Showing posts with label Singapore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Singapore. Show all posts

5 Facts You Might Not Know About Flowers


No plans for the weekend? Why not take two hours to learn something new? How about creating your own hand-tied bouquet or table arrangement in a jar with A Better Florist.

A Better Florist is a Singapore-based florist, dedicated in offering the freshest possible flowers at affordable prices with free island wide delivery.

I attended their hand-tired bouquets with their signature burlap wrap workshop earlier this month. You can look out for their upcoming workshops on their pages. Each session is $50, considerably reasonable.

Like any other workshops, it started with an informal get-to-know-you chat. Followed by, an introduction of the flowers and tools that we would be working with and how we should prepare the flowers for the arrangement. Then, demonstration of the basic flower arrangement techniques and we were given some hands-on time. All of us walked away with our bouquet at the end of the session. The end.

No, I am not going to write all that in details accompanied with a series of photos. That’s for you to join and find out in the workshop!

Instead, here are 5 interesting facts you might not know about flowers that I learnt from the workshop.
  1. Keep the flowers away from household appliances
    It’s nice to add some colors to the TV console or work desk. However, appliances such as televisions and computers give off heat, even when turned off, that can dehydrate the flowers! 
  2. Panadol is not a flower food
    Myth busted! To a certain extent, throwing Panadol into the vases still helps as it kills the bacteria in the water. 
  3. It’s not always cheaper to DIY
    For experienced florists, yes for sure it is cheaper, as they go to the wholesale market knowing what they want. For newbies, you might not buy enough flowers to fill up the gaps in your bouquets. Food for thought. But, of course, practice makes perfect. 
  4. Cut the ends of the stems everyday
    Flowers wilt when there is not enough water. Cutting the end of the stems each day help the flowers to soak up as much water as possible. Cut the stems at an angle if you want your flowers to bloom faster. 
  5. Wash the vase everyday
    Changing the water in the vase everyday is not enough. The cleanliness of the vase is just as important to ensure the flowers last. 


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Information you might be interested in:

A Better Florist
11 Keng Cheow Street, #01-02
Riverside Piazza, Singapore 059608
Nearest MRT Station: Clarke Quay (Exit B)
Website: https://www.abetterflorist.com/
Where to Book: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/a-better-florist-13207335689

All expressed opinions are mine, as always.

Staycation: M Hotel Singapore

We are not quite a fan of staycation, the fancy term for staying in a hotel in Singapore, for several  similar reasons with the like-minded people ‒ (1) hotels are not cheap in Singapore, even for the boutiques hotels, top-up a little more and we could be going on a real getaway to neighbouring countries, at least (2) everywhere in Singapore is within reach and home is probably just 20 to 30 minutes away? ..and I believe the list can go on.

Nonetheless, staycation can be a hassle-free activity for the weekend especially when you run out of ideas for a special occasion. We went on our first 2-day-1-night staycation over his birthday weekend at M Hotel Singapore, not your typical choice of hotel for a staycation but read on, who knows, you might change your mind?

DAY 1
2.00PM: Brunch at Group Therapy @ Duxton Hill 

Green Apple + Orange Fresh Juice ($6)

Left to Right: Truffled Mushroom Soup ($11), Smoked Ham & Cheese Panini ($17), Truffled Ravioli ($19) 

3.00PM: Check-in at M Hotel Singapore 

Located amidst the skycrappers in the Central Business district (CBD) in Tanjong Pagar, expects nothing like the CBD  busy traffic and crowds, M Hotel Singapore is relatively quiet even on weekdays.

The nearest MRT station, Tanjong Pagar, is just a 5-minute walk down the road. With Tanjong Pagar being known for its array of restaurants, bars and cafes, great food are conveniently near the hotel. Certainly a plus point! Quiet environment, ✓ checked. Good food, ✓ checked. Public transport, ✓ checked. Complimentary car parking for hotel guests, ✓ checked. Now give me a reason to not give it a full mark for the location.

By any chance, if the lazy bug attacks and too lazy get out of the hotel for the hungry tummy, be spoiled by the choices available within the hotel building ‒ (1) all day dining Cafe 2000 located on ground floor, (2) international lunch and steamboat dinner at The Buffet, (3) Japananese restaurant Hokkaido, (4) Tea Bar famous for its chicken pies and (5) end the night with live entertainment at the newly renovated J Bar, a whisky bar located on level 9, with a sea view.  


Check-in time is 2.00PM and checkout is at 12.00PM. We arrived an hour later after our brunch so there isn't any queue at the check-in counter.

Many thanks to M Hotel Singapore for upgrading our room with the M Club benefits with access to the Club Floor and extended late check-out for us!

A little visual tour around our Deluxe Double RoomThe heart swan towel was nice gesture from the hotel because I actually requested, prior to my arrival, to have a little decorations in the room to add a little to the celebratory mood. Free Wifi, ✓ checked. Comfy bed, ✓ checked. Oh! I thought there were too many pillows though. The green pillows ended up on the lounge chair instead. 

I am a fan of personalized service! Little things like this sure capture my heart. 

Hello! This is Duffyzai and his Girlfriend. 

Operating with the core theme of relax and rest in comfort, detailed attention is paid by the hotel to ensure that their guests receive such an experience. 

Notice about the on-going the refurbishment that was started in March 2015. 

The hotel have invested a 3 million dollar to repaint the exterior of the building and renovation of 300 guest rooms. The new face is expected to be ready by January 2016. 

Not a lot of hotels have bathtubs, especially for the Deluxe rooms, but M Hotel have it! 
Immersing in a hot tub of bath water after a long day is simply bliss.

I love how there are environmentally-friendly remainders in the room.

I am a strong advocate of eco-friendly practices in businesses for sustainability and M Hotel Singapore is inline with this ideology. Their initiatives in-placed towards a more environment-friendly building are recognised by the Building & Construction Authority (BCA) Green Mark and rewarded with a BCA Gold Plus Award this year, an improvement from a Gold Award last year.

Every little efforts count. The hotel management truly understands that and make careful selection of everything. From as small as the use of energy-saving LED lighting in every room and water-saving taps & shower to bigger choice as such the colour of the external walls ‒ ermine white colour keeps the building cool and reduces energy consumption ‒ even for the choice of corridor carpets are Green Label certified to reduce environmental damage.

Other recognition include recipient as the Singapore Green Hotel 2015 by Singapore Hotel Association.

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Up on level 11 is the swimming pool, jacuzzi, gym and a spa. No reasons to be hiding in your room the whole time. Other facilities of the hotel include five floors of event spaces for corporate and social functions, serviced office suites and business centre at level 8. It is a business hotel after all. 

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6.00PM: Evening refreshment (or what I called the pre-dinner snacks) at the M Club Lounge on level 28, available daily from 6.00PM to 8.00PM.


7.00PMSpuds & Aprons for dinner at the peak of Mount Faber. Free valet parking with minimum of $50 spending. Do remember to call/ email to make reservation for tables with better view!

From top clockwise: Intoxicated Clams ($15), Foie Gras Toujours ($25),
Grilled King Prawns ($32), Tobiko Crusted Cod Fillet ($32)


10:30PM: Our usual tradition is to cut our birthday cake with our family and we've already cut his two days before his birthday. Nonetheless, I still wanted to surprise BK on his actual birthday with a birthday cake so I made an arrangement with the hotel to have a cake sent into the room. But I didn't get into the actually arrangement of the timing and I was thinking about the cake half the time.. 

Surprise surprise!!! The birthday cake was already waiting for us on the table when we were back from our dinner! The slice of cake that was promised by the hotel turned out to be a whole cake was such a pleasant surprise!

P/S: I was secretly glad that it's not a chocolate cake! The cheesecake cake was just too good to resist..  I guess that's probably the only complaint I have about the hotel for feeding me with the extra calorie intake!  


DAY 2 
10:00AM: International buffet breakfast at M Club lounge on the Club Floor at level 28. They have quite a variety of choice to choose from. I was especially happy with my muesli and croissant. Oh! Not forgetting the egg omelette!

If you prefer the local style kind of breakfast (i.e. fried bee hoon, laksa etc), I was told that it's available at Cafe 2000.

Free flow of coffee, soft drinks & TWG tea! You can't really go wrong with TWG. Can you?


2.00PM: ..and it was time for us to checkout.

The mandatory family pose for our all hotel stays. 

Once again, thank you M Hotel Singapore for the warm hospitality! 

M Hotel Singapore, alongside with more than 100 hotels worldwide, is managed by Millennium Hotels & Resorts, one of the world's largest owned and managed hotel groups. I am already considering other hotels under the Millennium Hotels & Resorts in the other part of the world for our next big adventure!

Our ratings for M Hotel Singapore:
Location ★★★★★
Cleanliness ★★★★
Service ★★★★★

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Information you might be interested in: 

Staycation /steɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n/ refers to a vacation that is spent by individuals or families in home's country rather than abroad. Chained by the two words: stay & vacation, the fancy term have only been around for about a decade. It is widely refer to as staying in a hotel, an increasingly popular activity in Singapore.

Group Therapy @ Duxton Hill
49 Duxton Road, #02-01
Singapore 089513
Tel: +65 6222 2554

Spuds & Aprons @ Faber Peak Singapore 
109 Mount Faber Road
Singapore 099203
Tel: +65 6377 9688

M Hotel Singapore
81 Anson Road