks that really make you wonder and guess just how he/she did it.

Most people think of Singapore as a concrete jungle that is in the tropics, with beaches concentrated mainly at East Coast, Changi and Sentosa. There are a lot of smaller islands away from Singapore mainland that's worth exploring in a day trip; simply gather a group of friends and rent a yacht for the day. It costs around $1,200 to rent one for the day but there are quite a few Groupon/All Deals Asia deals that go for about $500 for a day. That works out to be about $50/pax and that's relatively affordable. Of course, there are some alternatives which I will mention later.

That's the yacht that we went on, thanks to Moon who won a trip from a Facebook contest held by the Neo Group. There were a total of 15 of us and we catered food from Neo Group (as part of the T&Cs) but if you rented from other companies, they usually allow you to bring your own food and some even have portable BBQ sets and you simply bring the raw foods.

We started our journey from the marina of ONE°15 Marina Club onboard PromiseOne. It was a very nice and sunny day but yet windy too! Glad that the weather cooperated with us to give us this lovely day to go yachting!

Other possible places to set off from are: Raffles Marina (that's in Tuas) and Keppel Island. Really depends on where you rent the yacht from.

I'm so happy that I finally managed to wear my Kate Spade Saturday sunglasses...on a Saturday no less!

We set off towards Lazarus Island, which is further south from Sentosa and this is the first island that I'm going to introduce.

Lazarus Island (the one with the pin) is one of the 8 islets south of Sentosa and it is connected to St. John's Island by a concrete bridge. Some smaller islands are now part of an extension of Lazarus Island thanks to the Singapore Tourism Board's plans in 2000 to develop it after Sentosa. So...better go and visit it before STB fully develops it and it turns from an unspoilt treasure into a manicured replica of it's larger sister.

Some boats choose to dock near the beach and some kayak to shore but the water was a little choppy so we decided to dock at the calmer lagoon where the proper jetty is located.

I liked the idea of using corals and seashells into the pavements. Quite rustic and environmentally friendly, no?

One of the locals

Walking towards the beach with almost nobody in sight

How difficult is it to get a toddler to be in a selfie with you? Apparently, very difficult. Especially if said kid is more interested in playing with the sand and wondering where his father is walking to.

Now...this is what I love most about Lazarus Island - the beach! The sand is super fine and soft, the water cold and not a lot of people on the beach. There aren't any stores selling drinks so please remember to pack your own food and water. This spot is perfect for a short picnic and dip into the sea. Bring a tent if you want some respite from the sun but some people were quite creative and made make-shift tents with their beach towels.

I'm planning to come back another day just to Lazarus Island to picnic, swim, maybe kayak and just chillax. Remember to bring loads of sunblock and check out the weather forecast before your trip!

After our lunch and island exploration, we headed off to Kusu Island. The island isn't very convenient for pleasure boats because the jetty is more suited for the larger boats. So, if you want to visit Kusu, I suggest taking the regular chartered ferries from HarbourFront terminal (about S$15 for adults and operated by Singapore Island Cruise).

If you want to hang out with turtles, wild monkeys, insects and be in a nice park with almost no beach. Kusu Island is super crowded during the 9th lunar month (around October) so please check in advance whether pilgrims will be making their way down to the temples there first. If you're one of the pilgrims...then...erm...you should know when is the best time to visit. If you're like me and hate crowds, avoid the 100,000 devotees and make your trip to Kusu Island during other months.

Thanks to the STB plans, Kusu Island is starting to look very manicured and there are a lot of 'huts' for people to sit and picnic. The temple on the lower grounds look a bit HDB-ish too. Despite its park-like appearance, overnight camping is not allowed on the grounds. Thank goodness for this because as it is, it is a bit irritating that the government is capitalising on the religious activities and tourism aspect. Shouldn't the actual island dwellers have some say?

Kusu literally means turtle and legend has it that a giant turtle turned into the island in order to save 2 shipwrecked sailors. Thus, turtles are considered to be something semi-sacred on this island and all of us were very excited to see our first giant turtle at the wishing well! There were many other turtles in the shallow sea bed.

The temple keeps terrapins too! There's a small pool within the temple for these terrapins to swim or just lie down.

A lot of people throw coins into the wishing well, thinking that it'll fulfil their wishes while donating to the temple. However, the late temple caretaker, Madam Sim, said in an interview in 2007 that it's actually owned by Sentosa ergo the government. Hence, none of the money collected goes to the temple.

Another government initiated modernisation is the building of this food centre which is very empty on normal days. I reckon that it's only filled during the 9th lunar month where devotees make their annual pilgrimage.

There are 2 religious sites on Kusu Island. The first one that you see when you arrive is the Dua Pek Gong (pronunciation in Hokkein) temple.

The 2nd religious site is the Kusu Kramat which is up on the hill. 152 steps. Ok...I gave a miss because I was thirsty. I guess I should've done the trip considering that this was my first visit to Kusu. Oops.

If you're not visiting Kusu for religious reasons, there's nature to just enjoy:

The resident monkeys are wild so beware. Don't feed them nor approach them because they're not friendly. Good thing is that they're not as spoilt as those on the mainland so they do not know that your bags contain food etc. However, please do not train and encourage such behaviour. Keep your food secured.

Since Kusu is originally a reef island, there is a small lagoon where some tourists enjoy sunbathing but honestly, the beach at Lazarus Island is a lot nicer.

I really enjoyed my day of island hopping and being on a yacht because it's rare for us to see the city from this view:

More trips await me! Uh oh...I need to find people who share similar interests...I can't afford to go out on a yacht trip to these islands all by myself.

First set of nails for the week! I let my nails rest over the first week of 2015 because I haven't really been doing so. For this design, I used Ciate's Pepperminty as the base and for the 1st stamp, I used white nail polish on Konad stamp m60 (criss cross) followed by black nail polish on Konad stamp m74. I carried on the black and white/silver theme onto the glitter accent nail. For the glitter, I used Ciate's Humbug and I really like how it has small black glitter together with larger silver ones.

If you like a different look, you can switch up the base to another pastel colour but keep the stamping colours to white and black. I chose a floral top stamp but you can always layer something else.

If you use a pastel pink as a base, you might want the accent nail to be a full gold glitter.

Chui Huay Lim Club is nestled in a corner along Keng Lee Road, near Newton, and the Club itself is more than 160 years old. The flagship restaurant is also called Chui Huay Lim and it literally translates as Forest of Drunken Flowers. Hmm...how poetic.

The family and I decided to go there for dinner and taste test the food as we were thinking of having our family reunion dinner with my paternal side there next month. My bro and I were a bit surprised that the Chui Huay Lim restaurant is managed by the Jumbo group.

Photo courtesy of Chope.co

The decor of the restaurant is very pleasant and the entrance has 4 private rooms that can be merged into 2 larger rooms. Each room is also equipped with a karaoke system, which I think my eldest aunt will be pleased to know.

The menu is chockful of traditional Teochew standard fare like Braised goose, ngoh hiang, steamed fish and Yam Paste dessert! The prices were a bit steep though.

We started off with half a Braised Goose and the slices were really tender while the tau kua (firm beancurd with a harder skin) was really silky and soft. The sauce was not too salty and there was no starch to make it appear shiny...this is Teochew cuisine. Not cantonese.

I think all of us really liked this vegetable dish. It's Chinese spinach cooked with salted egg, century egg and dried scallops. It was very tasty and the vegetables still maintained some crunch despite being cooked in a broth.

What respectable Teochew restaurant is without ngoh hiang? They have the typical version (above) as well as the ones with liver. It's a bit like choosing your type of sausage, isn't it? Except that these parcels have water chestnuts and other yummy things inside. My mum loved it. I think it's good but it's still not wow enough to convert me into a ngoh hiang fan. However, it's probably one of the few ngoh hiangs that I will eat more than 1 piece of.

Above is another signature dish - 'Puning' Fermented Bean Chicken. The chicken used is 'free range' or as we Singaporeans would call it, kampung chicken. The chicken was very tender and tasted almost like Hainanese chicken except that it has a slightly salty/sweet taste due to the sauce. It is served on a bed of preserved vegetables that were a bit sweet and really delicious. All of us wiped this plate clean and it's really the sauce that made this dish special. The fermented bean taste was very subtle and was mellowed by the preserved vegetables.

Then came our staple of stir fried mee sua with seafood. Check out my piece of scallop! Yums! If you like fried beehoon, you must order this. A small portion is just enough for 4 pax but they are a bit stingy with the seafood (2 pieces of scallop, 2 prawns and 2 pieces of squid). Reminds me of the fried mee sua that my grandmother used to cook.

I love love love Ouni (sweetened yam paste) and Chui Huay Lim has combined this with another favourite of mine - hashima! So...of course we ordered the Yam Paste with Hashima. The hashima was cooked with a bit of ginger and this is probably to also cut back on the onion oil used in the yam paste. Because the hashima was not the star of the dish, it was mistaken as jelly by my dad. The flavour of the ouni was just nice in terms of sweetness. However, It's not as smooth as expected.

At the end of your meal, you'll get a small cup of Osmanthus and red tea to wash everything down. It works a little bit like an espresso. I guess.

For 4 of us, we spent about S$180 for the above dishes and this is after 10% off the main food items as my dad bought the Jumbo membership card (S$20). It is a little pricey considering the amount of food ordered and the quantity of each dish. The quality is good, which is to be expected from Jumbo. The parking at the club is a breeze with their underground carpark. We probably will come back again, but only for special occasions.

Chui Huay Lim Teochew Cuisine
190 Keng Lee Road
#01-02
Chui Huay Lim Club
Singapore 308409

Tel: +65 6732 3637
Website: http://chlteochewcuisine.com/about.html

Opening Hours:
Lunch  11:30am - 3:00pm
Dinner  6:00pm - 11:00pm

Hi folks! It's a little bit late but here's my video of all the nail art that I've done in 2014 in a short video clip :)

Enjoy!

By the way, I've also uploaded the previous years nail design videos too!