Jingle your bells at Union Square!

The best places to soak up the christmas spirit at... where else, but a christmas market! The Union Square Christmas Market did not serve Gludwein(complain, complain, complain) but hot apple cider(long Q) and it was so lovely to stroll among the colorful stalls selling knicknacks from Nepal/Thailand/NYC, etc. There was a guy selling unique pics with a soft edge(all nicely framed) and we were so piqued by it till we realise they were all taken with a pinhole camera! Cool! Another Geisha-inspired artist took a famous portrait of Audrey Hepburn and turned her into a slutty-looking Geisha, comics style! That's NYC for you, baby!

Our mission today was to stock up on wine for the upcoming holiday season, at where else but Trader Joe's! The selection was superb(the price too!) and the Q moved so fast before we know it, we've moved 9 bottles out of the store! The grocery store is insane...half the cramped store was the Q to pay. No way I'm standing in line, baby. Uh-huh...

Chancing upon the Zen Palette vegan resto, we went in mistaking it for some Jap Ramen resto(being hungry clouds your judgement sometimes) instead. There is soy everywhere on the menu and I for one hate the "mock-meat" vegan style and would never bite into anything that descended from the line of Gluten. The fried sweet potatoes was a nice treat for an appetizer though Emmanuel makes a meaner miso soup than what they served. Our entrees were excellent except for mistakenly biting into a soy-infused grilled "steak"(yucky-poo!). What amazed us was the Tofu Honey Pie. It looked exactly like a cheesecake and even tastes a bit like it, except that it leaves you with a refreshing taste of eating a lite yoghurt instead of that sticky, rich aftertaste of full-on cheesecakes. Overall rating: 7/10.

This is the MUST-WATCH movie of the year! I shan't reveal more but I must say Leo did a good job in this one and I really can't walk into a jewellery shop next time looking at diamonds. If only a % of the profit from every African diamond sold went into feeding the poor of Africa, preventing civil war and HIV, if only...the world might be a more forgiving place to live in. To everyone out there who are thinking of getting that proposal ring or some sparkles for the romantic occasion, please purchase your diamonds in a responsible way - make sure they are certified CONFLICT-FREE. Did you know that many a diamonds were sold to fund many of the civil wars that have torn the country apart? Purchase of arms, weapons and artillery are all made possible with every carat sold. Villages have disappeared overnight in the feeding frenzy of this greed to power and money...which boils down to the question of supply and demand, of course. Did you know that 2/3 of the diamonds go to America? It is no longer a 1-carat story here in the Land of Dreams. People dream BIG...they dream 2 carats and up. And...where in history did they say diamonds are a girl's best friends? And WHY do men have to propose with them before a woman says "Yes, I do"? Go figure it out. Go Conflict-Free.