Wednesday, May 28, 2008 11:43 a.m.
Failing is such a damn bitter bill to swallow. It's the first time I flopped at something major and I don't think it'll be my last time but I sincerely hope it'll be because I don't think I can take any more heartbreaks and failures. And of course, if I fail the next module (which is apparently the killer one), I think I can relegate myself and suck thumb in one corner.Monday, May 26, 2008 02:36 p.m.
The Monaco grand prix was surprisingly full of surprises! The boyfriend came over for dinner last night and after that, the whole family (except Mum) camped out in front of the TV to watch the race unfold. I think this is the 3rd year I've caught the Monaco grand prix and the last 2 years wasn't that eventful because Monaco's a tight street circuit and overtaking is quite difficult so the driver starting out on pole position usually ends up winning the race but yesterday's race was terribly eventful. For one, the drivers were racing for 2 whole hours and they didn't even manage to complete all the 78 laps because it was raining and that prevented the drivers from clocking their fastest and there were quite a few incidents so the safety car came out a few times and slowed things down. Hamilton was definitely a shocker because I was really hoping against him coming in first and was very happy when he pitted on the sixth lap but as you know, F1 is full of surprises and no one's the winner till the checkered flag comes out. The Ferrari team was in quite a mess (how could they fit Raikkonen's tires too late in the grid?!) and Massa did make a huge boo boo by going into the escape road (thank goodness he could turn out in time) but that caused him his first place position. Raikkonen was equally disappointing because he caused Force India's driver to crash out and weep inconsolably afterwards and consequently paid the price by falling to 9th position and failing to even get one championship point.Monday, May 26, 2008 12:43 a.m.
The boyfriend and myself went down to Boat Quay yesterday evening after dinner to watch the water fools performance on the Singapore River. It was orchestrated by a french group and I thought the small yellow car and the lady with the red dress on top of the wheel was the cutest props they had. Haha. I didn't really understand the story line and the weather kind of spoiled the mood but I can so totally see this played out on the River Seine in Paris. They ended the performance with a few minutes of fireworks and it wasn't the most extravagant display of fireworks but it really reminded E and myself of new year's eve in Copenhagen where we walked from Jeremy's house to the lake nearby and stood out in the cold for hours watching danish families light up and set the night sky with fireworks!
We took a walk round the Singapore river, bumped into Shu Hui (we need to meet up soon to exchange stories!!) before E and myself decided to head over to the HK cafe along Thomson Road. The cafe was gaudy looking (hot pink and lime green walls?!) and the food wasn't quite as impressive as it sounded. We had the thick toast with peanut butter and condensed milk and the chee chong fun with shrimp wantons and a sunny side up and it honestly tasted very ordinary and something you could easily do it at home on your own. E wasn't adventurous enough to try the Iced milk tea with grass jelly so he settled for the iced HK milk tea while I had their iced cappuccino with coke. I've got to say the iced cappuccino was quite unique but other than that, everything else was ordinary. No regrets heading there for supper because the food was decent at least but I don't think it's one place I'll go to regularly.
Saturday, May 24, 2008 12:06 p.m.
Check out the pictures I took from my balcony yesterday evening! :) I'm starting to think that getting an SLR camera (I almost said SLK) would be quite a good idea after all and I think it would be nice to learn how to take beautiful photographs instead of just snapping away endlessly. E regrets not getting an SLR camera before embarking on Europe, and I do too now especially when I see my friends taking higher quality, stunning photos of the different cities in Europe while my photos look so pale, but well, there'll always be another time to go back to Europe with a SLR and a SLK right?
I went down to Raffles Place for lunch with my two older cousins, the boyfriend and my sister yesterday. We had such a long leisurely lunch and the plan was to meet again at 3pm for tea because my aunt was not at work. As you've probably guessed, my aunt came back suddenly so my cousin and sister couldn't join my other cousin and myself. The both of us ended up walking around Raffles City, laughing at the fates of my cousin and Sarah and sat down at Starbucks for coffee and chit chat. I think my sister and my cousin were quite upset their grand plans to slack with us was thwarted by my aunt but thank goodness, they didn't leave the office a few minutes earlier. Haha.
Friday, May 23, 2008 09:54 p.m.
H: Mum, you know Singapore got sovereignty over Pedra Branca?M: Oh, where's that?!
H: Some island off Singapore..
M: Wah I'm sure our government will now transform that island and build resorts and a few golf courses there!!
H: Erm Mum, Pedra Branca is some freaking small rock with only a lighthouse.
M: Oh. HAHA. Sometimes I really wonder where my mum has been the past few days but my dad and I couldn't stop laughing when we heard that. Lunch with Dicks yesterday afternoon at Sun with Moon and besides a few coffee meets up and chit chats over the phone, we haven't really done this since coming back from Copenhagen so it was good just eating and talking about everything and the people we know.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 02:15 p.m.
Lunch yesterday with my older cousins at Crystal Jade's korean ginseng chicken restaurant and it was really good! I didn't know that Crystal Jade served up korean food and we ordered the set meal for 6 persons (enough for 7 people) and it's definitely more expensive than ordering individual items but we had 3 hungry boys with us. It was really good catching up with all of them and I'm honestly glad my cousins and I are really close because it's always nice to have cousins to hang out with, email to and talk about your future or problems or spiritual life and to stage wars with my younger cousins during family dinners. There's six of us in the 1980s era (my sister being the youngest) and one of my older cousin couldn't come because he had a last minute recording for his band. My younger hyperactive cousins weren't invited because we wanted to chill out and not die of extreme exhaustion by the end of lunch. Haha. After feasting on korean food for 3 hours, we were all so full and sleepy, we went over to TCC for some perk-me-up coffee and then went shopping with E and my sister where I managed to get 2 tops before my sister went off to meet her cool friends.
Now usually, E and myself would just head back and sleep the afternoon away but in a bid to find a common activity outdoors and to lose all that we've eaten, we went down to MacRitchie and walked 4 km! Woots. We walked along the broad walk for the first 2 km and went along the jungle trail to get back! It was E's way of determining if I was suitable for hiking because he doesn't want to get stuck climbing a mountain with me. I've got to admit it was quite enjoyable and once in a while, I'll be reminded of the great body E had when we first met when a hot and toned guy runs past us like the wind. HAHA. We're going to try to do this every weekend and next week, we're going to cover 10km because E apparently knows of this scenic and peaceful 10km jungle trail that cuts through the forests and golf courses and that'll require us to cross some bridge.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 11:21 a.m.
The boyfriend and I have just recently realized, after 3 years, that we don't have a common sport or outdoor activity. I don't know if it's normal but the sports or outdoor activities I like, he doesn't quite have an inclination towards and vice versa. He's been pushing for Wii to be our common sport (he insists we'll get a workout and bond together) but I am against it because we'll end up wii-ing and being such pale skinned humans with bad eyesight! I suggested hiking because that way we can travel to different places in the world (one of our common interests), hike up mountains (think Everest base camp, Andes Mountains, Mt. Kinabalu, Alps etc), lose weight together (one of the reasons why we're finding a common outdoor activity) and appreciate nature. He thinks I'm not up to it though and I don't think he sees me hiking. So we're now on a mission to find something that we both like that we can do together outdoors. Suggestions?Monday, May 13, 2008 03:56 p.m.
Drinks with Chee Hao and Yihao at Wala Wala on Friday night to celebrate Yihao's 25th birthday. After having a bit too much, we crossed over to the 2am dessert bar, where E joined us for the remainder of the night. It turned out to be quite a disappointment, because it's really overpriced desserts with exotic presentations. You pay for the presentation really (and maybe the posh sounding names) and right now, I can think of 3 other dessert bars in Singapore that are much worth patronizing.
Saturday evening, Sarah treated mum and grandma to a japanese dinner for mother's day. Surprisingly, I didn't have to fork out a single cent (for once) and my dad has now officially stopped offering to pay for mother's day. Haha. I really like my grandma and she's been very receptive to Christianity lately so double happy for her! :) I have pictures but it's in my mum's camera and she's not home now.
Went over to Botak Jones for lunch after church yesterday with the usual lunch gang before heading over to Brewerkz to watch the Turkish grand prix with E and his sister's friends. It was pretty exciting; with a few cars crashing out, Raikkonen chasing Hamilton who was in turn chasing Massa and timing their pit stops right to the very second so as not to lose their places and the Ferrari showing its superiority when there was a straight portion and the Ferrari just whizzed past the other car. I can't wait for the Monaco grand prix. I know there'll be less overtaking but my dad's getting a bigger TV (high definition and all) so that'll make the experience so much better! Woots.
Saturday, May 10, 2008 11:48 a.m.
Six days in Bangkok was terribly fun and it involved lots of eating and shopping, though it was slightly different from my usual trips. The boyfriend definitely makes an excellent travel partner and more recently, I've discovered he makes an equally good shopping partner as well. I am certain he has been hiding his secret love for shopping from me for the past 2 years or maybe Bangkok just made him lose all his inhibitions. As I said, it was slightly different from my usual trips because I didn't manage to get much clothes off the rack and I didn't go for even one solid thai massage. E feels extremely ticklish and gets goosebumps whenever someone massages his neck and so it was one thing we couldn't do together and the massage parlors only open at 11am so there was no way I could sneak out in the morning for a good rub and I ended up skipping it altogether. Somehow too, Bangkok's fashion is a little different this time around. The stores were mostly selling those long shirt dresses - the neither here nor there kind of dresses which means you can't wear them on their own and you've got to either pair them with leggings or shorts. The shirt dresses come in all the colors with lots of details (ruffles and ribbons) in the front. They're nice to look at, but I think very few girls can really pull those shirt dresses off so I spent my money on other things instead. Instead of staying at the service apartment which I usually stay in when in Bangkok, we decided to put ourselves up at this boutique hotel which is quite similar to the idea that E had for one of his finance projects. It's centrally located at Silom (junction of Rama 4 and Surawong) which meant that we could always walk out in the middle of the night for food and night market shopping and it's just perpendicular to the main shopping areas at Siam so getting every where was so convenient. The taxi meter never jumped so we always ended up paying the flag down rate only. That's how close our place was to Siam. This boutique hotel has about 30 rooms, all uniquely and beautifully designed. Our room was the street design room and probably the smallest of the double rooms lot because we booked late but still, there was just about enough space for all our shopping. It's really clean and the showers were great and the water pressure was just right and it was quite reasonably priced so I'll definitely consider that place again the next time I'm up in Bangkok.
Shopping was the agenda everyday. I remember E asking me on the third day if we were actually going to do any sightseeing or if we were just going to head to another mall. We did lots of shopping, crazy crazy shopping and buying. After the first day, E learnt that it was probably smarter to carry his backpack along so we could dump our shopping in there as the day progressed and needless to say, his bag would be full every night we got back and our hands would be holding a few more bags as well. There are some days when we just had to go back before dinner to deposit all our shopping before heading out again. Despite my complains that the streets don't sell the kind of clothes I like, I ended up with 9 tops, 3 dresses, and a pair of shorts along with other knick knacks and stocked up at Boots. I am secretly obsessed with Boots and there's always something to buy in there. I told E to check out its prospects because I wanted to buy them over or invest and be a majority shareholder and he almost fainted on the spot. Haha. Well E, on the other hand, beat me (now you know who's the bigger shopper in our relationship) and bought 2 pairs of berms and 10 t-shirts/polos and a pair of shoes.
We headed to the famous Chatuchak weekend market on Sunday morning and I think the clothes there are a lot more pricer these days. I blame it on the large number of tourists that descend on that market every weekend and as usual, Chatuchak is still as crowded and hot and stuffy as before. I'm positive that if a fire breaks out there, everyone will perish together while shopping. I didn't get much from Chatuchak and I know this might sound blasphemous, but I don't quite like Chatuchak as much as I did before. I think I much rather pay a bit more for a quieter and calmer and cooler shopping experience. After about 4 hours of haggling and squeezing with everyone else, we called it quits and went back to our hotel to take a nap before heading out in the evening.
Besides Chatcuchak, we also covered Suan Lum night bazaar and Platinum, which is just an air conditioned wholesale market. I used to like shopping at these places (Suan Lum and Chatuchak) because things are generally cheaper and you can sometimes get a good deal if you bargain hard enough and besides, the malls you can always get back in Singapore. But this time around, maybe because I'm getting older, but I much preferred shopping at the malls than at the markets. MBK was excellent and it is now E's favorite shopping haunt. His tiredness just erodes away at the slight mention of MBK. My favorite place is still the shops at Siam Square. They sell everything from hairbands to prom dresses. Central World Plaza and Zen was equally as good (E bought a gorgeous 150sgd pair of work shoes at one of the shops at Central World) and Siam Paragon really takes the cake. It's huge and they've got your designer stores on the first 2 floors and a huge Kinokuniya on the third floor as well as the Porsche and Ferrari car showrooms (how do they drive those cars away when they're sold?) on the fourth floor. We walked inside M to look at my work bag again and E suddenly said he'll pay everything that's above 1000sgd for me! Woots! Trust me, I didn't pressure him into saying that because you know how I hate girls that make their boyfriends buy them everything and pay for their food, transportation and shopping. This is one of the best deals I struck in Bangkok so we're going to pop into their shop in Singapore and get it! :)
The other purpose of coming to Bangkok was to get our work clothes tailored. It's difficult for me to get work skirts in Singapore and I don't like that everyone shops at either Zara, G2000 or Mango for their work clothes so everyone ends up having the same shirt. For 32,000THB, or 1,500SGD, I got 12 tailored shirts, 6 skirts and 3 suits while E got himself 9 long sleeve shirts, 1 suit and 1 pair of trousers. I originally tailored 8 work shirts but after getting them and trying the final product, I realized how good their workmanship was and how the shirts fit me so perfectly, I went back and tailored another 4 more. I've to say that Bangkok's tailors are definitely better than the ones in Shanghai even though they're much pricer. The shirts and skirts were a good deal and the suits are a little more expensive than the off the racks one you get in Singapore but I've no complains. Really. Their workmanship is superb! E's equally satisfied with his tailored clothes and the tailor was very attentive to our requests and needs and personally, I don't think I'll ever want to buy my work shirts again.
In between all our shopping, we ate and ate till our stomachs are so round now and we always have to roll out of the restaurant. For lunch, we tried out the food avenue on MBK's fifth floor which was more like Marche with an international selection of food. Another day, we had noodles at this HK restaurant along one of the sois at Siam Square where they also served up yummy and affordable dim sum. We found this Thai noodle bar along Silom road which was a stone's throw from our accommodation though they've got another branch at Siam Square. They make an awesome bowl of noodles and their gyozas are to die for. E had this bowl of seafood crispy rice noodles which is basically frying the kway teow we use in our hor fun with some dough to make it crispy noodles. It was excellent and a nice change from the usual noodles and highly recommended. The noodle bar was also done up very nicely and so that really made it one of the best places to eat.
Dinner for two nights was at the japanese restaurant Zen and Fuji. Their maguro was so fresh and we ordered the same few dishes at both restaurants but it was still as good and the sashimi is really fresh and definitely cheaper than what we would pay for in Singapore. Besides Japanese, we went to this Thai Restaurant, that was recommended by our hotel's receptionist, for dinner. We had green curry, tom yum soup and the usual thai dishes and it was seriously so good, though a little too spicy. I also introduced E to the thai iced milk tea (it's similar to our teh ping except that I think they add in carnation milk) and he was immediately hooked to it and subsequently, we both always had that to accompany all our meals. If we just had lunch and dinner, both E and myself wouldn't be so round now, but we also stopped for tea during the day, sometimes twice a day. We had doughnuts and ice latte at Dunkin Doughnuts, curly fries and root beer float at the A&W outlet at Siam Square and meatballs, mango sticky rice and other random stuff along the streets. The last two floors of Central World also had a wide range of restaurants but a pity we discovered that a little too late so we didn't get to try any of the restaurants there except for one where we had tea.
So that was how we spent six days in Bangkok - eating, shopping and tailoring. It was a slow and relaxing shopping trip and it was nice to be away with the boyfriend for a while and not have so many commitment screaming for your attention. We realized that after E starts his internship this Monday and I start work in a month and half's time, we won't have this luxury of just taking off like that or go somewhere far for a few weeks because work is work and you don't get school holidays. Ah.
Saturday, May 3, 2008 04:07 p.m.
We're off to Bangkok for the next six days for some delicious lip smacking street food, solid thai massages and of course, crazy shopping at the markets and malls! :)Friday, May 2, 2008 09:12 p.m.
Realizing we were both getting pudgy from all the post exam eating, E and myself decided to head over to East Coast Park to cycle and burn off some fats. The sea was exceptionally green today and the sun was out so the water was really inviting. We must have covered at least 10km during that whole 2 hours (obviously with breaks in between) because my calves are aching right now. I don't know how I'm going to be able to survive night cycling. After we returned our bikes, we went over to the food center for satay and indian rojak and so we're back at square one again.
Thursday, May 1, 2008 11:52 p.m.
It was a fruitful labour day today! We headed down to town because E wanted to soak in the crowd and be mentally prepared for Bangkok and I managed to buy the pair of shoes I've been looking for for the longest time! The nice thing about shopping is that once you find or buy something nice, you're on a roll and suddenly, you start spotting even more beautiful items because right after that, we walked into another store and as I was looking at their cute weekend bags, E pointed out this gorgeous work bag! It was in the right shape, right size, right color and almost in the right price. E voluntarily offered to contribute 300 bucks (slightly less than one third of the price) to my new work bag and after a while, upped the offer and offered to buy the bag if I passed my exams :) Woots. So now I've set my eyes on that work bag, as well as the other bag from M and I think that's enough to last me for the first six months while I start out. We walked into another store again and I was going to look at their bags but the minute I walked in, I saw the wallet. E also agreed it was a real beauty but he didn't think it was worth paying that price for the wallet because it was only slightly cheaper than the bag so he rather get me the bag. Now I'm on a mission to bring my dad to Orchard, detour somehow and lead him into this shop because once he says it looks good, I know there's almost a 99% chance he'll get it for me. Haha. We had dinner, went back to his place and vegetated in front of the TV watching Dodgeball and other random shows. The day ended off nicely when I went home and found out that my mother has gotten me the lovely bag from C! I was almost tempted to get it myself but now that she's gotten it for me, I can save those few hundred of dollars and channel it towards something else. Yay! My aunt also came back from States and brought with her a whole box of Resees so really, today was a good day :) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------