Lunch and tea in town

The idea of meeting up again for lunch and tea was brewing since a group of mutual web designer friends met up for Japanese dinner a few months ago. For some reason I feel very comfortable around them because not only that we have a lot of things to talk about (one very good example is all of us complaining how cross-browser compatibility is a pain in the butt and how dreadful designing for IE6 visitors is), but also because we have knew each others’ online presence for quite a while already and it doesn’t feel awkward at all. It wasn’t as nerve-wrecking as a blind date because we also know how each other look like and have nothing to hide from each other :)

Ivy proposed having lunch at Marché in 313 Somerset and Dayna and I quickly agreed. I would definitely seize the chance, I believe Dayna felt the same way too. Claudia and her colleagues were doing spring winter cleaning in their office so they won’t be able to join us for the event, while Brenda (whom I’ve never met but heard a lot about her from Dayna and Ivy) had a last-minute task to attend to and couldn’t make it. Nevermind – we shall meet again next year. I think Ivy tentatively picked a date in early January or something. Can’t wait for that day to come!

Dayna and I met up at Boon Lay station and headed for town. The train ride took 50 minutes, which surprised me because I thought it would take a lot faster, like 40 minutes or so. Thankfully, we left early so we were still 10 minutes early when we arrived in 313 Somerset. Dayna and I both admitted that we checked the place out before this lunch date because both of us had really bad spatial awareness *laughs* I was at 313 Somerset the afternoon before with Chankeet and Yueqi. Will blog about that later!

Lunch: At Marché

Dayna and Ivy at Marché.

Dayna had a ribeye steak – she wanted to well done but it was way too well done and was slightly charred. Ivy had chicken wings (mmmmph) and a bowl of sinful mushrooms. I’d recommend getting the mushrooms from Marché because they’re divine. Like really divine. The mix of herbs, oil and some seasoning makes it the best vegetable dish that made $4.90 worth every single cent.

Oh, and this marks the debut photo of my newly purchased ultra wide angle lens, the Tamron 10-24mm. I know it isn’t the best UWA lens around but well, the pricing is terribly attractive and it’s IR compatible. I wouldn’t want that big ugly hotspot which is evident in Sigma 10-20mm lens, and the Tokina 11-18mm is out of my reach because it ditched the Sony Alpha mount for no good reason :/ *whines* I’d rate the Tamron lens at 7/10. It’s pretty good but not the best one around.

Ivy and her iced latte!

For dessert, Ivy picked a glass of iced latte, Dayna had a mouth-watering serving of brownie and ice cream while I indulged myself in the blissful world of swiss chocolate ice cream.

Oh and when we were having our regular talk, something peculiar happened. One of the Marché waitresses walked up to our table and handed a rose folded from serviettes. She said it’s from a guy named… I can’t remember. Dayna and I immediately stared into each other while Ivy was left very, very puzzled about what is going on until this guy, donned in a sleeveless black tee, emerged from a partition next to us and said “Hi.” We thought Ivy would passionately greet him like oh I didn’t expect to see you here but what we all shared in common was that who-are-you? blank look on our faces. He’s a stranger – we don’t know him as much as Ivy don’t, too.

He disappeared behind the very same partition he emerged from seconds earlier on.

Ivy didn’t know him, neither did he. How scary! But that didn’t unnerve us (urm, I was a little unnerved though) and we continued talking until we felt that we have digested enough food to move around :) we walked to Orchard Central which is right next door, and took a flight of escalators to the 8th floor.

Tea: At Heaven’s Loft

We arrived at Heaven’s Loft. The waitress asked if we wanted to sit indoors or outdoors, and we picked to enjoy the alfresco experience. Out on the deck, the camera whoring session continued.

Ivy's portrait.

Dayna's portrait. And her Samsung phone!

At the night after our lunch and tea meet Ivy was suggesting that Dayna should actually get Samsung to send her phones to review and test since she’s advertising for them – even in her portrait photo, haha!

Earl Grey, anyone?

Photo of Dayna and Ivy at Heaven's Loft.

Nothing beats having tea outdoor and having the entire Orchard Shopping strip underneath our feet :) I guarantee that you will not regret visiting Heaven’s Loft, even when their pricing is a little steep because the view from their outdoor cafe is really awesome. Oh, and since there is a very limited number of seats outdoors, I would suggest you to make a reservation if you’re intending to visit, especially in the evening/night.

It’s funny that once we warmed our seats we started whipping out our gadgets to tweet *laughs* anywya, Dayna is at @amourchaleur and Ivy is at @nanyate. There was a slight drizzle shortly after we started but it ended as abruptly as it came. After that we were greeted with a nice patch of the blue sky.

View from Heaven's Loft.

I guess this is one of the reason why I chose to invest in a UWA lens :) the view from Heaven’s Lodge is panoramic and you can even see the bustling street below :)

Dayna and Ivy with the cityscape.

As you can see, the best tables were already reserved even when it was only late afternoon and it was a Thursday when I’d expect less patrons. Wow, looks like their outdoor seats are pretty popular among their customers! The reserved tables didn’t stop us from taking photos near the ledge though :)

Interior of Heaven's Loft.

Before we left, I took a photo of the interior of Heaven’s Loft. Pretty minimalistic design eh? Dayna left for her evening classes (but thank goodness it was her last session in school for 2009, woots!) while Ivy embarked on a journey to hunt down the laptop bag shop she’ve been looking for some time. I headed to City Hall to get a UV filter for my new lens and that’s the end of the day!

Have a great weekend, everyone! This weekend will be an exciting one for me too!