Trick Eye Museum

We went to Seoul last April. I was gonna blog about the whole trip but decided maybe it's better to separate this one out.

So they have this Trick Eye Museum at Hongdae. We've been there few years back and it was so much fun! Not sure how often they change the display. Its basically a place with many pictures/painted walls that look 3D when you jump in and take pictures of them. They are flat 2D pictures of course, with some exceptions of props that make them look even more 3D realistic. 

That is the way to the Museum. 

Take exit #9 from Hongik University MRT. 

Once you exit turn left at the first junction. You wont miss it. There are many food stalls and stalls selling socks and stockings there hahah. 

Once you see Innisfree, follow the junction bend and walk all the way straight till you see the Tourist Information Booth. If you need help just ask them. 

Else, cross the road at Holika Holika and walk straight. It's in between a small alley. 

There are many small alleys there so if you dont pay attention and get distracted by all the shops and clothes and food... you will get lost like yours truly hahah

Once you go inside, there are 2 levels and 3 different museums to pick from. Near entrance is something like a sex museum. We skipped that. Maybe I'll check it out next time. 

Go down and Trick Eye is there. The entrance ticket covers the ice museum too. Its just a giant freezer with ice sculptures. TIP: bring your jacket inside. Is freezing cold. We went in without. One time entry only so you cant go out to get your coats and go back in again. 

So once you go in there are a gazzilion pictures for you to take. Its snap and go. It will be very irritating if its crowded since you have to wait for your turns to take pictures. And some people take AGES. And if you go with friends who are to shy to interact with the pictures, well.. Too bad for you hahah. I will just let the pictures do all the talking. These are some of the nicer shots I like. There are of course many more that I'm not posting here. 

Ok this is my favourite. Mom didnt go in with us and she was outside shopping around instead. She said she went back in November so they are still probably the same theme. I showed her this pic and she was like.. " WTF! I should have gone in too! " Best thing was.. This one and the one below was outside the museum aka you dont need to get the tickets to take your pictures with them! It was just there and she missed it hahaha. Oh well. 

TIP: go with friends who are not shy and have a decent eye for good pictures. You can take nice pictures for your friends all you like but when it comes the time to have your pictures taken and your photographer friend doesnt know what is a good picture, you will be pissed. You will need someone who will tell you, ohey, move you body further in, keep your head tilted, arch your back, look the othet direction etc etc and also, know how to fit the entire display into your camera display. You wouldnt want pictures cut off or with people by the sides. Grrr. Just thinking of these annoys me to bits. I know the pic above have a stranger at the back but ok come on, sometimes its unavoidable. We had to hurry because there were people waiting to take this picture too. 

No pics to show for the Ice Museum. Bro hasnt passed me the pics yet. He took all of then using his DSLR because my iPhones camera didnt work well. The place wasn't well lit. 

I got the red note from the Seoul Trickeye. So we are supposed to have trickeye now in Resorts World Sentosa! Not sure if I wanna go for a visit. I think I will wait for my next visit to Seoul instead. Just in case the one in RWS has repetitions of what Ive seen so far. Just did a quick search and its already open on 6 June 14! Pretty sure its crowded. Tickets are pretty reasonable, 25$ for adults and 20$ for children. 

I saw this on 8Days too! Sounds similar to Trickeye. If you stay near Suntec area probaly its a good idea to check this out. I really dread going to Sentosa especially on weekends. So if you are like me, this might be suitable for you - a quick outing. 

DIY Friendship Band Watch Straps

Saw that few of my watches are dead. Got the replacement batteries from SelfFix and decided that I should just probably change the straps.

Original straps were the usual brown leather. Got these watches from one of those road side stalls. Think they were around $10 each so I wont feel too guilty if they were disfigured in the diy process. 

So I cut off the flimsy brown straps for the tiny watch. I've already lost the straps for the bigger watch. They gave way some time a go and I did another DIY back then. 

This one might look prettier but I sorta placed it wrongly. I already madethe chain   braid bracelet and then the watch broke so I just attached the bracelet to the watch. These braid bracelets are pretty easy to make. My mom kept saying the watch look super cheap and I should just throw it away hahah. I like the simple face. So no. I'm keeping it. 

Finished this tiny one first. Totally forgot how to do the love pattern but its easily picked up. I wont be describing how to do that so you need to youtube it yourself. There are quite a lot of good tutorials. 

So after finishing the first one, I realised probably it will look nicer if the strings can cover the entire bar. But I couldnt be bothered to redo. That would take me ages. And I already wanted to wear it asap. 

This is what I used for the big watch. I will do a breakdown for the tiny one after. 

Pick two colours you want. Preferably one dark and one light so the contrast is more visible.

This is what you need for ONE BAR (one strap): 

Cut 4 x 80cm of light coloured strings. 

Cut 4 x 80cm of dark coloured strings. 

So cut double that amount to cover both straps. 

The ones u see on top I've folded into half. Dont cut all of them into half because we need to loop them into the watch bar. 

This is the total you need for the entire watch. Each string is 80cm. 

Loop them into the watch bar. 

The 80cm strings now are halfed. 

Suggested sequence:

Pick a colour and loop 2 of those first. 

In my case, light blue.

Knot the 2 strings together. Just a regular knot will do. Make it as tight as possible at the bar. 

Then loop 2 more of the other colour.

In my case, dark blue. 

Knot the 2 strings together.

Then loop back 2 of the same colour.

In my case, dark blue. 

Knot the 2 strings together.

Then loop the final 2 colour. 

In my case, light blue. 

Knot the 2 strings together.

I know the picture isnt in this sequence. I had to learn this the hard way and redid everything.

TIPS:

You probaly need to tape the watch down to keep it from moving. Use a masking tape instead of scotch tape. For me I usually take my own sweet time finishing my DIY projects so if I use scotch tape it will provably leave sticky marks on my watch.  

Whatever colour is first will be the background of the band. 

In this case, my heart will be dark blue. 

Don't loop all of them in at one go (just like the picture) because they move around and you will have to keep adjusting the length. 

This is what it looks like when all strings have been knotted firmly. 

You can start knotting the friendship band. 

I used this tutorial to refresh my memory on how to make them. 

http://youtu.be/pfjfikSEVM8

Instead of using single string at one time, I use two instead. These will make the band bigger. And still follow the knotting guidelines. If you use single strings, it will to haywire. #learntthisthehardway.  So just don't. 

TIPS:

Superglue the strings on the bar to keep them from moving. It will look a little wet even after drying but I dont mind that. Dont use too much. Just enough to keep them still. 

If you dont like the space you see on the bar and prefer to have it all covered up, I suggest you double the amount of strings used. 

One side done up. I made this too long! So I redid it. The suitable length has 3 hearts on one side instead. I have an average wrist size so you can follow this guideline. Keep measuring after you've knotted. I keep putting it against my wrist to see if the size is okay. You can easily extend the length without the heart knots. Just tie braids to give the extra extension. 

Once you've finished the band, knot it and start braiding and insert a round metal ring in between the braids. I just unhooked this gold one from my old chains. #recycle. Make sure this size fits your clasp at the other end. Then continue braiding and double knot at the end. Make it tight. 

TIPS:

Superglue the metal ring to the strings. Just a little glue will do. Superglue hardens the strings so dont use too much else it will turn stiff. 

Don't cut off the excess strings yet. In case you need to adjust later on. Better too long than too short!

When you are ready to cut them off, leave a little excess at the end. When you pull and tug the string will move around a little. So if you cut it off right at the end of the knot, it might come loose.

Continue with the other side and this time use a clasp. I didnt bother matching the colours too. Its another recycle item. Nobody will see it anyway since you wrists face down most of the time. 

Do the same knotting and glue if you want. 

The tiny watch has half the amount of strings and is knotted using single string instead of double. You can see the size difference too. The thicker band on the big watch would probably fit nicely on the small watch. But i like the thinner strap. It gives out a very light airy feeling. 

Marketplace, Fries, and Ted

It was a rainy sunday this morning! Met up with Amy and Jan to check out the Marketplace happening at Bugis National Design Centre. I've never stepped into that area till today. The building houses a very unique multi label shop called Kapok. Found some stuff I really like but they are rather pricey. Luckily I didnt have a spur-of-the-moment moment today. 

Saw this on 8days. The event was indoor. And with very little stalls. Maybe 20 or so selling (organic?) food, accessories and yoga stuff. Very laidback hippie yogie vibe - I so wanna be one of the people there ahhaha. Wasnt really paying much attention, we left after 15mins probably. I think I spent more time inside Kapok. 

After that we had lunch at Bugis+. Been wanting to try out this place for ages. 

Ireland's Potato

Bugis+

201 Victoria Street

#04-01

Singapore 188067

We ordered the set meal with fries, choice of potato balls or potato skins and a drink. 

This was my choice - honey mustard. Can never go wrong. I tried all the sauces on the fries we ordered actually and all of them are just alright. My honey mustard serving might look pathetic but they were pretty generous. I saw a pool of it at the bottom when my fries were finishing. Hate stingy places. Luckily my server wasnt feeling stingy today. Forgot to ask the girls if they also had a pool at the bottom of their cups. Too busy eating mine hahah. 

Amy picked wasabi mayo. 

Jan picked sour cream. They all taste like what they say they are but they just lack oomph. No wow factor. BFF sauces are better. I so need to go there tomorrow. 

Jan and I opted for potato skins. Alright. A little burnt at the bottom. Cheese was good but I still ate most of them with chili sauce.  

Amy chose the hotdog. This woman couldnt even wait for me to take pics first before she took a bite. She said it tastes like ikea's hotdog - which is nice, according to her. Ohkay. I dont like sausage anyway. Dont remember the last time I've successfully finished a GV hotdog. 

Our drinks. I forgot what Jan had but Im guessing coke. And I had green tea which is bitter. And Amy had lemon tea I think. Nothing special. 

I will probably not go back again. Unless Im watching movie upstairs and I feel like smuggling fries in. Just hope that they are really generous with the sauce and not just this time for mine. And I might still go for honey mustard. That might be the most flavourful one. There are so many other choices though. Maybe I'll study the menu again wahahah. 

Went to watch A Million Ways to Die in The West after lunch. Ok, no too meh. Some of Ted's (aka Seth) jokes are so gross hahaha. FilmGarde is always so 

cold, I hate you. #plsturnupyourAC. 

Yakitori Enmaru

Saw an article about frozen beer cocktails in one of the magazines and whatsapped it to Kit who said we should go and try. Woohoo! So we went, last night. 

Yakitori Enmaru

2 Orchard Turn

ION Orchard

#04-11

Singapore 238801

It's near Paradise Dynasty, opposite Crates and Barrell. Ive always passed by this place on my way to Paradise Dynasty but never really stopped by to have a look. 

Reached there around 640pm. No queue. Had to wait for Kit so I left and went Topshopping for a bit. Came back around 730 and still no queue but I think I got the 2nd last table available at that moment. 

They have happy hour promotion too! #awesomeness. Was deciding between calpis & mango but then I saw pineapple and decided to go for that. Lychee for Kit. 

The clearer one behind is lychee. Both have a little hint of the fruit flavours. But still taste like regular beer. More to the lighter side which Im really liking. The foam is the cutest! They taste like.. Foam. Hahaha. I was thinking how am I gonna drink this without spilling or just clearing the foam first but then started sipping and it worked just fine. Little bit of beer. Little bit of foam. Kit came later on and asked the same thing hahahah. 

There is a complimentary "cover charge" or $5 per pax. Staff mentioned it before I took my seat. The charge is supposed to cover the appetizers and wet tissues? Hmm. 

So these are what we got: 

Potato salad. Quite nice. We had one each. 

And Cabbage with i dont know what sauce. Its quite refreshing. Not sambal. Something sweet plus salty? Not bad. We were given a big bowl of of this. 

Ok so we decided to order the skewered selections instead of the usual main meals. They have a minimum 2 sticks per order rule. 

Mushrooms. So so. Not bad. Not fantastic. Lightly seasoned. 

Scallop. Hmmm dont really like. Doesnt have that amazing freshness chewy feel to it. Rather meh. I wont order this again. This is also the priciest thing we ordered. 

Avocado wrapped with bacon. I like this. Cooked avocados always taste less rich to me but thats not an issue. Not bad. 

Ok this is probably my favourite! Minced chicken balls topped with cheese. I dont eat a lot of meat but these are good! The sauce is fantastic. Very flavourful. Im all for flavourful food rather than bland tasting ones. I ended up dipping the avocados in this sauce too. 

I think this is chicken thigh with basil. Too bland for me. Took a bit and Kit finished up the rest. Not getting these next time. 

 

Next we added a california roll. Not bad at all! Freshly made. You know how when you have an old sushi and its all stiff and hard and not springy to your chopsticks poke. None of that here. They crumble once I shred them apart. Yea I like to shred and eat my sushi one tiny bite at a time. I know its the wrong way to eat but so what. Wahah. 

Took these posters outside the restaurant. I will go back for the buffet next week with Jan! Cant wait! 

Our bill came out to be $45 perpax. Which makes the buffet pricing really reasonable. I saw this notice on the table abt being a member of jpassport or something like that. All you need to do is to QR code scan it and once you open the site, you can redeem a free drink every night. So our drinks were foc. #awesomeness!