.::. Christmas Eve .::.

We spent our first Christmas eve as husband and wife at Studio M Hotel at Clark Quay. It was a wedding gift from the girls and our second hotel stay in a week.

To our horror, there was a queue at check-in and we waited 30 minutes in line. Although check-in time was 2pm and we were only served at 330pm, our room was still not ready! They gave us A drink voucher to sit at and wait at the cafe. And I looked at the voucher and asked her why is the voucher only for ONE drink?! Should he drink or should I drink?

*sigh. What is wrong with hotels these days?! Our room at MBS was only ready at almost 7pm and the queue was horrendous. Really bad experience with hotels these days. If I'm a tourist, I'll be damn pissed. The rain has been relentless, trains not working properly and are really crowded, Orchard road is flooding, hotels are not checking-in on time and taxi queues are ridiculous. What is wrong with Singapore these days?!

The husband.

At least they served my favorite coffee.

It was raining and really windy.

When we finally got our room at about 5pm, we were quite disappointed.  He says it looks like a high-class chalet and the toilets were so small without any utilities such as cotton buds, toothbrush etc.  Moreover, so many local families were having their Christmas parties, armed with food and tons of guests.  It was pretty noisy really.  Look out of the window and you see lots of rooms filled to the brim with people and food.

We had a rest and went out for dinner at Robertson Quay.  It was pretty quiet, I guess most people were at home parties?

We dropped into a random restaurant - 'Bella Pasta' and had their set dinner.

It came with a glass of Moscato, and I obviously don't look my best sans makeup.

He had his beer.

My favorite zuppa de pesca, but obviously it was nowhere near the one I had in Venice.

The risotto with lamb.  The lamb was so good!  The best I had so far.

And the pork, which was mediocre.

Both of us were so tired.  He worked till afternoon on Christmas eve before we checked-in.

We spent the night watching 'Amazing Race' on his laptop, and went to bed early.

I was so disappointed that there was no bath-tub because I bought a bubble bath!  The MBS tub was so comfortable but I didn't have a bubble bath.  =(

Breakfast was complimentary but they were obviously very understaffed and running at the brim.  Guests had no tables and were disgruntled.  Food were snapped up too quickly and not replenished soon enough.

And we had to queue to check-out!!!

Although the company made everything alright, I think Singapore needs to be fixed.  Everything seem to be breaking at the seams and we can't seem to be handling the volume of people and activity around the island.