(Europe Summer Trip - Accommodation Series)




All I can say is Hotel Da Vinci truly has a great many surprises in store!
Stepping into this hotel, is like stepping into a museum! Just look at the lobby area!




I'm staying in their ADORATEUR Room and there is a really exciting story behind this hotel and this room!
Way back on 21st August 1911, one Vincenzo Perugia pulled off the theft of the century. He managed to steal the Louvre’s best-known painting: the Gioconda - (aka Mona Lisa!!!!!!!) With the police on his trail, he found refuge in this hotel room for a few days, until the pressure subsided and he was able to return to his home with his precious loot.

SO EXCITING RIGHT, and I'm staying in this room now in 2015!!




Thank you Hotel Da Vinci for the kind hospitality and the bottle of wine!




So sweet of them! :')




The room revolves around the theme of Mona Lisa!







Open concept bathroom!




The hotel also have a mosaic-lined pool that reproduces the colours used by Leonardo da Vinci to paint Mona Lisa on the lower ground floor! Would love to pay a visit the next time for a private pool session cause I didn't managed to go this time round due to time constraint. Totally in love with the room with such a cool history! Can't wait to be back!

(Europe Summer Trip - Accommodation Series)




As we were moving around Paris, we also stayed over at Hotel le Petit Paris for 1 night which is located on rue Saint Jacques, between the Panthéon and the Luxembourg Gardens, in the heart of the Quartier Latin.




The room in turquoise colour theme!







L'Occitane toiletries! ;)




Love the lobby area, really chic and cosy! I took a lot of pictures here too hahaha!




Buffet breakfast is served here every morning! I find the hotel really accessible as it is near Luxembourg Gardens (which I love, so beautiful), Saint Germain des Prés and even the metro! The staff were also really helpful and friendly throughout our stay!

www.hotelpetitparis.com

(Europe Summer Trip - Accommodation Series)

Since the holiday is coming, I thought it's about the right time that I share with you all the various accommodation that I stayed during my Europe summer trip! There are quite a few hotels, so I'll slowly roll all of them up on this site and hopefully it will help you all as a reference if you're travelling to Europe anytime soon/in the near future! ;)




My first stop... Paris! For the first few nights, I'm staying at Hotel de Sèze, an elegant 4-star hotel in the heart of the city.




I've heard a lot of horrible stories about the hotels in Paris, but Hotel de Sèze is definitely not one of them. I was given an EXECUTIVE ROOM and I love how cute it is! The room comes with a view of the rooftops of Paris, peaceful atmosphere and a spacious setting!







The design and furnitures are chic and contemporary! Not only that, but they are also located in the chic area of La Madeleine. So it is very near to Opera and Palais Royal, Champs-Elysées, La Defence as well as many luxury boutiques!





They even have a mini jacuzzi in the room! How awesome!







Enjoying the beautiful Parisian atmosphere in comfort! It actually felt kinda amazing to be able to look out of the window and see all the beautiful architectures while having bubble bath or enjoying the jacuzzi! I want to do that again! :D




Beautiful hidden stairs in the hotel.




The area where breakfast is served every morning!




Miss having the French style breakfast in the beautiful city, I can't wait to be back!

I really like how Hotel de Sèze is situated in such a cool area, very accessible to a lot of attractions and shopping but yet at the same time, you're able to get quality rest due to the peaceful surrounding. It's quite an experience to stay at the top of the roof and being able to look out all the window and see all the beautiful facade, it really brings out the charm of the city.

Thank you Hotel de Sèze for the warm and kind hospitality throughout my stay! I can't wait to be back soon! ;)


www.hoteldeseze.com/en/

I'm sure most of us will encounter this situation in our daily life....
When you're out and ready to start the day and when you're going to take the public transport....



"Eh! Omg where is my MRT Card????"
*starts to go dig and search your whole bag/wallet for it*




"Omg I forgotten to bring my MRT Card!!!! T_T"
I always encounter this situation because I don't usually put my MRT Card in my wallet, but in my bag. And if this happens to you when you're going to take the train, it's still not that bad because you can always buy the single-trip ticket first.

The worst ((which I'm always really scared and worried about) is when I need to take the bus but later realise that I do not have my MRT Card with me. It's only when the bus is arriving, that I need to pull out my card and realize that I do not have it! So either, I'll have to miss the bus and head back home to get my MRT Card or on better days, I'll have sufficient coins in my bag to take the bus. So sometimes I really feel like having an additional MRT Card in my bag!


Another situation that you might encounter (which I always encounter too), is when you have your MRT Card but it's running LOW IN CASH! Meaning when I board the bus, they say my card is low in cash so I cannot take the ride! Omg this is also quite embarrassing and every time this happens, I really pray that I do have some coins in my bag so that at the very least I can get to the train station to top-up and not miss my bus and be late for work. I really can go on and on about all the inconveniences that I have faced in my life with my MRT Card....

But today, I just realised something that can be the solution to all these annoying situations!

I'm sure most of us have debit card or credit card! I've quite a few of them and usually we will take extra care of MRT Card, keeping them separately. If I forget to bring it, I'll still have my whole wallet with me with all my debit and credit cards inside! Yes, they are the saviour to all these problems!!!


Because most of our bank cards now have.....




NETS FlashPay!!!
I've heard of NETS FlashPay but I didn't know that our bank cards came with NETS FlashPay! And better still it doubles up as a MRT Card???? Omg!!

Our bank card with NETS FlashPay is often perceived as a micropayment option for cashless purchases of food and shopping, but I think many of us are not aware that it can also be used to travel on the MRT, LRT, bus and even taxi! Just check your bank card (debit or credit card) and see if they have the NETS FlashPay logo at the back!





When I found out about this, I was quite excited and I went to try to top-up at the Add Value Machine Plus (AVM+) in MRT stations to see if it works! Randy was with me as well and he's excited to know too!




Using one of my UOB debit cards (with the NETS FlashPay logo) to try to top-up!

Omg and it works!!!!! That's really awesome because I can finally use them either as MRT Card or...
I can also use it as a spare MRT Card when I forget to bring out the main one or when it runs out of cash inside!





Yay commuting is made easier this way! Now our bank card is now also our MRT card!

That's not all!!!Now if you top-up using your Bank card with NETS FlashPay.....


You get 10% rebate on your card when you use it to travel on the MRT, LRT, bus and taxi.
For every $10 top-up (up to $30 a month), you will enjoy 10% rebate too!


Wooohooo! You can enjoy this rebate too! All you have to do is follow 3 simple steps:
Step 1 : Check that your bank card has a NETS FlashPay logo at the back. Then top up your card.
- NETS FlashPay works just like our regular MRT cards, so Top-up can be easily done at the Add Value Machine Plus (AVM+), local bank ATMs (DBS/POSB, OCBC & UOB) and NETS self-service top-up machines in MRT stations!

Step 2 : Travel with your bank card with NETS FlashPay

Step 3 : Redeem your rebates at any Add Value Machine Plus (AVM+) located at MRT stations, bus interchanges or selected bus stops. You can find out more on www.nets.com.sg/netsflashpay





Yay to more fun and less worrying rides (of not having my MRT Card) thanks to my bank card with NETS FlashPay ;)

Hello everyone! ;) Are you all up for a challenge?!

If you are then let me challenge you to......




Yes, a #NoWasteDays Challenge!
I'm doing the challenge too! It's really simple so let's do it together!
The aim of this challenge is to raise awareness of the need to reduce waste in Singapore, particularly food and plastic waste. I'm sure many of you didn't know but the increasing amount of waste, is putting a strain on Singapore’s environment and depleting limited resources. Just in 2013, Singapore produced almost 8 million tonnes of solid waste! How crazy is that! And I'm sure if we do little changes to our lifestyle habits and activities, we can help reduce food and plastic waste in our country. If not, more incineration plans and landfills would in turn have to be built to manage this increasing amount of waste, which is not sustainable in land-scarce Singapore.

I'm sure most of us are guilty of food and plastic wastage! But we can slowly change our habit! Starting from plastic wastage...




I've been using non-disposable containers, like my tumbler and lunchbox when I go to work!




It had already become a habit and I'll always bring my tumbler out (even to overseas) and stop buying bottled water as much as I can. I find it really useful because I like to drink hot drinks and with the tumbler I can have the flexibility to choose to drink either cold or hot drinks! You can also use the tumbler when you're buying coffee at Starbucks etc. and not waste their plastic cups!
In fact, I've quite a few tumblers and I really use them so frequently that my family are also starting to use them too!




Dinner time! Food wastage is real and you can see that more and more people are wasting food due to affluence and complacency. People just order a huge amount of food without thinking of whether they can finish them. Some will just order for the sake of pictures (to post on their social media) but then realised that they couldn't finish eating them after.




For myself, I only order what I can eat and if I'm with a group of friends and I know that I can afford to order more to share, I will do so! Or I'll just order a few dishes first and if we are still hungry, we will add-on more dishes! It's never too late isn't it!




So rather than wasting food, we should start by just ordering what we can eat! Share the food with someone especially when you know the portion is large! Like for this pizza, I share it with Randy because the portion is really huge. So we don't waste!




I pledge to finish all my food and you should do so too!
Let's take part in the #NoWasteDays Challenge and win yourself some prizes!
With the "No Waste Days” Challenge, we invite you to adopt 'No Waste Days' through small lifestyle changes such as bringing your own bags when shopping, bringing your own container for takeaways and finishing all the food that you have ordered!


Follow https://instagram.com/be_ecowithme/ and participate in either or/both the 2 categories!


‘Hero’ Category - Win a Go Pro Hero4 Silver camera worth $590

Each participant must:

1. Post a photo on Instagram that shows your effort at reducing waste with #nowastedays and #nowastedayshero
2. It can be as simple as taking a picture of: Your bite/Using a reusable container to avoid using disposables.





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Tag-Team Category - Win a pair of Daniel Wellington watches worth $198 each

Each pair of participants must:

1. Repost a contest post as indicated 
by the instructions in the post 
copy.
2. Hashtag your post with #nowastedays and #nowastedaystagteam 

3. Leave the correct answer in the post 

4. Tag each other. 

(E.g. Should Contestant ‘A’ tag Contestant ‘B’ in his submission, Contestant ‘B’ must likewise tag Contestant ‘A ’ in his submission.)
5. Participants to look out for the various posts that will be posted two times every week, till 4 Dec.





-

Rules and Regulations for the Contest: http://www.cgs.sg/docs/default-source/Programmes/nwd-challenge- tcs.pdf?sfvrsn=2

The contest commences on 15 Oct 2015 at 1000 hours (Singapore time) and ends on 4 Dec 2015 at 2200 hours (Singapore time)

Terms and conditions apply. Please refer to No Waste Days page and the full list can be found on CGS page: www.cgs.sg/docs/default-source/Programmes/nwd- challenge-tcs.pdf?sfvrsn=2





If you guys do not know, food and plastic wastage have a high generation rate and a low recycling rate. Reduction can save limited natural resources and land space. For us, reducing food and plastic waste has practical benefits such as saving money. Let's all join in the No Waste Days Challenge and do your part in saving the environment today! 
Good luck and all the best! ;)


Do head over and like Clean and Green Singapore’s Facebook page too!