What Sashimi Addict?!? What?!?

Voila~

2010-05-04T23:03:00.002+08:00

Wowwww.. Have not updated in MONTHS!

I have been very busy with work lately. And it's almost always bedtime by the time I get home.
Fell asleep countless times even before midnight, very unlike the uni days that seem so long ago...

And talking about home..... I have my own place now! Got my own condo, with a gorgeous pool :)

Ok, I am tired already, the old aging me is tired.

=)

2009-10-12T21:20:00.002+08:00

I'm no longer EMO, not now anyway =)

And to my dear friends, don't worry about me ok!
This is just a place to rant, whine, complain and share my thoughts with all of you =)

Will update more later..

One of those pensive moments

2009-10-03T11:34:00.007+08:00

I realised I have been so caught up with work that I have not been appreciating the other things in life.

Was reading this article about the jar, rocks and sand:

A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, rocks about 2" in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full?

They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks. He then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They agreed it was. The students laughed.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.

"Now," said the professor, "I want you to recognise that this is your life. The rocks are the important things - your family, your partner, your health, your children - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car.
The sand is everything else, the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out dancing. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal. Take care of the rocks first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

In the past, I have never really thought of myself as an emotional person. I mean there were occasional bouts of emo, pensive moments when I would cry over some silly shows or be depressed over some exam results but now that I have started working, I couldn't help reminiscing on the past and what should I do now.

I admittedly have not been catching up with my family and many old old friends, be it getting updates from their blogs, chatting with them via the msn / phone or just meet up over a cup of coffee (ok, I dun drink coffee anymore, so I guess tea will suffice). When I finally do have time to check out some old friends' blogs, I realised that I have not been reading their posts for the past 2 months.

I know this sounds crazy, but I was just reading Sue's latest post where she was talking about those RJ days 6 - 7 years ago, and tears just formed in my eyes. I dunno what's wrong with me!

I guess I must really miss the old days.

I miss the time when Sue slept over in my room cause she was so afraid to walk back to her room which was just 15 meters away, and the time when we would all gather in the lounge to watch The Bachelor every week, and the time when we would try to ask for second helpings during dinner back in Nanyang.

I miss the time when my classmates and I would walk to our container classrooms in the old RJ campus and when we had to sit right in front during lectures all the time and when we would doodle our names on top of the lecture notes.

I miss all the silly jokes on the "bergula dan berminyak" guy and the Carbon particles infusing into Suhyueh's cells from the fart of the gross guy sitting next to her.

I miss the time when I had to spray my hair black every morning for a week cause dyed hair was not allowed in RJ, and the time we thought we were possibly going to die from the lung cancer caused by walking along the busy main road to the bus stop in front of 6th Ave every morning.

College days were indeed stressful, with all the tough exams, lectures and tutorials, but as with everything else, we choose to remember the things that made life what it is - colourful and meaningful.

That's a snippet of life as I remember it in RJ and I will save the ones from Msia, CHIJ and Uni for another post another day. As for now, I try to go home more often to spend time with my family and catch up with all those old friends. Maybe I should save up to visit my chummies in the States! Sue, Suhyueh and Zoe are you guys going to host me?! haha.

Miss ya all loads.

HOLIDAY

2009-09-24T19:03:00.002+08:00

I'm slacking at home, on leave till this Sunday!

My routine for the day : Wake up, eat, slack, nap, eat, slack, nap, eat, slack, nap..
You get the gist of it.

Quite boring actually. Guess I can't be a tai tai, unless I have friends who are as well!
Life as a tai tai would be pretty mundane without friends who are equally free...
Who is gonna play MJ with you at 1pm on a Tues? Or High Tea with you at 3pm on a Wedneday? Or Shopping with you from 12 pm - 6 pm Monday to Friday?

NO ONE unless you have tai tai friends!

No No. I would love to work, meet new people, deal with challenging issues and... look forward to that monthly pay cheque! =)

And I need a freaking new HP.
My poor Sony Ericsson is dying on me! It's like 3 years old, pretty archaic for a mobile phone, no?

Choosing between a BB Storm and Samsung Omnia II.

Ok. My mom is shouting at me to go for dinner already!

Ciaoo..

La Cantina in Venezia

2009-09-15T21:57:00.005+08:00

Went to a hidden little gem in Changi Village Hotel - La Cantina in Venezia!
They serve awesome pasta at super affordable prices!

Crabmeat Linguine
Seafood Pasta

I can still see the HUGE scallops and prawns in the picture above!

Damn nice lar. Go try if you stay in the east =)

Update update. Finally.

2009-08-11T22:48:00.000+08:00

Sometimes I think I am crazy.

And this blog is slowly morphing into something of a proteinaceous spider silk.

Work has been ok. Everyone is falling sick. Me included.
Life has been interesting. But more holidays would be good.

And I am so freaking poor.

Money is never enough. And I'm looking at buying something BIG. Really BIG.
Will let you guys know when I finally get it.

In the meantime, I shall take less cabs, eat less expensive food, buy less shoes and much less bags (yeaaa rite.. I can see you guys rolling your eyes! Haha).

Ok, I am serious! I shall focus all my energy on spending less.. Ahem.

And work harder and smarter.

Ok. I know this is a freaking disjointed, nonsensical post.

Indicates that my stuffy nose is affecting my brain functions.

Ciao.

Betrayed

2009-06-24T22:46:00.001+08:00

Precisely how I feel.

Korea

2009-05-04T00:09:00.005+08:00

I am back from Korea! =)

It was funnnnn... and I had 5 meals a day nearly everyday.
Damn fat now..

But I miss the food already. Sighh...

Back to work tmr.

And curse the stupid swinesss

Ciao. How random. Will update with photos in the next post.

Dim Sum at Sims Avenue

2009-04-10T11:00:00.000+08:00

Went for dim sum with YP and LP at Sims Avenue sometime back..

I love the food there!! Let's go back again soon =)

The only picture of food we remembered to take.
Coz we were hungry. Haha.

Anyway..... I have no time to blog nowadays..

Been too busy working. But thank God it's GOOD FRIDAY =)

I need a "Pause" button now.

ps. Lauretta, where are the other dimsum pictures from the high tea?? heh.

Ok, will update when I am more awake.

Ciao~

JH's and TH's Birthday Celebration

2009-03-21T23:52:00.002+08:00

Went to Mellben Seafood at Toa Payoh to celebrate the birthdays of two not-so-young guys. That was about 1 month ago! Haha.

The food was pretty good! I like their signature dish - Claypot Crab Bee Hoon!
Yummy! But the portions of the dishes served were so small...
The food we ordered didn't seem enough to feed 7 hungry souls (minus Ms. YP who ate nothing!).

Look at the guys' hungry faces, after dinner.
They couldn't resist the durian temptation... Ewwww!
Eat eat eat.. Still eating..-0
The birthday guys.. More than a quarter century old! =)

Ah Qing finishing up the cake...And the 5 hungry guys.

Us girls.

Everyone.

Eh, let's go for seafood more often k!

Urgh.. blogging about this makes me hungry for crabs.

Too lazy to type long longgg entries. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words =)

Therefore, that's many thousand words up there for u. Go decipther them.

Haha. Ciao!

It's weekend again =)))

Busy with work!

2009-03-18T00:48:00.004+08:00

Have been really busy with work! But I'm learning lots =)

Despite the hectic schedule, I managed to meet up with the girls and Fish last Friday for dinner =) Miss you all already!

Let's do it more often ok!

And I had fun shopping and playing MJ on Saturday! Weekends are way too short!!

I miss shopping. I miss Orchard Road. And I miss my no-need-to-work-weekends...

As some of you commented, I know my blog is nearly dead too.. in ICU, together with my HP bluetooth function...

Trying to resuscitate them now =)

Ciao.. it's late and it's time for Zzzz.

Work work work

2009-03-03T00:15:00.004+08:00

I have been working for the past 2 weekends!!

To date, today is my 9th consecutive working day... FULL WORKING DAYS.

And surprisingly, today I felt pretty good =) I think it was due to the lack of Monday blues.
I mean, I can't possibly get depressed a.k.a Monday blues when I am not exceptionally happy on weekends rite??? When there are no ups, there won't be any downs too. If you have never experience happiness, how would you know what is sadness rite??
My mood has kinda been... flat throughout the week.

OMG, i need to moisturise... I think I have aged significantly since I started working =(

OK..... I need slp.

Looks more like a panda as the days go by...

Will update when i get the photos from the past 2 weeks!! The bluetooth on my HP has been ill for the past month, in ICU and refuses to wake up...

Ciao~

Lanpei's birthday

2009-02-16T23:27:00.032+08:00

Lanpei's birthday was on 13th Feb.. one day before Valentine's Day!

Sooo... in an attempt to try to reconnect with our younger selves, we decided to go clubbing.

Wanted to go to Butter Factory.. but think they are closed or something. So Miss Lanpei decided on her favourite place in the world - Lunar at Clarke Quay.

This is me, Cat and Lauretta camwhoring before entering the club..
More camwhoring.. with a sexy butt. We wanted to emulate the lady in the pic.. but shy lar.. haha..

Princess Lauretta on her throne =) She is so cute in this pic!

Xinyan, me and Cat in the lift... the quirkiest lift ever, with pictures of red flowers, red flags and communist guys... At this point in time, we were still camwhoring and have yet to pass lanpei her birthday present - the box in my hand..

Finally, we reached our destination and Lanpei got her present =)

Her birthday cake!

According to Vincent, it was the last cake left and not cause he wanted to buy a heart-shaped one -.-

Some of us.. or most of us..

The cake.. afterwards. Contrary to popular belief, the cake ended up in our stomachs and not on lanpei's head.. Dun waste food ok! Lol.

Us us us.

Drinking time.

More drinking.

Lauretta smelling his armpit and me.. shielding his "ahem". That was Lauretta's idea! haha.

Posing... Lauretta, you look so funny here!

Posing again.

Me and Angeline.

Us us us.

The birthday girl, me and many random hands...

Lanpei was trying out pole-dancing.. and Lauretta was trying to kiss her?!

Lauretta and the birthday girl.

Cat, Lauretta, Lanpei, me and Tingfeng...

Cat, Lanpei and Xinyan..

Tingfeng, me and the bottle. The empty bottle lar.

Vincent, a very happy Lanpei and some guy.

I like this picture. So cute!

At the end of it... we were still pretty sober.. not bad =)

The music at Lunar consisted of 50% rather contemporary English songs and 50% old chinese songs. And we were probably the youngest group of ppl there..

Pretty different from the usual clubs we go to... but it was an interesting experience =)

The drinks were pretty ex though!! I think Zouk might have been cheaper!!... Oh, there is always next time. Right, Lauretta? Lol.

Ok.. bedtime! Tomorrow is gonna be a LONG DAY at work..

Ciaoooooooo~

Birthday 2009

2009-02-07T11:00:00.001+08:00

Had a department CNY dinner a few weeks back...

My first Yusheng for the year! And since then, I had quite a fair bit... sick of it already..

In the beginning.. all nice and pretty

Still nice and pretty... Look at all the yummy Salmon! I can just eat them by themselves :P

And finally...
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The aftermath of over-enthusiasm.
Nothing much left to eat. I think most of it went onto the table, our hands... and some ppl's hair.. lol Was pretty fun!
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Then not long after that, my birthday.
Older by yet another year...
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The birthday cake from the '08 MAs :P
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And there were not enough candles, thanks to the bakery!!
So Mr. Siwei said placidly, "Every year also 21 years old."
Me, "....dots..."
Nonetheless, I love the cake...! =)

And a cake from my colleagues in my team, from the same bakery! So touched.. =)

Initially they were pretty worried that they might have gotten the same cake as the first one but despite the same brown looks, one is chocolate and the other is cheese :PMy first treat from JH =)

Homecooked steak and potato salad!! Thank you =P
It's very nice..

My second treat from JH =)

Japanese food at Kuriya.. I like the chopstick holder - a tiny fish with a big tummy, so cute!

Thank you =)))

And on Saturday after that... Zouk with some hallmates.

My darlings and I. Lanpei was sick =( Supper after that...

Hungry people galore =)Ciao~

December holidays

2009-01-31T17:00:00.001+08:00

OK.. i'm too lazy to type much..

This is an out-dated post, from the Christmas Holidays last year =)

Went shopping in KL with Xiaoyan.. and we had Jap food at YUZU in The Gardens (ok Fish, dun cringe now...)

My set meal.. Awesome-ness..
With wagfu beef, sashimi, sushi, tempura and lots of stuff in one set..

Wagyu beef.. tender and nice! A happy Xiaoyan and her set meal =)
CNY has been nice.. heh.. managed to see lots of relatives and.. won a little in mj =)

In addition, I lost weight!! Yeah.. i lost weight during CNY =)))

Good for me... coz i dun like cookies and CNY goodies... I think the only thing I ate was prawn crackers, and some shrimp thingy. A grand total of less than 20 pieces of those junk in the whole week of CNY =)

Ok.. going out soon. CIAO.

I will try to update on my birthday celebrations and CNY stuff next week!

Food galore, what else can it be??

2009-01-14T23:35:00.015+08:00

I have so many pictures from the past 1 month... no time to upload all of them yet...

A few steps at a time. Or, a few pictures at a time ok.
So here goes - some of the yummilicous food I have blatantly chowed down in the past 2 weeks.

Megumi Japanese Restaurant at Siglap

Sashimi, sashimi, sashimi. Japanese food can never be complete without the raw fish.

Well, although there are pictures of sashimi plastered all over my blog, I have decided to add one more to the collection. So, here is another one for you to drool over.
Japanese Curry. I love Japanese Curry. Something new and totally delicious.

I think we had more dishes that day.. but all was digested and swimming in acid before I could whip out my camera.

Old Hong Kong Kitchen at Novena Sq 2

Next! Next, we had DIM SUM! Not on the same day of course! I can't eat so much fine, happy food all in one day. My purse/bank account wouldn't allow such luxuries =(

Therefore, ever so often we have to settle for food made for the non-discerning taste-buds.

But that's not worth blogging about. Hence, back to Hong Kong Kitchen.I miss their braised duck already...! Utterly delicious..

Dim Sum. Yum Yum.

JH and I had more dim sum dishes but... I shall spare you the agony of reading this post at 2am and drooling over digitalised pictures. Hehe.

The Line at Shangri-La Hotel

Went there with my dad, cause he came over to Singapore for a business trip.

The Line is over-rated. Food was nice but nonetheless not up to expectations, especially in relation to the price we paid for the Seafood Night buffet.

THE PRICE, OMG.

It's a freaking SGD100+ per pax, inclusive of GST and service charge for their Thursday Seafood Night.

And I didn't even have Otoro (the sinfully delicious fatty tuna), or kobe beef or even wagyu beef.. All I had that was somewhat special was half of a mini lobster and raw scallops.

Had sashimi, was pretty good... with their variety and all, but freshness-wise could have been better. Haiz, must be the curse of having been to Japan. No sashimi in Singapore taste as good anymore.

Here is what I had, sashimi-wise. Raw scallops look like raw chicken meat. Look like only lar, not taste like ok.. not that I have eaten raw chicken meat before..

The seafood that I had. See the mini half-lobster on the top left corner of the plate?

It's mini, really mini. The other one next to it was crayfish I think.

Had more food at The Line - satay, random cooked food, desserts, salad etc. Taste alright only.

Ok, shall end the post with some alcohol pictures. Found those in the Shangri-la hotel room. So cute right!!
Ciao! Will update with more pictures when I feel bored. =)

The Rebel

2009-01-14T21:45:00.000+08:00

I have not gone clubbing in eons...

And since Lauretta and I had an itch to revive our happening days, we decided to check out Clarke Quay on the first weekend of 2009. We went to The Rebel with a few uni mates, which is one of the new clubs replacing the now non-existent MOS.

Got in at 11pm.. and it was..virtually empty.. Only 1 table was occupied in the whole club. So we hopped over to Fashion Bar for some drinks before going back to the club, in the hope that The Rebel dancefloor would have living souls then.

This is us - Me, LP and Lolo, feeling lost before finally finding our way to the club...
Haha, what can we say except that... we haven't been to Clarke Quay in ages.

The Clinic, a quirky bar in Clarke Quay where you get to sit on hospital beds-lookalike and drink from blood-filled-lookalike-pouches.

Me, on one of their wheelchair-seats.

Us again at the Fashion Bar. I love the place coz the decor is just so pretty! Too bad the picture of the bar entrance is blurry.. It is ultra gorgeous!

Our drinks. Leftover Gin Tonic I think. Rather diluted though.

The decor inside. Lovely=)

Their fried-filled menu.

When I commented that I was hungry and proceeded to casually pick up the menu, XXY exclaimed in horror, "Are you sure you want to eat that? All FRIED! tsk tsk"

So, I gave up... but only after he repeated that ten times.. Sigh, no snacks for me...

XXY and myself.

After hanging out at the Fashion Bar for nearly an hour, we felt that living souls would have filtered into The Rebel by then.

This is myself and Lauretta's JC mates.

More of us... Where was LP??

Ehhhhh... I realised at that point in time, Lanpei had gone to check out the guys *ehem* in some Chinese bar next door.

Thank goodness The Rebel was well and alive when we got back around 1am..

The R&B/HipHop songs were pretty good =) And we got some free drinks! Haha..

Ok, last picture.. of myself and LP.

Ciao!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T11:58:00.003+08:00

It's officially 2009!! Okay.. it was officially 2009 about 12 hours ago.. lol

Dun blame me. I juz woke up. And I'm starving.

My cat is still sick, better than before seeing the vet, but nonetheless still ill and skinny, far from her rotund old self.
According to the vet, it's a "strange infection". So me, "hmm, ohh.. kayyy....."
That's very convincing and comforting yeah. Sigh.

Anyway, hope she gets well! And pray that it's not cancer. Urgh, hate that doomed word.

Ciao!

New Year's Resolutions

2008-12-30T16:57:00.003+08:00

It's the end of the year again..
Lots of downs at the beginning of 2008 but thankfully things are much better after that.
If you go through my initial 2008 posts, you will get what I mean.
As the saying goes, "when you have hit rock bottom, there is no way to go but up".

And my new year's resolutions? In no particular order.

1) Go to church and grow, grow, grow.
2) Work, work, work and still be happy.
3) Spend more time with loved ones and that includes my cats.
4) Love myself minus the fats, contrary to loving myself despite the fats =( Yeah, that means losing weight. Damn, this is one resolution that spiralled out of control in 2008. Gained so much freaking weight since I started work =(
5) Invest in more blue-chip stocks in the current market condition, "Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful".
6) Buy a big ticket item (will inform you guys if I do actually get it.)
7) Travel to 3 different countries, if I have money left over from buying my big ticket item.
8) Learn something new.
9) Keep in touch with friends, near or far =)

erm.. will add on to the list when I can further unscramble my thoughts.

Ciao!

I miss my cat

2008-12-26T23:49:00.001+08:00

Very upset now cause baby Brooke is sick...

JH brought her to the vet today, and it seems that she has water in her lung cavity, probably due to either cancer(!) or feline infection (!!!)...

Either diagnosis seems terminal... I'm so sad.. what can I do?

Jap food, Fusion food and Desserts

2008-12-22T11:00:00.000+08:00

I'm on leave!! Finally =)

Went out shopping with YP last week. Yes yes, was supposedly broke but ended up buying 3 dresses and 1 pair of shoes. But.... MNG was on sale and the dresses were so cheap! =)))
Therefore, I bought 3 BLACK dresses.. all BLACK. Haiz, I shud be buying more non-black dresses for future friends' weddings and the upcoming CNY but...... I can't seem to find something that is nice and not black...

And talking about weddings.. ALOT of ppl around me (and my age) are getting hitched!
Need to save up money for more angpowwwwww..

Go check out YP's blog - she provided a funny commentary of the happenings (and a detailed breakdown of my shopping loot) that night =P

Our dinner at a quaint little japanese shop in Far East Plaza. We queued up for 1 hr to get in.. and another 30 mins to get our food.
But the wait was totally worth it. The food was awesome!!

The starter - some seaweed and fish thingy.

Our ultra fresh and very thick sashimi slices! VERY YUMMY =)

Yp's cod fish.. which was very yummy and juicy, despite looking abit charred on some parts.

My sushi set! LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT =)

I was already eating my first tuna sushi, happily chewing on it when YP commented, "Aren't you gonna take a picture of that first?" so me, "EEKS!"

Thus, the picture of the set below is short of 1 tuna sushi.. which was already travelling down to my stomach then.

The food's great! Will definitely go back again, despite the long waiting time. Haha.

And the week before that, I met up with the girls and Fish for dinner in Orchard (again! I know, I love orchard)

Had dinner at some Fusion food place in Wisma atria. Nothing great. Wont go back again.

Our salad. Which none of us girls liked. But Fish liked it.

And my aglio olio, which was wayyy too oily.

It was OK, but could have been better.

Us girls (Lanpei, where are you!!?)

Me and YP, in front of some balding white Christmas trees in Wisma Atria.

And days before that, I met up with Sukteng and her BF who came to visit Spore!

Brought them to Canele. The crepes were not bad!

My Exotique (dunno whether I spelt the name correctly) Crepe. Basically, it has bananas.

Sukteng's Strawberry Crepe.

Sukteng and myself in front of the Christmas decorations outside Shaw.

It was fun =)

Ok, will be flying to KL tomorrow! I miss Malaysia's food...

One can never have too much of good food yeah =P

Ciao!

Early Christmas Dinner

2008-12-13T10:30:00.001+08:00

Had a super early Chrismas gathering with IBN ppl last week at Oscars, Conrad..

And CONRAD is juz a freaking 2 mins walk from my office.... and I still got there late =(

Dinner was supposed to start at 7pm.. but work ended at 8pm, so by the time I got there, everyone has had 3 servings of main course and 1 serving of desserts -.-

Oh well, the food was pretty good. And for oyster lovers, it is a must-go coz Oscars has 6-10 various types of oysters for your picking. I ate 1 and gave away the rest - oysters are just not suited for my tastebuds. Bleah. But everyone else loved it. Besides oysters, they had the usual crabs, clams and cooked food. And since it's nearly Chrismas, there was a turkey too!

Nice ambience, which is expected, given the price they are charging for the dinner buffet... I'm so broke.
Fan, Alwin and Sherlyn.

Karishma, me, Leni and Dr. Kuri, my boss during my internship stint at IBN.

May, Sianglong, Brian and Karishma again.. lol

You know how there used to be a time, when we were younger that we stuffed ourselves silly at buffets? Just to get our money worth. But now... I think for the past 3 buffets I have eaten in the last 2 weeks, I have eaten only like 30% of what I used to. And the thing is, I just can't be bothered to eat till my money is worth at buffets anymore...

Must be the first few signs of maturing.. haha..

Ok, i have so much work. Have been working late everyday for the past one week - EVERYDAY. OMG. My non-existant social life this week :(

Worked until I got sick in the last 2 days.. but but I dun care, I'm going out later for dinner..
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Ciao.. coz I brought work back...

Priya's wedding

2008-12-08T22:03:00.000+08:00

My first wedding invitation! An invitation addressed to ME for once, with my name on the card.. and not my parents =)

Our dearest Priya from BS got married today. Felt very happy for her =)

Here are the pics from the wedding ceremony this morning..

Udaya and Priya at the centre.. Such a pretty couple right!
Priya is so pretty!! And she had to wake up at 4am this morning, juz for the makeup and hair for this morning's ceremony which started at 1015am! And the pig me, woke up at 930am to reach the wedding in time... I lurvvve staying in the East, everything is just so near =)
After the ceremony, in which we got a chance to witness our first Indian wedding at a temple and throw yellow rice at the couple, we gathered downstairs for lunch.. It was yummy! =)
I'm hungry already.......! Argh.. I've gotten so fat since I started work!!!!!

Anyway, this is some of us, feeling really full after lunch.. - (top row) Tingfeng, Engel, Andrea, (bottom row) Lanpei and me.

All of us, after lunch... Hogging the table while cam-whoring... - (top row) Cat, TF, Angie, Engel, Andrea, Shunsheng, (bottom row) Qiaohui, Lanpei and me.

Our near empty banana leaf plates.. Too full...!

And the souvenir from the wedding ceremony - a pretty jewellery box and erm.. a round sweet.. At least I think it's a sweet but I havent eaten it yet... Hope the ants dun get to it before I do..

Anyway, last week, we got Priya out for a girls' gathering...

And what do girls like best? Manicure and Pedicure of course! It's as good as shopping ok!

I love Orchard Road.. It's like an instant mood booster, for me at least.. I feel happy just by being there! But definitely not for JH! I think that place is more of a nightmare to him...and the rest of the traditional male species... haha..

I wanna stay in Orchard Road next time, then I will be happy all day.. wahahaha..

Ok..back to last weeked.. Lanpei, Priya (then bride-to-be) and YP at Vain Jane.

Priya.

All of us! Minus YP who left to go back to LAB on a Saturday, probably to feed her hungry cells.. and then kill them off with various toxic chemicals in the name of science.. haha..

After the pampering session, we went for some desserts! I was freaking hungry then, but it was going to be dinner soon, and dinner was to be at the SBS Alumni gathering later that evening.. so no main course for me till dinner time... =(

My sudden obsession with Brownies... I love brownies.. and I dun even usually eat sweet stuff!!
Me (with my stupid fried hair, no thanks to Chapter 2 Hair Salon!), Cat and Angie... at Cedele for our desserts.. Thank goodness I got my hair fixed at Kimage, in time for the wedding and the coming Chrismas!Engel, Priya and Lanpei, waiting eagerly for theirs..

Awesome weekends... but.. soon it's back to work...

I need sleep.. looong day but it was great =)

Tired

2008-11-25T23:49:00.003+08:00

I'm so tired...! Have been working late everyday.
And I have been eating dinner LATE LATE, really really LATE =(

When ppl ask me how often I do OT, I will say...

"OT? Everyday is OT! I never leave early before."

Ok, I need to rest now.. Ciao.

Bangkok

2008-11-17T21:37:00.035+08:00

Finally I have time to blog about my shopping trip in Bkk =))))))

Had an awesome time there with Lanpei, Cat and Fish..We should have these breakaways more often.

Us, at the airport. We took Airasia this time, but it's not all that cheap.
And I hate the free-seating arrangement, which often results in -

1. Too much waiting time spend on standing in the queue.
2. Too many jostling, kiasu aunties holding way too many bags.
3. Too many idiots travelling alone and sitting in the row of 3s on the extreme left and right seats, thus leaving the middle ones unoccupied.

How frustrating....! But oh well, it's still cheaper than other airlines on promotional-price days...

Anyway, the flight was delayed (!), and we arrived in BKK quite late. In fact, we didn't get to do anything that night despite our initial plan of going for a Thai massage -.-

We stayed in Baiyoke Suite, which my friend claimed was haunted, on the morning before I left for BKK. He was telling me that he actually encountered the "thing" himself, twice.
How awesome yeah. I'm going to have such peaceful time staying in the hotel...

This is Fish's room, the very neat part of the suite =) And this is the the girls' room.
In fact, it was Fish who insisted on taking the two pictures, just to show how neat and tidy all of us are. Hehehe. Right, Fish?

Anyway, the next morning, we went SHOPPING =)
-
This was taken at Baiyoke Market, right below our hotel... Awesome! Cabs in BKK. In many, many colours. Don't they look like toy cars? So cute!

Us girls outside Platinum Mall. We love that place =)))

After spending the whole afternoon shopping, shopping, shopping and burning holes in our pockets, we went to have CHEAP ice cream in Swensons. Uber CHEAP~!

His ice cream.

Then, it's back to more shopping and food...

This is from the Baiyoke night market... SO YUMMY.

At night, Lanpei and I went for the Thai foot massage. So comfy.... And CHEAP.

Did I say cheap? Yeah, cheap cheap.

Breakfast on day 3.

And off we went to Chatuchak, which was hot, very humid and kinda boring. That's from the wanna-shop-for-girls-clothes perspective.

Snacks-wise, not bad.. Lots of variety =)

And I love the animals for sale there. Very cute!!!

Accessories for sale. Bangles crafted from Mango wood.

After a kinda disappointing half day in Chatuchak, we left for MBK.

Our lunch.

After mani/pedi and more shopping in MBK, we went back exhausted, but happy.

Happy, many thanks to our shopping loot from Day 2 and 3.On our last day, we went back to Baiyoke Market and Platinum for more bargains!

No money and hours later, we left for the airport.

Our final BKK lunch.

Yeah, I love Phad thai. I had it everyday in BKK. Wahahah. Nuts, I know.

Then, it was back to Singapore.

In case you are still wondering, none of us encountered those "thing" in the hotel... Thank God.

Overall, the hotel is quite good, with its awesome location and decent price.

But breakfast is contant daily, never-changing................. so kinda sickening after eating the same thing for 3 freaking mornings.

Ciao.

Bangkok

2008-11-06T20:22:00.002+08:00

I'm going to BKK in approximately 10 mins!!!

A break.. finally.

Ciao... gotta fight for seats ar.. taking budget, what to do.. haha

Last weekend

2008-11-01T00:24:00.019+08:00

I went home last week, thanks to Deepavali and the very long weekend =)

Going home is awesome!
I love GOOD FOOD, and I cannot tolerate substandard fakers, those taste-buds murderers, passing themselves off as good food. Urgh, these convicted fakers often leave me feeling full yes, but also very, very disatisfied.

So, having said that, my parents brought us all to eat at the famous Loon Sing Restaurant in Nilai.

Well, it's famous for being expensive.
But even more famous for their Buddha Jump Over The Wall dish =)

Here's the somewhat palatial-looking restaurant. The decor outside is nice, despite being a little weird. Well, it's weird cause it's a chinese restaurant, with many evidences of it being one and looking like one.. However, in the midst of all these chinese stuff, there is a very roman-looking fountain and many roman-looking pillars at the entrance to the restaurant.

I can't fathom why. Nonetheless, it is nice lar...
This is their famous dish!
Foodvenue.com - Legend has it that a Fuzhou scholar went picnicking with friends. He had put all the ingredients he had with him in a wine jar, which he heated over a charcoal flame. The tantalizing smell spread all the way to a nearby temple and was so inviting that the monks could not resist and jumped over the wall to partake in the hearty dish. A poem in praise of the delicious dish was rendered, in which one line read: "Even Buddha himself would jump over the wall to taste this dish".

Well, the tiny pot was all mine =)))

This is another famous dish. Sorry, but I can't recall the name for this dish since everything on the menu was in Chinese.
Another nice one, though I'm not sure whether this is famous too..
How many famous dishes can ONE restaurant have anyway?!
This is nice too, but would have been nicer without the black-specks-pepper-thingy.
Anyhow, it was an awesome dinner.

Since my dad had a friend over from China, my parents brought him to Malacca/Melaka and dragged us along in the process.

Our first stop - Food of course.

One of the famous chicken rice place. Just look at the freaking queue.
I stood there in the queue, under the scorching sun for a whole 20 mins! While queuing, I was nearly poked in the face by some umbrella-wielding girl in front of me and my skin was being fried by the vengeful sun.

However, it was worth the wait.... haha.
The stupid things ppl do for food.
After lunch, we ambled around the Jonker street area, with its many pineapple tarts shop, clothes shop and made-in-china souvenir shops.
While crossing the bridge towards the famous red buildings, I spotted a man in the Melaka River. He went under water... stayed there for awhile, before bobbing up again. The cycle was then repeated a few times.. Maybe he was showering there?
One man's river is another man's jacuzzi?

Dunno.

No fish, no net whatsoever. Weird.
Anyway, I got bored soon enough, so we went towards the famous red buildings instead.
20 mins and very much sweatier later, we decided to leave.

But not before my parents bought some dunno-what from a random stall opposite the Stadhuys.
I think it was Cendol?
Anyway, it was one interesting trip. Half day only lar.. so that's all we managed to see.

Subsequent days at home were spend eating (again and again), visiting my relatives and mahjong sessions!

Very soon, it was time to leave.... but not before I tried the newly famous bak kut teh place near Oakland.

It was gooooood. Very herbal-ly.

Then... I took the plane home.. and surprised myself by not buying anything duty free this time round.

Er, will update more next time..

Happy Deepavali

2008-10-25T22:43:00.005+08:00

I'm at home!! And I'm increasing sideways at an exponential rate =(

Resting on my bum 12 hrs a day in the office is not much better too... I have probably gained nearly 5kg since I left uni a few months back -.-

This is bad. Very, very bad.

Why can't the treadmill be as appealing as a plate of chicken rice?
Or one bowl of coconut and oil-laden curry mee?
Or 50 pieces of sashimi?
Or one bowl of kimchi-soaked rice with charcoal-burnt beef and 10 plates of side dishes?

Why arh???????

I don't understand how some health-freak can hit the gym for 4-hours a day, every single freaking day! How? You tell me... I tried going to the gym twice a week, which soon became once a week, and now... a pathetic once every 2 weeks! Haiz..

Anyway, I have not checked Friendster in 20 years, nearly. And I just did, out of curiousity, and the fact that it was just there.. in my sister's internet history.

And I saw:

1) some stupid fan requests from pesky online boutiques

2) a few msgs from strangers with bad english. For eg,

"Hi, can fren you?"

"Hey,.. mind to be a friend with u? i'm XXX..

And some other similar msgs with permutations of the ones mentioned above..

However, the one below takes the cake. It's really, really long, and all typed in one msg.

"good evening.just back home from work and eaten dinner .do remember to grab yr dinner soon .drink plenty of water as weather quite bit stuffy.mind be a friend ?.let me intro myself first ... XXXX XXXX XX here, 23yrs old Singapore Chinese guy , height 1.72m n weight 60kg .

Short profile of myself. Single.completed army last year sep . wrking in sale line for coke. Tend to care for others more. Tend to be truthful to others .wrking hard and hope to get my car licence so can drive mitsubishi lancer .love to eat dim sum and drink Soya bean.hardly clubbing , maybe once a year ,no smoke .do sincerely hope you give me chance to know you more.sometime do help out in housechores . tend to always help others .always tend to care for others .do hope you give me a chance to let me know you more.but i do drink , only abt twice in half a year .

hi . as i seldom log on to friendtser as my friendster got some problem . you can sms me at 82XXXXXX if you don mind de .do sincerely hope you able to recieve your sms

next time am i allowed bring you go into malaysia to eat?do sincerely hope you give me a chance to know you more .

next time i make beer fried chicken wing for you to try.
do sincerely hope you give me a chance to know you more
sorry hope you don mind i wanna be a friend with you ."

I've no idea who this guy is. But he sure saves time by writing everything down in the 1st msg!

In fact, I find it very funny...

And in case you are wondering, no, I dun ever reply to random msgs by strangers.

Oh well, I'm not going to check friendster for the next 10 years anyway.

Will update more when I get back to Singapore on Monday =)

And Happy Deepavali !

Ciao!

Rollerblading

2008-10-13T22:57:00.026+08:00

Last Friday, some colleagues and I went Sailing!

This is me, Varun and Claire during our Sailing briefing =)
See the guy with the funny face at the back? That's Alan, our joker.
SAF Yacht Club. So pretty!

Alan, Minli, Siwei and I, in front of our boat - Chili Padi!

It looked old, but... thanks to our skills *ehem* and a clean buttock for the boat, we emerged sailing champion! =)

Weeeeee Areeeee Theeeee Championnnnnnn!

Some of the other boats..

Us, at sea.

Can see me??

Can??

Ok lar, I show you..

Resting at the back, and being the skipper for the hour.

Hours later, back at the club.

We spend the whole afternoon out at sea!

Thanks to the teeny shelter on my boat, I was saved from being burnt!

Anyway, awesome scenery of the clubhouse during sunset.

Then, it was some land games, and finally the BBQ.

And well, the bbq is not really a bbq.

We dun get to start the fire, cook the food, or getting ourselves smoked.

The only time I saw the sausages was when they were overly cooked and carefully laid out in trays on the buffet table. How .. unexpected and un-bbq-like.

Oh well.

This is some of us, AFTER dinner.

Yes yes, dinner comes first.

Photo-taking can take a backseat when hungry guys and their growling stomachs are at the dinner table!

After dinner, it was drinking games, which my group totally sucked at. No, we didn't suck at drinking, of course we din. We are awesome at drinking. Haha. But we sucked at answering all the games qns, hence we gotta drink. Vinegar, tomato juice, vodka neat. How great...

And on to Wii.

See my face?

No, I was not biting my lips ok. I was not skeptical of my fren's boxing ability ok.

I was actually cheering them on...ehem.

Jiayou!

Well, we won =)

Yay, we are the Sailing Champ and the overall WII Champ!

Then I went home.. and zonked out.

The next day, I pulled myself out of bed and met up with some BS mates at ECP for rollerblading!

It was very fun! This is me and Cat, doing our balancing act.

Some of us, in the middle of the road and blocking everyone's way.

Saw Spencer there! This is Spencer and I, looking all sweaty, sticky and unsteady...

After hours of aching legs on wheels, we went for dinner at JUMBO Seafood Restaurant.

Us, in a bathtub at ECP.

Us again. Same bathtub.And the food!

Crabs! CHILLI CRABS!

Most importantly, it's the frens that matters =)
Ciao. BEDTIME.

An update, finally!

2008-10-08T23:55:00.011+08:00

It's Wednesday! Two more days to the weekend... Haha, I'm trying to be optimistic ok.

*chants - 2 more days. 2 more days. 2 more days. 2 more days. 2 more days *

And... I'm going sailing with some colleagues this Friday.
Yup, S-A-I-L-I-N-G, and no, you are not blind.
Me, the unsporty me is actually going sailing...! Yeah, pigs can actually fly.

Gotta be at some ulu place by 845am on Friday morning.. and I'm not slacking ok!
It's considered an official working day =) Yeaaaaaaaaaaaa... I'm sailing for work.

Will update you guys on my first, very very first Sailing trip. Hahahaha.
Hope I dont fall into the murky water. Choi choi choi.

OK, here are some really outdated random pics.

Taken weeks ago when Pips was back in Singapore.
Look at his expression. Priceless.That's what millimeter fishes can do to a full grown man. Haha.

And this is ME. Look at my face, so calm and collected right????
No priceless expression for you..
If you want more priceless stuff, keep staring at Pips face la... *points above*

This picture was taken weeks ago too...
It was so long ago that I can't even remember the exact date anymore.
But what I do remember is the place, Waraku (the one at Marina Sq), and how the food sucked.
Maybe it's just the Marina Sq branch, dunno. But the one at Cuppage was much nicer when I tried it the first time eons ago.
-
That day, I had - Greasy rice. Stale tempura. One Major disappointment. Yuck.
However, the company was awesome, as usual =) Miss my uni mates!
-
On a happier food outing, JH and I went to Happy Kitchen last week! I was just feeling bored, and starving as usual, so I checked out some nice eateries online when I chanced upon Happy Kitchen. Since it was nearby, we drove there to eat lor...
-
Their specialty - mutton something fennel something.
I forgot the name lar..

It's yummy. And very unique.

Vege. With century eggs (yummm...) and salted eggs.
It's nice, but nothing gastronomic... oh well, nothing much in this world is anyway. But of course, with the exception of Fatty Tuna...
We ordered ribs. Yummy too.
And the pleasant surprise was there were no GST and service charge! Haha.

I detest GST and service charge!!!
It's such a huge chunk of the already-very-expensive-bill... tsk tsk.
I'm already so broke.

I think I ate all my money away... Eat eat eat...

Anyway, a last random picture before I call it a day.

This is taken when I was in JB last week.

Can you see where the red arrow is pointing at? A dodgy sign nailed to a poor tree.
Can't read Malay? Dun fret, let me translate for you using my rusty command of the Malay language.

It's a direct translation ok.

Capsule

Men great

@Hard @Lasting

@Confident @++Size

100% Herbs & Safe

Power & Save $$$!!!

Wanna give it a try??

It's damn power leh, advertising on a tree leh, not approved by FDA but it's cheap leh.
Will do more for you than what melamine in milk does for kids.

Ok. Ciao.

....

2008-09-28T23:26:00.004+08:00

Just came back from my cousin's wedding in JB! Havent seen some of my relatives in such a long time... Had a slack weekend, and tmr's back to work.

I can foresee a long, very long Monday.. and an even longer Tuesday.
But Wednesday is a holiday! As well as Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday! Took 2 days leave from work and hence the very long weekend =)

Hehehehehe.

Laptop spoit

2008-09-20T11:52:00.002+08:00

My laptop died on me for the most stupid reason...

The poor thing was innocently sitting on my study table under the unused aircon when water from the bloody not-turned-on aircon dripped on the laptop's power switch button.
Totally WTF. The aircon was not even turned on!! Why would there be condensation water on it then??

Freaking annoyed. And the poor laptop could not be started up despite numerous attempts.
So I send it to the acer service centre which arguably has the lousiest service in the world of computers. Despite their promise to get back to me within 1-2 business days, I heard nothing from them for 3 days. So on the fourth day or so, I called their customer service.. and got through only after holding on the line for damn long. When I finally got through, the lady operator transferred me to the technician who said that he has yet to check my laptop and promised to call me back that night... and well, guess wat, he did not.

Feeling increasingly annoyed at their empty promises, I called them again the next day, only to get a really dumb operator. Probably the dumbest one on earth.

When i gave her my name and contact number, she merely said, "I cant find your name in the system" [full stop - silence - no offer to help find alternatives!].

So I spelled it out to her again, letter by letter, and yet.. the same response from that dumb lady. After like 5 attempts to get her to check my name, and contact number, she miraculously found it. What really irked me was the fact that she had no brains whatsoever. What happened to customer service which is supposed to service us instead of telling us that they cant find it, shut up and not offering alternatives? Acer service centre sucks.

In the end, the technician quoted me more than $500 bucks to fix the bloody motherboard, which I refused since it will only be covered under warranty for 3 mths. Might as well get a brand new laptop with all brand new parts, pay abit more and get 3 full years of warranty, plus the fact that never again do I need to suffer in the hands of these Acer ppl and their empty promises. Yup, I bought a non-Acer laptop eventually.

So, no pictures for now, until I get back my old laptop and the harddisk.

On a happier note, my dept's Vietnam trip was awesome! =)
Everything is Cheap Cheap Cheap!

Cab rides of ten-fifteen mins for SGD1.50 only.
Full set of manicure plus pedicure with excellent massage for less than SGD20.
Seafood dinner - crabs, prawns, fish, etc in a super posh restaurant for ~SGD20 per person.

Many many more lah!.. My total shopping loot was 2 handbags, 4 tops and some small souvenirs.
As for my colleagues, some of them went home with more than 10 tops each, many many handbags and many many many more souvernirs. The flight back was crazy with all of us lugging our luggages and hugeass shopping bags.

I definitely wont mind going back to Vietnam again!

Ok, photos will be in the next post.

And.... I'm going to Bangkok early Nov! Cant wait for my next holiday trip =)

Btw, credit cards are vile things. Spend spend spend but my checking account still looks healthy and intact. However, when the Credit Card statement comes, my checking account balance will suffer a free fall. Haha.

Oh well, I am saving. Trying to ok! Lol.

Till next time =)

My Prom - Bedazzled

2008-09-08T23:09:00.017+08:00

I'm still alive!!

However, despite still being alive, I'm too tired to type much now, so here are some photos from my prom a few weeks back.

Theme: Medieval

Doreen, Alan and I.
RC, Neil and I.
Sword-fighting! John.

Alan and Jonathan, our boss, dressed as the two kings.

ME, with Jon's freaking heavy head gear!

Us...Varun and I.

Claire and Alan.

Yup, that's all the pictures for now.

And happy news! I'm going to Vietnam this Thursday! =))))))

Will be going with my department ppl for our team bonding trip for three days! Hehe...

Anyway, time flies nowadays. Weekdays come and go in the blink of an eye. And weekends? They seem to fly past faster than the speed of light...

MY LIFE IS SPEEDING AWAY LIKE A RUNAWAY TRAIN!

Not good not good.

I need to do something meaningful so that each day doesnt seem to blend together... like one big gloomy, grey sky.

Oh well, will think about that later.

Bedtime now... Worked till rather late today, and probably later tomorrow..

I need to ZZzzzZzzz.

Ciao.

Work Life Balance!

2008-08-23T13:12:00.012+08:00

I've survived the 8th week of work!
And so far, work has been really interesting! =)

Time flies when I'm at work.. and before I knew it, the weekends are here =)
Ok, anyway, I still have a social life on weekdays..

Met up with Pips, who is back for his summer holidays, for Kuishinbo sometime back...

That's him, battling it out with the stubborn snow crab's leg.
And this is my snow crab's leg... Totally owning.. Yummm...

This is a pint-size watermellon. One of those free stuff given out periodically by Kuishinbo while diners are busy chucking raw fish down their throats.

Thumbs up to the Japanese for always coming up with these adorable stuff =)

And look at what's inside the mellon...
Ice cream which taste vaguely of chewing gum!! Interesting indeed..

Anyway, we couldn't finish the ice cream, so we dug it out and kept the container instead coz it's juz so cute!

I also met up with the girls for YP's birthday!

We had a yummy meal at spagheddies...

This is pretty Ms. YP and one of her presents..

We got her a few - a jacket, a mini bear and flowers!

YP and her tiny cake... We didn't get her an actual birthday cake coz none of us wanted to get fat eating so much sugar anyway..

The flowers close-up! Chosen by Ms. Cat.. =) They are so pretty!

And this is all of us, with TF who came much later.. Yoke Peng, Audrey, Cat, me and Lanpei.

This week had been really fun too! Met up with my JC classmates on Thursday and the girls with TF again yesterday =)

Ok, time to enjoy my weekends.. Hope you enjoy urs too!

p.s. Huiling, what are you ppl doing there now? Your blog has not been updated in 2000 years..

Last leg of Japan trip

2008-08-20T23:45:00.015+08:00

Finally got to the last post on my Japan trip.

Dessert with macha inside again =)

Cute Japanese snacks, which were so tempting! We actually bought a few boxes of those cute stuff back!
Then, we went to a Japanese Garden in Matsue, supposedly rated #1 in Japan!
The place is ultra gorgeous!

After visiting the garden, we took the night train back to Tokyo.

Our bunks/seats are called nobi-nobi. Very cute name..

Something novel, but not very comfortable yeah. Could not really sleep coz the matt was way too hard...

The next morning, we reached Tokyo real early..

And of course, we went to Tsukiji Market again for breakfast.

That place is awesome.

It's so awesome that everyone thinks so too..

Look at the queue in the picture below.

And more ppl queueing... all the way to the main road.

Nonetheless we got our yummy sashimi with rice!

No queue in this world is gonna stop me from getting to my sashimi! Haha.

After breakfast, we travelled to Sony Building, where I got my Sony Camera! =)

Saw some really pretty roses along the way!

Ok, the last few days in Tokyo were basically spend sightseeing, shopping and of course eating!

15 days in Japan is way too short! Will definitely go back there again in the future.

p.s. Meiwah, dun need to envy me lar, you can go to Japan with ur darling too! =P

p.p.s. Zoe, miss you babe! Dun be so stingy lar, spend on good jap food in Chicago k. hehe.

Japan 3

2008-08-18T22:28:00.052+08:00

Ok, more temple-hopping in Kyoto.

Had yummy macha (green tea) shave ice =)

Have been eating everything macha when I was in Japan.

Then after dessert in the temple (yeah, the temple ppl are very good at generating revenue, a dessert stall selling cold, cold stuff on a hot, hot day)... we went off for lunch.

Randomly walked into a shop selling tonkatsu! Never knew tonkatsu could taste so good!

My sister finished off all her pork chop, and left all the vege behind. tsk tsk.

After the oily but nonetheless very yummy lunch, we headed to Nijojo Castle.

Didnt take that many pictures of the castle. Oh well.

Our next destination was shopping, for food of course!

At Teramachi.

Lots and lots of food - raw, cooked and juz plain weird!

Baby crabs!Baby eels?? No idea what were those snake/worm-like creatures.

After a session of "wawww-ing" at the quirky food, we went for tea at Lipton Cafe.
After tea, which translated to eating more macha-made stuff, we went to the malls.

And oogled at more food.

So much food! And they were all so pretty! I had a hard time deciding on what to buy for dinner!

Yeah, I still had dinner despite already eating 3-4 times that day.

Finally settled on this! Very pretty, but tasted weird.

Well, it came with an ice-pack, so everything was cold. Er, eat cold rice, cold meat?!

In addition, the sweet stuff was kinda indistinguishable from the savoury ones. So imagine accidentally chucking candy-sweet stuff and rice into your mouth at the same time?!
Ok, that was an experience.

After a few days in Kyoto, we took another train to Osaka!

Love our spacious room in Osaka.

Then, off we went in search of more food!

And stumbled upon a quaint little place with no english menu! and tons of beer.

Since the waitress couldn't decipher what we were trying to order, except for one pathetic plate of tuna sashimi, we left and went next door to the conveyor sushi place.Our achievement that night!

Ultraman?

Pet clothes.

No, more like tiny-dog clothes. Kimono, western and all sorts of fashion style for your mini dog.

We went to the aquarium at Osaka too, but too lazy to post up the pictures. There are just too many of them!

The day after that, we left for Fukuoka.

This was at the train station.

Our cute drink bottles. And, finally at Fukuoka, in the southern island of Japan!

At Canal City, waiting for Murali.

Ate ramen while waiting... (yeah, eating again..) Super awesomely yummy. Why can't I find these in Singapore?!
Met up with Murali, whom I have not seen in years. 8 years maybe??!

The next day, we went to Nagasaki and to the exact point where the atomic bomb was detonated those years ago.

After the sombre experience, we went to Glover Garden, as part of our must-do-tourisy-thing.

The view of Nagasaki from Glover Garden.

Look what we saw on our way down from Glover Garden? A chicken!

Then it was meal time at a lovely restaurant (forgot the name).

Where I had the biggest and most delicious chawanmushi on earth...

The next day, we left Nagasaki, but not before buying tons of stuff for breakfast on the train!

Our breakfast.

And hours later, we got to Beppu!! Land of the onsen!!

Hot springs!

And the place where I had my first pufferfish meal.

The items below are just normal, undeadly food. Haha.

Now, here is the deadly pufferfish.

The next day for lunch, we saw a very interesting menu.

Meat meet rice lice.. I dun want to eat lice...

More hot springs.And after a few days in Beppu, we headed back north to Matsue.

More food food food.

And pretty koi in pond. I want to have a garden like that too =) Ok, that is so random.

Oh well, I'm tired now.

I know, I know... I'm always saying that I'm tired, but it's true! Haha.

Ciao!

Japan 2

2008-08-17T02:54:00.049+08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates.

Have been busy lately! Stayed back at work till 11+pm for a few days last week!
And to update you guys on my life right now, I got posted to Financial Control for 3 mths! =)

Ok, now the continuation to my previous post - Day 3 of my Japan trip.

We woke up early to go to Tsukiji Fish Market, the most famous fish market in the world!

The outer market. We randomly walked into an alley and found some lovely eating places =)

My breakfast!!

And yummy Miso Soup, the most delicious miso soup I have ever tasted! No kidding!
Then we ambled around the marketplace. Lots of interesting food.

Made me want to eat them all..
Egg!
Grilled clams. Giant ones!
Soon after, we left the marketplace with heavy hearts and heavier feet coz we had to rush to Kyoto that same afternoon.

The subway station. See the guys in suits in the background? Well, most of the Japanese guys walk around in suits! Damn cool.

Me, with my heavy bag. That's the bullet train we were taking to Kyoto! My first bullet train ride in Japan!

Their train stewardess. They were really polite, bowing each time before entering and exiting our coach! But I wonder why there were no guy stewards...

More men in suits at the food kiosk.

After a few hours ride on the stiff-back bullet train, we finally arrived at Kyoto!

Our room in a ryokan. Love the tatami setting! But well, I still prefer the typical western hotel rooms due to hygiene issues..

The little table in our room. We get to sit on the floor, like the locals.

My sister, outside the ryokan.

And finally, dinner time at the little shop near our ryokan.

The huge Modanyaki. It was 3 times bigger than what i expected! And I stuffed myself full with just half of it. Took the other half back for supper. Haha.

After the hearty dinner, we went to the mall!

-
The helicopter pad at the top of the mall.

And cute stuff I took random pictures of.

And on the way home, we finally saw a CONDOM vending machine!

It was there, right there at the side of a main road!

We saw a guy idling next to the machine, but he didnt do anything. Maybe it was coz we were there and he was too shy to buy condoms in front of two strange girls? Maybe.

Coz he was still hanging around there when we got tired of oogling and left.

Ok, Day 4. Woke up early!

And went to many gardens and temples =)

Saw a bunch of moss.

This one is called "The inhabitants of Ginkaku-ji". Ginkaku-ji is the name of the garden/temple we were at.

This moss is called "Moss the interrupter".And this, "Very Important Moss (like VIP)".

More scenery.

Random pictures we took along the way.

And then we went to Gion.

Dinner at Ginza, a totally awesome affair.

And what's left at the end of dinner.
Ok, I gtg now. Uploading pictures took forever!

Japan!

2008-08-11T22:20:00.001+08:00

Now now, finally a post on my Japan trip!

I apologize for the hiatus. Have been busy doing everything else... like working, Singfest, working, sleeping, working, eating, working and meeting up with friends.

Ok, day 1 of my trip!

Sis and I had a stopover in Hongkong before continuing to Tokyo. In Hongkong, what can we eat? DIM SUM of course!

Yummy.

And we finally arrived in Tokyo! Too bad it was pretty late at night, couldnt do much...

Our hotel room, which is tiny!

A business hotel near Ueno, pretty far walk from the mrt, so probably wont go back again.

The even tinier toilet! Like those squeezy airplane toilets..
And the complimentary tiny toothbrush and even tinier toothpaste. The translucent toothbrush on the right is of normal size, juz for comparison =)Day 2!

Breakfast time! Walked along some street and ambled randomly into a tiny restaurant. And we saw our FIRST vending machine! According to some articles I have read, there is 1 vending machine to every 4 person in Japan! There are vending machines for everything - the typical drinks (in all shapes and sizes), T-shirts, food, ciggy and condoms! Yup, condom machines along the main road!

Anyway, back to breakfast. Our very first vending machine.. is a Japanese.. Totally no english!

No English at all.. And the owners can't speak a single word in English... So how did we order?

My sister played it safe, and ordered something with a photo (those at the top of the vending machine). As for me, I wanted something different, so... I anyhow press those nonsensical buttons on the 4th row. Once we paid up (inserted coins into the machine), meal tickets were dispensed and we just passed these to the guys at the counter.

And well, the noodles that came out of my random-button-pressing was good!

Ice cold noodles which was super yummy =)

That's my sister waiting for her foooood.

After that, we walked to the subway station and saw a few drinks machines...
Walked around abit more.. and we saw not a few, but alot of drinks machines!Rows and rows of them lining every nook and cranny.

Then off we went to Ueno park..

There, we saw many homeless people...

Temple, with a well in which visitors can drink from.
An exhibition by the creator of Slam Dunk.

We paid alot, alot just to get in...! Enough to get me 15 plates of salmon sushi!

But well his drawings are awesome!

The park.

A place where tourists normally go - the National Museum.

Nothing fascinating there, at least not for me..

Somehow museums depress me. They remind me of the fact that people do die. In fact, museums remind me more of this sad fact than hospitals.

Come on, the stuff in the museums were once used by living people, who is now.. very much dead.

After the museum, we went to source for lunch!

This was where we went, near the Ueno park.And of course, the highlight of my trip - FOOD!

Plates after plates of sushi sashaying past my eyes...

Yum yum.

After a very heavy and happy lunch, we walked around the bazaar. That place is really unique, food and cosmetics were sold side by side. Hope the smell don't blend together..

Buy a perfume that smells of fish roe? Or raw salmon that smells of lavender?

Then, we went off to Akihabara.

We saw Takuya Kimura on the subway!

Ok fine, we saw Takuya Kimura's face on the subway.

He needs a haircut. And after staring at his curly hair for ten mins or so, we arrived at Akihabara, the electronics haven!

Ok, ciao now. Very tired. Will update more next time =)

Convocation and Career Fair

2008-07-29T23:00:00.001+08:00

I've graduated, finally.

Left that chapter of my life behind, and I'm all ready to pen the next chapter of my life. I'm still on a 6-week induction, hence no actual work yet. So far everything has been great - cool friends and great ppl going all out to help us. 2 more weeks and I'm on to real work. No idea yet which department I'll be posted to, so will just have to pray for the best =)

Convocation was last Thurs, which was rather dumb coz I need to work that day. So, I took a half day leave and went to meet up with my family who came down to Singapore. It has been some time since I last saw them!

The actual event was a rather rushed and chaotic affair. Reached at 515pm and managed to take some pictures with my family and BS mates in my convo gown. That gown made me look damn bloated! Urgh.. Went into the auditorium at 6, and continued with our photo-taking, much to the chagrin of the event organisers. Haha.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised when JH came.. with a BIG FAT POOH BEAR, a mini graduating bear and a bouquet of sunflowers! I love them! Thank you =)

JH and I. The pooh is so fat rite?? So cute! Lanpei, Cat, Tonghao and I, in our pregnancy gowns. Cat, YP and I. Me and Audrey.Audrey, Lanpei, me and YP. Andrea, Lianya, Angie, Carlene, Edward and I. Tingfeng, Cat, Yp, Fish and I. Us again! Mini graduating bear and Mr. Pooh. Super duper cute!
I don't have the pictures taken with my family yet. Will upload that when I get hold of them! I had to leave immediately after the convo, due to the unGodly hour the convo ended and the fact that my parents have yet to have taken dinner. So, didnt manage to take pictures with some of my sch frens!! Sadz.

Ok, about a week back was Citi's career fair. We were supposed to wear superhero-ish clothes, but due to the short notice given, we were unable to find anything remotely superhero-ish. Therefore, we resorted to buying fake swords from a kiddy store.

It was not really superhero-ish, but well, better than nothing lar.. The sword was pretty cool k, despite the $3 price tag! It came equipped with sword-fighting-noises (activated by a red button) and not very sharp blades. So, can't kill anyone with it... After the event, I chucked it into my office drawer, never to see daylight again.

Anyway, that's Neil, Varun and I having a swordfight at the MT lobby.And this is some of us, posing!

Rather tired now, got back at 10 plus!! Tmr will be an early day, gotta reach marina mandarin by 8am... Gosh, how am I supposed to wake up so early????

Ciaoooo.

Random thoughts.

2008-07-23T20:14:00.006+08:00

Convo is tmr and my parents are coming to Singapore! =)

I have been attending Citi's new hire orientation for the past 2 days in Marina Mandarin after being at work for nearly 4 weeks. And today is one of the rare times I finally get to see the sun after work!

Aptly summed up by my fren, "Wah, the sun leh! Shud have brought my sunglasses!"

Nonetheless, I'm grateful =)

Oh yeah, my lucky sister gets to go to US (on an all-expenses-paid trip!!!) for her job interview with MI. That lucky pig..! I want my Coach k! Tons and tons of them!

All the best =)

More pictures!

2008-07-19T23:37:00.005+08:00

Took so many pictures during my Taiwan trip. Here are some I copied from Tingfeng's blog =)

Champ and Tingfeng. Tsk tsk.Super tired from all our shopping.

I had another picture of myself in a dress, hugging a hugeass plastic bag containing all my shopping conquest, but can't put it up here cause I looked like I was not wearing anything! Yeah, the plastic bag I was hugging was so LARGE, to the extent that it hid my dress in the photo!

Oh well.

At the KTV place in Taipei.

Ciao.

Last leg of Taiwan trip as well as.. on prawns and kangaroo's ehem.

2008-07-17T23:41:00.021+08:00

Leftover pictures from Sun Moon Lake:
-

Awesome scenery. I want to stay in one of these too! Yeah, they are available for rental, somewhat like a mini, one suite hotel =)

The ancient cemetary in the middle of the lake.

The harbour.

Us, and our massive weight, in our unsuccessful attempt to sink the harbour.
Sword fight with Cat! =)

And last destination, Taipei:

Gross ppl. Haha. With condom-shaped chocolates! KTV.

Random pictures of food. Yuuum.. always my favourite part of the trips.

Our acrylic nails, got them done in Taipei!

Making these nails took a grand total of 3 hrs! But so cheap compared to getting them done in Singapore!Flight back to Singapore.

And.. finally back. Actually, I got back nearly 2 mths ago!

Erm, my Japan pictures are still stuck with my sister... So cant upload them yet!

Ok.

Now on to prawn fishing.

Went a few weeks back with Yp, Cat, SK, Fish, Rc and Fiona. I caught the first prawn!! =)

And I caught a grand total of.. 3 prawns! Yup, kinda pathetic but all of us didnt really have any prawn luck that night!

This is Fish and me with the dead, skewered prawns.

Lastly, kangaroo's scrotum. In layman terms, kangaroo's balls. My fellow MA in Citi, Alan, proudly showed us his kangaroo's balls!

I thought he was kidding me at first, I mean, who the heck wants to carry a dead animal's ball in his pocket rite?! But after examining the innocuous-looking pouch, left right up down and all over, I finally came to the conclusion that he was not lying.

Firstly, there are no stitches. NONE! How can you make a pouch without any stitches unless the "thing" was thus shaped in its original form?

Secondly, it is indeed roundish and very ball-like.

Thirdly, I goggled it.. and it indeed exists. Yes, gross ppl do use kangaroo's balls as innocent-looking coin pouches -.-

And I touched it!!! YUCKS!! I dun want to touch a dead animal's private parts!Urgh.

Anyway, it's bedtime!!

Gotta work tomorrow, dressed as a superhero. Haha. Will update more about it next time.

Taiwan cont.

2008-07-05T16:00:00.005+08:00

Sun Moon Lake:

Tonnes of aboriginal food. So yummy! Took loads of pictures, which are probably still in lanpei's camera! Haha. Hence the lack of food pictures here.

Part of the lake.

Us, on the boat cruise around the lake. It was hot hot hot.. I got totally blackened that day...

On the way down from Sun Moon Lake:

Peacock farm. It has tonnes of peacocks, but I'm too lazy to upload pictures of the normal ones. Hence, I'm just gonna show u one picture - the prettiest snow white peacock I have ever seen!
One of the many temples on the way down.

Me, of course. Who else can that be?! =)
Tea place.

Cat, Lanpei and I, hmm, trying to lamely represent the vastness of that tea place.

Ok, that's all for now. After hopping on and off the van so many times on the way down from Sun moon lake, we got so tired that we slept nearly all the way to Taipei. Nearly, coz we did wake up once... to get a glimpse of the skimpily-dressed betel nuts girls.

Anyway, there will be one last post on my Taiwan trip, on the last few days in Taipei. Hopefully it will be up soon.

I am going for prawn-fishing later! and probably moving house tmr!

So may not have the time to blog about Taipei and Japan yet!

Till next time.

Ciao =)

Taiwan.

2008-07-05T15:30:00.018+08:00

Sorry for not updating so regularly.

Work has been really exciting, but I get really tired by the time I get home. Since I knocked off at 7plus for the past one week, and meeting friends and colleagues for dinner after that, I would only arrive home at 10 plus or later. That leaves me with nearly no time for anything else but shower, rest and sleep.

Yup, I sleep really early nowadays!

Anyway, here are the rest of the pictures from my Taiwan trip with BS mates.

Sin Chong Si hot spring:

Lanpei and I waiting for our bus. Boreddd.

Cat and I inside our room at the resort!

Our lunch!

Aquarium with human-eating fishes. Haha. For real!

Fish feeding in the aquarium! That's me feeding my hand to the carnivorous little fishes. Felt like many tiny suction pumps on my fingers!

One of the many pools.

Breakfast the next day.

Our room. It's huge and very very pretty inside!

A birdnest outside our room. So cute!!

Huimin and I.

Last picture before leaving Sin Chong Si.

At some other place. I am bad with Chinese names.

And Sun Moon Lake:

to be continued..

First day

2008-06-30T22:10:00.003+08:00

Thus begins a new chapter in my life.

Went to work at Citi for the very first time today.

Have not started on any actual work yet, coz today was more like an induction period where all of us met tons of ppl and sat through some briefings.
It was really interesting, but I'm so tired now.

Will update next time, when I am feeling more awake and motivated to blog.

Onsen and Fugu

2008-06-19T16:17:00.004+08:00

I am currently in Beppu, the land with hundreds of onsen (hot-springs). Unfortunately most of the onsen require us to shed our clothes... and thus our inhibitions!
In other words, everyone is supposed to bath naked together - saggy boobs, wrinkled skin and all!
Well, I am not ready to shed my inhibitions just yet. In fact, it's rather disturbing to see everyone's boobs and pubic hair in all their naked glory.

Therefore we opted for private bath, which was exorbitantly expensive compared to the public ones, but my eyes were free from disturbing visual images of hairy birthday suits.
Will update more on the onsen when I get back and upload the pictures.

Yesterday night, my sister and I went to one of the recommended dinner places and guess what I spotted on the menu?

FUGU! Yup, they actually serve the poisonous fugu or pufferfish! Feeling a teeny-weeny bit of trepidation, but nonetheless still very tempted to try the gourmet dish, I ordered it, sashimi-style!
So... it came, I ate it, and I am still very much alive after nearly 24 hours.
Taste-wise? It was kinda chewy, somewhat bland and not as orgasmic as described by many fans of the dish. Personally, I prefer the less life-threatening and cheaper sashimi dishes - salmon and fatty tuna. As usual, my favourite salmon sashimi is fantastic and fatty tuna is gastronomic!

Ok, will update more next time. Gonna rest abit before going out for dinner.
Having Japanese food everyday, for every meal is heavenly =)

Ciao.

Well and very much alive.

2008-06-16T15:22:00.006+08:00

Well,　as most of u would know, there was an earthquake in Japan a few days ago.
And since I am here typing this, with difficulty using a keyboard filled with strange Japanese characters, I am well and very much alive, thank u.

I was sleeping in Kyoto throughout the earthquake, and felt not a thing. Nothing wobbled, zilth, ok maybe my fats did.. abit.

To those who bothered to call/sms me juz to check that I am alive in Japan, I am so touched! Thank u ;)

I have been eating and spending alot for the past few days. Sushi, sashimi, ramen and soba galore! Splurged on quite abit of cosmetics too! Ohh man, I love Japan!

The transportation system here is uber efficient!!
And their shinkansen (bullet trains) are always, ALWAYS on time!!

Ok, will update more next time. Will be meeting my high school friend, Murali, for dinner later! Yup, that guy has been in Fukuoka, Japan for the past 6 years!!

Ciaooo!

Hongkong and Japan

2008-06-10T15:39:00.003+08:00

Sorry for not updating on my Taiwan trip. Didnt have the time to do it, yet.

I'm currently in Hongkong airport, waiting for my connecting flight to Tokyo.
So I wont be updating my blog so often these 2 weeks, unless I can get free internet connection in Japan. Haha.

Will be spending the first few days in Tokyo, then on to Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka, Nagasaki., Beppu, Matsue and back to Tokyo in 14 days! Hope I am not too ambitious here.

Ok. Gtg.

Ciao =)

Taiwan - Day 1 and Day 2

2008-06-03T20:52:00.003+08:00

Now, finally a post about my Taiwan trip with some BS mates! =)

About 8 of us went together (Me, Cat, Lanpei, Lanyan, Crystal, Huimin, Champ, Shunsheng) while another 2 (Kelvin and Weiliang) took the same flight but they went around Taiwan separately. The whole trip took about 10 days. Yup, ten days and way too short! I wish it could be longer!

Day 1 - Taipei to Kaoshiung

Ok, after some 5 hrs of being cramped up in the tiny Jetstar plane, we finally arrived in Taipei hungry but happy!

Some of us at the airport in Taipei.

Then, the 8 of us (Kelvin and Weiliang left to tour by themselves) took a bus to Taipei train station. We are going to take a bullet train to Kaoshiong!! Wahaha, my virgin bullet train ride.

It was fast.. but nothing fantastic about the train itself..

This is us, in front of the ubiquitous 7-11.

7-11 are everywhere in Taiwan. In fact, there are probably four 7-11s in the railway station itself.

And this is Cat's strawberry bread which she carried everywhere.. Haha.

Champ and Lanpei buying the tickets.

Them with the tickets...

And then.. we arrived in Kaoshiung a few hours later!

Our bags.. and the scary-looking hotel we stayed in Kaoshiung.

Thankfully, that was the only hotel that was not up to standard.

The night market. More shopping and food! =)
And we saw a piglet in the pet shop there. So cute. *snort snort*
And of course, food! Recommended by our hotel's staff.
Then, we called it a night and went back to sleep. Tired from all those travelling!

Day 2 - Kaoshiung to Kenting

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Breakfast time! Eating time is always my favourite. Lol.

Beef noodles with tomatoes! I love Taiwan's beef noodles.

Are there even any sucky beef noodles in Taiwan??

After breakfast, we got back to our hotel and lugged our 10kg luggage to the bus terminal.

This is some of us, very happy of course despite our aching shoulders and nearly 10kg of luggage each. We even wore colourful, happy-looking tops.

Some scenery along the way.
And soon, we arrived at Kenting! The land of beaches and yummy seafood!

First event was snorkeling! N0 pictures cause none of us wanted our cameras to drown. Then, it was motorboat, speedboat, banana boat and the greedy fish-feeding. Super fun!! And really value for money - 500NT or so for 3 hours of those stuff!

After much fun, we went for a sumptuous seafood dinner, which cost a grand total of...

SGD19 per person!

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We had steamed fish, sashimi, prawns, oysters, etc etc etc.

We are hungry. See the empty table?
Ahhhh, food is piling up...

See the fried rice there?

Well, someone (was it champ or shunsheng?) scooped it out for all of us, into separate tiny bowls.

Then, out came the FIRST human hair. Ok, juz one? We can ignore that given our growling tummies.

Then scoop scoop scoop and out came the SECOND hair.

Hmm, ok.

Then, further scooping unearthed the THIRD and FOURTH human hair!!

Now, that is gross.

We found not one, not two, but 4 significantly long, black human hair in our fried rice! WT...

So we got them to take back the fried rice and get us a new one. Hmm, we were not sure they did just that but our new fried rice took a pretty long time to arrive. So hopefully it's really new.

After dinner, we had a loooong walk at the night market along the main street of Kenting town. Bought quite abit of cheap stuff there! And we even saw a pole dance in one of the pubs! It was a really interesting show indeed. Totally RA21.

After nearly all the shops were closed, we finally headed back to our hotel.

This is our messy room - yes, all 8 of us slept in it!

Ok. Will update more on the subsequent days in the next post. Tired of typing with my highly manicured acrylic nails. Lol.

My first and probably only time of getting LONG ACRYLIC NAILS cause they are such a hassle.

So difficult to type, to wash dishes (I do wash dishes!), to zip/unzip my jeans, to hold a pen etc.

-.-

-/--

Oh yeah, I love my new perfume! Asked daddy to buy it for me and he got it from the China airport. Wahaha. It certainly looks authentic! Airport stuff can't be pirated too right? Lol.

Incanto Heaven by Salvatore Ferragamo.Ciao.

Some ppl are so annoying.

2008-06-03T15:12:00.003+08:00

I'm in Malaysia now.
And using roaming which is freaking expensive -.-

Anyway, let me bitch about some annoying person who called me 10 mins ago and wasted my money.
This girl called me on my Singapore hp number which is on roaming..
And thinking it may be something impt, I picked up the call and was immediately bombarded with some moron babbling away in Chinese.

WTF.

What if I was Indian? And what if I couldn't understand Chinese?
Hey u, u called a Singapore number, not a China number.. so plz speak in English!

And that person continued babbling in Chinese mumbo jumbo which I couldn't understand.
When I repeated said "What? Who are you?", she understood (finally!) that I couldn't understand what she was saying.
So she said in English, "Shaw ur post on small freeze."
That's what she said, pronunciation and all!
So I went, "Freeze???"

Then it hit me.

She was asking me about a post I put up 1 mth ago (!) on NTU public folder, on giving away my fridge for free. Hey, anything that is free would be gone within minutes. In fact, that was what happened. Some guy msged me asking for the fridge within minutes of putting up the post. No need to bother asking for it after 1 freaking long month.

So I said, "Given away" in chinese.
After that, the person went "Oh" and hang up the phone. How courteous.

And what a waste of my money on roaming charges.

Grad Night

2008-05-29T01:40:00.005+08:00

I'm back from Taiwan! =)

Had a really, really fantastic time there! Loads of nice food and non-stop shopping!
Oh, how i wished i could stay there longer.. and of course have unlimited moolah to spend..
Hahahaha.

But too much oily food (but nonetheless very, very yummy!) made me sick!
Having a sore throat, a runny nose and a slight cough now.. well, at least I get sick only after I got back to Spore!

Ok, pictures from Grad nite!! Too many to upload individually, hence the collages.
These show the numerous friendships forged over 4 yrs of uni life!

And plz send me the rest of the pics! Those that I took with you using ur camera coz i dun have some of them on mine! =)

Hence closed one chapter of my life.

Looking forward to the beginning of a new chapter =)

Will update on my Taiwan trip in the next post..

Nite!

Taiwan!

2008-05-18T00:57:00.006+08:00

Ok, will be going to Taiwan in 12 hrs!

So excited! I love going overseas! Who doesnt?? Lol.

Will update on my Prom night when I get back! It was fun fun fun =)

Cat (one of my best buddies in Uni) and I at Vivocity right before the prom.
Ok, hope I can get internet connection in Taiwan. I hate internet-withdrawal symptoms!

Cheerios!

Gaming How: Video Games and Consoles Rental

2008-05-12T13:05:00.006+08:00

I am back in Singapore!! BAAAAAAACK!!

OK, first check out this link:

www.GamingHow.com/blog
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Second, I want a PSP slim leh.. If I can come up with a creative entry for the above-mentioned contest, I can double or possibly triple my chances of winning a PSP slim. But I can't think of anything witty to write at the moment..

You know why?!! Cause my brain is half-dead, no thanks to the bumpy ride on the slow lumbering night train from Malaysia. The train service outdid itself this time, and why am i not surprised?! Instead of being 1.5 hours late, it was nearly 2.5 hours late! OMG! ARGHHHHHH! I arrived in Singapore at 1030am, instead of 815am as stated on the train ticket!

Why do I even have to put myself through all these shit?!! WHY??

Why can't I have my own private jet which emits enough carbon dioxide to nourish all the green plants in Singapore and contribute more to global warming so that Antarctica can crumble into the oceans??

Haiz. No choice le. Poor people like me have to tough it out on the accident-prone buses and neck-breaking train rides. Why can't they ever be on time?! WHY?? The train just gets later and later each time I take it.

And the weird thing is, Seremban (my stop) is the first stop after KL (the point of origin for the dumb dumb train). If they are so freaking late for the first stop, which was around 12pm at night, what about those subsequent stops where ppl have to drag themselves out of bed at 3am just to wait for the train?

OMG, can you imagine going to the train station at 230am, wait wait wait until 3am with no annoucements whatsoever, and later only to be told by the rude, half-asleep station attendant that your train will only happily lumber into your station at 4am? Can die ok!! I think you can just lie on the floor from boredom and exhaustion with 10kg of your laden luggage, regardless of how dirt-infested the floor is.

And yes, the floor is always, ALWAYS dirty. Don't even think about their toilets. I warn you, don't ever go near the toilets. You might just need to sanitize every open pore on your body after stepping into their notorious toilets. And yes, I do have TWO sanitizers for times when my bladder cannot take it anymore and me resorting to use their very-urgh-toilets.

Haiz, so what did I do while waiting for the tortoise train?? I sat there and waited. Waited and waited. After like forever, there was finally an annoucement saying that the train will arrive in another hour! So, have to wait somemore.

It was so freaking boring ok! Haiz, if only I have a PSP slim and tons of games to alleviate my boredom. With those, I can actually battle demons, slay dragons and play mahjong sequentially while waiting for the stupid dumb dumb train. I want a PSP slim! And of course games too lar.

Therefore, go to www.GamingHow.com/blog or http://www.gaminghow.com/ to save yourself from a dire fate like mine yesterday. Or would you rather lie on the dirty tiled floor and die of boredom?

Haha. Love ya guys! MUACKS!

Cheerios =)

Points to ponder indeed.

2008-05-11T14:54:00.006+08:00

Shunsheng,

I do not agree with your "flaws" of the 'Science and God' article. No offense =)

Flaw 1: Philosophy professors do not teach evolution - biology professors do.

My argument: Why can't philosophy professors talk about evolution? "It is generally agreed that philosophy is a method, rather than a set of claims, propositions, or theories. Its investigations are based upon rational thinking, striving to make no unexamined assumptions nor leaps based on faith or pure analogy." So in essence, philosophy professors can teach anything they want and it would still be within the syllabus.

Flaw 2: Monkeys and humans share common ancestors, nobody teaches that we evolve from monkeys.

My argument: You are not exactly wrong there. In science, people believes that men evolved from ape-like ancestors. Indeed, men did not come from the current entity we named as monkeys but in layman terms, it is believed that man evolved from ape-like creatures, not unlike what we see today.

Flaw 3: The class is in uproar does not necessarily mean that they oppose the professor's points. It could indication contention among students of different beliefs.

My argument: In the article, 'Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?' The class is in uproar. The uproar indicated excitement and confusion among the students of the class to what is brought up by the second student as well as the points made by the professor. No where in the article is it said that the uproar was due to the fact that the students oppose the professor's points. Probably you misinterpreted it.

Flaw 4: This is abit more chim - the concept of 'heat' is an arbitrary one; we could jolly well have used 'cold' to indicate temperature, and made 'heat' mean the absence of 'cold'.

My argument: Have you ever heard of heat energy? Yes. How about cold energy? No. "Temperature is a number that is related to the average kinetic energy of the molecules of a substance. Heat is a measurement of the total energy in a substance. That total energy is made up of not only of the kinetic energies of the molecules of the substance, but total energy is also made up of the potential energies of the molecules." Therefore, since heat is used since time immemorial to indicate energy, cold is simply the lack of it. And yes, we could have jolly well used cold to indicate temperature, but to do that, you will need to revamp the whole understanding of science that was formed since hundreds of years ago, all the formulas in physics as well as most of chemistry. Try coming up with an equivalent of Joules? How about the equivalent of heat transfer between two matter of different heat content?

Flaw 5: It is not entirely true that the Christian student hasn't seen or heard Jesus - if he hadn't read about him in the Bible or heard of him in sermons, he wouldn't be a Christian in the first place.

My argument: Seeing and hearing Jesus Himself is different from reading about Him and hearing about Him in sermons. I haven't seen your dad, have I? But I have definitely heard about him. That's the difference, my friend. I have not seen Jesus with my own eyes and I have not heard His voice with my own ears, but I have definitely read and heard about Him from the Bible and other people.

Questions to ponder about this religion issue include (given by shunsheng):

1. Whether it is fair to compare a evidence-based philosophy with a faith-based one?

My answer: Philosophy is "the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct." There is no such thing as an "evidence-based philosophy or a faith-based one" as philosophy is a method that aims to investigate "based upon rational thinking, striving to make no unexamined assumptions nor leaps based on faith or pure analogy". Philosophy is basically all about discussions. And who are we to judge what is fair or not?

2. What is it that makes your faith, which is based on no more evidence than other faiths, superior or truer?

My answer: No Christians would be so arrogant as to think that our religion is superior to others and no true Christians would oppress others of different religions in the name of Christianity. Christians believe that there is one true God who is also the Holy Trinity. Christians just believe that our religion is the true one and when we talk to you about it, it is because we believe that if you believe in the one true God, your sins would be forgiven and would have eternal life. We believing what is true doesn't mean we look down on other religions. There is no such thing as truer is there? It's either true or not. If anything falls short of the absolute truth, with smatterings of untruth, would it still be the truth? No, I don't think so. Call me idealistic but you can try to prove me otherwise.

3. If you read about a godly figure in a religious book written by anonymous authors, does a belief in it equates to blind faith, or true faith? Can this type of faith be dangerous or abused?

My answer: For blind faith, read this. Faith could be dangerous and abused. Otherwise, where did terrorism come from? To safeguard yourself from being victimised, you need to have God in your heart who would guide you and help you to discern what is right and what is not.

4. If one day there is a someone who claims to be God, and can be seen, heard and touched, and can perform miracles right before you, would you abandon your original faith and follow him?

My ans: I say, seek help from God and ask Him to help you in your judgement. Who knows, that might be Jesus Himself returning to the world. After all, the prophecy says that there will be a second coming of Jesus Christ. And if it is indeed Him, why is there a need to "abandon" my "original faith and follow him" for He is my original faith?

Matthew 24:42-44 (NIV) "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."

And if that is not the true God, I would not "abandon" my "original faith and follow him". Would you follow David Copperfield since he can perform so-called-magic? No, right? So, pray to God and seek help in your judgements.

All opinions are mine and do not represent all Christians, for everyone is free to think whatever thay want. God gave us a choice.

Cheerios =)
Ashley

Home again!

2008-05-09T17:30:00.004+08:00

I'm finally home, again! Haha.. took Grassland bus to Seremban yesterday.
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After the train incident a few days ago where the southern-bound train to Singapore derailed and some coaches flipped onto their sides, I'm increasingly skeptical of Malaysia's train service.
In the recent months, more and more bus crashes and train mischaps have hogged the headlines in Malaysia. What has the transport service in Malaysia come to?
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Tsk tsk. Have to risk my life everytime I take the train/bus in Msia. Maybe it's all a conspiracy to boost the sales of budget airlines' flights between Malaysia and Singapore. I look forward to the day when bus drivers with more than 3 summons are no longer allowed on the roads. Looking at the current situation, I would say give the country 100 years to improve itself?
Oh wait, is that enough?
-
No?
-
Ok, how about 1000 years?
Yeah, that would be sufficient if the fat asses warming their seats somewhere in the relevant departments actually do their jobs.
-
Anyway, today I saw some fuckard driver littering while on the roads. These pests of society have brains the size of a shrivelled pea cause he obviously has no idea how a dustbin looks like. He has the decency to wind down the window of his fugly rusty car and nonchalantly threw a big yellow plastic packaging out onto the road. Thanks to pea-brains like him, we have to sprout gills and live underwater by AD2100 as Antarctica dissolves into the sea thanks to global warming. Just fantastic. Use more plastic and throw them out into the streets, pea-brains.
-
OMG. Why am I even blogging about inane people? Urgh.
-
Let's talk about my favourite topic, FOOD!

Went to Chinatown with Cat about 2 weeks back! And we got to eat some pretty nice food in the hawker centre behind Chinatown Point (or something like that).
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I tried the stall with the longest queue! Haha. So many people eating at the stall, so the quality can't possibly be too bad.
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The curry bee hoon mee stall that I ate from.
The various accolades and certificates pasted all over the stall front.
Alot of those... so much so that I can't even see the uncle's face from the front!
And of course, a picture of my curry bee hoon mee! YUMMY!
But it's not cheap considering that it is hawkers food!
Only 2 pieces of chicken and many many taupok for the small bowl.
After eating, we went shopping for beads and charms in People's Park Centre.
Spend soooo much there -.-
=
Oh yeah, here are the photos from the last time I came back to Seremban, which was barely 2 weeks ago.
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Oldtown Kopitiam - rendang with rice! It's freaking damn nice ok.
I love love loooooove the sambal (chilli paste or whatever you call it in english).
Way better than Boonlay or Changi Village sambal which comes with their nasi lemak.
I ate it again yesterday. The exact same thing. Wahahaha. I think I must eat it at least once everytime I come home. Sinfully fattening but oh-so-yummy..
Then I went to Kensington with my mom.
It's a western restaurant in Seremban, which has surprisingly good food!
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My steak! Which was cooked to perfection - MEDIUM, and not overcooked at all!
Loveee it =) But my mom was kinda grossed out by the bloodiness of the middle portion. The starter. A very interesting duck. Yummmy.

Another local favourite food of mine - beef noodles!

I tried the new shop in town (Meiwah, it's the same one I read from your blog the last time!) but it's not as good as the shop in Kemayan Sq, my all time favourite beef noodles place.

My beef noodles.

After being so well fed at home, I went back to Singapore for my poster day.

Being at home makes me fat. I sleep, and eat, and sleep, and eat.

The cycle repeats itself endlessly, and makes me very fat but also very happy. LOL.

Food will miraculously appear when I'm at home. My mom will literally shove plates and plates of food towards me. How not to get fat, you tell me?

Ok, back in Singapore.

JH stunned me by offering to go shopping with me one day!

This is the same guy who abhors mindless shopping and endless walking around!

Thank you baby!

And yeah, I love Orchard Road. One of my many true loves. LOL.

We went to eat at the small chinese place in International House (or towers? I dunno). Their food is pretty good =)

And after dinner, we watched Iron Man. The movie is awesome =)

It's a superhero show after all, so don't expect mind-numbing dialogues and deep, deep plots.

But it's funny and definitely a light-hearted watch.

-
And KY's birthday was last week, so we all went to DblO. The queue was freaking long, snaked all the way to the main road and beyond to dunno where. So some of the guys opened a bottle of whisky to get priority entry. The girls? Free entry for ladies night of course! Wahaha.

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Uber crowded inside..

Me and JH.

Some of us with the birthday boy, KY.

Me, in love with the whisky.

At the end of the session, we have a very drunk birthday boy. Erm, 25 years old already, so not considered a boy anymore yeah? LOL.

Puke puke puke. Drank waaaaay too much lar he.

And... finally, it was poster day on Tuesday!

Everyone was so smartly dressed in formal attire!

Nice.. but somehow there was the sense of nostalgia cause that will be the last few times we are gonna meet up like that again.

Qiaohui, Engel and I.

Cat, XYZ and I.

Some of us with Fish, who won the best poster! Eh Fish, I want a dinner treat!!

Qiaohui, Engel, Lauretta and I, in front of not-our-posters.

Lanpei, Lianya, Carlene, Lauretta and I.
All of us! Teeny weeny us.

Ok, I am going out soon for dinner with my mom and aunties in a Korean restaurant =)

Soon to meet up with my beloved kimchi. Hahaha.

Ciao.

Tomorrow is the day.

2008-05-05T22:42:00.004+08:00

Poster presentation TOMORROW!!!

The last hurdle before graduation. I can't wait for it to be over.

Sooooon. Sooooon.

Pray for me k =) Thanks!

An interesting article.

2008-05-03T03:43:00.007+08:00

Got the following story from Joleen's blog. Read it, you won't be disappointed =)

The DIFFERENCE
Science and God

'Let me explain the problem science has with Jesus Christ.'
The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand.
'You're a Christian, aren't you, son?'
'Yes sir,' the student says.
'So you believe in God?'
'Absolutely.'
'Is God good?'
'Sure! God's good.'
'Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?'
'Yes.'
'Are you good or evil?'
'The Bible says I'm evil.'
The professor grins knowingly.
'Aha! The Bible!'
He considers for a moment.
'Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?'
'Yes sir, I would.'
'So you're good...!'
'I wouldn't say that.'
'But why not say that? You'd help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn't.'
The student does not answer, so the professor continues.
'He doesn't, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Hmmm? Can you answer that one?'
The student remains silent.
'No, you can't, can you?' the professor says.
He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax.
'Let's start again, young fella Is God good?'
'Er...yes,' the student says.
'Is Satan good?'
The student doesn't hesitate on this one. 'No.'
'Then where does Satan come from?'
The student : 'From...God...'
'That's right. God made Satan, didn't he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Evil's everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything, correct?'
'Yes.'
'So who created evil?' The professor continued, 'If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according tothe principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.'
Without allowing the student to answer, the professor continues: 'Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?'
The student: 'Yes.'
'So who created them?'
The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. 'Who created them?' There is still no answer.

Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized.
'Tell me,' he continues onto another student. 'Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?'
The student's voice is confident: 'Yes, professor, I do.'
The old man stops pacing. 'Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?'
'No sir. I've never seen Him'
'Then tell us if you've ever heard your Jesus?'
'No, sir, I have not.'
'Have you ever actually felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?'
'No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't.'
'Yet you still believe in him?'
'Yes.'
'According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?'
'Nothing,' the student replies. 'I only have my faith.'
'Yes, faith,' the professor repeats. 'And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith.'

The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking aquestion of his own.
'Professor, is there such thing as heat?'
'Yes,' the professor replies. 'There's heat.'
'And is there such a thing as cold?'
'Yes, son, there's cold too.'
'No sir, there isn't.'
The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested.
The room suddenly becomes very quiet.

The student begins to explain.'You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can hit up to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat.You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.'

Silence across the room.
A pen drops somewhere in the classroom,sounding like a hammer.
'What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?'
'Yes,' the professor replies without hesitation.
'What is night if it isn't darkness?'
'You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, brightlight, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have Nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?'
The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him.This will be a good semester.
'So what point are you making, young man?'
'Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed.'
The professor's face cannot hide his surprise this time.
'Flawed? Can you explain how?'
'You are working on the premise of duality,' the student explains. 'You argue that there is life and then there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, muchless fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it.'

'Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?'
'If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do'
'Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?'
The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.
'Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?'
The class is in uproar.
The student remains silent until the Commotion has subsided.

'To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean.'
The student looks around the room. 'Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor's brain?'
The class breaks out into laughter.
'Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's brain, felt the professor's brain, touched or smelled the professor's brain? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir. So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?'

Now the room is silent.The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable.
Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers.
'Iguess you'll have to take them on faith.'
'Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life,' the student continues. 'Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?'
Now uncertain, the professor responds, 'Of course, there is. We see it everyday. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.'
To this the student replied, 'Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.'
The professor sat down.

Pass this on if you have faith in God. If not, still pass it on for it's a good story!

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. - C. S. Lewis

Hanabi Japanese Buffet with lab ppl

2008-05-02T17:22:00.018+08:00

Last Saturday, some of my lab ppl and I went to have buffet (again!) at Hanabi Japanese Restaurant, Odeon Towers.

Alwin and I treated Fan coz he helped us SO SO SO MUCH in our FYP!

Supposed to meet at 6pm, and I was punctual.. and surprisingly the earliest!!
LOL. I guess when it comes to food, I will definitely reach on time or earlier =)

The entrance to the restaurant. Nice decor i muz say. Very zen.. with alot of wood and water.

I waited and waited for those LATE-ist. And wanyi was the second to arrive! Haha, once she arrived, we immediately ordered food. Don't want to die waiting for the rest! I was literally starving already lor. The buffet is ala carte, which means that you order whatever you want from the menu and they will take their own sweet time to serve you. Service was prompt at the beginning and soon laggggged alot when the place got packed. Honestly, I didnt eat alot that night, cause the servers took so bloody long just to prepare a plate of sashimi - around 20 mins or so!

Maybe they had to catch the fish from hokkaido, ship it over to Singapore from across many oceans, descale it thoroughly, slice it and painstakingly arrange the fish slices onto tiny plates only after we placed our orders. No wonder they took so long huh.

Ok, here are the pictures of the food. You are officially allowed to start drooling from this point onwards.

Sushi. Tastewise was ok. But the unagi (eel) was kinda too sour for me. I think they were too liberal with the vinegar for the rice, which kinda rubbed off on the poor unagi, which in turn became sourish too.

Cha Soba. The noodles were nice and springy... but the soup/gravy/whatever-you-call-it was so bland. TOTALLY BLAND, so much so that Sherlyn and I had to add soy sauce to it! I thought it was supposed to be salty? The ones I have tried in other Jap restaurants were salty. Tsk tsk.

The sashimi. I love the leaf-imprinted-wasabi. So Cute! Sashimi was not bad.

Tempura - prawns and a variety of vege. Hmm, the prawns tempura were not that great.

Not crispy and kinda disappointing. Kuishinbo definitely has better tempura!

More Sashimi.

Stir fried stuff. Quite nice.. but somewhat reminds me more of Chinese food, instead of Jap food.

Kimchi pork or something. Nice nice.

Sushi. Too packed with rice for my liking. The authentic Japanese restaurant I have been to served sushi with only a small portion of rice, unlike some conveyor-belt Jap restaurants here which stuffed their sushi with way too much rice.

Sushi - unagi again.

All of us who went!

OMG, I'm like the shortest in the picture! Tsk tsk, it's optical illusion ok! Really!!!Ok, that's all the pictures I took that night. Overall, the food was average and cost about $40 per person for Saturday dinner. Honestly, I wouldn't go back there again.

Would rather have Kuishinbo anytime. At least in Kuishinbo, you will not be at the mercy of slow-serving waitresses and you can take as much as you want, as often as you want, as quickly as you want. And has a much greater variety of food which taste nicer too. But Kuishinbo cost a bomb on weekends dinner! Oh well, will just satisfy my craving by going on weekdays or for lunch instead =)

Went for movie in Shaw after dinner. Watched Definitely Maybe which was terrible. I am just not into these kinda romantic comedies, which don't have the conventional fairy-tale endings. Urgh, I hate the ending.

Me, with WALL.E outside the cinema! Super cute! The movie is coming out soon =) I will definitely watch that. I love cartoons.. wahaha.

And before I go,

Happy Birthday Lim Xiang Min!

Miss you!

Ciao.

Battle for Haditha

2008-04-30T20:51:00.004+08:00

Just saw the movie, "Battle for Haditha".
The movie tells the story of the events leading up to November 19, 2005 where innocent civilians are killed, or more like massacred in Haditha, Iraq by U.S. Marines in retaliation for the death of one of their own. It's a very moving story which reflects the actual events that happened not just in that one incident, but also in past, present and future wars.

Although some of the actors are not exactly oscar-worthy-material, the movie itself is powerful. It lets you have a glimpse into the minds and show you the reasons for the actions of the people involved in wars - the insurgents, the marines as well as the civillians. There is no clear line between what is right and what is not. Everything is somewhat in the grey area. Everyone in the show has a reason for doing what they did, be it what you perceive as morally right or not.

Recommended show which is definitely worth watching. It makes you realise that life for many people is not what you can imagine to be.
Is war really worth the lives of all those killed? And who are you to put a value on life?

Points to ponder.

Home!

2008-04-28T14:39:00.007+08:00

I'm back home for a few days!

And I feel so healthy. Haha.
Well, coz at home I eat healthier food at proper times! Plus I'm immersed in much much love =)
And the fridge is full of yummy goodness - milk, fruits, fruit juice, ribena, yogurt, yakult, cooked food, uncooked food and most importantly, unexpired food.

In hall, my puny fridge currently has one pathetic pack of cheese.
Yup, cheese and nothing else.
I don't buy drinks anymore, coz I can never finish them before they expire!
I don't buy fruits anymore, coz I can never finish them before they rot!
I am juz one person in the room, so how to finish so bloody much food?
But I still buy the occasional ham, bread and one skinny piece of cut fruit.

Pathetic I know. Ah well, home is always the best =)

Now now, I have something to complain. Not about home but more about where home is - Malaysia.

Train service - sucks. Try taking the train back to Malaysia and be prepared to die waiting.
Well, I would say add 1.5-2.5 hours to your supposed travelling time. And if you are supposed to reach Ba Ba Land by 7pm, please ask your mom/dad/chauffeur to come at 8.30pm earliest.

Roads - in need of facial, loads of potholes which are somewhat like mooncraters. Try driving at 90 km/hr and hit one of these holey moley craters. The mechanics will be one bunch of happy ppl. And so will be some doctors. The holes are always always there! They patch it up, and a new one appears. In fact, the rate of apprearing is faster than the rate of holes-patching, thus resulting in tons of potholes. If the tar bitumens used were not substandard (read: no tar theft by tar paving ppl), wouldn't the holes be extinct already?

Express Postal service - well, those smart asses decided to move the headquarters of the express postal service from the town centre to the forbidden kingdom. You can't get there unless you live in the jungle. If you are so unlucky to stay near town, be prepared to drive up to 40 mins or so via holey roads to the above mentioned jungle kingdom. And if you request for a redelivery (coz you were out working your asses off on weekdays), they will be kind enough to pacify you and arrange for a redelivery at your requested date and time. BUT, it's all just a faux coz they will come on another day at another time, while you were out of course. These ppl are juz so awesome, don't you think so?

Etc etc etc etc etc etc etc.

Oooo, I went to Chinatown with Cat in the afternoon and Hanabi Japanese Restaurant for dinner with my lab ppl on Saturday! I saw so many angmohs in Chinatown, more than in other parts of Singapore. Interesting huh. Anyway, no pictures yet. Will upload when I get back to Singapore on Wednesday.

Ciao.

St. James Power House and Zouk

2008-04-25T19:35:00.012+08:00

My body clock is freaking screwed up!

In fact, I have been sleeping at 6am daily for the past 2 weeks and waking up juz in time for tea. Wahaha. So basically I only eat dinner, and sometimes the very unhealthy supper. Well, I try not to eat supper coz I'm like damn fat already!! But when I see my friends eat, my stupid rebellious stomach wills itself to churn out more gastric juices, which of course makes me hungry lar! Urgh.

Fat fat fat!

Oh well, get over it! Yes yes.. Muz eat less I know.
Even my mom and dad think that I eat way too much!
Erm, actually I think everyone who knows me thinks that I eat way way way too much.

Proof :
JH will go like, "Are you really going to eat that? Look at your bulging tummy!"
Fish looking at my enormous plate of Hokkien mee during supper and not batting an eyelid.
My sister's first word to me via msn is invariably, "Pig!"

Etc etc etc.

How nice of them to be so blatantly honest rite?!

I'm so sorry, but I just can't give up my true love.

I've been dreaming of my true love's kiss. And a buffet, I'm hoping, comes with this. That's what brings ever-aftering so happy.
(Modified from Enchanted's True Love's Kiss)

Don't sue me for plagiarism k? I cited already!

Oops, I apologize for slipping into my rare lameness self for abit. Yes, it's rare lar.
I'm normally quite... normal...

Okok, back to the point of this post.

I went clubbing last Wednesday!! Soooooooooo long since I have gone to a club!
Some BS mates and I went to St. James for their Ladies Night.

One thing I absolutely love about St. James? The free entry and 5 free drinks!

One thing I absolutely hate about St. James? The crowd. Or more like the non-existence of it. Ok lar, to be fair, if you are old and have a bad fashion sense, you might like the not-very-crowded-crowd there. By old, I mean late late twenties and above. That's for their Power House. For Dragonfly (one of their dance floors), I heard that the crowd consists of old uncles using their retirement funds to open bottles and the xiao mei meis swarming around the said uncles.

Retirement funds leh!!!

That's how old the crowd is. Anyway, I have never been inside Dragonfly, only heard it from my friend.

Sooo.. after getting our free drinks, we took a cab to Zouk.
And I'm so glad we did! The crowd in Zouk was much better.. and though the drinks were ex, the girls didn't have to pay a single cent for any. Haha. Yes, it's great being a girl =)

Ok, photos.

That's me and Lanpei at St. James.
Lanpei and Meowmeow.
Meow meow and I.

And our free tequila shots! In addition to some house pours that we have had already.
Super salty..
Then off we went to Zouk.

Toilet first!
Super duper crowded.. even in the freaking toilet..
Many angmohs there that night too. Can see the sexy angmohs in the picture?
Think JH will kill me if I wear like that girl on the right. Sexy sexy =)Lanpei, me and Meowmeow queueing up in the squeezy toilet.

Our quick fucks! My favourite drink! =)

Guys acting gay. A kiss from Tingfeng, anyone?

Me, Lanpei and Tingfeng.

Ok, enough for the day. I'm so tired.

Went to Citi in the morning for a short meeting.. and IBN after that for my presentation.

Yup, my last day in IBN! No need to go back to lab, ever!

Haha. Ciao.

Random musings

2008-04-22T03:44:00.006+08:00

Just watched "My Neighbour Totoro", an anime I have not seen in more than 10 years!!
Yeah, that shows how old I am.. I was so fascinated with the show back then, so much so that I even bought a soft toy of the kitty-cat-bus that appeared in the anime. I still keep the soft toy in my room at home!! My my.. just realised that most of my soft toys are older than the primary school kids these days..

I also saw "The Girl Who Leaped Through Time" this afternoon. A super touching anime with a bittersweet ending. It's not exactly a sad ending, but one that is really up to your interpretation. I don't exactly love the ending.. cause, well... I am a "happily ever after" type of person. That's why I get rather sad by watching stupid shows with unhappy endings.

One prime example of a stupid show with a dumb ending is The Skeleton Key. I hate it when evil triumphed over good. That show totally sucked. It was disturbing, depressing and it completely wasted 2 hours of my life. Urgh. Now, I've 2 hours less to enjoy myself.

Okok, shall not think about stupid endings. Maybe I am too idealistic after all.
There is no such thing as happily ever after anymore. Not when you are all grown up anyway.

So what do we have, if there is no happily ever after?

We have reality. We have poverty. We have war. We have diseases. We have deaths.

What is life without death? What is happiness without sadness?
Can we truly be happy without understanding sadness?
A few non-Christians have asked me the same qns with regards to God.

Why does He allow suffering? Why do innocent babies die?

I don't know.

Please tell me if you do.

Why am I talking about all these anyway? I am not upset or anything.
In fact, now I feel... nothing. Nothing. How strange. Can anyone truly feel nothing?

Ok, I better stop rambling before I weird myself out.

Gotta sleep now.

Last hurdle! And the sickly sweet thing.

2008-04-19T02:26:00.010+08:00

Submitted my FYP thesis today le! Finally!

Left the poster presentation in May before graduating...

Oh man, I miss school already.

But not the mumbo-jumbo lecturers and their sleep-inducing chants. They should get a job at the insomniac department of some hospital. A place where their sleep-inducing talent is put to greater use for the benefit of humankind. Tsk tsk.

Anyway, went out for dinner with the babes and Weiliang.

Cafe Cartel has terrible food. Period.

The St. Louis Ribs are like diabetic, and probably died of sugar-overdose. I couldn't take the sickly sweet taste after like 1/4 through the slab. Cat fared better than me, and she managed to eat 1/3 (or 1/2?) of the slab before giving up. Well, Weiliang fared the best, and ate nearly 4/5 of that thing. I think the chef should get his teeth checked. I suspect all 32 of his teeth are made up of the ominous sweet-tooth.

RIBS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SALTY. NOT SWEET.

EWWWWW.

I was not totally full after the ribs. I was just sick of the taste and I couldn't bring myself to have another bite anymore. Urgh. Remind me never to eat ribs from Cafe Cartel again.

Please go to Tony Romas. Their ribs are superb. SUPERB. Their chefs have normal teeth. And taste buds.

Ok, pictures pictures.

"Herein lies the thing that died from a sugar-overdose."

Yoke Peng's pasta. She didn't finish it too. Doubt the problem lies with all the 4 of us.

Weiliang's t-shirt. It's just so him.

And us - Me, Cat and YP. Well, u can guess who's the cameraman responsible for this blur pic..

Haha.

Ciao.

I'm gonna slack now.

All the best to those still slugging it out for exams. It will be over soon. Real soon.

Kittens vaccination and book talk.

2008-04-14T02:13:00.005+08:00

Brought the kittens to see the vet today! For their first vaccination and deworming =)
The poor little babies must be scared out of their skin, coz they kept soooo quiet the whole time. No mewing, no nothing. Just sat on the vet's table helplessly as the lady vet manhandled them. She opened their mouths WIDE, tinkled their furry ears, groped their tiny butts and stared unabashedly at their shit holes.

Anyway, once they got home the frightened little kittens transformed into naughty bawling babies again, those with a gaping black vacuum for a stomach which can accommodate all the food in the world.

Anyway, I just completed a book which I started reading eons ago. Not that it sucked or anything, just that the first 60% of the book was really really loooooooong and the plot moved really really slooooooooooowly. But once u reach the 60% mark, the pace picks up and things get interesting. The book I was reading is called "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro, some celebrated writer with a book that won the Booker Prize. As I was saying earlier, the book gets interesting once u have endured through the first 60%. It has a twist nearing the end, a very twisty one. Well, it is totally unexpected but makes total sense of all the gibberish that happened in the first 60%. I don't wanna spoilt the surprise by telling you the end. So go read the book if u can get your hands on it. Nice but disturbing and I was feeling rather down after reading it.

And I am trying to get my hands on this book called "The 10th Kingdom". It's a totally awesome book by Katryn Wesley!!! I read it once, when I borrowed it from RJ library eons ago. And yeah, I love it so much that years later, I am still thinking about that book. I am crazy rite, thinking about a book after so many gazillion years. Well, I want to buy it, for keeps but the stupid thing is I can't find it anywhere in Singapore~! Not in Borders and not in Kino.. Wanted to check at PageOne but that place has a contact number which nobody answers!! How helpful.

Well, all is not lost and the good news is Amazon.com has it!!! Second hand ones for as cheap as 2.09USD!!! But the bad news is shipping costs about 14.00 USD. That's 7x the price of the book itself -.- But I want that book so badly... Hmm, will see what I can do...

Finally, time!

2008-04-10T19:52:00.007+08:00

Yay, finally more time to update!

Went back to Msia last month... and had quite a feast.. =)
I know I know, you are gonna say I'm such a pig rite...

But... I dun care... I love food. Wait, let me correct myself. I love GOOD food =)

And one of my favouriteeeeees - Korean food! And their multitude of side dishes!
I miss kimchi already... Oh kimchi kimchi, where are youuuu?

Love their pancakes too!!
For the first time in my 24 years of life, the actual dish actually looked bigger and better than the puny picture on the menu!! I thought the pancake looked kinda small, so my mum and I ordered it, in addition to our beef main course, kimchi soup and twelve side dishes. But lo and behold, the pancake was massive ok.. Ate so much that night that I nearly puked.
But definitely worth it. Haha, that's the glutton in me speaking.

Gluttony me:
Hello..? hello...? I want food plz. Fooooood...Fooooood...Fooooood... faintz.

I think all koreans must have invested in a dishwasher. Each time I eat at a korean restaurant, they serve us with hundreds of miniature plates. Literally in the hundreds, no kidding. I have no idea how they are gonna do the dishes without a dishwasher.. or an employee specialising in washing dishes at least.

1 table = 100 plates

10 tables = 1000 plates

100 tables = 10,000 plates

-.-

And two days after that, I indulged in Jap food =)

And my weight-lost plan just got trampled upon by the ooodles of food.

Hmm, I miss home already!

And I got a haircut as well as my hair dyed!! Wella called me up for some hair-modelling thing, and since I have not dyed my hair in years, of course I jumped at the chance lar! Free leh! I liked the way they layered my hair, a change from my usual boring hairstyle. Nothing radical lar and totally summed up by Wanyi.

Sherlyn: Hey girl, you cut ur hair!

Me: Yeah, and you are like the first person to notice it after 2 weeks! (looks over to Wanyi) Eh, did u know I cut my hair since u see me everyday?

Wanyi: Din notice le, you just look like you got less hair.

Me: -.-

Great rite. Haha.

My hair is supposed to have a gradient of colours, from the darkest at the root, to the lightest at the tip. But I don't see anything le. It just looks... brown. It was more obvious on the day at the salon, with all the 50 different hairdressers commenting and flipping through my hair as if it was a book, and me, the inanimate book holder. But well, I love it all the same. And surprise surprise, at the end of the whole show, I got $$$!! Totally unexpected cause the Wella guy kept mum about it until the end of the show lor.

I realised that I'm really blessed. I have so many wonderful people around me. And things are great, minus the 2 deaths in January. I miss them. Hope they are doing well up there. To be honest, the start of 2008 was probably the suckiest time of my life. There were 2 deaths within 2 weeks, my lovely maternal grandma and paternal grandpa. They were pretty close to me and their deaths came as a total shock. Oh man, I'm like tearing while writing this...

Okok, no more emo stuff. Have learned to accept that life is transient. And very fragile. Therefore, appreciate the people around you!

Updates updates!

2008-04-10T05:56:00.003+08:00

Haven't updated in awhile now.
Let me revive my dying blog, juz abit... with some snippets of my boring, FYP-consumed life.

My kittens are so cute!! And their tummies are ever-growing.. it actually reminds me of someone.. Hahaha. Love them to bits!! Moby was climbing all over me today, with her soft little paws and smelly little butt. She probably thought I was her cushion. Silly girl.

Yes, did I tell you that MOBY is a girl? All along, we thought that she was male!! Even the fosteror thought she was a he. But after much observation on their shitting and peeing habits, we found it weird that MOBY acted like Brook (the other female kitty). Soooo we decided to look at their "ahem" and saw... no balls. Haha. Oh well, still ultra cute all the same =)

Oh yeah, I submitted my thesis' first draft on Tues!! Hope my mentors like it. I don't wanna change anything anymore! Sickening.

Although my FYP is boring stuff, no thanks to screwed experimental results and my lack of interest in lab work, I'm glad that some of my mates got something good outta all these nonsense. One got a patent. Yes, a patent and probably 3 soon-to-be-published papers with him as the co-author. Amazing. But he is not getting a single cent outta the patent while NTU-the-great is taking everything. So u can imagine how 'happy' he is about it. But hey, he is definitely getting an A for FYP! Thats good news already!

Ok, another fren (that's you, FISH) is probably getting a 4,000,000 dollars grant to continue his research. That's 4 million dollars if you can't count the zeroooos. Well, I'm really glad he got it, coz he's juz so crazily passionate about his plants! His babies, I mean... Congrats dude. Remember me when you are rich k =)

And for the rest of us minions, we are still crossing our fingers (and toes) hoping for something good to come outta this FYP.

Pray for me! Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaank you =)

Ok, it's 6.35 am now, on a weekday night. Time to sleep. Ciaaaao. I gotta wake up in 2.5 hours.

It's official

2008-04-01T19:52:00.004+08:00

I'm old. It's official.

I'm feeling old. Old. Old. Old. Old.

No life whatsoever now. Wait, I have a life. One tormented life in lab.

I have to finish my thesis in 2 weeks! Not juz old, I'm dying too. Dying from FYP.

Yeah, better start panicking.

How random lar this post. I know.

Oh btw, HaPPy ApRiL's FooL.

Allergy

2008-03-27T16:20:00.004+08:00

ARGGGGH~!!

I'm having some sort of allergy... Feeling pukish now...
The stupid dreaded feeling that wouldn't go away until I sleep it off...
Wanna puke but can't really puke kind of feeling.. Argh.

I'm cursed lar..

You know what's the bloody thing I'm allergic too??

Not peanuts.
Not pollens.
Not milk.
Not seafood.

It's Coffee!

Yes, I'm allergic to coffee for some weird reason. Maybe it's the caffeine inside?
Not too sure coz I can drink cups and cups of tea (with caffeine too) without any major incident.
I didn't have this sorta weird reaction to coffee when I was younger..
The "pukish feeling after drinking coffee" only came about 2 years ago.. What luck man.

Now I feel sick coz I took 2 sips from JH's cup of YinYang (a mixture of coffee and tea).
2 sips!! Just 2 sips!! and I feel ill already..

WTF

Transformer

2008-03-17T12:10:00.003+08:00

OMG.

You guys gotta read this:

Transformer (got the link from Kennysia's blog)

It's amazing. Seriously.

I think she freaking spends 20 hours on applying and removing make-up everyday.

Loooong post.

2008-03-15T04:48:00.024+08:00

It's finally the weekend!!
-
Ok, time to update u guys on what's interesting in my life lately.. not that there're alot of happening things at the moment.
-
My life is kinda settling down to a monotonous tone, which is pretty scary cause I absolutely dislike anything mundane and downright boring. And well, my life has been one humdrum existence lately, with the exception of some rare, very very rare highlights..
-
Aiyah, let's not dwell on the monotony of my Final-year-project-life. It's depressing to think about it. Eww.
-
Well, let's talk about JH's birthday first.
I treated him to a Mediterranean dinner at Dolce Vita at Oriental Hotel. It was on a Tuesday, in the middle of a freaking humdrum week. So, I was happy that there was something I could look forward to in the midst of my monotonous Final Year Project.
-
Haha, well, being a food freak, of course I wouldn't just walk into any fine-dining restaurant and expect the food to be orgasmic! To be honest, many hotel restaurants suck big time... Thus, I promptly did my research on yummy food and "great" prices way way wayyyyy ahead of his birthday. 1.5 months ahead to be exact! The prices I was looking at... were absolutely "great". More on the price later.
-
Ok, I was not just looking at yummy.. I was more like looking for the best fine-dining around :)
So, I booked a table at Dolce Vita, and I mentioned that it was JH's birthday too =)
-
Well, the deciding factor that made me chose Dolce Vita was its impressive list of achievements!

“Best of Singapore in Service Excellence 2007”
for Food and Beverage industry by Singapore Tourism Board and Singapore Tatler

“Singapore’s Best Restaurant 2006”
by Singapore Tatler

“Singapore’s Top Restaurant 2006”
by Wine & Dine

“Singapore’s Best Restaurant 2007”
by Singapore Tatler
-
Amazing isn't it?
-
Ok, some pictures taken on that day...
-
Me, being fascinated by the hotel's toilet.
Suaku, I know... But pretty toilets are oh-so-rare!!! On the scale of 1 to 10, this toilet is definitely a 10-ner, while IBN toilets score a 6 and NTU toilets are in the negatives.. I can never comprehend why some foreigners (from lands far far away) like to wash their smelly feet in the common area at the sinks. I guess they will never know the hazards of a wet floor until they experience the pleasure of slipping and falling flat on their faces. Can't they wash their feet in the shower cubicles instead?!! Noooo, they apparently can't. They are blind to the notices pasted in the toilets on "KEEP THE FLOOR DRY". Wait, maybe they are not blind.. maybe they are just plain dumb? Hmm, something worth researching on eh? For next year's Final Year Project (FYP) maybe?
-
Title of the FYP:
Proliferation of Abnormal Cells in the Retina* and Forebrain** which adversely affects Human Vision and Higher Functions.
-
*Retina is in the eye.
**Forebrain is, well... in the brain, where else?!
-
Let's go back to the hotel toilet.

Haiz, the pictures don't do justice to the beauty of the toilet... It's much much prettier in real life!

Ok, now to the food!

Bread.. All fine-dining restaurants serve bread (for free if u must know...) at the start of the dinner. I presume it is to keep us and our tummy occupied while the chefs in the kitchen brandished their saucepan, started up their oven and worked on our food.

I love the bread. Steam came out the moment the I peeled the bread apart.... So nice! And the dips/spreads were so yummy!! I loved their olive-based sauce as well as the tomato-based one. Weird I know, for a person who doesn't like olive, I could actually enjoy the olive sauce!!

Anyway, JH and I cleared the whole bread!! And... out came another one!! Whoah, the waiters were super efficient..! The service was EXCELLENT!

Hmm, while waiting for the soup, and not wanting to eat too much bread (yeah right lar, I ate more than half of the humongous bread already...), I took photos of the view instead...

-
The shimmering pool outside.

The interior of the restaurant. Cosy :) Unlike the typical, stuffy fine-dining restaurant.

Ahhh, complimentary appetizers by the chef!! Very interesting and yummy!!

There's that olive again.. Hmm, the prevalence of olive in Mediterranean food eh...

The darkening sky.

Hmm, very soon, the sky got dark and the place got dim...

Me. I think camera phones don't work too well without bright light. Abit grainy here...

Then, my lobster soup came!! Gastronomic!!

Ok, after my soup, is finally our main course.

Mine - The Wagyu Beef, which is actually tenderloin beef. THE BEEF IS AWESOME!
Haiya, the picture is badly taken I know... but trust me, this dish is damn good as the beef was cooked to perfection. I ordered Medium and the texture was just right!! Unlike some terrible places which tend to overcook the beef.

This is JH's steak, Rib-eye I think. Very yummy tooooo, and once again cooked to absolute perfection!! :)

Now, I'm hungry...

Lunch soon, soon...

Ok, after we cleared our main course, the dessert came. Chocolate something, which was very nice too!

Then, as we called for the bill, the surprise came!!

A birthday cake for the birthday boy!! Even the cake was delicious... How can one restaurant be so good in everything?!!

All in all, excellent food and great service..

Well, so was the price... It's only meant for special occasions lar.. Hehe, cause the Wagyu beef itself cost me an arm and a leg, as well as one-tenth of a LV bag.

The view outside the restaurant.. It overlooks the Singapore Flyer, the blue round thing in the picture. Hehe, the pool looks inviting lor.

The restaurant itself is at the top of Oriental Hotel.

Finally done with the birthday post!

Now, a small collage of my kittens! *click on it for a bigger picture*

Yeah, I renamed little River to little Moby.

Moby which literally means..

...morbidly obese...

It's not that Moby is fat.. just that JH and I saw this really huge, grey cat which looked and behaved like Garfield in Bedok once. That humongous cat was grey, and since the coat colour is pretty similar to my little Moby, we decided to name the kitten Moby.. which sounds cuter than River anyway :)

So.. Moby it is.

Yesterday I stayed in lab till 9plus. So freaking tiring ok...

Since it was so late, JH and I ate at the supper place in Simpang Bedok.

It's supposedly famous for their pratas?

My dinner/supper. Fried Maggi Mee with egg, which is.. bland. Very very bland. But I like the runny egg.

JH's mutton murtabak, which is pretty decent I guess.

Oh, here's a picture I took during steamboat with some BS peeps last month. We tried to use the panorama function in my hp... and the end result? Hmm, ok lar.. U can see for yourself.. Some big heads, some small heads.. *click on it for a bigger picture*

Oh Oh, I sat next to a really smelly guy on the mrt yesterday!! He stinked so bad.. an equivalent of 100 expired salted fish clamped in 2 sweaty armpits. Nearly died. 80% of my poor smell receptors probably shrivelled and died during that fateful mrt trip from buona vista to Kallang (thank goodness he got off at Kallang). On hindsight, I should have just stood up (despite my legs giving way to exhaustion), rather than to endure the overwhelming salted fish torment.

But being the gracious me, I would rather let my smell receptors suffer in silence than to let another poor soul sit next to the expired salted fish. Hahaha.

Ciao.

Malaysia's General Election

2008-03-10T01:40:00.005+08:00

A "political tsunami" where Barisan Nasional lost 5 states (Kelantan, Penang, Kedah, Selangor and Perak!!!), as opposed to just 1 state (Kelantan) in the last general election.

News.

Donuts

2008-03-07T16:47:00.004+08:00

OMG, I'm such an incurable over-eating pig.

I just unabashedly consumed 3.5 freaking donuts in one sitting!!! That's about 5 mins per donut.
Argh... an overdose of grimy chocolate and fattening oil!!!

And... I still wanna eat more... MORE...!
Craving for dim sum... again!

I seriously think my appetite is screwed up. I eat so freaking much.
I was literally starving yesterday after I finished my dinner of sesame oil chicken with rice.
The hunger pangs were so bad that I was contemplating having a KFC 2-piece chicken meal...

The result?

I didnt have my KFC cause I was feeling guilty for eating so much.
But................................ psychic Alwin had to call me and Shirlyn out for supper...

Haiz, so I ate 2 prata.

Bad bad.

Kittens

2008-03-07T16:15:00.004+08:00

I am gonna adopt 2 kittens!

Met them last week at their foster home and they were absolutely adorable...

These are the pictures provided by their fosteror.

1) Baby River..

2) Baby Brook
So cute rite!? There are actually 4 kittens in the litter, but I can only adopt 2... Can't possibly house all 4 of them... Haiz, they are all so super duper adorable...

Can't wait to get them tomorrow.... =)

Unhappy

2008-02-29T16:41:00.000+08:00

I HATE MY FYP!!!

It's so screwed up.

Oops, I did it again.

2008-02-24T13:35:00.003+08:00

I went to the Geylang dim sum place... TWICE... over the weekend...

Saturday night for supper.. and Sunday afternoon for tea..

And as expected, the dim sum craving is finally gone! Haha.. Nonetheless, I love the food there!
Well, will be going there for dinner (again!) on Wednesday with my lab people!
I think after this week, I'm gonna run if I see dim sum anywhere within my 100m radius.

On a more depressing note, my experiments are so screwed up. I do them again and again, with modifications etc etc and yet... still no good results. What am I gonna write for my thesis?!! Sigh...
The research officer was telling me that research is like that - no hard and fast rules to get results. In fact, he told me to take things slowly and steadily.. in total contrast to my PI who was saying that I need to hurry up..
Sigh...
I don't have 3 years in IBN to get my results!! I only have... 4-5 months for my FYP.. and unfortunately as of now, only 2 months left...

Anyway, to be more optimistic - it's 3 months to the end of my miserable FYP!!! Then, it will be the holidays!!! Cannot wait.

Lastly.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

CHIA HUEY!

You are officially in the mid-twenties. Stop acting like a kid ok! =)

Craving for Dim Sum

2008-02-23T11:13:00.011+08:00

I have had an insatiable desire to eat dim sum for the past one week!! I want dim sum!!
-
Somehow, this is pretty similar to the days when I was back in New Zealand... Haha.

Back then, I wanted to go for Yum Cha (that's what they call dim sum-eating over there) every week!! Too bad Hamilton didn't have any nice yum cha places.. So my NZ friends and I would drive up to Auckland once in a while to eat dim sum!

That's a freaking 2-hr drive!!

Well, the weird things people do to satisfy their cravings... at least my cravings are innocent, not indecent like the.. infamous.. Edison Chen.

Anyway, my dim sum frenzy started when I went for the famous dim sum place in Geyland, oops.. no, it's Geylang, along Sims Avenue last weekend.

To sidetrack abit, I accidentally named the folder containing my dim sum pictures Geyland too. Gay-land?? Hmm, Geylang may be alot of things, but certainly not Gay-land.. as portrayed by the multitude of scantily-clad women plying their flesh-yyyyy trades to the horny men along the Geylang streets.

While eating there, I saw a significant number of single men eating.

Suspiciously alone... and hungry...

Ok, back to the main point of this post - DIM SUM!

Most of the stuff we tried there were awesome! Super duper yummy, and sufficiently so to make me crave for dim sum for a whole freaking one week after that.. even up to this very moment.

I want dim sum!!

Hmm, a picture speaks a thousand words. So here goes.

Don't order the xiao long bao, it sucks real bad. Oh, I apologize for the blur mushrooms. Was too hungry to care.

Cabbage with prawns, JH's favourite of the lot. I must say, it's really pretty yummy.

And the bill comes up to...Just $22.80!! It's cheap lor. No GST, no service charge. I absolutely love this place.
-
Recommendations by my friends, which I didn't try thanks to my over-filled stomach, include otah and ju chang fen (or however u spell it... I suck at hanyu pinyin). Oh btw, the place is supposedly open 24 hours!! So if you are hungry now, and you do have a car, try it!
-
Ok, I am truly ravenous now. I want my LUNCH!!! I want DIM SUM!!!
-
Have alot more pictures to post up!! The CNY steamboat at KY's place, Carlene's bday bbq, and the steamboat (yes again!) yesterday with some BS people.

Next time lar. I don't have most of the pictures and more importantly, I am hungry.
-
Ciao

Some pictures.

2008-02-13T00:03:00.000+08:00

My relatives! But my parents are not in the picture... dunno where they went lar... And I have no idea why some of them were not looking at the camera...

Tha's my cousin, me and my aunt.

My grandfather, my mom, uncle's wife, aunt and baby cousin.
And.. lots of photos in my cousin's camera.. haha. Dun have them yet..

I'm probably gonna have a super packed weekend!!!

Friend 1's birthday at Zouk on Fri (dunno whether I am going yet)

Friend 2's birthday celebration probably on Saturday.. (hope she is free coz wanna surprise her!)

Friend 3's birthday celebration on Sunday...

So many birthdays in FEB!! Wahlau.. broke liao, buy so many presents!

Hmmm... need to teach more tuition le..

I am so brokeeeeeee...

Happy Chinese New Year

2008-02-11T02:13:00.000+08:00

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone!!!

Ok, i'm going to sleep nowwwwwwwwwwww. It's 2.15am and I gotta get to work by 830am!!!
Will update once i get the CNY pictures from my cousin =)

I miss the holidays already... Oh well.

ps: My hit counter has gone nuts. Hope it's only a moment of temporary insanity.

Sianz.

2008-02-05T01:28:00.000+08:00

Hmmmm.. Feeling sianz today. No idea why.

Maybe it's the stupid pimple on my forehead.
Maybe it's the lack of shopping.
Maybe it's because I gotta wake up at 630am, and reach work by 8am tomorrow.
Maybe it's the stupid misplaced room-key.
Maybe it's because I'm getting fat.
Maybe it's the lack of exercise.
Maybe it's the lack of leisure time.
Maybe it's because I have to wear jeans to work everyday.
Maybe it's the lack of moolah.
Maybe... Maybe... Maybe... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

I need good jap food. Fatty tuna would be great. Minus the mercury inside please.
Everything is contaminated. The fish, the chicken, the cow, the plant. Everything.

Sianz.

Irritation.

2008-02-01T12:42:00.000+08:00

I am quite irritated and not surprisingly so, over NTU's decision to convert the micro-mini single rooms to double rooms and the not-so-large double rooms to triple rooms! They are freaking hell going to squeeze TWO beds into teeny-weeny, currently-single rooms (yes, the same size as my current room.. which is mini).

How money-minded can NTU get? Well, VERY money-minded would aptly describe NTU's past/current/potentially future mindset.

TWO beds in ONE tiny room = no walking space = similar to the accommodation of construction workers. Wow, how wonderful NTU hostels are gonna be. The students are gonna live like bangla workers. Great.

On the bright side of it, I am graduating this semester and thankfully will not be affected by
NTU's money-churning-thus-turning-halls-into-bangla-quarters-scheme.

My friend from Hall xxx was telling me that Hall xxx JCRC President is totally supportive of this bangla-quarters idea cause Mr. President does not want to get into the bad books of SAO, to the anger of his own JCRC members. Wow, even the Hall xxx President is deaf to the voices of the masses. Guess his ears are plugged thanks to the ear-wax supplied by NTU admin.

Why ear wax u ask? Coz NTU admin has alot of them!! Tonnes and tonnes of ear wax, stored from generations of turning a plugged (not deaf but plugged!) ear to the voices of the students. I bet the amount of accummulated ear-wax can make Shrek squeal with excitement, cause he can then make tonnes of nice candles from these ear-wax.

Sigh. NTU runs via an authoritarian scheme.

The admin decides, and it's final. Period.

Boo~!

2008-01-26T00:15:00.000+08:00

Heya, sorry for the lack of updates. Was doing everything else but blogging!

Haha, I am currently addicted to a computerised Mahjong game which is super hilarious lar!! It's the one with all the computerised Chinese/Taiwanese celebrities making stupid comments while playing mahjong with u.

Anyway, took quite alot of pictures for the past 1 mth or so!

Went to Kuishinbo (yup, again!) with JH on my birthday!!!

Too busy eating, thus the lack of pictures that dinner!!! Haha.

We ordered Sake... which was not that great... and we managed to drink one, while the other bottle was kinda wasted coz we didn't really like the taste of it. I like the fat, stout bottle.. so cute lar.. haha.. too bad I can't bring the bottle home...

Kuishinbo had crayfish during the buffet dinner!! Yum yum... And tonnes of snow crab legs, which were HUMONGOUS!! But no pictures coz I was too busy chewing on the legs, and JH was too busy peeling them for me =)

The crayfish.
Then we went to Jay Chou's concert in Singapore on the 18th!! He looks better than expected. Haha. Lots of screaming fans (Girls!! Lots and lots of girls!!) and some equally excited guys! But we were too old to be doing things like that.. So, all we did was sing along (wait.. no, JH sang along while I listened... coz... I can't sing in Chinese for nuts!) Oh well, I enjoyed it nonetheless =)

The picture of Kallang indoor stadium ~45 mins b4 the concert started. Filling up pretty fast then.JH, who was declaring his undying love for Mr. Chou.
And some badly-taken pictures during the concert. Aiya, no close-up pictures of him coz I was not rich enough to buy the front row seats lar.

Ok, then on Saturday, dearest ZOE came over to Singapore!!! =) Went to Pasta de Waraku for lunch before I had to rush back to lab! Haha. Pasta de Waraku offers stuff that can't be found in Toronto yeah! =) The food was surprisingly very yummy.. Too bad I didn't get to take a picture with ZOE!!! Haiz..

My fusion pasta... looking at it now makes me hungry...

Zoe's gratin.. which was uber nice! Can't describe the taste, man. Really unique.

Our shared dessert =) SOOOOOOOOOO NICE! SO PRETTY!

Ok. Then it was back to work..

Didn't go out much the entire week until Thursday, when I met up with some BioSci ppl for dinner at Geylang =)

Working really no life sia..

And I love my birthday presents from some of the BS ppl~! Thanks loads, especially to Lannie dear who chose the presents! =) I loveeee the pink anna sui purse, the pink top and especially the DRESS! =) Super nice lor =)

The "zhi cha" food which was really good.

Ate quite alot that day... thanks to the chocolate fondue!! Haha.. yeah, pretty interesting to have fondue at a "zhi cha" place. *super happy* coz the chocolate was uber nice!

And the mangoes.. oh the mangoes... so nice... *sigh in contentment*

Ok, some random picture taken back home. Love the way they sit there staring into the camera. Haha.
Wahhh, it's 1.38am now.... Super tired liao. Gonna sleep soon coz I wanna wake up early tomorrow to cook pasta for lunch! Haha.

Yessss, I am gonna unleash my near non-existent cooking skills.

NITE.

Another goodbye.

2008-01-15T12:36:00.001+08:00

This is undeniably one of the worst years in my life...

My maternal grandma passed away last Thursday.. less than a week after my paternal grandpa passed away... Haiz... I miss them :(

Kinda sad but I am getting over it... Thanks for all your encouragements ppl...

Goodbye.

2008-01-07T16:48:00.000+08:00

I knew it wouldn't be good news when my dad called in the morning.
And said that my grandpa passed away on Thursday night.

The guy who waited for the bus with me every single day when I was in primary school. Without fail, he would be there at the little shop across the road, waiting with me. It would be earlier from Mondays to Thursdays, and later on Fridays, but without fail, he would be there.
I still remember a time when we waited and waited for the bus, but none came. Then it dawned on us that it was Friday then, and the bus was scheduled to come later. How we laughed at our blur-ness then.

I rushed home on Friday to attend the funeral.
It seemed so surreal. To see him lying motionless in that dreadful wooden box.
It seemed so surreal. To know that he is dead.
He used to talk so loudly. Now, I would never hear his voice again.

They cremated him on Sunday. And then he was gone. Forever.

Goodbye Grandpa.

My sis and jialong came to spore!

2007-12-30T18:48:00.000+08:00

This is quite a belated one. But hey, I juz got the photos today =)

Anyway, my sister and jialong cousin came to singapore a few weeks back!!

Since Singapore's main attraction is shopping, I brought them to Orchard after our kuishinbo lunch in Suntec City. But these 2 ppl... they eat sushi and handroll (inclusive of the freaking rice) for the buffet. The true Chinese rice buckets ('fan tong')... As for me.. of course I eat only the sashimi and tempura and everything else without the filling rice! But hope they enjoyed the buffet as much as I do lar.. Hehehe.

Ok, then it was shopping. Walked all along Orchard Road. From Takashimaya to Far East, and back to Taka again. Met up with Jialong's friend, Susan too. So what's the consequences of shopping with 3 girls??

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-A very "happy" Jialong, carrying all our bags! =) Haha.
Ok lar, we are not that bad ok, most of the bags are for picture-taking purposes only. In actual fact, he was only carrying Susan's bag, my shopping bag and his own. I was carrying my own handbag ok! =)

We walked, walked and walked until the Taka security guards had to show us the way out way past closing time.. hahaha.. madness. Yeah, we are mad.

They stayed over for the night at my place.. with my sister and I squeezing on the tiny bed, and poor jialong sleeping on the floor. Sorry for the bad hospitality lar.. next time, we stay in hotel lar.. but u guys can pay for it =)

Anyway.. I am back at home now!! Ate Korean food yesterday. OMGosh, super duper yummy lar.. But not cheap, man. The dinner yesterday cost around RM200 for 5 people!!! That's pretty expensive for Serembanians (my town folks) ok. But it was so nice~ yummmmm... there were like 10 side dishes, inclusing my all-time favourite KIMCHI =) Tons of meat, not that many prawns, and ONE YUMMY KIMCHI SOUP!

Ok, anyway the most surprising thing there was not the food... but the fact that I met some of my primary school friends there!!! One big bunch of them, some of the primary sch mates I have not seen in nearly a decade? So amazing.. Seremban is so tiny lar. Haha. I recognised some of them lar, but for the rest, I had a teeny weeny bit of difficulty in recognising those faces I really havent seen in nearly a decade and coz everyone has grown so pretty!

Hey Meiwah, send me the pictures yeah! =)

Ok, gtg now... Ciao.

Sigh.

2007-12-26T21:03:00.000+08:00

What an irony. Looks like it may not be a fulfilling end to the year after all.

MeRrY ChRiStMaS

2007-12-25T12:48:00.000+08:00

Merry Christmas

Year 2007 is drawing to a close soon!

Undeniably, this has indeed been one of the most memorable years of my life.

I love the time when I was in New Zealand =) Meeting great people there and making life-long friendships, the crazy road trip to the north of the North Island, staying on a farm at Dawnie's place, sleeping over and camera-whoring in Smellie's place, bunking over in Maggie's place while in Auckland for the first time, the yummy China dim sum restaurant in Auckland, the weekly dosage of Korean food in Hamilton, the cold cold winter and the lack of perspiration, JH's uncle persuading Smellie (who is Caucasian) to learn Chinese when we first met him, driving Boon, Huiling and Yichiann to get take-aways and much much more.. One thing I won't miss in NZ? The hostel food :( One thing I miss tons in NZ? My crazy friends :)

Of course, despite all the ups in my life, there are some very down-times. But I've gotten over the downs, thankfully, to reach a very fulfilling end to the year. I have alot to thank God for. I wish that all my friends, those who may still be feeling down, will eventually get over the slums in their lives.

Yup. Thank you God for my wonderful parents, my darling sister, a very amusing bf, great friends everywhere (yes, you are included), good health, a wonderful job offer and everything else!

Ok, I am going out now!

Till next time.

*hugs*

Overseas ppl.

2007-12-22T02:37:00.000+08:00

Cat and I went out with Mr. XYZ before he left for his Taiwan FYP!
Lucky pig lar, can go overseas for fyp!

Take care dude! Eat more xiao long bao on my behalf =)

And Sue came back from the STATES!!! =)
Siew Jin and I met up with the future Wall-Street Banker for dinner at Holland V juz now. Somebody is gonna be rich lar.. hehe.. Sue, go get yourself a mansion in New York, bigger than that guy's one ok! I am going to invite MYSELF over to the states to visit you!!! Muahaha..
Time really flies. Havent seen you and siew jin in years!!! Miss u all RJ peeps lar =)

And Sue, send me the photos that we took!