WTA Finals Singapore – Maria Sharapova

It was exhilarating watching the Russian tennis queen in action. And Maria, I can never, ever, forget your grunts :)

Honey Creme – Insta-licious Soft Serve Ice Cream

Honey Creme, a Korean-style dessert chain from Taiwan has just opened its first Singapore store at 313@Somerset. It was with much anticipation that I went to try the much-hyped about handmade soft serve ice cream.

The ice cream parlor is located just in front of 313 Somerset’s taxi stand. I was pretty dreadful about the expected long queue, so thankfully it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I got my dessert in 25 minutes.

Honey Creme offers just one soft serve ice-cream flavour, which is the original milky Honey Creme. The secret lies in its very interesting toppings which include honeycomb, organic cotton candy, mixed grains, affogato and caramel popcorn. I am drooling while typing this…

During the short 25 minutes I was there, it seemed that the whole world was so excited about their ice ream, taking wefies after wefies…of them queuing, with their ice cream….it felt nice to witness the social prowess of a humble soft serve. The atmosphere felt happy and no one griped about the queue.

Overheard from the couple behind:
Girl: “Wah, queue so long, we must buy at least 3 or 4 cups to make our time worth.”
Guy: “You can eat so much meh?!”
Girl: “Don’t care, I cannot finish you will eat for me.”
I tried very hard not to laugh. I stuck to just one order, can’t afford the fats.

The many variations of one soft serve flavour, which is your favourite? :)

The top 4 must-trys
From left: Popcorn ($5.50); Affogato ($5.50); Organic Cotton Candy ($5.50); Honey Comb ($5.90)
Another interesting offering is the Organic Mixed Grains ($6.20) with flax seeds, oats, black beans, rye and barley.Image: Honey Creme Singapore

I was lured by this tantalizing honeycomb

The ice cream cones (far left) are so colourful!

There is a small dining space which can accomodate about 18 pax, though most will choose to takeaway.

My choice of the day: Honey Comb!
The taste of the soft serve was smooth, milky and light. It paired very well with the honeycomb and felt almost sinless wolfing it down. I would probably wait for the hype to be over before I venture to try other flavours though. And now my turn to Insta my ice cream *click + hashtag #HoneyCremeSG* :)

Honey Creme Singapore
Address: 313 Orchard Road #01-37, 313@Somerset, Singapore 238895 (next to Taxi Stand)
Tel: +65 6884 8468
Opening Hours: 11:00AM – 10:00PM
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/honeycremesg
Nearest Train Station: Somerset

More ice cream galore:
Creamier – Ice Cream & Waffles in the Heartlands
Sunday Folks – Because the best things in life are sweet

Look of the Day – Today’s Catch

I feel like a Vogue cover girl muahaha :D
Neon fishnet jersey dress – Shop in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong
Polka dot denim shorts – Forever 21

Lobster Hairband – Bangkok
Sunnies – DOlce & Gabanna

Bracelet – Vintage Hollywood

Jelly shoes – Juju

Me and the cover boy :)

In Maldives, rainbows seem to be a daily affair

Here’s to new friendship! :)

Movie – The Golden Era 黄金时代

The Golden Era recounts the life of Xiao Hong蕭紅, one of China’s most famous modern novelists and essayists, whose lyrical works reflected progressive thinking not frequently seen during the turbulent 1930s. Directed by award-winning director Ann Hui許鞍華, the movie opens with the main character announcing the dates of her birth and death directly to the audience. The narrative style of filming was very different, with characters accounting their experience with the protagonist Xiao Hong directly to the camera.

Born into a well-off family in Manchuria as Zhang Naiying, Xiao Hong (Tang Wei湯唯, from “Lust, Caution”) experienced an unhappy childhood fraught with paternal abuse. She later brought shame to the family by avoiding an arranged marriage and running away with a married cousin to Beijing. That didn’t last, and she was left destitute in Harbin where she winds up with the man she was suppoused to marry, who also ditches her in a hotel – pregnant, penniless and saddled with a $600 debt (a huge amount during those times).

With the hotel owner threatening to sell her to a brothel to pay the debt, Xiao Hong wrote to the journal “International Gazette”, asking the editors for help. It was her first contact with the literary circle, and when she first met Xiao Jun蕭軍 (Feng Shaofeng馮紹峰), the most significant relationship in her very short life. Their five years of intense, troubled relationship forms the main storyline of the movie. Amidst the (man’s) affairs and the literary competition between the two lovers, the final split came when Xiao Jun decides to join the fight against the Japanese despite Xiao Hong’s pleas to escape to the safer inland so she can “write in peace.” A tall order considering it was the start of the war at that time.

Xiao Hong eventually entered into a passionless marriage with a fellow writer Duanmu Hongliang. Xiao Hong died of tuberculosis at the age of 31 in Hong Kong.

The movie also accounts the lovers’ involvement with China’s leftist literary circles, moves from city to city as well as their friendship with the great writer Lu Xun 鲁迅whom Xiao Hong looked up as a surrogate father.

There is so much unhappiness in Xiao Hong’s life – betrayal by numerous lovers, 2 miscarriages, paternal abuse, poverty – that a lesser being would have ended it all. One phrase that stood out for me, was her response when asked “Why do you still want to live?” – “Because there are still things which I still linger over in this world.” Perhaps it’s all these rich experiences which made her a great writer. It’s a pity the movie chose to focus on her troubled life with men, rather than elaborate on her some of her works. , so we did not really have much insight to the inner feelings of this lady whose life would make a superb Shakespearean tragedy.

Contrary to what the movie depicted, Xiao Hong’s works was less famous a writer than her lover Xiao Jun as they were considered too ideological and not congruent with the patriotic stance adopted by most of the writers at that time. Her works were only re-discovered in the peaceful times of the 1980s and now valued as one of the masterpieces in modern Chinese literature. The movie gave me a good glimpse of the Chinese literary scene at that time, and left me intrigued that I read up more about Xiao Hong after that. It was a marathon-3-hour-long, but it left me asking more questions. Maybe it’s time to pick up my very first Chinese novel.

Watch the official movie trailer.

Photography – Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Taken at Lorong Buangkok, Singapore’s last kampong (village)