THEROSEBREAKER.COM

The idea of having your own little website intrigued me a lot when I was 13 years old. I proceeded to hit the "create a blog" button without much hesitation, and I have been blogging since. Switching from blogspot to xanga to live journal to tumblr and back to blogspot for the last couple of years, and started out blogging as a digital diary to spill the daily happenings in Secondary school and occasional outburst of emotions, has turned into an avenue of sharing lifestyle content that I am passionate about.

So after years on blogspot and months of contemplation to move on to a different platform, I am pleased to share the launch of my little pet project therosebreaker with its own .com and a facelift. Click here to be directed.

I am not sure how therosebreaker will turn out to be in the next 10 years, but it has been and will always be close to my heart; one that I am willing to spend time and effort in out of my busy work schedule just to edit photographs, plan content and write. Thank you to those who have been quietly reading my blog all these years, it means a million to me! 

So see you on the other side, and I hope you will enjoy!

http://therosebreaker.com

BUSAN

Amidst our short trip to Seoul, we managed to squeeze in a day for Busan, the second largest city in South Korea. The train to Busan (no coincidence intended!) via KTX is highly recommended and convenient from Seoul. Well, it is somewhat similar to what you would see in the recent film Train to Busan, of course, minus all the apocalyptic zombies. The KTX train is well equipped with wifi and comfortable seats, where my friends slept through most of the 2.5 hours journey on an early morning. Perhaps they would not sleep in if they were to watch the film before this trip.

Gamcheon Cultural Village — "The East of Santorini". When we first had sight of these colourful lego-like buildings, as tourist as we can get, we could not stop snapping photos away even when it began to rain. The rain stopped and we proceed to spend half a day following a trail based on the village map, where we got an overview of Gamcheon in different angles. There's a thing about these quaint villages and small towns that I really like, I'm not sure what or why exactly, but I guess it is the slow life in such environment that attracts me.

Jalgachi Fish Market — Busan is located by the sea and is eventually known for its fresh seafood. At Jalgachi, you can select your seafood from its array of fresh catch and select get a restaurant to cook it for you or vice versa, choose a restaurant first then your seafood. We did the latter. I'm not so much of a seafood lover, so I wasn't that keen on paying too much for it especially when the prices here are on the higher side even after much bargaining. But trying to be a good sport with my friends, I caved in. Though a tad pricey, what you get are fresh, sweet and juicy seafoods

If time were on our side, we would spend at least 2 days in Busan instead of a day trip which was not sufficient us for us to cover more places. Albeit a short day trip, it was still truly memorable...like how we actually did miss our train back to Seoul by being late for 5 minutes.

YELLOW RIBBON RUN 2016

One of my personal goal is to participate in a long run before I turn 25. While there are a multiple of such runs in Singapore annually, I have been putting it off as I am always waiting for the day I would be ready physically first before signing up for a long run. When the time came to register for the Yellow Ribbon Run this year, I hesitated for awhile but eventually took a leap of faith and signed myself up for the 10km category, cause I will never be ready if I don't ever start. So with this, I finally began running again.

Running is one of my least favourite form of exercise despite knowing what good it does to my body, but as we know running can be so tiring and difficult. The first three sessions were bad, but I improved from my fourth run onwards, increasing a kilometre to my distance on subsequent run without stopping. With 6.5 weeks, I managed to train up to 8km before the actual run. I'm thinking of consolidating this experience and my ongoing training into a separate post in a few month's time, we'll see how this goes!

 

The day came and I completed my first ever 10km run, though I personally felt I did not do as well as I hope it to be. As I only have time after work hours to train in the evening or at night, my body was somehow not that conditioned to running under the sun and immense heat. Nevertheless, it is still a milestone to have gone from zero running in years to completing 10km in less than 7 weeks. I believe this would be a good kick start to my future runs and journey to becoming fitter.

NIGHT FEST '16

It's Night Festival 2 weekends ago, and following our annual tradition, Nathaniel and I visit Night Fest again for the 3rd year. You can read up on our previous experience here – 2015 and 2014.

On the morning of that Friday, the 'annual' haze hits Singapore at a PSI level of over 200 and I thought "what a bummer" if we had to put off this year's visit if the haze persists...But the skies and air did clear, so we managed to resume with the plan.

Without saying, the Festival Village is what we looked forward to (mostly because of the fairy lights hovering over the area), though we chose not to dine there this time because of the heat and crowd, but instead we got ourselves a jar of coconut shake to beat the heat. I personally felt this year's Night Fest was a tad on the down side; there weren't anything significant to remember or perhaps I was just too tired after a long week at work to enjoy the experience. Nonetheless, Night Fest is still an event worth looking forward to each year, so till we meet again in 2017!

SEOUL

Back in Seoul this June! Despite my recent visit to this bustling city just last November (read my post here), I have always wanted to return again, but I was not expecting this revisit to happen this soon. So with my leaves approved, flights and accommodation booked in just less than a month before scooting off, I did the itinerary planning quickly and am very thankful that the trip did come to fruition smoothly albeit many clashes in our schedules.

Seoul is really a one stop for:

Fashion and Beauty shopping. If you haven't already know, this city is filled with beauty and cosmetic stores in every corner. I am amazed at how there are more than 3 of the same exact beauty store in just within myeongdong shopping district.

Food food food. Seriously, as long as you are not broke, you never go hungry. Their cafes are beautifully designed and there are just so much food options everywhere, you will have a hard time deciding what to eat. So like us, we were eating everywhere we went.

Visits to heritage sites and sightseeing. While Seoul is a modern city, you will still find heritage sites like the famous Gyeongbokgung Palace or the Namsan Seoul tower in the heart of the city.

Travelling always go by so quickly, and sometimes in a blur within a short period of time, don't they? In this trip, I got to explore a lot more places than before, mingle with the locals (and so glad to have met them in some ways) in attempt to communicate with bits and pieces of Korean, spot countless advertorial posters and standees of Song Joong Ki, had a finger lickin' good time with Korean fried chicken till late and enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship with my church friends whom I grew up with since preschool.

I said this before but I will say again, Seoul will always have my heart with its diverse culture, amicable Koreans, beautiful shops, amazing food and shopping. Thank you for being seoul beautiful and heartwarming. I am missing this city already, but till next time again!

PASARBELLA @ SUNTEC

I am no food blogger but I'll still attempt to give my two cents worth on Pasarbella Suntec, despite it not being a newly open outlet.
(My posts are usually a 1-2 months #throwback anyway, well because of, work.)

To be honest, Suntec City seems a little unexpected to be Pasarbella's second outlet as its first, as most of us would know is located in a relatively secluded grandstand tucked along Bukit Timah road. But I believe for commercial and practical reasons to sustain a business, the prime location at Suntec would drive more crowd and revenue as compared to the grandstand.

Pasarbella Suntec is a rendition of what we Singaporeans might describe as an 'atas foodcourt', with a fusion of cuisines in different stalls side by side, curated in a hipster-ly designed interior to create a lower east NYC sort of vibe, and of course its price points sways significantly higher than a heartland foodcourt. Food wise, I can't say that these are my favourite because I have not tried all the stalls, but Grillo and Rollie Ollie are pretty worth the try. The latter's poke bowls are rather refreshing to my taste buds and it makes me feel a little more refreshed too after the meal, cause we are what we eat right?