Life is a bitch, so we should be bitchier

2010-11-17T23:12:00.003+08:00

For a period of time, the stretch along Thomson Road has had new food establishments popping up and all of them were oozing with novelty. I've tried a few, a few closed down before I had a chance to and I'm still trying them all.

I had tried Cafe Ti Amo - it is quite a nice place because it wasn't very crowded. The food was pretty decent and normal. Desserts sucked though. Remembered having tiramisu which came with the set I had and I had only 2 mouthfuls before I gave up. Too dry and not flavourful at all. But for the price and ambience, not too bad a place to have dinner.

Tried Stevo's not long ago and it was surprisingly very good. Famed for their salads (yes, I DO eat salads) and vehemently recommended by kutu, we finally trudged down for dinner one day. Had their buffalo wings, level 3 if I remember correctly, roast chicken with Caesar salad and fruit salad. The wings was pretty alright and quite cheap when compared to other wings from other establishments. The roast chicken wasn't the best that I'd had. Thought it was a little too dry and not very tender. Didn't finish the chicken but I finished up every morsel of the salad. Yes, it is THAT good. The caesar salad somehow tastes very fresh and very generous with the croutons and chicken and lettuce and whatever else is inside there. The fruits in the fruit salad were also chopped into substantial sizes. Big enough to let you know it is there but not too big to finish it in one mouth. I even went to buy takeouts today!

Today, tried another of the cafes along that stretch - La Petite Cuisine. They have had a place at Serene Centre for the longest time and I kept wanting to go try their food there. Well, now that they just opened another branch at Thomson, I can finally go try it. It was quite a small place with just 3 tables outside and the inside had about 6 small tables. It's better to sit outside though because it was the open kitchen concept inside, which means that after dinner, you will probably smell like what you ate, with smoke and all. No service charge or GST but unfortunately, no service as well. We walked in, sat down and had to take a menu from the empty table beside us. The menu was only 1 sheet of rectangular paper, without much choices. I think that the menu is different from the one at Serene Centre as there were some stuff that I'd read about but didn't see on the menu. Had actually wanted some soup but they only had 2 kinds of soup - tomato or potato and leek, which was more like Soup of the day than anything else.

Friend settled for the soup and dory with white wine and rice for the main course. I went for the sirloin steak. Had wanted to try their tuna steak but the cashier told me no steak today. :( After waiting for a while, our food didn't come. Neither did the soup which requires no preparation. Nor the bread arrive. Boo. The soup and bread only arrived after about 20-25 minutes. Or it could be less, I don't have much perception of time. So, the bread was not too bad. It was the small version of baguette and very hot and very hard. Not too bad though because at least the inside was soft and warm. The tomato soup tasted like ketchup diluted with water, very tomato-y. Polished off the bread and another round of waiting ensued. It was probably after 30 minutes of so that the lady chef walked to every table to explain the long wait for our food. It was apparently due to some 'technical difficulty' with the stove which she was trying to fix. Fine, we were not very hungry thus were pretty empathetic. And after a while, we realised that their problem was that they ran out of gas. Kind of strange for a restaurant to run out of gas during business hours.

So, the food finally arrived after the gas-man came. The dory was quite good. A little sour due to the white wine but tasted quite fresh and cooked to almost perfection. My steak was a little small, there were only 2 small strips of them although they were quite thick. Served by the side were some very grassy tasting salad and fries which were quite tasty and a little too salty. Steak was medium-well as requested and the sauce that comes with it doesn't overpower the taste of the steak. Food was pretty good on the whole but the experience wasn't exactly fantastic. But hey, it is cheap. The dory was about $12 and my steak was only $15. For the price and the quality of the food, I may just consider going back there for some other food choices. :)

2010-10-26T23:56:00.005+08:00

Went to Wang Jie's concert over the weekend. Fantastic! I realised that I really like him quite a lot. Then it got me to question where did my love for him came from. He wasn't from my generation but somehow I liked him enough to go watch his concert.

The audience was not a super old one. However, they were pretty spontaneous and they were so excited to see him! There were so many who rushed to front of the stage when he started on his second song. I don't see such enthusiaism even for Jay Chou. But having said that, this is also the first concert that I'd been to that the audience keeps walking here and there. It seems that they are strolling around, going to the toilet and having a hell of a relaxed time by walking around when the concert is on-going. It's so weird!

The concert was a no-frills one. He sang straight from 8pm to 11pm, no fake encore segments and no costume changes. Dressed in jeans and white singlet with a jacket over it, crooned to his heart's content and shared many of his own stories.

His songs are so melancholic and so sad. It seems that he had a hard life. Well, I wouldn't know since I don't really follow his personal life. Don't even know the name of his ex-wife. In fact, I don't even remember that he was once married. Yeah, that was how much I knew about him. But seriously, who cares if he is married or not or whatever, it is all about his music and how he presents the music to us. Well, I like his music and that is good enough for me.

I feel that he comes across as very real and straightforward. Albeit a little pessimistic, he doesn't mince his words or avoid issues. So when he says that this is going to be his last concert and his last album will be released in March 2011, and he would disappear after that, I really believe him. I guess now it really is a test of my faith in him. Let's see if he sticks to his word. Not that I would be extremely happy if he really just disappeared but after all the alleged claims of leaving the industry and appearing again after a few years, it would be pretty refreshing to have someone actually sticking to what he had said.

Things about coffee

2010-10-08T00:31:00.001+08:00

I'm a coffee enjoyer, not a coffee gulper.

I'm really a true Starbucks fan. I bought a packet of coffee beans from Coffee Bean yesterday and I felt so disappointed with their selection! It was not very wide-ranging and their strong coffee was not exactly very bold too. The only reason why I bought beans from Coffee Bean is because I have a $10 voucher.

2010-08-25T23:06:00.001+08:00

Have been trying to make a list of all the plays, musicals, concerts and whatnots I've been to. Tedious task!

2010-08-25T22:40:00.002+08:00

It's 10.41pm now and there is still a clanking ceremony going on at a wake below my opposite block. Are they supposed to be still banging away at the gong even at this hour? It's not that I'm not understanding, I'm just curious. The longest funeral ceremony I had known was an hour or so. This has been going on since about 7.30pm. 3 hours!

So many things happening in the office. Too many for me to believe and too many for me to keep track of. Talk about office politics. You would think that things would be better in an environment where everyone is highly educated and supposedly more cultured. Wrong! Not so simple. In fact, I'm convinced that it's worse than in normal companies. I should just deal with it. Over time, I'm going to be so numb and immune to all these nonsense that I'm going to be jaded! Goodness, jaded at 25. Life's still a long way to go. :(

2010-07-06T23:38:00.007+08:00

Have been trying some new stuff of late. New not meaning anything adventurous or novel, meaning getting my butt out of my house and going out to do something different, other than reading, sleeping, facebooking and playing mahjong.

Some time back, I tried out one of the massage place at Thomson and it's pretty nice to have someone kneading the kinks out of your muscles. The only disadvantage is that you could fully feel your muscles protesting after that because they are so over-used!

Before our public transport system decided to charge according to distance, putting out the claim that fares will be cheaper (ya, right!), me and bf decided to randomly take the Circle Line to somewhere. So we attempted to explore the stations that we would otherwise not think twice about - Nicoll Highway and Stadium Stations.

Not fantastic though.

At Nicoll Highway Station, we were probably the only one who got off the train. I bet those people in the train were thinking what the hell were we doing there. And we realised that within the vicinity of the station, there is probably only Golden Mile that is worth taking a look. We gave up and hopped onto the next train and went to Stadium station.

When we got there, it was drizzling and we didn't want to go to Kallang Leisurepark. So we just peeked out of the station and went back downstairs to take the train elsewhere.

So we stopped trying to be funny and got off at Bras Basah. Walking around, we chanced upon the National Day Rehearsal! And we were right behind the cannons! So cool! Ok, I'm on the verge of sounding very bimbotic but I was really quite excited. We then stood around for about an hour or more and caught the firing of the cannons and the display of military vehicles. Oh, and we caught the flying segment too. All the parts that I like about the National Day Parade! Sorry to the performers but I really don't care about the second half of the Parade, other than the fireworks.

I got quite sick for a while and soon after, I'm up and running again!

Tried a few new eating places with relatively positive experiences.

Met the girls yesterday and we went to Applebee's at Triple One Somerset. They did their steak pretty well (they had to, for the price) and service was good too. The service staff were attentive to details and friendly. Xpr found something that didn't belong in her dish and she feedback to the manager, resulting in her dish being cancelled off the bill. That is what service is.

Subsequently, we went to ~~a cafe/pub-like place~~ Oriole Cafe and Bar at Discovery Walk at 313@Somerset ~~(I swear I tried to find out the name of the cafe but after poring through Google sites, it seems that it is the 'cafe-that-should-not-be-named'. Can't find nuts!)~~. Anyway, kutu and pr ordered some picollo latte which is supposedly famous and made by the Singapore's National Barista Champion, or his protege, or his head barista (at least, according to the ieatishoot blog). We were contemplating if we should force kutu to order the chili chocolate mocha, which probably sounds more interesting than it taste? Anyway, I ordered my usual cappuccino instead.

Hmm, I'm not sure that I like their coffee though. Maybe I should try something else the next time we go but the picollo latte and cappuccino, maybe not. So, the alleged famous picollo latte taste like soya sauce in my opinion!! Yes, I'm dead serious. Even after they added sugar, I could still taste that soya sauce-like taste. The coffee wasn't strong enough for me and I think the crema probably is the culprit of the soya sauce-like taste. But hey, the story of the Oriole place is pretty intriguing, as in they are fellow coffee-lovers so I'm going to give them a few more chances.

Moving on!

Went to Cafe Ti Amo along Thomson Road for dinner today. Had actually wanted to try out Cheeky Chocolates but didn't realise that it had been replaced by this new cafe place. Well, the menu wasn't extremely extensive and choices were pretty limited. However, food was not too bad. I had the mushroom soup, chicken chop with mushroom sauce, tiramisu and coffee.

The mushroom soup was surprisingly good. It was creamy enough with large chunks of mushroom floating inside. There were no chunky flour-like thing that are usually present in creamy mushroom soups. The only complaint I have for the soup is that it is a tad too salty.

The chicken chop was quite tender and the mushroom sauce also have relatively big pieces of sliced button mushrooms in it. There were a truckload of baked beans which I left untouched. And of course, fries and salad. Fries were tasting a little weird. Probably the oil. But at least it was crunchy. Oh, and the chili and tomato sauces tasted a little funky too. I am guessing that their customer flow is not enough to keep the sauces fresh. Tiramisu was brought out from a display case, explaining its dry texture and lack of creaminess. No hint of alcohol too. Coffee was normal though.

Ok, long enough post to satisfy myself. My only regret is the lack of photos. After bringing my camera for servicing, I haven't used it since. Don't know why but somehow don't feel like using it. :(

But looking on the bright side, my dad who is going Shanghai later this month says that he wants to buy a better camera to bring over. His Samsung camera is terrible because it's battery life is probably equivalent to the attention span of a baby (lack of a better analogy). And guess what, he said that he was thinking of giving me the new camera after that, and he will pay half of it! Yay!

2010-06-22T14:13:00.005+08:00

Finished my 16th book (technically my 15.5th book since I have another book in progress but for ease of reference, we shall consider it as the 16th).

Started on my 17th and and 1/4 done - The Venetian Betrayal by Steve Berry.

I had previously read a book by him - The Alexandria Link and it was pretty intriguing.

Good storyline and progressing of the story to make me read it almost twice. 'Nuff said.

The book hasn't let me down yet and I don't expect it to as I'm progressing at a healthy reading speed. :)

On a grimier note, I'm sad.

Last week, I brought my camera to the doctor because it seems to be developing cataracts. The photos that it takes is blurry! In order to take decent photos, I have to zoom in a little to get rid of the blur-ness and it's dumb because my camera is not wide-lens in the first place and after zooming, I lose the entire scene. :(

So the camera had to be hospitalised and examined in closer detail. But bad news! It really does have faulty lens!

And to repair it cost $338.10. I could easily buy a new camera with that sum of money.

But I like the camera, relatively. Boo hoo.

Well, I still managed to take pretty decent photos from my previous trips and all of them are just awaiting my lazy bug to bug off before they can show their faces to the world!

Argh, is there someone out there who can filter photos for me? Bleah.

And I keep wanting to burn them into CDs so that I won't lose them either to harddisk failure or some other cuckoo failures that technology seems to create than solve. But I think the answer is obvious whether this has been done or not. :(

I will upload them one day. One day.

2010-06-17T10:10:00.007+08:00

Midyear update on books read so far:

The Nostradamus Prophesies by Mario Reading
The Vanished Man by Jeffrey Deaver
The Keeper by Natasha Mostert
The Stone Monkey by Jeffrey Deaver
Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell by Susanna Clarke
The Final Reckoning by Sam Bourne
The Coffin Dancer by Jeffrey Deaver
How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill
The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom
Animal Farm by George Orwell
1984 by George Orwell (In slow process)
Nightlight by The Harvard Lampoon
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Twelfth Card by Jeffrey Deaver
The Cold Moon by Jeffrey Deaver (In process)

Not as many as I had hoped for but I think it is a consistent enough number of books to read over the previous 6 months.

It means an average of 2.5 books each month and 0.625 book per week.

Not too bad, considering there were many other distractions like playing games, travelling, hanging out, rotting around and of course, working.

Ok, I realised that I haven't really ranted about the stupid book, The Birthing House, but I think I'm just going to treat it as an unpleasant memory and forget about it. At least the subsequent books were good enough to get me back on the reading track.

Short personal feelings on the books

I should have just started with Animal Farm from the very beginning. I had that book since the end of time and it was just sitting there on my bookshelf. And the only reason why I picked that up was because I was going to attend the play on Labour Day.

It's not that I don't like the book. It's my all-time favourite book! I had read it sometime in Secondary School and so it is not very high on my priority to-read list. But re-reading it is really amazing. I get different insights because of my additional knowledge as compared to first time I read it. And as this book is binded together with 1984, I proceeded to read that one too.

Ah, not as smooth a journey though.

The theme is darker, the writing style is not as upbeat and the story is a little hard to digest in my opinion. I had been stuck on that for about 1.5 months and it is still moving VERY slowly.

Then we went to Australia and I brought along a book, Nightlight. Totally crazy book. A parody of the totally overrated Twilight series and it was really well-done. I think it totally brought out the stupidity of the original subject (treading on sensitive ground here, risking wrath from fanatic Twilight fans) and managed to make it funny at the same time. It's ridiculous, funny, nonsensical and nothing glamourous about the characters. They are depicted as wimpy, delusional and just like normal kids who are usually ignored because they are nerds or weirdos.

But it is just a very short story in which I'd finished in about 3 days. But on the plane back home, I watched a movie from the in-flight entertainment and got very intrigued. Yeah, the movie was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Coming back home, I vaguely remembered that I did buy the book sometime back and started on it.

Very intriguing and very smart storyline. Although it's a trilogy, it doesn't leave you hanging at the end with some uncontinued story or loose ends. Granted, it doesn't disclose much of the main character's background but just enough to keep you intrigued and curious to continue the series.

And last but not least, I don't think I even need to talk about Jeffrey Deaver. Quoting my sister, 'Jeffrey Deaver and Tess Gerritsen gave us all sleepless nights'.

That is how compelling the storylines are.

Skinny/Fat/Tall Presidents

2010-04-23T11:51:00.010+08:00

I hate Blogger! I just typed an entire post and it was gone!

It refused to publish the post by claiming that my URL contains illegal characters. Like seriously? Does it mean the URL has characters that committed some crime or are illegal immigrants or something?

Ok, I know it's obviously not the case that I've put forward above but hey, allow me some rambling space and time. It's irritating to have an entire post lost just because of some illegal thingy.

Anyway, I'm going to try to regain my thoughts and reconstruct as much as I can remember from the lost post.

So, I stumbled across an article written in 2008 from The Wall Street Journal, about the US Presidency election.

It was sort of discussing the chances of Obama in the election, relating it to his healthy lifestyle and skinniness.

"...in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama's skinniness be a liability?"

Seriously! Is it really cause for concern if he is skinny or fat? How does that impact the way he does things and perform his duties?

Of course, now that everything has passed, we can safely say that his skinniness did not impede his chances of winning the election.

I mean I understand that people want their leader(s) to be someone whom they can relate to and whenever they see him/her, they can say "hey, I think he/she is just like me!" But having someone who feels like he/she can relate to you does not necessarily equate to capability.

I'm not saying that ~~fat~~ not-skinny people are not capable. I'm fat myself but I don't think it is of any direct relation to my capabilities.

"These days he (Obama) stays away from junk food and instead snacks on MET-Rx chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and drinks Black Forest Berry Honest Tea, a healthy organic brew. (Sen. McCain is said to have a weakness for Butterfinger candy bars, jelly beans, and coffee and doughnuts from Dunkin' Donuts.)"

But what I can have in consolation is that the US society will most probably welcome me with open arms. Look, I have a soft spot for all things that walk or fly (at least most of it), and I usually intensely dislike things that are green or are sprouting from the ground or hanging off trees.

I may probably one day be able to make it for the US election but will definitely not make it for the SG one. Height is the precedence. Fat or skinny, that I can control. Height-wise, not much I could do, unless I break my bones to allow them to grow back and cross my fingers and hope that they grow better. *ouch*

Quotes from The Wall Street Journal

Appeal of Mr Jay

2010-04-14T11:02:00.003+08:00

I am torn between 2 things that I want to talk about but I can't put them together in a similar post because I think both of them deserve a separate post in their own right.

I'm going to go with the more current topic - Jay Chou.

In case you are curious, the other thing I want to blog about is this crappy book that I've read.

Anyway, back to Mr Jay*.

After news surfaced that he will be coming in July for his concert, there was so much fuss over it. People started asking one another if they wanted to go, and if so, which category tickets should they buy. The most expensive one is $228 and cheapest one is $98 (I think).

So, comes the day, 14 Apr, when tickets are officially released for sale, which is not even a public sale because only OCBC card members have priority to get them. But of course, since we are a modern and developed country with fantastic financial institutions all around, it is no wonder that maybe 80% of Singaporeans who are trying to watch the concert has the card. So it is not much of a priority either.

So. Sistic started selling tickets at 9am. According to colleagues who reached the office earlier than I did, they had been trying to get into the Sistic website for the longest time, since 9am, to no avail. Even when they manage to get some tickets, the site died on them when it was time to pay.

At around 10+am, my manager decided to make 2 girls very happy and allowed them to go to the Sistic counter at IMM to try their luck. However, no luck.

Super long queue, everyone took forever to complete a transaction and before they saw the tip of the counter, they were informed that tickets were sold out. ?!?!?!?

Crazy la!

And not long ago, I found out that the reason why people who really wanted to go can't get tickets is this --> http://www.olx.sg/jay-chou-concert-2010-singapore-tickets-for-sale-iid-87753144

Apparently, this guy had bought an entire row of $198 tickets and are selling them for $280 each. And at the same website, I found another person selling $138 tickets at $488 a pair.

I know that this is a great chance to earn some quick buck but it's not really very nice to do that right? Especially tickets that are so precious.

Anyway, was informed by my colleague that there will be a second show on 23 July and ticket will be released for sale on 22 April. Another round of mad rush!

*when I typed that, the Jay that popped up in my mind was ANTM's Mr Jay. -.-"

"Liao Zhai Rocks" does rock...some

2010-04-12T11:13:00.006+08:00

Met the girls on Friday to sing, finally.

They looked so exhilarated because their hell week is over. All the crazy assignments that have deadlines on the same week is basically a ploy to push students into overload mode!

Anyway, I've passed that period in my life although I would really want to go back to studying. You may think I'm crazy for all I care but in the 2 years (almost!) at work, I can really feel my brain cells deteriorating! My brain is being under-utilised and I can feel it!

But that line of thought is for another day.

Saturday was another night out with them. We went to watch Liao Zhai Rocks. *don't laugh!*

Well, as mentioned in previous post, it is an attempt to give the evergreen Chinese ghost stories a modern touch by 'rock-ing' it up.

I have to say that the show is quite interesting. I think the entire storyline gives a pretty good idea of the original work. Basically, it involves some scholar, some random girl from the streets, some ghost or vixen (狐狸精） and other characters that are small but important in the plot as they have to help the main characters in overcoming their obstacles.

Music-wise, quite rock-y but not in your face kind of rock (if you actually know what I'm saying). It doesn't try to overwhelm you with crazy rock all the time but you can sort of feel their attempt. Only complaint is that they use too much of the same tune. They use the same few tunes and just supply it with different lyrics. Well, it gets stale after a bit.

Next up, my Mayday!!

2010-04-09T14:59:00.003+08:00

We had lunch at Pizza Hut today and nearing the end of the meal, I suddenly realised the problem of service in Singapore. At least in the F & B industry.

They have not much problem with the basic service standards like smiling and getting your order right, at least most of them. But their problem is their clueless-ness.

They have probably no idea of proper dining etiquette.

They do not understand that when I place my soup spoon on the soup platter (like in the photo), it means that I'm done with the soup.

They do not understand that when I place my utensils together in the middle of the plate (like in the photo), it means that I'm done with my food and please clear my plate! Ok, to be fair, clearing of plate is quite subjective so I shall not touch on that.

But then as service staff in the F & B industry, you should at least have some basic knowledge of dining etiquette right? If not, no matter how much you smile, how much you offer your best service to the customers, something will always be missing and in this case, ignorance is not an excuse!

*Photo credits to 'Etiquette with Miss Janice'

2010-04-09T09:20:00.006+08:00

Smooth traffic to work ends TODAY!

From what I heard (as I don't know for sure), Ngee Ann Poly starts their new school term again next week. From experience, I know that the roads to work are going to be congested again!

For some really strange reason, it seems like the congestion on roads is caused by poly and SIM students. Of course we know that many of SIM students drive, just look at the cars parked on campus everyday! But does it also mean that poly students drive to school too??

The world is changing! The kids these days are so pampered and living such a good life!

Albeit they have to attend tons of classes teaching them about phonetics, speech and drama, art and craft, piano, violin and the list goes on but they get to choose! They get to choose which kind of stuff they like and their parents will send them there. Over time, they can also choose to give it up if interested had waned and parents will pull them out of the class, willingly or grudgingly.

When I was young, no such things. Piano lessons were sort of forced onto me. Even when I attempted to tell my parents that I don't want to learn anymore, I wasn't given a choice. Well, its alright because they are all in the past.

Anyway, I need to justify my reading speed for my current book. It is close to 1 month since I first started on this book! It's terrible! And to think that my new year goal was to read more books. BUT, there is a reason for this lethargy! There is ALWAYS a reason.

Contrary to the book synopsis which looked pretty interesting, the actual storyline is sadly not. It is not very engaging or compelling to read. There is no hook in the story to entice me to fervently plow through it. In fact, I find that it is actually quite a chore to pore through the book. I can't really wait to finish it and start on the next book.

And of course, there is the external factor/distraction of the new Ace Attorney game on my Nintendo DS.

And also, these months have been busy and pretty hectic. Last month had all the school events and so on, this month is the turn of performing arts.

On 10 Apr, I'll be attending Liao Zhai Rocks, 17 Apr is the Mayday concert at the National Stadium, 22 Apr will be the day for Chicago and last but not least, Animal Farm on Labour Day, 1 May. If Sistic has some sort of loyalty reward thingy, I'm sure I'll be up there somewhere.

Starbucks rambling & Book #10 - The Birthing House

2010-03-17T22:08:00.006+08:00

Ok, for my Starbucks book - How Starbucks Saved My Life, I'm supposed to write a book review for the person who gifted it to me. Let me pen it down here before I forget them and have nothing to account for to him.

Let's start with the storyline of the book.

It is actually a biography of a person who had fallen from grace, aka the American Dream, and had to resort to getting a job in Starbucks as a barista. And along the way, he learnt and saw many things that his atas life had sheltered him from and he realised that he was much more happier as a Starbucks barista than when he was a high-flying guy in the advertising/marketing field.

Ok, after getting the facts out, time to put in my X cents worth.

I think that this may not be the conventional self-help genre kind of books but it is kinda in there somewhere. I'm trying not to dismiss it as something that I don't like but I could say that it is not the kind of book I'll rave about.

I have never been a fan of books that relate about a person's self-discovery. And this guy, Michael, known as Mike when he was a barista, kept going on about self-discovery. He was constantly reminiscing about his past when he had been great and almighty instead of focussing on the present. Of course, at the end of his journey, inevitably a happy ending, he managed to stay in the present and discard the past.

But hey, there are also redeeming factors of the book! It is not all that bad... For those who has no idea about how Starbucks works, it is a very good indicator and very telling of the actual situation in the organisation.

From my experience when I was working in Starbucks, I really did enjoy my time there. Just like Mike, I think that Starbucks creates a great space for people to be in. And it's not just about coffee, it is about the people. Starbucks treats us all fantastically. People who are more cynical than me may claim that it is all an act. Well, it could be an act but it definitely is working!

This book is actually strongly recommended for all Starbucks fan and all who wants to know more about Starbucks, this amazing organisation. When you read about Mike's experience as a barista, you will be a little thrilled to be able to identify with all that he mentions. Especially when he starts to relate about some things that he felt was difficult or challenging to him and you think, "hey, I did that before!"

He talks about how hates to do the register, which we call the POS (don't ask me what it is short for, I have no idea) and I quite enjoy doing it. Apparently in the US, they have this amazing machine that counts the money just by the weight, without them having to count it physically!

Then when he finally got to the bar and got confused over all the machinery and drink-calling sequence and so on, it is also exciting on my part to be able to relate to what he is saying.

Ok, starting to ramble. Starbucks is going to take over the world on day!

Book #10 - Christopher Ransom - The Birthing House

Book #9 - How Starbucks Saved My Life

2010-03-11T10:42:00.004+08:00

Considering how many books on Starbucks out there, it should come as no surprise that I would eventually read one of them. However, I didn't buy it myself. I was too cheap to do that. My money will only be spent on novels and probably some history books. All these Starbucks-genre books seemed to be too self-help types to me.

But well, a colleague gave it to me and it didn't help that he was quite an ~~eye-candy~~ nice and friendly guy. And he had said that I had to write him a book review after finishing it. Heh.

Of course I would give this Starbucks book a chance!

Book #9 - Michael Gill Gates - How Starbucks Saved My Life

Book #8 - The Coffin Dancer

2010-03-06T15:58:00.003+08:00

Finished my 7th book of the year.

Progressing rather slowly, I think and it's all Facebook's fault!

Either case, let me provide a short review of Book #7.

The storyline is actually quite interesting and compelling but I had needed some time to get over the author's writing style. There probably is nothing wrong with his style but when it comes to reading, it just boils down to personal preference more than anything else. It just felt like the sentences didn't read very smoothly and fluently but after I got over that, everything else was fine.

The book is actually more of a historical-fiction than just a plain novel constructed out of a random person's imagination. Essentially, the main storyline is about how the Jews fought back against the Nazis after WWII and how they formed an underground group of sorts to eliminate the Nazis who had managed to change their identities and continue with their lives, as if they had not done anything appalling during the War.

Enough on pretentious book reviews, I think I'm not exactly fantastic at them.

I'm very tempted to exclaim that I should lay off FB for a bit but I'm afraid that I will have to eat my words. Same case with MJ this year. Boo. :(

Book #8 - The Coffin Dancer - Jeffrey Deaver

Book #7 - The Final Reckoning

2010-02-26T11:29:00.006+08:00

Yay, I finally finished my Book #6 - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell. Took me bloody long enough! Almost an entire month!

But hey, the book has 1006 pages! No wonder that I took so long right? This is probably by far, the thickest book I've read, and I'm quite surprised that I had trudged through it.

It was not a bad book, infact it was pretty interesting. A novel, but written in the style of an academic publication, complete with footnotes (the thing that I hate most when I'm writing). The beginning part was a little slow moving, to be expected as the writer has to build up the foundation of the story, which by the way is about 2 magicians trying to restore magic back to England in the 11th century or so. On top of wrestling each other to be considered England's Greatest Magician, they had to contend with faeries (yes, it is that magical) who were trying to kill their king and take their women (very very loosely put here).

I think I can now restart on Stephen King's It, which was one of the few books that I had given up on halfway, the other one being that autistic book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

Oh, and MPH Raffles City is closing down for renovation works. Their books are going at almost 90% off. Needless to say, I swept back about 5. Its quite little, considering that I had brought back more books from other sales.

Book #7 - Sam Bourne The Final Reckoning

2010-02-08T11:38:00.003+08:00

So much had happened since I last updated.

Someone close to me is gone, I've been to the Amei concert which I had been looking forward to forever, I've been to Bangkok and back and now is back in the office, working.

Life is really a bitch, seriously. It takes some away from you and gives you back some, making you feel torn between two conflicting emotions.

From the start of this year, I can totally feel this conflicting emotion perfectly. On one hand, work is going pretty well for me. On the other, someone in the family was going through hell equivalent and when he finally gave up, he probably went to a better place while the remaining of us will have to suffer the loss. And of course, there was the Amei concert which I had been anticipating since last year and then it clashes with the family problem. I still did attend the concert but I guess the feeling is somewhat different. Then something even more incredible happened to me - the money changer gave me more Bahts than I had changed for, effectively making my exchange rate super high.

It's like life decided that it had dealt too harsh a blow and then tried to make more good things happen to soften the impact. It's strange.

Book #6

2010-01-24T00:38:00.002+08:00

When we should be rejoicing, or at least in high spirits, something has to happen to dampen everything else.

Everyone is afraid of death right? I think I'm more afraid of the process of death.

Book #6 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell - Susanna Clarke

2010-01-11T11:10:00.015+08:00

Yay to the new year! Yea, it's a little late for this sentiment for year 2010 is not going away anytime soon so I guess it doesn't matter much, right?

No new year resolutions again - see no point in doing it.

First, I have to spend time conjuring up all the resolutions that I know I will never get about to doing.

Secondly, it seems to be getting more and more impossible to set realistic resolutions so all my past resolutions were like trying to build castles in the air. Not good.

And I think I will be accumulating some sort of bad karma if I keep making resolutions but not keeping to them. So I shall stop.

Oh, but backtracking abit on the subject of resolutions, I think I can afford to make a small, little one. (typical female isn't it? fickle-minded)

To read more books in the year of 2010

Ok la, I know 'more' is quite subjective. It could mean 10 to people who haven't been reading much or 100 to people who reads alot but for now, I think that I am making good progress.

It's only the ~~11th~~ 13th day of year 2010 and I've already read a grand total of - 3 4! (or 4 5? hmm...)

Since I've already made one, I shall now give myself the luxury of making another one! (Boy, am I in a generous mood!)

To record down all the books that I've read in year 2010

Nice leh! So now I can actually remember and keep track of the books I've read so that I don't buy repeated books or try to read them again, unknowingly. And yes, that actually happened. I'd read this particular book so long ago that I don't really remember. And one day I needed a fresh book to start on and I randomly picked THAT book. When I first started reading it, I thought hey everything looks really familiar. Reading further and I realised that I had indeed read that book before. Sigh, the drawback for having too many books.

OK, book titles are as follows:

The Nostradamus Prophesies - Mario Reading (the one with the ambiguous status but am going to include it anyway.)
The Vanished Man - Jeffrey Deaver
The Keeper - Natasha Mostert
The Stone Monkey - Jeffrey Deaver ~~(In progress)~~ (By the time I finish this draft, I have finished the book)
Scarpetta - Patricia Cornwell (In progress)

One thing down. Very good.

This is going to be quite a long post because when I couldn't sleep last night, I was sort of inspired to blog about many things. I kept making up sentences in my head but was too lazy to get up and start up my laptop and put them all down. Of course, it doesn't help that it was already probably 3.30am and I was already supposed to sleeping soundly, not having random sentences floating around in my head!

Anyway, it's just into the thirteenth day of the year and I felt like I had done so many things!

We celebrated my grandma's birthday on 3 Jan. Subsequently, went to the David Tao's concert on 8 Jan. However, I forgot that I was supposed to attend a meeting on the same night and had to make some last minute arrangements with another colleague for her to cover me for that night. On that same day, I 'conned' my immediate boss out of 2 unopened durians and we had durians for snacks. I then had my first mahjong session of the year on Saturday and finally some rest on Sunday. Come monday, 11 Jan, I went to RELC to attend a pre-trip briefing with the sister regarding her impending education overseas. Had the Korean food along Thomson Rd that I had been talking about trying forever and was indeed worth my perpetual talk. Tuesday, which was yesterday (the REAL yesterday since I finally finished this post on 13 Jan, Wed), meet the kuku girls for xiaolongbao-steamboat buffet at Crystal Jade at Holland Village.

My goodness. I even feel so busy already as I was typing that whole chunk of stuff out. I guess this will be a fruitful year! Considering a few friends are getting engaged/married, busy busy.

Oh ya, and I totally forgot about future events. Booked tickets to Bangkok in Feb, my first time since my memory although my mum insists otherwise. And the highlight of the month - my Amei concert! I almost forgot that I had to attend the concert on 30 Jan and almost booked tickets to Bangkok on 29 Jan. Luckily we had the 'blessings' of the Procrastination Deity and when I was finally reminded of the concert, we haven't booked the tickets! See, reiterated my view that this is going to be a good year despite Fengshui or whoever else who says that this is a bad Tiger year. BOO!

In the meantime, back to work! (Yes, I actually DO work)

What to do with the Tokyoflash watches?

2009-12-28T09:22:00.003+08:00

Step 1: ~~Take photos of them~~ - Checked
Step 2: ~~Find out how to read the time~~ - Checked
Step 3: Find out how to adjust the time - Pending (1/3)
Step 4: Adjust the metal strap to an appropriate length - Pending
Step 5: Bring them out to see the world! (1/3)

2009-12-22T13:45:00.001+08:00

Watches are here! Falalalalala!

2009-12-21T12:28:00.006+08:00

The last weekend had been a crazy and purchase-ful one.

Friday was the company dinner & dance at Marriot and there was another dinner by one of the company departments on Sunday at Carousel in Royal Plaza on Scotts. Photos from the D&D are still in my camera, which is currently in the possession of the sister therefore no photos to show here.

Thursday, the bf and I finally decided to buy the watches from Tokyoflash that I had been eyeing forever. And I really mean FOREVER. So, we finally ordered from the website 2 watches. And it comes with a free watch too! Meaning I get 3 new watches! It has been so long since I last bought a watch. The last time was when I went to Japan in August. :( But it's alright because i will have new watches for Christmas!

After a relatively late night on Fri after D&D, waking up at around 12pm on Saturday is considered early. But my dad was on his way to enjoy himself so we fetched him to Golden Mile area to take his coach to KL. Then me and my mum proceeded to bag sales! There were 2 sales on that day itself and we went to both. Aiya, too free la, need to occupy ourselves. And we had the car so we could go almost anywhere!

Well, the craze over these branded bags started with my colleague who just went crazy and bought tons of them in a short span of time. And on top of that, she told us about all of her lobangs and kept showing us the websites and the bags. Since there were no other activities on Sat, so we went down and see see look look.

The first one we went to was at Toh Yi Drive and if anyone is interested, here is their website - Branded Shopper. Bought a Coach bag for my mum although she insisted that the bag is to be shared. Not that I mind. I think its pretty cute and classy and its definitely a bag that I will use.

The second place where we went to was at Hougang. Website is HERE. Anyway, by the time I reached Hougang, the place looked quite swept up. Not exactly messy or empty but it just felt like there were many other bags earlier, just that they were all gone. Either case, I got a Kate Spade bag that I had seen on the website but just couldn't get myself to buy it online. Photos to me do not have much impact. I can hesitate for ages and even decide to forgo the purchase but when I saw the actual bag, I felt that I had to have that bag. Hah.

I can't believe that I just spent $553 on 2 bags in one day. I have bought many bags but never were they so expensive! For some strange reason, I would rather spend the money going for concerts and probably on food. On a brighter note, at least I get to bring something home with the money instead of just the experience, memories and photos from concerts. :)

Coach Legacy Stripe Tote - S$233

Kate Spade Montecito S$320

And my Tokyoflash watches! They are so attractive and intriguing and interesting and fantastic! I really can't wait for them to arrive! The irony is that I have to spend time learning how to read time as they don't function like conventional watches. But the good side is that people can't keep stealing glances at my watches to try to tell time! It will teach them to wear their own watches!

This is the one of the 2 watches that the bf ordered. It will light up neon-ly!

This is the free watch that they gift out with purchases of 2 watches. So worth it lo!

This the second watch that the bf ordered. So nice!Can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait. This is going to be a good christmas!

Online shopping is FUN!

2009-12-16T18:51:00.004+08:00

Not too long a while back, while I was busying battling some games on Facebook, one of the ads by the side of the page jumped to my attention. Not literally but almost. It was an ad by Threadless.com

In case anyone is vaguely interested, I am quite a fan of their that website. Basically, it sells t-shirts that are designed by common people and most of the designs are way cool. And damn cute. And on that day itself, they were having some sort of sale, selling each t-shirt at USD$9 only! How can I miss that?!? Of course I didn't. After browsing through the website for hours, I ended up buying 5 t-shirts. And that was after much trimming of the shopping cart, and convincing myself that I really don't need that many t-shirts.

So I paid with my card online and sort of forgot about it. Well, I guess I was just in a mood to buy something that night and Threadless was just lucky that they caught my eye. But when I got home today, guess what? My t-shirts are here! I was so so excited! I don't know why, but I just am! And it's just 5 t-shirts. Imagine my immense excitement if/when I start to buy shoes. Or bags! Or something. :)

Ok, let me share my joy and excitement! Let's look at the designs of the t-shirts that I bought!

Caption - Fighting Crime Doesn't Pay

Caption: Fringe

p/s: look at the boxes, the things that they say in each box is way cool

Caption: In Case of Zombies
p/s: and it comes with instructions on how to deal with zombies! in line with the movie "Zombieland" that I just caught yesterday!

Caption: In Case of Fire
p/s: have a fire, have a mashmallow.

Caption: Danger! Keep Out of Reach of Children

*All images are taken from Threadless.com

p/s: i found out that because i inserted the pictures after the text, the pictures doesn't respond to clicks. *boo!* well, go the website and look for yourself then!

Word of the Year - Unfriend

2009-11-19T18:15:00.003+08:00

Apparently, the New Oxford American Dictionary has a Word of the Year thing every year. And this year's word is "unfriend".

There are so many things that are wrong with "unfriend" then I don't even know where to start.

The first thing that floated to my mind when I heard this word was my primary school days. It was exactly one of those words that we would use back then when we were angry with our friends. I can imagine it fitting perfectly into a primary school girl's sentence, "You are so bad! I'm going to unfriend you! Hrumph!"

Ok, that's childish banter and kids nowadays probably don't speak like that anymore but still! It doesn't make sense in any way. How do you un-friend someone? I know that this word was inspired from the networking world that we are living in, a.k.a. Facebook, Twitter etc..., but in the real world, where there are real people, unfriend do not make any sense at all. You can decide to click on a button to unfriend someone on Facebook or unfollow (omg, probably next year's Word of the Year will be "unfollow"!!) people in Twitter but it is not possible in the real world.

Even if it is slightly more applicable in the virtual world, this unfriend business will probably only last for a while. The example given in the website:
“I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.”

That status of unfriend-ness is probably only temporary because after all had cooled down from the fight, they will refriend each other! Omg, probably "refriend" will be a good contender for "unfollow" too! What a tough fight! Digressing quite a bit here as this whole thing sounds absurd to me.

It basically implies that you can undo this action of friending a person and voila, it will be as if this person had never been your friend before!

I rest my case. I should go onto my Facebook and start unfriending people now. Or probably I have already been unfriended by others.

Japan Day 1 & 2

2009-11-10T21:12:00.026+08:00

I finally managed to peel myself away from Facebook and jot down my travel itinerary before I forget all about them. 2 months have passes from my Japan trip till now and I still haven't really finished clearing my stuff, both physical and virtual. Yes, I still have stuff bought from Japan lying around my house, unpacked.

But, that's not the point here. So, the trip to Japan was quite hastily planned as the bf managed to get cheap tickets to fly straight to Tokyo, although the timing wasn't fantastic and quite some time was wasted waiting for transit at the KL Internation Airport.

Had to hype ourselves up after waiting at the airport for 3 hours for another 9 hours flight to Japan

After approximately 9 hours of flying, we finally arrived in Japan! It was a good feeling to finally get off the plane. There was nothing to do except to eat when the stewardess offered food, play Sudoku while I was eating and sleep after that. Felt like a pig. And probably looked like crap too when we finally got off. Don't think many will still look bright and chirpy after hours on a plane.

Left much of the travel planning to the bf and so we took the Narita Express from the airport to Ikebukuro, where his friend Henry was staying. Transportation there is quite expensive but tourists get some package at the airport train station where you can get one their Suica cards (like our EZ-link cards) at quite a bargain, 4000 yen I think.

Oh, and the train stations are quite confusing as many different lines are using the same tracks. You have to open your eyes big to take note of which train is coming at what time and going to which destination. Big trouble if you get on the wrong train because you gotta wait for quite some time for the next one.

Finally got onto the train. Quite empty and actually quite cosy too. While the bf was busy reading the map, I got busy too. Documenting the trip with photos!

The map that we got from the airport.

The interior of the train. Erm, looks like a typical train.

The Narita Express train.

One of the trains that arrived at the station. Apparently it wasn't as crowded as it was always depicted in dramas. Or it is probably due to the fact that it was 9pm in the evening.

Visited Harajuku on Sunday because Soo Hoon said that the cosplayers will be strutting their stuff around on Sundays. It was definitely crowded and we managed to catch this small group of cosplayers sitting around but I had expected more.

The Meiji Shrine was just opposite the Harajuku street so we decided to take a walk there before it closes at 5pm. There are plenty of shrines and temples in Japan, too many to visit in our 7 days trip there. This is a Shinto shrine with this tall structure erected at the entrance. And for your info, the actual building itself was probably a 10 minutes walk away from this structure.

Asked the bf and his friend what was this structure for, they replied that it was for the birds to stand because they had nowhere to stand. Am I supposed to believe that?

And that is henry walking behind me, swinging his arms around constantly.

Admission fee signboard for visiting the Meiji Imperial Garden. They were not open on that day anyway.

Shinto shrines not only have the tall "bird-standing" structure, they also have this water thingy near the entrance. In the past, everyone who wanted to go into the main building had to wash their hands and probably also to rinse their mouth as an act of purifying themselves before stepping into the sacred place. Nowadays, it is just another attraction that gets tourists all excited. Oh, and it helps that the water was very cooling and refreshing too.

There are really all sorts of weird people in Harajuku. This uncle just dressed himself up like Sailormoon or something, with bunny ears and pink bears and bags. It's just...weird to look at.

And he was posing for anyone who wanted to take photos of him. The guy beside him had a sign that read 'Free Hugs'. Hope that the free hugs were not given out by the rabbit-uncle. It will be most traumatising.

Entrance to the Harajuku street

And look at the amount of people. I'm not using 'number' because I'm convinced that the people at the Harajuku street can't be counted!

Harajuku Daiso! Damn huge, like 4 storeys.

The Daiso-pig

More weird people in Harajuku. Guy in female garb. The bf went up to take a photo of him and got a fierce glare from the guy-girl.

Plenty of other misspelt signs

The Harajuku Police Station. Looks glam and nice, unlike our Neighbourhood Police Post, looks so unfriendly.

When I say they have shrines and temples everywhere, I really mean it. This shrine was erected right smack in the city.

~~Blueberry~~ Burberry Blue Label exclusive only to Japan. But nothing caught my eye. :(

Meals in Japan are of huge portions. It is strange how Japanese can keep their slim figures when all the meals come with the main set, another bowl of noodles or soba and soup.

This was from a tempura place we went to in Harajuku. This set came with the tempura-don, noodles by the side, pickles and soup I think.

And this was mine. Roughly the same combination. Can't finish.

One of the streets in Ikebukuro. Somehow, even the pavement looks good. Perhaps the grass is really greener on the other side.

Map of their subway. Our tracks can never be compared to theirs. They have several train operators which will go to various destinations. When I say several, I mean more than two. It looks more complicated than it actually is. Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to switch trains like a local! Quite interesting actually because the train map really looks very very engaging.

For some strange reason, it seems like Japanese doesn't really like their traditional food like sushi or sashimi. They are mostly found in rather high-end places. Their common food are usually Western style or normal Japanese fare like ramen or don or udon.

Had our lunch somewhere near Ikebukuro and it serves mainly Western style food, although there was still the Japanese element by pairing it with rice, tofu and miso soup.

Japan is actually quite a friendly country. There is no problem if you can't speak Japanese. There is also no problem if Japanese can't understand your English or Chinese. Just be sure that you visit eating places where you buy food coupons from machines and you will never have to be afraid of starving to death!

And it comes with pictures!

The Suica top-up machine. Our 'good' friend throughout the trip. Transportation is really not cheap.

The hotel that we stayed in - Hotel Ohedo. The bf managed to source this from the internet and it was one of the cheapest around the area, I think was about 7000+ yen per night or so. You may exclaim that its expensive but hey, accomodation in Japan usually goes up higher than this. And the room was pretty decent too. And the location was not too bad, not too far from the Ikebukuro station.

The Japanese should be kings of propaganda! We always have the preception that Japan has all the great and fantastic dramas and variety shows on TV but when we got there, all that was showing on TV was boring stuff like this! Doesn't live up to the expectations of all the 黄金保龄球 and 魔女的条件s.

Japan is probably obsessed with keeping things small and compact. Henry's place was only enough for one person to live in and the hotel room was just a little better. The toilet in the hotel room was this small. What you see is really what you get. I can probably do everything on the toilet bowl; do my business, brush teeth and bathe, all at the same time.

Yay, end of Day 2! Arigatou!

Let's welcome Day 3 with open arms!

2009-10-25T22:42:00.004+08:00

Had a fruitful weekend.

Friday, me and the bf took leave to go to East Coast Park for our private bbq. He was supposed to come over to my place at 10am but he didn't make it! Our plans were delayed not because I couldn't wake up! Heh.

So we waited for mummy to come home because she also wanted to go to NTUC. Had fun grocery shopping really. We bought a portable bbq pit, matches and so on, and of course tons of food. We had satay, hotdogs, chicken nuggets, bacon and chicken wings. Of course we didn't manage to finish them all! What do you think we are, pigs?

Managed to convince mummy to fetch us over to ECP and we rented bicycles from one of the shops near McD and cycled trying to find a nice, picnic-ky spot. The bf claimed that the drinks were pulling his bicycle to the left, trying to explain his tendency to veer to the left. (No matter if there is any load or not) So, we finally found a nice spot, overlooking the coastline, shady and have trees to tie the hammock to. Happy with our find, we tried to settle down on our groundsheet.
*Note keyword: tried

Mega fail la. The wind was so so strong, it kept blowing the groundsheet off. Yes, we could have used stuff to secure the ends of the sheet but the wind was quite unnerving and the occasional thunder didn't help much too. Looking up to the sky, we can only see half-dark clouds, unable to predict if the sky was going to pour on us. To be safe, we cycled to somewhere nearer to civilisation.

Location secured, next step is to start the pit. Super difficult task! The bf had to resort to using the groundsheet to cover himself and the pit in order to light the fire-starter. And the fire-starter kept going out too. So while he was trying very very hard to start the fire, I was very very busy laughing very hard at him hiding underneath the groundsheet with an extremely exasperated expression. It doesn't help that he thinks that everyone who walked past were looking him, thinking that he was crazy, and he giving all sorts of crazy commentaries on what he thought people were thinking.

"Hi, I'm an alien from outer space trying to start a fire on Earth. Part of my science project."

It is totally beyond me to articulate the hilarity of the situation and his crazed expressions and commentaries.

Anyway, we managed to start the fire eventually and had fun bbq-ing our food. :)

Saturday, Night Safari day! They are extremely smart to bank on festivals as this year, they had invested alot of effort in Halloween. I have to admit that the returns is great. I have never ever seen so many people at the zoo or the night safari in my life. And I am quite a frequent-goer.

When we got off the cab, the first thing we saw was a very very very long queue to buy tickets, snaking all the way to the bus stop. For those who have been to the area, you will know that there is quite a distance from the bus stop to the ticket counter in the Night Safari. It is total madness! Although pr had already bought the tickets from NUS BizCom, we still had to buy tram tickets for us 3 and an extra ticket for my sister who wanted to tag along last minute.

We probably queued for about an hour and didn't look like we were getting much closer to the ticket counter. Luckily, 3 girls came to our queue and tried to sell 1 ticket, without tram rides to us. Woohoo, luck was on our side! Left the queue finally and got even more depressed when we saw the queue to enter. Damn long!! Queue queue queue queue and when the queue to get in finally moved, the queue in front of us disappeared! WTF?? Me and my sister was suddenly lost and I just pulled her into the queue, in front of some other random people. It was so weird that the queue in front of us just disappeared.

Finally got into Night Safari after bouts of queueing and goodness, more queueing to be done in order to get onto the tram. We decided to first take a break from queueing and take a walk along the trail "Bridge of No Return". How scary can it get right? Wrong! Quite scary when we were just a group by ourselves. Staff dressed up as scary characters with costumes, props and makeup were hiding amongst the trees and bushes just to jump out at us suddenly. Me and kutu happened to walk behind pr and my sister and saw how a mummy just jumped out onto them and just kept chasing them in their face. Honestly speaking, it was quite funny watching the both of them kept moving backwards towards us, screaming. Haha.

Oh, and xpr's outfit for the outing was really quite wrong. She was in a tube top and mini skirt. We were teasing her that she was there to seduce the animals. How wrong we were. Instead, she managed to seduce a clown. A scary one at that. That clown had a bloody knife as his prop and he walked really purposefully to scare people. For some unfathomable reason, he kept coming after pr. Even when we finally finished the tram ride and were sitting at Ben & Jerry's for ice cream, he just had to come over and scare her one last time.

Took a few photos but my card reader is in my office (at least I hope so since I can't find it at home) so can only upload them at a later time.

All the queueing at the Night Safari really made me feel like it was Disneyland once again. We had to queue for everything and anything. To be honest, the experience wasn't too bad. Just that it was really too crowded and the waiting time was really too long. Probably due to the fact that Singapore doesn't have much of such theme park-like stuff and this Night Safari gimmick was probably the closest thing to theme park fun. I can already foresee the chaotic queue and waiting time when Universal Studios finally open its doors to us. Save us all!!

2009-10-24T03:17:00.007+08:00

Haven't been blogging for the longest time. Seems like everytime I start a post these days, that is what I always say. Somehow, I think I feel pretty guilty that I rather facebook my time away than actually updating my blog. Not really for anyone to read but probably just for me to put my thoughts down, in the event that my memory starts failing me, I have somewhere to refer to for past events.

Anyway, did I mention that the F1 Rocks concert really rocks? Oh, I know that was like eons ago but hey, there are after-effects! Although the sound system sucks and the time management probably wasn't too good either, the performers at least were great. A*mei and Jacky Cheung rocked the entire concert and man, when they were on stage time seemed to pass really fast.

SO, the after-effects of the F1 Rocks concert is that kutu is going with me to A*mei's concert next year! Yay yay yay!

And of course, my concert kaki for the previous William So and Ronald Cheng's concert was also kutu! I had indeed trained her well. She said that she is finally appreciating all these entertainment experiences. Even so, the W-So and R-Cheng concert was abit lackluster in my opinion. There was nothing much that was really interesting and was just an OK performance. If not for me having listened to W-So's songs half my life, I would have easily forgo this concert.

Oh, went to M'sia last week with lh, wisely and ber, finally fulfiling our KTV/seafood 'date'. We went for a movie, dinner then KTV. Pretty cheap considering we did quite a few things there.

Caught 2 movies over these weeks and both were quite good. The first one was Cloudy with a chance of meatballs and the second one is Tsunami at Haeundae.

First one was animated comedy. Storyline was relatively simple but not too stale. At least there was never a moment when I was actually bored with the show. Everything was nicely paced and the character buildup was done quite nicely too. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it is a show mainly about food falling from the sky. It's everyone's dream!

Second one was surprisingly good. I had expected the show to start out with the huge tsunami killing plenty and us having to go through their ordeals and how they survive that. This was a different kind of disaster movie. Instead of spending 3/4 of the time showing us how the characters manage to save themselves and strangers from the disasters, this show was spending 3/4 of the time building up the characters' stories. How their stories were related to each other (since they were all living at the same island) and how they eventually reconciled with their past horrors. Funny and very touching too.

OK, no photos to upload for this post because all my photos are uploaded in my office computer. My laptop is totally going to die on me very very soon.

2009-09-26T22:23:00.007+08:00

The period when I have many concerts to go to is here again!

I've attended 2 concerts (or strictly speaking, 3) so far that I have yet to blog about - Mayday DNA Concerts and the F1 Rocks Concert last Thursday. They were all great!

And coming up is the William So and Ronald Cheng concert in October. Probably not exactly the type of concert that I would attend but I really like William So and Kutu likes Ronald Cheng so yay, she is my new concert kaki! She claims that I'm a bad influence to her, always tempting her to go to concerts but I deeply believe that it is she herself who wants to go for them. Like the F1 Rocks concert, she was the one who told me that she wanted to go. So, who is the enthusiastic one? :)

Hillary @ Vivocity

2009-09-15T12:24:00.002+08:00

Yay, I'm happy! I'm finally clearing most of the stuff that I had uploaded a while back. I feel SO accomplished!

Hmm, I remember this day at Vivocity because I drove there! And by the time I got out, the parking charges were about $10. And there was a percussion competition organised by NTU in which me and sis saw a few friends there, surprisingly.

Hillary Cafe on the first storey of Vivo. Quite a quaint little place with pretty interesting decor. At least to me, its appealing. Not hard to see why right?

Thats the menu. Hot pink! xpr and kutu will probably love the menu and try to steal it back, if not for them being a little cowardly.
Intently studying the menu

Oh, and I didn't mention that this place was somewhat themed around tarot readings and some aura reading thing. The 'table-mat' was like that.

And there was a book with some details of the aura thing and telling people what are the suitable kind of food for each different aura.

They had this huge Egyptian mask hanging over the door inside the store. So cool!

Already had our lunch at Marche, we were there only for desserts.

This was banana chocolate cake ordered by the sister. I don't usually order chocolate cakes as most of them are pretty dry and the taste gets monotonous after some time but this was different! The banana taste blended very well with the chocolate cake as they didn't use banana essence. They used real banana bits. So while we were eating the cake, we could taste the banana bits too and it wasn't dry at all! Nice!

Oh, and the cute butterfly plate and huge strawberry on top of the cake added alot of points to it too.

Shaved iced with mango. We concluded that the shop was opened by Taiwanese as the waitresses were sort of dressed in maid costumes, though not as blatant as in Japan. And this shaved iced is very fine and yummy too. Melts in your mouth immediately! Think I had something like that in Taiwan too and I think its pretty comparable.

We were like 2 cuckoos lah, trying to take photos of their decorations in the shop. Oh, and did I mention that of all days, I didn't bring my camera on that day. All photos are courtesy of my trusty Samsung phone. :)

Contented, I guess.

Finished everything right down to the last bit.

The chairs and inner decor.

I think it is quite a nice place to go to, with great decor and pretty decent desserts. Not sure about the main courses though. I was more intrigued by their theme and more attracted by the mysterious aura they tried to portray with the tarot and aura reading service. Apparently, you got to make an appointment with the 'reader' beforehand, and its not free. Boohoo.

Lunch @ Essential Brew Holland V

2009-09-14T15:37:00.000+08:00

I have been wanting to eat at this place for the longest time. Everytime I walk past this place at Holland Village, I would mention that someday I'm going to try it but somehow, the someday never came. That is until my office intern came.

The silly girl likes to eat almost as much as I do, just that she does a better job at curbing her desires than me. :)
So, one day she decided that she wanted to have ice-cream at gelatissimo and was quite convinced that the store was at King Albert Park. Since she used to study around the area, I trusted her, although in my mind I thought KAP only had McDonald's.
Alas, turned out that I was right. She remembered wrong. The shop was not there! So we took a cab to Holland V and finally to this place, Essential Brews.

Ok, so 2 of us went and ordered plenty of stuff. We each had a main course and drinks. But the cheapo-glutton in us just can't let this cheap offer slip by. 3 side dishes for only $13.95! Order!!!

She fail at photography lah.

A decent shot from my zi-pa camera phone.

I think this was her drink. Oreo milkshake, or something like that.

And from my distant memory, this drink should be mine. Earl grey milkshake with ice-cream, I think.

The 3 side dishes that we ordered - fries, calamaries and nuggets. So worth it right?? The portions are so big! But we had to pack back because really can't finish. :(

Look at the nuggets! So juicy-looking!

And the calamari. So succulent!

And the yummy fries!

Oh, we ordered set meals so it came with soup.

That girl had some burger that is so huge that I think she only finished half of it.

Look at the burger! The bread is so thick and the chicken inside is so thick too! Not to mention all the additional and irritating vegetables blocking the way.

Mine was fish and chips. Quite yummy. Not too dry or oily. Cooked to almost just nice. :)

Woohoo, many photos cleared already. Soon, I'll only be left with those that I haven't uploaded. But no one will know because I haven't upload them. Hah.

Set Lunch @ Friends@Jelita

2009-09-14T13:25:00.000+08:00

One of the places that we went during one of our lunch - Friends at Jelita, somewhere near Holland Village. They served set lunches with 3 courses, I think. An appetizer, the main course, desserts and drink.

The mushroom soup. It is the thick kind that I like and can actually taste mushroom bits in it.
You can also choose to have a salad instead of the soup. Should not be hard to guess which of the two I chose.

One of the main courses offered, some chicken thing. (Pardon my memory but this was like reeally long ago)

And of course, how can there be some fish thing missing from the main course selection?

The dessert on that day was espresso cheesecake. Not too bad, considering most of the desserts that come with set lunches are usually much to be desired.

Lunch @ Old Hong Kong Kitchen Square2

2009-09-14T11:54:00.001+08:00

More of the photos that I had uploaded long ago. See, its not that I don't want to post my photos, its just that the uploading process is so tedious and slow and I just can't stand it. Erm, so those who keeps bugging me to upload photos can help me upload and I will put in the captions! :)

One of the lunches with my aunt at Square2. Tucked in quite a corner we found this Old Hong Kong Kitchen place. Pretty nice decor, quiet and serves decent food.
And they have cute dining sets. So matching!

We ordered some floral tea and the teapot is so cute. It is sort of like plastic or acrylic and is pretty light. But again, I don't think that it is plastic because it wouldn't be able to withstand the temperature right?

And the cups are pretty cute too. (Goodness, I think that the keyword here is 'cute') It is of the same stuff as the teapot and it is pretty shallow. There seems to be some form of 'platform' thing inside the bottom of the cup and gives it a very nice look but the liquid that you can pour into it is pretty limited.

The aunt. Busying with something. No idea what it was.

Me and the sister

I believe this was awhile after I got a new haircut. Hair no longer so long now. But the fringe is still there.

She is sad. Probably because she has to take photos with me.

Oh! The hargow! Yummy and juicy and suc-cu-lent!

The siewmai is pretty good too. Actually the dim-sum there is quite up to standard.

And chee cheong fun. Not dry like those we see outside. The skin is pretty 'moisturised'.

And Peking Duck! How can we go to somewhere that sells Peking Duck and not eat it?

More dim-sum! Fried shrimp wanton.

I think this is some prawn/mango thingy, I think.

Xiao long baos!

This was what happened to the rest of our Peking Duck that didn't go into our wrap. We chose the meat to be wrapped in tofu-skin.

Carrot cake! You guys can like totally feel my excitement right? You can't imagine how happy I am when I see food. Or maybe you can.

The sister trying to look sad about her phone. Her lousy phone just died in a weird way. The external camera showed the loading screen when she tried to use it. And of course, it never ever loads. Her internal camera works fine but then how to take photos like that?

Then her phone decided that it had enough! Subsequently, when she tried to slide her phone up, it showed a blank screen, i.e. can't be used anymore.

2009-09-12T00:46:00.002+08:00

Lalala, the concert disease is spreading.
Lalala, the zoo disease is spreading too!

I now have new kakis to go to the zoo and concerts!

Random Photos

2009-09-10T01:24:00.000+08:00

Since I had logged into my Blogger after 10 million years, and these photos were already pre-loaded by me 100 million years ago, save me the trouble to continue loading my Japan photos. I can clear some backlog too. :)

Some dim-sum that we had some time ago at Ah Yat I think (don't even remember when, and with who!). I just remembered that I thought these balls look so globby and gooey, looked that they were going to jump up and eat us all and take over the world after that!

Our Karen-jie and Alan Shin from office. Taken a few days before he left. Hope he is doing so much better now! (And Karen is as black-faced as ever!)

See, we take photos so happy!! And that was when I still had my long hair.

Day of our Quarterly Department Lunch @ Garuda. Serves Indonesian buffet style food. Pretty decent spread and quality is not too bad for the price.

Ok, this is really testing my memory skills since these photos were uploaded eons ago. Can't remember where I took this but I thought that the weighing machine was damn cute. Looks like a robot!

Mango cake-jelly thingy from Cafe Brio @ Carlton Hotel. Looks pretty good but tasted pretty awful. Part of the buffet lunch spread when I went there for a PR/EQ course. Course content wasn't half too bad, if only the instructor was less naggy and irritating. He had all sorts of funny habits, for example kept on asking rhetorical questions and kept talking about the past, or rather his past. BORING!

Some pumpkin bun that we had at Ah Yat during one of our lunches. Looks pretty cute, doesn't it?

The chocolates, flower and cup that we bought for 2 colleagues' promotion! The cup is so cute!!

One of our outings to Clarke Quay, I think, because this looks suspiciously like the Liang Court Starbucks. Somehow, we will always end up in Starbucks. Whatever that I earned from them, I had returned to them x 10 million!!

This I remember! It was lunch in Malaysia with my parents, around Chinese New Year time. Gosh, that was like 6 months ago!

Anyway, this is yam paste. Damn yummy! One of my favourite desserts of all time!

This place that we had lunch has a very strange tradition. The boss will make decisions for his customers. Basically, if he says the chicken is good today, you can't say no. And if he says there is no fish today, he really means it. And if you try to over-order (like how I always do), he will refuse to take your additional orders.

Apparently, the day we went it was fried spring chicken day. And noodles too! Looks gooey but yummy!

And since it was around the CNY period, he 'nicely suggested' for us to 'lou hei' too.

The sister.

Xiao Long Baos from Beauty World Plaza. The stall is sort of tucked in a corner at the top of the plaza, which is a hawker centre. Pretty cheap (I think, since I didn't pay for it) and nice too I recall, although there has been mixed reviews on this. Go try it out yourself!

Ok, first set down. Many many more to go! Argh!!

2009-08-19T16:11:00.004+08:00

Disappeared for eons because for a period of time, I think I just lost the motivation to write. I think work has successfully numbed my brain. At work I do stuff, mostly routine and not requiring much brain power. When I reach home, I feel so tired of using my brain that I just play games through the night till I go to bed.

Anyway, I've just came back from a holiday with the bf. Back from the land of Hello Kitty, vending machines, automated taps that actually works without you having to consciously aim for the sensor, toilet bowls that wash your buttocks for you, sushi, sashimi, tempura... You get the idea, Japan!

Photos hopefully will be up soon (my backlog is amazing).

2009-06-18T23:32:00.002+08:00

Yay problem solved.

Work in Progress

2009-06-17T17:15:00.002+08:00

Template is work in progress. Trying to do some changes to make it look less cluttered and more like a blog with actual links that work and so on.

Patience, patience.

FYI, do not click the 'Go Home' link yet. It is kind of broken still. :(

-- Correction. You can click on it when you are on the home page. But if you go into the individual posts' pages, it doesn't work.

Bentendo Pasta & Cafe

2009-06-17T09:15:00.006+08:00

Catching on overdue posts and photos. More food, yay!

Not long ago we went to Great World City to catch Night at the Museum, which was a hilariously funny movie and I love it so much that I think I am going to buy the dvds when they come out. The show was quite witty-ly funny and there were so many parts that made me laugh like mad. The bf was commenting on how I kept laughing at almost every part but everything was so funny! Can't really describe how funny it is, I don't think I have enough vocab to go through a review but I hope my love for this show can pull through and be felt by all. :)

So, Great World City. Before the movie we still had to eat and Starbucks was not an option although I think they should start selling dinner or something so that we don't have to fret over meal locations all the time. Imagine if Starbucks starts selling food and meals, we will never have the trouble of indecisiveness anymore!

Ok, so Starbucks doesn't sell food so we still had to find alternatives. Walking around the place, we ended up at Bentendo Pasta & Cafe at Level 3. I don't usually eat Japanese food but I don't really mind them, as long as they are cooked. We went in and looked at the menu and took a really long time deciding on our food because there were simply too many things that we wanted to try. In the end, the bf had some fried noodles thingy and I had some hotplate mixed thingy.

Dish #1 - Fried noodles with chicken. The bf said that the noodles didn't taste as good as it looked on the menu. But I'd tried the chicken and it doesn't taste half as bad.
Dish #2 - My hotplate mixed thingy that comprises of tempura prawns, sausage and a piece of chicken and fries. Oh, this is yummy. I even ate the corn!

After finishing the main courses, there must always be dessert to end off the meal.

Look at the colourful menu! How to choose like that??

Very studiously studying the menu, trying to make a decision.

Dessert #1 - Strawberry Sundae (I'm sure they had a more creative name but I can't remember it and it IS essentially strawberry sundae!) And it is yummy too.

2009-06-16T11:59:00.010+08:00

Part II of Updates

Friday at work was rather relaxed because most of the exam stuff are settled and all that was left was to return the scripts back to the exam department. The entire Friday morning was dedicated to counting scripts, tons and tons of scripts. And that depleted all our energy and brain cells for counting and we just slacked for the entire afternoon. Oh, and I caught a movie on Friday - Land of the Lost.

It is the most brainless comedy that I have seen for a very long time. Some of the parts are really funny I have to say but the rest are just brainless humour. Its like plain, dumb humour. I don't really have much to say about the show but part of the reason why I caught the movie was because they did a promotion with Bear Grylls on Man vs Wild and it was super hilarious. Link is here although I haven't had the chance to watch it. Didn't want to be too blatantly skivving at work but it looks damn hilarious la.

We are finally at the weekend! This should teach me not to update together an entire week's happenings all at once!

OK, Saturday was Museum-day again. Thinking that the Kangxi exhibition was going to end that Sunday but upon reaching ACM, right there on the banner in front of our eyes, it was printed clear as day - EXHIBITION EXTENDED TILL 28 JUNE 2009! All that rush for nothing! Anyway whatever interesting stuff that happened on that day wasn't that. It was something before.

While I was waiting for the bf, I went to the Starbucks at Raffles City Shopping Centre. The smaller one, not the big one out at the entrance. I went in, got myself a seat and went to get myself a coffee. At the counter, there were 2 girls in front of me and the man behind the counter was happily talking to them. So I patiently wait and queue. However, who knows what the stupid man was thinking. I was standing there, behind those girls and he didn't even bat an eyelid at me. In fact, I don't think that he even knows of my existence. He was happily chatting to the girls about some mundane stuff and from the snippets of their conversation I picked up, it sounds like a classic pick-up conversation. He was saying things like "Oh, so you are a morning person, or an all-day person? Hahaha.." It sort of got worse when the girls got down to their orders proper. Its like they have been standing there for ages and they haven't even ordered?!?! Was the guy even doing his job?!?!??? I was mildly irritated and quite amused. He even gave the girls 2 extra teabags and said something that sort of made me cringe slightly. He said, "I wish that I could stay with you till midnight but I can't."

Who says things like that to your customers?!?!?!?? And when it finally came to me, he just did the usual of taking my order and he sort of walked away. Ookkk... The girls were not exactly pretty so it's really weird. I understand that Starbucks values their services standards blah blah but this is kind of overdoing it right? I think it sort of borders on harassment. So strange. And the girls actually stood there and entertained him. What is the world coming to??

Yay, another long post. -.-"

Sunday was SIM Family Day and the venue was at the Singapore Zoo! Of course I went! It is the company's family day and we as staff, should support such activities! :) The only issue I had was that activities started damn early. Like 10am. Well, we reached around 10.30am and registered myself for a goodie bag (which only had an umbrella and a bottle of mineral water) and for the early bird lucky draw. Woo! How many opportunities do I have to qualify for anything that is early-bird? I'm like the last person who would qualify for such things. But I think Providence is trying to convince me otherwise. It is trying to convince me that the early birds really do get the worm because I won! I won $10 Coffee Bean voucher. And the final overall lucky draw, I won too. That was $30 NTUC voucher.

I did take some photos on Sunday so photos will be up soon, hopefully (cross fingers). Getting too tired to blog.

2009-06-15T10:31:00.000+08:00

For some reason, my camera battery charger has been refusing to charge my batteries, I guess that is a pretty valid excuse for no photos right?

I seem to have quite a lot of stuff to blog about but have been procrastinating till this week. It is the DS's fault I tell you. It is the stupid Ace Attorney game and I am determined to finish playing ALL the installments, thus resulting in slight delays in blog updates.

Let me do a recap of last week's activities.

Last Wednesday I finally went shopping because of a sudden urge to shop from the previous night. Went to Bugis Junction and man, did I buy like nobody's business. I bought 2 dresses, 1 skirt, 2 pairs of earrings and 1 necklace amounting to about $200+. But it's ok, because I'm happy with my purchases. I love the dresses. As my camera can't really function without the batteries now, I can only try to find the images of the spoils on the web. Could only find 1 though.

This really pretty dress from Dorothy Perkins. It is so layer-y and I felt like a birthday cake when I was wearing it. And its patterned! So pretty and nice. I think I will look damn cute in this la. And to think that when I took this piece off the rack, the bf was saying that it looks like something his grandma would wear. Hrumph! Dunno who was the one who was vehemently nodding his head when I tried this on!
One of the other pieces that I didn't manage to find the images were another dress from Dorothy Perkins. It was blue and kind of hard to describe. The skirt that I bought was from a small store in Bugis Junction and was a high-waisted one. And it is printed too. I just have this thing for prints.

Then on Thursday, there was an exam meeting so I was dressed more formally, looking more like a working person. I went through the entire day as per normal, until I was on my way home. The thing is at AMK Hub, there is a Prudential booth near the interchange area and there are always financial planners who are loitering around, ready to pounce on someone. All along, I have been relatively ignored by them but it was not to be on that day. Now I know, I can pass off as a student as long as I do not dress myself in office wear.

Anyway, I was caught that day just because I was in a blouse, workpants and heels. But I was in a rather nice mood that day so I allowed him to talk to me and try to sell his ideas to me. Didn't work very well though. I think I managed to exasperate him pretty bad. For those who knows me pretty well, you know that I don't plan. I don't care about this in the future. For all I know, I could walk out of the office tomorrow and be hit by a meteorite. So at this point of my life, I really don't see the need to plan and save my money yet.

Apparently he didn't share my point of view la. He was super exasperated when I try to explain to him that I rather have the money with me now so that I have the freedom to buy anything I want, anytime. So he changed his tactic from trying to reason with me to trying to make me feel inferior, sort of. He said, "Imagine you look at your friends all having the financial power to buy things they want but you are very poor..." I wanted to retort him and said that I am not that poor, thank you very much, but I kept that comment to myself. Then he tried again and said what if something happened to me tomorrow and will need lots of medical fees, would I want to use my 'old' parents' hard-earned money?!? How could I be so unfilial?? (Ok, the last part was implied by me.) Nope, I don't care and if something happens to me tomorrow, what makes him think that by investing my money with him for awhile, I would accumulate enough money to cover ALL my expenses? Come on, I'm not really that naive. Well, I think it didn't really work out. He didn't understand where I was coming from and I didn't agree with his logic. And we parted rather amiably, I hope. He may have gone back to his colleagues and bitched about me, saying that I am just a stupid girl who don't know how to think for herself and her future. Yeah, whatever.

Shit, this is getting to be a super long post and I am only half-done. Bleah. I shall break this up into 2 posts and backdate this. :) The weekend stuff will be on next post.

2009-06-11T14:23:00.012+08:00

Recently I have been in the mood to blog and at least upload the photos that have been sitting around in my computer drives. It is time for them to face the world. And of course, in the event of my workstation and my laptop crashing, at least I can still see and find them somewhere.

The set of photos were from my dinner with the kuku people at The French Stall at Serangoon. Kutu and mx have been wanting to go there for the longest time. We had attempted to eat there for kutu's birthday but they were closed on Mondays, and we had to go somewhere for dinner. This time, we made an effort to avoid Mondays and finally managed to get our dinner.

Actually, I was pretty apprehensive about the place because I haven't really heard very good reviews about the place. The food connoisseur at my workplace was telling me that the food was not fantastic and its not even worth. And you know what, he was quite right. But first, let me build the story up abit here.

When we arrived at the place, it wasn't very packed and we were immediately directed to an alfresco table by a pillar. It was a little dark and we only had minimal light to peer at the menu. Of course, my photos failed due to the lack of light. :( But still, the ambience was pretty nice, quite cozy and breezy. The setup was also simple and nice despite its rather small space.

Staring at the menu for a while, we finally decided on our appetizers, entrees and desserts.

Appetizer #1 - French Onion Soup

There are only a few forms of onions that I would gladly ingest: onion rings and french onion soup. Mx was vehemently promoting the soup and so me, pr and herself ordered one for ourselves. The soup was pretty decent but not excellent, I've had better ones. But at least the onions were soft and not too onion-y.Appetizer #2 - Escargots

Kutu's favourite, although judging from her response to it, not very fantastic.

Appetizer #3 - Garlic Bread

It doesn't taste half too bad but it sure doesn't look very appetizing. I think it looks quite like mouldy bread.

Entre #1 - Some chicken thingy that mx had. Entree #2 - Dory something that pr had.

I tried a little bit of it and found that it actually tasted quite good. But pr was not very happy with it, forgot why. :(

Entree #3 - Pork Chop
Me and kutu had this and it wasn't the best of all things. The pork chop was too hard and too much bone in my opinion. The portion was also quite miserable.

After finishing our main course, we had to wait for quite some time before the desserts came. By that time, we were not really expecting much, at least for me, because I think that the quality of the food was only average. Who were to know that it was the desserts that saved the day?! The desserts were fantastic I tell you.

Dessert #1 - Chocolate Souffle

When we asked to be served our desserts, we were informed that the chocolate souffle will require about 15 minutes to prepare. I would say that the 15 minutes was well worth it. Don't be deceived by its plain exterior. The souffle came out hot and steaming and it looks so yummy! One spoonful of it and I'm sold.

The texture was very fluffy but not too dry. The chocolate inside was flowy and molten but not too much. Basically, the taste was very balanced. Great dessert.

Dessert #2 - Dark Chocolate Cake (I think?)
Again, another plain-looking dessert. pr was actually quite sad when she saw this because it looks really plain and ordinary. However! I guarantee that the taste it definitely not ordinary. I don't usually fancy chocolate cake because they are dry and flaky but this is different. The texture is soft and rather fluffy and you can also taste the chocolate they used in making the cake. Dessert #3 - Giant Profiterole
This was the dish that mx was intent on having, before even thinking about her main course. She maintained that it was fantastic and we must definitely order it to try. When it came, I understood her excitement.
Look at it! Even by just looking at it, you want to grab it off the screen and eat it! Or just eat your screen!
Its like an ice-cream burger. Two pieces of pastry-like thingy flank the top and bottom, with icy vanilla ice-cream and some whip cream in between. On top of that, the top layer was drenched with chocolate sauce and the whole of the plate was filled with the sauce too! Its super duper sinful but its so yummy that I think you will forget about the calories while you are busy devouring this dessert.
Dessert #4 - Creme Caramel
Well, I may not have done justice with this dessert (the lack of light remember???) but in my opinion, this is quite a normal dessert. It could be that we were overwhelmed by all the other chocolatey stuff and this didn't really taste very sweet. In fact, I don't remember tasting anything from this dessert. But at least, I could taste that it is rather smooth and silky.

Verdict: Go for the desserts, skip the others.

2009-06-10T00:45:00.008+08:00

'Tis the season to be attached, fa-la-la-la la-la-la-laaaaa...

Seriously! I met a boyfriend yesterday and met a girlfriend today. It seems like everyone is getting attached these days, suddenly! So strange. Well, hope that they are happy though. Waiting for more updates along the way...

In a mood to blog these days so here are today's photos! Extremely fast, I would say. Now lh has no excuse to say that I don't upload my photos fast enough! Today confirm damn fast.

Today, or rather yesterday, was supposed to be meeting a friend's girlfriend for the first time. Actually the initial plan was to spy on them before we appear before them so that we could secretly observe how they behave when they think that they are alone. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, the gf wasn't working at where we thought she was and she didn't knock off at the time we thought she did too! The plan was a disaster fail!

Well, as much as the plan failed, we still need to fill our tummies so smart cw decided to go to Raffles Marina to try to catch the sunset. After much travelling and almost reaching the Tuas Checkpoint, in which both me and lh lamented that we didn't bring our passports and will be caught and quarantined and forced to work for them without sleep..., we finally reached Raffles Marina with 1 inch of sunset left before it rests for today. So we frantically took photos then worry about our grumbling stomachs.

The view of the horizon from the swimming pool

I like how the tree looks

I like how calm the water looks

The boardwalk-like place looks so out there

After frantically taking photos like some tourists, the sun finally set and we went to settle our growling tummies. Had dinner at this place upstairs called Captain's Table and had ala carte buffet. The food was pretty good and we binged like we hadn't ate for 10 years. As I took a picture of every dish that we ordered, we found out that we ordered 15 dishes, and there were only 3 of us. And the amazing thing was that we finished everything!

The view taken from the restaurant

Menus

Spy conspirator #1

Spy conspirator #2

Taken while the sun was really going down and the sky is kind of grayish-orangey-blue

Look! Spy #1 will be good spy because she can be almost the same size as my teacup!

Dish #1 - Some toufu and mushroom thingy.

Not the best dish we had.

But upon a closer look, it does look quite yummy.

Dish #2 - Crispy Chicken.

The skin was crispy enough and the portion was not too big for us to get sick of it.

Dish #3 - Char Siew.

Normal tasting too.

Dish #4 - Fried Wanton.

It is exactly the stuff that I had in Primary School every recess. I would bite off the fat round part and then crunch on the top part. Sorry for the blurry picture though, I must have been too hungry and no energy to keep my hands stable!

Dish #5 - Netted Spring Roll.

Initially I was wondering why is it called "Netted Spring Roll" but when the dish came, I understood perfectly. The skin was netty. What a creative name!

Anyway, it tasted good. Instead of the usual spring roll fillings, it was yam. But the yam wasn't too much and wasn't too overwhelming too. Perfect balance.

Dish #6 - Garlic Stir-fried Beef

This is fantastic too. It was cooked to a right balance, not too hard and not too chewy. Even after we left it alone for awhile and left it to cool, it didn't taste horrible when it was cold too. The beef was still tender and the taste was not covered by all the garlic and onions.

Dish #7 - 3 types of egg dish.

Its the typical Chinese egg dish in which they used eggs, salted eggs and century eggs and mix them together. Kind of like 水蛋 but with more substance. Not too watery and you can still taste the eggs. Even the century eggs didn't taste too awful. Coming from someone who doesn't like century eggs, that's good enough.

Dish #8 - Deep fried Garoupa (I think)

We actually had one whole fish, although there was only flesh on one side. The fish didn't taste very very fresh though but it wasn't too bad. Just that maybe after frying, the flesh was a little too hard.

Dish #9 - Papaya mu-er Soup

It was individual servings and lh had some crab stick spinach thingy that after drinking, made her spoon looked like it just came out of a swamp filled with moss.

Not much comments on the soup though. Not very memorable.

Dish #10 - Siew Mai

Dish #11 - Guo Tie

Dish #12 - Sauteed Prawns (or sau-tee prawn according to lh)

After taking this picture, I thought that the prawns' colour looks damn good! Its looks really yummy because the prawns look so whole and complete and orangey!

It definitely lived up to its image. It was really yummy. And of course, thanks cw for peeling the prawns!

Dish #13 - Scallops with mushrooms and tons of celery

Dish #14 - Garlic stir-fried gailan

I've never had such yummy tasting vegetables. And the secret to that? Use tons of oil. Each piece of the vege was really shiny looking, meaning that it was coated with a layer of oil!

Dish #15 - Gong Bao Diced Chicken

This dish was a super hard dish to take a picture of. In lh's camera, it just looked like a pool of black stuff. It is not much better here too BUT! It tasted fantabulous!

Dish #16 - Fruit Sago

So while I was busy trying to take a decent photo of this dessert, lh and cw had already started on theirs. When I finally started on mine, lh has already finished her. So, I said that the pineapple was sweet and cw popped a piece into his mouth. Then I asked him what was the orangey thing in the bowl and he said that it was peach.

All the while, we didn't notice that lh didn't participate in our conversation. Then suddenly she said something, "Why you all got so much things inside one? I only had 3 types of fruit and there were only 3 pieces in total!"

No wonder she was so quiet.

All in all, the place is not too bad a place to visit. Their buffet is only applicable to dinner and after adding everything in, it was about $30 per person. I think you get a 10% discount if you are a member of the club. Honestly speaking, for the price I'll rather go to Peony Jade. The quality of the food is almost on par and it has a bit more variety than this place.

Now, back to the objective of today's meetup: seeing a friend's gf. In the end, we did manage to see her. We made the effort to drive down to IKEA and meet them for coffee at Holland V subsequently. She is pretty nice and maybe a little innocent and naive. Well, it seems like she does genuinely care for my friend. Hopefully the feeling is mutual.

While we were sitting in Starbucks, we started asking her about all sorts of stuff. Stuff about herself and stuff about her and him. It was so hilarious when we asked her what she saw in him and she replied that he had a kind heart. At that moment, me lh and cw was just dumbfounded. I mean, its not that my friend was unkind, its just that despite knowing each other for 10 million years, its very very strange to hear someone say that he is very kind. Her exact words were “我觉得他很善良”. OK... All the best to them!!

Now just waiting to mx mx mx mx mx to update us.... :)

2009-06-09T17:33:00.002+08:00

So I was late with my GIRO application thingy for the CPF Education Scheme. I was supposed to send out the form by 22 May but today is 9 June, hooray! Called the hotline and got nobody. Emailed them to explain my procrastination but got an auto-reply. I just want confirmation that the CPF Board won't come to my place and hang a pig's head outside my door!

While I was trying to settle my CPF Education Scheme thing and going through all the motions, i.e. Singpass and all the other nonsense, I was suddenly struck with a horrible thought.

I have to do all these nonsense paperwork for the rest of my life!!

That is hell enough to render me depressed for a while.

2009-06-09T10:15:00.004+08:00

While reading some entertainment blog this morning, I found out that Lee Teng had brought in Ashin's brand, Stay Real! So now I don't have to go to Mayday's concerts really really early to buy the merchandise but I can get it from a shop in Far East Plaza! For those who are interested, here is the link. I'm obviously advertising for the shop and I don't usually care much about Lee Teng but for my Mayday, I'll do it. :)

Ok, obviously concert merchandise is different from the brand merchandise but at least I can have something of Ashin that I will actually wear or use for normal days.

2009-06-08T16:07:00.005+08:00

For the past week I have been driving to work since my dad was away, and my mum wanted someone to fetch her to work. Everyday I drove to work and cursed at the stupid drivers on the road. I hope no one else is cursing me along the way too. I like to think that I can drive pretty well, my only problem was my parking. But with some practice, I think that my parking is pretty swell now too. ;)

Work has been pretty hectic because we gotta tie up the exams loose ends and prepare for the final exams meetings which will conclude this round of exam craze. Hopefully there will not be crazy students coming to appeal for their marks and give all sort of crap like "I've studied really hard and I'm convinced that I got an A!" Come on, what you think in your head is usually drastically different from reality.

On another note, I rotted at home throughout the weekend and finished ANTM Cycle 12. Yes, I did mention to kutu that I would not watch the cycles anymore because it was getting stale and cliched and everything else you could imagine from a show which had exhausted everything in their imagination after maybe 6 cycles. However, due to some unforeseen and strange reason, I began to search for the episodes in Youtube and the rest is history! It is still cliched and cheesy and weird and strange and nothing good about it but somehow I felt more complete. Shit! ANTM has became a part of my life! Tyra Banks had poisoned my mind! I felt strange knowing that there is a new cycle out there but I wasn't watching it! I felt like I was betraying the show! God help me!!

What went worse over the weekend was me going to fetch my mum from work. Not that the act itself was bad, it was the process. As usual, she spoke to me while I was still in lalaland and asked me to fetch her after work, time to be confirmed again. Soon, she called me and told me that she would end around 4.25pm. So I set out for lunch, went home for a few episodes of ANTM and around 4.20pm I drove out to JCU to wait for her. So I waited and waited and waited. I called her and she said she had just finished work, asking me where was I, and I replied that I was at the carpark near the entrance, in front of the basketball court. Then she asked the golden question: "Where are you? I am at SIM."

I tell you I almost fainted. Luckily I had great driving skills (",) and immediately rushed over to SIM.

Moral of the story: Do not try to tell other people things when they are sleeping and make sure that you state the time and venue clearly!

2009-06-03T14:11:00.004+08:00

I just spent today and yesterday tagging my previous posts. Obviously I didn't go all the way back, it was too much for me to handle. And I suck at labeling too as I do get confused over what I should label each post under :(

Some time ago, I read from the papers an article about the irritating things that Singaporeans love to do. And I totally identify and agree with the article.

I can't stand people who plonk themselves on the right side of an escalator and refuse to move their sorry ass out of people's way. Didn't they learn that if you are too lazy to walk up the escalator, keep left? The right side of the escalator is for people to walk. It is so hard to be separated from their gf/bf for a few seconds that they have to stand side by side every minute they see each other?? It gets worse when you say "Excuse me" and they reluctantly move to the left and stare at you like you are the rude and impatient one.

The other type of person who really gets on my nerves are those who stand in front of the lift panel and refuse to press the door open or close button for people. I mean its not really helping when there are tons of people coming out of the lift and by the time you could get in, you get kiap by the doors because the only person left inside the lift decided that he/she prefers the entire lift to himself/herself. How bloody hard is it to just hold the door for people? And the worse thing is that they are not oblivious to people, they are just trying to train their eye-power. Maybe one day they will manage to control things with their eyes but in the meantime, can they at least hold the door?

Another type of person who is really really irritating are those who refused to wait for a few seconds before you come completely out of the lift or the MRT and rush in. Its ridiculous how they just rush in before people can even get out. They can take the next lift or train if they can't manage to squeeze their way through the current one but if people can't get down at the stop, they can't wait for a second chance. And its not like waiting for a few seconds for people to get out or down will result in a matter of life or death. Its bloody ridiculous how rude Singaporeans can be or rather, are.

2009-06-02T11:07:00.005+08:00

Apparently, there is a National Cappuccino Day (8 November). I should try to remember to drink 10 cups of Cappuccino to commemorate this significant day!

Over the weekend, I just spent about S$500 on tickets. Cw, your free carpark label is very hopeful now. Hah. I bought Stefanie Sun's tickets and Mayday's tickets for their 28 August concert. I think I should be sourcing for a concert-reviewer job so that at least I get paid or something to go do something I enjoy. Well, I did a brief (maybe not exactly brief) recap of the concerts and performances I've been to, and the list is rather long..

Grasshopper Concert - 9 May 2009 Singapore Indoor Stadium
The Lady of Soul And Her Ultimate 'S' Machine - 10 April 2009 The Arts House
Defending The Caveman - 13 March 2009 DBS Arts Centre
Breakout Korean Extreme Dance Comedy - 15 Feb 2009 Esplanade Theatre
Mayday Free Outdoor Concert - 4 Jan 2009 Stadium Green
Eason's Moving On Stage 11 Concert - 26 July 2008 Singapore Indoor Stadium
Shinhwa "State of the Art" in Singapore 2006 Tour - 10 September 2006 Singapore Indoor Stadium
A*Mei Star World Tour - 4 October 2008 Singapore Indoor Stadium
Eason Chan Live in Singapore 2007 Concert - 6 January 2007 MAX Pavilion
Cheer Chen First Concert - MAX Pavilion
Sodagreen First Concert - 11 August 2007 Republic Cultural Centre Main Auditorium
Beyond Next Stage Live 2008 - 8 November 2008 Singapore Indoor Stadium
The Tour of Misia Discotheque Asia - 13 September 2008 Singapore EXPO Hall 1
Lee Guitars Concert - 29 November 2008 Singapore Indoor Stadium
Mayday 'The Reunion Concert' - 25 October 2003 Singapore Indoor Stadium
Euphoria'04 - 9 October 2004 Padang
Mayday Final Home Singapore Concert 2005 - 10 December 2005 MAX Pavilion
The Sound Collector - 25 March 2006 DBS Arts Centre
A Language of Their Own - 7 April 2006 Esplanade Theatre Studio
Gala Concert: Pincha Zukerman Live! - 24 May 2006 Esplanade Concert Hall
Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress - 28 September 2006 Esplanade Theatre
Rain's Coming World Tour Singapore 2007 - 21 January 2007 Singapore Indoor Stadium
Mayday Jump Concert - 2 June 2007 Max Pavilion
The Phantom of the Opera - 1 April 2007 Esplanade Theatre
Sodagreen 陪我唱歌 Concert - 2 August 2008 Max Pavilion

Obviously, I've kept the ticket stubs. Even with super memory, I can't remember so many stuff that I've attended too. And that is excluding other ad-hoc instrumental concerts and stuff along the way. Imagine the money I would have saved if I had not been to all those performances! I would at least be S$2,000 richer now!

2009-06-02T09:15:00.004+08:00

"All children mythologize their birth". The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield

I read this from a book and it has sort of stuck in my mind for quite some time.

When I first read this quote, it didn't really make any significance to me. It was only till the ending of the book that I began to understand what it meant. It was written by the protagonist, who is an author, in the book. I shall save all the bore of listening to me drone about the book (I happen to like the book alot! I don't even know how to begin talking about my admiration for that book!). So it set me thinking about myself.

I had never even wonder what was happening when I was born. Was anything more significant happening around the world at that time than me? What were people feeling when I was coming into this world? Did anything extraordinary happen to me, or around me when I had my first cry? I doubt no one really knows, or remembers. But everyone has to have a story, right? When no one remembers your story, you can make your own. You can make it as fairytale-y or as miserable-y as you want. All people will do is to listen and occasionally sympathise. Nobody really cares, or even wonder how true your story is. Everyone is more bothered about their own stories. Or rather, lack of one.

So far, I don't have any friends who ask me about my childhood or my point of birth. It's strange that no one really wants to know how they came about. All that talk about wondering where humans came from, what humans evolve from all come to naught when it is closer to home. I think I have more things on my mind but I just can't put it down into words. I guess I am still abit confused over what I think about this.

2009-05-27T10:55:00.005+08:00

Before I forget, let me just update a few things. I initially had 3 things to update but I forgot the third one, so I am now left with 2 items.

First, I have been away from the office from last Friday to this Monday, only coming back yesterday. Last Friday, I went to the crocs sale at Expo. As I went in the daytime, there was no horrible queue that I saw the last time I happened to be there. But by the time I left, which was about 6 or so, the queue to get in was starting to form already.

Anyway, that is just a background to what I wanted to update. After leaving Expo, we took the train down to City Hall station and planned to go to the Asian Civilisation Museum which is having a Kangxi Imperial Treasures exhibition now till mid-June. I had wanted to catch this exhibition before it leaves. So, by the time we reached ACM, it was about 7 plus, going to 8 I think. When I got in and saw that they had changed some exhibits and stuff, I proceeded to work through the whole museum again. By the time I reached the Kangxi exhibition, it was about 8 plus. Soon after, the staff of the museum chased us out because they were closing at 9. And I wasn't even half done! Left with no choice, we left the museum. But I set my mind to complete my visit the next day.

Come Saturday, I met the bf at about 7 and we happily sauntered down to ACM, stopping for ice-cream and food along the way too. By the time we reached ACM, it was only 7 plus and we thought we will definitely finish exploring the museum this time! Alas, when I walked past the board indicating their opening hours, I almost fainted. They close at 7pm everyday other than Friday, which they close at 9pm.

The museum is cursed! Or rather, I am cursed by the museum! How many people actually go to the same museum on 2 consecutive days and didn't manage to achieve the simple goal of finishing exploring the museum. :(

Ok, I found that my 1 complaint is too long for my 2nd musing to be in the same post. Will say something again in next posts.

2009-05-21T10:50:00.005+08:00

I feel old. Not literally but mentally.

My birthday was just over but I no longer have the excitement that I used to have when I was younger. Now I understand how the older people feel when they say that birthdays are just another day in their lives. Birthday had also became another day for me, although I like to bug some people for presents, just for the fun of it.

I still came to work on my birthday, unlike many who would take leave on their birthdays. My rationale is very simple. What if someone decides to give me a gift or a treat and I'm not around to accept it?? Hah. Anyway that did happen. 2 colleagues bought me lunch. The bosses bought cakes for the May babies. And people complimented my heels, but that is not exactly the point.

Dinner was with my family and the bf, eating crabs. No other activities after that. No longer as happening as before. I think it gets tiring after some time too. I wonder how lh keeps up her lifestyle. Now, I think that time is always not enough for me to do my stuff, and its not even constructive stuff.

On another note, I've discovered why I don't really dress up much when I go out. (I seem to be making quite a few discoveries these days) So, on my birthday, my dad came to fetch me and my mum for dinner. But prior to that, we made a detour back home because my dad said I should go back home and change into something more comfortable. I was in a dress and heels and I decided that I should go home and change into shorts and t-shirt. Well, I think that pretty much explains that vanity is not really in the genes.

2009-05-18T19:35:00.005+08:00

I have been meaning to blog about this for the longest time but I just have been really really really lazy.

So, Singaporeans are usually thought to be safe and conservative and not very willing to try out new things for fear of failure. I think that it very true of most people here who think that they will have much to lose should they decide to pursue something different or risky and fail.

I think the younger generation of today tend to have more risk-taking spirit with all sorts of new ideas, and of course some old ones. I have always been a little bothered by the loosely used term 'entrepreneur'. It seems that anyone who has enough money to import some random clothes from somewhere and manage to rent a shop space to sell them are considered to be 'entrepreneurs'. I have always thought that the term should be reserved for people who come up with new business ideas and put them into reality, not for any Tom, Dick or Harry who sets up a shop with a few friends, selling stuff that 100 other stores in the same location are selling.

Anyway, back from digressing, I think that I may have figured out part of the reason why Singaporeans are pretty afraid of stepping out of their comfort zone to do something different with possible huge returns. I had learnt this a long time ago when I was at a friend's place playing mahjong. Yes, playing mahjong does allow me to learn things about people.

So, this guy apparently was planning to do something big with his investments or something like that, I didn't catch the story and he didn't elaborate. While he was pretty excited about his potential positive investment, my other 2 friends were sort of trying to dissuade him out of it. The common reasons for not doing crazy things came up. Things like "You should think carefully in case you lose everything!", or like "Are you sure this is going to work?" I do like the guy's answers though. He replied with stuff like, "If I succeed, I am going to make it big." and "Even if I fail, I will at most declare bankrupt and after 5 years, I can start again."

I mean I understand his friends concerns over his decisions but its not very encouraging to have your friends being the wet blanket when the plan has not even taken motion. If someone else who tends to be swayed by friends' comments were to hear this, will he give up his dream and plans and take the safer route in life?

For now, I think I am not in much of a position to comment. I am still too contented with my life to really strike out somewhere and do something crazy in the eyes of others. Who knows, maybe one day I'll give up my stable job and income and take on some adventure. The question is what kind of adventure will be in store for me?

2009-05-12T22:30:00.004+08:00

I've decided that since I go to so many concerts, at least more than the average person, I should start a blog or something along that line to pen down my thoughts on those stuff. The only obstacle that remains in this task, is me. It all depends on how long I procrastinate. :)

Anyway, I was opposite my place just now for dinner and while waiting for my dad to buy newspapers, I stood outside 7-11 and stared at the ice-cream box. I was then suddenly reminded of how I used to stand by the box and choose all the ice-cream to eat when I was younger. All the flavours then were so kiddy like 'rainbow' or creamy stuff or Paddlepop (gotta wiki the correct spelling of this). As compared to flavours now, magnum chocolate and stuff that looks adult and intimidating, I miss the colourful flavours of my younger days.

After attending the Grasshopper's concert, or better known as 草蜢, I am suddenly reminded of why I used to like them so much. THEY ARE DAMN HOT. Like amazingly hot, even at their age. Seems like performing artists have perfected the art of ageing, or rather not-ageing. They gets more charming as they age. It's amazing!

Well, I'm in denial that they are not from my era or generation. A friend who called me on the concert day asking me to play mahjong gasped after knowing that I was attending the concert. She actually asked if I was serious and said that I was vintage. Coming from someone who is of the same age as me!

More to come. Hopefully I'll dispel enough laziness to start on Jakarta soon.

2009-05-10T14:52:00.003+08:00

I shall stop procrastinating since I am rotting in the office now and can only leave around 4pm.
Shall start with some photos taken with the kuku gang, taken on the day we all went for mx's production.

She insisted that she did not want her picture taken but was shamelessly posing for the camera

The vietnamese coffee that drips from a thing on the top into the coffee cup

After-dinner activity. Ice cream.

Erm, no more ice cream to be seen as it was promptly slurped away.

Yay. One down, gazillions more to go.

2009-05-10T14:44:00.003+08:00

There are many things that I should blog about but is too lazy to get down to it. I think working life has turned my brain to mush. Even mushier than its initial stage. Not good.

I shall make it a point to try to finish blogging my stuff before I forget everything and can't be bothered to backtrack.

Even if no one bothers to read, at least it gives me a place to write and use my brain a little before it disintegrates. :(

- Jakarta trip + photos
- Grasshopper concert
- random food photos that have yet to go up
- ad hoc...

2009-05-08T14:32:00.002+08:00

Random post meant for *ahem* someone.

ZEKI AND FLOURISH TOGETHER FOREVER! :)

2009-04-28T13:50:00.003+08:00

Reason for the crab picture is because I have a crab story to tell.

Last Saturday, the sister had a sudden craving for crabs so we went out to buy back home to eat. After placing the order and waited for the food for about an hour, we happily trotted home to assess if the wait was well worth it. It wasn't half that bad and the creamy gravy was great as a bread-dip.

Anyway, that is not the story. What happened was that while I was busy battling the crab claw, apparently he decided that he didn't want to die in vain and wanted to make my eating journey more difficult than it already is. So as I was trying to get his flesh out of his claw shell, he decided to give me a scratch on my hand. :(

I may have won at that moment and had my crab flesh but he was the ultimate winner. I had already passed the food out of my body but his scratch it still there, a grim reminder that I lost to a dead crab.

Moving onto to something less sombre, while I was looking for a crab picture, I stumbled across a website that has really cool pictures. So many of them just made me burst out laughing. I've decided to bring some of them over here but for more of the cute and funny pictures, go to the website k!

2009-04-27T09:37:00.003+08:00

Last friday, the School of Business had another round of our legendary meals. It was the Newcomers' Treat. If you are under the impression that the whole school pool some money to welcome the newcomers with a treat, you are wrong. It is the other way round. The newcomers are supposed to treat the whole school to a meal as gesture of welcoming himself to our big, happy family.

So, it was buffet dinner at Vienna @ United Square last friday, cost to be split between 5 people. Usually, I'll make everyone at the table wait till I finish taking photos of all the food then is everyone allowed to start eating. That day however, I gave up on taking photos and concentrated whole-heartedly on the task at hand, EAT!

After eating, of course there has to be a photo-taking session! So, I went around with my camera and *gasps* everyone hide at the sight of me and my camera combined! I was shunned! But I thought everyone loves me :( Well, it seems that someone has put word out that I will upload all my photos onto facebook and so they are forbidding me to take photos of them! So, most of them were using their hands to shield their ~~famous~~ faces from the camera. I think I should take an album of everyone from the school, named as ' The School of Business Shy-ists'.

I have now 4 people in the album, 25 more to go. ;)

2009-04-24T09:58:00.004+08:00

For some strange reason, I have been visiting Junction 8 for 3 consecutive days. During that time, there was some sort of horseshoe pitching competition held by Singapore Turf Club. The objective of the game is to throw 3 horseshoes around a stick, or something near it to obtain points, as shown below.

So, all the time I was there, so many people were queuing up to pitch the horseshoes. I guess its pretty interesting as I myself was also there watching it till it ends at 9pm for the 3 days I was there. I rationalised the reason why people would spend hours or even days on this sport and I came up with an extremely logical conclusion.

Firstly, it is free for all to play. And its held in an air-conditioned compound.
Secondly, it is easy. Everyone can play with no prerequisites.
Thirdly, everyone stands a chance to qualify and take part in the semi-finals and win up to S$2,000!
Lastly, the bloody sport has a 5/5 level difficulty which makes people want to conquer it. It is not exactly very easy to play but relatively relaxing enough for people of all ages to play. But it is also not too easy for anyone to get bored of it in 15 minutes time.

Anyway, I'll be going Jakarta! Finally, I'll be going somewhere for a short holiday.

2009-04-13T11:14:00.005+08:00

Yay, my laptop is coming back! The return of the prodigal laptop!

Background story:

On a fateful day last week, my laptop decided to inform me that it had been infected with trojan(s). So in order to make it feel better, I used some Spybot program to try to clear my laptop of all the evil things that were residing in it.

After scanning it, I decided to restart it in safe mode and scan it again in case there were any evil things lurking around that the program had failed to detect. So, I happily went to the computer settings and set it to boot as safe mode.

Alas! When it restarted itself in safe mode, it refused to recognise my login password and I can't access anything in my laptop! Oh my, my dear laptop had been possessed by evil spirits! It doesn't even recognise its owner! The one who feeds it and cleans it (figuratively speaking). Well, at least I can be assured that the laptop is really safe for once from all sorts of nonsense lurking in the virtual world.

Anyway, the IT savvy bf (gotta sing his praises abit cos my laptop is technically still with him) brought it home and tried to exorcise the evil spirits out of the laptop and he had succeeded!

When he brings my dearest laptop back home, I'll be able to bond with it again every night!

2009-03-23T14:01:00.003+08:00

Periodically, I would surf around the channels and may some time land on the Discovery Channel and Man vs Wild.

Over the weekend, I happened to watch that programme again and goodness (!), why was it that I never noticed that the host, Bear Grylls (yes, he is named Bear) was so hot?!?

He looks damn cute and his body is damn hot. And he is amazing in the way he manuevre around the jungles and make things out of twigs and eat things as it is found. While watching the programme, I kept gushing to the bf about how hot he (Bear, not the bf) is, how knowledgeable he is about the jungle and the plants, how amazing he is climbing mud slopes and so on. And I googled him after the programme ended.

What made me actually more interested in googling him was when he mentioned that he keeps a photo of his family with him all the time and that is what kept him going whenever the going gets really tough. At that moment, I was thinking, "who is the lucky woman?!?"

Incohorence takes place. See photo.

2009-03-20T17:20:00.003+08:00

I've finally caught Coming Soon this week after a certain someone refused to watch that last week, claiming that we should instead watch Dragonball Evolution because that was now showing. -_-""

So, it has been quite some time since I last watched a horror movie and I was feeling the adrenaline when the show started. It was not exactly scary but something about Thai horror movies makes it a little scarier than the rest of its counterparts from other countries. Thai ghosts haunt people for a reason, whereas ghosts from Hollywood/Korea/Japan need no reason to haunt people.

Anyway more performances coming up!
I think I may still be considering going to Cheer Chen's concert.
And there is Aaron Kwok! Goodness. I am not exactly a great fan of his but he is like a legend since I was young!
Oh and finally, The Grasshoppers! I want to go and dance and singalong to their cheesy songs!

Let's just end on this note till I have more time to write something more intellectual, before my intellect leaves me. :(
Need to catch the bus home now.!

2009-03-17T08:31:00.010+08:00

It has been quite some time since I had a really eventful weekend.

Sunday was IT fair day. It was some time since the last time I went to the IT fair actually with the intention of getting something. Well, not exactly me who was buying, it was my uncle but it comes down to the same thing. So, he bought a desktop under a rather small budget of $800, with no help from me of course. My way of buying things is "Woah so pretty! Woah so cheap for the prettiness. Buy!" In the end, it was the bf who can effectively work around the budget and get something relatively good for the price.

Commenting on the crowd at Suntec, it was madness. To make matters worse, it started pouring in the afternoon! Everyone just cramped themselves inside the building, obstructing every possible route to anywhere. I can only say thankfully my aunty has the foresight to take a bus from Dhoby Ghaut, if not we will be one of those who gets stuck in Citylink as the shutter shuts on the people going to Suntec from that way.

Saturday makes me feel that I really do not have enough time. How was I supposed to meet cw and gang for birthday celebration lunch at Changi Village Hotel then go meet lh and the rest for dinner and movie and mahjong after that? But being the super-woman I am, I managed to do that! And even made it for IT fair the next day :)

Some time since I last uploaded photos and added some colour and images to my blog. Some photos here. I've chosen the best few so as not to tarnish their reputation of "allowing diners to feel one with nature; overlooking lush greenery". Anyway, their selection of buffet dishes were rather limited and not exactly very appetizing. And it is not very often that people finish all the dishes from the buffet but I suspect we actually did. Let's just say that I will most probably not go back again for the buffet.

The birthday boy! I didn't stop him from eating his chicken wing, it was cw.

His birthday card that was partially ruined by jy as he used something from a cake to represent his signature. See something brownish at the bottom right place on the fence?

So, on Friday I went to a show. I am tempted to call it a play but it is not exactly one. More of a one-man show. Comedy.

This year marks a difference in my choice of shows to attend. Previously there was Breakout which was a dance comedy. Now there is Defending the Caveman which is also a comedy and a one-man show at that. And before I forget, there was Avenue Q too which was more like a satire than a comedy but still funny. As compared to the shows that I used to go to like Phantom of the Opera and The Forbidden City (to name a few), I guess the genre is kinda different.

Oh, and it marks me going back to the DBS Arts Centre after 4 years and the last time I was there, it was for a children show in which I wrote a report review on. Right, I know that it is not exactly the best material to use as a report that will be graded but hey, there was nothing else at that season (or more like we missed the shows that season) and me and a friend had not much choices.

Anyway, the theme of Defending the Caveman is a rather interesting and prevalent one. Like the relations between men and women and how they relate to different things differently. It is kind of hard to go into details of what the actor said but the idea was that since everyone originated from the cavemen times (so to speak), whatever men and women are today is just an evolution of their instincts and jobs in the past.

In the past, the men hunted therefore they had to be focussed on only ONE task and do it good. The women were then gatherers who had to be aware of their surroundings all the time and bring home all the different fruits or vegetables that they can find, in a group. So, this basis segregation of tasks served as a~~n excuse~~ reason why men can't multi-task and why women likes to do shopping and gather around in groups. Well, I guess there is some stand to this reasoning but hey, I found out that I identified with the men's traits more than the women's. Except the multi-tasking part of course.

I throw my things around the house, though I sort of know where I threw them. I sometimes throw my wet towel on the bed and forget to bring it back to the bathroom and would get an earful from my mum. I sort of negotiate my way of situations so that I can do the bare minimum. I hate shopping. So, with all these traits of mine, I hereby suspect that the bf is gay. :)

2009-03-16T16:06:00.002+08:00

Pondering:
Is it better to be rather ignorant so that you can live life in peace, without the awareness of self-consciousness?

2009-03-11T09:36:00.003+08:00

As much I believe that I am a very blessed girl who has parents who give me relatively lots of freedom, there are still times when I don't get their rationale at all.

Yesterday, I finally got the chance to drive out by myself without them sitting in the car and picking on this or that according to their own driving preferences. And it was really eventful. Not eventful in the sense of my driving (what were you thinking??) but more in the sense of the things that I encountered.

So, I went to amk for ktv and when I parked and was ready to get out of the car, I found out that they do not have 1-hour coupons. How could that be?!? So I was frantically trying to come up with a solution to solve the couponless problem and I thought, hey let's just buy it from the driver next to me! I walked over to his car and tried to get his companion to wind down the window so that I could ask them. But both of them looked at me apprenhensively as if I was going to rob and kill them and drive off with their car any moment. Come on, I have better brains than that! Anyway, the driver just say "no no don't have 1-hour coupon" and was just short of slamming the door in my face. Do I really look so scary?

Either case, I gave up and just placed a half-hour coupon while I went to 7-eleven to get coupons. Oh, did I mention that my parking was straight and good? I was admiring my parking skills while trying to frantically search for the signboard that shows all the parking charges. Apparently there was none. So trying my luck, I just put the coupon till 10.15pm and pray for the best. When I finally finished around 12++, there was no paper! Tadah!

On the way back, the bf apparently can't give instructions and at a junction which I was supposed to go straight, he said turn right and I ended up on the turn-right only lane. So I had to just go straight despite the sign and well, let's just leave that issue at that.

And the best thing when I got home last night was that there were no parking lots! I had to go up the multi-storey carpark all the way till the highest level where I could look at the nightsky! It's ridiculous! And the more ridiculous thing happened this morning. My dad was saying that I shouldn't be out so late but this has never been a problem with them. So I asked them why is it that when I drive out I get different treatment from them. So, onwards I'll just take the public transport so that they won't keep calling me just to find out where I am. How nonsensical is that?

2009-03-07T23:15:00.002+08:00

Pondering: Do you wish to have a dramatic and emotional life or a smooth-sailing and rather uneventful one?

2009-03-04T10:12:00.004+08:00

Every morning when I'm in the car and if I'm not sleeping away, I am always very interested in this game sponsored by Harvey Norman which can be heard over the radio.

It's basically a simple game. 4 numbers will be given and you have to find ways to make them equals to 10. It is a great way to start my day everyday. Allow my brain some simple exercise.

8282
1369
2136

Will come up with more when I can think and if I remember the numbers from morning. :)

2009-03-02T00:38:00.006+08:00

So, my blog was down for a few days because the creator of the template has exceeded his/her bandwidth and I wasn't in the mood to do something about it until today.
Well, it was quite an easy problem to solve actually but it just all boils down to laziness.

Hmm, I have been away from this blog for so so long that it has been severely neglected. Just a rundown on events from the previous weeks when I had gone 'missing'.

I went for the Korean comedy dance-show "Breakout" on its last night of show and its a totally different genre of performance from those that I usually go to. I usually either go for plays, concerts or musicals but this is a totally different experience. And that being a comedy makes it even more different. Anyway, the plot and the actors made the whole experience really fun and interesting and I was laughing away most of time, as with all others in the Esplanade Theatre. So, I went with my sister, aunt and my cousin and my aunt and cousin was like totally fascinated by the whole venue and the performance. According to my aunt, he was already gesturing around in the bus, trying to imitate those performers and their dance moves from the show. He even told my aunt to bring him if they were going to have a sequel.

Moving on, we finally had a belated birthday dinner with kutu and gang. We had initially decided to go to Little India nearby for the French food but when we reached the place, alas it was closed on Mondays!! Having no choice, alternate dining option was at Mohammad Sultan.

So our initial plan of going to Mustafa to buy a garland for kutu was foiled as we didn't even got near to Mustafa! And we got the silly woman a gift, which I think was extremely useless, and she loves it to bits. No prize for guessing but it was some Hello Kitty thingy that didn't exactly cost cheap. And I think her birthday resolution was to turn me into a Hello Kitty fan just like herself, mx and pr. I will NEVER succumb to such nonsensical pressure!! NEVER! Especially not from kutu who will not turn against my wishes, for fear of losing my love. Heh!

Next! (Bear with me as I am trying to cram 3 weeks worth of activities into 1 post. You are free to leave if you think I am getting too long-winded ;))

On Friday, I attended a conference conducted by the Tax Academy of Singapore talking about the recent changes in Budget 2009. After that conference, which I ~~fell asleep~~ got a little distracted by Zhou Gong, I seriously wonder how people sit through all these and emerge fully awake and attest to having paid attention to everything! On the other hand, it made me even more aware of the fact that an Arts student should not try to understand Business, more so Tax. Haha.

Well, at least something redeeming happened at night. 2 of the academic colleagues gave a treat at Pearl River Restaurant at Suntec for their promotion. So, the whole office of 25 trooped down to Suntec for dinner after work. It was ala carte buffet and I'm sure all the big eaters in my school were very very happily eating to their hearts' content.

Just as I thought that, hey I got a free dinner, I fell sick subsequently. -_-"
Not exactly a very good way to enjoy my weekend. After the dinner, I got a sore throat, Saturday the runny nose came visiting and on Sunday I was sneezing away. So, I got an MC on Monday. BUT, although I was on MC, somehow there were still so many things for me to do. On that day itself, I went to renew my passport at the post office, went to the bank to close an account and went to another bank to deposit the money then went back home to see my sister studying in the kitchen.

Oh, digressing a little here. The sister has taken to studying in the kitchen as she claims that it was very quiet and no distractions (except from food I guess). So whenever my mum wants to go into the kitchen, she just sort of tip-toe into the kitchen and creep out silently.

Back to me being sick. Despite having a MC for Monday, I still had to go back to work on Tuesday, still sniffling away and feeling miserable. I was telling my colleagues in the office that I was back to spread the germs. I want to make everyone suffer together with me! Muahahaha. And I did sort of manage to spread it to someone! My neighbour! Around Thursday, he said he felt feverish and sick and when he went back to measure his temperature, he was running a fever. Heh. Someone to feel as miserable as me!

Okok, I think patience is running low but hey, the patient bird gets the worm right? :)

Last of the update post, Saturday UniSIM Open House.

Well, we were rostered for duties on Saturday for the open house. So basically, we had to stand around our individual schools' booth and try to sell our programmes, so to speak. I was telling some of my colleagues that we must take on the surname of "Wang" on that day itself because we had to 老王卖瓜.

Anyway, we had to tell potential students more about our programmes and ~~con~~ persuade them to come join us in UniSIM. We are one big happy family!

So, after talking to students for one whole day, I found out that I really quite enjoy such jobs. Interacting and talking to people on an ad-hoc basis and more of talking nonsense to them. Although it is really quite tiring and the programme briefing that I was in-charge of had an overwhelming number of people surging into the LT and me trying to entertain everyone of them, while feeling really really warm and wishing that I had 8 tentacles just like an octopus.

With all that over, me, cw and jy happily went to Carrefour for their Midnight Sale. So in the end, I came back with a new TV-plug-in console game with 30 in-built games and 2 packets of bacon., because my sister promised to cook bacon for me as long as I buy it. :)

This is an absurdly long post and I am not aspiring to be one of those who update their blog regularly but with mundane things, like what they did everyday. So, this is it.

2009-02-18T11:32:00.003+08:00

What's a hedge fund?
- It's where a hedgehog lives.

What is the credit crunch?
- The credit crunch is when you put your card into a machine to pay for something and it goes 'crunch'.
- I think the credit crunch might be a superhero who has super-crunching powers. If someone gets trapped in a building, then he could break them free by chomping down the walls.

Those are what kids think of the recession today. And many more.

2009-02-11T15:32:00.000+08:00

I curse all bugs and mosquitoes or whatever evil things that are giving me "love bites" every night to the deepest depth of insect hell!

2009-01-30T02:27:00.007+08:00

Well, I haven't been blogging for a really really long time. I'm sure quite a lot of things have transpired along the way and I'll try to remember them all to put them down into words.

First, Happy Chinese New Year all! Have to say this before CNY is offically over, and today is the last day to say it. Heh.

So, CNY this year is just like every other year. We go to my grandma's place on the 1st day. Then we went there again on the 2nd day. Then on the 3rd day, we went to my auntie's place. What was important was that I was almost playing mahjong everyday. As I had taken leave on Thursday and Friday, I have rest days amounting to a grand total of 9 days! It was quite dreadful when I finally had to come back to work again... :(

Coming back to work on Monday, I was on a whole-day course on Microsoft Powerpoint. Didn't know that it was such a basic course and most of the things that the instructor taught, I had already done it before. So that day was spent surfing the net and facebooking. As usual. ;p

Coming to the next day, it is the next important day in my life, after my graduation (according to my parents). It was the BIG day. Not marriage but my driving test.

Although during the test, there seems to be many signs that were trying to put me down (e.g. some motorcyclist falling down right beside me, landing with a very loud sound; another test car knocking down the pole(s) while doing parking), I still managed to do pretty well, according to my standards.

After the test, the tester just made me follow him to the office, not telling me if I passed or failed. Soon after, he just handed me a piece of paper in which he just signed and told me to go watch a video. I had to ask him if I had passed and it seemed like he was quite reluctant to answer me. -_-"

What was worse than the test was the waiting time to apply for the stupid driving licence. We had to wait for about 1.5 hours just to fill in some simple form and we were given a flimsy piece of paper as temporary licence. They even made me take a photo because the lady behind the counter claimed that the photo that I had with me was dirty on the surface, thus cannot be used.
I shall not harp on this as I will look at the positive side. At least now I have a decent photo to use when I go to renew my passport.

Over the weekend, I was driving already. I drove my dad back from the airport. Then I drove my parents to my auntie's place and my grandma's place. Then I drove out in cw's car to Clarke Quay then I drove kutu and friend back home and I drove myself home. I'm so proud of myself although the stupid sister may doubt my skills.

And subsequently, I am actually busy at work!! Can any of you believe it?? Even I'm busy, you can imagine how hectic the office has been these days. Alright I shall end off here.

2009-01-28T01:34:00.003+08:00

Huat ah!
Starting the new year with a bang, mahjong was on the cards everyday. At least for the past 2 days. And the best part is that I just won $168, a fantastic amount to start off the year.

Hopefully there will be more good news to come in the next weeks or so.. *keep fingers and toes crossed*

2009-01-21T10:03:00.002+08:00

Reason for low population growth in Singapore:

Y: Don't you think that living with parents is a chore? There are so many things that you cannot do!

Me: What can you not do?? Have sex in the living room??

Y: Erm, ya! Not only you cannot do it in the living room, you can't do it on the stairs or kitchen or anywhere in the house! Also, how do you muffle the sounds?
Hmm, that MUST be the cause of low birthrates in Singapore!

2009-01-09T22:46:00.004+08:00

Recently, the whole office admin has been buzzing with action because we were supposed to be involved in the organisation of a conference that will be held here.

Well, I was kind of interested as I have never been to an actual conference before and it is kind of a perk that I get to attend it, without paying! Boy, was I wrong... The conference was crap!

Firstly, it is organised by a Taiwan university and we were just the local organiser, who still had to liaise with them and their ~~nonsense~~ demands or requests. Their organisation skills are next to none.
They were supposed to send 21 packages to us which consists of the items that should be in the conference bag given to the participants. Out of 21 boxes, only 4 arrived. Well, that's ok because if the packages are lost, there is nothing much they could do about it and I think it's not really their fault too.
Also, lunchtime was a flurry of activities, most of them useless. There were not enough seats for all the participants and a few extra tables have to be set up. There was the prize presentation for the best paper and so on but there were no one there to receive the prize. I guess those who are really good can't be bothered with all these nonsense. So, while the VIPs are on the stage giving out prizes and stuff, one of the Taiwanese staff told us to help scoop food onto plates for the VIPs. You have no idea how awful and miserable we look. A few of us were just lining along the buffet line, scooping food onto plates when everyone else was seated, staring at us because the projector screen was just above the buffet line. And the worse part was, the ~~brainless~~ silly Taiwanese staff didn't communicate with the hotel staff and the staff has already prepared food for the VIPs. Our embarrassment was for nothing. It was a bloody waste of our time. And did I say that we didn't get to eat because they refused to open another table for us to sit at and we had to sit outside the Grand Ballroom, eating chicken rice?

Secondly, I had to contend with enough bad english to last me 10 lifetimes. I have nothing against Taiwanese but their expressing skills are practically non-existent! They can't pronounce properly. They can't converse fluently. They can't understand questions, at times. And their presentation is all about reading from the slides. It is just like our primary school English lessons where the teacher would appoint someone to read a paragraph out of an article or the textbook. The situation was exactly the same, just that these people are mostly Ph.D, educators and their English standards are 10 times worse than our primary school kids.

Not to say that there are no good ones, but the majority of them are really bad. I was so bored during some sessions that I just took out my handphone and started playing games on it. And I'm usually not that impolite.

Bleah. Tomorrow is another day of torture. I'm sure after that, I would have heard enough bad english to last me for 100 lifetimes.

Till then.

I survived Pulau Ubin! and more...

2009-01-06T15:46:00.015+08:00

Yay. I survived Pulau Ubin on a healing sprained foot and 4 hours of sleep. The strange thing was that I said "I survived Pulau Ubin" as my facebook status and an application friend asked me where was Pulau Ubin and if it was tough to survive it... -_-" I guess sometimes exaggeration gets taken a bit too seriously.

I love this sign. It looks creepy. And I love the sky-clouds there.

And I love this tree. It looks surreally out of place.

Their love-hate r/s.

Saturday was grandma's 79th birthday and we went to a restaurant in Tiong Bahru Plaza for dinner. According to wisely, the restaurant is moving out soon, not that I'm bothered much by that; the food was only average. Oh, and through this dinner then I realised that I do not have that bad shaky hands after all! All the photos I took were clear but all the rest taken by others were blurred. -_-" I guess anti-shake don't work for really shaky hands after all.

寿桃, compliments of the restaurant.

Sunday was Mayday's free outdoor concert at Stadium Green, which was packed. There were even people who queued overnight just go to be right in front. It seriously makes no sense because it is a very big area and even when we only reached at 6+pm, by the time we got into the field, we can still see everything clearly from the back.

Monday was their autograph session which was also packed. Seriously, I never knew that there were THAT many fanatic fans of Mayday around! I guess there must be some free event in order to find that out. Well, all the photos here are not exactly top quality but make do k..

Oh, and my phone is spoilt. I can't hear the other party over a call but at least I can still send and receive messages. Since I was having blocked ear these days, I even made my sister confirm that it was really my phone that was spoilt but not my ear that is deaf. Fortunately (for my ear but not my phone), she also can't hear the other party over the phone. So I'm convinced that it is a sign telling me to get a new phone! And I got myself this phone.

It's pretty but I don't really like the screen inside, it's kinda small. And the colour selection is next to non-existent. There was only Black available. And the worse part was I walked around AMK looking for this phone but there was only ONE store in the entire area that still have stock for this phone and they have only ONE piece of it left. Seriously, is this phone really that hot that everyone has grabbed one, or is it so lousy that the stores don't even want to bring in much of it? That is a question left to be answered by myself. Time will tell.

2009-01-02T04:01:00.004+08:00

These weeks have been very fruitful in catching up with people and *ahem* presents. Heh.
Last week was Christmas week and I only had to work 1 day out of 1 whole week. The benben got me a DS Lite but as expected, he forgot about the games. -_-" But it was okay because I made him go buy me a card reader sort of thing so now I have games to play. And now, my mum seems to be happier than me because she is seriously addicted to Bomberman. I think my entire family has something special for Bomberman. I used to be rather addicted to the PC game and now it is on the DS.

Also, met up with loads of people last week for lunch, dinner and shopping. Had dinner and drinks with layhoon, lunch with Titus, dinner with the primary school gang, shopping with my mum, sister and aunt and spent time with benben. More meetups to come, hopefully.

Over the weekend, we went to queue for the Mayday concert tickets at Central. The queue was really really really long although we reached the place at 11am, when the exchange was at 2pm. By the time we got there, we were already queuing outside Starbucks and the queue was already snaking around the shopping mall. 10 minutes later, the queue extended beyond Cheers and nearing to the exchange time, the end of the queue could not be seen anymore. Nevertheless, we still managed to get the tickets and that is all that matters. :)

This week is the New Year week in which I only have to work 1.5 days out of the whole week. Just came back from yijia's place, had A drink and a poker game with her brother, and his friends and yili, and chenyang, and benson. Won 1 dollar after playing for some time. Well, the game was not really that exciting. I guess it was because I was pairing with someone else. Oh, and the chips set that we played poker with apparently has a story behind it. A rather unbelieveable story though. Someone was asking how much does it cost and the person who brought it along said that his friend picked it up somewhere. When they opened the box, there was a card with the owner's name and phone number. So, they called him and found out he was foreigner. And the amazing thing was he didn't beg them to return the set to him. He told them finders keepers and told them to keep it. !!! Will any local do such a thing? Anyway yijia was saying that maybe it is a suay box set then the owner had wanted to get rid of it. Hah.

And I'm going to Pulau Ubin to cycle in 7 hours time, but I'm still awake now. Hope I'll not fall to my death in Ubin due to lack of sleep.

Oh, and it is my grandma's birthday on Saturday so we are going for dinner and Sunday is the Mayday concert, and a driving lesson after a long hiatus. Hope I'll still remember things that I'm supposed to. *cross fingers* Either case, Sunday is the big day because we will be seeing Mayday!!!!!!! Yay!

Ok, enough rambling. Now for the customary-and-useless-and-not-going-to-come-true New Year Resolution.
I resolve to........be less lazy.

2008-12-24T02:09:00.003+08:00

The previous week has been an eventful one. The entire week was packed with activities, with no one in the mood to work since it is December. We had a school team-building exercise on Thursday then company Dinner and Dance on Friday.

The team-building activity was paintball, which was not really very painful. I escaped the paintballs rather unscathed and my team won both times we played! We are not that bad after all! It was too dirty to take photos of anything thus there is a lack of visual impact.

Friday D&D was relatively fun. Other than the tradition that the newbies had to put up a performance, in which we cheated as we made a video of ourselves so that we will appear on screen but will not have to go onstage, everything else was good. The MC for the night was Daniel Ong and he is absolutely full of rubbish; good rubbish. He kept the entire ballroom of people entertained for the entire night and that's a pretty mean feat. Photos of D&D will be up soon and you guys can see my pretty self on that night. :)

The only blemish on that night was some minor issue which escalated into something pretty huge and ugly. I am in no position to comment although everyone sort of knew who was right and who was wrong. I guess one of the party suffered an injustice at how the other party reacted, or rather lack of reaction, at his late appearance. I hope everything will be resolved rather peacefully. The office is only that small, it is quite impossible, or hard to take sides and I'm sure no one wants to take side. I'm trying to make this as abstract as possible as such seemingly minor issues have a tendency to be blown up into something out of proportion......... I can only say that it is really hard to deal with people of high qualifications. Especially when 2 of them go head-on. Haiz..

2008-12-16T08:48:00.010+08:00

It is strange that my life is suddenly infused with sports activities. I've started playing badminton again. Last week's orientation for the students ended in me also joining in their outdoor activities (Canopy Challenge Walk), making me ache all over. There is another badminton session tonight which I'm not going and on Thursday, UniSIM day is pain(t)ball!

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

The Canopy Challenge Walk. Walking on cables suspended 18m above Yishun Park. Minced meat if we fall. And we were supposed to appreciate the faun and flora of the park. As if we would remember to look up and appreciate nature when you are walking on tightropes.

Starting out really cheery, not knowing what is in store for us.

Upon coming back. Everyone not looking so bright and cheery anymore.

Should these photos deter you from trying that out, I think it shouldn't. As much as it made my legs soft somewhere in the middle part of the obstacle course, I think it is actually pretty fun. Just that another weekend is burnt.

Oh, and I went to the Singapore Flyer again, for the second time, on another type of experience. We took the normal flight where we had to queue and share the cabin with 10 million others. And it was daytime, meaning photos were more easily taken. But it was still boring and the bf's mum was actually more preoccupied with a little girl than the scenery that we were supposed to be looking at.

She actually managed to get the little girl to kiss her at first sight!

The girl whom the mum was preoccupied over. She was really cute though. After we took her picture, she walked over and wanted to take a look at it. After seeing the photo, she pointed to it and said "big".

Conclusion: Go try the Canopy Walk. Forgo the Flyer.

2008-12-10T17:13:00.005+08:00

As I was facebooking and staring at my applications, I discovered a trend. I'm so surprised that it didn't occur to me earlier. Somehow, facebook players seem to like games involving eggs. There are tons of applications out there that has something to do with eggs.

Hatchlings - You find eggs around other people's profile and hatch them into creature pets and feed them with subsequent eggs you find.

Hatchery - You get eggs (either by buying or having friends to send some to you) and you hatch them into baby monsters which will grow. You have to feed them, play with them, clean them and make sure they are warm. Something like tamagochi.

Egg Breaker - Where you get hammers and break eggs to uncover treasures/trash inside the eggs.

Hatching Eggs - Where you send eggs to others (or yourself if you are deprived) and something will hatch out of it. It could be animals, babies, flowers or whatever nonsense they can come up with.

And I am sure whatever I just listed above are not comprehensive. They are just one small tip of the iceberg. So, why is there the obsession with eggs? I know they are good to eat and goes well with anything and everything but they are also bad for health for their high cholestrol level.

Don't take me wrong, I have nothing against all these games. I love them infact. They are the ones that keep me going through everyday in the office. I'm just wondering why the trend. ???

2008-12-06T20:19:00.002+08:00

So, I've decided to add a poll to kaypoh about the favourite places of people in their homes.

Well, mine is the toilet. Strange but I feel an affinity to the bathroom. It gives me a sense of privacy in which I can hide in, read in or just sit inside and do nothing. I can't really stand shabby looking toilets or toilets with dirty corners and so on. Although this does not mean that my toilet is super clean but it is at least comfortable to me. And of course, the first thing I look out for in hotels is their toilets. If it looks or feels weird, I would rather change rooms.

I have been trying to find a reason for my love for the toilet and I think I found it. It may be due to the fact that I have been forced to share rooms and space with the sister, making my life a lack of privacy. Hiding in the toilet to read, or talk on the phone gives me time alone. And the occasional house lizard would appear and I would ask it to hide itself from my mum and sister who would kick a big fuss over it and kill it. The toilet is a good place. :)

Where is your favourite?

2008-12-02T21:57:00.006+08:00

Woohoo, I survived the badminton! Other than having soft limbs and a few blue blacks here and there, I'm still pretty much jumping around. Like these fellas below.

2008-12-02T12:25:00.003+08:00

Well, it may not be a very good week after all. We didn't manage to get the Mayday tickets. Bleah! We shall try again tomorrow!

And I'm finally going to play badminton again after a very long hiatus. I hope I won't fall or die out of breathlessness or something. If I do die, please mourn me. :(

But I can't die.. I finally managed to complete all the driving lessons after 3 torturous months of going for classes after work, I must at least have something come out of it right..

And I'm on leave on Friday, making my weekend super long, extending till Monday (that is if I do not have to come back to school over the weekends).

I think its a sign. The radio station is playing a song by Beyond. I think it is telling me to upload Beyond's concert photos. I shall, soon.

2008-12-01T09:13:00.003+08:00

Well, there have been some hoo-ha about my cookies. But hey, those who ate the cookies are still very much alive and very much busy. Hrumph, I will make the cookies again and be generous and offer them to everyone else! To prove that I DO know how to bake the cookies. Just that whether I eat them myself is another matter.

Moving on!

Saturday I went to a concert, Lee Guitars Concert. So many groups of artises were there and of course, there was my Mayday. And yesterday I got one free ticket to the Bird Park. And I bought a new game. And today if nothing goes wrong, I'll get my tickets to Mayday's free concert in January.

This is a good week!!

2008-11-27T13:53:00.003+08:00

Saying that I love 五月天's new album is an understatement. It may be by far the best album by them, though someone told me they sound more commercialised now. Anyway, they have many songs with interesting lyrics, and I love this one..

五月天 - 生存以上生活以下
作詞：阿信作曲：瑪莎

連刷牙也照著節奏沖了馬桶洗了臉上的疲憊泡沫
沒有夢昨夜沒有夢鏡子裡的陌生人已經不再做夢
上課鐘變成打卡鐘單行道般的人生流失在車陣中
進行曲規律的平庸活的像是一句標語壓韻而服從
午餐是隨便還是都好還是跟你一樣的任何一種
奇怪呢很久以前我是很有想法主見心跳很執著
傷心再也不吹風現在只害怕傷風耽誤了誰和誰的要求

一天一天看日昇日落看月圓月缺年復一年的經過看誰把我變成現在的我
怕潮起潮落怕患得患失錯了又錯的疼痛終於我的生命只剩生存活著只會呼吸吃飯喝水的生活

小時候只要看天空枕著白雲就覺得全世界都擁有
長大了擁有的更多為何感覺到越來越匱乏越貧窮
那一年只追逐自由現在只能追逐著漲不停的石油
是不是地殼又震動要從家裡震落才悔恨這樣生活
生活的反面會是死去還是這般生存不再有衝動
閉上眼就能感覺生命正在一分一秒飛奔遠離我
還不如一隻昆蟲至少能破繭展翅飛像那被奪走的天空

一天一天看日昇日落看月圓月缺年復一年的經過看誰把我變成現在的我
怕潮起潮落怕患得患失錯了又錯的疼痛終於我的生命只剩生存活著只會呼吸吃飯喝水的生活

一年有三百六十五個日子五十二萬五千多分鐘
一生有三十四億五千六百七十八萬九千下脈搏
為愛而生之後生命要怎麼揮霍直到我化成煙的時候

一天一天看日昇日落看月圓月缺年復一年的經過看誰把我變成現在的我
怕潮起潮落怕患得患失錯了又錯的疼痛終於我的生命只剩生存活著只會呼吸吃飯喝水的生活

一天一天看日昇日落看月圓月缺年復一年的經過曾經我也那麼獨一無二
怕潮起潮落怕患得患失錯了又錯的疼痛終於我的生命只剩生存活著只會呼吸吃飯喝水的生活

連刷牙也照著節奏然後設定了明天六點半的鬧鐘

2008-11-27T10:05:00.005+08:00

When you see me blogging twice in a span of 30mins, you can guess that I have quite some time on my hand.

Anyway, I was at Pearl's blog and saw this test thing. Well, the results are out and I'm a Purple Tiger. Yay! I like purple and I like Tigers so its the best of both worlds!

You are Purple Tiger, who is always cheerful and active.
You are well-liked by every one.
You give an impression of a girl with pure heart.
You are kind and generous to everyone around you.
You are rather optimistic, but may experience unsettlement by physical effect.
You are good at taking care of the others and can be friend with anybody.
Your relationship tends to be associating closely with small number of people, and that number increases eventually.
The way you express things may be too flashy and exaggerated.
You tend to have too self-conscious side.
But you are a hard working person who act and move in your own pace surely and consistently.
Your observation and ways of thinking is calm and objective.
You don't get influenced by emotions and atmosphere.
You are calculative enough to measure the distance between yourself and the other person.
You also possess your own ideal world, and trying to accomplish it too hastily may lead to misunderstandings.
Nevertheless, the way you pursue your potentiality gives a favorable impression to others.
Once married, you will show great motherly feelings.
You will create a living style that takes in account your personal interests.

Interested?

2008-11-27T09:35:00.003+08:00

I've finally finished watching 法证先锋2 after a long hiatus from HK dramas, or any sort of dramas for that matter.

At least having shows to watch gives me more things to do than just play games every night after work at home everyday.

Someone was saying that she is sort of emotionally empty because she has too much time on her hands. I think I'm not much better. I'm afraid of falling into the mundane life of working and working and working and working. Imagine a life being dominated by work and having no time or no energy or just too lazy to do anything else. When I grow old, what will I have to show about my life to others? That I work harder and miss out on all the other good things that are happening around me?

The mum keeps telling me that I'm lucky that I've got a job, that tons of people are out there with no jobs, that she knew someone in SIM whose contract ended and was not continued and she was really sad. It really gets on your nerves on times when she keeps harping over the fact. Is having a job of the utmost importance that if you have job, especially in times of recession, you should be contented? If I really do that all my life, I will really have a misspent youth!

2008-11-24T17:09:00.010+08:00

So, last last week I went to watch Avenue Q. It has been some time since I last watched a musical. It was really interesting, a parody of Sesame Street, like an adult version. Well, it touches on subjects that all some uni grads face, what to do with the degree, what is our purpose in life, etc. Basically, its depressing subjects made surreal and funny.

Anyway, I went for a cookie baking session on Sunday. (Stop laughing!! I didn’t burn down the kitchen and the cookies were edible!!) Yes, the cookies were very much edible. My dad even said that I can start selling it. He is really telling a very big white lie, I'm sure. But either case, I baked cookies! Now, who says that I only know how to eat?!? Next time I’ll bake more and ~~force~~ treat everyone to a piece!

Photos as follows.

Studiously studying the recipe

2008-11-21T15:58:00.001+08:00

Now I know why some people say they are not cut out for paperwork.
They didn't get cut by paper enough to truly understand the tenacity of paperwork. Bleah. I have enough paper cuts on my fingers to prove that I'm working hard!

2008-11-04T11:03:00.012+08:00

With the time I've spent off this blog, I may very well have died, went up to heaven and already reincarnated. Anyway, I believed there is nothing much interesting in my life to blog about, therefore the lack of activity in this blog.

Let's see, from the last time I blogged till now, my sister has returned from Disneyland and kutu has returned from her Europe trip. Since I have nothing much to talk about now, and my camera is with my sister, and my memory card photos are in my laptop and I'm skivving at work now, let me just post some old photos. Some photos from the trip to Singapore Flyer, and on the way there. :)

My breakfast-cum-lunch and Starbucks! Bus stop outside my house

Cocktails before the "flight"

Very glam lounge

Cocktail and nachos

The Champagne Flight Pass

The capsule

Night view

Another couple in the capsule was nice to offer to take a photo of us together but he has shaky hands. But the lady has even shakier hands..

Timer is still the best

There is a mini flyer in the shop!

I think I have Mickey Mouse genes in my body. I was just short of stretching out my arms to do the signature Mickey Mouse pose.

Let's compare to the real thing... Very soon, I will be able to score a job with Disney to be their mascot! Yay, new job option!

2008-10-05T02:29:00.003+08:00

Just came back from Amei's concert. Can't blog about it, or rather too lazy to, because I haven't done anything about the Misia concert. Singapore is having too many concerts recently for me to catch up!

So, let me get my mood together to try to upload the photos and organise them in some coherent manner then I can blog the concerts. Then after that, or before that can blog about F1. Heh.

For now, I'm just still trying to decide if I should go for Sandy Lam's and Beyond's concerts.

Haiz, life is full of tough decisions..

2008-10-03T09:14:00.004+08:00

Finally, after my last movie, which was Wall-E (did I mention that I bought a bloody expensive Wall-E toy?), I caught another movie - Painted Skin.

Well, not that I went into the cinema with high expectations but the experience was not very nice yesterday. On top of a stupid woman beside me who kept asking the bf questions about the show, there were alot others who were talking in the cinema. Is it really so hard for them to keep their mouth shut for 2 hours? Or at least have the decency to whisper? I was so tempted to turn to the woman beside me and ask her to use her own brains and eyes to enjoy the show and shut up! And many phones were ringing! It was indeed a damn noisy cinema. I'll refrain from going to Marina Square for movie anymore. But that is not really the point, let's move back to the movie..

So, the movie is supposedly adapted from a story in Liaozhai but the storyline is very much different. I shall not touch on that since adaptations are usually just something to make people more interested in something and usually do not hold much of the original meaning or impact. But visually, I'm very much puzzled by the producer or whoever-in-charge's decision. It is supposed to be a Chinese show with the ever-popular and ever-present fox demon BUT the costumes and makeup look Japanese. The women wore kimonos, the men/generals wore samurai style armour and the makeup of the demons look like characters out of a Noh theatre - whitefaced, eyebrowless and very "grounded". I say "grounded" because I think Chinese demons are quite "flowy" like 倩女幽魂 type. Fly all over the place with long, thin, silky train of cloth.

As that, I left the cinema yesterday irritated, tired and puzzled. It's too much for my small brain.

long overdue graduation post

2008-09-26T11:27:00.001+08:00

Ok, I am sure everyone in my little world knows that I have already starting working, leaving the student's life for a million years already. Well, I feel that I should blog about the graduation, or at least display the photos, for the benefit of those who do not have Facebook.

While putting on the gown

Last in line for the entire convocation. Boy, it sounded like I had tons of friends cheering for me because everyone was ecstatic that the ceremony was finally going to be over.
Balloons!
And my mum ~~stole~~ took some of the balloons out, allegedly for me.
And she was so cute. She took mostly purple because she knew I liked purple. She was so sad when my dad told her to leave the balloons behind eventually.

The stupid owl says must take the cert because it is very important. So I was angry that the cert was more impt than me, then just take photo of the cert!

He asked me to do an act-cute pose. Cute enough hor.

Must take more photos with xr because he came down specially for my convocation. Actually he just shun bian came earlier for mine, he had a VIP convocation at night. -_-"

He want to bully me on photo but not ready yet.

My dad must be laughing at me.. -_-"
See, everyone bullies me on my convocation day!!I'm sure silliness runs in the family..See, my grandma insisted on taking this photo. She wants us to look at each other. What is the rationale??

2008-09-23T23:53:00.001+08:00

I can't believe that silly Fahrenheit also can have a concert!!!!

steamboat eons ago

2008-09-19T15:44:00.004+08:00

A very long while back, me and lh decided to go for steamboat. What started out as a date with her only, turned to become a group affair. Well, not that it is of any big matter to us since both of us are real ~~talkative~~ sociable and can talk to almost anyone.

Anyway, we went to this place near geylang where she suggested and claimed to be nice, though I honestly think that it is just so-so. I'll most probably not go back there again with much better steamboat choices out there.

So, as usual there must be some form of photo taking right?

The mountain of prawn shells that was contributed by cw because obviously me and lh was too ~~lazy~~ ladylike to peel prawns with our fingers. *smiles sweetly*

I think someone was trying to secretly take the photo of someone behind me and I was supposed to be a decoy.. -_-"

The following: members of the steamboat on that night.

lh, cw

me, lh

owl, me

nic

tl, nic

I was trying to bite the burger on the feedback form, which obviously didnt work out nicely. :'(

And the silly woman was trying to take a photo of me, so I take back a photo of her taking a photo of me!

The confused turtle who is called owl.

2008-09-18T15:32:00.003+08:00

I have been frequenting food blogs of late. As if I do not have enough temptations with food, I have to go tempt myself further. For the interested parties, the ones that I am sort of following now have links up at the left hand corner. :)

Anyway, I had randomly mentioned that I should turn my blog into a food blog but recently, I found that there are actually TONS of such blogs out there, some with superb photography. I guess people who love food just HAVE to take photos of them and make them look as good as possible, to entice others to try them too.

I think my standards are nowhere as near, not as if I have seriously meant what I had mentioned about the food blog. Either case, the blog will stay as it is, just that the majority of the photos will be of food. Heh.

And I am going for fish & chips later.. lalala...

2008-09-16T13:49:00.004+08:00

Ok. Doing my sister proud, I went to be a half-fangirl for Jam Hsiao when he came for his publicity trip. The singing-cum-autograph session was held at Suntec City at the Fountain of Wealth, and the best part was that it was raining.

So, me and MX met and went to stand around the sheltered area to watch him and hear him sing. But before we proceeded to the sheltered area, we were loitering around the entrance because MX was embarrassed to be seen at the session alone. And at the entrance, we saw him. He was tall, fair and abit beng-ish. Granted, he looked really shy and soft, but still beng-ish.

Anyway, photos are as follows. No clear good shots of him because of the stupid people on the stage getting their autographs but we'll make do. And he has the same expression in every photo.

Yay, I have no more outstanding posts (at least for the area of entertainment) now! I can blog about the Misia concert. Soon I hope. And maybe soon I'll blog about the Singapore Flyer and maybe some other things too. =)