Second Team Bonding Session

My bosses decided to call for a second team bonding session today before the 'flood' comes in. Budget has just kicked off, so we are unlikely to see the sun for the coming 2 months. Let's call for a celebration before we need to sweat it out.

We adjourned to Holland Village for our lunch. I have not been to Holland Village since the opening of the upgraded hawker cum market. We decided on 'Original Sin' at Chip Bee Gardens which served Mediterranean vegetarian food.

Frankly speaking, despite hearing about Chip Bee Gardens for ages (literally ages, about 4 years, since I first started work), this was the first time I stepped into Chip Bee Gardens. I used to hear it was a relaxing, bohemian with many al fresco outlets. Although there were some interesting shops, I heard that some of the eateries were gone. In fact, one of the shops has been vacated.

My initial reaction when I first heard we were going for vegetarian food was scepticism and apprehension. I have never tried going into a vegetarian restaurant before. Would it be just salads? Would I still feel hungry after the meal? I stepped into the restaurant with many questions.

The decor and ambience were similar to Esmirada at Orchard Hotel which also served Meditteranean food. The waiter was humorous. I could not recall most of their names (all in Spanish, I think, or was it Italian) unfortunately and neither did we attempt to pronounce, we have resorted to pointing to convey to the waiter what we wanted. We selected some mains, some starters and salads to share. Surprisingly, the food was rather refreshing and very delicious. anong them, the avocado salad, the tofu patties and magic mushrooms were among my favourites.

After lunch, we strolled to N.Y.D.C for our dessert. We selected beverages and cakes to share, just as prior. I have chosen Camomile tea as usual, deliberately avoiding coffee for fear of insomnia. I wanted something hot and soothing under the cool weather after the rain. Among the cakes, my personal preference went to the banana cake. It has the sweetness of the banana but not overwhelmingly sweet.

We ended our team bonding session at 4pm and the rest went home. Sigh! I have to rush back to office for a meeting with the big boss....

:-(