Blogelicous

Updates to the year 2011

2011-09-05T00:02:00.000+08:00

There are quite a few happenings that are worthy to be blogged here for record in future!

1. 2011 General Election on 7 May, then comes the Presidential Election on 27 Aug...
2. Borders at wheelock is closed down ;(
3. H&M enters Singapore on 3 Sep 2011 (and there's people queuing to enter the store a day before because there are gift cards for the first 315 customers. Oh man, think this is the 'classic' queue ever since McDonald's Hello Kitty) Because this is H&M's first entrance into Singapore, there is still crowd at H&M. So, no H&M this weekend.. maybe shall check it out on next thur...

Colleagues? Friends? Both?

2011-08-20T00:34:00.000+08:00

Unintentionally hurt someone's feelings today....

Jokingly commented that "We are not friends, we are just colleagues" when one of my colleague jokingly said to another colleague that they are "still not so familiar" with one another to accept her 'cutesy tone'...

I had said this because this was the classic sentence which Fann Wong had commented to the Caldecott Queen. I didn't think that she would misinterpret it and thought that it was meant for me and her.

She was so affected and sad, thinking that I treated her just as a colleague and not a friend... Silly of her to think that way. Of course I treated her more than just a colleague. She's like a baby sis to me, forever bringing laughter and sunshine.

Eventually managed to clear the air but still feel bad for causing her to misinterpret... Sorry baby :(

random...

2011-08-08T21:47:00.001+08:00

it has been ages since i posted something on.

finally had a little bit of breather today.

it was a relief for NDD to be finally over.... I was quite grouchy and drained lately because of all the logistics coordination and more specifically, because there was an unreasonable human obstacle at work.
totally unreasonable and unbearable. Pity those working with him in future.

Anw, a good friend of mine posted this on her FB wall and it totally speaks my feeling now:

"Some people always throw stones in your path. It depends on you what you make with them.

A Wall or a Bridge? Remember you are the architect of your life."

disappointment once more

2010-10-21T01:38:00.001+08:00

On my way back home earlier on, my sis smsed me that Today Online reported that Subtle Senses had also closed the operations of its other two spa outlets till further notice. Was pissed off and disappointed to learn of this piece of news, though it doesnt surprise me that the fate of the spa chain turns out this way, especially when it first started to close its Ngee Ann city outlet just couple of weeks back. When i read in ST that subtle senses is closing it Ngee Ann city branch then, I was shocked... I mean I applaud Subtle Senses for taking over the operations of True Spa out of goodwill but it seems that the whole acquisition lacks strategy and plan.

As at today, I had only used up about $200++ of the $1070 that I had forked out through credit card instalments. Adding on to the free credits, I still have close to $1800 of the spa value. I feel so sayang to say goodbye to my money.

Now, as i think back on the hard selling and persuasion by the Spa Consultant during the trial session, it really makes my blood start to boil. I am pretty sure the consultants/top management would have make a killing on the commission from each completed sale. It is just so unethical for businesses to coax clients to sign up large amount of pre-paid credits and in return, unable to deliver a reasonable service. It is even more irresponsible for businesses to just end its operations without any announcement to its staff and clients.

No matter what, based on the recent spa closures, I am sure many, like me, would be more cautious when signing up for packages. I don't know if I can get any compensation but I am not going to just leave it as it is. I want my money back. Or at least some money back.

Spam Messages

2010-08-10T15:05:00.001+08:00

shucks... just found out that a lot of spam comments were posted to my posts.
either the verifcation function is not working or that some irritating nothing-to-do fellow did it..

took some time for me to delete them all...

Rotten French Fry

2010-04-29T20:44:00.005+08:00

A serious question here. how bad can a french fry ever be?

The answer is 'tastes and smells like dung'

You might feel puzzled why I would say this out of no where. This is because this afternoon, I tasted the most horrible, corrigible, terrble tasting french fry! right in a famous fast food chain. It's first letter is 'M' but I can tell you it is NOT McDonald.

I guess this is the worst food experience in my whole life. The french fry (*note: Only 1 french fry out the whole packet) looks normal, but one bite and it emits the smell of drainage water/ unprocessed pig innards...

This is really not a joke. It smells so bad that my sister can also smell it a few cms away. I immediately spit it out and rinsed my mouth. I showed it to a staff and when she smelled it, she was shocked by the pungent smell and threw it right back on the tray! - making this the 2nd ridiculous experience. I mean, when a customer complain to you about yr product, you dont give give a heck care look and throw the product back to the customer! Terrible customer service.
In the end, I informed another staff about it and she too agree that it smells bad. but again, no explanation, no recovery. They are really lucky that I wasnt any mystery diner, otherwise, I would FAIL them utterly. Zero!

Let me know if you want to know which fast food, which outlet. I will definitely let you know. Meanwhile, I am going to boycott them for the time being, I still cant forget that taste/smell right now.

Cinnamon Rollz

2010-04-25T14:48:00.004+08:00

It has been months since I touched my oven again.

Decided to bake some cinnamon rolls since I finally managed to find ground cinnamon powder at cold storage in Tamp 1. It is really quite difficult to find those grounded type, i tell you. So I went to get the other main ingredients: baking yeast, butter, milk, and bread flour.

gosh, it was a good 10 years since i last made bread during my secondary food and nutrition class. So there was a bit of clumsiness during the kneading of the dough... Initially I thought the bread will turn out terrible as the dough was so sticky that my hands was almost glued together during kneading. So i just let it rise in a big bowl, covering it with a clean wet cloth.

I was so impressed with myself as the dough managed to rise to about 2.5 times its size after 1+ hours! ha

so ta da. here are the end products. Share with my friends and colleagues next time when it looks more presentable lar. keke

hello

2010-04-10T21:51:00.002+08:00

hello to my friends who is reading this.. have not been updating this blog for very long time.

was looking for a revamp to my blog design. hence the delay in posting entries. and also, didnt have time and mood earlier on to blog...

maybe post another tmw.

Doing nothing...

2010-01-03T23:57:00.002+08:00

Ok. I am going to add in 1 more new year resolution.

- Spend half hour a day doing and thinking nothing

I think this is really important, helps to remove stress and a day of tough work.

Had a long day today. Woke up at about 7am to help coordinate attendance taking for Chingay practice.. then went back home at 12noon, help out with some house work and went back office at 5+. Just managed to settle down after leaving office at 10.30pm. Did not manage to uncheck any pending work on hand. Rather, my time today was spent doing newly added tasks. Also received a phone call from a potentially problematic unemployed resident. What I have for the person is that 'If you dont help yourself first, nobody can'...

But a few happy things I managed to achieve today:
- borrowed 'Starbucked-A double tall tale of caffeine, commence and culture' today
- helped my mom clean up the windows
- celebrated my sister's BD today
- painted my toe nails just before heading for work (I know this last one is not really something sig. but it means that I managed to pamper myself today...so yeah, shd be on the list too)

ok, time for me to do nothing for half hour ...

New Year New 'Gear'

2010-01-02T20:45:00.005+08:00

2nd day of 2010- My first post of the year.

It has been months since i wrote a post. Considering all the non-stop workload and birthday/christmas meet ups with frens, not surprising.

My mom have been complaining that she hasnt seen me much lately so for the past 3 days, I have been good, spent some time with my close ones. But I know my Jan and Feb will be burnt out as well and there will be complaints again.. but worry abt it later...

Ok, so new year new resolutions right. I never follow them but no harm coming up with a few... and 1 year later on the 1st day of 2011, I can see if I achieve them...

1. Shed some kilos.. (this is a tough one cos I just had 3 buffets within 2 weeks. Hai)
2. Sleep earlier (to get rid of dark eye circles and tackle my tired eyes)
3. Not to bring work home (quite easy to achieve but sometimes bringing work home is the best solution cos there are quite a bit of distractions at office at times)
4. Save more $ (spent quite a bit during the dec period.. need to start saving liao. Loan repayment starting soon!)
5. Start to learn driving
6. if possible.. find a boyfriend...not that I am desperate.. but i think sometimes love will really make a woman feel more radiant and younger. (not proven or tested but shd work)

That's about it i guess...

55th Induction Cohort (3 November to 16 November 2009)

2009-11-15T14:52:00.003+08:00

There has never been a time where I was away from home for more than 3 nights. I thought I wouldnt be able to survive through the first part of 4 days-3 nights induction camp at NACLI. What made things worst was that before the first day of reporting for the induction, I was still at the office, at 1am, clearing my work. That really made me reluctant to go for the induction.

With just 4 hours of sleep, I headed for the close to 1.5 hr train + bus journey to our 'chalet'- our '2nd' home for these 2 weeks. It was pretty lucky that I have Winnie, Chiao Min and Ivy, whom we met during a training course, as my cohort mates. Otherwise, I would definitely feel at a loss.

During this first week, there were plenty of team building games and that really brought all of us closer. Everyone were very encouraging and forgiving. It is also fortunate that I am in the team learning committee where my I/C and cohort mates are so fun. In our group, every night was like a gossip night. Ha.

During the 2nd week, I was sorta looking forward to going back to the camp. Of course, I do miss my family, bed, pillows, and home toilet during my stay at NACLI, but there wasnt any negative emotions. Perhaps the only complaint was that I need to travel tat 1.5 hrs journey again.

As I was having dinner at Subway with LH and Eric on friday night, we talked abt whether we would still be as close with each other after 6 mths, or whether we would still remember each other's names in future...My belief is that I still would. Perhaps not all of them, but definitely those who made a difference to my life ;)

Will miss the moments with you guys...

Children's Day Coming

2009-09-18T00:57:00.002+08:00

This is an event under my Women's Exe Committee-KidsREAD graduation ceremony cum children's day party...

How I wish I am a kid still... it have been years since I recd presents during children's day...still can recall that some of my pri school classmates will bring sweets and goodies to share with the whole class. those were the days...

Cake in action

2009-08-12T23:26:00.006+08:00

I had intended to blog a few days back. However, I wasnt able to do so because the Post Editor's toolbar has gone missing on the blogger webpage. I cant post any photos or save any drafts. Stupid isnt it? I thought Blogger was undergoing some maintenance or maybe some hackers got interested in Blogger too. But apparently this was not the case when I realised that many other people are still able to post photos in their blog. So today, I did the easiest method to find the solution - i.e. Google. Tada! Within 1 min, i managed to solve the mystery. I simply cleared my internet history folder and refresh a few times to get my blogger back to normal. Aiya, next time shd have trusted Google earlier.

Anw, in compensation for my lack of posts, here are a few food photos for de-stressing temporarily...

forgot the name for this but it is awesome. The warm choc fudge is gluely-thick and tastes heavenly.... ahhh

and we also had...

Muddy Mud Pie from Coffee Club, cuppuccino with choc ice cream with 'hard' oreo base.

Tastes good but advisable for 2 pax, cos it is really a tall tower of ice cream.

Every bit counts

2009-06-30T11:31:00.001+08:00

I first saw the appeal for donation through Mr. Brown’s blog.

After reading his post about Charmaine, the little girl with neuroblastoma, I went on to find out more about this feisty princess. Half a million Singapore dollars (USD350,000) is required to send her to New York for treatment. To most people, this is really a hefty price tag. But it is heartening that many have already came forward to help, including former Malaysian cup legends, Rafi Ali, Fandi Ahmad and Media Corp celebrity team etc.

And at this point of time, taken from the blog (http://www.ourfeistyprincess.blogspot.com/),

"Officially, we have about 330K.Unofficially, with the amount that are still with our fund-raisers, and together with RafiAli's effort, we should be looking at an amount, not far from 420K!!!!!"

So please, to anyone who happen to read this blog post, I urge u to help them out. Any amount can play a part.

Stupid birds!

2009-06-22T21:21:00.002+08:00

I got attacked by 2 stupid crows this evening when I stepped out of the office! One flapped its wings over my head while the other messed up my hair with its claws! How ridiculous can it go?

I know I just changed my shampoo brand lately but I appreciate if they just keep themselves off me.

Damn those 2 stupid birds! I wanna barbeque them if they dare provoke me again.

Who doesn't love great designs?

2009-06-13T18:31:00.008+08:00

Logo taken from The Design Society website

My friend just recommended me to join The Design Society, led by Mr Chris Lee, founder and creative director of Asylum. It is a non-profit organization aimed at raising the standards of design in Singapore in general.

I joined without hesitation, reason 1: because of my support for Chris Lee; about 2 years back, my friends and I got to interview Chris Lee personally for our advertising project and he is really a nice guy. Not only did he accept our interview request without hesitation, he even offered to write down for me the name of some foreign brand when he noticed that I got trouble spelling it. And well, he also happened to be a TP alumni, so of course I will support him. Reason 2: I really find Chris Lee's work to be unique. For me to describe in words would be difficult. The best would be for you to chk them out yrself. They have changed drastically the appearance of their website but you can refer to their online studio for their excellent creations. (http://www.theasylum.com.sg/v3/#studio)

So trust me, joining this membership would be a choice that you won't regret. Furthermore, membership is free until 30 June 2010. Click here to go to their website now!

work

2009-05-25T11:05:00.005+08:00

It is amazing how a week can pass so fast yet so slow. Fast in the sense that it is my second week of work now, yet slow in terms of the hours and minutes every day. You get what I mean?

My workstation will arrive today. Hopefully there will be enough space. Anw, i am still on the 'newbie' mode where I need to ask around for advice. Hate to say but it make me feel quite lost at times- wondering what I can ask and what I cant. But if I dun clarify, and things doesnt go well, it will be worse right? So, yeah, it is better to ask. And at least my colleagues are nice.

Plus, I get to listen openly to class95 every day during work. =)

Food, Glorious Food

2009-05-06T13:34:00.009+08:00

Since I still have some spare time these few days, I decided to blog about some of the food which I had tried recently.

For a headstart, here is my most recommended dessert.

Chocolate, Peanut and Plain Belgium Waffles from Yamazaki Boulangerie Chaude @ Tampines 1

This outlet is actually under Sun Moulin and all its breads and snacks are freshly baked daily at the bakery. So far I have only tried its Belgium Waffles as it is highly recommended by my sister. The waffles are quite popular so they are often out of stock by late afternoon or evening. There are 3 choices in total- Chocolate, Peanut or Original. Sorry if the photo look unappealing but trust me, they taste really nice. It is crispy on the outside with a cake-like texture inside, although I find it to be a little too sweet for the chocolate one. In contrast, the peanut waffle tastes much more savory and guess what, I figured that if the peanut waffle can be glace with a little bit of chocolate coating, it would most prob be heavenly.

Plain Belgium Waffle $1.50 each
Desribed as "Crispy crust and sweet aroma with original Belgium Sugar"

Thursday Twist

2009-05-02T13:12:00.013+08:00

This is going to be a long post...

I had went for a briefing by some Market Research Company to be a part-time survey interviewer on thursday morning but the whole thing didnt pull through eventually. The main reason is because some of us who attended the briefing felt that the personnel at the company did not honour what they had promised.

I am ok with the part where their 10 min face-to-face survey escalated to become 15 minute survey becos, having been a marketing student, I can empathise that a survey could sometimes exceed the stipulated interview time. I am also cool with the fact that the questions are lengthy. But the ultimate factor that made me change my mind on accepting the assignment was when we each of us had a personalised quota form, stating the specific no. of students which we need to approach-with a criteria where the students that we are supposed to approach have to be from their specified faculty under the respective varsities. We are also only allowed to find only final year students who have just finished their exams and who are heading towards the working society.

I was even more surprised to learn that I was only given a quota of 7 participants fr SMU, with 10 to be fr NUS and 3 fr NTU, when evidently, it will be more effective to assign smu quota to me and another guy who is also from SMU. When asked if we could swop the quota ourselves, the lady handling the survey demographics said that we are allowed to do so, but the ultimate responsibilities will still be traced back to their original allocation. So what is the point of swopping?

Since there are so many perturbing factors to consider, I decided not to go ahead to do the assignment for them even though at that point of time, I was hard pressesd for cash (actually, I am still hard pressed for cash now, I still got abt 800 bucks of outstanding dental bills but I am glad to have an elder sister who can pay for me first.haa).

First reason for not taking it up is that the 2-week deadline is just too risky a time frame to find those students esp when most graduating students have either gone holiday right after their exams, or at home dutifully sending out resumes in this recession-hit economy. Second reason- I feel a strong sense of disgruntlement over their way of handling things; ignoring our concerns and feedback.

But, a good lesson that I, as a job finder can learn, is that there is no such thing as easy pay. Now, in the viewpoint of a market researcher, a word of advice is, if you want others to work for you, remember to listen to what they want to say.

After stepping out of that office, I can still recall that I was very dejected upon facing another failed attempt in getting a work assignment. But I still believe that it was the right thing to do. So, I called my sister out for lunch that day, hoping to forget all the disappointment and melancholy. Too bad she only have 30 min to spare that day.

It happened that I had arranged a coffee appt with my coffee kaki- josh, that day, so eventually the day turned out to be pretty much enjoyable. During that whole afternoon, I was complaining to him how bad the economy was, how I failed those analysis tests, interviews blah blah... In fact, I had predicted that I would be turned down again for a job because I didnt have honours. Josh felt surprised that I could still sound so optimistic after going through these obstacles. Ha... well, maybe it is because I am trying to put up a false front.

But towards the end of the day, a miracle happened. It was a moment that I was looking fwd to. I finally received a phone call telling me that I was accepted for a job and whether I would like to accept the job offer. Hell, yes of course! I was so overwhelmed by the news but in contradiction, my face expression at that point was pretty cool and calm so josh was like trying to guess whether it was good news or bad news. Haa... I think the news just came too suddenly and I was caught off guard. I was so excited that I didnt noe who to inform first, apart from Josh who was beside me when I recd the call! Josh was telling me that it was a blessing in disguise for me, and things happen for a reason. Maybe he is right. The events that took place all these while could be just obstacles to test my endurance. What doesnt break me makes me stronger. So at the end of the day, I guess faith and determination is the key to pull through the obstacles especially in this period of tough time. To my friends out there, I know you can do it too and I believe your ideal jobs will come your way soon too! Gambate!

Charm Necklace

2009-04-28T18:22:00.003+08:00

Charm Necklaces have always been popping in and out of fashion and the good news is that it is still right in style now. I did a revamp of my blogshop again, giving it a more cutesy style. I am now thinking of ways to sort of unofficially announce it to friends and any ppl out there. I also created a facebook group but fathom that it may not be sufficient and effective. Will think of more ways to publicise it. Anw, I added new creations, so anyone who is interested, please visit http://fashionstatementspore.blogspot.com/

Please also leave some comments or suggestions!! Many thanks!

Luck is like the Weather?

2009-04-28T12:56:00.003+08:00

It is raining cats dogs outside, with loud thunder and lightning. This reminds me of a line taken from a book which I had read lately.

"It crosses my mind that luck is a lot like the weather and sometimes for no apparent reason it turns really bad"

It is taken from The Big Shuffle by Laura Pedersen and now I find that this sentence really connects to me totally and I hate this feeling because my luck is just like the weather outside now. I know that the weather will probably turn out better in a an hour or two but definitely not my sucky luck. How I wish I can skip this moment and fast forward to a year or 2 from now.

Give me the top tea leaves!

2009-04-19T13:51:00.006+08:00

I first saw this ad from a recruitment talk from Millward Brown. It left a deep impression on me, in fact,to anyone who watches it as it is simply too cute to forget. It is great that there is such a thing called youtube where I can load it over here to show u guys...

How to get A+ in SMU

2009-04-10T22:28:00.004+08:00

I like this video totally! It is a perfect showcase of how 'some' fellow sch mates manage to get A+ in class... Ahem! of cos, I am not one of those, else i will have gotten a Summa Cum Laude.

Have a full stomach at the new "Manpuku" at Tampines 1!

2009-04-09T11:48:00.010+08:00

I was lucky to be able to attend the private food tasting session at this Japanese Gourmet Town- Manpuku on Tuesday night at Tampines 1. I had dropped strong hints to my sister on the day before on whether I can tag along with her. I was so excited when she smsed me to say that she could bring me along.

Manpuku is located at level 3, Japanese Gourmet Town of Tampines 1. It is Ajisen's latest creation, which boasts of a new Japanese food store concept that provides Japanese cuisines in a Japanese gourmet street setting. It is the 2nd outlet, after the 3-in-1 Japanses Gourmet Town at Vivocity, but the 1st to have so many store concepts thus far. I was rather impressed to have it here at our doorstep- Tampinese!

The interior of the restaurant was set up to replicate those authentic and traditional food eateries in Japan and it will house 10 different counters of food stores which includes famous restaurant names such as AOBA (Hokkaido Ramen), HOKKYOKUSEI omu rice, BOTEJYU Okonomiyaki (pan fried batter cake) etc... as well as tempting desserts - Fruit Paradise (1st in Singapore) and the all time favourite, KYOTO SABO.

Just like the Marché concept, each patron is given a card where you charge all your purchases until the end of your dining experience. Pretty straightfwd, so I guess not much elaboration is required here, except that you shd never ever lose the card (S$100 penalty).

To order food, all you need to do is to inform the order counter at each mini store and pass the card to the staff. You may need to wait for a few minutes for the food to be ready so there is a receipt where u can come back later to collect the food. And before I forget to mention, the number that the staff calls out when the food is ready is based on the Table No. printed on the receipt, so do refer to the correct no.

To start off, my sis and I each ordered 2 different dishes from BOTEJYU and HOKKYOKUSEI. She ordered a Seafood Okos while I ordered the Fried Prawn Omu Rice.

I love this design of the Okos where they made patterns on the top of the batter with sauce and mayo. Reminds me of Coffee art. a little disappointing is that the okos was a little over done which makes it a bit dry.

The Fried Prawn Omu Rice is the other popular Japanese dish which we tried. The main lead of the dish- the rice inside the omelette, was pan-fried with ketchup. We find it to be just average but what more than compensate it was the ebi tempura (Prawn Tempura) which we find to be mouth-watering. The deep fried thin batter was crisp on the outside while the inside was firm and tasty.

Finally on the desserts. We tried the Pear and Honeydew Tarts. And boy!, not only are they great to look at, they also taste great. No wonder, they were all snapped up at the end of the night.

The honeydew tart was my fav. It was not overly sweet and even though there was cream all over, my sister and I still cant resist and ate up the whole thing.
Having posted these fotos, I cant help but feel hungry again even though I just had my brunch an hr ago. Need to tempt my kakis to come try it again soon. (Geri, if you are reading this, consider coming to this 'mini-orchard' k! The new Tampines 1 is now opened, got alot of shopping and food!!)

Manpuku Japanese Gourmet Town
Level 3, Tampines 1
10 Tampines Central 1
Singapore 529536
Located beside Tampines MRT station
Click here to Website

'Funeral'- Latest TVC by MCYS

2009-04-07T18:06:00.006+08:00

"Funeral" is a new TV commerical launched by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) which looks at relationships in a different light, through a woman at her husbands funeral. Ultimately, the TVC celebrates the beautiful imperfections that make a relationship perfect. This is fresh off MCYS latest Viewers Choice 2008 win for last years Family TVC which promotes the importance and value of family bonding. (Description taken from Youtube)

Say cheeze!

2009-03-27T22:12:00.008+08:00

It was a pretty great day yesterday. Considering that I finally did my temporary crown for my tooth in the afternoon. So now, i can smile confidently without being self-conscious.

My fren had insisted that my broken tooth wasnt obvious. But no matter what, I always suspect that others would stare and laugh at my chipped tooth. In fact , there is always a part of me who wanted to tell and explain to everyone how I fell and broke my teeth- just to earn some symphathy. But ultimately, I didnt do it. Apparently, most who know about it found my mishap to be quite ridiculous. In fact, one of my friends laughed at it. (Yeah, u, vanessa, even though u may not be reading this post. But I will certainly send u this blog link and make sure u read this post next time).

Having went through all the injections and drilling of teeth, I have really learnt my lesson painfully. I now pay 101% attention to caring for my teeth and I am sure my dentists will be glad to hear this. Perhaps one good thing that comes out of this matter is that I am going to have a whiter and nicer permanent tooth soon.

Plus, I need to thank my Endodontist, Dr Andy Lim and Prosthodontist, Dr Quek, both from National Dental Centre. They are really the nicest dentists, very professional, yet friendly and gentle during treatment. To add on, Dr Toh fr Crown dental has been pretty good too. I sought treatment fr him the day that I broke my teeth. He was friendly and was pretty honest with my condition. The only bad thing was that the clinic only accept cash and the dental fees are sky high. (which prompts me to jokingly tell my frens that I shd perhaps find a dentist as boyfriend. But I am still receptive to this idea. So, anyone who has potential one in this category, pls update me. haaaaa)

P.S. Another happy stuff that is worth mentioning is that I finally collected my internship cert yesterday and I got a Gold Award. Think I need to really thank David for his generousity in the evaluation. Thanks David!!

'Black Out' on 28 March. It's Earth Hour!

2009-03-26T10:38:00.006+08:00

Hey people, do your part for our Mother Earth and turn off your lights on this Saturday night to support the annual International Earth Hour.

Here's a little history first, this move was initiated in 2007 by World Wildlife Fund (WWF). It first began in Sydney, Australia where 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for an hour. In 2008, 50 million people took part in it! And two years after its efforts, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world's 1st global election, between Earth and Global Warming. And Singapore is proud to be one of those countries to join in this year.

You may ask, 'What is the purpose of switching off the lights on this day'? Well, switching off lights actually translates your vote for Earth, while leaving the lights on is a vote to global warming. Hence, "WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is the chance for the people of the world to make their voice heard."

This may seem obvious that most would want to vote for Earth but many would still hover between leaving it on or off, saying that "I am just an individual, it doesn't make a difference if I switch on or switch off. As long as others do so, it would be enough." But as quoted from John F. Kennedy,

"One person can make a difference, and everyone should try".

However, if circumstances doesnt permit you to switch off the lights totally, then at least minimise it. It would also be good if you could switch off electrical devices such as TV, air-con etc, just to save energy.

Earth Hour 2009
When:

Saturday, 28 March 2009
What:

Individuals and businesses are being asked to switch off their lights between 8.30pm and 9.30pm in their local time zones.
Why:

As a demonstration of public concern about climate change.
Official website:

earthhour.org

Blog: http://www.earthhoursingapore.blogspot.com/
ECO Singapore Website: http://www.eco-singapore.org/
ECO Singapore Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6718125635
List of participating companies and organisations: www.earthhour.org/singapore

JobsDB.com Career Expo 2009

2009-03-21T18:24:00.007+08:00

Went to the JobsDB Career Fair this morning. There wasnt a big crowd perhaps because we went early. Among those employers who are present at the fair includes Singapore Police Force, Navy, SBS Transit, Comfort Delgro, MediaCorp, SG recruiters, and several financial planning companies like AIA, Prudential etc...

Some of the companies didnt have suitable openings for us. Yet, somehow we still managed to apply abt 20 positions, of which most of the companies didnt even have a physical booth at the fair. We applied for them through the online station where we could just scan the barcode of our registered card and perform a quick application, meaning that we didnt even need to prepare cover letters. Thank goodness!

Hopefully, we wont need to wait long to be called up for interviews. But looking at the job market, things are not promising. the news reported that the economy might take 2-3 years to recover instead of the orginally estimated 1 year recession. But to despair now is useless. So, yes, yes, I am going to start sending out resumes again.

By the way, I managed to spot a rainbow outside my window today. The saying goes that you can't spot rainbow without rain. So I hope the 'rain' will go off soon and a beautiful sight shall await in front of us.

JobsDB.com Career Expo 2009
Details:
20 - 22 March 2009
Suntec Singapore, Halls 602 & 603, Level 610am to 7pm Daily

What is Love to you?

2009-03-20T22:50:00.002+08:00

Found this blog address from Feli's blog.

http://leloveimage.blogspot.com/

Truly sweet and inspiring. Make me feel like falling in love. Ha

A fresh appearance

2009-03-20T19:58:00.007+08:00

I am so contented with my new blog design over here! It is the the 'Coffee Desk' theme taken from Btemplates.

In case you have missed out my previous blog design, here is a snapshot of the old design.

The main reason as to why I removed the old one is becos there had been some errors and missing links, of which I have no idea why. So the easiest way to solve it to have a complete 'overhaul'.

I simply find this new design to be much more pleasing to the eyes. The layout is also better utlised with lesser blank space at the sides. It also has an exact opposite background tone as compared to the previous one above... the format is also more user friendly this time round- I took less than 2 hrs to complete the editing and additions of links and widgets. Plus, there are some other great designs that caught my eyes. So, if you are using Blogger and am looking for new templates, I would highly recommend this Blogger Template website (refer to first para of this post for the link).

Countdown

2009-03-17T18:33:00.004+08:00

Xian's last day of assignment was last fri while Vanessa's was on sat. So yesterday was officially the first day I was left alone during lunch. Pathetic...Usually, we would grab our lunch and eat at the canteen as we gaze ard trying to recognize ppl or share with each other any office gossips. But now that both girls left the company already, I prefer to stay in the office to eat my lunch.

The only consolation at work now is that there is a quite-cute engineer at the office, which at least make the environment more 'stayable'. and oh yeah,another reason is that at least i still have this temp salary to pull me thru my dental expenses.

But, i guess I am still looking fwd to the end of my assigment too. Counting down to about 19 more working days.. Yeppie!

Procrastination

2009-03-08T23:39:00.003+08:00

It has been a while since I updated my blog... One reason is that I have been working for 8 days consecutively without break and it will add on till 15 March. I need to get off on Sun cos I wanna go to the IT fair as well as attend one of my girl friend's engagement. =) I haven inform my sup about it though but well, shd be able to get it approved.

Now, my eyes are almost shutting, all ready to enter into sleep mode. Zzzzzzzzz

Till the next post.

and Happy International Women's Day by the way.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T19:01:00.004+08:00

February 14. A day where couples celebrate. But how many will know exactly the history of this lovely day? Apart from knowing who is Cupid, I didnt know much about this season. So if you are curious like me, you may wish to watch the short videos at this link... Happy Valentine's Day by the way!

http://www.history.com/content/valentine/history-of-valentine-s-day

First day of work

2009-02-09T18:57:00.003+08:00

This is the first time in my life where I had not spent a single cent during my first day of work. The reason being that there was free company transport and I had brought my own lunch (having the nearby canteen to be in renovation)...

So far, fatigue has not hit upon me yet even though I woke up at 5.30am this morning. I reckon it could be that I had not move much in the office, being a couch potato, whilst doing the scanning of documents and keying in of data. But I am sure my eyes and wrists would feel the weariness soon. Perhaps in 2-3 hrs time...

By the way, a young fellow who is also working temp at my workplace tot I was married... becos of the ring on my middle finger... haaa... i almost got choked. Perhaps I cant blame the kid, cos I was wearing formal clothes as well, thus adding on to suppport his assumption that I am married. And since today is the last day of Lunar New Year (Yuan Xiao Jie), I would forgive anyone who might have unintentionally uttered the wrong question.

Facebook turns 5.

2009-02-06T13:24:00.009+08:00

It was quite surprising to realise that Facebook has turned 5. I mean, I didnt suppose that it have been around for 5 years. I thought it was at most 3 years old? And talking about 5 years back, when I just left poly...the top networking site in Singapore would have been Friendster. Everyone were pretty contented with it because you could add friends, send private msgs, post on each others' 'walls' and look at photo albums. Who could have thought that Facebook wave was introduced to add more 'colours' and varieties to the then virtual networking scene.

Even though I still log on to my friendster account, I do them less frequently as most of my friends are members of facebook rather than the former. Hence, it makes more sense for me to log on to FB cos I can get better updated over there.

Besides, I am more attracted by the applications at FB. At this moment, my most active involvement would be Pet Society. Here's a snapshot of the application.

For FB frequenters, i guess no elaboration is required. But for FB newbies, this application simply allows you to create and customise your own pet and to reach higher levels, you need to keep it clean and carry out activities to score points. In essence, this is a pretty good game if you got plenty of time to kill (play at your own risk in office though).

Now that most people got accustomed to FB's layout, can anyone still remember there was some uproar over the revamped appearance just last year in 2008? I might be one of those who are neutral about it, or in fact, glad of the change becos the page looks cleaner. My only negativity was just about the part of getting used to un-learn and re-learn. Some angry members at that time even created hate groups and petitions to condemn the changes and wanted the administrator to revert to the old format. Come to think about it, i actually joined one of them just for sake of joining. I wanted to see if the petition worked. Well, I guess it didnt cos I am still faced with the new layout till now, and i guess people already got use to it and forgotten about it, cos I dun hear or see any more complaints...

Another issue of FB is that at 5 years old(, it is still not generating profits. Read this article from yahoo lately. It is obvious that at such tremendous success, FB ought to make money. But why not? Perhaps costs have been too high and also the information are not fully optimised. I mean, this social network has so much information about its members, and people are linked to one another very closely. In fact, I can reach some of my friends faster in facebook rather than email.
One potential which I think FB should take advantage would be in terms of sellng events, or conferences, or even help employers to recruit people. The challenge would then be on the issue of privacy and authenticity maybe. But whatever it is, FB is something that is already deep into the lives of the new age people, and I am one of those who cant picture the lack of it, should FB fail to survive. Not at this moment yet.

A bad beginning

2009-02-02T11:17:00.004+08:00

I really need to apologise to myself- for not taking good care of myself. So I hope my body will recover soon- or rather, my mouth.

This whole ridiculous episode happened on Sunday morning. I was awaken by the alarm on my phone- of which I set it the night before. I wanted to get up earlier than usual to accompany my mom to the mkt. It is well- the 7th day of lunar new year, being the birthday of everyone. I didnt know why and how it happened, but it did. All in the split of maybe one second. I was down on the floor without me realising it. I tripped and fell on the hard tiles in my room. I guessed I wasnt fully awake enough to reach to my computer table to silent the alarm.

It was then I realised that I didnt just trip and fall. My mouth hit the floor hard and I broke my teeth. Yeah, there was blood too. Scared the hell out of me. I cut my lower lips. And they are bruised and looked as though I was given a punch on the lips. Only 1 front (read FRONT) tooth was smashed and broke into half. I thought it was lucky that I didnt smash my two front teeth. Until later.

My mom was totally freaked out by me. She wasnt able to completely get the picture as I stormed out of my room, into the kitchen to tell her that I fell down and broke my teeth and cut my lips. She didnt understand how it happened. In fact, my whole family didnt understand how this thing could happen. Well, it is ok, cos I didnt understand how I can get into this mess as well. Stupid me.

Becos of the not-so-little blood that I lost, I got a little bit of dizzy and faint. This usually happens when I didnt have enough sugar in my body. By this time, my mom is totally worried. After some rest, I got better. Afterwhich, my mom accompanied me to the doctor- I wasnt sure which doctor to see. A dentist or GP. But I eventually figured out that a dentist would be more apt in this case.

When the dentist looked at me, his reaction was something like.."Wah... quite serious"... Damned. I didnt want to hear this. At first I was worried abt my broken tooth but he advised that it wasnt the main issue. The more problematic part is that I hurt my two front teeth. The fact that they didnt fall off didnt mean that they werent hurt the most. the dentist performed an X-ray and he says that there is 90% chance that the root broke. So, what he can do now is to just splint up the two front teeth and go for review 2 weeks later. In other words, there isnt much he can do now. He also advised that root canal for the 3 teeth are inevitable. Now, the physical pain of the accident and injections werent the worst- the "heart" pain from the bill is more tormenting. The bill came at $250 for less than an hr of consultation and treatment.

And how am i gg to go for interview on wed? #%$#%
I hope my lips will get better and less obvious on wed. Cross my finger.

By the way, friends, I cant bite properly for now. So most likely have to put off any dinner outings for later time. Not until I get a new set of front teeth. I can still mit up for soft food though, if u dun mind.

Now I need to find out how much the root canal are going to cost me.

Happy 牛 year!

2009-01-25T18:04:00.004+08:00

Hei hei... it is chinese new year's eve today...apart from having to wake up early in the morning to go sch specifically to just sell a textbook to a fellow school mate, today has been pretty much pleasant.

in case you are wondering why I would agree to go to school today, well, the buyer has bargained nearly a week earlier for a lower price. I compromised a little to reduce to a slightly lower price but the person wanted an even lower amt...yada yada...so in the end.. there was impasse...and come yesterday night, the person smsed me again saying tat she agreed to buy the book... and needed it urgently... well, I empathise the pain of being a student.. so I agreed to make the trip this morning even though it is chinese new year's eve...

there wasnt alot of people in sch, ('duh'? today is Sunday and CNY's eve!) but there are still some small groups having meetings... Poor thing.. I am sooo glad i dont have to go through this any longer... haa...

anw...it is time for reunion dinner soon... hope you guys have fun and enjoy this festive! Happy Chinese 牛 Year. =p

Tired but fruitful day

2009-01-18T21:12:00.003+08:00

Yeah, Lunar New Year is approaching soon. Just one more week and it's time to celebrate. But before enjoying e festive by gorging sinful goodies and taking ang bows, it also implies that spring cleaning is at the top of the to do list. This time round, my room was the first to be completed because I had one full month of time lazying ard at home.

Yeah, the sad news is I havent found a job. but the good news is, well, I am one day closer to finding my perfect career. Crap.

Anw, with all the cleaning up of the house, though I am pretty tired now, I still feel quite alert. But I am sure my energy level is still far behind my mom's. She is still washing the laundry now while I am relaxing in my own room, typing this blog. I am suspecting all moms in this world are superwoman! ;p

Temptation for Desserts

2009-01-12T18:06:00.006+08:00

If there is only one thing that I cant resist falling for, then the answer might be desserts..ha

and lately, I had tried making a cheesecake again, based on a low fat cheesecake recipe from Wendy's Delight recipe book. I am still quite skeptical as to how desserts can really be low fat if you want it to be delicious. I always tot that "sinful" and "desserts" always come as a pair.

ok. side aside this argument for the time being. Most of the ingredients are quite simple and can be found at home, but most prob u will nd to specially get the cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt and whipping cream specially for this recipe. and here is the a look at the end product. the cheese part is very fluffy and light. So, my verdict is that even though this dessert may not exactly be totally 'low-fat', it can be classified as much 'reduced fat' version.

and here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

100g digestive biscuits (as base- you may use oreo biscuits instead, if you love it sweet)
50g melted butter (I used margarine)
200g cream cheese
20g sugar
80g sour cream
70g yogurt
50g whipping cream (I use whipped cream)
40g egg white
20g sugar

Steps:
1. Crush biscuits. Mix biscuits with melted butter. Press the mixture onto the bottom of a cake tin.
2. Beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Pour in sour cream and yogurt. Mix well and fold in whipping cream.
3. Beat egg white and sugar at medium speed until soft peaks form. Pour in cheese mixture and mix well.
4. Pour the mixture into cake tin over the biscuit base. Bake in water bath at 150ºC for 50-60 minutes. (Water bath refers to using a larger pan containing water in which to place the smaller cheesecake baking pan. This is to prevent surface cracking. But as i flipped the cheesecake upside down to try to get it out of the pan, the surface got ruined.)

TP Alumni Nite 09 Jan 2009

2009-01-10T13:46:00.002+08:00

Went to TP Alumni Night yesterday evening. For the very first time, it was held outside TP, at Fort Canning Centre. It was a pretty good choice of venue, with the surrounding to be serene and cooling at night. As expected, there wasnt much familiar faces. Cos i guess many of my fellow classmates arent aware and most perhaps, nt so interested to join in as well. Alright, if I ever decide to go again next yr, I will pull the rest in definitely.

There was the usual games and performances, by TP students and alumni band group. And I was glad to catch 2 songs which I felt was good, a reason being that the person who delivered did it well and more imptly, the songs are simply good. They are 'Bleeding Love' and 'Always be my baby'.

So, this morning a search in Google was all I need to do. The results showed me Mariah Carey's 'Always be my baby' but it wasnt what I wanted. So, after clicking more options, it brought me to the right one- David Cook's version. The song which he sang while he was in Top 7. It is not that Mariah Carey's wasnt nice. It was perfect actually. It is just that perhaps as a female, David Cook's version touches me feeling more.

Meanwhile, enjoy the video.

Nothing will be the same again

2009-01-09T12:35:00.011+08:00

Let me tell you why this feeling...

One of the last 2 movies which I caught on New Year's eve was Twilight and Ip Man. Yes, 2 movies on the same day, one hour break in between. It was sort of a movie marathon as my sister managed to secure 3 free movie tix, of which, the condition was to use it on the same day as dec 31 was the expiry date. And since she had watched Ip Man and has whole heartedly recommendeded it to me, I decided to watch it alone... while she will watch twilight with me.

After the 2 movies, my sis even took the trouble to sms me to ask for my review of Ip Man. Well, this was the first time she did that. I guess she really idolised Donnie Yen after the movie Ip Man. Ha. But much as I enjoyed the movie, I would say that the vivid images in my earlier movie was still encapsulated in my mind, and would have affected my mood for the latter one. So, sorry sis, I still prefer twilight.

It was an irony that when the movie 'twilight' first started, I hadnt got a faint idea that the movie has already started cos there wasnt the usual intro. It was a minute later that I (or we) figured out that the movie has started. I guess it was also becos there was only abt 15 minutes of trailers and commercial as compared to the usual 30 minutes practice at gv. It was lucky we werent late or I will certainly regret it.

As the movie plot unveils itself further, you will somehow get more and more thrilled. Some Twilight fans have said that the movie wasnt as good as the book itself but I find that it wasnt very fair to say that cos the actors and actresses in the movie really did a great job portraying the characters. Besides, you cant really squeeze in one whole book of events in only 90 minutes of movie right? Except maybe it is a little pity that the character, Alice was given less emphasis in the movie as compared to the book.

Now that I have watched the movie, it really sparked off my interest to read the other twilight saga series. And nothing will be the same again. Reading the story really somehow changed part of my feeling abt family, love and sacrifices.

It was really one of my regrets that I simply ignore the books when it was still in stock before the movie started. So now, i am sort of searching high and low for them. But well, I am sure there will be stocks soon.

By the way, filming for New Moon (2nd Book after twilight by Stephanie Meyer) will be starting soon. It will be on big screen in end Nov in US so perhaps dec in Singapore again? Meanwhile, enjoy the trailer of the movie if you have not catch it (or let it recap yr mind if u have seen it). I am sure you will all like it no matter what. My fav scene (also my sis') was when the Cullens played baseball in the woods and how Edward protected Bella from the untamed villain vampires.

To look at the trailer, click the link: http://www.twilightthemovie.com/

Related websites:
1. http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/
2. http://twilightsingapore.com/
3. http://www.edwardsmeadow.com/ (Newly added)

4. http://toptwilightblogs.com/ (Newly added)

P.S. I will be keeping a close track to this Twilight Saga. If you are also a fan, keep coming back or also add on more updates pleasse. Thanks!

A fresh new year!

2009-01-03T13:15:00.005+08:00

Hey hey.. Happy New Year 2009!! Say goodbye to yester-year...

Anw, it is always unbelievable that the year can pass by so fast. On this day last year,I was still a year 3 student, looking fwd to the end of the year so that I can graduate, find a job, earn money and pay off sch loan. In essence, to step into the working society once again.

but things seem to be not within my expectation yet, cos I am still unemployed now. ah! I know this is my very first post in 2009, so I better quit being pessimistic! So anyhow, I am not gonna lose my fighting spirit.. I will get a job i want! Well, I have to!

So a fresh new year often means some new new resolution. In past years, I seldom publish my new year resolution cos I never bother to achieve them. So when i decided to do so this time round, an article from BBC states that "Resolutions 'bad for your health'".... ha... but I have still decided to go ahead and state mine here.. let's see if I manage to complete them by 2010?

1. Find a job I want
2. Learn basic Japanese or any 3rd language
3. Be more patient and tolerant twds others

and newly added to the list after new yr lunch and afternoon tea with felicia, nick and company...
4. Lose weight!

I'm a self knowing money managing tree hugger... how abt u?

2008-12-30T22:29:00.004+08:00

I saw this personality quiz from a blog and decided to take up the short test. Well, this is who I am... it even says that 0% of the 13633 people who have taken this quiz are like me. Now, am i that rare?

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm a Self-Knowing Money Managing Tree Hugger

Soon-to-be-retirement

2008-12-29T00:05:00.002+08:00

After having my mp3 passed on, it is going to be my camera's turn soon. Despite so, credits go to it being so 'strong-willed' as it has already long passed its retirement age by over 1 yr (as canon repair shop only gave it a half yr warranty due to it being a replacement set).

Hence, I cant really blame it after using it for perhaps a thousand shots. So it is now in an unofficial near retirement status. Good bye soon, my camera. *sobs

It's Christmas!

2008-12-25T14:35:00.004+08:00

Here's wishing all my dear loyal readers (you know who you are) a Merry Christmas and hope u all will have a wonderful and joyful season.

DIY Recycling

2008-12-25T13:59:00.003+08:00

What can you do with an empty biscuit box, some laces, old bling buttons?

Well, the answer is to merge them together to form a new storage box. The tools which u need are relatively simple, just scissors, glue or double-sided tape and tada! A presentable and useful box has been created.

Before

After

Christmas Sale 2008

2008-12-22T13:25:00.003+08:00

Refer to http://www.fashionstatementspore.blogspot.com/ for more details

Link Love

2008-12-22T11:50:00.003+08:00

I just happened to come across a very excellent blogsite. The author is the person behind some of the designs at the ION walls at Orchard as well as involved in the designing of the Maybelline compact powder cover casing and many other projects. Felt that all the works are really brilliant! Had wanted to put some of the pictures here but fear of copyright issues. So just go directly to the blogsite ok.

http://www.lifeandcoincidences.blogspot.com/

Virtual Blog Shops

2008-12-20T18:51:00.005+08:00

I have always wanted to open a shop myself- either a cafe or accessories shop. I know, I know... the two are of drastically different areas but these are the 2 top choices I can forsee myself planning to create in future. So before I start a real one, it is best to test market first. With the convenience of blogspot, I created an online blog store...early this year I think. I had chucked it aside until I finally made some updates in aug. Blame it on procrastination.

In case u r interested, here is the link:

www.fashionstatementspore.blogspot.com

Apart from placing it at online forum www.diva.com.sg and telling some of my frens about the web link, I havent officially announced it to frens cos too little items at the moment. Still working on improvements.

Over this past year, I have also researched for some online blog shops within singapore. Some of them are even featured in magazines or news articles. Here is a list of the active ones... Do let me know if u have other good ones to recommend...

Amber Jewels http://amberjewels.blogspot.com/
Beads of Lav Accessories http://beads-of-lav.blogspot.com/
Eaindria Creation http://eaindriacreation.blogspot.com/
Fluff http://www.lovefluff.com/
Jeaninegabrielle.com http://www.jeaninegabrielle.com/
Holical Archives http://holicalarchives.blogspot.com/
Swisshearts http://swisshearts.livejournal.com/
Ocha Cream http://www.ochacream.com/
Love Pretty Things http://loveprettythings.blogspot.com/

Fossil Watch- Private sale 6 Dec 2008

2008-12-08T00:59:00.004+08:00

cant imagine i queued up nearly 5 hours just to buy a watch. yeah.. u heard correctly. 5 hours...well, this is of cos insignificant as compared to the "mc donald hello kitty" queues back in my sec sch days, thanks to my sis who wanted to collect all designs.

I was at city hall and decided to check out the fossil watch private sale. Hadnt had much info abt it..so just drop by to chk out whether there is any good deal... and by e time when i was at suntec, it was ard 4.30pm. the sale has started since noon. there's up to 80% discounts for D&G watches, adidas, fossil hse brands etc so the queue was terrible.. it is so long that it extended to the escalator. I started to join the queue and freaked, it was longer than the Singtel roadshow. But heck, just queue lar. Dun wan to miss good deals since I am here..

alot of the ppl came prepared, with frens, bf or gf...and I was alone.. so i just pluck in my mp3 and just stare helplessly at the queue, waiting for it to progress... within the next hr, those who went to chk out the queue at the entrance came back telling their friend that the queue was crazy and that they couldnt figure out the entrance at all.... cos it was totally packed w ppl at the front.. eventually, the ppl in front and behind me left the queue. I was still hesitating whether i shd give up... but since i queued for an hr already, perhaps i shd just stay on.. escalation of commitment bah.

time slowly passed...from 1 hr to another hr... then 3 hrs into the queue...i finally near the entrance...the signage indicated 3 halls but actually only 1 small hall is for sales....the others was for collection, customer service... and before getting in, you must put all ur things into a clear plastic bag and sealed...when i finally got in..boy.. it was chaotic... ppl are pushing against the tables showcasing the discounted watches..it was a pretty ugly scene. after squeezing for half hr, i was still at the back of the crowds... sian..so i was thinking of leaving empty handed but felt that few hrs of queuing was wasted... so i just force my way into the crowd to scrutinize at the different brands.. Marc Jacobs was too exp still, whereas they didnt have the colour i want for adidas..and the only D&G which i spotted was a little too simple...so i decided to settle for fossil...again.. my 2nd piece so far...

$65, at 40% or 50% off orginal price... think this is an old model... cos i cant find it online... but i still like it...

Chatterbox at Meritus Mandarin

2008-11-28T14:42:00.006+08:00

after hearing much about legendary chicken rice at chatterbox from my sister, I finally got to try out the dish, along with my sis at Meritus Mandarin over wed evening... her main motivation to go was to catch the exquisite night scenery at the top of the hotel as well as to see if it is still the revolving 'top of the M' while I mainly wanted to check out if the food is as good as its price...

there are some renovations outside the hotel itself, so in order to get to the entrance, we need to further in from last time..and i would say that there has been quite a big change to the appearance of the hotel. It is smaller but brighter and cleaner than the last time i went there, during company DND abt 4 yrs ago...

Meanwhile, we had to take two different lifts in order to reach 39th floor. (and there are actually staffs stationed at lift lobbies just to direct customers to correct lifts..) In order to reach 39th flr, we need to take a short flight of stairs up. The scene at 38 lounge was very lovely though humid... In contrast, 39th was cooler but has a rather over-exaggerated red veneer dining atmosphere. As a result, all the photos we took w/o flash was practically tinted with a shade of red lighting.

This was the first time I try the food so I couldnt really comment if there is any difference.. but my sis commented that the portion of rice was much bigger... true enuff, the bowl is so big i think two person could share one portion.

However, there was generous serving of chicken meat (can choose between chicken drumstick or chicken breast meat) and although the meat is cold, it is tender and rather juicy. The rice itself is moist and fragrant and FILLING... in order not to waste $, we finished the whole bowl of rice. Burp*!

Aside from the meat, there are also cherry tomatoes as accompaniments apart fr the usual cucumbers. The soup is also quite nice, with atypical vegetables(which I think is lettuce shreds) and small piece of toufu. Did i forget to mention that their chicken rice chilli sauce is really hot and spicy..wooh! almost make me cough...

In all, the dining experience was good and the food is quite up to standard. However, this is mainly becos we had a one-for-one dining offer. Suppose we have to pay full price, then we would have hesitated. One suggestion though, the management ought to do something to the ambience, there seem to be a misconception of red lightings=oriental setting.

By e way, heard that the original chef was retrenched years ago and had since started his own shop "Mr Chicken Rice" at E!Hub, Downtown East. There were good and bad reviews abt it.. so next time i shall go try it out myself....

by e way, found this christmas tree made up of cute little teddies at taka, and they are soo lovely i feel like grabbing them home...

Wake me up when the Semester ends

2008-11-16T00:53:00.006+08:00

gosh. finally the hectic weeks are over soon. Two more reports to be handed in, plus 1 exam and this smu study journey will end. How nice. Hope I wont change this opinion half a yr later from now. Not that I dislike my sch, it is just that 3.5 years at smu is ... enough. We once discussed that if we are to restart this whole journey again, hw would we react? Erm. the answer we gathered was that, we didnt even dare think about it.

But of cos there are still the plus sides of being a student, like getting student discounts, having concessions, and of cos, lamenting and complaining to our working friends how poor we students are..haa (note: the last pt might not be really accurate cos u might be amazed to find out how the pocket money of some students might be higher than an avg worker, sigh...).

anw, setting aside these grumbling... we girls took some time to have lunch outside sch... and we went to a 'cha chan teng', Chinese tea house at raffles city- Streets Cafe. Seems like we have some obsession with chinese food and dim sum, esp since we just went rivercity restaurant for its lunch buffet a week ago. But, seriously I dun mind cos dim sum and chinese food are actually my all time fav...cos they are yummy!

Honey Butter French Toast (Trust me, it is really scrumptious but beware,

u better get another person to share this (fat). Got my hint?)

Honey Butter Thick Toast (didnt try this, but lixian requested for more

honey to go with it. so guess it is def more plain than the butter toast)

Cafe Club sandwich. Ooh... I am gg hungry just by looking at it now..

sh*t. no wonder i put on weight recently.

Eat All You Can Lunch Buffet at River City Restaurant

2008-11-12T16:34:00.015+08:00

Have you guys been to River City Restaurant at Excelsior Hotel for their Dian Xin, a-la-carte lunch buffet ? I just did over last Friday, together with my promo mgmt team mates. A pity joyce couldnt join us there...

This was my second time eating at the restaurant being the first time during Chinese New Year early this year where I went there for "Lou Hei" with my ex-colleague buddies. During that visit, I ate till I was so full that I had difficultly walking.haa.. so this time round, I was careful in choosing the dishes.

But since this is a buffet, it means that you can order any amount of a-la-carte food between 11am to 2pm. You get to choose dishes mainly from a list of steamed items, lots of Chinese deep fried food, and some desserts...

and my recommendations are:

In the photo below: 蚝皇叉烧包 Steamed BBQ Pork Buns (Top Left),
上汤小笼包 Steamed dumplings with superior soup (Bottom Right Corner)

Photo below: 芝麻叉烧酥 Baked Sesame BBQ Pork Pies (Top Left, 2 plates of 3s combined),香煎萝卜糕 Grilled Carrot Cakes (2 plates of 2pcs),

湘城鲜虾饺 River City Steamed Shrimp Dumplings (4pcs)

三丝素卷 Deep Fried Vegetarian Spring Rolls (3 pcs)

Close Up of 芝麻叉烧酥 Baked Sesame BBQ Pork Pies, one of my favourite dishes

One of the must tries:

香脆炸鸡翅 Deep Fried Crispy Chicken Wings

The price is at $12.90++ per person for adults and half price for children, on weekdays but plus the small plate of peanuts and such, the bill is about $17 per person... Not very cheap actually...in all, the food are quite nice, and I would give it a rating of 3.5 out of 5...

Can I ask for 36 hrs in a day...

2008-11-07T00:23:00.003+08:00

How I wish there are 36 hours in a day. of which i will allocate 10 hrs for slp if possible.

There seems to be so many things to be done, and I am still figuring out why my final semester of just 4 modules seem to be as busy, if not, busier than previous sem.

A week ago, I had heard one of my schoolmate being so cheery in declaring that she will officially graduate in 4 weeks time. Then, it suddenly ring a bell to me tat yeah, I am saying goodbye to smu life at the same time too... mixed emotions again...

and yeah, wish me luck for the interviews....

.....

Looking fwd to tmw's dim sum lunch! ... now at least there is something for me to be cheery about now. =p

Latest consumer advisory from AVA

2008-10-25T14:31:00.007+08:00

AVA has just issued a consumer advisory on the three additional China-made items that are contaminated with melamine.

And guess what? There are 17 Malaysia-made biscuits which are also found to be contaminated with melamine and has been ordered to be removed from shelf and to be destroyed. As 12 out of the 17 affected products are from Julie's brand, all Julie's brand biscuits are required to be withdrawn from sale. Now this is really gg to affect deeply the operations of Perfect Food Manufacturing (M), Julie's brand manufacturer.
Although there is only low level of melamine discovered in these products, AVA "advises all consumers who bought the implicated products not to consume them". so i discarded 5-6 packets of Julie's wheat crackers, very sayang to throw away unconsumed food leh but better to be safe than sorry. I have already been eating alot of them for years man.

And even malaysia made biscuits are also affected... now how am I gg to survive my break time in sch without biscuits? although AVA also indicated tat locally made Khong Guan and Meiji are tested to be free from melamine, i guess home made biscuits are the best lar.

I wonder if the prices of the non affected biscuits will rise as a result of this? Let's observe then...

Click here for AVA's consumer advisory (24 Oct 2008)
Visit Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA)'s website for more details.

All ready...

2008-10-17T16:46:00.004+08:00

Yes! Finally the organizers have been printed and delivered and they are all ready to be bought by their new owners. Sales have started but not quite growing yet.... So friends out there, if you want to get a copy. Buzz me or email me to reserve a copy.

SMU Gourmet Organizer 2009 (Includes 12 recipes inside)

Only at $10 bucks each

Proceeds go to less privileged communities in Philippines & China

October 2009

2008-10-05T15:26:00.009+08:00

oh gosh.. is it really October? I hadnt had much clue on how these 3++ years had just gone by so easily yet so laboriously... (ok, a little exaggeration here)

what triggers this tot is becos after the end of digital media meeting yesterday, yx, fiona and jac were buzy snapping photos in gsr, along the corridor, inside the printing room. They wanted to keep some memories before the end of our last semester in sch. actually, I had plans to do the same too- take snapshots of different corners of smu: my secluded locker, biz block vending machine, fav hangout locations and most imptly, best frens of cos!

But then, it suddenly occur to me tat my journey at SMU is almost ending soon. 4 more modules and I can say goodbye to classes, projects. To be truthful, I am delighted but fretful abt this. Delightful becos there wont be worries of exams, tests, participation, projects. But fretful becos I am afraid of not securing a good job or rather- a career. Everyone knows how bad the economy is now- the pool of employees is big but the no. of positions are limited.

So it is really wake up call for our batch to start job search. Over sat, I had gone to a career fair at Suntec convention ctr with lixian and geri. It wasnt very impressive actually, and there wasnt much choices for us. A govt agency wanted Honours Degree, (for god sake, how many honors do u think an uni can produce huh) and some wanted immediate employment or wanted experience. So it wasnt a fruitful trip.

In the end, we bumped into a fellow who is promoting upgrading courses. He approached us and asked if we are looking for education courses. We felt flattered when he first tot that we were fresh poly grads... but not when he realised that we are fr smu and asked why we are at the roadshow. He commented that "I tot 90% of SMU grads are headhunted?" Speechless here*...

Well chap, there are still 10% who are not and do u really think that employers would crawl, begging for u to join them? There really need to be some efforts at your own end to get what u want. If you dont impress them, do u think they will notice u?

Anws, I prefer to go look for companies rather than wait for them.

Good luck to myself.

Cool discovery (of my side profile)

2008-09-28T11:53:00.005+08:00

I never exactly observe my own side profile before... so it was a really cool experience to have a Silhouette Cutting of myself during the Anna Sui's private launch of its new fragrance-flight of fancy...

They invited Welles Tan, a caricaturist as well as expert in Silhouette Cutting, aka shadow cutting, profile cutting as he calls it in his blog: http://sg-shadowcutting.blogspot.com/2008/09/profile-cutting-for-anna-sui.html...

here's my shadow cutting by the way...

Food for thoughts...

2008-09-13T15:09:00.008+08:00

Things have finally been moving steadily for the making of our "baby", i.e. the SMU Gourmet- Organizer/Planner after months of efforts, blood & sweat in ...

...planning, seeking out sponsors, deciding on charity beneficiary, designing publicity emailers, finding recipe submissions, preparing the food for photography, requesting quotations, meet ups with sponsors, photographers, participants, designers etc...

For those of you who are puzzled about what is going on, here is a short explanation of whatI am talking about:

What?

- A school charity project to launch a SMU Gourmet Organizer/Planner cum Recipe Book

Who?

- By SMU Gourmet Club, SMU Office of Study Life and Special Interest and Community Service Sodality

Why?

- Raise funds for 2 community projects in Philippines and China through sale of the organizers.
When?

-To be launched in Oct 2008

So I am totally pleased and eager that there's remarkable progress- it has finally reached the printing stage and what's left is the publicity of the sale of organizers and of cos, payment of the printing and others...

Here's a exclusive preview of my 2 recipes, Cheesy Sausage & Tomato Quiche and Zebra Cake...

Cheesy Sausage & Tomato Quiche (to be featured in the organizer)

and the other one Zebra Cake (Backup submission)

Special thanks to John Nursalim, photographer and the person behind VisualMind LLP (http://www.visualmind.biz/), for making all the food photos to be so yummy-looking.

*More updates after the organizers are printed!

A Here-It-Goes-Again-Acute-Busy-Crazy-School-Week-Disorder

2008-09-10T12:29:00.003+08:00

No. I don’t think I am able to think properly of what to blog this week. Not at least till Friday.

Meanwhile, here is something for you to ponder abt- What is the definition of a crush? yes, as in a crush on someone.

No.. in case u are wondering, I am not having a crush currently. It was brought up during grp meeting yesterday..helping my fren to fine tune the boundary of its meaning. Will discuss it another time.

is your blog a blog?

2008-09-03T12:36:00.003+08:00

Now, ever since I attended yesterday's lesson on blogging, this question continues churning in my head-What exactly constitutes a blog? Does a url that ends with blogspot.com, livejournal.com, wordpress.com automatically imply that your blog is really a blog? Seriously speaking, I for once did believe in so. Until yesterday's class.

During our small group discussion, some points were raised by me and my colleagues (whom I prefer to refer as 'classmates') to support our stance for what consitutes a true blog. Here are the points:

- there should be frequent entries or blog posts
How frequent is frequent then, you would ask. my personal guide is: at least once weekly or fornightly, you wouldnt want to disappoint your followers by letting them wait for your updates isnt it? But, if you submit blog entries every few hours, I would say, I would feel so overwhelmed. So, use your own intuition will u? Quality matters apart from quantity.

- own writing style, content and personality
it wouldnt be called a blog if you purely copy other people's content or discussion. So yeah, have some originality or personality in your blog so that it adds value for those who read your blog.

-engagement and interactivity
blog should allow readers to comment and interact with you and others. connectivity is the key here.

- RSS feeds
it is not exactly a must but RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is becoming more common recently. it allows readers who subscribed to your blog posts to receive updates of your new entries.

Having raised up the factors mentioned above, at the end of the day, i would say that there is no real boundary to what is a true blog, only pure guidelines. Now, is my blog a blog? I would say yeah, because I said so. =p

The rising star in cyber world

2008-08-27T18:21:00.006+08:00

Everyone's talking about digital and new media recently. Well, I guess it all attributes to the convenience of broadband, mobile network and wireless technology whatsoever.

Hence, it was just the right time to take up Digital Media Across Asia module. One obvious reason being that i can clear my Global and Regional Studies Elective. It is a big deal to me becos... i cant graduate without clearing this elective. The second reason was already mentioned- it is the in-thing now you know...

Plus, there is one more reason tat further spurs up my interests for this module. Because my prof for this subject- Prof Michael Netzley, is interesting and humourous. His lessons are engaging and fun in a way that it actually motivated me to read up 3 chapters of his readings before class. Now, I seriously seldom do that, except during exam period. Perhaps it is also because the required reference book, "Groundswell" by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, was informative yet reader friendly.

After 2 weeks of his class, I found that I had seriously under-rated the usefulness of digital media all these while. I had also thought that I was adept at using internet tools as well, until I attended the class. New digital tools such as RSS, technorati, google reader, del.icio.us, Plurk etc came into the picture and I was like, huh? What are they? I only know how to tickle frens or tag names in facebook. It was pretty overwhelming at first when prof demo to us step by step but I think, once you get started, it's hard to stop using them?

and I just discovered that Blogger is providing a new "Following" Feature. You get to feature your followers (your blog readers) on your blog and it is also linked with google reader. Woah... great addition. but dont get too excited yet, it is still in experimenting stage nw and will only be rolled out after few wks. But I got a feeling that it shd be ready before tat. Stay tuned.

Baby Blues...

2008-08-23T20:50:00.016+08:00

Just over friday, i had joined meilin, jessie and yuan hwa to visit my ex-colleague who has just given birth early this mth.. all of us were lamenting it was a pity that she wasnt eligible for the recent perks for longer maternity leave.. e garberment backdated the effective date for longer paid-maternity leave to 17 Aug instead of the original 1 Jan 2009. Still, she doesnt qualify as she gave birth on 1 Aug.gee.. wat a waste..

Recently, all over the news are abt the parenthood package. Yeah, doesnt concern me yet but I do have some opinions to point out. The National Day Rally had addressed the problem of Singapore suffering a low birth rate and that Singapore's population will be halved after 2070...

Firstly, this situation came as quite a surprise for me as I tot that i had seen quite a no of young couples who are pushing baby prams ard shopping centres... in fact, i know of 4 friends and relatives who are already mothers or prospective mothers. So how can it be that there is still low birth rate?

So moving a step fwd, one commonality is that most are just having one kid. Yes. Just one. It is found that "Singapore's current low fertility rate of 1.29 - one of the world's lowest - is well below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per couple."
(Taken fr www.straitstimes.com/Singapore/Story/STIStory_261974.html)

Why is it so then? Some informal chats with my married frens had pointed out that their first child was pretty much a surprise or even a honey moon baby, so it wasnt exactly planned. in fact, this was the case for 3 out of 5 of my friends. They also commented that it was costly to have a child. In fact, costs already started way before they are born, check-up costs, baby necessities etc...after they are born, further monetary costs add on.

meanwhile, I read an article on Sat's straits times-"Want more babies? Allow surrogacy" by Andy Ho, a senior writer fr ST..
(http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/Review/Others/STIStory_270883.html)

In his article, he had suggested that Parliament shd legalise surrogacy to boost birth rates. I cant help but think: does surrogacy help (at all) to the situation? Although in his article, he has already pointed out 2 primary concerns, i.e. the legal status of the child and status of the women involved, I find that there is still a heafty price tag that comes with it. That is, the emotions of all the parties involved, especially when this involves a decision that cannot be revoked.

What comes to mind is that:
- Although the mother may show greater concern for the baby considering the amt of efforts put in, there is still the lack of natural bond between the child and mother.
- The surrogate mother may have difficulties relinquishing the rights of the child
- for those instances where the surrogate mother is a close relative; such as in the recent case in Japan where the surrogate mother is also the grandmother, there is this complication of family ties
-whether the surrogate mother is using her own egg vs using an embryo from the mother and artificially inseminated with the father's sperm or using donated sperm

There could be other more issues that may not be obvious now...and my personal stance is that Singapore is just not ready for this. Just not yet.

You may refer to the links for more details on this topic:
Foreign wombs for hire, Aug 17 :
http://straitstimes.com/print/News/Home/Story/STIStory_268975.html
Woman gives birth to grandchild, Oct 15:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6052584.stm

one of seven-deadly sins

2008-08-18T13:41:00.011+08:00

here i am, in the GSR in sch...blogging abt my first post for the week. I just finished editing my internship report.. yes. finally...but not before i satisfied myself finishing episode 23 of Fated to Love you, aka, My Destiny...

A really unfashionable working class girl Chen Xin Yi has the desire to tie down her handsome boyfriend to be with her. Due to certain reasons, her boyfriend gets her to go on a love cruise and she started to ponder on how to lose her virginity and tie down her boyfriend. Xin Yi ended up taking cold medicine which made her drowsy and went into Ji Cun Xi's room. Cun Xi is the sole male heir to his family's company and has been in love with his girlfriend, Anna, for a long time. He planned to propose to Anna on the boat but she didn't turn up on the cruise. An island owner added drugs into Cun Xi's drink and Cun Xi became disorientated and returned to his own room. Xin Yi and Cun Xi end up having a one night stand. Xin Yi later finds out that she's pregnant and Cun Xi's grandmother forces them to get married. Will a couple forced to marry for the sake of their unborn child find love with each other?

so yeah....i discovered that I had committed one deadly sin- Sloth..
I had promised myself to print out the class notes and timetable and submit report & evaluation form first.. and yet I 'chuck' them aside to fulfil my "lust" for the drama. Angeline angeline.. how can u do that again??

Whatever it is. I am simply too addicted to this drama. It is such a damn touching drama. Currently it is ranked no.1 in Taiwan and response to the show was so overwhelming that they even added more episode to it.. Nw I am just awaiting final episode-24 to be broadcast on Thurs night... it might be silly that I got so hooked to this drama but I really cant resist those drama that bring together the elements of family ties, romantic atmosphere, artistic details, hilarious scenes and sad episodes....it even brought me to my tears several times...once again signaling my weakness for love....

Nw I feel so guilty to have tortured my laptop for nights to satisfy this desire.. hang on there lappie... it will be over soon.. =p

and by the way.. here are some photos that were overdue since fri...

8Q sam-Singapore Art Museum's new space for contemporary art...

Looks as though SMU is part of the structure...

The 8Q—Rate: School exhibition (16 August 2008 to 9 January 2009)

At the ground flr-this black (or shd i say green) chalk board house.I can recall those moments in pri sch where teachers still use white chalk to write on blackboard... and actually the white chalks do have other uses.. they are really good to hide any dirty stains on school shoes... xp

me and huilong took the chalks to vandalise the hse...and played tic-tac-toe...She obediently promises, " yeah... I'll study"

and boy! take a look at this...
Also at level 1...

for the rest of the levels.. hee... will make it up after next visit...too crowded on fri..

For more info, refer http://www.nhb.gov.sg/SAM/8Q-Rate.htm

and we also went to have our desserts- rocher tau hway... under the moonlight...

and just saw these photos.. haaa... 2 little children here...

Lost in emotions.. =P

2008-08-12T14:29:00.006+08:00

Last week was like a special week.. some sorta of magical..haa.. i mean, how often do you meet up with your primary school friends?

It all started when I met up for lunch with stephanie-my primary sch fren. She happened to spot me one morning and realised that we worked at the same bldg.. I was in my last wk in my internship and she just started work for few days.. wat a sweet way of unexpected destiny.

and great thanks for her enthusiasm...she started a thread of mails on msn within 24hrs to organize a mit up for initially "A Class 6B gathering" to become an "Anyone-from-Yumin-Pri-Sch-Welcomed" gathering.. ha...it was sorta surprising to have almost 13 of us to mit up that night at Big Splash...of cos credits go to Steph for her wonderful networking contacts and efforts to search thru Friendster and Facebook...

and what was even more magical was that most of us practically looked almost the same since our last mit up 3 years ago... perhaps some do look the same since primary 6- scary thoughts..

it was enjoyable during the mit up.. most of them are doing well... .haa..there's Mr Loi, our PE/Maths teacher-to-be, IT experts-steph and hongling, accounting guru-peishan, technician and "photographer"- Mr 'Lao-Yin', HR Pro-Miss Ping Guo Mei, property specialist-Miss Rita.. 'Beer Connoisseur'- Mr Vincent, Pet-expert Mr Panda.. and eh..forgot to ask what "Boss" Jionghong and Mr Yewen are doing..haa.

it was hilarious when there was a little miscommunication in ordering drinks at old town coffee..haa..tat was like the climax of the nite man..

Yiying: "i want no. 100"

Vincent: " No.100? Hot rite?"

Yiying: "Yeah"

and when the drinks arrived... guess what? vincent had ordered a 100plus instead of the drink #100:white coffee...and it was yiying himself who gave the order sheet to the counter..haaa... (*shakes head)

To: Mr Yiying and Mr Vincent... this 100plus-miscommunication incident sure gonna be one of our future topic for next gathering...haa...

P.S: Pertaining my previous post...yes.. I registered myself to the window display competition and the deadline was extended to fri 1pm...which means.. i still got 3 days to prepare..I am still wondering how on earth did I persuaded myself to submit the registeration..

Singapore Biennale 2008

2008-08-07T15:11:00.005+08:00

Singapore Biennale and Club 21 are inviting entries for a Store Window Design Competition. Yeah.. it sounds so exciting which really tempts me. But honestly, I got so much hesitation. There are bound to be alot of design students who have more hands-on experiences, support from their teachers, team members. And for me to wait for advices from my prof- I figured out that it might take few wks to receive a reply...and well..the deadline to register is ahem... the coming Monday- 11 Aug. So talk about procrastination.

I don't even have the courage to register. "Participants — single or in a group of maximum 5 persons — can register for this competition by sending an email to education@singaporebiennale.org with the subject heading: Club 21 Competition Registration, with your name, school and contact number. An email will be sent to you with contest submission details. "

And if I really want to get my feet wet on this... I nd to produce the following by this weekend:
- Artwork proposal submissions in 3D or marker rendering should be mounted on an A2-size board and accompanied with a 50-word rationale.

Now, shall I flick a coin?

Shopaholic-in-training

2008-08-01T19:45:00.009+08:00

I am supposed to collect some free 6-piece travel sets for myself and my sis from AHAVA at centerpoint.. and when I reached the store barely after lunch hrs, the sales asst announced to everyone in the store that it has been fully redeemed. What? today is only the first day out of 15 days for redemption lor.. Sian!

and my feet is aching now... from too much walking obviously... went somerset this noon and then went raffles place for lunch w sis and back to somerset and then to orchard... in this pair of flats...

looks good, looks comfortable.

but no. it is not comfy at all... the insole is hard and the strap is loose. I nd to constantly grab the front of the flat with my feet in order to prevent it from flying off. and did i forgot to mention that it is also slippery? i almost slipped twice at a same spot.

but at least something to make my day... i managed to find a good buy from Tangs Studio while it is having sale between 30% and 70%!!!

Look at this gorgeous pair of black evening shoes which i bought at Tangs... I havent found any good occasion to wear it yet but I guess there will def be a chance to do so.. hee..

Sinful Chocolate Cupcake from Gastronomia,da paolo

2008-07-31T20:38:00.009+08:00

Recently i seized an opportunity to try this Fudgy cupcake from Gastronomia at Chip Bee Gardens, Holland V.

My! it tastes as good as its name...

the outer crust is crispy while the inside is satisfactorily soft... and it is not too sweet either. now u cant blame me for being so easily contented, it really doesnt have much fault for me to point out-except perhaps the price? a cup cake this size is $3- it may not be exactly pricey as breakfast but i will most prob need 2 of this instead..

Gastronomia- da paolo

DA PAOLO TERRAZZA

44, Jalan Merah Saga,

#01-56 Chip Bee Gardens,

Holland Village

Tel: 6476 1332

http://www.dapaolo.com.sg/gourmet_rest.htm

Now you see it...
Now you don't.

Yes! A revamp!

2008-06-15T17:20:00.006+08:00

yeah.. I recently realised that blogger.com doesnt allow you to delete all your posts without deleting your blog so I spent the whole time deleting my old blog posts one by one...

So yes! Designed a new colourful and bright blog header. I am still trying to post more often with more interesting posts but yeah. still trying lar... my work currently doesnt allow me to sqeeue out time to blog cos by the time I am back home after work, I am exhausted to even switch on my laptop and press ctrl-alt-del...

by e way, had a belated birthday celebration for geri yesterday, together with lixian... and she really got cheated by us- thinking that it was just a lunch...haa... how can you have tot that we will not celebrate for u leh! =p

Meanwhile, something on a pillar caught geri's eyes while we are heading to taka and I took a pix of it using my phone....
creative but just so unethical to use this method..and I am not gonna visit this website cos I think they dont deserve it.

P.S. It is Father's Day today (& I haven bake the cake yet...)